We never stop building by Lar-lar.
Disclaimer: I do not own South Park or any of its characters.
Author notes: I wrote this for PinkFizzyPops over at dA and actually liked it, so I figured I'd put it up here, too ^^; The request was for 'Creek first kiss' but I did go a little off on a tangent, for a change! The tense ended up doing that as well, just kinda getting away from me, but whatever! I never seem to be able to control my stories. Bah! Enjoy ^^
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First it's muscle mass. Followed by motor skills and vocabulary.
When you're really small, everything is about building, learning and practice.
Soon you're doing it with friendships and even more so your skills – you never really stop doing that, no matter if you live to one or one hundred.
It never stops.
Interactions with the outside world turn in, and you start to build with your mind, as well.
When it snows, we build snowmen - with coal eyes and carrot noses.
When the sun shines, it's secret dens with 'NO GIRLS ALLOWED' written in crude handwriting on the door. That leads to tree houses, but they are harder to fix up, they require the brains of at least twelve year olds.
Now though, we're not 'young' young anymore.
Now we're laying foundations for careers and relationships and all the responsibility that goes along with those things.
Now we're building a future for ourselves.
Now we're building a life.
xox
"I'm bored." Craig Tucker informs his friend as he sits at the counter of Harbucks Coffee, arms folded on said counter and head resting upon them, for effect, his friend thinks.
"No-one's forcing you to sit there, Craig," the blonde points out, "You can leave anytime you want." It is not that Tweek Tweak does not like when his best friend since around fourth grade comes to keep him company while he is at work, he likes it just fine for the most part, it is all the whining he does after he has run out of things he deems interesting enough to talk about when it starts to grate on his nerves.
Like right now.
"You gonna come with me?" He asks, looking over to his friend with his usual blank expression, eyes glazed, half asleep.
"You know I can't, I have another hour left of my shift." Craig only nods and rests his head back on his arms again, following up the action with an over-exaggerated sigh.
"Guess I'm stuck, then." He says with a yawn, Tweek only nods along, pretty bored himself but that does not change the fact that there is still an hour to go.
One whole hour…
It is nice though, he decides, that Craig will stay there with him, semi-willingly, just to keep him company. Although with Craig there could be a million other reasons for it, he supposes, but he also decides not to think too hard about that, either.
"Got my college brochures through today," the brunette states, sitting up again and stretching out his arms before pointing to the empty cup in front of him, Tweek's cue for a refill which he accomplishes with minimal spillage despite the jump Craig's voice had caused when he had spoken out of no-where like that, "Yours come yet?" The blonde nods, hands wringing the green apron he is forced to wear at work so hard that his knuckles are starting to turn white.
Tweek does not like to think about leaving the safe little cage that is South Park…
"Y-yeah." He manages, causing Craig to crack a smile. He is more than a little proud of himself for getting the blonde to even try to get into college, let alone in, accepted and starting in the Fall.
"You'll be fine Tweekers, I'll be there." He reminds him and that gets him a shy smile for his efforts, something that never fails to cause him to smile, too.
Craig would never admit to it if asked and never speak such a thing out loud, but he sometimes thinks that getting Tweek out of South Park is the nicest thing he has ever done for anyone in his life.
He thinks he probably knows why too, but that he would never admit to that, either.
"You think we'll be able to room together?" Craig shrugs, a 'how should I know?' gesture which he thinks is a bad idea about the same time as he hears the sound of ripping fabric and sees Tweek with his eyes wide and a piece of green cloth in his hand.
That is why he stays. Why he watches out for the blonde and hangs around him all the time.
He needs me to.
So he makes himself believe.
"Sure," he lies, because he knows it will not be a lie for long, somehow he will make it truth, "We'll be able to room together, don't worry about it." He offers Tweek a real smile - very rare, he saves them for special occasions – and the blonde smiles back.
Everything is fixed.
He wonders if that might be another thing that attracts him to Tweek so much, it is remarkably easy to fix things for him. A smile here, hug there, a few words of reassurance and a whole lot of coffee.
Craig had always hated not being able to fix things for the people he cared about.
"Thanks, Craig." Tweek pauses, he does not normally say a huge amount beyond what he needs to - unless upset or worried and then you just cannot shut him up – so Craig waits, curious. "I think I might actually be looking forward to this," he adds, that shy smile back as he watches Craig carefully, "It might not be so bad if y-you're there." Craig only grins, he knows that as well as the blonde does, wonders if that was partly why he had wanted to drag him along more than anything else, sometimes.
"We'll have a blast, trust me." And Tweek does. He trusts Craig more than it was probably safe to. He has fears about a great many things – this list has depleted a little since he 'grew up' but there is still plenty left – but Craig is not among them.
He wonders how logical that is, exactly.
Not that it matters, Tweek thinks that he would believe black is white if Craig is the one who tells him so, he is that powerful, at least to himself.
He also thinks - thinks but Jesus Christ! Would never speak of, even thinking about it is a little risky…- that if Craig is with him, he can do anything he wants. Because he thinks Craig will keep him safe. Nothing will happen to him so long as Craig is with him.
Never.
"Jesus, Twitchy – can you try and focus for more than five damn seconds?" Tweek blinks at him, a slight blush topping his cheeks as if being caught out like this somehow means Craig has the ability to read his thoughts.
"S-sorry." He mutters, looking at everything and anything except his friend who just chuckles at the sheer cuteness of the other.
Cuteness, yes. He has already made his peace with that line of thought, 'no big deal'.
"I was saying, you should just close up, this place is dead and it's not that big a deal to leave half an hour early." He has a point, Tweek knows – it has been a while since anyone other than Craig has come in and half an hour is not too bad and… "Come on man, you can hide out at mine for a while, life's too short for you to be working during your last few weeks of freedom, right?" He grins at him again and soon Tweek finds himself smiling back, seemingly powerless to do anything else.
"Alright, just… No more 'life's short' stuff, please?" He frowns, a nervous and again cute, little expression, "Too much pressure." Craig nods and crosses his heart with his finger before he is standing up and stretching again, being far more loud in the act than Tweek deems entirely necessary.
But that is just Craig.
Tweek makes his way to the employees lounge to store his now ripped apron, standing in front of his locker for a full five minutes, he tries to once again puzzle out the enigma that is his best friend.
He does this a lot and never really gets an answer. Normally he is forced to settle for 'what would you do without him?' And he knows that really, knowing the answer to that is all he needs to know;
No much of anything at all.
And then, there he is, leaning against the doorway to the employee's lounge with a crooked smile on his face just… Watching. Tweek watches back nervously, he does not much like when Craig sneaks up on him like this.
"I thought you got lost." The brunette explains, pushing himself off of the door frame and moving to stand in front of his friend, "You take too long to do anything, you know." Yes, Craig knows, even if Tweek does not.
Too long to notice when he is being admired, that he is important that he is so damn cute...…
Craig is leaning in before he knows he is, is closing his eyes before his mind has caught up with exactly why and kissing the blonde with a gentle tenderness he has been previously unaware he even possesses until now, before he can remember he is supposed to care and NOT fuck this up.
The best laid plans of mice and men~
A kiss, nothing more than a brief, feather-like touch of his lips to Tweek's but this is both more than enough and no-where close at the same time
"We should getting going now," Craig tells him in a soft, calm tone he recognizes from all those times when the other has calmed him down. There is no offer of an explanation as to why he has done what he has, just a reassuring voice and a sweet – yes sweet – smile and Tweek nods, smiling a little, too.
"Okay." He replies, unable to explain to himself let alone anyone else just why such an out-of-the-blue-thing can seem so normal and expected and nice.
Craig leaves him then, making his own way to the main doors with his hands now stuffed in his coat pockets, more than a little surprised at the turn of events himself, not that he would admit to that, either.
Well, he supposes he can not very well say 'never' again now, can he?
"Christ, COME ON!" He bellows from outside, not angry, just impatient, holding the door for the blonde but with his back to him, for a reason Tweek would never guess at in a million years.
Craig Tucker certainly does not blush, after all.
"C-coming!" He calls, running into a chair on his way and tripping out of the door and into Craig who only smiles down to the other as he tries to apologize at a hundred words a minute.
He only shakes his head, takes the blonde's hand and leads him home.
xox
In the years to come, Tweek would decide that Craig's hand in his after a both surprising and not first kiss was a pretty good foundation.
A strong one, like Craig himself.
It's good to have a strong foundation in any relationship, because things change and people grow and things are said that maybe shouldn't be and…
You need that foundation, because love is both stronger and far more fragile than most things and re-building it was… It was almost impossible once it broke.
A good, strong foundation may be shaken and it may come loose but it cannot be broken and it will not crumble.
Not like those secret dens with 'NO GIRLS ALLOWED' written in crude handwriting on the door, they would collapse under the weight of the first snow as soon as summer was over.
Every year.
Those we just re-built, because we understood how, it was easy, just wood and nails and off-cuts of carpet.
Love is harder, it doesn't come with a diagram to build and maintain it and you never really understand it whether you live to be one or one hundred.
In some ways, you do stop building.
You stop because you have everything you need.