I recently ran away to visit some of my family and friends and while on this trip one of my longest friendships sat me down and basically slapped the shit out of me for quitting these stories. So in the hopes of ever being invited back into her household, I'm updating.
Thank you to the people that still encouraged me even when they were disappointed. I'm still posting on wattpad if you guys want to come and support me there but I'll be doing a bit of a juggling act.
*Warning: this does contain lemons. If you don't like that than I completely understand and I'll see you on the next chapter!
Chapter 28: The Conservatory
"Hold my hand."
There are certain phrases that bring with them rare and glimmering sensations - memories bottled up in the incomplete, senses trapped in a string of words that when put together unlock magic. As Tina stared down at the way that Hyde's fingers curled around her, his palm kissing hers, she could taste lemonade, and feel the sting of a fresh scrape on her kneecaps and the hot sun kissing at the damp curls of her neck. She tasted the tang of lemons and tap water before clumps of undissolved sugar washed it away.
It was the summer of her ninth birthday when she had decided to open her first lemonade stand. Red had been mildly impressed that his daughter had dragged the rickety folding table out from the garage, falling and skinning both knees in her attempt to get it down the driveway. Kitty had been absolutely delighted, snapping pictures that were still hung adoringly along the stairway wall. She had begged her parents to help her under the guise of a new bike that she wanted.
"I'll make the lemonade and everything," she had spoken urgently and quickly as if the faster she got it out the higher the likelihood of approval would be.
Sitting at the kitchen table, her brother had stared at her like she was about to tell everyone how many boogers he ate in an afternoon. Beside him, the curly-haired delinquent that had become an increasingly frequent annoyance was looking just as horrified. He rarely believed in putting any sort of extra effort into any activity. His firm belief was that the bare minimum worked enough - anything else would either get you more responsibilities or zero acknowledgment anyway.
"Oh, my little babies growing up and - and becoming a little businesswoman." Kitty beamed, pinching her daughter's flushed cheeks with enough force that the auburn-haired girl flinched.
Red's eyes had narrowed. "Who's going to pay for all the supplies?"
Kitty gasped. "Red!"
"What, Kitty? She needs to know that going into the lemonade industry is expensive."
"I'll help her," Laurie had thrown in, catching her sister's grateful gaze with a wink. Laurie already had someone in mind. Her cheer squad was doing the exact same thing as a fundraiser. What were a few boxes of lemons missing anyway?
Red's brows had furrowed, his whole body vibrating with contemplation. Tina vibrated along with him, her whole body tensing into itself like a doll slowly being wound up. If he would just say yes…
"You'll have your brother or sister with you at all times-"
"Yes, daddy!" Tina answered immediately.
"And you won't run off unless you tell your mother or I-"
"Yes, daddy!"
"And right when you cut back on your open hours for this stand, we're shutting it down-"
Tina leapt, squeezing on tight enough that Red felt the buttons on his shirt dig in enough to cause actual pain. "Oh thank you, daddy. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"I need to go get the camera!" Kitty sobbed, sprinting out of the room in search of something to document the first real business venture of her three children.
Later on, when Tina had hauled out that tired, old table and drawn a pithy enough sign, lemonade sweating on the dusty top, Tina had sat down to truly revel. The truth was that she could care less about the table and more about the street. Or maybe the best way to put it was the streets potential. The potential of the street was that kids Tina's age could potentially ride down it to get the playground just down the street. Say Kevin Gengor potentially came riding by as he was apt to do at least three times a week and he potentially had some money to buy a 25 cent cup of lemonade. Tina could potentially sell it to him and they could potentially strike up a conversation that could potentially bloom into a romance that could potentially end in Tina getting a castle in France and spending her days cooking and eating those fluffy little chocolate-filled pastries.
This was all hypothetical, of course. That was why Tina casually perched herself onto the stool behind her rickety table that was situated right under the sun and…waited. Tina Forman waited three whole days only selling ten cups to the old lady across the street and her brother and stupid Steven Hyde.
"Why's your hair like that?" Tina couldn't help the scowl that tightened her face, forcing the sunburn across her cheeks to tingle uncomfortably. Even at a young age, Steven had been the bane of her existence. She would have sooner stomped on his foot than sold him another cup of her lemonade. But - she sniffed, slamming a full cup down on the table in his direction - she needed the money.
"It's washed," she said hastily, keeping her eyes peeled on the street corner just a few feet away. "You should try it sometime."
"Oh good one." Even when they were little he had mastered the unamused dryness that made every word seem just shy of an insult. His blue eyes peeked out from behind his sunglasses, the seriousness there making Tina fidget. There had always… been something about Hyde. Maybe a layer of credibility that other people didn't have. Like he had already seen too much. Her eyes wandered the slight yellowing at his jaw, the skin there just healing from a bruise. "But Kevin Gengor doesn't like girls that look like rabbits."
Tina gasped, the chair rattling as she leapt up, her fist balling. "How do you know about that?"
Hyde took another slower sip of lemonade. "I read your diary."
White-hot anger scorched her stomach, roaring its way up her throat as she thought about taking him by his curly little muppet hair and drowning him in her pitcher of lemonade. "I'm gonna-"
Hyde's brows rose. "I read your diary, squirt, do you really want to threaten me right now?"
No. Her guts tightened, strangling down on the tirade that was threatening to spill from her lips followed by bodily harm. That's just what he wanted. The last time she had slammed the sliding glass door on Hyde's hand, their mother had made her bandage him up after writing an apology to not only him but his mother. He had carried it around for a week afterward and flashed it every time she had gotten the least bit violent.
"Where's my brother?" the auburn-haired little girl demanded, glaring up at him with eyes the same shade as a frozen lake that Hyde had once tried to skate across. He had almost fallen in and frozen to death.
"Inside." He shrugged, looking around with that apathetic expression that Tina was starting to truly despise. "He's the one that suggested it in the first place though. I think it was payback for telling that Pinciotti girl that he has a crush-"
The insistent sound of bells tinging and boys jostling to be heard over one another. The auburn-haired girl's heart leapt, pigtails whirling like a little helicopter trying to start up as she spun to catch sight of the trio of gangly boys heading toward her driveway. Kevin Gengor - that was definitely his mass of red curls, his freckles popping against a sunburn so bad that there were small blisters starting to bubble at the tips of his ears. But Tina didn't care. Tina didn't care because she had been waiting for three whole days and she had begged her mom to put her hair up in her favorite pigtails - the ones her daddy always grunted at but patted her head for - and Laurie had just told her all the ways that she had gotten a boy on the football team to kiss her behind the bleachers.
No one could get in her ways. Wintery eyes cut over to where Hyde was slouched up against the side of the table, watching the oncoming boys in genuine disinterest.
"You better get out of here right now, Steven Hyde," Tina hissed, and not for the first time Hyde frowned at the odd shivery feeling happen just beneath his rib cage, right up against the wall of his heart - like a dog getting out of a bath and shaking off the excess water.
Hyde's eyes flicked to the half-full cup of lemonade still in his hand. "I'm not done with my-"
Sugary liquid sloshed onto Tina's sleeve as she yanked it from his grip, pouring it out quickly onto the steaming asphalt. "You're done. Now get out of here."
Steven Hyde wanted to say no. He could feel it on the tip of his tongue, waiting beneath that layer of lemon and sugar that was still coating his mouth. He wanted to say it so bad that his lips tightened, his tongue already rolling as he formed the word. With Tina, it was always like that - the urge to deny her what she wanted just so she would have to laser in on him with that expression on her face. Like she was ten seconds away from wrapping her tiny little fingers around his throat. At the moment, he didn't have any clue that any of these things brewed inside of him. He just knew that the urge was there and he had little willpower to resist it.
But that day, in the harsh glare of the summer sun, Hyde had… relented. Begrudgingly, he took a step back, frowning at the little auburn-haired girl as she watched him retreat with surprise, suspicion, and then finally, smug satisfaction. Maybe it had been the way her clenched fist was quivered just the barest amount as she tried to intimidate him into leaving. Maybe it was the way she had written about her dreams of a life in France, drinking hot chocolate and seeking happily ever afters with a guy that had to put on two layers of sunscreen before he went to school.
Hyde couldn't bring himself to take that away from her. Even if it did make him want to go get the nearest blunt object and destroy something.
"Treena!" Tina blinked, frozen for a moment as she tried to work out the fact that while Kevin Gengor was in front of her, he had just most definitely called her the wrong name. Her smile felt pasted on, unyielding and a bit painful to keep in place. "You selling lemonade?"
Hyde resisted the urge to roll his eyes, plopping down unhappily into one of the chairs just outside the Forman's sliding glass door. He had been tasked with keeping an eye on Tina until Eric got back. Which was becoming more and more annoying by the second.
A laugh forced its way up her throat. "Um, yes - yeah. Want one?"
Kevin grinned. "Totally - it's just - ugh - We don't have any money."
A brief and terrifying image of her father yelling about thieves flashed across Tina's mind, his face backlit in red. If he saw - Her eyes flicked around once, quickly making sure that he wasn't anywhere in sight. She didn't just give away free stuff. But… It was Kevin Gengor.
"Um…" It's odd what happens in your mind when you're a kid staring at the person that you've been daydreaming about. Back when Tina was twelve she didn't think about how others should treat her, how their actions would reflect on what they thought about her. All that was running through her mind was that castle in France, Kevin grinning down at her when they got a bit older, his dimples two periods on a story that was already written. Her hand was moving for the pitcher of lemonade before she could even blink, the curly-haired boy sitting on her porch behind her, scowling at the tense slump of her shoulders. "Yeah. That's - that's totally cool. I - I've made so much money anyway…"
It wasn't any of his business. Forman's scrawny, mean-mugged little sister wasn't even in his top ten list of things he needed to take care of. The buck-toothed ginger shrimp gave a snort as Tina knocked over an empty row of cups, blushing and bending to pick them all up with a muttered apology, earning him a playful elbow from one of his equally ugly friends. Beating up Kevin might have been though.
Hyde's leg jiggled in a discontented rhythm, his eyes tracking the whole exchange as Tina finally got all the cups gathered and pushed out the three lemonades. This was where they would go and Hyde would wander back over and badger her until she realized that going after nerds like Kevin Gengor was a bonehead mistake. He's always found that bullying was a lot easier of a way to get someone to listen than actual communication.
"This tastes like straight sugar." Hyde snapped up, his whole body leaning forward as he watched one of Kevin's little goonies cough and spit out a stream of sickly yellow liquid. Kevin was definitely moving up those ranks pretty quickly on Hyde's list. Not my problem, not my problem, not my problem.
Staring up at the open disgust on the face of the boy that she had been daydreaming about for months now, Tina thought that her heart might have stopped. Her face felt numb, all of the muscles in her body going stiff as she waited. Odd how your body does that when you're young and about to go through some sort of emotional trauma - locks you in so that you have to stare at the cruelty around you.
If Kevin Gengor was a decent boy, he would have gently set the cup of lemonade down and said goodbye, leaving the scorning to his two friends. But as it is, not many 9-year-olds are all that nice - usually, the curing age for human emotions takes about 17 years. So when Kevin saw the frozen hurt in the gentle blue of Tina Forman's eyes, he went in for the kill.
The cheap plastic cup made a gentle clipping sound as it slid back in front of the auburn-haired girl. "No wonder you're so fat."
For a moment, no one moved, the silence of those words punctuated by someone calling out to their kids just down the block, a hose running over another person's freshly cut lawn, the sound of tires of loose asphalt. Tina would always remember that silence - like the world was trying to be quiet in the echo of those words.
"Oh man, BURN!" Kevin's friend guffawed, the other doubling over as a slow, smug smile curled Kevin's lips. Kids are mean. The words popped into Tina's head like bubblegum being blown up. Kids are so mean.
"Chubby Tina!" the doubled-over friend howled and Kevin followed suit, letting out a soft chuckle. Behind her, Tina heard a soft growl followed by the stomp of boots on cement.
"HEY, YOU INBRED FU-"
Mindlessly, Tina's hands curled around the edge of her rickety lemonade table. The lemonade table that she had set up for someone as stupid and mean and frankly pathetic as Kevin Gengor. The muscles in her arms went taut.
She flipped the table. Right into the three snot-nosed twelve-year-olds. Plastic cups and lemonade crashed into the asphalt, scattering across the street and into the road in an impressive clatter of noise. Kevin and his two friends shrieked, the table slamming into them with such force that the cement was the only result possible. Maybe if they had been a little bigger something like a rickety table falling into them might have been like a rubber ball against a brick wall. As it was, Kevin was skinny and his friends were uncoordinated enough to not only take the brunt of the table but also fall into each other in such chaos that it ended in a heap of boney knees and screams.
Tina watched it impassively, the usual glint in her blue eyes faded down to dull darkness. She wanted to feel triumph over this small victory. The lemonade had even made a victorious return, drenching Kevin in sticky glory. Instead, she felt strangely devoid of emotion, a yawning hole starting to expand in her chest.
"YOU - YOU -" Tina waited, watching as red slowly transformed Kevin's face into an extension of his hair. His face twisted into something ugly. "YOU WORM!"
"Tina-" Hyde stopped, heat prickling at his nape as he finally got to them. He felt the familiar roar of rage sizzling through his veins, the usual default to regular emotions. But something in Tina's voice twisted that emotion up, ringing it out until all he could do was swallow, glaring hatefully at the three fallen boys in front of them.
"Usually worms wiggling around on the ground." She stared down blankly at the three gaping boys. "Like you."
Words formed and drifted away on the three boys' lips, nearly solidifying and then evaporating. Tina didn't wait for them to retort, turning and making her way quietly back to the safety of her house. She felt oddly twisted, like a rag that had been used to scrub down a countertop, soaked, wrung, and set out to dry.
Hyde's teeth bared in a snarl as he stared down at Kevin and his two little goons. God, they looked even stupider up close. "I see you go near her again and I beat you up. Then I tell the whole school that you peed your pants here."
"You can't-" Kevin started vehemently, the other two giving similar calls of indignance.
"Watch me." Hyde snapped. "Don't go near her."
He feigned a lunge at them, watching as they gave gasps of shock before scuttling off to their bikes. He had started out by protecting Eric for a quarter - now Tina too? He had to stop letting these Formans take up so much of his time.
Hyde caught up with Tina quickly - not because he was trying to but because her steps were slow and stilted little things, taking her barely anywhere. For a moment, Hyde contemplated brushing past her, making this whole thing awkward on one level instead of many. But those stupid pigtails were drooping forward, her eyes firmly set on the ground. And he…
"I tried to tell you Kevin Gengor was a loser-"
"Please don't do that," Tina cut him off and he actually felt his jaw snap shut. Her voice wavered slightly on the plea. "I get it. You were right."
He should have rubbed it in. He had the words sitting on the tip of his tongue. He could bully her into never trying for another boy in her grade ever again. But then he saw the glimmer of fresh tears in her eyes, the hot flush of unshed tears making her face as bright as a fresh tomato. The words on his tongue melted away, leaving behind it the need to make her stop.
His hand shot out, clutching at her chubby fingers, startling her. He felt a blush sear up his neck, tickling his cheeks, his pace picking up as he started to drag her along. "Hold my hand."
An odd flutter started at Tina's stomach, vibrating inwards and outwards in tiny bursts. "You don't have to-"
"Just shut up," he snarled over his shoulder, curls bouncing in a flurry that reminded Tina of a snowstorm. He tugged on her hand. "Let's go tell Red so he can kick their ass when they come around again."
It was the first time that Tina and Hyde had ever really touched - a deliberate act instead of a reflexive one. She could still remember it - the way that his hand was slightly dry from a summer rolling around in mud, the fresh cuts and blood from falling from a tree just a day before. In that moment… in that moment, Hyde had become something… bigger. It wasn't anything remotely like what she felt in this moment as he helped her along through a quickly darkening forest. No, it had been something so pure that she wanted to reach out and touch him again, run her hands along where his worn shirt was pulled taut against his shoulders, where his hair curled invitingly around his ears.
"Bunny," he murmured, turning as he leapt over a log and lifting her deftly over it. Tina felt an odd tightening in her chest, something too big for her mind to label .
"Where are we going?" She says instead of saying something dumb like, I think I'm in love with you, Steven Hyde. Because that's crazy. Teenagers don't know what love is.
Hyde's head tips to the side, a few strands of kinky curls catching some distant light that Tina couldn't entirely recognize yet through the trees. It slanted oddly through the leaves, glowing like a halo just out of sight as they made their way through the forest. The vista cruiser was parked quietly in a deserted parking lot just a bit away, the forest just beyond it.
For a long moment, Hyde didn't respond. Concentration creases his brow, the long strong column of his throat constricting on a swallow before he finally responds, quietly. "Somewhere that reminds me of you."
In that moment, Tina Forman thought that if a scientist had finally been able to open a person up and untangle the emotions that wound through a persons brain, hers would be vacant. Her body would be loose, pliant in the way that only being unconditionally loved could make someone. Like a balloon that had received too much air, floating away unchecked. Because although Steven Hyde would likely never say those words without an edge of unease, to know someone so intimately that locations sang to you in the rhythm that a loved one does fit perfectly into that whimsical box.
For a moment longer, they walked on, Hyde weaving between the brush and trees so well that Tina thought that he must have come here often. The sound of traffic had receded down to the gentle hum of the forest around them, the sound of the wind running it's fingers through leaves, of animals shuddering awake from their day time rest. What could be inside of a forest-
Tina's breath stopped, her eyes dilating in the sudden burst of light, the forest giving way to a thin gravel pathway that circled around, looping between benches and trees and a tiny stream that had been dug out intentionally. Lamps dotted the path, creating intimate halos of light beside benches and walkways.
And resting quietly just in the middle was a mammoth building, iron work swirling lovingly around windows that ran the full length of the building, bursting out to make up the roof entirely. Tina could see green, lush leaves and foliage eating away whatever space there was inside. Fog crept around the green, whispering through branches and brush. Small pricks of light dotted the inside, shining softly from beneath layers of flowers and green.
"H-how-" Words slipped away, leaving empty space as Hyde tugged her across the gravel road and over a tiny wooden bridge that crossed the stream. Looking down, she could see the barest glimmer of scales darting away.
"A buddy of mine owed me a favor," he said, pulling out a key from his pocket and unlocked a sturdy door. Damp air, slightly hot, crept out, curling around their legs lovingly as Hyde tugged her inside, closing and locking the door behind him.
There's something about being in the gentle quiet of plants that settles a person - the wonder that comes with the realization that living things could continue on so harmoniously with each other. Plants lined the walls, pressed up against the windows in a flurry of leaves, each huddled together in sleepy company. Stone floors spanned the open room, bricks keeping clusters of plants out of the way of a path that wound through the collection. Vines coiled across the walls, cascading from hanging pots. Through the tangle of leaves, Tina caught the glow of small lamps, hanging among the foliage.
"You-" Her mind tried to work through some sort of absurd calculation, stunned. Hyde watched her hungrily, back pressed warily to the front door. Tina's eyes found his, confusion furrowing her brow. "You thought of me - here?"
For a moment, the gentle whir of humidifiers filled the space between them. The truth was that the conservatory was only a few miles from his house. On lonely nights, nights when Edna kicked him out or his uncles beat him up, he would make the long walk, his mind churning, fists clenching. Steven Hyde had always been an angry kid. He picked fights because he wanted someone to punch him. He started arguments because sometimes he wanted to hurt people in irrevocable ways. When he had first discovered the conservatory, it had simply been a place to come to avoid the chaos of his house. He had spent more nights than he could remember slumped in those benches outside, staring up at the cold, distant stars in the sky.
The forced quiet of the greenhouse had felt stifling in the beginning, another chain tying him down in this bum-fuck town. He had hated the rules, despised the way that everyone who came in here followed them even though there wasn't really anyone to enforce them. He had spent his evenings standing just in the middle of this giant room, glaring up at the vines that were creeping along the trunk of the mammoth tree that sprouted from the center. He had stared so long that eventually, he started to notice, the desperate way that that vine sunk its roots into the bark, clinging on as it forced itself higher and higher away from the dank soil below. His heart had stilled, quiet buzzing in his ears. He had stared at that same vine for hours that day.
He started to notice more after that - the way the storekeeper whispered lovingly to the plants as she watered them and the way that they almost seemed to hum back at her. He could feel the shift in the air, the call of a million living things suddenly crowding around him. It had frightened him. Amazed him. He had never been so close to magic before in his life.
Eventually what had been a last-ditch attempt at solitude had become a sanctuary. He would rage and snarl across the gravel road, over the tiny bridge, and then… silence. His whole body would quiet, the disparate churning inside of him receding into gentle currents.
And staring across the greenhouse at the way that Tina's auburn hair caught the fairy lights, glowing like lumber trying to catch fire, her eyes catching odd slants of light that turned the irises from baby blue to azure - he felt it. The only one that had ever been able to draw his attention, stilling the roar of hurt inside of him. He wanted to pick her up right there, press her up against the glass and feel her touch baptize him once more.
"Yeah," he said and his words rasped out of him, sounding like grinding gravel and the quiet of an approaching storm. "Yeah, I do."
Tina's eyes shimmered, looking like fallen stars or treasure in the depths of an ocean. God, she made him ache. "No one's ever done anything this wonderful for me."
"That's a shame," he rasped, curled falling into the gentle blase of his eyes. "You deserve to be worshipped every single day."
He said it so nonchalantly. Like it was a fact of life. Like he thought that everyone knew such a rudimentary thing.
Tina was on him in a second, her fingers tangling in the soft mess of his curls as she tipped up to meet his lips. She wanted to take those words into her mouth and swallow them whole. She wanted to feel the timber, the surety of that statement warm her belly. Breath hitching, she pressed herself to the lean strength of his body, drowning in the slight widening of his eyes, the immediate press of his hands against her hips to steady her.
It wasn't slow - led by an urge to devour. Tina's fingers tugged at his curls until he gave a growl, turning her suddenly enough that she gasped, and then his tongue was tangling with hers. Cold glass pressed through the layers of her blouse and into the sensitive skin of her back, Hyde's hands bracing beside her body as they breathed into each other.
"Tina-" There was something about feeling the way that Hyde said her name against her lips - the taste of that one growled word that drove Tina out of her mind, a soft whimpering answering him as she caught his mouth again. His whole body shuddered with the action, silent curses humming from his mouth to hers as he clutched at the hairs at the nape of her neck.
He wanted to sink to his knees and force up that skirt that had always driven him mad. He wanted to press his teeth into the vulnerable skin of her inner thigh, feel her fingers tangle in his hair. He wanted to do obscene, nasty things to her - make her whimper his name and beg for more. But - but -
He yanked himself away, cursing foully, his eyes cloudy. Tina panted, fingers still half-tangled in his hair, breath coming at odd intervals. She missed feeling his skin beneath hers - missed tasting that frustration that having her so near and not near enough caused him.
Curls fell wildly into the clear waters of his eyes, long lashes dipping as he took a deep, ragged breath and then another. His hands clenched against the windowpane on either side of her, trying desperately to reign in the barbaric urges trying to cloud his judgment.
"That's not-" He takes a breath, deep and shuddering and Tina couldn't help but wonder over the pinch of pain in his expression, the slight crease between his brows, the way his hand tensed at her waist. "I didn't bring you here to just have sex." Tina couldn't help the incredulous raise of her brows. Stiffly, he continued on. "I mean, I do… I know I fucked up. A lot. I want to make it up to you. I want to… I don't want to do anything that you don't want."
Moments ticked by as Tina stared up at him, digesting his words. Something addictive bubbled in her gut, making her light-headed. She wanted to kiss him softly and hard all at once, feeling his breath speed up and slow against her own. She wanted to feel the silent thread of control that was running taut inside him right now.
"Mm." A small smile curved her lips, her hands drifting along the fine lines of Hyde's chest in a way that made him curse, red dusting his neck and ears. Something hot warmed her belly as he followed her movements like a leashed animal. "That's interesting. I don't think I've ever seen you hold yourself back from something you wanted."
Hyde's eyes had quickly transformed into dark orbs, his gaze tracking every one of Tina's movements as she moved backwards into the room. His breath caught as one of her hands traveled to the buttons on her blouse, toying with the first one with a sly, knowing smile. She reminded him of a fairy at that moment, luminescent in the thick haze of mist, backlit by fairy light and flowers.
"Bunny." He said it like a plea, like a magic word that would get him out of some sort of trouble. "I'm trying to be good-"
Tina had undone half of her buttons, the blouse falling open to expose the smooth, vulnerable skin of her chest, her breasts cupped delicately in a simple black bra. It drove him crazy. Something so simple like seeing the swell of her breasts, the slight flutter of her stomach as she breathed a bit too quickly, giving away how nervous she was.
"If you don't want to…" She felt a scalding hot blush work its way up her throat, her eyes dropping for the first time to his scuffed boots. "You just have to tell me. But - but I know what I want."
He couldn't help it anymore. Cursing foully, he yanked off his jacket, leaving it in a pool by the front door, tension crawling up his spine, eating him alive as he stalked to her. He was so big - so much bigger than her, she remembered, gasping as he yanked her hands away from where her fingers were quivering along the final button. Rough palms scraped along the sensitive skin of her abdomen, his thumb rubbing circles along her stomach as he gripped her, dragging her closer to him. His eyes were nearly black, a thin circle of blue ringing them.
"You need to be sure," he whispered, his voice harsh. "I've waited so long for you - you just need to be sure."
Tina's breath stilled, her hands finally reaching up to graze over the rough stubble shadowing his jaw, the fine hairs at his temple and ears. "I'm sure about you."
Their kiss wasn't gentle. It was an assault, a flood gate bursting open, heat burning along Tina's spine as she clutched him closer. She wanted to sink into him and feel the way his heartbeat just beneath her fingertips. She wanted to burn along with him.
"Fuck," he rasped, drawing her to the tips of her toes, dragging his hot, open mouth along to the beating point at her throat. His eyes burned up at her. "I've wanted you so bad, Tina."
"I wanted you too," she breathed, wiggling to get closer, trying to find purchase. He let out a small sound, dragging her legs up to rest around his waist. Their hips roll together, searching until Tina's heat finds the thickness beneath his jeans, both of them freezing.
"Did you?" He breathed, breath mingling, both of them held on a wire so thin that Tina's breath can barely come. The darkness of his eyes search hers, trying to find something that Tina didn't entirely ever know that he was searching for. Something inside of her cracks a bit at that look, her heart opening up at the bare vulnerability.
"Always."
A harsh groan rumbles along her lips, his eyes pained as he readjusts, his hands sliding up the planes of her thighs and dragging her hips into his. Something in her head goes fuzzy, the knot in her gut expanding as her whole body gives an answering whimper, her legs tightening around his waist as she tries to squirm just a little bit closer, so that there's no space between them. She wanted more and more, her sex clenching as she tried to keep him close.
"Hy - Hyde -" Tina's words came out breathless, her hands scrambling at his shoulders as she tried to meet his next thrust. She could feel the hot rush of his breath against the curve of his neck, his teeth coming out to bite gently at her shoulder.
He was just as rabid as her, his mind buzzing with how turned on he was. He could feel her wiggling against him, trying to get a better angle - A low growl worked it's way up his throat, his lips skating down to kiss at the gentle swell of her breasts.
"Gonna set you down, bunny." The words were disjointed, rough in a way that bared just how hot he was. A low mewl of protest followed the statement and Hyde felt an answering burst of heat tightened at the base of his spine. God, how could he say no to her? Walking quickly, over to a mossy area just a few feet away, he dropped to his knees, cursing as the action splayed her wider on his lap.
"Better," she breathed out, her hips rolling against him in a way that nearly drove him out of his mind. She couldn't be about to come from this - it wasn't possible- "Hyde - help -"
God, the way that she said it - His teeth sunk into the delicate globe of her breast, making her gasp out a breath. He could listen to that sound all day. "Do you want to come, bunny?"
"Ye - yes." Her brow furrowed adorably, her eyes foggy. His hips rolled with her, mirroring her, fingers massaging into her ass as he helped her move. "I - I don't know-"
His stomach tightened at the confused words. "Want me to help you?"
He could help? Her heart leapt, the ache between her legs almost unbearable as she tried and failed to get closer to that edge that she could feel just out of her reach. Desperately, she shook her head in agreement, fingers clawing at the fine lines of his back.
His teeth bared, knees going a bit wider, causing Tina's thighs to open even more. She had never seen such a hungry look on someone's face. "You gotta let me hear it. I need the words."
"Yes, yes, yes," she breathed, frustrated tears clouding her vision. "Please, Hyde. Please help me."
"Good girl." Those two words shouldn't have made her breath catch, the heat inside of her knotting up even more. But before she could think on it anymore, Hyde's fingers were curving around her hips, his thumbs stroking along the crease of her thighs before parting her. Her breath hitched, almost stopping as the rough pad of his thumb rubbed against - against something wonderful. Her mind went blank, her hips rolling and searching - searching for -
Something deep and all-consuming was creeping up on her, tightening her sex. She could feel his thumb working, rubbing her in slow, deliberate strokes that made everything inside of her go tight. She could feel herself getting closer and closer to some unforeseeable edge and she didn't know when or how but - Her body tightened, her fingers clutching onto the material of his shirt as her whole body seized. A groan rolls from Hyde into the sensitive skin of her breast as he leans down, biting at one of her nipples. The orgasm crashes into her with such a vengeance that everything around her pops with color sounds becoming meaningless as she rides the waves of euphoria before slumping against him.
"You're beautiful." Still boneless against Hyde, Tina lets out a small sound of wonder. Gentle hands run along her back, lulling her. "I could watch that every single day of my life."
"You're being so sweet," Tina whispers, her voice rough as if she hadn't used it in years. Against her chest, the soft rumble of Hyde's affirmation travels along her breasts and she finally notices the thick flesh still pressed to her most intimate area.
His words stop the slow travel of her hand, his larger hand coming out to drag her hand to his lips. "I didn't bring you here for that." Tina's brows go up a fraction, thinking back to the that that had just happened a few seconds ago. Against her palm, his lips curl up into a mischievous smile. "Tonight was for you not for me."
Muscles rolling, Hyde got up, wincing as he had to readjust himself under Tina's dubious. "Are you sure-"
His eyes were strangely serious as he straightened her clothes, pulling her skirt down a fraction. "I didn't come with any condoms and I don't want our first time to be in the dirt." Blue eyes burned into her. "We'll get there. Just not tonight."
As Tina stared up at the man who used to pull her hair and trip her, watching as his brows tensed in concentration as he tried to work on the buttons of her blows, she thought about how lucky she was.
Happy holidays, everybody!