punk_mit_keks - This one's for you! Thanks for making me smile!
Chapter 10: Keep your enemies close!
Craig's in a fairly decent mood as he pulls out of Red's driveway, and heads towards Tweek Bros. Coffee. The long drive to the airport worked wonders on him, giving him plenty of time to think. He also enjoyed chatting with Red, even if it pretty much consisted of her talking the whole time, and him nodding occasionally to prove he was listening.
Glancing at the clock he discovers that it's nearly 7:30pm, but the sun still hasn't set. It's one of the best things about Colorado summers, the days are much longer, leaving more time to enjoy the warm weather.
Tweek has the night shift tonight, so he should still be at work. Craig's been thinking about him nonstop today, so he's decided to drop by and invite him out after work. Clyde messaged him earlier, to invite them to Token's for a small get together, but with Clyde handling the guest list it will probably end up being a large party.
As he's driving down main street, he drives right past Tweek, who is standing at the stop light, on the opposite side of the road, wearing his Tweek Bros. apron. Craig flips an illegal U turn and doubles back.
While waiting his turn to make a left, Craig watches Tweek as he hurries across the street and away from him. A hint of a smile teases across Craig's lips, as he finds himself caught up in how sexy Tweek's backside looks in that apron. It's the same apron that he's seen him wear plenty of times in the past, so why has he never noticed this wonderful view before?
The car behind him honks, pulling his attention back to the road. Turning left he lowers the window, and slowly drives down the street until he catches up to his adorable boyfriend.
"Hey, baby, want a ride?" He calls out teasingly, causing Tweek to jump skittishly.
"Craig?" Tweek asks in confusion, peeking into the window. "Jesus, you scared me, why are you driving your mom's car?"
"I was playing Uber driver for my mom. She sent me out to Eagle County to pick up Red. I was just heading to your work to say hello, and ask if you want to hangout at Token's later. He's having a get together."
"Ngh- Ah...I'm not at work." Tweek states the obvious. He's silent for a moment, lost in his own thoughts, before the confusion clears and he smiles. "I switched shifts with Henrietta, so I'm off tonight. I was just heading home."
"That's perfect, get in, I'll drop you off."
Tweek nods slowly, looking like he has something to say, before changing his mind. Pulling open the door, he slides into the passenger seat. Craig waits patiently while Tweek fumbles with his seatbelt, but when he notices that Tweek's fingers are quivering, he reaches across and lays his hand gently over Tweek's hand to help him ease the clip into the seatbelt.
"S-sorry." Tweek whispers, and Craig squeezes his hand gently, before letting it go so he can put the car into drive.
"How was work?" Craig asks, while flipping on the blinker, and making a quick right at the stop. When Tweek doesn't respond he peeks at him, noticing that his hands are still trembling, and his attention is focused on the side of the road.
"Tweek?" Craig calls out to him, before reaching down and flipping the stereo off. "Are you okay?"
"Wha- Oh, Jesus, yes... I'm fine." Tweek responds. Craig isn't convinced, but Tweek's house is only two short blocks away, so Craig lets the remainder of the drive pass in silence.
Pulling up in front of the house, Craig cuts the engine and turns to Tweek who already has his seatbelt off and the door open, like he's in a hurry to bail.
"Hey, Tweek, what's up?" Craig grabs his hand, cutting off his escape. Tweek shivers, and turns to Craig timidly.
"Did something happen at work to upset you?"
Tweek still doesn't answer, opting to simply chew on his lip, and stare at Craig while trembling silently.
"Come on, Tweek, talk to me." Craig urges gently, and when he still receives no response he lifts his hand to Tweek's face and runs his thumb along Tweek's bottom lip, inducing a tiny gasp that Craig finds overwhelmingly sexy. Leaning forward, while still toying with Tweek's lip, Craig instinctively moves in for a kiss.
Before their lips can meet, Tweek panics. Letting out a tiny screech his hand flies up to cover his mouth, as he bolts from the car, and scampers towards his front door.
"Tweek!?" Craig calls after him. He is not certain if he is more surprised at himself for trying to steal another kiss, or at Tweek for turning him down and running away!
Tweek is half way across his front lawn, before he suddenly turns back "Ah! What time are we going to Token's?"
Craig stares at him in confusion for a second, before answering, "Ah...um, I just need to drop my mom's car off, and I'll walk back over to pick you up."
"Okay, see you in a while." Tweek nods and hurries into his house, leaving a bewildered Craig gazing after him.
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Tweek slams the door behind him as he enters his house and runs up stairs to his room. Locking the door behind him, he sits down in front of it and hides his face in his hands.
"Jesus Christ!" Tweek mumbles, and exhales into his cupped hands, before sniffing to confirm his worst fear. "The coffee! Craig could smell it on me! Shit what was Craig trying to do, was that some kind of drug check? Fucking Eric, I knew he ratted me out."
Jumping up, he runs to his bathroom, where he starts pulling stuff out of the medicine cabinet, frantically searching for the mouthwash. When he finds what he's looking for, he quickly unscrews the top, and takes a big swig straight out of the bottle. He gargles and spits, and repeats the process three times, before grabbing his toothbrush and carefully brushing his teeth. Once this is complete he cups his hands to his face, checking his breath again.
"I think we're okay now." Tweek tells the Tweek in the mirror. Breathing deeply he reaches his hand to his lips and rubs his thumb along his bottom lip curiously, trying to recreate the way Craig's thumb felt. It isn't quite the same, Craig's touch felt much nicer.
"He showed up instead of calling." He realizes, and his eyes light up happily. "That's better right?"
Reaching behind himself, he unties his apron, and pulls it off. Reaching into the pocket for his phone his fingers brush against Pete's sketch, he pulls it out along with his phone, and tosses the apron in his hamper.
Unfolding the sketch he examines it, and recalls what Pete said to him earlier, which reminds him that Craig lied. Feeling annoyed, he folds the picture up and angrily drops it in the wastebasket.
He takes a quick shower, runs a wide tooth comb through his unruly hair, brushes his teeth again, throws on a pair of black shorts and a loose white tank top, and goes to search his room for breath mints and gum.
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Thomas is irritated as he walks towards the entrance of the South Park mall. Feeling hungry, and stupidly nostalgic enough to crave City Wok, he hiked all over town looking for it, but it was gone! He was about to give up, and eat somewhere else, when an odd, but helpful man with a handlebar mustache, and an unfortunate sense of fashion, happily directed him to the Food Court in the mall, which is City Wok's latest location.
'Why is it that nothing in this fucked up little town has stayed the same?'
After Damien walked out on him, leaving Thomas in desperate need of sexual release, he took care of the problem himself, had another shower, and decided that his mood was too shitty to get any work done.
Considering his boss was the reason behind his bad mood, he didn't feel an ounce of guilt when he served Pip a microwaved meal, before heading out to eat by himself. If he could, he would have liked to bring Pip along, but Pip isn't allowed on the streets of South Park. Damien claims that people will recognize the boy, who lived in South Park up until his death seven years ago, but Thomas thinks Damien is being overprotective.
The inside of the mall is packed with people trying to find relief from the summer heat by taking advantage of the free air conditioning. Thomas window shops on his way towards the Food Court, and when he passes a Boarders skate shop, he stares into the window curiously, thinking about his meeting in the bathroom, where he'd accidentally knocked the skateboard out of Kenny's hands.
It had shocked the fuck out of Thomas when he realized that the hot guy in the bathroom was Kenny McCormick. He wasn't kidding when he told Damien that the pictures didn't do Kenny justice. He didn't even recognize him until Kenny smiled. It was that fucking smile that Thomas recognized, because he hated it!
Shaking the memory of Kenny's smile out of his head, he hurries on towards City Wok.
It's still dinner time, so the small Food Court is even more packed than the rest of the mall. Thomas starts scouting around for an empty seat as he's waiting in line to purchase his meal. He spots very few empty tables, and by the time he has ordered and received his Hot Braised Tofu and Steamed Rice those seats are no longer open.
It looks like he's going to have to share a table with a stranger, but Thomas isn't really shy, so he heads for a nearby 4 top, that is currently occupied by two teenaged boys. One is cutely handsome with a head of curly shoulder length red hair, and the other has messy short black hair, and a pair of stunning brown eyes that sparkle adoringly as he chats with the boy sitting across from him.
'Obviously gay!' Thomas thinks to himself, but if Damien's intel is to be believed, most of the males in South Park share this tendency, although few actually admit it, but Damien's intel is rarely wrong.
"Hi, is this seat taken?" Thomas asks as he stands over the two teens.
The red head looks up and smiles brightly. "No, you can sit..."
"We're waiting for a friend." The dark haired boy informs him coldly, cutting off the red haired boy quickly, and Thomas has to hold back a laugh, because the red head is obviously checking him out, and his boyfriend is apparently the jealous type.
"Ignore Stan, we are waiting for one other person, but this seat's available." The red head gestures to the seat right next to him, his smile barely hiding his amusement, and Thomas guesses that he isn't the only one who notices the jealous aura wafting off the dark haired boy.
Thomas plops down in the offered seat, and pretends not to notice the dirty look coming from the other side of the table.
"Thanks." Thomas addresses the red haired boy, taking his advice and ignoring the one named Stan.
"I'm Kyle." The red head responds, and holds out his hand. Thomas' eyes widen as he suddenly realizes who this teen is.
"Kyle Broflovski?" Thomas asks, taking the offered hand, while watching Kyle nod in confusion. "I didn't recognize you without that green hat you used to wear."
"Dude, have we met?" Kyle asks while staring at Thomas curiously. Thomas grins boyishly, showing off a mouth full of perfect teeth. It's his real smile, the one he doesn't have to work at, the one he rarely shows. Unlike most of his memories of South Park, the ones he made with Kyle are good ones. They were not really what you could call friends, but Kyle had treated him kindly, and he'd always appreciated that.
"I'm Thomas, we met years ago, I used to have Tourette's Syndrome, you probably don't remember me, but..."
"You're Thomas?! Shit, Dude! Of course I remember you, I just didn't recognize you. You look great!" Kyle blurts out joyfully, and throws his arms around him giving him a big warm hug! Thomas isn't certain if Kyle has grown up to be one of those overly friendly touchy-feely types, or if he's just trying to piss off his date, but he suspects it's the latter, so he decides to help him out.
"You look great too. I never knew you had such gorgeous red hair." He flashes his sex grin, as he says this, it's as fake as shit, but for some reason it turns most people on.
"I'm getting a drink." Stan grumbles, before standing up and walking away in a huff.
"Get me one too." Kyle calls after him with a tiny snicker.
"Boyfriend?" Thomas asks as soon as Stan is out of earshot.
"Nope!" Kyle denies it with a smile, "Just my best friend, we're straight."
"Somebody better tell him that." Thomas says, and Kyle's smile grows bigger as he watches his 'best friend' sulking on the other side of the food court, while shoving change into a vending machine.
Thomas' stomach growls, causing him to remember his food. Picking up his fork he starts eating, but continues watching Kyle, who is still watching Stan. Kyle turns his attention back to Thomas once the drinks have been bought and Stan is heading back towards them with two bottles of Snapple in hand.
"So, what are you doing in South Park?" Kyle asks.
Thomas swallows a mouthful of food, and wipes his lips, before answering.
"I live here..." Thomas starts, then after a moment of thought he continues. "Or rather, I just moved here. I was living in California with my... Grandparents, but I got a job out here and it's one of those room and board situations." This was sort of the truth, except that his Grandmother passed away of a heart attack when he was fourteen, and his Grandfather followed her nine months ago. He was already spending much of his time with Pip at Damien's place in Malibu, so it was only natural that he move in full time, since he had no other relatives he could count on. Thomas lost touch with his father years ago, after he remarried and started a new family.
"So will you be going to South Park high?"
"Yeah." Thomas answered, although he wasn't really certain if this was the case. He did hope to finish his education, and had been diligently attending school in California up until summer break. He just wasn't certain what his future would hold, since Damien held all the cards.
Stan had returned, and commenced pouting, which seemed to please Kyle, who continued to flirt with Thomas and ignore him, except for accepting the drink that he offered up.
"So what are you up to tonight, Thomas? Our friend Token's having a small get together, you should come!" Kyle asks, nearly causing Stan's head to explode.
"Uh, tonight?" Thomas debates only for a moment. He likes the idea of spending more time chatting with Kyle, and going anyplace other then home sounds awesome. Of course, pissing Damien off never ends well, but screw him! "That sounds like fun."
Until Thomas remembers that he's on foot, since the demon took the car. "Ah, but I walked over here, so..."
"That's fine, you can ride with us." The voice came from directly behind him, causing Thomas to turn his head. Kenny McCormick is standing over him, a bottle of water in one hand, his skateboard in the other, and a shit eating grin on his stupid face.
'No fucking way!' Thomas curses in his head, even as he smiles fakely up at Kenny.
"Totally, Dude, you can ride over with us. Stan doesn't mind." Kyle insists, even though Stan's face completely states otherwise.
"What time are you guys leaving?" Thomas asks, while he tries to think of an excuse to back out.
"Now." Kenny tells him, and Kyle nods.
"Yeah, Dude, we're going right now. We were just waiting for Kenny."
"But I need to go home and change, I'm not dressed for a party." Thomas tells him, although he is dressed similar to the other teens in shorts and a T-shirt.
"You're perfect just as you are!" Kenny says cheerfully, while reaching down and grabbing a piece of tofu off of Thomas' plate. "But we can wait until you've finished eating."
'Keep your enemies close!' It's something that Damien likes to say, so Thomas is still smiling, even as he considers the best way to take Kenny McCormick down.
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End of chapter 10
Chapter 11 will probably take awhile, as I expect my schedule to be a little crazy for the next few months, so my updates will probably slow down a lot, but I will try to post as often as I can.
Thanks for reading, and feedback is welcome.