Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/13344951.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
  Category:
      F/M, M/M
  Fandom:
      South_Park
  Relationship:
      Craig_Tucker/Tweek_Tweak, Kenny_McCormick/Butters_Stotch, Kyle
      Broflovski/Stan_Marsh, Clyde_Donovan/Bebe_Stevens
  Character:
      Craig_Tucker, Tweek_Tweak, Kenny_McCormick, Butters_Stotch, Kyle
      Broflovski, Stan_Marsh, Clyde_Donovan, Bebe_Stevens, Eric_Cartman, Ruby/
      Tricia_Tucker, Others_to_be_added_as_the_story_goes_on, Jase_Myers_(OC),
      Craig_Tucker's_Parents, Tweek_Tweak's_Parents, Token_Black, Other_South
      Park_background_Characters, Dickhead_Senior_(OC), Carissa_(McCormick)
      Addler_(OC)
  Additional Tags:
      Smol_Coffee_Bean_is_older_now, Craig_pretends_not_to_care, Tweek_rarely
      goes_to_school_anymore, Angst, Smut, Fluff, Not_for_children, All_the
      show_stuff_happened, But_no_one_remembers_it, As_if_someone_smudged
      everything_together, Kenny_is_the_only_one_who_really_remembers, Tweek
      practically_runs_the_coffee_shop, His_parents_are_never_home, Always
      countries_away, Neglect, Craig's_parents_suck, Abuse, Self-Harm, trigger
      warnings_apply, Bullying, Tweek_wants_to_go_to_school_for_art, Craig
      doesn't_want_to_exist, Smoking_of_the_devil's_lettuce, haha_had_to_put
      that_in, Smoking, Drinking, Craig_write_songs, Other_tags_to_be_added,
      these_boys_are_so_gay, "Seems_gay_I'm_in", creek_-_Freeform, Attempted
      Rape, Attempted_Sexual_Assault, Time_travel_apparently
  Stats:
      Published: 2018-01-11 Updated: 2018-02-14 Chapters: 12/? Words: 34571
****** Of Overactive Minds and Toxic Thoughts ******
by blue_noize
Summary
     It's been seven years since then. Seven years since the two became
     friends. Seven years since that moment when the entire town seemed to
     just forget everything. As if someone had taken their memories and
     just dragged a finger across them with black paint. Seven long years
     since Tweek felt accepted. Seven dark years since Craig could speak
     his mind. Seven excruciating years of abuse, neglect, and loneliness.
     The only thing either of them remember is that feeling of acceptance
     and companionship that seems to return when they are near each other.
     Those scars that they both bear, both physical and emotional, are
     hard to erase. Can chance encounters and and one intruding blonde
     bring these two together, or will their Overactive Minds and Toxic
     Thoughts rip them apart harder than ever before?
Notes
     I feel like this took me forever to decide to write. I hope that I
     can keep this going as I love this pairing and it feels very close to
     my heart. I suck at summaries and I suck at being a good writer. I'm
     trash and I'm sorry but I try. Self-indulgence at its finest, I
     think.
     Also, I've been reading Semantically Challenged, a fic by TeamAlphaQ,
     and it kinda inspired this fic. I'm basically taking everything that
     has happened and making it so that no one can really remember that it
     existed. All those bonds that were created, romantically, when they
     were kids has been erased, and the only one to really remember is
     Kenny, because of the amount of lives he's lived, I think.
     I don't know honestly, I'm just babbling.
     Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, as I do, and Toxic Thoughts by Faith
     Marie is kinda the anthem for this fic, thus the title.
     Merci
  This work was inspired by
      Semantically_Challenged by TeamAlphaQ
***** Overactive Mind of a Believer *****
The bell hooked to the door with flimsy wire chimed loudly, announcing the
entrance of another patron of Tweak Bros. Coffee. The noise caused the spastic
teenager to jolt out of the chair that he had dragged behind the counter when
he had become tired of standing.
“Gah! W-welcome to T-tweak Bros. Coffee,” Tweek Tweak sputtered, trying his
best to say the right words. However, his verbal tics wouldn’t subside, and
neither would his inability to stay in the same decibel. Tipping his head
quickly, his right eye twitching shut, Tweek tried to keep the spiel going. “O-
our special t-today is a freshly baked croissant with –gah!-- a medium P-
pumpkin Spice Latte!!”
Halfway through the sentence, Tweek had closed his eyes completely, trying to
calm down. He could feel the headband he wore to keep his wild blonde tresses
out of his eyes slide forward on his forehead. He hated working the counter,
but since he was the only one ever working at his parents coffee shop anymore,
it always fell on him to do.
“Look at the ADD idiot trying to talk!”
Tweek cringed when he realized who he had been yelling to.
Seniors…
Tweek didn’t know their names. He never bothered to learn them, but they were
always coming into the shop to bully him, ever since Elementary. More than a
few of his scars were caused by them.
“C-can I help you? Gah!” Tweek muttered, a hand sliding into his hair, causing
to headband to slip downward even farther to rest against his collarbone. He’d
gotten better about pulling at his hair like this, but the Seniors always
brought the urge back.
“Nah, dude!” the leader of the gang sneered, leaning against the counter to
grab Tweek roughly by the chin. The leader’s dyed green hair was short and
spiked, and his eyes were so cruel. Tweek knew what was going to happen next.
He didn’t want it to, with all those other people there. “I want you to shut
your fucking ADD mouth!”
The senior yanked Tweek forward and up, smashing his lips into Tweek’s, the
kiss full of fury and disgust, from both parties. The blonde wanted to resist;
he tried, but his tics just caused his hand to slip from where it had been
holding him up on the counter. This wrenched Tweek from the Senior’s grip and
caused Tweek’s chin to hit the counter. His vision was full of stars and his
mouth was filled with the taste of blood as he fell to the floor behind the
counter.
I must have bitten my tongue…
Tweek could vaguely hear the seniors jeering and laughing at him. He felt the
cold of the shop floor against his back, through both his trademark green
button down as well as the orange knit cardigan that his parents had gifted him
last Christmas. He didn’t care that the floor was covered in old coffee stains
from when he couldn’t control the spasms and he spilled it on the floor. His
head hurt too much to move.
“Couldn’t handle a little kiss! The ADD idiot really is just that! An idiot!”
The bell chimed again, and Tweek heard it slip off its hook and clank against
the floor.
They were gone, thank whatever God was out there. But Tweek still didn’t wanna
move. He was still lightheaded, and for the moment, his tics were gone. No
twitching, no yelling, no paranoia. Maybe that’s all it took. Maybe instead of
leaving the scars on his wrist he just needed to hit his head hard enough to
almost make him pass out.
Arms spread wide as he lay on the floor, Tweek didn’t move for hours. Patrons
came and went, assuming no one was there. Mentally, Tweek was far away, in his
“safe place”, far away from the seniors, his non existent parents, his feelings
for a certain blue eyed boy that barely knew he existed most of the time.
“Dude, you okay?”
Tweek’s eyes flew open as recognition filled his senses, and his tics returned.
He jumped to his feet to come face to face with bored-looking blue eyes and a
puff of cigarette smoke in his face.
“Gah! Y-you can’t smoke in here!” Tweek voiced, his pitch juggling. The blonde
shook his head quickly and tried to push the owner of the cigarette back away
from the counter. He barely registered the teeth of the headband scraping into
his neck. “If my p-parents find out they’ll be really mad, and, and, THAT’S WAY
TOO MUCH PRESSURE!!”
Tweek looked around quickly, but there was no one in the shop besides him and
the owner of those eyes. It helped to relax him a little, but not enough.
“Dude, calm down, it’s just one cigarette. People smoke here all the time,” the
blue-eyed boy muttered with his obnoxiously attractive, deep voice. The teen
had grown out of the nasaly sound of his voice once he hit puberty, so now his
voice was just...smooth.
Tweek shook his head again and kept pushing at Craig Tucker, but the blue-eyed
teen was taller and stronger than the blonde. “Gah! Not inside, t-though!”
Tweek tried to explain. “P-please just –ngh-- put it out or go outside!!”
Craig shrugged and turned around, allowing the smaller male to steer him around
the counter, into the storage room that held the unopened bags of coffee, and
out the back door into the alley. The smell of old coffee and moldy paper
assaulted their senses.
Once the door closed behind them, it was like switch was flicked, and Tweek
remembered that he had his hands on Craig’s back.
“Gah! S-s-sorry!” the blonde all but screeched as he jumped away from Craig,
smacking his head against the door. The pain shot through his spine all the way
to his feet and he just about fell to his knees, gripping the back of his head.
I guess my idea won’t work after all, not if it hurts this much! Ngh!! Why do I
get like this whenever we touch!!
“Yo, are you okay?” Craig repeated, squatting down in front of the spastic
teen, who was still twitching as much as he always did. Tweek looked up and saw
that Craig had put the cigarette between his lips and was looking intensely at
him. Craig didn’t have many expressions, but Tweek could still tell the
difference between them (considering how often he found himself staring at the
blue-eyed boy), and this one was almost a look of concern.
The blonde nodded and leaned back, plopping down onto the ground. His tics
hadn’t gone away this time, unfortunately. He wished he could be normal, but
that just wasn’t gonna happen. Not with how insane he was, not with how insane
this town was. He hated it. He hated the shop, he hated that his parents were
never home. He hated that this boy, still as a statue in front of him, could
illicit such a panicked response from Tweek. But it had always been like that,
ever since they were kids. It was terrifying.
“Ngh!! W-WHY ARE YOU HERE, CRAIG!?” Tweek muttered, although his mutter was
more of a screech.
The noirette shrugged again, his expression fading back into his normal blank
look.
“Heard the seniors flapping their big mouths. Said they fucked you up good.
Wanted to check out for myself. You seem fine, though.” The taller male took a
long drag of his cigarette. He made like he was going to blow the smoke in
Tweek’s face, but at the last moment, directed it out the corner of his mouth,
sending it downward. He had the cigarette between his pointer and middle
finger, his arms draped across his knees as he lowered his ass down onto the
ground. “Damn, that’s fucking hell on the ankles, standing like that,” Tweek
heard Craig mutter, taking another drag and aiming at the sky this time.
Craig’s eyes stayed on the sky for a few moments longer than seemed necessary,
considering there wasn’t much to see in the middle of town, especially when the
stars wouldn’t be about for another few hours.
But he’s always loved space...he...he used to carry around that constellation
book all the time in Elementary.
“So are you?”
Tweek twitched, hard, when Craig’s softly spoken question broke through his
thoughts, scaring him and causing him to let out a strangled whimper.
“Ngh! A-am I what!?” the blonde questioned, his mind taking Craig’s question in
all the wrong directions. Maybe Craig wanted to know if he was hell on the
ankles? No, that didn’t even make sense. Maybe the noirette thought he was
insane and wanted to know if Tweek really was. No, everyone knew that Tweek was
insane. With his twitches, and screeches, and how he hit his head against
whatever he could find whenever the pressure of his thoughts became too much.
Even though he’d gotten a lot better after Elementary, when he had first took a
blade to his skin. But Craig couldn’t know that. No one could. The spastic teen
pulled at his sleeves self-consciously, trying to hide what couldn’t even be
seen.
The blonde’s emerald eyes began to twitch to and fro, from Craig to the sky to
the ground and back, when a certain thought rocketed through his brain, causing
another round of fear and spasms to wreak havoc on his nerves.
What if Craig found out the senior kissed me and wants to know if I’m gay! What
if he thinks I’m disgusting because he thinks I’m gay! I’m not gay! I’m not
Gay! I’M NOT GAY, CRAIG!
Tweak began rocking back and forth. He was so scared. He didn’t want Craig to
hate him. He didn’t want him to think he was disgusting and never talk to him
again.
“Dude, calm down.”
The noirette’s soothing voice broke through a single layer of Tweek’s fear,
enough to notice that the taller teen had ground out the cigarette and had put
a hand on Tweek’s knee. Looking at Craig’s hand, so much bigger and rougher
than his own, covered in scars from numerous fights, Tweek felt a little of his
blind panic fade. What the hell was happening? Normally just brushing against
Craig in the hallways caused the smaller teen to fly into strangled screeches
and panicked dashing through the crowds of people. How had Craig managed to
calm him so easily. The confusion Tweek felt just felt like SO MUCH PRESSURE in
his head.
“Whatever is spinning around in that spastic head of yours, it’s not as bad as
you think it is. I asked if you were fine, like I thought you were.”
Tweek blinked slightly out of sync, as if his neurons couldn’t decide how to
blink normally.
“I...I think...s-so?” Tweek breathed, afraid to speak too loud in case it broke
whatever spell was controlling his fear and panic.
Craig pulled at front of his chullo hat, the one he’d been wearing since he was
a kid. That yellow puffball was a little worse for wear, but the rest of the
hat seemed to be in good shape. It was almost as if he had barely changed in
those seven years. But Tweek knew better. They had all changed. Well, except
for Cartman, really.
The noirette was looking down at their shoes, his sneakers almost touching
Tweek’s slip-resistant shoes. It may have just been the lighting in the alley,
but Tweek could have sworn he saw a slight smile on Craig’s normally stony
face.
Suddenly, drawing another twitch and squeal from the blonde, Craig removed his
hand from Tweek’s knee and stood up. The taller teen looked up at the sky
again, as if all the answers were in that Colorado sky.
“I’m glad you’re okay, dude.”
Tweek blinked twice, shocked. The blonde hadn’t heard anyone say that sentence
in years. It hadn’t been since Elementary, when the two used to be close. When
Craig actually cared.
Looking down at the spastic blonde out of the corner of his eye. That weird
almost smile that may have been a trick of the light was still there. A cold
breeze blew through the alley, sending old newspaper and trash fluttering
about. It moved Craig’s clothes slightly, and it gave the noirette a kind of
otherwordly feeling, one that Tweek hadn’t seen cover Craig in so long.
Tweek couldn’t say anything in response to Craig’s sentence, he was so lost in
that feeling. Those icey eyes that were just so blue seemed to freeze him in
place, both body and mind.
Then the spell was broken as someone yelled.
“Craig, where the hell are you? We were supposed to leave an hour ago! Get your
ass over here!”
The voice caused Tweek so sink farther into the shadow of the building. He
didn’t recognize it, but that made it even worse. He could still feel Craig’s
eyes on him, but he only looked down at his sleeves as he tried to cover his
wrists even more.
“See ya.”
The sound of Craig’s baritone made Tweek twitch to the side again, scaring him.
He didn’t expect Craig to acknowledge him again.
The noirette’s footfalls receded down the alley, leaving Tweek to cower in the
cold left behind by the lack of Craig’s presence. Tweek recognized this
cold...this could only be loneliness. It was a feeling he was used to. He
always felt it. His scars were partially caused by it.
The blonde sighed. He was alone again, his thoughts bearing down on him.
And that one thought that only came to him in the middle of the night when the
monsters were at their strongest, when the town around him was so silent it
hurt, crashed down on Tweek once more.
 
I wish he could love me again. Just for a moment.
***** Toxic Thoughts of an Overachiever *****
Chapter Notes
     Wow, you guys are awesome! Thank so much for all the wonderful
     comments and encouragements!! It means so much to me that you guys
     like this story, because I lovee writing it. Because I felt so happy
     about all the comments, I managed to finish the chapter early, so
     here you go!
     I'm always up for constructive criticism, so let me know if you like
     the chapter and if I should change anything.
     You guys are amazing and I love everything you've told me. Thanks so
     much!
     Anyway, here's the chapter!!
     Merci
See the end of the chapter for more notes
As the sun sunk behind the horizon (which was just the mountains, in reality),
the town shed its oppressiveness, and Craig Tucker felt less like destroying
everything around him. The sun receded and the stars appeared, and it was like
that feeling of endless anger and churning regret began to lessen from his gut.
It was always like that. Craig hated this town and everyone in it, except for
like four people. And the owner of those endless pools of emerald waters was
one of them. Those eyes; the fear, the wonder, and the vividness that they saw
the world in, drew the noirette in as if he was sinking with fifty pound
weights tied to his ankles. It took everything in him to not stare into the
eyes and fall into the security they seemed to offer.
Craig shook his head to banish the haunting image of Tweek Tweak sitting before
him, hunched into a fetal position, his body shaking as if the lukewarm weather
of South Park, Colorado in late summer was the coldest of winters. The blonde
had been scared, terrified even, of what Craig’s question could have been
about. It had been obvious. It had always been obvious. It was like Craig could
read the spastic teen’s mind. Ever since they were kids, he could always figure
out what was wrong and knew exactly how to make it better.
Wait, what was he thinking? He hadn’t ever been that close to Tweek Tweak in
Elementary. They didn’t run in the same circles...did they?
Craig couldn’t remember. Like the rest of this godforsaken town, no one could
accurately remember what had happened when Craig and the others were in fourth
grade. It was like someone had taken a magic marker and covered up the entire
year in thick, dark strokes.
“Dude, are you gonna listen to me or are you gonna check out on me completely?”
Craig blinked and looked down to see Clyde Donovan on his right and Token Black
on the other side of Clyde.
Right, I was hanging out with them. What the hell was I thinking about?
Shaking his head again, the noirette went to take a drag of his newly lit
cigarette to realize that there wasn’t anything left of it. He had wasted the
entire cigarette zoning out.
The taller boy growled and flicked the spent cigarette behind him. He hated
wasting them. He didn’t have that many left. He hated being underage. He had to
rely on the idiot Kenny McCormick to get his fix. It sucked.
“Again, Craig!?” Clyde whined, pulling on his friend’s sleeve, which only
caused Craig to yank his arm out of Clyde’s reach. He hated when the brunette
did that. “Can’t you listen to me!?”
“Clyde, calm down,” the calm and collected voice of Token Black called. “He’s
probably got something on his mind. Don’t whine.” The black teen didn’t even
look up from his phone, where from Craig’s vantage point, he could see that he
was reading an article about some science exhibition.
“But Tokeeeeeeen!”
“I said don’t whine, Clyde.”
Craig rolled his eyes as Clyde crossed his arms and grumbled under his breath.
The three elapsed into silence as they walked back to Token’s house. They had
been planning on getting together earlier that day to do homework, but Craig
had heard that damn senior blabbing about fucking up Tweek and something in his
chest snapped. Not literally, that would have hurt probably. But it was as if a
rubber band had snapped and told Craig to run as fast as he could to check on
the blonde. He still wasn’t sure why that had happened. But...he had just felt
so...calm once he realized that Tweek wasn’t hurt. Though, calm didn’t seem
like the good enough word. Maybe he was...relieved? Craig wasn’t sure. He was
so used to anger and guilt and just plain nothingness that any other emotion
didn’t seem to exist.
As the three of them walked up the long driveway of Token’s mansion, Clyde
spoke up again.
“So what were you doing behind Tweak Bros.?”
“Nothing.”
It wasn’t supposed to come out as a growl, but it did. Clyde blinked and even
Token looked up from his article at the sudden animosity in Craig’s tone.
“Are you sure?” Clyde said, recovering. He waggled his eyebrows. “You sure you
weren’t checking on that smol coffee bean?”
Craig’s expression didn’t change from his normally stoic blankness, but he did
raise an eyebrow at that weird phrase.
“Why would I do that?” Craig muttered, pulling his chullo down over his
forehead and shoving a hand into his pocket. He really didn’t want to talk
about this.
They had made it to the main gate of the mansion, but they turned off into the
side yard where a smaller, easier to access gate rested. It didn’t take as long
to open. As soon as it did, Clyde jumped in front of Craig and held out his
arms so he was blocking the gateway.
“Oh, I dunno,” the shorter teen said, drawing out the words obnoxiously. “Maybe
because whenever you pass him in the halls you tend to stop walking and stare
after him?” Clyde looked up at the sky. “Or maybe because whenever Tweek is
mentioned, you pull your hat down like you’re trying to hide?”
“I do not.”
“Hate to admit, but you do, Craig,” Token said evenly as he put a hand on
Clyde’s shoulder to spin him around. He pushed against the brunette’s back so
they could finally get inside. South Park wasn’t all that cold during the
summer, but once the sun went behind those mountains, it could get rather
chilly.
“The hell, Token,” Craig muttered, the three of them walking through the
kitchen until they made it to the basement door. They spent most of their time
down there, after all. Craig wasn’t even sure Token even used his room.
Considering how often Craig spent the night here, you’d think he would see the
black teen go up to his room at least a few times, but he never had. “I thought
you were on my side, dude.”
Token rolled his eyes as they dropped their bags behind the couch. Craig was
the only one to bring his backpack over to the bar that took up a fair bit of
the room. He needed to get this homework done. He hadn’t finished it in his
study hall like he usually did and he didn’t want to get behind.
As long as his grades stayed higher than a B, he didn’t have to worry too much
about his dad, unless the man was drunk.
“I am on your side, as I am on Clyde’s side,” Token explained as he took a seat
on one of the bar stools next to Craig, while Clyde turned on the PS4 and got
ready to sink into a coma playing the newest Call of Duty. The black teen put
an elbow on the bar and rested his chin in his hand. “All I’m saying is that
you need to stop denying everything that has to do with Tweek. The more you
deny it, the harder it’s going to be to ignore it.”
Craig stared at his friend with a deadpan expression, but internally he was
kicking himself. Of course Token would notice something like that. The black
teen was always quiet and contemplative and always knew what was going on in
his head. The noirette hated that he was such an open book in Token’s eyes.
Craig was about to argue further, but his phone chimed loudly. Pulling the
smartphone out of his front jean’s pocket, the tall teen saw a text from his
sister. She rarely texted him...unless…
Swiping over the screen, Craig’s suspicion was proven correct. The only thing
in Ruby’s text was three letters. “SOS”
“Shit,” Craig muttered under his breath. This could be really bad. “Sorry,
Toke, I gotta go.” He stood up quickly, throwing his bag over his shoulder.
“Craiiiiig, what’s going on!?” Clyde whined as he leaned over the back of the
couch. “Where are you goingggg!?”
“Home.”
Craig felt Token’s eyes on him. Stopping in his rush to the stairs, the taller
teen turned back to his friend.
“Anything we can help with?” Token asked, as if he knew what was going on,
which he probably did.
Craig shook his head slightly. He stomach was started to get filled with that
weird regret feeling that he’d had so much lately. Soon it would give way to
anger, if Ruby was hurt at all. He didn’t say anything more to his friends,
instead he flipped them off as he retreated up the stairs.
The noirette didn’t even stop to close the door, he just took off in a sprint
to his house. He need to get there as soon as possible, before Ruby got hurt.
 
~
 
“What the FUCK do you mean he isn’t home!!”
Craig heard the roar and the crash before he had even gotten to the door.
Yeah, the asshole is drunk again.
As his hand rested on the door handle, he heard a whimper from his right.
“Craig...is that you?”
The noirette quickly jumped off the front steps into the bushes right next to
him. In the bushes was Ruby, his little sister. She wasn’t that much younger
than him, only by a few years, but she looked so small curled up like she was.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
The smaller girl grabbed onto the hand that Craig offered and they stood up
together.
“He...he’s been going on like that for an hour. He’s really pissed at you for
not being home.”
Craig rolled his eyes. He was always pissed at Craig. But for not being home?
He had told both of his parents that he was going to Token’s house after
school. Then again, if the asshole was drunk, it didn’t matter what Craig had
told him.
“You should probably get in there.”
Craig hummed in agreement. He didn’t want anything else to get broken.
Walked back up the stairs, Craig pushed through the door quickly, wanting to
get this over with. He tugged on his chullo just to make sure he wouldn’t lose
it in what was gonna happen.
“The hell have you been, asshole!?”
Craig didn’t even flinch at the roar of his father, or at the bottle that was
chucked at his head. It was off kilter by about an inch, so it flew to the
right of Craig and hit the door frame as the noirette closed the door behind
him. Ruby would stay outside in the bushes until all this was over, like she
usually did.
“Token’s.”
“Well,” the lumbering giant that was Thomas Tucker took a few steps toward his
son and grabbed onto the front of the black, slightly puffy vest that Craig
wore, yanking his son a few inches off the ground. “Do you have any idea who we
got a call from today!?”
His father was right in his face, and Craig could smell the acidic stench of
alcohol on his breath. “Not a clue,” Craig ground out, trying not to flip the
man off, or punch him. Neither would help him.
“From the goddamn school!! Again!!” Thomas reared back and ground a fist into
Craig’s stomach, drawing a choking cough from the teen. “You got into another
fight!!” Thomas dropped the noirette to the ground and kicked him hard, sending
him sliding across the floor to slam into the door. “And they fucking called
us!! Do you know FUCKING ANNOYING it is to keep getting calls from that gay ass
counselor!? And then he tells me that you skipped class again and was found
getting fucking high in the bathroom!!”
Craig didn’t say anything as he curled on the floor, he only flipped his father
off. He knew he shouldn’t have, but he couldn’t help it. This asshole was
pissing him off.
Like he predicted, it only made is father even more pissed. The giant came at
Craig with a roar, grabbing him by the collar again to bring them face to face.
“You will NOT disrespect me like that!”
Craig felt spit hit his face and it took all he had to not spit back in his
father’s face. The next thing he knew, a fist connected with his cheek and he
was flying across the room again. Craig coughed and tasted blood, the irony
liquid filling his mouth.
“You better learn real quick, you fucking disgrace, that this is my house and
my rules, and I’m fucking done with your shit.”
Thomas’s voice was quieter than before, his anger fizzling out as he turned and
walked back to the kitchen, probably to grab another bottle of whiskey. Craig
waited a few moments before struggling to his feet, tapping on the front door
lightly to signal Ruby.
The door opened behind him and her voice came through, quietly, “Is he done?”
“Yeah.”
His younger sister stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “Was it bad?”
“Not as bad as usual. Only flipped him off once.”
“Well, at least he didn’t break any ribs this time, right?”
Craig hummed his agreement. That would have been inconvenient. True, he did
have a split lip, and a cut cheek, and probably a few new bruises, but nothing
he couldn’t handle. It was usually worse.
“You gonna go back to Token’s?” Ruby asked as she tiptoed over to the stairs,
not wanting to alert their father to her presence.
Craig only shook his head. He didn’t wanna walk all the way back. His stomach
hurt.
He didn’t have to hit the same place twice, damn.
As the noirette followed his sister to the stairs and up to their rooms,
Craig’s mind wandered back to a certain blonde. He probably had it better than
Craig ever would. At least Tweek’s parents didn’t hit him. Craig’s life sucked.
He hated it. Hated his dad. Hated this town. Hated himself. His father was
right, he was a disgrace. He didn’t deserve to to exist.
As soon as his bedroom door was closed, he tossed his backpack across the room.
Homework could wait. He needed to get those feelings out of his head. He didn’t
want to deal with them.
Craig grabbed the closest notebook and pen and sat down on the floor, back
against the door. And then he began to write. He wrote out all those confusing
thoughts and annoying emotions that he didn’t understand. He even wrote about
Tweek. Well, not about the boy himself. No, about those eyes, and how they made
him feel.
If Craig would have thought about it, he would have remembered how many
notebooks he had filled just with descriptions and melodies of those eyes. But
Craig never thought about his previous songs; he just locked them up in the
back of his mind.
He didn’t want to admit just how much he missed those eyes looking up at him
with trust and admiration.
Craig wouldn’t admit just how many times this one thought circled his mind.
 
I wonder if we could be together again, just him and me, like we used to be.
Chapter End Notes
     I know a lot of the chapter was nonsense and didn't make much sense.
     I'm sorry. I'm trash I'm sorry.
***** Monsters and Blades *****
Chapter Notes
     WARNING!! WARNING!!
     TRIGGER WARNING!!
     There is some self-harm in this chapter, so please be aware that not
     everyone can handle this kind of thing.
     I was gonna wait until tomorrow to post this but I felt like I just
     had to post it now. If I didn't, the effect of it would be gone in my
     mind. So please, dont expect this all that often, this is a special
     case.
     I hope you enjoy this chapter...I did have a little bit of trouble
     with it.
     If you have any criticism, don't be afraid to ask.
     Merci
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Sometime after South Park had fallen asleep, Tweek closed the coffee shop. It
was probably around midnight by the time the blonde had gotten the entire shop
cleaned up and the alarm set. Locking the front door behind him, Tweek looked
up at the sky, trying to pick out the stars, but clouds had begun to roll in.
It’s...probably gonna storm again. Hope I get home before it does.
With that thought in mind, the blonde shoved his shaking hands into his sweater
pockets and began to make his way home. Only the impending storm spurred him
on. Tweek didn’t really want to go home, what with the empty house with only
the monsters as company. Not that they were good company. At least Tweek wasn’t
completely alone.
Thoughts of monsters gave way to a shiver and a whimper as the blonde struggled
with the zipper to his duffel bag, where he kept his work shoes and apron, as
well as his sketching materials. He had also shoved his silver titanium
thermos, filled to the brim with steaming coffee. Even now, years after his
parents stopped shoving it on him, coffee was still one of the only things that
could really calm him down.
As Tweek finally wriggled the warm metal free of his apron, he unscrewed the
cap. Well, he tried to. He just couldn’t get a good enough grip to twist the
thing. He began to emit small sounds of frustration as his fingers became numb
and useless. And the one time he focused on something other than his own two
feet, Tweek felt the toe of his shoe catch on an uneven section of sidewalk.
Before he knew it, the blonde went sprawling face first into the pavement, his
thermos falling from his meager grip and clanging about fifteen feet down the
sidewalk.
“Ouch...” Tweek whined, feeling a stinging warmth on his knees as well as his
elbows, the two things to hit the ground first. He had probably scraped both of
them, tearing open the fabric of his jeans and green button down. There was
sure to be blood as well. At the thought, tears sprang into the corners of his
eyes.
The blonde hated ruining his clothes like this. He was running out, and he
didn’t have enough money to go buy new ones, especially not his cardigan. Tweek
was only able to take a small amount of money from the register each week, just
enough to buy the essentials. The rest of it had to go to orders for the shop.
And even if there was some left over, he wouldn’t take it anyway. He didn’t
want his parents to accuse him of stealing. That...that would just be way too
much pressure. Just too much.
“Why am I so useless…?” Tweek whimpered, trying to control the spasms wreaking
havoc on his nerves. He struggled to a sitting position, checking his knees for
tears. It was just as he feared, large gaping holes, the edges stained with
blood from the deep scrapes left there by the pavement. Another pair of jeans
down the drain, and without the ability to mend them, he was down to two pairs.
The tears began to flow freely now, and Tweek’s body was wracked with sobs. He
just couldn’t handle it anymore. He was just so...sick if it. He felt his eyes
close, trying to block it all out, but it just made him cry harder.
“Awe, did our poor Tweeky get hurt?”
The sudden voice in the silence startled Tweek out of the majority of his sobs.
While his eyes had been closed against the pain, Tweek didn’t hear Kenny
McCormick walk up to him and lean down to look at him.
“W-what do you—ngh—want, Kenny?” Tweek mumbled, able to keep his voice down
just because the sobs had made his throat hurt.
A wide, obnoxious smile formed on the parka-clad teen;s face as he sat down in
front of Tweek. He shrugged and his parka made a weird, fabric against fabric,
squeaky noise. “I just wanted to see what this random person was doing in the
middle of the sidewalk,” the other blonde explained. Tweek didn’t completely
believe him.
Kenny was always doing this to him, showing up randomly and causing more stress
for him. He had no idea why Kenny took time out of his day just to bother
Tweek, but he didn’t like it.
Kenny must have realized that Tweek didn’t believe him, so he elaborated,
“Okay, maybe I followed you here from the shop to make sure you got home
without falling, but you proved me wrong.”
Tweek blinked, twitching to the side. He still didn’t entirely think Kenny was
telling the truth, but he sniffled and looked around for his thermos. Usually,
if he ignored the older teen long enough, he would leave Tweek alone.
“Looking for this, Tweeky?”
The blonde looked up quickly, his wild hair falling into his face. In Kenny’s
hand was none other than Tweek’s coffee thermos. That obnoxious smile grew
wider when Tweek went to reach for it, only two have Kenny pull his arm out of
reach.
“Oh, no, no, no, Tweeky,” Kenny chided as he put the thermos behind his back.
“You gotta tell me what happened before you get it back.” Tweek made a
strangled noise and shook his head quickly, making it feel like his brain was
hitting the sides of his skull.
He didn’t want to tell Kenny anything. It would just make it worse. He couldn’t
tell the older blonde anything. It would just make his monsters angry. Talking
about them always made them angry. They were the cause of all his fears.
“Tweeky...” Kenny said, softly. He pulled the sleeve of the shirt under the
parka down over his hand and reached forward towards Tweek’s face. It caught
the spastic teen by surprise, enough that he let Kenny rub at his cheeks with
the slightly scratchy fabric, wiping away the tracks of his tears. “Did
something happen with Mr. Blue-eyes?”
Tweek flinched when Kenny mentioned Craig. That’s what he always called Craig
when Tweek was upset, as if his real name would make things worse.
“N-NO, OF COURSE NOT! JESUS, MAN, WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT!?” Tweek all but
screeched. He felt that panic coming back, the same panic he felt when he was
afraid that Craig hated him. He still wasn’t sure that Craig didn’t hate him,
but still.
Kenny giggled, kind of like he used to when he was Princess Kenny all those
years ago during that Stick of Truth fiasco. “So something did happen.”
“I...I already t-told you that NOTHING HAPPENED!!” Tweek yelled again,
twitching hard to the right and wrapping his arms tightly around his middle.
The panic was becoming too much, it was too much pressure in his head.
“Oookay, Tweeky, whatever you say!” Kenny said, but Tweek wasn’t sure that the
older blonde was gonna drop the subject.
“J-just give me back my—gah!!--coffee!!”
Not even seconds after he said it, the thermos was dropped in his lap and Kenny
was gone.
He’s always—ngh!--doing that! I hate it!
Tweek sniffled again, grabbing onto the still warm metal. He tried to open the
cap again, but found that it had already been loosened. If he would have
thought harder about it, he would have realized that Kenny had to have been the
one to loosen it. But he didn’t care at the moment. He just needed the coffee.
Taking a few large gulps of the close-to-burning liquid, Tweek felt it slide
down his throat and warm him mostly empty stomach. As the caffeine began to
race it’s way through his system, Tweek felt better. He was still twitching,
still making those spastic noises that he always did, but they were less than
before. How coffee could calm him so easily still shocked him.
Shaking his head, Tweek struggled to his feet and readjusted the duffel back
hanging from his shoulder. A loud peal of thunder boomed around Tweek in waves.
Yeah, he really needed to get home. One foot in front of the other, Tweek
limped the rest of the way home.
 
~
 
“I-I’m home!”
Tweek listened to the echo of his voice throughout the empty house. He knew
that his parents wouldn’t be there, but he felt like he had to let the monsters
know he was there. Just a precaution.
The blonde shut and locked the door behind him, kicking off his already untied
boots. He always had trouble keeping his shoes tied. He shook too much while
tying them to do it right. Tweek was glad his work shoes were slip ons.
Padding quietly through the entry way to the kitchen, Tweek looked around for
something to eat before he retreated to his room. When the only things he found
were a half-eaten bag of Cheesey Poofs and one, only slightly mushy, banana, he
sighed. He needed to go grocery shopping, but that would mean getting a ride to
the next town over, and the blonde wasn’t so sure he wanted to do that.
Stopping at the coffee maker and making a fresh pot, just in case Tweek ran out
(even though we all know he’ll run out), it wasn’t long before Tweek was making
his way upstairs.
Tweek lingered a few seconds at his parent’s bedroom door. They hadn’t used the
room in months, since they had gone out of the country once again.
“Ngh!”
Tweek ripped himself away from the abandonment that room made him feel. True,
they never spent any time in there anyway, but it still held memories from
before...from when his parents used to pay attention, if only for those few
sparing seconds each day.
Almost tripping over the carpet, the blonde stumbled into his room, slamming
the door behind him. His room didn’t feel as empty and lonely as the rest of
the house did. It wasn’t exactly a solace for Tweek, either. The monsters still
existed under his bed and in the shadows, in the closet and just outside his
window. He was just better at ignoring them now.
Tweek leaned against the door, sliding down until he was sitting on the floor,
his knees pulled up to his chest. He wrapped his arms around his shaking knees,
trying to calm his heart. He was so sick of this empty house, the silence that
hurt. Leaning his forehead on his arms, he drew in shaky breaths. His twitching
had become stronger again, the spastic sounds getting louder.
Feeling the beginnings of a panic attack, the terrified blonde groped around
for his thermos. When his fingers touched the smooth metal, he let out a
strangled sigh.  All he managed to do was roll it farther away from him.
No...no please no!! Not now!! I...I CAN’T DO THIS!!
Tweek felt a spasm rip through him, his head slamming back against the door.
That was when he knew...coffee just wasn’t gonna cut it this time.
Struggling to maneuver into a kneeling position, Tweek crawled on hands and
knees over to his bedside table. His vision was getting blurry. He felt that
hot sting of tears in his throat and his breathes were coming in hyperactive
spurts. Feeling around, sobs ripping through his body, Tweek finally felt the
chrome finish of the tin he was looking for.
It took all his effort to wrap his uncooperative fingers around the tin,
flipping the top open.
There it was...the only thing that could stop this.
That small blade was still as sharp as when he found it in his parent’s junk
drawer. It was a small penknife, and it fit comfortably in Tweek’s tiny hands.
He was so much smaller than everyone else. Maybe that’s why this blade was
perfect for him.
“Please, just make it go away...make the hurt go away!!”
The shaking blonde curled around his left arm, pulling the sleeve up to his
elbow.
As soon as the blade touched his skin, it nicked him. He put more pressure
until he felt that warm feeling of release as the blood dripped from his wrist.
Tweek hated this. He hated doing this. He hated himself. He felt so...stupid.
And weak. And useless. He just wished the world would go away. He wished he
didn’t have to deal with this town or seniors, or any of it. It was just too
much sometimes. Right now, he just wanted everything to disappear.
Tweak let the tears fall as he felt his panic soon start to subside, as another
line was drawn. The blonde let the blade fall to the floor next to him. He let
himself bleed until he could feel the pain of the lines. Once he felt that
pain, the rest of his senses came back to him and he was able to breath again.
The panic was gone. All that was left was shame.
From that same tin, Tweek withdrew alcohol pads to clean the blade and his
wrist with. He hated touching the blade once he was done with it...but he
didn’t want anything to stick to it and make him sick the next time he used it.
Because there would be a next time.
Once both were thoroughly cleaned, the blonde opened a new bandage and covered
up what would soon turn to scars. At least Tweek always seemed to heal quickly.
Putting everything away and throwing the used alcohol pads into the waste bin
next to where he kept the tin, Tweek stood up again.
He wasn’t shaking as much as before. He still had a twitch every now and then,
but it wasn’t so bad. He was calm now, or as calm as the spastic teen could
get.
No chance of sleep again tonight, though.
Tweek swallowed the lump in his throat, left over from the tears, and he turned
the light on. As soon as he did, Tweek took in his room as if for the first
time.
Paintings and sketches were strewn everywhere, on the bed, on the floor, some
taped to the wall, others in a stack next to his easel.
Tweek painted a lot. It was just another thing to help him try to understand
some of the chaos in his head. He didn’t have to think when he painted, he
just...painted.
There was a half finished piece already on the easel. Tweek stared at it for a
few moments before picking up his thermos and walking over to it. He wasn’t
sure what it was yet, but it looked kind of like an angel. But not. The blonde
didn’t know.
Tweek nodded, his hair falling in his eyes again. He hadn’t had it cut in a
long time, so it was starting to get a bit in the way. Grabbing one of the many
headbands that were on the desk next to the easel, as well as the bottle of
water that was there, Tweek fixed his hair up out of his eyes and refilled his
rinsing glass.
If he wasn’t going to sleep, he might as well paint.
Sitting down at the easel, the blonde grabbed his phone out of his pocket and
the headphones that were hanging over the arm of the chair. Music helped to
block out the monsters, and they didn’t seem to want to bother Tweek when he
was painting. Sometimes, they could be amicable.
Putting in the earbuds, putting on a random song, and grabbing a fresh
paintbrush, Tweek lost himself in the world he created with those colors.
Everything around him faded away except for those strokes.
If he had been on the outside, maybe Tweek would have noticed that icy blue
eyes that become the focal point of that painting. Maybe he would have realized
that he wasn’t truly alone, not with those eyes keeping the monsters at bay.
Chapter End Notes
     Gawd, my poor baby!!!! I"m so soooorrryyyyy, I can't believe I did
     this to yooouuuuuu. geeeehhhhh
     Okay *wipes tears away* I'm sorry to you guys too, this wasn't an
     easy chapter, but it had to happen eventually.
     Also, when Tweek picks that random song, the one I was listening to
     was Infected by Sickick, if you want to get in the perspective of
     Tweek.
     Hey, would any of you be willing to provide some illustrations for
     me? I have a hard time picturing stuff sometimes, so I thought I
     might as for some help.
***** Is It More Than Just Anger? *****
Chapter Notes
     I can't believe that I'm still going...usually I've crashed and
     burned by now but damn, I'm just so happy that you guys like this so
     much. I'm a happy little bean right now x3 gaaahhhhh
     I know the last chapter was painful...it hurt me so much but...i had
     tooooo gehehhhh
     Anyway, I know that this chapter is still more utter nonsense, but i
     think I did okay... Hope you guys like it.
     Merci
See the end of the chapter for more notes
“Craig! It’s time to get up!”
At the sound of Ruby’s yell, Craig slowly dragged himself out of sleep. He
didn’t want to leave his bed. He didn’t want to go to school. He hadn’t
finished his homework.
The noirette sighed and threw an arm over his unadjusted eyes. Of course his
window would face the sunrise. He couldn’t skip today, not when he had just had
that thing with his dad.
“Craig Matthew Tucker!!”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up! I’m going!”
It should have registered as funny that Ruby, being four years younger than
him, acted more like a mother than their own mother. She was the one who woke
Craig up most days, made sure he ate something for breakfast, and even did his
laundry if he asked. It was kind of weird.
With an extended groan, Craig practically snaked his way out of bed so that he
was sitting on the floor, facing his closet.
As if sensing that he was awake, there was a weird squeak and then a muffled
pompf as Stripe the 5th hopped down from his wicker bed. The guinea pig waddled
around in a circle until Craig got up and walked over to the cage that rested
in his closet.
“Hey, buddy,” Craig mumbled, rubbing at his right eye. He felt like there was
something holding his eye shut. The noirette pulled out a small bag of chewing
blocks he had recently bought, withdrawing one and handing it to Stripe through
the bars. “Enjoy.” He watched the small rodent nibble on a corner of the block,
making small, adorable mmf noises as he did so. Compared to the other guinea
pigs he had had over the years, Stripe the 5th was the most noisy. It didn’t
bother him, honestly. It was just one of those things that you got used to.
“Craig, five minutes!”
“Fuck off, I’m going!” Craig yelled back at his sister. He didn’t say it with
malice, though. Anyone who knew the two of them well enough could realize how
much they cared for each other. After all, they only had one another in that
house to rely on.
It was a good thing both their parents left the house early for work,
considering the amount of yelling Ruby and Craig did in the mornings as they
got ready for school.
Pulling off his chullo for just a moment, Craig ran a hand through his hair. He
would have to skip out on a shower that morning just because he slept for so
long. Shrugging, the hat came back on and Craig changed into clean clothes. He
hadn’t even put on pajamas the night before, just fell asleep in what he was
wearing.
Feeling lazy, Craig just changed his t-shirt to one with a guinea pig in space,
and he pulled on a plain black hoodie. That would have to do. Not as if he
really cared.
Grabbing his backpack from where he had tossed it the night before, Craig made
his way out of his room.
“What’s for breakfast?” Craig called down the stairs to where he could hear
Ruby clanging around in the kitchen.
“Nothing! You woke up late! We don’t have time!”
Craig rolled his eyes. He’d just snag something from Token’s locker before
homeroom. The black teen always had tons of snacks in there. Clyde tended to
get hungry in between classes, so Token made sure that he was always fed.
“Shoes, Craig, let’s go!”
The small, red-haired girl (which gave her the nickname of Ruby) was tapping
her foot as she stood next to the front door. She was already fully dressed
with shoes and her bag. She was giving Craig an impatient look.
Craig just flipped her off, which was returned in kind.
At least the start of the day wasn’t so bad.
 
~
 
“Craaaaiiiigggg!!”
And there it was. Craig stopped in his path towards his locker as he heard the
loud cry of his friend from somewhere behind him. Turning slightly to the
right, the brunette ran smack into Craig with a tight hug. The noirette just
shoved him off.
“G’morning! How’s it going!? How was your night!? Did you get your homework
done!? Craig, are you listening!?”
The taller teen just stood there, stoic and silent as Clyde continued his
barrage of questions. It wasn’t going to stop anytime soon, so he just let the
brunette go.
“Clyde, enough. He can only answer one thing at a time.”
Pausing mid-sentence, Clyde turned to look at Token with a pout.
“But Tooookeeeeen!!”
“Clyde.”
The brunette huffed and crossed his arms.
“Fine.”
Resuming to his original destination, Craig didn’t wait for his friends. He
knew they would be right behind him. Coincidentally, their lockers just
happened to be right next to each others.
“Hey, Toke, you got a poptart or something in your locker I can have?” Craig
asked as they stopped in front of their lockers.
His friend nodded and spun in his combination, withdrawing a silver package and
tossing it to Craig. “Skip breakfast?”
“Slept late. Ruby didn’t make anything.”
A small smile pulled at the corners of Token’s mouth as he gave a small laugh.
“She mother’s you.”
Craig said nothing, just flipped his friend off without looking as he started
switching out books in his locker.
“Hey, Craig!! Hey, hey, Craig!!”
“What, Clyde?”
“I finished the campaign for the new CoD!! It was so good! Hey, did you
know...”
And that was when the noirette began to tune out Clyde’s tirade. He had gone on
about this game in much the same fashion for weeks. It wasn’t anything Craig
hadn’t heard before.
He liked Clyde. He was glad the brunette was his friend. They were neighbors;
they grew up together, and Clyde had spent most holidays at Craig’s house.
Clyde was a big fixture in his life. But fucking hell, he never shut up. Craig
was a man of few words, and Clyde was a big ball of hyper that couldn’t stop
talking. Maybe that was why they got along. The brunette wasn’t put off by a
one sided conversation. It seemed to just spur him on.
As Clyde continued on and on, Craig shut his locker and started munching on the
poptart. Homeroom wouldn’t start for another ten minutes, max, so Craig was
content to just let Clyde babble while he zoned out.
But, as usual, that didn’t last long once almost golden hair caught his eye.
There he is. Knew he would be here today.
Craig focused on Tweek as the blonde teen stuck close to the wall, keeping as
far from the rest of the students as possible. He locker was just across from
Craig’s, so the noirette always had a pretty good vantage point. His height
helped, too. Although it was a little loud in the halls, Craig could still hear
the small sounds that Tweek emitted without realizing.
Craig watched as the smaller teen put his head against his locker with a loud
thunk.Struggling, like he did every morning, Tweek spent a few moments trying
to get the combination correct. It took quite a few tries, but as soon as it
was open, the noirette saw a little of the tension in Tweek’s shoulders fade.
“Craig?”
Blinking, forcing himself back into the conversation his friends were having,
Craig looked over at Token. He focused on the look the black teen was giving
him.
“You’re staring again, dude,” Clyde whispered, although it sounded more like a
stage whisper than anything.
Craig flipped them off again. Couldn’t they just let him Tweek-watch in peace?
Yeah, he got it. Maybe it was a little weird that Craig tended to zone in on
Tweek whenever the smaller teen was near. He couldn’t help it. There was just
something...something about those eyes…
“It’s happening again.”
“Hey! ADD idiot!!”
At that phrase, Craig straightened.
Fucking Seniors.
“Ngh!! Please, l-leave me alone!!”
Tweek was getting harassed by that green-haired asshole again. It had become a
pattern lately. Tweek would come to school maybe two or three times a week, and
every day that he did, that senior was right there to fuck with him.
The blonde was now cowering against his locker, shrinking visibly. He was small
enough that he could almost hide in his locker. The Senior was in his face,
laughing at him.
It bothered Craig. Why it bothered him, the noirette didn’t understand. It
confused the hell out of him. Why would he care if some guy he’d never spent
any time with other than just in passing was getting picked on. He didn’t even
like Tweek.
Did he?
“Awe, are you gonna cry, ADD idiot?”
“N-NO! PLEASE D-DON’T—GAH—C-CALL ME THAT!!”
Even at Tweek’s loud cry, no one batted an eye. No one turned to look at him.
People just generally ignored him.
Suddenly, the Senior grabbed roughly onto Tweek’s hair, yanking the blonde away
from the safety of his locker. Just as quickly, the Senior slammed his head
back against the neighboring locker, leaving a dent.
“Shut up, fag!! I’ll call you what I damn well please!”
That was it. Craig couldn’t take it anymore.
Pushing off his locker, the tall noirette pushed through the throngs of people
over to where the fucker was standing over Tweek, who was now curled onto the
floor, holding his head.
“Craig, don’t!” he heard Token yell to him with concern, but Craig ignored him.
As Craig drew up to them, the senior looked up at Craig, who was at least six
inches taller than him, and snarled.
“The fuck you want, fuckface?” the Senior sneered.
Without even a word of warning, Craig pulled back and drilled his fist into the
Senior’s cheek, sending him smashing into the locker’s behind him. Not sparing
the idiot a glance, the noirette bent down and put a hand under Tweek’s arm and
pulled the spastic teen behind him, acting as a shield.
“Leave him alone.”
The snarl caught all three of them off guard. Craig wasn’t sure why he had
spoken the way he did, but he didn’t regret it. Feeling the small blonde shiver
against his side, Craig felt...calm. For the first time in years, Craig was
completely empty of that churning guilt and regret that threatened to overcome
him.
The Senior recovered quickly, stumbling to his feet and wiping the blood that
trickled from the corner of his mouth.
“So is that how we’re gonna play it, huh, fuckface?” He ran a hand over his
spiky hair and gave Craig an amused look mixed with potent disgust. “One fag
protecting another?”
“Stop calling him that.”
Laughing darkly, the Senior sneered again. “Like I said before, I’ll call him
what I damn well please, and nothing you do is gonna stop me.”
“Wanna put money on that?” Craig growled, his voice going deeper than usual. He
felt something pulling on his sleeve as well as heard someone telling him to
stop and get outta there, but Craig wasn’t budging until the fucker left Tweek
alone. He was done watching the poor kid get fucked with on a daily basis. He
was done standing by while the blonde got more and more bruises every day. He
was sick of it. It made his stomach churn. He didn’t want to admit it, but
Token might just be right. Maybe he did feel something for the spastic boy, but
right now, that didn’t matter.
“Nah, I’m bored of this,” answered the Senior. He started to walk away, but
turned back and looked down at the twitching teen hiding behind Craig. “But
this isn’t over. You can bet on that.”
As soon as the Senior walked off and turned the corner, it was like everything
around Craig came back into focus. The object of his anger was gone, so his
senses caught up to his head. A crowd had formed around the two, plus Clyde and
Token who were standing not far away.
“Gah!!”
The small cry next to him drew Craig’s eyes down from where they were staring
after the Senior. Tweek had his eyes downcast and was shifting from one foot
from the other. He looked so...small...and defenseless. But that wasn’t right.
Craig knew the fury that was hidden deep inside that small body.
Wait...how would he know that…?
Mentally shaking the thought away, the noirette locked eyes with the blonde.
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly, as the crush of students began to appear
again since the entertainment had ended.
Tweek nodded quickly, and Craig noticed that his hair had gotten longer in the
past few months. It was over his ears, hung down his neck slightly and almost
covered his emerald eyes.
“Y-yeah...I’m—ngh!--okay...but…” The blonde paused midsentence and twitched to
the side. He didn’t say anything for a few moments. Craig didn’t want to push
him. His head probably still hurt and it was making him all jumbled. Or at
least that’s what Craig thought, until Tweek let out a whimper and practically
yelled, “But c-can you let go of me n-now!?”
Blinking in surprise, although his general deadpan expression didn’t change,
Craig looked down at his hand, which was still gripping Tweek’s upper arm.
Letting go and stepping away from the spastic teen, Craig glanced over at his
friends.
Token looked almost...confirmed? Did that make sense. Clyde just looked
immensely happy, which kind of weirded Craig out.
“Sorry,” Craig mumbled, pulling his chullo farther down his forehead. He felt
warmth enter his cheeks slightly, but forced it away.
Tweek hummed nervously, and teetered on his feet. He shook his head and let out
another half groan, half whimper. “N-not a b-big deal...” Craig saw him pull on
the sleeves of his dark green sweater. It was only a few shades darker than the
normal button ups that he usually wore. “B-but!!” Tweek screeched, his pitch
jumping quite a few octaves, “Y-you shouldn’t have hit him!! Now he’s gonna get
b-back at you and you m-might get hurt and—agh!!--if you g-get hurt because of
me...no...no that’s TOO MUCH PRESSURE!! GAH!!”
The blonde put his arms over his head, grabbing onto the opposite sleeves, and
circled a little. The hallways were beginning to empty out as homeroom was
about to start, so he had room to do so. Tweek whimpered again and went closer
to his locker. He looked like he was struggling to not put his hands into his
hair and yank, like he used to when they were kids.
The spastic teen twitched harder and dug into the duffel back in his locker and
withdrew a silver thermos.
Coffee, probably.
Tweek, who seemed to struggle at just about everything, struggled to get the
cap open. He almost dropped it a few times until Craig stepped forward and did
it for him. He couldn’t stand watching the poor teen’s fingers slide over the
thing any longer.
As soon as the top came off, Tweek gulped down probably about half of the
thing.
Craig was about to ask if Tweek was okay again, but instead, the blonde’s eyes
widened even more than they already were (which seemed impossible beforehand)
and he let out a loud screech.
“OH, NO, I’M GONNA BE LATE!!”
Tweek snatched the top out of Craig’s hands, screwed it back on, grabbed a few
things from his locker and then took off in a twitchy sprint down the hallway.
He didn’t even shut his locker in his rush to get away.
The taller teen stepped forward and closed it for him.
Jesus christ, does the guy ever stop going ballistic?
But Craig knew it was true that Tweek did calm down. There were times when his
twitches all but stopped. He’d only seen it a few times, though, when the
blonde was painting. The boy could paint, that was for sure.
Craig didn’t noticed Clyde and Token come up next to him until Clyde yanked on
his sleeve. Out of impulse, the noirette pulled his arm away and flipped the
brunette off.
“You saved him, Craig! Wow, that was so cool!” Clyde cried, a big, goofy smile
on his face. If Craig would have actually cared, he would have noticed that
Token was smiling as well, as if he had proved some kind of point.
“That Senior was just pissing me off.”
Token let out a small laugh and muttered, “We all know it was more than that.”
Raising his voice to a normal volume, Token said, “But we should get to class.
Homeroom started a minute or two ago,” Without waiting, the black teen turned
and walked off in the opposite direction in which Tweek had run. Clyde wasn’t
far behind him as he let out a string of questions about the homework and what
they were going to do for lunch.
Craig was left there, staring at his hand, the one that was holding onto
Tweek’s arm.
That’s all it was, right? The Senior had just pissed him off, right? It
couldn’t have been more than that.
There’s no way it was because I was worried. Nope. Fuck that.
Shoving the thought from his mind, Craig put his hands in his hoodie pockets
and turned to trail after his friends.
Anger. That’s all it was…
Right…?
Chapter End Notes
     So, what do you guys think? Was it just anger, or was it something
     else?
     And yeah, Dickhead Senior makes another appearance. He's probably
     gonna end up being a permanent fixture in this story...oops.
     So, I have a question for you guys...
     I have a tumblr for my fanfics, but I've never actually used it. I
     made it, but haven't used it since. Should I start posting stuff on
     their again...? Would you guys even like to see snippets of thought
     processes and previews of upcoming chapters and stuff? Or should I
     leave it how it is, or should I make a new one that's easier to get
     to xD I dunno.
***** A Certain Kind of Darkness *****
Chapter Notes
     This chapter, oh this chapter took me.....SO GODDAMN LONG. I had so
     much trouble just making things make sense and I'm still not even
     sure if it worked out well....
     Hope you guys like it
     Merci
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Frantic footsteps rang through the empty hallways of South Park High as a
streak of blonde and green stumbled past classroom after classroom. Tweek
wasn’t sure where he was running to or what he was running from. All he knew
was that he just NEEDED TO GO!
If it wasn’t for fear of crashing into someone or something, Tweek would have
tried to close his eyes against his racing thoughts. They were rattling against
his skull, trying to spill out in what could only end up as a screech. That
wasn’t gonna happen, though. Tweek wasn’t gonna let those thoughts gain a
voice. That would only make them more real.
I c-can’t believe that happened!! He’s gonna get in s-so much trouble! ALL
BECAUSE OF ME! Why would he do that!?
Suddenly, the blonde heard the bell ring for the end of homeroom. Had he really
been running through the halls for that long? Well, it wasn’t as if he really
ended up going to homeroom anyway...he couldn’t sit through it, so he just
didn’t go.
Slowing in his attempt to just go, Tweek changed his path towards his first
class.
Although panic still flowed through his veins, Tweek gulped down some more
coffee and resigned himself to the hell that was school.
 
~
 
Finally, Tweek’s last class, and it was his favorite.
Art.
“M-miss A-addler?” the twitching blonde mumbled, walking up to the young art
teacher that had become his only friend. She moved her pretty mocha eyes to
look up at Tweek as he stood in front of her desk, shifting his weight from one
foot to the other.
“Yes, Tweek?” Miss Addler answered, giving him a calm smile. It was such a
pretty smile that Tweek found himself unconsciously smiling back. The teacher
tucked a little of her curly, caramel colored hair behind her ear as she waited
patiently for Tweek to say what he needed to.
“I...I, um...I forgot my project a-at home,” the short blonde stuttered,
gripping the hem of his dark green sweater hard enough for his knuckles to turn
white. Tweek really, really didn’t want Miss Addler to be mad at him for
forgetting his painting...he liked her too much to ever make her mad. She was
his only friend...the only adult that he could talk freely with, without the
fear of her judgment. Tweek still had more to say, but he was afraid of
upsetting the teacher. Miss Addler, with her mocha eyes looking at him with
such patience, waited for Tweek to finish his thought. “I-is there any c-chance
I...that I could...nrgh, why is this so hard!?” Tweek lowered his head in
embarrassment.
“Tweek, its all right,” the young teacher said softly, reaching a hand across
her desk. She knew that Tweek didn’t like to be touched, so she didn’t. She
just let her hand rest there. “If you want to work on something else for today,
just make sure you bring your other project the next time you come in.” She
gave Tweek another of her calm smiles, and he could feel the tension and fear
relax from his stomach. She wasn’t angry with him, and she even understood that
he couldn’t be at school everyday.
“T-thank you, Miss Addler.”
The art teacher nodded and Tweek started to make his way over to the stack of
fresh canvases that Miss Addler must have just stretched. He was glad that he
didn’t have to gesso an already used canvas. Tweek loved the feeling of fresh
canvases. They took the paint so much easier.
I wonder what I should work on...maybe I’ll just start and see where it goes.
Nodded to himself, his plan settled, Tweek grabbed a random canvas and took it
back over to his station. It was off in a little corner of the art studio,
where other students wouldn’t bother him. He almost dropped the canvas a few
times, but after a few tries, he managed to get it centered on the easel.
Once all his other supplies were laid out around him, Tweek fished a headband
out of his duffel bag and fixed his wild hair out of his eyes. He really needed
a haircut, but he was too afraid to do it himself. He shook too much while
holding scissors to ever hope of cutting straight.
Tweek wanted to pull his headphones out of his bag and lose himself in the
music, however, although Miss Addler was pretty lenient about things, she
didn’t tolerate phones being used during class. So instead, the blonde tried to
empty his mind by mixing paint until a color caught his eye.
But he should have known that emptying his mind was just never going to happen.
Instead, Tweek’s thoughts were wrenched back around to that morning. He was
just so...scared...that something bad was going to happen to Craig because of
him.
Tweek knew that the noirette didn’t care for him the way he used to, back when
they were kids, and the blonde didn’t want to burden Craig with any of his own
screw ups. Craig probably had enough on his plate without having to worry about
getting in trouble because of Tweek.
Letting out frustrated little moan, Tweek put down his cool color palette and
picked up the warm color one. He had found the colors he liked from the other
end of the spectrum, but this side always gave him issues.
Why did that Senior have to mess with me while Craig was around...couldn’t he
just wait to harass me once I get to work...or even after school? At least then
no one else will get in trouble. I don’t want anyone else to get in
trouble...I’d feel so guilty.
It didn’t register with Tweek, even after all this time of painting, but once
he picked up a brush, his thoughts seemed to stop stuttering and his head
didn’t feel like it was under that much pressure. It was such an odd sensation
that the blonde just couldn’t think about it too much, or it was gonna go away
for good.
The colors weren’t coming together. All he could see was muddled shades of
brown. Why couldn’t he do this right? Why was he so useless!?
Tweek groaned again as he plopped the palette back down onto his station.
Holding his arms over his head, gripping his sleeves, the spastic blonde began
to rock back and forth a bit. He just couldn’t handle this right now. Why did
everything look so bad? Why couldn’t he do this? Why, why, why?!
“Tweek, is everything all right?”
Startled by the soft voice next to him, Tweek almost smacked Miss Addler as he
flailed, trying to stay in his seat.
“NRGH!! W-WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?” Tweek cried, trying to keep his voice down, at
least somewhat. He twitched hard to the left, his eyes moving restlessely,
trying not to look the teacher in the eye.
“You’re making some frustrated noises over here, and I can tell you’re having
trouble with your colors again.”
Tweek lowered his head in shame again, staring at the ruined palette of warms
colors he just couldn’t deal with. Was he really that disruptive that even the
teacher had to do something about it? Was he that stupid? Why did everything
just keep piling on top of Tweek’s head, leaving behind so much pressure?
He must have made another groaning sound again, because the teacher gave Tweek
as sad smile and sat down at the station next to him.
“Pick up the cool color palette, Tweek, and just start painting,” she said,
crossing her ankles underneath the chair as she held her hands in her lap, her
pretty, blue speckled nail polish shining in the afternoon sun. “Don’t worry
about the warm colors right now. You can add those later, once you’ve figured
out what you’re painting.” Miss Addler leaned back against the chair back and
watched Tweek as he did what she told him.
The art teacher was always able to do that. Just one sentence always pushed him
into working.
Just start painting…
Tweek took a shaky breathe and put brush to canvas, focusing on the strokes and
just letting the painting become what it may.
“So what is really bothering you, Tweek?”
The teacher’s voice didn’t startle him this time. That was normal. The two of
them did much this same thing almost every time Tweek was able to come to
class. She helped him sort through his thoughts. Maybe it was because painting
calmed him so easily. Tweek wasn’t sure.
“W-what do you mean?” Tweek answered, a question for a question. His voice
seemed to even itself out by the time he got to the end of the question.
The art teacher hummed quietly and answered, “You have trouble with colors,
that I understand. We all have troubles with that sometimes. But even before
you began mixing the paints, there was something bothering you. Something that
had nothing to do with art. What would that be?”
Tweek didn’t look at her. He kept his eyes and his focus on the painting, which
had become a bed of blue-green that faded into black halfway down the canvas,
which bled into a blue-ish purple that Tweek often saw in his nightmares.
“The Senior that picks on me did it again this morning, but Craig stopped
him...”
Out of the corner of his eye, the blonde vaguely saw Miss Addler nod.
“And Craig is the blue-eyed boy you remember being close with in Elementary
school, correct.” After a nod from Tweek, the mocha eyed teacher continued, “So
why was that frustrating to you?”
“Craig punched him.”
“Did he, now?”
“Yeah, and I think the Senior is gonna get back at him somehow. And it’ll all
be my fault, because I keep letting that Senior do this to me. Craig’s gonna
get in trouble and it’s all because of me.”
“Why would you think he is going to get in trouble?”
Tweek grabbed a tube of blue and white and began mixing a new color. This
caused his focus to come back to reality, and he twitched hard.
“B-because!!” the blonde ground out, trying to keep himself from twitching too
hard now that he wasn’t focused on painting. He didn’t want to accidentally
flick paint at his teacher, or the painting. “The Senior is gonna tell! He’ll
tell a teacher or the principal even, and then Craig’ll get d-detention!! And
It’ll be my fault!”
Tweek struggled with the sickly purple color he was trying to create, mixing in
a little green just to add to the effect of it. Once these two new colors had
been mixed, Tweek picked up a new brush and picked up where he left off. The
purple he usually saw in his nightmares faded out to the sickly purple, and
Tweek heard Miss Addler ask another question.
“When this took place, did it seem as if Craig cared that he would get in
trouble?”
Tweek snorted, surprising both of them. The blonde didn’t usually do that kind
of thing. He answered Miss Addler’s question, nonetheless.
“Craig doesn’t care about anything. He has this...this...fog around him that
just...keeps his cares away.” As the small blonde tried to explain something
that he didn’t understand, he rinsed off his brush and began blending the edges
of the non-painted section he had left in the sickly purple with the piercing,
light blue that he had mixed earlier. “Maybe...maybe it’s not a fog. It might
be a...” Tweek paused again, squinting slightly at the blue. It seemed
familiar, almost.
“An aura?”
“Yeah...an aura,” Tweek agreed, nodded slowly, picking up the brush he had used
for the black area of the painting and began painting was started out as a blob
of black in the middle of the blue, but soon became almost humanoid. It seemed
like a person sitting with his arms around his knees. “It’s… like magic,
sometimes. Or like a shield...where everything bounces off and nothing bothers
him...it keeps the monsters away.” As if to solidify the idea of monsters,
Tweek began painting lines from the original black area, reaching down towards
the person at the bottom. They soon looked like crooked hands, wanting to touch
the person, but they didn’t go that far, as if the blue around the person kept
them away.
“It keeps the monsters away,” the teacher whispered, noticing something that
Tweek couldn’t. “His own monsters, or some else’s?”
“Both, I think,” Tweek answered, putting down the black paintbrush and picking
up the blue one again. This time, he mixed more white with it and painted
another figure behind the original, it’s arms spread wide.
Once that was done, Tweek blinked slowly, as if coming back to reality, putting
the brush down. He stared at the painting again, almost seeing
something...familiar.
Then the spell was broken as the bell rang for the end of class, as well as the
end of the school day.
“B-but that h-has—ngh—nothing to d-do with it!!” Tweek yelled, almost falling
out of his chair again as a spasm ripped through him, as if the stillness of
before was too much to handle. “I-I’m just worried for him!”
“Then go tell him that.”
Blinking again, eyes slightly out of sync, Tweek turned a shocked gaze to his
teacher. He shook his head quickly and waved his hands around.
“Nrgh!! Oh, no, no, no! I c-can’t—gah!!--do that!”
The teacher smiled and stood up, walked around Tweek’s station to stand behind
him.
“Tweek?”
The blonde twitched and nodded, looking up at Miss Addler.
“Look at what you have painted. Do you see what I see?”
Turning back around to look at the canvas, Tweek took in what he saw.
A sea of blue-green gave way to darkness, and from that darkness reached
ethereal hands, reaching for a huddled figure cloaked in darkness. The figure
sat, cowering, in a miasma of sickening purple. Although those hands strove to
reach the poor soul, another figure stood above him. This one, arms spread
wide, seemed to be calling a blue aura around the huddled figure. The blue
figure acted as a shield to keep those monstrous hands away.
“W-what do you see, Miss Addler?” Tweek whispered, surprised at the painting.
He always was surprised. He never knew what kind of thing he was going to paint
until it was finished.
The teacher leaned down so she could whisper in Tweek’s ear. He could feel her
caramel hair tickling his neck.
“I see your fear of those monsters, the ones who want to hurt you. But I also
see the one who wants to protect you. I see the one who did protect you when
one of those monsters appeared before you.” She paused and poked him in the
shoulder. “I see a certain kind of darkness within you, Tweek, a kind of
darkness born of fear and loneliness. But I also see your hope.” She pointed to
the figure huddled beneath those hands. “That aura surrounding both of them.
That is your hope. He is your hope. You just need to chase that hope, without
the fear of being swallowed by darkness.”
“But...Miss Addler...how..?”
The teacher straightened and shook her head.
“You need to figure that out for yourself. I can’t tell you what you want to
hear, only what you need to hear.” Tweek nodded slightly. He kind of understood
what she was saying. But his thoughts were too spastic to really grasp her
meaning. “Just remember that fear and hope go hand in hand. You can’t chase one
without the other.”
Miss Addler turned and walked back to her desk, leaving Tweek with his
thoughts. As he cleaned up his station, he tried to understand what they had
talked about. All the blonde could really grasp was that he wanted Craig to
stand up for him. He didn’t want the taller boy to get hurt, but he also didn’t
want to live without being by Craig’s side. He couldn’t tell the blue-eyed
noirette, though. He didn’t see Tweek the same way anymore.
“Did you really paint that in one class?”
“OH, JESUS!! WHAT DO YOU WANT!?” Tweek screeched as he toppled over onto the
floor, not realizing who had spoken. Looking up, he saw blue eyes.
Looking down at him with amusement and wonder in his usually blank stare, hands
in his pockets, was Craig. Realizing this, the blonde scrambled to his feet
with another screech and flew to cover the painting. He didn’t want Craig to
make fun of him. “I’M SORRY!! NRGH, IT PROBABLY SUCKS!! YOU DON’T HAVE TO LOOK
AT IT!!”
Suddenly, Tweek felt a hand on his head, ruffling his wild hair. It stopped his
spastic movements almost immediately. Turning slowly to look up at the taller
teen, Tweek blinked.
Then the hand was gone, yanked back and put back into a pocket as Craig’s
cheeks grew a little pink. Tweek felt his own growing warmer.
“Sorry, shouldn’t have done that,” Craig mumbled, pulling his hand out of his
pocket to pull his chullo down, keeping his eyes on the floor.
Tweek shook his head quickly, pulling on his sleeves. “N-no, it’s okay...”
Biting his bottom lip, the blonde twitched his gaze from his hands to Craig’s
eyes and back again. “W-why are you in the a-art room.”
“Was walking by and saw the painting. Thought it looked cool. Wanted to see it
up close.”
Shocked, Tweek moved forward slightly. “Y-you think it looks cool?” the blonde
whispered.
Nodding and humming affirmation, Craig almost smiled. It gave Tweek a weird
feeling in his chest. As if there was something physically wrong, Tweek looked
down and rubbed at where the feeling was. What was this?
“Tweek, I have to lock the classroom up now!” Miss Addler suddenly called.
“O-okay! I won’t be too long!”
The teacher smiled and nodded, her eyes lingering on Craig for a few seconds
longer.
“Are you leaving the painting here tonight or taking it home?” Craig asked as
Tweek turned around and started packing up the rest of his stuff. He pulled his
headband off and shoved it in his duffel bag as well, his hair falling back in
his eyes.
“I...um,” Tweek stuttered, shouldering the bag and looked back at Craig
slightly. “I w-won’t be in school tomorrow, so I p-probably will t-take it
home.” The blonde grabbed one of the canvas covers that hung next to the stack
of canvases and slipped it over the painting. “I...I used a-acrylics so it
should already b-be dry.”
Tweek was surprised at how easily he was able to talk to Craig at that moment.
Normally he would have been freaking out by now. Maybe it was because of what
Miss Addler had said...facing his fear. Was talking to Craig one of his fears?
Out of the blue, Craig stepped forward and grabbed the painting out of Tweek’s
hands.
“W-what are you doing!?” Tweek cried, trying to snatch it back and almost
tripping over the chair next to him.
“Carrying it for you so you can carry your coffee. I know it makes you feel
better.” Craig held the painting over his head with one hand and grabbed onto
Tweek’s with the other. “Let’s go before the teacher yells at us again.”
And then Craig was walked forward and Tweek was being dragged away, not even
able to say goodbye to the teacher.
Tweek felt oddly...at ease...as Craig pulled his down the hall. It was the same
feeling as when Craig’s hand has been in his hair. What was going on?
“W-where are w-we going!?” Tweek squeaked as Craig continued walking.
The noirette suddenly looked back at him with a strange, amused, conspiratory
look in his eyes.
“You’ll see.”
What the hell does that mean!?
Chapter End Notes
     So, did it makes sense? No? Yeah I didn't think so. It probably made
     no sense at all.
     As for Tweek's painting, what do you see? I know the idea was very
     self explainatory especially BECAUSE I EXPLAINED IT but what do you
     guys think?
     Think someone could actually do a drawing of this for me? I wanna
     know if it actually would look good....
     Thanks for reading guys!! The next chapter is going to be Craig, so
     let's see how our emotionless beanpole is doing, shall we?
***** What Was Broken Must Be Fixed *****
Chapter Notes
     A shorter chapter today, as well as a fluffier chapter.
     I was having a lot of trouble picking up where Tweek's chapter left
     off, so I decided to take a break and do something different. I'll
     probably add in a different perspective every now and then. It helps
     to realign my thoughts for Tweek and Craig. I had a lot of fun
     writing this one. It's short, but I love it. It's got a bit of a
     twist!!
     Hope you guys enjoy!
     Merci
See the end of the chapter for more notes
From his vantage point behind the art room door, the sneaky blonde could see
everything.
And he liked what he saw.
As soon as Kenny McCormick saw the two quickly making their way towards the
door, he ducked down so that he couldn’t be seen through the window on the
door. He was sure neither Craig nor Tweek would take kindly to him spying on
them.
Then again, he was always spying on them, among others. It was his favorite
pastime.
Once the two were out of sight and earshot, Kenny slunk out from behind the
door. A crooked smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He was glad that at
least something was happening between them. Before Kenny could sneakily follow
them, just to see what would happen (if anything even happened), a voice called
to him from the art room.
“Did you see what you came to see?”
Poking his head into the room, the blonde saw Miss Addler watching him with a
bland expression. He gave her the same crooked smile he had had on his face
before.
“Why, yes, Carissa, I did!” Kenny announced, striding into the room.
“You can’t call me that here. You know that.”
The teen rolled his eyes, the smile not fading a bit. “But, cousin, no one else
is here,” he stage whispered. “It’s just you and me! So how about an update on
our cute little Tweeky?”
Carissa Addler blinked slowly and raised an eyebrow at her younger cousin.
“Wouldn’t your spying have already answered that question?” the teacher
wondered, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest. When
Kenny didn’t say anything, only stared back at her, Carissa rolled her eyes and
sighed. “Fine. Nothing has changed. He’s still as afraid as ever. The changes
are with Craig. He seems to be remembering, albeit slowly. But I think it’s
going to take a lot more than just your meddling to get them back to how they
used to be. Tweek is still just so scared of anything to do with Craig or the
truth. I can’t do much more for the boy.”
Kenny nodded through her explanation. She was right, his spying had already
told him this. However, he always respected another’s insight to these matters.
The younger blonde thought that she might have had an idea of how to proceed,
and she had. Kenny might just have to step things up a notch.
He smiled brightly at his cousin. “Thanks, Carissa, you’ve been a great help.”
She only snorted, turning away from Kenny. I guess she’s had enough of
me!Laughing to himself, Kenny turned on his heel and walked bouncily out into
the hallway. Before turning to continue his spying, the blonde called back to
Carissa. “Despite not being able to do much, you better still do something. I
got you this job and I can take it away just as easily.”
“Fuck off, McCormick!” Carissa called back, her true colors shining through.
“You’re a McCormick, too, Carissa. You may have changed your name, but that
blood still runs in your veins!”
Without waiting for a reply, Kenny turned in the direction he saw Craig pulling
Tweek. He pulled up his hood and shoved his hands in his pockets. One of the
downsides of his ability was always being cold, even in the middle of the
summer.
Kenny hated threatening his cousin, especially because she was the only blood
relation that he could actually stand. But with McCormicks, the only way to get
anything done was with threats.
Sighing, Kenny put more speed into his steps. If he wasn’t careful, he was
gonna lose them. He hadto keep an eye on them whenever they were together. What
was broken had to be fixed.
And besides, it was a little bit his fault that things were broken in the first
place.
Okay, maybe it was entirely his fault that he had broken things. It wasn’t like
he had been trying to break the timeline. His stupid ability had caused it.
Why did the McCormicks have to have the ability to change time if they died? It
was stupid.
Useful, but still stupid.
If Kenny was being honest, which he rarely was, he felt completely responsible
for destroying so many relationships, especially ones that were destined to be.
That’s why he was trying so hard to fix things. He had been trying for seven
goddamn years!! He was so close with Stan and Kyle, the idiots were just
fighting again, over something completely idiotic. Then again, it almost made
sense. They were idiots after all.
Clyde and Bebe were a bit tougher, just because Kenny knew that they weren’t
supposed to get together until they were seniors. He just had to keep an eye on
them.
Craig and Tweek, though...damn, he had just fucked things up for them. They had
actually been togetherwhen Kenny died that time. All the blonde wanted to do
was go back enough to make sure he didn’t die, like he did every time, but he’d
overshot. He’d gone too far and changed too much, and now the timeline was
shattered.
God, this sucks so fucking much.
Mentally shaking himself, Kenny tried to wipe the evil look from his face. He
could feel the glare that marred his features, and he didn’t want anyone to see
it. Especially not him.
“Well, hey there, Kenny! Whatcha doin’ here after school?”
As soon as he heard that voice, Kenny was able to destroy the annoyance that
was consuming him and forced a smile.
Turning around Kenny saw Butters Stotch shutting the door to his locker,
apparently getting ready to leave.
“Oh, just looking for you, Leo!” Kenny cried as he practically skipped over to
the locker and wrapped his arms around the shorter male’s shoulders. There was
just something about this gullible little thing that made Kenny feel all warm
and fuzzy.
Honestly, he’d fallen head over heels for Butters years ago. Even through that
stretch that he was dating that girl online, Kenny tried his best to stay close
to the smaller blonde. But he’d never admit that.
“Awe, shucks, you gotta be jokin’, Kenny,” Butters, or Leo as Kenny insisted on
calling him most of the time, blushed furiously but put a hand on one of
Kenny’s arms. “You know I stay a little late to make sure I got all my homework
done. I don’t want my Dad to ground me for not acin’ all my assignments.”
At the mention of Leo’s dad, a little of Kenny’s warm and fuzzy feeling faded.
He hated that man. Considering all the shit he’d done to Leo over the years,
Kenny was surprised he hadn’t gone after the man yet. But he knew that Leo
would be devastated if anything happened to his dad. Despite the abuse, Leo
loved his dad.
“Have you heard from your mom, Leo?” Kenny asked, trying to lighten the mood a
little. Once Kenny started to feel down, it was like Leo could sense it and got
nervous, as if Kenny was mad at him.
The smaller blonde made a weird face, pursing his lips and tried to shrug,
which was difficult with Kenny hanging on him like he was. “Nope!” Leo said
after a moment. “I’ve been tryin’ to call ‘er but it just keeps goin’ to
voicemail! She’s probably busy.”
Although Leo tried to hide it, Kenny could tell that he missed his mom. She’d
left them a few years ago, after Leo’s little sister was born. Kenny guessed
she was tired of Stephen’s abusiveness and didn’t want Marina around it.
Kenny buried his face in Leo’s shoulder and whispered, “You know she would have
taken you with her if she could have, Butterscotch.”
Leo nodded, blushing again. Kenny only called him that when it was just the two
of them, when they were trying to stay as close to each other as possible; when
Kenny held him while he shook with sobs.
“Oh, I know. But don’t worry about me, Kenny. I may not be happy all the time,
but who is? I know she’s doin’ what’s best for my sister, and that’s all that
matters. Once I graduate, I’ll go live with them, so I can take care of Mom and
help out, ya know?”
Oh, Leo...you’re too okay with everything...can’t you just be selfish for once?
Awe, who am I kidding? You couldn’t be selfish even if someone pushed it on
you.
“I wish I could be as mature as you, Butterscotch,” Kenny mumbled, spinning Leo
in his arms so he could hold him easier. “I wouldn’t be able to give up the
people I love. I’m too selfish for that.”
Leo laughed as he held onto Kenny, the taller boy’s parka almost smothering
him, but he didn’t care. He was just glad that Kenny was there with him.
They stood there like that for a little while. Kenny always felt calm when it
was just the two of them. He didn’t have to worry about fixing anything with
Leo just because they’d never been broken. Kenny knew they weren’t supposed to
be together. He’d seen what would happen if he kept clinging to the smaller
teen like this. He knew what would befall the both of them. But he was just too
selfish. He wanted Leo all to himself. He couldn’t help it.
“Hey, Kenny?”
“Yeah, Leo?”
“I’ve gotta go to my piano lesson. My dad’ll get real mad if I don’t get there
on time.”
Kenny reluctantly let the smaller blonde go. He really didn’t want Leo to go
anywhere near his father, but there wasn’t much he could do.
“Okay. Go on, wouldn’t wanna get you in trouble,” Kenny said, gently turned the
boy and give him a little push on his back. He made some shoo, shoo motions,
but Leo hung back for a few seconds. “What’s wrong?” Kenny asked, concerned.
Had he upset the boy?
“Well, I was, uh...well, I was wonderin’...” Leo stuttered as he shifted his
weight from one foot to the other, looking down at the floor and blushing.
Kenny let out a little sigh of relief and gave Leo a soft smile. Taking the few
steps forward to reach the smaller teen, he put a finger under his chin. He
placed a soft kiss on Leo’s slightly damp lips. The shorter blonde had a
tendency to lick his lips when he was nervous. Leo thought it was embarrassing;
Kenny just thought it was cute.
The taller blonde felt Leo’s hands grab onto his parka, pulling him a little
closer. That was another thing Kenny just loved about this kid. He was quite
possessive when given the chance, and it make Kenny’s heart do weird flip flops
whenever it happened. Kenny put a hand on Leo’s lower back and the other he
moved from the smaller blonde’s chin to rest on the back of his neck. He kissed
Leo again, holding him as close a physically possible.
Pulling back once he felt Leo start to shake a little, Kenny smiled at the
smaller blonde. His face was as red as red could be, but he looked happy.
“Thanks, Kenny. I feel better now.” Leo gave the taller blonde a big smile.
“I’ll see you tonight, yeah?”
“Yeah, Leo. You know I’ll be there.”
Leo smiled again, pulling out of Kenny’s arms and practically skipping down the
hall.
Kenny gave a small sigh again and laughed.
That kid is just too cute.
Once Leo turned a corner and was out of sight, Kenny turned in the opposite
direction, intent to get back to what he was doing before.
That is...if they were still even around.
I’ll fix this. I will make sure everything goes back to how it’s supposed to.
Even if it means losing him forever.
Chapter End Notes
     Gosh, aren't they just the cutest...too bad fixing everything else
     might just mean losing Butters forever...oops.
     And where did the sudden time travel come in? I DON'T HAVE A FUCKING
     CLUE. Just kinda...happened. again...oops
     Did you guys like this one? A reprieve from the seriousness, huh?
***** Eyes Can Reveal More Than You Think *****
Chapter Notes
     I spent two hours before work and four hours after work writing this.
     And even before that, i had written about half of this chapter and
     then scrapped it. Again, I don't even know if this makes sense at
     all. But hopefully you guys like it.
     Merci
See the end of the chapter for more notes
 
Situated right next to South Park High was South Park Elementary. Obviously,
most of the high schoolers hated that the kid’s school was obnoxiously close to
their own. Because of this fact, most of them kept as far away as possible from
the playground that was halfway on the grounds of the high school.
However, at that moment, after school had been let out and no one was around,
one high school student could be seen sitting at the top of the dome-shaped
jungle gym that was the center point for the playground.
The afternoon sun warming his back, Craig watched the sky as fluffy clouds
rolled past. When he was a kid, when his dad had been in a bad mood, the
noirette would take Ruby to the playground and they would sit in the grass,
watching the clouds. His little sister always pointed out animals that she saw,
while Craig would sit in silence.
Much like he was now.
Craig still couldn’t understand why he’d done it. He kind of just wanted to
talk to the blonde, wanted to see how he was doing after that morning. He
wanted to try and have a normal conversation with Tweek. They’d never just sat
down and talked before. Because of that, Tweek felt like a stranger to Craig,
even know they’d known each other since they were kids.
The noirette kind of wanted to prove to everyone that they were wrong about
Tweek, that he wasn't a psycho. The blonde was just...different.
But...nothing had come of his hopes for a normal conversation.
As soon as they had reached the front doors, Tweek had yanked his hand away
from Craig. He had given Craig a blatant lie of an excuse about needing to take
care of the coffee shop. The noirette knew that Tweek had hired someone
recently to take his place whenever he wanted to go to school.
True, he had only known this because he had heard Tweek talking about it with
that art teacher on one of the days that he had stopped to watch Tweek paint,
but that was besides the point.
Taking a drag of his cigarette, Craig swung his foot in the six feet of open
air beneath the jungle gym. He felt stupid and he felt that churning regret in
his stomach again. He had made the smaller blonde freak out one too many times.
He shouldn’t have dragged Tweek around like that. He honestly wasn’t sure why
he had grabbed Tweek’s hand in the first place. He could have just asked the
blonde to come with him. But it was like some weird instinct that practically
forced him to take the smaller teen’s hand, as if somewhere hidden in his
memory, he’d done it before.
To his knowledge, though, Craig had never held the spastic teen’s hand before.
So why had it felt so familiar?
Craig looked down at that same hand that had held Tweek’s significantly smaller
one. It had been cold, but very...soft...and inviting. He hadn’t wanted to let
go.
Sighing, the noirette clenched his hand into a fist, looking at the scars that
covered his knuckles. There really were a lot of them, those scars. Truthfully,
Craig hated that his hands looked like that, but there was no changing it now.
He’d gotten into way too many fights, that was true. But he didn’t really
regret it. They’d helped him work up strength, strength that he used to walk
away from his father’s punches without much damage.
“Hey, Craig.”
Looking down at the soft, very feminine,voicce, Craig saw Bebe Stevens, her
curly blonde hair pulled into one of those “messy buns” that girls tended to
wear (that Craig still didn’t understand, even though Ruby had explained it to
him before). The noirette was a little surprised that he hadn't seen her
approach. He was just surprised to see her in general. Since she had skipped a
grade back in Elementary, Bebe didn’t really associate with the others anymore.
Aside from Wendy, anyway.
“’Sup,” Craig said after a moment, squinting and staring up at the sky again.
Bebe was kind of blinding sometimes, especially with her almost golden hair.
“Just looking for Clyde,” the girl said, giving Craig a soft smile as she
tucked a lose curl behind her ear. Bebe was pretty, he’d give her that. But
he’d never been attracted to her like most of his male classmates, especially
Clyde. “He’s usually with you after school, so I was gonna ask if you’d seen
him.” Bebe slightly titled her head as she looked up at Craig.
“He probably went over to Token’s, or they stopped to get food. Dunno. I’m here
on my own.” Craig took a drag of his cigarette, holding in the smoke a little
longer than usual, letting it burn in his lungs. Releasing it in a thin column
towards the sky, Craig sighed. He was glad that he managed to bum a few off of
one of his classmates. There was no way he’d make it til Thursday with no
cigarettes, especially when it was only Tuesday. He was always waiting on that
bastard McCormick.
“Are you okay, Craig?”
The question caught the noirette off guard, enough that he almost lost his
balance on the bar of the jungle gym. Why had she asked that?
“Yeah, why?”
“Your eyes are shadowed. It looks as if something is bothering you.”
Was something bothering him? Craig didn’t think so. He’d been confused and
feeling a bit guilty earler, but he was fine now. He’d learned pretty quick to
not let things get to him.
“Nah, I’m fine,” Craig stated, flicking a bit of ash into his hand. He would
have just aimed it at the ground, but he didn’t want to get any on Bebe, who
was still standing almost directly underneath him. “Go find Clyde. I’m sure
he’d be happy to see you.”
Craig kept his eyes on the sky, so he didn’t see the sad smile Bebe was giving
him.
“Enjoy your night,” Bebe called as she turned to walk away, the breeze catching
her that same lose curl as she did, pulling it out from behind her ear. The
blonde stopped after a few steps and said, “I hope someday soon you can be
honest with yourself, Craig Tucker. You’d be surprised by just how much your
eyes can give away.” The girl started walking again, leaving Craig alone with
that annoying thought.
Honest with himself? He was...most of the time.
 
~
 
“And, and, and then, I shit you not, I managed to get SIX HEADSHOTS in a row!
Literally one after the other! I had the best score out of everyone, too! I was
totally freaking out, man, it was so fucking awesome!”
Craig stood in the doorway to Token’s basement, bombarded with Clyde’s crazy
retelling of something he’d done in the CoD. The noirette hadn’t even opened
the door all the way when Clyde started going off. The brunet was standing at
the top of the stairs, blocking Craig’s only way into the basement.
“Clyde, if you don’t move, I’m gonna kick you down the stairs.”
Blinking at how evenly Craig had delivered the threat, a big smile broke
through Clyde’s momentary shock. The brunet pulled up the sleeves of his red
Letterman jacket and put his hands on his hips.
“I don’t think you will, Craig!” the smaller teen challenged.
“Wanna bet?” Craig wondered aloud as he raised an eyebrow. He was already
putting most of his weight on his left foot so he could get enough momentum to
put a foot in Clyde’s gut when someone cleared their throat behind him.
Looking over his shoulder, Craig saw Token standing there, an almost
incredulous look on his face. If his hands hadn't already been filled with bags
of chips and a case of soda (with a few beer cans mixed in there for good
measure), the black teen would have crossed his arms over his chest.
“Clyde, please just move. This shit is heavy.”
Wow, Token swore. That’s rare. He must be annoyed.
“Alright, alright!” Clyde practically sang as he turned around and all but
skipped down the stairs.
Following behind him with regular steps like a goddamn normal person, Craig
made his way over to his spot at the bar. He still had homework and this was
literally the only place he could get it done when he couldn’t manage to finish
it in his last study hall. Yesterday, he’d gotten into the fight with some
idiot who was pissed at him for sleeping with his girlfriend, which Craig had
literally done no such thing. So that had taken up his entire study hall. That
night he was too caught up in melodies and brooding. And today, he couldn’t get
the image of Tweek getting his head slammed into a locker out of his head. He’d
been way too distracted lately, all because of the blonde.
I can’t really blame this on Tweek, though. It’s my fault that I can’t keep my
eyes off him.
“--but that really doesn’t have anything to do with it, does it?”
His mind suddenly catching something Token was saying, Craig felt an eyebrow
rise, confusion apparent on his face. Had he said that out loud?
“But, Tokeeeeen, I’m serious!! She invited me and I don’t wanna go alone!! Do
you realize how many people are gonna be there?”
“What’re you guys talking about?” Craig asked, wiping the confusion from his
face. He really needed to get a better grip on his facial expressions. He was
usually really good at it.
“Craaaiiiiiggggg!!” The whine pierced the noirette’s eardrums in a way that no
other sound could have done. Resisting the urge to punch Clyde in the mouth
just to get the whine to stop, Craig clenched his jaw.
“Clyde, enough with the whining.”
“Bebe invited me to a party tomorrow night, and I really, really wanna go!”
“So go.” There was no emotion in Craig’s voice, his urge to punch the brunet
fading a little once his voice went back down to its normal pitch.
“I can’t! Not alone! How lame is that gonna be!?” Clyde blurted, waving his
arms above his head, as if this was life or death. Dramatic only scratched the
surface on the many things that Clyde Donovan was. Annoying was another.
“I already told you, Clyde, ‘lame’ has nothing to do with this,” Token tried to
explain to the flailing teen. “If you want to go, just go. Why do you need
someone else to go with you when you were invited by your girlfriend?”
A blush formed on Clyde’s cheeks as he stopped flailing and mumbled, “She’s not
my girlfriend...not yet, anyway.” Raising his voice a little, Clyde continued,
“But that’s exactly why I want you guys to come with me! Bebe invited me, which
means a whole bunch of girls are gonna be there, too! She’s gonna spend the
entire time girling out with them and I’ll just be standing there like a
weirdo.”
“You are a weirdo,” Craig muttered, pulling his chullo down, hoping that Clyde
hadn't heard him, but Clyde always heard him.
Throwing up his hands, Clyde put them on his hand and aggresively ruffled his
hair, the brown wefts sticking out all over the place. “That isn’t the point,
Craig!” The whine was back for a moment, but Clyde lowered his voice again. “I
wanna go to a party with my friends, to have fun and get a bit drunk and flirt
with the girl that I like. Can’t you guys just humor me this once? Please?”
When Token and Craig didn’t say anything, only stared at their friend, Clyde
raised his pitch again. “PLEASE!?”
Rolling his eyes, Token turned away from Clyde and walked over to where Craig
was sitting at the bar to grab a glass and some ice.
“Fine, I’ll go. If I don’t, you’re just gonna get hammered and make an idiot
out of yourself.”
Looking blankly at his friend (who acted more like a mother to Clyde than
anything else) as Token filled the glass with ice and some Pepsi, Craig could
feel Clyde’s eyes on him.
“Craig…? Please?” the brunete asked again, holding onto the back of the couch,
knuckles white, as if Craig’s decision could make or break him.
Craig sighed. Swayed by the prospect of free alcohol, Craig muttered, “Fuck it.
I’ll go.” Sensing Clyde was about to launch himself over the couch and pull the
noirette into a bearhug, Craig leveled a hard look at his friend, stopping him
from doing just that. “But you owe me.”
As if thanking the heavens, Clyde held his hands up above his head. "Fuck yes!"
Then the brunet flopped back down onto the couch and got back into an online
match of CoD.
Now that that whole debacle was over, Craig sat down at his spot at the bar and
took his Pre-Calc textbook out of his bag. He had two whole days of assignments
to catch up on, and he hated this class.
Putting the sounds of Clyde’s crazy ramblings about CoD and how pretty Bebe was
to the back of his attention, Craig started melting his brain with equations.
He vaguely heard Token talking to Clyde about not bouncing on the couch so
much, not drinking the soda so fast, and, “Clyde, stop whining, please.” Token
sat across from the noirette at the bar, watching him do his homework.
Token always had his homework done days in advance, just because he was in
higher classes than Craig. Not that Craig really cared that much. Just because
Token was smarter academically didn’t mean he treated Craig or Clyde any
differently. If he did, Craig would have punched out his friend a long time
ago. He hated pompous asses. He was glad Token was so down to earth.
This place was comfortable. Craig felt at ease in that basement with his
friends. When he lost himself in homework, or playing games, Craig could almost
ignore that festering anger and churning regret that almost made him lose his
lunch at least a few times a day. It was always there, like a disease. Except
this disease didn’t have a cure, at least not one Craig could easily acquire.
The noirette absently played with one of the strings of his chullo, his
thoughts slowing as he tried to figure out a particularly difficult equation.
“The answer is 14.”
Blinking, his mind floating back down into his body, Craig looked at Token with
a vague expression.
“Huh?”
“That equation. You were almost right. The answer is 14. You swapped two of the
numbers in the wrong places.”
Looking back down at his paper, Craig realized that Token was right. Then
again, he was always right. But since that was the last question he had to do,
Craig quickly fixed his mistake and slammed the textbook shut.
“I fucking hate this class. Why do I have to take it again?”
“It’s part of the diploma you want,” Token reminded the noirette, handing him a
vanilla Coke, the only soda that Craig actually liked. The black teen always
kept a bunch of them in the small fridge behind the bar.
“Right,” Craig muttered, cracking the top of the soda and taking a big gulp of
it, trying to ignore the feeling of the carbonation going up his nose. Setting
the can back down, Craig looked at Token. “Still fucking hate it, though.”
“Yeah, I know, dude,” Token said, a smile forming on his face. Craig felt a
smirk pulling at the edge of his mouth as well. They two remained silent for a
few minutes, listening to Clyde ramble on about something being bullshit. After
a little while, Token let out a breath and asked, “So where’d you run off to
after class?”
“Nowhere.”
“We both know that’s a lie, Craig, or else you would have been here sooner.”
Flipping off his friend, Craig rested his forehead against the bar, the feeling
of the cool marble helping to center his raging mind. He really, really hated
that Token was always right.
“Went to see if he was painting.”
“Was he?”
“Uh-huh. That’s what that thing is over there,” Craig muttered, pointing over
to the stairs where he had left the covered canvas that he had forgotten to
give back to that spastic blonde when he’d gone running off. Craig didn’t want
to just leave it at the school, in case it got damaged in some way. Tweek had
seemed proud of this one, or maybe he was just happy that Craig had thought it
was cool. The noirette wasn’t sure.
“What is it?”
“A painting.”
Craig could almost hear Token rolling his eyes. “No shit. I meant what’s it
of.”
“Go see for yourself. Just be careful with it. Don’t let Clyde touch it.”
As if his name summoned him, which is usually did, Clyde appeared at Craig’s
elbow. “Don’t let Clyde touch what?”
“Nothing,” Craig said, turning his head so that his ear was pressed against the
bar and flipped Clyde off.
Ignoring the both of them, Token walked around the bar and over to where Craig
had pointed, carefully picking up the covered canvas. Bringing it back over to
the bar, after Clyde had pushed Craig’s stuff to the side, Token pulled the
cover off and placed it gently onto the marble counter.
His friends' eyes went wide.
“That’s...amazing,” Token whispered, his mouth hanging open slightly.
Clyde went to touch it, but Craig threw another look his way and the brunet
pulled his hand back. “Doesn’t that blue color look familiar?”
Craig picked his head back up. So he wasn’t the only one that thought so. But
why was it so familiar? It was weird.
Token had his brows pulled together and was nodding slightly. As if realization
dawned on him, the black teen picked up his phone from where it was resting on
the counter. “Craig, look over here.”
“Huh? Why?”
The flash of the camera on Token’s phone blinding the noirette for a few
seconds. He could see sparkles in his eyes.
“The fuck, Token?” Craig growled, rubbing at his eyes, hoping to get the
sparkles to go away.
“What do you think, Clyde? Could that be it?”
“Oh, hellYEAH!”
How Clyde managed to blend so many emotions into his speech patterns amazed
Craig.
“Could what be it?”
Suddenly shoving the phone towards him, Craig came face to face with his own
eyes. His own ice blue eyes.
“That’s your color, Craig. Tweek painted the both of you.”
“He what…?”
What the hell?
Chapter End Notes
     See, Craig!! Maybe it isn't just you feeling that way!
     Eh, whatever, I don't know. It sucked probably.
     Anyway, the next chapter should have a bit more...angst, so I'm
     sorry. Also, it should progress the story a bit. Hopefully... If i
     don't scrap my ideas again that is. But I have two days off of work
     so maybe I can get a couple more chapters out before I go back.
     Hope you guys liked this.
***** Conflicted and Smothered *****
Chapter Notes
     Just...I'm sorry. This chapter is probably shit because I just wanted
     to get this horribleness over with. And everything is poorly
     described and I'm sorry, please don't hate me. I had such a hard time
     with this chapter and I kinda hate it. I think its terrible.
     TRIGGER WARNING!!
     BAD STUFF AHEAD!! TURN BACK IF EASILY OFFENDED OR OF WEAK
     CONSTITUTION.
     Also, Tweek is a lightweight...majorly.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
It wasn’t until Tweek had sprinted all the way home and slammed the door behind
him that he noticed he had left his painting with Craig.
Oh, J esus, what if he notices that it’s of him ?
I’MSOSCREWEDJESUSSOMUCHPRESSURE!
Feeling the urge to yank at his hair emerge, the blonde slid down the door
until he was huddled in a ball of twitching and frazzled nerves.
But...thinking about it, would it really be that bad if Craig realized that it
was him in the painting? Tweek had painted a lot of people before; well,
without actually used identifying details, anyway. He had a couple in his room
that were of his parents, and even one scary of that Senior that wouldn’t leave
him alone.
Speaking of that Senior, Tweek still had a rather large lump on his head from
where he’d been smashed against the locker. That had really hurt, but at least
it had been the side of his head and not the back, where he’d already been hit
twice. Thinking back, Tweek almost smiled at the memory of Craig’s hand around
his arm. It had been warm and gentle. It was in complete contrast to how the
taller teen acted normally. It was almost comical.
Resting his forehead on his knees, the blonde twitched to the right and let out
a shaky breath. He was trying to do what Miss Addler had told him, to balance
the hope with the fear. Is that what she had said? Tweek couldn’t remember. He
remembered her saying something about them going hand in hand, so maybe that’s
what she had meant.
But did balancing the two have to be just so...terrifying?
Letting out a slightly frustrated, but mostly fearful, groan, Tweek tried to
shake off his terror. He had stuff to do; he couldn’t just sit, wallowing in
fear, forever. The spastic blonde pulled himself shakily to his feet and kicked
off his eternally untied boots. He was vaguely surprised that he didn’t trip
more because of his laces.
Shoving all of those terrifying thoughts to the back of his mind, Tweek rolled
up his sleeves and began his chores for the day.
 
~
 
VPP!! VPP!!
 
Pausing in his vigorous, twitchy scrubbing of the coffeepot, which could really
use a cleaning more often, Tweek felt his pocket vibrate for the fifth time in
the last two minutes. He had been trying to ignore it so far. It was most
likely something inconsequential, so Tweek could probably get away with
ignoring it.
But it just wouldn’t stop.
Throwing down the brillo pad he had been using, Tweek yanked the source of the
offensive noise out of his pocket. He just wanted to get his cleaning done
without having his phone going off every seven seconds, interrupting his music!
He had just downloaded Unlike Pluto’s most recent album, and he couldn’t even
finish one goddamn song!
Grumbling under his breath, Tweek swiped his pattern onto the screen. Of
course, he got it wrong the first couple times because of his shaking, but once
he managed to get the stupid thing unlocked, he saw that it was the new guy he
had hired at the shop.
 
JaseMyersTeusday, 4:40 pm
Hey, Tweek! I’ve got a problem! Can you beat feet to the shop?
 
JaseMyersTuesday 4:40 pm
Kinda urgent. I fucked up dude leik bad, can’t fix on my own
 
JaseMyersTuesday 4:41 pm
Seriously! Need ya! Here! Now! Things are broken and goin onthefritzzz!
 
JaseMyersTuesday 4:41 pm
PLEEEEAAASEEEEEEEEEEEEE
 
JaseMyersTuesday 4:41
I’ll make it up to ya, just get here before stuff starts to catch on fire!
 
A strangled, gasping groan escaped Tweek’s throat as he spun around, nearly
tripping over his tangled feet as his socks slid along the tiled floor. Nearly
falling on his face but catching himself with the tips of his fingers, the
blonde pushed himself up and sprinted to the foyer.
He didn’t even bother trying to tie his boots once he had slid them on. He just
grabbed his keys and locked the door behind him, tumbling down the walkway to
his house as he did so.
Please don’t let the shop be on fire! PLEASEDON’TLETTHESHOPBEONFIREJESUS!
 
~
 
“Sorry, Tweek...I really didn’t mean to fuck up...”
As the panting teen stood in the doorway of the shop, which the new guy had
closed once things started to go haywire, he looked at the older boy standing
in front of him.
He was twirling a lose bit of hair around his finger, his long, faded, dyed
blue hair pulled into a really high ponytail. Tweek thought that it must hurt
having his hair up so high. The color was almost grey, and it matched his
equally grey, completely guilty looking eyes. He was taller than Tweek, most
everyone was, but he acted too much like a little kid. He was a year older than
Tweek. That’s why the blonde had hired him. He was older and seemed
responsible, if a bit strange, considering what he wore on a daily basis.
“W-what happened –ngh—here?” Tweek stuttered as he looked around at the coffee
machines. Some had steam rising from them; others seemed to be covered in what
looked to be coffee. There was a large puddle on the floor in front of the
self-serve station on the far right. The shop looked… terrible… to say the
least.
“Well, that’s kinda the problem,” Jase Myers said, laughing nervously.
“I’m...not sure what happened. But, uh. I think it’s bad.”
Tweek only blinked at the grey-haired boy.
Bad is kind of an understatement…
The blonde was a little surprised at himself. After his initial freakout as he
ran there, he was actually pretty calm. There was always that terrified buzzing
in the back of his head but it kind of took a backseat to the shock he felt at
what Jase had managed to do.
“Can you...can you fix it?”
Looking back at his employee, Tweek let out the breath he didn’t realize he had
been holding.
“O-ok, let’s get this over w-with, Jase,” Tweek said as he stepped farther into
the shop. He locked the door behind him and made his way over to the self-serve
area.
After a small inspection, it became apparent that Jase had put too much water
in the machines, causing them to overflow with coffee. Because of that, the
coffee-tainted water had soaked a little into the bottom of the machines, and
that in turn almost blew them up. Fortunately, the new guy ended up unplugging
them. That had probably saved that part of the shop from catching fire.
“Y-you can’t put t-that much—ngh—water in the rese—gah!--resevoir!” Tweek
explained as he skillfully pulled the three machines apart. “It’ll just make
the—rrr—pots! Overflow. Put about half of what you did today in next time.”
Jase followed Tweek as the blonde listed off tips to make things easier. He
nodded and seemed to take to memory what Tweek was saying.
The machines behind the counter were a little less difficult to fix. It seemed
like the older coffee hadn’t been dumped out when a new pot was brewed,
resulting in stale coffee.
“Gotta clean these out b-better. Not that I’m telling y-you what to do, J-jase,
just...be more c-careful.”
“No, I understand, dude! I’m kinda scatterbrained sometimes...and I
just...well, there are no excuses really.”
Tweek nodded but didn’t look his employee in the eyes. He was afraid that if he
did, Jase would see the slight terror in his eyes. He didn’t need a coward for
a boss...Tweek still messed the same things up all the time. Why was he acting
all authoritative in front of the guy!? He was older than him! Jase should be
telling him what to do! Why did things have to end up like this? Couldn’t his
parents just be normal and act like parents for once?
“Ngh...no they can’t.”
“Huh?”
Tweek looked over at Jase and shook his head. “Nothin’...just—ngh—talking to m-
myself.” The blonde stepped away from the grey-haired teen and went into the
back room to get mops and brooms and such to start cleaning up the shop. “You
c-clean up the mess...and I’ll go order m-more stuff f-for the shop!”
“Yessir!”
As Jase began cleaning up the entire debacle, which honestly wasn’t difficult
to clean since Tweek had done most of it during his inspection, Tweek sat
behind the counter, ordering new coffee and new parts for the machines on the
store laptop. He kept pressing the refresh button accidentally, so he had to
redo the order at least four times.
“Hey, Tweek?”
“Y-yeah?”
“I promise I’ll make this up to you. I know it was your day off, and I’m
really, really sorry.”
Tweek shook his head vigorously, his hair swaying and his brain knocking
against his skull, causing it to hurt a bit.
“Gah! D-don’t worry about it! S-stuff happens, you know?”
All of a sudden, the grey-haired teen was practically jumping over the counter,
getting up close to Tweek. It was then that the spastic blonde realized his
sleeves were still up. The bandages were still on his left wrist and his scars
were in full view. Twitching nervously, not wanting Jase to notice them, Tweek
shakily pulled down his sleeves.
“Tweek!!”
“W-what?” Tweek all but screeched, leaning back from the source of Tweek’s
current shivering. “W-WHAT DID I DO? JESUS, DID YOU GET HURT!? ITSALLMYFAULT!!”
Instead of backing away from Tweek’s screeching like he expected, Jase laughed
a little and gave him a warm, goofy smile.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Tweek! I just thought of the best way I could
make this up to you!!”
Blinking and twitching hard to the right, Tweek almost fell out of the chair he
was in.
“It’s not a bit deal! Don’t have to!!”
Ignoring this yell, Jase kept talking.
“There’s this party tomorrow night, and I think you should go with me! It’ll be
a lot of fun! A lot of people are gonna be there and there’ll be drinks and
music, and a bunch of girls, dude! You might be able to let loose and half a
little fun!” Jase all but climbed over the counter to get close to Tweek’s
face, eye to eye. “Please, Tweek! I promise that it’ll be fun!”
Starting out slowly, and then changing to full on panic, Tweek shook his head
so hard and really did fall out of his chair. He was sitting on the cold tile
floor, backing away from Jase as he dropped down in front of Tweek.
“N-no! That’s okay! I w-won’t know anyone there! What if I get kidnapped! I
DON’T WANNA END UP IN SOMEONE’S VAN, DUDE, NUH UH! I CAN’T GET ABDUCTED THAT’S
WAYTOOMUCHPRESSURE!”
“You won’t get kidnapped, I promise! And I’m sure you’ll know someone,” Jase
explained as he stopped moving forward and sat down on the floor next to Tweek.
“A bunch of people from your grade are going, and I’ll be there! If you want,
you can hang out with me and my friends all night! You won’t have to worry
about anything happening, I promise!”
God, was he being serious!? Tweek couldn’t stay out at a party all night! He
had stuff to do! He still had to work at the shop! He couldn’t just drop
everything! There was already this fiasco at the shop! What would his parents
do if they found out!
“B-but I have to w-watch the shop tomorrow!!”
“No you don’t!”
“Why are you saying that, of course I do!” Tweek squeaked as he twitched hard
and smacked his head on the wall behind him, where the mugs were hanging up. He
hit the wall hard enough that they rattled.
Jase rolled his eyes as he struggled to get his phone out of his front pocket.
He was silent for a moment, his steel colored eyes trained on the screen
intently as he swiped. “There it is! Look!” The phone was shoved in Tweek’s
face. Once his eyes adjusted to the screen being so close, Tweek saw that there
was a text from him there.
 
TweekyTweaksonSaturday, September 15 8:57 am
Shop closed Wednesday the 20th. Road work. Don’t have to come in.
 
“Oh yeah...” Tweek mumbled as he took his focus from the screen. He had
forgotten that they wouldn’t be able to get into the shop while the road work
was going on, so they both had that day off.
“See!?” Jase said, drawing out the word. “So, you’ll go with me, right? You
don’t have an excuse anymore!”
“I wasn’t t-trying to c-come up w-with an—gah!--excuse!”
“Doesn’t matter! Come on, Tweekson! Let’s have fun.”
Jase wouldn’t take no for an answer…
I don’t really have a choice do I?
 
~
 
“Tweekson! You ready!?”
The next day, Tweek had been standing in his kitchen, pacing when Jase had
knocked on the door and Tweek had told him to come in, and soon Jase was
standing in the doorway to his kitchen.
Groaning, Tweek spun around in a quick circle. He really didn’t want to go! He
just wanted to stay home and do nothing except paint! His brain was too hectic
right then to do anything else.
“No!”
“What’s wrong?”
Tweek circled again, making himself a little dizzy. Why had he let this strange
person into his house? Why had he listened to him at all? And why was he
wearing makeup? Well, the last part didn’t matter honestly, but he didn’t want
to go!
Instead of answering, Tweek just put his hands in his hair and mussed it as
hard as he could. It wasn’t until he heard a little sigh from Jase that the
blonde noticed that his sweater sleeves had slid down, revealing his arms
again.
“Gah! Don’t look!” the blonde sputtered as he yanked his sleeves down and
turned away from the grey-haired teen. He couldn’t believe he had let that
happen? What was Jase gonna think? He would probably think he was disgusting
and weird because he hurt himself so much! Why had that happened!? WHY!?
“Tweek, look.”
Tweek was afraid to, but Jase’s voice was so much softer than it normally was
that he felt himself looking over at where the other male was standing. He had
pulled his shirt up, revealing his abdomen. Tweek felt his face grow warm and
he was about to look away when he saw what looked like x’s scarred into the
skin.
“You’re not the only one, okay? You don’t have to be afraid of that around me.”
The shirt was pulled back down, and Jase was giving him an almost sad look.
Despite his embarrassment and terror at someone finding out one of his secrets,
Tweek felt his grip on his sleeves lessen and the panic in his stomach calmed.
“So, let’s go have fun at a party, okay?”
Again, Tweek just didn’t have a choice.
He was being pulled out of his kitchen and out of his house.
He was scared, that was true. But maybe he could actually have fun…?
Maybe?
 
~
 
The music was loud. The crowd both outside and inside the house was huge. It
was so overwhelming.
“Yo! Jase! What took you so long, dude!?”
“Was just picking up a fraind!!” Jase called, adopting a weird accent as Tweek
shakily followed the grey-haired male over to a group of seniors that were
standing in the front yard of a house Tweek had never actually gone near
before. Thankfully, it wasn’t anyone he recognized. He was really hoping that
that one Senior didn’t show up… “This is Tweek, guys! He’s the one who hired me
at the coffee shop!”
There were a few murmured greetings, but they all refused to look at Tweek.
That was normal. They all knew about the crazy, twitchy blonde that worked at
the coffee shop instead of going to school. Everyone was wary of Tweek in case
he freaked out. It was always like that. Why had he come here?
“Oh, c’mon guys!” Jase cried, putting his fists on his hips. His grey hair was
pulled into a braid over his shoulder, which he flicked behind him, giving his
friends a disappointed look. “He’s not that bad! I promise!”
One of Jase’s friends rolled their eyes and Tweek felt like screaming. That
panic in his stomach began to roll around again and he felt himself pulling at
his sleeves again.
“Your promises mean absolutely jack, Jase!”
“Shut up, you weirdo!”
“You’re the weirdo!”
Jase jumped at his friend and put him in a headlock. Tweek whimpered and was
about to reach for them to stop when he saw the looks on their faces. They
seemed...happy? Like they were having fun doing something dangerous like that?
Is that was having a friend was like…? That was weird.
After a few minutes of mock-fighting, the two separated and a red solo cup was
put into Jase’s hands. Another was shoved towards Tweek by the same guy that
had been messing around with Jase. Tweek backed away a little but still took
the cup. He didn’t wanna be rude to someone who was offering him something.
It was sort of uneventful after that. Tweek just stood there, listening to the
music that pounded through the ground. Jase was locked in what sounded like a
debate with his friends, and Tweek felt like an outsider. He didn’t want to
ruin anything either, so he kept quiet.
The liquid that was in the red solo cup was bitter...he didn’t like it. Sure,
coffee could be bitter, but there was just something about this that made Tweek
feel...weird. Even though he didn’t like the beer, he still sipped at it. He
didn’t want to offend anyone’s hospitality, so the blonde just remained where
he was, twitching and whimpering quietly, sipping on the beer.
People watching kind of amused Tweek sometimes. So as he waited for an
opportune moment to slink away and go home, he watched the people around him.
He was surprised by the amount of people there. True, Jase had said that a lot
of people were going to be there, but this was crazy. And Tweek didn’t
recognize anyone, really. He saw a few people from his grade every now and
then, but no one he had ever interacted with.
But that changed pretty quickly.
A flash of green caught Tweek’s attention out of the corner of his eye.
No! Please don’t let him see me!
Tweek almost dropped his cup as he sprinted into the house, hoping to get lost
in the sea of people so that the Senior wouldn’t see him. But getting lost
there just caused Tweek to panic more. Racing through the house, he looked for
a place to hide. Losing his balance and stumbling, Tweek flopped down behind a
trio of kegs. They were right next to a closet, so Tweek tried to hide in
there. He just didn’t want to be seen…
Forgetting that the cup he was holding onto for dear life was filled with beer
and not in fact coffee (which he hadn’t brought, god knows why!), Tweek downed
the entire thing, little bit of foam and all. As the alcohol spread through his
system, Tweek realized his mistake.
“Oh, no...” he whimpered quietly, looking down at the bottom of the cup. He
couldn’t believe he had just done that...he was already regretting this. What
was wrong with him!?
“Awe, Tweeky, is your cup empty? Here, take mine!”
Looking up at that all too familiar voice, indeed, there was Kenny, leaning
down and offering him another red solo cup.
“No! I d-don’t need anymore!”
“You’re just saying that!” And then the cup was switched out and Kenny vanished
again.
“Stop doing that!” Tweek yelled, but he knew Kenny wouldn’t hear him. But Tweek
wasn’t even sure that Kenny had really been there. Had it just been his
imagination? The twitching blonde shivered, looking down at hands wrapped
around the cup. Maybe he should just drink it…? Would it be that bad to have
another? He was supposed to be here to drink and have fun, right? That’s what
Jase had said.
Blinking down at the clear liquid, Tweek whimpered again.
F-fuck it! I don’t care anymore!
Bringing the cup to his lips, Tweek closed his eyes and chugged the entire
thing. But...there was something different. This didn’t taste like the beer he
had had before. It wasn’t bitter. It kind of burned...no, it really burned as
it slid down his throat. Hacking at the sensation, Tweek dropped the cup and
wiped his eyes where tears had started to form.
The hell had that been…? And why...why was everything started to swim around
him…? Was this the real effect of alcohol? Tweek giggled, his pitch high and
nervous, but he wasn’t sure why he had giggled at all. What was happening to
him? This was probably…bad.
But he didn’t care. His body felt warm, his limbs loose. He didn’t feel the
tension in his shoulders that he usually did, and it seemed like his tics were
fading a little. This was weird. But he kinda liked it.
Tweek sat in that little alcove for a while, letting the weird feeling extend
all over his body. He felt so...light. He didn’t feel smothered even though
there were so many people around. He could feel the bass through the floor, and
he liked the music.
“The fuck you doing here, fag?”
Tweek groggily blinked his eyes open. When had he closed them? He wasn’t sure.
But when he looked up, even though his vision was blurry, his fear returned.
“I..I’m not doin’ nothin’!” Tweek mumbled. He couldn’t get his tongue to work
properly. Instead of trying to talk his way out of the situation, Tweek tried
to stand up, but that didn’t work either. Panic squeezed his gut when he felt a
hand in his hair. Then he was being ripped to his feet and those cruel eyes
were there, waiting for him.
The Senior had an almost disgusted look on his face, as if Tweek was the
grossest thing in the world, but then the expression changed. And this one
scared Tweek even more. It was predatory...like the Senior was going to do
something bad...really bad.
“Please...l-let m’go!” Tweek slurred as he tried to stand on his own two feet
to stop the pulling on his hair. It hurt so bad, but he couldn’t get his
footing, and it only caused the Senior to let out a cruel laugh.
“I don’t fucking think so. I already said I was gonna get you fuckers back for
this, and since you’re here now, I might as well fuck you up while I got the
chance.”
Then, the Senior yanked Tweek’s hair again and he was forced to follow him
towards the stairs. Where was he taking Tweek? Why was this happening? Tweek
knew he shouldn’t have come to this stupid party. Why did Kenny have to give
him that alcohol...why, why, WHY? Tweek couldn’t see the stairs through his
already blurring vision that was becoming even worse as tears filled his eyes.
His head hurt so bad…
Tweek felt himself lose his footing again, about to fall down the few stairs he
had managed to get up when the Senior all but threw him up a few and then did
it again and again until they were at the top. Tweek was almost thankful for
the grip on his hair or he wouldn’t have fallen backwards and tumbled down the
stairs.
He couldn’t think straight. Everything was spinning and he was in so much
pain...he was so scared...what was going to happen to him...why did this have
to happen?
Please...someone help me…
But then Tweek was being dragged again. He had his hands on the Senior’s wrist,
trying to get him to let go, but he was so strong and Tweek had no power
because of the alcohol. If this what being drunk was, then Tweek never wanted
to get drunk again. He never wanted to touch alcohol again…
The blonde heard a door slam, and then he was suddenly thrown again. He
expected to land on the floor, hard, but instead, he landed on something soft.
A bed? What was going on? Struggling to sit up, Tweek saw the Senior putting a
chair under the doorknob. Why would he need to do that?
The Senior turned around, but Tweek couldn’t real see him. It was dark in the
room...the only light was from a meager streetlight outside the house. But then
the terrified blonde heard something...like a latch being undone…? What was
that?
It wasn’t until the Senior had walked forward that Tweek saw. He had taken off
his belt. But why…? That was the only thing that could coherently go through
his mind.
“Ya know, I almost hate to do this because if someone finds out it could come
back on me, that I’m a fag because of this. But you won’t tell anyone. Right?”
What? Tweek couldn’t even speak anymore. His voice wouldn’t work. He couldn’t
even think. He didn’t have time to think because suddenly, he was being flipped
over onto his stomach and the Senior was on top of him and his hands were being
bound behind his back with that belt.
Was this…?
“N-no! Please...don’t t-touch me!!” Tweek finally managed to yell, but that
didn’t do anything to deter the Senior. No, it just seemed to spur him on, as
if Tweek’s fear was encouraging. “G-get o-off!!”
“Shut up!”
Tweek felt pain blossom on his cheek where the Senior hit him. This...this
couldn’t be happening...he didn’t want this. Please...stop…
But then his own belt was being unhooked and tossed aside, and the button of
his jeans was being undone.
“P-please!” Tweek cried, his tears spilling down his cheeks. “Why are you doing
this!?” But that only earned him another punch, this time to his side and the
blonde felt like he was going to puke. It hurt so bad. He was sobbing now, but
he couldn’t even fight back anymore. His terror was just too much. He was
starting to black out.
“This is for getting me fucking punched in the face, fag.”
If Tweek could have pulled himself from his fear, he would have heard the loud
bang that sounded from behind them, and then another, and then light was
spilling into the room.
“What the fuck?”
“The fuck are you doing, asshole!?”
The weight on his back was suddenly gone, and Tweek heard something hit a wall,
and then a groan. What was that sound…? It sounded almost the same as when
Tweek had been punched in the cheek earlier. It sounded familiar. But he still
couldn’t do anything, as if he was paralyzed.
“Tweek!? Tweek, answer me!”
The blonde hands were untied and he felt feeling flood back into them as he was
rolled over onto his back. His eyes wouldn’t focus, his mind wouldn’t pull
itself out of that hazy blankness that had enveloped him. He felt rough, but
gentle, hands on his face.
“Tweek, are you alright?”
Through the blurriness and blackness of his mind, Tweek saw a very familiar
color. It was blue, like ice. He knew that color. They were color of his eyes.
Tweek’s focus smacked down into his mind, and Tweek finally could see. And he
saw..
“C-Craig?”
Chapter End Notes
     I'm...so...sorry...
     *curls into little ball and cries*
***** Fate Can Be A Bitch *****
Chapter Notes
     Hopefully this chapter will make you guys feel a little better. It
     sure as hell made me feel better.
     Also, Craig, you're so gay.
     And finally, I've started posting to my tumblr again. It's the same
     thing as my name here, and I'll be posting little updates and
     snippets of stuff on there, as well as pictures that kind of describe
     how the characters might be feeling at any given time. NONE OF THE
     IMAGES ARE MY OWN THOUGH!
     If you want to send me messages, fanart, questions, or anything, look
     me up on there, and I'll respond as soon as I'm able to. Hope you
     guys enjoy this chapter, because I sure as shit enjoyed writing it.
     Merci
See the end of the chapter for more notes
The night wasn’t supposed to end this way. It shouldn’t have been as shitty as
it was. It was like fate gave Craig an instance to enjoy himself and then
backhanded him across the face with annoyances and rage so fierce it was a
miracle he hadn’t killed anyone.
But if the noirette was being honest with himself, he would have admitted that
he was glad it had ended the way it did. At least he had done something
good...sort of.
Goddamn, Clyde really owed him now.
 
~
 
They’d left for Token’s house almost immediately after school. Craig had left
Tweek’s painting there, not wanting to bring it home for fear of his dad seeing
it and destroying it like the ass he was. Plus, it was safer with Token than it
was with anyone else. The noirette had told his parents he was just staying at
Token’s place like normal. Not mentioning the party was probably for the
better. God knew what they’d do if they find out.
Clyde hadn’t sat still the entire time they were hanging out before the party.
He had been too full of annoying, nervous energy. He had bounced from the couch
to the stairs to the bar and back again. Craig was tempted to tie him to the
bannister just to get him to sit still. But then he probably would start
talking...at least his pacing was keeping him quiet.
“When does the party start again?” Token wondered as he fiddled with the string
of his hoodie. He wasn’t looking up at them; the black teen was too focused on
his phone, reading another science article.
“Once it gets dark, I think,” Clyde answered as he sat down on the stairs and
started to bounce his leg. Craig watched at the brunet put his hands behind his
head and leaned back against a stair.
Love can sure make ya stupid, Craig thought as he went back to staring at his
own phone. He was trying to find new music to listen to, but he just couldn’t
find anything that wasn't obnoxious. Then again, he’s always been stupid.
“Well, sunset is like...” Token paused as he brought up another tab on his
phone. After typing in a few things and scrolling through another few things,
he continued, “Two hours from now, so why don’t we just wander around town til
it starts.”
There was silence from both of them for a few moments. Clyde only stared at the
ceiling and continued to bounce his leg.
“Eh, fuck it, why not?” Craig finally stated, pulling his hood up over his dark
blue beanie. He had had to leave his chullo at home that morning, since the
puffball had fallen off again. Ruby had said that she would sew it back on once
she got home from school. Craig had been tempted to just buy another one, but
decided against it. That hat had been with him for so long, he felt like he
just couldn’t let it go. “It’s better than sitting hear watching Clyde pace for
hours.” The noirette turned to Clyde with his middle finger raised, who was
looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “Seriously, dude. It’s fucking annoying.”
“Well, sorry!” Clyde grumbled, standing up and pacing back to the couch. “I’m
so frickin’ nervous, dude! What am I gonna say to Bebe when I see her!?”
Craig looked back at Token, who was rolling his eyes. Yeah, Craig felt about
the same at the moment.
“Just act how you normally would. If Bebe hasn’t gotten fed up with your shit
by now, then I think you’re gonna be fine,” Craig told him as he gave up on the
music search. He’d look later.
“Yeah, you’re probably right!” Clyde returned as he awkwardly flipped his
friend off. Craig almost smirked because he knew how much the brunet hated
doing it. But, he was kind of proud.
“So, we going or no?” the noirette asked as he hopped off the bar stool and
stepped over to where Clyde was now, since he had paced back to the stairs and
was sitting down again.  Token said nothing, but he could still be heard doing
the same and walking over to where Clyde was.
“Yeah, let’s go!”
It didn’t take long for Clyde to scramble up the stairs without waiting for his
friends.
“At least he’ll tire himself out before we get there, huh?” Token muttered as
they followed Clyde’s hasty retreat.
“Well, I fucking hope so.”
 
~
 
After wandering around for the majority of those two hours before sundown, they
suddenly heard bass loud enough to shake the ground of the entire street. In
fact, it did. It felt like a giant was stepping in perfect rhythm.
Altering their path and performing a complete 180, the three made their way
towards the sound of the metaphorical giant. Craig was actually looking forward
to losing himself in music and alcohol. It had been a while, not since he’d
made the mistake of hanging out with Cartman and his group of jackasses. And
that had been almost three months ago. Craig really, really needed to get
wasted.
“Okay...I can’t do this!” Clyde suddenly yelped as they drew closer to the
house that was the source of the music. The party was being held by a senior,
one that Craig had never heard the name of before, but that was pretty normal.
He couldn’t bring himself to give a fuck about seniors. They were just
annoying.
As Clyde tried to turn and run, Token grabbed the collar of his Letterman and
hauled him back around.
“You dragged us here, so you can man up and go talk to your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend, man!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Craig only rolled his eyes. With an almost imperceptible smirk, Craig
remembered what Ruby had told him once, that if he rolled his eyes hard enough
he was gonna be permanently cross eyed. It was a weird thought.
The closer they got to the house, the louder the music got, and the more people
they saw milling around. This was one hell of a party from what the noirette
could tell. It was like the entire junior and senior class had been invited.
There was probably enough people there to cause a riot if they really wanted
to. It was like an enormous sea of hormones and alcohol. If Craig wanted to, he
could probably fuck around with a random girl since most of them already seemed
far beyond the point of wasted, but it wasn’t worth the effort.
“Yo! Craig, man! And those guys, too!”
Oh, Jesus fucking Christ...why does the fatass have to be here?
Indeed, they were being approached by none other than Eric Cartman and his crew
of jackasses, Stan, Kyle, and of course, Kenny fucking McCormick. That asshole
still hadn’t sold him his cigarettes yet, and Craig was almost out of the ones
he had bummed from a classmate. He could probably scrounge around for some at
the party, but again, not worth the effort.
“What do you want, Cartman?” Craig ground out, trying to not flip the fatass
off. He didn’t feel like getting into an argument with Cartman at the moment.
“Nothin’, just wanted to know why you came to this party at all?” Cartman said
smugly as he gave Craig the most annoying look possible.
“None of your goddamn business.”
“C’mon, Cartman, leave him alone,” Stan said, sharing an annoyed look with
Kyle. They were standing as close together as usual, even though Craig knew
they had been fighting again. They were always fighting; it was a wonder they
were together at all with the amount of shit they put each other through.
Craig was glad he didn’t have feelings for anyone. It was too much of a hassle.
“Shut up, Stan! Go do fag stuff with Kahyle!”
Fuck Cartman and his fucking stupid annoying accent.
“Fuck off, fatass!” Kyle yelled back, punching his “friend” in the arm. “And
stop calling us fags! Its bullshit!” Kyle’s face was as red as his hair with
anger, but that wasn’t hard to do. Kyle got pissed easily.
“Just drop it, man, he’s not gonna stop.” Stan grabbed Kyle’s hand and hauled
him away, probably to calm him down. “Cartman, fuck off and leave Craig alone.
Do you want a repeat of last time? You just got the cast off, dude.”
Craig almost barked out a laugh at that one. Stan was right, he probably would
break Cartman’s arm again if he tried to fuck with him again. Craig wasn’t
afraid to. The fatass was annoying.
“You guys can’t just leave without me!”
Cartman ran after them, probably to try and get them to come back to his side
of the argument again. Craig didn’t understand why they hung out with him. He
pissed Stan and Kyle off as much as he did to Craig.
Whatever. Where’s the beer?
Moving on, Craig walked past Kenny, who was still standing there with a smug
expression on his face as he watched Stan and Kyle walk away as well, as if it
made him happy. Craig didn’t wanna open that can of worms by trying to figure
Kenny out, so he just kept walking. Token was right next to him, but it seemed
like Clyde had seen someone else he knew and rushed off to god knew where. He’d
be fine. Clyde was an obnoxious drunk, but at least he wasn’t a stupid drunk.
As long as he didn’t get vodka, anyway.
Craig wandered around the throngs of people for a while, trying to find where
the beer was. He really wanted to start getting drunk, especially with how many
people were around. He was already feeling suffocated. The interaction with
Cartman had put him in a slightly bad mood, and alcohol would fix that problem.
“Where the hell is it?” the noirette muttered. He didn’t have to wait long for
an answer because Token tapped his shoulder and pointed towards the inside of
the house, where someone was rolling a keg through the doorway. “Fucking
finally.”
Following the keg, Craig increased his speed so he could reach the alcohol as
fast as possible. Of course, that didn’t take long. As soon as he got inside,
he was handed a red solo cup filled with pale liquid.
Token was given one, too, but Craig knew he wouldn’t drink it. He’d probably
just give it to Craig in the end. Token never drank with him and Clyde. The
black teen just sat back and made sure they didn’t do anything stupid, like
throw themselves down a flight of stairs. Actually, Craig and Clyde had done
that last year. They’d drank too much at Token’s and started fighting at the
doorway to the basement. It had ended with the both of them tumbling down the
stairs and landing in a heap of bruised, amused, completely wasted idiots.
Craig had laughed a lot that night. He had had a good time, but it hadn’t
lasted, of course.
“Don’t let Clyde go down the stairs again, Token.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. That’s a very steep staircase.”
Craig raised his eyes to where Token was pointing and indeed, there was a set
of stairs perfect for pitching yourself down if you were drunk enough to
survive.
“Where did Clyde go anyway?” Craig wondered, but not really caring. He had
found a couch near the kegs and was already getting comfortable and sucking
down his beer. As soon as it hit his gut, he felt a little better. Less
smothered.
“Probably to find Bebe,” Token stated, sitting down next to the noirette and
pulling out his phone. Token was lucky he had one of those super battery pack
cases on his phone, or he’d be screwed with how much he used his phone.
“Probably.”
And that was it. They didn’t say much to each other for a while. They just sat
and enjoyed the music, and Craig slowly got drunk. Beer didn’t do much for him
anymore, considering how much he’d drank in the past, but it was a nice
sensation to feel the buzz spread through his body. It took some of the tension
out of his limbs and calmed the churning in his gut a little.
Sitting next to the kegs had been a good idea. All he had to do with grab the
nozzle and pour himself another one whenever his cup was empty. There seemed to
be two other groups of kegs spread out around the room they were in. There was
the one they were sitting next to, one next to the kitchen in front of them,
and one off to their right next to a closet. There were new ones brought in
every half hour as well.
Craig and Token must have sat there for at least two hours in silence when it
had happened.
“Well, looks like he’s found another victim.”
“Yeah. I feel kinda bad for the guy, though. He’s not gonna go easy on him is
he?”
“It’s him, so probably not. What, you wanna go try and save him?”
“And get targeted next!? Fuck no!”
“Yeah, didn’t think so.”
The guys talking had drawn Craig out of his stupor slightly. He was becoming
bored, so listening to people’s conversations would have to do for
entertainment. The noirette still had his hood up and it was partially covering
his face, so he was able to watch the two talking without them noticing.
They weren’t people he recognized. Well, he sort of did. Seemed like they were
part of the dickhead’s group, the ones who had been laughing about Tweek
getting fucked up. They were harmless, though, so Craig didn’t really pay them
any mind.
“Looked like the kid was crying, though. And he seemed very, very drunk. I
wonder if he’ll even remember what happened afterwards.”
“For his sake, let’s hope not.”
Craig wondered who they were talking about. Not that it would mean much to him
either way. He filled up his cup again and gulped down the entire thing. Laying
his head on the back of the couch, Craig spread his arms across the back,
keeping the cup in a tight enough grip that it wouldn’t fall. He was surprised
that the buzz hadn’t turned into full on drunk yet. He really wished he wasn’t
such a heavyweight when it came to beer.
The two Craig had been listening to seemed to go silent for a little while, so
Craig stopped paying attention to them. But he wasn’t given much time to zone
out because he heard a familiar name being called.
“Tweek!? Tweek, where’d you go!? C’mon, dude! Where are you!?”
Lifting his head in confusion, Craig looked around. Why would Tweek be here? He
hates being in big groups of people. When he didn’t see that familiar halo of
lemon yellow, Craig raised an eyebrow. Didn’t think so. But then there was
someone yelling again.
“Hey, has anyone seen a small blonde kid with green eyes? He was wearing a
white t-shirt and a green plaid flannel! Please, someone help! I can’t find
him!”
Springing to his feet before he could even think about it, Craig looked around
for the source of the yelling. He couldn’t see anyone familiar, but Token stood
up too and looked around.
“Tweek’s here?” the black teen asked, giving Craig a wary look.
“I don’t know.”
Suddenly, Craig saw a flash of grey and turned to see the guy that worked with
Tweek shaking someone’s arm, asking if they had seen the blonde.
“You don’t think...”
“I hope not...”
Craig turned to the two who had been talking before and saw they were giving
each other worried looks. The grey-haired guy must have heard them, too,
because he was jumping over the back of the couch they were sitting on faster
than Craig thought a human could move.
“What do you two know!?” the grey-haired teen asked, and Craig could hear the
malice in his voice.
“Uh...our friend...might have taken the guy you’re looking for upstairs,” one
of them said as he tried to sink farther into the couch.
“Your friend?” Craig found himself saying, stepping over to the three of them.
He felt Token’s presence at his back. The grey-haired guy glanced up and seemed
to recognize Craig but he didn’t say anything.
“Uh...yeah...He’s got green hair and stuff...he likes to...target people and
try to...jesus, do I have to say it?” the other one muttered, his face
scrunching up into one of disgust and fear.
Craig drew himself up to his full height. He felt the anger building in his
stomach again. If something had really happened to Tweek…He pushed the thought
aside and leveled the two with a look that could only be described as
murderous. “Where does he usually take the people he targets?”
“I told you, upstairs!” the first one to speak yelped as he held up his hands.
“Please, we didn’t do anything, don’t take it out on us!”
Craig didn’t pay them any mind. Instead, he looked down at the grey-haired guy
and said, “You work with Tweek.”
Nodding, the guy said, “Yeah. I do. You’re Craig, I’m guessing?” Craig said
nothing, letting his silence speak for him. “That’s what I thought. C’mon, we
need to go find him.”
“We?”
“Yeah, we.” The grey-haired guy turned and made his way towards the stairs.
Craig followed, obviously. He wasn’t gonna let anything happen to Tweek. He
didn’t care if Token was giving him a warning look, which he knew he was.
As soon as they reaching the foot of the stairs, Craig heard it, even above the
deafening music.  He would know that voice anywhere.
“P-please!! Why are you doing this!?”
Without hesitation, Craig pushed the grey-haired guy aside, knocking him into
the wall, and flying up the stairs. He could feel the rage building. He
couldn’t hold it back like he normally did. He couldn’t hold anything back when
it came to Tweek. But Craig didn’t care.
Tearing through the hall until he heard Tweek’s whimpers, Craig reared back and
kicked at the door with all his strength. At the moment, it wasn’t much because
of the alcohol in his system. But Craig heard the sound of a belt being tossed
to the floor, and it caused that flame of rage to boil from his stomach into
his chest, burning through him. Letting out a roar that rivaled that of his
father, Craig slammed his booted foot into the door again sending the chair
that must have been holding the door shut flying and almost breaking the door
off it’s hinges. Craig heard someone else’s voice in the room.
“What the fuck!?”
From behind Craig, the grey-haired teen yelled, “The fuck are you doing,
asshole!?”
When he saw Tweek face down on the bed, his hands bound behind him with a belt
and that fucking Dickhead Senior on top of the blonde, undoing his jeans, Craig
lost it.
He rushed forward, grabbed onto the back of the green-haired douchbag’s shirt
and threw him aside with all his strength, bashing him into the wall. The
Senior fell to the floor with a thump and Craig heard him groan. Following,
Craig pulled the green-haired asshole up by the front of his shirt and bashed
his fist into his face. He felt bones crunch under his knuckles. He must’ve
broken the asshole’s nose. Craig knew his punch had knocked the guy out, but he
hit him again for good measure. It took all his willpower to not kill the guy.
But he had other matter’s to attend to.
“Tweek!? Tweek, answer me!” Craig yelled as moved to the side of the bed and
looked down at the blonde. He had a new bruise blossoming on his face and he
was curled up, protecting his stomach. Craig struggled to get the belt undone
from around Tweek’s wrists. Craig’s head felt too hot. He needed to cool down a
little. His hood had flown off when he’d gone up the stairs, but he yanked off
his beanie and threw it behind him. He didn’t care if he didn’t get it back. He
hated that thing. Carefully, the noirette turned Tweek onto his back. The poor
kid had tears streaking down his face and his eyes were open, but they were
dull, as if he couldn’t see what was going on around him. It was as if he
wasn’t there at all.
Hating the sight of those gorgeous eyes dull and without the normal vivid
intensity they held, Craig rested a handle gently on the cheek that wasn’t
bruised as he whispered, “Tweek, are you alright?”
Slowly, as if surfacing from a deep ocean, Tweek’s eyes slowly gained their
brightness back. They focused on Craig’s eyes so intently, that Craig let out a
sigh of relief.
“C-Craig?”
Tweek’s voice was strangled, like he’d been screaming for hours.
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s me,” Craig whispered, leaning down and putting his forehead
against Tweek’s. “I’m so sorry...that I didn’t come earlier...”
Pulling back slightly when he heard a sniffle, Craig saw that Tweek’s face had
screwed up into an immensely painful expression. The blonde sobbed and suddenly
grabbed onto Craig’s shirt, hauling himself up and into Craig’s arms.
The noirette was a little shocked. But...he wrapped his arms around Tweek’s
convulsing shoulders and held him tightly. “It’s alright...You’re gonna be
okay...”
With the rage subsiding and the relief flooding his body, Craig realized that
it just felt so...right...to have Tweek in his arms like this. It sounded weird
in his head, but he didn’t care.
All that mattered was that Craig was there, and he was never, ever, ever going
to let this happen to Tweek again.
Never fucking again. I’m never leaving him alone again.
Chapter End Notes
     Gawd I love my boys! I'm so glad this chapter was better...it healed
     my heart a bit. Loved writing it.
     Question: Do you guys think that Kenny should have more chapters, or
     one every five chapters, or every ten? I'm not sure. He's a major
     plot mover, so I feel liek I should have more about him. Maybe.
***** I'll Be With You *****
Chapter Notes
     Wow, this one took a while. I was working on a piece for this fic
     (drawing wise) and that took forever and then I'm suddenly working
     nonstop! So this chapter took a while to finish. I'm still not even
     sure if this is good at all, but I'm glad I finished this chapter. So
     more plotty stuff is kinda happening, so let's move on from the
     angst...hah jsut kidding.
     My tumblr is still up and running, oddly, so if you have anything you
     want to ask me about this fic, that would be where to go xD I'm most
     active on there.
     Merci
     P.S. This chapter and the next chapter kind of have a song that go
     with them. It's this----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adfcVmu1bmM
     It's amazing, so go listen to it!
     P.P.S If there are any grammatical errors, please feel free to let me
     know!
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Where am I? What’s this...weightlessness...what happened to the party?
Tweek felt himself swaying, as if he was floating in open water. But he
couldn’t have been in the water. How would he have gotten there? He felt safe,
as if the monsters that usually plagued him wherever he went were being held
back. It was a strange feeling. He couldn’t remember ever feeling safe before.
He’d felt numb, and he’d felt calm, but never safe. He also felt very...warm.
Another thing in defense of Tweek not being in the water.
As well as all those other things, the blonde couldn’t seem to remember what
had happened after he had drank the alcohol that Kenny had shoved into his
hands. He remembered feeling scared, but then again, he was always scared, so
the memory of it wasn’t all that helpful.
The blonde absently wondered why he couldn’t seem to fully wake himself up. It
was like a fog was covering his mind. If he would have thought about it, he was
have realized that it felt nice to have that fog there. He didn’t have any
fears or paranoia at the moment. It was all quite strange.
“Is he gonna be okay?”
Tweek’s mind focused a little at the voice. It was familiar but the blonde
couldn’t place it.
“Dunno. I’m gonna take him home and stay there to make sure.”
That voice was comforting, if a little flat. It was like there was no emotion
in that voice, but it made Tweek feel at ease.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Huh, another voice Tweek couldn’t place. What was going on?
“I don’t care. I’m not leaving him.”
Again, that comforting voice. It rumbled through Tweek’s body, as if source of
the voice was very close to him. Who did that voice belong to?
“Alright, Craig. But if you need us, just text me.”
“Yeah.”
The voices were silent after that, and the swaying returned, lulling Tweek’s
mind back into that almost slumber that he had been in. He faintly heard
crickets, so he assumed he was outside, but the loud bass of the music had
faded to just a faint bump in the back of his mind. The blonde wished he could
open his eyes, just to see if he could catch a glimpse of the owner of that
voice. It seemed so familiar.
“Tweek?”
His name caught the blonde off guard enough that the fog lifted just a bit,
giving him the ability to slightly open his eyes. When he did, he saw inky,
wispy blackness, like hair and the sky behind that. The stars were flickering,
and Tweek almost felt panic settle in his chest when the sight of those stars
brought images of aliens sparking into his mind. Then, suddenly, he felt
pressure around him. Not like the normal pressure that he constantly felt in
his mind, but a kind of comforting pressure, like he was being held.
And that’s when it hit him.
Someone is holding me...WHATTHEHELL!?
Tweek felt a strong shiver rake through his body.
“You okay?”
The voice was there, and this time, Tweek could see the owner of the voice, of
that deep rumble that brought the strangest calm over him. He should have known
this voice.
The shivering blonde looked up and saw deep, ice blue eyes looking down at him.
Craig’s face was as flat as ever, but his eyes held a barely restrained fury as
well as palpable concern that sent a completely different kind of shiver down
Tweek’s spine.
“W-what’s—ngh!--going on!?” Tweek yelped as he squirmed in Craig’s grip, but
that only seemed to make the noirette hold him tighter.
Craig hummed quietly and again Tweek felt the vibration spread through him. He
was being held against the noirette’s chest, one arm under his knees and the
other around his back. Tweek knew he must be heavy, so why did it seem like
Craig wasn’t struggling to carry him at all?
“I’m taking you home.”
“W-what happened to..to the, the party!?” Tweek stammered as he squirmed again,
trying to get Craig to put him down, but it seemed like the noirette was going
to do no such thing. The blonde let out a frustrated groan and looked back up
at Craig again. He wasn’t looking at Tweek anymore. Instead, he was looking at
the sky. That was one thing that was good about South Park. It was practically
in a bowl, so there was little to no light pollution.
But Tweek didn’t want to look at the stars. He wanted to look at Craig’s eyes,
because it seemed like that fury that was barely hidden had flared and darkened
them. Why was he so angry? What had happened that Tweek couldn’t remember? And
why had the noirette been at the party anyway? Didn’t he usually avoid big
parties like that?
“Shit happened and had to get you out of there. You don’t need to remember what
happened.”
Craig went silent after that, and Tweek let the conversation stay where it was.
There was no need to bring it up again...especially when Tweek didn’t want that
fury to be turned on him. He didn’t know how he would handle Craig being angry
with him.
Maybe heis angry with me? W-what could I have done t-to make him mad!?
“If there’s something rattling around in your mind, instead of letting it drive
you crazy, just tell me.”
Tweek blinked and felt himself twitch against Craig’s chest. It was a rather
strong twitch, but it didn’t seem to affect the taller teen at all. How had he
known that Tweek’s thoughts were overpowering him?
“I-I-IT’S NOTHING!” Tweek forced out, gritting his teeth and lowering his head
until his chin touched his chest. He really wished that he was on the ground
just so that he could pace in circles, just to get some of the nervous energy
out of his limbs. It was driving him crazy.
“I know that it’s not.”
How though!? How do you know!?
Tweek shook his head, trying to get those thoughts to stop. It was becoming too
much. He felt like he needed to escape from this confusion. He groaned loudly
and gripped onto his sleeves, his knuckles turning white. He could feel his
fingernails against his palms even through the sleeves of his flannel.
“Tweek.”
The tone of Craig’s voice, accompanied by the sudden stop of the noirette’s
steps caused Tweek to force his head up so he could look at Craig’s face. His
expression was blank, but again, Tweek saw the real feelings the teen was
harboring in his eyes. Was he really that worried about the blonde?
A moan escaped Tweek’s throat and he struggled to put words to his frantic
thoughts, just so that Craig would stop looking at him like that. It made Tweek
feel like his heart was doing jumping jacks in his chest.
“You...you look upset...mad...a-a-and I don’t...I don’t….JESUS CHRIST DON’T BE
MAD AT ME!!”
Finally ending his struggle, Tweek yelled loud enough to make his own ears
ring. He felt bad for yelling right in Craig’s ear, but it didn’t faze the
noirette at all. Was Craig even human!? What if the aliens had replaced his
brain and it made it easier for Craig to ignore things!?
“GAH!! P-PLEASE DON’T LET THE A-A-ALIENS TAKE YOUR BRAIN!!”
Although Craig’s expression didn’t change at Tweek’s second outburst, his eyes
did soften slightly, as if some of the ice in them melted.
“Why would I be mad at you? And the aliens won’t take my brain.”
“You...you just look s-so a-angry, and I don’t want you to be mad a-at me!”
Craig looked away from Tweek for a moment and continued his steps. He didn’t
say anything, and it seemed like the noirette was trying to collect his
thoughts. It was then that Tweek noticed that they were in front of his
house...well, he did remember from when his mind was fogged with weightlessness
that Craig had said something about taking him home. But why had they left the
party in the first place? Yeah, Tweek had drank something that he probably
shouldn’t have, but that Senior hadn’t found him, so it must have been fine.
What had happened to Jase?
None of these questions were answered at the moment, though. Instead, Craig was
walking up his front steps and putting Tweek down on his feet. The sudden
feeling of gravity on his limbs again caused Tweek to stumble a bit, but Craig
was right there next to him and grabbed onto his elbow to keep the blonde from
falling.
“Is the door locked?” Craig asked once the spastic blonde had regained his
balance. Tweek only gave a twitchy nod as he forced his hand into his front
jeans pocket and dug around for his keys. He always had trouble finding them.
It was as if his pockets were black holes.
Tweek tried his other pocket. Where were they? What was going on?
“OHJESUSCHRISTCOMEON!!” Tweek screeched, letting out a loud, frustrated groan.
He couldn’t find them. His keys were not in his pocket. Or his other pocket! Or
the pocket on his shirt!! The blonde whipped his head up to look at Craig, who
was watching him calmly. “I C-C-CAN’T FIND THEM!!”
The panicking blonde watched as Craig nodded slowly, and it was then that Tweek
realized that Craig wasn’t wearing his chullo. Strange...that hat had never
left the noirette’s head for more than a few moments the entirety of their
childhood. But Tweek couldn’t dwell on the hat for too long because Craig
suddenly turned his back and walked back down the steps and around the house.
“W-where are y-you going?”
“Getting us inside.”
Blinking with a twitch, Tweek grabbed his sleeves again, yanking on them hard
enough to almost snap the button off. “U-us...what—rrr—do you mean us?”
There was no answer as Craig disappeared into the darkness at the edge of
Tweek’s yard. Where was he going? Tweek was too scared to try and follow to the
noirette. Who knew what was lurking at the edge of his vision. No way he was
stepping off that porch.
I guess I just...I have to wait...til he gets back…?
But that was just as terrifying!
The blonde was totally exposed! There was bound to be something there, just
waiting to snatch him! What if it was the aliens…OR THOSE STUPID MONSTERS THAT
KEPT HIM AWAKE AT NIGHT!? They were even scarier than the aliens because he
couldn’t see them! At least he had seen the aliens once or twice. This was
South Park after all...god knew what kind of scary nonsense was hiding in the
shadows.
Suddenly hearing a click and a squeak from behind him, Tweek let out a high-
pitched yelp that almost threw him off balance to the point that he almost went
tumbling down the steps. At the last second however, a strong hand grasped his
wrist and pulled him upright again. Tweek landed against something solid but
warm with a whump!
“OH JESUS!” the spastic teen squawked as he latched onto the fabric that was on
top of that solid, yet oddly warm, wall. Wait. This wasn’t a wall. Tweek looked
up and again let out a squawk. Craig was looking down at him with an eyebrow
raised, it disappearing underneath the fringe of the noirette’s bangs. It
looked like Craig hadn’t had a haircut in a while. Then again, he always had
that hat on, so maybe it had always been that long.
“You alright?”
“H-h-how did you…! W-w-where did you…! JESUSWHAT’SGOINGON!”
Tweek knew he was freaking out needlessly. But there was just something about
Craig that did it to him. When around Craig, Tweek only had two settings,
eternal panic and eery calm.
“I found an unlocked window and hopped through. You should really lock your
windows. But I guess it was fortunate for us this time.”
The spastic blonde twitched again, his lemony hair falling into his eyes.
Craig’s oceanic eyes focused on that hair and he was reaching towards Tweek.
Suddenly, an image surfaced in his mind’s eye.
A hand reaching forward to grab onto a handful of his hair, yanking him to his
feet. Panic settled in Tweek’s gut, although he wasn’t sure why, and he quickly
covered his head with his shaking arms. He flinched away from Craig’s impending
touch and yelped, “N-N-NO! DON’TTOUCHME! I DON’T WANT TO GO WITH YOU!”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Tweek realized his mistake. That
hand he had seen wasn’t Craig’s. Craig was larger...more scarred...but not
scary. That other hand had been scary; terrifying. He heard the pained sound
that Craig made and knew he had hurt the noirette. The blonde lowered his arms
and saw the equivalent of that sound written on Craig’s face.
“Sorry. I won’t do it again...” the taller teen whispered, looking at Tweek
with a sad, dark look. It was strange to see the normally deadpan expression
morph into solid emotions.
“No...t-that’s not...” Tweek started, but was interrupted when Craig looked
away from him.
“You should get inside.”
Tweek didn’t know what to say anymore. First Craig was mad at something (he
still harbored the fear that Craig was angry with him), and now he’d hurt the
noirette. What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he just be normal? Why did he
have to ruin everything for everyone around him? Why was he so pathetic.
The blonde felt that panic and fear squeeze his gut and it traveled up into his
throat. He could feel the tears before they fell. He felt the burning in his
eyes. He felt that itch in his fingers to grasp at his hair. His head began to
throb and he could feel the blood pumping through him.
“No...please...n-not again...”
Tweek wasn’t sure if that had been his voice. It sounded like him, but he
didn’t remember saying anything. His legs began to shake. His breath began to
come in short gasps.
“Tweek?”
His head whipped up again, seeing those eyes, those orbs of ice that had seemed
to melt earlier but were now just orbs of solid stone. He’d done that. He’d
taken away the warmth of those eyes. How could he be so stupid.
“Tweek, answer me!”
Why was Craig still here? Hadn’t Tweek hurt him enough? Hadn’t he done enough
to Craig to make him forget the blonde forever, again? Maybe it was his own
fault that Craig had forgotten about when they were kids. Maybe he was the
cause of everything bad that was happening to Craig. It would certainly make
sense.
Tweek put his hands in his hair, unable to stop and yanked as hard as he could.
He felt strands rip from his scalp. He held on so hard he felt his nails cut
into his palms. He couldn’t stand this pressure in his brain!
And it’s all my fault…
But then Tweek felt warmth against his hands. He felt fingers pulling at his
fists, gently releasing his grip on his blonde tresses. His hands were pulled
down in front of him, where Tweek saw that Craig was holding them, tightly but
gently. Tweek’s impending panic attack seemed to just...stutter...and it felt
like it was frozen in place. It was still there, but it didn’t change. It
didn’t lessen but it didn’t get worse either. Why...had that happened?
Craig didn’t say anything. His expression didn’t change. But he gently tugged
Tweek’s hands, pulling them both into Tweek’s house. The blonde stumbled a
little but Craig’s hands around his own somehow kept him upright.
Tweek heard the door close behind him and the subtle light from the
streetlights outside was almost cut off, throwing them into near darkness. He
let out an involuntary whimper as he threw his head around trying to find any
source of light that was brighter than the light that was filtering through the
window of the door.
That’s when he saw it. It was...glowing...and it look eerily familiar from
underneath Craig’s unzipped hoodie. But, looking at it closer, Tweek saw that
it wasn’t glowing. It was just because of the color.
Tweek remembered.
It was a present from Craig to him when they were kids. It was the t-shirt with
an alien on the front, the one that Craig said was a shield. Tweek had always
wondered where that shirt had gone, since it was one of the first things Craig
ever gave him. But he’d lost it a long time ago.
How had Craig gotten it?
“Are you okay?”
That soft baritone drew Tweek’s eyes from the shirt up to Craig’s oh-so-blue
eyes.
“Y-yeah...w-where did you—ngh—get that shirt?”
Craig looked down at his shirt as if he didn’t remember what shirt he was
wearing. He let go of one of Tweek’s hands and plucked at the material.
“This old thing? I’ve had it since I was a kid.” Craig paused and weird
expression crossed over his face. “I don’t remember where I got it, though.
I...I can’t. That’s weird. Now that I think about it...I don’t even think its
mine.”
Tweek blinked and his normal shivers lessened to a slight vibration. That light
in Craig’s eyes. It was a light of remembrance. Tweek knew that light. It was
the same light that his parents sometimes got when they were actually home.
Sometimes they’d see Tweek and that light would shine in their eyes. They would
remember him for only a few moments. But then it was gone and they went back to
forgetting that they even had a son.
Tweek mentally shook himself. Forget his parents for a moment. He was watching
that light in Craig’s eyes.
Maybe he’ll remember us. Please...remember.
But then it was gone. That light faded and Craig looked back up at Tweek. His
oceanic eyes focused on Tweek and he cocked his head to the side.
“Did you say something?”
Tweek sighed and lowered his gaze. He felt the hope fade from his heart,
leaving only an empty shell in its wake. “N-no, I didn’t.”
Craig followed where Tweek’s gaze had gone and looked down at their hands,
still clasped together. The noirette let go suddenly and looked away. He combed
a hand through his hair, the same hand that had just been holding Tweek’s.
“Sorry,” the taller teen mumbled, and Tweek thought he saw Craig’s cheeks
redden a bit. “I said I wouldn’t touch you anymore.”
Without thinking about it, Tweek reached forward and grabbed onto the hems of
Craig’s hoodie and tugged. The blonde felt a frustrated groan leave his throat.
Shaking his head vigorously once Craig looked at him again, Tweek yelped, “N-
no! Gah!! That’s n-n-not it at all!”
A dark eyebrow disappeared underneath those bangs again as Craig looked down at
Tweek’s hands on his hoodie.
“What do you mean?” the noirette questioned as he took a step closer, forcing
Tweek to raise his hands. The blonde still held onto the sweater and with his
hands up like that, they were almost pressed against Craig’s chest.
Tweek was starting to panic again, but in a way, he also felt unnervingly calm.
That didn’t make sense. His mind was flailing but the rest of him felt steady
and calm. But that just made him confused, and he almost forgot that Craig had
asked him a question.
The blonde cast his eyes in all different directions trying to figure out how
to put this...feeling...into coherent sentences. Because it was going to take
more than one, honestly.
“I...I g-got scared and—ngh!!--remembered...s-something? Maybe...it
was...someone...reaching for me and I…I remember being grabbed and dragged and
hurt and…I-I’m sorry!”
Once Tweek finally managed to get the entire thing out, although in his head it
still didn’t make sense, he looked back up at Craig. That fury was back in his
eyes.
“I-I-I’M SORRYIDIDN’TMEANTOMAKEYOUMAD!”
Tweek tried to let go of Craig’s sweater and back away, not wanting to be the
object of the noirette’s wrath, but he wasn’t given the chance. Instead, Craig
was suddenly closer, and Tweek was pulled against Craig’s chest, strong arms
wrapping around his shoulders.
The blonde let out an involuntary yelp as he felt Craig’s warmth seep into him.
What was happening?
“I’m not mad at you.” Craig’s baritone drew Tweek’s attention from his
confusion as he felt it rumble through Craig’s chest. “I’m mad that...that I
wasn’t there when you needed someone. When you were getting dragged up those
stairs, I was right there next to them and I didn’t even notice you. I was
getting drunk instead.”
“That’s not--”
“No. Let me finish. I know you don’t remember everything that happened. And I
don’t want you to remember. But when I saw you on that bed with your hands
bound and that fucker about to...” The noirette paused and sucked in a breath,
as if talking had become difficult. Tweek felt a shiver go through Craig that
seemed to match his own. Craig buried his face in the crook between Tweek’s
neck and shoulder, causing the blonde to twitch and yelp as a shiver went down
his spine again. “I don’t want something like that to happen ever again. I’m
never going to let you get hurt like that again. I can’t. I don’t know why you
affect me so much but I can’t stand it...seeing someone else touch you. I can’t
do it, Tweek. I just...can’t.”
Tweek blinked as the emotion in Craig’s voice seemed to grow with each word he
spoke. He’d never, ever heard this much emotion coming from Craig. And that
just seemed to accentuate what the noirette was saying. Tweek wanted so badly
to say something in response, but he felt that Craig wasn’t done talking.
After a few moments pause, Craig drew back a little and the blonde saw that the
fury that was in Craig’s eyes had changed to determination. The intensity of it
made Tweek’s face grow hot. He’d never been looked at like that before, and it
made him feel...weird.
“I am never. EVER. Leaving you alone again. I can’t, Tweek.”
Tweek wasn’t sure how to respond, but he felt like he needed to say something.
Anything, but his mind was blank. For the first time in his life, Tweek’s mind
was a void. There was nothing there. He stood stood there, staring into those
twin pools of oceanic waves.
“Is that alright?” Craig asked, his expression flattening out again, as if he
was ready for rejection. But Tweek couldn’t do that...reject the only person
he’d ever truly cared for? No. That wasn’t going to happen.
When Tweek nodded slightly, Craig let out a breath and rested his forehead
against Tweek’s. His soft, inky hair tickled Tweek’s nose as their breaths
seemed to mingle. Tweek closed his eyes.
Maybe he could hope after all; maybe Craig would remember...if he felt this way
now.
“Okay,” he heard Craig whisper. There was so much emotion in that one word.
“O-okay.”
Chapter End Notes
     These two are going to destroy me, I'm telling you. Next chapter will
     probably be jsut as fluffy as this one, so uh...yeah. Don't expect
     that to last. It'll change.
***** Wherever I Go, Trouble Follows *****
Chapter Notes
     Ok, this is total filler. It's been a while since I posted a chapter,
     because writer's block sucks man. So bad. So here is some Kenny ness.
     It sucks I'm sorry. Its also super short. Oops
     Merci
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Okay, maybe that had been a bad decision. Maybe Kenny shouldn’t have given
Tweek vodka. Maybe he shouldn’t have just left the poor kid sitting there,
drunk off his ass. But.
BUT
At least it seemed to bring Craig and Tweek together.
Well, it kinda forcedthem together, but honestly, at least it worked, right?
Kenny turned away from Tweek’s house, where he had followed Craig and Tweek to
after the whole event. He’d managed to peek into the window and saw the entire
exchange. It didn’t take long for the blonde to see what he came for. Of
course, they still had a long ways to go, but at least Kenny could relax for a
little while and worry about his own predicament.
This one involving a certain blonde that was waiting for him where they had
agreed upon.
A pang of guilt speared through Kenny’s chest. He didn’t want things to end up
the way he had seen, but he also couldn’t seem to leave Leo alone. In his
heart, Kenny knew that he wouldn’t want to ever be with anyone other than that
lovable dork, but he also knew that the longer he stayed, the more it would
hurt Leo in the end.
“Love sucks...”
“Ain’t that the truth.”
If he had been anyone other than who he was, Kenny would have jumped at the
sudden voice next to him. But he was a McCormick, and nothing surprised him
anymore.
“I’m surprised you made it through college, Carissa. You have terrible
grammar,” Kenny mumbled as he put a hand on his cousin’s shoulder and shoved.
“What are you doing out here, anyway?”
Carissa Addler shrugged. “Same old, same old. Somehow managed to trip and
shattered my skull again.”
Kenny almost snorted. Of course. The McCormick curse. No matter what happened,
even if you were being the most careful person on the planet, dying just came
with the namesake. Sure, it sucked. And sure, it had it’s uses. But the blonde
was sick of it. He just wanted a normal life that he could spend by Leo’s side.
But that obviously would never happen. Not with him shadowing his every move.
The one with the scars. The one that looked just like him.
Shoving the thought away, Kenny tried to focus on what Carissa had been saying.
When he realized that she was just babbling about her hair being messed up
after the came back, he’d tuned her out again. There was just something about
girls talking about their hair the gave Kenny a bad vibe. His sister was like
that, too.
“Carissa, as much as I just love talking about your hair,” Kenny said, giving
his cousin a smile that accompanied the pure sarcasm bleeding from his words.
“But I’ve got places to be.”
“Whatever, McCormick. Have fun fucking up the timeline some more!”
He’d taken a few steps, but at that, Kenny whirled on his relation.
“Shut the fuck up, Carissa! You know I’m doing everything I can do fix this!
You fucking know how hard I’m working on getting everything back to how it
was.”
Carissa tossed her hair over her shoulder and leveled the blonde with a look
full of malice. “If you are really doing everything you can, then why did you
let Tweek get hurt like that?” she asked, crossing her arms. Kenny flinched. He
knew he fucked up with that one. “If you are trying to fix things, then why are
you sticking to that kid even though you know how things will end up? That
thing you’ve created with your mistakes is only getting stronger.”
Kenny’s face screwed up into a scowl of disgust.
“He has nothing to do with this. Don’t you dare bring Leo into this.”
“Leo? Oh, he has a pet name now? The fuck is wrong with you McCormick! If you
keep letting this go, things are going to explode and you aren’t going to be
able to fix them! Leave the kid out of this! Fucking go back and erase his
memories of you! That’s only way to fix that fuck up!”
Erase Leo’s memory…
Kenny stumbled suddenly, as if the thought took all the strength from his
muscles.
No...he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t let Leo forget him.
Falling to the sidewalk, the thought numbing everything inside of him, Kenny’s
eyes became unfocused.
He couldn’t live without Leo in his life...how could he hurt Leo like that…?
“You’ve got to stop acting like a child. You have to live up to your mistakes,
Kenny. Don’t drag anyone else into this any further unless you want to hurt
them. It’s not fair to them.”
The numb blonde didn’t react to what Carissa was saying. She didn’t expect him
to, either. Instead she just turned on her heel and walked away, her hair
swaying behind her.
She’s right you know~
Starting, Kenny looked around. That voice. It was...his.
“What do you want. And how are you here. There is no reflection.”
Look down, you fuckwit.
Kenny did so, and indeed, there was a puddle there that held his reflection.
But it wasn’t him. It was the other one. The scarred one. The teen in the
reflection was an identical match to Kenny other than the numerous scars that
crisscrossed his face. All the scars from every time Kenny had died and come
back. Because instead of the blonde having those scars, this anti version of
him had them all.
And as for what I want~the anti-Kenny said in the same singsong voice that
Kenny had used all those years ago. I want to exist. So keep fucking things up,
and we’ll see how soon I can take your place.The reflection chuckled
maliciously. And maybe I can have some fun with that adorable little
Butterscotch of yours. How do you think he’d like to have somefunwith me?
Kenny snarled and stood up, dragging his foot through the puddle to get rid of
that stupid reflection. “You will not touch him. You will not exist. Not today,
not ever. Fuck off.”
The blonde shoved his hands into his pockets and stalked away from the
offensive puddle. He could still hear that fucking cackle invading his
thoughts. He hated it.
Yes, he’d fucked up the timeline, yes it had created another him. Yes, it was
all Kenny’s fault. But he was trying to fix it, goddamit! Why did loving
someone have to fuck him up so bad!?
Knowing it was a mistake; knowing that he should just take Carissa’s voice and
leave Leo alone, Kenny still felt his body be drawn towards the shorter
blonde’s house. He needed his Butterscotch right then. He needed to feel the
warmth of that kid against him. He couldn’t not need it. He was addicted.
And this was one addiction he never wanted to recover from.
Fuck Carissa and her annoying rightness. Fuck the McCormick Curse. Fuck Anti.
Fuck everyone that wants to get in my way.
Leopold “Butters” Stotch was his. And nothing...fucking nothing...was going to
stop him from protecting what was his. Fuck fate.
He’d make his own.
Chapter End Notes
     I just got back from a weekend long trip, so I'm exhausted and
     writing is not working for me at th emoment. Also, I'm super focused
     on an Audio book i'm tking part it for another fic called
     Semantically Challenged, so. Im probably more likely to be working
     with that than writing...I'm sorry. I'm terrible
***** Broken Memories *****
Chapter Notes
     This chapter just took me way too long. I have a lot going on for me
     right now, and someone very dear to me is going through an even
     tougher time, so I've been trying to be there for her. Updates as
     always will be sporadic, and I apologize. This chapter, especially
     the ending, was to pay homage to TeamAlphaQ's own Clockwork Angel. So
     I hope you guys enjoy.
     Merci
See the end of the chapter for more notes
How the hell had he gotten himself into this position…?
Craig tried to look down out of his peripherals, but all he could see was
fluffy, lemony hair that was sort of going up his nose at the moment. Afraid to
move, the noirette kept his breaths as even and steady as possible. Honestly,
though...his heart was pounding and he couldn’t seem to calm down.
He hadn’t meant to fall asleep. He was supposed to be up watching Tweek to make
sure he was okay...but the scent of whatever shampoo the kid used had taken up
all his senses and before he knew it, Craig was jolting awake and then trying
to stay perfectly still. He didn’t want to wake Tweek up...he wasn’t sure the
kid even slept. At all.
Said blonde made a soft, sleepy noise that kind of sounded like a laugh, but
Craig wasn’t sure. And he damn well wasn’t going to move to try and figure it
out.
After Tweek had said his stuttered, “O-okay,” Craig had felt a smile pull at
the corner’s of his mouth. It hadn’t been there for long because almost as
quickly as Tweek had stopped panicking, it had started again. This time it had
been about getting home so late or some other crazy thing like that. Craig
wasn’t even sure it mattered what time the blonde got home. His parents were
never there, so it wasn’t like he had a curfew.
Craig knew that Tweek’s parents were MIA most of the time these days. When they
were kids, he remembered them being there, at the coffee shop mostly, but it
seemed like once they got out of Elementary, Tweek’s parents had all but
vanished. It seemed a little fucked up to the noirette, but then again, he
would give anything to be rid of his parents, just for one day.
The noirette supposed he shouldn’t say something like that about his parents,
but he honestly couldn’t give less of a shit what happened to them with the way
they treated the both of them, Ruby especially.
Once Tweek had stumbled around after looking for the light switch, it was like
a tornado came through. The blonde was a whirlwind of activity. He was putting
things away, cleaning, making coffee (of course), getting cups for the both of
them. When Craig had asked if the blonde had any tea, it was like he had
offended Tweek’s ancestors or something. But then it was like a light flicked
on in his brain and he withdrew a very small package from underneath packages
and packages of coffee filters. Thankfully, it was just a regular thing of
black tea, and that was fine with Craig.
They had sat down awkwardly at Tweek’s kitchen table, and the twitchy blonde
had stared at his coffee most of the time while trying to covertly look Craig’s
way. But of course the noirette would notice, what with how he couldn’t keep
his eyes off Tweek.
“W-why are you staring at me!?” Tweek whimpered, dipping his head so low that
his hair almost went into his coffee.
“Felt like it,” Craig answered in his usual deadpan, but he lowered his gaze
nonetheless. He was always making the blonde nervous. It wasn’t like he was
doing it on purpose. His gaze naturally gravitated towards the twitchy blonde.
His attention was always fully centered on Tweek whenever he was around.
“S-so...w-why are you—ngh—still here?”
At the sudden question, Craig looked up to see that the blonde had drawn his
knees up to his chest and was swirling his finger around in his coffee. The
movement made a weird lump rise in Craig’s throat. What in the hell? Why
isthatmaking me get all…
Shaking his head, Craig rested his chin on his hand and tried to speak around
the lump in his throat. “Making sure you’re gonna be okay.”
The spastic teen blinked in that out of sync way he did when he was surprised.
He pulled his gaze back up to Craig’s and twitched, almost sending the mug
toppling over. Craig managed to reach a hand out and settle it before it did,
however.
“I-I-I’M FINE!” Tweek squawked as he twitched again, causing his chair to
scrape against the floor. “Gah! You d-don’t need to stay here!”
A small smile crept onto Craig’s face despite his best efforts to keep his
expression even. “I know I don’t need to,” the noirette admitted as he slid the
mug towards the twitching blonde again, who snatched it and took a big gulp. As
soon as he did, Tweek’s spasms receded a bit. Continuing, Craig leaned back in
his chair and scraped his fingers across his scalp lightly, “But I want to. I
don’t wanna leave you here alone right now.”
Tweek didn’t refuse right away, so Craig supposed that Tweek didn’t not want
him there. The blonde was probably just reacting to his overactive mind telling
him all sorts of crazy things. The two lapsed back into silence, and Craig went
back to watching the blonde’s movements.
He’d always been twitchy. He’d always made those noises of frustration or just
general spastic tics. He had always been like that. But Craig had never found
it as fascinating to watch as he did these past two years. Something had
just...happened. The blonde had become more interesting, and Craig wasn’t sure
why.
They had sat at the table in silence for a while until Craig had realized that
Tweek’s head was starting to bob, and his eyes seemed like they were struggling
to stay open. Jesus, the stress of not remembering must be making him tired.
He’s probably thinking too much about it again.
After a little while of watching that, Craig couldn’t take it anymore. Tweek
looked so uncomfortable sitting there at the table.
“Hey, Tweek?”
The blonde had snapped awake for a few seconds with a strangled, “Ngh!!” and
then went right back to almost being asleep.
Well, guess he’s not moving on his own. Craig sighed. He would have to carry
him. Not that he minded. Tweek wasn’t all that heavy. Pushing himself to his
feet, the noirette shuffled around the table to where the blonde was sitting.
The smaller teen seemed to be almost completely passed out at this point, so it
didn’t take much for Craig to scoop him up into his arms. Almost immediately,
the blonde had rested his head on Craig’s shoulder and took a deep breath. The
exhale tickled the taller teen’s neck. It gave him a weird feeling.
Mentally shrugging it off, Craig quietly padded out of the kitchen and made his
way towards the stairs. He wasn’t sure exactly where Tweek’s room was, but he
would probably be able to figure it out. The stairs were a bit tricky to get up
because Craig had to lean both his and Tweek’s weight backwards or they would
have fallen face first into the stairs. Although, as before, Craig was able to
manage pretty well.
Once the stairs were conquered and Craig had found his way in the dark to
Tweek’s room, he noticed that the door was already slightly ajar. It was very
befitting of the blonde, but Craig wasn’t exactly prepared for what lay inside
of the room.
Using his knee to bump the door open farther, Craig was immediately overwhelmed
with the amount of paintings that littered the room. The noirette knew Tweek
liked to paint. He’d seen it first hand. But this...this was...crazy.
There were canvases everywhere. On the bed, on the floor, on the windowsill.
You name it, there was a canvas on it. Craig hadn’t realized just how much
Tweek painted. While gawking at all the paintings, although kind of hard to see
just by the dim light of the streetlight outside, Craig ventured further into
the room. He tried to keep his eyes on where he was going, in case there was a
canvas in his path, but he just couldn’t help but stare. There were just so
goddamn many that he couldn’t take them all in a once.
Once he’d finally reached the bed, the noirette gently set Tweek’s still
shivering body on top of the comforter. The kid never seemed to stop moving,
even in his sleep.
Feeling like he had to do something else for the blonde, Craig attempted to
wiggle Tweek’s flannel off. It was honestly more of an attempt than anything
because Tweek had an iron grip on his sleeves. That was something else Craig
had noticed recently as well. The blonde tended to yank at his sleeves when he
got nervous. It was very...different...from how the smaller teen normally coped
with his emotions, so it intrigued Craig quite a bit. He really, really wanted
to find out.
But maybe another time.
Tweek had gone through enough that night, and whatever he didn’t want others to
see underneath those sleeves, it was not Craig’s place to force his way. He
would ask Tweek about it some other time.
Normally, the noirette wouldn’t give a damn what others were hiding. But Tweek
was different. Tweek was...Tweek.
Speaking of, the blonde made a small groan once Craig had let go of his
sleeves. Craig watched as Tweek’s face screwed up into a weird, childlike
expression, like the blonde was pouting. It made the noirette smile, and it
caused him to feel strangely at ease. He could feel that fury and regret that
normally battled for control in his gut lessen to just a dull ache.
Craig sat down on the edge of the bed and watched Tweek sleep for a while. He
hadn’t felt this calm in a very long time. In reality, he couldn’t even
remember when he had started to feel like his stomach was being burned apart
from the inside. It had just come upon him one day. Like a swarm of locusts,
the fury and regret latched onto him and wouldn’t let go. The noirette didn’t
even know why. He felt like he had done something so very wrong, but he
couldn’t figure out what.
If he let them, those thoughts could circle around Craig’s mind for hours. He’d
spent many sleepless nights petting Stripe, just trying to make sense of the
emotions that he didn’t have a name for. He’d never been able to identify his
emotions, and maybe that was the reason for that feelings in his gut. He could
never tell.
The bed shifted, and Craig felt something latch onto his shirt. He focused his
icy eyes on the sleeping teen next to him and found that Tweek’s small hand had
found its way to the hem of his shirt when the blonde had rolled onto his side.
Well, looks like I’m stuck now.
Not that he particularly cared. At least Tweek wasn’t shying away from him like
he did when he was conscious. That had always bothered him. Craig always felt
like he had done something wrong whenever they passed in the hallway and
accidentally touched. It fit Tweek’s spastic nature, though.
“Ngh...C-Craig...”
Focusing once again on that face, the noirette hummed an answer. It didn’t seem
like the blonde was awake, though. His eyes were shut tight and his face has
smoothed over, a look of calm tranquility rested there.
“D-Dont...hate...m-me.”
Craig knew the smaller teen was dreaming. But he felt a sudden urge that he
just couldn’t ignore. Turning at the waist slightly, Craig leaned forward and
put a hand to Tweek’s cheeck. “I could never hate you, Tweek,” he whispered,
resting his forehead against the blonde’s temple. Closing his eyes, Craig again
whispered, “You’re the only one I’ve ever cared about this much...nothing could
make me hate you.”
At his words, the rest of Tweek’s body seemed to relax and most of his
shivering receded.
Suddenly seeming very tired, Craig brought his legs up onto the bed and curled
around Tweek’s smaller body as he lay down. Pulling the blonde close, Craig
whispered a promise. Maybe it was the sudden exhaustion that brought out the
words, or maybe it was the memory of something long past.
“I will never, ever let anything like that happen to you again...because you
are mine. Always.”
 
And that was where Craig now found himself, lemony hair tickling his nostrils
as he lay there, curled around Tweek. The blonde was still asleep. Craig was
almost grateful. He knew as soon as Tweek woke up, he would freak out again,
especially given their position.
The noirette should have moved, so that when Tweek woke up, he wouldn’t have
that shock. But as his eyes focused in the dim morning light, Craig saw that
same blue that Token had said was “his color”. Why was he seeing it now,
though?
Craig blinked, trying to force the sleep from his eyes. He saw it then, a lone
canvas on an easel, a painting half finished. It looked like...someone’s bare
back, long jagged scars covering most of their shoulder blades. It almost
seemed as if there were once wings there. This was accompanied by the fact that
their were feathers strewn about...but not normal feathers...these were colored
copper, like metal. Metal feathers? How would that work? Focusing more, Craig
saw that the blue he had seen were eyes...like his own, but the pupils looked
like...cogs?
It felt like he had seen this type of panting before...a long time ago...when
he was a kid…
But then it was gone, and that fog that had wiped away everything before
returned, and Craig was forced back into sleep, his thoughts and memories
jumbling up until they were nothing but a black pit, where there was no
escaping from.
That same pit that everyone who had forgotten saw in their dreams. The pit of
loss that no one could seem to escape from.
Chapter End Notes
     FYI, I am rather close with Q, and she has told me numerous times
     that i am allowed to use things from her fic in my own. That is why i
     thought it best to write the chapter in this way.
     Next chapter will be from Tweek's perspective, like normal, but it's
     not going to be a normal kind of chapter. It may have some dark
     themes. Be prepared. Thank you for understanding.
Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed
their work!