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Chapter Text

Take One: First Impressions

Beep beep beep beep

Craig's alarm clock rang out on maximum volume and echoed through the hallway, yet he didn't stir. Instead he laid motionless on his stomach under the blanket, his unkept jet black hair poking out at the top.

There was a scowl and a tall, balding thickest man charged into the room and yanked the blanket down forcefully. He then flung the blinds open with a loud crash and slapped his son around the head.

“C'mon you great sack of concrete, get up!”.

“Urghhhhhhhh”.

“Don't make me drag you out of there, or better yet toss a bucket of water over ya”.

That got Craig moving.

He got out of bed and stretched, almost touching the ceiling - he was even taller than his father. Then he blinked.

“It isn't news to you that it's your first day of senior year and you need to get moving! I told you to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but Lord knows if you'll ever listen to me!”.

Craig rolled his eyes as his father ruffled his hair.

“Take a shower, you've worn that same band shirt two days in a row and the local fast food joint would pay good money for that oil in your hair”.

Another eye roll, and Craig gave his father a death stare. His father didn't flinch, didn't react. He knew his son well enough to know that this was Craig's usual facial expression.

“Come on son, try to look a little enthusiastic”, his father implored, looking out the window, “this is a fresh start for both of us, just you and me. Lot more opportunities here in the suburbs than back in the country, eh? I thought you were keen for your new subjects. You were particularly keen on that film making one weren't you?”.

“I guess”, Craig mumbled.

Craig's father made a mock shocked face.

“He speaks! Now come on, shower. I've got bread there for your toast, I have to leave for work in a few minutes”, Craig sighed as his father finished talking and then moved closer and started waving a finger and looking serious.

Here comes the lecture.

“Now son, this is your third high school now. Lord knows I try, and you've just found a way to get yourself into trouble. But please, this is a fresh start. One more year. I'm sure your mother would have wanted you to finish school and make a life for yourself. I don't want to get any calls from the school saying you've skipped or blown something up-”.

“That was an accident”, Craig cut in, voice flat and bored.

“Yeah, meanwhile it took them six months to fix the chemistry lab and I'm still paying off damages”. his father reminded him.

Another eye roll.

“They just…misunderstood what happened”, Craig shrugged, “It was a shit school anyway, bunch of conformists with sticks up their asses”.

Craig's father sighed impatiently.

“I haven't got time to argue, son. Grab a change of clothes and get in the shower. And don't you have something else to wear besides all this black get up? You're a good looking young man, you don't need to always look like you're off to scare little children at train stations”.

“Dad, just go!”, Craig snapped, forcing his dresser open and grabbing another black band shirt and his pair of skinny jeans.

“Right…fighting a losing battle it seems”, his father muttered as he stormed out of the room.

Craig waited until his father was completely out of sight before throwing his chosen clothes on the bed in frustration and sighing.

Another school year. Granted, his last - had come this far. But he had next to zero motivation. A new start seemed like a way to gloss over all his past issues of fitting in with others. He hated other people. He hated society. He hated having to join in or to conform. People didn't understand him, and he didn't understand them.

The thought of starting new at another school seemed exhausting. A mammoth task. His father was right though - this school did offer far more options for electives. Craig was really into his music and movies and he loved the idea of expressing himself through these - and this school offered Music and Media Studies. He signed up for both of these subjects without a second thought.

After taking his father's comment to heart about his hair, he took a long shower and shampooed his hair. He then wandered out to the kitchen. He leaned out the window and saw the concrete driveway was empty - his father had already left for work. He shrugged, frowned and then pushed the toaster lever down before turning on the stereo to full volume.

Soon after, he threw his black jacket on and slung his black messenger bag on his shoulder and headed out the door. Not long after crossing the threshold and locking, he felt a jet of cold water hit his face and shoulder. 

“Aargh, what the fuck!”, he shot out.

“Oops, my mistake!”, came the sarcastic voice of the old lady who lived next door, Mrs Smyth. It appeared she had been watering her garden.

“You old bat, what's the big idea!”, Craig hissed.

“I don't like your tone boy, and now that I have your attention, I don't much like your taste in music either! I can't understand anything they are saying and it's bloody awful! Do you worship Satan?”.

“If I say yes, will you leave me alone?!”, Craig complained. 

“When's your father home? He should know what an ungrateful br-”.

“You're wasting your breath, lady”, Craig cut her off and then walked as fast as he could to the bus stop.

—------------------------

Craig's first class was Media Studies. 

He found it easy enough. It was down a long corridor on the ground floor and past a green door that stated “Editing Suite”. The door beside it was labelled “Media Room”.

A tall, dark skinned man was standing up the front. Craig was surprised to only see six other students sitting and chatting.

There were two rows of seats split into pairs. Three at the front and two at the back. A long, white table sat long ways behind the rows with many more chairs and two computer stations. The walls were lined with video tapes and books and up the front was a large TV on wheels with a tape player attached. 

Craig got a few curious looks, but he took a seat wordlessly in a vacant pair of seats in the second row.

The bell rang not long after. 

“Alrighty, we might as well get started”, the teacher said gently as he scanned his eyes over the class, “seems we are missing a few students but I'm sure they'll be along shortly”.

A girl with dead straight, black hair at the front tutted in a judgemental tone and shot her friend with tight, blonde curls a knowing look.

“Ok”, the teacher paused and looked at the girls for a moment before continuing, “My name is Mr. Black, I'm the media studies teacher. New subject for the school actually, very exciting. We are only taking ten per year level at the moment given our limited…resources”, he cleared his throat, “and congratulations, you made the cut. A bit unique to ask for a video application and a story board on sign up, but it was necessary to find out who is actually serious about the subject. Now-”.

Loud voices were heard suddenly outside the classroom and two boys were seen approaching the door through the windows

“-Kenny you piece of shit, thirty seconds my ass…that guy ripped you off by the way, I bet you could get way more for less from Butters”.

“I'm cut off from Butters man, I owe him too much money! Besides, this stuff is way better, it's legit”.

“Well I hope it's worth it dude, now we're late and probably last to use the cameras for whatever they've got planned for us this term”.

“Relax, moron, it’s-”.

Mr Black stuck his head out the door to address his newcomers.

“We can hear every word you're saying and you're late, get inside! On that, do you have late slips? Of course not! For goodness sake, go and take your seats”.

The two boys trudged into the room. A boy with black hair sitting next to a boy with auburn hair let out an audible groan.

“Oh dude! No way! How did you get into this class, fat ass?”, he exclaimed.

“Stan, shut the fuck up, I got in based on my pure talent alone”, the largest of the two newcomers retorted. He had brown hair that was gelled up, brown eyes and a wicked grin.

The boy with auburn hair snorted.

“What did you do, eat ten packets of Cheez-Itz in sixty seconds? Because that's not ‘pure talent’ that's just you being a fat fuck!”.

The girls in the front both giggled.

“Shut up, Kahl! For your information, it didn't feature food at all!”.

“Ok, that's enough!”, Mr. Black shot out. Then he pointed at the larger boy.

“Mr.?”, he enquired.

“Eric. Eric Cartman”, he said, flopping himself into a chair in next row to Craig.

“And Mr.?”, he asked the blonde with shaggy, sandy blonde hair with an eyebrow piercing.

“McCormick”, he responded, flopping down beside Eric.

“Right, I thought it was you two. You both got in this class by the skin of your teeth, especially you Eric. ‘Underwear in America’ is not an appropriate topic for a short feature video in a Senior Media Studies class, but your filming and scene transitions were above average. I'm aware that you're both in trouble a lot, and I have been instructed that if there is any funny business, I have every right to ask you to leave Media Studies and transfer you over to Woodwork class. Are we clear?!”.

“Yes Sir, I promise we will behave”, Eric said convincingly. Clearly Mr. Black's threat was above the belt.

“Right then”, Mr. Black smiled triumphantly, “Now, I've met Wendy here’, he gestured to the girl with the immaculate black hair, “And I've met her friend Bebe…and Clyde and Heidi here”, he gestured to a tall, brown haired boy in a football jacket who in Craig's opinion, screamed ‘jock’ and to a girl with a long, brown braid in a conservative green dress and white stockings with boots beside him.

Mr. Black now addressed Craig.

“And you must be?”.

Craig glared.

“Craig”, he uttered in a low voice.

Cartman threw Craig a look, like he wanted to say something.

Go on fat ass, I dare you, Craig thought. 

“Oh! Sure. You're one of my two students that are new to the school this year. I'm still clearly waiting on Mr Tweak”.

Eric snorted.

“W-what did you say, Sir?”, Eric chortled.

“Tweek. Tweek Tweak. Does anyone…know this person?”, Mr. Black enquired genuinely, glancing around.

Eric and Kenny erupted into loud fits of laughter, even Wendy let out a giggle.

“Sure it's not a prank, Sir? No way anyone is named that”, Eric enquired loudly.

Tolkien waved his hand, “I'm sure Eric. Now let's stop wasting time and start, now-”.

They heard echoing footsteps approaching fast outside, a wheeze and a loud sound that Craig thought sounded like “Nghhhhh!”.

A boy appeared at the door, panting to catch his breath. 

Craig's first impression was he was very unique. If his father was having a crack at him this morning for messy hair, he'd have a field day with this boy. He had the wildest hair Craig had seen without any hair product - wild licks or hair and curls stuck out in every direction. It was the colour of sunshine, a pure golden colour. He was on the shorter side and had a slight build. His skin was porcelain and he had wide, vivid green eyes. A small smattering of freckles dusted his cheeks . He gave off a lot of nervous energy. He clutched a bright green binder that seemed very neat and tidy with perfectly straight tabs and labels, but his knitted white sweater was lopsided and his black shirt underneath half tucked in. He wore brown pants, mismatched socks and black combat boots.

Organized chaos was the first thought that came to Craig's mind.

“Gah! Sorry Sir, I got lost! This school makes no sense! The buildings aren't in order of letter and…and I ended up at Home Economics, and they're raising BABIES in there…not real ones, those dolls you take home and pretend but…Ah! I'm sorry, I'm Tweek”, the boy was trembling and thrusted a bright yellow late slip at Mr. Black's hand.

“It's ok, Mr. Tweak. I appreciate the late slip”, Mr. Black shot a pointed look at Kenny and Eric,.”and we won't be raising any babies here this term. Why don't you take a seat beside Craig over there?”.

Tweek's nervous, orb like green eyes met Craig's dark blue. Tweek's knees seemed to buckle with fear at the sight of Craig.

Craig was used to this. People clearly put off by his black clothing, chains around his waist and his facial expression that warned others away. But right now he meant no harm. He didn't know this guy, he hadn't done anything to upset Craig…yet.

Craig heard sniggering. Cartman elbowed Kenny and glared at Tweek. They both laughed. Clyde was smirking. Wendy and Bebe shot Tweek a look and were fighting back giggles. Heidi was smiling, but Craig didn't know her enough to know if she was sincere or not. Craig kept his expression deadpan. Clearly they found Tweek's appearance and or his mannerisms amusing.

This was demystified for Craig in seconds.

“Look at him twitch!”,.Eric commented cruelly, his eyes glistening in delight, “he's a walking bomb ready to explode! Or maybe he already has...let's test it out! I just gotta say…BOO!”, Eric said suddenly loudly.

“GAH!”, Tweek jumped.

Eric erupted in more laughter,.”I just gotta say Boo and this guy is gonna wet his pants…what a walking disaster!”.

“Eric, knock it off”, Mr. Black warned seriously, “Mr Tweak actually submitted the best video out of all of you.I'm very much looking forward to seeing what more he can do”.

Tweek managed to get to the seat beside Craig. He sat down carefully and on the edge of the seat cautiously and placed his binder down ever so gently. His face was pink from Mr. Black's compliment. Craig made a point not to look at Tweek. 

“Okay, so here's how it works”, Mr Black got on with the lesson, “Some lessons will be text analysis. As in - no filming. I'll be giving you assignments where you'll spend lessons on doing story boards -and then you'll have time to film and edit. Some of this will require work on your own time, which was stipulated very clearly to you in the subject outline already. We have two cameras, so this will require sharing and booking out the camera in turns. Some assessments will be solo endeavours, others will be in pairs. I'll sometimes make the pairs for you”, he warned, flashing a warning look to Eric and Kenny.

Eric groaned loudly.

Wendy shot up a hand.

“How is it fair if some people get to take a camera home weekends and others just get one during the week?”, she enquired, looking sour.

“Good question - people during the week will get longer to get their work done. On a weekend you get over 48 hours, which is more than enough. As I said, I keep it fair”.

“And editing?”, Clyde enquired, “I've got football dude, I have to know I can get my work done”.

“You'll have plenty of time”, Mr. Black assured impatiently.

Craig side eyed Tweek. He seemed to have calmed down slightly. He was at least not twitching violently anymore. It was more of a consistent small tremor. He was now clutching an olive green thermos with two bony hands and sipping it, his eyes fixed forward on Mr. Black.

This guy really did the best submission for applying for the class? Craig wondered what it was.

Then he wondered why he was wondering anything about Tweek at all.

Like he cared.

He took another side eye at Tweek.

He is interesting, Craig thought.

Mr. Black spent the remainder of the lesson giving an introduction to story boards, and informed them he would assign their first project next lesson.

When the bell rang, Craig stood up slowly and indifferently. Loud voices and chatter rang out within the classroom.

Before Craig could register it, Tweek had shot off and ran out of the classroom.

He's fast, he thought.

Then he shrugged.

Why would he care.

Chapter Text

Take Two: Differences

“How was your first day at school, son?”.

Tweek had not long got home from school and sought more caffeine. He looked up from pouring coffee into his thermos at the kitchen bench and noticed that he was surrounded by his parents.

He sighed.

Interrogation time. 

“It was…as good as it could be, I guess?”.

“Did you make any new friends?”, Tweek's mother enquired sweetly. 

“N-no”.

“Never mind, it's only the first day”, Tweek's father said as he waved a hand in the air and chuckled, “You'll fit in there in no time!”.

Tweek raised his eyebrows and glanced at his father.

“Sure…”.

“Did you sit with anyone at lunch time?”, his mother asked from the kitchen sink.

Tweek took a sip from his thermos and shook his head, “No? I just went and sat outside by myself”.

Richard and Helen Tweak exchanged worried glances.

“Now son, you need to at least try and fit in…your old school was a lot smaller, we know…but that should mean it is more likely to make friends at this school…statistically, that is”, Richard Tweak said loudly,

“Yeah hun, you're just such a nice, sweet boy…everyone is going to love you!”, Helen Tweak added excitedly. 

Tweek raised his eyebrows further, feeling like they had almost disappeared behind his hairline. 

“Sure, because I had so many friends at my old school”, he responded  sarcastically. 

“You had friends!”, Richard exclaimed, “Those girls you always got around with, Claudette and…the other two. Inseparable".

Tweek nodded sadly.

They'd moved six hours drive away from a town in Kansas to a far busier small city for the sake of his mother's new job. What made it worse for Tweek in his opinion was that she had taken on the role of the Vice Principal at his new high school. He was born in his old town, and he had made a few close friends along the way.

Were they girls? Mostly. Claudette, Violet and Katie were his friends since elementary school. Being friends with girls was simple and less complicated for Tweek. He had a love for both acting and film and television from a young age. He played both minor and major parts in the school plays at both his schools and took drama class with the girls. He loved soap operas and watched them from a young age with his mother, and then in more recent years with his friend group. They shared common interests - food, music and adventures. He wouldn't have had it any other way. The only male companion to their group was Chris, who was Katie's brother. Tweek had known their family from a young age and Chris accepted Tweek for who he was.

Everyone else at school? Not so much.

He didn't get along with the jocks. He didn't play sports. He was often picked on for his physique  - short, skinny, weak and ‘feminine looking’. His nervousness was a constant large pot of entertainment for many fellow students. He was constantly called ‘Twitch’. 

Another reason he was picked on was he wasn't into girls.

Tweek came out as gay in ninth grade. He did this quietly and on the down low, so naturally in usual high school fashion the rest of the school found out. His friends and family were nothing but supportive but the combination of his appearance, interest in drama, participation in acting and his sexuality often made him a laughing stock. He was nicknamed ‘Twink’ and referred to as being ‘one of the girls’. He didn't mind the second comment so much - he loved his friends and being in their group. But he hated being called a Twink. 

Realising he hadn't responded to his father's comment, he let out a small huff and said, “I still have them as friends. A-and that took me years!”.

“Just give it time, Tweek. Things will get easier”, Helen soothed.

Tweek shook his head, “W-why couldn't you just have talked to me on the car ride home?”.

It's true, now his mother was working at the school, he could often get lifts to and from school with her. Today she had finished soon after Tweek had - as it was the first day, she had less work to do.

“I didn't want to pester!", she cried out, like it was blatantly obvious. 

“Nghh, you're pestering me now!”, Tweek snapped back in reply. He was desperate for a buffer zone. 

He side-stepped his parents to the hallway and clutched his thermos in his right hand.

“I'm going to go and water the front garden”, he announced, “The last owners clearly didn't take care of it…”.

“Ok son…we will call you for dinner!”, Richard called after him.

Tweek let out a loud sigh of relief when he got outside. He placed his thermos down on a garden bench and headed for the garden shed. Not long after, he had donned gardening gloves and set up the hose.

He stared off into space. vaguely watching the street as cars passed by. 

If it was up to him, he would have happily stayed where they were living. Tweek didn't like change. This was a huge adjustment. Everything was foreign to him. They'd only moved in less than a week ago, and now his parents were already pushing him into new friendships? He had barely been for any walks around the area. He had been far too occupied helping his parents unpack and in setting up his new room. In any other free time, he was video chatting with his friends back in his old town, catching up on his TV shows, getting immersed in his art and gardening.

But here he was, making the best of a bad situation. He felt trapped - he had no other choice. 

As he watched out onto the street, a familiar figure suddenly appeared into view on the opposite side of the road.

The boy from his media class, Craig.

He looked terrifying. 

He was walking and clutching his bag with his hand, staring at the pavement. He wore the same facial expression that Tweek had observed in class earlier today.

Bored. Angry at everything. Apathetic. 

He's dark and brooding, Tweek thought. He seemed to hate everyone and everything. 

Tweek darted behind a rose bush with the running hose and watched carefully from his safe hiding spot. 

Craig opened a steel, flimsy green gate on the house two doors down on the opposite side of the road and dragged himself to the front door. Tweek watched as he appeared to get keys out of his pocket, open the door and then disappear inside after slamming the door.

Tweek exhaled a breath he didn't realize he was holding and stared with his eyes fixed on the house.

“Sweet Jesus…he's my neighbour?!”, he said quietly to himself, “Just my luck!”.

_______________________________________________

Tweek's next Media Studies class was Wednesday afternoon. It was the last lesson for the day.

He had made it just in time. Satisfied he had not gotten lost and the bell had not gone, he slid his bag into a bag rack outside the room and entered quietly.

Unfortunately, he seemed to be the last student there and the only vacant seat was beside Craig.

Fantastic, he thought bitterly as he twitched uncontrollably. 

Heidi was the only person who looked up to acknowledge him. She gave him a small smile and a wave which he returned.

Heidi was also in his drama class, chemistry class and biology class. Although she seemed very close to two other girls named Rebecca and Annie, she had spoken to Tweek briefly yesterday when he accidently knocked over her pencil case and sent her stationary flying across the classroom. Not only did she reassure him that it was an accident and it was  completely fine, she also helped him tidy up. As an extra bonus, she called Cartman out for making a wise crack at Tweek for being a ‘twitch’.

Yep, by the second day he had already been christened with his old nickname. 

He slid into the chair beside Craig and took a couple of breaths. Not looking sideways, he meekly placed his folder down on the desk and slowly unpacked his stationary and his thermos. 

Mr. Black entered the classroom right as the bell went, holding a bright red mug and taking a sip. He placed it down on his desk and then sat on top of the desk to face the students. 

“Right then, we are all on time - must be my lucky day. Okay - well today I am going to be issuing you your assignments. Then I am going to give you some time to work on your first one, which is due in a week”.

“A WEEK?!”, Wendy shot out in shock, leaning forward in her chair at full attention, “You can't be serious, Sir!”.

Mr. Black laughed.

“I'm very serious Wendy. It's a small project alright, it isn't going to take much of your time at all. Actually, I would be surprised if you needed one night with a camera for it”.

“Sir it's week one…don't we just do story boards and shit?”, Cartman asked loudly.

“Language, Eric”, Mr. Black cautioned, “And no, you won't need a storyboard for this first one. Since I have your full attention, I will detail it now. It's a simple tape -2 minutes, 90 seconds at minimum. I want a small introduction on who you are. Show me and your classmates your sense of identity. It's a good icebreaker for the start of the year”.

Cartman let out a loud laugh.

“That's classic, all Kahl's is going to be is a black screen with fancy font with the word ‘fag’ dancing around on it”. 

“Shut up, fat ass!”, Kahl bit back harshly, “Yours is just going to be you eating as many hot dogs as you can in two minutes, and hopefully you will have a coronary in that time and never bother us again!”.

Stan laughed beside the boy named Kyle, but quickly stopped when he saw Mr. Black's face.

“Boys, cut it out NOW. I am not going to have this sort of foul language and juvenile insults in my classroom! If it continues, I have no issues sending you to the Vice Principal!”.

Cartman scoffed and rolled his eyes, and Kyle muttered a small apology.

Mr. Black looked around the deathly silent room.

“Good!”, he said, taking a sip from his mug, “Now, I don't need any fancy props or exciting settings. Even if you take the camera around and show us your friends, favourite things, hobbies and favorite subjects. You can each book a camera out for one night - that is plenty of time to get this done. It is due next Friday. Hand them in at the start of the class and we will watch everybody's tape in Friday's lesson. Now, I want to see some good scene transitions and I want you to be demonstrating your skills in sound, lighting and framing of shots. Got it?”.

“Sir, some people will get the camera two nights over a weekend and then some of us will get the camera a day or two before it's due! How is that fair?!”, Wendy argued.

“You're all what…17 or 18? You're big enough to sort out signing in and out the cameras and swapping the camera over a weekend. For example Wendy, if you have it Saturday, Bebe can have it Sunday”.

The girls glanced at each other and nodded in agreement.

This was good enough for Mr. Black.

Tweek was jiggling his right leg under the desk with his knee hitting the underside, lost in thought about what he would do for his two minute video. Nothing came to mind that wouldn't result in him being teased mercilessly. 

“Would you cut that out?”, came a voice in his ear in a menacing hiss.

Craig.

They locked eyes. Tweek gulped.

“S-sorry…nervous habit”, he muttered quietly.

“No shit, you're the definition of nervous. Can't you take a chill pill or something?”.

“Uh, no?”, Tweek replied with a slight hint of sass.

Craig narrowed his eyebrows further. 

“Look…twitchy…just try and sit still for one minute, got it? Otherwise you might find the contents of that thermos on your head. Which is probably caffeinated and you should be cutting down on anyway”.

Tweek nodded silently and placed his right palm hard on his leg to stop it moving.

Mr. Black started talking about the next assignment.

“Now, your next assignment you have three weeks to complete. It's an assignment you will do in pairs-”.

Ten groans rang out through the classroom. 

“Hey! I did tell you there would be group work!”, Mr. Black called out over the hubbub, “Now, I will be setting up the pairs for this assignment. Part of any industry is about learning to work together with people you don't know, and I like to instill this in my students from the get go”.

“Can we choose if it isn't someone we know? I don't want to get murdered by Frankenstein over here”, Eric gestured to Craig, “Or Twitchy Twink…he will probably break the camera on day one”.

“Eric, what did I say about getting along with others!?”, Mr. Black asked angrily, “One more of those, and I am sending you to the office!”.

“Yeah, yeah…”, Eric muttered as he smirked at Kenny, who was stifling laughs behind his hands. 

“No, I will assign the pairs now…Okay, let's have…Kenny and Bebe”.

“Urgh”, Bebe let out a disgusted huff, while Kenny was wiggling his eyebrows keenly.

“Stan and Wendy”.

Stan looked up at the ceiling with wide eyes, clearly not impressed. Wendy huffed and was now putting her head together with Bebe to discuss this new development. 

“Kyle and Eric”.

“Oh, HELL NO!”, Eric called out loudly, “Sir, Sir…no, you can't, seriously, I will-”.

“You will learn to get along for this project and set aside your differences…or you'll be transferred to woodwork”, Mr. Black said sleekly.

Kyle looked furious at the pairing.

“Sir, I can't work with Eric. He won't do any work, he will-”.

“Kyle…you will set aside your differences”, Mr. Black repeated calmly.

“Ok…now…”, Mr. Black paused to consider the remaining students.

Hopefully Heidi, Tweek thought desperately. 

“Tweek and…Craig”.

Tweek froze.

Why me, he thought sadly.

“And that leaves Heidi and Clyde”.

“Sweet…don't even need to move seats”, Clyde said loudly in a chipper tone, punching the air with a muscly arm.

“You…will need to move seats for every aspect of the project”, Heidi responded in an annoyed tone.

Tweek smiled slightly. Clearly Heidi wasn't crazy about her choice of partner either. 

“Alright. So your video project needs to be at least seven minutes long, and up to ten minutes maximum. It can be a documentary, or it can be fictional. It just needs to have a story and a message behind your story. I need a story board submitted in two weeks. You can start filming at any time, but be warned that if I don't think the idea is appropriate and decline your proposal, you will need to start over. Let this be a warning to anyone who is thinking of filming anything inappropriate or illegal”.

“Can we start working on it in today's lesson?”, Wendy asked quickly. 

“You can discuss them with your chosen partners, but no filming or storyboards. I need you all to prioritise your first assignments. I will hand out the assignment sheets now and let you read them, and then you can come to me if you want to bounce ideas off me or book out a camera. Now -  very important”, Mr. Black slid off the desk and walked over to a desk with folders on it and two giant black bags underneath, “Here are the  signing in and out folders for camera 1 and camera 2. And the folder to book the editing suite next door is this bright purple one”, he gestured to a lone purple folder sitting on the opposite side of the desk.

The class nodded silently. 

Tweek chanced a look at Craig. 

His face hadn't changed. His eyes were focused intensely at Mr. Black in clear dislike. 

Dark, brooding. 

Tweek took in more of Craig's features.

He was tall - easily the tallest person in this class. He had smooth, pale skin and thick, defined black eyebrows. His deep blue eyes reminded Tweek of a frozen lake - cold and hard with no warmth behind them. His hair was untamed and charcoal black, but it suited him. He tufts of hair over his face and ears and hair that ran down the back of his neck. He had a nice, sharp nose and his lips were full and pink.  

Craig was handsome, Tweek thought, but certainly would be one hundred times better looking if he smiled once in a while. 

Then he thought that if Craig could read his thoughts right now, he would knock Tweek's block off. Or curse him in his sleep. Or murder him in his bed. 

It was official, this assignment was going to kill Tweek. 

Tweek took the opportunity for the rest of the lesson to book out a camera for Thursday night - completely unwilling to do a camera swap over with a stranger over the weekend. Wendy and Bebe got in first and got tonight's slots. Tweek then booked the editing suite for Friday afternoon. 

Once he returned to his desk, he noticed Craig doodling on his notebook. He was drawing some sort of demonic looking creature with large teeth, big flapping wings and a haunted look on its face. Despite looking absolutely terrifying, Tweek could see Craig was very artistic and good at drawing. 

“Mmph, I like your dragon…thingy”, Tweek complimented quietly as he watched Craig. 

Craig shot him a dark look, then moved the notebook further away from Tweek. He hunched his shoulders and grunted.

Great, this is going to be great, Tweek thought, rolling his eyes.  

He tried again.

“I mean it, you're very talented”, Tweek added.

Craig shot him another glare, clearly annoyed.

“It's a demon”, Craig snapped.

“Oh! Well, I still think-”.

“Can you just shut up?”, Craig asked rudely.

Tweek closed his mouth, feeling hurt. 

Tweek spent the rest of the lesson planning his short individual piece and jotting down ideas to propose to Craig for their group project.

As soon as he would write an idea down, he would cross it off.

Being new to the school

New to the town?

Frankenstein and monsters

Angels and Demons

Something with music?

He tried again with Craig, noticing it was close to the bell.

“Umm…do you have any ideas for our project?”.

“No”, Craig responded in a low voice.

“D-do you want to meet up next week and come up with some ideas?”.

“No”, Craig kept drawing, pressing his black pen firmly into the paper and putting a hole in it.

“Okay…well we need to work something out”.

“I don't care”, Craig sighed indifferently.

The bell rang. Tweek was fast to leave any classroom, but Craig was faster today. 

“Later", he muttered to Tweek as he left without a backward glance.

“I'll give you later”, Tweek huffed out under his breath to himself, packing up furiously.

Well, this is going to be bloody impossible isn't it? 

Chapter Text

On Thursday, Tweek hesitantly shuffled into Media Studies and took the same seat as last time. Only half the class had arrived at this point as it was still before the bell. Tweek noticed Bebe and Kenny having a disagreement over at the next table.

“-I got you access to the hall, the hallways and the stairs. No access to the change rooms or toilets”, Bebe was commanding.

Kenny howled out in disappointment, “What’s the point then?!”.

“To film me dancing! Ballet is an art! It’s graceful, it’s timeless…it tells a story…our story. Now -  the girls don’t mind being filmed, but if I see any boobs or bums or filming under skirts…”, she held her finger to her throat and mimicked a mock slitting action.

Kenny threw his hands up.

“This isn’t going to work, you are squashing my creative genius!”.

“YOUR creative genius is to do as I say, and keep it sophisticated and beautiful! Now, I have given Mr. Black the story board - don’t worry, I did it on my own”.

“You’re a bloody nightmare, you are! Can’t I even see it?!”.

Bebe shrugged, “By all means - it’s over by the window”.

The bell rang, and Tweek glared at the vacant chair beside him - Craig was the only member of the class who was absent.

Mr. Black walked into the room sipping his red cup of coffee and sat on the desk. 

“Right…well what are we waiting for? I can see the cameras made it back safely, but can I remind everyone to charge them before they come back please? Camera One was completely flat this morning. Now - this lesson is for you to plan either of your projects. Eric - you’ve booked the edited suite, I would get moving if I were you - but before you do, I need to chat to you about your group storyboard with Kyle”.

Cartman groaned dramatically and struggled to get to his feet.

“Hurry up, fat ass - we only have 45 minutes!”.

“Go suck a dick, Kyle”.

“HEY!”, Mr. Black scolded them loudly.

Tweek sat there bored with his head in his hands, doodling on a blank page. Well, wasn’t this wonderful, he thought sarcastically.

Not that he would be making any progress with Craig here anyway. 

He sighed deeply and started planning out his solo project. It wasn’t going to be much. He had old footage of his old town that he was going to put together to show his life then, and then briefly show his hobbies. There was no way to make him look less of a laughing stock, but there were plenty of ways that he could make it worse for himself.

He now tuned in to listen in on the conversation between Mr. Black, Cartman and Kyle. 

“-won’t do boys, you know the rules around this. You can’t set a scene at the local bank without explicit permission from them to film. It can open up a whole host of problems! That was one of the biggest barriers to running this class, second to cost of course. You can’t just take a camera into a supermarket or local business and start filming without written approval from them and submitted to me. Same as you can’t film people without their permission. Now, if you really want a bank scene, you could just do props, let the audience use their imagination-”.

“No way, Sir! That’s lame!”, Cartman complained loudly, his face tense with frustration.

“Told you, idiot. I knew we should just go with a superhero scene in the streets!”.

“We are doing superheroes, Kahl! But the bank just makes it exciting! A pretend robbery!”.

“Who are the actors then?! Stan already said no”.

“He’ll do it. Kenny’s in, aren’t you Kenny?”, Cartman called across the classroom.

“Yeah dude, only if I get to save a hot chick or something”, he smirked and winked at Bebe. Bebe scowled and turned her back to him.

“Alright boys, well I think you get the gist. Adjust to storyboard and re-submit it when you have made the necessary changes”.

Mr. Black stalked off and left Cartman looking furious, as well as Kyle looking supremely unimpressed.

“Come on fat ass, there’s some footage we can use. We haven’t filmed any fighting scenes anyway”.

Mr. Black was now standing in front of Tweek’s desk. Tweek reluctantly looked up.

“How are you going, Tweek?”.

Tweek shrugged wordlessly, then went back to doodling.

“Hmm. No sign of Craig? Have you two made any headway on your assignment?”.

“No, Sir. He, nghh, didn’t want to work on it with me”.

“Right. Well…would you like to take Camera Two and work on your individual project, then?”.

Tweek shook his head, “All the scenes I need to film are ones at home. Not, Ack! Here”.

“Ok…How about this? We were going to do some media analysis on Monday. If you want to start on that as self-directed learning, you can have some time with Craig on Monday to work on the assignment then. Deal?”.

Tweek shot him a half smile, not entirely convinced this would be at all helpful, “O-ok, sure”.

“Good man…get your book out, work through exercise one to four starting on page 57”.

Tweek nodded and dived for his bag.

_____________________________________

Tweek was right not to be optimistic about Monday’s Media Studies class. 

Once again, there was no sign of Craig. There was also no sign of Kenny or Cartman. 

Mr. Black started the lesson the moment the bell went. 

“Anyone seen bozo one and bozo two?”, he asked the class, gesturing to Kenny and Cartman’s vacant seats.

Bebe and Wendy erupted into a fit of giggles. 

“They were in math class”, Heidi reported immediately. 

“Right. What about Craig?”.

The class stayed silent, a few people shook their heads.

“Okay then”, Tolkien sighed, shooting a disappointed look at Tweek.

Great. No progress again.

“Tweek, you’ve got all your footage for your individual project, don’t you?”, Mr. Black enquired.

The whole class turned around, and Tweek’s cheeks flushed.

“Gah! N-nghh, yes!”.

“Okay, well you take the editing suite. You’ve worked through everything from today’s lesson as we discussed. Go on, off you go”.

As Tweek stood up and collected his bag, Kenny and Cartman rushed into the classroom and whizzed to their seats laughing loudly.

“No late slip again boys?”, Mr. Black asked casually as he surveyed them with interest.

“Sir, it’s like five minutes, chill”, Cartman responded obnoxiously.

“I don’t care if it’s five minutes or thirty minutes, you’ll respect the rules of this school - last warning you two”.

“Come on Sir…be cool!”, Kenny chimed in.

“This isn’t going to be a successful term for you and I if we can’t respect each other’s time”, Mr. Black replied coolly. The boys remained silent after this. 

Tweek shut the door of the Editing Suite with force and slammed his bag down. Craig was frustrating the shit out of him. Not only was Tweek sure that Craig had zero respect for him, he was also sure that he didn’t give a shit about this class either. 

He booted up the iMac and checked the date on the camera he had plugged in. He sighed in annoyance that the date had defaulted back to 01-01-2000 again. It was 2005, for one thing - and he wanted the correct dates to show up on his footage. 

As he sat and waited for the editing program to load, he thought about his options. Was he going to fail this assignment because of Craig?! No, he wasn’t! Was he going to let Craig waste his time?! No way!

He furiously slammed the headphones on and started clicking, chopping and changing his footage from home. 

He had to take action.

__________________________________________________

Craig sighed loudly as his father entered the house and took off his fake hair, hanging it on the hook. He hated that his father wore that thing. It was too obvious that it was fake, but his father was so self conscious of his balding crown. 

He then watched as his father reached for the refrigerator and grabbed out a beer.

“Hey son, how was school?”.

“Fine?”, Craig replied, monotone and observing his father move around the kitchen.

“Thought we’d have a crack at making a nice pie for dinner, want to give me a hand?”.

“Sure?”.

“Why is everything a question with today’s youth? You could at least be sure about something - or something other than those screaming banshees you listen to”. 

Craig’s father now headed for the answering machine, which was blinking a red light and pressed play eagerly. Craig headed for the fridge to pour a drink.

BEEP.

“Hello Craig, this is Tolkien Black from Media Studies. I’ve tried to contact you at school with no luck…Just calling about your continued absences in my class. Now, truancy might be your business, but Media Studies is mine. I am yet to see any progress on your individual or group assignment, you haven’t booked the Editing Suite once and I know your partner is keen to get started. You need to turn in these assignments Craig, or I won't be able to pass you. I need to start seeing some commitment to this class Craig. See you in class”.

BEEP.

Craig’s father threw Craig a filthy look.

“I didn’t know his name was Tolkien”, Craig said thoughtfully with a smirk. 

“Are you serious Craig?! You useless piece of - what’s the deal here?! What about our little chat last week, mph?! Making a new start? Giving things a go?”.

“And you never listen to me! I am not interested!”, Craig responded coldly.

His father sighed.

“Well, you better get serious, boy! It sounds like this teacher is going to give you the boot if you don’t start going to class”.

“It’s a waste of time!”.

“I thought you like film class? It was one of the ones you were most excited for”.

Craig sighed out impatiently. His father never understood him.

He didn’t like working with others.

He hated people.

The concept of a group project made him shudder. 

“Look, Craig. If you don’t pull your weight here, it’s over. I am pulling all the privileges - no internet, no music, you’ll be grounded”.

“Ooh, scary”, Craig replied sarcastically.

He didn’t care. He had spent the day in his room playing music on the stereo or on his guitar, smoking outside and playing PlayStation. 

His father slammed his empty beer down on the bench with force. 

“You want to get anywhere in life, son? You really want to be going around driving a garbage truck for a living, or washing dishes? It’s only a tier below what I do for work. I want better for you! Now start pulling your weight, or else life will get very difficult for you!”.

Craig sighed, “...Fine”.

“I’ll be calling the school daily to make sure you’re there”, his father threatened, “And if you’re not…well, we will just pack up and move again - and this time to the middle of the desert! I’m sick of this, son!”.

Craig rolled his eyes.

There was a knock at the door.

Craig’s father frowned, then answered it.

“Why hello there! What can I do for you?”.

Craig walked off, but froze the moment he heard the visitor’s reply.

“H-hi! I’m, Ack! Tweek. From Media Studies class - is Craig home?”.

Are you serious?!, Craig thought. 

How did he find out that he lived here?

“Are you now? I’m Thomas, and yes my sorry ass son is here…come in, come in!”.

Craig turned around and glowered at Tweek as he hesitantly edged into the kitchen. His eyes fell on the wig on the hook, which caused him to jump. Then his bright green eyes flickered to the dated fridge and tacky, yellow table cloth. Then his eyes snapped right to Craig’s.

Craig considered him for a moment.

A nervous ball of energy. Eyes that could hypnotize. 

Wait, what?

He didn’t just think that. He tried to review that thought - eyes that seemed to see all, eyes that told many stories. Many anxiety producing, panicked stories no doubt.

They were too big and bright.

They were too perfectly green. 

They were…something. 

“So? You a friend of Craig’s are you?”, Craig’s father asked loudly. He gestured at the fridge, “Want a juice or anything? Thought I would offer since Craig is too rude to”.

“Dad!”, Craig huffed out in protest, his cheeks flushed.

“N-No, I am okay”, Tweek replied meekly, “I’m his partner on the Media Studies assignment. I - err…just live across the road! I saw Craig come in here the other day…”.

“Ahh, I see”, Craig’s father threw Craig a meaningful glance, “Well, since you are here, why don’t you two boys go and get a start on it, hey?”.

Craig sighed in defeat.

“Fine”, he said indifferently. Visibly giving a look of indifference, but internally feeling like he was being x-rayed by Tweek’s intense stare. He wordlessly gestured his arm for Tweek to follow him.

Craig led Tweek down the narrow hallway and up the tight stairway to his room. He closed the door behind them and sat in his office chair, swinging in it and gesturing for Tweek to sit on the black beanbag in the corner.

Tweek’s eyes observed the room nervously. His eyes fell on the clothes discarded on the floor, then the band posters and then to his guitar. 

This isn’t going to work, Craig thought impatiently.

Tweek was now staring at him, which made Craig uncomfortable.

“Want to sit down? Beats standing there like an idiot”, Craig shot out, putting his elbow on his chair and resting his head on his hand. 

This seemed to flick a switch in Tweek. His face changed from being curious and soft, with his large emerald eyes scanning the room like it was looking for booby traps or potential hazards; to his eyebrows being furrowed, eyes now narrowed at Craig and a scowl on his lips.

“Rrr, no! Craig, do you even know why I am here?! God, this is so frustrating! We have wasted almost a whole God damn week of our project time because you’re…nghh, skipping class! What am I supposed to do, huh? Make a cardboard cut out of you and put you in the video?! It would surely be much more helpful than the real you!”. 

Craig was taken aback by this sudden shift in behaviour. Tweek had his hands on his hips and was almost radiating heat. He expected to see steam appearing from his ears at any moment now. 

It was…fascinating, Craig thought. 

He perked up, certainly not bored anymore. 

“I’d like to see that, actually”, he replied finally with a smirk.

“I’m serious!”.

“So am I! Look, I don’t care about the dumb project, alright? Let’s just…do what you want”.

Tweek looked thunderous. He scoffed and ran his fingers through his untamed, blonde hair. He now looked at the ceiling, like he was seeking patience from the powers above.

“It’s a group project, Craig! It only works if we are BOTH contributing!”.

Craig sighed. This guy was going to drive him mad. 

“Fine…so what do we do then?!”.

Tweek threw himself in the bean bag and gazed unfocused at the wall in front of him. 

“Nghhhhhh”, he sighed out. Then he huffed in frustration and looked at Craig, “I don’t think we will be very inspired from sitting in here…”.

“No shit”, Craig retorted.

Tweek stood up suddenly.

“Come on, then”.

Craig threw Tweek a quizzical look.

“What?”.

“Come on. The camera’s at my place. Mr. Black let me take it home, I told him I was going to track you down”.

“Track me down huh…you make me sound like your lost dog or something”

“Oh, come on! At least I am trying! Let’s just go get the camera, walk around and film some stuff…see what we can come up with”.

Tweek flung the door open and gestured his arm dramatically for Craig to follow him.

“God, it smells much better out here”, Tweek remarked loudly as they descended the stairs, “D-do you ever wash your sheets man? Or was I smelling your dirty clothes on the floor?!”.

“I get enough flack from my dad without getting it from you too”, Craig said angrily as he stared at the back of Tweek’s hair. God it was unruly, and there was a lot of it. Thick and curly and he could lose a hand in it.

Wait, what?

He shook that thought off. Probably noticing the contrast to his own father’s hair (or lack thereof). 

Craig waited impatiently outside of Tweek’s front gate for him to go and retrieve the camera. They had a nice front garden - it could rival Mrs. Smyth’s next door. 

Tweek soon returned with the camera bag slung over his shoulders and returned to the sidewalk. He pulled the camera out and flipped open the screen, turning it on. He held it up dramatically and pressed the record button.

“Ok, we are rolling. Don’t worry, we, nghh, have plenty of tape. Let’s go this way”, Tweek ordered.

“What are we even doing?! Walking the streets and filming random shit? That’s just stupid, it’s moronic direction!”.

Tweek stopped walking, pointed the camera at him and gave Craig a furious glare from behind it. 

“We just need to work out what we can agree on. Find a topic, explore it…that’s step one. I don’t see you contributing any ideas!”, Tweek snapped.

Craig thought for a moment.

“Alright…wait here”.

“Wha-?”.

Craig ran back to his place, and retrieved his skateboard. He saw Tweek was filming him.

“Skate park. I like skateboarding, do you?”.

“Umm…no!”, Tweek shot out, looking petrified.

“Come see, then”, Craig was already walking away towards the next block to the park with the skateboard park beside it.

“Wait! Where’s your helmet?!”.

“Don’t need one”. 

“Are you CRAZY?!”.

“Maybe?”.

Tweek looked bored out of his brain filming Craig skating. Craig ignored him.

Tweek wants good footage? Craig will show him good footage. 

After a good half an hour, he pulled up beside Tweek who was sitting on a nearby bench with his camera lowered.

“You aren’t filming?”, Craig enquired curiously.

Tweek shook his head, “I got what I needed”.

“What you needed?!”, Craig laughed in disbelief, “What happened to this being a group project?!”.

“Hey! I got all your tricks, you showed off enough! Let’s go do something else!”.

“God, you’re the bossiest person I’ve ever met!”, Craig gritted out. 

“Here you go, then. You take the camera”.

Tweek handed it over and shoved the bag at Craig, then started walking across the park.

It didn’t take much for Craig to catch up to Tweek - he was significantly taller than him. 

The sun was getting lower, and a warm amber light was coming through the trees and shimmering. It was reflecting off the golden hair on Tweek’s head. Craig filmed, it was a nice effect. 

“Where are we even going?!”, Craig gruffed out. He was over this.

“Stop being such an impatient dick, just follow me!”.

“Don’t swear while I am filming you”, Craig bit back.

“It’s called editing?”.

Craig sighed. He really was over this. 

They reached a creek. Flowers grew on neighbours fences which were to the left, there was thick, lush green grass filled with clovers. Rocks lined the creek, some ducks swam nearby with -

“Ducklings! Craig, come and get a shot of this!”.

“Why?”.

“They’re adorable! Look!”.

Craig sighed.

He filmed Tweek moving closer ever so carefully and crouching down about five metres away and pointing. The ducks and the ducklings wandered off towards the next row of trees.

“There’s some birds up there too”, Tweek was watching the trees in awe.

Boring.

Tweek then went over to the creek.

“We just had one main creek in my old home town. We would skim rocks. I got pretty good at it”.

Tweek picked up a smooth rock on his right and poked his tongue out, concentrating hard.

He skimmed the rock seven times across the creek.

“Not bad”, Craig commented. He bent down and picked up a rock too and skimmed it.

Three times.

“Need to practice”, Tweek smirked.

Craig glowered at him.

“Hey, I’m joking!”, Tweek smiled.

A true smile. Craig zoomed in on Tweek’s face.

He had a nice smile. Straight, white teeth. Nice lips.

Wait, what?

He shook his head.

“This is boring…can we just go?”.

Tweek sighed.

“Sure”.

They walked side by side back to their street. 

“You need new shoes”, Craig remarked as he filmed Tweek’s feet. They were a good few sizes smaller than his own, petite. He had beat up converses on, green and white.

“I walk a lot. I wear them out fast. A-and I like these shoes”, Tweek defended.

“I can’t imagine the stress that must cause you”, Craig responded sarcastically.

Tweek looked at the camera, puzzled, “I-It doesn’t? I will clean them if it bothers you”.

“Don’t do shit for me”, Craig responded with a smirk.

They reached Tweek’s gate.

“Who’s the gardener?”, Craig asked, zooming in on the blooming roses and garden beds full of flowers.

“M-me!”, Tweek stammered out, “Hey, there you go! Come see what I do!”.

“Urgh…”.

They wound up their filming as it was getting dark. Craig was rewinding their footage.

“We literally have nothing to use. A wasted afternoon. We have too many differences. We have zero in common, zero things we share as ‘interesting’. You’re impossible to work with”.

Tweek looked offended, that button pushed again as he flared up again.

But it went away as quick as it appeared. Tweek looked off into the distance unfocussed, and ran a hand slowly through his wild hair.

“I don’t think we need to get past our differences at all…I think they are worth exploring”, his intense eyes snapped to Craig, “The differences are what has made it virtually impossible to get along so far. Let’s check them out”.

“Contrast? Like…day and night?”, Craig enquired, hoping he had interpreted Tweek correctly. He didn’t want to get chewed out again.

“Exactly!”, Tweek grinned manically, “Okay, I will see when we can next book the camera!”, he then dropped the grin and looked stern, “You better come to class Wednesday!.

Craig rolled his eyes, “I have to, or we are moving to the desert apparently”.

Tweek laughed, “Right…”.

“Well…see you”, Craig shrugged and walked off across the road.

“Bye Craig!”, Tweek called out from behind him.

Craig reached his front door, his mind whirring.

What on earth was that?!

Chapter Text

Take Four: Candid

Tweek was once again left disappointed on Wednesday. 

The bell rang out loudly as he tapped his fingers impatiently on his desk, scanning the doorway for any sign of Craig. 

Mr. Black was fiddling with the TV and tape player at the front of the room, his coffee mug dangerously close to the edge of the desk while both hands were occupied. The chatter within the room echoed - Kenny and Cartman laughing loudly with Clyde and swapping stories about their projects.

“-and then Kenny didn’t double knot it, and the camera fell out of the tree and we lost the perfect shot! But then? We played it back, and it captured it with the camera swinging side to side, it actually looks kick ass!”, Cartman was bragging loudly as Kenny nodded along with a crooked smile.

Kyle, who was at his desk seated beside Stan, shot the group an irritated glance.

“I told you to let me do it - it is our project after all, fat ass”.

“You were too busy setting up the tripod and trying to scout for the ‘perfect’ vantage point! It wasted so much time, seriously. Just point and shoot, improvise”, Cartman responded with a smirk.

“That camera better have come back the way it left boys”, Mr. Black chimed in as he spun around and grabbed his coffee cup.

“Yes Sir, promise!”.

“Right-o you lot. Today’s the day your individual submissions are due, and today is the day we will start having a look at a few. This is your first piece, it’s designed to get to know each other and assess your base level of skill. Hopefully we can all learn something - not just about each other, but about our classmates' artistic flair and individual techniques in filming and editing. I am not expecting phenomenal work this early in the term - there is still a lot of theory to run through. But by the time your group assignment is due, we would have covered sufficient material to give you a base knowledge in storyboarding and filming techniques”.

Cartman chortled quietly.

“Something funny Eric?”.

“Oh…no no. Just Kahl has no level of skill or technique and it will be apparent in our video. Going to have to edit the shit out of it”.

“Shut up, you fat f-”.

“BOYS”, Mr. Black called out angrily, “Two weeks left to not just show some improvement in your skills, but also in your attitude towards one another”.

Bebe’s hand shot up.

“Sir, Kenny and I have a lot of footage to edit, can we use the Editing Suite?”.

“Unless there are any objections?”, Mr. Black addressed the class.

There was murmuring and shaking of heads.

“Right then. Clyde, you’re first up - let’s see your individual video”.

Clyde smirked and shot Bebe a wink, then placed his tape into the player and pressed play.

Tweek was only half listening, still glancing frequently at the vacant seat beside him. He couldn’t believe this. Or maybe he could - at least he knows where Craig lives and can chase him up after school. Maybe this guy will get kicked from the class soon anyway - he wasn’t here to turn in his individual assessment. 

Clyde’s video was high energy and focused on his love for football. It contained shots of him and his family watching a game on the TV and shots of his team playing from the sidelines, brief words from his coach. The shots were nothing remarkable in Tweek’s opinion - there were some good slow motion shots and fast forward techniques, and Clyde did capture a lot about his passion in the two minute duration.

Clyde smiled smugly in the directions of the girls as he ejected the tape.

“Right - any feedback?”, Mr. Black asked the class.

Cartman’s hand shot up.

“Clyde’s gay. Most of the video was leg muscles, biceps and sweat”.

Kenny chortled.

“You’re gay!”, Clyde shot back lamely, clearly unable to think of a better retort.

“Boys…well, I will tell you what I think. That this class is incapable of watching a film and providing comments on actual technique - you’re just out to rip on each other”.

“Please, Sir!”, Wendy implored, shooting an annoyed look at Kenny and Cartman, “Clyde used a combination of close ups and long shots, the close ups were effective when using interview style. He used voice over predominately to show he was the one filming. The camera was always moving. He used medium shots in slow motion and framed the shots well. And - I particularly liked the bird’s eye view from the score board of his team playing”.

Mr. Black grinned.

“Great! Yes - he did all of those things. I also think he took the brief of the assignment really well - we learned Clyde belongs to a football team, it’s been a hobby since childhood, and we got an appreciation of who he is from his coach and classmates. Finally, we saw his appreciation for the professional game, he watches it religiously with his family at home. Well done, Clyde”.

“Thank you, Sir”.

“Right…one more before you crack on with your group assignments - then we will show more at the end of class. Bebe?”.

As Bebe got up, her shoulders back and chest thrown forward - Craig edged into the room and shot a dark look at his classmates before taking a seat silently beside Tweek.

“Craig, nice of you to join us”, Mr. Black called out from beside Bebe, “Late slip?”.

“No?”, Craig’s reply was full of attitude. He slumped in his seat and slammed his notebook and pen on the table.

“Next time - or I won’t let you in. And we will sure be having a conversation with your father”.

Craig grimaced as Kenny and Cartman laughed.

“Ooh, Craig’s going to get busted!”, Cartman joked loudly, “Where were you, flipping off freshmen again?”.

Craig opened his mouth to retort, but Mr. Black cut across them.

“Cartman - last warning. One more of those today and you’re off to the office”.

Bebe’s video started playing, from what Tweek could see it was of friends like Wendy and scenes like singing and dancing. He looked sideways at Craig, who looked bored.

“Nice of you to show up”, Tweek whispered with an attitude.

“What’s with the attitude?”.

“You could be a little more punctual”.

“Get lost”.

Mr. Black shot them a look.

Once the video was over and feedback provided, they split into groups. Bebe and Kenny headed off for the Editing Suite.

“We have to work on a storyboard”, Tweek announced, standing from his seat and on a mission to grab a large piece of white paper and some pens from the supply shelf.

Craig gave him a dead pan expression but said nothing.

“Okay…so. We agreed on what we are doing here. Contrast. So maybe we call it, mmph…Light and Dark? Day and Night? Something like that?”.

“Whatever”.

“Okay…well, how about Day and Night then…”.

Tweek started to write carefully in block letters the title at the top with a green marker.

“Urgh”, Craig sighed out, clearly annoyed.

“Problem?”.

“Your writing is so cursive…hard to read”.

“They’re block letters!”.

“Still…”.

Tweek was infuriated. He capped the marker and tossed it to Craig.

“You do it, then!”.

Craig took a black marker and finished the title at a much faster pace, taking zero care at all. To Tweek, the writing looked messy and uneven.

“Oh, that’s much better”, Tweek said sarcastically, narrowing his eyes at the title.

“I agree, it looks stupid with what you did”.

Tweek huffed.

This guy was such an asshole.

“Never mind! We don’t have the time to waste…now, draw some blocks, let’s put in some of the stuff we got already”.

“What did we even get?”, Craig asked, looking irritated.

“Well…your skateboarding…we got some back and forth on our differences there…”.

Tweek was drawing figures and chatting animatedly about how their current footage could work. Craig just looked bored. Monotone in his responses, deadpan in his facial expressions. Attitude behind his sighing and grunting. Giving off the air of somebody who clearly didn’t want to be there.

Tweek didn’t care. He had Craig in the classroom unable to leave without consequences, he was going to make sure they make progress this lesson.

“So, Mr. Black said we can have a camera again over the weekend. He said you might also need it for your individual project since you haven’t handed that in”, Tweek announced, forgetting to tell Craig earlier.

Craig gave Tweek a withering look.

“What?”.

“What part didn’t you understand?”, Tweek shot back.

“The part where you implied we are doing work over the weekend”.

Tweek lost it. It had been building for a while now. This guy absolutely infuriated him.

“Are you kidding me?! What did you expect?! I’m sorry if your time is so precious, Craig…but we have TWO WEEKS LEFT! For ALL OF IT! Filming, editing, storyboard…time is ticking, asshole!”.

Stan spun around in his seat and shot them an annoyed look.

“You guys willing to take your argument elsewhere? Wendy and I are trying to work here”.

“Why don’t you go work at one of the long tables?”, Tweek enquired.

“Why don’t you go and argue at one of the long tables?”.

Tweek shot up from his seat and looked at Craig.

“Coming?”.

Craig groaned and stood up, rubbing his temples.

“This project can’t be over quick enough”, Craig complained. 

“You and me both”, Tweek shot back. 

At that moment, Bebe dramatically burst into the room and shot an angry look over her shoulder. Kenny was hot on her heels.

“I can’t believe you!”, she shouted angrily, looking at Mr. Black to get attention.

The class watched with great interest.

“Hey, look…I got lots of footage! You just haven’t seen it all yet!”.

“ALL I HAVE SEEN SO FAR IS SHOTS OF GIRL’S CHESTS AND BUMS!”, she shrilled out, her wild curls bouncing and eyes livid.

“It’s like…20% of the footage tops!”, Kenny argued back with a smirk, “I PROMISE you, I got some good dancing in there”.

“I am NOT using any of that footage!”, Bebe said with determination, shaking her head.

“Kenny, is what Bebe saying true?”, Mr. Black finally cut in.

“Sir…I just appreciate the delicate, beautiful female form. The physique of the dancer is important, right?”.

Bebe fired up again, “The legs! The whole form, the arms! Not up skirts and zooming in on cleavage!”.

Clyde laughed loudly, then fell silent when Bebe threw him a nasty look.

“Sir, I can’t work with this buffoon…”, Bebe sighed out, an imploring look in her eyes.

“Too bad”, Mr. Black shrugged, “This is the film industry. You don’t like the footage? You trawl through the entire lot, and if you need more - you go back to the drawing board - or the camera”.

Bebe let out a frustrated groan and spun on her heel, then stormed back to the Editing Suite.

“She will see…I got some good shit”, Kenny remarked to the group as he followed her.

Tweek looked at Craig, who was watching the interaction with narrowed eyes.

“Nghh, Craig…what’s it going to be, then? Friday after school or Saturday?”.

Craig grumbled and made direct eye contact with Tweek.

It made Tweek jump. His expression was vacant, and his eyes like ice chips. Deep blue with a hint of steel grey. Void of emotion.

“I am not extending Friday’s school day out…make it Saturday then…I dunno…after lunch? I like my sleep”.

“Fine. Come to my place at 1. If you don’t…I'll come to you. Don’t be late”.

“Why your place?”.

“...I dunno. Maybe see if you find anything interesting to film - we did your place. Besides, your room reeks. I don’t particularly wish to, nghh, repeat that experience!”.

Tweek saw Craig’s eyes roll, but he otherwise didn’t react to the insult.

“So be it”.

When the bell rang, Tweek and Craig packed up quickly.

“Dismissed! Alright, see you all next time. Craig - a word before you go please”.

Tweek shot Craig a look of enquiry, then took off.

Whatever. Not his problem.

______________________________________

“Sir?”, Craig asked in a bored voice once he and Mr. Black were alone in the classroom. He tossed his bag on his back and leaned against the first row of desks where Stan and Kyle usually sit.

“Your individual assessment piece. Where is it?”.

“Umm. It isn’t done?”, Craig answered. He rolled his eyes again.

“It was due today Craig. Whilst I am not surprised given you haven’t taken the camera or booked the Editing Suite once, I expect better. I expect you to meet deadlines. One more incident like this and you are out of the class - got it?”.

“Fine”.

“I’ll give you an extra week. A do-over, if you will. Now, Mr. Tweak has the camera booked for-”.

“I know. He told me”.

Mr. Black shot him a knowing look.

“At least Mr. Tweak is looking out for you. How has it been working with him on the group project so far?”.

“Terrible”.

Mr. Black sighed.

“Is everyone ‘terrible’ to you? Give it a chance. This world isn’t full of bad people and death and despair. Try and find some good in it”.

Craig rolled his eyes again. He had heard this shit before.

“May I ask if there are any significant barriers to you completing this by next Wednesday? Everything okay at home?”.

“Everything is fine”.

“Right then. So what's the problem?”.

This guy wasn’t going to let up.

“Nothing! It’s just…I don’t like doing work about myself, alright? I don’t like ‘showing myself off’ or being the subject of interest”.

“Common problem. Everyone gets nervous about filming themselves, Craig. Everyone”.

“It’s not that…I can be on camera…just…don’t like it being about me”.

“Okay…well, have you considered more of the voice over angle like Clyde did?”.

“I suppose…”.

“It’s an open project of expression, Craig. Use it to your advantage. It isn’t prescriptive. Have an open mind”.

“Yes…Sir. Fine. Okay”.

“Good man. Now, I would suggest you go and write up a booking now for the Editing Suite, because it has been competitive”.

Craig sighed. This whole thing was exhausting.

“Okay?”.

“Good man:”.

_________________________________

 Craig crossed the road to the Tweak household at 1:15pm on Saturday. As he entered the gate and walked to the front door, the front door swung open and revealed an irritated looking Tweek, dressed black cargo shorts and an olive green button up. His hair was as wild as ever and blew in the wind as he placed his hands on his hips and tapped his foot impatiently.

“And where have you been? I was about to come and get you!”, Tweek shot out.

“Cut the attitude, let’s just do this thing”, Craig retorted. 

Tweek sighed out and moved aside for Craig to enter.

The first thing Craig noticed is that the Tweak home smelt strongly of coffee. The smell assaulted his nostrils. He also noticed more natural light entering the home, it didn’t give off the vibe of a bachelor pad like his place. It had a softer look - plush couches, photo frames lining the walls, flowering pot plants.

“Want a coffee?”, Tweek offered, reaching for his signature thermos that Craig recognised from class.

“I’ll pass…”.

“Water? Soda?”.

“Coke?”.

“Sure…”.

Tweek gestured for Craig to follow him upstairs and along a plush carpeted hallway to Tweek’s room. 

Tweek’s room contrasted Craig’s in just about every possible way. It was spotless. The curtains were opened, whereas Craig preferred his closed. He had twine pinned to the walls with Polaroid photos pegged to them - rows and rows of Tweek with people Craig did not know or random photos of plants or animals. He had fairy lights above his bed head. There were paintings on his walls rather than posters - bright, cheerful and colourful. His bed was made, not one crease in his green sheets or white blanket. His desk was tidy and contained a laptop, neatly stacked books and stationary. He had a TV at the end of the bed. 

“Got the camera? This is a contrast right here. Proof has to be recorded”, Craig remarked, setting his Coke down on Tweek's desk and squinting from the brightness. 

“Thanks? I picked up on that”, Tweek shot back, heading for his office chair and grabbing the camera bag that sat on top. He handed it to Craig carefully, who unpacked it on Tweek’s bed and booted it up.

“Am I okay to record? Or am I taping over something?”.

“Nghh, no - you’re fine”.

Craig filmed for a bit while Tweek stood there stiffly and looking uncomfortable. His emerald green eyes reflected the sunlight as he looked off to the side and cleared his throat.

Craig watched Tweek as he filmed.

“Who are all these people?”, Craig asked nosily, hoping to get a rise out of Tweek. He didn’t know why he was doing it, but he was dying to see this side of Tweek again.

“My friends from my old town…and stuff we used to do”, he said quietly.

“You look happy”.

“I was”.

“Not anymore?”.

“Nghh…not really? I didn’t want to move here”.

“Me either”.

Craig considered Tweek for a moment. Something in common…unreal.

“This place blows, doesn’t it?”, Craig asked, almost sympathetically. He saw emotion behind Tweek’s bright eyes as they locked with his.

“Uhh. Yeah. See, my mom got the job here at the school…so we had to move. Better opportunity for her”.

“Do you think you’ll go back there once you leave school? Your old town, I mean”.

Tweek shrugged.

“I get what you mean. I don’t know what I am doing, either”.

Tweek smiled slightly.

“Nghh…well. This is it? This is me, I guess?”.

“What is with the paintings?”.

“I did those”.

Craig zoomed in on them and panned the camera.

“They’re good”, he said finally.

But inside, he was genuinely impressed. They were striking, as much as Craig didn’t do colour. Tweek was talented. He mostly focussed on scenery and floral paintings, but they were good. Really good.

“Just one of the ways I spend my time…I am doing Art as a subject at school too”.

“Is painting your favourite form of art?”.

“I guess? I like to sketch too though. On paper. I don’t do much digital stuff…I reserve that for photography and film”.

“You’re artistic”, Craig commented out loud.

“I guess?”.

“Don’t guess…know. I see it”.

Tweek folded his arms and watched Craig quietly. He looked - embarrassed?

He felt like he was peaking into Tweek’s soul. Getting a slight preview, an orientation to who Tweek Tweak is. And surprisingly, he wasn’t completely horrified. 

“C-can we go?”, Tweek enquired finally. Craig realised he had been filming for almost ten minutes.

“Sure”.

___________________________________

Not surprising to Craig, their bickering continued as they roamed seeking footage.

Tweek showed Craig his garage and a painting he is working on - it looked like it was of the garden outside.

“Do some painting or some shit. Blow us away”, Craig requested as Tweek gestured at the painting.

“Are you serious?! That’s way too much pressure!”.

“Why? It’s just paint. Just slap some of that cobalt blue tube there onto the corner and give us an idea of what you do”.

“What?! That’s a terrible colour choice! Are you colour blind or something? What if I make a mistake?! That’s a wasted canvas!”.

“Well…what colour would you choose?”.

Tweek huffed.

“Yellow. That plant has yellow roses on it. It’s my favourite”.

“Roses? Or yellow?”.

“The plant! My favourite plant outside! Gah! You don’t listen!”.

“I do, you were just ambiguous!”.

Tweek grabbed a tube of paint and his palette and cleared his throat. Then he gently put his smock on.

After painting they moved on to the outdoors again.

“Sports?”, Tweek asked, gesturing at a basketball court.

“No. Just skateboarding. You?”.

“Boxing”.

Craig stopped dead.

“What did you say?!”.

“Boxing”.

“You fucking BOX?!”.

“Umm…yeah”.

“Well?! Show us that!”.

“But then we have to go back to my place”.

“Who cares? That's interesting for the film - take a swing at me - go on”.

“Oh yeah, and break the camera”, Tweek responded sarcastically, “You’re an idiot!”.

But they ended up at the Tweak home again.

“No one is home…why?”.

“Parents work?”, Tweek answered vaguely. He did not volunteer any more information and led them out to the backyard.

A punching bag was hanging from the porch, and some black and green gloves were seating neatly on the outdoor table.

“I guess I need to look the part”, Tweek frowned then looked at Craig intensely again, “I’ll be back”.

Craig filmed around the yard for a while, waiting for Tweek. Bored out of his brain. Hopefully boxing would be far more exciting. He needed to see it to believe it. Tweek was slim and short, he couldn’t imagine much strength behind him.  

Tweek returned and Craig felt his jaw drop in shock.

He wore an airy, green singlet and short, black shorts with green stripes down the sides.

Tweek looked good, Craig thought.

His muscles on his upper arms were defined. He had strong looking pecs, a flat stomach and his abs were toned. His skin was pale and flawless, Craig couldn’t see any hair. His legs also appeared free of hair. Lean but toned. 

“A-are you ready?”, Tweek enquired, looking curious at Craig standing frozen gaping at him.

“Yeah…just didn’t expect the get up”.

Tweek tutted and grinned.

“I did say I needed to look the part!”, he teased.

Holy God, this is unexpected.

Craig lifted the camera eagerly and pressed record.

Tweek had moves. He was strong. Viscous looking punches, powerful kicks. His face was focussed. He looked determined, confident and in his element. 

Craig didn’t want to admit it, but he was blown away.

He started to feel confusing feelings. This guy irritated him. He was annoying as hell. He was nothing like Craig at all. 

But those thoughts he had the other day about Tweek’s eyes. His hair. His smile.

Craig also knew he didn’t like girls. He didn’t really know if he liked guys, either.

Okay, that was a lie. He had checked out guys. He was attracted to guys. He thought about guys. He had watched porn with guys - it appealed to him.

But he had never breathed a word about it to anybody.

As he watched Tweek, he started to feel funny.

No, you can’t. Not this guy. It’s just because he’s showing skin. And he’s attractive. And strong. And he’s cute. And…yeah, he’s hot.

There, Craig admitted it to himself.

He found Tweek hot.

He hid behind the camera, desperately burying those feelings down deep.

Well, those feelings are never seeing the light of day.

____________________________________

“Another pointless afternoon”, Craig complained loudly as Tweek, now back in his usual clothes, walked him back to his place. Tweek was keen to see one more element of Craig today before wrapping up with filming.

Craig was purposely avoiding eye contact. Determined to not show emotion. Determined to let his thoughts from earlier disappear into the abyss.

“Are you joking?! We got some great stuff! Nghh, why are you always so…Gah! Negative ALL THE TIME?!”, Tweek shot back, waiting for Craig to find his keys.

“Saving myself disappointment. Easier to expect nothing than be hopeful”.

“How positively delightful. You must be so much fun to hang out with”.

“You tell me”.

“This? This is working on a project, man. I wouldn’t say we are exactly friends here”.

“We aren’t”, Craig said confidently, gesturing Tweek up the stairs.

“Nghh, your room stinks so bad!”, Tweek complained as Craig opened the bedroom door.

“Deal with it”.

Craig had left his guitar out.

“Oh? You been playing today?”, Tweek asked keenly, nodding in approval.

“Yeah?”, Craig asked. How annoying, what an unnecessary question. He didn’t know why this was such a shock. Tweek saw the guitar last time he was here.

“Can I see?”, Tweek enquired, making a grabby hand for the camera.

Craig sighed.

Oh, Hell. Here we go.

“I don’t do vocals”, Craig informed him, grabbing his electric guitar and getting ready.

Tweek sat meekly on the other side of the bed and sat patiently with the camera. Craig kept flicking his eyes at Tweek, then scolding himself each time his eyes drifted.

Stop it, you are not helping yourself by looking at him.

“Okay, ready?”, Craig asked, not looking at Tweek.

“Yeah, go”.

Craig started to play the riff for ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns N’ ’Roses. 

He flicked his gaze to Tweek again.

He was smiling from behind the camera.

Craig kept going.

Then Craig got the shock of his life when Tweek started to sing.

“She's got a smile that it seems to me

Reminds me of childhood memories

Where everything was as fresh

As the bright blue sky

Now and then when I see her face

She takes me away to that special place

And if I stared too long

I'd probably break down and cry”

Craig almost dropped the guitar on the spot.

Tweek’s voice was beautiful. Melodic. Smooth as velvet. Like honey.

Craig felt his cheeks burn and kept playing.

“Whoa, oh-oh

Sweet child o' mine

Whoa, oh-oh-oh

Sweet love of mine”

Craig couldn’t help it. He made eye contact with Tweek and watched him as he played.

“She's got eyes of the bluest skies

As if they thought of rain

I'd hate to look into those eyes

And see an ounce of pain”

“Her hair reminds me of a warm, safe place

Where as a child I'd hide

And pray for the thunder and the rain

To quietly pass me by”.

The song came to an end, and Tweek sang the last line beautifully.

“Where do we go?

Whoa-oh, where do we go now?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, sweet child

Sweet child of mine”.

They still locked eyes with each other once Craig stopped playing and Tweek sang his last note. Tweek lowered the camera slightly.

“T-T-That was good”, he stammered, taking a big breath and clearing his throat awkwardly.

“Yeah”, Craig commented, deliberately looking away again.

“W-well. That…that was…yeah. Good footage. You play well, you know”.

Craig nodded.

“Well…I am going to umm…go. T-thanks for today. I will leave you the camera for...Gah! Your individual project...thing”.

Tweek stood awkwardly and avoided Craig’s eyes, crossing the room and leaving the room at top speed.

Craig sat there in deep thought. 

What. The. Fuck. 

Chapter Text

Take Five: Rough Cut

Before Monday’s Media Studies class commenced, Tweek ensured that he had booked the Editing Suite for both himself and Craig for the slot directly after school on Wednesday. There were very few slots left and Craig hadn’t arrived for today’s lesson yet - so Tweek made the executive decision that he therefore didn’t get a say.

The loud chatter in the classroom fell quiet once the bell rang and the students noticed Mr. Black had put another tape in from the individual class assignments for them to watch. Tweek slid into his seat and looked up just in time to notice Craig strolling carelessly into the classroom. His facial expression was forbidding, he had a battered looking blue chullo shoved on his head, with his raven black hair poking out carelessly messy from underneath it, and he wore another all black ensemble with black and white Converse. He was holding the camera bag loosely in his right hand. 

He wordlessly tossed the borrowed camera back on the shelf and then continued to carry his backpack to the only vacant desk - his usual spot beside Tweek. 

“Right folks, happy Monday! So I thought we would get started by viewing Stan and Tweek’s individual projects…”.

Tweek’s heart started beating erratically. He knew this moment would come - where he had to bare his soul to the entire class and have his individual assessment piece played for the entire class to view and critique. He knew it was only for nine other classmates and the teacher, but he still felt his palms start to sweat and his legs start bouncing under the desk. He also winced as he dared to side-eye Craig. 

Craig was here. Craig would see his video and Tweek was certain he would make a snide remark or two. Tweek was torn between the positive and negative of Craig sitting beside him - sure, he was in attendance today which hopefully meant they could get some work done on the project - but on the other hand, Tweek wished that if anybody could be absent while his video played, that it would be Craig.

It was no longer the fact that Craig was an absolute asshole AND the most irritating person Tweek had ever met.

It was more - and it all changed on Saturday. 

Saturday was the day that Tweek noticed cracks forming in Craig’s resolve. The day he noticed there was more to the dark, tough exterior. Tweek was always good at seeing the best in people and good at figuring people out. Saturday was the day he really got a glimpse of Craig underneath it all. The many layers of apathy and repressed anger attempting to conceal something else - aspects of Craig that Tweek did not find absolutely off-putting. 

Craig had smirked a few times during their time together and made a few remarks that were almost jokes. He had been inside Tweek’s bedroom - his safe space - and  filmed his paintings with his mouth hanging agape and his eyes focussed in awe on Tweek’s works. He had enquired about Tweek’s feelings about moving here, his photos, his old life -  like he almost…genuinely wanted to know? They then shared a moment where they both discovered they felt mutual on not wanting to move here. Both their lives had been uprooted and they had both ended up here, somewhere they did not want to be. They had something in common - Tweek never expected for that to happen in a million years. 

Having Craig in his room was an intimate experience for Tweek. It wasn’t just grabbing a camera and setting off, it was Craig also experiencing in return who Tweek really was. He was capturing footage and understanding the components that make up Tweek as he went. Tweek saw Craig’s mind working as he was filming. He wasn’t bored - no. To Tweek, Craig seemed almost curious, like he was putting together pieces of a puzzle.

Then there was the boxing. Tweek always lost himself in his boxing - he got into it young after being targeted by bullies time and time again in elementary school and showed he had a natural knack for it. It was also a way he could defend himself, so his parents fostered it - he did lessons that led to small competitions. He certainly did not compete anymore, but he still kept up with it for fitness and enjoyment of the sport. 

Once Tweek was punching and kicking in front of Craig, he lost himself to his passion. But that did not mean he had not noticed Craig staring. Tweek didn’t know what Craig was thinking - but he could at least tell that he wasn’t bored. He seemed engrossed and fascinated. Perhaps because he didn’t expect this of Tweek - nobody ever did. People underestimated him.

Finally, there was the moment Craig started playing the guitar. Tweek was blown away. Craig held the guitar with such passion. His whole demeanor changed as he started to play. It was like Craig was truly home. Just him and his guitar. When he started playing a song Tweek loved, Tweek felt it in his soul. He was moved. He had expected it to be some unpleasant heavy rock song to fill the room and make Tweek want to cover his ears and run for the hills; but no. It was nice. Tweek couldn’t help it, he got lost in the moment. He started singing. After all - Craig doesn’t do vocals, apparently. 

Tweek noticed it the moment he started singing. Craig looked at him, and for the very first time Tweek saw emotion behind his eyes. It drew Tweek in. He kept singing, and Craig kept playing. Uncomfortable feelings stirred inside Tweek. He had a want - no, a need to see more. Craig played so perfectly, with such precision and passion. There was raw emotion behind every strum, his face moved between Tweek and the guitar. And Tweek noticed it now more than ever - Craig was handsome. 

But who is the real Craig? From what Tweek knew, he is such an asshole Tweek knew he couldn’t wait for this project to be over so that he could be well shot of him. This was all too confusing, too overwhelming. When the song ended, Tweek had to go. He needed to process what he had just experienced. What he had just seen from Craig, what he had heard. 

And he still hadn’t processed it. It was too much. And besides - he couldn’t have feelings for Craig! If Craig ever found out that Tweek was gay and felt something for him, Craig would deck him. He’d be a goner. He wouldn’t just be murdered in his bed in the middle of the night, he’d be killed slowly and painfully - Craig would tear him limb from limb…

Stan’s video had just finished, and the class was providing feedback. Tweek was a million miles away - only capturing a glimpse of Stan playing guitar and singing in his garage and some shots of him and Kyle. He was now snapped back to reality as Mr. Black said his name and was loading his tape into the player. 

Tweek bit his lip and hugged himself protectively as Mr. Black pressed play on Tweek’s video. 

Tweek’s video was only ninety seconds. He didn’t need two minutes. What did he want to portray about himself? Preferably nothing. But there was no way around it. He had to give them something.  

The video opened with footage from his phone panning out the window as his family left his old town, and footage out the window of arriving at their new one. He had used some photos of his old life to represent happiness and friendship, and connection to his old town. He had old footage of his friends going camping together, hanging out by the creek and walking through daisy fields. A photo of them all lying on their backs in a circle laughing. He made these fade to black and white - to signify it was in the past. Then he had used some tripod shots of him painting on fast forward, himself in the frame - paintings of the sunrise and of a butterfly emerging from a cocoon - to symbolise change and new beginnings. A shot of him in his room, setting it up and then looking out the window. The last shots were of him putting on his boxing gloves and walking forwards, to signify staying strong and fighting to move forward.

He didn’t use voice over. But he did use sound effects and music. And he was confident in the shots he took - he took special care to demonstrate technique in framing and storytelling. He ensured that he used a variety of different shots to tell the story.

Tweek was now fumbling with his hands in his lap and staring down at it. He didn’t dare look at Craig.

“Okay”, Mr. Black said once the video stopped, “Feedback?”.

Tweek heard muffled laughs, then a cackle. He looked up slowly in the direction he expected it to be coming from - Cartman and Kenny’s.

He heard a whisper, “fag”.

“Anyone?”, Mr. Black asked the class again.

Heidi’s hand hesitantly went up.

“It symbolised a chapter in Tweek’s old life closing, and focused on change and new beginnings from moving here. I thought it was clever. I liked the contrast between the black and white shots and the colour for what is new. Tweek used still shots and moving shots, close ups and distance. I liked the time lapse shots. He showed us a lot in ninety seconds. It told a story”.

Mr. Black nodded.

Heidi looked back at Tweek and smiled. Tweek flashed her a small smile in return.

“Anyone else?”.

“There’s no way he really does any boxing, what an absolute joke”, Cartman commented loudly, not bothering to raise his hand, “He hangs out with chicks, he looks like a chick, he paints and has a hard on for nature…what did I even just watch?”.

Kenny chortled beside him.

Mr. Black looked furious.

“Right, you’re done!”, he walked behind his desk and was filling out a red slip - a one way ticket to the principal’s office.

“Oh, come on Sir! You asked for feedback! I was being honest!”.

“And constructive criticism is not in your vocabulary”, Mr. Black responded angrily, “Not one thoughtful insight into what Tweek was trying to portray here. Just character assassination”.

He walked over to Cartman and wordlessly handed him the slip, then pointed at the door.

Tweek froze as Craig spoke up suddenly, not bothering to raise his hand either. 

“Tweek does box - I have seen it. And he’s good at it too. This fat fuck over here couldn’t box a hole in a paper bag”.

The class rang out in laughter.

“Really, Tucker? What’s really going on in those filming sessions eh? Got a thing for the twink fairy here?”.

Craig shot him a murderous look, flipped him off and then opened his mouth to reply. But Mr. Black got there first.

“Low blow, Eric. Really mature. Now keep moving - get out of here before I have to call your mother”.

Even Kenny was laughing now as Cartman shot a smirk at Craig and Tweek and took his exit.

“Right. Well Tweek, I think you did a great job. I really saw some skill in your filming techniques, your editing was above average for so early in the term and I like that you showed emotion and made people feel. Do you really do boxing?”.

“Mmph, yeah”, Tweek answered quietly, nodding.

Stan let out a low whistle and Kyle turned around and gave Tweek a nod, apparently impressed. 

“Ok, well let’s get on with it. Craig, you’ve got the Editing Suite to finish off your individual project - did you bring your footage?”.

Craig scowled but then nodded and wordlessly stood up, grabbing his backpack. 

The class started to move around and commence conversations, scraping of chairs and voices echoing around the room.

“Hey Craig? Thanks”, Tweek said as Craig went to walk off, “Nngh, I booked the Editing Suite for us Wednesday after school”.

“Whatever”.

And then Craig walked away from Tweek without a backwards glance.

________________________________________

On Wednesday afternoon, Tweek sat on his own in the Editing Suite with the headphones on and reviewing the raw footage.

Craig was a no show. 

Tweek was furious, huffing at any small frustration like the software freezing up for a few moments or something taking too long to load. 

He told Craig about the booking. Craig said “whatever”, but it was still an acknowledgement. 

He was doing his best to put something together on his own, but he felt aimless. It wasn’t working. The ideas were vague, but he had no inspiration. No drive, no direction.

There was a small knock at the door and Tweek rolled his chair back to unlock it, putting the headphones around his neck.

It was Heidi.

“Oh, hey Tweek. Umm…I booked the room at 4 so…still have half an hour. I was just seeing if anyone was actually here in case I could start early”.

“Mmph, sorry”, Tweek apologised sincerely. He rolled his chair back to the computer to gaze at the frozen scene on the screen - Craig skateboarding. 

“So…how’s it all going? With Craig I mean?”.

Tweek snorted, “Living nightmare”.

“Did he even show up to help you today? He was in Media Studies”.

“Yeah, but he got the lesson again to edit his individual piece. I saw him hand it in though, so at least that’s done”.

“I don’t know how you’re coping working with him. I would have lost it by now. He seems like such a douche bag! Doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything except for himself”.

Tweek shrugged, “Yeah, but he has co-operated somewhat. Mind you, it’s only because he lives across the street and I’ve been hounding him”.

Heidi looked surprised, “Really?! Across the street?! Jesus Tweek. Are there dark clouds and thunderstorms hanging over the house? He seems like he’s come from the undead or something”.

Tweek laughed as he put one headphone on and resumed the footage, “No, nothing like that”.

“Hmm. Okay. Well, good luck I guess?”.

“Thanks”.

She closed the door again and Tweek kept chopping the footage.

Tweek watched the footage closely. It was interesting seeing it from the other side. He focused on Craig’s facial expressions and body language. He was comfortable here at the skate park. Just like Tweek was with his boxing, skateboarding was where Craig felt in his element. There were aspects of Craig’s ego coming out - he knew he was good at what he did. He seemed not to give two shits that he didn’t have a helmet on - like he thought he was ten foot tall and bullet proof. He was defying death in Tweek’s opinion. 

Tweek found himself smirking. Show off. 

Wait, shouldn’t he be annoyed?

Gah, this was confusing.

There was another knock at the door.

Tweek tutted as he rolled the chair back again to open the door.

This time it was Craig, his deadpan expression painstakingly obvious. He was still in the same clothes he wore to Media Studies earlier today but he reeked of cigarette smoke.

“Oh? You ACTUALLY decided to make an appearance? How thoughtful of you”, Tweek greeted coldly as he wheeled his chair back to the desk.

Craig walked in and shut the door wordlessly and threw himself in the second chair.

“Yeah? Maybe be grateful I showed up at all”.

Tweek felt his temper rising sharply.

Is this guy for real?!

“GRATEFUL?!”, he screeched, the headphones now back on his shoulders, “We have twenty minutes left! I’ve already been here for forty minutes trying to figure it out on my own, nghhh, you just don’t give a shit at all, do you?!”.

“Not really”.

“Does it not even strike some concern in you that we could FAIL this assignment? Be KICKED OUT OF THE CLASS?!”, Tweek’s voice got louder. He shook his head in disbelief as Craig just blinked back at him, looking extremely unconcerned. 

“Why would it concern me? It hasn’t happened yet. Why stress about it? It will sort itself out”, Craig shrugged and crossed his arms as he gazed at the ceiling.

“SORT IT-SORT ITSELF OUT?! ARE YOU JOKING?!”, Tweek had lost all control now. He snatched the headphones from around his neck and threw them onto the desk, “How -HOW DO YOU FIGURE IT’LL JUST ‘SORT ITSELF OUT’?! It doesn’t just HAPPEN, Craig!? Nghhh!”, he reached and tugged at his hair, elbows on the desk. He couldn’t even look at him, it triggered him too much to see that bored expression. 

“We have a week and a half! Plenty of time”.

“Plenty…of…”, Tweek muttered to himself. Then he shot an angry look at Craig.

“Do you even know if we have enough footage? Do you know how much we have to go through and decide on? Is our storyboard done? Spoiler alert, the answers are no, no and NO!”.

“You need to learn to relax”, Craig responded coldly.

“Relax?! RELAX?! Craig…this is actually A LOT OF WORK! We only get, ngghh, limited time to edit! A-and I think we need more footage of you anyway!”.

Craig sighed.

“What we have is fine”.

“You haven’t even reviewed the footage!”.

“Well I don’t need to, I was there!”.

“ARE YOU SERIOUS Craig?!”, Tweek cried out in frustration, “T-that defeats the whole purpose of….nghh…needing to review the footage! You need to see what the camera captured! What if we messed up the shots? What if I had a finger over the lens? Oh God, I hope not!”, Tweek’s anxiety spiked.

Craig glowered at Tweek. Then he dropped his voice to a dangerous tone. 

“Take. A. Chill. Pill. You. Freak”. 

Every syllable seemed laced with dislike.

Tweek stood up from his chair, tears burning in his eyes.

He’d had enough. 

“You know what?! If you are SO SURE we have nothing to be worried about, then you do it! Here! I am DONE doing MY part for the GROUP PROJECT! I don’t care anymore! Try and figure out what I have done already, because you know, ‘IT WILL SORT ITSELF OUT’!!” Tweek shot out vehemently. He then threw Craig a furious glance as he stormed out of the room.

____________________________________________

Craig let the door slam. The noise vibrated through the Editing Suite as he sat in the chair alone. He threw his hands up in the air and shook his head in disbelief. 

Tweek had a screw loose, alright. Why was he wound so tight? Why can’t he just take a breath? He’d certainly be far more fun to be around if he could let the pressure unwind now and again and take his anxiety down a few notches. Maybe not be such a loose cannon and berate him all the time. He’d look far more attractive, too - like he did when he was boxing, or when he was singing along to the guitar.

Wait, what?

He reviewed what Tweek had done so far. Not much. Just had started a new editing file and chopping up a bunch of footage.

Actually - that was quite a bit of work, Craig reconsidered. There were almost fifty cuts here.

Tweek had started placing some footage. Craig pressed play to see Craig’s messy room and a voiceover of Tweek commenting on the smell, and then a transition to Tweek’s sunny, spotless room where Craig had said ‘proof has to be recorded’.

Craig smirked. 

That was actually well done.

He then looked at some other cuts Tweek had done. Craig skateboarding and Tweek landing a good punch on the punching bag. 

Craig had got a good shot of that. It was close up and captured Tweek’s face in full as he landed punches on the bag. Craig noticed Tweek’s muscles on his arms tensing and relaxing and how toned and lean he was.

He felt his pants tighten.

Oh no.

He couldn’t help it, he watched the footage a few times more and indulged in a few more of the videos of Tweek boxing. 

As he felt his pants get more uncomfortable, he realised he had to stop. He desperately scrolled down on the screen and found some footage of the guitar scene. Maybe he could work with this and get rid of…that problem by keeping busy on editing this part. 

Ten minutes in, Craig realised that wasn’t going to work either. Those uncomfortable feelings were back now as he watched himself play on the guitar, but heard Tweek’s honey-like voice singing beside the camera.  It was great footage, he decided as he made cuts and attempted to do a rough job of showing some progress for Tweek.

He didn’t know why he was doing this, or why it was so important to show Tweek he wasn’t completely useless. He buried feelings deeper of needing to prove himself of having skill as he now focused completely on the task at hand.

A knock on the door came promptly at 4pm.

Craig ignored it.

Five past.

Ten past. 

There was now a lot of shouting and banging on the door that was getting harder to ignore.

Sighing impatiently, Craig unlocked the door and wheeled his chair back.

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING? HAVE SOME RESPECT FOR PEOPLE’S TIME YOU ASSHOLE”, Heidi fumed once the door was finally open.

“Sorry”, Craig shrugged as he dropped the headphones on the desk and brushed past her to leave.

“I-YOU…I AM TELLING MR. BLACK!”, she thundered after him.

“Yeah, okay”.

Why should Craig care?

Chapter Text

It surprised even Craig himself that he made significant progress on the editing for the group project. In the half an hour he had spent in the Editing Suite he managed to place many of the cuts that Tweek had made to flow into a story of contrast between the two of them. He had also chosen a song he would put along the footage of himself and was getting ideas for what track would suit to play against Tweek’s footage. It had to be more gentle, softer than the song against Craig’s footage. Contrast. 

He had even had other filming ideas come to mind to contrast against the footage he had taken of Tweek. This caused him to privately agree that Tweek was correct - they didn’t have enough variety of footage of Craig. Sure, the skateboarding was fine. And he knew they had the guitar footage. But there was more that Craig could do. 

He was on a roll, and once he was forced out of the Editing Suite by Heidi he made a beeline straight for the cameras and booked out Camera Two to take it home overnight. The ideas that had struck him were flowing with unstoppable momentum. 

Craig was lost in his own thoughts as he took the path to his front door. 

“Yoo hoo!”, a screechy, woman’s voice hit his ear drums from close range.

Mrs Smyth was up against the fence holding her hose in one hand and waving with another. She was squinting in Craig’s direction. 

“What?”, Craig asked shortly, grabbing his keys from his pocket.

“You’d catch a lot more flies with honey”, she responded tartly.

Craig screwed his face up.

“What?!”.

“Pardon!”, she corrected him, waving a finger at him, “Is your father home?”.

“No?”, Craig answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“He’s such a nice man. Bit wacko with that hair ensemble of his, but he has manners. How come they didn’t pass on to you?”.

Craig sighed, but didn’t dignify this with a verbal response. 

“I’m having an issue with my hose, I was hoping he would come and look at it for me”.

Craig rocked on his heels, struggling internally. 

Fine.

He unlocked his front door wordlessly, shoved the camera beside the shoe rack and closed the door again. Then he walked around to Mrs. Smyth’s side of the fence.

“What’s wrong with it?”, he asked with a bored expression. He let his eyes track the length of the hose to register where the tap outlet was.

“It just stopped going! I haven’t watered the roses yet…and it’s a lot of work to keep refilling a watering can, you know. Heavy, too. You wouldn’t relate, you’re a spring chicken”.

Craig raised his eyebrows with annoyance.

“Spring chicken?”.

“Yes! You know…a young person! All your moving parts work! I wasn’t always like this, you know…back in my day-”.

“Lady…”, Craig interrupted, “Just let me look at it”.

Mrs. Smyth wordlessly handed the hose to Craig and Craig trudged over to the tap and inspected the connection.

“Well it’s turned on”, he announced finally.

“I know that much!”, Mrs. Smyth replied smartly.

“Shh”, Craig huffed.

He pulled apart the nozzle.

“It’s clogged”, he said finally.

“It is?! How?!”, Mrs Smyth’s tone had softened and she eyed him curiously over his shoulder.

Craig shrugged.

“Wait here”.

Craig trudged back to his side of the fence, grabbed his keys and unlocked the garage. He came back over with his dad’s repair kit.

Within ten minutes, he had spliced the hose and mended the join. He now tested it and sent a spray of water over to the nearest rose bush.

Mrs Smyth was delighted.

“Oh! You’re a miracle worker! Who would have thought?! Thank you!”, she sang out with joy as Craig smirked and packed up the kit.

“You’re welcome”.

“Maybe you’re more like your father than I gave you credit for Chris”.

“Craig”.

“Craig?! Hmm, thought it was Chris. I haven’t given you enough credit, I thought all you were good at doing was smoking like a chimney and playing that God awful music”.

Craig rolled his eyes.

“Well, thank you Craig. Hey, maybe I will pop over later and tell your dad how helpful you were and bring over a nice pie or something. What do you like?”.

“Umm. Whatever?”.

Mrs Smyth rubbed his shoulder with her bony hand.

“Never mind, I will think of something”.

“Sure…bye…”.

Craig let himself back into the house thinking it over. He felt…happy for helping his neighbour? Fulfilled? Like he had done a good deed. 

And he had. 

And it felt good.

It felt good to be needed.

It felt good to help someone.

He scoffed and grabbed the camera bag.

Those feelings were never seeing the light of day.

________________________________________

The following morning Craig was woken abruptly by shouting in his ear and rough shake.

“You alive? Do I need to check your pulse?”.

“Dad!”, Craig grumbled and shoved his dad’s arm, rolling onto his back.

“Welcome back to the land of the living! Come on, get up…”.

Craig entered the kitchen five minutes later, tousle haired and feeling drowsy. He headed for the fridge and opened it, staring at the contents blankly.

Thomas wandered past and clapped him on the back.

“Had a chat to Audrey this morning, I’m proud of you son…when did you become so helpful? Anyway, she’s brought us over a cherry pie as a thank you! It’s cooling on the bench if you want to help yourself”.

Thomas positively beamed at him, his small eyes sparkling with pride. Something Craig had not seen in some time.

It made him feel good. Which then made him feel uncomfortable. This was against his nature and what he stood for.

He shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind by putting his headphones on and pressing play. The hardcore music played on maximum volume would certainly assist in drowning out those thoughts and feelings. 

He headed to school with a purpose. He had taken the footage he needed. Scenes that he carefully planned out and successfully taped to contrast some of the footage of Tweek. One particular scene he was proud of was a sketch of one of his demon creatures and colouring it in black and red to contrast some of Tweek’s painting footage. He planned to propose that it either runs on fast forward or they do a split screen. Craig also thought alternating between the two briefly could work. 

He returned the camera before the first period and then headed to the Editing Suite booking folder. He scribbled in a booking for Friday at 3pm and then moved on towards the lockers to execute phase two of his plan.

He knew where Tweek’s locker by coincidence. It was number 188, whereas his was 235. He had seen Tweek down that hallway a few times - how can anyone miss that mass of golden hair? But had registered the locker number a week ago when Cartman had snuck up behind him and yelled in his ear causing Tweek to yelp and have his books topple out all over the floor. It had been right next to the Geography classroom, and Craig had taken note of the number as he had walked off to go to English.

He stopped across from Tweek’s locker and reached into his backpack, hastily ripping a page out of one of his notebooks. He then scrawled on it in a thick black marker:

I sorted it. Meet me in the Editing Suite at 3 on Friday

- CT

He then folded the piece of paper into four and spent a minute writing a block letter “T” on the front. He slid it into Tweek’s locker and stalked off.

_______________________________

“TWEEK!”.

Tweek was speeding down the corridor to reach his locker between his Art and English class. He had two minutes to make it across to the other side of the school before the final bell rang. 

He huffed and almost ran into another student who made a snide remark “Watch it!”. He then flattened himself against the lockers to avoid a stampede and turned around.

It was Heidi. She looked highly irritable and like she was dying to say something.

“Hey Heidi, what’s going on?”.

Heidi put her back against the lockers to let another group of students pass, then answered in a huff.

“Clyde! I HATE him!”.

“Okay…why?”, Tweek now reached his locker and entered the combination quickly, giving her his full attention.

She let out a frustrated groan and stomped her foot.

“He is DISGUSTING! I turned up to the Editing Suite to meet him today, and he’s like, oh hey - you here to make out with me? THEN he shows me the work he has done. He’s got NO SKILL and paid NO ATTENTION to the storyboard! See, we are doing this thing…sport related…anyway, he filmed EVERY SINGLE TIME someone fell over or missed a goal, and then he put footage right after each scene of me laughing - like I was taking pleasure in their misfortune! He’s made me out to a complete cold hearted bi-”.

She cut off as Tweek moved his books forward and everything went tumbling out of his locker - again.

Unlike his room at home, which was spick and span; his locker was a mess. It was a place he spent very little time before, between and after classes. He was often running between places and moving quickly and this had resulted in his locker already becoming a full dumping ground only a few weeks into the term.  Books, pens, pieces of loose paper and miscellaneous objects like an apple and calculator flew all over the hallway.

“OH, SWEET JESUS!”, Tweek panicked and started roughly grabbing things as the final bell went.

Heidi helped and picked up most of Tweek’s books, stacking them neatly in the locker.

“Heidi, I would love to talk about Clyde - but we have to get to English - want to do lunch?”.

“Yes - yes - let’s go!”.

She nodded and helped Tweek finish up. He slammed his locker shut and they legged it up the hallway and turned a sharp right towards the classroom.

All the while, they did not notice that Craig’s note had flown out of the locker, onto the floor and slid under the lockers out of sight. 

__________________________________________

Tweek was working on his English essay on Saturday morning when there was a knock on his bedroom door.

“Son?”.

“Nghh…yeah?”.

“There’s someone here from school…Craig?”.

Tweek squeezed his eyes shut and pinched his nose in frustration. 

What was he even doing here?! After their fight on Wednesday, he thought he wouldn’t have to deal with him until Monday. He had spent the last few days in a foul mood over the entire situation, and he absolutely wanted nothing to do with him now. He was furious that Craig was occupying so much space in his mind. Angry that he couldn’t shake the voice in his head telling him that there was more to Craig and to give him a chance. Frustrated that he found him so undeniably handsome and that he still felt attracted to him. 

“What does he want?”, Tweek finally answered in a hostile tone, spinning on his office chair to face the closed door.

“I don’t know, but he is in the kitchen and wants to speak to you”, his mother’s voice answered.

Tweek’s heart sank.

“Y-you let him in?!”, he panicked, shooting out of his seat. 

“Yes of course, I told him you were home. He wasn’t keen to come up”.

Tweek scowled. 

Of course he wasn’t.

Sighing impatiently, Tweek opened the door and wordlessly passed his mother to descend the stairs. 

Craig stood in the kitchen with his arms folded, the ratty chullo on his head and looking furious. He was leaning against his pantry with his headphones on. Tweek stopped at the foot of the stairs and just glowered at him.

Craig caught his eyes. Ice cold. Tweek twitched uncomfortably.

“Can we talk outside?”, Craig shot at him.

“Sure”.

The moment they headed out the front door and Tweek had closed it behind them, Craig was on him.

“Where were YOU yesterday?! You know, you’re such an obsessive nerd that I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to be stood up by such an inconsiderate loser! My time is important too you know, were you just trying to prove a point?!”.

Tweek went right on the defense.

“What the fuck are you even talking about?! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO WAS LATE ON WEDNESDAY, YOU SAW ME LEAVE! Is there anyone home upstairs in that head of yours? Uhh, hello? Or has your stupid music killed the last of your brain cells!?”.

“I’m talking about yesterday!”.

Tweek shook his head vigorously and squared his shoulders.

“Yester-YESTERDAY?! What?!”.

“THE EDITING SUITE! You never showed up…you know, I was actually trying to make an effort, do MY PART, and I am not worth showing up for?!”.

“THE FUCK Craig?”, Tweek screeched, “W-where was I meant to be?!”.

Craig huffed.

“My note. I left you a note to meet me yesterday in the Editing Suite”.

Tweek tossed his hands up in frustration, “WHAT?!”.

“IN YOUR LOCKER!”.

“Th-there was no note in my locker!”.

“I put it in there!”.

“I never saw it!”.

They stared at each other.

“So…you didn’t get my note?”, Craig dropped his tone from yelling to loudly talking, breathing heavily but still looking at Tweek with dislike.

“NO!!”.

“Huh…”.

Tweek shook his head and looked at the sky. 

God give him patience.

“So…you jump down my throat when I never even got your note? Nice, Craig, nice…guess what! You could have… you know, TOLD ME IN PERSON? Crossed the street and knocked on the door? Caught me between classes?”.

Craig looked furious again.

“I MADE THE EFFORT! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO WAS ON MY ASS, SAYING I DON’T GIVE A SHIT, SORT IT OUT…WELL, I DID! I DID A LOT OF WORK! AND YOU - AND YOU…”.

“Didn’t know about it!”, Tweek finished his sentence for him, “Can you just stop screaming at me man!?”.

They breathed heavily and looked at each other.

“I don’t like you and you don’t like me, but I am trying to pass this thing and move on!”, Craig responded coldly.

“Imagine me NOT feeling the same way after you called me a FREAK!”, Tweek spat back angrily.

“WELL, YOU ARE!”.

“HEY, AT LEAST I DON’T BASE MY PERSONALITY AROUND STICKING ON HEADPHONES AND DRESSING IN ALL BLACK! YOU THINK YOU’RE SO COOL BEHIND YOUR DARK EXTERIOR! YOU KNOW WHAT? YOU’RE JUST A LOSER WITH AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM!”, Tweek yelled and stomped his foot. 

Craig shot him a death stare.

“YEAH, LIKE THAT!”, Tweek snarled.

“You want to talk problems?! WHAT IS YOUR DEAL?! YOU’RE GIVING ME THE THIRD DEGREE BECAUSE I AM LATE FOR AN EDITING THING, AND YOU CAN’T CHECK YOUR LOCKER FOR A NOTE?! WHAT, ONE SET OF RULES FOR ME AND ONE SET FOR YOU?”.

Tweek laughed bitterly. He couldn’t believe this.

“I did not see ANY NOTE! I am TELLING THE TRUTH”.

Craig rolled his eyes.

“Whatever”.

“And you want to know what my DEAL is?!”, Tweek fumed again, “I HATE THIS PLACE! At least back in my old town, people accepted me for the most part! The worst I had to deal with was people having an issue with me being gay-”.

Tweek clapped his hands over his mouth.

Whoops.

Craig just stared at him, like he was registering what Tweek had just said.

“What?!”, Craig finally responded, shocked.

“F-forget it”, Tweek waved his hands and took a defensive stance, “None of your business!”.

“But you just told me-”.

“I told you, drop it!”.

Tweek felt light-headed. Anger licked his insides, and the shock was setting in that he blurted out about his sexuality.

Not that he was in the closet. No. But he was new around here - this was a part of Tweek he hoped to keep concealed from people around here a little longer. And now he would have to be particularly careful - If Craig got a whiff that Tweek was attracted to him he would be dead meat. 

They gazed at each other uncomfortably.

“Tweek - I don’t”.

“NGGHHHH”, Tweek started panicking, “Just - LEAVE ME ALONE! We can deal with the project on Monday!”.

Tweek turned on his heel and slammed the front door behind him, walking fast to his room.

Well, fuck.

_____________________________________

Craig laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling.

So Tweek is gay.

And apparently open about it - because people in his old town knew.

His mind was racing with questions.

How did he know?

When did he know?

How did he come out?

Who did he tell?

Is he experienced with guys?

Has he had a boyfriend? 

Does he have a boyfriend now?

He thought about the photos on Tweek’s wall. There were no signs of a boyfriend or guys - but then again, any ex-boyfriends photos would have been removed. Tweek just had a group of girls he must have been close to and a guy with them at times, but there was no indication Tweek and this guy were close. Fitting that Tweek was friends with girls, he thought - Tweek was gentle, a little feminine and into things like painting and nature. He wasn’t exactly down at the football field or rubbing shoulders with the jocks. Craig couldn’t imagine Tweek making immature jokes or goofing off with people like Clyde, Kenny or Cartman.

He had too much…integrity for that. 

Thinking that made Craig’s heart leap. He grunted and shoved his pillow over his face.

It must be nice for Tweek to feel so comfortable with his sexuality. Or maybe he isn’t? He seemed horrified he blurted it out in front of Craig. Why though? It was none of Craig’s business. He wasn’t going to go and spread it around. 

Now his thoughts cascaded further. Was he a little jealous that Tweek knew what he wanted and had come out? Was he confused that he had thought about Tweek intimately before? After Wednesday in the Editing Suite, he hadn’t been able to stop. What would it be like, being intimate with Tweek?

The thought gave him goosebumps. He’d woken up wet a couple of times after having dreams of Tweek with no shirt on and being close to him. He’d had the guilty pleasure of relieving himself to daydreams of Tweek lying in his sheets underneath him. Imagining what noises he would make as he-

He sat up suddenly on the bed at that thought and groaned in frustration.

Whatever this was - it had to pass and quickly. It’s just a weird phase, he’s still figuring himself out. Because Tweek is a freak. A ball of anxiety. He had the energy of a vibrating ferret. He didn’t sit still. He was a control freak. He was sassy and rude.

And he clearly HATED Craig. 

Craig could see it in his eyes. In the lines in his face when it was scrunched up in anger. 

Craig decided it was nothing to do with Tweek at all. He was just confused about being attracted to guys. 

No, it had nothing to do with Tweek at all. 

Chapter Text

When Craig moseyed into Media Studies on Monday morning as the bell rang, he noted two things. Firstly, that Tweek was seated next to Heidi in the front row avoiding eye contact and staring at his lap; and secondly that he was the last person to arrive, which left him a vacant desk next to-

Cartman.

He huffed out of his nose and wordlessly took a seat as Mr. Black sat on the teacher’s desk with his usual mug of coffee.

“Right, here we are again. Two videos this morning before we get stuck into things - we are going to be watching the individual assessments of Cartman and Craig, who are conveniently sitting together. Now before we do, I am still yet to see storyboards from two groups. Cartman and Kyle, and Kyle has spoken to me already. Then there are Craig and Tweek in which Tweek has spoken to me too. From what I have heard, Tweek and Craig really need the Editing Suite for the lesson, so I am sorry Bebe and Kenny, but I have had to slot you in at lunch time instead”.

“What! That’s totally unfair, Sir!”, Bebe cried out, “We’re nearly done and-”.

“Yeah, and some groups aren’t. Sorry Bebe, that’s my final decision”.

Craig stared at the back of Tweek and narrowed his eyes in dislike.

So he’s spoken to Mr. Black already has he? What a little snitch. He’s probably had a nice opportunity to complain about Craig. Sure their storyboard wasn’t done - so what? It was partly done, and they knew their idea. Craig didn’t know what the big fuss was about.

Now he had to contend with the class viewing his individual film. He didn’t give a shit what people thought of him. He doesn’t like ANYBODY. He hates EVERYONE. So what if they see the video? Craig is certainly not trying to impress anyone.

In Craig’s opinion, Cartman’s video was a waste of two minutes of his life. He was never getting that time back. He narrowed his eyes further and further as he watched. Who did this guy think he was? He was making himself out to be some sort of online jockey, terrorizing Discord channels and other online chats. Portraying himself the King of shutdowns and stroking his own ego by using filming shots facing up from the ground. Making Cartman seem like a big deal, some sort of boss. Maybe he’s a boss of being an absolute egotistical dickhead. Craig had no time for this. He zoned out in the last thirty seconds and was doodling on his book, ignoring Cartman beside him who was laughing at his own video.

The class was silent when the tape stopped. Mr. Black was staring at the screen in disbelief - clearly his opinion was pretty similar to Craig’s, just maybe not as blunt.

Silence, then -

“A work of art, true genius. I mean, it was funny, it was insightful…”, Kenny called out.

“No it wasn’t, it was a piece of crap!”, Wendy cried out, “Sir, he’s promoting himself as being an online bully and is clearly happy to feel joyous in causing the hurt and misfortune of others!”.

“Yeah, and he rips on me for having no skill - most of the shots were taking on a tripod!”, Kyle added. He looked furious and shot a glare at Cartman.

“Hey! I still had to set up the shots, asshole!”, Cartman argued back.

Craig’s eyes were on Tweek. He had slouched in his chair and had given a look to Heidi that Craig couldn’t see. He then surprisingly raised his hand.

“Tweek?”.

Tweek cleared his throat.

“Garbage. A waste of two minutes of my life. This was a video that was hastily thrown together just to prove a point. About a quarter of the video was just him filming the screen, which takes no talent at all. The shot of him manically laughing - sure, that’s powerful for all the wrong reasons - but the camera fell over at the end of the shot and he didn’t bother doing a second take. The transitions weren’t seamless, they were sloppy. There was very little thought put into lighting…mmph, should I keep going?!”.

Craig’s eyes widened and he straightened up. He did not just say that, did he?! Tweek Tweak delivering intelligent yet witty feedback without barely a stutter or twitch?

He was impressed.

No, don’t think that. Not about HIM.

Cartman erupted from beside him.

“Oi! You can’t talk Twink, your video was of flowers and cameras shoved out of car windows, it had no creativity at all!”.

“It was better than yours!”, Stan shot at Cartman.

“Yeah, Tweek is right!”, Kyle looked victorious and pointed at Cartman, “It was a lot of footage of just filming a computer screen! And it wasn’t just sloppy filming, but sloppy editing as well!”.

“Well, I think you’re all just jealous! I had a good idea! and I actually have a life, a purpose. We have Twink over here who is only good at smelling flowers and being a fag - I guess I owe you credit there, you’re very good at that”.

Kenny laughed, but Tweek turned around, red faced and face contorted with anger.

Before he could speak, Mr. Black intervened.

“Alright, that’s enough!”, Mr. Black called out, sliding off the desk, “What did we say about constructive criticism in this industry, huh?  I do expect any feedback you give to be given with kindness and respect - no name calling and no cheap shots at things like appearance or sexuality! Feedback like this - Cartman - you do need to brush up on some of your skills, but that is what this first assignment was all about - I never expected perfect videos. Try looking at the textbook and play around with the options you have for transitions. We will cover lighting in the next couple of weeks. Tripod shots are important in filmmaking, but try not to rely on them completely. As for steadying the camera…that can be tricky, it takes practice. The video told a story, questionable messaging that goes against our school’s values, but nevertheless, it had a beginning, middle and end. Okay?”.

The class nodded silently, and Craig heard Cartman mutter under his breath, “I’ll get that Twink for this”.

Craig wasn’t sure why this made him feel alarmed and concerned for a brief moment. He didn’t have time to think about it though, because now Mr. Black was pressing play on his video.

Craig’s video was precisely ninety seconds. No bullshit or wasted time. He did feature himself playing both the electric and acoustic guitar and did the same song in both without showing his face. He briefly featured himself doing sound mixing on his computer. Then he showed his skating, his sketching of a skull. Walking down the street - flipping people off who had their backs turned. Flipping off posters promoting the upcoming election and flipping off his own house. A shot of his window open with dark grey clouds like a storm was approaching, the curtains fluttering in the breeze. He ended the shot with one he filmed in the school hallway - where people were clearing a path around him as he walked. He didn’t have to ask them to do that. He was particularly proud of that one, it sent a powerful message.

“Wow. Talk about ‘I hate everyone’ - who died, Craig?”, Cartman called out.

Craig gritted his teeth and looked at his lap.

“My mother”.

“Oh. Sorry about that”, Cartman responded loudly, not looking sorry at all, “But get over it! There’s no reason the rest of us need to be depressed because of it!”.

Craig chanced looking up to see the entire class looking at the pair. He specifically focused on Tweek, who was looking at Cartman - apparently furious.

Craig’s heart skipped a beat.

Wait, what?

“ERIC CARTMAN, that does it!”, Mr. Black thundered. He slammed his red mug down and went for a red slip.

“I’m not sorry I said that,  you know”, Cartman said to Craig. Clearly pushing for a reaction.

Craig shot out of his chair, but Tweek was faster.

He was fast.

“You absolute PIECE OF SHIT! Are you SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?! THIS! THIS IS WHAT I MEANT WHEN I COMMENTED ON YOUR VIDEO…YOU…YOU JUST, NGHHH, FEED OFF THE MISFORTUNE OF OTHERS! HOW ABOUT YOU, RRR! SHOW SOME RESPECT, HUH?! PUT YOURSELF IN HIS SHOES!”.

Craig froze and just glared at Tweek.

“Oh wow, look at the twitch blow up! Holy shit! He’s gonna blow a fuse - or his dick for Craig! Hey, watch out Douchebag of Darkness, he’s got a hard on for you!”.

“RRR! SHUT YOUR MOUTH!”.

“Boys!”, Mr. Black stepped between them and handed the red slip to Cartman. Then he shot a serious look at Tweek.

“Mr Tweak, consider that your last warning. I am letting it slide because Cartman started it - and you need the Editing Suite today for the project - but one more outburst like that, I will send you too”.

“S-sorry Sir”.

Craig sat down in shock. Surprised he didn’t need to intervene.

Tweek stuck up for him.  

Craig watched as Tweek slumped into his seat and Heidi put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and whispered something to him. Tweek merely nodded but didn’t respond.

“Right. Well Craig, Here is my feedback - dark, mysterious. Gives us a peak into who you are, and shows us you have some real talents. I like your drawings, despite them looking a bit…erm, scary. And you play the guitar remarkably well. These videos don’t have to be long for the audience to take a message away. You put thoughts into your shots and your lighting. Well done”.

Craig gave a half nod, but he wasn’t giving any more than that.

When Mr. Black told them to get started on their work, Tweek slowly rose from his chair and headed for Craig. He stared at the ground and didn’t look up once. He stopped in the aisle a metre from Craig and now let his large, emerald eyes catch Craig’s.

“‘M sorry about…the other day”, Tweek apologized quietly, “I…I came in before school and played back what you’ve done. I…liked it. So…maybe we should go try and finish it off?”.

Craig just nodded. He appreciated the apology, but couldn’t formulate a verbal response. It was too close and personal for him. He doesn’t do…feelings.

Once in the Editing Suite, Craig watched Tweek stand awkwardly in front of the main editing chair.

“You can drive if you like…up to you”.

Craig cleared his throat.

“No…it’s fine”.

Craig’s heart was beating erratically as he sat beside Tweek. Uncomfortable. These feelings of gratitude for Tweek sticking up for him, feelings of appreciation for the apology, feelings of…fondness? For Tweek being so unpredictably strong, witty and funny. 

There was certainly more than meets the eye when it came to Tweek.

His eyes wandered to Tweek’s petite wrist and delicate side profile. Nice cheek bones, eyes that focused and glistened. A few freckles, they were…nice? 

No. Stop.

Craig was busting to say something, but he fought it.

Finally, he felt the words in his throat, threatening to escape.

“I'm sorry too. And...thank you”, he mumbled quietly.

“What are you thanking me for?”, Tweek enquired casually, eyes not leaving the screen.

“What you said before. To Cartman. I was getting ready to kick his ass and you just…came up with that. It was…really cool”.

“It’s fine. He would kick my ass if I said anything today or not. He’s umm…”, he cleared his throat, “Homophobic. I don’t think he…actually knows. But maybe it's, mmph, obvious”.

“You box so well, you could take him”, Craig smirked. 

“Mmph, maybe. He has size on his side”.

They were quiet for a couple of minutes as Tweek held the storyboard in progress in front of them and they reviewed it silently together. 

“How did you know?”, Craig shot out.

“Know…what?”.

“That you were…”.

“Oh! Um”, Tweek flushed a deep scarlet, “Well…I was only attracted to guys and couldn’t change my own mind obviously. I had good supportive friends who helped me navigate it…the feelings got stronger and…then I knew. So I thought…okay. This is who I am”.

“And people really gave you a hard time?”.

“Only the jocks and people like Cartman”, Tweek responded, “It’s okay”

“It’s not”, Craig said after a few beats of silence.

Tweek looked at him, apparently surprised.

“So you’re…nghh…not freaked out?”, Tweek asked nervously.

“No?”.

“Okay…good”, Tweek sighed in relief.

“I might be a bit freaked out by your temper and twitching and that you could probably knock me out without even trying…but not for that”.

Tweek smiled at the storyboard, eyes not meeting Craig’s.

“Thanks”.

There was an awkward silence that Tweek finally broke.

“Okay. So I think maybe if you want to draw some of the scenes on this while I edit some of the transitions? I think how you have placed the footage is good, I only made some minor adjustments. Which, nghh, you can watch back if you want. Umm…we can talk about the song choices later”.

“What’s wrong with them?”, Craig enquired with a smirk, mock offended.

Tweek gave him a puzzled look.

“D-did you just umm…your lip…it did an upper lip thing…smile?”.

“No, you imagined it”.

“Sure…umm, well your song is very uhh…heavy duty”.

“It’s meant to be? That is my music style?”.

“Okay…I guess that’s the contrast…it’s fine, I won’t fight you on it”.

Craig nodded and buried his nose in the story board.

“I don’t need to watch it back, do what you want”.

“Fine, I will”, Tweek retorted with sass, but he glanced sideways at Craig and smirked.

Craig kept flicking his eyes to Tweek. He was just so interesting. Delicate and fragile on the outside…pretty.

No, don’t think that.

And yet…on the inside…so talented, intelligent, funny, sassy and tough. Not to be underestimated. Not boring at all. A good, decent person.

And hot.

No, don’t think that!

____________________________

Tweek walked home after school a good one hundred yards behind Craig that afternoon. His eyes did not leave the back of Craig as he pondered his thoughts and feelings. 

His anger had fizzled out over the weekend. He had reflected heavily on his choice to fly off the handle at Craig rather than hear him out. 

He left for school early this morning. He searched his locker and cleaned it. No note.

But he was determined to give Craig the benefit of the doubt. There was a note - Lord knows where - but Tweek believed him. 

Maybe it fell out of his locker. Maybe Craig put it in the wrong locker. It didn’t matter to Tweek - they would never know. 

He had gone to the Editing Suite and was blown away with the work Craig had done. He wasn’t kidding. Not only had Craig made significant progress, but he had added footage that Tweek had never seen before. He smiled.

Well I'll be damned, he had thought to himself.

Craig had booked a camera out and taken it home. Then he returned and really did some work. Added music to contrast between the two of them. Adjusted the volume. Added some effects and some transitions.

Tweek took the headphones off and stared at the paused video, completely mesmerized. The work was actually really decent. He was thinking hard about whether he really had to change anything Craig had done. 

He made some minor adjustments, then went to find Mr. Black before class started. He explained everything. They weren’t getting along, but Craig had done a lot of work. He gives credit where credit is due. He implored Mr. Black to consider giving them time today in class to resume editing. He needed to apologize to Craig. He needed to express how grateful he was that Craig did a good job and is taking things seriously.

He didn’t get a chance to do this before he was flying off the handle to defend Craig in class. He had no idea Craig’s mother had died. He had just assumed his parents were separated. He didn’t know the circumstances and felt it was too intimate of a question to ask, yet he longed to know. Maybe this was part of why Craig is how he is. Maybe he has seen enough, suffered enough.

Too much too young.

But they got there. They shared a few moments in the Editing Suite. He felt Craig staring at him. His heart had skipped a few beats and his brain was short-circuiting, but he kept working. Maybe Craig was trying to work out how to cancel the hitman or curse that he had placed on Tweek after the weekend.

But Craig had enquired about his sexuality. And he was not enquiring to be mean to Tweek - no. He seemed genuinely curious. Like he wanted to know for his own interest.

But why?

Nevertheless, Tweek told him. He was honest. He felt secure enough to reveal a little bit about it, and answer the question sufficiently to help Craig understand. And he was relieved. Craig didn’t give him any shit. Craig didn’t get up and walk out. He didn’t insult him or laugh at him.

And Tweek was grateful.

Underneath all this…anger and hostility - perhaps there was a decent person. A nice person. Someone who deserved a chance. Someone who deserved someone to take care of them and to listen to them.

Tweek slowed his walking as Craig stopped to cross the road. He examined the back of Craig further.

He was handsome…

No, stop that.

Then Craig turned around and noticed Tweek coming. Rather than cross the road when he had the signal to, he stayed behind and waited for Tweek to catch up.

“Going my way?”, Craig asked quietly, giving him a nod - but no change from his deadpan expression.

“I am”, Tweek responded, nodding back.

And so they walked home together making small talk. The awkwardness was still thick in the air, but the anger, the hostility - gone. The anger and resentment from their previous arguments - dissipated. 

Tweek smiled at Craig as they walked.

Tweek was always good at seeing the best in people and good at figuring people out.

And he felt Craig was worth a chance.

Chapter Text

“Pass the cam cable”.

Craig snapped out of watching Tweek for a moment and fished around on the editing desk for a short, black cable. He then reached for the camera in front of Tweek and plugged it in for him.

“Thanks”, Tweek said with a smile, eyes not leaving the screen.

It was Tuesday afternoon and Craig and Tweek had booked an after school session to finish their assignment. Tweek was driving again while Craig was tasked with finishing their storyboard. Craig was more than happy with this plan - he liked the opportunity to sketch the scenes as they planned them together.

Tweek remained focused on the task at hand. He talked incessantly while he worked, a mixture of talking to Craig and muttering to himself. They didn't bother with headphones, but it was starting to irk Craig to hear his own voice and guitar playing over and over again through the speakers.

But hearing Tweek's voice or seeing his face on the screen?

Not so much.

“I wish I wasn't singing right near the camera mic when we filmed this", Tweek was now complaining, frowning as he adjusted the volume on the film once more, “it's taking away too much from you!”.

Craig felt his cheeks burn and he adjusting his chullo nervously.

“It's fine. You've adjusted it ten times. Just leave it”.

“But I'm too loud, Craig! Gah! It isn't perfect”.

“Doesn't need to be. I think it sounds good”.

Tweek side eyed him suspiciously.

“You do?”.

“Of course. Otherwise I wouldn't let you put it in”.

Tweek didn't say anything, but Craig noticed his leg had started to jitter and that he rested a hand over his mouth.

“You mean my guitar playing right? Not my caterwauling”.

“I mean all of it. Your voice is…nice”.

Tweek looked at him and smiled.

“Thanks…”.

He cleared his throat, looking a little flustered and got back to work. 

“Y-ou're amazing at, mmph, guitar”.

Craig parted his lips, but then closed them. The words in his mind to thank Tweek died in his throat. He didn't know how to handle compliments. He didn't know how to take praise. He is always strongly suspicious these things weren't authentic. In his mind, people said these things because they have an ulterior motive. Perhaps they were like his mother used to be, who would be sickly nice to him and then ask him to clean his room or help do the laundry. Maybe they wanted to earn his trust and shatter it. 

Craig believes it was every man for himself in this world. He knows human nature is selfish. People will always do the easiest thing to save their own skin, rather than do what is right. It is all too common to lie, chest or steal to get ahead in this world. Even within this Media Studies class, he had observed fighting over bookings for the Editing Suite, physical altercations over seating arrangements, screaming matches to take one of the cameras home and deceitful actions and words used in an attempt to persuade Mr. Black to abandon text analysis lessons for the day so the class had more time on their assignments. 

But Tweek. He was figuring him out. Tweek was definitely out for himself to pass this class, Craig could see that clear as day. And Craig had to admit, he wasn't sitting here right now just so Tweek can pass - he wanted to pass too. But as he gazed at Tweek, he thought of some of the kind things Tweek had done during the project. Sure, he was bossy about it - but he had really been the one to drive them to work together. He had been relentless in trying to learn more about Craig and get Craig to contribute. If Tweek was all about himself, he would have just told Craig not to worry about it and done the whole thing on his own, or he would have complained constantly to Mr. Black about Craig not helping him - which would have no doubt led to a phone call home again. He had certainly had this experience with many others during group work assignments.

Tweek was genuinely impressed with Craig's skill with his skateboarding and guitar. He had also complimented his drawing skills - hence why he sat here now with a graphite pencil and A3 notepad drawing their guitar scene in. He had gotten good at drawing Tweek - a contrast to the demonic creatures he is normally designing. He had captured his fair features and big eyes well in each scene.

And the smile. He had the smile down pat now too.

 Because Tweek did smile a whole lot more than Craig did. He privately wished he had seen more of Tweek's raw emotion during filming so he could sketch that too - scenes of him spazzing out or losing his temper. 

He couldn't put his finger on why - perhaps to perfect his drawing skills?

“I think we're done”, Tweek said with finality. He looked at Craig and grinned.

Craig's heart fluttered for a moment.

Eyes big and bright.

Perfectly green.

Stop it, he cursed internally.

“Play it back?”, Craig requested, monotone.

Tweek tracked back to the start and pressed play, leaning back on the chair and watching intently.

The video starts with the sun in the sky. 

“We just had one main creek in my old home town. We would skim rocks. I got pretty good at it”.

He skipped the rock seven times.

Not bad came Craig's voice.

Then Craig skipped the rock three times

Soft music starts, and the film cuts to Tweek by the lake. Flowers, trees. The ducklings. Birds.

“Ducklings!”

“They’re adorable! Look!”.

Meaningful footage of Tweek enjoying nature. His wide smile. Crouching down with them ducklings. Gazing around in awe.

“There’s some birds up there too!”

“This is boring…can we just go?”.

A transition scene to show Tweek's world melting away. Distortion.

Tweek’s exasperated sigh on a black screen.

Then the music transitions to Craig's music. The scene cuts to the moon in the dark sky and the stars surrounding it. Craig sitting in the corner of his room on the beanbag in near darkness, reading a book. Black birds flying through the sky at dusk. 

Then Craig Walking through his garden out the back which was dead and dying.

A transition. Soft music, Tweek's garden.

“Who’s the gardener?”, Craig asking from behind the camera.

 “M-me!...“Hey, there you go! Come see what I do!”.

 “Urgh…”.

The urgh is dramatically enhanced to be slow motion and echoed. A black screen again

Then played the scene of Tweek painting with bright colours…flowers. Soft music again as Tweek is shown concentrating with a calm, serene face. to then transition to heavy metal and Craig sketching his scary demon.

“What?! That’s a terrible colour choice! Are you colour blind or something?!”

Back to Tweek's painting 

“Well…what colour would you choose?”.

“Yellow. That plant has yellow roses on it. It’s my favourite”.

Back to a shot with Craig with his heavy metal, showing his face with a dark expression and using thick black markers on his drawing. His dad's voice in the background.

“Craig, would you turn off that racket?!”.

Now to the pan of the camera of Tweek's paintings in his room, and Craig's voice in the background:

“You’re artistic”

Don’t guess…know. I see it”.

When this footage played, Tweek shot Craig a fond look and a weak smile. Craig noticed and felt funny again.

Now the video transitioned to the band posters in Craig's room and the CDs near the player. The room dark and the heavy metal music playing once more.

Craig knew what scene was coming next. He shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.

A transition scene and a soft rock track playing as Tweek approached the punching bag. His face set and determined. Sunlight - light filtering his face and good shots of him kicking and punching. It was a powerful scene. 

Next was Craig at the skatepark. 

Skate park. I like skateboarding, do you?”.

 “Umm…no!”, Tweek's petrified voice came next.

Scenes of Craig performing dangerous skateboarding tricks flawlessly. 

Wait! Where’s your helmet?!”.

Craig doing a kickflip and then skating fast to the other side of the skate park.

“Don’t need one”.

Craig performing the heelflip. 

“Are you CRAZY?!”.

Craig doing an Ollie.

“Maybe?”.

 A cut transition and now there was no background music. It was Craig with his guitar.

He started to play

“I don’t do vocals”

Then came Tweek's singing.

The volume was perfect in Craig's opinion. His eyes drifted off the video to look at Tweek. Tweek's face was soft and rested, his bright eyes set on the screen and a small smile on his lips.

It didn't take long for Tweek's eyes to leave the screen, apparently noticing Craig watching him from the corner of his eye. 

Tweek's beautiful singing continued in the background as they stared at each other. 

“Whoa, oh-oh

Sweet child o' mine

Whoa, oh-oh-oh

Sweet love of mine”.

As soon as Craig's thoughts were coming to his mind, he was trying desperately to dismiss them. 

Beautiful 

He likes boys 

You like boys

Wait…

No I don't 

His eyes are telling me it's more than attraction 

Wait…it's an attraction?

He doesn't despise you

He's different 

Tweek's eyes were examining him like an x-ray again. His expression was soft. His lips were parted.

The last of the song played

“Where do we go?

Whoa-oh, where do we go now?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, sweet child

Sweet child of mine”.

They both knew the ending of their video. Tweek's voice over as Craig's full focus was on his guitar fiddling with settings on it.

“You play well, you know”.

They didn't see the last scene of the sun setting. From light to dark.

When the screen went black and the video stopped playing, they both jumped.

“Mmph…so are we happy?”.

Craig blinked and pushed his chair back.

“Yeah”.

He stood abruptly and held up the storyboard.

“I'll finish this tonight. I've got to go…”.

The next thing he knew, his hand was on the door handle of the Editing Suite and he was taking fast strides down the corridor to exit the school building. The storyboard flapped against the wind as he held it in both hands.

He made it to his front door in no time.

This time, the question wasn't what the fuck was that?!

 It was

Why the fuck does that keep happening?

—------

Tweek was speed walking down the busy school corridor on Friday morning, dodging the sea of students and holding his bag strap tight. He kept checking his watch. It was twenty minutes until the bell to signal the commencement of classes for the day and the video assignment was due promptly at 9am. Thankfully they had completed their storyboard the day prior and had proudly handed it in before lunch.

He barely registered those coming in the opposite direction as he picked up the pace, scuffed up Converse almost gliding on the smooth vinyl floor.

But nobody could miss Eric Cartman coming in the opposite direction.

As Tweek attempted to give him a wide berth, Cartman intentionally moved himself closer and blocked Tweek’s path. Kenny then smoothly stepped right in front of Tweek. He had no-where to go.

“Hey spaz, why are you in such a hurry?”, Cartman sneered.

“Nghh, move!”, Tweek retorted bravely.

“Off to hand in your video assignment? I bet it’s just a four minute tape of you and emo boy making out. No-one needs to see that”.

He clicked his fingers and Kenny grabbed Tweek’s left arm while Eric grabbed his right. They then forced Tweek into the side corridor leading to the gymnasium.

“Gah! Fuck off! Let me go!”, Tweek screeched, resisting the grips on his arms and kicking his feet desperately. 

They pushed him under the stairwell out of sight of any onlookers. He was cornered. 

He shot them a furious glare and braced his fists as Eric moved in quickly and pushed Tweek up against the wall, holding his arms tightly.

“Get his bag”, he called over his shoulder.

Tweek struggled as Kenny moved in and snatched at the bag straps. He kicked his leg out hard again and landed a kick on Kenny’s thigh.

“That wasn’t very nice”, Kenny mocked, strengthening his motions to grab the bag.

Tweek now kicked out at Cartman, who was just laughing ruthlessly. 

“NGHHH…YOU…FUCK OFF AND LEAVE ME ALONE!”.

Kenny threw the bag to the floor and opened it, fishing through it to find something.

In the next few moments several things happened at once.

The first was that Tweek launched himself forward and punched Cartman hard in the nose, and then landed a second fist under his chin. Cartman stumbled backwards and nearly tripped over the bag on the floor, contents spilled out everywhere. 

The second was a furious shout behind Cartman, “LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE!”.

The third was a loud cracking sound as Kenny had the video tape on the ground and had stomped on it, breaking it into pieces.

Tweek’s brain took a moment to register the shattered tape now on the floor, broken beyond repair.

Tweek screamed out and started punching and kicking, successfully combating Cartman who backed away to make an escape, and now looking at Kenny menacingly.

“WHY?! RRRR!! WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO THIS?! YOU…NGHH!!”.

Someone punched Kenny in the side of the face. A black blur.

Craig.

“Kenny, leg it!”, Cartman squealed out. He found a clear path and was sprinting up the corridor, "Fucking fags!". 

“You better listen to him - BEAT IT!”, Craig roared, standing in front of Tweek and eyeing Kenny coldly.

Kenny was far less graceful about his escape, he found his footing at last while almost tripping over his own untied shoelaces and bounded away after Cartman.

Tweek was hysterical.

“The tape…the TAPE! Why…why the fuck!? THEY WON’T GET AWAY WITH THIS!”.

Craig’s face was deadpan.

“No. They won’t”.

He inspected the tape on the floor.

“Well, it’s busted”.

“NO SHIT, Craig! IT’S DUE IN… IN…”, he glanced at his watch, “FIVE MINUTES!”.

“Calm down. Mr. Black will understand”.

“C-CALM DOWN?! YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS?!”, Tweek gestured hopelessly at the floor, breathing heavily as tears threatened to spill over.

Craig picked up the tape and shrugged.

“The file is on the computer. We just need to copy it across onto a tape again. It’s okay”.

Tweek knew he was right. But the deadline…the deadline….He breathed heavily and slumped onto the floor against the wall.

“You did good. I saw you fight back. Told you they can’t take you”.

Tweek shook his head and uttered a tiny laugh, “You helped”.

“Not much”, Craig responded. He was glaring at the broken tape in his hands but then said, “You okay?”.

Tweek was taken aback. Not used to any expression of concern from Craig of all people.

“Yeah?”, he answered, unsure about the question and also the answer.

Craig transferred the tape to his left hand and a few pieces of plastic fell onto the ground again. He didn’t show any concern. Then he used his free hand to offer Tweek silently to help him up.

The bell rang out loudly and Tweek’s shock of touching Craig’s hand briefly set in. It was much larger than his, warm and soft. Tweek braced himself and forced himself into the upright position. He stumbled slightly and Craig held his hand holding the tape out near Tweek’s arm, like he was preparing to steady him.

“What class have you got now?”, Craig asked quietly.

Tweek trembled slightly from the close proximity to Craig but managed out, “C-chemistry”.

“Get going. I’ll sort this”.

“But-”.

“Go. It’s fine. I’ll explain it all and sort it out”.

“I can-”.

Craig shook his head, “I can miss one music class, I don’t care. Go”.

Tweek’s eyes were wide and searching Craig’s unblinking, deep blue ones. Not as icy and forbidding as usual. Some sort of…warmth behind them? Like he was showing Tweek care and concern. Like he actually gave a shit for once.

Tweek couldn’t look away, but he nodded wordlessly.

Craig finally let go of his hand.

Right, Tweek was still grasping it like a lifeline. 

“T-thanks Craig”.

“No worries, twitch”.

“Nghh! Don’t call me-”.

“Relax, it’s a joke”.

Craig walked off without another word or a backward glance, heading in the direction of the Media Studies classroom. Tweek caught his breath and looked at his hand.

It’s over. The assignment is due today, and Craig was volunteering to fix Tweek’s mess and get another tape on his own. Tweek did blame himself, he failed to keep the tape safe and submit it in one piece. But Craig didn’t get angry or upset about it. He surprised Tweek by being very rational and mature about it. He even asked if he was okay, which was wild to Tweek. Then he sprung into action, off to deal with it head on with Mr. Black. Insisting that Tweek just goes to class and forgets about it.

Class. 

Right!

Tweek’s feet skidded once more along the vinyl floor as he headed in the opposite direction to attend Chemistry, well and truly late. 

___________________________________________

Tweek and Craig walked home that afternoon almost in complete silence. They exchanged a few small words, just taking in the sounds of other chattering students, the cars passing them by and the sound of their footsteps on the concrete sidewalk. Tweek felt honoured that Craig was not wearing his headphones - he wore them around his neck instead.

“You in a hurry to get home?”, Craig asked softly as they reached their block.

“No”.

“Want to go this way?”.

The park.

“Sure”.

They reached the creek where they had done some of their first filming together. Tweek twitched slightly and wrapped his arms around his chest. He focused on his breathing and tried not to overthink. Why did Craig want to come here, alone with him? He was so mysterious. Never gives a reason, doesn’t elaborate on anything unless absolutely necessary. 

Craig picked up a rock and attempted to skim it.

Two skips.

“I suck at this”.

Tweek picked up a rock and steadied his posture and hand. Then he released it.

Eight skips.

“Impressive”.

Tweek shrugged.

“Hey…thanks for…today. You really stepped up. I appreciate it”, Tweek managed out. He hadn’t seen Craig until after class, and had been pondering how he would deliver his thank you as they had been walking home.

Craig just nodded and picked up another rock.

“It’s fine”.

His rock didn’t skip at all, just sunk into the water.

“I heard about what happened, you know. They got suspended. Serves them right. M-mom called me at lunch and made me come and see her…nghh. She’s obviously pissed off that I got physical, but she was proud it was in defense and she’s relieved I am okay. I told her you were doing the same thing - d-defending me”.

Craig merely nodded.

“ A-and you were right. I panicked, but of course we still had the file and ngghh, Mr. Black wouldn’t fail us for that”, Tweek continued.

Craig went for another rock.

“It’s fine. They shook you up, you couldn’t think straight”.

“D-did you get in trouble? F-for…missing first period?”.

“No”.

Tweek breathed out a sigh of relief, “Good”.

Tweek skimmed a rock and got six skips out of it. 

He watched Craig skim another.

One skip.

“Here, let me show you”.

Tweek chose another good, flat rock and cleared his throat.

“You have to pick a good rock first. Nice and flat, make sure it fits in your palm nicely. And see how I am standing? You have to lower your body to be more parallel with the water’s surface. And the arm”, he demonstrated, “Swing it like this…and watch my wrist…you flick it to give it spin”.

He released it and they watched the rock together.

Nine skips.

“Cool”, Craig nodded.

Tweek was certain that was the best response from Craig he was going to get. 

“Have you ever had a boyfriend?”, Craig asked suddenly, not looking at Tweek. He just picked up another rock and gazed at the water.

Tweek jolted from the shock of being asked such a question. He gazed at the sunlight reflecting off the water and up to the sky.

“N-not officially no”.

“Meaning?”.

“A guy in my old town. I fell pretty hard. He uhh, mmph…wouldn’t commit to me though. It didn’t get serious or anything”, he laughed nervously, “ I was the sucker who hung around hoping he would realize I’m there. Umm. He wasn’t…even truly committed to guys. Which is fine, liking both. But n-not a relationship guy”.

Craig didn’t look at Tweek or respond. He tossed the rock he was holding in his hand a couple of times and skimmed it.

Four skips.

“H-hey, that’s better!”, Tweek exclaimed, twitching slightly from what he had just told Craig.

Why even ask if you aren’t going to respond?

Oh, right. It’s Craig.

After a few minutes however, he spoke again.

“I haven’t been with anyone. I don’t see the point”.

“You don’t?”, Tweek questioned. Not entirely surprised by Craig’s viewpoint, but it certainly did not match his own.

“Seems like a lot of effort just to get hurt. Like setting yourself up for failure”.

Tweek considered this.

“I don’t know man, my parents have been together over twenty years”.

“My parents were together almost that long too before…well, mom…”. 

“I’m sorry. It…must have been hard, when it happened”.

Tweek felt Craig look at him, so he looked back.

“Cancer. Four years ago”.

Tweek sighed sadly.

“I’m really sorry. That’s awful. Fuck cancer, man”.

“Yep”, he popped the p.

They skimmed a few more rocks, then Craig sat down. Tweek followed.

“Have you made any friends since coming here?”, Craig asked.

“Umm…”, Tweek hugged his knees to his chest and looked up as some birds chirped in one of the trees, “Mmph, I like Heidi. But a bit soon to call her a friend? A-and…”, he hesitated.

“Yeah?”.

“Well…I think you’re pretty cool”, Tweek admitted with a smile.

Craig just glowered at him.

“Or not! I mean-”, Tweek added quickly, trying to backpaddle.

“Yeah. You’re alright, Tweek”.

Tweek smiled and met his eyes again. Once again, not completely cold as ice and unapproachable. His eyes were more hesitant and unsure from what Tweek could decipher. 

He’ll take it.

Chapter Text

The next two weeks passed without much incident, unless you counted Cartman and Kenny returning from their five day suspension far quieter than what their fellow students remembered. In fact, Cartman often looked constipated in class, like he was dying to say something but couldn’t. Kenny had started to turn over a new leaf it seems - he was now being increasingly friendly to everyone in Media Studies, including Tweek. Tweek was of course suspicious about this change in behaviour and kept interactions to a minimum. This was more effort than Craig was putting in - he just glowered at every attempt Kenny made and told him to “shut up” or “go away”.

Another change was that Tweek and Craig now walked to and from school together. This was mostly in silence, but Tweek didn’t mind. It was nice to have a companion to walk with. Craig would occasionally become impatient with Tweek if he stopped to smell flowers growing on a fence or admire any animal they came across, but he would still wait with a scowl on his face, headphones on full blast and would be staring at something far less interesting instead - like the road, his own shoes or the cement sidewalk.

Occasionally Craig would suggest a detour to the park. Tweek would never suggest it, he didn’t want to push his new found friendship with Craig too far. Craig could now skim rocks up to seven skips at a time and Tweek was proud of him. Craig showed no emotion in this newfound achievement but Tweek suspected that deep down it meant something to him. He could see that Craig enjoyed it, despite being deadpan in expression the entire time and acting indifferent when he did a good skip.

Tweek would also catch Craig staring at Tweek fussing over the ducklings and birds. He would also stand back and observe Tweek obsess over a ginger cat which occasionally leapt over the fence and make a beeline for Tweek. 

He didn’t know what to make of this sudden change in Craig’s behaviour. But he liked it.

And he couldn’t help his feelings - he really liked Craig.

He couldn’t explain it, but there was tension between them. Tweek felt drawn to Craig. It was his mysterious persona and his overwhelming desire to learn who Craig really is. It was like an itch he couldn’t scratch. He was dark and brooding, which was kind of attractive to Tweek if he was being completely honest. He was tall and handsome, he had a thick head of raven black hair and those cold blue eyes which would occasionally reveal emotion. 

Then there was the way they stared at one another. Craig would look into Tweek’s eyes with such intensity that Tweek felt it meant more. Tweek would gaze into them intently and watch for any movement. Sometimes there was a flicker of warmth within the ice cold blue and Craig’s mouth would slightly turn at the corners and then disappear faster than Tweek could register it. Other times there was a look of fear or hesitation, where Tweek would notice Craig’s fists clench or his posture change to lean away from Tweek.

He was getting better at reading Craig. He always felt a warm spot inside his chest when he thought about Craig like this. He wondered if Tweek occupied Craig’s mind at all. Whether Craig noticed things about Tweek and thought them over. 

He wondered what it would be like if they touched hands again. What would happen if he were to embrace Craig. What kind of kisser he would be, what he would be like as a lover…

No, Tweek always did his best to stop those thoughts when they popped up.

It wasn’t always possible of course. 

Tweek let his mind drift often to these thoughts before he went to sleep at night, when he sat in his room listening to music, when he painted, when he did the gardening…

Pretty much whenever he could without driving himself insane.

Tweek took their developing - thing - for what it was at face value. He pushed any feelings deep down inside and did his best to hide them. After all, Craig knew he was gay. Any wrong move could reveal that Tweek liked Craig, and then whatever it was between them now would be over. The project and everything that came with it brought them together as acquaintances? Friends? Tweek wasn’t sure. It’s not like the ‘hung out’ at school. Craig would disappear on breaks, Tweek suspected this was to go and smoke. Tweek was building his friendship with Heidi and her two friends Annie and Rebecca. They would often sit outside in the sunny courtyard near the woodwork building and spend the lunch break eating and chatting. 

There was a lot of chatter in the Media Studies classroom the following Friday. They had spent the last few lessons viewing the group assignment videos and doing text analysis. The theory work involved reviewing techniques in storyboard building, perfecting filming techniques and had just started on how these are used in filming soap operas. 

Today Mr. Black walked in without his coffee up in hand, dressed in casual jeans and a purple polo shirt and carrying a stack of papers.

“Right, everyone in your seats, I have an announcement!”, he called over the noise.

Kenny, who was sitting on Bebe’s desk and obviously telling her something very amusing, scowled and slinked off to sit down beside Cartman. 

“Okay, first thing’s first. I have your marks for your group assessments and I will be handing them out now. You’ll be required to submit a 500 word reflection on your groupwork experience by the end of next week”.

Loud groans came from Kyle and Cartman.

“It was in the assignment sheet!”, Mr. Black reminded them, looking stern, “Now - no-body has failed, alright? I am not grading you as professional film crew, I am grading you as a baseline for film work. You were good enough to get into the class, after all. And the group work was tough. I recognize that. Apart from the…incident”, Mr. Black shot a disappointed look to Cartman and Kenny, “I think everyone worked well to resolve any differences. Well done”.

Most of the class flickered their gazes between Tweek and Craig; and Cartman and Kenny. Naturally, the suspension had become whole school news and Tweek and Craig had been dodging questions for the first few days after the incident. Craig had been even more elusive than usual, and Tweek just kept saying the same things:

“Can’t talk about it”.

“We got it done, it’s fine”.

“No, I am not going to ‘take him’ again - do you really think I want to be suspended too?!”.

When Mr. Black dropped Tweek and Craig’s sheet back on their desk, Tweek grabbed it eagerly. Craig however didn’t flinch.

Tweek shifted his chair closer to share the sheet between them.

“Come on, let’s read it together”, Tweek offered kindly with a smile.

“Don’t care, we passed”, Craig responded without looking at him. He stared straight ahead into the whiteboard up from, clearly disinterested.

“Aren’t you even a little curious?”.

“No”.

“Craig”, Tweek laughed and shook his head, “W-we worked really hard, we-”.

“I said. I don’t care”.

Tweek fell silent and gazed at the paper.

Final Grade: A-

Score: 89/100

Duration: 4 minutes 29 seconds 

Comments:

Excellent work, boys. 

Your story was clear to the viewer and you used imagery to demonstrate a strong beginning and ending. You contrasted between shots well - the light and dark theme remained consistent throughout. I could clearly see you both shared the filming and editing experience - you both used great application of several filming and editing techniques to portray a particular emotion and message. 

Suggestions for improvement would be to:

-Apply theory for storyboard construction to your future projects and in a more timely manner - remember this should be completed at the start of the project, rather than at the end.

-Practice with editing software to create smoother transitions between audio tracks - both tracks used contrasted each other well but it can be tricky to transition between such different sounds seamlessly

Well done!

Tweek smiled broadly and laughed.

“Craig! A-!”.

“I don’t care”.

Tweek frowned. Craig really didn’t care.

“Okay…”.

Mr. Black gave them a few more minutes to chat about their marks. Tweek could hear Cartman scoffing and complaining loudly - he assumed that he and Kyle hadn’t done very well. Kyle was shooting filthy looks in Cartman’s direction and Stan was talking to him in a low voice - Tweek assumed he was trying to calm Kyle down.

“Okay-  next on the agenda! Your next assignments!”.

A collective outburst of sighs and groans rang out.

“Come on! How do you expect to learn and develop your skills when you aren’t applying any theory into practice?! I thought you found the theory ‘boring’ guys!”, Mr. Black used his fingers to make quotation marks when he had said boring, “There is no pleasing you lot!”.

“But Sir, we still haven’t recovered from the group work!”, Wendy called out impatiently.

“Yeah, I swear if I get paired with Cartman again I am out!”, Kyle said dramatically.

“Oh, that would be a shame, wouldn’t it?!”, Cartman shot back sarcastically.

“Eric! You’re on a good behaviour plan at this school which impacts your future in this class and others if you breach it - think before you speak”, Mr. Black called out.

“Kahl started it!”.

“Enough now, okay, let me explain them. Now one is an individual assessment piece due two weeks from this coming Monday. The tasks is to make a four to five minute video piece with somebody else as the subject matter. A video about someone else, maybe a friend, family member…neighbour. Whatever. You MUST have their consent to film them, and you MUST do a story board before the project is done. Broaden your minds on the themes - it might be comical, it might be sad, it might be romantic - please keep it G rated guys”.

Bebe giggled and elbowed Wendy, who was also dissolving into a fit of giggles behind her hands. Mr. Black ignored them.

“Okay, settle down. Next assignment piece I am issuing is - shock horror - another group assignment”.

The loudest set of groans echoed through the classroom that Tweek had ever heard - and that was saying something when only ten students were present. Even Craig scoffed and was gritting his teeth. 

Tweek snapped his gaze to him.

Emotional response.

“THIS TIME”, Mr. Black shouted out, “You can CHOOSE your pairs. You need to let me know by next Wednesday. This assignment is due in FOUR weeks - this takes us to the end of term. You get much longer on this one. It must go for 5-7 minutes. I want a fictitious tale, so you need to use your imagination and acting has to be involved. It is to demonstrate techniques we learned on how the industry portrays emotions in soap operas - drama, romance, comedy- sure. But those shots can be powerful when there’s a major scene or cliffhanger. So start thinking about those who are going to be in it and act. I expect you all to help each other - perhaps for example if Stan and Kyle pair up and Kenny and Cartman, that Stan might be an actor in the other pair’s film and vice versa. You can use people external to the class of course. Again - PERMISSION. I will pass around the sheets…”.

Tweek gazed at Craig.

“Want to…nghhh… pair up again?”.

Craig didn’t look at him.

“Maybe”.

Tweek cocked an eyebrow.

“Maybe? W-well…when will I know?!”.

“Dunno”.

Tweek turned his body to face Craig completely now, examining him. This was hard considering Craig refused to look at him.

“Hey, hello?”, Tweek waved a hand in front of his face.

Craig looked at him, he seemed thoroughly irritated.

“I dunno, okay?”, Craig gritted out. He crossed his arms and looked away from Tweek.

Tweek shrugged.

“Okay…”.

__________________________________

The following Monday morning, Tweek had still not had an answer from Craig. He had not broached the subject again on the walk home Friday or the walk to school Monday. But he was starting to feel uneasy as he walked into Media Studies on Monday morning. It was dangerously close to Wednesday.

What complicated things further was that Heidi had hit Tweek up immediately on Friday afternoon by his locker and asked if he would like to be her partner on the project.

“I can’t go with Clyde again - no way”, she had complained loudly as Tweek packed up his bag for the next class.

“Mmph, I know - sleaze bag, lazy”, Tweek summarized.

“Yeah, and dumb. Doesn’t know much! His head if filled with saw dust!”.

“Okay? Well I am going to have to let you know if that’s okay? I asked Craig before you approached me, and he is yet to answer me”.

Heidi looked astounded.

“You did?! Why?!”.

Tweek shrugged, “Convenience - he lives across the road. I know we can work together, despite its, nngh, challenges. A-and I don’t know how well he will work with other people in the class”, Tweek said nervously.

Heidi smiled.

“You’re way too nice, Tweek”, she replied and placed a hand on his shoulder, “He’s a big boy. He certainly is very clear about being the strong and silent type. A solo act”.

“Mmph, but he can’t be solo on a group project”, Tweek reminded her with a smile.

They were walking to Chemistry together when Heidi enquired.

“Are you two friends?”.

Tweek thought about it as they dodged other groups of students in the corridor, “I think so? I would like to think so. We walk to and from school together. We hang out sometimes. He sits with me in Media Studies now, no questions asked”.

“But he doesn’t hang out with you at school?”.

“No. I don’t know what he does on breaks. I am afraid to ask”.

“Annie reckons he goes and smokes across from the basketball courts and Rebecca saw him reading under the stairwell last Friday”.

“Sounds about right. He does read”, Tweek remarked. 

They lined up outside the classroom. Heidi was staring at Tweek.

“Do you…do you like him, Tweek?”, she whispered, “Craig?”.

“He’s okay?”, Tweek replied quietly.

“That’s not what I meant…”.

Tweek glared at her and felt his heart plummet. 

Sure, the girls here now knew his sexual orientation. Tweek revealed that last week. He had told them about his old love interest, and the background of his discovery and coming out. Like his friends back home, they were one hundred percent supportive. 

But he had barely mentioned Craig. For some reason, he felt their time together was a secret. Like Craig would hate for people to know they have what they have. Like it was confessing to the school Craig had a friend - God forbid. Tweek tried not to take it seriously, he tried not to take offense - surely it isn’t because it’s him. Craig had no other friends - if anything, Tweek felt special. 

Tweek mock laughed in response to Heidi.

“N-no Heidi. Don’t be ridiculous! He’s straight as”.

Heidi hummed.

“The question wasn’t if he is straight, Tweek”.

Tweek bit his lip and didn’t respond.

“Thought so”, Heidi whispered with a smile on her face.

Tweek whacked her shoulder lightly with his exercise book, “No, you’re wrong! Just because, mmph, we did a project together it doesn’t mean…”.

“There are signs”, Heidi wiggled her eyebrows and gave him a cheeky smile, “I have seen you two in class”.

“Are you serious?! You aren’t seeing anything, Heidi!”.

The classroom door opened to let them in and Heidi shot him a knowing look.

“Sure…we’ll see. This conversation isn’t over!”, she waved a finger at him.

“Gah!”.

_______________________________

On Monday morning, the Media Studies class was chatting excitedly on Tweek’s arrival.

“What’s going on?”, Tweek asked Heidi as he passed her desk.

“Muck up day on Friday”, she said with a grin, “The boys are amped. It’s an annual tradition here at the school - did you not do it back at your old school?”.

Tweek snorted, “No? Just at the end of the school year, the seniors would play pranks…”.

“Yeah well, we do it annually before April Fools, it’s kind of like…a way to get us through the first term and curb anything worse on the actual April Fools”.

“That seems a bit backward”, Tweek frowned, starting to feel nervous.

“Don’t stress Tweek, you don’t have to get involved in anything. Keep your head down and just be you”, Heidi responded.

Tweek shot a look at Cartman, who was laughing loudly with Kenny and Clyde.

“What about that lot, eh?!”, Tweek nodded his head in their direction.

Heidi snorted, “Well, since Cartman and Kenny are on behavioural plans, they need to keep it tame”.

Craig walked in and stood beside Tweek, looking between Heidi and Tweek with a puzzled look on his face.

“Muck up day Friday apparently”, Tweek announced to him nervously, “Did you know about this?”.

Craig merely grunted.

“What, like April Fools?”.

“Way worse Prince of Darkness - you better watch your back!”, Cartman now called out to Craig, apparently overhearing him.

Craig tilted his head, cracked his knuckles in his right hand and then flipped Cartman off.

That’s brave…kind of hot…,Tweek thought.

He shook his head vigorously to snap out of it.

“What are you going to do, put silly string on my locker?”, Craig shot angrily at him.

Cartman laughed, “No! I’m not ten years old…I have the whole week to plan…this is going to be great…how about toilet papering Mr. Black’s car? Egging the hall? Ooh, ooh, Kenny. We should totally-”, he dropped his voice to a whisper into Kenny’s ear.

Kenny chortled, “Dude, that’s child's play to Craig - look at him!”.

“So…it’s a day to destabilize the establishment and cause chaos in the school?”, Craig enquired.

“Pretty much. But you’ll be hammered with the dos and don’ts all week by the principal”, Stan chimed in.

Kyle frowned at all of them.

“I think the whole thing is stupid”.

“You would Kahl, because every year I get you good!”, Cartman laughed out loudly, “Last year with the hose on the way to school and at the end of the day when I blocked off the stairways and halls with hazard tape”.

Craig snorted. Everyone turned to face him.

“Seriously?! That’s the impact you’re making?! Pathetic”, he shook his head.

“Oh, and you can do better can you?”, Cartman asked in a mocking tone.

“Yeah, I do. None of what any of are planning is consequential. None of it will make a statement or an impact. You need to leave your mark”, Craig responded in a quiet and low voice. It was almost dangerous.

“You can’t burn the school down dude, you’ll be expelled and probably arrested”, Stan advised. He actually looked half serious.

Craig smirked. 

Tweek just glanced at him, shocked. 

There was mischief in Craig's eyes. The strong desire to…prove a point?

“Craig…”, Tweek warned, “Just let them be stupid for a day, it doesn’t need to mean anything”.

Craig looked around at them all.

“You’ll see what I mean”.

He then headed for his seat.

Heidi looked at Tweek urgently.

“What do you think he’s going to do?!”, she hissed.

Tweek examined Craig thoughtfully as he took his usual seat.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to know…”, Tweek responded seriously. He then saw Craig’s eyes gaze almost menacingly at Cartman again, “...But I should probably find out”, he added hopelessly.

Chapter Text

Craig took his seat with a smirk. 

The pressure that had been building in his mind over the last couple of weeks was coming to a head. Once in control of his domain and caring next to nothing about anything.

But now? having that all turned on its head was taking its toll.

He could feel it day by day. Hoping these ‘feelings’ would subside. Telling himself that listening to louder and angrier music would dull them down. Using his time in solitude in his room to attempt to navigate the storm of emotions that seemed to be trying to break through the surface.

But it didn’t help that the root of the cause lived across the street and walked to and from school with him every day.

It also didn’t help that he privately enjoyed some of these new feelings. He of course scolded himself each time he found himself in this situation - but it was like a drug. He wanted more. That’s why he waited at Tweek’s gate every morning and why he waited under the school flags every afternoon. That’s why he sometimes suggested a detour, so they may prolong their time together.

What Craig found fascinating is that it was comfortable. A foreign concept, finding this in another human being. The time together didn’t need to be significant in any way at all. It didn’t have to be a massive production or a full afternoon of activities or discussion. Often it was spent in comfortable silence, skipping rocks or watching Tweek fuss over animals and flowers.

They were virtually the exact opposite to each other. Craig doesn’t notice things like birds or animals, and here is Tweek gushing over them and rattling off facts about them to Craig. Craig would just listen and watch Tweek interact with everything from cats to ducks to reptiles. He would observe Tweek’s bright green eyes light up and his eyes would linger on Tweek’s smile.

Craig often found he didn’t want this time to end at all and that he didn’t want to go home. 

And the other day when he found Tweek fighting with Cartman and Kenny, he discovered something else.

That he actually cared about Tweek.

It made him so angry - so furious to observe Tweek cornered and being treated in such a way. It was nothing to do with their project - he didn’t give a rat’s ass about that. The emotional response that he had no control over came purely from his concern for Tweek. 

Of course he intervened immediately. 

Of course he helped Tweek up after he had sunk down to the floor in defeat. 

And of course he felt his heart thudding and like electricity had passed through his hand as he touched Tweek’s to do so.

Craig knew that these feelings were growing far and more as the days went on. Tweek occupied his mind for a significant proportion of the day. He wanted to be around him, he wanted to keep an eye on him. 

The thoughts of caring for Tweek had erupted since the Cartman and Kenny incident; he had felt protective of Tweek - sure, Tweek was more capable than most at defending himself physically thanks to his boxing, but two against one that day was too much for him. And he knew Tweek could handle insults and arguments - Tweek was sassy and quick witted, and Craig had been on the receiving end several times - he sometimes even welcomed it. Yet he found ways to spot Tweek in the hallways to check on him and felt comforted when he was walking Tweek to and from school. Even sitting beside each other in Media Studies was second nature now, and Craig felt relieved his desk was to the left of Tweek's, which was closer to Cartman and Kenny. It was almost like he was shielding Tweek.

Some of his thoughts about Tweek were…less pure. He was getting weaker at pushing these away. He was having some sort of awakening that he was powerless to stop. He had wrestled with these feelings before.

Why was he attracted to boys?

What does he want to do about it?

The answers to these questions had always been “dunno” and “nothing”.

Until now.

Now when he thought of sexual acts between boys, he always thought of him and Tweek. A very private guilty pleasure was daydreaming about him and Tweek in the janitor's closet or him and Tweek rolling around in his bed together. Tweek on top of him with those stunning green eyes half lidded, messy hair and no shirt on. Imagining the noises Tweek would make, the things he would say. He wondered what it would be like if he did some of these things he'd watched in porn with Tweek. 

But he thought more than that. Some of his daydreams were simply what it would feel like to kiss him. How soft his skin would be. What holding his hand or embracing would feel like.

Ugh. No...STOP!

It was getting harder and harder to suppress these feelings and urges.

Tweek didn't know Craig liked boys. No one did. He couldn't see a path that led to Craig admitting his feelings and actually acting on anything.

No, no way. He can't. 

He felt frustrated. He felt agitated. He was restless.

When these morons in his Media Studies class started to talk of the Muck Up day he was intrigued. He reflected fondly on the memories he had of causing chaos and making an impact in the past at his other schools. So much power, so much effect. And nothing they could do about it but expel him. That is the best they could do.

Cartman's ideas for Muck Up Day were what he'd expect to see in Elementary School. How old was Cartman, 10?! Christ, he was almost bored to tears hearing how juvenile these ideas were.

They were blown away and impacted by that?!

Wait until they see what he can do.

And he told his classmates this. He didn't care. He was the master at this stuff. He just needed to find what mattered to the school. A weak spot, if you will. It wouldn't take him long.

He'd seen the look on Tweek's face as he'd sat down. He looked worried. This made him feel bad momentarily, but then it started to excite Craig. Tweek would fly off the handle, and Craig would welcome another reaction from him. It would be a thrill to be chewed out by Tweek again.

This is exactly why every time Tweek enquired what Craig was up to, Craig either didn't answer or replied with “you'll see”.

He would be ready for Friday.

—------

Craig was so caught up in thinking of Muck Up Day that he forgot about choosing a partner for the Media Studies assignment.

Oh, that's right.

Tweek asked him and he never got back to him.

Oh well. He would just tell him this morning on the walk to school 

Within moments of setting off on their walk Wednesday morning Craig gave his answer. 

“I'll work with you”.

Tweek seemed in deep thought.

“Hmm?”, he replied as he snapped out of it.

“Media Studies. Group project”.

Tweek frowned.

“I can't, I'm working with Heidi”.

Craig stopped walking.

“What?!”.

Tweek turned around from being a couple of metres ahead of him and also stopped his pace.

“You never gave me an answer, so I assumed you weren't keen”.

Craig scowled, “I-I forgot to! You didn't ask me again!”.

Tweek shrugged, “I shouldn't have to”.

Craig gritted his teeth and let out a frustrated groan.

“Really?! Can't you just…tell Heidi no?”.

“No, I can't”, Tweek replied firmly, “She asked me on Friday, I waited four days more for your answer..then when it came to yesterday and you STILL hadn't answered me, I accepted her offer”.

Craig was furious.

“Why didn't you ask me again?! I would have said yes!”.

Tweek took the bait. He immediately got defensive and started screeching.

“RRR! Craig! I asked you and you said maybe!! You said it in a way that almost implied a no!! I was the sucker who waited, I asked you WHEN I would know and you nearly bit my head off!”, Tweek fired at him, stomping his foot.

“I told you I forgot!”.

“Well that's YOUR fuck up, isn't it?!”.

“Why does Heidi even want to work with you anyway?!”, Craig resumed walking fast which caused Tweek to huff as he took fast strides just to keep up with him.

“B-BECAUSE WE ARE FRIENDS?!”.

“Oh? You're FRIENDS now!”, Craig snapped.

“YES! kind of like I thought you and I were!”.

“I could be ANYTHING but your friend!”, the words left Craig's mouth before he could stop them.

Tweek shook his head wildly, a blur of golden hair over his red face.

“What the hell is THAT supposed to mean?!”.

“If you don't know,.I'm not going to tell you!” Craig shot out over his shoulder as he walked faster.

Tweeks footsteps sounded faster behind Craig, but he couldn't keep up.

“Well the solution NEXT time is say yes straight up, don't wait until the last minute to see if you get a better offer!” Tweek called out.

Craig didn't answer.

They'd reached the school gate and Craig walked even faster to outpace Tweek. 

It worked, he could no longer hear him.

That argument was satisfying, but now he was really angry and jealous. He assumed Tweek was his partner. And if he was being honest with himself…Tweek was right, it was his fuck up.

He'd fix it withTweek later. 

First he just needed time to process his thoughts and emotions spiralling out of control.

—----------

Tweek and Craig's bad moods had burned out by Friday and they walked to school together with polar opposite facial expressions. Tweek's eyes were wide eyed and nervous and his lips were pressed together as he trembled uncontrollably and kept his walking pace slow. Craig's was deadpan, but the corners of his mouth tugged upwards as they approached the school and he spotted an audience of people viewing the school oval.

Tweek had started nervously commentating as his eyes fell on several obvious pranks on their approach.

“Nghh, someone put toilet paper all over the flagpoles…h-how do you think they got up there?”.

“Ack! That's Mr. Black's car! S-someone's egged it!”.

“Oh sweet Jesus, why are there chairs on the roof?!”.

“Craig…why are there so many people on the oval?!”.

Craig shot Tweek a side glance.

“Dunno. Wanna check it out?”.

They climbed the grass hill and weaved in and out of the crowd to find a vantage point. Craig heard many people laughing and shouted, but he also heard several gasps of shock and saw many shaking their heads.

“Wait a second, man, does that say what I think it says?”.

“FUCK! SOMEONE'S GETTING EXPELLED FOR SURE!”.

“How did they even manage to do that?!”.

Craig stood in a clear spot and crossed his arms with a proud smirk, admiring his handiwork. He now looked at Tweek and observed his eye's fly open wider in complete shock and his mouth hang agape. He was frozen on the spot, now moving his jaw as if trying to speak and blinking in disbelief. 

“ACK! OH MY GOD! T-THAT'S BURNED IN MAN, THAT'S NOT COMING OUT…NGHH! THAT SAYS…”, he snapped his gaze to Craig, “Craig! IT SAYS-”.

Cartman and Kenny walked towards them howling with laughter. Cartman could barely contain himself, rubbing his ribs for relief.

“Oh shit…oh shit…can you actually imagine the principal's reaction?! The letters are GIANT! It covers the WHOLE OVAL! Holy shit! Oh my GOD, has she seen it?! Kenny, we have to be here when she sees it. I don't give a shit about class; we are staying put!”. 

“Uh, dude, she's here”.

The principal stood metres from Tweek and Craig and looked horrified. She let out an angry howl and was clutching her hair as she screamed.

“GO. GO! ALL OF YOU! TO CLASS, NOW! BELL IS GOING IN FIVE MINUTES! ANYONE STILL HERE WHEN THE BELL GOES GETS A WEEK DETENTION!”.

Tweek looked pale and was gazing at the lady beside the principal, who Craig recognised as Tweek's mother. Tweek's mom was tapping students on the shoulders and barking at them to leave the area immediately.

Tweek bowed his head, still looking completely shocked and walked away. Craig followed.

A helicopter now flew overhead and was circling the oval.

“Craig, that's the news helicopter! Oh my God…we will never hear the end of-”, Tweek slowed his walking and snapped his gaze to Craig. He was looking at Craig like the penny had finally dropped. He then waved a finger at Craig and shook his head.

“Craig…you didn't?”.

“What? you think I am capable enough to do something like that?”, Craig asked. 

Tweek studied him.

“Y-you said…you made it sound like it was going to be big and…Craig, please say you didn't…you'll get expelled!”.

“I'm saying nothing”.

Tweek blew up and hissed, “That's as good as a confession!”.

Craig shot him a dark look.

“Whoever did it, they know how to prove a point”.

Then he walked away without a backward glance.

___________________________________________

It was a day of chaos. Every corridor, room or staircase was meddled with - whether it was soapy water on the floor, corridors blocked off with various tape, rooms filled with balloons or coffee cups being stolen - Mr. Black was seen roaming around looking grumpy and vocally enquiring about his infamous red coffee mug.

These were the sorts of pranks that are allowed for Muck Up Day. The rules were clear - no pranks that involved damage or destruction of property. 

That is why the news of the school oval had spread to every student by lunch time - this rebel had really done it. It had even made the local news on the television on Friday night. 

But the question on everyone's mind was who did it. 

Craig noticed that Tweek looked rather flat on Monday morning. He was frowning and seemed rather distracted.

“What's with you?”, Craig enquired half way through their walk.

Tweek sighed.

“Mom hasn't shut up about the incident all weekend’, he reported sadly, “She was fired up day and night. The school is hosting several sports games this term and there is a fair coming up in a few weeks as you know…”.

“Erm, no, I don't know”.

Tweek threw him a look of disbelief.

“The fundraiser? on Saturday in three weeks time? T-there was an announcement a week ago! Haven't you seen the…mmph, posters?”.

“I never read them”.

Tweek huffed.

“Of course not. In your own little world”.

“I assumed they were for sport or some sort of student council thing, I don't give a sh-”.

“I know. You don't give a shit about ANYTHING”.

Craig threw Tweek another look.

That wasn't true anymore…

“Anyway…nghh…they have to, mmph, cancel the fair. THAT word is burned into the grass so the grass is dead…so it has to be removed, which leaves the word still there of course…nngh, then new grass seeds and wait for the grass to grow back! Mom is PISSED, and the principal is even worse. M-mom reckons the principal will start doing whole class detentions unless the person responsible comes forward!”.

Craig's insides lurched.

“Everyone?”.

“Yep…and mom says if I find out who it was, I have to come forward”.

Tweek was twisting his hands together and fidgeting.

“I still think it was you. But I haven't said anything”.

Craig's insides moved around uncomfortably.

This doesn't usually happen when he pulls stunts like this.

Craig chose not to respond. Surprisingly, Tweek didn't press any further.

When they got to Media Studies, the incident was still the topic on everybody's lips.

“Cartman, you went too far this time!”, Wendy was waving an accusing finger at Cartman and looking furious, “We all know it was you!”.

Cartman tossed his hands up, “Wendy, Wendy, Wendy…I wish I could take credit, but I am not that good. Someone really one upped me this year”.

“Cartman did the chairs on the roof and broke into the sports shed and threw all the sports equipment into the school pool, and I changed keys around on the keyboard in the computer lab to spell rude words and zip tied a whole bunch of shit together…toilet rolls, scissors…you get the drift”.

“Is that all?!”, Craig asked with a scoff.

Cartman sneered.

“What did you do then, flip everyone off? Because that isn’t a prank, Craig…that’s just you being a dick hole”.

“Fuck off, Cartman”, Craig shot back, but he did extend his middle finger to compliment it.

“Oooooh! He used the slogan!”, Kenny was clearly enjoying the verbal exchange.

“Who do you think you are?!”, Cartman sneered. 

Craig narrowed his eyes.

“Someone who knows how to pull off an effective prank”.

Wendy gasped.

“I-It was YOU?! The oval?!”.

Cartman snorted.

“No way! He’s too busy making out with Tweek to pull off something like that!”.

Tweek made a hissing noise.

“Nghhh! WHAT?! Who’s saying that?! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SUCH A DICK?!”, Tweek screeched.

Craig winced and Cartman laughed louder.

“Nobody is, Tweek. Cartman’s just sore he didn’t pull off the best prank this year”, Wendy replied with a smirk. Then she turned to Craig, “So tell us how you did it! Did you seriously do that by yourself?!”. She looked almost impressed.

Tweek was shooting a worried look at Craig, which he ignored.

“He summoned his demonic night crew to do it for him. He didn’t lift a finger, the pussy”, Cartman teased.

“It’s a chemical burn…haven’t you ever heard of pesticides?! I knew you could only manage kiddie pranks…”, Craig retorted, crossing his arms and smirking, “If I was going to take it a step further, I would have added a graphic underneath it”.

He then flipped Cartman off. 

There was a stunned silence for a few moments.

Wendy breathed out.

“Wow…you really did it”.

“Yeah…so what?”.

Craig took a split second to look at Tweek for his reaction. He looked crestfallen, disappointed. It made Craig’s heart sink.

Then again, what had Craig expected?! For Tweek to be impressed?!

Then Tweek snapped.

“I-I can’t believe you! Craig!? I knew it, I KNEW IT! RRR! I ASKED you if you did it, but I really didn’t need to, HUH?! OF COURSE YOU DID IT!”.

“Well Craig, I hope you’re proud of yourself. All you’ve managed to achieve is make the school a laughing stock for the entire town and upset people. No events for months, neverending complaints about the language we teach our students. Very disappointing”, Mr. Black had entered the room and overheard Craig’s admission of guilt. 

Craig just glowered at him.

“You realise of course I have to come forward about this. I am sure you’ll be asked to go see the Principal today and your father will be called”.

Craig’s mood darkened.

Great. Just great.

______________________________________

Craig sat in a chair in the Vice Principal’s office. His father sat in a chair beside him.

Tweek’s mother Helen Tweak stood in front of her desk towering over them with a furious expression. Her face was bright red and her eyes popped in such a way that Craig thought she might spontaneously combust as she berated him. 

Tweek stood awkwardly with his arms crossed and bag on and leaning against the bookcase, avoiding eye contact.

“-OF COURSE I HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT, PRINCIPAL VICTORIA IS OFF ON STRESS LEAVE…”, she stopped to take a breath, “WHAT ON EARTH POSSESSED YOU?! THE SCHOOL IS AN ABSOLUTE LAUGHING STOCK! AFTER THE CONTINUAL MESSAGING THIS SCHOOL HAS EACH AND EVERY YEAR ABOUT DAMAGING SCHOOL PROPERTY BEING OFF LIMITS, YOU JUST THINK YOU’RE ABOVE THAT DO YOU?! TELLING OUR WHOLE COMMUNITY TO…”.

Craig’s father furrowed his eyebrows, “What did it slogan say, anyway?”.

Helen tried to steady her breathing for a moment.

“You didn’t go and take a look?! It was ALL OVER THE NEWS!”.

“They had to censor it”, Craig’s father informed her.

“I AM NOT SAYING IT!”.

“Fuck off…”, Craig had turned to his father, eyes lowered to the ground and responded in almost a whisper.

Thomas shot an angry look in response to Craig’s reply. 

Helen let out a dramatic huff and gestured her hand to Craig, as if to say ‘there you go!’. 

“Well, this is just too far! Detention is not enough! I think this warrants expulsion! but of course I need to wait for Principal Victoria…”.

“Please, Helen. This is the first school that Craig has actually started to settle into. I have noticed positive changes in him at home for the first time since he lost his…mother”, he shot a nervous glance at Craig as Craig’s face fell, “For so early in the term he’s already turning a corner. He’s even made a friend in your son here, Tweek…please…I implore you not to push for expulsion”.

Helen’s eyes popped again and her gaze snapped to Tweek.

“Please! It’s bad enough Tweek shares a class with this…this poor example! Please don’t say they are friends!”, she examined Tweek closely, “You better not have been involved! The fair is CANCELLED! ALL SPORTING EVENTS, WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING EXCEPT WAIT FOR THE GRASS TO...GROW BACK. ALL OUR FUNDRAISING IDEAS, OUR SCHOOL PRIDE...ALL BECAUSE OF!-”, she shot a nasty glare at Tweek and Craig. 

Tweek opened his mouth to speak, looking on the verge of tears, but Craig got there first.

“No, I acted alone”.

“Mom, I didn’t do anything! B-but Craig, yeah! He’s a friend to me, h-he isn’t all bad, I promise! He made a really bad decision…he shouldn’t have done…nghhh…that…”, Tweek finished lamely. Then he took a deep breath, “Mom, don’t expel him! H-he isn’t so bad, he’s been really helpful, on the group project we worked so hard together, we got an A-!”.

Craig’s father gasped and turned to Craig with a smile, “A-?! You didn’t tell me that?! Was this the filming project?”.

Craig nodded.

“Y-yeah! And he really did so much work, I-”. Tweek faltered as he caught his mother’s furious glare.

“I’m sorry Tweek, but none of that is consequential to the punishment that has to come from this”, Helen snapped. She took some deep and steadying breaths and rubbed her temple, “Tweek…you can go. I just need to finish up. Go get your things and I will drive us home once I am done”.

Tweek nodded sadly and left the room without a further  glance at Craig.

“He will be punished at home, I assure you”, Craig’s father attempted to reason, “And if there are any damages…we will foot the bill. Just please…reconsider”.

Helen looked out the window.

“I told you, it needs to go to Principal Victoria. There will be a meeting…we will inform you of the decision at a later time. Right. For now, Craig there will be detentions every afternoon after school for the next two weeks. Expect the punishment to be upgraded. And if I hear you influencing my son or any other student in any way…”, she waved a threatening finger. 

“He won’t. We will work on this at home…as a family…”, Craig’s father shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.

Helen responded with a look of disbelief.

“You can go. Thanks for coming in, Mr Tucker”.

_________________________________________

Tweek gazed at the contents of his locker in deep thought.

It was well after 3pm. The hallways were deserted.

Of course it was just his luck that he got called in to the office for Craig’s crime and that it happened to be his mother dealing with it today.

That would be his cursed bad luck, wouldn’t it?

It was only that Mr. Black insisted he go along when he gave his report to the office. Tweek was a good student, a trusted student. He would tell the truth. In addition, it was the end of the conversation with Tweek losing his temper that Mr. Black had heard which helped him decipher what had happened.

Tweek sighed sadly and finished packing up. 

He noticed something out of the corner of his eye and slowly turned to his left, the locker door still opened on his right.

Craig.

Craig said nothing. He just stared intently into Tweek’s wide eyes. Face not quite deadpan for a change. Lips parted, expression soft.

He didn’t need to say anything, Tweek thought suddenly.

Emotion.

Craig slowly leaned down and his eyes fluttered. Tweek stiffened. He was in a state of shock, not understanding what was going on.

But those eyes…they told him what was about to happen.

Craig’s kiss was soft. Merely a brush of the lips. Barely touching, but enough for Tweek to feel. Enough to make Tweek’s heart race and his breathing pick up. 

Enough to want more.

Craig stood straight again.

“Thank you”.

Tweek just stared at him.

“I didn’t do anything?”.

“I know that you couldn’t”.

The ice in Craig’s deep blue eyes had melted somewhat, and they met Tweek’s glistening bright green ones. Searching. 

And then Craig turned and walked away, leaving Tweek reeling. 

What the fuck just happened?!

Chapter Text

“So, are we going to talk about this son?!”.

Craig shot his father a withering look in response as he stabbed his roast potatoes with his fork moodily.

His father held his gaze at Craig for a good ten seconds before sighing in defeat.

“Son, I don’t make this hard. You do. Every time I think we are making headway, you throw me a curb ball”, he chuckled and shoved a piece of roast pork in his mouth, “You know, you’re just like your mother…she always kept me on my toes”.

Craig didn’t respond.

He hated when his father would bring his mother up so casually in everyday conversation, especially when his tone was so light and jovial. It was a kick in the guts to Craig - like his father had forgotten how slow, painful and tragic his mother’s death was. Did his father really think Craig didn’t remember?! All those hospital visits. All those times his mother was up all night crying in pain and shivering in bed. The hours and days Craig spent at her bedside holding her hand and wiping her face. The many hours he spent things to distract her like reading to her and playing the guitar. The things he still did every day now. 

He wasn’t over it all these years later. He felt he didn’t have to be. Things weren’t any easier, the grief had not waned. He was no-where near close to reminiscing about his mother in such a way. Casual dinner conversation, joking about his mother being difficult. No. His mother’s memory should be honoured and cherished. 

“Son, did you hear what I said?”, his father tried again.

Craig dropped his fork dramatically.

“I know, okay?! I don’t know why you’re beating around the bush here, dad…what I did was terrible, right?! I might even get suspended or even worse, expelled…again! Let’s just get this out of the way, okay?! Tell me how you REALLY feel!”, he exclaimed.

His father frowned, then rested his fork on his plate and elbows on the table. He put his hands together and rested his head on top as he considered Craig’s response.

“You know what? Sure! I really thought this was it, you know?! I try SO DAMN HARD, EVERY DAMN DAY WITH YOU! I may as well talk to a brick wall, it would be more likely to take my advice! You know, I didn’t amount to much, your mother was-”.

“DON’T TALK ABOUT HER!”, Craig blew up, shooting up from his seat.

“I damn well will! she’s your MOTHER, Craig! Stop dancing around what happened, okay?! Clearly you haven’t taken ANYTHING from the grief counselling we spent years of time and money on for both of us-”.

“That is NOT the answer! I am allowed to FEEL, dad!”, Craig was breathing hard.

Feel.

Yeah. He was feeling more lately.

Four hours ago he kissed Tweek at the lockers. 

It was planned. He still doesn’t know what brought it on, but he had the overwhelming urge to do it. His brain had snapped in the office as he sat there gazing at Tweek up against the bookshelf. He looked miserable. He looked disappointed. 

Disappointed in Craig?

Probably.

Then he felt something else rush through the open gate…guilt? 

Not guilty that he had burned those words into the oval. No. He was proud of that. His ego had certainly been stroked. FUCK the establishment and FUCK this school. FUCK Eric Cartman, who thinks he’s the King of Mischief. They weren’t kids, they were almost adults! He did something meaningful and shocking, and he was proud of how well he pulled it off!

Getting caught?

Yeah, he didn’t think about that.

Tweek was onto him from the get go. He was good - clever, and he knew Craig. Craig felt a pang of guilt when Tweek had a miserable weekend listening to his mom crap on about the whole ordeal  - Tweek didn't deserve that. But he brushed it off - he knew she would get over it, and she would leave Tweek alone soon. But seeing Tweek’s eyes so dim and depressed in the office today really hit him hard. Then to his utmost surprise, Tweek defended him. Why?! He didn’t deserve that. Craig then ensured Tweek wasn’t going to get in any trouble - Tweek was innocent. An angel, even.

Wait, what?

Tweek always surprised him. The more he learned, the more he liked. He felt so guilty and so desperate for Tweek to think good of him that he needed to say something, do something…

That’s why he approached him at the locker. One look into those searching emerald eyes and a flick down to those soft looking, pink and pouty lips pushed him over the edge from mere contemplation to bold action. Just a taste, just a toe over the line…

And Tweek hadn’t retreated. He even applied very soft pressure back. Craig felt it, his heart was thumping. Then he pulled right back to assess the situation.

Filled with feelings. 

Lust. 

Fear. 

Happiness?

Realization.

Realization that he liked Tweek. A lot. 

Realization that this really was him pulling the curtain back on the truth.

He liked guys Tweek. 

He is gay.

No wait.

No he isn’t.

He likes Tweek as a person. Not because he is a guy.

He only started feeling this way initially because he was attracted to Tweek’s physical appearance. This was shortly followed by his assessment of him as a person - feisty, strong, sassy and damn well funny; yet so delicate, soft, gentle, pretty…

Tweek was a lot of things. A mystery wrapped in a riddle, and he has been enjoying peeling back all the layers and learning more about him.

Tweek kissed him back. He felt it, he liked it.

But now he was panicking.

What does he do now?

How does he communicate to Tweek after this?

What does he need to say?

What does he need to do?

Back in the present, his father was banging on about his feelings for Craig’s mother again. Yep, this happened every month or so.

“-You don’t understand how much I miss her son, she was my rock and my guiding light…I think about her EVERY DAY! I feel too, son, we are human…and I love you son, she’d want you to be happy and successful, not moving people’s furniture for a living!”.

Craig just grunted in response, sat back down and then went back to eating dinner. His father noticed his actions and decided to follow suit.

Craig didn’t want to listen to this.

“Well, I am done with it, son! We are likely going to have to pay off more damages to the school, which means you will have to look for a job!”.

Craig just glared.

“I don’t have an issue with that! We talked about this before! I was happy to get work and pull my weight, but you gave me everything about settling in and finding our way first!”.

“Yeah well, I am done waiting. Grab the paper, look online or ask the school…do something, Craig. Please…just do one thing I can be proud of. When you helped Mrs. Smyth the other day I thought wow, he’s really turning a corner! Then the other day she tells me that she said good morning to her, and you just grunted!”.

“I didn’t even hear her, don’t know what you’re on about!”, Craig retorted, wracking his brain to recall the event. 

“Because you are in your own little world! Constantly! Look outside for a change Craig! Pull those damn headphones on and face reality!”.

“Whatever”.

“That boy across the road has a clue. Tweek. He clearly has his shit together…I thought you two being friends would help you to-”.

“We aren’t friends!”.

“Oh? But you walk to school together?”.

“So?”.

Craig’s father looked extremely confused. He slowed his chewing and furrowed his brows.

“So he’s…a enemy?”

“No”.

“So…?”.

“Dad!”, Craig sighed out impatiently.

“I’m going to say friend”, Craig’s father decided with a smile, “He seems friendly with you, even defended you in there today, son. He’s a good egg-”.

“He isn’t an egg!”.

“I know! God, son - you take everything so literally!”.

“Whatever”.

“I’ll give you ‘whatever’...you’re grounded. No leaving the house unless it’s school or to find that job you reckon you want to find. Until further notice”.

Craig snorted.

Hardly a punishment.

“And when your report card comes, we will be sorting that out too! If they don’t expel you that is! Guess we find out next week! Something to look forward to!”, The sarcasm in his father’s voice was thick and his patience was certainly wearing thin.

Craig didn’t respond. They ate the rest of the dinner in silence and then retreated to their own separate corners for the rest of the evening.

Just like they always did.

_______________________________________

Ring….ring….ring

Tweek played with his hands nervously in his lap at his desk while he waited for his video call to connect.

After a few more rings, Claudette’s face came into view. His best friend from his old town. She adjusted her camera with a smirk, her bright brown eyes lighting up with excitement and a big smile etched on her face.

“Tweek!”, she cried, “Can you hear me?”.

“Yeah, loud and clear!”, Tweek beamed. He loved Claudette. She is like the sister he never had. They spoke on video at least twice a week, and chatted online every day at least once. Distance was hard, but they were up to date with each other’s comings and goings.

“So”, Claudette examined the screen up close, almost like she was trying to look at Tweek under a microscope, “You said it’s important! Tellllll meeeeeee”, she whined.

“It’s pretty big”.

“Is it…Craig?”.

Tweek nodded.

“He did it, didn’t he?”, she looked inquisitively at Tweek and seemed to be holding her breath for the answer.

“Nghh, yes! The idiot! Gah! Claudette! He fits the profile! I 100% I knew it had to be him! I just didn’t want to believe it…”.

Claudette grinned, “Because you’re crushing on him hard?”.

Tweek sighed.

“Well…yeah! I’ve told you many times, the hours you and I have spent on this camera bloody psychoanalyzing the guy…”.

“Yeah, he’s deep”, Claudette responded with a nod, “You aren’t crazy, there’s definitely something interesting about him…and he is hot…”.

“Not helping…”, Tweek complained with a sigh, running a hand through his hair and gazing unfocused.

“I know, I know. Your mum is the Vice Principal! God, I bet she wasn’t happy”.

“She was FURIOUS. She’s mad we are in the same class in Media Studies and she's not impressed he is just across the street... she would probably lock me in the basement and never let me out if she found out we were, nghh…as friendly as we are!”

“No, she’d expel him. Simple”, Claudette offered unhelpfully. Then she laughed, “But don’t stress Tweek, your secret is safe with me!”.

“Nghh, and Heidi…”.

“Oh, right…my ‘replacement’...”, Claudette trailed off in a teasing voice, giving Tweek a smirk.

“Not your replacement…you’re my number one! I have to make friends Clauds!”.

“Love you too”, Claudette said fondly, “Look…you’re allowed to have a crush on a rebel. It’s kind of hot…”.

“Claudette!”, Tweek whined.

He sighed and felt his frustration about to burst.

“What is it? There’s more isn't there?! What happened?!”, Claudette enquired.

God, she could read Tweek like a book.

“He…he…HE!”, Tweek took a deep breath, “He kissed me!”.

Claudette shrieked, the pitch almost burst Tweek’s eardrums.

“WHAT?! ARE YOU SURE?!”.

Tweek grumbled.

“Yes Claudette, I am pretty sure that I know he kissed me! GAH!”.

Claudette looked stunned.

“He’s gay?! Did you get any sort of indication?!”.

“Well”, Tweek sighed and felt his cheeks burn. He gazed at his lap, “His vibe has been off. He has been…staring a lot. There’s been some…nghh…tension. I thought I was hallucinating though!”.

Claudette giggled, “Far out Tweek, this is wild! REALLY?!”.

“Really!”.

He spent ten more minutes explaining in detail about the meeting in his mother’s office and covering every single second of the kiss.

“Wow. WOW WOW WOW. So…what now then?”.

Tweek shrugged.

“No idea”.

“Hmm…do you think he is…open? Like…out?”.

Tweek laughed.

“No way! No, Claudette. No one even knows where he eats his lunch or whether he is goth, emo or punk. He would not be exposing details on his, nghh, sexual preferences!”.

“Well Tweek…what does that mean for you and him then? I mean…what if he is closet…totally denies it all and frosts you?”.

Tweek shot a pained look at Claudette. She knew he had thought this over. And of course he had.

“Not much I can do about it? But Claudette…the way he looked at me, the way he kissed me…it wasn’t just some random thing! We weren’t at a party drunk off our asses or like…blindfolded. He knew, I knew. He knows I kissed back…very subtle, but I kind of got taken aback in the whole thing and I am shocked I even managed that…then it was over before it began”.

Claudette sighed.

“Well, you might need to give him time to figure it out”, she advised seriously, “If he is unsure, if he doesn’t know…it could get awkward now”.

“Guess I will find out in the morning on the walk to school”, Tweek laughed nervously.

“True…it’s all going to change now, isn’t it? He can’t exactly pretend like it didn’t happen”.

“It’s Craig, he could pretend anything didn’t happen with very little effort”.

“But under the surface…”, Claudette began.

Tweek nodded.

“Exactly”.

________________________________

Tweek huffed as he waited at the gate the following morning. He stomped his booted foot impatiently and gazed around now and again, looking agitated and on edge.

He waited fifteen minutes, then stormed off the school on his own.

What he didn’t know is that Craig was watching him from behind the kitchen curtain from the opposite side of the road.

His father had left for work half an hour ago. He didn’t know when Craig left for school, but Craig didn’t want to chance being late. He couldn’t afford another strike on his record.

He trudged upstairs to grab his bag and stopped his computer’s progress of burning a CD with a playlist of music.

“Guess I will have to finish you off tonight”, he sighed impatiently at the screen.

He slung his bag over his back and quickly escaped the room, being sure to allow enough time for Tweek to walk ahead without knowing he was behind watching the back of him.

He had his way of saying things when he didn’t want to use words.

______________________________

On Wednesday morning, Tweek was coaxed by Heidi to sit next to her. They had today’s lesson to start on their group project. 

He still felt bad about Craig - even though it was not Tweek’s fault at all. He really likes Heidi, but he was sad him and Craig couldn’t work together. Craig did not seem enthusiastic at all when he found out his partner for the project is Clyde.

Tweek had not breathed a word to anyone at the school about him and Craig. He was still keeping up the façade that they were friendly acquaintances and nothing more. Sure, Heidi quizzed him regularly about how things with Craig were and was open to discussion; and sure, Heidi could see right through Tweek getting flustered at the very mention of Craig’s name and told Tweek she could see right through him - but Tweek was not saying more than what he needed to say.

As Heidi was leaning in to devise a plan for the lesson with Tweek, Craig slouched in. He shot a look with narrowed eyes to Tweek, who felt his own eyes fly open in surprise. He then tried to look apologetic to Craig - not that Craig could dictate to Tweek where he could or could not sit; but he knew that their ‘usual’ was the two desks together at the back.

Craig stopped and cleared his throat. 

As Tweek went to open his mouth to say hello, Craig pulled something out of his bag and dramatically dropped it on the desk. As the class was chatting loudly before the bell, this went unnoticed to everyone except Heidi and Tweek.

Tweek glanced down.

A CD in a clear, unmarked case.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”, Tweek asked genuinely, not knowing what to make of this random CD on his desk.

“Listen to it”, Craig responded shortly, his deadpan expression set in place.

“Err…”, Tweek breathed out. His heart skipped a beat as he met Craig’s expression.

No emotion. Cold. Closed off.

Tweek would have shuddered if he wasn’t in complete shock.

Take him back to yesterday, when he had his lips against Craig’s and could feel warmth and care.

Take him to where he wanted to be - behind a closed, locked door showing Craig what it could be like with him if they were alone, if they both acknowledged their feelings...

“Umm…why?”. He tried again, trying to think unsexy thoughts.

Craig just glared.

“You’ll get the message”.

Then he trudged off to the back row without another word.

Heidi nudged Tweek immediately.

“What the fuck?!”, she asked with a giggle, “Is he burning you mix CDs? Do you even like the same music?!”.

“Highly doubt it”, Tweek frowned as he unzipped his backpack and placed it carefully inside, “But I guess I am about to find out, aren’t I?”.

___________________________

Tweek sat against a large tree beside the basketball court, trying to obscure himself from view.

He needed to do this on his own, and it couldn’t wait until he got home. His curiosity was driving him insane. He couldn’t concentrate. He couldn’t sit still. 

He needed to know - what message?!

He had his headphones in and his Discman playing. His eyes were closed, face screwed up trying to concentrate on the screaming lyrics and flinching occasionally at the intensity of the instruments.

Definitely not his preferred music genre.

He registered that a shadow stood over him and he glanced up.

It was Heidi.

Tweek scowled.

Dammit, she is being nosy.

He reluctantly pressed pause and removed an earphone.

“How’s it going?”, she asked with a teasing grin.

Tweek sighed with frustration and answered truthfully.

“Honestly, I have no idea. The vocalist just screams everything and if I turn the music up louder, the instruments get louder than the vocals. I can’t win”.

Heidi giggled.

“Maybe if you play it backwards it will tell you to burn the school down”.

Tweek chuckled appreciatively, “Wouldn’t surprise me….I think this song is trying to say that he wants me to leave him alone? Something about…go? I can make out the word ‘go’. And the singer is…nghh, angry!”.

Tweek skipped to the next song as Heidi sat down and grabbed an ear phone. He shot her an irritated look.

“What?! You obviously need help…”.

The next song was even more intense. They gazed at each other in shock.

Tweek paused it after a couple of minutes. He was furious.

“Is it seriously saying that someone is a dog?!”.

“The word useless is in there…”, Heidi looked disgusted.

“But you heard ‘dog’?!”.

“I think so? I can’t be sure Tweek!”.

“Think so is - RRRR! - Good enough for me!!”.

Tweek yanked the headphone out and snatched his Discman, the CD case and his bag up in one fluid movement.

“I’ll see you chem!”, he huffed as he stormed off across the basketball court, catching someone's ball and throwing it with all his might in the opposite direction to the players out of anger and frustration.

Ignoring the angry uproar behind him, he scanned the grounds and corridors for a tall figure wearing a stupid chullo. 

He found him after almost ten minutes of searching, standing against the brick wall at the back of the music block and smoking a cigarette.

Of course, Tweek thought bitterly.

He frantically ejected the CD and shoved it back in the case, then threw his Discman back in his bag. Then he stormed up to Craig, feeling the steam blowing from his ears and heat rising in his chest with every step he took.

Craig registered Tweek’s face and fast approach and looked genuinely surprised, almost frightened.

Tweek didn’t care.

What the fuck did Craig expect?

He can’t make him a mix CD of insults and expect Tweek to not react - the day after KISSING HIM?! 

What was this guy playing at?!

He stood a few steps away, threw the CD at the ground and stomped on it.

“WOOF!”, he screamed dramatically in Craig’s face, then he turned on his heel and stormed away again before he could burst into tears.

____________________________________

Craig was hurt.

Craig was confused.

He gazed at the smashed CD case on the ground, idly holding his lit cigarette and processing what just happened.

“WOOF!”.

Woof?!

What was Tweek on about?!

He thought Tweek would get it - after all, he is very bright. Impressively clever. 

Every song Craig chose was relevant to what he was trying to say. Sure, there were only eight songs. He only needed eight. Each song expressed different themes and conveyed different emotions - but they were all of the same theme.

They all conveyed the same message. 

“Go Ahead”, implied to the listener that the singer wants to take a chance with them. Clearly it was a song to tell Tweek he is interested.

“Dog Tired”, expressed he was tired of running from who he is, that he needed to explore this (and wanted to with Tweek).

The other songs were similar. 

Sure, he wasn’t ready to…come out or anything. But he wanted - no, he needed to tell Tweek that didn’t mean no. That he felt something. That maybe their time alone together could…mean more. He knew he was grounded…but he had never had much regard for being grounded by his father anyway. 

And he had told Tweek this - through his music.

And the response was the smashed CD case plastic and disc shards that were now lying on the concrete. 

He sighed and took a long inhale of his cigarette.

Well, so much for that plan…

Chapter Text

Over a week had passed and it was obvious to everybody that Tweek was ignoring Craig. Not only was Tweek now sitting in the front with Heidi every time Craig showed up for class, but Tweek was also deliberately not looking at him. The couple of occasions that Craig had walked past him and opened his mouth to ask if they could talk, Tweek had immediately turned his head and pretended Craig didn't exist. Tweek was also nowhere to be seen before or after school walking - Craig had presumed that Tweek was intentionally avoiding him here, too.

Craig couldn't shift his mind from it. He played the music over and over in his room, the playlist he had ripped to the CD still saved under “Tweek”.

He didn't understand - wasn't it clear he was trying to express his confusing feelings for Tweek? The ones he could no longer deny, the ones he was ready to admit?!

But how?!

Craig hadn't done this before. All he knew is he wanted to waste his time with Tweek. Just the two of them. Whether they go to the park,.walk to and from school, make out on his bed…anything really.

He missed Tweek.

The other significant problem for Craig is that his Media Studies project partner was Clyde - and this guy was a real air head and had a low threshold for getting emotional. Craig's first meeting with him was in class, where Clyde realised within five minutes that Craig didn't want to hear anymore about football. He then spent the rest of the lesson apologising to him and overcompensating by coming up with ideas around The Underworld or the film project. 

Craig eventually snapped.

“No! Shut up for a second, you haven't stopped talking for a solid twenty minutes. No, I don't want to do any of that shit…got it?!”.

This caused the class including Tweek to turn around to observe Clyde's boyish face look distraught, before standing up and departing the class with his head bowed down. Craig caught a glimpse of Tweek's narrowed eyes full of dislike before he turned back around and started chatting animatedly with Heidi again.

Unfortunately, Cartman and Kenny had noticed the shift in the room, and Cartman was becoming more comfortable as time moved on from their suspension. 

In the following Wednesday's lesson, he smirked at Craig as he entered the room five minutes prior to the bell ringing. Tweek was already seated up the front.

“Frosted out again, hey Tucker?!”, Cartman grinned at Craig when Craig shot him a look of dislike, “Your boyfriend broke up with you?”.

“Fuck off!”, Craig retorted and showed his middle finger. Usually he had a better come back than that, but he was aware of Tweek being in the room and currently facing in their direction, watching with interest.

“Clyde's straight, just so you know”, Cartman added, flicking his glare at Clyde beside Craig.

“Of course I'm straight?! Pretty sure Craig is too, dude”, Clyde responded in disbelief, shaking his head, “I don't know why you keep banging on about this, Tweek's probably into girls too!”.

“What about it, hey twink?”, Cartman called to the front of the class, “Your dick seeking pussy or what?”.

Craig saw Tweek's face change to a furious glare, and the hand he had on the desk loosely holding a pen tensed into a fist.

“Why is it any of your, RRR,! business?!, Tweek shot out loudly.

Cartman chuckled.

“Because well…you scream ' I'm gay'?.Just want to make sure you aren't going to hit on me next!”.

Tweek shot out of his seat and Craig held his breath. Tweek looked livid. Then his face was set to a determined smirk as he shook his head at Cartman.

“You know what?!”, Tweek's voice was almost a screech, electricity was practically flying off him, “FINE! FINE FINE FINE! YOU WANT TO KNOW?! FINE!”, he threw his arms in the air dramatically, “I'M - GAY! SHOULDN'T BOTHER YOU ASSHOLE, I WOULDN'T TOUCH YOU WITH A TEN FOOT POLE, UNLESS IT'S TO BASH YOUR SKULL IN! HAPPY?! NOW YOU KNOW!”.

Tweek's face was flushed red and his eyes furious as he stared at Cartman for his response. Initially taken aback, he gaped at Tweek with his mouth open. Kenny just opened and closed his mouth, looking at Cartman almost as though he was awaiting instructions.

“Knew it!”, Cartman punched his fist in the air as he glared at Tweek in triumph, “Way too obvious, you didn't even have to tell us, we all knew, twinkle fairy”.

Tweek threw his chair aside, “You got a problem?! What does it even matter?!’.

Stan cleared his throat and interjected.

“I don't care if Tweek's gay, good on him”.

Kyle looked at Stan for a moment, considering this statement. Then he met Cartman with an angry stare.

“Yeah, fat ass! We don't give a fuck! Tweek's nice, and he's already said he isn't interested, and let's face it, who would ever be interested in you?!’.

Stan laughed and Bebe and Wendy giggled. Cartman now flushed a deep scarlet colour as the bell went and Mr. Black entered with a stern expression. He glanced at Tweek out of his chair first, then at Cartman and Kenny.

“Tweek and you two", Mr Black pointed a finger at Kenny and Cartman,  "Out in the hall! Now!”.

“But Sir, Tweek-”, Cartman tried immediately to pin the blame on Tweek, which made Craig furious.

“I don't care”, Mr..Black sighed, “I heard enough coming up the hall”.

“Fucking bullshit!”, Cartman said loudly, not bothering to keep his voice down.

Tweek silently stormed out of the room, clearly not being needed to be told twice. He looked close to tears. Craig felt angry at the injustice immediately, but his other classmates had already jumped to his defense.

“Sir, Cartman was giving him shit about his sexuality, Tweek was just defending himself”, Stan piped up with Kyle nodding furiously beside him.

“Yeah! Tweek is gay, so what?! He wasn't ready to tell us yet, he hasn't been in this town long…and they forced him, they provoked him sir!”, Heidi looked devastated, her eyes glancing towards the door where Tweek had not long departed through.

Mr. Black held up a hand.

“I'll sort it out. All of you - get on with one of your storyboards! Bebe has the editing suite, she's finished filming for her individual project”.

He left the room without another word, leaving everybody wondering.

Craig spent the next two days trying to track Tweek down to check on him, but this guy was elusive. He was never at his locker, he wasn't sitting with the girls in their usual spot - in fact both Heidi and Tweek were missing during lunch breaks; and he remained missing from before and after school walks. 

It was now Saturday morning, and Craig sat outside the house on the front steps with his acoustic guitar, moodily strumming the same riff over and over. It was fitting, because his thoughts to Tweek repeated over and over in his head too.

He replayed the kiss, the time they spent together filming, Tweek at the park fussing over ducks, Tweek's true smile…over and over and like a broken record

Over and over and over.

“Yoo Hoo!”.

Craig snapped his gaze to the fence.

Mrs. Smyth.

“What?!”.

Mrs. Smyth looked extremely offended.

“You mean ‘pardon?!’ surely?!”.

Craig just glowered at her.

“Your father tells me you have some sort of filming assignment you're stuck on”.

Craig rolled his eyes.

His father was such a blabber mouth.

Sure, he'd had an outburst at dinner the other night. Frustrated after what happened in class to Tweek and at Tweek avoiding him. Frustrated he had to do a project about somebody when he had no friends. Very reluctant to do the film on his father - what kind of loser does that?! What would he do, film his dad fitting his hair piece every morning and teaching the class how to cook a roast?!

The thought made Craig want to crawl into a hole and give up on the whole class altogether.

“Well, if you're looking for a star”, she posed drastically and chuckled, “I have a lot of stories to share! Why don't you come around and I can show you?”.

Craig groaned.

“Come on boy, I'm offering my services! I've got chocolate?.

Craig frowned, but folded. He had the camera for the weekend, and he had to get something done.

“What kind?"

Mrs..Smyth beamed, “All sorts! You name it, my drawer is stuffed full of it. No point eating healthy at my age!”.

Craig rolled his eyes again.

Really?! Was he doing this?!

After an internal struggle, he decided that he was.

----------

Craig turned up Monday morning and silently returned the camera, then held the tape of his footage in front of Mr. Black before he could address the class.

“You…have footage?!”, Mr. Black seemed astounded, but he grinned, “Well, knock me over with a feather!”.

Craig avoided looking for Tweek's reaction.

“I'm taking the Editing Suite, it's free”, he reported.

“Uhh…sure?”. Mr Black seemed impressed. 

Not taking one more glance at anyone else in the class,.Craig strode towards the Editing Suite door.

“Tucker!".

It was Clyde, addressing him in a hushed whisper as he passed.

“What?!”.

“Well dude, we only have a few more weeks, we really need to do this thing!”, Clyde looked stressed.

“Yeah? So?”.

Clyde rolled his eyes and dramatically waved his hands at Craig, “So?! We need to do some work..here…I went with our idea from last week and came up with something. I even got a couple of people to do some acting for us, in return for my acting services”.

“So I don't need to do any acting?”, Craig clarified, hopeful.

“No, just me”, Clyde grinned.

“Good”.

“So…you're on board?”.

“Yep, whatever”.

----------

Craig had almost finished editing his individual assessment. He felt good coming out of the editing suite at the end of Wednesday's lesson. Not only was he set to hand in by Friday, but he felt his filming and editing really had captured Mrs. Smyth well.

She was cranky and old, sure. But a few sessions of filming with her had really turned his perspective around.

What was with that - filming with people and taking a liking to them?!

It wasn't the chocolates. It wasn't the cherry pie. It definitely wasn't her boring stories and photos she kept thrusting at the camera. It was her view on life. 

Live for the moment.

Cherish every day.

Sappy shit that would normally make Craig want to vomit.

But it made sense now.

She'd lived an amazing life. Served in military, had a modelling career, been on TV, raised four children and been married twice. She was an excellent cook, had a wicked sense of humour and her energy..her energy was something else. She actively played bingo, went to dancing three times a week and played four types of instruments. 

Craig was astounded. Her gardening he always saw her doing barely scratched the surface of what her life entailed. 

Mrs. Smyth had invited her bingo friends over at the last filming session on Sunday and Craig was fussed over by four ladies. He got great footage, he actually had a nice time and he saw life in a different perspective.

This still hadn't progressed anything with Tweek. But it had changed his perspective about it. Life was too short - he needed to try harder to tell Tweek how he felt.

He just needed a plan.

-------

Craig stood in front of his house when he arrived back from school that afternoon. He glanced across the street and looked for Tweek.

No sign of him.

Then he glanced at Mrs. Smyth's front door.

His feet moved automatically to her front door.

He didn't have the right words. But he wanted to thank her. 

She wasted her time on him.

She helped him see clearer, see life differently.

He knocked on the door.

Knocked again.

And knocked again.

He tried glancing through the window.

“Are you looking for Audrey?”.

He turned towards the sound of the voice. 

A middle-aged man in a striped navy and white polo shirt and a big stomach was leaning against the fence on the other side. 

Mrs. Smyth's other neighbour.

“Yeah?”.

“I'm sorry. She's gone”.

“Gone where? I can come back?”.

The man looked pained.

“No…gone. She passed away. An ambulance took her a few hours ago. They suspect a heart attack”.

Craig let out a short laugh, feeling his eyes burn.

No way.

“No, she's fine”, he corrected the man, “Shell be back”.

The man wiped his eyes.

“I was there mate. They called it”.

Craig just stared at him, not processing this information.

“I'm sorry”.

The man took brisk strides and entered his own home again, slamming the door.

No.

Craig just stood there, frozen.

This wasn't happening again.

Granted - not his mother. But losing someone, feeling sadness, loss, grief…

No.

Craig trudged back to the sidewalk and glanced at his empty driveway. His eyes fell on his porch steps.

And that's where he sat. 

Crying.

Processing.

Flitting between shock, anger and sadness.

Then he felt a soft hand on his shoulder.

He jumped and glanced up.

Tweek.

Craig just stared.

He didn't wipe the tears away. He just got lost in those bright green eyes which were filled with concern? Worry? 

“Craig…what's wrong?’, Tweek asked softly. His hand didn't leave Craig's shoulder as he took a seat beside him.

Craig just took steadying breaths. He glanced a Tweek. He couldn't find the words, so he just placed a hand on top of Tweek's one settled on his own shoulder.

“You don't need to say…that's ok”, Tweek rushed out, looking both nervous and concerned.

They just gazed at each other.

Craig's words got caught in his throat.

“Mrs Smyth. She died. T-”.

He broke down in tears.

Tweek flung his arms around Craig and held him. 

It was warm. It was comforting. 

Tweek smelt so good. Like flowers. Subtle and gentle and sweet. Craig nuzzled into Tweek's shoulder and felt himself cry harder.

“I'm sorry”, Tweek whispered.

Craig felt a small, warm hand rubbing his back.

After five minutes, Tweek spoke again.

“D-do you want to go to the park? Throw rocks? y-you.dont have to skip them. Just…throw them in. Or not. We can just sit and-”.

“Tweek”, Craig interrupted.

Tweek fell silent.

They spent a couple more minutes holding each other.

“Tweek…I'm sorry”, Craig mumbled out.

“Forget it”, Tweek responded quietly, still rubbing Craig's back.

“No”, Craig huffed out onto Tweek's shoulder. Somehow Tweek's scent made him feel stronger,.”I…the CD…I was trying to tell you that I…I like you. I don't understand why you got angry”.

Tweek pulled away and studied Craig with a shocked expression.

“W-well, the singer was saying to go away and that I am a dog, so…I got the message, I thought?”.

Craig stared at Tweek and laughed.

“No…no…that's…not what I was trying to say at all!".

Tweek just glared at him, mouth agape.

“W-W-what?!”.

“The opposite”.

Tweek closed his mouth and shook his head.

“The opposite?”.

“I was trying to say the opposite”,.Craig blurted out, wiping his eyes.

Tweek was frozen like a robot that had gone offline and needed a reboot.

Finally his lip quivered. Then he stomped his foot and looked annoyed.

“W-why couldn't you just say that?! You idiot!’.

Before Craig had time to get offended, Tweek had collapsed against him and smashed his lips onto Craig's.

One small, warm hand gently held the side of Craig's face, the other found Craig's hand in his lap and held it so their fingers intertwined. Craig placed his free hand in Tweek's  hair and responded to the slow, gentle kiss Tweek had initiated.

They kissed for what felt like hours, only breaking apart when their mouths started to hurt.

What they didn't notice is that across the street,.the curtain was pulled slightly apart in the Tweak's living room and Mrs. Tweak was watching them with eyes narrowed and a furious stare

Chapter Text

Tweek focused on reading every line.

He was conscious of Craig sitting right behind him on the end of his own bed as he read through the bookmarked tabs that Craig had saved - the cracked codes. Each tab was opened to the pages for the lyrics he had wanted Tweek to hear. Occasionally, Tweek would turn his head and flash Craig a fond smile, and a couple of times he had spun the chair around and kissed Craig when he had been particularly moved. He couldn’t help it. This boy - who displays such a tough exterior, whose clear 'care-for-nothing' attitude projects to the world -did this. Put thought into feelings and expressed himself to him. He wanted Tweek to know there was more to him. He trusted Tweek enough to show his true colours - ones that perhaps Craig himself was not even sure about.

Tweek’s mind was spinning. He’d had feelings for Craig for a while now. Until that afternoon by the lockers, Tweek felt that it was all in vain. Of course he didn’t expect Craig to like boys, let alone like Tweek. He got the shock of his life when Craig kissed him at his locker. He patted himself on the back all evening that he even managed to speak afterward, that he didn’t just pass out right there and then on the floor. He had spent hours afterward lying on his bed letting the feelings wash over him. They weren’t going away, especially after that.

Imagine the hurt and anger he felt when he had listened to that CD. He didn’t even make it past song three. Once he had stomped his boot through it in front of Craig and stormed off, he had felt his heart ripping in two. He thought Craig was different. Any belief he had that Craig found him special enough to kiss like that and cared for Tweek dissolved into smoke. 

He had told no-one about the kiss. Not Claudette, not Heidi. Definitely not his parents. There was one reason for it - he had been in Craig’s shoes before. Figuring himself out. He needed to respect that Craig had likely told no-one he liked boys and most likely that he hadn’t accepted things himself yet. It wouldn’t be right if he told anyone - this sort of news spreads like wildfire.

He had told his friends about the CD. He was so hurt and angry that he couldn’t stand to see Craig’s face. He left for school out the back door and took the adjacent street to walk to and from school, he avoided his usual lunch spot and retreated to the library. Heidi often joined him, they would sit together outside and eat and then go inside and chat quietly on some of the soft reading chairs. Class was more difficult, but he did his best to hold his head high and avoid looking in Craig’s general direction. 

But here they were today. When Tweek had gone outside to get the mail he had been shocked to see Craig crying on his own porch steps. He had hovered for a moment. It would be so easy to just go back inside. But he couldn’t. His heart panged for Craig - whatever it was, he wanted to try and console him. It must be significant if Craig was crying out in the open like that.

He shoved the mail back in the mailbox and crossed the street. Every step he took to close the distance felt urgent. And when he got there, he showed nothing but kindness. He was stunned when Craig responded positively to it. When he allowed himself to be held by Tweek and when Tweek felt his large hands on his own back. Tweek’s heart thudded when Craig nuzzled into his shoulder. 

And when Craig apologised and clarified he did not think Tweek was a dog who should go away, Tweek felt foolish - but at the same time thoroughly confused. How was he supposed to understand that the message was the opposite? The singer was literally just screaming over loud music.

He was frustrated, but he felt a rush of affection that mobilised him to find Craig’s lips. It felt right. Slow and gentle, feelings and emotions behind every exchange of kisses. Craig moved slower than Tweek - Tweek suspected he had not kissed like this before. So Tweek slowed down. He gently applied pressure and tilted his head further, holding the side of Craig’s face tenderly. Like he was wordlessly teaching him - and Craig responded in kind. His kisses started to mimic Tweek’s, they were soft and wet and ever so tender. Tweek felt it was everything, his insides had turned to moosh- he could tell Craig was enjoying this. 

Eventually, Craig had stood up and wordlessly offered his hand to Tweek.

“My dad isn’t home for another hour…can I show you the songs again?”.

Tweek had smiled and nodded in response, planting another soft kiss on Craig’s lips.

“Can I read the lyrics? I want to know what you wanted to say. Every word”.

Tweek had now finished reading. He wiped a tear from his eye - thoroughly overwhelmed. Not only were the lyrics touching, they confirmed a few things for Tweek. 

Craig cared for him. 

Craig wanted him. 

Craig was new to this and Tweek had shifted something in Craig to help him face who he is. 

His heart felt so warm and full - Craig was feeling. Maybe he wasn’t happy or comfortable, but he was trying to express his fondness for Tweek. Tweek was worthy of his time.

That was so special in itself.

Tweek didn’t have the words, but he closed the internet browser and spun his chair around to Craig and smiled. Craig returned it. Tweek leapt up and crawled onto the bed, desperate for contact with Craig. 

Whatever Craig wanted. 

Whatever Craig needed.

Tweek shuffled on his knees and Craig opened his arms. Tweek then shifted to sit and placed his legs either side of Craig, cuddling into him.

“Thank you”, Tweek breathed out softly into Craig’s neck.

“Do you understand it now?”, Craig mumbled.

Tweek just nodded. 

They cuddled for a few minutes, Tweek had his eyes closed and focused on Craig’s rhythmic breathing and his unique scent - he needed a shower, but Tweek didn’t care. He smelt masculine, he smelt like Craig. 

So many questions swirled around Tweek’s head. He wanted to know all of Craig’s thoughts, all his feelings. He wanted to make Craig happy. But the last thing he wanted to do was overwhelm him. He let his mind rest and allowed the burning questions to fall onto the tip of his tongue.

Tweek pulled away and examined Craig’s eyes. They were as dark and mysterious as ever, but they were soft and glassy from crying. Tweek sat back slightly and crossed his legs, then grabbed Craig’s hand and gently held it. 

“I’m really sorry for your loss”, he said again. But this time it felt real, “Were you close to Mrs. Smyth?”.

Craig tightened his grip on Tweek’s hand and started to explain. A brief time knowing each other, but his film project bringing them close together. Almost like he could have another family member again, like he had somewhere to go and someone to talk to. Someone who had made an impact in such a short space of time. 

Tweek wiped away tears as he listened, which then set Craig's tears off. They shared some more kisses and cuddles, Tweek rubbed gentle circles on Craig’s back to comfort him.

“You don’t have to be okay right now, alright? Be sad, be angry…you are allowed to feel, Craig”.

Craig didn’t respond, but he pulled Tweek closer and held him.

“Thank you for being here”, he said finally. He pulled back and gently pushed wild tufts of Tweek’s hair aside so he could see Tweek’s face properly.

“H-have you finished the umm…video?”, Tweek asked awkwardly.

It was due Friday, after all.

Craig shook his head and wiped his eyes.

“I don’t want to”.

Tweek gripped Craig’s hand firmer.

“Well…”, Tweek cleared his throat and searched for the right thing to say. ‘

‘You have to’ sounded harsh in his head.

“I’m sure you could talk to Mr. Black…but umm, Craig?”.

Craig’s eyes snapped to Tweek’s again. Intense, but Tweek saw the sadness in them.

“Well…I know it will be hard. But you know, you’re almost finished, a-and I t-think that sometimes the best way to remember someone is to preserve their memory…she’d love it”.

A non-committal grunt in response. 

Great, Tweek thought. But he dared to move in again for a cuddle. 

“Do…do you want me there? Just for company? Just…tell me when you book the room and I will make it”.

“Tomorrow at 3, Craig responded, but he shook his head, “You really don’t have to…”.

“I want to”.

“What about your project?”.

“I finished”, he kissed Craig’s cheek and pulled back again, “Don’t worry, Heidi and I did ours on each other and knocked filming over in one day, then we edited earlier in the week”.

Craig smirked, “Not best friends my ass”.

Tweek was relieved to see a smile, so he smiled back and responded, “We’re much closer now…but my best friend is still Claudette. You’d like Heidi, she’s nice Craig…she isn’t like Bebe and Wendy who can be a bit self centered and sometimes unkind”.

Craig shrugged, “I don’t really care, just teasing”.

Tweek smiled sweetly at him, “You’re the only one I’m kissing if that makes you feel better”.

They played with each other’s hands, both of them staring down. 

“Craig?”, Tweek decided it was the right time to ask.

“Mmm?”.

“You…you feeling this way. For me…for a boy…is this new for you?”.

Tweek chanced a glance up. Craig’s expression was unreadable.

But he did answer.

“Yeah. I have been attracted to boys for a while but…meeting you kind of…stirred things up”.

“So you have never…you have not…been with a boy?”.

“No”.

Tweek leaned his forehead against Craig’s.

“Does anyone know?”, he whispered.

Craig shook his head against Tweek’s.

“Well”, Tweek said softly, “I’ve been there. I promise you Craig…I won’t tell anyone”.

Craig frowned.

“I know I can’t keep it secret forever. Part of me doesn’t give a fuck. I could walk to school tomorrow and kiss you in front of the entire school and just punch anyone who gives us shit. But…the other part of me thinks of dad, and of you…what you want…”.

“Don’t worry about me. I am comfortable with my sexuality, and now Cartman knows I swing that way, I am sure the whole school knows anyway…”, he sighed and pecked Craig’s lips, “But that doesn’t mean you are anywhere near close to that stage yet”.

“Will you…help me figure it out?”, Craig whispered.

Tweek pulled back and gazed at him meaningfully. 

“Of course. Whatever you need”.

“Is it scary? When you…do tell people?”.

Tweek felt it was best to be honest.

“It can be. It can get mixed reactions. For me? Mostly positive. Only some dickheads at school gave me a hard time. But you’ll never get universal acceptance, Craig. You’ll always have those who are scared and afraid of what doesn’t affect the majority, and you get those who are just judgmental arseholes…you just…learn to block it out and be proud of who you are”.

Craig stared down at his own mattress and seemed to be in deep thought.

“Why me?”, he said finally. His voice was barely audible. 

Tweek cocked an eyebrow.

“Why you…what?”.

Craig cleared his throat.

“Why…I mean, what do you see…in me? Did you…somehow know?”.

Tweek felt really put on the spot. But again…honesty is the best policy, he thought as he shifted to sit beside Craig, then he laid back on the bed to stare at the ceiling while still holding Craig’s hand.

“I never expected to have this conversation…”, Tweek observed cracks in the ceiling and was surprised when Craig now also laid down beside him to do the same, “I was attracted to you straight away, but obviously I thought, well…I can’t be thinking that or you will bury me six feet deep. Then I thought you were an asshole”, he giggled and turned his head to Craig.

“You and the rest of the population”, Craig commented, monotone.

“Ngh, don’t say that Craig!”, Tweek whined. He squeezed Craig’s hand, “You proved me wrong, okay? Yes, we fight a lot. Yes, you frustrate me and annoy me sometimes but…you have shown me so much more. The way you just let me be me? I notice, ngh. You let me muck around fussing over ducks and flowers and don’t complain once. You walk me to and from school. You’re talented, and intelligent…strong”, Tweek felt his cheeks burn as he hesitated and added, “Attractive…”.

Craig suddenly rolled over to face Tweek, holding himself up on his forearm, “I was attracted to you the moment you walked into this room for the first time”.

Tweek breathed out slowly and examined Craig above him. Looking at Tweek like there was no-one else in the world. It took his breath away, it made his brain short circuit momentarily.

“Ngh! Really?! I couldn’t tell that…I thought you wanted me, mmph, dead!”, he laughed nervously.

Craig shook his head, “Sometimes I felt like just making you mad because I kind of found it…hot”.

Tweek smacked Craig’s arm.

“WHAT?!”.

Craig smirked, “Yeah, like that. When I saw you boxing too…I just couldn’t get my mind off you”.

Tweek felt his face redden further.

“A-are you joking?!”, he exclaimed, trying not to laugh.

“No? But I like when you’re happy too…I like watching you with nature and shit”.

“Nature…and shit”, Tweek shook his head in disbelief, now breaking into a fit of giggles, “You’re charming the pants off me”.

“You know what I mean!”.

“Do I?!”, Tweek teased, smacking him again. This made Craig smile wider.

“Whatever’, Craig responded, “I’m trying to say…that I like you”.

“I like you too”.

Craig swooped down and kissed Tweek again. Tweek wrapped his arms around Craig and sighed into it. He closed his eyes and focused on keeping it slow and sweet. Craig had a hand in Tweek’s hair and was playing with it, and he ran another up and down Tweek’s arm. 

A knock at the door caused Craig to almost hit the roof in shock. He moved so fast that Tweek had barely blinked to process it. Tweek sat up abruptly and gazed wide-eyed at Craig, then at the door.

“Son? You decent?”.

“Uh”, Craig was smoothing his shirt down and turned around to adjust his pants. Tweek smirked to himself, “Yeah dad, I have company”.

“Oh?”.

Craig’s father opened the door regardless of the question looking concerned, then his face visibly relaxed when they fell on him and Tweek.

“Oh, it’s just Tweek”, he sighed and shook his head, “Umm. Just got home…Mrs. Smyth-”.

“I know”.

“Gee whiz, so sudden hey? Gonna miss the old girl. She was a laugh and a half, let me tell you. You even warmed to her…awful”.

“Yeah”, Craig looked sad again, but didn’t elaborate on his feelings with his father.

“So uhh…thought you were job hunting this afternoon?”, he asked Craig casually, raking his eyes over the pair again and then gazing at the computer which sat turned on idly.

“Err…no, Tweek and I had to work on something”.

“What? I thought that football idiot was your project partner?”.

“He is, umm-”, Craig was clearly struggling to come up with an adequate reason for having Tweek in his room, so Tweek jumped in.

“Craig was upset about Mrs. Smyth. I saw him outside when he got the news so we’re just hanging out…Craig was showing me some of his music, it cheers him up”.

Craig’s father chuckled, “I don’t know how, makes me feel more depressed to tell you the truth…don’t even understand what the words are”.

Tweek smiled, “Neither do I, Sir”.

“Right…well, staying for dinner? You’re welcome to. It’s not much…just a throw together thing with rissoles”.

Tweek checked the time.

“Ngh!”, he cried out shrilly, standing up, “Is that the time?! I have to go!”.

He turned to Craig and gave him an apologetic look. 

He definitely couldn’t give him the goodbye he really want to. 

Craig shot him a meaningful look, then gave his father a glare.

“Ngh, uhh”, Tweek hovered for a moment and glanced at the desk, then he grabbed one of Craig’s pens and a sticky note and jotted his number down.

“If you need my help with the editing”, he said in his best mock ‘business-like’ tone, “Uh…see you tomorrow?”.

Craig looked at him sadly for a moment and responded, “Yeah…cya”.

Tweek didn’t make it out the front door before getting a text message.

Unknown number

We probably need to get better at that

I wanted to kiss you goodbye

X

Front gate 8am tomorrow? We can walk the long way to school

Tweek smiled as he crossed the road and replied immediately.

Tweek

No kidding :/

I’ll be there 7:50 in case you want to go early 

XX

__________________________

Tweek shut the door and moved quickly down the hallway, only to be met with both of his parents blocking his path at the end of it looking deeply unimpressed.

“Gah! I’m sorry, I know…I am late”, he apologized, taken aback by how upset his mother looked particularly, “Can I do anything to help with dinner?”.

“No”, she said shortly, arms folded and eyes narrowed, “But you can explain to me why you’re kissing that monster from across the street!”.

Tweek felt his stomach drop and froze up.

No.

No way.

HOW?!

How does she know?!

Before he could process the possibilities, before he could even start to formulate a response, Helen continued.

“I saw you, Tweek! Saw BOTH of you swapping spit! It’s bad enough he even goes to the same school! He’s not even SORRY about what he did, you know!-”.

“He is!”, Tweek defended immediately, breathing heavily, “H-he accepted responsibility!”.

“THAT IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING SORRY!”, Helen shrieked. Her husband jumped beside her and let her continue, “YOU HAVEN’T SEEN HIS FILE! HE’S A NO HOPER, TWEEK! A LOSER, A BAD INFLUENCE…I WILL BE DAMNED IF MY SON-”.

Tweek huffed and felt his own temper rising.

“That’s not up to you though, is it?!”, Tweek challenged, “I like him! He isn’t who you think he-”.

“DON’T INTERUPT!”, Helen cut over the top of Tweek, “OF ALL THE NICE BOYS OUT THERE, OF ANYONE YOU COULD CHOOSE…HIM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TWEEK, THROWING IT ALL AWAY ON SOMEONE LIKE THAT?! HE WILL BRING YOU DOWN WITH HIM, MARK MY WORDS! THEN MY JOB, MY CAREER, IF MY OWN SON-”.

“BECAUSE THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS, RIGHT MOM?!”, Tweek screamed back, tears burning his eyes as he voiced the truth at its core, “YOUR JOB! WE HAD TO PACK UP AND MOVE BECAUSE OF YOU! DOESN’T MATTER ABOUT OUR HAPPINESS, AS LONG AS YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT!”.

Tweek gazed at his mother with fury, then shot the same glance at his father, who looked stuck, clearly seeing both sides of the argument. 

But as usual, he cleared his throat and sided with his mother.

“Tweek, son…your mother’s right. You’re a nice boy, you can do so much better…he’s just trying to manipulate you, trying to drive the knife in deeper just to upset your mother…because of that stunt he pulled and now he has to actually be responsible and pay the damages...he's trying to get back at her!”.

Tweek couldn’t believe this.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!”, his voice was lower, he adopted a dangerous tone as he shook with anger, “Are you actually fucking with me?! It is NOT ALL ABOUT MOM! Craig and I are friends! We just…get each other! A-and, so what if it becomes more?! I’D BE THE ONE DATING HIM, NOT YOU!”.

“IT STOPS NOW!”, Helen waved a threatening finger at Tweek, “I am NOT HAVING IT, TWEEK! HE IS NOT WELCOME HERE, HE IS NOT ALLOWED NEAR YOU!”.

“I’m fucking 18!”, Tweek reminder her dangerously, “If I want to be with Craig, I will be with Craig!”.

“OVER MY DEAD BODY!”.

“Or WHAT, mom?!”, he cried out angrily, well and truly over this.

Helen just laughed manically and inhaled to catch her breath.

“Well, I am the Vice Principal, aren’t I sweetheart?”, her eyes flashed, “I would push for that bastards expulsion, I will separate you from any classes with him…which means no more Media Studies-”.

“You can’t do that!”, Tweek scoffed, “You don’t have the authority-”.

“Or…I could go have a chat to Craig’s father! If I see you two together, I’ll-”.

“No!”, Tweek cried out.

Seeing Tweek’s genuinely concerned expression, Helen smirked with satisfaction.

She’d found her ammunition.

Tweek wanted to scream in frustration.

This bitch...was her career and reputation really worth making her own son miserable?!

And now she had him.

Of course Tweek wouldn’t want Craig’s father knowing about them…Craig had only just let his feelings come to the surface to Tweek alone. He couldn’t do that to Craig.

But Tweek would be damned if he was going to stop seeing Craig when they had just started something. 

Nuh uh. 

“Ahh…so his father doesn’t know?”, Helen smirked.

Tweek narrowed his eyes at her.

“How could you…you know how hard it was for me…how could you do that to someone else? He’s just coming into himself, mom. He trusts me”.

“Well, he shouldn’t”, she said briskly, straightening her turquoise apron.

“I hate you”, Tweek didn’t know if he meant it, but he was bitter, he was hurt. He felt unsupported, misunderstood and betrayed.

“You’ll thank me one day”, Helen assured him, trying to move in to take Tweek in her arms. 

But Tweek backed away.

“Don’t touch me”.

“Son, your mother just wants what is best for you, it’s your final year, it’s important. This boy…he could really make things harder for you”.

Tweek scoffed, “Unbelievable. YOU ALWAYS SIDE WITH HER!”.

“Your mother has worked hard for this promotion, son. She earns a lot to support us and keep a roof over our heads, food on the table…we should be grateful”.

Tweek just shook his head and clenched his fists.

“So what…I can’t see Craig anymore. Fine. We done?”.

“Good man. Just…tell him tomorrow. He will understand”.

Tweek just glowered at them both. 

Were they fucking retarded?!

“I’ll talk to him”, Tweek said through gritted teeth.

“That’s all I am asking, sweetheart. It is for the best…for everyone”, Helen’s tone was dripping with honey now, and she made another attempt to grab Tweek.

Tweek backed away and moved past them both for the stairs.

“I’ll eat later. I…want to be alone”.

Every step up the stairs forced more tears to fall down his face as he snatched his phone out of his pocket.

Fuck them both, they aren’t stopping shit.

Tweek

Meet me on the corner of Baker Street tomorrow at 7:50

I’ll explain when you get there

Goodnight

xx

Chapter Text

Craig stood on the footpath facing the road, his all black attire contrasting greatly against the golden morning light. His headphones were snug in his ears and blaring in a desperate attempt to wake up. 

7:55am.

Too early to be out of the house.

He glanced up into the maple tree he was standing under on Baker street and squinted from the glare.

Also too bright, he thought bitterly.

He sighed and let his eyes fall on the birds on the powerlines across the road. Craig couldn't hear them over the music, but they were opening and closing their beaks, likely chirping to greet the morning.

Tweek would be all over that - he'd probably chirp right back at them.

Craig frowned.

Where was Tweek?

At that moment he felt his left headphone being gently tugged from his ear. He jumped and turned around to face a fresh-faced looking Tweek, eyes sparkling and a sweet smile on his face.

Bright sunshine and likely well caffeinated, Craig thought with a smile. 

“I'm sorry I'm late”, Tweek hastily put a long strand of wavy blonde hair behind his ear, “My parents are giving me everything…micromanaging…uhh, I better explain…come on…”. 

Tweek gestured for them to walk in the opposite direction to what Craig had been expecting - away from the school.

“Where are we going?”.

“Ngh…the park…thought it would be private”.

Craig smiled. He removed his second head phone and nodded. 

He liked the sound of that.

Walking side by side with Tweek was surprisingly difficult for Craig. He wanted to hold Tweek's hand and he wanted to kiss him - but they were in public. Who knows who could be watching?! Tweek seemed to be having the same thoughts - his cheeks seemed pink and he looked nervously at Craig.

“My mom saw us”, Tweek said finally. 

Craig's heart stilled.

“What?”.

“Out the window…. She saw us kissing on your porch!”, Tweek's fists were clenched so tight they were turning white and Craig noticed he had dropped his happy demeanor.

There goes the sunshine…

Craig slowed his walking to process the information.

“I assume she didn't take it well?”.

“That's an understatement!”, Tweek looked angry all of a sudden and his voice was laced with bitterness.

Craig jumped. 

A thunderstorm is brewing.

“What happened?”.

Tweek told Craig everything. Craig just listened, feeling angrier by the minute.

They crossed the footpath into the park and walked along the tree line towards the water, further and further away from the street and from those walking their dogs or jogging on the open field.

“-but you know what?! fuck them!”, Tweek said suddenly. He slowed his walking once they were finally alone. They were surrounded by trees and the sky was their only witness. Tweek suddenly grabbed Craig's hand. Then he turned to face Craig and stopped them from walking. 

They were now standing under a tree together, Craig leaning against the thick tree trunk. Craig looked down and saw fiery determination in those bright green eyes, “I just want to be with you! I know that means we're going to have to sneak around…but ngh! That was the plan anyway, right? We just have to be more careful now!”.

Craig suddenly felt overwhelmed with unfamiliar feelings. Warmth spread in his chest and he felt incredibly protective and close to Tweek all of a sudden. 

Tweek really said that?! He'd risk it all - just for him?!

While feeling incredibly proud of Tweek, he was also feeling angry.

He squeezed Tweek's hand, “I don't give a fuck what they think of me”.  

“Thought you'd say that”, Tweek responded quietly. He sighed and collapsed into Craig's chest. Craig just held Tweek and stayed silent for a moment, basking in their private affection.

“I don't give a fuck if dad knows either, what's he going to do…kick me out?”, Craig smirked just thinking about it.

No, he was quite confident he wouldn’t end up homeless. He could picture his dad being shocked and quizzing Craig to make sure he is ‘absolutely sure’ - but he couldn't see his dad going into any sort of homophobic fit of rage or anything. 

Tweek looked up at Craig.

“I don't care either…but I care about everyone knowing when you're still figuring yourself out”, Tweek cupped Craig's face and stood on his tip toes, “We only figured this out together yesterday, we need time”.

Craig nodded.

“Do you really think she'd boot you out of Media Studies? She can't fucking do that, surely”, Craig moved his lips slightly to kiss the inside of Tweek's palm.

“I don't know”, Tweek huffed, “Ngh! she's fucking crazy! But…I can't let her run my life! It's my choice who I want to be with!”.

Craig leaned down slightly and kissed Tweek. 

He slowly ran a hand down Tweek's back and used the other to hold him close. Tweek's lips were so soft and his mouth was moist, his kisses back were sweet - this was all Craig cared about right now. He didn't give a fuck about trivial shit like being kicked out of classes or not being able to go to Tweek's house.

They can figure all that shit out later, he thought.

But he needed to be sure Tweek was up for this.

Craig reluctantly pulled himself from the kiss.

“I'm not worth all this effort”, he said quietly to Tweek. He gazed at Tweek's hypnotizing eyes which widened and started to search Craig's.

Then Tweek shook his head.

“Of course you are!”, Tweek now held both sides of Craig's face and leaned up so their noses were almost touching, “I'll do this with you. I’m all in. Whatever you want. We can do it together”, then he giggled, “it could even be fun?”.

Craig's heart was hammering in his chest. The sound of Tweek's melodic giggle disarmed him and those words temporarily short circuited his brain.

He kissed Tweek again.

“How about this?”, he murmured against Tweek's lips, “We keep this going behind closed doors, and I help you learn not to give a fuck…I'll try to calm that overactive mind of yours, stop you flying off the handle…”.

Tweek pulled back and looked at Craig with a cocked eyebrow, “Thought you like it when I get worked up?! Did you lie to me?!”.

“I like the attitude…I just want to dial your anxiety down a few notches…stop you jittering all over the place”.

Tweek softly smacked his shoulder.

“I don't jitter!”.

Craig smirked, “Yes you do!”.

“Ngh! Craig!”. 

Craig laughed softly and held a finger to Tweek's lips.

“See? Like that”.

Tweek leaned up and pecked Craig's lips again, putting his hands through Craig's hair, “You showered…you smell nice and your hairs all fluffy…I like it”.

Craig felt himself blush, “Only did it for you”.

As Tweek's face looked soft and a smile lit up his face, Craig added, “But you can't talk, nothing compares to the unruly mop on top of your head”.

Tweek looked offended suddenly and opened his mouth to speak, but Craig cut him off with a kiss. Then he pulled back and whispered, “I’m kidding…don’t change it, please…don’t change a thing”.

Tweek pecked Craig’s lips, “You really like it?”.

Craig ran a hand through his hair gently, “Always have”.

They kissed again. To Craig, Tweek was addictive. He just wanted more, more and more. He smelled like coffee and sugar, his tongue was bitter from the coffee he likely consumed before they met up - but God, it tasted wonderful.

Wait - his tongue?

Tweek had his tongue in Craig’s mouth, and Craig met it enthusiastically with his own. He gripped Tweek more urgently and pulled him up against him. He felt his head spin, so much so that he felt he would lose his footing any second and go tumbling down on the grass. He felt his pants tighten and Tweek sighed as he led their kiss into a faster pace. 

God, fuck. Fuck school, fuck everything - Craig just wanted to stay like this all day.

He wouldn’t say no to more…

Tweek slowed down the kiss and checked his watch.

“Ngh! Craig, we have to go!”.

God dammit. 

They hurried back to the field, reluctantly letting go of each other’s hands the moment they came into public view. Tweek had to work harder to keep up their fast walking pace to arrive at school in time, but they made it with a few minutes to spare. Tweek farewelled Craig with a subtle wave as he headed off to Biology, and Craig took the opposite direction for Music.

Craig tried not to look too happy - it was suspicious. He set his deadpan expression and hurried through the door right as the bell went.

He took a seat at the back, far away from the rest of the class. 

He smirked to himself.

They could do this - him and Tweek. 

Easy.

_________________________________

Craig’s hand shook as he went to open the door of the Editing Suite after school that day.

He wanted to be alone with Tweek - God, that wasn’t the issue.

He just didn’t want to face his assignment again. To see Mrs. Smyth on the screen - almost a taunt that she might still be alive. He felt his eyes burn just thinking about it. 

His hand slid on the door handle and he took the plunge to push the door open enough to let his eyes fall on the room. 

The two monitors, keyboard, tape player, chairs….

And the sunshine.

Already sitting there waiting for him and holding one of the cameras, watching back footage on the small fold out screen.

Tweek looked up and smiled.

“Sorry…just watching back some footage of my group project with Heidi”, he commented as he turned the camera off and ejected the tape, “We have more filming to do of course, but at least we have set the scene…”.

“It’s fine”.

Craig stood awkwardly for a moment. Tweek seemed to notice, because he got up from the seat slowly and crossed the room to embrace him.

“If you would prefer me to not be here, I can go?”, he said in a quiet, gentle voice as he held Craig and put his head on his shoulder.

Craig shook his head.

“No. Stay”.

“Come on then…we only have the hour”.

Craig’s hands still shook slightly as he logged in and set up his file. He set the screens to playback and wordlessly pressed play to show Tweek what he had so far.

Craig didn’t pay much attention, but his heart jolted at several points of the film. His eyes were burning again, threatening to spill over. Tweek grabbed his hand and squeezed it moments into the film starting. 

Footage of the bingo on Sunday from Craig’s point of view, and the ladies arguing over who gets the largest slice of cream cake. Mrs. Smyth ranting about her aversion to eating healthy.

 The footage of her throwing a chocolate bar towards Craig and it hitting the camera lens. 

Craig’s rare laugh as Mrs. Smyth called him a tea leaf for stealing a chocolate from her drawer and he responded with “Tea leaf? Is that the best you can come up with?”.

 Mrs. Smyth threatening to get her modeling photos out, Craig expecting far worse than what it actually was and Mrs. Smyth ranting about how they were considered ‘racy’ back in her day…

Craig heard a sniff and looked beside him - the effect of Mrs. Smyth’s life advice and the music choice (one of Mrs. Smyth’s favourite songs) was getting to Tweek. 

Craig put an arm around Tweek and they cried together as the next scene came on.

Mrs. Smyth looking at the camera.

“Is it on? Are you filming this?”.

“Yeah?”, Craig’s dismissive voice.

“It doesn’t look like it’s on”.

“Well, is the red light flashing?!”, Craig’s voice full of attitude.

“I can’t see…I don’t have my glasses on”.

A resigned sigh from Craig, “It’s on…”.

“Alright alright…no need to get snappy!”.

Tweek laughed quietly and wiped his eyes. Craig kissed him on the cheek.

Mrs Smyth dancing in the loungeroom and her voice over, “I like having a young person around the house…even if it's someone who doesn’t wash! When was the last time this beanie saw the washing machine?!”.

“I dunno…Christmas?”, Craig groaned. 

A scene where she’s feeling Craig’s hair under his chullo and commenting with disgust, “Eww, yuck!”.

Another scene where Mrs. Smyth is listening to Craig’s music and complaining, “My ears! They’re bleeding!”.

Craig’s voiceover, “Hey, I listen to your stupid music all the time!”.

“That’s because I am older and can boss you around!”.

The end of the film was Mrs. Smyth talking about her life and her age. 

“-I don’t think about it - the end. The older I get, the less I think about it. Why should I waste my time?”.

Craig cut the video. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

“Um”, he mumbled to a bawling Tweek.

“Craig…”, Tweek whispered, “It’s…incredible. I…I know she would have loved it”.

Craig merely nodded.

“I have my voiceover to add at the end now with some footage and every time I go to do it…I can’t. I don’t…I just…can’t”.

Tweek leaned on Craig, “Can I listen to it? In the headphones…you don’t need to…go through it again”.

Craig already knew what it said. He put the headphones on Tweek silently and plugged them in, sitting back.

He mouthed the words silently as Tweek listened.

“Mrs. Smyth died before I could say goodbye. She was busy living life to the fullest until the very end. Sometimes it's in the places that you least expect that you come across someone that directs you towards a new lease on life. That it's precious. That we should live for the moment. Because we never truly know when it will all be over”.

Tweek slid the headphones off.

“We…we can work with…Oh, Craig!”.

Tweek crashed into Craig and kissed him with vigour. Craig clung onto Tweek desperately and pulled him closer. Feelings inside him were about to erupt like a volcano. He kept trying to catch his breath, but Tweek kept taking it away. Dainty fingers ran through Craig’s hair and down to his jaw and shoulder. Craig tilted his head more and shifted his chair closer.

Closer.

It was warm, wet and tender.

Craig dared to poke his tongue out and meet Tweek’s, but Tweek sighed and pulled away - looking incredibly flushed in the face and sad to interrupt their moment.

“Let me…come on. Let’s swap chairs, show me some footage…we've only got another"…,he checked his watch and his eyes widened,  “35 minutes!”.

Craig let out the breath he was holding and silently stood up to do the switch. It took him a couple of minutes to start thinking clearly again and pull up footage to cut and show Tweek. 

His pants still felt incredibly tight…

But he put his mind back on the task. It was incredibly hard to keep his hands off Tweek when he was being so adorable.

“Craig, I like that one”, he said gently to one particular scene of Mrs. Smyth throwing a cupcake at him and him missing the catch, “It’s a very natural scene for both of you, you framed the shot beautifully. Shows her vibrant energy and it shows you both being playful and mischievous”.

Craig cut the shot immediately.

“Ooh, that one! Craig…you’re so handsome. I don’t know why you get so shy on the camera…”, Tweek’s comment of a shot of Craig running out from Mrs. Smyth’s hallway to stop her fiddling with the camera.

They finished the video with five minutes to spare.

Craig fetched the tape of the final product and shut the computer down. He sighed in relief and looked at Tweek.

“Thank you”, he said. The words weren’t enough, he was incredibly grateful for Tweek’s company and support. It had been emotional for both of them. They’d managed to hold back tears this time, but Craig still felt overwhelmed and vulnerable to more tears spilling over.

He stood up and pulled Tweek by the hand. Their bags were over by the locked door on the floor. Craig looked at them for a moment, then put the tape down on the bench and pulled Tweek towards him.

“Still got a few minutes”, he informed Tweek, looking intently into those bright green eyes and pulling him in by the hips, “Anyone got the room after us?”.

Tweek gasped at the sudden pulling, “Uhh, Kyle…apparently”, he breathed softly.

Craig kissed Tweek immediately.

They were on a time limit, but he didn’t give a fuck.

The air was thinning and he started to feel hot as he hoisted Tweek up and felt his legs wrap around him. Kissing him urgently, he took a few steps forward and placed Tweek on the bench off to the side. He refused to break the kiss, Tweek groaned and kissed Craig faster. 

Tweek shuffled closer to Craig and relaxed his legs over the edge. Then he let out a sigh and placed his hands either side of Craig’s face. He pulled away with half-lidded eyes and gazed right into Craig’s.

“I like this side of you”, he whispered. Then he shuffled closer and instead of going back to Craig’s lips, he went for his neck and started kissing him under his ear, “T-thank you for letting me see more of you. It feels like my own private show…”.

Craig groaned.

How does Tweek even have this side of him?!

So unexpected

But God, it was so fucking hot. 

Craig threw his neck back and let Tweek get better access. Tweek was pressing his lips every so softly and trailing kisses down Craig’s throat. He had fingers grasping Craig’s hair and the back of his neck. Craig pressed harder against Tweek, and Tweek got the message. He applied suction and giggled when Craig let out groans of approval. 

“Tweek…it feels really good”, he stammered out.

“I know…”, he whispered as he kept kissing, “Whatever you want…I’ll…whatever you want Craig…”

Fuck.

Craig let his hands roam under Tweek’s button up and felt silky skin. Then he moved his neck and found Tweek’s lips again. Tweek’s hands were now wandering under Craig’s black shirt. They both gasped desperately for air, groaning and pulling each other as close as possible as they made out.

Craig pulled off and undid a couple of Tweek’s buttons, then started kissing under Tweek’s collarbone. Tweek gasped and then moaned very softly in approval, fluttering his eyes shut.

“When I figured out I liked boys…”, he whispered, then sighed when Craig started trailing kisses up Tweek’s throat, “I..I…I watched a lot of things and…discovered what I might like, I…don’t know if you do the same…but, God I love this…”.

Craig smirked and breathed against Tweek’s now wet neck, “Do you need more help discovering? Because I think I do…”.

Tweek just gave him a look of wanting and they crashed their lips together again.

BANG-BANG-BANG!

“OI, FAG! It’s five past!”, came the irritated voice of Eric Cartman.

They pulled apart abruptly.

Craig backed away from Tweek and wiped his neck of Tweek’s saliva as Tweek huffed and jumped off the bench and retorted.

“Yeah yeah…give us a sec, would you? We just have to pull the tape!”.

“Ooo la la, you’re in there too, are you twitch?!”, Cartman’s voice taunted.

Craig saw Tweek button up again and then hurry over to the edited desk. He opened and closed the camera loudly and made a couple of clicks on the mouse to make it sound like they were doing something with the computer.

Clever, Craig thought.

“Fuck off Cartman, we aren’t in the mood”, Tweek shot back loudly.

Craig gave Tweek a searching look, hand hovering above the handle to unlock it for Cartman. Tweek nodded at him to give him the clearance.

“Fucking finally!”, Cartman burst into the room and kicked both Craig and Tweek’s bags aside roughly to get to the desk.

“Do you mind?!”, Tweek cried out dramatically, snatching up both his and Craig’s bags

“Thought Kyle had the booking?”, Craig asked Cartman cooly. 

“Kahl and I made a deal to swap”, Cartman shoved himself past Craig to get to the editing desk, “Something you two clearly didn’t do…was it good Craig? Bet you had this fag under the desk trying to convert you over to the gay side…did it work?”.

Craig saw Tweek’s eyes flash dangerously.

“RRR! JUST BECAUSE I LIKE GUYS IT DOES NOT MEAN I FORCE IT ON PEOPLE!”, Tweek roared and stomped his foot, “Y-YOU’RE JUST…BEING A HOMOPHOBIC DICK FOR NO REASON!”.

Cartman chuckled.

‘Fucking Christ, talk about triggered”, he sniggered.

“You started it!”, Tweek snapped back.

“Clearly I’ve struck a nerve…you mind going and fucking each other elsewhere now? You’re eating into my time…fucking fag…”.

CRACK.

Tweek clocked Cartman in the jaw.

“YOU-YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE! ME BEING GAY DOESN’T AFFECT YOU - AT ALL!! NOW LEAVE ME ALONE, OR I’LL MAKE SURE I BREAK YOUR JAW NEXT TIME!”.

Craig was thunderstruck.

Wow.

Fucking hot.

Tweek was furious, but his eyes blazing so electric,his hair so carelessly messy and his lean muscles bulging really did it for Craig.

As Cartman shot out of the chair to retaliate, Craig stood in front of Tweek to block Cartman’s path.

“Lay off and shut your trap - last warning”, he said in a low and dangerous voice.

“I’M GOING TO TELL MR. BLACK! YOU’RE BOTH GOING TO PAY!”, Cartman bellowed out, red in the face and collapsing on his chair again.

“And we look forward to it. Goodbye!’, Craig spat.

He opened the door and gestured for Tweek to follow him.

In the corridor, Craig turned to Tweek and saw his face was red.

“You okay?”.

“I’ll be fine…”, Tweek muttered. He pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced at it for a moment, then his eyes popped and he looked positively petrified.

“GAH! I FORGOT!”.