Author: of Iris
Title: "At War With Rain Clouds"
Genre: angst/romance
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Stan / Butters, Kenny / Kyle, slight Kenny / Stan.
Warnings: Slash, language...
Fourteen years earlier
Butters sighed, the third time this minute, twenty-fourth time this hour, ninety-seventh time this day, and four hundred seventy-third time this week.
He dropped his chin onto his waiting hand and commenced to staring out the window. He was, once again, counting the ticks of the clock, waiting for the class to be over. No doubt the teacher would notice and give him a detention. And there, he'd do more waiting. Waiting to get home so his mother could yell and his father could hit. It wasn't that they were bad parents. They loved him and he loved them. They just weren't made to have children.
Now, he was just waiting to get out of this hellhole (not his choice word, but fitting nonetheless).
He blinked.
Something had just moved down by the bushes.
With a quick glance at the teacher (whose monotonous drone continued uninterrupted), and a burst of fifteen year old curiosity, he pushed the window out and ducked his head over the sill.
Orange, blue, and red, blurred by distance and smoke, could be made out.
The colors were touching the school's wall, so if he pushed out just a little further, he'd be able to see, right? … Nope.
He kept going, still incredibly curious, until he couldn't go any farther without falling out completely.
"Mr. Stotch!"
Butters jumped at the sound of the teacher's voice, and tried to pull himself back in, but only succeeded in doing the opposite.
He let out a small yelp as he landed three stories below on top of the aforementioned bushes.
Upon blinking his eyes open, he was met immediately with smoke. Coughing out an apology, he began stumbling away, when a hand wrapped around his wrist. He half expected an "are you alright?" and half expected a punch in the eye.
He was caught completely unaware when a soft voice said, "you know, if you want to commit suicide, you should do it from the roof, and fall onto concrete, not bushes."
When he turned around, he found himself face to face with Stan Marsh, who had, incidentally, gone missing the year before. Butters blushed a little and wondered if Stan would even recognize him. While Stan still bore the worn-out blue and red puff ball hat atop his head, Butters had discarded his light blue-green button down and green trousers in favor of a white button down and blue jeans.
"Well, I-I wasn't trying to commit suicide."
With an odd sound reminiscent of "oh", Stan let go of his wrist and turned back to his companion, who Butters now recognized as Kenny McCormick.
Dismissing the whole encounter as "nothing out of the ordinary" in South Park, Butters made his way back up to class, where he apologized profusely to his teacher, and spent the rest of class staring out the small window at the now abandoned lot below.