PINK BARETTE

"Three shots is five bucks, or you can get six shots for nine. What's it gonna be kid?" The carnival attendant looks at me while outstreching his giant hairy arm towards me, beckoning to drop the money into the fat hand on the end. Letting out a sigh, I dig into my pocket and pull out my last five from the remains of my allowance, dropping it into the carni's hand and getting three darts in return.

Taking a moment to think, I look over at the huge board covered with a bunch of mini-balloons, all different colors of the rainbow.

Seeing my hesitation, the hairy man behind the counter gives me my options. Yellow is worth one point, blue is three, and red is five. Three points gives you a keychain, five gives a barette, and ten gets the stuffed bunny. If I was by myself I wouldn't waste my money on this crap. the game is probably rigged anyways. But I'm not alone, and its for that reason that I need to get a ten...

"It's okay Stan, take your time. You'll do good!" He reassures me with his soft voice, full of support. Cartman rags on him all the time now, telling him that he should stop 'acting like such a girly fag', but I don't mind. I kind of like the way Kenny is. He's not an asshole like Cartman, who brings everyone down, and he's not serious and pessimistic like Kyle. He's...sweet. Which is kind of weird to say about another guy, but I don't care. Its Kenny, and Kenny is special...to me at least.

The Carni looks kind of pissed and impatient now, tapping his foot like its some big crime that I'm holding him back from sitting in his lawn chair and drinking when no one looks. Lazy ass.

Giving Kenny a quick nod, I pick up the first dart, slowly moving it back and forth with my hands, trying to get an idea of where its gonna go. Without thinking about it too much, I let the little green dart fly from my gloved fingers...

"Great Job Stan! You got a red one!" Kenny's eyes brighten and he smiles at me. My heart feels like it skipped a beat.

I pick up the next dart, and raise it up, repeating the same motions as before. Come on red...come on...

I try to concentrate and let it escape towards the board again...

It hits yellow.

"That's six. You got one shot left kid, better make it count!" The stupid attendant states the obvious, giving a toothy yellow grin in my direction. It makes me want to throw the dumb thing at his face instead. But if I did that I couldn't get Kenny his bunny...

I get the last one in between my fingers...come on...

I let it fly once more.

&&&

We walk down the street, my hands shoved in my pockets. Kenny walks beside me, the pink barette clipped in his hair.

I haven't felt this lame in years.

He looks over at me with soft baby blue eyes, filled with concern. "Really Stan, its fine...I know they fix those games so its like impossible to win...and you did really good! really!" His words fall on deaf ears though. I feel like such a loser. I missed the last shot entirely, and in the end, lost Kenny his desired bunny. I wish I could curl up in a hole and die now.

"And you know...if Kevin caught me with a stuffed bunny, he'd probably just cut its head off, or shove it down the toilet or something. This way I can keep your present with me all the time!" His words make me look up at him. Keeping my present with him all the time...thats kinda cool...

His cheeks go slightly red as he looks down at the ground for a minute while we walk. "And besides...don't I look cute in it? Pink is definately my color, right?" he smiles at me, and I can't help but feel my mood instantly lift. "Yeah...you look adorable. Prettier than Wendy and Bebe at their best."

He giggles at my joke, and I crack a smile, and all of a sudden my failure at the carnival is long forgotten as we talk about whatever comes to mind now, from shit that happened at school, to old cartoons we used to watch when we were just kids. As we reach the crosswalk at the end of the street, while I'm still mid-sentence, he reaches out and grabs my arm, tugging on it in a sense of urgency.

"What's wrong?" I ask as I turn to face him, met with worried, almost scared eyes. "Oh...right, sorry. Come on." I hold out my hand to him, letting him take it and curling my fingers around his palm. Gently, I lead him across the street. This has been going on for awhile now. Kyle says he finds it annoying, and Cartman refuses to do it, but I don't mind. It's almost as though Kenny is scared to cross the street, like some car is just gonna come run him down at any moment or something. Really, I don't see anything bad about being careful...or being able to hold his hand.

The second our snow-covered shoes hit the sidewalk, he usually drops his hand immediately, but today he keeps it in mine as he points excitedly towards the little coffee shop a few stores down. "Can we go Stan? Please? I'm parched and freezing at the same time, if you can believe it." He smiles and turns to me, a pleading look in his pretty eyes.

"Yeah sure, why not?" I send a small smile back his way and we head towards our current destination.

As we step into the cozy little place, the bell attached to the door chimes, signaling the employee's that they have more money coming in. It also signals for Kenny to drop my hand as he rushes towards the counter to see what he wants. I follow mere steps behind him, not saying anything, and not bothering to look up. I only have enough money left for one cup, and we both know that it belongs to Kenny.

Tweek is working behind the counter today, and for a brief moment I remember that it's his family who owns the place, but I put it out of my mind as Kenny asks him for a cup of hot chocolate and digs around in his parka for some change. I take that as my cue to step forward and dump the rest of my money on the shiny countertop, coincedently coming out with the exact change needed. Kenny protests, but I ignore him, pushing it all towards the blonde behind the counter. As Tweek takes the money and starts to work on making Kenny's cup, we move over and sit on some barstools set up, waiting and making small talk.

The bell chimes again, and without even meaning to, we all look towards the entrance to see who it is. Craig. Cartman's supposed rival. He doesn't say anything, just looks over at Tweek for a moment, and then sits down in the corner, waiting. I ignore this, and turn back to Kenny, both of us murmuring on soft voices, like everyone does when they're in a small place like this.

"Tweek seems happier..." Kenny states, swinging his feet lightly against the stool.

I look up at him, curious. "What makes you say that?"

"Well since Craig walked in, he had this big smile on his face and he's stopped twitching as much."

I look over to see if its true. Tweek's back is to me as he pours the drink into a cup, and it seems to me that he's twitching at the same pace as usual. Sometimes I think Kenny reads too much into things like this, really. As Tweek calls for us to come get the drink, we stand up. Kenny goes and grabs it, and together we walk out back onto the street. Looking over, I can't help but notice that Tweek added whipped cream on top, even though it costs more than what he charged.

Maybe Kenny reads people just right...

&&&

"Drink it!"

"No."

"Come on Stan! Its not fair for me to drink all of it when you paid for it! Share!" He pouts, holding the cup towards me. I hate when he pouts. I can never refuse him when he does. Its like some kind of weapon of mass emotional destruction. "Please...?"

I sigh and take the cup from his hands. Holding it up to my lips, I realize that his lips have touched the rim of the cup too...

Yeah, okay, sharing's not so bad at all I guess. Sipping the chocolatey drink, I smile softly, not really wanting him to see, but I can't help it. He's just standing there, looking at me with this big grin on his face, sandy blonde hair falling into his eyes, except for the one lock clipped back with the barette I'd won for him. It's in that moment that I realize that he's possibly the most beautiful sight that I've ever seen.

If Cartman found out, I would never hear the end of it.

&&&

Somehow we ended back up at the Carnival later that night. It wasn't really a horrible place, it was definately better than the one that came to town when we were in fourth grade, and it did look kind of cool all lit up at night...an advertisement posted near the entrance promised fireworks later on, and I know for a fact Kenny loves seeing fireworks. Walking around again, no money to spend, we simply took in the sights, smiling and talking between us, enjoying the others company...Finally though, I told him to wait, while I went to the bathroom real quick. The one nice thing about this particular carnival was that they had actual bathrooms, and not just shitty outhouses and port-o-potties.

Coming out five minutes later, I walk towards where I'd last seen Kenny, wanting to feel the comfort of him walking beside me again...

but he wasn't there.

I admit it. I panicked. A lot.

I ran through the crowded rows of cheap games and rusty attractions, desperately searching for a familiar flash of orange, or a blonde head in a crowd, rushing towards it with high hopes, only to realize it wasn't the person I wanted. I searched and searched for what seemed like ages, but in reality was less than ten minutes. Finally, as I ran by the games again, I thought I seen a bit of his jacket. Without another thought, I started squeezing myself between the booths, trying to reach the other side, needing to find him...

"Yeah...yeah I know this kid! He's the whore! The slut who does anything to make a fucking dollar!" A gruff voice I'm sure I've never heard before.

"No shit? My god you're right! Man, oh man, I can't believe it! Hey kid, what does five bucks get me? A full blow, right?" A second raspy voice. I move faster than I ever have before, finally emerging from between the damn booths, stumbling a bit before regaining my balance. My body acts all on its own, and I reach out to grab Kenny's arm, pulling him back through the way I'd come, not wanting to give the two men behind us a chance to react and follow.

I pull him until we reach a bench near the ferris wheel. Sitting down and catching our breaths, I turn to him and grab him by the shoulders, shaking him violently. "Where the hell were you?! I told you to wait, why the fuck would you do that?! Why?!" instantly I regret even opening my mouth. His baby blue eyes are clouded and small tears are formed at the edge of his eyes..."...Kenny...I'm sorry man..." He just shakes his head and trembles a bit. His voice is hardly more than a whisper as he talks to me. "...I'm sorry Stan...I'm sorry...I didn't...they took my barette...so I ran after them...I got it back but..." he doesn't say anymore, and looks down as the tears start to run. I wish I knew how to kill those guys...really...anyone who brings up kenny's past like that should be shot...I don't know what to say that could make any of this better, so I simply wrap my arms around him in a tight embrace, needing to make him feel better.

"It wasn't important Kenny...its just a stupid plastic hair clip..." I hold him against my chest, mumbling softly into his ear. All of a sudden he sits up, eyes looking straight back into mine, holding them in place. "But it wasn't stupid! You won it for me! I said I'd keep it with me always, and they just took it...its special...its like having you with me all the time..." His eyes look like they're about to tear up again, and a lump forms in my throat.

And that's when I kissed him.

His big blue eyes widened for a moment before slowly closing...and gradually, he started to kiss back.

At the moment, they set the fireworks off, illuminating the sky with all the bright shining colors, and I'm not ashamed to say that I missed it all.

&&&

That night, we walked home hand in hand again...that dumb pink barette still clipped in his hair.

And he was beautiful.

If Cartman knew, he would definately never let me live it down.

&END&

UNGH I hate my writing style :'D I find it very choppy, but this is basically the best I can do. Yeah. And I had to put some CraigxTweek in there, since its my favorite. Gift Fic for illbewaiting.

The whole theme of a barette is based on a true story. Gotta love them carnival games right?

BTW I think it would be PRETTY EFFING SWEET IF DUVET DREW SOME CRAIGxTWEEK EH? EH? -WINKWINKNUDGENUDGE!-