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“So… old Frankie doesn’t like you, hmm?”Henry tried to ignore Hyde’s comment, instead focusing at his desk on cataloging the repairs the society had yet to take care of before the exhibition. Even if Lanyon was still worried and he’d barely been able to throw Rachel off his tail to do it, it was better than moping in being called a slut and rotten on the inside by the scientist he’d idolized all of his life.Yes, things hadn’t gone as well as he hoped, and he was in a bit of a tight place—either save Frankenstein or have the world see her dead on his doorstep—but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be able to find some safe, respectable way out of—Hyde scoffed. “Give it up, doctor. You know what we could do to prove that we’re really mad scientist material instead of the tamed ‘rogue’ scientist you’ve been trying to sell to society.”The Blackfog Bazaar.“Hmm, yes,” Hyde purred. “Might be a bit difficult for you to go there at the moment, though… Don’t you think? That pretty reputation of yours would get all rough around the edges. You’d never be able to pass yourself off as respectable again. If only you had some kind of personal assistant who could go for you.” Hyde’s words sang with suggestion.“No,” Henry said aloud.Hyde shrugged uncaringly from the side of the tea cup Henry had managed to sneak of away from the kitchen when Rachel had gone out shopping. “Well then,” Hyde drawled—like he didn’t have a stake in the outcome, “I suppose you’ll have to go yourself.”“You know I can’t,” Henry growled.Hyde’s eyes glistened, half-lidded and intent. The look of a predator certain of victory. “Then you will lose everything. Won’t you, Doctor Jekyll?”Henry threw down his pen and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. “What’s the catch, Hyde?” he spat. “What’s the god damn catch? Last time you nearly burned everything I’ve worked for to the ground. This time, you’ll have us both rotting in a jail cell by the end of the night? Everything still lost despite your promises and pretty words?”Hyde wrinkled his nose, insulted. “You make it sound like I don’t keep my word.”“You don’t!” Henry slapped his desk emphatically. “You say one thing, then get caught up in the moment and push past the boundaries. You break the rules, Hyde!”“And isn’t it always such a thrill?” Hyde grinned from the teacup, but his smile faltered when Henry fixed him with a hard look. “Alright, all posturing aside,” he muttered, seeming smaller in the edges of the teacup’s pattern, “this could be good for both of us, Jekyll. I get what you want, you get what you need.”Henry didn’t miss Hyde’s phrasing. This was something Hyde wanted, but it was something Henry needed. He wished he could deny it. It really was the best solution. He didn’t have another way out.“If you ruin me,” he whispered, defeated, “I will rid the world of your miserable existence. Even if it kills me.”“Such threats, doctor. You could never really—““Don’t test me, Hyde!” He aimed a fiery glare at the other man—if he could be even be called that in times like this. Tempter. Monster. Demon. Those words would fit him better if Hyde cost him everything. “I won’t have anything more left to lose.”Hyde swallowed, then nodded. “It’s not just your throat on the line anyway, Henry,” he reminded the other man. Hyde pealed himself away from the teacup, manifesting in the air like a djinn of green smoke. He laid his ghostly hand over Henry’s, but refused to meet Henry’s eyes. “And…do remember that I care for you, in my own way.”Their relationship had gotten rather…complicated since their few nights together. Everything had come crashing down around them before Henry had had time to make good on his promise to lay with Hyde again—and before he could see if Hyde was actually capable of keeping his word about not misbehaving when Henry needed to work in exchange.Henry turned his hand under Hyde’s to grasp the other man’s hand, accepting the gesture. “Don’t give me reason to regret trusting you, Edward.”* * *The Blackfog Bazaar was unlike anything Edward had ever seen. A dingy alleyway he’d seen a thousand times before, transformed in the fog of the shipyard into a glistening otherworld by the lights of the stalls now lining it. People with hoods and cloaks wandered through the fog, perusing the wares exhibited before them—a wondrous exhibition of science unleashed. Clockwork animals danced and then fought on a nearby table. Another stall owner across the way warned a passerby not to touch black and gray powders marked “explosives” without observing the safe sequence chart posted next to them.Remember what we’re here for, Jekyll reminded.Edward waved him away. “I know,” he muttered under his breath. “No reason I can’t search for something to help Frankenstein and take it all in.”But what were they looking for? A crystal?A potion? Did they want something ready made to prove that they were a patron of true mad science, or materials with which to create their own concoction? Probably the later… Old Frankie wouldn’t give them the credit it wasn’t somehow of their own making. But what they chose to take home with them had so much to do with what they were trying to cure. What was the old bat dying of anyway?She’s coughing up blood, but she’s managed to survive despite her condition, Jekyll rattled off. That in itself says something.Sure, but that could still make it any number of things. From chronic bronchitis to the dreaded coughing disease, Frankenstein could have all sorts of ailments that medicine wasn’t able to cure.Normal medicine, anyway.Edward hopped up on a lamppost and swung around it, surveying the bazaar. A woman in a colorful cloak and large brimmed hat that was offering protective sigils caught his attention, but most of her clients seemed to be of a tattooed sort. It might be worth seeing if her sigils would still be effective engraved in something enamel, but it might not take effect quickly enough—or impress Frankenstein for that matter. No… They needed something with a bit more umph to it. A bit more flare and dazzle! Something…Something like…A sign at the end of the alley caught his attention.Necromancy, Jekyll breathed. Horror and awe laced his voice in equal measure as Edward moved through the crowd to the stall.When he reached it, he rapped a knuckle against the wooded sign hanging over the stall. It read All Creatures Cured—Even the Dead Ones. The woman inside looked up from the compound she was mixing over her Bunsen burner, then lifted her goggles off her face to regard him more closely. “Sometin’ I can ‘elpew wit?” she asked.Edward relished the musical tone of her accent. Who knew where she was from, the things she had seen, traveling with the vanishing bacchanal of the Blackfog Bazaar. Instead of asking her to bed with him to coax stories of those adventures out of her with all manner of acts, he tapped the sign again and said, “Does this mean what I think it does, and can you back it up?”She raised her eyebrows and smirked. “Aye and aye, good sah. ‘t certainly dew.”Edward widened his eyes with excitement and grinned at her. “Can you prove it?”“Oh ho ho, cayne ah prove‘t, ‘e asks.” The woman removed her beaker from her flame, turned down her Bunsen burner, and then dived under her back table. She emerged with two items: an ax, and a strange looking device. It looked almost like an over large gun, but had too many vents. The barrel was a stylized attachment that took the round chamber of the gun and funneled it into a thin line. The woman put the gun aside and hefted the ax. “Waytch cayreful, now.” She brought down the ax over her own wrist, severing her hand from her arm.Both Jekyll and Edward screamed. The woman’s teeth glinted white in the diffused lamplight as she took up her other device in her still-working hand and pointed it at the severed limb. She pulled the trigger, and a purple-black light emitted from the thin nozzle. She ran it over the edges of the cut on her hand and her arm, then popped them back together and raised her hand to waggle her fingers at them.“W-w-wh—” Edward stammered.My thoughts exactly, Jekyll admitted.“WOW!” Edward finally managed.
...alright, maybe not exactly. You’re not wrong, though.

“How does it do that?” Edward asked, examining the instrument from all sides.“Quayte simple, really,” the woman said, sounding smug. “It’s alchemy, and it’s just copying what’s already there. So long as there’s a sample of ‘ealthy tissue somewhere, yew can copy it and teach the rest o’ a body to be that way tew. What we’re doing is essentially taking damaged cells and re-organizin’ ‘em inna healthy ones. Like mah wrist, the split cells become whole and heal. I cayn apply the same principal to all else. Sometimes it cayn have some funny by-products, though… Viruses are harder to kill, since it ain’t the cells that’re wrong. In cases like that, I cayn’t synthesize ‘em gone, only out. Then I’ve got a heaping jar’s worth of virus, y’see?” The woman held up a jar of white, viscus liquid. “Cayn be quite a problem.”“That’s genius,” Edward gushed.Genius we can probably put to our own uses if we get a look under this apparatus’s casing, Jekyll agreed.Edward held the apparatus to his chest looked at her with the big eyes of a child in a toy store. “How much?”The lady shook her head. “’t ain’t somethin’ yew cayn buy, I’m afraid. ‘Tis the instrument o’ me trade.” Hyde pouted and relinquished the device as she fished it back out of his hands. “Bring me the pearson yew wan’ me ta cure, and we cayn discuss price then.”That was going to be tricky since the whole point of coming to the Bazaar was to convince Frankenstein that they could treat her.Edward put on his prettiest smile. “What if I only wanted to borrow it?”The woman raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “You sound jus’ like the broad from the other night,” she grumbled. “Borrowin’s only borrowin if it’s gonna come back ta me.”A melodious voice broke through the fog over Edward’s shoulder. “Or maybe it’s still borrowing even if it never comes back to you again.”Hyde, duck! Jekyll shouted.Edward went flat on the stall’s counter. He heard the sharp sound of a blade fly over him, then the shattering sound of the jar the stall owner had been holding. She screeched and Edward looked up in time to see the liquid splash over her.A shadow lurched from the fog and a gloved hand reached out to snatch the miracle-making alchemic device out of the stall keeper’s hand. Edward’s eyes flowed along the glove to the lovely face of its wearer. Her eyes glowed down at him, her smile clean and sharp and white. He swallowed, nervous and excited.Cutthroat Lucy, Queen of the Forty Elephants.Well, Jekyll commented. I suppose this wasn’t the way you wished to meet her, is it?Lucy cackled and used the counter of the stall to leap up into the fog. “The Forty Elephants thanks you for your donation!” Her footsteps sounded on the shingles of the roof above, and then faded away into the night. Slowly, Edward became aware of the commotion around him.The stall-keeper was halfway out of her clothes, and swearing up a storm about the risk of infection. The people around Edward seemed baffled and on-guard, shying away from any well-dressed women around them. Even the fog seemed more cautious. Not that he could blame any of them. The Forty Elephants were notorious and skilled. They said one of the Elephants could hide hundreds of stolen goods on her person at a time with the number of hidden pockets in her garments. He’d never expected them to be so…theatrical—or so hard on their fellow miscreants.Something about it didn’t sit right with him.That would be called your conscience, Jekyll tossed at him from the sidelines.Edward ignored him. It wasn’t he who’d robbed the stall keeper. None-the-less, he slipped into the stall and helped her untangle from her outer layer. He placed his cloak around her shoulders and sat her down in her chair. The woman thanked him, and drew the cloak around her more tightly. “I didn’t expect her ta come back…”Edward lounged against the stall counter. “You said she asked to borrow your invention?”The woman nodded. “Aye, but when I told her she couldn’t, she told me it wasn’t nice to keep things to myself and that she maight come back and teach me ta share.”“Hmm.” Edward didn’t like this. This felt like a betrayal of everything he’d thought Lucy stood for. She was supposed to be a hero. An idol. Someone as black and roguish as himself—but there was no fun in being evil if it brought harm to innocent people who didn’t deserve it. Assholes were one thing. A beautiful mad scientist with a healing ray gun was another. “Tell you what,” he said, sweeping the stall keeper’s hand up in his. “How about I get your ray gun back for you?”“’Tain’t a ray gun…”“Your invention then,” he recovered. “What would you say if I went after her and brought it back to you, hm?”The stall keeper narrowed her eyes. “I’d say it’d be tew good tew be truew, that I would. What’s the caytch?”Edward grinned at her and patted her hand. “Oh, my dear, you are as perceptive as you are beautiful. All I’d ask in return for my heroic deed would be the teensy favor of a loan. Let me use it for a purpose of my own before I return it back to you, safe and sound.”You don’t know we’ll be able to put that thing back together once we take it apart! Jekyll objected.Edward ignored him and moved his head lower over the stall keeper’s hand. He breathed conspiratorially close to the delicate skin of her wrist. “Do we have a deal?”The woman inhaled sharply, but a glimmer of lust in her eye told Edward that he had her. She jerked her hand out of his and placed it on her breast, looking grumpily away from him. “Aye, fine, have it your way then.” She grumbled, but the blush on her cheek told him that she wasn’t as displeased as she sounded.“You’re too kind,” he purred, rising and placing a quick kiss to her cheek. She made a sound of surprise, but before she could react more, Edward doffed his hat and jumped onto the stall counter. “Until I bring your creation back, then.” He bowed, whisked his cloak shamelessly from the woman’s shoulders, and then leapt up into the fog the way Lucy had gone.If he was going to track her, it would be best to start where she had started.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

If there was one thing Edward was, it was a fan of the criminal and the deviant. That meant he’d been Lucy’s fan for a long, long time. With fan-dom came obsession, and with obsession came meticulous cataloging of seemingly inane detail. That meant, he knew what Lucy’s boot print looked like—and he knew what it looked like stamped into the more impressionable rooftops of London.Who thought we’d ever put that knowledge of yours to good use, Jekyll muttered.Edward smiled. “You’re just jealous it’s not you being useful.” He slipped over to the next rooftop, following the trail like ink threading through an indentation in paper. If he was lucky, he might catch up before Lucy reached her destination. Much less difficult to wrestle something away from a lone woman in the dark than to pry it out of her fingertips in her stronghold.
I thought you were rather a fan of this Lucy woman.
“I am.”
Then why are you so excited to fight with her?
Edward leered. “You think people won’t talk about it for ages? The man who stole Queen Lucy’s plunder? I’ll be a legend, Henry!”
Ah. Yes. Should have known. But are you sure you won’t be a dead legend after all is said and done?
Edward scoffed. “As if anyone would challenge the champion that challenged Lucy and lived to tell the tale.”
Knowing you, you’ll be in another bar fight before everyone hears about it anyway…
Edward scoffed again. “Of course I will, who do you take me for?”Jekyll’s lack of response almost felt affectionate.Edward leapt the next few rooftops, then came to an immediate halt, throwing himself behind a chimney. Lucy stood in the alleyway below, showing off her loot to a few other women around her.“This is it, girls. The big time. With this, we’ll be able to take on even riskier operations. The Forty Elephants won’t even fear death itself anymore!”She cackled and then raised the apparatus triumphantly.Now’s your chance! Jekyll urged.Edward shook his head. Not yet…A carriage pulled up to the women and they entered. Light as a shadow, Edward slithered down to the edge of the shingles and perched, his fingers gently gripping the edge of the roof. He slid himself over the edge and hung as the carriage began moving. As it passed underneath him, he dropped lightly onto the roof.More than one way to track a Queen of Thieves.The ride was short, but convoluted. If Edward had been trying to follow above on the rooftops, he would have gotten dizzy and disoriented for sure. Lucy certainly was clever. Finally, the carriage came to a halt. Edward waited until the women exited the carriage, then slipped off over the side they had abandoned. He watched them from behind the vehicle. Lucy was in front. She rapped in a pattern on the door. After a moment, the door opened. She and her fellow thieves slipped quietly inside. The carriage began to move away, and Edward made for the door. He counted, then repeated the sequence he’d seen Lucy do. He darted to the side of the door frame, and waited. The door opened, but when no one was clearly visible, the attendant stuck their head out.Just as planned.Edward brought his hand down on the back of the attendant’s neck. She made a small sound, then fell unconscious into his waiting arms. He dragged her inside, and propped her gently in a corner on a stool. Looking around, he took his bearings.This was obviously a waypoint. It was nowhere near grand enough for the Queen of the Forty Elephants to hold court, let alone for any of them to live in.
Has to be passage ways then, don’t you think?
Edward smiled over Jekyll’s comment.“Why, doctor,” he murmured. “One might accuse you of having deviant thoughts yourself with how quickly you came to that conclusion.”Jekyll’s embarrassed annoyance brought a smile to Edward’s lips. This was turning out to be a fine evening, he thought. With that, he hoisted a candle, and began to search. At the end of an hour, he had gathered enough components to work with. It was only in times like these that he was happy to have Jekyll’s years of chemical study in his corner. Without it, he would have had useless base ingredients. With it, he had a few Molotov cocktails and some pretty burning firework distractions at his disposal. He scoured the room for other weapons, tucking a box of matches into his pocket. As if mocking him, an umbrella rested in the corner of the room, begging to be part of his arsenal.Jekyll smirked somewhere behind Edward’s eyes. Another umbrella? Beginning to be a bit of a running theme, isn’t it?“Apparently I was good enough with one to be a murder suspect, so I’ll take it,” Edward muttered back with a sniff. He hid his make-shift weapons in his cloak, then stashed the lone lit candle in the room into a lantern. He took it up, and went through the door on the other side of the room. With luck, Lucy would be celebrating her victory loudly enough to lead him to her.He wasn’t disappointed. While the twisting passageways were probably meant to disorient intruders normally, Lucy and her subjects had gotten rather giddy on their way home. Edward giggled, following in their dancing footsteps and twirling down the corridor himself. He hid his lantern under his cloak when he heard voices. A door stood in front of him, light flooding into the corridor from the crack beneath it, where the melodious sound of a woman’s laughter also carried through. He crept up to the door and gave the handle an experimental twist. When it turned quietly, he opened the door a sliver. Lush rooms stood beyond. The carpeting was rich, the materials for the furniture and drapes shone with the brilliant color of gemstones.Ah, yes. This was more like it.Dragons sleeping on the gold they hoard, or some such, Jekyll observed.Except Lucy wasn’t a dragon. She was a thief—a good thief. Peerless and outclassing each person who had gone up against her since her reign had begun.Edward felt his smile growing as he glided through the house. The stories people would tell about him—the thief who’d out-foxed Cutthroat Lucy. Ooh, it was enough to make him giddy! A cackle bubbled up in his throat, the feeling intoxicating and sharp.
Keep it together, Hyde!
He stifled his cackling under a hand and exited the parlor into a hallway. A door to the left stood ajar. Music and spirited conversation spilled from it into the hall, drawing Edward to it like a shark to blood in water.She would be celebrating. So sure she’d won and gotten away with it. Oh, this would be an evening to revel in for ages to come!Focus on getting through it unscathed before you begin gloating, Jekyll chided.Spoil sport, Edward thought, slinking up to the open door. He peaked around the corner and looked into the room. A grand ballroom stretched in front of him, lined with tables and people dressed in colorful evening wear. Some danced in the center of the floor while others lounged eating, drinking, and conversing at the tables. Some of the party guests stood apart, watching the others. Even in an organization of light-fingered persons who had conspired to work together, there had to be some disputes and bets to settle by stealing from or showing up one another. Difficult to keep the pack focused, if they were fighting amongst themselves, however. So much easier to work alone.Jekyll scoffed from the recesses of Edward’s mind. What would you know about working alone? You’re never alone. I’m always here, suffering through your monologing.Hyde’s lips twitched up in a satisfied smile, then went flat again as he refocused on examining the room.Lucy sat at the head of the room in the center of the high table. Her prize, the alchemic miracle ray, rested on the mantle behind her where everyone in the room could see it.Hmm. That made things tricky.The baubles he’d fashioned together back at the way-station wouldn’t help him here if he drew attention to himself immediately. What he needed was a way to disassociate himself with his explosions…His eyes fell back to the lookers-on on the edges of the party. A smirk returned to his face. Maybe he could use the dissention amongst the ranks to his advantage. Edward doffed his cloak and hung it over his arm, like a party goer unwilling to relinquish their coat and have a good time, and then strode into the party. He made a show of seeming bored and unattached, then threw himself down against a pillar one of the outsiders was hanging on. The young woman jumped, then glared at him. “Oy, this ‘ere is my pilla’, it is!”“And you picked a good one too,” Edward said. “From here you almost don’t have to see that new contraption Queenie brought home.”The young urchin’s annoyance shifted and turned to curiosity. Edward had to work to keep his disgruntled expression on his face instead of switching into a preying leer. “You don’t like it either?” she asked.Edward shrugged theatrically. “It just seems to me she might do us more good by stealing something we could actually sell, don’t you? It’s not like we really know how that thing works. What if it backfires on us? Or breaks? Queenie isn’t going to know how to fix it, is she?”The young woman shook her head. “No… No! She won’t! She’s puttin’ us all at risk, she is!”Edward nodded sagely, hoping to stock the urchin’s belief in her own claim. “You’re damn right, she is. But listen to this.” He beckoned the girl in closer, and she leaned—her eyes hungry and conspiratorial. “A few of the others and I are looking to say something tonight. Alone we don’t stand a chance, but together she’ll have to listen.”The girl grinned. She looked hungry for a chance to rebel. “Oh, I’ve been waitin’ for a chance like this…”Edward leered and handed her one of his homemade fireworks. “Set this off when I get to the high table, and we’ll have a real go of it.”The girl nodded and stashed the firework in the folds of her dress. “Cheers, mate.”Edward tipped his hat at her, and then moved on to his next victim. He laced the hall with conspirers, and took the time to leave his Molotov cocktails in places where he hoped the sparks from the fireworks would ignite them. Even if they didn’t go off, he had a pretty good distraction lined up now—and nothing but hearsay to link it back to him. Smug, he put his cloak back around his shoulders—he would need his hands free for this—and moved towards the high table.The first set of fireworks went off with a bang. Another followed, and another almost simultaneously after that. There was a lull, then a loud boom as fire erupted and glass shattered from one of the cocktails Edward had hidden. He smiled to himself and flitted behind the high table as chaos erupted around him. Lucy was on her feet, looking out over the ballroom, probably trying to take stock of the damage and find the perpetrator of the chaos—but all she would see were fireworks, explosions, and the beginnings of a house fire. Perfect cover for stealing Cutthroat Lucy’s treasure straight out from under her nose!He twirled the umbrella out from under his cloak and used the hooked handle of it to dislodge the miracle gun from its holdings over the mantle. Finally, a good useful reason to have a god damn umbrella on him besides the unpredictable London rain. He caught the ray gun and turned back to the chaos of the room to see what he would need to avoid on his way out. The ray gun was halfway under his cloak—but it wouldn’t matter that it would be out of sight in a moment. Edward had been a half second too slow. Because staring him down with murder in her eyes from her place at the table, Lucy took a step towards him.“You!” she shrieked. “You dare steal from me?”Well. Being seen by Lucy had not been part of the plan. Edward felt his smug grin turn nervous.Run! Jekyll shouted.Lucy looked behind her as another explosion went off. Edward seized the break in her attention and rushed forward. Whipping his umbrella out in front of him, he hooked the curved handle around the ankle of the leg she seemed to have most of her weight on. “Terribly sorry about this, my dear,” he said—and pulled. Lucy went down with a crash, and Edward went over the table, and down to the dance floor below. He rolled to his feet and took off running. He was more than halfway across it when he heard Lucy—in all likelihood nursing a sore ankle, but upright again—yell, “Stop that man!”Edward held onto his hat and ran faster. He had to clear the way once or twice with a swipe of his umbrella, and had to leap over a girl who dove for his feet just before the door, but once he was through the doors, he slammed them shut behind him and stuck his umbrella through the two handles to bolt it. It wouldn’t hold long—and he was loath to leave the weapon he’d used to literally sweep Lucy off her feet with behind—but it would buy him the time he needed. He heard it give way just as he made it back to the secret passageway in the parlor.He paused in the dark doorway. He couldn’t go back the way he came. He didn’t know these tunnels. Not the way the Forty Elephants did. They’d catch him in an instant. And while the idea of licking Lucy’s boots wasn’t wholly unpleasant, he had rather pictured it in a different scenario.Edward ran to the window, threw it open, and flung himself out of it. He really should start looking before he leapt. He hadn’t been prepared for a two story drop. He winced on his landing as one of his ankles rolled out from under him. He rose shakily back to his feet and tried a step. His ankle threatened to roll again and he threw a hand up against the façade of the house, steadying himself and panting through the pain.He could feel Jekyll panicking in the back of his head—and Edward understood why. If they couldn’t run, what could they do?Change back into me, Jekyll pleaded. If you don’t look the same, they might overlook us.Edward grimaced. He’d only just gotten out again. He missed the feel of the night air on his face and the fog in his lungs. He missed having ankles to roll and aches to feel. The thrill of danger fluttering in his chest and throat.“What about our new toy?” he murmured. “I could use that instead to—”
Do you really want to be caught with that in your hands when the Forty Elephants round the street corner?
Fair point.“We’ll give your idea a shot then, eh, Doctor?” Edward panted. “Just don’t keep me cooped up too long.”Jekyll’s shadow form materialized on the wall. His hand slid over Edward’s, and Edward swore he felt a comforting phantom squeeze. So long as we make it out of this, you can be sure I won’t, Jekyll promised.Edward let his breathing slow, and slipped his eyes shut. He went to the calm, tight place where Jekyll always lived inside of him. The grace of boundaries and rules that kept Jekyll calm and made him feel like an upstanding gentleman. Edward reached for those bonds, wrapped them around himself, and waited to melt away.And waited.And waited…His eyes snapped back open at the sound of a door around the corner opening and the angry cry of male and female voices.“Jekyll!” he hissed, limping down the street as quickly as his rolled ankle would let him. “What’s going on here?!”I don’t know! Jekyll said, sounding more panicked than ever. We’ve never had this sort of trouble changing back before!“Well evidently we’re having it now,” Edward growled. Fear turned his voice sardonic. “Maybe if you hadn’t shut me away for weeks on end—”
Maybe if you hadn’t burned down half of the society and gotten us all arrested for—! No, you know what, that’s not important right now. We need another plan.
No shit.Edward looked around, trying to think of a way out. He scanned the street, trying to figure out if he recognized anything. Then he blinked, then blinked again, then leered.“Henry,” he sing-songed. “Guess whose house we’re by…”Jekyll’s shadow materialized on the wall, looking over Edward’s shoulder. Edward pointed to a house with a familiar coach in front of it and some tell-tale purple accents to the exterior. Jekyll followed the trajectory of Edward’s finger and then groaned.
No, you can’t go to Robert! He’ll turn you in!
“Not if he thinks I’ve got something on you he won’t,” Edward purred.Jekyll was silent for a moment. Edward’s leer grew. Jekyll knew he was right. He would have to give in.Fine, Jekyll lamented. But be gentle.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Edward watched from the roof of Lanyon’s entry way as the man hurried out to his carriage with a letter in his fingers.It’s a good thing you can still write in my hand when we’re like this, Jekyll said.“Better still that the pining rich boy has it so bad for you,” Edward replied. “To think he’s going all the way to our home in the middle of the night to fetch a drawer from your chemistry cabinet for you.”
Yes, well… You did rather make it sound like a matter of life or death in your letter.
“Just adding the correct level of drama to it to portray my roll truthfully, doctor.” Edward was trying to banter, but it felt hollow. He took his hat off and raked his hand through his disheveled hair, trying to find the right words to express what he was feeling. “In all seriousness, though…isn’t it?”
What do you mean?
Edward climbed further along the house, looking for a convenient window. “If the Forty Elephants catch me, we’ll lose our way to save Frankenstein. If the police catch me tonight, we don’t know when we’ll turn back. Either way, I’ll have ruined you.” He was quiet then, working at the latch of the window. He didn’t feel like reiterating Jekyll’s threat from before—about how he would have nothing left to lose, and would rid the world of them both. It wasn’t the first time he’d felt Jekyll contemplate suicide. Every time it happened, Edward ceased with torments and temptation and whispered only what Jekyll had to live for in his ear. Edward didn’t want to die. He wanted to live more than anything.Jekyll’s face appeared in the pane of the window Edward was working on. Stop that, he said. We’re going to get through this Edward.Edward released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and swung the window open. “Of course we will,” he blustered. “I know that.” But as he slid into Lanyon’s house, he pressed a fleeting kiss to the window pane in gratitude. It would be easier to wait for Lanyon without the fear of death pressing down on his shoulders.The window deposited them in one of Lanyon’s side rooms.“Cozy,” Edward remarked, looking around at the rich armchairs and carpets. A book lay open on a table next to one of the chairs. Edward leaned over the table and read the open page. “Hmm, so he likes detective stories.” He turned the page. “How long until he works out our secret, Jekyll?”Keep your voice down! Jekyll chided. Who knows if his staff is still up.

“Tch. At this hour?”

Who do you think got the carriage ready? Got his coat for him? You talk to Rachel all the time at this hour!

“Yes, but that’s because Rachel stays up late to do things for us because she’s our only staff and you pay her well.” Edward closed the book, losing Lanyon’s place. “But if it will settle your pretty head, I’ll hide away somewhere.”

Go to his lab. It’s private, and just as comfortable—though I don’t know why he surrounds himself with books and couches even in his workspace.

“Probably because he’s better at lollygagging than actual science.”

Jekyll sighed. Just get out of sight.

Edward bowed gratuitously to the shadow on the wall, and then peered into the hallway to check if the coast was clear. “Your wish is my command.”

Jekyll grumbled. At least have the decency to mock me once you’re safe.

“Careful, Doctor,” Edward whispered. “It almost sounds as if you care.” Jekyll was quiet, and Edward’s lips curled smugly. He felt more like his old self, now that they were safe in Lanyon’s home. How hard could it be to avoid a few servants? And Lanyon would do anything to keep his dear doctor Jekyll safe.

Just don’t forget you have to keep him from shooting you once he gets back.

Shooting him? Why would Lanyon shoot him?

You wrote him a letter in my hand telling him I required a shelf from my chemistry set, couldn’t explain, and that my very life depended on his success. I also told him to expect my messenger late at night, after all of his servants had gone to bed. What about any of that makes you think Robert—good, dependable, old money and martial ways Robert Lanyon—wouldn’t load his pistol?

Jekyll was putting rather a damper on Edward’s good mood. He’d only just shook morose thoughts of death, and now Jekyll had to bring those fears back up?

Hm. Seems two can play this preying on your weakest fears game.

“Not sure I care for this side of it,” Edward whispered, gliding up to the locked door of Lanyon’s lab. He picked the lock smoothly, and turned the knob quietly to enter. He considered relocking the door, and then thought better of it. If Lanyon knew he would encounter someone beyond the door, he would be less surprised when Edward addressed him—and hopefully less likely to shoot him out of surprise.

Jekyll had been in Lanyon’s lab before, so Edward roughly knew the layout. He stepped around a chair and lit the lamp on Lanyon’s desk. The desk was in the middle of the room, with the bookshelves behind it, and the work tops and supply closets in front of it. Unlike Jekyll’s, it was perpendicular to the door, like Lanyon was always handing things to people off to his right instead of addressing them head on.

He’ll see the lamp's lit from the street, you know.

“That’s the idea,” Edward said, leaning his hip against Lanyon’s desk. “If he sees the light on, he’ll know I’m here.”

And just what do you plan to do that will convince him to give you our materials and then leave you all on your lonesome, in his home? And what about once we’re finished? I can hardly scramble about on the rooftops the way you can.

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t have the time for frivolous anxieties the way Jekyll did. They were too tiresome. Why not worry about those things when he got to them? There was no sense in it otherwise. He fell back onto Lanyon’s desk with a sigh, letting his hair splay and the hard wood of the desk tip his hat up over his eyes. “This is why you’re no fun.”

I told you we would get through this, Hyde.

“And we will,” Edward whined.

Not if you won’t consider the consequences of your actions for once in your God damn life!

“As if any of what happens next depends on me,” Hyde grumbled. “I’ve already don’t my part. Now Lanyon has to do his. Once he gets here, what happens next is still up to him. Either he gives me the shelf from our laboratory, or I take it from him. How and when that happens all depends on what he does.” Edward rolled his shoulders and put his hands behind his head, cradling his skull with his fingers. “Now relax. All your fretting is making my shoulders tense up.”

The sound of a door slamming came from below them, and Edward smiled. “See?” he said. “That’ll be him. I’d be my hat on it.”

You’re about to bet your life, Jekyll groused.

Edward sighed loudly, then roused himself from Lanyon’s desk—arranging himself instead into a casual sitting position with one boot on Lanyon’s desk and the other dangling over the edge, nearly touching the floor. He wrapped his arms around his bent leg on the desk, protecting his abdomen and chest from any potential gun fire with the hard bones of his shin. Lanyon could still shoot him point blank between the eyes, but Edward dipped his head towards his knee and widened his eyes. Lanyon wouldn’t have much of a target, and Edward knew for a fact that even when people wanted to hurt him, they were all taken off guard by the vibrant, watery-green of his eyes.

Footsteps sounded from down the hall, and Edward tensed. The sound of the knob being tested made his breath short.

It all came down to this.

He could almost see Lanyon on the other side of the door, registering that there was indeed someone in his chambers, pulling his pistol from his pocket, readying himself to plunge into the unknown.

He didn’t flinch when the door was thrown open. He smirked as Lanyon pointed his pistol at him—his heart in his throat, but his grin manic and real. Lanyon wouldn’t shoot him while he thought Jekyll’s wellbeing depended on dealing with this intruder in his home.

“Well, hello,” Edward purred. “Have you got something for me, Doctor Lanyon.”

Lanyon’s fierce, focused expression froze, then melted away as the pieces of who Edward was ticked into place. “You’re Henry’s messenger I take it?” he asked, lowering his pistol.

“Ooh, he’s clever as well as loyal,” Edward said, more for Jekyll than for Lanyon’s benefit. He was feeling bolder now that the pistol was pointed at the floor instead of his head. He loosened his posture, sitting straighter and taking up more space now that he didn’t have shelter his heart from a potential bullet. “But you didn’t answer my question. Have you got it?”

Lanyon’s face clouded again, and he raised a shrewd eyebrow at Edward. “You’re rather terse for an acquaintance of Henry’s.”

“Have. You. Got. It?”

Lanyon raised his eyebrows and began unloading his pistol. “When I told Henry I wanted him to do anything in order to save himself, I hope he didn’t take it to mean something even more daft,” he grumbled. It was almost low enough that Edward couldn’t hear it. Lanyon pocketed his pistol, crossed his arms, and then leaned against the door frame, fixing Edward with a distasteful stare. “I’m sent all the way to Henry’s house in the middle of the night to collect a fairly innocuous drawer from his chemistry cabinet, then return home to find my own laboratory invaded, by someone who hasn’t even given me the courtesy of their name.” Lanyon tipped his head down and pursed his lips. “And you want me to just hand over the goods with no explanation?”

Edward rolled his eyes. “Really, Doctor, I’m saving you time and trouble. You don’t want to hear all the sordid details.”

“Actually, I do,” Lanyon replied. “I’ve been asked to do a lot at the word of a good friend not to get some sort of explanation for all of this cloak and dagger nonsense.”

“Why don’t you just make one up on your own then?” Edward spat. “That seemed to be more than enough for you during the Moreau incident.”

Lanyon blinked, and then his brown eyes went wide. “…You’re Edward Hyde.”

Edward couldn’t help himself—he pushed himself off Lanyon’s desk, and then swung his cloak wide as he landed in a low curtsy. He smirked up at Lanyon from his bent position and said, “At your service.”

Lanyon stood stock still for a moment, perhaps processing the shock. Then he lunged for the telephone at the edge of his desk.

Edward slipped between Lanyon and the desk and slid the telephone away. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he sang.

Lanyon’s lip curled, making his stupid chubby cheeks with their absurd freckles stand out on his face even more. He collided with Edward and reached around him, trying to grapple the phone away from Edward’s fingers. “And why not?” Lanyon puffed. “I call the police, they arrest you, and then all of Jekyll’s problems are over.”

Edward laughed low in Lanyon’s ear. “Is that what you think?” He pulled the phone back into Lanyon’s reach. “Then, by all means, make your call. Doom your dear friend.”

Lanyon stalled with the receiver halfway to his ear. Slowly, he returned the receiver to its cradle. “And just what do you mean by that?” he asked softly.

“Do you have the drawer?”

Lanyon slammed his hand against the hard wood of his desk. “Damn it, what have you done with him?!”

Edward grinned, wider than the Cheshire Cat. It was nice seeing Lanyon like this—powerless, desperate, and completely under his control. “I haven’t done a thing. My only goal—much like yours—is to help him.”

Lanyon searched Edward’s eyes as if he were trying to ascertain the truth of his statement. Looking away, he held himself and his shoulders shrank. With a sigh, he said, “Despite my doubts about you, it appears I have no choice but to cooperate. Either you’re telling the truth, and handing over the drawer will help Jekyll, or you’re not, and I still have to cooperate out of fear for what you’ve done with my friend.”

Edward smile turned from a predatory grin to one of pure, childlike joy. He’d…won? In a fight with Lanyon? He positively giggled and danced around the desk. “Show me then, show me then. Where is it?”

Lanyon hung his head and gave it a shake before retreating back to the door of the room. He knelt in the hallway and lifted from the floor a paper wrapped parcel, just the size of the drawer’s in Jekyll’s chemistry cabinet. “It’s here,” Lanyon said, standing. He held it out to Edward. “Now what will you do with it?”

Edward reached out and took the hold of the drawer, but did not pull it from Lanyon’s grasp. If he played his cards right, he might be able to get Lanyon to call off the witch hunt… Kill three birds with his little outing tonight, as it were.

No, Jekyll breathed from the side. Please. Please, no.

One half said aye, the other nay.

Best to put it to a tie breaker then.

“I will help Henry Jekyll,” Edward said. “But what of you, Doctor? Will you stay and find out how? Has the greed of curiosity consumed you? Or will you be wise, and suffer me to take what I make with the contents of this drawer from your home to perform my duty to our mutual friend elsewhere?”

Lanyon hesitated and Edward leered. “Think before you answer, because once you have seen what is to come, you will never be able to unknow it.” He laughed and batted his eyelashes at Lanyon. “Then again, should you refrain, you’ll never be able to know what you missed either. The dilemma is tortuous, isn’t it?”

Lanyon swallowed. “You’re speaking in riddles, what do you mean?”

“I mean you to make a choice.” Edward cackled, drawing the parcel away from Lanyon. He weighed it in the palm of his hand, presenting it like a showman. “In this moment, you are Eve. I will not force you to know. Eat from the apple or remain happy in your ignorance. Whichever path you walk is up to you.”

Lanyon sniffed and crossed his arms. “Sir, I am a scientist. Of course I choose knowledge over innocence. Paradise is already lost to man as it is.”

Edward grinned.

Robert, no! Jekyll pressed against the glass of the mirror, like he could break through and make Lanyon hear him if he just pushed hard enough.

But it was too late. Lanyon had made his choice. Jekyll had been outvoted. He should be happy that science had won out in his bosom friend’s heart. This would be good for them—and who better to force into keeping their secret than the man who was so head over heels for half of them?

Jekyll’s eyes ripped away from Lanyon and landed on Edward, furious. You can’t do this! He doesn’t know what he’s agreeing to!

Neither had Eve, but she had taken the leap anyway. Jekyll should have more respect for Lanyon, taking a leap for science. For Jekyll himself. Wasn’t that sort of romantic nonsense Jekyll loved? Grand gestures for those one held dear?

Besides, it would help them get the Yard to call off their search for Edward Hyde. They could be free! They could flit through the streets of London without being molested by the law—well, at least not to the extent of being strung up for property damage and attempted murder of a mad man. Not having a bar fight or two would take the fun out of being free again.

Hyde, please. Jekyll’s eyes turned pleading. What will he think of me?

A flash of petty jealousy went through Edward. Oh, so it was fine for the world to think falsehoods about him so long as it was convenient for Jekyll, but Jekyll’s closest friend finding out the truth about them was out of the question?

He sniffed and turned his head away from Jekyll, refocusing on Lanyon. “Knowledge it is then.” He took the drawer to Lanyon’s work table and undid the twine holding the paper wrapping in place. Drawer E was just as he and Jekyll had left it earlier that evening: a vial of the base red potion, the book that Jekyll had tediously recorded their research in, and three small sachets of powder—the foreign salt that had unlocked Edward’s very existence measured out into three separate dosages—they all sat safely undisturbed within the drawer. To Edward, these materials had always brought him a euphoric feeling of freedom upon sight—although that was usually because they were being used to bring him into the material world. Today, they elicited a similar response—because today they might lead to the clearing of his name. Edward picked up Jekyll’s notebook and flipped to the page with their potion’s measurements. Jekyll’s hands had mixed this potion so many times Edward should know the proportions by heart, but never having actually fixed it himself, it was probably best to consult the boring notes and be sure. “Bring me a graduated glass,” he said, flexing his fingers expectantly at Lanyon.

Lanyon made a face, but went to his cabinets and fetched a glass. He handed it to Edward disdainfully. Edward took it, and began measuring out materials. First the red tincture—as everything else must be in proportion to that. Then one of the precious sachets of powder. The tincture brightened and bubbled as the crystals melted into the liquid. When the bubbles ceased and the two substances had combined, vapors lifted from the surface of the potion, and it suddenly went dark—purple.

Lanyon watched with the face of a man who was sick to his stomach. “Is that all?” he asked. He sounded alarmed and disappointed. “How is this supposed to—”

“It isn’t over yet,” Edward cautioned.

Slowly, the potion began to pale from the center—changing from purple to violet to indigo to blue and then finally to that beautiful, watery green Edward loved. These shades washed from the core of the glass until the entire liquid shone with a ghostly green light.

“Now it’s done,” Edward said, raising the glass triumphantly. He fixed Lanyon with a satisfied smirk, then saw Jekyll’s reflection behind him in the mirror. Edward had done a good job ignoring him while he mixed the potion, but now that it was done and the moment of truth was there, Jekyll drew his eye again. And, for once in his miserable life, Edward felt a pang of remorse. Henry looked so sad… So lost and broken.

…what was Edward doing to himself? Yes, Lanyon could help them, but he could also destroy them if things went off the rails.

Maybe he could do some preemptive damage control. Obnoxious as he was, Lanyon had always been a man of his word.

Edward set the glass back down on the work table and leaned his hip against the edge of it. “However, there is one thing left to settle. Before I show you how the potion helps Henry—”

Lanyon drew himself up self-righteously. “That’s Doctor Jekyll to you.”

Edward laughed and wiped a tear of mirth from his eye. “Please, Henry and I are on more than a first name basis.” He loved the way that comment seemed to make Lanyon bristle. “But more to the point, if you wish to see how this helps our friend, swear to me that what you see next will be sheltered under the seal of our profession.”

Lanyon raised an eyebrow. “Our profession?”

Edward leered. “Yours and Jekyll’s, then.”

Lanyon seemed to consider. “You wish me to swear only to speak with you and Henry with you about what I see.”

Edward rolled his eyes. “Yes, that’s what I said. God, must you repeat everything in that overly frilly way of yours? Can’t you ever just agree to something when you understand it.”

Lanyon scoffed. “You make it sound as though I have a history of doing this, but I’ll remind you that this is the first time we’ve met, Hyde!”

Edward put his hand on his hip and glared. “Do you swear or not?”

Lanyon threw up his hands with obvious frustration. “Yes! Yes, I swear! Now get on with it!”

Edward took up the glass with one hand and raised it as though in a toast. “Last chance to change your mind.”

Jekyll looked on forlorn from the mirror. But he had no right to be so sullen. Edward had taken care of everything—Lanyon wouldn’t sell them out, and Edward had given him every opportunity to back out.

If Jekyll’s friend wanted this so badly and Jekyll loved him as much as he said, then there was no way for Jekyll to deny Lanyon this without compromising himself to begin with.

Lanyon shook his head. “I’m not turning back now. Show me.”

“Well, then,” Edward said, giddy, “bottoms up.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Edward lifted the glass to his lips, then threw back his head and drank. The potion was salty and viscous, sliding down his throat more thickly than water. The warmth of the change began to overwhelm him almost immediately. It spread from his stomach and the track the potion had followed in his throat, then branching out through his veins and into the very tips of his fingers. For a moment, it was like an eclectic gauze rested on Edward’s skin, the sort of feeling that made one want to stroke one’s own arms, neck, and legs just for the decadent feeling of it.Then the pain hit.It was like someone was splitting him at the seams—forcing something new and different in between his bones, leaving Edward sandwiched around the new growth. His stomach protested, and he dry heaved, catching the edge of the work table to stable himself as he bent over. Saliva tinged with the remnants of the potion spilled from his tongue onto the floor and tears of luminous liquid gathered in his eyes. The condensed discomfort of growing pains exploded in his marrow, and he grew, his body twisting back into Jekyll’s form.Through it all, there was the familiar sensation of melding with Jekyll’s spirit. They had only done this a few times since that first night they’d indulged in the pleasure sexual release could bring them—but every time they had transformed since then, Edward couldn’t help but notice the similarities of the two of them wrapped around each other, both feeling the same thing with such intensity that it nearly drove them mad.There was no room for Jekyll to be sad in a moment like this. Edward could feel his resistance to the change, but Edward had played fair, and now it was Jekyll’s turn to do some of the heavy lifting. They had survived this, hadn’t they? Nothing as small as Lanyon would be able to fell them so easily.The feeling of Jekyll’s closeness began to fade away and the transformation stabilized. Edward waited to slip away from their body and disperse back into the air, like water vacating a vessel as steam to make way for fire. It was only when it was he who kept breathing and blinking that he realized it.Their body may now be Jekyll’s, but their spirit…Edward straightened and snapped his head towards the mirror. There, two Henry Jekylls stared back at him—one with horrified dark amber eyes, the other with fluorescent green pupils.What in the name of the seven Hells was going on here?Edward finally came out of his own reaction enough to take note of what had happened to Lanyon. He was pressed against the wall, hyperventilating with eyes wide enough to use as saucers for their tea.Hyde… Hyde, you— Jekyll faltered and flitted nervously in the mirror. He looked at Edward with pleading eyes, like he didn’t know what he needed to ask for, but he would beg for it with those eyes anyway. Edward’s eyes slid back to the remnants of the potion. If he drank it, would he just change back? It had been the same dosage as before—Jekyll had measured each one of the packets of powder out himself. But nothing about today had been normal. The inability to change back naturally, the halfway measure of the transformation even once they had the potion.Edward had a flash of fear. What if they could never turn back? He couldn’t do Jekyll’s job. He didn’t want to!Hyde, please, Jekyll said. We’ll figure this out. There must be a reason. We’ll find it, we’ll fix it! But for now… His eyes moved to Lanyon, who was still grasping at the wall. Convince him we’re not a monster. Please.Edward stared at his reflection. Convince Lanyon they weren’t monsters. Be…Jekyll? Oh, lord of debauchery and saints of sin, how was he supposed to pull that one off?Jekyll turned firm in the mirror. You’re the one who insisted on this plan, he lectured. If you’re so sure it’ll work, show me how.Ugh, fine.“Lan—” Edward cut himself off and cleared his throat, doing his best to look bewildered and like a helpless, wobbly-legged faun in a clearing. “R-Robert.”Lanyon pushed away from the wall and came to him instantly. Edward seethed as Lanyon touched him, pressing a hand lightly to his bicep, almost like Lanyon were convincing himself that Jekyll’s body was corporeal and no mere illusion. The reasoning was fine, but Lanyon’s touch was not. He was such a pretentious prig of a man, always so sure he was right, always sheltered by his father’s money. Why Jekyll suffered this man, with his convention and his principals to limit their potential, Edward would never know.“Henry,” Lanyon breathed. He touched Edward’s cheek and tipped his face up. Lanyon searched Edward’s eyes, worry in every crease of his face. “Henry, is that really you?”“Here I am, Robert.” Edward spread his arms—Jekyll’s arms—and spat the name like a curse. “Would you still have me sacrifice Hyde in the Society’s name?” Lanyon shook his head. “Henry, no… You can’t be that, that abomination!”“Believe what you will. But hunt down Edward Hyde…and I die with him.”A hard stare was all Lanyon gave in response. Then his eyes slipped over to what remained of the potion. Without further ado, he turned, grabbed the glass, and threw it against the wall. “If it really is true,” he said, his breathing making his voice gruff like gravel, “then we never speak of it again. We kill Edward Hyde. We lock him away, and you stay you.”No, Jekyll said from the mirror.“No,” Edward echoed, his eyes flicking over to the mirror’s to meet Jekyll’s. Jekyll pushed through the mirror—not such a tough barrier now that he wasn’t feeling trapped it seemed—and floated over in delicate streams of maroon that only Edward could see.I know better than to keep you locked away now, Jekyll said, tracing the place Lanyon’s fingers had been on Edward’s face just moments before. We’re a team. Tonight proves it.Edward leaned into the phantom touch and let his eyes slide shut. A few words and a small touch from Henry Jekyll, and Edward was the safest man alive. No matter what Lanyon said, or did, Jekyll was his true keeper. The caress moved away, and Edward opened his eyes to stare down Lanyon. “If I lock him away, he’ll only take control of me. He’s like…” Oh, this next metaphor was going to hurt Edward’s pride, but it would sell the performance. “He’s like a hunting dog, Robert. I have to let him out and run him in order to be the man you know.”“You can’t be serious,” Lanyon said.Edward shrugged. “He’s a part of me, Robert. I can’t kill part of my own soul.”“But he’s the evil part!” Lanyon made a cutting gesture with his hand. “Can’t you just cut him out and be done with him?”Edward shook his head again, and reached for Lanyon—the way he knew Jekyll would if he wasn’t the self-denying control freak he always played. Edward smoothed his hands over Lanyon’s jacket, and then clung to him. “All of my research has shown me there’s no way to rid myself of Hyde. There is only balance and compromise. I tried to control him, I really did—but even though he blusters like a villain, he isn’t one. He wasn’t to blame for that fire any more than I was, or you were, or any of the lodgers. Moreau is the villain, and Edward the instigator of the lodgers’ defense of their home. If not for him—”Lanyon scoffed. “If not for him, I would have a lot fewer repair bills.”Edward’s tempter ignited and he slapped Lanyon across the cheek. Lanyon stumbled, but caught himself. The look he gave Edward was one of pure surprise.“Henry!”Edward drew himself up to his full height and glared down at Lanyon. “If not for Hyde, you might not have anything left to repair! Let alone me!” He reached down and grabbed Lanyon by his collar, forcing him back up. He moved in so their breath mingled and their lips nearly touched. “Would you rather not have me, Robert?” he asked. Some of the sting eased out of his words as he allowed his eyes to drop to Lanyon’s lips. “Would you rather not have had me at all?”Lanyon swallowed, and Edward suppressed a grin. He was sure Lanyon was remembering the way he had used the pretense of scientific discovery to take advantage of their dear Jekyll.Jekyll himself flushed a brilliant shade of vermillion in the air around them.Lanyon’s eyes were wide again, and small puffs of excited breath stemmed from his lips and over Edwards. “Of course I don’t regret what we did, Henry.” Lanyon’s hand came up, and then twitched away, as if he were afraid that touching Henry’s face were too forward.Stupid polite Lanyon. Never knowing when to just do something instead of hesitating and thinking it over and over and over.“If that’s true then—” Edward put his hand around Lanyon’s and guided it back to his cheek. Edward rolled his cheek against Lanyon’s palm. He heard Lanyon’s breath hitch, as if the small gesture were too much for his delicate sensibilities. “Please,” Edward said—the word ripping from his lips like a thorn from the jagged edges of a wound. “Show me.”Hyde, this is too much! Jekyll protested. The vermillion had shifted to a myriad of reds and pinks, Jekyll’s chestnut brown hair the only non-red hue shining through the haze of embarrassment. This isn’t…this isn’t anything like the last time! Last time it was for science! It wasn’t romantic! He wasn’t—!Yeah, Jekyll could take that fat load of nonsense and shove it up his ass. He knew very well Lanyon had feelings for him—the same way Lanyon must know they had feelings for him too. If the two of them would just admit to it instead of having to find scientific justification to have a roll in the hay together, Edward’s life would have been a whole lot easier from the start.But, nooooo. Protocol this and scruples that. ‘Bout time they killed two birds with one stone: Lanyon got to fuck Henry for real, and Hyde finally got some peace and quiet on his evenings out.Lanyon started under Edward’s hands. “What, here? Now?!”Edward tried to look sad and hurt, like a kicked puppy. “Why not? Are you afraid of being found out? Ashamed of me?”“Henry, don’t be daft!”“I understand.” Edward turned up the drama, releasing Lanyon’s hand and dashing a sleeve across his eyes. “No one could love a monster like me.”“Dammit, Henry!” Lanyon grabbed Edward’s face with both hands and crushed their mouths together. Jekyll whimpered, still hovering in the air around them, a hand pressed aghast over his mouth.Finally.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Edward melted into the kiss the way he imaged a wilting romantic like Jekyll might; his hands went to Lanyon’s lapels, and he clung to the other man. He pushed back against Lanyon’s mouth with his own, turning the kiss into a mutual effort. He felt more than heard the strangled sound Jekyll made.What was Jekyll upset about? This was how Lanyon and Jekyll should have been kissing years ago.Edward swiped his tongue against the other man’s lips and pulled at the buttons of his coat. When Lanyon had already waited so long to fuck Jekyll, why was he wasting time just kissing their mouth?He’s not a rabbit, Hyde! Jekyll objected. This is supposed to be romantic! It sounded like Jekyll had something between his teeth, and when Edward lifted his eyes to see, he saw Jekyll biting one of his knuckles hard enough to make it white.Romantic, huh? So Jekyll wanted to see Lanyon make love to him?Th-that is not—!Edward smirked against Lanyon’s mouth and slipped his eyes back closed. He drew Lanyon closer, putting his arms around Lanyon’s neck and completely abandoning his own sense of balance in favor of pressing his body against every contour of Lanyon’s The other man gasped—maybe surprised at the contact, maybe sorely in need of air, maybe both—and lifted Edward onto the work table. Edward moaned into Lanyon’s mouth, loud and wanton. He felt Jekyll’s embarrassment and arousal spike through their bond. “Ah, Robert,” Edward moaned, putting on a show. He tipped his head back and presented his throat to the other man.“Henry…” Lanyon answered. He placed a kiss to Edward’s throat, then bit down gently.The wisps of color that made up Jekyll had back themselves up against the mirror, as if they wished they could retreat back behind the barrier of reflective glass. Jekyll himself had both hands pressed over his mouth. A deep blush covered his cheeks, and his eyebrows were knit together in a conflicted expression of horror and desire.Edward couldn’t help himself. He made bedroom eyes at Jekyll and leered. He watched Jekyll swallow, caught the small, wet sound he made behind his hands. It was beautiful.Edward moaned for real this time, soft and low.Lanyon whimpered in response—like hearing that sound tear from Jekyll’s lips was something he’d fantasized about for years. He pulled Edward’s tie loose from where it was tucked in his vest, and set about undoing it. He kissed lower on Edward’s neck as more skin was exposed.Edward balanced back on his hands—giving Lanyon room to work—and shrugged his coat from his shoulders. He pulled his arms from the sleeves and wrapped them back around Lanyon loosely. Lanyon pulled the tie from Edward’s throat—the sound of the fabric sliding slowly from Edward’s shirt loud and meaningful.Oh, that’s right. Lanyon hadn’t removed Jekyll’s clothes for him before. But still… There was a reverence to Lanyon’s movements that Edward had never seen before.Of course, Edward had been with worshipful lovers, but respect consent, and clearly articulated boundaries were a far throw from the monolithic way Lanyon pulled a scrap of cloth away from Jekyll’s skin.It…was rather breathtaking, actually.Edward felt his breath coming in shorter gusts, and alarm bubbled up inside of him.Oh gods of mischief, no.This was an act! A ploy to make Lanyon believe it was really Jekyll in his arms! There was no way Edward could be seduced by a…a cheap scarf trick!Jekyll’s breathy laughter fluttered over from the mirror. The sound was light, as if it had been surprised out of him and yet he was still amazed by what was happening. It was the same laugh he made whenever he made a scientific discovery.Of course, he breathed, in between giggles. I care for Robert, so even if it’s buried deep under your dismay for his scientific traditionalism and lack of courage, you do as well!Edward stared at Jekyll in horror, then huffed in surprise when Lanyon kissed his collarbone. Lanyon had managed to get Edward’s collar fully open, and his fingers had moved on to the buttons of Edward’s shirt and waistcoat.The intimacy Lanyon expressed with each release of cloth from buttony confines was too much for Edward—especially now that Jekyll had forced him to acknowledge why he was really into it.Edward fell back with a groan, his back flat against the table top and his forearms crisscrossed over his face to cover his eyes.“Henry?” Lanyon asked. His tone was lightly baffled and laced with concern.“You’re too much,” Edward complained. “Every little mundane thing is an expression of your devotion, and it’s too much, Robert.” He made sure to use the name Jekyll would use, even though he itched for the distance that “Lanyon” would have given him instead. “How can you care so much about us—me—when you’ve been discouraging my every scientific endeavor since university? I mean, I am my own science experiment at this point. How can you still—?”“Shh,” Lanyon soothed, running his hands up and down Edward’s sides. “You‘ve got it all wrong. Listen.”For once in his life, Edward did. He lifted one arm and peeked at Lanyon from under it, holding his tongue and waiting.Lanyon drew a deep breath, slid another of Edward’s buttons free, and started speaking.“You were always brilliant, Henry. I never meant to discourage you because I condemned your experiments. Quite the opposite—your research ideas and experimental proposals were genius! You were studying medicine and science because of your passion and your willingness to discover. I was pursing it simply because it was the easy road—expected of me and something I didn’t detest. Your ideas were always so inspired… But you were continued to make the same mistake over and over.”“Questioning my betters?” Edward grumbled.Lanyon scoffed and shook his head. “Please, we should all have been questioning those stuffy old professors. What did they know about the real world?”Edward grinned, and Lanyon stroked his face. “No, that wasn’t your mistake,” Lanyon said kindly. “Forgetting your own safety in the pursuit of some new unknown truth you’d nearly put your finger on was. Lanyon smiled fondly and dropped a kiss to the skin of Edward’s stomach that he’d exposed with his work on Edward’s buttons. Edward huffed gently in response, feeling like he was holding his breath even as he held onto every word of Lanyon’s.“You were always so handsome in those moments…” Lanyon’s expression clouded over and he looked away. “But I could never help feeling afraid for you.”A small sound came from Jekyll’s corner. In the next moment, he entered Edward’s sight, gliding over to Lanyon and stroking his cheek with a Phantom hand. “Robert…”Lanyon’s face cracked into a smile and he laughed. He didn’t seem to feel Jekyll’s touch. That was a bit of data Edward and Jekyll would go catalogue at a later time, but it only seemed like a shame in the moment, especially as Lanyon began to reminisce. “Like, do you remember when you hauled that werewolf into my home and healed her with alchemy in my living room? I don’t think I would have even been able to push down my fear for you when you asked me to help convince my father to fund the startup of the Society if I hadn’t seen you do that.”Edward looked away, for once feeling almost guilty. Jekyll had sparkled the way Lanyon had taught him to during that conversation. Jekyll had hated himself for manipulating his friend. Edward had hated Lanyon for needing to be manipulated in the first place. Now, to find that he’d been wrong about Lanyon’s reasons for not wanting to fund the Society left Edward feeling more than a little at odds with himself.“I don’t regret anything I’ve done,” Edward said. He propped himself up on his elbows to look at Lanyon more directly.Lanyon leaned forward and planted a kiss square on Edward’s mouth. Honestly, not what Edward had been expecting. He’d expected Lanyon to go all mother hen on him again. Lecture him, ruin the moment, and then send him home with a quick swat on the wrist and a warm glass of milk. Instead, the cubby-cheeked man lapped his way into Edward’s mouth and melted him with a string of warm kisses. Edward leaned heavily back on his elbows when Lanyon was finished with him, feeling dazed.“I’d never want you to regret anything you’d done, Henry,” Lanyon gushed. Edward barely registered Lanyon’s fingers steadily dislodging the buttons of his trousers. “But, for Heaven’s sake, stop leaving me out of it when you’re in danger. Like this Hyde nonsense? Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”Edward gave a bitter, one-syllable laugh. “I don’t know, ask my better half.”Lanyon gave him a look. “Henry…you are the better half.”Edward blinked. Right, he was supposed to be Jekyll. “Yes, of course you’re right.”Jekyll could stop looking smug over that comment of Lanyon’s any time.“Well, don’t do it again,” Lanyon said, parting the fabric under his fingers. “Let me protect you.” Edward gasped as Lanyon’s fingers came into contact with his erection. The next moment, Lanyon had pulled it from the folds of Edward’s clothes. His demeanor changed from serious and reverent to playful and seductive. “Like from this, for example,” he said, stroking Edward. He waggled his eyebrows cheekily when Edward moaned. “You obviously need protection from the groinal ache you’d contract should you not find release soon.”It took Edward a moment to recover from the shift in Lanyon’s manner, but once he had he grinned and broke out into laughter. Jekyll blushed around them, and it only added to giddiness bubbling in Edward’s chest. Edward aimed a half-lidded, sultry look at Lanyon and said, “You know, I think you might be right.”Jekyll groaned like he was dying from embarrassment—but Edward could feel the excitement that was brewing within Jekyll right alongside his mortification. Maybe this body mix-up was an even better arrangement than Edward had originally thought. Jekyll never would have gotten anywhere with Lanyon on his own.Lanyon, on the other hand, seemed quite keen now that he had permission. He leaned over Edward’s hips and slipped his lips over the head of Edward’s cock delicately.To Edward’s credit, he acted the proper gentleman—only hissing in pleasure and waiting to be taken deeper instead of bucking up into that luscious mouth of Lanyon’s. Edward would have to get Jekyll to reward him somehow for playing the part of romantic doctor so well once all this was over. The thought only hovered in his mind for a moment before Lanyon pushed deeper and Edward’s coherent thoughts unraveled. Small, suppressed noises fell from his mouth as Lanyon worked.He put a hand in Lanyon’s hair to ground himself, and focused on keeping still. He ripped his eyes away from the sight of Lanyon’s lips sliding up and down his flesh. Watching made the urge to move too tempting. Looking away proved less useful than Edward had anticipated, because his eyes landed on Jekyll instead.The streams of color filling the air had only intensified. Edward had expected that, but he’d also expected Jekyll to be watching Lanyon right now. He had been pining after the man for a long time after all. Instead, Jekyll’s eyes were focused on Edward. His face was full of the hungry curiosity and awe he showed whenever an experiment developed in and unexpected and exciting way.What…was he looking at?Edward checked behind him, but there was nothing of interest there. Jekyll was most certainly looking at him. Edward felt the flush that Lanyon had brought to his skin intensify immediately. Having Jekyll watch him, desire him, was an overwhelmingly delicious feeling.Jekyll swallowed and approached them again. I’ve never…seen my face look like this before. He took Edward’s face firmly in both of his hands. Edward panted gently, Lanyon still sucking at his cock, and Jekyll’s eyes boring into him.Now, Edward had been in his fair share of threesomes, but they had never been quite so intense as this. Much as he tried to deny it, he was fairly emotionally involved with both parties in this little tête-à-tête—and it was turning his insides into a puddle of pining lust. He refused to look away from Jekyll’s eyes. He stroked Lanyon’s hair with gentle, fumbling fingers.Gods, he could orgasm here. Now.At the thought, Jekyll immediately reached down and wrapped a snug finger around the base of Edward’s scrotum. Edward made a garbled noise of surprise and arousal.Don’t you dare, Jekyll breathed.Edward chuckled weakly and nuzzled his cheek against Jekyll’s palm. Wanted to see Lanyon make love to him after all, hmm?This time, Jekyll nodded. Yes. Yes, you were right the first time. Yes I do. The hunger in Jekyll’s eyes was so undressing. Edward had never felt more naked than he did now, half clothed, sitting on a work table, with his cock down Lanyon’s throat.“Is it everything you’d hoped it would be, doctor?” Edward said. He maintained his eyes contact with Jekyll, but the beauty of using the word “doctor” was both Jekyll and Lanyon were used to being referred to by the term. Lanyon would never know that Edward wasn’t speaking to him.Both of their responses were enthusiastic, even if they weren’t technically using their words. Lanyon hummed around Edward and spent a moment flicking his tongue against Edward’s glans. Jekyll, on the other hand, said volumes by moistening his dry lips with his tongue. The strong grip he had around the base of Edward’s penis was replaced by one of the swirling tendrils of color that were part of Jekyll now. Jekyll reclaimed his hand and then instantly put it in Edward’s hair and gripped tightly. Edward made a small noise, one of his eyes closing in his effort to keep still.We know due to our own efforts that I’ll only be able to orgasm when you, Jekyll said. He spoke clinically, as if he were examining data rather than discussing a sexual act in the making. Why on earth Edward found that more arousing he was at a loss to articulate, but here they were. And I want to wait, Jekyll continued. His eyes passed hungrily from Edward’s eyes to his lips to the skin below framed by his open shirt and waist coat. It’s not often we get to observe this sort of phenomenon.Edward shivered and moaned. Oh yes, Jekyll could keep talking like that. It was almost like its own form of dirty talk. If he kept going, even the pressure keeping Edward from ejaculation would hardly be enough to keep him from orgasm.Jekyll’s expression morphed from the studious hunger of a lustful man into one of inspiration. Edward could see why Lanyon had called the expression beautiful earlier. Jekyll was a force of nature, lit by the inside by scientific drive. There was nothing Edward would rather look at.That’s it! Jekyll rattled off excitedly. We’ve never tested multiple orgasms before!Oh, Edward liked where this was going.Jekyll fidgeted in his excitement, flitting back and forth in the air around Edward, wrapping him in those beautifully colored ribbons. It’s barely talked about in most circles, but we do know that multiple orgasms have at least been confirmed for the female genital set. It’s entirely possible that the pressure on your scrotum will keep you from ejaculation, but not impede the approach of orgasm itself! Jekyll grinned at Edward. And think of the possibilities for us, Edward. If you could orgasm without ejaculation, it’s possible that the one of us who isn’t in our body may feel the effects as well.Yep. Definitely liked where Jekyll was going with this. If he was right, there were all sorts of implications for how Edward might be able to use this to his advantage—both at home and his other affairs.Jekyll became studious again, placing a crooked finger to his chin. Of course, this is all assuming that orgasm is even possible without ejaculation. He looked at Edward questioningly. Do you think you’ll be able to?Fuck, you tell me, Edward wanted to say. Jekyll was the one with higher brain function at the moment. Lanyon was doing a thing with his tongue while rolling Edward’s testicles through his fingers, so as far as Edward was concerned it was all worth a shot.Jekyll smiled fondly at Edward and stoked his cheek. Nice of you to be a willing test subject for once.Edward bit his lip and sighed, leaning into Jekyll’s touch. Being objectified in general could be fun on its own—but being objectified for science was a new kind of knee-weakening.Edward tugged at Lanyon’s hair to get his attention. They would need his help if they were going to test this theory. “Robert,” Edward purred. “I need more. I want to feel your skin, your lips, your excitement.” He ran his hand as far down Lanyon’s torso as he could towards the bulge between Lanyon’s legs in order to communicate what he meant by “excitement.”Lanyon’s brown eyes met Edward’s adoringly. He popped his mouth off Edward and grinned roguishly. “Then perhaps I should help you finish removing your clothes and then make a start on my own?”Edward had to stop himself from nodding, halt his mouth from mindlessly saying yes. He wasn’t himself right now. He had someone else’s reputation to protect. His eyes slid over to the windows and the drapes that had yet to be drawn for the night. He’d come to respect Jekyll’s need for his reputation. Sure, he made fun of him for it, didn’t care for its confines, and generally disliked the need for it overall, but despite all that, he appreciated the freedom that Jekyll’s maintenance of his reputation afforded him on his debaucherous nights out. So the drapes would have to be closed before he set about letting Lanyon remove Henry Jekyll’s clothes.Thankfully, Lanyon seemed to understand. Edward supposed years of caring for a soft spoken man like Jekyll who never wanted to put people too far out of their way—except when it came to scientific discovery—had made him sensitive to the many meanings one look could carry. Lanyon rose and went to the nearest window. He moved from window to window, closing each set of drapes as he went, his impeccably clothed silhouette visible to any passersby in the streets while Lanyon’s companion for the evening looked on, indecent in every sense of the term.There was something to be said for this dynamic, Edward thought, stroking his fingers through the colorful tendrils of Jekyll’s floating in the air around him. Lanyon was so often at their beck and call—putting out fires both figurative and literal when they or the society were at risk. It was relaxing—stimulating even—to let him lead for a change.And Edward had always been a slut for new experiences.Lanyon returned to Edward and traced the edges of his clothes with a finger. “Now,” the freckled man said. “Where should we start?”Edward shrugged the fabric of his clothing from his right shoulder. “How about there, doctor?”Lanyon seemed to like the idea of playing doctor. “Ah, yes,” he said, sliding Edward’s clothes from his other shoulder too. “How ever will I give you a proper examination if your clothes are still on?”Edward chuckled and reached for Lanyon’s tie. He undid it and slid it from the rest of Lanyon’s clothes the same way Lanyon had done for him. When it was finally free, Edward draped it over his bare shoulders like a trophy.“How do I look?” he asked playfully, striking a pose. He could feel Jekyll’s approval of Edward’s soft manner with Lanyon. This had turned out to be more fun—and frighteningly more intimate—than Edward had originally expected it would. Some soft playfulness was well in order, by his considerations.“Like a dream,” Lanyon said—and it struck Edward how likely it was that Lanyon was being entirely truthful when he said it.Edward caressed Lanyon’s neck and gave him a look as heartfelt as he imagined Jekyll would want to give. “Come here.”Lanyon kissed him. Edward undid the buttons of Lanyon’s shirt as their mouths ebbed and flowed—together, apart, and together again.Lanyon tugged at Edwards pants, and Edward laughed against Lanyon’s lips. “Silly,” Edward teased, bending to untie one of his shoe laces. “It’s like you think you’ll just magically get these past my shoes.”To be fair, Jekyll said in Edward’s ear, that is often how it goes with the two of us.Lanyon laughed and helped Edward with this other show. “Sorry,” he said. “Got rather caught up in the moment.”Well, with a moment like this—even if Lanyon wasn’t fully aware of what was going on—Edward couldn’t blame him.Lanyon stripped Edward’s trousers the rest of the way off, taking his underthings and socks with them.Edward gathered himself together at the edge of the table, pretending to be bashful for the good doctor and his other half. He did still ask the question he commonly did when he got to this stage of undress with other partners, though. “Like what you see?”Lanyon smiled and nodded. Jekyll traced the curve of Edward’s waist from behind. Edward leaned back into the touch and dragged his hands across his throat and stomach, putting on a show for Lanyon, delighting in the feel of his own skin, forcing Jekyll to look at himself through a sexual lens. Ah, it was bliss.“Ah, Henry, you can’t torture me so,” Lanyon gushed. He sunk to his knees for the second time that night and swallowed Edward’s erection.The sudden stimulation on top of everything else was too much for Edward. He gasped, his back arching, an explosion of sensation tensing, then releasing deep within his abdomen.Jekyll nuzzled the side of Edward’s face, his arms keeping Edward steady as the first wave of orgasm tore through him. Trial one complete, Jekyll said gently.Lanyon’s eyes went wide and he looked up at Edward searchingly. He didn’t stop his ministrations with his mouth and tongue until Edward had stopped shaking, though.Edward slumped forward, petting Lanyon’s face in a gesture of deep gratitude. “Gods of science and discovery,” he panted. “That was fantastic.”Lanyon dropped Edward’s still erect penis from his mouth, still looking baffled. “But…you didn’t…” He moistened his lips, his tongue pink against them for a moment. “Nothing came out.”Edward grinned.Trial one, successful, Jekyll said. He stroked Edward’s neck tenderly. Let’s set about preparing trial two, shall we?Edward nodded for Jekyll, then focused on Lanyon. “I’m…experimenting,” he panted, trying to explain.“But…how—?”Edward shook his head cutting Lanyon off. He beckoned Lanyon closer. The other man stood to reach him. Edward grasped the slaps of Lanyon’s trousers and undid them with a familiarity that Lanyon had lacked. Lanyon gasped when Edward pulled his erection from his trousers and then fitted a firm finger around the base of it. “It has to do with pressure here. Theoretically, it may allow for multiple orgasms in those who ejaculate.” Edward raised a challenging eyebrow. “Care to try it for yourself?” Maybe Lanyon would be able to feel Jekyll’s touch if he were expecting it. If nothing else, it would get Jekyll off to scientifically test two things at once.Jekyll made an excited noise in Edward’s ear, and tendrils of color flickered excitedly near Edward’s hands.The corner of Lanyon’s mouth tipped up, like he thought Edward was joking. “You can’t be serious.”“Then explain to me, what didn’t just happen in your mouth?” Edward challenged.Lanyon opened his mouth, then closed it, then crossed his arms and looked disgruntled. “Fine, you win. Show me.”Edward squeezed his finger more tightly around Lanyon’s cock for a moment, the released it to make space for Jekyll. Jekyll quickly wrapped a tendril around Lanyon and cinched it tightly. Lanyon gasped harshly and held into Edward’s shoulders. Edward grinned cheekily. “Feel that?” he asked.“Yes, I feel that, you insufferable smug git!” Lanyon answered. “Ah, what did you do to me?”“Just applied a little pressure, my dear doctor.” Edward worked Lanyon’s shaft with his hand. “It’s not too tight, is it? Not uncomfortable?”“No,” Lanyon panted. “No. Just new.” He flashed a smile and then asked, “What…what are we to follow with this exactly?”Edward thought for a moment. He was pretty sure his body was in a good place for anal play, but he was also fairly certain Jekyll would probably prefer that they keep their erections within view so he could be sure of the results of his experiment.It had best be frottage then.Edward looked around the room. Stupid Lanyon made the least productive lab in the world and couldn’t even be bothered to add a convenient couch for sexy times anywhere?The man was certainly overlooking the versatility of his furniture.Fine. Edward would do the manly thing, and improvise. He reached for his discarded cloak and spread it over the world table. It would offer them some comfort—and plenty of stability.“I suppose it would be awkward to move to your bedroom now,” Edward said. “Who knows who we might find haunting the hallways at this hour. But first, one question…” Edward leaned forward and wound his fingers into the waistband of Lanyon’s trousers. “Why are you still wearing these?”Lanyon grinned and toed his shoes off. “Shall I get rid of them?”Edward licked his lips and purred, “Please.”Lanyon discarded his shirt, vest, and trousers. He dropped them all off to the side, the slid up on the table to join Edward on the table. “This isn’t usually what I use my work tables for,” he murmured as he lay down next to Edward.“Maybe you should consider using them this way more often,” Edward suggested. He ran a hand over Lanyon’s skin. He’d always loved the color of it, and getting to see so much of it in motion with the muscles tensing and relaxing underneath was a real pleasure. The other man shivered pleasantly under Edward’s touch.“You’re looking at me like you’ve never seen me naked before, Henry,” Lanyon said bashfully.Edward blinked. He hadn’t realized he’d been staring. Lanyon against the backdrop of Jekyll’s coloration and a laboratory was rather stunning, however, if he took the time to think about it.“I’ve never seen you naked like this,” he replied. Edward could see Lanyon’s blush even in the low light. “Oh,” he continued, leaning in close enough for a kiss, “don’t get bashful on me now.”“You were bashful not fifteen minutes ago!”“And now look where I am.” Edward pulled Lanyon down onto his side. Edward trust his hips up, and slid their erections together, making Lanyon gasp again. He took Lanyon’s hand and guided it down between them. “Right in the palm of your hand.”Lanyon swallowed and gave the two of them an experimental pump.The sound Edward made was not for show.Jekyll stroked Edward’s hair as he mewled. He traced the lines on Lanyon’s face with his other hand. The way Lanyon moved, it was almost like he could feel Jekyll’s phantom touches. Edward had little headspace to process the thrill Jekyll got from that, but he felt it all the same.Edward’s climax was coming on, he could feel it as Lanyon continued to work. He kissed Lanyon as the beginnings shook through him, and moaned into Lanyon’s mouth as it overwhelmed him.Jekyll sighed over him. Oh, Edward…“Did… Did you just—?” Lanyon panted.“Uh huh,” Edward whined. He threw one of his hands down between them to help Lanyon with their task. “Don’t stop. Keep going.”Lanyon came next. Jekyll surrounded him, hand going to Lanyon’s face, lips to Lanyon’s lips. Edward concentrated on stroking Lanyon through it, but he felt his heart swell at the sight of the two men kissing.Lanyon definitely seemed to feel that.“Oh, gods, this is torture,” Lanyon said, putting a hand to his forehead.Edward smirked. “E-effective, though.”Lanyon nodded, then gave a broken moan. “Henry, I can’t take it. Let me orgasm. I need release! I need it!”Edward flicked his eyes to Jekyll, checking to see what he thought.Jekyll shook his head. Once...isn’t good enough for conclusive testing, he said—but he looked torn.Edward had better make this quick then.“Come on, Robert, where’s your scientific spirit?” Edward goaded. “Surely you don’t want to be remembered as the scientist who skimped on his experimental trials!”“Henry! Henry, be serious!”“Oh, but I am, Robert! I’ve never been more serious!” Edward reached down and rolled Lanyon’s testicles in his palm. Lanyon threw back his head and moaned. Lanyon turned onto his back. Edward followed him and breathed warm air over Lanyon’s cock. “Let me take you further than you’ve ever gone before,” he tempted. “Just say yes. One more go, then release.”“Just one more?” Lanyon asked. His voice was pleading, his body hot to the touch.“That’s all I ask,” Edward soothed.Lanyon said nothing, then nodded. “It’s yours then.”Edward waited long enough to see Jekyll kiss Lanyon again before he dropped his head down and slurped Lanyon’s penis into his mouth.Oh, he did enjoy this. There was such power in giving oral pleasure. Such absolute control over the other person—and such sweet satisfaction in bringing them to bliss.Edward looked up and saw Jekyll at work too—teasing Lanyon’s nipples, stroking his skin, kissing his neck. Under such attentions, Lanyon didn’t take long to have his first dry climax.It seemed Jekyll was finally getting worked up too.Edward snaked his hand down between his legs and tested Jekyll’s grasp on him. It was still firm, but Jekyll didn’t seem to notice when Edward unwrapped part of the tendril. Feeling wicked, Edward unwrapped the tendril, and gave himself a few good strokes—bringing himself nearly to orgasm again. Jekyll gasped and faltered, falling almost completely on top of Lanyon before righting himself. He looked down and shot Edward an incredulous stare. Edward stroked himself again, and floored Jekyll with another was of sensation.It was only fair someone gave Jekyll a taste of his own medicine at this point. He couldn’t drive both Lanyon and Edward wild and expect to get off scot-free.Edward reached up as Jekyll’s breath quickened and the clothes of his ethereal form melted away.It seemed Jekyll was not as adept at controlling his manifestations as Edward was. Edward would have to file that away for later reference—he was sure he could talk Jekyll into testing it sometime, and it would probably also in just as rewarding a way as today’s experiments.Edward pulled Jekyll’s restraints from Lanyon as well. His hand settled on Jekyll’s stomach, then slid down to grasp Jekyll’s hips. He pulled the man down towards him, then pressed both Jekyll’s and Lanyon’s erections together and returned his mouth to them.Both men cried out.Edward stroked himself furiously, hoping to get all three of them to release at a similar time. Lanyon went first. Hot jets of seamen sprang from him as he quivered and clung to the phantom on top of him. They fell mostly on Jekyll, who seemed pushed almost entirely over the edge by the sight and feel of the warm, viscous liquid on this skin.Edward could almost feel Jekyll’s desire to burst then and there alongside his friend—but they both knew Jekyll’s orgasm was linked to their body.Edward slowed his strokes.Jekyll’s jaw dropped. You demon! he cried. You would deny yourself just to spite me? You, you—oh!Edward suddenly sped, and sent them both over the edge.Edward had never come so hard in his life.He definitely liked this multiple orgasm thing. They’d need to conduct further experiments, for sure.But for now, he wiped himself down on his cloak—making a mental note to wash it himself so Rachel wouldn’t have to deal with that—and curled up between Lanyon and Jekyll.“Good for you, I hope?” Edward said to Lanyon.Lanyon was breathing deeply, sounding tired and satisfied. His eyes fluttered open, and he reached out to brush some of the Henry’s brown hair out of Edward’s eyes. “You’re…still the other one, aren’t you?”Edward froze, even his breath stopping in his alarm.Lanyon’s eyes closed again. “It’s alright,” he said. “I’ll keep your secret.”“How did you know it was me?” Edward asked.Lanyon raised his eyelids and traced the curve of Edward's cheek with his thumb. "Your eyes... They're not his eyes at all. Different color, different intensity—but one that mirrors the way I've seen Henry before." He shuffled and drew Edward's face closer to his. "You had me guessing for a while, wondering if it was just a lingering effect of that potion you'd made, but..." He broke off and laughed. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to seduce Henry for at least ten years! He’d never do it himself. It was a dream.”Jekyll scoffed.Edward smirked. “You may want to re-examine that idea after tonight.”Lanyon’s eyes opened again. “Is he here?”Jekyll’s hand slipped past Edward to caress Lanyon’s cheek. Lanyon leaned into the touch, his eyes going soft.“He’s here,” Edward said.“Good,” Lanyon murmured. He groaned and tried to burrow deeper into the cloak. “Go draw us a bath, would you? I’ll never be able to sleep as sweaty and sticky as this.”Edward drew out a dramatic sigh, but sprang to his feet. “Fine, but only because you were such a good shag.”Lanyon smiled, but didn’t open his eyes. He looked at peace.Edward, despite himself, leaned down and kissed Lanyon’s cheek. “Back soon,” he murmured. Then he made for the door to the hall—quiet, lithe, and still completely naked.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Out in the hall, Jekyll smirked at Edward from the hall mirror.“What?” Edward said.
‘Who knows who we might find haunting the hallways at this hour,’ hmm?
“Shut up,” Edward replied. “Even if the staff did catch us, they’d never believe you’d done anything lewd.” He entered the bathroom and turned on the tap. He waited for the water to warm, then plugged the tub.You just really wanted to have him on that table, didn’t you? Jekyll’s said from the reflection in the water.Edward sighed longingly. “You know me so well. But come on, you did too.”
A bit.
They shared a moment of companionable silence, and the then Edward said, “How long do you think this me being in you thing is going to last?”…I don’t know, Jekyll admitted. I told you we’d sort it out, but for all the testing we did tonight—“—you still don’t know what caused it,” Edward finished.Jekyll nodded from the water.Edward sighed and shut it off. He dipped his fingers into the bath and traced the edge of Jekyll’s face. Jekyll rubbed against his fingers comfortingly. I know this is disorienting, he murmured.“I don’t know how to be you,” Edward said. “I don’t like not being me.”I know, Jekyll said. He twined his fingers with Edward’s under the water. You know how well I know that feeling. You were born of it.“And yet here we are again,” Edward seethed, choosing anger over vulnerability. He could be mad about this. If he was mad about it, it couldn’t scare him, it wouldn’t hurt him.We will find a way to fix this, Jekyll said. I promise. He pulled Edward’s arm further into the water. But for now, go get Robert. Let him wash your hair and hold you in bed and chase away the cold and the dark.“It’s night time, you dolt. Despite how you may feel about him, even Lanyon can’t make the sun rise and the stars shine or whatever poetic nonsense the romantics spout these days.”You know what I mean, Jekyll said. He won’t let you get too wrapped up in your own mind.“Please, that’s why you like him.” Edward sniffled dismissively. “I don’t get wrapped up in my own mind like you do—and I only like Lanyon for his body.”Jekyll shook his head, chuckling. Then he held Edward’s fingers to his lips and kissed them. Stop lying to me, Hyde. I know you.A lump formed in Edward’s throat. There was so much safety and vulnerability in the way Jekyll knew him. He’d resented it in the early days, because their co-existence had become routine. But even after years of it, the intimacy and acceptance in their connection still sometimes took him off guard.Not trusting his voice, he simply nodded.Jekyll squeezed his fingers one more time. Go get Robert. Bathe. Sleep. We’ll think of next steps in the morning. You’ve done enough tonight.Edward smiled a little and leaned over the bath to give Jekyll a smug look. “I mean, I did steal us a reanimation machine of some kind. Imagine the experiments we’ll get up to with that. Maybe even fix our Frankenstein problem, hm?”Assuming she gives us any of the credit after involving another scientist’s research without own. Jekyll rolled his eyes.Edward shrugged and smirked. “I’m sure we can convince her it’s a collaboration so long as we act ‘mad’ enough.”Jekyll’s lough sounded almost like a giggle, and Edward felt some of the tension in his shoulders ease.Maybe you can be the one to do that once Robert gets the law off of your back, Jekyll said.Maybe, Edward thought. Or maybe they could use this wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing thing they were currently doing to convince Frankenstein they were mad enough to warrant her respect without revealing their secret.Jekyll shook his head again, starting to dissipate in the water. No more thinking tonight, Edward. Robert. Wash. Sleep. He yawned beneath the water’s surface.

“Yes, doctor,” Edward said, ducking close to the water. He dipped his lips against Jekyll’s cheek, then pulled himself from the water and back to his feet. He caught Henry’s reflection in the mirror, and opened his mouth to tell his other half he shouldn’t make such a big deal about going to rest if he was just going to stick around anyway—but then realized the reflection wasn’t Jekyll. He was looking at himself.

He frowned and hugged himself.

He suddenly felt very alone without Jekyll. And he didn’t have his own body to differentiate himself.

Just as he was about to brave leaving the room and collecting Lanyon, the other man opened the door. Lanyon looked around, and smiled bashfully when his eyes landed on Edward.

“Oh, hello, there you are.” He pushed open the door. It looked like he’d stopped by his own room, because he was now dressed in a burgundy silk dressing gown. A blue-green one hung over his arm, presumably for Edward—but it was what was in Lanyon’s other hand that made Edward’s heart skip a beat.

The shelf from Jekyll’s chemistry cabinet.

“Henry was never very good at being something he wasn’t,” Lanyon said, laying the shelf on the vanity countertop next to Edward. “I thought maybe you’d like to…slip into something more comfortable?”

Edward’s eyes lingered on the tincture, the powders, and the new graduated glass Lanyon had provided. Then his eyes slid to Lanyon. This alliance was still so new. “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer I stayed like this?” he asked, crossing his arms and raising a skeptical eyebrow.

Lanyon flushed, his eyes darting to the floor. Edward supposed he was still wearing Henry’s body—and unclothed at that—but the gesture still made his heart sink.

“It’s…true that it’s very alluring to see Henry like this,” Lanyon said. He raised his eyes again to Edward’s and the walls that Edward’s heart had begun throwing up fell away at the earnest concern in Lanyon’s eyes. “But you’re not him. You’re a part of him, and he of you. I’m…not going to get anywhere with either of you if I don’t start acknowledging each of you for what you are, so…” Lanyon reached over and pushed the shelf closer to Edward. “Please, go ahead.”

Edward stared for a moment at the man he had loathed at the beginning of the evening. Then he grinned and reached for the glass. “Don’t mind if I do.” He began to mix the potion for the second time that night. “…thank you, doctor.”

Lanyon touched Edward’s shoulder gently. “Anytime, Edward.”

Edward turned to Lanyon, and leaned towards him. His eyes flicked to Lanyon’s lips as he asked non-verbally for a kiss. Lanyon parted his lips, leaned in, and kissed Edward. It was much gentler than the first kiss of the evening. Less desperate, more resolute.

Edward guessed Lanyon had been serious about keeping their secret after all.

Feeling much less alone, Edward kissed Lanyon one more time. Then, raised the glass full of the potion that would bring his body back to him, and drank.