Chapter Text
The bang of the wooden gate crashing open was all the warning Tweek had before Clyde was on top of him.
“Dude!” Clyde’s hands came down on both of his shoulders and Tweek managed a strangled squawk. “What do you know? What aren't you telling your best bro?”
“Whatdoyoumeanngh, what am I not telling you? Idon’tknowanything!”
“Oh, no?” Clyde waggled his eyebrows, his smirk stretching into a toothy grin. Tweek wished he’d worn a hat with a brim instead of just a bandana; he could feel beads of sweat collecting at his hairline. “So, you don’t know anything about Craig’s upgrade?”
All of the breath in Tweek’s body about whooshed out of him at that. “Craig’s…Craig’s upgrade?” Oh, Jesus, he’d found somebody else. Of course he had. Handsome, successful ranchers who bottle-fed sick animals and spent festival prize money on knit hats for baby chicks were in high demand in these parts. Or maybe he was foregoing ranch life altogether and heading back to the Big City, and—
“Dude, Tweek, you okay?” Clyde’s megawatt smile faded, his eyebrows pulling together. It wasn’t until Tweek swallowed heavily that Clyde threw his hands up in front of his face. “Oh, no, man, you’ve got me all wrong! He’s not, you know…Tweek, why would you even worry about that, everybody knows he’s been crazy for you since you first showed up on his doorstep with an old watering can and sweet potato seeds.” Clyde’s smile returned, softer this time, and he put a hand on top of Tweek’s head. Even through his bandana, Tweek could feel all of the warmth in his palm.
“That’s just you who thinks that, Clyde.”
“Nuh-uh. Everybody. Now, let’s try that again.” Clyde brightened when Tweek lowered his watering can to the soft, tilled earth under their feet. “Okay. Your friendly local carpenter comes to your farm in the middle of a workday to tell you about an upgrade your boyfriend is making. Think it through.”
The idea of Clyde telling him to think something through was so ludicrous Tweek snorted, and a smart comment sat on the tip of his tongue when what his friend was saying clicked into place.
“He’s…upgrading his…” Tweek knew it wasn’t the summer sun sending the flush to his face. Embarrassed, he chickened out. “His, um, stable?”
“His house, Tweek, come on! He’s remodeling his way up to the biggest model.” Clyde rubbed his nose, his hand barely covering the knowing smile on his face. “And Bebe told me the last time he was in her store, he kept hovering around the furniture aisle.”
“You’re, mmngh…readingtoomuchintoit!” Tweek dove for his watering can and spun back to his crops. “That second part is all gossip, anyway!”
“Yeah, right, dude. I was there when Jimmy and Timmy brought their monthly wares into town, and we all had to explain to ol’ City Mouse why they were selling blue feathers.”
It had been mortifying, to have Craig hold up a blue feather in front of Tweek’s face and ask why it was so expensive. Then to have to explain that it wasn’t just substituting the country’s feather for the city’s ring, that there were other traditions, steps that had to be taken first.
“We told him how it works here, and now all of a sudden he’s upgrading his house and looking at bigger beds…”
“Clyde, would you—geh! You’re being ridiculous.” Tweek watered his way down the row of crops, knowing full well his friend was one step behind him all the way. “Craig’s worked harder than anybody to bring this village back to the way it was. He’s helped pave roads and ship produce. We have a hotel now—”
“Yeah, which we all know he did to make you happy, dude. I really don’t think Craig’s into the whole One-Man Economy act.”
“Quit saying ‘we’ when you just mean you, Clyde! Ngh!” It was harder to avoid Clyde’s eye when Tweek had to turn around to water up the next row and practically bumped right into him. “If Craig wants a big house, that’s his business.”
“All right, have it your way,” Clyde sang, stepping aside so Tweek could keep working. “But if somebody who’d invited me to the fireworks festival was doing things they knew were local traditions for preparing for marriage…it’d be hard to mind my own business, you know?”
“I’mnotgoingto, geh, lose any sleep over it.”
But in the wee hours of the morning, long after he’d finished his chores in the fields and the rice paddies and the orchard, Tweek was still lying in bed. Staring at his ceiling, wondering if blue feathers felt as soft as they looked and what it would be like to get to hold Craig’s fluffy baby chicks in his arms every day.