Homeward - A Kyman Fanfiction

Chapter 1: Return to South Park

Kyle watched the hills roll by from the window of the bus, his face resting against the cool window. This chill was fresh, not like the chill they had back in San Francisco. This chill was more sincere, more familiar to him than the one he's been used to for the past eight years. He found that strange, how he spent more of his life in a place he could never, truly, call home.

The bus seat was coarse and torn up, like the one he took from Colorado to San Francisco, and like the one he took from the bus stop to school every day. The buses never seemed to change. The capacity did, however, because the bus was crowded when he first boarded, after his four hour flight from San Francisco to Aspen. Yet now, as he neared South Park, the amount of people lessened and lessened, until there were only about 5 passengers left, including himself. Though he didn't mind the quiet, where he was left alone with his thoughts, and his growing worries. Worries about returning to South Park, what he would do when he was there, who he would see, and who would be gone. The final question is what made him the most nervous. He wondered who he would miss, from then, and if he would notice their absence. He couldn't tell, for sure, who would have stayed, though he did have some preferences.

As his fingers drummed against his chin, the bus slowly came to a stop, white hill of freshly laid snow greeting him. Another familiarity he had grown accustomed to, which they didn't have in San Francisco. Now, thinking about it, San Francisco had very little that Kyle was particularly fond of. Though he would oftentimes dream of a life outside of a small town in Colorado, once he got a taste of it, it was clearly too much. San Francisco just didn't have it. No place besides South Park did.

Kyle grabbed his hat from the empty seat beside him, as well as his luggage he had packed haphazardly two days prior, when he first decided to come homeward. The bus doors opened with a sigh, letting in a crisp breeze. Already, Kyle felt he had under packed for this trip. The chill got through his thin Fall Out Boy sweater with ease, and his legs already pricked with the cold. It seems he forgot how harsh the autumnal chill is in Colorado. While San Francisco isn't the warmest, the California sun still beams down on them often, even in the colder months. Now, though, he recalls the familiar chill and snow always surrounding South Park, even in Summer. The familiarity shocked him to his bones, reaching him the same the chill did.

"Are you planning on getting off?" The bus driver asked. Kyle hadn't even noticed he had stopped.

"Oh? Yes, I'm sorry." He gave a small, awkward laugh, waving off to the bus driver as he finally stepped into South Park. The driver rolled his eyes, and soon enough the doors shut and drove off.

Left in the smoke of his last remnants of San Francisco, the weight of his choice began to settle. His legs felt too heavy to move forward, and he found himself static at the bus stop. He would have to go eventually. Soon, preferably, but something in him didn't let his feet start the route. He knew part of it was nerves- it just had to be. His anxieties of not only returning, but of him being away from Ike, and in a place that was so homely, while also being oddly foreign.

What was he hoping to get out of this? Why did he come here? To sit and stare at his feet? To wait for someone to pull him out of the trance he put himself in, to tell him where he needed to go, and when? All this guidance was wishful thinking. He sniffled as the cold got to his sinuses. Better now than never.

With one final exhale, Kyle began walking. He walked for a good while, past familiar buildings and unfamiliar buildings all alike, though all of them seemed to blur together in the end. Old, new, he could hardly tell the difference. Each building looked dilapidated in their own right, no matter how different they looked to him, or how novel they tried to be: something in this town just made everything stay the same.

Kyle stopped as he stepped closer to the elementary school. His body willed him to stay; it was nearly involuntary. This was close to the most memorable spot to him in South Park. He turned abruptly as he heard footsteps from behind him, and a large figure cast a dark shadow behind him.

"Um? Butters?" Kyle's auburn eyebrows furrowed when he caught a glimpse at the boy- no, man- that stood above him.

"Hiya buddy!" Butters exclaimed with glee, smiling down at his childhood friend. Yes, smiling down. Butters now practically towered above Kyle's 5'8" frame, at roughly 6'4", with a set of broad, muscular shoulders, and the arms and torso to match. Looking at his face, Kyle noticed that gleam of childlike wonder still present in Butters' eyes, his all too true aqua eyes, though one seemed to have died out a little. The scar, he realized, from when they were kids, was still there, and stood starkly against the rest of his soft features. Butters had sweet downturned lips and a straight nose, with his blond locks of hair cut in a similar style as when they were kids. He had nearly perfectly straight white teeth, with only a charming tooth gap in the very front. What was most shocking was how... attractive Butters was, while he still seemed to maintain the same qualities he had back then.

Kyle stood in shock, studying every single feature on Butters' face. "Hey.." Kyle's voice slowly trailed off as he searched his face, "you look... different." He heard the hitch in his voice, embarrassingly, but hoped Butters wouldn't notice.

Butters laughed, an open, carefree thing, and replied, "yeah, it sure has been a while! Don't very well look the same as I did in fourth grade."

"Definitely not," Kyle agreed. He took a glance around, at the elementary school and at the snow below their feet, and asked: "do you wanna go out to eat?"