Chapter Text
“Still no name then, huh?” Kenny poked fun at him with a smirk.
“Shut up, dude” He sighed gloomily as he packed his and Kenny’s lunch into two separate boxes. He had woken up earlier today so he could have time to shower and prepare lunch. Kenny was next to him, frying some eggs and bacon in the same pan at the same time.
“Well, ‘Adam’ is starting to gain a place in my heart, since it’s the only name we could come up with.” Kenny shrugged. “Salt, please.” Stan opened the spices cabinet that was right in front of him. “Oh, and pepper too.” Stan nodded and passed him both things. “What else did you guys talk about?
“The band.” Kenny perked up. Looking away from the pan for a few seconds.
“Ooh. What did he think?” He asked, looking back at his cooking. Stan put the lid on the first tupper with an unnecessarily loud pop.
“He likes Punk Rock.” Stan responded, popping the other lid on his tupper.
“Awesome. He thinks you’re cool, probably. Did you tell him about the gig at Marj’s house?” Stan cringed. He hadn’t, obviously, because he’s a fucking idiot. “You are pathetic, honestly.”
“Fuck off!” Stan pushed Kenny with his hip.
“Hey! No attacking the cook. I’m working with oil, and I will burn your face.” He joked, grabbing the pan and mimicking the action of throwing its contents onto Stan’s face.
“Whatever, I’ll set the table in the meantime.” He smiled with amusement.
“Thanks.” Kenny sung.
Their morning continued as usual, they got to the station barely in time, pushed through the crowds of people, Stan had lifted his guitar up in the air so no one could damage it. They eventually got on the train and sighed, Stan put his guitar down and Kenny checked the time. A couple minutes more and they would’ve lost this train and would have had to wait twenty more minutes for the next one to arrive, which would've made them extremely late to their classes. Kenny once again thanks the universe for helping them out. Stan decided to not check his phone during the ride to campus, he had forgotten to charge it last night so it had less than half the battery. He looked up through the masses of people, nothing interesting really. Mostly seeing Black and blond heads, a couple bright colored ones. There was a tall person with bright green hair, and they had made eye contact for a second, Stan immediately averted his gaze. He continued looking through the crowd, suddenly, he saw a small flash of a reddish orange from the corner of his eye. His eyes darted to it and he could not believe what he saw, Adam was standing there. Looking out the window.
“Kenny.” He reached for the blond’s hand and tugged at it.
“What’s up?” Kenny asked, looking at him.
“Adam’s over there.” Kenny’s eyes widened.
“Where?!” He exclaimed in a whisper, he looked everywhere, getting on the tip of his toes to try and see better, Stan could immediately tell when the blond spotted him. “Dude, you gotta go talk with him.” Stan whined. “What are you crying about? Do you not want to talk to him or something?”
“No, I do, it’s just-” Stan groaned. “I don’t want you to see me, it’d be really fucking embarrassing and I’d get too nervous.” Stan’s palms were clammy just from thinking about it.
“Oh my god, you’re such a baby.” Kenny hit his shoulder and Stan shrieked, immediately slapping a hand over his mouth to not be heard by Adam. “Look, I’ll go to the next wagon, yeah? That way I won’t see your lame attempt at flirting. Sounds good?” Stan hesitated but eventually sighed.
“Fine.”
“Awesome! Now, go get him!” Kenny pushed Stan and squished himself through the other people. Stan watched him go away until he couldn’t see him anymore, then, he started walking towards the ginger. Adam’s back was to him, once he was right behind him, he decided to gently poke at his upper back. Adam turned around, visibly confused until he saw who poked him, his expression immediately softening.
“Hey!”
“Hi.” Stan smiled shyly. “I’ve never seen you ride this train before.”
“Oh, yeah. I usually take the second one before this.” Adam shrugged. “But I got up late today, so I had to take this one.” Stan nodded in understanding. “Do you usually ride this train?”
“Yeah, I’m not really a morning person so it’s pretty hard for me to get up early.” Adam chuckled at his response and Stan felt his cheeks redden. “Are you making fun of me?” Stan asked, giving Adam a playful smile.
“No! Of course not.” He chuckled again. “Okay, maybe a little bit. I just picture you fighting to get out of bed and it’s pretty… funny.” Stan wondered why Adam had hesitated but quickly brushed it off as to not interrupt the flow of their conversation. “But I get it, it can be really hard to get up in the mornings, especially if you stay up until late the night before. Do you tend to stay up late?”
“Sometimes, when finals come around, but not usually, I think my resentment toward mornings is natural.” He joked and Adam laughed again, Stan felt pride in his chest, knowing that laughter was because of him. Adam calmed down and put some hair behind his ear. Stan’s curiosity made him speak before he could think. “Is your hair getting long? I’ve seen you usually tuck it behind your ear.” Adam’s cheeks tinted a light pink and he smiled.
“Oh, yeah, I haven’t gotten the chance to get it cut, it's usually a couple inches shorter at the front.” He said, playing with some of the strands. Stan found it cute.
“I don’t blame you, finding free time with your major must be hard. But… I like your hair.” His mind raced. that was… so smooth! Stan watched the ginger’s face carefully, he seemed taken aback and a sharper blush made an appearance on his face along with a small smile. Fucking score! About time he pulled a decent move.
“Well… I like your hair too.” Adam mumbled; Stan let a nasally laugh out.
“Thanks, mine’s getting pretty long too though. I should probably cut it.”
“I’d like it either way.” He admitted, lifting his hand and moving some of his hair out of Stan’s face. Stan could only stand there, absolutely mortified. How the fuck did he do that?! He one upped him effortlessly! What the fuck?!
…
Was he flirting with him?
Adam seemed to realize what he had done, pulling his hand away and rubbing it against his leg nervously. Stan was in shock and honestly wooed but he decided he needed to say something, anything to keep the conversation going!
“Thank you… I-” Suddenly, the subway halted, and Stan looked outside briefly to see which station they were at. “Shit.” Luck be damned, he has to get off. “This, uh, I have to get off.”
“Right. I’ll see you, then.”
“Yeah.” Stan started walking away when he remembered. “Wait!” He turned around and Adam stared at him expectantly. “I'm- my band is doing a gig this Saturday! If you want you can come by and watch us play!” He exclaimed rapidly, trying to give him all the information as fast as he could before the doors closed. “Tell me what you think later today! Uh-” He looked behind him and back at Adam. “See you!”
“Oh! Y-yeah! See you!” He turned around and sprinted out the train, which's doors were about to close. Once he was out, he looked inside and saw Adam staring back at him, he waved him goodbye as the train left. Stan sighed, another chance to get his name lost.
College was like usual, he ate lunch with Tweek at the same table they always do, Tweek asked him for updates on his situation with ‘Adam’ and he embarrassedly told him about their most recent interactions.
“Jesus, I forget how much of a loser you can actually be sometimes.” Tweek said, rubbing the palm of his hands over his eyes. “I’m just glad you haven’t called him ‘Adam’ to his face, that’d be horrifying.” Tweek laughed at his own comment. Stan felt himself going pale at the mere thought of that happening. “Anyway, at practice today we’ll play the list of songs we decided on, right?”
“Yup, did you upload the list to Instagram?”
“I did.”
“Cool, let me see.” Tweek nodded and pulled his phone out, he opened the post and showed it to Stan. “Alright… ‘We’re The Same’, uh… ‘Clinic’... Intermission after ‘Vixen’, cool. ‘I Feel Fine’ and ‘Yellow Love’ at the end. Great!” Stan read some of the songs they agreed on playing. “The design looks great; did you make it?”
“Marj and I did. She gave me the whole lettering idea and I made the color gradients and screen tones and shit.” Tweek said, turning his phone around, looking at the picture. It had the name of the band in big bold stylized letters, under it was the list of songs, under all of that was a smaller font detailing the place, time, cost and a message that said, ‘we hope to see you there!’ alongside a smiley face.
“Sick.” Stan smiled.
After all their classes were over Tweek and Stan headed to Marjorine’s house together since Kenny had headed there earlier.
“What about Craig?” Stan asked once they were on the subway.
“He said he would be so lonely driving alone. He's so dramatic.” Tweek chuckled to himself. “He did also tell me to tell you that you should consider those four dollars lost.” Stan groaned.
“Such an asshole.” Stan grumbled. “You should break up with him, like, ask for a divorce or something. Get a new fiancé.”
“I don’t think I’ll be doing that.”
“Lame.” He finally broke into a smile. It was all, of course, in good fun. Craig and him were always poking fun at each other but they actually got along great, they sometimes hung out one-on-one and played video games or went out to eat and caught up with their lives on a deeper level. “I never should’ve bought him that coffee.”
Once they got to Marjorine’s house Stan knocked on the door which was quickly opened by Kenny.
“Hey dudes.” Kenny smiled, showing his slightly crooked teeth. “Guess who we have here today.” Kenny fully opened the door and the three of them went inside, there, sitting on her usual spot was Heidi, she was looking down at her lap, reading a book which she quickly lost interest in when she saw them walk in.
“Heidi! What’s up?” Stan asked as he bent down to give her a quick hug, Tweek did the same after him. Stan took a peek at what she was reading, the book was pretty long, and the font size was indecently small, the book was filled with notes, some words were highlighted and there were small Post-its that stuck out from the sides. Stan remembered how tortuous it was reading books for school and how he almost never finished them.
“Hey! I’m just reading stuff for a test I have coming up.”
“Boo, what’s the read?” Tweek asked while going over to where Craig was, he gave him a quick kiss on the lips and returned his attention to the girl.
“Nothing fun, honestly. Some Freud bullshit.”
“Is that the one we don’t like?” Stan tried remembering what Heidi had told them about the guy, if he remembered correctly Heidi didn’t like him because he was too focused on the sexual drive of individuals, that and some other stuff which he didn’t remember all that well.
“Yup. I was just reading until you all got here.” She put a bookmark between two pages and closed the book, she put it aside and took a bunch of papers and set them on her lap. “Do you guys’ mind if I review some stuff while you practice?” She asked. Stan smiled, Heidi’s so nice.
“Please! We are the ones who are invading your space, you can do whatever!” Heidi chuckled in response.
“Alright.” She smiled and got to work. Stan went over to Craig; he was sitting on his spot right behind his drums.
“Tucker.” He said, pretending to be mad, he was so going to complain about those four dollars.
“Marsh.” Craig looked him up and down and then fixated his eyes on his head. “How many days have you showered in a row now? Three?” Stan scoffed in annoyance, immediately forgetting about the money.
“Okay, fuck off. Yes, I showered. What about it?” He asked, he swears he doesn’t have bad enough hygiene for these kinds of comments.
“Your hair doesn’t look like it was used to stir cooking oil, congratulations.” He said flatly.
“Wow, you think you’re so funny, don’t you?” He looked at Tweek, who was holding in laughter. “Die.” Tweek exploded and Craig looked at him with a smug smile. “You all hate me, I’m going to quit the band. What will you do then? You’ll have no singer, no second guitar and no song writer.”
“Stop crying.” Craig shushed him.
“Whatever…” He looked around, suddenly feeling an absence. “Hey, where’s Marj?”
“She’s on the phone with a friend. She’s been on it since before I got here.” Kenny said. “Shall we get in position?”
“Yeah, let’s do that.” Stan agreed and they all went to their respective places. Tweek played a little bit with his synthesizer, tuning it a little. Stan plugged in his guitar and plucked every string to check the noise each made. “We’ll be doing the whole list of songs today, does that sound good?” They all agreed. “Alright then. Tweek, give me an E, please?” Tweek nodded and played the note a few times with pauses in between so Stan could listen to his guitar. He figured the string must be getting a little old since it’s been having trouble staying somewhat in tune for the past couple days. “Ah, Craig, did you bring the sheets for Vixen and Brand New City?”
“Yup, I have them right here.” Craig said and bent down to where he had put his backpack, he opened it and took out a folder which he gave Stan. He opened it and saw four sheets per song, each of them had a different instrument. The main guitar, the second guitar and lyrics, the bass and one for the synth which Tweek had made for himself.
“Awesome.” He passed the different members their respective sheets and gave Kenny the ones that belonged to Marjorine. “How’s Tit doing? Need any tuning?” He asked, already so accustomed to the name of Kenny’s bass.
“She’s great, though the G sounds a little weird. Tweek, help me out?” He immediately played the G note and Kenny tuned it accordingly. “Cool, thanks Tweek.” Just then Marjorine came back from the small backyard she and Heidi had.
“Hey fellas!” She smiled, quickly getting closer to Stan, giving him a quick hug, she then went towards Kenny and gave him a hug too. Stan wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he counted the seconds she hugged him compared to Kenny and he was glad to see she hugged Kenny a whole second longer than him! “Sorry for the wait, my friend was in a bit of a crisis, nothing serious though. We already sorted it out.” She also gave Tweek a hug, which Stan also counted and rejoiced again, still shorter than Kenny’s.
“Thank god, he can be so whiny.” Heidi said, not looking up from her notes.
“Don’t be mean, he just has a crush!” She stayed quiet for a second. “And he’s a little whiny.” Marjorine and Heidi chuckled. “Anyway! I see everyone’s in position. Are we doing the whole list?” she asked, walking to her spot at Stan’s left.
“Yup, here, these are for Brand New City and Vixen.” Kenny handed her the papers and Marjorine thanked him with a sweet smile and took a quick look at them.
“Oh! Fun!” She put them down where she could see them and passed her guitar strap over her head.
“Do you have your electroacoustic? we’ll be needing it for a few songs.” Stan asked.
“I do! Do you want me to go get it now?” She was about to put her guitar down to go get the other one when Stan stopped her.
“Nah, it’s fine, we’ll just use that as a little break when we need it.” Marjorine nodded, leaving her guitar where it was. She had already tuned her own instrument so there was nothing left to do.
“Okay, everyone ready?” They all nodded in response. “Okay, then… One, two, three, four!” Craig exclaimed, hitting his drumsticks together for each number and then hitting both the Crash and Ride Cymbal, starting the first song they’d be playing. Stan started singing.
“I want there to be a place where we can finally do what we have always dreamed of…!”
Craig hit the Bass Drum in half notes and played the Snare in a similar manner but with a half note difference in tempo. At the same time as Craig hit the Bass Drum Marjorine and Kenny joined with their own instruments, Marjorine hit a D minor, and Kenny repeatedly plucked the A and E strings. Tweek was playing the same chords as Marjorine but instead of strumming he held the notes down.
Practice was smooth sailing this time, they practiced the covers a few times and got a hold of them pretty quickly. Marjorine gave Stan her electroacoustic guitar so he could use it in some songs like Brand New City or Sole. Once they finished all of the songs, they realized they had finished fifteen minutes earlier than usual. They put away the instruments and helped Marjorine with putting her furniture back into place. They all decided to hang out for a little bit longer except for Stan, who waved everyone goodbye.
“What do you even have to do? It’s not like you have an eventful life.” Craig mocked him, Stan rolled his eyes with a smile.
“I’m going to buy new guitar strings, asshole.” He said, heading to the door, flipping Craig off. He opened the door. “You should fuck your fiancé or something, see if that relaxes your bitchiness!” With that he closed the door, he heard laughter from inside the house. He smiled to himself and hurried to the store. It was thankfully within walking distance, the process was fast, search for the brand of strings he’s bought for years, pay and go. So, he did just that and a couple minutes later walked out of the store with the bag in hand, new strings and a few things he impulsively bought inside it.
There was another reason why he wanted to go early, he didn’t want to lose the chance to see Adam, and more specifically, ask if he was going to go to the gig or not. He arrived at the train station a little breathless from trying to get there as soon as possible, he checked the time on his phone. Great, he still made it. He waited patiently for the train to arrive, scrolling on his phone as more and more people walked down the stairs and waited along with him. A couple minutes later he felt and heard the station vibrate signaling the arrival of the train. Once it stopped, he and a bunch of other people got on, making the space cramped. He clung a little tighter to his guitar the moment he felt it move slightly. The train started and Stan immediately started looking for the ginger. His eyes rapidly scanning the whole train, his search was unsuccessful, maybe he got on the train before this one? Or maybe the one after? He was about to go to the next cabin when a hand pulled him by the arm, he let out a yelp and looked behind him.
“Hey. Sorry for scaring you.” Adam laughed lightly and it was obvious there wasn’t an inch of regret in his eyes. “I was just so close, and I couldn’t let you get away.” Stan laughed.
“So you pulled me and made me embarrass myself? Wow…” He joked.
“Well, yeah, it would’ve looked weirder if I just chased you down.” Stan nodded noticed the same book the ginger had been reading the other day and decided to ask him about it.
“What are you reading?”
“Oh, just some stuff for one of my classes, it’s about some of Freud’s theories.” Now that’s a familiar name, Heidi struggling to remember all of what that man had to say immediately brought a smile to his face. He was about to mention his knowledge about the man when Adam looked down at Stan’s hand that was holding the bag. “What’s in the bag?” Stan looked down to the bag as well for a second.
“Oh, just some stuff I bought from a nearby music store. Wanna see?” He asked and Adam nodded eagerly. Stan smiled and pulled the first item from the bag. “Well, I bought new strings because my E string was too old and keeps going out of tune. Uhm… I also bought this cotton cloth because the old shirt I use to wipe my guitar is falling apart,” he said, showing a white square cloth that he bought, it wasn’t expensive, but it was certainly a weird impulse buy since he could’ve just used another old shirt. “I also got…” He dragged on, searching for the item in the bag. “Guitar picks! I keep losing mine so I figured I would just get new ones for when I lose the ones I already have.” He looked up at the ginger and melted at how he looked at the picks with interest.
“Can I…” Adam asked, gesturing at the box.
“Of course!” He put the little box full of guitar picks in his hand. “What’s so interesting about them?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen these many guitar picks together, and these ones have cool color gradients and patterns, all I’ve ever seen are black and boring.” he said, observing them slide inside the box as he moved them around.
“Wait, so you don’t play guitar?” Stan asked, noticing how Adam had said ‘seen’ and not ‘had’.
“Well… does an unhealthy amount of Guitar Hero count?” Stan chuckled at his answer.
“I guess it’s fifty percent of the job, so I’d say it counts, yeah.” He joked back and they both laughed. It was cool to know they both liked Guitar Hero, Stan used to play it all the time, either on his Nintendo DS Lite or his Xbox 360.
“But no, I don’t really play any instrument, I mean, I learned guitar when I was in elementary, but it was really basic stuff and I already forgot how everything I learned. I never played any instruments after that.” He admitted and Stan felt a goofy smile creeping past his lips as he imagined the man in front of him as a little boy. “I’ve always wanted to learn, though.” He smiled, looking into the other’s eyes.
Well… I could teach you, it’s not actually that hard, besides, it’d be fun, we could play songs together.”
“I’d love that but I’m sure you’re busy with your band and stuff, I wouldn’t want to bother you.” He said, sheepishly rubbing the little box of picks with his thumb.
“Please, I’d love to teach you.” Stan insisted. “Actually…” He dug his hand into his pocket. “Here, to get you started.” He placed his guitar pick on Adam’s palm. Adam looked down at it, eyes wide in surprise.
“I- uhm… I can’t- … are you sure you want to give me it?” He looked at Stan.
“Of course. Think of it like a promise. I am going to teach you how to play guitar.” He warmly smiled at the other, trying his best to ignore his wild heartbeat.
“Oh, okay then. I- thank you.” He looked away a little embarrassed.
“And talking about music… are you going to be able to come to my band’s gig?” Adam’s shoulders seemed to deflate at the question.
“Oh, right, about that… I… I won’t be able to go. Sorry.” Stan’s stomach dropped and he felt his heart break. Adam must have seen his saddened expression because he immediately explained himself.
“I really wanted to go but my friend is doing a gig as well and I can’t not go, she’s been talking about it for a while, and I promised her I’d be there since I’ve never been to any of her concerts. I’m sorry.”
“No, I completely understand. You don’t have to explain anything to me, really.” Stan tried to hide his disappointment, it wasn’t Adam’s fault, he just already had a commitment he had to attend to. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to go. Stan repeated in his head, forcing the knot in his throat down.
“I promise I’ll go next time!” Stan felt so dramatic for feeling like crying just because the other couldn’t come to his gig, he felt pathetic, to be honest.
“You don’t have to-“ He tried to say.
“But I want to. So, make sure to tell me when you’re doing another one, okay?” The ginger interrupted, lowering himself a bit so their faces could be closer together, then, he looked outside. “Your station’s next, isn’t it?” Stan looked outside and read the name of the station they were currently in.
“Oh, yeah. How did you…?”
“I, uh, memorized it.” He looked elsewhere, a little embarrassed and with reddened cheeks. Suddenly, Stan didn’t feel so sad anymore. He smiled, that meant the ginger was at least interested in him, right? Surely. “See you tomorrow?” He asked, smiling somewhat sadly at him.
“Of course.” Stan kept his balance as the train stopped at his station. He started walking away from the other, readjusting his grip on his guitar “See you.” He waved, smiling seeing Adam wave back.
The walk home was quiet without Kenny, his only company being the pit in his stomach knowing he had lost his chance to see Adam outside the subway. Well, he had at least promised to teach him guitar, so that’d make it so they’d have to meet another time. Stan took out his phone and texted Kenny.
r you having dinner at marjs orrrr
she offered me but i declined
fucjing idiot.
WOW.
OKAY.
love you
ill cook us dinner then
thx ill be back in like 40 mins you dont have
to wait for me if you dont want to
nah ill wait
ily dude
love you
Once he arrived home, he prepared enough food for four people, that way they’d have leftovers they could eat for lunch tomorrow. The food was simple enough. Some chicken they had bought a while ago and had been sitting in the freezer and some rice, he personally enjoyed adding carrots and a little bit of onion to his rice and he knew Kenny liked it too, so he did just that, the whole meal was ready in about half an hour. With the few minutes spare he had he replaced the strings of his guitar and tuned them correctly, he practiced some of the chord progressions he was going to be playing on Saturday and thanked god he was only a second guitar and didn’t need to do all the fancy shit Marjorine did, he could not do that while singing, he’d mess up all the notes. While he practiced, he heard the doorknob twist and soon saw Kenny come in with his backpack falling off his shoulder.
“Hey, dude!” Kenny greeted. “How are those strings feeling?”
“A lot better, didn’t realize how messed up they were.” He left his guitar aside, turning off the amp before disconnecting it from the guitar. “What did you guys do while I was gone?” He asked while he rolled up the cable in a specific motion so it wouldn’t get damaged.
“Oh, Marj got another call from her friend, that lasted a couple minutes. Marj was so frustrated with him it was honestly a little scary.” Kenny shuddered at the memory of Marj groaning in annoyance at something her friend had said.
“What did the guy do?”
“Marj didn’t tell us much but from what I heard the guy and her had agreed on him going somewhere but then he didn’t because of some compromise he had with her.” He explained, leaving his backpack on the couch Stan was currently sitting on. Kenny opened his bag and took out his water bottle and plastic tupper along with a fork.
“That’s pretty confusing…”
“I know right? It required some heavy mental gymnastics to figure out what was happening just from hearing one side of the conversation.” He walked to the kitchen and left all the items in the sink.
“And you absolutely did not eavesdrop because you were jealous.”
“Of course not.”
“Of course.”
“Anyway, I’m starving. Shall we start eating? It smells really good.” Kenny popped his head out from the kitchen and signaled for Stan to follow him.
“Well thank you, I’m just such a great cook.” He bragged as he walked to the kitchen.
“Your only good quality.” He said once Stan came through the door.
“Hey!” Stan shoved him with his hand, laughing.
“Joking!” Kenny pushed him back with his hip, getting some ceramic plates out from one of the cabinets. They fell back into their usual routine; they served dinner and went to the living room to eat it. “Should we just put on an episode right now or…?” Kenny asked, grabbing the TV remote from the coffee table.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea, then I can work on an essay I have to do.” Stan agreed, Kenny stared at him with eyes as wide as plates and mouth agape. “…what’s wrong?”
“I have an essay due tomorrow.”
“And you haven’t done anything?” He guessed; it wasn’t unusual for Kenny to do things last minute. But despite always doing them in a rush he always ended up with a pretty good grade. Perks of being a genius, Stan guesses.
“Two pages out of fifteen.” He spoke like his soul had left his body.
“Yeesh. So… no Adventure Time?” Stan was about to grab the remote from Kenny’s hand to turn the TV off when Kenny sighed.
“No, no. Let’s watch it. This will be my last moment of peace before torturing myself for seven hours straight.” He said, taking a bite out of his food and relaxing on the couch.
“Sure, then. Let’s watch it.” Stan smiled as Kenny put on the chapter they were yet to watch.
Today had gone well, he felt content. He felt satisfied in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time.