Work Text:
Despite what Cartman's teasing would have you believe, it was actually Stan who suggested Kyle play the role of the Elf King. Long before the stick was an important piece of lore in their game, long before Stan changed his mind and opted to be called a Ranger rather than a Warrior, long before there was even an Elven Kingdom. Come to think of it, a lot of it was Stan's idea.
It was Stan who suggested Kyle should be an elf, who added that he could play the role of Elf King and made it clear he would be on his side as a loyal Warrior. That was later changed to Ranger at his own request, it just sounded way cooler than Warrior in the context of their fantasy game. So much of it was Stan's idea originally, he couldn't understand why so many people thought it was Kyle who came up with the whole thing.
Since the beginning of their friendship, Kyle was defined by his stubbornness and it never surprised Stan that he and Cartman always clashed with each other. Setting Cartman's usual dickish behavior aside, it was only natural he and Kyle constantly butted heads when they were both so opinionated and ultimately unable to keep their opinions to themselves for more than five minutes.
(Not that he'd ever tell Kyle that, there was no quicker way to get a punch to the face than implying Kyle was in any way, shape or form similar to Cartman.)
Of course it wasn't that Kyle wouldn't let Stan choose for himself whenever they played together, it was just that it wasn't uncommon for Kyle to get ahead of Stan whenever they pretended to be pirates or firefighters or anything of the sort. Kyle always seemed to be so full of ideas and Stan didn't mind going along with what he wanted most of the time, not when his ideas were usually pretty cool.
So it really didn't surprise Stan that people often thought — especially with Cartman's continuous snarky comments — that Kyle was the one who came up with the idea to be the High Jew Elf King, that he decided to give himself a crown, a throne, make his backyard the Elves' headquarters and appoint Stan as his loyal Ranger. He didn't correct anyone in their assumptions because...
Well, because it was embarrassing. Sure, he rolled his eyes whenever the fatass made a joke about Kyle's ego being so inflated that he made Stan call him "my lord" but in the end, he'd much rather let the other kids think that that was really what it was. Because opposing the idea that Kyle suggested his role would be having to admit that Stan chose to be Kyle's right hand man, chose to stand next to him as he sat upon a throne, chose to call him "my lord".
And the worst part was that it didn't stop there.
Lately — the longer the roleplay lasted, really — Stan had been getting way too caught up in his role in the story, he had been playing his part far too well. At first, he didn't think much of it because it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Everyone else was so invested in this that they were out there speaking like Game of Thrones characters at home, at school, fucking everywhere.
That was what he told himself when he realized it was going too far, that he was starting to do things that he really didn't have to do and he did them so naturally, unprompted. What's the big deal? Was his thought process when he first noticed it. I mean, come on, Kenny is wearing that dress almost everyday and keeps twirling his hair and giggling even when we're at school.
Needless to say, that made it easy to overlook the first times he slipped up and got too in character. Most boys his age would agree that acting was for fags but Stan hadn't seriously thought of someone as a fag since he found out his dog was gay, not to mention every kid at school that wouldn't hesitate before calling someone a fag for being into acting was also playing the same game as him. And with the same amount of enthusiasm.
See why it was so easy for Stan to convince himself that it wasn't a big deal? Alright, with that in mind and all the context you needed to understand why this wasn't as weird as it would have been in any other situation, let us take a look at the slip ups that Stan couldn't help but notice. The instances that kept him up at night, overthinking every aspect of his role.
First, there was the time he got on one knee. That one was as much instinct as the first time he called Kyle "my lord", it just felt right at the moment. Stan was about to deliver news about their latest conflict with Cartman's allies when he saw Kyle, dressed in that regal robe and that twig crown that made him look so kingly. Before he could question what he was doing, he got down on one knee.
"Dude?" Kyle asked, sounding both uncertain and amused.
It was as if he couldn't decide whether Stan was joking around or if that was just something he wanted to incorporate in their strange make-believe hierarchy. Panic rose in Stan's chest when he figured out that it was up to him to make a decision, that he had only seconds to decide which way to go about this. To laugh it off or keep a straight face. In the end, he simply bowed his head.
"My lord."
And that was the end of that. Kyle didn't laugh, Kyle didn't make fun of him. Hell, none of the other kids reacted to it. It seemed that it really was something that didn't come as a surprise to anyone, which should have told Stan all he needed to know about the way people saw his relationship with Kyle. How much they were willing to overlook because it was them.
And suddenly how much he could do became how much he could get away with doing, both in regards to how Kyle would react and how the others would view him. Those weird slip ups didn't just continue to happen, they actively escalated the more Stan told himself it didn't matter. Once he got really into it, he could do anything and it wouldn't feel weird.
It should embarrass him to no end but if Kyle didn't see a problem with it, if he didn't ask him to stop then why should Stan care? He fully immersed himself in the fantasy land they were pretending to live in, he started to refer to Kyle as "my king" and "my liege". He made a habit of kneeling before him every time he had to deliver news. He expected to be called out for it but he never was.
There was the occasional taunt from Cartman when he and Kyle were in the same vicinity as him, although Stan had a hard time taking that into consideration when it was the same shit Cartman had been saying about them since they were in diapers. It was just... Cartman. And no one else seemed to mind. In this magic reality they created for themselves, no one saw a problem in the way he treated Kyle.
Similarly to how no one cared much that Kenny wanted to be referred to as a girl, wanted to be treated as a fair lady. Somehow it didn't dawn on Stan how strange it was that a bunch of middle school boys weren't making fun of anyone for being gay until Paladin Butters let it slip that he had the biggest crush on Princess Kenny and no one — not even Cartman — made fun of him for it.
Shamefully enough, Stan started to take advantage of it. Maybe because he just had to see what he could get away with or because he liked the storyline they were creating together, he felt the urge to be protective over Kyle. And so he took his hand in his and kissed it softly, he vowed to serve Kyle until his dying breath and when Kyle laughed, it never felt like Stan was the butt of the joke.
"I just wanna know," Kyle asked him once. "Why an elf?"
They were at the park and Kyle had been reading some fantasy book, Stan couldn't be bothered to remember the name. Stan's helmet was next to them on the grass and Stan had his head on Kyle's lap, Kyle's book blocking out his view of the clouds. When curiosity won him over, Kyle questioned him about why he suggested he should be an Elf King specifically, in the beginning.
"I don't know."
"There's gotta be a reason. I mean, do I have big ears or something?"
Stan looked up and Kyle put his book down. From below, with his head on Kyle's lap, Stan saw his face upside down and it did make Kyle's ears look a bit bigger than he usually perceived them. But that wasn't what Stan felt himself drawn to, instead his eyes lingered on Kyle's nose, his lips, his pale face, his green eyes. In that moment, he knew why he thought of him as an elf. His cheeks burned.
"Dude, I don't know," he shrugged. "It was just the first thing that popped into my head."
For an uncomfortably long time, all Kyle did was stare down at him as if he was unsatisfied with his final answer. In the end, he finally went back to reading his book and Stan went back to not thinking too hard about whether or not it was weird to think of your best friend as pretty. Not pretty like Wendy or any other girl at their class, pretty in an entirely unreachable way. Pretty in a way that felt otherworldly, almost alien.
Pretty like an elf.
At one point he dozed off. Got caught up in the clouds that Kyle's stupid book was blocking from his vision and ended up falling asleep. His dreams, when they came, were mostly uneventful. The sort of absurd nonsense that you can never remember when you wake up but then, Stan saw himself kneeling before Kyle as he sat on his throne. He looked up at him in awe, his brain unable to keep up with his mouth enough to stop him from blurting out:
"Dude. You're so pretty."
And there really was no other way to describe him. Unlike every other time they played, Kyle didn't have his hat on in his dream. Instead he had the Elf King crown on top of his beautiful curls, Kyle always talked about how much he hated his hair but Stan would never feel the same way. Would never understand why he'd even hide it in every picture he took.
With his hair finally on display, Kyle looked like actual royalty. Stan had the compelling urge to grab his hand and kiss his knuckles, like he had done at least a dozen times in front of so many of their friends and allies. In any other scenario, Stan would do his best to ignore that embarrassing desire and refuse to even entertain the idea but given that this was his dream...
"My lord," Stan murmured against the back of Kyle's hand and then kissed it. "My king."
Kyle laughed, a sound that almost had Stan jumping out of his skin because it seemed way too real for comfort and he was suddenly afraid that this wasn't a dream. Yet he knew it was. Of course his mind would know the sound of his best friend's laughter, that shouldn't alarm him. With that laugh came unexpected affection, Kyle cupped his cheek gently.
When he looked down at Stan with a smile on his lips and a glint in his eyes, no word could have described him better than pretty.
"My Stan," Kyle said.
And Stan woke up, nearly hitting his head on Kyle's book when he surged up as if waking up from his worst nightmare. Behind him, he could hear Kyle asking what was wrong and telling him he scared the crap out of him but he couldn't focus on what he was saying. His mind was still stuck with the mental image of his dream, his face still felt warm from the non-existent touch of Kyle's hand on his cheek.
Stan pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Ah, shit.”