Tweek kept calm as he could as he watched the car stay idle across the street for a good few minutes. Tweek frowned a little that no one else saw this. But he kept his professional stance by taking the orders from the customers. As he made a cup of coffee, he saw at the corner of his eye that two men got out of the car. These men wore black suits and black sunglasses so no one can see their eyes. Men in black? FBI agents? Tweek's heart pounded, but he kept a calm posture.
The men walked into the shop and walked over to the counter. Tweek cleared his throat and smiled at them.
"Welcome to Tweak Bros., what can I get for you today?" Tweek asked politely.
"Good morning, are you Mr. Tweak?" One of the men spoke back, his voice deep enough to send chills down Tweek's spine.
"Ah, no, that's actually my father. Ah.. Dad!" Tweek turned and called out. Shortly after, his father strolled out from the back room and towards them. "Dad, these guys are looking for you."
Before Mr. Tweak could speak, the man raised his hand and shook it like he was denying his words. "My mistake, we didn't know you didn't go by Mr. Tweak. We want to speak with you, son. May we speak in the back? In private?"
Mr. Tweak immediately responded, cutting Tweek off from whatever he was going to say. "Excuse me, but I don't find it comforting that two unknown men want to speak with my son in private. He's already dealt with too much since that day, I find it necessary I be with him when you do. It'd make us all feel a hell of a lot better."
The men exchanged glances, shrugged, and looked back at them.
"If that is what makes it more comfortable with you, Tweek." The other man looked at Tweek. The boy felt like a child compared to these men. They were way too tall, shockingly even taller than Craig's dad, who was nearly the tallest in town. Tweek made no hesitation to nod.
With that, Mr. Tweak led the three to the back room. Tweek definitely felt better knowing his father would be right there but deep down, he was terrified. What did these large men want with him? Was he in trouble? Oh god, oh god.
Once inside the back room, Tweek's father turned to look at the men and folded his arms over his chest. His father was not a big guy, in fact, he was pretty thin with the brownish curly hair and eyes similar to Tweek's. If Tweek had to be honest, he would rather choose Craig's dad if he ever got into a fight with men like these guys. But it was just his thought. He'd never say it out loud. Tweek stood next to his father; he was almost his height but barely got over his shoulders.
"So what is it that you want with my son?" Mr. Tweak asked, his arms still folded.
"We come to understand that your son was a victim of kidnapping when he was ten, is that correct?" The larger man that first spoke earlier asked him. This man had a darker complexion to him and was straight up bald. No hair was there; just a shiny bald head. His shoulders were wider and his hands just spoke that he can probably rip apart a door without any hesitation. Tweek noted, he was larger than Mr. Tucker.
"Yes, he was. But it was taken care of years ago. Why?" Mr. Tweak seemed to have frowned.
"It's come to our attention that this was probably not an ordinary kidnapping." The first man responded. "Your son was close to being one of many child victims of sex trafficking."
Tweek's eyes widened a bit.
"That... that could explain a few things." Mr. Tweak made a huffing sound after a few seconds of silence. "When we found Tweek, he was tied inside the old abandoned cabin just west of Stark's Pond. Deep west. I'm talking maybe five miles? That cabin has been abandoned for years. We took him home, got everything situated. Turns out, when the police raided and searched the place, they..." He seemed to look at Tweek in a sort of worrying state. "They found... bodies."
The men appeared very intrigued at this point, exchanging glances and all.
"All the bodies were of children." Mr. Tweak rubbed the bridge of his nose in disgust. "Only two of the children were alive."
"And what, say, happened to those two children?"
"They were given medical treatment and placed under protective watch. That's really all we managed to get."
The two men stared at each other again. Tweek was confused about their characters. They acted odd, they seemed odd, just everything was... odd. They really enjoyed looking at each other though.
"We have some other knowledge, regarding these men that were found dead days after your son's kidnapping." The second man, smaller man Tweek should say, spoke up. "Now, we've heard these men were found mauled up pretty bad enough to hardly be identified, yes?"
"They were identified, yeah, but not released to the public yet." Mr. Tweak responded, putting his arm back down from his nose and gave them a look of confusion. Tweek felt the same.
"They aren't released to the public because they went missing." Bellowed the larger man, startling Tweek. "We wanted to know if you knew anything about that."
"Would I be giving you this look if I knew?" Mr. Tweak frowned.
"Sir, this is serious. We found out these men were not just part of an ordinary sex trafficking ring. They were part of a larger gang that the government has been trying to track down for years. These men are notorious for having their personal and private files completely disappearing if they were found dead or captured. These three men were found dead, and not days later, their files came missing. Technically according to the government, they don't exist anymore."
Both Tweek and his father exchanged a look of shock, then looked back at the men.
"When stuff like this happens, the whole town is in danger of happenings from this gang. We do not know their motives or plans. We just know, things in this town have gotten worse, and far more children seem to be taken lately. Even some reports say some adults are being taken too. Trafficking is not just for children. It's just easier got children than it is to get adults."
"And we haven't heard a damn thing about this." Mr. Tweak exhaled deeply in a sort of irritated format. "No words. Not a single fucking thing was said about more child abductions or about the files on these now nonexistent men."
"The gang is behind that, Mr. Tweak." The smaller man sighed heavily. "No one knows why, how, or anything of the sort. But we'd like to know one more thing before we continue our private investigation."
"May we have directions to this cabin you spoke of?" The larger man asked. Mr. Tweak nodded and walked to the desk to pull out a map. While he did so, the large man looked at Tweek. "And I understand you are in an intimate relationship with Craig Tucker?"
Tweek felt his face grow hot but he tried blocking it away and nodded. "Yeah..."
"We want to ask his parents some questions, may we get directions to them as well?"
"Why do you want Mr and Mrs. Tucker...?" Tweek gave them a look. "They didn't do anything, if that's what you're hoping to get."
"No, no, we know. This is for a whole 'nother thing." The large man waved a hand. "But it'll be between us and the Tuckers."
Tweek was hesitant but gave them the directions to the Tucker household as Mr. Tweak walked back with the map.
"Here you gentlemen go. Now, we really need to get back to taking care of our business. Would you mind?"
"Ah, yes, we apologize for any inconvenience or confusion. We shall go now. Ah, wait." The same man pulled out a business card and handed it over to Tweek. "If anything happens to come up, give us a call."
The Tweaks followed the men out from the backroom; Tweek walked over to the cash register, but his eyes never left the men as they walked out of the shop. Tweek glanced at the business card that only had a phone number on it. He frowned and shoved it in his pants pocket before finally going back to work.
Lunch time finally came and Tweek sat down behind the counter, sighing in relief he gets his break. He got everyone out the shop on time and made sure the "closed" sign was there on the door. As he took his breathe, his eyes shifted to the door as a familiar dark haired man walked in. They flashed each other smiles.
"Hello, darling." Craig closed the door behind him and walked over to the counter, sitting down on one of the stools. Tweek stood up and leaned over the counter to give him a kiss.
"Hey, how are you?" Tweek smiled, leaning on his elbow and looking lovingly at Craig.
"It's been better. What about you, Tweek?" Craig smiled back.
"Had an interesting first hour but overall not too bad." Tweek finally got out of his daze and made Craig some coffee. "Some men I've never seen before walked in and tried talking to me about what happened years ago. Luckily Dad was there and did most of the talking."
Tweek noticed Craig's smile had faded into a thin line and his eyebrows were furrowed into a frown. Tweek placed a cup of coffee in front of him and grabbed one of the muffins that were in a warm box near the coffee.
"What did they even want." Craig took a sip of the coffee, never taking his eyes off Tweek. Tweek then began telling him everything that went down. Craig's expression remained the same the entire time. Tweek didn't blame him. Those men rubbed him the wrong way. Once Tweek got to the men asking about Craig's parents, Craig stopped drinking his coffee. "Those bastards. Damn, the hell do they want them for. God... Dad will probably give me a call later."
"I'm sorry, Craig." Tweek felt a bit guilty about it, but Craig grabbed both of Tweek's hands and rubbed his thumb across the back of them.
"I don't blame you, honey." Craig gently kissed the back of Tweek's hands. "It was probably scary for you."
"Well.. Dad was there but not even I would trust him against how big those two guys were..." Tweek gave a nervous smile as he remembered again.
"Honey, I've seen you beat up guys as big as Cartman." Craig smirked, "I'm sure you would have been fine. Your dad? I don't think so."
Tweek laughed. Just as he said that, Mr. Tweak walked out of the back with his coat on.
"I could have handled them." He puffed out, ruffling Tweek's hair before walking out from behind the counter. "I'm going home for the day, Tweek. Your mother is still sicker than hell. If anything happens, give me a call. Craig, you're welcome to help."
"I planned on it even if you said no, Mr. Tweak." Craig gave him a proud smile.
Mr. Tweak nodded and left the boys alone. Craig turned back to Tweek, the smile still on his face. Tweek raised an eyebrow.
"Anyways," Tweek cleared his throat, "anything new at your work, Craig?"
Craig took a bite of his muffin before speaking. "Actually, yeah. I have great news." Craig reached into a bag he had brought with and pulled out a pamphlet. He handed it over to Tweek.
Tweek looked at it. It was a wedding pamphlet? He looked inside; it had all the usual stuff you'd see inside wedding pamphlets. It seemed rather cute. The whole thing was bright pink with the names of the lovely soon-to-be husband and wife on the front. All the information plastered in beautiful cursive writing. Then he noticed something that caught his eye. His eyes widened. On the very back of the pamphlet was a white note with Craig and his names on it, a phone number, and the large $500 word on it. Tweek looked over at him, eyes still wide.
"Would you like to come with me to help take wedding pictures?" Craig smiled wide. "They came in, asked for the lowest amount of be able to do, and they pretty much wanted to pay me five hundred dollars to take the best wedding pictures. They even agreed to let me take you with me. How does that sounds, honey?"
"Yes!" Tweek yelled, then covered his mouth. "This is going to help your business out a lot, Craig!"
"I know, that's why I'm very excited about it." Craig kept his happy smile on his face as he ate more of the muffin. Tweek couldn't be happier. Watching the love of his life finally getting some recognition for once. "So, to celebrate, I want us to spend a night alone together again."
Tweek felt his face go red.
"I'm serious." Craig looked at him, the smile still on his face. "I already told Token I wasn't going to work tonight. I wanted to spend time with you. And..." His smile became soft. "... There's something I definitely want to make sure I tell you. Token won't agree, but I think it's time you finally know."
Tweek was confused until he realized. Maybe it had something to do with all the weird stuff going on with his eyes and everything else? Maybe. Tweek simply nodded. "Why don't we get back to work so we can try to close up early?"
Craig nodded back, got out of his seat and went to unlocked the door and change the sign. The two of them working on the shop always made things go by pretty fast. They'd switch up with who's making the coffee and who's doing the register. Whenever it was quieted down, one of them would clean a bit so it wasn't hard work at the last hour. Tweek wished Craig fully worked with him, but Craig enjoyed his job at the Photo Dojo and was about to run as assistant manager soon. Tweek couldn't take that away from him. They'd do each other favors by helping each other out with their jobs. Like Tweek helping Craig with wedding pictures. Tweek was excited about that for sure. And to his surprise, Craig can make a hell of a good cup of coffee. They worked well together and it was great. Once they had finished up, the last of the customers left and they began closing up the shop. They closed the windows, locked the doors, and Tweek got everything prepared for when his father would work tomorrow morning.
"All done." Tweek huffed out a breath, grabbing his jacket and the keys. He followed Craig out the shop and shut off the lights. He closed the front door and locked it tightly. He turned to Craig and smiled. "Lets go home now."
Craig grabbed his hand and they walked towards his car. One thing Tweek constantly forgot about, aside from Craig's eyes turning that baby blue shade, was that at night, depending on the lighting of the shadows, Craig's eyes would glow. Sometimes it's scare the daylights out of Tweek whenever he was awake in the middle of the night. It reminded him of how a cat's eyes would glow at the reflection of light at night time. Tweek only forgot about this detail because it happened so much he always brushed it off. The two got into Craig's car and immediately turned it on to gather warmth. Soon enough, they drove off towards their home.
The couple entered their home with relief that it was warm and cozy. Craig locked the door and the two went into the bedroom to change. Changing was not part of their activity as Craig had pulled Tweek into a loving embrace before they spent the rest of the night making love. Despite all the intense shit that occurred today, Tweek's encounter with those scary men and Craig's untold incident at Token's, the two needed it. They acted like they haven't seen each other in years, never letting each other go and enjoying the sweet sounds the other made. It was a wonderful night that they wish could last forever.
At the end of it all, Craig watched Tweek sleep peacefully, a soft smile on his face. Craig kept his smile as well. He was goddamn happy. He took his phone out of his pocket and sent a message to Token, preparing himself for any possible backlash.
I'm telling him tonight. Not just for his safety, but for my sake. I love him too much to keep something like this from him, Token. Get mad at me all you want, but he needs to know. He needs to know what I am.
