Work Text:
“ joie de vivre “ - exuberant enjoyment of life.
—
hot clouds of breath fogged up in the cold air, fading out to nothingness within a moment or two.
snow and black ice had frozen over south park; considerably worse than what the people of the town would consider “normal.”
people were constantly falling on the ice and having to clear the front of their houses twenty-four-seven. it had even been broadcast on the local radio station that nobody was to drive because the weather was too dangerous.
however, this kind of weather didn’t stop kenny mccormick from harassing craig tucker.
“dude, it’s fucking freezing, ” craig grumbled, rubbing his gloved hands together to produce a pathetically small amount of warmth. another cloud of smoke appeared in front of chapped lips as he huffed in unfiltered annoyance. “what are we doing out here?”
“we never finished spray-painting from last week!” kenny hummed as if the answer had been obvious. he ducked down, moving debris from his path as he lifted up a loose area of the chain-link fence and slid underneath.
craig mumbled his complaints before following suit, dusting the snow off of himself once he stood up.
kenny had raced ahead; already clambering onto the abandoned train.
leaving behind deep footprints in the endless pit of snow, craig trailed after him once again. before reaching the train, he found his eyes looking behind him to compare both of their footprints.
kenny’s size tens worn down boots with a hole in the bottom and craigs size twelve trainers left ragged prints in pure white.
it was somewhat fitting, craig thought.
he was taken out of his head when he heard the familiar sounds of cans rattling and he was suddenly aware of the cold air nipping at the tip of his nose.
craig hurried to climb onto the carriage, with boarded-up windows and a floor threatening to fall. kenny had already clumsily thrown on his mask, slanting lazily across his face.
waltzing over, craig picked his mask up from their shared duffle bag and put it on. he took it upon himself to straighten kenny’s mask too. kenny looked at him with squinting eyes, signalling he was smiling under that stained mask.
both of them painted for an hour, with lots of breaks between those minutes. eventually, they had a “masterpiece” (what kenny insisted it was).
it was messy— a workpiece with both hints of mccormick and tucker in it. shades of muted and bilious colours, blending together in a way that no usual artist would dare combine and different scenes from two very different minds. craig, depicting an image of space with a grey, plain, astronaut standing on the moon, looking down on earth which was mid-explosion. kenny, who drew the earth exploding and rocks breaking off, had infested craig’s moon with sickly green aliens and drew a neon mess of pinks, purples, blues, above the earth and astronaut. the neon mess bled into faint yellow and white and yellow specs were splattered across the whole black background.
“and lastly,” kenny smiled, shaking the white spray can and kneeling down beside the picture. steadily, he drew both of their initials.
KM&CT.
“... dude . that is faggy .” craig sneered.
“what? it’s just our initials! this thing is sick, craig, we need to leave our mark.” kenny argued, slinging off his mask.
craig merely shrugged, sitting against the far wall to admire his work. kenny took it upon himself to sit beside craig, slumping back against the wall.
in awe, the duo stared at the drying paint for a while. whoever said watching paint dry was a boring activity clearly had never sat back and admired a fresh piece of brand new artwork.
both boys sat in silence for a long time, long enough for their knuckles and fingertips to turn red from the cold. the silence was broken eventually, of course, by kenny mccormick:
“ joie de vivre !” he burst out, smiling in his usual goofy manner.
“what?” confused, craig turning to the other.
“in french class, that’s the phrase,” kenny beamed. “i was thinking about it and that’s how i feel with you.”
“what?” craig repeated, dumbfounded.
“when the teacher said that phrase, i was thinking of someone, but i didn’t know who at the time but i've just realised it right now.” kenny paused to smile, cocking his head to the side like a puppy. “it’s you, you’re where i feel a genuine joie de vivre. you’re my joie de vivre !”
craig stared for a long time. “... honestly, kenny, i don’t even know what that means.” despite not knowing at all, craig couldn’t help but let a big clumsy smile appear on his face.
kenny smiled, slowly sliding his hand on top of craig’s. “it means, like… you’re super happy with life, i think. so like, you make my life happy. i dunno.”
slowly, craig turned over his hand to intertwine their fingers. “you’re such a dumbass,” he replied back fondly, nervously, “are you sure you even used that phrase right in a sentence?”
“i have no fucking idea!” kenny laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world, affectionately rubbing his face against craig’s shoulder.
craig sighed briefly, leaning into kenny’s familiar touch. “we should get going, it’s freezing.”
kenny smiled against craigs shoulder before shifting, hesitantly planting a chaste kiss to the corner of craig's lips. “how about we warm each other up?”
“right now?” craig groaned, although his voice held no genuine annoyance. kenny murmured a ‘yes’ against craig’s skin, trailing his teeth over craigs pulse point. he nipped at his skin before making his way back up, peppering quick kisses across craigs jaw until finally connecting their lips for real.
when craig and kenny had first met, craig had been a terrible kisser. he was clumsy and sucked in his lips and was completely stiff. he had no rhythm and kept as still as possible.
kenny, being the only one of them who had experience with kissing, had to guide most of their kisses and teach craig how to do it properly.
now, craig was much better, but kenny still liked to hold the reins and craig was more than happy to comply.
as always, kenny grabbed hold of craigs chin between his thumb and forefinger. their lips moved with each other, tongues dancing over each other’s lower lip. kenny tilted his head to the side, moving with craig’s body so their kiss could grow deeper. craig was still until kenny gently reminded him to move too.
finally, a tongue pushed between craigs lips and he couldn’t stop the guttural groan that escaped him. slowly, craig brought up his hands and placed both of them on the back of kenny’s head and thin blond curls wrapped around craigs fingers like vines.
“you’re still as awkward and as nervous as you were the first time we kissed.” kenny’s voice was below a whisper, with some of his words being muffled by craig’s lips trying to capture his again.
craig muttered a ‘ shut up ’ before pulling kenny’s head close to him and practically squishing their lips together again. kenny was intoxicating, craig thought. never had craig felt so fucking weak around another person before. kissing was nothing but an annoyance to craig… until he began to regularly kiss kenny. that was when he realised what kissing really was; a joyful activity that made his heart seize in his chest and see stars in the endless darkness of his eyelids.
the soft battle of their tongues began once again and a small trail of drool spilt from the corner of craigs mouth.
they continued on for what felt like hours, as time lost all of its meaning. after a period of time, craig broke their trance and pulled back. it was then that both of them realised how badly they were clutching onto one another and how much their lungs hurt.
staring into each other’s eyes, craig grew shy and pushed kenny’s face away from him with light force. a stupid smile broke out on kenny’s face, his giggles muffled against craigs palm.
“i think we’re done here, and i’m freezing, so,” that was all that was said before craig rose to his feet. kenny followed swiftly, not wanting to be left behind. “we can go to my house.”
“ohh! you’re feeling extra nice today. we never go to your house.” kenny teased, bumping shoulders with a displeased craig.
“yes, i’m feeling nice,” craig glared, although lacking his usual irritable tone. “so don’t make me regret it.”
beaming, kenny nodded excitedly. “i won’t, i won’t, promise. i will even pinky promise you.”
“we aren’t doing a pinky-” craig was cut off by kenny shoving his pinky in craig’s face.
“craig,” kenny began, exaggerating his sad tone and pout. “if you don’t pinky promise me, i will straight up just start crying. right here. right now.”
…
“fine. whatever.”
linking pinkies, they secured kennys promise of behaving in craigs house.
although craig had his doubts, because when did kenny mccormick ever behave?
“my joie de vivre .” kenny winked flirtatiously, breaking into giggles when craig grimaced.
pulling a face, craig nudged him with his elbow. “stop saying that.”