A/N: Jumping back on the Creek bandwagon after like eight years, in celebration of Creek becoming canon recently! Here's a fluffy oneshot of the pairing, fussing over coffee. Please enjoy (n_n)b

Instant Coffee

"You sure this stuff isn't good enough?" came the nasally voice of Craig.

"Augh! Of course it isn't!" I cried, louder than need be. Craig shot me a doubtful glance.

"I thought instant had even more caffeine than regular coffee, though," he went on flatly. "Don't you just drink this junk to get your fix?"

"Ngh! No way man, it's more than that," I explained, my voice strained. I had no intentions on having such an off-putting attitude around Craig, who was just trying to accommodate my ridiculous habit, but I was craving a freshly brewed cup of coffee super badly and was unfortunately taking it out on my best friend. "The flavor, the aroma, the earthiness of freshly ground beans... it's all part of it!"

Craig laughed, obviously not put off by my ridiculous behaviour, much to my relief. The ebony-haired teen was good for not getting easily offended. One of the endless traits I admired about him.

"Dude, you sound just like your dad, you realize that, right?" Craig rebuttled with a crooked smile. I looked down in response, hoping my cheeks didn't flush. Why did my idiot brain have to force me to blush when he was being cute?! Wait, why was I thinking my best friend was being cute?

"Aurrrgh!" I moaned tensely, tugging at my hair and squeezing my eyes shut.

"Whoa," Craig started, holding his hands out towards me. "Sorry man, I didn't mean- here, I'm sure we have real coffee somewhere in here," Craig said quickly, turning towards his pantry.

Great, I felt like an asshole now. I wished I could stop shaking.

"I-it's alright, dude..." I said quietly. "The instant is fine, sorry for being -ngh- such a stickler. I don't know why I do that." I continued staring at the floor and began tugging at the buttons on my army green shirt instead of my flyaway hair.

"Look, it's okay man, I get it," Craig's muffled voice came from within the pantry. I looked up and saw his ass protruding from the doorway as he rummaged through the lower shelves. I felt my eyes widen as I ashamedly became fixated on the subtle movements of his derriere.

"Alright, I found- oh," Craig began saying, turning to face me. I jolted backwards and raised my eyes to meet his. He blinked back at me, holding my gaze.

"Uh. Beans?" he said flatly, holding up a bag.

"A-ah! Yes!" I cried, tearing my eyes from his and onto the dark brown bag he was holding, grabbing it like a lifejacket.

"I'm pretty sure my parents actually got this from your folks for a Christmas gift last year..." Craig began explaining awkwardly. He ran a hand through his hair. I could feel his eyes on me.

"I-I'd say that's p-pretty goddamn likely," I agreed, trying to hold back my twitching. Ugh, I felt ridiculous. I needed my fix bad.

Craig grinned and took the bag back from my shaking hands. "So we gotta grind these up and stick 'em in the coffee pot?" he inquired, before striding across his kitchen floor in his socks. I watched him as he moved, wanting to take in more of his form after fixating on his rear earlier.

Midnight blue varsity jacket, black jeans that might as well have been tailored just for his long legs, all encompassing his lithe but solid frame. Why didn't he have a girlfriend again?

Oh right, because everyone at school was afraid of his calloused fists.

"Uh, what the hell are these for?" he asked from across the room. He turned to face me, holding a stack of paper coffee filters.

"Those are filters, you put the coffee grinds in them..." I began, watching Craig's face become more confused as I went along. I sighed in bemusement and walked my lanky legs over to him.

"Here, you take one of these, and you put it in here," I explained, "and then the grinds go in afterwards. D-do you have a grinder?" I asked, nimbly working my fingers over the coffee paraphernalia as Craig watched, transfixed.

"Uh..." he began, looking around the kitchen countertop. "We have a blender."

I chewed my chapped bottom lip for the umpteenth time that day and thought. "I guess we can try that."

Craig reached over and pulled the blender towards us. He began pouring beans into the glass container, eyeing it as he went. "How much do I put in?" he asked.

I lowered my head next to his and examined the contents of the container. "Maybe a little more..."

I thought I noticed him flinch at the sound of my voice so close to his head, but he didn't move away. Is he tensing up?

"Is that good?" he asked, more softly than I was expecting.

I swallowed. "L-looks good..."

Craig turned towards me and I couldn't tear my eyes from his. Dark and indecipherable, I felt my face twist in embarrassment.

"The dark circles under your eyes are worse than usual today," he said sadly.

I felt my hand reflexively shoot up to my face and I turned away in embarrassment. Craig clasped a strong hand onto my shoulder comfortingly in response. I looked back at him.

"Hey, don't worry about it," he said warmly. "The coffee will help." With that, he turned to the blender and began... blending the coffee beans.

I watched this spectacle of my two favorite things in this world interacting, and wondered why Craig liked hanging out with me so much. I had no idea.

"Alright, let's do this," he said, removing the lid from the blending container. I inhaled the aroma of the freshly 'blended' beans and felt my entire body relax. I closed my eyes. "Mmmm."

"That really does it for you, huh?" Craig asked, half laughing. "You really are something, Tweek."

Again I recoiled in embarrassment and shot Craig a sheepish grin. "O-okay, grinds go in here, water goes in here," I explained, turning my attention away and working the coffee machine expertly, "Press this button, and presto!"

The coffee machine did its thing and I watched the magical drip of the dark liquid into the pot below. I thought I could feel Craig's eyes on me so I looked over at him. He quickly redirected his gaze to the coffee pot.

"Thanks for being so patient, man," he said, still looking at the coffee pot. I stared at him incredulously as I did not think I had handled this situation with much patience. "Sometimes I wonder why you wanna hang out with me so much instead of like, Token or Clyde," he went on, his voice sounding less guarded than usual. "I mean, Token has a goddamn cafe connected to his house..."

I shifted uncomfortably and tugged at my shirt collar. "Well, so do I," I replied, not looking at him. "But I'd rather be here with you," I said, shocking myself at my blunt honesty. I felt Craig shift his gaze onto me once again but I didn't meet it, instead thinking quickly of something to follow up that statement with. "You just feel like home, or something. I-I dunno," I stammered. I looked at him nervously.

He stared back at me, wide eyed, with more color in his face than I'm used to seeing. He smiled. "Yeah, I feel that way too."

The coffee machine beeped, and in the blink of an eye I was pouring the lifeblood that is coffee into a mug, and began sipping it. I grimaced at the piping hot liquid.

"Ah, here," Craig piped up, wrapping his hands around mine. My face was on fire. "Leggo, I'm gonna put some milk in it."

I relinquished the mug to my smoother-haired comrade and he proceeded to top the mug off with milk. He held it back out to me. "Here."

I reached out with both hands and let my fingers trace across the back of his hand. I heard him gasp slightly.

"You're the best, dude," I said sweetly, before even recognizing the obvious flirting I had just done. Fuck, don't lose your cool now Tweek, just run with it.

Craig swallowed and rubbed the back of his neck. "You know I'd do anything for..."

At that moment, Craig's front door swung wide open. We both jumped and looked over.

"There they are!" Clyde cried, pointing an accusatory finger towards us. Craig's face fell to it's default unimpressed expression, and I stared at my brunette friend in terror.

"You were right!" Token exclaimed, as if solving a mystery. "Why are you guys hiding out here? We have a group project due in Science tomorrow!"

Shit, I had totally forgotten about that! I looked over at Craig, and noticed him sideways glance at me before looking back towards the other half of our gang.

"Uh, I forgot too."

Clyde smacked his hand to his face. "Ow."

Token shook his head in exasperation. "You two can't just leave me with Clyde to finish this, can we please head over to my house now? My chauffeur is outside."

Clyde shot Token a hurt puppydog look.

"Alright, alright," Craig replied flatly. "We'll meet you out there in a minute."

Token walked out the front door triumphantly with Clyde following dejectedly. "I'm smart, y'know, Token..."

I watched the entire thing unfold, bewildered. I looked over at Craig, inquisitively. "Did, uh, you really not remember about the p-project? I'm sorry, I completely spaced."

Craig's eyelids were still lowered in annoyance at his doorway before glancing over at me. He smiled and raised a hand to ruffle my hair. "Down your drink, gotta go help those idiots out."

I nodded quickly before chugging my coffee, coughing afterwards. "Ngh! Okay!"

And with that, I followed my enigmatic best friend out towards Token's limo. I'm not sure how Craig ended up being my best friend, but I was fucking glad he did.

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed the story! It's my first fanfiction in many years so if you enjoyed it, please leave a review! Thanks again for reading!

LONG LIVE CREEK