Chapter Text
“Welcome back, Tweek! What can i get you today?”
The bitter scent of roasted coffee grounds rushed into Tweek’s nostrils as he entered the café. Not a particularly bad smell per se. If anything—Tweek actually came back just for the familiar scent of dark roast.
Tweek bounced on his heels as he head towards the register, where a barista was already waving him over from the other side of the counter with a warm smile.
“Hey, Coco! Hm.. I haven’t tried a hazelnut latté yet, could i get that?” Tweek shifted his messenger bag and rolled his left shoulder in little circles. The bulky bag hanging from a thick strap across his chest was gonna kill him one day. And honestly, he probably should have tossed the thing by now considering the many coffee stains covering the front pouch, or the patchy work Tweek did to try and salvage the bag from holes. But Tweek is one of those sentimental people who cares too much about stuff that he shouldn’t. Like a ugly ass bag he accidentally found in the dumpster.
“On it! It’ll be out in a few!” Tweek took the familiar path to the pick up counter and drummed his fingers against the hardwood, bobbing his head to the beat of some rock tune in his ear buds. He was already mentally adding it to his lists of must plays for his band.
Thats right! Tweek started a band—or, at least he’s trying to. Tweek spontaneously decided he’d start a rock band for his capstone project for his Music Production class. He’d say hes doing pretty well considering he’s already recruited a few people to join his band or help out, but hes still missing the key component. The lead guitarist.
This wouldnt have been a problem if the only people who played guitar in this fucking town were either crazy ass hippies, crazy ass goths, or crazy ass people who still had virgin fingers and it was stupidly obvious to tweek they hadn’t picked up their guitar in a gazzilion years—or maybe never.
Finding a lead guitarist also wouldnt have even become a such problem if Clyde hadn’t been such a pussy about being the lead guitarist on stage. Going on and on about how he’d be more likely to suppress his tears if he was the rhythm guitarist instead of the lead. Which tweek tried to be optimistic about since having a second guitarist always sounds better in a live band anyways.
“One hazelnut latté for Tweek! Have a good one!” Coco slid the paper cup across the counter and tweek took it graciously. He thanked Coco and the rest of the staff, then opened the door to face yet another day of grey skies and the unpredictable winds of South park.
“Holy shit! This is pretty fucking good!” The warm cup in his hands was a nice contrast from the cold air as tweek took another swig of the sweet frothy relic of hazelnut latté.
“Hazelnut latté… you’re going in, ehh—top ten! No wait, maybe eleventh. That macchiato is still on top.” Tweek propped his drink in the space between his chest and his right elbow as he typed his coffee data into his notes app with surprising accuracy.
You see, Tweek’s strange hobby started with the excuse of trying different coffees from anywhere within a reasonable distance just to get a few new “ideas” for elevating his parent’s coffee shop menu—which his parents appreciated so much they invested $250 into the experiment and sent him off!
Now the whole thing has gotten quite out of hand and quickly just turned into Tweek buying and drinking absurd amounts of caffeine a day and ranking every single cup he drinks. He ranks all the different aspects of each drink such as flavour, coffee bean quality, even the atmosphere of the café is very important according to Tweek.
Tweek finished his documentation of the drink currently being held against his chest with a happy sigh and went to take another sip when—what the hell? Next thing Tweek knows is his precious drink is in the air, his phone is in the air, he’s in the air?!
“AHHHH!!” Suddenly, a hand swiftly reaches out and grabs tweek’s waist. Tweek—confused, opens his eyes to see… A guy?!
The guy had dark hair that stuck out from underneath some weird ass looking blue hat, snake bite piercings, and—oh, these beautiful green eyes. They caught the sunlight perfectly and displayed the most breathtaking shade of emerald Tweek has ever seen. And now that he looks alittle closer… theres a slight brown hue swirled together with impossible green. If only tweek could just color swatch it or mayb—OH SHIT!
It came to Tweek’s slow realization that he had in fact not been flying and had actually accidentally bumped into some random guy when he was too entranced in typing out his coffee rankings. And now he was being held in a random stranger’s arms!
“OH MY GOD! IM SO—Ack! SORRY! I WASNT LOOKING WHERE I WAS—hnnngh GOING AND SHIT, I HOPE MY COFFEE DIDNT GET ALL OVER YOUR SWEATER, I CAN GET YOU A NEW ONE IF YOU’D LIKE!?” Tweek was frantically checking this poor guy’s clothes like a madman searching for gold—but in this case, for coffee stains.
“Uh, its fine.” The guy didnt seem phased at all which calmed tweek down because atleast the guy didnt hate him! Or maybe that apathy was the face of someone who hated his guts and was planning to murder him… oh shit!
Before tweek could start round two of showing exactly why he lives up to his name—which is something tweek unfortunately does alot. The guy grabbed tweek by both arms near his shoulders and lifted tweek a few inches above the ground like a doll, propping him upright with what looked like practiced ease.
“I gotta head to work, so i’ll be off.” The guy had a straight face as he side stepped around tweek and started walking off with his hands in his pockets, almost as if a complete mess of a stranger hadnt bumped into him just a few seconds ago.
The guy suddenly stopped walking and turned around so only half his face was visible and his hair was being illuminated by the sun that had decided to peek through the clouds at a suspiciously perfect moment. “Your coffee’s on your left by the way.”
Tweek whipped his head to the side and scanned his eyes over a bunch of dead bushes till he realized he was looking at the wrong fucking side and did that stupid L thing with his thumb and pointer fingers on both hands before getting it right. Or maybe left in this case.
To Tweek’s amazement, the coffee was miraculously standing perfectly upright with without a single drop spilled! Never in a million galaxies has this kind of thing happened to tweek in his 21 years of living. Everything just seemed to go his way today! Aside from bumping into random strangers and almost soiling their clothes.
“Oh! I forgot t—“ Tweek turned around to thank the stranger, but the guy was already walking off into the distance—which was basically just down the street and around a corner but to Tweek it was dramatically cinematic.
“Damn, he’s so fucking cool! I should have asked him to join the band!” Tweek groaned and whisked his drink off the pavement and was off to tend to more important duties.
The rest of the day was spent running across main street executing said important duties, which meant trying—and failing to find other students in music majors that was preferably not a part of whatever cult started turning people into crazy ass guitarists trying to ruin Tweek’s life.
Tweek was seriously considering forcing Clyde to just settle as lead guitarist when his eyes caught something that Tweek could have sworn had not existed till now. He rubbed his eyes just to make sure he wasnt high off the additional cup of hazelnut latté he impulsively bought prior to absolutely downing the previous one.
The little thing being completely engulfed between two other buildings looked like it had seen better days. The dingy old shop had a small sign nailed above the door reading Tom’s Music. Of course to Tweek’s brain, this discovery was as if the angels came down from above and opened the gates of heaven just for him! Thus, he immediately rerouted, mentally putting whatever important duty he was doing on hiatus and swung the door open.
Ahh, the wonderful smell of wood and that strange addition of metal that you can only get so used to after years of exposure. Though, the smell of freshly brewed coffee cant beat anything in the world!
Prancing down aisles full of shelves lined with vinyl masterpieces of absolute peak music albums and artists, Tweek was in wonderland. He flipped through multiple vinyl records and was practically swimming in the box containing jewel cases full of cds till he had roughly around 3 pounds worth of goodies in his arms.
Price was never really a real life concept to Tweek when he was in the zone, and unfortunately he never backs down once hes convinced he wants something—which just results in tweek’s card declining at the register everytime and going back home either empty handed or with the cheapest thing in his haul.
“Hmm… maybe they have th—“ Tweek was silenced when music filled the shop. Tweek’s head snapped towards the sound coming from the guitar section. He immediately went to check it out, because this wasnt just some normal guitar solo. No, someone was absolutely shredding the fuck out of a guitar and Tweek needed to see this person in action.
Tweek’s entire haul and his jaw dropped to the floor when he saw the person who was responsible for knocking the entire store’s socks off.
The fucking stranger.
The scary guy who wore the questionable blue hat and was impossibly tall—at least, compared to Tweek, who’s growth was stunted just a teeny tiny bit due to the excessive amounts of coffee he consumed at such a young age. Nothing he would ever admit to.
Tweek watched as the stranger’s fingers flew across the fret board without buzzing even once! And if Tweek thought this guy couldnt get any cooler, he thought wrong. Because shit! The guy was using the fucking whammy arm to its full potential and damn, Tweek wouldn’t be surprised if he was drooling like a puppy right now.
Tweek stood in awe as he watched this masterpiece unfold, and once the last chord rang out Tweek immediately was on the move.
“Holy shit, man! I need you, like—right now!” Tweek had both his hands on the guy’s shoulders and was leaning down onto them as he beamed at the stranger who was currently raising an eyebrow and reaching down to unplug his guitar. There was an awkward pause where even the background music stopped playing for a second.
“…”
“…”
“Well, thats a bit forward.” The guy stood up with a complete deadpan expression after Tweek recoiled backwards the same way somebody would if they accidentally brushed their finger against a hot stove, except it was his whole body reacting and not just a finger.
Tweek’s face quickly started burning up. He just knew his face looked as if it could blend in with the tomatoes on display at the supermarket.
“OH GOD, I DIDN’T MEAN IT LIKE THAT! I MEANT, LIKE, I NEED YOU IN A DIFFERENT WAY—Ack! LIKE IN MY BAND! YES, MY BAND! PLEASE JOIN MY BAND.” Tweek’s hands were flying everywhere and his feet were following the stranger around like a baby duckling as the guy hung the beautiful Gibson SG—in Cherry red to be exact, back up into its designated place on a wall mounted stand with all the other guitars. Which Tweek had already scanned and unfortunately saw they didn’t have one that particularly caught his eye.
“Sure.” The guy shrugged and put his hands back in his pockets. Tweek stopped moving and just dropped his hands down weakly to his sides and leaned forwards with a slump.
“…Thats it? You’re not even gonna ask any questions?” Tweek thought he probably looked fucking geeked becuse of his bewildered expression to this guy staring down at him from his stupidly overpowered height without a single fuck in the world.
“Dunno, seems fun.” The guy shrugged again with his head tilted to the side and Tweek could see this fucker biting the inside of his cheek. How could anyone be this unphased?!
The conversation—if you could call it that, was starting to get to that awkward stage where everyone just looks around in silence till Tweek suddenly perked up and reached towards his left pocket, then his right because apparently he puts his phone in his right pocket now.
“Ohhhhh…kay! Can i get your number? FOR THE BAND. No other reason at all!” Tweek felt his face growing hot once again as he pulled out his phone alittle too fast and ended up clumsily juggling the thing as he struggled to prevent it from plummeting to its end.
“You’re the guy from earlier today, right?” The guy took the phone with his other hand still in his pocket and punched his phone number in the keypad. Tweek nodded vigorously instead of saying anything in fear he would start yapping again and embarrass himself for the thousandth time that day. The guy gave a slight nod towards his extended hand after adding his contact and Tweek took the phone back with a satisfied grin. Ding! Ding! Ding! Jackpot!
“Breaks over, dude. We need someone at the register.” A guy with brown wavy hair covering half his face popped his head from behind the wall separating the guitars from the rest of the shop, then he went back to whatever he was doing as soon as craig gave him a thumbs up
“Wait.. You were on the clock this whole time?! Im so sorry, man! I didn’t even know you worked here!” Tweek’s eyes grew wide and without knowing it, he unconsciously reached up and started yanking on a hand full of his own hair—which was not very flattering to begin with because no matter how hard Tweek tried to maintain his hair—and trust him, he’s tried, it just got worse to the point tweek completely gave up on it years ago.
“It’s fine. Thad. J is cool with it. But i should probably get to work now. And you probably shouldn’t tug on your hair like that—you’re gonna go bald.” Tweek frowned at the last comment and watched as the guy made his way past shelves and stands over to the front register where a customer was already waiting for staff to ring them up.
Tweek opened his phone to look at the new contact added on his phone.
📞 Craig Tucker
Tweek hummed thoughtfully to himself. Craig Tucker. Tweek’s immediate thought was how the name Craig sounds as if it would belong to a middle aged western man. But Tweek cant be talking shit since his parents decided it would be a good idea to legally label him as a certified crack head who has the same first name as his surname.
If Tweek had a dollar for every time someone got confused after hearing his full name, he would have over fifty dollars. Which doesnt seem like alot until you imagine fifty whole human beings in your room, only then do you start to understand the ways fifty can be alot.
Tweek went to put his phone away but immediately forgot which pocket he usually put his phone in, so he just put it in whichever pocket felt less heavy to even it out.
Tweek looked up and suddenly saw someone had left some sick ass music on the floor and crouched down to pick them up, till—right. These were the same items he dropped when he first saw the guy—wait no, Craig, absolutely destroying that guitar solo.
“You wanna ring those up?” Tweek looked up to see Craig hovering over him—which really emphasized his height, probably comparable to a sky scraper in Tweek’s opinion. Wait—since when did he get here anyways?
“Yep! You guys got some pretty good stuff here. I didnt even know this shop existed till today!” Tweek quickly finished gathering his previously abandoned haul scattered across the floor and stood up with triumph.
“I guess thats a good thing since it’s chill here most days.” Craig lead Tweek to the front register, then he went through the side opening to get to the other side and start scanning Tweek’s items.
“So, tell me more about your band.” Craig finished scanning and set the scanner down, he leaned against the counter with both arms crossed on top to match Tweek’s eye level.
“Oh! Its part of my capstone project! I’m starting a rock band and we’re planning to preform at the year end production program the school does. You’re actually the last person we needed for the band! You’ll meet the guys tomorrow for practice and it’ll be so sick!” Tweek continued rambling on and on about his whole plan and the crazy ass people he encountered when looking for a lead guitarist before, of course, he recruited Craig.
“Sorry… Your ears are probably about to fall of by now.” Tweek sheepishly rubbed at the back of his neck after realizing he’d already finished paying and Craig had already bagged up his items.
“No they’re not, I find it interesting.” Craig did one of those subtle smiles that really only meant he lifted one corner of his lip a millimetre or so, but Tweek still felt his face starting to flush for, like, the umteenth time today and swiped his plastic bag full of the unnecessary things he bought and started marching straight for the exit in hopes Craig wouldn’t catch him in such a stupid condition. Just as Tweek was about to leave, Craig called out from behind him.
“Its a push door by the way.” Tweek paused, his hand was still on the door handle and his face was facing the window of the door. Though, Tweek could still see craig’s smug ass smirk in the reflection since it was starting to get dark out already.
“Agh! I KNEW THAT!” Tweek pushed the door open with a whoosh and grimaced at the cold breeze smacking him brutally in the face. The cool air immediately settled the blush painted across his cheeks, which was convenient.
As Tweek stormed out the shop, he could briefly hear something along the lines of “see you tomorrow,” but Tweek was too busy trying to get his sanity in check.
“What the fuck was that? Stupid brain… you’re messing with my head!” He took a deep beath and blamed it on the hazelnut latté he had accused of later that day for allegedly making him high off caffeine.
But if there was one thing Tweek’s brain knew in that exact moment—it was that he was absolutely going to pull that door. Not like Tweek would ever admit to it though.
“And what’s with his stupid mysterious phrases he says before we end the conversation anyways..” Tweek mumbled to himself as he stomped down the street.
And if it wasnt for the street lights that had just begun to illuminate overhead, nobody would have seen the lingering blush on his cheeks or the small smile on his face.