Carry On SnowBaz

First Story: Anniversary

Simon

"Oh, come on, Snow!" Baz yells while we squeeze ourselves and three grocery bags through the door.

"This'll end in flames. And ... and you're flammable, Baz!" I say, searching on the wall for the light switch. "Did you ever cook a meal by yourself?"

"No."

"You see! Then how do you want to cook a Christmas dinner?"

"It's not a Christmas dinner - it's a Pre-Christmas dinner," he answers and unpacks a few vegetables and the chicken.

"Oh, well..." I let my shopping bag drop. "That...that changes nothing!"

"And I watched our chef a few times while cooking." Baz juggles two peppers and grins at me.

"A few times?" I try to imagine Baz in a kitchen. It doesn't work.

"Calm down. This is going to be fun."

"I am calm!"

"No, you're not," he says and catches my wagging tail. (It always starts doing this, when I'm upset. I never can fool Baz that I'm not upset about something - it reveals me every time. I hate it.) "Calm down and take a knife. We have much to do."

I take one of our knives, which doesn't seem that dangerous, and look provocatively at Baz. "So, and what am I supposed to do with this?" I ask frowning.

"In any case do not stab me," he says and pushes my raised hand down. "Did you ever cook before? Or at least watched someone doing it?"

"I have Penny. And she doesn't like it when I'm hanging around the kitchen when she's cooking," I answer. She's great at cooking. Her scones are almost as good as the ones from Watford.

"Yeah. Right. That explains a lot." He hands me an apple. "Here. Cut it. First, one cut through the middle and then into quarters and then..."

"Yeah, I know how to part an apple. Thanks." Roughly I slam the fruit onto the table and start the cutting like Baz described.

"Where is Bunce anyway?" he asks and looks around our flat. Baz is hanging out here so often that it almost feels like our flat. Penny's, mine and Baz's. He even got his own drawer in my wardrobe.

"She's out," I say while I stare at my four pieces of apple and think about what to do next.

"With a bloke?" Baz takes the other knife and cuts another apple. I copy him.

"Maybe. Don't know."

"Has she never brought someone here before? I mean, I'm your boyfriend and hanging around here all the time. Is there really no one?" he says and grips the next apple. I almost finished mine.

"Like you said - you're always here and you never saw another boy inside these rooms." Or girl? "I think there is no one." Shrugging I take my second apple. I never really thought Penny could be gay. (After she broke up with Micah a few months ago, everything's possible.) Well, I never really thought that I could be gay either...

"Maybe that's the reason. Maybe she doesn't want to bring someone with her because we are always here." He shoves a piece of apple inside his mouth. I can see his fangs pop. It's still fascinating.

"We aren't always here," I deny. "Sometimes we're at your campus or mine or hang out in London or ..." Baz swallows and stares at me like I'm stupid. "Yeah okay, we're almost always here. But we don't have only one room. If she needs personal space she could close a door."

"Yeah, but I still think she rather would ..."

"Can we please stop discussing Penny's dating-life!" I interrupt him and hurry to catch up with my cutting. "That's awkward."

"Okay," Baz says bored. "Then ... how was your test?"

"What?"

"Your history test. You wanted to change the subject."

"Oh, right. I think it went ... nearly okay," I say shrugging.

"Nearly okay? Crowley Snow, we've studied for days together." Baz stops cutting. I stare at my hands - keep cutting.

"I know."

"You knew everything! You would have been able to compete with every history book. What was wrong?" Softly he lays his hand on mine to make me hold on. He's looking at me but I keep staring at my now resting knife.

"I just... I don't know. It was like someone deleted everything I knew about London History."

"Oh, Simon." He kisses my right temple and steals one piece of my apples. "Maybe I should sit right next to you next time. Then you won't forget anything."

"Then I would be completely unable to concentrate," I say. I imagine Baz sitting next to me in class. How he would kiss my neck and how I would stare at his hair all the time. Yep, I would be completely lost.

"You're probably right. I'm much more interesting than 'The Great Fire of London'," Baz says grinning. I can't hold back a smirk. He grabs the shopping bag and picks out the peppers. He starts to carve the stalk out (which looks like he'd done this his whole lifetime), while I continue with my last apple (which looks like I never had a knife in my hands before. Probably I hadn't. Unless my sword counts as a knife.).

"But seriously, what was the problem? You can't just forget all we've studied before," he keeps pressing.

"Obviously I can," I answer and shrug. "Things often get lost in my head. It's like there is too much to sort out that it's impossible to find something again." Sometimes I even forget to let Penny cover my wings. Three times she had to run after me to cast them away.

"I know thinking is not one of your strengths, but that's ... I really thought you would rock this. I mean, you even refrained from eating for study," he says.

"Yeah, I remember, it was hor- ...Wait!" I point with my knife at him. "Perhaps that was the problem! Usually, I eat while I'm studying. Only this time I resisted eating because I thought it might distract me."

"I can't follow." He shoves my hand with the knife aside. I take it into the other hand and tap with the blade against my forehead. "Maybe my brain only can store information while I'm eating."

"Don't be a fool, Snow. Then you wouldn't remember anything we did, while we were not eating. And I hope you do, otherwise this would be a very one-sided relationship," Baz says while I pick a slice of his peppers with my knife. "Although you're eating almost all the time when we're together. Tastes good?"

I nod chewing. "I want to remember this conversation later, considering it's our first anniversary," I answer after I swallowed. Then I grin. Baz does the same. I grab him by his neck and pull his face to mine before I kiss him.

"Be careful with this knife, Snow," Baz mumbles at my lips and I start laughing.