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Chapter Text

Edward wasn't entirely certain why he had chosen to do this tonight of all nights.

When he had first created his potion, to change him from Jekyll to Hyde, he had set up a bunch of ground rules in his head, ways to keep his identity safe and his reputation in tact.

1. Jekyll is to bring up Hyde as little as possible unless someone else brought up the topic first and vice versa for Hyde.

2. As much as possible, Hyde is to keep to his apartment in Soho rather than staying at Jekyll's house.

3. Possessions are to be kept at the house of the identity they belong to. One outfit of Hyde's is allowed to be kept at Jekyll's house and one of Jekyll's at Hyde's apartment in case of emergencies but these possessions are to be kept as hidden as possible.

4. Never leave the potion out in plain sight. Preferably keep it in just it's components and only mix when the potion is needed.

5. Most important of all: Each identity is only allowed to interact with their own social circle. Friends, acquaintances, and enemies of the non-active identity are to be avoided at all costs to avoid any unfortunate slips of the tongue.

For almost an entire year, they had both abided by these rules.

Of course, there were a few slips. Edward had gotten too familial with Poole at least once, left a few garments of his own clothes at Jekyll's house. In return, Jekyll kept accidentally leaving his potion, fully mixed, in plain sight to save on time, or mistakenly greeting one of Edward's night-time buddies with the air of a friend.

Rule number 5, however, had never been broken quite so badly.

Gabriel had started it, Hyde would argue. The lawyer had turned up at his doorstep looking suspicious and, therefore, it was only natural that Hyde was curious.

Sure, if he changed back, he could, with ease, ask Gabriel what he was doing there but Hyde wasn’t in the mood to switch back so early in the night.

Maybe, he reasoned to himself, it didn't really count as breaking the rules. After all, Hyde wasn't interacting with Gabriel.

He was stalking him.

Big difference.

Besides, his beloved lawyer was certainly out at a most peculiar time. It was incredibly late and the streets were quite bare aside from the pair of them. It wasn't like Edward was out for any good reasons but Gabriel, in comparison, wasn't often one for doing illicit activities in the dead of night.

Was he?

Edward swallowed anxiously, shifting where he sat and trying to shake the idea from his head.

He couldn't help but wonder whether Gabriel was meeting with someone. Squinting, he leaned forward until he balanced rather precariously on the edge of the rooftop, peering down.

Well, it did seem that way, did it not? His beloved was watching the streets like a hawk, the air of one waiting for someone or something. The question was "Who?" Who would meet him at such a time?

Edward's mind darted through every conceivable option.

A client? At this time of night outside of Jekyll's lab?

No, no, that didn't sound right.

A friend?

Again, this time of night? This location?

It was a rather lonely street. That seemed to be why Gabriel had picked it, it was a place where one was unlikely to stumble across anything going on. Edward himself wouldn't have been there if it wasn't his house.

Waiting for Jekyll, perhaps?

But why not just knock? Why choose the back entrance?

Finally, a rather sour option came to mind and Edward's face crinkled at the mere suggestion.

A lover. Gabriel could be awaiting a lover of his. Some secret relationship.

The pair of them would only be able to meet at night, in quieter streets. At a party, they would drift to Gabriel's side to whisper in his ear. A place and a time to meet, a place and time where the two could be alone. Gabriel would make no reaction but, inside, his heart would soar, the beat quickening to the steps of his secret love as they vanished back into the crowds.

Through the murky fogs of London's night time streets, they would come.

A ghost dressed in their nicest fineries, (Did ghosts have nicest fineries or was it just whatever they died in? Oh, whatever.) coat or dress swishing at their heels, swirling up eddies of mist with each step. Smart shoes would click at the cobblestones and dear Gabriel would look up with hope to see who it was. His face would brighten to see them and he would get to his feet, straightening himself out one last time to look his best for his true love. Finally, the two of them would meet at which point his love would sweep their true love off his feet and shower him with kisses and affections.

Then, then!

The pair of them would vanish back into the night, disappearing to somewhere far more private. Once they were alone in a dark recess where nobody would see or hear a thing, they collapse into each others arms and the pair of them would-

Edward shook his head. He didn't really want to imagine that part.

It couldn't be. Gabriel wouldn't do something like that outside of Jekyll's house of all places.

He bit his lip hard and got back to watching for any movement.

As he watched, however, the notion refused to leave him. Gabriel had no wife which was quite peculiar at such an age. He hadn't given it much thought before but, was it possible that his beloved had someone else on the mind? Someone he couldn't marry for the damage it would do to his reputation perhaps?

It wasn't that his beloved wasn't interested in such things. Edward knew quite well from their childhood that Gabe had fallen in and out of numerous relationships. He may have grown up and stopped flitting between men and women but he saw no reason that Gabriel wouldn't be able to find a loving spouse now. He wasn't dislikable and neither was he lacking in charm or looks. (Oh, was he ever not lacking in charm or looks. His voice alone was like a siren's song, so musical, so deep, so clear, so beautiful.)

A secret relationship, though, would explain it all.

What did they look like? Pretty? Handsome? Or was it their personality that his beloved had fallen smitten with?

Edward glanced down at his own rickety, crooked form and quickly looked away, tugging his loose sleeves further over his too-pale skin, a bitterness rising in his throat.

Well... Good for Gabriel, he thought sourly. He hoped his lover was right for him. He hoped they loved each other very much and whoever they were, they treated his beloved right. It wasn't as though Gabriel could ever love him in such a way and he should be happy that someone else was finally able to make his beloved happy.

But just to be safe, he was going to sit there and wait for them.

With that in mind, he crossed his legs and waited.

Edward’s hiding place (Pun most certainly intended, shut up) was the edge of a nearby building on which he was perched like a gargoyle, shrouded in the dark of the night and staring down at the lonely figure there. The brick below his fingers and toes was rough and damp with old rain.

He had clambered up there while trying to spot the place he had been planning to head that night, a pub he had been told about as Jekyll which supposedly sold the best cocktails in the city. (Granted, he was a wee bit sceptical. Anywhere that claimed to be the best in the city was generally just a sales pitch and never quite lived up to the hype. But that was besides the point. Gabriel. That’s what he was focusing on.)

All in all, it wasn’t the most comfortable place to sit for an extended period of time so, as the night drew on, Edward grew impatient. He shifted and squirmed, wishing he had brought a bottle of something with him to drink while he waited. Everything was better when at least a little tipsy.

On the bright side, Gabriel seemed to be growing a tad impatient too. Even if he wasn’t down there with his beloved, Edward could empathise with his plight. It made him feel just a little closer, a little less alone that night.

What a shame that his beloved didn't know that he wasn't alone.

(Wait, back it up. That would just be creepy. Gabe probably wouldn't appreciate the spying, hence why he was doing it secretly and from a distance. Much less creepy that way.)

At least Edward had something to sit on, even if it was the edge of a building. Gabriel was only leant against a wall, probably believing it to be unseemly to just squat on the ground, regardless of how quiet it was.

Just when it seemed that the whole night would draw to a close with the pair of them still there waiting, Gabriel pulled out a pocket watch and glanced at it. He frowned and looked up, checking the streets one last time.

Even from where Edward was sat, he could see him sigh with resignation. The pocket watch was slipped back into his pocket and, with that Gabriel left, looking dejected.

Edward felt a little smug that this mystery lover of his hadn't shown.

Not such a great love after all. Such a relationship was destined to fail, in the end.

His butt ached from sitting down so long and he was thankful to stand, stretching against backdrop of the moonlight.

Just to be safe, he followed Gabriel from a distance back to his apartment, hopping from rooftop to rooftop and keeping out of sight. Only once his beloved was safely behind the doors of his own home did Edward finally let himself leave.

The night was already quite old and he wouldn't have much time for the things he wanted to do but it had been worth it, he decided.

In the end, he could drink any night he pleased but to have such a mystery involving a close friend of his to dig into?

Now that was interesting.

Then, Edward turned tail and was gone, scampering into the night.

Dr Jekyll's eyebrows drew into a frown even before he opened his eyes.

The floor beneath him was cold and the tiles were hard against his skin. To make matters worse, he was only dressed in a simple thin shirt and trousers which was nowhere near enough to defend against the chill of the room. The best he had to warm him was a scarf which had become rather awkwardly tangled about him during the transformation like a cat's cradle.

His body still ached and his head was throbbing, feeling raw as his newly regrown skin settled and his blurry, watery vision readjusted. It wasn't even that clear how much of his current misfortune was thanks to his transformation and how much of it was the hangover.

The chill that seeped through his bones, however – The source of that was quite astoundingly obvious.

This was why he wasn't fond of winter. In the summer, he wouldn't be so cold on awakening. Even if Hyde had remembered for once to put on some extra layers before changing back, he knew he would still be cold.

He was lying in his lab and it was about 4 in the morning. Not that this was unusual for him but it never quite seemed to get any better.

Slowly, with the reluctance of one who would quite rather be asleep at that time, he disentangled himself from the scarf. It was a little stretched but Edward wouldn't mind. He had fished the scarf in question out of a bin one day, proclaiming that it was a waste to just throw it away simply for being a little tatty. Jekyll had to wash it once he was back in command to get out the horrible smell but, after that, it turned out to be a surprisingly decent scarf. Which was to say, it wasn't that horrible itchy material that Edward utterly loathed.

In truth, Edward liked older, more worn clothes. They were more comfortable to wear than any waistcoat or corset and, to one who cared little if at all for appearance, that was all that mattered. If it was well-fitting, Edward would wear it, no matter how obtrusive the colouring was or how mismatched the trousers were to the shirt.

With the last knot undone and the scarf off, he slipped the item in question under a desk for Edward to collect later and went about cleaning himself up, careful not to bump into any of his servants.

It was with great reluctance that he slipped off Edward's clothes, bracing the cold temporarily so he could wash and slip on his own far less agreeable, stiffer clothes. As he did so, his mind drifted back to what had occurred. The memories of the night prior were a little foggy, mostly as a result of the alcohol, but there was one thing that still stuck in his mind like a splinter.

Utterson had been waiting outside his house at the dead of night.

He found it more difficult to think straight as Edward, prone to tangents and the most bewildering conclusions. Therefore, he had thought that being in the form of Dr Jekyll would bring some sort of clarity to the event, some obvious conclusion that would make him berate himself for his idiocy.

Yet, on this occasion, none came.

Mr Utterson had been waiting for someone who hadn't arrived, that was clear, but there was simply no solution as to who it was that stuck out to him no matter how much he racked his mind.

It was possible that the lingering effects of what he had drunk was still making it difficult to think. Perhaps, later, a solution would make itself apparent to him.

Or...

Or he could simply ask him.

It was his house that Utterson had been lingering at the doorstep of, it wouldn't be strange to admit that he had seen his friend waiting outside.

Ah, but at such a time of night, was there any activity Mr Utterson could have been doing that wasn't considered unpleasant? Why would Utterson confess to him?

Certainly, Jekyll was once a rather trusted confidant of his but that had been years ago when they were young and reckless and reputations had meant little. His friend couldn't be certain that Jekyll's opinions on such matters had stayed the same just as Utterson was no longer the rebellious child he had once been. Jekyll wasn't planning on telling Utterson about his own shenanigans as Edward, after all.

Jekyll almost poured himself a glass of wine before he recalled that he was trying to clear his head, not make it hazier. With that in mind, he set about making a cup of coffee instead.

He hadn't slept all night and, even if the adrenaline from Edward was still pounding through him, keeping him awake, it was quite certain that he would crash and burn later without some extra precaution. Hence the coffee.

"Sir?"

Dr Jekyll looked up as Poole stepped into the room.

By now, the servants were quite used to Jekyll's comings and goings at odd times. It didn't mean Poole could have predicted in any way when his master would be back.

"...It's 4am, are you sure you want to have a coffee?" His butler sounded rather concerned. "If you just got back, it's probably not too late to go to bed."

"For three hours? Might as well seize the day while I'm up and catch up on sleep another night." Jekyll smiled warmly. Poole's frown just deepened. "Besides, what are you doing up at this hour?"

"I heard movement, sir."

"Oh. My apologies for waking you. I was trying to be quiet about it." He winced sympathetically, "Appears I wasn't successful."

"This isn't about me. When was the last time you slept?"

Jekyll waved a dismissive hand and took his cup of coffee. "It matters not."

He sipped, the taste bitter. Poole remained stood there and Jekyll looked at him over the rim of his cup.

"You can go back to bed, you know. I won't blame you if you wake up late this morning, it was my fault." Henry said softly.

Poole hesitated, clearing wishing to argue further but Jekyll's stubbornness was well known throughout the staff. Poole, who had been serving under Jekyll the longest, would know that best.

Although, Jekyll might not be quite the man he once was.

With the potion at his side to vent his frustrations and nastier impulses, in theory Dr Jekyll should be a far more agreeable man.

Proving this theory was tragically difficult. Jekyll certainly liked to believe he was better than he had been. He hadn’t lost his temper in ages and that was a positive sign in his book. Unfortunately, he suspected that everyone he knew would be far too polite to admit if he had been a more loathsome character in the past.

That was the problem of a secret experiment he supposed – No second opinions. Lanyon might have been honest enough to tell him if he asked but that wasn’t exactly easy to do nowadays.

On this occasion, though, he was counting on Poole remembering his more determined past self. Hopefully, his butler would drop the matter, thinking it already a fruitless endeavour.

Thankfully, it worked.

Poole relented with a long sigh, putting a certain amount of theatrics into it just to make it clear to Jekyll that he disapproved of the decision.

"Well, if nothing else, it seems we're not the only ones up at an unusual time. I found this slid through the letterbox when I woke up this morning."

With that, Poole produced a letter. Jekyll's brow furrowed and he carefully took it with a thanks, unfurling the note.

It was Utterson's handwriting, in neat black ink.

Dear Dr Jekyll,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. It has been a while since the two of us have spoken and I was hoping to catch up. I've tried to see you several times over the past few days but the servants told me you were out. When you do return and you receive this letter, I need to hear from you at your earliest convenience. I have important matters I wish to discuss as your lawyer and as your friend if you could lend an ear to listen.

Yours truly,

Gabriel John Utterson.

How strange. He hadn't seen Utterson deliver this note last night.

Either he had delivered it before waiting outside his house or he had come back after returning home to send it.

He hoped it was the former. The streets of London at night were a little dangerous for one to wander into simply to deliver a letter. At least when Hyde had been watching, there was someone there who could have helped had he fallen into trouble, even if Edward was, perhaps, not the best source of help.

"Utterson has been trying to speak with me?" Henry asked, turning his eyes to Poole for confirmation.

Poole nodded. "I didn't want to discuss it until morning – Proper morning, sir, not 4am, before you say anything – Mr Utterson has been at your door daily for the past three days. He seems concerned about something."

Was this related to Utterson's strange behaviour at night?

He felt a little bad. For at least five straight days now, he had been assuming the form of Edward Hyde under the impression that he had no important engagements as Jekyll. It seemed he had been quite wrong.

Perhaps that meant that Utterson had been waiting at his backdoor for his return? Oh dear, if that was the case then Utterson must have been quite worked up over these important matters of his.

"Well, I'll have to get back to him as soon as possible then." Jekyll downed the rest of his coffee in one gulp, ignoring the burn of his tongue. "My deepest thanks for telling me, Poole. Please don't wait up for me."

With that, he turned tail and left to find some paper.

Gabriel still couldn't sleep.

Of course, he had done all he could for that night: He had waited for Hyde for hours, he had delivered that letter to Henry's door, requesting his presence and, when he still couldn't sleep, he had rooted through as much paperwork as he could, looking for any mention of this Edward Hyde anywhere else.

Yet, when he collapsed into bed, exhausted, his dreams were still plagued by nightmares.

The fact that Harry had been missing for several days now had concerned him further. Poole had tried to explain that it was normal for Jekyll to slip away for days or even entire weeks at a time for some project or another but Gabriel couldn't bring himself to believe it.

If Henry went missing for a period of more than three months without explanation, everything he owned would go to Hyde, and now Henry was, without explanation, missing.

If he was too late already...

Stomach tightening, he rolled over in bed yet again,

He had to believe that Harry was ok, had to trust his staff when they said this was normal.

But at the same time, they had said he could vanish for weeks. Could he really wait that long just to see if Harry was alright? By then, he felt his own anxieties would have devolved him into an utter mess of sleepless nerves.

His only other hope was that he would finally be able to meet Hyde before then and maybe clear up everything.

Hyde could be a perfectly fine citizen. Richard Enfield might not have been a liar but he certainly enjoyed embellishing details a tad too much. There could be an explanation to Edward's actions that he had overlooked.

Carelessness? Short sightedness and no glasses to rectify it?

Richard had made quite a peculiar tale about the strange Edward Hyde, “a man who gave the impression of deformity but had no deformities to speak of.”

Such a thing, however, was not possible.

If a man looked off in some way, it would be nameable, noticeable. The way Richard described it sounded like a monster from a kid's story, the sort designed to scare bad kids into behaving. On that note, there had to be some sort of misinformation slipped into the tale.

And yet, Gabriel thought dryly, here I am unable to sleep because of it.

He sighed and sat up in his bed, bleary-eyed. Maybe he should look through Harry's will one last time, to double check that he had missed nothing.

Pushing off the crumpled tangle of bedsheets on top of him, he swung his legs round to the edge of the bed, preparing to jump out of bed.

However, as he turned his eyes downward, he stopped, his eyes widening at what he saw.

From between the cracks and crevices of the floorboards, he was surprised to see flowers sprouting.

Green stems that coiled their way around the legs of the bed, thorns digging into the wood and leaving scratches against its surface. Leaves unfurled, their edges serrated but bright in colour and, before his eyes, the flowers budded and bloomed. Crimson petals opened to reveal vivid roses.

Gabriel crawled his way to the edge of the bed on his hands and knees and, with great care, he reached down and plucked one. His fingers cupped around the flower, the thorns biting into his fingers but, somehow, there was no pain to be felt. It was removed from its stem with ease, almost as though it were meant to be picked.

As he stared into the heart of the flower, a frown creasing his forehead, the flower pulsed gently in his hand. It was a soothing beat, seeming to match Gabriel’s own steady heart rate perfectly, the petals fluttering in time.

It seemed so alive, so beautiful and, most importantly, so fragile. He felt as though the petals would fall off at any second.

Gabriel held it as softly as he could, shielding it from the breeze and staring, entranced, into it.

The rose felt warm in his hands.

He couldn't have said how long he sat on that bed, scarcely daring to breathe too hard, for the fear of damaging it. The time melted away into a simple meditative state that Dr Lanyon probably would have been proud of, the rhythmic fluttering of the rose the only indicator of time passed.

Then, the floorboards creaked.

He looked up sharply.

In the doorway was a figure, hidden by the gloom. Their shape seemed off – Humanoid but not quite human. Arms and legs too thin to contain any muscle, too long to fit the torso, fingers looking more like needles than real appendages.

They approached the bed, carelessly trampling the flowers underfoot as they went.

In his hand, Gabriel’s flower quickened its pulse.

The figure stopped before the bed, stood directly on top of the thickest bush of flowers, and, at this distance, Gabriel could hear their hollow breathing. It didn't sound right, not like a person breathing but a sound far more akin to air travelling down a ceramic tube.

They leaned forwards, then, the figure snatched the delicate flower right from between his hands. Crumpled petals fell between the stranger's fingers and they held up the flower for a moment, appraising it against the moonlight.

Flexing long fingers that looked greying in the dark, they reached into the centre of the rose. Between two fingers, they carefully pinched one of the petals, sharp nails biting into the soft, thin surface.

As Gabriel silently watched, they began to pluck petals, one by one.

For a moment, all Gabriel heard was the rustle of petals falling like scraps of paper. Then he began to notice a scratchier rasp, almost too quiet to hear.

The figure, he realised, was whispering something under his breath over and over again like a mantra.

Gabriel strained his ears to hear.

"He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. "

Utterson still didn't say a word and the figure continued, completely ignoring him.

Around them, crushed beneath the stranger's feet, the other flowers began to wither. Dried brown spots crept their way along the stems and petals and the stalks crumpled in on themselves, collapsing. Soon, a graveyard of dead flowers surrounded them.

Finally, in the figure's hand, the last flower also began to die. Decay crept its way up the cut stem and the pulsing of the rose began to flutter and become fainter, stuttering as though it kept missing beats.

Still, he continued, plucking petal after petal with his muttered chant. As the petals were plucked and fell, they shrivelled and turned into dust in the air.

Finally, one petal remained. Gabriel saw the glint of teeth in the shadow of their face, the glitter of a twisted grin.

"He loves me." The man purred, plucking the last petal.

It fell on the bed before Gabriel and, right there in front of him, it died. The once beautiful crimson was dark and crusted, devoid of any life or heartbeat.

With callous disregard, Hyde dropped the dead stem of his mutilated flower and, at long last, looked at Gabriel.

In silence, they both stared at each other.

"What do you want?" Utterson asked coldly, fixing Mr Hyde with his hardest glare.

"What I want, I already have." Hyde smiled back with equal coldness. "The heart of my dearest love."

Gabriel looked back down at the last remaining petal, blackened with death. "That's not love." He replied quietly. "You don't love him."

"You don't know that. He loves me and I love him. Shouldn't you be happy for him, Gabriel?"

"You're using him." There was ice in his tone.

"Is that not what love is? What do you want him for?"

"I... I don't. I care for him as a friend."

A harsh bark of laughter. That horrible laugh echoed off the walls, reverberating until it sounded like dozens of people all laughing at him at the same time.

"Is that what you've told yourself, Mr Utterson?" Mr Hyde took a step forward and leaned towards Gabriel, close enough that the lawyer could smell roses on his breath, a chemical smell that only reminded him of soap and bleach rather than the love it was usually associated with. At this closeness, the slim amount of light from the moon fell through the window, landing on the face of his enemy.

Which was to say, no face at all.

Where a face should have been, there was nothing at all but an empty hole.

"Well,” Hyde rattled, “I suppose he's mine to take then."

Gabriel bolted up out of his nightmare with a strangled gasp.

For the rest of that night, he didn't sleep a wink, haunted by the scent of rose petals and decay.

Dr Hastie Lanyon didn't like to jump to conclusions. He often feared he wasn't quite as observant as he thought he was being and might say something to offend another. Like, for instance, congratulating a woman on her baby only to find, rather awkwardly, that she wasn't pregnant.

He had never done so before but he certainly didn't want that occasion to ever arise.

So, when Gabriel John Utterson walked through the door, almost swaying on his feet with his eyes unfocused and dazed, Lanyon's first response was to slowly sip his tea while gradually raising an eyebrow.

He didn't want to say that Gabriel was exhausted but he was pretty sure that Gabriel was exhausted. Instead of stating the obvious, he settled upon a more subtle route.

"Sleep well last night?"

Gabriel practically collapsed at the table. Hastie stared a moment longer before deciding that he most certainly wasn't wrong on his deduction and sending one of his servants to get his companion a cup of coffee.

"Is something the matter?" He continued once they were gone.

"Is it really that obvious?" Gabriel shifted his head slightly to peer at Hastie, the side of his face still firmly planted on the table and eyes half closed. Hastie mildly wondered if he was about to start drooling.

"Well... Call it a hunch but you look a little tired. I have sleeping pills if you need them."

"Oh, I have no trouble getting to sleep." Gabriel slurred, "It's staying asleep that's the problem. Nightmares, you see."

"Ah..." Hastie crossed his legs and sipped his tea again thoughtfully. "So maybe something calming is needed before bed. Lavender tea, perhaps? If nothing else, it's worth a try given-" He was about to say 'Given the state you're in' but that sounded a tad rude, "-Given that you have nothing to lose from it."

A cup of coffee was placed before the lawyer, the saucer clicking lightly against the cup, and Gabriel forced himself into a clumsy upright position, gratefully drinking.

"I hope I'm not being rude by prying but what is ailing you?" Hastie asked, leaning back in his chair and pressing his fingers together.

"Dr Jekyll."

"Understandable, honestly."

"He has this lab assistant of his-"

At that, Hastie nearly choked on his tea. "Wait, someone is willingly working with him? And Dr Jekyll is willingly working with them?!"

Gabriel shot Hastie a look. Hurriedly, Hastie placed his cup back down, clearing his throat.

"Excuse how rude that sounded. It's just that Dr Jekyll doesn't work well with other people in the lab. Yes, he's a swell guy at social events but, when it comes to science, he works far better alone - I should know, I worked with him for several years." Hastie explained, "I've had at least 50 years knocked off of my life thanks to him, I swear. Not to mention the new grey hairs. I'm quite certain I wasn't greying before I met him."

"I'm not sure how willing it is." Gabriel crossed his arms and leaned forward conspiratorially. "Hastie, tell me, have you ever heard of one Mr Edward Hyde?"

"Can't say it rings a bell. That's the name of this lab assistant?"

"Yes." Gabriel took a moment to take a large swig of his drink, almost chugging the coffee down. Hastie waited patiently, daintily sipping at his own tea in the meantime. "But this lab assistant seems to have popped up out of nowhere. I've never heard of him once but..."

A pause. Gabriel swallowed, looked around at Lanyon's servants and lowered his voice.

"...Hyde has been mentioned in certain legal documents of Henry's," Gabriel confessed, "like a close friend would be, not a complete stranger. Perhaps it means nothing but I fear there's something foul at work here."

"Jekyll is blackmailing Hyde?" A wide eyed, innocent look.

Gabriel gave Hastie another very dry look. "The other way round."

"Hm. And you're certain this isn't a close friend of Jekyll's that he simply hasn't mentioned before?"

"Why would he do that?"

"Forgetfulness. Simply never came up." Hastie waved a dismissive hand, "It doesn't seem out of character to me for there to be someone close to him that he just hasn't brought up before. There's an entire list of friends that Jekyll and you shared that I don't know of. In university, I remember finding out random old friends of yours willy nilly."

"That was different. Harry and I... Weren't exactly supposed to be hanging out with those kinds of people."

A thoughtful hum. "And Hyde isn't one of them?"

To Hastie's surprise, a dark look crossed Gabriel's face at the idea. His eyes fixed sternly on Hastie.

"He could be and that's what I'm afraid of. One of them could have any manner of blackmail to hold above him and, as his lawyer, it's my job to help him."

Hastie raised an eyebrow at that wording.

"As a lawyer?" He asked, dubiously, "What about as a friend?"

"And that. As a... friend."

Why the hesitation? Gabriel and Jekyll were friends weren't they?

Of course, Hastie was quite out of the loop in regards to their friendship but Gabriel had never mentioned any fights between them and he seemed a little too concerned of Jekyll for this to simply be work related matters.

No matter, it wasn't his concern. If Gabriel didn't want to tell him everything, it wasn't his place to push.

He finished the last of his tea.

"So what can you do about it? Blackmail is a tricky business, Gabriel."

"Well... So far I've been trying to meet this Edward Hyde."

Hastie peered at Gabriel with a little surprise. "You haven't met him yet?"

"I don't know where he lives. All I know is that he frequents Harry's house so I've been waiting there for him."

Hastie blinked at that, thinking at the phrasing. Just waiting there without knowing how long he would have to wait for didn't sound like the best solution.

In fact, to Hastie, it sounded mildly annoying.

He liked having Gabriel around but if Gabriel decided to wait several hours in his house per day to wait for someone else to show up, Hastie would not be the happiest doctor around. Granted, the last time he had spoken to Jekyll, the other doctor was thrilled just be in Gabriel's presence but surely even Jekyll had his limits.

"...Have you just... Asked... Jekyll..?" It sounded a little too obvious of a solution and Hastie braced himself for another long look from Gabriel.

However, instead, the exhausted lawyer just groaned and, with an audible smack, dropped his head back down on the table.

"He's not home."

His voice was a tad muffled by table. Hastie's eyes narrowed.

If Jekyll wasn't at home but Gabriel was there..?

"I see." Hastie pressed his lips together in a hard line. "When you say you've been waiting there for Hyde..?"

"Um... Well... You see..."

"Gabriel?"

"I was waiting outside."

"Standing outside of a person's house waiting is generally considered shady."

"I don't have any other options."

At that, Hastie sighed long and hard.

"Suit yourself, I suppose." He huffed. "If you get caught, I heard nothing about this."

There was no response from Gabriel. Taking in his weary appearance, Hastie strained his ears to hear if there was any snoring.

He supposed that the fact that he had been burning incense earlier wasn't really helping in keeping Gabriel awake.

The scent of the smoke still swathed the room. It was supposed to be relaxing and, apparently, an insect repellent but it probably wasn't what Gabriel needed at that moment.

Although, maybe it was.

Quietly, as to not wake his potentially dozing friend, Hastie slipped away from the table and grabbed a few tea bags from the cupboards, sliding them towards Gabriel. He had specifically chosen the ones that were supposed to assist with sleep or relaxation.

Jekyll had called it a load of claptrap when Hastie had tried to convince him but Gabriel, at least, seemed like he might be a little more inclined to listen.

The lawyer opened one lazy eye which slowly focused on the pile as Hastie sat himself back down.

"To help with your sleeping problems. If you find they do help and you need more, you can come back to me, I have plenty. I don't want to prescribe anything too extreme yet but, if your condition doesn't ease up over time, I'll see what I can do."

Gabriel hesitated for a second but was clearly too tired to argue. He slapped his hand down on the table, scooping up the little packets and shovelling them into his pocket.

"Thanks."

"Well, if you as a lawyer have to deal with blackmail then I, as a doctor, have to deal with the health of my patients. Just doing my job, my friend."

Again, Gabriel had gone silent and, this time, there was definitely snoring. Hastie turned to the nearest servant.

"Can you take Mr Utterson here to one of the spare rooms? I fear he is in no fit state to leave."

Chapter Text

Jekyll was surprised to hear that Utterson wasn't at home to receive his letter.

According to the servants at the door, Utterson had left to visit someone that morning and seemed to be late coming home.

If he so pleased, he could wait for Mr Utterson inside but Dr Jekyll was a busy man and it was uncertain when his lawyer would return.

Against his better judgement, Jekyll's first thought was that Utterson was visiting that mystery person from the night prior. It was a ridiculous thing to think, far too Hydish for his current appearance, and he hurriedly shooed it off.

However, it was horrendously out of character for Utterson to disappear like that. Usually when he said he would be back at a certain time, he was.

Utterson tended to be the reliable sort – At bed at the right time, never late to meetings, never missing a deadline, never oversleeping. For him to be late coming home was completely out of the ordinary and the implications plagued Jekyll’s mind despite his best efforts.

At last, a little uneasy, Jekyll just left the letter in the care of Utterson's servants with thanks for the information and left.

Trying not to think so hard about who Utterson might be meeting with, Jekyll headed towards the nearest pharmacy to pick up the chemicals he had ordered.

Jekyll didn't intend to bring out Edward that night.

He had decided a long time ago that transforming for singular nights only to transform back in the same night probably wasn't good for his physical or mental health so, for the most part, he remained in one form for at least a few days before switching.

The transformation was a painful experience and vastly untested in the realms of medical science. It was this which encouraged sensible and scarce use of his potion.

After all, who could know whether having his bones break and reform at least once a day could have lasting consequences?

Jekyll was a chemist, not a physician.

However, Utterson’s mysterious disappearance was too much to allow him any sleep that night and, since the good Dr Jekyll couldn't be caught trying to track down Utterson late at night, it appeared it was Edward's turn again.

Just one extra night, he reasoned to himself, couldn't hurt too badly in the long run.

Crawling out of his now-too-large nightwear and throwing on his own shirt and trousers, Edward slipped out the front door and took to the streets of London, preparing to see what his beloved was up to.

His first intention had been to head to Gabriel's house to see if he could spot the lawyer in any way there. As it turned out, he didn't have to go far at all.

Outside Jekyll's lab, once again leaning against the same wall in the exact same spot, was Gabriel John Utterson.

Edward stared for a moment, bewildered.

Again? Again?

Surely Gabriel had received Jekyll's note by now. There was no need to wait at their door, looking for him. No need at all.

...Unless he was awaiting someone other than the good doctor.

Edward’s face twisted into a scowl.

But why? They had snubbed him once already, who on earth could be worth waiting in this manner, night after night?

He must really like them, Edward thought sourly. What did they do to achieve Gabriel's affections so thoroughly? For Gabriel to wait in the night, putting himself in such risk just to see them?

Jealousy was a horrible feeling. Edward enjoyed being carefree and having fun. At least emotions like anger had a certain satisfaction to them in the end, like spitting at one who has wronged him or, when possible, getting into physical blows.

Jealousy had no satisfaction. It was hollow, it was bitter, and there was no conclusion that would please him.

Sure, when this mystery person showed, he could get revenge on them for stealing his Gabriel away from him but what would it be worth? Such an action would probably upset Gabriel and then Edward would feel even worse in the long run. Besides, it would be all the more reason for Gabriel to hate and fear him. Not that Edward hadn't already given more than enough excuse for anyone to hate him, Gabriel included, but actions like that would come with serious consequence. There was no winning.

He shuffled and adjusted his position, trying to get comfortable. Maybe this time, this lover of his would show and he would see their face. Perhaps, if he could just see their face, he could understand why.

Edward yawned and settled on his side, unaffected by the hard brick he was rested on. Through half-lidded eyes, he watched and waited.

Once again, Gabriel left disappointed that night.

Starting to doze off, Edward almost missed the moment where the lawyer straightened himself out and headed for home. Almost, but not quite.

Like before, Gabriel reached home without incident, Edward following closely on his trail.

Edward cocked his head, and waited for several more seconds outside his house after the lawyer had gone in, watching as the lights flicked on through the windows.

Surely after this Gabriel would give up on this lover of his.

This was the second night in a row that they hadn't shown. Clearly, they just didn't care about him the same way that he cared about them.

Pleased with this idea, Edward turned and headed off.

He wasn't going home just yet. It would be a waste to change back so soon when the bars were still open.

With that thought, he was gone.

Dr Jekyll was a little hungover that morning.

His head was throbbing and the light stabbed at his eyes as though punishing him for daring to walk around in the day after the things he had done in the night. In hindsight, "Just one more drink" hadn't been the best decision but, then again, he never made his best decisions as Edward.

Like, for example, waiting for a non-existent lover.

The only response he could give to his own idiocy was one long sigh.

Utterson had probably been away from his house all day, he hadn't found the letter until he had returned home, that's why he had been waiting for Jekyll at the door to his lab. If Jekyll hadn't been there for several days, Utterson had no reason to believe that he would receive a reply immediately after sending his letter, he wouldn't know to check at home first.

But waiting at your doorstep for several hours is easier? Even after sending the letter? Surely it would be easier to check for a reply first?

Jekyll shook off the thoughts. No, he wasn't getting jealous again. When he and Utterson met up, he was sure this important matter that Utterson wanted to tell him would clear up everything.

Ignoring the beginnings of a headache, he headed to the front door and plucked the letters that had come through the letterbox, sorting through the junk until he found one with the telltale neat calligraphy of Utterson's handwriting.

Eager to solve this mystery, Jekyll popped open the letter and began to read.

Dear Dr Jekyll,

I am thankful to hear that you are well. Tuesday at 3pm is fine for me, assuming your plans don't change. If any issues arise, don't hesitate to write back, we can schedule a different time and day.

Yours faithfully,

Gabriel Utterson.

He breathed out, relieved. It wouldn't be much longer until he got answers.

Already, he had slept in rather late due to a mixture of exhaustion and drunkenness, leaving the time at 1pm. That gave him two hours to get ready and smarten himself up for Utterson.

It just wouldn't do to have his dear Utterson see him in such a state.

Smiling with only a little grimace, Jekyll swept out of the room, hoping that the headache would be gone by 3pm.

Gabriel wasn't entirely sure why he had chosen his best clothes for this. Usually he saved those kinds of clothes for business meetings, matters with clients.

Yes, technically, Henry was a client of his as well, but he was also a close friend. They had known each other for so long, seen each other at their worst, and there would be no concerns shed over simple casual clothes. Yet, for whatever reason, Gabriel still felt the desperate urge to impress him on that particular day.

He assumed it was a fear of Hyde.

After all, Hyde could be planning to do any manner of horrendous things to his dear Harry and he had to do whatever he could to get information before it was too late. This meant he would need every advantage, every technique he had in his arsenal to convince Harry that he would be safe if he merely put his trust in his lawyer. If he could just get Harry to trust him well enough to confess whatever was happening between him and Hyde, it could be stopped before it went too far.

Who knew what that monster would do to his dear friend if he failed?

To him, that seemed the most likely reason for the butterflies in his stomach.

Taking a deep breath, he approached the front door, knocked, and waited. As he waited, he double checked his suit, making certain that nothing was out of place, tugging his tie nervously.

It was Poole who answered the door. The butler nodded at him in acknowledgement.

"Mr Utterson."

"Poole. Is Dr Jekyll ready to receive me or is he still busy?"

The butler opened his mouth to reply but, before a single sound could be uttered, a voice rang out clearly from behind him.

"Quite ready."

Poole stepped to one side and, stood there straightening out a brown waistcoat, was Henry.

Gabriel was relieved to see that his friend looked well. He hadn’t realized until now that he had secretly been worrying that the business with Hyde might be taking a toll on Harry. Sure, there was a paleness of the skin and a slight drag of the step that suggested weariness but that wasn’t exactly new for the doctor. Henry missed sleep in lieu of his work far too often to be healthy.

The pair shook hands cordially and Gabriel was brought inside, trailing after his doctor towards the dining room, Poole at their heels.

Perhaps it was Gabriel's imagination but the doctor seemed quite eager to see him, even more so than usual. With Henry’s pristine facade, it was difficult for most people to read him, even Gabriel finding his friend’s emotions surprisingly enigmatic for the most part. On this occasion though, there was a twitch of a broader smile on his face that Henry was clearly struggling to keep straight and even his eyes twinkled with more light than usual.

For whatever reason, it made him feel much happier to see how excited Harry was to see him.

It wasn’t one of Henry’s full smiles but those were as rare as they were worth seeing.

Nobody could smile quite like Henry could and Gabriel always found it amazing whenever he was blessed with the sight of it. Nobody else could express such pure, utter joy or light up the room in that way.

It was a shame that he hadn’t seen it in years.

Gabriel was violently shaken out of his daydreams when he nearly walked into a table.

It seemed like, while he had been deep in thought, they had reached the dining room. Poole was already setting out two cups of tea while Henry sat himself down, pretending not to notice Gabriel’s stumble.

Internally, Gabriel berated himself, simmering inside with humiliation. Here he was trying to make a good impression only to ruin it by sticking his head in the clouds.

Quickly, as to not embarrass himself further, he sat himself down, thankfully taking his cup of tea and sipping.

"It's been too long." Harry chirped once they were both sat, "My apologies for being away, I would have returned right away if I knew you were trying to reach me."

"I'm sure you would have but I wouldn't want to ruin your schedule."

"Nonsense. What I was doing was hardly important." He laughed politely and leaned forward, propping his arms against the table with barely disguised curiosity, "You, on the other hand, said you had something you needed to tell me?"

Gabriel faltered.

"Ah. Well…"

So far there had been such a pleasant air that Gabriel had almost forgotten the real reason for his visit. His heart dropped to think of it.

It always had to come back to business, didn’t it? He didn’t want to speak of such topics, he wanted to ask Henry about his latest experiments, how he had been lately, whether he had picked up any new hobbies and the like.

Talk of blackmail would just befoul the air.

Unfortunately, that was what he had showed up for and the matter would eat at him for months if he didn't pry into it now.

"I was wondering about Edward Hyde."

It was as though the good energy had drained from the room with just that name.

Henry had paused, teacup halfway to his lips. The expression on his face was unreadable but undeniably paler than it had been just a moment ago. "Is... Is that important..?"

"Yes."

"It's, ah..." Harry swallowed and placed the teacup down with a rattle. "It's not a subject I like to talk about."

"Why? Not fond of Hyde?"

"It's not that…"

Henry’s eyes had become fixed on his teacup as though it had abruptly become the most fascinating thing in the room, fingers stroking up and down the handle distractedly.

To Gabriel’s surprise, there was some new expression on Harry’s face, something quite foreign to the doctor, so mild that it was barely perceptible. It was so unusual that it took Gabriel a moment to recognize it.

There was a flush to his cheeks. It was slight enough to be mistaken for being the cold but the room was perfectly fine temperature wise. Besides, it had only shown up once Henry had started to think of Hyde.

A combination of the blush and Harry’s sudden inability to look Gabriel in the eye...

Was it… Embarrassment?

Something twisted itself in Gabriel's stomach to see that expression at the mention of Hyde.

What was that supposed to mean?

"Is there any way I could meet this Edward Hyde?"

Henry jolted at that one and his face went just a little bit redder.

"I... I'm afraid not. Edward much prefers his own company and I doubt I could convince him to meet with you considering how antisocial he generally is.” Henry tapped on the table as he spoke. “Plus, he’s ever so awful with meetings. It’ll be wonder if he shows up at all, let alone on time. I wouldn’t want to wish that on you.”

There was a pause. Henry’s eyes flicked up to meet Utterson’s gaze, examining him with uncomfortable intensity.

When he finally spoke again, his voice was dangerously quiet.

"Utterson, why do you ask?"

"I have heard some rather dreadful stories of Hyde's character."

"A-ah... I see." Henry swallowed, took a moment, and then smiled brightly. "Well, Utterson, there is no need to fear. If you fear Edward to be a danger to me then I can assure you I am quite safe. I can be rid of him whenever I choose."

Somehow, Gabriel was not comforted. Harry looked quite nervous and the way he reacted to the subject of Edward Hyde…

A new thought had occurred to Gabriel, something he quite didn’t like the implications of.

Henry had referred to Hyde by his first name – He had called him Edward.

Henry was so awfully formal, he wouldn’t even refer to Gabriel as anything other than Mr Utterson. If he couldn’t even refer to his close friend of several years by his first name, how close must he be with Hyde?

The embarrassment, the flush, the nerves...

Was Hyde, perhaps, some sweetheart of his..?

Gabriel tasted something bitter on his tongue.

If this was not the rotten work of a blackmailer, this was a romantic interest of Harry's – A romantic interest who couldn't possibly have his best intentions in mind. Hyde was cruel and heartless, he would trample over Harry's precious heart once he had whatever it was he wanted.

"You need to hear about the things Mr Hyde has done." Gabriel said darkly. If this was some misplaced love, maybe hearing the truth of Hyde's character would help to snap him out of it.

"Please, Utterson, can we not change the subject? It has been a while since we last spoke and I don't want to linger on this subject. I want to know how you've been lately, what you've been up to, that sort of thing. Not this."

Gabriel wanted to press further. His chances to help were slipping through his fingers like sand but, to press too hard could clam his friend up entirely.

He gritted his teeth and smiled as best as he could.

"Of course."

Jekyll didn't really trust Edward.

It was a strange thing to say about oneself but he didn't.

As Edward, his emotions, his behaviour were out of control. Some days it really was easier to pretend that Edward was another man entirely, behaving in ways that Jekyll wouldn’t even dream of. It was part of the reason that Edward wasn't allowed to interact with Dr Jekyll's friends. Jekyll knew that, with ease, he would tell them exactly what he thought of them – every bit of jealousy, envy, and hate just spilled in one go like a knocked over water jug.

Utterson was worse than a simple friend.

Even at the mere thought of Edward and Utterson meeting, his mind was possessed with images and thoughts, the likes of which didn’t belong in the mind of a true gentleman.

He could see all too clearly: Edward stood before Utterson, blurting everything he had ever felt about his beloved lawyer. Ideas of confessing his feelings without his usual fear of ruining their friendship. Daydreams of sweet talking and flirting, even getting a response in kind from his dear lawyer.

These ideas dug themselves into his mind with hooked claws and refused to depart.

Henry cared about Utterson more than simple friendship and, as Edward Hyde, those feelings were certain to show. Already, from merely watching his old friend, Edward had been consumed by jealousy.

No, Edward would do nothing but flirt if he were to ever come into contact with Utterson. Although such a concept was already embarrassing in its own right, it would be even worse if Utterson was already courting another. His poor Utterson shouldn't be subjected to that sort of behaviour simply because Henry couldn't keep his own emotions under control.

With that thought as fixed in his mind as he could keep it, he looked up at the lawyer in question. Utterson was currently recounting what Enfield had been up to lately. Henry listened with rapture, his heart fluttering.

My beloved could recite the contents of a phone book and I would still never tire of his voice. A wistful thought sighed in his head.

Jekyll battered back the more Hydeish thoughts with a metaphorical stick.

This was a talk between friends, not romantic interests. Mr Utterson was not his beloved and certainly wouldn't appreciate his friend giving him pet names like that. Something like that could ruin the friendship that they had.

"And you?"

Jekyll started, disappointed that Utterson was finished.

"Oh, me? I've been doing research for several days now, nothing of particular interest. Delving into the effects that jealousy has on the brain."

"Really? What brought about that?"

"Ah, nothing really. Just a whim that struck my fancy, but I'm certain I can't interest you with talk of my wearisome research."

"Actually, I find your work rather interesting."

Henry inhaled sharply. His beloved found his research interesting?

No, no. Mr Utterson. Not beloved.

Sheesh, this was why he shouldn’t change back from Edward two hours before meeting up with friends. He was getting muddled in the head.

"Truly? The chemistry of the brain, Utterson? I doubt you would retain that interest of yours once I've explained the effects of oxytocin to you for three hours."

"Well, I have already regaled you with the intricacies of the law to you for far more hours than that. After boring you in that fashion, it's only right that you get the chance to return the favour."

"You could never bore me, Gabriel."

Silence fell.

Henry was quite certain that his face must have been as red as a tomato by this point. He cleared his throat and took a long drink of his tea, avoiding Utterson's eyes.

"What I mean, Mr Utterson," He spoke more slowly, "is that I find law interesting. You have to remember that we took law together, did we not? You, however, have never been very interested in chemistry and I fear that it is far more boring than you may expect."

"Oh, Gabriel's fine. No need to be quite so formal."

"M-hm?" The cup was quaking a little in his hands and he quickly put it down, placing his treacherous hands in his lap where they couldn't be seen.

This was because of Edward. Transforming into Edward and back in quick succession must have left traces of Edward's personality in his head, that was the only explanation for why he was slipping up so badly.

At this rate, Gabriel – Utterson – would realise Henry's feelings for him. He was no slouch when it came to deduction. His quick thinking, after all, was what made him such a great lawyer.

Henry almost couldn't believe his luck that Mr Utterson seemed blind so far. Maybe it meant he wasn't slipping up as badly as he feared?

"After all, Harry, it would seem rather impersonal of me to call you Dr Jekyll, would it not?"

Henry – Or maybe Edward – screamed internally.

It was no beloved or honey but Harry was still a nickname that Gabriel had given him and his heart always seemed to beat a little faster whenever he heard it.

Perhaps, though, this wasn't the greatest time for it.

"Mm." He hummed in agreement, not trusting himself to speak. Even so, he feared his response was a tad too high pitched. Nervously he shifted in his seat, his fingers twiddling in his lap.

God, he wished he could tell what Utterson was thinking. The lawyer was so difficult to read. He had one of those faces that only barely shifted between expressions and it made it so nerve-wracking to try to tell how he was feeling.

Utterson had gone rather silent, a mild frown beginning to form. He was peering at Henry with such intensity.

What on Earth could be going through his head?

Harry's behaviour had been strange from the moment Gabriel had brought up Edward Hyde and the lawyer was certainly starting to regret that decision.

His friend kept flushing or getting twitchy at unusual points in the conversation and it was obvious that his mind was elsewhere. No doubt thinking of Mr Hyde still.

He had hoped that trying to get Henry to talk of his own research would shift his mind away from that monster but Henry seemed frustratingly resistant.

Even if Gabriel didn't often understand them, his doctor had the most fascinating ideas on things. For all he claimed that it was "wearisome", Harry spoke with such passion on his work that it was impossible not to be swept along like he was listening to a story.

At this moment, though, it seemed poor Harry was far too distracted to pay any sort of attention, let alone make conversation himself. He was simply content to let Gabriel lead. That passion was directly firmly elsewhere and Gabriel just had to bite his tongue and work through it.

"How have you slept the past few nights?" Henry asked unexpectedly.

Gabriel looked up, a little surprised at the question.

Sure, he had slept badly for the past few nights, badly enough for even Hastie to notice, but he was quite certain he had cleaned himself up to the best of his ability before showing up. Yet, somehow Henry seemed to have noticed – why else would be be asking out of nowhere?

There was a stab of worry in his stomach. He didn't look a mess, did he? In front of Harry?

Gabriel rubbed at his own eyes in a futile attempt to remove any bags that could have formed under there, feeling rather self-conscious all of a sudden.

He didn't want to complain to Henry of night terrors. It was such a downer of a subject and it would mean admitting how extremely worried he was for his friend. Moreover, Henry would never confess the truth about Hyde if he believed that the only reason Gabriel was interested was his own personal fear. People tended to prefer a lawyer to be more professional, less personal. They didn’t speak of emotional matters with one who had a stake to hold in those emotions.

"I've been too busy to sleep properly." Gabriel tried a smile. "But I'm sure I'll be able to get a proper night's rest soon enough."

"Busy? With what?"

"Clients. You know how it is."

"Ah. I see. Must be quite a troublesome client if they're disrupting your sleep this way."

"That they are. But," Gabriel glanced at Harry, taking in his pleasant air, his warm smile, his kindly eyes, "it's worth it to keep them safe."

Mr Utterson spoke so softly, so warmly about this client and Henry felt a sharp bristle of jealousy again. There was the twitch of a smile on the lawyer's face, a rather wistful look in his eyes as though recalling something fond.

Oh, Henry knew Utterson for long enough to recognize the signs. Had he not seen that expression time and time again in the past?

More than once, Henry had daydreamed about Utterson using that tone of voice, that expression, when speaking of him.

His dear lawyer was thinking of one he liked. Really liked.

Did that not cinch it? It truly was a love of his.

It mattered not, Dr Jekyll told himself.

If Utterson was happy, it mattered not how Jekyll felt. He wouldn't let his jealousy – Edward's jealousy – get in the way of his friend's happiness. He had sat through Utterson’s romantic interests before and he would continue to do so like the supportive friend that he should be.

With that in mind, he smiled and changed the subject.

Conversation went a little back and forth as the hours went by but there was nothing of note.

Far sooner than Jekyll would have liked, Utterson was being ushered out the door. Jekyll had a dinner party in several hours that he had to prepare for and so, tragically, Utterson couldn't stay any longer. They both agreed it had been too long since they had last spoken and, to prevent such a thing happening again, they arranged a new time and day to meet up.

Just as Utterson was putting on his coat, he paused for a moment and glanced back at Jekyll. His lawyer looked awfully thoughtful.

Finally, Utterson turned back and walked back over to him. Then, to Henry's alarm, he placed his hands on the doctor's shoulders and looked him in the eye.

"Harry." Utterson spoke sternly.

"Y... yes..?"

"You know you can tell me anything that's troubling you, don't you? Anything at all?"

The corner’s of Henry’s lips twitched.

"I do. And you know that you can do the same to me?" Henry pressed, a little hopefully.

At that, Utterson hesitated.

It was such a brief moment but Henry’s heart had already plummeted like a stone, even before he noticed that Utterson wasn’t meeting his eyes anymore.

"Of course. You are my dearest friend."

For a moment, Henry’s smile quavered. He quickly shook it off - after all, he was nothing if not skilled at hiding his emotions.

As best as he could, Jekyll fixed his smile back into place and beamed at his lawyer.

"And you're mine. Have a good day Mr Utterson."

"Oh, I already told you, you can call me-"

But Jekyll had already left, striding off to prepare for that dinner party as Utterson stared after him.

Once he was out of sight, Jekyll grabbed a bottle of wine and poured himself a large glass, swallowing it in seconds and immediately pouring another one.

Utterson’s final words continued to echo in his mind as though mocking him. Did Utterson not view him as a friend? Or were the implications that Utterson wasn’t telling him something?

Blast it, this wasn’t going to leave him alone, was it?

Perhaps, he considered, it wouldn’t be too bad to let Edward out for one more night. Just to prove that he was being paranoid.

Just one more night wouldn’t hurt in the end.

For now though – Jekyll checked his schedule – he had a dinner party to attend.

Chapter Text

Edward was absolutely fuming.

Practically the entire day as Jekyll, he had reassured himself time and time again that there was never a lover, that Gabriel wouldn't be there that night. It was just because he had wanted to meet with Jekyll – that was the only reason he had been loitering in such a strange fashion.

But lo and behold, like the angel of being confusing and standing around, here was his dear beloved Gabriel, swathed in his holy halo of mystery and his feathered wings of fog standing exactly where he had the night before and the night before that and the night before that.

Long may he reign, the patron saint of jackasses. (Amen.)

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair!

He had been snubbed twice already! Who was worth this level of effort?! Who was worth waiting night after night after night to see?!

Using his teeth, Edward viciously popped the cork from the bottle of wine he held in one hand and spat the cork right off the roof with a range that, if he hadn't been so focused on his beloved, Edward would have been impressed by. (He was pretty sure, if it were daytime, he could have pegged a passer-by directly on the head with a spit like that. Five points to the scoreboard for any random person, ten points for a child, and fifteen for someone who looked important or flashy. Scores multiplied by two if someone called the cops.) Knocking it back, he nearly finished the entire thing right there and then.

Whoever they were, they weren't worth his beloved Gabriel. They didn't care about him, couldn't he see that? A true love wouldn't leave him waiting all this time, wouldn't snub him twice in a row but Gabriel – dear, sweet, kind Gabriel – was simply too nice and good to see that he was being used!

He didn't care if it would upset his beloved, if this mystery figure ever showed, he would give them a piece of his mind.

Edward crossed his legs and dug his nails into the brick, feeling them scrape nastily across the rough surface in a way that set his teeth on edge. It was an unpleasant feeling even for him, but it helped ground him. Every part of him screamed to go down there and drag Gabriel away, show him what caring really was. The gravel beneath his nails helped to remind him that he wasn’t supposed to do that. (And bloody Hell would it be annoying getting that out from under his nails later.)

As his nails bit into the brick hard enough to chip them, there was the small tap of something hitting his head.

Frowning, Edward turned his gaze to the sky, lifting a hand to his hair to see if he could feel whatever it was. Another raindrop splatted against his eyebrow and ran down into his eye. Angrily, he wiped it away.

It seemed he was in for a bad night.

It was starting to rain.

Leave. Edward willed with the intensity of one hoping for the spontaneous development of latent psychic abilities. It's going to rain and they're not going to show because they don't care. Stop being so good for once in your life and leave their sorry ass.

Gabriel put out a hand, feeling the first spots of rain. Then, with a bit of fumbling in his bag, his beloved pulled out an umbrella. It seemed he was there for the long haul.

With clawed fingers, Edward dragged at his own hair, a muffled shriek gurgling in the back of his throat.

He had thought the worst case scenario would be finding out that his beloved had become entranced with a picture of perfection but, no, this was worse. This was far worse.

At least a picture of perfection would love his beloved back, at least his beloved would be happy at the end of it all. Whoever this was, they were nowhere close to perfect. They were downright despicable.

The raindrops increased, turning from droplets to a drizzle then, finally, the rain started a downpour. Sheet upon sheet of freezing rain came down and Edward, without umbrella, was soaked through in seconds. His long hair was plastered quickly to his skin and his teeth chattered in the cold.

Drawing up his knees, he curled himself into a small ball to retain warmth. Not that he needed it. The burning, all-consuming fury in his chest kept him warm enough alone.

He would have difficulty seeing this horrid lover in the rain but, if there was even a chance, he had to take it.

Doing his best to rub warmth back into his fingers, Edward waited.

Once again, however, there was nothing to see and, once Gabriel was home, Edward left somehow even angrier.

Gabriel was getting tired of this.

From the start, he had known that he wasn’t actually going to be seeing Hyde any time soon and any thoughts otherwise were only optimistic hopes. After all, it wasn’t like he knew anywhere that Hyde frequented. If he wanted any information at all, it would have to obtained by waiting at Henry’s lab.

Still, it was disheartening to see nothing.

He had to remind himself that this was for Henry's sake. Obviously, this Edward Hyde character was no good for his dear Harry, therefore it was his duty as Henry’s closest friend to shoo Hyde away before any damage could be done. At the very least, he had to find out what sort of person this character was – whether he was the horrid, nightmarish monster Richard had painted him to be or just the unfortunate victim of misinterpretation.

His brow furrowed.

For some reason, the second one just wouldn't fit in his head. No matter how little evidence he had of Hyde’s bad intentions, he couldn't imagine that Mr Hyde really cared for his doctor. Not the way that Henry obviously cared for him.

Henry was somewhat of a closeted romantic. It wasn't that he had ever openly admitted it but Gabriel had noticed the way that Harry slowed down when he saw an advert for a romance on at the theatre, how he gazed adoringly after loving couples on the streets.

Yet, despite this, he never seemed to settle for anyone.

Sure, he had come by plenty of relationships but never had they lasted longer than a few weeks and he never spoke of his lovers to Gabriel as fervently as he could his research. He had certainly never flushed when speaking of them like he had done for Hyde.

As Harry grew older, his few sparse relationships became even less frequent until, by the time he was an adult, he hadn't shown even a flicker of interest in anyone for years let alone having a relationship. Whenever Gabriel asked if he liked anyone, his response was often vague, non-committal. More times than he could count, Henry had deflected the question back to him.

Occasionally, Gabriel questioned to himself if maybe Harry was a little like Hastie – Maybe Henry was only interested in romance but had never truly experienced love before.

At eighteen years of age, Hastie had settled down with the two of them and admitted that he didn’t believe he was interested in men, women, or anyone else for that matter and he didn’t think he ever would be. Over the years, he had watched other relationships grow and blossom, listened to other people gush about their “one true love” and found that, in truth, what he was experiencing was nothing like other people. Close friendship, yes, but love? Unless love was nothing like how other people made it out to be, he hadn’t experienced it.

For the longest time, Hastie had kept a tight lip over the subject on the basis that, perhaps, he just hadn’t met the right person yet. Even still, he didn’t like admitting it out loud in case someday he should find himself proven wrong and had forced the pair of them into secrecy on the subject.

As of yet, however, Hastie's predictions seemed to be true. He had no interest.

It had always made sense to Gabriel that Henry could be the same but, unlike Hastie, had never figured it out. At the very least, he had never been able to openly admit it. After all, Henry had never been the best at articulating his emotions.

Strangely Hastie’s lack of interest had never been disappointing to Gabriel. A surprise, perhaps, but never disappointing. Yet, for Henry, the mere thought of it was a leaden weight on his shoulders.

Unlike Hastie, Henry clearly wanted love. No matter how many times it took, he always wanted to make it work but just never could. Every time, it was complaints that Henry was too cold or too distant, too buried in work or other matters to hold a relationship.

Except, Gabriel had always seen another side to him when he was younger. Henry had been an excitable and sociable young man who could speak for hours about things he was passionate about with an energy unlike any other, someone who could see immense beauty even in flaws or mistakes. He couldn’t imagine for one second that, if Henry truly loved another, he could ever be too cold. The only explanation that made sense was that love itself must have be the issue.

The concept had already seemed terrible enough to Gabriel, that Harry could be always pursuing something he could never obtain. Now, it seemed, he was disproven and the feeling was even worse – Henry was finally truly interested in someone but that person was foul and cruel.

After all this time, he got to see what it looked like when that ardent passion of Henry’s was put towards a person and, instead of being the joyful moment he had hoped for, it had been twisted into something manipulative and wicked.

After all this time of keeping his heart to himself, Harry had chosen to give it to Hyde of all people.

It felt... Unfair.

Despite his umbrella, the rain had been blown by the wind, causing his legs to get soaked. His shoes hadn't been the most waterproof either, leaving him with socks which squelched unpleasantly with each step, his toes completely numb.

He had to question if all of this was worth it in the end. What did he have to gain? Would he look at Hyde's face and instantly magically know if he was blackmailing Harry and what to do about it?

He sighed.

Well the weather was supposed to be nicer tomorrow night, it wouldn't hurt to do it again.

Just in case.

Jekyll awoke from the transformation still shuddering with rage and cold. For a few minutes, he could do nothing else but to sit there in a ball on the floor, rocking back and forth as he rode out the last burning residues of Edward's anger in his chest until it was nothing more than ignorable cinders.

His clothes were still soaked through, dripping a growing puddle onto the lab floor. The steady dripping noise was the only noise in the lab beside his own snarling breaths, hissed between clenched teeth.

He didn’t understand why he kept doing this.

Edward was just getting worse and worse and Jekyll feared that any day now his alter ego would either punch Utterson's lover or walk straight up to Utterson's face and ask about it. To wait for hours in the rain like that was simply too far.

In fact, things had probably been too far the moment Edward had started to stalk his friend.

So far, he had ignored the horrible implications of his actions, too possessed with curiosity and too used to distancing himself from Edward's actions to think too deeply into it but the truth had to be faced – he had spent night after night watching Utterson in the dead of night without the lawyer knowing, even going so far as to follow the lawyer home. Such actions were utterly ghastly to think about, particularly from Utterson’s perspective.

No, he needed to acknowledge the fault of his own actions. This had gone too far the first night and, although it was a little late for good deeds, it stopped here.

Utterson deserved his privacy. Wasn't that why he hadn't asked about it directly to begin with?

Not tonight. He promised himself. I won't change into Edward for a few days. By then, Utterson will probably have stopped waiting there and Edward will move on to other things.

Ignoring the itch of need on his skin, he went about getting ready for the day. First things first, changing out of his soaked clothes and warming up before he got pneumonia. Getting to his feet at last, he trudged up the stairs, heading straight for the bath.

On the table behind him, out in the open after he forgot to put it away, a small glass bottle sat on the table, filled with the remains of a peculiar green liquid.

Henry didn’t notice.

"I think Henry is in love."

Hastie almost spat his tea straight across the table.

At that moment, Hastie was perched on the dining room chair in his own house, a cup of lavender tea in one hand. Gabriel was sat across from him with his own strong black coffee, a troubled look on his face. The lawyer's brow was creased and he kept tapping at the table with one finger in a fidgety way, coffee forgotten.

There was a lingering scent of lavender in the air, the potted plants he was growing sat on the windowsill still blossoming in muted, twilight hues despite the season. The window was slightly ajar, the mild winter breeze rustling the stems.

To be perfectly honest, Hastie had been prepared to talk about Gabriel’s health and recent sleep patterns, things that a doctor could give advice on. He had not been prepared for that revelation.

Quickly dabbing at the spilled tea with a napkin, he looked back up at Gabriel anxiously.

Hastie had known that Jekyll liked Gabriel since university. The day after he had realized he was in love, Jekyll had gushed to Hastie for what felt like hours until Hastie was quite sure that if he ever had to hear another word about Gabriel again, it would be too soon. From then on, it had been easy to see the way that Jekyll stared after him when he thought nobody was watching or the way he would always drop everything for Gabriel’s sake.

It had certainly taken Gabriel long enough to realize. On the other hand, he did not look happy.

"O-oh..?" Hastie smiled awkwardly and shakily raised his teacup to his lips, hoping to pretend that he knew nothing about this. "With whom?"

"Edward Hyde."

For the second time that conversation, Hastie choked on his tea.

"Hastie, is that tea too hot for you? Maybe you should leave it a few seconds to cool?"

"Ah, yes." Hastie stared at the table, still reeling from what was going on. "I think I will do that, thank you Gabriel."

...Dr Jekyll was in love with Hyde? Wasn’t he in love with Gabriel?

No, wait. People could like more than one person at once, couldn't they? Or maybe Jekyll had moved on from Gabriel? He hadn't spoken to the other doctor in so long after all, it wasn't impossible to think he could find other people in that time.

God help him, this was not his area of expertise at all. Why had fate decided to put him in the middle of this?

"So, what are your thoughts on this?" Hastie asked cautiously.

"Hyde is up to something. I fear Hyde plans to use him for something nefarious and it's my duty to protect Harry from whatever it is."

"Really? How do you know that?"

"I've heard stories of this Mr Hyde and none are pleasant."

"...But you haven't met him in person yet?"

"I assure you, Hastie, I'm still trying."

Ignoring the implications that Gabriel was still stalking the man, Hastie continued.

"What stories have you heard? I know you, Gabriel. You're not usually so quick to jump to conclusions, particularly when it comes to someone you haven't even met yet. "

“Richard told me he saw this Mr Hyde trample a child late at night.”

Ah. Enfield. Now wasn’t that a name that always preceded trouble.

"Excuse me for being rude about your cousin but isn’t Enfield a little… Ah... Overly dramatic? What was a child even doing out at night anyway? What was Enfield doing out late at night?”

That was an understatement. If there was an award for best slanderer, Enfield would win with little contest – Probably because he spread enough gossip about his competitors to get them kicked out of the contest. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a pleasant thing to say about someone’s cousin, particularly a cousin that Gabriel was so close to, so Hastie kept his mouth shut. Not that Enfield would do the same given half the chance.

"I know but... I don't think he was lying on this occasion."

"How so?"

"Because-" Gabriel flapped his hand, desperately trying to grasp something to say. "-Because there's something off about this whole thing!"

Hastie could see that this conversation was going nowhere so, deciding that his tea had probably "cooled off" by now, he began to sip it again.

Yep. Cold. How swell...

"Harry deserves someone better." Gabriel said, sitting back and crossing his arms, "I just don't know how to convince him when he refuses to hear anything bad about Hyde."

"I would argue that if anyone were a bad influence on anyone, it's Dr Jekyll.” Hastie quipped, eyeing up his cold drink disappointedly, “Look, I'm sorry Gabriel. I would love to be more helpful in all of this but I genuinely know very little. I haven't spoken to Dr Jekyll properly in years, I've never met or even heard of this Hyde before you mentioned him, and matters of the heart are simply beyond me."

"I know, I know, I just... I just need someone to talk to about all this."

"As long as you don't expect any real advice, I'm fine with hearing you out."

"It's… It’s more than just what I heard from Richard that troubles me. Look can I trust you to keep a secret?”

Hastie, who didn’t speak to other people enough to spread gossip or secrets even if he wanted to, nodded without hesitation.

“I've looked through a few of Hyde's legal documents.” Gabriel sighed, staring at the table. “They're... forged."

Hastie's eyebrows shot up at that. "Forged? That sounds way more suspicious than anything Enfield could have told you. Why wouldn't you lead with that?"

"Because it's Henry's forgery."

Hastie stared, wide eyed.

"I was the one who taught him how to forge documents when we were younger – I know what his forgeries look like.” The lawyer continued. “I don't know why Henry would falsify documents but I can only imagine it was on Hyde's insistence. I can't tell anyone, not without implicating both Henry and myself, and I already know that he won't tell me anything." Gabriel stared down into his teacup. "Why would he? I'm just his lawyer."

"Gabriel, you're far more than just his lawyer to him."

"He won't even call me by my first name anymore, Hastie.” Gabriel ran his finger around the rim of his cup. “Sometimes I wonder if he even thinks of me as a friend anymore. We've both been so caught up in work that we almost never see each other and now he has some lover that I've never met and Henry won't even introduce him. Have we really become that distant?"

"Jekyll is about as personal as a clam these days. I don't think it's just you."

"I'm supposed to be his friend. He's supposed to be able to open up to me."

"Have you opened up to him?"

Gabriel stuttered at that. Hastie raised an eyebrow slowly.

"It's... Not easy to open up to him. Not when he's so... Impersonal."

"...I see." Hastie replied, internally contemplating ways he could subtly pour his tea down the sink without Gabriel noticing. "Well, do you want to spend the rest of the day fretting over this or would you rather take your mind off of this for a while? How about a game of Chinese Checkers?"

A long sigh.

“Fine.”

Jekyll couldn't sleep that night.

At that moment, his sheets were tangled about him from tossing and turning. The night air was chilly but, despite this, he had managed to become too hot in his bed. However, when he removed layers, he quickly became too cold.

A sliver of moonlight from the window fell across the room and, eyes half lidded, he stared at it, observing the way it picked out the smallest sections of furniture in a silvery sheen. It cut just the tiniest part of the darkness away, giving a glimpse of how the room looked by day. He could squint at the crack between the curtains and study what little he could see of the moon, gleaming with the potential of London’s night air.

Outside that window were the streets, the shadows long and the fog thick. Once busy roads and paths, scattered to silence and desolateness with the coming of the night.

A whole different world awaited on the other side of the glass, one where anything goes, where the citizens of the day sleep and the nocturnal creatures and people slink out for that which cannot be done in the light. Where the loud clatters of carriages and shoes and talking became muted, where people spoke in hushed whispers and tiptoed quietly as to not wake the slumbering dayfolk.

On those cobbles, cobwebbed in mist, could be any number of cut-throats and thieves looking for mischief to make, urchins who were simply looking for a way to make it to tomorrow, rogue gentlemen and ladies pretending to be something they weren’t to get away from the rules and regulations for a while, average people caught out by the shortening days hurrying for home and horribly out-of-place under the moonlight.

And one waiting lawyer.

Jekyll shifted uneasily in his bed.

Could Utterson be out there tonight?

No, no. He couldn't be. Not again. What reason would he have to do that again when... When whatever it was he was doing hadn't worked?

There were no windows on that side of the building. Well, none that weren't boarded up or overgrown. He couldn't check.

Not without Edward.

No. Shut up. He didn't need Edward. He could walk out the lab door and see if Utterson was there. It would be far easier than spying.

No matter how much he told this to himself, however, the more insidious part of his mind, the part that enjoyed being Edward, the part that wanted any excuse to change, kept hissing to him. It curled in his head needily, murmuring excuses that he couldn't blot out for the life of him.

If he walked out as Dr Jekyll, he would scare Gabriel off. He wouldn't see Gabriel's lover. His beloved's beloved.

"Good." He muttered to himself aloud in the dark of his room. "That way I won't get jealous."

Pulling the pillow over his ears, he rolled over yet again.

In that dark room, his mind played tricks on him, like it always did when he was so desperate to become Edward but refused to. His head felt foggy, that strange half-way between sleep and waking jumbling his thoughts into a mess of sticky feverish heat and red tinted darkness. On the inside of his fluttering eyelids, he could see the imprint of scarlet veins, feel the blood beating hot through his fingers, just beneath the skin.

"But I need to know." He found himself whispering, unbidden. "I need to at least see their face."

"Why?" He snapped back, forcing the pillow harder over his ears as though that might quiet the sound of his own voice. "What good will it do? It'll just upset me."

"And if I don't, it'll haunt me. If I miss my chance to see the one who has stolen my beloved's heart, I will always think of it. I'll always regret it."

He clapped a hand over his mouth, silencing these mumblings. The thoughts still echoed in his head though, persistent and nagging. Though he tried desperately hard to think of other matters – the work he had to do tomorrow, the chemicals he needed to pick up, ideas of certain concoctions to design and devise – his mind was dragged back to Gabriel time and time again.

His dozing mind flickered with shards of half-formed images, crude and simplistic, drawn in dark red on the pulsing black of his closed eyelids. Fragments of Gabriel with an unknown love, memories of himself as Edward, pieces of conversation he had heard over the years. They melted and oozed together until he couldn't tell what was real and what was in his head, what was a memory and what was imaginary.

It was this damnable state of being half asleep and half awake, he decided. It made these visions of his much stronger.

In his moments of lucidity, Jekyll struggled to rouse himself enough to get up and move. These moments were only short bursts before his dozing dreams dragged him back down, submerging him in a swamp of thick delusions yet again and, as it was, it took several attempts before he finally managed to even sit up.

Finally, he forced himself to his feet, wiping sweat off his brow and lighting a candle. His head still felt like the darkness itself had stuffed itself inside, a ball of thick black cotton that dulled noise and thought alike as he put on his slippers.

He was going to his lab.

Once he was there, he would open the back door and, if Utterson was there, call out to him. Utterson would be shooed off to find a new place to meet this lover of his and the temptation would be gone. Otherwise, he would learn the truth of why Utterson was choosing to linger by his door night after night. In theory, there would be no downside.

In his nightwear, he wandered down the darkened hallways, candle in hand. The shadows stretched long and he fancied he saw glimpses of Hyde in them. Long clawing fingers, wild hair. Transformed by the shadows, his sweeping nightgown became a cape that flapped behind him.

His desire only grew and he couldn't shake it off.

Fingers twitched.

Once Gabriel was gone, he promised himself. Once Gabriel was gone, that desire would be gone and he would be able to sleep without Hyde's presence hanging over his head like he was haunted by his own spirit.

With that in mind, he opened the door to his lab and descended the stairs. His footfalls were so loud in the silence of the night that he almost fancied that he might have scared Gabriel off already. Of course, it was unlikely he would be so lucky but it was a pleasant thought.

Even after all the walking he had done, his head still felt foggy, clouded over almost like Hyde's personality had already started to overtake his own, making it tricky to think properly. Thankfully, there wasn't much that needed thinking about in that moment.

His slippers touched the bottom of the steps and he took in his lab.

The candle didn't illuminate much. By the amber light, he could see the edge of his desk, the chairs, the cold tiled floor beneath him. If he really looked closely, he could see faint green stains on the floor. Faint green stains that led to-

He stopped.

Sat on the table before him was the potion. It was simply where he had left it, alone in the dark.

It would just be all too easy to walk over and drink it.

Henry felt his body tremble slightly, his desire renewed with an almost overwhelming vigour. He sucked in sharp breath. (Right there. It was right there. No effort, no mess, just as easy as could be. No embarrassing himself in front of Utterson, no staying in the dark and unknowing, no weird questions or awkward moments.)

His eyes darted to the backdoor to his lab, trying to focus on his task. However, just like how his thoughts always slipped back to Utterson, his eyes slid back to the potion by themselves.

The swirling, luminous green stood out in the dark of the lab in a way that was impossible to ignore. It moved in the glass almost like a thing alive, the bubbles rising through it causing it to splash against the glass of its prison as though the liquid itself was trying to escape. A beautiful thing, a powerful animal trapped in a small cage, screaming to be set free, gnashing and frothing.

Even in the darkness with only candle light to illuminate it, he could see every detail as clear as day, from the glint of the glass to the sheen of each and every bubble, the viridescent hue and the wild majesty of it in all its glory. (Could feel it, smooth and thick, sliding down his throat, could taste the salty, strange, chemical taste that lingered on the tongue, could feel the heat in his veins and his stomach and his heart, could hear it burble and growl even inside him as though something were alive beneath his skin.)

Without thinking, Henry's first step into the lab was towards the potion.

Snapping back to reality, he forced himself to stop and did his best to shake off the last residues of exhaustion. Clearly that was the thing that was clearly messing with his head in this way.

The door. He had to head for the door.

Swallowing, he marched with purpose towards the door, doing all he could to avoid looking at the potion.

All the while, he studied the wall.

The wall was plain enough as it was but, in the dark, it was just one shape. Not eye-catching, not interesting, it simply kept him from looking in the other direction. (Four walls and a ceiling, four walls and a floor. A prison of white walls and iron shelves, a cage of hard tiles and cold metal tables. Where was the lock? Where was the key?)

His footsteps rang out in the silence, echoing in such a way that it made the room sound so large and so empty, a room that he couldn’t see further than the circle of candlelight around him. No matter how far the candlelight stretched, he couldn’t see it all, just darkness stretching on and on and on.

As he continued, another sound began to make itself known, only just catching the edge of his hearing but steadily growing in volume with every step. Perturbed, he stopped in his tracks, straining his ears to hear what it was.

A chill crept down his spine.

It sounded like whispering in the dark, too quiet for the words to be interpreted but too loud to be ignored. The noise was so near to a human voice but there was a clear edge of something inhuman in it, something too clear and bell-like to come from something living.

It tickled the hairs on the back of his neck as though someone was stood just behind him, hissing directly in his ear, inducing a shudder out of him. (Hands on his shoulders. Hands with long fingers and long nails, skin papery and dry in texture as though it could tear any second. Lips almost touching his ear as it spoke, filled with row upon row of crooked, hooked teeth like fish hooks. A tongue unfit for human words, long and trailing and thin, segmented like a worm.)

Shakily, he breathed in.

Out.

Then, with one more shuddering breath, Henry clenched his fists and, before he could think twice about his actions, he spun around.

There was nobody there.

However, he could now see the source of the noise. At the sight of it, the spell of fear over him was broken and he could have laughed at his own paranoia.

All that was there was the potion.

Lazy spirals of faint green smoke rose from the between the cork of the bottle, twisting into patterns in the air with a rattling hiss. That was all the noise was. Trapped steam.

Once more, his eyes were caught on that brilliant emerald green liquid. In the dullness of the rest of the room, it was only natural for his eyes to alight on it.

"It's right there. It would be so easy." He practically breathed to himself.

Henry opened his mouth to protest but, somehow, his voice was lost.

If he went out there, he would scare his beloved away, he would never see who he had lost to, never know if they were right for Gabriel.

The potion, though. That could cure him of these woes. He would have the confidence of Hyde at his command, the ability to go out there and see them and to do whatever was needed.

It was a rather pathetic noise he was making at that moment – a low muffled whine in the back of his throat. He was desperately trying to force an argument out, something to deter himself from this.

There were plenty of excuses to choose from, plenty of reasons why not but, when staring into the inviting glow of that potion, those excuses seemed to scatter in his exhausted mind. A small part of him knew this was wrong even as he changed direction to walk towards it, dragging at his heels and trying with all its might to stop him.

The candle in his hand flickered and shook violently in his grip, sputtering, preparing to go out. Even once it was sat down on the table, it quavered dangerously, painting the room in nauseating flashes of light and dark. The shadows shifted with the light, peeping in and out like dozens of hidden watchers.

Henry cared little for this. His eyes were on the potion alone.

Carefully but hungrily, he reached for the potion. His fingers wrapped slowly around the cool glass with an almost religious awe. At his touch, the bubbling almost seemed to subside a little as though calmed by his presence.

Closer now, he could see it in even more detail, gazing into the spiralling, dancing grains of salt and chemicals. He could see the tiny scuffs and imperfections on the glass from the slips and trips from over the years, smeared fingerprints and stains, small chips around the neck, scratches from Edward’s claws.

Henry fumbled a little with the cork.

The winter air made the tips of his fingers mildly numb and his growing anticipation made him clumsy. Due to that, it took several attempts before the cork finally popped out, immediately slipping from his fingers. It bounced on the floor a few times before rolling under a table.

For a moment, his eyes flicked over to where the cork had settled. Then his eyes were drawn back to the prize in his hand.

He... He would pick that up later...

For now h-he had... Far more important things to do...

Smoke was rising out of the neck of the vial, steadily billowing in the air before him in a sulphurous smelling cloud, spilling and swelling in the air.

It swished about his head and his feet, engulfing him in a swathe of green. It shifted between moving slowly and sharp movements, darting around him in a way that felt so alive, curious and even a little playful.

When he had first made it, he had choked on that gas. It had poured in through his mouth and nose (his eyes, his ears, his head, his thoughts) until he could scarcely breathe. The smell was wretched and foul, more befitting of a decaying corpse than something he was going to drink.

It would never be pleasant but, like a starving man finds any food he eats to taste better than it should, at that moment Jekyll found the smoke almost inviting, although, he had to admit, it made him feel awfully light-headed.

That small part of his mind still protesting this change of plan made him turn one last time to the door. The door that he could have taken instead.

However, the door was gone.

As far as his eye could see, there was only an ever-changing expanse of emerald mist. The lab seemed to have vanished entirely into it until he couldn’t see even a single floor tile. The pieces of furniture he could have sworn were just there a second ago were missing and, in their stead, the twisting fog created shapes – reaching hands, flashes of movement, gnarled, towering things with too many limbs in all the wrong places. With that sight, the last of his resistance withered and faded into nothing.

The glass was pressed to his lips and, in one salty, sulphurous gulp, he had downed it.

Finally, the candle sputtered out.

Seconds later, Henry Jekyll started to scream.

Chapter Text

Alone on the streets of London’s night, Gabriel pulled his coat a little tighter around him.

The wind was howling between the buildings, a frigid gale that plucked at clothes and numbed the fingers. Fingers of slippery frost were starting to form on the cobbles making walking perilous. It branched on the windows and walls, coating the world in a cold glittering dust of white and blue, illuminated by the pale light of the moon.

As Gabriel stood and waited, he could have sworn he heard a particularly distinctive gust of wind whistle through the streets. One that that sounded just like a human screaming in pain.

His shudder at that was nothing to do with the cold night air.

That particular night, he didn’t expect anything. After so many failures, his optimism that he would ever see Hyde’s face was at a low.

This time he wasn’t going to wait as long. Just a quick peep, to see if that was the night and then straight back to bed.

The alterations to his sleep schedule had left him so tired that he couldn't even bring himself to stand, instead squatting on the ground in an unseemly fashion. The act of doing so made his skin itch with nerves but he had been there night after night and seen nobody. It was likely that nobody would see him that night either.

In his exhaustion, he found his attention wandering from the lonely streets before him to the buildings around. It was a nice enough neighbourhood, if rather quiet. The houses about were kept decent enough, little quaint buildings with small gardens. Even in the dark, he could see flower pots, mostly either empty or full of dying flowers as an unfortunate result of the season.

However, they still looked far nicer than Jekyll’s lab by a wide margin.

From this side, the building stuck out like a sore thumb. It seemed to loom over the street, the brickwork filthy and the windows boarded up, so overgrown that one could easily mistake it for abandoned. A shadow was cast over the entire street from that twisting architecture.

It seemed a shame that Harry didn't keep his lab in such a good state. He kept the rest of the house absolutely pristine but, supposedly, his lab was such a mess that he couldn’t allow anyone else in on account of the safety hazard it posed. Henry himself always claimed he could traverse it perfectly fine, it was just the health of others that he feared would be at risk, those who didn’t understand how he organised things who could mistakenly knock over the wrong vial or touch something they shouldn’t. Not even Harry’s servants could enter which Gabriel could only imagine didn’t help.

Lazily, his eyes shifted up to the sky.

The moon hung above, large and unobscured by clouds. Even the smoke that coiled from the chimney tops seemed lessened on that day, leaving the sky clear and deep. A dozen stars twinkled up there, small and bright.

His eyes skated the rooftops, the outlines of tiled roofs, of chimneys, and a rather sweet looking weathervane. It was fashioned into the shape of a cockerel and dangled from a neighbouring roof in a rather haphazard way that made it clear that it probably wasn’t a professional fitting.

Then, his gaze caught on an outcropping on a nearby building.

It was an unusual shape, too misshapen to be a chimney and too large to be some stray cat. For a few seconds, he just stared at it.

It looked to be the silhouette of a gargoyle or some other unpleasant rooftop ornament. The thing was sat on its haunches, as still as stone, the shape of the head positioned as if to face him. In the dark, it was impossible to make out features and he squinted, trying to see something more concrete.

His mind turned over the strange shape for a few seconds trying to puzzle it out. He was too tired to process very quickly and he imagined that one could almost hear the cogs turning in his brain.

With a click, his thoughts fell into place and his blood ran cold.

It couldn't be a statue. There were no churches or cathedrals nearby that it could belong to.

Gabriel leapt to his feet and stared up at it, wide-eyed.

Even in the dark, he could now see the glitter of eyes, fixed on him curiously. They were almost luminous, the moonlight reflecting off them like the eyes of a cat.

With a sharp, jerky movement more like a shuddering clockwork contraption than a living creature, the thing cocked its head to one side and Gabriel knew for certain that it wasn't some decoration.

That thing was alive.

The lawyer didn’t dare to move or even breathe, just staring at it, absolutely frozen in place. The only movement was the rapid thudding of his heart.

For all his own fear, the other creature barely even seemed to acknowledge that it had been spotted. There was an idle coolness to it’s behaviour, as though being seen didn’t affect its plans in any way, the air of one who simply didn’t care.

Gabriel feared that, any second now, it would pounce straight off the roof towards him and he would finally get a close up look of whatever horrendous features it had. His mind conjured images of claws and fangs snapping down on the lawyer with feral hunger.

For an uncomfortable period of time, they both just stared at each other.

Then, at long last, the creature blinked once, slowly. With languid movements, it turned away from Gabriel. With one last look over its shoulder at him, it finally vanished off into the dark. The night swallowed it up almost instantly leaving only the empty rooftop where it had been sat.

As soon as it was gone, the situation hit Gabriel like a train.

His heart was pounding and his legs were trembling so violently that he struggled to stand, causing him to practically fall against the nearby wall heavily. The night quickly felt much colder, the fog much thicker.

With a protective step towards Henry’s door, his shaky hands brushed against his pocket, feeling the hard edge of his gun tucked away.

For a while he just stood there in the cold, exhaustion forgotten, listening to the thud, thud, thud of his heart in his ears.

Breathing was quick. A rapid in, out, in, out, that sent puffs of steam rising into the air. His eyes darted about for any more signs of movement. Sometimes he thought he saw movement in the swirling fog but he could never be sure and, every time without fail, he would spin around to face the movement, staring into it, almost as if daring that monster to come out and face him.

It was a while before he started to calm.

There was no other movement or sound and Gabriel was forced to conceded that the creature, whatever it had been, was gone.

Cautiously, Gabriel stepped out into the street and away from the door, checking one last time.

It was late, although he was uncertain how well he would sleep after what had just occurred. Hyde seemed to be a no-show for that night but Gabriel had bigger things on his mind.

Gabriel hurried home a little quicker than usual that night, keeping a vigilant eye on the rooftops all the way.

Edward Hyde wasn't really an unexpected sight at the local pubs and bars. What was unexpected was the sour look that Edward was making as he shoved through the doors and threw himself down on a stool, immediately burying his face in his arms and theatrically groaning loudly enough for everyone to hear him.

Only a few people looked up. Edward's shenanigans were pretty well known among the regulars and nobody particularly wanted to get involved.

"One mudslide please." Edward mumbled from his arms. "With one of those little umbrellas?"

The bartender tutted and turned away to make his order, leaving Hyde to stew in his misery.

He hadn't wanted to leave his little watchtower so soon but his beloved had seen him. Worse, his beloved had been very obviously spooked by the sight and now it seemed unlikely that he would see Gabriel waiting there again. Most likely, he and his mystery lover would find another place to meet up, one where they definitely wouldn’t be spotted. (Or, he thought with a twinge of guilt, stalked.) If that were the case, Edward would never get to see who had captured Gabriel's heart.

He didn’t even know what had happened to Gabriel after he had left.

Had Gabriel gone straight home? Had Gabriel run into any trouble on the way? Was Gabriel safe?

Maybe he shouldn't have left, after all. What was the worst that Gabriel could have done? Called the police? (Actually, no, that was pretty bad.)

He didn't feel like changing back into Jekyll in the morning. He felt like getting drunk and stewing in his misery for a day or so.

It was, he reasoned, unhealthy to change back so quickly. Therefore, it was his duty, for his health and for science, to get as smashed as he possibly could and spend the day taking his mind off things. Though, scientifically, he wasn't sure what he was learning from this experience that he hadn't learnt already.

From his pockets, Edward pulled out his little book of notes and flicked through it. He supposed this was his first time experiencing such jealousy in that form, that might be something of note.

Sticking out his tongue, he began to jot down notes. They weren't anything of particular interest, things like, "Jealous from Utterson" and "Feelings of love more intense as Hyde" but maybe they would mean something more when he was thinking like a doctor again.

Edward and Dr Jekyll had two separate notebooks. Edward’s was more like a book for quicker, messier notes while Jekyll would refine those notes into something more scientific in his own book. As a result, Edward’s little book was a scrawl of doodles, phrases that made no sense, and ideas of things to do in the future. Moreover, Edward had made a game out of getting blackout drunk and hiding a tiny drawing of a dick on every single page to see if sober-him could find them all. (There was one on page 16, he knew, he just couldn’t find it for the life of him and it was driving him up the bleeding wall.)

On some pages were awful romantic stories that he had written. They were cheesy, badly written things full of too many tropes and too much purple prose but Edward didn’t really care. They were fun to write and that was all that mattered to him.

Chewing on his pen, Edward considered for a second, then wrote: "Experienced strange compulsion to take potion against better judgement. Potentially brought on by sleep deprivation and jealousy."

In all fairness, it wasn't the first time that had ever happened. Occasionally, when he hadn’t taken the potion in the while, he started to experience weird side effects. Those side effects varied but under all it was always the urge to change, twitching and writhing under the skin like a living thing.

When he got into such a state, he never pushed it further than a few days but he was sure that, if he really tried, he could resist it completely. The last night had simply taken him by surprise, that was all.

No, no. Nothing to worry about in the slightest.

Satisfied, he went about on a new mission of getting blackout drunk that night.

The bartender handed him his drink and, with a toast to absolutely nobody, Edward began to drink.

Hastie sipped his tea daintily at the desk of his office and peered down at the papers before him. Paperwork was one of the more boring aspects of being a doctor but, surprisingly to his co-workers, it was his favourite.

It was the risk factor, really.

As a doctor, any misdiagnosis or mistake could lead to lasting injury or even death, especially when a patient was deathly ill. Too many times, he had arrived on house-call to see someone, sometimes even young children, as pale as a corpse and scarcely breathing. Too many times, the families and loved ones were emotionally unstable, capable of lashing out at him for the slightest slip. He had to deal with their constant questions, tears, anger, and impatience and Hastie was, rather unfortunately, not the best with people at the best of times. Life and death sat in Hastie’s hand and, where some others would thrill at the thought, Hastie cringed away from it.

It was worth seeing the lives he had saved but the stress of it was almost unbearable.

Paperwork was less worrying.

A mistake in paperwork, assuming it wasn’t too extreme, wouldn’t kill a person. Besides, there was something quite meditative about the notes and calligraphy, of filling in boxes and dotted lines with information. It was neat, pristine, and never slipped into the realms of unexpected or crazy.

Once more, he brought the tea to his lips and took a sip.

Just then, the door slammed open and Hastie spilled his tea.

With a spark of frustration, Hastie’s head snapped up to berate whoever had disturbed him so rudely but his complaints dried up on his tongue as soon as he laid eyes on the culprit.

In the doorway was one pale and shaking lawyer, his hand still against the door, a haunted look in his eyes.

Seconds later, he was followed by a rather flustered looking servant.

"I’m so, so sorry sir! He just came in, I didn't have a chance to stop him!"

Hastie gave her his best reassuring smile, one that he feared probably was nowhere near as calming as he hoped.

"It's fine. Will you please give the two of us some privacy? I do believe that Gabriel here wants to tell me something."

She quickly nodded and was gone in seconds. The door closed behind her with a click and silence fell in the room. The only sound was Gabriel's heavy, laboured breaths, presumably from running all the way there.

"Was it nightmares again?" Hastie asked curiously, picking up a napkin and carefully dabbing at the spilt tea. He groaned to see that one of the pages he had been doing was now soaked, the ink smudged. It looked like he would have to redo it.

"Not nightmares. Something real." Without hesitation, Gabriel fell into the chair across from Hastie. "Something was watching me last night."

Hastie looked up sharply, the spilt tea forgotten. "What kind of something?"

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before." Gabriel shook his head, fidgeting.

Watching his friend’s behaviour, Hastie found himself regretting his decision to send the servant away instead of asking for a second cup of tea for his unexpected guest.

He slid what remained of his own cup of tea towards Gabriel. The lawyer glanced at it and shook his head again. Pushing it away dismissively, Gabriel continued. "It looked humanoid but... Wrong. It looked wrong, it moved wrong and I... I don't know how long it was staring at me for."

"So it definitely wasn't a stray dog?"

"No, certainly not." Utterson shuddered. "It was outside Harry's house, on the roof."

Hastie’s eyebrows drew together in a frown.

"You're still stalking Mr Hyde?"

"That's not the point!” The lawyer’s voice rose, “There was a creature like that outside his house, watching me! Henry might be in danger!"

"Gabriel, you must excuse me but, if you’re correct, it sounds more like you're the one in danger."

"No, no! It must have been stalking Henry's house! I might have scared it off for now but it could return!"

"I must confess, this is the most worked up I've ever seen you. Is there any proof that Dr Jekyll was the creature's target? Or even that this monster of yours has ill intent?"

"Don't you believe me?!"

Hastie swallowed. So much for paperwork being devoid of hysterical patients.

"I... believe that your evidence is circumstantial.” Trying to retain a level voice as to not agitate the lawyer any further, Hastie explained as soothingly as he could, “Monsters may be uncommon around here but it wouldn't be out of the question for some kind of creature to have spotted you hanging around late at night and found itself curious. I wouldn't instantly jump to foul play – one could easily find the same behaviour in that of any regular human.” A pause. “Although it would probably be quite touching for Dr Jekyll to hear that you're so concerned. Have you told him yet?"

"He's not home. He vanished last night and nobody knows where he is."

"Ah. I'm starting to see why you're panicking."

"Can you stop being so calm?!" Gabriel snapped.

In response Hastie just took his cup of tea back and took a long, slow, thoughtful sip. Gabriel stared at him the whole while, intensely. The lawyer had the air of one who was about to leap across the table any second now and shake him down for answers. Hastie just met his eyes and continued to drink.

Finally, Hastie placed the cup down on the desk and rested his elbows against the table. "It's concerning, I'll admit, but it doesn't mean anything certain. Once again, this is all circumstantial. Is there anywhere else Henry could be?"

Gabriel looked away, biting his lip. When he spoke next, his voice had become quiet and reluctant.

"...His staff say he disappears frequently."

"Well, there you have it. It's not unusual for him to be missing." Hastie huffed and raised his cup to his lips once more. Out of the corner of his eye, however, he saw Gabriel still shifting anxiously.

Hastie sighed long and hard and lowered his cup again.

"Look, if this monster does have ill intent then isn't it best that Jekyll isn't home? Wouldn't he be safer that way?"

"Unless he's missing because of this monster."

For a second, Hastie just stared at him, eyebrow cocked. Then a smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

"I have to admit,” Hastie said dryly, “after all that talk of love, I’m glad for the change of pace." He sipped his tea again.

"Hastie-!"

"Gabriel," A hand was raised to cut the lawyer off. "You've done all you could. From here, all there is left to do is to hope that the worst doesn't come to pass. I can't really give you any advice besides that."

Gabriel stared at him for several more seconds before planting his face in his hands and rubbing his eyes hard.

"If it comforts you in any way,” Hastie continued casually, “I think Dr Jekyll can take care of himself. If anything, it's the monster that's probably in danger."

In return, he got a wry look.

"Instead of worrying about Jekyll, who you can't help at this point in time, you should worry more about yourself. It might be best if you keep an eye out. Just in case there is ill intent afoot."

"I thought you believed it was just curious?"

"No harm in caution, my friend. Just make sure not to get overwhelmed by paranoia." He pursed his lips. "Although, it might already be too late for you on that count."

"I don't think I'm going to be able to stop worrying about Harry."

“No.” Hastie muttered almost under his breath. “Worry doesn’t seem to work that way, does it?” With a flourish, he pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and began to redo his paperwork. “Besides the horrible monster, how has your day been?”

The doctor didn’t look up but he could feel Gabriel’s glare directed at him.

“Speaking of monsters, I had to deal with the victim of a werewolf attack once.” He marched on, unaffected by the stony response. “Never seen one myself, mind you – a werewolf, I mean. It’s funny. I’ve dealt with far more rabid dog attacks than monster attacks. I suppose a rabid dog can’t give a person lycanthropy, though.” He hesitated, “Although, I wonder how many of those ‘rabid dogs’ actually were werewolves. It’s not until the next full moon that anyone really finds out and even then, most people have had shots for that sort of thing so they’re usually inoculated anyway...”

“Are you going somewhere with this?”

“No, but you burst into my office unannounced so you can listen to me talk.” Hastie looked up for the first time in his spiel to look at Gabriel. “I suppose there is one point that can be made. Monsters are rare, monsters that actually intend harm on another are even rarer.”

“But possible.” Gabriel argued back.

“Yes but it’s also possible to die of spontaneous combustion and I don’t see you fretting over that.” With that, he finished copying down his soaked page and threw the old sheet in the bin.

“Hastie...” Gabriel asked slowly and, worryingly, a little guiltily, “...If I were to wait for Hyde again tonight, would you say that’s a good idea or a bad one..?”

“Bad. Abysmally bad. But, somehow, I don’t think you’re doing to listen to me.” He fixed Gabriel with his best disapproving stare until the lawyer looked away. A tut. “People come to me for advice and they never actually take it, do they? I mean, why should they? It’s not like a doctor would know anything about their health. Perish at the thought.”

“Sorry, Hastie.”

“It’s fine, I’m used to it. Just try not to die, I have enough paperwork as is.”

“No promises.”

“Well, I’m going to get you a coffee. You look like death already and the day has scarcely begun.”

Gabriel smiled weakly, as Hastie got to his feet. Straightening his lab coat briskly, Hastie left his paperwork for a while, one unexpected lawyer trailing behind.

There was still the taste of alcohol on Edward’s tongue as he trudged home, some sweet, fruity cocktail that he couldn't remember the name of. It had been a vivid red and he thought it tasted like pomegranates. (Or was it cherries? It had to be something red, at least.)

For whatever God forsaken reason, the bar hadn’t listed the ingredients on the menu beforehand so he just had to guess what was in it. Well whatever the alcoholic component was, it was mild as Hell, he knew that for sure. It would have taken a dozen of those drinks to get properly drunk.

It was late and he was already dreading the work that probably built up for Jekyll while he had been moonlighting as Edward for the past few days. On the bright side, he wasn't completely hammered that night, only a little tipsy, which would hopefully mean no hangover the next day.

On that evening, Edward wasn’t paying any attention to his surroundings.

It was too cold to appreciate the streets around him, his sad little scarf providing little warmth like usual. What he wanted was to get home as soon as possible and huddle himself in front of a fire with a mug of something hot. Maybe he could even spike it with his formula so he would change back into Jekyll while still warm and comfortable instead of in that wretched lab. (A bad idea, really. If someone walked in, he wouldn’t know how to explain himself but it was a nice fantasy at least.)

That was why he didn't spot the shape watching him as he marched himself down the street.

With the weather like it was, Hyde mused, it wouldn't be much longer until it began to snow.

He wasn't awfully fond of snow. It required things like mittens and coats to go out, things that were heavy on his body or impeded use of his hands. Too many layers made it more difficult to move with the same grace. They prevented him from properly placing his arms at his side or crossing them over himself. He couldn’t feel the wind against his arms or rain against his skin, not when he was covered up in that way.

No, no, he absolutely hated it.

He had turned into Edward to get away from the many stupid layered clothes of Dr Jekyll and winter was that annoying time when he didn't have a choice.

If only fingerless gloves were of any use. They didn't make it difficult to pick things up like normal gloves did.

Alas, they left his fingers absolutely fucking freezing.

Speaking of which, Hyde dragged out a ring of keys and began to fumble with them in the cold as he walked. His fingers were so numb that he almost dropped them several times. A string of muttered curses were uttered under his breath, turning into steam in the frigid air.

When he finally arrived at the door, he hadn't properly gotten to grips with the keys and he continued to quietly swear as he fuddled through them.

The dark made it difficult to see which key was which and he was forced to squint at them, frustrated and on the verge of losing his temper. With a louder curse, the key he was holding slipped out of his fingers and he was forced to paw through the ring once again, trying to get a hold of it again.

There was a click of shoes behind him.

Edward froze.

A person sneaking up on another in the dead of night was never a good sign. It was one of those things that usually preceded a fight of some kind or, worse, a mugging. (Not that Edward wouldn’t be down for a fight but he just wasn’t in the mood on that particular day.)

It had sounded like one person. No sounds of weapons being drawn or guns being cocked but it was too early to truly know if they were armed. The person had not been light-footed so it wasn't some lost child looking for directions but he couldn't determine if they were more strongly built or not. Someone strongly built probably wouldn’t have the advantage of speed but one hit could probably shatter a rib or two. (Edward knew that from experience. He had to thank science that he healed faster than the average person.) That would make them easier to dodge but God would it hurt if they managed to land a hit.

He dared not open the door and risk allowing this stranger into his home. Instead, he stood there firmly, his fingers gripping harder around his keys. If this came down to a fight, the serrated metal edges could probably cause some pretty nasty damage to an attacker's face.

He would need to get close, though. Keys weren’t exactly long enough for a distance attack and he doubted that throwing them would cause a lot of pain.

With Edward’s small size, he usually had speed on his side. He could use that to get close without getting hit and, even if he did, his high pain tolerance usually threw people off. Most people expected a second of reprieve after landing one hit as their victim recovered but Edward usually didn’t give them that.

He would have to aim for the facial region – the eyes if it got really dirty – but it would be much better to use his knee to go straight for their-

"Mr Hyde, I assume?"

Instantly, his mind went utterly blank.

His eyes remained fixed on the keys in hand but he wasn’t seeing them anymore. In his chest, his heart rate was speeding up.

It was such a familiar voice – the same one he had heard in his dreams countless times. One that he had heard time and time again for years now. A deep voice, slightly gravelled and radiating stoicism, and yet so full of kindness and caring, so gentle and soft.

If he were crazy, Edward would say that sounded like his beloved.

However, that couldn’t be possible. Edward thought he had already scared him off.

Was it possible that Gabriel had met his lover, done whatever it was they did together, and started heading back home? Then, Edward imagined, while stepping quietly down the steps of London’s darkened streets, feeling alone at the temporary loss for that night of the one he loved dearly (Or perhaps feeling alone because they hadn’t shown. That bitter little cherry pit certainly didn’t seem to have a problem with ditching him before, after all.) Gabriel’s eyes had alighted on Jekyll’s house.

Struck by nostalgia, his eyes had lingered upon the familiar structure, the place he had waited at night after night for so long.

It was then that he would notice that, before that rotted door at such a strange time of night, was the shape of one he didn’t recognize. Finding himself possessed by curiosity, it was only logical that he would come over to see what was going on.

That made sense.

No, wait, wait! Go back a few steps!

That didn’t make sense at all!

His beloved had called him by name, he knew his name! How was that possible?

"That's my name." Edward replied breathlessly, more to himself than to his lawyer.

It was such a short answer but Edward's head was thrumming with a good helping of "What the fuck is going on?!" and he couldn't really come up with anything better to say.

His beloved was right there, talking to him!

Inside his chest was a bubbling concoction of emotions – a mix of joy and complete and utter bewilderment. Every time he tried to think about how happy he was, his thoughts would get tangled in threads of confusion and he found himself trying to puzzle out how he got into this situation.

It was official: He didn’t have a clue what was happening.

"How do you know me?" Edward mumbled, feeling a little tongue-tied.

"Will you do me a favour first? Can I see your face?"

Edward's heart was in his throat, beating a mile a minute. His dearly beloved wanted to see his face – As a favour that Edward could do for him!

After so long of daydreaming of speaking to his beloved face-to-face, it was Gabriel who had come to him first, it was Gabriel, the childhood friend who he had always thought didn’t even know him, who had come to him. It was as though he was living in a romance. (Probably one of the trashy ones he had written about in his notebook but a romance nevertheless.)

...On the other hand, it wasn't exactly the prettiest face one could lay eyes upon.

Edward’s woozy grin quickly twisted into a hard scowl at that thought.

Worse, what if Gabriel recognized him? What if he took one look at that hideous face and knew the truth?

His mind swam with an image of horror as Gabriel laid eyes on the ugly visage of Edward, of his beloved choking out Jekyll’s name with indescribable disgust, of his beloved turning his back on the doctor for good, never seeing him again.

Cringing internally at the image, Edward found himself unable to do anything but stand there, feeling torn.

To show his face and risk losing the last of his close friends? Or to steal away into his cosy house with its fireplace, knowing that Gabriel wouldn’t dare follow him through those doors without permission?

Despite these fears, his mind was already made up.

Finally, at long last, he could speak to Gabriel face-to-face, truthfully. There were so many things he wanted to say that he could never bring himself to do as Jekyll and now his chance was here. He had to take it, he had to do it.

Besides, it was on his beloved’s request and how could Edward ever even dream of turning him down?

He turned.

Chapter Text

There was something that didn't quite feel right about leaving so early.

Some bundle of nerves in Gabriel's stomach begged him to wait a little longer – he had only shown up recently, Hyde could show up any second now.

Gabriel, however, had already stayed far longer than he had intended to and he forced himself to his feet, dusting off his trousers.

One last time, his eyes skimmed the rooftops.

He was thankful to note that he hadn't seen even the smallest hint of that monster again throughout the night. If Henry truly was off on business, the lawyer could easily believe that the creature had been scared off and would not bother the doctor any further. Once Henry showed up again from wherever he was, his fears would be soothed completely.

When the streets and roofs were just as empty as they usually were, he straightened his coat and began to leave.

It had gotten dark quickly in the winter season, the sun vanishing over the horizon long before the usual dinnertime. As he made his way down the dark street towards home, he looked up at the sky. The stars above were bright and numerous, tiny flecks of light in a deep sky. He stared at them as he walked.

Just then, a faint jingling noise caught his ear. Confused, he stopped, straining his ears to listen.

The noise was getting closer and, with it, he could now hear the soft sound of cursing. With a wince at the foul language meeting his ear, Gabriel turned to see what was happening.

There was a shape in the distance, slowly becoming clearer in the swirling fog. Someone was coming.

As a gentleman who certainly shouldn't have been out at that hour, his first instinct was to hide. However, he had come there for a reason and he wasn’t dipping out now.

Fighting his desire to flee, he stood firm and watched, hand at his gun.

For a moment, he didn't recognize the small shape storming down the street, spitting out terrible words as it grappled with its keys. As they got closer, though, before he could even make out a single detail of them, Gabriel began to feel an overwhelming feeling that the shape was off somehow – inhuman.

The feeling was familiar.

A chill shot down his spine.

That's the monster. That's the creature that was watching me last night!

What was even more dreadful was that they were heading straight for Harry's door. Glinting in their hands were a set of keys that jingled merrily with each step.

It wasn't an accident, he realized with dawning horror. This wasn’t a stranger who was mistakenly going to the wrong house in the fog and dark.

That was Edward Hyde.

Mr Hyde had been that monster that had been spying on him.

Thankfully, despite the fact that he was very clearly in the middle of the street, Mr Hyde was too preoccupied to notice Gabriel stood there, frozen in shock. He stopped at Jekyll's door, continuing to fumble and spit curses and Gabriel realized that this was his last chance to catch the creature. If he vanished inside, he would lose this one chance and he had waited too long for this point to turn back now.

Not giving himself any time to reconsider, Gabriel strode towards the short figure.

As he got closer, he saw Hyde visibly stiffen.

"Mr Hyde, I assume?" Gabriel spoke coldly. His tone made it quite certain that he meant serious business. Hopefully, if he scared this creature early, he might be able to pry some information out of him that way. This was, after all, an interrogation, not some friendly chat.

Even from behind, there was something so off about the figure. The darkness hid most of Hyde's features to the point that he couldn't even tell what his hair colour was but it was still... Wrong. The proportions had to be wrong in some way.

Somehow, his mind drifted back to the nightmare version of Mr Hyde he had seen a few nights ago in his dreams. The faceless creature with stick-like arms and legs.

The real Hyde didn't loom that way. He was far shorter and it was quite clear that, without a tall box, he couldn't loom over anyone. It wasn't quite so glaring what was wrong here and, somehow, that was worse.

"That's my name."

Gabriel flinched.

He hadn't been prepared to hear that voice. It fluctuated between a pitch so high that it brought about images of nails on a chalkboard, and a low, grating growl, almost more animal than man. It sounded like his voice was cracking in the most extreme way that Gabriel had ever heard. It was a throat simply not designed for human words.

There was a gurgling noise from the back of that dreadful throat when Hyde finished speaking as though he were clearing phlegm.

Hyde had a hunched figure, a standoffish, defensive manner about him. It was the air of one prepared for a fight and Gabriel instinctively shifted his arms closer to his body to defend his stomach in case things got dirty.

"How do you know me?" It continued to speak.

No. He was not giving this... Thing information first. He may have been frightened but he was keeping on top of this conversation.

"Will you do me a favour first? Can I see your face?"

There was a hesitation. The creature was clearly reluctant to comply.

Gabriel tightened his arms around his stomach, preparing to defend himself if this went sideways. His eyes were on the man's hands, looking for any sign that Hyde was about to pull a knife or a gun. In his belt, he could feel the hard edges of his own gun but he didn't want to resort to that unless absolutely necessary.

Things didn't get nasty. Instead, to his surprise, the creature complied.

Gabriel couldn’t help a cringe as he saw that face.

It was not that there was anything visibly off.

Like the back of him, Mr Hyde wasn't strange. He wasn't too crooked, too gaunt or distorted in feature and even his clothes were simple – a shirt, trousers and scarf, plain black and white. Although it was odd to see someone dressed in so few clothes in such weather, it wasn’t enough to explain the crawling feeling that he gave off.

There was just something wrong with him in appearance, like a forgotten primal instinct had been activated screaming at Gabriel that he had become entrenched in something he shouldn't. It was the uncanny valley feeling of looking at a porcelain doll that was just too realistic.

There was more than that, though.

Hyde had such a distinctive appearance even if he couldn’t pinpoint why and Gabriel was quite certain that he could recall if he had ever met someone like that before.

Yet, he felt like he had seen that face before.

Under that uncomfortable feeling that Hyde gave off, there was something familiar in Gabriel’s chest. More than familiar, in fact. It felt as though he were recalling someone he was fond of.

Sharply, Gabriel shook off the weird way his heart was fluttering happily and focused on the fear.

Well, he was quite convinced that this Edward Hyde character wasn't human. Perhaps all of these abnormalities were aspects of whatever species Hyde was.

It was probably rude to pry into someone else’s species but Gabriel was quite confident that, later on, he would be looking through books to try to figure out what could fit this description.

Better yet, how dangerous one of them could be.

"Thank you. Now I'll be able to recognize you again." Gabriel spoke sternly. He may not like this character but there was to reason to be impolite when Hyde had complied. Such an act would give off the wrong impression.

Hyde hurriedly looked away, hiding his face again. Gabriel was thankful. If he couldn't see Hyde's face, he wouldn't continue to have such a strange reaction to him.

"So, how do you know of me?" The man muttered.

On reflex, Gabriel almost blurted out the truth on the spot before he stopped himself.

He would not be giving this thing the upper hand in any way and he certainly wouldn't allow this thing to get its claws on Richard.

The easiest lie came to mind and was out before he could think too hard.

"From description. We have common friends."

"Like who?"

That low gurgling in the back of Hyde's throat again. It was a little like growling, Gabriel thought with a shudder.

"Henry Jekyll, for example."

Edward stiffened.

Immediately, Gabriel knew he had made a mistake.

He could not have heard that right.

Dr Jekyll? Dr Jekyll?! He had told Gabriel nothing and he knew that quite well. In fact, he had made an explicit point of telling Gabriel nothing about Edward, nothing that could be used to meet the two and yet, here Gabriel was, lying directly to his face.

For a solid minute, Edward couldn't respond. He just stood there, staring blankly at the door. Then, he spun on his heel, hands balled into fists and, stomping on the ground, he snapped.

"He never told you!" The retort came out sharper and shriller than intended but Edward was still reeling from the amount being dumped on him simultaneously. "I did not think you would have lied!"

With a look of alarm, Gabriel stepped back and, at the sight, Edward recalled himself.

Oh right, he wasn't Dr Jekyll at that moment. He was a stranger to Gabriel and it seemed his beloved was keeping cautious.

Such behaviour should not be punished, it should be encouraged. London's streets were dangerous at night, especially to those loose of tongue. (Although, Edward may have been a little looser tongued than people would expect but that was different. Nobody ever believed him anyway. It was almost like admitting that you’re secretly the most respected chemist in London openly in the middle of a bar while absolutely hammered and looking or acting nothing like said chemist made you untrustworthy. Weird.)

"Come now, that's not fitting language." Gabriel replied, with a frown. There was nothing in that voice but disapproving sternness and Edward could almost question whether he had frightened Gabriel at all or if the step backwards had simply been reflex.

Edward steadied himself.

"My apologies." Edward grinned with a little apologetic bob of the head, "I was not expecting to hear you lie so."

Gabriel gave him a puzzled look. "How are you so sure it is a lie?"

"Oh, my beloved, didn’t you know?" A knowing smirk. "I can always tell a lie."

Gabriel pulled a face. For a moment, he just stared at Edward, head tilted slightly to one side and eyes narrowing as though trying to puzzle out whether he had actually just heard what he thought he had.

"’Beloved?’ Sir, can we please speak without the mockery?"

"Ah, ‘sir?’ Oh, dear, sweet beloved, you truly are awful at pet names, aren't you?” Edward purred, moving forward with cat-like grace “I would say that 'sweetheart' is a better one but I suppose ‘sir’ does have its own unique charm to it. It feels more you."

He reached forwards as if to cup Gabriel's face in his hands but the lawyer stepped quickly back, raising a hand, ready to slap Edward away. Edward drew back politely.

"It's no pet name." Gabriel glowered. (Eek. Hyde had seen his beloved's terrifying glares before but it was something quite different to have it aimed at himself. If looks could kill indeed. Kind of hot though.) "What's your relationship with Henry Jekyll?"

"We're the same person." Edward returned cheerily.

The glare deepened and Edward steadily met his gaze without flinching.

Finally, Gabriel crossed his arms.

"I can't convince you to take this conversation seriously, can I?"

Edward took a step away.

"Don't tell me..?" He croaked, taking another step back, legs trembling, "My sweet beloved doesn't believe me..?"

Abruptly, Edward threw his hand up against his forehead, stumbling back as though he were about to faint. His body tipped precariously backwards to such a dangerous point that even Gabriel's hands immediately shot up reflexively to catch him if he fell.

"Oh, woe is me!" He cried out, with a despairing wail, "The fates gaze upon my life and laugh! When I remain the most honest in this entire conversation, it is the liar, my love, who thinks me to be the silver-tongued! The cruel irony of it!"

With that final cry, he finally tipped backwards completely, balance lost.

Arms windmilling and wind whistling past his ear, the ground rushed up to meet him. Before he could knock himself out (Not for the first time in his life unfortunately), a pair of arms caught him under the armpits from behind and held him there.

He just stared at the ground over his shoulder, puzzled by the fact that he hadn’t unceremoniously thwacked into the cobblestones at terminal velocity and woken up the next day to someone accidentally stepping on his head. (Not for the first time. Not for the first time at all.) Then, he tilted his head upwards so he could see his saviour.

Right into the face of his beloved.

The pair of them just stared at one another for an awkward few seconds. Gabriel was rather curiously red-faced and Edward, smiling dopily at at his beloved, felt his own face heating up.

"G'day, m'lady." Edward blurted deliriously.

Harshly, he was yanked back to his feet and Gabriel hurriedly pulled away, brushing off his sleeves as though Edward were something dirty.

It was simply a matter of niceties and reflex that had caused his beloved to catch him so but a guy could still melt in the idea that his beloved hadn't let him hit the ground. Once he was back on solid ground, Edward watched Gabriel, the rumble of a happy purr vibrating in the back of his throat.

Curiously, Gabriel was facing away from him, staring at the ground. Edward frowned at the sight. Gabriel couldn’t be that upset over catching him, could he?

"Look, I'm sorry for lying, ok?” Gabriel turned back around, looking exasperated, “Will you not tell me the truth?"

Edward cocked his head to one side as though contemplating, watching Gabriel closely out of the corner of one eye. Then he took a step towards Gabriel. Notably, the lawyer took a step back in return.

What was Gabriel feeling? Edward wondered. Was he afraid? Confused?

His beloved was one so difficult to read but the enigma was worth it. One who could be read like a book was easy, it lacked challenge, it lacked personality. Gabriel seemed flat to the untrained eye. More than once, he had heard people call the lawyer dull or dry. On occasion, even his beloved himself had put himself down. (By the way, how dare he?)

Edward knew better.

Hidden under that exterior, was a shining, shimmering goldmine of emotion.

Edward wanted to see it. He wanted to be able to notice the small ticks and fidgets that betrayed the truth behind that facade. Tells for lies, happiness, sadness, things hidden to the naked eye of a stranger or mere acquaintance. Edward wanted to know Gabriel well enough that, even when his face would barely change, he could see beneath the mask with ease, to know Gabriel better than he knew himself.

Flaws, strengths, regrets, hopes, dreams all of it. He wanted to know what made Gabriel tick.

With that in mind, Edward took another step, watching Gabriel step back once more, his mind turning over the conundrum.

Judging by the way he backed off, Edward would assume Gabriel was scared. It wasn't betrayed by his face, no flicker or hint in his hard expression, but actions spoke far louder than anything else.

Except that couldn’t be it.

If Gabriel was scared why was he there? Why was he putting himself at risk in such a way? What could possibly be so important to him?

Only recently, the lawyer had poked into Jekyll’s knowledge of Edward, seemingly out of nowhere. Now, here he was, speaking to Edward when he should know nothing of the subject. Some may call it coincidence but Edward found it very very interesting indeed.

There was something on his beloved's mind, something quite curious that, with the right prodding, Edward could pry out of him. Directly or indirectly.

He continued to approach.

Of all the responses Gabriel had been preparing for, this was not one of them. There was something dangerous in Hyde's eye as he moved forwards, almost hungry.

Gabriel's arms wrapped around his stomach protectively and he kept his eyes fixed on Hyde's hands as he backed away. Still no sign of a weapon being drawn but that was a cold comfort.

Maybe if he yelled out, he could scare Hyde off. Unfortunately, that might completely scare him off and then Gabriel would lose his source of information.

Another step back. Another. Another.

Hyde didn’t stop or falter for a second. He just kept coming slowly.

Gabriel tried to take another step back but, to his alarm, his heel hit something hard. At the same time, his heart seemed to stop.

Pressed against his back was a brick wall.

He didn't know how Hyde had managed to herd him into a corner in this way but somehow he had. The brick was rough beneath his fingers and horribly, horribly solid.

Still with a leisurely air, Hyde stalked forward, bridging the gap that had opened up between them.

From above, moonlight spilled onto the figure, bathing him in an ethereal light.

In such a light, Hyde didn’t entirely look real, more like a spirit or a figment of his imagination. His skin was so pale that it looked translucent, allowing him to see the dark ghost of veins branching beneath the skin. Possibly as a result of the lighting, the colour seemed to be bleached from his skin and hair, leaving him an image in black and white.

Gabriel wondered if Hyde would be less otherworldly under the light of day or if Hyde's species was just something that always looked so strange.

Somehow, in face of the current situation, he found himself thinking of Henry.

It was entirely possible that Henry had first met Hyde under such a light. Harry always was fond of the more unusual. He could easily picture Henry seeing this eerie sight one night and becoming smitten with it almost immediately.

He shook off these daydreams hurriedly. There were bigger things to focus on than Henry’s romantic choices.

As Hyde drew closer, a sinister grin twisted its way onto his face, showing off teeth that seemed just a little too sharp, too numerous.

Gabriel glanced to the side, contemplating running. Hyde was in a good position to block him off completely if he chose to but he hadn’t done so yet. For the moment, he had the chance to flee.

Even if Hyde did block him off, he supposed, the creature before him didn’t look the strongest. Of course, looks could be deceiving but Gabriel had confidence that he could wriggle himself free if needed even if it took a few dirty tactics.

It was better to not get into such a situation to begin with but, for whatever reason, Gabriel stayed put.

At last, Hyde stopped, rather close but, thankfully, not touching.

When the creature looked up at him, its eyes were wide and worryingly crazed looking. It pushed itself onto the tips of its toes, placing its hands against the wall either side of Gabriel to steady itself as it leaned forward, getting close enough that its lips were almost brushing Gabriel's neck. The act blocked off all escape routes for the lawyer.

Gabriel held very still.

Finally, the creature spoke, it was in a hoarse whisper, felt against Gabriel’s neck.

"When you speak truthfully, I will speak truthfully, my beloved.” A breath. “Where, oh where, did you hear of me?"

Gabriel could smell Hyde's breath even as he could see it in the form of steam, coiling lazily up past his face.

Unexpectedly, it was the strong scent of chemicals that met his nose. He couldn’t quite identify which ones but the smell was familiar enough. It was the scent of a science lab. The same smell followed Henry around as well but it was far more pungent on Hyde.

Well, Hyde had been going for Henry’s science lab, maybe he worked in there occasionally. Although, Gabriel questioned why it was his breath of all things that carried such traces.

Hyde hadn’t drunk the chemicals, had he?

Well, never mind. Hyde’s odd drinking habits weren’t important at that moment.

Hyde had drew back a little to watch his reaction. Gabriel deliberately wrinkled his nose and watched the shorter man pout in response.

Another man might have quailed under Hyde's threatening behaviour but Gabriel, having dealt with worse in his life, just retained steady eye contact with the man with all the coldness he could muster.

"It's Mr Utterson." He kept a professional note to his voice, hoping that Hyde would waver first.

"Gabriel John Utterson. The lawyer to one Dr Henry Jekyll. I am aware of who you are."

Gabriel flinched.

He hadn't intended to show a weakness before this monster but he had been taken aback that Hyde apparently knew him. What else did Hyde know?

His position was precarious. Quickly, he had lost ground against Hyde which was the worst thing he could do in an interrogation against someone potentially dangerous. Physically and psychologically, he was backed against the wall and he was starting to become nervous. He didn't know how to regain that ground again.

Hyde blinked slowly, still staring at him, a thoughtful look on his face.

Then, to Gabriel's surprise, the man suddenly pulled away and began to trot back towards Henry's lab without another word at a leisurely pace as though nothing had just happened.

Gabriel couldn't respond for a second, still with his back pressed hard against the wall.

The smart thing to do from here would be to leave. Hyde was proving more dangerous and unpredictable than he had expected and the best idea would be to go home and rethink what he had already learned.

Except, for reasons he didn't quite understand, Gabriel found himself jogging to catch back up.

He wasn't sure why Hyde would give up his upper hand so easily. It could be a psychological tactic or it could be an eccentricity of Hyde's but, either way, Gabriel wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. The scales had tipped a little in his favour and he was grabbing it.

Hyde didn't acknowledge him as he drew closer, Gabriel slowing back down to a walk once he was just behind the creature.

"You're still here." Hyde said simply, not turning around. “That’s dedication right there.”

"Did you hear of me from Henry?" Gabriel asked.

"You could say that." Hyde dropped back to walk beside Gabriel.

It was a normal thing to do, he supposed, but it made it feel strangely like a pair of friends walking down the street together and less of the most complicated interrogation he had ever found himself in.

"...What has he said of me?"

Hyde stopped walking and turned to face Gabriel.

"Oh? Now why, oh why, would you care?" Hyde teased playfully and, to Gabriel's confusion, lifted a finger and bopped him on the nose. “Expecting something interesting?”

Gabriel raised his hand to his nose and took a step back so he was no longer in arm's reach. Hyde's finger was cold but, in the weather, that was to be expected.

The question took Gabriel a little off guard.

Why did he care what Hyde had to say?

They were already so early in the conversation and already Hyde had proven himself to be the most bizarre person he had ever met. Getting any sort of truth from this creature would be like pulling teeth. There was no telling what he would claim or do next.

Somehow, though, he was hoping for just a sliver of the truth.

Hastie no longer spoke with Harry which meant that the only person Harry spoke to that Gabriel could ask was Hyde. If Henry truly loved Hyde, although God knew why, then he probably would have told Hyde a lot about Gabriel.

Although, Gabriel wasn't entirely certain what answer he wanted from this. Maybe his more affectionate behaviour made Henry uncomfortable and Henry would have complained as such to Hyde. Maybe he secretly enjoyed it far more than Gabriel thought he did.

Edward frowned at him, head cocked to one side as he rocked back and forth on his heels. He had such an odd way of moving, Gabriel noted. Like a marionette. Twitchy and uncontrolled, sharp.

"I... Well. He's a friend of mine and I... I was wondering that... If he's spoken of me... What he may have said..." His answer was unsatisfactory, he knew, but he didn't quite know himself.

"I know you're his lawyer. I know you met at university. I know he's fond of you." Hyde noted off the points on his fingers, “How much detail do you want?”

"Fond?" Gabriel's head shot up. "He said he was fond of me?"

Hyde looked over at him for a moment.

With a cool air, Hyde began to move again. His sharper, less controlled movements had given way to a slow, slinking grace like a predator, not a single noise made by his steps. As Gabriel watched, the creature began to slowly wander in circles around him, head lowered to watch Gabriel intently.

Gabriel was forced to turn to watch Hyde, not wanting his back to be to him.

"Oh, greatly so." The creature admitted, purring. "You're his dearest, his closest."

There was a rattling hiss in the back of Hyde's throat and Hyde stopped circling, standing right before Gabriel. The lawyer was startled to realize that he was close again, far closer than he had thought.

Hyde leaned forwards until the pair of them were only inches from one another and, speaking quietly with a softness he didn't think the creature was capable of, he whispered.

"Dr Jekyll is in love with you."

For some reason, those words sent a shiver down Gabriel’s spine and, for the first time in the conversation, not in a bad way. It felt like Hyde’s words had stolen his breath away and, for a moment that seemed to last years, all he could do was stare back, dumbstruck. Even from this stranger, hearing these words made him feel so warm and light-headed.

The strangest part was, he didn’t have a clue why. This didn’t feel like the sort of reaction one should have to finding out that a friend was in love with you.

It was clear that Hyde was a liar. Obviously Henry didn't love him, Hyde was just trying to drive a reaction out of him.

Hyde had stepped back and his face was a picture of nothing but innocence.

"You're lying." Gabriel’s voice sounded a little faint and he cursed himself for having such a weird reaction. He was giving Hyde the impression that his words had affected him and that meant Hyde thought he had the upper hand.

"Choose to believe what you will but how does it make you feel? If Dr Jekyll did love you, how would you react?" Hyde pressed. "Would you hate him? Would you leave him? Would things be awkward between you both?"

"I- I- That's none of your business! These are private matters!" His cheeks felt hot.

He didn’t know how this of all things was managing to drive a reaction out of him, and such a peculiar reaction at that.

It was a simple answer, wasn't it? He would still be friends with Henry, he would just have to let the doctor down carefully.

In his mind's eye, he could see the scene. He could see Harry confessing his feelings with that same flush he had when he spoke of Hyde, that same embarrassment, unable to look Gabriel in the eye. There was hope in those eyes, a desperate, wanting hope but a tenseness in the shoulders that already said that he was prepared to be turned down.

Gabriel tried to imagine himself saying no. Pictured the scene, pictured himself shaking his head and gently explaining to Henry that he didn’t see him in that way but they would still be friends at least. This wouldn’t change a thing between them, he promised.

It didn’t feel right though. The scene felt fake, forced. No matter how many times he redid the scene in his head, from the moment he said “No” it felt off.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t Henry’s reaction that was wrong, it was the things that Gabriel himself was saying that just didn’t seem to work. He tried every way of saying no, every way of dodging the issue, every way of being gentle, being harsh. It just didn’t work.

Vividly, he could see Henry’s eyes, so bright and full of passion, full of life. That light pinkish flush to his cheeks of embarrassment, his long hair hanging wild about his face. He looked like he did when they were younger, when Henry showed his emotions so clearly, when he could jump from sorrowful to excited within seconds, before he had grown older and shut those emotions of his away from the world.

He held that image in his mind, able to picture every detail as though it were right before him.

“I love you too, Harry.”

For a second, Gabriel didn’t know why he had imagined himself saying that. It had almost slipped out, one of those weird thoughts that would pop into ones head without provocation.

However, with those words, the scene before him slotted perfectly into place.

In his imagination, he watched his dear Harry look up at him disbelieving. There was a hint of fear in those eyes, as though he might find it to be a joke in the poorest taste. After studying his face for a few seconds, those eyes of his would begin to light up. However, there was still something doubtful in there. To prove once and for all that he wasn’t lying, Gabriel would lean in close and he would…

...and Gabriel would…

...Oh.

Oh, dear God.

He liked Harry!

A shock ran through Gabriel at the revelation. All of a sudden, he couldn’t imagine how he was unable to see it sooner. Henry had been by his side for so many years, been his closest friend through everything.

Somehow, he didn’t have a clue when this had changed from friend to lover and now he was desperately tearing through memories, trying to figure out when it had happened. His memories were full of Henry’s smile, his bright eyes, the way he could ramble on for hours. All affectionate memories and none that could tell him when he had started to really notice these things.

Hyde stood there in silence through all of this. For whatever reason, he had a hopeful look on his face.

Gabriel felt something disdainful rise inside him.

Did Hyde want him to confess that he would hate Henry? Or was he hoping that Gabriel would confess his feelings so Hyde could rub it in his face that he got there first?

At that thought, his heart dropped like a stone.

That was the problem.

Like an iron cage, Henry's heart was impenetrable. Nobody had ever managed to truly claim it, not until Hyde.

Henry would never love him back.

For that to happen, he would need to both achieve Henry’s affections and outcompete Hyde. The first step already felt impossible enough but, combined with the second step, he saw nothing but hopelessness ahead. Hyde had personality, he had energy, he was a monster which would make him scientifically fascinating to Henry. Gabriel, on the other hand, was just the dull, dreary, human lawyer. There was no personality for Henry to fall in love with, nothing that stood out appearance-wise. 

Who cared how Gabriel would react to a confession from Henry? How would Henry react if he knew the truth? It would certainly be awkward between them after that. Henry clammed up so easily, especially on the subject of emotions, he could lose their friendship entirely.

He could see it in his mind already. Henry doing all he could to avoid him. Their conversations cut short into snips of polite conversation. Losing what little they still had of their friendship because of one wrong move.

Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut.

Maybe Henry would be happy with Hyde. Maybe Hyde was nicer than he seemed and his dear doctor would be able to spend the rest of his life by his side like they were made for each other, doing science together, cuddling together in quieter moments, assuring the other when one was upset.

It was cruel but Gabriel didn’t want that.

Gabriel wanted to be the one who made Henry break his cold, emotionless facade. He wanted to see his own presence be the thing that made Harry flush or stutter, to be the one who could bring his friend out of his shell, to make him show that childhood passion of his once more. He wanted to be the only one on Henry’s mind.

It was no use, though. No matter how much he liked Harry, he had already lost to someone else.

"Is everything ok, beloved?"

Hyde’s voice broke through Gabriel’s downward spiral and he snapped back to the present, still stewing in an onslaught on different, confusing emotions.

Too much had happened in one night. Between getting pinned against a wall, Hyde's disturbing behaviour, the revelation of his feelings towards Henry, and his own more than strange reaction to Hyde, Gabriel was feeling flustered and overwhelmed. In that moment, it all came bursting out.

"Shut up!"

Hyde took a step back, looking startled at his outburst.

"Enough of the pet names, enough games! You've done nothing this entire conversation but ask intrusive questions and act-!” His voice choked for a second, “-Act in a most unreasonable manner!" Gabriel snapped, his voice ringing out in the night with no regards to who might hear. "I want you to stay away from Henry! If you touch a hair on his head, I swear I'll make you regret it!"

With his rant over, Gabriel stepped back, breathing hard, and braced himself for Hyde's response.

Surely after that display, Hyde would react badly. He had been so unusual so far that Gabriel didn’t have a clue how he would react but he knew it couldn’t be good news. Already, he had caught a glimpse of Hyde's short temper and he feared he was about to see it again but far worse.

To his surprise, however, Hyde's mouth stretched into a massive grin.

It was a crooked thing, full of teeth, skewed, way too large for the face. Somehow, though, it was so full of joy that it seemed to light up the night.

Just like Henry's.

Gabriel's anger and apprehension abruptly cooled within a second into a mixture of confusion and fond memories of his Harry.

"Oh, beloved!" Hyde almost sang, "You really care about me, don't you? It's so sweet!"

Gabriel snapped out of his daydreaming.

"What? No, I don't care about you, I care about..." He trailed off, unable to finish.

"Jekyll. You care about Dr Jekyll." Hyde cooed clapping his hands together over his heart. "You care about him so much that you would wait here night after night just to protect him."

Edward sighed wistfully and fell against the nearby wall with a dopey look on his face.

"To think, I was worried that the heart of my beloved had been stolen by a stranger.” He practically breathed. Then he shot straight back to his feet and crowed out to the sky, “Oh, how silly of me! Stupid Jekyll! I feared my beloved to be unfaithful when, in truth, it was I who was unfaithful!"

Gabriel winced at the loud noise. People were trying to sleep. In all fairness, he suppose he started this when he started yelling himself.

It wasn’t really apparent what Hyde was yammering about now but one thing in that speech had stood out to him.

"Wait here night after..? Hang on a second! How long have you been spying on me?!"

"It doesn't matter, I won't be doing it anymore. The heart of my beloved belongs to me and only me!" Hyde bounced up and down on his heels, looking so genuinely elated that Gabriel almost forgot to be mad. "Oh what a wondrous day this is!"

Gabriel quickly shook off Hyde's weird behaviour and got straight back to glowering at him. "What does Henry see in you?"

It was startling how quickly Hyde's expression could change. In the blink of an eye, his glee and childish enthusiasm was replaced by a bewildered look. He cocked his head and stared at Gabriel, wide eyed.

"What does that mean?" Hyde asked.

Preparing to shout at Hyde again, Gabriel’s mouth opened but, before a sound could be uttered, he stopped.

Hyde had such a genuine look on his face and, although it was difficult to tell when the man was telling the truth or not, this didn’t feel like Hyde messing with him. It honestly felt like Hyde might know nothing of this.

Did Hyde not know that Henry was in love with him?

He couldn’t know for sure but it felt dangerous to let slip to Hyde that Henry was in love with him. With such knowledge, a creature such as this could easily use it against Henry.

The lawyer took a deep breath.

He was going to get nowhere unless he could get something truthful out of Hyde. He had some experience with interrogations and sometimes people like this were more open to talk if they had incentive. Gabriel couldn’t offer money, not if Hyde was already in Henry’s pockets, and he wasn’t giving Hyde any services of any kind. Fear as an incentive hadn’t worked, Hyde had just turned that against him.

There was just one thing he could think of that Hyde might want.

Unfortunately, it required him to throw Richard under the wheels of the carriage.

Well, there was no guarantee that Hyde would be able to track Richard down or even that Hyde would bother with doing so. Moreover, Henry was the one in more danger at that time.

With a silent apology to his cousin, Gabriel made his deal.

"If I tell you truthfully where I heard of you, will you truthfully tell me your relationship with Harry?"

"No."

Gabriel did a double take.

"Excuse me?"

"You wouldn't believe me.” Hyde sniffed, pointing his nose up in the air. “Why don't we both stop hopping around the issue like a pair of rabbits and start putting a little more blunt force into this?” Edward crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels, peering at Gabriel. “What do you think my relationship with Dr Jekyll is? For you to press so hard, you must have something in mind already."

Gabriel swallowed.

What could Hyde do with that kind of information? Would he discern that Gabriel was interested in Henry?

"Henry... Acted strangely when I spoke of you... I was wondering if you... I was wondering if... If you..."

He couldn't say it.

There was no way he could phrase this without either revealing to Hyde that Gabriel liked Harry or revealing that Harry liked Hyde, neither of which he enjoyed the thought of. Both situations gave Hyde far too much power.

Hyde stared for a moment.

"You should speak of this with Jekyll." Hyde said at last. "If you will not speak to me, that is."

"He won't talk to me about you."

"...Something tells me he's changed his mind." Spoke Hyde softly.

The pair's eyes met for a moment and Gabriel noted that Hyde had the most strange eyes. It felt like those eyes were staring directly into Gabriel’s soul, peeling away all the lies and falsities and peering directly into his hidden emotions and thoughts. He was struck by the abrupt certainty that Hyde knew him perfectly, that every detail of Gabriel’s identity was seen in those wide, inhuman eyes.

He was staring at a stranger who knew him as well as a close friend.

Abruptly, Hyde threw back his head with a cackling screech of laughter so grating and loud that Gabriel clapped his hands over his ears, the spell broken.

"I'll be waiting for you, Gabriel! Tomorrow, come here and speak to Jekyll. And don't you dare keep me waiting – As early as the sun break, beloved. Understand?"

Gabriel spluttered. "I can't just show up at Henry's house early in the morning without invitation!"

"You have an invitation. Mine."

With a hop and a skip, without even allowing Gabriel to get another word out, Hyde had darted inside the house and slammed the door with a bang, leaving Gabriel to just stare at the suddenly empty space where he had been.

It took a few seconds before the chill of the air finally registered with him again. The lawyer rubbed his hands together, blowing on them in a sad attempt to get a bit more warmth back in. Somehow, he had forgotten the cold while speaking with Hyde and, with the odd man’s presence gone, the world suddenly felt much colder.

As he stood there, he mused over Hyde’s words. Of course he couldn't just show up to Henry’s doorstep unannounced, he didn't even know if Harry would be there that morning.

Yet, somehow, Gabriel already knew he would do it anyway.

Doubtful that he would get any sleep that night, Gabriel turned and walked home.

That morning Jekyll awoke practically dying of embarrassment.

Chapter Text

No matter what he did, Jekyll couldn’t rid himself of the memories of the night before.

They were so vivid and clear in his mind. Every sensation, every sight, every emotion as clear to him as if they were still happening at that very moment. He could even feel phantom arms around him from when Utterson had caught him and the sensation made him shudder.

Backing Utterson into a corner, pinning him against the wall, falling into Utterson's arms. Making his lawyer so unabashedly uncomfortable like some kind of monster. All these images still filled his sight, superimposed on the dark of the lab around him. He rubbed his eyes hard until his vision fuzzed with black spots.

Worse, he had liked it. He had enjoyed every second of Utterson's attention, touching him, getting close to him, freely calling sappy pet names, openly professing his own love.

He had enjoyed the short while that he could pretend, in the muddled mind state of Edward Hyde, that Utterson actually loved him back.

It was so stupidly obvious now that he was wrong that Jekyll wanted to spit every curse he knew at his alter ego and the entire experiment that had started this to begin with.

This had all started when Edward had wretchedly decided that it had meant something when Mr Utterson had recognized him.

The lawyer had probably been walking past, happened upon Edward, and taken the opportunity to ask a few questions. After all, Utterson had been asking about Edward only recently which meant that someone had told him something about Edward, probably even given him some kind of description. Therefore, when he had caught a glimpse of the man in question, the coincidence would have been too good to pass up.

Utterson wouldn't have been waiting there for his sake and the mere thought of it was preposterous now that he was thinking about it.

When he could bring himself to uncurl from a ball on the lab floor, he was going to the shower and scrub himself down until he felt like every trace of that stupid giddy feeling was gone. Until he could be sure he was one hundred percent Dr Jekyll again.

It wasn't even just the plain embarrassment that was troubling Jekyll, it was the way Utterson had looked at him.

There had been so much disgust and hatred in those eyes and, although his expression had betrayed little more, even Edward had noticed the way he backed off when approached.

As if afraid.

Utterson was fearful of very little and the thought that it was Jekyll who had managed to frighten his lawyer sickened the doctor to his very core.

If Utterson ever knew the truth of who had really been doing all those things to him, he would never speak to Jekyll again. Maybe he would even tell other people. Maybe his lawyer would be so hurt that Jekyll had betrayed his trust and personal space in such a way that he would tell everyone and grind Dr Jekyll’s good name into the dust.

Even if Utterson wasn’t the type to usually gossip, all it would take was one flash decision out of shock to tell someone and, like wildfire, the truth would spread. Jekyll could lose everything and, at the heart of it he would always be forced to know that it was the one he loved who ruined him in such a spiteful fashion.

Jekyll whimpered a little at the thought.

Just like Lanyon, his experiments would just keep driving his friends away until he had nobody left. First Lanyon had left him, now Gabriel-

No, not Gabriel – Mr Utterson. Not beloved, not Gabriel, not Gabe, just Mr Utterson.

Jekyll gritted his teeth, fists clenching until the knuckles went white.

He just didn't understand why he couldn't behave properly. Proper gentlemen didn't get personal, they didn't give these ridiculous pet names or refer to people so personally. They didn't get angry or jealous, they didn't act so selfishly as to fall in love with one who didn't want them nor would be happy with them.

Utterson could behave just fine. He had never seen his lawyer behave so irrationally so why was it so difficult for him to do the same?

The doctor rubbed his arms until the phantom touches dissipated and took several deep, shaky breaths. Then, he stood and began getting dressed.

It was fine. He wouldn't let this childish crush of his pester him any further.

Utterson would find whoever he had been waiting for and be happy with them, not some deceiving, shape changing monster. Eventually, he would forget about Jekyll and they could both move on to other people.

He checked himself in the mirror.

No matter what delusions had seized him as Edward, Utterson wasn't going to show up that morning. It simply wasn't important enough to take time out of Utterson’s day, not with far more urgent clients to deal with. With that in mind, he gave his reflection a satisfied nod and did up his bow-tie.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Jekyll looked up with a frown.

"Sir?"

It was Poole.

Bewildered, Jekyll checked the clock. It was 4 in the morning. His butler shouldn't even be awake yet – nobody should be awake at such a time.

"Are you in there? Mr Utterson is here to see you."

Dr Jekyll went dead silent.

Now that Gabriel was aware of his feelings for Henry, the nerves he had been feeling all that time were far more apparent.

Gabriel's heart was beating way too quickly for his liking. All that night, he had been unable to get even a wink of sleep. He had simply lain in bed, thinking of Henry and staring at the clock, waiting for a more reasonable time to show up. The moment it felt just the slightest bit like morning, he had been up and out the door to the confusion of his staff.

Despite this, he had felt foolish the entire time. Henry was out, probably on business and there was no real reason for him to be there now, not so soon after vanishing off. Moreover, Hyde held no sway over whether or not Henry chose to open up.

Gabriel was just doing the exact same thing as a few days ago again, as though speaking to Hyde had somehow magically made Henry open to talk.

Henry was no lock and Hyde certainly wasn’t the key. The entire trip was a fool's errand, anyone could see that.

Poole had disappeared inside to see if Harry was home yet and, while he did so, Gabriel tugged at his tie, hoping to get a little more air into his lungs.

It was still dark out, the faintest hint of orange beginning to grow in the black sky above. All the lights were out besides the flickering street lamps and the warm orange glow that came from within Henry’s house.

Gabriel stood on the doorstep in the cold, his breath visible before his eyes, his gloves and scarf doing little to stop his fingers going numb.

This entire fiasco was ridiculous. Henry didn't even like him back and here he was trailing after him like a lovesick puppy to beg for information.

Yet, despite all these thoughts, when there was movement inside the house Gabriel's heart almost stopped.

There were two sets of footsteps, not one, approaching him quickly.

Someone else was coming.

His breath caught in his throat and he watched intently.

Finally, footsteps loud in the silence of the night, Poole stepped into view and, trailing behind him, looking a little worse for wear, was Harry.

Henry Jekyll wasn't at his best, anyone could have seen that. His clothes were crumpled as though he had slept in them and his usual ponytail was hanging loose and a little wild, almost like a mane around his head. There were dark rings around his eyes from sleep loss, only vaguely hidden in the low light, and he was bleary eyed. Despite this, there was an eagerness of step and a bright look of surprise on his face.

There was a moment of embarrassed silence.

"I, uh... Don't suppose you would mind if I'm a bit of a mess?” Henry asked mildly, smoothing his creased clothes down to the best of his ability. “My apologies, it's just so early in the morning. If I knew you were coming, I would have prepared better."

"Oh, no, no! I should be the one apologizing! I shouldn't have come here so early without warning."

Gabriel expected Henry to demand to know why he was there at 4am but, strangely, the doctor didn't ask. There was something rather worried on his face and Gabriel feared that the doctor would assume he had shown on important business. It would only be more tricky to explain that his reason for coming was so mundane.

"I'll put the tea on." Poole said, breaking the silence. He turned to leave but Henry caught his arm before he could go anywhere.

"Mr Utterson and I can handle this ourselves. You should go back to bed."

Poole certainly didn't look like he was ready to work. The poor butler looked like he was about to drop where he stood.

"Are you sure, sir?"

"Positive. Master's orders, Poole."

Henry received a dry look at that. "If only I could order you to do the same, sir."

With that, Poole tottered his way back to bed, leaving the two alone.

In the ensuing silence, Henry self-consciously tugged at his hair with his fingers, trying to disentangle it a little.

"I didn't expect you to be dressed already." Gabriel noted conversationally.

"Oh, um... I might have been working in my lab when you knocked."

Gabriel's eyes widened. Hyde had entered that very same lab late last night.

Of course, Henry could have always arrived later but it was possible that Hyde had already spoken to him.

"Well." Henry clapped his hands together, "I'll make us both some tea." He turned to leave, then glanced dubiously at the clock. "...Actually, I think I'll make that two coffees instead. Would you agree?"

"Good call."

With a satisfied nod, Henry turned and strode back inside, Gabriel at his heels. Henry was clearly doing his best to inject a certain amount of energy into his movement and, in fact, he did quite well at the act. It would only have taken a close friend to notice that slight drag of the heel that gave away the doctor’s facade.

They stepped into the dining area and Gabriel planted himself at the table and slipped off his winter wear as Henry bustled about the kitchen area, making coffee.

With last night's revelation, he was seeing Henry in a new light.

It wasn't exactly his best at that moment but that didn't matter. If anything, that made him feel more genuine in that moment than Gabriel had seen in years.

There was a vaguely wild air about him, a predatory grace in his step and movements despite his weariness. The sun wasn't even up out the window, leaving it up to the low amber candle light to illuminate everything. The reflection of that firelight glinted in Henry's eyes.

"I have to admit, I'm glad it's you and not a stranger." Henry said as he picked up the coffee cups. "I'm not sure how I would have dealt with being caught in such a state."

"If it were someone else, you wouldn't have come to the door until you were ready."

"True, true."

A comfortable silence fell and Gabriel simply basked in it, hanging his coat on the back of his chair, gloves stuffed into the pockets. Gabriel turned and warmed his hands on the nearest candle, thawing through the numbness in his fingertips.

There was nothing but the clatter of mugs, the soft rattle of coffee beans, and the banging of cupboards. It all felt very domestic, like a family.

Sadly, all good things had to come to an end.

The bustling of the doctor slowed, the noises steadily quietening and coming to a stop. With one last click of a cup being placed on the counter, silence fell.

Hesitantly, Henry leaned against the counter, one finger tapping the surface thoughtfully.

He shot a small glance over his shoulder at the lawyer.

"Um... Utterson? Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate your company but... Why have you shown up?"

Gabriel winced a little at the question.

He wasn't exactly sure how to explain to Harry that he had showed up this early in the morning just to ask about Hyde. It felt like an act of folly, an inexplicable and sudden loss of common sense and he feared that Henry would never accept such a laughable answer.

For a moment, he considered lying.

Then he thought about Hyde.

There was such a knowing feeling to the creature, like he knew far more than he let on. He spoke so certainty, looked at him with such familiarity, had even known his name without having ever met the lawyer before. He had said that Henry would be here and, against all the odds, he had been right.

Somehow, when Hyde told him to come here, Gabriel had found himself trusting the bizarre creature wholeheartedly with little reason to.

Perhaps, he argued to himself, Hyde had spoken to Henry already. Perhaps Henry already knew why he was there to an extent.

No matter the reason, Gabriel was choosing to put his trust in Hyde, for better or for worse.

"Harry," He spoke slowly.

Henry stiffened at the nickname. Gabriel had noticed several times that Henry reacted strangely to it and he feared that perhaps the doctor found it uncomfortable.

Gabriel continued carefully, filing away that thought for later, "I know this is a subject you don't really like to broach and I hope you'll excuse me for bringing it up yet again but... Who is Edward Hyde to you?"

Henry turned from the counter to look at him.

"I see..." Henry said quietly, a frown crinkling his brow, "What else? You couldn't have come all this way at this time of day just for that."

Gabriel bit his lip nervously. Thankfully, Henry didn't seem angry, just confused.

"My apologies but that's all there is."

A head tilt.

"If I may answer your question with a question of my own, why does it trouble you so much? I've never seen you so worked up over such a simple matter before."

"I..."

Gabriel didn't know how to respond. It was quite clear that he couldn't admit his own jealousy for Hyde. He couldn't admit the way he felt to Harry.

Henry leaned on the counter and stared over at him, his brown eyes fixed on Gabriel with a chilling intensity. Gabriel was struck by that same strange feeling that Hyde had given him – That feeling of one peering directly into his soul. Despite the orange glow of the candlelight, the light caught Henry's eyes in a way that made them seem to glitter green.

Gabriel nearly shuddered.

"Let me rephrase the question. What do you think Edward is to me?"

"Um... I..."

Gabriel stuttered.

This was such a personal matter. What was he thinking, poking his nose into it? Whether he was right or not, Henry wouldn’t appreciate his lawyer getting so deeply entrenched in private matters.

Yet, he couldn’t stop there. It was too late to turn back.

"Henry," he asked, "do you... Like Hyde?"

Henry's brow furrowed.

"He's a unique lab assistant and I suppose I can be quite affectionate towards him at times. I wouldn't work with someone I disliked."

"No, that's not what I meant." Gabriel spoke quietly, nearing a whisper.

For a moment, he paused, partially thinking about what to say next and partially lacking the desire to continue. In the hopes that Henry would understand his strange jump to conclusions if he explained his reasoning more, Gabriel began to list the facts.

"You acted so strangely when I first brought up the matter of Hyde.” Gabriel explained cautiously. “The last time I was here, you wouldn't look me in the eyes. Despite the room being of average temperature, you were flushed. You referred to Hyde by his first name like he was more than just a co-worker when you’re the sort who never calls anyone by their first name. You seemed embarrassed about the subject, as though the topic of Hyde is a matter personal to you."

Henry's bewildered look deepened as Gabriel spoke.

"I'm sorry. This may be presumptuous of me but..." Gabriel looked down at the table, tugging at the place mats nervously, unable to look Henry in the eye.

A deep breath.

"Do you see Hyde in a... Romantic light..?"

Gabriel hurriedly squeezed his eyes shut, petrified of what Henry was going to say.

For a moment, all he heard was dead silence.

Then, abruptly, there was a loud clatter as Henry leapt to his feet, knocking over one of the cups in the process. Gabriel's eyes shot open again at the commotion.

"Gab- Utterson! It's nothing of the sort, I assure you!" Henry protested.

"It's fine if you do, Henry." Gabriel reassured. "I would not think ill of you for it."

"No, no! I'm being honest! There is nothing more going on between Edward and I!" Henry’s hands gesticulated wildly as he spoke with a desperate urgency.

Gabriel didn't understand why Henry was getting quite so worked up over the subject. He was getting so flustered, one would almost think he had been accused of cheating.

On the other hand, he felt genuine.

Gabriel studied his face for a few seconds longer, as though he could catch a glimpse of a lie, but every inch of his expression was nothing but honest.

His breath caught in his throat.

This had all been just a big misunderstanding. Henry wasn’t in love with Hyde.

It did probably still mean that Henry’s lack of romantic interest remained intact but Gabriel didn't even mind. He was too relieved to care.

There was still nobody on Henry’s mind and, even if Gabriel couldn't fit that role, he wouldn't have to watch another taking what he wanted so badly. Especially not someone like Hyde.

Henry stared at him for a second longer. Steadily, he seemed to relax, once again leaning on the counter.

To Gabriel's surprise, Henry breathed out a sigh of relief like some big crisis had just been averted.

"My, my, Utterson." Henry crooned, the hint of a smile flickering on his features. "I didn't expect my love life to be so worrisome to you."

"Ah, I... Don't trust Hyde. I feared he could have been planning to use you."

"I see." Henry turned back to making coffee.

Was it in his head or did Henry seem disappointed by that?

The kitchen noises resumed.

"If this is all true, why do you call Hyde by his first name and not I?" Gabriel asked curiously.

"I work rather closely with Edward, that's all."

"You're closer with your assistant than your own friend?"

Henry paused in his task. His fingers tapped out a little thoughtful tune against the counter.

"How do I put this..?” Henry mused. “See, as you know, I'm a neurochemist – I study the effects of different chemicals on the human mind, a matter which requires me to understand a lot of psychology. It's not good enough to understand how chemicals affect the brain, one needs to know how they affect the person as well."

The doctor wandered over to the kitchen table, leaving the coffee cups for a second to lean on the table in front of Gabriel.

“The truth is, Edward and I met a few years back. From the first moment of meeting him, I knew that, psychologically, he was the most unique character I had ever encountered in my line of work. You would understand if you ever met him yourself. The man cares not for other people and their opinions and, yet, is more acutely in tune with people’s emotions than the average person. He has a high empathy, yet, can frequently knowingly behave in ways that are harmful to others even though he knows of the guilt he’ll feel over it later! He is capable of intelligence and, yet, often succumbs to the strangest of decisions or conclusions with little explanation as to why!”

There was a certain manic energy in those eyes and a growing breathlessness of speech. His voice sounded a little strained, as though Henry were doing all he could to hold back but it was steadily quickening, becoming louder.

Gabriel listened, enthralled and hopeful.

It sounded as though Henry were on the verge of one of his scientific rambles.

There was a slight twinge of jealousy at hearing Hyde as the subject of Henry’s passions but he had missed these talks of his too much to let it bother him.

“It was quite easy to convince Edward to allow me to study him.” Henry continued, beginning to pace back and forth with steadily increasing speed, “In return for my research, Edward is allowed my assistance in a number of matters, such as a place to stay if he is ever too far from home or monetary gain if he is in need of cash.”

Sharply, Henry spun on his heels, the firelight dancing in his eyes. “Of course, to truly study and understand the psychology of another, one must learn them inside and out! I needed to understand his present and his past thoroughly, in what ways he is similar to myself, in what ways he is different. Moreover, what does Edward’s behaviour tell me about other people? About myself? About humanity as a whole? If someone else was subjected to Edward’s… Circumstances… Would they be like him or would they be completely different? Is it possible that they would be-”

Mid-sentence, Henry cut off. With a blink, the doctor seemed to recall himself and took a breath.

“As a result,” Henry finished, a little more flatly, “I know Edward far more intimately than anyone else. That’s why I use his first name.”

That energy flickered out of his eyes and Gabriel realized that, unfortunately, that spark of his was gone as quickly as it had appeared, before it could even properly set ablaze.

He supposed it was understandable. It wouldn’t be right to speak too much about another when they were not in the room. Not that the fact made him any less disappointed.

Henry gave a small huff of laughter, scratching the back of his head with a casual air as though his fervour just a second ago had been a figment of Gabriel’s imagination.

“I can see where the miscommunication might have sprouted from.” He admitted. “I don’t usually admit the intricacies of my relationship with Edward. Admitting that he’s my scientific experiment conjures all the wrong ideas. Truthfully, it’s all just Rorschach tests and TATs. All perfectly harmless and completely consensual on both ends."

Gabriel cocked an eyebrow. "Like ink blot tests? Not to question your research, Henry, but don't those require a degree of honesty? How can you be sure that he’s being truthful?”

To Gabriel's bemusement, Henry laughed at that.

"Edward is far more honest than one would expect but never mind that. It's not my place to speak of another man's private matters. Edward's secrets are not mine to tell and I am bound by patient confidentiality either way."

"I... See..."

With a satisfied nod, Henry swept back over to the counter.

It still pestered Gabriel but he knew, if he kept asking, his questions would turn to whining and then Henry would know that his curiosity was more than a simple fear of blackmail.

How ridiculous was it that he was to fall in love with a man who couldn't even use his first name? Of all the people his heart could have picked, it had to be Henry.

If he were to be studied by Henry as his lab rat, would the doctor finally use his first name like he did with Hyde? Would he speak with that same level of passion about him? He wouldn’t mind being studied if that were the case.

Sadly, Gabriel knew he was far too dull of a person for scientific study.

Hyde would always outclass him in that regard.

Jekyll was satisfied to see that Utterson had accepted his answer. Hopefully this meant whatever problems he had with Edward would be gone and, with it, he no longer had to fear any strange questions about his alter ego or Utterson getting close to him. There would be no more of Utterson tracking down Edward or the horrible fantasies that the idea conjured in his head.

Although, admittedly, he fretted that his dreams would be gripped by images of Edward and Utterson's meeting for at least the next few weeks while his heart settled.

"While we're on the subject on romance, I was wondering if you were interested in anyone?" Jekyll mentioned casually, stirring some milk into his own cup.

He didn't think too hard about what he was asking. If he did, he knew he wouldn't be able to go through with it.

This was like ripping off a bandage. Instead of drawing out this pain and leaving Edward to continue to torment Mr Utterson out of misguided conclusions, he needed to get this over and done with. It would make it easier to move on.

"Me? Interested in someone? Of course not." Utterson laughed a little nervously. “Why do you ask?”

Yep. He was lying.

There was a biting pain in his chest but Jekyll forced it back. He was going to be a proper gentleman for Utterson, no more of these fanciful daydreams. Those matters were for Edward.

"You don't need to lie to me." Jekyll collected up the finished cups. "You are aware that it's my lab you've been hanging around at nights, right? I can see you out there."

He placed a black coffee before Utterson, noting how shocked the lawyer looked.

"I didn't want to admit it. I can only imagine it must be a private matter of yours and I felt dreadfully intrusive seeing your there at all." Jekyll continued airily, sitting across from Utterson. He kept a respectable distance and did his best not to seem too interested, merely concerned. "But,” A finger went up and waggled a little like one lecturing a small child. “It is most dangerous to wander the streets at night. There’s just no telling what kinds of characters one can meet out there.”

Jekyll leant against the table and peered intently at Utterson, speaking in a low voice, “Perhaps it is not my place to get involved but it may be safer for you to wait inside the house. Until they show."

Utterson opened his mouth to protest but Jekyll quickly raised both hands in the air in a surrendering gesture before a sound could be uttered. “Before you say a word, I will keep out of your personal affairs. I need not know who they are or what occupation they might hold. We all have skeletons in our closets, it is not my place to judge.”

With that, Jekyll sat back steepling his fingers. He made a small gesture with one hand to show that Utterson was free to speak without interruption now.

"Henry, I must confess, I don't have a slightest clue what you're talking about."

"Come now," Jekyll gave a warm smile. “You’re not a very good liar, Utterson. Are you not awaiting someone... Special to you?"

"I- Huh?" Utterson just stared at him blankly. "No, that's not it at all."

The lawyer seemed genuinely confused.

So that wasn’t it.

Never mind. It was still clear that somebody was on Utterson's mind.

Jekyll was disappointed that he still couldn’t find out the identity of this lover was but some deeper part of him was relieved.

The relief disgusted him. It was because Edward could continue his wretched belief that Utterson liked him back without any solid evidence to refute it.

"Well, Utterson. You came here to talk of matters which have troubled you in my life. Can I respond in kind and enquire why you're putting yourself in danger in such a manner?" Jekyll raised his cup to his lips and sipped.

"I... To tell you the truth, Henry, I was looking for Hyde."

Henry froze.

"You're... truly that worried about me..?" He asked quietly.

The room seemed to have gone absolutely silent. The candles flickered softly.

Henry felt his heart thudding against his ribcage, hard enough and loud enough that he was sure that his lawyer could hear it too. Lightly, he raised a hand to his chest in a feeble attempt to still it.

Gabriel had done all of that for him. Waited in the rain, put himself in danger, risking both his reputation and any sort of mugging or bodily harm just to protect him.

Protect him from someone that Gabriel couldn’t have even been sure was a threat.

Unbidden, a smile tugged at the corners of his lips, threatening to show on his face, and he struggled to hold back a happy purr in the back of his throat.

...A purr..?

That was strange. Henry shifted a little in his seat.

Edward certainly purred when he was happy – another strange mannerism of his that Henry had never truly understood – but he didn’t do such a thing as Dr Jekyll.

There was a hazy quality to his thoughts, a heady, dizzying feeling.

Henry felt suspicion begin to rise within him but, before he could look too deeply into the matter, Gabriel spoke up.

"My apologies, Henry. I know such behaviour is most inappropriate." Gabriel continued, oblivious, "You weren't very forthcoming so I had to do my own research. It's a lawyer's job, after all."

"A-ah..." Henry struggled to think of what to say.

In fact, he was struggling to think at all.

The colours in the room seemed to have shifted, become a little brighter, a little more vivid, and everything felt dream-like.

On some subconscious level, he was aware that something was wrong. Consciously, however, all he could think about was his beloved Gabriel.

His eyes drifted to Gabriel’s face. With the colours he was seeing in his own vision changed, impossibly his beloved appeared even more stunning to look at, like an angel. It was as though he were seeing him anew.

He traced the shape of Gabriel’s jawbone, the stubble, his kindly blue eyes...

His… Kindly... Soft... blue eyes like... Like the sky or the ocean or... Something else blue and beautiful...

Who cared?

Why worry about that when he could simply lose himself in those eyes forever?

(That was something romantic that people usually said, right?)

"Um, Henry, is everything ok? I haven't upset you too badly, have I?" The corners of those eyes crinkled with concern, "You're... A bit quiet."

Henry looked for a little longer, taking his time to fully appreciate the subtle expressions on Gabriel's face like an art form. Those small changes and shifts that could tell him what his lawyer was thinking that only someone close to him could read, a secret for Henry alone.

Slowly, Henry blinked once. Then, curiously, he pushed himself forward across the table until he was close enough to really see it all properly, their noses almost touching.

Gabriel shifted back the slightest bit in surprise but, ultimately, didn't pull away.

Taking Gabriel’s reaction as a go-ahead, Henry reached forward and gently took Gabriel’s face in his hands, eliciting a choked noise from Gabriel. Holding it in place and keeping that gaze directed at him, Henry purred happily to see those lovely eyes of his widen so he could get a better view of them.

"...Has anyone ever told you that you have very pretty eyes?" Henry asked.

It only mildly registered in his mind how his own words seemed a little croakier than usual. He had far more important things to consider.

Particularly, how would one describe the shade of blue that matched Gabriel’s eyes?

Bluebells?

No, he couldn't say that, it had blue in the word, that would be silly.

Violets? Cornflowers?

No, wait, this was way too many flowers. What else was blue that wasn’t a flower?

Didn't people's faces go blue when they suffocated?

As he sat there, squinting, the disturbed look on Gabriel's face sluggishly registered in his head. Henry’s brow furrowed as he tried to figure out why his lawyer was making such a troubled face.

Then Henry realized what he was doing.

With a snap of his teeth, Henry bit his tongue as hard as he could, instantly tasting blood. In that same moment, his mind cleared.

It was like a fog had snaked into his head while he wasn’t paying attention and only now that it was gone did he realize that it had ever been there at all.

In fact, realize was too soft a term. It was now blindingly obvious that something had gone very, very wrong.

The happy daze he had been experiencing switched to panic as his actions and the implications truly dawned on him.

How long had it been since he was last in Edward's form? His eyes darted from side to side as he worked out the maths.

It couldn't even have been an hour yet, perhaps even less than half an hour. With that in mind, there were probably still strong traces of the drug in his system affecting his brain – very strong traces apparently. His antidote would not be fully in effect yet.

Worse, he had changed into Edward and back far too frequently as of late. There was no telling what effects that could have on the brain. It was entirely possible that there was more of the drug in his system than usual. Combined with sleep loss... This was predictably going to be messy.

Part of him hoped that his strange episode just a moment ago had been the last of it but his more logical side told him that it wouldn't be the end. He had to stay vigilant and not let any unusual behaviours slip.

The pair of them were still nose-to-nose and Jekyll meekly released his lawyer and sat back down.

"My deepest apologies, Gabr- Utterson," He stammered, picking at his shirt and not looking his lawyer in the eye. "It's, ah, the lighting. I got a little distracted and that came out wrong. I meant to say that the lighting in here makes your eyes stand out quite nicely. Sorry again. I know it was most improper of me, I wasn't thinking."

His insides roiled with nerves.

If changing into Edward so often wasn’t the most likely cause of his predicament, he probably would have excused himself from the conversation, taken his potion, and spent at least the next two months drinking and pretending that Dr Jekyll never existed.

To Jekyll’s surprise, when he peeked up to sneak a look at Utterson’s reaction, his lawyer wasn’t giving him the look of disgust he had expected. He studied that face a little longer, looking for an indicator of Utterson’s true feelings but, as always, the lawyer was as difficult to read as stone.

"Thank you.” The lawyer said with painful politeness, “Your eyes are quite lovely themselves. They remind me of a log fire in this light." Utterson hesitated, then scratched the back of his head, looking around the room, avoiding Jekyll's eyes. "I… I think we're both rather tired. People do the strangest things while exhausted. Although, I appreciate that, out of all the things your attention could have drifted to, it was my eyes and not, say, the bins. I'll take that compliment."

Gabriel wasn’t sure what to think of Henry’s sudden silence. Just a second, the doctor had been animatedly chatting away and then, out of nowhere, he had frozen in place for a moment.

The lighting was too low to see much but he could have sworn he saw the tenseness leave Henry’s shoulders and, barely perceptible, he seemed to slump a little forwards.

His first thought was that the doctor had been seized with a sudden fainting fit. As a result of the early hour and his more passionate outbursts earlier, Henry had worn himself out and collapsed at the table, not dissimilar to his own loss of consciousness at Hastie’s dining table earlier that week.

Except, then he looked at the face and found himself proven wrong.

The candlelight danced on eyes that were still open, although now heavy lidded. They seemed almost luminous in the glow, creating an eerie sight before him.

Exhausted, but clearly still awake. Unless, of course, Henry could fall asleep with his eyes still open which Gabriel severely doubted.

It was Gabriel’s own fault, really, for coming so early in the morning after Henry’s business trip. The poor doctor probably hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep.

Before Gabriel could decide whether to continue the conversation or whether to get Harry back to bed, in a blink of an eye the doctor was directly in his face, so close that Gabriel could scarcely breathe.

It had been so sudden, so unexpected that it was startling. One second Henry had been sat at the other end of the table and the next, Gabriel’s nose was full of Henry’s scent of Bunsen burners and chemicals.

From this distance, he could clearly see the almost ethereal shimmer of his eyes, simultaneously sharp with energy and heavily dulled over by weariness.

At first, Gabriel managed to keep silent, stifling a gasp at the abrupt intimacy between them. However, just when he thought things couldn’t go any further, Henry reached out his hands and softly took Gabriel’s face in his hands. From there, it was impossible not to make a noise.

Henry’s hands were unusually hot against his skin, quickly warming up his cold face. Although, that wasn’t the only reason that his face was now becoming warmer.

Gabriel couldn’t help but feel embarrassed for Henry. No doubt the doctor wouldn’t take this well once he was lucid again.

For a moment, he just stared back, a little guiltily relishing in the closeness and the feeling of Henry’s hands on his face, thumbs lightly tracing across his jaw. He desperately wanted to push into that touch more but he couldn’t be sure how self-aware Henry was at that moment and he didn’t want to have to explain what he was doing.

His ears were burning and, for a stupid second, he feared that Henry would see his reaction and guess of his feelings.

No, it wouldn’t be strange. Anyone would react in such a way if someone got so close to them.

So long as he fought back the smile threatening to appear on his face.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have very pretty eyes?" There was a strange quality to that voice. He had expected slurring, like one sleep deprived, but it was, in fact, sharper than usual – raspy and oddly high. That little fact was forgotten almost instantly though as the words being said registered in Gabriel’s flustered mind.

Oh.

At those words Gabriel’s lips trembled as he tried desperately not to grin like an idiot, biting the inside of his cheek hard – From this distance, Henry would be able to see it for sure. Instead, he focused on his own concern for Henry’s mental state to force a frown back onto his features.

Ok, this was sweet but he had to pull back and tell Harry to get some sleep.

...But he was just going to leave it for a second or two more.

As it turned out, he didn’t need to pull away. After a second or two, Henry’s brow furrowed in a worried look and those dazed eyes scoured Gabriel’s face as though looking for something.

The moment seemed to last an age.

With a flinch, awareness shot back into those eyes, followed by dawning horror. Eyes darted about rapidly and he could almost hear the cogs turning, possibly trying to figure out exactly how they had both landed in this pose.

Shakily, Henry released Gabriel’s face and sat back down.

"My deepest apologies, Gabr- Utterson. It's, ah, the lighting. I got a little distracted and that came out wrong. I meant to say that the lighting in here makes your eyes stand out quite nicely. Sorry again. I know it was most improper of me, I wasn't thinking."

Gabriel felt absolutely awful for him. The doctor’s attention had become fixated on tugging his shirt into place and it didn’t take a genius to tell how much anxiety he was stewing in at that moment.

"Thank you.” Gabriel said respectfully, hoping to make Harry feel better, “Your eyes are quite lovely themselves. They remind me of a log fire in this light."

Gabriel winced as he realized what he had just said.

"I… I think we're both rather tired.” Gabriel hurriedly explained, both to reassure the unhappy looking doctor and to explain his own almost flirtatious words, “People do the strangest things while exhausted. Although, I appreciate that, out of all the things your attention could have drifted to, it was my eyes and not, say, the bins. I'll take that compliment."

"I suppose we'll both be far better once the coffee kicks in." Henry replied weakly. "I didn’t hurt you too badly, did I?"

Gabriel couldn’t help an incredulous noise at those words. “Hurt? Not in the slightest. If anything, this is all my fault for rousing you before you got a proper night’s rest.”

He felt dreadful for the poor doctor who was currently looking like one who would much prefer to be anywhere else at that moment. Somehow, he needed to get across to Henry that it really was alright and, if anything, Gabriel should have pulled away first rather than taking advantage of the moment for his own gain. Unfortunately, he simply couldn’t confess how much he had enjoyed the moment.

An idea sparked in his head.

“If you heard the things I’ve done while sleep deprived before, you would find your own behaviour thankfully average.” The lawyer spoke up suddenly.

Henry spluttered at that, seeming to forget his worries in exchange for surprise.

“You? Sleep deprived?” He protested, “You’ve never missed a night of sleep in your life! Remember at university? You were always in bed before 11.”

“I had lessons at 9am.” Gabriel jutted out his chin, daring Henry to talk back.

“Not every day and that’s still 9 hours of sleep!”

“You’re suggesting I rouse myself from bed just an hour before I’m supposed to have my lesson, I would never make it in time. It’s 8 hours of sleep at the most and that is most certainly still pushing it.”

“Everyone else worked things out just fine.”

“Their sleep schedules were abysmal, it’s not an example to be followed. Yours included, Henry.” Gabriel huffed and sat back in his seat. “As I’ve already mentioned to you, I haven’t been sleeping the best lately. Just a few days I went to Hastie’s for a visit while almost dead on my feet.”

“Truly?”

“Truly. That wasn’t the amusing part though. While I was there, I fell asleep at his table right before him. One of his servants had to take me to a spare room for a nap.”

Henry stifled a snort of mirth.

“I recall nothing of what happened next besides what I was told later but apparently I had a slight sleep walking episode – a small side effect from sleep deprivation as Hastie explained to me later. Unfortunately, while I was in such a state, I heard later that I took one of Hastie’s servants by the shoulder-”

Henry choked on his tea but, with a sly smile, Gabriel held up a finger, silently indicating that there was more.

“-I pulled the poor girl close, pointed to the corner of the room and, in a near whisper, I hissed in her ear that there was a faceless man in the corner staring at us.”

“I can only imagine that she loved that.” Henry replied, lips quirked in a smile.

“Apparently, she did not.” Gabriel sighed. “I only hope that Hastie properly explained the situation to her.”

“I’m sure he did.” Henry replied. “But you are overestimating yourself, I was clearly the worse between us. A mere shoulder touch compared to me taking your face? There is nothing to even compare.”

“A stranger, Henry. She was a stranger.”

“You don’t even remember doing it. That gives you embarrassment immunity.”

“All you did was compliment me. I was apparently whispering threatening things in people’s ears.”

Henry laughed. “True. I suppose you’ve got me beat there. I admit defeat.”

A smile twitched on Gabriel’s face to see Henry starting to relax again. He had feared that the eye detour in their conversation might make things uncomfortable but it seemed he had managed to get things back on track.

Although, listening to Henry speak, he couldn't help but notice that there was a strange and sudden inflection to his speech. It took a moment for him to puzzle out that Henry must have either bitten his tongue or burnt it on the coffee.

How strange. He hadn't seen the doctor flinch or even make a noise. When had he hurt himself?

"If you're not interested in Hyde, is there anyone on your mind?" Gabriel inquired and instantly regretted it. That was a very forward question to ask and he might be pushing the line a little. Henry might not be the most perceptive but it was only a matter of time before even he could read Gabriel's emotions.

"Hm? Oh... Well..." Henry pursed his lips, looking thoughtful. "I wouldn't make a very good fiance. I disappear off for work matters so often that I would never be able to keep a relationship going. So, no, I'm not really pursuing anyone."

"I think you would make a fine fiance."

Uh oh. He hadn't intended to say that. Anxiously, he glanced at Henry.

The doctor's eyes had widened and he was staring at Gabriel, frozen, his cup halfway to his lips.

"Uh... Well." Henry coughed once, seeming to recover from his shock. "I severely doubt that. I'm so buried up to my neck in work that I don't really think I'm even holding friendships as well as I should. If you hadn't come to my doorstep, it would have been months before we next spoke."

Gabriel wasn't quite sure how to respond. It was, unfortunately, true and he was hesitant to so blatantly lie.

"You're just not the best with your emotions. It's nothing to be too ashamed of."

There was a dubious hint to Henry's face but he said no more on the subject.

A silence fell and the pair sipped at their respective coffees. Gabriel's eyes slid to Henry's tangled mess of hair. The doctor kept combing it with his fingers, clearly uncomfortable with how wild it currently was.

He needed to do something to get closer to Henry in the way that Hyde was.

Hyde was outgoing, he didn't shy back from getting close to people or using pet names on complete strangers. Gabriel had always assumed that Henry was uncomfortable with personal behaviour yet he seemed to get on swimmingly with Hyde. Perhaps that meant he was more receptive to such things than Gabriel thought.

To get this to work, Gabriel would have to do the same. He needed to stop sitting back hoping that Henry would open up on his own and start taking his own initiative.

Swallowing, his mouth suddenly dry, Gabriel asked. "Do you want me to do your hair for you?"

He immediately drew back, biting his lip.

Doing another's hair wasn't romantic, was it? That was an activity that friends could do together, assuming one wasn't too worried about masculinity. It was just the pair of them there anyway. He had seen groups of girls at university just sitting around doing each other's hair before.

Henry had startled at the suggestion, staring at him looking utterly confused.

"Oh, I... I can do it myself, thank you Utterson."

"But would it not be easier for someone else to do it for you?"

Henry tilted his head to one side curiously.

"Utterson, have you ever done someone else's hair before?"

"I've done mine." He responded, maybe a little too eagerly.

"Your hair is short." Henry pointed out, "I'm afraid that long hair is quite different. No offence intended but I have my doubts that you've ever tied a ponytail before."

"Then I'll simply run a comb through it. That shouldn't be too difficult."

"I... Suppose. If you're certain that you're ok with it? It's really no trouble for me."

"Please. I need to make up for disturbing you.”

Chapter Text

Jekyll should say no. He knew he should say no.

This was a little too close for his tastes, having Utterson right behind him, close enough to run a comb through his hair, close enough to touch. Already he had behaved so horrendously to his lawyer and Jekyll feared his own self control.

Besides, Utterson had come here for fears that his client was being used, it was unprofessional to have his lawyer do his hair. It was just too casual for such a formal conversation.

That would be like walking into a business meeting to paint your boss’s nails.

"If you insist." The words just seemed to slip out without his own input and Jekyll stiffened the moment he heard them, uncertain where they had come from.

Well, now he couldn't turn back.

It was fine, it was just hair. Lanyon had done his hair once or twice. It certainly hadn't been out of any romantic affection, just a lot of complaining from Lanyon's end about lab safety and keeping long hair tied back.

Jekyll had scoffed at the idea until the day that he had accidentally set his own hair on fire with the Bunsen burner. No lost hairs, thankfully, just a few blackened, frayed ends to cut off.

Lanyon hadn't said a word but the dry look he gave Jekyll as the doctor stomped into the room, hair still smoking, had told him all he needed to know.

That, of course, had been before their fight.

His fingernails dug into the arms the chair.

"Where do you keep your hairbrush?" Utterson asked politely.

Stiffly, Jekyll stood and made his way over to a drawer, rooting around inside it.

Thinking of Lanyon reminded him exactly what the problem was. Utterson wasn't going to stay if he ever found out the truth about Edward.

His fingers gripped the polished, smooth handle of the brush and he pulled it out, handing it over to the lawyer without even looking at his face.

Lanyon had been a close friend of his when their fight occurred and the pain of losing him had been almost unbearable. He couldn’t imagine how agonising it would be to lose Utterson.

Part of him imagined he would just stop completely. Shut himself away in his lab and never come out again. No eating, no working, no bathing, just... Stopping.

All the more reason to keep himself distanced from Utterson. Both to avoid giving his lawyer a reason to hate him and also to lessen the blow if it ever came.

Yet, here he was, sitting back down so that Utterson could brush his hair.

The doctor did his best not to look behind him. It was uncomfortable to know that there was someone just behind him, so close that they could touch but just out of sight, even if his heart did sing at the thought that it was Utterson behind him.

Again and again, he told himself that it would be ok. It would just be the brush. There would be no touching. Utterson could be trusted not to do anything inappropriate.

He gripped the arms of the chair so tightly that his knuckles began to whiten, doing his best not to seem too tense or even look behind him.

His eyes shut and he took several deep breaths, trying to relax. Bit by bit, he began to calm himself down, leaning back in the chair.

Just when he thought everything would be okay, there was the touch of fingers against his hair and Henry’s eyes shot back open.

It was a gentle touch, the questing touch of one uncertain of what they're doing who doesn't want to risk making a mistake. Those fingers slowly started to comb through his air, making Henry tremble from the sensation. It was just the lightest touch of the very tips of those fingers against his scalp but, somehow, that was worse. Despite his best efforts to remain still, his back arched slightly.

"You're supposed to use the brush, Gabriel." Henry choked out, trying to ignore the feeling of Gabriel's warm contact, knowing how close he was.

"Ah, sorry, I just-" The fingers were gone and the Edward within him whined at the loss of contact. The next touch was the harder, colder brush. "My deepest apologies, Henry. I didn't hurt you did I?"

"It was just your hands, why would it hurt?" Jekyll shifted in his seat, trying to calm his heart.

"You called me by my first name." The brush slowly began to pull through his hair. Having someone else do his hair was a pleasant sensation but Jekyll wouldn’t admit it aloud.

"My apologies, Mr Utterson, I wasn't thinking," Jekyll replied, keeping his voice as even as possible.

"Don't apologize. As I said before, we're friends. You should call me Gabriel more often.”

There were a few moments of silence. Jekyll tapped his finger against the arm of the chair for a moment, then shut his eyes, thinking, trying to ignore how nice the slight tug of the brush in his hair was and the memory of Utterson’s touch.

“Utterson, I have a request I want to make.” He said at last.

The lawyer’s combing halted. From where he was sat, Jekyll couldn’t see the expression he was making and he did his best not to turn around and look.

“Of course. Anything.”

Dr Jekyll kept his eyes fixed forward, unwavering. “I don’t want you to get involved with Edward any more.”

Silence.

When it became clear that Utterson wasn’t going to say anything, Jekyll continued. “Earlier, you said you were looking for Edward. We got a little sidetracked after that so I didn’t get to say this but it’s not safe for you to be out at that time of night.”

“Oh, I’m not doing that anymore.” An awkward pause. “I… To be perfectly frank with you, I might have met him already.”

“...I see.” Jekyll replied simply, as though this was news to him.

Obviously, it was not but it wasn’t exactly like he could say, “I know, I was there.”

Instead, he asked, “...What did you think of him?”

After a pause, the comb slowly began to move again. “He was… Certainly as unique as you claimed.” Utterson explained civilly.

“Did he make you uncomfortable?”

“I’ve dealt with worse.”

“That’s not what I asked.” Finally, the doctor couldn’t take it anymore. He turned in his chair and met Utterson’s eyes, at last able to see the surprised and baffled look on the lawyer’s face. “Did he hurt you in any way?”

Looking rather thrown off by the question, Utterson just blinked at him owlishly.

“No..? No harm was caused at all.” Came the response at last. Then, a little more warily, “Why? Is Hyde dangerous?”

“Emotionally. Did he harm you emotionally?” Jekyll pressed, avoiding the question and leaning a little closer to Utterson. There was an urgent note to his voice. “Hyde often pushes boundaries a little too far and it can get rather unpleasant.”

“Well… Admittedly, he did pin me to a wall at one point.” Utterson looked at Jekyll again. He must have misinterpreted the regret and horror in the doctor’s eyes because he hurriedly added, “He backed off before anything happened. It was just rather surprising is all.”

Jekyll could barely breathe, guilt gripping his stomach hard enough to hurt, forcing him to look away.

Vividly, he still recalled the moonlit scene, Mr Utterson with his back against the wall, staring down at him with a hard look in his eyes.

It was just one of the many actions of Edward that had felt like a good idea at the time.

His lawyer had been so unflinching, so unreactive despite everything, and Edward had been focused on nothing but getting that reaction. It was only when he had seen his lawyer flinch that it had truly dawned on him what he was doing.

Yet, for whatever reason, Utterson had persisted. Even when Edward had given him the perfect opportunity to leave, the lawyer had just trailed along behind him.

Now he knew that Utterson had been there for Jekyll’s sake.

Jekyll’s eye twitched.

No, he wasn’t having any more slip ups. There was some fact he was missing because of the drug traces in his system, messing with his thoughts. Utterson had not been there for him as a lover, he had been there for a client as a lawyer. It just meant he was good at his job, nothing more, nothing less.

His eyes drifted up to Gabriel’s face, noting the earnestness in that expression, the… the blue… eyes…

Sharply, Henry looked away, biting the inside of his cheek. His gaze seemed to have lingered on those eyes just a little too long for his liking.

Was he losing himself again or was he just being paranoid?

“I’m sure you left after that point.” Henry felt himself tremble a little as he heard his own voice. Instead of his usual cold, even tones, there was the hint of a tremor in it, a flicker of fear escaping him that he should have been able to hide like usual.

This was another episode.

It was fine, he just needed to pay extra hard attention to what he was doing and saying and this conversation would transpire without Gabriel any the wiser.

“I didn’t actually.”

“Mm? Why not?”

His voice seemed to spike at the end as though it had just cracked. Henry cleared his throat, heart pounding.

“I had to be sure if he was a danger to you or not.”

A… ah…

There surely wasn’t any other explanation for this, was there? It was love, true and simple.

(No, no, cut that out! Focus!)

“If he pinned you to the wall, surely you would think him to be a danger by that point?”

“...Well, I wanted to be absolutely certain. He did back off, after all.”

“That means nothing.” Henry retorted, failing to keep a sharp note from his voice. “Surely you know better than anyone else that, just because someone can act nice once or twice doesn’t mean that they’re safe.”

“It didn’t make him definitely unsafe either.” Gabriel protested but his defiance was very clearly weak.

Henry just raised an eyebrow at his lawyer.

“I can handle it.” Gabriel said at last, “I can handle these kinds of people better than you can. Why would you be able to deal with Hyde if I would be unable to?”

Because he was Edward.

Henry could remain completely untouched by Edward because there was very little he could do to himself or even would do.

Gabriel didn’t have that same immunity.

Worse, Gabriel meant more to him. He was the one that Edward truly wanted the most which made him more of a target than anyone else.

Yet, he couldn’t warn Gabriel of any of this. Not without confessing the truth.

“Just trust me. Edward is not someone to be meddled with. If, for whatever reason, Edward tries to find or contact you, get rid of him immediately. Through any means necessary.”

“...Is that a risk?”

Henry closed his eyes for a second, shamefully.

“Yes.”

Upon seeing the strange new remorse on Henry’s face, it felt like a pit had opened up in Gabriel’s stomach.

The doctor sounded genuinely afraid of Hyde doing something to him. Considering how little Henry usually let his emotions slip, it was an incredibly concerning fact to make note of.

Just a few minutes ago, Henry had spoken so passionately about Hyde but now it was like that passion had completely flipped. He was no longer acting as though Hyde was the light of his life, he was speaking of Hyde as a threat.

There was even a strong feeling of penitence from those words, as though Henry believed himself accountable for the creature’s actions.

Gabriel had seen those kinds of behaviours before in his clients and they almost never meant anything good. On the other hand, without any proper information on why Henry was acting this way, he couldn’t say anything for sure.

He didn’t know what to do.

Henry seemed to want him to stay out of it. However Gabriel knew he was far better at dealing with those types of people than the doctor ever would be. If something more was going on, Gabriel could help.

The idea that he would ever encounter the strange creature again had never crossed his mind before and now he was forced to try to think of how he would approach the situation if it ever arose. Whether he would do as Henry asked and get rid of him or if he would keep him around just to find out more about what was going on.

It should have been easy to say that, if Hyde showed up on his doorstep, that Gabriel would point his gun in Hyde’s face and demand that he leave.

However, some deeper part of him knew he wouldn’t. His curiosity had been piqued and, a little guiltily, he realized that he wouldn’t even mind seeing Hyde again.

Not even amongst the worst of his clients had he ever met someone like Hyde before. Moreover, Hyde felt like he knew things he shouldn’t and Gabriel wanted to know to what extent his knowledge went.

In all honesty, Henry would probably understand the sentiment if he just explained – the doctor was, after all, studying Hyde himself. However, he knew he would just worry Henry if he did admit the truth.

Finally, he decided to stop thinking so much about it and to, instead, continue what he was doing.

He could deal with the issue if it came up. After all, he didn’t see why Hyde would choose to find him again.

Gabriel had nothing to offer the creature as far as he was aware and someone like that would surely have far more interesting people to bother.

It was with a strange hint of disappointment that he realized it was unlikely he would ever see Hyde again.

Gabriel turned his attention back down to Henry’s hair, doing his best to forget Hyde.

He had never brushed someone else’s hair before and it was a peculiar experience.

His own hair was quite short and barely required brushing at all. With Henry’s, the brush glided through the whole length and he could see the knots and tangles being teased out bit by bit.

It was in silence that the pair sat there, nothing but the ticking of the clock and the occasional clatter from outside of stray animals or people.

As he worked, he couldn’t help but notice that Henry was starting to relax a lot more.

The doctor had been so tense when they had started and so agitated while talking about Hyde but now that tension seemed to be steadily leaking out of him.

His fingers, which had been gripping the arms of the chair with the tightness of one holding on for dear life, were starting to uncurl, the bone white colouration of the knuckles fading back to pink. His rigid back was starting to settle down further into the chair and his head, nose once pointed in the air with an almost regal air, was starting to droop a little. Henry was even starting to push his head into the brush a little with each sweep.

With Henry’s earlier tension, Gabriel had fretted that he had pressured the doctor into doing something he didn’t want to do. He was glad to note now that Henry did seem to be enjoying himself despite his initial reluctance.

As he continued, a new sound began to meet the edge of his hearing.

At first, Gabriel dismissed it as pipes or something else irrelevant but, over time, it steadily grew in volume and Gabriel found himself taking more note of it.

The sound in question sounded like a low rumbling. It dipped and swelled with each brush stroke, a comforting and rather pleasant noise.

It sounded like purring.

As far as Gabriel was aware, Henry didn’t own a cat and, upon making the connection, the lawyer’s eyes darted about, searching for a possible intruding stray. Based on the volume, it had to be in the room, but he couldn’t see anything out of place.

Then he noticed that there was a slight vibration beneath his brush and his eyes flicked downward at the doctor he was grooming.

A sneaking suspicion taking root, Gabriel shifted position a little so he could look at Henry’s face.

The eyes had slipped lightly shut and there was a rather peaceful expression on his face. A soft smile lifted the corners of his lips and his eyelids fluttered ever so gently. The purring sound was in perfect time with his breathing.

It appeared the doctor had started to doze a little.

Although part of him assumed that the “purring” must have been some odd kind of snoring, he couldn’t help but take note of the actions that make the purring louder. Somehow, he found himself using those sounds to model how slowly he brushed and how hard as though they could tell him what Henry enjoyed most.

It felt kind of ridiculous but he could swear that Henry seemed to be becoming more content as he did so.

Gabriel mused that, if this was Henry’s snoring, it was surprisingly comforting.

He hadn’t known that the doctor snored at all and, if he had, he would have assumed it to be a more nasally sound, the way snoring usually was. However, if this was what Henry’s snoring sounded like, Gabriel certainly wouldn’t mind sleeping-

Um… Never mind.

It was several seconds before his brush caught a particularly bad tangle and, to Gabriel’s disappointment, Henry’s eyes blinked back open, blearily.

“Sorry.” Gabriel said quietly to his friend.

“What for?” Henry’s blissful expression tensed back into a frown and he sat himself back up.

“For waking you.”

“I wasn’t asleep.”

“...Sure you weren’t.” Gabriel smiled knowingly. His smile dissipated as he tugged the tangle again only to find his brush stuck.

“Don’t worry about pulling a little. That’s just how knots are.”

“Oh… Won’t that hurt?”

As Utterson’s comb snagged in his hair, it pulled Jekyll’s hair just painfully enough to bring him back to reality and out of the altered mind state the side-effects of his drug had left him in. There was still a slight lingering fog but he felt just clear-headed enough to speak again without fear of doing anything strange.

The doctor shifted a little awkwardly, glad that nothing seemed to have happened this time. If all future incidents could go like that, that would be great for him.

Well, at least he couldn’t recall doing anything that Utterson might have noticed. He wasn’t fond of the rather cryptic “Sure you weren’t” that Utterson had just given.

Utterson was still tugging at that one tangle and Jekyll had the feeling it was going to be one of the more painful ones.

Occasionally there was a knot in there that just wouldn’t untangle no matter what. The only way to get them out seemed to be to tear the hair straight from his head. They didn’t happen that often and it was unlucky that one would crop up while Utterson was doing his hair.

“Don’t worry about pulling a little. That’s just how knots are.”

“Oh… Won’t that hurt?”

"Not that much. Trust me." Jekyll lied.

Utterson tugged at it a little harder but still feebly.

As Jekyll sat there, his mind kept drifting unbidden back to earlier events. His own hands against Gabriel’s face, Gabriel’s fingers running through his hair, his beloved Gabriel just behind him, close enough to touch.

The euphoria of Edward bubbled just beneath the surface, growing louder and louder, harder and harder to ignore, making it trickier to think straight.

His tongue was still painfully throbbing from the last time he had bit it and now he couldn't muster up the courage to do it again.

It was fine, he just felt a little strange.

So long as it didn't get any worse, he could probably wait until it died back down. After all, the drug couldn’t be in his system forever. These side-effects would have to fade eventually and then, he could go back to having a normal conversation with Gabriel.

All he really needed to do was to stay silent. That way, he couldn't let slip something too personal or inappropriate. There was no conversation going on at that moment that he had to join in, he wasn’t looking directly into Gabriel’s face so that couldn’t distract him. With those points in his favour, what could Henry possibly do to embarrass himself this time?

Again, there was a pull from his hair, just too weak to do anything really. Henry felt a spike of frustration.

His dear beloved Gabriel was too nice for his own good, he needed to learn to be a little more forceful.

There was a little more light tugging and Henry felt his patience growing thin. His eyes shut tightly and he took several deep breaths.

Yet another feeble little pull.

Henry finally lost patience. In a second, he had grabbed Gabriel’s hand and shoved it downward, forcing it directly through the clump of tangled hair.

There was a sharp pain in his skull as the hairs were ripped out and, with that pain, Jekyll snapped back to reality.

Gabriel's heart nearly stopped.

All of a sudden, Henry was firmly gripping his hand, a touch that wasn't exactly painful but, simultaneously, wasn't gentle either. Roughly, Gabriel's hand and the brush in it was yanked downwards, ripping out the knotted hairs with an audible tearing noise.

Henry winced at the pain.

Gabriel was so shocked and flustered that he nearly missed the damage caused but, the moment he got over his internal panic, he realized that Henry must be in pain.

"Henry, are you ok?"

At first, there was no response. Henry was stiff, staring blankly into space and, at the sight, Gabriel feared that the doctor was mad at him.

Then, as though waking from a trance, Henry blinked a few times and slowly turned back, his eyes flicking down to his own hand.

The grip was no longer quite so rough. The fingers had loosened into a gentler touch, as though they were simply holding hands.

For a second, the pair of them simply stared at it like some interloper into their conversation.

Without warning, Henry violently yanked his hand away. He stared down at the hand as though it belonged to someone else, his other hand gripping it tightly to restrain the offender from causing any more mischief.

Gabriel cringed. Henry looked so aghast at the touch that his insides roiled with nerves.

Could Henry really be so disgusted at touching him?

"Oh! Gab- Mr Utterson, I'm so incredibly sorry, I wasn't thinking!"

"It's fine." Gabriel reassured, feeling how hot his face had become. Internally he celebrated that Henry had his back to him. As it was, it was tricky for the doctor to see how flustered the lawyer had become. "I'm sorry for hurting you."

"You didn't, I assure you it was I who did that. You're not at fault, Utterson. I'm the one who should be apologizing for overstepping my bounds. Again."

"It... It was just touching. It's..."

It was nice to have Henry initiate contact. It was nice to be able to at least touch. It was nice to hold hands and, for just a second, pretend that they were an actual couple.

"It's nothing." He finished.

It wasn't nothing. He wanted Henry to hold his hand again but properly. With their fingers intertwined together and palms pressed up against one another.

Although, he could have laughed. He had wondered if trying to be bolder would yield results and, within mere minutes he already had Henry hand holding. Maybe there really was something in acting first.

He should take a few notes from Hyde's book – forwardness really was the way to go.

Jekyll was so glad that his back was to Utterson and that, despite his own penchant for mirrors, none were in the correct position to reveal to Utterson quite how excited and simultaneously ashamed Jekyll had become.

"It's nothing." Utterson said, no expression in that voice.

Jekyll shifted uncomfortably at those words. He knew he shouldn't feel so upset over it. Utterson was right – to the lawyer, it meant nothing.

It had, however, meant something to Jekyll and his heart was annoyingly pained at Utterson's nonchalance.

Utterson was being polite about the whole thing but Jekyll knew he had crossed the line yet again.

It wasn't gentlemanly in the least to hold another's hand, no matter how much it thrilled his own heart. Especially one he wasn't dating or one who didn't even like him in that way.

Unfortunately, he couldn't even tell if the act had made Utterson uncomfortable or not. He feared looking at the lawyer's face so he kept his eyes downcast at his lap and the misbehaving hand.

Despite the pain, there was still a lingering light-headedness and Jekyll was already dreading that another episode would occur. At this point, he feared what he could possibly do next. What would he grab next time?

Maybe he should cut this session with Utterson short. This was some strange new side effect that his recent overuse of the drug had caused and, until he knew how bad it was or how long these effects were going to last, he needed to temporarily isolate anyone he could potentially offend with his behaviour.

Especially those that could illicit a stronger reaction like Utterson.

All he had to do was to tell Utterson that they had covered everything the lawyer wanted to know about Edward and, clearly, Utterson didn't know how to do hair so, to prevent further incident, they would call it quits there. It wasn't a difficult lie, what could possibly go wrong?

"Utterson, put down the brush. I'll do the rest of it from here."

Gabriel's heart stopped.

He probably should have expected this from the start. After all, it was far too early in the morning for the two to be talking together anyway and the pair of them needed to get some proper rest. Yet, still, it stung his heart.

"It's clear you have no experience in brushing longer hair. There will probably be other tangles like that last one and I doubt either of us want me to guide your brush every single time you encounter one." Henry continued nonchalantly.

There was a bitter taste in Gabriel's mouth and, despite knowing that he was in the wrong, he wanted to protest.

If this was because he was too gentle, he wouldn't be anymore. If Henry just gave him a second chance, he would do it properly, no hand holding required, no touching except with the brush.

In just one morning, he had gotten closer to Henry than he had since they were children. Now Henry was cutting himself off and he feared that, for this one step forward, he would suffer two steps back.

Annoyed at himself, Gabriel shook these thoughts away. It wasn't right for him to push Henry past what he was comfortable with just because of his own feelings.

However, Henry wasn't finished there.

"Besides, this conversation is obviously at a conclusion. You have learnt all I can tell you about Hyde and neither of us should be up so early in the morning."

There was something that Gabriel didn’t like in the doctor’s tone. The edge of something sinister lurking just beneath his words.

"When will we speak again?" Gabriel asked, careful to keep his voice even. "Next Friday?"

"I don't see why we would. There is nothing to speak of."

Gabriel startled, horrified at those words.

"There's plenty to speak of." He retorted, his voice rising in pitch. This wasn't two steps back, Harry was trying to walk his way straight back to where they started.

"Name to me a subject." Henry swung around in his chair and stood up, straightening off his clothes with a professional air.

There was nothing at all in his expression, no anger, no sorrow, just that hard, emotionless face.

Somehow that was worse.

"Your work."

"As if you want to hear of that." Harry held out his hand, his eyes coldly fixed on Gabriel.

Reluctantly, Gabriel handed him the brush, extra careful to not touch Henry's hand again.

"But-"

Gabriel nearly said I do but he bit his tongue. He was starting to sound whiny and, at this rate, Henry would find out his true feelings.

Things were already bad enough as is without him bringing those into it.

The best solution seemed to be to respect Henry’s wishes, back off and hope that, in a few days time, Henry would be wanting company once more.

For now, he should just agree.

It might make Henry a little more agreeable towards him again if he played along to what he wanted. Stop being so pushy and start paying more attentions to the boundaries Henry was setting. That also meant using Henry's preferred title rather than these personal nicknames.

"I suppose this is where we part ways then, Dr Jekyll."

Jekyll felt like someone had just driven an icicle through his heart.

Utterson had called him Dr Jekyll. Not Henry, not Harry, just...

The fogginess in his head that made it so tricky to think was now tinged with sorrow and confusion.

In hindsight, he may have sounded a little harsh but there really was no polite way to put it. He just hadn't expected Utterson to draw back so violently.

Yet, it seemed he had.

He knew he shouldn't be so sorry. Driving off Utterson was what he needed, for both of their sakes.

There were only so many times he could get away with blaming sleep deprivation. Already, from a moral standpoint, he had made excuses for himself too many times that day, tricked Utterson for his own selfish gain.

However, he didn't want to drive him off quite so badly.

It hurt but he supposed there was no half-way about it. You couldn't half drive someone off, Dr Lanyon was a testament to that.

Over time, this pain in his heart would fade and Utterson would be happy with whoever it was that he had chosen with no Dr Jekyll to get in the way. That was the ideal ending to all of this.

He swallowed, keeping his expression calm, and turned from Utterson, walking a little stiffly back to the drawer. As he dropped the brush in, it clattered a little.

He just stared at it, heart heavy.

The drawer was almost empty, very few personal items sat within it. There were just a few hairbands and the hairbrush that Utterson had been doing his hair with.

It was difficult to turn around. Henry knew that, if he turned, he would see Utterson leaving, knowing that the next time they spoke would be for business rather than friendship.

Instead, he leaned against the drawer and looked up. A mirror, one of many in his house, hung above it.

His mind still felt hazy, as though it was full of cotton, and he noticed, in his reflection, that there was a growing dazed look in his eyes, a visual representation of his own slowly fading mental state.

More curiously however, was the way the light caught those eyes, making them glimmer the familiar otherworldly green of Edward's eyes.

On any other day, Henry would have been scientifically fascinated by the implications of such a sight but his mind wasn't on science at that moment.

Instead, his eyes had caught the reflection of the lawyer behind him.

Gabriel was putting on his coat with a professional air, not even glancing back at him.

Like he was just a lawyer, like Henry was just another client and everything that had just happened had meant nothing.

It felt like something was gripping his heart and squeezing.

Henry shakily raised a hand to his chest, barely able to breathe. His sight was becoming inexplicably blurry and his cheeks were starting to feel wet.

It was the effects of the drug, he knew, making him slip up so badly. Usually, Henry could keep his emotions under control but now his legs were starting to tremble and the feelings he were experiencing were like a flood. It was all he could do to stay afloat, to not be dragged under it and engulfed.

His fingers gripped into the wood of the drawer, nails boring scratches into it as he struggled to keep control over himself.

He just needed to wait several more seconds until Gabriel walked out that door.

Walked out without a single glance back.

Walked out without seeing how he affected his friend. Without seeing the distress on Henry's face. Without even caring.

Henry's teeth ground together so hard that he could almost hear them.

It was like being in the lab again, staring at that potion. There was an overwhelming, clawing want inside him, impossible to ignore or shake off. It whined and clutched at him.

He couldn't even see why this was so important anymore.

So things might be a little awkward between them, so maybe Gabriel wouldn't want him back, but at least there would be no more dancing around the issue. He would know for sure if Gabriel liked him back or not.

Shaking violently, he screwed his eyes shut and made one last effort to keep control.

Finally, he couldn't leave it any longer.

Damn Gabriel's happiness, damn whoever had captured his heart, damn however his beloved would react once he found the truth, damn acting gentlemanly. Things couldn't end here.

Faintly, he was aware that he swayed a little on his feet as he pushed away from the drawer, not even bothering to close it.

With that, he spun on his heel and began to run over to his dear beloved Gabriel.

Gabriel didn't want to look at Henry as he donned his coat, he feared what he might find.

On that face could be anything. He could find Henry to be burning with rage for some perceived slight or there could have been disappointment instead. Maybe there would be disgust on that face.

That, however, wasn't what he was most afraid of.

Gabriel was afraid that there would be nothing at all. No anger, no sadness, no hatred. Just a passive nothingness as though Gabriel was just another face in the crowd, not even worth the effort of being upset.

Every time he saw that expression, it chilled him to his core.

He still strongly recalled the Henry of his youth, so full of life and wonder. Whenever he saw that expressionless look on Henry's face, it barely even looked like Henry anymore. It was like growing up had stolen everything that he was away from him, leaving nothing but the shell behind.

It was childish to believe that things would always remain the same but where had that version of Henry gone? Where had his Henry gone?

Even with his coat on, the house felt cold.

"Well, I guess I'll see you whenever next we meet, Dr Jekyll." Gabriel said with all the professionalism he could manage at that time and turned to leave.

"Wait-!"

There was something strange in that voice. It wasn't cold or angry or anything of the sort. Instead, it was brimming with emotion.

That emotion being complete and utter panic.

Confused and a little concerned, Gabriel turned.

Before he knew what was happening, there were arms around him clamping him in place with the desperation of a drowning man. A head buried itself in his chest, the skin feverishly hot.

"Call me Henry." The person hugging him begged. "Please."

The person turned their head to look up at the lawyer and there could have been no mistake. That was Henry, acting so extremely out of character that Gabriel could barely respond.

There was dazed look in that expression but the terror was so genuine.

"O-oh..?"

Gabriel didn’t know what to do. This felt like far more than any sleep deprivation yet it was clear that, whatever was going on, Henry was not in his right state of mind.

Should he push the other man away or would that upset the doctor further? If he were lucid, Henry would probably want him to push him away but Gabriel’s heart protested the act. It protested loudly and quickly.

"Please don't leave me. I can't have you leave me too, Gabriel. I love you, I have for years now and I just can't leave things here. I love you more than anything." Henry babbled, squeezing tighter.

At those words, his train of thought derailed instantly and Gabriel nearly squeaked. His heart was going to beat so fast it was going to burst, he was sure of it.

I love you. Had he heard that right? Henry had said it so many times that it seemed unmistakable. I love you, I love you, I love you.

Had Henry come down with some sort of sudden illness? It seemed the only explanation for Henry's flip of personality.

If that were the case, it put into question everything that the doctor was saying.

Yet, Gabriel wanted to believe him. He wanted to believe that Henry was speaking the truth, that these words wouldn't just come out of nowhere. There had to be some kind of meaning to them.

Henry Jekyll loved him back.

Gabriel was a man of few emotions. It was infrequent that a smile would even graze his lips and even rarer that he would shed a tear. Most people would say he was unresponsive.

Yet, on that day, at that moment, his eyes began to well with tears.

Henry's fingers were entangled in his coat and, once more, he pressed his face into Gabriel's chest, shuddering and hiccuping. Gabriel realized that Henry was also crying, most likely for a very different reason to the lawyer.

"I'm not leaving you." Gabriel reassured softly.

He hesitated just a second. Then, tentatively, he wrapped his own arms around Henry in return, causing the doctor to sob harder. The doctor was warm in his embrace and Gabriel couldn't help but pull him just a little closer.

"After all," He added with a half-joking air, "It seems you must have come down with an illness of some kind. I couldn't possibly leave you alone in good conscience."

His fingers lightly brushed Henry's hair and he was thankful to see that Henry relaxed into the touch.

Gabriel John Utterson had never been an impulsive man but there, with Harry's body pressed hard into his, Gabriel found himself leaning down to Henry. In a whisper, his lips just brushing Henry's ear, "I love you too, my dear."

He couldn't be sure if his words had gotten through to the doctor but, gently rocking him back and forth, waiting for the tears to subside, he decided he didn't care.

He had Henry in his arms and, for that moment, that was all he wanted.

Without any pain to centre him, this time Henry returned to himself slowly.

First, he noticed that he was feeling warm, something comfortably wrapped around him and his face planted into something somewhat soft.

There was a tingling in his scalp, a feeling like fingers being run through them which made him shudder. Several times, rather than thinking any further about where he was, Henry just allowed himself to sink back into that blissful feeling. It was so infrequent that he was touched by anyone further than a handshake and everything in him wanted this moment to never end.

When he finally dragged himself back into a little more attention to his surroundings, he began to notice that his cheeks were wet, eyes crusted with dried tears.

Reluctantly, he opened his eyes, seeing nothing before him but warm, moving darkness.

Bewildered, he blinked once. Twice.

Then, he remembered throwing himself on Utterson and everything shot back into place with a snap.

Jekyll stumbled back in alarm, terrified, yanking himself out of the lawyer's embrace. He stood a little ways back from Utterson, watching him warily, waiting for the verdict.

Utterson's face was creased into a frown, watching him back with a hawk-like gaze but, besides that, the lawyer remained as unreadable as ever. It didn't matter though. Jekyll didn't even need to guess what he was thinking.

Surely Utterson would hate him now. Hand and face touching was one thing but that had been on another level entirely.

He had even told Utterson his feelings – Not as Edward, not in a way that could be easily shrugged off – but as Dr Jekyll.

He had made things uncomfortable and awkward and there was no reason that Utterson would stick around anymore, not to someone who was clearly too clingy, too emotional.

If Utterson had merely found out that he had a crush, things might have continued on, but the lawyer wouldn't stick around if Jekyll couldn't control himself in such a manner.

In his initial panic, words spilled from his mouth before he could even think.

"G-Gabr- Mr Utterson, I..."

"Save your breath."

Jekyll flinched.

Quickly, he cast his eyes downwards and forced his usual emotionless demeanour back into place, as difficult as the act was.

If he took Utterson's criticism professionally enough, hopefully the lawyer would realize that Jekyll’s odd behaviour that morning had just been a one-off and he would have a vague chance to get back into Utterson's good graces.

Of course, it was doubtful that their friendship could be salvaged after such a display but he might be able to, at the very least, salvage his reputation.

Utterson could easily tell other people of what had transpired. If people ever learnt of how Jekyll had so shamelessly forced himself onto his lawyer of all people, his reputation would be in shambles. It was most horrendously unprofessional behaviour.

"Are you feeling better now?"

Although there was no outward reaction from Jekyll, the question caught him off guard.

His eyes remained fixed on the floor, face blank. That had to be a good sign. Maybe Utterson was willing to keep quiet about this, Jekyll just had to follow along with whatever he wanted.

"Yes, thank you. My deepest apologies, Mr Utterson, I simply don't know what came over me. It wasn't my intention to-"

"Have you been sick for long or is this a recent development?"

At those words Jekyll's mind stuttered to a halt.

Sick?

What did he..?

Then it dawned on him and Jekyll could have laughed aloud from relief.

Utterson just thought it was some fever.

Any doctor could have known immediately that such a strong episode couldn't descend so quickly but Utterson wasn't a doctor. He was a lawyer and he had no reason to know how impossible it was.

Surely Utterson would be kind enough to forgive a sick man at least once.

"Not long." Jekyll lied smoothly, "It descended so unexpectedly quickly a few days ago. I thought I could get through a quick conversation with you without issue but I didn't expect our talk to carry on so long. That was my fault for assuming." He swallowed nervously. "My deepest apologies for keeping this quiet. I didn't want you to worry."

"I see now why you were practically shoving me out the door." Utterson tsked. "Well, you've sent Poole to bed already so I'll be looking after you and I'm not hearing any no about it."

Jekyll stared at him, rubbing at his eyes. The tears had since dried and crusted onto the skin. "Mr Utterson, you're my lawyer, you shouldn't have to-"

"No. No more pushing me away and no more keeping this secret. A sick man shouldn't be left to treat himself, he should be around people close to him. He shouldn't-" Utterson shot him a pointed look, "-try to rid himself of those people simply to keep his ailment hidden."

"...I understand."

"I should be apologizing too. If you've not been entirely well throughout this conversation, I fear I may have taken advantage of you."

A pause.

"To get information about Hyde, I mean." He added quickly.

"No reason to fear, Utterson. You couldn't take advantage of something you were unaware of."

"Thank you for your forgiveness." Utterson took a breath and straightened. "So, where do you keep your medical supplies?"

"Um... Utterson? You don't know medicine."

"I've listened to you talk about it, I'm sure I've picked up something or another. Come on."

Utterson turned on his heel and began to lead Jekyll further into the house and, despite his best efforts, Jekyll couldn’t keep a little smile from his face.

Just as he was leaving, he could have sworn he heard a voice at the corner of his hearing. A voice that sounded strangely like his own.

"You're welcome."

For a moment, he blinked, confused.

Jekyll looked back.

Behind him was nothing but the empty room, the two cups left alone on the table.

It must have been a hallucination from the potion's lingering effects, he supposed.

With that dealt with, he hurried to catch up with his beloved lawyer.

Chapter Text

That night, Gabriel arrived home late.

Weariness made his legs leaden and he was gripped by bouts of yawning almost every few seconds.

Despite it all, he felt content. It had been a lovely day with Harry.

After Harry’s sickness had been revealed, Gabriel had hung around for hours longer than he had ever thought Henry would allow, passing breakfast, lunch, and even dinner with just the two of them.

At first, Henry had insisted on going into his lab alone to fish out the required chemicals and potions for Gabriel’s treatment of him but, with a little needling about leaving ill friends alone, the doctor had surprisingly relented and allowed him in the lab.

Knowing that the doctor was unlikely to ever allow him in there again, Gabriel had taken great note of the room.

It was far larger than he had expected. The chandelier above seemed small from the distance and the windows were so high up that nobody could have reached them without a very tall ladder. From the floor below, he could see wooden planks nailed across the glass to allow only the slimmest amount of light in. The few beams of light illuminated choking clouds of dust in the air.

Despite the room’s immense size, between the lack of windows, the clutter in the room, and the dim lighting, it all felt very claustrophobic.

“It’s no wonder you got sick.” Gabriel had noted, covering his mouth with his sleeve to block out the dust and the acrid scent of chemicals that burned his nostrils. “Have you ever dusted in here?”

He would have asked if Henry had ever opened a window either but the boards nailed over the windows told him all he needed to know.

“There’s no point in dusting.” Henry had just replied, “It’s a waste of time. It’ll all just get dirty again eventually.”

To Henry’s annoyance, Gabriel had some strong protests to that and, before they started, he had insisted on cleaning up.

It was with great reluctance that Henry had directed him to the servants’ cleaning supplies and, looking a little perturbed, watched Gabriel work.

Most of the room couldn’t be recovered anymore. There were stains that would never come out and some rather odd scratches in some of the furniture like an animal had been at them. The dust, however, was manageable and Gabriel worked at it to the best of his ability.

Once the dust and grime was dealt with, Gabriel had grabbed a hammer and a ladder and undid the boardings on one of the windows, throwing the grubby glass open to let in fresh air.

“I can help you redo that later.” Gabriel yelled down at the aghast doctor from atop the ladder. “I’m not treating an ill man in such a room. We’ll both end up as sick as dogs by the end of it.”

He had slid back down the ladder at that point and examined his handiwork.

The overpowering scent of chemicals had been remedied somewhat by the lemony scent of wood polish and the sunlight that now streamed in made the whole area less dank and dark. With just a little bit of cleaning, the lab could almost be called inviting.

At that point, it was nearing lunch and they still hadn’t actually started treatment. Moreover, neither of them had eaten breakfast.

Gabriel had fetched some food from the servants for the both of them and finally set to work on the actual treatment.

It was under Henry’s tuition that he had dealt with the fever – This meant using Henry’s rather unconventional self-designed concoctions.

Gabriel had been dubious at first but the doctor assured him that he used his own creations on himself often and it was perfectly safe.

Instead of pills or bottles from the local pharmacy, Gabriel found himself with vials of bubbling blues and reds, directed about by Henry’s instruction.

Whether it was working or not was completely unclear to Gabriel. With the initial symptoms as invisible as they were, the only possible indicator of Henry’s health was what the doctor himself said on the matter.

The entire time, Harry scrawled down notes of his own state in a little book.

He didn’t allow Gabriel to read it, just assuring the lawyer that it was all improvements and Gabriel hadn’t pressed the issue, choosing to respect Henry’s privacy despite his own overwhelming curiosity.

On occasion, Harry would still break out in a crimson flush at unexpected moments. However, now that Gabriel knew it to be illness rather than pining for his “beloved” Hyde there was no more jealousy suffered.

In the evening, with the treatment complete, the pair had shared a bottle of wine over dinner and chatted with one another. By that point, Henry’s were practically alight with life. Enthusiastically, he had congratulated Gabriel for his excellent lab-work, forcing the lawyer to hide a pleased blush at the compliments.

Although, for all the compliments and high praise from Harry, Gabriel had something far more special to hold close to his heart.

The words "I love you." spoken by Henry to him.

Gabriel wasn’t going to push his luck, though.

He still knew quite well that it could just be the delirious mutters of a man afflicted by fever. Something that meant nothing more than the mumblings of one gripped by a dream.

Nevertheless, Gabriel believed in his heart that it was the truth.

Even if Henry’s behaviour remained as cold as ever, even if it was just an optimist imagining things, he fancied that Harry was softer around him than anyone else, paid more attention to him than any other.

Matters he had previously decided were just because they were close friends were now re-examined under new light to indicate a far more intimate interest.

All he needed to do was to get Harry to confess again. On the doctor's own terms and not those of an illness.

Knowing how awful the doctor was with feelings, he was aware that pushing the matter too hard could risk Henry clamping shut again no matter whether they were reciprocated or not.

Furthermore, he couldn’t even be sure if Henry knew about his own feelings. It had taken Hyde’s intrusive probing to realize his own emotions and Harry would most certainly be far worse on that count. If Gabriel had taken so long to realize, Henry would probably only realize on his deathbed.

He had to hope, though.

If Henry did love him back, he was sure he could bring the doctor out of his shell, it would just take very careful work. A bit of needling and gentle tugging this way or that.

It was possibly a troublesome task for anyone else but Gabriel was a lawyer. Prising the truth out of people was what he was best at.

It was that hope that kept his head high and his heart full all the way home.

Upon arrival, he hung up his coat and, with a request to a servant for a cup of tea to his room, he made his way upstairs.

The candles were freshly lit, the dark only recently starting to fall over the city. The sky was a deep orange, the sun disappearing over the horizon.

From the windows, he could see the lights of dozens of houses, glowing in a homely way. Clouds gathered overhead and the streets were cobwebbed in mist. The street lamps did little to illuminate the world, only small spots of their light visible through the thickening fog.

When he reached his own room, Gabriel struck a match and lit up a lamp, watching the furniture appear around him in the low firelight.

He opened a drawer and shifted through it until he found what he was looking for. Taking the object, he placed it on the desk so the light from the lamp fell directly onto it.

It was an old photograph, taken during university if he remembered correctly. In it was the three of them: Hastie Lanyon, Henry Jekyll, and himself, all looking happy.

Things had changed since then.

In the photograph, Hastie’s almost completely grey hair was its original dark brown. Dark circles ringed his eyes and his entire body was tensed like someone uncomfortable in their own skin. It wasn’t difficult to see how forced his smile was even in photo form.

Meanwhile, Gabriel didn’t have his usual moustache which made him look far more baby-faced. His arms were crossed and there was surliness in his gaze, almost glaring a hole straight through the camera lens. Gabriel couldn’t suppress a little embarrassed wince at the sight.

It was Harry, however, that his eyes fixed on the most.

Even in photo form, the younger Henry seemed to have a certain manic energy in his eyes. His hair was a frenzied mess about his head and a broad and mischievous grin spread across his face that gave him the impression of some kind of trickster. Looking closely enough, he could see that Henry was doing bunny ears behind Hastie’s head.

He looked like a completely different person.

Nowadays, the doctor smiled less and spoke with polite deference. Even the wrinkles of age were the worst around his brow, speaking of a man who frowned frequently.

Today, however, Gabriel had made some progress.

He had since given up hope of ever seeing that energy of Harry’s ever again but maybe it wasn’t as gone as he had first thought.

Looking at it, a smile tugged at Gabriel’s lips. Gently, he brushed his fingers over the image as though he could touch Harry himself through it.

Just then, there was a sound.

Frowning, Gabriel put down the picture and looked around at the silent room. There was nothing that stood out as a possible source of the noise.

Just when he thought maybe he had imagined it, the sound came again – A light tap, tap, tap.

This time, he was certain that it was the window.

Reluctantly, Gabriel got to his feet and made his way over to the glass. His fingers gripped the curtain, ready to draw them back, but he found himself hesitating.

After all, it had most likely been a bird or maybe a tree branch that was hitting the window, nothing really worth ruining the moment over.

Once more, the tapping met his ears and, with one sweep, he threw back the curtains.

Hand still gripping the fabric, Gabriel went absolutely still.

Staring directly back at him were a pair of large, almost luminous eyes.

The dark of the pupils were a pair of bottomless pits that had swallowed all of his confidence and good feeling in one swoop, leaving a hollow, paralysing fear behind.

Behind those eyes was an inhuman shape, hunched on the windowsill like a gargoyle. Hands so pale that they were almost translucent pressed against the glass and long, broken nails clicked against the pane.

Outside, the wind wailed, sounding strangely distant to his ears. It tugged and lifted at the creature’s hair so it almost seemed to float there, a swirling, thrashing halo around its face.

Gabriel's breath caught in his throat.

There, perched outside his window on the second story of the building, was Edward Hyde.

"Hi!" Hyde waved cheerily, nearly slipping off his tiny perch with the enthusiasm of his wave.

With that, the spell of fear over Gabriel abruptly dissipated and he was just left startled and a little annoyed at the intrusion.

He was also mildly ashamed at himself for letting something like that slip so early on. In a game of poker, he would have already lost. As of yet, he didn’t even know what game Hyde was playing but, whatever it was, it was likely to be some kind of gamble.

Hoping to cover up the unexplainable moment of terror, Gabriel crossed his arms and glowered at Hyde.

"Can I come in? It's cold out here." Hyde continued, unfazed. He couldn’t even tell if Hyde had noticed his flash of fear.

The scowl on Gabriel’s face deepened.

"If you want to speak with me, you'll have to wait until morning and knock at the door like a regular person." He lectured sternly. “I’m afraid I don’t take clients through my bedroom window.”

"I can't," Hyde moaned, slumping against the glass so that his face squashed comically against it, "I have to turn back into Dr Jekyll by tomorrow morning. I'm like a reverse Cinderella – when the clock strikes midnight, I turn from rags back into a stuffy, stupid prince."

Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"You know, I spoke to Henry just this morning.” The lawyer said pointedly, “We actually spoke about you, like you suggested. You know the strangest thing, Hyde? Nothing came up about you two being the same person."

Gabriel made a show of musing it over.

"In fact,” He said leisurely, “he seemed quite honestly to believe you to be his assistant. How very peculiar."

"Of course he would say that!” Hyde retorted sharply. “Dr Jekyll is a silver-tongued snake! A deceitful little cuckoo bird in the nest! Trust me, beloved, not one word of honesty comes out of his mouth.”

A thoughtful pause.

“...My mouth?”

Gabriel tutted and crossed his arms. He watched Hyde closely.

At that moment, he was doing his best to keep in mind what Henry had said: Hyde was potentially dangerous and, if he showed, Gabriel was supposed to do all he could to rid himself of the creature.

Harry had been afraid of Hyde for some reason and only a fool would ignore the signs. There was a malicious air that followed the creature like a swarm of flies around a corpse, an instinctive warning that told him that there was danger afoot.

Not to mention, showing up at the window unannounced was dubious at the best of times no matter who it was.

Hyde couldn’t be here for any savoury reasons, he told himself firmly. His gun was so close at hand that it shouldn’t be too difficult to shoo the creature off and everything in him told him that was exactly what he should be doing.

Yet, it only took one glance downwards to shake his conviction of Hyde’s ill intent.

The window was already open.

Had he wanted, Hyde probably could have opened it completely and slipped in without him any the wiser until it was too late.

Could have, but didn’t.

Besides, he was awfully curious as to why the strange creature would bother to show up at all.

He supposed that, in truth, that he didn’t need to actually let him in just yet. It would be of no harm to just hear him out from where they both were, then he could decide whether to be rid of the creature or whether to allow him entrance.

"What do you want, Hyde?" He demanded warily, his hand moving to the gun at his side.

"I wanted to ask how it went with Dr Jekyll."

His hand gripped the gun.

To track him down to his house so late in the evening and then ask about how things went with Jekyll was just too innocent of a question to justify the effort this would have taken. Not to mention the risk of attracting the police.

It was clear that Hyde must have further motives but he just didn’t know what they were or how much trouble they could prove to be.

Jealousy was a potential one. Maybe Henry didn’t feel any romantic towards Hyde but that didn’t mean that Hyde couldn’t have his own affections towards the doctor.

That, or more sinister designs.

People could get awfully dangerous when it came to matters of the heart. Gabriel himself knew he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Hyde if Harry’s life was on the line and the idea that Hyde might have the same feelings worried him.

For a few seconds, Gabriel mused over Hyde's behaviour. He weighed out what he already knew for certain and what was just conjecture.

If he was to get a better reading on the situation, he would have to find a way to poke at Hyde's personality. He needed to know if Henry’s fears of Hyde were grounded in something serious or if he was jumping to conclusions again.

This required a test.

“No.” Gabriel said simply. “I want you to leave.”

The creature outside stiffened. Hurriedly, Hyde pulled his face away from the glass.

"Wait, wait! I want to help!" Hyde protested, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. "Can't you hear me out just quickly?"

Instead of replying, Gabriel just held Hyde's gaze harshly in absolute silence. Hyde stared back, quivering.

Then, abruptly, his entire body drooped like a wilted flower and fell still.

"Morning then. We'll have to speak in the morning." Hyde mumbled dejectedly. “You were honest when you said I could, right? I mean, it won’t be tomorrow but… Eventually.”

More silence.

“No?” Hyde asked, looking up again and shuffling nervously on his perch.

When Gabriel continued to not say a word, Hyde looked away and seemed to muse for a second.

As he did so, his facial expressions twisted and changed as though he was having some sort of internal conversation. Occasionally, he would even mouth something to himself but Gabriel was no lip-reader.

Suddenly, Hyde’s current frown flicked into a look of revelation so obvious that Gabriel could practically see the lightbulb light up above his head. It was as though a switch had been flicked.

When Hyde turned back to Gabriel, there was a broad grin on his face.

“Well, the best of luck with Dr Jekyll.” He chirped perkily.

With that, Hyde stood up, dusting himself off.

Spinning around on one foot on the precarious ledge, he peered downwards at the drop. His arms swung back and he prepared to leap off, to disappear into the dark once more, possibly never to be seen by Gabriel again.

Then, Gabriel shoved open the window.

There was a strangled squawk of surprise from Hyde. He stumbled and one of his feet instinctively stepped directly off the edge.

His entire body jolted from the surprise loss of ground and his arms wind-milled, desperately trying to right himself as his body helplessly tipped forwards.

Within a second, Gabriel’s hand shot out of the window and grabbed Hyde’s arm.

Gabriel’s heart rate had skyrocketed, the thudding in his ears almost drowning out the furious howling of the wind outside as adrenaline pounded through his system. In his tight grip, Gabriel could feel Hyde’s own heartbeat beneath his fingers, fluttering hysterically like a trapped bird, the twitching movement of the muscles as he struggled to right himself.

With all his might, Gabriel pulled, slowly dragging Hyde back to standing.

After a bit of wobbling and frantic righting from Hyde, the creature stumbled back onto firm ground and pressed his back into the jutting window pane as hard as he could.

Frozen, Hyde just stared downward.

His fingers scrabbled blindly behind him for a purchase to hold onto, not even daring to glance behind him. The searching fingers got more and more frantic until, finally, they grasped at the opening in the window, instantly gripping until the knuckles went stark white.

They held on with the tight desperation of a drowning man while Hyde’s chest heaved.

For a moment longer, in case he slipped again, Gabriel remained holding on.

It was possible that Hyde could survive such a drop given his inhuman attributes but Gabriel didn’t know for certain and he didn’t want to test it.

In hindsight, maybe he should have warned Hyde before opening the window.

Once both of their hearts had calmed somewhat, Gabriel let go and pulled himself back into his room.

Slowly, shakily, Hyde turned to look at what he was holding and his eyes finally alighted on the open window.

Askingly, he stared at Gabriel, looking utterly lost.

"You wanted to come in, didn't you?" Gabriel asked bluntly.

After a few bewildered blinks, Hyde hesitantly leant down to the opening.

He looked back at Gabriel as if waiting for affirmation. Gabriel simply nodded and, slowly, Hyde pushed his head through the gap and began to worm his way inside.

The window didn't open far enough to let him in easily so he had to writhe a little, stuck in the gap. His legs kicked out behind him and Gabriel stretched out a hand, ready to help pull him through if needed.

Abruptly, the creature tumbled out onto the desk with a bang, scattering pens and pencils in his wake.

Gabriel winced sympathetically and checked the door to see if any of his servants had heard the commotion and were coming to check.

While he checked, Hyde bolted upright and crossed his legs, eyes bright. Gabriel turned back around to look at the newcomer to his room.

When Hyde had been outside the window with the glass separating them, there had been a certain sense of unreality. That same unreality had persisted even when he had encountered Hyde for the first time. Even when he had been pinned to the wall, Hyde hadn't felt all that real, like a figment of his imagination.

Now, in the enclosed space of the room, it was the candlelight that fell on Hyde's features as opposed to the fragile light of the moon. It made him look a little more solid.

Gabriel could actually make out features like the dirt under Hyde's chipped nails that made them look black or the aged wrinkles around his eyes revealing that, despite the man's small size and childish demeanour, he was definitely at least an adult.

Up until then, Gabriel had assumed that Hyde was young, twenty years old at most. Now he could clearly see that Hyde was actually at least thirty years of age and most likely older.

Funnily enough, Hyde suddenly looked far more human now that he could see these things.

"Why the change of heart?" Hyde asked carefully reorganising the pens he had bowled over.

"There was no change of heart. You can learn a lot about someone based on how they take a simple 'no'."

Also how they almost fell out a window on the second story of a building but that hadn’t really been the intention there.

Hyde cocked his head to one side and just stared at him, bemused.

"You would be surprised how many people I've met who lose their temper at the slightest inconvenience." Gabriel explained. He fixed his eyes coldly on Hyde and was satisfied to see the creature tremble a little. "By the way, you’ve only met the lowest level of common decency so don’t get too comfortable. Don't prove me wrong to trust you, Hyde."

The look on Hyde's face still very clearly said 'Doesn't understand a word of what you just said' but Gabriel didn't want to explain. He wanted to know why Hyde was there and especially what Hyde had meant by 'Help'.

"How did you know where to find me?" Gabriel asked instead. No point jumping in at the deep end.

A long blink from Hyde. "...Did we not trade addresses..?"

There was a moment of silence.

When it seemed that the conversation had dried up, Gabriel opened his mouth to tell him ‘No, they did not’ but, before a sound could leave his lips, Hyde’s head shot up with a loud curse.

"Oh, rat’s asses! We didn't!” Hyde cried out as though this were somehow a revelation to him. “To think, I didn't even tell my beloved how to find me again, how wretched of me! Do you have any paper? This needs to be rectified right now."

Without even waiting for a reply, Hyde began to hurriedly scout through the papers and pens he had landed in to find a blank sheet and a working pen.

Completely ignoring Gabriel, the creature settled on his stomach, tearing off the pen lid and throwing it across the room. He started to hurriedly write.

"So how did you know where I live?" Gabriel repeated.

There was no sign that Hyde had heard him. He simply continued to kick his legs back and forth as he wrote.

"Hyde, where did you-?" He sighed in exasperation at the lack of response and raised his voice. "Hyde. Hyde!"

At last, the creature looked up.

"I know because you told me." He said innocently.

"I did not. I'm quite certain we just established that you forgot to ask."

"Ok, then I popped into existence already knowing where you live."

Gabriel groaned, already knowing that he was going to get nothing from any of this. "Fine."

He fell silent, watching Hyde work and thinking over the oddity of the situation.

It wasn't the first time someone had tried to slip in through his window before. There was, however, a certain novelty in Hyde’s intent.

It was the first time someone had slipped in through the window with no ill intent.

Most likely, Hyde had found his address by asking around therefore it was best to put that detail from his mind and get to the proper conversation.

"Why are you here?"

"I wanted to know how it went between you and Dr Jekyll."

"I... It was nice to chat to an old friend. That’s all."

"Oh?" Hyde sang, grinning mischievously, "Old friend, beloved? How cold."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. "...What are you trying to imply?"

"You like Dr Jekyll. And he likes you back." With one last sweep of his pen, Hyde finished the note he was writing and folded it up. "Do you have an envelope?"

He certainly hoped that Hyde hadn’t tried to tell Henry this same spiel. The doctor probably wouldn’t appreciate that sort of poking.

Listening to Hyde, Gabriel couldn’t imagine how such a person could ever get along with Henry. He was absolutely certain this behaviour would be off-putting to the doctor. Hyde didn’t just act this way around him, did he?

"The relationship between Henry and I is purely professional."

At that, Hyde burst out into peals of cackling, grating laughter.

Gabriel glared in the faint hope that maybe he could kill the little pest just with a look.

With the noise Hyde was making, Gabriel was quite certain that his servants had heard the commotion already. Well, again it wasn’t the first time a break in had happened. It was likely that, by now, the servants knew to stay out of it and just let Gabriel handle the situation.

"Oh, is it? Is that why you gave him the nickname "Harry"? Out of pure professionalism?” Hyde scoffed between bursts of giggles. “Don't be such a wet blanket, Gabey, I'm here to help."

Hyde was still waving the letter in one hand, waiting for an envelope. With a sigh, Gabriel snatched the letter from his hands.

"You don't need an envelope, I'm right here. What do you mean, help?

"With you and Jekyll, of course. I want to see the two of you together, rollicking in the fields. Or whatever it is that happy couples do." Hyde replied. "And you can't give a letter without an envelope, that's just dreadful etiquette."

"Why?"

"You need to write down who the intended receiver is so that random people don't just read the letter. Private information, beloved – I don’t hand out my address to just anyone."

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose. "Not the letter, Hyde. Why do you want Jekyll and I to be together?"

"Oh, right. Because Dr Jekyll's happiness is a personal concern of mine and nothing would make him happier than being with you. The issue is, You're both a pair of emotional brick walls." Hyde shifted to sit at the edge of the desk, swinging his legs off the edge, "That stunt you pulled earlier with the hair was pretty ballsy but not good enough. You're still being too subtle."

It took a second for the chilling implications of Hyde’s words settled in. Gabriel froze, his breath catching in his throat.

“...How do you know about that?”

"Don't worry about it. That's not important."

That was pretty important.

"Hyde. That was this morning. How do you know that?"

"I learnt from Dr Jekyll.” Hyde replied, surprising Gabriel who had been preparing for another stupid lie. “He also enjoyed it way more than he would ever admit to your face because he's got that whole 'Unfeeling gentleman' act he's got going. After all, God forbid Dr Jekyll ever show an emotion." Hyde shuddered and mockingly crossed himself, "How utterly ghastly to think."

With that, Hyde clutched at himself, shivering violently.

"I only just left his house."

"And I only just arrived when you left."

A long suffering sigh.

It was incredibly unlikely that the timings would just line up that perfectly but he supposed there was a chance. Besides, it wasn’t like there was any other way that Hyde could have found out – not unless Hyde’s species could just discern these things psychically.

He didn’t like entertaining the idea that Hyde could just know personal things about him just by magic so he decided to believe Hyde’s dubious story.

Then, "...He definitely enjoyed it?"

"As someone with long hair myself, I can quite honestly say that having someone play with your hair is heavenly." Hyde gave a dreamy sigh.

For a few seconds, he just stared into space as though imagining such a thing while Gabriel waited patiently.

Hurriedly, Hyde shook himself off and pointed sharply. "But that is quite besides the point. With the way our dear doctor is, without my help, you won't get very far wooing him. I mean, you reached what most people would call the friend zone today. Considering how long the pair of you have known each other, that's sad." Hyde hopped off the table. "You do want Dr Jekyll, don't you?"

"I..."

"Be honest. Come on. Are you afraid that our dear doctor will hear you?" Hyde smiled slyly as though sharing some inside joke.

Unable to respond at first, Gabriel just stared at him. Then, quickly, he shook his head.

"That doesn't matter. You know how Henry is. Better than I do by the sounds of it!"

The last bit was spat out with far more jealousy than he intended but Gabriel didn’t care.

"He hates getting close to anyone!” He continued vehemently, “If anyone went after him, they would just make him uncomfortable!"

"A fair evaluation from your point of view I suppose. But false." Hyde swung himself forward and playfully tapped Gabriel on the nose. "He wants you but he's convinced himself that his beloved Gabriel doesn't like him back. The man is obsessed with coming up with every damnable explanation for why you don't like him back." Hyde cocked his head to one side. "But you're not that blind, right? Surely you have your suspicions?"

Gabriel bit his lip.

Part of him wanted to just say it, to get things off his chest and because, if anyone knew how to worm their way into Henry's affections, it was Hyde.

However, that didn’t change the fact that Hyde was a stranger and an untrustworthy one at that. It was clear that the man had further motives than what he was saying outright.

He didn’t want to openly confess the truth to Hyde.

Hyde may have suspicions but, so long as Gabriel kept his mouth shut, the creature couldn’t know for certain.

At long last, there was a theatrical sigh from Hyde.

"Fine. I see you're not up to it." Hyde stretched casually and crawled his way back to the window. "When our favourite doctor starts getting on your nerves, remember my offer. I'll always be open."

Just as Hyde put his hands on the window, Gabriel found himself calling out to Hyde.

"Wait! One last thing."

Hyde hesitated, looking back at him curiously.

"Are… Are you hurting Henry in any way?"

The creature paused for a second.

Hyde had been so open with his emotions so far, his face more expressive than anyone he had ever seen before.

Yet, that face had now become unreadable.

Gabriel swallowed.

Just as Hyde opened his mouth to speak, a maid stepped into the room, carrying a tray with Gabriel's tea. She froze as she saw the creature at the window, one hand over her mouth in horror.

Clearly not all of the servants had heard the commotion and decided to stay out.

"Seems that's my cue to leave." Hyde hissed.

With one last toothy smile at the lawyer, he wriggled out the window and vanished into the night, the swishing of the curtains the only sign he was ever there at all.

"Master, are you ok?!" The maid hurriedly placed the tray down on the desk and rushed over to him, checking him over for injuries.

"It's fine," Gabriel replied, shooing off her concerns. "Thank you for the tea."

He looked back at the window one last time. It was dark out there but he could have sworn, for brief flashes in the street lamps, there was a shape disappearing away.

Still in his hands was the note and he looked down at it. Written on it in a messy scrawl was an address in Soho.

Signed,

Now you know where to find me.

With love, Edward Hyde.