Bring Me to Life
“I’m fucked!” Tweek shrieks as he hasn’t been able to calm down for at least an hour. His eyes could be melting, he can’t bring himself to care enough when he can see the frozen timer on his small and old TV. “I-I only like -urgh- have five minutes to beat that stupid boss but I -argh- hate this one, what do I do?!” He furisouly bite on his nails, not realizing that his anxiety already took care of eating most of them. “Maybe I should just restart right now because -ngh- I’m not sure I can do it in five minutes! This boss is too random,” he grumbles and loudly winceds when a part of skin around his nail is ripped out. It’s already barely growing anymore with how vicious his habit of biting is.
Without any sign at the other side of the phone, Tweek is about to ask for a response from Kenny when he finally hears a deep breath at the other end of the line. For a moment, he thought that Kenny didn't mean to answer his call. By the noise, his friend is just trying to grasp consciousness and is absolutely not dead. After years of friendship, they have stopped needing to text before calling and Tweek has taken the habit to just call the last person he contacted; somehow it always ended up being Kenny.
Kenny never complained about his late calls, despite Tweek asking him if he isn’t too clingy. He has only said that if he is busy he wouldn’t answer at all or just send a quick text to tell him that he will call later. Tweek flops back down in his bed, avoiding by an inch the controller, as he waits for an answer. The timer feels like he has a gun against his head and the items screen looms at him and feeds his anxiety
Another deep inhale echoes in his ear before a small grunt comes between some shuffles.
“Can’t you— still try?”
Tweek’s tired eyes widen at the voice - that is clearly not Kenny's voice. He slowly moves the phone away from his ear, hoping that he is dreaming as he recognizes that flat tone. A pinch on his uncovered thigh doesn’t wake him up and the other option is that he ended up in hell.
But it’s painfully real that the husky and hoarse voice is Craig Tucker’s. Tweek violently twitches and his bitten fingers hastily find their way back in his mouth.
“Craig?” It is nothing more than a simple whisper in his cracked phone but it sounds like an atomic bomb to him.
“Yeah.”
Tweek hurls his phone at the other side of the room. It knocks against something but he can’t tell what or where it landed. He clutches a handful of hair and with the reflex to bite down on his lips to muffle his dramatic scream. His parents may have heard the impact or his blooming panic but he can’t bring himself to care.
He needs to look at plane tickets to leave this country– and how to change his identity over time but he will need his phone. With a frustrated groan and feeling stupid, he starts to crawl in search of his phone. Of course he would call Craig and not Kenny, that’s just his luck! His day, or yesterday now, has been awesome so he doesn’t know why he is surprised, karma always gets to him.
Tweek only remembers now that his last text hadn’t been to Kenny like the usual but to Craig Tucker. His earphones had inadvertently slipped out from his pocket back at the theater but Tweek left in a rush because his stomach seemed to have caught the same stomach’s bug as Stan’s bloodline. To his luck, or demise - he can’t be sure anymore, Craig texted him to tell him he found them and that he will hand them tomorrow. Jesus Christ, this is why he called Craig. Karma.
The phone rings and he squeals when he barely grabs it in time to stop the ringtone - waking up his parents will just make everything worse. Craig’s name shines in his face and to save his eyes, he looks around the room with the hope to find a solution. It’s still ringing in silence.
After a deep, deep and long breath, Tweek answers the call and prepares a big apology. “I-I -argh- I’m so sorry! Craig I— I didn’t mean to call you, sorry! I didn’t look and I– I’m sorry.”
His words make him wince and his squeaky and high-pitched tone is no help at all.
“I guessed that,” Craig replies with a much clearer voice than before.
“I’m sorry. You-you can go back to sleep,” Tweek mumbles in embarrassment, smashing a fist against his forehead. He needs to open his window—to jump through it or to get some fresh air.
“I’m wide awake now, though,” Craig says with some shuffling noises.
Tweek can’t really deal with the picture of Craig being comfy under his - possibly space theme - blanket. This is the kind of thing he tries to never think about! Except when he is horny.
“Uh— yeah, sorry… about that.”
Tweek feels like he is hypnotized by the phone and he is searching for something to say or find a way to put him back to sleep. He also wants to cut the microphone for a second so he could scream but his parents are sleeping next door.
“It’s okay, I don't care,” he replies with the usual tone that doesn’t give him any hint of his mood. “What game are you playing?”
He blinks in disbelief and needs to check his screen to remember if he has ever done something in his short life.
“Hum— I play -ngh- Majora’s Mask?” He carefully strolls back to his bed before he faces his rustic TV.
His lips are trying to find a good explanation even if another part of him is convinced that Craig definitely doesn’t care about it.
“I never played it,” he tells after a small pause.
Tweek realizes he is almost eating his thumb now but he finds nothing more to say than apologies for waking him up.
“It’s not that famous,” he offers because it’s part-true and part-I-don’t-want-you-to-feel-like-a-dumbass-wanna-kiss.
He waits for Craig to say something and decides to grab his controller to play with the joystick. If he insists that he should go back to sleep it might appear really mean to Craig. His tired pupils pause on the pinkish bite marks around his nails and he promises to himself to stop biting his nails, just like he did yesterday.
“So, where are you stuck? Something about a boss?”
“I’m not stuck it’s -urgh- like I’m at the boss but—” Tweek tries to breathe. “I’m not sure I will have the time to kill it before -argh- I need to reset time.”
“Reset time?” Craig echoes, still with a stable and undisturbed tone which shouldn’t give Tweek an excited chill.
He should not be bothering him another second, but here he is saying things Craig can’t understand since he never played.
“Y-yeah, it’s— the main thing in the game, there must be let’s plays -ngh- on youtube you can watch a bit to-to see how it works,” he stutters out, before gnawing his already scarred lips when he realizes that Craig might judge him on it now.
A long shuffle replies until a thud stops it.
“Put on facetime,” Craig requests.
Tweek’s heart blasts into pieces at the same time that he holds his breath. “W-what?”
“I’m going to watch you play like that,” he explains. “You will better explain than them and— I’m too tired to search for a let’s play.”
“Uh— what -ngh- what? Now? You should sleep,” Tweek insists and winces when he tastes blood on his lip. He tries to suck it as discreetly as possible.
“I’m fine, I can sleep when you go to sleep.” Tweek twitches with a check at the clock, it’s already two a.m and he doubts that he will manage to sleep after this mess. “You are, right?”
“Yes!” He flinches at his loud answer and slaps his forehead another time with a swear.
I’m so fucked up.
“I mean, yeah in no long, I -argh- I don’t really know,” he painfully chuckles, “when I’m getting bored or my eyes are -ngh- tired.”
“Cool.” It is a quick agreement but Tweek still doesn’t register it.
“Hm, my screen is really -urgh- small and— I don’t think you will see anything…”
“Don’t worry, it’s fine. Just try to put the phone where I can see the screen.”
Tweek is hit by a wave of uneasiness, and his bed looks ready to swallow him if it’s possible. His free hand clenches because the idea sounds great but he already has bad karma.
“You really don’t want to sleep?” He articulates and tries to sort his divided desires.
“I’m completely awake now.” And it is Tweek’s fault. “Uhm... I could hang up, you know— if you want.”
He can hear Craig’s slow breath. Obviously, it isn’t as if Tweek is right next to him and if he is, he would be slowly dying of nervousness and embarrassment. And God he is going to masturbate on that memory. At least, like this he can survive. Tweek wants nothing more than spending time with Craig, but by the time of the break he lost his usual self-control around him.
“Hum, alright.” Tweek shuffles on his bed, deciding he needs to put on proper sweatpants. “Wait I will try to set -ngh- up something, letting you on speaker while I -argh- you know,” he embarrassingly chuckles before gulping it down.
“Okay.”
“Okay!”
Tweek cautiously puts his phone on the bed, hesitating to mute it before stepping out of it. He quietly rushes for clean sweatpants as he actually tries to imagine some way for the setting to be just right for Craig.
“What’s the story?” He asks while Tweek gathers some books to place them as a support.
“Oh hum, it’s -ngh- kind of a story with a lot of theories but—” His eyes pause on his construction before he glances at his still paused screen. “I could maybe restart it, so -argh- you can see the whole story.”
“Aren’t you already far? At a boss?”
“I, uhm, don’t mind, I love to play it so I-I don’t mind,” he admits, staring at his phone as if it will make Craig’s face appear on the screen.
“That would be cool,” Craig says just before the call is cut.
Tweek gapes at his phone before furiously tapping on the screen with a finger. He doesn’t understand what happened. Karma is really breathing down his neck for no good reason–probably. It would have been the perfect setting! No way for Tweek to nervously hit Craig’s shoulder like ‘a good normal and not masturbating on him buddy’ or stare at him thinking it is just a weird day dream. His chance is dead.
Still, his hands haven’t found the strength to actually call him back. Maybe it’s just Craig’s way to stop this from happening. Tweek isn’t surprised, but it still stings. Craig was seriously bored but quickly got sick of it and just decided to end the call like that. No awkward moment where he will come up with a plausible excuse. Tweek sincerely hopes that’s it and not a murderer who crashed at the Tuckers.
His head lands against the books, colliding with the phone which also gives him a sharp hit. Tweek doesn’t groan out in pain, only in despair. Why is he so weird? Why did his parents think for a moment that feeding their child with meth was the best thing to do?
He is busy mumbling a lot of ‘fuck’ when he feels his phone vibrating. Retrieving it to have a proper look at it, his breath is quickly confined in his throat when he recognizes the video call request.
His hands let go of his phone to pull at his hair; he accepts it with a big twitch. What he just did hits him like a truck and Tweek flies to the ground before the camera can catch him. Tweek stares at his ceiling with wide eyes and trying to calm his heart that tries to crawl out through his bones. He isn’t presentable. There is no way he can show his face now. He hears nothing from Craig so there is a possibility that he might haven’t accepted the call, it’s not like he looked where he touched.
The call has definitely been accepted because when Tweek peeks up, he sees a hot black-haired guy on his phone screen. Well, his shirt is still on, but hell it is already killing him. It’s a bit weird that he sleeps in a white tank top but Tweek has never been one to complain.
“I-I -urgh- thought you went to sleep,” he whispers, too mesmerized by the sight. He now has a clear image of a sleeping Craig in his bedroom. Not that he is here but– Tweek wants to know if he is only wearing underpants under his blanket?
Focus Tweek, just fucking focus for two seconds.
“Just went to grab a bottle of water,” he flatly explains. His voice has a better quality than before. But most importantly he could see his face.
“Oh, yes, that’s a good -ngh- idea,” Tweek mutters to himself, realizing that his throat is too dry and his room is suffocating.
“You tired?”
“What? No.” A ball of knots is painfully gulped down as Tweek can’t help but watch Craig taking a sip of water; only staring at the slight movement of his throat as he swallows. He doesn’t realize that Craig is also looking back. “OhmygodIhavea-ARGH-” His head smashes against the wooden board at the end of his bed.
“Tweek? You okay?”
There is absolutely nothing hard in his pants.
“I’mokay,” he shrieks against his blanket and trying to ignore the painful ringing inside his head, “let me just— start a new save.”
His body registers the agreeing hum but instead of doing what he just said, it brings Tweek to look up and taste another time the view on his screen which is still breathtaking. He can see Craig’s collarbone and with his hat sitting on the board of the bed, his superb dazzling hair is out— yup, Tweek is lost. With a muffled and frustrated groan he jumps back on his bed, carefully to not make the installation fall apart.
“Can you adjust a little? To the left.”
“Yeah, okay,” Tweek mumbles and tries to settle the phone, “-ngh- better?”
“Thanks.”
He tightens his lips to hold back a grin but his head nods by itself, even if his heart is ravaged by a good feeling. Deciding Tweek should be the closest possible to the phone, he stretches down on his stomach and gras the old controller. He glances at his phone’s screen to meet Craig’s barely illuminated eyes. There are some messy locks not far from his eyebrows and Tweek wants to brush them away.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Tweek breathes back and his tongue must have fallen because he can’t feel it anymore.
The soft light from the phone is making Craig’s face even more handsome - and he really is usually. Craig is comfortably laying on his side against a big pillow. Tweek is now unsure what version of Craig is the deadliest for him, for a while it was him in his baseball uniform. Tweek never thought he would be mourning braces but he did for almost two years after Craig stopped needing them.
Sometimes, you have to jump right into danger. Especially when it’s a hot one.
In the end, Tweek comes to school without a second of sleep. He played for three good hours before he decided for Craig’s health to stop, with a tiny lie that he feels tired. If he had been honest, he could have continued playing until the sunrise because of the adrenaline and all. Plus, Tweek isn’t someone known for being healthy. He really doesn’t want to fuck up Craig’s health. Craig has commented on how ‘that’s better to wake up to this than Clyde’s weird night crisis’, so Tweek considers that the session went well.
He stayed alone in his room for one hour before he decided to bake and ate a bunch of brownies instead of staring at the ceiling with a guilty need to jerk off. His father congratulated him on taking initiative to bake for the coffee shop, until he realizes that Tweek fucked up the brownies to not look appetizing to keep them to himself. Now, he has something to eat during the day.
“Tweek, you know I love you— and that I will adopt you when we go to college,” Bebe starts when he gets to his locker where she has been clearly waiting for him.
“Jesus. Oh man, okay, Bebe.” He takes a deep breath as he puts his snack bag in his locker.
“Good morning to you too.”
She brushes off the formalities with a whoosh of hair that almost makes him want to have long hair. “What the fucking holy fuck is the problem with Kenny,” she asks and puts her hair into a loose chignon.
“W-What do you mean? What did he do?” He nervously answers, completely distraught by how aggressive she is. Not that surprising but still - Tweek thinks he has a sort of pass with girls since he has never wronged any of them.
“I mean, why is he still not talking in our group chat? Especially when Butters is finally kind of back— plus he texted me to ask if he is okay and didn’t lose his phone or something,” she explains with a scoff and crosses her arms. “So what’s the deal?”
“Wait, who did what?” Tweek frowns and he rubs his tired eyes with a hand. He tilts his head a bit and tries to remember everything she said.
“Butters. I wouldn’t have waited that long to ask about Kenny’s problem, though. Butters is too kind with Kenny,” she comments with a disapproving squint of her eyes. With dramatics, she slowly opens her mouth with the specified intention to make Tweek twitch in impatience. “Butters asked me if Kenny left the group or if he doesn’t have a phone subscription anymore. Because he doesn’t know why he wouldn’t answer his texts or the groupchat.”
“He did? What -ngh- did you say to him?”
“Told him I would kick Kenny’s ass, obviously.” Her short scoff flares up a small worry in Tweek. “That’s why I’m asking you what his problem is before I do it,” she explains with a scary glint in her eyes.
“Look -ngh- Bebe-”
“Do I have to remind you that Kenny, the one who was depressed a whole week after his little crush, Butters, disappeared from town, is now trying to play dead?”
Tweek gasps at her and turns around to be sure that no one is eavesdropping on their conversation.
“How— How do you know that?”
“Know what?”
“That he has a crush on Butters?” He whispers, softly closing his locker.
“Oh. That was supposed to be a secret?” She asks with a snigger, perfectly playing the fake surprise. “Annie and I guessed it since day one. It’s kind of funny when you are a spectator to be honest. Is it about that?” She wonders with a suspicious grimace.
“Uuh— oh God, I can’t— I don’t know what I can tell you!“
Bebe stops leaning against the locker besides his and softly grabs his arm.
“Okay, hon’, it’s fine. Look, I will know the story at some point because I will kick Kenny’s ass until he explains it. So don’t worry, you can keep that secret.”
He clenches his jaw in exasperation and it’s definitely his lack of sleep that triggers his frustrated groan.
“I told him to text Butters! He is just -ngh- stubborn,” Tweek snarls, “and stupid.” He would have torn out some of his hair if she wasn’t holding his hands down.
“He just needs some open-hearted talk with me.”
“Bebe it’s— hum you know drama stuff and well oh, man..,” he lets out a nervous chuckle before he takes a deep breath. “What about you and Wendy?” He offers to have a new subject, weirdly more comfortable with this one.
She softly smiles and her eyes wander around before they focus back on him. “Waiting for good timing. My parents aren’t going to leave the house for a moment, but I kind of want it to be very intimate and everything sooo— maybe soon,” she explains with a shy and pretty grin.
For a moment, it makes Tweek ease up about how maybe he is not attracting shitty drama to his friends because of possible curses. He has to be careful with his karma for at least a few years.
“Cool, that’s really cool,” he says with a faint smile. “I’m happy that I helped you.”
“Yup, you are wonderful.” She smiles brightly. “But I’m going to kick Kenny’s ass.”
“Guessed so.”
The school’s alarm echoes and they dart off to their respective classes. Tweek feels like napping all of a sudden and he is pretty sure he could manage to do so, probably because he knows Bebe has a target that isn’t him now.
“Tweek,” Kenny grunts out, sitting at the table next to his. “Bebe just fucking pushed me against a locker, I thought she was going to mug me. Like she seriously waited for me to pass and then— wait, earlier she texted me ‘you are going to talk before lunch or I will have to buy new shoes because they will be in your ass’.”
Tweek nervously nods at him. “Well-”
“So what the fuck did you say to her, Tweek?”
He purses his lips before trying to look as thoughtful as possible. “Nothing.”
“Oh my God,you are a bitch!” Kenny groans out with a frown as he throws his backpack on his table with no tact. “Dude, if I tell you something you have to fucking keep it for you.”
“I swear I told her nothing,” Tweek replies and anxiously looks around them. “It’s because Butters texted her about you that she knows something is wrong— and she told me that with Annie they always knew about your crush,” he mutters as one of his legs starts to bounce.
Kenny whines and lays his head on the table. “Fuck, I should have guessed they knew,” he sighs. “You told her about..?”
“No, of course not, that’s why she wants to -argh- talk to you.”
“No way I’m telling her that, they are going to kick my ass and will say something to Leo.” He passes a hand on his face. Tweek affectionately pats his shoulder as he tries to remember why nobody else used Butters’ true name. Butters isn’t that nice of a surname - Kenny sometimes says Buttercup which is cuter.
“That’s why— you should tell him something. Maybe he won’t even talk about the last time?” Tweek offers to encourage him and smiles when he catches his eyes through the thin gaps of his fingers.
Kenny stays silent, focusing his attention toward the teacher who struts in with an apology for their lateness.
“You look tired, did you sleep?” He asks once the class properly started, not pouting but there is still an underline of his bad mood.
“Not really, I ended up baking brownies and watching two weird movies.”
“You didn’t play?” He asks, leaning against his table to look at him and picks a worn pencil to play with it. Tweek glances at him with a faint puzzlement, not sure if he has restrained the goofy smile threatening to reveal how fantastic his night has been. “I was sure you were going to do the water temple and call me for the annoying boss, you know, to bitch on him,” he teases with a small but honest smile.
“I -ngh- restarted the game.”
“What? You made a mistake to have to restart the chrono?”
“Oh, right, the chrono— hum yeah, no I just wanted to restart it. Just-just like that. The story, the sidequests, you know.”
Tweek has totally forgotten about his previous plan to do the whole game as fast as possible. The night had been great to him, though karma is still breathing down his neck and he didn’t even drink coffee until five am twenty eight, which is progress.
Kenny hums at his explanation before he sighs and puts his face back against the table.
“You know, at least Kyle doesn’t know anything about what I did with Leo. He will do an annoying mom speech about my ‘childish and ridiculous behaviour’,” he mumbles with a horrible imitation of Kyle, but it still brings a small snicker out of Tweek.
As always, he is right, they find Kyle on the bleachers during their break. The moment he sees Kenny, it’s obvious that he knows and has a lot to say.
“Stan told me about it— you just have to man up Kenny.”
He groans out in reply, letting himself fall on the bleachers to stare incredulously at him. “He has the time to tell you about this instead of sucking your dick?”
“Maybe you should stop being a coward and just ask Butters how he is doing,” Kyle retorts with his eyebrows raised in mockery, ignoring his comment to write on a paper sheet.
Tweek is also doing part of his homework, mostly to not get wrapped up into another drama. His lack of sleep and coffee is finally manifesting and he would really like to survive today to faint once he is back home.
“Maybe you are right, Kyle,” Kenny says with a fake smile that shows all of his teeth as he crosses his legs, “tell me how it’s going on with the spicy dick.”
“Okaaay— can someone help me with the fourth exercise?” Tweek asks, leaning in the middle of his two friends despite their respective glares.
When Kyle blows through his nose, he wonders if he shouldn’t just walk out of here right away.
“I’m just trying to help you, Kenny,” Kyle gently explains through a tense jaw, pushing Tweek away. “If Butters is asking around how you are, it only means he cares about you and isn’t angry with you about what happened,” he continues with his confident and ‘not going to be countered’ voice. “He just wants to be in contact with you again. At least by texts, you have no chance to get lost in his eyes or whatever.”
Tweek fidgets in his spectator seat but is relieved to see a lightness at Kenny’s childish glare.
“Like I need to listen to a sexy ass,” he scoffs, crossing his arms and staring at the football field.
“You mean smart ass?”
“That too.”
“Okay,” Kyle snorts, used to his comments.
The tension that has started to hammer his head fully dissipated and he vaguely wonders if that’s what good friendship is like.
The rest of the week continues surprisingly well. Tweek’s tingling sensation under his skin found its way out by playing music as he uses - maybe too much - the excuse of ‘group project’ to his parents to stay the longer he could with the band.
Craig and him continue to ‘meet’ during the night but Tweek tries to not keep him awake hours each night. The presence of Craig's face on his phone hasn’t stopped making his inside fidgety and squishy. It’s probably too much to be healthy but Tweek is more entrapped by the idea of being a part of Craig’s ‘night’ to care about the state of his stomach. When they leave each other with a good night, Tweek always puts a hand on his stomach to try to calm down - the fact that he isn’t worried he has an alien in there is proof enough love makes you stupid.
After their first session, it ‘s Craig who asked by a text if Tweek is going to play again tonight. Even if he hadn’t planned to, he would have obviously decided to play just to have his company. He keeps separating their sessions by one day, at least, with excuses whenever Craig asks if he is going to play. They only talk about their plans by text. It’s never mentioned when they greet each other at school or luckily end up eating at the same table. Which is a good point for Tweek who barely can contain some squeal when he receives one of his texts. At least it seems no one, not even Kenny, noticed his behavior.
It’s not a habit but Tweek wants to think of it as one, simply because it makes him happy. He has to play slower than usual to not get to the ending too fast. They would talk about the game or sometimes mention some stuff from school and now they are even on an usual ‘how was it after school’. Craig asks about his shifts at the coffee shop and Tweek asks about Stripe.
Because his heart is overflowing with happiness, Tweek questions himself if somehow he didn’t sell his soul or is in a coma without remembering what happened. He should ask the goths, they would know if he sold his soul by idnavertance. They had offered him to do it once.
The game is almost finished after a few nights. They are still on the side quests and Tweek fakes to have a bad memory to not remember where some items are. Craig’s reaction to the side quest with the aliens was priceless and Tweek will never forget about it.
At some point, he texted Craig to say that he is tired and would actually try to sleep for the night; which is an absolute lie but Tweek has seen Craig getting detention because he slept in class. It fills him with an atrocious guilt and he almost decides to tell him that they should stop. So instead he tried to keep himself busy without making too much noise. It’s the same night when Kenny finally texts back to Butters; it’s in a group chat but at least he did it. Tweek reads the conversation a bit, only leaving when he sees that they are texting back and forth.
For almost two full weeks, everything is good. Cartman keeps bitching around - and possibly helping some people to get their revenge. Whilst Kyle keeps a normal, but not heterosexual, behavior around Stan. The latter has opened up about his undying jealousy toward Davíd. Tweek is the main victim of it since he has more manners than Kenny who just keeps asking Stan to take off his super best friend’s pants. At first, it’s a bit amusing but now he wants to shove Stan’s head against Kyle’s everytime he opens his mouth.
It’s a bit of a surprise that Tweek hasn’t noticed the lack of Stan the next day after a basketball game, despite having his ears full of his complaints.
“Tweek— Stan isn’t here,” Kenny comments when he joins him at his locker.
“He didn’t take the bus?” Tweek asks with a slight frown. He is the only one who has to take another bus line between the four of them if no one comes to pick him up.
“Nope. Second hint, he isn’t answering my texts and you will never believe what the last piece of the puzzle is,” he continues, dramatically crossing his arms.
“W-What?”
“Kyle doesn’t have his hat.”
Tweek blinks and glances around to try to catch that odd sigh but he only recognizes Red and Nichole walking down the corridor.
He purses his lips before he articulates, “do you think they fought or something? Stan knows that he shouldn’t touch Kyle’s hat though.”
“Nah, Kyle told me Stan must be sick and that they didn’t see each other after Kyle went out with the basketball team to celebrate.”
“What did he say about his hat?”
“That he forgot it at home,” Kenny snorts with a mocking exasperation.
“Something happened, definitely happened,” Tweek mumbles, closing his locker and adjusting his bag on his back. “Where is Kyle?”
“Ditched me for his boyfriend, probably trying to get his anger fucked out of him.”
Tweek anxiously holds back a chuckle and notices that Kenny is looking at something behind him. He follows his line of sight to see Tolkien and Clyde walking toward them.
“Hey, is Stan sick?” Tolkien asks, stopping in front of them as Clyde greets them with a smile.
“Looks like it,” Kenny replies with a shrug. “If you want to practice today we can but I think we are going to stop by his house to check on him.”
Tweek nods and Tolkien smiles. “It’s okay, I will come with you guys. I was just curious, he seemed fine yesterday.”
“Wait, I want to come too,” Clyde adds.
“You have your football game.”
“Uh yeah, but Stan is my friend too.”
“And your team already has one player down without Stan, your coach is going to beat your ass if his best player is missing.” The particular tone that Tolkien uses this time is the one that got him his reputation as the smartest guy and daddy material - Tweek tries to not think about it.
Clyde gasps and grabs Tolkien’s sleeve, bringing his face to a tired but clearly amused reaction.
“You think I’m the best player?” He cooes.
“Sure,” he replies back with a slight huff and starts to walk away, ignoring Clyde saying how sweet he is, with a last look at the other two, “see you in class, guys. Text me before leaving for Stan’s place.”
“Bye.”
Kenny leans against Tweek’s shoulder and breathes right against his ear. “Bebe told me that Nelly said that she heard Esther talking about Clyde’s exes with Lola because one of them whined to Jenny that he completely stopped dating,” Kenny quietly gossips. “Apparently he is focusing on school or football.”
“But he cried at Bebe’s party for not having a date,” Tweek comments after registering what he said, slightly confused, and the bell rings above them. “Maybe he is having the same thing as you did when you stopped your booty calls during the summer,” Tweek supposes with a smirk before Kenny pushes him in retalation.
They both walk toward their class in a silence that would usually make Tweek wonder what the other person is thinking about him; but he knows Kenny well enough by now to feel relaxed. Kyle is waiting in front of the class, slightly cheering up at their sight. Tweek wants to immediately ask what is going on with Stan but his eyes stop on the usual sight of Kyle’s fiery hair – outside from school it happens that he lets his hair free but he is still complexed by it. In his opinion, it’s a waste, especially since Kyle puts a lot of effort in taking care of them.
“Hey Tweek,” Kyle greets with a small smile, “do you have some coffee? I woke up a bit late this morning.”
“Yeah.” With a nod, he offers his thermos. “You stayed up for homeworks?”
“Yes, thanks.” He takes some gulps and returns it.
Tweek feels the small roll of eyes from Kenny and even if there is a big chance that he is lying, it’s better to not say anything. Kyle really looks like he is lacking sleep which means his usual bark is replaced with just more bite. His lips tightens to not let out a comment but the silence doesn’t help.
“Why is Stan absent?” He blurts out after putting his thermos back in his bag. “Did you guys fight?”
Kyle’s green eyes, piercing eyes, jump on them and it’s clear that he is chewing the inside of his left cheek.
“Not really. He… don’t start to think it’s my fault, alright?” He pauses and Tweek twitches while Kenny just hums. “Stan walked on me and Davíd yesterday, after the match— in my room.”
“You sucked his dick,” Kenny immediately accuses.
"No-"
"I would have."
“No Kenny, dude stop jumping always that far,” Kyle complains with a grimace and red cheeks. “Just— basic stuff.” His cheeks burst into flame as glances away.
“You guys made out and Stan -ngh- walked in?!” Tweek shrieks, almost grabbing his hair with his free hand but Kenny calmly grabs it.
“What did Stan say?”
“He just—“ he sighs and watches some students getting in their classrooms. “He stood there in shock and I threw my hat at him when he didn’t go away like I asked.”
“Stan kept your hat?”
“Yes, he left with it and hasn’t answered any of my calls or my texts,” Kyle explains, despite the anger in his tone there is a clear worry in his demaneour. “I wanted to stop there but I didn’t get the time to with Davíd and my parents preparing their stuff to go on a short vacation.”
“Not really a surprise when you walk in on the guy you want to make out with doing it with someone else,” Kenny replies with quirked lips.
“Shut up!” He hisses back. “He was just shocked— don’t tell me that it’s stupid and nonsense,” he warns with a finger. “I’m going to see him after my Spanish class and maybe he will want to talk. If he doesn’t it will be his problem. I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Wait wait, Kyle, you can’t say that,” Tweek interrupts with a slight reprimanding tone that earns him a dubious squint. “You two are in love! Try to picture it the other way around-”
“If you would just fucking talk for a full minute without lying because you have no balls, we wouldn’t be here,” Kenny adds.
“What?”
Tweek awkwardly glances between them two, while he would rather not make it worse - Kenny seems to like this approach better. Kyle is now facing him with just an inch between their chests. He seems to be searching for his words and restraining a growing anger.
“You are both stupid lovesick douchebags who could have saved a lot of time. You two fucking live right next to each other! How are you two so stupid?”
“Kenny, you better shut the hell up and say that you’re being an ass to distract yourself from Butters because I’m not going to be your scapegoat for being a coward.”
“Oh God,” Tweek whispers under his breath, hesitating to put himself in the middle of them to save their asses from a fight and detention.
He hears Kenny taking a deep breath, which only makes things worse because he is usually the more patient and pleasant one - but they have been friends long enough to know how to push each other into corners. And Tweek is supposed to be the neurotic one.
“He-hey, what are you guys ta-talking about?”
They turn to take a look at Jimmy and Tweek is slapped with a relieved and polite smile. He probably stayed with his friends until the last ring and only got here now.
“Hi Jimmy,” Tweek greets, a bit too cheerfully than usual, bumping into Kenny on purpose to destroy the tension in their group. “Just -ngh- talking about what will be today’s lesson.”
Jimmy doesn’t have the time to be a part of the fake subject because Kyle rolls his eyes and walks in the classroom. Kenny huffs and follows. Tweek cautiously stayes behind, glancing at Jimmy who offers a friendly smile that he tries to return. He wonders if he has an idea of the cataclysm he prevented from happening.
Tweek thinks he has good intentions by trying to help his friends - it’s true that he might act in their businesses but only when they are being dickheads about it. He knows how Kenny is aware of his poorly unfortunate situation, even when he left his parents, and that there aren’t many escapes from poverty with how their world is built. Kenny has already started to work, hoping to find that great door toward a life where you could eat until your stomach finally beg you to stop—yet it might not happen; none of his determination, his trustful kindness and his open-mind could grant him that. The only reason why he tried to confess with Butters has been because of that hope and if being with Butters is a part of the happiness he wants then he should get it.
While Kyle has a better life, or at least one of the closest to a normal family and common issues, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have difficulties about his own person. Tweek has no idea how it must feel to be in love with the same guy, supposed to be your best friend, for all of our life and to watch him date girls. Stan is also pretty confusing because it’s a well-known fact that Kyle and him are a duo - do not separate them - and yet he would date other people.
It’s not comparable but Tweek can’t focus on the lessons so he easily gets lost in his mind. He feels restless, still on a high concentration about his friends which must be the reason why he heard Cartman commenting on his lack of spaziness. He has only seen Craig once today which doesn’t ease his mind either.
Tolkien’s presence doesn’t even help him when usually it would reassure Tweek’s paranoiac side of the brain that he is with the most peaceful person around. He quietly joined them in front of Kenny’s locker where Tweek has been rambling in what kind of situation they could find Stan in. He is the only one from his gang coming, which is understandable since Jimmy must be busy with his newspaper and the last, hot, member doesn’t care about Stan.
It’s Stan’s mother who opens the door. “Oh hello.” She has a soft smile on, which probably means that Stan is well and alive. “You are here for Stan?” Sharon asks, glancing amongst the three of them.
“Yup.” Kenny brightly smiles behind his mask, eyes nicely smizing. “We have his homeworks.”
It’s a lie but she seems to buy it or ignore it. “That’s sweet of you. There is already a— friend with him upstairs, I almost forgot how popular he is,” she happily explains and lets them inside.
“Thanks ma’am,” Tolkien says before they walk upstairs.
There is no real surprise to find Wendy sitting beside the bed where Stan is obviously curled under the blanket. She does seem surprised to see them though.
“Holy fuck Stan, you aren’t back with Wendy,” Kenny exclaims after everyone, except Stan, all stare at each other
“No.” She frowns before sighing, folding her legs against her thighs, “I just came to see how he is doing about Kyle. Just like you.”
Stan groans somewhere in his bed and tugs the blanket tighter around him, Wendy shakes her head at that. Tweek barely can’t see anything because of the firmly closed curtains. The smell isn’t there yet but the recluse feeling has properly moved in.
“Are you back to being an emo, now?” Tolkien asks over the lack of noise.
“Get out of my room!”
“Hum, what do you know Wendy?” Tweek wonders since he supposes Stan must have talked about it to her if she is here.
“I’m the person who has to listen to a hundred vocal messages about his feelings for his best friend,” she amusingly explains before the bed creaks in panic.
Stan peeks out from under the cover to reveal tired and puffy eyes. “Wendy!”
“Come on, everybody knows now.”
“You officially told Wendy before us?” Kenny loudly says with a whine and incredulous eyes, deciding to almost walk on the bed.
“She is a girl! She wasn’t going to mock me! Wha– get off you dick!” Stan shouts back.
“Nobody was going to mock you Stan,” Tweek argues.
“Yeah he just wants to suck Kyle’s di-“
“Kenny you aren’t helping,” Tweek commentswith a frown, deepening it when Kenny raises an eyebrow with a fake-ass innocence before getting a kick from Stan.
“All of this is because of Kyle? What happened?” Tolkien wonders, obviously lacking the whole story, which Tweek tries to fill in with a sorry look.
“He saw him making out with his boyfriend and now has a crisis.”
“Kenny,” Wendy warns with a frown before it melts into a slight distress when she glances at the body hiding under the blanket. “Stan, you have to talk with him, at least tell him how you are feeling.”
“No.” He possibly curls further into a ball by the look of his form. “It’s just bullshit.”
“She is right. We are here to help you and staying like that isn’t going to change much,” Tolkien agrees, not looking troubled by the revelation. “At least so you don’t restart drinking— did you?”
“No, my fucking mom hadn’t left once today,” he groans out.
They all glance at each other, trying to find something else to say but their good will is quickly thrown out of the window when a music booms from Stan’s big connected speaker.
“Oh my God.” Kenny grimances, trying to plunge his hands under the blanket. “Evanescence?! Really?”
“Cut that!” Tolkien shouts when the volume just increases.
“Stan!”
“Cut that shit or I will break your emo head!” Kenny barks out, sort of wrestling with him.
“STAN!”
The music abruptly stops, leaving their overwhelmed ears with a vague feeling of void but at least they can stop to painfully shrivel up. Tolkien loudly sighs in relief and lets the cord of the speaker fall from his hand.
“Thank you Tolkien,” Wendy sighs out with a hand rubbing her forehead.
“Asshole!” Stan shouts. “Put it back in!”
She smashes her hand somewhere on him. He gasps in pain and manages to kick Kenny who is still laying on him. He retorts by smashing his body back against him. Despite Stan’s tortured whine, he stays firmly hiding. The music restarts, muffled by his blanket but still everyone could recognize the same song.
“Don’t start with your phone,” Kenny warnsand tries to find an opening but Stan is fiercely fighting any of his grasps.
“Asshole!” He snaps at his persistence when he is pinned on his mattress when the blond grabs his head with a hand.
“Kenny, come on. Stan, seriously there is no use to just miss school over this,” Wendy sweetly says. “Kyle looked worried today.”
“Kyle has a boyfriend. Why would he care,” he laments.
Kenny settles on laying half on Stan. “And what? Are you going to stop eating Mexican food because of that?”
Tolkien sighs. “You should have talked to Kyle before he and Davíd happened. But you can still do it.”
“Davíd is a fucking jerk,” Stan spits out. “Kyle is stupid for-“
“At least smarter than you for actually doing something about his feelings.”
“Kenny is a bit harsh buuut— he is right,” Wendy conceded.
“No!” He snarls, straightening himself out of his depressive cocoon. Tweek wants to throw him under a shower. “You guys think it’s easy or that Kyle is actually the same but maybe… maybe it’s-it’s not and—”
“No nuh-huh, we aren’t into a sitcom or another remake of Friends,” Kenny cuts in with a frown, shifting and ignoring Stan’s glare as he takes his face in hands. “Kyle loves you and you love Kyle. You two need to talk just for once about everything. ”
“Kyle doesn’t— he is with that asshole.”
“He doesn’t love Davíd,” he retorts. “He is like a pre-meal to open your appetite before getting to the real thing which is your dick, Stan. But only if you get your head out of your ass.”
“Gross.”
“He likes him, though,” Tolkien points out, earning everyone’s divided attention. “He wouldn’t date him if he didn’t like him a bit. If you don’t tell him about your feelings he will probably hold on to Davíd.”
Tweek clears his throat at the sudden tension. “I think he just, uh, they talked and -argh- just tried this? It’s not serious yet.” He takes a deep breath as his hands start to pick on each other at his creeping anxiety. “I’m sure that Kyle loves you but since you didn’t say anything— he thinks it’s one-sided so he wanted to— move on or something.”
He really hopes he isn’t trespassing any boundaries but he doesn’t know what else to say. Nothing to add comes to his mind and he quickly focuses on Sharon’s voice getting closer. The door opens and she seems to be as alright as before as she lets Kyle in. Kenny slowly slips out of the bed to fall next to Wendy.
“Maybe I should bring something to eat for everyone,” she offers with a smile, clearly not aware of what is truly going on.
“Uh, hi,” Kyle says after staring at all of them.
“It’s fine mum, they are going to leave,” Stan replies to her. His burning eyes barely leave the face of his new guest and Tweek hesitates to walk out with her.
“Alright. Open your window Stan,” she advises and closes the door after stepping out.
Tweek breathes in the air lacking noises. It falls like a gigantic weight on his lungs with a weird void-like sensation.
“Don’t you have class?” Sran asked with a crisp tone.
“I— left a bit early,” Kyle explains, tone even before it wavers at some short syllables as Stan creeps back under the blanket. “How,” he clears his throat and Tweek looks away hoping it makes it better, “how are you feeling Stan?”
His super best friend bluntly ignores him and turns under his blanket, probably to have his back toward them. Wendy seems to be the most uncomfortable one here as she glances between all of them before she stands up with an awkward ‘okay’.
She looks like there is something she needs to say to Stan but she turns away to reach for the door. “So— see you in class guys.”
“See you, Wendy,” Tolkien offers to fill in the silence one more second.
Kenny stares at Kyle before he puckers his lips. “Where is Davíd?”
“Oh my God.”
“The fuck Kenny,” Tolkien articulates.
“Yeah, where is that asshole?” Stan adds, letting his head out of the blanket to glare at Kyle with his busted eyes.
“Really, Stan?” Kyle replies with a frown. “You really want to speak like that? With Kenny being a dick?”
“Oh yeah, at least now you can speak without a tongue in your throat,” Stan retorts with the same accusing tone.
“I want to leave,” Tweek whispers, too concerned to look away so he just turns toward Tolkien, “maybe they need space.”
“No,” Kyle tells him with a snap of his neck before focusing back on Stan, ”if you want to talk like that then fine— Stan. You saw me and Davíd, we are together and yeah we were making out!”
“Fucking Christ! That’s disgusting!” Stan screams with a distressed grimace and almost jumps out of his bed when Kyle stomps toward him.
“What?! What do you mean disgusting?! You did that with five different girls!“
He gasps and shuffles his blanket in his hands. “That’s totally not the same!”
“And why not?! Because we are both guys?!” Kyle exclaims, throwing his hands.
While the rest of the group just awkwardly stare at the exchange, Kenny slowly crawls away from the bed.
Stan’s face is red and worn-out but it doesn’t lose any of his consternation or anger. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what? Why are you reacting like that?” Kyle growls, giving him back the same glare as Stan stands up. “You really think I wanted you to learn it like that?” He asks with his tone flying higher as his face melts into disappointment. “But I guess it was a good idea to hide it for a month from you, just look how you fucking reacted!”
Stan’s eyes widen and the rest of his face goes to a striking white. He gapes and whatever he is looking for in his super best friend only comes as a shaky breath.
“A month?” He furiously grabs Kyle’s shoulder. “A month?!” He explodes. “You have been with that ass for months?!” He is shoved back by the same anger, if worse by how Kyle’s has darkened. “Davíd fucking sucks!”
“Trust me, he does,” Kyle sarcastically replies, pushing him away with a huff. He storms to Stan’s desk to empty his backpack. “That’s your homeworks, and fucking give my hat back tomorrow or I’m going to find it myself and punch your stupid face.”
The warning seems to ring inside Stan’s head by his crestfallen look until he bursts in anger when Kyle reaches for the door.
“Your hat sucks!”
“FUCK YOU!” The door slams.
There should be a word that combines awkward, painful, shocking, nauseating for a situation. Tweek can’t find it and he doubts the rest of his friends do. They all quickly walk out of here when Stan’s mom comes up, this time looking bothered and doubtful that nothing happened. Stan has returned to his bed after grabbing his headphones so it’s not like they could do much to help.
Tweek can’t help but overthink what happened between his friends. It still gives him a weird shiver as he wonders if staying there hasn’t made things worse. Thankfully he is quickly focused on playing the game for Craig - nothing better than him to make him think about something else after spending the rest of the day stressing out. He still has to find something to make him not think about Craig.
“Clyde is now crying in your group chat,” Craig shares with him after he drinks from his bottle and takes a look at his phone.
“Because of the list?” Tweek wonders glancing between the TV and his screen where is the small vision of Craig’s privacy. They have settled a moment ago while following one of the groupchat where a list establishing the quality of all the boy’s asses got leaked. Clyde is at a dooming 22th.
“Obviously.” Craig’s gaze is still on his phone, not on his laptop screen where he could realize that Tweek is fixated on him.
Tweek could have done the same, switching to his laptop’s camera to show the game, but he is surprisingly clumsy. One of his coffee fell on it last Monday after class so he had to send it to repair.
“He just -ngh- likes compliments.”
“He should grow up.”
This makes Tweek snort over his game. He is still trying to buy more time but there is nothing left to do, or be in any way be more prepared, for the final act of the game. So Tweek is heading toward the possible last night where he would play for Craig. He knows he won’t build the courage to offer to play another game for him - Craig surprisingly doesn’t know much about Zelda’s games. Tweek would love to spend more nights with him, even for something new.
“Uh, I think I’m going to do the final boss tonight,” he says, trying to not chew on his tired lips as he goes through all the items’ screens. “Or maybe we— if you want to go -argh- back to a place before, we could.”
“Nah, I’m pretty hyped to go on the moon,” Craig admits and his dark eyes finally meet Tweek’s, which brings him to immediately focus on the game with a tingling tension through his skin.
“Okay.”
There are no other options anyway, so Tweek can only try to make the last fight as epic as possible. That is until a weird noise erupts from outside his bedroom and sky-rockets his anxiety far away from the moon. Since he knows the cinematics by heart now, his eyes easily drifted away toward his door. He finally recognizes whose footsteps are this delicate, never avoiding this one creaky step of his stairs. Kenny shuffles in his room liek any other day and somehow Tweek’s parents never woke up.
“I need to have sex right the hell now,” he loudly exhales after he reaches Tweek and his bed.
“What?” Tweek frowns with wide eyes before his mouth painfully closes at the realization that someone else is in the room with them.
“Who is that?” The someone asks.
Kenny stares at him in surprise. “Who is it?”
“What are you doing here Kenny?!” Tweek quietly gasps out and wonders if he should let one of the seventh sins take control of him to kick his friend out.
His shoes have already been abandoned on his way to his bed and he lets himself crash at the end of the bed to get a view of the construction around Tweek’s phone. Kenny’s eyes has to squint because of the light of Tweek’s phone and it quickly morphs to a sly smile.
“Oh hey Craig, what’s u-”
Tweek smalls his hand against his phone, not thinking about how it would feel to Craig. He miraculously manages to speak before his lungs are too empty to survive.
“Sorry, call yo-” Tweek twitches—”uh see you later!”
Fuck, I screamed that.
His finger crashes on his screen to hang up without letting a chance for Craig to answer.
“What are you doing video chatting with Craig at almost midnight?” Kenny asks, slitherng further in the bed.
“That -argh- that’s just him watching me play,” Tweek explains in a mutter and destroys the support where he had placed his phone on. “What’s going on? And stop showing up always talking about sex,” he whines out, not actually bothered by the subject but by who heard it, “my dad still thinks you and I do it. It’s really uncomfortable.”
“Well, you, put me into shit so I think I have every right to bother you now,” he announces and buries his face, quite abruptly, against Tweek’s side.
“What? What did I do?” He retorts with incredulous eyes and takes his friend’s phone when he hands it. Kenny goes straight to a conversation. “Oh. Butters.”
“Yeah,” Kenny answers before he mimics his reaction, “Butters.”
Tweek waits to read a bit more of the texts before deciding to say anything. Craig probably won’t mind that they don’t play tonight, like that he will properly sleep. At least he gets some physical company, he sort of thrives on the casual intimacy Kenny brings and they quickly end up in a sort of hug before he even gets to what pushed him to show up.
“Hum, well, he wants to see you,” Tweek recognizes with a glance at him who stares at the ceiling.
He sighs. “Yeah, he does.”
“You don’t want to?”
“Last time, I almost kissed him without realizing it.”
“You— You should be more concerned about his father shooting at you,” he articulates back with a small grimace and continues to scroll a bit. “Hey! He said, um, ‘it’s weird without you in my class now’ sad face sad face and— Jesus how many emojis does he use?”
“Yeah, that’s really cute,” Kenny fondly comments with his face in his two hands. “I can see what face he would make as he types that. You have no idea how many he has.”
Tweek hums in agreement but he would probably not have the same passion as him. Though it’s true that Butters is sweet in general - just not Tweek’s kind of thing.
“Why didn’t you agree? You said maybe and I mean you always find someone to swap shifts with if you need to.”
“Duuuude.” His hands leave his face but his eyes stay vacant of meaning. “I’m talking to him but I don’t want to be close to him again! See how it went? You guys forced me to talk to him, which I’m still not sure is a good idea. But I still think it’s better if our roads don’t cross.”
“That’s stupid, you guys’ roads crossed at the grocery shop like two weeks ago.”
“Shut up, that’s bad luck,” Kenny scoffs, “look, I just need to stay away from him but without hurting him.”
Tweek supposes it’s a way to see the situation, even if it’s pretty contradictory from all Kenny’s many pieces of advice to others.
“Shouldn’t Butters decide that? You guys didn’t talk about what happened— and you always say that communication is important. See with Stan and Kyle?”
“Those two are dumbasses. And one is a goth.”
“And not you? Butters probably loves to talk to you if he tries so hard to reach you, so here, you are the dumbass.”
Kenny stays silent and hides his face with crossed arms. Tweek swallows all other things he would like to add but after what happened with Stan, he doesn’t know if he should talk. He knows that Kenny cares about Butters. He is the only one using the surname Leo and they always made their way to greet each other in person at school. Plus Tweek knows how hurt Kenny was when the friendship bracelet made for them broke - he actually wanted to braze it back together but Stan told him he is insane. They could be a great couple. Kenny deserves someone sweet and caring and Tweek thinks Butters would be perfect for it - a reasonable giving and caring relationship. Butters is even quite resourceful and Tweek would enjoy seeing them making each other happy. He wonders if Kenny would take it well if he told him all of it.
“Tweek?”
“Yeah,” he replies, copying his low volume and looks at him to see that he is staring at his ceiling.
“I love you in a no homo way,” Kenny confesses with a blank face, slowly cracking into a sincere and amused smile.
“Me too,” Tweek chuckles and wets his lips before laying down, “no homo though.”
“Never homo. No homo.” They quietly laugh after one nudges the other as they settle on staring at the blank roof, the perfect place to draw their thoughts. “Maybe one day we will get out of this town.”
Tweek pauses in his breath, lurking around possible next words. “Maybe,” he whispers and lets his head settle against Kenny’s. “At least we are conscious of the shit going on.”
Kenny agrees with a hum before he sighs. “Warning, emo vibes incoming,” he says and bites on a smile at Tweek’s snort, “we go fuck them before they fuck us.”
“That’s emo?”
“Way to break the epic moment, thanks Tweek,” Kenny dryly comments with his eyes full of mirth.
“Wasn’t aware we were on a Netflix series,” he replies.
“You know we would be awesome.”
“We leave the guys behind?”
“If we take Cartman, it’s as an emergency food and I don’t want to have Stan and Kyle jumping on each other in the back while I drive. We can take one of them as a pet though.”
“That’s weirdly accurate… I don’t like that.”
Kenny whole-heartedly laughs after a small beat of silence before he tries to quiet down at a reprimanding slap on his shoulder. He loudly breathes out and contains another burst of laughter but he signs at Tweek that he will control it down. He lets him internally chuckle as he simply smiles, eased by the good feeling he has close to his heart.
“Do you regret this summer?” Kenny whispers at last.
Tweek swallows the weird sensation of that memory and he settles his hands on his stomach as his lips try to answer. “You mean..?”
“Yeah.”
It’s awkward but it’s not that different from the times he thought about it with only himself.
“Not really,” Tweek admits with a single breath, “maybe I should— have waited for the ‘special someone’ for the first time.” He can’t help but the mockery in his tone as he thinks of Craig and his bedhair. The meaning behind it just makes it more bitter. “It’s just sex. Who cares.”
Tweek does care but it’s too late.
“I just thought you will be the type really needing to know the person for months before doing that,” Kenny explains, passing a hand under his head.
“I've known you since kindergarten.”
“You know what I mean,” he scoffs. “It’s not that dumb the whole waiting thing. I didn’t think you would want to throw away your virginity like that.”
Tweek breaths out to ignore his burning eyes on his ceiling. “Me too.”
They fumble after a minute to get a blanket over them two - Kenny came with just a jacket over his pyjamas to be more comfortable. No words are needed for them to understand each other, less on the why they are here and their simple but fulfilling contacts. Tweek wouldn’t be surprised if Kenny knows than he said, especially about his feelings on their brief adventure during the summer, but he would rather forget about how it came to have happened.
“Hey, you would tell me if you were in love with someone, right?” Kenny wonders.
Tweek doesn’t like to lie, not only because it’s a source of pressure. But he also believes that he shouldn’t do to someone what he wouldn’t want to get. His roof has two big liars and it’s probably why it thorns Tweek so much when he lies.
“Yeah.”
Here - he isn’t lying, not really since he would gladly talk about it with his friends if there is something to discuss about. Tweek could be in love but there is no way where he imagined himself being in a scenario where he would try anything else than friendship. Craig is bluntly out of reach and Tweek will never have the phantom of an idea to try to reach for anything else.
Tweek is too sick for anyone. Already wearying himself without even looking at a mirror. Maybe far away in the future he could be good enough to love and be loved back. Who knows?