Innocent Games Series: Game Five
Summary: Through a series of games, Jackie and Hyde discover how they feel about one another. And eventually the others discover it as well.
A/N: Yo waz up? Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer (or had since I guess a lot of people are back in school). We have quite a while left until we get back the J/H goodness in live action. So here is some vintage J/H in print for you. Tell me if you like. Please
Credit: I want to thank Fire and Spice and Kashmir for helping me decide what I'm going to do with this series. And getting me motivated to write chapter 5. Hope you like.
Pulling Jackie out to his car by her pretty scarf was harder than it should be. She was tiny, man. But damn it if she wasn't stronger than she looked. Especially when she was being stubborn.
"Steven! Steven, what are you doing?" Jackie demanded. She had been about to go into the basement when out of nowhere he had appeared to manhandle her.
He shushed her quietly saying "Shut your pie-hole. You'll alert the idiots." It came out softer than he had planned though and her stance softened. But she still stood as if she were going to keep fighting him. "Do you want Eric and Donna out here?" he asked only half rhetorical. He did want to know the answer. That was why he was currently dragging her to safer ground.
She sighed and did as he asked. She didn't know the answer to the question anyway. Did she? Well yeah. Maybe. If he did.
"Get in the car" he demanded opening the door for her and waiting for her to step inside. When she did he rounded the car and got in himself. He started it up and backed out of the driveway at the same time Fez and Kelso showed up. He glanced in their direction, at there strange looks, and waved.
Jackie laughed beside him.
He smiled. If she was okay with being seen in a car with him by Kelso then surely… well surely nothing. He needed to ask some hard questions. And he hated himself for it. Being Zen wasn't about questions. He pulled into the parking lot of a random gas station. They wouldn't run into any one they knew here.
"So what is this about?" Jackie asked confused. "I'm not making out here". She figured when he grabbed her that that had been the plan. That was always the plan. Or maybe not "the plan" it was just something that happened. At least when they began this. Here lately it had developed into the only goal of every day. Find alone time with Steven –make out –pretend she didn't want anything more.
Hyde hesitated. Yesterday he had thought this was a great idea. Shake things up. Save himself a lot of trouble. But now looking at Jackie he wondered if anything involving her and real emotions was taking the easy way out. Or would he just end up being the one that got shook. "I…I wanted to ask you some questions".
"Some questions?" she asked oddly. She would never understand Steven. He acted all aloof but then he would turn completely around and kidnap you to ask you questions. "Like serious questions?"
He was uncomfortable with the word "serious". He decided he needed to be just a little bit more Zen just in case he didn't like the answers. "Well no. Not like serious questions. More like twenty questions, you know the game."
"You want to play a game?" she asked incredulous. "With me? You drag me away from the basement so you can ask me whether I am a vegetable or a mineral?"
Hyde laughed at her confusion. This was ridiculous. "Well not exactly." He coughed. "I was thinking we could make up our own rules."
They were sitting pretty far apart and Jackie now found herself gravitating towards him. She wished they were in the kind of relationship where she could throw her legs in his lap and have this discussion. Or lay her head in his lap. Oh God! When had she started daydreaming about cuddling with Steven. That was sooo never going to happen. But she wanted it too. She settled for scooting closer beside him and placing her hands in front of her on the seat. She twiddled her fingers. "What kind of rules?"
He watched her hands and reached one of his down to play with a string near the bottom of her skirt. "Well instead of picking an object or a person and me ask questions to try and figure it out. I thought we could play like…truth 20 questions."
"Truth 20 questions?" Now he was just making this up. But looking at him she realized she would play whatever game he wanted. She was falling for him. Damn it, but she was. "Okay"
Well that had been easy. He didn't really know what he was doing. But he was glad Jackie was playing along. "Soooo, Question number 1: Do you want to keep doing this…whatever it is we are doing?"
She sucked in a breath. She didn't think he would ask her something like that. This was Steven. "Do you?"
"No No No, see that is against the rules. You are only allowed to answer yes or no. No questions." He looked at her and she remained silent quirking her eyebrow up in an unpleased manner. So he relented. "Fine, just this once though." He took a deep breath and continued "I'm in this car with you asking these questions playing with your damn skirt. I don't want to call it quits."
She smiled. And decided that if he needed answers then she would give them to him. "Yes" She reached down to where he was messing up the hem of her skirt and grabbed his hand.
"Question 2, do you want something more?" He looked out the front window. If she did he wasn't sure if he was ready for what she would want. But at the same time he didn't want a negative answer.
She smiled, his averted glance more than enough to tell her something about his feelings on the subject. "Yes"
He barreled on "Are you ready to tell the gang?"
She looked squeamish at that. "Well if..."
"Yes or No Jackie. This is a simple game." He said harshly. Of course she didn't want Kelso to know. Of course she didn't want anyone knowing.
"Yes" she answered since he wouldn't let her clarify. The look on his face made up for his snapping.
"Really?" he asked again.
"Yes and that is counts as a question."
"Okay so question 5…"
"Wait hold on a second" she interrupted.
"What?" he asked thinking she was looking for a way out of the game now that it had gotten complicated.
"Well it is not fair." She reached over picking imaginary lint off his shirt. He still had his other hand on hers and she was trying hard not to get too excited about that. "I should get some questions too."
"What?" he asked again.
"I want the second 10 questions."
"But that isn't how you play the game." He insisted, not really wanting to answer any questions.
"Well we aren't playing the game correctly anyway"
He breathed a sigh of put upon frustration. "Fine Jackie you can have the final 10 questions."
She squealed, pulling her hands back and clapping.
He grabbed her hands back and continued. "Okay 5 –Are you ready for people at school to know?"
She was surprised by that one. He should be more worried about his reputation than her. Her friends already thought she was weird for having dated Michael. Why would she care if they thought she was crazy for dating Steven? They weren't her real friends. "Yes" she answered as if it were the stupid question it was.
"Do you expect me to go to dances with you?" he asked next. Just wanting to know if her answer would change his mind.
She laughed and thought about answering in the negative just in case. But if she were going to be with him she didn't want it to be all on his terms. "Yes"
He smirked and wondered why he didn't feel just a little bit upset by that answer. God he really was becoming a pansy. Playing games and thinking about going to dances. "Would I have to dress up?"
"You are wasting your questions"
He just looked at her.
"No, you wouldn't. You can where whatever you want. At these hypothetical dances."
She was right he was getting all worked up and they hadn't even decided anything. He wasn't even sure she was really that interested. Time for the hard questions "So why haven't you told me all this?"
"All what?" she played ignorant.
"That you want to go to dances and tell people and shit" he clarified.
"Well I – you are cheating – that was not a yes or no question."
He gave her another look but she remained stubbornly quiet. "Okay fine. Have you not told me about this because you were afraid all I wanted was a fling?"
"Yes" and why was he asking her if he obviously knew the answer.
"Okay question 9"
"Nope the cheating question counts"
"WHAT?"
"Yes you cheated."
"Fine. Last question. Are you over Kelso?" He all but spit out. This question more than the others revealed a little too much of how much he was beginning to feel.
Jackie looked at him and wondered if she should just answer yes of no. Or just this once give an explanation. Her gut reaction was to just say yes. Because it was the truth. But she realized that if she wanted this to work she should probably make things as clear as possible. "Michael was my first." She placed her finger on his lips when he looked like he was going to protest "And he will always be important to me. But I'm not going back to him. I'm no longer in love with him. He hurt me a lot and I might not be over that. But I'm over him."
He smiled under her finger. "So yes?"
"Oh no you are out of questions Mister". She laughed. "My turn – question 1..."
"Nope" he said shaking his head back and forth.
"What I haven't asked anything
yet?"
"You asked me if I wanted to keep doing this already –when I asked you. That counts as your first question."
She grunted in a lady like manner. "Fine. Question 2, Do you want more than what we've been doing, a relationship?"
He wanted to explain that he didn't do relationships but was afraid that he was already in one. So he answered "Yes" but he looked kind of sick doing it.
"Are you ready to tell Eric and Michael? Cause they are going to freak. And they are your best friends." She wanted to make sure he realized what he was getting into.
He thought about it. Eric was going to freak. And Kelso would probably be really hurt. But he stood behind his thought the other night about their last game. They deserved it. And hell he deserved something too. "Yeah"
She tried not to smile at his adamant answer. "And what about your reputation, are you ready to ruin that by dating a cheerleader?"
He blanched at the use of the word dating and then the below the belt reminder of her extracurricular activities. "Yeah I guess"
"Well don't sound too excited" she returned. "Dating me means going to dances Steven, and taking me out places and buying me things."
"Hey I didn't agree to buy anything. I don't buy things" She was just being unreasonable now.
"Are you willing to try dating? Or at least be apologetic when you don't buy me things?"
He thought about it. Being with Jackie was going to be harder than he thought. But he had come farther than he would normally already. He looked at her face all expectant and -damn it -hot and he couldn't deny her. "That is two questions. And yes to both."
"What number am I on?" she wondered lost in all the warm fuzzy feelings Steven's uncharacteristic openness was causing her.
"Well that was just 7 –so you can move on to 8", he laughed.
She looked pissed for four seconds before she realized that he had already answered most of her questions with his.
"Question 8 then – Will you come over to the house and meet my father?"
"I've met your father". He insisted.
"But not as my..." she stopped not wanting to scare him by using the word "as someone I was seeing." She reached over stroking his arm. "Come on Steven my father is important to me. Please?"
She gave him the kitten eyes. He hated kittens. They were always looking up at you like they wanted something, making you feel bad for not giving it to them. "Okay, if I have too. But no time soon."
That was as good as she could expect. She thought about her next question. This one was going to be do or die. "Okay this one is important Steven"
He prepared himself.
"Will you…"God she was really crossing her fingers on this one. "Will you shave the beard?"
He laughed. Talking to Jackie wasn't that bad. She was funny as hell, especially when she didn't mean to be. "No".
She sighed, well she tried.
He reached over cuffing her chin.
She suddenly didn't want to talk anymore. "So final question," she stated climbing onto his lap.
"Umh huh?" he responded already placing his hands on her back and pulling her closer.
"Can we make-out now?" Jackie asked as if she didn't know the answer.
His tongue in her mouth creating beautiful sensations was all the answer she needed.
