Chapter Text
Kenny had just settled himself on the floor-scrubber in the custodian’s closet when Butters stumbled in, locking the door behind him. Kenny had barely stopped to pee before getting over here as discreetly as possible. He trusted Butters to have paid the same amount of attention, and didn’t stress him out more by asking if he’d been followed.
(If the child of a strict household knew anything, they knew how to sneak.)
Kenny also didn’t bother sending out an engraved invitation to his arms. He just sat with them flung wide and waited patiently. He wasn’t waiting long; Butters practically knocked him over he’d thrown himself at Kenny so fast. He was kneeling on the floor-scrubber’s footrest, his face pressed to Kenny’s midsection, gasping horribly.
“Oof. There we go, Buttercup. Hey, hey, shhh. S’alright.” He’d wrapped his arms around Butters’ back, and was now stroking soothingly at the taller boy’s trembling muscles. “S’gonna be ohh-kay. You’re here now. I’m right here.” He leaned down to kiss Butters’ temple gently.
Butters just alternated between nearly hyperventilating and moving up to cry into Kenny’s shoulder for a few minutes while Kenny rubbed his back and made comforting noises. “Hey. Heeey now. It’s okay, it’s gonna be Ohh-kay.”
Butters’ tears were subsiding but his breathing was still a wreck and even Kenny was struggling to keep his composure at this point. “Oh-kay, ohh-kay. Listen, babe. Listen? Can you look at me for a second? Butters? Buttercup?” Butters’ gaze finally met Kenny, and his eyes were so wide and glazed that Kenny felt sick. He forced himself to sound calm. “You’re here now. They can’t find us here, okay? You’re here now.” Butters shivered under Kenny’s hands.
“Alright-” Kenny stroked a careful hand down Butters’ back. “Do you think you can do some breathing with me now, Butters?” Butters looked uncertain, his breath still making ragged sounds in the closet, but he nodded shakily. “Good!” said Kenny. “I want you to just look at me and match my breathing okay? Slow and steady, babe.”
“I-ah-I-” Butters was stuttering enough to be effectively mute, and being unable to vocalize the problem seemed to be winding him up even worse. Shit. There was no point in asking Butters what had happened while he was like this.
Kenny decided to go for plan “B”; Babbling about pleasant nonsense. “Hey! So, Karen drew a pretty nice picture the other day.” He kept one arm looped around Butters’ broad shoulders, and kept his other hand flitting between rubbing his back and stroking his hair.
Butters didn’t say anything, just clutched at Kenny tightly, which is pretty much all Kenny expected right now.
“She wants me to snap it with my phone to show you she’s been practicing,” he continued. “She said she’s never had anyone teach her art ‘as good as Butters did’.”
There was nothing but a sniffling, hiccup-y noise in response, but Butters’ breathing was starting to sound more natural, so Kenny felt encouraged. He rubbed Butters back muscles a little more firmly, feeling them start to loosen under the attention.
“She said that she knows she still has to practice a lot more, but that art is also her highest grade right now, and she’s really enjoying it a lot because you already showed her so much last year.”
Butters sighed softly and he moved up a little to nuzzle at Kenny’s shoulder. “I.” He paused, swallowing and clearing his throat. “I’m r-real g-glad about that Ken. Karen’s a g-good girl.”
Kenny let out a slow sigh of relief. Verbal again already- a good sign.
“She sure is, Buttercup. And she likes spending time with us a lot! She told me that you’re her favorite out of allll my friends. She told me that I should ‘have Butters over more’.”
Kenny felt Butters smile against his shoulder. “Aw. T-that’s real sweet, Ken.”
Kenny grinned and kissed Butters’ temple. “To be fair, you’re the only one who pays her any special attention.”
Butters laughed a little, his back rumbling under Kenny’s hands. “W-well I’m real happy about it anyway, Ken. I-I think it would be real nice if your family likes me.”
“What’s not to like?” said Kenny. He squeezed his arms around Butters briefly, and then let them resume a looser hold. “You’re like a cake made of sunshine.”
Butters laughed again and kissed Kenny’s cheek. Kenny let things lapse into comfortable silence for a few minutes, just concentrating on stroking Butters’ back muscles and keeping an ear trained on the hall outside. So far so good- no one had ventured down this way in a long while. Finally, he felt it might be safe to broach the subject that had required this secretive meet-up in the first place.
“You feeling okay now, Butters?” he asked. Butters must have been so tired that he was on the verge of nodding off, because even though kneeling couldn’t have been comfortable, he jerked suddenly awake. Kenny had to move his head back swiftly to avoid getting head-butted. Just what we’d need. He drives my nose into my skull, I die, and he gets MORE traumatized by being locked in a closet with his dead boyfriend. NOT TODAY, THANKS.
“Y-yeah, Ken. I’m alright, I guess.” Oh God, it should be criminal to sound that sleepy and adorable. Kenny shook himself off mentally.
“Do you feel calm enough to tell me what happened, or should we save that for another time?” A dark look crossed Butters’ face, and Kenny regretted that once again, he had to hurt him by making him remember upsetting things.
“I-I. I missed class,” said Butters slowly, a look of tight concentration on his face.
“You sure did, baby.” Kenny said. “I was worried sick.”
Butters looked up at him, stricken “Aw, Kenny, I’m s-sorry!”
Kenny winced. Shit. He shook his head exaggeratedly. “Hey. Don’t apologize to me, Beautiful, apologize to Mr. Shirt.” Kenny held up the sodden shirtsleeve he’d been biting when Butters was gone. Butters gawked, reaching behind himself as if to check for a wet spot on his back.
“EWW. Kenny! Were you c-chewin’ that?” He pulled a face.
Kenny muffled a laugh behind his other sleeve. He leaned in and kissed Butters temple “Just because I was so nervous. If I didn’t, I woulda been biting my actual hands.”
“Oh,” said Butters with an uneasy expression. “S-sorry!”
Kenny shook his head again. “Never mind that- what happened, big guy?”
Butters froze. “O-oh. Right.” He looked away miserably. There was silence for a moment, and Butters started to shiver again. When he spoke next, his voice was a strained whisper.
“I- um. I g-got called to see Mr. Thoms, Ken.” He shivers shook him fiercely, and buried his face in Kenny’s shoulder again.
FUCK.
Kenny’s heart started to pound wildly. “Oh shit baby. I’m so sorry.” Kenny rocked him gently and whispered more soothing nothings.
But no wonder he’s a wreck Kenny thought, grim and furious with himself and the world.
Mr. Thoms was the school official that Kenny, Wendy and Bebe had been gathering intel about. They wanted to get him fired (or if enough unsavory things came to light, arrested.)
A sanctimonious man, Thoms liked nothing better than handing out dress code violations to girls for wardrobe offenses; the kind that only someone really looking would have noticed. He simultaneously preached abstinence, and told filthy jokes if only boys were present— then got childishly offended if none of the boys laughed. He was, as Stan put it “the worst kind of Melvin. He says worse things and tries harder than my Dad.”
Wendy had a long standing feud with Thoms because he had tried (unsuccessfully) to block her from starting up the school’s GSA when they were freshmen, and had often used his power at the school to make her life difficult. She, “Mysterion”, and Kenny had been gathering evidence about his bad behavior since the previous year. Their plan was to bring absolute proof before the principal and the school board that, in the very least, he was unfit to work in a school.
Kenny’s alliance with Wendy and Bebe had started one day last year when he was trying to get a snack. While Kenny’d been trying to make the vending machine accept his wrinkly dollar so he could get some Bugles, he had overheard Wendy telling Bebe about Thoms. She was leaning against a wall behind him, near the girls’ lavs.
“It’s not SAFE with him around,” Wendy whispered tearfully. “And not just for us! Do you know he tried to tell Kevin’s parents that Mr. Spock was the devil, and that Star Trek was going to ‘lead their son to evil’?”
Bebe had been resting her hip on the wall next to her and blocking Wendy’s distress from the students passing in the hall. At hearing that, she switched positions to put her arm around Wendy’s shoulder and leaned in closer. “C’mon, the Stoleys didn’t believe that shit, did they?”
Wendy scoffed softly, looking away. Bebe grinned. “Didn’t think so.” She squeezed Wendy’s arm bracingly.
“But that’s not even all of it!” Wendy hissed, her fingers scrabbling to bunch up on Bebe’s sleeve. “I overheard him telling one of the teachers (who was trying to walk away as fast as they could, mind you!) that the reason Jimmy’s that way is because his parents are sinners.”
Wendy was breathing hard to the point of hyperventilation by now, apparently fueled entirely by her fury. “That man should NEVER BE near children. Or people at all! He’s DISGUSTING!” She had been whispering all of this so fast and angrily that Kenny thought he must have misheard her.
He didn’t want to admit he’d been eavesdropping, but holy shit, he also didn’t want to think a dangerous fuckhead like that was someone who had power over them in this school. He took a few steps backward, past the people traveling by, and into the alcove by the girls’ room.
“Hey, Wendy? Sorry, but I couldn’t help hearing. Did he really say that fucked up disgusting bullshit about Jimmy?”
Wendy looked taken aback for a second at the unexpected intrusion, but her expression cleared when Bebe’s hand steadied at her arm. She squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye.
“Yes, Kenny, he did. And a good deal more, about a LOT people. That’s one of the worst examples, but it’s not even the only thing he’s said about Jimmy, never mind all the things about other students. Craig is the one that overheard that one, if you can imagine, and you know he’s not one to start drama with lies.”
Her mouth twisted up tight. “Craig doesn’t even usually talk to me, but he made a point to catch me in the parking lot afterschool to tell me about it. He says he wants my help for revenge.” A vaguely pleased look crossed her face. “He said he remembered my success at cutting through people’s bullshit in elementary school.”
The satisfaction in her eyes leeched away, replaced by sadness. “That, and he said that bringing his guys into it would mean explaining why he wanted to bring the bastard down. He said that even though Jimmy can take care of himself, he still never wants him to find out what that evil piece of shit has been saying about him.”
Wendy looked on the edge of furious tears. “And I don’t blame him! It’s bad enough that administration ignores this guy’s clear "anti-anything-but-straight" bigotry, but making up “moral” shit about disabled kids? That’s a whole other kind of fucked up.” Her eyes were nearly aflame with righteous rage. “And if I find out that the people running this school know he’s like this and have just been endangering us by letting it SLIDE-!”
Bebe clapped a hand over Wendy’s mouth and looked at her in alarm. “Keep it down, Wends!” she said, and her eyes scanned the people nearest them. Thankfully it was all students and none of them seemed to be paying attention.
Wendy seemed startled, still breathing hard, but she closed her eyes and let her face slide down in Bebe’s hand until her forehead was resting in her girlfriend’s palm. Bebe brought her other hand up to stroke through Wendy’s dark hair; but Kenny saw that while her hands were gentle, her eyes were steel. While Bebe tried to soothe Wendy’s frayed patience, she was still keeping an assessing, vigilant eye on the people passing them in the hallway.
Jesus, Kenny thought dazedly, half admiring Bebe’s fierceness, and half sick over why it was necessary. She’s so on edge you’d think we were in a corrupt jailhouse instead of a school. He bit at the inside of his cheek, his thoughts swirling. The worst is, as long as that guy’s around, she’s not far off the fucking mark.
Kenny was dizzy with what he’d just heard. He had known that the school counselor was no Mr. Mackey, but he’d also never guessed that the guy most of the girls had labeled “The Creep” was this bad. Guess the nickname was no exaggeration. This is what you get for keeping your head down, idiot.
As a McCormick, you learned fast and you learned the hard way that people “in charge” of anything were probably bad news for you- so Kenny had been too caught up with avoiding administration to really look into the miserable whispers he heard around school. Now he felt fucking queasy thinking about how many innocent people a tyrant like that could hurt with the sort of power and influence they had in a school system. He could recommend expelling or putting away someone who was perfectly fine or hadn’t done anything wrong- he could ruin lives.
Well. Not on Kenny’s fuckin’ watch if he could help it. Not one more kid at this school if he had any say. For God’s sake, his little sister would be coming through these freaking halls in a few years. Even though in reality it was stowed away behind some nasty gym clothes in his locker, Kenny could practically feel his cape fluttering against the backs of his legs.
“Wendy?”
Wendy was still breathing rough and seemed to intentionally take a few extra seconds pulling back from Bebe’s hands. When she met his eyes again, the anger was still there, but useful and sharp instead of erratic. “Yes, Kenny?”
He nodded to her solemnly. “If there’s anything I or” he leaned in to whisper, “Mysterion,” and he leaned back, “can do to help? We want to. Say the word. Seriously.”
A jagged little smile flashed over Wendy’s expression. It made the anger in her eyes look brighter, somehow. Almost gleeful. “Count on it.” She looked at Bebe, who offered Wendy a gentler smile and a firm nod. Then she looked back to Kenny with an appraising air. Kenny could swear he heard the gears in her head turning. “You’ll be hearing from us.”
Ever since then, Wendy, Bebe and Kenny had been gathering evidence of all the shit that Thoms been saying and doing over the years. It was slow going because schools didn’t like to advertise when one of their employees had been up to bad business. The three of them knew they were on the right track, however, by observing Thoms’ behavior around parents and other school officials in town. Kenny had been lurking as Mysterion around the school during meetings, and occasionally listening at Thoms’ house windows.
Thoms wasn’t the only horrible person in this hick town, and it was clear that he knew it. The piece of shit had begun specifically trying to ingratiate himself with the parents and other officials who seemed the most likely to share his views. He was kissing ass and whispering secrets among the worst people their town offered, hoping to save himself from future trouble by currying favor.
Wendy said she suspected it was because he’d been kicked out of school districts before.
Back in the present, Kenny’s mind was racing. “What did he say he was calling you in for?” he said, a disturbed feeling stirring his guts and itching at the edge of his thoughts.
Butters shivered in Kenny’s arms again, rubbing his face against his chest like he was trying to climb into Kenny’s clothes. He sniffled, and was silent for so long Kenny thought that might be the end of the matter for today, until he heard a raspy whisper against his dampened shirtfront.
“H-he said he was pleased to see that I’ve g-grown up some, and that I’m n-not such a p-pussy no more.” Butters cleared his throat a little, and the sound reminded Kenny that this distress on top of not eating or sleeping right was probably fucking up Butters’ immune system. Vitamin C. Gotta ask the ladies to really push the vitamins.
“B-but he said that just cause I’m b-bigger and stronger now, that doesn’t mean I can t-throw my weight a-around and h-hurt or s-scare people.”
Kenny’s mouth fell swiftly, audibly open. “He SAID that? Has he ever MET you?”
Butters’ mouth twisted and he shrugged. “He did say that, yeah, Ken. I-I mean, I know I’m not p-perfect. I can be a-a little asshole sometimes but-”
“But not like THAT,” said Kenny irritably. “Not violent. Where the fuck is he getting this shit from?”
Butters shrugged again. “I don’t know, buddy. I’ve never even been to his office before.”
Kenny frowned. “That’s weird. Just…fucking weird.” Butters nodded.
“It is a-a little, yeah.” His eyes were drooping shut even as he spoke though, a combination of no food and emotional stress clearly dragging him down. Kenny wondered again if he’d been getting any rest.
“Hey, Buttercup?”
“Mhmm?”
“Have you been sleeping?”
Frown lines appeared between Butters’ eyebrows. “Not...not real well, no. I h-had” he yawned, nuzzled into Kenny’s shirt again “nightmares.” He grabbed at handfuls of Kenny’s shirt to anchor himself closer.
Kenny sighed, adding extra strength to the hand keeping Butters against his chest and petting the other through his boyfriend’s hair, paying the usual extra attention to Butters’ temples. “I’m not surprised at all.” He paused and tugged his cell phone out of his pocket for a second, glancing at the screen.
“Tell you what- we have maybe 20 minutes before we have to be anywhere- why don’t you nap for 15, and then I’ll tell you more about the plan me and the other girls have come up with so I can visit? Does that sound good?”
Butters opened one eye and looked up. “T-the nap part does. But I don’t know about this other plan, Ken.” He bit his bottom lip a little, blinking up sleepily.
Kenny sighed. “What bothers you, babe? The lying to your parents? Or-?”
“Aw Ken, I’ve had to lie to those a-assholes my whole life. I-i just don’t know if they’ll FALL for this one. I-I mean, you’re real good at changing your looks with make-up, but your girl-name is just 'Princess', and I bet my parents would f-find that real suspicious-”
Kenny, relieved, burst out laughing. Butters’ eyes, (still focused on Kenny's face) crossed a little as his head bopped against Kenny’s chest while it shook with mirth. “Is THAT why you think it wouldn’t work? The name thing?” Butters nodded unhappily, his cheek rubbing against Kenny’s shirt.
Kenny sighed with relief. “So we’ll just call me a different name. I don’t know. Kelsey. Just. I can deal with being called the wrong name for this, okay babe?” he smiled encouragingly. “It’s like a spy mission! Okay? And even if it’s not right, if it’s something close to ‘Kenny’, it will help if one of us slips up, ok?”
Butters’ drowsy face looked like it was trying to understand this idea, but not quite making it.
“Why don’t you sleep on it, alright? And when you wake up, I’ll tell you what the other girls and I’ve cooked up.”
Butters shivered a little, but nodded, clearly beyond exhaustion. He pressed his face to Kenny’s shoulder, and under his boyfriend’s gentle hands, he finally relaxed enough to fall asleep.
And while he slept, Kenny’s mind raced over the past few hours.
He didn’t like what he found.
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell Butters yet, but he thought he’d found their rat. Mole. Rodent, whatever. Only one person had reacted badly to Butters’ new height. Only. One. And Kenny didn’t think it was a coincidence that the day that person got back to school, Butters ended up in the counselor’s office.
Kenny was calling bullshit.
And maybe, later tonight, Kenny would call on an old friend. There in the janitor’s closet, holding his weary, traumatized boyfriend, Kenny shook with rage. Eric, you fucking asshole. What did you DO?