Kenny McCormick saw things.
Things nobody else noticed.
Things they would openly ignore.
He saw them all.
The failing marriage that was Stan's family, the insane expectations and disapproval that was Kyle's, the need to be told no that was Cartman's, the horrors that was Butter's...
He saw what others couldn't.
The abuse the goth kids felt.
The neglect Clyde Donovan felt after his mother's death.
The loneliness of Token Black.
The insanity of Tweek Tweak.
The need to be beautiful of Bebe Stevens.
The guilt of Wendy Testaburger.
He saw more. So much more, but there was one thing that he saw more than the others.
The pain of Craig Tucker.
It was so blatantly obvious if anyone cared enough to look...to see him. Craig Tucker was hurting and it hurt Kenny to see it. It wasn't right. Craig Tucker hurting like this wasn't right...but what could he do? He was one of the last people Craig would accept help from.
Didn't mean he couldn't try.
He would do anything for that boy.
"Kenny? Is something wrong?"
Kenny looked down to stare at his little sister. She just entered middle school. She was growing too fast.
"I'm just worried for a friend."
"Then why don't you help them?"
"I'm gonna try."
His sister gave him such a pleased, innocent smile that it brought a similar one to his face. His little sister was a perfect rose in a world of thorns.
He begun to notice how Craig Tucker was beginning to spiral out of control. It was smile at first. He was just more irritable lately and got into trouble more.
Then it got bigger. Bags under his eyes from sleepless nights, slow but gradual weight loss, the dull eyes of lost hope. Kenny recognized these signs and it filled him with such dread that he hadn't slept right for almost three weeks. Craig Tucker was losing himself and Kenny needed to stop it.
One night sleep evaded him and Kenny felt the need to get up and leave. To just walk. Somewhere...Anywhere...He just needed to walk.
So that's what he did.
And it was a good thing too.
Craig Tucker was sitting in the snow on the side of a quiet rode, clad in nothing but a pair of tight jeans and a wife beater. He must of been freezing. Before Kenny placed his own parka over the noirette's shoulders he saw them...The fading bruises. The cuts. The scars. The marks that marred Craig Tucker's once flawless skin. It pissed Kenny off, but he didn't say anything. All he did was sit beside Craig and pull the boy close to his chest. He was shaking. Weather from the cold or something else, Kenny wasn't sure. Finally, after mere minutes of the silence between them, Kenny felt the shaking speed up and heard the almost indistinct sob the was wrenched past icy blue lips.
Craig Tucker was crying in his arms. Kenny wanted to make them suffer, whoever made HIS Craig cry like this.
Kenny managed to coax Craig into standing, the occasional sob or sniffle still escaping. He walked him home and his parting words were the only words he spoke that night, simple and meaningful:
"I got you, Tucker. I'll be your rock this time."
Fresh tears rolled down Craig's cheeks and he hugged Kenny quickly before darting inside.
Kenny McCormick noticed things.
Like the small glimmer of hope he created in Craig Tucker's eyes.
Kenny hoped things would get better for Craig, but he was wrong. The weight loss he noticed on Craig increased. He began shaking ever so slightly and scratching at his arms when he thought no one was looking.
Kenny McCormick knew drug abuse when he saw it. He wanted to confront Craig, but couldn't bring himself to do it...And he regretted that action every single day after he saw Craig Tucker that one innocent morning.
Rape.
Craig was raped. He could see it right there in his eyes. Fury like no other engulfed Kenny's being and he wanted to hurt who did it. He wanted to ruin them like they ruined Craig. This time he was determined to confront Craig, but the other lost him in the crowd of students.
Kenny didn't see him for the rest of the school day.
He was worried.
Kenny snuck out that night and made his way across town to the Tucker residence. He knew where Craig's bedroom was, it hadn't changed since they were kids and Kenny managed to heave himself into the tree that grew right alongside the house. It was a bit of a hassle, but Kenny managed to slither through the window in the end.
Craig looked bad.
Actually, bad was an understatement.
He looked completely and utterly ruined.
Just like before, Kenny kept quiet as he slid under the shocked boy's covers and pulled him close.
Just, like before, he said only one thing that whole night.
"I got you."
That night, Kenny, against his better judgement, acted on his feelings and kissed Craig Tucker.
He was completely and irrevocably in love with this boy.
The glimmer of happiness...of hope that shone bright in Craig's eyes made Kenny want to sing. He had made Craig feel better.
A month and Craig did nothing but smile and laugh.
It took less than ten minutes for a month of happiness to turn to sorrow.
Tammy Warner approached him, asked him for a quick fuck after school.
He turned her down as politely as possible and what did she do?
She kissed him.
Right there, in the hallway.
People were whispering and he remembered the tears in his Craig's eyes as he ran off.
Kenny called out to him. It wasn't what it looked like. He loved Craig and only Craig, but the boy was already gone.
Kenny left school and looked all over town for Craig, even called his parents but they seemed convinced Craig was fine and would come home. That is, until night fell and there was still no sign of Craig Tucker. People called and called his phone to no answer. Kenny contacted as many of their friends as he could to help out in the search for a rogue Tucker. The police sent out search dogs.
Oh why...why hadn't they looked by the lake earlier.
"Craig!"
His name was a sob wrenched out of Kenny's throat as finally found him.
He dropped into the snow next to Craig and sobbed, sobbed so loudly as he tried desperately to wake him.
No heartbeat.
The days following were a blur for Kenny. People seemed to be walking around school in a daze, not comprehending what had happened to one of their own. What they had let happen to him.
They did this and it was their fault.
"H-Hey Craig. I miss you...I need you to come back to me...I love you. You're my world and I need you. Please, Craig."
Kenny's words were spoken numbly as if from a different person.
It's been two weeks.
Three.
Four.
A month...then two...
Kenny visited the same place everyday. Even months after it happened, no one seemed to believe it yet.
Craig's family was in shambles.
His father never came home anymore, his mother driven to drink, and his usually snarky sister that was so much like him shut down completely as she did everything she could to keep her family together.
It was their fault.
No...this was his fault. Kenny did this.
Six months passed.
Kenny McCormick used to see things.
Things no one else saw.
But not anymore.
His whole word was focused on the thing he had lost.
On his Craig.
He missed him so much.
"Please...Come back to me..."
He was there again. In the same place again and pleading with his very being to see Craig's smile again.
And he did.
"Hey Kenny..."
Craig had woken up.