Work Text:
For @everythingwasnormalhere:
“Tweek comforting Craig after he (Craig) has a meltdown and/or shutdown in the middle of class”
Today was just not Craig's day.
Absolutely nothing was going right, and there was nothing that he could do about it. The fact that he couldn’t control that horrible yet familiar feeling in his body was just making everything worse.
Craig tried to be normal, he tried to act right, he really did. It was so frustrating knowing that nobody else could understand or see how much effort he put in just trying to exist like everybody else, and it was exhausting.
He didn’t really like to talk about it; really, only his teachers and closest friends knew that Craig was autistic, although, in all honesty, he probably didn’t hide it as well as he thought he did.
It wasn’t that Craig was ashamed or embarrassed by it, but the fewer people knew, the easier it was for him to live his life without anyone bothering him too much. His mom said they were just trying to help, but he didn’t need anything from anyone; he could figure it out on his own.
It took Craig a long time to tell his boyfriend that he was autistic. Craig was worried that he wouldn’t want to be together anymore once Tweek found out. Eventually, though, his sister convinced him to tell Tweek by saying:
“Think about it this way: Tweek already loves you just as you are. I don’t think telling him is going to change anything,” Tricia said.
Craig had been mentally preparing for disaster ever since this morning. One thing Craig valued above anything else was structure and routines. He was used to things being a certain way and didn’t appreciate it when things changed for him, and he didn’t have adequate time to process and readjust.
His morning started out fine. He woke up and got dressed in one of his favorite shirts and hoodies, a pair of black jeans he really liked, and black socks. Then he headed downstairs, where the first thing went wrong of the day.
Every single day, Craig had a bowl of Fruit Loops before school. It was his favorite, and he liked that he didn’t have to think about it. Additionally, all the colors tasted the same, and the cereal didn’t get that godawful, soggy texture very quickly.
When he got downstairs, however, he immediately noticed something was off. The colors were ever so slightly different, and the taste wasn’t the same. He looked at his mother, who was avoiding eye contact.
“I’m sorry, okay? I went to three different grocery stores, and they were completely sold out. I had to get the generic brand,” Laura explained.
He looked at her, nodded, finished his bowl of the wrong cereal, and headed off to school. Of course, the bus was 10 minutes late, which threw off his routine even more.
Once he got to class, there was a substitute teacher in one class and a pop quiz in another. On top of that, everyone in all of his classes was extra loud and annoying, and at this point, Craig was at his limit. He reached into his backpack, pulled out the small case that held his noise-canceling headphones, and slipped them into his ears, where they were under the flaps of his hat.
Craig’s head hurt, and he couldn’t focus on anything. He’d been spaced out most of the day, feeling restless yet completely drained of energy. He was happy when it was finally lunchtime, 30 minutes of the day, and he didn’t have to think about anything.
His excitement, however, quickly turned into even more stress. It was Friday, so all the grades in the middle school had lunch together, so there were WAY too many people. It was too loud and too bright, and Craig just couldn’t take it anymore.
Craig sat at the lunch table next to Tweek. The last straw was when he opened his lunchbox to find that his dad had mixed up his and his sister's boxes when he was filling them. Craig’s lunchbox had a grape uncrustable instead of strawberry, and it was too much with everything else that day.
He hadn’t realized he’d done it, but he’d placed his hands over his ears, closed his eyes, and tried to focus on deep breathing to calm himself down, but it was no use. Craig felt a tear stream down his cheek, and Tweek just looked at him. He could tell something was wrong.
“Are you okay, honey?” he said quietly so only Craig could hear.
Craig nodded.
“I’ll be back; I'm going to the bathroom,” Craig said quickly.
After about 10 minutes, Craig hadn’t come back, and Tweek started to get worried, so he got up and went to find him, which wasn’t exactly hard. Craig was a creature of habit, after all, and tended to go to the same places when he needed some quiet.
Tweek walked into the bathroom and saw Craig sitting on the floor across from the sinks. He was sitting with his knees up by his chest, holding the guinea pig keychain Tweek had gotten him and gently stroking the fur.
Tweek quietly sat down next to him.
“You ok?” He asked gently.
Craig nodded and then, a few seconds later, shook his head no.
“That’s ok. Do you want me to hold you?” Tweek asked.
Craig nodded and leaned into Tweek so he could be held, and then silent tears started to stream down his face.
“It’s ok, I got you,” Tweek assured him. They sat like that for a while before he asked another question.
“What happened? Do you want to talk about it?”
“It’s nothing, just a bunch of stupid stuff. It doesn’t matter,” Craig said quietly.
“It’s not stupid, and it does matter if it’s upsetting you, honey,” Tweek said.
Craig then took the time to explain how his day had been going, how everything was off and different, and how he’d been feeling stressed and overwhelmed for a while, but today, it all just boiled over.
“It’s just so frustrating because I know all these things aren’t that big of a deal, and I know I’m overreacting, but I just can’t help it,” Craig said.
“I’m sorry honey, I’m really sorry you feel that way, but it’s not your fault. It really, really sucks, and I’m sorry you have to deal with that.” Tweek said he could relate to overwhelming emotions; he dealt with that a lot with his anxiety issues.
After Craig had gotten his bearings and felt a little better, Tweek took him to the office to call his mom and have her come pick him up. Craig was so physically and emotionally exhausted that he wasn’t getting any work done anyway. Tweek promised to come over after school to check on him and make sure he was doing okay, which Craig was really grateful for.
The two of them were always so supportive of each other in all the ways they always had each other's back through the good and bad times, which Craig really valued and appreciated, and he knew Tweek did as well. Craig loved knowing that Tweek loved him for him, and he didn’t have to worry about hiding anything from him. Craig was pretty sure he was going to marry Tweek one day.