Oven Flame

-4-

Awkward was the first thing that came to Craig's mind. He was sitting across the person he crushed on a whole month. Well, he never realized it was specifically this person, but it was Tweek Tweak alright.

But neither of them uttered a single word, eventhough Craig had asked him to come to the cafe to talk.

Instead, they just avoided each other's glances and drank their drinks, sometimes checking their phones.

When Tweek got his third coffee, Craig decided it was time to speak up before the other possibly could get an overdose. "Look, about the other day...I'm sorry okay? Ethan just told me the biggest lie of his life and I didn't realize. I really thought he was telling the truth."

Casual sip, a "'s okay" from the other restored the silence once more. In the whole month Craig was crushing on the blonde, he never once considered that their personalities would be incompatible. But this silence smacked him right across the face, the message "there's more to love than just their hair from behind" attached to it.

"Is that a-all you wanted to talk about? Then I'm leaving."

Ah shit. When he asked Ethan for Tweek's number, what he got was a whole bunch of thumbs-up-emojis, a "get em tiger" and tiger noises for half of a day.

Ethan seemed to have forgotten about sending the number at all before Craig reminded him again. He got the combination immediately after that. If he didn't make a move now, tiger noises were the least of his problems. Craig just imagined Ethan sending him a bunch of speaker messages of him JUST LAUGHING.

The thought of that made him grab Tweek's arm when he wanted to stand up. "I still don't appreciate how you treated Ethan", he got out with clenched teeth. "But there's something different as well."

Reluctantly, Tweek sat back down, staring at him Craig expectantly. In hindsight, maybe he should have realized that those eyes were familiar from that night. Atleast he remembered one thing about it.

Clearing his throat, Craig finally asked the question that was on his mind ever since he saw Tweek leave the cafe just a few days ago. "Were you at the big college party at Token's?"

Tweek seemed to pale at that question. Of course, he was the one who left first after all. He should remember Craig's face, or not? Or maybe he didn't even spare him a glance after waking up? But that'd mean he didn't even consider a relationship after that, right? Craig pondered if that night was a one night stand after all. But the thought made him feel awful, so he stopped.

"N-no", was the choked out answer out of his opposite. "I w-wasn't. Never was one f-for p-parties." Craig raised eyebrow at that. "You sure? I saw you. In...a uh, bed. With me, you know."

Judging by his reaction, he was definitely the person from that day. He started avoiding eye contact, his hand were shaking ('even more that before, wow', Craig thought), his neck was shaded in a deep red. Finally, he answered, his eyes looking at the right upper corner: "M-must be a mistake. I wasn't t-there, I swear!"

Craig only sighed. Tweek was a pathetic liar. Like really pathetic. Could there be any more signs that he was lying? So Craig simply said "Liar." and sipped in his drink.

Yes, Tweek was a mess next to eye-brow-raising Craig, a big one too. His eyes and hands twitching, the blond let out occasionally "GAH"s, to which Craig only proposed a big question mark in his head.

Panicky Tweek sure was cuter than none-of-my-business Tweek, alright. He couldn't help but to find Tweek's weird antics to be endearing, cute even.

Or maybe he did have a coffee overdose after all.

Thoughts about giving Tweek preposterous amounts of coffee every morning just to see this side every day haunted Craig's mind, but he shook them off in favor of interrogating said person.

"So...you were there right?" He asked again, his patience growing strong after dealing with Ethan for nearly a month. Tweek just sighed tiredly and nodded, staying silent after that.

Craig took another sip of his drink to prepare the next question. "And you were the one you slept with me at the party, right?"

Craig couldn't believe he sounded so calm. Inside him a storm was raging, voices of different thoughts whispering in his mind. Was it really the best to confront him with this this way? Should he first have tried to become friends? Maybe he should've waited until that argument because of Ethan cooled down? However, it was too late now. He couldn't change it anyway, so he tried to push these thoughts away.

Tweek seemed to be in deep thought as well. After a short while in which Tweek deemed it impossible for him to lie to Craig, he answered with a straight "Yes" and looked away.

An awkward silence spread afterwards. Craig ruffled his own hair at that, just to try to fix it a second later. "Look...", he started again. "I know this sound stupid, but I think I've been in love with that person, that now turned out to be you, ever since that day. I couldn't get you off my mind for a whole month, and only recognized your hair from behind when we argued the other day."

With all the courage he could muster, he raised his head to meet Tweek eyes, his face and ears red. Tweek had a similar expression, but it was filled with surprise or shock, Craig couldn't tell.

"A-and I called you here because...I wanted to talk about my uh, feelings 'n stuff. I...I think I really like you. I'd like to know you better and see if those...feeling are misplaced or not, so...would you please go out with me?"

There. He said it. All that's left was a good answer from the other, a single yes or "we can try to be friends first", yes, that'd be enough for him.

Tweek was absolutely adorable. A blush tainted his cheeks, and he didn't move, just staring at Craig as if he couldn't believe what just happened. He looked positively shocked, just like a woman who has just been proposed to.

So Craig allowed to get his hopes up, just a little, that his fuck-up the other day didn't matter, that everything could lead to a happy ending in which Tweek gave him a chance to develop his feelings, and maybe make the other love him aswell in the process.

However, as soon as Tweek freed himself from his shock, the crushing reality came down on Craig. His heart felt like it shattered into a uncountable amount of pieces, and he couldn't even reply anything, not to the rejection, or Tweek's hasty departure from the cafe.

It was different from when he thought he'd never see him again. There, there was still a little hope that the other might feel the same. Being rejected outright and to their face was just different.

Not to say he wanted to go back to that time. That time was also torturous, just stretched along a long time, while with this rejection, all the pain came at once. Moving on was easier when you take all the pain at once and don't waste many memories on it.

Still, Craig did his best to hold his tears back. He was so sure. For a short time, he was so sure Tweek would say yes.

"There's already s-someone d-different!"

Craig sat there for about half an hour, just staring at his drink, holding back his tears, doing nothing in particular.

When he got a message on his phone, he picked it up without even thinking, just like a robot. His mind was honestly just blank, he couldn't think about anything or it'd be impossible to not cry.

'Did he DUMP u?????? :0 :0 :0 :0'

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A/N: Yes! Love confessions are the best. In fiction they are always so romantic <3. To bad this one ended up to be rejected. Just need more drama bruh.

Hope I've written Craig/Tweek well??? I don't watch that much South Park tbh.

If anyone is interested in Ethan's family and short stories about them, I have a second story lined up "The More the Richer". Ethan is named Eliot in that but it doesn't make a difference.

Thank you for reading! *Bows*