Work Text:
Craig pressed his hands to his ears childishly. The earplugs should've been enough. He thought they'd be enough.
The ruckus of eleven-and-twelve-year-olds running around and screaming in the park clearing made his head hurt like a hammer was steadily slamming on it. He shook his head fast, desperate to get the sound to stop.
This place was a sensory nightmare. Mr. Mackey had organized a trip out to the woods by Stark's Pond to celebrate the end of sixth grade, not taking into account how many of the students suffered from sensory sensitivity issues and how hellish the experience would be. Craig had already seen at least three kids get escorted away by their friends into more secluded and quiet areas to calm down, and they'd only been there for half an hour so far.
"Hey, man, you alright?" Tweek nervously asked him from the seat beside him.
He just let out a quiet whine and shook his head wildly.
"Uh, um, do- do you want me to do anything for you?"
Craig stayed silent. He tried to speak, but nothing came out, no matter how hard he pushed. He rocked back and forth in his seat, punching his fists into his thighs and making soft cries of discomfort.
Tweek coughed and looked scared. He was probably on the verge of truly panicking; he'd never seen Craig in this kind of situation before, so he couldn't really identify a meltdown when he saw one. "Craig– gh! –seriously, what's going on? You're scarin' me, man." He reached out to touch his friend's shoulder.
Craig shouted and jumped back the moment he felt the touch. It was a nonverbal cue of don't fucking touch me that even Tweek could pick up on. He squealed quietly and hunched over, at this point even whacking himself on his head to get some kind of relief.
Even so, the blond gently grabbed his wrist to get his attention. "C'mon, let's, um, let's get you out of here." His words were soothing, but there was a sure fear in his eyes. Craig could see Tweek's chest rising faster and faster as his breath quickened, neither boy able to draw attention to it for their own reasons.
They stood and Tweek grabbed his bag before they both walked away quickly. For as little as he'd taught the boy, Craig was absently surprised that he wasn't being tackled and wrangled until he "calmed down." They ventured away from the pack of rowdy kids and into the densely wooded forest, Craig whimpering and flailing about the whole way there whilst Tweek tried to stave off a panic attack.
After finding a quiet section that had a few downed logs to sit out and settling in, Tweek began rummaging through his bag. "I kind of expected something like this to happen," he said, glancing up at Craig between hard tics and quiet mutters to himself, "so I brought a few things that might help? I kind of c– wah! –c-carry them with me all the time now, y'know, for us to share." He finally pulled out a set of wired headphones and handed them to Craig, who looked at them nervously before taking them and quickly slipping them on over the earplugs. "I have some fidgets too. Do you want those?"
Tweek assumed the quiet mmpphhff sound Craig made while twisting his head around and rocking was an affirmation, so he wrangled out a fidget cube and a squishy and held them both out, sighing in relief when the squishy was selected. He leaned forward and buried his face in his hands as he tried to calm himself down. Not that he would admit it out loud, but Craig's meltdown was… kind of terrifying. He felt helpless and unsure what to do, and Christ knows there wasn't much he could do. It was a relief beyond words that he seemed to have down the right-ish thing, though he still felt that anxious twinge of an oncoming panic attack residing in his stomach and lungs.
He was jolted back into himself when he felt Craig tugging on his sleeve. Tweek looked up with slightly teary eyes and sniffled as he was wrapped into a hug. He smiled shakily but mumbled quietly, "D'you want me to hug you back?" The subtle shake of a head in no on his shoulder was answer enough and he let himself melt into the touch, still careful to keep his hands to himself.
Even long after Craig had let go and sat back down, they sat there in a comfortable silence, the woods quiet beyond the soft noises of the kids far away from them and the quiet beats of the bass in Craig's music seeping out of the headphones. Tweek fiddled with the fidget cube.
Tweek watched nature move around them, saw chipmunks scurry past and heard birds quietly chirping in the distance, and smiled in relief. This was a nice place to be when there weren't children screaming and fighting. He could feel himself really relax for once in his life.
"Thank you," said a quiet, nasally voice beside him. Tweek looked to his left and found that Craig had sat next to him, legs splayed out in front of him, and was staring at the ground.
"Yeah, sure, man. I didn't want anything bad happening to you." He smiled brightly. "Did I do good?"
Craig made a small sound of approval and lightly punched the squishy toy. "Mhm. Took me somewhere, gave me stuff. You did good." He leaned onto Tweek's shoulder and pulled his hat down over his eyes. "...'M tired," he mumbled.
"Me too. Should we-" Tweek flinched, "should we sneak out and go home or something?"
"Can't go anywhere yet," Craig admitted. He shut his eyes tightly. "I'm sorry."
"That's okay. We-We can leave whenever you're ready."
"Okay. Thank you."
Tweek could feel his friend drifting off to sleep on his shoulder. He got the feeling they'd be there for a while.