Work Text:
It’s so fucking hot in Colorado.
No joke. Even in the well-fanned room, in shorts, a tank top, and two servings of ice cream, Craig Tucker still sweats like the melting Icebergs. Despite transitioning from hellish summer to heavenly fall, the weather is still as unforgiving as last week. ‘It must be the devil’s work since you ate two ice creams– with one clearly being mine?!’ is what Tricia told when her brother used the fridge as if it’s his third air conditioner - before getting himself smacked in the head by his dad, and scolded by his mom with their electric bill report.
Craig’s still persistently finding his perfect cooling system, no matter how grossly he is sticking to the floor - he hopes Stripe doesn’t waddle towards that mess. Clyde invited him to a pool party earlier – while it sounds nice, getting sweat in the pool and the constant moving floaties, Jimmy’s lame jokes, and Clyde’s nth ‘Cannonball!’ don’t make it worth it. Plus, Tweek hates pool parties - his sweetheart nagged, ‘Getting out is a pain, ‘cause my hair is such a - ack - mess..!’
Speaking of Tweek…
‘He’s there, he’s here, he’s everywhere~ Who you gonna call–’
“Ah, Craig?”
“Hey, honey,” Craig’s voice sounds more nasally on the phone, “Are you free?”
“No, not– not free at all. You saw the heatwave, Craig! My dad said it’s gonna be ‘booming business’ for cold drinks– so I have to work!”
“Jesus Christ, in this weather?”
“That’s what I’m saying! Also, making multiple cold drinks is so bad– you have to, you have to keep looking at them– monitoring them since the fans aren’t working properly for now,”
“Hang on, babe, you need help?”
“Ack, nah– it’s fine, it’s so fine. My mom’s on the other side–”
“Oh, I–”
“Wait, she just said…oh really? Wait, wait– Jesus Christ…Okay never mind, she left the store for some electronic business with my dad. Hop in quick, call you back later,”
“Sweet, see ya’ honey,” Craig hangs up his phone before he’s so stoked to see Tweek. Before though, he really needs to consider what he’s going to wear. That attire right now, is definitely not business coffee-worthy, and a shower is a must. Come to think about it, Craig doesn’t really wear anything summer-worthy. Tweek, being unexpectedly smarter than Craig, wears a versatile shirt with adjustable sleeves - while the latter wears a thick blue coat, a black shirt (he knows how heat-absorbent dark colors are), and jeans. Was Colorado winter last this long, or Craig didn’t think about buying anything else…he should’ve listened to his mom’s fashion advice.
The next best thing is–well…
“You don’t look too…different,”
“I wasn’t supposed to,” Craig showed up at Tweak Bro’s counter with his pajama – yes, his pajama – which was a white T-shirt with a prominent NASA logo and black sweatpants, then again, the outfit looked decent at first glance. So is the busy atmosphere of the coffee shop, as Tweek complained before, but it’s not as much as Craig expected.
“Yeah, it’s not too busy at noon– our rush hours are mornings and maybe late nights? But this is still a hefty effort for one person,” Tweek rolls his eyes with a snicker.
“I figured. You know that it’s not okay, I was considering working here and–”
“Oh, nah that’s not– I mean, you can if you want to! Kyle’s – um, he put himself on shifts earlier and he’s going to arrive this evening, and…yeah,”
“But you’re still working by yourself for the most, no?” Craig persists even though his head buzzed from the killing heat wave. Glancing at the mob customer’s cold drinks makes his throat ache for one too…a cool Cola would be so nice…he’ll be so happy. However, it would be hypocritical of him to want a drink from Tweek while he’s trying to get Tweek not to overwork…or it’s different, he doesn’t want to think now.
“That is true, ack yeah. But– but but, it’ll be fine, it’ll be so fine!” Tweek gives a nervously enthusiastic thumbs-up while awkwardly copying his boyfriend’s speech, god he’s so cute (shut up, inner Craig).
“Oh! You must be really exhausted when you come here, do you want a drink? I’ll grab you a drink!” Tweek hastily got out the lil’ pep talk and flailed around to straws and cups in such a weirdly professional manner that Craig doesn’t know how he does that.
“Oh, yeah, sorry about stalling your time, babe,” Craig already knew the forming line behind him was getting impatient, “You have Cola?”
“Mhm, you want that?” Craig nods.
“Ack, one second– wait, actually,” Tweek suddenly stops his tracks while he slowly faces Craig and grins, “I got an idea, go find a seat– I’ll be right back,”
Taking the cue, Craig promptly apologizes to the crowd and turns to a lone seat just next to the counter. He opens his phone and sighs when he sees Clyde’s spam text messages “The Pool Party???” “Where r u??” in almost 12 messages which he did feel bad about since he hadn’t responded to Clyde sooner. Another little ‘ding’ reminder comes up saying Tolkien just visited his home and Tricia is showing him the rooms– oh shit , Craig covers his mouth since leaving Tricia with any of his friends is never a good sign, especially Jimmy and the damn comedian’s new blackmail materials.
Before long, Tweek arrives at his table. Craig expects a medium glass Cola with a red-and-white stripe straw-like in movie theater posters. That’s not what it was. Instead, Tweek presents an ice cream float in a small Sundae glass, to be precise: vanilla ice cream on Cola with the soda can next to it and a blue straw placed in the ice cream.
“As a treat for visiting me, you’re welcome,” and Tweek’s lips curved upwards; his grin was so pure with bright blond hair that it somehow radiants in Craig’s forest green eyes, almost too bright, like the sun…a good sun, not the one burning outside the streets.
He guessed this weather wouldn’t be too bad, then.