Heading for their first post lunch classes, Kenny was accosted in the hallway by Craig, Clyde, Token, Tweek, Red, Heidi, and Nicole. Bebe made a beeline straight for Hunter, who was in the middle of a heated debate with Kyle - on his way to trig - which had started out about future NBA lineups and had eventually worked its way to practice after school that day. Cartman was off at the other end of the school in shop class, and Stan where elsewhere, but that was of little concern to the others at the moment. Sensing that this had something to do with the other two by the way everyone had swooped in, Kyle shrank back from the assembling crowd, honestly curious to see where this was going to go.

"Are you two dating?" Craig came right out with it, since for one, that was just how he rolled, and for another, it was pretty much a widely known fact at this point that Kenny and Hunter had already hooked up. Teenage minds settled themselves rather quickly, especially under conditions like these.

Bebe wanted to hear it from Hunter himself, and not Kenny. "Are you?"

Feeling as if she didn't owe Bebe anything, least of all an explanation of her life, Hunter didn't say a word. It wasn't any of their business what they were or weren't doing in their personal time, or what they labeled their activities. "Class is starting."

Yeah, French class. Kenny couldn't wait to sit in an overly perfumed classroom getting berated in a different language. Although, the lesser of the two evils was hard to discern in this case, since what he said now would have lasting reverberations. "Does it look like we're together?"

A trick question, well played; the boys admired that kind of Teflon shielding, whereas the girls could have swooned at that kind of coolness, had they been lesser women. Despite wearing clothes that weren't his own, Hunter had been walking next to Kyle - a whole other person away from Kenny - talking with the intelligent redhead and not the smoking' hot blonde. Well the girls thought that Kenny was fine, and truthfully one or two of the other boys could appreciate the truth behind that sentiment, which in truth only lent to the absurdity of what had already been unofficially dubbed as 'Kunter' or 'Hunny'. The girls were fast talkers and even more furious texters.

Before anyone could raise any more questions or objections, a crispy gray head poked out of the nearest classroom. "Class started already, get moving!" Being a teacher known to throw out detentions like live grenades in battle, no one lingered longer than they had to, and the three friends were free to go to their respective classrooms in privacy. Well, sort of, since Bebe was also in their French class.

Standing a door or two away from where the crowd had been dispersed, Kyle stopped just outside his classroom. Missing five minutes wouldn't kill him, since he had a basic grasp on the day's lesson. "You guys will have to come clean sooner or later." Preferably sooner. What, he had some kind of an investment in this - certainly more than anyone else at school - since he had been there from the very beginning. It certainly wasn't because he was interested in Hunter and her wellbeing. "So, are you two dating?"

Bebe practically froze in place, her foot taking minutes to hit the floor. It was only obvious to them that she was listening to the conversation, ears straining for any scrap she could get and stretch to the benefit of the internet. Well they had nothing to hide; on the contrary; despite some lingering nerves and the nagging remains of uncertainty, the both of them were practically jumping out of their skins, feeling some of that 'shout it from the mountain tops' excitement.

Trusted a great amount by the both of them, Kyle figured it out just by the looks they exchanged before answering him. Sealing it with more than a kiss, there was an excellent albeit x-rated reason why they had almost missed the bus that morning. "We didn't want to start a big old production," especially given the fact that Kenny was still wary of relationships and Hunter was grossly undereducated in them, but they liked each other enough to at least give it a try. "At least not if we could help it." They all glanced over at Bebe.

No fucking way! It was fine if they were just hooking up on the DL, but to actually be dating?! Now she would either have to wait for them to break-up or be labeled a two-faced bitch! Suddenly very robotic as it settled in her mind - fingers already itching to send out that mass text and brain formulating the thousand page rant she was going to lay on anyone that would listen - the curled-haired cheerleader ambled forward into the classroom, leaving the three of them alone to finish their impromptu conference.

Figuring that her summation was good enough for the whys, Kenny gave Kyle an answer he knew he could respect, guy-to-guy. "Yeah, we're together. That," the blonde gestured over at Hunter, but more specifically at Squishy, "is my pretty little-"

"Say anything about my tits right now," Hunter flashed a warning smile at her partner, "and I won't be aiming at the basket later." They were risking enough loitering in the halls without having to worry about anyone overhearing this talk. Bebe seemed to have shut the door behind her, but sound had a way of carrying when you least wanted it to. Besides, if she hurt him too badly, she could always kiss it better later... Maybe... Eh, probably not - she did warn him after all, so any broken balls would be on him.

Just his luck that his first girlfriend in years would be a volatile brute. Well he supposed that he knew that going in, so there was no point in lamenting that fact, or any of her other mannish traits. Actually, there had been a lot of careful consideration on both of their parts before they had gone into this relationship...

[South Park]

Sweeping away some of the hair that had fallen into Hunter's sterling jewels, the forge simmering from a long, hard one, Kenny stared fondly at the girl in his arms and only at her, passed the demons surrounding them from all sides - some only just barely concealed from sight - the boy knew then that he could not ignore his own feelings, nor rebuff hers. True, he probably knew it last night, but gazing at her now as the rays of a sleepy morning light illuminated her outline, it was as clear as the smile in her eyes.

Sealing it with yet another kiss - this one chaste and swift - Kenny cursed his kind heart, knowing with a painful clarity that this was crazy, and he was stupid. They were stupid. All of this was stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But, in his experience, being happy rarely meant being smart. And who knows, maybe this wouldn't be the disaster he was expecting...

"Are you sure about this?" She asked for maybe the millionth time that morning. "You know, I'm not the kind of girl that lives my life to earn labels, so we don't have to do this now."

It was probably a lot of her fear of being rejected at work, but because it basically amounted to her saying that she would have been cool with a 'no-strings friends with benefits' kind of arrangement, Kenny thought that Hunter was one of the coolest girls he'd ever known. But no matter what she said about being fine with it, sooner or later it would have gotten to her; besides, he liked the thought of knowing that he would be the only one she would go to. "I want to. I want you."

Growing brighter, her eyes resembled the kind of beauty in a star just before it became a supernova, only less depressing. It was hard to explain, but she trusted him. She trusted him so much, she knew that he would never go out of his way to cause her harm, and in that same vein, she felt deep in her gut that if it had been someone else that she liked, like Kyle for example, things would have played differently, and she wouldn't have yielded so soon. There was just something special about Kenny McCormick that called out to her...

Perhaps it was a misplaced feeling that would come back to haunt her, but Hunter chose to believe in her heart, in Kenny. "I trust that you'll still feel that way when we get in front of everyone else."

"Trust isn't something that I just throw around and give," Kenny had been hurt in the past, and Hunter could hear that in his voice now. "But I don't think it's so hard to have." Thinking about it, reflecting live on her words and feeding on her warm energy, the holder of the blue orbs could tell that he reciprocated the notion that it was almost natural believing in the girl. "You wouldn't knowingly hurt me, would you?"

But he didn't even need her to respond to that question, because he already had his answer. Every time that he looked into her eyes, he could feel it, a sense of warmth and comfort, a semblance of safety. Relenting the last bit of reservation he had, the blonde thought to himself how sad it was that her greatest victory would be one she never fully knew...

[South Park]

Still not fully heeding the potential consequences (or the testing for STDs she should get at her first chance), Hunter grinned reassuringly at her boyfriend so he would know that she wasn't pissed at him, smiling the brightest smile either Kenny or Kyle had seen yet. "I don't know if we go together like aliens and probes, but maybe now we can both find somewhere to belong."

"Aliens and probes?" Jesus Christ, Kyle hoped that it wasn't as wrong as what he was thinking, although knowing the pair of them, it was probably at least ten times worse. "You know what, don't tell me - I don't want to know." Seeing that they were both opening their mouths to say something, he quickly wrenched the door open and flung himself through it. Better to get a room full of stares than hear whatever they were going to say.

On the other side of the door, Kenny and Hunter looked deeply affronted, "Well that was rude."

The middle part is a flashback, in case anyone gets confused. I doubt anyone will, but I feel like I should still point it out, especially since this story really hasn't had any flashbacks in it. I also could have gone with 'Kenter', but 'Kunter' was obviously the funnier choice. But more importantly, I didn't want to immediately put them together, but between being thirty-odd chapters in and not wanting to draw out an additional x-amount, I decided to just bite that bullet. There's a lot I want to tell... Will it get told? Who knows. But there are plans...

Speaking of plans, parts of this chapter were compiled from unused scraps, so there might be some confusion as to what's going on. So I'll break it down:

Bebe's in French too, Kyle's in trig, and a bunch of people corner Kenny and Hunter on the way to class. Asking if they are really a couple, Kenny and Hunter dance around the crowd but tell Kyle (and a listening Bebe) that they are dating. About to make mention of Hunter being a girl in the hall, she threatens Kenny's balls (not around Bebe). In a flashback, Kenny and Hunter confess how much they trust each other, and he reflects on how she'll never understand how much that means to him. Panning back to the present, Hunter makes a scary comparison that Kyle doesn't want to think about, so he closes the classroom door in their faces.

And if this doesn't seem like a lot of material to justify a month-long wait period, then you're right - this isn't enough, but that's because I was working on the next several chapters this whole time, along with life. It might be a while before you guys get any more chapters though...

I do not own South Park, that's all on Matt and Trey, but I do own Hunter and the rest of the Bloodworth clan!