For some reason they expected that the staff would rear its head the moment they reached the floor reception, but instead everything was dark and silent. Empty plastic cups were scattered all around the desk, in a lonely mug some spoiled latte tried to raise its grey moldy garden; clear signs of human activities. However, not a single soul patrolled the area and nothing could prevent the boys from reaching the snow-white wooden door that had its edges chipped off over the years.

As he quietly pushed it open, Kenny was ready to face several other people who ended up sharing a ward with Kyle. Hells Pass was famous for medical negligence and putting comatose patients together with someone who carries one or a combination of several viruses wouldn't be out of their league. However, after all that mental preparation, he was greeted by a room far too small to even host one person.

One of the sides of Kyle's bed was pushed up against a wall, and collection of machines were put down next to him, rhythmically counting his heartbeats, constantly scaring bystanders that the next beat could be the last. Then there was a small window, the only one in the entire room, and a...locker? It felt like a makeshift "ward" that was thrown together from an old, unused storage because they had no more free rooms in the rest of the hospital, but they wanted to collect money from the family anyway.

Truth to be told, Kenny was expecting something better, because Kyle deserved thousand times better. He let out a sigh as he silently slipped inside and closed the door behind him. Instead of the ceiling lamp, he turned on the small reading light that was secured on the wall next to Kyle. However, in the dim light, the mint green wall with a yellow border in the middle, and dark green lower part took away even more of Kyle's colours, turning his skin sickly pale. Feeling his heart dropping in his chest, Kenny couldn't help but softly stroke the back of Kyle's hand with one finger, trying to ignore the butterfly needle that connected the boy to an infusion.

Heaving a sigh, he let the fingers fall into his palm as he gently clasped his hand around them. They were far too cold, so part of him wanted to warm them up somehow.

"I look like a complete loser." Kyle piped in as if he had noticed the hesitance in Kenny's actions.

The redhead kept looking at his body in disbelief. His hair was a mess, his face was not only covered in scratches and smaller wounds, but even took up a strange grimace. Frankly, he already looked like a corpse but he didn't want to voice this opinion in front of Kenny.

"I think you look charming." Kenny gave Kyle a weak smile, squeezing the boy's fingers even tighter. "Hey, can you feel this?"

When the sensation finally reached him, Kyle stepped back in shock, holding his hand.

The soft fingers that held him felt like warm caressing touches, sending a weird kind of glee thorough his entire body. It was a tiny gesture, sweet little nothings, but something he wanted to experience for a while now and he was sure that he could feel his heart beating faster, even though the heart monitor showed no signs of change.

"Yeah… and it's weird so you should stop..." he protested weakly, "But I'm not going to lie but this is the most pleasant thing that happened to my body-"

"In your life?"

"This week."

"Eh… Close enough," he shrugged with faux disappointment, making Kyle snort at his dramatic facade. To their surprise, his body faintly mirrored his emotions and the corners of his lips turned upward, followed by slight, barely visible redness on his cheeks.

The theory existing only in Kenny's head slowly started to make sense.

"So, what are we doing here exactly? I'm pretty sure you didn't drag me to this crumbling old joke of a hospital to hold my hand and compliment my looks."

"And what if I did?" Kenny asked, slowly moving his fingers up to Kyle's wrist, fingertips dancing on his pale skin. The redhead's face reflected visible shock as the image in front of Kenny suddenly tensed up at the contact.

"…I'd call bullshit because it's totally not like you..." He explained, averting his gaze from his body. There was a strange kind of jealousy burning within him, as he felt Kenny's hands caressing his skin that didn't really belong to him. And suddenly, everything clicked… "Wait… Just wait for a moment! You wanted to come here because I sensed it when Stan touched my hand, not because you had the hospital visit among your plans!"

"Oh, wow, you are starting to crack the code!"

"And you keep playing with my fingers like it was no big deal, even when you know that it is making me uncomfortable… You seriously think you can wake me up with this?!"

"Probably. I just call it: Operation Sleeping Beauty. That's my Plan Z, because I have no idea what else could help."

"Oh no no no. No! You won't pull a sleeping beauty on me!" At this Kenny's hand slid to Kyle cheeks, his fingers following along Kyle's jawline. "If you dare to put your lips near mine I'll kick your ass."

"All the more reason to do that!" Kenny argued, but it was clearly visible that he enjoyed this exchange. "Look, if you can punch me, I will stop."

"You can bet that I'll punch you!" He felt rage boiling within him, an unknown force that was chained into his soul wanting to break free just to make Kenny eat his words.

"Ky, you didn't complain when I basically kissed your soul. So why now?" Kenny shrugged. "If you ask me that's more intimate."

"Well, that was different!"

"How?"

At that, Kyle looked lost and his fighting spirit suddenly dispersed into thin air when he realized his own stupidity.

He hesitantly glanced at the machine beeping rhythmically behind Kenny.

"The mood was right..." he whispered with a frown hoping that Kenny won't hear anything. However, the blond repeated his words in complete disbelief.

"The mood… was right?" he tilted his head quizzically. As far as he remembered they both felt like trash when that one kiss happened. "Kyle this is not the right time to bring out your inner hopeless romantic!"

"You don't understand-" Kyle was about to start arguing, he ignored the blush spreading over the face of his body.

"No, I understand. You never had anyone who liked you back or took initiative for you, so you don't want to mess up. But ask yourself, is this the right moment to get cold feet?"

"It's not even that…" No, Kenny was right. About everything. He was just making up excuses, like he always did whenever he encountered a questionable problem. Being wrong, being just slightly uncertain would equal failure from his part. "Shouldn't first kisses be special? I mean, kissing someone should have that spark, when you both lean closer after a super successful date or a movie, not standing in a hospital while the other is… dying! It feels like the ending of some tragic love, where the protagonist is crying over the dying body of-"

Kenny just let out an exaggerated sigh, and instead of punching Kyle for his stupidity he leaned over his body, careful not to move any of the devices, and kissed him without hesitation. He seemingly reached his goal as Kyle's voice got caught in his throat, the redhead could feel his chest tighten as blood went cold in his veins from the shock. Anger bubbled in the pit of his stomach, and strangely enough it was not directed toward Kenny, but the loser lying on the bed who refused to move a muscle to respond.

"Do something! Move!" he wanted to scream, but no voice came out. "Don't ruin this for me!"

"Stop it, Kenny! It won't work…"

Why would Kenny think this would work, anyway? Out of everything, the most painful act he could have done to him!

At the moment, Kyle would rather choose beating over the ghostly caress of those lips, the faint refreshing scent that was completely ruined by the smell of disinfectants. He was pretty sure there was some lingering remnant of the tobacco Kenny failed to smoke.

He felt the world becoming more and more reachable, however his surface consciousness told him it was an illusion of life, something his common sense put together for him to appease his brain. There were no smells, no feelings, no kisses. He just imagined how all of this would feel like.

It was not real. None of this was real.

He didn't want to see any of this.

He didn't want to see that stranger, who looked like him and who was being kissed by the person he fell in love with. He didn't want to see Kenny wiping away tears with his thumb. Tears that never belonged to him.

That was not him, not the real him.

Or maybe that was the real Kyle Broflovski all along...

The beeping around Kyle grew stronger and more frequent, as if it was doing its best to warn them. His nerves were enveloped in a violent confusion and on top of that, there was that feeling; clawing at him, sitting at his chest like a rock, refusing to let him breathe and he was sure that this something otherworldly gripped his insides, paralyzing him. Even his secondary body refused to follow his orders, he just stood there, unmoving. He tried to open his mouth to scream for Kenny, ask for help, but it wouldn't open and he couldn't speak a word. Panic came over him, the beeping sound followed, mirroring his emotions.

Everything felt so frighteningly lightweight, colours faded then returned around him within a simple second, accompanied static noise, relentlessly buzzing around him.

As the sounds melted together into one single entity, the struggle ended and he finally lost focus on the world around him.

When Kenny raised his head, his triumphant smile quickly faded from his face. At first, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, Kyle's terrified image weakly flickered, emotions changing like he was watching a flipbook animation, until he ran out of pages and Kyle disappeared into thin air. Around them, the heart-monitor gave out a pitiful shriek as a final, closing sound.

Kyle was no more.

Out of instinct, Kenny's hands quickly grabbed the nurse caller, but the device only let out an empty click. Again and again and again. It took him a second to realize that nobody would come for their aid, because this was Hells Pass, where people went to die and nurses left the house after 8pm. With this, his doubts and fears that he tried to hide from Kyle ever since this whole ordeal started, suddenly burst forward tearing at his heart, clawing out every drop of determination he'd collected until now. It felt as if his body was dipped in flames, then thrown into water cold as ice.

Seconds felt like years as tears slowly gathered in the corner of his eyes he hoped, he prayed… he begged for Kyle to start breathing again, but the boy just lay silently in his bed.

The pure sight made Kenny fall apart, and lose that tiny glimpse of joy he managed to scrap together on their way here.

This was not among their plans! This was not even an option when they set out!

Suddenly, he felt terribly numb and had no idea how to react. There was no appropriate reaction to something like this…

Over the years he somewhat got used to dying, even if the pain was almost always unbearable. He eventually got over it, because no matter what he did, he couldn't permanently leave the land of the living. However, nothing could prepare him for this kind of pain and a situation where things would not reset the next day. Just as he never thought about the possibility of losing someone close to him.

"You can't die, Ky," he choked out at last, letting the nursecaller hit the bed with a metallic clang. "You can't make me go to your funeral, that's my fucking job… Please… Start ranting about something, anything… I'll listen… Silence doesn't suit you..."

Actually this whole picture was alien. Like someone just made a bleak painting and decided to put the most colorful form they could think of right in the middle of it. Then Kenny had to have a terrible plan and smear these colours with an idea that only worked in childish fairy tales.

I killed him, the words echoed in his mind as he watched the still body. I killed him, it is my fault, my stupid fault, if I could just sit on my ass like I always do-

I killed Kyle.

Before he'd realized, the dam broke, yet no tears came to him even though his entire body was shaking. The pain he felt in that moment was too overwhelming and paralyzed his feelings to their very core. First, he wanted to threaten Kyle, then his emotions quickly turned to make compromises. Soon, he was ready to give him anything he wanted!

Kenny's lips trembled as he tried to process the situation, watching closely and waiting for something to happen. He helplessly stared at Kyle's pale skin that almost blended in with the grey covers on the bed. The boy did not belong to the hospital.

Then, he felt something changing, the constant shrieking of the machine next to him faded away and slowly gave way to silence, giving up on the life that was connected to it through wires.

Suddenly, Kenny's body felt heavy, gravitation pulling him toward the grey floor tiles. It followed his orders, but it felt like trying to nudge an overheated, frozen computer. Everything stopped around him. Time stood still in the green ward as he felt light slowly seeping away from him. Through his tears he let out small gasps, to regulate his breathing, but he couldn't take his eyes off Kyle even if he wanted to…

If only…

If only he was actually useful.

Lost in his own thoughts and self-loathing, Kenny completely missed the rhythmic noises which slowly filled the silence. He only noticed that he was able to move again, when Kyle suddenly lunged forward, gasping for air, pulling along the chords and tubes of the hundred years old machinery that prevented his movements and kept him close to the bed. His eyes were fixed on the ceiling, he panted raggedly like someone who just ran his first marathon without any serious preparations.

Kyle exhaled slowly a few times until he got his breathing under control, and tried to sit up again, this time being mindful of his surroundings. As he looked at Kenny for help, he felt hands on his shoulders, slowly pushing him back to his bed.

At first, none of them could utter a single word. Everything that came to them seemed to dwarf compared to the relief and happiness that rushed through their body as they let tears blur their vision.

"Reality feels heavy," he sighed as he let go of the last remnants of tension in his shoulders. "Kenny, I––"

Kyle was about to push himself up with his elbow, but the hands were back again, keeping him in place. He looked up at Kenny in disbelief as he prevented him from his second escape, only to get greeted by a frown. However, his irritation quickly faded, when he realized, the boy was already crying, tears hitting Kyle's blanket as Kenny leant over him. He looked like someone who could lose everything at the next moment…

"Okay, Ky, you just returned from death, don't go jumping around so eagerly yet," he told him in a strained voice, trying to keep his incoming gross sobbing under control.

"Yeah and it sucks," Kyle scoffed wearing a self-deprecating smile. He still felt like a dying man in his current position and the expression on Kenny's face definitely didn't help. He couldn't stand seeing him so destroyed and helpless...

"I'm sorry for scaring you," he said in the end, as tears slid down his face, wetting his ears and slowly soaking through his pillow.

"For scaring me?"

Kenny wanted to laugh, but his smile quickly faded and the tears just wouldn't stop falling from his eyes.

"Fuck, Kyle. You have no idea... I thought I'd lost you for real," he reached out to brush Kyle's curly bangs to the side, "I was more than scared..."

"To my defense, I thought I was gone for a moment," the redhead admitted. "Everything was dark, I was in the black nothingness, until I started thinking and came to a conclusion that it is lame that a kiss killed me. A kiss, Kenny! I would be the first person in history who dies from that. Aside from the fictional character Juliette of course, but they involved poison in that stunt so it does not count."

"Admit it, I'm just that good!" Kenny snorted. He couldn't believe that Kyle argued himself out of death. He truly went there and did the most Kyle thing possible…!

"Oh no. I'll be the judge of that… once I finally get a toothbrush to get this taste out of my mouth. Hopefully tomorrow."

"You teased and destroyed me in the same sentence. Bravo, Ky." Kenny laughed, wiping away tears from his eyes, before leaning over Kyle and planting a small kiss on the corner of his lips. "But you won't get away that easily."

"Who told you I wanted to?" Kyle laughed.

"Smooth. Very smooth."

"I learned from the best."

Soon, a casual silence enveloped them as neither of them really knew how to continue the conversation. Kyle's thoughts were still on his previous experiences as he tried to connect the dots and make sense of the situation. He died, then he returned to life by some miracle and a tiny voice at the back of his head kept whispering that Kenny had something to do with it, even if it was not intentional.

On the other hand, Kenny reached that point where he completely ran out of ideas and had no idea on how to continue. His eyes were trained on his hands, as he kept tapping his fingertips together to some random rhythm. They reached their goal, Kyle was alive and well, but what comes after…?

Suddenly, he felt like talking to his bodiless form was much easier than confronting him in person and starting an actual conversation. Now he kind of started to understand why so many of his videogames had weak or abrupt endings. Probably they ran into the same problem and had no idea what comes after everything is solved…

Well, it's not like he had no idea what to say to Kyle, no, he had plenty of things talk about, but suddenly none of them seemed to fit the mood and no words could really contain the emotions that kept swirling in his chest.

Fortunately, Kyle seemed to reach to a conclusion way sooner than him, saving Kenny from some embarrassingly awkward mumblings.

"Uhm… So, Kenny… Are we…?" Kyle turned his head toward him, even if he knew the answer, his voice rang with uncertainty. He was hoping that the blonde would get the hint and save him from the embarrassing question.

"Hm?" Kenny gave him a dumbfounded look.

"Well, I've been meaning to ask this but now that everything is done, are we... " he paused as the words were still alien to him, "...Dating…?"

"Do you want to?" Kenny's fingers suddenly stopped their mesmerizing dance as his eyes met Kyle's.

"I wouldn't be asking, otherwise."

"I thought we were a bit over that stage already," Kenny laughed weakly.

"We are. But we never explicitly said it out loud... I think I just needed some kind of clarification from you."

"You know, if you allowed that kiss, it would've proven my point, though. I don't go around kissing random people."

"What? Are you deaf? I just told you why I can't let you kiss me now and I'm pretty sure you can wait until morning," Kyle countered with a healthy red tint over his cheeks, raising himself away from bed, only to get pushed back once again.

"Hey, you told me tomorrow at 1am!" Kenny added. "That's a whole day I have to sit through until I can finally kiss you!"

"Because I had no idea about the time and don't even think you can bait me into this because you are more transparent than a freaking glassdoor!"

"Still, worth a try," Kenny shrugged with a smirk. He clearly enjoyed this situation. Maybe a bit too much. "Now put your head back on that pillow."

Kyle who never took orders from anyone listened to him without any problem, lowering his body back into its original position.

"By the way, it's not that I don't enjoy your company but shouldn't we call a nurse, maybe a doctor? Maybe both?"

"Nursecaller is busted and I doubt anyone would come even if it worked."

"Figures... It is Hells Pass! I'm still surprised I didn't die from an infection or by someone stealing away my organs in my sleep." Kyle laughed, pushing the button just to try his luck. It gave out a soft click, but the device lacked any electricity.

"Do you want me to stay here and protect your organs?"

"Yes. And to keep me from dying from boredom," Kyle added.

"Believe me, you don't want to die like that," Kenny chuckled as he pulled a chair next to Kyle's bed.

"Speaking from experience?"

"Well, you could say that."

The light spring rain kept softly knocking on the windowsill, it seemed completely liable that it will wash all of their doubts and fears away, giving them some space to breathe before life returns to its original pace. Part of them still couldn't believe that something can actually go right in their life, considering that it often felt like the town itself did its very best to keep them away from happiness by hurdling impossible and crazy situations in their way.

But here they were, Kenny resting his head next to Kyle's pillow, fighting the exhaustion that came over him when the rush of adrenaline'd disappeared from his body. As they watched videos on his phone that got propped up on Kyle's stomach, Kenny refused to let go of Kyle's free hand and occasionally squeezed it ever so lightly, enjoying the fact that his gestures were finally requited. He even went as far as to give Kyle a kiss on the cheek when he felt the redhead defenses were lowered, giving him a cheeky grin when Kyle started his cycle of empty complaining about Kenny not keeping himself to his promise. However, he couldn't keep it up for long, because soon enough his face broke into a smile and he wiggled himself closer to Kenny, enjoying the burst of feelings and sensations that avoided him in his ghostlike state.

Despite the weather, it was a fairly normal day, but Kyle felt more alive than ever.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

So… we have finally reached the true end of the story, and the second part of the last chapter. Did Kyle die in the End as promised? Yes. Yes, he did, but only for a little bit because reuniting him with his body was a tricky situation that needed unconventional methods.
And while I couldn't fit this into the actual story, they'd sent a selfie to Stan around 6am, thus ending their romantic dawn at the hospital.

I originally started writing this story because I had the idea "People always kill Kenny in their stories, turn him into a ghost or some kind of supernatural entity. But what if he had to deal with a situation like this with one of his friends? What if there was something more to an accident like that?" And so, before I knew it, I ended up writing an entire novel about this idea, making Kyle Dies in the End my first finished multi-chapter fanfic! So thank you for everyone who got through this story and even decided to sit down and read the afterword! It's been one of the best rides I've ever had and over the course of one year I had a chance to get to know some truly wonderful people! All the reviews big and small, kudos, the smaller comments and the discussions helped me to finish kdate and for this, I'm eternally grateful!

Thank you for reading this rather long afterword and let's meet at a different story! I hope you'll stick with me on this slow but eventful journey!

Comments are always welcomed!