Here it is, the sequel to Brewed Locally, Moving Forward. As with Brewed Locally, the following story contains mentions of drug and alcohol addiction and abuse. Reader discretion is advised.
As the car came up the long cobblestone driveway, Tweek could see a small crowd gathered on the front lawn. It was Craig and Jimmy and Clyde and their families, holding up their own banner, which read in hand painted, big and bold letters.
WELCOME HOME TWEEK
The car stopped in front of the garage, was put into park, and the doors unlocked.
In a flash, Tweek unbuckled his seatbelt, threw open the door, jumped out of his seat and out of the car, and ran. Craig ran too and the two boys closed the gap and embraced each other in a firm, warm, longed for hug.
"I missed you so God damn much." Craig said as tears started to roll down his cheeks. Tweek was home and safe and in his arms and that's all that mattered to Craig at that moment.
"I missed you too." Tweek responded; his own cheeks strained with tears. He was back and had Craig in his arms. That's all that mattered to Tweek at that moment.
After some moments, Tweek and Craig pulled apart enough for both of them to motion over the other children to join in, which they all did and soon, all the children were in a giant group hug. There wasn't a dry eye among them and the same went for the adults, who watched on.
Thomas Tucker turned to Robert Black and told him, with full sincerity, "Thank you."
"Thomas, you've already thanked us…"
"You've brought Tweek into your family, back home, back to my son; so from me, him, everyone else, I'll say it again, thank you." Thomas said firmly.
Robert didn't say anything, just went back to watching the reunion.
Things could never go back to the way they were, all everyone could from then on, was keep moving forward.
Soon enough, it was time for everyone to go back to their homes and Tweek to get settled into his new one. Goodbyes and promises to each other soon's were exchanged. After the last car had driven away, Mr. and Mrs. Black got Tweek's bags and they and Token escorted Tweek inside.
"I know you've been here before but do you still want a tour?" Mr. Black asked as he and everyone else stopped in the foyer.
"Yeah, I think I could use a tour." Tweek responded. He had been there before to play with Token but he didn't know where everything was.
As he was shown around, Tweek looked over his surroundings with new eyes. He wasn't just going to spend an afternoon or one night; he was going to live there. That put a whole new perspective on things.
As he was being shown the kitchen, Tweek felt like something was off, like something was missing but he couldn't put his finger on what. He briefly thought about asking about this but quickly decided against it, thinking it surely was just his imagination.
The tour led upstairs and everyone stopped in front of a closed door.
"And this is your room." Mr. Black said, opening the door and walking inside with everyone behind him.
It was a good size room, with light green walls and tan carpet. Windows with dark green curtains flanked either side of the bed, which was king size and had Lego covers. Tweek pulled back the covers to reveal Lego bed sheets.
"We know you like Legos, so we got you these." Mr. Black explained. "Are they alright? If not, we can always get you different ones."
"No, no, that's alright. These are awesome, thank you." Tweek said and that was the truth. He loved Legos.
There was a brown wooden dresser with a flat screen television resting on top of it opposite the bed. Against another wall was a work desk with a chair and lamp. Next to it were empty book shelves. Close to the door was the closet, which Tweek opened and found inside several cardboard boxes labeled 'Tweek's Stuff'. He turned to his foster family, noticing their anticipation.
"Go ahead, open them." Token said.
So Tweek opened a box and found several objects covered in bubble wrap. Tweek carefully unwrapped one and soon discovered that what was inside was a red model airplane. Tweek put that aside and unwrapped another object, which turned out to be a model tank. He unwrapped everything in that box, which all turned out to be either a model airplane or tank. Then he opened up the other boxes and unwrapped their contents, which included boxes of Legos, board games, jigsaw puzzles, hot wheel sets, and a stuffed green dinosaur.
He recognized these toys. "These are all my old toys."
"Yes, we thought maybe you would want them back." Mrs. Black explained. "Is that alright? Do you still want them?" She asked with concern, unsure what kind of memories the objects would bring back up for Tweek.
"Yes I still want them. Thank you for holding onto this stuff for me." Tweek said and he meant it. The rehab place had a few toys to play with but none could compare to the comfort of his own belongings.
This statement brought relief to Mr. and Mrs. Black. Token for his part hadn't even considered the possibly of Tweek getting upset at the toys, only thinking that his friend would want his stuff back.
"And the room, is the room to your liking?" Mr. Black asked. "We can always paint the walls a different color or maybe change the carpet or…"
"I'm good, I like this room." Tweek responded and that was true too. He liked the green and tan colors together, made the room feel earthy and relaxed. "If…if you all don't mind…I think I'd like to be alone for a while."
"Okay, if that's what you want. We'll be around, so feel free to come get us if you need anything." Mr. Black said.
"And we mean anything, don't be afraid to ask." Mrs. Black added.
"Come on you guys." Token said, as he lead his parents out of the room and closed the door behind them.
At last, Tweek was alone.
Tweek went to the bed and lay on top of the covers, staring at the ceiling and thinking about how much his life had changed within the past three months.
His parents had been arrested, the truth had come out that they had been using him as a lab rat to test out their meth coffee that they were in turn selling to their customers. From there, he had gone through drug rehab, his parents had been tried and convicted and sent to jail, and he was now out of rehab and living with Token and his parents as his new foster family.
Token's parents were now his foster parents, which made Token his foster brother. So what was this going to mean for them? How was this going to change their friendship? Tweek knew he wasn't ready to call Token 'Brother' quite yet, just like he also wasn't ready to call Mr. and Mrs. Black 'Mom and Dad'. He knew Token felt the same way.
Token had told him more then once that he was more then happy to have him living with him but after a while, would he change his mind? After a while, would he get sick of dealing with all of Tweek's mental baggage ?
Would Mr. and Mrs. Black?
Tweek wanted to believe that no, they wouldn't get tired of him, that they all would care for him and maybe even, someday, grow to love him as one of the family.
But of course he had to think about the worse case scenario because his brain was cruel and liked making him suffer. Just like his birth parents.
Those two brought up some….feelings that Tweek wasn't really in the mood to think about right then and there.
Then there were Mr. and Mrs. McCormick, Kenny's birth parents. Now there was at least two people he didn't have complicated feelings about. Goodbye, good riddance and thank God they were in jail and far away from their children.
He had heard that Kenny and his siblings were doing quite well for themselves living with Big Gay Al and Mr. Slave. Kenny supposedly was a lot cleaner and smelled better thanks to the regular showers he now got and the fact his clothes were now regularly washed as well. His meals were bigger and more balanced and he had been gaining some much-needed weight as a result. Supposedly he was really into this new diet
Clyde had recounted in one letter about one time during lunch, everyone at the lunch table could hear Kenny just moaning and groaning loudly with pleasure while eating a salad. Then Cartman had commented with something along the lines of "Damn, Kenny, you and the salad get a room already, why don't ya?" To which Kenny had responded by flipping him off.
While in rehab, the message had been sent that after knowing exactly how much Kenny knew about the meth lab, Tweek hadn't changed his mind, that he still wasn't angry with Kenny. Last he heard; Kenny still didn't quite believe that. Tweek wanted to talk to him to convince him that it was the truth, because it was.
But first, he wanted to see his boyfriend, Craig, and the rest of his friends again. Their reunion had been wonderful but all too brief, not enough time to really relax and hang out. He wanted to go ice-skating and have snowball fights and play video games and just….feel like a kid. Something he hadn't really felt for the past few months.
Tweek heard a knock at the door.
"Hello?" He said, sitting up.
"It's us, we've got your bags." Came Mrs. Black's voice through the door. "Can we come in?"
"Yeah, sure." Tweek responded and his foster parents entered the room.
"Sorry to disturb you but we realized we had forgotten these downstairs." Mr. Black said, lifting a bag slightly higher to point it out.
"That's alright, thank you, you can just put them down wherever." Tweek said.
So they put the bags down and Mr. Black asked, "Need anything else right now?"
"No, thank you." Tweek responded.
"Okay, well, see you later." Mrs. Black said before she and her husband exited the room, leaving Tweek alone again.
Then there were Mr. and Mrs. Black. The talks they had during his rehab visits hadn't focused much on them and before that…Tweek couldn't remember ever speaking to either of them before that, except maybe in passing when he was visiting Token. Point being that Tweek barely knew his new foster parents. He wanted to change that but he wasn't ready to start right at that moment. He craved some much-needed privacy, something he hadn't had much of at rehab.
So Tweek spent the rest of the afternoon alone in his room, some of that time spent unpacking and putting away his things.
That night, Mrs. Black called everyone down for dinner.
When Tweek got into the dining room, he could see that the table was spread out with….
Wait a minute…was that…?
Tweek blinked several times, and then stared at the spread again. There was a pan filled with macaroni and cheese and a plate stacked with hotdogs. There were condiment bottles of ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and relish. And finishing it off was a plate of sliced apples. It wasn't that he hated any of the food on the table; it was just not what he had been expecting at all; he expected some kind of fancy rich people food, like lobster and caviar and stuff like that.
Token and his parents could see the confusion on his face. "We weren't really sure if you would like any of our more 'fancy' food, so we thought maybe we'd start with food you're more familiar with." Mr. Black explained.
"Then, if you're alright with it, we could slowly introduce you to our 'fancy' food." Mrs. Black added. Then she quickly added more. "But only on your terms!"
"They've asked me and the rest of the guys what foods you liked, which included this." Token said; nodding his head to indicate the food spread on the table.
Tweek looked at his foster family, then back at the food. The top layer of the macaroni and cheese glistened in the light of the chandelier. He could just see wifts of stream coming off it and the hotdogs as well. He sniffed the air. It all smelled delicious.
He looked back to his foster family again and a small grin formed on his lips. "This is really nice, you guys." He said.
That made everyone else smile. Then Tweek grabbed the big spoon dipped into the macaroni and started helping him, with everyone else following suit.
Turns out, one of the symptoms of crystal meth use was lose of appetite and as a result, Tweek ate like a bird while he was on it. He had figured he was just one of those people that wasn't that much into food. At least, that was his father's explanation after Tweek had once asked him about it.
Ever since he had off meth, his appetite had slowly been coming back and it turned out, Tweek liked food more then he thought, especially sweets, which included the lemon squares included in one of his care packages, made with Clyde's mother's recipe.
But macaroni and cheese and hotdogs were good too, especially what Tweek devoured that night. Tweek's plate was licked clean.
When everyone had finished their meals, Mrs. Black started to get everyone's plates and silverware.
"W-wait! I'll get it!" Tweek exclaimed, grabbing a few plates and utensils himself.
"Are you sure? I don't mind getting them." Mrs. Black said.
"I want to."
Mrs. Black paused for a moment before speaking again. "Tell you what, we can work together."
So Mrs. Black and Tweek got all the dishes and silverware and worked together to get everything rinsed for the dishwasher and washed for the drying rack. When the job was finished, Mrs. Black thanked Tweek for the help.
"Thank you for the help, Tweek."
"No problem."
Tweek paused, then continued, a bit nervously.
"Hey, uh, Mrs. Black? Are…are you busy tonight?"
"No, I can't say I am. Did you want to do something?"
"Well, I was wondering if you would maybe….like to play a board game with me? And Mr. Black and Token too, if they want."
"Why that sounds like fun. I don't think we've played a board game as a family for quite a while."
Mr. Black and Token were asked if they wanted to join, to which they said yes. Then everyone went to where all the old board games were stored and looked them over. One particular game caught Tweek's eye.
"How about this?" He said, holding up an old worn out box with a faded picture depicting several people sitting around a fancy parlor room titled 'Clue'.
"Is that Clue? Let's play that one!" Mr. Black said excitedly, grabbing the box right out of Tweek's hands and running off to go set it up.
"He really loves Clue. It's his most favorite board game." Token said to a confused Tweek.
"Heh, I can see that." Tweek responded with slight amusement.
He and Token walked into the dining room, where Mr. and Mrs. Black were setting up the game.
"So, how do you play?" Tweek asked. "I've never played before."
"Oh, well, it's simple enough but first, let me set the mood." Mr. Black began to explain, complete with dramatic voice and gestures. "Picture it, a dark and stormy night, a big beautiful mansion up on a hill. It's owner found dead and it looks to be foul play. Six other people are there as well and all are now suspects in the murder. The object of the game is to find out who did it, with what weapon, and where they committed the murder most foul!"
The responses to these theatrics were an amused wife, an embarrassed biological son, and a giggling foster son, who had half expected lightning and thunder to suddenly appear to accompany the atmosphere.
Then Mr. Black went on to introduce the suspects and have everyone pick who they were going to represent
Mr. Black chose to play as Mr. Green, the corrupt businessman. Mrs. Black chose Mrs. Peacock, the Grande Dame. Token chose Professor Plum, the absent-minded professor. Lastly, Tweek chose Mrs. White, the dead millionaire's long time maid.
Then there were the rules, to which Tweek started getting nervous about not being able to remember all of them.
"Uh….sorry if I get mixed up on the rules. I've never played this game before." Tweek said.
"Hey man, no worries. This is only your first time, you'll get the hang of it soon enough." Token tried to reassure his friend.
"That's right and we don't have to follow the rules to a tee. It is a game after all, it's meant to be fun." Mr. Black added.
In the end, everyone had fun. Even Mrs. Black; who had ended up being the killer, using the candlestick in the kitchen. Token had been the one to catch her, making him the winner. Mr. Black had just been happy to play. Tweek was happy to have gotten to get to know his foster father a little bit better.