It didn't take long for Token to go back to his normal, chilled-out self. He had just given Craig one last odd, brotherly smile before changing the subject to the new band he learned about. Clyde even turned his attention off of Tweek which, while it relieved the twitchy blond, meant Craig was back to the center of the hyperactive boy's attention. He didn't mind nearly as much as Tweek; Clyde had been his best friend since they were kids, so he was somewhat used to his clingy tendencies and far-too-personal questions. Something was off this time, however... In Homeroom, when Craig turned to glance at Clyde, he had an oddly wistful look in his eyes. He needed to talk to him at lunch.
In between classes, Craig had a better chance to check on Tweek. He was having a panic attack in home room, but he wasn't allowed to follow him into the hallways when he got sent out to calm down. Approaching the lanky blond from behind, he started humming a little tune- this had become a habit since middle school, the only sure-fire way to not startle Tweek when approaching from behind (even if that meant Craig had to look like a moron for a second). Turning around, the raven could tell his partner wasn't doing well. For once, he looked more exhausted than jittery.
"... H-hey, Craig..." The taller boy let out a small breath out of his nose as he saw what was inside Tweek's open locker: small words of encouragement scrawled out on sticky notes and torn pieces of paper. 'You do you', 'love is not a choice', most accompanied with scribbled rainbows or hearts. Even a small note from Cartman: 'you're welcome'... whatever that means. You definitely couldn't say South Park High was intolerant.
"... Overwhelmed with the attention?" He offered his friend an understanding smile as Tweek nodded, turning one of the notes over in his hands.
"But t-they seem happy... That's what we're doing this for, right...?" His olive eyes drifted up to Craig's cobalt ones as he lowered his voice. He couldn't risk breaking the illusion for everyone. Not knowing how to audibly respond to the blond's semi-sweet statement, the older boy gently took one of Tweek's hands into his own.
"... It'll be okay. We're in this together, man." Even with all the support in the world, Tweek was still a paranoid kid. He didn't let just anyone in, so Craig knew he'd have to be the one to try and ease the blond's anxieties. He noticed a smile creep to his boyfriend's face, flooding Craig with a wave of relief. He knew Tweek could make it through the day.
The day's schedule panned out about how the raven-haired boy had assumed: go to class, lots of expectant eyes staring at them. Dumb questions, supportive 'fangirls'. Tweek starts screaming from all the attention, gets sent into the hall and Craig can't think straight until he's allowed back in. Repeat. Finally, after the most stressful hours of their lives, it was time for lunch.
Token sat next to Clyde, leaving Craig to sit across from them and save a spot for Tweek. The duo had walked into the lunch room together, but the thinner boy went to retrieve coffee before he could sit back down. As the messy blond fluff disappeared across the room, the raven-haired boy noticed he was being watched.
"... What?" Token and Clyde looked way too giddy.
"Dude, why didn't you tell us earlier?" Token's voice was strangely warm. He had expected more teasing.
"We haven't been dating that long... It just sort of happened." Vague. Vague was good. This provoked an eye-roll from Clyde.
"We already knew, dumbass." ... This statement caught Craig completely off-guard. What was there to know?
"... What do you mean, asshole? Tweek and I have only been dating for less than a week." He involuntarily flipped Clyde off. The brunette ignored Craig's regular tick.
"Not about you and Tweek, about you." Token nodded in agreement.
"We've known you were gay since middle school, dude. We just assumed you'd end up with Butters or Kenny... You really threw a curveball at us with Tweekers." The jet-haired boy chuckled at Craig's baffled expression. Butters had been openly gay since the 8th grade, and Kenny wasn't particularly worried about what others thought so he casually mentioned to their small group that he was bisexual not long after. Craig wanted to reply with a 'I'm not gay, I'm just pretending', but he knew this was out of the question. Tweek wanted to keep the charade up. He instead went with the next best rebuttal.
"But I didn't even know until Tweek and I started dating," he noted in a somewhat grumpy fashion. Clyde grinned, laying his chin on his hand in a playfully dreamy manner.
"We knew." Craig felt his cheeks heat up out of a mixture of frustration and embarrassment. The brunette's brother-like persona quickly drifted away by his next question. "... You made out with him yet?" a smirk formed on his lips. The raven had very casual tendencies when he dated someone. Relationships with Craig Tucker meant the following: kissing on a first date, being arm candy for a whole half a day and crying over a breakup the other half. Craig truly didn't give a shit about any of the girls he'd dated, he was surprised chicks still asked him out. Craig shook his head a little.
"Not yet, I don't wanna scare him. He is Tweek, after all," Craig lied. He honestly hadn't considered that they'd have to be willing to be more affectionate in public than just hand-holding to keep up their façade. This wasn't 4th grade, after all. They needed to practice this stuff. The raven watched as Tweek scurried back to the table, cup of coffee in hand. The trio greeted the twitchy member of their group, Craig lost in thought.
"... Hey, Tweek?" He watched the blond jump slightly before directing his attention to him "... Come over after school, 'kay? I'll drive you." Craig didn't mean to state this as a command, but he knew Tweek would likely panic if given a choice. Besides, his parents were going to be out of the house all evening on a date night, and Tricia was going to a friend's house; it'd be the best opportunity for them to discuss matters farther.
"Ch-Christ, alright...!" He took note of the nervous look in the blond's eyes. Was he assuming the worst? The older boy thought for a moment before slipping his hand into Tweek's, garnering a muscle spasm before he reciprocated and interlocked their fingers. One positive thing in all this mess was that Craig had discovered how quickly he could reassure Tweek with this simple gesture. Even when things were going well, the blond always had something to panic about.
The rest of the day trudged on in the same pattern as the beginning of the day. At least now Craig knew why Clyde and Token kept grinning at him. With every class, the amount of their classmates who hadn't heard the 'news' of their relationship dwindled; with it, Tweek's panic attacks slowly leveled out. By the end of the day, Tweek was back to his normal self- even if that still meant random spasms and shrieks. The blond ran up to Craig after class, grabbing his hand.
"D-dude, let's get out of here- gah! This whole school's fucking crazy!" Craig gave him a small smile, but he was increasingly nervous about what he was planning to propose to Tweek. He needed to smoke first.
"Let's go, babe." These words slipped out of Craig's mouth out of nowhere. Both of the boys paused, lips parted in shock with a tinge of red on their cheeks. Shaking it off, the taller boy walked dead-ahead, only stopping once they made their way to Craig's Honda. Tweek stopped the raven-haired boy as he released his hand, ready to get into the car.
"W-wait, what about Clyde?"
"I only drive 'im to school, he usually goes home with Stan when they have practice." Practice. The word made Craig's ears hot. He wasn't sure if he wanted to go through with this plan of his... Tweek, however, was none the wiser. With another twitch he slipped into the seat, quickly belting himself up. Craig felt like he blew through half a pack of Newports just on the ride home.
Once they got back to Craig's house, they slowly stepped out. The blond stared down the driveway, noting the lack of cars.
"Where're your parents?"
"Out on their date night- we'll have the place to ourselves for awhile." The raven noticed his boyfriend's sudden apprehension. "... What?" His eyes darted around in paranoia, as is the way of the caffeine addict.
"J-Jesus Christ, wh-what'd you want me to come over for...?" Craig put his hands up defensively. He should've guessed Tweek would notice the raven's nerves.
"Calm down, Tweek. I just needed to discuss some stuff about this relationship thing with you."
"W-we're keeping all our clothes on, right?" Craig stifled the need to flip Tweek off for that remark.
"Yes, Tweek. You have to be able to trust me if I'm gonna be your 'boyfriend', y'know." The shorter boy started to relax somewhat, following him obediently into the house and up the steps to Craig's room. Other than the discarded yellow shirt from earlier and the pile of clean laundry not in its place, it was pretty pristine... unlike Tweek's, which was a mess of model cars, action figures he didn't play with anymore and empty coffee mugs. Craig sat on his bed, patting the soft mattress in front of him; Tweek soon obliged and sat across from him, watching his expression nervously.
"W-what did- gah! ... you wanna do?" He furrowed his brows in concern, always paranoid about the unknown. Craig took deep breath for what he was about to say.
"We have to get used to kissing if we're gonna keep pretending to be boyfriends." Craig always did tend to be as blunt as possible to get the point across... but maybe that was a little too much. The blond's eyes grew wide and his lips parted in surprise before tugging at his hair with a shriek. On instinct from being around Tweek for years, the raven darted his hands out to grab his wrists and pull them away from his mane.
"J-Jesus Christ, no way man! That is way too much pressure! I-I've never even kissed anyone before!" Craig stopped for a moment, dumbfounded. Never? He's almost seventeen years old... The raven shook this thought off. Tweek hadn't been in any relationships, Craig was admittedly a manwhore at this point. No sense in arguing which was worse.
"Well, I've done it a ton of times. I'll teach you the ropes." He'd half-expected Tweek to scream and have another spasm, but he instead clasped his hands over his face in an embarrassed manner with a growl-like groan. He stayed like this for what felt like ages before speaking up.
"... Okay Craig, show me how to do it." The older boy noted the lack of a stutter in his voice, much like when they spoke behind Craig's house after their 'breakup'. It made him feel oddly good about himself. He scooted closer until their knees touched and cautiously, as if he were trying to soothe an injured animal, removed Tweek's hands from his face. His cheeks were tinged with pink and he was breathing in shaky, somewhat shallow breaths in anticipation. Craig leaned closer, only for the younger boy to jump and attempt to cover his face again.
"... Dude, if you can't do this, just say so." The last thing he wanted to do was scar the tweeky boy for life; however, Tweek shook his head in protest.
"I-I'm fine, dude! I'm just not used to it!" He seemed oddly eager- or, at least, eager to get it over with. The blue-eyed boy simply nodded.
"Close your eyes, Tweek. It'll probably help." The thin boy quickly did as he was told, squeezing them shut. Craig let out an inaudible sigh, leaning in again. Tweek's spasms were still very noticeable, so the raven gently held his boyfriend's chin with one hand. Stopping near Tweek's face to gather his nerves, Craig couldn't help noticing how much the blond smelled of coffee; though the raven didn't like drinking coffee, the smell was always enjoyable. Finally ready, he pressed his lips to the other's.
He'd intended to make it a small peck, like he tended to do to any chick, but part of him wanted to make Tweek's first kiss worth it... What an embarrassing thought. Slowly and gently, trying to keep the caffeine-addict calm, he tilted his head to the side and moved his mouth against Tweek's. He could feel his snakebites pressing against the blond's quivering lips, and soon the blond attempted to kiss back. Though he was jittery and unsure, Craig had to give it to him for trying. After awhile the raven pulled back, moving his hand to Tweek's shoulder and watching as a pair of olive eyes shot open.
"... Not so bad, right?" His face was as red as his partner's at the moment, and they both started laughing lightheartedly.
"N-not as scary as I figured it'd be..." Craig mulled this over for a moment before making claw-like hand movements in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"What're you talking about? I'm terrifying." Tweek started giggling, more or less just because of the flat tone in his voice. The raven smiled. This whole 'relationship' thing didn't seem so scary anymore, either.