Simon wears a small smile and a noticeably happy attitude as he walks the hall to his apartment door and slides in the key.
He's humming to himself (borderline singing. The kind that annoyed Penny when she'd try to read) because he was on his way home from Baz's house, and Baz brought out the best in Simon. Simon hoped it was the same vice-versa.
There's a click, and he pulls open the door, ready for a nap-
"Surprise!"
"Holy shi-"
"Happy Birthday, Simon!"
Simon jumps back into the hall as people jump out at him, loudly. He makes his way back in momentarily, though, grinning and shaking his head and already reaching out for hugs.
Penny's first, 'cause he's sure she planned all this- and because his best and most long-time friend deserved some thanks and praise.
"Penny, this was so nice, thank you!" Simon says earnestly, wrapping his arms around the shorter girl.
"It was my pleasure, Simon," Penny responds with a warm smile.
Next was Agatha, and Simon smiles at her as he holds his arms out for a hug. Agatha brings him into a tight embrace before wishing him a happy birthday.
And finally was Baz, (God knows how he arrived) who handed off his camera to Agatha before hugging Simon. Simon, enjoying being shorter than someone for once, buries his face in Baz's chest.
"How'd you beat me here?" He wonders, voice muffled from Baz's shirt.
Baz smirks proudly. "I asked your Uber to take you the long way."
"Of course you did," Simon laughs, finally letting go if Baz's torso. "You guys did a great job decorating," he comments, taking in the banner, balloons, and holographic streamers hanging from the walls and ceiling.
"Hey, that was all them," Baz states, putting his hands up for emphasis so Penny didn't kill him for taking credit. "I was just the distraction."
Simon lets out a laugh and looks to the sky with a grin. "So I've been being played this whole morning!"
Baz lets loose a shrug.
"Basically, yeah." Then he smirks. "Constant vigilance."
Simon's eyes light up. "I knew you'd come around!"
Penny rolls her eyes as she passes out plastic party plates. "Calm down, Mad-Eye. Let's eat cake!"
The cake is a calm light-blue color, with white accents around the bottom. A simple red bird is in the top right, and the words "Happy Birthday, Simon!" are written in cursive across the top. It looks good, but has the distinct style of a homemade cake; Simon could tell one of his friends has put a good deal of time into it.
Penny silently hands him a knife and nods her head in the direction of the cake; Simon wastes no time in cutting it right through the middle.
When he takes the slice out he sees that it's chocolate, Simon's favorite.
"How'd you know?" he asks openly to the room.
Penny pipes up (so it was her who'd made the cake.) "Simon, I don't think I've ever had a single chocolate baked good in this house that you haven't stolen and eaten."
Simon just finger-guns. "Guilty as charged."
They make their way over to the couch with their cake, and Simon and Baz sit squished together, even though there's plenty of room.
Simon tilts his head. "You didn't want cake?"
Baz shakes his head. "I don't like chocolate," he states plainly.
"But… what… I don't get you," Simon replies, shaking his head too, in disbelief.
Baz shrugs and smiles.
"Plus…" he adds deviously, "If I don't eat cake, I can't turn my entire mouth blue."
"Ugh," Simon groans, knowing he looked like a fool.
"Who's up for cards?" Agatha asks, digging a deck of them out of the side table by the couch.
Everyone perks up- card games had been the new fad among their friend group lately, replacing Mario Kart.
"BS?" Simon asks hopefully, and Penny responds with, "Whatever the birthday boy wants."
Simon fist pumps the air and moves to deal.
Baz loses the first game; Simon knows him too well, and although he could always fool Penny and Agatha, all it took was one look from Simon for him to decide, "Um, no, pick that up," and Baz would have to comply.
Baz was actually okay with losing today, though. Simon should win on his birthday anyways.
When the game ends Agatha stands, and everyone looks at her curiously, so she explains. "I've got an audition to make at 2," she says, kissing Simon on the top of his head on her way out the door.
"Have a good rest of the day, Simon," she wishes, and then she's gone.
"And I'm gonna run to the store," Penny says, standing up to go find her purse. "I need some final ingredients for dinner tonight."
"Guess it's just us then," Baz comments with a raised eyebrow, and he and Simon make their way up the stairs, hand in hand.
They lay on Simon's bed, staring at the ceiling for a few moments, just listening to each other breathe before Simon breaks the silence.
"You know what we should do?" he asks excitedly, catching Baz's attention.
"What?"
"Here, hold on."
Simon pulls out his phone and the YouTube app before typing in a keyword.
"We should watch SnowBaz compilations!" he looks over at Baz, and is then surprised when he sees confusion on his face.
"Okay, I get that we're SnowBaz, but what're they compiling?" Baz asks curiously, leaning his head on Simon to watch the video.
"Anything, from what I can tell," Simon replies, thinking. "Let's see… there's 'SnowBaz Funniest Moments', 'simon and baz being dorks', 'SnowBaz sneezing compilation…'"
"Who'd want to watch a minute long montage of us sneezing?" Baz interrupts, and Simon clicks it.
"Me, let's see!"
They stare, transfixed on the screen, as three clips play from Simon's various gaming videos, one clip of a sneeze from Baz's periscope, and one final clip of Baz sneezing in their Animal Crossing collab.
In the video, Simon's voice can be heard exclaiming, "Jesus, that's loud!" and the video ends.
"That's cyberbullying," Baz complains, but the video still made him smile. He still couldn't believe someone actually cared enough to make that, though.
"Oh, hush, like you haven't said worse," Simon says back, moving on to the next video.
"Oh my god," Baz says suddenly, and Simon pauses the video ( 'snowbaz being uber gay compilation.') "I got you a present."
"What is it?" Simon asks excitedly, and Baz laughs.
"You don't actually want me to tell you, do you?" Baz pulls the blanket off and detangles his legs from Simon's before standing and walking out of the room.
He comes back a moment later, with a package wrapped in sparkly light green paper. He trades the package for Simon's phone and starts filming.
(It's a habit to film things like this now, without them ever being sure whether it's for the vlog or just themselves.)
Simon's eager to open the gift, but he spares a moment for excited eye contact with Baz, who gives him a knowing smile and a thumbs up from his free hand.
When Simon tears the paper off, he sees it's a lemon-yellow polaroid camera, one Simon himself had been admiring at the store about a month back.
"Whoa, Baz this is so cool!" Simon exclaims, turning the box over in his hand. He wouldn't have picked yellow for himself, but somehow, knowing that Baz felt it the right choice had made it actually be the right choice.
"And, you know, it's cool you remembered," he adds, sheepishly, knowing Baz would understand. Baz gives him another smile, though Simon can't tell if it's truly a new one or if he'd never stopped.
"I'm glad you like it, Simon," Baz says, carefully, and Simon knows then that Baz had been nervous to give it to him. Simon wonders if that's why he gave it to him alone…
Simon's thoughts are interrupted by the sudden need to kiss his boyfriend.
"Come here," Simon says, and plants a kiss on his lips.
"This," he says, pausing and looking into Baz's eyes for dramatic effect, "Was an awesome gift."
Baz breaks into a grin now, and Simon can see his pointy teeth. Simon doesn't even have to make a vampire joke; as soon as Baz saw where Simon's eyes went, he knew what Simon'd say.
"Not a vampire," he states simply, and Simon falls back onto the bed, laughing softly.
They sit together for a moment, on the bed, with Baz on Twitter while Simon attempts to set up his new camera.
It takes him a minute to mess with the settings, and put the film in right, but he gets it soon enough and pulls Baz in for a picture.
"I was so not ready!" Baz complains fallen phone forgotten in his lap with the screen still on, and Simon cackles with glee.
"Too late!" He grabs the picture off the top of the camera and shakes it. (He's got no idea if that actually helps or not, but he's seen it in movies so many times it can't hurt.)
He sees the beginnings of the picture and grins because it's terrible, but that's the beauty in polaroid pictures. You can't take a million 'til you get an instagram-worthy shot; you get something much more real, and Simon wonders if Baz thinks of that the way he does.
Probably not, Simon thinks mischievously, Considering the way Baz looks in this picture.
The picture hasn't developed all the way yet, but Simon stuffs it deep in his pocket so Baz can't see (Much to the dark-haired man's displeasure.) Simon wants it to be a bit of a surprise.
Simon jumps off the bed and runs downstairs to get a sharpie. Baz looks at him curiously when he walks back in, because, Simon realizes now, he hadn't given any explanation for leaving.
He pulls the polaroid out of his pocket and they look at it together.
Baz reacts first, with an "I hate it," at the same time Simon starts his, "That's amazing."
They make eye contact and both begin to laugh, because the picture is somehow so bad and yet so good at the same time.
"What's the caption?" Simon asks eagerly, pulling off the pen cap with a satisfying click.
"How 'bout 'Birthday boy and sewer goblin?'" Baz suggests sarcastically, with a roll of his eyes, and Simon considers it.
"That's a little mean." He looks at Baz contemplatively and gives a mischievous smirk.
"...But it's true, so it'll work."
"Hey!"