Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Marsh! We better be close; it feels like we’ve been walking for hours already.”

“Yeah, Stanley, listen to the chullo enamoured bean pole!”

The blonde teased, smirking as the taller teen simply glared at him, quickly flipping him off as they walked, cursing as he had to duck yet another tree branch; being early blooming tall came with its downsides.

“Patience is virtue Kenneth!”

Stan casually chided back, rolling his eyes at the levels of exaggeration, they had barely been walking half an hour, forty-five at most, while according to his uncle Jimbo, this perfect site was at least a hours walk off of the marked trail.

“Gah! What if we are lost? Are there bears here? I don’t want to end up as some one’s lunch, we’re not lost, are we?”

Spoke up the shortest of the group as he gripped the sleeve of dark-haired teen, who simply patted the blonde’s shoulder in reassurance.

“Calm down Tweek, I can hear people in the distance, if Marsh has gotten us lost, we’ll just back track back to the main path.”

“We don’t all need Omni-senses to have caught that, Craig! Relax already, fifteen, twenty minutes tops, were almost there!”

“You make it sound like I can see and hear through the dimensions…which is d…”

“Craig! Be nice! We’ve only got each other to lean on with this, we need to get along.”

“Hey! We’re innocent victims in this mess just like you this time, try toning down the attitude Craig!”

Stan cut in as he jumped over a fallen tree trunk, making a sharp left turn into the forest thicket as he casually walked through some oversized bushes, returning to his map reading as the sound of water becoming ever more present to the rest of the group.

“Tweek is right you know, besides, those enhanced senses of yours have bailed us out more times than you like to acknowledge.”

Spoke the red head, to the surprise of most, mainly due to the fact that he hadn’t voiced his opinion on anything so far; it wasn’t like him to be so quiet, then again, he heavily opposed the idea of camping but after successfully being outvoted five to one on the idea, it appeared Kyle had begrudgingly gone along with it. Not that it stopped him from complaining most of the days leading up to it; in which Stan was more than willing to deal with on the group’s behalf.

“Gosh, does it ever give you a headache? Being able to see and hear everything from miles around?”

Craig glanced at the other light blonde, as he walked besides Kenny, gripping his bag straps tightly, the tallest teen simply shrugging.

“Nah, not really, annoying, that’s a different story but isn’t it these kinds of things were here to test? Still, I can’t believe you managed to pull Broflovski out of his room for an entire weekend… after all aren’t mock exams due?”

“Perhaps, but Kyle has been ready for these exams since seventh grade!”

Kenny chuckled at this as the red head spun round to look at Craig with one of his patented glares before staring at Kenny with a heavy sigh, deciding to quickly shift the topic off of him and onto something or someone else before it had a chance to go any further.

“I don’t only study you know, I do, do other things… but if were talking of surprises, I’m amazed Butters parents let him come, they barely let him out the house, Kenny how on earth did you convince them?”

“What can I say, I am a master of suave and charisma, I talked them round…”

“That’s not how I remember it… sounded more like a thr…”

“Hush Buttercup… besides, your parents don’t like me anyway, it’s the firm tone or nothing…”

“I’m sorry about them… I honestly try to make them see how amazing you are but…”

“Don’t be, you can’t help it if your parents are backwards, judgmental assholes!”

“I’m sorry to, I’m amazed you’re still friends with me after the hard time my mother gives you Kenny, even after all these years…”

Kyle hesitantly added, feeling equally guilty; his mum had always judged Kenny solely from his poor background, as if that was the only defining trait of the guy but Kenny had made sure his background didn’t define him, if anything he was the strongest and most selfless one of there.

“Don’t you start… Kyle you’re not your mum!”

“I know…but still, I feel like I’ve unintentionally took in more of her traits as I’ve got older and I don’t like it…”

“Broflovski, you’ve always been a hot head, fuelled by emotions and beliefs and easily coaxed into fights, almost seven years later, nothing’s changed…”

“And to this day, despises the supernatural and being wrong ever since the fourth grade!”

Tweek chimed in as Kyle stared at them in disbelief, in elementary they barely interacted, mostly due to Craig and Stan constantly butting heads with their strong dislike for each other. In middle school they made an unspoken pact to just stay out of each other’s way, despite being on better terms, however, by high school, the world went and proved it worked in weird ways as the duo started to hang out with them more, while Craig and Stan developed a friendly rival like relationship, with the two having more in common than either were willing to admit… and perhaps more due to Tweek’s encouragement and growing friendship with Kyle rather than Craig’s willingness.

“Enough! This isn’t a pity party and from now on, I declare a parent’s free zone! This is going to be a boy’s weekend with no mention of parents in any way! Or any of those day-to-day boring stresses like school… Agreed!?”

Kenny shouted over them, while Craig winced at the volume loud enough to even catch Stan’s attention who had waltzed ahead unintentionally but had just about over heard what they were talking about as the group silently looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

“And that other thing…” Butters innocently added as the taller blonde just quirked a brow at him before chuckling again,

“ha,ha, yes, and that other thing…”

“Then it’s agreed, now let’s see, according to uncle Jimbo’s map, our destination should be right through…here!”

Spoke the still blue beanie wearing teen as he ducked under one tree branch, only to then quickly push another aside as he stepped out into the clearing on the other side.

The sight that greeted them caught them all by surprise, this really was an ideal spot, opposite was a high ridge, the rocky ledge helped hide this corner of the humongous lake, with a lone mountain peeking over the top at the other end of the valley. Meanwhile the floor was littered with a never-ending greeting of forest; the thicket of trees making visibility difficult from afar, which was mirrored on the other side of the bank. All with plenty of space to tent up and campfire with room to spare as the grassy verge stepped down into a wide gravely sand entrance into the lake itself. The walk was worth it, this spot was perfect!

“Told ya, never want to hear you doubt me again!”

Stan finally spoke, the silence feeling awkward after a while, only for his smirk to turn into a wince as his super best friend punched his shoulder.

“Hardly, your ego doesn’t need help…”

“Kyle…your words hurt me so”

The raven-haired teen drastically joked back as the two simply smiled at each other, the red head eventually shaking his head in disbelief.

“Well?” Stan quizzed once more,

“I love it, it’s so pretty here.”

Cheered Butters as he spun around on the spot to take in the entirety of the view, now he was even more glad Kenny had “convinced” his parents to let him come; briefly catching Kenny’s eye, only to see the taller blonde smiling at him as Butter’s awkwardly waved back with one of his more carefree smiles.

“Agreed, it’s… really calming and tranquil here.”

Tweek spoke as he finally let go of Craig’s sleeve, looking the most content since they headed out on the coach first thing this morning.

“All this and it’s only lunch time… not a bad showing Marsh”

“No joke Stan, great find, we should be able to go pretty wild out here without the risk of being seen! So… when do we get started?”

Kenny cut in with a grin that simply caused Kyle to roll his eyes in disbelief, if he believed in such things, he’d wonder why Kenny was so eager to tempt fate like he always does?

“I’m with Kenny, after this week’s happenings my curiosity is officially peaked!”

“How are you two so calm about all this?”

“Don’t worry Tweek, we’ll chuck in Craig first to prove everything is fine! Right Stan?”

“You bet! You do still like guinea pigs, right Craig…? How about being our first one!?”

The two teased as they high fived each other, Kenny dropping his arm round Stan shoulder as the pair mischievously grinned at the other dark-haired boy, who simply glared in return.

“Screw you guys!”

“Oh Tucker, I thought you’d never ask… but what about your coffee enthusiast?”

Quick fired Kenny in return, who simply continued to smirk much to the other boy’s annoyance. The moment only interrupted by the laughing of Butters and Stan and the parental clapping off Kyle.

“We’re not together, together! Why does everyone keep thinking we are?” Tweek sighed from the sidelines.

“Enough already, seriously… could we at least setup camp and have lunch first before anything else… also, you three are on tent duty!”

Kyle smirked as he threw the individual tents at the three boys, while the others had left to start gathering any loose twigs and logs as they set up next to a grassy ledge, leaving the taller trio standing on the sand in stunned silence.

“Tweek and Butters shotgun lunch while you were busy trying to piss each other off… Oh and one more thing, Tweek said to let you know that there’ll be no lunch for any of you until the tents are done!”

After much frustration, the worry of accidently breaking parts, just about passable online video tutorials and eventual submission to team work between team tent, all three tents were successfully up and secure; in sand no less and nor was it a bad job if they said so themselves.

Back up on the nearby grassy ledge, the cooks of the group had set themselves up a small stone circle style pit, with a grill on top and a bucket of water on the side. Clearly the tent group weren’t the only ones who had been looking up tutorials online.

“I see tents! So, perfect timing fellas! Tweek was just about to serve up!”

Butters shouted as he waved them over enthusiastically. The smell of a fried breakfast almost seemed heavenly after their early start, only grabbing a quick apple or cereal bar as they ran out the door.

“I didn’t know what to buy because of Kyle…”

“Because of me?”

“Your Jewish right… so you can’t eat certain things, can you? I hope the sausages and bacon will be, ok?”

Kyle blinked at that response, true traditionally they wouldn’t be considered Kosher but he wasn’t going to let his religion interfere with him having the full experience once again.

“You ask that after you cooked it?”

Quizzed Kyle as he watched Tweek’s panic slowly start to rise again before the red head gave a friendly smile and a wave to the cook,

“Nah, it’s cool, traditionally no but it is becoming more and more acceptable, aside ham for some reason… but your fine! Honest! Can’t wait to dig in!”

At that confirmation Tweek’s face lit up as he nodded, the feeling of relief washing over him as he got the bowls and served his creation out evenly and even had enough for seconds. Sausage, bacon, eggs and beans, didn’t sound too fancy but for their first campfire cooked meal, the barista had outdone himself. Once everything was cleaned up, put away, fire out and the groups set up in their own tents, with Craig getting one to himself to compensate how much he towered over the rest of them; after it was unanimously concluded that the bean pole needed the extra space; the afternoon activities could begin.

“Fellas, are we sure about this? Maybe we should wait till morning, it has been a long day already?”

Butters asked hesitantly, as Kenny slapped his hands onto the shorter blonde shoulders, giving them a rub in support.

“If we wait till morning, we’ll be losing precious time to try and make sense of all this and with clashing schedules, we really need to make the most of this weekend…”

Kyle started but even he had his concerns about all of this or was it more that he was simply afraid of what the result would reveal?

“Butters is right though…gah… this is a major step up from hands in a sink… this is a lot of pressure…”

Craig stepped forward looping his arms over the blonde’s shoulders as he rested his chin on top of the mess of hair, while the shorter teen looked up at him quizzically. The anxious blonde knew he shouldn’t be encouraging this sort of behaviour; this was the kind of thing that just enforced those rumours but at the same time, it was these sorts of actions that helped him keep his anxieties under control and despite their circumstances and situation, Tweek would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t grateful for Craig’s thoughtful invasion.

“Were here to investigate and we won’t discover anything on dry land that much by now is clear. We need to know just how far these changes go…”

“But what if this is a one-way trip?”

Tweek shot fired back and he could have sworn he heard the breath catch in everyone’s throat at the declaration; even though they were likely all thinking the same thing but no one dared to voice it. There was no guarantee, just because their hands returned to normal after being dried off, in comparison to what the group were suggesting, that was still only a small section of the body, a very easy to hide part of the body.

“That’s why we got the coach up here instead of my truck or Craig’s car…” Stan casually started as he glanced over at Tweek.

“If there are any complications, reasons we couldn’t head back tomorrow evening, they wouldn’t be able to ID or track us to this location so easily and it would buy us some more time at least…” Kenny added, not entirely sure if or who he was reassuring with that statement?

The couple of weeks leading up to this had become a nightmare game of trying to avoid the liquid, none of them had crossed as many spillages in a week until they literally had to start keeping their distance, missing many close calls as they all awkwardly and frustratingly became magnets to water or anything liquid based.

“Saying anything does happen… all we’ve got is what ifs and questions…” Kenny continued, expression oddly serious all of sudden, if only for a moment.

“Well, we won’t figure out anything standing here? Aside how to catch a cold…”

The raven teen chided in, after all it wasn’t the warmest of weather yet and with the group were simply standing there in just swimming trunks, Stan failed to see how this could be helping anyone’s cause.

“Well, you two had all the spunk before, go right ahead, we’re all watching…”

Craig sarcastically started as Kenny and Stan simply looked at each other, smirking with nod, as if they were going to let Craig win one over them.

“Alright Craig, challenge accepted, party time Stan, you ready!?”

Kenny shouted over, patting Butters on the back once more as he jogged over to the ledge with Stan close behind. Once there, the pair looked at the water, then at each other, both now feeling a bit nervous of the potential result as all eyes were on them.

“On three ok!” the pair nodded at each other as Stan spoke

“One…”, they looked at the water once more as they took a deep breath and begun stepping backwards

“Two…” the pair readied themselves as if it was the start of the school relay,

“Three!” and the pair sprinted off, jumping off the ledge and perfectly dived into the water.

Chapter Text

After what was starting to feel like forever but was more probable to have only been minutes, nevertheless, the clock was still ticking and the four on land had started to get concerned, no one could hold their breath for that long? Did they hit their head on something after diving in? Were they mistaken something terrible and this was one huge miscalculation?

“What do you think is going on guys?” Butters asked worried but the only thing to greet him was his concerned reflection as he peered over the edge and into the water.

“If those two bastards are pulling a prank, I swear I’ll knock both their lights out, this isn’t funny…”

“Easy now Broflovski, even if they are jokester, they know how serious this is…”

“Look! Over there, what is that!?”

Tweek yelled, following his pointed finger to the mysterious colouring coming to the surface before jumping out the water and startling all of them as it sat back up on the ledge of the lake, leaning over and pulling a second figure up to the surface to join him.

“Stan! Kenny!”

The three cried out in relief and despite not saying a word, even Craig felt a shred of relief that they were ok.

“What happen… oh sweet Jesus, your legs…you… you…”

Butters started, awkwardly skidding to a halt on the uneven surface as he stared at Kenny and Stan dumbfounded, in fact they all looked like deer caught in the headlights, wide eyed and mouths open, even Craig raised an eyebrow at them in disbelief.

“Yup… guess who has a tail!”

Kenny sang song a response as he waved what should be his legs up and down out of the water, still fascinated by the sight that greeted him, himself. It was a dark golden yellow, with dark orange stripes along the back that curled round to the front; while, where skin met tail, a second layer, almost like a belt in that same dark orange, sat along his waist and hips. The dark orange stripe markings, alternated sides and continued up his lower arm, stopping just after his elbows, while dark golden scales that matched his tail covered his shoulders, along with the usual webbed hands and long clawlike fingernails once more greeted him. The blonde in question wanting a better look at himself, the only problem there was that it was hard to find a decent reflection underwater or when the partner in crime kept disturbing the water’s surface.

“And he’s not the only one… sorry it took so long to resurface… it took a little while to figure out how to swim back up with these!

Stan joked as he showed off his tail, only for the pair to be rewarded with a slap on the back of their heads by a rather irked looking Kyle. In comparison to the bold colourings of Kenny, Stan was a simple black and white, black on the back with a white strip on the front but unlike Kenny, the same black scales had started to cover his lower arms and shoulders; markings that didn’t appear before when he just washed his hands, where only the familiar sight of extended nails and webbed hands were the only thing to change.

“Don’t do that! Do you two have any idea how worried we were up here!”

“Oww…We said sorry… geez, how long were we down there?”

“Nearly half an hour…” deadpanned Craig, with his arms crossed and stoic neutral expression to greet them, as the returning two teens stared at him is disbelief, it certainly didn’t feel like they were down there that long…

“How does it feel? The tail? What happened to your legs while you were under there?”

Tweek eventually squeaked as he hid behind Craig but watched on in fascinated curiosity.

“Weird… Very weird… it takes some getting use to. I keep trying to move my legs but as you can see, they are clearly not there, so instead of two limbs I now just have one, which is surprisingly heavy…”

The blonde continued as he splashed a bit more but was still grinning at the sight of his new tail fin before turning to stare at Stan and their faces dropped the enthusiasm and suddenly it became a bit awkward.

“I’m not sure what to tell you there…we know… we saw it happen”

“But?” Craig interjected, sounding more unimpressed than usual,

“We already know how nervous everyone is about it, the change is brief, barely any time at all…”

Stan awkwardly continued as he rubbed the back of his neck, neither fishy teen was sure the best way to answer.

“But…” Craig repeated, trying to make them get to point as Kenny sighed heavily under the weight of Craigs stare.

“Tell you what Craig, why don’t you dive in and see for yourself, don’t worry, Stan and I can help you to the surface again after if needed…”

“Is it really that hard to explain?”

The taller teen glared down, brow raised at the now more aquatic friendly blonde before turning to Tweek and noticing all eyes were now on him, while Kyle was standing there with a notebook and pen, scribbling away! When did he run off to fetch those?

“Ugh…fine, ste… or swim aside I suppose?”

“Be careful Craig!”

Tweek shouted nervously, as the ravenette walked over to the same spot Kenny and Stan started from before simply giving a thumbs up as he stared down the water before charging right towards it and diving in with a big splash, quickly followed by Stan and Kenny as they pushed themselves off the ledge and went back beneath the water’s surface, with Stan mouthing a quick be right back before disappearing.

Opening his eyes slowly, breath still held, Craig found his vision adjusting slowly to the darker environment beneath the surface; stunned at the visual that greeted him; it looked very similar to the surface, as if they took a park and submerged it under the lake but with slightly less green, more sand and less pristine waters as the dust and dirt from floor bed and lake side merged into the water. As once again he cursed these newly enhanced senses of his and his unwanted perfect view of everything under the water, he could hear the sound of fish travelling through the water upstream, he could even hear Tweak, Kyle and Butters discussing what was possibly going on down here.

“Boo! Miss us?”

Kenny spoke with a grin, as he grabbed Craigs left arm, taking a close inspection of the dark-haired teens neck,

“Relax dude, you can stop holding your breath now, looks like you’ll be fine!”

Stan calmly added as he grabbed the right arm and held the other teen upright, ducking under his arms to hold him in place as Craig looked at them both suspiciously.

“Dude, you can trust us you know…”

“Really, it’s fine, you’re “breathing requirements” are covered…”

Kenny sarcastically added, quotations and all or the best he could manage with webbed hands; some actions still felt weird even now.

“What the hell do you mean by…”

Craig started as he held his neck, confused, he was… ok? Somehow?

“What? How?”

Kenny simply grinned and pointed to his neck, and then Stan’s, where four deep cut lines could be seen, two on each side of the teen’s throats, one above the other, where the skin appeared detached and over lapping, no they weren’t just cuts…they were…

“Gills…!?”

Craig responded unamused as he brought both hands to his neck but struggled to feel the difference from his already familiar webbed hands, thus decided to carefully brush the tip of his fingers down his neck line and to this surprise, he could feel them, moving up and down along with his regular breathing lungs.

“Just breathe as normal and promise not to freak out at this next part…”

Stan awkwardly spoke as he pointed at the taller teen’s legs, as Craig quirked a brow at the pair before attempting to raise his legs up so that he could see from where he was being held, almost as if he was sitting down with his legs out; a stunt which was proving already to be quite tiring. However, that was barely scratching the surface as he looked on wide eyed as his skin started to turn a dark grey down the sides and whiter in the middle, with scales beginning to emerge in their place. If anything, Craig was finally starting to see why it was so difficult to explain, his feet had all but disappeared, replaced by an ever-extending tail fin that looked like it had grown out from his feet somehow, while his legs were sticking together, as if they were merging into one.

Both mesmerized and yet disturbed at the change happening before him, Craig failed to notice the other changes happening to his body as he was so transfixed on his legs and just as fast as the changes started, his legs felt like they were suddenly wrapped tightly in cling film, layer overlapping layer and in a blink of an eye it was over, his legs were gone and all that remained of the formerly tall teen was now a long dark grey and white, jagged tail fin. He literally just watched himself transform into a half man, half fish something combo… as he swung his former legs back and forth. Stan was annoyingly right, this was hard, the tail felt heavy and he couldn’t quite get this new limb of his to follow the instructions he thought his brain was sending to it, never mind the cramp in his stomach, using a tail took a lot of ab work, ab strength he currently didn’t have.

“Tucker… Craig Tucker… speak to us, you okay there?”

Kenny questioned as he poked the others guys cheek repeatedly, eyebrows actually furrowed in worry, before their new aquatic member remembered where he was, springing back to life as he swatted the hand away with a glare.

“This is rapidly becoming another I hate you guys’ kind of day…”

“There’s our grouch, well how do you feel? What can you see with those super senses of yours?”

Stan smirked, as the second dark haired teen just quirked a brow at him; referring back to his previous answer would have been too easy.

“I can see fine, Tweek and Butters are still looking over the edge, the three of them are talking among themselves, I can see the dusty floor… in fact, it doesn’t look that different from the campsite, just underwater, aside from the oddly placed bench…”

“Bench?”

The two spoke in unison looking at each other as they took another glance around and could see nothing of the sort, maybe he was having them on? Then again, this was the guy who could now read the school noticeboard from the other end of the school hallway, so who were they to judge?

“Now, are you two going to make yourself useful and explain how to use this…”

Craig finally spoke up, once more in his usual deadpan fashion but with a pinch of annoyance as he waved his legs… tail back and forth; he was still a difficult read but Stan and the others felt they had made progress in reading those little signs of emotion he showed since their merge of social circles at the start of High School.

“Easy!” Kenny started, earning a raised brow off the two dark haired teens causing him to sheepishly grin “… ok, maybe not easy, easy… switch that off….” The blonde started poking the top of Craig’s head, “it doesn’t feel natural so your brain is working against you here, you simply need to convince it to treat it like any other limb, like your arm… sorta but with more middle actions?”

“Kenny…dude, I don’t think your helping…” Stan started as he brought a hand to his chin and gave it some thought, “here let’s try this…”

Back on land, the trio were starting to get concerned all over again, they had been under there even longer than before, did something go wrong? What were they doing, half an hour of waiting was torture before but now it had easily been an hour and it was becoming difficult to stop Tweek from freaking out as Butter’s held the other blonde’s hand in reassurance while Tweek seemed to be wrestling with two sides of his self, the one that started listing off all the possible what if scenario’s and the one that berated him for freaking out too easily and losing control. As the pair quickly discovered that Craig’s mastery of keeping Tweek calm was a talent all in itself, even after all those years apart, no one calmed the jittery blonde quite like Craig did.

“Their back!”

Shouted Kyle as he casually glanced across the lake, as the other two stared at the three heads that popped out of the water individually, it was an odd sight to behold as they simply drifted over, all tail, no hands involved. Pushing himself onto the ledge, exhausted, Craig almost fell right back in as Tweek instantly broke free of Butters hold and ran over hugging him clumsily.

“Craig! You had me worried, I’m glad you’re ok!”

“They did say I would be but be careful yourself Tweek, water… remember…”

And with that Tweek jumped back, realizing his mistake as he looked at his now wet hands, it was taking less and less to trigger the changes it felt as Tweek watched his hands web themselves together and his nails lengthen and darken once more, before quickly hiding them behind his back.

“Aaahh… I got carried away… sorry Craig…”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about, now let’s see them”

Craig calmly replied, a soft tone in his voice as he held out his own clawed and webbed hand, trying his best to ignore the set of scales traveling down the upper surface of each of his lower arms which he had only just spotted through the corner of his eye as he kept his attention on Tweek. The blonde mumbled something under his breath before reluctantly placing his hand in Craig’s, the only real difference between them, being the size of Craig’s hand compared to his.

“See, nothing to hide here, we’re all the same in this regard… do you think you’re ready to dive in?”

“I dunno, I’m nervous… what if…”

“Ah, Tweek no, we spoke about this…” Craig instantly interrupted holding a finger over Tweeks lips

“Right…aahhh… ugh… live in the moment… I… I can do this…”

“I’ll go with you if you like! You can hold my hand if it helps any?”

Butters cheerfully interjected, with that same innocent smile; it was a mystery how he did it, even now? Tweek looked at Craig and then at Butters, finally smiling and nodding in Butter’s direction, without letting go of Craig’s hand.

“I…I think, I would like that… Thank you Butters… but I don’t want to dive in, could you lower me in?”

Tweak hesitantly spoke as he held his spare hand out for Butters to hold, the other blonde graciously taking it without as much as a second glance or thought against what looked like a weird mutation next to Butters still visibly normal human hand.

“Actually… I would like that to… umm, Kenny? Would you be able to help?”

Kenny stared at Butter’s, trying his best not grin at the offer and the image of carrying him bridal style. For a guy who had gain the reputation of not caring about the relationship and just the sex, damn did he know how Butter’s had such an effect on him? All he did know was that over the past couple of years, the smaller blonde kept stealing more and more of his attention away, how was he so cute without even trying? There was no denying it internally that he’d love to have something proper, even long term with the fashion focused blonde but was it his reputation or something on Butter’s side holding them back. Butter’s may be oblivious sometimes but even he wasn’t sure what else he could say or do to prove to the smaller blonde he was serious? All while he knelt there looking all cute and concerned at him with those big, dual-coloured light blue eyes of his…wait concern?

“Kenny? Hey Kenny? Are you ok?”

Butters asked again and Kenny would be happy just to have him keep calling his name. Slapping the side of his face with his hands, Kenny grinned back up Butter’s, dismissively waving his hand.

“I’m fine, what’s up Buttercup, did you need something?”

Kenny responded, quickly regaining his composure as he pushed himself on to the ledge, flipping off Stan, Kyle and Craig as he did so with their smug, know it all looks and grins.

“You were starting to worry me, I was wondering if you’d be able to lower me into the water, a pool and a lake are very differe… whoa…”

Butters started, his light blush of embarrassment from his confession of being nervous suddenly turned scarlet as Kenny grabbed his wrist and pulled the smaller blonde into his lap, tucking his arm under his legs.

“K….Kenny… what are you….”

“Arms round the neck Buttercup and hold on tight” Kenny grinned as the smaller blonde quietly nodded and did as he was told,

“I’m not sure about this Kenny…”

“It’s fine, the more you think about it, the more you’ll talk yourself out of it, so let’s just dive straight in before those thoughts have a chance to take control, now…. You two love birds ready over there?!”

Kenny smiled back reassuringly as he gently rubbed Butter’s back to calm him down.

“For the last time, we’re not a thing!” Craig and Tweek snapped back together before sighing, still being so in sync with each other hardly helped their case, as a dusting or red could been seen on the faces of both teens as they looked away from each other. They were convincing no one like this…

“Don’t believe I’m saying this but McCormick has a point… on this occasion, best to just hold your breath and dive right in…”

Tweek just stared at the taller male and nodded as he sat in the lap that was once legs; something he had done a thousand times before but sitting on a tail felt rough against his skin, if not a bit slippery from all the water. It was an experience if nothing else as Tweek placed his arm round the others neck.

“Forget circumstances, I still trust you Craig…”

“Alright then, you two ready?”

Kenny grinned as the two smaller blondes looked at each other, the pair finally nodding as they tightened their hold of one arm round the neck, while they held each other’s hand tightly with the second.

“Deep breath, we’ll dive in on three…One” Craig begun as Butter’s and Tweek stared at the water determined.

“Two!” Cut in Kenny as both blondes took a deep breath,

“Three” Craig finished but not before glaring at the loud blonde next to him.

And on that command, both Craig and Kenny used their spare arm to push themselves off the ledge and dropped into the water, securing their hold on their respective other as they sunk below the water’s surface.

Chapter Text

“And then there was one. You coming in Kyle?”

Stan calmly asked as he rested his head on his arms, the grassy verge tickling his bare skin as he looked up at his super best friend patiently.

“Their crazy! Your crazy, this whole situation is crazy!”

“And yet, your best friend of sixteen years is currently sitting here with a fish tail… what are you afrai…”

“I’m not afraid!”

Kyle snapped back as he watched the raven-haired teen push himself out the water, his muscles moving in definition causing the red head to blush instantly all while feeling guilty for eyeing up his topless friend like that but damn if puberty hadn’t worked out well for Stan, especially this past year; he really started to bloom or was it that he had only started to notice?

“Uhh… Kyle? What is it? You’re staring at me funny?”

The raven haired quirked a brow, now looking at him with worry as Kyle snapped back to his senses and tried his best to will his blush to go away but his pale skin was probably denying him that luxury as well.

“It’s n…nothing, really…”

“Kyle… No one else is here, you can tell me”

“Really, it’s nothing… I was…just thinking how that tail makes you look even taller somehow…”

Kyle stuttered a on the spot reply as he tried to think of some excuse, anything as to why he was staring that wasn’t the honest truth and as the words left his mouth, the red head could have kicked himself, that was dumb but Stan would be nice about it and likely still humour him anyway.

“You think? Cool, I have been through a bit of a growth spurt these past few weeks, I’ve joined Craig in that six-foot club!”

“Oh? And how tall are you now then bigshot?”

“Last time I checked…almost six foot one?”

“Wow, you really have shot ahead and to think I use to be slightly taller than you when we were kids but we’ve always roughly been the same height… until High School, it feels weird looking up at you sometimes…”

Kyle started as the two stared at each other awkwardly, Stan rubbing the back of neck as he sheepishly grinned at his super best friend.

“I would come over there and give you a pat on the back or hug or something…but you know…” Stan started waving his tail up and down “it’s a bit difficult to stand right now…”

The raven haired chuckled as Kyle just sympathetically smiled back, internally relieved that the conversation was successfully swerved after all.

“So…are you coming in then? Bet you could set a record this time with how long you could hold your breath under water.”

“Pretty sure, it would also be cheating… but you’re not wrong” Kyle smirked back

“Well?”

“It’s going to be a disaster; you know full well curly hair like mine and water don’t mix!”

“On the contrary…”

Stan started now looking quite smug and this time it was Kyle’s turn to be confused as he raised a brow at his friend,

“I figured with everything else going on, all the preparing that needed to be done and on top of all the complaining about camping, you likely would have over looked this item matter… check my bag, side pocket, that should help you!”

Stan smirked and Kyle could smack the back of that head again by sounding like he was at a student council meeting; the very thought made Kyle shudder, he tried it for a term, before quitting… never again. Regardless, he did as instructed and ran over to the tent Stan was sharing with Kenny, rummaging for Stan’s bag, cursing under his breath, those two wouldn’t know tidy if it slapped them in the face. All the while, he could only wonder what the others were currently doing now at the bottom of the lake; it had to be going well, none of them had resurfaced yet? Unzipping the pocket in question, Kyle pulled out a small paper bag with “For Kyle” written on. Knowing Stan, he probably wrote it on to remind him to pack it and likely left it sitting on his desk until needed, so Stan knew for sure he wouldn’t forget it. Unfolding the bag, Kyle pulled out what looked like a green bandana, until he got a proper look at it and realised it wasn’t a bandana at all, it was large, round, elasticated; Stan had picked up a head band for him to help keep his wild hair under control.

“That idiot…”

Kyle mumbled as he slid it over his head, smiling all the same as there was no one else to see him. With the headband around his neck, Kyle dashed back out towards Stan who was still patiently waiting for him on the ledge as he snuck up on the raven-haired teen, causing him to jump out of his skin as Kyle smacked him on the back, crouching down next to him, staring at the water.

“See you found it… took your time”

“Certain someone’s shouldn’t have left their tent in such a mess and perhaps I would have found your bag sooner…”

“Guilty… but in my defence, I had already said curiosity was getting the better of me…”

“True… I suppose I could let it slide on this occasion, you know, with everything that is going on.”

“Your generosity and kindness are overwhelming…” Stan teased as Kyle nudged his shoulder once more, “well, do you like it, think it will do the job?”

“Yes, thank you Stan… you know for thinking of me…” as the two stared at each other, quickly turning away until Kyle awkwardly coughed to get his attention again, “a bit of help setting it up…”

Stan stared at the red head, nervously chuckling as he fumbled with the tips of the band, pulling it over his friends’ eyes, making sure all his wild hair stayed beneath as he pulled it up to his forehead, tucking in the sides carefully; which with webbed hands was rather tricky. Making sure it was tucked behind his ears and everything was presentable, Stan gave a cheeky nod of approval.

“There we go, that should do it! You ready to come in now?”

Stan offered as he held out his hand, Kyle stared at it, considering the option of taking it but willed himself against the idea.

“I’ll be fine, I can dive in… see you under there I guess?”

Kyle nervously spoke, he was freaking out but so far everyone else had been fine and they were likely now all waiting on him at the bottom of the lake and he was the one who was going on about their limited time. Even Tweek and Butter’s had overcome their nerves and went in, he couldn’t be the one to let the side down. Stepping back a few paces, Kyle took a deep breath and ran off the edge with a jump, diving in with a big splash with Stan following shortly behind.

Slowly opening his eyes, Kyle took a while to adjust to his new surroundings, which currently seemed blurry and dark, gasping as he felt something grab him from behind; glancing to its cause, Kyle wanted to shout at Stan but the raven-haired teen clearly saw what was coming and put his finger over his mouth.

“Not yet… hang on just a moment more…”

Stan reassuringly smiled as he grabbed his wrist and swam further down into the lake with him in tow. The first thing he noticed was that his hands had already shifted but this time, the skin on his lower arm had started take a light grey, almost silver tinge to it that was becoming harder by the second and he could feel this same sensation developing near his shoulders. The further they went, the clearer the water became and somehow brighter or just easier to see through now that his eyes had adjusted more? All the while, Stan hadn’t removed his eyes off his neck once, like he was some kind of vampire now on top of everything else. Pausing, Stan gently travelled a finger along Kyle’s neckline, causing the red head to shiver slightly under his touch as Stan started smiling as he felt what he was looking for on both sides of the red heads neck.

“You can let go of that breath now dude, you should be fine!”

Kyle just stared at him disbelief, “should be” was not reassuring words. However, it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold his breath any longer and if Stan was speaking to him just fine under water then he should be fine to, right? And as if on cue, the super best friend could tell he was worried and grabbed onto his shoulders, massaging them gently to relieve some of the tension as he whispered in his ear.

“Everything will be alright, just try it, trust me… also, you now have a tail!”

“I what!?”

Kyle sputtered out in shock, before rapidly clamping his hand over his mouth again.

“See, told you, you’d be fine.”

Stan simply teased, while all Kyle could do was nod; he was ok, he just spoke underwater and was fine. Glancing down, he stared at where his legs were suppose to be, only to be greeted by a solid, light gray, almost silver looking in the right light tail, along with what looked and felt like a multi layered belt of scales across the top. Alarmed, Kyle waved what he thought was his legs up and down frantically, bumping into Stan in his outburst who securely held him into place.

“Kyle! Kyle! It’s ok, just breathe, everything is fine, I’m right here, this is normal!”

Stan hushed, tightening his hold on the red head as he rested his head on the smaller teens shoulder. Closing his eyes, Kyle took a deep breath in and out, focusing on Stan’s voice and not how close he was as he gradually regained his composure.

“Stan! Kyle! Is everything ok over here!?”

The two were startled apart at the sudden appearance of a third voice as Kenny swam over, sounding quite alarmed. The two stared at their friend, how much had he or they seen?

“I think so? Kyle just started freaking out for some reason?”

“I…I…” Kyle started, too embarrassed to finish his sentence.

“The tail caught you off guard? Funnily enough Butters and Tweek were the same… you missed Tweek’s episode, he wasn’t buying any of it but deadpan Craig worked his magic and managed to settle him back down.”

Kenny finished for him as Kyle simply nodded in awkward defeat.

“One-minute legs, the next minute their gone and I have this thing instead, all while conversing under water no differently than if I was on land… it’s… it’s a lot to take in. I thought I was more prepared for it than it seems I was…”

Kyle sighed as he shook the end of his tail.

“Still not surprised, think it’s still sinking in with Butter’s, he’s barely said a word and has just looked perplexed since. At least it was nothing major, damnit Kyle don’t scare us like that!”

Kenny scolded, flicking his friends fore-head, as Kyle could only awkwardly apologise as he winced from the blonde’s attack.

“Speaking of Butters and Tweek, where are they?” Stan interrupted as he looked around, curious what they looked like.

“Oh, there at the bottom of the lake bed, chilling on the bench.”

“There’s a bench down here? Why?” Kyle quizzed, sceptically looking at his blonde friend.

“Because Craig just had to prove a point…" as Stan just rolled his eyes at the remark, "come on let’s go…!”

Sighed the raven-haired teen as both Kenny and Stan grabbed an arm each and swam down to the floor bed, with Kyle in tow; the newly adjusted aquatic styled teen, struggling to keep up but thankfully it wasn’t too far to go and god damnit, there really was a bench down here, with Butters and Tweek casually sitting there as Craig, stood? floated? next to them, as the trio finally re-joined the group.

“You took your time…” Craig scowled,

“Relax, technical difficulties, we’re here now…”

Stan shrugged back in response as he watched Kyle join Butters and Tweek on the bench as the three of them checked out the changes on each other.

Butters, like Kenny was rather colourful, being a bold ocean blue, with a yellow stripe that separated the two halves, the second and central part being a frosted white, almost silver like. Tweek on the other hand, may have been the most unique looking of them all. Tweek was a khaki, military green with slightly paler matching fins that ran all down the side of his tail and formed at the tip extending the body of his tail even further. Tweek’s was the only one not to fin out at the bottom like the rest of them did; while his tail was speckled with dark golden yellow spots. Those same spots, looked like they freckled over the barista’s shoulders, spilling down on to the top of his upper arms. However, they all shared the same scales forming across their shoulders and lower arms in their respective tail matching colours.

With the group reassembled, the insanity of their situation had finally started to sink in as they sat and stood there in a tense and awkward silence.

Chapter Text

“So… is this… worse than…. everyone thought?”

Tweek hesitantly spoke up, breaking the long silence, refusing eye contact as he knew he’d feel pressured if he saw everyone was staring at him.

“This is way more surreal than I thought….” Kyle began as he brought his tail up to his chin, resting it on the spot he believed to be where his knees once were as he hugged his tail. “Heh… this is crazy, just look at this, just look at us…” he eventually continued, finally looking at the rest of the group.

“If this is a case of a clash of beliefs of logic and fantasy, I’d have to agree…”

Craig heavily sighed as he stared fiercely at his hands once more, opening and closing it, as if he was expecting some other surprise before finally choosing to sit down on the lake bed, facing opposite the trio on the bench as his tail curled round him slightly.

“I…I still can’t believe I have a tail; I mean it’s very pretty but I… I keep pinching myself, expecting to wake up but each time I’m still down here and it hurts so I can’t be dreaming right?”

“If you were dreaming Butters, then we all are and somewhere down the line everyone became top tier psychics with mind blowing… lucid dreaming… is it skills?”

“Ha, Kyle would buy into that even less, you know how he feels about those” Kenny laughed as two friends watched the red head grumble into his arms.

“Mutual dreaming…” Tweek spoke up once more as the trio opposite turned to look at him, “I read it in a book somewhere, mutual dreaming, it’s when multiple people have a shared or similar dream experience…”

“Yeah… pretty sure it’s safe to cross that one off…” Craig scoffed, even the notion pissed him off, it meant dealing with Marsh and McCormick even more than he already had to.

“Come on fellas! This is supposed to be serious, stop trying to score points against each other…”

“Butters is right…” Kyle spoke up once again, a bit more confident as he uncurled himself, “Let’s start from the top of what we do know.”

“It all started with that incident at the bridge that night, when you four fell into the river…” Butters jumped in, getting the ball rolling.

“And soaked Butters and I from the impact, only to pull us in when we tried to help you back out…”

“Karma McCormick, it’s what you get for laughing, you took that chance.”

“You’re not still sour that we gate crashed your date with Tweek? We didn’t know you were going to be there…”

“For the last time, it wasn’t a date! We were just catching up….” Craig groaned in frustration as he pinched the bridge of his nose, they had to be doing it on purpose now, they just had to; the other reason would just suggest their dumb but that was equally believable….

“And don’t forget the voices from above as well!” Tweek cut in before the two could continue further, settling to the familiar case of just flipping each other off.

“Oh yeah, some losers were fly tipping something off the bridge and we got caught in the cross hairs…” Stan finally spoke up as he chose to sit down against an uneven ledge, near the bench, thinking back. “But when we went back, there was absolutely no trace of it, no rubbish, nothing…”

“Unfortunately, we didn’t know of any side effects, if they were instantaneous maybe but these changes were going on for almost a fortnight beneath the surface before we even became aware of them. An itchy hand was hardly a cause of concern. If we had known we probably could have returned sooner and may have got a clue, as things are, we missed that window entirely…” Kyle sighed as he rested his chin in his hand.

“Cheer up Kyle, no point stressing over the could have’s, would have’s, should have’s or what if’s now. After all, just look where we are, what we’re now doing!?”

Kenny casually stated, finally choosing to sit down on the lake bed himself, leaning back against the ledge that Stan was now sitting on, and alright, fine, even he had to admit this felt rather bizarre but currently of the good variety compared to the usual and he had been through and seen some serious messed up shit.

“But the physical side-effects are getting worse.”

At that, everyone turned to look at Craig, that was a mighty nugget to be sitting on, why did he not say anything sooner?

“And you know that for a fact?” Kyle calmly queried but it was Tweek who responded

“I didn’t think anything of it at first, it’s South Park after all, all that snow keeps the area pretty damp. However…”

“Tweek? What is it? Did something happen?” Butters quietly questioned as he placed a hand on his knee? Tail? Now feeling quite worried for the other blonde as he fiddled with a pebble in this hand.

“Luckily, it was out back, so no one could see but I was washing the filters for machine and usually once I’m done and dried my hands, a couple of minutes later they revert back… but this time, they took nearly fifteen minutes to change back and it’s been that way for the past week…”

“Is that so? Anyone else had a similar experience?” Kyle questioned, trying to make as many mental notes as he could to write down once they got back to dry land.

“Actually, now that Tweek mentions it…” Kenny begun as he looked up at the water’s surface, “I had a similar incident the other day when making pancakes with Karen. In her excitement she knocked over the jug with the water in, I caught it but that didn’t stop it from spilling over… but this time the change was instant, not a gradual like usual…”

“Karen didn’t see it did she?”

Butters asked, once again concerned as Kenny simply shook his head; ever since they first spotted the changes, making sure no one else found out and to not to tell a soul outside the circle they had here was their first promise to each other, they even came up with a special handshake for it.

“I had your hoodie you made me on, so I just hid it a way in that front pocket until it returned to normal… “

“But it took longer to return back to normal than usual also?” Kyle questioned as Kenny simply nodded once more.

“At least fifteen minutes, maybe a bit more at a guess, by the time it was back to normal we had already started putting mix to pan.”

“That is a worrying trend…”

“You don’t actually think…. well, think that…” Stan started looking away as he tried to get the words out….

“That these changes have a risk of becoming permanent?”

“Yeah, what Craig said…” Stan started again as he bit his lower lip and looked to the side once more, “that… we’re actually on a timer here, with the risk of making the waters a full-time home isn’t out the question?”

“Gah! I don’t want to live in the sea… what if people start hunting us down like some kind of trophy prizes?”

“Tweek…”

“Or try and serve us as dinner, or stuff us in a museum or deep freeze us to preserve us for questionable science experiments like you see in the movies…”

“Tweek…!”

“This was a terrible idea… how do we know this isn’t making things worse!? It has to be, things are already getting worse!”

“TWEEK!”

Came a surprising loud, calm but stern voice from Craig as he got up and swam over to the blonde, who had stopped rambling but simply just stared at the ravenette with wide eyes, the shouting of his name, catching the boy off guard as he fiddled with his claws anxiously after the pebble, he was using shot off somewhere during his rant.

“Tweek, look at me…” Craig calmly spoke, placing a hand under the blonde’s chin, “I’m right here if you need to talk. Now listen to me, I’m not mad but you were losing control, just breathe in and out for me, focus on it, just like they taught you, collect your thoughts and try again…”

Eventually lifting his gaze once more, Tweek stared at Craig, guilt rising, why did he always do this, why did he always put Craig through this even now and why was he always so patient and willing to help him through his attacks? He knew his parents had spoken to Craig upon him returning to South Park but he shouldn’t be Craig’s responsibility, not like this... Placing his hands on his lap as he closed his eyes, counting slowly to ten as he breathed in and out, taking the time to get his thoughts into some type of chaotic order. While the rest sat in silence, unsure what to say or do on this matter aside from give Tweek his space as Butters and Kyle jumped off the bench and attempted to swim over towards Stan and Kenny, who more so ended up just grabbing their arms and pulling the duo over to them, as Craig worked his magic.

“Wow…Tweek gets rather feral when he gets on a roll…”

“STAN!” The group snapped back in a frustrated unison as Craig just gave him a death glare from Tweek’s side. “OW!”

“Don’t be an asshole Stan!” Kyle reprimanded as he smacked his best friend over the back of the head once more.

“Yeah, after all that’s Cartman’s job…” Kenny casually reminded as he leaned back onto his elbows, waiting for all of this to blow over.

“Speaking of that Fatass… he was acting rather odd the last few days?”

“Oh Jesus, you don’t think Eric is onto us, do you Kyle?”

“I’m not sure, this is Cartman we’re talking about. He has known us all since elementary, some of us earlier than that and our behaviour has been a bit off lately while we’ve been juggling and trying to balance all of this…”

“If anyone would notice it’d be him, even if he is a class of his own level narcissist.

Kenny scoffed back, Cartman had only gotten worse as he got older; despite everyone’s prayers that he’d somehow discover a moral and social conscience but nope, he was still the same self-centred, manipulative and hateful sociopath who had a knack of causing and manipulating any mob mentality he created.

“We’ll just have to keep an eye on him and be careful…” Sighed Stan as he brushed a hand through his raven hair. “So… nothing actually new there…”

“On top of everything else, we don’t need that Fatass breathing down our necks and creating more trouble for us… and that means you Butters!”

Craig said sternly, catching the blonde by surprise as he squeaked nervously to attention as he looked at Craig, who was now sitting in front of the bench with his arms resting on the seat itself, while Tweek leaned back along the bench staring at the water’s surface, no longer considering his line of thoughts at the time to hold any relevance and opted to the peaceful silence of just listening.

“Wha…What do you mean…m…me?”

“It means, if that Fatass wants answers, he’ll more than likely go to you to trick it out of you. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s used your innocent and trusting nature against you.”

“Hate to say it Butters but Craig is right, Cartman has quite a share of wins, when it comes to manipulating you, convincing you to agree to his viewpoint or just being the general victim of his schemes….”

Stan eventually added, now feeling like a jerk twice over, first with his inability to engage brain before speaking when commenting about Tweek and now Butters who looked completely betrayed and on the verge of crying. The fact that he didn’t quite know how to swim with a tail yet was probably the only thing keeping him there, otherwise Stan was certain he would have dashed off as soon as Craig spoke out against him.

Butters had curled up against himself, arms on tail-ed knees, hugging them against himself as the blonde’s body shuck from sobbing slightly, his breath catching every so often. The trio stared at each other unsure what to say or do that could help, all while Craig was staring over at them with an expression that clearly said “fix it” without uttering a word and taking zero responsibility for being part the reason the boy was crying in the first place… Crawling over, Kyle brought the sobbing boy to rest on his shoulder, running his fingers through his hair gently, hoping to get him to uncurl himself and talk to them again.

“Butters, were not denouncing you or anything, besides, most of those incidents happened back in elementary, you’ve gotten a lot better at dealing with that Fatass…”

“You’re just trying to be nice… you think I’m a liability that I’m going to betray you, don’t you!”

“Of course not Butters… were just… umm giving you a heads up, you know, a warning, like a neon sign that tells you to get the heck out of there if you see Cartman coming…” Stan tried to explain but felt he was only making things more awkward.

“My turn… watch and learn” Kenny smugly whispered as he swam past Stan, to sit in front of Butters, “hey Buttercup, don’t frown, the sunny look, looks much better on you!”

The blonde grinned but still nothing, it appeared this needed a different angle than the usual cheeky but cheesy approach.

“Leopold Stotch…”

And at that Butters head shot to attention as if on que, well trained from many years of dealing with his Dad but instead of his Dad, he was greeted by the soft purple eyes of Kenny who just looked at him like he was the most important thing in the world; a look that caught a breath in his throat as he waited for Kenny to continue,

“You believe me when I say that, no one here hates you, you’ve more than proven that to everyone here you are a good and loyal friend, we all consider you a close friend but everyone here does hate Cartman! Yes?”

Butters peeked a glance round at everyone, who all stared at him with an odd warm, apologetic and yet friendly look that he wasn’t use to before finally bringing his eyes back on Kenny, nodding slowly.

“So how about this, during our breaks over this weekend, between investigating whatever the fuck is happening to us, we’ll…” Kenny started, gesturing between Stan, Kyle and himself, as Butters leaned back into Kyle’s touch as he brushed his fingers through his hair to calm him down, “give you some pointers on how to deal with Cartman, we’ve had the misfortune of knowing him all our lives after all. The red flags to keep an eye out for to know when he’s definitely up to no good or is after something.”

“But I…” Butters started only to be cut off again

“We know, you’ve known Cartman since Pre-school to but you didn’t enter that inner circle of his till fifth grade almost…”

“It really makes that much of a difference?” Butters quietly asked as he glanced up at Kyle who sighed heavily.

“When it comes to Cartman, it makes a hell of a difference, keep your friends close and your enemies closer as the saying goes…”

“You know what!?” Stan cheered in with a cheeky grin and a loose snapping attempt of his fingers as he looked down at Butters, “We should come up with a code word!”

“A code word?” Butters quietly asked as he rubbed the corners of his eyes looking at the ravenette in confusion.

“Yeah, we’ll still teach you what tips and tricks we know but if all else fails, it’d be a secret phrase or word you could use in text or person whenever you feel pressured by or that Cartman is on your case and we’ll know when to step in!”

Stan smiled back as the blonde just blankly stared at him, eventually lifting his head off Kyle’s shoulder and smiling back, with a gentle nod.

“Umm… ok, let’s give it a try!”

Chapter Text

“And you wonder why he maybe on to us…” Craig rolled his eyes with this newest round of idiot confessions.

“Nothing against finding a satisfactory way to piss him off like Butters did a couple of weeks ago when that soda can exploded all over him in the cafeteria; that was gold but you’re the ones who said to keep it under wraps and make sure no one finds out…”

Craig initially smirked as he recalled the incident before going stern again and they said he was a reckless bad influencer, was everyone else in this town just blind to their kids flaws?

“It was accidental!” Butters shouted back instantly in defence, “I had a disastrous design and textiles lesson and just wanted to be left alone…”

“Relax Buttercup, not like any of us actually knew, these changes hardly came with a warning list or instruction manual to follow…” Kenny smirked at him, with a swift thumbs up.

“Oh yeah, that was pretty golden! What was it that he said…” Stan tried to think back as he chuckled at the response.

“Don’t hurt yourself Marsh, you’re working that brain over time this afternoon…”

“Ooohh…Always so personal…”

“He said it was hot… turns out our quiet fashionista can be quite the hot-headed buddy when he wants to be and just so happens that he can boil liquids now, with sheer will and power of thought” Kenny teased with a playful smirk.

“Probably still more exciting and useful than yours though” Stan chuckled, “South Park already gets its fair share of snow, so…” shrugging as the blonde’s smirk turned into a grin at the question.

“Aww, Stanny boy you’re thinking too much inside the box, the way I see it, free ice cubes and chilled drinks whenever and where ever I go! Warm can off the shelf, not a problem! Crushed ice drinks, anytime, anywhere, just bring the ingredients to get the party started!”

“Kenny has also used it to prank Eric to…” Butters interrupted before quickly slapping his hands over his mouth, remembering that, that was supposed to stay secret.

“Kenny!” Kyle snapped back instantly, staring down the blonde unimpressed.

“What can I say, it was such a cold morning… you never know when those artic blasts may sweep through.”

“Meaning?” Craig question with slight sigh, did any of them understood what low key meant?

“I may or may not have frozen him to a puddle?” came a casual laugh and shrug off the blonde in question.

“Ha,ha, nice…” Tweek spoke up with a small laugh of his own at the news.

“Cartman is a dick though, why couldn’t he have gone to a different school instead of Jimmy or Token? Or moved instead of Clyde?”

“Understatement of the century their…”

Craig groaned as the blonde stirred behind him, having rolled over on to his side to look at the others before rolling back so he was now looking up at the water’s surface once more which was so far above their heads, he couldn’t even begin to process it still but the way the light broke through and patterns it made were rather soothing.

“At least Kenny and Butters can do cool tricks with theirs… I can’t do anything; I know I could do more with it but no one’s allowed to know what I can do…”

“Oh yeah, how did you discover your inner Wonder Tweek? You never did say?” joked Kyle, now calmer and trying to keep the returning lighter tone going?

“Oh…! Craig got into a fight with one of the twelfth graders, busted his knuckles and bruised his hand quite bad; while I was cleaning him up, next thing we knew, the area I had just touch started to heal and within minutes Craig’s hand was as good as new, like nothing had happened.”

“Craig Tucker getting into a fight… news breaking” teased Kenny, as the boy in question just stared him down and flipped him off from where he sat.

“Ha, love you to Craig!”

“What about you Craig?” Stan interjected, being guilty of it himself, he knew exactly where this was going.

“What about me?”

“Well, what was it like when you discovered all your senses had been dialled to eleven? I bet you could hear a pin drop from all the way down here!”

Craig stared at Stan for a moment before simply shrugging as Tweek placed a hand of Craig’s shoulder as he sat up smiling at the ravenette, letting him know it was ok.

“Remember, be nice…aren’t you two on the school football team together? How do you manage?”

“Not out of choice, I wouldn’t be there at all if they weren’t being so persistent about getting my phys ed grade up… it’s sport, it’s hardly crucial to life outside of school…”

“Serves you right for skipping so many classes, besides dude, you were practically put straight on the team, so you have to have some skill…now stop dodging the question!”

“Eugh, fine Marsh, if it’s so crucial for your day to continue, the world in super hd and surround sound is an over-rated idea which should be simply left to the cinema experience only, it’s not actually all that when dealing with it twenty-four, seven… you lot have no idea how difficult it is to shut off and sleep at night because you can hear some cats fighting all the way by the effin mall! In fact….!”

“Geez, sorry dude, we had no idea…”

“In fact, what?” Tweek repeated, confused by the sudden pause as it was now Craig’s turn to be startled at the awkward confession on the tip of his tongue.

“Umm, Craig? You ok over there?”

Stan carefully questioned as the group all stared at the taller raven-haired boy, confused by his sudden out of character actions as the teen opposite finally looked back up at the group, looking slightly puzzled,

“In fact, this is the most tranquil it’s been in weeks…I can still hear, see, smell everything nearby but… down here… it doesn’t hurt, it feels normal…heh, I can’t believe I’ve already started to forget what that feels like…”

Craig nervously chuckled as he dragged his webbed hand over his face, falling silent. Noticing the sudden change and against better judgement Tweek got off the bench and simply hugged the taller teen as he sat on his lap, tucking his chin onto Craig’s shoulder.

“It’s ok Craig, everything will be fine, you said so yourself, we’ll get through this together!”

“Dude, seriously, I know we’ve had our differences but if you ever need to talk, we’re here you know…”

Glancing over at Stan, Craig briefed a smile before turning away again, as he hung on to Tweek. They all felt bad for the guy, if not slightly guilty for making light of it when it had clearly been taking a silent toll on him despite him constantly saying everything was fine but none of them could empathise with what he was really going through and to even try would be just condescending to Craig. Sensing the shift in tone once more, Kenny jumped off the floor and decided to keep the ball rolling this time.

“Hmm, let’s try a different topic, how about you two then?”

“What about us Kenny?”

Kyle asked as the taller blonde swam in between the two groups, pointing between Stan and Kyle as the two just stared at each other in confusion.

“Well, our bog-standard looking Stan here could probably bench press my sofa, while you Kyle, we haven’t received any updates from?”

“I can’t bench press a sofa! You’re exaggerating Ke…”

“Have you tried?” the blonde jumped in, quirking a brow, leaving the other momentarily silent as Kyle clenched his hands tightly.

“well… no… but”

“There’s no denying, that you’ve physically become stronger since the incident, even if it’s only just above average levels…heck Stan, you’ve ripped off your locker door twice!”

Stan just stared between his two friends, not sure if Kyle was berating him or being sarcastic, as he felt his face warm rapidly, blushing a deep red before quickly covering his face with hands, when they worded it like that, it did sound embarrassing.

“Eugh… I can’t help it, I’m so paranoid I’m going to end up breaking my truck door, I have zero control over it...” Stan mumbled, his blush refusing to fade.

“Well…” Kyle started, clapping his hands-on instinct, only to be reminded that he was in water and the action held nowhere near to same effect as he just glared at his hands in annoyance, as if they had betrayed him, “Well, it’s safe to establish all these secondary abilities have their pros and cons and we’ll just have to keep working on adjusting to the hands we’ve been dealt whether we like it or not…”

“But what about you Kyle? You haven’t said….” Tweek asked, tilting his head to try and get a better look at the red head.

“I…I….” the red head started with a heavy sigh, “Unfairly, I still haven’t discovered anything unusual in that sense…”

“But? What is it, Kyle?” Stan asked equally out of concern and curiosity as he placed a hand on his best friend’s shoulder.

“I don’t know how to explain it but it feels like there is something trying to bubble to the surface, I just hope none of this is tied to those insistent migraines I keep having as of late…”

“If we’ve all gained abilities, I’m sure you have to, perhaps it’s more physical like Stan’s and Craig’s and we just haven’t noticed yet?”

Tweek added, finally being released from Craig’s hold as he sat next to the tall teen, who looked like he was lost in his own little world but was still listening intently to what was being said, then again, it was rather hard not to anymore.

“No one knows how any of this works, perhaps you’re just a late bloomer, we’ll just take each day as it comes right!?”

Stan smirked as he patted his friend on the shoulder as Kyle just stared at him, sighing gently once more as he finally gave a silent nod.

“Yeah… maybe… no point stressing over it when there’s plenty of other plates spinning.”

“Speaking of, we’re no further forward at figuring out what happened to us that night. While Cartman may be a potential problem…” Added Kenny with a shrug.

“But we do know the “condition” is evolving…” contributed Butters,

“Actually…I was just thinking…”

“What is it, Stan?” Kyle asked as he observed the now perplexed features on his friend’s face.

“Could this be considered genetic engineering?”

“Oh no… No! No! Don’t even say it…”

Craig snapped back, springing back to life and joining back in the conversation. He knew full well where this was going even if a part of him hoped he was wrong but he knew full well he wasn’t.

“What!? What is it!? Someone continue explaining!?” Shouted Butters, now even more confused than before.

“Genetic engineering, the direct manipulation and, or modification of one’s genes, so instead of your light blue eyes, they’d be modified to green.” Kyle begun to explain, as he gave the notion some thought.

“Or potentially cross-breeding animals and humans, mutating them into something else entir…oh shit…” Kenny stumbled as the dots finally connected in his head.

“Oh cheese and crackers, you mean like those sixth graders from when we use to play superheroes?”

“Argh! You’re going to suggest to speak to that crazy old coot with lab on the hill aren’t you!”

Craig snapped back; life was unfair and he would have been so happy never seeing that excuse of a scientist ever again…

“Yeah…that guy…” the other ravenette awkwardly confirmed.

“Mephesto’s lab…! It just seemed like a too obvious place to start but even if he isn’t the reason, maybe we’d be able to get some answers out of him, maybe he’s heard something on the “mad-science” grape vine?”

Kyle cheered, his mood picking up several levels as they finally had a lead to work from, heck, they didn’t even all need to go, however much to his chagrin, if he booked another tour, Craig being the actual science nerd of the group would be the best choice to go; at least he’d have a better chance at understanding what was being said.

“No Broflovski, don’t give me that look, the answer is no! I refuse to go there a second time!”

“Aw c’mon on Craig, you know full well you’re the best teen for the job!” the red head snapped back as the rest of the group tried to piece together the half conversation the pair had just had between themselves.

“Screw you guys, you remember what happened last time don’t you…”

“I’ll go with you; you can’t deny that it isn’t a good spot to start looking for answers…”

“Hmm… ugh…argh… fine, alright, just book the damn tour again…”

“Book it for three, I’ll go with you!” Kenny jumped in, causing them both to look at him sceptically. “Not to go on the tour per se, you two can have that luxury, just so I can get inside! I wasn’t Mysterion for nothing, I know how to sneak around places undetected! If they’re hiding something, I’ll find it!”

“Uhh Fellas, as great as that is and all… does anyone have any idea how long we’ve been brainstorming down here?”

“Hmm? Doubtful…not like any of us could bring a watch down here, why is something up Butters?”

“It’s just that, well, it is looking rather dark up there!?”

The blonde motioned to the water surface, causing the whole group to look up; he was right. They may not have entered till mid-afternoon but surely, they hadn’t been down there that long? From here, it looked like the sun was long gone and they were greeted by the night sky; not that, that was any good form of measurement considering the time of year it was.

“Maybe? maybe it isn’t that bad? Like five or six?”

Tweek added in hopefully but in reality, like the rest even he wasn’t sure, they had been talking for a while now, who knows how long it had really been and yet, despite all this talking, they had barely covered anything.

“Let’s hope so… otherwise we’ve already lost so much time…”

“Cheer up Kyle!” Stan started, swinging his arm round his best friend, bringing in him in a gentle headlock, “this is camping, no parents, no rules, no curfew! Or in your case, no bed time!”

“Ha, ha very funny Stan!” the red head frowned as he pushed himself under and free of his friend’s headlock, “but fine, there is one more thing we should probably cover before we go back up…”

“Oh? And what has the brainiac thought of now?” Kenny teased as stood up and stretched; if he still had his legs, he knew they’d have world’s worst cramp in them by now.

“You three…” Kyle started, pointing individually at Stan, Kenny and Craig, “need to teach us three…” as he proceeded to point at himself, Butters and Tweek, “how to swim!”

Chapter Text

“You know how to swim Kyle, don’t be…Ow! Really…!?”

“Then don’t be stupid! You know exactly what I mean!” Kyle retorted and in one swift movement, the red head had pinched Stan’s upper arm; it was the only place he could really reach with his current limited mobility.

“Alright, alright… I’m sorry ok, no jokes…”

“Don’t look at me, I’m still getting the hang of it. Better get Marsh to teach you, McCormick’s methods make no sense.”

“Hey! You got there in the end, didn’t you?”

“With no help from you, you just made things more confusing.”

“Alright, alright, geez you two, how about we all take the class together?”

Tweek shouted over the pair, catching everyone by surprise as the blonde managed to drift himself slightly forward to join with the others over by Stan.

“Class? I thought we banned school as a topic for the weekend?”

“Not one of those classes Butters, you’re taking it too literal.” The red head chuckled as he held his hand out to help the other learner onto their feet? Fin?

“No, really, what do you mean by class? Why me?”

“Pay attention Marsh, you seem to be the most natural at this for some weird reason…”

“Huh!? It’s nothing really, I just remembered a technique from the swim club from when we were kids, it just seemed very similar to how the body moves with the tail… and, well, it worked…”

Stan felt himself awkwardly explain all while not shifting his glare off Craig, why did he have to be such a jerk? It wasn’t like he wasn’t known for having a strong sporting streak.

“Swim club?” Kenny started, giving it some thought, whispering a mantra of swim club as he tried to think back, vaguely remembering being part of it himself, “Oh! I think I know which one you mean…I see, so that’s where I was going wrong…”

The blonde grinned as the final pieces fell into place in his head as everyone else just stared at him still entirely lost.

“Well, what technique is it?”

“One ironically fitting for you Kyle, I believe it was called the Dolphin technique.”

“What do you mean ironically fitting?” Kyle snapped back at the blonde, who only grinned at him.

“I think he means your tail reminds him of a dolphin? Craig’s is mostly grey to but his makes me think more of a shark for some reason?”

Tweek voiced, finger to his chin as he gave it some more thought as Kyle looked down at his tail, they thought he looked like a dolphin? Yes, it was similar to Craigs but still distinctively different, especially with how jagged, Craigs fins were compared to his. Maybe Tweek was onto something?

“In that case, Stan’s tail reminds me of an Orca!” Kenny declared as Kyle chuckled behind his hand.

“Nah, I can see it, also ironically fitting…”

“You think?” Stan questioned as he sat back down and looked at his tail once more, “ha, you know, I think you may be right, that’s cool! Then what’s Kenny?”

“A Lionfish…a very oddly coloured one.”

Craig casually responded, as the others glanced over, all with the same, how did you figure that out expression causing the raven teen to sigh as he put his hands up defensively,

“I could be wrong but the markings, the extra fins, the general pattern in the colouring, the only difference is, he’s gold and orange, picture it as cream and red and it doesn’t look so far off”.

“You know what, I can sort of see it… but wait, aren’t Lionfish…”

“Poisonous?” Tweek cut in, leaving Stan to only stare at the smaller blonde in disbelief.

“Don’t give me that look, just because actual Lionfish are, doesn’t mean I am, it’s just a tail that’s similar…” Kenny cut in, not even convinced himself but if he had the opportunity, he would laugh at the irony that had just presented itself but for now, he’d have to keep it bottled up.

“Tell you what McCormick, I’ll eat my chullo if you don’t turn out to be poisonous, like Tweek is electrically charged…”

“Wait! I’m what!?” Explained Tweek as he looked at Craig, grabbing his shoulders, shaking them wildly as he ranted “when did you figure that out, why didn’t you say anything before!? I haven’t been hurting you, have I?”

“Oh! I get it, Tweek is an electric eel, right!?”

Butters smiled as Craig managed a nod as he proceeded to handle Tweek’s ramble at him, while trying to explain the matter in a way which wasn’t lecturing him.

“So… Stan is an orca, Kyle is a dolphin, Kenny is a lionfish, Tweek is an electric eel, while Craig is a shark? So, what am I?”

Butters asked as he counted everyone off on his fingers but all he got was silence as everyone looked at him puzzled, no one had any idea and yet no one wanted to be the one to say it.

“A big question mark it seems…” Butters sighed as the others could only sympathetically but awkwardly smile back.

“Don’t fret Butters, when were back on land, we’ll look it up, hell, I bet you’re actually some kind of exotic fish that’s only found in Hawaii!”

“I’ll help you look to, markings like yours can’t be on that many fish…”

Kyle, followed by Kenny tagged in response causing the blonde to brighten up instantly.

“But first, you need to be able to swim back up there! And considering Kenny mostly knows the ropes, he can help me.” Stan managed to smirk, even though he still felt rather awkward about it all, teaching was the last thing he was expecting himself to be doing today.

“Thanks fellas! Yay! I’m going to learn how swim like a mermai…wait no, like a merman!!?”

First off, Stan had everyone laying on the floor and as it was impossible for him to be everywhere at once, and more difficult feat with no actual feet to use; once again paired each off. With himself, Kenny and Craig holding their fins down in the place of their heels, while Tweek, Butters and Kyle attempted to arch their bodies off the ground while keeping their shoulder blades firmly on the ground as a way to get their bodies use to the position. Where they repeated this several times between many breaks as the three other teens tired from the excessive hip and stomach muscle work now needed to get any momentum and movement out of these aquatic forms.

After a while and much adjustment later, the four of them seemed to have got a rough hang of it and were ready for phase two. Which was really the same as phase one if Stan was being honest but mostly just facing the other way round… the more important way, after all, stomach down was likely the way they’d be swimming most of the time. The main difference being, he had them all hold on to the edge of some rocky steps, which had small archways that lead to nowhere on multiple levels that protruded out from the edge of the lake bed, they reminded the raven-haired teen of some fancy mansion styled balcony and the best part, they weren’t much further downstream from where they were; so, they were easy to travel to.

After many goes and once again corrections on form, body position and movements, the group had tried everything from practicing on their backs, sides and front, their confidence gradually building the more they practiced, it looked like they were really getting into it, even if this was a rush job.

“Who knew… being a fish would be… such a work out…” Kyle panted as he lied on his back, looking at the watery sky above, as tempting as bed was, they couldn’t go yet, they weren’t finished.

“When Stan first appeared earlier this afternoon, I never thought it’d be, so technical… I thought it would just be like regular swimming…” Tweek muttered as he rested on a nearby rock, equally as exhausted.

“And this is just the basics; we could easily add more levels of difficulty!”

“That’s not even remotely funny McCormick!”

“No need to be salty Craig, you already had a head start in all of this, you should have been finding it easier…” Kenny continued to tease as Craig just stared at him, annoyance on show.

“Everyone has done well, considering a dolphin kick is an advanced swimming move and no one here has probably done anything more than a front and back stroke” Stan spoke, still somehow full of energy but this time it was his attempt to be peacekeeper, “but I must admit, Butters, you’ve surprised me, you’ve really taken to this.”

“Huh!? You really think so!?” the blonde currently in blue perked up, sitting on his elbows as he looked at Stan, while looking equally as exhausted as the rest.

“Yeah, the full body roll motion isn’t natural…well usually but you seem to have the control and flexibility to do it with ease. At this rate, tomorrow you’ll be helping the others.”

Now fully sitting up and paying full attention, Butters was once more blushing, he wasn’t use to such praise but found himself thanking Stan and laughing nervously all the same.

“Nice work Buttercup, how does it feel to be top of the class?” Kenny joked as he swam over to his only colourful fishy companion.

“Exhausting…” Butters yawned as he leaned against the taller blonde’s shoulder, eyes closed, giving Kenny the perfect chance, to look at Butters features when he was truly relaxed.

“I somehow don’t think we’re going to the surface tonight…”

Stan whispered, swimming over to the rest of the group, the sound of gentle breathing and light snoring somehow still hearable through the sound of the water while Kenny simply glanced over the rest of the group, stifling another laugh.

“Coach pushed them too hard it seems...”

“They could have asked me to stop; we could have just picked it up tomorrow”

“I don’t know but perhaps they wanted a chance to experience it themselves, reckon you made them curious with that oblivious show you put on before by just casually swimming around.”

“I wasn’t…I didn’t…”

“Settle down Stan, you can’t help what you’re naturally good at, you wouldn’t be mad with Butters for being good at sewing or Kyle at Basketball you did nothing wrong, however….”

“However?” Stan repeated, confused if he was being excused or about to actually be told off.

“You may as well settle down for the night, like you said, we’re clearly not going anywhere… another weird experience for the bucket list.”

Kenny choked a laugh as he signalled to the rest, while trying not to disturb Butters who was now fast asleep against him, while Tweek had fallen asleep resting his head on Craigs lap, the taller teen, leaning back against the rocks as if it was a chair, head rolled to one side against his shoulder and as for Kyle, he was flat out on his back fast sleep on one of the many nearby ledges.

“Stomach says this isn’t wise but, I guess we’re out voted on this matter. Night Kenny.”

The raven-haired teen awkwardly chuckled as he took off to the ledge Kyle was on. Tucking in down the side, back facing the lake bed edge and using his arms as a pillow, Stan found himself staring at his super best friend with a soft smile, using his free hand to brush a curly strand behind Kyle’s ear, not that it stayed there, it soon wiggled free thanks to the water’s movement.

“You know Kyle, I’m glad I get to share this experience with you… night dude.”

Stan whispered as he adjusted himself, closing his eyes, falling asleep quickly, easily lulled to sleep by the sound of the nearby crashing waves.

Chapter Text

“Waaaahhhh!!! Oh god!”

“Jesus Christ, what is it!? What is it!?” came the cry from a startled Butters who shot awake, looking around.

“What the hell man? It’s way too early…” grumbled Stan as he simply rolled back over and tried to go back to sleep.

“Ugh… was that Tweek? Did I miss something?” spoke the groggy voice of Kyle as he sat up yawning.

“Tweek? Do you come with a snooze button?” Kenny piped in, stretching but still refusing to get up just yet.

“Oh god! I’m sorry, super sorry! I didn’t mean to… I just…”

Stammered Tweek, embarrassed, he didn’t mean to wake everyone up but when the sight that greeted him upon waking up didn’t add up to what his still half-asleep brain was expecting, he felt his anxiety sky rocket and with the slivers of light shining down on him, he instantly thought the worse and it was freaking him out.

“Tweek? What is it?” yawned Craig as he shuffled beneath the blonde.

“I’m sorry Craig... it’s just, the light and I thought… that maybe”

“What? What were you thinking had happened?”

The taller teen tried to encourage as he opened one eye to try and get an idea what Tweek was trying to explain despite his body telling him to lay back down and catch up on sleep. It was so oddly peaceful here; he couldn’t even remember the last time he slept with so few problems since this madness began?

“It was just the way the light was shining through… I just… argh... I just, I thought I had died…you know, how they always speak about crossing into the light and… OW! What was that for!?”

“Proof that your still alive and you’re not dreaming, if either of those were the case, you wouldn’t have felt that pinch just now…”

“I suppose…”

“Everything is ok Tweek, just come and lie back down for a while…”

“But Craig, what about the campsite?” Tweek wearily questioned, barely dodging out the way as Craig shot upright, sitting there, with his hand offering support.

“God damnit, the campsite! Don’t tell me… have we been down here all night?”

The dark-haired teen spoke, more to himself than anything as he started coming back to his senses; scanning the area now that he was several times more awake than he was a moment ago.

“No way…ugh, damnit!”

“Craig what is it? What’s wrong? Did I say or do something wrong just now?”

“No Tweek you’re fine. What isn’t fine is what we’ve all just done.” Craig started as he staggered up to his technical feet, successfully managing to keep himself a float, an act in itself which felt rather weird. “Hey! You lazy assholes, we have situation, wake up!”

“Uh…First Tweek… now Craig, those two are never allowed to sleep over again…”

“As if I would if given the choice… now get up McCormick!”

Craig snapped back as he managed successfully swim over to the half-awake, half asleep blonde, yanking on his ear; he didn’t have time for this, they didn’t have time for this.

“Ow! Alright, alright, I’m up, what the hell Craig!?”

Kenny snapped back unamused as he rubbed the side of his ear, glaring at the taller teen, after all, he found himself oddly comfortable, almost one of his best sleeps in months. Meanwhile, Butters was groaning by his lap, the smaller blonde fell back to sleep quite easily after Tweek’s initial outburst but was now groggily grumbling as he stirred facing the floor, having just slid right off Kenny’s shoulder due to the Craig’s interference.

“Ha-ha, that’s pretty it’s like watching a blurry tv screen… the light is pretty to…”

Yawned Butters as he looked up at the surface of the lake, while the break of day didn’t quite reach as far down as where they were, Butter’s couldn’t help but smile at the patterns formed by the breaks of light through the surface of the water.

Just further down, Kyle was rubbing the top of his head, the commotion had simply woken him up again, not that he was in much of a sleep the second time anyway. Yawning, with a long stretch, arms above his head feeling his body loosen itself back up for the day ahead.

“Seriously, what is all the commotion about? Where’s the fire?”

The red head commented, his tone showing signs of frustration, he was never keen on being woken up early if he had a choice. Trying to stand, only to fall right back down again, barely missing Stan and being greeted by the sight of a tail, a tail attached to him, Kyle paled slightly as he remembered the situation they were in, yesterday night flooding back to him.

“Oh god damnit…” Kyle groaned as he glanced over at Stan, how was he still asleep? And yet that sleeping face looked so serene.

“Marsh, don’t you feign sleep on me, I know you’re awake!”

Craig snapped, having swam over to the last duo, with the others in tow, before concluding to just screw it and pulled on the other raven-teens ear as well.

“Gah! Damnit Craig… fine, geez, couldn’t let me have that…ugh, what is so urgent?”

Stan sighed as he rubbed the side of his face, that was uncalled for, there were other methods he could have tried first as Stan sat up, glaring at his attacker.

“Wait? How did you know he was only pretending?” Butters questioned, just about keeping his balance as he floated in position.

“Heh, easy, morning drills, his internal alarm clock wouldn’t let him sleep in late…” Scoffed Craig, while Stan could only unwillingly nod in confirmation.

“This better be good Craig…” Kenny started only to be cut off as the dark-haired teen raised his hand in front of him.

“Now that your more awake. How about you, tell me, where we are and the problem with this picture.”

And the blonde went from annoyance to confusion, what was Craig trying to get at? They were all exactly where they were when they crashed for the night?

“He means were still in the water, despite coming to the conclusion yesterday that the condition was worsening…” Kyle started, looking at his tail and then at the surface and then his tail again, “despite that, we must have been under here an easy twelve hours plus… dudes, we just camped out down here.”

“Ha, we should have set up the tents down her… oh god…” Stan started before his brain finally caught up with him for the morning as he fell awkwardly silent.

“THE CAMPSITE…!”

The remaining four of the group spoke in unison as they all looked up, God only knows what people would have been thinking to find a site set up and nobody around or even worse if they looped back and saw it dead twice. Then again, this was off the main track, maybe they had been lucky and no one had been through the area? The Park itself was pretty large after all. But what if they had, what of their stuff? Would they find the tents ransacked, broken into why they had been trying to connect the pieces of their messed-up situation at the bottom of the lake?

“We’ve been idiots, we’ve got to get back!” Kyle had practically ordered

“Maaaaaayyyy be a problem with that….”

Kenny countered as he swam around above them, looking a lot more casual at it than yesterday, now that he knew what he was doing wrong and the technique returned to him as he moved aside and pointed to the surface.

“Oh fu…! You’ve got to be kidding me…”

Cursed the dark-haired teen as he swam above the rocky ledge he was using last night to get a view with far fewer blockades.

“Craig, what is it?” Tweek called as he caught Craig cursing under his breath once more.

“McCormick, get back down here before you’re seen! You’re hardly blending in!”

“Again Craig, what’s up there?” Tweek asked once more but this time more firmly.

“Some idiots have decided to use this area as a fishing spot”

“Aw crumbs… luck really doesn’t seem to be on our side does it” Butters sighed, holding a nearby rock as support.

“A fishing boat! You serious… damnit Kenny, get back down here!”

Kyle shouted this time, with his recognisable, I will kick your ass if you don’t do as I say tone which was usually saved for beating up Cartman but Kenny couldn’t say he was too fussed, after all, he could more than likely take Kyle in a fight as he continued to poke at the fish hook just above his head with a smirk.

“Dude, I’ll be f… whoa!”

The golden scaled teen couldn’t finish his sentence as he felt a hand cover his mouth and drag him back down to the lake bed at a rather impressive speed; which meant it could only be one person. Tilting his head to get a look behind him, Kenny just stared down Stan, completely unimpressed, eventually breaking himself free of the other teens hold.

“Stan! What the hell was that for!?”

“For being a selfish dick! You may enjoy tempting fate Kenny but you’re not the only one it’ll effect this time! The whole group would be at risk!” Stan snapped back

“ENOUGH!!! STOP IT!!!”

Tweek shouted above everyone as the group dived to the side as the tiny blonde, showed off Craig’s theory from before with a fierce electric show of sparks as they bounced off his skin, scales and fins alike.

“If it isn’t one of you two and Craig, it’s apparently with each other, we’re supposed to be on the same side here, so get on the same page and stop fighting with each other! We have bigger problems to deal with than your egos!”

Even Butters and Kyle couldn’t help but stare in awe, if he could focus that charge of his, Tweek could easily become one of the most dangerous people they knew. The three guilty members in question though, just watched as the small blonde eel lit up like a Christmas tree or perhaps more like a small storm cloud, even his fins started to look like they had a slight glow to them.

“Well?”

“Well what Tweek?” Craig casually responded back; it had been some time since he last saw Tweek properly snap.

“Apologise to each other and make a pact to get along! Now! I can’t take all the added stress you three are bringing to this mess!”

“What? Really, there’s no ne…” Stan started, completely caught off guard by the behaviour.

“NOW!” Tweek snapped back, causing the three to flinch, the short blonde meant business.

“And you accuse me of catching unwanted attention…” Kenny scoffed as he pointed at the electrified teen nearby, “he’s the one glowing like some underwater storm cloud!”

“Tweek you’re lit up like a Christmas tree, turn it off?” Butters called out as he took cover behind a nearby rock formation.

“I don’t know how!” Tweek shouted back, trying his best to stay straight as it hurt slightly less than when he crouched into himself.

“Better figure out how before you draw too much unwanted attention!” Butters called back, he wanted to be reassuring but this surprising new development had caught them all off guard and put them all on edge.

“Why are his sparks purple anyway?”

“Not now Stan!” The red head snapped back, “don’t you have any hints or ideas?”

“I volunteer at an animal shelter, not an aquarium, I don’t know the first thing about fish…or eels…”

“Tweek! Settle down! This is probably linked to you over reacting somehow?” Craig finally called out as he swam a bit closer as the blonde in question just glared back.

“What do you mean over reaction!?”

“No…that’s not what I mean, Tweek, perhaps it’s linked to your stress levels or nerves? You need to calm down, just like they taught you…”

Craig managed to calmly speak out, regardless of the glare still being sent his way. The charge off Tweek not really bothering him as much as he expected to? Letting go of his arms, Tweek simply nodded as he placed his hands on his chest and counted his breaths, trying to will the glow to disappear internally in his head.

“I’m sorry everyone…Kenny’s right to be mad, I could have put you all at risk with that outburst…”

“But no harm was actually done, were all ok” Kenny spoke up, hoping to reassure him despite what he had said, he wasn’t actually mad at the guy in anyway.

“Yeah, don’t sweat it, it’s not like you knew that was going to happen or how to control it or how you even triggered it in the first place?” Stan tried to reassure with an awkward but light smile.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that…” Craig interrupted as he looked up at the surface, gaze focused on the fishing boat.

“They saw didn’t they!?” Tweek apprehensively questioned but Craig’s more than serious expression told him all he needed to know, “I’m so sorry…I didn’t…”

“Forget about it Tweek, all they saw was a mysterious glow, they have no idea on the source, those lazy bums are up there speculating what it could have been right now…” the dark-haired teen calmly responded before turning to look at the others, “still… It’s not safe here, we better move!”

The rest looked at Craig and then at each other in apprehension, silently nodding to each other as they looked up at the surface of the lake; it was difficult to make out but they could definitely make out, what looked like heads poking over the edge of the boat. If it wasn’t one thing, it was something else, why could nothing ever go smoothly for them?

“But what about getting out? We can’t stay down here…” Butters quipped, emerging from his hiding spot.

“We’ll have to take our chances and try and find a quiet spot further down…” Kyle answered without shifting his gaze as he tried to familiarize himself with the swimming motion, he was taught last night again.

“Don’t worry Tweek, we’ll add this to the list for later, we’ll help you figure it out” Butters spoke up, pushing himself up above the rocks and into the open water, patting the other blonde reassuringly on the shoulder as he slowly swam up to the group.

“I’ll even put it high up on the list of things to work at, that way you won’t have to be stressing yourself out from worry. If you have a degree of control over it, ideally, we can prevent things like this happening again and you’ll see yourself as less of a risk.”

Kyle calmly explained, although calm was quite the opposite of how he was feeling right now as he swam on the inside of the group with Butters and Tweek beside him, while Kenny and Craig were on the outside and Stan was at the front, scoping out the area ahead as he was still, currently the fastest and most effective swimmer out of the six of them.

Nor was Kyle sure himself if he was approaching this right. He had heard from Craig that when Tweek’s emotions ran wild, logic was the worst thing to turn to as his perception is slightly skewed to it but this time, it may have just been the right amount before crossing the line Tweek had set upon himself.

“Thank you, Craig…” Tweek finally spoke up again after averting his gaze and falling silent as he looked up at the taller teen once more as he swam alongside him, with Craig sometimes helping to pull him along if he started to fall behind “but don’t think this changes anything! You three still need to apologise to each other!”

“And at least say one nice thing about each other!” Butters shouted in through panted breaths, swimming like this was really hard work.

“What!? Still! Why? Stan and I have been friends since pre-school… one disagreement doesn’t mean a thing; we fight and disagree all the time?”

“No! Go round, one nice trait or quality for each, that way we know you fellas are being serious!” Butters repeated even more determined, quickly giving Tweek a quick grin of a smile in support.

“Now Stotch is getting in on it….” Craig groaned looking between Stan and Kenny with awkward unease. “Alright, fine…as soon as we find a safe spot, McCormick, go and update Marsh... we’re being held to ransom by the dolphin, the eel and the blue one…”

Chapter Text

Ever since Tweek’s outburst, it had been nothing but a standstill. The three of them had got together and were not budging and neither would they if the taller trio of the group did not somehow rapidly put their differences aside. The group had been successfully swimming for a while, mostly due to curiosity causing them to wander off course and further still as they discovered an underwater crevice, which was just about wide enough for them to go in and explore. The narrow passageway eventually opened up to a dead-end underwater cavern, with a ceiling so low, they could almost jump out and touch it as all six popped their heads out the water as they looked around at the dark and empty room.

This was a safe enough spot for sure, the only way in was the way they entered and very few would be able to make that gap or swim without assistance and if they had assistance, Craig would hear them easily back at the entrance and alert them. However, despite the distraction, the reason for this particular time out was still hanging over them as Stan just winced at the notion, he knew full well how stubborn Kyle could be and he had apparently easily inspired that into Tweek and Butters as they were all, already in agreement.

Which meant, he may as well try getting this thing started.

Sighing Stan held has hand out, looking up at the other two; struggling to keep eye contact, damn this was full on awkwardness but to his relief, Kenny had got the message regardless and grabbed onto Stan’s wrist, the pressure now on the taller of the dark-haired boys.

“Ugh…this is dumb but if it will get everyone to back off…”

Craig muttered as he grabbed onto Kenny’s wrist and Stan grabbed onto his, so that the three of them had a tight triangle hold handshake, with the secondary trio on the outside making sure the hands stayed put until they completed the second half of the deal.

“You first Stan, say something nice about Craig and Kenny and then we’ll go round the triangle.” Kyle calmly interjected, he did always like a degree orderliness in what he did.

“Well Kenny is easy, if anything I wouldn’t know where to start, he may be a perv, but he has loads of good qualities! Kenny has always been a selfless, loyal and good friend to me, sometimes better than I deserve but I am grateful for him being there, even if it doesn’t always seem like it!”

“Ooh, Stan are you blushing for me…”

Kenny teased as he looked at his long-time friend with a warm smile; they were always so rough around the edges with their emotions to each other, that the dark blonde couldn’t help but feel amazingly lucky to have wound up with such good lifelong friends, friends that saw him for who he was and didn’t judge him by where he was from, most of the time.

“Don’t forget Craig!” Butters smiled, so far this was working out better than he first thought, oblivious to the awkward embarrassment from the three teens in the middle.

“About Craig! Well…umm…” the Stan mumbled, taking a moment to think, squirming under the gaze of the others, this was embarrassing,

“Fine… I’m actually glad Craig was forced to join the school football team!”

“Wait! What!? You are?”

“Well, yeah…. with you there it actually gives me some one genuine to talk to.”

“I see, you’ve chalked on to the others sucking up to you because you’re the likely shoe in to replace the team’s Captain next year.” Craig raised a brow.

“Not that anyone has asked me, I don’t want to be Captain, this was just something to pass time with, I’ve never had any interest to take it seriously or like some sort of career choice like some of the others on the team…”

“Then why not quit?”

“Because it’s not that simple…”

“Yeah, it is, just say you’re done and leave, pursue whatever other interest has now taken your fancy…”

“But my dad would…”

“Screw your dad Marsh, it’s your life not his, if you don’t care for football and want to do music or something, then do music or whatever…”

“Craig…”

Stan just stared at the other dark-haired teen speechless, that may just be the nicest thing he’d ever said to him and darn it, he wasn’t exactly wrong but going against the grain was not his usual order, unlike Craig who never seemed to have trouble telling people to fuck off if he ever went against the status quo of what was expected of him.

“Now Craig, something you actually like about Stan and Kenny! There must be something that you don’t mind at least” Kyle interrupted, if the ball stopped rolling now, they’d never get it going again.

“Hmm… McCormick, is a good fighter, both to watch beat up others and spar with, heck, most already consider me too violent or run from the height advantage, McCormick is the only one who doesn’t give a damn and is willing to go all out as for Marsh… I suppose, I wouldn’t be against assisting with more animal related fundraisers… after all, he did help get me in to the animal shelter as a volunteer…”

“The awkward part is, he’s being quite serious…” Tweek sighed, having calmed down a little but couldn’t help feeling embarrassed by the answer, so there were parts of Craig that really hadn’t changed since elementary after all, some habits really did die hard.

“Ha-ha, I will kick your ass any day Craig, you just have to ask” Kenny continued to laugh at the answer, “But can you blame people, you just shot up like a weed in seventh grade and have towered over everyone since, you don’t find many thirteen-year old’s pushing five foot eight.”

“Wait!? Craig was already five foot eight in seventh grade!” exclaimed Tweek from side lines, disrupting the moment entirely.

“What you weren’t aware?” Asked Kyle confused, was Tweek not in middle school with them?

“Tweek didn’t attend the middle school in South Park, he returned the summer before High school.”

“He did? Where did he go? Why?” Butters queried as he went from Craig to Tweek. Thinking back, he didn’t actually recall seeing Tweek with Craig’s gang but as they never crossed paths much during middle school, it was never a topic that came up.

“Reasons… and please let’s just leave it at that for now… still, five foot eight at thirteen, that’s impressive!”

“Oh yeah, that was a thing, Craig was banned from playing basketball with the rest of the class because he was too tall and he still shows no signs of stopping” Stan chuckled as he thought back, the trio’s arms still locked together.

“Says the guy who is slowly catching me up and has shot up since Christmas?”

“Even if I did, you’d probably jump to something crazy like six foot nine, there’s more than likely another growth spurt left in you, you have till your twenty-one after all, right…” Stan shrugged but it was still light hearted.

“Maybe… I’m just over six foot six already.” Came the less than enthusiastic and awkward response off the ravenette, the subtle and easy to miss change causing Tweek to raise a brow in curiosity but he’d have to save it for later.

“So, shall we wager on how close to the seven-foot mark Craig will get?”

“Ha, hilarious McCormick, just answer the bloody question so we can move on from here already! We’re supposed to be getting back to the campsite.” Craig sarcastically but unenthusiastically replied as he just stared at the blonde in question who had a finger to his chin.

“Well… knowing Stan since pre-school, this feels weird but…I guess the best thing about Stan would be that despite his flaws, he’s pretty grounded, which probably contributes to him being one of the most likable and respectable people, at school at least. He’s always had that leader potential to him that he’s never fully utilised; he just seems to be able to win people to his side, regardless of former differences.”

Kenny begun as he glanced over at Craig, the taller dark-haired teen knowing exactly what he was getting at but held his tongue.

“While, I reckon I like Craig for similar reasons, there is no one more rational on this planet, never mind this town and the guy has no issue calling out people for their lack of it; there is no line but in the good way... as opposed to, you know, the Eric Cartman way…”

“I think the three of them are just greedy with the whole height thing.”

Tweek grumbled to the outer trio, the whole conversation reminding him that Craig was almost a foot taller than he was, the ravenette was a literal bean pole. Yet, it was strange how it never occurred to him while they were actually at school, but they were right, now that he thought about it, Craig really did tower over teachers and students alike, at least that made him near impossible to lose in a crowd…

“I hear you Tweek” came the whispered sigh off Kyle.

“Your time will come, after all, you two are the youngest, aren’t you?”

Butters asked curiously as the two nodded, with Kyle’s birthday round corner after spring break and Tweek all the way in the summer. The jittery blonde snapping back to the present with a nervous laugh and nod of agreement now that he was pulled out of his thoughts.

“We can’t all be designed like Craig…” Kenny teased “besides what does it matter right now, he’s half…. fish? Half shark…? anyway?”

“Or built like Stan!” Butters innocently added, causing Kyle to choke on the breath he was taking as he looked over his super best friend.

“Stop it… You’ll make me self-conscious…” Stan blushed, rubbing the back of his neck with his spare hand.

“Why? You’ve worked hard to obtain that physique; you may as well show it off…besides I… uhm, we should be the last one’s you should feel awkward showing it off to…I mean, well you've known us all long enough...”

Kyle started with what he thought was a straight face but he just couldn’t make eye contact with his best friend. If this situation had any silver lining, it was that he got to see Stan’s wonderful physique in action without the threat of being seen as some weirdo or one the cheerleaders swooping out of nowhere to take Stan away with some pseudo see through excuse.

“Yeah, their clueless idiots…”

Kenny whispered to Craig, the guy’s super hearing meant he could still hear Kenny at a volume the others wouldn’t register as he watched the two with such a familiarity of awkwardness, that it almost felt nostalgic, almost as if he was one who wanted to give Stan twenty dollars when they got back to camp and just welcome him to the club...

“You may as well show case it off Stan, we don’t all have the ability for such a broad build, spring bean and I will just have to deal with our lanky athletic build… so you may as well let us admire yours instead!”

Kenny dramatically spoke, leaning in, resting his head on the dark-haired teens shoulder, whispering the last bit in his ear with a laugh.

“Very funny Kenny… but we both know your type preference lays elsewhere…” Stan smirked in return.

“You may be right, but I don’t know how to get that little bunny’s attention and have it take me seriously…”

“Just give him time, don’t forget his parents once sent him to a school to pretty much scare the gay out of him and make him believe it was a bad thing…”

“That was no thanks to Cartman’s interference again wasn’t it…” Kenny sighed, gently headbutting Stan’s shoulder out of annoyance.

“McCormick, that “bunny’s” attention isn’t your problem." Craig started, using his free hand for emphasising air quotes, "you practically already have all of it. Instead, what he needs, if you are really that serious, is an understanding that the world won’t end just because his dad said so if he dated a guy. Face it, the problem isn’t you, it’s that his parents have messed with his head on a major league level if all the rumours are to be believed…”

Craig cut in, unable to stand the whining on top of the obliviousness of the other two, had South Park just turned completely gay since the new year or was this always the case with these four and no one never really noticed?

“Rumours?” Kenny questioned, lifting his head, this time staring at Craig with a raised brow.

“That his parents actually betted against him turning out gay and that his mum tried to drown him back in elementary in fear he may turn out gay because the dad was bi-curious or something absurd like that…”

“Oh, I had heard that first one to, that second one is rather messed up, no wonder he’d be so reluctant to take that step.”

“Is that so…”

Kenny spoke sternly, his tone for the first time laced with an icy edge at this new information. It didn’t matter that his list already had a dozen things on to do or that their current situation made things messy, he swore internally, he was going to make this right and find a way to sweep that bunny off his feet and to make all that self-doubt disappear!

“Hey fellas! You three can let go of each other you know!”

Butters obliviously waved over at them as he slowly swam over with his usual cheerful smile, as Kyle and Tweek slowly followed behind. When did they wander off and leave the centre trio to their own thing, had they sneaked off, just to force them to keep being civil to each other longer? Damn them!

“Only If you three promise to get along!” the red head shouted over causing them to sigh again, these three were a dangerous force to be reckoned with when working together. Something they all needed to make a mental note of.

“Fine… we all promise to try to get along, with minimal fighting!” they said in unison, raising their triangle shake and dropping it three time to resemble a more traditional handshake before letting go and creating a bit of distance.

“Satisfied?” Kyle loudly asked as he smirked at Tweek.

“Quite, now let’s see how long it lasts…” the blonde chuckled in response or maybe it was the first step towards a change to this entire group’s dynamics?

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe how far down we are from the campsite…” sighed the ravenette “It is going to take forever to walk back again…”

“Are you complaining already Craig? I think we established on the way here, hiking wasn’t your thing.”

“Zip it Marsh….”

"Not to mention how cold it's going to be, we were hardly dressed to be hiking about around here..." muttered Tweek under his breath as he grabbed onto the verge.

“What I can’t believe is how there are so many people out here fishing today, is there some kind of event on?” Kenny queried. “Heh… you’d think we would have checked up on that before coming.”

The blonde laughed as Kyle groaned in annoyance, without directly saying it, he knew full well Kenny was making a jibe at him, after all, he was the one who chose this weekend after spending a couple of evenings going over everyone’s schedules to see when they were all free.

“Argh…I’m not surprised no one is here, the water is rather choppy…” Butters winced as he felt the rapids crash into him, struggling to keep his balance.

“Easy there, Buttercup, I’ve got you!” Kenny grinned as he grabbed the smaller blonde’s arm and pulled him towards land, while helping to give him a boost over the edge.

“Thanks Kenny, this is a lot harder than it looks.”

“Wave machines at the pool have nothing on this…”

“Stan, just get out the water, we’re still too inexperienced to be dealing with rapids, regardless how weak or strong they are…”

Kyle sighed as he sat up on his elbows, staring down his friend, even if he was the best swimmer out the six of them, he shouldn’t be letting it go to his head, it was still a potential hazard to them, after all they barely knew their limits and white waters were said to be dangerous above and under the surface.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming…”

“Tell you what I do miss though… knees and feet, a tail is really uncooperative…”

Craig interrupted as he attempted to push himself up onto the verge, but it was proving a lot more difficult to do with nothing to securely bounce off the floor with to give him the boost, he needed to tip himself over the side. It was moments like this where skiving physical ed class did not seem so smart.

“It’s cool Craig, I’ve got you!”

Stan teased as he grabbed him from behind and helped lift him over the edge as the taller ravenette grumbled under his breath as he collapsed onto the grass, only to have the ineptness of the moment rubbed in his face as Stan managed to push himself up in one swift move, casually sitting on the edge as he pulled his tail out to curve round him.

“And here I thought the coach had given you some upper body exercises to work on?”

“Mmpph…Shut it Marsh…”

Stan chuckled at the feeble groan as he looked at everyone else resting, sprawled out across the grass as they caught their breath, some of them barely being able to sit up, they really were a weird sight to behold.

“I ache all over…” Tweek mumbled, between the groans of trying to sit up with a nearby tree trunk acting as support. “Let’s not do this again anytime soon…”

“This is biggest workout I think I’ve done since that middle school fitness test…” Kyle sighed once more, at least now he was somehow just about able to find enough strength to sit up, tail tucked under his chin as he rested his head on his arms, “so tired…”

“How long do you think it’ll take for them to change back?” Craig casually asked, tilting his head back to glance at the others before looking back up at the greenery above.

“If!”

“Alright there Tweek, we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it, for now, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t from what we know so far” Kyle tried to reassure but who he wasn’t exactly sure.

“Personally, I think all this drip drying is going to be terrible for my skin and I didn’t bring anything with me…”

“Really Butters?” Kenny stifled a laugh, “That’s what you’re taking away from this as your biggest concern?”

“Well yeah! Skin care is important after all… drying out makes it sore and itchy.”

“Sshh… your skin care routine can wait…”

“Craig? Is there something wrong?” Tweek queried, noticing the teens sudden change in behaviour as the ravenette managed to find the energy to shoot back up into a sitting position.

“I thought I just heard something…sounded like voices.”

“Voices? How many?”

“Wouldn’t the better question be Kyle, how far away are they? This is Craig we’re now talking about?” Kenny shrugged dismissively.

"Ugghh... are you being serious Craig? This isn't funny!" Snapped back Tweek who quickly hugged his tail tightly to his chest as he looked over his shoulders.

"You've picked a lousy time to try and start to be funny..." grumbled Stan, this couldn't be happening...

“Be quiet already! I hear about two, maybe three… sounds like they’re…

But before the ravenette could finish, the group were alerted by the sound of snapping twigs and the shuffling of bushes not too far away as the group stared in silence further up the over-growth.

“… Never mind, better question, how did mister super senses not hear them sooner?”

“I guess being exhausted even dulls his senses?” Kyle theorized back as he stared between Craig and Kenny, watching as the ravenette desperately try to hold his tongue on a retort or admit to the fact that he may have successfully crashed for five minutes.

“This is bad…this is very bad! What do we do!?” whispered an alarmed Tweek as he looked back at the group who all seemed equally alarmed and paled as he was.

“What’s the chances that was deer or something…?” Stan nervously asked as he looked in the rough direction the sound came from.

“We haven’t even had a chance to dry out yet… if they spot us, we’re all in serious trouble... Butters?”

“I’ve been trying but I can’t seem to get it to work, I thought that I might be able to evaporate the water and speed up the process to but no luck…” Butters sighed with a shake of his head as he looked at Kyle apologetically, if he could have, perhaps they wouldn’t have to be having this problem right now.

“He isn’t the only one, I haven’t been able to freeze anything ever since diving in, it’s like a trade-off for the tail…”

“Is that what you were trying to do before I…umm”

“Tackled me back down to the lake bed, yes…” Kenny grumbled as he stared at the sheepish expression of Stan.

“Save it for later you two! We've got no choice; we need to hide!” Kyle interjected as he looked around, continuously checking over his shoulder.

“Are you serious? We’ve got to try and hide, while dragging these things? It isn’t exactly possible to get up and move now!” Craig whispered back, out the water, his tail was quite heavy and his could not be the only one.

“Well diving back in is out the question, that would give us away for sure, like the ping of a microwave or elevator” Tweek nervously added as he kept his gaze focused on the area where the sound came from.

“Not to mention the rapids, diving back in could be risky, it’s too dangerous to chance with our inexperience and exhaustion. Just like Kyle said”

Butters spoke up once more, confused by the odd look he was getting off the rest of the group as the others stared at the blonde in surprise, it was easy to forget and dismiss that Butters was quite the secret intellectual, perhaps one of the best in their year now that they thought about it, a living oxymoron but the shared train of thought was short lived.

“For christ sake Jordan, this is clearly the wrong way, let’s head back, there’s no way the starting point is all the way down here!”

“I agree with Alex, it’s not like we’re going to find a short cut this far off the main trail, how could anything good be down here?”

“Ah fuck…” the group whispered unanimously as the voices kept getting clearer, getting louder.

“Move and hide it is… we’ll have to take our chances in the thicket.”

Kyle managed to speak up, despite his mouth being dry and breath stuck in his throat as the rustling of bushes, combined with the ever-growing sound of approaching footsteps, just made him more tense with each passing second. Pointing towards some nearby overgrowth, by a thick tree trunk tilted and uprooted at an angle, with some roots having emerged from underground, snaking their way across the surface as moss slowly overtook the exposed area. In any other situation it would seem too coincidental, but circumstances considered, this one would be most welcomed if it can do the job.

“You have to be damn well kidding me; I was so hoping to be wrong on this occasion... just what is with our luck…?”

“We told you before Craig, the world constantly conspires against us…” Kenny joked back in a whisper.

“No joke, we genuinely don’t go looking for trouble, it just comes to us, and things always seem to spiral out of control” sighed Stan, with a casual shrug or the best he could manage in the given situation.

“Which still drags in, whoever you bring into your social circle…?” Tweek groaned in annoyance, “at least that much hasn’t changed since elementary either…”

“Enough! What part of save it for later is no one understanding!?”

Kyle snapped back in a loud whisper, as he continued army crawling his way towards the tree and surrounding overgrowth, solely running off the adrenaline of fear, while nearly every muscle cried in pain from being over used. Just about pushing himself up and over, thanks to a helpful boost from Kenny, Kyle leaned over the tree root to return the favour as he grabbed Kenny’s hand and tried to help pull him over. Meanwhile Craig had paused to grab Tweek’s wrist and pull him forward and ahead of him as Kyle and Kenny both reached out to help pull the current electric eel looking teen further over as Stan took a dive through the nearby bushes, wincing as the branches smashed into and clawed at his skin as he rolled through on the other side, the hardened, dirty trail barely doing anything to cushion the tumble.

“Jordan! Enough, insist on going that way if you want but Alex and I are heading back.” Came the first voice again, it sounded quite young, the guy could not have been any more than late twenties.

“I’m still not sure what you’re expecting to find all the way out here?”

“Gut feeling Alex, there’s something here, I can feel it… right here” the third voice spoke with a bit of an accent, perhaps southern?

“Yeah, that’s called ya stomach, what, did ya skip breakfast again?” teased the first voice, the three now clear as day, their figures just about visible through the foliage of some of the smaller trees.

“Hurry up you two! Just take the dive!”

Kenny whispered a shout as Craig and Butters looked over their shoulders, alarmed, they were really close now, as Butters was dragged forward by Craig straight into Kenny and Kyle who swiftly grabbed onto the royal blue tailed blonde’s arms and just about lifted him over with a loud groan and helpful push from Craig, who dug deep to find enough strength to dive into the bushes also, rolling right into Stan who dragged the taller teen along to complete the distance. The loud thud, the sound of something big falling over, the noise caused them all to freeze, they must have heard it!?

“Craig! Your tail! It’s still…”

Butters started as he pointed at the jagged tailed teen, causing Craig to look over his shoulder, cringing at the sight, it was still poking out the other side of the bushes.

“Ah fuck… being tall has been a curse since seventh grade!” Craig mumbled under his breath as he quickly withdrew it, curling it round himself as he crawled under the far bushes next to his fellow teammate, as both ravenette’s held their heads to the ground, trying to stay as low and as out of sight as possible, hopefully the shadows would help cover them?

All while hoping these trespassers didn't see anything was too much of a miracle to ask for.

“Ethan! Jordan! Did you see that!?” Came the surprised and sprightly tone from what sounded like the youngest of the trio.

“See what Alex? I thought you two wanted to leave?”

“There was this loud thud, so I turned round and I swear I just saw a tail drag itself into the bushes!”

“Alex, were in the middle of the wilderness, there’s bound to be plenty of animals skittering about” spoke the well-aged voice once more.

“No, it looked like a fish tail! I swear to ya I saw it, but it was huge, like a paddlefish or something but even bigger! Maybe…it couldn’t be, could it… It may have even been human sized, but I didn’t get a good enough look…”

Over hearing the confession the group froze once more as Butters curled in closer to Kenny, the taller blonde held him in place with his left arm, gripping the others shoulder as they hid behind one of the uprooted tree roots, as Butters covered his mouth and closed his eyes while Kenny kept look over his shoulder, tension rising, if they get seen it has a high chance of being because of them next, they were so conspicuous with their bright colours compared to the rest, just so out of place, especially against the greenery around them.

While Kyle and Tweek hid in the first compartment, ducked down as low as they could go, hands on head and eyes tightly shut. The fidgety blonde trying his best to stay still, counting to ten repeatedly in his head, he couldn’t slip up now, he had to stay on top, in control of his nervous disposition or risk the others with an unintended outburst, despite knowing full well his nerves were sky rocketing, this couldn’t be happening, why couldn’t they just go like they said they were going to?

All the while, Craig held his breath while cursing himself internally for potentially getting them busted as Stan laid flat on the ground, under the bushes, hands on his head in which he kept taking a peep to see what was going on; from where he was, he couldn’t see over the bushes so was solely working off the sound of these intruders’ footsteps and voices and currently they sounded rather odd. The tension, the waiting, it was torture which tripled as the footsteps started up again, approaching them, getting closer with each thud of a defined boot until it finally stopped right in the bushes near to where they were hiding in. If they had wanted to, the ravenette pair could have grabbed a leg each and sent the young man flying back with a good tug but they were already playing with fire and the risk was simply too great.

“Jordan, you said gut instincts felt like something was here, maybe this was it? Help me look for a sec will ya both!”

“Ya sound crazy but alright, we’ll humour ya for a minute at least” spoke the second voice, who was harder to pin down, the guy sounded like he smoked one too many a day as they rustled their way through some bushes nearby, as hands swung past Stan's face which caused the pair to inch back slightly, those hands were getting way to close for comfort. This was looking bad; how could they make them leave?

“Just go away, there’s nothing here, just go away, there’s nothing here! Just go away, there's nothing to see here!!” Kyle repeated in his head as he ducked slightly lower, if that were even possible as the pair now leaned into each other, they could feel the other shaking with tension as they brought up their tails even more tightly to their chests.

Kenny was silently still attempting his party trick with his spare hand, just a few droplets was all he needed, something he could throw that gave the impression the rustling was now coming from elsewhere to get these three nobodies off their scent but so far, each attempt had been unfruitful. Nonetheless he persevered with it, he had to, he was the only one really in the position to able to try something, anything and he could hear them rustling through the bushes behind them. Then, almost like a miracle, it finally happened, the blonde grinned as he was once more able to freeze the moisture around him. Freezing a few droplets, Kenny leaned round the tree trunk and the second the coast was clear, he threw the ice like pebbles into the grass further up, causing the trio to look up in that direction. A few moments later, once he knew the coast was clear again, Kenny stealthily did it again and to his luck and surprise, what looked like a rattlesnake slithered out, frustration of being disturbed evident, right into the makeshift path these intruders had made before skittering away back into the overgrowth on the other side.

“You idiot, it was no fish, it was just a snake, told ya it was nothing.” Spoke the identifiable voice of the one now known as Jordan.

“But I swear! I know what I saw guys!” cried Alex once more.

“I swear, you’ve got fish on the brain!” spoke the third with a loud clap round what they could only assume was the youngest one’s head. “Now let’s go already before all the good fish get taken, we’ve wasted enough time here!”

“No joke, a human sized fish tail and on land no less. What an imagination you have Alex; mermaids are fictional you kook.” Jordan loudly laughed at his terrible own joke.

“Alright, I guess” came the heavy sigh off Alex as he scanned the area once more, “Fine, let’s go… there’s nothing to see here…” came a rather peculiar, dazed sounding response from the man in question followed by the sound of rapid footsteps, which suggested he was running to catch up with the older two figures who had accompanied him.

After a few minutes of pure silence aside from the chirping of birds and rushing of water nearby, the group let out a unified sigh of relief, as shoulders slacked, muscles loosened as the quite possible body breaking tension left them.

“I’m sorry… that was my careless-ness that almost got us caught…” whispered Craig as the others just looked at him sympathetically.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it Craig, you left yourself exposed to make sure Tweek and I were able to hide, thank you.” Butters sympathetically smiled at the obviously troubled teen.

“What’s done is done, let’s look at the plus side, at least they didn’t catch us!” Tweek nodded in agreement with Butters as he smiled back; the joint effort of the pair even caused the ravenette in question to smirk back. Crawling forward towards Stan and Craig, Tweek just smiled at the pair, “now how about I get you fixed up to say thanks, besides, you can’t make your way back looking like you’ve just tumbled down the cliff face…as soon as it decides to start working again.”

Momentary confusion, that was soon dismissed as Kyle looked in the direction the trio had left in, followed with an empty laugh or perhaps it was more of an exhausted one as he scrambled back over the tree trunk to rejoin the others, "man, that was scary though..."

“You know what I think…” Kenny paused for extra emphasis as the rest of the group looked at him, now sitting upright and looking a lot more relaxed, if not more exhausted than before. “That tails to legs are a lot freakier than legs to tail.”

The blonde continued as he pointed down, the group following its direction before all looking surprised and looking at themselves. Kenny had a point, there were patches of scales along legs and thighs, like how they appeared on their arms, their feet were starting to take form once more but had been extended into the tail fin, so the fin surrounded the outline of each foot, almost like flippers, which was nearly the oddest sight of the lot if it was not for the noticeable separation of the legs into two separate limbs from one, it was wince worthy, as if their legs were nothing more than dough being pulled at and separated.

“Eugh… I did not need to see this…” Stan started, covering his mouth, ignorance would have been bliss.

“Seconded! Also seconding not doing this again anytime soon! My nerves can’t handle this!”

Tweek called out as he looked at his form shifting limbs in much discomfort, shaking his head as he attempted to return his focus back on the wounds of the two ravenette’s.

“I can’t see that being a problem…” sighed Kyle, this was rapidly becoming overwhelming, “let us just get back to camp already, eat up, rest up… and maybe never speak of this last half hour ever again… or not until next weekend at least.”

Quickly followed by a synchronised unified retort,

“Agreed!”

Chapter Text

After a collection of near misses and even being called out for doing something shady so far out in the woods and off the official trail only to be saved literally by Uncle Jimbo’s and Ned old hunting show, which Stan may or may not have had a hand in bringing down back in elementary with his friends when asked.

Smoothing things over, Stan practically traded their silence for a meet and greet with his Uncle Jimbo, even giving him the address and phone number of the store if they wanted to visit, he was there most days. Outside of all that excitement, the group concluded the weekend with a more traditional camping approach, kicking their whole reason for coming out to the curb, no one needed those sorts of levels of stress.
In the weeks that followed, the group had fallen into a comfortable routine balance between school, homework, other commitments and figuring out what the heck was happening to them.

The tour of Mephesto’s lab, while insightful and had given them a few more routes to investigate but it had overall come up short. They had confirmation of genetic mutation in humans and that mutations could be spontaneous, while the effect of environmental factors was no longer limited to things like radiation. They also learned about the expansion of DNA extraction using a wider selection of animals had as much as tripled year on year, marine creatures included. However, the sort of genetic engineering they had suggested was just implausible at this time; it was impossible to be a trait that could just be switched on and off. Allegedly. Which meant the theory of them being on a timer was back to the forefront. Kenny’s search had also returned with no results, if Mephesto’s lab was hiding anything, he couldn’t find it but as illogical and safety hazardous as it was, the lab seemed innocent on this occasion.

At school however, they found they had become the main topic of conversation for the last fortnight; so, they had decided to shake the routine up a bit. It wasn’t too difficult, Stan, Kyle and Kenny still shared the same home room, while Tweek and Butters were in another and Craig was on his own, so they only crossed paths if they shared classes or sometimes at lunch, but it didn’t take much to set off the shady rumours that started spreading around the six of them. The new dynamics of constantly being around each other, while shutting everyone else out, which made no sense, other kids at school did the same, mostly hung around in their little cliches and groups, having minimal interaction with those who weren’t a part of it. However, their groups didn’t contain the more popular crowd pleasers like the known wild child, party boy Kenny and the schools star football player Stan, mixing with the odd balls and know it all’s like Tweek and Kyle.

Gossip about Stan and Craig changed by the day, with suspicions rising between the two due to how they kept their distance from the rest of the football team during practice, only interacting with them when necessary and the unusual fact that just a few months ago, Stan had gone from a crowd pleaser who was quite social with the team with the pair barely saying more than two words to each other, to a casual acquaintance of the team, while Stan and Craig were now always talking about something. It soon became the wildfire conclusion that Craig was cheating on Tweek. That story was shut down just as fast as it surfaced after Craig got himself suspended for two days when overhearing other students idly gossiping about his relationship before class and without hesitation punched their lights out in the middle of the school corridor, sending the student in question crashing into the lockers and leaving a satisfying, sizable dent. If there was one thing that pissed him off more than a person’s general stupidity and ability to think rationally, it was his alleged love for Tweek being doubted, even if they weren’t actually back together, together he had to keep the performance going as the town had instantly jumped back on that bandwagon after seeing them talking in Tweek’s family coffee shop. With no way out of it the pair had now kept the ruse up since the start of eleventh grade, preparing to properly call it off when the hype died down again so that they could finally get some peace.
In reality, the two had split during the summer of sixth grade, upon learning Tweek was heading off to a special boarding school, where he’d be able to get support for his condition, alongside his middle school education. To Craig it was as clear as day what was happening, just because other students lacked the maturity to handle a relationship; they were, as far as he was concerned reflecting their own flaws on him under the guise of “joining” the football team, as if he was having any part of that stereotypical jock persona.

However, two days of solitude gave plenty of time for thinking, for reflecting over everything that had been going on as of late and now even Craig himself was starting to have doubts on how much of this was still an act or ruse, to keep others off his case and how much of it was on him, did he? Could he? Did he actually want Tweek back? There was something about Tweek that brought an air of ease to him, a comfortable, accepted feeling that had been missing for some time, but they had called it off, would Tweek even be willing to explore that avenue again or would he just think it was fake, part of the performance to get the town well off their backs? What other reason could he have for taking that passing remark so seriously? There was no reason to be so defensive about it? Was there?

Stan on the other hand, decided to divert the attention by confessing to confiding in Craig about quitting the sport altogether and as he was the only one there not taking the sport as a life-or-death serious situation and only to get his grade up, he just felt he would be the easiest to talk to about it. After all, Stan confessed how he was very much aware that he was being considered as the new Captain after Spring Break, without having even been co-captain first and to emphasise this pretty true story to distract from the actual truth, Stan had spoken to the coach in front of the team in the middle of practice, vocally rejecting the position, heck he had even considered quitting right there and then but didn’t due to Craig having talked him round and pretty much demanding that he wasn’t allowed to leave him alone to suffer at the hands of those idiots out there as he could go nowhere till the end of the school year, despite what he said before; which quickly gave everyone something different to gossip about.

Kenny however with his suave and charismatic ways, managed to deflect his attention quite easily but it was noted by many from the usual party planner crowd of his absence since around Christmas. The blonde simply dismissed it all, even if the notion sounded crazy, Kenny insisted he was going cold turkey on all of it; he had a major opportunity at a singing competition coming up and the teacher had lectured him many times about sobering up or not bothering to return to practice and over time, more and more people started to buy into it. The story only being half true though, his singing coach had told him practically every session about damaging his throat with his excessive smoking and drinking habits and that he should grow up and be more responsible, after all it would be a waste of a voice with such range and his afterschool practices did keep him away from home longer, distracting him from his very real-world problems.

Tweek, Butters and Kyle on the other hand, usually went under the radar for one reason or another, for being a bookworm, for being too quiet, for just being the weird new kid that some people considered hanging around them was the equivalent of social suicide. So, the misfits and outcasts were left to their own thing, which for Tweek and Butters, as friendly as they were, was nothing new but for Kyle, it took some adjusting to. Since High school, Kyle had made it clear that he would take studying over partying, he even had zero interest in getting drunk; making a policy to stay away from alcohol, mostly because he had seen the effect it had on Stan, his dad Randy and even his own dad in the past and had simply chosen to never go down that road.
Despite this, a High School couldn’t function without gossip and rumour spreading apparently and the three of them were jumped often by strangers for the latest information. After all, as far as they were concerned there were no better sources than the “boyfriend”, the best friend and the boy who had kept renting out Kenny as the latest model for his works. In the end, after a long, dragging and draining month the six of them decided to follow Craig’s lead on this one and told the rest of the school to stuff it as they returned to the way they were, regardless of if it would be considered social suicide by many. Who cared, not them anymore. It wasn’t like they fitted in any longer, typical teenage woes had gone out the window, despite how much they tried to pretend and relating to their classmates was becoming more of a struggle as the weeks went on.

Finally, they accepted themselves into the category of misfits and outcasts that they were and eventually wanted to be, where Stan would joke, they were all one coffee away from realizing their inner non-conforming goth. The group initially met up every other Saturday, mostly due to Stan and Craig usually having pre- and post-match football commitments. Now they made it every Saturday. Once Stan had confessed to the idea of quitting and if Stan and Craig kept scoring and kept the rival team from scoring, they no longer cared what the two did afterwards, so in the evenings, they all met up at the bridge where the chaos had all begun. Ironically, it was an ideal and local spot where very few people passed by, mostly because no one besides them apparently were crazy enough to wander through the local woods at night to reach it, unless one of the semi famous high school parties were going on.

In many cases, this was rapidly turning into the best part of the week; a time, the only time when they could let loose and relax. It was here where they reviewed the week, any noticeable changes to the behaviour of the transformations, advancements with their abilities, any needed to know of close calls, they even sat and worked out training programs for each other. If that weekend camping taught them anything, the only ones ready for this as a potential long-haul problem were Stan and Kenny, the rest of them didn’t even come close to having the fitness requirements needed to pull this off. This was also their time to cover whatever planning was needed for the week ahead to make sure they had all their bases covered if something happened to go array.
And the topic for this week, the daunting big task of the eleventh grades beach party spring break, which they had all signed up to back around Halloween, when normal teenage plans were still on the agenda and had completely forgotten about until they all got their letters of confirmation where they needed to return medical details, emergency contact with every copy and paste school trip dos and don’ts along with their room sharing request form during homeroom that Monday to be returned the next day.

An event that was approaching quite rapidly.

“I’m sorry I’m late fellas! My dad wouldn’t let me out until he had given me the “lecture” again.”

“Sheesh Butters, are your parents even aware you’re almost 18?”

“These are the same parents who have been grounding him for nonsensical reasons since we’ve known him…” Shrugged Stan, Butters parents were a lost cause but for South Park, what else was new?

“Not that you’re one to talk Broflovski” deadpanned Craig with a dismissive shrug, “don’t get an A on that homework and your grounded for the week.”

“Hey! It isn’t….”

“Don’t even think about it you two or that no parent rule from camp is coming back!” Kenny sighed as he sat on one of the nearby boulders, patting the one next to him for Butters to come and join him.

“Besides, didn’t you say we had bigger topics to deal with tonight?” chimed in the second ravenette with a satisfied smug expression at getting one over them at their own game.

“But why do you and Craig have your feet in the water? Isn’t that risky?”

“Football practice was torture today, not sure why the coach was being so hard on the drills but don’t sweat it Butters I remembered a towel!”

“It is surprisingly more refreshing than you would first think…” Craig casually added as he stared at his feet which had once more took on the form of an extended flipper fin around each foot, that bizarre middle ground they witnessed during the weekend camping, gradually becoming less disturbing to look at.

“I still think you two are being too risky about it!” sighed Tweek as he sat on ledge underneath the bridge, the natural reflection of water off the walls always helped to keep him calm and never boring to look at as it constantly changed through the night.

Staring at the pair, Butters smiled as he grabbed Kenny’s wrist and dragged him further down, taking his shoes and socks off, leaving them on the ledge where Tweek was as he sat on a boulder opposite the ravenette pair and slowly dipped his toe in, wincing momentarily from the coldness before placing his feet in entirely, leaning back, occasionally giggling at the tickling sensation.

“I’m with Tweek on this, how many close calls do we really need before we start taking this more seriously?”

“Relax Kyle, we are taking it seriously, otherwise we would have already been caught!” Kenny grinned as he joined Butters on the river’s edge and slowly watched his feet start to take an orange outer tinge as they sat in the water.

“Aha ha, so colourful!” Butters started to laugh before suddenly clicking his fingers, “oh, that reminds me fella’s I figured out what I am!”

“What you are?” Craig quirked a brow.

“I mean fish wise; we didn’t have much luck at camp and things have been a bit manic lately to properly look into it but I came back from a tutoring job the other day and my dad was putting up this photo of my great-uncle on the wall and well, he was telling
me how it was a record holding catch up until recently…”

“and…?” Stan tried to hurry on the story, now actually curious, “what are you then?”

“Well, it turns out Kyle was kind of right!”

“Wait I was? Remind me again what I said?”

“You said it was probably some exotic fish known in Hawaii remember” the smaller blonde chuckled as Kyle’s face lit up in remembrance, “turns out it is a Pacific blue Marlin, they regularly hold catching contests out in Hawaii, the one in photo must have been about three times the size of my great-uncle!”

“And you said you saw this as a photo on the wall at home?” Craig double checked as the blonde opposite nodded.

“Yup, not really sure what made my Dad decide to put it up all of a sudden though?”

Shifting his gaze off the blonde and towards the suspicious ginger who was scribbling down notes once more.

“Well congratulations Butters! At least you finally know!” Chuckled Stan

“Does anyone else think it’s strange that we’re all sea-based?” Tweek spoke up as he sat up to look at the rest, “Doesn’t it just give a bad feeling that something is going to go wrong during Spring Break?”

“Fresh water, like here or the lake from campsite is very different from sea water… now that you bring it up, the results may even be very different from what we know?”

“Different how? What other changes could possibly happen?” Queried Stan as the group stared at the two under the bridge.

“I dunno, Sharks, Whales, Butters newly discovered Marlin, a lot of hunting sea fish have jagged teeth.”

“Eugh…last thing I need is fangs popping out, Karen will never let me live it down…”

“So, we just stay out the sea, shouldn’t be too hard, there are plenty of other things we could do!” Stan casually dismissed, after all, there’d be several metres of sand between them and the sea anyway.

“This better not be some kind of premonition…” muttered Craig under his breath as he caught Marsh and McCormick looking at him strange, “forget it, it’s nothing…”

“Speaking of Spring Break though, we need some sort of plan going forward…” Kyle sighed, to think he was once looking forward to this but now even that felt like so long ago.

“We all put each other down for room sharing but there’s no guarantee we’ll get one of those rooms of six, there’s only a handful of them.”

“Sure, there is!” Butters grinned in return as Tweek stared at the other blonde in confusion, shortly followed by the rest of the group. “As much as I love designing, I do have other tricks up my sleeves!”

“What could you possibly do? The list will be up on Monday?”

“How soon you all forget, for I am the master of chaos!” as the grin turned into a smug smirk as he begun rummaging through his bag, eventually pulling out his laptop “and there is no simpler way to spread chaos than online! Behold!”
The blonde confidently continued as he begun to tap a way, “all one needs to do is identify the weakness and vulnerabilities in a system, to gain access in using it! And for a High school full of sensitive student data, you would think the school would have a much better system in place than this…” as the determined, concentrating expression returned, while the others just looked on confused.

“Butters? Are you by any chance…” Kyle reluctantly started with a quirked brow,

“Dude, did you just hack into the school? That’s cool!”

“Craig! That’s not cool, that’s bad! What if he gets caught!” Tweek nervously snapped back.

“Don’t sweat it Tweek, I see what’s going on here…”

“Oh, and what is that, Kenny?”

“Butters is tapping into his inner Professor Chaos again, he won’t be caught, they never caught him the dozen or so times previously on various companies and people…”

“What!? Butters has really done that?”

“It is both hard to believe and believable, I remember Butters had been asked to tutor me in elementary in more than one subject, he’s a lot smarter than he seems.”

“Butters has usually cracked the top ten in every year finals since fourth grade now that I think about it…” hand on chin as Kyle thought back while temporarily looking at the sky, “still, if you needed help, why didn’t you just ask me Stan?”

“I thought about it but I know how your parents are always on your case, I thought I’d just be getting in the way or interrupting you unnecessarily…”
Sighed the ravenette as Kyle stared at him with a hard to read expression, was he sad? Sorrowful? Apologetic? Was he ok with it or was he hurt by this revelation?

“You’re never unnecessary to me…”

Before he had a chance to question further, Butters once more chimed in, cutting their conversation short.

“And I’ve found it! Verdicts in and they’ve….”

“Not given us one of the six person rooms?” mocked Craig, didn’t need to be a psychic to guess that, not with their current run of luck.

“Bingo! But we can soon change that…” Grinned the smaller blonde as he clicked his fingers out towards his lap before getting to work.

“Ha, they must be really keen to get us mingling with other students again…” joked Kenny as he peered over the smaller blonde’s shoulder, watching him diligently work in a way that felt oddly nostalgic to him.

“Wait Butters! Give me the names of the people in the rooms so far, if we’re doing this, we’ve got to do this right so the correct groups are still paired up and nothing seems suspicious.”

“Alright if you’re sure Kyle…but we best be fast about it, the longer I’m in, the higher chance of getting caught!”

And with that the group got to work, Kyle wrote the names down of the blocks so far and which would be best to swap themselves in against, then compared their internal notes, which consisted nothing more of school experiences and rumours about other students to start moving people around. There were five dorms of six, with two specifically reserved to be all girl dorms, so only really gave them a choice of three and one room stood out in particular, a group which would be the equivalent of playing with fire but to see his face come Monday once he realized he didn’t get what he wanted would be priceless. Cartman and his new “broship” as he called it, technically there were only five of them but that guy most likely needed two beds to himself anyway, the greedy fatass that he still was.

“I’m not sure if this is wise… I thought we were trying to stay off his radar?” Tweek hesitantly spoke up as he started to fiddle with the end of his shirt sleeves.

“This is Cartman we’re talking about; it is definitely a risk… perhaps Tweek has a point this time, you know how he can get when he doesn’t get his way.”

“Now you’re being paranoid Stan, there is no way he could know of the change unless…” retorted Kenny, not entirely convinced himself, that jerk always had something up his sleeve when things went askew.

“Eric somehow got in and made the changes himself…would explain why there’s five in a six-person room?”

“What I can’t believe is that four other people would willingly spend a week with that sociopath” shuddered Craig, the idea was nightmare fuel in itself.

“And if it wasn’t him and naturally the school, there’s no reason why that Fatass should get any favours from them, just so they can what, stay on his good side? Stop him being a pain in their ass? Besides there is only five in that room, so they are easiest to move about!”

“Not to rush everyone but we need to make a decision fellas, yes or no?”

As the group reluctantly looked at each other, uncertainty showed on all their faces, was the gamble really worthwhile?

“Let’s do it!” spoke up Craig with an oddly determined expression, “we are perfectly capable of dealing with that tub of lard if he dares try anything….”

“When you weigh things up as they are currently, I think it is a gamble worth taking.” Nodded Kenny in agreement to the tall ravenette.

“That makes two…I’ll make three, I think Craig and Kenny both make a valid point, between us, we should be able to topple that Fatass!”

“I still don’t like the idea but the idea of getting busted by sharing a dorm with other students seems worse… if you guys really think we can keep Cartman at bay…” Tweek spoke up with a heavy sigh, his nervousness clearly on show, he knew full well how scary Cartman had the potential to be and this was a way bigger risk than he was use to taking, much preferring the safe route on pretty much anything.

“It makes me anxious, I have to agree with Tweek here…” Stan reluctantly started, much to the surprise of Kenny and Kyle who looked at him in surprise, “fair enough, if this elementary sure, we were more clued in on the ins and out of what he was up to…but we’ve distanced ourselves ever since high school began, we don’t exactly have that inner circle advantage anymore.” Followed by a heavy sign from the teen as he looked at his hands, “this is a very what if situation, perhaps absolutely nothing will come of it at all…”

“So, what’s your answer Stan?” Butters urged on, he really need to get out the system, it had already been too long.

“Would it matter now? With Tweek agreeing to be ok with it, it is still currently four out of six.”

“That doesn’t mean your opinion doesn’t count silly” Kyle encouraged as he placed a hand on his best friend’s shoulder.

“Alright, fine… but our story, our defence, if anything does come from it, it needs to be solid!”

“I think Stan makes a good point after all, Eric likes nothing more than to divide and conquer, Craig even admitted to it back at camp! But I believe we can do it, so shall I go ahead and make the change?”

“That’s a six out of six vote, let’s get to work Butters, this is what’ll we do…” Kyle concluded as he pulled out his paper and pen and start going over names and the people moved. For the most part, they managed to keep all but one from that group of five together, shifting them into a dorm of four instead, while placing Scott in the same four room dorm as Jason as they had a spare space and Scott and Jason were still friends, weren’t they? In this case, they could only hope the answer was still yes, both teens, while known in elementary had become quite the background character to the group and easily forgotten despite the fact Scott and Cartman had somehow become good friends over years? Despite how Cartman constantly ripped at his diabetes back in elementary. Then again, they were now hanging out with Craig, who insisted he hated them all for the longest time. The world really did work in funny ways sometimes.

Going over his work once more and a few clicks later, the edits were done and Butters was out the system, disconnecting and slamming his laptop shut with a heavy sigh of relief. Hopefully he wasn’t in long enough to be spotted or leave some kind of trace, it felt very much to the wire but only time would tell on whether this had successfully worked or not.

Chapter Text

“Fifteen minutes and we’ll be able to find out If you were successful…”

Whispered Tweek across the desk to Butters who sat next to him in the following column as the second blonde simply gave a thumbs up with a cheeky grin in return.

“Mr Tweak! Whatever you have to say can wait till after class, so be silent and pay attention or you won’t know what to do for your homework or is your intention for me to instantly give you a failing mark?”

“Argh! No…No… Sorry Mr Allen…”

Stuttered the nervous blonde as he got called out, hearing some of the other students chuckle behind him just made him wince further, he hated standing out, it was just too much pressure. Quickly returning to his notebook, Tweek instantly started scribbling notes down while glancing at the clock. Maths wasn’t the most exciting subject but at least it was a class he shared with one of the guys and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t curious on whether Butters pulled off this alleged miracle over the weekend or not?
The second the bell rang, the two blondes rapidly packed their stuff away and made a dash out the door, holding onto each other’s wrists so they didn’t lose each other in the rapidly forming crowds. They had agreed to meet the rest of the group at the school board this morning before they separated to their classroom for registration and judging by the direction of some of the crowd, other eleventh and twelfth graders, even though they were set to stay in a separate block, were all curious about their Spring break fates to.

“Afternoon Fellas! How was class?”

“A free hour-long nap session, did I miss anything exciting in those two chapters Stan?” yawned Kenny as he stretched up towards the ceiling with a cheeky smirk as the taller dark-haired boy simply shook his head in return.

“Every time, I don’t know how you keep getting away with it and not really, we don’t even need them for the essay.”

“Essay? What essay?”

“Chill out Kenny, the one we start after Spring Break, this is just chapter review time remember…”

“Oh… that one, damnit Stan, don’t scare me like that!”

As the group broke into laughter at his expense before continuing their walk to the board in relative silence, aside Tweek having Butters once more explain their homework to him, in his flustered haste his speed written notes were embarrassingly ineligible in parts.

“I can’t believe this! This is totally unacceptable!”

Came an unwelcomed, yet well-known cry from further down the hall.

“I thought for sure I had enough to sway Mr Gray to giving us a six-person dorm….”

“No surprise from you Fatass, bet you haven’t even looked at the school prospectus, everyone knows Miss Roa is in charge of eleventh grade as well as the final say on dorm placements over Spring Break.”

“You stupid Jew! What did you say!”

“Just like clockwork, there they go again…” Kenny whispered to the group as they approached a rather uninterested looking Craig, who simply leaned back against the far wall and read the notice over everyone else’s heads.

“Well Craig? Don’t keep us in suspense, what’s the result?” Whispered Stan, so the other students wouldn’t hear but knew full well Craig would catch it as if he shouted right next to him.

“It appears Stotch has succeeded, dorm thirteen, it looks like it is the middle of the three. All six of us are in.” The tall teen glanced over his shoulders, gesturing a quick wave in return as they joined him.

“Awesome! Wait to go Butters!”

“Nice work their Buttercup! Way to make the save!”

Tweek and Kenny quietly cheered as they went in for a group high five as the blonde in question blushed furiously, he wasn’t use to such compliment and high praise off of others but was soon disrupted by familiar raised voices again.

“You haven’t changed since Elementary, just face facts, the teachers took your bribe and double crossed you with no intention of doing what you asked! The school doesn’t deserve to give anything to a selfish, self-centred cretin like yourself!”

“How dare you! A freak like you doesn’t get to speak to Eric like that!”

Came a sudden voice from behind Cartman, a short ponytail wearing brunette who just looked at Kyle in complete disgust.

“Hey! If he’s going to be a jerk about it, then Kyle can speak to Cartman any way he wants!” snapped Stan as the rest appeared behind Kyle in support, the red head briefing a smirk before returning to glare at Cartman in anger.

“Let me guess, these are your new lackies?” Kenny scoffed as he watched a short two-toned purple and black-haired figure, a slightly shorter dirty blonde and finally a face they did know, it was Scott Malkinson. Why in the world he was now hanging out with Cartman was a mystery, all he ever did was make fun of him and rip on him due to his diabetes?

“Oh look, the whole loser brigade is here, here to apologise for your pathetic Jew friend?” Scoffed Cartman,

“Hmph, Hardly, you aren’t deserving of an apology, your face is a simple reminder of how much I’ve hated you since fourth grade, it is actually sad that I still have to look at it from time to time…”

“You… You lousy bean pole! I…”

“Heh, even you’re not dumb enough to start something, surely?” Smirked down Craig, using this rare opportunity to use his towering height to his advantage as the ravenette leaned forward from the waist just to get briefly closer to eye level of Cartman.

Unsubtlety rubbing it in Cartman’s face on how short he was in comparison; he was only slightly taller than Kyle and the fact that even the supposed malnourished Kenny was taller was enough to leave him salty.

“Tch, I bet this is your doing! Why are you losers even going?” Cartman started as he switched back to glaring at Kyle.

“No kidding, there should have been a rule that prevented freaks from being allowed to attend” mocked the dirty blonde teen, smirking as the trio behind all laughed.

“Oh? And how did you idiots come to that conclusion? We have no sway over the teachers and just what is that supposed to mean you discriminating bastard!”

“Simple, Kahl, Jews don’t know how to have fun and that’s a fact!”

Kyle simply growled in return, that fatass never failed to purposely screw up pronouncing his name and he knew full well that it got under his skin.

“Plus, there’s no way Kenny could have actually paid this off without dirty money considering how poor his family is.”

“Hey! I earned every dime of this trip fair and square! More that could be said for you, you probably just ran to mummy with those puppy dog eyes and had her bail you out again, despite being plenty old enough to lighten the load on her but instead you still have her working three jobs!”

Spat Kenny but the words clearly just washed off Cartman as the teen opposite didn’t even flinch but simply shrugged, while looking rather smug.

“Butters is always grounded, it’s a sheer miracle he even knows what the outdoors is, while Tweek is on a constant verge of a nervous breakdown, it is only a matter of time before he finally breaks...again.”

The two blondes flinched but said nothing as Butters gripped on his bag straps tightly, he saved up for this, his parents said it was fine as long as he paid for it and with all his tutoring side jobs, that an easy target to meet. While Tweek gripped the end of his shirt, scrunching it up into his fists, he was doing fine, he was on top of things, this was just Cartman being Cartman, just ignore it, he wasn’t on the verge of breaking again!

“While Craig wouldn’t know fun if it punched him in the face, after all, he is known for his violent outburst, probably gets it off his dad… or perhaps it is from your mum? That sweet exterior is just a front is that it and that’s why they split up? Or did they split up because you’re a weird queer?”

Craig held his tongue, yes things at home were odd currently but his parents were fine, where was this loser getting his information from? Exhaling, the taller teen tried his best to refuse to react but he’d be lying if such lies didn’t light a fire under him and now knocking him clean out cold where he stood was hard to resist but that was exactly what that jerk wanted, it would prove him right when he clearly wasn’t, besides he knew the truth, just like he knew he had a low tolerance for idiocy like Cartman’s but instead kept his eyes on the tub of lard in case he tried anything suspicious, the fat ass was just begging for a response, some kind of reaction at this point, it was all part of his rather obvious plan.

“And what’s wrong with being gay?” Butters snapped back

“Simple Butters, it just isn’t natural is it… and your fashion taste is always questionable at best, just look at yourself, are you supposed to be a boy or girl in those clothes, do you even know anymore and let’s not get started on the Jew over there…

“Right…as if you know anything about fashion Cartman” Kenny rolled his eyes at such a remark, his look was as average as his own, hoodie and jeans most days.

“Haha, he looks like he got lost from some nerdy rpg convention, now all he needs is some pointy ears to finish off the look” laughed the dirty blonde as he pointed at Kyle with a smug expression.

“And as for Stan… well, we all know his story don’t we…” Cartman started as he mimed the action of rapidly drinking a bottle, “did he need to have his AA meeting advisor counter sign his permission slip…?”

“It’s spring break, what else were you expecting to be available.” Laughed the two-toned figure.

“He probably doesn’t even have the will power to make it through the week or maybe he’s just planning to end it all? And go out at the biggest party of the year!” chuckled the ponytail as he gestured some dance moves.

As the group looked at Stan, as he remained silent, glancing at the surrounding students, he could hear the whispers and gossiping already which only made him more self-conscious, he wanted out but this was Cartman and running wasn’t an option, otherwise it would seem like a victory to him, even if Cartman had just announced his biggest secret to half the eleventh grade, twelfth grade and whoever else was passing by.

“Oh Stan…” Kyle whispered as he looked at his distraught friend, the fear evident in the ravenette’s eyes, the taller teen was fully aware this would be round the whole school before the day was out and that he’d likely never hear the end of it for the rest of the week. Kyle noted all of these reactions, he had seen them before, checking off the mental list in his head, he hated how frail the condition made his friend look, he hated how everyone made light of something so serious and he could not let that stand, clenching his fist, ready to take a swing at Cartman before being tugged back with force by Craig.

“Don’t bother, there’s a good chance if you strike that bastard, he’ll report you, play a convincing victim like he always does and this close to Spring Break, get you kicked off the trip which would make an opening for a room reshuffle and he’ll still get what he wants in the end.”

“Damn that fat bastard!” Kyle shouted under his breath.

“Forget about him Kyle, let’s just get out of here… we got what we came for.” Kenny started as he patted the red-haired teens shoulder before swiftly moving over to Stan and started to lead his friend down the corridor. “Ignore him Stan, we think no less of you. It’s an illness and we’re all here to help you through it!”

“How about we grab lunch at my family’s café, my treat, I think we could all do with a change of scenery!” Tweek jumped in with a clap of his hands, trying to change the direction and overall mood of the moment.

“Sounds great, throw in a free cake slice and call it a deal! How does a red velvet sound Stan or I hear Tweak’s mum makes and amazing black forest cake…”

“Wise call…we should do the same Eric, we don’t want to catch whatever social suicide, freakshow-itus they have after all...” the trio behind Cartman loudly laughed as they watched the group walk away as Cartman simply nodded and turned away, making his way down towards the cafeteria, leaving with one final remark as he called down the corridor so that they could hear him.

“If I find out you freaks have anything to do with this, I will get even!”

Pausing, Butters turned round to look at Scott sympathetically, the boy had said nothing during the whole exchange, he even looked uncomfortable at parts, perhaps there was still a chance for him yet “I don’t know why you hang around him Scott but if you think Eric is your friend, think again, he’s exploiting your insecurities for his own gain, you are better than he is. You’re not as alone as you think Scott, just reach out, why not use this chance to try speaking to Jason again? Get out while you can before he uses you as a scapegoat for something properly sinister…”

Butters watched on as Scott bit his lip in uncertainty, looking at practically anything and everything but Butters, until finally catching the blonde’s eye and found himself unable to give a reply as Eric shouted him over to catch up or miss lunch. Glancing over his shoulder briefly at Butters with a cold, serious look in his eyes, Scott disappeared down the corridor leaving the blonde standing there alone, surprised by the glare he had got in return, Butters sighed heavily as he turned on heel and powered walked down the hall to catch up with the rest of his own group.

Chapter Text

“Enough, already, don’t look at him, you’re giving that bastard more power and control over you than he really has…” Craig sternly responded as he walked right in front of Stan, duffle bag slung over his shoulder, startling the dark-haired teen out of his thoughts as Craig’s tall frame and faint, light blue chequered shirt invaded his line of view.

“You need to forget about him, Stan you’ve been like this since the run in a fortnight ago, I’m starting to get worried about you…” Butters interrupted in as he made his way over to the pair, his shimmering rose gold holiday bag wheeled behind him.

“Look on the bright side, at least he’s on a different coach to us…” Tweek cautiously added, as he appeared behind Butters with his own rolling duffel bag which had a picture of a cartoon looking squirrel drinking coffee or a cup of something at least.

“It doesn’t matter how far I come or how well I’ve been doing, this will always be held against me…” Sighed Stan as he gripped onto his bag strap, the dark-haired teen had hardly been himself since their altercation with Cartman, back to his more cynical and quiet ways. A side of Stan, Kyle hadn’t seen in some time and a reminder at just how easy it was to tip the scale against his best friend’s favour.

“Let them gossip Stan, it’s all empty words at the end of the day, they don’t know anything in the scheme of things, you’ve come so far, worked so hard, don’t let Cartman’s troublemaking of all things belittle your efforts and tear you down...” as Kyle gripped the handle of his lime green trolley bag even tighter with both hands, he just needed to get on the coach and then he wouldn’t have to see or deal with that smug fatass face for several hours, just a few minutes more, that’s all he needed to hold out for.

“Besides, to them it’ll be yesterday’s news once we return to school, the hijinks of Spring Break will be the only thing on people’s minds.”

“Kenny’s right, the hot topic changes by the week, by the day, besides as the saying goes those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind! Or something like that…” came the nervous chuckle off Butters, which just seemed more awkward, as this probably wasn’t the best time to be laughing as the blonde looked away, rubbing his lower arm.

“Thanks guys… for sticking by me, I know how much of a drag I can be like this…”

“Stan, that’s enough!” Kenny started in his rare firm but serious voice as he swung his arm over his friends’ shoulder, gripping his hand firmly on the opposite shoulder, giving it a gentle tug, his tone softening as he smiled at Stan, “I told you before and I’ll keep saying it as many times as needs be until you believe me, you’re ill and we get that nor do we hold it against you, you don’t need to be feeling guilty around us.”

“Tell you what Marsh, if you feel like you’re slipping let me know and I’ll knock your lights out for you.”

“CRAIG!!!” Snapped the group in unison, as the ravenette just stood there with a smug smirk and dismissive shrug but before more could be said, a booming, distorted voice filled the school’s front courtyard.

“Alright, alright, that’s enough, five minutes of silence! “Came the unenthusiastic echoed voice of Mr Rugger the soccer coach. “You’ve all been assigned to coaches, you’ve all been assigned seats, so don’t start complaining, no one will be moved!”

“For a sport’s coach, you’d think he’d have more life in him?” whispered Butters as he quirked a brow, this teacher was killing the mood at light speed.

“What do you expect, the soccer team had a pathetic running this year, didn’t even make it pass the local qualifiers for the state tournie… first time in about six years or something, guess he’s still sulking…” Kenny grinned back as the pair noticed the eyes of Mr Doxon on them, causing the pair to stand up straight and pay attention; Mr Doxon being notorious for passing out detentions for even breathing when you weren’t meant to.

“Seriously, are any of the good teachers hijacking this vacation time? Sighed Craig, knowing first-hand how much of a miser Mr Doxon was, I.T classes were subtle torture treatments with him in charge.

“We’re fine, we’ve got Miss Roa at least.” Kyle casually added in before Mr Rugger started speaking again, clipboard now in hand.

“Listen for your name, give your bag to the driver and he’ll store it away, then the assigned coach teachers will give you your seat number and go sit down, Miss Roa and Mr Llama will be on coach one with the majority of the eleventh graders!”

At that announcement, everyone just stared at Kyle in disbelief, how did he know that, he was the last to arrive so it wasn’t like he could have seen them arrange any of this, nor was it posted online or on the school board, nor was Miss Roa currently even here...

“Coach two, which is the rag tag leftovers from eleventh and twelfth grade will have Mr Doxon and I, Mr Rugger, while coach three, the main twelfth grade coach has Mrs Tuffin and Mr Stone, easy enough yes!”

As a loud yes echoed through the front courtyard, groups started dispersing towards their assigned coaches in a relative chaotic order as chattering picked up again and noise level rapidly tried to rise.

“One last thing! While you are free to do whatever you want within reason over this next week. If any one of you receive police dealings over the next week, your named and shamed butts will be in every morning, lunch and after school detention until summer break! We clear!”

With another shout of yes, a momentary awkward silence filled the air as the students looked between themselves, Mr Rugger and themselves once more before casually returning to noisy chatter.

“Yay, we’ve got Miss Roa! I like her, she’s nice.” Cheered Butters.

“Kyle literally just said that…” Kenny sighed in disbelief, it was amazing how someone so smart could still be so oblivious at times,

“I like her to, she’s so patient.” Smiled Tweek, she was one of the few teachers he actually felt comfortable around.

“What subject does she teach?” quizzed Craig, the name only being vaguely recognized in passing.

“Miss Roa is our home economics teacher. Her cooking is amazing, sometimes she brings us in a cake she made on last days of term.”

“Her cake making is second to none! Well nearly, depends on the cake but Miss Roa somehow manages to make mud cakes, not sickly” praised Tweek with a satisfied smile.

“Her Hummingbird cake is nice to! I was thinking of trying a coconut layer cake next!”

“I didn’t know you were such a fan; coconut is a fickle one, think I may take a try at a tomboy cake.”

“I think we lost them…” sighed Kenny as he watched the Craig’s baffled expression, finding amusement in each developmental stage until he heard his name get called and he was out of there before Craig could retort back. The world of cooking and fashion meant nothing to him but if you wanted your front brakes changing on your car or a reading of planetary star maps, no problem, now that was simple stuff.

“Don’t worry Craig, a towering young man like yourself needs the extra leg room so we’ve given you the seat near the emergency exit… still, wonder if it’ll be enough, how tall are you now Craig?”

“Why? Are you and the other teachers wagering on how close I’ll get to the seven-foot mark to?” came the unimpressed scoff response as he made his way inside, this being tall joke got old back in eighth grade and by now, he was certain he had heard them all. Cursing under his breath as he hit his head on the coach ceiling, if he was sitting at the back, why couldn’t they have just opened the emergency door and let him in that way, instead of dealing with this tin canned humiliation? Eventually reaching the back,

Craig just fell back into the seat in annoyance and frustration. It wasn’t a massive space but there was enough space back here for a smaller person to easily sit in the gap between the two seats and all things considered, it was better than nothing.

“Well, did you bring them!?” quietly shouted Kenny with too much enthusiasm as he dived into the empty seat next to him,

“What happened to no seat swapping?”

“They will never know… I’ll disappear like a shadow into the night… besides, it isn’t like we’ve actually started moving yet.”

“Of course!”

With a roll of the eyes, the ravenette reached into his bag and pulled out two magazines with a faint smirk as the blonde next to him cheered at the sight of the latest issues of Racing and Nascar.

“You managed to get them early; how did you do that?”

“Tch… clearly I’ve been picking up bad habits from you losers and discovered some tricks of my own…”

“Hey Kyle!” Tweek whispered as he ran, reaching out to grab the red head after handing his luggage bag to the driver, “I know they said no swapping but let me sit near Stan on this first half, then we can swap back after the pit stop, ok.”

“Sit by Stan? How come?” Kyle questioned in return, puzzled by the sudden request.

“Please, trust me, I think I may be able to help Stan a bit, you don’t mind, do you? Plus, I’m next to Butters so you won’t have to worry about sitting by some other school weirdo.”

“Hmm… if you believe you could even lift his spirits a little, it’s a start, he can’t be moping his way through Spring Break of all things, then go ahead.

Thanking Kyle, Tweek ran off ahead, dropping himself in the seat next Stan as the taller teen just stared at him in confusion, this was a surprise, did he have the wrong seat?

“Umm…wasn’t Kyle about to sit there?”

“Don’t worry about Kyle, I’ve sorted things out with him, we need to talk.”

And with that sudden order off Tweek, Stan was even more confused, the two had barely had more than five-minute convo’s and now this, what was so important? This was going to be awkward.

“Hey Butters, surprised!?”

Kyle joked as he placed his bag on his lap as he took his seat next to a bewildered Butters.

“But I thought…wasn’t…umm, hi Kyle?”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ve discussed it but before you switch off for holiday mode, let’s talk biology project ideas shall we!” the red head grinned, note book and pen at the ready as a baffled Butters could only laugh in return, how very typical of Kyle.

“Alright go on then, this should be easy enough to get out the way, hey, maybe we could even use something from the beach!”

The first hour of the trip went by the numbers, students shouted over each other, some were reading, others playing card games, others just gossiping away, some even somehow managed to successfully get back to sleep; meanwhile Stan simply stared out the window, watching the city, to town, to motorways and everything in between changes as Tweek sat there in silence reading his book, like this wasn’t odd at all. The short blonde said he needed to talk but had said nothing since then, leaving the pair in an awkward silence and Stan who was unsure what to say as he eyed Tweek’s reflection in the window.

“Alright, this should be good enough” the blonde started, slamming his book shut, while causing Stan to jump out of his skin in surprise, “it’s plenty noisy now, so people won’t hear us as much…”

“Umm Tweek, what is this all about?”

“A confession….”

“A confession? For who? About what?” Stan quirked a brow, turning to finally face the blonde properly,

“Where I was during middle school and how It could help you now.”

Tweek started firmly as he looked down at the book in his hand before staring firmly at Stan.

“Stan, I think I can help you because I’m just like you, I’m a recovering addict, not alcohol but another substance, I have that same illness, I understand how powerful and controlling it can feel sometimes. During my middle school years, I went to a special boarding school, to help with coping methods for my illness but while I was there, it turned out there was more to it than met the eye and I don’t mean just coffee…”

“You’re a…”

Stan started wide eyed as the blonde nodded in confirmation.

“Not knowingly mind you but it all fed into my anxiety, confusion, erratic twitching, agitation and aggression, the how is unimportant but the damage had been done and I needed the fixes to keep going, to feel normal again or what I thought was normal for me…”

“I remember, you were a nervous wreck in elementary, jumping and screaming at everything, freaking out at the slightest bit of stress…”

“I still do from time to time, from time to time, I struggle to cope to… but this boarding school, the day was split, I would spend the morning getting my middle school education, then around midafternoon would be detox and therapy sessions and those first few months were the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.”

Tweek managed to calmly continue but not without noticeably picking at the edge of the book he was so firmly holding in between his knuckles that they had turned white but instantly loosened the grip once he realized what he was doing as he glanced a look at Stan, the dark-haired teen still trying to get it to all sink in.

“I can understand that, I’ve been in rehab before to, twice in fact, it’s a rough journey…”

“Stan, be honest with me, how bad is it really?”

At that the dark-haired teen turned away, gripping his trouser legs tightly as they scrunched up under his fingers, the shame rising. He had never told anyone before, only Kyle knew the truth and he hated himself for making his best friend constantly worry about him like so, even more from the fact he often pushed everyone away, including Kyle during these episodes, treated and spoke to them like trash and the people in his life deserved better than that, especially Kyle.

“Stan, it’s ok, you can tell me, I won’t judge, I am in no place to either…” Tweek calmly spoke as he placed his hand on the taller teens arm.

“I’ve… I’ve been to rehab twice, once for turning to alcohol as a way of dealing with my depression, you may have been around still for that, it was still in elementary, grade five, I’m sure of it and then again in grade eight… however…”

“However?”

Tweek repeated as he observed Stan’s breathing becoming heavier, the guilt he recognised all too well.

“It’s ok Stan, a relapse isn’t failure, you resumed treatment and got back on track of your own choice and that’s the important par…”

“NO! You don’t understand Tweek! This wasn’t a minor relapse…If I slip up again, I could die, my liver is almost shot and I’m not even eighteen!”

From the back of the bus, Craig quirked a brow at this latest confession, he had heard the stories before about Marsh having depression and going to rehab but relapsing to such a level, now it was all starting to make sense; why he took Cartman’s mockery so bad, why of all people, he took his remarks to heart, Marsh was afraid of the worst case scenario and to add salt to the wound, it was from the very thing other teens were now taking advantage of, drinking in the truck loads and going wild with, even McCormick himself was guilty of this...

“Oi, Craig Tucker! Earth to Craig Tucker, I was talking to you!” Kenny snapped back, bonking the teen on the head with his own magazine, “you know it is rude to eaves drop or is there something else fascinating at the other end of the coach?”

“What!? No, I wasn’t…”

“Of course, you weren’t and that wasn’t a sudden flash of guilt on your face either” Kenny smirked as he poked the ravenette’s cheek only for it to be swiftly smacked aside. “Is Stan and Tweek’s conversation really that interesting?”

“How much did you know McCormick? About Marsh’s condition…”

“Stan’s condition?” Kenny stuttered a reply, caught off guard by the sudden question as he tightened his grip on the magazine he was holding, “all I know is what I learn from Kyle…Stan doesn’t want to cause a fuss, he feels guilty enough as it is, he only thinks he’s troubling us but what he can’t see, or grasp is that we want to help him, that it’s ok.” The blonde sighed heavily, finally putting the magazine down on his lap as he peered at the pair further down through the gap of the coach seats.

“And yet you have a reputation of one of the biggest illegal party planners in our grade, knowing full well of all of this?”

At that Kenny quirked a brow, was he being subtly told off or criticized? “I always took Stan into account, it is easy enough to deceive people when you know the right tricks, but it wasn’t like I didn’t put it into consideration. If anything, it was Stan who kept pushing for me to continue… he wanted to pretend that much at least, to feel like a normal teen.”

“Is that so? And Broflovski, how does he play into all of this?”

“What has you so interested so suddenly anyway? Are you suggesting that Stan just confessed all this to Tweek? Whatever… All I know is, is that Kyle drove himself mad in study and research once Stan relapsed a second time, we all thought that was it, it got quite bleak for a period, it…it was actually scary…” and with that confession the ravenette looked genuinely surprised as he stared at the blonde, McCormick always seemed so fearless to everyone but even he could get scared under the right circumstances, “in the end, the pressure of it all caused Kyle to breakdown to from all the stress he had put on himself but outside of that, I don’t know how things stand, it’s never something I’ve felt particularly comfortable bringing up…”

“Because it’s such a tender subject?”

“Pretty much… you just never know how Stan will react, like any one in his shoes, they have good days, and they have bad days, so I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done and support him from afar and if he needs someone to lean on or fall back on, I’ll be there.” Kenny started with a quirked brow as he looked up from his lap at long last and back at Craig, “again, why, what did you hear?”

“Nothing, never mind… McCormick, just remind me when we arrive to apologise to Marsh…” Kenny just stared at the other teen in confusion, Craig apologizing freely to Stan, the world really was going crazy! After a couple minutes more of silence and a heavy sigh off the ravenette, Craig stared at Kenny and pointed at the magazine, “so, what were you saying before, something about the new car models debuting next season?”

“Stan, alcoholism, is like any other addiction, there is no quick fix, we’re both ill and that illness will never be cured but dealing with it is a lifetime commitment, that involves daily care…”

“I don’t even know how I passed eighth grade, it got so bad they pulled me out of school and into rehab, I don’t even remember how long I was there the second time, it’s all such a blur…”

“And when you came out, is that when you turned to exercise?”

“Huh… how did you?”

“My therapist said it was pretty common for recovering addicts to throw themselves at some sort of exercise, whether that be a daily jog or something like yoga. It’s supposed to have lots of benefits and help prevent relapse. You wouldn’t think it be wise, with how wild my mind could be at times but I got quite into Yoga myself during therapy, the idea of centring, grounding and finding that place of calmness just reassured me, I still participate in it, well, I try to make time for it, I even took up hiking when I got park to South Park.”

The blonde smiled as he noticed Stan release the grip on his trousers and with a deep breath sat upright once more, letting out a weak laugh,

“You’re right, in a way I switched one addiction for another, to keep my mind distracted, I joined the gym, it gave me something to focus on, something to work towards, it had a schedule, even now, light weight lifting is my go-to distraction when things start to become too much again…”

“Don’t look at it like that, gym was simply one of the parts of your therapy plan to get better again and what about football?”

“I picked it up last year, the gym is one thing but if I was to join society again as a proper functioning individual, my advisor said I should try some team sports, it would be a way to bond with others and learn to form relationships with people. Until a fortnight ago, the football team had no idea, well beside the coach and they treated me like any other team mate…”

“And they still shouldn’t treat you any different, you’re still the same guy from a fortnight ago! After all, the way I see it, sobriety is your responsibility and you’ve not engaged in any destructive behaviours and you maintained your boundaries. Stan, the illness sucks, it isn’t the easiest thing to fight against and it isn’t going away but don’t doubt yourself, you have been doing an amazing job!”

“Tweek… thank you… it actually feels reassuring knowing I’m not alone in this…”

“You’re welcome, I know it isn’t quite the same thing you mean, but you were never alone, you had people supporting you.”

Sighing in relief, Stan turned and smiled at the smaller teen holding his fist out as the pair bumped them into each other.

“It’s not always advised but we could still lean on each other from time to time, no one understands like another addict, so you keep beating down your demons and I’ll keep fighting off mine…”

“I don’t know how much help I could be but if you ever feel the same, you can lean on me to! Oh! And next time you arrange a hike, remember to invite me, everything is worth trying once.”

“Deal!” Tweek chuckled as he rapidly pulled out his game case, “remember the hand held?”

“Sure, got it right here, charger included!”

“Now with that heavy weight out the way, what should we play, I have Chinpokomon that need trading over and evolving!”

“Chinpokomon Sunlight, I have Moonlight to go with… Hold up, is that…” Stan started as he put his hand on top of the next page to stop Tweek from flipping the cartridges over before finally laughing out loud for the first time in what felt like forever, wiping the tears from his eyes as he gradually calmed down, “It is, isn’t it…? My pet guinea pig…don’t tell me…”

“Hmm… I missed Stripes while I was at boarding school and there was obviously no pets or animal allowed; this was the closest I could get. I even named the one in game Stripes, he was brown and white to! Almost looked identical.”

Snapped back a flustered, Tweek, his face now bright red as Stan continued to laugh at the revelation, unable to keep it in. Similarly, the ravenette at the back was now choking on the very air he was breathing. Tweek was impossible, with no effort, just how did he… but that was the cutest thing he had heard in forever as the dark-haired teen leaned forward and hid his face on seat in front. Leaving a very puzzled Kenny watching everything go down with no context.

“So, what did you not eaves drop on this time?” Kenny teased with air quotes as he smirked at the flustered beanpole being so very out of character but the big curious question was, just what did that reason say? Still, whatever this was, this was a golden opportunity to tease the teen further and it would be shameful of him to let it go to waste.

“I thought you two said you two weren’t dating? Are you sure on that one? I think someone is being dishonest with themselves…”

“Shut it McCormick!”

Craig grumbled as he flipped the blonde off, which only caused him to laugh even harder at the unfolding chain of events.

Chapter Text

One pit stop and milkshake later, where, despite much coaxing, neither Tweek nor Stan would confess about what they spoke of to the rest of the group but whatever it was, it appeared to be working and had managed to get Stan smiling again, even Tweek looked slightly more relieved, as if he got something off his chest at long last after having it bottled up for so long. Meanwhile it was Kenny and Craig that seemed to be off, as if they were hiding something from them or perhaps it was just the long coach ride; on top of the weight of everything just skewing things.

The break barely felt like anything as the coach was soon on its way again, zooming down the freeway with relative ease but that would soon change as the work hour rush was in full swing. As everyone returned to their designated seats, Craig enjoyed the luxury of stretching his legs out across both seats as he leaned back against the gently hum of the window, curtain drawn to reduce the cold but even then, he still managed to rest his feet on the seat opposite with ease. The noise however, he could do without as he massaged the side of his forehead where he could feel a migraine forming; he could only wish he had a way to cancel out or reduce the noise but even he couldn’t risk headphones, even on their lowest setting they still felt loud enough to shatter his skull, which meant dealing with the dull drivel of other students and how people like Becky were so confused at how they got such a reputation with plans like those. He didn’t need to know that; he really didn’t need to know.

Meanwhile, Tweek and Butters casually jumped between various games, through go fish, to word association, to flat out rounds of twenty questions with each other, Butters had no shortage of ideas to fill the time with and in some cases, even had those sitting next to him involved in a round or two. Kenny was watched like a hawk back to his seat to make sure he was in his designated spot this time; they may have said nothing but they were well aware that the blonde hadn’t followed the very first rule of this trip already. Not that it mattered, as he was seated next to a familiar dusty blonde with green highlights in the tip of his fringe, who looked like he just walked out of a rave and on to the bus, filling Kenny with all the latest gossip and buzz around his old party planning crowd, while running past and bouncing ideas off the more experienced and well established blonde as Kenny could only laugh at the enthusiasm of Olin, like the guy was some sort of protégé trying so hard to pick up from the high bar he had set for them all.

However, there’s always one. What had started off as nothing, the pair chatted about nothings with ease, once the sea came into view, the red head found himself steadily going downhill and yet, he couldn’t take his eyes off of it, no matter what he tried or how hard he tried to distract himself with something else; every glimpse of the sea almost demanded his attention not in awe but curiosity or maybe something else, a feeling he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Soon enough, enough was enough and Kyle rolled to the side, resting his head on Stan’s shoulder, grimacing.

“No! Just shut up… Leave me alone already!” quietly shouted Kyle as he clamped his hands over his ears, startling Stan out of his game entirely as the ravenette groaned at the annoying chime of losing a life and having to restart the level, quirking a brow at his best friend; so, he wasn’t asleep after all? And just who was he talking to?

“Kyle?”

“No… we can’t… we agreed we wouldn’t…” Kyle continued to whisper, lowering his head towards his knees as Stan finally paused the game, putting the handheld to one side as he watched the red head have a conversation with himself; he could say with confidence now that it wasn’t to him, he wasn’t even looking at him, just occasionally glancing into the distance through the window. Confused, Stan slowly moved his hand forward, being a mere fingertip distance away, “I SAID LEAVE!” as Kyle shot up, shouting, causing the ravenette to jump back in surprise, clinging to the head rests of his own seat and the seat in front to stop him from falling completely, pulling himself up to quickly catch the red-head on the rebound of his own seat.

“Kyle! Kyle! It’s okay dude, what has gotten into you?”

“Huh? Stan?” Kyle started as he attempted to glance at the other teens direction as Stan held him in place firmly by his shoulders, arm across his chest “I can’t…I don’t …”

“Huh?” Stan tried to question as the red head muttered and mumbled under his breath, “I’ve got you; it’s going to be fine…”

“Stan… something feels off…”

“Off? You know what, never mind Kyle, we need to get you outside for some fresh, being cooped up in here for so long seems to have done a number on you.” Stan whispered as he glanced to the front of the bus, back to Kyle and then the front again, it was as if he was dreaming or having a nightmare while awake, muttering and murmuring what sounded like the same thing over and over but despite how closely he listened, he still couldn’t catch it all before finally concluding Kyle needed to get outside but even that was only a guess, he needed something!?”

“Hey! Excuse me, Miss Roa! Miss Roa!” Stan shouted down, causing Kyle to cover his ears even more, was this what it felt like to be Craig? As others on the coach simply stopped and stared as the young teacher made her way down the aisle, using the tops of seats as supports as she walked; much to the surprise of Stan as he elbowed Kyle gently, whispering “try and look a live… teacher incoming…”

“Yes…Stan, isn’t it? What’s the problem?” as she checked the seating plan clipboard.

“Just wondering, how much longer till we get there!? We’ve been able to see the sea for a while now; we can’t be that far away…?”

“Restless, are you?”

“Just for Spring Break to actually start…” Stan cheekily grinned, while Kyle absent-mindedly looked out the window, glancing at Miss Roa as she chuckled behind her hand in response, no wonder Butters and Tweek liked her so, she gave the proper cliche girl next door vibes and unlike a lot of teachers at their school, Miss Roa was definitely still young enough to pull it off.

“I’m sure you’re not the only one, I’ll go and find out.” Miss Road gently smiled, staring at Kyle for a few seconds suspiciously before finally turning and carefully making her way down to the front of the coach.

After a few minutes, the crackle of the coach speaker could be heard, distracting a good portion of the coach from their idle chats and activities, “excuse me everyone, a moment of your time…” Miss Roa started, standing in the middle of the aisle at the very front, mic in one hand, holding onto the bar behind the driver with the other, “We should be arriving, all going well within the next half hour!”

With the announcement, the coach turned into an uproar of cheers; it had been a gruelling six or so, how many ever hours.

“Settle down! Settle down! Once we arrive, you’ll exit one pair at a time from the front, to the back, make sure you leave nothing behind, once the coach leaves, that will be it, it’ll part back to Colorado and we’ll likely have a different one back!”

With the crackle of the mic the young teacher sat back down, the coach instantly springing to life once more, enthusiasm and excitement increasing tenfold in seconds, in all except one who still held his head in his hand and massaged his fore-head with the other.

“Hang in their dude, we’ll be off the coach and back into some fresh air before you know it!” Stan whispered, concern evident as he followed the dazed out, empty gaze of the red-heads to the sea in the distance once more.

This was about to become the longest half hour he had ever known.

“Here you go dude, solid and fixed ground…” Stan spoke after what actually did feel like a never ending and forever awkward silence since the announcement as he guided Kyle off the coach from behind.

“Stop fussing Stan, I’ll be fine in a minute...” Kyle weakly spoke trying to shake free of his best friend’s loose hold but to no avail.

“This isn’t like you Kyle, since when do you get travel sick? Or potentially worse?”

“What’s this? Kyle ill from something he doesn’t get? You sure he didn’t just pick up a dodgy sandwich from that service station we stopped at?”

“We thought of that but he only grabbed a milkshake with Butters and he’s only really been acting up this past half hour, forty-five minutes tops…?”

Lifting up his shades, Kenny quit smirking and walked over to the red head himself, lifting his chin up to get a good look at him, only to be greeted by an almost vacant expression and pale colour.

“Will you two give it a rest, I’m fine, well, I will be fine after a brief rest and some fresh air…”

Kyle begrudgingly spoke, smacking Kenny’s hand aside as the two teens just looked at each other over the red head, unconvinced.

“If you say it enough times Broflovski, you may just convince yourself but it doesn’t change the fact that you look like death walking right now.”

“Eugh, not you as well, get lost Craig, I am no in the mood for your sour lined quips…”

At that, Craig just smirked, that was pretty weak by Broflovski standards but the level of stubbornness and pride was in top form still.

“Don’t worry about your bags, we’ll get them, just get Kyle to the room!” Butters cheerfully and quickly cut in from behind Craig, before the pair could try a verbal second round, with Tweek right behind him, looking on in confusion, oblivious to what was going on.

“Wait, how did you get out so fast?”

Quirking a brow at Kenny, Craig just sighed, surely two seconds of thought and it would have been obvious as he pointed behind himself, “I took the emergency exit, as if I was going to struggle walking to the front…again.”

“The daily struggles of a beanpole, number sixteen…” chuckled the blonde as Craig simply side glanced him, aggravation evident, what would it take for his height to be an off the table topic at long last?

“We get it, you don’t want to be sent home after how long it took to get here and the effort it took to get this spring break to start with but Kyle, now isn’t the time to be stubborn so just work with us here and ideally, we won’t have to confess anything to the teachers…”

As Stan attempted to smooth out the tension, noting the weak, annoyed glare off the red head, who likely wouldn’t even be standing if he wasn’t holding him up; what had got into him all of sudden, he’d never seen him like this before, so spaced out as if the lights were on but no one was home while he looked at something that perplexed him, despite nothing being there which would make him so defensive, it was weird.

“Speaking of, you may want to get him out of here before the place calms down and they notice anyway.”

“Buttercup has a point, I’ll run ahead and meet you there, perhaps there’s something at a local pharmacy that could help.”

“Miss Roa was already eyeing me up in suspicion on the coach…” Kyle mumbled as the rest just looked at him worryingly; that active, empty gaze of his was becoming rather scary.

“Thanks Kenny, if nothing else get some paracetamol for that headache of his…” as Kyle quirked a brow at teen in question, who simply smugly smirked back, “come on now dude, how long have I known you, you’ve been massaging the centre of your forehead this whole time, as if you’ve developed the migraine of the century.”

Quickly lowering his hand, Kyle turned away, refusing eye contact with any of them; had he really been doing it for that long, did he really not notice? Maybe he was coming down with something if he wasn’t even acknowledging what his own body was doing.

“Let’s just get going…”

Stan sympathetically chuckled and with Kenny lost to the distance, Craig, Butters and Tweek watched on in silence, those three were far closer, had much tighter bonds than they did with anyone else in the group or anyone else in the group had with each other; a swift, unsubtle reminder that if it wasn’t for their current situation, none of them would probably even be talking to each other right now as the two awkwardly walked towards the dorms.

“I certainly hope Kyle feels better soon, what a lousy time to come down with something…”

“That better be all it is…” Craig dismissively stated, simply staring in the direction the trio had gone as the two blondes looked at each other, then at Craig in confusion, “never mind, let’s just get the bags and get going before Cartman and co make an appearance.”

Chapter Text

“McCormack? What the hell is a McCormack, it’s Mick, Mick! How is it so difficult?”

“Dude, keep it down will you…”

“Oh, right, Kyle…. This is still like the third or fourth time now, how did my last name suddenly become such an issue for people…”

“Kenny!” Stan spoke firmly, quirked brow at the blonde, “were you able to get anything?” had he already forgotten what was going on? “Let’s sort out Kyle, then we can question how their A and I on a keyboard wound up next to each other…”

“Oh! Yeah, right… here…” as the blonde rummaged through his pocket, finally pulling out a small blue box, throwing it across the room, as Kyle appeared to have taken the furthest bed, closest to the window, laying down with his arms covering his eyes. “At least it lives up to its name; I would say look at that view but that view doesn’t seem to be agreeing with Kyle...”

“Ugh, I was expecting the ocean view of Ocean view motel to be a lie and it was actually their pool.” Grumbled Kyle as he slowly sat up, leaning back against the cushions, knees drawn in, head back in hands.

“Signs of life! Anything is an improvement from the auto pilot from before…still awful?”

“Is it that obvious?” sighed Kyle as he held out his hand to Stan to indicate the box, quickly popping two out and taking them raw as he threw his head back and swallowed, “now to see if they do any good… otherwise this is the worst start to a vacation ever!”

“Sort of silver lining, this is the first time, just the three of us have hung out in some time” Kenny smirked back trying to lighten the mood and it seemed to have worked as he spotted a smirk with a muffled huff laugh from Kyle.

“Things have certainly changed a lot this past year… heh, the mysteries of life or whatever they call it” shrugged Stan as he returned to his backpack to fetch the remnants of a bottle of water for the red head to finish; he may not be feeling well but tablets raw just didn’t feel right. “I still can’t decide if this is some kind of awesome luck or a curse?”

“Well, I think…” Kenny started, pulling out a pineapple juice carton from his bag, along with a pocket Stanley knife, as the pair stared at him, confused as they waited for him to continue but instead, the blonde simply continued with what he was doing, holding the carton firmly in one hand, jammed the straw in and barely a second after, took the knife to the cardboard and revealed the newly made popsicle inside with the smuggest of grins on his face, “it is whatever you make of it!”

“The literal super powers part is really cool; I like how everyone is mysteriously so different… however…”

“The need to avoid the very substance that surrounds you every day is a pain, just waiting for the right trigger to become a nightmare…”

“Cheerful Kyle but considering your unwell, I think we can let it slide.” As Stan simply stuck out his tongue in response to the unimpressed smirk off the red head, “so Kenny, is it any good and where are ours now?”

“Tsk, tsk, where’s the consideration, I’m even ill!”

“Ha, ha, very funny you two” as Kenny joined Stan, leaning against the wall opposite the bed Kyle had decided to claim for his own, the two chuckling in response; well one chuckle and one attempted laugh but consisted more of coughing, which left Kenny and Stan looking on rather concerned as they watched the red head take another swig of water, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll pick up some more later and do a group mishmash tomorrow, breakfast, lunch and dinner if you really want!”

“I’ll hold you to that!” Kyle quietly responded as he pointed at him with the bottle before returning his gaze out the window, head resting on his knees once more as he massaged his forehead with the spare hand. All the while the pair against the wall looked on concerned, shared a brief glance of their own, instantly deciding to keep the conversation ball going, with absolutely anything if it would help distract Kyle on whatever was wrong with him.

“Not forgetting, the biggest twist of all; who would have ever thought we’d ever become best buds with Craig or Tweek…” Kenny grinned, their social circle really had taken quite the turn.

“Best buds may be stretching it… how about super tolerated?”

“I’m with Stan on this one, whoever thought Craig could stomach being around us this long…” lightly chuckled Kyle as he smiled at the pair, taking a large swig of water, “although, it is like Tweek said, Craig really isn’t so bad once you get past the surface. I mean…” as Kyle briefly glanced out the window before looking at his friends once more, “despite his reluctance, he was actually a great help when we visited Mephesto’s Lab... even if he did look like he was one statement away from murdering someone…”

“Say what now!?” The pair questioned in unison, only to get a faint shrug off the red head. Definitely a question to be saved for later.

“How’s the jury with Stan and Craig, good or are you two still working on it?”

“Marsh and I are fine as long as it remains in small doses.”

“Craig!” spoke the trio in unison, staring at the doorway in surprise at the bean pole with three bags on his shoulder, while Tweek and Butters walked in, rolling in the last one.

“This McCormack guy though, never heard of him, guess we’ll wait and see.”

“Grrr…You’re not funny…” grumbled the blonde, brows furrowed as Craig just smirked in return, walking further in to allow room for the other two.

“Wow… talk about long and narrow, you couldn’t swing a cat in here” Butters started, looking about curiously, just six single beds lined up against the wall, a large window at the opposite end and a small cut away near the door with a table across it and two chairs, while opposite the bed nearest to the door was a small bathroom. “Are we sure it won’t be too cramped in here?”

“Now, now you guys, this is meant to be fun remember…” Tweek sighed, why were they still like this? They said they would try or was he just reading things wrong? “Are any of the beds taken or is it just whatever?” as he handed Kyle his suitcase.

“Aside for the one Kyle claimed, whatever…but I call dibs on a middle one!” As Kenny threw his duffle bag across the beds, his fate being on which ever bed it landed on, just bouncing off the fourth one from the door, “and bed four it is!”

“In that case, Marsh, take the one closest to the door…”

“Huh! Why me exactly?”

“Despite his reluctance to admit it, Tweek gets anxious about the idea of people potentially charging through the door and even if that did happen, they wouldn’t get past you now would they…”

“Craig!!!” Protested the blonde, hiding his face in his hands, this was embarrassing

“Is it not true?”

“Well, no, you’re not wrong but still…” huffed Tweek, storming past the taller teen and claiming the bed beside Kyle.

“Relax Tweek, no one here is gonna judge, besides Stan could just throw them back through the wall!” joked Kenny with a loud laugh that only got louder as Stan started going red as the rest of the room joined with light chuckles of their own. Sighing as he accepted his fate, Stan took his bag from Craig and placed it on the first bed, if that was what everyone wanted.

“We should really test that out some day… just not today or ideally, in here… who knows maybe a chance will come round sooner than you think?” casually responded Kyle, the comment dismissed by all but one as Craig quirked a brow at the red head but said nothing as he put his bag on the third bed to start sorting through his things.

“How are you feeling?” Queried Butters as he placed his suitcase on the second bed and walked down to Kyle, sitting on the bed Tweek had claimed only for the pair to get a shrug off the red head.

“Well… just say if you need or want anything and we can go and fetch it for you.”

“No, don’t, this is supposed to be about having fun, you shouldn’t be worrying over me.”

“Kyle! We’re a team, you said it yourself, we’re supposed to look out for each other, you’re not being a problem.” Tweek gently smiled back, placing his hand reassuringly on his shoulder, the rest of the room simply smiling or nodding in agreement to his remark.

Returning to their own doings, with the group unpacked and settled in, which really didn’t take all that long when it came down to it. All that was left was to figure out what do with the rest of the day or at least the afternoon as Butters threw every leaflet and brochure, he had taken from the lobby onto the small table for people to rummage through. A selection of colourful and decorative pieces of glossy paper of local attractions, which should hopefully, ideally, at least have something for everyone; aquatics, sports, amusements and many more, along with a few town maps mixed in, now it was just a case of deciding what to do and when. How much could they get in between the beach and the mass of student’s parties planned.

The rooms silence being disturbed by what sounded like the loudest banging possible of someone being overly enthusiastic the other side of their door. Looking at each other in surprise and suspicion, having their names outside the door perhaps not most helpful idea off the school, after all, it makes Cartman’s job easier if he was there to give them grief again. As the overly enthusiastic knocking continued, Stan decided to approach the door; that much energy couldn’t be Cartman but if by some strange chance

It was, he’d easily be able to overpower him and slam the door again, then again that fatass did like to cause a scene and with no foul mouth tirade coming from the other side; it was a fair conclusion to suggest they were safe, at least for now.

“Perfect, your still here!” Came an equally overly too enthusiastic voice of the now pigtail, bikini wearing cheerleaders at their door, “Come on Stan, Craig come and join us for some volleyball, we could do with some extra members! Most the football team are already out there!”

“Kenny is more than welcomed to join to!” cheered the one with clearly dyed hair, whose name escaped him as Stan stood there at the door confused, hand still securely on the handle ready to potentially slam it shut if needed and hope he didn’t break it in the process.

Quirking a brow at the door, Craig simply remained neutral, walking away to put on a clean t-shirt, grabbed his wallet off the bed, tucked it in his front pocket and made his way to the door, grabbing a leaflet on the way. These High school antics will not be missed.

“I’m not here, I’m at the Go-cart track…” came the casual reply as he pushed past the group of girls to make his way down the hall, while Kenny silently chuckled behind his hands, that was pretty smooth of him.

“Like wise, I went with the Beanpole!” Kenny called out making sure Craig heard him, despite knowing the opposite to be true as he quickly stomped back on his trainers and ran after him, not even giving the girls a second look.

“Humph… they could have just said no…” moaned the dyed blonde once more as all eyes now fell on Stan from both sides of the door, “come on Stan, make up our team numbers!” as the girls crowded around him stealing and invading all personal space as they pleaded with him. Grabbing his lower arms, trying to tug him outside.

“You’ve been so distant from the team lately, this would be a great chance to get that team synergy back!” cheered the short haired one, Jeri or something, not that Stan could say he cared about any of the cheerleaders, they were just a group who made a lot of noise.

Meanwhile all Stan could look at was Kyle, the red head finally noticing his gaze as he weakly smiled back, realising what his super best friend was looking for.

“I’ll be fine! Just remember to…”

“I know, I know, I won’t go anywhere near it but if you’re really sure…”

“Just go!” Kyle feebly managed to call out, almost sounding healthy enough to deceive those at the door as his friend simply nodded; running back to his bag to pull out a sleeveless jacket, for the sole reason that it had zippable pockets he could put his stuff in.
Grabbing an arm each and one behind to push to make sure he couldn’t change his mind, the group of girls could still be heard shrieking and cheering even with the door shut. While Stan had gone with the shrieking harpies, faint questions about what was wrong with Kyle could be heard going further and further away as silence returned to the room of the trio.

“The burdens of being popular I guess…” Tweek sighed, as he re-joined Butters and Kyle on the far end beds.

“I wouldn’t think about it too much, I’m used to being overlooked by others, has happened ever since elementary…”

“Still, that’s no excuse to act like were not even in the room…” scoffed Kyle, chancing a quick glance at Butters after his remark, a twang of guilt for all the times they used Butters as their scapegoat for collateral damage to one of their many dumb ideas. “You two don’t have stay here you know, I’ll just take a nap and re-join you later.”

“Heh… I’m good… you heard it out there, its chaos…” Tweek stuttered, looking over his shoulder at the door, perhaps once it had calm down out there, if it calmed down at all?

“Or maybe it’s a physique thing?”

“You what!?” coughed Kyle in surprise as the pair looked at Butters is disbelief.

“Can’t deny Stan does have a very good build, maybe girls like that sort of thing, a bit too much for my liking, just makes me feel too scrawny in comparison. Some one more Kenny’s build would be nice I reckon”

“Stan is toned but not overly muscular like other members of the football team… although…” Tweek awkwardly joined in, blushing slightly, how did Butters speak about such things so openly or did he just not realise or not care in a way different to Craig’s? “I’d second that, not specifically Kenny…” as the blonde waved his hands in the air, in denial or rejection to the idea “I prefer the slimmer athletic build myself, healthy but not too much to hold…how about you Kyle?”

“What about me!” came a blared-out response that much quicker than the red head would have liked, had they noticed or was it just general conversation? “Would it matter, Stan doesn’t lean that way anyway?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that…”

“Implying what exactly?” as the red head quirked a brow at Butters, if Stan showed any signs, he’d know, after all no one knows Stan like he does, they’ve been best friends since forever.

“I think Stan might be more flexible than any of us gave credit for and those girls are going to be disappointed.”

“Now that Butters mentions it… he’s ticking a lot of similar boxes, that Craig once did…” Tweek chuckled behind his hand, “I don’t think those figure-hugging tops of his are just because of his physique.”

“And when was the last time anyone saw Stan make a move on a girl, the girls at school are at his feet and he doesn’t seem to care, doesn’t give them a second glance.”

“They use to be like that with Craig, Stan is at least more polite about it…I think, is humouring the idea a nice thing or a mean thing? Craig just flat out rejected them to their faces.” As the twitchy blonde thought over his past experiences, while staring at the ceiling.

“Let’s… Let’s just changed the topic…” Kyle snapped, quickly hiding his face in his knees, he could feel it warm all over and it wasn’t due to whatever lousy bug he had the worst luck to have come down with. As the room fell temporarily silent before the two blondes silently chuckled to themselves.

“Well… Do you think… think that two roads and several metres of sand, will be far enough? You know, between us and it…”

“Who knows Tweek… we can only hope so but who knows how things will pan out this week.” Kyle quietly spoke, glancing over his knees and out the window, while snaking a glance at the two on the bed next to him, “it shouldn’t need to be said but the aim is still to have fun, relax but remain on guard for anything unusual.”

“Unusual?”

“Yes Butters, unusual, any signs that we don’t usually experience at South Park… call it a gut feeling we’ll react differently to salt water than fresh water…”

“Right…relax… with all those hundreds of people out there… so many potential people to bust us…” came the nervous interjection from Tweek as he looked at the pair, the tight grip on his short didn’t go unnoticed by the other two as they shared a quick look.

“Tell you what Tweek!” Butters jumped in with a clap of his hands and hop to his step, “Kyle wanted to rest, so would you like to check ice cream parlour's with me!”

“Why Ice cream stands specifically?”

“It’s a must in any new location! Plus, you never know what weird and wonderful flavours you might find in places like this!”

Chuckling at the blondes’ antics, as his enthusiasm and excitement bubbled over, Butters was practically touched the ceiling as he ran off to get one of the local maps off the table.

“Go on Tweek, the fresh air might do you some good and you’ll have support in numbers.” Kyle started as the Twitchy blonde just stared back and he just knew exactly what he was about to say, again, they practically all said it so far in their own unique ways,

“I’ll be fine, like Butters said, I’m going to take a power nap for an hour or so and hopefully feel better and refreshed!”

“Alright, if you sure, I suppose it won’t hurt, I can’t hide in here all week it’s meant to be a holiday….” as Twitch took a deep breath to calm himself down, “alright Butters! Let’s go and…umm investigate?”

“Yeah! I’ve got notepad, pen and map at the ready, let’s do this!” cheered Butters in such a loud and enthusiastic manner, that those cheerleaders from before should have been here to take notes.

“Just one thing before you go…” Kyle interjected, already under the covers, shirt on the floor beside his bag as the two blondes simply stared back at him blankly, “shut the curtains for me before you go.”

Chapter Text

By the next morning, dozens of names had already appeared on the name and shame list for the school, right in view of everyone on the main hall doors that lead to the kitchen, eating area, which mostly only served breakfast; well breakfast for those who were still able to walk and function the next morning. It really did look like they hadn’t gone anywhere or that the teachers just brought the school food hall with them. Nor was the list much of a deterrent as those guilty few weren’t ashamed but more so, wore it as a badge of honour. At least while on Spring Break, once they got back to school, well, they’ll have plenty of time to study and revise for those end of year exams.

Meanwhile, Kenny had stealthily made his way out and back into the motel room, successfully without disturbing a soul, quietly shutting the door, locking it as well as tipping the contents of his shopping bag over the table without awakening anyone, even dial to eleven senses Craig. He couldn’t have been hungover, he was practically with him all day and they had remained at the tracks all afternoon until the staff had to forcefully kick Craig out, which was a laugh in itself; apparently this side of Craig just takes forever to thaw out. So, what had successfully managed to distract the beanpole?

With the juice cartons all set out and ready to go, Kenny just stared at the disposable barbecue on the side with a hefty sigh; Kyle apparently said he'd meet up with Tweek and Butters but it never came to pass and the red head was in bed all day, still breathing thankfully but completely undisturbed, they couldn't even get him to flinch and just like now as Kenny glanced over at the end bed, Kyle was still muttering and tossing in his sleep as if he was having a bad dream but he promised these to Kyle for this morning and he was a man of his word if nothing else as he peeled back the cardboard of his newly formed pineapple popsicle.

That would be, if Kyle got up this morning at all, just what was going on with him?

By mid-morning the room was cleared once more, a note left for Kyle and everyone having agreed to check in on him throughout the day but he had his phone, he could text or call any one of them if something came up or if he at least woke up.

It was strange, the group hadn’t spent this much apart from each other in months, being a group of six had just become familiar territory, that just doing their own thing again took some adjusting to. The four of them had started together, Butters, Tweak, Stan and Kenny had gone to check out the fairgrounds nearby, Craig had decided to walk in to the town to get his souvenir shopping out the way and ideally find something better for his folks and sister than cheap gift store knick knacks that were overpriced as well as dodge the cheerleaders who were still on his case as soon as he stepped out the door. Why he would never know, he was only there to make up his grade, he didn’t give a damn about the team or this so-called team synergy or whatever it was they were rambling on about.

It didn’t take long for them to split up again after lunch, Butters had gone to seek inspiration for any new textiles designs from the shops nearby and the natural world around them, there were all sorts of things to be explored and discovered, especially compared to the snowy mountainous South Park; he had even shown Tweek a quiet spot that was ideal for rock pool studies, something that probably would have at least got Kyle’s curiosity to have a look at. If said red head would wake up?

Sighing at the no change, how was Kyle that tired, it had been two days now, should they tell someone? What would they even tell them? Where to draw the line on the most basic of things was getting so confusing, it was so blurry, what if something really was wrong with Kyle and they were ignoring because they all thought it was the other thing… What if… no, no, he couldn’t think like that, he had to stay in the moment and not get lost in the crazy directions his wild thoughts could take him in. Maybe the others were right, he should go and do an activity that would take his interest, must be something here he would like to try that wasn’t a coffee shop. Then again, a coffee was quite tempting right now and it was always good to check out the competition, even if it was four states over.

One Thanks a Latte discovery later and Tweek found himself sitting on one of the stools by the far wall, looking over a tourist leaflet on some where to go, out of their so called recommended hot spots. The café it was self was oddly spacious and wide open despite only being small, so much so that if it wasn’t for all the shelves and machines behind the counter, you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking this was some one’s overly stylish kitchen, just with string lights decorating the ceiling, hung all the way from the entrance way to the door.

The coffee itself was alright, he’d give a three out of five, there was room for improvement and while the place was cosy, it was only a six out of ten at most, there was just something missing that made it feel like a coffee shop or his idea of one anyway as he flipped over the page of brochure, museums and galleries, that was a definite no as he flicked straight to the next page, however, this far end table with stools along it, maybe he’d implement this when he gets the chance.

“Now, now, what is a cute thing like you doing all alone during Spring Break…”

Spoke an unknown voice as a slice of cake was slid under his nose causing Tweek to cautiously look over at the stranger. Was he talking to him? He couldn’t have meant him? The only people to ever call him cute were Butters, Kenny, Kyle… and the only one who had ever meant more than just being a friend trying to pick up your mood, Craig.

“I’m ok thanks…what is that anyway?”

“A local specialty, lemon and rapeseed, everything in this coffee shop is organic, my buddies and I often come here during our free periods.”

“Free periods? So, you’re a local…?”

“Of course, first year in college, I’m down here with a couple of mates, why not come with, we could show you all the great spots.”

“No, really, I’m alright, I can’t really decide what I’m up for today…”

“Then I suggest…” the sandy blonde figure started, leaning in far too close for Tweek’s comfort as the taller teen was practically leaning on top of him, hand on his shoulder as he pointed towards the map at a set of locations not too far from where they were but nothing on interest was there on the map, despite this weirdo’s insistence, “oh... you don’t seem impressed with your coffee, not to your liking? Or the cake? Here, try a piece.”

As the blonde took a small spoon and cut a bit off to feed him, his spare hand holding onto Tweek’s shoulder, hugging him closer every time he tried to inch back on his stool slightly, this was way too forward, way too invading, too much, too soon. This guy was a complete stranger!

“Thanks, but no thanks, you have it… I… I’ve got to go…” Tweek stuttered trying to hold his nerves, the gaze of the sandy blonde sending him all the wrong messages as he finished his coffee, slammed his cup down, ducking out of his hold during the momentary distraction as Tweek casually but quickly walked outside, avoiding eye contact with any and everyone, especially the creep where he was sitting. How could anyone be so insincere on such a matter, he wasn’t going to be some strangers bit on the side or Spring Break fling, it was messed up and he was better, worth more than that.

In the end, freaked out, creeped out and desperately trying to resist another decaf to help calm down and now that he had a moment to think about it, he didn’t even get his name so he would know at least who to avoid. At least now there were lots of people about, no one would be dumb enough to try anything with this many people about and that’s what he did, he checked out various overly populated areas, the mini shopping mall, a crazy golf centre with an arcade and bar, where Tweek wound up spending his afternoon, releasing his tensed up frustrations on the golf course, even if it meant he was constantly missing the holes and landing two pitches over; it was helping, along with two strawberry, almond, oat smoothies later, what was he so worked up over again?

Still, it was getting late and he hadn’t checked in with the others in the while, which meant there was likely no news on Kyle either. Hopping off the bus, Tweek instantly covered his ears, everything was so loud and crowded here, just get back to the motel and forget most of today ever happened accept today had other plans as he ran round the corner and into the last person, he wanted to see which wasn’t Cartman and his afternoon had turned around so
well...

“Well, well, what do we have here, the cute little blonde from before.”

“You again! …I…I told you to leave me alone! I’m not interested!” Tweek stammered out as the sandy blonde held onto his wrist to stop him from falling back.

“Aww, don't be like that, let's just get to know each other a bit better. A cute thing like you shouldn't be all by themselves, it’s a waste.” as the taller teen swung his arm over Tweek's shoulder, tugging him a bit closer.

“I am not alone! I'm fine, go away!” shouted Tweek sternly as he ducked and left the guys hold, taking a few steps to create space between himself and the creep who couldn't take no for an answer.

“Heh, I don't think he's buying it, guess you’re not his type Rex. How about you ignore him and come with me, we could have some fun together.” as the mop head of poorly gelled auburn hair held out his hand with a smug smirk on his face before being quickly pulled back and turned away by the sandy blonde bun wearer from before. Was this one of his so-called buddies he spoke of before?

“Hey! No fair, I saw him first Fox, back off.”

“Who cares, who saw him first, we have all the time in the world to have all the fun with him, sharing is caring as they say.”

The very statement sending a shiver down Tweek’s spine and alarm bells ringing at its implication, “I am not some meat-bag to pass around, I'm a person now out my way!” shouted Tweek trying his best to stand his ground but every inch of his body was telling him to run and get out of there but run where? If he went back to the motel they’d know where to find him next time and if he went back, he could possibly lose them in the crowds but what was the chance he’d be able to even out run them, he couldn’t even do the hundred metre dash without nearly dying. Ideas! Ideas! He needed some ideas!

“You’re so cold for such a sunny looking creature...” Fox casually called out, stroking Tweek's face gently, the teen quickly smacking it away as he inched ever so slightly back once more.

“Stay back, I'm warning you!”

“My oh my, isn't he adorable... what are you going to do tough guy.” as Fox leaned in once more, catching his arm this time as he attempted to once more smack it aside, pulling it behind his back as he pushed him with force towards Rex, who caught him and held him back with ease. The pair towering over him; why did he have to be so short? It wasn't fair.

“So then, how about we go for a brief walk, I know a spot you’re going to love.” The auburn hair buddy gently voiced, placing a finger on Tweeks lips, so he knew not to get any ideas as he casually guided him along. “Why so tense little one, there's no need to be so harsh, we just want to get to know you better but if you do keep being feisty...” Rex started, leaning in, resting his head on Tweek's shoulder as he whispered into his ear, which caused him to freeze instantly, his body shutting down on the spot as struggling and pulling to get free was proving to be fruitless, “we'd just have to get rough back and you wouldn't want that now would you, damaged goods are just no fun after all...”

“Let me go! ...” pleaded the teen, trying his best not to cry, to stay in control but they never prepared him for such emotionally driven moments like this as he squirmed some more, “Just let me go! I don't want any part of this! You don't have permission!”

“Oh sweetie, who said anything about permission...” as Fox casually smirked, licking his lips but it would have to wait as the pair pushed Tweek down a narrow sandy path and to an area Tweek actually recognized, these were the rock pools Butters mentioned earlier but before Tweek could even begin to register anything else he felt a presence behind him once more, tugging his blonde's hair back as Tweek squirmed harder than ever, he knew what was coming he had to get out of here, he had to fight back but why wouldn't his body respond as he felt the second of the creeps hand on his chest, traveling up and onto his shoulders, spinning Tweek round as he leaned in for a chaste kiss before stepping away smugly, “hmm you taste like strawberries cutie.”

“No fair Fox, don't hog him all for yourself!” Rex coldly cut in as he blocked the other side and pushed Tweek against the cliff face, boxing him as he slowly used both hands to ghost his way down Tweek's figure, grinning more as he did so, while Tweek simply bit his lip nervously, so hard that it started to bleed but as he watched his hands go for the buttons of his shirt, undoing each of them slowly from the top down, with the first touch of skin on skin his brain finally reengaged just enough for him to tell him to clear some space as he kneed the bun wearer in the nose, causing him to go flying back as Tweek grabbed his shirt closed, putting some space between himself and his attackers but with his nerves shot and brain overloaded, he had no real plan outside of getting out of his hold.

Making a dash for it, Tweek avoided Rex’s grasp and tackle but was successfully blocked from the only path up by Fox who stood there looking angrier than angry, he was clearly now seeing red as he held his nose, blood dripping through his fingers as he dived in to grab him with his spare hand, causing Tweek to jump back with no attention to his surroundings.

“LEAVE ME AL... aahh!!”

With a loud spalsh, Tweek found himself waist deep in one of the many nearby rock pools, sitting comfortably inside with his shoulders poking out one end, his arms around the edge, his feet at the other end, soaked through as his clothes clung to him along with the rapid sensation of scales protruding through his skin, his hands webbing together as he tried to push himself out and his grasp on the situation slipping away entirely once more.

“What the hell is this... what the hell is he?”

“Those look like scales...”

“Get out, you mean, like a fish...?” Rex scoffed back as the pair watched the blonde change before their eyes.

“It has to be, his hands are webbed... never mind fun, we've just hit the jackpot with this find!”

First he was just a piece of meat, now he was some sort of trophy prize but in both cases he was being eyed up in the most uncomfortable way and he was no longer being seen for the person he was... just like he feared back at the lake, his feet partly gone, he was stuck and on the verge of being locked away and experimented on if these two got their way.... and he, he could take no more, his conscience slipping, his mind and body disengaging in attempt to protect him from any more harm, while the storm he was holding in broke out as the sparks begun to cackle around him, emitting from his body flying in every direction that even caused his attackers to dive out the way.

“CRAIG!!! HELP ME!!!”

Snapping upright, Craig quirked a brow from his spot by beach side bar, the far end where it was nice shaded and finally gave him a break from the sun outside. It wasn't his imagination but he was sure he was drying out much quicker than was normal...

“Tweek!?”

As the ravenette looked around confused, he could have sworn he had heard him, it sounded desperate but with all the shrieking harpies around him, he couldn't say for sure but if Tweek was in trouble, he must be taking a gamble on him being able to hear him and the gut feeling this wasn't something to ignore. Gulping down the rest of his slushie, slamming the cup on the bar, Craig shot up, pushing his way through the group of girls that had surrounded him.

“As uninteresting as all this is.... I'm gay and I'm out of here!”

And with that he was gone, power walking round the corner as the girls were left standing there speechless. Once outside Craig soon switched into a sprint, it was one thing being able to hear a pin drop across town but it didn't exactly give him a way to know the specifics and with all the noise from the music, the parties, the crowds, the amusements and rides, it was near impossible to focus on the direction the voice could have come from.

“CRAIG! PLEASE!”

“Tweek... what is going on with you...” Craig muttered, eyes closed as he tried to focus on the direction the voice came from, a direction he'd have to take a gamble on, he didn't have time to waste, the last time he heard Tweek sound that desperate, he had an obsession over North Korea. “Just hold on Tweek, just a little longer...”

“So, Fox, what should we do with him?”

“I can't believe his feet morphed into a fin... argh, why didn't we record that! No way anyone is going to believe us!”

“Never mind that, look around and see if there's something around here, we could use to knock him out with!”

“First we need to figure out how to turn him off...that static is no joke...” as the sandy blonde rubbed his arm, the pair jumping aside as another spark came flying in their direction sporadically, the faint glow noticeable from a short distance or far distance in a certain individuals case.

Watching from a top of the cliff eyes narrowed, the ravenette made a sprint along the cliff edge, slamming a twenty dollar note on a nearby picnic table as he pinched the six pack that was sitting on the side, without as much as a word, the original owners cussing and yelling as he sprinted off but right now, he needed these far more than they did. Carefully but swiftly sliding down the narrow sandy path which lead to the hidden rock pools until it was safe enough to jump down, focusing on the nearby sea, swiftly raising his hand and swinging it towards the cliff face, the water following his every command as a jet stream of water crashed into the pair, sending the auburn flying back into the cliff face and while the other remained standing, before he could even register or react, Craig was in his face and with a swift combo blow to the side of the head of the bun wearer, using the six pack in his hand and a knee to the stomach, dragging the dazed and confused creep towards his mate, undoing the entire six pack and tipped it all over them, after all, whose going to believe a pair of beer smelling, slurring, clumsy drunks.

Chucking the empty six pack aside, Craig swiftly stomped between their heads and leaned in, eyes furious but cold, “If I see either of you two around him again or at all, a shiner will be the least of your worries, now get the fuck out of my sight!!!”
With what sounded like a squeak and a gulp, the pair scurried up the path and disappeared, the ravenette watching their every move until they were out of sight. Sighing heavily, that was too close but hopefully it'll be enough to throw them off their trail as he scanned the area to make sure they were truly alone as his eyes fell on the blonde.

Now came the bigger problem, what to do about Tweek?

The blonde in such a panic, such a state his electric charge was acting more as a shield, preventing him or anyone for that matter to get any closer as Craig shielded himself from another spark that came flying his way.

“Tweek, you have got to calm down, those creeps are gone! It's safe, Tweek, listen to me! It’s me, Craig” as he ducked out the way of yet another strike, not to mention that glow, if he saw it, then what’s the chances someone else could, then again, no one else quite had the vision he did but it was still too much of a risk to take, especially if they saw Tweek looking like that. Calmly observing from a distance as he stared at the scales and the newly formed tail from all the splashing as Tweek now sat in the rock pool, curled into himself, wrapping his tail around himself for extra protection and that was when it hit him as Craig looked at his own hands; this version of Craig may not be able to do something, however...

“I know what we agreed on but this is an emergency...so, sorry, not sorry...” as Craig stared at the sea, that damn body of water had been giving the migraine of his life, every visual sight of it sent a shiver down his spine for reasons unknown, it wasn’t like this was his first time seeing the sea or being in the sea, so then why was it so attention grabbing. Sighing heavily, pushing the thoughts aside, one problem at a time and time wasn’t something he had much of and he had to try something. Quickly kicking off his clothes, Craig ran over and lowered himself waist deep in the water as he held onto the shore line, trying his best to ignore the revitalising sensation that came with it as he took a deep breath as he went under, emerging minutes later, tail, ears, claws and all as he pushed himself back out and slowly crawled his way back to the panicking blonde.

Wincing still as he slowly joined Tweek in the rock pool but this minor inconvenient pain was far better than almost being killed by it, his higher resistance in his mutated state questionable if by chance or on purpose, either way who cared as long as he could get the job done. Scooping up Tweek and hugging him close, rubbing circles in his back as he quietly whispered reassurances, trying to get Tweek to settle down, uncurl himself, ground himself, count his breaths, which ever idea or suggestion he would latch on to first; the danger was gone and he was ok now, he was safe as the blondes screams turned into hiccups and eventually full-on sobs as he cried into Craig's shoulder.

The pair simply sat there in silence, Craig on high alert in case anything approached and while silence had befallen the pair, Tweek was still noticeably gripping onto him as if his life depended on it. How long they remained like this he was unsure but it must have been a while, the tide was now lapping up above the edge of the platform.

“Craig... I'm so relieved you heard me...”

“Hmm?” Craig started quirking a brow at the smaller teen, looking away swiftly,” I won't sugar coat it, you're lucky that I did. You're lucky that I found you...”

“I’ve always been lucky to have you in my corner” mumbled Tweek, face still buried, “Thank you for coming... I had no idea what else to do...”

“Don’t go punishing yourself, you can’t control what your body does in those situations. The problem is resolved and your safe, just focus on that for now.”

Nodding against his chest, Tweek slowly uncurled himself, sitting on Craig’s lap of a tail as the rock pool was too small for the pair of them to properly be able to sit in, listening to calming sound of the waves crashing nearby.

“As soon as you feel ready, we’ll head back, forget the parties and the barbecues, let’s just call it a day, alright?”

“Hmm…Alri…. Aahh!” Screamed Tweak suddenly, causing Craig to quickly cover his ears, too loud, too close…

“What!? What is it?!”

“My tail… something’s on my tail…!” Lifting his tail out, Tweek hid behind his hands, his nerves couldn’t take anymore as Craig just looked on blankly, “what is it, what is it!?”

“Settle down Tweek, you’re fine…” Craig calmly started as he leaned over and pulled a crab off the end of his tail, smirking at it, “look, it’s just a crab, it must have thought your tail was seaweed or something…”

“uggh… I’m so embarrassed, don’t mention any of this to the…”

“You're fine Tweek, I won’t say a... Tweek? What’s wrong this time?” as the taller teen just stared at the blonde in confusion, turning slightly to try and get a look at whatever it was that had caught his eye.

“Hey… isn’t that Kyle up there!?” as Tweek pointed up towards a cliff point that protruded slightly further out and above where they were sitting. Following his finger Craig stared in the direction he was pointing until spotting a solitary figure just looking out to sea.

“Your right, that is Broflovski but what’s he doing all the way out here?”

“Why didn’t the others let us know he was up and about, I’ve been worried to.”

“Or maybe they didn’t kn…” as Craig and Tweek watched the figure wobble precariously near the edge, the pair shooting up right the best they could as they watched on.

“KYLE!!!”