So I'm going to admit that I have no idea how houses are built; that's Kenny's thing in this story. But if I had to plan out a house, I would actually go around to my friends' houses to look at theirs.

Kenny ignored Stan's grumbling as he paced out the Marsh's kitchen. If he was going to build a house, he was going to do it right. And that meant having a kitchen area that was big enough to cook in, but not so big that it would cost a fortune in building supplies. Because all they had was what he was making at the garage, and an 'investment' from The Mole. Christophe had basically agreed to buy the tree house for his own use when he and Gregory were in town, so he could finally get away from paying rent and being consequently on the grid. Ten thousand dollars was sitting in the bank, and Kenny wasn't planning on spending a dime of it until he knew exactly what he was doing, and how he'd do it, and what he could get away with salvaging.

"What about Butters' parents' kitchen?" Stan asked, kicking the grumbling up to whining. He wasn't so annoyed that it was his kitchen being measured; it was that he had to take down the measurements Kenny called out to him.

"Too big dude. Your family has the smallest kitchen, and Vicki likes how it's laid out. I mean, we might not be able to afford a stove and dish washer for awhile...but someday we will."

"Remind me why she's not here doing this with you?"

Kenny rolled his eyes in frustration. "She's not here because she has a doctor's appointment with the OB-GYN doctor, and she told me that she'd really rather I wasn't there, because I get antsy about another man sticking his hand into my girlfriend."

Stan smirked. "Get used to it, dude. Vicki's vag is gonna get more people's attention in the next eight months than when we were thirteen and she fucked with Kyle."

"Seven and a half months." He corrected absently, pulling out the tape measure, and measuring the countertop. "And I think I can get away with adding another section of this. We don't really need a garbage can in the corner."

"Dude, I think we finally found the thing that can distract you from Vicki's anatomy; building shit."

"...Stan, shut up and write this down."

Apparently the jock wasn't interested in following instructions. "No, I'm serious. It's like you're an adult or something—"

That was enough. Kenny smacked the measuring tape down onto the counter, and ran a hand roughly through his hair. "Stan, I'm an adult because Vicki's pregnant and in seven and a half months, I'm gonna be a dad. And in seven and a half months, I want to know that Vicki can bring that little boy or girl home to a real home—not my mom's place. And part of that's to do with the fact that I know her parents are gonna come back from Arizona for the birth, and I wanna show them that Vicki didn't make a mistake picking me over them."

There was silence from the kitchen table, and Kenny knew Stan was looking for something to say that wouldn't make him sound like an asshole. "...I didn't know they bothered you so much."

"They thought that moving Vicki away from everything she knew would make the Matt situation better. They didn't come rushing to the hospital the night Cartman attacked her, and they didn't come to the trial. And when they decided to move back to Arizona, they made her choose me over them. Vicki's parents have been shitty to her because they're never really there for her. But she loves them because they're her parents, and that's what you do."

No matter how shitty life with his parents had been, Kenny'd still loved them—or his mother at least. It was hard to love someone who lashed out drunkenly or passed out stoned all the time. But his mom had tried, and then she'd willingly given him the ability to work and support himself because she knew he could do a better job of it on his own. Vicki's parents, for all their faults, hadn't wanted to let her go.

"Yeah, my dad's the biggest idiot in existence, but I still love him as my dad." Stan agreed.

"And Butters' parents almost kicked him out when his came out as bi-gender. But he still loves them." Kenny pointed out. "Even though they don't let him be Marjorine in the house."

Butters was a whole other deal though; he loved his parents after his mother tried to kill him, and they chained him up in the basement when they'd thought he was dead. "Marjorine went with Vicki to the appointment." He added.

"Why as Marjorine?"

"Because apparently Butters is just as hot for her as everyone else, and he figured Marjorine is safer at a personal appointment." It was probably true. His ability to switch between being male and female was a little uncanny, and even though the Butters side of him leaned more towards bi, Marjorine was pretty damn straight.

Stan frowned. "You know, I never will understand the bi-gender thing."

"Apparently you can't unless you are." Kenny explained. "I just let Vicki handle all the awkward social shit, and enjoy watching people's brains cramp as they try to figure it out."

"You enjoy it because you are a twisted fuck, Ken."

"I'd rather be a twisted fuck than a stick in the mud like you, Mr. 'I gotta get into Columbia University'."

"Yeah, well..." He'd hit a spot. Stan had started avoiding talking college or university in front of them back in September when Vicki had announced to them that she had no plan of going to post-secondary if Kenny wasn't. They all knew it was because he felt bad about leaving them behind, but anytime Vicki tried to force the issue, he'd back down and bow out. But it was the end of March—it was happening soon—and Kenny was more than sick of it.

"Dude, I know you feel like you're breaking up the group by going so far when Kyle's settling on going to the University of Denver, but the group was broken up when we were ten, and Cartman went off the deep end. It stopped being the four of us, and became you and Wendy, and Vicki and me, and Kyle. And that was fine, because we couldn't stay as four forever—not unless we became a four-way-gay-polyamourous thing—and even though Kyle was kinda on his own, he spent enough time with the rest of us to make up for it."

Stan nodded, looking thoughtful, and then suddenly made a face. "Dude, did you seriously say 'four-way-gay-polyamourous'?"

Kenny couldn't help it, he started laughing. "Dude, just think like me."

"Last time I did that, I imagined Vicki riding you bareback in the cowgirl position."

He just barely ducked the tape measure Kenny chucked at his head.

ЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖ I took your words and I believed ЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖ

"...And that there is the foetus."

Marjorine couldn't help the swell of emotion that came with seeing Kenny and Vicki's baby on the ultrasound monitor. It was so right that they were pregnant. They'd always known it would happen someday... "Vicki isn't it amazing?"

"Yeah, it's pretty amazing." Her friend smiled up at her. "Little scary, but pretty amazing. Thanks for being here, Marj."

Whether she was Marjorine or Butters, Vicki didn't seem to see her friend any differently. The others, even Kenny, were still a little unsure of Marjorine. Except for Jason, of course. They'd been dating for almost two years, and while at first it had been a little awkward, because Butters and Marjorine had had to be introduced to his parents separately, they had fallen into a routine where Marjorine came out whenever she was wanted or needed, and the rest was more or less Butters. After all, Butters was the original identity. And Jason had gotten pretty used to having a boyfriend, and a girlfriend.

"So explain to me again why you think Butters wouldn't have been a good choice to bring here?" Vicki asked, as the OB-GYN shut down the machine and wiped the jelly off her stomach.

"Because you know Butters still likes your body, Vicki, and watching you get a hand put up there might just make him a little uncomfortable. There are times when a girl needs her girl friend, not her guy friend. You wouldn't bring Kyle here, would you?"

"No, I don't think it would do him any favours."

The OB-GYN was now looking at them rather oddly. "Kyle's my best friend that I had an affair with. Butters is my next closest friend, and Marjorine's other half."

"Ah." He still didn't understand it obviously, but seemed willing enough to let it go.

They finished up with the appointment and signed all the papers; Vicki had another appointment in a month, when they could tell her the gender of the foetus. Leaving the clinic, they made their way over to Butters' car; the one thing that was only Butters', because it was registered in his name. It had been in pretty rough shape when he'd gotten it, with lots of dings in the body, and had definitely needed a new clutch. But Kenny had fixed it up, and now the little sky blue mini coop ran like a dream.

"Marj, do you sometimes think about a family?"

She knew what Vicki was really asking. Did she sometimes wish she'd been born into the other body, so she could have a baby? She had talked about it sometimes with Jason, as both Marjorine and Butters, and they had reached the same conclusion each time. "Sometimes. And sometimes I think that it would've been nice to have been born female. But I like this body too. It does almost as much as yours, without bleeding every month."

"Hey, mine won't be doing that for awhile." Vicki reminded her. "And then I'm gonna pop out this baby and Kenny and I get to live a white-trash happily ever after."

Marjorine couldn't help but laugh. "White trash is right. Vicki, all you and Kenny need is a couch at the base of the tree house and a red pickup truck."

"Unfortunately we can't afford either of those."

"Sure you can. All you need is to whore Kenny out. He's done it before."

Apparently there were still things Vicki didn't know about Kenny. "What do you mean he's done it before?"

"I thought you knew. I mean you guys joke about it all the time."

"Yeah, but it was never serious!"

Shit; she shouldn't have said anything. "It was a long time ago, Vicki. It doesn't really matter."

"If Kenny has something he didn't tell me, I NEED TO KNOW!"

"OKAY, okay. Kenny used to do crazy stunts and got his own television show, and then he went on TV with Tom Green and Johnny Knoxville to be interviewed by Howard Stern... and he ended up giving him a hummer for ten bucks."

Vicki opened her mouth, closed it, grit her teeth, and face-palmed. "Why the fuck am I even surprised?"

"On the bright side, he hasn't done it since. And he's been a really good boyfriend when it comes to not wanting to be with other girls."

Well that was true. Kenny had never done more than mildly flirt with red or Millie. None of them had ever seen him really hit on a girl who wasn't Vicki since they got together. It was like...she was enough sex for him. Whether or not she'd continue to be...

"...You and Kenny aren't going to stop having sex because you're pregnant, right?"

Vicki smirked. "Like hell we will. Besides, Kenny's gonna love it when my boobs get bigger."

ЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖ In everything you said to me ЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖ

Kyle held up the blueprints he and Kenny had been working on all week. They weren't professional by any standards, but everything they needed to put was there. Even the potential electrical outlets were marked. "You have Stan's kitchen, Ike's bedroom, Butters' bathroom, and Bebe's living room in one house."

"I know. I measured them all."

"You do realize what that could look like."

"Well I'm not gonna decorate the same way." Kenny huffed. "S'just the dimensions. I got lucky that they all fit together."

They did fit together. The width of the bathroom and bedroom was the same as the living area, and then the long kitchen fit along the side of the house. "You do realize Stan, Craig, Token, Clyde and the rest of us are going to help you as much as we can, right?"

"You're not getting paid for it." He reminded the Jew.

"It's our wedding present." Kyle grinned at his friend. "You guys are gonna get enough towels and plates and shit from our moms, you don't need any from us."

"Free labour's much more useful."

They both laughed, and Kyle's eyes fell on the blueprints again. "I know your parents raised you and Kev and Karen in an old play fort, but what if you have more kids? Where are you going to have room for them?"

"Notice the dead end in the kitchen? All I need to do is punch a door in that wall, and build on an addition wide enough for a hallway and two bedrooms... and we've got a family home."

Leave it to Kenny to actually think about that. "Dude, you're definitely an adult now."

"Yeah. But you've been a man for years now." Kenny teased. "Remember your Bar Mitzvah?"

He would never forget. They'd waited until autumn, between his father's work, his mother's conference, and Vicki's accident. The ceremony had been about as boring as a Bar Mitzvah was supposed to be, but the after party... his mother would have flipped a shit if she'd known just what her son had gotten into that night. Namely beer, booze, and Bebe.

"Hey, so far as my mother knows, I stayed over at Stan's, same as I 'always do'."

"You know she probably thinks you guys are gay, right?"

"Why would she think that?"

"Sleepovers are for eight year olds, and girls. When you're still doing it at sixteen or seventeen... that's just really gay."

Kyle chucked the nearest thing his could find at his friend. The stapler hit him smack in the forehead, and Kyle couldn't help laughing at the shiny staple embedded in Kenny's skin. Pulling it out, Kenny stared at the piece of bloody metal. "Kyle, one of these days, you're gonna kill me, and then you know Vicki's gonna come after you, beat your ass, and leave you dead in a ditch."

Kyle shrugged. "Then she'd have to make Stan Godfather, and you know he'd probably drop the kid on its head."

"There's always Butters."

"...I think your kid's better off with me alive."

ЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖ Yeah huh, that's right... ЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖ

"...What about Annabelle Lee?"

Kenny couldn't help making a face. He and Vicki were lying in bed, browsing through the baby name book Sharon had given them from when Stan had been born. So far, they'd ruled out naming the kid after any of their relatives. But they hadn't really found one that they both liked yet.

"That sounds like some old-time southern belle. And kids like Bebe would never let her down, if it's a girl." He still thought it was a boy.

"Well what were you thinking for a boy then?" Vicki asked, slightly annoyed.

"Terrence. Or Phillip."

"No way. Our son is not being named for a Canadian comedy duo you used to watch as a kid."

He hadn't thought so. "Alright, alright...how about Matt?"

Vicki looked at him sharply. "Matt?"

"Yeah. I know you really loved Matt, and if he hadn't died, I think he would be the one you'd be having the baby with. Mostly because then you wouldn't have had a reason to move to South Park. But I know he meant a lot to you."

Twisting around from her place leaning against his chest, Vicki kissed him warmly. "Matt sounds like the perfect name for a boy."

"And for a girl?"

"Kylie."

"Kylie?" He hadn't been expecting that. "You wanna name her after Kyle?"

Vicki shrugged. "I know it's kinda stupid... but I think Kylie Stacey McCormick would be a pretty awesome name."

"Either Kylie Stacey McCormick, or Matthew Eric McCormick."

"Matthew Eric?"

It was Kenny's turn to shrug. "If it wasn't for that crazy bastard, we wouldn't be how we are today."

Vicki settled back against his chest, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I guess you're right. I wonder how it could've been, if he hadn't gone crazy, and we'd been friends instead."

"Well, he wouldn't have tried to kill you..." Well actually, he'd tried to kill Kyle a few times, and the rest of them too. Even if it was with a whiffle bat. Cartman was that kind of friend—the kind that kept you banging your head against the wall, wondering why the hell you were friends at all. "Okay, he might have. But he wouldn't have tried hard."

"That's very assuring, Kenny. It's nice to know he wouldn't have put too much effort into trying to kill me."

I think these last two chapters were really going back to my roots. (I used to write under Cassiopeia823 in the Bones archive) This is pretty feel-good happy. But I don't use song lyrics as breaks for nothing...