Craig
"Hey asshole! Wake up!" Jerking upright in bed, still half asleep, Craig glared at his door as Tweek tumbled off of his chest and whined as Ruby shoved open the door and threw on the lights. "You've had a week doing nothing, get up," she informed him, tossing her strawberry blond hair out of her eyes.
"Ngh- w-why does it have to be so bright," Tweek mumbled in complaint, grabbing Craig's Red Racer blanket and pulling it over his head in an attempt to block out Craig's overhead lamp. "Is it really already M-monday?"
"Yes, it is," Ruby said shortly, crossing her arms and staring at the wriggling Tweek with an impassive expression that mimicked the one her brother was giving her at that very moment. "That's how the days work Tweek. Come on, get up, you two are going to be late if you plan on walking there."
"Ruby, kindly get the fuck out," Craig grumbled, adjusting his ratty chullo and blinking himself awake. Nudging Tweek with his knee, which only drew another pitiful moan from the boy, the Noirette raised an eyebrow at his sister.
"Hey, it's not my fault that you always stay up way too late with Tweek," Ruby told him, rolling her eyes. "Now hurry up, Kare is gonna meet me at the bus stop and I'm notgoing to be late because of you." Whirling around, the girl vanished, all but slamming the door behind her.
Peering down his nose at Tweek, who was attempting to burrow further into Craig's blankets, the Noirette snorted softly. As if he could read Craig's thoughts, the blond let out a squeak of indignation and wiggled his butt as he attempted to escape Craig's line of sight. Deciding that Ruby had a point in saying they'd be late if they didn't get up, Craig grabbed Tweek's waist and easily dislodged the boy from his bed, causing him to screech.
"OH JESUS DON'T DROP ME!" Tweek yelped, clinging to Craig's head and twitching violently as if he expected the Noirette to throw him across the room. Carefully prying the boy off of his face, Craig set him down on his feet and blinked down at him, raising an eyebrow as he did so.
"Are you awake now?" Craig asked, the slightest hint of a joke playing in his eyes. Screwing up his face in a grotesque expression, as if in irritation, Tweek pushed him, causing Craig to stumble slightly. Despite being able to lift the boy, Tweek definitely made up for his height in power.
"Y-you're such a bastard Craig Tucker," Tweek mumbled, turning pink as Craig snorted again and fluffed the boy's hair. Rubbing at his eyes, knuckling the sleep out of them jerkily, the blond looked around once more and muttered, "Rrr- why did she have to t-turn on the lights?" Stumbling away from Craig and towards the light switch, Tweek pawed the thing off, throwing them back into a more comfortable level of darkness.
"We still have to go to school," Craig reminded the boy, rummaging around in one of his drawers for a shirt that he hadn't worn recently enough for it to be dirty. Finding a long sleeved one that was good enough in his book, the Noirette tossed it in Tweek's direction before finding clothing of his own. Despite their less than graceful awakening, Craig wasn't particularly upset one way or another about the reopening of the Elementary school. After everything that had happened, this would just be yet another level of normality to regain.
Struggling to remove Craig's predictably overlarge sweatpants, Tweek scrambled around for the jeans he'd worn the day before as he said, "Didn't take them long to f-fix everything I guess." Well, that was debatable. By South Park standards, a week to fix a wall and some windows was actually pretty long, but he knew what Tweek was getting at. It didn't feel like it had been a week, it felt like the blink of an eye.
"I guess they think our education is important," Craig commented blandly, earning himself a little giggle from Tweek, who understandably found the idea of the teachers actually caring to be pretty funny. Pulling on the fresh shirt, a black one that proudly proclaimed Apollo 11, 1969, the boy sucked in his cheeks before saying, "I guess we've just been busy, so it doesn't feel like long."
"Yeah, I guess," Tweek agreed, dancing about Craig's room in amusing little circles as he tried to get his jeans on. Lending a smile in response to the blond's antics, Craig headed over to Stripe's cage and checked to make sure his Guinea Pig had enough food and water. Opening the little door, Craig pulled the squeaking creature out and stroked it for a few seconds, watching it fondly as it nudged Craig's fingers, as if looking for food.
Glancing up at Tweek, who was currently attempting to disentangle himself from Craig's admittedly huge shirt, Craig asked, "So, are you ready for this?" He wasn't precisely sure what he was asking about, but in his mind there was a lot to be ready for. After everything, it would be weird to walk back into school and find everything back to normal. Though Craig was pretty sure he wouldn't care, he knew how Tweek was.
That being said, the blond didn't seem to be too stressed out about it. "Jesus, as long as they don't put all of you in detention!" Despite his words, he seemed to be alright. Pulling the shirt over his head and holding up his drowned hands pathetically, Tweek glanced up at Craig and shivered as he asked, "They w-wouldn't do that, right? I mean, we saved the whole town! They wouldn't punish us for that -grrr- would they?!"
Replacing Stripe in the cage gently, Craig walked over to the other cute presence in his life and ran his fingers through Tweek's hair. "It's okay," the boy said in his usual monotone. "Even if they do, we'll survive." Nodding jerkily, Tweek fussed with his hidden hands before ducking out from under Craig's touch and quickly grabbing his thermos off the floor where he'd left it the night before. As he held it up, clearly about to ask for coffee, Craig snorted and called, "RUBY!"
As Tweek shrieked, obviously startled by the sudden noise, there was a banging from elsewhere in the upstairs. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!" Slamming the door open once more, Ruby swung into Craig's room, scaring Tweek into yelping and leaping backwards. As the blond's thermos tumbled from his hands, Craig stooped to catch it and felt the silver slip through his fingers.
"Fuck." Stooping to pick it up quickly, Craig held it out for his sister and said, "I have to finish getting my stuff together for school. Can you help Tweek get coffee?"
Grabbing the thermos, Ruby walked over to Tweek and stared at him. It amused Craig that his six year old sister was only a couple inches shorter than Tweek, who trembled and seemed to shrink under her gaze. Suddenly brightening, if not with a smile then with a dropping of her death stare, Ruby said, "Yeah, sure! Come on Tweek, let's go get coffee." Seizing one of the blond's hands, Ruby all but dragged him out of the room, thinking nothing of the blond's pathetic attempts to not be taken away.
"You'll be fine," Craig told him when Tweek whimpered softly. Making good on his original intentions the moment his sister and Tweek vanished from view, Craig quickly took all of the remaining game parahanalia out of his backpack and replaced his school stuff into it, not the least bit regretful to see the change. After a week spent not thinking about the game, Craig was even more sure that he was glad it was over. Everything was normal or at least as normal as a place like South Park could get, and for Craig, who loved routine, this was a good thing.
Hearing a screech from downstairs, Craig said a mental prayer of thanks to whatever asshole in the sky that was listening that his parents were already off at work before shouldering his and Tweek's backpacks and thumping down the stairs. Dropping the bags off with his sister's beside the front door, Craig headed for the kitchen and was honestly unsurprised to find Tweek crouching on the kitchen counter and Ruby staring up at him exasperatedly.
"Ugh, Craig, tell Tweek to get off the counter," Ruby complained, crossing her arms.
"JESUS YOU JUST BROKE GLASS AND Y-YOU DIDN'T EVEN PICK IT UP!" Tweek yelped, his eyes wide and accusing, "D-do you have any idea how dangerous that is?! Oh god, y-you're going to get cut and it's going to get infected and -ngh- YOU'RE GONNA DIE!" Sighing, Craig looked at the floor to find that indeed, Ruby had managed to break another empty bottle. Well, if it wasn't him it was her. They both had a propensity for breaking things.
Hooking a hand around the broom as he walked past it, Craig ignored the smell of stale beer that had pervaded the kitchen after the bottle broke and instead patiently sweeped up the glass while Ruby just shrugged and went back to making coffee for Tweek. Once he was satisfied that all the glass was up, Craig quickly deposited the shards in the trash and looked back at Tweek. "You'll be fine dude," he calmly told the blond, gesturing towards the floor. "It's all gone. Besides, you've gotten cut by glass before."
Hand instantly going for his face and the little white scars there, Tweek's eyes flickered to the floor as he mumbled out something indiscernible and twitched worriedly. Watching the boy for a moment, as if doing so would give him some insight into his mind, Craig eventually just shrugged it off and walked back over to Tweek. Wrapping his arms around him, ignoring the frightened squeak Tweek let out when he was flipped upside down for a moment, Craig cradled the boy in his arms and just stood there as he waited for Ruby to finish Tweek's coffee.
Giving them both a weird look, Ruby shook her head and muttered, "Ugh, boys," before tossing Tweek his now full thermos. Eyes widening, Tweek suddenly lunged out to catch the silver object, and Craig had to lunge with him to prevent dropping the blond. Thankfully, he was more than a little adept at this, and both Tweek and the thermos were fine.
"Come on Craig, put down Tweek and let's go, we're seriously going to be late!" Ruby called, darting out of the kitchen and back towards the front door. Rolling his eyes down to Tweek, who giggled and stared up at him with those vividly green eyes, Craig raised an eyebrow as if asking the blond do you want to listen to her, or should we make her late for fun?
Wiggling, Tweek bit his lip on a grin, and Craig could just see the mischief sparking in those orbs, and Craig could just see him answering, I don't know, do you think she'll yell at us anymore? Eyebrows twitching, Craig smiled when Tweek's hand snaked up and tugged his chullo down playfully before squirming out of Craig's arms and landing on the floor in his usual tangled way.
Following the shorter boy, entirely satisfied with how his morning was going, Craig hardly cared when Ruby scoffed and tossed his backpack at him roughly before shouting, "Come on dumbass! You're such a snail." Catching his bag, Craig deftly swung it over his shoulder and waited for Tweek to pick up his own things before striding out of the door, locking it behind them.
For a march morning, it was remarkably mild out, and Craig found himself turning his face up towards the sun before rolling his neck and striding after the other two kids. As he fell into step beside Tweek, their usual places just coming as second nature, Craig looked around and asked, "So who were we meeting again."
"Karen!" Tweek answered for Ruby, who apparently had been preparing to ignore her brother anyway. The moment the name left his mouth, Tweek's eyes widened and he grabbed the Noirette's arm so he could shake it insistently. Staring down at the twitching blond, it took Craig a few seconds before he realized why the boy was making that face at him.
"D-do you think-?" Tweek started nervously, shivering and nibbling at his lip.
"McCormick always walks with Karen," Craig said easily, his hand already going for Tweek's hair. Allowing the blond to hold onto the hem of his shirt, the taller boy waited for Tweek's twitches to lessen before saying, "I promise you, he's not dead. Ruby was over at their house earlier this week, I would have heard if he'd died."
"I know," Tweek mumbled, hiding his face in Craig's side despite his words. Letting out a quiet sigh, Craig just put an arm around Tweek's shoulder and kept walking. They hadn't really talked about Kenny over the past week, but Craig had been able to see how much it was bothering Tweek. Whenever Craig had gotten him to open up about it, the blond had admitted to other times as well, instances where he'd seen Kenny die and then the mischievous boy turned out to be alright, but this past time sounded like the most vivid. To be honest, what Craig cared most about was Tweek's mental stability, but the idea of Kenny getting hurt badly enough for the twitchy blond to believe he'd died was worrying.
"You'll be able to talk to him," Craig told Tweek steadily. Though Kenny could be annoying, without the game around, he didn't really find much active irritation rising up at the thought of the Sandy-blond, which was good, because Tweek was clearly worried about him. And I don't want Tweek to think I'm a total asshole. Heh, well, that ship had already kind of sailed, but whatever, right? "He's going to be fine."
"Yeah Tweek," Ruby agreed, catching onto the tail end of the conversation. "Karen's brother is weird, but he's fine. I mean, unless something happened since last time I saw them." Peaking up through his wild hair, Tweek caught Craig's eyes and whimpered softly. In return, Craig tightened the arm around the blond's shoulders until the boy finally relaxed. Glancing up at his sister, Craig offered her a twitch of his eyebrow before refocusing on the blond.
To be honest, he was glad his sister and Tweek seemed to get along. It had never really been something that he'd actively worried about before, but considering how close he was to Tweek, he was sort of glad that the one good family member he had was cool with the blond. She was a bit short, sure, but she didn't swear at him like she did at Craig, and she was almost patient, which was nothing short of miraculous when put in the context of Ruby's usual behavior.
And Tweek, for all intents and purposes, seemed to be alright with his sister too. Though he was a little skittish, relatively, around the abrasive girl, for the most part he'd taken to her. Obviously not to the extent he had to Clyde or Token, or even Bebe, but certainly to the point where Craig didn't feel bad leaving him in his sister's hands. Not that Tweek needed someone to watch him, the Noirette just felt better to know that he wasn't alone.
Tweek had spent enough of his life alone.
"SO YOU'RE FINALLY WEARING THAT SHIRT!" Attention snapping up at that yell, Craig found Karen waving her arms madly at Ruby, who was waving back. "Oh my god, I thought that I'd helped you pick it out for nothing," the youngest McCormick said, running across the street so she could walk next to her friend.
"The weather hasn't been warm enough Kare, when did you expect me to wear it?" Ruby asked, swatting at Karen as the giggling girl yanked at one of her pigtails before darting around to her other side. "Like, I'm not Tweek, I don't decide to just run around without proper clothing on in the middle of winter."
"Hey, I was a -rrr- Barbarian!" Tweek insisted, swelling up to his full height. Snorting at the admittedly adorable attempt from the boy to be intimidating, Craig ruffled Tweek's hair, distracting him. Jerking his head up towards Craig, Tweek bounced on the balls of his feet and squeaked, "W-wasn't I a terrifying barbarian?!"
"Yes," Craig said very seriously, nodding stoically. "Absolutely terrifying. All of the Elves were scared of you dude."
"Of course they were Tweeky, you're nothing short of vicious." At the sound of that voice, Tweek's eyes went as wide as dinner plates and he dropped his thermos. Even as Craig was ducking down to catch it, Tweek pushed Karen and Ruby out of the way so he could dart across the street, his arms flung out wide.
"K-KENNY!" Tweek yelled, the wild excitement in his voice almost making Craig frown. Sure enough, the sandy-blond was standing there, hands in his pockets, smirk on his lips, blue eyes glittering in the sunlight. At Tweek's shout, the boy flourished his hands dramatically and started to bow before Tweek caught him in a bear hug that made Kenny stumble back a couple inches. "Y-YOU'RE ALIVE!"
For a moment, just a second, Craig could have sworn that Kenny's face went blank, but then the boy was chuckling easily and patting the top of Tweek's head bemusedly. "Ah, of course I am Tweekers~! Hope I didn't disappoint you."
"Asshole, Craig muttered, finally catching up. "Does he look disappointed?"
"Well you do Fucker," Kenny mocked lightly, his eyebrows wiggling. "C'mon, were you expecting something else?" Looking over the boy once more, Craig shook the weird feeling hanging around him out of his head, deciding to just take Kenny's words on face value. He'd had enough of the sandy-blond's bullshit thanks to the game to last a lifetime.
"He's n-not disappointed!" Tweek insisted into Kenny's parka, still strangling the boy's middle in a hug. "Jesus, after everything th-that happened on Friday, we were bothworried about you." Well, I mean I wasn't really worried, the Noirette almost said, having never been one to really care about most other people in general. When he caught that same lost look in Kenny's eyes however, Craig decided not to correct the blond.
"Worried?" Kenny asked, removing Tweek from him and looking him over. "Come on, why would you be worried about little ol' me?" Though Craig wasn't Token, he did manage to catch the look that Karen tossed her brother briefly before going back to her conversation with Ruby. It doesn't matter, it's just Kenny's usual stupidity.
"Ngh- b-because I saw you die!" Tweek insisted, his eyes wide and plaintive as he stared at Kenny. For a moment, everything around them seemed to stop, and Kenny's smile dropped slightly as he stared at Tweek, who didn't seem to notice the change. What-? Craig began to wonder, before Tweek added, "I mean, I -ghn- know I was just imagining it, b-but I was still really worried!"
Instantly, Kenny's smile brightened once more and the world seemed to return to normal. "Look at you Tweekers, with that overactive mind of yours, it's gonna get you in trouble some day." Rapping his knuckles against the blond's forehead, causing Tweek to let out a screech, Kenny chuckled and said, "Don't worry about me, I never die. I'm alright~"
Reaching out and snagging his own blond, Craig pulled Tweek back to his side and pushed the boy's coffee back into his hands. "I told you he's alright," he said softly, ruffling Tweek's hair.
Eyes still shifting, Tweek mumbled, "Y-yeah, I guess so," but he still sucked down several sips of coffee and smiled tentatively.
"So, who's ready for school?" Kenny asked with a wide grin. "Cause I know that I am!~"
Craig was just happy to be back to normal.
