Disclaimer- I don't own Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or any of its characters!
Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde were having an argument and a bad one at that. Jekyll had tried several times to calm Hyde down, but he just wouldn't. It had started with Jekyll telling Hyde that a friend of his was coming over in a couple days, and Hyde replying that his friends all hated him and that he should just leave that evening, but Jekyll wasn't having any of it, saying that if he actually tried to get along with his friends, he could. But then, Hyde wasn't exactly having any of it himself, not wanting to ruin anything for Jekyll.
"This is because of you!" Hyde shouts, getting closer to Jekyll than he already was, remembering that it was Jekyll who had created him and started everything. Jekyll backs away from Hyde; he had seen Hyde angry before but he never had it directed toward him. He never thought he would be at the receiving end of it. "All of this, the fact that I can't close my eyes without seeing them, is because of you. I never asked for this!"
"Edward, please. Calm down." Jekyll continues to back away from the shorter man, quickly backing into the wall. Hyde stands in front of Jekyll, anger showing clearly on his face. "You know I only meant-"
"Calm down? You expect me to calm down, even when I know I was only an experiment?" Hyde sets his jaw, glaring up at the taller man. "Everything I do ends in disaster, so don't try to convince me that I'm not as bad as I know I am. And you know what? It's because of you!"
With that, Hyde storms out of the place, scowling heavily, pulling himself away from Jekyll when he reaches out to him. Jekyll cringes slightly when the door slams.
A couple minutes go by before Jekyll walks out of the house, planning to find Hyde, wherever he had went. It was a while before Jekyll managed to find Hyde in a dark alley, his small form pulling back from the man in front of him, as if backing away from the fight, something Jekyll never knew Hyde to do.
Just as the man Hyde got into the fight with reached out with a knife, ready to deliver a blow that would surely kill him, Jekyll gets in between the two, quickly grabbing the wrist of the hand the knife's in.
"Don't come close to him." Jekyll says, pushing the man down, letting go of his wrist in the process. "Don't hurt him either, or else you'll have to go through me."
Jekyll then takes Hyde's hand, helping him up. They then head back home, Jekyll noticing the fact that Hyde's face and clothes have blood on them. Hyde doesn't even look at Jekyll the whole way and eventually pulls away, not wanting Jekyll to even touch him.
"What was that?" Jekyll asks the moment they walk through the door. "Were you trying to get yourself hurt?" Hyde nods slightly, keeping himself away from Jekyll, not meeting his eyes. "Why would you want to do that?"
"That is none of your business." Hyde says somewhat loudly and then makes himself be quiet. "And I can take care of myself, just so you know."
"Can you? Because it looked like you were about to get yourself killed back there." Jekyll stops Hyde from leaving the room. "Tell me what's going on."
"I don't want to tell you." Hyde pushes past Jekyll, ducking away farther from Jekyll, seeing the way he reaches from him. "Don't. Just don't, okay?"
Jekyll sighs as Hyde walks into a different room, knowing there wasn't much he could do except give him some space.
That night, Jekyll bolts up, his heart pounding, waking up from a nightmare. He then stands up, going to make sure that Hyde had actually went to bed. Jekyll hoped that Hyde hadn't left to get into another fight.
Jekyll finds Hyde crouching in a dark cornier of the main room, a hand on his arm.
"Edward?" Jekyll asks, walking up to him, but Hyde was positioned to where he couldn't get in front of him to see his reaction, which Jekyll desperately needed to see. "What are you doing still up?"
"You're still up, too." Hyde says quietly, not looking up at the man. "And I'll go to bed in a minute."
"I'll stay up with you, make sure you actually get to bed." Jekyll smiles slightly as Hyde stands, crossing his arms. Jekyll noticed that Hyde was especially careful with his right arm. "What's wrong with your arm?"
"Nothing." Hyde walks around Jekyll, not looking at him. "Just hit it on something. I'll be okay."
"Let me see it then." Jekyll says, reaching out to touch the side of Hyde's arm, causing Hyde to flinch slightly before letting Jekyll see his arm, looking down. On it was several scratches, blood practically covering his arm. "Edward.."
Hyde still doesn't meet Jekyll's eyes when he whispers, "I'm sorry, but you should've just left me." Hyde then pulls away from Jekyll harshly and walks off.
"Edward, don't you dare say that." Jekyll says as he grabs a rag and puts it on Hyde's arm, trying to help him. "I care about you, don't you dare hurt me by leaving me like this."
"Why do you care? I thought you were supposed to hate me!" Hyde shouts before looking down and away from Jekyll. He then continues quietly, "Because I do."
"I don't hate you because even though we're different, you're still a part of me. I know it would be easier if I did, for all the messes you've gotten me into." Jekyll looks at the smaller man, still trying to help him. "You shouldn't hate yourself, Edward."
Hyde doesn't speak again as Jekyll cleans up and wraps up his arm. Jekyll notes that this silence is somewhat uneasy because of what was just said, but he wouldn't take back a word he had said.
Jekyll smiles gently as he finishes wrapping Hyde's arm. "Please don't do this again, okay?" he asks quietly, meeting Hyde's eyes. Hyde simply nods, still not saying a word. Jekyll sighs at this. "Get some rest, alright?"
Hyde does so, sleeping until around ten in the morning. Jekyll doesn't leave him for a while, scared that he'd do the same thing all over again. Hyde swears that he won't, not wanting to upset him like that again. Hyde stayed as Utterson came over, talked some but not a whole lot, as he still didn't feel much like talking at that point.
Day by day, Jekyll could tell that Hyde was slowly getting better. He was smiling more as time went on, but it wasn't until almost a year goes by and Hyde starts to do small pranks on Jekyll does Jekyll know that Hyde will be okay, and that's all Jekyll needs to know for relief to flow through his veins, because what would he be now without Hyde by his side?