Chapter Text
Kenny's leg bounced as he leaned against the corrugated metal siding. He stared at the greying sky, trying to ignore the brightly flashing neon lights behind him. His hands were stuffed in pockets of his well worn second hand coat, sharing the space with about Ten dollars in quarters and a bag of lemon lavender tea drops, both extremely important to Kenny's plans for the night.
"Howdy Ken!" Butters' familer voice floated across the parking lot as its source appeared, rolling up next to him on well loved roller blades, "how long were you waiting for me."
"not long." Kenny shrugged, before pushing off the wall, Before offering hup his hand for balance.
"how in the world did you find this place?" Butters asked, taking his hand and uniting his skates, "I dont think even Wendy knows about this place!"
"uuhh, well..." kenny rubbed the back of his neck.
____
"I spy with my little Eye-"
"Informatrice this is FAR from fair, you have camRAS!"
"Mysterion are you ok?"
"well im alive."
"ugh, what happened?"
"I just gave whoever this is an excuse to get their roof redone.... did you know we have an arcade?"
-----
"just got some good connections," Kenny lied, glancing up at the roof, where the hole made by him falling through had been patched, "got your coins?"
Butters nodded, shaking his bag which jangled loudly from the coinage hitting the skates, "lets go raid the arcade!"
"hell fucken yeah!" Kenny leaned back and stumbled, tripping over his feet, before holding the door open for butters, who laughed at the display before entering.
---
"and another one down!" Kenny cheered, knocking the puck into Butter's slot,
"auh!" Butters groaned as the machine rang loudly, "How are you so good at this game?"
"Practice!" Kenny purred, "call it vengeance for you kicking my ass at skiball."
"aw, that's fair." Butters smiled, "what are we doing next?"
Kenny hummed, looking around, "what about-"
"yo! Kenny! Butters!"
"god dammit." Kenny groaned,
Clyde waved at the pair with an undue amount of excitement, Craig just behind him looking as stone faced as ever.
"how the hell?" Kenny whispered,
"not again." Butters groaned,
"Hey guys!" Clyde smiled, bouncing up to the pair with an unknowing smile, "what are you two doing here?"
"Oh we were-" Butters smiled,
"getting your ass kicked in air hockey?" Craig asked, inspecting the machine which still displayed their points,
Butters blushed, "yeah, a little."
Craig hummed,
"so what about you two?" Butters asked, "what are you two up to?"
"Oh, were having our monthly competition!" Cycle smiled, "Whoever gets the most tickets in the time limit wins!"
"oh that sounds fun!" Butters glowed, before smirking, a mischievous shine glimmering in his eyes, "How's doing two v two sound?"
Clyde glowed,
"oh that could be fun." Craig said, rubbing his chin, before turning to Clyde, "hows that sound Cly-"
"IM WITH BUTTERS!" CLyde yelled, grabbing Butters' hand
"what." Craig asked, unsure,
"What!" Kenny jumped, shocked,
"WHAT?" Butters squeaked, confused,
"come on butters!" Clyde pulled him away, dragging him off towards a far wall, "Lets kick these losers' ass!"
"wha-um but-a!" Butters squeaked as he was pulled away,
Kenny and Craig watched,
"well then."
"shit"
"sorry man, didn't mean to interrupt your date." Craig shrugged, "again."
"man I dont even know if this was a date."
Craig snorted, "you need to sit him down and talk to him."
"I'm trying!" Kenny gasped, before gesturing off the direction Clyde had dragged butters, "this keeps happening!"
"oh my god dude you're fucking cursed."
Kenny huffed grimly, "you could say that again."
"come on man, we're not gonna let Clyde win after doing that shit are we?"
"oh Fuck no!" Kenny straightened up and posed dramatically, "lets kick their asses, mostly Clyde's I like Butters's ass!"
"Fuck yeah!" Craig smiled,
-----
"Clyde, why the heck did you grab me?" Butters asked, "Ken is much better at games like these!"
"One reason!" Clyde smiled, before gesturing at the their destion, a wall covered In dance dance revolution games,
"oh." Butters glowed,
"You see the plan?"
"I see the plan," butters smirked, before humming "But do these even give out tickets?"
"I think so!" Clyde shrugged, "Lets play a round and see!"
"Ok!"
----
"so how did you and Clyde find out about this place?" Kenny asked as the pair perused the selection.
"oh, Clyde told me about it back in Freshman year, when i was living in the dorms with him." Craig shrugged, "Apparently one of our floor mates was the owners son, apparently its his side hustle slash collection display."
"oh." Kenny hummed, before bonking his foot against one of the machines with a hiss and a muttered swear,
"how about you?" Craig asked, ignoring Kenny's pain, "Did Clyde tell you?"
"not i just...stumbled into it." Kenny snickered as he recovered,
"good to know your two left feet aren't always causing you issues." Craig grinned, gently elbowing Kenny, who smirked.
Being extremely coordinated took skill, but looking poorly coordinated when you are extremely well coordinated took even more. Kenny had elected to appear as graceless as possible, both for his own enjoyment, and to help cover his nightly escapades. When you trip over air constantly, being covered in bruises isn't particularly weird. Kenny opened his mouth to keep talking, before a machine caught his eye, "Hey Craig, what about that one?"
Kenny and Craig stared at the glowing machine.
"Ninja Baseball Bat Man?" Kenny asked,
"Ninja Baseball Bat Man." Craig agreed, before the pair stepped up to the plate, and began to play.
Kenny smiled as their strange little robots slammed their bats into their enemies, before something at his side caught his eye.
"pfft," he snickered turning his attention to Craig at his side, who was practically breaking the buttons with how hard he was pushing the buttons, "Hey Craig, you're gonna break the machine if you keep smacking the buttons like that."
"huh?" Craig stopped and lifted his hands, shaking his hands out, the faint glittering colors of the machine reflecting off his skin, "oh shit!"
"getting too competitive there bud?"
"guess so..." Craig hummed, turning back to the game with Kenny.
---
"woohoo!" Clyde smiled, lifting up their shared tickets, "Butters you are a dancing machine!"
"aw shucks Clyde!" Butters blushed, leaning over the handrail of the machine, and wiping his face "your not half bad yourself!"
"Thank you, thank you!" Clyde smiled, bowing a little, to an unseen audience, "So where to next?"
"hmmm" Butters hummed, looking around, "ooo!"
"whatcha see?"
Butters smirked, looking down at Clyde,
"how do you feel about Castlevania, Clyde?"
"oh fuck yeah vampires!" Clyde glowed
---
"Kenny," Craig said, watching him carve through strange amalgamations on the screen, "Christ Kenny."
Kenny's avatar went through a loading zone, "whats up?"
"Are you good?" Craig hummed, "you've been going at this shooter for," he looked at his phone, "ten minutes now."
"yeah I'm good." Kenny smiled, "jealous you got out in the first round?"
"pfft, looking at those monster designs, hell no." Craig huffed, before shivering again,
"never took you as the easily frightened Craig." Kenny smiled
"'m not, just not a fan of games like this." Craig shook his head and watched Kenny breeze through the last level.
"is it the body horror?" Kenny said and he collected his ticket array
"nah," Craig shrugged, "Aliens freak me out.
"Really?"
"yeah."
"huh." Kenny shrugged, popping up to his feet. "how much time do we even have now?"
Craig hummed, looking at his phone, "bout 3 minutes."
"Think that's enough time for a round of Pac-man?"
"With how good we are at the game, we go for like, 5 rounds."
"That could mean we're either really good or really bad at it."
"You know the truth."
---
"You know," Clyde cocked his head, "I've never seen this game anywhere else."
"I think its a japan exclusive?" Butters asked,
"So how the hell did it get here?"
"Who knows!" Butters snickered, flipping the heavy remote, "its fun though!"
"So butters, if you had to choose," Clyde smiled, "Vampire or vampire hunter?"
"Would anyone choose hunter? Vampires get all the cool powers, and hunters are people!"
"Really? no reservations about cannibalism?"
"If I'm a vampire I'm not a human, so its not cannibalism, its just eating."
"Butters that both makes no sense and all of the sense." Clyde said
"I;m good at that," Butters said with a smile, before turning back to the game as his character was killed, "aw hamburgers,"
"Aw Damnit" Clyde growled, his character followed Butters' to its death
"well that was fu-" Butters was suddenly cut off by Clyde's phone ringing,
"and great timing!" Clyde grinned, before shaking the large number of tickets they had collected, "come on, lets go rub this in Ken and Craig's face!"
---
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE TIED?" Clyde gasped as Craig laughed, cackling loudly at the two piles of tickets,
"well we both got like 500 tickets, ergo-" Kenny smirked, gesturing at the piles,
"Shut the fuck up McCormick." Clyde jokingly glared at him, "I had a strategy this time!"
"you came up with a strategy within twenty seconds?" Craig asked, "Can you even think that fast?"
"HEY!" Clyde squeaked,
"So what are we getting at the prize counter?" Butters asked, quickly diffusing the situation, "we have like, a thousand tickets!"
"we could play a few more rounds and get that." Craig said pointing up at a large stuffed bear,
"what would we even do with that?" Kenny asked, inspecting it from a distance,
"Make war with the squid Stan, Kyle and Jimmy got?" Clyde offered.
"That doesn't sound like a...terrible idea." Butters shrugged,
----
"THIS WAS A FANTASTIC IDEA!!!!" Clyde glowed lifting the bear over his head as best he could, though the thing was about as large as he was, which made it difficult.
"So whose gets first custody?" Kenny asked,
"ugh, not me, Tweek would loose it a little"
"over a stuffed animal?"
"over where it'd live," Craig blushed a little, "we have a system-tower-village-thing for stuffed animals, and its super organized, so we tell each other when we're bringing home a new stuffed animal so the other can make it a space, but Tweek's not home right now, so, I'd just bring a massive change to the kingdom, and a temporary one. He'd panic about the sudden change and a stuffed animal being "homeless"."
"oh,"
"that's kinda adorable. actually." Butters grinned,
"please tell me you do mock warfare with the stuffed animals." Kenny smirked,
Craig went red.
"oh my god you totally do." Clyde snickered,
"Anyway, Clyde you take it." Kenny smirked, "Butters and I are got some other shit to do."
"ooo!" Clyde brightened squeezing the bear a bit tighter, "what are you guys gonna do?"
"We're gonna go get some food, nothing super wild." Kenny shrugged, catching Craig's eyes.
"oh hell yes! Come on lets-" Craig suddenly grabbed Clyde's collar,
"Have fun you two, stay safe, don't do anything too stupid." Craig called, dragging a still confused Clyde off into the darkening night.
The pair relaxed, before grinning at each other and laughing.
"ugh well that wasn't my plan for that." Kenny rubbed his neck, "so how's some food sound?"
"like a plan." Butters smiled, glowing, and the pair began to walk off,
Butters chatted endlessly, telling Kenny all about what he learned in his classes that week and what he had accomplished in his farming game, while Kenny listened intently, slowly reaching for Butters' free hand.
Kenny looped his pinky finger around Butters', and Butters stopped talking for a moment,
Before breaking out into a glowing smile, and talking Kenny's hand.
He opened his mouth to say something, before a car screeched by, and right through a mud puddle, splashing the pair with cold muck.
The pair stood in shock, soaked in cold water, mud, and gods knew what else, before Butters began to cackle, a half shocked, half angry sound as he gestured around wildly, a wordless "did that just happen?", before Kenny joined in. The pair leaned against each other, laughing hysterically in lieu of any other response.
After a few minutes, Kenny stood up properly and wiped his tear-filled eyes,
"ugh, wanna just go to my place and order pizza?"
"yes please." Butters nodded, trying to fill his tired lungs.
Kenny wrapped his arm around Butters' waist, while Butters draped an arm over Kenny's shoulders and leaned into him. Then, as if the universe was aware the night had at least one good romantic moment, the sky opened up, and cold rain began to pelt the ground.
"Shit!" Kenny gasped, opening his coat and covering the pair as they ran towards the rapidly approaching stoop of Butters' apartment.
The pair gasped for air as they ducked underneath the entry way.
"woof." Butters sighed, pushing his hair from his eyes, "Thanks Ken."
"of course!" Kenny smiled pushing his hair from his eyes. he leaned against the outer wall, inspecting Leo in the light.
The warm glow of the porch light glittered against Leo's skin, his blond hair slick against his skin as he shivered in his light jacket. he turned and smiled softly at Kenny, soft blueish green eyes glittering in the soft light, not just from the porch light, but from the soft yellow haze of the street lamps in the downpour.
Warmth grew in Kenny's chest as he beamed at Leo, before he remembered,
"oh wait!" Kenny smiled, pulling out the tea drops and pushing them toward Butters, "I got these for you! I remembered you said you really liked them!"
Butters brightened, "KENNY!"
Before tackling Kenny in a tight hug, burying his face in the crook of Kenny's neck.
"YOU'RE INCREDIBLE YOU KNOW THAT?" Butters beamed, practically glowing, and mercifully ignoring how bright red Kenny was,
Kenny smirked, "I know my shit."
"Oh, that actually reminds me," Butters smiled, "I've got two tickets to a classmates art exhibition, and there's some other artists there too, plus fancy cheese and food. Wanna come?"
"Yeah sure!" Kenny grinned.
Butters turned and opened the door, before winking at Kenny with a finger gun, "see you then!"
"cool yeah!" Kenny grinned, as the door closed. He began to walk off, the rain was finally starting to let up, and despite all that went wrong, Kenny didn't feel all that bad.
Just as he found himself thinking it, the rain began to come down harder, and Kenny swore at his luck, he still had patrol after all.