(A/n: Any mistakes will be fixed later. Please enjoy)
Chapter 48: The Weak and The Strong
Unlike the rainstorm near Valentine Academy, the cloudy sky isn't shedding such a deluge around Vincent's abode. It is also windy, forcing the shisi-odoshi to strike the rock faster than it usually did. Inside the Japanese house, Rosa is currently dwelling in an unused room, sitting in a chair with a large floating elliptical-shaped mirror in front of her- on it displays an image of her second eldest brother and one of his friends, a blonde and redhead just fled the scene.
"Tch, damn," Rosa pouts, leaning back and crossing her arms with a glare. Thanks to Ingrum casting a concealment spell beforehand, Yuna and Ed have no idea that she's here, let alone at home. The man then left since she declared she could take things from here on her own, appearing strangely eager too despite not having a visible face to show it. She could feel the emotion he was giving off.
Shrugging, the girl's shiny blue eyes lose their dissatisfied gleam. "Oh well, they most likely aren't even his friends anyway." She looks at a teenager with a tuft of blonde hair, smirking excitedly. "But he is hehe."
"You're gonna regret this kid," threatens a male's voice from behind her, his tone uncharacteristically stern and harsh.
Her face scrunching up into a frown, Rosa first watches the blonde approach her deranged brother with caution, a hand swiftly latching onto his throat the instant he closes the gap. Pleased with how things are now looking, she turns herself around, locking with a pair of narrowed lavender colored orbs that are evidently vibrant in the shadow of a corner near the floor. "Do you even know why I'm doing this?" She scoffs. "I mean, I don't really wanna do this, but he needs to pay. You two were just unlucky to be close to him." She clenches her arms, face contorting in anger. "He can't continue living guilt-free after what he did."
The owner's glowing eyes seemingly narrow a little more. "You're no better than he is then, dragging innocent people into your family drama."
Rosa's face explodes with rage. "Hey I-" She pauses, blinking as the teen's words sink in. He's..actually right. As much as it greatly pains her to admit it, she's acting just like that monster in the mirror right now.
Ever since Craig was adopted into a new family - Vincent taking the rest of the Edgewood siblings in at a later date - she's been so fixated on avenging their parents. However Yuna, Ed, and Leon would try to dissuade the thought from her head, coaxing her to give up and leave him be, and that karma would get him in due time. It took awhile, a few months at most until she finally gave in much to their relief. But it didn't last no longer than a week. When Leon became a teacher at Valentine Academy after a few years of being in Vincent's care, in one of his monthly calls Leon accidentally revealed that Craig was also attending the school. No matter how hard Leon tried to once again talk some sense into Rosa, the girl heard none of it and felt even more infatuated on exacting revenge.
And now she can, the day has come at last and no one is here to prevent her from following through...Or so that should've been the case.
"C-Craig..." The strained voice jolts her out of her musing. Rosa looks back to see what's occurring in the mirror. Craig is still reducing the blonde's air supply, who is feebly clutching the noirette's wrist. "S-stop t-this, it's m-me-Ack!" A cough forces it's way out of his mouth.
"Shut. The. Hell. Up!" Craig hisses through clenched teeth, increasing his pressure around the poor boy's throat. Rosa feels herself frowning, undergoing a complex emotion at the scene she's witnessing.
"If Craig kills Butters," a fierce glint flickers in violet iris'. "I'll kill you."
Rosa flinches, but puts on a brave face before turning to the male again. "How when you're bounded?" Ingrum also placed personalized silver chains around the teen's wrists, which are held firmly behind his back. Ingrum reassured her that if the boy so much as twitched the chains would react instantaneously and scorch his skin, it would not cease unless he kept still. "You try to move and you'll feel more than just mental pain."
An unperturbed smile slowly creeps up on the teen's face, making Rosa's own falter. "Well if it doesn't kill me by the time I'm outta these..." As soon as his arms move, an orangish-red glow immediately flares up within the darkness, expanding gradually with each passing second. "You better be prepared."
In the mirror, Craig prepares to end Butters' life.
*Back At The Academy*
Kenny races through the halls, it's been ten minutes and Kyle and Tweek are nowhere to be found. He thought about checking to see if they were still in the hall where they'd last been, but decided not to. Surely Tweek is no longer upset, they must've gone elsewhere. Perhaps they were searching for him and Stan, but with the inability to use telepathy and teleportation, they're presumably experiencing similar difficulties as he is. Especially since he and Stan had to part ways for the time being. Curse this building for being so damn big.
And to double his uneasiness, he'd acquired a very bad feeling just a few minutes ago, though he's not sure if it's connected to Kyle and Tweek. He really hopes it's unrelated to them. "The both of you better be okay...Wherever you guys are."
Approximately four minutes later, just when Kenny considers seeing if they're at the courtyard, he suddenly picks up a bunch of voices in the next hallway over on his left. Slowing down, he peeks from around the corner. He spots four members of the Student Council struggling to ease the students' worries further down, the small number of teachers there aren't providing much help - actually they seem to be arguing about something. Kenny doesn't bother to strain his hearing to make out what all they're saying, the Student Council wants everyone to go to the gym while the teachers oppose of the idea. Seeing that neither Kyle or Tweek is amongst them serves him no purpose in sticking around. So he hurries to the courtyard.
/
"U-ugh..."
The sound of a weary groan causes Kyle to stop in his tracks. Turning around to look at Tweek, the frown he already bore deepens at his milky white complexion, his droopy blue-green eyes threatening to be overtaken by red. "Damn, he needs blood." Kyle finds this very peculiar, Tweek had his fill when he drank his coffee and that was just yesterday...morning. But that can't be the cause, a vampire - even if recently turned - can still last longer than a day without blood. So what else could be the reason...?
A brief image of a noirette with sapphire eyes appears in Kyle's mind, and it quickly dawns on him. It's because of Stan. Perhaps waking up only to see the very person he'd been loathing first thing then getting angry shortly afterwards negatively effected Tweek's appetite, plus they'd missed both breakfast and lunch due to almost sleeping through the whole day, and they might miss dinner too. Even still, Stan's presence shouldn't have triggered Tweek's bloodlust, it's far too early for him to enter this phase. "Could this also be the cause of that odd energy from the auditorium?" Knowing a place where they can quench Tweek's thirst, Kyle gives his boyfriend's cool hand a light squeeze. "Hang on, we'll go to the teacher's lounge-"
"You'll be going nowhere."
A rumble of thunder shakes the earth.
Startled at the unexpectedness of the dreadfully familiar voice, Kyle slowly spins around to see a man wearing nothing but a black hoodie, pants, and a pair of combat boots instead of shoes like on the day he first encountered this fiend; the entirety of his head remained hidden by his abyss-like hood.
"I finally found you two, and you're already planning on leaving? How rude."
The mere sight of him makes Kyle's blood boil, if Tweek were to glimpse at the fuming redhead's venomous scowl he would undoubtedly find it very chilling. "What the fuck are you doing here?" Kyle demands sharply.
"Oh ho~ I like that look in your eyes little Kyle," Ingrum says merrily. "Means you won't hesitate to make this interesting." Then he notices the dazed blonde behind Kyle. "Ah but before that, seems Tweek isn't doing so well over there. And here I was hoping to see a horrified reaction outta him. How disappointing." He sighs in mock disappointment.
Without any warning, Kyle is suddenly right in his face, his lime-green eyes shining a neon green as he readies a punch encased in flames. Ingrum stands perfectly still at his swift approach, completely unfazed at the possibility of sustaining a potentially painful blow. Before any harm can be done to him, however, Ingrum's eyes light up as he wordlessly summons a dark transparent oval-shaped shield to protect himself.
Kyle is unable to reel back and ends up hitting the solid object, the force of his strike causes a big crack to form on it and it propels him backwards a few meters as if done by a mighty gust of wind. Tweek remains utterly oblivious to the situation around him, even when Kyle stumbled past him.
After a second or two, the crack starts multiplying and the barrier eventually begins to crumble. As it shatters and dissolves to the floor, Ingrum lets out an intrigued hum. "Seems you've gotten quite strong, or rather the ire stimulating you has."
"Tch." Kyle stands back on his feet, a bit disoriented but maintained his hateful scowl. Even though he failed to inflict any damage on the man, the fact that he managed to leave a dent in his shield gives him a bit of a confidence boost. If he keeps pressing on, he might be able to overwhelm him and kill him.
"I'd slow down if I were you." Ingrum takes leisure strides towards Tweek, reaching into the pocket of his hoodie to pull out a small but sharp knife. "Wouldn't wanna lose another important person in your life, hmm?" He holds the blade right in the middle of Tweek's throat.
Fear paralyzes Kyle in it's clutches, a similar, frightening scenario flashing before his dimming eyes, making him weak. "S-stop, d-don't you dare!"
Chuckling menacingly at the desperation in the teen's voice, Ingrum slides the knife gently across Tweek's neck, producing a short thin horizontal line of blood along his skin. "Oh I would dare."
Dropping to the floor on his knees, Kyle all of a sudden feels hopeless, even more so when he sees Tweek's eyes reverting back to their original blue-green, horror and confusion setting in as he registers his current predicament. Seems the acute sting snapped him out of his stupor. He gapes at Kyle pleadingly, and is about to communicate to him through telepathy, until he notices Kyle's posture and expression. He looks utterly traumatized, staring Tweek straight in the eyes although it doesn't feel like he's looking at him specifically.
"Your fire has brunt out already little Kyle?" Tweek tenses. This voice...it can't be... "Well, I do recall doing the same thing to little Luke back then, so I understand your distress." Ingrum's sympathetic tone contained shameless mirth.
Tweek has never seen Kyle like this before. It's no wonder he's so shaken up, he's reliving a dreadful experience of his past. "Damn it, this is my fault..." Tweek frowns guiltily, if only he hadn't blacked out so suddenly. "But when did this guy get here? And 'why' is he here?!"
Oh no..does..Ingrum know that he revealed their meetings to Kyle and has come here to kill them both?
"I'll protect you two, even if I have to die again in the process," was what Luke pledged, and with such determination too. But since the man is here...does that mean...
"You'd best do something quick, or else Tweek here might suffer the same fate as your twin," Ingrum says, obviously enjoying the leverage he has over the redhead, although he didnt need it. Kyle flinches at his provoking words, but doesn't move. Fearing that if he did, Ingrum would slash a fatal gash in Tweek's neck. The mere envision makes him tear up with a shudder.
"S-shit, I need to get away from him!" Tweek panics. He tries to teleport to Kyle's side, but remembers that he can't. "Fuck..."
"Oh you've regained your senses?" Ingrum asks, feeling the blonde trembling.
Gritting his teeth, Tweek slips from behind the blade and hurries to stand beside Kyle...He can't believe he just did that...
Having the exact same thought as Tweek, Ingrum is left momentarily stunned before letting out an amused roar of laughter. "That was very daring of you Tweek. I could've easily slit your throat before you'd even gotten the chance to do anything." It was also smart of him to take advantage of his distracted state.
Tweek's lips curl into a shaky grin. "Luckily you didn't." He's honestly surprised he didn't stutter, he is so nervous right now and the man's piercing yellow eyes are only doubling the feeling.
Ingrum laughs again. "You sharp-tongued brat." He starts twirling the weapon in his gloved hand. "Alright then, I'm quite curious to see how well you'll handle yourself since you've grown some guts." He stops, gripping the knife's handle again. "And Kyle is practically a hollow shell now so don't expect him to help you." Tweek frowns deeply. "Try to last no less than five minutes. I'll even give you some openings to counterattack, it's up to you whether you notice and seize the opportunities or not."
Before Tweek can even think of what to do, Ingrum charges at him, the blade glinting with faint blood on it's silver metal.
"GAH!" Tweek manages to dodge the vertical slash aimed at his throat, barely doing the same for the others though. Ingrum is being relentless as he jabs and swings the knife in every direction. Tweek is having a difficult time evading even with his enhanced senses. He doubts he can keep this up past one minute, his insides are silently screaming at him to consume some blood. He's getting lightheaded and his vision is spinning, but the fear of being killed is somehow preventing him from giving up.
"You've just missed two openings."
A fist collides into Tweek's cheek. He's sent sprawling to the floor a good distance away, both dizzy and in pain. Laying on his side, he coughs out the blood in his mouth, a trail of the red fluid leaking out from the corner of his bottom lip. Groaning, he clenches his closed eyelids tightly, feeling as though that single punch zapped him of the little remaining energy he had. "Do you seriously think it's a good idea to be in your own little world with your life on the line right now?" He hears Ingrum say, followed by the man beginning to approach him. "Or could it be that you were figuring out how to retaliate?" Tweek struggles to open his eyes, his head really hurts. "Either way, you shouldn't be dropping your guard like that, although I am impressed at your dodging speed." His footsteps getting closer, Tweek weakly turns over on his back, and cracks an eye open, but that's all he's able to do. No matter how hard he tries he can't move any of his limbs.
"K-Kyle...help..."
Before long Ingrum enters and towers over his one-eyed view, appearing like a faceless demon observing it's prey. A hand roughly grabs a handful of messy blonde locks, Tweek crying out as he gets lifted up from off the floor, high enough to where his feet dangles in the air. He latches onto Ingrum's arm, dreading the thought of losing his head rather than some of his hair in this guy's vice-like grip.
"This became dull really fast. You're better off not being so smug considering you can't maintain it for long," Ingrum deadpans, then he shrugs an arm. "Oh well, I can go elsewhere for some fun so I'll just cut yours and little Kyle's head off then be on my way. Hopefully for your pitiful sake someone will come by and see your headless corpses before they disintegrate into ash. Hmm or maybe the both of you could be additional figures hanging along the walls in Lord Vincent's office." His eyes seemingly darkens in evil glee.
...Did he just address Vincent as Lord? "W-wait."
Ingrum tilts his head to the side slightly. "What, got any last words?"
Tweek shoots him an unintimidating glare, he hopes this will take long enough for Kyle to come back to his senses. "W-what's your r-relationship w-with Vincent?"
The rapid falling rain overlaps the silence that follows.
Ingrum regards the teen with an unblinking stare for a couple seconds. "Oops, didn't mean to let that slip," he mutters almost robotically.
"W-what?" Bewilderment overtakes the pain on Tweek's face.
Ingrum heaves another sigh. "I suppose I can tell you my true motive for having you go against Lord Vincent since you're going to die." He goes silent, as if collecting his thoughts. "Let me first say that our meetings prior to that weren't related to each other. Little Luke turned you under my orders." Tweek is shocked by this information. "You see, the reason Luke is under my obligation is simply because I allowed for him to have a second chance at life. I was originally sent out to kill him, he was a threat to our existence thanks to his inhuman eye color and he would foolishly go out in public. Trying to blend in with human society. I'd decided to take action when he and his family least expected it, which happened to be when they went out of the country for vacation. While observing them, I felt a bit hesitant to follow through with the order. From afar they portrayed an image of a harmless and ordinary family, but one look at Luke's blood red eyes-"
"Kyle help me!" Tweek thinks frantically despite his head greatly aching, glad that he can at least use telepathy during this moment. However the elation quickly dies when Kyle doesn't respond back, nor does he budge from his position. "O-oi Kyle?! Please do something!"
"—humans didn't figure out right away that they were vampires, but it was only a matter of time until they did. So, a few nights later, I killed him." Ingrum stops to examine Tweek's face, curling his fingers even tighter into his hair. Tweek lets out a groan of agony. "So this was your plan eh? To get me to talk while you roused Kyle from his daze? I thought you were genuinely interested in knowing, but it was only a ruse to lower my guard."
"I-I only asked about y-you and Vincent, n-nothing else," Tweek argues. Which was true, Kyle already told him about his and Luke's past yesterday morning after telling him about his encounters with Ingrum.
Ingrum just eyes him without another word, his body language giving no blatant indication of his current emotions. After some more seconds of silence, Ingrum finally speaks. "Hmph, I'll make this brief then," he sounded annoyed, and perhaps embarrassed? "Lord Vincent, as you've probably suspected, is my boss. Mines and the vampire hunters to be precise. What I did by warning you about the two of them was done out of pure curiosity. After first meeting you not long after you were turned, I found you quite..interesting to say the least and well, things were pretty boring at the time so me and the vampire hunter devised up a plan in order to change that. It didn't go unnoticed by Lord Vincent however, who unexpectedly saw nothing wrong with us stirring up trouble, in fact he wanted to join us." Ingrum pauses, then shakes his head with a long, deep sigh. "So much for being concise, damn this habit of mine," he mumbles the last bit to himself. "Long story short, I wanted to knock Lord Vincent's and the vampire hunter's arrogance down a peg, as well as spice up my uneventful days. Things probably would've went smoothly had you cooperated longer."
Tweek watches with increasing anxiety as the knife gleams dangerously under the ceiling lights. "Thanks to you I'm feeling kinda frustrated now, so before I slice your head clean off..." In one swift motion, Ingrum plunges the blade right into Tweek's chest, avoiding his heart. A large amount of blood gushes out of the wound, splattering on both Tweek's and Ingrum's clothes as well as on the floor. His evil smirk going unseen, Ingrum's eyes shift to a dark red color. "I'll enjoy myself for a bit."
Every incision gets drowned out by the rain and distant thunderclaps. But the aroma of blood starts tainting the air within the hallway expeditiously. A long scarlet trail drifts over towards Kyle, slithering around his head to get to his nose. After a small inhale, the bittersweet smell succeeds in kicking him out of his tormented abstraction. Blinking rapidly, his mind recalls the events that transpired before blanking out, then jolts up onto his feet, glancing around madly for Ingrum and Tweek.
When his eyes land only on Ingrum's figure, hacking away at something his body is blocking in front of him, Kyle feels himself getting weak all over again. The tips of blonde locks sticking out from behind Ingrum were painted red.
"T-Tweek...N-no..."
All this time, he let Tweek- a fledgling vampire handle someone he stood no chance against all by himself while he sat on the floor like a pathetic coward. Imaging a disturbing scene he didn't even try to stop from coming true. Is..it too late to save Tweek? He was already depleted of energy thanks to Craig, and entering bloodlust only worsened his fatigue. Now that he's losing so much blood, maybe it is-
"Hurry up idiot or he'll be killed!"
Startled though unable to question Luke's sudden voice, Kyle clears his head, grits his teeth and runs down the hall, channeling some magic into his fists. His hurried footsteps alerts Ingrum into halting mid-cut, cocking his head stained with blood back to see an enraged Kyle coming towards him, the fire emitting from his fists bigger than before as well as the ferocity in his neon-green eyes.
"Damn, I was just about to get to the good part."
As soon as Kyle shortens the distance between them, Ingrum spins around holding Tweek's limp and bloody body in the redhead's face. Kyle skids to a stop, gasping at the grisly sight done to the blonde. In his moment of hesitation, Ingrum throws Tweek's body off to the side, aiming his knife to puncture Kyle right through his throat. Kyle focuses just in time to catch the blade just centimeters away from his jugular, the heat of the blaze too much for the ordinary metal to handle. It begins to melt. Ingrum tries to punch Kyle in the face with his free hand, but his fist gets caught as well.
The man's eyes narrow in anticipation, not fazed by the heat seeping through his leather gloves. "Knew you'd do that." After a brief flutter of his eyelids, a perturbing black replaces the red in Ingrum's eyes. If they hadn't been glowing, his iris' would've blended in completely with his hood.
"Quick, let him go!"
Kyle heeds Luke's warning, and leaps back a little. His eyes widen when he sees pitch black fire dancing around Ingrum's hand. "What the hell?!"
Ingrum drops his useless weapon to the floor. "There's no need to look so surprised, all I did was make your flames as my own."
Kyle raises his right hand, his own ability had been stolen.
"Kyle, you need to damage his eyes. They're his main source of power."
Kyle already knows that now. "That's easier said than done."
"You'd better figure out a way before Tweeky dies, he won't heal fast enough thanks to all the blood he lost...Wish I could be there to help."
Kyle frowns. "Luke, although I agree just you being here talking to me like this is more than enough. I thought...I'd never hear from you again after what Tweek told me."
In a room void of any light, Luke lays slump against a stone wall on the floor- his face bruised with small cuts and one eye closed with a thick line of blood flowing down his cheek. His clothes have been ripped to near shreds, but the darkness prevents the rest of the gruesome details to be thoroughly seen. "Heh, his punishments aren't all that bad now. Probably cuz I've grown used to them." Kyle feels himself shaking with rage. "Kyle watch out!"
Unsure of what's coming his way, Kyle extends out a palm to bring forth a wall of fire in front of him, negating a fireball that was hurled at him.
"For a second there I thought you'd given up again. Actually had me worried."
Glaring daggers at Ingrum from behind the protection of his barrier, Kyle rekindles the fire around his right hand. "You should be worried. All the pain you caused both Tweek and Luke are gonna be returned to you a thousandfold."
"Oh is that so?" Ingrum sneers. "Big talk from a weak-minded brat."
With an aggravated growl, Kyle raises and places both palms on the blazing wall. In that instant, the wall explodes and sends out over a dozen fireballs in Ingrum's direction.
Astonished by the redhead's creativity, Ingrum expertly dodges most of them while absorbing the rest into his counterfeit fire. The evaded projectiles strayed further down the hall until they extinguished themselves from existence. Upset that his attack failed to hit it's target even once, Kyle is about to send a beam of fire at his adversary when a very sudden voice inserts itself amid the fray.
"Whoa, is that you Kyle?"
His shoulders jolting vaguely, Kyle looks back and is greatly relieved at whom he sees. "Mr. Thorn!"
Dumbfounded, Damien blinks at his uncommon expression. "Wow, had you not turned around and looked at me when you said that I would've thought you were someone else."
Ingrum watches Damien with interest. "This man managed to slip under my radar. How intriguing." Accomplishing such a feat tells Ingrum that this 'Mr. Thorn' isn't someone he should underestimate.
Straining to keep his smile intact, Kyle inwardly reminds himself that this frivolous man is one of the strongest teachers in this school. "You came at the perfect time, can you take care of Tweek for me while I handle this bastard?" He nudges his head at Ingrum.
Damien first looks at the enemy, then at the aforementioned blonde laying next to the wall, grimacing at the state he's in. "Holy shit he's a bloody mess." Damien approaches Tweek's unconscious form.
Kyle feels a twinge of guilt. Damien stops beside him, placing a hand over his shoulder. "It's not your fault. I'm sure you protected him the best you could."
Kyle smiles sadly at his comforting words. "If only that were true. Tweek was the one who risked his life to protect me..while I..." Tears sting the corners of his eyes.
"It's best for you to tend to his injuries then instead of me," Damien says, patting Kyle's shoulder before removing his hand.
Kyle looks to him with dubious eyes. "But I-"
"I know you wanna avenge Tweek, but he's not dead. Not yet at least." Damien walks forward some, eying the man a few steps down. "And besides, I can't let a student handle an opponent that's way out of their league now that I'm here. So take Tweek and go somewhere you can heal him, we're able to use telepathy and teleportation now."
Kyle stares at his teacher's back for a short while, he can almost see a resolute aura surrounding him. Kyle heaves a defeated sigh. "Okay." He jogs over to Tweek, wanting to avert his gaze but dares not to. This is his punishment for being weak, mentally weak as Ingrum had so crudely pointed out. Getting down on both knees, Kyle carefully scoops Tweek in his arms, a single tear slides down his cheek. He shuts his eyes, resting his forehead on Tweek's chest. "I'm so sorry Tweek, so sorry you had to deal with him alone..." Staying in that position, Kyle teleports them to the only room fit for treating both injuries and illnesses.
Damien shoots Ingrum a soft smile. "I'm honestly surprised you let us talk for that long, and allowed for them to leave. Never thought a villain was that considerate."
Ingrum chuckles. "It's only fair that I let you two exchange your last words to each other since you praised me so accurately. And I don't have to worry about Tweek, it's no concern of mine whether he actually dies or not."
Damien's lips descend into a serious frown. "Well, let's get this over with shall we?"
Ingrum raises his other hand with his palm facing upward, a dark flame erupting around it. "Let's."
Kenny reaches the double doors leading out to the courtyard, but an abrupt sense of alertness advises him not to proceed onward. What he knows for sure is that there are two people outside, however there is a profound amount of magic being used so he can't distinguish whom they are exactly. They may or may not be Kyle or even Tweek, but since he's already here it would be a dumb idea to turn back and look in another place without checking first. He reaches for one of the handle bars.
"Hey um Kenny?"
Kenny pauses with a blink of his eyes. "Mark? Sweet we can use telepathy now?"
"Yeah, seems the spell has been lifted. But that aside, I don't know if you found Kyle or not but I think you need to come back to the infirmary."
Lowering his arm, Kenny frowns uneasily at his friend's similar tone. "Sadly I haven't found him yet, but what's wrong? D-did the old man notice the door?"
"No..it's Stan. He's not lookin' too good, and I don't know what to do."
Kenny wastes not another second, and teleports into the nurses office. He sees Stan laying down on the bed and underneath the sheets, and rushes towards him. Despite the cold temperature, Stan's wan face is a little damp from sweat and his breathing is coming out in labored pants through his mouth.
"Why didn't you give him any medicine?" Kenny asks, turning his body to face Mark.
"I-I didn't know what kind to give him! I laid him down on the pillow and tucked him under the covers at least, and besides I don't know how to take care of anybody but myself, let alone a human."
Kenny gives him a blank stare with clear disappointment in his eyes. "Glad I've never gotten sick around you."
Mark nods. "Agreed."
Rolling his eyes, Kenny looks back down at Stan, his frown returning. "Well Mark isn't entirely at fault for this, I should've given him some medicine anyway before I left." Shaking his head, he sighs. "Guess I'm gonna have to do 'that' then..." He acquires a warm, tingly sensation in his chest, he ignores it. "Hey Mark, can you do me a small favor and turn around?"
Mark raises a confused eyebrow. "What for?"
Kenny sighs again. "Never mind, forget it." He doesn't have time to explain it to the brunette. His half-lidded eyes begin to glow, as does the unidentifiable black marking near the upper left side of his uncovered collarbone in a pale yellow light. The color of his hazel iris' have altered into a bright crimson.
"Kenny wha-" Mark cuts his question short when he sees Kenny bend down, lowering his face near Stan's. He's unable to see any further thanks to Kenny's tall build obstructing his view, but Kenny gently presses his lips on top of Stan's.
(A/n: Trust me, this fic is close to finishing I swear...Not that I'm trying to rush it or anything. I'm just glad I managed to fit a Stenny moment in lol I hope you enjoyed and the chapter will be up soon)
