Je Déteste Craig Tucker

Craig and Kenny sat side by side in the councillor's office, opposite a very furious Mr Mackey. He had two thick files laid out on the desk in front of him. It was not a promising sign.

They'd had to wait a while for him, just the two of them alone in the dull room. They hadn't talked, Kenny was being really distant and Craig was feeling very confused, not to mention angry and fairly anxious. The smell of coffee hung in the air, but this wasn't the pleasant smell Kenny and Craig associated with Tweek, it had was the smell of stress and headaches. The furniture was old and worn, with various profanities, messages and pictures carved into the wooded arms of the chairs, by students who were clearly regular. Craig smiled as he saw a particularly interesting drawing done by 'ze mole' with 'Je déteste Craig Tucker' scratched underneath it. They'd had a very fierce fight that day; he remembered carving something on the other chair, the chair where Kenny was sitting.

Time had done nothing for Mr Mackey, his thin hair and receding hairline clearly showing the frown lines set in his forehead. He was yelling at the two boys about Adrian, they both hardly heard him they were so angry at the blatant unfairness. A call came through to Mr Mackey's extension. He answered it and then gasped, looking concerned, yet a flicker of amusement ran across his face. He wiped the amusement away and forced a frown at Kenny and Craig.

"I've just had word from the nurse, between the two of you, you have broken his nose."

Craig did something he really shouldn't have done then, he laughed. He laughed harshly and loudly, looking over at Kenny in a moment disregarding everything else. Kenny saw Craig's amusement and let a small snort himself. For a few seconds Kenny's eyes lit up in pleasure, the way they used to before all the shit happened. He grinned. "Which leads me to ask the age-old question: how does he smell?"

Craig couldn't resist responding, all feuds set aside for a brief moment as he completed the joke. "Terrible." Both boys cracked up again, inappropriately, although justifiably laughing at Adrian's expense.

Mr Mackey, half shocked, and half annoyed that he couldn't join in the laughing, slammed his hand on his desk. "NOW THAT IS ENOUGH! Be quiet both of you!"

"Why should we? Fawkes was being an extremely homophobic douche-bag," retorted Kenny.

"I know what he has said. There were plenty of eye-witnesses. And whilst I'm not condoning your actions I can see why they would be done, mmkay. But I expected it to be Craig that had punched him, Kenny, not you. Why did you feel the need to get involved?"

"Because my anger took over, and I felt he deserved it!" Kenny had been passing the confrontation as it happened, he'd got increasingly angry as Fawkes had been mouthing off ignorant hate, but it was when Craig got called 'pathetic' that he couldn't take it anymore.

"Why?"

"BECAUSE he was offending gay people, and Tweek, and even because he was offending Craig! Even though Craig hates me, I don't hate him, and I just couldn't stand there and listen to the bullshit coming out of that asshole's mouth."

"Now, watch your language, mmkay? You're on very thin ice as it is."

Kenny closed his mouth and slumped back in his chair, zipping his jacket high up his face, like he did when he was a child, like he was trying to block out the world. It was true that he didn't have many more chances left, but that was because he just couldn't care enough to do school work. Life sucked sometimes and school made it so much worse. He agreed with a carving on his chair arm at that moment, 'fuck life'.

Mr Mackey saw that he was going to get anymore out of Kenny. He turned his attention to Craig. "Young man, we've been going around in circles, first it's swearing, then being late for lessons, not attending them at all, and now violence. I don't know what to do with you. I feel that the only thing you're doing is getting worse."

"I disagree."

"Oh and why's that?"

"The reason I got sent here, is also the reason I won't get sent here anymore."

Craig's face was unreadable, and Mr Mackey was trying desperately to get through. "If you want me on your side, then I'm going to need a bit more from you than that, mmkay?"

Craig sat up straight. "I got sent here because of my recent violent outbursts right? Now I can try to make excuses for them, but they were my fault, and they were because I was so confused, and angry, and upset and lots of other things about Tweek. I'm alright now though, because I've worked it all out, and life finally doesn't suck."

"Mmkay, well how do I know that all this is true? How do I know that you're not just making up excuses? Also, you still hurt people, Craig. There needs to be a punishment."

Kenny stood up vehemently, and unzipped his jacket so he could speak clearly. "Two of those times it was me that he hit, Mr Mackey, and I don't care! I deserved it! Besides I hit him first the second time. And I'm the one that punched Adrian just now. Don't punish Craig!"

"Sit down, Kenny. Look, I'm just not sure I can ignore this outburst. I've been deliberating whether to just suspend you two, I think that would be easier on the rest of the school."

Craig dropped his head into his hands, so he did screw up, just like his dad said he would.

"I'm not going to suspend you though."

"Why not?" croaked Craig, his eyes full of shock.

"Because I see potential in you, Craig. You're incredibly smart, and if you say things are going to change then I want to give you that chance." He turned to Kenny. "Kenny, are things going to change for you as well?"

Kenny sighed. "I'm not going to be causing anymore trouble, if that's what you're worried about, Mr Mackey. I have no want to... and couldn't even if I did."

Craig nodded knowingly.

Mr Mackey stood up and placed his hands on the desk. "It's only because of Craig's good grades that you are being given this chance, boys, mmkay? So don't screw it up. Now, go back to class, and try not to start any more fights, mmkay?"

Kenny and Craig nodded and humbly thanked Mr Mackey. They both got out of his office quickly before he had time to reconsider. This was it, the last chance for both. Craig felt more determined than ever to succeed. He turned to Kenny as they got outside the door.

"That was an impressive punch if you managed to break his nose." It was his way of telling Kenny that he wasn't cross about his actions.

Kenny smiled faintly. "Well I am Irish." The smile soon faded, remembering what he'd seen before the punch. "So you're with Tweek now?"

"Yes."

"Good, you're better for him."

Craig looked into Kenny's eyes. He could only see sadness now. He didn't feel like he'd won at that moment, no one had won. There was only being with Tweek opposed to loneliness. But surely Kenny didn't have to be lonely? "Do you still have a chance with Butters?"

"No one should be with me. We can all see I'm no good."

"But doesn't Butters still love you? Don't you love him?"

"Uh-huh, but that's not important. I've hurt too many fucking people. I've hurt so many people I love." Kenny squeezed Craig's shoulder lightly. Craig didn't stop him. He then walked away, each step he took making the black-haired boy feel more and more guilty, and more and more sorry.

He knew he shouldn't feel guilty, he knew he'd done nothing wrong, but Kenny had somehow purged the feeling of sympathy. Kenny shouldn't have cheated, or hurt Tweek, but he couldn't any longer. Craig could finally see Kenny for what he was- a desperately lonely boy who looked too hard for love and possibly found it too much. For wasn't if possible for Kenny to have loved two people at the same time? It was selfish, but maybe he truly wanted to keep Tweek and Butters, as impossible and stupid as that was.

Surely Kenny still had a chance with Butters. And Craig felt that maybe his words had scared the small blond off, perhaps he could fix it. Only when he'd tried would he feel happy with himself.

At the beginning of lunch, Craig had grabbed Clyde and persuaded him that he was long overdue a catch up with Tweek, he pushed him in the general direction of where the blond would be and told him to just keep talking, but not about anything stupid. Clyde, although rather confused, obeyed.

"Am I allowed to talk about Bebe?"

"Yeah, dude. Just keep Tweek away from trouble."

"No problemo, I am like the least troublesome person around at the moment, but you have to tell me what you're doing."

"I'm going to talk to Butters."

Craig took off down the corridor. Clyde stared after him with an unreadable expression on his face, a mixture of knowing, understanding and worry. He found the blond, who was very happy to spend some time with him. The two of them hadn't actually talked alone for a very long time, and they used to be really close friends. It would have been awkward if it was anybody else, but Clyde had an ability to talk enthusiastically to anyone.

"I watched this great film with Bebe last night, isn't Bebe just amazing? I'm so lucky. She wore my jacket the other day; she looks so good in red. I think that's one of the reasons I love her, she looks so good in red."

"Gahh Bebe is a very nice person, C-Clyde. What movie was it?"

"It was an alien movie! Where they come down and try to claim earth. They say they modelled what the alien's would be like on real life findings." Clyde knew he probably shouldn't have said that as soon as he said it.

Tweek's eyes lit up. "Wh-who says? Oh God, there's alien's on earth!" He couldn't handle that, not when he finally felt happy.

"Nahhh, it's a bunch of retards that say that stuff, it's probably not true."

Tweek pulled at his shirt. "PROBABLY!? I don't want an anal probe!"

Clyde smirked. "Not unless it's from Craig, huh?"

Tweek's fear dissapeared, and he grinned. "N-No, that would be alright."

Clyde covered his ears. "Okay, that was too much information."

"Y-You said it..."

Finding Butters proved incredibly difficult, there was no sign of him with Kyle, Stan and Cartman, who were busy trying to distract Kenny from negative thoughts (which involved Cartman of course winding up Kyle, in his own unique way he was helping). Eventually Craig saw the blond, sitting alone on a bench, singing faintly to himself. It was a sorry sight. It was as if Butters was missing something, his face held the same distressed look that Kenny's had. Craig wordlessly sat next to Butters. They both sat there for a short while, waiting until Butters had finished his song.

When it fell quiet, Craig turned to face him. "Why are you torturing yourself like this?"

"Because I don't want to torture other people." Butters turned his head away and cast his eyes towards the ground. He rubbed his knuckles together, and as Craig looked closer, he saw that they were rubbed raw.

"You're not. Tweek's happy, I'm happy. Who else would you be torturing?"

"Just leave me alone, please, you got what you wanted."

"I did, yes, so why should I care?" Craig grabbed Butters shoulder, his large gloved hand covering the small area. "Dude, I can't stand to see you and Kenny being so stupid, feeling sorry for yourselves. Take it from me, sitting around and acting like you're doing the right thing, whilst feeling like shit, it sucks. And frankly I just can't understand why you're doing it."

"I'm doing it because Kenny said he still loves Tweek, and I... I can't bear hearing that anymore. I don't know. It was all somehow so much easier when they were still together."

"No it wasn't Butters, it was ridiculously more complicated. Now you actually have a chance at something proper. I don't think Kenny knows what he feels, but I KNOW that he loves you. He said he didn't want to hurt you." Those words sounded so familiar to Craig, not wanting to hurt the person you cared about most. "You've got to talk to him."

"I can't, don't you understand? I've caused enough trouble."

Craig growled, if only Butters and Kenny could see how fucking much they needed each other. But he couldn't help dwell on what Butters had said. What would Tweek think of all of this? Would he be mad at Craig for trying to get Butters and Kenny together after what they did? Was Craig doing something potentially damaging to himself?

It was as if Butters could read Craig's mind. "Craig, you should probably go back to Tweek. You don't need to get involved in this."

"I know I don't."

"Does Tweek know you're here?"

A calm voice rang out from behind them, each word spoken slowly, with confidence, not stuttered. "I do."

Craig and Butters whipped their heads around to meet with wide butterscotch eyes. The eyes gave nothing away about what the boy was feeling. Craig cursed under his breath; Clyde had one simple instruction- keep Tweek out of trouble. His eyes lit up in alarm when he saw Clyde appear from behind Tweek, to stand next to him. Craig smirked at Clyde and nodded, knowing exactly what Clyde was doing. Who'd have thought he'd possess such cunning. Clyde smiled back apologetically; he'd had to do it. He couldn't sit there joking with Tweek when he knew there was somewhere else more important to be.

Butters jumped up. "Tweek please, let's have no trouble. Craig was only trying to help, gosh I don't know why. I told him he should leave it alone. I know I don't deserve help."

"I know C-Craig was only trying to help, Butters."

"W-well don't take it out on him!"

Tweek pulled on his shirt. "I wasn't g-going to. I have nothing to take out on him. He speaks only good points, and oh God, I agree with him. I h-hated seeing Kenny so miserable this morning. He's not miserable purely because of me, he needs YOU!"

Butters couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Stop acting like you're doing everyone a big favour by sitting there!"

"Tweek, I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything, Butters. G-Get your ass to K-Kenny now before I pounce on you again."

Butters jumped up and threw his arms around Tweek briefly, and then withdrew them before Tweek could give any reaction. Without another word, he dashed off.

Craig wrapped his arms around Tweek, encapsulating him in a relieved hug. "Well that's one way of putting it I guess."

Tweek buried his head into Craig's chest, inhaling the calming scent. "Well you w-were doing a crap job."

"This being nice business doesn't come naturally to me."

Tweek laughed. "That w-will be the last time either of us use or threaten to use violence!"

Craig chuckled. "Deal."

From behind the content couple, Clyde scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I'm sure that will happen," he mumbled. He decided to go and find Bebe after Craig flipped him off, muttering a half-hearted 'asshole' over his shoulder.

A/N: Next chapter= Last Chapter.

Okay I'm going to let you in on some stuff about this story. (Oh wow, how exciting)

So, this was originally going to be a one-shot, just a quick story about how Craig convinces Tweek he's a better influence than Kenny. It escalated very quickly.

I never planned on Damien and Christophe being together… that just randomly happened in my head during the Halloween chapter.

Before I decided to introduce Butters, this could have had some serious one-sided Crenny in it. Wow… that would have changed the story. It debatably does have one-sided Crenny in, if you want to read meanings into certain parts, I left that deliberately open, so you may not have detected any Crenny in it and doing that may ruin the story for you :L