Build a Bear Workshop, a south park fanfic

"Excuse me sir, there's no smoking in here." A young man's eyes turned up to face an employee who was offering a strained smile and interrupting his afternoon smoke. The young man removed the cigarette from his mouth, and smothered it against the public bench he was sitting and tossed it into the nearby trash bin. The entire scene was rather anti-climactic, and the employee offered an even tighter smile and left Craig to his business of sitting by himself.

Craig Tucker hadn't always liked stuffed animals. As a child he thought them rather pointless and opted for being a spaceman and scraping his knees learning how to skate board. Though when he was in ninth grade and was assigned a health project in which he and a classmate had to spend a weekend caring for a mock baby. Because Park County High School was that of lesser funding, they were given atomic teddy bears and he was partnered with Tweek Tweak.

They had named the baby Red Racer. Well, Craig had anyways. At the time Tweek was too shy to even sputter out his own name, let alone create a new one for he and his new husband's bear child. So, Tweek just went along with it and that was that.

Craig actually had a an awesome time with Tweek and their joint custody of Red Racer. That is, until Craig had to drop their son of at Tweek's house. Tweek had been held up at work in the coffee shop and Craig found it would be easier to drop the bear off on his way to Clyde's house. His mom who had been home for her day off let Craig in and up to Tweek's bedroom. When he entered he had been stunned into an awkward paralyzation. The blonde's bedroom was filled with stuffed animals.

Dinosaurs, whales, birds, dogs, cats, lions, tigers, and bears, Tweek had enough animals to start an arc. Hell, Craig even found a damn unicorn just chilling like a bro on Tweek's bed. He was in that room marveling at all the different creatures for half an hour before Tweek came stumbling in, he shrieked at the sight of Craig.

"Dude, are these all yours?"

"Yeah... They're my collection."

"I can tell... So why do you have all these? I'm sure Red Racer feels a little left out that daddy doesn't give him all of his attention." Craig held up the bear child and grinned. Tweek blushed and scuffled his feet.

"I like them because they're soft... And soft things are comforting, and sometimes I need a lot of comforting." Craig laughed a bit and tosses Tweek their child. Tweek lightly scolded him on proper treatment of their son and Craig rebutted saying Red Racer was their daughter. They began a playful banter which ended with Craig ruffling Tweek's hair and the two becoming best friends.

It was senior year when Tweek started showing signs of not being 100 percent healthy. He'd always been a scrawny little thing that was extremely pale and looked like he never slept, but... Craig began noticing he was getting thinner, whiter, and his rings around his eyes became even darker. Eventually Tweek had to stop coming to school...

One snowy Tuesday afternoon, after Craig decided to cut class and visit his blonde companion he sat with Tweek in his bedroom. Tweek was wearing an old faded pair of Terrance and Phillip pajamas, with a knitted green blanket draped around his shoulders, and buried in blankets. His fingers were playing idly with a Bowie on a koala bear stuffed animal as he gazed blankly out the window. Craig had been blathering aimlessly about some Red Racer episode when Tweek cut him off.

"I have cancer Craig."

"What?"

"I have stomach cancer, Craig, it's terminal."

"Tweekers what are you talking about?" Tweek looked away from the window and into Craig's eyes. His smile was melancholy.

"The doctors say I wasn't supposed to live past freshmen year... I was really bad then, but somehow by a miracle... I outlived their diagnosis. I've always been a sick kid... So I didn't really get to play and make friends as much when I was younger... So I think that when we became friends in freshmen year, when I finally started to be able to live... My body held me up for just a little bit longer. But now, I haven't got much time left..." There was a long silence in the room before Craig stood up from his seat. His eyes were shadowed by his hair but his mouth was set in a firm line. His right arm suddenly drew back and collided with the side of Tweek's.

"I guess I deserved that, didn't I?" Tweek chuckled while rubbing his throbbing cheek. Craig dropped to his knees like a sack of potatoes, and he began to cry. His tears turned to noisy sobs that shook his entire body. Tweek extended a pale arm and pulled Craig's chullo from his head, and wound his bony fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp gently. Craig wiped his eyes with his sleeve and lifted his face to look at his sickly blonde friend who was beaming down at him.

"Say, why don't we go to the mall?"

"Shouldn't you be concerned for your health?" Tweek pressed a thin finger against Craig's lips to shush him.

"I've still got a little life in me... So why don't we go have some fun?"

Craig and Tweek were bundled up and walking around South Park mall. A heavy feeling was settled on Craig's shoulders, but he, like Tweek had to put up a brave front. This tiny little blonde beside him had been struggling with this for years alone. It was up to Craig to be a supportive and a good best friend for the remainder of the time we had left.

"Oh! Craig, can we go to Build a Bear?" Craig's thick eyebrows arched in question at the blonde's sudden request. But he soon shrugged and the pair were soon in the toy store having a good time customizing their chosen animals and receiving odd looks from fellow customers, which Craig flipped off in response.

The next day, when Craig cut class to go see Tweek, his dad answered the door and gravelly informed Craig that Tweek wasn't home. He had been rushed to Hell's Pass Hospital late last night. Richard Tweak and Craig Tucker both knew that time was running out faster then they had thought.

He looked awful in that crisp white bed. His eyes were closed and his breathing was near in audible. Craig stepped in, his wet boots squeaking on the linoleum floor. Tweek's eyes peeled open slowly, blinking a few times before his mouth contorted into a genuine grin.

"I know I'm beautiful...stop staring.." Leave it to Tweek to try and be entertaining while being hospitalized. Craig sat at the foot of his bed, and Tweek rose slowly to a sitting position.

"Say, Tucker, could you do me a favor?"

"What's that?"

"Well... By now my parents are at work.. So do you think you could bust me outta here and take me home? I wanna be with my stuffed animals and in my own bedroom." Craig smiled, knowing he'd probably get in a lot of trouble for this.

"Why the hell not? Get dressed and let's get out of here." Craig assisted Tweek slide into a pair of pants, a shirt, his snow boots and his fluffy winter coat and the two made a break for it.

Surprisingly enough, they were able to make it out of the hospital without being stopped, but conflict arose when Tweek's pace slowed to a near halt and it became increasingly difficult for him to walk. Craig, being a mammoth of a man was able to lift the small boy onto his back and hike their way home as the snow fell and the sky darkened.

"There, nice and comfortable amongst your animals." Tweek smiled tiredly as he was a little mass of blonde fluff in a sea of stuffed animals and blankets. Craig was sitting on the edge of the bed, fu,bling with his ape fingers before an idea struck him. He tore his chullo from his messy black mop and leaned over the boy, plopping it over Tweek's wild mass of blonde hair.

"What are you doing?" Wondered Tweek and Craig smiled at him.

"You say soft things are comforting things, well my hat is the softest thing around." Tweek laughed and gently tugged at the blue ear coverings. The two were quiet again before Tweek spoke up.

"Craig, would you... Lie with me? I'm still a little cold.." Craig nodded and removed his damp boots before crawling to curl beside his best friend.

"Thank you Craig... I'm finally warm enough. I think I can take a nap now..."

"Yeah, I'm gonna take a nap too."

"Alright... If you wake up before I do, there's something in the closet I want you to look at."

"Alright Tweakers... Sleep well.."

"I will, thank you Craig..." Craig's eyes were suddenly heavy and as his lids began to lower, he got to see Tweek's golden green eyes glittering in the light from the window and a smile on his lips and then, nothing.

"Craig, wake up."

"Tweek, seriously... Five more minutes please." Craig groaned into his pillow. He heard a strangled noise and he suddenly sat up fearing Tweek had a nightmare or something. Instead, he was met with the red ringed eyes of Kathleen Tweak gently shaking him awake.

"Mrs. Tweak? Where's Tweek?" She made that strangled noise again and began crying. A pit suddenly tore in Craig's stomach and he looked out the window. There was an ambulance in the driveway and people gathered outside.

"Is he... Where is he?! The hospital?!" Kathleen's hands covered her mouth and she shook her head and suddenly Craig's tongue felt like cotton. He tore from the bed, very awake now, he ran to Tweek's closet,nearly tripping over a stuffed pink hippo, he threw the door open and saw a little white Build a Bear box in the shape of a house with his name on it.

Inside the box was a carbon copy of the bear they had made in ninth grade and a certificate that said it's name was Red Racer 2. Craig's throat felt tight as he discovered that at the bottom of the paper in Tweek's chicken scratch there was a note that said 'squeeze me'. So, he gently squeezed the bear's tummy.

"Hey Craig... This is awkward... Right now we're at Build a Bear and I have to whisper so you don't hear me. So, by now I've already moved on. I planned this that way. I didn't want you finding his until then... There isn't much time for me me to record, so I have to cut to the chase-" Tweek's voice paused as Craig's voice called to him and Tweek responded he'd be with him in a minute "anyways, what I'm saying is... Craig I'm in love with you. I have been since you punched my lights out in third grade. Being friends with you is all I ever needed, these past three years have been the best of my life... Just being with you, Clyde, and Token... I know I'm a coward for leaving a voice message over a bear, but you know me... I'm quite the awkwo-taco as Clyde would say... My time in life and this bear is running short... Damn, that was morbid as hell... So take care of our daughter Craig, Red Racer the second isn't the original, but she's made from a piece of me... So I love you Craig, I always have and I always will... And even though when you hear this I'll be gone in body, I'll always be there with you in spirit. Say hello to the sunrise for me Craig, I love you." And Tweek's voice was gone. Up until then he had been silently crying, but as that final I love you finished Craig's steel wall of emotion broke, and he cried loud hard sobs the wracked his body till he was a quivering empty shell on the Tweak's floor.

Craig had come to the mall to see if he could get the battery in the bear replaced. The boy was now twenty three, and after listening to the bear's message every day for five years, the battery was on it's last leg. He had hoped that perhaps the Build a Bear within would be able to supply him with a new battery, but Craig Tucker was not a lucky man.

"Hey Craig... This is awkward... Right now we're at Build a Bear and I have to whisper so you don't hear me-" and the tape cut off. The voice that had filled his ears was once young and mellifluous, but time had done it's duty, and just like the voices owner, the battery was dead.