The smell of fresh bread was amazing. Like, oh my god, claw your own eyes out, amazing. At least, that's what Kenny was thinking as he rested back against the counter, waiting for his co-worker to be done sorting through things. He was on register today, so he had to hand out the cakes and bread and bagels to people who really didn't need any more of those things all day. Quite depressing, really.

Luckily, Craig was at work too and Kenny could see him from here. Craig was slicing up some deli meat for a customer and it was a very good thing they never selected Craig to use the front cash register. The woman watching him do her order looked positively frightened. Craig wrapped the meat and handed it to the cashier; some spindly kid Kenny had tried befriending, but he was just as callous as Craig...just without the lack of facial expression. This kid was good at faces.

Kenny was brought out of his people watching when he caught Craig flipping him off. Oh, apparently he'd spotted his resident stalker. Kenny grinned deviously and stuck out his tongue, to which Craig scowled and turned his back to the blonde in bakery.

It had been two days since they'd met in the convenience store parking lot and Kenny had resisted abusing the Tucker's phone number. He'd almost caved a few times, just out of sheer boredom, but he found that turning on the television usually distracted him long enough to talk him out of it. Now, bored out of his mind and with no television, Kenny decided that perhaps today was the day his self control could bend a little.

He pulled his cell phone out of his uniform pocket and held it under the register so customers, or more importantly, his boss, wouldn't see it. Scrolling down, he selected Craig's number and opened up a text window.

I never told you I love men in uniform, did I?

Send. Kenny waited, risking a few glances over to watch for Craig's reaction. Did the boy even bring his phone onto the floor? The idea that Craig could be a well behaved employee and leave his Blackberry cell phone in his staff room locker was almost absurd, but Craig had surprised him before.

Sure enough, a nearly silent buzz alerted Craig to a message and he turned to half hid himself behind the slicing machine to check his phone.

Kenny felt a stupid grin cross his lips and he hurriedly looked away, trying to pretend he was readjusting the display cakes. A soft hum emitted from his pocket and he almost dropped his phone trying to check it.

Yuck. I'd change, but then you'd see me naked.

Kenny felt heat creep up his neck. Now was not the time to be thinking of Craig naked and in an attempt to stop himself picturing it, he stuffed his phone back into his pocket and finished rearranging the displays.

Craig cast a glance over that Kenny missed and the dark haired boy almost smirked. It shouldn't amuse him, really, but playing with the blonde was so easy.

Kenny seemed to be working intently on something, though, after a few seconds, Craig could see that something was his phone. His own phone was already clutched in his hand, waiting for the vibrate setting to announce another message. Three...two...one...

I've got icing here and I'm not afraid to use it inappropriately.

Craig gave a short chuckle, stifling it when his co-worker Reggie glanced over at him and turned away to reply with, Gross, McCormick, that goes on the food you sell. Now stop texting me and work.

Kenny shot Craig a wide grin and Craig returned with another raised middle finger. Unfortunately, at that moment, a customer came up to ask for more product and Craig's co-worker started barking off directions which meant Kenny once again had to amuse himself by pretending to work. Just anotherfour hours, he thought, though it wasn't much comfort.

000000000

"You piece of shit!"

"I'm not the piece of shit, you are!"

Ah. The sound of parenthood.

Kenny didn't even bother alerting his parents to his homecoming, closing the door behind him and heading straight upstairs. He wasn't sure what his parents were arguing about, nor did he care. All of their fights lately were about petty and uninteresting things. Like when mom left the butter in the fridge and dad ruined three slices of bread trying to smear the solid product across. Apparently that had been fight worthy.

Kenny headed to his room, catching sight of his younger sister Karen sitting on her bed with her bedroom door open. She had her knees curled up against her chest and was looking with sightless eyes out into the hallway. She didn't even see Kenny until he made a point of waving vigorously in her direction.

"Ken." Karen whispered, unfurling herself from her position on the bed to make her way into the hall. "They've been fighting for hours."

Kenny smiled sadly and shrugged.

"It's what they do. Come on, I'll let'cha use my headphones." Kenny had bought noise cancelling headphones with the first check he'd received from the store, preferring to hear his music without parental accompaniment. Karen followed him into his room and Kenny shut the door, rummaging around in his desk drawers for his iPod and headphones to hand to Karen.

While Karen situated herself on the floor and slid the over-the-ear headphones on, wordlessly perusing Kenny's playlist, Kenny set about getting out of his work clothes.

Karen kept her eyes on the iPod, knowing that Kenny wasn't shy about his body with anyone, but still preferring he not be so open around this particular family. She selected some rock song she thought she recognized and bobbed her head to the music.

Kenny slid on a pair of dark jeans and a black T-shirt, not bothering to even check his clean drawers and instead just grabbing whatever wasn't totally dirty from the floor. By the sounds of downstairs, the fighting had escalated into actual blows. Casting a glance at Karen, Kenny motioned with hand signs that he'd be back in a few minutes. Karen nodded but didn't say anything.

A list of things he'd rather be doing than breaking up another parental fight came to Kenny's mind as he descended the stairs. Eating worms. Sticking nails in his hand. Working eleven hours instead of eight. But enough of that. Kenny spotted his mother taking a swing at his father and hurried forward to catch his mother's wrist.

"Kenny, you let go of me right now, your father deserves this!"

Kenny just shoot his head and directed his reply to the both of them

"You two have a daughter upstairs that needs you to pull your shit together. Yelling is one thing, but if you keep beating the shit out of each other, she's going to be taken away from you and sent to parents who can do their fucking jobs right." Kenny's voice was calm, but laced with disdain. How many times did he appear to them in the guise of Mysterion as a kid and how many times now as their own son would he have to play peacekeeper?

"Don't you curse at us, we are your fucking parents!" It was dad who spoke up this time.

"I learned from the fucking best." Kenny couldn't help the retort that slipped out and immediately knew keeping the peace was beyond his control now.

With his hand still clasped around his mother's wrist, he couldn't block well enough when a heavy fist came at him from the man he was unlucky enough to call a father. He sucked in a sharp breath and felt an extraordinary sting from where his dad's fist had met his cheek. He'd tolerated pain enough not to give in with a sob or a cry, but fuck did it ever hurt.

Kenny released his mom's bony wrist and ducked out of the way as his father swung again. The punch missed Kenny and caught his mom on the shoulder and they were off at each other again like Kenny hadn't even been there. Involuntary tears welled up in Kenny's eyes from the pain in his face and he ran back up the stairs two at a time to get to his room.

Karen was still there, listening to music and Kenny quickly gathered up his phone and car keys. His movement caught Karen's attention and her eyes widened as her eyes fell to the mark that was already forming over Kenny's skin. She moved to pull the headphones over her head but Kenny ducked down and stopped her, his own hands keeping the headphones in place. He opened up the notepad feature on his phone and typed out, 'Going out for a bit. Stay up here and don't take off the headphones until I come home.'

Karen nodded, worry crossing her face and she nervously scooted herself over to press her back into the siding of Kenny's bed, eyes on the door as her brother slipped out and closed it behind him.

No one stopped Kenny leaving the house. Though Kenny highly doubted if his parents could see anything with the way they were beating up on each other. He wrenched open his car door and fell into the drivers seat, plugging the keys into the ignition and shutting the door. As the car hummed idly in the driveway, Kenny allowed himself a minute to breathe. He pressed a hand to his face and hissed at the new wave of pain that came from that.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Kenny cursed, leaning forward to rest his head on the steering wheel. Quiet sobs overtook him for a moment, his shoulders shaking but no tears fell. He inhaled slowly, trying to get under control again and knew Karen was probably watching him from his bedroom window. She would worry about him until he came home, but right now he couldn't sit and comfort her. He needed to be distracted right now and that desire was the one that possessed him to flip open his phone and dial Craig Tucker's number.

"Hello?" Was the emotionless response that told Kenny he had the right number.

"Craig." Kenny started, his voice nearly cracking, but he cleared his throat and tried again. "Craig, do you have time tonight?"

"I just saw you for eight hours at work and you want more? Jesus, McCormick-"

Before Craig could finish whatever undoubtedly witty comeback he was setting up, Kenny interrupted.

"Stark's Pond, soon as you can." Kenny hung up and tossed the phone onto the passenger seat, taking the car out of Park and rolling in reverse down the driveway.

Stark's Pond was only about a ten minute walk from his house, but Kenny didn't feel like walking right now. If he passed anyone he knew while walking, they'd see his face and ask questions. Or even worse, say nothing. Because everyone knew what happened at the McCormick household. It was no surprise when Kenny had new bruises. His friends had offered to return the favor to his parents more times than Kenny could count but he had declined every offer. There was no point in returning violence with more violence. It would only broaden the McCormick fight circle and a dysfunctional family was better than a whole town on fight-standby.

Making it to the pond, Kenny parked the car against the sidewalk and made his way to the small bench he and his friends used to sit on as kids. It was tiny and he had to sit almost to the ground, his legs fully outstretched in front of him, but at least it wasn't crawling with bugs. Kenny closed his eyes and once again placed a hand to his cheek. It still stung, but he was prepared for it this time. He kept pressure there, losing himself in the pain and eventually it didn't feel like pain anymore. He poked at the skin and it offered little more than a dull aching sensation.

"What did you drag me out of the house for, McCormick?"

A voice brought Kenny out of his masochistic torment and he turned to see Craig approaching the bench. Where Kenny was ten minutes away, Craig was only about five because he was farther from the ghetto and closer to the main town.

Kenny stood and without thinking, lifted up his shirt, dropping it onto the bench instead. Craig arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

"I need you to distract me." Kenny said, opening his arms and motioning for Craig to come closer.

"Here? In public." Craig asked, his disgust for public displays of affection obvious in every single letter of the words he spoke.

"It's late. No one's out." Kenny said, scowling though the expression brought back the dull ache.

"You've got some nerve." Craig frowned, but he stepped forward and curled his fingers around each of Kenny's wrists.

"I've got a lot more than nerve." Kenny said.

Craig studied Kenny's face and his expression sobered as soon as he caught the finer details of his companion. The darkened patch on his face. The glazed over look in his eyes. Craig sighed. No amount of back talk was going to convince Kenny that what he was asking of Craig wouldn't solve his problems.

Knowing that, Craig pulled Kenny closer, using his grip on the boy's wrists to wind Kenny's arms around his waist. Kenny could feel Craig's breath on him before the dark haired boy acted and lips and teeth met the skin at Kenny's neck. Kenny let Craig take control this time, pleased that Craig hadn't decided to walk away at the request.

Kenny felt Craig pull him closer, winding his arms around Kenny's shoulders, even as he pressed kisses to every part of the blonde he could reach. Craig's fingers trailed down Kenny's back and he shivered pleasantly at the feeling.

Lost in the kisses that felt almost nonexistent in contrast to the punch to the face, Kenny tried to reciprocate as best he could, but it hurt. His cheek would press into Craig's shoulder or against his bony jaw and it would send Kenny reeling again with an ache that seemed to be leaking into a migraine.

Kenny felt something press into the crook behind his knee and one leg buckled after another. He gasped, but found himself caught still in Craig's grip, being lowered down onto the bench.

"You wanted to be distracted so lay still." Craig instructed. Kenny was going to remark on the wood being uncomfortable against his back, but as his humor began to return, it was replaced with an innuendo and he cracked a small smile.

Craig missed it. His eyes and lips and pretty much everything else were focused on other parts of Kenny's body and soon enough, the blonde felt himself responding. Thanks to the pain, his body was now hyper sensitive to everything Craig was doing so every bite or scrape of the dark haired boy's fingernails was like an electric shock.

Distracting others was something Craig did well, apparently.

Kenny felt a hand palm him through his jeans and he whimpered, much to his own embarrassment. God, what was he, twelve? He cleared his throat and gave a soft groan, more to cover up than out of actual pleasure. Craig didn't seem to care one way or the other and simply continued, eventually drawing the zipper down and popping the button all on his own this time.

"Are my pants easier this time when I'm not jerking you off?" Kenny asked, unable to resist a little jibe now that he was slowly returning to normal.

"Oh so now he wants to be funny." Craig replied with disinterest, sliding his hand under the jeans and inching them down by Kenny's knees, shortly followed by the plain briefs he'd worn that day. Kenny's breath hitched in his throat as Craig took a grip on his length.

Craig's rhythm wasn't particularly complex, but it was enough. Kenny remembered the warmth of his hand from the time before, and now that his hand was working alone, Kenny felt it again. Seriously, what was Craig? A human heater? Kenny wondered if Craig would still be this warm in the winter. Which led him to wonder if they'd be up to this all the way until winter. It was only spring, so far, they had so much time to go and South Park was unpredicta-...and now it didn't matter.

Kenny let out a choked sound as he felt something even warmer and definitely wetter close around his dick. He risked a glance down to see that Craig had replaced his hand with his mouth. Holy fuck. A second noise escaped him, much more from surprise than anything, but Craig took it as an encouraging sound and hummed softly in return.

"Oh fuck." Kenny said aloud, his head falling back onto the bench with a thud and bringing about another twinge of pain in his head. The throbbing of his head and the swirl of pleasure that was curling its way through Kenny's gut fought it out and nearly made it impossible to retain consciousness. The pressure of the bench against his head and the occasional bumps as he rocked himself involuntarily with Craig's efforts was causing little white spots to form in front of his vision and he worried for a second that he might actually pass out.

Luckily another hum from Craig forced Kenny to focus on that and he reached forward to grip at Craig's hair. The dark haired boy seemed irritated by the gesture, but Kenny gasped out, "C-coming." and Craig got the message. He pulled off from Kenny and continued with his hand once more until Kenny came, a low growl of contentment filling the silence of the pond grounds.

Had it been under different circumstances, Kenny might have felt embarrassed or even annoyed that he hadn't lasted that long or that he hadn't tried to help Craig, but right now he couldn't give a rat's ass. He caught his breath on the bench, watching lazily as Craig wiped his hand on the grass and sat down near him, digging in his pockets for something.

Kenny lifted his head to see when Craig pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a small orange lighter.

"You smoke?" He asked, looking around for something to clean himself up with.

"Occasionally." Craig answered.

Not wanting to ruin another t-shirt, Kenny slid out of his pants and briefs and made his way down to the pond.

"You're not going to swim in that, are you?" Craig asked, arching an eyebrow again.

"Just a little bit. Unless you want to give me your shirt this time." Kenny said, lowering himself into the pond and trudging out to see how deep he could get.

"Fuck that, I'll drown your ass myself before I ruin a shirt like that." Came Craig's reply, but the dark haired boy moved to the edge of the water to wait. "Want one?" He held up the pack of cigarettes and Kenny narrowed his eyes, as if judging the Tucker boy, before giving in and extending a hand.

"Yeah."

Craig lit one, taking a drag on it to get it started and handed it to Kenny as the blonde crawled back up to shallow water.

"Can't light it myself, huh?" Kenny asked, sticking the cigarette between his lips and floating back out.

"Don't want you dropping my only lighter in the pond." Craig shrugged, sitting down with his knees to his chest.

Craig's position suddenly reminded Kenny of Karen and his expression fell for a second. He lay on the water, watching Craig blow out puffs of grey clouds and doing the same above the water himself. It was nice just lounging here, even if he knew he'd have to go home soon to check on Karen. She wasn't a baby anymore, but neither was she capable of standing up to her parents. He didn't have the strength to swim, but it didn't seem to matter as there was no tide and he drifted idly around safe waters.

"How come you didn't ask me what was wrong?" Kenny asked quietly after a few minutes of floating around.

Craig shrugged.

"If you wanted someone to pat you on the back and ask you why the bad man punched you, you'd have called up Stan or Kyle." Craig answered logically enough, which actually surprised Kenny.

And not the part about Craig knowing he'd gotten punched; it was no surprise to see that Craig was among the residents who knew of the McCormick beatings.

"Fair enough." Kenny replied, wondering vaguely what Stan and Kyle were up to right now. If he'd gone to them with this, they'd have offered once more to take over the role of peace keeping. Stan might have even tried to go over to his house. Kyle would be the one taking care of his bruise and telling him to put ice on it. He could almost hear Kyle's exasperated voice as he tried to tell Kenny not to get involved in his parent's fights. Their concern was genuine but it wouldn't help. Nothing would, really.

Kenny found his train of thought cut off as quickly as his air supply when something pushed him down under the pond surface. He sputtered and thrashed about, making contact with something solid before that something yanked him back up to the surface. Kenny blinked and coughed up water, reaching around to shove away from his bonds and push his hair out of his face. His cigarette floated away, but it wasn't important anymore. The thing was a figure and more so a figure with black hair.

"Craig! What the fuck, you asshole!" Kenny shouted, his voice echoing around the nearly empty grounds.

"You said you wanted to be distracted." Craig was still fully clothed and without his own cigarette, Kenny saw, but the tiniest hint of a smirk bent the corners of his lips upwards and the dark haired boy reached forward again to wrap his arms around Kenny and tug him under water again.

Kenny yelped as he fell, but had the sense to suck in a breath before he was submerged again. Craig let go of him underwater and disappeared from immediate grasp, leaving Kenny to kick his way to the surface again. They were almost at the drop off near the middle of the lake and the water was up to their necks. Craig had submerged his chin and mouth so only the top of his head was visible and Kenny couldn't help it. He laughed.

"You're such a fucktard." He said, splashing Craig and receiving one back almost immediately.

"You clean yet?" Craig asked, sending another wave at his companion while Kenny struggled to keep his hair and water out of his eyes.

"Yeah, no thanks to you." He said, trying without luck to block the water with his arm.

"Good let's get out. This pond is disgusting." Craig said, standing up properly and wading towards shallow water.

"I agree." Kenny said, but instead of following Craig's example, he lunged forward and tackled Craig back under the water. Craig lost his footing and clawed his way free of Kenny to resurface, gasping in a breath of air and shouting, "McCormick!"

"Hey, fair's fair, you got me and now I got you." Kenny said, suddenly spurred into song, "I got you, babe~"

Craig looked like he was about to throw up and made a gagging noise to prove it.

"Sing that again, I swear you'll never get anything from me again." Craig threatened and shook his head, shaking water droplets from his hair.

"You know, you're pretty sexy when you're wet." Kenny said, wading forward and resting his arms around Craig's neck loosely.

"Well you're back to normal, I say we head home." Craig's expression was just as disinterested as ever.

"Thanks, Craig." Kenny said, his tone genuine and despite Craig's disgusted look, he leaned forward to press his lips to Craig's cheek.

"Gross, dude." Craig pushed Kenny off of him and made his way to the grass again. "Get dressed, for fuck sake."

Kenny obeyed, though his clothes stuck to him uncomfortably. Brilliant idea, that swimming thing was. Kenny complained loudly to Craig, who scowled in response.

"Ugh, my jeans are sticking to my legs! Fuck, my underwear's all wet now." Kenny made a show of it, knowing it would annoy Craig and sure enough, the dark haired boy turned to walk away. Kenny hurried to catch up with him, realizing he now had to drive home wet. "Aw, my car's gonna get wet."

Craig turned on his heel and grabbed Kenny's shoulders.

"Stop. Complaining." He said through his teeth, and Kenny gave a small smile, wincing as the pain in his cheek began to come back to full attention. Craig paused for a moment and sighed, rolling his eyes in a very unreasonable fashion. Kenny was about to tell him off but Craig leaned in and pressed a nearly nonexistent kiss to his injured cheek.

"Seriously, go home and sleep or something. Stop being a hero, you're not ten years old anymore." Craig said, his voice low. He let go of Kenny and stuffed his hands in his pockets, having a little difficulty since his pants were soaking wet. As he walked away, he called back, "By the way, you get one of those. Don't expect me to be all lovey dovey with you now just cos I kissed you."

Kenny just stared for a minute, momentarily too stunned for words. A thought crept into his head and he recovered in time to say, "A real man would have kissed me before blowing me!".

A middle finger was his only response and Kenny gave one back, though Craig hadn't even bothered to turn around and wouldn't have seen it. Kenny reluctantly looked back at his car and moved around to slide back into the driver's seat. His body was humming from both the pain and Craig's efforts and all in all, he didn't feel so bad anymore. If he could sneak upstairs without his dad seeing him, the night might actually end okay.

With that thought, he started up the car and drove home the long way.