"What time do you work today, Clyde?" Bebe asked, taking a sip of coffee. He, Craig and Bebe were seated around the kitchen table eating breakfast.

Clyde glanced at the clock. It was just after ten. "I have to be there by 10:30 at the latest," he replied. It was only about a five minute walk away, so he still had time. "Are you working today, dude?" He turned to Craig.

Craig looked up from his cereal. "About that…" he began, "I uh, well when I left early yesterday I didn't exactly have permission. Butters was pissing me off so I kind of just yelled at him and then left." It sounded stupid to him now, though at the time he had felt completely justified. "I guess what I'm saying is that provided I haven't been fired, yes, I'm working. My shift starts at 11."

Clyde's eyes widened. "Shit, that sucks." Bebe nodded her agreement.

"No, it really doesn't," Craig said honestly. "I'm sick of that place anyway." He shrugged. It was true, he really was. He had to admit that even if he arrived at work to find out he no longer worked there, part of him would be grateful. "It sort of ruined tacos for me."

Bebe smiled. "I could drive you there to find out if you want. That way if they did decide to fire your temperamental ass I could give you a lift back home. You wouldn't have to waste time on the bus for nothing," she offered, then added with a sad frown, "I can't believe you yelled at Butters. He's so sweet."

"He was singing," Craig replied, as if that rationalized it. To be fair, in his eyes, it completely did.

Clyde laughed. "Only you would yell at poor Butters for singing. You're totally gonna be one of those old men who sits on his front porch with a shot gun and shouts at all the joyful children playing in the street."

"Hey you kids!" Bebe croaked, doing her best impression of a grumpy old man, "Quiet down and get off my property before I come over there and beat the happiness out of you!" She shook her fist in the air for emphasis and Clyde dissolved into snickers.

Craig frowned and furrowed his eyebrows. "I sound nothing like that!" He croaked, sounding quite a bit like that and only making the couple laugh harder.

Finally, their giggles died down and Bebe wiped at the corners of her eyes. "So is that a yes for the ride, then?"

"I don't know, aren't you afraid I'm going to try to "beat the happiness" out of you?" Craig was still frowning, but his eyes betrayed a tiny sense of amusement.

"I think I can handle it," Bebe smiled.

"Shit!" Clyde said suddenly happening to have looked over at the clock. "I gotta go get dressed or I'm gonna be late, babe." He placed a quick kiss on her cheek before running to his room. "If Craig tries to infect you with the teen angst he never grew out of, fight back with cheesy inspirational quotes. They're his only weakness!"

"Good to know," Bebe said glancing at Craig and raising her eyebrows. "Is that true?"

"Yeah," he snorted, finishing the rest of his coffee. "I start melting like Wicked Witch of the fucking West."

...

Once in the car, Bebe turned on the radio. "You can pick the station," she told Craig, adjusting the rearview mirror. He fiddled with the controls for a few seconds until a heavy sounding rock song started to play. Bebe began humming along until Craig looked at her in surprise. "Sorry!" She cried, "I forgot the no singing rule. Please don't disembowel me and feed my body to the wolves!" She begged.

Craig rolled his eyes and ignored her plea before asking dubiously, "You listen to Nirvana?" He furrowed his brows.

"Oh, is this not The Pussycat Dolls?" Bebe gasped in mock confusion, then scolded, "I don't think you give me enough credit, Craig. Not every girl our age wants to be Paris Hilton anymore."

"I'm glad you finally grew out of that," Craig answered scornfully, remembering a "Stupid Spoiled Whore" party a certain someone threw when they were young.

Bebe laughed. "Oh God, that was awful. I can't believe you remember that."

"I'm pretty sure that shit left at least half the boys in our grade traumatized," Craig said, making a face.

"Hah! I bet the bunch horn-balls wish they had taken the chance when it was offered now, though," Bebe smirked, knowing that by the time middle school and high school rolled around, the tables had turned and it was the boys doing the (often unfruitful) pursuing of the girls.

Craig was silent so Bebe took a chance, peeking over at the reserved boy and attempting to initiate an actual conversation. "Hey, how come I never saw you trying to get with any girls in high school?"

He visibly tensed up at this, keeping his eyes fixed out the front window of the car. "Never wanted to, I guess."

Bebe knit her brows, skeptical. "I know you're introverted and everything, Craig, but I have a hard time believing you didn't once feel the urge for some sort of female companionship. Unless you're gay," she added quickly, "which would be totally fine and explain a lot, actually." She turned her head to the side. For once, Craig's usually unexpressive face was completely overcome with emotion: horror.

"I-I'm not gay!" He sputtered. "What the fuck Bebe, you can't go around assuming people are gay!"

"Geez, sorry!" She apologized, seemingly taken aback. "It's just that I never once saw you show any interest in women," she reasoned, "you have to understand how I might come to that conclusion." Bebe, however, knew very well that Craig wasn't gay. Clyde had once given her permission to use his roommate's laptop to look something up and she had found quite an impressive collection of lesbian porn on it. She knew that Craig was straight. In actuality, she was fishing, trying to shock him into defending his sexuality and opening up to her. To her surprise, it worked.

"It's not that I'm not attracted to women," Craig started with a sigh, "I'm just shitty at talking to them, okay? Not only women, everyone. But especially women. Don't act like this is news to you. I'm pretty sure everyone is aware of it." He snorted. "Besides, all the girls I know suck anyways."

"Gee, thanks."

"Shit. Look, I didn't mean-"

"No you're right Craig, you kind of do suck at talking to women." Bebe rolled her eyes, "I totally get it now." She was still fishing, and Craig was falling for it hook, line and sinker. It was hard to keep herself from smiling and she forced herself to look hurt.

"I didn't mean it like that!" Craig cried out, agitated. "See this is what I'm talking about." He took a deep breath. "Yes, it's rare for me to find a girl who doesn't make me want to cut my own ears off to stop the sound of her moronic voice." He paused. "But on the off chance that I do find someone who's even slightly interesting, I say something stupid or cynical or offensive and she goes off running for her life like I'm some kind of ogre who wants to eat her for dinner instead of just take her out for dinner. Not to sound like one of the Goddamn goth kids, but no one understands me. Clyde is the only person on the whole fucking planet who actually likes me."

"I like you."

"No, you put up with me. There's a difference." He continued. "My contempt for people goes both ways. I give what I get."

"So basically you drive people away so that they never have the opportunity to leave you? Craig that's like, ridiculously fucking sad."

Craig stared sullenly at his feet and didn't reply so Bebe repeated: "I like you."

"You're…" He groaned. "I don't hate you. And you don't suck."

Bebe felt butterflies at that. Fucking butterflies at being told by Craig Tucker that he "didn't hate her" and she "doesn't suck." Then again, coming from him that was a pretty high compliment. She smiled. "Are you only saying that because you just found out I like the same angry music that you do?"

Craig expelled a small burst of air through his nose and shook his head, returning her smile. "No, Bebe. You manage not to suck all on your own. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact," Bebe laughed. "See? You'll find a girl. There are some people on this planet that you don't hate."

"Yeah but you're dating Clyde."

Bebe's heart stopped and her grip on the steering wheel tightened. She fought the impulse to look over at his face and search for any sign that he was serious. Could he possibly have meant that how it sounded? Or were her own hopes just influencing the way she was interpreting his words? Not that it really mattered either way. He was right. She was dating Clyde. And now, sitting in the car with Craig, she felt like bursting into tears because of it. Instead, she pushed out a strained laugh. "Yeah," she agreed, then said jokingly, "Darn!" Craig laughed too, also seeming a little uncomfortable at whatever the fuck it was that had just happened between them. Something in the mood had shifted and now the air felt heavy and thick, like it was turning into rapidly solidifying jello.

"We're here," Craig said, startling Bebe from her thoughts and pointing out the window at the approaching mall.

"Right," Bebe replied, putting on her blinker and turning into the parking lot. The Nirvana song must have ended a while ago but she only noticed now because a boisterous voice was demanding that she book a Caribbean vacation with US Airways. She pulled into a spot near the back entrance to the mall and shut off the car. "I'll wait here, you can tell me how it goes."

...

It was mere minutes before Craig returned to the car. He sat down and closed the door behind him, answering any question she might have been about to ask.

"Oh," said Bebe. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be," Craig replied giving her a reassuring look. "To be honest I'm kind of relieved."

"Well in that case, I am too." Bebe smiled, starting the car. "So how are you going to spend your newfound freedom?" She asked.

"It's weird, I don't even know what to do with myself," Craig stated, cocking his head.

"Well if you actually feel the need to do something with yourself for once, you're more than welcome to help me bake Tweek's cake. Or I can drop you back at your place so you can enjoy utter isolation until Clyde comes home," she added with a knowing smirk.

Craig didn't say anything for a moment, then surprised himself by answering, "I could help you with the cake, I guess. I mean it's the least I can do." Somehow, the idea of shutting himself up in his room and watching Red Racer by himself was less appealing than it would have sounded to him this morning.

Bebe appeared surprised too, but simply nodded her head. "We have to stop at the grocery store first."

"Are we going to do it at my place or yours?" Craig questioned, glancing over.

Bebe gave him a stern look before saying, "God Craig, at least buy me dinner first."

It took Craig a second to realize what she meant by this, but when he got the joke he burst into laughter, colouring at her suggestive twisting of his words. "I'll get you a bag of chips from the store, how about that?" He asked, playing along.

"I like Doritoes," Bebe returned, grinning. The butterflies were back. But she and Craig were joking, of course. They weren't flirting or anything. This was just what friends did, they joked around around with each other.

...

Craig was squinting. The bright fluorescent bulbs that illuminated the grocery store hurt his eyes, and when he looked over at her, Bebe was giving him a strange look.

"Jesus, Craig. You really need to get out into the light a bit more," she said, feigning concern. Or maybe she really was concerned. Craig was fucked if he knew what was going on anymore. She had caught him off guard with her questions in the car on the way to the mall, as did anyone who tried to get to know him. What caught him off guard even more still was the fact that rather than shutting her down with a dry insult or just plain ignoring her, he had complied. Maybe on some subconscious level he had a suppressed desire for human interaction. No, that couldn't be it, he shook his head slightly. He was just defending his sexuality. She had called him gay, for fuck's sake. That was it. True, he had never really hated Bebe. Her presence was something of an annoyance when they were kids, and later on along the line it had morphed into disinterest, and finally he had reached his current stage of thinking she was "alright." But that didn't explain the Goddamn heart-to-heart they'd had in the car.

"Do you think Tweek would like chocolate or vanilla icing on the cake?" Bebe asked, looking pensively at the boxes on the shelves.

"Chocolate," Craig replied distractedly, eyes also fixed on the selection of icings but mind far away. He had to admit that out of all the girls he knew, Bebe was the least… bothersome. She was more than that. She was even kind of nice. And apparently she hadn't just been tolerating him all these years either, she actually liked him. Or so she said. His thoughts buzzed, seeming to bounce off the inner surface of his skull until they were all tangled, muddled into one big chaotic knot. This was another reason he avoided people. They were confusing as hell.

"Incoming," Bebe abruptly leaned over to whisper in his ear, rousing him from his thoughts a second time. He glanced up just in time to see Sheila Broflovski rapidly approaching them. It was too late to run.

"Well hello, you two!" Sheila jabbered in her usual squawking tone.

"Hi, Mrs. Broflovski," Bebe said in what she hoped was a pleasant enough voice to not betray how badly she didn't want to be talking to the nosy woman. Craig merely nodded his greeting.

"I didn't know you two were together," she chattered, giving both of them a thorough once over.

"We're actually-" Bebe began but she was cut off.

"You make a lovely couple," gushed Sheila.

"But we don't-"

"Oh yes, you are! You're absolutely adorable," she gushed, seeming to think that Bebe was modestly denying how "adorable" there were as a couple, rather than the fact that they were actually even a couple in the first place. "I have to run now," Sheila babbled, pushing her cart off in the other direction, "but you kids have a nice day!"

Bebe chuckled uncomfortably. "Well I guess that's going to be all over town before the day's over."

Craig shrugged, oddly calm. "Whatever. No one listens to her anyway." He took the box of chocolate icing from Bebe's hands, studying the package intently.

Bebe nodded in agreement. "That's true."

It wasn't long before they had gathered all the ingredients, and Bebe was soon placing items on the conveyor belt at the checkout line. "Hang on!" Craig suddenly said, bolting away from her. Bebe exchanged a puzzled glance with the cashier, shrugging her shoulders. Craig returned about half a minute later, clutching a bag of Doritoes. "I like them too," he said, noticing the questioning look on her face. "Don't flatter yourself."

Craig smirked, opening his wallet and paying for the groceries. Fucking. Butterflies.

A/N

I might not be updating quite as frequently for the next little while because my course load is crazy right now. I say might because I do tend to use writing as a means for procrastination so who knows, maybe I'll end up updating even more. I guess I'll have to wait and see how much restraint I have (hint: none).

Also thanks to AKA 24601 for assuring me that I'm not boring him to tears with the slow pace of this. Hopefully things are starting to pick up now in the Craig/Bebe department.

Feedback is always appreciated, even if it's only to tell me that I use too many adjectives and should just go ahead and kill myself.

Thanks for reading.