I caught Creek Fever.
Tweak and Tucker - the heart attack, the on-again-off-agains, and the marriage.
Set way in the future - they're twenty five years old.
_Tweek was shaking again. Years of high caffeine intake will do that to you do that to you, he supposes, as he reaches under the counter for his heart meds. All that twitching really messed with him and not just from the stupid nickname he'll never live down. Not that he minds the name so much anymore. It's all that coffee his parents gave him; he can't really drink it anymore, which would probably have been really bad for the family business if Craig didn't step in to help. No, Craig tastes the coffee, checks the flavor, and levels out all that espresso.
Tweek watches, slightly panicked and a little jealous, as Craig goes over the numbers again with Clyde. Not many know this, but before Clyde and Token there was a Clyde and Craig that makes Tweek uncomfortable on a level he doesn't think he should share.
According to Craig, it's just his paranoia acting up again. It's always something. However, this time the therapist agrees so maybe it is paranoia… but his gut doesn't thinks so until Clyde is safely out of the shop. Only then can Tweek breathe a little easier and not panic. However, Clyde isn't out of the shop yet and so Tweek has to watch on the sidelines as Craig takes care of all the stressful things like accounts and bills. All Tweek has to do is work in the shop and rest – and really Craig just wants him to rest. He's always telling Tweek to sit down, to take a break, to have a nice calming cup of decaffeinated tea and read a book or play a game or make another sculpture – anything not stress inducing. It's understandable, considering that they're barely twenty-five and Tweek has already had one heart attack. So of course Tweek doesn't really blame him for this constant little nagging to rest, in fact he's pretty surprised Craig doesn't push it more, but that too might induce stress and Craig simply hates the idea.
Which is why Tweek keeps his mouth shut about Clyde.
Craig watches as Tweek reaches under the counter for his heart meds. Tweek doesn't notice because he's to distracted with his inner thoughts, though to the outside world he looks perfectly focused… but Craig can tell that his wide eyes aren't always watching, they just sort of look that way. Craig worries sometimes, especially when Clyde is here, because Tweek's eyes always seem to linger on the man and that makes Craig upset in ways he knows he shouldn't be. Then again, what's not to notice about Clyde? He's lean and attractive in ways that Craig can't be, he's smart and flirty and always wearing those clothes that fit him in just the right way. Clyde and him may have dated, but the two both know they only did it to make their respective others jealous.
But Craig regrets it now. It was short and explosive and it may have cause Tweek to get involved in something worse than all the caffeine, and even though he tells himself that it was years ago and couldn't possibly have anything to do with the heart attack he still blames himself.
He'll never forget it either. Not ever.
Not the way Tweek was freaking out after receiving a phone call from the landlord trying to up the shop's rent again. Not the way Tweek was spasming so hard that it was like he was walking with a seizure. Not how Tweek suddenly started feeling a horrible pain in his shoulder and then his arm and then collapsed. Thank God they had aspirin. Thank God, for once in the entirety of the whole forsaken town of South Park, the paramedics arrived on time and did their damn jobs without messing up or making some asinine decision that would make Tweek worse. He'll never forget the nights spent in the hospital room, in the guest chair holding Tweek's hand. He'll never forget how the doctor said Tweek would have been dead if anything had gone wrong.
After the incident, Craig made it his job to take care of Tweek. The first thing he did, hired specialist to make sure that Tweek was getting proper medical advice. He took the experts advice to heart – no more caffeine for Tweek and no more major stressors either.
It wasn't all that hard getting Tweek to let go, which both releaved and worried Craig, but he didn't tell his boyfriend that.
"So, did you give him the ring yet?" Clyde asks, taking a sip of the coffee that Tweek had served a while ago.
This makes Craig snap back at attention.
"Huh?" he asks, his eyes drifting back to Tweek as he starts taking small loads of dishes into the back.
"The ring, dumbass. The one you had Token help you pick out." Clyde snuffs setting down the coffee and scanning the documents again, making sure all the business' accounting is in order. Craig pats at the chest pocket.
"Not yet. I want to do it when we're alone and at home. Just in case he rejects me. Want to make sure my break up is in private this time." Clyde snorts,
"You two have been together since the forth grade – even with the on-again-off-agains that, I remind you, are shorter than anyone else I've ever met – you really think he'd reject you? Seriously? What hope it there for the rest of us." Clyde's tone is playful and dramatic – so different from when they were kids.
"Shut up." Craig says, flipping him off. They hear a mug drop and shatter.
Before anything can be said or done by Clyde, Craig has bolted out of his seat toward the back room where he finds that, despite his fears, Tweek is fine. Better than fine, in fact, since he's stopped shaking and is calmly cleaning up the broken glass.
"You okay?" Craig asks anyway. Tweek jumps a little, startled to find Craig so near,
"Yeah. I'm fine." And Tweek smiles and Craig's heartbeats loudly and thinks that tonight he'll finally do it. He'll ask him and get it over with.
So Craig goes back to the table, where Clyde sits, finishing his coffee, and all packed up.
"Well, ask soon so that Token and I can stop worrying about our team leader." Clyde says as he leans back.
"I wish you guys would let that go." Craig says, picking up his own drink before sitting back down. He takes a sip and enjoys the taste. Tweek makes the best coffee – always has – probably because he was raised on the stuff, but also because Tweek has grown to love brewing the coffee, he even calls it his magic potion, whenever Craig asks for a cup. Craig doesn't tell anyone this, but the best part about Tweek making coffee isn't just the product itself.
Nope. It's the way Tweek sniffs the beans before he grinds them up, and the way he leans over the seep and his butt, after years of twitching, wiggles just the tiniest bit, almost as if he's wagging an invisible tail or trying not to dance to his favorite song. That's what always gets him. The way Tweek just gets so into it, even though he can't drink coffee anymore.
Clyde leaves, eventually, taking a to-go box of Tweek's newest coffee cake creations and a couple of cups home with him for Token and him to share. Meanwhile, Tweek decideds that since business has been so dead today they may as well close up early. He doesn't notice, until after they're walking out, that Craig put the closed sign up when they walked in that morning right after Tweek had flipped it to 'open' because it's a holiday and not many people would be out anyway.
So they pack up, and as they walk out Tweek notices the sign and informs Craig that being sneaky gets him no where near the bedroom tonight to which Craig responds that maybe Tweek will feel differently after dinner.
They walk home; it's a small town anyway. They reminisce – talking about how Cartman is still a fata** and how Stan and Wendy are off at some big school, big shocker there, they kid. Kyle is working in the mayer's office, which is good, they think, since Kyle actually thinks. Butters and his girlfriend from Canada should be coming for a visit soon – though Tweek suspects that they're engaged by now.
"Can you believe it?" Tweek asks, letting Craig put his hand into Craig's coat pocket. "Two relationships started in the forth grade and we're all still together." He says, leaning himself against Craig as they walk.
"What I can't believe is that Stan followed Wendy to the same school when he has no interest in business, medicine, or any of the other majors there." Craig says.
Tweek chuckles and mutters, "What I can't believe is that he got into the same school as her."
Craig also lowers his voice, "Me either."
At home, Craig tells Tweek that he should sit down and watch some TV. He should relax. Tweek tells him that today wasn't really that stressful, but Craig insists that the couch is comfy enough to make him want to relax and that maybe a nap would also be good. Tweek relents, he lets Craig get him into some pajamas, and lays down on the couch to watch some TNT drama. Mean while, Craig makes dinner – pasta and pork chops, because some how they taste good together.
When he's done, he goes to get Tweek who has fallen asleep on the couch. It's so rare to see Tweek actually sleep so soundly so instead of waking him he wraps the food up for later and joins him on the couch. Soon, he's situated beneath Tweek who uses him like a body pillow and the two are out like lights before the clock strikes six.
In the morning, he proposes and it isn't what he had hoped to do, not what he planned, but it worked, because Tweek says yes.
He says yes.
And later he says, "I do."
And the rings leave a comfortable weight on their respective fingers that reminds them they're never really alone even when separated. It gives them a certainty to work out their problems. It also gives them the security they both secretly hoped to have – the security that the other loves them enough to keep this going and that even the attractive Clyde that comes into the shop and makes suggestive innuendos when going over the numbers isn't out to get one of them (and even if he is, they're married so he can f*ck right off like Craig's finger implies).
The End.