Update- 11/27/2016- An anonymous message was sent to me very early this morning on this story being stolen and put on Wattpad by another user who claimed it as their own and that they wrote it. I took the steps to get it taken down and as of now, it has.

If anyone else sees that this story is by anyone else but me (my username will ALWAYS be RiddlePanda or RiddlePanda84) or anywhere else other than Ao3, , and now Wattpad (since I made an account to post the story on even though that site is buggy as hell), please let me know.

"Fuck you Dad!"

"You know what Craig!? You're not even my damn kid! Your damn whore of a mother cheated on me the night before our wedding! I don't have to take care of you. Get out of my fucking house! No one wants you, you fucked up bastard! Not your real father, your mother, OR me!"

The icy words cut through Craig's mind, stinging him deeper than the crisp September weather that, for the universal reason of punishing the teenager even more, decided to be colder this year than normal. It was only five in the afternoon, but judging from the dark clouds rolling in, it would soon rain and bring the temperature down even further.

Two weeks. Two weeks ago, Craig Tucker's life had decided to take a sharp turn that left the teen currently cold, hungry, and living under the bridge closest to the school, his meager possessions filling up two trash bags and his school backpack. In retrospect, he was glad he insisted on Ruby taking his current guinea pig, Streak, with her when his sister and mom had moved out and had moved in with Brian in North Park.

Craig sighed and stared at his drying chullo and pulled his jacket hood up, cursing himself for deciding to take his beloved hat off in the locker room for gym which ended in Cartman stealing it and somehow getting completely soaked. He ended up finally getting it back and willed himself not to retaliate against the fat fuck, for fear of getting detention, something that Craig desperately did not need due to his current situation.

Craig's stomach grumbled and the teen clenched his fist, trying to ebb the empty feeling away, wishing he hadn't relented in giving back the fruit cup he had stolen off of Clyde's lunch tray. Damn Donovan and his fucking puppy dog eyes. Normally Craig didn't care about the look his best friend gave him as he stole food off his tray, more so lately, but his recent foggy brain couldn't bare to see the stocky teen sad. Craig really hoped he wasn't getting sick. Brain fogginess usually happened to him when that happened.

The teen stood up and carefully looked around before fully emerging from under the bridge. The was no way in hell he was about to let anyone in South Park save for the bastard that kicked him out know that he was homeless. His pride was too ingrained for him to ask for any kind of help, even fully knowing that his two best friends, Clyde and Token, would probably do everything they could to help.

Well…Token would, since he was the richest kid in school, but Craig already knew Token would be a bit smug about helping "those less fortunate" than himself. The teen had always felt self-conscious about the fact that Token and his family would go all out on sleepovers and parties stemming back from when they were all younger.

Clyde…Clyde was another story. Clyde Donovan had always been and would always be a crier. Craig surmised that if his best friend found out about his living conditions, the world would drown in the amount of tears coming out of the brunette. Plus, Clyde and his father were on a tight budget ever since Clyde's mother had died. There would be no way he could impose on the Donovan family.

Nope. Craig had to keep his situation to himself, at least until he somehow got a job that he could handle on top of school and save the money for an acceptable place to live or the unlikely situation of his mother and her new boyfriend letting Craig move in as well. His former non-father letting the teen come back was completely out of the equation and going on a soul searching quest to find his real father scared the shit out of him. He clearly remembered all that Cartman went through on his quest to find his and knowing the batshit fuckery South Park was known for, his real father could be anyone from Stan Marsh's father to one of those Crab People. He could even be his own father, now THAT would be extremely fucked up.

God he was hungry. Glancing around one last time to make sure no one was around, the teen began the trek out to the restaurant district of town. The town had doubled in size since he was a kid and there were a few good restaurants that were bound to have something edible in the dumpsters. As much as he loathed the fact this had been his life for the last two weeks, Craig knew it was the only thing he could do to keep himself from starving.

—–-

McDonald's and Bennigan's had been a bust and there was no way he'd even touch the dumpsters at City Wok and Chipotle. Craig actually LIKED his ass and he was pretty sure if people couldn't stomach the food regularly, then dumpster food topped with dumpster juice would probably melt his organs before it even had the chance to come out of his asshole.

The next acceptable dumpster target was a greasy all-night diner that had been built a few years ago between U-Stor-It and Tweak Bros. Coffee. There would always be someone that complained about their burger after taking one bite and refuse to eat the rest and the fries were decent even when they were cold.

Craig effortlessly and silently lifted the dumpster lid, relieved to see a greasy paper tray with a nearly intact burger and fries on top of the garbage pile. The trash was only halfway full, so the teen had to lean in to grab the food. He was slowly getting better at navigating the dumpsters so he wouldn't get any garbage juice on his clothes. He was running low on actual clean clothes and was grateful the school locker rooms had showers, otherwise he knew he'd be smelling pretty foul after two weeks of homelessness.

As his feet hit the ground, the teen heard a gasp and the sound of a garbage bag falling on the concrete.

"Cr-Craig?"

Craig whipped his head up and stared wide-eyed into the face of an equally wide-eyed Tweek Tweak.

Shit.

Shitshitshitshitshit.

Craig definitely knew he had been caught and before school ended the next day, everyone in town would know about "poor homeless Craig Tucker" or whatever his last name was eating trash out of the dumpster. Tweek Tweak was NOT known to be able to keep secrets, or keep anything in for that matter. Too much "PRESSURE!" as Craig remembered the twitchy blond kid liked to scream back when him, Clyde, and Token hung out with him when they were younger. The kid's random outbursts and the fear of catching the wrong attention from the older, popular kids in middle school had the three abandoning their friendship with the blond, not inviting him to Token's 12th birthday party if memory served Craig correctly.

Craig bit back the bile trying to rise up and clenched his unoccupied fist as he stormed up to the twitchy teen. He may be homeless and starving, but he was still one of the more popular kids as well as still having a somewhat reputation as a bully like he had in elementary.

"If you fucking tell ANYONE-"

"Y-You don't want to eat that Cr-Craig. Th-The guy that ordered that was trying t-to impress his date and put the diner's extra spicy hot sauce all over it and made a sc-scene about wanting to sue the diner because he couldn't handle it. The lady came in about thirty minutes ago bi-bitching about her ruined date."

"What?"

"Y-You can't handle real spicy food, r-right? Or…or was that Clyde? Sh-shit. I'm sorry… It's b-been a while…"

Craig stared in disbelief as Tweek mumbled to himself about his, Clyde, and Token's food preferences, feeling a twinge in his chest hearing the blond remember what foods he liked even after not talking for years when even Clyde couldn't remember from day to day.

"Tweek, you were right the first time. I don't like spicy foods."

The blond snapped his head up, breaking himself out of his thoughts and grabbed the abandoned trash bag and the burger out of Craig's hands and tossing both in the dumpster behind the coffee shop.

"Um, it's not a hamburger…but w-we have ham and cheese croissants a-and I just took out a batch of cinnamon crumble muffins from the oven if you-"

"I don't have any money and I'm not looking for charity Tweek! And I swear if you tell anybody-"

"IT'S -GAH- NOT!"

Both teens jumped a little at the blond's outburst, Tweek more so than Craig. Tweek pulled a bit on his hair, trying to calm his breathing out before looking back at Craig.

"It's-It's not charity. It's me p-paying you back for you b-buying me that way overpriced coffee when mine spilled at that amusement park we went to."

Craig looked at the blond in confusion as he racked his dizzying brain on what Tweek was referring to, before finally remembering. "Tweek! Dude, that was what, like 5th grade? Seven years ago!? I completely forgot! You should have!"

Tweek grimaced before looking Craig straight in the eyes. "Please Craig, just…I pr-promise I won't tell anyone wh-whatever's going on with you or even ask you what's up! And the sh-shop's empty right now, it's just me, s-so my parents won't know. "

Craig stared at Tweek, watching as the teen slowly lowered his gaze, shivering a bit. The threat of rain had caused the sky to grow darker earlier than normal and the temperature had dropped in the time the two were talking. The noirette had a long sleeved shirt on as well as his heavier jacket, but Tweek was only wearing a thin button-up shirt and an apron.

His stomach gave a lurch in pain and Craig sighed. "Fine. And I really mean it Tweek. If anyone finds out…"

"I promise Cr-Craig. I…really don't have anyone TO tell anyway…"

As Craig followed Tweek into the warm coffee shop, the teen hoped that painful feeling in his stomach was just him being hungry.

—–-

A ham and cheese croissant turned into two and Craig was pretty sure there HAD to be some sort of drug in the cinnamon muffins to be this good. A large hot chocolate, complete with plenty of whipped cream and chocolate shavings (Tweek STILL remembered Craig's favorite drink order) completed the teen's dinner. Craig couldn't remember the last time he had a hot, fresh meal, even if it was just coffee shop food. He had to pretty much fend for himself even before he was kicked out when his mom and sister left.

There had only been two customers in the time Craig was there, so the two teens were alone the rest of the time. Tweek had busied himself wiping down tables and getting the store ready for the morning, but had come over a few times to see if Craig needed anything. The blond stayed true to his word and didn't ask why he had found the noirette digging through the dumpsters, but Craig could feel the teen staring at him a few times. He didn't call Tweek out since he was doing the same thing.

Tweek had mellowed out…a LOT. Craig could still see the teen twitch occasionally, but it was far less than Craig had remembered. The wild look in the blond's eyes complete with the dark bags underneath and the stuttering was still there as well, but the random screaming outbursts were gone, save for the one the teen had witnessed in the alley. Looking back, the teen realized that Tweek had also been surprised at the outburst.

The blond seemed to curl in on himself, making himself seem smaller, but Craig surmised that if Tweek stood straight, they'd probably be close to the same height. Puberty had seemed to take pity on Tweek and ignore all the case studies of caffeine stunting growth. Tweek was a bit on the thin side, but as Craig helped the teen flip over the chairs in order to mop the floor and seeing how heavy the chairs were, Tweek probably wasn't a pushover, judging from the effortless way he flipped the chairs.

Craig hadn't meant to stay this long and certainly didn't expect himself to help out his former friend closing the shop, but the teen just felt drawn to stay. It was warm in the shop, his stomach was actually full of good food for once, and he was genuinely enjoying Tweek's company.

He was surprised when Tweek thrust the white bag he had been holding in his hands after Tweek had locked up the shop and the two had began walking to the housing district of South Park.

"It-It's just a few cinnamon muffins but still…they st-stay fresh and moist for a few days. Spent about a week perfecting the recipe for them so I'm pr-pretty proud of them."

Craig made sure Tweek was looking at him before giving him a rare smile. " They ARE amazing! Thanks Tweek. Look…about…what I said…"

The blond gripped his arms and looked down. "I pr-promised you Craig. I won't tell an-anyone. But…if…if there's anything I can do…please let me know. I me-mean…I know we haven't talked in forever…but I still…I still worry about you guys."

Craig really wished his heart would stop feeling like it was stabbed. "Tweek…"

"I know Cr-Craig. I understand. I understand wh-why you guys stopped being my friend. I was a mess. I st-still am. I honestly don't blame you. I wouldn't want to b-be my friend either. But still…I mean it Craig. Even if it's just a muffin or just letting you st-stay in the shop for a few hours… Anything Craig. Just let me know. No questions asked."

The dark haired teen took a deep breath and looked back over to the blond. "…Okay."

The two made their way over the bridge that separated the town, Craig stopping in the middle. Tweek had walked further before realizing the other teen wasn't beside him.

"Craig?"

Craig grimaced and leaned against the railing. "I…don't…want to go home yet."

"But it's ge-getting colder and I'm sure it's about to rain! I don't want you t-to get sick! You really should get home!"

The noirette turned to look at the blond and shrugged. "Uh, home life hasn't been too great…if you haven't guessed. Just…I'll go home soon. Don't worry."

"O-Okay… I-I can stay for a little bit if you want. It's been nice talking with you again. I don't mind staying up a bit more. Still don't get much sleep, so it's no trouble. "

"Nah Tweek, it wouldn't be good for you to get sick. Don't worry about it. I'll be okay."

"If…If you're sure… I guess… S-See you at school tomorrow… or the shop. I mean that Craig."

The blond turned to leave and Craig's heart gave another lurch.

"Hey Tweek? You wanna sit with me and the guys tomorrow at lunch? It's okay if you don't, but the offer stands if you ever do."

"I… Are you sure?"

"Yeah. You're a good friend Tweek. I just…wished I had realized that years ago…"

"Okay. A-About the lunch thing. I-I'll join you tomorrow. Thank you."

Craig watched the blond walk away and waited until he couldn't see Tweek anymore before walking the rest of the way over the bridge and underneath to where his makeshift home was. It had began to mist as Craig was getting ready for bed after making sure his alarm on his phone was set. The phone was in his mom's name, so he had no fear of it being deactivated, but it needed charging soon. Craig made a note to take his charger with him to the coffee shop the next day. People charged their electronics there all the time.

The temperature dropped a few more degrees as the rain began fully and Craig bundled his blankets tighter around his body, trying to squeeze as much warmth as he could from them and his own body heat and finally fell into a fitful sleep.

—-

Craig's lungs felt on fire as he coughed deeply for the tenth time in a few minutes. He was definitely sick. The rain had fell heavily and dropped the temperature even more than his weather app predicted. Craig knew he needed to try to get to his other blanket or maybe attempt to pull another few shirts on to raise his body heat, but he felt too weak to move.

He had barely been able to move to see what time his dangerous coughing had woken him up. He was surprised it was 3am and also surprised he wasn't frozen solid or dead. It was so cold. His nose ran with mucus and his eyes were red and blurry with tears from the painful coughing fits. His throat felt swollen and raw. He felt like dying. He probably was going to die. Maybe he really should have told someone about his situation.

Trying in vain to gather up more warmth from his blankets, his delirious and foggy brain came up with the notion that whatever gods were out there were probably laughing at him as he suffered. Of course, they'd give him a bone with what happened last night…only to make things ten times worse. Karma WAS a bitch after all.

Craig thought the muffled voice was just a figment of his sickness addled brain, it was probably that Karma bitch or the god of Schadenfreude laughing at him, but as the voice grew closer, he realized there was someone hovering over him.

The lone streetlamp that did shine a bit of its light underneath to his home barely illuminated whoever was now shaking him as he slowly opened his eyes, the muffed voice seeming more frantic. There was a golden aura around the figure's darkened face. Didn't angels have a golden aura around them? That was how they were depicted in all the religious art at the church back when he used to go.

"Are you an angel?"

Craig meant to say that, but he knew whatever he said, the figure probably couldn't decipher what he meant. He knew it came out horribly mangled if he even DID say it. He might have imagined it, just like he could be imagining being lifted into a warm, solid mass by slender but strong arms.

Warmth. So warm. Whatever was holding him seemed to radiate heat. Craig closed his eyes again and burrowed his face into the cloth that was between him and the heated mass, faintly smelling cinnamon and coffee through his stuffy nose as he drifted back to sleep.