A/N: Onwards with Stan and Wendy
Enjoy~
Wendy watched Stan from behind her coffee cup, amazed at his appetite considering his situation as he scarfed down a stack of pancakes. "Slow down, Stan," she chuckled. "You don't wanna choke."
He looked up at her with a mouthful of food and tilted his head, "How do you know?"
"Ew," she crinkled her nose at his mannerisms and he snorted, swallowing down his food. "I'm pretty sure not many people want death by pancakes," she smirked, raising a thin brow at him.
He shrugged, "I dunno, I think that sounds like a pretty bitchin' way to die."
She laughed and shook her head, tracing her finger along the rim of her mug. She stared at him dreamily as he went back to devouring every syrup-soaked morsel he could find. She knew that what she did was wrong. She was more than aware that what she did was not okay in anyone's book...but she also knew she couldn't help herself. Stan was the one element in her life that made her lose her control, made it so all her logic was smashed away. One look of those dashing blue eyes made her melt into a quivering pile of nerves; they always had. She placed her chin into her palm, taking a small sip of her drink and her face twisted a bit, her mind trying to focus on whether or not the coffee she was enjoying was free-trade before it melted into their current circumstance. She growled quietly, fingers clutching around the porcelain in a vice grip.
She stared down at the table and furrowed her brow, thinking about what Bebe had said before she'd hung up on her. Bebe never talked to her like that. She'd never call someone something so awful without an actual reason, at least, not to their face. The two of them had made a pact years beforehand to never insult each other for matters of sex, knowing well enough that it could easily get out of hand. Apparently Wendy finally crossed that line.
"What's up?" Stan's voice piqued her back into reality. She looked up, finding him staring at her with a cocked brow, syrup on his chin. She snorted a bit, wiping her own face with her finger. He took the hint and chuckled, wiping off the sticky mess before looking back at her with those azure eyes and making her problems almost melt away. Almost. "You okay?" he asked.
She took a deep breath and shrugged, "Bebe and I had a fight this morning."
He ducked down sheepishly, "About us?"
She nodded. "Yeah. She thinks I'm a..." she paused and looked at him with questioning eyes. "Stan, I need to ask you something."
"Anything," he shrugged, pushing his empty plate out of the way and grabbing his own coffee.
She bit her glossed lip and cleared her throat, "Stan...am I just a...a rebound?" she winced.
He stared at her, bewildered before breaking into laughter. "Wends, who the fuck takes 'just a rebound' out to breakfast?" he rolled his eyes.
"Yeah but-" she stopped for a moment, her sharp mind whirring. She could take this one of two ways: Either she could stop now and just preserve their moment together without the drama, or she could push the envelope and see just how far Stan was willing to go with her. Only one way to find out. "Stan," she started back up. "You just broke up with Kyle yesterday. Don't you feel like it's...too soon for you to be back on the market?" she winced again.
His smile dropped and his eyes seemed to become shadowed at the mention of the redhead. "I'm sure he's already out sucking Kenny's dick, so I'm not too concerned."
Wendy's jaw dropped a bit and her eyes narrowed, rage beginning to percolate furiously in her stomach. "Is that why you wanted to sleep with me?" she hissed. "Because you think Kyle's out there doing the same thing you did?!"
He shook his head, "No. But thinking about it that way makes me feel better," he shrugged sheepishly. "Won't lie, I feel like a dick about finding someone else so quickly, but...like you said, it's not gonna work with us, so why just sit around? There's no perfect amount of time to wait before moving on, right?"
"Well it's probably more than seven hours," she cocked her brow. He shrugged again and she sighed, sipping her coffee tiredly. "Stan...I feel...bad."
"Why do you feel bad?" he asked.
She tucked her hair behind her ear, "Because it really isn't fair that we did this to Kyle."
He frowned, "Hey, Kyle has nothing to do with the two of us," he pointed between himself and her. "We were together long before Kyle and I became a thing."
"But you and he had a longer lasting relationship than us," she muttered, fiddling with her mug's handle. "We never made it seven months without breaking up..." she trailed off and looked off to the side, staring at the floor. Her heart was sinking. She pretty much just admitted that the two of them didn't work either. It filled her with that oh-so-familiar combination of depression and rage that seemed to hang around herself and Stan.
"Well...let's not let that happen this time," Stan said quietly.
Wendy shot her grey eyes back up at him in shock. "W-what?"
He shifted a bit and cleared his throat, "Why don't we actually work for it this time?" he suggested. "Wends, you and I do make a good couple. We're awesome when we're just like this, ya know?" She nodded slowly, her mouth trying to drop at his words before her mind shut it right back up. "Maybe I just need to learn to be more appreciative and you..." he stopped, biting his lip.
"What?" she cocked her brow suspiciously. "I need to what?"
He cleared his throat awkwardly and brushed his dark bangs out of his eyes. "Maybe you need to...not...freak out at...everything..." he dropped his eyes to the table, knowing that he just said the wrong thing.
Wendy's grip around her mug tightened and she gritted her teeth, sparks shooting through her gaze. "I need to not freak out?" she echoed, slamming her mug onto the table. "What about you?"
"What about me?" he finally met her eyes again and blinked.
She scoffed, leaning back and crossing her arms. "Mr. Kyle-is-out-sucking-Kenny's-dick is telling me not to overreact? Come the fuck on, Stanley."
He frowned and stared into his coffee cup bitterly. "Okay. So I have a fucking jealousy problem, okay? We've made this perfectly fucking clear. Can we drop it?"
"Not until you tell me one: why you have such a jealousy problem, and two: why you think I'm the only one who freaks out at everything!" she said through clenched teeth.
He sighed and shook his head. "You don't freak out at everything, I'm sorry that's not how I meant for it to come out. It's just...a lot of our break-up arguments started with you just yelling at me instead of telling me what the fuck you wanted like a normal person."
She opened her mouth to angrily retort before it slowly shut itself, her mind scanning through various memories of their fights. Seeing Stan standing there looking completely baffled at her screams, how he asked time and again what it was he'd done wrong...Oh shit. She groaned, rubbing her forehead, "Okay, yeah, I suck at not launching into a hissy fit and talking it out. At least...when it comes to you," she admitted softly. "I don't know, sometimes it just feels like we do work so well together that you can just read my mind...sometimes I forget that you're not that observant," she chuckled softly.
He smirked crookedly and sighed. "Yeah...I figured out this morning that I'm not," he chuckled humorlessly.
"Whaddya mean?" she cocked her head.
He shrugged a bit, taking a sip of his coffee. "You asked why I have a jealousy problem...well I figured out that I hate it because Kenny and Kyle work well together. I fucking hate that they could. I could see those two fuckers making it all the way to marriage and it just...it just pisses me off so goddamn much, ya know?" he winced.
She laughed a little in confusion, "What are you talking about, Stan?"
"When you left this morning..." he frowned and scratched his hair, "Before I came to get you...I was thinking about me and Ky. About how you told me I needed to be the one to talk to him, to save our friendship or whatever..."
"Right..." she nodded him on in encouragement.
"And I kept thinking about how you said I took him for granted and how I just...kinda expected him to be there...and you were right." He looked down at the table guiltily. "I kept thinking about all the times I got irritated when he wasn't just there after football practice. How it weirded me out so much when he wanted to take a break from doing our usual thing and wanting to be, uh..." he searched for the word.
"Spontaneous?" she guessed. He nodded and she chuckled, "Yeah, you do need to work on that. You're definitely a creature of habit, Stan Marsh."
He ducked down sheepishly, "Guess I am. I don't mean to be I just...get comfortable and don't wanna leave that area, ya know? I guess not everyone is as happy with habit as I am."
"There's nothing wrong with habitual behavior," she patted his hand a bit. "But sometimes you do need to break the mold. Now, what does that have to do with Kenny and him?"
Stan bit his lip, "Have...you ever watched the two of them talking?"
"Well I mean, not studying them or anything," she shrugged. "I've seen them but never sat and watched."
His eyes suddenly glazed a bit and she felt that tangle of pity beginning in her chest. "You know how we're talking now, focusing on each other but still drinking coffee or whatever?" She nodded, raising a confused brow. "Well when Kyle talks to Ken, Ken just shuts everything else down," he frowned. "Like, he could be on fucking fire and still wait for Kyle to finish. I never fucking noticed that, but he's always so fucking attentive to him...and Ky's the same way. He'll push away whatever he's doing and focus solely on you..." he paused and let out a deep breath. "And I realized that when Kyle and I talk, I'm always doing something else. I'll find something to do if I'm not distracted already. I'm playing video games or making paper footballs or fucking playing with a hoodie string," he grabbed his own and shook it pointedly. "I guess I just never...I don't even know," he groaned, rubbing his brow bone irritably.
Wendy stared at him a few moments before chuckling quietly, "Stan, you idiot," she shook her head. He looked up at her, seemingly hurt before she held up her hand to pause his thoughts. "You know Kyle well enough to know that he doesn't talk just for the hell of it. Why on Earth wouldn't you focus on him?"
He sighed, "I don't know. I guess you just get so used to-"
"No, no that's not it," she interrupted. "I think you were afraid of getting into a real conversation with him."
"What...whaddya mean?" he blinked.
She smiled gently at him, "You were afraid to make your relationship real."
"The fuck are you talking about?" he narrowed his eyes. "We were in a real relationship."
"Not to you," she tilted her mug at him before taking a sip. He stared at her in bewilderment and she shrugged. "What elements do you feel were added to how you and Kyle were when you started dating?" she questioned.
"Uh, sex for one thing. And...well I love him," he winced.
She shook her head, "No. You love best friend Kyle. Not boyfriend Kyle. I really fucking hate to ask this, but when you two had sex, how did it feel? Was it awkward or anything?"
He shook his head, "No. Which was weird because I thought it would be. But no, I think the sex was pretty great," he shrugged.
She nodded, "Lemme ask you this: Kyle was the one to put the moves on you, right?"
He smirked, "Yeah. First time he's ever done that with anyone," he beamed a little.
"Okay, how long had you had any kind of attraction to him before then?" she raised her brow. "And was it a 'I wanna fuck you' or a 'I want you to one day be my husband' kind of attraction?"
He paused, blinking rapidly. "Well...I'd always thought he was...cute I guess," he blushed a bit awkwardly. "Ya know, small things are my type," he winked at her and she smirked, rolling her eyes. "I'd say about two years before we started actually going out I started kinda gettin' a thing for him...but I never thought anything would actually happen..." he frowned.
"So you only fantasized about it in a sexual way," she concluded. "You never thought of the two of you having a future in any way besides being friends and maybe getting him to be a fuck buddy for awhile. So he came at you wanting the real deal and you just fell into it thinking that you'd just eventually get to that point, too."
He stared at her with wide blue eyes and tilted his head just slightly. "Jesus Christ when did youbecome a goddamn therapist?" he asked confusedly.
She chuckled and smiled at him, "I'm just observant. The same way that Kyle is," she reminded him. "I think he knew that you just weren't going to break your habits, you weren't going to open up to him as well as he opened up for you. Maybe that's why he kept around Kenny so much," she cringed a bit as his face fell guiltily again. "Maybe it was just subconsciously that he started getting closer to Kenny, who knows? But Kyle needs that in his life, and as a best friend, it's okay to just sit there and half-ass listen. But when it's a relationship, you need that person to be with you 100% or you start feeling like you just don't matter."
"So...this is all my fault," he frowned, staring back at the table.
She sighed, "Stan, no. Stop that. It's not all your fault...it's really barely either of yours. You two just were on two completely separate levels. Kyle wanted to hit a home run and you only wanted to take it to third. And that's okay. No, the way you two went about coming to your conclusion was not the right way to do it. But sitting and calmly talking it out would have had the same results, Stan."
Stan sat silently, nodding at her words. "It's so hard, ya know?" he whispered. "I feel like now if we do try to be friends again it's just going to be this weird-ass sexual tension or some shit."
She chuckled, "Maybe for you, but Kyle will have the emotional tension. At least for awhile. You both need to find someone to sate those particular needs and draw each other away from those elements."
"Well considering what you and I did last night I'd say I'm pretty set in my department," he smirked cockily.
Wendy rolled her eyes and groaned, "Yeah, I suppose so. But now Kyle needs to find the person to help him through what he needs. Who is..." she nodded at him expectantly.
"...Kenny," he sighed irritably. "Goddammit. How did I fucking know this was gonna happen?"
She smirked, "Hey, would you rather the two of them be together and you just be away and never involved and drift apart, or would you wanna be Kyle's best man?"
He winced and shuddered a bit, "I can not see Kenny McCormick settling down."
She burst into laughter and shook her head, "you're the one that said they could make it all the way, not me." He smiled sheepishly and she winked. "You two will be just fine. I promise."
His sheepish grin turned warm and she could feel her heart melting at the sight. "Wendy, it's really...really cool of you to be willing to talk about my ex with me," he chuckled. "Seriously, thanks...I'd probably just be drunk out of my goddamn mind right now if it weren't for you."
She waved dismissively, "Not a problem. I mean, as long as our relationship isn't nothing but me helping you through your ex drama, I'm happy to be a temporary therapist." She sighed and her mind flashed to her own issues, a frown crossing back over her face exhaustedly. Now if only she knew how to talk herself out of issues like that, she'd be set.
Stan grinned at her but it faded as he watched her shift uncomfortably. "Thinkin' about Bebe?" he asked.
She looked at him, astonished. "How the hell did-"
"Because whenever you and Bebe fight, you do that weird fidgety thing and tap your nails on you arm," he nodded.
She blinked before breaking into a soft smile, "Wow. I can't believe you can tell that."
"Well, you are also a creature of habit, Wendy Testaburger," he toasted his coffee mug towards her. She laughed a bit, nodding and he waited until she settled before he continued. "I...I think we both need to do something."
"Like what?" she asked.
He smiled at her crookedly, a sad glint over his eyes. "I think we both need to make some phone calls."
A/N: I am trying like goddamn hell not to make Stan seem like a complete jackass pffff. Damn me and my bias of Kyle. It keeps trying to lead me down a corrupted path /shakes fist
Thanks for R&Ring!