Chapter Text
Kenny smiled to himself, rereading the pamphlet. He had noticed the pamphlet after class, piled up on one of his teachers bulletin of ‘new stuff’, a board he had set up so that collage students were more aware of events and job openings in the area, especially for the less social media savvy places. The Museum of Natural Sciences and Sociology was one of these places, and had just opened a brand new exhibition, one he knew that one Butters Stotch would enjoy.
It was the perfect plan. If Butters seemed interested, it'd be an amazing first date, and if not it, well it would be a fun hang out with a friend.
He looked up and smiled,
“Hey Butters!” Kenny glowed, waving at Butters, who looked up from his book and smiled back at him,
“Well heya Kenny!” Butters bookmarked and tucked his book under his arm, “whats up?”
Kenny passed him the pamphlet, “This opened today, wanna go?”
Butters glowed, “Just you and me?”
Kenny nodded fervently, and Butters beamed even brighter. Something warm settled in Kenny’s chest at the sight.
Butters shot him a finger gun, “It's a-”
“Hey guys, what's shakin’!” Stan appeared,
“Oh not much,” Butters smiled, passing him the pamphlet, “Kenny and I were gonna go check this out.”
“Oh the new dance exhibit?” Stan smiled, “dude Wendy and I were looking at that last night, mind if we tag along?”
Kenny was pretty sure he heard glass shatter off in the distance.
“Oh uh, sure I guess?” Butters glanced over at Kenny,
Kenny sighed, “yeah fine.”
“Thanks dude!”
~~~
Kenny sighed, resigned to his fate. Stan and Wendy had tagged along, which wouldn’t be to bad since they tend to distract each other pretty well, if Kyle hadn't tagged along with them to make them prove it wasn't a date, followed in short by Craig and Tweek, who needed an excuse to leave the house, followed by Jimmy, Clyde, and Tolkien, who loved to annoy the pair. Even Butters seemed slightly annoyed by the groups presence, though that disappeared once they got into the exhibit itself.
Butters was besides himself with excitement as he rushed around, reading plaques and inspecting uniforms. Kenny followed with a warm grin, not noticing Tolkien looking between the pair.
“Oh.” Kenny almost jumped out of his skin when Tolkien spoke, “ OH. ”
Tolkien looked mortified, “was this a date ?”
Kenny half shrugged, “maybe?”
“Maybe?” Tolkien asked, “what do you mean Maybe?”
“‘M not sure how butters feels about the idea.” Kenny muttered, sinking lower into his jacket, “was gonna test the waters here.”
Tolkien hummed, and opened his mouth to say something, before Butters suddenly appeared,
“Kenny, come check this out!” He smiled, grabbing Kenny’s arm and dragging him deeper into the exhibit.
“Kenny! Kenny, look!” Butters pointed at a row of projectors pointed at the floor and the wall, each displaying the steps to a different dance. Stan and Wendy had already found the interactive display and were absolutely butchering a Charleston together while Kyle recorded with a sly grin. “Wanna dance?”
Kenny blushed and nodded. Butters brightened, before grabbing his hand and pulling Kenny under a projector displaying a waltz.
“Here, you follow!” Butters gently positioned Kenny on the projection of red shoes while he stood on the blue shoes. Kenny nodded, before gently taking Butters hand like the projection showed. Butters rested his hand on Kenny's shoulder as he rested his hand on Butter’s shoulder blade.
Kenny stared at the ground, following the shoes as they moved, and desperately ignoring the warmth in his face.
The pair followed the projection for a bit, before Butters suddenly removed his hand from Kenny’s shoulder and lifted his other hand. Kenny spun on reflex, and Butters caught him again, smiling like the sun.
Kenny smiled, the warmth settling in his chest again.
“Having fun?” He whispered,
“Absolutely!” Butters smiled, before looking sheepish, “I kinda wish we got to do this by ourselves though.”
Kenny nodded, “same, this is nice though.”
“Agreed!” Butters smiled, gently squeezing Kenny’s hand. Kenny was a little shocked at how warm Butters' hands were.
They danced there for a moment, before the group seemed to reconvene with out them.
“Oh Hamburgers!” Butters said upon realizing their friends were missing. Butters pulled away from Kenny, and for a moment he missed the warmth. He wanted to grab Butters hands and keep dancing, to ignore his friends and enjoy Butters’ presence, then Butters turned and waited for him. He shook himself, and followed.
The group was drifting out of the exhibit, Tolkien bringing up the rear, until he noticed Butters and Kenny to trying and catch up.
He stopped and let the pair catch up,
“Hey, Clyde wants to go look at the invertebrate exhibit, then we’re all go check out the dinos, if you want, you guys could meet us there, since it know Butters isn't the biggest fan of bugs.”
Butters shivered and Kenny smiled,
“Lets do that.” Kenny gently elbowed Butters,
“Ok!” Butters smiled and the pair waved a temporary goodbye, but as the pair walked off toward the dinosaur exhibit, Butters suddenly turned back toward Tolkien and the group, mouthing a quiet “thank you”, before linking arms with Kenny and dragging him off toward the dinosaurs
Tolkien smiled.
~~~
Woah,” Butters glowed as the pair passed underneath the large model dinosaur that marked the entrance to the exhibit.
“Hey butters look.” Kenny pointed off in the opposite direction,
“Hm?” butters turned, only to be met with the large maw of a dinosaur, full of razor sharp teeth,
Butters screamed and Kenny cackled,
“That's not funny Kenny!” Butters groaned and Kenny laughed harder,
Butters rolled his eyes, before the pair pushed deeper into the exhibit.
Dinosaurs weren't really either of their things, but the models were neat to look at.
"woah!" Kenny glowed, staring up at the large animatronic T-Rex, before snickering.
"what?"
"its got a asshole." Kenny whispered,
Butters and Kenny sat there snickering for a moment, before moving on to a different model.
"is it a triceratops?" Kenny asked,
"it looks like one?"
"yeah but, whats with its horns?" Kenny pointed at the weird double horns on top of the dinosaurs crest,
"hmm." Butters hummed, before he took a breath, before gently reaching for Kenny's hand.
their knuckles brushed,
"KENNY, BUTTERS!" Clyde's voice floated through the exhibit.
Butters wanted to scream.
They turned toward the sound, where Clyde waved at the pair as Tolkien stood next to him, looking guilty.
"dude, we're like 100 feet away." Kenny glared at Clyde,
Clyde blushed, as Tolkien rolled his eyes.
"wheres everyone else?" Butters asked,
"Craig saw a space projector and wandered into the gift shop, everyone else followed."
"ah."
~~~~~
"That looks fake." butters said, glaring down into the display case. A large sign above read 'oldest bugs in the world!'.
"Right?!" Tolkien gasped, gesturing down at what sat in the display case. It was a piece of amber, about the size of Kenny's palm and as tall as a soda can, and had a pair of insects trapped inside.
"I could use that as a paper weight." Kenny joked,
"pfft, could you imagine using a piece of amber with prehistoric bugs inside as a paperweight?" Clyde snickered,
"Talk about a flex." Butters smiled,
"I think they actually sell replicas in the gift shop?" Tolkien mused, "want to go meet up with the others and check?"
"ooo, gift shop." Butters glowed,
"yeah lets go!" Clyde smiled,
Kenny gave a thumbs up, and the four wandered up to the gift shop.
~~~~~~~~~
Kenny knew that gift shops were dangerous places to go. His friends proved that in spades.
Kyle, Stan, and, Jimmy seemed to be pooling their cash for...something, Wendy was inspecting all the jewelry the gift shop had, Clyde was playing with the magnet toys the gift shop left out for kids to play with. Tolkien and Butters were inspecting the shockingly realistic replica paperweights of the amber from the dinosaur exhibit, all while Tweek was attempting (and failing) to convince Craig not to get a space projector.
Kenny smiled, having elected to flip through and make fun of the post cards next to the jewelry section. He froze, lifting one from the array.
"wendy." Kenny said, trying to grab her attention.
"Oh god how bad is this on,- holy shit." Wendy gasped, holding a pair of transparent pink dinosaur earrings, "is that?"
"I think so." Kenny held back a shocked laugh.
"wow," Tolkien said, leaning over Kenny's shoulder, "didn't know we're advertising that the city has a vigilante."
"apparently." Kenny shrugged.
It was clear that whoever took the picture took it in a rush. It was taken at an angle, and showed 'Mysterion' about to vault off the roof, his cloak swirling behind him.
"I think i need to get this," Kenny gasped, attempting not to laugh at the absolute ridiculousness of the situation,
Wendy fished another postcard of the same variety from the box and held it up, "hey Tweek!"
Tweek looked up from glaring at Craig, who proudly held onto his new projector.
"Got something for your hero shrine." Wendy smiled, passing him the card
"its not a fucking shrine!" Tweek flushed, taking the post card, and inspecting it.
"its kind of a shrine hon." Craig smiled,
Tweek fumed, before sighing.
"your gonna get it, aren't you."
"yeah." Tweek relented,
"h-h-hey guys look what we got!" Jimmy glowed as he, Stan and Kyle appeared, the later pair holding up a large squid plushie.
"guys we got here on the bus," Tolkien sighed, "how the hell are we going to get that home?"
"and whose gonna keep it? i though you all had separate dorms." Clyde asked,
"we will figure it out!" Kyle glowed,
"wait Stan and Kyle aren't roommates?" Wendy asked,
"not according to the school." Stan smiled
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I cant believe they let you on." Tolkien glared at the trio,
"honestly, me either." Stan laughed the squid sitting up tall in his laugh.
Kenny smiled, watching his friends laugh. The postcard was tucked in his coat pocket, and Butters' bag leaned against his leg. the bus bounced up and down as the group chatted. Kenny was happy to merely listen and space out. Suddenly, Butters brushed his hand against Kenny's. There was a moment, their knuckled gently together as Butters stared out the window. Kenny smiled, before taking Butters' hand. His hand was warm, and soft even through Kenny's glove.
Butters suddenly shuffled closer, before turning and smiling at Kenny. Kenny smiled back, gently squeezing Butters hand.
Something warm settled in Kenny's chest again.