A/N: I'm just gonna go straight into the reviews and then leave you guys a little note at the bottom.
Danny Phantom: Thank you. That's always one of my main worries - trying to get that human connection in a non-cheesy way.
xXRitz-aholicXx: Lol. Totally busted.
Laylacat11: Not exactly the quickest update this time lol. Please don't hate me.
RHatch89: Thank you for reviewing!
Guest: I didn't want to make you cry! Okay... I'm a writer so I kind of did lol.
Guest: Thank you! That's such a big compliment!
Volleyball Babe22: And thank you for reviewing. On a side note I saw your name and I immediately thought of Haikyuu! I'm a writer so I'm completely inept at sports though lol.
PorcelainDeath: Thank you! I love the word "adore" btw. It's like one of those words that needs to be used more.
MulishaMaiden: I hate to say this but I love them too lol. It feels like I'm patting myself on the back.
Haydoger: You're telling me, honey.
ClosetCase: You're so sweet! I feel like no one else cares but I just do lol. Sometimes I stare at all the reviews and I'm like I'M NOT GIVING THESE CINNAMON ROLLS ENOUGH! I NEED TO SPEAK TO THEM! Totally me being obsessive.
cwsqruad: Don't apologize! The fact that you reviewed at all is awesome!
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DramaEnsues: Ditto. I've been binging basically everything. Too much time. Wayyy too much time.
JenRiley16: Lol thank you! That was such a nice review. I don't think I was expecting people to love my stories Hyde as much as they do. It's so humbling and... just nice.
Guest: "...because, well quarantine" LOL mooodddd. I'm so glad that I could be a read for your quarantine! It sucks but I'm just glad that I could be a little distraction.
Chapter Twenty-One: Looking for Trouble
The Cheese Tap was a shithole. For a moment, Tina considered this fact. And then relented. Almost every place within Point Place was a shithole. The only thing that made a difference in the level of excitement was how wasted you could get at each location.
"There is no cheese on this menu," Fez murmured, his brows furrowing as he eyed the sticky menu that had been left on their table.
"Why would there be cheese?" Kelso said, rolling his eyes at Eric like they were in on some secret joke. "That would make this like a - like a diary… bar… or something."
"Why name your bar The Cheese Tap if you don't even have-"
Tina stopped listening as the two got into a heated discussion on the merits of the bar's name. Personally, she thought that the only fitting name would probably have been something along the lines of A Place to Get Drunk. A simple fact and a low enough bar to set that no one would be disappointed at the paltry selection of rickety wood tables and flimsy wood chairs, all of which looked like they were about to fall apart at any moment.
"There are only four chairs," Tina stated blandly as all of the others swung into their seats. Hyde's eyes twinkled up at her, a slow smirk curling the side of his lips. Across the table, Eric grimaced, his face shuttering as he glanced around the bar. He had made it a point to firmly ignore Hyde and I on the way to the bar. Apparently, his fragile constitute couldn't take the idea. So he shut it out, turning the music up and keeping his eyes on anything but the two puppies that had apparently overtaken his twin and best friend.
Fez perked up, his caramel eyes lighting with devoted excitement as he looked around. "I can go grab one-"
"Not necessary," Hyde cut him off, leaning back in his seat as he smirked up at the still-standing auburn-haired girl Tina rolled my eyes. He was getting a big kick out of being able to openly claim her like this. More than that, even though Hyde would never admit this, his skin crawled every time she was close. As if his very cells couldn't stop moving when she wasn't in his arms, pressed up against her. Seeing her, standing there in that skirt and his jacket made him half-insane.
"Dude," Kelso whisper loudly across the table, that obnoxious smile making him look like a toddler as he leaned closer to the other twin. "Hyde's totally macking on your sister."
The very thought made Eric want to vomit.
"Shut up, Kelso," he snapped, still pointedly avoiding looking even in the pairs general vicinity.
Slowly, gently, long, calloused fingers curled around Tina's hip, drawing her a bit closer as Hyde tried to coax her into his lap. From experience, he knew that she hated being bossed around. And personally, he wanted her to come willingly. It felt so much better when he watched the glaciers in her gaze melt, giving way to sun-soaked waters. He loved that feeling, wanted to drown in those waves.
On the other end of that tether, Tina was feeling the same sort of need. Across the bar, she could see two blondes perk up at the entrance of the four boys, their eyes accessing Tina like animals on the Serengeti. Her temper rose, an irrational possessiveness spiking through her as she caught the lingering glances. Not to mention that his hand was just above the curve of her ass, reminding her of that evening when he had kissed her, his hands going under the hem of her shirt…
She sat, her arms wrapping around the strong column of Hyde's neck as she glared at the two bottle blondes. He's mine, she thought. For his part, Hyde was delighted, his smile bordering on goofy as he settled her more firmly against his chest, his fingers running along the delicate curve of her knee, up, up, up to the hem of her skirt. God, he loved this shitty bar. In that moment, if he didn't think that Jesus was a ploy to control the masses, he would have thanked him.
Maybe it was that besotted look on his face that made Eric slam his fist on the table, the small bowl of peanuts in the middle of the table give a distressed wiggle. "WAITRESS!"
Tina winced, feeling the tightening of Hyde's hand against her waist as he leaned a little forward, splaying his legs so that she could sit more comfortably against him. His eyes met hers for a moment, sending her a silent message behind the shade of his glasses. If he gets too rowdy we're gonna have to leave. "Forman, relax, okay?"
Warily, she eyed her twin, noting the dark circles under his eyes and the slouch. She hadn't really spoken to him since their grandmother's death. Everyone in the family knew that there was little sympathy to give to a woman that regularly insinuated that your mother was a whore who trapped your father with the news of a baby. But maybe she should have talked to him a bit more, tried to take away that odd air of guilt that he had had shadowing him for the last few days.
"Are you okay?" She mouthed to her twin as a very disgruntled waitress made her way over to their table, her eyes already scanning over the obviously underaged teens. Eric's jaw tightened, his eyes landing on the ground.
Hyde eyed the pair for a second. They had always had those secret moments with each other, ones that had made him feel oddly out of the loop when he had been younger. When they had been going through their hand-holding phase, he had thought it was stupid, secret envy simmering so far under the surface that he didn't notice it. Now, as he glanced up at Tina and found her eyes tired, giving him the silent plea to order her something so she wouldn't have to speak, he understood. Because to have that bond meant more than he would ever admit. It was a comfort, a blanket to fall back on when the world just didn't want to hear you.
"Hi," he said, plastering his most charming smile on as the waitress ran a clearly unimpressed eye over him. Somehow he still looked like he was ten seconds away from lighting something or other on fire but she had seen the likes before. The Cheese Trap wasn't a place that hip people or tourists (not that there were many of the ladder to speak of) came. It was a dive just a block or so from the high school and on most nights she was so busy trying to earn a decent amount of tips that she let it slide. Unless she didn't like the kids. Her eyes narrowed on the five teens, debating.
"We're gonna need a pitcher and five glasses, please," the curly-headed one said, his voice carrying a commanding strength that meant that he had swindled adults out of a lot more than a pitcher of beer.
She wasn't sure she liked that idea. "I'm gonna need to see some ID."
Beneath Tina, she felt the muscles in Hyde's shoulders tense, his body gearing up for whatever battle was about to ensue. Because there was always a battle. That was what he had learned growing up in a household where he had to all but beg for his mom to get some groceries instead of booze and cigarettes. His smile turned feral, his teeth flashing. Growing up like that you could either submit to the chaos or struggle and personally he didn't enjoy the idea of dying on the battlefield. So that was the line he walked, half love affair, half tragedy. Because he relished the challenge and also realized that one-day society would find out. Society didn't like chaos.
"Of course," he said smoothly, fully realizing that what was about to spew out of his mouth was utter trash but that if he said it confidently enough and with a bit of a bite, most adults backed down. Worse than doing something wrong, worse than letting a group of underage teens drink some lousy beer was the thought that they might be wrong. So usually adults let him do whatever he wanted because they weren't willing to call his bluff. He dug out the rectangle of plastic. "I have mine right here but the rest of the fellas left theirs back at the military base."
Military base, the waitress thought, impressed even against her better judgment. Not many kids pulled that one out of their asses. Her eyes zeroed in on the auburn-haired girl curled into the curly-haired boy's arms. Both held each other possessively, their eyes sharp as they eyed her. It was odd seeing the expression on their faces, like being caught in some crosshairs of two dogs ready to circle and attack at any moment. As a rule, she thought that most teens were half-feral but she hadn't ever seen two so in-sync. A slender brow rose, her interest peaking.
"What about your girlfriend?" she asked sharply, letting a little bit of the sarcasm she was feeling drip into her voice as the curly-haired one tensed, his hand flexing on the girl's thigh. "She on the base too?"
Rare, the waitress thought snidely, fully aware that anyone with the balls enough to go into the military right now was half-crazy and definitely wouldn't be wearing heels and skirt. Personally, she disagreed with the admission of females into the armed forces but she was also a waitress in some crappy bar named The Cheese Tap so who cared about her opinion?
The three boys across the table, tensed, their eyes heating as if they heard the challenge and resented it. Eric eyed his sister, fully aware that she could make the woman standing behind them tear up with a few jabs. That's what people didn't seem to understand about his twin - that even though she wore skirts and button-ups and paired her shirts with her shoes, it didn't mean that she was nice. And it certainly didn't mean that she was weak.
Tina stiffened, her nails digging into Hyde's shoulder as she eyed the waitress coldly. She knew that look. That look meant that her platforms were too high to be anything but a housewife. That look meant that if she was in the military than the waitress would be moving to Canada very soon. That look was everything that she detested about Wisconsin and maybe the world beyond because if another female was going to judge her like that than what was even the point. Across the world, the first group of women to have crawled, biting and hissing up into the male world of war had finally been admitted to a military academy. And here Tina was, in some shitty bar with this waitress eyeing her boobs like they were the reason that she couldn't get in line and salute.
"No," Tina purred, her eyes going a shade of blue that bordered on white. Slowly, she reached into the pocket of Hyde's jacket, still tucked firmly around her and pulled out the thin square of plastic, smiling as she flipped it around for the waitress to inspect. "Unfortunately, the military didn't like my attitude. Said I would be better as a bouncer."
The threat was there - there in the sharp edges of her smile and the thin, cutting way that she enunciated each syllable. Eric hid a smirk, catching Kelso and Fez's open grins as they eyes his sister. The waitress's brows had gone completely into her hairline, a tremble of her bottom lip the only indication that Tina's tone had affected her.
"A pitcher," Hyde cut in, clearly sensing the change in Tina. The waitress nodded, stepping back with the dazed look of someone that had just encountered an arctic blast in a warm room. His fingers ran over Tina's calf, squeezing. God, he loved it when she got like this.
"Uh soooo," a perky voice piped up as the waitress slid away with as much dignity as she could muster. The two blondes that had been eyeing Hyde when he first walked in had finally slid from their place at the bar and flounced over. Kelso smirked, his chest poofing out as his eyes slid over the nice boobs and the blonde hair. Tina's eyes narrowed on the one in orange as he sent a wink to the table. "You're in the military. What base are you from?"
Hyde's eyes slid over the girls quickly, noting the way that both Fez and Kelso were nearly drooling onto the sticky wooden table. For a moment, he thought about allowing them to take the lead, his eyes wandering to a strip of Tina's thigh which had been revealed when she had sat down.
"It's a secret military base," he said off-handedly, unwilling to give the two the chance to chase away a night of beer and vodka. The girl's across the table nearly fell over themselves at the mystery as they nodded, eager to be included in anything that might make the night a bit more dangerous.
Against her thigh, she felt one of Hyde's hands inch up, his calloused fingers scraping along the vulnerable skin there. The curly-haired boy's eyes caught hers, a devilish grin tilting his lips as he caught the warning in that sky-blue gaze.
Deflectively, he asked, "You think your brothers okay?"
Thankfully enough, that line of question actually did distract her from the reverent way that Hyde was running his fingers from the dainty circle of her ankle to the flare of her calf and then all the way up to her knee and the mouth-wateringly soft swell of her thighs.
Her brows furrowed as across the table the two blondes tumbled into Fez and Kelso's laps after a hasty (ridiculously gleeful) round of introductions. It was almost comforting to know that as long as she was in Hyde's lap, the rest of the world seemed to ignore her. The other's hadn't even bothered to pause after Fez had announced that he would be going by Eric Forman for the night, completely skipping over the pair. Don't bother, their singular attention to each other seemed to say.
"He hasn't been the speaking very much since grandma…" Tina's quiet voice faltered, her throat constricting around the word "died." Hyde eyed her, noting the slight look of shocked pain that flashed across her face. The arm around her waist tightened.
"Hey," he murmured, his head tilting so that he could catch her gaze. One of her hands reached up to toy absently with the collar of his shirt. "Didn't she used to call your mom a tramp? Say she wasn't raising you guys right? You and Eric were always bitching about her..."
He didn't need to finish the sentence.
Tina winced, feeling somehow ashamed. It was true. All of it was true. Tina had hated her grandmother because of the nasty way that she tore down her mother. But… Her voice lowered, her eyes not quite meeting Hyde's. "It not her. Its… I want to feel bad, you know? I should be sad. I shouldn't have to watch my dad make these phone calls and think: damn, next Christmas maybe my mom won't end up in the driveway smoking because grandma won't be there to say that the meal that she just spent eight hours on is trash."
Tina stopped, the gnawing feeling in her stomach opening up once more. Because she felt guilty. She hated herself for feeling… glad that her grandmother had died. How fucked up was that? How could she look at her father and feel this way?
Hyde let the silence drag for a moment, his eyes running over the nearly empty bar, the blondes in Fez and Kelso's laps, the drawn anger on Eric's face as he stared at the waitress as she set down their shots and pitcher. And then back up at the beautiful creature sitting in his lap, her eyes miserable and self-loathing.
And then he thought about his mom, the booze on her nightstand and the men in her bed. He thought about her gentle contempt, her distant love, each word of praise pulled from a place that reminded her of her youth. Maybe when he got older, she would be able to stomach the sight of him.
"My mom…" he started slowly, stopping and taking a shot that burning along his tongue. Gulping, he continued. "My mom hates me…" Tina flinched, shaking her head, her mouth opening in a protest as he took another quick shot and gave her a lopsided grin. "Sometimes I think about what I would give to not have to wake up with that reality… And then - and then I think, man, you're one fucked up son. I mean, who wants that? Who wants their own mother to disappear?"
"Hyde," Tina breathed, her fingers curling around his face, turning him to look at her. Their breath mingled, their foreheads almost kissing as her auburn curls slipped forward to create a curtain around them. And Hyde was lost, lost, lost in those beautiful sun-kissed skies that made up her eyes. "You don't mean that. You-"
"I do," he whispered gruffly, his arms curling around her waist. Just wanting to keep her close. Just wanting this moment to last a bit longer. "And so does she. Why would she talk about what her life could have been if it wasn't for my birth, is she didn't want me gone?"
Pain, deep and cutting flashed through Tina's eyes and God, did he fucking love her for it. It took his breath away how much he loved her in that moment. How much he would give to just keep her with him.
"I know that feeling that you have in your stomach right now," he said, his voice earnest as he pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek. "That loathing. You're thinking how could I be feeling this way? And maybe it's shitty. But it's also the things that she gave to you. Because I know you Tina Forman. And I know that even though she was your grandmother and your dad loved her because for eighteen years she was the person who fed him - even though she probably loved him… She didn't love your mom. And maybe she didn't even love her grandkids. Because people like Bernice hate what the world took from them and the only way they can get rid of all that loneliness and rage is to attack the people who they know won't fight back." One of his hands cupped her cheek, his thumb rubbing along her cheekbone. "If you were a little bit more of a bastard like me then you wouldn't be feeling this way."
At that moment, with the smell of vodka still sharp against her lips and that devilish, self-deprecating smirk on his lips, she thought she might love him. Just a little. Just enough to make her half-insane. She would never tell him that though.
"Uh, Hyde?" Tina pulled back, blinking up as the tinkering of glasses and general hubbub of the bar around them filtered back in. The girls had skittered back a step, their eyes on two hulking guys who had just walked in, their shoulders hunched as they glared across the table at where Fez and Kelso were now nervously sitting.
Eric's eyes had snapped up, a daring sort of expression darkening his eyes.
"These ladies are with us," the darker haired of the two men said, for obviously the second time as he turned to Hyde. Tina's eyes narrowed, tightening on the Hyde's shoulders at the condescending glare on his face.
"Uh...cool?" Hyde tried, clearly uninterested in the petty squabble as he glanced toward the two blondes.
"Hyde," Kelso whined, his eyes darting impatiently to where Charlotte was currently standing like a child who had gotten his toy taken away. Beseechingly, his eyes turned to Tina. Emphatically, Kelso widened his eyes, making a variety of obnoxious head bobs and grimaces. Make them stay, his brows seemed to say. You're a girl.
"Don't get her into this," Hyde growled across the table at the lankier one of the group. His eyes snapped as he whipped around to the two men once more. "The ladies came over to our table."
"They're with us." Tina rolled her eyes. Apparently, he was too much a meathead to understand the basic words of eat, sleep and she's with us.
"Hey!" Fez cut in, standing with an almost conspiratorial sort of glee. Sometimes Tina thought that the general tone of a conversation went completely over his head. "Get lost. They are trying to pick us up."
Tina let out a hiss as the brunette's hands clasped down on the foreigner's shoulders, shoving him back into his seat. "I think you've had quite enough of that firewater there, chief."
"You touch him again and I'll cut your hands off," she snarled, her eyes wintery as she turned the full force of her glare on the two men. The two blinked, taken aback for a moment. It was an odd sort of effect that Tina had on people - as if they weren't expecting such an aura of loathing to come from such a small body. The icy depths of her eyes only amplified this, the effect like walking into a freezer when you were expecting to go into the bathroom.
Eric slammed his cup down, his eyes boiling. "Hey, you mess with Eric Forman and you mess with me."
"Oh crap," Hyde grumbled, highly displeased that they were about to get into a fight over two blondes that clearly weren't going to last for more than the night. He let out a sigh as the two men rounded the table, the darker haired on shoving closer to Eric as he let out a snarl.
"Are you looking for trouble?"
Tina knew that look in her brother's eyes. It was the same one that he had gotten when he had launched himself into that dog heap in eighth grade after Hyde had tackled Burt Heidler. It was the same expression that he had gotten when he had seen Donna getting kissed in her driveway when they were ten. It was the expression of someone who knew that they were about to get punched and welcomed it.
"Up, bunny," Hyde sighed, lifting the auburn-haired girl off of his lap as he stood. Gently, he pushed her away from the table. "Stay over there."
Tina bulked. "Hyde-"
"Stay," he said with a finality that made her glare.
"Oh, I'm looking for trouble," Eric said softly, jabbing a finger into the darker haired man's chest, his eyes darkening.
The punch was impressively loud, her twin's head snapping to the side as he went crashing into the table and then to the floor. All three of the boys were up by now, their faces pulled into identical expressions of rage. Snarling, Tina lunged, only to have Hyde push her back as the brunette tore off his jacket. "Anyone else?"
Hyde's shoulders rolled, his arm keeping Tina at bay. "Bunny, stay," he snarled one last time as he rounded on the man. "Well, there's three of us, so yeah."
Kelso was across the table in a leap, both Hyde and him landing on the brunette in a heap as his other friend followed, crashing into a nearby table. Tina snarled, her eyes deadly as she turned a venomous stare to the girls nearest the bar. Behind her, she heard a snarl and a snap as Kelso took a hit and Hyde delivered one.
Fez had wandered over to the blondes, his smile cajoling. "So where were we?"
"Take a hike," Tina snarled, grabbing ahold of Fez's collar and dragging him over to where her brother lay.
"We were just-" the blondie in the orange sweater started, flinching away as Tina gave a rabid growl.
"I said take a hike." Not many people refused Tina when she used that tone. The blondes were no different. Fez gave a soft whine as he fought against her hold. She readjusted, digging her nail into his ear as she dragged him away.
"Why do you hate me?" he demanded.
A pitcher crashed, someone moaning. Tina's eyes could have been made of ice, her ears pricking as Hyde gave a pained grunt, catching a right hook.
"If you're not going to help them," she snarled, yanking him down to her brother. "Then you get to carry Eric to the car."
Fez's eyes darkened with wariness, his eyes flicking to the pile of men as they fumbled on the ground. "What are you going to do?"
Tina didn't answer, turning instead to the flailing mess of limbs. The brunette had rolled to kneel over Kelso, both men grappling as the Kelso tried to get out from under him and the brunette tried to land a hit that would knock him out. Across the room, Hyde was in a similar position except he was on top.
What most men didn't think about when they were fight was how vulnerable their lower body was. Tina stalked over. Personally, she thought it had more to do with pride than anything else. Luckily girls didn't have any such problems. The brunette gave a scream, his voice cracking as Tina's platforms connected with his nads, his eyes rolling wildly as he slumped to the side.
Beneath him, Kelso blinked, his eyes following him in a way that made Tina think that he actually felt sorry for the guy.
"I had that completely under control," he snapped with enough bravado to make Tina roll her eyes. Already a bruise on his cheek was forming, blood dribbling from a gash on his chin. Across the room, the other man had been able to wrestle Hyde into the wall, both snarling at each other like rabid animals.
"Just go get that behemoth off of Hyde," she replied sharply, turning back to where Fez was trying and failing to lift her brother.
"Don't tell me what to do," he retorted, launching himself at the pair with the eagerness of a puppy seeing its owner.
Fez eyed the auburn-haired girl warily as she breezed over, lifting the remainder of her brother's weight. "You scare me."
Tina didn't flinch, dragging her twin toward the door. "Good."
Listen, I just wanted to say that I love you guys. Seriously. Know that even though I've never met you guys and I wouldn't be able to tell who you were if I walked past you, everyone who's out there and reads my stories - you guys matter to me. The reason why I made this story is because I wanted to share and everything since than has completely been you guys. I remember when I only had 20 followers and 2 reviews. And it just makes me happy.
Anyway, I know things are crazy but you guys are smart and strong and I know it may seem overwhelming right now but you guys have this community and all these writers at your fingertips. We're all in this together - whether you're in California with me or across the world in Italy. We'll make it out of this. It's going to sting and hurt and some things will never be the same but we'll make it.
XOXO, lovely