"So you guys are like...an item?" Stan asked dumbly, staring at the pair in front of him.

Kyle nodded, finally back in his normal clothes and planning to never waver from these comfortable threads again - except, maybe, for the warm comfort of Cartman's oversized shirts.

"Yep." Kyle kicked at the snow surrounding his feet nervously, feeling patently awkward for explaining something so personal as who he was dating. He hadn't ever dated anyone before, so he'd never had to deal with telling his friends about such things. The warm arm wrapping around his shoulders made him look up, seeing Cartman's joy-filled face, causing his own face to adopt a fond smile.

"Holy hell, finally!" Kenny burst out, grinning in his over-energetic way and bouncing on his heels. "I've been waiting years for you two to finally admit your infatuation on each other! I bet that with all that sexual tension the fucking must be amazing, huh?"

A flush instantly lit up Kyle's cheeks at that, looking down angrily as embarrassment rose in him. Cartman chortled loudly.

"Don't ask that, you asshole!"

Kenny cocked his head, putting on an innocent face. "Why not?"

"Because it's none of your business!" Kyle growled back, a defensive stance tensing his body.

"And we haven't done it yet, perv." Cartman threw in, causing Kenny to grin lecherously and Kyle's head to snap over to look towards his boyfriend.

"Yet?" Kenny teased.

"Oh god, don't say it like that." Kyle groaned, covering his face with his gloved hands. Cartman pulled him closer, nuzzling him in a way that made Kyle wonder if he was trying to make him feel better or embarrass him further.

"Can we not talk about this?" Stan requested, turning a faint green.

"Sorry, dude." Kyle told him, feeling kind of bad for his weak-stomached friend. The teen couldn't take anyone doing anything vaguely sexual without his stomach churning nervously, it must be even weirder for him to imagine two of his friends doing anything sexual whatsoever.

"Deal with it, hippy." Cartman quipped, scoffing. "If you think I'll keep my hands off my gorgeous boyfriend just because you can't hold your lunch then you must be a total retard."

"You don't have all the say on if you get to have your hands all over me." Kyle pointed out. "You can only do it if I let you, asshole."

"Aww..." Cartman whined dramatically, tugging Kyle close. "Are you saying you don't love me? I'm not hot as hell to you? You don't look at me and think-" Kyle's hand slapped over Cartman's mouth, stopping his speech. He was blushing brightly, glaring half-heartedly at those dancing brown orbs. "Of course I love you," He grumbled quietly, feeling like hiding his face against the larger boy's chest to escape the humiliation that must follow saying something so starkly truthful in front of his friends. "But don't talk about things like...like sex, in front of other people."

He could feel Cartman grinning behind his hand, and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his now-boyfriend. Before he could figure out why the other boy was looking so mischievous the answer came in the feeling of moisture suddenly slicking his hand. He yanked his hand back as if he had been burnt, letting out an indignant yelp.

"Goddammit Cartman!" He yelled, scowling at the boy as he wiped the saliva off of his hand. Cartman cackled in response, trying to pull the redhead close again.

"Hey, I had to get your hand off my mouth somehow," The excuse wasn't sufficient in the least, and based off of Cartman grinning he knew full well it wasn't.

"Asshole...," Kyle grumbled, turning his face away from the other boy, but still letting himself be pulled into Cartman's arms. "That's disgusting, don't lick my hand like that."

"If you're this pissy about me licking your hand I can only imagine how you'll react when I lick other places."

Kyle's face flushed even redder at the flirty, downright dirty words, and fuck, he was never going to get used to blushing so much. Kenny cackled along with Cartman, truly enjoying himself and the hilarious faces Cartman was eliciting from Kyle.

"Holy shit, I'm just going to walk to school!" Stan announced, hand clutching his stomach.

"Don't have to," Kenny assured the queasy teen, gesturing to the bus pulling up to them.

"Oh thank god...," Stan gasped out, bolting up the steps when the doors slid open. Kenny ran after him, sending the new couple a grin as he went.

"Wait up Stan! I'll sit next to you so the lovebirds can make goo-goo eyes at each other the whole ride to school."

Cartman squeezed his arms around Kyle. "Who'd have known the poor boy would be such a kickass wingman?" Kyle rolled his eyes, wiggling out of Cartman's grasp. "He was the one that pushed me to confess to you." He informed Cartman as they walked onto the bus, quickly finding an empty seat for the both of them.

"Like I said, kickass wingman."

Kyle shook his fondly, then bit his lip. "Hey, can we talk about something?"

Cartman looked over at him, the happiness having yet to dissipate from his eyes. "Sure, babe."

Kyle's stomach fluttered at the casual pet name, and he forced the feeling down, too set on the subject at hand to let himself get lost in infatuation.

"I was thinking," Kyle began quietly. "Should we come out at school? Or would it be better to keep it to ourselves?"

Kyle cursed Cartman's ability to keep a straight face, because right now the blank face Cartman had told him nothing.

"Do you want them to know?"

Kyle blinked at the question, turning his face down to look at his lap. Did he? The other teens at their high school would most definitely tease them. They might even bully them, it was a small mountain town. But would that be a good reason to keep it to themselves? Kyle knew that a lot of the bullying would be avoided since a lot of the people in their school either knew the group well enough to not care about such things, or were scared shitless of Cartman. Kyle valued, above all else, to be who you are, no matter what. And he was in love, why should he hide that?

"Yeah," He answered, feeling a little breathless as he knew so much could change with that one little word. "Yeah, I do."

A smile stretched across Cartman's face and he pulled the other boy to him with an arm around his waist. "Good, 'cause I wasn't planning to keep it a secret." He nuzzled Kyle's neck playfully, loving how flustered he could make the other boy. "I wanna show you off."

"We don't have to announce it to everyone," Kyle reminded him. "We could just not hide it and answer truthfully if we're asked."

Cartman made a vague noise of agreement, but Kyle wasn't so sure that was the end of it. He knew Cartman, and Cartman was nothing if not dramatic. Even still, their bus had just pulled up to the high school so he would put the suspicion off...for now.

The group of four made their way off of the bus and began their trek up the path leading to the doors, but just as Stan and Kenny set foot into the familiar hallway, Kyle stopped, causing Cartman to nearly trip to avoid running into the smaller boy.

"You okay?" Cartman asked, eyebrow raised. Kyle swallowed, nodding jerkily. He was surprised by how anxious he was feeling.

"Yeah...just a little nervous." He admitted, avoiding Cartman's gaze in embarrassment. Then he felt a large, warm hand envelope his and his head shot up, heart thudding wildly as he stared into Cartman's reassuring brown eyes.

"We'll be fine."

Kyle smiled, squeezing his hand back and nodding again. "Yeah, we will."

They walked into the hall hand in hand, ignoring the blatant stares they were receiving. And boy were they receiving some stares. Not to mention a few gasps, and even a heavy thud that sounded quite like a body hitting the ground. Still, they kept their eyes forward, walking to Kyle's locker first so he could retrieve his books. Kyle gathered his books quickly, but before they could make their way to Cartman's locker a gasp rang loudly.

"Oh! You two are datin'?" Kyle turned to see Butters' excited face.

"Yeah," Kyle confirmed. Cartman smirked, wrapping his arm around Kyle's shoulders. "Fuck yeah we are!"

Butters practically squealed in reaction, clapping his hands together excitedly.

"Congratulations! Oh my goodness Eric, it worked!"

"'It worked'?" Kyle questioned, turning his gaze up to his boyfriends face. "What worked?"

"My plan."

Kyle blinked. "Butters knew?"

"Yep!" Butters answered excitedly. "Eric told me he had feelings for you a while ago, I'm so glad you two are finally together!"

"I needed to tell someone," Cartman explained quietly to Kyle. "And I figured Butters was too much of a ball-licker to tell anyone."

Butters continued speaking, likely not having heard Cartman's words. "Not to mention he's liked you for so long," Butters told Kyle. "He's had a crush on you for years-"

"Eh!" Cartman interrupted loudly, embarrassment clear in his voice. "Who said you could tell him that?"
Butters looked confused. "Why not? It's sweet, why wouldn't you want Kyle to know?"

"Yeah Eric," Kyle teased, nudging him. "How many years have you liked me?"

Cartman flushed. "I-well, a couple...,"

"A couple? No, it's been-"

"Shut up Butters!" Cartman demanded. Kyle looked surprised and thoroughly unfazed by Cartman's anger. "You've liked me for more than a couple of years?"

"I-um...Yeah." Cartman admitted. A lovesick smile spread across Kyle's face and he cupped Cartman's jaw with his hand, pressing a light kiss to his boyfriend's cheek. "That *is* sweet. I'm glad Butters told me." Cartman smiled back, pressing a hand to Kyle's lower back and pulling him closer.

"What's with all the kiss-y faces?" A voice asked. The pair turned to see Clyde, Token, Craig and Tweek standing there, looking at them strangely.

"I'm kissing my boyfriend," Cartman said defensively. "What business is it of yours?"

"You two are gay?" Clyde asked.

Token rolled his eyes. "Of course they are, don't you remember the whole basketball serenade thing?"

"Yeah," Craig agreed. "What are you, blind?"

"Wait, that wasn't-" Kyle tried to clarify, but then Tweek jumped up, muttering about "underpants gnomes" so he decided it didn't matter too much. Cartman and Kyle slipped away, leaving Craig, Clyde, and Token to take care of Tweek and Butters to stand there awkwardly. Kyle let out a relieved sigh.

"Jesus, it's only been a few minutes and we're already getting overrun!"

Cartman bumped their shoulders together, grabbing Kyle's hand again. "Yeah, but I bet it's 'cause they're jealous as fuck."

Rolling his eyes Kyle tugged Cartman's hand and pulled the boy along with him. Once they had Cartman's books as well they started off to their classes together, but as they reached an intersection in the hallway Kyle felt Cartman stop. He looked back, confused.

"Eric? Why are you...?" He trailed off as Cartman tugged him into his arms, leaning his face so close to Kyle's that Kyle felt his warm breath mixing with his own.

"I love you so much," Cartman whispered so low, words meant only for Kyle.

"I love you, too," Kyle responded equally as quietly.

Cartman smirked, bumping their noses together. "I want everyone to know you're mine."

Kyle realized what Cartman was getting at as the other boy leaned in. The world around them fell away as their lips met, and Kyle suddenly didn't care that there were probably plenty of teenagers watching them, or that he definitely should be worried that they would get into trouble for public display of affection. All he cared about was the boy whose arms he was wrapped up in.

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Author's Note:

I'm baaaack! I can't believe I'm finally finishing this! I looked, it's been almost a year. I'm sorry I'm so late, and I'm sorry I'm horrible at this whole 'updating' thing. I'll get better, I swear it!

So this is the end of betting, thought I do plan to post a side one-shot story with the actual bet since so many people wanted it, so I'll try to get that up soon. But alas, the main story is done. I think if I dragged it on any longer it'd just ge6t boring. If it hasn't already, that is.

Honestly though, I am really really really so sorry that I haven't updated this in forever, but some…extenuating circumstances made it so I had to spend the last six or so months living in a house with no internet! What I did to deserve such hell, I'll never know. But the up side to living with no internet is that gives me a lot more time and a lot less excuses when it comes to writing, so I'm proud to say I have a few large notebooks-worth of stories just waiting for their final edit before being posted. I've been writing like crazy, and have written every day now for months, a habit that's helped me exponentially with my writers block. I have hopefully improved so I hope some of you will read the work I will be posting. Mostly Kyman, of course.

So thank you for reading, I love you all.