Depths of Gloom (Stan x Kenny)

5

A/N: Sorry for the brief pause in the story! Crappy life stuff came up but I should be able to update at least once a week now <3 Also, Warning: Drug overdose scene

The wet pavement made his foot slide away from him without a moment's grip, sending the blonde idiot sprawling on the sidewalk. At least, it was mostly in front of his own house.

But, Kenny had been running for a reason; Karen called him just five minutes earlier, begging him to come home right away. He knew it was something bad, or she wouldn't have insisted he leave Stan. It was why he didn't waste another second dwelling on the wounds from the fall.

The front door was already slightly open, allowing the yelling to leak out into the crisp morning. Kenny paused, collecting his sanity for whatever was about to unfold with the crazy people he had to call his family. They just seemed to get worse every day, greeting him with drawn weapons, and no sympathy for a lack of a normal life.

He had his hands up, expecting to get blown away by the shotgun Stuart had at his temple immediately. It happened before, of course, but Kenny was staring directly at Karen, he didn't care that she wouldn't remember, he never wanted her to see something like that.

"Kenny." Stuart relaxed the weapon, clicking on the safety as he yanked the middle child into the living room. "Where have you been, boy?! Were you with that Marsh kid, again?"

Not giving his father the time of day, Kenny automatically turned to Karen, inspecting her for any sort of harm. Her emotions were clear - there had been something going on before he walked in there. Since Kenny didn't have any patience for Stuart specifically, he turned to him with intense anger: "What'd you do?"

Hitting the shotgun against his shoulder a few times as he narrowed his gaze at Kenny, he snorted. "Nothin'! It's your idiot brother, again! Your sister just gets all worked up when he doesn't wake up right away. He's fine! He's got a run to do in an hour."

Karen's bottom lip trembled as he looked back to her. It was more serious that Stuart could comprehend.

Although he didn't want Karen to see anything too horrible, Kenny refused to leave her alone with that man. He fucking hated his father. His mother wasn't much help either, always locking herself in their room when something like this happened to fall apart. It wasn't fair for her to only care sometimes.

The bathroom door was wide open already, dull, yellow light spilling out into the dark hallway, alluding to a scene he'd seen too many times before. Kenny didn't want to see it again, but when he rounded the final inches of the door frame to see Kevin half-dead, pale, and slumped against the toilet with a needle protruding from his forearm, he had to accept it. His brother was teetering closer to death than him lately.

Kenny ripped open the cabinets under the sink, tuning out Karen's immediate hysterical crying. He could still save him, he knew he could. The Narcan was behind everything they never bothered to use, almost as if they didn't want Kevin to be saved, forever trapped in their disgusting cycle of manipulation. Kenny didn't care about the questionable things he pushed aside, his hands getting stuck with unknown needles as he frantically fought for the box in the farthest corner from light.

As soon as the box was ripped open, he shoved it up Kevin's nose and sprayed the antagonist, praying that it could revive him in time. When he woke up, Kenny owed him an ass kicking - didn't he just tell him earlier that week what would happen if he did this again?

Kevin's eyes shot open. His raspy gasps for air were enough for Karen to collapse to the floor. "Kevin!" She sobbed in relief, rocking back and forth to avoid looking at the scene. "Thank you, Ken! I just.. I told him I missed him, and he.."