Roots
notes: I'm nervous. This is my first South Park drabble and it's been a while since I've written anything so I'm sorry if it's no good. K2. No warnings minus angst. Apologies for previous posting fail.

Each time Kenny died, he landed back in South Park. He tried to run away and sometimes he would get far. Far enough to feel safe away from it all.

But never far enough since South Park was always one step away.

It started in middle school. Fresh-faced, smart-mouthed, he was a twelve year old that knew too much of the world already. Broken, with new bruises blooming on his face in beautiful patterns, he walked into the first day of middle school and told his friends he was running away.

Leaves curled under his eyes in yellow and the buds became blossoms of red and purple. They were beautiful and looked so natural on his pale face. They peaked out from the confines of his hood like they were meant to be on display for the world. Something that should be seen and admired. He scratched at the leaves but thorns pinched his cheeks and he recoiled in pain.

His friends didn't believe him when he said he was running away. They took him home and crushed the blossoms with gauze and pills to make the thorns go away. He slept over Kyle's house that day, in old clothes and the blossoms began to die. The thoughts, however, and the plans did not die and the change he had saved up was heavy with hopes and ideals in his pockets. Determination set into his brow and he hardly slept that night.

He was woken up by freckled skin and emerald eyes that seemed to know everything and nothing about what was going on in his head. They were concerned that the blossoms seemed to be resilient but it was time to get up anyways. He ate with their family, trekked into the snow, and waited through school while the thorns continued to itch.

In middle school, he never got very far. He took buses, pretty and empty-handed, to Denver and everywhere that seemed better than home, but was always met with an untimely death shortly after he had arrived in his safe haven. Time and time again he would try and be sent back to the cold snow of South Park. Each time his father planted seeds in his body and his mother nurtured them with her tears.

Kyle wanted him to stay with him and his family. The warmth of their home was tempting, but he always said no because one day he would leave and stay gone. He would leave South Park for good one day. When he said that, green eyes swelled with tears and suddenly he was engulfed in warmth he couldn't quite put a name on. It was different from the family warmth that he never quite had. The eyes told him not to leave; to wait because it wasn't his time yet. But he was selfish and his roots were slowly killing him.

In high school, running away became less frequent, but lasted longer. Dying was slowly working its way out of his daily routine and it was easier to find a home elsewhere. He still took little with him, and never invested in much but things seemed brighter. The blossoms and dead ends of his roots seemed farther away.

His friends had to start asking if he had died or if he had just left when he disappeared for long periods of time. Both options weighed heavily on the owner of the green eyes but he was never quite happy when Kenny came back, either.

He stopped going home during high school. When he returned back to South Park, heart heavy with failure and nausea swimming in his eyes, he stayed with Kyle. He'd sneak into his house to get clothes and sometimes he would be met with his parents ready with broken hearts, but most times not. He found an escape in Kyle's home – in Kyle's heart, but it was never enough.

There was a brief point in time where Kenny stopped running away. His last year of high school, he promised to graduate with his friends and lived with Kyle permanently. Things seemed better with the blossoms gone. There were no buds forming under his eyes or around his ribs, but the roots still clenched at his heart and made him sob quietly in the dead of night. He was selfish, but he would wait out this time for his friends. He knew he would be back anyways; he could never really escape.

In this time, the year that finished all too quickly for Kyle and all too slowly for Kenny, Kyle got closer. He touched on the roots around Kenny's heart and tried to rip them away but it was hopeless. He tried to convince him that leaving South Park for good would kill the roots, and maybe the roots are what kept Kenny alive. If he left South Park he would die for good.

His answer was broken kisses and a whisper that said he was fine with that.

He didn't stick around for long after they graduated. He took his diploma from the principal who seemed reluctant to give it to him. He boozed for a couple hours before stumbling out onto the street in his cap and gown and thumb jutted out in desperation.

After that, his friends didn't see him for a long time. It was years before Kyle wandered down the street and to Starks Pond and caught a glimpse of familiar dirty blonde hair. He looked haggard and broken down but he smiled toothily at Kyle's familiar face.

The warmth that Kenny could never quite put a name on came back as Kyle took him into his arms. He hid himself in the folds of Kyle's jacket while bearing his truths. The truth of the matter and the source behind his roots; the reason why coming back to South Park wasn't so terrible was because he always had someone waiting there for him.

Kyle wanted to know how to get rid of the roots, but what he didn't know until that moment was that he was the one who continued to nurture them and keep them alive. He was the reason Kenny kept coming back to South Park. But now that he was dying less and less, the effects of coming back were wearing him down.

It was a rash decision, but Kyle hacked away at Kenny's roots. He picked up his bags, ignoring the tugs of his own roots that wanted him to stay home, and traveled far far away to a place where South Park could never find them.

And while they were happy, what Kyle had originally said was slowly coming true. Kenny was dying. Without his roots, he was slowly wasting away. He could smile all he wanted and kiss and fuck and love Kyle all he wanted but he was breaking. His heart pattered slowly and he came short of breath and Kyle held onto him for all he could. It was a night where Kyle could hear the dull call of sirens and angels when Kenny latched onto his shirt and told him he was dying.

Kyle kissed the grounds for which seeds were once planted in when Kenny finally closed his eyes and never opened them again. There was no sign of him in South Park and there was no sign of him in Kyle's life anymore. Just an old body with no place in the world anymore; no roots to hold him down.

He made one last attempt to save the roots he had once, twice, tried to remove. He brought Kenny back to South Park but his eyes stayed closed. The roots had rotted away. They had been burned at the tips with no chance of regrowing.

But there were left over roses on Kenny's lips that curled into a beautiful smile as if he were finally happy.