Craig
Craig's shoulder hurt.
He wasn't complaining about it, no, he'd sort of just expected it, which is why it didn't really faze him. Fuck, I'm going to have a bruise there for days. At least it would blend in with the ones left over from his fight with Tweek.
Scuffing his feet on the sidewalk as he walked down the street, Craig couldn't help but reflect on how peaceful everything was. After rush hour, after all the kids were in school and the businesses had opened up, the neighborhood streets of South Park were pleasantly empty. Coming to the end of the block, Craig looked about before turning left, his mind instantly drifting again.
Technically, he was supposed to be at home. Technically, he didn't give a shit. The Colorado air whipped past him, ruffling the strings of his chullo. Craig just sighed and watched the horizon. There was no way in hell he was going to spend all day alone in his room, fuck that. It wasn't even his fault this whole thing had happened. No, he was perfectly willing to land the blame squarely on Cartman, but whatever. That didn't matter to the school and it definitely didn't matter to his parents.
So now he was here, and he was perfectly happy to be outside and not stuck indoors slowly losing his mind. As he reached the end of the sidewalk, Craig turned left again and kept walking. Damn, it's been a while since someone told me where his house was. When had it been? First grade? Something about a bunch of kids trying to scare him on Halloween…
Oh well, Clyde's information had been much more useful. The really dark brown one Craig, with like a purple number plate. Literally, you can't miss it. In theory. I wonder if he's even home… Craig couldn't think of where else he could be. His parents would be out, right? Maybe they'd still be home. He ground his teeth together. That would be awkward.
Looking up at the third house down, at the uniform lawn and drive, up to the dark, reddish building and it's matching garage, Craig could only shrug. The action made his shoulder twinge with pain, but he brushed it off. Nothing he wasn't used to. Walking up the sidewalk, Craig stood before the door for a moment before raising his hand and knocking.
There wasn't a sound from inside.
Letting out a puff of air, Craig knocked again before looking up and calling out, "Hey! Tweek?" Instantly, he was met with a scream and a crash. Wincing internally, Craig waited blandly for the sounds of hurried footsteps down the stairs. It sounded more like someone falling down the stairs, to be honest, which only made Craig frown slightly. Even so, he stepped back slightly just before someone inside unlocked the door and Tweek's wild face appeared as it swung open.
"Craig!?" he all but screeched.
Craig raised his eyebrows. "So, how's your first day of suspension treating you?"
"GHA IT'S HORRIBLE MAN!" Tweek yelped, his hands flying up so he could yank on his hair. The boy clearly hadn't done much that morning, he was still dressed in his pajamas, right down to the shirt that was on backward and inside out plus the pair of what were probably girl's bottoms, which were covered in coffee cups and little Eiffel towers. The dark circles under his eyes were even worse than usual and when he let out a moan of consternation, Craig could tell his voice was hoarse.
"Come on, it's not that bad," Craig said, watching as Tweek twitched and shivered. "Besides, it's Cartman's fault for being a dick." It was true, after Cartman had told the principle that Tweek and he had been responsible, they'd used it and their fight previous to merit suspending them both for the rest of the week. Craig didn't give a shit, it wasn't his first suspension and it probably wouldn't be his last, but Tweek clearly didn't see it the same.
That much had been obvious from the way he'd banged his head repeatedly against Mr. Mackey's desk to the point of almost knocking himself out.
"B-But what if we're expelled!?" Tweek shrieked, shaking his head wildly in fear. "W-what if this ends up on our permanent record and I can't get a job when I get older?! WHAT IF WE GET ARRESTED!? JESUS MAN, I CAN'T GET ARRESTED!" Without much of a second thought, Craig reached forward and patted Tweek's hair, reflecting as he did so how fluffy it really was. After a moment of this, Tweek got his breathing back under control.
"Dude, even if they did try to expel us, I was the one who broke his nose, you didn't do anything," Craig reassured Tweek easily. He'd found that the blond responded well to his flat tone of voice. This was good because Craig probably couldn't have managed sympathetic to save his life. "So I'd be the one with the permanent record, but they wouldn't arrest us for something like this."
Tweek nibbled on his lip, his green eyes still full of wild thoughts, but he didn't argue this. Satisfied, Craig stuffed his hands into his pockets and raised an eyebrow. "So, wanna come over. You never got to yesterday because of everything." They'd both been hauled to the councilor's office towards the end of the day, Craig first, then a twitching and shivering Tweek. After trying and failing to get Tweek to confess to something he hadn't even done, they'd finally called both their parents and just slapped them both with suspensions.
Craig's parents had handled it about as well as could be expected. Now he was grounded until he went back to school, not that it actually meant anything, considering both of his parents worked. His shoulder throbbed again, but he ignored it with practiced ease. Right now, all he wanted to do was hang out with Tweek until his parents came home.
But Tweek, apparently, had other ideas.
"ACK! N-NO WAY MAN!" he burst out, shaking his head jerkily, twitching and shifting on his feet, which Craig realized were bare. He's so tiny… "My parents grounded me! I can't leave man, that's just too much pressure!" Craig could practically see the thoughts building up in the boy's head, driving him insane. Though he couldn't possibly know what Tweek was thinking, the paths his mind usually followed being simply too convoluted, Craig still let out a sigh.
"Dude, it's not gonna kill you. Look, I'm grounded too, do I look like I give a fuck?" at his words, Tweek shrieked and slammed the door in his face. Okay, wrong tactic. Listening to the boy race up his stairs and vanish, probably to his room, Craig let out a sigh of frustration. He probably thinks that something bad is going to happen if I'm here…
Stepping back, Craig examined the house again, taking his options into account. What did Kenny say that one time…? The middle room? Craig felt like this entire thing was forcing him to dredge up every single fragment of memory he possessed, just to see Tweek. Well, it'll be worth it. Because Tweek was his friend. And this is what friends do? He wasn't quite sure, he'd never acted like this around Token or Clyde, but that was different.
The eves under Tweek's window were steep, but they were there, which was good. Frowning again, Craig's eyes traveled over the side of the house till he found what he was looking for. Well, might as well give it a try. Leaping off the side of Tweek's front steps, Craig followed the path of the sturdy looking drain pipe down behind the small pines. Looking the thing up and down, Craig noticed a torn piece of orange material that looked familiar. Well, I guess if Kenny can do it…
Wrapping his hands around the cold metal, using the protruding rivets and bolts to climb up, Craig clumsily scaled the side of Tweek's house before jumping onto the eves, slipping on the roofing tiles. Heart flying into his throat as the ground loomed large, Craig swallowed it back and latched onto the window sill of the first window. Carefully creeping along, painfully aware that he wasn't particularly graceful at this, Craig came to the second window and examined it. The blinds were closed, so he couldn't see inside, but when he pressed his ear to the glass, he could hear a familiar squeak of, "H-he's gonna get killed!"
Rolling his eyes, Craig examined the lock on the window, only to discover that someone else had already tampered with the thing, making the task of unlocking it from the outside rather simple. Shimmying it undone, Craig pushed the window open, wincing and the squeaking that resulted.
"AUUUUUUGH!" Tweek shrieked, falling off of his bed with a great crash. "THEY'RE AFTER ME!"
Pushing the blinds out of the way, Craig slipped through the window and looking around Tweek's room. It was every bit the blonde's, down to the messy drawings on the walls of gnomes and aliens and the coffee stains on every surface, including the ceiling. Closing the window behind him, Craig walked around the twin bed till he found Tweek there behind it, lying on his back and moaning in pain softly. He'd managed to tear several of the stitches on his arms and without sleeves to cover them, they bled freely.
Raising an eyebrow at Tweek's contorted face, Craig flipped him off before crouching down and easily picking the unfortunate blond up. Despite the fact they weighed about the same, Craig would have compared the blond to a feather. Where does all that weight go? Maybe his delusions weighed something…
Setting him on the bed, Craig crossed his arms and stared at him, a blank expression on his face. "Hey," he said as if this were any appropriate response to what had just happened. Tweek simply looked down at his arms, noticed the blood, and promptly fell back to his bed with a moan. Damnit, that'll teach me not to scare him. Looking about the boy's room, Craig tried to find some coffee for him before realizing that there wasn't any and sighing. Well, maybe there's some downstairs.
There followed a confusing ten minutes as Craig found the coffee machine, struggled to make coffee, probably failed miserably, but gave up trying and simply took his concoction upstairs to Tweek. The rest of the house, he noticed, was almost disturbingly neat, as if no one even lived there at all. Compared to his own house, which always felt like a disaster, Craig found the cleanliness almost uncomfortable.
Walking back into Tweek's room, Craig brought the mug over to the boy's bed and sat down next to the unconscious blond. Sniffing his own creation, Craig pulled a face and decided that if coffee ever needed to be made in the future, he was going to need some lessons from Tweek before attempting to be the one to make it. Glancing down at the boy's still bleeding arms, Craig gave another sigh, put the cup down on the bedside table, then slipped out of Tweek's room once more to try and find something to get rid of the blood.
He never even bothered to question his own actions, he just sort of acted. It felt natural, therefore it was to him. It didn't matter that he'd never done anything like this for Token or Clyde, much less someone he'd only really known for a total of a week and a half, Craig just gradually made a mess of the bathroom till he found the first aid kit he was looking for.
Returning to Tweek's room, Craig made an utter fool of himself, trying to struggle with the medical supplies and bandages. Settling on what looked like tape, just softer and more medical, Craig did his best to patch up Tweek's arms. As he did so, he noticed the scars on the boy's tiny palms from when he'd gone crashing through the door in third grade. Stretching out his own hands, Craig looked at the scars on his own hands from the many fights he'd been through. "Look," he said softly, his tone still flat. "We match."
As if awakened by his words, Tweek groaned and shifted, struggling to sit upright as consciousness returned to him. Blinking awake, the boy's eyes widened as they landed on Craig, but before he could scream, the Noirette grabbed the mug of coffee and pushed it into his hands. The moment the warm ceramic touched his fingers, Tweek lifted it to his lips on instinct and all but drained it.
"You can't make coffee," he mumbled, looking back up at Craig, before seeming to once again realize Craig was there at all. "GHA! What are you doing here!? You should be home! What if your parents catch you and lock you up and you can't escape and they get locked up for child neglect and then you're an orphan and you end up moving to Canada!?"
Struggling to follow that train of thought, Craig just huffed out a breath and said, "They both work all day dude. They don't get home till, like, six thirty or something. Literally, no one is home." Shifting closer to the trembling blond, Craig pressed his shoulder against Tweek's until the shaking subsided. It was amazing how much physical contact could calm the boy down. "I'll be fine, they wouldn't lock me up." They'd do other stuff.
"SO WHY ARE YOU OVER HERE?!" Tweek burst, his eyes still wide and panicked. "I'm grounded, Craig, you're not even supposed to be here, we're going to get in so much trouble." Moaning, he lifted his hands to his hair but didn't really tug at the strands, he just grabbed them and squeezed them hard.
"Trust me," Craig insisted, "You won't get into trouble. We've literally got all day dude, I wanted you to hang out for a while. Don't both of your parents work at the coffee shop?" When Tweek nodded uncertainly, Craig put out his hands as if to say well there you have it. "They don't close up till six, right?"
"Seven," Tweek corrected, twitching to the side. "They close up at seven." Craig raised an eyebrow, waiting for Tweek to understand what he was trying to get at. Eyes widening, Tweek stared up at him as if trying to understand if he was serious, but finally, he seemed to accept that he was. "I-it's still dangerous man, what if we –ngh- lose track of time or something!"
"Just trust me," Craig repeated, sliding off of Tweek's bed. "Get dressed, nothing bad is going to happen. We're already suspended, how much worse can it get?" As Tweek's eyes widened, saying very clearly that yes, things could get a whole lot worse, Craig rolled his eyes. "You'll be back before lunch if you want to leave that early."
Rummaging around in Tweek's already messy drawers, Craig dug up a green shirt that looked almost exactly like the ones he wore every day. Is this the only shirt he owns? Finding a pair of jeans as well, Craig tossed them both to Tweek.
"You promise I won't g-get caught?" Tweek asked nervously, shivering where he sat. Craig nodded at once, careful to avoid the Legos as he went to grab the first aid kit he'd left open on Tweek's bed. Leaving Tweek to get dressed, Craig walked back to the boy's bathroom. It was funny, Craig had never really worked this hard to get to hang out with someone. Usually, Token and Clyde were quicker to say yes, and if they said no, he just kind of let it rest. He never really pushed like this just to spend time with someone.
But it made sense with Tweek. Because if someone didn't push him, he'd just stay in his room all day, Craig reasoned easily, putting the case back on the shelf of the linen closet before walking back to Tweek's room. If I'm going to be his friend, I'm going to have actually be his friend instead of just coasting. That sounded like a lot of hard work, but Craig had already made up his mind. Worth it or not, he was going to be Tweek's friend.
"Tweek, you ready to go?" Walking in, Craig found Tweek struggling with the buttons of his shirt. Realizing that he was going to button it up wrong, just like he always did, Craig mindlessly walked forward and took over for him, quickly buttoning up the boy's shirt for him. Tweek just let him, staring at Craig dumbly as he did so. Satisfied that Tweek was properly dressed, Craig pulled the boy to the feet by his wrist and guided him out of the room by sort of just nudging him along with the shoulder that didn't hurt.
"C-can I get some coffee first!?" Tweek squeaked, his eyes widening as if he was worried that Craig would deny him his fix. Snorting softly at the idea of Tweek without his coffee, Craig almost smiled. It was weird how easily the spastic blond could evoke that reaction. He just sort of was himself and Craig found himself irrationally happy. He still wasn't used to the feeling, but the Noirette was definitely willing to give it a try.
"Sure." As he followed the boy down to the kitchen, Craig asked, "So, after we're both ungrounded, wanna hang out with Token, Clyde and I? Jimmy might be there too even." Staring at the cabinets that looked slightly disheveled after his pilfering of them to find the elusive coffee, Craig continued, "We usually just sit in Token's basement and play video games. It's alright, as long as Clyde isn't hogging all the food." When several seconds of silence passed, Craig prodded, "Tweek?"
"Gah, Jesus!" Looking to the side, Craig found the boy looking at him with absolute terror. His hands were already buried in his hair and there were coffee grounds spilled over the counter.
"What?" Craig asked, tilting his head and watching Tweek patiently. That was the only appropriate response to handle Tweek, to be honest.
"I COULDN'T POSSIBLY HANG OUT WITH YOU GUYS!" Tweek all but shrieked, his shaking increasing tenfold in seconds. "THAT'S WAY TOO MUCH PRESSURE!" Spine curving as the blond started to curl in on himself, Craig calmly reached forward and once again patted the blonde's head.
"Dude, it's fine," he said, combing his fingers through the soft golden mane, waiting for Tweek's panicked thoughts to slow and his twitching to subside to his usual hyperactive tremble. "They don't mind you Tweek, I promise they won't hurt you." He wasn't quite sure what was running through Tweek's head, but he could guess. It made him feel oddly uncomfortable to think that Tweek didn't see himself as good enough to hang out with Craig's friends, but like many other things about the blond, Craig simply pushed it down and projected his usual even demeanor.
Blinking uncertainly, Tweek asked, in a hushed tone, "Are you sure they don't hate me?" deflating internally at Tweek's self-deprecating thoughts, Craig patted Tweek's head once more before going to the sink where he saw Tweek's usual thermos.
"They're fine with you Tweek, I promise they don't hate you." Bringing over the large silver container, Craig set it down before the blond, reminding the boy what he was doing. Shaking hands going back to making coffee, Tweek's fingers flew over the machine that had left Craig so confused.
"I guess I could hang out…" Tweek mumbled, still twitching but looking at least a little calmer. It was clear he was still horribly nervous about the prospect, but he wasn't screaming anymore, so that was a plus.
As Tweek snapped down the lid of the coffee maker and turned it on, Craig nudged the boy slightly, making him jump. "I'll be there too. I won't let any of them fuck with you, even if they want to. But I know them and they don't do that shit." Feeling the boy relax slightly against him, Craig didn't protest as Tweek leaned against him, practically sagging against the Noirette.
Once again, soft questions flitted through Craig's head. Most of them asking why the hell he was acting like this, but like he'd been doing before, he simply pushed them back down. He didn't really give a shit. This was Tweek and Tweek was different. If Tweek needed to lean against something to relieve some of the mental pressure the boy was constantly placed under, then Craig wouldn't push him away.
Maybe it went both ways, but Craig didn't dare touch those thoughts with a fifty-foot stick.
Finally finishing the pot of coffee, Tweek stood up straight, pulled the coffee pot out and poured the entire thing into his thermos. Standing on his tiptoes, Tweek batted at the cupboard, struggling to nudge the container of what looked like sweetener off the shelf. Though the sight was mildly amusing (literally the only word Craig could think of to describe it, even though it didn't fit quite), Craig took pity on the boy and pulled it down for him.
"Thanks." Sweeting the coffee to his tastes, pouring some of the creamer Craig hadn't dared touch into the mix, Tweek took several sips off the top of the piping hot mix before closing the thermos and saying, "I'm r-ready to go."
Feeling distinctly pleased, Craig led the boy out of his own house and onto the sidewalk. Though it was a small victory, Craig felt like he'd just won something great, managing to get Tweek to come over.
And when one of Tweek's hands entangled itself in the sleeve of Craig's coat, the boy didn't even mind. Because it was Tweek, and Tweek was different.
