Chapter Text
Well, it was official, whatever concerns Kyle had concerning Cartman had increased by tenfold. This was something that even he did not know was possible. Simply explained, for as long as the Jewish fourth grader had known the racist, sadistic, self centered tub of lard known as Eric Cartman, there was always an underlying sense of caution, something only natural when one knows the things the sociopath was capable of committing. This natural sense of wariness, however, paled in comparison to how Kyle felt after witnessing the brunette’s outburst and was now walking alongside him in silence.
While the redhead was accustomed to seeing the confident, loud mouth, shit eating grin of his frenemy, he couldn’t remember ever seeing the boy cry real tears. If a boy who was vindictive enough to pour Arby’s Horsey sauce on Mr. Mackey’s cupcake for literally throwing him under a bus and sadistic enough to watch Butters get beaten by his parents because of him, what was it that made him this… fragile? These thoughts ran through Kyle Broflovski’s mind as he would alternate between looking forward and nervously glancing at a silent Cartman. The two of them hanging out together without anything being exchanged, whether it be insults or dirty looks, was rare. Was Cartman crying before he fought that sixth grader and if so, what was he crying about? It must have something to do with Scott Tenorman, he’s being acting weird ever since-”
“Hey Kahl.”
The redhead snapped out of his thoughts and jerked his head to the left, surprised that the boy had decided to speak to him.
“Does it ever… never mind,” the obese boy uttered, forcing his question to retreat into the back of his mind along with everything else he kept buried there.
“What is it Cartman?” Kyle looked at him as the latter kept staring straight ahead, trying to avoid the other’s pleading glance.
“It’s stupid… and gay,” Cartman begrudgingly replied.
Kyle’s jaw fell slightly open and he cocked his eyebrow at him. Is he fucking serious?
“Dude, I don’t care if it’s stupid and gay,” Kyle remarked as he grab the other boy’s should to stop him. “It’s better to say something stupid and gay for a few minutes than to keep everything bottled up inside you until you explode like you did back there.” The sociopath gave his long time nemesis a glare for bringing up that fight instead of letting it go, not that he was surprised as it was typical for his kind .
“Fine, I wanted to ask if it ever bothered you that you don’t look more like your dad?”
Kyle’s eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and confusion at the boy’s seemingly absurd question before a chuckle escaped his lips.
“Huh, are you kidding me dude? I wished I looked less like him,” the ten year old sarcastically snickered at his cohort’s inquiry. Kyle remembered the unsettling memory of him sitting with his parents at the dinner table when his mom told him he looked like his father, but he had her nose.
“With the exception of my hair and nose, I’ll probably grow up to look like my dad,” Kyle cynically thought aloud in between snickers, hardly noticing when Cartman continued to walk away. It was only when the red head stopped to peer to his left that he realized his peer was no longer next to him, but instead several feet away.
“Cartman!” The Jew ran to catch up behind the stone faced boy, this not being difficult considering who was being discussed.
“Cartman, what the hell is going on with you fatass,” Kyle asked, becoming increasingly more vexed by the minute?
“I knew you wouldn’t understand. I don’t know why I thought you would,” the brunette said, his words directed at Kyle, but it felt like he was talking more to himself.
“Understand what? Tell me what is going on with you and then I will understand.”
Cartman stopped in his tracks with a blank expression on his face, causing Kyle to abruptly halt.
“No, you wouldn’t,” he scoffed, his body turned to face Kyle with his eyebrows furrowed and his mouth fixed in a sneer.
“You will never understand what it is like to wake up every morning and wonder who your father is,” he emphasized with his finger pointed directly at the boy.
“You will never understand what it is like to celebrate every major occasion, birthdays, graduations, getting married, and becoming a dad yourself without your father. You will never know what it is like to wonder whether he is alive or dead, never knew you existed or knew and just didn’t care to be in your life.” Kyle felt his heart pound in his ears as he heard the large boy continue without any sign of slowing down.
“That’s what I went through, every day for ten years, until I finally learned the truth. I learned that my father never knew I existed and had been living in the same town as me, but no one gave enough of shit to tell me the truth, not even my own mother!” Cartman screamed the last part before angrily stomping over to a tree and giving it a swift kick, sending the early birds of spring and a pile of snow flying. Eric gave a deep sigh and leaned his head against the trunk of the tree.
“Scott has everything from my father, his looks, his money, and his love. I have nothing, I am nothing.”
For an unknown amount of time, Kyle stared at his longtime associate in disbelief, the boy who would never dare to let anyone see him this vulnerable was allowing his foe to see him in this raw state. Cartman turned his head back at Kyle and there was no mistaking the cause of his wet stained cheeks.
“That’s why I have to win this bet, Kahl. I need to have some piece of him.”
“...Woah Cartman,” the redhead uttered, completely at a loss for words. While he knew that it was normal to expect the absence of one’s father to be the catalyst for many issues as studies and common sense would tell you, he never expected it bothered Cartman that much, considering he was vocal about everything that displeased him from hippies to vegetarians to Jews. In response to everything that had been spoken, the fourth grader simply gazed at the weeping child with his mouth affixed trying. Kyle tried to figure out how he, the upstanding, voice of reason even to the point of being self righteous, person that he was going to remedy this situation.
The daywalker thought and thought until something hit him, how would he want someone else to treat him if it were him instead of Cartman? This was when he did the unfathomable, the boy in the orange parka strode over to the most anti-semetic person in South Park and embraced him. All the years of strife and conflict falling by the waist side as Kyle held Cartman, similarly to when Kenny died although this time Cartman was genuinely sad. All the while, the only thing Cartman could do was stand frozen in place as the boy he regularly insulted comforted him, showing how even after everything he had ever done, Kyle Broflovski would still choose to be the bigger person. This was the biggest thing Cartman loved and hated about Kyle.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that Cartman, I really am. While there’s nothing I can do to change the past, there is something I can do to change the future.”
Kyle grabbed his hand and continued their original goal of walking back towards Cartman’s house.