Craig woke up to something different. The curtain's drawn, the small apartment windows pulled open and the bedroom door held open with Craig's work boots. The warm breeze flowed freely through the room, the door shaking slightly on it's hinges. But Tweek was nowhere to be seen, also strange. Tweek was a night owl, but even he managed to crawl into bed sometime around three or four in the morning.
Stretching, Craig felt his shoulders pop and relaxed back with a groan as he pushed himself out of bed. Every morning it was getting harder to walk those first steps. A sign of age, no doubt. Funny, considering he was twenty nine. Almost thirty. Half his friends had houses and kids and were married now, and Craig and Tweek still lived in this shitty apartment. Ugh, too miserable of a thought for first thing in the morning. Craig shook it from his mind, stumbling out of the bedroom and using the walls to support him until his legs remembered how to function.
Again, all the windows and doors in the apartment were held open. Bathroom door held ajar with the aloe plant Tweek usually kept on the counter. The sliding doors to the small balcony were pushed open, screen keeping the bugs and birds out. The wind whipped around the apartment, rustling the leaves of the various plants that Tweek tended to. It was nice, even if Craig was a black our curtains type of guy. It was pushing out the stuffy smell of their winter living, leaving the apartment with the warm smells of spring. Which mostly just smelled like dirt and grass, but it was a welcomed change than the smell of sweat, sex and whatever else accumulated over the last few months.
Tweek had even gone so far as to prop the front door open, and upon inspection Craig noticed Kenny's apartment door across the hall was open as well. He could hear voices from it, and with a yawn Craig went over to inspect. If Kenny was just going to leave their door open, then Craig didn't bother knocking. Just let himself in and followed the voices to the breakfast nook in the kitchen where Tweek sat at the small white table with Kenny, Ike's back turned as he cooked on the stovetop. "Morning," he croaked, voice hoarse from lack of use through the night. Craig bent down to kiss Tweek on the temple, nodding a greeting at Kenny as he clapped Ike on the shoulder to say hello. "What's up?" Craig asked, gesturing to their little gathering.
"Ike and Tweek wanted to air out the apartments. Spring cleaning or something." Kenny said, and Craig nodded. Ike had done something similar with their own apartment, propping doors and opening all the windows so the air flowed freely, between the stacks of books that belonged to Ike and the other various shit that belonged to Kenny. He and Tweek had heard them argue enough about it, Ike's books getting in the way as Kenny ran into them in the dark and knocked them over. Ike tripping over Kenny's clothes that he refused to put in the bin, before yelling about why Kenny always had to strip down wherever he stood instead of walking twenty feet to the bedroom.
"The weather's nice today, I want to take advantage of it," Ike said as he turned around, placing a plate of bacon on the table. It barely touched down onto the surface before Kenny had his hands on them, not even bothering to put the strips onto his own plate before he shoved it into his gob. Kenny acted like he had never been fed before. Maybe it was growing up poor, and he still had the mindset of eating what he could when he could as fast as he could. "Want anything, Craig?" Ike asked, back to work at the stove frying up what smelled to be pancakes or French toast or something. Craig shrugged, even though Ike couldn't see him. "Sure," Craig replied and finally took a seat at the little table. Tweek had his hands wrapped around a cup of coffee, and judging by the red and brown Tim Horton's tin that sat on top of Kenny's fridge, he wasn't truly enjoying it. Instant coffee wasn't Tweek's preference. Especially that 'Canadian bullshit coffee' that Ike favoured and defended. Tweek liked his coffee ground fresh and brewed with a French press.
Craig reached over to pry one of Tweek's hands from the cup of coffee, and held it. "Have you slept yet?" Craig asked, and Tweek shook his head before yawning. "No, I couldn't. Stressed out. I started cleaning." He looked tired, sunken eyes and pale skin. Mind, Tweek was always pale. He worked indoors, stayed up late and rarely went into the sun lest he wanted to burn. Craig felt bad, felt guilty for sleeping soundly while Tweek paced through the apartment tidying up their mess as he stressed about... everything, really. From work, money, their relationship (though Craig had told him not to, there was nothing wrong with their relationship and he was perfectly happy), and just about everything in between.
"I'll finish, you sleep, alright?" Craig offered, making a face as he watched a string of drool form at the corner of Kenny's mouth. "You're disgusting, man. The kid's too good for you."
Kenny shrugged, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand before washing his bacon down with a sip of coffee.
Fed and caffeinated thanks to Ike, Craig and Tweek made their way across the hall about forty five minutes later. Tweek was looking exhausted, and there was only so much of Kenny eating with his mouth open that either of them (or Ike) could handle.
"You... you don't have to clean up on your... it's your only day off, Craig." Tweek stutterered, squeezing Craig's hand tightly in his as they stepped over the threshold of their apartment. Craig didn't bother closing the door, letting the air move freely through their apartment and into the hall. Craig just shrugged, not minding in the slightest, really. More work meant more money. Besides, they were just filling pot holes now that Spring had broke and there wasn't a risk of ice cracking the roads open even further.
Craig gave Tweek a gentle shove in the direction of the bedroom, indicating for him to lay. "I don't mind, I'd rather clean on my day off then both of us coming home to a dirty place after working eight or more hours." Which was true. The last thing either of them wanted to do was clean when they'd been working all day. Hell, half of Tweek's job was cleaning up the coffee shop and who wanted to come home after cleaning to do more of it? "Have a nap," he ordered, but punctuated it by kissing Tweek softly on the lips. "There's not much to do anyway."
"But... but I wanted to spend the day, ugh, the day with you!" Tweek protested, which caused Craig's eyes to roll. He could feel Tweek's heels begin to dig into the carpet, refusing to go to the bedroom in his own little protest. "We'll have plenty of time for that, babe. Sleep, or you'll die and then that'd suck. Funerals aren't cheap so I'd just have to keep your body in the closet." Craig said, voice monotonous. Tweek turned to look at him with those wide set eyes, concerned. Craig shrugged, before taking the opportunity to wrap his arms around Tweek's middle and picked him up. By comparison, Tweek was a tiny thing. In reality he was fairly average, but Craig's freakish Burtonesque body made him look a lot smaller.
"It's bedtime," Craig grinned, squeezing tighter when Tweek began to squirm, bending over Craig's head so they could fit through the door. "Craig! Gah! You know I, ugh, you know I hate it when you manhandle me!" Tweek cried, smacking lightly at Craig's shoulder. He said that a lot, but Craig was fairly certain Tweek kind of liked it when he just plucked the blonde up like a twitchy little flower.
"Maybe you should sleep then," Craig laughed, before leaning forward to drop Tweek onto the mattress, his blonde hair wild and face reading a mixed message of pissed and bemused. "Asshole," Tweek mumbled, rolling onto his side and grabbing a pillow from Craig's half of the bed and squishing it against his stomach. He curled around it, as he always did. Craig got one pillow while Tweek stole three. Two to sleep on, the third one stolen to cuddle against because apparently Craig was too big to be the little spoon. He he got to cuddle Tweek, on the off times Tweek and he went to bed around the same time, so it was well worth it.
"I know," he smirked before Craig bent down to kiss Tweek sweetly on the cheek, before giving a hard smack to his ass. But Tweek, quicker than Craig would have expected, reached behind him quickly and grabbed Craig by the forearm. With a hard tug, Tweek pulled him and brought the taller man sprawling on top of him. "Nap with me," Tweek said, voice muffled by being covered by his obscenely tall boyfriend.
And how could he say no? Craig got himself situated, still in his sweats and tee shirt from sleeping in the night. The bedroom was warm, the sun heating the sheets and breeze through the windows making it all the more welcoming.
They could tidy up later.