#and my latest hills i've decided to die on: endgame serenessa and endgame jenate

[terrainofheartfelt]

Okay I’ll throw in one last one for the road: Van der Humphreys + children?

VDH + Children

“...so that’s Eric and Jonathan and Jenny and Nathaniel in the east wing, Daniel and Blair and Serena and Vanessa upstairs, and I thought we should put Scott and Natalie in the largest bedroom, since they’re bringing the baby with them.”

“Fine by me,” Rufus says, coming around to set a fresh cup of tea beside Lily’s laptop as she studies the details of their rental in Kauai. “They’re definitely coming? Traveling with a two-year-old is – a lot.” 

“They already RSVP'd,” Lily confirms, lifting her Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington mug to take a sip. “Plus, we’ll all be around, so they should be able to take at least one night off.” 

“True,” Rufus agrees, one of his hands gently kneading her shoulder. 

“So,” she twists her head back to look up at her husband as he peers down at the screen, his own Welcome Back, Kotter mug in hand, “what do you think?”

“Hmmm, I don’t know, Lil,” he muses, “you sure we’ll have enough room?”

“Oh, stop,” she chides as he laughs, dropping into the dining chair next to her and scooting closer. 

“It’ll be great,” he amends, setting a hand on her knee. 

“And this way, every couple will have their own bathroom.”

“That’s smart. Save us from a repeat of the Hot Water Incident of 2016.”

Lily laughs at the joke, but that’s why she chose such an extensive property for this family trip. During their last one in Telluride, Dan and Nate had to physically put themselves between Blair and Jenny. 

“Was that really the last time the whole family was together?” Rufus asks. 

Lily makes a dissenting noise. “Eric’s wedding,” she corrects.

“Oh, that’s right,” Rufus nods, “Nat was pregnant with Dylan.”

(Named after Bob, a fact which they both loved, though Rufus is the only one who’ll admit it). 

“Our numbers have gone up,” Lily says lightly.

“And they’ll keep on going.”

She raises her eyebrows. “Do you know something I don’t know?”

Rufus blinks, puzzled for a second. “Nope, but don’t you think?”

She laughs, tipping her head back. Rufus moves to stretch his arm across the back of her chair, and she settles into it with a sigh, her eyes still on the screen, still displaying all the details of their Hawaiian dream rental. 

“Do you think sometimes maybe we have too many children?” she jokes.

“Maybe,” Rufus props his chin on her shoulder, “but I kind of love it that way.”

She smiles, and reaches up to pat his cheek. “Me too.”

It’s a perfect afternoon in Kauai, though Nate’s not sure there’s any other kind of afternoon here. 

Lily always goes all out for these family trips, and this one is no different. The villa she rented is massive. Hilariously oversized, Jen called it on their arrival, and while that may be true, it’s nice that there’s enough space for everyone in the family to do their own thing. Plus, it means Nate won’t have to hold Jenny back from jumping her sister-in-law for hogging the bathroom, at least on this trip. 

Right now, Nate is parked on the sectional sofa in the main living area, next to a huge set of windows displaying the ocean down in the distance. He’d taken Jenny out on the water this morning, but now he needed to carve out some time with the stack of study materials he’d brought with him. 

“Yikes. You do know you’re on vacation, right?”

Nate looks up from the packet in his hands to see Serena, already twenty percent tanner than when they’d all got here three days ago. She’s wearing the look she and Jenny have both classified as Island Niles: a brightly-colored large and flowy Hawaiian shirt and denim cutoffs (Nate’s in love with a fashion designer, he notices these things now).

“Haha,” he says flatly. “I don’t have a choice. I got a physiology exam the week after we get back, so I can’t let all the information leak out of my brain.”

Serena drops down onto the other end of the couch. “Look at you,” she croons, poking his leg with her foot, “Nate Archibald, the academic.”

He looks back down at his reading, flipping Serena off as he does. 

He hears her laugh, and spots the toss of her head out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t worry, Vanessa’s just as bad, she’s been elbow deep in Final Cut pro all day. So, I came to see what everyone else is doing.”

Nate shrugs, tapping the end of his pen on his lips. “Scott and Nat left for a romantic getaway on the big island this morning, so most everyone else is taken with the baby.” He gestures with his pen to the window behind him, to the lawn and the pool where no doubt Jen, Dan, Eric, Jonathan, Rufus,

and Lily were all still entertaining Scott’s little girl, Dylan. (Named after Bob, which Nate and Jen both agreed was a really awesome name).

Serena hums, following his point to look out the window. She laughs lightly, smile breaking over her face. 

“Aren’t you glad Scott finally had a kid?” she asks, propping her head up with her arm on the back of the couch. “Really takes the pressure off.”

Nate narrows his eyes playfully. “What pressure would you be under?”

“Umm, me and Vanessa, that’s two uteruses, so: double the pressure of the rest of you!”

He laughs. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

Serena tilts her head in thought. “Is that even the plural of uterus? Or is it uteri?”

“Uteruses,” Nate confirms. 

She grins. “See? That studying is already paying off!” she pokes him with her foot again, repeatedly this time, until Nate has to swat her away with one of his textbooks.

“Fine, fine,” she relents with a giggle. “But, seriously, tell me how school’s going.”

Nate does, trading his stories from nursing school for Serena’s about her photography and writing freelancing. She’d shied away from it for a long time, not wanting to be like her mother, but eventually, with Vanessa and Blair and Eric’s prodding, she couldn’t deny it’s what she loved to do, even if she still refuses to call it photojournalism. 

There’s always the text chains and emails and errant direct messages on social media, but Nate loves these gatherings because it’s a chance for him to really catch up with his best friend. Blair’s only a couple hours away in Paris, but S and her girl were on the move so much Nate really only gets to see them at official van der Humphrey gatherings. It’s lucky he and Blair both fell for people in her family. 

Their chat is interrupted by a high-pitched shriek of laughter, and they both turn to see Dylan giggling in Jenny’s arms as she twirls them around in the shallow end of the pool. 

“She’s cute,” Serena says. 

“Yeah,” Nate didn’t realize he was smiling until after he speaks. 

“Soooooo,” Serena says suggestively, waggling her eyebrows like a cartoon villain, “does that mean you’re next?”

Nate snorts. “Nope. Not likely.”

Serena lifts an inquiring eyebrow. 

He shrugs. “We’ve talked about it, and neither of us are anywhere near ready.” He drops the packet in his hands and stretches. “Jen has plans to launch her own label by the time she’s thirty, and I just want to survive clinicals.”

Serena nods with a laugh. “Completely understandable.”

“We’ve tabled it indefinitely,” he turns in his seat, mirroring Serena’s pose, hand propped on his arm. “Or at least another ten years.” 

“Yeah. Us too,” she shrugs, looking down, hand dropping to pluck at the fringe of one of the throw pillows. “V would be great at it.”

“You would too,” he says softly. “But you don’t have to want it.” (It’s not too dissimilar from what he told Jenny, but the sentiment remains.)

Serena shoots him a grateful smile, then turns to look back out the window. “So who do you think will be next? Eric or Dan?”

Nate hums thoughtfully. “Well, Eric’s the one who gave your mom the white wedding, so he should at least give Dan the chance to win back some points.”

Serena giggles, and as if she could sense their direction of the conversation, Blair comes padding into the room, in shockingly casual dress: leggings and an oversized, faded NYU t-shirt. Nate would have expected her in one of the resort collections Jen’s been pouring over for weeks now. 

“How are you doing there, B?” Nate teases. 

Blair makes a grumbly noise in response, and sinks down onto the couch between them, putting her head in Serena’s lap and her feet in Nate’s. 

“Hungover?” Serena asks with a pitiful pout, brushing Blair’s hair back from her face.

That’s funny, Nate doesn’t remember Blair drinking at all last night. Or the night before. Or on the flight from Heathrow to LAX—and there are few things Blair Waldorf loves more than a cocktail on an international flight.

“No,” Blair insists. “I’m just exhausted. Must be jetlag.” 

“We’ve been here for a few days now, B,” Serena says gently.

“Well, it’s delayed jetlag,” Blair snipes. 

“Does that exist?” Nate asks. 

Blair scoffs, rolling onto her side, kicking Nate in the process. “I need a nap.”

“I thought naps were for the weak,” Serena teases.

“Yeah, isn’t that what you’ve said at every other van der Humphrey family vacation?” 

Blair kicks at him again, but Nate knows he’s right. His best friend has never been one for sleeping in the middle of the day, unless she was pulling a Camille, or when she was…

“B,” he says firmly. 

She turns to look him in the eye, and he meets it. He’s been Jenny’s partner too long to be cowed by a withering stare, and known Blair too long to fall apart from hers. 

“What,” she asks flatly, challenging. 

“B,” he repeats, matching her tone, arching an eyebrow.

Her eyes widen, caught, and then he knows. 

“Okay,” Serena waves a hand, interrupting their staring contest. “One of you needs to start talking.” 

“Blair’s not hungover,” he says gleefully, “because she hasn’t had a drink all week.”

Blair pushes herself into sitting up. “Nathaniel Archibald –”

“Because,” he drops his voice to a stage-whisper, “she’s pregnant.”

Serena’s squeal nearly breaks the glass behind them. “Really?” 

“I – how –” Blair sputters at him. “How did you know?”

“I am a medical professional now, remember?” he picks up the course packet he was reading earlier and waves it in her face. 

“You’re a student,” she snarks back, swatting a hand at the book, “you aren’t a professional anything yet, Archibald, don’t be so braggy.”

“Oh, I’m gonna brag a little.”

Serena bounces in her seat, clapping her hands together. “Oh, this is amazing! Congratulations!” She playfully shoves Blair’s shoulder. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” 

“I can’t believe Dan hasn’t told everyone on the island,” Nate jokes.

Blair shushes them both. “That’s because I haven’t told Dan yet,” she whispers forcefully. “So you two better keep this secret, because if he hears it from one of your girlfriends first, I swear to god, I will end you all.”

Nate meets Serena’s eye over Blair’s head, the both of them grinning wide. 

“We’re going to hug you now,” he announces, serious. 

Blair’s long-suffering sigh is muffled by the two of them wrapping their arms around each other, squeezing Blair in the middle. After a breath, her hands slip out to settle over their arms. 

“Whoa,” Nate hears another feminine voice come from the stairs’ general direction, “did I miss something?”

Serena pulls out of the hug first, then Nate, who turns to see Vanessa entering the room, straps of a swimsuit top peeking out from beneath her sundress. 

Nate shares a glance with Serena, still bubbly with excitement, and Blair, who’s eyes may as well be flashing WARNING and DANGER. 

“We – uh…plead the fifth?”

Serena bobs her head in a nod, and Blair slumps back into the couch. 

“Okay…” Vanessa drags out the word. “Well, I was just gonna walk down to the beach, so…” she trails off, and shoots a meaningful look over her shoulder at Serena before slipping outside through the sliding glass doors. 

Serena blinks, then smiles wide. “Bye!” she chirps to her best friends before dashing out the door behind her girlfriend. 

Nate turns back to Blair. 

“Not a word,” she points a finger at him threateningly. 

Nate solemnly draws a cross over his heart, just how they used to make promises to each other when they were kids. He holds his arms open after, and she obliges, throwing her own around his neck in a hug. 

“Congrats, B,” he says sincerely, without an ounce of jealousy or regret. They now both had everything they ever wanted. 

“Thank you,” she says back, equally genuine.