There were just certain things about summer that made him feel everything melt away; Warmth, freedom, his own home to stay in. Time away from the hellacious life of college was nothing less than sheer bliss, a complete step back to look back on the things that he once cherished most. Perhaps most of all in the things he enjoyed however, was time with Kenny.
Kenny was the only person that didn't bombard him with questions aside from "Hey, Kyle, how are ya?" He was simple and to-the-point, something that a psychology major like Kyle didn't have the pleasure of hearing anymore. Everyone and everything he dealt with on a daily basis had to have seven questions leeching off of the original. Not with Kenny though. He never liked thinking too much, or at least talking about it in the very least.
Kyle's eyes drifted over tree branches hovering above his head, snuggling his back more against the plush grass underneath him. A long, deep breath made him smile softly. The smell of evergreens is something that you come to miss when you're surrounded by the concrete jungle for so long, he'd discovered.
Green iris' flickered over to the form beside of him, clad in orange with his hands resting under his head, a toothpick bouncing between fine lips. Kyle almost chuckled, Kenny nearly perfectly pulling off his stereotype of the southern redneck with his current state.
A part of him yearned to say something, to get him talking. Kenny was his favorite part of coming home, after all. All anyone else wanted to talk about was how school was going or their plans to get married or how the condom broke and such. Kyle didn't care about any of that. As far as relationships went, he was waiting until after college unless someone happened to come along into his path. He wasn't going to search far and wide for it though. He knew that he had more important things to get out of his way first. And school? As soon as his breaks began, he tried to block it out completely. He had little to no interest in focusing on something that didn't need his worrying. When he came home, he liked to give himself (and Kenny) most if not all his attention most days.
Kenny shifted slightly and let out a tired sigh, wriggling about to try to get comfortable. His eyes lazily drifted around until landing on Kyle's. They stared at each other for a minute before both smirking and looking back up past the scraggly branches up into the clouded blue sky.
Kyle's eyes fell closed for a few moments, only listening to the sound of his and his companion's breathing, the soft wind that rustled through the foliage around them like a wind-sail cutting through a still tide.
He didn't know why they always came to this tree, to this exact spot. He had a feeling that Kenny didn't know either. They'd done it the night before Kyle had left for school almost two years ago. It was a hard night for both of them. Stan and Cartman were already gone to their separate corners of the country. Kyle's school started two weeks later, so he made sure to spend all the time possible with the blonde before he left him alone in their crazy hometown.
Perhaps they felt is was just a necessary thing. Like it was the one place that they had before everything fell apart. Before Stan and Cartman both decided that they were too busy or too good to remain in contact with either of them. Before the unbreakable four finally fell into shambles, reserving spots only for the blonde and the redhead lying under the broken tree. It felt comfortable, it felt like nothing had changed, that tree felt like home to them.
Kyle sighed, shaking his head a bit. That night before he'd left, everything felt like it was going to change. A part of him felt like it'd be the last time he'd see Kenny, and he knows that the blonde felt the same, the way that he made the extra effort to put out a conversation. The way that he practically clung to Kyle's side until Kyle finally had to go home and get some sleep before his trip.
Kyle loved that side of Kenny that night, the one that made it clear, in his own simplistic way, that their friendship meant so much to him. The one that didn't rely on presents or promises of 'hey bro, we'll call each other every night!' (Also known as the heartfelt promise Stan had made before he decided parties were more interesting than his best friend.)
It was one that was as simple as 'I'm here. If you need to talk, I'm here. But if you don't want to talk, that's fine, too. I'll still be waiting for whenever you do.'
Perhaps that was the way that Kenny perceived the redhead back. As that friend that didn't require gifts or unusual amounts of time and attention to feel a bond. One that was always there, just a silent, translucent strand that bound the two of them together in the most unusual of ways.
Kyle was so determined to keep it that way. It was so simple, so naïve of a relationship. One where if one of them were out in town, people who knew them well wouldn't ask them where their counterpart was. It wasn't so blatantly obvious to the rest of the world, but it was something that both of them knew was there. It was never spoken of, but between them and the tree towering above them, it was all but an outspoken announcement.
His eyes reopened to see the beginnings of stars glistening in the lavender-soaked twilight of the night. He couldn't help but smile again. The night that they'd first met under this tree, Kenny convinced him to stay longer, that the stars were night lights made just so he could find his way home when it was the right time.
He'd kept that ideology with him. Basking silently in the childish mind of his friend. It was just like Kenny to be so simple, yet so inventive. Maybe it was that that kept Kyle coming back to him. The fact that his mind was just the break that the overworked student needed. The one that could say the most profound things in the most simple and understandable of terms. He didn't have to work to sound like he knew what he was talking about, his child-like way about him did that for him.
He chuckled aloud, glancing over to see Kenny giving him a slightly cocked brow. Kyle just shrugged, giving him a small smirk. Kenny blinked before rolling his eyes and laughing a bit before settling back with Kyle staring at the dusk contentedly as it sank down into night over the edge of the world.
Kyle loved that about Kenny. He didn't have to know everything that went on in his mind. He only had to know about the things that Kyle wanted to share. Nothing was public, nothing was sacred. It was just two boys in their own worlds, merging them together if only for a bit underneath a broken tree in nothing but the purest of silent friendship.