Ｉ ＷＡＮＴ ＴＯ ＨＯＬＤ ＹＯＵＲ ＨＡＮＤ

𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔟𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔩𝔢𝔰

♛

"Hey."

I look up, tossing my oven mitts to the side with a small smile. "Hi, Steven. What's up?"

He shuts the door behind him and stands behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"What?" I giggle as he nibbles on my ear.

He rests his chin atop my head. "What are you doing, baking on your birthday?"

I transfer a chocolate chip cookie to a plate. "You remembered?"

"Yeah, well, we missed it last year and you were all pissy, so it's kind of hard to forget."

I glare at him playfully out of the corner of my eye. "Do you want to be on my bad side today?"

He chuckles. "Definitely not."

I turn in his arms and pull his face down to mine.

He kisses me slowly, sweetly. Just the way he knows I like it. Fuck, I love this.

As the kiss becomes more heated, I weave my fingers into his curls and move my lips along his jawline.

He pulls away and laughs at my pout.

"What was that for?"

"I, uh... I have something for you."

I raise my eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah. Got you a present." He reaches into his jean jacket and pulls out small square-shaped cardboard box.

I glance up at him before gently taking it and opening it. Inside is a silver ring, similar to the one he gave me during my first Christmas here. It's a simple band with a crown engraved into the top of the ring.

I slip it onto my left middle finger, examining my hands with a smile.

"Steven, it's beautiful."

He scratches the back of his neck. "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing," I murmur, looking back up at him. "I love it."

"I didn't even buy it, though. It's just one of my old rings, and I was thinking, since I call you Princess and all..."

I wrap my arms around his neck. "Don't worry, babe. I told you I loved it, didn't I?"

He places his hands on my waist and pulls me closer to him, his ears turning red. "Alright, don't get sappy."

I laugh and press my lips onto his once more. "You're the best."

"Yeah, I know."

I smack him lightly and push him away, putting the rest of the cookies onto the plate. "Come on, asshole. Let's go start a Circle."

♛

"Honesty's cool, man!" Kelso concedes after taking a hit. "It's like I can do anything wrong, and then ask for forgiveness, and then I'm good again. I mean, someone should invent a religion like that!"

I frown. "Mike, they already- You know what, nevermind. Please don't take advantage of Jackie again."

He shoves a cookie into his mouth. "Man, I think I'm too baked to understand that sentence. Hey, I'm baked like a cookie! Man, that's so cool!"

Eric scoffs. "Okay, so did anyone else besides me think that some of the guys in that movie were not completely... average? You know, like they were way... above average?"

"What movie?" I interject.

"We saw an X-rated movie," Kelso says, ignoring Hyde's signs for him to shut up. "Honesty is the best policy, Hyde."

"Oh," I nod sincerely. "Well, I hope you guys had fun."

Steven sighs in relief, his breath fanning over my neck. "Forman, you don't go into that line of work if you're below average. You just pray that some hot, redheaded neighbor girl likes you for your personality."

"What are you talking about?" Fez sneers. "Those men were completely average. In fact, I found the guy with the mustache downright puny."

"See, Fez, now that's not honest," Michael scorns. "We all know you're small in the pants."

I peek over at Fez's pants. "I don't know, I mean, it looks like he's packing quite a bit down there." Steven's grip tightens on my waist. "I'm only teasing, love, calm down."

"Anyway, what I'm saying is," Kelso spews, "from here on in, I'm only telling the truth. In fact, I'm going to come clean to Jackie about everything!"

"That's going to be a shitshow," I giggle.

"Yeah, that's what makes it fun."

"You want honesty?" Fez huffs. "We are all small in the pants."

I tilt my head in mock thought. "Debatable."

"You are the smallest in the pants, Ana!" he retorts.

"I don't have a dick, dumbass!"

Hyde pats my thigh. "Kelso, that might be your best idea ever. You know what? You should make a list of all the lies you ever told to Jackie, and I'll help you, because all I want is for you to be happy."

"You guys," Eric frets, "you don't think Donna's, like, bored... right? 'Cause those guys in the movie, they didn't do the same move twice. And I've done the same move, like, always."

"Eric, the best thing to do is to just talk to her. Every girl has different preferences anyway, so you guys should figure out what you like and maybe that'll change things up a bit."

"Do you ever get bored with me, Princess?" Hyde asks cheekily.

I wink at him. "Never."

"Okay, ew," Eric wrinkles his nose.

"Eric, dinner!" Kitty hollers from the kitchen.

"Oh, no," he groans. "Now I have to act normal. But I get to eat, yeah!"

♛

"What?" I yelp.

"What? What did he do?"

Donna leans over and whispers in Jackie's ear.

"Ew! What for?"

"I don't know!" the redhead exclaims. "Like, in what universe is that sexy?"

"Only one! The skinny, pervert universe!"

"I get wanting to switching it up a bit, but couldn't he have at least asked you first?" I remark.

"I know!" Donna agrees. "It was just so strange. I mean, usually, he sticks to, like, two or three key moves."

"You know, I bet it's because of that nudie flick they saw yesterday," Jackie shakes her head.

"Oh, no, it definitely is," I confirm. "They were talking about it in Circle."

"They went to an X-rated movie?" Donna frowns.

"Yeah, didn't Eric tell you?"

"No. Why would he go see something like that? I mean, is our sex life so boring that he has to watch other people do it?"

"People are just pigs sometimes," I shrug. "Think about it. I know you can't honestly say that you've never wanted to see an X-rated movie."

She shakes her head. "Whatever. I'll figure this out later."

♛

"No, that one goes over," I mumble, trying to teach Steven how to braid hair.

"Like that?"

I take his hands and guide his fingers to do it the correct way. "Like that. You try."

He does it on his own and I kiss his cheek. "There you go."

"Okay, Jackie," Kelso interrupts. "There are some things that I haven't been completely honest about that I feel like you should know."

"Okay," she nods. "Why are you doing this with Ana, Hyde, and Fez here?"

"Well, Hyde helpfully pointed out that it's not really honesty unless your friends are allowed to watch and Ana offered to be here for your moral support." She nods. "So, anyway, I made a list."

"The list was my idea," Steven chirps.

"Thank you for that, Hyde. Okay, let's get started. That picture you saw of me in kindergarten? Those weren't puffy pants. It was a big boy diaper."

♛

"That time you were in the shower and you saw a flash? I did take your picture."

♛

"This one time, you asked me if you had anything in your teeth? You did, but I said no, 'cause it's funnier that way."

♛

"Oh, and one time, we were about to fool around and you asked me if I washed my hands, and I said I did, but I really just got done playing with, like, six dogs."

♛

"Princess, wake up," a voice murmurs in my ear. "Ana."

My eyes flutter open and I look around. I lay on top of Hyde's chest, and we're alone in the middle of the basement.

"Is he done?"

"No," he chuckles, "but Jackie made him stop. Good thing, too. It was funny at first, but it got annoying pretty quickly."

I notice that my long hair is in a messy braid. "You practiced?" I smile.

"Yeah," he smirks. "It's not really that good, and it's really messy, but you have nice hair, so it was pretty fun to do."

I sit up and pull the strap of my bra back to my shoulder. "Well, I'm glad you enjoyed."

He reaches behind him and hands me a store-bought cupcake with a match sticking out of it. "Here."

"You already got me something."

"Well, I'm in the mood for cupcakes, so here we are."

I bite my lip with a grin. "Thanks."

He swiftly takes the match out and lights it. "Make a wish."

I wish that... that I'll always be able to come back to the gang, even if we drift apart at some point. I blow out the small flame.

He sets the match down as I take a bite of the cupcake. "Damn, PriceMart food is pretty good."

He rolls his eyes. "Oh, shut it."

I laugh and let him take a bite, wiping a crumb off of the corner of his mouth.

After finishing the cupcake, I toss the wrapper onto the coffee table and kiss him slowly, the taste of frosting still lingering on his lips.

"Thank you for today, Steven. Even for Kelso chatting our ears off with his honesty," I giggle.

He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. "Anything for you."

I love you.

I snuggle into his side without a word.

"Taking another nap?"

"Maybe."

He kisses the top of my head. "Sleep well, Princess."

♛

this chapter was, like, 70% Hana fluff but I'm not mad about that AT ALL

But this is the fiftieth chapter! I thought it would be pretty fun to have Ana's bday in this chapter as a bit of a thank-you thing

I can't believe there are so many people who read and support this book, and it honestly warms my heart that we've come this far

I usually never finish my projects, and when I do, I drift from them easily, but this story has kept pulling me in so far (knock on wood) and I genuinely enjoy writing it. Again, thank you guys so much for the support, you're all absolutely amazing.

Anyway, feedback, comments, and votes are always appreciated!

Love you guys,

Lissy

P.S.: thank you so so much for 20k reads!

P.P.S.: I know this might seem like a strange song choice for the chapter, but I Want To Hold Your Hand is very special to me personally and I thought I'd like to share a bit of that with you guys since it's the fiftieth chapter and all :))