Craig jolted awake before his head had a chance to hit the desk. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a full night's sleep without Tweek coming to wake him up. Only a week after their anniversary, Tweek had been roped into helping his dad at the coffee shop more, and the pressure it was causing him meant he was coming to Craig at all kinds of crazy hours.
Now, a little over a month later, Craig was struggling to keep awake in class. He yawned, glancing over at Tweek, who had completely reverted back to his twitchy, anxious self. He was hunched up over his desk, trying to do schoolwork and fill out invoices for coffee supplies at the same time.
The thing that frustrated Craig the most was that there was nothing he could do or say to make it easier for Tweek. He had to watch his boyfriend go from school straight to work and become more and more wound up, and just sit there knowing a panic-induced rant was coming later that night.
Their anniversary already seemed like such a long time ago.
At the end of the school day there was barely enough time to kiss Tweek goodbye before he was running off towards the coffee shop. Craig watched him go with a sigh, and then headed home. He might as well get an early night. He knew what was coming.
When he was shaken awake, the green glow of his alarm clock told him it was nearly 4 in the morning.
'Y-you gotta do something!' Tweek was already saying before Craig had turned on the lamp.
'Hi, Tweek,' Craig mumbled.
'I can't work this much. I can't test -agh!- test this much coffee. You gotta do something!'
'Like what?'
'Kill me!' Tweek shook Craig by the shoulders.
'Hey,' Craig grumbled, shoving Tweek off of him. 'Look, you're just tired. You know why?'
'I'm working too much?'
'No,' Craig complained. 'Well, yeah, but what I mean is, you should try actually sleeping at night.'
'I can't! I'm t-too stressed...'
'Well, you're stressing me out too,' Craig snapped, slumping back down on the bed.
'B-but-'
'Babe, please,' Craig groaned. 'You've been coming over every night for like three weeks.'
He turned his face into the pillow to block out the light. He didn't know how muach more of this he could take. He just wanted one decent night's rest...
'You're sick of me,' Tweek said quietly.
'No,' Craig mumbled against his pillow. 'But you're driving me a little crazy.'
Even in his sleepy state, something in his mind told him that wasn't the right thing to say. He sighed and sat up, but the damage was done. Tweek was standing by the door with his arms folded, looking down.
'You said you'd help me through all my anxiety and bad times.'
'I know,' Craig said, 'but at the time I didn't think you'd do this for three weeks straight! Go home and sleep.'
Fuck. That wasn't what he wanted to say. It was the exhaustion talking, not him. Why did he always have to say the wrong thing? Before he'd started dating Tweek, he had trouble communicating and rarely spoke his mind. Now, even after a year with Tweek, he was just getting used to letting someone in. His issue wasn't a lack of speech anymore, but instead how blunt and rude he sounded. And it made him mad because he could hear it once he spoke. It wasn't what he wanted. He wanted Tweek to feel better, and he really believed getting some sleep and not stressing would help. But saying that without sounding like a douchebag seemed impossible.
Besides, he knew it wasn't easy for Tweek to just 'stop stressing and sleep'. He shouldn't make it sound so easy.
It took him a moment to realise that Tweek was taking the promise ring off his finger.
'Tweek-'
'You broke your promise,' Tweek said quietly.
This was the first time Craig had seen Tweek calm in the last month. And it was for the worst possible reason.
Tweek put the ring down on the chest of drawers near the door, then turned to leave.
'Hey!' Craig exclaimed, staggering to his feet.
'If the promises you made don't mean anything,' Tweek said without turning around, 'then that ring doesn't mean anything either. It's just a ring.'
He closed the door behind him, leaving Craig with the ring and a heavy, empty silence.