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The Key to My Heart
Chapter Ten
[the remix of you and me]

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An early, brisk Saturday morning came only with the tiniest hint of discomfort for the pair of raven haired teenagers.

Even though they had spent the majority of evening making out in a half dreamy, half drunken state and snuggling with each other in a maroon-colored armchair, that still didn't stop both Stan and Wendy from participating in various drinking games with all their friends. Sure, they would be in for a rather unpleasant hangover the day after, but it was all worth it in the end – especially them having a whole lot of fun as a newly reunited couple.

And the very next morning, the thought of them dragging themselves out of bed and doing something even remotely productive had been pushed to the back of their minds. Because frankly, nothing could ever top snuggling and cuddling with the person someone considered their favorite one in the whole wide world.

On that particular thought, Wendy let out another tiny snore and snuggled deeper underneath her warm covers. She sighed out contently at the relaxing heartbeat coming from her boyfriend's chest and simply felt herself melting under the amazing sensation of being in Stan's arms again.

The teenage girl was sleeping in a sort of a weird position – she was mostly laying flat on her stomach, but was also being kind of tucked against her boyfriend's sleeping frame. She also rested her left arm comfortably on his chest and had her one leg tucked in between his own, while Stan was laying on his back and had both arms leisurely wrapped around the raven haired girl that had snuggled up against him.

But even though it was Saturday and that meant sleeping a little bit longer than usual, that didn't necessarily mean that was going to be the day in which Stan and Wendy would get up relatively late and spend the entirety of the day laying in her bed, because both of their minds had been thinking the exact opposite.

The dark haired teenage boy was the first one to get up, albeit thanks to his own bladder betraying him and forcing him to go to relieve himself. And once he returned to bed and nestled comfortably next to his long-time girlfriend, he was sort of expecting to fall asleep again relatively quickly and get a few more hours of sweet slumber.

But much to his dismay, he just couldn't fall asleep again and decided to peruse the YouTube app for some fun, interesting videos instead. In addition to that, him changing the position in which he had fallen asleep earlier also meant disturbing Wendy's slumber and allowing her to join the 'not enough sleep' club as well.

And as soon as she was shifted out of her position just a little bit, the teenage girl felt her eyes slowly fluttering open. Realizing that she had still been snuggled up against her boyfriend, Wendy lifted her head up from his chest and gave Stan a half sleepy smile. She muttered something under her breath, before adoringly burying her face in the crook of his neck.

Noticing that his girlfriend had also woken up, Stan locked his phone and placed it on Wendy's nightstand. He gently brushed away the stray parts of her hair and ran a hand up and down the oversized bright orange Broncos hoodie she had still been wearing. ''Morning.''

''Morning baby.'', Wendy replied with sleep lingering in her voice. She pressed herself against Stan's body closer, wrapping an arm around his torso and inhaling the intoxicating scent of his shirt that had still carried the remnants of last night's partying.

Stan rested his chin on top of Wendy's forehead, smiling as he tenderly kissed her hairline and pulled her closer into his embrace. She looked up at him through her long, dark lashes and leaned slightly forward to capture their lips together in a gentle kiss, propping herself on her elbow for support.

They both smiled into their first morning kiss and entwined their fingers together, definitely not wanting to let go of each other just yet. And once they parted away, Wendy nuzzled her face back into Stan's chest and sighed in pure happiness.

And as the thoughts of her being back in Stan's embrace had still drummed inside of her mind, Wendy closed her eyes again and sighed contently. However, her being comfortably cuddled against Stan didn't necessarily mean that she wasn't eventually going to force herself out of bed and coerce her boyfriend into doing the exact same thing.

But the dark haired teenage boy had a different outlook on the way they were going to spend their first day of being together again, even if he had been the one to get up first and subsequently wake his girlfriend up as well.

''Babe, we should probably get up…'', Wendy said as she gazed into her boyfriend's bright blue eyes, resting one hand on her chin and brushing the other one against his cheek.

''Why?'', Stan asked, interlocking his fingers with Wendy's. ''The only thing I wanna' do today is to lay in bed with you all day long, cuddle, kiss and pig out on some junk food.''

''Stan, baby, come on…'', the teenage girl droned in a half sleepy voice, nuzzling her head in the crook of his neck again. ''You need to call your parents and let them know where you are.''

''I don't…'', he muttered sleepily, happily shutting his eyes and pulling Wendy even closer to him. ''I already told my mom that I'm gonna' crash at Kyle's place and hang out with him and the guys for a little while, and then come home for dinner.''

''So, I guess you can stay here up until dinner?'', Wendy asked, feeling her smile grow wider as Stan gave her an affirmative nod of his head and a simple 'uh-huh' as a response. ''But still, we should really get up.'', she reasoned, finally summoning the energy to throw the covers off her body and push herself up into a sitting position. She stretched herself out as much as she possibly could, gently biting down on her bottom lip as she noticed that Stan had fallen asleep again.

Wendy rolled her eyes playfully at the adorable sight of her boyfriend snoozing so peacefully, before she decided to snuggle up against him and doze off for a few more hours – because why the heck not?

And a couple of hours later, both Stan and Wendy did eventually drag themselves out of bed and got re-dressed into their regular clothes, with the teenage boy letting his girlfriend wear his hoodie for the rest of the day. They cuddled just a little bit longer, before both of them decided to do something else other than just laying in bed the entire day.

''Mhm, so what do you wanna' do today?'', Stan said flirtatiously, snaking both arms around Wendy's waist and planting a gentle kiss on her lips.

Pecking his lips once more, Wendy giggled sweetly. ''Honestly, I really don't know. All that matters to me is that we are finally spending some time alone.''

''Well, for starters, let me do something.'', the teenage boy smirked as he hooked one arm underneath his girlfriend's knees and picked her up bridal style. She let out an involuntary yelp, but soon giggled adoringly as Stan shut her bedroom door behind him and began walking towards the staircase.

"Stan, I swear to God if you trip and fall down the stairs with me...", she warned him, instictively latching both arms around his neck for support, but felt her heart flutter in her chest as Stan gave her a gentle peck on the cheek and promised not to try tumbling down the stairs along with her.

"You're not that heavy, babe.", he argued as he carefully began walking down the stairs. ''I had to carry Cartman once, okay? And he's enough of a problem to carry on his own.''

''Aww, poor you.'', she cooed sarcastically, making the raven haired teenage boy playfully roll his eyes.

''Wanna' eat something?'', Stan asked as they descended down the stairs and took a final step into the living room of Wendy's family home. He allowed Wendy to hop down from his arms and straighten her posture, before she grabbed onto both of his arms and pulled him into another surprisingly sweet exchange, definitely the one out of many they were going to share that day.

Parting her lips away from his, Wendy gave her boyfriend a sole node of her head as a response. ''Yeah, of course. Do you have anything in mind?''

"Eh, I suck at cooking, so, do you have any idea then?'', Stan asked.

"Well, I can make us some toast or maybe an omelette if I manage to find enough eggs in the fridge.'', she explained, taking a gentle hold of his hand and leading them around the corner into the kitchen. ''Or maybe you can come up with something too?''

''Wends, I can't cook for shit. Just ask the guys how many times I've fucked up a simple dish recipe and created a havoc in the kitchen, especially when it came to cooking for us after we had to deal with a severe hangover.'', the dark haired teenage boy explained as he leaned himself against the countertop, letting go of Wendy and watching her shuffle over to the kitchen cabinet to grab some whole wheat bread and prepare the toast for both of them.

''Making a toast isn't rocket science. Come on, I will show you.'', she said. ''Look, I'm not Gordon Ramsay either, but you can't fuck up a toast that easily, trust me.''

''Alrighty then.'', Stan smiled gently, walking over to Wendy and waiting for her to instruct him about how he was supposed to prepare the toast without screwing it up completely. He wrapped both arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder, patiently listening to her instructions.

''Take a slice of bread, or two, and just pop it in the toaster, and then you have to put it on the right setting because otherwise you are going to end up with a burned piece of toast. I usually like my toast a bit more on the crispier side, so I'm gonna' put it on the setting number three. Got it?'', she explained.

''Got it – take a slice of bread and put it in the toaster, and also make sure that it's put on the proper setting. Am I right?'', he confirmed as he leaned forward and gave Wendy a gentle peck on the cheek, causing her to blush intensely and spin around on the spot to face her boyfriend.

''Yeah. You see, it's not really that difficult.'', she gestured over to the toaster as it beeped loudly and signalled that the two pieces of toast had been prepared to a near crispy perfection.

''Of course it's not, because you are the one that taught me that making toast can actually be done without turning it into something that barely counts as edible.'', Stan joked, kissing the very tip of Wendy's nose and making her giggle sweetly.

''Dumbie.'', she laughed as she leaned forward and delicately met her lips with Stan's, definitely not wanting to stop their tender exchange any time soon.

Several hours later and after a few rounds of playing Mario Kart together, the two raven haired teenagers found themselves curled up against one another on the couch binge-watching The Umbrella Academy on Netflix – one of Wendy's favorite shows, and perhaps one of Stan's future favorite shows as well.

Stan had his back comfortably slouched against the couch, while Wendy sat right next to him and had her legs crossed in his lap. She rested her head on his shoulder and felt her heart pitter-patter with pure happiness as her boyfriend wrapped one arm around her, pulling her even closer to him.

"I've really missed this.", Stan sighed happily, resting his chin on his girlfriend's shoulder and hugging her snugly around her slender waist.

"What exactly?", Wendy asked curiously, shifting herself against Stan so that she could glance up into his clear blue eyes.

"I've missed this. You know, being with you again and spending some quality time together.", he explained as he slid his hands from her waist down to her hips, clawing gently at them. ''This is something I've wanted for the past year and a half, but I was just scared that you might've moved on from me and us, heh.''

''Clearly, I didn't.'', she laughed gently as she rotated her head towards Stan and kissed him sweetly on the lips. ''But yeah, I've missed this too.''

''I'm interested in what are your parents going to say when you tell them that we started dating again.'', Wendy said further, cocking a sarcastic eyebrow at the raven haired teenager sitting next to her. ''Because I'm sure that's going to come as a big surprise to both of them.''

''Well, what am I supposed to tell them? They will eventually become aware of it and will start nagging me with a gazillion questions about you, how come we got back together and much more.'', Stan laughed. ''Wendy, you know that they've always liked you and they still do. If anything, I know that both of them will be very happy about us getting back together.''

''I think my parents are gonna' be even more elated when they find out about us.'', Wendy said as she scooted just a little bit closer to Stan and wrapped an arm around his torso. ''You know, every once in a while they would ask me about you and how you've been doing, but I just couldn't give them a proper answer so I just said that you are doing better than ever and are fairly busy with football.''

''Oh did they?'', he responded back flirtatiously, allowing a gentle chuckle to escape his throat. ''Well, here I am – sixteen years old, finally playing on the starting team as a quarterback and barely more mature than I used to be in elementary school.''

''Well, I can't really disagree with you on any of those things, can I?'', Wendy replied, gently cupping Stan's cheek with her hand. ''Actually, I don't think you're really that immature, because I've seen you putting in so much effort towards football and school, and you are excelling at both of those things. And honestly, I think that made me fall in love with you even more.''

''Mhm…'', Stan beamed at the teenage girl snuggled up against him. ''You can't be more in love with me than I'm in love with you, okay?''

Snorting teasingly, Wendy gave him a playful slap on his forearm and beamed right back at him. ''Is this supposed to be some kind of a competition or what?''

''Maybe?'', the teenage boy smirked cheekily, before grabbing onto Wendy's waist and placing her directly onto his lap. She let out a delightful squeak as Stan began to pepper her face with soft little kisses and caused her cheeks to blush bright red.

"God, I love you so fucking much.", he murmured into Wendy's hair, before gently cupping both of her cheeks with his hands and staring deeply into her chocolate brown eyes.

''I love you too, Stan.'', Wendy responded as they grinned adoringly at each other, with Stan leaning forward and kissing her with as much love as he could possibly muster.

It had still felt incredibly surreal to the teenage girl that she and Stan actually got back together after such a long time.

Eighteen months.

Eighteen months of pining after each other, going through relationships that didn't mean to be long-lasting anyway, and both of them eventually coming to terms that they hadn't been over each other as much as they initially convinced themselves they were.

But frankly, none of those things had mattered to Stan and Wendy anymore.

They were finally back together, and both of them sure as hell weren't going to let their relationship crumble away or get weakened by petty little things – like it had been in the past, unfortunately.

Both raven haired teenagers simply felt their whole world melting under the amazing sensation of every tender kiss they had exchanged. And that was something that both of them had were intending to cherish for a very, very long time, or maybe even better – for the rest of their lives.

Because sometimes two people have to fall apart to realize how much they need to fall back together.

~ Five years later. ~

With all of them more or less successfully finishing their high school education, the teenagers from a small redneck mountain town eventually went their own separate ways. The majority of them had decided to embark on a journey called college, while some of them were perfectly content with staying in South Park and making their first steps into the adult world as the newly-crowned high school graduates.

Kyle & Bebe~

For the longest time possible, Kyle just wasn't sure what would end up being his career path – becoming a lawyer like his father, or maybe picking out a completely different career choice. He had often gone back and forth between studying law or accounting, but in the end, Kyle decided to study Dentistry at the UCLA and become successful in a field that was completely different to the career paths many of his relatives had chosen to go down – lawyers or accountants.

Contrary to her auburn haired boyfriend, Bebe had a much easier time picking out the university of her choice and what she wanted to do with her life. Since she didn't want to be too far away from Kyle, she happily accepted his offer to join him in Los Angeles and started studying Nursing at the very same university as her boyfriend.

Heidi & Butters~

After confessing their feelings for each other all the way back in Sophomore year of high school, Butters and Heidi had been inseparable ever since. And when it came to talking about their relationship post-high school, both of them realized that they just wouldn't be able to spend their college days away from one another, so the two lovebirds decided to enroll together at the University of California in Berkeley. Butters was studying Computer Science, while his brunette soulmate decided to build a career in the field of science – opting to study chemistry and become South Park's very own version of Marie Curie.

Tweek & Craig~

Much to the surprise of both Heidi and Butters, Craig also opted to study at the very same university as them and pursue a degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences – being fascinated with the universe, planets and stars ever since he was a little boy.

And obviously, Craig didn't want to leave his beloved Honey behind in South Park, so Tweek followed his dark haired boyfriend to the Bay Area and ended up becoming flatmates with him, Butters and Heidi.

Although at first he had no aspirations for attending college, Tweek did eventually start attending a very prestigious San Francisco Cooking School, with dreams of becoming a pastry chef and eventually opening his very own pastry shop back at South Park. He was also working part-time at his friends' college campus and would try to spend every single moment with his boyfriend, definitely not wanting to be away from him whatsoever.

Red & Kenny~

Despite being quite content with their whole 'will they hook up or won't they hook up' thing, Kenny and Red had eventually decided to stop denying the obvious feelings they had for each other and become more serious about their relationship. Since the two of them were the only ones out of their entire group of friends that hadn't had any intentions of attending college, they both started working almost immediately after graduating high school – Kenny working full-time in the Amazon fullfilment center and occasionally bartending on the weekends, while his auburn haired girlfriend worked as a waitress in her father's bar. They were both earning more than enough to support themselves and get their own place, with Kenny's little sister Karen eventually moving in them at the start of her Freshman year in high school and getting away from the seeminly never-ending dire living situation she had been subjected to ever since she was born.

Cartman & Lucy~

Even though everyone was absolutely gobsmacked by the fact that Cartman had still managed to keep his relationship with Lucy afloat, their high school romance hadn't been exactly smooth sailing – especially when she broke things off with him at the beginning of their Junior year and subsequently ended up getting back together several months later, only to break up and reconcile once again during their Senior year.

With hopes of taking over her family's business one day and building a career in the field of tourism, Lucy was studying Hospitality at the Metropolitan State University in Denver. And although she had struggled at first and even contemplated dropping out during her Freshman year of college, her boyfriend had persuaded her to continue with her studies and get her degree.

Cartman had managed to get enrolled into the University of Colorado in Denver, working hard towards double majoring in both Entrepreneurship and Finance. The still slightly pudgy young man had actually managed to clean up his act and become more of a decent human being, going as far to actually make amends with Kyle and become good friends with him – which was something he never thought it would actually happen.

Stan & Wendy~

Ever since their reconciliation at Butters' party in their Sophomore year, the raven haired couple had been still going extremely strong, with only a few minor bumps along the way – most of them being related to incredibly silly outbursts of jealousy from both Stan and Wendy, to minor tiffs and pointless arguments.

To the surprise of almost no one, Stan had successfully managed to obtain a football scholarship and eventually enrolled at the University of Southern California to study Architecture. He was playing college football for USC's Trojans team and was quickly promoted to a regular on the starting team, enjoying every single moment of his college life and working towards getting a degree in a field he was quite fond of. And although he wished he could get to see his high school sweetheart more often, Stan would face-time and message Wendy on a daily basis – sometimes even driving all the way up to the Bay Area in order to spend time with his ravenette counterpart.

Even though she wasn't able to get accepted into any Ivy League college she had applied to, that just wasn't enough to crush Wendy's spirits and steer her away from applying into her third college of choice – Stanford University. She enrolled into the university's very prestigious law school and was working her butt off to get excellent grades, still managing to keep up the momentum she was able to maintain throughout her entire elementary and high school education.

Maintaining a long-distance relationship with Stan had been sort of tough at first, but through messaging and face-timing with him on a daily basis, the raven haired beauty eventually got used to her boyfriend not being beside her every single day. They would make the most out of their college breaks, often spending the entire days together and being reluctant to part away from each other when the time to leave for their respective universities came around.

But to both Stan and Wendy, it really didn't matter for how long they would have to be apart from each other – whether it was three months in between their college holidays, or those heart-wrenching, long eighteen months they had been apart in the eighth grade and Freshman year of high school.

Because they both knew that the insane love they had been feeling for each other ever since third grade was the true key to each other's heart.

Oh wow, I actually can't believe this story is officially over!

I managed to wrap it up almost four months after posting the very first chapter, and I can't be more proud of myself for not giving up on this fanfic and losing inspiration along the way.

I've poured so much love and dedication into this story over the past three and a half months, and I honestly don't regret it one bit. I also feel like this story has improved my writing style tremendously and helped me enrich my knowledge of English language even more.

Thank you so much to each and every one of you that has taken the time to read the story, leave a favorite and review it. I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading it and please feel free to let me know your thoughts about this story! ;)

Until the next time,

- xoxo, whisperinthemoonlight.