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She’s laying on his cot, legs still shaking. He can’t help but stare. This whole situation is fucking crazy man. An hour ago he hated her and now she’s only in her underwear in his bed.. He still hates her, but he knows how she tastes, and how her mouth feels, and that she’s the best lay he’s ever had so it’s different
A part of him knows it’s really shitty of him. There’s probably some sort of rule against banging your friends (kind of) ex, and he’s risking Foreman being seriously pissed at him if he walks in at the wrong moment. He thinks that the fact that that turns him on even more is probably an issue.
“So that’s what that’s like” she stays, glancing over at him.
He runs a hand through his beard “yup”
“But we can’t do it again.”
“Yeah, definitely not.”
“I mean you’re one of Micheal’s closest friends. And you’re poor”
“And you’re his ex girlfriend. And you’re annoying.”
“And I couldn’t be seen with you, not since that time you tried to rob my house, my mom would freak.”
He wills himself to not get hard at the thought of doing it with jackie in her stupid pink room, in her stupid nice house, with all her stupid expensive stuff.
“Yeah and if Foreman knew what was going on right now he’d probably have a frickin seizure.”
“Donna too. It’s like there’s no one doing it wouldn’t piss off.” she says, sitting up a little to look at him, eyes burning into him, daring him to make the first move.
Fuck. A few more times wouldn’t kill anyone. He thinks, pushing her back onto the cot.
(a believable but still impressive amount of time later)
“So we’ll keep it a secret” she pants out, looking at him.
“Yup”
“But no feelings.”
He gives her a look, “you wish.”
--------------------------------
The summer air is thick with the scent of her. It surrounds him everywhere, infiltrating all of his senses. It makes him lazy, complacent, like nothing matters outside of the doors of his room.
He can hear the crickets chirp outside. It’s almost September. He’d asked her to spend the weekend with Foreman off in Florida, and Red and Kitty focussed on that it was super easy to not get caught.
At least that’s what he's telling himself. He’d be lying if he said the imminent threat of Kelso coming back wasn’t messing with him. He’s not sure Kelso would appreciate the fact that he’s been nailing his ex for over a month now. And Jackie’s sure to get all weird about it.
She stirs beside him, blinking her eyes open.
“Hey”
She stretches and moans before smiling at him. She’s so beautiful, even when she isn’t trying to be. “Hi”
“Now that you’re awake you want to go get me a beer.”
She glares at him and answers “no”,snuggling back into his neck.
“Well then you gotta get off my arm.”
She has a sleepy little smile on her face as she wraps herself around him, further inhibiting his mobility.
“Nope”
“C’mon Jackie i’ll get you a pudding pop”
“You’re my pudding pop”
It’s too couple-y for what they’re doing, but it’s hardly the only thing. He supposes they crossed that line when she started spending the night, or when he would read to her so she could sleep, or she massages his shoulders when he gets back from work.
He starts to laugh at the thought.
She looks up at him, furrowing her brow “are you high?”
“No”
“What’s so funny”
He can’t very well tell her “your ex, my best friend, who is the reason we met is coming back in a day and I’m just now realizing that we’re basically dating.”
“I don’t know.”
She starts to smile too, before laughing.
“You’re gonna make pudding pop a thing aren’t you.”
“Yup”
He grins, trying to commit everything to memory. He’s going to miss her when this is all inevitably over and the bubble pops.
------------------
“Are things going to change now?”
“What?” he asks, still in a post coital haze, sticky with sweat. Her head is on his chest, as close as possible.
“Now that everyone knows we’re together.”
He notes the fact she ignores Kelso not knowing.
“Thought we agreed to keep doing what we were doing.” he says, passively. He wouldn’t mind if she wanted to be more, but he wasn’t about to ask her.
“No, I mean I definitely want to keep doing what we’re doing.” He smiles to himself, always nice to know he’s better than Kelso in bed “but is all the magic going to be gone now that we’re sneaking around?”
“Magic?”
“Shut up, you know what I mean. Like everything that’s all good about all this.”
“Did that last time feel like the magic was gone.”
“Steven.”
“Because stay naked another 20 minutes and I can recapture it baby.”
“You are such a perv!”
The truth was he didn’t really want to sneak around. He wanted to hold her hand, and carry her back pack during school, and for everyone to know she was his. But that wasn’t who he was, or what this was. And he wasn't like Foreman or Fez, he couldn’t bear his heart to a girl for her to just crush it.
He leans over and kisses her forehead, gently, like he could shatter her.
“If things change that’s okay.” He hopes she understands.
“Steven.” she says softly
“Yeah.” he mirrors her.
“I think you should tell Micheal, yknow if you want this to keep going on.”
Jackie’s transparency can be endearing sometimes
“Okay.”
She grins, taking his face in her hands and kissing him, hard. He can’t help but smile into it.
--------------------------------
They’d fucked even though they were both a little pissed. He supposes the ever present annoyance in their relationship is what makes the sex so damn good.
Of course it always leaves room for ever present doubt, which is currently swirling her mind.
“Jackie, about earlier.”
“Hmm” she asks in response, slipping back on her panties.
He rolls his eyes. “When you said good to know, you were just giving me a taste of my own medicine right?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” she replies, a glint of mischief in her eyes.
“Jackie are you serious.”
“I already gave you my promise. You chose to ignore it.”
He sighs. He knew all chicks were dramatic, which is why he never wanted a girlfriend, and somehow he ended up with the most dramatic one of all time. At least she’s crazy hot.
“What can I do to make you forgive me.”
She smiles, jumping back over him. “A pet name!”
He tries to not get distracted by her lack of shirt. Jackie feeds off of distraction.
“A pet name?”
“Yeah, I call you Puddin pop.” He fakes a groan, she ignores it “I want a pet name.”
“All of this, over a nickname?” he asks “you are truly evil.”
“Learned from the best.” she says, hovering her mouth over his, not willing to kiss him.
“Okay small grasshopper.”
She grins and kisses him hard, sending him flying back into the bed. His grasshopper.
------------------
“Your face is so smooth puddin pop!” She coos, touching his face.
“Jesus” he complains, squirming away from her “if I had known you were going to get all… lovey dovey I would have kept a mustache.”
She gasps, pulling away “don’t you dare! My dad has a mustache, it's disgusting.”
“So I grow the mustache, and lose you… sounds like a win win.”
It hits a nerve immediately, she pulls away, lying back down on his bed, facing away from him.
“Jackie”
“What” she snaps.
“Are you good?”
“I’m fine.”
“Jackie c’mon you’re staring at a wall”
She huffs and he feels his heart sting for a moment. Why was he so bad at this?
He pulls her back into a hug, ignoring her attempts to squirm away. She’s remarkably strong for someone so tiny. “awww is my wittle grasshopper sad.” he said in the stupid baby voice he talks to her in. God he’s whipped.
“Pet names won’t help you Steven.”
He smiles, they always do. He showers her face with kisses “I’m sorry little grasshopper.”
“Stop” she whines, giggling and turning around to face him “you’re forgiven. But no mustache”
It was something about the way her finger came down on his nose gently, the way you’d scold a little puppy, or the way she was smiling at him like he was some great dude, or the question behind the question, but he has the realization. And he supposes he should have realized it earlier, when he looked into the mirror to shave off his beard to make her happy, or when girlfriend came out of his mouth seemingly on it’s own, or when he started risking all his friendships to mess around with her, or even when she kissed him on veterans day.
He’s so fucking screwed.
------------------
“Wait!”
She jumps up, running to grab something from her bag, and holds it out to him.
“Happy Valentine's Day!”
He smiles and grabs the card, opening it up. He can’t help but grin at how obviously handmade it is. The image of Jackie writing “BE MINE” in pink glitter glue for him is pretty hilarious.
Inside the envelope there's a few printed out pictures, one of them snuggled up on the couch, fast asleep, that fez’s creepy ass must have taken, a couple of her few favorite pictures of herself, and their terrible prom photo that he forgot existed. His favorite is this one he thinks Donna took, of her sitting on his lap in the circle, laughing at something stupid.
“I was looking through your wallet the other day and I realized you don’t have any pictures of me, so I kept thinking, what if some whore is looking through your wallet, how is she going to know you’re mine. So I asked Leo to print some pictures for me.”
“That’s why Leo kept asking me about that wacky loud girl who is stalking me. I thought he was going crazy.”
“So?” She asks “Will you be mine?”
He nods, and pulls her back down onto the bed.
“Are you sure?” She asks “did you read the terms and conditions on the back of the valentine?”
He rolls his eyes and kisses her. “I’m sure.”
He can feel her smile into the kiss.
“I got you something too.”
Her eyes light up
“Stop. Don’t get excited.”
He rolls his eyes when she doesn’t.
He grabs the stupid unicorn he had packed up his pride and purchased. If he thought buying playboys and condoms was embarrassing this was next level.
“I know you were mad kelso being an idiot ruined your unicorn, so… here.”
He hands it to her and she looks at it, before looking back at him.
“You can uh- keep it here if you don’t want two or… whatever.”
There's something in her eyes he can’t place. It makes him want to stand up and run. But he doesn’t.
“What?”
She doesn’t respond.
“What!?”
“You love me!”
He feels his eyes grow wide “no.”
“Yeah you do!”
“Whatever man” He wishes he had his sunglasses.
She doesn’t stop smiling, throwing one of her legs over his to straddle him. “Well too bad Steven Hyde, because I’m about to make love to you.”
He can’t stop his smile at that. He was right about one thing today. Jackie makes him stupid.
He notices that she left the unicorn on the counter next to his bed as he tucks the photos into his wallet later that night. He’s hers.
------------------
After all the excitement with the dinner table, it was pretty easy to get Jackie downstairs. Her head is on his chest as they both struggle to catch their breath.
“Anyone ever told you you’re really hot.”
“Oh yeah, all the time” she says, sitting up to look at him “you on the other hand…”
“Oh big words from someone who was begging for-”
She covers his mouth “shh you’re beautiful.”
“Ruggedly handsome.”
“Rugged.”
He waggles his eyebrows in response.
“I should go soon, so Red doesn’t find me.”
He sees it. The thing she was talking about earlier, what he should have seen with the doll expo or whatever. He wants so badly to be a good boyfriend, it scares him sometimes.
“Nah c'mon you can stay.”
“I can!” she tries to play it cool (and fails)
“Yeah. He didn’t realize all summer, I doubt he’s gonna get his ass down here now that it’s cold.”
Later that night he’s spooning her in bed, telling her about something dumb Eric and Kelso did in middle school so she can fall asleep. He’s become such a sap in his old age.
“Hey Jackie”
“Yeah?”
“Why couldn’t Marina’s family help today?”
“My mom stopped paying her I guess.” She says, snuggling deeper into his arms “I haven’t seen her in a week.”
“You’re staying in that house all by yourself”
“Yeah” she answers, trailing off.
He sits up “Jesus Jackie, why didn’t you tell me.”
“I don’t know! I didn’t think you’d care” she responds, doing the same.
God he’s such an asshole. His girlfriend doesn’t think he’d care that she’s all on her own.
“Look, Jackie I… care about you.” He says, his face heating up “don’t look at me like that”
“You can’t even see me!”
“I can tell you’re looking.” He ignores her scoff in response “You’re my girl, obviously I don’t want you to be all alone.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do.” he can hear hear voice catch in her throat, and he feels himself crumble a bit. She absolutely hates crying in front of people.
He sighs, pulling her into a hug. He feels her crying but pretends he doesn’t notice. She’d “we’ll figure it out.”
“You promise?”
He shouldn’t say yes. He’s an eighteen year old orphan living in his best friend’s basement. But he finds himself nodding anyway.
“I promise.”
------------------
He had a long shift at the hotel. Roy had gotten rejected again, leaving him at his Roy-iest, super mopey.
He’d expected Jackie to be asleep, but she always had trouble with it. She jumps when he walks in.
“Oh it’s just you.”
He smiles. She’s underneath all his blankets, reading a Nancy Drew book she’d made him take out from the library.
“Just me?”
“This dirty old basement is scary at night. You should paint it pink”
He rolls his eyes, taking off his work clothes . He’s shocked she hasn’t painted it already.
“Yeah I’m sure a fresh coat of pink paint will make it look less like a storage room with orphans living in it.”
She chooses to ignore the s in the orphan comment. He shivers from the cold. Red doesn’t like to waste oil, so he doesn’t heat the house at night. It’s coldest in the basement.
“You cold?”
She nods sleepily “come to bed”
“I’m just going to make you colder.”
She shrugs so he obliges her, crawling in between her legs, back to her front.
She pulls his head back onto her shoulder, petting him. He had kind of put it together, she wasn’t sure how to physically console someone. He wasn’t great at words though so it all evened out.
She held him like he was delicate, like she was scared of dropping him.
“Bad day?” she asks softly.
“Yeah”
“Aww I’m sorry puddin pop”
“Quit calling me that.” he said, no real push behind his words. He always likes it “how was your day?”
“Terrible” she said “Julie was being a total bitch all day, and then in charlie's angels, kelly almost died, and then I realized I could die. I wouldn’t have any money for the funeral, and you’d spend the rest of your life emotionally stunted from the love of your life dying.”
He had almost gotten to a point where the batshit crazy things she said didn’t surprise him anymore.
“But I kept thinking about it, and my tacky little funeral, and how my mom probably wouldn’t come back from Mexico and my dad couldn’t get out of jail, and so no one would be there, and I couldn’t sleep so I wrote some dumb will.”
He reaches behind him, grabbing one of her hands and squeezing it. She kissed the top of his head.
“You get my cheer photos”
He smiles. Now that she had no money, her cheer photos (and stuffed animals) were her prized possession. She was going to get them laminated. He’ll ignore the deflection for now. He’s getting used to the whole relationship thing.
“Can I get a full body one now”
She smacks his chest with no real malice.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too grasshopper” He says, dumb baby voice on.
She giggles.
“Want me to read to you?”
She nods, handing him her Nancy Drew book. She couldn’t sleep at night without noise, and she loved to read but didn’t have the attention span for it, so this was a pretty good solution. It meant he had to read books for little girls, but that’s the price of good pussy on the regular he guesses.
She stroked his hair as he read, tiny fingers soothing his scalp.
“Have you ever seen me without this stupid hat on. That’s weird’ Joe taunted”
These books were getting worse and worse. Joe Hardy didn’t have any reason to push Nancy away or assume she’d rather be with Ben.
“Hey Jackie.”
She hums in response.
“My parents are together now, I think, I don’t know where they are. I mean, my mom spent so much time angry about me imaginary leaving her, and she did it to me, man.”
She looks down at him, confused.
“And I really do miss Leo. He was crazy but I miss him. I just thought you should know.”
She looks at him like she understands for a second, and kisses his cheek, holding him tighter and whispering “I love you” into his hair. And in that moment he understands why Eric went so crazy over the promise ring. He doesn’t think he could take just being a highschool thing.
“I’d go to your funeral Jackie.” it’s morbid, he knows, but at least it’s something.
------------------
“I want to come back here” She’s lying on his bed, doing her homework and ranting.
“Why?”
“Donna is being a total bitch!” He should have expected this when he had to ask Donna to ask in a way that Jackie would accept. You can’t force chicks to get along.
“Jackie.”
“What?” she snaps.
“Is Donna being a total bitch or are you-”
“Steven” she interrupts, “you better be very careful about what you’re going to say.”
“You can’t threaten me, I’m not scared of you”
She huffs.
“Is Donna being a total bitch or are hard to live with.”
“You think I’m hard to live with!?”
“I don’t think you’re hard to live with, I know you’re hard to live with.”
He wants to laugh at her little look of outrage. Jackie’s lack of self awareness used to be one of those things about her that annoyed him, but it’s become weirdly endearing now that they’re together.
“God you always do that.”
“Do what?!”
“Take Donna’s side! It’s like she’s your girlfriend”
Thinly veiled, half serious accusations of cheating are indicative of a level 6 Jackie meltdown, he realizes, preparing himself to deal with tears.
“Do you really want to move back down here?” He asks softly, ignoring the Donna comment.
“No. What I really want is for my mom to come back” She yells, before realizing herself and burying her head in her hands.
Her emotion paralyzes him for a second. The part of himself he struggles with wants to run out the nearest door. But he doesn’t. He sits next to her, and puts his hand on her back, rubbing it gently.
“I still want her to come back, even though she abandoned me. Is that crazy?”
He shakes his head no “nah that’s pretty much what it’s like for every abandoned kid out there. It never really gets better.”
She just starts to cry harder, but at least she snuggles up closer to him, crying into his shirt.
“What do you want me to say.” His voice comes out choked in a way he hates.
“That everythings going to be okay.”
“Everything is going to be fine, baby. In five years you’ve going to be on TV and everyone’s going to be sorry.”
She looks at him “You really think so?”
“I know so.”
She grins.
“That’s practically the speech I give myself in the mirror every morning.”
“Look, you like revenge, I like doing it on other people’s stuff. I think we’d both feel better if we paid a visit to your new room.”
“That sounds perfect,” She says, a wicked smile plastered onto her face.