Chapter Text
He was having the dream again
Scary, cold midday, Tweek and him running from something or someone, panting and crying in despair. They were deep in some kind of forest. The sun was hiding quickly, painting the sky in oranges and pink. Everything is so unpleasant. Every time it ends the same… Tweek falls, and Craig doesn’t even dare to stop or look back to help him; he just runs away, hearing the person he loves letting out a bloodcurdling scream—
“Gah...!” He gasped, jolting up from his bed, sweating and breathing heavily, blinking rapidly before rubbing his face, annoyed. He takes some time letting his heart relax for a while and then looks at the time on the nightstand next to him. 6:26am… he’s going to be late again. He got off his bed and walked to the bathroom. It's starting get cold… He gets into the shower as usual. Some part inside of him wishes his life would have a small change, but he isn’t a big fan of changes; he knows if something changes, it would be a pain in the ass—it's just so overwhelming. He finishes his quick shower and walks to his room. He rumbles through his closet. It is not really a very colorful closet, just some different tones of blue, cold colors, and black. He grabs a black T-shirt, the usual blue sweater he uses, black jeans, and, last, his chullo hat.
He packs his stuff and grabs his backpack. He walks towards Stripe's cage, passing his fingers through the metal bars, waving a quick goodbye. He walks by the bathroom one last time and looks at himself in the mirror; he adjusts his bangs to the side, looks good enough; he doesn’t try much on it. Finally getting downstairs, he doesn’t bother having breakfast, the house is empty. His mom probably took Tricia to school; that’s kind of a relief… he won’t have to stand her and her friends today.
He's pretty late anyway. He grabs the car keys and rushes outside. His dad's old truck is parked outside. Well, it is not his anymore since his dad recently got a new car, another truck but of the year. He gets in and starts driving monotonously. He enjoys driving; it gets him out of his mind, and since he has his own car now, he enjoys modifying it. Craig liked space more than cars as a child, but he liked putting things back together. Almost every weekend now he takes a small time to modify the old truck.
He takes a shortcut and turns on the radio looking for a good channel, but as usual, it's just news and some bad songs. The same news keeps appearing everywhere in forums; the radio is so annoying... almost like they've run out of ideas or something. He is surprised they haven't pulled out the end of the world yet; they keep saying that every year.
Craig finally gets to school, and he carefully parks the truck in his usual space, right next to Heather Williams. Her car is meh—okay, he likes parking it there because it's easier for him to spot. Don't get him wrong; it's a nice car, vintage or retro, whatever she wants to call it, but it's been cared for very roughly; some paint is even falling off of it.
He grabs his stuff until he’s even more late; hopefully the bell hasn’t rung yet. He can still meet up with Tweek by his locker. Craig rushes through the crowded halls, pushing some people. He is glad of his height sometimes; it’s easier to cross crowded hallways like these. He huffs once he’s out of the crowd and directs him to his locker, where Tweek is standing in front of it.
“Hey, honey.” He murmurs, opening his locker and getting his Discman out of it. Tweek spams slightly when looking at him.
“Hi. Ngh, man, I think my parents drug me with harder stuff each, ugh… day.” He speaks through his teeth, quickly linking his skinny arms with Craig's, clutching on the fabric of his sweater.
“I wouldn’t be surprised; you told me they changed the recipe, right?” He says sarcastically, trying to hide his annoyance, nobody seems to notice how bad Tweek gets each day, not even Craig himself; he only knows about it when Tweek rambles about it. He’s trying to help… He lets Tweek smoke weed; it makes him happy, and as long as he is happy, Craig is happy too.
“Ugh… yeah, if they changed that formula, they, ngh, maybe added more shit to mine.” Craig hums, closing his locker and grabbing Tweek's hand. Not so long ago they both found out that Tweek's parents have a special coffee mix for him. It was noticeable anyway, since Tweek didn’t act the same when he had coffee at his house or in that diner they liked.
It hasn’t even been half of the day, and Craig already feels like it’s been 3 hours since he got here. His first class just started, Spanish class. He is fluent in Spanish thanks to his grandmother and mom; he just pretends to struggle with it so his teacher doesn't force him to take advanced classes. Through the whole class, Tweek and he pass a paper where they write and doodle stuff to each other.
Tweek had passed the paper a bit ago, but Craig doesn’t know what to say; the last thing Tweek did was a doodle of Craig. Craig writes before passing it back, “u want to come over after hs? Got home alone.” He passes the wrinkled paper.
Tweek shakily grabs the paper and unfolds it, reading the note, and a shaky, slight smirk forms on his face. He starts writing something or maybe doodling. He likes Tweek’s art; he started getting into it when the art teacher recommended it to deal with complicated emotions. Tweek likes doodling a lot, but when he gets serious about it, his art is impressive. It always looks a bit psychedelic, but he enjoys watching it. Even if it’s not his style.
Tweek passes the paper back to Craig, who unfolds it quickly: “Finally wehave some alone time” and a winking face. Craig tries hiding his redness; he didn’t mean it like that… Though it's been a long time since the last time they were alone at his house, it doesn’t sound half bad, he smiles to himself. Craig grabs his chewed pen and writes a reply. He tries passing the paper back to Tweek, who is waiting anxiously, not wanting to get caught—too late, the teacher calls Craig out. Of course it's just him…
“Señor Tucker, veo que está interrumpiendo mi clase otra vez. Ya tiene dos llamadas de atención le advertí que a la tercera lo mandaba a detención.” The teacher says with that annoying and serious tone he always has, for some reason he thinks his class is the most important class. You are only allowed to talk in Spanish, or else you’ll get on his list of students who might fail his class. “Ya se sabe el camino. Por favor, retírese de mi clase.”
Craig doesn’t say anything; he just stands up, puts the paper in his pocket, and flips his teacher off. He walks out of class and looks back at Tweek, who is looking at the teacher with annoyed eyes. Craig walks towards the principal's office and sits outside, waiting for him to stop doing whatever he does at this hour. It seems like he is talking to someone else right now. Another student
While he waits, he just looks at the empty hallways. And for some reason his brain reminds him of the dream he had—he hates that dream; for some reason it keeps repeating, and it genuinely scares the shit out of him. Hearing Tweek scream like that feels weird; it makes his stomach curl. He started dreaming about it since Tweek told him about this news about some virus. It wasn’t something serious to Craig… since it said it only affected bugs and some animals, he was only worried that Stripes got sick. But Tweek kept rambling about his theory that “it will kill us all.” He always says that, and nothing happens—his trance is interrupted by the noise of the door next to him closing.
He watches the student that was with the principal walk away. He stands up and reaches for the handle of the door—but the static of the school speakers catches him off guard when it starts playing a loud alarm. And then the voice is the principal. “Students, we need everyone to evacuate to the gymnasium urgently; we have a very important announcement.” Craig sighs annoyingly, but some part of him is relieved he won’t have to deal with the principal's motivational words before he sends him to Mr. Mackey. He changes his path and starts walking to the gymnasium; the hallway is quickly filled with students looking confused. He tries to spot Tweek, but he doesn’t see him anywhere, not even a small glimpse of his hair.
After every grade settled into their respective seats, the Principal arrived with his supposed announcement—surely it was something irrelevant, as always. Like that time in fourth grade they randomly were protesting against Canada. The principal adjusted the mic, making a harsh noise come from the speakers. He taps it once to make sure it works and starts talking. “Students, I don't wish to alarm anyone, but there is an evacuation throughout the town. As far as we know, it's due to a virus, and we already have 5 infections. We have been instructed to take a temporary quarantine. We are sorry, but due to the high risk of infection, we can’t let anyone out for now. Classes will be canceled until further notice.”
Craig stays still for a bit before moving his head around, looking for Tweek, who is probably panicking at this information. He will probably yell at Craig about how he was right that the virus will kill us all and shit. He feels some skinny arms hug his neck while shaking, cold hands resting on his back. “Ack, see, dude, I was right! Ngh, I—I told you! It’s going to fucking kill us!” He pulls at his hair, shaking and spasming like crazy.
“Babe calm down… nothing is going to kill us; it’s probably just some flu for like… I don’t know low defenses. Besides it’s transitioning to winter; it’s obvious that people will get sick more quickly.” Craig says holding Tweek in place hard enough to keep him in place but not enough to hurt him.
Craig was so concerned about Tweek that he didn’t notice some other people freaking out. It's not the end of the world for him. He just thinks it's annoying they’re going to be locked up here until further notice. At least they won’t have to stay just in the gymnasium; they can wander around the school. He takes Tweek to the back of the cafeteria so they can be alone for a while until he calms down.
They stay quiet for a while, just holding each other and occasionally kissing. The feeling of each other's bodies soothes them in a way. Craig takes his backpack and takes out his Discman and earbuds. Their mix CD is already there. He puts one of the earbuds on and offers Tweek the other… He gently presses play.I'll be quiet to keep you quiet
Don't concern yourself with my slow dying
Through the vents I hear you sigh
I don't get too high these days
Your floor is my ceiling
Lights out, you can't come in If you don't remind me, I won't
-Jet Black •Jawbreaker