Chamber by Chamber // Snowbaz

Chance Encounters

Otp Prompt #25: Baz lost his sibling Mordelia in an IKEA, and an employee named Simon is the only one willing to help him look for her. (Non-magic AU)

~ For @Skylar_Snow24. I'm sorry it took me so long. Enjoy, my loves ~

*Simon's POV*

There's a very handsome stranger looking very lost in the middle of our store. (Store's a bit of a stretch- more like a bloody mansion, really. Even I get lost sometimes, still.) He's got slick black hair, stony grey eyes, and cheekbones that would put Edward Cullen to shame.

"Mordelia?" He calls out as he looks in bins and under beds. "Mordelia you insufferable little witch..." He hasn't noticed my staring at him, but Penny has. I look over and she's got one eyebrow cocked with an annoying little smirk. (She gave me this same look when I had fawned over Agatha back in secondary school. Then I realized I was a right pouf in eighth year, and she gave me the same look then, too.)

"Well, Si? Are you going to go see what that lovely customer over there wants? Or are you going to keep staring like a begging pup?" I shift on my feet as I feel my blood rush to my face in a flood of heat. Is it really that bloody obvious?

"I, er- well he doesn't really look like he nee-"

She rolls her eyes at me. (Bloody prat, she is.) "Well then, I suppose I'll have to go help the handsome stranger," She starts walking off toward him (he's still blissfully unaware of my gay panic at the moment) with a bounce in her step. But before she can get too far, I huff and tug on her sleeve.

"Fine, bloody tit, trying to bloody pimp me out..." I mutter to myself as I walk away from her and toward Edward Cullen 2.0. I toss a furtive glance back behind my shoulder and see Penny flipping me off, putting her gaudy purple ring on display. (We were at the market when she got it- I told her it was an ugly hunk of junk. She insisted it was magic. Right crackers, she was.)

I put on my best customer service face (hiding my please-do-bad-things-to-me one) and walk up, tapping him on the shoulder. He spins around, looking as though he's trying to hide how frantic he is. (He's even better looking close up.) (Penny calls me a gay disaster. I never thought much of it 'til now.) "Excuse me," (He's looking at me like it's the only thing he's focusing on.) "Can I help you? You look a little, um- lost." At first he looks taken aback, but then he looks around, tugs at his hair (his gorgeous fucking hair that I want to tug right out of his skull), and then looks hopelessly back at me.

"Yeah, that'd be a right help, mate. My bloody sister... she's run off and I can't find her in this god forsaken mansion you call a store." He's sarcastic, but maybe it's just because he's worried about his sister. (Mordelia.)

"Right, well... what's your name?" I extend my hand, but he doesn't take it. Instead he looks at me with a sneer (a villainous sneer- I didn't know that was a real thing) and crosses his arms.

"Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch." My head hurts just from the syllables alone.

"T-t-tyr-tyrannu-" He rolls his eyes. (It's bloody hard to pronounce his name- 'specially when I never was good at English.)

"Basilton is fine-" I shake my head and give him a toothy grin.

"How 'bout Baz?" He furrows his brow like he's trying it out in his mind. He sighs and nods his head (I think I see a smile- maybe he likes it!)

"Well. What's your name, then?" (It's a bit odd exchanging pleasantries when his sister's missing, but he doesn't seem to mind, so I don't, either.) I cock my head to the side and point to my nametag, but he shakes his head. "No- your full name." I grin again (I know I don't know him, but he seems to make me grin a bit, even though he does seem like a bit of an arse.)

"Simon Snow Salisbury."

"Alright, Snow. Help me find my sister, yeah?" Snow Snow Snow. I love love love it. "Her name is-"

"Mordelia," I finish. He looks at me - thinking - for a moment, and then shakes his head and turns on his heel to keep looking for Mordelia. When I look back over my shoulder, Penny is giving me an enthusiastic thumbs up; so I hurry away, taking Baz with me. (May be a weird name, but oddly enough, it seems to fit him.)

We look everywhere- which is bloody hard in a store like this. In and under bins, cupboards and large drawers, appliances, etc. Finally, we've nearly given up all hope, but we're still going to the bed section to look for her. Every now and then one of us will call out her name, but we've reached the general consensus that it's not likely to help, anyway. I decide - while we're looking in this huge section of the huge store - to make a bit of chat.

"So... what brings you to our store?" He casts a glance with a raised eyebrow quickly to me, and then looks back away, pulling covers from a bed.

"Buying a new oven for our mum- we were baking sour cherry scones and salt and vinegar crisps when it caught fire. She's a baker, so she was devastated. It's near Christmas, so our father sent us out to buy a new one for her."

"Sour cherry scones?" I can't help but stop in my tracks and salivate at the thought. I haven't had any for a time, but I still remember having them every day before Uni. Flaky and warm and oh so delicious. Beside me, Baz chuckles. (A downright lovely thing.)

"My whole story about my oven catching fire and that's what you take from it?" I feel myself blush sheepishly and decide to stop talking. (Maybe forever. Haven't decided yet.) He casts a sidelong glance at me and I see that he's smiling, so maybe I didn't make a complete arse of myself just yet.

...

We find Mordelia hiding under a bed just under twenty minutes later, giggling herself into oblivion. Baz gave her a long talk before turning to me and nodding once, firmly and then going about his business again. And just like that, my encounter with the handsome stranger ended as quickly as it had begun.

*Baz's POV*

Sometimes I could absolutely bite myself for being as bloody desperate as I am. But after a meeting with the bloody drop dead gorgeous guy Simon (I don't even know if he's gay), who wouldn't be desperate? So nearly as soon as I had left him standing in the bed section, I kicked myself for doing so. By god, Mordelia and I are going to leave the store without an oven for now, but will be damned if I leave without saying goodbye to him.

So I promptly drag Mordelia around and settle on a lamp that would look just fine on my bedside table; gargoyle and all. I spend five minutes wandering like a lust pup around the store, looking for him to check me out. (In more way than one.) When I finally find him and saddle into his line, looking cooler than I feel, Mordelia is throwing a tantrum about leaving. (This store has become somewhat of a playground for her, as of yet.) She keeps hitting me and wrinkling my jumper. But she can hit me as much as she'd like- this isn't my favorite shirt.

And besides, as I approach Simon steadily and meet his gaze, his eyes light up for a fraction of a second. He stares at me (or so it seems) for a few more seconds before returning back to his current customer.

I finally get to the front of the line with 'Delia in tow and place the lamp on his counter. He smiles up at me, as bright as the goddamn sun itself. "Thought you were just looking for an oven?" He says as he scans the lamp, still looking up at me with his downright sinful eyes.

"Right, well..." I taper out, not knowing what to say. (Which is odd, because I'm usually quite eloquent.) We finish the transaction all too quickly.

"Receipt in the bag or with you?"

"With me is fine," He hands it to me, smiling brightly all the while. "Thank you... Simon." He looks like he's won the lottery. (I wonder for a moment if I can find an excuse to come back tomorrow. And the next day... and the next...)

We're leaving the store just as quickly as we had entered, and I can feel my heart sink. But when I look down at the receipt in my hand...

I'll be bloody damned. It's his phone number.