"Alright, Craig, your dad and I are heading to Aunt Suzanne's to see the new baby. I'll text you on Sunday when we're on our way back," my mom tells me, collecting her things at the door. "You're in charge of dinner. Please make sure Ruby eats. You know how she is. She won't leave her room at all if you don't make her..."

Wait a second... Mom and dad are leaving for the weekend? I was hardly paying attention to what she was saying. Now and before when she brought it up because who cares but, if they're leaving- "Okay, Craig?"

"Yeah," I tell her. "Sure thing."

She leaves with my dad. I whip my phone out and start formulating a text to send Tweek. At the same time, I shoot to my feet and rush up the stairs. "Ruby!" I call before even reaching the door. I swing it open. "Ruby!"

"Jesus Christ, what?" she asks, pulling out an earbud.

"You- Can you... go somewhere this weekend?"

Ruby looks up from her computer. "Why?"

"Who cares? Don't worry about it! You always go to Karen's anyways. Just go, I'll take you." The context behind this is Ruby is constantly asking me for rides and I notoriously reject her.

Ruby makes a face, "What? So, you can invite your boyfriend over?" I blush. "Gross, Craig. It's the weekend, I should be able to relax in the comfort of my own home. Why should I have to leave?"

"Relax? You're not even in school right now," I point out, referring to her being on summer break.

"I work."

"Part time."

"Yeah, well, so do you!"

"Ruby," I groan. "Just leave, please! What do you want? A new video game? Money? I'll give you twenty five dollars."

She sighs, "I don't know…"

"Fifty? Fine, fifty dollars!"

Ruby rolls her eyes. "I guess I can ask Karen. She still has to say yes though, you freaking creep."

"Just let me know when you're ready," I tell her, ego pretty bruised. And to top it off before I make it out the door Ruby adds, "Damn dude, you're down bad."

I text Tweek asking if he's busy. Tweek replies, I guess that depends. I start typing quickly and aggressively and then stop and call him instead.

"First of all, that's not how that works. You're either busy or you're not, jerk. My parents are gone for the weekend. We should do our date tomorrow."

"Oh, right, that… What're we doing anyways?"

"It's a surprise but, trust me, it'll be… interesting, at least?"

"Fine, fine." And he hangs up to get ready.

Thirty minutes later, Ruby is safely being taken care of by somebody else, my parents are gone, the house is empty and I'm driving back to it with Tweek in tow.

Oddly, we don't do much that night. Just watch TV and chat. I edited those photos I forgot about and Tweek did… whatever he does on his laptop? I catch a glimpse of a few things. Nothing too shocking to report. Some manga and at one point it looked like some type of forum or something… I show him the finished photos. Instead of being sarcastic Tweek actually compliments my abilities. I point out how he's being, 'weird.' Making fun of what he said before because he's acting uncharacteristically nice. So, he tells me they suck instead and I grab him in what would previously lead to wresting or fighting but this time we skip that and go straight into making out.

I think we're both too tired to actually do anything. We kiss for a while, contemplating it but the longer we kissed, the later it got. I kinda just didn't feel like bothering and Tweek basically fell asleep on me in the middle of it. I think now that we know we're going to be alone together for a while, since we'll be living together, there's less urgency for sex and that kind of thing. Now we'll have plenty of time to do whatever we please.

The next morning we wake up and get ready pretty quickly before hopping on the road. I let Tweek know that it'll be a pretty long drive, I would've given him more of a notice but I know he likes road trips anyways. So for him, I thought it'd be a pleasant surprise. We alternate between chatting and listening to music or both. Tweek gets in some more sleep, until we finally make it.

"We're here."

"What is this?" He looks around out the window. "An aquarium?"

"Well, South Park doesn't have one. I thought it'd be fun since you're mom told me you've never been before." Please don't turn out the way the butterfly garden did. I'm sure that definitely had something to do with why Tweek was never taken to an aquarium as a child.

"Wait," he says. "When did she say that? ...Are you talking to my mom?!"

I sigh, contently. "You have really cool parents, Tweek."

Tweek looks horrified. "That's so fucked up," he says. "And unfair."

"Oh, do you want to meet my family?"

Tweek goes paler. "N- never mind, it's fine."

I laugh, "You should! My mom's been begging to meet you."

"No way!" Tweek says. "You get my loose weirdo hippie parents and I get your scary ass family?"

I laugh louder and harder. "Scary?! Why are they scary?"

Tweek starts, "Your dad is huge! And your mom is gorgeous, she literally has not aged since the first time I saw her in preschool, Craig. And! You have, not just a sibling… You have a sister." I keep laughing. "A little sister, at that. That's so weird to me. And what if they hate me. Last time, I ran off!"

I struggle to catch my breath. "I have no idea what you're talking about," I tell him. My dad is big though, I'll give him that. "They're pretty annoying," I admit. "But, they're not that bad and they want to meet you," I tell him. "And then you can learn all the embarrassing things about me too."

Tweek says, "If it's going to happen, I might as well just prepare myself."

I just continue laughing. "Didn't you say you were working on that?" I say. "Let's try again. Instead, how about, 'I'd love to, Craig. I can't wait to meet your family!'"

"No, you're right," he agrees, surprising me again. Although, his demeanor doesn't change much and contradicts his words. Even when he says, "I'm sure they're lovely people. I can't wait to meet them. I always wanted siblings... kinda... No, actually, not really."

"Tweek, shut up," I snicker. "Are you ready? Let's head inside."

I pay at the front and we enter the huge building. The first room has many tanks of various small fishes. We walk around, slowly, observing the animals. I'm thankful it's not crowded today so we can enjoy ourselves.

It's pretty dark, illuminated only by the lights coming from the tanks. I let Tweek lead, following close behind him. I realize I'm more interested in him than the fish and decide I'm okay with that. I've only been to an aquarium once and it was a long time ago so this is pretty cool. But Tweek looks like he's having a really good time and I'm enjoying that more.

The next area has a larger tank full of jelly fish. Tweek looks particularly keen with this room. He watches the creatures float about. The lighting in here makes him look really pretty too. Tweek's so pretty. He could be a model. I glance around. It's just us. Even outside is empty, everyone else here is further along.

I consider asking Tweek for his permission but decide against it. He'd just be difficult for no reason. I start by bumping his hand with mine before slipping my fingers between his. Tweek doesn't react at all and he doesn't say anything long enough for me to somehow telepathically receive that he's just waiting for me to explain.

"Couples hold hands. I wanted to hold your hand." Tweek keeps silent. "There's nobody around anyways!" He rolls his eyes ever so slightly and I somehow telepathically receive that he's accepted my gesture.

Holding Tweek's hand makes me more nervous than it should. Probably because he made it a, 'thing' instead of just holding my hand since we're dating but, I digress. Now, I have to pretend to be interested in the fish to avoiding looking in Tweek's direction but I'm too anxious to actually look at the fish. I never thought I'd be on a date with Tweek. Like, I asked him on a date and he said yes. And he's letting me hold his hand, what the heck? Is it my fault for being so uncertain before? Would clearer communication have solved this whole ordeal? We're probably both to blame to some degree. How unfortunate all that time we wasted but, who knows? Maybe if we had dated earlier we wouldn't have made it here.

Last night… I think I thought something like, I love you? And I didn't really think about it because we were fucking and we were fucking so, maybe I shouldn't really think about it but… Do I love Tweek? Suddenly my face heats up and my heart starts racing.

Oh no, is it obvious?

He's gonna kill me. I don't have to tell him but, I should eventually. I'm more worried about accidentally letting it slip? As in Tweek figures shit out before me so if I'm realizing now… Wait, could he already know? Calm down, if my hand starts sweating, he'll never hold it again!

I'm gonna be sick. Things have been going pretty well and I don't want to ruin it by pushing him too much. We're already moving in together. We've talked about it but, that's still such a serious thing we're doing pretty early. If I told him I loved him now, he'd run for the hills.

I don't know how long I zoned out but when I wake back up we're at the manatee's tank now. It looks like they just got fed with huge chunks of lettuce thrown about. They seem to drift more than swim. And they often crash into the glass. It's funny especially when one crashes his face right in front of us. Tweek's very amused, he gets it on camera.

"Have you ever been to the beach?"

Tweek smiles at the video once more before putting his phone away. "The only other place I've really been to is Kansas. Because my aunts and Grandma stay over there," he says. "That's the long way of saying no… Yeah, I guess after the butterfly thing, my world just kept getting smaller and smaller."

"When you fixed your anxiety though, you didn't want to do the things you avoided?"

"There's not like a, 'cure' for anxiety. I only worked on it… It never really went away."

"Okay but, do you want to see the beach? It's beautiful! You can't say you've never been. That's crazy."

"It's not like I've never been. We used to go to Cherry Creek every summer."

I laugh. "That's a creek!"

"Same difference," he claims. "There's sand and a shore."

"There are no waves."

"That's not true," he says. "The tide kinda ebbs."

"And that's exactly why you need to see a real beach. Noted," I say. "We definitely would've done that if it weren't so far."

Tweek says, "Could be a fun trip." And I think it's something he let slip without noticing. I think Tweek's sudden shift in attitude is amusing. Maybe the façade he has up, pretending to hate me is cracking and that's where the discrepancies are coming from.

We walk on but as I'm going, Tweek yanks me back. "Wait, what's that?" he asks referring to a room off in the corner. It looks darker than even the jellyfish't tank.

"Ionno," I shrug, not seeing any obvious signs.

Tweek drags me over and we walk inside. At first, I think we're both confused, thinking the same thing: What is this? The tank appears to be empty. I almost assume it's an unfinished exhibit.

But I have all these thoughts in less than a minute before I see him. Tweek says, "What the fuck am I supposed to be looking at?" I lean to his height and then point him in the right direction. Tweek gasps, "Oh!"

Curled up in the very corner hugged up against the coral is an octopus. You can see his camouflage flash.

Tweek practically presses up against the glass. "That's fucking sick. I really didn't think seeing them in person would make a difference but it's so fucking cool. Discovery channel doesn't do it justice, honestly."

The octopus starts to move so we stay and watch until he relocates and settles again. As we're leaving, a little kid comes charging in ahead of his group. You can see him have the same reaction we did initially.

"Where the heck is it?"

Tweek drops my hand and the exact way I leaned over to show him, he shows the kid. The kid gasps and I hold in my laughter to be pollite.

"That's so awesome!" he marvels. The rest of his family enters and we continue on our way. The kid ecstatically shows his presumed siblings. Tweek seems very pleased. I was worried about running into children... but seeing Tweek interact with that kid made me feel some strange feelings...

Anyways!

"I think the only thing left is the penguins."

"They have penguins?"

"Yeah, not many aquariums do."

We walk over to the penguin's habitat. It's way more crowded over here so we hang back a bit.

"Is it weird?" Tweek asks after a while.

"What?"

"That I've never been to a beach or seen a manatee in real life before?"

I shrug, "Maybe if you lived in Florida or something."

Tweek snorts and I have to try really hard to not over react to it. It was a throw away comment. I was trying to make Tweek laugh but it never actually works. That was so cute. He was getting down on himself and I totally made him feel better!

One of the penguins slips on the ice, earning a collective gasp from the crowd. But immediately following the silence, Tweek and I burst into laughter. I thought, and I'm sure Tweek did too, that everyone was going to start laughing. They didn't. Nobody laughed except us, which then got us some dirty looks from the people. We quickly flee the area.

Lastly, we catch the dolphin show. It's cute enough. Tweek says it's cool and he knows dolphins are, 'friendly.' (His quotations, not mine.) But it still gave him anxiety. During the bit at the end when they take questions, he asked the trainer about the dolphins' teeth. I made fun of him for this after the show.

"I don't like large animals. They make me uneasy."

"Large animals like dolphin size?" I question. Tweek nods. "That's not even that big."

"Exactly, it gets way worse but that's already too much."

"Horses?"

"Terrifying."

"Elephants?"

"Menaces."

I laugh, "How can you say that? Literally two of the most majestic creatures."

"I'm not saying you're wrong, but they're still scary as hell."

After roaming the entire aquarium, we stop by the gift shop. I get Tweek a snow globe and he surprises me with a little fish bowl keychain. Part two of the date was just a dinner somewhere nice since I know Tweek likes to eat.

"What about them?"

"…They're definitely on a tinder date. He said he was six, two but he's really five, eleven and she doesn't know yet because he got there first and hasn't stood up yet. Her first question was about his star chart, so that's how that's going."

We snicker. We've been playing a game of, 'couple profiling' in the restaurant.

"Look at how awkward he is."

"You think it's real or just a hook up?"

"In an unexpected turn of events, I think he's genuinely looking to settle and she's just in it for the dinner and hook up but at this point, she's probably thinking, we'll see."

Tweek snickers some more, "Goodbye."

"My intuition is insane. I'm basically psychic."

"I'm not even trying to being funny or offensive, Craig. You're like, the least intuitive person I know."

I make a face. "I feel like context is important but I see where this is going and I refuse to accept full accountability for whatever you're implying," I tell him. "Even when I finally asked you out, you were so cynical about it."

"I was realistic and reacting objectively based only off the information right in front of me."

"Man," I say, side-eyeing him. "You could really be a comedian." Tweek snickers some more. "Whoa, what about them"

A new couple enters the restaurant. It's an elderly couple. One of those, you-can-tell-they're-like-seventy-but-they-make-it-look-like-forty. The guy holds the door and we marvel at them as they're escorted to their table.

Tweek gets quiet. "Uh… I don't know. I can't think of anything. You do it since you're psychic or whatever."

I smirk, "Okay," I start. "They started talking in high school. Might've even known each other since childhood. I think to some degree they both always had a crush on each other." I shoot Tweek a glance. He looks a bit stunned. I think he figured out where I'm going with this.

"They finally got together when they were seniors. After graduating, they moved in together and eventually got married," I end, nonchalantly. "They're pretty damn cute."

I was mostly trolling. I mean it was my funny way of telling him I'm serious about him and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I definitely wouldn't have said that before but it's different now and it was mostly a joke.

I was sure something like that would've sent Tweek. Instead when I finish and look towards the blonde, he's smiling. With his face rested on his hand, he watches the older couple and says, "I hope I can be happy like that one day."

And just like that. He glances back to me, who now has the expression I was hoping to evoke from him. Until I realize Tweek's also mostly trolling. He completely flipped the script. "Ha, ha, real funny. Seriously when do you start touring?" Tweek just keeps laughing.

We finish eating and go home. After showering, we cuddle up and I had planned for more but genuinely just ended up falling asleep with him like that.