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Author's Note: Hello everyone! How are you? Hope you're doing well and enjoying the holidays! Can you believe they are almost here? Hope you all are ready for them, I know we're still running around doing last minute things. First off thank you for all of the extremely kind and sweet word that you left on the previous story. I'm so glad that you all enjoyed it! Today I have for you another little story, slightly longer than before but hopefully still one you all will enjoy! It's main characters this time are Hyde and Laurie, but it's not a romantic story it's more of a family one. Whether they like it or not I always thought of them more as brother and sister like Eric and Laurie. There are also mentions and appearances by some of the other characters towards the end—and scene that wasn't in the original writing but I felt like it was needed, hopefully you all will agree. Thanks again for all the amazing support! I hope you all enjoy this story! Please if you can, be sure to leave a review with your thoughts, I'd really love to hear them! I hope you all like and as always, please, Enjoy!
There were several things about the Christmas season that Steven Hyde enjoyed. There were also several things about the holiday that he hated. Christmas cookies were something he enjoyed. Christmas carols were under the category of hate. Christmas shopping was another part of Christmas that Hyde hated, but it was more complicated than his dislike for Christmas music. He enjoyed being able to pick out gifts for the people he cared about, but he hated the long lines that formed at the registers—like the one he currently found himself standing in.
Ten people in front of him and there were at least nine behind him. This was all thanks to the holiday tradition of having only one register open at a time—another part of the holiday that Hyde hated.
The sounds of Christmas carols and screaming children filled the air; Hyde soon began looking for a way out. He was even tempted to give his items to their person behind him and ask them to buy them for him with the promise of being paid back in full plus a little extra. However, as he was still contemplating whether the idea was a good one or not, he heard something off in the not so far distance that caused his ears to perk.
It was the sound of a woman's voice sounding breathy but playful as she talked to someone about how handsome they were. Was someone really flirting in the line of a department store? Hyde had to wonder but not more than a few seconds later he heard the woman's voice again saying different words and getting a different response—not only in words but in the sound of voice too! It was another man!
The woman wasn't just flirting, she was flirting her way to the front of the line.
Hyde shook his head and was tempted to turn around and get a look at this mystery woman but decided against it, she must have been a piece of work to think up her current plot.
Though the line itself had hardly moved at all, several minutes had passed and Hyde did his best to ignore the flirting exchanges going on behind him but couldn't help but overhear a few.
Some were old, some were new, some were even festive and in the holiday spirit. "If you let me, I can give you more than just good tidings" and ""You know, if I can get in front of you, I might have a little more extra time and we could meet up and make this a not so silent night." But mostly these pick up lines the woman used, they were all working. Hyde knew this because he could hear her voice getting louder and closer and as it did so he realized the voice actually sounded familiar. He just couldn't match it with a face just yet…
A hand touched his arm and as soon as it gave a small squeeze, Hyde made the connection.
"Wow, your arms are really strong I bet…"
He thought about letting her continue but he knew he couldn't hold it in for very long; so with a smirk on his lips, he turned around and came face to face with Laurie Forman.
As soon as she saw his sunglass covered face, her eyes widened in shock if only for a second or two before the dulled into a look of annoyance and she pulled her hand off of him.
"God, it's you," the blonde grumbled with irritation.
Hyde's smirk stayed in place, "Actually prefer the name Hyde."
Laurie rolled her eyes before twisting her face into familiar, unhappy scowl. "Shut up and move out of the way."
Following her order, Laurie began to shove the man herself but he didn't budge very much. Any inch or two that he may have moved out from, due the woman's shove, Hyde moved back into as he blocked Laurie from making an attempt at flirting with the guy in front of him.
"No cuts," he told her, his smirk gone, and his voice sounding quite serious.
"No cuts," Laurie repeated in a squeaky, mocking tone. "What are you five?"
Her words didn't faze Hyde and he just stared back at her as he pointed out, "You're the one making 'em, not me."
"I'm not making them," she argued with more attitude than real anger. "I've had to work for those cuts!"
Once again Hyde's smirk appeared, he couldn't let this opportunity pass on by. "Christmas is the busiest time for Santa's hos."
"If you don't move, we're gonna be stuck standing in this line together for however long this is gonna take," reminded the snarling Laurie—in hopes that the thought would be enough to get the man to move.
In his usual Zen manner, he shrugged his shoulders. "Long as it makes you miserable, I'm good," he finished with his small smile.
"Well, it doesn't," Laurie was quick to deny and if it weren't for her arms being full of items she would have crossed them over her chest. Of course her argument would have been more believable had more than a few seconds passed before she began to complain and gripe about the situation.
"Why is this taking so long?" she asked—even though she'd only been standing in line with Hyde for two or three minutes. "I'm never gonna get out of this Hell hole with its stupid cheery Christmas music and tacky decorations. It's like one of those ugly Christmas sweaters blew up in here," on grumbled Laurie, though Hyde couldn't help but nod his head at the sweater statement. "And now I'm stuck spending time with you of all people. This sucks!"
Hyde's face showed his amusement at what he way hearing, "Nice way to summarize the holiday."
"I hate this holiday."
A frown creased onto Hyde's forehead, "If you hate it so much, what're you doing out shopping for it?"
Rolling her eyes, Laurie shifted herself into a more comfortable standing position. "I don't hate the holiday," she stated to explain, "I hate the people."
"You're your father's daughter, Laurie Grinch," Hyde commented, knowing Red's similar feelings towards the holiday crowds.
Laurie did not like how both she and her father were attacked in that zing but she was more than ready to fire back. "Shouldn't you be off in some orphanage walking around with a limp and cane telling people 'God bless us everyone'?" she asked using a small baby voice to deliver the well-known line.
"Tiny Tim wasn't wan orphan," reminded Hyde.
"No, but he was poor and a loser. Just like you," she finished with an evil smile, it fell some though as she continued. "To be fair though, I never really thought of you as a loser until you shared your knowledge on the crippled kid."
Hyde could understand that reasoning. The only reason he'd been able to pick up on the blonde's error was due to the fact that just the other night he and his girlfriend had watched the 1950's film on the tale. However, before he could share this information, Laurie spoke up with a question.
"What're you doing here?"
"I asked you first," came his reply, reminding her of his unanswered question.
Maybe it was because she was tired, maybe it was because she was bored and the conversation had actually made the time spent standing in the line go by a little faster—two people had already gone and paid for their stuff!—whatever the reason was, Laurie didn't put up a fight or respond with any type of zinger. She answered Hyde's genuine question with a genuine answer.
"I came to do some last minute shopping," she explained, lifting item filled arms just a bit. "I needed gifts for Mom and Daddy and a few other people who are impossible to shop for."
"Yeah," Hyde's head moved up and down in an understanding manner. "What do you get a pimp that's got it all?"
"Your mom had some pretty good ideas," replied Laurie without missing a beat. She paused just a moment before repeating her question, "What're you doing here?"
"Same…"
Laurie titled her head to the side in an 'innocent' style, "Shopping for your pimp?"
Hyde shook his head, hoping it hid the smirk that had grown a little more at Laurie's shot, then began to give his own explanation. "Buying my gifts for your parents and last night Jackie added fine more things to her Christmas list so I…"
"You bought my parents a gift?" Laurie interjected right away.
Another person paid and left causing the line to move again. Hyde took the few steps forward as he nodded his head, not liking the tone that Laurie had spoken her words in.
"Yeah," he confirmed, making sure to remain Zen as he expanded on his answer. "Red and Mrs. Forman've done a lot for me over the years. They mean a lot to me. Christmas is you know, the time when you do different things to show those people how much they mean to you. One of those ways is buying gifts, so yeah, I bought 'em a gift."
The blonde rolled her eyes at his defensiveness, "Relax, Linus. I'm not surprised you bought them a gift," she told him. "I'm surprised you bought them a gift, or did you get discount of five fingers?"
Even if it was only Laurie, Hyde wasn't a fan of being accused of doing things he didn't do—especially when they were things like stealing or shoplifting or any other thing that he could remember Bud or Edna doing. "I didn't steal anything."
"Okay," Laurie said with a shrug, as if she really hadn't expected him to have. "So what'd you get them?"
"What do you care?" he asked, suspicious of her curiosity.
"I don't," she argued sounding as if she thought it was insane for her to care about anything Hyde did.
Despite her statement and apparent feelings, Laurie's actions said something completely different. Nonchalantly she shifted her weight to her hip, shifting herself closer to where Hyde stood. She gave him another bored like expression before letting her gaze fall downwards into the small cart of items he had with him. Of course, Hyde noticed her behavior and thought it was pathetic—he also had no problem in tell her so.
"Why's it bugging you so much that I got your parents a gift?" Hyde wondered, though had a good idea of what her answer would be.
"It's not bugging me," Laurie once again denied before adding, "I don't care if you bought them something or not. I just want to see what you got them so…So I can make sure what you got them isn't better than what I got them." she admitted with a sudden burst of competitiveness. "I need to keep my spot at number one intact."
Hyde almost felt bad for the woman he'd thought of as a sister—complete with all sister defaults—her tone had softened as she voiced the last confession.
"Hey, it's not gonna matter you got 'em something better or if I got them the better gift," he reasoned in a surprisingly gentle voice before a smirk broke onto his mouth, "All that matters is that our gifts for them are better than what Forman got 'em."
Laurie found herself nodding her head, 'That's true."
There was a moment of silence as the line shifted upwards again as another customer finished buying their Christmas treasures. There was only one more person in front of Hyde and Laurie—two if you counted the person who was already at the register.
"So you got your parents a gift, that mean you're coming home for Christmas this year?"
The blonde shrugged, never looking at Hyde and instead staring ahead at the register. "I might. Or I might mail them off like I usually do."
"You should really think about stopping by and seeing everyone," commented Hyde. It was the holidays, a time for family and whether he liked it or not, Laurie was part of his family. "Bet they'd like to see you again."
A scoff escaped Laurie's lips, "By 'they' you must mean Daddy," she commented. In Laurie's eyes, he was the only one who ever seemed genuinely happy whenever she made any contact with home. "I talked to him a few weeks ago for his birthday, he's fine."
"His birthday's in September." Hyde reminded.
Her face fell as she realized it really had been a long time since she talked to her father; she shook her guilt off though and continued on, "Oh yeah. Well I can't make it to Christmas anyways. I have plans."
"Plans more important than seeing your family that misses you?"
"They miss me?" asked Laurie, accidently letting her voice change to a smaller more vulnerable one.
Hyde nodded, "Yeah, and I don't mean just Red. The rest of us do too."
She caught his use of the word 'us' and it more than surprised her, she had to ask, "You miss me?"
"Next!" came a far off cry, ignored by the pair.
His brow wrinkled together, they were talking about her family and now she was asking about him…did that mean… "You think of me as part of your family?"
Having practically grown up at the Forman home, Hyde spent a lot of time with the family and that included Laurie. He's always saw her as a sister or an evil step-sister but sister nonetheless. Still he never thought he'd ever see the day that Laurie admitted the same.
Instantly Laurie realized her slip and tried to fix it by reminding, "I asked you first."
Opening his mouth to give an answer Hyde was soon cut off by the lady behind the register waving at Hyde and Laurie. Apparently the customers before them had already gone and paid for their items, they were now at the front of the still growing line. Being caught up in their conversation, neither had noticed it and still appeared to need a little help.
"Excuse me, Ma'am are you next or not?" she asked, sounding impatient.
Laurie looked at the woman then back at Hyde, she was tempted to go over and take that next spot—getting to cut in front of Hyde—but she wanted to hear his answer.
"Yeah," Hyde said looking at Laurie then over at the store employee, "she's next."
The woman behind the counter smiled appreciatively at Hyde and then wave Laurie over. Laurie meanwhile just stared at Hyde, she wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not but it felt like he'd actually answered her question. She couldn't help the little tug at the corner of her lips.
"Thanks, Hyde," she said before walking over to the register.
Hyde nodded, watching her walk away, "Merry Christmas, Laurie."
0o0o0o
"Oh my God, Steven! I love it!"Jackie gushed as she pulled out the light shaded teal colored cashmere sweater from the gift box and then leaned over to kiss her boyfriend's lips, "Thank you! I'm gonna try it on right now!"
Hyde watched Jackie's eager exit and had to smile at the way her face was brighter than a Christmas star. It was that kind of reaction that made waiting hours in the long lines at the stores worth every minute.
Just then the doorbell rang but it was hardly heard over the festivities of the Christmas gathering. Hyde looked around the room but it appeared that he and Kitty were the only ones who had heard the sound. Seeing that Mrs. Forman had been catching up with her sister Paula when she looked over at the door, Hyde silently told her he'd get the door earning him a thank you smile from the woman.
When Hyde opened the door he expected it to be carolers or maybe someone asking for donations…for even a brief moment he considered it being Kelso, frozen in his underwear. Instead he pulled open the door and found another familiar face, one he hadn't thought about seeing since their run in at the mall. He smiled but before he could say anything she spoke instead.
"Don't gloat," Laurie ordered with a glare and before he could get the wrong idea she continued. "I'm not hear because of anything you said or did."
He smirked, "Then why are you here?"
"I told you, I need to maintain my spot at number one," came her response.
With his smirk still in place, Hyde nodded his head before opening the door even more and lifting a stretched arm in the direction of the living room. Laurie took his welcome and stepped into her parent's home. As she walked past him, Hyde could have sworn he saw her give a genuine smile his way.
Then in true Laurie fashion, she happily announced her presence with a gleeful, 'Mommy, Daddy, I'm home!' It came as no surprise to Hyde when he saw the shocked looks on his parents faces before they hurried over to welcome home their first born with hugs and kisses. He knew the scene was coming but as it occurred it still managed to bring a smile to his face. Christmas really wasn't about doing things that would make you happy, it was about doing things for other people that would make them happy and their happiness would bring you joy.
"Well I was right, this sweater looks even better with me wearing it." Jackie announced as she walked to Hyde's side, now wearing her new sweater, pulling his attention from the family reunion, "Hey, when did Laurie get here?"
"Last minute gift from Santa," Hyde said with a shrug.
Jackie looked up at him, "Santa? Or one of Santa's elves? You know the sexy one with the curly hair and sunglasses?'
"Santa," Hyde repeated then frowned just a bit. "Did you just call an elf sexy?"
Because she wasn't talking about any ordinary elf or one of those creepy clay ones, she was talking about a Steven Elf, Jackie shrugged her shoulders and proceeded to snuggle into his side and watch the family reunion.
"You know, Steven, that's probably the greatest gift that you could have gotten The Formans."
Hyde shook his head, "Didn't do it as a gift for them," he said. "Did it as a Christmas burn on Forman." He then pointed over to the Forman family member who was missing from the big welcoming.
Eric stood over by the kitchen's swinging door, several feet away from where Laurie was being the center of attention with his parents and visiting Aunt Paula. He watched the scene with a mix of shock and confusion and even a little heartbroken. The way his mouth hung open, he reminded Hyde of the way The Grinch had expected to find the Whos when he stole Christmas from them; he was sure Forman would soon start crying boo hoo.
Catching the glimpse of the younger Forman's reaction, Jackie nodded her head, "I think it worked out even better than your lump of coal in his stocking burn you had planned."
Author's Note: So, what did you think? Yay? Or Nay? Be sure to tell me in a review! I really hope that this didn't feel like a lump of coal in your stocking.
There's still a few more stories to come, I'm hoping, you know how I tend to write this collection till I get back to school. And I'm hoping to have a fluffy little Christmas oneshot up very, very soon but in case I don't get to have it up before, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and some Very Happy Holidays!
Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, have a nice day, and remember only 2 more days till Christmas!