When Craig arrives to his first class, he's glad to see that Kenny has indeed kept his word and showed up to it and can't help but give a small smile to him as he takes a seat.
Lunch comes and Kenny spends it with Craig and his friends, who seemed to be a bit more comfortable around him now since the fair. At least everyone but Clyde, who Craig could see was eyeing the turtleneck he wore and knew just how much he hated to wear them. But still, he did not ask about it. At some point during lunch, a small awkward moment pops up when someone points out the ring on his finger and he has to quickly hide it under the table and fumble to think of what to say. Kenny seems to catch onto Craig's behavior though, as he tells them that Craig had won it in a game at the fair, which they seem to buy and Craig couldn't help but feel relieved by it, but also a bit guilty at having to lie about it as well. Still though, he didn't want his friends to get carried away, if they knew the truth they would start to tease both him and Kenny relentlessly because of it.
The school day comes to a close eventually and Craig finds himself now walking home with Kenny, his gaze glancing down every so often at his hand and trying to surpass the urge to want to hold it.
Just as they reach a turn near a building, Kenny stops, which causes Craig to stop and look at him.
"Kenny?" he asks, but Kenny doesn't reply and instead stands in front of Craig with his back to him.
"I know you're there," Kenny says.
There's a small pause before it's broken by a chuckle and Kevin steps out from around the corner of the building.
"Of course you know," he says.
"You're getting pretty bold aren't you?" Kenny asks, "Coming out in the day now. I thought you only liked nighttime."
"Usually, yeah I do… But I couldn't help it today, because I'm honestly surprised and needed to see this for myself," Kevin says.
"See what?" Craig asks and Kevin looks at him, causing him to tense.
"You," he replies, "both of you."
"If that's all, then leave," Kenny tells him.
"Of course that's not all, little brother," Kevin says, "in case you've forgotten, we have a job to do."
"I know that," Kenny replies.
"Good. Then come on," Kevin says as he starts to head off.
For a moment, Kenny doesn't move, and when he's about to take a step, Craig grabs his arm.
"Wait—let me help," Craig says and Kenny looks back at him.
"Craig—"
"You're looking for this shaman, right? Or a decedent related to them or whatever? Then let me help," Craig says. "I know this town and where everything is."
"Craig… I know you want to help but…" Kenny trails off.
"But what?" Craig asks.
"I don't want to put you in any more danger," Kenny tells him.
Craig's eyes flick to Kevin, who had now stopped and was watching them, before he looks back to Kenny.
"I understand, but I'll be okay," Craig tries to reassure him, "because you'll be there, right?"
"I wasn't able to prevent the things he did to you before," Kenny replies quietly, "I'm sorry, I know you want to help, but you can't come along," the expression on Craig's face falls along with his gaze. Something brushes against his cheek then, one of Kenny's fingers. Then all of them, as they cup around his cheek. "I'll see you later tonight," Kenny says, leaning in closer to him, and something about how he says it makes Craig's heart race. "Okay?" he adds, brushing a thumb over Craig's bottom lip, and Craig nods in response. Kenny moves his hand away then and heads off.
Craig knew what Kenny said was true, but he still couldn't help but feel frustrated at the idea of not being able to help out in some way. So when Kenny and Kevin are gone out of sight, Craig decides to take a different route home instead and makes a detour to the public library on his way back. He wanted to help and if Kenny was worried about him being near Kevin, then he could help him while he was somewhere safe instead.
Some hours pass and Craig gathers what he's found and heads home. By the time Kenny arrives later on in his room, Craig is sitting at his computer, still searching for more information.
"Craig?" Kenny asks as he nears him, "What are you doing?"
"Oh—Kenny—" Craig says now taking notice of him, "I uh, I'm just… looking up some stuff," he sighs, "I know you said not to go with you before, but I couldn't just drop it. I wanted to help."
Kenny glances from the screen to Craig, then a pile of papers before back to Craig.
"What did you find?" he asks, after a pause and Craig looks at him, almost thrilled.
"W-well," Craig fumbles with some of the papers, "I couldn't really find too much, because of how far back you said it was. But I was able to find out that there was indeed a shaman that did lived in the town from some decades ago," Craig then holds up a paper, "this was a photo of the old house the shaman was said to have lived in before, but when I looked in to it more, I found that the building got torn down about 50 years ago," he places the paper down, "I also found that there is no record of any rituals said to have happened at all in the town's history, just creepy stories that spread about the woods and how people needed to stay out of them."
"That's because people were killed in them," Kenny says.
"Huh?"
"My father told us that those who were turned, stayed and hid in the woods and would hunt or kill any townsfolk who wandered in to them out of their rage and anger for being cursed. So those stories were created to keep the townsfolk safe," Kenny explains.
"Oh…" Craig trails off.
"Was there anything else you found?"
"Not much more, but it does seem like the shaman's staff that may have been used in those rituals, could still be in the town somewhere, but I'm not too sure where," Craig replies.
"I see," Kenny murmurs, then looks at him, "thanks, you've helped shed some light on things."
"No problem. But I'm surprised that you didn't know some of this yourself, with how often you go out," Craig says.
"I do, but… we have very limited sources on what we can use and very little information to go on, so it's taking us a while to narrow things down," Kenny tells him, "plus my brother thinks that the reason we're progressing so slow is because I spend so much of my time with you."
"Oh," Craig says, feeling a tinge of guilt that he was causing Kenny's search to slow. And he starts to wonder if maybe he's being selfish for wanting to be near him so much now. Suddenly, he slowly feels as if he understands Kevin's anger towards him more.
"There isn't really a rush or anything though for it," Kenny says, "so I don't mind," he adds and places a hand on Craig's shoulder, "I like being with you also."
The words are enough to make Craig's heart skip a beat.
"I'm uh, glad that I was able to help you, even if it wasn't much," Craig says, "anyways, I should probably get to bed, it's getting pretty late now," with that, Craig shuts off his computer and heads to bed, lying down onto his back. When Kenny sits next to him on the bed, Craig glances at his hand. "Can I see it?" he asks, being curious about it since the last time. Kenny looks to where his gaze is before he lifts his hand up and gives it to him.
Craig examines it with one hand first then wraps both of his hands around it. He then lightly tugs the bottom of the glove up and stops for a moment to look at Kenny, before continuing when he doesn't stop him. He removes the glove and reexamines Kenny's hand again, gliding his fingers along the back of its cool surface, passing each joint as they make their way to the tips of his long narrow fingers. He presses the tip of his finger to a nail, it's sharp, much sharper than Kenny's teeth seemed to be, like it wouldn't take much pressure for his finger to be punctured by it. He then glides his other hand up along the palm of Kenny's and places his fingers directly against Kenny's thinner ones. There's a strange, almost, delicacy to them and how they appeared, despite him knowing just how dangerous they are. As he examines them more, Kenny closes his fingers between the spaces of Craig's and clasps their hands together.
"You're still wearing it," Kenny says, looking at the ring on Craig's finger.
"Well, you gave it to me, so yeah," Craig tells him, as a blush slowly spreads on his face.
"You wear it because I gave it to you?"
"Yeah," Craig mumbles.
Kenny's fingers between his aren't hard, they are just gently holding them and Craig can't help but want to return the hold, making it more firm and connected. Soon as he does, Kenny moves their joined hands away and places them above Craig's head onto the pillow. He leans in over top of Craig, and Craig's heart starts to race at the now suggestive position he found himself in.
"U-um," he manages to get out.
Kenny watches him, as if looking for something, before he leans in even closer and rests on top of him with his upper half.
"Kenny?" Craig asks, nervously.
Kenny turns his face into Craig's neck then, his mouth pressing against it from behind the mask.
"I wonder if you'd take everything else that I want to give you as well," Kenny says quietly.
His cool breath passes through his mask onto Craig's neck and Craig can't stop the shiver from it. The sensation of it causing something to form in the pit of his stomach. Kenny's mouth opens more and travels down along his neck, before stopping at its base, and Craig's body, despite how cold Kenny is, felt as if it were on fire.
"The things I want to do to…" Kenny's voice trails off into a low mumble as his other hand slides up along Craig's side.
One by one, Kenny's fingers slip under his shirt and press gently against Craig's skin as they travel up it. Craig's breath hitches and Kenny stops when it does. For a short time there's no movement, until Kenny pulls back and looks at Craig. And for a moment, the slits of his pupils seem to be bigger than usual, before he shuts his eyes and he lets go of Craig.
"Sorry," he mumbles and sits up.
"It's—it's okay," Craig says, now also sitting up, his heart beating a mile a minute.
"I think I'll look over those papers you have," Kenny says, standing up, "you get some rest."
Craig watches as Kenny walks over to the computer desk and sit in the chair by it and read the papers. He wanted to ask him what just happened and why he did those things to him just now, but he doesn't, being much too nervous to. So instead, he lies back down onto his side and tries to sleep.
It takes him a long time to though, because he swore that he could feel Kenny's gaze on him and a weird tension in the air after what happened. Whatever the case, it was making his heart race and the pit of his stomach want to coil and cause his knees to tense together. But he can't quite place as to why that is. Eventually, he calms down enough to drift off into sleep.
When Craig comes to, his thoughts are still swarming with Kenny's actions from that night and the lingering sensations of it still wandering on his skin. As he gets ready and heads off for the day, he tries not to think about it too much, not wanting a repeat from before and instead focuses on something else, that being helping Kenny with his search.
"I want to help," Craig says as he approaches Kenny at lunch, "I know you said not to because of your brother and you're worried about me. But I want to do this. To help you," he adds before Kenny has a chance to say anything. "Besides, he's mad about me distracting you, right? So I thought that if we look into this together, he shouldn't have a problem with me around you, right? Or at least not as much?"
Craig half expects Kenny to say no again, but is a bit surprised by his response instead.
"Alright."
"Wait, really?" Craig asks and Kenny nods.
"The information you were able to gather in such a short time was useful, so I think it would be good if you wanted to help," Kenny explains and it's enough to cause a small smile to tug at Craig's lips. "So I'm fine if you want to come along with me... but I can't guarantee your safety."
"You mean from your brother?"
"Yes. I don't really know just what his intentions towards you are currently. If he wants to hurt you or not," Kenny replies.
Craig understood his concern for him, but was determined to help him with this, because it was important to him.
"Then I'll make sure to stay so close to you, that he won't have the chance to try anything," Craig smiles and Kenny falls silent. "Anyways, do you want to have lunch with me and the guys?" he asks, starting to feel awkward from the lack of response. When Kenny nods, Craig gives a quick "Great," before they head off to the lunchroom.
When the school day ends, Kenny waits for Craig, before they head off to search for more clues.
For the next few days after school, it continues this way, with the two of them searching and Kenny coming over every night where they would talk more about it before Craig would eventually fall asleep. One of the times being, him falling asleep in his desk chair and awaking in bed the next morning. He couldn't say that he didn't like all the extra time that he spent around Kenny now, or that some aspect of it didn't make him happy. However, their search was starting to slow. Craig had thought about checking out some older historic buildings and looking up more stuff up online, but found nothing new. He then suggested the library again and looked through some old news clippings and historical archived books about the town's past, but there wasn't much else to add to what he didn't already find out on his own already. He tries the local town museum, but no luck there either. And he starts this to wonder if they'd find anything new at all.
"There's got to be something we're missing somewhere," Craig groans, as he leans back against the park bench he now sat in. It was Saturday now and although it was only a few days that had passed since he offered to help Kenny with his search, it felt like a lifetime with how much they went through. "Is there anything—anything at all that you know that could help us?" Craig asks Kenny, who sat next to him.
"Most of what you know, is what I know," Kenny replies, "the only thing I can think of, is a hunch that me and my brother have."
"Which is?" Craig asks, curious.
"Well, we thought that since they were hiding it so much, and there are no public records on it anywhere, that anything that may exist on it could be hidden away somewhere. Somewhere only few people would have access to."
"And where did you have in mind?"
"The town hall, or rather, the mayor's office in particular," Kenny replies.
"Huh, yeah, that would make sense," Craig says.
"We thought about sneaking in there, but…"
"But what?"
"It's too risky. If one of us gets caught, they'd know for sure that we're here and try to kill us. I'm already sure there's a couple of people that suspect us already."
"I see," Craig murmurs, "but you need information don't you? What if—"
"No," Kenny cuts him off.
"You don't even know what I was going to say."
"You're going to offer to sneak in," Kenny says and Craig's brows furrow. Was he really that easy to read? "It's too dangerous. If you're caught helping us, and they figure out what we are, then you'll be in more danger than just being seen with me in public," Kenny tells him.
"But you need this don't you? So let me—"
"No," Kenny repeats, more firmly this time. Craig lets out an annoyed sigh and crosses his arms, "I know how much you want to help, but we'll figure something else out," Kenny explains.
"Fine," Craig says and Kenny places a hand onto his shoulder.
"I'm serious Craig. Don't do anything."
"I won't," Craig says and looks off elsewhere.
Kenny studies him for a bit more, before removing his hand.