The hand holding became a regular thing. There wasn't even a need to pretend anymore since South Park being South Park had moved on to the next surreal, mass hysteria-creating obsession already by the following week. But it kept Tweek calm and gave Craig a sense of importance so they thought why the hell not. It wasn't like they were sticking their tongues down each others throats in front of the whole school.

No, that came a little later.

They had already been rather close, during most of their elementary school years and that whole yaoi-drawing-coming-out-but-faking-it thing, in the long run, only made things more convenient for them. Their parents were thrilled watching them come and go to each others house, yes even Craig's dad who, in time, turned out to be their most dedicated 'fan', their friends didn't even consider ripping on them for doing cute things together, like when Craig was always fixing Tweek's clothes or trying to get him to cut down on his meth-filled coffee or even when Tweek would always give his half-finished lunch to Craig since he 'couldn't eat all of it by himself anyway'. So, their parents knew about 'them', their friends and classmates knew about 'them', their teachers knew about 'them', everyone in the whole fucking town knew about 'them'. And the long term result that came out of that knowledge was the fact that not only they weren't forced to act much differently around other people but it actually made their regular behavior, up to that point, seem justifiable and not something to be frowned upon in the otherwise intrusive environment of their small mountain town.

It also helped with the body contact.

You see, they were touching pretty often. When Craig would play 'Assassin's Creed' or other spooky video games and Tweek was basically clinging to him during the really scary moments (thus making him lose control of the game and whine to him about it for the rest of the evening), or when Tweek would be watching Downton Abbey, cause apparently it calmed him down and Craig couldn't stand all that vintage, snobby bullshit and used to fall asleep with his head sprawled in Tweek's lap. Or when they would sleep in the same bed during one of their endless sleepovers and they would wake up cuddling cause apparently they had reached out for each other at some point during the night.

And since they were 'boyfriends' now, no one looked at them funny when Craig would slip an arm around Tweek's shoulders when they were sitting on a bench by Stark's Pond watching the other guys ice-skating.

Except from the Asian girls but they were just looking for new inspiration, I guess.

The fact that neither of them had, up to that point, expressed any kind of interest in any of the South Park's girls, only made things easier because their apparent homosexuality didn't actually ruin their chances.

Craig was thinking that if he indeed found a girl he liked, he could always claim that he was in fact bisexual or confused or use another stupid excuse.

And life went on as usual.

When they were in the eighth grade, four years after their 'outing', they were in Tweek's backyard, where Craig could smoke freely without the constant fear that he would get busted by his parents. Tweek's parents, being professional drug dealers for almost two decades, were more tolerant towards all kinds of addictions.

They were sitting on the porch, really close to each other, as the Colorado air was freezing their butts off as usual and Tweek was leaning his head against Craig's shoulder, watching the smoke coming out of his friend's mouth in puffy little clouds.

When Craig finished his cigarette, he threw the butt on the ground and stepped on it, his movements making Tweek come closer to him, now supporting his whole body against Craig's.

"So, are we going to Bebe's party tomorrow?" Craig asked, shifting a little so they were more comfortable.

"Oh, God, that's tomorrow? Is it Friday already?" Tweek inquired. He was horrible with keeping up with what day of the week it was. Craig had to type down his schedule for every day and email it to him two days ahead, in order to prepare for school. He had to remind the blonde of all his other obligations as well, like his acting classes and his weekly visit to Kenny's house in order to procure the secret ingredient for their coffee.

Craig hated the fact that his fake boyfriend's parents were supplying the whole town with meth spiked coffee and how they got Tweek addicted to the stuff since kindergarten but there was nothing he could do about it, really. Except for counting the days till their graduation when he would take Tweek out of that godforsaken place and never come back. The fact that Tweek's parents were ecstatic about his gay relationship with the Tucker boy, didn't keep them from continuing to treat him like a slave; making him work insane hours at the coffee shop, not caring one bit about his school responsibilities.

Craig thought that Tweek deserved more than that and that's why he was planning for both of them to attend the Community College in Denver and make something more of themselves.

"Yeah, and you have the night shift tonight so we should get going in a while," Craig replied.

"Ugh! I don't want to stay there till midnight, man. And then have to walk all the way home in the dark!"

"Don't worry about that dude, you know I'll wait for you to end your shift and walk you home," Craig reassured his friend.

"Wouldn't your parents mind though?"

"No. We don't have school tomorrow and I could always tell something like I wanted to spend more time with my boyfriend and shit," Craig shrugged.

Tweek tensed a bit at that and turned his gaze upwards to look Craig in the eyes. "Ah, we are still doing that. Right."

"Doing what?" asked Craig while lifting a hand and removing some of the stray hair that fell in front of Tweek's eyes.

"You know. Pretending to be boyfriends,"

"Well, I don't think we ever stopped," Craig clarified.

"Really? I thought no one gave a shit anymore. Oh God, don't tell me that the Asian girls are still drawing pictures of us, man?" Tweek started to panic.

"Relax," Craig tried to sound reassuring "I'm sure nobody is drawing us anymore." "It's just…" he continued "…you have to admit, we do some pretty gay stuff."

Tweek continued to stare at his friend, a confusing expression started to form on his face.

"We do? Like what?"

"Well, you know. Sleeping in the same bed still. Holding hands. Shit! Even right now. Look at us, we are practically hugging."

At that Tweek sat up straight and rushed away from Craig, leaving a good amount of space between them.

"Ah, come on. Don't move away from me!" Craig objected, flipping him off.

"So you actually mind? Doing all this stuff, that's what you're telling me? You're just…you're just pretending?" Tweek yelped.

"No! Of course not. I don't mind being that way with you. I want to behave that way around you and so I do it. Simple as that," Craig explained.

But Tweek didn't look convinced, he was just sitting there, staring at Craig, and a slight tremor was beginning to make its way all through his body.

Craig let out a sigh and then grabbed his friend's wrists, gently pulling him close, so that their chests were touching. "Tweek, do you really think that after all these years I would still be just pretending? As if I give so much fucks for everyone else."

Tweek was carefully examining Craig's face as if he was looking for the slightest trace of insincerity and maybe, maybe for something else as well.

They spent a few moments in silence, Craig still holding Tweek's wrists as if he were afraid that if he let go, he would lose something precious to him.

"Do you ever wonder what it could have been like?" Tweek asked after a while.

Craig looked at him, confused. "What are you talking about?"

Tweek didn't reply, he lifted his hands, unlocking them from Craig's grip and cupped his face. He closed his eyes, leaned forward and kissed him softly.

Craig froze. He didn't move a muscle, he didn't make any attempts to kiss him back, he just stayed there, waiting for the moment to be over, experiencing what earth shattering felt like.

Tweek wasn't disheartened. He kept pressing his lips against Craig's, tentatively taking out his tongue and running it along Craig's upper, then his bottom lip and at the end he gently pushed it against the seam.

All the while, keeping his eyes closed. When he was apparently finished he pulled back and opened them. Craig was at a loss of words. He thought Tweek would be pissed off, because he didn't respond to the kiss, but he didn't look so. In fact he looked…cheerful? Or maybe even satiated. Something that was practically impossible for him, which made Craig even more perplexed.

"You didn't like that," Tweek said after a moment of just staring at each other. He didn't sound upset, or disappointed, he sounded like he was just stating a fact.

"No, no it's not that," Craig began but he was cut off.

"You were pretty responseless."

"You just took me by surprise, that's all," said Craig and then added "did you like it?"

Tweek snorted "of course I did, dipshit, why else would I do it if I didn't think I would like it?"

"Hey, don't call me dipshit, asshole," Craig said but with no real annoyance in his voice. "So" he went on "are we allowed to do that? I mean, shouldn't we draw the line at some point?"

Tweek groaned. "Craig, you are more of an imbecile that I had originally thought," he said, rolling his eyes. Before Craig had any chance to protest, Tweek continued, "We are allowed to do whatever the fuck we want, but since, clearly, you didn't enjoy much what I just did, then fine, I won't do it again."

"It's not that, you prick," Craig said, before lowering his eyes while a light shade of red appears on his cheeks. Tweek was waiting for him to go on and at that moment it seemed to Craig that Tweek had been doing that for almost all of their lives. Waiting for him to get a grasp of something. "I want you to do it again," he finally exhaled, too hesitantly to even look him in the eyes while he admitted it.

"Are you sure?" asked Tweek.

"Yeah. This time there will be more interaction, I promise," Craig replied, lifting his head and smiling sheepishly at him.

They spent the rest of the evening kissing in the dirty yard and Tweek never made it to his shift.