A/N: Ugh! I'm suddenly having a terrible case of writer's block! I promise I'll get past it but please forgive me if some of the scenes seem slightly empty. I'll try to do my best. Reviews are welcome!

CHAPTER FOUR

Simon

It still smelled like meat.

Cherry had especially enjoyed the cat food, turkey, and ham the best. And afterward, when Baz had had enough and went out to hunt, Cherry had decided to lick off her claws but failed to care about the fact that small pieces of turkey and steak littered the carpets. (They would probably get meat stuck to their shoes and socks for weeks.)

"Cherry," Simon sighed. "You are going to be a handful."

The dragon was curled up in his lap but she looked up with curious yellow eyes as he spoke to her.

"Of course, nothing I can't handle," he went on. "I've dealt with much worse than a baby dragon. That's not a challenge, by the way."

She shifted around to get more comfortable and huffed a sigh. Simon smirked, his hand rested gently against her warm scales and he could feel her rabid little heartbeat. "You're a cute little thing, you know."

Baz's disappointed face popped back into his mind from earlier. Simon still felt a little guilty about that, he knew that he shouldn't have because he knew that Baz wouldn't want him doing whatever he wanted just because Simon felt bad….

It was just…. The last time he had said that he loved somebody, Agatha had ended it with him. And when Baz had called him "love" at the Mage's death it had felt really good; too good to lose. He really didn't want things to happen and then to have Baz get bored with him and leave or something. He knew it was probably a ridiculous thing to think… But he still felt that way.

Cherry left her head with ears pricked up and growled at the door just before Baz stepped inside with blown out pupils. He leaned against the door after it was closed and sighed deeply through his nose.

"How'd it go?" Simon asked.

Baz shook himself. "Great, actually. There were a bunch of deer in the park."

"A Merry Christmas from nature," Simon offered.

"Right." Baz bit his lip and played with his canine teeth. "That's in, like, five days."

And I still haven't gone shopping. Simon mentally berated himself. "Yeah."

Baz wet his lips and started for the kitchen. Probably to get a cup of milk or something, Simon figured, that's what he usually had that after a hunt. Just a small glass; he got a stomach ache if he mixed too much with all that blood he had just drained out of some unfortunate animal.

Cherry watched him leave then made a grumbling noise in her throat.

Simon got up. "Sorry, girl," he apologized when Cherry jumped off his lap and scrambled onto the coffee table so that she could continue watching the kitchen intruder.

Simon chuckled and walked into the kitchen after Basilton. "Hey," he said. Baz closed the fridge door where he had just returned the jug of milk and smiled at him.

"Hello, beautiful."

Silently, Simon crossed the room to kiss his cheek. "I'm glad you're back," he told him. He felt Baz's warm lips press against his ear for a moment and smiled a little.

From the living room, he heard Cherry chirping and glanced over his shoulder to see her standing on the coffee table with her wings rippling with interest.

She launched herself into the kitchen and crawled up Simon's leg. Cherry sniffed at Baz's nose then crossed over onto his shoulder and curled around his neck.

"I told you it would work," Simon said with a grin.

"Yeah… I know." Baz sighed and smirked at the little dragon on his shoulder. "You're right more often than not, Snow."

Simon decided not to answer—after all he knew that wasn't true; being wrong was a special talent of his. "Does it look like she's getting bigger to you?"

That made Baz's smile disappear as he examined the little red lizard that seemed suspiciously larger; more the size of a cairn terrier than a cat, which wasn't much of a difference but still….

"How fast do dragons grow exactly?"

"Depends on the how much they eat." Baz's eyes were huge, which alarmed Simon just a little bit; the last time he had looked like that was the night they had watched the Twilight movies together.

Then he understood. "And we just fed her…?"

"Enough for her to get quite a bit bigger, that's for sure," Baz growled.

Simon pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply. "Okay. It's fine; we'll have returned her to her mum by the time she's very big. We just need a day or two to get her to trust us more and in the meantime we can keep trying to find out about how to summon her mother."

"Easy enough," Baz muttered. "But what if—"

Before he could finish talking, Simon gave a forceful kiss that made his bottom lip sore. He pulled away after a few seconds. "Don't ask that," he said breathily. "We can worry about the 'what if's later."

"O—kay."

Just then there was a knock on the door. Cherry hissed, jumped off Baz's shoulder, and ran down the hall into their room.

Simon glanced behind him. "Who—?"

"Dunno." Baz smirked a little. "Let's go find out."

It was Agatha. Simon had to admit that he was quite surprised to see her; they hadn't planned to have her over…. When she stepped into Baz's living room with a serious look on her face, Simon could never have guessed the reason for her appearance. Not to mention she had brought that dog of hers… what was its name? Lucy? Weird name for a dog. Simon would have named her Watford or Magic or Ebb… something in memory of something important. Whatever, it was her dog.

"Have you heard?" she demanded and let the dog loose. "About that terrible man, Julius Laron? The one who's been stealing baby dragons right from their mothers while the mother is out hunting?"

Simon snapped to attention. "What?"

"Yeah!" She sounded outraged—Agatha had always been the animal lover. "The news was talking about it this morning! The headmistress has been ordering lookouts for him, thank snakes for her quick thinking, because they found a dead baby in the Forest the other day. A dead baby, Simon! Apparently it looked like it had been killed with a Dead as a doornail, and a viciously cast one, too."

"But… why would someone do that?"

"That's what Headmistress Bunce is trying to figure out. Everyone knows that killing a dragon is one of the darkest things a magician can do, so I don't understand what could possibly compel someone to do such a thing."

"A girl maybe?" Baz offered as he sat down on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table. "He's trying to impress someone?"

Agatha scoffed. "Yeah right. No one would do that, Basil."

Baz shrugged.

A pause. Then Agatha went on. "Whatever. I just can't believe someone would do this. So if you see someone smuggling a baby dragon, you've gotta inform the Coven as soon as possible—Ugh, quiet, Lucy! Why are you growling?"

Simon spun around. Agatha's dog was growling at the hallway with her eyes narrowed and hackles raised.

"Lucy!" Agatha called. "What's the matter with you? Why are you acting like there's a cat in the house?" She glanced at Simon and Baz. "There…. You didn't get a cat, right?"

"Hell no," Baz muttered. "Can you imagine me covered in cat hair?"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud hiss and Cherry shot across the room from where she had been hiding in Baz's bedroom and up Simon's leg to his shoulder.

There was a panicked moment where Agatha just stood there in shocked silence. Then, "Simon! What in Crowley's name is going on here? Why is that dragon on your shoulder? Why don't you look surprised? Why is Baz laughing!?"

Quickly, Simon explained what had happened with the alley, the wings, the dragon, the getting her back to the house…. "Do you think it was that Laron guy?"

"Duh! Who else could it be?" Agatha shook her in astonishment. "Simon, of all the stupid things you've done. Adopting a dragon?!"

"It's not like I had much choice!" Simon protested. "She's the one that latched onto me."

Agatha grabbed Lucy by the collar and clipped on her leash. "I have to go but we are not finished with this, Simon Snow," she growled. "I can't believe you two."

Once she had left Simon looked at Baz. "Well, I think we know how little Cherry lost her mum in the first place."

A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! Okay, this is what I'm putting up as my Secret Santa thingie for now. I'm still writing and I'll post as often as possible! Hope you're enjoying! Let me know with a review; those are always welcomed and I'll most likely answer them if you have any questions as long as you have an account on ! See ya again soon!

P.S. What do you think of my Agatha? I'm not sure how well I wrote her.