Gossip Girl fic: Show Your Shark-Tipped Teeth (Serena/Georgina, R)
Hurrah for Gossip Girl bringing my fic-writing mojo back! I actually managed to finish one and pluck up the courage to post it, which is a very rare occurrence for me. I'm hoping that it'll become less rare because I have a million and one fics swimming around my head.
Title: Show Your Shark-Tipped Teeth
Pairing: Serena/Georgina, background Serena/Blair
Rating: R
Words: 2,108
Disclaimer: Alas, all characters belong to people that aren't me.
Summary: Future!fic. Years later, Serena runs into Georgina and finds that maybe she hasn't changed as much as she thought.
Notes: Title comes from 'Cheap and Cheerful' by The Kills.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Serena van der Woodsen."
Serena downs the rest of her martini. She knows that voice. It's a little lower than she remembers, a little huskier, no doubt a product of countless cigarettes over countless long nights, but it's unmistakable. She turns around on her bar stool to face the one person she wouldn't fake a smile for.
"Georgina. What are you doing here?"
Georgina smiles and slides into the seat next to Serena with a grace that Serena didn't know she possessed. "Same thing as you, S. I'm getting a drink." She beams at the bartender and a martini appears before her like clockwork. "Funny to see you here, though, Serena. The Palace? So many memories here. Isn't this the place where we first -"
Swallowing down her rage, Serena interrupts, saying, "Is there something you want, or do you just want to torture me?"
"All I want to do is reminisce." Georgina smiles that classic devious smile of hers and leans in closer. "Why so snappy today? Blair not treating you well?"
Saying nothing, Serena motions to the bartender for another drink. Ten years on and Georgina still has that unique gift of being able to pinpoint Serena's weak spot and exploit it. The truth is, things have been rocky with Blair of late; Blair's working in Paris and is too busy having a fabulous time meeting with upcoming designers to speak to Serena or, Serena secretly suspects, to even think of her.
Her unease must register on her face - and how could it not, given her present company? - because when she glances at Georgina, Georgina smirks.
"How do you even know about me and Blair?"
"Oh, come on, it's the worst-kept secret in New York. You may be well-connected enough to keep it out of the papers, but people still talk. I don't blame you, though, Serena. Blair is a pretty good catch, if what you're looking for is an inferior version of me."
"Trust me, that is the last thing I'm looking for." She pauses, pretending to ponder. "No, wait, second to last. The last thing I'm looking for is you."
Georgina laughs like that's the funniest thing she ever heard, leaning in toward Serena and resting a hand on her leg to steady herself. Her touch lingers for a little too long and Serena finishes her second drink of the night and orders her third, realizing that Georgina is only just getting started. She could leave; she should leave. Serena isn't sure why doesn't, but it's probably because she knows that Georgina will only follow her, and anyway, her plan was to get drunk at the Palace, and she resolves to stick to it regardless of her company.
It's not long before Georgina strikes up a conversation again like this is a perfectly normal reunion of old friends. She brings up the old days and Serena has to work to avoid smiling at the memory of Savannah and Svetlana, their alter egos for many a wild night spent out on the town surrounded by adoring guys that were never as important to them as they were to each other. She tells stories, and it's difficult for Serena to remember which ones were true, which ones were embellished, and which ones only ever existed in Georgina's head, but it doesn't matter. Even ten years ago Serena couldn't tell the difference. They'd created a narrative of their lives by weaving together truth and fantasy and it was all a part of their story, every fact, every lie.
"We had fun, didn't we?" Georgina says, and Serena had forgotten that Georgina's voice could get like that, low and gentle and directed just at her. Memories surface that were half-buried in Serena's subconscious, hazy memories of messy hotel rooms and fumbling touches under cover of darkness and alcohol.
"Yeah, we had fun," she admits. "Before you turned psycho and tried to ruin my life."
Facing her boldly, Georgina says, "Look, I don't do that anymore. The drugs, the blackmail -" she says it like it was just a childish prank, and maybe that's all it ever was to her "- it's all behind me. I'm totally mellow now."
"You will never be mellow." Serena laughs, and the martinis must be taking effect because she adds, "that was always your charm."
Georgina doesn't laugh; she's looking at Serena intently, indecipherably. "We could go back to how we were before."
Serena shakes her head, a little sadly. The past is too far away; she has memories, but they're all alcohol-laced and blurry and it's difficult to remember a time when they were real. She's spent so long hating Georgina that soft words and gentle touches won't easily win her back.
She orders another martini.
"Georgie..." The nickname slips from her lips, too familiar, too friendly. More than the stories it's that which reminds her that there was a time, way back when, that she and Georgina were actually friends - almost more than friends - and that in a way Serena had been closer to Georgie back then than she had been to Blair. With Blair she shared secrets; with Georgie she shared herself. Eventually, of course, she had shared herself with Blair, sometime after college when the boys they'd been in love with were forgotten and they found they still had each other, but now - now they don't share secrets anymore, and with Blair in France they don't even share themselves.
And now here is Georgie, burning like the supernova she's always been.
"You know how I feel about you, Serena," she says, voice low and slurred but with eyes intense as ever. "I've always been crazy about you."
"Yeah, 'crazy' is the right word."
Georgie laughs, softly this time, and when their eyes meet there's an understanding. Serena's head is fuzzy, Blair is far away, and that's all the excuse she needs. All of a sudden Georgina is too close and before Serena can talk herself out of it their lips meet in a fury, crashing together like waves over rocks. They kiss, right there in the bar that's seen so many of her indiscretions, and Serena has an absurd flashback to high school, her neck prickling with a foolish worry that someone nearby has a camera phone trained on them.
Spotted: S and G in the Palace bar, swapping more than stories. Better not tell B; there's nothing more fearsome than a Waldorf on the warpath.
It's ridiculous; Gossip Girl imploded long ago when her real identity was discovered, but that's how Georgina makes her feel: like she's seventeen again, and the center of the universe.
---
Georgina fucks like it's the end of the world and this is the last true experience they'll ever have; their last chance to feel. Whenever Georgina fucks, she makes sure it counts; she's all sharp edges, biting teeth and scraping nails, every point of contact like the searing blade of a knife against Serena's skin. Instead of squirming, instead of fighting back, biting back, Serena lets go of all the tension and floats above, the pain lost in the roaring of blood in her ears as the pleasure consumes her.
With Blair it was different; with Blair it was a struggle at first, because nothing can ever completely break down Blair's carefully-constructed defenses, not even a love as simple and honest as theirs was. Is. Serena could never fully let go with Blair, because she was always so busy enabling Blair to experience that that she couldn't take it for herself.
Georgina's tongue flicks in a devilish way that Blair never quite mastered and Serena is undone, coming hard as the apocalypse rages around her.
---
In the morning Serena wakes to the flash and click of a camera. Her eyes struggle open, fighting against the light and the make-up caked on her eyelids, and when her senses adjust to her surroundings she realizes that Georgina is beside her, curled around her naked form, and she's smirking at the camera that she's holding above their heads. She leans in to kiss Serena's neck and snaps another picture before Serena can protest.
"What are you doing?" she mumbles, martini-soaked senses still trying to catch up.
Georgina sits up and smiles, deviousness personified, and even as Serena feels her stomach plummet in trepidation she finds herself blearily wondering how Georgina has escaped the monster hangover that's threatening to bludgeon Serena any minute now.
"Present for B," Georgina says and, encroaching hangover be damned, Serena sits up and starts to wrestle with Georgina, desperate to grab the camera before Georgina can ruin her life all over again. She should feel ashamed, but she just feels stupid; yet again she's fallen for Georgie's tricks, blinded by intoxication and the old remnants of an attraction she never quite managed to expunge.
"Give me the camera, Georgie," she says, her voice scratchy with sleep. "Don't do this. Be a fucking adult for once in your life."
"Relax, S," Georgina says, leaping from the bed with inexplicable spryness and holding the camera out of reach. "I'm not going to send her anything... yet. I just wanted to complete the set."
"What are you talking about?"
"I was in Paris last week and I ran into your girlfriend. I took some pictures then, too."
A wave of nausea that has nothing to do with all the gin she drank last night rises within Serena as she processes the implication of that remark. "Blair wouldn't do that. She hates you."
Georgina shrugs, faking nonchalance when she's clearly having fun. "Well, maybe I'm lying. Isn't that what I do? I don't see why you care if she fucked me, anyway. You can't exactly take the moral high ground here."
"Please, just tell me it's not true."
"It's not true."
"Fuck you, Georgie."
"Go ahead."
Serena lies back down on the bed and, suddenly cold, pulls the covers over her. She doesn't look at Georgina when she speaks. "Why are you doing this? Why do you always do this?"
The bed shifts as Georgina sits down and when she leans over, Serena's gaze is drawn to her once again.
"I was just messing around, S. I wouldn't sleep with Blair if you paid me, and you know how much of a whore I am."
"But you knew she was in Paris."
"Sure." Georgina lies down, resting on her elbow as she stares at Serena.
"Did you mean anything you said last night? All that stuff about starting over, and how you felt about me. Were you just screwing with me?"
Georgina sighs, and maybe it's the first sign of real emotion she's shown, but Serena just can't tell anymore. "Would it make a difference? Whether I meant it or not, you're not going to stick around. You'll go back to Blair and try to pretend this never happened until it eats away at you and you confess, and then after a big long argument you two will make it up and realize how much you love each other. I'm not stupid, Serena. I know I always came second to her. Whether I wanted to fuck you or fuck with you, the end result is the same. So don't bother asking what I really meant, like you'd run away with me if I just told you I loved you. We both know you wouldn't."
Serena says nothing for a moment and studies the contours of Georgie's face, realizing for the first time in her life a truth that had somehow escaped her until now. "But it is true, isn't it? You love me."
A string of different emotions flit across Georgina's face before she gets her expression under control and it's neutral once again. For a moment she simply looks at Serena, saying nothing, but then she gets up and starts to hunt around the room for clothes, steadily avoiding Serena's gaze.
When she speaks, her voice trembles ever so slightly. "I can still send those photos, you know. I wasn't going to, but I can."
"You won't."
She spins round to face Serena. "Says who?"
"If you love me, you wouldn't want to hurt me."
Georgina's laugh actually sends a shiver down Serena's spine, that's how unhinged she sounds. "You don't get it, do you? That's exactly why I've always wanted to hurt you."
Camera in hand, Georgina sweeps out of the room. Serena stares at the door as it slams shut, dumbfounded, wondering how the hell she's found herself in this situation all over again.
Really, though, the surprise is that it took her this long.
Title: Show Your Shark-Tipped Teeth
Pairing: Serena/Georgina, background Serena/Blair
Rating: R
Words: 2,108
Disclaimer: Alas, all characters belong to people that aren't me.
Summary: Future!fic. Years later, Serena runs into Georgina and finds that maybe she hasn't changed as much as she thought.
Notes: Title comes from 'Cheap and Cheerful' by The Kills.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Serena van der Woodsen."
Serena downs the rest of her martini. She knows that voice. It's a little lower than she remembers, a little huskier, no doubt a product of countless cigarettes over countless long nights, but it's unmistakable. She turns around on her bar stool to face the one person she wouldn't fake a smile for.
"Georgina. What are you doing here?"
Georgina smiles and slides into the seat next to Serena with a grace that Serena didn't know she possessed. "Same thing as you, S. I'm getting a drink." She beams at the bartender and a martini appears before her like clockwork. "Funny to see you here, though, Serena. The Palace? So many memories here. Isn't this the place where we first -"
Swallowing down her rage, Serena interrupts, saying, "Is there something you want, or do you just want to torture me?"
"All I want to do is reminisce." Georgina smiles that classic devious smile of hers and leans in closer. "Why so snappy today? Blair not treating you well?"
Saying nothing, Serena motions to the bartender for another drink. Ten years on and Georgina still has that unique gift of being able to pinpoint Serena's weak spot and exploit it. The truth is, things have been rocky with Blair of late; Blair's working in Paris and is too busy having a fabulous time meeting with upcoming designers to speak to Serena or, Serena secretly suspects, to even think of her.
Her unease must register on her face - and how could it not, given her present company? - because when she glances at Georgina, Georgina smirks.
"How do you even know about me and Blair?"
"Oh, come on, it's the worst-kept secret in New York. You may be well-connected enough to keep it out of the papers, but people still talk. I don't blame you, though, Serena. Blair is a pretty good catch, if what you're looking for is an inferior version of me."
"Trust me, that is the last thing I'm looking for." She pauses, pretending to ponder. "No, wait, second to last. The last thing I'm looking for is you."
Georgina laughs like that's the funniest thing she ever heard, leaning in toward Serena and resting a hand on her leg to steady herself. Her touch lingers for a little too long and Serena finishes her second drink of the night and orders her third, realizing that Georgina is only just getting started. She could leave; she should leave. Serena isn't sure why doesn't, but it's probably because she knows that Georgina will only follow her, and anyway, her plan was to get drunk at the Palace, and she resolves to stick to it regardless of her company.
It's not long before Georgina strikes up a conversation again like this is a perfectly normal reunion of old friends. She brings up the old days and Serena has to work to avoid smiling at the memory of Savannah and Svetlana, their alter egos for many a wild night spent out on the town surrounded by adoring guys that were never as important to them as they were to each other. She tells stories, and it's difficult for Serena to remember which ones were true, which ones were embellished, and which ones only ever existed in Georgina's head, but it doesn't matter. Even ten years ago Serena couldn't tell the difference. They'd created a narrative of their lives by weaving together truth and fantasy and it was all a part of their story, every fact, every lie.
"We had fun, didn't we?" Georgina says, and Serena had forgotten that Georgina's voice could get like that, low and gentle and directed just at her. Memories surface that were half-buried in Serena's subconscious, hazy memories of messy hotel rooms and fumbling touches under cover of darkness and alcohol.
"Yeah, we had fun," she admits. "Before you turned psycho and tried to ruin my life."
Facing her boldly, Georgina says, "Look, I don't do that anymore. The drugs, the blackmail -" she says it like it was just a childish prank, and maybe that's all it ever was to her "- it's all behind me. I'm totally mellow now."
"You will never be mellow." Serena laughs, and the martinis must be taking effect because she adds, "that was always your charm."
Georgina doesn't laugh; she's looking at Serena intently, indecipherably. "We could go back to how we were before."
Serena shakes her head, a little sadly. The past is too far away; she has memories, but they're all alcohol-laced and blurry and it's difficult to remember a time when they were real. She's spent so long hating Georgina that soft words and gentle touches won't easily win her back.
She orders another martini.
"Georgie..." The nickname slips from her lips, too familiar, too friendly. More than the stories it's that which reminds her that there was a time, way back when, that she and Georgina were actually friends - almost more than friends - and that in a way Serena had been closer to Georgie back then than she had been to Blair. With Blair she shared secrets; with Georgie she shared herself. Eventually, of course, she had shared herself with Blair, sometime after college when the boys they'd been in love with were forgotten and they found they still had each other, but now - now they don't share secrets anymore, and with Blair in France they don't even share themselves.
And now here is Georgie, burning like the supernova she's always been.
"You know how I feel about you, Serena," she says, voice low and slurred but with eyes intense as ever. "I've always been crazy about you."
"Yeah, 'crazy' is the right word."
Georgie laughs, softly this time, and when their eyes meet there's an understanding. Serena's head is fuzzy, Blair is far away, and that's all the excuse she needs. All of a sudden Georgina is too close and before Serena can talk herself out of it their lips meet in a fury, crashing together like waves over rocks. They kiss, right there in the bar that's seen so many of her indiscretions, and Serena has an absurd flashback to high school, her neck prickling with a foolish worry that someone nearby has a camera phone trained on them.
Spotted: S and G in the Palace bar, swapping more than stories. Better not tell B; there's nothing more fearsome than a Waldorf on the warpath.
It's ridiculous; Gossip Girl imploded long ago when her real identity was discovered, but that's how Georgina makes her feel: like she's seventeen again, and the center of the universe.
---
Georgina fucks like it's the end of the world and this is the last true experience they'll ever have; their last chance to feel. Whenever Georgina fucks, she makes sure it counts; she's all sharp edges, biting teeth and scraping nails, every point of contact like the searing blade of a knife against Serena's skin. Instead of squirming, instead of fighting back, biting back, Serena lets go of all the tension and floats above, the pain lost in the roaring of blood in her ears as the pleasure consumes her.
With Blair it was different; with Blair it was a struggle at first, because nothing can ever completely break down Blair's carefully-constructed defenses, not even a love as simple and honest as theirs was. Is. Serena could never fully let go with Blair, because she was always so busy enabling Blair to experience that that she couldn't take it for herself.
Georgina's tongue flicks in a devilish way that Blair never quite mastered and Serena is undone, coming hard as the apocalypse rages around her.
---
In the morning Serena wakes to the flash and click of a camera. Her eyes struggle open, fighting against the light and the make-up caked on her eyelids, and when her senses adjust to her surroundings she realizes that Georgina is beside her, curled around her naked form, and she's smirking at the camera that she's holding above their heads. She leans in to kiss Serena's neck and snaps another picture before Serena can protest.
"What are you doing?" she mumbles, martini-soaked senses still trying to catch up.
Georgina sits up and smiles, deviousness personified, and even as Serena feels her stomach plummet in trepidation she finds herself blearily wondering how Georgina has escaped the monster hangover that's threatening to bludgeon Serena any minute now.
"Present for B," Georgina says and, encroaching hangover be damned, Serena sits up and starts to wrestle with Georgina, desperate to grab the camera before Georgina can ruin her life all over again. She should feel ashamed, but she just feels stupid; yet again she's fallen for Georgie's tricks, blinded by intoxication and the old remnants of an attraction she never quite managed to expunge.
"Give me the camera, Georgie," she says, her voice scratchy with sleep. "Don't do this. Be a fucking adult for once in your life."
"Relax, S," Georgina says, leaping from the bed with inexplicable spryness and holding the camera out of reach. "I'm not going to send her anything... yet. I just wanted to complete the set."
"What are you talking about?"
"I was in Paris last week and I ran into your girlfriend. I took some pictures then, too."
A wave of nausea that has nothing to do with all the gin she drank last night rises within Serena as she processes the implication of that remark. "Blair wouldn't do that. She hates you."
Georgina shrugs, faking nonchalance when she's clearly having fun. "Well, maybe I'm lying. Isn't that what I do? I don't see why you care if she fucked me, anyway. You can't exactly take the moral high ground here."
"Please, just tell me it's not true."
"It's not true."
"Fuck you, Georgie."
"Go ahead."
Serena lies back down on the bed and, suddenly cold, pulls the covers over her. She doesn't look at Georgina when she speaks. "Why are you doing this? Why do you always do this?"
The bed shifts as Georgina sits down and when she leans over, Serena's gaze is drawn to her once again.
"I was just messing around, S. I wouldn't sleep with Blair if you paid me, and you know how much of a whore I am."
"But you knew she was in Paris."
"Sure." Georgina lies down, resting on her elbow as she stares at Serena.
"Did you mean anything you said last night? All that stuff about starting over, and how you felt about me. Were you just screwing with me?"
Georgina sighs, and maybe it's the first sign of real emotion she's shown, but Serena just can't tell anymore. "Would it make a difference? Whether I meant it or not, you're not going to stick around. You'll go back to Blair and try to pretend this never happened until it eats away at you and you confess, and then after a big long argument you two will make it up and realize how much you love each other. I'm not stupid, Serena. I know I always came second to her. Whether I wanted to fuck you or fuck with you, the end result is the same. So don't bother asking what I really meant, like you'd run away with me if I just told you I loved you. We both know you wouldn't."
Serena says nothing for a moment and studies the contours of Georgie's face, realizing for the first time in her life a truth that had somehow escaped her until now. "But it is true, isn't it? You love me."
A string of different emotions flit across Georgina's face before she gets her expression under control and it's neutral once again. For a moment she simply looks at Serena, saying nothing, but then she gets up and starts to hunt around the room for clothes, steadily avoiding Serena's gaze.
When she speaks, her voice trembles ever so slightly. "I can still send those photos, you know. I wasn't going to, but I can."
"You won't."
She spins round to face Serena. "Says who?"
"If you love me, you wouldn't want to hurt me."
Georgina's laugh actually sends a shiver down Serena's spine, that's how unhinged she sounds. "You don't get it, do you? That's exactly why I've always wanted to hurt you."
Camera in hand, Georgina sweeps out of the room. Serena stares at the door as it slams shut, dumbfounded, wondering how the hell she's found herself in this situation all over again.
Really, though, the surprise is that it took her this long.