A/N: Less than a week between updates? Oh yes.

You have no idea how nervous I am to reveal this chapter... because, well, you'll see.

What Happened?

The look on Kevin's face when he took in Clyde's was not one Clyde wanted to see. Kevin looked shocked, worried and angry. Neither of them had long to dwell on the feelings though, as his mother came to the door.

She glared murderously at Clyde - either unfazed or unbothered by the very evident fresh bruise on his head. She crossed her arms. "You are not welcome."

Clyde knew this would happen. He'd had to take the risk, not managing to see Kevin at school that day. He knew if he waited until the next day to tell Kevin what had happened, Kevin would get mad with him. "I know that, Mrs Stoley, but-"

"I have no interest to hear what you have to say." She began to close the door but Kevin stopped her.

"Mom, can't you see that he's hurt?" he pleaded.

"You probably got that playing your ridiculous sport?" she asked accusingly to Clyde. "Get hit by one of those orange balls?"

"A basketball?" Clyde glanced at Kevin hesitantly. "Uh - no actually. I got hit by a fist." He hated telling Kevin this way. "By a person's fist. A fist attached to a person."

Kevin gasped. "Who?!"

Clyde shook his head. "I don't know. I never saw them."

Kevin felt like screaming. He stayed calm. He always stayed calm when he felt like screaming, often ending up staring, glazed over, at nothing in particular. He did nothing when he felt like screaming. "Mom, please can I have a moment alone with Clyde?" He knew it was a long shot, but if he hadn't of asked, he would have been forever wondering the answer.

"No," she replied, but the venom had gone from her voice.

Kevin sighed and nodded. Instead of arguing with his mom, he decided to see how she'd react if he moved slightly closer to Clyde. She didn't look happy about it but she said nothing. Kevin stroked Clyde's bruise lightly and leaned in to whisper: "My room." He pulled away before his mom could interfere.

"He needs to go."

"He's going."

Clyde nodded. "Bye, Kevin." He smiled very slightly at Kevin's mom. "Goodbye, Mrs Stoley."

She shut the door. After listening to a lecture about how he was not to answer the door in future, in case it was that Jock again, Kevin was allowed to his room. He slammed the door closed and threw himself over to the window to unlock it and - though he didn't need help - pull Clyde inside.

"What the hell happened?" he shout-whispered in a very silent-intimidating way, sitting across from Clyde on the bed.

"I already said, I don't know. I came out of the disastrous basketball practice, the corridor was empty and then bang." Clyde rubbed his head. "It hurts."

Kevin frowned and batted Clyde's hands away so he could massage the head instead - he knew it would instantly make Clyde feel better. His fingers had that power. Indeed, Clyde did sigh in relief as the tension started to melt away. "Oh, Clyde," Kevin whispered, "I was scared this would happen." He left out that he wished it would happen to him instead, if it would save Clyde from feeling it.

"Are you okay?" Clyde flicked his eyes over Kevin's face. "No one's attacked you have they?"

"No, I'm fine."

Clyde was relieved to hear Kevin had been left alone. "Good."

"Don't change the subject." Kevin was getting the same tone as his mom: very demanding.

Clyde raised his hands defensively. "I wasn't! I just needed to know you were alright!"

"What happened in basketball practice?"

He filled Kevin in on as much as he could remember, feeling himself getting just as angry as before. When he had finished he almost despaired. Maybe he was just in a bad, tired mood. "You're not allowed from your house, I'm not allowed in your house. We hardly see each other at school! Instead I see a bunch of assholes. I hate this. I don't know what to do."

"You could take your shirt off." The comment came from nowhere. Kevin blinked innocently. "If you want."

Clyde raised his eyebrow at Kevin and smirked. "And that will help?"

Kevin licked his lips. "Couldn't hurt."

"Well in that case..." Clyde jumped forward, grabbing Kevin lightly by the wrists and pinning him down. He dropped his head low to Kevin's as he did so, keeping their eyes linked. Clyde graced his lips across Kevin's teasingly, moving them to Kevin's ear and kissing lightly. "I'd like to take yours off as well." Perhaps a little distraction was all they needed.

Kevin groaned softly. The groans travelled through Clyde's ear and straight down to his crotch. With their bodies pressed together, Clyde slowly peeled Kevin's t-shirt off - it had robots on it and Clyde made a mental note to steal it later. He kissed down Kevin's jaw with a trail of soft kisses. The kisses got harder as they moved down Kevin's neck, and by the time he got to his boyfriend's chest, he was attacking it. He threaded his fingers through Kevin's hair and smacked their faces together.

Clyde forced his lips down on Kevin's, urgent to taste him and feel him close. He wanted to be flooded with nothing but Kevin. Kevin gasped and pushed on Clyde's shoulders. Clyde figured it was through lack of breath so pulled away. "Sorry." The smile on Kevin's flushed face was - at that moment - so perfect to Clyde.

"Sorry for not taking your shirt off yet?" Kevin accused. "You should be." He smirked and gestured for Clyde to put his arms up. Clyde obeyed and quickly allowed Kevin to take in the lovely view of his basketball sculpted, toned chest. God that chest was nice. Kevin ran his hands over Clyde's sides. He felt Clyde shudder. He moved his hands too Clyde's ass and grabbed it possessively, pulling Clyde's hips flush with his.

This led Clyde to grind their hips together, and caused Kevin to almost have a fit. Clyde continued to lay kisses all over Kevin, as their lower bodies worked into each other. Kevin, unable to do much else from his angle, plunged his hands under Clyde's waistband to squeeze the bare skin. Clyde gasped and bucked his hips forward, interfering with the rhythm he had going. Kevin gasped at the jolt of pleasure that ran through him. He realised at that moment that he was really worked up.

"C-Clyde," he groaned, "M-my jeans."

Clyde grazed his lips over Kevin's. When he spoke it was like a gentle, tickling vibration between the two. It made them both grin. "Do you want me to take them off for you, dude?"

Kevin bit Clyde's lip lightly and scrunched his nose - he knew Clyde loved it, and he so rarely did it. Clyde always wanted to yell in triumph every time he did it, so he tried to refrain in some weird unspoken competition. Kevin groaned as Clyde bit his lip back. He could feel the grin on his boyfriend's face.

"Yes, take them off," he began in a whisper, "and take yours off to."

"Sure thing, boss."

He was about to reply when...

"Kevin!" The call came from very near his bedroom door, interrupting him completely.

Why did they always have to get interrupted? It was only the second time, but it was very frustrating and - at that point - highly alarming.

He knew Clyde didn't have enough time to escape. So instead of trying to hide Clyde (for there was no point), he pressed their bodies together even more - to hide anything embarrassing - and kissed him fiercely. His bedroom door opened. "Kevin, can you-" Kevin's mom trailed off when she saw Clyde, and what Clyde was doing.

Kevin pulled his lips away from Clyde's, but did not jump away from him or look up. "I'm a little busy, mother," he said. "Can you come back later?"

Oh, he knew it would never work, but it felt so good saying it.

Stan tensed when he opened the door. He looked hesitantly at the stoic boy in front of him. "Craig," he whispered almost inaudibly. He can't say he hadn't been expecting it though.

Craig pushed past Stan into the living room, happy to see it was empty - not that it would have bothered him too much if it was full. "I am really sick of this."

Stan was still standing at the door, staring out like he was contemplating escaping. His eyes trailed down the road. He shook his head and closed the door. He followed Craig, who was standing, jaw clenched in the centre of the living room. "You can sit down," offered Stan.

"No. I'm not planning on staying."

"Okay."

Craig flipped Stan off.

"What's wrong?" asked Stan, desperately.

"You know exactly what is wrong, Marsh." Craig glared at Stan again. He wasn't truly angry, just incredibly fed up. "Seriously, could you not see how horrible you Jock 'friends' were being on Friday night? Or did you just not want to see?"

"I do see how horrible they were being."

"Yet you refused to support Clyde. You just did nothing!" Craig yelled. "And what's more, you told Kenny to leave! Kenny! He has done so much for you." Craig yanked his hat off his head and ran his hand through his hair. "The amount of support Kenny has given you and you couldn't give it back."

"P-Please, Craig."

"I just don't know what to do with you!" Craig was suddenly letting his emotions rule him. He didn't know if it was anger, or upset or what, but he felt it strongly.

"Forgive me because I am sorry." Stan moved slightly closer to Craig. "I really regret what I didn't do. I should have stayed by Kenny. He's really helped me. I owe Kenny a lot."

They both knew how true that was. It was only when Kenny realised the truth about Stan that he saw Stan's soft spot for Craig - it wasn't massive at that point, but it was there. Stan was still partly hung up on the disastrous Kyle incident, which he felt was his fault. Kenny had known of Craig's feelings for Stan - ad Tweek had done - however it was only when he saw Craig's gentle side, including the smiling in his sleep, that he saw they could be good together. He hadn't set them up as dramatically as Cartman would have done, just sent Stan around to Craig's house with a bottle of alcohol and told him to say whatever came into his head.

As Craig had almost been caught out by Clyde the next day - if Clyde hadn't have been on a natural high about Kevin - Kenny could conclude it had been a success. Further evidence came from how Craig and Stan had gone swimming in Token's pool. They had the permission, Kenny watching TV with Token inside. They had just happened to lose all their layers in the process.

Craig mirrored Stan's actions, beginning to close the gap. "So why didn't you do anything?"

"I was too scared. I'm not as brave as Clyde. I would have run, he stayed."

Craig tried not to falter as he stared at Stan's apologetic face, but he couldn't help it. He could see that Stan was telling the truth. He understood that it was hard. It wasn't that Stan was ashamed, or wanted to keep him a secret, Stan was scared. And with what was happening with Clyde, he had reason to be.

He swooped forward and wrapped his arms around Stan. "Those assholes aren't your true friends okay?" He ran his hands down Stan's back. "Kenny is. And then there's me. Please stick with us. You know that your influence could help this."

Stan nodded into Craig's chest. "I know." He paused. "And... what about you. If I, you know... came out." Stan gulped.

"I'm not going to abandon you, idiot." Craig meant it in an endearing way, but words always sounded harsh coming from his mouth. He hugged Stan tighter. "Your parents are out, right?"

Stan grinned up at him at that. "They are."

"Cool," said Craig nonchalantly.

Stan ran his hands through Craig's hair. He always had to see the hair at any opportunity. "Would you like to take this conversation upstairs?" he murmured.

"No." Craig's face was still unreadable - Stan didn't know what to do. He was about to awkwardly say something but was cut off because Craig finally smiled. "I would like sex though."

Clyde arrived home to find that his dad's car wasn't on the drive. As he walked through the door, he could hear the television buzzing from the living room. Figuring it was his sister and deciding he didn't want to be on his own, he entered the living room. As always she was lying on the sofa with the remote on the floor by her side, eyes glued to the screen, watching Futurama. She looked up and her face immediately changed from an indifferent laziness to one of concern.

"Clyde, what's wrong?" she exclaimed, swinging her legs round so he could sit down.

Clyde sighed and sat next to her, throwing his head back and closing his eyes, suddenly very tired. "How do you always know?"

"You mean besides from the fact you have a massive bruise on your face?"

"Oh yeah." Clyde had completely forgotten about that. He automatically raised his hand to his cheek and then flinched at the soreness. It wasn't bothering him as much as being sent away from Kevin's house was. He could have bruises all over his face, he didn't care, he just wanted to see Kevin.

"What happened?"

"Homophobia happened."

Megan gasped. "Someone hit you?"

"Yep," said Clyde distractedly. He knew that being hit was a big deal and he should have been angry, but he just couldn't break himself to care, not when it used to happen to his boyfriend more. Clyde wasn't sure whether to be relieved that he had been hit instead of Kevin, or worried that it might happen to Kevin as well. He really didn't want that. He was proof that if alone they were very vulnerable. Clyde shouldn't have been vulnerable. Defending himself would have been fairly easy if he'd been prepared - he was strong after all. But the fact was that he hadn't been prepared. People were sneaky.

Megan frowned in confusion. "Is there something else bothering you?"

"Sure. I just got kicked out of his house. Now Kevin's mom is aware that I sneak in through his fucking window." Clyde massaged his head by his eyes where a pain was starting to form, being careful to avoid the bruise. Now, his head hurt in every place. "That's it! There's no other way I can see him!"

"You climbed up through his window?" asked Megan in shock.

Clyde nodded his head sadly. "All the time."

Megan observed Clyde's face and sighed. "Bro, you really can't be without him can you?"

"No, and now everything's turning into a big mess." Clyde started to cry again. He realised that he couldn't even try to stop it any longer. The tears wanted to come out and that was that.

Megan scooted across the sofa and reached up to wrap her arms around Clyde in a hug. "Only if you let it."

Clyde slouched down further to allow Megan to hug him tighter. She was absolutely right. He shouldn't let it. Was that what Kevin was trying to convey? He smiled and looked at her. "I have a very wise sister."

Megan nodded in agreement. "And I have a very stupid brother."

After a few moments of silence, the phone rang. Clyde jumped and then tensed. He glanced at Megan, showing her with his eyes that he wasn't answering it. He was scared at who it might be. It wasn't going to be Kevin - there was no way his mom was letting him near a phone. It probably wouldn't be any of his other friends because they'd call him on his mobile. He didn't much feel like talking to anyone anyway. He called the cat in from the kitchen to emphasise his point. The cat happily jumped onto his lap. He scratched it behind the ear and continued to listen as the phone kept ringing.

"I'm not answering it either," stated Megan. She hated answering the phone.

The phone stopped ringing. Clyde half watched the TV as he sat there, stroking the cat. Five minutes later the phone rang again. He wasn't sure whether it was lucky timing or not but his dad arrived home at that moment, hurrying inside to the warmth. He ran over to the phone and shot annoyed looks at Clyde and Megan, but when he saw Clyde's face he gasped and deliberated ignoring the phone.

Clyde waved him away. "Quick, answer the phone, dad. I'm okay."

Roger did not look happy but he picked up the handset. "Hello?"

...

"Oh, hello, Mrs Stoley."

Clyde tensed again. Of course it was her. Of course it was.

"He what?"

...

"Oh."

...

"Yes I'm aware of that."

Clyde shifted awkwardly as Kevin's mom replied, causing the cat to get annoyed with him. It hissed and jumped from his lap to his sisters. This allowed Clyde to turn around and look at his dad.

"No, I disagree actually. I think that's their choice. "

Roger was clutching the phone tightly, a frown on his face. He gave Clyde a sympathetic look.

"I respect it because they're being incredibly sensible."

His voice was steadily rising. Clyde smiled at his dad and his dad rolled his eyes back, making an unimpressed face. Clyde wondered if Kevin was hearing the other side of the conversation. He hoped not. It sounded like his mom wasn't saying nice things.

"Oh, they're teenage boys!"

...

Roger's voiced rose again then, almost to a yell. "How dare you. No one is to blame, they've done nothing wrong!"

Clyde could almost hear the yell in response.

"Well it's hard to stay civil when I'm talking to a bitch like you." Roger hung up the phone with a slam. Megan gasped and placed her hands over the cat's ears. Clyde was alarmed as well. He didn't have to think very hard at what Mrs Stoley must have said. She'd almost certainly blamed him again for 'turning her son gay' and 'pressuring him into things.' Roger stared at the phone he'd slammed down for a few seconds with a shocked look on his face at his own actions. He turned his head slowly to his children. "Please... please don't tell Susan I said that," he muttered.

Clyde and Megan nodded. "Let me guess - she's threatened to kill me if I so much as look at Kevin anymore?"

"It sounds like you've had a rough day."

"You could say that."

Megan shooed the cat off her lap and leant forward to where her dad had previously put the food bag on the table. She handed it to Clyde with a comforting smile. "We can't do anything else tonight. Let's eat some tacos. They're chicken... because screw chickens!"

Clyde let out a little laugh. "Screw chickens," he repeated weakly.