Craig
[I'm glad he's fine, I was a little worried. Watch out for him Craig.]
Putting down his phone with a soft sigh, wishing he'd told Token that he too was worried about Tweek, Craig looked over at the blonde's Lego table, where the boy was slouched over, sound asleep. He'd probably be awake within the next hour, but for now, he was catching up on what little sleep he could. The boy's cheek was pressed against his Legos, the pieces poking into his pale flesh. Craig didn't doubt that it was uncomfortable. He really wanted to just get up off of Tweek's bed and carry the boy the short distance to his bed so that he could get some proper sleep. But he didn't dare move him, because the moment he did, Tweek would wake up.
He didn't want that, Tweek desperately needed sleep.
To be honest, Craig wished he could fall asleep. The day had been stressful, he didn't want to deal with it anymore. If he fell asleep, then it would be over, but he couldn't. He was wide awake and probably would be for the next few hours. Glancing at Tweek's clock, which read ten o'clock, Craig blew out a breath and glanced back down at his phone.
They'd stayed at his house for several hours after the whole peace treaty fiasco. Together, they'd watched Red Racer until Craig's mom had come home, then they'd both left to go to Tweek's house. After scrounging up something from the fridge for dinner, something that Craig had a feeling the boy did often, they'd ended up in Tweek's room, where Tweek had babbled on about his new theory involving solar flares and brain waves until he'd simply passed out on his table. Heck, he'd fallen asleep mid-sentence, his mouth still hanging open in the memory of whatever he'd been talking about.
Craig really wanted to pick the boy up and put him in bed where he belonged, instead of letting him lay there imprinting Legos into his face while he slept, his mouth opened like he'd wake up at any second and just start talking again. If Tweek was in bed, then maybe Craig could convince himself to be tired as well, just so he could go to sleep along with the boy. Though maybe he'd just stay up, staring at the ceiling and wishing for sleep some more.
I'm going to start dating Bebe… The whole day still hadn't entirely computed. He knew that Clyde was pissy at him about it, but Craig wasn't sure what he was supposed to do about that so he had settled on ignoring it. And he also knew that it was stressing Tweek out but he didn't know why and he didn't know how to fix it so he was sort of trying to ignore that too. It wasn't working well, but Tweek had told him that he was fine so Craig felt like he should try to take the boy at his word. He doesn't exactly lie after all. Maybe I'm imagining things.
Well, even if Tweek wasn't upset Craig certainly felt like he had several reasons to be. He hadn't been expecting Kenny's plan, he hadn't been expecting Wendy to agree with it. He definitely hadn't foreseen how uncomfortable the whole thing made him feel but he wasn't sure he could do anything about it. At least Bebe wasn't that bad, but he still didn't like it. Maybe it'll be better than I think.
Beside him, his phone buzzed. Glancing down, Craig found a new message from Token waiting for him. [I've been thinking, since you and Bebe are going to start dating, you should probably get to know each other.] It was almost like Token knew what was going to make him feel worse. Grinding his teeth, trying and failing to make himself treat this like it was any other stupid thing, Craig quickly sent a text back.
[Why are you bringing this up at 10 pm dude?]
Really, he should be happy. Even Tweek thought that Bebe and he would make a good couple. If Tweek thought it would go well then Craig was pretty sure that it would. He still didn't like it though. He just didn't want to date Bebe, that was it. Why couldn't they have chosen Clyde, then at least I wouldn't be fighting with my friend. No, it was like he was arguing with his brother, to be honest. Which really did make it worse.
Another buzz. [Because Kenny just sent me her number. Come on Craig, it's the least you can do. Please make an effort here.] Glancing over at Tweek, who was still sound asleep, Craig tugged his chullo down over his forehead. There was something about the idea of texting Bebe while he was at Tweek's house that felt wrong, but since everything else felt wrong right about then, Craig wasn't exactly in any place to be making any sort of assertions as to what was and wasn't a good idea.
[Fine.] Looking at the number that Token sent to him, he quickly copied and pasted it into a new message. Eyes naturally returning to Tweek, Craig spent a moment noticing the way the boy's breath stirred the soft golden hair around his face before looking back at his phone and reluctantly texting Bebe.
[Hey.] After a moment, Craig took a second look at his message and nearly groaned. Because Bebe probably had no idea that the random 'hey' she'd just gotten was from him so why would she answer. For a moment, Craig almost didn't say anything else in the hopes that he could pass this off as an attempt at talking but a moment later he realized that there was no way he'd be able to get that by Token, so he added another text.
[This is Craig, btw] Squinting at the message, Craig let out a soft breath before adding, [Token gave me your number.] Satisfied that he'd done his due diligence, Craig quickly sent a text to Token telling him that he'd texted Bebe before dropping his phone and leaning back on Tweek's bed, feeling the frankly impressive number of pillows slowly close around him like some sort of quicksand. He wasn't sure why the boy needed so many pillows, but then, he'd seen some of the pillow forts Tweek had made. They wouldn't have been half as epic if the boy had possessed fewer squishy feathery lumps.
It sort of amazed Craig that every single pillow was the same color as Tweek's shirts. All that same green that paled in comparison to the boy's vivid green eyes. Craig was pretty sure if he dropped Tweek into the pillows and the boy was wearing one of his green shirts, then they'd never be able to find the boy again. So I suppose I shouldn't let go of him if he's here, otherwise he'll probably panic because he doesn't want to suffocate. If he kept ahold of Tweek, the boy would feel better.
He'd do it, he wouldn't complain about something like that. It was Tweek.
From beside his leg, Craig's phone buzzed again. Sitting up, wiggling so he could escape Tweek's pillows, Craig pawed at the device, expecting it to be Token. Looking at the screen, he nearly dropped it because, in fact, it was Bebe. Why is she up this late? Was his first thought, quickly followed by, well I am so I guess it makes sense…
Opening the text, Craig read, [Hey! You're still up? Isn't it getting late?] Snorting, Craig raised his eyebrows. Looks like we're both thinking the same thing. Briefly, he wondered if he should say something back along the lines of her being right and that he should just go to sleep, but considering he'd have a better chance of coaxing Tweek to get in bed and actually go to sleep if he was still awake, Craig dismissed the idea.
[You're awake] he pointed out. Eyes traveling over Tweek's room, Craig wondered if the boy ever bothered to pick up or if he simply shifted the mess around. Every time he came over, it seemed like the scene had changed. Though Craig couldn't claim to be especially neat, he at least kept things in vaguely the same place. Tweek on the other hand apparently used his sleepless nights to reconstruct his room over and over again.
Then again, it made sense that it was always changing. Entire civilizations had been raised and destroyed in Tweek's room, constructed from the mess and then returned to it when the blonde's attention shifted. Sometimes, if Craig came over and was especially silent, Tweek would start telling stories, acting out entire lifetimes with whatever stand-in for people he was using that day. Always, he'd have those stuttered words, and little twitches. Occasionally his monsters would intrude into the plotline, but his stories still had complex emotions within them. They had depth, life, death. If Craig could have written them down, they would have been novels.
It was a shame he only ever remembered bits and pieces. A character here, an interesting twist there. He had a few complete scenes committed to memory, but he could never remember the whole story. Only Tweek could keep so much in his head. It's no wonder he doesn't sleep, there's too much in his head for him to ever rest.
Glancing down at his phone, Craig realized that Bebe had texted him back already. Almost irritated that she'd interrupted his train of thought before deciding that annoyance was ridiculous given the circumstances, Craig read the messages. [That's true.] then [I guess today was a little wild, I have a lot on my mind.] Blinking at the screen, Craig wondered if he was supposed to ask or not. He didn't speak girl. Tweek, at least, would usually just tell him if he waited long enough, Craig just had to ask the question he wanted to be answered and the boy seemed to naturally be willing to explain what was wrong. After having a sister for six years, he knew that girls seemed to be hell-bent on making everything more complicated.
So he decided not to ask and instead just hit right at the heart of what he felt was the only thing she could possibly be talking about. [We're going to start dating? Yeah, McCormick is a fucking piece of shit] It was only after he'd set the message that he belatedly wondered if perhaps he should watch his mouth. Then again, he'd heard Bebe curse so did it really matter?
He was going to put his phone down again, but she texted him to quickly. Blowing out a breath, Craig read it. [He has reasons, I'm sure.] [How's Tweek handling it?] The second message made a weird feeling get stuck in Craig's chest. Though he didn't know why, he suddenly felt a weird scratchy heat around his collar because no, it was his job to worry about Tweek. Clyde and Token were allowed to worry too but why was Bebe asking? It wasn't like her and Tweek were friends. Since when did random people get to pretend that they had Tweek's best interests at heart when they'd all literally ignored him for going on five consecutive years?
Swallowing in an attempt to dismiss the thoughts, Craig quickly texted back, [Why?]
[Because he seemed upset about something, I don't think he likes the arrangement.] Resolutely shoving that scratchy heat back down where it belonged, which was not in his brain, Craig let out a terse breath and stared over at Tweek. Almost at once, he felt that pressure in his head lessen. There was something about how utterly peaceful Tweek looked, his hands curled into loose fists and pulled in to his head and his usually contorted face free of stress and fear, that calmed Craig.
Accepting that Bebe was just asking a question and being upset about it was stupidly irrational, Craig quickly tapped out a yes before deleting it and instead writing, [Something's bothering him, but he says that it's got nothing to do with this] Though he didn't know what possessed him to answer that honestly, Craig decided it must be a side-effect of being shoved together with Bebe like they had been. Besides, if he was going to date her, he should probably at least make the effort to trust her, if only on the basis that she still hadn't done anything to make him not trust her.
[Are you with him?]
Furrowing his brows slightly at the weird question, Craig spent a moment trying to figure out if there was some sort of angle to the question before remembering that this wasn't Kenny and not everything Bebe did had an ulterior motive. [Yep.] Then, for whatever goddamn reason, he snapped a picture of Tweek sleeping and was about to send it before giving it a second look and just saving it. No, Bebe didn't need to see Tweek sleeping, that was… Special? Because Tweek didn't sleep often, so Craig figured the boy was only willing to fall asleep when he was around people he trusted, so sending a picture would be weird and rude. Instead, he just quickly added, [I'm at his house, he's asleep right now]
Almost at once, Bebe texted back. [Oh wow, I didn't know he slept!] A second later, he got a flurry of texts, almost like the girl was flustered. [I mean] [I knew he slept] [Everyone sleeps?] [But Tweek seems like he would stay up all night.] Again, Craig glanced over at Tweek and his lips twitched upwards before he remembered that he actually had to answer Bebe.
[He doesn't sleep often, but I guess his body needs to catch up at some point] As he stared over at Tweek, watching the way the boy's hair quivered with his breaths, Craig found himself adding, [Usually when I spend the night he just stays up. I've only seen him sleep a few times.]
Why am I talking to her about this? But Craig found that it came naturally, talking about Tweek. It wasn't as if he didn't already talk about the blond. Sure, typically it was Token or Clyde that he was talking to about it, but they had a habit of telling Craig to stop talking about Tweek in some way or another. Whereas right now, it felt like Bebe was genuinely curious. I'm sure Tweek wouldn't mind if I told her about him… Well, there was no point in feeling guilty about it, not when it was something so innocuous.
Looking back at his phone, Craig read Bebe's new messages. The first was just a surprised looking emoticon, the second said, [Doesn't he get bored with no one else awake?] Snorting, Craig's eyes traveled around the room once, taking in all of the things that made Tweek's room Tweek.
[He's never bored]
[What does he do all night then?]
Craig took a moment to try and formulate any sort of answer to that question, before realizing that there was only one appropriate response. [Everything]
[Come on, name one thing.] Letting out a puff of air, Craig looked around the room, trying to find just one thing that he could name. Noticing the remains of a mildly familiar towering structure made of nothing but popsicle sticks, a bit of super glue and nothing more, Craig carefully shifted out of Tweek's bed and carefully padded over to the buildings.
Snapping a picture of the building, Craig sent it before adding, [This is the remains of an ancient civilization called Tandaum, I think] Struggling to pick out the bits of Tweek's elaborate story that he remembered, Craig continued, [They lived off the air, but a rival species happened to breathe out something other than air, so the people were poisoned and most of them were killed off] Even texting it out made it sound absolutely insane, but he couldn't help but keep going. [The remaining people ended up mutating into monsters]
[He told you this story?] Craig didn't blame the surprised emojis Bebe had added to that question. It was amazing what Tweek could create. There was so much in the boy's mind that even if he had nothing to look at and nothing to do, he could still come up with stories and crazy theories and other wonderous and terrifying things until the end of time.
Unsure how to contain all of that in simple words, Craig just answered, [Yeah, among others]
[Do most of his stories end with monsters?] Tilting his head at the question, unsure why the girl would ask something like that, Craig thought back and tried to remember as many of Tweek's tales as he could. Because she had a point, and he knew it. The boy's delusions often did invade even his stories, distorting happy, ordinary lives with cruel demons and grotesque monsters and terrifying aliens. Yet as he thought about it, something else occurred to him.
[Yeah, there are monsters, but sometimes, there are angels] Puzzling over why he'd decided to say that, Craig judiciously stepped around Tweek's breaking tower and moved on, needing to move away from the thoughts that were invading his mind. It wasn't even the words that were making him feel weird, but there was definitely something swelling in his chest that made his heartbeat echo in his ears. Drawing deep breaths in an attempt to calm his racing heart, Craig was almost glad when Bebe texted back.
[What other things does he do?] Not willing to question the sudden change in subject, mostly because he was glad for it, Craig looked over Tweek's walls at the drawings that were plastered there. Of course, the boy had a few posters, but even those had been covered up by pencil, crayon and marker sketches of… well, of everything. Walking over to the first one that caught his eye, Craig snapped a picture of the drawing.
[He draws a lot] The picture was one of the weirder ones, one of those pictures that Craig hadn't asked Tweek about. It was mostly crude, black crayon, but under the crayon, you could see creatures. They'd been too obscured to entirely make them out, but their red lines were still there. In the center of it all, there was a tiny spot of entirely blank paper that had been roughly faded out to make it look almost like it was glowing. Originally, he'd sort of assumed there was a figure in that blank white spot, but now that he was closer, he realized there was nothing.
[Does he tell you what they're of?] Bebe questioned. [Do you ask?] Knowing it was about the picture he'd just sent, Craig looked at the drawing and felt that thing that had decided to take up residence in his chest claw at his throat. When he'd thought there was a person in the white dot, Craig had always assumed it was a representation of Tweek's mind. But there was nothing there, so he didn't get it, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. Maybe I should ask…
But maybe he really shouldn't.
Moving on, Craig answered, [Sometimes.]
[Show me another.]
Decisively picking a drawing that was just a typical monster, Craig took a picture and sent it. This one was of what Craig had thought was a cat-like creature. Now that he was closer, he could see it almost resembled a fox in shape. Though it was done in two colors of pencil, dark blue and a reddish brown, it was amazing how many details Tweek had managed to cram in. Like the stripes on the whip-like tail, or the ribs and other bones roughly standing out against the creature's body, or the vicious claws that had been filled in with the reddish brown. The creature's mouth was gaping open, but it had no teeth, all it had was stringy looking brow dripping from its maw.
The monster's eyes were gaping pits of red-brown.
[Most of them are monsters] Craig told Bebe, vaguely remembering Tweek's story about how the monster was something that only came out on Easter and how it ate children, traditionally. He couldn't remember its name, something like a Chupacabra, but that wasn't right…
[He talks to you about them?] Glancing over at the still-sleeping Tweek, Craig remembered the long rants the boy when on, each having carved a new path in his mind. The boy's words had a habit of doing that, sticking there and becoming yet another tie the Noirette had to Tweek. Maybe he wished that the blond wasn't haunted by the terrifying horrors that he'd chosen to plaster his walls with, but at the same time, he accepted that they were there to stay. All he had to do was learn to live with them now, much like Tweek did.
[I just ask him to tell me what he sees and he talks about them for hours] Clutching his phone a little tighter, Craig was struck by a savage wish to just be able to catch a glimpse of what terrorized Tweek, if only so he'd be able to better comfort the blond. He knew that he couldn't do anything, but he wished that his promise of protection could fully extend to the horrors that lurked in Tweek's mind. No matter how much he ruffled the boy's hair in that weird way he'd sort of adopted or told him that things were fine, the monsters would still come back.
[Do you protect him from the monsters?]
Staring down at Bebe's entirely innocuous question, Craig clenched his jaw before answering, [I try]
[Do you do a good job?]
As the clawing in his stomach turned to a sinking feeling, Craig typed back his reply. [I don't think so]
[He's sleeping, isn't he?]
[All humans sleep]
Pushing away the matter, determined to change the subject, Craig moved on to another picture. Choosing this one at random, Craig took a picture of it and set it to Bebe. It was another one of those ones he'd never asked about, mostly because it hadn't seemed like it meant anything in his passing glances at it. Of course, Craig was starting to realize that once he got close enough, Tweek's drawings always started to look different.
He'd always thought that it was just of a small person. It was drawn in heavy marker, just a round head, a rectangular body with softened edges, stick arms and rectangular legs. There was nothing remarkable about it from a distance, but now that he got closer, he noticed that around the figure, erased, were round heads. He called them heads because he was pretty sure that all of them had eyes. But they'd been erased, leaving nothing but the figure behind. All of the heads were facing the little person.
[I can understand why he doesn't sleep much I guess.] Bebe commented. Feeling mildly skeeved out by the drawing, Craig moved on, needing to put distance between himself and the uncomfortable thoughts that kept creeping up in his mind.
[He's got a lot on his mind] Craig answered back, aware that the statement was vague but unsure if he wanted to go into detail. He didn't understand most of Tweek's especially strange drawings, but he was starting to wonder if he even wanted to.
[Show me one more.] Craig considered telling her no, but he found himself looking for a new drawing regardless. Moving closer to where Tweek was sleeping, Craig finally found a drawing that wasn't of a monster. Before he could decide against it, Craig took a picture and sent it.
He'd honestly never seen this one and he had no way of knowing how old it was, but there was something about it that struck him as familiar. It was of a person's upper body, or at least, Craig thought that the shape looked sort of humanoid. Now that he was studying it, Craig realized it was one of Tweek's most detailed. This wasn't one of his feverish sketches he did when he was in the middle of a panic attack, this drawing looked like he'd spent time on it.
Or, at least half of it was detailed. On the right half of the paper, there was a face of sorts. It had all been done in silvers and bronzes and the features were hard to make out. The reason for this was the fact that the half-face was made of what looked like gears. He wasn't sure if any of them interlocked, or even if there was anything driving them, but it looked like Tweek had piled gear on top of gear until the person was entirely filled out. The only thing that wasn't done with gears was the oval left for the dark-blue eye.
It would have looked really cool, but the left half of the person was nothing but melting browns and golds. Like someone had taken a blow torch to the gears and they'd all flowed together like crayons under the hot sun. It was a weird, goopy mess, and it made Craig feel strange.
[Are those wings?] At Bebe's questions, Craig took a second look at the drawing to find that she was right. Behind the bust, draw in cream-colored pencils and crayons, were rough wings, like they were sprouting from the person's back.
[I told you, he talks about angels too] It was the only response he could come up with. He wasn't sure if it was satisfactory, but it was what he was going with.
Moving slightly away from the drawing, and closer to Tweek again, Craig quietly walked around the boy so he could see his face. He was still sound asleep, his coffee forgotten and growing cold beside his hand. There were many half-finished creations laying scattered across the table, but Craig was having trouble looking away from Tweek long enough to examine them. He'll probably wake up soon… So instead he just chose to stare at the blond and marvel how the creature that was Tweek motherfucking Tweak ever managed to close his eyes when his world was so intensely vivid and terrifying.
Feeling his phone vibrate once more, Craig was taken by surprise at Bebe's next query. He even had to read it a few times before it even made sense.
[Do you believe him?] It took him a long time to even know what Bebe was talking about, but it dawned on him when his eyes shifted to the drawings surrounding him. Before he could act on this information, Bebe sent him another message. [When he talks about his monsters, do you think they're real?]
[Yes] Staring down at his own answer in mild surprise, Craig realized that what he'd said was true. Typing out the the thoughts as they came to him, the Noirette continued, [Tweek sees them, he believes in them, so I do too] [They're real after all, we just can't see them] [People always tell him they aren't real, but I think they're more real than most of the people in this fucking town]
Even though he'd stopped himself before, Craig ended up taking a picture of Tweek and sending it to Bebe. [I know he's fucked-up, but so are all of us] Taking several deep breaths, as if what he'd just said had actually taken energy from him, Craig took a step back from Tweek and tugged his chullo down over his forehead. That lump in his chest was making it hard to breathe, but he ignored it, it was just another one of those things he couldn't change.
[He looks cute like that, asleep.]
Without even thinking, Craig agreed, [Yeah, he does.]
[I should probably go to bed and leave you alone.] Bebe told Craig at last. Glancing at the clock, which now read eleven, Craig didn't blame her in the slightest. [Besides, I feel like I'm intruding. You're at his house, you probably should be paying attention to him.] Remembering his earlier misgivings and how accurately this reflected them, Craig snorted softly.
[Yeah, night I guess]
[Goodnight~]
No sooner had Craig slipped his phone into his pocket did Tweek's head suddenly jerk upright. As if he'd never fallen asleep, Tweek twitched and continued, "And -ngh- that's really why the sun does stuff like that, b-because our programs are glitching out. Jesus man, I'm telling you, th-the aliens are controlling us! They want to harvest our brains!" After he'd finished, the boy abruptly rubbed his cheek and looked around, as if the fuzziness of sleep was only just now setting in. "W-wait, what?"
For a second, Craig just stood there watching Tweek silently. The boy's hair was flatted on the side of his head that had been lying on the table, making him look weirdly lopsided. Just as Craig had predicted, there were little pink indentations of legos in the boy's cheek, each of them standing out starkly against his ivory skin. His eyes too were still sleepy, like dawn slowly spreading out over a green mountain range.
Remembering that he had to say something, Craig cleared his throat and stepped forward. Ruffling the boy's hair, returning it to its normal shape, the Noirette calmly said, "You fell asleep." His voice sounded weirdly distorted after having not used it for so long. "It's fine dude. But you should probably go to bed or something."
Nodding, that lost expression slowly clearing from Tweek's face, the boy said, "I -ghn- guess."
Craig just stared at the wall and once again decided that this day had gone on for far too long.
