Thank you everyone for the feedback so far. It makes me :D
Yes, I bring you a second chapter. Already! I know- it's so weird! It probably won't happen again but you guys so awesome (and the first chapter was shortish) so I bring you a bonus update in a week! Just as a reminder, this will be updated on Fridays, as will be I Know Why the Jailed Bird Sings.
Enjoy~


Craig lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. It had been two hours since his mom had come in and flipped him off, telling him to go to bed already. But he couldn't. So what if he'd be fucking exhausted in the morning? He'd deal.

He rolled over and looked at the wall, blinking tiredly. He didn't even bother to change out of his day clothes, with the exception of his hat, which was currently sitting on his nightstand. He touched the top of his bare head self consciously, messing up his hair a bit. He just couldn't seem to focus on anything for more than five minutes. Well, anything aside from Stripe.

Without meaning to, Craig glanced over to where the guinea pig's cage used to lie. After the first night he hadn't been able to stand the sight of it, and though it killed inside him he managed to get it into the basement. He still couldn't believe it. He knew it had been a ridiculously long time and Clyde was right that it should hade died fucking years ago but that didn't stop it from hurting. Twelve years was a long goddamn time, and when you're only seventeen that makes up a fucking majority. Craig had every right to be pissed off and upset. It didn't make him a pussy or anything. Even if he did kind of start bawling when he realized…

Craig snorted and rolled over, facing the corner of his room. He wasn't angry, just a little peeved. He understood Stripe was old and he couldn't last forever, but he felt like there should have been something he could have done. He could have been there at least – poor Stripe was already stiff and cold when he got home. Nobody had noticed him – shit he hadn't even noticed if Stripe was alive when he left for school that morning. He didn't have the time to do more than spit a quick goodbye before he ran off and-

He groaned and rolled onto his stomach, burying his face in his pillow. He was not going to cry. He was not going to cry again goddamnit. Not any more. The first day was fine; dragging it on for a week was just being a pussy bitch about it. He could be moody all he fucking wanted, but he was not going to fucking cry. Not again.

When he was sure the feeling had passed he lifted his head and rolled back onto his back, looking up at the ceiling again. He really needed to repaint or something. He'd thrown shit on the second day, some of it left dents. Craig sighed and told himself he'd deal with it later. Maybe. Right now he let his mind wander between school and summer and shit he needed to get done and that annoying buzz in his pocket. He yawned; fishing his phone out and watching it vibrate in his palm. It was late. He should ignore it. But if it would keep his mind occupied…

"Hello?"
"Ahhagk!"
"Tweek. It's three in the morning."
"Gnomes! They're coming!"
"How much coffee have you had in the past twenty minutes?"
"…Not a lot. No more than usual. Oh God please help me!"
"Tweek- there are no gnomes. I've watched out for them seven times and nothing happened."
"They're afraid of you! Come over and help me!"
"It's three in the morning." Craig repeated, "How the hell am I going to get in?"
"Please!"

Craig sighed and rubbed his eyes, sitting up. He grabbed his hat and tugged it on with one hand, already standing and heading for the door. He really shouldn't be indulging Tweek like this. The last time he did this he couldn't get his sleeping pattern back until summer. But, the way he figured, he was already messed up and probably wouldn't be sleeping, so why not hang out instead of brood like some emo bitch?

"Alright, alright. Fine. Open the downstairs back door and I'll get in as quiet as I can."
"…But it's dark."
"It normally is dark at three in the morning. You're up often enough to know that."
"But what if a robber gets in? Or an ax murderer! He'll chop me into little bits and feast on my internal organs and then the gnomes will take all my underpants and my parents will be so pissed!"
"Fine. Open the front door and sit in the living room."
"But light will attract rouge possessed bulldozers that will destroy my house and then I'll be out on the street begging for food and-"
"The window, then."
"Vampires!"
"Tweek I swear to fucking God you open something or I'm staying home and you can beat the gnomes back by your own damn self"
"…Okay! Okay fine please just…. Nngh- Hurry!"

The line went dead and Craig sighed, glancing at the clock. Three ten on the dot. He had twenty minutes until the gnomes were supposed to show up. This was going to be a long fucking night.

O///////O

Much to his surprise, Tweek had mustered up the courage to run down, unlock his front door, and dash back up the stairs before anything in the shadows grabbed him or he woke his parents by screaming. In all honesty Craig could have broken into the house, but he didn't really feel like dealing with Mr. Tweak's metaphors. He did run into a bit of trouble actually getting into Tweek's room (he had double bolted the door and barricaded it with his dresser, just in case), but Craig did manage to get inside and calm the blond.

Three -Thirty came and past, and the gnomes made no appearances. Craig was mildly pissed – he could be in his own home in his own bed… but then again he wasn't exactly being productive there. Tweek seemed to calm (or at least as calm as he could get) and offered Craig some of his precious coffee stock as payment. Craig thought about refusing, but hell if he was going to get sleep anyway. He took the brief and tried to keep up with the jittery boy. He failed miserably, but he was awake at least.

They sat in amicable silence, Tweek's spasms and their needlessly loud sipping interrupting it periodically. For some reason Craig found this comforting. It was better than being alone, and he'd done this before. He knew how to act and react almost automatically but he had to be awake enough to thump the spazmoid for any new absurd theories. Despite all this Craig smiled a little bit every time Tweek twitched, and looked over his shoulder, hoping nothing was coming up behind him. Before long he was legitimately smiling, which made Tweek jerk and down the rest of his coffee

"You're still- Ack! You're still awake? And happy?"
"Gotta problem with that?"
"Not it's –nngerk – It's just that you try to kill me around now and you're smiling it looks like you're planning something oh sweet Jesus please don't snap my neck!"
"I'm not gonna snap your neck."
"Urk!"
"I'm okay."
"… You're sure?"
"Yeah. I'm good. Got any more coffee?"

Tweek stared at him, trembling for a moment holding his now empty mug like a lifeline. Craig raised a brow in return, too tired to raise his hand and flip him off. The blond boy twitched and made a distressed noise, finger tapping along the porcelain. In a flash, however, that image was gone, replaced by Tweek full-body tackling him to the bed, spewing unintelligible babble about Goths and suicide and 'ohgodpleasedon'tdoit.' Craig was more than a little confused.

"What the fuck, Tweek?"
"Don't die! Don't kill yourself!"
"The fuck is the matter with you? I'm not gonna kill myself. The fuck would I do that for?"
"But you're so sad and depressed and I don't want you to jump off a bridge and write depressing poetry about ravens! Ravens are diseased! They'll peck your eyes out and then you'll be blind and need a dog that will get rabies and then it'll eat your legs and then you'll be confined to a wheelchair! Aughanngk!"
"You're fucking insane."

Tweek scrambled back from his hold; leaving a cold ring around Craig's midsection he wasn't too fond of. The jittery boy sat back on his haunches, trembling a little bit, flushed and looking kind of embarrassed. He muttered to himself, something about Clyde and sadness and conspiracy and madhouses. Craig didn't particularly care what it was about, but that look of complete distress and confusion was killing him. It was nice to hear Tweek worried about him, and he did appreciate he didn't go around shooting his mouth off about Stripe. Craig smiled a little bit and he realized he was still kind of cold so he sat up, reached forward, and pulled the protesting boy back into the position he was in before and held him there until he stopped squirming.

"I dunno what you've been hearing." Craig murmured lazily, sliding his hand over Tweek's twitching head "But I ain't suicidal. I'm not jumping off bridges. I'm not smoking with the Goth fags. I'm not writing about fucking birds. So calm the hell down."
"O-Okay."
"Good boy."
"Craig?"
"Yeah?"
"Why are you – ack! - petting me?"

Craig paused, glancing down for a moment. Sure enough his hand was stroking the tangled mess of blond. That was odd. He hadn't realized he was doing that. He barely registered any motion, he was just happy to have the warm body. Why was he petting Tweek? Shit, he really had no idea. He just did it. He was doing it. Tweek had stopped shaking so much, and it felt kinda nice…

"You gotta problem with it?" He snapped, trying to save face.
"…No." Tweek muttered shaking his had against Craig's shirt. He wanted to say 'it feels good', but Craig would stop and punch him and leave him for the gnomes. He twitched and whined in panic.
"Good." Craig yawned, oblivious to his nervous friends dilemma "Your parents gonna freak if I stay the night?"
"You're staying the night?"
"You wanna face the gnomes alone?"
"Gah!"
"I'm staying."

Tweek glanced up at Craig, who was staring off out the window, which was pointless because the gnomes always came in through the door. But he was glad Craig was here anyway. The gnomes would still probably rob him blind once Craig was distracted enough but he at least stood a fighting chance with Craig to throw middle fingers and stomp on the stupid little things. Even if Craig missed them completely (everyone always did!) then at least he could be here for moral support. Apathetic as he was, he was pretty good at staying quiet and waiting out a distressing or painful situation.

With all this in mind, Tweek pressed himself a little closer to the bigger male. Craig really was a good friend. No one else had the patients to deal with him in the early morning hours. Even his parents sucked at helping past midnight. He was lucky to know him, and even luckier to have him here now. He felt a few tremors course through him, but he was calmer than he had been in a while, and he cuddled closer to Craig while he was pet and risked shutting his eyes for a minute.

"Thank you."
"No problem."


Second chapter! More things happened! Let me know if it you love it or hate it!
Have an awesome day :D