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“Alright hun, water and snacks are behind my seat, blankets behind yours and plastic bags are tucked in your door,” Craig listed, his voice nasally and calm.
The two were preparing for a road trip, their first one together and Tweeks first ever. Craig was driving, despite being 20 Tweek hadn’t yet gotten his license, which Craig didn’t mind. He took pleasure in being able to drive his boyfriend around in such a small, intimate setting. Tweek usually enjoyed their excursions around town as well. However, an 8 hour roadtrip was different, and despite how safe and comfortable he felt with Craig, Tweek had been nervous for this trip for the months leading up to takeoff.
“Gnh! A-are you sure we have enough water? Agh! What if we crash in the middle of nowhere? Ngh, and no one ever finds us?” Tweek ranted, wringing his hands together.
“Babe, listen,” Craig walked around the front of his car to meet Tweek face to face. He cupped Tweek’s head in his hands, planting a gentle kiss on his head, “this trip will be amazing, we have plenty of supplies and I’m a great driver. I’ve never gotten in a wreck before and I won’t get in one with precious luggage in the car.”
Tweek looked up into Craig’s eyes, putting his right hand over where the latter cupped his cheek.
“Ngh, you’re right. Let’s just go,” Tweek reasoned, straining his voice to sound less panicked.
“Alright,” Craig pecked Tweek on the lips before pulling away and sitting down in the drivers seat.
Tweek followed suit in the passenger seat.
“Phones?” Craig started.
“Check.”
“Wallets?”
“Check.”
“Clothes?”
“Check.”
“A kiss?”
Tweek blushed, despite this being their usual routine. Craig had discovered early after getting his license that ensuring they had everything needed before leaving the driveway quells much of Tweek’s panicking, and saves Craig’s ears from incessant nagging (he loves Tweek but sometimes he can be a bit much, especially while driving.)
“Check,” Tweek said as he leaned over the center console and planted a kiss on Craig’s cheek.
“Then let’s go,” Craig announced, turning on the ignition and leaning to look out the back window while backing up.
— 2 hours in —
“Careful babe, don’t drink too fast you’ll make yourself sick,” Craig warned, casting glances to the side to watch Tweek chug a water bottle.
“But my ears won’t pop! Nng!” Tweek cried out, wiping water from his mouth.
“Check the snack bag for gum,” Craig advised, rubbing his right hand on Tweek’s knee.
Tweek leaned around and sifted through the snack bag before brandishing the aforementioned gum. He greedily took a piece out and plopped it into his mouth, immediately chewing.
“Better?”
“Mhm,” Tweek hummed, leaning his head against the car window. The water sat densely in his stomach and the winding roads were beginning to plant seeds of nausea in his gut.
They had stopped a few times in the first 2 hours to look at scenic areas, which didn’t leave enough time for carsickness to truly manifest. But at the last stop Craig had warned they needed to get a move on, lest they spend too long on the road. Tweek had been fine with the declaration at the time, but now he sat uncomfortably, knees pulled up to his chest with the knowledge that he’d be stuck in this position for quite a long time.
In an attempt to sleep off the growing sickness (and hopefully sleep through the entire trip) he reached behind the seat to grab a blanket and placed it between his head and the door.
“Sleep well Tweek,” Craig hummed, squeezing Tweek’s shoulder in a show of comfort.
Tweek didn’t respond, already trying to drift out of consciousness.
— 4 hours in—
Craig hummed minutely along to the 80’s melody playing through the car speaker. The volume was low— he would hate to wake up Tweek, especially given his boyfriends tendency to stay up during the night— providing a chill atmosphere to the car. He had the air on without the A/C to keep the car from getting unbearably stuffy. It was calming. Craig always loved driving. Everything about it, the gentle shaking of the wheel, the hum of the engine, his car which his grandma had gifted him for his 16th birthday. And being together with Tweek. Though the last bit wasn’t always included in the car-package, he relished the time he shared with Tweek enough to tack it on the list.
All-in-all it was relaxing.
Until Tweek’s eyes shot open wide, looking frantically to either side of him, as if he had been teleported into some entirely new setting.
“Gah! Pull over! Mnph, I’m gonna be sick!” He warned, clamping a hand over his mouth.
Craig quickly got on the same wavelength of panic, especially given the fact that they were on a two-lane highway with essentially no shoulder and cars behind them. So pulling over was far from an option. However, Tweek’s paranoia had thought of this scenario already.
“The bags are in your door sweetie,” Craig reminded gently, gripping his wheel a bit tighter.
“Nng! I don’t wanna puke in your car!” He exclaimed, grabbing a bag nonetheless.
“It’s alright hun, you can’t help it,” Craig comforted, sparing a sympathetic glance at his boyfriend.
Tweek’s face held the usual panicked expression, though with a bit deathlier of a pallor. His knees were pulled tight against his stomach, and he now held a plastic grocery bag open on top of them. He was glaring down at the bag, mouth screwed shut. Obviously ashamed.
Craig reached one hand over and began rubbing Tweek’s back. Tweek jumped a bit at first, hesitant to accept the touch, but ended up leaning into it.
“I’m -gh!- sorry,” he offered, a gag breaking off his sentence. His eyes widened even more (Craig was shocked that was possible) as the immediacy of the situation settled.
“Babe, it’s alright, just let it out, you’ll feel better.”
Tweek nodded, keeping his mouth positioned over the bag. He was shaking, hands clenched around the handles of the bag as it he were afraid of dropping it.
“Deep breaths Tweek, deep breaths,” Craig reminded, rubbing Tweek’s shoulder.
Tweek coughed and spat out his gum from earlier. Nausea gripped his midsection in a vice grip, promising the inevitable yet not quite allowing the release of vomiting. He whined, drool starting to leak from his mouth into the plastic bag. He decided to put his feet back on the floor of the car, moving the bag in between his knees and hunching over it. The new position wasn’t significantly more comfortable, but it reduced the risk of missing the bag.
“Aw babe, try sipping water, maybe this will pass,” Craig suggested.
Tweek hummed, hesitantly reaching behind Craig’s seat to grab another bottle of water. His stomach felt like it was lurching, hellbent on freeing itself. Tweek opened the bottle and sipped tentatively.
The new addition seemed to be all his stomach needed to revolt. Tweek hardly had a chance to set the open bottle in the cup holder before he was scrambling to open the bag again, a gag ripping through is throat.
“There you are honey, it’s okay,” Craig hummed, his hand still on Tweek’s shoulder.
Tweek heaved again, finally bringing up a thin wave of watery vomit. It splashed at the bottom the the bag with a loud crinkle. Tweek coughed again, spitting the taste out of his mouth with hardly a chance to breathe until another wave, bigger this time, forced its way out.
He squeezed the bag handles tighter, the smell of it enough to make him retch again. He spat into the bag, trying fruitlessly to rid the foul taste from his mouth.
“Feeling better?” Craig asked, glancing to Tweek.
“No! I just puked, I feel like shit!” Tweek exclaimed, gagging and vomiting into the bag again.
“There’s a rest stop coming up in 2 miles,” Craig narrated, “we’ll pull over there and take some time to recuperate.”
“Nng, but you said that you wanted to get there before 11,” Tweek frowned, tying the handles of the soiled bag together in an attempt to reduce the smell in the rest of the car.
“A small break won’t make us too late, besides I care more about you feeling good than I do about driving in the dark,” Craig informed, “the rest stop will probably have Benadryl, we’ll try to get you to sleep through the rest of the drive.”
“Okay.”
Craig pulled into the rest stop, it was barren. Only two other cars sat in the desolate lot, a small toilet building and convenience store at the furthest end away from the road. Craig slowed to a stop in the spot closest to the shop. Tweek jumped out before the car was off, gagging and vomiting again between his feet.
Craig hurried around the hood of his car to run his fingers through Tweek’s hair and rub his back.
Tweek leaned into the touch, grateful for Craig’s cold hands.
“Jeez babe, car trips really don’t agree with you,” Craig mumbled, leaving Tweek’s side only to grab his water bottle out of the car and pass it to him, “Have a seat, I’ll throw that away and check for Benadryl.”
Tweek didn’t have the energy to protest, allowing himself to collapse into the passenger seat while Craig gently pried the gross bag from his skeletal hands. Dropping it into a trash bag outside of the store before disappearing inside.
Tweek swished a mouthful of water around his mouth before spitting it out on the asphalt then pulling the door shut to obscure the puddle from his senses. Alone in the car he sipped the water, anxiously eyeing the door of the store in anticipation of Craig’s return.
His stomach felt significantly calmer at this point, only his head shared the dull ache from earlier. Still though, he dreaded the prospect of resuming the road trip and becoming sick once more. Tweek sighed, then put another piece of gum in his mouth, hoping the mint would overpower the acidic taste. His head felt stuffy, and weariness dragged down on his eyelids, he let them slide shut, head leaned back against the seat.
“Hey Tweek, think you could take this really quick,” Craig’s voice, quiet and soothing, woke Tweek up. Craig held a green gel pill in one hand, the other used to gently shake Tweek awake.
“Mm-okay,” Tweek groggily responded, grabbing the pill and swallowing it dry, then closing his eyes again.
Craig unfolded Tweek’s blanket and laid it over him, then grabbed a neck pillow from the back and tucked it around his head. Finally, he gently kissed Tweek’s forehead and shut the door, returning to the drivers seat.
Tweek slept through the rest of the trip, much to Craig’s appreciation, and they made it to their lodging before 11pm, also to Craig’s appreciation.