Deep inside their heads the boys wondered if running away was their only solution.

Stan hadn't even gotten to talk to his mom about him and Kyle or heard that she saw the pictures of them together.

Kyle wasn't who he used to be.

For certain things that was good but other things showed that side of him he didn't want to believe was happening; but it was.

Kyle couldn't stop it.

He didn't even have the power or knowledge to prevent it from becoming a continuous source of confusion and genuine pain.

He wondered if it ever would stop.

Nobody was sure he would be able to go on living with the truth of what was actually happening with him.

That voice hadn't returned to bother him for a small time amount.

That relief filled him with gracious happiness.

Knowing what was really happening would solve several problems and help with new ones to come along; Kyle knew that and so did Stan.

It was too hard to tell what it actually was, the possibilities were endless. Stan took Kyle's hand and led him to his bed to lay down.

"I don't want you to worry." Stan kissed his forehead softly. "Your mom's gonna find out and then we'll have to run away." Kyle dreaded what would happen.

The feeling of it creeping up uncomfortably peeled away at the layers protecting him.

They probably weren't that protective anyway.

The layers were the positive, confident environment Kyle once had.

Remembering it made him want to suck it back into reality. Unfortunate for him, he couldn't.

Whatever this ongoing problem was, it didn't seem to budge when he tried pushing it away.

The more times it arrived back into Kyle's body, the yelling and crying seemed to debut the scenery more intensely.

But what exactly was the it of this giant conflict?

"I'm gonna go get it over with, I'll be back." Stan arose from his position on his bed. Arms releasing from around Kyle and his feet setting in to the top of the bedroom floor.

Kyle turned on his side, back facing Stan.

The brief travel to his mom's bedroom didn't help release any time for Stan to think of how to explain it in an understanding way to his mother.

"Mom," He began, "I don't want you to hate me, but-"

"I don't hate you. But did you ever think about what could happen before you started dating Kyle?"

"Yeah. I know we'll get criticism from someone or some people out in the world. I don't care. I'm happy, very happy. Can you please be happy for me?" Stan asked politely.

Sharon sighed and set her phone beside her on the bed. Her face revealed that her unspoken words would be disliked when she spoke them.

Stan waited, still nothing.

"I just don't know why you'd keep it from me, if you'd told me sooner I might've handled it differently than the way I am dealing with it now" Sharon explained at last.

"I love him, mom. I'm finally happy for real. What's wrong with that?"

"Why does it have to be a boy, Stan? You don't like girls anymore? What happened to Wendy?" Sharon asked.

"That was back in third and fourth grade. I doubt you could even call what was going on a relationship." Stan explained.

The mention of Wendy disgusted him to a very high level of hatred.

Remembering his past, back to when he wasn't with Kyle, brought some negatives into his head he wasn't interested in replaying over again.

"Mom we aren't just talking about any boy, it's Kyle. My best friend who you've known almost my whole life." Stan reminded his mom.

"Sheila's been talking to me about him, Stan. She's been saying he's not himself lately and he's been really depressed. I don't want you around that." Sharon told her son.

"He's been sad because when we moved I didn't tell him and we broke up because of it." Stan explained.

Sharon had noticed that when they moved out of South Park her son was not the same.

However, she didn't think it had anything to do with Kyle.

"You're back together aren't you?" Sharon questioned.

She was pretty sure she knew the answer to her own question but wanted it heard from her son.

"Yeah. Do you support me or not?" Stan was tired of talking around the real question that depended on him living in that house any longer.

"If I said I was completely okay with it I'd be lying." Sharon revealed truthfully.

"That's all I needed to hear." Stan stormed off back to his room.

He flipped the lock up once he was behind the door.

"Help me pack?" Stan asked his boyfriend.

Kyle moved up from his spot on the bed and made his way to Stan's closet to get clothes.

"'Why can't it be a girl?' 'Why does it have to be a boy, Stan?'" Stan angrily mocked his mother's words in the process of filling up all the bags he owned. He only owned 1 suitcase.

The redhead didn't speak a word while packing his boyfriend's belongings.

He then spoke when he peered down at Stan's Xbox One.

"You want your Xbox right?" Kyle asked.

"'I don't want you around that' 'Did you ever think about what could happen before you started dating Kyle?'" Stan was still replaying the words out loud he had to hear from his unsupportive mother.

"Stan-"

"To parents it's a motherfucking crime if their child is gay. That's legit fucking bullshit. She's supposed to be there for me. I just don't..."

Stan didn't even finish his sentence before grunting noisily and tossing the packed bag hastily across the room in the direction of where the window was mounted on the painted wall.

He'd always thought his mom would be there for him.

It's not like he didn't expect what his mom said, but he tried hoping for the best.

To get what you want out of life it's going to take a lot more than just hoping for the best.

That last-second miracle happens in movies.

Rarely does it happen in reality to a single individual on planet earth.

To keep going on with life, not hiding their relationship, the 2 boys were running away.

They didn't have time to hide it and they sure as hell didn't have time to play games.

Hiding it would cause limitless consequences.

It took awhile to pack, but Stan and Kyle were able to fit a lot more than they predicted into the bags they had to work with. "Stan where are we even going?" Kyle hoped that Stan had a plan.

With no plan, what good could come of what they were about to do?

"What family members do we have that would have the decency to support us?" Stan answered his boyfriend with another question.

"Would your Uncle Jimbo be cool with it?" Kyle suggested someone.

"Not sure. Haven't talked to him since a few days ago when we went hunting, we can drive there in the morning." Stan responded, thinking back to when he went hunting with Uncle Jimbo.

It was fine and all, they shot 2 deer.

Stan wasn't so sure Uncle Jimbo was up for supporting his nephew and Kyle, let alone letting both of them live with him.

Sheila's sister...hmmm.

Kyle suddenly perked up when the idea fluttered into his brain, "My Aunt, my cousin's mom. You remember him."

"Yeah he complained a lot." Stan chuckled a little.

"I can call her and talk to her, maybe she'd let us live with her. She moved here a few weeks ago when my cousin went off to college. They let him go early." Kyle explained.

"Sure. I'm gonna go get my dad's money stash from the garage." Randy still wasn't home yet.

He'd been coming home drunk off his ass for the past couple weeks.

His job at the car shop was probably about to slip through the cracks if he showed up to work drunk or hungover again.

One day last week Randy stayed up drinking until he passed out for 3 hours and then woke to the annoying alarm to go to work.

The boss at the car shop called Sharon agitated with her husband's appearance to the shop.

Sharon apologized to her husband's boss.

Randy didn't expect to come home to a chaotic argument with his wife that night.

Stan was dragged into the middle of it.

Randy blamed Stan for his drinking, saying that Stan's being depressed had put him in an unstable position as a father.

Half the shit that came out of Randy's mouth half the time was just flat out ignored by Stan.

Sharon was still in her bedroom, door shut.

That gave Stan a better chance of sneaking into the garage to get the money. The black haired boy snuck his way to the money stash and stole what he could.

It was a very slight chance that Sharon would care even if she got mad Stan ran away.

Randy stole money from his wife almost every week.

His drinking had become a serious conflict against their marriage.

The strain it was putting on the two of them increased throughout time.

Stan stuffed the money in his sweatshirt and hurried as quietly as he could back into his room

"You get all of it?" Kyle was stuffing some things into another bag of Stan's he'd found under his bed.

Stan pulled out 5 big wads of cash.

"Holy shit how much is that?" Kyle held one of the small stacks in his hand.

"A lot. I knew he had it but never knew where he got it." Stan picked up a few bags from the window. Kyle took the cash and stashed inside the found bag of Stan's.

"Okay, ready?" Stan rotated to face Kyle.

"Mhm." Kyle grasped a few bags in his hand.

"I'll climb down my rope ladder and you can toss the bags down to me, okay?" Stan opened up his window.

"Sure." Kyle nodded. That's what they did.

Stan descended down the rope ladder he had from when he snuck out to parties and Kyle's house when he was grounded or it was already past his curfew.

Kyle tossed all the bags down. The suitcase was a little heavier than expected.

Kyle slipped on one of the ladder handles on his way down, it was a little far from the ground.

Stan caught him in time though.

"Careful." He whispered to Kyle in his arms.

Kyle held Stan's face and kissed him passionately.

"Let's go." Kyle said against Stan's lips.

Each of the front doors were closed with caution of Stan's mom hearing them leave.

"Wanna stay in a hotel? Just for the night?" Stan suggested. "Yeah." Kyle agreed.

Off onto the road, car tires whirling around at 40 miles an hour, Stan and Kyle escaped both of the places they would now bury deep in the pits of the past.

This was all a new beginning.

For both of them, a new start was needed.

They were losing the company of unsupportive parents.

Stan could let that go effortlessly, Kyle could let that go effortlessly.

New start, new beginning, no parents. Out on their own, only 17. There they go, 2 runaways.