Chapter Text
“Number 69 is taking the lead!” the announcer narrates over the cheering crowd.
“Well, Bob he might just take this win from one of the other crowd favorites number 24!” the other announcer comments, “Numbers 21, 40, and 36 are close behind the leading two!”
Number 69, Craig Tucker, was going to win this. He had to. There was no way he was going to let Number 24, Richard, win this race. Sure a lot of people loved and adored him but he was a massive jackass with an ego that Craig wanted to knock down a peg. At the party that they went to, to celebrate the race, Richard went on and on about how great he was and how he was going to have everyone eat his dust.
The motorcycles swerve and turn as the next turn comes in. The finish line is just up ahead in view.
Craig can just imagine the look on Richard’s face once he crosses that line in his blue, white, and yellow motorcycle that’s plastered with his sponsors. Not to mention that one of the big sponsors Richard has, had contemplated switching to sponsoring Craig instead which would just add even more insult to injury.
“Who’s going to win it?!” the announcer asked in anticipation.
Richard was right next to Craig, Craig was next to Richard. Neck to neck. The crowd cheers both on separately. The engine of the motorcycle and his heartbeat filled with adrenaline are the only sounds Craig can hear. The line is right there and…
“Number 24 wins with 69 in second and 40 in third!” the announcer spoke.
Craig stops at the pit stop and gets off the bike taking his helmet off and slamming it to the ground.
“Damn it!”
“Uh, good job boss! You got second,” Butters tells him as he picks up the helmet to hand it back to Craig.
“Suck it, Tucker!” Richard says as he passes by with his pit crew, “Party at the place I promised. Tucker, you ain’t invited. Woooh!”
“Better luck next time Craig,” Kenny comes up to tell him.
“I was right there!” Craig says as he pulls on his hair.
Butters leaves and returns with a blue chullo hat and hands it to Craig. Craig puts it on with a heavy sigh.
“Richard is never going to let this go until the next race happens,” Craig tells them.
“Well Bebe is sure to get mad at you,” Butters reminds Craig, “you might’ve lost the deal with that sponsor.”
“Pfft, I don’t care about that,” Craig says.
“Craig goddamn Tucker!” a female voice screams.
“Just on cue,” Kenny says.
Both Kenny and Butters step away from Craig as a pissed Bebe enters the garage with Wendy following behind.
“Craig what the hell was that?!” Bebe yells, demanding to know.
“I came second, that should be good enough,” Craig replies in a monotone voice with a hint of frustration he’s trying to cover.
“No, it isn’t!” Bebe continues, “You know how I found out we fucking lost? Fernando sent me a text bragging about how he secured the sponsor with that win! Our pockets would have been filled but in the last second you fumbled the whole damn bag!”
“Yo,” Tolkien and Clyde come walking in, “congrats on second Craig.”
“Thanks, congrats at third Tolkien,” Craig replies, seemingly ignoring the whole spiel Bebe gave.
“Hey Bebe,” Clyde greets.
“Dude,” Craig replies as Clyde merely ignores him putting all the attention on Bebe.
“Uh Bebe there’s the appointment we have with a potential advertiser,” Wendy reminds nonchalantly.
“Ugh,” Bebe groans, clearly wanting to continue her yelling towards Craig, “We will have this discussion another time Craig, let’s go, Wendy.”
The blonde flaunts her curly hair and walks with Wendy right behind.
“So,” Craig begins, changing the topic, “are you guys going to Richard’s party?”
“Hell no,” Clyde replies, “there’s this coffee shop I’ve been wanting to go to since we got to Colorado. They have pretty good reviews and their sweets are supposedly to die for.”
“Wanna tag along?” Tolkien asks.
“Not like I have anything else to do,” Craig replies.
“Great meet-up at Clyde’s hotel,” Tolkien says as they walk away.
“Yup,” Craig replies.
Tolkien and Clyde walk off.
Craig wore his usual blue chullo hat with a custom-made blue and white with yellow trimming leather jacket with his number and name on it and just some black denim jeans with a black belt and some black boots.
Clyde and Tolkien waited for him leaning against their bikes. These bikes were their personal ones that were just as speedy but not their professional ones. Craigs was red, Tolkien’s was a dark blue and Clyde’s was black.
Clyde wore his jacket as well that had some of his sponsor's logos/name and his number. His usual color was red while Tolkien’s was usually purple. He wore however a pastel purple jacket and a plain yellow shirt with a clothing company's name on it.
Clyde finally notices Craig and shouts, “Look who finally showed up.”
Craig flips him off, “I had to try to dodge Bebe since she’s in a pissed mood.”
Tolkien nods, “Yeah my manager told me that Fernando is pretty pleased with the fact she won over Bebe.”
Fernando was the manager of Richard and just like Craig hated Richard, Bebe hated Fernando. At some point, people thought that they might become an item which upset Clyde since he had a major thing for Bebe, but lucky for him they despised one another. Craig didn’t know why Bebe hated him but he didn’t care since that meant they both mutually hated the same team.
“Man you’re so lucky,” Clyde told Craig, “Bebe is the hottest manager to have ever existed.”
“And you’re never going to get her as a manager,” Craig replied.
“Well not to ruin such a lovely moment but I skipped a meal for this so Clyde lead the way please,” Tolkien interrupted.
They get on their motorcycles and follow Clyde. It was quite far but they didn’t notice due to how fast they were going. They end up arriving at a coffee shop named Tweak Bros. Craig was kind of shocked that it was night and it was still open. They parked and Clyde happily skipped up to the front of the shop with Tolkien and Craig following.
“This is the place!” Clyde announces.
“Well look’s like we have an hour left,” Tolkien points out as he looks at the shop's open hours.
“I’ll pay,” Clyde replies.
“I assumed so,” Craig says as he opens the door.
The door has a bell that jingles and at first the three enter seeing that no one was there. Then a door near the back opens revealing a blonde in a white apron wearing a green shirt. He had a black headband on and walks to the cash register. He was pale and he had heavy eyebags. The guy looked tired but he occasionally shivered, but it wasn’t cold.
Clyde cheerfully walked up to the guy.
“H-Hi,” the guy stuttered, “what would you like?”
“Ooh,” Clyde looked at the display of whatever pastries were left.
Craig just stared at him. He was intriguing for some reason. Maybe because of how tired he looked and was still somehow functioning.
He’s kind of cute, Craig thought.
“Can I get a bubble tea and a bacon, egg, and ham croissant sandwich?” Tolkien ordered.
The blonde nodded and took the order down and then looked up waiting for Craig’s and Clyde’s orders.
“Oh, can I get this…and this…oh and maybe that one to,” Clyde ordered as he pointed at the treats behind the glass, “and a medium vanilla frappuccino please.”
Somehow the blonde got all of that and then just looked at Craig. Tolkien went and took a seat near a table. Craig looked at the display of treats and looked at the guy. He noticed his name tag “Tweek”
So that’s his name, Craig thought, somehow it fits.
They meet each other's gaze and the blonde immediately looks away.
Blue eyes, Craig noted.
“S-sooo d-do you want something?” Tweek asked looking down at just the cash register.
“Yeah, I’ll just have a vanilla and chocolate cupcake and a…hot chocolate please,” Craig replied
Tweek once again nodded and Clyde happily pulled out his credit card and paid. Tweek went to work on the order and Craig went to sit down. Clyde decided to stand around there still and started a conversation with Tweek. Whatever it was about though quickly ended and Clyde looked satisfied. The three talked about the race and the very close calls they all had of either winning or completely crashing.
Tweek walked up to them with their orders ready handing them individually.
“Enjoy,” he said with a smile and then walked back to the register.
Craig couldn’t keep his eyes off him though. He couldn’t tell if it was because they were in a literal coffee shop or if it was Tweek that just smelled of coffee with some sweet hints of vanilla.
Craig was staring at the blonde for too long because Tolkien elbowed Craig as he mindlessly sipped on his hot chocolate back down to Earth.
Tolkien leaning into Craig asks, “Yo, why are you staring at the poor dude so intensely?”
Craig replies with a blush threatening to appear on his face, “am not.”
Clyde takes a sip and says, “Uh, yeah you are.” He leans in close as well. “Dude just go ask for his number, it’s not that hard.”
Craig with his monotone voice as always, scowls, “I just met the guy.”
“And you ask for their number to get to know them better,” Tolkien adds.
Clyde looks back at Craig, “Dude I got their store's phone number since I’m thinking that they should cater for this thing my manager is setting up. Sooo I can go and ask for his number if you’d like.”
Craig looks back at the blonde who just scrolls through his phone and then back at the two boys who seemed insistent on him asking. He sighs and ultimately decides to get it over with. He gets up and walks towards him as the other two giggle and grin.
Tweek doesn’t notice him at first until Craig gives a light cough to catch his attention. He immediately looks up at Craig.
“Yes?” he asks.
“Can I….” Craig falters as this time the boy tries to keep eye contact which seemed either hard or uncomfortable for him since he would look away now and then. Craig was able to get a better view of his face and eyes which only made him feel flustered. Tweek then flinched arching his head to the side and then immediately going back to its normal position. Tweek must’ve been embarrassed since he avert his eyes again and colors of pink started to appear on his cheeks and ears. Craig, for some reason, found his embarrassment kind of cute. He wasn’t shocked or anything since usually Craig can keep his stoic composure. However, his brain, heart, and stomach kept acting weird.
“Can I what?” Tweek asks.
Craig snaps back again to reality and blurts out, “Hot chocolate. Uh, can I have…nine more.”
Tweek’s only reply was a loud, “what?! Did I hear you correctly? Did you ask for nine more?”
“Yes,” Craig said in his usual monotone voice but dragging the word out.
“Uhm okay,” Tweek replied looking confused.
Craig paid and immediately turned to walk to his two friends once more as Tweek got to work.
Thankfully though it seemed as if Clyde and Tolkien weren’t paying much attention since they were engulfed in their own conversation. Once Craig sat down Clyde and Tolkien immediately looked at him.
“So?” Tolkien asks.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Craig replies as he pulls out his phone to hide the embarrassment he felt.
“Did he reject you?” Clyde whispered to Craig.
“No,” Craig says shortly.
“So then what’s the problem?” Tolkien asks.
“You’ll figure it out,” Craig replies.
Cup after cup takes up space near the cash register and Tweek calls out, “Your order is done.”
Craig gets up in shame and walks over to Tweek asking, “Do you have any cup holders to carry these?”
“Yeah wait one moment,” Tweek replies as he disappears down the register and comes back up with two cup holders. He places the cups in them and only leaves one.
Tolkien carries one cup holder and Clyde the one cup. Craig thanks Tweek and they immediately walk out.