okay so this is the mentioned sequel to "love wins"

if you don't read that first you may be confused but thats fine I guess

now it's cartman and kyle's turn to bond

credit to giobobobo to the pic!

also, I don't own south park~

please enjoy

Stay awake. Stay awake.

Was it really that hard to do?

Just stay awake.

Cartman found himself failing to do so, as his eyelids stubbornly wanted to close and rest. He fought to keep them open, but this lecture was so boring.

Not only was he tired, he was distracted. He couldn't stop looking at Stan. Occasionally the two would meet eyes and share a smile. Stan would turn his attention back to the teacher, but Cartman couldn't take his fluttered attention off his new boyfriend. If he was confused as hell on the homework, the dirty blonde will just blame it on Stan for distracting him. Of course, Stan would probably retort with something like, "I'm not that interesting."

Cartman sighed and leaned back in his chair, swinging his arm around the backside in an attempt to get comfortable, but nothing really seemed to workー these school desks were satanic. Designed for discomfort. They could at least pad the chair, but no. A clear sign they want students to suffer in every way imaginable.

The large make cracked his knuckles rather loudly, earning some disgusted looks shot his way.

"What? I'm just popping some bubbles," Cartman whispered loudly in defense, carelessly as usual.

"Eric?" The bitchy teacherー what was her name?ーsuddenly addressed him.

He slightly turned to face the front of the room. "Huh?"

"Am I to take your noisome behavior as an offer to answer this question?"

Cartman didn't even know she had asked the class a question.

"No ma'am," he rolled his eyes.

"Then I'll just select you to come and answer it," she replied snakily, holding out the white stub of chalk in front of her as a signal for Cartman to come up and take it.

Fuck. Normally Cartman would chew his way out of something like this, even if it resulted in going to the office. But things were different now. He couldn't stop thinking of Stan, what Stan would think. How he'd react. What he wants. Stan probably wouldn't want to see Cartman get himself in trouble. So great. There was no way out of this one.

Cartman slowly pushed his chair back from his desk and waddled up to the front of the class, taking the chalk. "I can solve this, no problem," he said, putting up his pride barrier. Maybe he could feel their witch of a teacher feel stupid by just solving the problemー

He raised the chalk and turned to the board, only to find a plague of gibberish wash over him. It was like a whole different language, he had absolutely no idea what to do. It was probably a simple math problem, but he hadn't been paying much attention, as much as he tried. He fiddled with the chalk anxiously until he heard the small clearing of a throat behind him.

Subtly, he turned to face the class and was surprised to see Kyle trying to get his attention by wavering his fingers. Once he had the larger male's attention he held up a small piece of paper that Cartman had to squint to read.

The answer is 23.

Cartman shook his head slightly. What? Two threes? That didn't make sense.

Oh wait. He remembered learning those symbols. He tried to remember what that one meant.

But he couldn't. Time to make a guess.

He smiled cockily and turned to the board, writing out the answer.

"The answer... is... six," he said confidently, smacking the chalk down on the metal ledge and whirling around to return to his seat. He plopped down and heard some chatter and laughter among his peers. Furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, he looked at Kyle, who had his face in his hands, and over to Stan, who was trying to contain his laughter by burying his head in his sleeves face down on his desk.

"No, Eric," the bitch said, not sounding the least bit surprised as she erased Cartman's writing and replaced it with her own. "The answer is two cubed. The evaluation of this expression should be simple-"

Cartman tuned the rest of her out as he slumped in his seat. This was nothing new, and it was starting to get tiresome. He just wanted to get out of there already.

It seemed like ages before the bell finally rang.

Cartman caught up to Stan and Kyle who were chatting by their lockers.

Stan shot Cartman an amused look. "Nice one," he said with a big smile, still finding the situation funny. Cartman chuckled in response.

"Anything to make the bitch mad," he tried, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. "But it's not all my fault. Kyle egged me on."

"I did not," Kyle replied quickly, like he expected the other male to say such a thing. "I told you the answer. But you read me wrong. I told you before, you're not supposed to multiply the numbers in that case."

"Then what do you do, teach?" Cartman grunted, slumping against the wall.

"We've been over this," Kyle put a hand on his hip. "When the arithmetic powerー I mean, small number, is there, you take the bigger number, and multiply it by itself that many times."

Cartman grumbled. He recognized that explanation and mentally scolded himself for constantly forgetting. "Okay, I got it."

"You sure?" Kyle smiled down at him in disbelief.

"...no," Cartman reached into his jacket pocket and started again on an unfinished bag of cheese puffs. Eating a snack always made him feel better.

"Don't worry," the red-head said, the humor in his voice gone, replaced by a sweet tone. "You'll get the hang of it."

Cartman was surprised by his transition and peered at Kyle. "Whatever you say, Jew," he simpered and stuffed another handful of chips into his mouth.

"I'll take that as a confirmation," Kyle said before sitting down a couple feet away from Cartman, leaving room for Stan to sit down in the middle, but he shook his head.

"Sorry guys, I have to go home." Stan said, adjusting the straps from his back on his shoulders comfortably. "Rascal will get anxious if I'm gone too long."

"Right, I keep forgetting," Kyle said, putting a hand to his forehead. Rascal was the name of an injured raccoon that Stan had found recently, and naturally he took it into his care as was nurturing it back to good health himself.

"So sweet and typical," Cartman laughed, tossing the now empty back in the nearby trash bin. "Have fun making love to the rodent."

Stan ignored that comment. "See you guys later," he smiled sweetly at his two boyfriends and was out the door within the minute.

Kyle and Cartman both saw him off with a returning smile and waved. When Stan was out of sight, they both relaxed.

"He's so happy," Kyle pointed out, still gazing at the doors Stan had disappeared out of just a moment ago.

"Yeah," Cartman agreed, for he had been thinking the same thing. Ever since they'd become a trio Stan had nearly smiled more between then and now than he ever had his whole life.

Kyle reached around and took a book out of his bag and placed his thick red glasses on his face and began reading. Cartman sighed quietly. When the Jew started reading, there was no getting him out of it, with the exception of Stan. Nothing else seemed to distract Kyle enough to take his nose out of a good book.

Guess that cancels out small talk, Cartman thought, taking out his own textbook from another class and figured he might as well tackle the reading assignment. He had gotten better about doing those, cause they sure beat math. But it still bored him half to death.

His thoughts went back to the classroom. If he would just pay attention, he wouldn't have those problems, and he would never be laughed at. For the first time in his life Cartman was being slapped with insecurities every day. It all started when he fell head over heels for Stan. He never felt the need to improve himself, until now. But it was so much work. Why wouldn't he just be born perfect, like Kyle?

Wait, Kyle?

Cartman averted his eyes over to the red head, who was still reading his book. Unable to take his eyes off of him as a result of his thoughts, he went into another spacious ponder.

Kyle didn't need to change in order to impress Stan. Well, he wasn't perfect. There were the obvious anger issues, but even he'd gotten better about those lately. On the other hand, he was attractiveー Cartman didn't question himself for thinking that, because there was strong evidence. Girls were into him, although Kyle ignored them. He had a caring personality, even if he had a funny way of showing it sometimes. He had no problems with his family. He got along with his little brother and was on good terms with his parents. He was smart, he got straight As in all his classes. He was popular, he knew almost everyone and had a lot of friends.

The more positively Cartman thought about his new platonic acquaintance, the lower he thought of himself. He wanted nothing more than to improve himself and blow Stan away. But how was he supposed to compete with Kyle? The practice of polygamyーwhich he did recall learning in their anthropology course, after giving it some thoughtー was said to be more common nowadays. But that didn't make him used to it.

He sighed and put his head in his book. What was he gonna do?

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