Chapter Text
Tweek fidgets in his spot sitting cross legged on Craig’s bed next to Craig, eyes darting around everywhere and tugging at his poorly buttoned shirt. Craig’s used to Tweek, they spend enough time together that of course he is, but that doesn’t make his- boyfriend?- any easier to read when he gets like this.
Craig wishes he was easier to read sometimes. They’ve been ‘together’ for well over six months now and Craig still isn’t completely sure if they’re faking it or not. He can’t even bring himself to just ask, because despite what his flat affect might imply, he really cares about what the answer is.
“Babe.” He starts in his usual calm voice, pet name slipping in even here in private, which has been happening more and more often. “Look at me. What’s wrong?” Tweek winces and finally looks at him, making eye contact for maybe three seconds before squeezing his eyes shut and letting out a groan.
Craig waits patiently, and after a full minute passes with nothing but the sound of Tweek’s panicky breathing, the blond reaches into his shirt and tugs out his dæmon, who he drops on Craig’s bedspread with surprising gentleness, given how badly his hands are shaking.
Agatha looks up at him with tiny lizard eyes, and Craig blinks back. “Hi, Ags.” He greets pleasantly, getting a nod in return, before turning his attention back to her human. “I don’t get it, Tweek.”
Tweek peels his eyes open and finally looks at Craig again, a persistent twitch starting in his cheek. “Sh-she settled, dude!” He shrieks out, like this explains everything. It does not. Craig still doesn’t get it. Inti crawls forward a little on his shoulder to get a better look, mouse nose twitching curiously.
“Honey? You’re going to need to spell this one out for me, because I still don’t get it. Is this like a puberty freak out? It’s gonna happen to all of us eventually, dude.”
“Agh! No it is not about puberty! I’m not going through fucking puberty yet!”
“Okay, then what is this about?”
“LOOK AT HER!” Tweek yelps, gesturing wildly at his dæmon.
Craig does look at her. She’s a small lizard, tan with striking darker banded markings, and greenish eyes.
“…She’s pretty?” He says finally, looking up at Tweek again.
“Sooo pretty!” Inti announces from his shoulder.
“Thanks!” She replies, her shy and quiet voice a contrast to Tweek’s piercing yell.
“People are gonna- they’re gonna look at her and think they know me now! They’ll have somanyexpectations, Craig!” He yanks at his messy hair with one hand, but allows Aggie to climb back onto the other. She makes her way up his arm and curls against his neck, and he does seem to calm a little at this despite her being the source of his anxiety right then.
Craig thinks there’s some validity to this worry, but he doesn’t have time to work out what to say before Tweek continues.
“What if they think I’m some kind of- of secret lizard person?! What if people decide I should live in underground tunnels like the restofthe secret lizard people?!”
Craig really, really wishes they didn’t live in a town where something like this was also almost a valid concern.
“Tweek! No one who matters is going to think you’re a lizard person just because Aggie settled as a gecko!”
Tweek gives another groan and draws his thighs up to his chest, holding his legs in a death grip and hiding his face against his knees.
Craig sighs and reaches a steadying hand out, wrapping it around one of Tweek’s skinny ankles. Tweek spasms like he’s been electrocuted for a second, then pulls back from his knees enough to look down and immediately calms slightly upon seeing that it’s just Craig. He takes a shaky breath and looks back up at him.
“Tweek. Do you think I think you’re a lizard person?”
“N-no! I guess not?!”
Craig smiles a little. “Good. Do you think your parents think you’re a lizard person?”
Aaand that’s the wrong thing to ask, he realizes even as he says it.
“Gah! I don’t know! They haven’t evennoticed yet!”
There goes Craig’s smile. Sometimes he forgets that his own stupid family is one of the better ones in this godforsaken town.
“Your parents suck, man.” He comments dryly, and to his surprise, Tweek lets out a sudden laugh.
“I know, dude! My parents are the fucking worst!” He says in a shaky voice, but this time it’s shaky with laughter. “I-I bet it’ll take them at least a week to notice!”
It shouldn’t really be funny, but Craig can’t help laughing quietly along with him. Tweek doesn’t laugh for very long, but he does give him a small smile, half hidden by his knees, and Craig smiles back.
It’s a nice moment, until Inti, still laughing, tumbles off Craig’s shoulder. It’s not much of a fall, and he would have been just fine landing on the mattress, but Tweek’s twitchy reflexes obviously work faster than his conscious brain.
Next thing Craig knows, he’s staring at his dæmon, cradled in Tweek’s hands.
The next few seconds are a whirlwind of frantic activity. Tweek shoves Inti into Craig’s hands, his own shaking harder than ever, and then flies off the bed, backing towards the door and practically hyperventilating.
“Oh- oh god, I didn’t mean- Craig. I’m so sorry, oh fuck.” It’s rapid as usual, but it’s also a quieter freak out than normal, and Craig finds that worrying. Much more worrying than what just happened.
Because… he should care, right? He knows the taboo. He heard PC Principal’s painstakingly thorough lecture about every single aspect of consent. He should probably feel at least… a little violated, right?
He looks down at Inti, still a mouse curled up in his hands. He doesn’t look traumatized either. He’s just peeking over Craig’s fingers at Tweek and looking as worried as Craig feels.
Craig gets to his feet and quickly gets between Tweek and the door before he can just run out. Tweek whirls to face him, wide eyed and just chanting a fucking mantra of “I’m sorry” over and over, almost breathlessly.
Craig needs to say something, but he doesn’t know what. How can he even explain that he’d felt a shock run through him at the contact, but that it hadn’t been a bad one?
He carefully puts Inti in his pocket, just so that Tweek doesn’t have to worry as much about accidentally touching him, then he takes a cautious step toward the blond. “Tweek. It’s okay.”
“H-how can you say that?” Tweek asks, voice rising a whole octave. He stares at the floor, his shoulders shaking violently. Thankfully Agatha has a harder grip on his shoulder than Inti had in a similar position. “Oh god, I’m disgusting, you must think-“
Craig takes another cautious step. “ Babe. It was an accident.”
Tweek’s pale green eyes whip back up to meet Craig’s. He looks ready to cry. One more step, and Craig reaches out to take his hands in his own, moving slow enough that Tweek can protest or back off if he wants to. Tweek does not.
“It was an accident and I-“ Craig’s voice cracks a little as he threads their fingers together. “-didn’t mind it?”
He’s never seen Tweek this quiet before. No babbling, not even any gasps or groans. He just stares wide eyed.
“I mean, I wasn’t expecting it, but if you wanted to do that while I was expecting it, you could.” Craig finally finishes. He’s pretty sure his palms are sweating.
“You- you wantmeto?” Tweek squeaks out. Two sets of green eyes are just staring at Craig now as Aggie ducks her head under Tweek’s chin to look at Craig too.
Craig seems to lose his ability to speak. Instead he tugs one hand free of their shared hold and puts it in his pocket for Inti to hop back onto. Then he holds him out between them on his, yes, very sweaty palm, and nods.
Tweek hesitates but soon reaches his own newly freed hand out, stopping a few inches from the furry little form. Inti says nothing, but slowly scurries closer and rubs his face against one of Tweek’s extended fingers.
It’s not like the first time, all fluster and panic. It feels like warmth and comfort. Craig opens his mouth to say something, he doesn’t know what, but before he can, Aggie is running full tilt down Tweek’s arm. She stops long enough to glance at her human, who nods a little frantically, and then she jumps straight onto Craig’s hand. He feels her cool bumpy little scales on the palm of his hand.
Tweek’s eyes go impossibly wider, and Craig somehow knows that he’s got those same warm feelings surging through him, even before his mouth tilts into another smile.
“Wow.” Craig finally croaks the first word out of either of them in several minutes.
“Y-yeah.” Tweek agrees with a breathy laugh, and then Craig is kissing him for the first time.
It’s quick and utterly chaste in a manner befitting a pair of fourth graders, but Craig thinks he’s going to want to do it again, and way more often, as long as Tweek’s cool with it. Tweek follows him with another peck when he tries to pull back, then laughs again, so Craig is pretty confident that he will, in fact, be cool with it.
***
They end up on Craig’s sofa a little later, drinking cups of cocoa and watching reruns of Red Racer. It’s like everything and nothing has changed. Craig feels a little silly for ever wondering if they were still just pretending.
He glances down at Agatha and Inti, who are darting around at their feet, play wrestling and giggling. Inti shifts from a mouse into something a bit like a Guinea pig, but with coarser brown fur and considerably taller. He takes advantage of those long legs to bounce around playfully just out of the speedy gecko dæmon’s reach.
Looking at him, he feels… almost right, Craig thinks to himself. He’s been spending more and more time as various rodents, and he’s told Craig he doesn’t think he’s quite ready to settle, but they both know he’s getting there.
Craig thinks he’ll be perfectly fine with whatever Inti settles as, but it’ll be nice if it’s something a bit like this.