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✧༺ Age 8 ༻∞
Craig huffed out as he re-wrapped the bandage around his knuckles, the nurse in the hospital had been pretty rough with him when patching him up. The stupid bitch was too busy chewing on her gum and staring at the shitty TV in his shared room with Tweek to pay attention to either of them.
After their second fight, the two sat in silence unable to look at each other. Every couple of minutes Tweek would twitch and let out a scream or noise he would attempt to muffle. Craig could tell the awkward silence was making the other boy even more nervous than he usually was but he also didn’t know the kid well enough to begin a conversation.
He looked around the empty street, expecting the bus to come any second. The downside of living in such a small town is that the local bus service appears whenever the driver decides, whether that matches the actual bus schedule or not.
“Oh,” he heard a voice from behind him.
Craig turned around to see the very boy he was hoping to avoid until inevitably running into each other at school. Tweek seemed as nervous as usual, pulling at the front of his shirt and biting his bottom lip until the skin at the top of his chin was pure white with the pressure.
“Hey,” Craig said blankly. “The bus is late again.”
He took in Tweek’s equally roughed up appearance, the twitchy boy’s bandages still looked pretty tight around his hands. But that could also be the aggressive grabbing of the fabric on his shirt.
“Ngh- That sucks.” Tweek replied and walked to stand a few feet to Craig’s left, his tic’s seeming to get worse the closer he got which made Craig feel a little guilty.
He knew the other guys were talking smack on Tweek’s behalf to get him wound up for a fight. He was a hot-headed guy at best, especially when it came to his rivalry with Stan. Despite packing a mean punch, Tweek seemed like he just wanted to have fun and play with everyone.
“I really wanted to go home and play with my new lego set,” Tweek said dejectedly after a few minutes of silence. His hands pulled at his shirt and were now causing creases. “I just got the new Red Racer car set, it’s so cool.”
“You like Red Racer?” Craig perked up and turned to look at the blond boy. “My mom’s making me wait until Christmas to get the new lego.”
“Gah! Yeah, I watch it every night before bed.” Tweek’s twitching seemed to get a little less intense as they spoke.
“Cool.” Craig nodded, watching carefully at Tweek’s reaction before deciding what to say next . “I’m sorry for fighting you.”
Tweek looked at him in shock before twitching harshly, eventually giving Craig a small smile.
“It’s okay. I’m sorry too.” Tweek said and looked at his scuffed up shoes. “I’m pretty gullible. I knew I should have just stayed in my room when Kyle and Stan showed up.”
“Yeah,” Craig breathed out in agreement. He was glad the two were able to talk now that the rest of the South Park kids were gone, their meddling could have ruined a potential friendship with another Red Racer fan!
“D-Do you want to come over and help me build my Lego set?” Tweek asked quietly, looking at Craig with wide eyes. “It’s hard for me to do it alone, you know- with all the tweaking.”
“Sure,” Craig smiled brightly and straightened his back. “That would be fun.”
Tweek’s fingers were now attempting to slip through the bandages on his hands, clearly trying to loosen them up.
“Need a hand?” Craig asked with his monotonous voice coming off as sarcastic, making him cringe internally. “I already rewrapped mine.”
“Yes please,” Tweek approached Craig with his hands towards him. “That stupid bitch did a fucking awful job on these.”
The sudden swear made Craig laugh, Tweek going from a nervous little soul to an aggressive boy who swears like a sailor was amusing to him.
“Damn right, we should team up together on her next.” Craig said, feeling a lot more at ease with his former opponent.
“Oh! That’s way too much pressure, man.” Tweek’s neck jolted, forcing his head to the side as Craig worked on re-wrapping the bandages on his knuckles.
“I’m just kidding.” Craig said offhandedly, focusing on making sure Tweek’s bandages would be comfortable but tight enough to not slip loose.
“Hey there’s the bus now.” Tweek released a hand from Craig’s to stick his arm out, indicating to the driver to stop for them. “Let’s go.”
Craig happily followed Tweek on the bus, the two boys continuing to talk about their favourite Red Racer episodes, movies, what superheroes and comics they liked, their favourite snacks.
The two boys somehow wound up getting both sets of parents to agree to a sleepover that night so they could work on the lego set together. The more they spoke and laughed and joked around the more Craig was glad that he ran into Tweek again at the bus stop.
Tweek would often drop lego pieces or not be able to attach them together due to his tics and shaking hands. Craig could see why he would need help doing it and offered to take over when he could, simply attaching the pieces and giving it back to Tweek to try and attach it to the main body of the structure.
Eventually Tweek opened up to him and admitted that sometimes simple Legos could take him months to complete. One of his spaceship models took over a year for him to complete alone, it was displayed in the very back corner of his bookshelf so it wouldn’t get broken as he was pretty proud of himself for doing it all by himself.
The two stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, both passing out on top of Tweek's bedsheets in their clothes. From that evening onwards, Craig decided Tweek was his absolute best friend.
✧༺ Age 9 ༻∞
Since that day at the bus stop, the two were inseparable. Craig always stopped by Tweek’s house or the coffee shop before meeting up with the rest of their friends. For over a year they had regular sleepovers, built countless lego structures and even became known as a duo when all the kids banded together when they played imaginary games on the streets of South Park.
“Dude, your girlfriend is waving at you.” Tweek voiced, his hand tugging at Craig’s jacket sleeve. “She looks fucking pissed.”
“I don’t really care.” Craig blanked, continuing to look at the map he, Clyde and Kyle had drawn out for the next step in their adventure. “Clyde really needs to work on his hand writing skills. This is a mess.”
“Craig, she’s coming this way.” Tweek rushed out, tilting his body behind Craig to avoid the wrath of his girlfriend.
The girl always had a problem when Craig played with his friends, yet he never cared when she and her weird girl friends would stay indoors to do… whatever it is girls do. Even Wendy and Bebe would get involved in their big games. For some reason this girl didn’t want to play outside with him anymore.
Craig looked up to see his girlfriend's face, her brows were furrowed and her lips were tilted into a frown. He knew she was coming over to yell at him, yet again.
“Still playing pretend, then?” She asked, clearly a rhetorical question as Craig was wearing his hat he used when playing as his rogue character.
“Yeah.” Was all he offered back, staring blankly at her as if he could see through her body entirely.
“Well, I want you to come to my house.” She glared back, which Craig took as a challenge. Her mere presence annoyed him to no end.
“No thank you.” He looked back down at the map again, feeling Tweek nudge his back a little and let out a verbal tic.
“Why not? I thought you liked me!” She yelled, catching the attention of the others involved in their game.
Craig scowled and looked up at her again.
“Stop trying to hold me back and go away.” He replied coldly, not liking the fact she felt entitled enough to yell at him.
“Oh, so now you’re just throwing me away?” She stomped her foot, making Craig roll his eyes and he saw many of his friends awkwardly standing by to watch the drama unfold.
Not wanting any more attention or any one trying to question him late he simply replied, “yes. We’re done.”
She gasped and turned to stomp away. Her long hair flicked in his face, clearly her final act to annoy him. Craig flipped her off behind her back before going back to map completely unphased by the conversation.
“I’m sorry, Craig. Are you okay?” Tweek asked, placing a shaky hand on his shoulder as he reappeared beside him. “That was intense.”
“That was annoying.” Craig sighed and indicated for Tweek to hold one side of the map so he could point at a location. “Maybe we sneak attack from here before-”
“Craig,” Tweek reached out to place his hand on Criag’s forearm.
“It was a long time coming,” he sighed and turned his head to look at Tweek. “I don’t know why she doesn’t play with Wendy and the others anymore. She’s a bitch now.”
“She’s a girl, Craig. They like different things.” Tweek shrugged, removing his hand from Craig’s arm and letting it hang between them instead.
“Wendy and Bebe are girls and they play with us,” Craig shrugged, trying to brush off the conversation. He only really dated her because she was interested in him anyway, he never felt much towards her other than liking her creativity when coming up with their campaign.
“True,” Tweek mumbled and pulled at his shirt. “But I’m here for you anyway.”
Craig smiled and continued to talk about his plans with Tweek, both discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each point of the map.
He briefly made a post on Facebook about it, just to give her the final blow after hitting him in the face with her hair. He never really thought about her again after that, completely forgetting the whole ordeal.
Later that evening, he was sitting on the curb watching Clyde and Tolkien throw a football back and forth while they talked about Valentine’s Day plans with Bebe and Nicole. The two boys had genuine smiles on their faces while talking about their girlfriends which Craig just did not understand.
He quickly stopped enjoying the time spent with his ex. When she insisted on holding hands as they walked, he never felt the ‘tingles’ that Clyde would talk about when he held Bebe’s hand. When they watched a movie together, he never felt the need to hold her like Tolkien would talk about doing when Nicole came over for a movie night.
He didn’t understand. Girls were too weird for him.
He shivered as a particularly cold breeze went past, clutching his jacket collar up to his cheeks. It was nearing the end of September now so the colder evenings were starting to settle in.
“Want some?” Tweek asked, holding his to-go coffee cup towards Craig.
Craig could see the steam coming out of the small hole used to drink from, a little jealous that Tweek had been holding it the whole time to keep warm while Craig’s fingertips were starting to turn white with how cold it was getting.
“I’m good,” he scrunched up his nose as he looked at the cup of bitter liquid. “I’m not that desperate for heat just yet.”
“If you, ngh- say so,” Tweek replied. His tics got a little worse in the winter time Craig noticed, probably because the kid would drink more coffee than usual to keep his inside warm. Craig really didn’t know how he did it.
The two sat in a comfortable silence together as Craig’s mind drifted off again. He stared blankly at Clyde’s lovestruck grin as he talked about Bebe and Tolkien’s proud smile as he talked about Nicole. Was Craig just destined to be alone?
✧༺ Age 10 ༻∞
Craig looked at the $100 bill his dad placed in his hands after their pep talk. Tweek’s words replayed in his mind after his dad walked out of his room.
I want to fix whatever is hurting you now.
His heartbeat stuttered at the memory, wishing he had turned around to Tweek and simply told him the truth. But he was scared. Scared to admit he had somehow fallen in love with his best friend without realizing it until the rest of the town pinned them together. Did they somehow see it before Craig did?
The argument they staged in front of the Asian girls was taken a step too far by Tweek. Even though Craig was the one who encouraged him. He always was. He wanted Tweek to do well in everything he did, who knew he would excel so much in acting and dramatics?
He sighed and placed his head in hands, letting out a deep sigh that almost turned into a sob. The past few days had really spooked him. From discovering his feelings for Tweek and being gay, from his Dad’s initial homophobia turned acceptance, and Tweek’s harsh then kind words to him.
He knew he needed to talk to Tweek. He needed Tweek to know he felt this way. He needed Tweek to feel this way about him too. He didn’t want to risk losing such an important friendship, but this was eating him up too much to keep it inside.
Puffing out his chest in false courage, he took off. He put his shoes back on and swiftly exited the house, going towards where he guessed Tweek would be heading. His parent’s coffee shop to get another cup after their last fight.
You’re just gonna have to go be gay with someone else.
Craig cringed, his words coming back to haunt him in his head. He had never experienced heartbreak until that moment, when Tweek agreed with what he said and then left. The thought of Tweek being as close to someone else as he was with Craig made his stomach turn and his head hurt.
Across the street he could see the bobbing blonde hair as Tweek walked slowly. Craig took that as the opportunity to cross over, just before where Tweek stopped dead at Craig’s appearance, staring at him with concern.
His heart raced as they made eye contact, the moment too intense for Craig to even look at Tweek, so he turned his back to face where Tweek was walking. Taking a chance, he stuck out his hand in Tweek’s direction hoping the other boy would understand what he wanted.
He tried his hardest not to outwardly show the relief when he felt their hands intertwine. Like a ton of bricks had just been taken off his shoulders.
The two walked, hand-in-hand, trying to ignore the townspeople ogling at them as they passed by. Both of them kept their eyes trained forward, not ready to risk looking at each other and provoking a reaction from those around them.
At one point, Tweek tugged on Craig’s hand and led him towards his house instead of Tweak Bro’s. Clearly wanting somewhere private for them to talk, making Craig’s heart beat impossibly faster.
He could see the house coming closer as they walked, Craig sucked in a breath. This was it. He was about to make or break the best thing to have happened to him so far.
He was patient as Tweek unlocked the front door, stepping aside to let Craig enter before softly closing the door and relocking it. The two stared at each other, neither wanting to move or even breathe wrong.
“What changed your mind?” Tweek asked quietly, a violent twitch ripped through him and he lgrabbed at his T-shirt and bit down harshly on his bottom lip. Reminding Craig of the day they became best friends.
“It’s, well, I don’t-.” He sighed and looked down at his shoes. Willing himself to just tell Tweek the truth.
“I am really sorry for what I said. Gah! I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” Tweek said, his twitching making it look like he was trying to hide himself from Craig.
“It’s okay. I told you could do it,” Craig said with a smile, still unable to look up from the floor.
“You did. Thank you,” Tweek’s voice was soft, clearly he was calming down about the whole situation.
“I think,” Craig started before chickening out again and putting his head in his hands. “I think I like you, Tweek.”
“What?” Tweek sounded shocked. The tone made Craig hide further in his hands and slouch over a little, willing himself not to burst into tears. “Like, for real?”
“Yeah,” Craig sniffed. “You don’t have to- I just wanted you to know.”
There was another silence, not even interrupted by a verbal tic from Tweek like it usually would be. Clearly, Craig had ruined everything and shocked Tweek so much that he finally stopped moving.
After a minute, a pair of arms were wrapped around neck and squished his nose against his palm as his knuckles met with a shoulder. Tweek was hugging him.
“I like you too,” Tweek said into Craig’s shoulder, sinking further into him after he spoke.
At the words, Craig wiggled his hands free and hugged Tweek back. The sudden affection from Tweek took away any doubts and anxiety caused in the last 24 hours. All he knew at that moment was the smell of coffee and the soft fabric of the green shirt.
When they pulled back, Tweek was beaming at Craig who allowed himself to smile back.
“Let’s get some snacks and play on the Xbox,” Tweek said and grabbed Craig’s hand to drag him towards the kitchen of his house.
For the rest of the day, Tweek forced Craig to complete the difficult levels of games for him, while he watched and snacked on the full bag of chips they were supposed to share. It really was the perfect first date, in Craig’s opinion
✧༺ Age 14 ༻∞
The girl’s burst out from the bathroom in a clutter of giggles and whispers. Apparently, Bebe finally allowed Clyde to go through with their first kiss and the whole school was in the know.
Craig didn’t even try to conceal his deep eye roll as he watched them pass. He couldn’t care less about gossip, he heard enough dramatics on the regular from Clyde. Especially now that they were older and his friend could finally start to ‘treat Bebe like a woman’.
“Dude, I’ve never been so happy,” Clyde looked like he was in a daydream as he stared behind them at the girls. Almost walking into several people as they walked towards the exit of the school building.
“So you keep saying,” Craig deadpanned, it was now the fifteenth time Clyde had said that since the day began. Thank god the day was over and he could ignore the rest of the world soon.
“Cheer up, buttercup.” Clyde nudged him. “Were you this cranky when you kissed Tweek for the first time?”
Craig gave him a look of confusion before, for what felt like the millionth time that day, rolled his eyes and flipped Clyde off. He wasn’t about to admit that he and Tweek had never kissed. They were so young when they got together that they never really thought to kiss each other. They held hands almost constantly, but that was the extent of it. Craig just assumed Tweek wasn’t big on affection because of his anxiety and paranoia.
It bothered him until a year ago, at Wendy’s 13th birthday party, when he saw Stan kiss Wendy on her cheek. He wanted to kiss Tweek, but the blond twitched and freaked out so much the first time he tried to plant one on him that Craig just accepted that Tweek wasn’t an affectionate person.
As time passed, Craig craved just to be able to touch Tweek. He didn’t care if it was holding his hand, their legs touching because they sat too close together. He really liked Tweek, and he wanted to show his affection for him in a way that made the blonde feel comfortable. So he adjusted how he showed Tweek affection.
From calling him ‘Honey’ and ‘Babe’ almost constantly, to making sure he had a coffee ready as soon as he woke up after one of their sleepovers, wrapping him up in a blanket for a movie night, walking him to class, walking him home. Just because they hadn’t kissed yet, didn’t mean they weren’t an affectionate couple.
“Speaking of, where is Tweek?” Clyde asked, still occasionally turning back to catch a glimpse at Bebe with her friends.
“He’s working tonight,” Craig replied, shrugging and dragging Clyde by the arm out the exit door. “Hence why I’m stuck with you and not him.”
“Damn,” Clyde snorted. “Miss him already?”
Clyde nudged him as he joked, making Craig give him a blank glare and a small shove away.
“Shut up, dude. I’m seeing him after his shift,” Craig said defensively. He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets, keeping his hands warm.
Thankfully, Clyde changed the subject as they walked towards the bus stop. Something about his next date night plans. Craig didn’t care that much.
What caught his eyes was a couple across the street sitting on the bench beside the other bus stop. The girl was giggling as the guy had his arm around her shoulders, whispering in her ear and kissing her cheek. Craig quickly looked away as they shared an intimate looking kiss, not wanting to look like a staring weirdo.
He felt guilty for daydreaming about it, he knew Tweek would flip if he knew how Craig felt. He could already hear his boyfriend talking about how kissing was too much pressure.
The bus journey home felt like a blur as Craig blankly stared out the window. He had arranged the perfect de-stress night for Tweek, he had bought his favourite snacks the night before, a strong scented candle so Tweek could smell anything other than coffee for a little bit and he made sure his parents and sister weren’t in the house so they could have full access to the TV and Netflix.
It was going to be perfect.
˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖
Craig was in the middle of some random YouTube video when he heard the front door his house open and close. He shot up out of his bed and excitedly made for the door, stopping dead when he saw his more-pale-than usual boyfriend twitching and mumbling into his hands leaning against the wall beside the door.
“Bad shift?” Craig asked softly, not wanting to startle Tweek but also wanting to know what was wrong so he could fix it fast.
Tweek gasped a little as he looked up through his fingers. Craig could see his eyes dart around the room after the two made eye contact for a brief second.
“Um, yeah. Something like that,” he huffed out before moving his hands away from his face to wrap his arms around his own torso.
“Well, luckily for you I’ve got the perfect evening planned.” Craig walked towards Tweek, confident he would make his boyfriend feel relaxed, calm and comfortable for the rest of the night. “I even managed to find that one banana ice cream you like, although it’s a differ bra-”
Craig was cut off. As soon as he stood less than a foot away from Tweek, the blond leaped forward and wrapped his arms around Craig’s neck. Essentially squishing their faces together in a messy kiss. Craig wasted no time in reciprocating.
He wrapped one arm around Tweek’s waist and his other moved upwards to tangle his fingers in his wild hair. His brain completely short circuited at the sensation of kissing Tweek. Finally kissing him.
As sudden as it began, Tweek pulled away from Craig harshly. Making him almost stumble forward to chase the kiss and continue.
“S-Sorry,” Tweek blushed and started to unwrap his arms from Craig’s neck.
“You, no- it’s, uhh,” Craig stuttered, eyes not moving from Tweek’s lips. “Hey Tweek.”
Tweek smiled fondly before letting his hands slip under Craig’s hat, pushing it up and off. Craig didn’t care where it landed on the floor behind him, all he could think about was the feeling of Tweek’s thin fingers combing through the hair on the back of his head.
“Hi Craig,” Tweek said back, his head tilting to the side in a small tic.
“You kissed me.” Craig felt like he’d reverted back into a caveman, but he couldn’t help it. His heart was beating loudly in his ears and he felt light headed.
“Yeah,” Tweek blushed and shrugged. “Clyde came into the coffee shop and was going on and on about it. He made it sound nice so I wanted to try it.”
“Wait, you kissed Clyde?” Craig was confused. Was kissing him so scary that Tweek had to practice on his friend first?
“No, silly! I wanted to try it with you !” Tweek giggled before leaning his body towards Craig again.
“Oh, okay.” Was all Craig could muster up as a reply before their lips met again.
This was officially the best day of his life!