Landscapes Painted in Orange Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/15309393. Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Fandom: South Park Relationship: Kyle Broflovski/Kenny McCormick Character: Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, Stan Marsh Additional Tags: sp k2 week, Growing Up, Falling In Love Language: English Stats: Published: 2018-07-23 Completed: 2018-07-29 Chapters: 7/7 Words: 15636 Landscapes Painted in Orange by panaceaa Summary In the pursuit of freedom and a better life, Kyle dreams of running away while Kenny escapes by drawing everything that exists within his wildest imagination. Put them together and you have one big dream that can only be truly understood between the two of them. Playing Chapter Notes See the end of the chapter for notes -Age 10- The sun is setting over Stark’s Pond. The sky is bathed in a deep orange, a color so striking that it takes Kyle’s breath away. It reflects off the surface of the lake, all multicolored shades with a burst of light landing dead center. Little rivulets of water morphing the sky into something distorted yet beautiful. Sitting beyond the flat surface of the lake’s water lies the line of trees blocking the rest of the world from sight. A horizon hidden beyond nature’s giants. Green leafed canopies enveloping whatever the light was unable to reach in shadow. “Dude, what the hell are you looking at?” Kyle shakes his head. “Nothing,” he tells him, turning away from the lake and all that lies beyond it. Stan gives him an odd look, but doesn’t press. From the distance, Kyle can make out the forms of Cartman and Butters walking over to meet them; Butters in his paladin costume and Cartman in his wizard outfit. Instinctively, Kyle reaches up and adjusts his branch crown, thoughts immediately flying to his own costume. That is until another thought strikes him. Looking at their little ragtag group, Kyle watches as Cartman and Stan exchange quips as to the reason why they’d had to wait at the pond so long for him and Butters to show up. Kyle would be inclined to join Stan, except for the fact he was just happy to have had an excuse to be away from his house and annoying parents for a bit longer. Butters hovers over to the side with a distinct guilty expression, as if it was his fault that the fatass was a giant asshole. But none of that is what caught his attention. Instead, Kyle’s gaze flickers to the side, looking to a spot that should have been filled with their orange blob of a friend. “Where’s Kenny?” He asks them. Stan and Cartman immediately stop their bickering, and everyone looks at Kyle as if surprised at his question like they hadn’t even noticed, or possibly hadn’t found Kenny’s absence all that unusual in the first place. When was the last time Kenny had hung out with them? Butters speaks up first. “Aw gee I dunno,” he says, guilty expression still plastered across his face, “it sure has been a while since he went and played with us, huh?” With a roll of his eyes, Cartman immediately replies, “Kinny’s probably just busy begging for more food stamps.” “Quiet, Cartman!” At his words Cartman immediately focuses his glare on Kyle, but before he can start yet another fight, Stan speaks up. “Dude, we need a princess.” Kyle and Butters both nod in agreement. After all, you couldn’t have two warring kingdoms and no princess. All the cool medieval stories had at least one. Cartman makes a face before shooting a pointed look in Butters’ direction. “Butters, you’re the princess now.” “Well gee Eric, but I thought I was the paladin?” Likely knowing the idiotic argument that was about to start, Stan pinches the bridge of his nose and quickly says, “Can’t someone just go find Kenny and tell him to get his ass over here?” They all look at each other. Kenny’s house was all the way on the other side of town and the snow was annoyingly deep this time of year. Trudging their way to Stark's Pond in the first place was exhausting, which now that he thought of it probably explained why the fatass took so long getting there. “Can’t we just text him?” Kyle asks. “His parents couldn’t afford the phone bill,” Stan answers him. “Remember?” “Oh yeah.” Kyle turns to Cartman. “You could use the exercise fatass, you go get him.” “Screw you, Kahl!” “Fellas,” Butters pipes up, “maybe the princess needs rescuin’ and one of us should go and save her. Maybe she’ll even give one of us a kiss!” For a moment everyone is silent as they stare at him. “Goddammit Butters,” Cartman eventually mutters under his breath. Leave it to Butters to make playing fantasy totally gay. “Forget it,” Kyle says dryly, suddenly finding this discussion a giant waste of time. “I’m just gonna go.” “But Kyle, you’re the king-” “Nope, too late.” Kyle cuts Butters off as he spins on his heel away from his friends. “Already going.” And with that Kyle begins making his way across town towards the McCormick household, trudging onward as his feet crunch on the snow that drenched the world in stark white. As his friends and Stark's Pond fade into the distance, he shivers against the slight chill in the winter air and pulls his robe a bit tighter around him. He never really did like winter, it was always freezing and the snow was only fun for so long before it got old. As he walks his mind starts drifting places. Staring down at his robe and costumed feet, it’s not long before he finds himself pretending that he’s a lost king journeying across the land. Steps sinking into the snow and taking him across an arctic wasteland that would lead him to sights previously unknown. A grand and epic journey. And at the end of that journey was... He stops and stares across the tracks at the McCormick house, the trek across town apparently not being as bad as he had previously thought. ...Kenny? He scoffs. Butters just had to go and put stupid ideas in his head. With a shake of his head as if to clear it, he makes his way towards the tracks. The very same tracks that he could always see from his bedroom window. They stood out harshly against the white blanket of snow, serving as a kind of divide that separated his side of town with Kenny’s side. He curls his nose up as he steps over it. Once he reaches the McCormick house, he gives the old beat up door a few knocks before stepping back to wait. Kenny’s mom answers the door not a moment later. “Is Kenny home?” Kyle asks immediately upon seeing her. “Yeah, he’s innis' room.” She opens the door wider in a clear invitation for Kyle to come in, which he quickly does. Walking through the door and getting a full view of the place the McCormick’s called home. For as long as he could remember, the McCormick house had always been a bit of a falling apart mess of a place. Some might not even consider it a house really. It had four walls, and a ceiling, but there were so many giant holes dispersed within both that the place was no warmer than the air outside. It was no wonder really that Kenny had gotten used to wearing his parka indoors. At least there was a break in the constant wind, that was at least something. With a quick polite smile aimed at Mrs.McCormick, Kyle makes his way through the house towards Kenny’s room. However, the moment he reaches his friend’s open door his steps immediately falter to a stop at the sight before him. He stands there frozen, blinking in surprise. Kenny’s laying across his bedroom floor with a box of crayons and a small stack of paper. He’s in the middle of drawing some sort of scenery when he seems to finally register the presence of someone gawking at his door, and looks up to see Kyle. For a moment, Kenny seems slightly embarrassed at having been caught, hand stopping its motion and stiffening as if afraid Kyle might laugh. But when the redhead doesn’t immediately break out into laughter, he just reaches up to tighten the strings of his parka’s hood and mutters a muffled, “Hey, dude.” Then he goes back to drawing. It takes Kyle a few moments to get past his initial surprise before he can speak. He’s not really even sure why finding Kenny like this leaves him so shaken. It was likely a correlation between his ultimate assumption that he had everything in the world figured out, especially his simplistic seeming orange parka wearing friend who liked to follow them around and giggle over dirty jokes. Or maybe it had something to do with Kenny’s immediate reaction, as if he was doing something strangely private that he would never tell anyone about. “I didn’t know you liked to draw,” he manages after a moment. Kenny shrugs without looking up at him. Slowly, Kyle enters the room in order to get a clearer view of his picture. He’s greeted by the sight of a landscape. The top of the page colored in shades of bright orange, while the bottom half was an array of darker blue hues. A lake and a sunset. A scene that is stunningly close to the view Kyle had been admiring earlier. Something twists within his gut that he can’t quite identify and he swallows thickly. Meanwhile, Kenny is rigid as Kyle stands hovering over him. He looks up at Kyle a bit strangely. “Did you uh, need something?” He asks, not unkindly; although, a bit of apprehension slips into his muffled tone. “Oh, right.” Kyle does his best to shake himself out of it and keep his tone casual as he goes to say the real reason he was there. “We’re playing fantasy again and we need you to be the princess.” Kenny looks at him for a few more moments before he turns his head back towards his drawing. “Nuh-uh.” “What? Why not?” “Don’t really feel like playing.” His tone is quiet yet resolved. Shoulders hunching a tiny amount and avoiding his eyes. “Oh,” Kyle says quietly. And with that, Kyle settles down on the floor beside him. Kenny seems surprised at his action, but doesn’t say anything. Just returns to adding a slightly darker shade of orange into the sky. Peering even closer at the paper, Kyle notices little nuances of detail that couldn’t be seen from a distance. Puffs of white snow lining the lake, and little streaks of shading. Shadows interlaced within the bigger picture, hidden under the much more prevalent orange sky. “You’re a really good artist, dude.” Kenny freezes before looking up at him as if stunned, and for a moment Kyle swears he sees a faint flush of color on his cheeks. But that wouldn’t make sense. Kenny never blushed. “Thanks,” he says quietly, muffled voice almost getting drowned out within the fabric of his parka. “Do you draw a lot?” Kenny nods. “Yeah.” He stops there, looking as if he had more to say but wasn’t sure if Kyle would want to hear it. Or maybe he was just waiting for the moment Kyle would finally grow bored and leave. He doesn’t. And after the two fall into a comfortable silence for a bit, Kenny finally speaks again. “It’s like...an escape,” he explains, tone just as soft as it had been before, to the point that Kyle has to lean in a little closer just to make out his words. “This town sucks most of the time, but it’s nice to think that there’s something better out there. Perfect worlds and all that. When drawing, you can put that down on paper and make it a bit more than imaginary.” Kyle sits there stunned. The words resonating with something deep within him, something he’d never known how to voice or put into words. Swallowing a lump in his throat he asks, “Can you show me more of them?” Kenny seems to hesitate for a moment, meeting Kyle’s eyes as if searching for something. Sky blue meeting unwavering green. Whatever he’s looking for he must find, because a moment later he gives a quick nod and rises to his feet. Kyle watches as he digs around in his closet before finally pulling out a stack of papers that had been hidden under what looked like a pile of clothes. Without a word, Kenny brings them over and hands them to Kyle before sitting back down on the ground beside him. He watches as Kyle immediately begins slowly flipping through the pile of pictures in silence. It’s something like peering into his soul. Something so indescribably sad and beautiful that it takes Kyle’s breath away. There are drawings of flowers and princesses sitting high up in castles, intermingled with pictures of shadows standing among angels and blood covered sidewalks. Somewhere down the line, Kyle’s eyes grow blurry with tears and he’s not even really sure why. “Kenny, these are beautiful,” he chokes. His words must be the right thing to say because Kenny’s eyes light up in a way that suggests that he’s smiling. “Thanks,” he tells him. Kyle finally stops flipping through the pile and takes a moment to blink away tears, thankful that Kenny doesn’t comment on it. He looks over at him and softly asks, “Why didn’t you ever say anything?” Kenny hesitates. “I don’t let people know me.” He says eventually, sneaking a glance at him through blond lashes. “But if they’d stick around I’m sure they’d figure something out.” For the first time since the initial shock of seeing him drawing, Kyle is struck with the thought that maybe he’d never really known Kenny McCormick at all. That maybe no one did. That maybe this moment, right here, marked the first time he’d ever let a part of himself be seen. “Is that what this is?” Kyle voices, looking back down at the pile of drawings still sitting in his lap. Kenny just gives a small shrug. “Maybe.” “Do you have any more?” At his question he’s rewarded with the rise of his cheeks speaking of a hidden smile, even as Kenny shakes his head.“That’s all I have,” he tells him almost regretfully. Although a moment later his eyes light up with something that might be hope. “But if you want to come over in a day or two I might have some more done.” “Okay,” Kyle says, quickly and without an ounce of hesitation, and the beaming look he gets in response is one of the brightest he’s ever seen. From the window behind Kenny’s head, Kyle can see that the orange of the sky is beginning to fade into the first signs of night. His smile slightly falls. “I should probably get back to the guys.” Kenny nods in understanding. And so, after standing and gently placing the pile of drawings on the ground in front of him, Kyle goes to leave. He’s stopped by a muffled voice. “Wait, Kyle!” Kyle turns to see Kenny hurrying to his feet behind him. At his confused look, the blond offers him a wink of a single sparkling blue eye and says, “Just give me a minute to put on my dress.” Chapter End Notes So this is my contribution to K2 week, which means that each chapter will be following the day's theme and I will be updating every day until it's complete. That being said, these will not be stand-alone oneshots and will be following a continuous plotline :) Rebel -Age 12- It’s a long trip out his widow and down the side of his house. When he’d planned it all out in his head it had seemed easy enough, yet under the cover of darkness and with no prior experience of breaking out of his room, getting down is a bit harder than he’d anticipated. What results is a few muttered curses, a banged elbow, and one near-death experience. Still, he manages it. And afterward, chest heaving and standing under the stars, Kyle looks back at his house with a proud little smirk adorning his features. The windows are all still dark, a sure sign that everyone was still sleeping, and thus the first step of his escape was a complete success. Adjusting the strap of his pack, he turns away from his house and begins making his way down the street without looking back. He still has a good fifty minutes before the bus would make its first stop of the day, so he’s really not in any particular rush. So he keeps his steps casual and measured, knowing that should anyone spot him they’d be less concerned about some kid who looked to be on a casual stroll then they would be if they’d seen one practically running through the streets while constantly glancing over his shoulder. At least that’s what he figured. In truth, he hadn’t really thought much of this through. It’d been a split second decision, a rebellious thought that’s stricken him in a moment of passion and anger only earlier that night. He was just tired of it all. Tired of his parents trying to tell him that everything he wanted was wrong while they attempted to mold him into who they wanted him to be. A million things he couldn’t do, wasn’t allowed to do. Caught within the net of expectations, even with as young as he was. “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” Well fine, if he was such a damn hassle then he’d just go and leave. Live life on his own terms. The ultimate rebellion. Vanishing in the dead of night. It was what he always wanted anyway. The thought had never once left his mind. The horizon seeming to call to him, speaking of freedom and escape from this shitty town. The world was a massive place, and he wanted to see it all. Not wanting to have to sit at the bus stop for nearly an hour, Kyle ends up making a stop at the park. Settling in on the bench that overlooked the empty playground and removing his heavy pack with a sigh. It’d been years since he had been to the playground, and in the dead of night the pirate ship loomed before him both in nostalgic memory and in a representation of a million possibilities. Pirates were types of travelers, weren’t they? Maybe Ike had a point with all his wanting to be one a few years ago. A thousand undiscovered islands, nothing but the open sea for miles and miles. Must have been nice. In truth, although he’d gotten the logistics of it, Kyle still hadn’t thought too much about where he would even go. The bus would be here in forty minutes, and then what? His first destination would probably be Denver, big city and all that. Once he got there he could probably figure things out. He had his birthday money he’d been saving up, almost two hundred dollars, which probably had to be enough to get him started. Maybe he could be like the great travelers, and just start walking. Seeing the world for all that it was and... His thoughts are cut short as he catches sight of a familiar orange parka- wearing boy making his way over to him. Kyle has no idea what Kenny is doing out at approximately five in the morning, but he supposes he had always been one to march to the beat of his own drum. A part of him was always enveloped in that little bit of mystery, no matter how much closer the two of them had drifted since they had shared in their appreciation of art and of a better world. “Hey, Ky,” Kenny’s muffled voice greets him as he crooks his head to the side, “what are you doing out this early?” “I’m running away.” He’d left notes for everyone in his bedroom, but he figured that out of everyone, Kenny would understand. He wouldn’t rat him out. Not that he could ever get away with lying to Kenny anyway. “Oh,” Kenny says simply in response. He looks at Kyle for a moment, blue eyes inspecting him in that knowledgeable way of his, as if he could see right through him. And then he moves to hop up on the bench beside him. “Why do you want to run away?” He asks, swinging his small legs back and forth since they didn’t quite reach the ground. Kyle sighs, looking down and kicking a stone that was resting by his feet. “It’s just...no one listens to a thing that I say,” he mutters, tone laced with several shades of bitterness. “It’s like I’m not even fucking there sometimes. No one would even fucking care if I disappeared. My parents have Ike who they’re just so damn proud of all the time, and even Stan has Butters and Cartman.” “And what about me?” Kenny immediately asks softly, causing Kyle to sharply look over at him with a furrowed brow. “Huh?” Kenny meets his eyes for just a moment before quickly looking away. Turning his gaze instead to something far off in the starry distance. “What would I do if you weren’t here?” His words catch Kyle by surprise. Kenny was first and foremost a drifter, when he wasn’t hanging around with their group he was with Craig’s gang or someone else entirely. What made Kyle so special? “Everyone likes you Kenny,” he voices, “you don’t need me.” “You know that’s not true,” Kenny says, tone soft but without an ounce of hesitation. A timbre reminiscent of the way he’d talk about art, eyes flashing with something bright as he leaned into Kyle’s shoulder to reach across and point out something in his latest drawing. Kyle frowns. “Believe me,” Kenny continues quietly, voice almost getting lost within the fabric of his parka. “I know what it feels like to think no one would care if you just vanished. But that’s why we gotta stick together.” “I hate this town, Kenny,” Kyle finally mumbles as a last line of defense. A last portion of truth even as he can feel his resolve weakening, dissolving into dust and ash. Kenny nods as if he understands. There is a moment of comfortable silence between them. A moment where they sit side by side on the bench while keeping their gaze trained on the horizon. The sky beginning to ever so subtly lighten, the moon and stars fading as if to make room for the incoming dawn. The bus would be here soon. Kyle stays right where he is. Eventually, Kenny shoots him a look that is all sparkling eyes lined with mischievousness, and Kyle doesn’t even have time to be wary of what that might mean before the blond suddenly rises to his feet and pulls at Kyle’s arm for him to follow. “What are you doing?” Kyle asks, although he stands up after him anyway. “I want to show you something,” Kenny says, cheerful tone matching his exuberant expression, “Come on!” Kenny tugs him forward, practically dragging him behind him for a few steps before he offers him a wink from over his shoulder. Then he releases his hold in order to break out into a near run down the street. “Kenny!” Kyle curses, hurrying after him. Kenny leads him across town, giggling the entire way. Only stopping every once in a while to make sure Kyle was still following, and eyes glimmering with mirth as well as a certain mischievousness every time Kyle asked where the hell he was taking him. Of course, he never gives him an answer. Eventually, the McCormick household comes into sight and Kyle thinks maybe he was just taking him back to his house. Of course, the moment after he thinks he’s figured it out, Kenny veers to the side of his house and comes to a stop directly in front of old Sodosopa. He turns to Kyle with another wink, and then immediately jumps up and latches onto the side of it to pull himself up. Kyle swears he has a minor heart attack when one of the beams he hangs onto creaks and nearly snaps with his weight, but Kenny doesn’t seem at all concerned. Just grabs another handhold and then boosts himself the final distance. The whole thing only lasts a few seconds, it becoming very apparent that this was in no way Kenny’s first time doing this, the blond moving with the grace and confidence born from practice. It didn’t make Kyle feel any better about it though. “Kenny, what are you doing?!” He shouts, looking at Kenny standing at the edge of the towering building in a near panic. “Get down from there, you’re going to hurt yourself!” “Relax, Ky.” His eyes sparkle as he looks down at him. Moving back to the spot he’d come up, he reaches out with a purposeful hand. “Come on, I’ll help you.” Kyle mutters a few choice words under his breath, but finds himself going up to meet him anyway. He follows the same footholds that Kenny had used, grumbling to himself the whole way as Kenny laughs at him from up top. But despite his prior observation everything remains sturdy under his weight, and at the end Kyle reaches up to grab Kenny’s outstretched hand, taking notice of how strong the blond is for his size as he easily pulls him the final distance up. “So, are you gonna tell me now why-“ But Kyle’s words die in his throat. Kenny shoots him a knowing look. “It’s kind of beautiful, isn’t it?” Beautiful is an understatement. From the height they were at half the town could be seen. The view stretching even beyond the town, to roads that went on past the trees and met the line of the now rising sun. Stars and moon still visible, but just barely through the curtain of the incoming dawn. It’s awe-inspiring. A view of the town that he’d only ever seen as shitty, suddenly gaining new beauty. But that wasn’t the only thing that was given new light. Kenny stands beside him, looking out at the town from Sodosopa and suddenly Kyle can’t seem to tear his eyes from his face. The wind slightly ruffling the bit of hair peeking out from under the hood of his parka. His eyes two vivid sparks of blue, the one true window to all of the emotions he was unable to hide. Catching his gaze, Kenny gives him sort of an odd look, yet Kyle can’t even find it in him to be embarrassed at having been caught staring. As their eyes meet, a book of different emotions flickers through the small blond’s eyes, faster than Kyle can figure out, before he tilts his head almost as if he was considering something. Then, reaching up, he pulls the fabric of his parka covering his mouth down, and gives Kyle a wide and unobstructed smile. Kyle’s breath catches. “You know,” Kenny says, voice unmuffled and grin tilting into a smaller one that was almost shy, “maybe I could come with you. When you finally leave, I mean.” His smile falls a bit more. “You’d have to wait a bit, though.” It takes Kyle a moment to respond. Without the hood, Kenny’s voice is almost musical in quality. And paired with the ground below them and the horizon coloring the world beyond his head, Kyle finds himself thinking about angels. He pictures Kenny with large white wings and finds the mental image strangely fitting. “I can wait,” he breathes out finally. “Okay,” Kenny says, expression bordering on fond, “we’ll go together then.” And thus starts the beginning of a dream. Sleepover -Age 14- Kyle wakes up to the sound of knocking at his window. It’s late at night, the clock on his bedside table reading about a quarter past three in the morning. Or in other words, way too early for Kyle to be suddenly sitting up in his bed with his heart pounding. Of course, his immediate reaction is to start grumbling a few choice words under his breath, because he’s almost positive that it must be Cartman just coming to annoy him or something. Throwing his legs over the side of his bed, Kyle marches over to the window. Although to his immediate horror, it’s not Cartman who he sees peering in from the other side of the glass. “Kenny!” He curses and hurries over to his window, nearly bending his index finger backward in his panicked haste to get the damned thing open. Once he does he immediately reaches his arms out to help Kenny, who stumbles inside as if in a daze. He’s soaked to the bone and his parka, as well as his hair, and every visible patch of skin is caked with dead leaves and dried blood. Kyle is on him in a second, patting him down and checking him over for any gaping injuries. Running his hands across his shoulders, down his arms, and around his waist with as much proficiency as he can manage. His hands get crusted with dried blood in the process, some of the particles drifting to his carpet like dust, but despite his efforts he finds nothing that would offer any sort of explanation. “Kenny?” He chokes, running a hand through dirty and bloody matted hair for any fractures. “What happened?” But Kenny doesn’t answer, just stands there as if he hadn’t even heard him. As if he was trapped somewhere within his own mind. Kyle pauses in his fussing, realizing that if there was any type of injury then it had have been hidden under his parka. “Are you hurt?” He attempts asking him, looking him in the eye for the first time since he stumbled through his window. In doing so, he realizes with a prick of real fear that the normally vibrant blue was turned to a dull and lifeless hue. At the question, Kenny just blinks at him in confusion. Almost as if he can’t remember. Fear now rapidly churning within his gut, Kyle does what he does best when he’s unsure of something and quickly formulates a quick step by step plan. First plan of action: get the parka off to make sure that Kenny’s not injured. With that thought in mind, Kyle takes his hand and leads him through the hallway and to the bathroom. Once there he locks the door, before once again turning his attention to Kenny. With shaking fingers, he unzips his parka and pushes the filthy thing from his shoulders. As he soon discovers, although he appeared to be strikingly nothing more than skin and bone, Kenny is remarkably unmarked. No sign of any visible injury. And for the first time a dark thought strikes Kyle as his hands slowly slide away from the motionless blond’s shoulders. “Kenny...is this someone else’s blood? To his immediate relief, Kenny shakes his head and speaks for the first time since he got there. “Nuh-uh,” he croaks. Kyle takes a deep breath. “Okay.” He instinctively goes to run a hand through his hair only to catch the sight of old blood still lining the creases of his palm and drops it lifelessly back down to his side. “Okay,” he repeats. “Let’s get you cleaned up, alright?”