A/N: I wrote this as a thank you for all the people who wrote such lovely comments, favorited and followed this story. It really warms my heart :)
I have some ideas for more one shots and I think they could work as a coherent story line, so just let me know if you guys think that might work.
This is just a random piece of fluff based on a conversation I had with my boyfriend. No smut, for a change, but just a nice moment in the lives of Hyde and Jackie.
Sunday afternoons were the highlight of the summer. The Foremans were out of the house, so Hyde and Jackie could do anything without having to explain themselves. Sometimes they hung out in the basement, sometimes they did other things like go to the movies.
Now they were lying on a blanket in the pick up of Hyde's Camino. They were parked in the middle of nowhere. It was a sunny day, with a few clouds and a nice breeze. They'd spent just the better part of two hours doing all things god forbade and now they were next to each other, smoking a joint and looking at the sky.
Yes, these were the best days, Hyde decided. It was one of those days were talking wasn't necessary and he was happy to find out Jackie was capable of keeping her piehole shut. Right now she was lying with her head against his shoulder, taking tiny drags and trying to blow smoke rings. Whenever she blew out a successful one she would point at it and giggle wordlessly. He bend his head in an awkward angle to look at her face. She looked so relaxed. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen her so relaxed.
After a minute she handed him the joint and turned to look at the sky. Suddenly she squealed and pointed up.
"What?" He asked, irritated she would such a nice afternoon with talking.
"Look, it's a knight in shining armour" Jackie pointed at a cloud that looked more like a misshapen centaur. "That's you."
Hyde snorted and sat up, "Damn it Jackie, how many times do I need to tell you? I'm not your knight!"
She grinned and stuck her tongue out. "You're just in denial, that's all. One day, you'll see yourself like I see you."
Hyde shook his head and sighed. He looked at the cloud again. A question rose inside of him. "Why do you see me like that anyway?"
Jackie shrugged. It looked a little awkward, seeing as she was laying down. "You've always been the one to help me when I most needed it."
"That's just because you're an idiot sometimes," he muttered under his breath.
"I heard that," she deadpanned. Hyde felt bad, but she didn't seem to care. She was drumming her fingers on her stomach, seemingly deep in thought. She stayed quiet so long, he figured she had forgotten all about it already, so he lay down next to her again, grabbing her hand and rubbing circles with his thumb on her palm.
What seemed hours later, but probably was more akin to five minutes, Jackie said, "You're not a knight in shining armor."
Hyde grinned. "Thank you! You finally listened."
"You're a knight in battered armor." She finished slowly.
He wasn't sure if that was better or worse, so he just asked, "How so?"
She frowned and bit her lip. Then she said slowly, "Because... you've lived Hyde. You have been through stuff. Good or bad, doesn't matter. You've fought for your life. So you're dinged up. Knights in battered armor have actually fought. Brand new shiny armor is the mark of someone who has never seen the harsher side of life."
It sounded a little idiotic to him to be honest. He hadn't had it easy, not like she had. But he had lived his entire life in the relatively sheltered warmth of the Formans and Point Place. Sure, his mom was terrible and so was his dad, but he had never gone that hungry and he always had a roof over his head.
"Hmpf," he just said. Jackie sat up a little to look at him. She hung over him. Her brown, soft hair hanging around their heads. Like this was moment that was absolutely private. Her eyes roamed his face and he thought he'd never seen anything more beautiful. She kissed him softly and said, "You know I'm right."
He shrugged awkwardly and rubbed her back softly. "I don't think I'm a knight. Probably more akin to a footsoldier."
Jackie smiled and shook her head. She kissed him on the nose. "No," she said as she moved on to his forehead and started to pepper the rest of his face in kisses. "You're" kiss "noble" kiss "and chivalrous" kiss "brave" kiss "and you have" kiss "such a good heart."
She looked at him with such adoration, that it made his stomach turn. Hyde couldn't tell whether it was the positive or the negative kind. He needed away to make her stop so he pulled her face closer and kissed her with such passion it startled Jackie, he could tell. But he wasn't going to stop anytime soon.
An hour later they were lying next to each other again, panting heavily. Jackie had the biggest grin on her face. "I'm right though."
Hyde was feeling dazed and content. He had no idea what she was talking about.
"You're my knight in battered armor. You better get used to it."
He groaned, but he didn't really feel it inside. It was just to tell Jackie never to call him that in public. But secretly he kind of liked the title.
Knight in battered armor, he could live with that.
