A/N: did you really think I could write a slowburn enemies to lovers fic without using this trope?? smh


Week Three

Day Five

Hyde walks into the living room while Fez is over one afternoon just in time to see Betsy bring something up to her mouth. "Betsy, what are you eating?" he asks suspiciously.

There's a beat of silence while Betsy looks at Hyde and then at Fez for a brief moment before making a run for it. She takes off in the opposite direction.

"HEY! Get back here!" he yells, chasing after her as she runs into the next room. The child's legs are short and the apartment is somewhat small, so Hyde manages to catch up with her rather quickly. He grabs ahold of her just as she's about to hide in the closet. "Oh, no you don't," he says, turning her around to face him. "What's in your mouth?"

She doesn't answer, stubbornly keeping her mouth closed.

"Come on, spit it out," he demands, holding his hand out.

"No!" she shouts, shaking her head.

"Fine, I'll help you." He prys open her mouth and fishes out the object: a piece of hard candy- a Jolly Rancher by the looks of it. He sighs. "You can't eat this, okay? You could choke."

The little girl glares at him, eyes filling with tears. She doesn't fully grasp the concept of choking hazards of course, which means Hyde has taken something away from her for no reason. "You're a meanie!" she yells before angrily running out of the room to pout.

"Sorry for caring about your wellbeing!" he calls after her, spreading his arms out in a 'whatever' gesture. This is what he gets for caring? He's come to learn that kids are very ungrateful.

He walks back into the living room where Betsy is laying on the floor with her face buried in a couch pillow, but that's not what he focuses on. Marching up to where Fez is sitting on the couch watching TV, Hyde throws the half-eaten piece of candy at him. "What the hell, man? How many times do Jackie and I need to tell you not to feed Betsy candy?"

The brown-skinned man looks up sheepishly. "I am sorry. She sees me eating something and she asks for some as well. I cannot say no to such a cute face."

"Yes, you can," he corrects him. "And if it's that difficult for you to do, then just don't eat candy around her." With a sigh, he flops down onto the opposite end of the couch. "You have a serious problem, you know that?"

"Yes." He looks over at Hyde nervously. "I'm guessing that now would be a bad time to ask about you and Jackie."

Hyde pointedly turns his head towards his friend. "What about me and Jackie?"

"Wellll, I might have been instructed to ask if you and Jackie are back together yet without directly asking but...I don't know how to do that so I am asking you directly." He smiles innocently.

"Oh, God," Hyde says with a roll of his eyes. "First Mrs. Forman and now you and whoever it is that told you to ask. Is it so hard for you all to mind your own business?"

"Yes. And you did not answer the question."

"No, we're not back together. But things are good between us. Happy now?"

"If things are good between you two why don't you get back together already?"

Hyde throws his hands up in frustration. "Because it's not that simple, alright?"

Fez turns in his seat to face Hyde more comfortably. He folds his hands together in a thoughtful pose. "Have you not talked things out? Are you not sure you won't make the same mistake again? Or are you not sure Jackie won't make the same mistake again?"

"What?" he asks. "No, it was a misunderstanding and I'm the one who overreacted and really fucked up, not Jackie."

"Maybe so, but do you believe that entirely?" Fez shrugs. "I am just saying, you wouldn't have walked into the scene that caused the misunderstanding if she hadn't gone to Chicago without talking to you beforehand in the first place. Maybe you haven't gotten past that. You need to address these things if you're gonna try to start your relationship over," he advises.

Hyde is silent, mulling over Fez's words. He had been really hurt when Jackie left for Chicago without waiting to hear his answer and even more hurt when he found her alone with Kelso, even if nothing had actually happened between them at the time. He had used that hurt as an excuse for his actions in the events that followed, telling himself he had a reason. By now he has gotten past the finger-pointing and the "she threw the first punch" and has accepted responsibility for his mistakes. But if he's honest with himself, the hurt is still there. Maybe...just maybe...there's some truth to Fez's words. Maybe there is some validity to that hurt.

"Anyway, why are we sitting here with the TV off? Gilligan's Island is on," Fez says, reaching for the remote. He turns on the television to an episode about radioactive vegetables. Betsy finally lifts her head to watch the show and soon she's joining in Fez's laughter, but the humorous shenanigans of the seven castaways do nothing to silence the thoughts in the back of Hyde's mind.


That night Jackie comes home late from work to find Fez passed out on the couch. She figures he was hanging out with Hyde and Betsy and fell asleep watching TV if the remote and the chip bag in his hands are any indications. She peeks into Betsy's room as she always does when she comes home, no matter how late it is, to check on her little girl. As usual, she finds the toddler comfortably asleep and she watches as her chest rhythmically rises and falls. Jackie smiles at the sight before quietly slipping out of the room and closing the door.

It doesn't occur to her that she hasn't seen Hyde until she opens the door to her own bedroom and finds him fast asleep in her bed. She freezes for a moment, caught a bit off-guard. Sure, she'd told him that he's welcome to sleep in her bed if she's ever not around (she does feel a bit guilty making him sleep on the couch for such a long period of time after all), but witnessing the sight herself is something she wasn't prepared for. She stares for a minute, watching the blanket rise and fall with his breathing, and she briefly imagines what it would be like to crawl up next to him, just as she used to.

She quietly closes the door and quickly changes into her pajamas in the dark. She then begins to run a brush through her hair; it's gotten so long that lately she's been feeling a bit like Rapunzel. Perhaps she'll get it cut soon, maybe try a new look, like-

"Hey," Hyde says suddenly, having woken up from the movement in the room, his voice thick with sleep. Jackie jumps and turns to see him staring at her, head propped up on his elbow.

"Hey," she greets back, a small smile gracing her lips. She tries to keep her cool and pretend that being here in the dark with him, speaking in low voices, doesn't feel both terribly and wonderfully intimate.

"Sorry I fell asleep in your bed," he apologizes. "Fez fell asleep on the couch and you said you were thinking about spending the night at Eric and Donna's."

"Yeah, I saw Fez," Jackie laughs softly, not sure what else to say.

He sits up and swings his legs over the side of the bed. "Well, now that you're home I guess I'll go kick him out."

"You don't have to," Jackie says quietly and Hyde raises an eyebrow at her. "What I mean is," she quickly explains, "it's late and you know how cranky Fez is when he gets woken up."

Hyde stares at her silently, carefully.

"We're both grown adults. We can share a bed without making it weird." She shrugs like it's no big deal.

Hyde nods slowly. "Alright."

"That is if you can keep your hands to yourself," Jackie says lightly, walking around to the other side of the bed.

"Yeah, yeah," Hyde rolls his eyes, laying back down as Jackie climbs into bed beside him.

They're both as close to the edges as possible without falling off, afraid to get too close to the other. There's a silence between them, not necessarily awkward, but heavy. As they lay in the same bed for the first time in years, they're both lost in their own heads as they stare up at the ceiling, plagued with a thousand thoughts and memories...and feelings.

"How could you go to Chicago with Kelso?" The question comes quietly from Hyde after a few minutes of silence, the words cutting through the vast darkness. Jackie doesn't say anything, surprised by the heavy question. "I mean, why'd you leave for Chicago without waiting to hear my response? And with Kelso of all people. I was going to propose, you know," he continues, sounding hurt.

Finally, Jackie turns on her side to face Hyde, folding her arm under her head. He does the same. Jackie sighs. "I didn't think you were going to say yes," she says quietly.

"But you didn't even give me a chance to tell you my answer," he points out. "You just left."

You just left. The words hurt to hear because she often wondered how different things might have turned out if she hadn't left for Chicago the way she did, especially since she ended up returning to Point Place anyway. She hasn't thought about it in a long time though; she forced herself to stop because it only caused pain. She had made her decision and Hyde had made his, and that was that.

Only now he's asking for an explanation, for closure, and she has to think about that decision again. And not just for him, but for herself as well.

"I know. I just...I got scared. You'd already told me before that you didn't want to get married and I was afraid that the threat of me leaving town wasn't enough to change your mind. I couldn't handle that rejection. So I made it up in my head that you would say no and I decided to leave before I could get hurt by it," Jackie admits, keeping eye contact with Hyde.

"So you decide to hang out with Kelso in a hotel room in Chicago? Just like that? Like you could just leave everything that happened between us behind in Point Place?" Hyde asks. His tone isn't accusing, just sad.

"I didn't sleep with him, Steven. I already told you that," she says, eyebrows creased. They've already gone over this.

"But you might've? If I hadn't shown up when I did?" he presses.

Jackie looks down at the bedsheets. She's always been afraid of that question, but she's always been more afraid of the answer because she's honestly not sure. It was a vulnerable time for her; she'd truly thought that she and Hyde were over and that left her sad and alone. With Kelso. "Look, maybe I was a little hasty. But it wasn't because I didn't care about what we had. I just...didn't want to hurt anymore, so I was trying not to think about it so I could move on and have a fresh start in Chicago. I thought we were over and I wanted to forget about how I was feeling, to tell myself that I could get over it and I would be okay." She looks back up at Hyde, holding his stare. She suddenly realizes that despite all the apologies that he owes her, maybe she owes him one, too. "But I know that doesn't make it less painful for you, how it must've looked. I'm really sorry I hurt you like that, Steven," she says so genuinely that Hyde believes it. He nods slightly in acknowledgment of her apology.

"Can you ever forgive me?" Jackie asks after a moment. She realizes that, perhaps, she's been needing to ask this, she's been needing an answer to wash away whatever guilt she's been ignoring for so long now.

Hyde stares at her silently, taking in her face. Her expression is so genuine and sad, eyes pleading. He's a bit taken aback; he hadn't expected her to give an apology like this, especially when he's the one who made the bigger mistake when it comes to the downfall of their relationship. But now that an apology has been said, he suddenly realizes how much he'd needed to hear it. It might not be in the same proportion that he hurt her, but Jackie had hurt him as well. "Yes," he answers finally, truthfully.

At that one word, Jackie shuts her eyes as a smile spreads across her face. A weight she hadn't been aware of until now has been lifted from her shoulders.

"As long as you can forgive me for the way I overreacted to it," he continues. "I fucked up, man. Big time. I mean, you were," he pauses to purse his lips, and when he speaks again his voice trembles like a low rumble of thunder, "you were the best thing that ever happened to me and I threw it all away, and I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for that. I don't even know how I let it happen, I just did. Maybe it was because I was scared or- or upset with myself or I don't know what. But I tried to convince myself I didn't care that we were over, so I pushed you away and hurt you. I treated you like trash."

God, sometimes he wonders how she can even stand to look at him.

He doesn't know when it started, but he's suddenly aware that his face is wet with tears. More than that, he's aware that he doesn't care. Yes, Steven Hyde doesn't care that he's crying in front of someone and he doesn't care that his voice is tight with emotion; he pushes through and keeps talking. He needs to say this, more than anything he's ever had to say before in his life. "Jackie, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. For everything with Sam, for everything that I said to you, for everything that I did to you, and for everything that I didn't say or do. For everything ."

And for ever hesitating to marry you, he also adds, silently.

Jackie gazes at him through the darkness, her own eyes damp with tears. This, this is what she's been waiting to hear for such a long time. A raw, genuine apology filled with remorse and depth of emotion. She's confident now that he's fully aware of his mistakes and is truly sorry.

With a gentle, but shaking hand, Jackie reaches out to wipe the tears from his face. Her hand stays where it's at, thumb against his cheek, brushing away any more tears that fall. "Oh, Steven," she says, chin quivering. He doesn't know how much it means to her, to hear that apology. She lets out a strangled laugh. "It's a deal," she says, giving him a watery smile. "You forgive me and I'll forgive you."

At this, he looks almost surprised, as if he hadn't been expecting her to actually forgive him.

Slowly, he covers the hand she has resting on his face with one of his own. He turns his head to softly kiss the inside of her palm and Jackie doesn't know if anything has ever felt so intimate. "I don't deserve you," he whispers, and Jackie's heart leaps into her throat. He looks up at the ceiling and when he speaks again it's more than a whisper this time. "I didn't deserve you loving me the way you did, and I certainly don't deserve to be here in this room with you right now."

Jackie stares at him. "No, you don't," she agrees.

Hyde's gaze snaps back to hers, a bit surprised by her response. Not that he disagrees, of course.

She starts laughing, lifting the somber mood of the room.

"You think this is funny?" he asks, a smile finding its way to his own face.

"Yes," she giggles. "You really don't deserve to be here right now. But I'll allow it," she teases.

They laugh together, losing themselves in the moment as they feel lighter than they have since their breakup. It feels better than anything else they've felt in a while.

Once they've recovered from the laughter, Hyde asks, "So...are we good now? Like, really good?"

"Yes," she assures him, "we're really good."

And for the first time in a long time, it feels like everything might actually turn out okay, like not all broken things are unfixable.