That Beautiful Miracle

Plans To Cause Destruction

Location: The Forman's Basement

3rd POV

Hyde stood, rocking from side to side behind the sofa, Angel dozing off in his arms, exhausted from her day of sobbing on and off as the boys attempted to come up with a genius plan to humiliate the town in front of the President.

"We have to do something really wild, man!" Steven stressed to his friends. "Like a-"

"Bloody coup!" Fez offered. The other boys stared at him for a couple of seconds as Angel giggled.

"No," Hyde paused for a second to think. "That's good, but we need something great." It grew silent, Angel softly playing with Hyde's hair as she faded in and out.

"Streaking!" Kelso yelled suddenly. Angel shot up, forgetting that Hyde was holding her and almost fell face first on the floor. Hyde quickly adjusted so that she didn't fall, shooting a glare at Kelso. "We should streak!" He continued, ignoring the near disaster he had caused.

"Why? Wouldn't that embarrass us? Everyone will see us naked," Angel argued the idea, now wide awake. "Not to mention the fact that most of our parents will be their and they will definitely know who we are." She added. "If we were to do it, we would need masks and big coats to go in with and shoes on so that we could escape instead of running in circles around the room."

"Good idea!" Kelso cried.

"Yes, that's perfect, Angel baby!" Hyde agreed. He manoeuvred the small girl so that she was boosted up on his hip with her face hidden in his neck. He felt her frustrated sigh and laughed. "You should never have said anything, doll, Kelso does this every time."

"Listen, I don't know about this," Eric muttered from his seat on the sofa. "And if we do it, I don't think Angel should be involved."

"Excuse me!?" Angel perked up. She slid out of Hyde's grip and stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at Eric. "Why not?"

"Well, it's just that you're a lot smaller and prettier than us. You have a lot more attractive real estate than us too, two areas as it were, it'll be harder for you to cover up if you get nervous." Eric tried to defend himself, realising there were better ways he could have approached the situation.

"You want to exclude me from this because I'm a girl!" Angel yelled at him.

"No, I'm not," Eric stood from the sofa and advanced on her, surprised when she didn't back away as she usually would but too angry to care. He looked down at her small figure, where she stood in his shadow. "You know better than to accuse me of that." His voice was deep with feeling, and Angel felt herself starting to give in to it. "You're having a bad day today, Cupid." He stated firmly, gripping under her chin and tilting her head further up to him. "Calm down." Eric ordered when she finally met his eyes.

Angel sagged into Eric's stern grip, almost being held up by his hand. She was tired and sad and scared, and she'd taken it out on Eric, which wasn't fair.

"I'm sorry, Eric." Angel teared up as she spoke, and with a heavy sigh, Eric took her into his arms.

"I know, I'm sorry too. I could have explained myself better," he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. "I simply meant that I didn't want you getting into trouble, I'm sure the others don't either. You know how protective we feel over you."

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Location: Eric's Bedroom

3rd POV

Angel lay under Eric's bedsheets, eyes wide open, trembling as she felt the dread creep up on her. Eric, who slept soundly beside her, flipped over in his sleep and slung his arm over her waist, drawing her closer to his warmth.

It was dark in the room, and the door left slightly ajar due to his parents' rule about having visitors of the opposite gender. Angel's thoughts were running a mile a minute. She was going to streak through a Presidential Q&A with her friends in front of her father. Red Forman was going to ask a question that he'd written specifically for the joy of offending the president. And, after all of that, Angel was for sure going to get the beating of a lifetime.

"Cupid?" Eric's voice was disoriented as he slowly came to, obviously unnerved by the sound of her sniffles and the feeling of her quaking. "What's wrong, baby?" He pulled her impossibly close in the single bed, wrapping himself and the duvet around her to keep her warm.

"Nothing, Eric, go back to sleep." Angel mumbled tearfully.

"Cupid," Eric grunted to show his frustration. "You don't lie to me about things like this. Just say you don't wanna talk about it if you don't wanna talk about it."

"I can't talk about it." Angel whispered. She wasn't wrong either. If she talked about it, no one would believe her. She'd tried that before.

"Okay, Cupid. I love you." Angel pressed further into Eric's chest when she heard him say that.

"I love you, Eric." She responded in kind. "Goodnight." She whispered as she watched him drift off once more, leaving her to the horrors of the next day.