07/08/2020, 20:45
Fandom: That '70s Show
Summary: Eric Forman/Steven Hyde; In which Hyde and Eric both learn to dance - and maybe learn a little more [1x07 AU].
Words: 3912
[i] [/i]Women always want to dance, Red had said. Hyde had to admit, Donna was pretty hot. And it wasn’t as if he had anything better going on. He could sit at home and have a shit time, or he could go to the disco and have a possibly shit time, but with friends. Possible shittiness versus guaranteed shittiness was a gamble he was willing to take.
“You’re doing great, Steven,” Mrs Forman said, a kind smile on her face.
They’d had quite a rocky start. Red had been right – he couldn’t dance [i]a step[/i]. He’d been terrified when he had dropped Kitty, but she’d merely laughed and said that she wasn’t that old yet and wouldn’t be broken by a simple fall. She’d simply shoved him back into position and continued her lesson. She was like that. And after half an hour, he began to get a feel for it. God forbid, he started to [i]like [/i]the dancing – as long as he willfully pushed the fact that this was Forman’s mother to a deep dark place in his mind. He wondered Kitty had taught Forman to dance like this. If Forman could dance, there was no way Hyde stood a chance with Donna.
“Earth to Steven?”
Hyde realized that they had stopped moving.
“You’ve got your head up in the clouds somewhere,” Mrs Forman said, and she laughed. “Let’s continue tomorrow. We’ll get you right fixed to charm some pretty lady.”
“Thanks for the help, Mrs Forman.”
“Anytime, Steven. Anytime.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Edna asked, a sneer on her face.
Hyde dropped his arms to his side. “Dancing.”
Edna laughed. “You call that dancing? Where did you pick that up?” She imitated some of this movements, almost slipping in the high heels she was wearing. “I bet it was at the Formans’ house, wasn’t it?”
His mother didn’t like the Formans. Hyde thought that was fair. The Formans didn’t like his mother very much either. As much as he enjoyed getting a rise out of Edna defending the Formans, he guessed he could be the bigger man every now and then. “What are you so dolled up for?”
“None of your business.”
“Or should I ask who? Is it Jackson? Or Irving?” So much for being the bigger person.
Edna scoffed, and rolled herself a cigarette. “Maybe it’s both. I don’t ask you who you’re dancing for either, do I?”
Hyde supposed there was nothing he could say to that. As long as it didn’t bother her, she tended to leave him to do whatever the hell he wanted. In this case, that suited him just fine. “Have fun,” he said, quite uselessly. It’s not as if her fun depended on [i]him[/i].
“Whatever,” Edna said. “I’m going out. Help yourself to dinner.”
As soon as they arrived at the disco, Hyde knew this was a mistake. He didn’t like disco. He didn’t like people. And there were a lot of both in this room. He was glad that for now they’d at least found a place to sit down while Kelso was making an ass of himself on the dance floor. Hyde knew he should just ask Donna to dance with him. It’s what he came here to do, and he could hardly look more stupid than Kelso. Instead, he took another sip from his pop and tried to block out the music.
It was only when Fez had pulled Jackie out of her chair that Hyde realized he was being a total wuss. Man, if Fez could successfully make a move on Jackie, he should be able to ask Donna to dance with him.
“Wow, they are really good,” Forman said, his voice a little shaky. It seemed like Forman hadn’t received any dancing lessons and wanted to be anywhere but here. It was a shame; Hyde would have liked to see Forman dance. If only to make fun of him, of course. Seeing his friend all down in the dumps made him almost feel bad for what he was about to do. Almost.
“Yeah,” Kelso said, shaking his head like an abandoned puppy in a TV commercial, “if you wanna dance that way.”
“I would love to dance that way,” Donna said.
Now or never. “You wanna dance?” Hyde asked, keeping his voice as neutral as possible.
“Sure.”
Hyde took off his glasses, grabbed Donna’s hand and led her to the dance floor, trying to get into the rhythm of the music. This was [i]not[/i] what he had practiced with Kitty, but he remembered the lessons. Don’t look at your feet, make sure to lead. After a few uncertain steps, he’d found the beat of the music and was able to ignore the frilly melodies that tended to come with disco music, and he found himself smiling at Donna.
“You dance,” she said, her face beaming back at him. “This is a side of you I’ve never seen.”
“Yeah. Actually, you’re my first dance.” Unless he was counting Mrs Forman, but he was not telling Donna that.
“I’m your first? I’m honored.”
They were incredibly close together. “This is nice,” he said. It was. He didn’t hate it. He liked dancing, pretty much solidified that one. But he wasn’t exactly sure if he liked dancing with Donna any more than he had like dancing with Kitty. He was looking into Donna’s eyes, and he couldn’t help but wonder what Forman must be thinking now. Whether his scrawny fists would be all balled-up. Or if he’d just be quietly pissed.
“Mmm-hmm.”
Remembering his lessons, Hyde dipped Donna and looked her in the eye. Now or never. “Donna, man, I feel like I wanna kiss you.” It felt was if his heart was going two-hundred miles an hour and he wondered if Donna could sense it. She was looking at him, and– “You don’t have to kiss me back if you don’t want to,” Hyde said, pulling them back into position.
Donna only laughed. Right. Ridiculous. What the hell was he even doing? Donna was his friend, nothing more. And even if she were, it wasn’t as if Donna was ever going to pick him over Forman.
“I’m not kidding,” he said, hoping to make it all sound like one big joke. Judging from the way Donna was look at him, he was an idiot.
Instead of getting angry, though, Donna hit him in the shoulder. “Shut up and dance.”
They danced, and they smiled. No mention anymore of kissing whatsoever, and Donna clearly had no intention of kissing him. Ever. Somewhere in his brain a voice was telling him that he should be feeling bad about that. But he didn’t. It was worse than that: he felt relieved.
While Kelso was going on and on about the flaunty way Jackie and Fez were dancing, Eric was paying even less attention to him than he usually would. Instead, he was staring at the easy way in which Hyde seemed to be leading the dance. His movement were fluid and graceful, and Donna seemed to be enjoying herself. Hell, Hyde seemed to be enjoying himself. He hadn’t thought that this evening would entail seeing Hyde either dance or smile – and definitely not at the same time.
“I don’t understand how she could do this to me,” Kelso whined. “I mean, I’m an incredible dancer, and–”
Eric wondered if he should be angry too. If he should perhaps be ranting Kelso’s head off instead. He thought he made it kind of clear that he was interested in Donna and that that was the only reason he was going to the disco, and the fact that Hyde, of all people, was now on the dance floor with her should rightfully piss him off. He should be yearning to take Hyde’s place. But it didn’t. Not even when Hyde leaned in a little too closely. If anything, he realized, he liked watching them dance.
“Hey, uh… Hyde dancing, what a surprise,” Eric said, trying to keep his voice as even as possible. He wasn’t jealous. He really wasn’t, and he definitely didn’t want Donna to think that he was. Having observed it in Kelso the entire evening, he knew it was a stupid look.
“Yeah,” Donna said. “Who knew?”
“Yeah,” Eric said, mentally slapping himself in the face for his lame response. “You looked like you were having a pretty good time.”
Donna smiled. “Yeah, well, you know. Disco fever.”
Eric leaned against the hood of the Vista Cruiser and looked down at his hands. “That’s good. It’s good that you had fun.”
“It didn’t mean anything, you know. Me and Hyde… We’re just friends.” Donna bumped his shoulder. “Are you jealous?”
“No,” Eric said, and he raised his head to look Donna in the eye. “I’m not. And the stupid thing is, I feel like I should be.” He felt his heartrate pick up and forced himself to take a deep breath. “We’ve – we’ve been having this thing, and I like the thing that we have. But I feel like if it had been really a thing, I should have – I should have… I don’t know. I guess I’m being stupid.”
“You’re always being stupid,” Donna said, with a smirk on her face. “But just this once, I think you might be right. We’ve been friends for years. And perhaps that’s what we should be. Just friends.”
“So you’re not–”
“Madly in love with you? Nah. I liked the flirting, but, you know – hormones.”
“Right,” Eric said, letting a small chuckle escape.
Donna grinned. “Disappointed after all?”
“Nah,” Eric said. “I’m good.”
Donna punched him in the arm and then pulled him into a sideways hug, putting her head on his shoulder. “Good.”
Eric smiled, placing a hand on Donna’s shoulder. He felt better than good. He felt relieved.
“Hyde,” Fez said, as they were sitting on the hood of the parked Vista Cruiser, “you were right about disco music. It is evil. Its pulsing rhythm made me do a bad thing.”
Hyde looked at his friend. “Yeah, well, me too,” he said. He felt guiltier than he probably should, taking into account that nothing actually happened. But still, he had gone out of his way to try and steal the girl his best friend was so obviously in love with, and for what? Because he thought he [i]might[/i] be in love with her? He knew he was always a bit of an ass to Forman, but he didn’t think he’d ever been this much of an ass.
“Kelso is my friend, I cannot take his woman.”
“You’re a good guy, Fez,” Hyde said.
“Actually,” Fez said, “I could take his woman, but I won’t.”
Hyde grinned. He could dream. “Come on, I’ll walk you home.”
Eric looked at Hyde, who was sitting in his usual chair with his feet up on the table and seemed engrossed in the latest issue of [i]Circus[/i]. Jackie had just dragged Kelso off to take him shopping, and Donna had left about an hour ago to work on some homework. Now it was just him and Hyde, finally alone, and Eric was [i]itching[/i] to ask him something, even if there was no way to ask it without sounding like a total dingus. He leaned back on the couch, looking at his hands as he cracked his fingers.
“Okay, Forman, what is it?”
“What?” Eric said, unable to keep the alarm out of his voice.
Hyde closed his magazine and rolled it up. “You’re fidgeting. Why are you fidgeting?”
“I’m always fidgeting.”
Hyde have him a pointed look. “You’re more fidgety than usual, then. What’s up.”
Eric scraped his throat and looked back at his hands. “I, uh… You and Donna seemed to have fun dancing yesterday.”
“It was nothing, Forman,” Hyde said, pulling up his feet from the table and straightening his back. “We were just –”
“That was not what I meant,” Eric said, holding up his hands. “I know. Donna said – well – anyway, it’s not like she’s my girlfriend or anything. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I mean that the dancing seemed fun, and was wondering–”
“Wait, but you want Donna to be your girlfriend, right?”
Eric looked up at Hyde. “I mean, I thought I wanted her to be my girlfriend. But we’ve been friends since forever, and I think – I don’t know – we sort of decided that we’d better stay friends.”
“Oh, so she dumped you before you could even become a couple?” Hyde grinned, and Eric threw a pillow at him.
“It was a mutual decision. I don’t know.”
“You seem pretty okay with it.”
“I [i]am[/i],” Eric said, “pretty okay with it. I guess I was being an idiot.”
“Nothing new,” Hyde said. “Speaking of your idiocy, what [i]did[/i] you want to ask?”
“Well…” Eric laughed nervously. “It’s kinda stupid, and I know you’re going to make fun of me for it, but–”
“In that case, you should definitely tell me.”
“Shut up. I was wondering… if you could teach me to dance like that?”
Hyde looked at him for a moment, and then broke eye contact. “Sure.”
“You–” Eric smiled and frowned. “Okay, cool.”
“You could come to my house tonight.”
“I mean, we could–”
“Unless you’d like to have Red catch you dancing.”
“Good point.”
Hyde nodded, unrolled [i]Circus [/i]and stretched his legs on the table again.
Eric turned on the television, staring at the cartoon characters on the screen, and wondering just how he had landed in a universe where Hyde wanted to teach him to dance, and hadn’t laughed.
Hyde wondered just how he had gotten himself into this. Why hadn’t he just said that Forman should ask someone else. Like his mother. It wasn’t really that he didn’t want Forman to know that Kitty had been the one to help him. Okay, it kind of was. He may also have been blindsided a little by the sheer relief that Forman wasn’t mad at him for dancing with Donna. But it was mostly that he found himself wanting to dance again. He didn’t understand it, but he had had a good time with both Kitty and Donna, and he – well… Maybe it would be a little weird to dance with Forman. It was a little weird, right? Of course it was. Men didn’t dance together. Kitty had been the one to teach him, not Red. But Forman hadn’t gone to Donna. He’d come to him. And something about that – something he refused to think about any further – made Hyde feel damn pleased about himself.
His mom had left about two hours ago, and he had spent that time rearranging the living room. He had pushed the couch up against the wall and made sure the TV was safely stowed away. All in all, he thought there would be enough space in the room to dance, even if Forman turned out to be as hopelessly bad and uncoordinated as Hyde had been when he started out. He hoped Edna wouldn’t be back early, or there would be hell to pay.
Hyde grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat down on the couch, not entirely sure if he wanted time to fly by or wanted to stall Forman’s arrival for as long as possible. Maybe it was a bad idea to ask Forman to come here. He gulped down the beer faster than he should. Just as he was about to walk to the kitchen for a refill, he heard a knock on the door. He crushed the empty can in his hand and threw it in the trash as he made his way to the door.
“Hey Forman,” he said, after he had opened the door.
Forman wasn’t looking at him directly. “Hey.”
“Come in,” Hyde said, kicking the door open a bit further.
Forman did as told and took off his coat, looking for a good place to put it and deciding on one of the chairs. “I see you’ve redecorated,” he said, gesturing at the empty room.
“Seemed like the easiest way to prevent injuries.”
Forman snorted. “Good call, I guess.” He glanced around the room. “Where’s your mom?”
“Out. Probably won’t be back for a while.”
“Right.” Forman nodded, but he kept looking around him, almost in suspicion.
“Relax, Forman. What are you worried about?”
“Nothing,” he said, too quickly. “I’m not worried.”
Hyde followed Forman’s gaze, and wondered if it was the house. Should have made some more effort to clean up? He’d dumped the bottles he found under the couch, but he hadn’t really made any attempt to deep-clean. Forman had been to his house before, so he knew it looked like crap, right? “Let’s dance then?”
“Yeah.”
Hyde put on the ABBA record he had found buried somewhere in his mother’s closet.
“I didn’t think you owned anything besides Rolling Stones and Zeppelin LPs,” Forman said, as the first song started to play.
“Shut up, Forman. It’s my mom’s. Dancing to Zeppelin is not gonna get you any chicks.” Hyde took off his glasses and placed them in his breast pocket, led Forman’s right hand to his waist, took his other hand in his right hand and placed his own left hand on Forman’s shoulder, just like Mrs Forman had taught him. He looked at Forman, who still didn’t quite look him in the eye, and almost wished he could force him to look up. Hyde was going to dance. To ABBA. Voluntarily. Because Forman asked. The least he could do was look him in the eye.
By now, the second song had started. That dancing song Jackie was so obsessed with. “You’re leading, Forman. Show me what you got.”
Not a lot, judging from his reaction. Forman laughed and looked down at his feet, but then tightened his grip on Hyde’s hand, and started moving – stiffly and awkwardly at first, but more and more certain. He seemed to gain some confidence in his steps as Hyde counted along and held his hand firmly on Forman’s shoulder. They kept circling around the room; Hyde counted and explained the steps, and Forman got the hang of it eventually. He was softly humming along with the music and only stepped on his toes twice, although that might be because he kept looking down. “Hey, Forman. Last lesson,” Hyde said. “You have to look a chick in the eye when you dance with her. Way more romantic like that – so no looking at your feet. Act like you know what you’re doing.”
Forman looked up at him, his face faintly flushed. “You’re not a chick, though.”
“No,” Hyde said with a sharp edge to his voice. “But no doubt you’re gonna use this to seduce chicks, so you’d better pretend I’m one.”
Forman smiled at him, cheeks still glowing, and as their eyes met, it was like something shifted into place.
Crap. He was in love with Forman.
Eric had been nervous when he arrived at Hyde’s house, even though he couldn’t quite pinpoint why. He and Hyde had been friends since they were nine years old, and they’d done some stupid crap together – Red could confirm. Dancing, though… That was something else. It almost felt like it was something that was too intimate to do with a friend. When his hand was on Hyde’s waist, he barely dared to look at him. He felt heat flooding his face and tried to concentrate on getting the steps right, so he wouldn’t look like a complete moron.
As he finally looked up, even more heat rose to his cheeks. Hyde’s eyes were… soft? He was looking at Eric with some sort of fondness that he couldn’t quite place, and Eric couldn’t look away. He had never felt this way when he was with Hyde before. Hell, he hadn’t even felt like this with Donna. Sure, they had flirted and he’d done some frankly embarrassing stuff, but it had never been like [i]this[/i]. He had never been this nervous. And Hyde wasn’t even a girl. Hyde was a guy. And it wasn’t like he–
Hyde’s voice dragged him out of his thoughts. “Who’ve you got your eyes on, if not Donna?”
“I – uh…” There wasn’t any girl. He hadn’t asked Hyde to teach him to dance because of any girl, he had just asked him because… Because he wanted to dance with him? Oh crap. He totally was. He was in love with Hyde. “I guess I’ve got my eyes on someone.”
“Spill.”
“Well,” Eric said, his heart hammering in his chest as he threw all rational thought out of the window and moved his hands to Hyde’s cheeks, kissing him on the lips.
Hyde stilled, not leaning into the kiss but not breaking it either. Eric opened his eyes and stepped back a little, releasing Hyde from his grip. Hyde was staring at him, his expression unreadable.
“Sorry, I – uh – I didn’t know what came over me. I just–”
“Shut up, Forman,” Hyde said as he closed the space between them and pressed their lips together. He put both hands on Eric’s waist and pulled him closer. Eventually, Hyde broke the kiss. He didn’t move his hands, though.
“So…” Eric said, uncertain where to go from here.
“Let me get you a beer,” Hyde said quickly, and he deprived Eric of the warm touch of his hands before he could even respond.
“Right,” Eric said to the empty room. Only now he realized that the music had stopped.
“Here you go,” Hyde said, returning to the living room with two beers in his hands. He handed Eric his beer and sat down on the couch.
Now that the music had stopped – and not just literally – the silence hung between them like a blade. Eric sat down next to him – as close as he dared – and opened the beer with a soft hiss. He watched as Hyde studied his beer, not even drinking from it. It was now or never. If he didn’t say it now, he’d chicken out and both of them would pretend this never happened. Maybe that would even be the easier option. Maybe that was even what he should do, if he could rub two brain cells together. But it wasn’t what he wanted. “Hyde,” he said. “I think I’m in love with you.”
Hyde didn’t say anything for a while, and instead kept staring at the can in his hands. “You think?”
“No,” Eric said. “I know. I’ve known for a while, I think, but I’m an idiot.” He chuckled. “I know, as always.”
Hyde set his beer on the floor, and looked up at Eric. “I guess we’re both idiots sometimes.” His voice was soft, and betrayed uncertainty.
Eric smiled, and inched closer to Hyde so their shoulders touched. “Maybe we can be idiots together?”
Hyde covered Eric’s hand with his and intertwined their fingers. He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. This was how it was supposed to be. This was right.
I’m in love with you too.
Summary: Eric Forman/Steven Hyde; In which Hyde and Eric both learn to dance - and maybe learn a little more [1x07 AU].
Words: 3912
It Takes Two to Tango
Twirling around the Forman’s living room really did make Hyde contemplate his life choices. He was dancing, because he was going to a [i]dance[/i]. What the hell was wrong with him? He felt like he was betraying his own rock and roll image with every step he took, and he didn’t know what made him want to go to the dance in the first place.[i] [/i]Women always want to dance, Red had said. Hyde had to admit, Donna was pretty hot. And it wasn’t as if he had anything better going on. He could sit at home and have a shit time, or he could go to the disco and have a possibly shit time, but with friends. Possible shittiness versus guaranteed shittiness was a gamble he was willing to take.
“You’re doing great, Steven,” Mrs Forman said, a kind smile on her face.
They’d had quite a rocky start. Red had been right – he couldn’t dance [i]a step[/i]. He’d been terrified when he had dropped Kitty, but she’d merely laughed and said that she wasn’t that old yet and wouldn’t be broken by a simple fall. She’d simply shoved him back into position and continued her lesson. She was like that. And after half an hour, he began to get a feel for it. God forbid, he started to [i]like [/i]the dancing – as long as he willfully pushed the fact that this was Forman’s mother to a deep dark place in his mind. He wondered Kitty had taught Forman to dance like this. If Forman could dance, there was no way Hyde stood a chance with Donna.
“Earth to Steven?”
Hyde realized that they had stopped moving.
“You’ve got your head up in the clouds somewhere,” Mrs Forman said, and she laughed. “Let’s continue tomorrow. We’ll get you right fixed to charm some pretty lady.”
“Thanks for the help, Mrs Forman.”
“Anytime, Steven. Anytime.”
---
“What the hell are you doing?” Edna asked, a sneer on her face.
Hyde dropped his arms to his side. “Dancing.”
Edna laughed. “You call that dancing? Where did you pick that up?” She imitated some of this movements, almost slipping in the high heels she was wearing. “I bet it was at the Formans’ house, wasn’t it?”
His mother didn’t like the Formans. Hyde thought that was fair. The Formans didn’t like his mother very much either. As much as he enjoyed getting a rise out of Edna defending the Formans, he guessed he could be the bigger man every now and then. “What are you so dolled up for?”
“None of your business.”
“Or should I ask who? Is it Jackson? Or Irving?” So much for being the bigger person.
Edna scoffed, and rolled herself a cigarette. “Maybe it’s both. I don’t ask you who you’re dancing for either, do I?”
Hyde supposed there was nothing he could say to that. As long as it didn’t bother her, she tended to leave him to do whatever the hell he wanted. In this case, that suited him just fine. “Have fun,” he said, quite uselessly. It’s not as if her fun depended on [i]him[/i].
“Whatever,” Edna said. “I’m going out. Help yourself to dinner.”
---
As soon as they arrived at the disco, Hyde knew this was a mistake. He didn’t like disco. He didn’t like people. And there were a lot of both in this room. He was glad that for now they’d at least found a place to sit down while Kelso was making an ass of himself on the dance floor. Hyde knew he should just ask Donna to dance with him. It’s what he came here to do, and he could hardly look more stupid than Kelso. Instead, he took another sip from his pop and tried to block out the music.
It was only when Fez had pulled Jackie out of her chair that Hyde realized he was being a total wuss. Man, if Fez could successfully make a move on Jackie, he should be able to ask Donna to dance with him.
“Wow, they are really good,” Forman said, his voice a little shaky. It seemed like Forman hadn’t received any dancing lessons and wanted to be anywhere but here. It was a shame; Hyde would have liked to see Forman dance. If only to make fun of him, of course. Seeing his friend all down in the dumps made him almost feel bad for what he was about to do. Almost.
“Yeah,” Kelso said, shaking his head like an abandoned puppy in a TV commercial, “if you wanna dance that way.”
“I would love to dance that way,” Donna said.
Now or never. “You wanna dance?” Hyde asked, keeping his voice as neutral as possible.
“Sure.”
Hyde took off his glasses, grabbed Donna’s hand and led her to the dance floor, trying to get into the rhythm of the music. This was [i]not[/i] what he had practiced with Kitty, but he remembered the lessons. Don’t look at your feet, make sure to lead. After a few uncertain steps, he’d found the beat of the music and was able to ignore the frilly melodies that tended to come with disco music, and he found himself smiling at Donna.
“You dance,” she said, her face beaming back at him. “This is a side of you I’ve never seen.”
“Yeah. Actually, you’re my first dance.” Unless he was counting Mrs Forman, but he was not telling Donna that.
“I’m your first? I’m honored.”
They were incredibly close together. “This is nice,” he said. It was. He didn’t hate it. He liked dancing, pretty much solidified that one. But he wasn’t exactly sure if he liked dancing with Donna any more than he had like dancing with Kitty. He was looking into Donna’s eyes, and he couldn’t help but wonder what Forman must be thinking now. Whether his scrawny fists would be all balled-up. Or if he’d just be quietly pissed.
“Mmm-hmm.”
Remembering his lessons, Hyde dipped Donna and looked her in the eye. Now or never. “Donna, man, I feel like I wanna kiss you.” It felt was if his heart was going two-hundred miles an hour and he wondered if Donna could sense it. She was looking at him, and– “You don’t have to kiss me back if you don’t want to,” Hyde said, pulling them back into position.
Donna only laughed. Right. Ridiculous. What the hell was he even doing? Donna was his friend, nothing more. And even if she were, it wasn’t as if Donna was ever going to pick him over Forman.
“I’m not kidding,” he said, hoping to make it all sound like one big joke. Judging from the way Donna was look at him, he was an idiot.
Instead of getting angry, though, Donna hit him in the shoulder. “Shut up and dance.”
They danced, and they smiled. No mention anymore of kissing whatsoever, and Donna clearly had no intention of kissing him. Ever. Somewhere in his brain a voice was telling him that he should be feeling bad about that. But he didn’t. It was worse than that: he felt relieved.
---
While Kelso was going on and on about the flaunty way Jackie and Fez were dancing, Eric was paying even less attention to him than he usually would. Instead, he was staring at the easy way in which Hyde seemed to be leading the dance. His movement were fluid and graceful, and Donna seemed to be enjoying herself. Hell, Hyde seemed to be enjoying himself. He hadn’t thought that this evening would entail seeing Hyde either dance or smile – and definitely not at the same time.
“I don’t understand how she could do this to me,” Kelso whined. “I mean, I’m an incredible dancer, and–”
Eric wondered if he should be angry too. If he should perhaps be ranting Kelso’s head off instead. He thought he made it kind of clear that he was interested in Donna and that that was the only reason he was going to the disco, and the fact that Hyde, of all people, was now on the dance floor with her should rightfully piss him off. He should be yearning to take Hyde’s place. But it didn’t. Not even when Hyde leaned in a little too closely. If anything, he realized, he liked watching them dance.
---
“Hey, uh… Hyde dancing, what a surprise,” Eric said, trying to keep his voice as even as possible. He wasn’t jealous. He really wasn’t, and he definitely didn’t want Donna to think that he was. Having observed it in Kelso the entire evening, he knew it was a stupid look.
“Yeah,” Donna said. “Who knew?”
“Yeah,” Eric said, mentally slapping himself in the face for his lame response. “You looked like you were having a pretty good time.”
Donna smiled. “Yeah, well, you know. Disco fever.”
Eric leaned against the hood of the Vista Cruiser and looked down at his hands. “That’s good. It’s good that you had fun.”
“It didn’t mean anything, you know. Me and Hyde… We’re just friends.” Donna bumped his shoulder. “Are you jealous?”
“No,” Eric said, and he raised his head to look Donna in the eye. “I’m not. And the stupid thing is, I feel like I should be.” He felt his heartrate pick up and forced himself to take a deep breath. “We’ve – we’ve been having this thing, and I like the thing that we have. But I feel like if it had been really a thing, I should have – I should have… I don’t know. I guess I’m being stupid.”
“You’re always being stupid,” Donna said, with a smirk on her face. “But just this once, I think you might be right. We’ve been friends for years. And perhaps that’s what we should be. Just friends.”
“So you’re not–”
“Madly in love with you? Nah. I liked the flirting, but, you know – hormones.”
“Right,” Eric said, letting a small chuckle escape.
Donna grinned. “Disappointed after all?”
“Nah,” Eric said. “I’m good.”
Donna punched him in the arm and then pulled him into a sideways hug, putting her head on his shoulder. “Good.”
Eric smiled, placing a hand on Donna’s shoulder. He felt better than good. He felt relieved.
---
“Hyde,” Fez said, as they were sitting on the hood of the parked Vista Cruiser, “you were right about disco music. It is evil. Its pulsing rhythm made me do a bad thing.”
Hyde looked at his friend. “Yeah, well, me too,” he said. He felt guiltier than he probably should, taking into account that nothing actually happened. But still, he had gone out of his way to try and steal the girl his best friend was so obviously in love with, and for what? Because he thought he [i]might[/i] be in love with her? He knew he was always a bit of an ass to Forman, but he didn’t think he’d ever been this much of an ass.
“Kelso is my friend, I cannot take his woman.”
“You’re a good guy, Fez,” Hyde said.
“Actually,” Fez said, “I could take his woman, but I won’t.”
Hyde grinned. He could dream. “Come on, I’ll walk you home.”
---
Eric looked at Hyde, who was sitting in his usual chair with his feet up on the table and seemed engrossed in the latest issue of [i]Circus[/i]. Jackie had just dragged Kelso off to take him shopping, and Donna had left about an hour ago to work on some homework. Now it was just him and Hyde, finally alone, and Eric was [i]itching[/i] to ask him something, even if there was no way to ask it without sounding like a total dingus. He leaned back on the couch, looking at his hands as he cracked his fingers.
“Okay, Forman, what is it?”
“What?” Eric said, unable to keep the alarm out of his voice.
Hyde closed his magazine and rolled it up. “You’re fidgeting. Why are you fidgeting?”
“I’m always fidgeting.”
Hyde have him a pointed look. “You’re more fidgety than usual, then. What’s up.”
Eric scraped his throat and looked back at his hands. “I, uh… You and Donna seemed to have fun dancing yesterday.”
“It was nothing, Forman,” Hyde said, pulling up his feet from the table and straightening his back. “We were just –”
“That was not what I meant,” Eric said, holding up his hands. “I know. Donna said – well – anyway, it’s not like she’s my girlfriend or anything. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I mean that the dancing seemed fun, and was wondering–”
“Wait, but you want Donna to be your girlfriend, right?”
Eric looked up at Hyde. “I mean, I thought I wanted her to be my girlfriend. But we’ve been friends since forever, and I think – I don’t know – we sort of decided that we’d better stay friends.”
“Oh, so she dumped you before you could even become a couple?” Hyde grinned, and Eric threw a pillow at him.
“It was a mutual decision. I don’t know.”
“You seem pretty okay with it.”
“I [i]am[/i],” Eric said, “pretty okay with it. I guess I was being an idiot.”
“Nothing new,” Hyde said. “Speaking of your idiocy, what [i]did[/i] you want to ask?”
“Well…” Eric laughed nervously. “It’s kinda stupid, and I know you’re going to make fun of me for it, but–”
“In that case, you should definitely tell me.”
“Shut up. I was wondering… if you could teach me to dance like that?”
Hyde looked at him for a moment, and then broke eye contact. “Sure.”
“You–” Eric smiled and frowned. “Okay, cool.”
“You could come to my house tonight.”
“I mean, we could–”
“Unless you’d like to have Red catch you dancing.”
“Good point.”
Hyde nodded, unrolled [i]Circus [/i]and stretched his legs on the table again.
Eric turned on the television, staring at the cartoon characters on the screen, and wondering just how he had landed in a universe where Hyde wanted to teach him to dance, and hadn’t laughed.
---
Hyde wondered just how he had gotten himself into this. Why hadn’t he just said that Forman should ask someone else. Like his mother. It wasn’t really that he didn’t want Forman to know that Kitty had been the one to help him. Okay, it kind of was. He may also have been blindsided a little by the sheer relief that Forman wasn’t mad at him for dancing with Donna. But it was mostly that he found himself wanting to dance again. He didn’t understand it, but he had had a good time with both Kitty and Donna, and he – well… Maybe it would be a little weird to dance with Forman. It was a little weird, right? Of course it was. Men didn’t dance together. Kitty had been the one to teach him, not Red. But Forman hadn’t gone to Donna. He’d come to him. And something about that – something he refused to think about any further – made Hyde feel damn pleased about himself.
His mom had left about two hours ago, and he had spent that time rearranging the living room. He had pushed the couch up against the wall and made sure the TV was safely stowed away. All in all, he thought there would be enough space in the room to dance, even if Forman turned out to be as hopelessly bad and uncoordinated as Hyde had been when he started out. He hoped Edna wouldn’t be back early, or there would be hell to pay.
Hyde grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat down on the couch, not entirely sure if he wanted time to fly by or wanted to stall Forman’s arrival for as long as possible. Maybe it was a bad idea to ask Forman to come here. He gulped down the beer faster than he should. Just as he was about to walk to the kitchen for a refill, he heard a knock on the door. He crushed the empty can in his hand and threw it in the trash as he made his way to the door.
“Hey Forman,” he said, after he had opened the door.
Forman wasn’t looking at him directly. “Hey.”
“Come in,” Hyde said, kicking the door open a bit further.
Forman did as told and took off his coat, looking for a good place to put it and deciding on one of the chairs. “I see you’ve redecorated,” he said, gesturing at the empty room.
“Seemed like the easiest way to prevent injuries.”
Forman snorted. “Good call, I guess.” He glanced around the room. “Where’s your mom?”
“Out. Probably won’t be back for a while.”
“Right.” Forman nodded, but he kept looking around him, almost in suspicion.
“Relax, Forman. What are you worried about?”
“Nothing,” he said, too quickly. “I’m not worried.”
Hyde followed Forman’s gaze, and wondered if it was the house. Should have made some more effort to clean up? He’d dumped the bottles he found under the couch, but he hadn’t really made any attempt to deep-clean. Forman had been to his house before, so he knew it looked like crap, right? “Let’s dance then?”
“Yeah.”
Hyde put on the ABBA record he had found buried somewhere in his mother’s closet.
“I didn’t think you owned anything besides Rolling Stones and Zeppelin LPs,” Forman said, as the first song started to play.
“Shut up, Forman. It’s my mom’s. Dancing to Zeppelin is not gonna get you any chicks.” Hyde took off his glasses and placed them in his breast pocket, led Forman’s right hand to his waist, took his other hand in his right hand and placed his own left hand on Forman’s shoulder, just like Mrs Forman had taught him. He looked at Forman, who still didn’t quite look him in the eye, and almost wished he could force him to look up. Hyde was going to dance. To ABBA. Voluntarily. Because Forman asked. The least he could do was look him in the eye.
By now, the second song had started. That dancing song Jackie was so obsessed with. “You’re leading, Forman. Show me what you got.”
Not a lot, judging from his reaction. Forman laughed and looked down at his feet, but then tightened his grip on Hyde’s hand, and started moving – stiffly and awkwardly at first, but more and more certain. He seemed to gain some confidence in his steps as Hyde counted along and held his hand firmly on Forman’s shoulder. They kept circling around the room; Hyde counted and explained the steps, and Forman got the hang of it eventually. He was softly humming along with the music and only stepped on his toes twice, although that might be because he kept looking down. “Hey, Forman. Last lesson,” Hyde said. “You have to look a chick in the eye when you dance with her. Way more romantic like that – so no looking at your feet. Act like you know what you’re doing.”
Forman looked up at him, his face faintly flushed. “You’re not a chick, though.”
“No,” Hyde said with a sharp edge to his voice. “But no doubt you’re gonna use this to seduce chicks, so you’d better pretend I’m one.”
Forman smiled at him, cheeks still glowing, and as their eyes met, it was like something shifted into place.
Crap. He was in love with Forman.
---
Eric had been nervous when he arrived at Hyde’s house, even though he couldn’t quite pinpoint why. He and Hyde had been friends since they were nine years old, and they’d done some stupid crap together – Red could confirm. Dancing, though… That was something else. It almost felt like it was something that was too intimate to do with a friend. When his hand was on Hyde’s waist, he barely dared to look at him. He felt heat flooding his face and tried to concentrate on getting the steps right, so he wouldn’t look like a complete moron.
As he finally looked up, even more heat rose to his cheeks. Hyde’s eyes were… soft? He was looking at Eric with some sort of fondness that he couldn’t quite place, and Eric couldn’t look away. He had never felt this way when he was with Hyde before. Hell, he hadn’t even felt like this with Donna. Sure, they had flirted and he’d done some frankly embarrassing stuff, but it had never been like [i]this[/i]. He had never been this nervous. And Hyde wasn’t even a girl. Hyde was a guy. And it wasn’t like he–
Hyde’s voice dragged him out of his thoughts. “Who’ve you got your eyes on, if not Donna?”
“I – uh…” There wasn’t any girl. He hadn’t asked Hyde to teach him to dance because of any girl, he had just asked him because… Because he wanted to dance with him? Oh crap. He totally was. He was in love with Hyde. “I guess I’ve got my eyes on someone.”
“Spill.”
“Well,” Eric said, his heart hammering in his chest as he threw all rational thought out of the window and moved his hands to Hyde’s cheeks, kissing him on the lips.
Hyde stilled, not leaning into the kiss but not breaking it either. Eric opened his eyes and stepped back a little, releasing Hyde from his grip. Hyde was staring at him, his expression unreadable.
“Sorry, I – uh – I didn’t know what came over me. I just–”
“Shut up, Forman,” Hyde said as he closed the space between them and pressed their lips together. He put both hands on Eric’s waist and pulled him closer. Eventually, Hyde broke the kiss. He didn’t move his hands, though.
“So…” Eric said, uncertain where to go from here.
“Let me get you a beer,” Hyde said quickly, and he deprived Eric of the warm touch of his hands before he could even respond.
“Right,” Eric said to the empty room. Only now he realized that the music had stopped.
“Here you go,” Hyde said, returning to the living room with two beers in his hands. He handed Eric his beer and sat down on the couch.
Now that the music had stopped – and not just literally – the silence hung between them like a blade. Eric sat down next to him – as close as he dared – and opened the beer with a soft hiss. He watched as Hyde studied his beer, not even drinking from it. It was now or never. If he didn’t say it now, he’d chicken out and both of them would pretend this never happened. Maybe that would even be the easier option. Maybe that was even what he should do, if he could rub two brain cells together. But it wasn’t what he wanted. “Hyde,” he said. “I think I’m in love with you.”
Hyde didn’t say anything for a while, and instead kept staring at the can in his hands. “You think?”
“No,” Eric said. “I know. I’ve known for a while, I think, but I’m an idiot.” He chuckled. “I know, as always.”
Hyde set his beer on the floor, and looked up at Eric. “I guess we’re both idiots sometimes.” His voice was soft, and betrayed uncertainty.
Eric smiled, and inched closer to Hyde so their shoulders touched. “Maybe we can be idiots together?”
Hyde covered Eric’s hand with his and intertwined their fingers. He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. This was how it was supposed to be. This was right.
---
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