Disclaimer: Still Rainbow Rowell's.

Baz comes back to Watford from Thanksgiving break quieter and more snappish than ever before. Which—he'd already been both quiet and snappish prior to Thanksgiving. It's saying something that he's even more so now. Simon is planning on ignoring it, but a few days after the end of break Baz starts in on him for not cleaning up the dirty snow he tracked in from outside and just doesn't stop. It's not unusual for Baz to get annoyed with Simon, but usually he manages to avoid the ultra-personal insults, and today he doesn't. When Baz suggests it's a good thing Simon's parents never saw what a disappointment he grew up to be, Simon cuts in with a "Fuck you!" that's loud enough that Baz stumbles back toward his own bed. The backs of his legs hit the mattress and he sits down hard. Then, to Simon's shock, Baz covers his face with his hands and begins to cry.

Simon is sorely tempted to ignore this, or even to keep yelling at Baz, but he's said enough things in life that he hasn't meant that it's not hard to picture being in Baz's position. So instead of just storming out and going to Penny's room, Simon gets some paper towels from the bathroom and cleans up the dirty footprints that were the start of this whole fight, and then he comes and kneels in front of Baz's bed. "Baz?" he says.

"I'm sorry, Simon," says Baz. "I'm sorry; you didn't deserve that. I don't actually think that about you, I promise."

"Good," says Simon. "Thank you. Do you want to tell me what that was really about?"

"Ugh." Baz scrubs a wrist across his eyes and says, "Not really, but I guess I owe you that after what I've said."

"You don't have to tell me," says Simon.

"No, I should," says Baz. "It's just . . . it's still hard to even let myself think about, and I haven't told anyone yet, and I just . . . I'm sorry. It's coming out at you in ways I don't mean it to."

Simon lays a hand on Baz's knee, which is the easiest part of him to reach right now. "Baz, are you okay?"

Baz sighs. "Maybe? God, I'm being ridiculous. It's not like I got disowned or anything. I just came out to my father and stepmother over Thanksgiving break, and my father didn't take it well. I mean, it was fine. Like I said, he didn't disown me. He just told me that he hoped I was mistaken because if I'm not mistaken then I'm going to hell." Baz laughs bitterly. "I didn't know he believed in hell. He's never taken me to a service at any kind of house of worship even once in my life."

"It's not ridiculous to be upset about that, Baz," says Simon. "I don't want you taking it out on me, but I understand being upset. That's a horrible thing for a father to say."

"How are you so good to me, Simon?" Baz asks. "I've been awful to you since we got back from break, and I was never particularly good to you in the first place. So how can you respond to my nastiness with compassion?"

Simon shrugs. "I've gotten good at letting things roll off my back. I couldn't break someone's nose every time someone pissed me off or I'd have gotten myself arrested for assault by now."

"There's a lot of space between breaking my nose and accepting my apology while expressing concern for my well-being."

Simon shrugs again. "Yeah, well, you're my soulmate." Then he looks down. "Sorry, was I not supposed to say that?"

"Don't apologize," says Baz. "You can absolutely say that. But I don't want to get away with treating you badly because I'm your soulmate. The fact that we're soulmates should make me treat you better, not worse."

"That makes sense," says Simon. "And I do want you to treat me better. I don't want you to say the kinds of things you said to me today. I think—I think things can be understandable without being good or right, and I think it's understandable that you took your pain out on me, but I don't think it was good or right, and I don't want you to do it again."

"I won't," Baz whispers.

"Okay," says Simon. "Let me know if you need to talk, yeah?"

"Why are you being so good to me?" Baz asks.

"This is self-serving," says Simon. "If you hadn't told anyone what happened with your father before you told me, you probably don't have a big support network, and that's why you wound up taking things out on me. If I can be part of your support network rather than someone you take things out on, that sounds like a better solution."

"You shouldn't have to," says Baz.

"I'm more concerned with what I can get, rather than with what I should get," says Simon.

"That makes sense," says Baz. "Still, I can . . . I can try to find someone else to talk to?"

"That sounds like a good idea," says Simon. "Now are you going to be okay for tonight, or is there something else you need?"

"I'm good," says Baz quietly. "Thank you."

So Simon gets his homework out of his backpack and starts studying. He glances over at Baz every now and then, but Baz really does seem to be okay, cleaning himself up with a few tissues and getting out his own books to study.

Baz gets stressed during finals week and snaps at Simon a few times, but not with personal insults, and he apologizes shortly afterward, each time. All in all, it's a big improvement over the previous three months and especially over the immediate aftermath of Thanksgiving break. Simon also occasionally comes back to the room to find Baz on Facetime, which wasn't something that had ever happened before, so it seems like Baz is serious about trying to have a support network outside of Simon. Once, the night before the end of finals and the start of winter break, Baz asks Simon to watch a Christmas movie on Netflix with him to help him calm down about the fact that he's going home the next day. They both sit crosswise on Baz's bed to watch the movie—Simon's grateful that his final tomorrow is for pre-calc, which he feels pretty confident about, so he doesn't regret that he's missing studying time.

And then it's winter break. Simon finds out he's passed all his classes. Penny's on the Dean's List, which isn't at all surprising. Baz makes the Dean's List, too, which surprises Simon a little—he sees Baz study a lot in their room, and Penny has said she sees Baz in the library a lot, and of course Baz seems intelligent, but Simon just didn't know what to expect until the list came out. But it turns out his soulmate is a good student and can perform well academically even when dealing with familial homophobia.

And then second semester starts, and suddenly Baz and Simon have remarkably similar schedules. They're not in any of the same classes, which isn't surprising considering Baz is double-majoring in music and classics while Simon is majoring in environmental studies, but most of their classes are at the same times, and each of them only has one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Baz has a Latin seminar at 12:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Simon has a field biology class at the same time, and both of them have the whole morning free. They start watching Netflix together on Monday and Wednesday nights, since they can afford to sleep in on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and it's . . . nice. It certainly doesn't feel like a fucking disaster.

Simon starts looking forward to Monday and Wednesday nights, watching movies with Baz. He starts looking forward to coming back to the room after classes and getting to check in with Baz about how his day is going. He starts looking forward to falling asleep to the sound of Baz breathing across the room. He starts looking for excuses to talk to Baz more, to spend more time with Baz, to touch Baz's arm or his hand or his shoulder or his back.

Oh, fuck. Is Simon falling for Baz?

One Wednesday night in April, as Simon settles on Baz's bed while Baz pulls up Netflix, Simon says, "Baz? Do you still believe my Words? That this is going to be a fucking disaster?"

Baz's hands still and he looks at Simon immediately, hurt clear on his face. "No, Simon, of course not. This is—I thought this was going well. Do you not feel that way? Have I done something wrong?"

"No," says Simon. "No, Baz, definitely not. I just—we haven't talked about our Words in a while, or really the soulmate thing at all . . ."

"Do you want to?" Baz asks. "I kind of figured my Words were still true—that you'd been hoping it would be a girl."

"Baz, I said I thought it was going to be a girl, not that I hoped it would be," says Simon. "And we've been over this. I was just surprised. I hadn't thought about my orientation. But I've been thinking about it more, and I think—I think I'm bisexual." It feels big to say it out loud. Simon hasn't said it before, not even to Penny. He's been thinking about telling her, and he probably will tell her soon, but he's been wanting to tell Baz first, on the off-chance that Baz likes him back.

"Really?" Baz asks quietly.

"Yeah," says Simon. "I don't want to make the whole roommate thing awkward, but I think—I think I like you, Baz."

"Oh, thank God," says Baz, taking Simon's hand in his. Then he freezes. "Wait, you did mean that romantically, right?"

"Yes, absolutely," says Simon. "Do you—do you like me back?"

"So much, Simon. So much." Baz starts leaning toward Simon and then asks, "Can I kiss you?"

"Please," Simon replies.

Baz's lips are unbelievably smooth as they press against Simon's, working for a few seconds before his tongue starts teasing Simon's lips open. Simon opens his mouth into Baz's, and their tongues graze each other lightly. They keep kissing for a while, mouths working against one another, but at last Baz pulls back and says, "Sorry, I think I should put my laptop away." He's a little out of breath, and Simon grins at him.

"No problem, darling," says Simon.

Baz sets his laptop on his desk and then pinches himself. "Am I dreaming? I never thought you'd call me that."

"What, 'darling'?"

"Yeah," says Baz. "I've been daydreaming about that for a while, but I never thought I had a chance."

"Oh, Baz," says Simon. "Of course you have a chance."

"You've always been better than I've deserved," says Baz. "I'm sorry I gave you such shitty Words, and I'm sorry for how mean I was to you last semester."

"I'm sorry I gave you such shitty Words," Simon replies.

Baz shakes his head. "Don't apologize for that. You've always been good to me, since we met, and it's not your fault you couldn't explore your orientation earlier in life." He kisses Simon on the cheek.

"We're doing this, right?" Simon asks.

"Absolutely," says Baz. "As long as you want to."

"Definitely," says Simon, leaning in to kiss Baz again.