Craig tapped his fingers on the steering wheel rhythmically to the song that was playing on his trucks radio as he cruised down the street, eyes glancing side to side as he went onward to his destination. He wouldn't say he was anxious, per say, after all he was the most emotionally stunted person he had ever met or known, but he wouldn't say he was completely content on his drive either.
Just a half-hour ago he had gotten a call from Tweek's mother, asking if he knew where her son had gone since he hadn't shown up at home after school let out. His answer was no, he didn't know where her son had gone - which was mostly the truth, if not completely. Tweek was never one for informing people of where he was going if he felt like being alone, unless it wasn't a place he frequented or hadn't scouted out for safety before hand, in preparation of kidnapping, murder, rape, etc. So, quite honestly, he had every right to say that he didn't know where his boyfriend had run off to, since he was not informed.
That didn't mean he doesn't have a pretty accurate guess in mind.
More often than not, if he and Tweek's own parents had no idea of where he had gone to and he wasn't either at Token's or Butters' house, as well as not at the coffee shop, Craig could find the sulking blond in only one place. The gym to the East of town.
Surprised? Well, so was Craig when he found him hiding there for the first time, just about two years ago.
The situation then had been awfully close to how it was that night; Tweek had run off somewhere and had been comfortable enough going there to not inform anyone, even Craig, and hadn't come home for hours after he would usually be expected. Craig had been notified that his best friend - sorry Clyde - and newly appointed boyfriend had not been seen for hours and that they were beginning to get worried; as they should be, seeing as Tweek is probably the cutest, while most unstable, person in South Park. Just looking at him on any given day, one could assume he would either implode at some point from his own anxiety, off himself for about the same reason or end up on the side of a milk carton someday because of the look he always had that made him seem vulnerable.
Unlike two years ago, however, Craig was not worried about Tweek looking vulnerable enough to kidnap. He, very personally, had been taught by Tweek to not fear this outcome Why, you ask?
The answer was simple and painfully obvious as Craig jumped out of his truck, not even bothering to lock it up, and walked into the gym, glancing around before he spotted his boyfriend. The blond looked tired, sweaty and overall exhausted, but he also had an unusually free smile on his face. Tweek stood up tall and proud as he caught his breath, the person who he'd been sparring with in the ring walking closer to him and giving him pointers, as well as praise, on his form of fighting.
Yes, Tweek Tweak; the wimpy, cowardly, freakishly skinny, frighteningly unstable, coffee-addicted young man; had just been fighting. All out, nothing held back, with not a hint of hesitation. Standing there, Craig thought he looked fucking gorgeous. And he also thought he looked like an absolute beast when he was actually pitted against someone of his skill-level.
Tweek looked out among the small crowd of gym-rats that had scurried to the side of the ring to place bets on him and various others before he spotted Craig standing by the door, hands in his pockets with a blank face on as he watched with well-hidden amusement. The blond turned and said something to the man he'd just been paired up with before getting out of the ring, as well as the crowd, in order to reach him.
"H-Hey, Craig! How um- how long h-have you been standing there?" the shorter of the two asked as he got within earshot, looking slightly embarrassed but still content. Craig let his facade of disinterest slip a little bit as Tweek drew even closer, tilting his head so his chullo and hair covered his happy expression from wandering eyes.
"Not that long. I just saw you talking with muscles over there." he answered, jerking his head towards the opponent from a moment ago.
"His name is Tony, but I g-guess Muscles works t-too." the blond replied with a small chuckle, forcing Craig's facade to fall even more. He loved his boyfriend's laugh more than anything in the world, and that's why he condoned him coming to this place, informed or not. He laughed here more freely than he did at his own home. "So uh.. I-I guess I stayed for too l-long again?" Tweek finally acknowledged, rubbing the back of his neck with now un-mitted hands, the boxing gloves that he had been wearing a moment ago settled against his waist with the use of his other arm.
Craig nodded. "You're mom called me first again, asking if I knew where you were."
"Y-You didn't tell her, right!?" Tweek's face looked borderline panic for a moment before Craig shook his head, reaching out his hand so Tweek could intertwine their fingers.
"Of course not. I haven't told her in the last two years, I'm not going to out you now." That calmed his boyfriend down rather quickly, the panic leaving almost fully when Craig leaned in to get a peck on the lips from him. It only lasted a second and was nowhere near enough for either of them, but they soon separated themselves, knowing they could be more touchy-feely once in the truck or at Craig's house, where both of them were more comfortable with actually acting like they were in a relationship. "So, what's the occasion? Usually everyone is doing their own thing around here."
Tweek smiled in embarrassment, his cheeks actually turning bright pink just at the question, as he turned to look at all the guys and the few girls around still arguing with each other over bets. "I uh.. Kinda had a rev- r-revelation in training and everyone started debating whether I could accomplish it again a-against opponents other than my own weight range." Craig raised a brow at that, impressed but mostly with the fact that Tweek wasn't freaking out about the whole thing being too much pressure. The blond would go into over-active mode just when someone expected him to get a C on a test even though he was a straight B student, but here he was, smiling and laughing as people betted on him accomplishing something pretty impressive. The ravenett could never put into words how relieved that made him feel, to know that Tweek had finally found someplace, especially in town, that he felt accepted and calm enough to not worry about possibly messing up in front of people.
In the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the owner of this place, the guy that had originally trained Tweek to box all the way back in the 3rd grade when they had been tricked to fight one another. The man was older now, and not very into personal sessions at all which led to him taking over management instead of the regime, but he had still remembered Tweek from all that time back and invited him to train again with open arms, no questions asked as to what brought him back to them. The manager saw him and waved with half-assed interest, never having cared for him but knowing that Tweek and him were close, meaning that they were on okay terms.
"So what is this 'revelation' that happened in training? I shouldn't be worried about you breaking me in half like a twig in our sleep, should I?"
"O-OH GOD, I HOPE NOT!" Tweek briefly jittered at his teasing and unintentionally dropped his boxing gloves, which prompted him back to normalcy as he picked them up and dusted them off like they were his own precious children. Ever since finding a new outlet for his stress, something that took out all the nervous energy in him as well as at least half his negativity, Tweek had been very careful to not do anything that would lead to him having to stop. He even treated those gloves more tenderly than he treated Craig sometimes, which was annoying, though he didn't mind - being handled roughly was a novelty for him around here, especially since everyone knew not to fuck with him. To his pleasure, Tweek knew just how to fuck with him instead.
Craig brought himself out of his own thoughts and brought Tweek back to their conversation, repeating the question of just what he had done. "Oh! Uh... W-Well, I kinda knocked somebody out cold with two hits while training. N-Not that I meant to, it just kinda h-happened! It was actually r-really cool... N-NOT THAT I ENJOY HURTING PEOPLE LIKE THAT, I-I MEAN I WOULD NEVER HAVE DONE IT ON P-PUR-" The ravenett cut off his boyfriend with a kiss, holding him tightly and without shame as his suddenly cut-off tantrum got the attention of his gym-friends, who all either cooed that they were adorable or groaned that they should get a room.
That was probably one of the things that made Tweek the most comfortable - knowing that these people knew about him being gay and being openly in a relationship, with not a single word from them saying it was wrong or that he shouldn't be in their locker room or some shit because he 'swung that way'. Everyone found out on accident, it got spread around the gym, Tweek panicked and instead of them sending him out, the ladies in the gym gathered to give him words of encouragement while the guys asked if he still wanted to spar with them that day, since they were looking forward to it.
When he could feel that Tweek was back to breathing normally again between kisses, he released him with a grin. "I know you would never do it just to hurt somebody, don't worry.. But that is honestly super fucking hot." the ravenett admitted, watching as Tweek turned pink again before smacking him lightly on the arm, leading him closer to the ring as the others in the gym called for him to come back.
"Whatever you s-say, ya freaky punching bag. Anyway, do you have t-time to stay for one more round? They r-really are placing bets, so I would hate to make them w-wait for results."
"Sure thing. Besides, I wanna see this go down."
Craig took a seat to one side of the ring as Tweek climbed back up and put his gloves back on, smiling lightly as he saw the conductor of the bets talk to him animatedly and cause him to chuckle again. The smile went away when suddenly someone twice his boyfriends size came into the ring, looking like he'd been waiting for hours to fight the blond. He had just stood up and opened his mouth to protest when Tweek caught his eye, not looking scared at all. Tweek made a motion for him to sit down again and he glanced at his boyfriend's opponent before grudgingly doing so, anxiety bubbling up in his chest, making him uncomfortable. He wasn't used to being the one emotionally un-even, he was usually the one fixing Tweek's moments of mental instability; but he had accepted a while ago that when it came to Tweek he would just have to deal with this feeling coming around now and then, despite his disagreement with it.
As Tweek and his new opponent cleared out the ring and properly reset everything to it's original running order, the feeling just grew. Craig ignored it, slipping a cigarette between his lips that he didn't light, just letting it sit there in wait for when he would definetly need one if his baby didn't win this bet as easily as planned. Within a few moments the two of them were circling around in each other in almost a trance-like state, both of them with blank expressions on their faces. While he had the chance, Craig let himself admire just how cool and collected Tweek could look when he wasn't letting his mind overflow with ideas and conspiracy theories and malevolent thoughts in general, instead finally finding a solid idea and goal to focus on, one that kept his mind right in front of him, in the physical, present world. His light brown eyes were, for once, focused and not jittering about in a frenzy, now looking straight ahead at the other man.
Craig's own focus was snatched away from him when Tweek's opponent finally went in for an attack, making a quick, hard strike right for the blond's chest. The smaller male easily blocked it even though he was pushed back an inch from the force of it. Tweek's black-haired bystander could easily see an already flaming red patch of skin on the blond's arm, letting him know that despite the consistent training and repetition of forced blows on various parts of himself, Tweek was still easily bruised. Thank fuck he still always wore long-sleeves, or else people around town would definetly begin to think of Craig as abusive, or at the very best ruthless in bed.
Before Craig could really refocus on the match itself, instead of on his boyfriend, it seemed like some sort of tension had broken between the fighters. Before it had been a few solid minutes of calculating looks and gestures to test other, but now that the first shot was out, Tweek's opponent obviously didn't feel the need to size him up a moment longer. The man opposing him was intimidatingly tall and just.. unnaturally muscular, like he had been born in the Gym's locker room and had been instructed to lift weight since the youngest age possible. This guy sweated iron and probably ate pounds of raw protein or something, maybe even a whole, fresh cow for dinner. But somehow Tweek just seemed a little hesitant, not at all freaked out or hyper-active with ideas of his own impending doom or other peoples' doom, for that matter. He was perfectly fine, with a calm head...
Craig decided, officially this time, that if Tweek ever came home one day and said the gym was closing, Craig would find a way to run and support it himself, even if he worked himself to the bone to do it. Anything to keep Tweek this happy and calm and fucking functional.
Tweek kept up his blocking pretty well, though it was apparently clear to others around the ring that he wasn't going to last many more. One of the ladies that Tweek had grown close to was shaking her, keeping a straight face as to not stress Tweek out if they happened to lock on each other but still looking displeased. She muttered something to a man beside her and he just grunted, holding up 3 fingers.
Three more hits... That's all that these guys expected Tweek to last. Only three. And he hadn't even tried to strike a blow yet in retaliation.
When that was decided, mumbles began working around the crowd, the betters on Tweek becoming agitated. After another blow was given to Tweek's poor arms, so shockingly thin in comparison to the punch they could pack, someone finally spoke up higher than the murmur than had been there from the beginning. "Come on, just give it a shot! If you can't do it, then we'll aim again for it next month!" Another person cheered at that, inspiring another to egg Tweek on as well.
Tweek's face didn't reveal anything, still being strict and focused, eyes only on his opponent even when dodging and side-stepping blows.
Finally, the last suspected hit was about to be dished out.
One of the higher betters was groaning to himself quietly, obviously upset but trying not to put too much more pressure on Tweek than what had been established. Sure, Tweek was pretty good at managing himself once he was here and among his people and most of their attitudes didn't bother him, but the boy's breaking point was still present. Being here two years, there was no way around the gym-rats finding out how bad his boyfriend could really get when he breaks down and no one wanted another episode like his last one, leading to all of them being relatively calm despite all of them clearing wanting to scream their heads off, whether in happiness or regret.
Craig's eyes locked onto the space between Tweek and the taller man, his jaw clenched around his now practically useless cigarette, being so muddled from his chewing on it. He could just feel that Tweek was going to make a move soon, but he didn't know if the other guy would get in his last shot first or not..
His thoughts were answered quickly, with disappointment, when Muscles Number 2 shot out his arm again, putting all he had into it. The shot connected with Tweek's right shoulder, knocking him back and off to the side with a loud noise that made Craig's skin crawl. Shit, shit, shit! I should have made him go home- he could have been in bed by now- his shoulder's fucking broken I swear-
Craig cut his thoughts off as he watched Tweek snap up again, having practically punched the ground in order to get momentum going before he swung with his right, reeling it in from way back where it had been hit and making it land square on Muscles Number 2's chest, just before following it with a frightening upper-cut to the taller man's jaw. The first and second both connected as planned, Muscles having let his guard down from assuming, like the others had, that it was over with that last shot. And now, Muscles was planted firmly on the ground, his arms splayed out from falling back, and completely out cold.
Everyone stood in stunned silence for a moment before Tweek sheepishly looked behind him and at the crowd, then at his boyfriend. As the realization that Tweek had won in 2 shots began to arise, the crowd started moving again, cheering and booing coming from betters respectively. Craig breathed out a sigh of relief as he let a doofy smile slip, covering it with his hand but being unable to get rid of it now that his initial panic was gone, leaving him giddy for the blond instead.
Tweek rather calmly found his way out of the ring, getting a pat on the back from passing betters, before he found himself in Craig's arms. The blond let himself go limp in Craig's arms, admitting that he was a little dizzy after pulling his stunt because of all the momentum but that he was happy Craig could see him win.
"Yeah, I'm glad I stuck around too.. Now come on, we're even more super fuckin' late. Your parents are going to kill me if they think I kept you away from them on purpose." Craig reasoned, leading Tweek back to the locker room where they got him clean, dressed and properly covered, hiding all of his forming bruises and healing ones from sight. In the shower Craig had noticed that Tweek's beaten shoulder was already dark and sore, not giving him any good feelings, but Tweek told him that it could wait for morning. He was barely awake enough to walk at the moment, let alone go to the doctor and think of an excuse for his possible injury, an excuse that would lead his parents far away from the gym when asked how it happened and why.
The ravenett smirked to himself in the driver's seat as they passed the road that would have lead down to the hospital, instead continuing onto the Tweak residence. Usually Tweek would be the one worrying about whether he was seriously hurt or had dislocated something, but this time the drive was quiet except for Tweek's shallow breaths and eventual snoring. The town passed them by Craig until he finally pulled up to Tweek's house, turning off the engine before looking over his boyfriend one more time.
In the morning they would head off to the hospital with some excuse that they would agree upon after waking up in Tweek's bed, having breakfast together casually though tense because of having to hide Tweek's limited mobility in his arm, and would later on that day joke about how much Tweek had freaked out wondering if their excuse would work. The world would continue to know him as the spazz that saw conspiracy theories in his fucking cereal when he thought about it too long but only Craig and a select few others would know him as the badass boxer with a killer 2-hit knock-out.