"Of course I'm listening Eric!" Butters said even though it was a lie. He really was trying to pay attention, but he was getting distracted watching Kenny flirt with a couple girls across the school yard. He knew that he had no reason to be upset with the orange wearing blond, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't upset at all. Jealous was the best way to describe it. He was jealous that those girls were getting the full version of Kenny's charming grin.

After a few more seconds of trying to listen to Cartmen, Butters found himself distracted again. Now the girls were giggling and Kenny was getting touchy feely. At that moment, Butters found himself wondering what it would be like to be a girl. He'd have a chance with Kenny, and maybe his parent would love him more. His parents said he was offensive. Girls weren't offensive usually.

Cartmen nodded when Butters told him that he had his attention, glad to see his blue eyes on him once more. "Okay, good. Now- I was thinking that to get back at Kyle, we would hurt him where the Jews like him really feel it." He said, rambling on about his master scheme until he noticed Butters' gaze once again leave him and look left.

Thoroughly irritated, Cartmen threw his gaze to follow Butters. Honestly, what was so god damn important? "What the Hell is going-"

Kenny…. He was looking at Kenny. At first, Cartmen still didn't understand what was so interesting, until he glanced back and saw the look on Butters' face. …He'd seen that look before; on Stan when Wendy had another boyfriend for a while… It was a look of jealousy, and that was all he needed to remember for the light switch to click on in his mind.

Yes… it all made sense. Why Butters had never had a girlfriend, why Kenny was always with girls but never committed. They were gay…and one hid while the other had a cover. It was all coming together now in his head.

"…Holy shit.." Cartmen breathed, a new gleam entering his eyes. This was juicy… it was perfect… "…I get it now… holy fucking shit…" Forget Kyle, it could wait. This was muchbetter.

"Huh? What was that Eric?" Butters asked having forgotten that he was supposed to be paying attention. "What do you get now?" He asked, having heard the last part of what Cartmen had said. When he turned to look at the bulky teenager Butters paled. "E-Eric?" He asked a bit nervously. There was a diabolical look on Cartmen's face that Butters knew all too well. He was plotting something evil, and Butters had a feeling that he wasn't going to like it.

"…Yeah…" Cartmen muttered, turning to look back at Butters. His chestnut brown eyes were swirling; dark clouds gathering like a wicked storm of evil in his mind. He noticed the look on Butters face, making his own split into a wide smirk.

"Butters." Cartmen reached out and took a hold of the blonde's arm; pulling him closer to him to whisper. "…You like Kenny don' cha?" He asked wickedly- though he already knew the answer. Leaning back Cartmen looked victoriously smug over the blond.

"Why you little fag you!" Cartmen playfully punched his arm, grinning from ear to ear. "For how long? Spill Butters."

"B-But I don't know what you m-mean Eric!" Butters half spluttered in embarrassment. How did Eric know that he liked Kenny? Had he been overly obvious about it all? Maybe he looked at Kenny differently, or too often, and oh boy, maybe he shouldn't have tried to return the pencil.

Butters rubbed his arm as he tried to calm himself down. If he freaked out then Cartmen would know the truth, but could he lie to Eric? His bulky friend always knew when he was lying. Not too long after he thought that, Butters watched Cartmen's face fall. "…O-oh God.." Butters stuttered. He knew he was lying.

"O-okay… I-I do, a-alright." Butters stuttered embarrassed. There, he admitted it. Oh god, his parents were going to ground him forever now. "P-please don't say anything Eric!" he pleaded.

No sooner than Butters confessed did Cartmen wrap his arm around the nervous blond like a master taking on an apprentice under his wing. Cartmen began to lead Butters away from the school yard, chuckling as wheels began to turn. He finally had the perfect blackmail… the only thing that could make this better would be if it was Kyle instead.

"No worries Butters, you only need to do what I tell ya to, an' I won't tell nobody." Cartmen said, smoothing his words over in his comforting tone. "You get what I'm saying right?" Cartmen gave Butters a broad grin.

~:

Butters rubbed at his tired eyes as he tried to focus on the extra math homework in front of him. "Aw man, I can't believe I'm stuck doing Eric's homework.." Butters complained. His parents were going to ground him for looking tired tomorrow, he just knew it. He had too much extra work now, so he didn't have enough time to sleep. However, losing sleep was a small price to pay in order to keep Cartmen from telling everyone his secret.

Butters was sure that he'd die of embarrassment if his friends found out he liked Kenny. His parents wouldn't be the only ones who would hate him. The blond was even sure that he would never get to talk to Kenny again either, and that would mean losing his nicest friend.

With a yawn, Butters finished the last problem on Eric's worksheet. He looked over at his digital clock and was dismayed to see that it was one thirty in the morning. This was the fourth night in a row that he was going to get less than five hours of sleep since he had to get up early for school or risk getting grounded..

~:

"H-here you go Eric." Butters said, trying his best to sound like his normal chipper self as eh handed his friend his homework. Honestly Butters was too tired to really put up a fake front today, but with Eric he'd at least try. He didn't want to get snippy with Cartmen and make his whole situation worse.

Cartmen turned when Butters addressed him in the hall, a smug smile crossing his face as he greedily snatched up the papers from Butters' fingertips. Cartmen glanced quickly over the problems to make sure they were completed before he grinned and patted Butters' shoulder.

"Good work Butters." Cartmen commemorated. "Like this, my grades'll go up an' maybe coach will let me stay on the team." He said, turning and beginning to head for his next class, leaving Butters there alone.

Kenny glanced up when he heard Butter's across the hallway, looking at him hand something to Cartmen. …What the Hell was he doing…? Was that the fat bastard's homework? Kenny wasn't close enough to hear anything but he could clearly see how smug Cartmen looked as he lorded over the blond and that was never a good sign.

Normally, Kenny liked to stay out of ordeals like this- especially if Cartmen was involved… but he couldn't just let it go when he knew the fat ass hole was picking on Butters. There was something very wrong about it that unsettled Kenny; and it was probably had to do with the fact that the light blond didn't deserve Cartmen's shit.

The poor boy waited until Cartmen left before he tried to approach the other, sneaking up behind him. He gave a quick glance to make sure that Cartmen was out of sight before he touched Butter's shoulder very gently- attempting to get his attention. "…Hey."

Butters nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. The only thing that kept him from yelping was the sound of Kenny's voice. "H-hey Kenny, aren't you gonna be late for class..?" Butters said after he had turned around to look at Kenny. He tried to calm down his rapidly beating heart after the sudden shock to his system.

He wondered what Kenny wanted. Usually he didn't speak to Butters randomly like this, there was always something he wanted. Butters found himself wondering if maybe he was delivering a message. It couldn't be that Cartmen had told him anything because he wouldn't be speaking with him at all if he knew. "Did ya need somethin'?" Butters asked.

Up close, Butters looked a lot worse off than he though. There were unusually dark bags underneath his usually bright eyes and his entire manner seemed spent. Normally, if Butters was like anything he was that phrase 'too much'. He was always way over the normal limit of happy, cute, bubbly, and energetic, and for the first time since he'd known Butters, the male looked lacking- which was concerning.

His first reaction was his silent shock, but before he knew it, he was beginning to feel angry. …That stupid fat pig, what had he done? It had to have been something bid if Butters was looking like this. Kenny's eyes burned into Butters' for a moment as he tried to keep calm.

"…Butters, what is going on with you and Cartmen?" He asked, tying to keep himself calm though his voice was edging on dangerous. If Butters wouldn't tell him, then he'd force it out of Cartmen later.

Butters physically paled when Kenny practically glared at him. Oh god, he had been wrong. Kenny knew, he knew and he was angry. Butters could completely understand Kenny being angru with him. No one would want to hear that Butters Stotch liked them. Was Kenny going to hit him? It certainly looked like he'd be going home with a black eye. His parents would ground him for the bruise and then he'd have to explain how he got it.

The nervous blond flinched slightly when Kenny said his name. This was it, he was going to get hit. He waited for the impact, but it never came. Some color returned to his face when he realized what Kenny had said. So he didn't know? The relief thatwashed through him was probably obvious. Kenny was mad at Cartmen, not him. However, his relief was short lived when he realized Kenny thought Eric was bothering him.

"N-Nothin's going on with me an' Eric. Just the normal stuff." Butters said, not wanting Kenny to look too into what was going on.

"Bull shit." Kenny snorted. It was completely obvious that something was going on by how pale Butters had gotten when he approached him. Cartmen must be doing something to scare him, and that only made Kenny feel angrier. He was definitely going to have to see to this.

"Butters," Kenny lightly grabbed the blond by his shoulders, looking directly into his eyes. "You can tell me. I'm your friend." He said, doing his best to let his rage against the bastard go. "You aren't yourself and whatever Cartmen's doing is wrong… if you tell me I'll fix it for you."

With just a few words, Butters found himself stuck. His lie hadn't worked, and now he was at a loss on what to do. If he continued to lie, Kenny would just go to Eric for answers, and that would be the same thing as telling the truth. Eric would spill what he knew if Kenny threatened him.

Butters wished that he could just tell Kenny. He really did trust him, but he couldn't trust him with that. Maybe he could appeal to Kenny's nicer nature and talk him out of going to Cartmen. Butters forced himself to look Kenny in the face since his eyes had been trying to find anything else to focus on.

"I-It's nothin' you can really fix. I'm s-sorry. I do promise that it's nothin' too awful bad, so don't worry." Butters said with a smile. It was nice to know that Kenny was worried, but no one needed to waste their worry on him. "I've just been helping Eric out is all."

Kenny's gaze lingered on Butters for a long while, running everything that he just told him through his head as he tried to mull over what to do. There were only a few more minutes until the class bell rang, so he needed to decide quickly while he had Buttters here.

It was obvious that he was lying. It didn't matter if it wasn't anything 'too awful', letting Cartmen get away with anything was bad. Kenny would have preferred Butters tell him- since Cartmen could stretch the truth to anything he wanted- but it was clear that Kenny wasn't going to get anywhere with Butters. That meant he had to go and corner Cartmen.

The blonde's eyes did not waver as he snapped his attention back to Butters, letting go of his shoulders and giving a small nod- though it was clear that Kenny was in by no means satisfied by Butters' response. "…Alright, hurry to your next class Butters." He said, knowing that the blond was terrified of getting a tardy- for some reason.

It was obvious that Kenny didn't trust what he had told him, but Butters didn't have time to worry about that. With a look akin to panic, Butters sped off to his first class of the day, not wanting to be late. He'd just have to hope that everything worked out okay.

~~:

Cartmen was talking to Stan and Kyle, trying his best to get them to come over and watch a new movie with him. He didn't have practice Friday, which was a rare occurrence for him. School had just let out, and he was talking to them y the lockers. Currently he was laughing.

"Yeah you guys, it's going to be-"

"Cartmen!"

Looking up fast, Cartmen caught a glimpse of an orange parka storming up the hall, people parting like the red sea to let him pass. The bulky male's face turned a significantly pale shade when he noticed how fierce his friend's blue eyes were. Cartmen had no doubt that all Hell had frozen over and Kenny was coming to drag him down to the frozen shards left waiting for him.

Kyle and Stan scampered away, making Cartmen turn to watch their fleeting backs. Cartmen could feel his blood run cold. "H-Hey! Where're you guys goin'!?" He pleaded, voice cracking. He opened his mouth to yell angrily after them for ditching him, but he didn't get the chance. With a cry of terror, Cartmen felt himself be torn back around and pushed into the lockers. Cartmen's eyes connected to searing blue gaze of Kenny's.

"K-K-Kenny!" Cartmen exclaimed in shock, his hear t thudding in his throat. An uneasy and nervous smile crossed over his face. " H-Hey buddy… wha-uh, what are you doing?" He asked in a frightened tone. He honestly didn't understand why Kenny was here being mad at him. He couldn't think of what he'd done to him, so he didn't understand why the blond was pinning him to the locker like this.

"Shut up Cartmen!" Kenny seethed, and Cartmen twisted his tongue to listen. What the Hell had gotten into him, what had he done?

He could feel Kenny's grip on him tighten threateningly, making Cartmen wince. It hurt- but he dind't want to say anything until Kenny explained why he was doing this. The other male's face twitched into a snarl.

"What the Hell did you do to Butters?" Kenny growled out. Cartmen's brown eyes widened in surprise. …What was that? Butters? What the hell was Kenny…

"…Butters…?" Cartmen asked, his fear dissipating. Slowly, everything was coming together. Kenny was here for Butters, because he liked Butters… except Butters didn't know. It was so ironic, but beautiful. Cartmen had to keep himself form smirking. …Now he had two perfect toys to play with.

"Yes, Butters." Kenny stated, tone angry and lashing. "Now what did you do to him?"

Cartmen was no longer afraid. The brown haired male pushed Kenny away bravely and smirked, shrugging. "Cool your tits Kenny. I haven't done anything to Butters… yet." He baited. He watched the blonde's hot and burning eyes shift uncertainly. It was all Cartmen could manage to not break out into a grin. Hook!

"…Yet?" Kenny echoed, looking frustrated. Before he could regain his composure, Cartmen decided to reel in and snag him.

"Well, you see, I have a valuable piece of information about him- and he'll do anything so I don't tell." He said slyly. He could clearly see that he had his full attention, the other's blue eyes staring at him with undivided attention.

"Now, I've been thinking of just how I want to use this against him, something embarrassing and worthy… equally as humiliating…" Cartmen was toying with the notion. He was aware of Kenny's hardening gaze. "…and I think I just might exact it at a sleep over." He said, watching an internal switch click in Kenny.

Kenny's fists tightened as he pushed Cartmen toughly to the lockers again, rage on his face. "Why you fat-"

"Mr. McCormick!"

"Turning fast, Kenny and Cartmen could see the school's strict English teacher making their way towards them. Kenny cursed inwardly, pushing Cartmen away.

"This isn't over." He glowered at him before making a break for the door. Cartmen watched him run out with a wicked smirk. Quietly, he added to himself. "Oh, I'm counting on it…"