The ache in my chest watching the Dair kiss from Cross Rhodes on repeat about 20 times just now has left me with tears in my eyes. Every time I see him go to kiss her back, the ache in the center of my chest gets stronger. It’s like he’s breathing her in, like he was a drowning man who finally kicked his way back up to the surface and her kiss is the oxygen he needs to live. That is how intense that kiss is for me and my fragile shipper heart.

I, as many of you may know haven’t solely shipped Dan and Blair since season one episode four, though I like to brag that my friend shipped it and I was made very much aware that others did as well. I personally fell into a magical love affair with the Dan and Blair last January when the show returned for the second part of its fourth season.

They had an amazingly witty dry humor about them that was made even more amazing by the fact that they actually cared about each other and were okay with showing that. Dan once again helping Blair when it came to the relationship with her mother, (a theme I feel has stayed consistent on a show with a lot of inconsistencies.) Blair helping him to finally see the light when it came to Serena and how he’d always come second to whatever drama or guy or most times both, were happening in the moment.

I adored the growth and the slow build up to their denial of any potential feelings and then the show did the unthinkable and it went on a six week hiatus, leaving me at the height of “what happens next” when it came to this new love story they’d dropped in my lap.

Six weeks of fanfictions and fanvids and making friends with fellow shippers who dared to dair. It was almost impossible for me not to become one hundred percent committed to their love story. The parallels to great movies, the assurance from producers that the story of Dan and Blair was far from over and in fact five years in the making, the natural chemistry between Penn and Leighton. It all contributed to me realizing that they are each other soulmates.

These two people from two different worlds, with so much different about them in personality and background who have the most organic relationship that is built on this common interest  in film, and art. These two people who basically couldn’t stand each other because they thought they were two different realizing they are exactly what the other has been looking for. They build each other up in a way neither of their former relationships ever truly could.

They see each others dark sides and at the same time recognize and build up the light sides. Dan and Blair is the kind of discovery love story many of us long to experience. There was no dropping of it in our laps unexpectedly it was build upon a strong foundation to give it real staying power.

I am more confident that I’ve ever been with any of my ships that this, Dan and Blair together in a strong and lasting relationship is how the show is going to end. There will be ups, there will be downs but they will be endgame.