Beyond (Simon Snow Series)

14

                                          BAZ
Snow's decided to sleep on the sofa, even though I offered him the bed if he wanted it. I wouldn't mind taking the sofa, after all he did sleep in a bathtub the other night. (Although the bed and the sofa are both in pretty bad shape, probably a result of sitting here in the dust for a few years.)

Bunce and Wellbelove are sharing a room and a bed, but what I don't understand is why Shepard- of all of us -gets his own room. Simon should be in there on the bed for once, make the Normal sleep on the sofa.

I saw the way he looked staring at the town (Simon, not Shepard). I saw the fire in his eyes. It's the same way he used to look at me when he wanted to kill me when I had tormented some kid in our Magicks 101 class our first year at Watford.

Snow walks back into our room as I'm laying a few blankets on the couch.

"You don't have to do that," he says. "I'll be fine."

I nod. "I know."

I grab one of the pillows from the bed and toss it to him. He catches it with one hand and places it at one end of the couch.

"Baz?"

I look down at him. "Yes?"

"We can do this, right? I mean... we can try?"

"I don't know Snow."

I notice him tense a bit, then turn to the sofa and climb under the blankets.

                                       SIMON
"We can do this, right?" I ask him. "I mean... we can try?"

I want him to say yes. I want him to say that we'll be fine. That us still exists. That he and I can fix this. I want to fix it- to fix us -but I don't know how.

"I don't know, Snow."

Fuck.

I want to take his hand and tell him that I'm here, but for some reason my arms and legs won't work. I can't hear him say he doesn't think we can fix this. I want to tell him that I love him and that I never want to lose him. But I don't. Instead I crawl onto the couch and wrap myself in the blankets like a burrito.

I nod slightly. "Goodnight, Baz."

His hand brushes my shoulder hesitantly.

"Goodnight, Snow."

When I wake up Baz is roaming around our room, freshly showered, with only a towel high around his waist. At first he doesn't notice me and faces the window away from me. (It's more like a concrete hole than a window.)

He reaches for a shirt and turns to see me propped up on both elbows. Baz doesn't flinch and walks right past me and into the bathroom. When he comes out he's fully dressed in a baby blue and black collared shirt and black pants. I stare, but I won't meet his eyes. He looks good in blue.
Baz picks up another shirt from the bed and hands it to me.

"Here. You should change out of those airplane clothes."

"Thanks."

Then he grabs a pair of pants from his luggage and hands those to me as well. I walk into the bathroom and slip them on, but when I walk back into the room Baz takes a soft, deep breath, and I'm worried I put them on wrong.

"What?" I say, looking down to make sure my pants aren't backwards.

"Nothing," he says, and leads us both out the door to Penny and Agatha's room.

Shepard has made himself comfortable in a chair opposite the bed, and Penny is sitting on the bed talking to Agatha, who is busy fastening on a necklace.

"Agatha, you do realize we're not exactly in the middle of civilization at the moment? No one cares about how you look," Penny says nonchalantly.
Agatha rolls her eyes and sits up on the bed.

Penny lets a smile creep onto her face before it drops. "We should get going. Mum said she wanted us to meet with her in the morning."

"I think this is where we get into trouble," I say.

Penny shakes her head. "I don't think so. They need our help, they're not going to punish us first."

Then she hops off the bed and walks swiftly out the door, Agatha and Shepard ambling behind her.