Chapter Text
Ch. 1
“Stripe, come here. Help me pick up your toys before dinner.” Craig called out to the two year old sitting in front of the T.V. Stripe carefully stood up and walked towards his daddy. He picked up his stuffed bear and noticed a loose button.
“Daddy, Pooh urt,” Stripe said as he held up the bear. Craig inspected the stuffed animal and nodded in agreement.
“You're right, Stripe. Pooh needs some fixing. I'm sure Mommy can fix him after dinner. Now finish picking up while I put Pooh in a safe place.”
Stripe picked up the last two cars on the ground and placed them in his toy box. At that moment Tweek walked out of the kitchen and noticed the clutter free floor.
“Stripe, did you clean up all your toys? Good job, Baby.”
“Mommy! Me hungy.”
“Yes, Stripe dinner is ready. I made your favorite creamy broccoli soup.”
Stripe squealed excitedly. He rushed past Tweek into the kitchen. When Tweek walked in, Stripe had already pushed his high chair towards the table and was trying to climb onto it.
“Careful Stripe. You can fall and hurt yourself.” Tweek warned trying to help the toddler when he slipped.
“Mommy me do. Me do.” Tweek smiled. His baby always tried to be independent and it filled him with pride and melancholy.
“Of course you can do it. You're growing up so fast. I'm going to be sad when you're no longer my baby.”
“Mommy! Me no baby.” Stripe said proudly. He lifted his arms to allow Tweek to place the high chair tray.
Tweek laughed and picked up a bowl of soup he had already set aside. After inspecting the temperature, he set it in front of Stripe and encouraged him to start eating. At that moment, Craig finally arrived in the kitchen.
“I set your plate on the table, Dear. Eat it while it's hot.”
Craig looked at the soup and made a face. Tweek crossed his arms and gave him a stern look. “What?”
“Nothing, Honey. It's just broccoli’s not my favorite vegetable. Maybe I can have a ham sandwich instead.”
Tweek huffed in frustration. He turned to the toddler who was almost done with his portion and would most likely ask for more. “Stripe, which tastes better, a ham sandwich or my soup?”
Stripe giggled, “Mommy sou! Mo’e pease.” He held up his empty bowl ready for seconds.
“I thought so. Go make yourself a sandwich while Stripe and I enjoy my good soup.” Tweek said filling up Stripe’s bowl.
Craig made his sandwich and joined Tweek at the table. They ate their dinner with light chatter in between bites. As they finished off their meal, Tweek's phone began to ring. Craig motioned his husband to answer while he worked on cleaning up the kitchen.
“Hello? Oh Kenny, how are…wait, slow down…now?” Craig stopped working as he overheard his husband's conversation. “Kenny, it's almost Stripe's bedtime. Are you sure it can't wait?...Fine, let me talk to Craig first…okay, bye.”
Craig decided to ask Tweek about his weird phone call, “Honey what does Kenny want?”
“Ngh! He wants us to come over to his lab immediately. I told him it was almost bedtime but he said it's urgent. What do you think?”
Craig sighed, “I would say to ignore him, but Kenny doesn't play around with emergencies. I’ll pack the diaper bag and you can change Stripe… I will reserve the right to punch him if this isn't as big a deal as he's making it.”
Tweek agreed and they packed up to make the trip to Kenny's lab.
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Kenny paced the living room of the lab. He couldn't believe he had f*cked up this badly. When he inherited the lab from the late doctor, he had accomplished many great things.
For one, he had managed to become a certified geneticist thanks to his groundbreaking research into organ regeneration as an alternative to organ donations. His research was so meticulous, the University of Colorado had offered him a medical degree in exchange for 3 annual visits to discuss his research to students in the medical department.
The deal had even included money to help renovate the old lab and continue his research. Once in a while, students from the university would approach him with a letter of recommendation from a professor in the hopes of studying under his expertise. He had no problems with this arrangement until now.
Every student he took in was given the same rules:
1.No food in the lab area
2. Always wear protective gear in the lab area
3. No horseplay
4. No guinea pigs
Usually students would raise an eyebrow at rule number four, but the rule was still respected. With those rules in place, Kenny had never had any problems. Unfortunately there was always someone that had to ruin a good thing. In this case his name was Aiden.
From the moment Kenny met Aiden it was obvious his arrogance would cause a disaster. Aiden came from a family of doctors that were willing to pay his way through life and school. Kenny later learned his letter of recommendation had been bought by Aiden's father in an effort to spruce up his resume.
All of this would have been fine with Kenny if Aiden had followed Kenny's rules. Everyday, Aiden would show up late with fast-food in hand. He managed to contaminate multiple samples because he refused to wear a mask in the lab.
It was clear, Aiden had no interest in the medical field, but only chose it to continue living his privileged lifestyle. Kenny was ready to write Aiden a letter to excuse him from further work in the lab until the punk decided to break one more rule. Now he had chased off his troublesome assistant and was left with a huge problem on his hands.
Luckily it seemed help had finally arrived. Kenny rushed to open the front door and let in his friends and their sleeping child.
“Tweek! Craig! I'm so glad you're here. This way, hurry.” Kenny gestured to them to follow. “I’ve had the worst week. I was mentoring a new student. The kid’s a menace. I should have kicked him out sooner. It would have saved me from this disaster.”
The couple walked by a large print poster with Kenny's rules. Craig smirked as he pointed out the fourth rule to Tweek. Tweek bit back a chuckle as he cradled the reason for that rule.
“Anyway, enough about that guy. The real reason I called you is to help me with the problem he brought into the lab.” Kenny opened a random door and led them in. “As you both noticed, I have a strict rule on guinea pigs. My idiot lab assistant tried to prank me by hiding one in my lab, and you guys can guess how that went.”
Craig and Tweek's jaws dropped.
“K-kenny are you telling us…”
“You let it happen again!”
Kenny held up his hands, “Hey! I told you this was not my fault. I fired my assistant as soon as I realized what he had done, but that's not the point.” Kenny took a deep breath, “Guys I'm prepared to fix it but I called you here because I wanted to ask, how would you feel about adopting another guinea pig baby?”
Craig was ready to punch him in the face, but Tweek grabbed his arm. “Wait. Let's think about this. I wouldn't mind giving Stripe a sibling.”
“Tweek you can't be serious.”
“I am. We still have Stripe's baby stuff. I think this is a great time to add on to our family.”
“We never discussed growing our family, Tweek. We need time to discuss our options. We can't just jump into it.”
“We kinda did when we had Stripe. Sweetie, I know you're worried but I promise you we can handle this. We've got us. We have our friends and family. And unlike last time, we've got experience.”
Craig still looked reluctant but followed Tweek into the room. Inside they saw a cardboard box sitting on a lab table. Tweek quickly approached the box curious to see its content.
“Kenny, I thought you said it was a baby.” Craig stepped forward to see what Tweek was talking about. Inside he spotted a black and white guinea pig curled up in a corner. He looked at Kenny for an explanation.
“Based on my research from the last time this happened, the transformation should begin in about 3 hours. I can stop the process from happening right now, but I thought I should give you the option to choose if you wanted to raise a baby or a guinea pig. Either way, that thing is not staying in my lab.”
Craig reached into the box to pick up the guinea pig. It squeaked and squirmed for a moment as Craig inspected it. “She's a girl. She's also smaller than Stripe was. I'm guessing she's a Peruvian guinea pig because of her longer hair. Tweek are you sure about this?”
Tweek smiled reassuringly, “We’ve got this.”
Craig nodded. “Alright Kenny. We're keeping her.”
“Great! She's all yours. I'll call Butters in the morning. That should give you time to settle down and pick a name.”
Tweek perked up, “Oh Craig. Let's call her Dorothea. Dorothea Patricia.”
Craig raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like a mouthful.”
“We can give her a nickname like Stripe.”
“Fine but where did you get a name like Dorothea?”
“I…saw it in a book. I thought it was cute and it pairs up nicely with your sister's name.”
Craig shrugged. He placed Dorothea back in the box for safekeeping. “Well we better get back home and settle these two for the night.”
The Tuckers returned to their car. They gently buckled Stripe to his car seat and Tweek held on to the box. Craig gave Kenny one last middle finger before driving off
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Craig tucked Stripe into his toddler bed. He was glad his son was able to sleep through their trip to the lab. Now he could focus on their newest member of the family.
He walked into the bedroom where Tweek had decided they would set down the box. His husband was sitting on the floor looking into the box.
“Can you believe, Stripe is still sleeping.”
Tweek chuckled, “Of course. He sleeps like a log, just like his daddy.”
Craig held out his hand to help Tweek off the floor. Tweek graciously accepted it.
“Have you noticed any changes?”
“No. She did fall asleep though. I think it may be a sign that it’ll start soon.”
“Should we set up the crib?”
“Pfft, do you still have the instructions?”
“I don't need the instructions, I've got you.”
“Bold of you to assume I know how to set it up.”
“No, but I know you well enough to assume you kept the instructions.”
“Touche.”