Don't flirt at work! /CRAIG x TWEEK/

#5 - The Meeting

7:15PM

Tweek finally finished prepairing and put some nice clothes on. He looked in the mirror and felt satisfied when the reflection smiled back. He left his home and made his way to the coffee shop. It wasn't that cold anymore, snow wasn't falling, only the remaining piles cracked under his boots.

He arrived after some time and walked into the building. He glanced around and saw Craig preparing some cupcakes on the tables, Stan making tea and some other random people just chatting. Even Andrea was there.

He decided to go over to his tutor, as he knew him a bit. He tapped Craig on the shoulder, which made Craig twitch from surprise. He turned his head towards Tweek and relaxed when he realized it was just his trainee.

"Oh. Hi. Glad you made it."  He flashed the smallest smile a man can do.  "Feel free to talk to these asses."  He said and put the last cupcake on the table. Red, yellow and blue cupcakes were on the surface, they looked appetizing.

"Uh.."  Tweek felt himself grow anxious. "I don't w-want to.." He said silently.

Craig nodded and ran his hand through his midnight hair. He seemed like he was thinking of a solution.

"Ah. I know what we'll do then. I'll introduce you to others and you won't have to talk then. Is that good?"  He asked Tweek. He started nodding rapidly, signalling the amount of relief that hit him.

"Perfect! Thanks! It's just.. I know that I should do this on my own, but still... I'm such a bother, sorry.."  Tweek felt guilty. Craig put his hand on the trainee.

"Don't sweat it. It's the least I can do after you opened up."  He flashed a slightly bigger smile.  "I do appreciate your braveness."

"Braveness?"  Tweek tilted his head.

"Yeah. You talked about your weakness to me. Must have been hard."  He explained.  "Now, everyone seems to be here, so delaying this whole thing would be stupid."  He looked around. Tweek felt himself get nervous, but the presence of his guardian calmed him.

I can do this. He's here. He'll talk for me. I feel comfortable with this.

People put their chairs in a circle and everyone sat down. Tweek counted the people and he saw 9 workers. Most of them were his age, except two-three people.

"Now," Andrea spoke up. "I'm glad that everyone made it. I think everyone knows me but I feel obligated to introduce myself. I'm Andrea Klein, the owner of Café Orchid, basically your boss." She joked and some people chuckled at her remark. "Now Craig, if you may." She nodded at the manager.

He just sighed. After some pause, he began his introduction. "My name's Craig Tucker, I'm the manager here." He said. Andrea gestured him to continue. Craig rolled his eyes and spoke again. "I'm the 'second-at-command', when Andrea's not here, you turn to me with your problems." He finished his speech.

"Thank you, Craig, now the Swing manager please." She glanced at a dark-skinned female. The two women smiled at each other.

"Hello, my name is Nichole Daniels, I'm your Swing manager, basically I'm just below Craig's level. I lead the late afternoon shifts." She said.

After the bosses introduced themselves, Andrea and Craig began to talk about buget, income and paychecks. They introduced some new products and Nichole showed the procedure in which they must be made. In the end, the workers were free to stand up and talk with each other.

Tweek quickly strolled over to a table full of cupcakes and picked a yellow pastry up. He started munching on it.

Mmm! Vanilla! I love vanilla!

He enjoyed is cupcake in silence, until he felt a presence beside him.

"Uh Tweek.." It was Stan. Tweek turned around, his face stuffed with the cupcake. This made Stan smile, but it faded almost instantly.

"Look.. I'm sorry for earlier, shouldn't have been angry at you.." He looked away sadly. Tweek took his time to chew on the cupcake and after he swallowed it, he spoke up:

"It's okay, we all have bad days. Sorry about what happened to you." He smiled as warmly as he could. Stan smiled back.

"Oh, do you want to get to know the others? Not all of them are asses, in fact they are mostly nice." Stan stated. Tweek let out an 'eeh' noise, feeling nervous already.

"I dunno.. I kinda like these cupcakes.." Tweek trailed off, while looking at the huge group of people chatting and laughing. "I'm not really good at this. Hehe." Tweek felt his face redden from shame. Stan chuckled and took a cupcake too.

"Well, me and Craig can help you, you were kinda confident on your first few days." He said and bit down on his pink cupcake. Tweek flushed in a deeper colour.

"Tha-that was cuz I needed the m-money! And i-it was just Craig, Lottie and y-you! These are t-total strangers!" He started stuttering and rambling.

The little comotion caught the attention of Craig, so he walked over to them.

"Sup."  Craig looked at the two employees. His eyes travelled from Stan to Tweek, trying to analyze the situation.

"Hey, Tucker. I'm just chatting with Tweek." Stan stated. Craig raised his eyebrow.

"Chatting? To me, it seems that you're terrorizing him."  He scoffed. Tweek tried solving the problem by laughing. Unfortunately, the laugh came out in such a nervous manner, it sounded like crying.

"Hahahah.. hah hah.."  Tweek stopped faking his laugh, when he saw the two boys were looking at him concerned.

"You okay, Tweek?"  Stan asked worriedly. Tweek nodded slowly, trying his best to convince the boys.

"Yeah. I'm not buying it."  Craig pressured his trainee. Tweek didn't answer, making Craig sigh. "Fine. Come with me to the office, I need to  talk about your next week's schedule with you."  He said sternly.

Tweek obliged and walked after him. He felt anxious, he was scared that he messed up or his tutor was angry at him. They went in the back and walked into the office room. Craig locked the door and leaned on it. He crossed his arms and stared at Tweek expectantly.

"..."  Tweek felt himself shudder under the gaze of his superior.

They were looking at each other a minute already, when Craig sighed and pushed himself off the door. He too two  steps towards Tweek, which the trainee responded with walking backwards until his bottom hit the office table.

"Gah! Shit!"  Tweek freaked out.

"Calm down, Tweek. I'm not going to hurt you, okay?"  Craig reassured him. He stopped in front of the boy and extended his arms. Tweek didn't have the time to process the happenings, he was already in the warmth of his manager. He hugged him.

He hugged him.

Tweek felt his heart skip, both panic and joy filled him. He accepted the hug and returned the contact.

Their embrace was warm and peaceful. Craig held Tweek tightly to himself, letting the boy bury his face into his neck. They were both breathing steadily, their pace matching each others'.

Sadly, they were at a work meeting. They had to pull away eventually. Tweek sighed sadly, missing the warmth that surrounded him a few seconds ago. A quiet 'thank you' was all he was able to muster out.

"Don't mention it."  Craig answered. He unlocked the door for Tweek and let him out.