Tonight's Lullaby: Lifeforms by Daughter
Small Lifeforms
Chap 2; Seren-dipity-doo-da
Nothing but trees pass by them. That's how it is at Bebe's house; way out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forests and not much else. Tweek keeps an eye out for the mailbox on the side of the road. It looks like a miniature barn on a stick, which Tweek finds rather quaint. Bebe turns at said mailbox and guides the van down the drive. They pass tire swings and a kiddie pool on the way to the farmhouse. Tweek keeps trying to drill it into his head that this is his home. Home. What's funny is he can't help but feel like this is the closest he's ever been to having one.
They come to a shaky stop in the gravel driveway, then climb out. Tweek unbuckles Avery, and a small hand grips the front of his shirt. He smiles down at the big eyes gaping up at him. With Avery on his hip and Bebe's voice filling his head, he feels as if he actually… belongs here.
Bebe mutters under her breath when they step onto the porch and she fumbles with her keys. The muffled noise behind the front door is suddenly booming when she pushes it open. It's the excited giggling of a child and the just as excited giggling of a father. Bebe's shoes click across the old wood of her living room before she shouts into the house: "GROCERIES! IF YOU DON'T HELP YOU DON'T EAT!"
"Oh, damn, it's your mother," a deep voice murmurs from a nearby room. It's hushed as if caught in the middle of a crime.
"Clyde, I heard that, you butt. Come help."
"Heeeeere we come!" A little voice laughs. Only a moment later, a young girl comes skipping in. In her hand is a much bigger hand, and attached to that is Clyde. Or… at least Tweek thinks so. It's kind of hard to tell.
"Oh my god. Is that my make up?" Bebe blurts like she's angry, but the grin tugging at the corners of her lips gives her away.
"Um… I don't know what you're talking about," Clyde says as he picks a bow out of his hair. And then another.
"Babe," she stops to laugh. "Babe, there's lipstick in your eyebrows."
"Yeah. I just thought I needed a new look, you know? A little lipstick in the eyebrows is like… the new thing."
Tweek supposes the mascara streaking his cheeks is just a new fad, too. Along with the powder in his hair and the pink blotch on the tip of his nose.
"Isn't he pretty?" asks the girl still latched onto his hand. She's beaming with pride. Tweek can almost visibly see Bebe's heart melting into the girl's tiny hands.
"Yes, of course, Claudia," Bebe replies while stifling a giggle. "Very creative."
The girl nods hard, and her brown pig tails sway with the gesture.
Avery's toes touch the ground when Tweek lowers him to the floor, but the boy just chases after his father anyway; even as Claudia latches onto him and rambles on about everything that happened while he was gone. The children follow Tweek through the house and out into the yard. When he and the other grown ups dig plastic bags out of the trunk, the children marvel at how sharp the gravel in the driveway is against their bare feet. Avery whines at being parted so far from his daddy.
"We need sandals," Claudia says as Avery presses his foot down on the jagged little rocks. "Charlotte is the only one brave enough to go past without them!"
Brave? Avery's brave! If all it takes to walk on the rocks is that, then he doesn't need sandals! The boy puffs up his chest, and then bolts out into the drive way.
"Avery, no!" Claudia shouts from behind him, but he's too focused to hear her.
The tiny pebbles jab the bottoms of his feet and stick between his toes, but they don't deter his long strides. Daddy is only a little ways away.
Tweek jumps when he feels something smack against his leg. His arms are filled with plastic bags, so he has to twist at an angle to see the boy hooked onto his pants. Claudia's still wailing from the safety of the grass. She tosses her arms all around her in a fit, as if she'd just watched the boy jump off a cliff.
Clyde snorts, and Tweek sighs.
"Claudia said only brave people can walk on the rocks and I did it!" Avery boasts from his father's pant leg.
"I'm not surprised," Tweek says with the faintest grin. "You are the bravest, after all."
"Yeah!" Avery shouts before running back to the grass with his arms stretched out to either side. "I'm brave! Like Simba, like Hurcules!"
"Holy shit that kid is so cute," Clyde says as he watches Avery collide with Claudia, who was still yelling. "It's so funny because he looks exactly like you- exactly - but he's such a daredevil and you're such a weenie."
"H-hey!" Tweek snaps. "I'm n-not a weenie!"
He clutches the bags tightly to his chest and stops back towards the house in a huff, as if that will somehow prove his point.
"Well, we have to give him a little credit, seeing as how he kept his cool so well at the store," Bebe relays to her makeup covered husband as she passes him a bag.
"Oh, yeah? What happened?" Clyde ponders as he peeks inside the plastic.
"You should ask Tweek." Bebe's grinning at the twitching man, who's already half way back to the house.
"What? Did you s-say my name?"
"Yeah. You should tell Clyde what happened at the store," she reiterates as she jogs to catch up with him.
"GAH! What? Nothing happened!" Tweek blurts, though his cheeks betray him with a slight pinkish tinge.
"Oh, did too-"
"What?" Clyde whines. "What was it? Don't leave me hanging."
Avery stumbles alongside his father as they congregate back into the house. Tweek keeps walking straight to the kitchen. He refuses to look back at the others for the fear of getting caught with a blush. Why is he all bashful, anyway? Craig is his ex boyfriend, not a teenage crush. At least not anymore. Bebe and Clyde follow right on his heels, and by this point Clyde won't let up.
"Tell meeeeee!"
Clyde whines more than his five year old.
"Nothing, Clyde, nothing happened," Tweek assures his blathering friend, though he still won't face him. "We just ran into Craig-"
"Craig? Oh, no," Clyde utters. "Did he see Avery? Did he weird out?"
"Huh? No. He saw Ave, but he wasn't any more weird than he's always been. Why would he be?" Tweek mutters as he pulls a carton of orange juice from a grocery bag and shoves it in the fridge. Bebe folds her arms over her chest and cocks a brow at Tweek. He damn well knows the answer to that question.
"Oh, come on," she says. "You and Craig were inseparable boyfriends for like EVER- weren't you engaged? I think it's a little obvious why seeing your kid would freak him out."
"Well, in his defense, I guess Tweek hasn't talked to him in like six years," Clyde says. "How would he know?"
For some reason Tweek can't help but feel the teeniest tiniest bit of pissed the fuck off. They think he just dropped Craig entirely and never ever even bothered to ask if he was okay? Sure, they kept their lives from one another, but it's not like they didn't call on occasion. The more he thinks about it the more angry he is.
"Y-yeah I have! I mean, we talked on the phone a few times. I'm not some heartless monster who dumped him and never spoke to him again or something." His voice began venomous until he remembered little Avery was looking up at him.
"What? And you never told him about…" Bebe's gaze flickers to the young boy by Tweek's side. "About the B-A-B-Y."
Tweek's flushed face doesn't let up his case. He shouldn't have said anything.
"Well… no. It was just a few times. I think the last time we talked before today was like a year ago. I - it was just kinda a few minute 'hi how are ya' sorta thing. I didn't think it mattered," Tweek lies. He won't admit those calls were made only at their lowest moments. There was no small talk; the only noise that passed through their speakers were sobbing and quiet assurances. Tweek really really hated to admit it, but no one knew how to calm down Craig and Tweek better than one another. No amount of time or distance could change that fact. And with the baby? Tweek already hurt Craig enough.
"Hm. That explains it a little better," Clyde says while nodding his head.
"Explains what?" Tweek mutters as he shoves a box into the cabinet.
By now Clyde is doing a better job of getting into the food then helping to put it away. He's popped open a bag of chips. His cheeks are full when he looks up and says, "Why he never got over you."
"Clyde!" Bebe scolds.
"What, what? It's true!" he blathers as crumbs fall from his cheese covered lips. "Everybody knows it!"
Tweek rubs his face and shifts from side to side with unease. It would explain Craig tripping all over himself while he tried to talk. Tweek wasn't just some stranger to him. They spent five years together. The best five years Tweek can remember having, besides the ones spent with Avery. What? God, damn it, Tweek. You aren't back in South Park to rekindle some old flame. You're here for your son.
Tweek rubs the back of his neck and sighs. He stares at an old, crooked picture of a farm nailed to the wall to distract himself.
"W-well… I sort of feel bad, then," he admits with a small whine. "I hope he didn't think I was like… flirting with him or something."
Bebe laughs. "I don't think Craig knows what flirting is. I wouldn't worry about that."
"You're right about that one," Clyde agrees as he shoves another handful of chips in his mouth.
"Are you gonna help, or just stand there and stuff yourself?" Bebe utters. "I wanna get this done before Ken comes by."
With his mouth still full, Clyde picks up a can of soup and puts it in the pantry. For every item put away, he crams another handful of chips in this mouth. Tweek can't help but smile. It's nice to see how some things never change.
A sudden noise startles Tweek out of his ease. Bebe's phone is blaring from her purse. She purses her lips at the sound before fetching it from the counter. Clyde and Tweek watch with raised eyebrows as she makes a face at the name on her screen.
"Speak of the devil."
Her narrow finger presses the talk button.
"Hello, hello," she greets.
When her face melts into a scowl, Tweek becomes worried.
"What do you mean you're going to be late?… Kenny, five o'clock means five o'clock."
Clyde bites down on his lip. Bebe stands from the wall and paces the floor.
"No, I understand that, but…" she sighs, "Kenny, listen, I don't care how late it is, just have my daughter back home before the end of the night."
She stops to tap her foot against the wooden floor, and the call concludes with, "Alright, alright. Tell Kyle I hope it goes well. Just don't forget to tell me about this kind of stuff so I know before you take her next time. Yeah, see ya."
She tosses her phone onto the stained wood of her counter top, then runs a hand through her wild hair.
"What happened?" Clyde asks. He's abandoned his chip bag on the kitchen table and moved on to sucking the cheese dust off his fingers.
"Nothing. Kyle had an appointment Ken forgot to tell me about. I guess Charlotte wanted to go with them, so he won't drop her off 'til late."
"Huh?" Clyde doesn't seem too thrilled with the news, either. "Wow, well… I don't know. I hate to sound like a dick or something, but he's lucky he gets to have her at all. He's kinda pushing it with all these late drop offs, isn't he?"
"I guess, but I really don't think he means to- you know how scatter brained he is," she sighs with a subtle huff. "And parental rights or not, he is Charlotte's biological dad. He'd never forgive us if we got in the way of that. Neither would Charlotte."
"I know, I know. Kenny's my bro! I wouldn't want that, either. It just gets annoying."
Tweek feels like he's eavesdropping on a private conversation. It's one he wishes he hadn't heard thanks to the sad tug in his chest. Maybe Kenny's predicament is a good thing, though. He might be in bed before they show up. Seeing Ken and Ky wouldn't bring back bittersweet memories like Craig did, but he's had more than his fair share of awkwardly emotional reunions for one day.
…
Their room is just big enough for a queen sized bed and a dresser, both of which were ready for them before they moved in. Tweek's laying back in said bed. The faded, torn squares of a quilt keep him and Avery cozy on this crisp summer night. The world outside their cracked window is getting darker, but he isn't quite ready for sleep. His laptop is resting on the blankets over his legs. Job openings scroll past his sleep deprived eyes, but everything he comes across is either too far away or he isn't qualified for. It's been that way all night. And the night before that, too.
His gaze shifts from the bright screen to the little boy sitting at the foot of the bed. Avery's legs are tucked underneath him as he clutches his stuffed rabbit. He's blissfully distracted by the tiny T.V. on their dresser, and Tweek can't help but let out a faint sigh. The T.V. is something Tweek picked up at Good Will, along with a VCR and a few tapes worth less than a dollar each. Avery doesn't seem to mind that most everything he has is hand-me-downs from strangers. That doesn't ease the twisting in Tweek's stomach.
He sinks a little lower against his pillow; his eyes back on the screen. Blue links assault his vision, but he can't let up. He has bills to pay, a leaking car, a child about to start kindergarten, and no job.
"Daddy? You have sleepies," says a small voice from beside him.
He nearly jumps out of his skin, but melts back into his pillow when he notices Avery's big green eyes.
"Ah. Yeah. Daddy has sleepies… Maybe we should go to bed."
Avery gives an excited nod before rolling over and plopping down onto the carpet. "Okay! Let me check for the monsters!"
The boy runs to the closet, then stands on his tippy toes to pull the door open. With a holler, he dives inside. If there ARE any monsters in there, he's going to have the element of surprise. Tweek stifles a chuckle as the child roots around in a pile of clothes. He rummages in their unpacked boxes for a few moments until realizing the green monster hiding inside is only one of daddy's sweaters.
"All clear!" He declares before rolling out of the tiny room and pushing the tall wooden door closed behind him. "Now for under the bed!"
Tweek closes his laptop and smiles as Avery runs to the bedside and lifts the blankets up. Things shift and move underneath Tweek. At least until his son pops back up beside the bed with a wild head of hair. The boy stumbles to the window, where he checks outside for ghouls. There's only black, so he draws the curtains with his chubby hands.
"Is it all clear, little monster hunter?" Tweek asks with a yawn.
"Yes!" Avery rejoices. "But don't worry, Daddy. If any monsters do come, I'll beat them up!"
"I know you will, that's why they never come around here."
"Right!"
The child makes his way back to the bed and crawls his way into the quilt with his father. Tweek is still sitting up; hair sticking out every which way, dark circles hanging from his tired eyes. He smiles when the boy's hand touches the stubble on his jaw. Tweek sinks down in bed. A groan spills out of him the moment his cheek falls onto the softness of his pillow- one of the few things that he brought himself. Avery quickly copies his father. He dramatically falls down on beside Tweek and lets out a loud sigh.
"So…" Tweek utters. "How do you like it here? With Aunt Bebe and Uncle Clyde?"
Avery snuggles into the fluff of their pillow while he thinks about it. Tweek pulls their quilt up over his little shoulder to combat the chill in their room.
"It's fun," Avery slurs through the fabric. "I love them!"
A small weight lifts off Tweek's chest, and his smile returns to is face.
"And they love you, too," he assured. "Do you know who else loves you?"
"Who?"
"I do," Tweek hums in response, then reaches out and buries his fingers under Avery's armpit.
"Ah!" the boy half squeals half giggles while rolling away from the tickling. "Dats not fair! I wasn't ready!"
Tweek chuckles, then ensnares the laughing child in his arms. He's too tired to carry through with a full on tickle war. Instead he settles with a peck on his son's forehead, which Avery quickly returns.
"Alright, lets get some sleep. We're gonna be pretty busy tomorrow."
…
Pretty busy turned out to be an understatement. Tweek's been driving around all day. It started at the the post office, where he set up a P.O. box, then to North Park, where he spent a couple hours investigating every 'Now Hiring' sign he could find. The McDonald's seems pretty interested in giving him a chance. That's definitely exciting, but the temperature gauge in his dashboard sucked all the happiness right out of him. His engine's hot, and the coolant is low. He's honestly not sure what that could end up doing to his car. What if it locks up on the road and causes him to get into an accident with Avery in the back seat? What if it gets so hot it explodes?
He immediately presses his foot on the break to slow down. Just in case. The few cars behind him honk in annoyance, but if they're so eager to kill themselves they can just fuckin' go around. Avery leans up in his car seat to watch the other vehicles do just that.
Tweek's eyes scan the side of the road for any sign of a mechanic shop. He recalls seeing one yesterday. A big gray building next to… Jimbo's! Avery lets out an excited holler when Tweek hits the breaks and takes a sharp left turn. Driving recklessly is not his thing, but holy fuck he's so sure his car's about to burst into flames. The needle on the temp gauge is dangerously high.
"Do it again! Do it again!" Avery chants as his father lets out a sigh. He can see Jimbo's Guns just down the road. It's surrounded by shrubs now, and an odd feeling overtakes him when he realizes boards are nailed over the windows. They must have gone out of business.
His overheating car creeps past the shell of a gun shop, and he turns into the parking lot of the one next door. There's a sign hanging out front that reads 'TNT Mechanics' in blocky red letters, but the big gray building looks sketchy as hell. He unbuckles himself and fetches Avery from the back.
"Where are we now?" the little boy asks.
"A mechanic shop. Bonnie isn't doing so good. We're gonna find someone who can fix her."
Together they wander to the glass door, where Tweek peeks inside the lobby with distrust. It's lit up with neon signs and beer posters. Tweek can't help but consider going elsewhere, but he's too scared to try to drive his car off the lot.
A bell rings above his head when he pushes the glass slab open. The room is empty with the exception of the gaudy decorations. No one at the counter, no one in the chairs lining the wall. It'd be just his luck if everyone's on lunch or something.
"Hello?" He calls, only to be met with the buzzing of beer themed neon signs. Hm. He takes Avery by the hand, leading the child back out onto the cement. Surely they wouldn't lave the place unlocked and completely unattended.
"Do you hear that?" Avery asks while tugging his father's hand.
Tweek perks up to listen, then nods. Music. It sounds like muffled heavy metal playing from the other side of the garage.
They walk to the edge of the building in the hot sun. Avery oos and aws at the cars lined up in the back parking lot, and his father makes a face as he steps in some kind of oil. Tweek doesn't trust the dark puddles and tools sitting around. To keep Avery's little hands away from dangerous things, Tweek kneels down to scoop him up in his arms.
"Um, hello?" He calls out as he shuffles closer to the open garage door. There are a few cars packed into the space, and tools line the walls. That's really all he can see, but the music is still very audible.
He creeps around the wall and stands under the open door to poke around. Just as he was hoping, there's someone inside. All he can see are their long legs sticking out from under a car, covered in oily denim. A clatter fills the room as if they'd dropped something, then they mumble to themselves.
"H-hello?" Tweek calls into the garage.
His voice echos, which startles the mechanic enough for him to jolt and smack his head on something. Tweek can recognize that painful 'oof!' a mile away. He rushes to the car, where the person is rolling out from under. They sit up on the red rolling thing, he remembers it's called a creeper, and rub their face with a whine. Tweek bends over with Avery latched to his side.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
"Vroom, vroom!" Says a little voice from between them. Avery bounces up and down with a chubby little hand reaching up for the groaning mechanic "Go, RedRacer! Go!"
Tweek's heart stops beating when a blue eye peeks up at him from between calloused fingers. Craig. Tweek clears his throat and tries to pay no mind to the excited sounds of his son.
Craig, on the other hand, can't stop smiling at having been remembered.
"Uh," he greets them with an excited clearing of his throat. He's still sitting on his little roll thing, rubbing at his eye like he'd just poked it out. "Hey, little guy."
Avery's response is a giggle that sounds almost shy. If Craig were a dog, Tweek's sure his tail would be wagging.
"So, what are you two doing here?" Craig asks with a bit of a laugh. He stands and tries to step towards Tweek, but ends up tripping over his creeper. He flails wildly to try and keep his face from smacking into the cement he's heading for. Tweek reaches out his free arm as if he might catch the stumbling giant, but Craig catches himself on the side of the car. He laughs off his terrible footing, and rubs the back of his neck with reddening cheeks.
"G-gosh, don't scare me like that," Tweek scolds as he squeezes Avery against his side.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm sorry," Craig digs his teeth into his bottom lip, and then kicks his creeper back under the car to avoid anymore embarrassing mishaps. "But, um, yeah! What are you guys doin' here?"
"Oh," Tweek mutters. "There's um… my car's overheating, and my coolant's low… I think it's leaking?"
"Uh oh," Craig blurts.
"What? Oh god, is it serious?! Is my car gonna b-bLOW!? It's gonna blow, isn't it?"
"No, probably not," Craig says as he wipes his hands off with a towel. "Is it here? I can take a look real quick if you'd like. Usually, you can see a leak real easy."
"Uh, yeah, yeah. It's out front."
Tweek gulps down the tightness in his throat as Avery attempts to make conversation with slurred words and ran together sentences. Craig can't understand a damn word the boy is saying, but nods his head anyway as he follows after the boy and his father.
"Do you make cars?" Avery manages to ask, though he's still tripping over his words.
"I don't make 'em, just fix 'em," comes the monotonous reply.
"Oh! So you're a car doctor! Bonnie is our car! She's sick, are you gonna make her better?"
"Of course. What are car doctors for?"
The scorching summer sun beats down on the trio as they gather around Bonnie, Tweek's appropriately named Bonneville. Craig flips up the hood, then waves his face down with his hand.
"Damn, that thing really is roasting." He looks up with eyes like dinner plates when he remembers there's a tiny person beside him. "I mean shoot! I said shoot."
Tweek bites his lip to stifle a snicker, and Craig leans in under the hood like an ostrich burying its head in shame. He takes a quick peak around the engine as he hangs his head. Tweek squeezes Avery to his hip and takes a small step back. When he stands too close to Craig it feels like his lungs are made of lead. He spends the next several moments staring at the side of the mechanics face, pondering if this is really happening or if he's hallucinating from the heat. This is only his second full day back in South Park and fate made sure to cruelly push them back together every opportunity that it's had.
"Hm," Craig mutters. He stands back up straight with his eyebrows pinching together. "Definitely smells funny, but I can't see anything. I'll have to run a pressure test and see if it holds."
Tweek gnaws on his lip again in a subtle show of frustration.
"Okay, h-how long is that gonna take?"
Craig crosses his arms while still peering into the engine.
"Only a few minutes, but we can't open up your cap 'til its cooled down. Give it about an hour."
"An HOUR?" Tweek sputters.
"Yeah… You can have somebody come get you if you don't want to hang around for that long, but the lobby is air conditioned if you need to stay."
Craig's eyes meet his, but only for a moment before Tweek glances down at his feet.
"Daddy, can we stay?" Avery suddenly pipes up. A goofy grin spreads across the boy's face, and Craig accidentally mimics it. "I wanna see the cars!"
"Oh, well…" Tweek's body jerks without his permission, then he lets out a breath he was holding. He quickly mulls over his options. Bebe and Clyde are at work today, so getting a ride would be hopeless. Not to mention pointless considering he'd have to come right back anyway.
"Have you ever fixed a car like RedRacer?" Avery blurts, which derails Tweek's train of thought. "How many do you have? Do you race them?!"
It seems Avery already decided for him.
This is going to be an awkward hour.