Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

To say South Park High was underfunded was an understatement. The school was crumbling, the heating hadn't worked in years and there was not a book in the whole school that still had all its pages. As a result of this underfunding the school had no clubs, not one, not even the sort that cost practically nothing to run like chess or math. Or at least it never used to.

Tweek Tweak was now the single member of the schools only club. He didn't know if you could call it a club if it only had one member but it sounded good to claim that he was president of the schools gardening club. It had actually been a suggestion from the school's councilor, Mrs. Bennett; an older lady with long gray roots who always wore baggy trousers that looked like curtains and oversized colorful scarves. Tweek had to see her once a week on account of his chronic anxiety, ADHD, and intrusive thoughts. Tweek felt there were probably more things wrong with him than this but at this point, he was hesitant to go back to the doctors as he was becoming a liability to his family's health insurance.

Last year Tweek had only had to see Mrs. Bennett once a month but the school had increased his sessions because he had been in a lot of trouble since coming up to senior year in September. In the first week back Tweek had been in a fight. He hadn't started this fight but there was no doubt that he had ended it. Perhaps more thoroughly than necessary. The thing about Tweek was, he was the sort of boy who looked like he would never fight back; skinny and gangly while still being just slightly shorter than almost all the boys in his grade (probably on account of all the coffee he had drunk from an early age), he was also perpetually tired looking with dark circles ever-present under his eyes and pale, almost sickly looking skin. So when Bill Allen had pushed him against his locker on the first Thursday back after summer vacation and called him a "Faggot" before shoving him in the chest, he had probably not been expecting Tweek to kick him in the shin and push free of his grip. He had also probably not expected a punch on the gut when he went to sock Tweek in the jaw. He was also most likely not expecting to be pushed to the ground and kicked.

It was the fact Tweek kicked him for so long that had got him in so much trouble. The principal, Mr. Sullivan said only a very troubled boy could kick another boy so much and for such a long time. Tweek thought this was bullshit as Bill had continued feebly repeating "Faggot, faggot, faggot," the whole time he was being kicked. Either way, Tweek was not suspended on account of he was provoked and Bill took four days off school 'sick' and had to get four stitches on his ribs. However, now Tweek had to go to the councilor's office every Wednesday, third period and talk about his issues.

Mrs. Bennett had been trying to think if ways for Tweek to release his emotions better so they didn't bottle up and explode all over someone again like some sort of anger based champagne. Most her suggestions were useless; Tweek didn't like to draw because his hands were too shaky, he had never learned an instrument for the same reason, he wasn't a confident singer (even if he was he wouldn't sing for Mrs. Bennett), and did not feel he could write expressively either.

It was not until his third session of the year that he finally found something he could do. Mrs. Bennett had suggested they take their session on a walk to get some fresh air. First, the walked through the main corridor, around the front of the school, past the weedy playing fields and then to the back of the school.

They had been talking idly, Mrs. Bennett had been asking about his recent intrusive thoughts and Tweek had not been giving her proper answers. He was afraid to say that since the fight most of them had revolved around the word "Faggot."

She finally changed the subject with, "Do you come out here often, Tweek?"

"I usually eat lunch in the library," Tweek said. It wasn't a real answer. Tweek had been out here once or twice but he didn't like it because he felt too exposed. The outside of the school made him feel open to all sorts of dangers: germs, rats, other students... It was true that he usually ate in the library, though it wasn't for the books: they were all ruined or covered in drawings of penises. It was more for the relative quiet and warmth.

"I've had an idea for your self-expression," the older woman explained.

The whole thing sounded very planned and forced to Tweek who answered only with, "Oh."

Mrs. Bennett took him to the far end of the courtyard at the back of the school. Tweek was beginning to think she had gone insane when he finally saw what they were heading towards. The single greenhouse was so decrepit that it barely stood out from the rest of the dull ivy covered surroundings of the backside of the school. Some of the glass was broken but surprisingly most of it was not, perhaps no one else had noticed it either. Once they reached it Tweek peared through the moss-covered glass, he could vaguely make out the twisted, dull brown limbs of long-dead plants. The uncanny image was the sort of thing that would usually strike irrational fear into his worried heart but Tweek felt uncharacteristically calm.

"Do you usually do your work in the library?" Mrs. Bennett asked him. "School projects?" She continued when Tween took a moment to respond.

"No," Tweek answered truthfully for the first time that day.

"Good," She spoke, "so you can come here at lunch, -if you want and work on it. Like a project. You could even bring a friend. It might help you with your social skills."

Tweek was harshly reminded that he had no such friends. Despite this, he was feeling uncharacteristically optimistic about the idea. "Okay," he replied, not feeling like divulging any further and giving her anything to use to analyze him. He was honestly surprised that she had had such a good idea, for the most part, she spent her time making poor judgments on his problems and misunderstanding his issues. She never took much of an interest in unconventional means of mental wellbeing but perhaps she was starting to work from his perspective now, Tweek mused.

With that she handed him the small metal key that opened the bike chain slung around the handle of the greenhouse. It was warm from where it had been in her palm which made Tweek slightly uncomfortable.

-

Tweek did not use that lunchtime to go to the greenhouse, he wasn't yet sure what he would do if he did. Instead, he made his way to the library and found the biology section. From here he carefully selected a few of the less tattered books on plant biology. Afterwards, he went to the hobby section and found books in a similar condition on gardening. When he checked them out the librarian looked at him suspiciously 'she thinks you'll steal these, she knows you're bad’.  Tweek shook his head as though he was trying to knock the thoughts out through his ears and hurried away from the library as soon as he had retrieved his books. He spent the rest if lunch hauled up in the disabled cubical of the boy's second floor bathroom reading about enzymes and gardening tools.

-

That night Tweek managed to sleep without his usual night terrors. He read the books he'd borrowed from the library until the early morning but slept soundly between 2:40 AM and 6:30 AM - his best in months.

When he woke his first thought was about the greenhouse. It had quickly become some sort of beacon to his perceived wellbeing. Tweek didn't often develop obsessions anymore (though he did frequently show obsessive-compulsive behavior), when he did, however, they developed hard and fast. Still, at least the greenhouse was a positive obsession, unlike his hair pulling habit or having to tie - then untie his shoelaces twice every morning before leaving the house.

His morning was better than usual, though he spent the majority of it envying his sleeping self, knowing he might not achieve that sort of sleep again for another few months.

He opted for comfy clothes. Most of his clothes were because he found them less straining to wear. He had given up on buttoned shirts long ago and mostly wore baggy sweaters and jeans now. He shopped exclusively in thrift shores, less so for any aesthetic need and more because the bright synthetic lights, overcrowding and horrid noise of department stores made his stomach churn. Thrift stores were the opposite of this; rarely overwhelming in that they were quiet and worn with lower lights and no music.

Tweek only looked at himself once before leaving the house, trying to avoid the opportunity for self-scrutiny. He was wearing a large mossy green woollen jumper and denim jeans rolled at the bottom (his mom had bought them and had been over-optimistic about his height). His hair was sticking out at odd angles but he made no attempt to brush it as this always proved to be a futile and frustrating task. His dark circles were as ever present as always but he was pleased to see he looked a little less tired overall than usual.

He bent down and performed the tying, untying and retying of his boot laces before racing out the door to catch the bus. Despite his good morning he was running as late as always.

-

He was restless throughout his morning lessons, shifting uncomfortably in the hard plastic chairs. He zoned out for the majority of maths and chemistry and doodled plants across his worksheets in favor of being in any way productive.

By the time lunch rolled around Tweek was itching. He exited his English class in a hurry and wound through the halls quickly, dodging his classmates the practiced expertise. He made it out into the courtyard and crossed it hurriedly.

The greenhouse was stood where it stood yesterday but now Tweek finally had the opportunity to open it. He pulled the key from his backpack and inserted it into the bike chain that had been the sole protector of the greenhouse for goodness knows how long.

The door worked on a sliding mechanism that was stiff and broken. Tweek spent a few minutes shifting it frustratedly before it finally budged enough for him to enter. He squeezed inside the gap he had forced open and drunk the place in.

It was full of winding brown vines that looked incredibly dead, they obscured the windows that were also covered in thick dirt that allowed little to no light in, there were broken pots scattered across the floor and every surface was covered in a thick layer of dust and stale dirt. The only things not covered in dust were placed on the workbench on the left-hand side of the greenhouse. Tweek realized he must have been wrong in assuming that he was the first person to enter the place in years. On the dirty workbench he spotted a bag of soil, a pack of plastic plant pots, an assortment of seed packets and a bag of gardening tools.

On closer inspection, he spotted a note reading, 'Enjoy!' He recognized the handwriting as Mrs. Bennett's, which made sense, who else would have bought him gardening supplies? The tools looked old and worn, while the bag of soil had already been opened and was faded, as though it had sat outside for a few months which Tweek figured was probably the case. The rest of the things looked new, however. Tweek inspected the seed packets, there were sweet peas, succulents, green beans, and sunflowers. Tweek remembered growing sunflowers with his mom as a child. How they had grown taller than both him and his mother and how they had fallen and died at the end of the summer. He remembered looking inside the dead head of the sunflower and seeing the hundreds of seeds and how it had somehow upset him to see them. He couldn't remember why now.

As keen as he was to start potting straight away he realized there was a considerable amount of work to do before any such task could even be thought about. Tweek found a broom propped against the back panel of the greenhouse and started sweeping. He was a seasoned expert at this from spending countless hours working for no pay in his father’s coffee shop brushing up spilled coffee grounds and general dirt. The soil and dust on the ground actually looked quite close to this mixture, (though there was plenty more of it) and Tweek quickly lost himself to the mindless task, piling the dirt in one corner to be disposed of.

He was so strongly engulfed in his task that he did not even register the arrival of another human. It was only when he turned to return the broom to the back of the greenhouse that he spotted the boy through the broken window next to where the broom belonged.

Tweek froze in place, irrational fear spreading through him as he took in the figure. The boy was turned with his back facing Tweek, as though he too had not noticed the other boy. Tweek smacked his hand over his mouth to stop any noise coming out. The boy was tall and from what Tweek could make out he was wearing a black jacket over a dark blue t-shirt, his hair was short and black and the back of his neck was spotted with a few moles. More interesting than that was the boy was smoking, actually smoking on school grounds. Up until this point, Tweek thought all the smokers hid in the third-floor bathrooms at lunch, which was why he deliberately avoided going there. But this boy was stood by himself smoking behind the greenhouse, staring at the ground.

Tweek was concerned that if he moved the boy would discover him but if he didn't he might have to stand in the same position for the whole rest of lunch. Both these problems were immediately eliminated when the boy turned, unexpectedly and faced him. They both stared at each other in shock, the boy because he had not expected to see anyone else here and Tweek because he now recognized who this was: Craig Tucker.

Craig's eyes turned from surprise to steel quickly and he hardened his look at Tweek, "What are you doing?" He deadpanned.

Tweek removed his hand from his mouth and stuttered "Nng- I could ask you the very same question," he managed.

"I'm smoking," Craig monotoned.

"Well that's obvious," Tweek retorted.

"Then why did you ask?"

"Ack! I didn't!"

"Yes you did," Craig's voice remained unwavering before he continued, "I come here every day and I've never in my life seen you here before, so I just wanted to know: what are you doing?"

"I'm- um- I'm sweeping," Tweek phrased it as if it were question even though it was a statement.

"Well I can see that. Why?"

Tweek struggled for an answer before finally managing, "Gardening club,"

"This shit-hole doesn't have any clubs," Craig retorted, gesturing to the school. He was still smoking his same cigarette but he had had to use his lighter on it as it had gone out while they were speaking.

"Ah! Um, we do now," Tweek informed him. It had started out as a lie but Tweek liked how it sounded and he figured it was a good enough excuse.

"Fine, who are the members?"

"Me," Tweek replied. He was filled with worry again and expected Craig to laugh in his face. He watched his unwavering expression through the broken glass.

"Oh okay," Craig finally replied, the answer was apparently good enough for his liking.

They kept eye contact for a while longer neither knowing what to say. Craig finished his cigarette and dropped it to the ground before stomping it out with his shoe. Tweek noticed that Craig's top wasn't just dark blue but that the front of it had a large NASA logo on. Once Craig had killed his cigarette he turned back to Tweek. Their eyes met again and Craig sort of wavered as if he wasn't sure what to do with himself like he didn't want to leave. He did though, turning quickly he looked back one last time "Goodbye, um- Tweek," he spoke and Tweek could have sworn he saw the trace of a smile on Craig's stoic lips before he stomped away back towards the school without looking back.

Tweek was left frozen and dumbfounded by the whole experience. It took him a few minuets to regain himself enough to put the broom back and by that point, lunch was over and the bell for fifth period was ringing.

Tweek left the greenhouse, locking it behind him. He had come to it with one thing on his mind and had left it with two.

Chapter Text

By the time lunch the next day rolls around Tweek's mind is practically buzzing with anticipation.

He was consumed fully by thoughts of the greenhouse. His mind over run with imaging how it would look soon; green and soft with a clean floor and clear windows, with bright flowers everywhere. The thought brought a smile to Tweek's face, calmed him.

However, thinking about the greenhouse had adverse affects too, it made him think of Craig. Tweek didn't like to think too much about people, he didn't like to be in positions where he might have to interact socially or decipher someone's intonations it was too much pressure. Yet here he was filled with thoughts and concerns of Craig Tucker. He had spent some time thinking about how he had called him by his name, it meant he knew who he was. Typically it might have filled him with paranoia but he had managed to stave this off, it was hardly surprising, their grade was small, 150 people at most. All most all of them had known each other since kindergarten, including Tweek and Craig and after all, he'd known Craig's name just from sight. What he had been unable to shake and that had rattled round his head with discomfort and hyper-action was how Craig had said it with the trace of a smile on his lips and in a way that seemed to be as if he'd purposefully wanted to say it. Tweek tried to ignore his incessant analysis and wrote it off as imagining things.

Tweek had an unsettling feeling that he wanted to see Craig again. He tried not to disregard it. His overactive mind was concerned that thinking about Craig might somehow be wrong and a small part of him was worried that he might jinx it, that having seen Tweek, Craig might go and smoke somewhere else because he couldn't stand the idea of having to even look at Tweek let alone speak to him. Tweek knew he shouldn't care, it shouldn't matter to him but he was curious, more curious than he was used to or comfortable with.

Tweek spoke to three people regularly; him mom, his dad and Mrs Bennett and he lied to all three of them. His parents were kindhearted people but they were disengaged with his life, Tweek couldn't remember a sole time in his life where he had gotten genuine advice or help from his parents, they tended only to speak in extended metaphors and winding stories that led nowhere. Mrs Bennett had outdated ideas of wellbeing and Tweek had found it easiest to simply tell her what she wanted to hear rather than his actual feelings, there was less chance of her giving him meaningless tasks or over analysing him this way. The only other people he spoke to were customers at his father's coffee shop and his teachers when they asked him questions. It was for this reason that the idea of interacting with someone on a purely social level gave Tweek a jolt of adrenaline. He couldn't remember the last time his body had flowed with positive adrenaline.

In his maths class he tried to think of the last time he had spoken to Craig. They had been friends off and on in elementary school but had drifted apart in the summer of fifth grade. Tweek didn't feel any real malice about this - they had never been too close in the first place, mostly because they never had the chance to form a strong enough bond, at that point in his life Tweek had been doing most of his classes with a one-to-one teacher as his twitching was deemed a distraction to other students. Tweek couldn't think of a single interaction they might have had since then.

By the time he was finally released from fourth period he was so impatient for lunch that he had to restrain himself from bolting. He paced quickly down the first corridor with no issues, swiftly avoiding his classmates so as not to bump into them. He was forging on with such determination that for a moment he didn't recognize his name being called. When he did he whirled around in shock, "Ah!"

"Hello, Tweek," Mrs Bennett spoke, "how are you?"

"I'm fine," Tweek blurted, not wanting to be caught up talking to her, he had precious little time, after all.

"Good. What are you doing?"

"Nng, I'm going to the greenhouse," Tweek answered.

"I see, well I won't keep you,"

'You already did' Tweek thought but instead he just shuddered involuntary and passed it off as best he could as a nod before turning on his heal and making a B-line for the back doors.

By the time he had wrestled the door open to the greenhouse he found that Craig was already present, once again hidden on the other side of the glass, this time facing into the greenhouse. He was sort of smirking and Tweek figured this was probably because he had just witnessed Tweek's struggle with the door. A jolt of anxiety passed through him, he didn't like the idea of being watched. He dismissed it forcibly and turned to close the door, this took less effort than opening it had.

He tried not to acknowledge Craig's presence - he was still fighting an internal war over what he thought of the whole situation.

"Any new members?" Craig's voice interrupted his inner monologue.

"What?" Tweek questioned, sounding lost. He didn't turn to face Craig and instead busied himself collecting up the dead tendrils of plants that had grown awkwardly up the glass walls of the greenhouse. They looked as though they had been trying to escape.

"Have you got anymore members for your club?" Craig reiterated.

"Oh um, no," Tweek informed him. He remembered his lie from yesterday now and grimaced mentally kicking himself for starting it in the first place, though by Craig's tone it sounded like he'd never believed him. He turned to face Craig who was taking a drag on the cigarette between his index and middle fingers. Tweek noticed Craig had quite bony, long fingers and his knuckles were red, bruised and covered in band aids. Tweek wondered what had happened, wanted to ask but he chose not to. It didn't seem right. Craig's brows were furrowed ever so slightly as though he was choosing his answer carefully and Tweek noticed his other, unoccupied hand was gliding up and down the edge of the shattered glass of the widow absentmindedly. It made Tweek cringe internally, it would be easy to get a cut from that glass.

"Can I join?" Craig asked after a moment. His tone was an uncomfortable mix between deliberation and nonchalance.

"Do you like gardening?" Tweek asked.

"Do you?" Craig answered shortly, his brows drawing together.

It threw Tweek off a bit. Other than planting sunflowers with his mom and occasionally having to mow the lawn for his allowance he had never really thought that much about gardening itself until now, that being said he had always thought plants were cute and he had a cactus at home. His mom liked to go to the garden center after church once a month on a Sunday and Tweek often chose to go with her, it was one of the few times he actually enjoyed being around a parent and he liked it there, they had all sorts of plants and fancy tools and a nice café which Tweek was reluctant to admit actually did a decent coffee. "I guess," Tweek finally answered after some thought.

"You guess," Craig repeated phrasing it a question.

"I mean yeah I do," Tweek corrected, "anyway you didn't answer my question," he continued a little confused as to how they had reached this tangent in the first place.

Craig let a moment pass where his face once again contorted in concentration as he chose his answer. "No, not really," he finally responded.

"Then why would you want to join?" Tweek responded. He sounded slightly exasperated as he said it and looked up to face Craig once more, as he did his blond hair fell over his eyes obscuring his vision slightly but he ignored it.

Craig shrugged and took another drag.

Tweek sighed and felt silence fall like a blanket over them. It might have been a comfortable silence but Tweek was preoccupied. Craig was like nothing he could explain and it was distracting him from his chore. He looked over to Craig, he was looking right back. Their eyes met immediately as they studied each other. "What do you like then?" Tweek asked. It sounded forced because it had rolled around his heads a few times before he said it.

Tweek bit at the chapped skin of his lips while he waited for Craig's answer and took note of Craig's clothes, he was wearing a top with a motif of a sad looking alien on it, Tweek couldn't make out the words on it because Craig was wearing his black jacket over it which made it read; 'n't beli n huma' . Tweek fixed his gaze, curiously on this as he waited for Craig's answer.

Craig was still playing with the sharp edge of the glass but he withdrew his hand when he spoke, "I like space, I guess,"

Tweek decided not to pick Craig up on his use if 'I guess' as he had done to him. It didn't really surprise Tweek to hear, Craig had worn a space based top for the past two days he had seen him but Craig had sounded hesitant to say it anyway, though Tweek couldn't see why.

Craig took another drag of his cigarette then flicked it, he was looking at it forcefully, as though it were the most interesting thing in the world. Tweek wasn't sure what to say. He had never really thought about space more than how it was concerned in his physics homework. "Why?" He finally asked.

Tweek had worried Craig might take offence but instead his eyes lit up at the question and he was suddenly indulged, it didn't take him so long to answer this time and when he did it came out quickly and with more animation than Tweek thought Craig capable of, "Well for a start it goes on forever, in fact there's no way to know how big the universe is and that means there could be anything out there, you know aliens and shit? And we just don't know yet. And then, there's all the cool stuff we do know about like black holes and neutron stars and-," Craig cut himself off short of his rant and looked back down at the ground.

"And what?" Tweek pressed, genuinely curious to hear more as well as surprised; he hadn't so far heard Craig speak for so long and yet it was only a few sentences.

"And stuff I guess," Craig answered, he exhaled a drag Tweek hadn't noticed him take, the smoke twisted out from between his lips and contorted like gray silk ribbon as it rose upwards. As it did so Craig scuffed his shoe against the ground, crunching the grit under his sole.

Tweek pursed his lips in a smile, "I think it's cool," he spoke.

"Space?" Craig responded, he sounded genuinely surprised.

No; the fact you like space, Tweek thought but he shook the thought from his head and answered, "Y- Yeah,"

Craig might have looked relieved had his face not been so stoic, a trace of a smile touched his lips. "It looks better in here," Craig spoke and the subject was changed.

Tweek looked around as if he had forgotten where he was. Throughout their whole conversation he had been absentmindedly tidying the dead vines into a trash bag and looking around now, the whole greenhouse was looking better by leaps and bounds. Light filtered happily through the glass and most the surfaces were clean and bare. It wouldn't be long before it was clean enough to start planting. Tweek grinned at Craig's compliment, "Thank you," he spoke.

Craig's eyes were trained on Tweek's face, his grin. "You know you still haven't said whether I can be a member," Craig reminded Tweek.

Tweek thought for a moment before choosing his answer, "You can be an honorary member,"

"Sweet," Craig replied, Tweek regarded him once more and found him to actually be grinning back his gray eyes lit like white lightning through storm clouds. Tweek felt his chest contort in a way he couldn't place, it felt bad and good all at once like being both crushed and opened in an instant. He sighed through a shudder and watched Craig flick the end of his cigarette to the ground and suffocate it with his shoe. "See you in Monday," Craig spoke.

"Bye," Tweek managed after a moment. He watched Craig skirt around the side of the greenhouse, which was newly visible due to his work today, Craig looked both ways before once again interjecting himself into the hustle of students and just like that he was lost.

Chapter Text

Tweek's weekend was long but not in the good way, it dragged like dead weight. When his last lessons of the week finally finished his mom picked him up. Tweek tried to avoid the bus as much as possible, the noise and general violence made him anxious and he had had more than a few panic attacks while riding the bus to school or home. It was one of the few things his mom was more understanding about. She picked him up from school every day that she wasn't working at the coffee shop. They sat in silence for some time, the radio was on but the volume had been turned down to mute, which Tweek found weird. After a while he became uncomfortable with the silence and decided to tell his mom about the greenhouse. It was rare for him to share much about his life with his parents, they usually meant well but seemed to have a loose grasp on Tweek's wellbeing and usually ended up unintentionally doing more harm than good. But he figured that telling her this couldn't hurt.

His mom had had a meeting with Mrs Bennett once and they hadn't really seen eye to eye, which Tweek found ironic seem as he didn't see eye to eye with either of them. He was worried his mom might criticise his councillor for her idea but luckily she actually said it was a good idea and reminded Tweek of when he had been younger and she and him used to do the gardening together. Tweek smiled and nodded before telling her about what he planned to grow and all his plans.

He left out the bit about Craig though, for some reason it didn't feel right to tell her. It felt like a secret.

-

Tweek doesn't sleep well on Friday night, he figured this was probably due to anxiety about working the next day. Tweek had worked for his father for about as long as he'd been capable of holding a mug but he had never gotten over his anxiety about the whole thing. It usually started the night before and stopped him from sleeping. Tweek would stay up and think up unreasonable and highly unlikely situations in his head of customers shouting at him or making a mess, anything that would cause him worry. It wasn't the working itself, he didn't mind sweeping or cleaning and actually enjoyed making the coffee. It was the people.

-

This Saturday was no different. The sun was hardly up by the time he was driving to the family coffee shop with his dad. He stood with his arms wrapped around himself in an attempt to protect from the biting cold that seemed to travel deep within him in the time it took his father to unlock the front door with liberal haste.

Tweek's dad was the most strangely relaxed person Tweek knew. He honesty could not understand how they were related. Everything his father said, he said in the same soft spoken, tone. It was as though he was perpetually high. Tweek hated it, it grated on him every time he spoke to his father. He couldn't understand how he could share a gene pool with such a man. There wasn't a point Tweek could remember where he was anything close to as calm as his father. He was a cocktail of jealous and perplexed be him.

They hurried inside and his dad threw Tweek's apron towards him from behind the counter.

"Gah!" Tweek let out in shock as he fumbled to catch the apron flying towards him. He didn't manage to catch it, it fell on the floor in a defeated crumple and Tweek was forced to pick it up. He tied it around himself firmly, pulling the strings taught and around his slim waist twice, it was too tight but Tweek had always tied it this way and didn't want to upset his routine. His apron was a dark brown color and covered in stains, he couldn't remember the last time it got washed.

Tweek was ordered to sweep the floor while his father set up the machine and stacked the mugs. He did as best as he could though he was filled with anxiety, watching the clock above the door waiting for the morning rush to arrive, willing them not to come.

They came in despite him, a rush of around 20 customers between 9:30 and 10:00. He helped his father behind the counter, doing his best to shut out the noise and work methodically through each order. He supposed he didn't mind the rush too much as long as he got to make the coffees and not take the orders.

The rest of the morning passed quietly. Tweek's father worked in the back room counting stock and mechanically grinding beans ready for restock while Tweek stood behind the counter of the now empty coffee shop playing on his phone in a spaced out state. The dull noise of the machines drilled into his head in a throbbing ache. He was snapped out of his zoned out state at around 12:15 when the bell above the door rung shrilly and Butters bounced into the shop. "Oh h- hey, Tweek!" Butters chirped.

Butters looked as happy and naive as he always had as a child and Tweek wondered how he did it. He knew Butters also had to see Mrs Bennett, his appointment was right after Tweek's, though only on the first week of every month unlike Tweek's weekly appointments. Absently, Tweek wondered if Butters also lied to Mrs Bennett. Probably not. One of Butters' eyes was milky and paler than the other and it bore a silvery scar from his eyebrow to the top of his cheekbone. Tweek couldn't help but look at it as Butters approached the counter. He couldn't remember a time where Butters hadn't had that scar.

"Hey -uh. What can I get for you?" Tweek was stuck whether to use Butters name while serving him, he always found it weird serving people from school in the shop, his customer service façade was usually broken by their presence. In this case he used the same weak smile he did for every customer, Butters took it genuinely, however, and beamed back at him.

"Can I have two caramel lattes please?" Butters asked, "But uh," he took a second before continuing nervously, "can one have extra caramel and can the other have extra foam? Oh! And can the one with extra caramel have cinnamon on the top too?"

Tweek blinked, trying to commit the order to memory, "Sure, coming right up. Names?"

Butters whirled his head around, scanning the empty coffee house for signs of life. Tweek watched him with half hearted curiosity. "Uh okay, the one with extra foam is 'Butters' and then if you put a 'K' on the other one," Butters spoke tentatively and did not make eye contact.

Tweek nodded indifferently, not really too interested in who Butters might be buying coffee for. He had never pegged Butters as the sought of person to keep a secret but he couldn't say he cared if he did. He turned to the machine and lined two paper cups under the nozzles before beginning to heat the milk.

"Yeah, he loves cinnamon," Butters began out of no where, "pretty much all sweet things actually," he continued.

Tweek wasn't sure if Butters was addressing this to him or more to himself so he just hummed through pursed lips and finished the order quickly before placing it on the counter between them. Butters cheeks were newly flushed and he smiled widely as he handed over a $10 bill then put the change in the tip jar and left taking his order with him.

Once he was gone Tweek leant forwards against the counter and rested his head against it quietly in the empty shop, envying those who didn't have to work on their Saturdays, let alone for no pay. Tweek checked to see if his father was still out back, on realising he was, Tweek unscrewed the top of the tip jar and grabbed what Butters had put in there before quickly pocketing it for himself.

His day might have been quite nice if it had not been dampened not half an hour later when the bell rung again. Tweek twisted his head to see who the customer was and immediately felt a welt of anxiety pass over him. He turned his head back trying to ignore the figure though this was a pointless endeavor.

"Hey Twink," Cartman's voice bellowed with a snicker. Tweek twitched uncomfortably.

One of Cartman's favorite things to do was to come into the coffee house on a Saturday and cause Tweek anxiety. He did it relatively often but not every week, which only made it worse for Tweek because he never knew when to expect it. These visits usually involved a lengthy insinuation that Tweek was gay followed by Cartman trying to get free food. He switched it up often though, always maintaining the element of nasty suprise.

Tweek shuddered and tried to pretend he was just another customer, "What can I get you?" He gritted out.

"Hmm what to get. What to get ," Cartman pondered. His fat hands braced on the glass food display causing condensation to form around them. Tweek hated when people did that, it meant he would have to clean the glass. "I think I'll have... A large, quad, nonfat, one-pump, no-whip, mocha," Cartman rattled out quickly in order to try to confuse Tweek.

Tweek sighed and began on his order. Whenever Cartman made an order he was sure to make it as complex and difficult as possible. Tweek tried to shut his mind and focus on the work but he could hear Cartman's voice penetrating his head, "I'm talking to you. Hey! Asshole! I'm talking to you!" Cartman yelled after a few moments of Tweek ignoring him.

"Gah! What!?" Tweek managed in response.

"I said: isn't it true that all gay men shit themselves?"

"Oh Jesus Christ- what?"

"Yeah you know 'cause you all take it up the ass so much,"

"How would I know," Tweek replied. He had tried not to let any emotions show but it came out indignant none the less. "I'm not gay,"

"You can lie to yourself all you want, Twink." Cartman jived. He would have probably continued had Tweek not finished with his order. He slammed the paper cup down on the counter, causing some of the foam to erupt from the top of the plastic lid. Tweek opened the till aggressively, allowing the cash tray to shoot forward, the change inside rattled. He gave Cartman a warning look, though not a very believable one and held out his hand for Cartman to pay. He deposited a handful of cents, nickels and dimes into Tweek's hand and turned and left before Tweek could finish counting them. He was 64 cents short.

After Cartman left Tweek made four coffees. He drank one of them in an effort to calm down and used the other three to practice foam art. He was getting pretty good. He made a heart in the first one and was just done making something that looked almost close to a sunflower in the second when he looked out the window. He was suddenly distracted by the passing world. People were walking down the street, shopping and going about their business.

Tweek didn't see him for a second but on the opposite side of the road Craig was walking hurriedly. Once Tweek saw him he couldn't tear his eyes away, he watched through the glass shop front as Craig walked, staring at the ground with his hands dug into his pockets and a frown on his face. He was walking at a hurried pace, he probably had somewhere to be, Tweek reasoned. He kept his eyes locked on him until he was no longer in sight.

Once Tweek could no longer make Craig out he looked back down at the last blank canvas of foam in front of him before having his idea. He bent over it and very carefully, using the handle of a teaspoon, etched a planet with a ring around it and a scattering of small stars into the foam.

Chapter Text

Weather tended to have a strong effect on Tweek. On Monday there was a low fog hanging like a damp blanket in the air and thick drizzle. By lunch, it had evolved into heavy rain. Tweek pulled his jacket tight around himself, gripping hard against the denim with his numb fingers and listened to the rain drum on the glass rooftop of the greenhouse. His hair was wet and flat from running through the rain at the beginning of lunch, it stuck down limply to his forehead and dripped onto the soil he was packing into the ugly plastic pots Mrs. Bennett had supplied him with. He was struggling with this as his cold hands were blushed red and shaking with the horrid tingling of chilblains as he worked. Everything seemed dull and horrid.

It took longer than usual for Craig to arrive and when he did he too was looking rather miserable. Tweek watched through the corner of his eye as Craig skirted around the edge of the greenhouse, his back smearing the drops of water clinging to the other side of the glass. He took a cigarette out of the little box in his back pocket and placed it between his lips before turning to face Tweek through the broken window. Their eyes met as Craig lifted his lighter to the tip of his cigarette. His thumb worked against the flint, turning it over and over with no luck, for whatever reason; the rain, the wind, he could not get it to light. Tweek couldn't help but fix his gaze as the little flame was repeatedly diminished by the elements, Craig was shivering in the cold and his dripping wet hands were cupped over the lighter in a fruitless attempt to shelter it. "Fuck," Craig muttered, "fuck,"

Tweek felt a twitch pass over him before he spoke, "Do you want to come inside?"

Craig looked up from his task, confusion covering his face. He removed the cigarette from his lips before asking, "Can I?"

Tweek wasn't sure of himself for a moment but impulse overrode him, "Um y- yeah, man,". Tweek's heart was pummeling hard and his hands were shaking with more than just cold. He turned to the door and tugged it open, it was getting less stiff with time. He turned back in time to watch Craig as he once again made his way around the side of the greenhouse, smearing the raindrops in the opposite direction now as he trod through the scraggly weeds that grew against the foundation surrounding the structure, his feet almost slipping on the wet dirt as he did so.

Tweek stepped aside to allow Craig to enter then closed the door quickly behind him before the cold and wet could follow him. The first thing he noticed was how tall Craig was, the small foundation the greenhouse stood on had made it seem as though Craig wasn't much taller than Tweek but now it appeared he stood a little less than a head above Tweek. Tweek felt a little daunted looking up at him so he turned back to his potting as Craig stared around the greenhouse with a look as close to interest as his stoic face could manage before turning and leaning his back against the wooden workbench Tweek was working at. Tweek listened to the rustle of Craig reaching into his back pocket and once again retrieving his lighter. He paused before asking, "It is alright if I smoke, right?" Craig's voice was wary.

Tweek was surprised, he hadn't expected him to ask, "Yeah, man, th- that's fine,"

Craig turned to face Tweek and sensing this Tweek turned back to him. He didn't make direct eye contact but instead watched through his eyelashes as Craig brought a flame to the lighter and lifted it to the tip of his cigarette, now repurchased between his lips, it was looking limp and sad after being rained on, Tweek almost felt sorry for it. Tweek watched with fascination as the tip of the cigarette turned from paper to burning ember to ash as Craig inhaled through it. Tweek had always been terrified of smokers but he had never seen it up close until Craig, he thought it was disgusting when he saw smokers stood around on street corners or piles of butts in drains yet he was becoming morbidly intrigued the more he saw Craig do it, "Does it hurt?" Tweek asked, apparently out of nowhere.

"What?"

"Nng- smoking, does it hurt?" Tweek shuddered, inwardly scrutinizing himself for asking.

"Oh, um, I guess it used to when I started, it felt like my lungs like burning," Craig answered.

"Oh," Tweek answered, he wasn't sure why he asked in the first place but now he was curious. His fingers ran restlessly through his hair before he continued, "Why did you start?"

Craig inhaled and exhaled in the time it took him to think of an answer, he was eyeing Tweek was casual inquisition but answered none the less, "My dad smokes, and when I was younger I used to steal his cigarettes every time he would have an argument with me or piss me off. It would really rub him the wrong way because smokes are expensive and he was on like twenty a day but he never realized it was me. By the time I was fourteen I had this big collection of them hidden under my bed in a shoe box. My mom found them when she was vacuuming my room once and told my dad, he was so angry he tried to make me smoke them all as punishment, I couldn't smoke all of them but I had at least half. He thought it would make me not want to smoke and it did, I mean I don't want to smoke but I'm addicted now,"

Tweek hadn't expected such a long or detailed answer, let alone one that seemed so sad. Tweek thought about his own father briefly, he didn't usually argue with his parents but he did lie to them and ignore him and in turn, they ignored his outbursts and problems. Craig's eyes had flickered to the ground and he was staring at Tweek's boots as though they were the most interesting thing in the room. Tweek set his trowel down on the wooden work surface and looked up at Craig, in turn, Craig raised he eye line up from the floor to meet with Tweek's. Tweek was biting the dead skin on his lips, "it's fine," Craig spoke, "I don't care," Tweek didn't think either of those statements were true but he didn't argue. Craig finished his cigarette and dropped it to the ground before asking, "What are you doing?"

Tweek turned to look at his work, having to remind himself before he could answer, "Nn- I'm just- planting these," he stabbed his finger into the seed packet on the counter, "sweet peas," he finished.

Craig eyed the pots while he lit his second cigarette he spoke as he exhaled, "My gran had those in her garden," he spoke.

"My mom has them in her's," Tweek replied as he finished the packet of seeds. "Do you like them?" He continued.

Craig shrugged, "They're alright,"

"Hm," Tweek replied, unsure of what to say.

"I mean I do- they uh- remind me of her garden. She lives in a home now," Craig added hesitantly and then sighed and tugged on the stings of his hat. Tweek thought this seemed better than all his grandparents dead like his own were but Craig sounded sad to say it none the less.

Tweek looked up at him and found his pale grey eyes already lingering there, he wasn't sure what to say, Craig's eyes were hard to read and they stayed locked for some time, "I'm sorry," Tweek managed eventually, it seemed the only thing that could be said. He thought back to just a few days ago when he had been worrying about the stress of reading others emotions, Craig's in particular, yet here he was doing just that.

Craig's eyes were still fixed on Tweek's own, "I don't know why I told you all that,"

"Its okay," Tweek replied and drew his eyes back down to his task. Yesterday he had gone to the garden center with his mom, she had bought him a yellow watering can and a coffee at the cafe, Tweek had used some of the money he had saved from his last birthday to buy some potted plants; Aloe Vera, a Peace Lily, daisies, angelonia and a Snake plant. He had brought them in earlier that morning before school started because he was self-conscious of people seeing him carrying a load of potted plants around, so far only he, Mrs. Bennett and Craig knew about the greenhouse, Tweek wanted to keep it this way. He lifted the watering can to the pots and let the cool water drip over each one methodically before placing them up against the window where they would get the most sun possible in the dull November weather. Craig watched him quietly still smoking his second cigarette, he usually only had one. Tweek itched to ask why but it seemed rude.

By this point, a thin veil of smoke was hanging like a dirty cloud in the greenhouse. Tweek tried to repress a cough but eventually couldn't help but let it out, his lungs shuddered and his eyes scrunched shut. "Sorry, dude," Craig spoke with genuine worry.

"I'm fine," Tweek replied a little hoarsely.

Craig dropped his cigarette and stomped it out on the ground none the less, Tweek stopped coughing and looked down at it crushed and half-finished against the concrete floor, "You didn't have to do that," he said apologetically.

"It's fine, I shouldn't be smoking that much in one lunch anyway, I am trying to quit after all. I just uh-" Craig tugged again on the strings of his hat, "I just uh- wanted to stay a little longer,"

"Oh," Tweek looked out the window for a few moments then looked up at Craig who was touching the back of his neck, Tweek wondered if Craig might be feeling nervous, why? "You can- nng- stay as long as you want," Tweek spoke, it came out so quietly that he worried Craig might not have heard him, that he'd have to repeat himself. Instead, Craig just nodded and the corners of his lips lifted, he was smiling, Tweek realized as the glints of metal from Craig's braces caught his eye.

The end of Lunch bell rung cruelly a few minutes later, at the point that both Tweek and Craig had almost drip dried and the greenhouse was full of their combined condensation; it steamed the windows like a curtain, a guard from the outside world. Craig furrowed his brows and squinted his eyes at the noise of the bell, he looked around hesitantly before raising onto the balls of his feet and dropping back down, "I gotta go, I have chemistry at the other end of the school," he explained before stepping around Tweek towards the door. He fought a small battle with it shaking it by the handle for a dozen seconds before it gave way just enough for him to sidestep through the inconveniently small gap made. Tweek bit down on his lip in an effort to repress any laughter that might escape, it wasn't cruel so much as something else a feeling that he couldn't properly place

Once Craig was gone Tweek took a few minutes to tidy the greenhouse before leaving and locking it behind himself. He didn't particularly care about being late for math not only could he not stand it as a subject but as one of the only positives of being significantly messed up and having to see Mrs. Bennett, he had late and absence passes to all his classes meaning, essentially he could come and go as he suited, though he rarely utilized it for fear of becoming a spectacle.

Tweek made his way through the halls idly, they were both eerily quiet and relievingly peaceful without the presence of other students. He stared down at his boots as he made his way, listening to the squeak of them echo around him. He didn't notice until too late when the back of his shoulder was clapped hard, Tweek whirled around rapidly to see Eric Cartman's face behind him, his arm extended and chubby hand clamped around his shoulder, "Hey Twink,"

Tweek sighed, the relative mental peace he had managed to maintain over the past ten minutes quickly diminishing in Cartman's presence. god that nickname is stupid, Tweek thought to himself. "Oh Jesus- What do you want?" Tweek replied shortly. He tried to continue walking as he spoke but Cartman had twisted his hand around the strap of his rucksack in a vice-like grip, effectively planting him in place, Tweek shook his shoulders in an attempt to free himself but wilted quickly, realizing he would have to abandon his rucksack in order to escape in that manner.

"Nothing," Cartman replied.

"Then- gah- let me go!" Tweek fumed.

"Uh uh uh, not so fast, I saw you this morning," Cartman chided.

"What do you mean?" Tweek looked up to face Cartman who released his strap at the knowledge that Tweek was intrigued enough not to leave to him.

"I saw you," Cartman reiterated, "with all those faggy plants and shit,"

Tweek drew in a gulp of air, "Oh Jesus,"

"I had no idea you were Miss Harris' bitch," He continued.

Tweek let out the breath he had been holding, Cartman thought he was doing extra biology work. He fumbled on his feet, shifting his weight nervously trying to think of a response before realizing that there was no need, he was no longer being gripped, "I gotta go," he managed before turning on his heal and racing up the closest staircase towards his math class.

-

The rain didn't falter all that afternoon, nor did it all that night of the next morning. By lunch the next day Tweek found himself in a similar position to how he had been that time yesterday; hunched over the workbench planting seeds, only this time they were sunflowers, two seeds per pot. Craig arrived looking even more downtrodden than yesterday. Tweek watched the fat droplets of rain hit Craig's hat and soak into the sodden wool as he once again started the process of retrieving his pack of cigarettes, fumbling with it as the rain slipped over his hands. He was frowning down at them as he struggled to pull the lid of the box up and away to expose its contents. Tweek took a step closer to the smashed window and then another step. Craig looked up at him fleetingly and then back down to his task. Tweek took a deep breath and placed his finger on the jagged edge of glass before speaking, "Do you want to come inside again?"

Craig looked up and held his gaze for a few seconds before answering, "You sure?"

Tweek nodded in response.

Once Craig was inside he said thank you but he was still frowning. Tweek busied himself, running his fingers through the spilled soil on the surface in a half-hearted effort to clean it. He turned to look up at him, dusting the soil for the tips of his fingers. Craig frowned at the tip of his cigarette intently before flicking the ash to the ground, "What's wrong?" Tweek asked.

Craig scuffed his shoe against the ground before inhaling, "Nothing,"

Tweek kept his gaze fixed on him but run his fingers through his blonde hair anxiously, "Nng- It is something," he argued lightly.

"This weather is just stupid is all," Craig said with a sigh, not lifting his eyes from the ground.

"Oh?" Tweek urged.

"I hate rain, clouds, and shit," Craig scuffed the edge of his boot against the ground again, "I wanted to see Andromeda tonight," he continued.

"Andromeda?" Tweek pressed.

"It's our closest neighbor galaxy, you can only see it a few times a year," Craig explained.

Tweek finally managed to catch his eyes and hold them in place with his own, "That's cool," he replied.

"I guess but now I don't get to see it thanks to all the clouds," Craig replied dully.

"Urgh- What's it like?" Tweek asked.

"It's like this- big spiral. Last time I saw it was in the summer, my dad took me up the mountain to camp, away from all the light pollution, when you look at it through a telescope you can see the separate rings; it's amazing," Craig was smiling now and his eyes seemed lighter, Tweek thought they looked little like space.

"That's amazing," Tweek spoke quietly, eyes wide.

"You think?" Craig asked.

Tweek nodded and felt his damp hair bounce against his forehead, "I'd like to see it,"

"I'll show you, one day when the weather's better," Craig told him solemnly.

"Pr- um- promise?"

"Yeah, I promise,"

-

The following day the rain had stopped but thick clouds remained obscuring the sky like a grey blanket. The ground was almost dry other than lingering puddles. Tweek didn't have to run for cover in the greenhouse, he walked slowly across the courtyard toward it, dragging his heels. On Monday he had been sad because it was raining now he was sad because it was not.

It felt lonely in the greenhouse while he watered his plants, empty.

Craig appeared a few minutes later Tweek noticed he was wearing his NASA top again. Craig stood closer than usual to the hole in the glass with his right shoulder pressed against the adjacent window. Tweek took a few steps toward him. They were only a foot or so apart but the glass felt a mile thick. Tweek watched Craig withdraw his lighter from his pocket but they made eye contact before he could touch the flame to his cigarette. Their eyes fixed for a moment, Tweek chewed on the dead skin of his bottom lip and his heart beat hard, "Do you want to come in?"

"It's not raining,"

"Urgh- I know,"

"But why?"

"I like the company," Tweek replied he could feel his hands shaking a little, he cursed them while thanking the still slightly dirty window between them for obscuring Craig's view.

Craig tugged on the strings of his hat gently before answering, "Me too,"

-

From that point onward it was clear, Craig no longer had to have a reason to come in and Tweek no longer had to ask him.

Chapter Text

(One week later)

Tweek lifted the yellow wateringcan above his head to reach the shelf above him, the water inside echoed against the tin as he did so. He tipped a few drops into the potted plants there, so far nothing had died, in fact, much to his surprise everything was looking shockingly happy and healthy, all the seeds he'd planted last week were sprouting and the shop bought plants were blooming.

He jolted at the noise of the door behind him shifting but didn't bother to turn to see who it was, at this point Craig had visited Tweek everyday within the past week without fail. Tweek had made a habit of not locking the greenhouse door on his way in so as Craig could let himself in when he arrived, usually five or so after Tweek.

Tweek was worried to admit to himself how much he liked it. Talking to Craig was the best part of his day, he looked forward to it when he woke up and thought about it for the rest of the day after it happened. Craig had even acted on his role of honorary member of the gardening club by helping Tweek plant his green beans. Tweek shunned himself for blushing at the thought of Craig bent forwards clumsily spilling soil across the counter in an effort to pour it into one pot, he had been so apologetic after even though Tweek had said it wasn't a problem. It was weirdly sweet.

Tweek, on the other hand had been learning lots about space. Yesterday Craig had explained the life cycle of a star to him. Tweek had originally asked him because he had had a question about protostars on his physics homework but had ended up interested so Craig had told him the whole life cycle, though Tweek sensed he might have skirted around the stuff about black holes after sensing Tweek's concern about their ability to destroy everything without consequence.

Tweek heard the door shut again. One thing he had noticed about Craig was that he had very little patience for the door and tended to manhandle it. Tweek had argued that it gave the place character but Craig had insisted that he would steal some of his dad's oil and fix the door himself before it broke if it's runners. Tweek had agreed, mostly because he liked that it implied a permanence about their situation as though Craig planned on staying. Although Craig was yet to act on his word and the door was still bothersome.

Tweek listened as Craig's footsteps approached, it was embarrassing how much he had committed to memory about the boy; the way his footsteps sounded, how his braces looked - despite the fact he could only properly see them when Craig smiled, which was not often enough for Tweek's liking, and how Craig tugged in the strings of his hat when he was nervous. He turned to face Craig as he stood behind him.

"Oh Tweek, stay still," Craig spoke upon seeing his face.

"Gah!" Tweek froze and his eyes widened, his grip turned vicelike around the handle of the watering can as anxiety induced adrenaline spread through his body. He stared up at Craig who was painted with a concerned and concentrated look. Craig took a step forward so the toes of their boots were just inches apart and bent forward, his hands rose quickly and Tweek felt his fingers meet his face, Craig's left hand was holding his jaw gently, tilting his face upwards while his right was positioned so as his thumb pressed against the bridge of his nose and his fingers hovered over his forehead. Tweek's mind raced, what was happening?

A moment passed like a century as Craig squinted his eyes in concentration before pressing his index finger against Tweek's forehead and gently wiping it along a few centimeters. He breathed a sigh and stepped back, removing his hands. Tweek remained frozen, utterly perplexed until Craig presented his right hand to Tweek who looked down to see a tiny ladybug crawling on Craig's index finger, "It was on your forehead," he explained.

They both stared at it for a moment as it crawled across Craig's fingernail. Tweek could feel a deep blush spread across his face. The places where Craig had touched him felt like they were tingling and buzzing and his heart was hammering in his chest so hard it threatened to break free of his ribs. He continued staring down though now he was preoccupied, staring at Craig's hands, his long fingers, why did he want them on him again? He breathed out a shuddering breath and pulled gently on his hair with the hand that was not still clinging to the watering can.

Craig walked over to the broken window he use to stand on the other side of and extended his hand through it, freeing the bug. When he turned back around Tweek had busied himself once again; he was staring down a deep blush across his face as he swept the floor diligently, despite that fact it was already practically flawless.

-

That evening Tweek had to take a shift in the coffee shop. Most the time he didn't have to work during the school week but his mom had caught the flu and his dad had had no help all day. At the end of school his dad had called him and told him not to board the bus home but instead to walk across town straight to the coffee shop in order to work. Tweek had traipsed slower than necessary taking his time and looking at all the sights as he walked. He felt bad about it, it wasn't his dad's fault his mom was ill but then again, it shouldn't be his fault either.

When he arrived the coffee shop was bustling with the usual after school rush. His dad did his normal thing of throwing Tweek's apron at him and Tweek did his normal thing of dropping it.

For about half an hour Tweek did nothing but make lattes of various styles for every middle schooler and freshman in town, silently cursing all of them for not being more inventive with their orders. He was working at such an intense pace that he almost burnt himself in the steamer twice. After the rush had slowed down a little he thanked god that he didn't often have to work on week days.

By 5:15 most of the rush had quietened down or left. Tweek left his station behind the counter to wipe down the clear tables. He took the grubby cloth and wiped up the combined mixture of spilled sugar, coffee and general dirt spread across each and every table in the shop. Finally alone with his thoughts his mind immediately jumped back to Craig, more specifically Craig's hands on his face. He could still feel where he had touched him, like invisible handprints that tingled every time he thought about it. On top of all that was a layer of anxiety. Why did he like Craig's hands on him? Why did he want it again? Tweek knew the answer he just couldn't say it, couldn't even think it to himself because goddamn, it went against everything he had built himself in his little bubble of self containment.

He couldn't help but think about it though, as he took his time buffing the tables for lack of a more stimulating job. His dad had disappeared to goodness knows where and it was relatively quiet so Tweek was in no rush to act as though he was doing his job efficiently until he heard the over head door bell ring shrilly and turned idly to see who had entered, he took a double take when he saw who it was.

"Dude I just need some coffee, it's no biggie," Token's voice carried across the coffee shop as he entered through the door.

"Yeah dude why are you being such a puss-" Clyde's voice added teasingly as he followed before being cut off by a swift punch to the arm.

"I just-" Craig entered last, shaking his hand off from the punch. He looked like he was going to argue with them until he looked up. Their eyes met from across the room and Tweek jumped and almost dropped his cloth, then squeezed it tight, he felt some dirty water dribble out if it, into the palm of his his hand before regaining himself. He looked around wildly for his father who was no where to be seen before rushing over to the front counter.

He washed his hands of the dirty dishwater hurriedly before turning back to face the other boys. They had lined themselves up on the opposite side. Craig was still at the back but his eyes were fixed on Tweek, unmoving. It was incredibly distracting and Tweek felt thrown off already.

"Hi, uh, can I get a cappuccino, please?" Token asked.

"Yeah and uh, can I get a hot chocolate?!" Clyde's voice interrupted.

"Wait your turn," Token scolded him.

"No!"

"Goddamn it- Fine a cappuccino and a hot chocolate," Token concluded turning back to Tweek. "Craig what do you want?"

"I'll buy my own," Craig deadpanned, he was still looking at Tweek.

"You sure? I'm buying Clyde's," Token asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sure,"

"Fine, just that then," Token finished addressing Tweek once more.

Tweek nodded, "Mm- coming up," he turned to the machine and began the orders heating the separate milks for the coffee and hot chocolate. It was difficult to do with Craig's eyes on him, he could feel them travelling right through him as he fumbled and shook with nerves while preparing the order, trying to avoid Craig's eye line. It was easier said than done.

Once he had finished Token paid him and put $3 in the tip jar.

"I'll meet you over there," Craig told the other boys as they stood around waiting for him to order. Tweek and Craig both watched as Token and Clyde walked across the coffee house and seated themselves at a booth.

"What can I get you?" Tweek asked.

"Hmm, I don't know. I don't usually drink coffee but Token says it's good here," Craig spoke.

"Any idea?" Tweek asked, tugging his hair anxiously.

"Surprise me,"

Tweek stood for a moment trying to think, god, this was way too much pressure. Finally he had his idea and turned back to the machine. He felt Craig's eyes on him again but tried his best to remain natural, he took a deep breath and got to work.

He mixed the left over hot chocolate mixture with a fresh coffee brew, pumped in vanilla and foamed the top gently then put it on the counter behind him where his father stored all the ready-to-use stock. He turned his back to Craig so he couldn't see what he was doing. He worked hard and fast, despite his shaking hands recreating what he had done before and when it was finally finished he turned and placed it on the counter between them. He felt his face heat up as he looked down at it, not making eye contact with Craig. Maybe it was overkill.

Ever since he had seen Craig outside the shop window a few weeks ago Tweek had been working on space based foam designs, he was getting quite good. What he had laid between them was similar to his first one; a planet with a ring around it, and a few stars, however he had added some details; making one of the stars look like it was shooting with a tail and using chocolate sauce to create a spiral in the background like a galaxy, like Andromeda. It was a little messy because he had been so nervous but not too bad considering all his practice.

Craig stared down at it, his eyes wide and gawking, "It's beautiful," he managed finally.

Tweek blushed harder, it was one thing for Craig to think it was too much, another for him to actually like it. They both stared at the coffee for a few seconds before Tweek broke the moment with an anxious body shudder. He shook his head trying to get rid of it, "Nng- You should drink it before it gets cold," he said.

"Yeah," Craig replied quietly, almost whispering. He paid then picked the cup up carefully, still staring down at it and holding it out in front of him, attentive in not spilling it.

Tweek stayed behind the counter and watched Craig make his way across the coffeehouse then seat himself next to Token and opposite Clyde in the booth. Tweek fidgeted, worried about the other boys' reactions. He couldn't hear them from this far back but he saw Token crane his head to inspect Craig's drink as he sat down and then say something to him. Craig then cupped the drink and pulled it closer to him as Clyde leant across the table, also curious. Craig shooed him away and said something else with a frown across his face. After that they all drank their drinks as normal.

Once they had finished they got up and left. "Thanks," Token said as he made his way out the front door.

"Thanks man," Clyde added.

Craig hovered behind them, holding the door so as the chilled late October wind drafted in. He rose up onto the balls of his feet then dropped down, wavering as if he wasn't sure whether or not to leave, "That was good- um I mean really good. Thanks," he managed before darting out the door.

"No problem," Tweek spoke though Craig had already left

Chapter Text

Tweek knew something was wrong from the moment he left the back doors of the school. As soon as he saw the greenhouse he knew it looked odd, like it had shifted, morphed. He paced over to it, eyes flickering from intent to the ground, unsure of whether he wanted to see it or not.

He didn't have to get close to it to see the damage but he waited until he was there anyway. The bike chain around the door had been snapped. The door had been pushed all the way open. At least half of the windows were broken. Tweek closed his eyes for a second then opened them and stepped inside. He closed the door harshly behind him.

Tweek stared around at the wreckage. He was dumbfounded. His plants - the majority of them were strewn across the now compost covered floor, two of the large windows were shattered along with a few if the other, smaller ones and his tools seemed to have been thrown around haphazardly.

His first instinct was to clean it up, to put it all back in its place. He tried to level his head, this was fine, this was fixable. He would not be broken by this. He knelt down onto the floor, not registering the tingling pain in his knees and reached his shaky hands out. He fought an internal battle to stop this shaking as he got to work and failed weakly. He could feel his eyes welling indignantly. He was more emptily upset than anything. It was only when his hands cupped around the compost and started dusting it back into the nearest unbroken pot that he felt the tiny pinpricks of pain in his palms. He looked down in confusion to see his hands were glittering in a way that was almost beautiful if not completely terrifying.

They were covered in dirt, blood, and glass. Tweek gasped in shock and then tears really started flooding his eyes, they weren't just sadness now but pain and panic too. He jerked up from the floor and looked down, his knees, too were bleeding through his jeans from where he had knelt in the mess. "Gah-ahh!" The strangled noise he let out turned quickly to a scream before he managed to stop it. He couldn't let anyone who might be near by hear him, he clapped the back of his arm over his wrist momentarily. While he was silent vocally his mind was racing. He stared down at his bloody hands, the shards of glass looked like hundreds of tiny knives and Tweek's head jerked uncomfortably to the side. This was like all the everyday pain of mild humiliation stabbing him at once. The blood was drooling down onto his arms now and rolling off onto the floor where it mixed with the soil. Tweek felt the sudden jolt of acknowledgment that he was an outcast. Someone had done this to him.

Anger flooded over him in a wave that felt almost calming in comparison to the panic that had filled him up to this this point. His hands were useless and bloody. In exasperation he screamed again with more abandon than he had before and kicked his foot forward. Dirt erupted upwards along with a few of his seedlings. He did it again. And again. And again. It felt just like kicking Bill all the way back at the start of the year and for a moment he sympathised with whoever had done this, it felt good to destroy something with hateful abandon, especially something that had been worked on so hard. The thought of this person maintained and heightened his anger and he stomped down hard. His eyes were dripping tears profusely now and the greenhouse was nothing but a blur of greens and browns but from the cracking sound Tweek deduced that he must have broken one of the stupid plastic plant pots. Good he thought. So he carried on doing it until he had broken it down into such small pieces it barely made a noise when it was stomped on. It was as though it had given up. At the thought of this Tweek started sobbing and finally let himself give up too.

His body fell slack and he sunk to the ground and laid there like it was where he was meant to be. He could feel the glass everywhere, even digging into his cheek but he just laid sobbing heaving sobs, his chest aching in the fetal position.

Distantly, as though in the back of his mind he heard footsteps approaching, getting closer and closer to the greenhouse. He felt a wash of feeling that he didn't care and further: had nothing left in him to care with. The footsteps kept getting closer until they reached the newly broken window of the greenhouse, "Dude," someone uttered. It was Craig, of course it was Craig, it was always Craig. Tweek sobbed with a new sense of hopelessness. He curled further in on himself and in doing so heard bits of glass drag along the ground with his body.

Craig was now wrestling with the sliding door, shifting it about with something close to panic until it finally relented and slid joltingly along it's runners. He gave it a hard shove and stepped inside. Tweek heard Craig's feet crunch against the dirty ground as he stepped closer to him. Craig towered over him for a moment of uncertainty where he seemed unable to decide what action to take. Tweek carried on crying, silently now. Craig finally bent over and wrapped his hand around Tweek's arm and hoisted him up to a sitting position, then again into a standing one although Tweek was resting the majority of his weight on the wooden workbench against his back.

Craig regarded him while the tears continued to roll out of his eyes. Tweek felt then sting his left cheek where the tears interacted with the fresh scrapes of glass. It hurt almost as much as his knees which hurt almost as much as his hands.

After a moment Craig seemed to have an idea of what to do. He shrugged his bag of his shoulders. Tweek hardly noticed what he was doing because he was too busy staring at the ground and seeing nothing because of his blurry tears, even if they weren't still coming out of his eyes he couldn't have wiped them away because his hands were full of glass.

Craig had produced a small tin covered in sticky stars from his bag and was grabbing at Tweek's hand. Tweek let him do as he pleased, numbly. He could feel the sting of glass being removed from his right palm. If it was any other time he would probably have been reveling in the idea of Craig holding his hand but the novelty was lost on him because right now he felt nothing but the empty fatigue that comes after intense sadness. He could hear the hose be turned on, then he registered the cold water hit his hand. He could just about tell Craig was cleaning his hand off and then drying it with the sleeve of his jacket. Then he sensed band aids being stuck down all over his palm. He felt the same thing happen to his left hand. Than Craig cleaned and bandaged his cheek. His knees were more difficult. Tweek was still stood statue still. He hadn't moved even to twitch this whole time. Craig brushed what he could of the glass off of Tweek's knees and mopped up the blood with his same, now very damp sleeve. He didn't have any plasters left but Tweek's knees weren't bleeding so badly so he left them.

Craig stood up and put the tin back in his bag. Then he pulled out a pre-rolled cigarette and lit it, still studying Tweek. Tweek finally managed to move: he lifted his arm to his face, wincing and pressed the back of his wrist against his eyes to dry away some of his tears. He wasn't really crying anymore, it was more just tears spilling absently from his eyes.

After he had watched Tweek do this, Craig inhaled his cigarette once more and pulled it from his mouth, "Who-," he paused, "why-," he tried again before finally settling on "what happened here?" He said it with kindness but it made Tweek let out another strangled sob nonetheless.

"I don't know!" He managed.

"Do you know who did this?" Craig followed. Tweek was quiet for a minute and he looked around at the wreckage. He was slightly relieved to see he hadn't actually changed how it looked much from how it was when he arrived, more just rearranged the mess they had already made in his anger.

"Me. Well I mean -gah! Um I don't know. I ah- I made it worse," he moaned out.

Craig didn't seem to understand what Tweek meant but he also didn't want Tweek to get anymore upset so instead he chucked his cigarette down on the floor and stomped it out then bent over and started picking out the seedlings from the dirt. He lined them up on the work top behind Tweek: the sunflowers, the sweet peas, the green beans, aloe vera, and all the many, many succulents. Once he had salvaged as much as he could he grabbed the broom that was leant up against the back window and swept the mess. This took a while, Craig was not a good sweeper unlike Tweek who had had plenty of practice working in his Father's coffee shop. Eventually he had piled all the glassy compost together at the door of the greenhouse. He found a bin bag and managed all of the wasted compost inside it, then tied the top. The finality of this action calmed Tweek considerably as he had been silently watching from the exact position he had been stood in this whole time.

When he was done, Craig turned to face Tweek. They made eye contact for the first time within the whole ordeal. Tweek looked defeated by the world although slightly better than he had before, mostly because he wasn't crying anymore. Craig looked stormy, like the anger was about to boil out of him any second. They kept the eye contact for some moments before Craig finally broke the silence. "I swear to God. I will kill whoever did this to you." He ground out. This was the sort of thing that would usually freak Tweek out beyond belief but instead he twitched once, pursed his lips and nodded.

There were a few more seconds of silence before Craig spoke, "C'mon," and gestured for Tweek to follow him before turning around and starting to walk. Tweek did as he was told and it was not until they had crossed the courtyard and were headed towards the back of the school that Tweek realised he had no idea where they were going.

They had never gone anywhere together before. oh god was he going to get in trouble, was he going to die, was Craig going to kill him. No! He jolted his head trying to evict the intrusive thoughts. Craig was striding ahead of him and looking back occasionally to see if he was still there, every time he did so, his eyes looked worried for a second before seeing him. Tweek's eye's still hurt from crying but he was now staring around through the pain of his bloodshot eyes to analyse their path.

Craig continued forward, up the concrete steps that led to the back entrance of the school where he swung the door open wide and Tweek slipped in after him. Being in the main corridor was not good for his anxiety, especially at lunch. It was freezing outside so the majority of the school set up camp in the halls during lunch breaks, closely knit together in their cliques.

As Tweek followed after Craig winding through them he felt one million eyes on him. He shook his head and pulled his hair with worry. Were they looking at his bloody face, his dirty clothes or the fact that he was covered in plasters? His mind was spinning with concerns and he stared at the back of Craig's head, why was he following him anyway? At that moment Craig turned to look at him again. That was why. His eyes flooded with concern as he saw the fretful look on Tweek's face and he stood still for a fraction of a second until Tweek caught up with him. On doing so Craig grabbed Tweek's sleeve between his thumb and forefinger and pulled him onwards reassuringly.

Tweek let himself be led the rest of the way until they reached the front doors. He felt another flood of fear. He jerked free of Craig's grip and looked up at him questioningly. Craig looked down at him with a look that of: 'It's okay. Just a little further.' Tweek finally relented after a few more moments of begrudging eye contact. Afterwards Tweek felt he had spoken more with his eyes then, than the whole rest of the day.

Craig began walking again, swiftly and with purpose. Tweek followed; down the steps, along the drive, along the sidewalk and toward the carpark. They wound through the array of cars belonging to teachers and students until Craig found his car. It was old but not in a vintage way and more in a health hazard way. He unlocked it manually, with a key though Tweek quietly thought it didn't look worth locking, then he pulled the door open and got inside. Until this point Tweek had somehow rationalised the whole situation up until the point they entered the carpark as Craig needing to get something from his car so he was surprised when Craig patted the passenger seat expectantly and trained his eyes on Tweek.

Tweek took a moment to compose himself. Oh god. He struggled with the janky door handle and eventually managed to force the passenger side open and climb in. Craig's car was cold in temperature but undoubtedly warm and cozy in every other sense. The stuffing of the seats was falling out and when Tweek sat down a puff of dust erupted from a rip in the upholstery. The floor had mud on it that looked smeared, as though someone had tried to wipe it up but given up. At first glance the dashboard was covered in dust - not just dust, however, Tweek realised, but tiny sticky stars. There were more than Tweek could count arranged all across the dash in every available space each a metallic gold or silver. They were the same stars stuck to Craig's band aid tin, his phone case and his school folders, Tweek realised. This boy loved stars.

Tweek felt eyes on him and realized Craig had been watching him as he took in his new surroundings. Tweek tried to think of something to say but was coming up empty. He finally blurted, "If you have a car why to you smoke outside?" He immediately regretted asking, it came out wrong: rude and intrusive.

"Um," Craig thought for a fraction or at least he played it off like thinking, "teachers act like you're running away if they see you anywhere near the carpark, which is why we should hurry up."

"Hurry- what!?" Tweek yelped in concern and registered Craig had turned the key in the ignition and the car was already reversing out of the parking space. Once they had turned around Craig acted quickly to remove them from the school grounds. Tweek fumbled with his seatbelt; his fingers weren't working properly.

Once they were on the road Craig spoke again, "besides I don't smoke in my car. Ever."

Tweek took a moment to remember what he was referring to, "What? Oh, uh- right. Where are we going?"

"I'm going to cheer you up." Craig said in monotone. Tweek didn't think this was an answer but it didn't look like he was going to get anymore out of him so he let it be. They drove in silence for a while Tweek was staring numbly out the front window. At first it was because he was trying to work out where they were going but after he quickly got bored of this it became more about not looking at Craig, not because he didn't want to but because he was worried if he did he wouldn't be able to stop. He had spent a lot of time wishing to be alone with Craig somewhere that wasn't in school, now that it was happening it was not only unbelievable but also nothing like he'd thought it would be.

Tweek was still feeling pretty empty from crying so much for so long and Craig was letting him be quiet because he didn't feel like pushing him. Tweek was wishing he felt well enough to talk to Craig but he didn't. He felt awful actually. He sighed and slumped down in the seat, feeling the warn fabric against him. After a little longer Craig broke the silence and asked Tweek to open the glove compartment. When he did he found it was full of CDs. They were strewn about disorderly without cases. "Pick whichever," Craig told him. Most the CDs didn't have actual titles but were just plain disks with black pen titles. Tweek picked up the closest one and read the handwritten title 'space vibe mix'. He smiled to himself and closed the compartment, happy with his selection.

Tweek would have asked why Craig had CDs except it was obvious. His car was too old to fit an AUX cord but just new enough to no longer accepted cassettes. Craig switched on the radio and played with the buttons then gestured to Tweek to enter the CD. After a few seconds the car was flooded with the sound of synthesizer and electric guitar. Tweek listened to the first verse with curious confusion.

Far away
The ship is taking me far away
Far away from the memories
Of the people who care if I live or die

In the break between this and the chorus he asked, "Who is this?"

"Muse." Craig answered quickly.

"I've never heard them before,”

"They're from the UK,"

"Oh."

"There's more of them on here- I mean- if you like them," Craig said almost anxiously.

"I think I do." Tweek answered. He honestly wasn't sure if he did like them. He thought he did but mostly just because Craig did and it felt like seeing something new about him.

"Cool." Craig replied smiling. He sounded genuinely happy.

Tweek smiled too. This felt nice. His palms still stung but part of him was starting to like that too, it reminded him of when Craig was cleaning his hands - holding his hands. It was a nice reminder.

For a while he had not been looking at where they were going so it came as a surprise to him when they pulled in. He looked up to see they were outside of McDonald's. Craig was driving up too the Drive Thru and pulling up to the speaker, it buzzed to life. "Hi, what can I get for you?" A disembodied voice spoke.

"Hi, uh, can I get a quarter pounder, um fries, a vanilla milkshake- no wait," he looked over at Tweek briefly "two vanilla milkshakes and um," he looked at Tweek once again who was tugging his hair absently and looking around worriedly and smiled, "and a happy meal too."

"Is that everything today?"

"Yes."

The buzz of the intercom ended and Craig pulled away from it. When he looked over at Tweek again his brows were furrowed, "I'm not a child, you know." He spoke indignantly. Tweek had crossed his arms and was frowning out the window. Something he was forced to deal with a lot was being treated like a child because people couldn't get their heads around his disorder. He hated it.

"Well duh." Craig spoke, "I know you're not a child. It's called a 'happy meal' it's supposed to make you happy." A few seconds of silence passed and Tweek stared out the window still frowning but less so now.

He was thinking about how Craig looked after him in earlier. How Craig was still looking after him now. He thinks you're helpless. He thinks you're hopeless. He tugged his hair hard trying to force his brain to shut up.

"It'll be fun~," Craig reasoned in rising internation.

Tweek smiled at Craig's slight goofiness, the idea of his voice raising an octave, up until this point, had seemed impossible.

Internally, Tweek was finally able to wrestle control and rationalise, he's just being kind. He's not being mean. God he's cute.

They pulled up to the checkout and Craig used his card. "Oh god. Dude. Don't pay for me," Tweek's panic was renewed.

"Tweek it's fine."

"I'll pay you back!"

"Don't." This continued until they pulled up to the next window and had their food passed to them, at which point Tweek became so hungry that he forgot he had something to be arguing about. Craig didn't pass him the bag, however. Instead he put in in the back seat and started driving quickly.

He drove over the speed limit for ten minutes in the same direction. Tweek watched the houses pass him as nothing more than smudges of color until the passed the "Goodbye, drive safely!" Sign that signified they had left the small town behind them. Here Craig sped up again for around two minutes before pulling over abruptly at the side of the road. The car was mostly parked on the field beside them. Here Craig killed the engine.

By this point Tweek was shuddering with fear and expected death at any second. His eyes were wild and wide when they finally made eye contact with Craig. They both breathed heavily experiencing the opposite effects of adrenaline. Then Craig threw off his seatbelt and opened his door, he got up and retrieved the MacDonalds from the backseat and then walked back around in front of the car. He gestured for Tweek, "C'mon," he told him. Tweek exited the car himself and walked around to stand by Craig.

Craig hoisted himself up to settle on the bonnet of the car. He patted it for Tweek to sit beside him. Concern coursed through Tweek. "What if the engine blows up, man!?"

"It won't."

"What if I fall off?"

"Then you'll fall all of two feet."

"Will it take my weight?"

"Dude you're literally a feather."

Tweek finally gave up arguing. It didn't seem like he would get his meal if he didn't. He shifted tentatively and crawled up the bonnet to sit next to Craig who passed him the box housing his Happy Meal. Tweek opened it and wasted little time before immediately eating all of his fries. He ate them in about four mouthful and they were gone before he could even worry about whether they were poisoned. Then he ate the stupid fruit that came with the meal. After that he ate the chicken nuggets with equal enthusiasm and before he had even noticed it, all his food was gone.

There was something about crying that had made him incredibly hungry. Once he'd eaten he felt infinitely better. He sighed and looked around for his drink, Craig passed him his vanilla milkshake and he drank it gratefully and then for the first time since they'd arrived, he took the opportunity to look out across where they were. In front of him was a vast expanse of wheat fields, golden in the setting sun and looking like a million threads as far as his vision reached. It was beautiful. Then he took a moment to look at Craig. The golden light had turned his pale skin warm and he appeared softer than usual, approachable even. Tweek smiled around his straw. Now he was looking he really couldn't look away.

He took the moment to appreciate all the things he had noticed about Craig over the past months: his sharp jaw, solid cheek bones, the gray colour of his eyes, his long black eyelashes and the few tiny moles that dotted his face, he couldn't see his braces but he knew they were there. Tweek managed to cast his eyes down and saw that Craig wasn't eating anymore. Half his fries were left but he was staring off across the fields, he was biting his lip absently and Tweek could tell he was thinking about something.

It took him by surprise, then, when Craig suddenly blurted, "Hey, want the rest of my fries?"

Tweek ticked before answering, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah man go for it," Craig picked up the box and thrust it into Tweek's hands. When Tweek ate this time Craig watched him. He watched him eat every last fry and when he was done he asked, "Do you need to be home any certain time?"

"I g- I guess not," Tweek spoke. Despite his full stomach he felt a little butterflies inside.

"Cool, wanna stay here for a while?" Craig asked.

Tweek nodded. He wanted to stay here partly because he actually didn't want to go home, his family would undoubtedly ask what happened to him and then proceed to be no help whether he told them the truth of not. But he was also practically euphoric at the idea of spending time with Craig. He could appreciate this better now that he'd eaten and had a blood sugar boost. He felt alive once again and able to fully appreciate the novelty of the situation.

They sat in silence for some time. It wasn't uncomfortable, just a mutual appreciation for the view in front of them and having full stomachs. It was like that for some time as they both watched the sun slowly sink in front of them and melt into the vast wheat fields before Craig asked, "Are you're hands okay?"

It made Tweek jump, "Ah- uh yeah they're okay,"

"Do they hurt?" he pushed further and turned to face Tweek some more.

"Only a bit,"

"I'm sorry," Craig spoke.

"Why? You haven't done anything,"

"I'm just sorry it happened is all," Craig answered. And then continued, "I don't understand why people do that shit to you. You're so good."

"I'm not,"

"I didn't mean like an angel, I meant you don't go about hurting people or being harmful or mean you just do you, y'know,"

Tweek nodded. He could feel something heavy in the air but he couldn't place what it was. Craig kept sticking his tongue out and pressing it against his lips. He seemed nervous. Actual Craig Tucker seemed nervous. Tweek didn't really feel those things made him a good person, they didn't make him bad but that was different from good. He didn't argue though because he felt there was something more than that going on here.

"How about your cheek?"

"What about it?"

"Does it hurt?"

Tweek took a moment to think about this before answering, "It kind of stings," he thought about all the tears that got in his scrapes before they were covered up, he thought about how his skin was probably healing right in that second, all the white blood cells.

"Oh," was Craig's response. He was staring at the band aids on Tweek's cheek for sometime before his eyes flicked up and made contact with Tweek's once more. Craig put his hand forward almost without thinking and Tweek automatically put his face further towards him. Craig wrapped his hand around Tweek's jaw, just like he had yesterday and gently rubbed his thumb against Tweek's cheek, over the band aids. Tweek couldn't help it, a tiny chill ran through him and he felt his body convulse. Craig's eyes met his own again, stronger now. Tweek thought he looked like he was fighting some internal battle behind them. The grip around Tweek's jaw tightened slightly - subconsciously but not painfully.

Tweek felt it before he knew it was happening and it was over before he could really feel it; Craig's lips on his own. It was chaste and Craig let go of him with a start. Tweek jumped and Craig whipped around to gage his reaction. He had expected the worst but Tweek was smiling. His eyes were wide with shock but he was smiling. Then Craig started smiling too.

They were quiet for sometime and once again watched the sun. It was the end of October, the weather caused the sun to drop quickly and now only one warm sliver could be seen above the golden fields. Craig lent back against the front window of his car and after a moment of deliberation Tweek followed suit. They looked at each other. Craig was a little red.

They were so content to look at each other that they hardly noticed when the sun disappeared. Tweek did not realise it was dark until Craig shifted his attention and pointed up, "Stars," he stated in a whisper. Tweek turned his eyes up and looked, there were a few of the first stars already present above him and he was as content as Craig to watch as more appeared. Tweek breathed in, "What's that one?" he asked pointing at one of the brightest stars.

Craig followed the path of Tweek's band aid covered finger, "That's not a star, that's Jupiter," he informed him.

"I thought we couldn't see the planets," Tweek followed.

"We can, they just look like stars from here,"

"Okay, -nng -what about that one?"

"Everyone knows that one,"

"I don't,"

"The North star; travellers use it to work out where they are,"

"Oh, I'd heard of that,"

"Good, I might have disowned you if not,"

Wait man! Seriously, oh god!"

"Relax dude, I was joking,"

"Oh,"

A few seconds of silence passed. Tweek worried he'd made it awkward between them, then Craig asked, "What's your star sign?"

"My -my star sign?" Tweek questioned.

"Yeah dude, I don't really believe in all that junk but it's fun I guess,"

"Um- uh- I-"

"You don't know, do you?"

"No I don't,"

"Well when's your birthday?" Craig asked.

"Uh August 30th," Tweek replied.

"Virgo. Hmm interesting,"

"I thought you didn't believe in that shit," Tweek spoke teasingly.

"I don't. It's just interesting is all. Look," Craig pointed up, "there's Spica, Zavijava and Heze, that's Virgo."

Tweek looked at where Craig was pointing, he couldn't really tell exactly which stars he meant be he felt he was looking in about the right area and smiled and nodded none the less. "What about yours?" He asked.

"My star sign?" Craig asked.

"Yeah where is it?"

"Taurus is over there," he gestured. "See the two stars, then nothing, then that little cluster, like a 'Y',"

Tweek looked and thought he actually did see it this time, "Oh yeah, that's cool dude,"

Craig smiled and they slid into comfortable silence once more both staring upwards into the vast space above them. Tweek was thinking absently about how he hadn't seen a single other car in the whole time they'd been out here when Craig interrupted his thoughts, making him jump, "Tweek look, a shooting star!"

Tweek saw it immediately and once he did he closed his eyes, right before Craig told him to make a wish. He squeezed his eyes closed tighter and wished harder. He stayed that way for a few seconds. When he opened his eyes again, Craig had shuffled closer to him and was staring into his eyes, asking. Tweek nodded, his hair bouncing with his head. When their lips connected Tweek froze.

Craig's lips were a little chapped but wet over the top from his nervous licking of them. Tweek was given the opportunity to properly appreciate them this time as Craig lingered over him longer. Tweek actively worked to relax, becoming acutely aware of his tensed body. He felt Craig sink against him slightly as though asking for more before pulling away. They looked at each other for a few seconds before Tweek became suddenly worried that he would not have the opportunity to do that again. He somehow managed to pull Craig back over to him, clinging to his shirt and tugging it hard to get closer and kiss him once more. Craig was more eager now, given the boost of confidence that came from Tweek's own intent. Tweek felt Craig's tongue against his own lips. He opened his mouth and felt Craig against him, soft and wet. It felt good and distantly he recognized that they were sharing the same McDonalds fries and vanilla milkshake taste between them.

He could feel the metal of Craig's braces against his tongue, he didn't mind it, in fact he quite liked it. It was purely Craig and defined his mouth, different from any other.

Tweek had never kissed anyone before. He had dedicated considerable time worrying that when the time came, he would be a poor kisser. He was fine with letting Craig take the lead. Tweek let his back sink down against the windshield behind him, he was still clinging to Craig's shirt tightly as their mouth's slipped against each other. He felt his body flutter as Craig's tongue slid over his lips as they parted. Their faces remained inches apart.

"Did you wish for that?" Craig whispered.

Tweek nodded, his hair falling into his eyes.

Craig swept it away gently, "Me too," Then he leant forward and kissed Tweek again, slowly. Once he pulled away he leant back in the same fashion Tweek was; his back against the windshield. Tweek slid his head over and rested it on Craig's shoulder. Craig's hand rested just next to Tweek's so as the backs of their hands were brushed together.

They laid there for a long time, until it was almost pitch black and Craig realised Tweek was shivering with cold, "Let's get in the car," he spoke quietly. Tweek nodded.

Teeek made his way into the car and watched as Craig picked up the rubbish from their McDonalds, distantly Tweek realised they had been here all afternoon and all evening, it was night time now.

Craig opened the driver's side and turned the engine on then turned the heater all the way up. He turned and threw the rubbish on the floor of the back seat, his head craned around.

Tweek took a deep breath as Craig started to turn back to face forward. As he did so Tweek reached forward, he caught Craig's face between his bandaid covered hands and held it gently. They stared into each others eyes, fixed. Tweek let his breath out and leant forward, he met his lips to Craig's, they were both a little chapped but he liked it. He let himself as sink against Craig and felt him sink in return. It was reassuring. It felt like like they were kissing for hours, Tweek's hands looped around Craig's neck while Craig's slid into his hair. Tweek felt like he was melting. He could feel Craig smile against him, he wondered if Craig could feel him smiling too. When they pulled away Craig kissed his jaw once and his neck twice.

After he turned back and they both stared out the windshield into the dark. The car had gotten very warm. Craig put down the clutch then put the car into gear and released the hand break. He made a U-turn and they headed back towards town.

Craig turned up the radio. He blasted Muse all the way back into town. Tweek had a smile wide across his face. He felt real, felt himself. He listened to the lyrics and Craig sang along, unabashed.

Now I'll never let you go
If you promised not to fade away
Never fade away,

-

Craig had asked Tweek where his house was, Tweek directed him. They pulled up outside and Tweek sat still for a moment peering in, the front hall and lounge light's were on. He wondered what his parents would say. He turned back to Craig who was watching him quietly, "Thank you, Craig, for everything,"

Craig smiled, "It's cool. Do you feel any better?" He asked.

"Y- yeah, I do," Tweek answered. It was true.

"Good," Craig replied.

"See you tomorrow?” Tweek phrased it like a question.

"Yeah, 'course" Craig replied.

They looked at each other for a few seconds before leaning in to kiss once more. Their lips met briefly, Tweek twitched and pulled away, suddenly conscious of his parents. They looked at each other again before Tweek turned and got out of the car. He closed the door behind him and made his way to his front door. When he turned, Craig was still waiting to see that he got into his house safely. They waved to each other as Tweek unlocked the door and stepped inside.

As soon as he was in he made a B-line for the stairs. He almost made it before he heard his mother's voice, "Tweek, hun, is that you?" Her voice still sounded ill with flu.

Tweek shuddered, "Yes, Mom," he replied. She appeared from the sitting room into the stairwell.

"What happened to you?" She asked. She sounded genuinely worried, "You weren't in another fight, were you?"

Tweek felt bad lying to her, "I had a panic attack and tripped down the stairs,"

Tweek thought it was a pretty weak excuse but his mom bought it, maybe because she was ill, he reasoned.

"And why are you back so late?"

Tweek couldn't think of a proper lie for that, "Nng- My friend took me for food to cheer me up,"

"What friend?" She questioned sounding more suspicious of that than Tweek's worse lie.

"Gah!- You don't know him," Tweek replied and with that he hurried up to his room and closed the door firmly behind him.

Chapter Text

Usually when Tweek couldn't sleep he could pin it down to a singular emotion. Sometimes it was anxiety or sadness and sometimes it was anger. That night when Tweek couldn't sleep it was for about one million emotions.

Once he was home he busied himself with menial self maintenance; washing his face, changing into pajamas, brushing his teeth. But as soon as his head hit the pillow his mind was flooded.

His thoughts seeped through him in a disorganized mess. First the greenhouse. He thought about his plants, he hoped they'd be alright uprooted for the night until he could replant them, he thought about all the broken glass. He wondered who had done it, a wave of anger passed over him and then subsided. He then reflected on his hands and cheek and knees, they still stung with the pain of tiny cuts across his skin. He wondered if he would have scars. Briefly he wondered of they would become infected, he should probably go to the doctors, he rationed, Craig was no medical professional after all.

Craig.

Another wave passed over Tweek, the emotions carried in this one were more confusing; anxiety, happiness, confusion and more. Tweek wondered if he should have some sort of crisis of sexuality over the situation but he couldn't really bring himself to it. Tweek had told Cartman many times that he wasn't gay but that was more out of the necessity of not being bullied and not letting Cartman get his way. Personally Tweek had always disregarded his sexuality. He figured he was straight by default but had also assumed that there was no need to concern himself over it, after all, who would love a fidgety freak enough for him to even worry about what gender they were.

His feelings focused more on Craig himself. They had know each other for a month now. It was easy to see how his feelings surrounding Craig had differed from how he usually regarded others, Tweek didn't usually think about people so much, didn't usually scold himself from thinking of them at all, he didn't usually want to see them everyday and didn't usually place the wellbeing of his day on such an event. It was obvious, he supposed and yet he had repressed it.

He thought about kissing Craig, how his lips were chapped how his braces kind of got in the way and how Tweek kind of liked them. Eventually at 5:00 AM he fell asleep to the thought of it.

Tweek slept very lightly for around one hour until his mother woke him for school. He grumbled uncomfortably and once she'd left the room he dozed off again into a fitful sleep.

His mother let him sleep in for an extra hour. Tweek wondered if she felt sorry for him. She wasn't a stupid woman she probably knew Tweek didn't fall down the stairs as school. She had probably assumed he was beaten up, it wouldn't be the first time. She probably thought he was too embarrassed to say. She wouldn't be far from the truth.

Either way, Tweek ended up coming into school and hour late and missing his chemistry lesson, which he didn't mind.

His morning trudged on at a dead pace. Tweek found that without the greenhouse to look forward to, there was little to spur him on. The idea of cleaning up all the mess from yesterday was less than ideal to him.

However lunch fell on him at it's usual time and Tweek, loyally made his way to outside.

As he exited the backdoors of the school he noted it looked about the same as it did yesterday but as he got closer his vision shifted. From about 10 feet away Tweek noticed that there was someone inside the greenhouse. His stomach lurched, great, whoever had done it had come back for more. However as he got closer he realised the windows were covered, that was odd.

Tweek pushed the door open hesitantly only to be met by the sight of Craig, who had turned to face him as he arrived. Tweek stared up at him, butterflies swept over his body as he faced the boy he had kissed last night.

Then he looked around, the greenhouse had changed again. Firstly, the ground was almost clean; there was no more glass or dirt on it or the work bench, secondly, his plants had been repotted; they were now mix-matched together and crowded into the few pots that were spare and not broken in the attack, thirdly the widows had been covered with thin plastic sheets, taped down with liberal amounts of sticky tape. It looked almost fine.

Tweek looked back at Craig who was staring back at him expectantly, "Nng- Did you do this?" Tweek asked shakily, he could feel tears welling in his eyes but willed them away.

"Mmhm," Craig nodded

"When?" Tweek pressed further, completely awestruck.

"I, uh, skipped fourth period," Craig explained, pulling on the strings of his hat.

"Y- You shouldn't have," Tweek bit the skin around his nail anxiously, he didn't want Craig to get in trouble.

"It's fine, dude. I wanted to make it better for you," Craig replied. Tweek blushed at that and looked down at the ground, abashed.

"Why?" He forced out.

"It's just, I know important this place is to you and uh you're kind of important to me. I figured it's the least I can do," Craig sounded worried as he spoke, a little nervous.

Tweek didn't know how to respond, his stomach flipped inside him and he let out a little, "Oh, Jesus," before speaking, "What's on the windows?"

Craig shifted looking at them, "Its acetate, like this thin plastic stuff. Token does art so I got him to get me some, it's not glass but it'll do for now," he informed Tweek.

Tweek nodded and moved across the greenhouse to the workbench Craig was stood at. Craig moved across on his approach and Tweek reached out and gently touched the seedlings in the closest pot. They had made it through the night. Due to Craig's repotting they had all been mixed together, his sunflowers, green beans and sweet peas. Tweek thought it was actually quite endearing.

"I watered them and everything," Craig spoke.

"Th- Thank you, Craig," Tweek replied.

"Are they okay," Craig asked anxiously.

Tweek nodded, "They're more than okay," he replied and turned to face Craig. They looked at each other for a moment. Craig removed his hat nervously, sliding off his head with an agitated hand. Tweek braced his still band aid adorned hands on the work bench behind him and boosted himself onto it so he was sat on its top.

Craig turned so he was stood between Tweek's knees. It might have been weird if it wasn't him.

Tweek looked at his hair, he had never really gotten that good of a look at it before, it was black and slightly squashed from being hidden under his hat. Craig was looking up at him and Tweek realised they had slipped into a comfortable silence, they weren't speaking because they didn't need to, they were content.

He reached out to the closest shelf to him, most of the plants this high up had remained intact, including his Angelonia. He reached over and plucked one of the flower heads from it. He inspected it's tiny, dark purple flowers before leaning forward and threading it in Craig's hair. He added a Daisy after that and then another Angelonia. Craig's hair was soft and smooth between his fingers, his head was bent forward and his arms were braced either side of Tweek on the workbench.

Tweek continued adding flowers without rhyme or reason, haphazardly placing them until Craig had a wonky ring of then surrounding his head. When he was done, Tweek let out a little sigh. He couldn't place why he'd done it, didn't understand why Craig had let him but he was happy about both, Craig looked soft, almost. They looked at each other, eyes locked. Tweek wished they would kiss but knew they were too exposed. He might be comfortable with his sexuality but right now he didn't want to be the center of school attention and figured Craig didn't either.

They stayed like that for sometime. Silent. When the end of lunch bell rung Tweek flinched. He raised his hand quickly to remove the flowers from Craig's hair, feeling apologetic. Craig took a step back, "Wait, don't," he spoke. He lifted his hat back up to his head and pulled it over his hair. It looked a little lumpy but over all, it wasn't possible to tell that any flowers were under it. Tweek smiled widely, his stomach turned again and he felt a welt of happiness pass over him. Craig was smiling too, he realised.

Tweek was about to dismount the workbench when Craig spoke, he pulled on his hat string as he did so, "Um Tweek,"

"Nng- Yeah?"

"Will you come to my house after school today," Craig asked and then bit his lip worriedly.

Tweek thought for a moment, there was really work he should be doing but he had little intention of doing it, he pursed his lips, feeling to worried to answer with words, he nodded, his hair fell into his eyes as he did so and Craig brushed it away, "Okay, meet me at the school entrance at the end of sixth period?" He asked.

Tweek nodded again.

-

In the lessons after lunch Tweek found himself unable to sit still. His body was wrapped in anxiety about going to Craig's house. There was still a chance Craig was a murderer. Worse than that Tweek might offend his family or break something valuable. His shaking got so bad that in sixth period he got sent out of the room.

He stood in the corridor angrily for five minutes before taking himself on a walk. That wasn't allowed but he was feeling pretty pissed and anyway, it might calm him down. He wondered aimlessly around the corridors for twenty minutes; staring into other classrooms and kicking a bin over outside the cafeteria. Eventually he got bored and went back to his classroom. His teacher hadn't even noticed that he had left.

When the lesson ended along with the day Tweek reflected that he had learnt nothing within the whole school day. He sighed and packed his bag before heading to the front entrance of the school to wait for Craig.

Tweek waited uneasily in the reception area, watching the blurs of colour as the rest of the school left in a hurry. He gripped the straps of his bag tightly and squeezed his eyes shut trying to block out the noise.

He jumped at the feeling of someone touching his shoulder, his eyes flew open and he looked up to see Craig stood over him. He let himself relax, knowing it was him, though not too much, this was still terrifying.

Tweek followed Craig towards his car once more. It was like yesterday except this time they weren't skipping class.

The drive to Craig's house was short, he was playing the same CD as yesterday only quieter.

"Sorry I took so long, my teacher kept behind," Craig spoke breaking the silence.

"It's fine, man. I- I get it," Tweek replied, looking down at his hands. They were shaking. He noticed that his nails were looking pretty dirty.

"Our school's a pile of shit," Craig laughed though he sounded like he didn't really find it funny.

Tweek nodded, "I got sent out today," he added.

"That sucks," Craig spoke. He sounded genuinely sad about it but they didn't carry on talking because he was pulling his car up on the curb outside his house.

They got out and Craig locked the car. Tweek followed him up the drive towards his house, staring up at it as if it were a threat in itself.

From the outside, Craig's house looked like most the others in South Park. A small two story house with a garage. It wasn't painted and instead was left the colour of old plaster and cement. The front garden was a little scrappy and the grass was kind of patchy but there was a hanging basket by the front door.

Craig lived directly next to the tracks that divided the town by class. Tweek could see Kenny's house from where they stood as Craig unlocked the door. He hadn't been this far out in a while.

Craig's front door opened onto a lounge. The carpet was thin and worn and the furniture looked well used. Tweek thought it actually looked quite comfortable. The TV was switched on to a chat show and in the center of the room a woman stood craned over an ironing board.

"Hi, mom," Craig greeted, though he sounded as deadpan as ever.

"Hi, dear," The woman, Craig's mom replied. She was tall, though not as tall as her son, with long blond hair and black roots and big brown eyes. She looked light and bright despite the fact she wore no makeup. Tweek liked her instantly. She had an air of mischief despite being maybe forty years old, at a guess.

"This is Tweek," Craig spoke, gesturing to Tweek.

She looked up for the first time since they had arrived and eyed Tweek, she smiled widely, "Hello Tweek, long time no see," she spoke through upturned lips.

Tweek was surprised she remembered him, he certainly hadn't remembered her.

"C'mon," Craig spoke tugging Tweek's sleeve before they could converse any further. Tweek allowed himself to be pulled up the stairs, stealing a look at the pictures of child Craig, toddler Craig, and preteen Craig that decorated the stairwell. There were plenty of him reading large books and some if him camping too. Tweek smiled to himself.

They'd made it up half the stairs before Craig's mom spoke again, "Is Tweek staying for dinner?"

Craig whirled around and gave Tweek an questioning look. Tweek looked back with wide, worried eyes, unsure how to answer. Craig looked back at his mom and answered for him, "Yeah, he is," before pulling Tweek the rest of the way up the stairs.

Craig let go of Tweek's sleeve only when he was opening his bedroom door. He let it swing open and gestured Tweek to go inside. Tweek stepped over the threshold and drank in the small room.

The walls were covered in posters, everything from NASA to astrology, the planets, and the galaxy. The ceiling was adorned with hundreds of glow stars, not only that but they were linked with pen marks, making what Tweek assumed were constellations, every surface was stacked high with books, from the dresser to the shelves to the bedside table. They were all about space. Most of them looked old and second hand. Tweek noticed a few had library book jackets on but he bit his tongue and made no comment.

He just stared until he heard the door shut, "You can sit down if you want," Craig gestured vaguely at the contents of his room, there really was no place to sit apart from the bed. Tweek settled on the edge of it and inspected the books on the bedside table while Craig busied himself with the guinea pig run on the other side of the room. It seemed to be the only thing present that wasn't focused on space.

There was one book that stuck out in particular to Tweek, the smallest and skinniest that sat on the top of the pile, closest to Craig's bed, "What's that one?" Tweek asked pointing to it as Craig settled at the other end of the bed, next to the pillows. "Oh um, my mom gave me that. She read it to me when I was a child. Her parents were french. 'The little prince'," Craig explained.

He plucked the book up from the table next to him and held it between his fingers, "It's not about space like all the others- well it it is but it's fiction," he spoke staring down at it, then looked up at Tweek.

He brought the book up and pressed the spine of it into Tweek's cheek, "Hey, he looks like you," Craig observed.

Tweek brought his fingers up and twisted the book to inspect it's cover, "I d- nng- don't wear clothes like that," Tweek argued.

"Well yeah but you're always wearing green," Craig shot back lightly.

"Yeah but I have all th- these freckles, he doesn't," Tweek tapped his finger into the front cover of the book.

"I like your freckles," Craig argued.

Tweek wrinkled his nose defiantly, "Why? They look all messy,"

"They do not," Craig insisted, "Are you kidding!?"

Tweek blushed and shook his head.

"They're like space,"

"Oh jes- how?" Tweek stuttered.

Craig reached forward and brushed his fingers over Tweek's cheek. Tweek couldn't help but shudder at the sensation.

"Stay still," Craig spoke quietly. Tweek froze and watched through the corner of his eye as Craig opened his bedside table. Tweek listened to the noise of the draw open and close and then felt Craig's hand on his cheek, holding him steady, only then did Tweek realise he had been shaking slightly.

He let his eyes flutter closed and felt his body relax somewhat. Over his face he could feel Craig pressing his fingers down, sticking something to him. He sighed when Craig withdrew his hands and heard more rustling. When Craig's hands returned he felt cold lines pulled across his face by the edge of something pointed, a pen he realised.

Tweek felt almost mediative, leant against Craig's hand, eyes shut and relaxed though his heart was jackhammering in his chest. He only came back to the feeling of Craig's lips against his own. He let himself lean further into the kiss, letting their lips slid against each other. It lasted maybe a minute, far too hasty until Craig pulled away. Tweek's eyes fluttered open and the room became real around him once more, shifting into focus.

Craig produced a mirror from the dresser and held it up to Tweek so he could see his face. He was covered in Craig's sticky, star stickers and drawn between them were lines, like constellations. Craig was looking at him softly and Tweek let out a little gasp, "Do they mean anything?"

Craig leant forward and brushed his fingers over Tweek's temple, "This one's Taurus," he explained then moved to the bridge of Tweek's nose, "this is Virgo," his fingers slipped over Tweek's cheek, "Ursa Minor," he continued and then he touched the one on Tweek's jaw, "I made that one up," he finished. Tweek smiled at him and ran his fingers through his mess of blonde hair, god, this felt good.

Craig leant back on his bed so he was reclined on the pillows. Tweek sat unsure of what to do for a moment before breathing in deeply. He let himself sink forward and came to rest with his head on Craig's chest, their bodies flush against each other. He could feel Craig's breathing through the rise and fall of his chest, bringing Tweek with him and hear Craig's heart beating heavy and deep within his chest. Craig's hands rested on his back and Tweek could feel his body tingling, spread out from where they lay.

"Th- They're all over me, my- nng- freckles," he spoke. Craig nodded and Tweek felt like they were very synchronized in that moment. He could feel Craig gently lifting his shirt and shivered at the sensation. It rose no further than his shoulder blades, exposing only the small of his back.

He could feel Craig's fingers slipping over him, tracing his freckled back, joining the dots like a map of the stars. It was so beautifully intimate yet not really sexual. Tweek felt in bliss.

He didn't except Craig to speak, let alone say the words that he did. So much so it hit him hard in their arrival, "Tweek?"

"N- Mmhm?"

"Um. Please will you. Be my boyfriend?"

Tweek looked up to face Craig, this couldn't be real. Craig's face was blushed red and he was looking out the window like he had never seen the view before. His hat had slipped off while he had been reclined and exposed the flowers under it, they were flat and wilted yet this only managed to make them more adorable. Tweek couldn't believe he was thinking of Craig Tucker as adorable. When Craig finally looked at him their eyes fused, grey to hazel. Tweek squeezed his shut and nodded unable to express himself in any other way. Then buried his head back into Craig's chest.

"For real?" Craig asked.

"For real." Tweek answered.

Craig's fingers slid up his back and though his hair. Tweek shuddered in sensation based delight then moved to sit up. Craig's eyes followed him as he leant down and met their lips to each other. They had both been starving and they slipped together easily, like bespoke pieces. Tweek braced himself, hands either side of Craig's head while Craig's hands nested in his hair. Their tongues intertwined almost immediately. It had been less than twenty four hours but Tweek found himself realising he had missed the inside of Craig's mouth.

Tweek didn't know how long they were kissing but eventually they were interrupted buy the sound of the front door opening and closing firmly which sent a jolt through Craig, causing him to withdraw. His eyes shifted to his bedroom door and then back to Tweek. Tweek felt himself once again in Craig's hands and pulled down into another kiss, this one hasty and a little rougher before he pulled away again, "C'mon," Craig spoke sounding hesitant as shifted so as to get up.

Tweek allowed himself to be lead once again, this time to the bathroom. Inside he looked at himself once more while Craig ran a sink and then brought his hands to Tweek's shoulder's. He looked at his face quietly before sighing and getting to work removing the stickers, "My dad's home," Craig informed him.

Once he was done with the stars Craig bought a flannel to Tweek's face and wiped at the pen marks. Tweek thought it was probably the wrong time to enjoy Craig's hands on him but he did so anyway.

At almost the second Tweek was clean they heard Craig's mother calling them for dinner, "Coming," Craig yelled down.

They traipsed downstairs and Tweek followed Craig to the dining room. He took the seat that did not match the others, clearly having been pulled up for his company. It was next to Craig and opposite his younger sister who he hadn't yet been introduced to. She sat leant over her phone ignoring Tweek's presence while Craig laid the table and then took his seat next to Tweek. He shifted their chairs close together as he sat and they waited in silence.

"Patricia, put your phone away at the table," the voice of Craig's father sounded as he entered the room and took a seat at the head of the table. Tweek gripped his seat. He had begun to tremble again. Craig's father had stony, yet worn features, broad shoulders and the body of a labourer. He wore workman's clothes and boots over an aging figure. Tweek guessed he might be older than Craig's mother, though not by too much. He certainly command attention and respect in a room though Tweek had an inclining Craig might only pay the lip service of respect to his father.

Craig's mother emerged a few minuets later carrying a tray of macaroni and cheese. She layer it in the center of the table and then took her seat, opposite her husband.

They said grace, which Tweek had only done a few times in his life. At home his parents rarely enforced religious practice and they ate without acknowledging god. Tweek followed the Tuckers suit in this case, though, hastily adding 'amen' at the end in an effort to blend in.

"Who's this?" Craig's dad asked, gesturing to Tweek without looking at him.

"One of Craig's friends from school," Craig's mother answered.

"Oh," Craig's dad spoke sounding unimpressed. Tweek could see now where Craig hot his deadpan attitude from.

"I'm surprised he was able to make another friend," Patricia spoke, "tell me, how much is he paying you?" She added staring at Tweek.

"Um- " Tweek shifted uncomfortably unsure of how to answer. He felt Craig's hand brush his own under the table and signed, it was both relaxing and anxiety inducing all at once and his stomach twisted at the sensation.

"You're one to talk, I don't even think you've got a friend," Craig back chatted his sister.

She flipped him off over the table and Craig flipped her off back, then his dad flipped them both off and his mom flipped his dad off and order was restored.

The rest of the meal passed in silence Craig held Tweek's hand under the table and their legs pressed together, Tweek's shook with anxiety.

Afterwards Craig told Tweek he would drive him home. They made their way out to the car after Tweek thanked Craig's family for having him. Once they had sat down Craig turned to face him. He hadn't yet turned the engine on, "Sorry you couldn't stay longer, my dad doesn't really like guests because he hates mess," Craig explained, "and he's a miserable old asshole," he added.

Tweek laughed hesitantly, not sure if he was allowed, "It's fine, man,” he reassured. Craig started the engine and they made their way to Tweek's house.

Craig stopped the car a few doors down outside a house with no lights on. He turned to face Tweek who was undoing his seatbelt as he did do. They leant in to kiss at the same time. On their lips meeting Tweek thought about how they'd already improved since their first try. He shifted and sat on his knees on the seat bent over to Craig still kissing him.

After half an hour Tweek was in Craig's lap, back pressed against the steering wheel and lips still melded. When they finally pulled apart he wondered if he was still able to speak, he fell against Craig's shoulder and regained his breath as well as the feeling in his lips. She. When he looked back up Craig was breathing heavily and the car was steamed up with their combined heat, "See you tomorrow?" He asked.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Craig replied.

Tweek walked the distance to his house practically giddy. That might have been the best day of his life.

Chapter Text

Tweek had once worried that his heart was locked. As if bolted in iron, it would be incapable of opening. Either because no one would want to or because he would never have the time to let them. He might have worried that if it ever were opened he might have nothing to show from within it. After all, for all the love he had for his parents he had never been particularly affectionate and more often found himself infuriated with their behavior to the point where he had essentially iced them out of involvement in his life. Other than them, he had never had a close relationship with anyone and he had nothing to show for it.

What he found, however, was that once his heart was opened a crack, almost everything in it gushed out at once. The butterflies surrounding Craig didn't fade once they were official. In fact they became stronger.

As they stood in the greenhouse a few days later, Tweek studied Craig. The more you looked into his eyes the more you saw. They were like as stormy sea or soft, dark marble, "You're beautiful," Tweek told him.

Craig laughed and turned away. They had been looking at each other for a long time. Tweek had found that sometimes looking was almost as good as kissing. It could feel just as intimate, if you did it right. "I'm not beautiful," Craig replied after laughing, "no ones ever said that about me," he added.

"Ng- they should! Your eyes m- man and your-" Tweek gestured vaguely at Craig's face, unsure of which part to compliment.

"That's pretty gay dude," Craig answered.

"Y- Yeah, well you're pretty gay," Tweek retorted without malice.

Craig sighed a laugh, "True," he stated then settled his lower back against the worktop to lean against it. He was quiet for a moment, watching Tweek prune his plants, for turn of phrase, they were growing like weeds, despite their new potting arrangements. And Tweek was a diligent plant keeper, ensuring each one was fine and healthy, "Have you told your parents?" Craig asked. He sounded apprehensive and awkward.

Tweek's shoulders tensed a little but he laughed, "I don't tell my parents anything," he spoke and then added (though he felt he already knew the answer), "Have you told yours?"

Craig sighed again, "I'm just not there yet. My dad is a good man but he thinks being gay is a choice or a lifestyle he would be upset. He still has hang ups about me being his only son, and first born. He wants grandchildren. I would like to tell my mom. She's not like him, they get along but she's more forward thinking and understanding. She would take the piss out of me but wouldn't actually be upset. I can't tell her though, because she'd tell dad," Craig finished looking solemn. He scuffed his shoe against the ground and looked up at Tweek. He and an apologetic look across his face, "We'll tell them one day. I'm not ashamed, just worried," he finished.

Tweek nodded. He thought about his own parents. They probably wouldn't mind, would probably quite like the idea. His dad would probably think it was good for business, his mom would probably think it explained all his issues, and they would probably both be quick to write off his mental health as a symptom of his sexuality. He didn't want that. He hated being a prop for his fathers business, a vesle for his mothers concerns and a write of in terms of actual understanding. He gave his hair a little tug, "G- It's okay man, I don't mi- mind. Whenever you're comfortable,"

Craig nodded, comforted.

-

There was upsides to not being out in their relationship. For one, unstigmatised sleepovers. On Friday night Tweek found his mom stirring a pan over the stove, pasta. Meanwhile a pot of coffee was brewing, filling the kitchen with the familiar and homily smell of caffeine. Tweek felt an anxious spasm pass over him, the movement caught his mother's eye and she turned to face him. "Hi, hun,"

"Mm, hi mom," Tweek replied, drumming his fingers on the counter.

"You want some coffee?" She asked, "It's french press," she added.

"S- Sure," Tweek replied and let a ripple of silence pass over the room before, "Mom?"

"Yeah, hun,"

"Can m- my friend Craig- oh jes- sleep over tomorrow?"

At that she stepped back from the pot and looked at Tweek, not in the eyes at him. She had a look in her eyes, the sought only mothers hold, "Friend? Sleepover?" She looked shocked but in a kind sort of way, "Well of course hun, that's fine," and then took a step towards Tweek. She extended her arms and took his shoulders in her small hands before bringing him to her chest and wrapping her arms around him.

Tweek usually avoided hugging his mom, or his dad for that matter but on this occasion he let himself sink against her and remembered how good it felt to be maternally loved.

Once he had finished asking his mom he scurried away with his mug of coffee before she could start an inquisition about Craig and retired to his room. He retrieved his phone and texted Craig that he could come as they had discussed earlier that day in school.

-

On Saturday Tweek was woken by his father shaking his shoulder, waking him for work.

He trudged to the bathroom and examined himself in the mirror before dressing. He had had to change all the band aids Craig had given him by this point. His face was almost better and didn't need them anymore, just a few shiny scars and a couple of scrapes and small scabs. He had decided not to go to the doctors in the end, violently repressing his concerns about germs and glass getting trapped under his skin. Partly because he knew they were ridiculous and partly because it would mean talking to his parents and possibly telling them what happened, the thought was less than ideal to Tweek.

-

A subjective downside of Craig barreling into Tweek's life with as little warning as a flashflood was Tweek now lived in a perpetual state of day dream.

Tweek had always lived in his own mind and often it was for the worse. However while once permanently haunted by intrusive thoughts with elaborate scenarios and drastic consequence he now spent a considerable portion of time thinking about Craig, their time together and their relationship. That's not to say that his thoughts had recovered for Craig's presence, in fact in some sense they had evolved to accommodate Craig in the most vicious ways, however the security of having Craig only a text away and always willing to calm his nerves was of great comfort.

Tweek spent his working morning within one such of the more positive of these daydreams, one where he and Craig went camping on a summers night, surrounded by beautiful nature and at night they see all the stars spread above them. Craig says something romantic to him, Tweek says something romantic back. The words jumbled in Tweek's had, a little incoherent but it didn't matter because it was perfect.

It made him a slow worker, spending five minutes buffing a table that usually would take him one. His father didn't comment however, probably because it was preferable to a Tweek who screamed at every stimuli and pulled his own hair out from stress.

At about twelve Tweek was removed from his daydream by it's protagonist. The shrill bell rung above the door and Tweek turned to see Craig in the doorway.

Tweek hurried behind the counter while his father continued buffing tables (he had had to follow Tweek around and clean the tables twice over as Tweek had been so distracted that some were still dirty).

Tweek took a quick look around while Craig walked up to the counter, only an old man and a mother and daughter inhabited the shop at this point, pretty quiet.

Once they were stood either side of the counter Craig leant forward so his hips and lower stomach rested against it, they were only about a foot and a half away from each other. It still gave Tweek butterflies.

"Hey," Craig greeted.

"Oh, hey," Tweek replied. He was a little awkward, "I wasn't excepting you," he carried on, giving his hair a little tug and then fiddling with the straps of his apron.

Craig shrugged and smiled, "Thought I'd surprise you,"

Tweek felt his face redden. God, this boy would be the death of him, "Oh j- what can I get you," he managed over his pummeling heart.

"Hmm, the usual," Craig replied smiling widely.

Tweek let out a single note of laughter. They both knew Craig had only been in once before but Tweek knew exactly what he meant. He turned away and started on Craig's mocha. Once it was made he placed it on the counter between them, allowing Craig to watch as he etched into it with the handle end of a spoon. He made his design different from last time, a night sky of tiny stars with a crescent moon in the center top, under the sky scape was a large, nakedly white heart.

Once it was finished Craig was smiling again and Tweek noticed his heart never had stopped beating too hard and fast. He let his hand rest on the surface between them and their eyes locked. It took Tweek a moment to realise Craig's finger was rested over his own, the intimacy of it protected only by their backs shielding them from the world around them like a wall. Once he had noticed he took a second and scanned the coffeehouse once more. It was the same as it had been before and he let his finger wrap around Craig's own hesitantly but then squeezed tight.

His eyes fixed on the scene taking place between their hands, he wanted to hold them properly but that felt impossible.

Perhaps they were like that for minutes, Tweek did not bother to count. All he knew was that they were interrupted in the worst possible way. The bell above the door rang painfully and the boys sprung away from each other in shock.

"Aww, were you too about to go fuck," Eric Cartman's voice filled the coffee shop with such boisterousness that it practically echoed.

Goddamn it

Tweek shuddered and his head flew forwards, almost hitting the counter in a nervous spasm.

"Gee Twink, I knew you were a faggot, but seriously, Craig? Have you seen his teeth? Besides, I always thought you had a little thing for me~,"

Tweek groaned.

"Shut up fatass," Craig's voice was as monotone as ever but Tweek heard anger behind it, similar to how he'd sounded when he promised to kill whoever smashed the greenhouse.

"Oh, go fuck yourself, Spaceman, Eric snapped back.

"Boys, boys, what is going on?" Tweek heard his fathers voice suddenly and wondered where he had come from and how long he had been surveying the scene.

"Tweek who are these people?" His father carried on after the boys had been struck into silence by his sudden presence.

"Uh- hm- ah, well this is Craig, and tha-"

"Oh so you're Craig?" His father interrupted him, "Tweek, you should had said, I would have liked to meet your friend before he comes to our house later,"

Tweek shuddered and from the corner of his eye notices Cartman's face shift into a contempt sneer. Tweek keept his head down, not looking at anyone.

"But I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask both of you to leave," his father spoke again before anyone could speak, "Yes, I'm afraid I can't have this sort of racket in my shop, this is a place of coffee," he continued in his usual blissed drawl.

"Bye, Tweek," Craig spoke after a confused second, and turned to leave.

"Bye, Craig," Tweek replied quietly.

Carman made no goodbye but Tweek saw him cast an angry stare as he left the shop and slammed the door behind him.

-

At around five Tweek was leant back against the counter staring around the empty coffeehouse. Not a soul and nothing left to clean. He sighed and scuffed his shoe against the floor.

"Good job today son," his father spoke, once again appearing from nowhere.

"Gah, it's only five Dad," Tweek replied confused.

"Well I figured, it's been a long day and you've got your friend coming later, so how about you go home early?"

"Really?" Tweek asked.

"Sure, now get out of here,"

Tweek didn't think he'd ever left a place so quickly. He pulled his apron off and shoved it behind the counter before turning on his heal and rushing out the door yelling, "Bye Dad," on his way out.

Tweek walked through the biting cold. The sky was free of clouds, nothing but crisp blue from horizon to horizon, the only thing close to a cloud was a single streak like that left by a paintbrush, high in the sky where an aeroplane must have flown over. The ground was icy and a dusting of snow covered it like fine powder. Tweek typed furiously on his phone, informing Craig of the good news and telling him to come over as soon as he liked.

Once he had completed the short walk home, Tweek rushed upstairs, ignoring his mom's greeting, for fear of being distracted, he hurried into the bathroom and washed his face then set to tidying his room. This would be the first time Craig see's it and it's covered in mess. Tweek actually doesn't mind the mess, it's the functional sort that works for him, the most important things are where he can find them and the rest of his stuff is wherever he last put it down.

He tidies it for Craig's sake though, remembering his organized but scholar looking room that he had seen not too long ago. He pushed the pile of laundry into the corner, organized his desk and bedside table and made his bed, though the sheets remained creased and crumpled.

He looked around the room, good enough, and then down at himself, not so good. He was still wearing his clothes from work and they were covered in grounds and spilt coffee. Distantly he heard voices downstairs but didn't bother to listen.

He tugged his jeans off and replaced them with a baggy pair of faded blue ones then shoved his shirt off and pulled on an oversized green turtleneck.

He struggled pulling the neck over his face for a moment and sighed once he was free of it's neck and turned around, "Gah! Craig!"

Craig was stood in the doorway, his eyes trained on Tweed while his shoulder rested on the door jam, "Hey" he spoke.

Tweek hurried to pull the turtle neck over his stomach and wondered how long Craig had been there. He felt his face go hot at the thought of Craig seeing him shirtless, "H- Hey," he managed. He crossed the distance between them and pulled Craig in through the doorway and shut the door tight behind them.

"I thought your room would have more plants, somehow," Craig mentioned as Tweek turned back around to face him.

"I have a cactus over there," Tweek gestured towards the windowsill where one small cactus stood without company.

Craig looked at it momentarily and then turned back to find Tweek, who was closer than he'd realised. Tweek stood on his toes and twined his fingers between Craig's. Their eyes flickered together and Tweek closed the gap between them. Their lips brushed together and then melted into each other while they gripped hands tight, "Sorry, I've wanted to do that all day," Tweek spoke when they finally pulled apart.

"Don't be sorry," Craig replied and Tweek noticed his lips were glistening from their kiss.

-

They spent the early evening on Tweek's bed, laying to face each other. Kissing intermingled with chatting intermingled with tender touches. They let their hands slip over each other's exposed skin and find the places under each other's clothes.

Tweek shivered under Craig's touch while Craig shifted gently only when Tweek found a place most sensitive, such as his neck or sides.

They were interrupted at about seven by Tweek's mom calling them for dinner. Tweek was in such tender bliss that he hardly wanted to get up. Craig tugged him up despite the fact Tweek didn't technically need the help.

Craig followed Tweek downstairs and they sat down at the dinner table. Tweek was acutely aware of his house. He wondered what it smelt like to Craig. Probably coffee and old furniture. He rarely saw his parents buy anything new, even their TV was eight years old.

Tweek fidgeted nervously as his mother brought out bowls of carrot and coriander soup for the boys and then another two for herself and Richard.

Tweek turned to Craig, "Do you like soup?" He whispered nervously.

"Yeah, this is fine," Craig replied.

Tweek's parents sat themselves down and wasted no time in begging their inquisition of Craig.

"Craig, honey, I haven't seen you since you were knee high," his mother began, "How are you?"

"Fine thank you, Mrs Tweek," Craig replied before taking his first sip of soup.

"So, what are you doing in school Craig?" Tweek's father asked.

"Oh, um, nothing special you know-"

"How did you two reconnect," Tweek's mom interrupted before Craig could finish his answer.

There was a stiff moment of silence before Tweek interjected, "Craig's been helping me with the greenhouse,"

"Oh is that so, aww, how sweet," Tweek's mom smiled widely looking happily, first at Tweek and Craig then at Richard.

Tweek found Craig's hand under the table, their fingers interlinked gently and Tweek felt Craig relax next to him.

At the end of dinner Craig politely asked if he could help with the washing up. Tweek's mom shooed him off, "No, no, you two boys have fun, no need to help with the washing," she lightly scolded.

-

They exited the dining area into the hall and Craig turned to face Tweek, "Is there anywhere I can smoke?" He asked looking apologetic.

"Mm- not here man," Tweek's eyes darted about, "We'll go on a walk," he concluded.

They grabbed their jackets and headed out the front door. Tweek lived in the nicer part of town, what with his dad owning his own business. Starks pond was right at the end of his street so they ambled toward it.

They sat down on the singular bench probided. The cold of it bit through Tweek's clothes and he leant against Craig for warmth. He noticed Craig was shivering too and was not much warmer than himself but did not move away and instead watched as Craig produced a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lit it, inhaling slowly.

"How many do you have a day?" Tweek asked.

"Only four. Used to be more but I've cut down recently. One when I wake up, one at break, one at lunch and one after dinner," Craig informed him.

Tweek sighed, he was sad that Craig smoked but he liked learning new things about him.

"Kinda pointless being here when it's so dark," Tweek changed the subject, pointing in front of them at the dark form of the pond.

"Try looking up instead," Craig told him and Tweek felt fingers on his chin lifting his head to look up. He stared at first at the stars and then turned his attention to Craig and watched in awe at Craig's starstruck face. For a moment he couldn't fathom how beautiful Craig was. Like something that fell from space.

"Wow," Tweek spoke.

"Yeah, wow," Craig replied quietly.

"I meant you," Tweek told him.

"Oh," Craig replied. He turned back and kissed Tweek gently, their tongues sliding together. Then he finished his cigarette and threw it far away.

They held hands on the walk home and Tweek wished they would never have to let go.

Tweek felt chilblains on his cheeks as he reentered his house, Craig's face too, was turned red from the temperature change.

They made their way back up to Tweek's room, "Should we get changed?" Tweek asked, looking at the clock, it was only nine o'clock but it seemed a fitting time.

"Sure," Craig replied and reached for his bag that he had left at the end of Tweek's bed.

Tweek turned his back for modesty and searched for his pajamas in the pile of clean laundry. He started changing and tried to ignore the noise of Craig kicking off his jeans. He couldn't help but turn at the noise of Craig taking his top off though. On looking, he found Craig's eyes already there, looking straight back at him.

They fixed gazes and Tweek felt a nervous spasm pass over him. Eventually they stepped towards each other. Tweek let his hands rest on Craig's, now fully exposed sides. Craig let out a sigh and reached forward, disrobing Tweek of his turtleneck.

Tweek felt familiar tingles across him, following Craig's touch. The jumper got caught around his head again, making them both laugh.

Craig's eyes looked at him gently and fleetingly, sensing Tweek's slight embarrassment at being watched. Craig reached for Tweek's pajama top and pulled it over Tweek's head, once again covering him. He ran his fingers over Tweek's hair, removing it from his eyes and soothing it down.

Tweek shuddered softly and reached over for Craig's shirt. Craig leant down and allowed Tweek to pull the top over his head and straighten it over him sweetly.

Tweek looked at them both, dressed again and part of him wished the opposite was true but he dismissed it quickly.

They clambered into Tweek's bed, not bothering to make a bed on the floor for Craig. They were both more than happy enough to share the single bed and Tweek knew his parents wouldn't bother to check on them.

They fell asleep a few hours later and Tweek, for the first time in a while slept soundly, safe and wrapped in Craig's arms like nothing in the world could hurt him.

Chapter Text

Although Tweek slept better than usual, spooned snuggly in Craig's arms, he woke as early as ever.

At about 6:50 AM Tweek's eyes shot open and he jolted awake, his heart pounding from his dream although he was quickly forgetting what it was about. The feeling of it stayed with him though; a general uneasiness of a frightening sort. It took him a couple seconds to remember where he was and who's arms were encircled around him but once he did he felt himself immediately relax and his heart rate begin to slow to a normal pace once more.

He sighed and stared up at the sun bursting through the edge of his blinds with early morning life. He shifted away from Craig's side and sat up cross legged on the bed to look down at him.

It was cold outside Craig's grasp, the bitter Colorado autumn weather penetrated the walls and windows of hid house and his parents didn't put the heating on until they woke up, which wouldn't be for at least another hour by Tweek's calculations. He didn't mind particularly though, he was happy enough to let the cold tingle his spine and cause goosebumps on his arms if he could watch Craig for a while.

The sun from the edge of the blind came to land directly on Craig's face, casting a single beam across him on which he slept peacefully. It reminded Tweek of a song his mother liked.

He looked so tranquil while he was sleeping, the frown that seemed so omnipresent on his awoken face gone and replaced with a soft boyishness that usually escaped him. He was breathing audibly heavily but not snoring, which Tweek found endearing.

Tweek wondered what he was dreaming of, even allowed himself to entertain the idea that Craig might be dreaming of him. His eyes were flickering slightly with a land of sleep behind them. Tweek wondered if it would be okay to ask him what he had dreamt of once they were both awake. He hoped so.

He watched for only a few moments longer before Craig shifted in his sleep, reaching forward and groping the space in the bed where Tweek had slept. His eyes flickered open sleepily to look up at Tweek. Tweek felt his own eyes widen, shocked that Craig had woken and worried he might think it was weird that Tweek was watching him.

If Craig did think it was weird he didn't show it, he looked up at Tweek sleepily, a confused expression painted on his face. Their eyes locked and Tweek opened his mouth ready to say something, a tiny noise escaped before he could speak, "M- na-,"

Craig shushed him gently but did not speak. Instead he lifted his hand languidly and reached for Tweek's shirt. Tweek felt a nervous spasm pass through his spine as Craig did so and tried his hardest to repress it.

Tweek felt Craig's hand wrap gently but firmly around his pajama shirt and pull him down back towards the bed.

Tweek landed with a soft thud on the mattress and it shuddered beneath them at the movement. He fell to face Craig, who immediately wrapped his hands around Tweek and pulled him closer. Tweek felt Craig press a single kiss to the top of his forehead before nestling him against his chest.

Tweek spent a few minuets wrapped snuggly up against Craig's torso, listening to his breathing become even and eventually heavy with sleep, as it escaped him Tweek felt his hair gently rustled with each breath. Craig's heart rate stayed the steady throughout, a constant comfort.

Soon Tweek felt himself drift away too, if he were more cognisant he might have appreciated the rareness of himself actually going back to sleep after waking up, which never happened. Instead he just slipped into an easy morning rest, lazily adrift on the sunbeam cast from his window.

Chapter Text

When November was swept snuggly away and December fell as softly as the blanket of snow that came with it, Tweek was not cold. This was true on both a physical and metaphorical level.

For the first time he could remember, his heart was warm, and his body felt good. He didn't shake as much as before and had managed to tare himself away from his habit of double tying his laces. It wasn't just Craig, it was the greenhouse too. He had focused all his energy on it and was now reaping the benefits. His plants followed his lead; blooming in spite of the cold weather and once they had exploded from their crowded pots Tweek had managed to find makeshift containers: an old coffee pot, a badly chipped mug, and a bowl that had cracked after he dropped it in the kitchen tiles. His hard work paid off well, his plants exploded with life and he was happy to bask in it.

In their most recent session, Mrs Bennett had remarked a change in Tweek and he had bit his tongue not to mention that it was not just the greenhouse that was lifting his spirit but Craig.

Craig had leant Tweek his black jacket two days ago. Tweek had worn it nonstop since. It was more efficient than a jumper, it smelt like Craig and it kept him warm. They sat together in the greenhouse a week into December, Tweek having just finished his work of watering and pruning to sit on the wood surface while Craig leant between his knees in the same fashion they had in what seemed like a year ago when Tweek had decorated Craig's hair with flowers.

Now they just sat quietly, enjoying each other's presence. Tweek thumbed at the hair escaping Craig's hat while Craig leant up against Tweek's chest, his hands looped around Tweek's waist under the jacket. Craig hadn't smoked in four days and it was making him a little short tempered, last night he had had a big argument with his father and ended up outside Tweek's window at 12:00AM.

Tweek was happy for him nonetheless, and maintained his support and pride in the development, especially considering it had been him that suggested Craig give quitting a legitimate try.

Tweek jumped when the bell rung from across the courtyard, his body shuddering with shock. Craig stepped away so as Tweek could slide down from the bench.

They stood for a second eyes locked before stepping back into the part of the greenhouse most protected from the outside world by thick layers plants.

Tweek leant up and met his lips to Craig's. They had their goodbye kiss as had become routine, both knowing they wouldn't see each other until the end of the day when Craig would give Tweek a ride home in his car, stopping a few houses down so they could make out for however long, as if they wouldn't see each other the next morning, which was ludicrous especially considering Craig would text Tweek as soon as he got home, five minutes later to assure him he had driven home safe. They would then continue to text one another until they both went to bed.

Sometimes Tweek called Craig at night if he couldn't sleep and Craig would read to him over the phone. Last night they had started 'The Little Prince' and Tweek liked it so far even though he felt it read like some sort of strange dream.

Once their lips parted they stepped away from each other, Tweek hovered for a moment, disoriented by the butterflies that still dived through him every time their lips met. For a moment he reached for Craig's hand but managed to remind himself of their situation before this became obvious. They never held hands after they left the greenhouse.

He sighed and turned to open the door. True to his word, Craig had oiled it and it moved far smoother now. Even so, Tweek opened it only a crack, enough for them to escape out of.

They walked together into the school, which was also a new development. Craig held the door for Tweek which bugged him a little, he let Craig know this with a pointed look which was greatly devalued by the blush that had spilt across his cheeks. Craig let their shoulders bump as they walked through the halls. It was made acceptable by the throngs of people who were still making their way to class. Their presence only served to irk Tweek further, knowing he could have spent longer kissing Craig and still be on time for class.

He allowed himself to be jostled down the corridor by the current of students, doing his best to focus on breathing, block out their noise while honing in on the sensation of Craig's arm against his own. He could feel the back of Craig's hand against his and for some reason the feeling made his hair stand up on end and his skin tingle.

His enjoyment of the sensation is destroyed almost instantly at the voice of Eric Cartman cutting through the crowd of people around them.

"Hey, Twink," he yells. Tweek shrinks inside but tries to remain composed outwardly and carry on walking. He's stopped by a hand on his shoulder a few paces later, causing him to jolt and swing around, suddenly faced with Cartman looming over him.

Over the past couple of weeks Tweek had somehow managed the awesome feat of avoiding Cartman completely (bar a few glances in the corridor). He hadn't visited the shop since his run in with Tweek's father and hadn't caught him in the corridor because Tweek wasn't so often late for class.

The sensation of his chubby hand sent a nervous spasm down Tweek's spine and he feels one if his eyes clenching shut, a tick he thought he had outgrown when he was thirteen.

A couple people had stopped, peering curiously at the scene of the three boys. Tweek felt their eyes like hot pokers probing his skin and Eric's own eyes like the sun itself. He groaned and let himself shrink back a step, his heart racing painfully.

Cartman turned to face the onlookers, glancing around before casting his eyes back down. Tweek didn't dare look up amd kept his eyes locked on Craig's boots, the toes of which were brushed up against Tweek's heel, making him aware that they were stood very close.

"Nice jacket," Cartman spoke and Tweek didn't have the capability to humor him with a reply. "Won't Craig be getting cold?" Cartman carried on when he was met with silence.

Tweek shuddered, "He- It's," he begun. The words died in his mouth before they could form any sort of rebuttal.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and for a moment it almost felt as if Cartman had grabbed him once more but no, this grip was reassuring and Cartman was two paces away.

He knew it was Craig when he heard his voice, "What's it to you, fatass? It was steady but Tweek could hear the anger underlying it. He was reminded of Craig's recent short temper and shuddered.

"Aw, is your big butch boyfriend gonna come to your rescue, Twink?" he sneered. Tweek could smell the ham on his breath.

"Sh- Shut up you asshole," Tweek ground out through clenched teeth, trying his best not to shrink in on himself, still painfully aware of Craig's hand on his shoulder.

There were more people gathered now watching the performance play out, Cartman seemed to love the attention and he gazed around at them once more before turning back to Tweek. "Make me," he spat.

Tweek pursed his lips anger sweeping through him he stepped forward aggressively only to feel Craig's hand tighten on his shoulder. Tweek groaned and turned to look up at Craig who was as stoic as ever.

Cartman reveled in this, laughing sinisterly to himself and the crowd, "Wow, glad to see someone's got twitchy on a leash," he begun, "I thought he was totally gonna loose it when he saw all his little planties on the floor, turns out all he needs is some spaceman to keep him tethered,"

"How do you know about that!?" Craig yelled out of nowhere. It took Tweek a moment to realise Craig was referring to the incident of the smashed greenhouse.

"I- what?" Cartman seemed lost suddenly as if he'd forgotten his own words.

Apparently that was convicting enough for Craig who pulled Tweek back by his shoulder and launched at Cartman, barreling him over onto the linoleum timed floor with a harsh smacking sound. Craig's fists were immediately on Cartman's face, thudding his head against the ground while Cartman vaguely tried to block him.

Tweek was horridly reminded of Craig's words, 'I will kill whoever did this to you'. Panic flooded Tweek's veins and he jolted out of his frozen trance just in time to see a bloody Cartman land a single hard punch to Craig's nose and then to the jaw. In response, Craig came back down, punching Cartman again.

Tweek yelled and leapt forward, "Craig stop. STOP." He was met with no answer. "He's had enough, just stop." Tweek knelt down and shoved Craig who seemed to let himself be pushed away. The two stared at each other briefly, there was a huge amount of blood pouring from Craig's nose and for a second Tweek forgot about the crowd around them and Cartman. This was short lived, before he could fully realise what was happening, he was on his back and Cartman and towering over him, not fully standing but on his knees, Tweek braced for impact but before Cartman could hit him he fell on top of him.

Craig had launched himself up and was now trying to wrench Cartman away by grabbing his back and shoulders. Cartman seemed mostly unaffected and used his vantage point to roughly and repeatedly punch Tweek's ribs. Tweek gasped at the pain. For a second, the thought of Bill Allen passed him and he wondered if this was how he had felt.

Tweek groaned as Cartman punched him an eighth time and finally managed to grasp the situation, he jolted his knee up hard and managed go hit Cartman with impact in the stomach. The shock of this seemed to cause a momentary lack of judgement for Cartman in which Craig wrench him away while Tweek kicked him off.

*

Tweek was nervous in the principal's office, worried his second fight of the year would lead to expulsion. Craig's mother was there and so was Eric's. Tweek's own parents were both working in the coffee shop and neither could come in. They had been promised a phone call after school.

Tweek's ribs were aching so badly Tweek felt like he was having an asthma attack, which was stupid because he didn't have asthma. Craig had a bundle of tissue under his nose and some nurse's bandages over his knuckles. Cartman was the worst of the three, with an icepack over his eye and tissue under his nose, his lip was bleeding onto nothing, or maybe it was something inside his mouth because Tweek couldn't see a split.

He turned back to face the principal's desk. There was silence from everyone in the room. Then he spoke. "I've listened to all three boys accounts," he begun, "and while a little contradictory," he glanced quickly at Eric. "I think I can see what happened. I want you all to know I will not tolerate this behavior in my school. You should all know better. Unfortunately, I know better than to put you all in a detention hall together, lest you all end up in hospital. The best I can think to do is a suspension, five days, that's until Tuesday next week."

Tweek breathed a sigh of relief, thanking god he wasn't expelled.

"Mr Tweek, as you know I will be informing your parents later," Mr Sullivan clarified and Tweek managed to force a nod without making eye contact.

"I suggest you all leave now while I deal with the ungodly paperwork that surrounds a three people fight and a triple suspension," he finished sternly and turned down to his desk. Tweek somehow expected some sort of argument but instead everyone stood silently and filed out. Tweek followed Craig's mom out feeling alone without a parent of his own. He dreaded that phone call and dreaded further the knowledge that he would spend his whole suspension working in the coffee shop.

*
On Friday Tweek was mopping the floor when Craig came through the door ringing the bell as he did so.

The shop had been driving him insane with both boredom and anxiety over the past few days and the excitement he got when he saw Craig was unmatched.

They hadn't seen each other since they were suspended. Craig had had his phone taken away and Tweek had been whisked off for work everyday. Once he saw Craig he almost dropped the mop handle.

"Hey, dude," Craig started.

"I missed you!" Tweek blurted.

"I missed you too," Craig replied, he looked sort of relived. "So hey, I was thinking once you're finished do you wanna come round to mine?"

"Won't your dad mind?"

"He's not home until seven,"

"Oh." Tweek replied. He thought for a moment, "I better ask my dad," he spoke and turned to walk away before wheeling back, "Don't move!" He spoke before racing off to find his father.

He found his dad in the grim store room. "Dad?"

"Yes, son," he replied.

Tweek felt a nervous spasm pass over him, he hadn't thought this far ahead. He wasn't technically grounded, no one had said so anyway and his parents weren't overly mad at him because he hadn't started the fight but he worried his dad would stop him any how.

"Um," Tweek started and then blurted, "can I go round to Craig's house after work?"

Richard seemed to consider for a moment, "Isn't that the boy that started the fight?"

"No! Uh- I mean yes but- only because Cartman was gonna attack me," Tweek wondered if that was a lie, he had certainly felt attacked at the time.

Richard considered again as he switched in the machine that automatically ground coffee beans, the noise filled the room like a headache. Once it stopped he turned back to Tweek, "I suppose," he answered casually.

Tweek raced back out to tell Craig who was was equally excited by the news.

The rest of the working day passed in a painful mix of a flash and a dragging tortoise crawl. Craig bought a coffee and nursed it for half an hour while watching Tweek work and not getting in the way and afterwards Tweek spent most the day cleaning behind the counter and milling around with nothing to do except watch the seconds past.

When his father finally let him leave he practically ran out the door and towards Craig's house not bothering to change his coffer scented clothes.

*

An hour later he was lying side by side on Craig's single bed with his head on Craig's chest listening to his steady voice read him The Little Prince.

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye," Craig read.

Tweek shifted and looked up at him, Craig had a large bruise on his jaw and on his nose and Tweek couldn't help but it must be hurting him to read aloud.

"Do you really think the boy is like me?" Tweek asked.

Craig looked down from the page, "I suppose. What does that make me?"

"The fox." Tweek replied.

"What? Not the flower?" Craig asked, laughter in his voice.

"No way dude! You don't need glass all around and everything perfect. You're cooler than that." Tweek replied and then blushed in spite of himself.

"Then why am I the fox," Craig asked.

"Because," Tweek started then paused to think, "we met at the same time everyday. A- And we got a little closer. I guess we tamed each other. Tweek finished feeling stupid but glad he had managed to say something romantic.

"That's pretty gay, dude," Craig smiled down at Tweek and gently ran his finger through Tweek's hair.

"Yeah, I guess it is," Tweek replied and nestled his head back down against Craig's chest.

Chapter Text

The day before Christmas Eve it snowed for hours, the town of South Park was left muffled and softened at the edges. Tweek spent it working with his father and mother who refused to close the coffeeshop until Christmas Eve. He stared wistfully out of the window watching the children play on the street, a game that seemed to have started peacefully and ended in a particularly brutal looking snowball fight.

They served a few customers in the morning but by the time the snow was knee high Main Street had been completely deserted. The remainder of the working day was spent cleaning down surfaces and preparing the shop for their return which was only four days away.

Tweek managed to be both listless and useless during the afternoon, wandering about cleaning the same tables time and time again as if his parents couldn't tell.

At around three he felt his phone buzz from his apron pocket and expelled the most amount of energy he had used all that day in racing to the bathroom to check the notification.

He bolted the tiny lock behind him and pulled his phone from his front pocket. He wasn't surprised to see it was Craig, his contact list was pitifully short and it wouldn't have been either of his parents. He opened it quickly and read.

Craig: 'hey <3 wanna meet tomorrow and give each other Christmas presents'

Tweek exhaled and smiled at Craig's lack of punctuation. Suddenly double relived that he didn't have to work tomorrow.

Tweek: 'okay who's house?'

Craig: 'neither'

Tweek: 'where then?'

Craig: 'greenhouse'

Tweek let out a shuddered breath suddenly filled with irrational anxiety. Was it illegal to be on school property outside of school hours? Despite his better judgement he replied.

Tweek: 'okay <3'

He spent a few further minutes locked away until they had decided on a time and by the point he emerged, his parents were removing their aprons and calling an end to the day.

Tweek followed suit, balling his apron up and shoving it on the shelf under the counter. His mother removed it and folded it in a way that Tweek thought didn't particularly improve on his own method but he still felt a pulse of love towards her and her gesture. It reminded him that he was loved in a sort of ongoing and present way and he was filled with a tug at his heart he couldn't place he felt like he was going to spill.

It wasn't until he was in the back of the car on the way home that he realised what it was he wanted to spill. At dinner they sat quietly around the table, Tweek's eye was twitching which sometimes happened when he was stressed. Tweek had always felt their table seemed a little sparse. It was set up for four people though there was only three of them. It made him feel as though his parents had wanted another child but had been distracted by him, pulled into the ever growing pool of his issues.

The thought didn't help him. His heart had been tugging since they left and now it seemed like something he couldn't avoid despite the fact his parents were none the wiser.

He looked down at the meatloaf in front of him, haphazard and messy just like the rest of his house. His mom called it rustic.

His head raced with ways to start the conversation but his mouth chose the clumsiest one before he could this it away.

"Do I seem different?" The words tumbled out his mouth.

His mother's fork clinked against her plate and she settled it before looking at him.

Her eyes were searching for something she had already half placed weeks ago but had not pieced together entirely and Tweek could see it.

His father spoke just as her mouth opened and it took them both a little by surprise.

"Well son, you've seemed a little less-" he paused, "stressed." He finished. Though he seemed to think he had picked the wrong word as his eyebrows remained knitted in thought.

"Yes," his mother spoke, "you seem more present," she carried on, "is there something you want to tell us?"

The question held more weight than Tweek thought they were aware of. "Yes," he started then twitched, his hand hitting the table he turned it into an tapping pattern in a fluid motion. "I am-" He stopped. "I have-" He looked down at his plate. "A boyfriend." He finished finally and a sigh came out with it.

His mother spoke first this time and it was a question Tweek for some reason hadn't expected, "Why didn't you tell us?" She asked softly.

Tweek shrugged, honestly unsure of the answer.

"Are you gay?" His father asked.

Again Tweek shrugged, he had no answer to this question either. He felt like whatever he and Craig were was something strangely separate from identification.

His eye had stopped twitching but both were still planted on his plate and not looking up. Still he could sense the attitude of the room, his mother flooding with soft energy while his father seemed more confused but not at all angry.

They might have been making eye contact over the table but nonetheless they spoke their next question simultaneously, "Who is it?"

Tweek's body shuddered a little and he looked up then down "Craig Tucker,"

His parents exchanged another look after which his mother leaned over and gently rubbed his back, "I'm so glad you told us," she spoke.

"He makes you happy?" His father asked.

Tweek nodded firmly and his mother rubbed his back more.

"Well then that's all I can ask for," his father finished and it seemed to round of the conversation and Tweek felt relief flood over him.

The rest of dinner was quite and warm. Tweek felt loved. Afterwards his parents let him chose dessert from the freezer, an apple pie his mother had made in late autumn, Tweek seemed to remember coming home to it a day he and Craig had spent lunch in the greenhouse. The thought made his heart ebb.

Late that night his mother knocked on his door, she allowed her self in before Tweek had properly answered though he was going to say she could come in either way.

She was wearing worn pajamas and she had her hair pinned back into a small bun for sleep. She crossed the room to his bed and silently entangled him in her arms. They stayed that way for some moments before she unlooped herself from his shoulders and stepped back. She walked away and stood in the doorway, "We're both very happy for you, Tweek."

And Tweek knew it was true.

-

Tweek woke early the next morning, despite and otherwise good night sleep. He wasted his morning taking and overly long shower, selecting a nice outfit and wrapping the two gifts he had gotten Craig. The last part being the most difficult task of the morning.

At around 11 he left home his hair still slightly damp from his shower but otherwise feeling fresh faced and optimistic.

Heading towards the school felt weird when there was going to be no one else there, doubly so since he hadn't walked in some time, given that Craig had been providing him lifts for over a month now.

He arrived to find the school gate open, a detail that triggered a pang of concern, he quenched it with the thought of the school probably being unable to afford a lock for it's gate given it's decrepit style and extreme lack of funds.

He made his way around the side of the building wading through shin deep snow and remembering the first walk towards the greenhouse he and Mrs Bennett had taken. It seemed like years ago. He arrived and unlocked the door. It slid open almost easily: a mix of practice and oil assisting it.

Tweek found it empty inside. He set down his gifts on the work bench and took the opportunity to water his plants, having not seen them in two days. The frost hadn't reached to them and the greenhouse had managed to remained strangely humid despite the chilling weather and a deep snow drift against the right side of the structure.

The noise of the door opening woke him from his absent train of thought as he pruned a few dead leafs from his succulent and put them aside for repotting, still silently cursing the horrid plastic pots.

He turned to face Craig as he stepped through the door shaking the snow from his boots behind him. His Cheeks were red with cold and he was bundled more so than Tweek had ever seen him; actually wearing a jumper (vaguely Christmas related) under his jacket.

Tweek stepped forward and hugged him, Craig reciprocating as best be could considering he was still holding Tweek's present which seemed to be a considerable size.

They parted and Craig set it down on the side then bent down to kiss Tweek.

Once they had pulled away from each other Craig asked, "Should we swap now?"

Tweek nodded.

"You go first," Craig decided.

Tweek lifted one of his gifts for Craig, the larger one and passed it to him. The wrapping was rather haphazard; tape overly used and paper sticking up around the edges at odd angles. Tweek let Craig's hands take the weight of the rectangular package. Craig seemed to slightly underestimate it's heaviness as his arms dipped with it. Craig unwrapped it as though it were intricate and delicate, rather than difficult and messy. He pulled away the paper on the tape line and uncovered the hardbound book underneath. It was wide and thick with a glossy cover covered in an image of a whirling cosmos on a black background. The title was 'UNIVERSE'.

Tweek had found it on the internet and had been drawn to it because the front image made him think of something that might have set off panic in him, colors and whirling shapes but the idea of space soothed him now and he knew it was just cool enough for Craig.

Craig was beaming, his lips pulled into a rare grin and his fingers clasped around the bounding of the book, "I saw this in the book store," he said, "I've been saving for it for weeks, thank you!"

Tweek had seen it in the bookstore too, ridiculously over priced but the price he found on the internet was far better. He didn't mention this to Craig, instead wordlessly passing him his second gift.

Craig seemed to realise this one was more delicate and took it with firm, reassuring hands. Tweek smiled over the top of it and leant forwards as it passed from one boy to another for a dry kiss.

Craig unwrapped the messy parcel gently. This one was even more haphazard in style, an odd tapering shape with a solid base and flimsy top.

"Careful," Tweek spoke, worried for Craig's fingers and regretting wrapping this particular gift.

Craig peeled away the last of the paper to uncover the contents. A small cactus with one shining yellow flower, blooming out of season, stood in the center of a large black pot. Craig smiled at him and Tweek smiled back, "I thought maybe you room could do with some life in it. Other than the guinea pig." Tweek explained.

"Stripe," Craig corrected. "Thank you, Tweek. I'll put it next to my bed" Craig finished.

They were silent for a moment smiling at each other coyly.

"You should name him," Tweek broke.

"Tweek,"

"Nn, You can't name it after me!" Tweek argued.

"I can. He's mine and he reminds me of you. He's Tweek. Tweek II."

"Fine." Tweek didn't bother asking why the cactus reminded Craig if him, that was a question for another day, instead the subject dropped naturally.

They were quiet for another moment before Craig asked, "You wanna open my present to you?"

Tweek nodded and Craig passed him his present. It was tall and heavy, far heavier than the book Tweek had given him. He took it and immediately rested it back on the work surface to open. He wished his hands weren't shaking, it made his unwrapping uneven and messy but eventually he pulled away the paper and revealed the inside.

Six pots stood stacked inside one another, all various shades of space; galaxies, and swirling patterns, the solar system and the Milky Way along with one detailing their star signs. They were utterly beautiful and like nothing Tweek had seen.

"Craig." Was all Tweek could manage for a moment, he felt his eyes welling. "Did you make these?"

"Um, Token showed me how, on this one," he pointed at the galaxy painted one and Tweek felt happy that Craig had come up with the ideas for the others himself.

"They're beautiful," Tweek stated. "I love them. Can I use them here?"

"Of course," Craig spoke, "where else?" And Tweek realised this was true. The shoddy greenhouse, abandoned on the edge of school property, broken, cold, humid, alive and dead all at once was their entire world together.

And then he really did cry and he felt a little angry about that. Craig circled his arms around him and Tweek tried his best to say 'thank you' for his gift but the sensation of being hugged only reminded him of his mother's hug last night and then he felt a flood of other feeling, somehow even more complex, "I told them," he sobbed out.

"What?" Craig asked, lost.

"I told them. My parents. I told them about us. I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" Craig asked though he sounded like he knew why.

"Because I didn't ask you and because your dad." Tweek told him. His eyes were watering and when he looked up to Craig he saw the other boy's tears through the blur of salty water in his own eyes.

"You don't have to ask me anything, they're your parents, it's up to you when you tell them. What did they say?" Craig asked.

"They said it was fine if I was happy and they're proud I told them. My dad was a bit weird but he'll be fine," Tweek answered honestly and then felt bad, knowing that Craig's father to be far different from his own.

"I'm proud of you too," Craig said and hugged him. Tweek stayed curled against Craig's jumper. "I think I'll tell mine," Craig carried on.

"Nng, Craig, are you sure?" Tweek asked suddenly worried on a new level.

Craig's foot crunched the gritty concrete floor, "Yeah. I've wanted to all this time. I have to eventually. My dad's a bastard but that's not my fault. I'll tell them tonight and if it ruins Christmas then that's their fault not mine." Craig spoke defiantly.

"If it ruins Christmas you can come to my house." Tweek stated.

Craig kissed the top of his head gently.

They spent an hour repotting plants into Tweek's new pots, Tweek aggressively throwing out each old plastic pot with triumph and Craig laughing along with him.

When they were done they walked out holding hands, Craig gave Tweek a lift home, they had their traditional goodbye-makeout and Tweek sat in Craig's lap. "Merry Christmas," Tweek spoke their lips barely an inch apart.

"Merry Christmas," Craig answered.

"I'll miss you,"

"I'll miss you too. We'll text," Craig answered.

"Phone me tomorrow?" Tweek asked.

"Okay. I'll text you tonight about how it goes with my parents," Craig told him.

"Okay, tell me if you need anything." Tweek answered.

"Okay."

They kissed again, slowly. Tweek trying to show all the love he had in him with and pass it to Craig in the kiss. He was in danger of crying once more.

When they parted Tweek slid out the car door. He walked towards the house and down the path, turning once to wave to Craig who was sat in his car, making sure Tweek got inside safely.

-

At ten o'clock Craig texted Tweek.

Craig: all okay.. Can I phone you?

Tweek didn't bother to reply phoning Craig as soon as he'd read his message.

Craig picked up on the first ring.

"Hey how'd it go?" Tweek asked.

"About as well as it could have," Craig replied. "My sister thinks it's hilarious but only as an excuse to tease me. It's kind of our whole thing so I don't care about that. Mom was kind of the same she did all the jokes and followed them all up by saying she loves me then flipping me the bird so that's fine. My dad. Ow. He asked me if I was sure, why, who, when. He's not angry just reserved we're not really taking but not on purpose he just doesn't want to hear it and I don't want to tell him."

"Will things be okay tomorrow?" Tweek asked.

"Christmas is Christmas. At least my mom and sister are fine, that'll be okay-ish. Dad will just have to let it go I guess. Or the dinner table will be awful."

Tweek hummed in agreement and nodded his head, though Craig couldn't see that, "It'll be okay," he offered.

"Yeah," Craig replied. He did sound sure of that at least though Tweek wasn't sure of his time frame.

-

In the early evening of Christmas day there was a knock at the door. Tweek rose and opened it.

Craig stood outside.

"Are you okay!?" Tweek asked.

"I'm fine," Craig replied and then carried on, "I was just taking a walk to blow off steam and I ended up outside your house,"

Tweek nodded, confused, "Come in, you'll freeze to death out there," he could tell Craig was laughing at his old phrasing but he stepped in none the less, shaking the snow from himself.

Tweek's mother appeared in the hall and made a job of herself to fuss Craig as much a humanly possible. Taking his coat and showing him where to put his shoes, despite the fact he had already visited the house and knew where to put them. She then set herself to making a round of extravagant hot chocolates, with added cream and sprinkles.

Tweek and Craig took theirs upstairs.

They sat on Tweek's bed. Tweek kissed Craig's cheek and Craig kissed Tweek's lips. They drank their drinks in smooth silence a Christmas movie from downstairs filling the silence with fuzzy white noise.

"Did something happen?" Tweek asked.

"No."

"Craig?"

"I was just bored. It's boring being the topic of conversion. Sat in the middle of a meaningless debate that matters and is means nothing all at once. I didn't wanna be there anymore."

Tweek nodded though he didn't fully understand he didn't want to push it further, "That's okay, you can stay here as long as you want."

"Thank you," Craig replied.

They kissed again mouths tasting of hot chocolate and Christmas food.

Tweek was filled with a surge of intense feeling, "I love you," he stated.

"I love you too," Craig told him.

It was true, real and true. And when Craig fell asleep on Tweek's bed Tweek didn't wake him but settled beside him and slept peacefully and when they woke the sun had fallen from the blinds onto their faces and the day was new again and they were together, just as they would be from that point on.

Fin.