A/N: I was debating on whether or not to delete one of my older fanfics that I'm far from proud of, but I noticed something while I was contemplating… Exactly one year ago, I posted my first fanfic on this site. I know it's not a big deal for some people, but for me the realization was pretty exciting :) So in 'celebration' of that fact, I decided to write a one-shot for my OTP! Well, anyway, enjoy? :D

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who are possibly the coolest guys on this planet. Title of story was taken from Saliva's song "How Could You?" But this isn't a songfic...

And to think that I trusted him… I pulled his blue jacket closer over me in an attempt to escape the rain that was now falling in a heavy downpour. It pelted my skin like miniature needles and I couldn't help but blink every time one hit my cheek or forehead. It was so cold… I knew that I should probably head home, but I was far too cold to move at this point. Plus I was too devastated at being abandoned by my boyfriend to even care if I got a fever (which I most likely would, since my immune system was weak enough as it is.) I began to cough and sneeze, but I just pulled his coat tighter.

He had promised me that he would meet me at this very spot over two hours ago. But here I was at Stark's Pond, alone in the rain and most likely having come down with a fever. I frowned just thinking about Craig. That stupid ass hole… He probably blew me off for Tweek again. He had been doing that more and more lately. Though I was forced to ditch Stan and Kenny every time Craig wanted to get together, apparently my friends weren't as important as Tweek. Come to think of it, he had been spending a lot more time with him lately. And he had even been acting different. For one, he had stopped asking me for sex, which I always denied him anyway. But I told myself that that was a good thing, which it was. I just found it slightly odd considering he use to ask at least once every two days…

I waited for another few minutes, keeping a false hope in my mind that I had read the time wrong the last time I had checked over twenty minutes ago. Maybe I had, and Craig would appear any moment now. Then we could go to his house since his parents were out of town visiting family, and we could sit by the fire place and cuddle. And I'd be in warmer clothes, because he'd notice how cold I was and force me to wear something from his dresser instead. We could watch TV all night and play video games while sipping on hot cocoa… He would wrap me in his arms and kiss me continuously. I was the only one who knew that side of Craig, or so I kept telling myself…

Suddenly, I opened my eyes and a figure was in front of me. I could barely make out the figure with the rain blocking out most of my line of vision, but I could tell that it was a male. He looked to be relatively tall and skinny. I peered up at him and managed to make out what appeared to be sharp features and midnight black hair. "C-Craig?" I asked hopefully, but I wasn't sure if the words were audible. He leaned down beside me and sighed.

I felt him wrap an arm around my back and the other around the folds of my legs, and soon I was lifted in the air with little effort and cradled against his chest. I shivered for a moment before gripping his shirt in my fist and resting my head against him. Next thing I knew, I blacked out.

I woke up in a familiar bed that wasn't my own. I felt…warmer than I was last night. I raised up, rubbing my eyes sleepily as I glanced around. This room seemed all too familiar, but I couldn't register whose it was. I threw the covers off of me, discovering that I was wearing a plain black shirt that hung loosely off of my right shoulder as it was a few sizes too big, and my skinny jeans had been replaced with snug, but girly pajama bottoms. I flushed a bright red as I realized where I was.

I looked up in time to see Stan walk in with a thermometer and a brown bottle of something that appeared to be medicine. He almost dropped both when he noticed that I was awake. "Uhh… G-Good morning, Kyle," he said, his face turning red. I cocked my head to the side, confused.

He walked over to me and put his rough, yet somewhat smooth hand over my forehead. Then he pulled away and put the thermometer to my lips. "Open," he murmured. I obeyed. While he waited, he grabbed the covers I had threw off of me and wrapped them round my shoulders, ghosting his hand over my arm in the process. He winced. "You're burning up," he exclaimed, his voice full of concern. I gripped the covers tighter as the stick beeped and Stan took it from my mouth shortly after.

He grimaced. "Just as I thought, you have a fever… What the hell were you doing outside in the rain anyway? And at ten at night? Were you asking to die?" He cried. I lowered my gaze in embarrassment. I didn't bother responding, because this was Stan, my best friend. I didn't want to worry him further, or give him any more reasons to hate Craig. He was already constantly telling me that I should dump him because he was no good for me. I knew it wasn't far from the truth, but I knew a side of him that Stan or anyone else didn't know. And that's the reason I stayed.

But like I said, this was my best friend. So he knew the truth before I could come up with some lame excuse. "It was because of him wasn't it?" he surmised as he looked at me from the corner of his eye. He fumbled with the lid of the medicine bottle and I forced myself to be transfixed by the action as I gave a small nod in response. He didn't reply, he opened the bottle finally and poured the appropriate amount into the measuring cup "Drink this," he said amicably.

I blushed at his kindness and accepted the icky dark liquid, throwing it to the back of my throat before I could think twice about it. I immediately regretted it as my face irrepressibly contorted into a look of disgust on its own. Stan snickered at me and I looked up to glare, causing his snicker to turn into a full out laugh. I couldn't help but to grin myself, but threw a pillow at him nonetheless. "Idiot," I murmured.

He caught the pillow and tossed it back to me. "Maybe so. But that's why you love me," he apprised with a smirk. I snickered and was about to throw out a riposte, when I heard my phone buzz loudly on the bedside table. Stan's smile instantly turned into that of a protective mother as he glared at the phone in question. "He's been calling all morning and leaving text message after text message…" He said begrudgingly. "I answered it once, but he wasn't very happy…" At the information, I looked at him in alarm and quickly grabbed my mobile and hit answer before my voicemail could pick up. Craig was going to be furious…

"Hello, Kyle, so nice of you to finally answer," he spat. Yep, I was right…

"H-hey, Craig," I replied, mentally cursing myself for stuttering. "I just woke up, I'm sorry."

He let out a snort. "Just woke up? Whatever… Look, I'll be there in a bit to pick you up."

My eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Pick me up? Why?" I saw Stan's head shoot over to where I sat, scowling at the words.

"You don't need to be there with Stan," he said simply, as if that should be all the information I needed.

"I'm only here because you left me out in the cold all night!" I cried in exasperation, my face beet red with anger and at the nerve of my boyfriend.

There was a moment that past in silence as I heard him taking a deep breath to most likely calm himself. "I had business to attend to. I'm sorry, okay?"

I sat with my mouth agape. Was he serious? Was he fucking serious? "You could've at least called!" I cried. "Or text me or something!"

"Listen, Kyle. I didn't have time-"

"What exactly were you doing anyway?" I asked skeptically, too angry to let him finish his sentence. He didn't reply, probably weaving a false story in his head to feed me. And he probably expected me to believe him and allow him to pick me up and let everything be okay again. Like always…

Finally, he sighed. "You know what… Do you want to know the truth?" he asked tiredly, his words taking me by slight surprise.

"Yes. And I want the real truth, not some bull shit lie that claim to be otherwise," I ordered. I had long forgotten about Stan in the midst of my argument, so I was caught off guard when he came up to me and took the phone out of my hand, pressing the speaker button.

"Fine, Kyle. I'll tell you the complete and total truth. Only because I'm so sick and tired of having to come up with lies just to keep you from freaking out. I was with Tweek. You know why? Because he's not bitchy like you! All you ever do is nag and act like a girl on her fucking menstrual cycle and it gets fucking old. He knows how bad of a fucking boyfriend you are, so he tries to do his best, in every aspect. And you know what?" He asked with a shady snicker. "He even lets me go past kissing when I'm with him-" I could feel tears stinging my eyes and reached desperately for my cell phone, ashamed that Stan was hearing all of this. But my best friend just took a long step backward away from me and put the device to his ear, his face twisted into a deep expression of rage.

"You know what, Craig?" Stan asked with a laugh that sounded real enough, but definitely didn't reach his eyes or his facial expression. "That's so ironic, because Kyle's been waiting for a chance to tell you about his other boyfriend. I guess nows as good a time as ever, huh?"

I stopped trying to climb Stan's arm to retrieve my mobile and instead, rested my hands against his somewhat broad chest, peering up at him in confusion, tears slowly dripping down the corners of my cheeks. What was he talking about? I never… He looked down at me with a warm smile that let me know that everything was going to be alright and I tried to return the gesture, but failed. But the smile did have an air of comfort that I let surround me, and with that I put the fate of my relationship in his hands. I knew I could trust him, because Stan was always looking out for what was best for me.

"What the hell…? Stan, where's Kyle? And what the hell are you talking about?" He sounded more irritated than anything as he fumed through the speaker.

"He's right beside me. He didn't want to tell you the news, so he let me do the honors. Kyle's mine, dude. So fuck off," Stan apprised with a sneer before hanging up the phone and tossing it on the bed where I had been sleeping earlier.

I continued staring up at him, a lost expression clear across my features. "S-Stan…?" I asked, trying to voice my confusion at what had just happened. He blushed as he came down from his adrenaline rush and shakily wiped the tears from my cheeks.

"Dude… I'm so sorry… I wasn't thinking, I'm so sorry," He stuttered out. I honestly couldn't tell if I was angry or not, but I knew one thing was for sure. Stan had stood up for me. After all of those times that I had ditched him for Craig, he stood up for me. Without realizing what I was doing, I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shirt as tears spilled from my emerald green eyes.

He let me stay there, and after a few minutes, he hesitantly brought his long arms up to wrap around my waist, pulling me closer in a comforting motion. "You're not mad…?" He asked carefully. I shook my head vigorously and tried to put a stop to my tears. Then I remembered the words he had said and wondered vaguely if they were true. I debated on whether I should ask him or not, but decided not to ruin the moment. I liked having his arms around me. It just felt so…right? Yeah. I felt at ease for the first time in months. It was different than when Craig hugged me; gentler. Craig only hugged me when we were kissing, which normally turned into a heavy make out session. And when we make out, he forgets his own strength and always ends up hugging me too hard, inevitably leaving behind bruises on my pale fragile skin.

Stan, on the other hand, was so easy with me. He held me like he thought he would break me if he held me too tight. I wondered if that would be different if he was kissing someone… Out of curiosity, I pulled away from him momentarily and leaned up a bit so that my lips brushed against his slightly. The feel of breath against mine pulled me back to reality and I suddenly realized what I was doing. 'Oh my god… He's going to think I'm weird and gross,' I thought frantically as I realized that our nice little moment had come to an abrupt close.

Just as I was about to pull back and beg for forgiveness, Stan pushed forward, connecting our lips in a chaste kiss. Then he pulled away, blushing harder than before. He started to open his mouth to say something, but I tugged at his neck with my linked arms and our lips crashed together once more. He was no longer tentative as he used his own arms to force me closer as the kiss slowly progressed into a more heated one. I bit at his bottom lip, realizing that even while kissing he was being impossibly tender with me, and as far as I could tell it wasn't because of forced effort. I felt my heart seemingly rise and my face flushed with the knowledge that I was actually enjoying this quite a lot.

I could hear my phone buzz violently from somewhere to our left, but ignored it's cry for attention with little struggle. When we finally parted for air, I rested my head embarrassedly against his chest and he rested his on top of my mess of fiery locks. After I caught my breath, I peered up at him again. "Stan? Did you mean what you said on the phone…?" He looked lost for a moment, then he gave a tiny smile.

"Only if you want it to be true," he responded easily. I felt a happiness ignite inside me and felt a bit light-headed. This was all happening so fast, and I knew I should stop and think about what had just occurred to make sure I wasn't just making brass decisions, but the look of hope in his soft azure eyes and my gut feeling told me otherwise. This was perfect; nothing to think about, I concluded as I let a genuine smile seep across my features.

"Yeah…" I whispered. "I would like that very much." I guess Stan was feeling the same feeling, because he bent down a bit to give me a quick peck on the lips. Even just that tiny feeling (combined with the fact that I was already sick, I'm sure) left me feeling slightly weak and dizzy and I was thankful that he was holding on to me so I wouldn't fall to my knees.

"Can I tell you a secret?" He asked with a hint of uncertainty. I placed my head back into its previous position, nodding to his question.

"I've always kind of liked you, dude… It just wasn't until you started dating Craig that I realized it…" He murmured. I frowned, wondering how I could've been so dense as too overlook my best friends feelings. I didn't know how to reply to this, so I stayed quiet as I thought.

I felt like there was only one way to reply, I just had to get up the courage to say the words that I normally found to be juvenile, but this time felt like I knew the truth behind them. Finally, after some consideration, I whispered, "I love you." I tried to put as much meaning as I could into that phrase, so that he would realize that they were rare words that I didn't just throw around. I had only ever told Craig those words a few times, and that was when we had first started dating, before he started abandoning me for Tweek. I waited for confirmation that he had heard me.

The proof came moments later when he smiled into my hair and, with just as much meaning as I had put into my own words, whispered, "I love you too, Kyle… I think I always have."