chaletian | [Gossip Girl] The Man of Mode :: PG :: Gen

Title: The Man of Mode
Author:

chaletian
Fandom: Gossip Girl
Pairing: Gen; Chuck
Summary: Chuck contemplates his wardrobe at the end of 1x14.

There was the puce velveteen jacket, which had a sort of voluptuous decadence to it. Then there was the cream-coloured heavy knit cricket sweater with the blue stripe that he’d bought from that little tailor off the Burlington Arcade in London. It had a sort of preppish charm to it, redolent as it was of late summer evenings gathered round a village common. Chuck Bass vacillated between the two. The velveteen projected a little more danger, perhaps. It was more louche, more dissolute. Given his position of a destroyer of families, unsuitable for decent company, the velveteen was probably more appropriate.

On the other hand, the cricket sweater had a more clean-limbed, clean-living feel to it which made Chuck feel better about things. Decent chap, the sweater seemed to say. Knows the rules.

Chuck Bass did know the rules. He just chose – occasionally – not to follow them. There were things he did do, and things he didn’t. Sending Serena drugs was a thing he didn’t do. So the cricket sweater was a way forward. Let virtue be his watchword.

Well. Fine. Under the right circumstances, sending Serena drugs might have become a thing he did do. Maybe the velveteen was the better choice. Chuck Bass: mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Chuck wondered if Byron would have worn the velveteen.

He sat cross-legged on the freshly-made bed in one of the Palace Hotel’s suites, wearing boxers and undershirt, contemplating his choices as they hung on the wardrobe doors.

Cricket.

Velveteen.

Cricket.

Velveteen.

Good.

Bad.

Chuck’s face twisted into an unrecognisable expression, and he jumped up, casting both choices into a crumpled heap onto the floor. The hotel maids had already transferred the contents of his wardrobe from his father’s suite to this one, and he grabbed the first thing that came to hand. A heavy cardigan with trout on the lapels. Why not? Objectively it was awful, but Chuck liked trout. Anyway, trout didn’t bother themselves with morals. In the spectrum of human behaviour, trout were neutral.

Chuck got dressed and pulled on the cardigan. He sat in splendour in the luxurious suite with his trout cardigan, and tried not to wonder why his father had never loved him.