Chapter Text
The first time it happened, it was an accident.
I was walking –practically sprinting, because I was running late – down the stairs to breakfast. I’d slept in longer than usual, and couldn’t find a clean shirt (there had been a brief, embarrassing moment where I’d considered using one of Baz’, that’s how desperate I was). The stairwell was packed with students who had probably slept in too; we were all pushing and shoving our way past one another.
Anyway, I don’t remember exactly how, but I’m pretty sure a third-year stuck his foot out and tripped me, definitely on purpose. There was this awful moment where my stomach dropped and I thought I was utterly going to die – the great Simon Snow, killed by a fall down the stairs. Imagine the headlines.
I felt weightless. My wand fell out of my pocket and clattered to the stone steps with a sharp clinking noise, I remember. Not like it would have helped me anyway. My foot missed the next stair, and the next, and my body kind of twisted around and I knocked over several people as I barrelled my way, sideways, through the crowd. Everyone was scrambling to get out of my way. I couldn’t really hear much, but some girls were screaming near my head and my other foot missed the mark and everything tilted.
By this time, I was practically horizontal. I could see the scared-shitless faces of everyone on the stairs above us, looking down, and I kept waiting for my head to hit the stones.
But instead of the cracking of my skull and the splatter of my brains hitting the walls – I had landed heavily in someone’s arms. I don’t know how I didn’t completely knock him over, but Baz had somehow caught me right before I hit the ground.
I didn’t know it was him at first. I kind of gasped a lot, tried to hear something over the blood rushing in my ears. His chest wasn’t warm, but he was strong –really strong. Vampire strength, I guess. He waited for me to catch my breath, before putting me back on my feet – a bad decision. My legs collapsed almost immediately, and he had to sort of hug me again to keep me from falling over.
I think, looking back, that this was when I suddenly realised who he was. But, I didn’t freak out right away, I just stared up at him in shock, because… well… Baz had just saved my life. And he didn’t even look smug or uptight about it either – he looked openly scared. And slightly angry.
Our faces were so close together, I could smell him properly. He doesn’t smell exactly like his bathroom products would have you believe. He smelt like wood first. And then cigarette smoke (which didn’t make sense at the time), and then a little like fancy shampoo and his special cologne.
And his eyes weren’t just grey. They were also green, and brown in the middle, and a dark blue at the edges. He was looking very surprised - I think I had been staring at him long enough that he thought I was officially in shock or actually brain-dead. He probably had expected me to use my closeness to stab him or something. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that at the time.
I pulled away.
Immediately his expression hardened back to what I was used to. I suddenly became aware of all the people staring at us, and my legs almost buckled again.
“Uh, I, thanks,” I said profoundly. He nodded once, and then caught himself, and sneered.
“Can you pay attention to where you put your feet, for once? Next time, I’ll just let you fall.”
My mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. He smirked again, doing that thing where people look at your feet and drag their eyes slowly up your body until it feels like every part of you has been catalogued, priced and put up for sale.
I realised that I liked the smell of his cologne.