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Author's Note: Hi everyone! Sorry for posting late today but it's still December 4th over where I am! I'll try to post tomorrow's chapter a lot sooner. I was late today because I was hoping to get a few more views, but sadly I didn't. But it's ok, I realize that this story is being updated a lot and some of you guys may not have the time to read the chapters in one sitting or maybe you like to leave your fanfic reading till the weekend. Whatever it is, I hope you'll drop me a quick little note to let me know what you think of the story. It'll mean a lot. And while on the subject of reviews, thanks so much to those of you who have reviewed! You helped me get over this block I had on a future chapter1 Thanks again. As always, Enjoy!
Hyde walked up the basement stairs and into the kitchen. Immediately his eyes fell upon the prize his nose had led him to. A plate of Kitty's freshly baked gingerbread people cookies.
He was still bothered from the conversation with 'Mom and Dad,' these cookies could help him forget about them. He could get a nice cold glass of milk a few cookies and head back to the basement and watch some TV, forget all about the conversation. Or he could pretend the cookies were the two and smash the cookies into little pieces.
Yeah, the second one sounded a lot more fun.
He grabbed a two of the cookies. One was pretty thin, almost as if it were made with the last of the dough. That one would be Eric, The other one was a normal sized cookie, but was bigger than the other gingerbread women. Definitely Donna.
As bit off 'Eric's' smiling face a familiar voice was heard from behind him.
"Oh, good Steven, you're here."
Hyde knew he was trapped but he wasn't going to go down without some sort of fight.
"No I'm not." He said with a mouth full of cookie.
Kitty shook her head, disappointedly, "Steven, I just need you to do me a small little favor."
Hyde stared at his surrogate mother. She never asked for small favors…she said they were small favors but only in her eyes. The last small favor he did for her was when she sent him to the store for some chestnuts she need for some stuffing. That would be considered a small favor, if she hadn't asked him to go on Thanksgiving morning.
"Bye Mrs. Forman." Hyde quickly said as he started for the sliding door, he didn't want to run out and get eggnog on Christmas Eve.
"Ok, fine." Kitty called after him, "Go ahead and leave and not help me. You know I could have done that too when your mother left you."
Hyde froze, there it was. The oh so famous guilt card.
"But instead, I brought you into my home and treated you like one of my own children." Kitty continued, "But its ok if you wanna leave. I'm sure you'll help me in future Christmases. However many more I might have left."
Hyde sighed at the guilt trip he'd just received. It was one of her best, Hyde had to give her that. Kitty's guilt trips were always very strong and frequent during the holiday seasons; Hyde suspected it was so she would get good presents.
"Fine." Hyde finally agreed after sighing a deep sigh.
Kitty clapped in excitement, "Good." She smiled and gave out a small laugh, "Ok now we need to do this before Red gets home…"
"What'd Red do this time?" Hyde asked with a smirk.
Kitty hadn't mentioned this was going to be something against Red. Hyde would have agreed sooner had he known. Red may have done some pretty cool pranks in the past but Kitty was Batman.
"Nothing." Kitty shook her head, "Which is why I need your help."
Hyde frowned with confusion, as he realized this probably wasn't going to be anything along the lines of a prank.
"With Red's heart the way it is, he can't be lifting anything too heavy." Kitty went on to explain, "There's still some boxes of Christmas decorations up in the attic, that I was hoping you could bring down for me."
Again Hyde frowned. More Christmas decorations? Sure the house didn't look like Santa's Workshop but it was getting pretty close. Besides the Forman's usually put up the same decorations every year since as far back as Hyde could remember. He mentally scanned through the house trying to place each of the traditional decorations. They were all there.
"There's more?"
Kitty nodded, "Bob gave us his old ones right before he left to Florida."
Hyde's face fell as he recalled the decorations that Bob use to put up on his house. Now that place was ten times worse than Santa's Workshop. There was that snow machine, the inflatable snowman, the talking Santa, and that musical carousel, to name a few.
At first everyone had loved the decorations, but then they got a little boring and very annoying. The only person who seemed to still like them was Bob and maybe Kitty. But not Red, especially not Red.
"And Red's ok with it?" Hyde questioned, remembering when Red had actually stolen some of the decorations.
Kitty smiled and nodded before adding, "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."
Hyde shook his head, those weren't the words he was hoping for. Red hated Bob's decoration, hell he hated his own decorations. When he saw the two combined together, nothing good would come out of it, especially for the person who helped Kitty get them down in the first place.
"I don't know Mrs. Forman." Hyde began to say, "As nice as a foot in my ass sounds, it wasn't exactly on my Christmas list."
"No, but I know one thing that was on your list." Kitty smiled, "And if you help me out I'll put in a good word for you to Santa".
Hyde smirked. He would have smiled a bigger smile but he didn't want to seem too childish. He did however like the idea of getting that new walkman for Christmas. Especially when Eric was probably only going to get another raincoat.
"Yeah, ok." Hyde answered with a shrug.
Kitty released a happy giggle before leading Hyde out of the kitchen and toward the attic upstairs.
******
Hyde climbed up into the dusty, overcrowded Forman attic. It was a lot smaller than the basement but bigger than the room he had. Although most of the space was filled with cardboard boxes, trunks, and other items.
After grimacing at the thought of what he had exactly gotten himself into, Hyde turned back around and crouched down to where the stairs met the floor of the attic. He then helped Kitty into the room.
"Oh my, I forgot how much stuff we had up here." Kitty said as she looked around the room.
Hyde shrugged, "Hey, I forgot you guys even had an attic."
Kitty laughed at the joke for a few seconds before remembering the reason they were up there.
"Ok, well I think the boxes are somewhere in the back." She said gesturing toward the area away from where they and the ladder were, "You might have to climb over a few of these boxes too. I'll stay on this side to make sure they're not over here."
Hyde stared at the line of boxes, stacked on top of the other, creating a rather high wall. He was going to have to climb over that and bring those Christmas decorations over them too. He better be getting that damn walkman.
"Yeah, alright." Hyde mumbled before climbing over the wall.
It wasn't too hard, it was just a obstacle if anything. Along with that obstacle there were plenty of others on the other side of the wall. Hyde had to keep his eyes on the floor, making sure he didn't trip over or bump into one of the boxes.
As he neared the back of the room he began to search through the boxes for the decorations. Luckily for Hyde, most of the boxes were labeled. Unlucky for him their labels dealt with everything but Christmas.
"Eric's Baby Clothes"
"Laurie's Dolls"
"Halloween"
"Kitchen Crap"
"Man, Mrs. Forman you guys sure have a bunch of junk up here." Hyde called out as he moved a box that seemed to be filled with books.
"Oh Steven, you sound just like Red." Kitty tsked as she turned away from a box that held some of her old maternity clothes, "And these things are not junk. These are pieces of mine and Red's past."
"And your past is a very important thing, Steven. It helps people understand exactly who you are. It can help you with your future." Kitty continued to say, "Of course sometimes you may not have the best past, and you may want to forget about it. But you can't. It's part of you and you can't get rid of it no matter how hard you try. You can however, use it to make things better. Sometimes you'll be surprised by how much better they get."
Hyde just frowned at Kitty's words, he then looked down at the box he had just moved.
"Yeah, I'm sure these old lids will be very helpful." He said deep in sarcasm as he lifted up an old pot-lid.
Kitty frowned lightly, "Steven, don't be a porky mouth."
Hyde shrugged at her warning before dropping the lid back into the box. He then went back to looking for the damn decorations. He slightly wondered why he hadn't found them yet, he remembered them being huge in Bob's front yard.
A loud slam was heard, breaking Hyde away from his thoughts. He twisted himself to see Kitty's worried face.
"Oh, that's Red." She said looking down the opening in the floor.
Hyde looked over in the same direction and then at the each of his sides. It was as if he was expecting Red to pop out from behind one of the many boxes.
"What do we do?"
Kitty thought for a few seconds before clapping her hands once.
"Ok, I know. I'll go downstairs and distract Red for awhile." She began to explain, "You stay up here until you find the decorations. Then once you do, take them down and put them in Eric's old room."
Hyde nodded and then went back to searching for the missing boxes, while Kitty continued to ramble.
"And later on, I'll send Red to the store so the two of us can set up everything in the yard."
Hyde cringed at the thought. None of that sounded like fun. Being out in the freezing cold, setting up some stupid lights that probably wouldn't work the first time. And then there was the chance that Red would come home from the store early and catch them in the act. That would be the worst case scenario.
"What about Forman?" he asked.
Things wouldn't be too bad if it were Eric who was doing it all. At least not for him.
"Oh! That sounds like fun!" Kitty smiled, "I'll have both my boys helping and spending quality time with me."
"Or you know, just Forman."
Hyde turned around to find Kitty already climbing down the ladder, but not before shooting a disapproving look his way.
Hyde brushed off the look as Kitty disappeared back down to hallway between the bedrooms. He went back to looking for the decorations, thinking of a way he could get out of setting them up.
He could say he had work…but then he'd have to go over to the store…through the cold…nah, not that one.
He could pretend he was sick. He knew a couple of tricks that he use to pull to get out of school when he was a kid. But that was on Edna, the mother who could care less about anything. This was Kitty, the caring, overprotected mother who was also a nurse. Yeah, that one wouldn't work either.
He could say he couldn't find the decorations. Then he could tell Red about them and Red would for sure come look for the decorations. Then he'd throw them away, and no one would have to set them up. Or Kitty would catch him and have Red help her set them up. That would be a nice burn.
Yup, that was the one he was gonna go with.
As he slowly stepped away from the back boxes and headed for the square opening in the floor, another slam was heard.
This time slam sounding louder and closer. But it had to; the slamming had come from the ladder as it came folding up and closing up the only exit in the attic.
Hyde's eyes became wide, from behind his shaded glasses. He hurried over to the now closed door, jumping over the wall of boxes.
"Mrs. Forman?" he called.
Nothing.
"Mrs. Forman?!" he called out louder before kneeling down to the floor and leaning down against the floor hoping his voice traveled through the small cracks between the closed door.
"Ok, we can forget about Forman!" he shouted but failed to get any response once again.
Author's Note: There you go today's chapter for "Stuck with You" Hope you liked!
Today's song title was picked because I just finished watching the five day marathon of 'National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.' One of my all time fave Christmas movies. And the song comes out in the scene that helped inspire this story.
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 21 more days till Christmas!