Craig

Craig didn't wake up in his own bed, but he did wake up warm, content, and at peace.

He wasn't disoriented, there was no moment of panic as he tried to remember how he'd gotten there. Perhaps there should have been, after all, it's not exactly normal to wake up like that, but he was calm. Because somehow, he sort of knew where he was and that made everything alright. Why panic when he knew that he was okay.

It wasn't often he woke up like this, Craig chose to savor it while he could.

The spot next to him was slightly warmer than the rest of the bed. Slowly, he rolled over into the heated spot that Tweek had undoubtedly left behind before wondering absently how long it had been since the boy had gotten up. He was surprised at how good he felt. He'd half expected to wake up feeling like shit, as he usually did after an evening like last night, but instead, his usual neutrality had already returned. Hell, he'd really meant it when he'd thought of it as peace. Sure, life sucked, but Tweek didn't, and currently, he was with the blond and not at his home so everything was fine.

As memories started to filter through his head, Craig's body ached and he held back a soft groan. He could remember talking to Tweek, could remember trying to convince the boy that everything was fine. To be frank, he should have known that Tweek would see through his bullshit, the boy knew him too well to just believe that he was fine when he was so clearly not. But then, he hadn't expected the blond to have the nerve to pry into the matter once he'd shut it down.

I cried, didn't I? It was strange, he'd expected to feel worse about it, but really, he actually felt better. If it had been anyone else, Craig would have hated himself for it, felt weak for letting himself fall apart, but it was Tweek. Even though he didn't know exactly what that meant, he knew it meant that he didn't have to worry about being looked at as less for what had happened. Tweek wouldn't treat him differently. And besides, he still thinks it's the monsters. That was probably lying, but Craig would have called his parents monsters any day of the week so it wasn't entirely a lie either, right?

He couldn't quite remember what Tweek and he had talked about just before he'd fallen asleep, he did, however, recall how much calmer he'd felt with his arms around the other boy. Heh, I guess I've never had a friend like this before. I've never had someone like Tweek. Speaking of the boy... Though they felt crusted shut, Craig pulled his reluctant eyes open and blinked them several times before edging his head above the covers. The blonde's room was sunlit and quiet, but it didn't feel empty like the rest of the boy's house. No, instead it felt like Tweek, and Craig liked that.

Looking about slowly, Craig found Tweek already staring at him, a cup of coffee clutched between his fingers. On it, the words, Addicted to Pot, with a little coffee pot in place of the o, were written in big bold black print. Craig wasn't quite sure if he was supposed to find it funny or not. If anyone else had been holding the cup, he would have assumed it was a joke, but considering it was Tweek, he wasn't altogether convinced that it wasn't, in fact, a warning label of sorts. As the blond blinked twitchily, Craig closed his eyes once more and relaxed back against Tweek's numerous pillows. It's Tuesday, isn't it? Fuck...

"We have school," Craig muttered into the pillow, who's pillowcase was the same green as the shirts Tweek always wore. His voice was miserably scratchy, but he'd expected that. Christ, I have to cover all these marks, don't I? Well, at least I have that fight with Stan as an excuse. Only Tweek is going to know the difference. Opening his eyes once more, Craig gave a one-eyed look at Tweek, who shivered under his gaze.

"Y-yeah, we do," the boy agreed, taking several gulps of coffee as he did so. His green eyes were flickering over Craig, a bit of worry still in them. Though Craig didn't blame the boy, he hoped that expression would vanish soon. He'd be fine, after all, he didn't exactly need Tweek spending all his time treating him like glass. "But don't worry! We have p-plenty of time."

"Maybe we can catch the bus or something," he mumbled, wanting more time to sleep and knowing that he wasn't going to get it. Not when Tweek was sitting there watching him and there was light streaming through the windows. Well, better now than later I guess... Sitting up, even though his back, ribs, and other various extremities protested his movements, Craig glanced first at Tweek's clock then at the boy himself. "How long have you been up?" he asked, eyes drifting as he did.

"Not that long," Tweek squeaked, twitching. Eyes growing wide, he suddenly blurted out, "I was gonna make you –ngh- c-coffee or something, b-but I didn't know if you liked coffee and I couldn't find the hot chocolate or anything so I just didn't make you anything!" He shifted back and forth in his chair nervously, as if he expected Craig to get upset. I never would, not with him.

"I've never actually had coffee," Craig admitted, eyes traveling to Tweek's desk. There was a small Lego creature sitting there, and though he couldn't be sure, he was pretty sure that it looked like Stripe. Absently, Craig continued, "But I'm sure if you made me coffee, I'd like it."

"Jesus man, y-you don't know that!" Yanking at his hair with a hand, Tweek moaned, "W-what if you hated it!?"

"Well I'd have to try it first," Craig reminded Tweek, looking away from the Lego Stripe at last. He's so talented, I wonder if it's because his mind is always so full of ideas that he has to let them out somehow… "Besides, wouldn't your family have the best coffee."

Tweek shook his head vehemently, twitching hard as he did so. "N-no way!" Looking as though he were about to say something that he wasn't supposed to, Tweek confided, "Actually, I try not to even drink most kinds of coffee my parents have. Th-there's something weird about it man, I only –ngh- d-drink it when they offer it to me or something. I keep separate bags of coffee downstairs even." Shivering, Tweek muttered, "Jesus, w-what if it's actually poison or mind control drugs or something! I d-don't want you messing with that stuff."

"I'm sure you wouldn't let them poison me," Craig told Tweek, reassuring him. As he spoke, his eyes wandered again. Though he hadn't noticed it the night before, now that he was conscious, he couldn't help but stare at what Tweek was wearing. The familiar picture on the front made his brows furrow for a moment before a ball of warmth grew in his chest. He wasn't even sure why seeing the blond with his pirate guinea pig shirt on made him so happy, but it definitely did. Now I'm just being ridiculous... I must still be tired or something.

Needing to distract himself, Craig looked back at Tweek's face and asked, "Did you get any sleep?" He wasn't sure why he was asking about something like that, it wasn't like it mattered to the blond. Though he'd originally been mildly alarmed over Tweek's sleep schedule, he'd quickly learned that sleep did very little to affect the blond either way. He was still just as spastic either way. Besides, he drank so much coffee that it probably didn't matter whether his body was worn out or not. Yet he still found himself asking because he had a feeling that Tweek had stayed by his side the whole night and that couldn't have been interesting if the boy hadn't gotten any sleep.

Jerking right, Tweek took several more sips of coffee before answering, "Yeah man, I -ngh- g-got lots of sleep actually!" Shivering, he fussed with his mug as he continued, "I m-mean, I don't usually sleep like that, b-but with you there it was like the monsters didn't really matter, you know? I think you scared them away!" Looking at Tweek's wide-eyed expression for a few seconds, Craig put his head down slightly. It felt oddly reassuring to know that he wasn't the only one who's monsters quieted down when they were together. I guess if I'm helping Tweek too then it's all okay if I'm a little selfish sometimes.

"I'm glad you got some sleep," Craig said at last, swinging his legs out of bed. He almost fell over when he first tried to stand up, but after a moment, he managed to shake his legs awake. Tweek kept watching him, which confused him slightly. Turning to look at the boy, Craig gave him another once over. His eyes were still full of worry, but there was something else there, something that was more prominent. Uncertainty, Craig realized suddenly. "Tweek?" he prompted, making the boy jump and almost slosh coffee over himself.

When Craig gave him a flat look, Tweek twitched hard. "Are you..." Swallowing, the boy put down his mug of coffee and fiddled with his fingers. Finally looking back up at him, Tweek softly asked, "Are you okay?"

Letting out a breath, Craig glanced at the ground while he thought the question over. In the long run, he probably wouldn't be okay, but that was old news. Right now, he was still a mess inside, but he'd sorted it out enough to make everything seem a lot less shitty. That was mostly because of Tweek, and Craig didn't want to let the boy's work go to waste by simply regressing back into that self-hating mindset that tended to show up after he let himself get too introspective. So he picked his chin up and gave Tweek a steady, calm look. "Yeah, I'll be fine," he told the boy, as confident as he could push himself to be.

Mouth tightening, Tweek nodded once, and the uncertainty and worry left his eyes. "Okay."

That was it, but that was really all that was needed.

))))-((((

"CRAIG~! TEACUP! What are you two doing here?!"

As Craig pulled Tweek along behind him into the bus, he looked over at Clyde, who was waving his arms wildly and bouncing up and down in his seat. He wasn't particularly surprised to see Clyde so excited, after all, Craig didn't usually ride the bus. Generally, he chose to walk, mostly so he could walk with Ruby (or rather, behind her because she didn't like to be seen with him). Every now and then, it would get late enough the Craig would find the bus ride justified. Today was one of those days, especially considering he was too bruised to walk all the way to school.

Feeling Tweek twitch behind him, Craig flipped off the overexcited brunette before walking to the back of the bus where the boy was sitting. Choosing to take the empty seats behind Clyde, Craig let Tweek sit down first before taking the aisle seat and answering his friend with a, "Too lazy to walk." Watching Tweek gingerly sit on the edge of his seat, no doubt terrified of all the germs surrounding him, Craig took a moment to pat the boy's head before turning back to Clyde, who was grinning like an idiot.

"I should have known you'd be at Tweek's house, after all, you two did go home earlier than everyone else." Eyes going to Tweek, Clyde furrowed his brows and said, "Speaking of which, are you okay Teacup?" When Tweek let out a shriek and looked up at Clyde, the boy shrugged and said, "You know, because you were upset yesterday. Everything is alright, right?"

"Y-yeah," Tweek said, biting his lip looking down at his thermos, which he had clutched between his hands as usual. Craig's brows furrowed in Clyde's direction, not exactly happy about the boy bringing up the mess that he'd managed to get himself into, but the brunette was too busy leaning over the seat and staring at Tweek with concerned eyes. When Tweek looked up and saw Clyde's expression, he twitched hard and insisted, "Jesus! D-don't look at me like that! Everything is okay!"

Brightening instantly, Clyde poked Tweek's forehead with a laugh and exclaimed, "That's great!" Bouncing in his seat slightly, Clyde bubbled, "I can't wait to see what's going to happen next in the game. I mean can you believe it? We avoided war by like this much." Demonstrating with his fingers, the boy shook his head. "I still can't believe that Kenny managed to convince them to do that. He's got balls, standing up to both of them at once like that."

"Careful not to speak of the devil, he has a tenancy of appearing." Sliding into the empty seat next to Clyde, Kenny gave both Tweek and Craig a wide grin, which only grew wider when Craig flipped him off. "I heard you all talking about yesterday, I must admit, I am a genius." When Tweek let out a squawk, Kenny pulled a pout, which made Clyde laugh. "Aww come on Tweekers, don't be like that! You loved yesterday, didn't you? Besides-" Kenny shot a mischievous look sideways to where his usual group of friends was sitting and said more loudly, "You really kicked Stan's ass, Tweeky. He didn't stand a chance!"

Just as he'd no doubt intended it to, the remark made Stan throw up his hands and let out a scoff. Kyle on the other hand, was quick to lean over Stan and yell, "Shut up asshole!" Kenny only cackled at that, while Tweek shivered and twitched, clearly terrified of being the center of attention. Nudging up against him, Craig looked down at the blond and waited until he stopped twitching so hard and met his eyes. It's okay, they always do this, Craig thought, even though he already knew that Tweek couldn't read his mind.

"Come on Kyle, stop being such a salty Jew," Cartman chided, leaning back and crossing his arms. "You should have know that my Human would whoop your Elf's ass. It was kind of expected." When Kyle let out a cry of anger, the fat boy held up his hands and leaned back, saying, "Whoa Kyle, calm down, I'm just speaking the truth here. Your side kinda sucks ass."

Before Kyle could retaliate, Jack, who was sitting in the seat in front of Clyde, called out, "That fight was seriously badass! I don't care who won, Tweek's a motherfucking monster!" Looking over in the boy's direction, Craig had to agree with him. Tweek was fearsome when he wanted to be. Feeling pride bubble in his chest, Craig glanced down at Tweek once more, who looked amazed that someone had recognized his actions at all.

"Honestly, I thought the whole festival was enjoyable," William agreed, turning around as well so he could join in the conversation. Looking over at Cartman and Kyle, he added, "It was a good idea to hold the thing, I think that we needed a moment of peace."

Holding a hand to his heart, Kenny let out an indignant gasp. "Are you forgetting who came up with the idea in the first place?" Looking over at Butters, who was sitting behind Cartman, Kenny gave a grand flourish of his hand and announced, "It was Buttercream's idea in the first place. Those two couldn't come up with anything half as brilliant to save their lives." When both Cartman and Kyle let out similar sounds of protest, and the rest of the boys on the bus broke out into laughter, Kenny simply shrugged and said, "What, it's true."

"I actually preferred the battle we fought before the festival," Jack called, to which several Elves nodded and made sounds of agreement. "We totally won that one!"

"You guys had an unfair advantage!" Chris Donnelly yelled back, though he still sounded rather good-natured about the whole thing.

"Not true," Daniel pointed out, looking up from the book he'd been reading. "We had to break Craig out of the dungeons first. That means we'd already taken damage before we'd even got to you guys. Ergo, you lost even though you had the advantage." Russell let out a whoop at that, and Kyle yelled something about how the Human's had been cheating, but Craig's attention was on Tweek, whose eyes had gone wide with fear.

"JESUS MAN! I'M –RRr- NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN!" he screeched, yanking on his hair with a hand. "That was way too much pressure! B-besides, we're gonna get in so much trouble once we get to school. You heard Mr. Mackey! We're all gonna get detention!" Yeah, but I think the two of us had to deal with the worst of it… Not about to say that out loud, Craig edged over and grabbed for Tweek's free hand, holding it to calm the boy down.

"Oh man, you're right," Russell agreed, rueful. "We are so screwed. They called my parents last night and man, they were pissed. But I think it was worth it, considering how epic it all was!"

"I suppose when you look at the options we had, it was the best one," William conceded, shrugging. "It was either that or try to fight the Elves without one of our leaders. Still, my parents got the call too, we're in deep shit."

Glancing over at Cartman, who was smugly grinning at Kyle, who looked irritated beyond belief, Craig felt a stir of resentment at the realization that the people who had orchestrated his escape weren't going to feel a bit of the consequences. Aloud however, Craig simply commented, "We'll live. It's just Mr. Mackey after all."

"Man, I wish I could have seen that," Chris said, looking over at Craig with a half-grin. "Those hall monitors are dicks, they deserve every bit of what came to them. So does Mr. Mackey for that matter." Shrugging, he raised an eyebrow and said, "You had better hope that we don't take all your territory while you're locked up in detention."

"Fuck off, that's so unfair!" Jack yelled, a chorus of agreement following him. "You can't do that! We're stuck in the dungeons, it's not like we can do anything about it."

"No, it's totally fair," Stan cut in, crossing his arms and looking over at Jack. "You guys should have thought of that before throwing yourselves against t school like that. Besides, we have the stick so we have control over the universe."

While the other boys continued to argue, Clyde leaned over his seat again and asked, in a quieter voice, "Do you think they're really going to take all our territory. They already have a lot."

Pulling a face, Kenny admitted, in a similarly soft tone, "They might, it's what I would do if I were Kyle." Sighing, Kenny looked at Tweek and Craig and told them, "It wasn't exactly our best idea, but I'm sure it'll all work out in the end. The Elves can't win forever."

"Oh god, w-what if the humans lose while we're in detention!" Tweek squeaked, shivering beside Craig, squeezing his hand tightly as he did so. "What if the Elves capture everyone and then they banish us from the game and w-we have to flee South Park because they're after our heads! Ghn- I don't think I could handle that!"

"They're not going to banish us," Craig told Tweek, tightening his own hold on the boy's small fingers. He could picture Cartman doing something like that, but he was fairly sure that Kyle wouldn't go that out of his way to be spiteful. Though he didn't doubt that Kenny was right in saying that the Elves would take a lot of territory while they had the chance.

"Besides Teacup," Clyde added on cheerfully, clearly unworried about being banished. "Even if they did make us quit the game, we could just make a new faction and take them over or something. And ours could be way more badass than theirs so they'd all get jealous." Laughing at Tweek's squawk of fear, the boy insisted, "I'm kidding!"

"Yeah, of course he is, because there's no way he could come up with something that cool on his own," Kenny agreed, provoking a cry of protest from Clyde. "Now, if someone asked me to make another faction of kids, I could probably do a kickass job of it."

"Fuck off McCormick," Craig muttered, noticing Clyde's hurt expression. "Clyde would do better than you any day. The best you could do was be a traitor." Instantly, Clyde's expression brightened and he let out a laugh as Kenny crossed his arms and huffed in a way that was reminiscent of his princess act.

"If I were a traitor, I'd be the best traitor ever," Kenny said, lifting his chin. The act was ruined by the grin that slipped back onto his face. Popping one eye open and looking at Tweek, the sandy-blond asked, "What do you think Tweekers? Think I'd be good at betrayal?"

"JESUS DON'T BETRAY ANYONE! THAT'S WAY TOO MUCH PRESSURE!" Huddling against Craig, Tweek shook his head and yanked at his hair. "Y-you're already cool enough as a character Kenny, d-don't do anything stupid!"

"What about you Fucker," Kenny cooed, batting his eyelashes at Craig, who scowled at him. "Think I'd make the most sparkly and fabulous traitor in the whole wide world? Say you think so just for me!"

Irritated at Kenny for stressing his blond out, Craig lifted his middle finger at Kenny. "Up yours, asshole." Patting Tweek's floof of hair, Craig was gratified when he calmed down and relaxed against him.

"Careful Craig, wouldn't want to go making promises you don't want to keep," Kenny said, wiggling his eyebrows. From beside him, Tweek let out a screech and covered his ears, clearly horrified at Kenny. Craig just rolled his eyebrows and ignored the boy in an attempt to, if not make him go away, then at least make him shut up.

As the conversation moved on and Craig tuned it out, he noticed that Tweek was still shivering against him. Glancing past Tweek at the town they were driving through, Craig nudged the blond and softly said, "We're going to be fine, okay?" When Tweek let out a squeak and looked up at him, Craig calmly said, "Detention isn't all that bad."

Twitching, Tweek bit his lip and smiled slightly. "Yeah, I know."