Delicate

Hyde was a hard-ass. Always had been.

Unbreachable. Unbreakable. He'd learnt the importance of invulnerability from a young age.

To be hard was to be strong. To be unreachable was to be smart. Otherwise you might as well just slit your wrists and bleed to death.

And that extended to other people. Showing softness was not a good thing. To be soft was to risk breaking.

But he wasn't a total ass. He might not show softness to others, but he wouldn't go after someone who couldn't take it.

That was one of the reasons Jackie was so fun to hate. A pint-sized virago of bitchiness and vapidity. She always gave him a good fight. And her superficial pointlessness made her an easy, guilt-free target.

Though even she didn't deserve how Kelso continually cheated on her.

And that was how it had started.

Kelso was the reason he first saw her cry. Kelso was the reason he first realised she was breakable.

He'd shrugged it off after as a strange anomaly - the way they'd interacted in the cabin. The way she turned to him for comfort. Like a freaky trip. Odd, maybe a little intriguing, but ultimately distasteful.

But he couldn't get the idea out his head. Somehow the notion of her breakability had lodged. Suddenly he was aware of how tiny she was, how physically fragile. He saw a softness within revealed in huge eyes, delicate hands and elf-like proportions.

The rules shifted after that. It was okay to do the occasional burn; it wasn't okay to hurt her. Really hurt her. In fact, not seeing her hurt became an object.

When she cried, he had to make it stop.

He'd never really had reason to touch Jackie, and given the chance to would have sworn he'd disgustedly reject the possibility. He still avoided touching her, but the reason had changed. He found himself worrying he might hurt her. Like when they danced together at prom. She'd put her hands in his and they were so small; he couldn't bring himself to fully close his fingers.

He told himself that was acceptable. Guys were much bigger than girls; he was much bigger than Jackie. It made sense for the strong to protect the weaker. That didn't make them weak themselves. So, protecting her in small, subtle ways, that was okay.

It was what came after that that wasn't.

He didn't know it, but that time in her car, when he found his hands smoothing through her hair with tender gentleness, when he found himself anxious to reassure her, to comfort, to protect, that was when the other part started, too.

Punching out that dillhole Chip made it worse. It led to sitting on the car bonnet, listening to Jackie unpick his character, sharing a surprisingly hot kiss… then watching her walk away unscathed. That was when the cracks began to appear. But they weren't cracks in her.

So, the two phenomenons went side-by-side. The need to look out for her ever-increasing. Even when they started fooling around, he always found himself bracing his weight on his arms, never fully lowering, as if he was afraid he'd crush her. She was so soft, slotting perfectly around him as if she'd been made for him; falling asleep together in the basement, her petite perfection curled inside his embrace.

She was so soft... yet at the same time she was screaming at the wrong person to get off her boyfriend. She accepted presents when she shouldn't. She offered comfort that should have been his alone.

She made a fool of him.

His retaliation had seemed right, just, correct. It was the action of someone who didn't give a crap; a hard-ass; an unbreakable stone.

For a moment he gloried in it, gloried in the fact that he could walk away unbroken. Tit for tat. A cold-hearted move for a cold-hearted bitch.

The impact of finding out her innocence sent a shockwave through the cracks he was barely aware were there. Gouged out whole pieces, leaving… feelings. Urges. The need to explain, apologise… beg. Things that Were Not Acceptable.

And he still didn't get it. He still didn't get just how deep the rot had gone. Even when he found himself taking her back after she'd made him jump through hoops, even after he found himself considering saying yes to her freaking ultimatum.

It wasn't until he found Kelso in her room in Chicago and the tsunami of anger, jealousy, pain came crashing down, hammering at his weakened surface. That was when he realised he'd been breached to the core.

That was when he realised just what a threat to him she was.

There was only one answer: he had to crush her.

Hyde hauled Sam close, not bothering to be gentle.

Sam was a diamond. Shiny, impersonal – and hard. Near-impossible to scratch, let alone bruise.

He didn't need to worry about hurting her. He didn't feel a need to protect her.

More importantly, her diamond-hardness was attractive, occasionally dazzling, but it couldn't touch him; it didn't breach him. It never would.

With Sam, he was safe. She would never reach his core.

With Sam, he never had to worry about her crushing him.

fin

A/N So this is my latest obsession. I was late to the table to That '70s Show, only discovering it eight years after it finished airing, but I love, love, love it. Even though I know season 8 (which I haven't watched yet) is to come and I'm going to get my heart broken. Why? Because Jackie and Hyde have totally sucked me in. I am 100% Zennie. And this series is my therapy for the fact I know they don't end up together. I've got about six other one-shots mostly finished (they all came out over three days; told you I was obsessed) so watch this space as I try to work through my feelings ;)

Hope you enjoy.

A/N2 Ohhh-kay, just got a pretty strong review anonymously, so I can't reply, so just gonna address it here. This isn't a series devoted to 'how to be a zen master'; I'm sure there are other stories following that format. That's just the name I came up with as an overarching title for a series of *unrelated* one-shots about Jackie and Hyde. As for this chapter, I've only just started reading Jackie/Hyde fanfiction, but I have yet to read a story at all like this one, so I can promise I'm not copying anyone. Any similarities are entirely coincidental. If anyone can point me in the way of it, I'd be interested to read it :)