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It was never awkward when it was supposed to be. Or, at least, when Tweek thought it was supposed to be. He usually never sat in silence with another person like this, so the first time it happened, he'd been uneasy the entire time, thinking that it was stupid not to leave as soon as they were done and that he was making it awkward by being there.
But he'd gotten used to it, since then. It made sense that Craig would be comfortable with silence, anyway, given his edgy attitude. What was more surprising, was that Craig was willing to share that silence with Tweek.
Well, tolerate would be a better word for it.
They never hung out outside of this, because as soon as they walked out that door, they would morph back into their separate and opposing identities, and the arguments and animosity would arise between them all over again. Never mind the fact that Tweek could hardly say that his feelings about Craig were animus.
So the only time they spent together was when they were arguing outside in the hallways, when they were hooking up alone in the classrooms, or immediately after those sessions when they waited for the bell to ring so that they could leave for their next classes and pretend that they hadn't even seen each other. The more Tweek thought about it, the more he realized how that was actually a very large part of his day.
And for some reason, he was okay with the idea of setting more time aside for Craig, if the opportunity ever came. He wanted to do more than just fuck in dark hallways whenever they were horny. He wanted to talk, to go places, hell, he wanted to romance Craig entirely. But Tweek quickly shook his head as if to physically throw away that particular thought. Trying to get a goth kid to accept the advances of a popular kid would be a trial and error type of embarrassment that Tweek didn't have the nerves to go through.
But they already got way more intimate than Tweek ever expected to get in his lifetime, and it felt wrong to just leave it at that. All this experience was really teaching him was that he was not going to be a one night stand type of person when he grows older.
He looked over at Craig as he thought. The noirette was laying down on the floor next to Tweek with one arm reached around so that his head was resting on his hand. His face was dimly lit by the light of his phone screen, and Tweek briefly wondered what he was scrolling through.
Tweek felt his eye twitch, and he twisted his wrist back and forth half involuntarily. There was a lot he wondered about Craig, and he wished it was as simple as asking him. But if Craig was right about anything, it was that he was not like any of Tweek's friends. He made it hell on earth to even try to hold a conversation with him, because according to Craig, he already was in a hell on earth.
God, why does Craig have to be so difficult? And worse, why does Tweek have to care? He already has friends, people to talk to, and even Stan has the same goth appearance as Craig does, he just happens to lean more into the popular and sporty friend groups. Tweek shouldn't have to put his focus into Craig; he's got options.
But this is what he's stuck with. A good-looking, edgy, cynical, know-it-all, loser gothic asshole who was slightly more unapproachable than Stan was. And Tweek was not as afraid to admit that Craig was hot as Craig was afraid to admit that he thought Tweek was hot.
He was only sure of that, because he could read Craig better than he could read a book with actual words written on them.
"Why are you glaring at me? "
Tweek gasped when he heard Craig's voice cut through the silence, and he realized that somewhere in between Tweek's internal monologue, Craig had looked up to meet his gaze with a scowl. The blonde also realized, when he forced himself to relax his facial features, that he had unconsciously started to glare at him.
"Sorry! I'm just… Thinking. "
Craig raised his eyebrows in mock surprise, and sneered. "You can think! You manage to surprise me everyday, Tweek. "
His eye twitched in response. He always seemed to tic more when he spoke to Craig, because he pissed him off sometimes. But despite his frustration, he didn't miss the fact that Craig had used his name instead of an insult. It was a rare occurrence.
"What's your deal, man? Why do you always feel the need to be… A dick?! " Tweek said sharply. Craig huffed, and looked back down at his phone, sinking deeper into the floor if it was even possible.
"You were the one glaring at me , okay? We've still got a mutual hatred going on here. "
Tweek winced, and frowned. He still couldn't understand how Craig could act like it was that simple. A bitter look spread across his face, and he looked away again. "Mutual hatred with a side of sweet, sweet, love. "
Craig looked back up with an incredulous expression, and he nearly sat up with surprise. "Dude, what? I didn't sign up for anything love related with-"
"It was sarcasm, Craig! " Tweek interrupted angrily. "I thought you'd be the fucking master of using and recognizing sarcasm by now. "
It went silent again, and Tweek had to turn his head away so he could look at the ground with frustration instead. He must've surprised Craig with his outburst, since he didn't have a witty comeback this time, and Tweek almost regretted it. But he didn't have a reason to regret it. It's not like he was going to hurt Craig's feelings.
Craig looked back down, with a slightly more blank expression, and eyed the clock carefully, its ticking sounding way louder than it actually was.
"Are you… Always this antsy after sex? " Craig asked after a while.
"Agh, I don't know! " Tweek's head jerked to the side. "I don't do this as much as you think I do! "
Craig snorted, and started paying attention to whatever was on his phone again. "Sure. It's just me, and a couple of other people from your friend group. "
Tweek gritted his teeth in annoyance. He wanted to think of a snappy response, but Craig continued.
"Have you thought that maybe you don't realize how antsy you get after, cause you're focused too hard on conforming with your popular friends? "
"No, I haven't. " Tweek rolled his eyes, with exasperation. "I'm just… I feel wrong, that's all. "
Craig blinked a few times as he processed through what Tweek said, and he snuck a side glance in at him, before taking in a deep, slow breath. "Oh. "
The room was silent once more, and this time, it was more awkward. Tweek twitched nervously, and he stole another look at Craig, who suddenly seemed broodier than usual. Only then, did he realize that Craig had probably interpreted his words the complete wrong way.
"It's just-" Tweek started again, and closed his mouth in frustration when he couldn't figure out how he wanted to say it. "It feels wrong to… To just have sex, and be done, and walk away, man. I'm not as shallow as you think I am, either. "
Craig looked at him again with a hint of suspicion, and he furrowed his eyebrows as he wracked his brain to find an interpretation for what Tweek meant by that. "So… You want after care now? "
"No! " Tweek exclaimed, before a dubious expression spread over his face. "Well, I mean… Gah, I don't know! "
Craig placed his phone face down against his leg, and squinted at Tweek. "You don't know what you want? "
"Ergh, forget it! " Tweek grumbled, and he brought his knees up close to his chest to prepare to stand up. "I'm gonna go. "
Craig seemed stunned, and he ended up sitting up from the floor, too. He seemed to have lost his voice, but it was mostly just him debating on whether or not he should let Tweek go.
He finally made the decision, after Tweek started to lift himself off the ground, and grasped at Tweek's arm. "Hey, wait. "
Tweek stopped to look at him, and ended up crouching down instead, since it was an awkward position to be half standing up when Craig was virtually dragging him back down. Tweek gave him an inquisitive look, and Craig just looked at him for a couple of moments before speaking again.
"You don't have to say what you want. Just do it. " Craig muttered, and ended up looking down at the floor. Tweek's eyes widened at the implications, and he stared at him, dumbfounded. It was a really odd way of Craig asking Tweek to continue, but he supposed it was the only way the goth would ever ask for anything from Tweek.
So Tweek didn't push it. It was too early between them for Tweek to even try to move Craig out of his comfort zone, and he probably already was out of his comfort zone just by asking Tweek like this. So Tweek sat back down slowly, until they were sitting next to each other again. Their eyes met, and Tweek swore he could see the hint of a blush on Craig's face.
For a moment, that's all they did. They were sitting shoulder to shoulder together, and Tweek was hyper-aware of the fact that their arms were touching. Craig must've been hyper-aware of it too, because he was stiff, and he seemed suddenly agitated, like the minimal contact was unbearably inadequate, and was burning into his skin instead of being a pleasant feeling. Tweek felt like that sometimes, when someone would put a hand onto his shoulder and nothing else, or would stand just close enough to brush against part of his body without doing anything else.
So he didn't want to leave Craig like that for too long. Tweek moved an arm around Craig's shoulder, and kept a side-eye on him to watch his reaction in case he got too uncomfortable. At first, it did look like Craig was uncertain about it, and he kept a keen eye on what Tweek was doing. He started to grow more comfortable, a little slowly, to Tweek's touch, and he relaxed his body.
The blush was growing deeper on his face, though, and Craig pulled his phone back out so he could start fidgeting with it, again. Tweek noticed he would often do that when he was trying to separate himself from a situation he didn't want to be in, or when he was embarrassed. Tweek hoped it was the latter, today, because even though Craig was a dick and would never let Tweek do much of anything Craig didn't actually want him to do, Tweek was nervous about being much too imposing.
But still, Tweek decided to take it a step further, and started to push on Craig's arm to encourage him to lean against him, and after a brief instance of resistance, Craig allowed himself to rest his head against Tweek. It was awkward, at first, but they grew accustomed to it pretty quickly. That seemed to happen anytime they did anything new.
Tweek didn't say it outloud, but he was certain that these kinds of things came more naturally to them. Kissing, banging, sitting together in silence, and now light cuddling. It was like they clicked and complemented each other astonishingly well, but he knew that if he said something, all of this would come to a screeching halt. Craig would close himself off from Tweek, and it would be a long time until Tweek would ever be able to approach him again. Because why would a goth kid ever want to get along with a popular kid, right?
Tweek took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, hoping that Craig wouldn't be able to notice his frustration like he had earlier. He wasn't really mad, Craig just drove him nuts, sometimes, in more ways than one. But feeling the goth's head on his chest was making any and all annoyance he had slowly dissipate. It was hard to focus on the bad when he had the good laying right on him.
He decided to take a risk, and he brought his hand up close to Craig's head. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't thought about it before. After all, Craig's hair always looked so fluffy; Tweek wanted to run his hands through it when he wasn't pulling on it during… Other times. So he decided to take his chance.
As soon as his hand snaked into the black strands of hair, he heard a sharp inhale come from Craig's mouth, and felt Craig freeze up against him. Tweek noticed that he stopped scrolling through his phone, and he felt his heart rate speed up as the familiar pang of anxiety went through his chest. Maybe he'd gone too far, too quickly with the affection, and the hair petting was too much for Craig's dark heart to handle. But after Craig squeezed his phone with an excessive amount of pressure, the noirette forced himself to continue on his phone like nothing was happening.
So Tweek kept brushing his fingers along Craig's hair, and the longer he did, the more he realized that he was becoming less antsy than usual. It was a good way to calm down, for the most part, if he ignored the fact that the more he did it, the more his stomach would twist with the feeling of having a big, teenage crush.
He wondered how long they were going to dance around like this, acting like the only thing they wanted from each other was arguing and sex. Craig was stubborn, and Craig's stubbornness made Tweek stubborn, too. But he knew that he wanted something from Craig, and he wanted Craig to want it, too.
The only thing he couldn't read in Craig was the way he actually felt about Tweek. It was almost as frustrating as the fact that Craig wouldn't just tell him, either.
"Am I gonna have to be the one laying on you next time, too? " Craig spoke up grumpily, and Tweek forced himself to keep a smile down when Craig indicated that there would be a 'next time'.
"I'm not putting my head in your hands, dude. " Tweek said as he used both of his hands to pull some of Craig's hair back, letting it fall forward again once his hands moved farther back. "You might snap my neck. "
"Why would I do that? " Craig snorted, and closed his eyes and Tweek continued to brush through his hair.
"Cause… You make hating me your entire personality? "
"That doesn't mean I want to kill you. "
" Ack! I'm pretty sure you've said that you hope every "blonde conformist whore" in the world would die. Which I'm pretty sure was aimed only at me. "
Craig readjusted his position, and tried to hide his smile. It didn't work, cause he ended up giggling softly to himself. "C'mon. It would be funny. "
"Maybe for you. " Tweek scoffed, and stopped moving his hands. "I don't think dying is all that funny. "
Craig shrugged. "Sucks for you, then, cause you're gonna die one day, eventually. "
Tweek grimaced, and one of his eyes twitched. "God, you're just a ray of sunshine, aren't you? "
Craig yawned from beneath him. "I would rather die than be anywhere close to the sun. "
"You're so fucking cringe, man. "Tweek muttered under his breath, and Craig elbowed him from below. His insult had not escaped Craig's hearing.
"Beats being a shitty poser with shitty poser friends. " Craig scowled in return.
Neither of them moved away from each other.
Tweek's head jerked to the side before he looked back at the clock. Time had passed, and it was almost time for them to leave. Which sucked, because Tweek wasn't going to be able to get through class without constantly thinking about the fact that he had managed to cuddle with Craig fucking Tucker, one of the edgiest kids in the school. He wondered if Craig would be thinking about the same thing.
"So… Did this help? " Craig asked uncertainly. Tweek finally smiled, and hummed softly.
"Yeah. It did, actually. "
"... Okay. "
That was his only response, but that was okay. Craig was okay, despite the constant arrogant and rude attitude. It was almost part of his charm.
Maybe one day, they'd get serious about this.
"We should probably start going. " Tweek murmured softly, and Craig took it as the signal to sit straight up.
"Yeah. We should. "
Tweek slowly stood up, and stretched his arms up above his head. Craig stood up next to him with a grunt, and reached for his hat that was sitting on the desk next to him.
"We're not dating. " Craig looked over at Tweek with a strange expression on his face as he pulled his hat onto his head. It was like he was looking for confirmation, rather than setting a boundary.
"Not dating. " Tweek agreed. Maybe they would start to, later. "I'll see you around, Craig. "