Why Not Both?

There was no universe where Craig Tucker was looking forward to the first day of his last year of school. It was going to be such a long year this time because it was the last year. Maybe playing again this year would make the time go by more quickly.

He put on his helmet and straddled his motorcycle. Since he was running early, he decided to just take the scenic route. He absolutely adored speeding his way beside the beautiful sunrise on the tiny hill across town. It was always so gorgeous. He loved speeding on his bike.

Once he arrived at the school building he did not want to go into. He didn’t want to deal with stupid South Park kids and more drama. He took off his helmet and put it in the seat thing. Then, he put on his chullo hat over his crazy bed hair that he didn’t really care too much about. Everyone was already trying to get his attention and he’d only just got there. All the guys said hi to him and waved at him before running to get their own schedules. It made him a little happy knowing that his friends were happy to see him.

The one thing that bothered Craig that morning was when he saw he had anatomy first period. He pretty much hated having it first thing and not because it was difficult for him, but because he was positive he would fly by with A’s in this class. It was stuff he already knew all about. Craig was a wiz with most sciences considering he’d been planning on becoming a doctor eventually.

Rushing to grab only his twelfth cup of coffee, Tweek let out a loud groan. He was already running late and it was only the first day of the year of senior year. He shook so much at the thought of how much pressure today would hold that he almost spilled his steaming coffee on himself. He practically ran out of his parents’ shop, having stains even through his apron after he’d taken it off. His parents pretty much had him working every second this summer, mainly in the kind of secret back room mixing the coffee in a big pot thing. Tweek didn’t know if he felt mildly relieved to at least be going back to school, but he knew he would pretty much be working for his parents every day after school until he was eighteen. He had been working there illegally since he was in kindergarten.

Once Tweek had walked the seven blocks to school and found his new years’ schedule, he practically ran into his first class, not wanting to be late. He noticed that, of course, the only seat available was beside the one and only Craig Tucker. Only the guy Tweek had been totally in love with since they’d fake dated way back in kindergarten. He’d gone through an totally angsty unrequited love thing back then because he was in love with Craig and to Craig it was all fake. Now, he was only a little feeling better about the whole thing, but he and Craig hadn’t even shared a class for a few years and now he had to sit beside him as his lab partner this entire semester for anatomy class. He was going to die. Craig would be the death of him. As Tweek avoided eye contact, he sat beside Craig. As far away as he possibly could, which wasn’t very. Craig probably didn’t even remember his name.

“Ack!” He squeaked with a jolting motion at the pressure of sitting so close to Craig Tucker for the first time in so many years.

One could say it was a little bit awkward of a situation for Craig, sitting beside Tweek Tweak in the first time in so many years. They had had that whole fake relationship back in elementary school and Tweek had pretty much been his best friend by the end of it. It’s not that he wasn’t on decent terms with the guy. It’s more that Tweek and he hadn’t even shared any classes for so many years that he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d seen Tweek’s face anywhere beside the hallways.

“Hey, so looks like we’re lab partners this semester, Tweek,” Craig said casually as he cleared his throat and wondered why Tweek was on the edge of the desk, so far away from Craig.

“Y-yeah- I guess s-so- sorry-“ he mumbled a bit, feeling bad that Craig was clearly disappointed to have Tweek as his partner. “We can probably switch if you hate me that much-“

Shocked a bit at Tweek’s response, he felt bad, remembering how extreme Tweek’s low self esteem was. He’d always been that way and Craig had always used to try his best as pretty much his only friend to make him feel better. He remembered that Tweek used to call him his rock.

“Hey, I definitely don’t hate you, Tweek, and you have nothing to apologize for. I don’t mind being your partner, either. It’s been a while since we’ve really talked so it’s kind of nice,” Craig tried to assure the other boy. He gazed cautiously at Tweek, trying not to scare him off. He knew he was pretty forward.

“Th- thank you- ACK-“ he said as his eye twitched. Craig Tucker thought talking to Tweek was nice? That would make him the first person to ever think that, and definitely the first to ever say it out loud. It reminded Tweek of why he’d been in love with him way back when so much. He was so candid and so openly caring. Even if it’d been fake. Tweek honestly wasn’t even sure if Craig had ever been actually gay to begin with.

“Still as twitchy as ever, I see,” Craig teased him softly with a small smile up at him as he casually watched Tweek twitch yet again. It brought back memories back in the time of where the two had been best friends. He would probably always cherish them. He hadn’t thought about all this for some time now since Tweek and he hadn’t spoken since the fake break up thing. After that, for some reason, Tweek hadn’t really been as before and then, they’d just lost contact.

“Ack!” Tweek made another noise and dared to look at Craig’s stunning face that he’d always been fond over and took a swig of coffee, before realizing that his coffee was already gone and pulled at his hair.

Craig smiled a bit to himself. Tweek was definitely as twitchy as he remembered. He remembered perfectly well how much the other boy used to get bullied over it. Kids used to claim he was on drugs and all other kinds of annoying bullshit. Anytime Craig had heard anyone say anything negative about his twitchy friend, he had told them to shut the fuck up. Sometimes, he had ended up fighting them because they didn’t stop. He got detention a lot. He always hated people talking badly about Tweek. It turned him into a protective asshole no one should mess with.

“I-uh- heard that you’re good at science stuff? I kind of suck,” Tweek said as he messed with his hair. He didn’t know why he felt so comfortable talking to Craig just then. It was almost like they’d immediately fallen back into their mold of best friends. He already felt as comfortable as he’d come to be so many years ago. Shit, he’d missed this boy. Back in the days when he’d agreed to fake date Craig, easily becoming each other’s best friend and immediately falling for him. Now, he hadn’t talked to many people outside of his parents for months. He kind of sucked at pretty much every subject and he didn’t exactly have time to study properly at all because of his parents constantly making him work.

“What? Oh, I guess I’m alright with this stuff, yeah. Here, I can try to explain some of the basics? I could try to help you with more stuff later, if you want?” Craig responded as he scooted closer to Tweek to help him with their homework. The shorter boy looked at Tweek a bit too long, thinking of how he’d seemed to be different but similar to all those years ago. His face was different, much more… sculpted? He’d also definitely gotten taller, while Craig was now the shorter of the two. He cleared his throat and looked back down to the book between them so he wouldn’t keep staring awkwardly at Tweek.

“Yeah, so you can just switch partners if you want like I said- I just, uh, I- my parents- don’t have a love of time to do homework..” he stumbled over the words for a while, figuring Craig would leave him. He didn’t want him to do that again. Tweek did find it strangely nice that he could at least feel like how he used to feel when he talked to Craig, except Craig and he had both grown up and did Craig just look at him?

“Dude, I’m not leaving you. It’s fine. I can come over to help you more or I can help you at school. Whatever you prefer,” he told him right before the bell rang.

“Here’s my number. Just in case. For...homework or whatever else,” Craig said as he quickly scratched writing on a piece of paper and handed the ripped paper to Tweek, touching his hand briefly accidentally.

“Ack! No! I don’t want to do that- you don’t h-have to do that- I- sorry- i don’t want you to do to do it all yourself..” Tweek stuttered, not wanting to inconvenience Craig more. Tweek had so missed Craig’s voice and his genuineness. He still loved him and it hurt so much more now. Craig’s voice had grown and was sexier and low now. Did Tweek just think that? He couldn’t help but stare at Craig probably for too long. Fuck. He didn’t want to scare the guy away, he just felt himself coming back into the way they used to be when they dated in kindergarten, it was anything but fake for Tweek even though it definitely was for Craig.

“O-okay, thanks,” he said with a tiny blush he hid. When Craig Tucker gave Tweek his number, smiled at him, and waved, Tweek blushed and smiled awkwardly. Their fingers had touched for too long for Tweek to be okay and not have those butterflies back from so long when he used to touch Craig more. He missed holding his hand. He just had nice hands, okay?

Once Craig walked off, Tweek bit his lip and pulled out his schedule, walking towards his next class. He was at least early this time. He saw that they had Mr. Garrison teaching yet a-fucking-gain and he had put a message on the board that they were all sat alphabetically, which by stupid South Park adults standards that pretty much meant Garrison just labeled all their desks however he wanted. Tweek was searching for his name on the desks and eventually ran into Craig Tucker. Again. How did they go from having no classes together to this?! Tweek got wide eyed and blushing all over again as he sat down at his desk.

While Craig walked to his next class, he couldn’t help think that he felt good about talking to Tweek after so long. It was nice being able to talk to them his dork. He smiled yet again at the thought and then walked through the doors of his class to see that he was sitting next to Tweek.. again.

“Guess we are seat buddies again, huh?” he joked with a small chuckle. It seemed the world wanted these two to rekindle their friendship, he thought. Craig looked up and he met a pair of shaky blue eyes that were looking at him and then away from him.

“Sorry! It was assigned I- I swear!” he said jerkily as he tugged his hair. “Sorry-” He had to admit that he still absolutely adored Craig’s eyes and couldn’t help stare yet again before biting his lip.

“It’s fine, Tweek. Calm down. Really, don’t worry about it. I told you before that it’s good to talk to you again,” he assured him with a small smile.

“You think it’s good to see me?!” Tweek couldn’t seem to control his tongue just then and he had to look away from Craig’s total gorgeousness. He had this hypnotic thing and it totally made Tweek a different person, that was always one of the many reasons he loved him.

“I mean, we haven’t talked forever, so yeah. It’s nice. You haven’t changed very much, have you?” Craig teased him gently with a smirk.

“Sorry! Is that a bad thing, that I- I haven’t changed? You have changed a bit...” Craig has most definitely changed physically. His face was so much more shaped and his entire body was just.. not cute kid Craig who’d stolen Tweek’s heart originally, but now he was basically a man and damn. It was just a good look for Craig. “Except most of your personality is the same. You still make me a little more sane.. like before.. little more calm, I mean.”

“It’s not a bad thing,” he said simply before smirking teasingly at the taller boy. He’d missed teasing his old friend. “Oh yeah? I’m glad to make you even kind of sane. How else have I changed then?”

“I mean, you’ve gotten a little taller?” He tried to tease him back a bit. Ugh, he missed talking to Craig. The more Craig spoke to Tweek like it was the most normal thing and like Tweek himself was normal only reminded him of how it used to be with them. They actually did have fun doing the fake dating thing.

“Is that right? Maybe you just shrunk? I hear that happens with age,” he raised a brow at Tweek as he continued to kid with him.

“Yeah, maybe you’re right. Guess we’ll have to have someone measure us again,” he actually genuinely laughed with someone for the first time probably since he’d been friends with Craig.

Fuck, he’d forgotten about this guy’s adorable, goofy laugh he’d always had. He’d missed that laugh. It was probably his favorite laugh. It made him smile and remember their childhood. Maybe it’d be nice to get to get to know Tweek as he was now. Maybe they could be friends again. Yeah, that might be nice.

Sadly, as soon as Tweek felt hope at being able to talk more to Craig and feel what Craig had always done to him in his tummy again, the bell rang to signal the beginning of French class. Ugh.

“Well, I have calculus now. You?” Craig sighed with a glanced up to the stupid clock with its stupid loud bells.

“Nope. Guess we have to go now, huh?” Tweek asked with sad puppy dog eyes. Hopefully, they at least had another class or two together later that day.

“Yeah, well, I’m sure we’ll see each other soon especially since we have classes together this semester,” he said a bit hopefully with a smile and wave at Tweek as they gathered their belongings and left.