Author's Note: Hey! It's a day late, but only because I had problems logging in yesterday. Sorry. Oh, and I'm sorry to say that this fic is slowly coming to an end. I know, it's sad. But, hey, it's not over yet and this chapter is one of the best ones, I think anyway. I don't know why, but I'm really proud of this one. I absolutely love Butters in this. You'll see what I mean Oh, and one more thing. I know you guys have been waiting for Cartman to do his thing and he will soon. I promise. In do time. . .in do time. Lol! I just quoted my own story! HA!

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"Dude!" Kyle called.

Stan turned around. He stopped and waited for Kyle to catch up.

"What happened?" Kyle asked when he finally made it to Stan's side. "Where the fuck were you?" The anger was clear in his voice and possibly even his jealousy, though Stan didn't seem to hear that. "I fucking had to sit through hell by myself. And why did you and Kenny skip without me? I would've gone along. You know that."

"It wasn't planned," Stan offered as he continued to walk.

Kyle followed him, curious to find out the truth. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Stan began. "Kenny needed a place to hide and I thought it was pointless to hide while everyone was in class. No one would see him, anyway."

Kyle opened his mouth to speak, but Stan continued. "So we waited until there was only 15 minutes left in the period to find a place to hide. And that's why-"

"Wait," Kyle interrupted, finding his voice. He seemed to be trying to think as he stared at his friend in disbelief. "Kenny. . .needed a place. . .to hide. . .?"

Stan nodded, not seeming to realize what that implied to his friend, but he replied with, "It's not what you think."

Kyle flooded with relief and Stan smiled as he noticed Kyle's tension ease.

"So. . .what happened?" Kyle asked when he regained his composure.

Stan sighed as he stopped to lean against a row of lockers. "I don't know exactly."

"He didn't tell you?"

Stan shook his head. "He won't. But it has to be bad if he's running away like that. He's really spooked, dude."

"And so you decided to help him run away?" Kyle asked as he crossed his arms over his chest and studied Stan's face.

"You would too!" Stan accused. "You should've seen his face, Kyle."

"He's always wearing his hood!" Kyle protested.

Stan shook his head. "He had it off. And he looked. . .he was just. . ."

"Are you that worried about him?"

"Yeah," Stan answered softly. "I mean, why shouldn't I be? Have you ever seen Kenny anything but happy? Or angry? Or-"

"Horny," Kyle added with a nod.

A tiny smile broke across Stan's face. "Right," he said. "Horny."

Kyle nodded again.

"He's never really expressed a wide variety of emotions and the look in his eyes when he was talking to me was one I don't remember seeing before." He paused. "Ever."

Kyle looked at Stan and smiled softly to himself. Sure, like everyone else Stan thought of himself, but not always. He thought of others too. He worried about them, with them, and even for them. He was kind and he had a big heart. He had the biggest heart in South Park and that was one of the reasons why Kyle liked him so much. He was unlike anyone else living in this dump they all called a home.

Placing an arm around him, Kyle led him down the hall in the opposite direction.

"Uh, science is-" Stan pointed over his shoulder, but Kyle cut him off.

"Kenny shouldn't be alone," he said. "And I know you don't want him to leave him alone, so we should be there for him. And when this period is over we'll all head to Computer App. together. After all, we are his friends, right?"

Stan smiled and nodded. "Right."

"Let's go then," Kyle replied. "Where to, Stan?"

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He'd be safe with everyone in the hall way. Seventh period had just let out and Kenny had only been in the abandoned janitor's closet for less than 10 minutes, but already he couldn't stand the smell of bleach mixed with a horrid stench of decay and. . .was that moldy cheese on the heater?

He made a gagging sound as he fumbled with the door knob. He opened it and almost tripped when he freed himself of that horrible thing these people called a closet. They hired janitor's to clean, not soil everything! Kenny thought. Maybe under other circumstances he'd laugh and make fun of the smell and the janitors, but he wasn't under any ordinary circumstances.

He quickly closed the door behind him and just as quickly turned his back to the door. A small freshman girl jumped when she saw him and moved away, her eyes growing a little uneasy at the sight of him. He smiled nervously and slowly took one step away from the door. The girl took one step away from him and Kenny stopped. His smile faded a little from disappointment, but it returned again as pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "Two of the janitors are rubbing their old balls together in there." He had said the first thing that came to mind and he watched as the girl's face contorted in both disgust and fear. Not a moment later, she had been running down the hall trying to escape the scary guy who was Kenny and the "rubbing old balls" that were the janitors.

He watched her for a moment and then he sighed and relief flooded him. The hall was still crowding with students, but they seemed to be thinning out. A growing apprehension overcame him again as he realized that Butters was usually in this same hall after 7th period. He looked about and when he didn't see Butters' face, relief flooded him again.

He walked down the hall feeling every bit of confidence.

"Maybe the day won't end on a bad note like I thought it would," he whispered.

But maybe he had spoken too soon.

In seconds he felt a pair of very familiar arms wrap around his waist and a familiar sent soon filled his nose and he froze.

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Butters bit his bottom lip as he closed his eyes, loving the feel of his body pressed against Kenny's. He had always loved the warmth that radiated from Kenny's body. It comforted him and made him feel real and so alive like he was actually a somebody, rather than a nobody.

"H-hey, Kenny," he greeted as he tightened his grip. "I'm so happy to see you."

"Bu-Butters?"

"W-well, yeah," Butters answered. "Who else would I be?" He didn't loosen his hold around Kenny and he didn't seem to understand why his back suddenly felt so tense. But he blushed getting the wrong impression.

Kenny had always told him it was all right to do what he had wanted to do when they were together, to never be shy around him. So it was because of this that Butters felt safe moving his hands further down to touch Kenny's pants. "Kenny, are you-?"

"No!" Kenny shouted as he tore Butters' hands away from his pants and violently pulled away from him.

People began to stop. Many of them had wide open mouths and were wide-eyed as they stared at them.

Butters' smile faded, but only for a moment. He approached Kenny, but remained still when Kenny stepped back. Butters smiled again, thinking that Kenny was playing another one of his games. He took another step forward and stopped as Kenny stepped back. He took another step forward and stopped again when Kenny stepped away. Butters bit his lip again as he blushed. He rubbed his knuckles together and shyly asked, "Wh-what game is this?"

He innocently looked up to find Kenny somewhere between nervous and "excited." Kenny licked his lips as he looked at him. Butters smiled from ear to ear. That familiar fiery hunger appeared in Kenny's eyes, but it was masked by fear. He pulled at his hood and tried to regain his composure.

"I don't know wh-what you're talking about," came his muffled reply.

Butters' smile faded for the second time, not quite understanding, but soon enough the smile was back on his face. The bell rang, but no one made a move to go to their classes. Instead they remained scattered in the halls, watching on. Butters smiled to himself. Th-they'll all know how much I love him now, he thought to himself. A-and then Kenny will love me more! Just like Eric said. "I-is this part of the game too?" he asked as he continued to rub his knuckles together.

Kenny swallowed hard and shook his head. "Wh-what do you want?"

"To be with you," Butters answered simply.

There were gasps all around.

"He's gay!" a girl whispered just a little too loud.

"Is this a lover's quarrel?" came another voice.

There were scattered responses and Kenny seemed to grow even more nervous with every new whisper, though Butters didn't think that it was because of the rumors that seemed to be forming around them now.

Kenny shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words. Butters took this as a good sign and his que to continue. "I-I love you, Kenny," he said. "And I want to be with you."

"Kenny?"

Butters turned in the direction of the voice and found Stan, staring in Kenny's direction. "W-well, hi, Stan," Butters greeted. He waved.

Stan turned to Butters, but didn't reply. Instead he looked at Kenny again. In seconds Kyle cut through the crowd and joined Stan. He looked from Kenny to Butters and to Kenny again.

"What's going on?" Stan asked.

"Nothin'," Butters said. "I just told Kenny my feelings."

"Your feelings?" Kyle asked.

"Mmhm," Butters said with a nod. "I love him."

Kyle's jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide. Stan only stared.

"He. . .he's crazy!" Kenny finally exclaimed, slicing through the silence. "He's been acting weird around me for days and now I know why!"

Stan looked from Kenny to Butters and back at Kenny again as Kyle remained wide-eyed with an open mouth.

Butters frowned only slightly in confusion. "But, Kenny-"

"No!" Kenny shouted. "I don't like you that way, so just stop trying to. . .do whatever it is that you're doing!"

With that he walked away. Stan stared at Butters and then turned away. Kyle followed close behind as he looked over his shoulder, still not quite believing what had just happened. G-gee, Butters thought sadly. That wasn't suppose to happen. He let his head fall as the sting of tears became apparent.

The crowd became smaller and smaller with every passing second and soon Butters was the only one left standing in the hall.

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Don't you just want to hug him? I know I do.

Jess