Kyle and Cartman continued to hold hands as they walked back into the living room area. Just about every person in their field of vision was either passed out or drunkenly making out with someone. Stan was the exception to the rule who just sat there on the couch staring pensively into space. Kyle spoke first, "Stan, Earth to Stan, what's wrong with you?"

Stan abruptly looked up as he sighed, "Sorry bro, I'm just pissed off at Bebe. Cartman? What are you doing still sober? Usually you're doing wasted karaoke right about now."

Stan had yet to notice the two were holding hands. Kyle and Cartman thought nothing of it and moved to sit beside Stan, only realizing their hands were still locked together when Kyle tried to sit on Stan's left and Cartman on his right. The two both blushed and released their hands.

Kyle quickly looked at Stan's expression. Stan's expression hadn't changed, so whether or not he had noticed the two's out of the ordinary behavior, he refrained from commenting on it.

Stan groaned, "Wendy left to go take Bebe home because she's the only sober one here. Plus, because Bebe "had her feelings hurt" Wendy is staying there to watch her and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid." Stan said had her feelings hurt in a mocking voice complete with air quotes.

"Fuck my night." Stan continued. 'Poor guy's night was kind of ruined', Kyle thought sympathetically.

"Cheer up! Let's go play some truth or dare or something." Kyle said as he patted Stan on the back.

"With two people, Kyle, come on. I might as well just go to sleep. Kenny is passed out; my sister left since she has work tomorrow morning. Now the Wendy shit. It's just not my night at all."

Cartman cleared his throught, "In case you haven't noticed, I'm here too, asshole."

"Oh right. Sorry, Cartman. I'm just a regular space cadet tonight. Yeah, three people should be more than enough to play let's go upstairs." Stan led the way as the three boys went in the first unlocked room they came to.

After making sure no one was passed out or having sex in the closet, Stan locked the door and joined Kyle and Cartman sitting on the floor.

"I'll go first since it was my idea," Kyle said, "and I pick Cartman. Truth or dare."

Cartman was still tipsy and wasn't in the mood for dares, "Truth, Jew."

"Is it true that you've never been kissed?" [yeah let's just say he and Wendy never kissed for the purposes of this story.] Kyle's green eyes were slightly slanted and glinted dangerously.

Cartman swallowed. He was pretty surprised at this sort of question. Whether it was the alcohol or something else he decided to answer honestly, "Yes, it's true." He looked at the floor.

Stan laughed, "Kyle you can do better than that." He teased his best friend.

Cartman decided to resist the urge to ask Kyle the same question, "Stan, pick your poison."

Stan deliberated for only a few seconds, "Dare. I'm not a pussy."

Cartman's lips curled into a smirk, "I dare you to take three consecutive shots of Jack. No breaks. No vomiting."

Kyle rolled his eyes, "That's ridiculously mean Cartman. He'll get sick! Don't do it Stan."

"Hey, his dumbass picked dare. That's all on him Kosher boy."

Kyle pretended to be pissed off at the nickname but said nothing.

Stan wordlessly poured three shots worth of his drink in a red solo cup and began drinking it.

Kyle whispered to Cartman, "He's going to get so drunk and it's going to be all your fault, fatass."

Stan shook his head and tried not to gag. He smiled. "So, my dare's done. Told you guys I would do it." He hiccupped.

Stan turned his now unfocused eyes towards Kyle, "I dare you to tell me the girl's name you like."

Kyle burst out laughing, "I didn't even pick dare, plus that's sort of cheating and doing a truth in a dare. That's breaking an understood rule."

"Fine, truth or dare, Kyle." Stan said, irritated Kyle hadn't been tricked so easily.

"I pick dare."

Stan grinned in a perverted fashion, "I dare you to take off Cartman's shirt."

Kyle walked over to him and began to pull at his shirt. "No, with your teeth." Stan added, using a fake innocent tone.

Kyle wasn't exactly sure how he managed to keep his face a normal color, but he succeeded in removing Cartman's shirt while keeping his blush under control. Kyle was extremely thankful of this as he took his place between Stan and Cartman, avoiding all eye contact with Cartman especially.

Stan looked confusedly from Cartman to Kyle. "That's quite strange." He mused aloud as Cartman quickly put his shirt back on muttering something along the lines of Stan's a fag.

"What?" Kyle asked. 'Shit had he blushed after all and Stan had noticed?'

"You two haven't fought all night, plus I thought for sure Cartman wouldn't let you do that. Just weird as hell." Stan was obviously drunk at this point, but his observation rang true.

Cartman made a biting comment, "The night ain't over yet, you know?"

Stan didn't respond. "You guys can finish the game. I'm going to sleep." He announced more to himself than the other two boys as he sprawled across the bed and began snoring.

Kyle finally turned to look at Cartman and the two burst out laughing. Kyle looked at the time, "3:00 AM?! Fuck! I need to go to bed soon. I have to study tomorrow."

Cartman didn't respond. "And it's too late for me to go home. My mom will flip her shit. I really don't want to sleep here at Token's either, not with having to deal with all these hungover people tomorrow."

"You can stay at my place."

Kyle continued to panic, "And Stan is already sleeping here. Shit. Shit. I was going to spend the night with him if the party ran late. Double Shit."

Cartman grabbed him roughly by the shoulder. He hated being ignored, "Shut up for a second Kyle and listen to me."

The redhead stopped freaking out and fell silent.

"I said you can stay at my place. Stan's a big boy; plus, it's not like Token or someone will bother him. We'll just lock the door up here and one of us can text him so he doesn't think we drove home drunk or something." Kyle's eyes widened at Cartman's insightful comment.

"You're a genius Cartman! But how are we going to get to your house?" Kyle worried again.

"We'll walk. Come on, I'll lead the way." Cartman offered as the two left Token's unnoticed by any of the others. He ignored the warm feeling he got at Kyle calling him a genius.

Kyle made sure he texted Stan before they left so he would see it in the morning.

As the two walked to Cartman's, Kyle struck up conversation, "I can't believe Stan's terrible luck. Poor Wendy, having to deal with Bebe's idiotic behavior. That's why you don't get shitfaced at parties."

Cartman grunted in response. The night air was kind of cold and it was making his side hurt a little bit as he tried to walk at the same pace as Kyle.

He stopped to catch his breath, clutching his side as he breathed quickly. "Are you okay Cartman?"

Kyle stopped worriedly looking in the direction of his friend. 'God that still sounded so foreign to him. Thinking of Cartman as a friend.'

"Yeah, *pant* just my side still fucking hurts from where that whore pushed me into that table."

Kyle walked beside him and slung Cartman's arm around his neck. The height difference made it a little bit awkward, but Kyle was still able to support some of his weight as Kyle and he continued to his house at the same slow pace.

By the time the two boys got to Cartman's, both were tired and cold. Kyle cast sidelong glances at Cartman as he quietly unlocked the door and stealthily went upstairs. Even in the minimal lighting, Kyle could tell Cartman was in more pain than he let on and his face looked pretty pale.

Cartman fell onto his bed as soon as the two reached his room. Kyle stared at him as he breathed unevenly. 'He knew, logically, he shouldn't be this worried, hell he shouldn't give two shits about Cartman. Oh well, fuck logic.'

He sat on the bed beside Cartman. "Hey" He shook his friend softly. "Are you sure you're okay? Do I need to go get your mom or something?"

Cartman's hazel eyes slowly opened and a smile graced his features, "Worried about me, eh?".

Kyle ignored his question and became authoritative, "Take your shirt off now and let me see."

Cartman blushed slightly, but with the light only from the bedside lamp Kyle didn't notice this. "Fine." He took his shirt off completely, looking everywhere but at Kyle.

The bruising hand spread up the left side of Cartman's side, his rib cage was completely purple. Kyle carefully rubbed his hand along Cartman's ribs. "I'm no doctor, Cartman, but I think she may have seriously hurt you."

He looked enraged, "No way did that bitch do any sort of thing." He coughed again, weakly.

Kyle asked him in a very matter of fact manner, "Does it hurt to breathe? And don't bother lying to me, if you do I'm telling your mom."

Cartman exhaled and nodded. "Seriously Kyle. I'm fucking fine. If you're so worried, sleep up here beside me so you can keep an eye on me. But don't go bother my mom; she did night shift tonight."

Kyle realized he had a point, "Maybe I will."

Kyle turned off the light and climbed into bed with Cartman. The silence between the two was incredibly awkward. Cartman spoke slightly above a whisper, "So what was Stan talking about during the game?"

Kyle feigned innocence, "What do you mean? He was drunk; it's late, let's just go to sleep."

"No, I want to know. Please, Kyle!" Cartman whined in that voice he had always used when he was younger to get his mom to give him whatever he wanted. Unfortunately, Kyle was secretly a sucker for that same voice.

"I really don't know what you mean." Kyle continued pretending to be ignorant.

"He said you liked someone and he asked who it was. So I want to know who it is." Cartman's heart was pounding painfully. Who was his competition for Kyle? Would it even be considered competition considering he probably would never work up the nerve to tell Kyle how he really felt?

Kyle reached out a hand, trying to pat Cartman on the shoulder, but instead touching his face. He withdrew his hand quickly. "Err, it's late, just go to sleep. I'm…really worried about you."

Kyle couldn't believe he had actually said that to Cartman. 'Just wow, seriously what the fuck' Kyle thought to himself.

"Tell me about her." Cartman said quietly.

"Okay, fine" Kyle snapped. He decided to use the pronoun she, 'considering that was as far as Stan knew and the person in question was his anti-Semitic ass.' "The person I like is stubborn. She's so fucking stubborn that she will do anything to get her way, morality be damned." Cartman thought he was finished, but he continued.

"She's pretty spiteful. The person I like seems to have a bone to pick with everything; she rarely if ever says anything nice and often insults people." Kyle smiled fondly.

Cartman closed his eyes. 'God did that ever sound familiar, wait, what the fuck? This person sounded like the female version of him.'

Kyle finished quietly, "The person I like has a soft caring side, but hates letting other people see it, for fear it will make her seem weak."

Cartman froze. Wow if he didn't know better, it sounded like Kyle had just described him, but there's no possible way Kyle liked him. Besides, Kyle had specifically said "she" and Stan had said "girl".

"Are you happy now?!"

Cartman continued to lay in bed, eyes closed, facing Kyle without saying a word. Kyle figured he was asleep. Feeling unbelievably bold, Kyle wrapped his arms around Cartman and squeezed him softly against his chest. He was just happy to get to be with the person he liked, hopefully Cartman hadn't figured out he had been talking about him.

Kyle was asleep in minutes. Wow, Cartman thought. This night had definitely ended much better than he would have thought. He drifted off to sleep not long after, pretending that what Kyle had said was indeed about him and just enjoying listening to the beat of the Jewish boy's heart.

A/N: I know I know! This was pretty mushy gushy. Blame the lack of recent canon Kyman for this chapter. Next chapter won't be because we're going to have quite a bit of drama llama in that one, but hopefully you guys didn't die from teh fluff, so tune in next time!