What'd You Say…?

A Thank-You Fic to G-Dogg (GBlatte)!

By Lovova

Authors Note: This Fic was inspired by a picture put together by Fumouffu-Fumo on deviantart. Link to the picture can be found in my profile. Enjoy!

Most of the time, Kenny loved being the silent, difficult to understand type. He wasn't stupid, he knew the effect that his hood had on his communication skills…but, the fact that typically the only people he wanted to talk to anyway were other fourth graders who had spent enough time with him to know what he was saying anyway, he had never viewed it as a problem. He loved saying dirty things to oblivious adults, and the hood was a great excuse to just blend into the background sometimes, an occasional life saver to a kid whose life was constantly in danger. All in all, life in the hood was good…the cloth type, anyway.

Occasionally, though, there came situations where you just wanted to be understood…like, when a peer decides that just because you held hands during one school trip, it was assumed they would continue to do so every school outing.

"Let go of my hand Craig." Kenny said, as a slowly becoming familiar hand circled around his.

"I think it's ten O' clock, why?" Craig answered, completely missing what Kenny had muffled through his hood. This wasn't the first time either. For some reason, in the last few weeks, Craig had apparently completely lost his ability to translate Kenny's muffled speech, though Craig himself still seemed unaware of the fact. Kenny had tried to tell him that he was getting his translations wrong, but Craig had left the conversation thinking Kenny had just confessed to him of his deep, dark secret collection of novelty Ken Dolls. The mistake had yet to be cleared up.

Around them, the rest of the class was picking their partners for the art museum trip as well. Kenny had actually wanted to partner up with Cartman this time, as he was sure the fatass would have some choice words for the exhibits that would undoubtedly make him laugh. Not wanting to miss out on the fun of watching Kyle and Cartman argue about paintings, Kenny tried again, "Let go of my hand, Craig!"

Craig looked at Kenny with a small frown for awhile before saying carefully, "I can't understand you Kenny…"

"Really now? No flying fucking way."The nine-year old growled sarcastically, trying fruitlessly to pull his hand away. Not getting the hint at all, Craig just tightened his grip as he practically dragged the hooded boy into the museum.

"Alright kids, feel free to explore the museum as you will, you have an hour." Mr. Garrison informed his class, looking just as bored as his students as he glanced around before sternly reminding them, "Remember, stay with your partner. If I find out any of you little cretins went out on your own, you'll be in big trouble! Now, shoo."

The kids dispersed, Craig looking around before saying in that froggy, monotone voice of his, "You want to go check out the stuffed animal exhibit?"

"No." Kenny replied shortly, glaring at the hand that had taken him hostage. Who would have thought Craig would have such a grip?

"Cool," Craig said as he began to pull them to the stuffed animal exhibit.

"Goddammit, Craig, I don't want to go look at animals!" Kenny shouted, trying once again to twist out of Craig's grasp.

Craig gave the blond an annoyed stare, "Jeez, relax Kenny, I'm sure they have a stuffed Rhino. Sheesh, I didn't even know you liked Rhinos." Craig muttered, either completely missing or just ignoring Kenny's cry of frustration as he was dragged into the dark hallways.

None of the other kids first picks had been the stuffed animals, so other than a few genuinely interested adults, no one but them were in the exhibit. The museum kept most of the lights in these hallways off, so that the light over the animals would appear brighter, and would give more of a realistic impression that the animals were actually moving around outside. All of this was lost on Kenny, who just thought to himself, 'It's dark. I'm going to trip and die. Or get impaled on a horn. Or get trampled by stuffed animals. Goddammit.'

As Kenny pondered all the ways he could meet an untimely demise here, Craig lead them deeper into the exhibit, before turning to Kenny, "Here. Happy now?"

Kenny looked up, and sure enough there was a large stuffed Rhino, it's horn glimmering dangerously and it's body stuffed and heavy looking. Painful, too. That was all Kenny ever really cared about. How was it going to happen, and would it be painful?

However, his attention shifted, and he found himself looking at the stuffed corpse's eyes. They shimmered darkly, permanently fixed on some point at the horizon, its head cocked up with grass in its mouth, as if forever held in place in a moment of wary apprehension. As if, against all possibility, it knew exactly what was coming, and that there was nothing it could do to stop it.

The idea made Kenny feel incredibly sad, and perhaps Craig noticed his friends suddenly darkening mood, as he suddenly said, "Forget this. Let's go look at birds." Before pulling Kenny away.

They walked for awhile in the darkness, stuffed birds hanging over head creating random flowing of intense light to dark shadows over them, and here not even the adults had headed, as while the birds were pretty, it was annoying to have to stick your neck was back to see them, and so most never bothered. Due to the lack of other people their footsteps echoed depressingly into what might have well as been night, and Kenny had just resigned himself to an incredibly dull afternoon when Craig said, "Kenny…can I ask you something?"

"Would you know it if I said no?" Kenny sighed.

"Thanks." Craig said, oblivious, "It's just…Cartman's definitely in the closet…"

"Genius, Sherlock, how'd you figure that one out?" Kyle muttered.

"…and I'm pretty sure there's something weird going on between Stan and Kyle…that's what everybody else thinks anyway…" Craig continued on hesitantly.

"Is there a point to this, or are you just going to keep making blunt observations about my best friends' sexual preferences?" Kenny growled, wondering if Craig was about to go on some teasing rant about the odd group he hung out with.

Craig sighed, again showing no indication that he had understood a word Kenny had said as he continued, "It's just that…are you like that?"

Kenny blinked, momentarily thrown, "What?"

"Are you gay, Kenny?" Craig said flatly, stopping their journey through the display as he looked the hooded boy in the eyes seriously, though with Craig it was hard to tell when he wasn't being serious, "Or even Bi-Curious. It's alright to tell me, I'm not asking to make fun of you, I really want to know."

"Dude, I am not gay," Kenny said, really wishing Craig would let go of his hand, "I like chicks. I like big boobs. I'm not gay."

Craig frowned slightly, though not entirely in a displeased fashion as he said, "Really? You are? Wow, I didn't think you'd just go out and say it. I thought I'd have to coax it out of you for at least another ten minutes. How long have you known you were gay?"

"I'm not gay, god dammit!" Kenny shouted.

Craigs eyes widened comically, "Since you were three? Seriously?! Shit, dude, I only figured myself out a few weeks ago!"

Kenny furrowed his brows in enraged frustration, "I'm not….! Wait, what do you mean, 'figured yourself out'? What?"

Craig had the decency to at least look a little sheepish as he suddenly grew fascinated with the floor, his voice perfectly even as he continued, "Well, you know how it is…you begin to realize certain things about yourself…about the people you think are kind of cute…" at this, Craig looked up at Kenny meaningfully.

"I don't think I like where this is going…" Kenny said weakly, wondering how they had remained alone for this long amount of time. Wasn't anyone else interested in seeing the damned dead stuffed birds?!

Craig sighed in relief, his shoulder slumping as if a great weight had been taken off, "Thank god you guessed it, Kenny, I don't think I could have just gone right out and said it. You're right, I do like you…and I was wondering, if maybe sometime, me and you could hang out, just us…maybe see a movie or something…"

"I don't want to be your boyfriend." Kenny reported plainly, knowing he had to nip this in the butt now.

Instead of looking disappointed though, Craig's face practically beamed as he said, with honest excitement in his voice, "Really? Wow, Kenny, I was just talking about going on a date or something…but, yeah, if you want to just go straight into being boyfriends, sure, why not?...Awesome!"

And then, without any warning, Craig pulled Kenny in for a hug. A hug that lasted way too long, and Craig seemed to have no problem with the fact that Kenny was stiff as a board, staring past Craig's shoulder in horror. 'What the hell just happened', Kenny wondered as Craig finally let go, giving him a pleased smile, 'What did I just get wrapped into?!'

Craig's pleased smile quickly fell as he considered something, "Wait…this might be a bit soon to talk about it, seeing as we only just got together, but do you think we should tell anybody? You know how our friends are, we'll probably get a lot of heat for this…"

"No, we shouldn't' t tell anyone!" Kenny screamed, desperate to make himself understood (For some reason, it never occurred to him to take his hood off. Hid hood was practically a part of his being, and he never took it off unless absolutely necessary, like helping his friends or saying his, possibly, final goodbyes.), "There's nothing to tell! We're not together!"

Craig grinned, "You're right Kenny, we shouldn't let what other people say get in between us. I'd rather not make a big show of coming out, but I won't make any effort to hide it either, and if people figure it out and don't like it…well, that's their problem. Jeez, Kenny, I can't believe how well this worked out. I swore I thought you'd take my head off or something if I told you. Do you mind if I…aw, fuck it." Craig said as he leaned in and, before Kenny could do anything, gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Because of the hood, no skin touched skin, but the mere act of it had Kenny reeling in horror.

"Oh God, why is this happening…?" Kenny moaned, staring up into the ceiling as he glared at the before spoken God. Or at least in the direction he was pretty sure the omnipresent lived.

Again, Craig completely missed the point as he said cheerfully, "Yeah, we can go back to the rest of the museum. I only wanted to come here because I knew it would be a quiet place to talk. Let's go." And with that, he dragged Kenny behind him, not noticing or caring as Kenny let loose a stream of curses that would have made sailors eyes bulge.

Sometimes, Kenny hated being the difficult to understand type.

To Be Continued? Yes, no? If I get some people who like where this is going and want to see more of it, then I'll get right on to more chapters. If not, then I'll leave it a playful One-Shot with an open ending ^_^ Just let me know what you prefer!