Ok, I originally had a plan for how I wanted Kyle and Cartman's relationship to be going forward. But when I came back to this story and looked it over, I realized that I really hated what was going to happen. So, I'm changing it, but I have no idea what their relationship is going to be like. I know what their feelings are going to be, but I don't know how I want them to act towards each other. We'll just have to figure it out as we go along.

Spoilers: there's going to be a lot of inner rambling for the first part of this chapter. But it's important rambling, so you know. You'll have to read it anyway.

"I'm dangerous! I'm warning you!"

Chapter 13 – Stuff, Stuff and More Stuff

The group returned to the RV a little before dinner time. By then, they were all tired and sweaty. Wendy immediately shouted "DIBS ON THE SHOWER!" and rushed into the RV before anyone could object. Craig grumbled about wanting to take a nap but now couldn't because of Wendy. He then sat down in one of the foldable chairs they had set up outside and promptly fell asleep.

Tweek and Kyle went off to find more firewood for the night while everyone sat around and relaxed their aching feet. Stan and Kenny sat and complained about how much high school was going to suck while also discussing everything they had already done that summer. Cartman, meanwhile, just sat there and brooded, tuning them out.

"I can't thank you enough for inviting me on this trip, Kyle," Tweek said as he and Kyle looked around. "Although, I'm kind of nervous about this place. What if there are bears here?"

"I'd be more surprised if there weren't any bears here," Kyle replied. "But we don't have to worry about them as long as we stick to the path and make lots of noise."

"We saw Clyde at that festival the other day," Tweek told him, switching topics.

"What a coincidence," Kyle said. "We ran into Heidi and… apparently Bebe was there as well." Tweek noticed his hesitation and turned to him.

"D-Did you run into someone else as well?" He asked. Kyle paused.

"Just… someone I hoped to never see again," he muttered after a moment.

"That doesn't really narrow it down, you know," Tweek pointed out.

"Yeah."

The truth was, Kyle barely remembered their encounter with Angela after Cartman's confession the night before. And he couldn't help but notice that Cartman had been avoiding him all day. It was easy to see that his friend was regretting telling him his secret feelings for him. Kyle wished he could assuage Cartman's worries, but honestly, he didn't know how to feel about any of it.

In their entire friendship, Kyle never once thought that Cartman could ever fall in love with him of all people. Hell, they hated each other up until the fifth grade! Sure, there had been that one time in fourth grade during the Angela incident, but Cartman had been tricked by an insane love doctor into thinking he liked Kyle. It wasn't supposed to mean anything.

But how was he supposed to feel? Angry? Happy? Flattered? He felt nothing but utter confusion. He didn't want to lose Eric as a friend. Not anymore, at least. But ever since Eric started to change, he hadn't once thought about his own feelings for him. Hell, he didn't even know what his feelings towards Eric were. That just brought on more confusion.

He couldn't ask any of their friends for advice. He could just see Kenny and Stan laughing at him and teasing him for it. Tweek and Wendy would freak out, Butters would probably somehow make it worse, and Craig probably wouldn't care. Not that it was any of their business anyway. If Cartman wanted to tell them, that was fine, but he wasn't about to humiliate him.

As he and Tweek continued to gather branches and fallen logs, he couldn't help but replay last night over in his mind. He remembered the adoration in Eric's eyes, the nervousness in his voice, the apologetic look on his face. He replayed their last four years with this new information and wondered: had Eric been that good at hiding his feelings for him? Or had Kyle been more blind to his signals than he thought? Had there been lingering glances that he hadn't seen? Something in the eyes that he had refused to acknowledge? Would the space between them get smaller without him noticing? Had Eric Cartman really changed just for him? Not to try and get Kyle to fall in love with him, but just so he could stay friends with him?

He heard people say you shouldn't change yourself for someone else, but it wasn't exactly like that. Cartman had bettered himself. He had taken anger management, he had lost weight, he went to actual therapy, he was nicer… all because of Kyle. It wasn't like one of those horrible "romance" stories where the awful, abusive male lead claims to be fixed because of the female lead like Fifty Shades. Eric had changed. And he was never going to tell any of his friends why. Until Angela came along. Until he couldn't keep it a secret any longer.

None of this helped Kyle figure out his feelings. He still didn't know how to react to any of it. He liked the new, improved Eric Cartman. He liked not having to endure his insults and Jew bashing anymore. He was grateful to know that Eric would always be there for him and would never let him down. He knew that Eric would be on his side when something went wrong.

But what did it mean? Would he ever be able to return Eric's feelings for him? Was he capable of feeling something for him? Was he comfortable remaining friends? Was it possible to remain friends after this? How long would they be able to keep this a secret from their friends? Did he even trust Cartman enough to open up to him? The last time he had opened his heart to someone, it had blown up in his face. And this was Eric Cartman.

Eric Cartman. Eric fucking Cartman. Was in love. With him! He still couldn't believe it. Out of everyone he ever expected was capable of falling in love with him, Cartman would have been at the very bottom. Four years ago, he would have readily been able to tell you how he felt about Cartman. Four years ago, he would have told him to fuck off and never speak to him again. Especially after he destroyed his relationship with Heidi. But now…?

Now he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to think. He didn't know what to feel. And then… there was the kiss. Once the initial panic had been over, Kyle had found that he had actually… kind of liked it? It had been gentle, and passionate, and restrained. He could feel all of Eric's love for him in that single moment. And, barring that, he was surprisingly a better kisser than he remembered. (Don't ask him how many times the author has made these two kiss! He won't tell you!)

He had always hoped that things would be less complicated than this. He thought that when love ever entered his life, it would always be similar to either Heidi, where the two of them would be mutually attracted to each other, or like Angela, where he hated her guts and had no problem saying "no" to her. This situation that he now found himself stuck in was somehow worse than that incident with Angela. He actually knew howto feel about her having a crush on him. What was he supposed to do about this?

I need to talk to Eric, Kyle realized. He was never going to figure things out on his own. He needed to at least see what Cartman wanted out of this. He knew what Cartman had said last night, but had that been the truth? They were going to have to figure things out together. Because trying to figure anything out on his own just made his head spin. He was going to work himself into a panic if carried on like this.

He glanced over at Tweek and suddenly realized that the twitchy blonde had been talking at him for a full ten minutes without noticing that Kyle wasn't paying any attention. Tweek was ranting about how terrifying spaghetti was and how crabs were just giant, underwater spiders. Kyle stared in surprise at him as seamlessly switched from topic to topic before finally remembering why they were out in the woods in the first place.

"Do you think we have enough wood?" Tweek asked, holding up his armful.

"Sure," Kyle replied. Tweek was holding mostly sticks, but Kyle was at least aware enough to grab actual logs while his inner turmoil raged inside him.

When they returned to camp, Randy and Gerald had set up a pot over the campfire and were cooking a large pot of stew. Stan and Kenny were still talking as they warmed their hands by the fire, Cartman was sitting by himself and Wendy was stepping out of the RV, drying her hair with a towel.

"Good job, boys," Randy said when he saw Tweek and Kyle approaching. "That will be more than enough wood for this new fire!"

The two of them dropped off the wood in the pile that they had started from the night before. Kyle glanced over to where Cartman was sitting, deliberately staring off towards the mountains. With a sigh, he quickly made his way over to him.

"Hey Cartman, I need to talk to y—!"

"Oh good, Wendy's out of the shower," Cartman said, interrupting him. "I think I'll go take one myself now. Don't want to be all sweaty for dinner."

Then he stood and marched over to the RV, quickly slamming the door behind him and leaving Kyle to stare after him in shock. There was a moment of silence that fell upon them.

"Well, that was rude of him," Kenny said eventually.

"I guess he didn't hear me," Kyle muttered, knowing fully well it wasn't the truth.

"What did you need to talk to him about?" Stan asked him curiously.

"N-Nothing important," Kyle lied. Stan looked doubtful, but Kyle refused to look at him as he went over to sit down next to Tweek and Butters in front of the fire.

"What do you think we should do tomorrow?" Wendy asked, deciding to switch topics. "I would like to at least see the waterfalls here. I heard that they're beautiful."

"We can also go rafting down the river," Randy said. At Tweek's terrified expression, he added: "Don't worry, I've read that you barely have to do anything. You just hop on the raft and have a nice, relaxing ride down the river. The river itself is calm and slow-moving."

"I g-guess it would be ok then," Tweek muttered.

It was just then that Gerald announced that the campfire stew was ready. Stan walked over to where Craig was still sleeping and slapped him awake, causing Craig to punch him in response. They would've gotten into a full-blown fist fight if Randy didn't quickly intervene. Cartman came out of the RV about fifteen minutes later, not looking at any of them as he got a bowl for himself and sat down a little away from the group.

Dinner was certainly a lot more awkward than it had been the day before. Butters seemed to be the only one who didn't notice the tension as he blathered on about some random topic. Everyone tried to keep the mood cheery, though Kenny was the only one who noticed that both Cartman and Kyle were barely touching their food.

The mood lifted a bit when the marshmallows were brought back out and Butters decided he wanted to see what would happen if he tried to roast the marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker all at the same time. (A mess. A mess was what happened.)

Kenny offered to take and clean everyone's bowls, and Cartman quickly jumped up to help him. They went inside to clean the dishes in the little sink inside while everyone else roasted marshmallows and watched Butters fail at making a roast s'more on a stick. A few minutes later, Kenny came back out, looking confused and worried.

"H-Hey Kyle," he said, quickly hurrying over to his friend's side. "I think there was a stand down that way that had maps of the park. I was thinking of grabbing one. Ya wanna come with me?" He tried to keep his tone casual, but there was a note of desperation to it that Kyle immediately detected.

"I guess," he replied, standing up and giving his marshmallow stick to Wendy.

"I'll go with you guys," Stan offered, starting to stand up as well.

"Nah, that's fine," Kenny said quickly. "You just sit there and look pretty."

Is there something in the water? Stan wondered as Wendy giggled and his two friends stalked off. Why is everyone acting so weird today?

Kenny and Kyle were both silent for a long moment as they walked away from the group. Kenny glanced over at Kyle, who just stared at the ground in front of him, lost in his own thoughts. Finally, he let out a sigh.

"So, I didn't actually want to find a map or whatever," Kenny started.

"Yeah, I already figured that," Kyle replied, still keeping his eyes on the ground. "Grabbing a map isn't exactly a two person job. What did you actually want me for?"

"I was just wondering," Kenny said, cutting to the chase. "Is there something going on between you and Cartman?" Kyle was glad he wasn't carrying anything, because he would have immediately dropped it.

"Wh-What do you mean?" He stuttered.

"I mean, did you guys get into an argument?" Kenny asked. "Because I noticed he's been avoiding you all day. And just now, he asked if he could switch beds with me, even though we had that rock-paper-scissors game because we didn't want to share a bed with Butters."

Kyle turned his head to stare at him with wide, startled eyes. Did Kyle just dream last night? Or was Cartman that distressed by his reaction that he just refused to be near him now? Why did everything always have to be so complicated with him?

"I-I don't know what his problem is," Kyle lied. "Did you try asking him?"

"I did," Kenny answered. "But he just said that he felt bad for forcing me to share a bed with Butters. I could tell he wasn't telling the truth though. He looked desperate to switch with me. I really couldn't say no to him."

Cartman is so desperate to stay away from me, he would rather bunk with Butters? Kyle shook his head. He was never going to understand Cartman's way of thinking. And what he was doing was definitely not helping. Especially if their friends were noticing.

"You didn't do anything to anger him?" Kenny asked, cutting into his thoughts. Kyle silently shook his head. "Did he do something to you?"

"What makes you ask that?" Kyle asked, surprise tinting his voice.

"Well, he's not the only one who's been acting strange," Kenny pointed out. "You've been a lot quieter than usual and you've barely looked at any of us all day."

"I've just… had a lot on my mind," Kyle replied after a moment, looking away. Kenny stared at him.

"This doesn't have anything to do with Angela, does it?" He guessed. Kyle turned to him with shock in his eyes.

"How did you—?"

"Come on, I know you better than that," Kenny said with a smirk. "If this was just about that bitch, you would be swearing left and right about her. If this was about Angela, you wouldn't be trying to act like everything was normal. And honestly, I don't think you would be bothered this much by seeing her. I know you feel anger when you look at her. But right now, what you're feeling? It's distress. And it's eating away at you."

Kyle stared back at him, completely unable to speak. He sometimes wondered if Kenny had the power to read minds. He was always able to pinpoint his friends' problems and emotions, down to the smallest detail. Kenny gave him a warm smile.

"You know you can talk to me about anything," he said in a gentle voice. "Unlike Stan and Cartman, I won't judge you for anything. And I like to think I'm better at keeping secrets than them."

For a brief moment, Kyle wondered if he should tell Kenny the truth. He was pretty sure that in Valentine's Day Frenzy, Kenny had been the only other person who had known about Cartman's crush on Kyle. Hell, Kenny probably knew long before Kyle did. They never talked about it and Kenny never said that he knew, but Kyle was pretty sure that he knew. Kenny had kept the secret then. Would he be able to now?

"Yeah, I know," Kyle sighed at last. "I promise I'll think about it."

Then the two continued to walk on in silence.

I know a lot didn't seem to happen this chapter, but I really needed to get Kyle's thoughts on this matter. I promise more exciting things will happen next time. Especially since I know what's going to actually happen.

By the way, I have a twitter page. carlyg_carly if you want to follow me. Or don't. Elon Musk owns Twitter and let that orange asshole back on, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one wanted anything to do with Twitter anymore.