Chapter Text
“Kenny bear! I’m back.”
Marjorine Stotch, sixteen years old, local town sweetheart and transgender icon, was in a relationship that not many would expect out of her. Her parents (mostly her father) would annihilate her if they knew what she was doing with the town's local blonde hippie.
Kenneth McCormick, seventeen, weed lover and local 7/11 worker on most weeknights, was the one Marjorine had chosen to be in love with.
They were friends before her transition, pretty good friends at that. Marjorine had always been bi-curious, so she’d had a crush on him for many years. Meanwhile, Kenny had been in denial about it and tried to shove his feelings away. Then, she came out to many of her close friends (including him) and her social transition began.
Kenny danced around his feelings for her for another year or so, opting to just stay good friends so nothing could be awkward just in case they weren't reciprocated.
One night she had come to his window crying because she was too afraid of her father to stay at home. He had not been the greatest to deal with during her transition like her mother had been, and he’d been even worse to her than he was in the past.
That night was the night, through all the tears and stress, they had confessed their feelings for eachother. They’ve been inseparable ever since that terrible, but beautiful night, which brings us back to the current moment.
“Hey, Sweetheart.”
Kenny’s voice is raspy from smoking. He has his guitar on his lap but quickly abandons it when he sees his girlfriend enter the room. She closes the door behind her and trots over to Kenny, who pats his lap, indicating for her to sit.
Marjorine does as she’s told. She sits down on Kenny’s lap and wraps her arms around his neck and plays with the tips of his hair. He had been growing out a mullet recently, and it was actually a pretty good look for him.
“How was it with Tucker and the girls?” Kenny asks before dipping his head down to kiss her jawline and neck softly.
Marjorine gasps quietly and squirms at the feeling. “It- ah- was good. We figured something out for him- so—ah- hey! Careful.”
Kenny pulls off from where he had been sucking a mark and frowns. “What? I can’t mark your pretty skin? You love that.”
“The court date is really soon Ken,” She says with a heavy voice. “I need to look professional when I’m up there speakin’ for myself so they won’t take me away or anything.”
“I would never let that happen to you,” Kenny replies as he holds her a bit tighter. “You know your mom is going to win custody of you, right? Your dad has been harassing you for years Marji, ever since I’ve known you he’s been doing all kinds of shit to you.”
Marjorine looks away. One of her hands reaches down to play with the material of her skirt while the other holds tighter in Kenny’s hair. “I know but I’m just… worried about it. What if… what if they address me wrong in court, Ken, cause they have to use my legal name over my chosen name? What if he wins custody of me and sends me away to some- some conversation therapy camp like last time? What then?”
“Marji, hey,” Kenny’s demeanor changes quickly to a more serious one. “let’s take a breath. Everything’s going to be alright.” He attempts to soothe her, drawing her lips in for a quick kiss. He’s high, but not high enough to have zero thoughts in his head. “I’m going to be there with you the entire time. If they need another witness I’d get up on that stand in a heartbeat to protect you from him, alright?”
Marjorine sniffles, but nods as she locks eyes with him. “I love you, Ken, so much.”
“I love you too, Marji.”
Kenny draws loose strands of blonde hair out of her face with a smooth motion. He moves his hand down to cup her cheek, giving her a smile that she only got to see from him, before leaning in to kiss her again. The sort of kiss that makes your breath shake and your body wakes up in more ways than one.
“I didn’t notice before, but you’re wearing your dysphoria sweatshirt,” Kenny states as his mouth dips down once again to kiss the exposed skin of her jaw and neck. His hands rest on her hips. “If you’re not up to do anything, it’s alright. Just tell me now.”
Marjorine hums. Her breathing gets heavier at the feeling of Kenny’s lips on the sensitive spots on her neck. “I promised you a blow job before I left.”
“Yeah, I know.” Kenny’s lips come up to kiss the shell of her ear. The stubble on his face tickles her own, and she shivers at the mix of overwhelming feelings. “But if you aren’t feeling up to it today, it’s fine, I promise.”
“No. It’s fine.” Marjorine says stubbornly.
She climbs off of his lap to kneel below him on the floor. Her eyes are obviously tearing up, and Kenny knows he won’t be able to take seeing her like this much longer. He has to do something before she started crying on his dick (and not in a sexy way)
“Marjorine Stotch.”
Kenny grabs her hands before she can unzip his pants. He quickly realizes from the way that she tenses up and tears immediately pour down her face that he shouldn’t have used that tone on his girlfriend. His poor, anxious girlfriend, who probably had heard it enough from her abusive father but with her dead name, so he quickly tries to fix his mistake.
“Baby-hey- hey, look at me. I’m sorry for raising my voice.” He tucks his hand under her chin and lifts her face up. Tears are streaming down her reddened cheeks and even under the hoodie Kenny can see the rapid rise and fall of her chest. He’s never felt himself sober up as quickly as he did at that moment. “Come back up here please,” He scotches back on the bed to make room for her to come back up. “you’re in no condition to do that.”
Reality hits Marjorine like a truck, and she just cries more. She gets up on the bed and hugs Kenny as tightly as possible as she continues to cry. She’d never had mood swings so severe before she started taking estrogen, so Kenny wasn’t very used to dealing with them. She’d only been on the medication for four months now.
“It’s gonna be okay Marji.” Kenny rubs her back softly as he hugs her. He rocks her gently like he used to do with his sister when she got upset when she was younger. He breathes slowly, holding her head on his chest. “I’m right here with you. Just copy my breathing, okay? You’re gonna be just fine.”
Marjorine’s breathing is rapid for a while, and she struggles to calm herself down. Kenny can tell she’s trying, so he doesn’t push her and doesn't say much. He just holds her, whispering every few minutes to tell her she’s doing a good job. He can feel his phone vibrating (or maybe it was hers?) but he ignores it, all his focus being on his girlfriend.
“M sorry-“ Are the first words she babbles out after crying. Her voice is hoarse and she continues to cling to him. “I-I thought I could but-“
“Marji, sweetheart,” Kenny runs his fingers through her hair with a practiced skill. “It’s okay, I told you, I don’t care if you suck me off or not, if you’re feeling yucky and anxious you don’t have to do anything you don’t want, you don’t need to please me.”
She sniffles, shoving her face into his neck. “I wish… I wish I didn't have one.”
It takes Kenny a moment to figure out what she means, but he does pretty quickly. The whole event has probably turned her on, and he knew that on dysphoric days she could barely stand going to the bathroom without crying. Getting hard was a whole other shit show on days like these. He shouldn't have edged her on like that.
He clicks his teeth and sighs. “I know, baby, I wish I could get rid of it for you.”
Marjorine huffs. Her breathing finally settles back to normal and her body relaxes against his. Kenny continues to play with her hair but reaches over for his phone now that she was calmer. He has no new notifications, so it must have been her phone that was going off. He takes it out of her purse and unlocks it, looking over the messages. He tenses up and sighs. This is not the type of news he wanted to deliver right now.
“Your mom is asking about where you are…”
Kenny hands her the phone. She peaks her head out from where it was tucked for the first time in what must be twenty minutes to take it. Her hands are visibly shaking as she grabs hold of it and messages her mom back.
“I hate to ask, but…” Kenny’s voice trails. “Does she know about us yet?”
Marjorine shrugs. “I think so… but I haven’t actually told her. She’s not stupid though. I spend a lot of time here, and she’s definitely seen hickeys on me before.”
Kenny hums, still holding her and playing with her hair gently. He knows that it calms her down when he does this, and she really needs it right now.
“She wants me to come home,” Marjorine says. Her voice is heavy, and she definitely doesn't want to leave right now. “She says we have to talk about something. It’s probably about the trial.”
“I’ll bring you,” Kenny replies without any hesitation. “My brother's car was in the driveway, right? I’ll take you home, and wait in case anything bad happens. I can come in with you too if you want.”
Marjorine shrugs, not saying yes or no. She slowly sits up, blinking rapidly to get the remaining tears off her face. Her makeup is ruined from all the crying, and there are remnants of it on Kenny’s hoodie.
“Let’s get you to the bathroom first.” Kenny wipes what remains of the mascara off of her face, but it’s not enough to fix the mess. “I’ll clean you up, then we’ll head back to yours, okay, sweetheart?”
Marjorine nods and wipes her cheeks. She looks at Kenny and sniffs deeply. She leans down and smells his clothes, and then sits up. “If you come in, you have to get changed out of these clothes. You know I don’t care that you reek, but if I even try to introduce the idea of you to my mom, she cannot know you smoke.”
“Aw- you don’t want your mom to know how much of a bad boy you’re dating?” Kenny says playfully. He knows he probably shouldn't be joking around right now, but based on the small smile that she gives, he knows he’s doing a good job. “Im kidding, of course, I’ll get changed for you,”
At that moment, there's a knock on Kenny's bedroom door. Karen’s voice comes from outside of it. “Kenny! Kenny! You better not be high as balls in there!” She says, knocking a few more times. “What do you want for dinner?”
“Just come in Karen,” Kenny replies, easing Marjorine off of his lap. She quickly continues to wipe her cheeks as the door opens. The moment Karen sees her, she chitters happily and bounds into the room.
“Why didn’t you tell me that my favorite person was here?” Karen asks. She suddenly freezes and her demeanor drops once she notices the state that Marjarine is in. She gives her brother the death glare and walks closer to him. He almost immediately sinks down into the bed and gets as far away from her as he possibly can. “What did you do to her? Why was she crying? I swear to god I’ll-”
“Karen- uh- it’s alright.” Marjorine interrupts her, pushing her hands out and shaking her head. Once she’s gotten her attention, she begins to explain herself. “He didn’t do anything, I promise. It’s me. I’m…. I’m not having a great day…mentally…”
Karen glares at her brother again, just to scare him, but she quickly turns back to attend to Marjorine. “I’m sorry to hear that Marji, is there anything I can do?” She gasps. “Do you want to stay for dinner? I can make you whatever you want.”
Marjorine smiles sweetly but shakes her head. “I’m sorry Karen, but im actually just about to leave.” She pauses for a moment, thinking of something Karen could do to make her feel better. “Uhm- It would be nice if you could fix my makeup though.”
Karen smiles and nods excitedly as she holds her hands out. “Come, come, I’ll have you fixed up in no time. We can have some girl talk, and let my gross brother get cleaned up before he drives you home.”
“I didn’t have to let you in,” Kenny says, rolling his eyes. “You take good care of my girl, okay, Karen?” He glares back at her, giving her the same treatment that she gave him before. She gives it right back, this time sticking out her tongue and giving him the L signal.
Marjorine gets up from the bed chuckling at the sibling's mini death glare match. She leans to give Kenny a kiss on the cheek, grabs her purse, and then grabs Karen’s outstretched hand. “Come get me when you’re done, okay?”
Kenny nods, watching his girlfriend and sister walk off like they were lifetime best friends. They basically were if he really sat and thought about it. Karen had known Marjorine since before she was Marjorine, and she just loved her more when she became her. Karen was actually one of the first people to style her hair, and it was the style she had kept until this day.
“Is there anything else I can do to make you feel better?” Karen asks once again when they were alone in the bathroom. “I hate seeing you upset Marji.”
Marjorine sighs and sits down on the lid of the closed toilet. “Not really. It’s just… one of those days. I just have to get through it and start a new day tomorrow and hope I’m feeling a bit better.”
Karen frowns. She opens the mirror cabinet and takes out some of her makeup. “I’m sorry you have to deal with feeling that way, Marji. I can’t wait until the day you finally get your surgery, I think I might cry.”
Marjorine chuckles, her eyes tearing up at the thought of finally getting surgery, especially today. She looks down quickly and shuffles through her purse for the few makeup items she kept in here. “The day I actually have a bigger chest, I’m going to be crying too Karen, trust me. I’ll be the one crying the most. Kenny too, maybe even the girls. They all want nothing less than the best for me.”
“Of course, 'cause you're our favorite girl Marji!” Karen says with a bright smile. She takes out her makeup wipes and holds them out. “Do you want to do it, or should I take care of you today?”
“I don’t mind if you do it.” She replies. She takes out mascara, lipstick, and eyeliner from her bag and looks up at Karen, although tears still sting her eyes. “Just be-“
“Be careful around your eye, I know by now Marji.”
Karen spends about fifteen minutes cleaning off Marjorine’s face and applying new makeup. They chat a bit about school and things going on. Marjorine tells her all about Tweek and Craig’s situation, and Karen tells her about the drama going on at school. The two were pretty close after all.
“I promise I’ll stay for dinner another time, okay Karen?” Marjorine says with a smile as she admires Karen's work in the mirror. Karen smiles proudly behind her, giving each of her shoulders a soft squeeze. “And thanks again for talking with me and fixin’ my makeup. It looks perfect.”
To say the least, she did feel a little bit better after that. Time spent with Karen was always nice, she was such a sweet girl despite what she had gone through while growing up. Kenny was the whole reason that she wasn't as messed up as he was, and Marjorine could not have been more grateful for it at the current moment.
“Of course Marji, I’m glad I could help!” Karen smiles. “I hope you feel better soon.”
Marjorine sighs and her smile slightly drops. “I hope so too Karen.”
Karen opens the bathroom door. Outside leaning on the adjacent wall is Kenny, dressed in another outfit. He’s wearing one of his nicer pairs of cargo pants and the other half of a matching sweatshirt set that Marji had gotten them.
“Hey, hot stuff,” Kenny says with a smile once he lays eyes on his girlfriend. “C’mon, limo’s waiting outside for ya. Air conditioning on and everything.”
Marjorine blushes, shaking her head playfully. “Cut that out, Ken.”
Karen just giggles. “Oh, you two. So cute.” She turns around and gives Marjorine a big hug, which she happily reciprocates. “Text me if you need anything, okay? See you soon.”
“I will Karen,” Marjorine says into the younger girl's shoulder. “Bye now.”
Moments later, Kenny is whisking Marjorine out to the car like he was an actual limo driver. He held out his arm for her and she held onto it, playing into his game. She knew that he was just doing it to make her feel better, and it was working for a moment. He held the car door open for her, kissed her hand, and buckled her in, the whole first-class airline treatment. But, as soon as the car started moving, she was back to being stressed.
“Why don’t you put on some music that’s gonna calm you down, baby,” Kenny says once they’ve gotten into the car. “You’re on edge again, and you’re not going to get any calmer at this rate if we don’t do something.”
Marjorine is sitting in the passenger seat with her legs to her chest. Her chest is rapidly rising and falling again, and Kenny swears he can see tears in her eyes again.
“If I put on the playlist I’m going to slip.” She says softly. “As much as I want it right now- I need to talk to my mom first before I do that.”
The playlist was referring to a playlist Marjorine and Kenny had made dedicated to subspace. She had been using age regression for a few years now in order to calm herself down. She had missed out on a lot of her childhood due to her parent's abusive tendencies and much more stuff that went on, especially with her uncle. So subspace was also her way of re-experiencing things she had missed out on, as well as escaping reality when things go too real.
In the beginning, she didn’t really know what to do when she slipped into a headspace like that. It mostly happened when she was alone, and she had an extra hard week. It frightened her the first few times, she couldnt understand why she was feeling this way or why she was acting like this. But, with some research and a period of denial, she had figured out that what she was experiencing was age regression, and it was just part of who she was now.
When she and Kenny started going out, it took her months to tell him about it because she thought he would think it was stupid and break up with her. He was much more supportive than she thought and did a multitude of research in order to make her more comfortable. Even some of his work money was even spent buying her stuffed animals, comfy clothes, coloring books, and many more items. Marjorine couldn’t be more thankful for such a loving and supportive boyfriend. The fact that his family liked her was even more of a plus. She would always have somewhere to go if she needed it, always a group of people to rely on. She loved them all alot.
“Are you going to later?” Kenny asks as he starts up the car. “Do you need me to call you, or would you rather I just sneak in again?”
Marjorine shrugs. She picks at her nail Polish and tries to calm herself down. It’s clearly not doing much, considering the fact her hands are beginning to shake again.
“What did she want to talk to you about anyway, and why now of all times, a Wednesday afternoon of all times?” Kenny asks. He knows that if a single word won’t come out of his girlfriend to him- she was never going to talk to her mom.
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be sitting here shaking like this.” She mumbles, not meaning to come off as harsh as it sounded. She immediately apologizes, muttering “sorry.”
“It’s okay, there’s no need to apologize. I understand you’re upset.” Kenny replies just as softly. He scrolls through his phone, settling on a guitar playlist of songs he could play or was trying to learn. “Here’s my phone anyway,” He says as he hands her the phone. “if you want to change the song. I know it’s a short ride, but I’ll do anything to make you comfortable, okay?”
Marjorine nods and takes his phone. Kenny had a pop socket that she liked to play with when she was anxious, so that was the other part of the reason he had handed it over.
The guitar songs play softly through the car as he drove her back to her house. She fidgets with the pop socket the entire time, barely looking at him or saying anything. He decides to just leave her be. He had done all that he could at that moment, and it was up to her now.
When they get to her house, Kenny pulls over in front of the house and puts the car in park. He unbuckles his seatbelt so he can turn toward his girlfriend better.
“Marji, sweetheart,” He starts. “I promise you’re going to be okay. Whatever your mom wants to talk to you about can't be that bad.”
“You don’t know that.” Marjorine mumbles. “Everything is bad right now. What’s next, she’s gonna tell me she’s no longer on my side and is going to just give me up to my dad for custody?”
“Hey- don’t even say that. You know she wouldn’t do that to you, baby. You know how she feels about him.” Kenny says. He holds out his hands for her to take, which she does (very reluctantly). He squeezes them tightly. “Whatever it is, you know that I’m going to be right here if you need me. I’m not leaving until I know everything is alright.”
Marjorine huffs quietly. She stares at her and Kenny’s connected hands and draws in a deep breath. “I know you’re probably right, but I can’t help the anxiety. I’ve been like this all day.”
“I know,” He squeezes her hands softly as he continues to speak. He finally had a little bit of a plant brewing. “And it’s okay to have days like this. That’s what I’m here for. Now, can you be my brave little girl and go in there?”
Kenny knows the voice will work on her. She was in and out of her regular state, he could see it in her eyes. If she didn’t go talk to her mom now, she was going to slip into a space where she couldn’t talk at all. He of all people knew that.
Marjorine flushes at the statement, but nods regardless. “Yeah- I can.” She hands him the phone back while sighing softly. “You’ll wait here for me?”
“For as long as it takes until I know the conversation went well,” Kenny replies. “Okay?”
“Okay.” Marjorine takes a slow breath and squeezes Kenny’s hands. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Kenny anxiously watches as his girlfriend makes her way to the front door and inside of her house. He was worried about how this conversation would go. Would she be able to stay down on Earth when her Mom was talking to her? Everything that could go wrong began to run through his head and he started biting his fingernails.
‘Please be okay Marji.’ Kenny thinks. ‘You got this.’