Chapter Text
Craig loved working at the animal shelter. When he was first applying for a job, he envisioned himself just working with and taking care of the small animals, like the guinea pigs, hamsters, and rabbits. He was well versed in guinea pigs, since they had been his pets since he was little, and he even had three currently, but he also knew how to take care of the smaller animals in general. He thought it would be natural for him to just stick with those, since he had never had a cat or a dog himself. Once he was hired, though, he quickly fell in love with all of the other kinds of animals, too, and it wasn't long until he became a jack of all trades. He would spend hours cleaning out litter boxes one day, and then the next he would be running outside with the dogs, tossing a frisbee around. Of course, the days where he played with the guinea pigs, or trimmed their claws, or fed them, or really anything to do with them, were always his favorite, that would never change.
The job turned out to be perfect for him, which was a shock to his family. They had seen Craig be enthusiastic for so few things, they weren't expecting a job to be one of them. His dad had even bet that he wouldn't last a week there. But they were all surprised when Craig would come home after his first day at work, with a smile on his face, and an hours worth of stories about what had happened during his shift. It became a regular occurrence, after a day at work, he would come home and sit at the dinner table, talking nonstop about Oreo learning a new trick, or how Chester finally got adopted.
Craig loved almost every part of his job, but some aspects weren't as much fun. There were some days where he got stuck working at the front desk, greeting customers and helping them fill out adoption forms. Working with people wasn't nearly as fun as working with animals, Craig had discovered quickly. Thankfully, his managers knew Craig wasn't the best at customer service, and he rarely had front desk duties. Only on days where it was exceptionally slow, and there was nothing else for him to do.
It was a Thursday night in late December, just after Christmas, and it was slow enough that everyone but Craig and a manager had been sent home early, after all of the cleaning and feeding were done. Craig was stuck on front desk duty, while his manger was in her office, filling out some paperwork in the downtime. There hadn't been a customer for over an hour, and Craig was getting bored of continuously refreshing Twitter. There was no one out and about that day, and apparently, no one had anything interesting to say on social media. It was just a boring day all around.
The clock just struck 5:30 when a family of three walked in, and Craig perked up in his chair behind his desk. There were two adults, and a boy that looked to be around Craig's age. He found it kind of strange that he didn't recognize the kid, considering how small South Park was.
"Hey," He greeted the family. "How can I help you today?"
He said the same greeting to every customer, it was easy and to the point. He tried to keep his conversations with the customers as short as possible.
The lady smiled at him, and put her hand on the younger boy's arm, who must have been her son. "We're looking for a pet for Tweek."
Craig nodded, taking note in the boy's unusual name. Tweek. That was definitely the first time Craig had heard that. He observed the boy, who was shaking slightly, with a noticeable twitch. Just being at the animal shelter seemed to be quite a stressful event to him.
"Dogs are in the room to the left, cats are in the room to the right, and the small animals are in the room behind me. Each animal has a little nameplate and some information about them on their cage, but if you have any other questions, or you find one you would like to adopt, just let me know," Craig explained.
The two adults smiled and nodded at him, while the son looked at the three rooms nervously.
"What do you want to look at first, son?" The father asked. Apparently, they were getting the pet more for the son than anyone else.
"AH, I don't know, it's a lot of pressure to choose, how am I supposed to know? What if all the animals hate me?" Tweek said, tugging nervously at the bottom of his shirt.
Craig had to hide his amusement at the last statement. He knew for a fact that there were plenty of animals that loved everyone they met, and they had quite a few like that at the shelter. For some of them, the key to their heart was a simple scratch on the head, and then you were in for good. He thought about saying as much, but he didn't want say anything that might cause the boy to grow more nervous, because he was clearly stressed enough as is.
"It’s okay, sweetheart, we can take our time, and see how you feel about them. Does that sound good to you?" His mother asked, rubbing his back. Craig could tell she had good intentions for her son, and wanted him to be happy, and find the perfect pet.
Tweek nodded, still looking at each room nervously.
"Let's look at the dogs first," The father said, already heading in that direction. Craig wasn't sure a dog would be the best for the boy. Dogs were amazing animals, and they would have no trouble finding one that loved them unconditionally, but they were also a lot to handle, especially if you had never had a pet before. He had no idea if the family had owned any previous pets, but he guessed not, based on the boy's nervousness.
Craig shrugged, and picked his phone back up, opening the Twitter app yet again, expecting them to take a while to look. It wasn't his problem to deal with. He would help them, if they asked for anything, and that was that. He wasn't about to insert his own opinions into their adoption hunt, even if he was usually right. He wasn't so surprised, when not even five minutes later, the boy came hurrying out, clutching his chest. Apparently, the dogs were too much for the boy, as Craig had suspected.
"Are you okay?" Craig asked immediately, worried that possibly something bad had happened with the dogs.
The boy's mother came out then, rushing to her son and rubbing his back again. "He'll be okay, the dogs barking were just a bit too loud for Tweek to handle. It's okay, sweetie."
Craig could tell the boy was taking deep, slow breaths, apparently trying to calm himself down. Normally, Craig would be the last one to help people find a pet, especially when they seemed as undecided as this boy did, but he suddenly couldn't help how much he actually wanted to help him. He didn't want to assume things, but from what he had seen, and how nervous the boy seemed, he guessed that the boy's parents were getting him a pet as a companion, possibly to help calm him down. Craig could feel his heart melting, and he had to help them out, if they let him. Not only could he help out the animal they would adopt, and find them a good home, but also the boy, Tweek. It was one of the first times he'd been so passionate about helping someone find a pet.
"If you'd like," Craig offered, going against his usual methods, "I can help you look at the animals. I know a lot about all of them, and I can try to help you find the perfect one."
The boy stared at him, his mouth slightly open in shock, while his mother smiled brightly. "That might be just what we need. Richard is so biased towards dogs, but I just don't think they're right for Tweek. I read an article that said that cats can actually be very good for anxiety, would you be able to help us look at them? I have no idea what to look for in a cat, I've never had one."
Craig nodded, pleased to hear that she obvious cared about what her son needed in a pet. He had seen how much a pet can help come a person down, they were a friend that was always there, and always loved you. You never had to worry about what a pet thought of you, either, since as long as you loved and cared for them, they'd love you back. Pets were kind of magical, in that way.
He headed out from behind the desk, and led the mother and son into the cat room, while the father seemed to stay with the dogs.
"Do you have any preferences about how old the cat is?" Craig asked, looking directly at Tweek. If they were getting him a pet, he should have the ultimate decision.
Tweek looked at his him, shaking his head. "No. I'm just worried they won't like me at all. I'm too jumpy, I scare animals away."
Craig thought about that for a second. He needed to find a pet that wouldn't care about the boys twitching. "I think I know a cat that might be perfect for you," Craig informed him, motioning for the pair to follow him.
He led them straight to Peaches' cage. Peaches was a year old, black cat, with very pretty green eyes. Out of all the cats they currently had, she was his favorite. She came up to the front of her cage immediately, gazing at them with interest.
"This is Peaches," Craig introduced her.
"Oooh, Peaches," The mother said, smiling, "She's a cutie."
"Wh-Why is her name Peaches?" Tweek asked, not taking his eyes off of the cat.
"Because she's as sweet as Peaches," Craig said, grinning. "That's not just a joke, either, she's possibly the sweetest cat I have ever seen. If you would like, you can head over to that little area over there, and I can bring her out so you can play with her, and see for youself."
Tweek instantly froze up, "I don't know if I can do that, what if she escapes, or she scratches my eyes out, or somehow I squish her-"
"Tweek, you don't have to worry about that, it won't happen. You heard the boy, sorry, what was your name?" The mother asked Craig, interrupting herself.
"I'm Craig," he answered.
"Craig said she was sweet. It'll be great, let's see how it goes, you might adore her," The mother finished.
Tweek nodded slightly, still looking slightly terrified.
Craig went around to open Peaches cage, and she happily meowed at him as he picked her up. She took so well to being handled, never scratched or bit anyone. She was really the perfect cat.
"Hi, prescious," He said, knowing that Tweek and his mom were just out of hearing range. "I might have found a great family for you. I think someone really needs your help."
She meowed again, and he imagined it was her saying she was up for the job. "Good girl."
He opened the door to the small play area, and closed it behind himself, before setting Peaches on the floor. He followed suit, and motioned for Tweek and his mother to sit also. They did, Tweek squished into the corner as far as he could go.
"You can come closer," Craig said to Tweek, petting Peaches, showing him how sweet she was. "She won't bite, see?"
Tweek nudged forward, maybe an inch at best, and Craig laughed to himself. He'd have to lead Peaches over to Tweek, if he was going to get him to interact with her at all. He slid over beside Tweek, who was frozen in fear, or maybe surprise. Peaches followed him happily, and after a couple of pets from Craig, she decided that she needed to investigate the other boy. She walked right up to Tweek, and sniffed at his knee. He didn't move, as if he was afraid of startling her.
"Oh look, Tweek, she's interested in you. Try petting her," His mom suggested.
Craig nodded in agreement. "Just hold your hand out for her first, so she can smell you, and see what she does next."
Tweek cautiously followed his instructions, and held his hand out to Peaches. She gave him another two sniffs, and then rubbed her head on his hand.
Tweek squeaked in surprise, but Peaches didn't even flinch at the noise, she just kept rubbing against his hand. After a couple of seconds, Tweek moved his hand, and pet her softly, just on the head, and she meowed happily.
Craig was shocked to see the other boys smile for the first time.
"She's not scared of me!" He said, excited. "Usually animals just run away from me."
"She's excited to see you," Craig told him, "She really is a huge sweetheart."
"I can tell," Tweek's mom said. "Oh, Tweek, I think she might be perfect for you."
"That's so much pressure though! Taking care of an animal! Her life would depend on me!" Tweek argued, but even as he said it, he began petting her in earnest. Peaches was pleased, and started to climb into Tweek's lap.
"That might be just what you need," She replied.
An hour later, the Tweak family had paid the adoption fee, and were ready to go.
Normally, Craig wouldn't be nearly as involved with helping a family find a pet, but he felt very good about what he had done. He could tell Peaches would be perfect for Tweek, and he was a bit sad he wouldn't have updates on how things worked out for them. He just strongly hoped that he wouldn't come back to work some day and see Peaches back in her cage, since he knew she had found her perfect home. She and Tweek had stayed in the play area while Mr. and Mrs. Tweak (Craig had discovered their last name was the same as Tweek's first name, but spelled differently, which was interesting to say the least) filled out the adoption forms. By the time Craig returned to get Peaches ready to go, she had been cradled in Tweek's arms, purring happily, even with Tweek's shaking. It was a match made in heaven.
Craig couldn't help but notice how adorable the boy was, as he was smiling down at the cat. His smile truly lit up his face, distracting from the tension that was previously so obvious. His hair was bright, and kind of all over the place, but still looked soft, and so cute. Craig's heart would have melted again, if it weren't already sitting at the bottom of his chest in a goopy puddle.
"I think you two will be perfect for each other," Craig had told him.
Tweek looked up, and met his eyes truly for the first time that day, "Shouldn't you say purr-fect?" he asked cheekily.
Craig couldn't help but laugh at the terrible pun, "No, I really shouldn't."
"Thank you," Tweek said, looking back down at Peaches. "I'm really very excited to have her."
"She's excited, too, I bet," Craig said. "Come on now, we'll gave to get her into this carrier, and then you are all good to go."
The Tweak family left with one more member, and Craig was left reflecting on what had happened. He could not believe how quickly the boy had turned him to mush. And now he was left alone, and would never see the boy again.