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Kenny grabs his backpack and sneaks out the front door, closing it as to make as little sound as possible. He made sure Karen is safe and sound in her bed before leaving the house, his parents getting high in their own room.
He looks at his outdated phone, 22:30. The sky is that magic gradient of orange meeting purple and dark blue. Streetlights have just lit up, and the stars are slowly coming out of hiding.
The blonde makes his way down the street, trying to hold his backpack as still as possible. There's some ''borrowed'' bottles of various alcohol in there, his parents don't need it anyways. He'd share it with Stan, but Kyle brought him along to his basketball game tonight. That's probably for the best.
Kenny looks one, two, three, four, five times before crossing the street. He can't count the times his bones have been crushed by tons of steel because someone was anwsering a text behind the wheel.
The blonde continues his walk until he gets to the forest next to the school. He greets the homeless people living at the entrance, before continuing to head inside of the dark woodland.
The four of them, Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman, built a treehouse in that forest for hours, every day after school. It's still up, and sturdy as hell. Kenny likes spending time there, sometimes alone, sometimes with the others. They're all alot older nowadays, but they can't seem to leave their old routines, or eachother, behind.
Today, he's alone. 'Cause he's definately not inviting Cartman to come drinking. Not a chance.
The blonde climbs up the ladder which is hammered to the tree, making his way up. But, what is that noise..? He can swear he's hearing some kind of humming.... He checks the trail before starting his ascend into the ''great entry'' of the treehouse. It's basically just a few missing planks covered with some fabric. He still hears some weird humming. He pulls the fabric aside and-
''AAAH!-''
Kenny almost falls off the ladder, before making sense of the situation.
''Jesus, Butters.. Don't make me fall off, I don't wanna have to sneak over here from my house again..'' Kenny sighs as he sits down on the wooden planks, slowly unpacking his backpack.
Butters is laying on his back on the planks, after falling flat when getting startled. There's a small, small shotsized bottle of.. something, next to him. No way, Butters? Where'd he get that?
''Stephen left the liqour cabinet unlocked?'' Kenny says with humour, looking over at Butters and his ''stash'' with curiousity. He takes note of Butters face. It's.. messed up pretty bad. He's got a split lip, and his hair is all fucked up too.
''Holy shit, did your dad get this gnarly? He couldn't just ground you or something..?'' Kenny closes in, leaning over the shell-shocked, wornout boy beneath him. He gently turns Butters face, inspecting it. He looks like he's gotten dragged through town and then back.
''I had a bad magazine in my backpack. Dad said it was for faggots.'' Butters replies with a sigh. He's never doubted Kenny for a second, so him examining his face is not a problem.
''And that's coming from the man who sneaks out to gay massage parlors in his free time? This is.. Awful. You look fucked up, dude.'' Kenny mutters while checking Butters for any critical or serious injuries. His nose looks pretty messed up, possibly broken, it's definately bleeding atleast. His eye is swollen, he's got scrapes all over his face.
''Yeah, it was pretty bad alright.. I sure won't be doing that again!'' Butters replies, with a fake smile. He could fool just about anyone with his polite manners and expressions, but definately not Kenny.
Kenny looks over at the bottle next to Butters, Jack Daniels. Maybe Butters stole it to piss off his dad further? To prove a point? Maybe to soothe the aches?
''What's up with the Daniels? You ever drank before?'' Kenny asks, as he pulls out his own bottles, lining them up next to himself. ''I was thinking of pounding some liqour tonight myself. Friday routine, y'know..'' Kenny continues and chuckles, a little awkwardly.
''Yeaah no, it was mostly to piss dad off.. I took it and ran off. They didn't even go looking for me!'' Butters says and smiles, not realizing how depressing that statement just sounded. Kenny sighs and scoots closer to Butters as he sits up. Kenny wraps his arm around Butters' shoulder, causing their heads to lean side to side against eachother. Butters smiles wide, a genuine smile.
''That's not good for ya, Ken..'' Butters says and snickers, grabbing the small bottle of Jack's next to him. ''This is more of an appropriate size, I think!'' He continues.
''Yeah, that's true..'' Kenny smiles wide along with him. He grabs the bottle, undoes the cap with a bottle opener he brought, and hands it back to Butters. ''Have a swig, dude. It's not as good as you think.'' Kenny prompts.
Butters nods, downing the shotsized bottle in one go, and immediately going into a coughing fit. ''No way!! This isn't the stuff Stan has been chugging at parties, is it!?'' Butters asks in despair, between his coughs.
Kenny laughs at the shocked boy next to him, smiling wide with a ''told you so'' expression on his face. ''Yep. Tastes like shit, right? Now you know not to drink any more of that stuff.'' Kenny says in an educating manner. Butters nods and pulls out his water bottle, trying desperately to get rid of the bitter taste in his mouth.
''So what's up? Planning to sleep the night up here? How was the rest of your day?'' Kenny asks calmly, taking sips of his own liquor, starting with a can of beer.
''Well I was planning to come down at some point, but it's pretty nice up here! I was never allowed up here with you guys back in the day, but I've always wanted to check it out..'' Butters replies, looking around the cozy plank house. Kenny feels his gut churning, that's right. The guys never wanted Butters to play with them when they were little. Kenny still feels bad about that, there was no reason to make Butters an outcast the way they did.
''Yeah, it's pretty nice alright.'' Butters continues, ''Eric was a dick today, he tried to trick me into drinking some homeless guys piss by saying it was lemonade... I haven't gotten alot smarter with time! I still keep thinking he wants to be my friend..'' Butters fidgets with his hands, looking at the scrape wounds and dried blood on them.
Kenny sighs, patting Butters on the shoulder. ''Eric is an asshole, always. Something is definately seriously wrong with his head. Try to stay away from him.'' He says and takes another swig of his beer.
''You're right about that.. Hey, Ken? Can you stay the night with me, here..? I don't wanna come down for a while.'' Butters asks, with one of the most serious, sincere voices Kenny has ever heard. The blonde nods positively to the question. ''Of course, dude. My parents won't notice me gone either, we can have a slumber party up here..'' He anwsers, chuckling lightly.
Butters smiles wide, pulling out a bag of cheesy poofs he had in his backpack. ''Bought this on the way here, we're set for the night!'' Butters exclaims with delight.
''Hey, you still got that medical kit in your bag? I wanna clean up your face. That bloods gonna itch like a bitch when it's dried.'' Kenny asks, examining Butters face further. The taller blonde nods, pulling out the disinfectant wipes from the kit in his backpack. Kenny grabs them and holds Butters face still.
''This might sting a little, just try to stay seated.'' Kenny says calmly, before starting to wipe the others nose and surrounding area. Butters whines slightly but quickly gets over it. Kenny moves over to wiping the scratch marks on the random spots of his face, making sure the wounds get clean. He tries not to get distracted by Butters big blue eyes, well, eye. They had to remove his right eye due to the damage from the ninja star. He has a prosthetic eye in place most times, it's off color and it gives him a lazy eye, so sometimes he just goes about his day without it. Kenny thinks Butters feels kinda cool without it, which is true.
''Dad told me to take out the prosthetic, he thought I looked stupid with it. Y'know, with the lazy eye it gives me.'' Butters mutters, as if he had to explain himself. Kenny doesn't care one bit, he doesn't think Butters looks creepy or weird, like many others unfortunately do. It's hard to find anything creepy or gorey when you're immortal and the universe is set to end you in the most brutal ways possible.
''What? Dude, you don't look stupid either way. Your dad needs a proper asskicking. Maybe Mysterion can do something about that..'' Kenny anwsers with a smirk. He finishes up cleaning Butters face, and throws the wipe to the corner of the treehouse.
''Heh, yeah..'' Butters chuckles at the suggestion, truly wishing that Mysterion does give Stephen a proper beatdown. God knows he deserves it.
He sighs of relief now that he feels cleaner, and lays down on his back yet again, along with Kenny. There are pretty wide cracks in the ceiling, allowing them to watch the night sky together. The planks beneath them are a little damp, but not enough to wet their clothes.
Butters lays his hand ontop of Kennys, without saying a word. Kenny doesn't have anything to say either. He just smiles and squeezes the others hand gently. Butters lets out a sigh of relief, even though he's well aware Kenny would never tell him off for something like this. Hell, they've even shared a kiss before. They were at a party and Kenny was a little intoxicated, but nonetheless.
''Hey, Ken?'' Butters asks without turning his head.
''Yeah..?'' Kenny responds.
''Can Mysterion beat up Eric too?'' Butters asks, smiling wide.
''Oh, I don't think that will be a problem.'' Kenny joins him in smiling about the thought.
''Kickass.'' Butters turns his head to look at the shorter blonde next to him, showing him his wide smile. They exchange smiles, continuing to look at night sky together.
They'll lay like this together, until the sun rises again.