Slightly AU-ish. Was to include the scenes from Cartman Finds Love, but got a little… lazy. There will be more Kyenny fics on the way, so make sure to watch out for'em!
Disclaimer: South Park rightfully belongs to Trey&Matt! I only own the original characters that are mentioned and the story to the fourth graders' play.
She's a Keeper!
A large crowd of parents and young ones were gathered in the auditorium for a fateful night in the South Park elementary school. Gerald Broflovski had fished out his phone to record Kyle's outstanding performance as his wife and youngest son watched in amazement. It didn't seem like a big deal to anyone else, but to the Broflovski family, this was beyond huge. Their oldest child was not only smart and a reasonable little boy, but a very passionate individual; towards his grades, his religious beliefs, his friends and hobbies… and now he was officially out in the world with a potential acting career.
Kyle, on the other hand, humbly refused the heavy praise when he was cast as the lead role. Besides, this was a play that was aimed toward the younger crowd… or so Mr. Garrison had thought. Little girls in the front row "aww'd" aloud at the romantic scenes between Kyle and Jenny Simon's characters; the story on set was a fairy tale, like the classic Thumbelina or ballet, Swan Lake. The stage was made of a winter's night landscape. On your far right, there was a little makeshift cabin and on the left, a shattered castle in the center of an icy lake. Between the buildings, a cold and dark forest roamed.
The story starred a handsome ice-cream vendor who stumbles upon a mysterious shattered castle on one winter's night, only to become acquainted by a lonely girl and her older brother, an ice-dragon, who live there together. But as the vendor and his new friend start to fall in love, a greedy prince is captivated by her and wants to abduct her as his own.
Kyle and Jenny quietly moseyed onto the outer set of the stage, enjoying each other's company as they bashfully cuddled together, while Butters was wandering aimlessly in the background, wearing a fat, silvery dragon costume. To break the poor boy's happiness, Stephen Stotch just had to make an ass of himself in front of the whole school, only to humiliate Butters to no end.
"Butters! Butters, for God's sake… you're a dragon! When you're playing a dragon, you should act like one! Be ferocious!"
Little did Butters' father know that Butters' character, Zinc, only showed his mean-spirited side when anyone was tangling with his sister… Zinc was overprotective and quite possessive whenever his little sister Allie was in danger or in the presence of a young man who could whisk her away.
Sheila took her chances and got some pictures for her favorite social media websites. The two children had worked hard every night trying to perfect their roles and she couldn't have been happier. Just only a few nights ago, Sheila went upstairs to invite Jenny to stay for dinner and walked in on them when they were in an awkward situation. They slipped, they'd said—Kyle was on top and Jenny, on the bottom… a blush fest on both of their accounts, looking into each other's eyes… Sheila momentarily broke the silence with a slam of the bedroom door and dialed Sharon and Liane's numbers as soon as possible.
And wouldn't you have guessed, Eric Cartman wasn't happy when he heard the news. For the first time in his life, he was proud to play the villain of the show—besides the small detail of being the role as a ginger prince. Everything had to be aided with a consequence, whether good or bad. Before the kissing scene between Kyle and Jenny was set in stone, Cartman purposely ran out on stage where he could shine the brightest. And what fun was it without making both Kyle and Jenny doubly mortified by harshly knocking their heads together and laughing at their humility afterwards?
"That stupid, no good, fat piece of…"
She moaned at the intensity of her headache; the worse she vented about Cartman, the worse the pain felt. Jenny tossed the ice-pack back onto the bump on her head. Tears threatened her eyes. Not only did Cartman ruin the whole play and the hard work that was put into it, but the scene that was building up between her and Kyle was supposed to be special… And that stupid fat prick had to go and ruin everything.
Little did Jenny know that a certain somebody had been watching her from afar.
"Jenny?"
Jenny ripped her gaze from lower part of the stage, turning to the face that she only needed to see. There he was, completely dressed in a white outfit from neck to toe with his trademarked green ushanka over his fiery hair. Kyle offered a friendly smile and approached her in a calm demeanor. Part of the crowd had either left for home or was out in the hall, chatting how the play was so great until Cartman had to take a steaming pile of shit on it. So it was just the two of them in the auditorium.
"Hey," he said gently. "Stan, Kenny and my family's heading over to Whistlin' Willie's to celebrate. Want to join us?"
"Oh! N-no, I-I couldn't impose," said Jenny, brushing off his offer, as kind as it sounded.
Kyle frowned. "Jenny…" He crossed the stage and sat down beside her, their feet dangling over the edge. She couldn't look at him; thus so, avoided any eye-contact and looked at the floor. Going unnoticed, Kyle started to reach for her head.
"How's your—"
"Fine," she lied.
"Okay… How are you holding u—"
"Dandy."
Another lie.
Unfortunately for Jenny, Kyle could read her like an open book. And that scared her. He read the anguish expression on her face, and the tears in her eyes broke his heart a little. Her pages were a muddled mess. Kyle only hoped in the end that Jenny's story had a happily ever after.
"No… no, you're not fine, and you're most certainly not dandy," said Kyle, taking advantage of the situation. "This play was important to you and Cartman had to screw it all up just to make us look bad."
Jenny hugged her knees into her chest, wept into her baby-blue dress. "Why does he have to be such a glory-hogging asshole, Kyle?"
"Because he's Eric Cartman," he replied. "He makes others feel bad so he can feel better about himself. He's an egotistical sack of shit that gives into the pleasure to see others in pain. He's nothing but a—"
"A no good, fat pig who almost made me give up on life just because he embarrassed me in front of class…"
She felt a comforting arm wrap sneak itself around her waist, thus giving in and nuzzling her damp face into his shoulder. Kyle pulled her further into a tight hug, which Jenny greatly accepted—maybe a little too quickly.
Whenever times were rough, Kyle was the one she went to. After the failed suicide, Jenny was transferred to the hospital where Dr. Doctor had begun the surgery on her fractured pelvis. Her boyfriend at the time had stirred up Eavesdropper, calling his girlfriend "Soft-Served Simons". He intended for it to be a joke, but Jenny didn't want anything to do with it. With a visit from Kyle who raised her spirits tremendously after discussing science projects, taking Eavesdropper down and how much Eric Cartman was an aggravating asshole, Jenny took time to pull her boyfriend to the side and end their relationship—and it was all thanks to Kyle.
"He shouldn't say those hurtful things about you," Kyle had said to a miserable Jenny. "It's wrong, it isn't funny. You can do so much better than hang around a douche that makes you feel terrible about yourself."
Thus, she had been going to Kyle whenever she had troubles with… well, anything, save for Wendy and Bebe. He was a wonderful human being and at often times, took her breath away with the amazing things he did. With being the butt of Cartman's jokes, he still managed to survive and end up on top, humble as ever. He helped those who needed it the most; saw the good in everyone, did the right thing. Kyle Broflovski was perfect, and no one else could tell Jenny otherwise. Of course there were internal flaws and imperfect characteristics; short temper and a godly Jewfro, for one thing. But that's what made him perfect in the first place. Bebe wanted him for his ass. Rebecca wanted him for his lips. Now Jenny Simon wanted him for his heart. She envied the fact that he still let those people in who gave him crap. But he was so compassionate with others… he didn't let those be clouded by narrow-minded, despicable judgment and wanted them to be free.
She craved to be more like him—within every passing day, he was teaching her something new.
Best of all, he treated her like a princess. He stood up for her during the suicide watch when she was brought back to school after a full recovery, tutored her in the subjects what she needed to be caught up in, and eventually had lunch with her in the cafeteria. She once saw him and Stan Marsh in the hall and did a little eavesdropping herself… and she hated herself for it.
"Sooo… you and Jenny Simon. Are you two… you know…?"
"What? Oh… oh, no, dude. She's… just a friend. A good one! Someone to look out for."
"… Right."
But from then on, Jenny wanted to be more than a good friend. Thank God for the audition try outs, or else the two of them wouldn't be in the auditorium alone hugging the life out of each other.
"Hey… it's all right," Kyle told her comfortingly, stroking her hair. The scent of vanilla shampoo was intoxicating. "It's okay… You did an excellent job as Allison, Jenny. We gave it our best shot."
"Thank you," she mumbled into his shoulder, cheeks hot.
She lifted her face and let her nose rest in the crane of his neck. Smiling from ear to ear, Kyle relaxed his posture and turned his head, managing to catch another whiff of her strong shampoo. They were like that for many moments, enjoying each other's company without a care in the world. Kyle ran a hand over Jenny's back, an attempt to relax her nerves. It worked wonders, and soon, Jenny found herself curled up against his chest, tired and happy.
"… Funny thing, really," he said, his chin resting on top of her head.
"What's that?" asked Jenny.
"Well, if you can remember correctly, this is how the play ends."
She gazed at him what it seemed like hours.
"There's still time to wrap this story up with a happily ever after," he said. "What do you say?"
Jenny shyly fiddled with his clip-on bowtie. "I… say yes."
Kyle beamed. He reached out and caressed her cheeks lovingly. "Good."
With one sweep motion, Kyle slowly leant forward to capture Jenny's lips in a sweet kiss—but much to their dismay, the spell was broken by a bouncing little tyke who just so happened to jump in between them. A wild laugh broke out across the auditorium when Kyle caught his younger brother in his arms. Ike squirmed, giggling in unison. The littlest Broflovski buried his face into his sibling's chest.
"Kyleee!" he squealed, legs kicking. "Great job! Great job! You did a great job!"
"Ikeee," Kyle repeated in Ike's tone of voice, "Thank you, Ike! I'm glad you liked what was of the play. Sorry that Cartman had to ruin it for everyone. But what do you think? Think your grade's gonna read the author's books now because of our production?"
Ike nodded enthusiastically.
"Whistlin' Willie's!" he exclaimed randomly. "Yaaay! Let's go eat!"
"Okay, we'll go," Kyle laughed. He stood up, pulling Jenny along in the process and took hold of her hand, giving it a loving squeeze before kissing her softly on the cheek. "Hey, uh, Ike? You don't mind if my girlfriend comes with us, right?"
Girlfriend…? Jenny thought with a thrilling grin. I'm his girlfriend?!
Ike looked Jenny up and down. A second later, he was wriggling his eyebrows at her. Jenny gasped at this inappropriate behavior, and caught Ike's whisper to Kyle,
"She's a keeper!"