Disclaimer - Don't own south park or any of the characters, just bored and wanted to write something fun.

Authors note – guys I gotta say I am super pumped by how many views my story is getting, could definitely use some more reviews but It's cool I'm sure you're just thinking up something super emotional to say right? Just seriously all you gotta say is ya like it, ya don't like it. Hopefully all the views are people actually reading the story and not just looking and closing it. But if the view count stays high or I get more reviews I will try to keep churning out a couple chapters a day. I'm confined to my house for about 2 more weeks anyway so nothing better to do but listen to One Ok Rock and write fanfiction.

Chapter 7

Stan's room Monday morning...

Kyle was warm, a comfortable safe warmth that he didn't quite recognize but felt familiar. He normally would do anything to stay asleep but he needed to know what it was. He groggily pried open his eyes and saw nothing but red. He took a sniff and smelled sweat, dirt, and something familiar he couldn't place. He needed to see more, he tried to lift his head but something was across his shoulders. He shifted and rolled over to see an arm around his shoulders lazily. He could hear breathing now that his awareness was coming back to him. Kyle knew what the warmth was now and shot up out of bed. He'd rolled up against Stan in his sleep again. His friend was sound asleep rolling over as Kyle got off the bed, he seemed almost like he was groping for something that had gotten away from him. Kyle looked at the alarm clock on the side table which read 4:50. "Aww hell." He'd woken up more than an hour early. He sighed and grabbed his change of clothes off Stan's desk and walked across the hall and took a long hot shower. His thoughts from the night before came back to him. "Clyde..." Kyle dreaded having to see everyone and know the truth while everyone wondered what happened to him.

"Kyle dear is that you?" Mrs. Marsh called from the other side of the bathroom door. He shut off the water and answered.

"Yes ma'am I'm sorry, was I in for too long?" He had lost track of time in his thoughts.

"No dear you're fine, I was just surprised to hear someone up both Stan and his father like to wake up at the very last moment." She chuckled before adding "Come down when you're done I'll make you some breakfast and some coffee if you'd like." Kyle smiled, coffee sounded excellent right now.

"Yes please ma'am I'll be down in just a few minutes!" He said getting out and starting to dry off.

"Sunny side up right?" He heard him ask her from the other side of the door. He smiled, she knew had always been like a second mother to him, the Marsh household was always welcoming to anyone who came, and now Kyle felt more than ever that he was a part of it.

"Yes ma'am!" set out his toothbrush for after breakfast and got dressed. A few minutes later he headed downstairs. He could hear the coffee pot as he rounded the bottom of the steps towards the kitchen and could smell the eggs. Mrs. Marsh was cooking eggs in her bathrobe again. He thought it odd that she was using the skillet to cook, surely she could do it with a spell faster. "Morning Mrs. Marsh." She turned and smiled at him.

"Kyle dear just call me Sharon." she turned back towards the skillet. He was too embarrassed to call her just Sharon like that so he settled on a middle ground.

"Mrs. Sharon then, how come you don't cook with magic? I mean you could couldn't you? Or is there some rule about that?" He questioned curious. His curiosity about magic brought a smile to her face, he was definitely the student she'd been waiting for.

"No there isn't any rule against cooking with magic, and I'm actually quite good at it, better than I am with a skillet anyway." She said humming as she managed the eggs and prepared some bread setting it in the toaster but not pulling the lever quite yet.

"How come you don't then? Not that your food isn't great or anything!" He said catching himself quickly, he didn't want to come across as insulting. She laughed and turned to smile at him.

"It's actually quite silly, it has to do with when I met Stan's father." Kyle was intrigued now what Mr. Randy had to do with this, Stan's parents had always been very loving towards each other, even when they fought they were a mess without each other. Kyle hoped he'd find someone like that someday, his thoughts drifted to Clyde momentarily but he shook them away refusing to wallow just now.

"Please do tell, I haven't heard from Stan how you met." Stan never really talked about his parents other than the off hand complaint, not that he didn't bring up the subject.

"Well all right then. It was only a year after I became a sorcerer I got tired of the fame that came with it, famous hunters from old powerful families were always trying to acquire me." Kyle cringed he could imagine how that must have felt, to have people after you for your prestige rather than who you were. Kyle's own family was like that somewhat and wanted him to marry a doctor or a lawyer to bring the family up. "Anyway I got sick of it and after a fight with my parents about a particularly rude hunter I dropped out of the college I was attending and ran way to here of all places." She laughed at the folly of it. "I had assumed a quiet mountain town, no way would there be hunters here, usually where there are hunters there are large cities with large populations not small hick mountain towns." She was remembering something fondly as she spoke to Kyle. "I got a job as a waitress at a diner where Shakey's is now. I was a terrible cook. I got yelled at and if they could have replaced me on short notice they would have but no one wanted to work there." She pushed down the lever on the toaster and got out a gallon of orange juice, a glass, and two coffee cups. "Anyway, there was this one boy, about my age who came in every few days or so. He would always come in when I was working it seemed. If I wasn't the one who came to serve him he would politely insist on having me be his server." She smiled at this and Kyle held his head in his hands elbows on the table, he was liking where this story was going. "He said he wanted me to be the one to cook his eggs and bacon, he said it was because I was the only one who cared" He never once complained about the burnt toast or the broken yokes and every time he would say it was delicious and leave a 50 percent tip" She pulled the toast out and buttered it and scooping the eggs up onto a plate along side it set it in front of Kyle.

"So what happened then?" Kyle asked as she poured him a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee.

"Well at first nothing, I thought he was pitying me because I was such a terrible cook. It was a coincidence that I sensed the presence of a very large group of shells wandering into town one night. I was taking his order down when they reached the edge of town walked past the diner. Most of the diner was empty and those that were there didn't even notice that they had been pulled into the nightlands. The boy did though, he stood abruptly and had this look on his face that I'll never forget, he had these cold steely blue eyes, he told me I have to go, and to stay here. I knew immediately then, he'd been hiding it before but I suddenly could feel his fierce magical aura. It was unlike anything I had felt before. They say that for hunters, compatibility between magic aura's is the most important factor of a relationship when to similar aura's meet they are bound together by fate itself. The boy ran out of the diner pulling a small hand gun out of his waistband. He fired a couple shots until he had all the Shells attention." Kyle was on the edge of his seat at this point, he had been scared shit-less by just two shells and Mr. Randy had run out against dozens. "I knew exactly what he was doing, such a large group of shells would feed on everyone and thing they could in town, the people would all die, so he was purposefully letting his magical aura spill out to get their attention, he was using himself as bait to protect the town."

"And he killed all the shells right?" Kyle asked smiling thinking he knew how it ended. Sharon smiled and shook her head.

"He was virtually unarmed, the handgun he had only had one clip it was for emergencies, he wasn't prepared to fight so many, they quickly were overwhelming him. Even as he used magic he simply wasn't strong enough to take on so many at once." Kyle was surprised by this, Mr. Randy had said Stan had taken on dozens of shells alone before and armed with just a sword. If that was a daunting task for Mr. Randy when he had been several years older than Stan, just how strong was his friend?

"So what happened then?" Kyle asked wondering how the story could have ended the way it did if Mr. Randy had been overwhelmed he should be a shell right?

"Oh Kyle dear I'm a sorcerer remember? I ran outside and screamed at the shells get off my man you dead sons of bitches!" Mrs. Sharon flexed her arm and had a smirk on her face. "And then I obliterated every single once of them." She nodded her head as she spoke, Kyle's jaw dropped, that story had not gone the way he had expected. Sharon looked at him and cocked an eyebrow. "What you thought I'd be the damsel? Sorry but that is eternally Randy's position. After I saved him he confessed his love for me, he asked me out then and there. I almost said no, at the time I thought, this guy was a hunter he must have known who I was and was trying to acquire me like all the others." She laughed to her self sipping her coffee as Kyle sipped on his own. "But then he asked for my name." A small tear came to her eye once she said this part and she started to get a little choked up. "He hadn't even known my name all this time, he'd been too shy to ask me. He said that he really loved my cooking, and that I wasn't afraid to tell the managers how I felt when they berated me. He had fallen for me, for me. He hadn't known I was some great sorcerer or even a fellow hunter. He was the first person to see me as just a pretty girl who sucked at cooking, and he wanted to know me better." She was full on crying now and Kyle could feel tears running down his own face at this point. Way to go Mr. Randy, who knew you could be so sentimental.

"That was beautiful Mrs. Sharon, I'm really glad you told me that story, and I'm honestly really glad I was marked." Sharon's eyes grew wide at this, she'd been harboring a fear that Kyle would grow to resent Stan for what had happened to him. "I felt like I was drifting away from Stan over the past few months, I didn't know about the job so I just started to imagine all these terrible things about him." He was filled with guilt as he recounted his thoughts to his friends mother. Unaware that Stan was standing just outside of the kitchen in earshot. "I feel like such a horrible friend. Stan has been stoically protecting the whole town from monsters and here I was feeling butt hurt that he wasn't there to watch TV or play video games with me."

"Oh Kyle, dear, you can't blame yourself for that! You care about Stan a great deal I know, you two have been practically inseparable since you were born. Part of why Stan always wanted to be around you was so that he could protect you from shells you know." Kyle was surprised by Sharon's statement not quite understanding what she meant.

"What do you mean protect me from shells?" Kyle asked wondering if he could get some insight into the inner workings of his friends mind.

"Well I probably shouldn't say this...when Stan was little he had terrible nightmares for 3 long months and was terrified all the time." Kyle couldn't believe this, for as long as Kyle could remember Stan hadn't been afraid of anything or anyone. "He was 6 years old at the time. We finally got him to tell us what the nightmares were about, they were about you, he was afraid that his very best fwend was going to be turned into a shell." she smiled as Kyle's face turned red, in the other room Stan's face shared a similar shade. He cursed to himself that he would get back at his mother for this humiliation but he couldn't go in now and pretend he didn't hear.

"So then what happened?" Kyle set down his empty coffee mug and began to sip on his orange juice.

"Well Stan came downstairs one day with the cutest little determined look on his face, he was carrying the little toy sword he'd gotten for his birthday." She smiled remembering her little boy at that tender age, she still saw glimpses of that innocence even now. "He told us he was done being scared, he wasn't the one in danger so he'd just have to protect Kyle all by himself." Kyle's jaw dropped again, he was going to need to get that checked out. He couldn't keep himself from imagining Stan as a little kid with a toy sword yet talking like he did now. Adorable was the only word that came to mind, he laughed to himself, Stan had always been an emotional and strong hearted kid. He realized this new revelation didn't surprise him at all. "After that it was like pulling teeth to separate you two. After Shelley left last year though, Randy needed Stan much more often, where as they use to split who would work with their father. Stan had to fight for both of them now, and things have been getting worse here...Oh never mind about that though for now. Stan come in here!" Sharon said waving off any questions about what she meant. Stan paled, his mother always seemed to know when he was lurking.

"S-sup, morning dude." Stan said trying to act casual even though his face was the color of tomatoe.

"Uh yea morning...sleep well?" Kyle asked just as embarrassed. Stan nodded as he sat down and chewed on a plain bagel.

"Yea actually, I had a dream I was wrapped in something super warm, not sure what it was though but it was comfortable." Stan said forgetting his embarrassment as he tried to remember more about his dream. "Whatever it was moved away and I was cold, I woke up not too long after." Kyle's face was practically on fire all of a sudden. Sharon was smirking playfully. She was looking Kyle right in the eyes, she knew! He shook his head silently begging her not to tell him.

"Stan better be careful don't want to make your girlfriend jealous now." Sharon said getting up and walking out of the kitchen as her dense son just stared after her.

"What the hell is she talking about?" Stan asked wondering why Kyle had buried his head in his arms. "Well I'm going to pretend you aren't acting weird, its time to leave for school, you ready?" Kyle looked up and his old worries came rushing back, he had to ask.

"Stan what do we say about Clyde?" Stan visibly winced at the mention of the other boy. Stan didn't know why he felt a mixture of guilt and pain at the mention of their deceased friend but he didn't like it.

"Just...don't worry about it Kyle, its best if we don't mention him at school." Stan said grabbing his bag and handing Kyle his that he'd brought down from his room.

"How can I not worry about it, people are going to worry about where he is! Everyone knows I was hanging out with him the past few days." Kyle said nervous he was going to be implicated, he'd been so worried about supernatural dangers he hadn't even thought about legal issues. Stan just stared at his friend not sure what he should say, in the end he couldn't bring himself to say it and figured he'd let Kyle figure it out for himself, as painful as that would be.

"Trust me dude, lets just go to school and we'll deal with whatever comes our way." Kyle seemed to calm at this and followed behind Stan, the dark haired boy thankful Kyle couldn't see his frown and his guilty eyes. Kyle was about to experience one of the horrors of being a hunter. The trip to school was mostly uneventful, they road the bus that picked them up at the same stop they'd stood at since they'd been children. Stan was wearing his old poof ball hat and a red and blue striped scarf and his usual blue hoodie and loose athletic pants his and his black and white high top chucks. Kyle always liked to poke fun at his friends sense of style or lack their of, Kyle was wearing his light blue skinny jeans, cherry red low top chucks adorned with sharpie symbols and names, a red tight long sleeve shirt on. Kyle liked to think he had a pretty good sense of style, he wore a completely different set of clothes for everything he did and for each day of the week, shoes included. In fact he was already contemplating a few outfits for his new job but hadn't decided on any just yet. As they rode the bus Kyle listened for any mention of Clyde but there was nothing. They arrived at school just like they always did and got off the bus, Kyle looked around and saw lots of people smiling happy to see their friends. There was nothing unusual about that but something about it bothered him.

"I gotta go to my locker, I'll catch up in a minute dude!" Kyle called to Stan as he slipped through the crowd. He regretted it almost immediately though, his locker was right next to Token's, Clyde's best friend. They were almost as close as Stan and Kyle. Token was there pulling various books out and contemplating which to bring with him. As Kyle dug into his locker he prayed to any god listening that he wouldn't engage Kyle, apparently there weren't any listening.

"Hey Kyle how was your weekend?" Token asked as he noticed the redhead who turned around wide eyed filled with guilt. "Hey are you OK you look kinda pale?" Kyle just opened closed his mouth several times before spouting the first thought that came to his mind.

"Yea it was great except Clyde stood me up!" He laughed nervously and turned back to his locker, until Token's response took the breath from his chest.

"Who? That your boyfriend's name or something? That's cool dude didn't know you swung that way, but I'm cool with it." Kyle turned and looked at him like he had 3 heads, Token took this as his queue to leave. "Welp see ya later Kyle good luck with that Clyde guy!" He rushed off into the crowd leaving Kyle speechless. Token knew that he and Clyde had been hanging out, no way did he not know that Clyde had those kinds of feelings for Kyle, his best friend would surely be the first person he told. Kyle wondered all the way to the classroom where he sat down for roll call with Mr. Garrison. Kyle tried to catch Stan's attention but he seemed to be purposefully avoiding Kyle's gaze. Wendy and Kenny both noticed this and gave each other looks, they had plenty of questions for these two later. Wendy was suspicious about a few things now that she was getting a good look at Kyle. She just hoped she was wrong.

"Alright class, let's take our seats." Mr. Garrison droned not noticing everyone sans Clyde was, his seat sitting empty in the middle of the front row. Mr. Garrison always picked on Clyde for being bad at math and moved him to the front of the room. He began to call out names looking for a hand or listening for a response. "Kyle, Wendy, Butters, Token, Stanley, Kenny, Kevin, Bebe, Red, Craig, Tweek..." He continued for the rest of the class, Kyle dreaded when he would reach Clyde's name, but it never came. "Alright looks like everyone's here...why is there an empty desk in the front of the classroom? Butters move your seat up here, I don't like you hanging back there in the corner with Kenny." Kenny frowned upset that his butter ball was being moved away from him but as he sat down he realized he had a nice view of Butters ass from here with the way he leaned low over his desk in front of him. On second thought, this could work. Kyle however was not nearly as adaptive to this change.

"Mr. Garrison! That's Clyde's seat!" Kyle yelled standing up, now it was his classes turn to look at him like he had three heads. Stan just looked out the window, feeling the guilt and pain building, he knew what was coming and he dreaded it but Kyle needed to hear it. "Why didn't you call his name for roll call? Did you just mark him off as being absent?" Mr. Garrison looked very confused for a moment.

"Uhh...Kyle I'm sorry but who is Clyde?" The class snickered when Token whispered to Craig that Clyde was Kyle's apparently invisible boy friend. Kyle whirled on him in anger.

"Clyde is your best friend you ass!" Kyle yelled right in Token's face who just brushed it off.

"I think I'd remember something like that, I've never had a friend by that name, Craig is my best friend." He said nodding.

"By default I guess but yea" Craig said finishing for him. Kyle just sat stood there frozen. Tears were beginning to run down his face and he finally was able to make eye contact with Stan who was glancing his way with a sad pitying look in his eyes.

"How could you all forget him!?" Kyle screamed scanning the whole classroom hysterical by this point. Kenny looked down at his desk, Wendy covered her mouth her strange purple eyes wide in horror as she looked at Kyle, Butters seemed to fidget nervously but didn't turn around to face Kyle. Everyone else including Mr. Garrison just looked bewildered and completely indifferent to his outburst. Kyle ran out of the class at this point slamming the door.

"Uhh class lets uhhh take a break..." Mr. Garrison muttered going to the desk phone to call Mr. Mackey the school's resident couselor. The kids all began to gossip about Kyle having a break down, some of them saying it was because of suppressed homosexual feelings, teens could be so callous sometimes. Stan got up knowing he had to go after Kyle. He almost got to the door when Wendy stepped in front of him. She had a stern look on her face, he knew instantly she was mad about something. The wind outside began to blow fiercely. Her purple eyes were beautiful even when they were filled with anger. He smiled and tried to step around her but she put her arm out.

"Stan, I think you know we need to talk." she said, eliciting oohs from rest of the class, she turned and glared. "Quiet Vultures!" the room seemed to shake and everyone was silent and went back to their work sans Butters who was attempting to get up but was currently being pawed a very horny Kenny.

"K-ken, not now!" Butters said pushing him off of him. Stan watched still surprised by the couple voted as runner up perfect couple in middle school. Kenny and Butters had been dating steadily since the beginning of 6th grade. After Stan and Wendy they had the best track record relationship wise. "Stan about Kyle..." Butters said fidgeting.

"Not here." Wendy said leading the way out of the classroom followed by the other three. Behind them Token was looking out the window curious about this Clyde person Kyle was talking about. He didn't know why but he liked the name. He felt something wet run down his face and realized it was tears. Craig was staring at him weirdly.

"Is it contagious?" Craig asked obviously implying whatever happened to Kyle would happen to Token.

"Shut up ass! I just got something in my eye..." Hey said wiping his eyes. He wanted to believe his own words, but then why did his chest hurt.

In the student council room...

As the youngest student council president in park high's history, Wendy had been giving exclusive control over the room and she and the others would hang out here during breaks and lunch. Butters the vice president and Kenny the treasurer rounded out the main student council. Stan hadn't had time for it with his hunter job. He was currently at one end of a long wooden conference table with Wendy sitting at the other the two blonde boys sitting to either side of her. All eyes were on him.

"So sweetheart, what did you want to talk about?" Stan said smiling futilely trying to put as much sugar into his voice as he could. She narrowed her eyes at him, damn she was sexy when she was mad.

"Don't sweetheart me! You know what this is about." She snapped slamming her hand down on the table.

"I don't know wha-" Stan started but Butters cut him off.

"Stan, Kyle's been marked..." Kenny's little butter ball spoke up, he'd noticed the change in Kyle's magic aura but hadn't known what had caused it until he mentioned Clyde.

"Dude, I know you are lonely doing your job, but marking Kyle?" Kenny leaned back in his chair cocking an eyebrow. "Kinda selfish to bring him into our world isn't it?" Stan glared at him.

"You're one to talk." Stan snapped with venom in his voice. Kenny narrowed his eyes and sat up straight, Butters paled.

"Watch yourself dude." Wendy interrupted the two boy's glaring match by clearing her throat.

"That is quite enough boys, you are both very pretty and masculine and will fight for your respective boys. We get it." Butters giggled as Wendy insulted both and ended the fight at the same time. "Stan this is serious, why did you do it?" Stan just looked at her confused.

"Do what?" Then he realized what they meant, they thought he had marked Kyle. "Woah woah woah! That is not how this went down!." Stan went about telling them everything that had happened with Clyde on Saturday and about Kyle beginning his hunter training.

"So let me get this straight, you think Clyde marked Kyle at some point?" Wendy said incredulously. Stan nodded.

"That's what happened Wends, I wouldn't mark Kyle, I would never wish this on anyone!" Stan said honestly, and Wendy believed him. But she also knew what she saw.

"Stan your aura's are almost identical, and his aura...it's connected to yours." Stan was surprised by this, Wendy's eyes were special, they saw things normal people could never see. "I'm not saying you did it on purpose...but it had to have been you who marked Kyle..." Stan's eyes widened in horror. Wendy was never wrong about these things, and he knew what it meant to have an aura connected to someone else, their destinies were tied. He tried to think back to the fight with Clyde.

"But that's Impossible I didn't use any magi-" He stopped cold the blood draining from his face. When he'd thrown his sword! He had thrown it so close to Kyle, his sword was magic, it fed off his magic aura to destroy shells. If he had even grazed a hair on Kyle's head that would all it would take to mark him. And it was Stan's magic that had awakened Kyle's.

"Oh Stan..." Wendy climbed down the table and into Stan's lap, she wrapped her arms around his neck, she knew what was coming. The tears ran down his face freely. The guilt that filled him was drowning him, he'd done this to Kyle, he'd ruined his friends life and sentenced him to life filled with hardship and pain. Kenny and Butters both got up and left the room then, when they were gone Wendy began to kiss Stan's cheeks and lips. She knew she couldn't easy his pain at this moment, but damn if she wasn't going to try. Seeing Stan in this much pain filled her with her own sorrow, the wind outside had stopped and it began to pour suddenly in time with the tears running down Wendy's face.

Authors note- Review! Review damn you! O_O I stayed up till 2 am writing this chap!