Author's Note: First off, a big, big, big thanks to my amazing co-writer and friend Joo Hor. If you haven't read her South Park stuff, you're serirously missing out. Go check her profile. Now dammit. She was a big help getting this idea off ground.

The primary inspiration for this story was a topic at the South Park Studios official message board called "Stan and Wendy in Season 15" which generally came down to the majority of the board being against Stan and Wendy as a couple for a wide variety of reasons, but the most oft-cited being they were clearly just in "puppy love". The idea of this fic was quite simply to portray the characters rebuilding that same relationship decades later.

"Their love is written in the stars, but the world conspires to keep them apart..." - Matt Stone

Written in the Stars

Chapter One

by Amanda and John

It was a cold October evening, and snow was pouring down the homes and hills of South Park, Colorado quite hard. A blanket of white was covering nearly everything, from the cars to the homes to the sidewalk to the street. It was a winter wonderland. The wind was strong, however, making it a bit of a hassle for one to leave the home. Luckily it was past dinnertime, so most citizens were content to relax in their homes.

She would think the place she grew up in covered in powder would be a beautiful sight if the heater on her car wasn't broken. She drove around the streets, passing her old childhood home, now vacant. It wasn't the house she was looking for though, she turned east and headed towards Bonaza Street.

Stan Marsh was sitting alone at his kitchen table eating dinner - he had a rough game with the kids that afternoon and they'd barely pulled through against the kids from Middle Park. He had rather harsh features, with well-maintained black hair spilling over his face and simple dark blue eyes. He was currently wearing a red T-shirt with a brown jacket over it as he took another bite of his pre-cooked meal.

Stan chewed the stale, pre made frozen burger. It would taste a lot better if he had sliced cheese to put on top of it, but alas it was hard times for the dairy industry. He was inturrupted by Shane, an old blue healer he had resuced from the pound begging at the table. He sighed and gave the dog a few french fries off his plate, cursing himself for spoiling that dog so he could never eat in peace. Stan hadn't eaten in peace at his home in a long time, or with another actaul person come to think of it.

He was inturrupted by the door bell ringing, old Shane along with the other dogs he had started causing a racket. Stan tried to shush the dog as he made his way to the front door. He opened the door to see a girl his age on the front step, standing there and looking down with those unforgettable green eyes he recocgnized instantly. She had black hair down past her shoulders - in his memory it had been silky, but now it was unekpt and wild, the pink beret atop her head dirty and old. Her face had either a stain or a bruise on it, and she had a large trenchcoat on, arms hugging her body as the snow poured. She looked as if ready to cry. "W-Wendy?" he said in disbelief.

"Hi Stan... it's... been a long time, I know..." she said quietly, her usually confident voice shaking as she trembled.

Stan's stomach turned at the sight of her, it took him a second to regain his composure. "Wendy, what happened? What are you doing here? Please come in! It must be below freezing." Stan took her by the hand and led her in, shutting the door behind her. He put his arm around her as he walked her into the living room and sat her down on his couch. "Should I make a fire?" Stan pointed to the newly installed wood fireplace in one corner of the room.

"You don't have to..." Wendy mumbled under her breath, still shivering as she entered the house, "I'm really sorry to bother you, I'm sure you're busy... it's just... I have no one else to turn to." she explained, "I've become a social pariah, Stan, and now I have nowhere to go. I don't even know where Bebe is and I don't even have the money to go to Florida to see my parents and... you're the only other person I've ever really trusted..."

"It's no trouble really, and it'll warm you up." Tyler, a golden retriever Stan had also rescued came up to the couch, sniffing at the new visitor. "Fuck off." Stan tried to push the dog away. Soon the four dogs Stan owned were all at the couch, sniffing and begging Wendy for attention. "Sorry, do you want me to put the dogs in another room?" Stan tried to shoo the dogs away as he got up towards the fireplace but Wendy pulled him close into a tight hug, starting to sob into his tshirt. Stan stayed in place, carefully putting his arms around her. "I'm sorry, I won't let go until you're ready to."

After a moment or so of simply holding on to Stan and bawling her eyess out, Wendy regained her composure and relaxed her grip on him, "Stan, do you remember the dairy tax that got voted on a few weeks ago?" she asked simply, her hands tightly hooking together as her eyes avoided his in fear of his possible reaction. Gone was Wendy's trademark confidence - no, she was in fear, deep fear.

What an odd thing to be talking about right now. "Yeah?" Stan said carefully, confused by her fearful expression. "Wendy, please tell me whats wrong." His hand went to touch the dark mark on her cheek. "Is that a bruise?"

"It was my idea." Wendy said quietly, sighing again, her voice quivering, "It was all my idea. It seemed so simple - everyone in Colorado lives off dairy. A tax on it would bring in revenue and it could to towards the state deficit... I was so confident in my political abilities I never really stopped and thought it could backfire..." she sighed, "They hate me. Everyone in Colorado hates me now..." as if only now just hearing his question she looked to him, "This?" she put her finger to it, "No, it's nothing..."

Stan licked his thumb and touched the mark, smearing it. "Oh it's just dirt, thank god. I don't know what I would had done if you were actaully hurt." Wendy swatted his hand away and looked down. "The dairy tax? I hear everyone bitching about it, especally my dad but I never stopped to think about it. Mostly I just stopped buying dairy products. That was your idea?" Wendy's bottom lip quivered and her eyes filled with tears, Stan held her by the shoulders. "Wendy, look at me. Not everyone in Colorado hates you, you have me. It'll be okay."

"You're so sweet, Stan. You've always been..." Wendy smiled a bit, "I won't be here long, I promise, I just need somewhere to stay until I have the money to reach Florida. Then I'll get out of here." she explained, her confidence slowly returning, "I'm sorry, I've spent this whole time just talking about me, it's not fair at all. Tell me how you are Stan! It's been... ten years now?" she said, smile wavering a bit - it felt impossible to think she hadn't been around him, or this town, in such a long time.

"Yeah of course, stay as long as you need to. I could even give you the money if you need to leave the state. I have a guest room, it's my old bedroom actually." Stan got up to move towards the fire place, but he stopped and turned. "Wendy, how did you know where I lived? I mean, I lived here until I was ten but how did you know I bought my parent's old house?"

"...funny you mention that, Stan..." Wendy said, "I... I'm not really sure myself. I just drove by here and... I don't know, something told me you were here..." she said, her fingers intertwining themselves together as her green eyes became increasingly focused on the floor rather than Stan. "Somthing told me this was the place."

"But why..." Stan stopped, he was about to ask why him, especally after all that time. He didn't want to really know the answer though, it was obviously because there was no one better left in town... In the ten years since he and all his freinds graduated and left for college. "I bet you're hungry. Do you want me to make you something? Do you have a suit case? I can go get it from your car."

"Thank you, Stan, I'd rather not trouble you, but I know you'll be nice and make me something anyway." Wendy said, smiling a little - he hadn't truly changed much. He was still empathic and kind despite the people around him, "I'll get my stuff out of the car... I've... it's not so nice in there right now, just let me take care of it." she offered, getting up and stretching.

There she was, giving a small glimpse of her vulnerabliity, then shutting him out and back to business as usual. He shouldn't fall back into old habits of overly trying to please her but it just came naturally. "What do you want to eat? I'll make you anything you want, well of what ingredents I have in the house."

"Anything's fine, Stan, whatever you have." Wendy explained with a small smile, as she moved towards the door to go collect her items from the car. It felt like such a load off her mind Stan was letting her stay, as if suddenly all of her troubles were gone, though she knew there was still a lot of work to be done. But it was nice being back in her hometown, and with someone she trusted. She reached for the doorknob, "Stan?"

Stan was shooing the dogs up the stairs to where they slept, Shelly's old bedroom. He turned around and looked at her from the stairs. "Yes Wendy?"

"Thank you." Wendy smiled for a moment, then opened the door and walked outside toward her car.

To Be Continued...