movin on in | kelso/hyde

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

When people first heard about how long it takes Kelso- 3 hours, by the way- to do his morning workout, they never believed it is true. Of course, in their minds, they thought what he was implying is that he sat there for three consecutive hours lifting weights at a constant rate. The truth is... a little bit less impressive.

After every ten pushups, he got a ten minute break. If he forgot to set a timer- which he always conveniently seemed to do once he got bored- then he would just get back to it when he finally remembered. If that happened to be once one of his grandma's old Dark Days Contraband VHS tapes finished, well... so be it. It wasn't his fault the writers made living in a jungle and befriending a bear seem so gosh darn interesting!

It was during one of these breaks- this one spent flexing at different angles to see which made his muscles look bigger- that his mom had walked in without knocking, to tell him that Hyde would be coming to stay with them for a week. She did not smile, she did not show joy. She did not frown either, to be fair, but even Kelso knew that Hyde was her least favorite of his friends, perhaps because of their antics or perhaps because everywhere Hyde went, it was in a cloud of pot smoke and intrigue. But if she didn't like him, and he was still coming to stay with them, then that meant... Hm. He didn't know. He felt like there must have been another step to this thought process, but his mom was still standing there and he hadn't told her to get out yet.

---

That afternoon when he walked home from school, he did it with Hyde next to him. The air was mild enough that a couple people were mowing their lawns, kids younger than them had already raced home, stayed inside just long enough to drag their toys out into the front yard and play games like tag and war.

Very suddenly, he made the shocking deduction that his house only had two bedrooms in it ever since his dad claimed one for an office and his mom claimed the other for her craft supplies. They still had his older brother's bed stuffed into the attic, but Kelso had shoved that thing up there the day his brother moved out because, for the first time in his life, he was getting to have a room to himself. Which meant-

"So, Mom said you have to sleep on the couch."

It was obvious by his tone and demeanor that he was lying.

[sidney]

He'd never admit it out loud, but Hyde really liked that Kelso always stuck around after school whenever he had detention. He could have easily caught a ride home with Eric and Donna, or ditched him to go to the Hub with Des for a batch of their legendary fries and a few games of foosball, but no. Instead, he stuck around a whole forty-five minutes until the hand struck four and Coach Ryker, as he liked to say, let the delinquents out of lock up. And like clockwork, Kelso stood right outside the library running a hand through his stupid quaffed hair as he flirted with some poor girl.

Today it just so happened to be Pam Macy.  

"Jackie's gonna riot if she finds out you talked to Pam again, right? I can't wait to see the look on her face."

Hyde chuckled and pulled out a spliff from within his pocket and tucked it behind his ear while they walked. It's not like he'd tell her himself, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't drop subtle hints to try and see if it would blow up in Kelso's face. Just for shits and giggles. If Jackie found out, then maybe she'd finally dump him and he'd stop spending so much time with her instead of with him. 

They turn the corner after a few blocks, heading right for Kelso's house and Hyde lights up the joint he'd rolled in Bio and takes a few puffs, nearly choking when he hears he's gotta ride the couch.

"Aw, man! I watched your stupid brother puke on that couch three summers ago, ick!" He exhales slowly, grinning despite his displeasure at this recent development ,and passes the joint to his pal. "Can't I just crash on your floor or something? Hell, I'll even take the attic, man. I don't care."

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

"D- uh, uh, uh-" he struggled to come up with a good reason why Hyde couldn't sleep in his room. The first lie he could think of was that he had screaming night terrors, but that was the sort of thing a person would probably already know if they were even a half decent friend. And Hyde was a half-decent friend, Kelso thought, so that wouldn't work. He could've just said he snored, but he and Hyde had taken part in a thousand different sleepovers in a thousand different places. Damn. Lying was a lot easier when people were focused mainly on his lips moving than the words that were coming out.

"I-"

Hm. Now, here came a thought: what if the reason he couldn't think of a good reason why Hyde shouldn't share his bedroom was because Hyde should have shared it? He'd have to move his bed back against the window, and put the hammock back outside like his mom had been nagging him to do, and Hyde was a night owl and Kelso needed his beauty rest, but-

"Fine. I guess we can make room for you."

He tried his hardest to minimize the we part of that statement as quickly as possible, following up with a hasty: "No good blankets, though." That part was really true. His brother had taken the spare comforter with him to college. All they had in the hall closet now were Kelso's Mega Mace sheets from when he was six- and that was back when he was having some trouble with his bladder at night- and his brother's Tricky Topaz ones that had a bunch of weird green stains in them.

Whoops.

"I'll prolly just mention it to Mom so she can pick some up while we are at school tomorrow."

He paused.

"But that still leaves tonight. You're gonna freeze your balls off, cuz Mom is going through men applause or whatever, so she keeps it cold."

He pointed a finger at his friend and began laughing in a mocking tone.

"Sucks for you!"