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“Ken!!! C’mon, we'll be late!!!” Butters called, starting to get even more nervous
“I'll go when Lemon stops being a little shit!!!” Kenny shouted back from a couple rooms away.
Butters chuckled (nervously or amusedly, not even she knew), rushing to the room where her boyfriend was. Shadow greeted her by nuzzling her snout against Butters’ leg, soon running back to her human’s side, who was struggling to get Lemon to wear his harness - the cream-colored puppy was fighting Kenny's grip, his paws kicking and moving quick as a tornado.
“Need help?” Butters laughed, kneeling by Kenny's side.
“Please” Kenny begged, passing the pup to his partner. At the contact of Butters' hands, Lemon instantly calmed down, almost not complaining when Kenny finally put the harness around his body. “Why does he like you better? This isn't fair”
Butters giggled at Kenny's moping, attaching the small rainbow flag to the pup’s neck.
“Fair or not, we gotta go” Kenny nodded, and as he stood up picking up his cane, another small dog appeared from behind a wardrobe and jogged towards them. “Where’d ya come from lil’ fella?” Butters asked the puppy, lovingly scratching behind his ears as he gave a small bark.
“He's been so chill since I gave him his flag, I think Kafka's gotta be gay at this point” Kenny joked, helping Butters up.
“Oh, definitely” Butters laughed, kissing her boyfriend's lips - such a small gesture, but it still gave her butterflies every time.
Kenny and Butters had been dating for almost four years now, all since that one Crimson Dawn concert neither of them would ever forget. They'd moved to LA about a year ago - the moment they had money for an apartment - and for possibly the first time they both felt safe and loved. It was nice, Butters thought. She wasn't sure if she believed in soulmates, but she was sure Kenny couldn't not be hers.
“You look cute buttercup” Kenny smiled, booping her nose. Butters blushed - she'd been doing her makeup for almost an hour, making an effort to get it to look queer but also subtle as she didn't want to be too noticeable. The usual fear, probably.
Butters had escaped her parents’ house more than ten years ago, but they had kept harassing her - and by extension, her friends - up until she'd left South Park once and for all. She hadn't heard of them since but, well, old habits die hard. She kept feeling watched everywhere, afraid of being seen just in case her parents were somewhere around. Although, there was absolutely no way they'd go anywhere near a pride festival.
After living in such a technically-progressive-actually-bigoted-as-heck town for their whole lives, going to pride was something that didn't exactly scare Butters, but it… kinda did. She knew Kenny felt similarly, as much as he tried to hide it she could see the look of fear in his eyes every time something his parents wouldn't have approved of was brought up, mainly if it was related to him. Besides there not being pride in South Park, the reason why they had never gone was that neither of them felt ready just yet, and they silently decided they'd wait till they did so they could make the most of it.
And, well. That was the year. The year in which Kenny and Butters would go to their first pride parade.
Her and her boyfriend's hands tangled, they exited their apartment, Shadow proudly marching before them and her two puppies trailing closely behind.
It's real. Butters thought, a sudden wave of excitement washing all over her. It's finally happening.
* * *
They had been incredibly lucky, honestly. Clyde already lived in LA, although too far from Kenny and Butters' house to hang out often, and he'd invited Tweek and Craig over for the former’s summer break. Stan and Kyle were also there, visiting some relatives of Stan's whose name Butters didn't even know. Heck, even Tolkien and Nichole were there, staying at a hotel for an event with her fans - who knew streamers had such wide communities?
So, well, since everyone was in the same city, they'd decided why not go to pride together?
They'd agreed to meet up close to where the parade would begin, but almost an hour before it did so they could catch up for a while. It had already been half a year since Butters had last seen Stan and Kyle, a lot longer since she'd met up with any of the others, and even though they called and texted often, there were still many things they needed to talk about.
Kenny squeezed her hand, and following his gaze, Butters could see Craig and Tweek holding hands as usual - the former’s appearance unchanged, he still even wore his old chullo hat, while the latter’s seemed to be too, although it was hard to tell with the rainbow flag wrapped around his shoulders.
“Craigory! Gay as always I see!” Kenny shouted out, getting laughter out of his girlfriend and a middle finger from his friend.
“Cállate pendejo!” Craig shouted back, which made Tweek and Kenny chuckle and Butters quite confused.
“You look great!” Tweek smiled at Butters and Kenny as soon as they got close to them.
“Well thank you Tweek” Butters blushed, grinning back at him.
“You too, but man did you really have to keep that old ass hat?” Kenny mocked Craig, who scoffed.
“It’s comfortable” Craig shrugged, and yeah, valid point.
“You got eyeshadow Tweek?” Butters beamed, noticing the glitter on his eyelashes when he blinked.
“Ngh- yeah! Do you like it!?”
Butters nodded, it fitted Tweek real well.
“Hey, how's it going?” Tolkien asked, walking to them, followed by Nichole and Clyde.
Whoa.
Clyde usually prided himself on managing to look good without an effort, but oh boy when he made an effort it showed. He was wearing clothes so bright and colorful it was insane, sunglasses with the rainbow flag painted on their lenses up on his forehead, and trans flags painted on his cheeks. By the description it could seem messy and effortless, but in person, he looked so awesome. His hair’s tips were dyed red and orange, a change Butters hadn't seen yet but she instantly found to be so completely Clyde.
Nichole was wearing a nice pink dress, its skirt short and fading into white by the tips, with long white silk sleeves that looked almost magical. Her hair was in two space buns, tied with ribbons, and its dark color was mixed with bright blues, pinks and yellows. She had a demigirl flag wrapped around her shoulders, and its colors matched the ones of her makeup, which was quite glittery too.
Tolkien was the only one dressed normally, but he still was wearing a bi flag as a cape, and a huge smile on his face.
Shadow barked at them happily, not having met Nichole and Tolkien before but recognizing Clyde from the couple times she'd gone to his house. Clyde’s eyes brightened at the sight of the dog, and he rushed towards her at a speed that could rival the one of light.
“Shadow! Oh, beautiful girl, how much you've grown!” He cooed, petting her head lovingly.
“Hi to you too Donovan” Kenny laughed, his look soft as he saw how happy Shadow was to see Clyde. Technically she shouldn't be pet while in service, but well, it wasn't like they cared much, mainly as it was their friends.
“If you were this nice to human girls, you wouldn't be single” Craig pointed out, absolutely no tone in his voice.
“Ay shut it Craig! I'm such a gentleman so fuck off!” Clyde cried out, not taking his eyes away from Shadow for a second, yet his voice changing into a childish tone when he went back to talking to the dog. “I’m a gentleman right beautiful? Yes I am, yes I am”
Shadow barked again as in agreement, and Butters laughed at the whole scene.
“Butters! I was painting Clyde's flags, you want me to do that for you too?” Nichole asked her, and she turned around to see how she was holding a box of multicolored makeup.
“Oh, well sure!” Butters cheered, and walked with her to somewhere they could sit down.
* * *
A few minutes later, Butters had a flag on each of her cheeks, the genderfluid flag on the left and the pan one on the right. Then Nichole did the same for Kenny, though with the common rainbow flag - he remained mostly unlabeled, and that's how he was planning to stay. She even convinced to let Craig get his own painted, which caused everyone to argue on the colors of the uranic flag until someone had the idea of looking it up on the internet.
Butters was having a real great time, and judging by her friends’ faces, they were too.
“Hey, what's with all the faggotry?”
Butters stopped on her tracks for a second, until she turned around towards the direction of the voice and recognized it as Stan's, who was walking towards them with Kyle close behind.
“Says you, who's holding your boyfriend's drink! The fuck is gayer than that?” Kenny called back, trying to repress his laughter.
Stan did, indeed, have Kyle's drink on his hands. This was obvious since, as much as Stan's drink of choice changed all the time (this time, it seemed to be a can of coke), Kyle's had stayed the same since middle school: plain and simple orange juice.
Butters, obviously, knew the reasons for this. Since he'd been used for a freak experiment in fourth grade, Kyle had trouble eating mostly anything, and orange juice was one of the few things he could get down practically every time. Well, it wasn't like Butters had known since the beginning. It wasn't until they were 17 that Kyle was diagnosed with ARFID and practically forced to get a feeding tube, so he had no choice but to let his friends know about his issues. Then when they started living together he (or, well, more like Stan) let them know about the things he could and could not eat. He had visibly gotten better since the last time Butters had seen him, even more since highschool, although he still kept wearing his tube - well, it helped him, and he'd gotten over his hate for it years ago, so that was fine.
Stan, too, had changed for the better. He looked like he was in one of his highs, either that or his depression had gotten a lot better - hopefully the latter. Butters' eyes traveled over his tattooed arms, looking at the familiar patterns. The simple trapper hat he'd gotten as soon as he turned 18, drawn on his left wrist just above the hand, too similar to Kyle's childhood hat to be a coincidence. The paw of a dog, Sparky’s paw, printed on his right shoulder. Many butterflies and stars, tattooed on almost every empty gap. Butters could remember coloring them with some cheap markers every time she was bored, and she could remember Stan looking at the now colorful drawings with the happiest look on his face. There were a few new ones, too. A wolf on Stan's left bicep. A sword and a stick, probably inspired by their stick of truth roleplays when they were kids, just below his right elbow. Those tattoos started as a way to cover old scars, but Butters knew how much he'd enjoyed them since. He liked his body a lot better than when they were kids, and this was always real nice to see.
“Touchè” Stan answered Kenny, taking Butters out of her thoughts, while Kyle scoffed with a “I can carry my drink myself fuck off” as he grabbed his drink and began angrily sipping it.
“As Jimmy would say, trouble in paradise?” Tolkien joked, receiving middle fingers from both Stan and Kyle.
“Wait, why's Jimmy not here?” Butters asked, not having yet noticed the absence of their friend.
“Comedy show at New York” Craig answered nonchalantly.
“Cartman's missing, too” Kenny pointed out “Any news from him Kyle?”
“Busy running his casino at Vegas, he says he doesn't trust any of the employees to be in charge and that he doesn't want to get infected by our gayness” Kyle told them, sipping on his drink. ‘As if he wasn't the gayest out of us’, he didn't say, but it wasn't necessary - that was already common knowledge “Collins says have fun and don't get AIDs, Sam tells us to go fuck ourselves, Anne asks you Kenny to say hi to Karen for her”
“On it” Kenny answered with a chuckle as he pulled out his phone.
“Talking about Karen” Craig interjected, a bit lost in the conversation “Tricia sent me this picture yesterday”
He pulled out his phone, an image of Tricia, Karen, Firkle and Ike in colorful clothes and with flags wrapped around them filling his screen. All of them, besides Firkle, had huge smiles on their faces, Tricia was kissing Karen's cheek, and Ike was making a dumb face at the camera. By the background, it was obvious how they were at a pride festival, and they seemed to be having lots of fun.
“Hey, why's she not sent that to me?” Kenny complained, his anger actually a joke.
“Neither has Ike, what the hell man?” Kyle followed along, his voice also lighthearted.
“Tricia and I’s relationship is just that good” Craig shrugged, the hint of a smug smile visible on his face.
“Bebe sent me a picture too!” Nichole exclaimed, holding out her phone for them to see. On the screen was a selfie of Bebe and Wendy at a pride festival, Bebe wearing clothes stylish as always and a lesbian flag wrapped around her, with a lot of makeup on her face. Wendy wore a simpler but also cute outfit, and she was holding the aroace flag. They seemed to be having lots of fun.
“I'm still not over how I turned my ex into a lesbian…” Clyde whined, which made everyone laugh. They knew he didn't have a bad intention, it was already a joke in their friend group even Bebe herself was into.
Butters was real glad she'd managed to keep such a great friend group all the way since school, she never wanted to lose them.
* * *
“It's your first time at pride, right?” Craig quietly asked Butters, getting close to her.
After a while talking to her friends, more people began arriving at the place where the parade would begin, up until the time came and everyone started gathering and following the ones starting the march. They did, too, but Craig had stopped Butters a bit before they got there.
“Yeah, why?” Butters wondered, looking at him with a puzzled look.
“It's loud as fuck, did you bring anything for yourself?” Craig questioned. Oh hamburgers, that's what Butters was forgetting… Probably seeing her look change, Craig looked into his pocket and brought out a pair of earplugs, passing them to her. “Here, I always bring extra”
“Thanks Craig!” Butters smiled gratefully, quickly putting them on. She and Craig were both aware the other was autistic, so they tried to help and accommodate each other whenever they could. It was nice.
Nodding in acknowledgement, Craig walked away, probably towards Tweek, and Butters did too as soon as she saw Kenny waving at her to get to his side, which she did.
“Here we go Buttercup” He said, holding her hand. She noticed he'd put the leash to their dogs, so she grabbed it from his hand, which he accepted without a comment.
“Ken, look!” Butters cheered, pointing at the plug in her ear.
“Hm, Craig's?” Kenny asked with a smile, probably having recognized it from all the times he'd seen him wearing similar ones. Butters sometimes forgot how close those two were.
“Yeah” She grinned back, giggling.
“Figured” Kenny laughed, and they walked into the crowd.
* * *
It was way more fun than Butters could’ve imagined. It was all colorful, rainbow flags all around her, laughter from both friends and strangers blocking the music playing from the speakers. There were chants shouted from megaphones at the beginning of the march, but they were practically inaudible by the point Butters and her group were, so they instead made up dumb stuff from the few words they could hear - “go faggots go!” “yaoi for president!”, and more sentences that got snickers out of the people around them. Sometimes, they (mostly Kenny) would even shout out silly things completely unrelated to whatever the official chants were, which would make Craig shush him with the most exasperated look ever, even though the ghost of a smile was obvious in his features. At one point, Kenny's chant was “death to straights!”, at which Stan joined between fits of laughter, which made Clyde offended (he was laughing), and got them all into an argument on whether Clyde counted as straight or not - they were cackling too hard to arrive to a conclusion.
Then the march was over, and they arrived at a square-like place with a big stage set up on it. Music was loudly playing from speakers located at random points for everyone to hear it, and there was a tiny bar at a corner - though the queue was way too long to be worth it, as Tolkien and Stan had told them when they got back from their failed mission to acquire beverages. Most people were either talking to others or singing and dancing to the songs, including Butters' group, who were having a blast. Nichole would grab her hands and dance with her to the music, both girls wheezing because of laughing so much. As soon as She Wolf began playing, everyone started screaming the lyrics, the “awoo” breaking into chuckles. It was real fun.
Then some bands went on the stage, playing songs and telling jokes. Stan, Butters and Kenny decided the following year they'd try to get Crimson Dawn together and do that too, which was pretty exciting. As the sky got darker, multicolored lights filled the stage, getting a beautiful atmosphere. As one of the bands finished their final song, the audience broke into an applause, and Butters couldn't help but laugh out of happiness. She loved it, she loved her friends, she loved having gone to pride, she loved the music, she loved the ambient, she loved that day.
Butters' gaze traveled to Kenny, who was looking at her with the softest, loving, look in his eyes. She hugged him, their mouths joining in a kiss. When it broke, both their cheeks red, they had no choice but to giggle in happiness.
Yeah, Butters thought, that day was perfect.