ＶＩＥＮＮＡ

𝔟𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔶 𝔧𝔬𝔢𝔩

♜

I lay awake in my bed, Hyde's arms wrapped around my bare waist as he snores softly into my shoulder. My eyes are trained on the wall while I think, What the fuck did I just do, and why did I do it?

Steven stirs behind me and I brace myself for his reaction to waking up next to me. A tired groan rumbles up from his chest, announcing his awakening. Under his breath, I hear him mutter, "Who is this?" before he leaps away.

"Jesus, Princess!" he yelps. "What did we do?"

I roll over onto my back, covering my face with my hands. "I don't know."

He runs a hand through his hair. "Shit, I'm so sorry," he rambles. "I don't know what I was thinking, I mean you have a boyfriend and-"

"James and I split up."

He stiffens, sitting back down on the bed as I slip his Aerosmith tee over my head. "What did he do to you?"

I comb my hair to the side and sigh casually. "Nothing. I just fucked up."

His eyes soften. "Oh. Do you want to talk about it?" he frowns before adding, "Or whatever."

"No, I just..." I lick my lips. "I need a distraction."

"Ana, are you sure this-"

"I'm sure," I mumble before climbing onto him and kissing him roughly.

He breaks us apart. "Princess, I'm... Oh, fuck it."

♜

We enter the Formans' kitchen and everyone looks up curiously.

"Where have you guys been?" Eric frowns.

"I slept in," Steven shrugs.

Forman raises his eyebrows. "Hyde, you weren't home last night."

He easily covers with a cheeky grin. "Man, I totally got laid."

"Anastasia?" Donna queries.

"Baking," I sigh solemnly.

"Oh, shit."

"Yeah."

"Come on," she says, taking my hand and walking to the basement door, Jackie following us eagerly.

They sit me down onto the couch.

"So, what happened?" Jackie asks.

"James and I broke up."

She scoffs. "Anastasia, you're not being descriptive enough. Either he broke up with you or you broke up with him. You don't break up together."

I roll my eyes bitterly. "Sorry, let me rephrase for your convenience. James broke up with me."

Donna takes a seat next to me and hugs me. "Damn, Ana. I'm sorry."

"Details?" my other friend presses.

"Yeah," the redhead says, pulling back. "What happened with you and Hyde?"

I answer quietly, my eyes downcast. "I needed a distraction."

"Oh my god!" Jackie gasps. "That is so romantic!"

I snap my head up. "No, it isn't! Jamie broke up with me because he thought I liked Hyde! Fooling around with him after splitting with my boyfriend doesn't make me feel any better."

Donna bites her lip. "Well... Do you like Hyde?"

"No, I don't! We had a moment nights ago, but that was a while back, so it doesn't matter."

"A moment?"

"Whatever." I run my hands through my hair. "I've just never had to go through something like this before and I don't know what to do about it. It's so weird. Like, at this time yesterday I thought everything was fine, and now I'm doing stupid shit to get over him."

"Ana, it's probably for the best," Jackie soothes, except it doesn't quite calm me down.

"What do you mean? We loved each other."

She sighs. "See, I don't want to make accusations, but it was clear to everyone that you didn't look at him like you loved him. You looked at him like he was a small crush."

"That's not true," I deny.

"It is," Donna grimaces. "You guys were cute, but it didn't seem like it was genuine enough. It was kind of like that thing you do when you fake something."

I scoff defensively. "What?"

"We know you, Ana. We can tell when you're lying. And you're great at it, but you have little things you do when you're nervous, like play with that ring." She casts a glance at my fingers.

I rip my hands apart, slapping them onto my knees and dismiss the issue, not wishing to talk about it further. "Thanks, guys. You really helped me."

"You're doing it again."

I curse under my breath and shove my hands into my back pockets. "I'll see you guys later."

As I start on the walk home, I'm almost knocked over by Kelso barreling into me. "Michael, what the fuck?" I squeak, speeding up slightly.

He matches my pace easily. "It's good that you're here, Ana. I need your help."

"Mike," I sigh, "I can't talk right now. I have... stuff in the oven."

"We can talk while you do that."

"Kelso-"

"It's about Laurie."

I bite my lip reluctantly. "Fine. Let's go."

Of course, once we get to my house, I don't have anything baking, but Michael doesn't say anything about that. Instead, he pulls me down onto the couch.

"Okay, so," he huffs, "Laurie and I were in my van the other day-"

As I scrunch up my nose, he protests, "We weren't doing anything like that!"

"Sorry," I chuckle. "Continue."

"And anyway, I was pulling my shirt off and she said that she just wanted to talk. So I agreed, just so that she could be happy again and then do it with me, and she ended up talking for an hour!"

I raise my eyebrows. "What's wrong with that?"

"Well, she said she wanted a relationship."

I sit up. "Shit, Mike, I told you to stop this and you didn't and now you've dug yourself deeper."

"I know!" he says incredulously. "And she didn't even mean a sexual one!"

"What did you tell her?"

"I told her I wanted a sexually emotional relationship!"

I pause. "Look, you just have to break it off with either one of them. You cannot string them along like this. It isn't fair."

He pouts. "This isn't how having two girlfriends was supposed to work!"

"Having two girlfriends isn't something you should be doing!"

"Seriously, Ana! I was just trying to get laid twice as much as I already was, and she just wanted to talk! I was taking my shirt off and everything! Like this!"

I smack him. "Put it back on!"

The doorbell rings and I sigh. "One second."

I open it to see James holding a shoebox. He peers over my shoulder at the shirtless Kelso and swallows. "I see you're not having much trouble moving on."

I look at him pleadingly. "Jamie, that's not what's happening at all."

"It's fine, Ana. I found some of your things in my room and I thought you'd want them back."

"Thanks," I mutter. "You didn't leave anything."

"I know."

He closes the door without another word as I toss the box onto the kitchen counter.

"Woah," Kelso says from his spot on the couch, fully clothed. "What was that about?"

"Nothing," I sigh. "James broke up with me but I don't want to talk about it."

I join him again and he rests his head on my shoulder, letting me play with his hair.

"Sorry," he mumbles. "He was lucky to have you. People say you're really good in bed."

Strangely, the comment doesn't offend me. I chuckle. "Thanks. That's nice to hear."

We sit in comfortable silence for a moment before I speak. "We split because he thought there was someone else when there wasn't. Don't lose Jackie because there's someone else for you."

"I'm trying."

"I know. I know you're a good guy, and I know that you don't want to hurt her, but being a good guy doesn't make you less stupid."

He smiles softly. "Burn."

I laugh. "I don't mean it in a rude way, but you need to let one of them go, okay?"

He lifts his head. "Okay. I'll try."

"Don't try. Do it before it blows up in your face."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

I almost think I see him glance at my lips before he smirks, "You know, you're a lot less bitchy when we're alone."

I roll my eyes playfully, kissing his forehead. "Shut up."

"Hey, Ana?"

"Hmm?"

"This is kind of cool. The talking and stuff. I just don't want to do that with Jackie and Laurie because they don't let me talk about... well, me."

"Well, I'm here for you if you ever need to vent."

"Me too."

A smile tugs at the corners of my lips, and I know I won't be able to trust him with any secrets, but I appreciate the sentiment. "Thanks, Mike."

"Yeah, I'm pretty cool." He wraps an arm around me, thankfully not trying to touch my boob, and pulls me into his chest.

"You smell good," he adds thoughtfully. "Kind of like watermelon and sugar."

"Those don't really have pungent scents."

"I don't know what that means, but they sound cool together. What do I smell like?"

"Kind of like vanilla and ginger."

"Oh, man, I love gingerbread cookies."

"No, not-"

"Do you think, the next time you bake, you could make little gingerbread men?"

I shake my head fondly. "Sure."

♜

I sit on the floor by Kelso's feet as the gang chats around us.

"So, anyway, he just took a sip and told me I was fired!" Eric says, recalling the events that happened between and his father just a few minutes ago. "I mean, he was kidding, but my dad has the power to fire me! And he hates me!"

"Eric, I love you, but you've been ranting about this for two minutes now and it's getting a little repetitive," Donna sighs.

"Michael, you should get a job!" Jackie scolds. "Laurie and I were talking and we agreed that if Eric could get a job, then you, an attractive person, should be able to get one too!"

"Lay off of him, Jackie," I say, patting her knee. "He's still focusing on getting through high school."

Kelso, not picking up on my subtle insult, faces her. "Yeah! If Mr. Gingerbread works instead of finishing high school, his gumdrops will fall off because he'll be sad that he chose the wrong path!"

"See, this is exactly what I'm talking about!" she snaps. "You are such a child."

He eats his cookies. "Ana gets it! She's good to talk to. I don't know why her boyfriend left her."

Eric and Fez look at me in confusion. "You and James are done?"

I nod nonchalantly.

"Hyde, why aren't you more surprised about this?" Eric asks. I'm sure he's picked up on the clues that lead to Hyde and me, but he doesn't talk about it, so I don't mind much.

Steven shrugs. "I saw it coming."

"Hyde knows the ways of love," Fez agrees solemnly. "Love screws people over. It is so complicated, yet so necessary for the soul to thrive."

We stare at him strangely for a moment.

"Why are you talking to Anastasia?" Jackie growls at her boyfriend.

I scoff. "Because he needed to rant and I was there. You know I'd never go for him, anyway."

"Everyone would go for me!" he retorts.

"Let's see," I say sarcastically, "there are one, two, three, four, five people in this room who have not gone for you."

"Just because they haven't doesn't mean they won't."

"Whatever, Anastasia," Jackie huffs. "You're right. And you hook up with all of the single guys. Making love to taken guys is Laurie's job."

I ignore the jab as we all stare at her, dumbfounded at the fact that she hasn't figured it out yet.

"What are you all looking at me for?"

"Nothing. Take a cookie."

♜ 

Okay so this chapter is much shorter and doesn't have a lot of Hyde but I'm proud of it nonetheless bc it's almost completely original writing like woah that's pretty chill

On the topic of Kelso, HE IS SO UNDERRATED IMO! I feel like he never gets to really rant to anyone except the guys (but they make fun of him) and he's a cutie so I think a platonic relationship between him and Ana is a good way to incorporate him more into her life. Not to mention, I love writing Kelso. Of course, he'll still say stupid stuff about doing it with the girls when everyone else is around because that's just what he does, but if they're alone, a platonic cuddle session is probably in order >:)

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

Love you guys,

Lissy