WHO: Angelus Rosier & Barnaby Snell. WHAT: A casual chat over pastries. :) WHEN: This morning, 25 January. WHERE: The WWN.
The atmosphere at the WWN was tense.
But for once, it had nothing to do with politics or a certain heist. It had everything to do with the pastries Caitlin McLaggen had left in the breakroom. The Pitch was due to start in half an hour and Baz was certain there wouldn’t be any more chocolate croissants left if he waited until after the show to snag one. He crept into the breakroom to snag one or three but was disappointed to find his co-host hovering beside the counter.
“I’ll stab you if you took the last croissant,” Baz proclaimed, folding his arms over his chest as he gave Angelus a dubious look. The two hadn’t been on the best of terms lately — worse than usual, really — and they didn’t need another reason to be angry with one another. And yet. “I’ll stab you right in the eye.”
So naturally Angelus had selected a chocolate croissant.
Rosier had turned at Baz’s comments and brought up the croissant — the last croissant — and took a bite out of it. He made a happy ‘mmm’ sound, and then swallowed before licking his lips to complete the show. “It was even better than anticipated,” Angelus lied. He didn’t really prefer the croissants, but he did want to be a dick. “Besides, you’ve looked pleased with yourself the last little bit,” continued Angelus, offhand. “I could use the mood enhancer.”
Baz blinked. “Have I? Well, Jeremy did this really awesome thing with his tongue the other night—”
“While you moaned my name.”
“It’s like you want me to be sick,” Baz shot back, screwing up his face in disgust. He crossed over to the counter, going out of his way to elbow Angelus, and eyed the contents of the pastry box. Sighing, he selected a cinnamon roll and pretended to inspect it before continuing, “I can’t think of a better boner killer than your name.”
Rosier took another bite and shrugged his shoulder, leaning casually against the counter while Baz made his selection. With his mouth still half-full he spoke, “I’m surprised you’re not going with something cream-filled to help you live out your fantasy.” He swallowed, watching his co-host look disappointedly at a cinnamon roll. “Ahhhhhngelus rolls off the tongue with white filling.”
“Please stop talking,” Baz groaned, glaring at Angelus over his cinnamon roll. “You’re going to make me lose my breakfast and I’d rather not be sick on the air.”
Giving Baz a victorious look for a few seconds, Angelus shrugged again. “Suit yourself. Anyway, yes, you have.”
“Well, it’s like I said,” Baz explained around a mouthful of food, “it’s because Jeremy’s great in bed, soo. Mystery solved and all that.”
“No more break, then?” Not that Rosier was particularly interested in Baz’s love life, but he had earnestly agreed the whole break thing wasn’t as big of a deal as Dearborn had been making it seem. “Around the same time as that Lumos Maxima cast,” Angelus added, and then promptly shoved the remaining half of his croissant in his mouth without waiting for an answer.
There was a brief, almost imperceptible pause on Baz’s part. He had assumed he would be on a shortlist of suspects for Lumos Maxima, but he hadn’t suspected it would come up so quickly. He certainly hadn’t suspected it would come up from Angelus. He took a moment to swallow his food before he offered Angelus a relieved smile. “No more break. And I actually haven’t had a chance to listen to that yet. I heard it was interesting?”
Angelus licked his fingers free of chocolate, eyes on Baz, for a moment before answering. “Interesting enough,” he admitted, tone light and conversational. He’d only heard about it since some interns had been chatting about it. “Previously unreported stuff, guess the Prophet’s too busy to cover it all, and Capper is spending too much time hungover or whatever.”
“Yeah, sure, the Prophet’s too busy,” Baz replied with a roll of his eyes. He chewed thoughtfully on his cinnamon roll before adding, “So it’s covering stuff the Prophet and the WWN won’t? I think that sounds pretty cool, but what do I know?”
“It’s not like they have problems covering Death Eater news,” Angelus pointed out. “I guess so?” He eyed Baz for a moment, and then went to snag another pastries from the box. “Not much, because you seem to think my name is a boner-killer.”
“Your name is the ultimate boner-killer,” Baz replied, eager to move on from the subject of his secret podcast. He slid the box of pastries out of the way so he could sit on the counter, kicking his legs out like a child sitting on a healer’s examination table. “It’s a shame you’re sullying David Boreanaz’s character. Although I guess he did that with that faux-Irish accent he had every now and then…”
The box moved out of his grasp, Angelus frowned. “You’re obviously lying.” They’d done enough bantering, and borderline flirting, since they’d know each other. “Is this that Buffy thing you’ve been going on incessantly about for the last sixteen years?”
Baz nodded as he took another bite of his roll. “I can’t believe you haven’t watched it yet. The curiosity must be killing you.”
Angelus shook his head. “Not really. I’ve heard enough about it to not give a shit.” That said, he’d looked up some summaries online of course. He pulled his pocket watch out and looked at the time. “I’ve got pre-show stuff to do,” he sighed.
“Try to do some vocal exercises so you don’t sound like shit,” Baz suggested with a sharp smile.
“Fuck off,” Rosier shot back as he headed for the exit. He looked back over his shoulder with a smarmy smile. “Make sure you check out that podcast. It’s right up your alley.”
The smile on Baz’s face immediately dimmed as he stared at Angelus. What was his co-host playing at? But the smile was back on a moment later as he shrugged. “I’ll do that.”