I think like most I do have a melancholiness when it comes to how Cartman's future was altered PC. Especially because he loved his wife and children in the original timeline. So him having a kid in this timeline I imagine would make for a good new found fatherhood of his.
And Kyle's kids are adorable in PC and him and Heidi are my OTP. XD
. . .
. .
.
Cartman's feet were sore from a whole day prior standing up with little to do in the shop. Thank god they finally gave him a chair when he'd been waiting on the CPS agent forever. In a relatively bland-walled office, he eyed the artwork she decorated her desk with as she went on about Lilah and Sasha's details. All thank you cards and drawings from kids the woman presumably worked with. Well, she had a good reputation at least.
He showed up in his day clothes when he wasn't working, that of a donated wrinkled and untucked brown button-down rolled at the cuffs and some blue jeans. A better step up from that red coat that barely kept him warm on the streets. It would continue to be his coat for the upcoming harsh winter unless he could somehow save his next cheque for something better.
With a kid suddenly in his hands, he could say goodbye to even buying a pack of darts.
"We understand your situation is precarious, but with your AA sponsor approving, we're willing to give you a chance."
His AA sponsor was an eternal-optimistic pain in the ass that gave Cartman pats on the back for not drinking beer for a week. If he was their source, that's on them.
"I can barely afford my place. There's no fucking way I'm paying for school."
"CPS and family welfare can aid in costings for the first year," the agent assured. "If she continues to stay with you she can become eligible for a scholarship. She has good grades as is."
Scholarships? This was not the shitty elementary school he remembered attending growing up.
"You have to be willing to get welfare, though. We know it hasn't been an easy decision for you, Mr. Cartman."
After a few choice words said to Kenny McCormick regarding his family being on welfare when they were young, Cartman couldn't give in by depending on it. He'd look like a cocksucker. Especially when working for his brother now.
"Whatever.."
"Is that an agreement?"
"Yeah, fine! Goddammit."
The agent drummed the file awkwardly. "I know this isn't what you had in mind, Mr. Cartman. But, try and make this better for your daughter. You're all she has."
And if Sasha screwed that all up, they sure as hell shouldn't have faith in him.
The smooth wheels of a futuristic car turned onto Main Street of the downtown South Park area. As a father at the wheel looked for his proper parking location on a relatively busy street with his son in the passenger seat beside him. With both feet propped up, Adam watched the local businesses he's recognized his whole short life pass by.
"I'm proud of you," Kyle insisted.
"Huh?" The boy had been numb in his imagination.
"I'm proud of you," his father repeated with a smile. "It's not easy getting up in front of that many people."
"Oh, yeah," Adam realized he meant the other night. It wasn't that big a deal, kids did presentations and other stuff like that all the time. It was a pretty succesfsul school when it came to encouraging kids to be active in social and academic extra-curriculars. He just hoped his dad wouldn't continue to make as big a deal of it.
Kyle wasn't blind to Adam being less enthused. He didn't have as much passion for debate club like he did the year prior. "Are you bored of it..?"
"No," Adam insisted blandly as he sat up, watching his father swerve the car into a tight parking space. "It's just not a big deal."
His dad would stop pushing. Maybe he was just reaching that age where the praise could be a little much. This new age Adam was crossing into put a bit of a challenge on their relationship. It was the tweeness that Kyle just didn't fully prepare himself for with his first born. It was different from when Adam was smaller and how inseperable him and Kyle once were.
As they hopped out of the parked car, Kyle came and held the door of the pharmacy for his son to step in first. Then following his dad begrudgingly on their Sunday errand when they barely started looking.
"Kyle? Kyle Brofvloski?"
Both Brofvloskis looked in the direction of the approaching willowy old man. A green hawaiian shirt hanging loosely off his body with a blue tweed cap barely covering his now hairless head. Within a second Kyle recognized him.
"Mr. Mackey!"
"I thought it was you." The old man assured, his cane supporting him as he carried a light shopping basket by him. "I almost thought I was going crazy thinking this young one was you."
Kyle chuckled in his son's direction who smiled politely. "You remember Mr. Mackey, don't you Ad?"
"Yes." Adam lied. Despite it being a small town, Adam couldn't keep track of every person from his dad's childhood he came across. "Hello."
"So, I've gotten onto that new Facebook Plus everyone is using, M'kay." Mackey suddenly mentioned. "I saw Heidi post about a speech your son here did."
Adam bit his tongue. He couldn't seem to escape it.
"He sure did," Kyle clutched his son's shoulder who hunched uncomfortably.
"Taking on your dad's and I's study, I see," Mackey nudged Adam slightly with his cane's tip. "Gonna be just like him."
Adam's eyes widened in internal fear as Kyle beamed. "One can only hope."
"You were always one of our best students," The old man insisted as they followed him down the aisle, seemingly joining in on an errand together. "Had a knack for seeing people, yeah. M'kay, and seems like it didn't stray far."
Kyle's smile was wide when Adam's was beared awkwardly.
Cartman pushed the apartment door for it to swing open as Lilah stood at the edge, staring within.
"It's not a moving floor, you gotta walk yourself in y'know," he commented. The little girl awkwardly stepped over the doormat, traveling into the open area of the bland living room and looking over at the island counter that separated it from the small kitchen. To her left behind the small TV a door to presumably the only bathroom and beyond the kitchen the bedroom. Maybe one for herself if she wished hard enough.
Lilah didn't say much despite the questions her father tried since seeing her. She was pretty quiet and always had been since she'd gotten older. Tuh, couldn't be his kid. They said very little otherwise in the car ride here and maybe that was a blessimg.
"You're taller."
The girl turned in the center of a room, looking very out of her element. It had been almost a year since she saw him last in a visit so she didn't know why he was surprised. She just nodded.
Cartman rolled his tongue in his cheek akwardly, throwing the single house key to the couch in a thud. "Well..c'mon."
She watched hin carry her suitcase of little essentials and followed with her backpack still clutched tightly in gripping fingers. Like it was her only life preserver amongst the waters occupied by a father she never cared enough to know. And vice versa.
There were two doors beyond the tiny space of the kitchen, and he opened the nearest. Showing an unused space within including a twin-bed mattress propped against the wall he got on a budget. And a whole lot of boxes of papers and untouched photos that he could've stole for all Lilah knew. She was lucky he had another room to offer at all since a two-bedroom was all community housing could offer him on the market. Most single rooms in the complex were taken up by deadbeat divorcees who had no chance to see their kids that beat Cartman to it.
"We'll move this stuff to my room. And get that mattress on the floor.." he muttered, going to unwillingly get to work.
She didn't think he'd have so much junk after being on-and-off the streets, attempting to peer into one.
"What is this..?" Was the first thing she asked.
Cartman lifted a heavy box. "Your problem if you don't start helping."
Putting away his socks and underwear in his top drawer, Heidi glanced over her at ger som every so often when he barely said a word. Flat on his stomack in his PJs with a vintage comic book in hand as he bore an endless stare into the colourful pages. While he couldn't be distracted when off in a superhero world he wished to be real life, an obvious dread occupied his eyes.
"Ad," Heidi tried. "You didn't talk much at dinner."
Even if it had been an exhausting weekend, a mother knew change in her kid when she saw it. He shrugged and remained unmoving from his mattress. Heidi closed his drawer and came to sit by his bedside.
"I know your father has been a little excited," Heidi sympathized. "He's just proud of you. But, you're not obliged to continue anything you don't want to."
Her eldest finally rolled onto his stomach, bundling his pillow under his chin. "I don't wanna hurt his feelings.."
"Daddy can handle it. I promise you." Heidi ran her fingers gently through those curls she loved.
Adam just stared blankly.
"Try and get some sleep," his mother assured, kissing him on the temple as she pulled his duvet over him. "Love you, bug."
"Love you, ma." Adam echoed, rolling onto his back once more and closing his eyes in an attempt to force the guilt away. Heidi flicked off the overhead and carefully left his bedroom to wander to her younger child's across the hall. Creaking the door open slightly to make sure Ella was passed out, which by the looks of her clutching her plush doll, like a light.
Her mother smiled softly, careful not to wake her as she tiptoed across to pull up her yellow covering over her daughter's shoulders and kiss her on the head. Sneaking out to get her own sleep while both kids were in for the night. She came to her own bedroom where her husband was already changed for sleep in his aqua blue pyjamas set, scrolling through his iPad Double Plus on his side of the bed.
"On a scale of one to ten, how bad does he hate me?"
"He doesn't hate you," Heidi laughed, hoisting her sweater over her head to change. She searched for her prefered nightshirt to sleep in amongst her drawers. "He's overwhelmed. You know that."
Kyle closed his tablet cover, realizing he was getting ahead of himself. "I was such a kiss-ass to my parents as a teen. I think Adam will do everything not to be."
Heidi pulled her pony out and unhooked her bra as the last thing she pulled out from underneath the baby blue night tee she now wore as she tossed her bra with her abandonned pants. Coming to sit by her husband's bedside.
"I'd consider that a good thing," she muttered in a kiss against his lips. "He could use a little rebelling."
Frustrated, Lilah attempt d to flattened out all four corners of her 'Hang in There' cat poster for the millionth time. Finding a nice plafe for it against the wall her mattress was cornered in opposite to the door of the small room. She'd been moving around her own touches for hours now trying to make it seem much less like a prison cell. With her drunkard piece-of-shit father sleeping next door, it was a prison.
She stick-tacked one cornee before the upper left she had just worked on popped off and rolled against itself. Groaning from spending far too long on this, she spread her whole torso and arms in an attempt to flatten it out with her body. Right as her dad came to her open door after running out for a few minutes.
With the added pressure, Cartman watched as the entire poster popped up and blanketed over his daughter who lost her balance as she fell to the mattress with a sad cat face smushing against her own. Lilah tossed it off to look at her father. She didn't think his errand would involve her as he stood there awkwardly with a to-go bag.
"Um," Cartman tried. "You like chicken nuggets?"
Lilah refrained from flattening her poster out again, sitting on her knees and just looking at her tangling fingers.
Her dad held out the McDonald's bag. "Sweet and Sour sauce."
The little girl didn't show any interest but politely nodded as if not trying to be rude to a stranger. Carman lowered the bag in an awkward tension as if he was poorly hosting a house guest he hardly knew.
"They didn't have Habanero," Cartman scoffed. "Fuckin' rip off. You think tax dollars would give back the bare minimum of some goddamn Habanero nugget sauce."
"I'm not hungry.."
He popped a nugget in his mouth. "You like Kraft Dinner?"
"I'm just not hungry."
He rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll leave it on the counter."
The girl looked up with a bit of regret. "Thank you.."
Confused why she was grateful at all, he just stared back. She didn't seem to care for him but seemed submissive enough to respect him as the adult in charge. That was good enough for Cartman.
"I don't wanna go to school.."
Cartman left her to her solitude. "Well, you take after me, there."
To be continued...