Title: Midnight Conversations

Author: Shades of Hades
Date: Started sometime in 2006. Finished February, 2008.

Series/Pairing: That 70's Show. Hyde/Eric, mentions of Buddy/Eric, and Eric/Donna.

Disclaimer: Don't own.

Rating: Maybe PG-13 at most.

Warnings: None really. Slight slash. That's really it.
Word Count: 2051

A/N: Hope it isn't TOO bad considering I'm not much of a writer, but I've been in love with this series for a long time, however the lack of fics for it as kinda kept me outta it, so I decided I needed to write my own. I wanted the first thing I wrote for this series to be really slashy, really I did, but I have a boner for "parents find out" kinda fics, so this happened.

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"Hey, mom. Could I talk to you?" I was nervous, fidgety even. I sat down across from her at the table. It had taken me a lot of nerve to come down here and talk to her. I heard someone in the kitchen, and I gathered up my courage, prepared to have the hardest conversation I could ever possibly have with my mom.

It must have been about midnight. Mom was sitting at the table, hands resting on the surface with a cigarette between her fingers. "Aw, Eric honey, you know you can." She patted my hands that lay with fingers weaved together on the table. I smiled nervously back at her as she took a drag of her cigarette.

I cleared my throat. "Mom… You'll… always love me right? No matter what I tell you?" She stayed calm, unsure of what I was going to tell her, and the longer I watched her fill her lungs with nicotine the more I lost my nerve.

No. I had to talk to her. Who else could I talk to? Hyde? Ha. Donna? Probably not a good idea…

"Oh Eric, you know I love you!" She ground her cigarette butt out in a black ashtray and reached across the table in a mock hug. I only laughed nervously as I let her hug me.

"Oh, you say that now." Oh yes. I was mumbling into my shirt, almost completely losing my nerve every second that I sat there.

"Mom…." I finally started, knowing it was now or never. "You remember Buddy, right? My lab partner?" I managed to look up at her without looking guilty, or at least I thought I did.

She looked at me suspiciously, but nodded slowly. "Yes, the nice young man that you hung around with for a few days?" I coughed nervously, wondering if she knew what I was going to say.

"Yea. Him. Mom… it's just, something happened with him… and it's made me think about… stuff…." Okay. This is where I'm lost. How can I tell her without REALLY telling her? I mean, it's none of her business if Buddy's gay, right? But then again, it wasn't anyone else's either, but I happily shared it. Well, sort of.

"Sweetie, if you're not going to tell me what's bothering you, then I can't help you." Mom's always had a way of being blunt. I wasn't so sure this was such a good idea now.

I stood up, fully prepared to walk back up to my room and go back to bed without talking about this. Who cares, right? It was just a stupid kiss. It wasn't important.

"I'm sorry, look mom, it's not important, let's just go to bed. It's getting late." Avoiding her eyes, I started walking towards the door.

"Eric honey. If it weren't important, you wouldn't be down here this late at night talking to me. Now sit down and tell me what's wrong." She had that 'I know I'm right because I'm your mother,' tone in her voice. She always meant business when she used that tone. Reluctantly, I turned to look at her, knowing that she's right.

I sat back at the table, a bit of renewed confidence. "Look mom, whatever I tell you, you can't tell Dad alright? He would kill me."

She nodded in understanding.

"Oh I'm sure it can't be that bad." She laughed, the sound completely unnerving me. I just wanted to get this out.

"Mom, Buddy kissed me." My eyes shot down to the table when I realized the words that had come out of my mouth. I hadn't meant to be that blunt. Her laughter stopped dead and I risked a quick glance at her, my eyes instantly dropping back to the tabletop. She looked surprised, but not angry.

"And…" She said, sounding like a child testing the waters. I'm not so sure that she knew what to say to that.

"And… Well. I freaked out when it happened… but I've had time to think about it." My hands ringed uncertainly in front of me as I looked up at her, not really sure what I should say next.

She looked calmer now, not surprised, just interested in what I would say next. "And what do you think?" She prompted.

I ignored her question, continuing my "speech" that I had semi-planned before I had come down stairs. Not that I could actually get through it all with her eyes on me like that.

"I don't know. It's just… ever since I told Hyde about the kiss…. He's been… weird."

She gave me a disappointed look, probably for telling everyone what Buddy wouldn't want me to.

"Well honey, did you talk to Steven about it?"

I sighed. This was the part I didn't want to tell her, but I had to talk to someone about it. It was driving me crazy. It had been bothering me for months.

"Yeah, I did."

"And?"

I sighed deeply.

"He didn't really say anything… more like, DID something."

She looked at me in confusion. "What did he do?"

"He…kissed me." I trailed off, quietly blushing, not really understanding why Hyde kissing me made me blush like a girl while Buddy kissing me felt so… wrong.

"Oh," was all she said. And we sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sound a match striking against a box as she lit another cigarette. I guess I couldn't blame her. I just told her I had been kissing another boy. No, two boys. She expected this from Laurie, not me. She actually LIKES me, though probably not anymore after this awkward conversation.

After she took a long drag from her cigarette, she spoke again, this time with a slight hint of hysteria in her voice. "And what did you do?" She looked nervous now, like she was waiting for me to come out of the proverbial closet, and I guess in a way, that's what I was doing.

"I kissed him back." I waited for her reaction, twitching nervously every second that went by.

It felt as if the whole room were holding it's breath, waiting for an answer, a sound, anything from her.

She finally broke the nearly tangible silence, "You didn't...?" She asked in a hesitant, slightly horrified voice; she seemed to be completely fascinated as she awaited every breath I took for the horrible truth she thought she would get out of me.

"No," I told her after I had finally kick started my brain. "Oh god, no. Of course not." I blushed intently at the thought of Hyde's body pinning me to the couch that day, my mind sending forward images from dreams barely forgotten, images that I've tried so hard to escape. I could have easily succumbed that day if he had just kissed me longer, a little harder. I could have easily succumbed if he had just touched me a little longer with his hands, his mouth, anything. I wanted to so bad, but something had stopped me.

I hung my head forward, my eyes staring blankly at the table top in front of me. The heat engulfing my face doesn't seem to want to leave and neither do the dirty thoughts that accompany the burning of my cheeks.

Across from me my mother is heaving a great sigh of relief. "Oh thank god!" She nearly cries out, but instead it comes as more of a whisper, a prayer of gratitude. "Eric," she says, eyeing me and I glance up at her cautiously, cheeks still lightly tinted pink. "Do you know what diseases you can catch from intercourse with another man?"

I blushed even deeper. "Mom!" I cried out in desperation, anything to stop her from continuing on with her rant. "This is why I was so afraid to talk to you. I didn't want a lecture from you, I only wanted advice. Look mom, this hasn't be easy for me. If it was, do you really think I would talking to you about this? I mean, who else am I suppose to talk to about this? The guys in the basement?" I took a deep breath, trying to regain my composure. "I'm out of options."

"I'm sorry, honey, it's just, this isn't easy for me either, and with Steven living in the house..." She patted my folded hands in reassurance, not that I really felt any.

"I know, I'm sorry, Mom," I told her honestly, "I wish this conversation never would have had to happen, but Hyde..."

I stopped for a moment and stared at her, wondering if she'll really support any decision I make.

"I've been thinking a lot about him since the incident, and a lot about Donna and I... And I've been wondering if the only reason that Donna and I got together is because that was expected of us. You know, because I'm a guy and she's a girl... But, it just sometimes feels like that really is the only reason that we're dating."

"But Eric, honey, Donna loves you."

"And I love her. I mean, at first I think it was a best friends kind of love, but I honestly love her a lot, but I still can't help but think about Hyde. I mean, what if Hyde had told me he liked me instead of Donna? It just... makes me wonder if I would have made the same decision with Hyde that I made with Donna... Because I think it was there between us, but I was just ignoring it all these years because Hyde's a guy."

"Eric, honey," she starts, her hand finding mine across the table, abruptly shutting up my current rant. "I can't claim to know all the answers. And I can't tell you what to do, as much as I wish I could. I love you, honey, and that will never change, but I can't tell you what you should feel. One day you may realize that what happens when you're in high school, the love you feel for someone, isn't going to matter down the road."

"You think this is something I'm just going to get over? Like I'm just going to wake up one morning and decide I don't love Donna, that I don't feel something for Hyde?" I pulled my hand away from hers, carefully stepping around the word 'love' when it came to Hyde. It was something I couldn't acknowledge, especially out loud. "It's not like that. I'm not like that. Donna and I, hell, Hyde and I have been through so much together, how could I just forget all of that?"

She sighs deeply. "That's not what I'm telling you Eric. I'm simply saying that you don't know what's going to come years down the road, maybe things won't go well with Donna, maybe you'll end up with Steven, maybe after high school, you'll fall out of touch with them both. The future is uncertain. Do you think I ever imagined marrying someone like your father when I was your age? What I'm saying, honey, is that you need to do what feels right today, not tomorrow. Well actually," she makes a show of stretching her arms and gives a big yawn, "it's late enough that maybe thinking about this tomorrow would be a good idea."

Pushing her chair up, she stands and walks to my side of the table, leaning down as kissing me on the cheek.

"I love you, Eric, no matter what," she says sweetly before she makes her way out the kitchen door.

For a few moments, I just sit there, staring stupidly at the tabletop before I stand, but instead of going upstairs, I follow the steps down to the basement, my feet finding themselves standing outside Hyde's pseudo-bedroom.

I don't knock or announce my presence, just stand there outside his door for a very long time, unsure of what I was even doing down there.

Finally, after what must have been twenty minutes, I hear Hyde's voice, "At you just going to stand out there like a tool, Foreman, or are you comin' in?"

Reminding myself to live in the now, I push his door open, letting it swing on rusty hinges as I grin at the figure on the cot.