Prompt: Humans are the rarest and the deadliest species in the known universe. Often, search parties go missing due to a run in with a human ship. It has recently come to light that there is an entire planet full of them.
Prompt: It is illegal to contact the humans, as they wear an evolutionary scar from their time as prey. It is known as 'fear' and it makes them volatile and unpredictable.
A/N: I do not own South Park or any planets… I also do not own either of the writing prompts that I am using to write this story.
Walking back to camp after our breaking and entering of the junk yard was quiet. Tweek seemed like he was in a good mood over all of his finds and they stopped together outside of the tent. Craig bent down to unzip the tent and turned to Tweek before he crawled in. Tweek seemed to almost be glowing in the moonlight and Craig was trying hard to not seem enthralled.
"You can go back to sleep, you look like you need it." Tweek said to him, him voice soft and coming out almost musically while he gave Craig a small smile. "I am going to my ship to get started on fixing it."
Craig didn't want him to go alone but knew he would be of no use without sleep. So he nodded his head and without thinking reached out for Tweek's hand and pulled him a little closer "Be safe. I'll come by with some food after I get up." He then leaned down and brushed his lips lightly against Tweek's before pulling away and crawling into the tent. It wasn't until Tweek's soft footsteps had faded away did Craig realize what he had just done. He lay awake turning over his actions in his head for just a short time before being swept away by dreams.
Craig awoke to sunlight streaming in through the tent and when he got out he saw the guys looking over at him.
"Hey Craig, where's the alien?" Cartman asked.
"Tweek is at his ship trying to fix it. Have you guys made breakfast yet? I'm starving." Craig reached out and helped himself to some food as well as an extra plate that he put to the side to allow to start cooling.
"Right, uh Craig" Token began, "Is he going to be able to fix his ship? Because I don't think he will be able to stay you know? He isn't exactly human and it's pretty obvious."
Craig chewed his food thoughtfully. It was true he knew that Tweek would not be able to stay here and that was fine. It was obvious that Tweek wanted to get home very anxiously. So why is it that the idea of Tweek leaving made him want to hit something? "I will ask him about his ship when I bring him his food." Craig said sounding his normal monotone.
"Listen Craig, it's not like we want to chase your boyfriend away or anything but he isn't human Craig. You know what that means." Cartman said in what for him would be a nice sweet voice but still came out sound patronizing.
"What exactly does that mean?" Craig asked as he stood up and turned to look at Cartman watching as his face fell a little bit. It took a physical effort to not punch Cartman for what he was saying.
"Dude, he doesn't belong here. It means that he needs to go home man." Stan said trying and failing at keeping his voice even so as not to piss off Craig more.
"Right." Craig said. He reached down and picked up his plate of food and the one he had prepared for Tweek and turned and walked into the forest.
"Craig, why are you upset. I didn't realize you cared so much about someone you haven't even known for two days. I've never seen you care about anyone so quickly." Clyde said from his shoulder quietly.
Craig was surprised that it had only been a day since he had met Tweek. He felt as if it had been so much longer and yet so much shorter at the same time. "I don't care." Craig lied. "Tweek wants to go home so I just want to help him out. It's not like I'm attached to him or something. He is just different and pretty interesting. And strong." Craig tacked on at the end considering Tweek had lifted him up very easily a few times now.
Clyde stared at his best friend in amazement. "Dude I don't think you could even describe me that much and we have been best friends since preschool." Craig just shrugged and kept walking even as Clyde turned to go back to camp.
Craig arrived at Tweek's ship to find it looking in much better shape than the last time they had been there. Tweek came out from behind the ship and gave Craig a dazzling smile that made Craig stop walking as his brain seemed to forget what he was doing. Tweek smiling was the best thing Craig thought he had ever seen. He continued walking to him and handed Tweek his food. Tweek sat down on a fallen log and started eating while Craig watched him trying to commit him to memory.
"The ship is in great shape now! I just need to wait some time before it should start working and then I can go home. There is so much I am needed to do when I get there." Tweek said after they were done eating. He was smiling a lot and Craig felt an urge to touch him which he didn't suppress. Reaching out, Craig took Tweek's hand in his.
"That's great. What are you going to do when you get home?" Craig was wondering what Tweek's people did when they had free time.
"Well, first I have to finish my coming of age ceremony" Tweek said. "I was in the process of it when I got caught in a meteor shower and crashed here. So I need to get back home and complete training to become a ruler of the Sateils."
"Ruler?" Craig asked awestruck.
"One of the rulers. We generally have at least four rulers at a time, usually more but sometimes less. It all depends on if they can complete their age ceremony." Tweek frowned. If he did not make it back then he would be one of the ones that did not complete his ceremony.
"Wow. So when you become a ruler, what do you do then? Sit back and tell others what to do?" Craig asked.
"No. We have the same tasks as everyone, we make sure that Neso is taken care of. We are to convene to the Neptune council and go over decisions past and present and ensure the safety of all Sateil." Tweek answered. He didn't really know how to explain to Craig the responsibility, the nobility of being a ruler, how it was Tweek's future. The future that Tweek had been training for all of his passage of Neptune and the only future Tweek had ever wanted.
"That sounds great. So when you finish your age ceremony you go through more training? Or do you get leisure time to be on your own?" Craig sounded curious.
"Well, after I finish my age ceremony I am to take a day of solitary reflection before my bonding ceremony to my betrothed." Tweek answered and as he did so he suddenly had a slight flash of worry for Bebe. She would have left Venus shortly after Tweek had, perhaps she had gotten caught in the meteor shower as well. That would not be a good thing at all. When Tweek's ship was operable he would be able to scan the area for more life forms like himself. Tweek was so lost in his own mind that he completely missed the look on Craig's face.
"A bonding ceremony?" Craig asked in a strange voice that made Tweek look at him. He noticed that Craig had dropped his hand. "Like a wedding? You're getting married?" Craig was looking at him with an expression that made Tweek want to reach out and touch him in some way but was unsure if it was something he should do.
"I do not know what a wedding or getting married is. A bonding ceremony is where two Sateils, who have been betrothed since the beginning of their life passage are to unite as one before Neptune in the falls of ice in the center of Neso. The bonding ceremony for a future ruler is mandatory for all of Neso to attend. As Bebe and I are both future rulers this ceremony will be one of the most important for as many passes since my own birth givers who were the last rulers who were betrothed to each other." Tweek was pleased that he would have such a high honor as he had been his whole life. But as he studied Craig's face, something made Tweek stop smiling. Craig was looking at him almost helplessly and Tweek didn't understand why.
"So you will be together for the rest of your lives, recognized under law that you are together. That's a marriage. I had no idea you were engaged or betrothed to someone. I, uh a-are you in love with her then?" Craig's voice sounded a little scratchy and Tweek had a feeling this question which was as confusing as half of his other questions was not the thing he wanted to say.
"What is this love? I do not understand." Tweek moved his head to the side and stared at the black haired boy next to him. He still didn't know how to bring back the smile he had grown accustomed to on his face and had a feeling that using his saliva glands at this moment, the action that Craig terms a kiss would not work very well.
"Love is something you feel for the one that you're getting married to. It's where you are happy when they are happy. Where you support them through anything. It's where you stay by their side even if everything and everyone is against you. When you look at them it's said that your heart seems to expand, where you cannot even imagine going through life without that person. It's..." Craig trailed off as he looked at Tweek with an almost conflicted look on his face but his eyes were soft and Tweek knew that if Craig had a betrothed then he would be breaking the law just by looking at him that way.
"What you have just described, this love, it's something that you grow to feel for your betrothed. You achieve happiness through your bond. Every Sateil feels this way about their betrothed at some point in their life passage. Neptune has yet to bond those who have not connected. Bebe is a perfect match for me, she would not be my betrothed otherwise." Tweek looked at Craig and expected to see understanding there. All Sateils understood the bonding ceremony, they understood the process but it would seem as if humans, as if Craig did not understand by the confusion he saw looking back at him.
"Love is not always something that you just grow to feel Tweek. Sometimes it just comes out of nowhere and surprises you." Craig reached over and took Tweek's hand into his own again and pulled Tweek closer to him. Tweek looked up at him, the feeling in his stomach twisting in an almost pleasant way and his face felt warm again. Tweek really did not understand this feeling as he stared into those blue eyes and felt again a flash of unease as he saw the look that shouldn't be on Craig's face while looking at Tweek. What really was bothering Tweek though wasn't the fact that it wasn't allowed but the fact that Tweek liked it. Tweek didn't want Craig to look at anyone except him in that way and he really didn't know why.
Craig's lips brushed his again and his arms wound tightly around Tweek's waist pulling him impossibly closer and deepened the kiss. Tweek knew by then that this was wrong. This intimacy was not supposed to be acted upon between anyone except those bonded and so it was illegal for his kind to participate in such things. These thoughts continued to swirl in Tweek's mind even as his arms reach up and wrapped around Craig's neck pulling him closer and continuing the kiss. He didn't understand the warmth that spread through him even as he registered the fact that he wanted more.
"C-Craig" Tweek said not knowing what he was trying to say.
"Tweek, I" Before Craig could finish his sentence, there was a bright light and the ship turned on effectively pulling them apart.
"Oh! My ship is ready." Tweek turned back to Craig and smiled at him, "I will be able to leave now. I want to thank you for everything that you have done for me while I am here. I will not forget you or your planet."
Craig walked him to his ship and looked upset again. Tweek got in his ship and set up a scan to look around the area and see if there was danger or anything familiar. He stepped out of the ship knowing it would take a small amount of time which he could use to say goodbye. Craig looked down at him as Tweek reached out and linked their fingers together one more time. "I- You're going so soon. I barely feel like you were here at all." Craig said.
"I was here for a short time and yet it felt like an entire passage has passed." Tweek said looking up at him. Tweek wasn't sure what made him do it but he reached up and pulled Craig down to his level and kissed him softly for what felt like the last time.
His ship dinged and when he looked he saw there was nothing on this planet at all that was familiar so he had no other reason to delay. Turning back to Craig with a small smile he said "Goodbye Craig. You have shown me a whole new outlook here on Earth."
As he turned to get back in his ship Craig's hand tightened on his again. He turned to see Craig looking at him with that conflicted look again. "Don't go Tweek. You could stay." Craig looked almost hopeful but there was a resigned look upon his face.
"I cannot." Tweek said as he shook his head. "I am needed on Neso and cannot abandon my people. I am sorry Craig." Tweek looked down at his feet finding them easier to look at than the hurt look on the face of the black haired boy with the bright blue eyes that he had come to feel so strongly for.
"Tweek," Craig hesitated a moment before continuing, "I won't forget you either you know. I have never had these feelings for anyone before, not even my ex-girlfriend who I honestly thought had broken my heart." Tweek look at Craig and decided it wouldn't matter if he was honest with him.
"I have never felt this way about anyone before either Craig. Not even Bebe. One day I am sure that I will feel for her as I am supposed to but for now those feelings seem to have been given to you which is actually something that I could get into trouble for. It is illegal to look upon anyone but your betrothed with anything feeling. Punishable by banishment." Tweek looked at him feeling a little bit bothered by the fact that he wouldn't mind if he got banished because of Craig.
"Well if you get banished, come back to me." Craig said. There was an intensity to his gaze that made Tweek feel warm again.
"If that should come to pass, I will come to you if it is possible." Tweek said. He once again entered his ship and released his gripped on Craig's hand.
"Tweek." Craig called one more time causing Tweek to look at him again. Craig didn't hesitate this time. "I love you."
Tweek was surprised at the words and even more surprised at how they made him feel. Tweek knew he would be breaking the vows of his people by what he was doing with Craig if Craig was a Sateil. But as he isn't a Sateil and as Tweek was leaving he found himself being honest again. "If I was to be in this term you define as 'love' Craig, it would be with you." Tweek looked Craig in his blue eyes and smiled one last time before closing the ship.
Tweek set the coordinates for Neso and felt the familiar sensation of lift off from the ground. He left the planet with only a group of boys watching the sky and only one on his mind.
A/N: Ok so our Tweek is going home! Don't worry it's not over yet. I still have plans for these boys and of course, don't forget my writing prompts. I still need to have Tweek tell of the planet full of humans. What will happen then hmm? Well, Please review!