Chapter Text
Karen Reeves had spent the afternoon digging around Mason's room, convinced her son had been hiding something. He had been strange the last couple weeks, acting off from his normal. She'd found a shoebox shoved to the farthest corner under his bed, a couple of old pill bottles stored inside. There were the medications she'd been giving him. She had even counted the pills, they'd been missing only a couple of doses from the last fourteen days.
The sound of the front door opening pulled her from the floor of the room. She didn't put the bottles back into the box, instead, she slowly stood and settled the box onto the comforter. Hands settled accusingly on her hips while she waited in silence.
The eternally whiny voice of that redneck kid- McCormick, is finally heard. Why her son was so interested in him she would never understand. There were so many girls out there, even other boys, anyone would be better than that beggar.
That ugly blonde head appeared right behind the beautiful curls her son had. His hair was slathered in some strange blue tone that McCormick had undoubtedly chosen. Her lip curled at one corner, mimicking a dog snarling in aggression. One finger had already been accusingly pointed at the shoe box lying open on the bed.
"What the fuck is that? Your Valium isn't supposed to be under the bed in a fucking shoebox. I pay for you to take it! They keep you sane. You're fucking psychotic without them!" Karen accused him, her eyes locked to his.
Her sons face falls, frozen in fear. She had caught him in the act and he was in that perfect state for accusations to fit, whether or not they had true merit.
"You've been giving them to your perverted, sick boy-thing haven't you? How dare you give away the medication I work to death to pay for! How dare you give it to that wretched, smelly, disgusting bastard!" She'd come closer to her son, towering over the child. Karen Reeves was not an intimidating woman, standing around five and a half feet tall and average in every sense of the word. Despite her size, screaming at her son had reduced him to a smaller shadow, he had shrunk into himself.
She watched him cower, it infuriated her. She swung her fist out at her twelve-year-old son. Karen was still his mother at the end of the day, she was supposed to love and protect him.
Kenny watched, frozen in horror as her nails connected, sinking into his skin and dragging through with the motion. As the sound of the slap resounds through the room, Karen kept going. "Now see what you made me do?! You fucking do this when you don't take your pills!" She could see the deep red gouges, blood oozed out and fell in rivulets down the marred, grey-russet skin.
Kenny moved faster than anyone had a right to- his hands landed on Karen Reeves shoulders. He pushed her some feet back into the room where she collapsed into a heap on the floor. He had been shocked into silence, unable to move, until the sound had finally cleared the shock.
"You are fucking lucky I'm not fucking sober-"
"STOP!" Masons voice cut through the house like a wave. The world came to a standstill, left a feeling as though he'd pressed pause on reality but was alone in the immunity.
Mason moved fast, clutching at his cheek as it started to burn. This was bad, so very bad, but he could not stop now.
"Follow me out the front door." He leaned up, close so only Kenny could hear. His fingers dig into the freckled skin, his grip tense and tight, leaning so close that his lips brush Kenny's ear.
The compulsion is stronger than any chain he'd ever felt, wrapping around his entire being like a vice. True fear grips the deepest pit of his stomach as his body obeys without question. Every vein felt as though it was filled with ice, the freezing slush pushing his own blood out and replacing it entirely.
No thoughts of his own were formed once the ice had taken hold. The only thing left was the desire to obey. Kenny didn't realise it when his body started to move of its own accord. One foot in front of the other, obedient as a dog and right out the front door.
"Be yourself." The command is short, but it gave freedom. Quick as that, Mason shoved his head back into the house and yelled, "START!"
Like pressing play on a remote, the yelling started right where it left off, only from Karen Reeves side alone.
Kenny moved then, his body filling with warmth so fast it almost made his head swim. Icy fingers still dug deep into something at the back of his mind, though it only enforced the desire to protect. He pushed Mason, one hand firmly in the center of his back, running behind him as the two boys rushed down the sidewalk. The front door slammed open so hard Kenny swore he could hear the glass rattle inside its pane.
They round the front fence, feet skidding across icy pavement a second before a bottle crashes to the ground where Kenny had just been. The sound was startling in the night, glass smashing on concrete, echoing through an empty neighborhood.
"How dare you do that to me! Jane you disgusting whore! I gave you everything! And this is how you repay me?!" His mother screeched from the porch.
Kenny spared one glance back to assure himself that the raging bitch didn't have a gun aimed at his back. Thankfully, it was only another bottle, leading a slow arc that aimed to come down pretty close.
He pulled Mason quickly, jerking him into his side, just before the bottle smashed where his body had just been. The blue-haired boy dared a glance up, their eyes meeting just for a moment. A small smile shared between, just a split second before they had begun to move again.
As much as he really fucking wanted to know what just happened, his main concern was about distancing them from that psychotic woman. Mason pointed to the woods, Kenny followed to the sweet sound of his mothers insane screaming fading into the distance. It eventually cut off, leaving the sound of the night to swallow them whole. Tomorrow there'd be hell to pay, but that had crossed his mind a little too late.
"Your dad probably pulled her inside." Kenny huffed out, the first words spoken between them after long minutes had passed. Forming words inside his mind had been taking a bit longer, but being high was a Kenny specialty, he'd manage.
The shorter boy slowed his running, eventually coming to a complete stop next to a tree. Kenny felt a passing urge to demand what happened to them in the house again, but he shook it off as he crossed the short distance to Masons side.
"She shouldn't have hurt you." Kenny's drawl is thick with emotion. The pills he'd already taken were really starting to hit, his head had finally gotten that blessed fuzzy warmth that made everything numb. Anger was fighting through it thanks to the sequence of events, but it was easier to deal with now.
Mason tensed as his arms slid around the thin frame, holding the boy tightly to his chest.
"Your mom is lucky I'm not sober" Kenny repeated, his words coming out slower, stunted between each thought, "I'd have killed her. No one touches their children like that.. especially you."
Mason's head jerked up, his dark eyes trying to pin Kenny's accusingly. The motion startled him and Kenny took a half step back, giving enough room that Mason took the opportunity to whip around and punch him square in the gut.
"Fuck!" Kenny doubled over, clutching at his stomach where the pain bloomed out from. It wasn't as though Mason was very strong, but he had almost made him vomit. "What the hell-"
Mason typed out furiously on his phone, the bright screen nearly blinding as it suddenly gets shoved into his eyes. "Your parents hit you too!! You have no right to talk about that shit, asswad
"Okay, okay... I can kinda see your point." Kenny pushed the phone away to see Masons face right behind it, close and worried. His eyebrows knit together, little worry lines formed on his forehead. "I knew she was bad, just not this bad." His hand reached out, fingers delicately tracing over the heated skin near the topmost mark. The deep black ruts across Mason's cheek are barely visible in the near darkness under the canopy of trees. Kenny could barely make them out.
With a little noise akin to a puppy being kicked, Mason flinched away from his hand. In the half second spent in shock before he can feel the guilt for hurting his friend, Mason had plastered himself to Kenny's chest, arms tight around his back, holding himself to the soft sweatshirt.
Kenny heard another noise, well he felt it more than heard it, the noise reverberating through his chest. Masons face pushed harder into him, the soft grunt coming up again. He'd known the boy for a couple of years at this point, Mason's nonverbal noises had become somewhat of a language of their own.
"I'm not... talking about my parents right now." Thoughts slow, pleasantly easing up on the rage in his mind. Mason should learn better self-protection, Kenny mused, "Your punch needs some work."
Mason didn't respond this time. Instead, he remained silent, letting the blonde hold him. They stand that way for a long time, Mason tucked against him, Kenny leaning against a tree.
When Mason finally moved to pull away a pained cry cuts the night. Kenny didn't have to look down to know the dried blood on his face was probably stuck. Hearing it pull was bad enough, feeling it ripping would have been anything but pleasant. He did look down to see his sweatshirt stuck to Mason's face, the dark seeping liquid had stained further as he'd reopened the scabbing wounds.
"Woah, Woah, Woah. Shhh." Kenny quickly grabbed Mason by the head and held him still. Touch gentle on the angry looking skin, Kenny spent the better part of ten minutes trying to free them both. Mason whimpered the whole time, each little pull causing another anguished cry.
Fresh blood poured down the slighter boy's cheek in dark lines, cutting across the raged arches. It left Mason to look like a spider carefully spun a dark web across his skin.
"Fuck, Ace, you should come to my house. We need to clean your face up-"
Mason shook his head vigorously, a whine coming out. Quick hands grab for his phone again, but Kenny didn't want to wait for a response.
"Okay, so... not my house." He shifted from foot to foot, his stance loose. "How about Leo's house then? His parents are out of town this weekend. It'll be quiet and he has plenty of first-aid shit. He won't say a word to anyone either, you know that."
Mason's honey-coloured eyes slowly raked across his face with a quick flick up to his eyes.
Kenny waited, breath stuck in his throat, as Mason seemed to debate internally. Whatever decision he came to, it must have been in agreement. His hand was grabbed and pulled, Mason yanked him toward South Park once again, this time for the Stotch house.