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They sat together, as though they were the last people in the world.
Stan gripped Kyle's hand tightly, shifting on the soft grass of the hill. They exchanged no words. Words were nearly useless, now. They could almost communicate solely in their silence.
The world had gone to shit, plants having overgrown the many buildings and houses. The explosion killed many, yet left enough to rebuild.
South Park had returned to a forest, as perhaps it should be.
“Stan,” Kyle whispered quietly.
“Yeah?”
“I’m having… regrets, I guess.” His grip tightened and he removed his hat. “I’m not sure I can continue on like this, you know? I just don’t know how to go on. We may never recover, and humanity could be doomed forever…”
For a long moment, Stan didn’t speak.
Kyle rushed to make up for it. “I-I don’t mean that I don’t want us to. I guess I just have given up in a way. Not… okay, that’s not the right way to say it-”
“Kyle.”
He pursed his lips.
Stan turned to him and interlocked their fingers. “Kyle, I do wish you knew how much I care about you. How much I want to hear your thoughts.”
“Oh?”
“I don’t want you to have to correct yourself. I want you to tell me your full truth. Say what you feel, and hide nothing, or I’ll kick you in the nuts.”
Kyle laughed loudly, his voice echoing in the valley. “Alright, alright.” He took a breath and thought for a moment. “I suppose I believe that it may all be for nothing in the end. That we’ll rebuild, and recover, and maybe for a while, we’ll be happy, and we’ll be content, but humanity is violent. We will not be free of war. We’ll have this whole damn cycle again and again and learn nothing, though we may say that we have learned our lesson. Humans will smile to each other and say, why, let’s never let this happen again! but come back, maybe a year, maybe a decade, maybe a century later, and start another war. And when I think like that, I can’t help wondering if it’s even worth it. I’m not sure I want to live in this world, Stan.”
And as the hand holding his fell, Kyle wondered if he’d said the wrong thing. He wondered if Stan thought him to be too… dramatic, too pessimistic, too-
But arms wrapped around his shoulder and pulled him close, and a voice, a shaky, unstable voice, spoke into his ear.
“I would never promise you peace, but what I will promise you is my time. Whenever you feel like this, tell me. Tell me all your thoughts. Tell me even the littlest, most impossible worry you have, because I’d rather listen to you for a hundred years than lose you now. Tell me everything you want to, and anything you don’t, because your thoughts are the most important part of you. I love you for your ideas and thoughts and worries and silly little jokes that make no sense, and I don’t want you to hide any of it from me. Whether the world falls today or stays peaceful forever, I will be there with you, right beside you, listening to every word you say, and every word you don’t.”
Kyle stared at him for a moment, then lightly pushed him. “Dude, when did you get so poetic?”
Stan laughed. “I dunno. You make me poetic, I guess.”
“I do? How sweet.”
“You do. I could go on for hours about you. I could tell you all the things I feel when I see you, like how the sparkle in your eyes is brighter than any star, and how I wish your eyes never left mine. I could tell you that I never get bored of sitting with you, even when we do nothing at all. I could say how your voice is a sweeter sound than my favorite songs, and that you’re the air I breathe, the water I drink, and all that crosses my mind is you. I won’t, though. We’d be here all night.”
Not even the darkness of the night could stifle the red flush on both their faces, nor dim the smile they shared.
Kyle leaned back and took both of Stan’s hands in his own. “Well, then I guess it’s fair to tell you that I think you’re as important as the sun, and sometimes I wonder if you’re just a dream, because I’m sure that I could only dream of a person like you. You bring color into my dull life and I’m not sure I’d go on without you, because if you weren’t there, the world would be cold and gray. If all my worries come true, and the world really does end, I wish nothing more than to be by your side when it all comes crashing down.”
A long silence followed, and all that existed was the two of them, searching one another’s eyes for what they knew would always be there.
And then Kyle pushed Stan away, fake-gagged, and said, “Ew, cheesy as fuck.”
Stan snickered and fell back onto the grassy ground. “Dude, is it really love if it’s not cheesy and gross?”
“Valid point. Counterargument: shut up.”
“Yes, sir.”
There they stayed, staring up at the sky, the gentle brushes of their hands speaking more words than those they’d just shared, and there they would stay, together for all their time on Earth, perhaps even longer.