Buried (a Creek fic)

Consequences (Alternate Ending)

"Tweek?" Craig mumbled.

"Hmm?" he hummed, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

"What would've happened if I never made that deal?" he pondered. "It would've made things better, right? They wouldn't be so fucked up now."

"I th-think things are how they should be," the boy replied.

"But what if this never happened? None of it?" Craig pushed.

Tweek thought it over and then quietly, he answered, "Well, I'm gl-glad they happened how they did. The good and the bad."

***

Every action has a consequence, but that really wasn't on Craig Tucker's mind at the time. The only thing that was happened to be the simple fact that he didn't help anyone. This was common knowledge. The only person he looked out for was himself because, really, who else did he need? Clyde and Token? Definitely not. It was him, always just him, and it didn't matter who he stepped on to push himself up higher. After all, everyone else was just out for themselves, right? Isn't that how the world worked?

So as he sat on the back steps of the school where the goth kids usually resided, cigarette in hand, he was surprised to hear that the twitchy, rumored-to-be-a-druggie, blonde kid that he barely remembered existed was asking for his help.

"Could - could you maybe help me?" Tweek had sounded so hopeful. "If Cartman's afraid of you, maybe you can stop him from beating me up."

He supposed it was also surprising as Craig figured he wasn't a likely candidate to help people get out of fights. Sure, he had been in ones himself, but to be sought after by some random kid for help was something he wasn't used to.

Though, by the looks of it, it's not like Tweek Tweak really stood a chance against the massive bully. Tweek was frail with scrawny limbs and a shaky touch. He guessed that he was really the boy's last resort and he supposed it made sense, but most people would probably rather get their ass beat than be indebted to Craig.

"I..." Craig's voice trailed off as he took in another puff from his cigarette, which he had been craving all day. "I don't help people."

"Oh." Whatever hope Tweek had once possessed had now diminished into nothing, but as Craig glanced over at his saddened face, he didn't feel anything.

Tweek was just a random kid from his grade and Craig figured he didn't have any value to him, nothing he could really get out of him to use to his advantage. The boy was probably just on drugs, like everyone else assumed, or had a bad case of mental health issues. Probably both. There was no reason to help him.

Craig left shortly after that, pausing only to swirl ash onto the side of the step he sat on when putting out his cigarette. That was the last time he saw Tweek.

He wasn't there to witness the fight between Tweek and Cartman after school, since he decided to be a good student for once and not skip the detention he had earned for talking back to his teacher and not paying attention in class. He had heard that it was pretty brutal though; Tweek got knocked down with one punch and laid helplessly on the ground. He stayed curled up into a ball in the snow, as Cartman continued to kick him repeatedly. Once the crowd lost interest, so did Cartman, and he merely stalked off in the direction of his house.

No one really knew what happened to Tweek after that, since they hadn't bothered to stay around long enough to find out.

Tweek's absence from school the next day wasn't too much of a surprise. However, his absence from school the rest of the week didn't go unnoticed. There was a rumor floating around (likely administered by the fatass himself) that Cartman had actually killed him or had landed him in the hospital, but anyone with a brain (or at least a little dose of common sense) knew that was utter bullshit.