Work Text:
That was not how he had imagined the day to end. He pondered, licking his lips and flinching when he felt a sting of pain through his body.
Great, those assholes managed to break his lips.
“This is unacceptable.” Said Principal PC adjusting his sunglasses, glaring at them. “Getting into a fight is never an excusable action, you should know that by now.”
Craig kept his neutral expressions on, trying his best not to look too bored by the lecture, fidgeting slightly on his sit due to the many wounds on his body.
“Besides, this is something I would have expected from Craig, m’kay? But from you, Tweek?” Mr. Mackey added, standing at the side of the principal with a deep frown on his face. “What were you thinking, m’kay?”
He glanced at his equally bruised boyfriend briefly, observing with amusement as he kept his eyes stubbornly on the floor, annoyed. Anxious or not, it was a serious matter when Tweek was angry.
“Yes, Tweek.” Said his father, standing behind the two boys along with the other three parents. “What were you thinking? Getting into a fight like that?”
The boy didn’t falter, mumbling something under his breath that even Craig didn’t quite catch.
“What was that?” Asked the principal, raising an eyebrow.
“I said.” He blurted out, his face raising rapidly to fix at the two adults in front of him, angered. “That they fucking deserved it.”
Craig nearly choked, while several pair of eyes stared at him, shocked.
Man, he really loved angry Tweek.
————————
It had been a fairly normal and boring morning so far, considering the South Park standards and Craig had been very much satisfied by that.
No alien abductions, no global threats and no ideas from Stan and his fucking friends.
The perfect day, that was what he had thought while sitting outside with Token, Clyde and Jimmy, waiting for Tweek to join them.
He was gazing at the playground lazily, barely listening to whatever Clyde was babbling about, his eyes regularly falling on the door of the building, searching for a specific blond head.
Craig glanced back at his friends when they called him out, answering their question before returning to his gazing. He smiled imperceptibly in his hand when he finally spotted Tweek, raising the other to gesture at his boyfriend their location, stopping abruptly when he saw five kids coming out of no where and surrounding him.
He tensed, staring at Tweek as he flinched in surprise and out of stress for the sudden appearance of the strangers and all it took to Craig to stand up and heading their way was seeing Tweek glaring at them in a mixture of anxiety and annoyance, as the five boys shoved him with enough force to make him stumble.
“I’ll be right back.” He said with a frown, his stare never leaving the five guys.
“Wait, we’re coming too” Said Clyde with decision, as he saw what was happening.
“Y-yeah. Let’s go t-t-teach those guys a lesson.” Jimmy added, swinging one of his crutch.
“No need.” Craig told them raising a hand, his three friends already standing up. “I’d rather not start a fight. But if you see someone throw a punch, you know what to do."
“Got it, dude.” Token nodded.
Craig walked towards the group rapidly, watching with annoyance as Tweek’s ticks started to be more frequent and rapid, sign that his anxiety was starting to grow as the kids kept bothering him.
“Hey.” He yelled once he was near. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Oh, look! Your little boyfriend came to the rescue!” One of the kids, the biggest one, snickered turning around to stand in front of him. “I was wondering which of you was the girl. Guess we know now.”
Craig pressed his lips together, feeling the rage boiling up inside his stomach. That wasn’t the first time someone mocked them for being gay, but it was certainly the first time it bothered him. Mainly because they had decided to do that by cornering Tweek, alone.
He could already tell they were a bunch of assholes.
“Sure, because you wouldn’t need help if five stupid dickheads surrounded you.” He shot back narrowing his eyes. “So how about you go fuck yourself and leave him alone.”
“Oh yeah? And what will you do if we don’t? Will you start talking about your emotions to bore me to death?” He challenged him with a cocky smile.
“It would surely do more damage than you hitting me.” He said without losing his façade, smirking to himself when he saw the kid’s grin fade into an annoyed scowl.
“You stupid fag.” He took a step forward. “Why don’t you say that again?”
Craig did the same as well, flipping him off. His previous intention to avoid a fight long gone. “I’d rather punch you in the face, asshole.”
“We’ll see about that.” The kid suddenly smirked again, victoriously. “Do it.”
Craig looked at him slightly puzzled, opening his mouth to say something, but a sudden pang of pain behind his skull silenced him as he landed face against the concrete, grunting.
He saw stars for a moment, as he heard someone gasp. He raised his head, bringing his fingers on his nose: he was bleeding. He then turned around, pissed off when he saw one of the kids looking down at him, hand still clutched into a fist.
The bastard had hit him from behind.
“Look who’s the one being punched now!” The leader of the group laughed loud, tilting his head.
Craig started to stand up, rubbing his nose with the back of his hand. “Dude, you fucking made one of your asshole friends hit me from behind.” Craig said, now completely pissed off. He could hear the rest of his friends running towards them. “Now I’m really out of fucks to gi-“
His statement was cut short when a sudden yellow and green bolt literally dashed in front of him, sprinting towards the big kid yelling a loud and furious: “DON’T FUCKING TOUCH HIM!”
He blinked one time, shocked, as Tweek literally crashed against the boy and pinned him to the ground, raising a punch as his eyes darted fire. “Let’s see how you like this, motherfucker!”
Craig watched in bewilderment as Tweek punched merciless the kid, feeling a strange combination of warmth and proud invading his chest.
He had never been so entranced by a guy punching another before. He realised, grinning like an idiot.
“Don’t just stand there, you fucking idiots!” The big guy screamed between a punch and another, apparently unable to stop Tweek’s rage. “Take this fucking fag off me!”
Craig snapped out of his trance, his feet reacting even before his brain managed to register what was happening and then, he was punching in the face one of the boy that was trying to hit Tweek, sending him to the floor. He straightened up just in time to see Token punching another kid, Clyde kicking the other and Jimmy smacking the last one with his crutch.
He turned around as he heard Tweek yelp, watching him being thrown into the snow as the big kid stood up, wobbling slightly and heading towards him furiously. Craig moved swiftly, positioning in front of Tweek just before he could lay a finger on him, punching the kid hard on the nose and making him retreat, stumbling.
He looked back at his boyfriend, smirking proudly and offering him a hand, his nose still bleeding.
“That was fucking majestic, babe.” He grinned, helping him to stand up when he took his hand. Tweek smiled at him, shyly and happily, the feeling of warmth was enough to calm them both.
Not enough to have mercy on them, though.
“Now let’s go and finish those assholes off.” He added in fact, turning towards them while cracking his knuckles.
“Y-yeah.” Was Tweek answer as he stood at his side. “Gladly.”
They looked at each other and smiled, before throwing themselves into the fight.
————————
Craig took a deep breath as soon as the school’s doors closed behind them, a little cloud escaping from his mouth.
That day really didn’t went as he had expected, but at least they managed to survive in the end: once explained the whole story, the principal had literally released them since “fighting homophobia” was not as unacceptable as a “normal fight”.
They still got a lecture, but that was pretty much it. The other group of boys, on the other hand, weren’t going to have the same luck.
And again, Craig was grateful for that.
“Well, I think we should head back to the café, coffee won’t sell itself alone.” Mr Tweak said to his wife. The woman nodded, turning around to face his son.
“You can take the day off Tweek, your father and I will take care of the shop.”
Tweek perked up slightly, surprised. “I can?”
“Of course, sweetie.” She smiled. “You need to rest and relax.”
“Besides.” His father added. “We can’t certainly let you serve coffee with those wounds. What will the customers think?”
Craig rolled his eyes, annoyed, doing his best to suppress the urge to flip him off. It was hard.
“You know.” Mrs Tucker said with a smile, touching his husband arm. “Tweek can stay for dinner and overnight, if you don’t mind. It would certainly be good for them.”
“Yeah.” Mr Tucker agreed with a nod and a slight smile. “They could use this weekend to have some rest and have fun. You can also invite over your other friends, if you want.” He added, talking to Craig.
Sometimes he really loved his parents.
“It works for me.” He said. “What about you?”
Tweek jumped a little, staring at them for a moment, stunned, before smiling nervously. “Y-yeah! I’d love that.”
“Thank you very much, then.” Tweek’s mother smiled.
“We’ll go then, see you later.” Craig saluted hurriedly, taking his boyfriend’s hand and turning around, starting to walk.
Tweek followed him in silence after saying goodbye as well, walking towards his boyfriend’s house and Craig waited the moment their parents were out of earshot to talk.
“What’s wrong babe? Still bored by Mr Mackey’s lecture?” He asked looking ahead while giving him a side-glance. He knew that wasn’t the reason for Tweek’s silence, but he preferred waiting for him to talk.
“N-no.” He said shaking his head, his eyes never leaving the road as he frowned. “I’m just- I’m still angry with those assholes.” He managed to say in an angry grumble.
“Don’t sweat about it. They got what they deserved.” Craig tried to reason, but stopped when he remembered that Tweek didn’t need a problem solving. Therefore he added, “Why are you still angry?”
The boy grunted, chewing his lips in an automatic gesture that Craig knew very well. “Is it about what they said?” He tried then, turning his head to look at him.
“No…” he mumbled, the silence falling again and Craig returned to gaze at the road. Pushing him wouldn’t help, so he waited.
They walked without saying a word for several minutes, and he could clearly see the turmoil in Tweek’s head just by looking at his face.
He still waited.
“They hit you.” He whispered after a while, his lips quivering slightly. “You bleed because of me.”
It’s not your fault. That’s what he wanted to say, but he knew it wouldn’t change his reasoning.
“And you hit them back.” He said instead. “Pretty hard too.”
“Yes but!” He exclaimed in an outburst, his free hand moving furiously. “If I hadn’t been such a chicken in the first place you wouldn’t have to intervene! Then you wouldn’t got hurt and we wouldn’t had to fight and get into trouble! AGH- I’m such a burden!”
He pulled his hair, breathless, sensing a panic attack starting to grow inside his belly, bubbling and reaching to his lungs, his heart, his brain ready to paralyse him. He was so useless. He wanted out. HE WANTED OUT. HE-
“Tweek.”
He felt Craig’s grip on his hand tighten, pulling him back as he realised that he had stopped, making him turn around. Tweek looked at his face, eyes wide. He must’ve looked like a spaz.
“Why did you hit that guy?”
His left eye twitched slightly as he watched him, dumbfounded.
“Wha-What?”
“I asked.” He repeated calmly but firmly. “Why did you hit that guy?”
Tweek stared at him. “What do you mean why I hit him?!” He shrilled after a moment, twitching. “That asshole made one of his stupid friends hit you from behind! That was just fucking cheap!”
“Yeah, but why did you do it? I should’ve done it. Plus, even if he was the one that made that other kid punch me, it wasn’t technically him who did it.” He reasoned without losing a beat. “So, why did you felt the need to punch him? Even though he was five time your size?”
Tweek went silent, trying to understand where Craig was going with this. When nothing came to his mind, he decided to do the only thing that would help him understand: he answered back.
“Because… because you are my boyfriend and I care about you, Craig.” He started, lowering his face. “I really do. And when I saw that you were bleeding I just- I just lost it. And even though that kid was bigger and- and didn’t technically hit you… it was still him that caused it. He made fun of you, of us and I- I wanted him to pay for it.” He stopped for a moment, raising his eyes to look at him.
“You’re always the one who helps me. You’re always there for me, bearing with me and supporting me when no one else does.” He clenched his hands into fists. “And I would punch every person who would even try to mess with you. So that is why I hit him.” He finished at last with a fierce look.
It didn’t last long.
It took him five seconds to realise how mushy all that crap sounded and it took less than two seconds for him to panic, wondering if he had gone too far. But when he saw Craig’s face, all of his tormented and agonising thoughts faded.
He was… smiling?
“I know you would that.” He said folding his arm, grinning in a way that made Tweek flush. “Because I would do the exact same thing for you. In fact, I think that’s what we did already.”
Tweek blinked then blushed again, startled.
“And that is why you don’t have to worry, honey. Because no matter what happens, no matter who messes with you or me: we’ll kick their asses together. Because that’s what people do when they care for each other. They got each other’s back.” He smiled, that rare genuine one that few had the chance to see. He always felt lucky whenever he managed to see him like that. “So I don’t mind if I got hurt here and there. And the same goes for you. So stop worrying about it and let’s go play video games, you know I care about you a lot too.”
He concluded, satisfied, before starting to walk again.
Tweek stared at him stunned, his words processing in his mind with full speed, making him dizzy while following him.
There weren’t words to describe those emotions. He just felt… happy, warm and light inside. He also almost felt giddy. It was strange, but pleasant.
He liked that, it was just like their relationship: strange, but pleasant.
Tweek’s lips quivered and then he smiled, speeding up enough for him to stand by Craig’s side. As it should be.
“Thank you, Craig.” He whispered squeezing his hand gently, because that was their moment. And he didn’t want anyone else to see that, even if they were alone.
Craig smiled again, glancing at him. “Thank to you too, Tweek.”
Yeah, that was not how he had imagined the day to end.
But he liked it anyway.