Because I just wanted a happy ending.

Stop

Simon gasped as he struggled to get up again. Baz had flung him backwards into the forest. Out of the fire which was quickly growing.

"Baz!" he yelled just as he saw a dark figure rise out of the flame. It crept ever closer to him, sending up billows of smoke that matched Baz's dark eyes. He glanced over when he heard Simon call his name, but it wasn't the same angry, annoyed gaze Simon was used to. Instead it was filled with sadness. Pain and regret. Guilt. Defeat.

"Don't, Baz! Please! We can work this out! You can't!"

Baz was shaking his head slowly, eyes brimming with tears that reflected the colors of the flames. Baz raised his hand and a fire appeared floating above his palm.

"No, Baz! Don't–!"

Before Simon could run back into the flames, Baz clenched his fist around the flames. Simon hesitated as a new flash of light blinded him for a moment. When he could open his eyes again there was a figure of flame standing before him. Screaming.

Baz's entire body was alight. First he was stiff, back arched in pain, head craned up to the sky as the flames licked at him. Then he crumbled. It was so fast Simon barely had time to register it. First he was standing, then he was bent over in pain. Then he was on the ground. The figure went further, shrinking down and finally disintegrating into nothing.

"No," Simon said, throat thick. "No, stop, Baz! You can't–" Simon lurched forward, but was nearly caught in a flame. He clenched his fists, squeezed his eyes shut, and screamed. "Stop!"

The magic rose up in side him so fast it felt like he vomited it. The flames disappeared in an instant, It was like they were sucked out of reality. It made Simon's ears pop and ring.

"Baz," he whimpered, searching around. He had to be somewhere around here. He couldn't have been dead. He couldn't! "Baz! Cut it out!"

Simon searched the ground before him, covered in char and ash until his gaze fell on a small pile of smoldering cinders.

"Merlin," Simon cried, rubbing his teary eyes as he walked forward. He paused in front of the pile, staring down at the slightly smoking bits, the glowing pieces that were once Baz but now were just dirt.

Simon dropped do his knees in front of them.

"This isn't funny anymore, Baz, cut it out."

Obviously the ash didn't respond. Simon sniffled and the smell was horrific. Burning flesh and bones. The smell of death. Nothing like Baz.

"Baz!" Simon snapped. "Stop it! Stop it right now!" He sobbed, wiped more tears from his eye. The heat didn't matter to Simon, he already felt like he was burning. His magic still billowed up inside him. The heat collected like he was a furnace. When he reached forward and touched the cinders, Simon didn't feel it.

He clenched his fist around it.

"Stop it!" he screamed. "Stop!" A sob. Then another. He kept screaming when his chest wasn't convulsing in pained wails. "Stop! Come back! Come back!"

The magic was just as ferocious as before. When it left him, Simon cried out. It kept leaving him until it didn't even feel like he was using it anymore. It was being sucked out of him instead, grabbed by some unseen force and ripped out of him.

Simon stopped yelling and fell into broken screams of agony that he couldn't hear. He felt the the ash shift beneath him. More fell from the sky like rain, collecting around Simon's hands.

It built up beneath his palms, raising them up.

Simon didn't watch. He had his eyes shut, tears streaming down his face. He held his breath. Until he felt the ashes stop. They contorted beneath him, twisting into something until Simon felt a familiar texture.

The magical stream broke off and he gasped, swaying, just managing to catch himself. He open his eyes, sticky with tears, and saw Baz lying before him. Pale as ever, but there.

Baz's chest lurched beneath Simon's hands as he sucked in a breath. His eyes fluttered open, confused, disoriented, even as they landed on Simon, probably even more so when Simon jerked forward and hugged him. Simon squeezed him tight, making sure he was really there. He would have squeezed the life out of him if he could. Killed him again just so he could bring him back to life a second time. If that was what he had just done. If that was actually possible and this all wasn't just a dream.

"You damn bastard!" Simon hissed. "Merlin, you scared me to death!"

One of his hands rose up and gripped Baz's head and Simon kissed his cheek, then his eyebrow and his forehead. He wasn't thinking. Just acting. He wondered if letting all that magic go had affecting his brain somehow.

Baz closed his eyes as Simon kept going, showering his face with kisses while he clenched his fists in Baz's hair. When Simon finally pulled back it was just to look, too see that he was there. But then Baz opened his eyes and met Simon's,

They were wide. Shocked. Confused. The pupils had dilated so big the irises looked like just a gray border. Simon searched them, feeling as though he was falling into the darkness. Simon didn't even realize he was still crying until a tear fell and landed on Baz's face, right above his lip.

And Simon kissed them. His lips. Without warning. Without reason. He didn't even think it really, the thought never became a full sentence, just an impulse. Baz stiffened for half a second, then all at once, he relaxed. For a brief moment of terror, Simon thought he was disintegrating again, and he clutched Baz's face harder.

Baz exhaled slowly, reaching up and wrapping his arms around Simon, pulling him closer. Then he moaned beneath their lips and squirmed. Simon pulled back abruptly.

Baz was still clutching at Simon though, grasping at the collar of his shirt, popping the buttons. He grabbed the chain of the cross and yanked as hard as he could. Simon watched as he threw it. When he looked back, Baz was staring up at him with aching in his eyes.

Without another word, Simon bent down again, and kissed him a second time.