Hate My Guts (Kenny x Butters) [Completed]

38

Final Chapter! A/N at the end <3

After the events of their Junior year, the gang continued to deal with some chaos.

Nothing was ever solved so easily.

Most of the group were summoned to be witnesses in the trial for Stephen Stotch, Mary McDaniels, and even for Eric Cartman, too. There were considerations of placing the teenagers in a witness protection program - Leo convinced the Feds that the Mob boss wouldn't be setting foot in America any time soon, though. Besides, Cartman had been quick to rat everyone out.

What the gang didn't know before the trial, was that the FBI had already been monitoring the Stotch's activity before Kyle called them. Since they were collecting evidence for months, sentencing everyone involved didn't take nearly as much time as they assumed. Unfortunately, the only people who weren't punished for their actions were the Nazis. They made sure to disappear.

The Rodriquez family eventually came back to testify too, even though they were screwing themselves by confessing to certain crimes, they couldn't live with the fact that they walked away after David's murder. Kenny was impressed that they decided to admit the fault in their actions that led to his death. Now, David could truly rest in peace.

When the federal government put in legal documents that Leo would be left alone, since he complied with their investigation, he finally felt like he could breathe. Going through all the details of his life, especially the kidnapping, had taken a toll on him; it took Leo a long time to feel safe again. Stephen would be sent to a maximum prison in a different state, far away from him, but healing years of abuse didn't happen overnight.

By the time high school ended, and the gang was free to continue pursuing a normal life, Kyle started to push his mom into therapy, and rehab. Sheila still wasn't where he wanted her to be, yet for the first time in too long, she was trying. With her husband's murderers behind bars, Sheila had to move forward. Even Ike found a way to refocus his anger into sympathy for broken humans.

Kyle was thankful. He couldn't imagine where they would be if Kenny and Leo didn't fight back against the Mob the way they did. Most days now, he wore a hopeful smile on his face.

Stan stuck by his sobriety with an unexplainable resilience. Maybe it was seeing Randy circle the drain constantly, or maybe it was the fact that his mom and sister were opening up a dialogue with him; either way, Stan constantly overcame his itch for the bottle. He wouldn't subject Kyle to any more pain, if he could help it.

Of course, not everyone was making progress as quickly as they wanted. Tolkien struggled with PTSD to the severity where he couldn't be alone. Clyde was glued to his side. And that was more than fine, since he couldn't stand to be alone anymore, either. Clyde had neglected to listen to Bebe's feelings in their relationship, and he refused to let anyone feel alone like that again.

After another long year of recovery, the gang didn't know what their next moves would be. Originally, they had all wanted to move as far away from South Park as possible, however, after everything they'd been through to save the damn city - most of them were having second thoughts. The only one who even applied to college was Kyle, anyway.

Even Leo changed his mind about leaving the city. When he first moved there, it had been against his will. After Kenny showed him everything beyond the surface of destruction though, Butters understood what he missed out on. In a way, he believed that South Park could be what it once was. Besides, Kenny wouldn't leave while Karen was still in school, he didn't want to uproot the life he died repeatedly to protect.

Kenny especially didn't feel right removing himself from his siblings' lives again, after all that they'd gone through. It was miraculous they survived, why would he leave just because he graduated high school?