Work Text:
“Ugh this suuuuucks.” Stan griped, hands over his eyes.
Cartman rolled his eyes.
Stan had made his way over to Eric's house 15 minutes prior, complaining about his father's annoying habits. It had been a shared conclusion that when things went south at Stan's house, he'd be more than welcome to go to Eric's. His house had more often than not been empty, with Liane working and leaving Eric alone a majority of the time.
“I'm sorry. You're trying to focus on doing work and I'm just here complaining.”
“Stan. If you say one more negative Nancy thing I will walk over to where you're sitting and kick you in the nuts." Cartman shook his head, sighing dramatically.
“That's no way to treat a guest.”
“As if I invited you, asshole.” Cartman again rolled his eyes and grinned, dimples visible on his cheeks
Eric would never admit it, but he was grateful for these visits. Being alone in a house with a geriatric cat is more lonely than he'd care to reveal.
The two sighed. On the living room coffee table, there was homework laid out. Eric had a very strategic way about doing schoolwork. Pacing it out in a way where he'd get the papers turned in on time. Not too early so as not to come off as a nerd like Kyle or Butters, and not too late like Kenny when he had the time to get school work done. Stan had a remarkable way of procrastinating on doing work until he was frantically copying down answers from Kyle while Mr. Garrison was collecting the homework assigned a week before.
Cartman rolled a pencil in Stan's direction. The boy near dozing off on the loveseat directly in front of the coffee table. His eyes focused on the pencil threatening to fall off the table.
“..wanna…talk about it..?” Cartman cringed internally. Stan talked when he wanted to but not nearly enough about what it really was that bothered him. Just complaints about other things he barely had a hold of controlling, like veal still being a main manufacturer of the farm nearby, or how people mindlessly littered, including his own father.
Stan looked up from where he was sitting, his chin previously digging into his chest with how much he was slouching.
“...kinda..” he paused, picking up the pencil and fiddling with it methodically “but also no”
“The hell's that supposed to mean asshole?” As much as Cartman had a soft spot for the boy sporting a red puffball hat, he was painfully blunt and callous with insults.
Stan puffed out a grunt and sat up, digging his nail into the pink eraser flesh of the pencil. “It means, I want to complain about my dad more but that's such a dick move.”
Cartman barked out a laugh at that, “as if I'd care about pulling a dick move.” The older that Eric got the more he became self aware. He knew he was mean and he liked it. For the most part.
“Yeah. Also, I feel like it's kind of.” Ungrateful was the word on the tip of Stan's tongue but he didn't say anything. He felt like an asshole for even considering saying that he didn't want to complain about his dad to the one guy that didn't have a father figure at all.
“Ungrateful.” Stan winced once that word slipped out. Maybe he was scared Eric would kick him out, or choke him out, or curse at him. He didn't know why he was scared to say it to him.
“Stan, I'm going to level with you here. I don't give a shit about that.” Lie “If you wanna blab about your dumbass dad go for it. I'll join in on the shitfest”.
“ ‘sides, I got over that shit by the time I was like.. 12.” It was a rough patch in his childhood grappling with the fact that he didn't have a dad and never would, but he eventually came to accept it and decidedly bottled up any feelings on the matter. Not that he would admit that.
“For real?” Stan questioned.
“Yeah.”
“Ok.”
Stan regaled how his father had gotten drunk off his ass by day drinking and by the time he had to go to a football meeting he wasn't able to because his dad was too busy puking up his lunch in a toilet bowl all while screaming it was somehow Sharon's fault for letting him touch their “good” alcohol before 3 pm.
Cartman grimaced. Maybe he wasn't missing out by too much for not having a dad, that sounded like a real hassle.
“That sucks, what're you gonna do?”
Stan lightly punched a pillow, the poor thing having nothing to do with the boy's problems at all
“Probably nothing. There's nothing I can do. I'm pathetic. Can't even stick up to that drunk asshole.”
“Stan, you are not pathetic, I've seen my fair share of pathetic individuals and you are not on that list.”
Stan's lips tightened, holding the pillow and picking at the loose strings on the frayed cushion.
“Who's on it then?”
Stan punched out, not really thinking about it. As much as he liked to think he was a good person, he was petty and wanted to feel like he was better than others out of his own insecurity. Although he'd never say it because he wanted to be a good person. He wanted to believe that he was truly just and only stood for the good things like not bullying or saving the whales.
“Oh, Butters is number one on it for sure, that asshole is always trying to make people pity him and-”
Cartman went on about it, with details about why exactly he gave certain people their rating on the list.
“Anyways, all that to say you're not pathetic. You're like. The coolest in our friend group. Besides me of course.”
That caught Stan off guard. He didn't really think Cartman cared for him that much.
“Kinny's a poor piece of shit and Kahl's always got a stick up his ass, you're like the only normal one and actually kinda care about shit. That's not like…Stupid. Even if you are a stupid hippy.”
“..Are you serious?”
Cartman stopped his spiel and it was then that the realization he admitted that he didn't think lowly of Stan at all out loud was in the air now and not just in his journal.
He bit his lip and nodded. Cheeks flush with embarrassment for straight up telling him. It was like when he pretended to have tourettes and started admitting his deepest darkest secrets out loud. That is to say, a big pain in the ass.
“Don't tell anyone I said that though, Kahl would have a bitch fit.”
Stan laughed. He actually laughed at the insult on his super best friend.
“I promise.” He mimed zipping his lips and crossing his heart with his hand to the chubby boy.
Stan started messing with a frayed string once again, “and uh…thanks..” he smiled. A shy smile. As much as he had a feeling of being insecure and wanting to be told he was better, actually hearing it was cathartic in a way that he wasn't entirely comfortable being face to face with. He was bad with compliments.
After that, the duo worked on homework. Eric begrudgingly assisting Stan with bits of history and Spanish that Stan was originally not going to touch at all today, their discussion only now sparking a fuse of inspiration to try doing good on schoolwork. The work was done in a span of an hour and it was simultaneously agreed upon that they'd watch a movie before Sharon inevitably called Stan to come back home.
“This movie sucks”
“Yeah, Terrance and Phillip are truly out of their hay day now. Sucks what blood sucking Hollywood will do to celebrities.”
Stan laughed at that, a soft one that could easily go unnoticed If not for Eric sitting right next to him. Eric liked that Stan was secretly mean. It made him feel more human. Not that he put him on a godly pedestal or anything, but it gave him an air of being closer to how Eric thought than he previously believed.
The two focused back on the movie, blue light bouncing off their faces.
“You know, Cartman, your eyes are actually kind of cool.”
….