Prologue -

The sound of the doorbell ringing made his ears perk up in excitement. It was the noise he had been waiting to hear all day.

A fifteen year old Stan Marsh hastily bounded off his bed, tossing the comic book he was reading into the corner of his room. He stopped for a sharp moment in front of the small mirror that sat on top of his dresser to take a look at himself. His trusty old red poofball beanie sat nicely on top of his head as he smiled at himself – impressed with the reflection that gazed back at him, but even more enthused to get downstairs to the visitor that was waiting for him.

Just as he was about to let his anticipation get the best of him, Stan spun around on the spot. His wide vision landed on the cup of water sitting on his bedside table and the vibrant, red rose that gently stood up inside it. His heart skipped a beat.

Racing down the stairs, Stan carefully placed the rose into his back pocket as he eventually reached the front door, smiling at his mother who had made it there just before him.

"Stan," Sharon cooed with a teasing smirk, "You have a visitor."

The dark haired teenager rolled his eyes, softly shooing his mum away, "I know Mum, thanks," he managed to say, waiting patiently for Sharon to exit the scene. As soon as she did, Stan swallowed a nervous lump, took a breath and then pulled the front door wide open.

Almost instantly, his stomach flipped, "Hi Wendy!"

Wendy Testaburger was the epitome of beauty. The fifteen year old girl's black hair had grown a few more inches over the years but was still accompanied by her pink beret that sat comfortably on her head. Her pastel blue coloured jacket hugged her growing body perfectly. She was about the same height as Stan, which of course made her look sort of tall, when in reality it was her boyfriend who actually was short for his age. Her cherry coloured lips were calling Stan's name as they spoke a simple 'hi', causing him to eagerly lick his own.

Leaning in towards his girlfriend, his heart rate crept up the second that he could sense Wendy's breath dancing across his skin. Just as he was imagining the familiar sensation of his girlfriend's kiss, Stan heard Wendy's breathing hitch at the very last second before she tilted her head ever so slightly, forcing his lips to instead land on her cheek. Frowning to himself as they separated, Stan soon shook his head, ridding it of the confusing thought. He knew that these past few days for Wendy had been long and enduring.

"I missed you," he spoke into the chilled air, "Do you wanna' come inside?"

Looking up from the ground beneath her feet, Wendy shrugged her shoulders, "I missed you, too," she started with a soft smile, "I was actually going to see if you wanted to go for a walk?"

Stan matched the pleased expression beaming back at him, "Sure," he chirped, closing the front door of his house behind him as the two of them set off down the sidewalk.

Happiness didn't even begin to describe how Stan felt to see her again. For the past four days, Wendy had been in California, although, it hadn't been a trip of pleasure. Sadly for her family, her uncle had suffered a heart attack and passed away suddenly. The young girl and both her parents had flown to Los Angeles where her uncle and the rest of her family lived to lay him peacefully to rest. It had been gloomy event to live through, and the worst part about it was that all Wendy could think about while she was gone was Stan. How much she missed him, how she wished he could have been there, what she would say to him about all of it when she returned to South Park. This final thought made her heart sink.

Watching on as he walked alongside her, Stan raised a curious eyebrow. The young teenager obviously understood what his girlfriend had been through and wasn't surprised that she still seemed rather glum, but he at least thought that the two of them coming together again after four days would make Wendy a little bit cheerier.

Suddenly thinking of something that might – at the bare minimum – make Wendy crack a genuine smile, Stan reached into his back pocket, "I got this for you. I mean, I know it's not much, but still," he spoke sweetly.

Looking down at the beautiful flower being offered to her, Wendy paused for a minute before finally accepting it with a sigh, "You didn't have to get me anything, Stan."

Again, the dark haired teenager frowned, "Well, I know... but I wanted you to know that I was thinking of you while you were gone."

Something wasn't right. Stan could just feel it. On any other normal day Wendy's face would have lit up at the sight of him, she would have squeezed the life out of him in an affectionate hug and she definitely would have grabbed a hold of his hand as the two of them walked along together. That sort of behaviour and interaction between them had just become normal to everybody who knew them – they were older now, and the times of being detached from each other in a public setting were long over. Stan was crazy about Wendy. But he could still tell that something about this particular day was far from normal.

"Wendy, what's wrong?" he asked with his hands shoved worriedly in his pockets, "You're so quiet and, like, not even happy to see me. At all. Is there something you're not telling me?"

Their walk had eventually lead them very close to Wendy's house, and as the young girl was visibly trying to gather all of her thoughts, she pushed a strand of stray hair behind her ear and stopped at the foot of her family's driveway. Turning around to face Stan, she folded her arms across her chest and gazed at him with an expression of all seriousness, causing his heart to near enough completely freeze.

"Stan, my mum's brother was a very successful businessman who never got married and didn't have any children," she began blankly, "When my family and I went to get his will read, he left my mum his beach house in Malibu."

His insides were blistering with pure fear as Stan watched Wendy fumble over her next sentence.

"My entire family lives in L.A., Stan, so..." she trailed off, shutting her eyes for a moment with another poignant sigh, "So, my parents and I are moving there. We're going to leave Colorado, move into the beach house and live there."

As soon as the final few words left the end of her tongue, Stan's world stopped spinning. He was absolutely motionless – he couldn't move or speak, he could barely even think of anything to possibly say in reply to what he had just heard. The only thing he could sense was his heart dropping to the pit of his stomach.

"L-long distance r-relationships are tr-tricky," he was somehow able to mutter, "But I'm sure we'll be able to – "

"Stan," Wendy spoke, cutting him off. Her voice cracked at the mere mention of his name as she was clearly trying to hold back the icy tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. Their vision remained locked in complete silence for what felt like an eternity, before the raven haired girl slowly shook her head with a despondent shrug of her shoulders.

There was no holding back Stan's emotions as a single tear rolled down his face at the same time he felt his heart crumble to pieces, "Wendy, don't do this to me again. Please."

"I'm not trying to hurt you, Stan," she retorted, throwing her arms out either side of her. She had almost dropped the rose that she was still holding onto as in the same instant she watched Stan's face turn from sadness to anger.

"Well, you're obviously not doing this because you care about me," he spat with venomous sarcasm, "Because this is you telling me that I'm never going to see you again? Right?"

The reality of the situation dawned on her with the words that Stan spoke as Wendy quickly fell to silence once more, her arms curling back up into recoiled sorrow. She tried as hard as she could to avoid the pleading expression on Stan's face, but the distress that filled his eyes was far too much for her to handle.

His throat splintered in one last desperate effort, "Wendy?"

Wendy blinked away the salty tears that pooled in the corners of her eyes. She looked down at the ground and sniffled, giving them the brief opportunity to fall unnoticed. But it was all completely useless. Snapping her head back up, she allowed her eyes to cast once more on the gorgeous face that she had loved for the longest time as she shoved the rose against Stan's chest and turned around to vanish, for the last time, into her house.

"Bye, Stan."

The door slamming shut behind her brought Stan's entire existence tumbling down. He was solidified in agony on the side of the road. He didn't care whether he was hit by a car or squashed by a truck in that moment because as far as he was concerned, his life was already over. The fifteen year old felt absolutely suffocated by the pain that had exploded in his chest – a pain that he never imagined could have been worse than what he had felt six years ago when he and Wendy had first broken up, but he was wrong. He and Wendy had told stories, shared secrets, supported each other. He had got to kiss and hug her every single day for the past six years of his life, but now suddenly in the blink of an eye he would never get to do either of those things again. He would never even get to lay his eyes on her again. She was gone.

As the snow started to fall that much heavier from over the mountain, Stan lost all feeling in his hands as the red rose fell from between his fingers and landed gently on the ground. In a matter of moments, it was covered in a white sheet of snow where it lay in Wendy's front yard, just as each piece of Stan's broken heart was iced over with the coldest misery.

He couldn't believe that this was how it all ended.

Hello lovers of South Park!

I'm very excited to be writing this story! I've been watching South Park for a long time (I started watching it when I was waaaay too young) but have only just recently completely fallen back in love with it! My boyfriend had actually never seen it before - ever! So as soon as I showed it to him and we started watching it basically every day, all these cool ideas for stories started coming to me. Because I love Stan, he has always been my favourite, I am absolutely crazy about him :') And so because I'm a sucker for sappiness, and I think Stan and Wendy are adorable, this story was born!

I would love to hear what you all think so far, or if you have any suspicions of where it might be going. So please leave a review! I really appreciate it :)

Till next time guys,

Reneyyyyyyyyyyyy x