#(yes their shipname is sweetley)

[xoteajays]

She Was From The Southside   └  role-swap au (ss!dot, ns!sweet pea).

note: to not confuse her with her mother (nicknamed ‘doc’ by the serpents), dot goes by ‘dora’. read here or on ao3.

They come in like a dark wave, like a storm cloud or the ocean. Jughead leads the pack, flanked by two short girls and a taller guy behind them. Every one of them is donning black leather or flannel or both. Sweet Pea watches from afar down the hallway, he’s got no part in Veronica’s ‘welcoming committee’ or the Bulldog/Vixen hate rally barreling down the stairs towards the Serpents.

Still, he watches.

One of the girls at Jughead’s side seems unfazed by Cheryl's comments. Almost bored.

“-these greaser snakes showed up at your house trying to kick your ass.” Classic Reggie. Sweet Pea couldn’t help rolling his eyes. A short girl jolts forward towards Reggie, jabbing a finger at him.

“You wanna go for round two, Northsider?” she snaps. Jughead and the pink-haired girl grab her, pulling her back. As far away as he is, Sweet Pea can see the bruises on her knuckles.

Finally, and thankfully, the bell rings. The girl snatches her timetable and he quickly turns back to his locker, hearing her heavy boots hit the ground as she passes behind him.

———

Some people are trying to play nice with the Serpents. Or at least acting polite. Kevin, Josie and Veronica make up the Northside group, apparently trying to make the Serpents feel welcome. Jughead's seated with his serpents. Sweet’s not going to go over and introduce himself, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to listen in on their conversation. He is curious about them, after all. Opposite the Northsiders, the trio of serpents are passing twizzlers between each other as they introduce themselves.

Fangs, Toni Topaz, Dora Halley.

They're odd names, though Sweet Pea isn’t exactly one to talk.

With their names now known, he turns away. While messing with the vending machine, he doesn’t hear as the conversation continues.

—

Dora isn’t paying all that much attention to what the Lodge chick is saying. The only good thing about Riverdale High, after all, was that at least they were going to get an actual education. Everything else she couldn’t care less about. Instead, her gaze turns to a guy off behind them. Tall with dark hair pushed back from his face, almost the definition of ‘tall, dark and handsome’.

The conversation slips into a kind of awkward silence, so Dora takes that time to speak up.

She uncrosses her legs and leans her elbows on her thighs, locking eyes with Kevin.

“Who’s that?” she jabs her twizzler in the direction of the boy. Kevin looks over his shoulder, confusion crossing his expression.

“Sweet Pea?” Dora’s brow quirks at that. (‘Sweet Pea’? Cute). “I don’t think anyone even remembers what his real name is. He’s not really in any groups. Reggie’s been trying to recruit him into the Bulldogs for a while though.” Kevin’s brows crease. “Why do you ask?”

Dora just smirks, leaning back again.

———

After the serpent symbol somehow ends up spray painted over the Riverdale High crest, any and all Serpent miscellanea is banned under threat of suspension. All of the Serpents are denying they did it. They, at least, seem honest. Reggie and the Bulldogs, less so. Weatherbee doesn’t care either way. The ban goes up, the serpents quietly rage about it, glowering down their noses at anybody they thought was to blame for their ‘loss of skins’.

Honestly, Sweet Pea didn’t even know Riverdale High had a uniform, though his shock is drowned under the snort of a laugh as he catches sight of Toni and Dora. They’re both wearing awful khaki pants, classic-Riverdale-high-blue polos, and Dora has apparently been supplied with a turtleneck to hide her serpent tattoo. The only reminder that she wasn’t some uniform-wearing Northsider were the almost excessive amount of rings decorating her bruised hands.

“You got something to say, Sweet Pea?” Dora drawls, though there’s surprisingly no venom in her tone. Rather, strangely, there’s amusement. It even glints in her dark eyes as she looks at him. Sweet Pea just shakes his head, tucking his hands in his jacket pockets.

“Nice turtleneck,” he replies with a shrug. The serpent girl snorts a laugh.

“Right.” The word is hummed as she walks up to him, pushing to her toes momentarily to flick one of his pushed-back curls into his face. “Thanks.”

With that, she disappears passed him and down the hall.

———

Sweet Pea finds he quite likes Fangs, and that Toni’s pretty cool too. Those two are easy to talk to. With Dora, he stumbles a little bit more. Out of school, she’s always back in her old typical outfits. Always in that serpent jacket. The same heavy boots, the dark red lipstick, her fingers decked out with rings.

With no turtleneck to hide it, he always finds his gaze turning to that two-headed snake tattoo on her neck.

He’s trying to help her with her homework, but between the tattoo and her sliding that jacket off halfway through, he’s … distracted. She catches him every time his gaze strays from their bookwork. She catches him, then she smirks in a way that makes her nose crinkle.

“I grew up on the Southside, y’know?” He says suddenly. Dora’s gaze flicks to him, brows rising in surprise. She flicks her pen down and leans her elbows onto the desk.

“So we’re finished with homework?” She jokes, “What happened then? Since you’re all ‘up in the Northside’ now.” There’s a waggle of her fingers that goes with the statement.

“My family got some money, so we moved. We weren’t with the Serpents or the Ghoulies, so I guess we just slipped out without anyone noticing. I was only about six,” He continues, leaning back in his chair. He watches her pick up her pen again and starts scribbling in her book. He’s noticed she does that a lot. Scribbles. She’s surprisingly good at it from the few drawings he’s managed to look at. “I don’t think anyone even remembers I used to be a Southsider.”

“It’s always just been me and my mom. Until I joined the Serpents, I mean,” she replies finally. “My mom’s a Serpent too. And whoever my real parents are.”

His brows crease: “Real parents?”

“Doc – my mom – she adopted me when I was a baby. Never told me who she got me from, just that they were Serpents.” She pauses, huffs a short laugh then goes quiet. “Guess I never really had a choice, I was always gonna be a Serpent.”

Shoving up from her chair, she hauls her jacket back on, grabs her books.

“I gotta go. Thanks for the study lesson.” She throws a half wave over her shoulder and, just like that, she’s gone before he can say goodbye. He sits back up to close his books when he notices the scrap of paper she’s left behind. It's a sketch of a sprig of sweet peas, next to it is the open-mouthed head of a snake.

———

“You like him, huh?” Fangs says right in her ear as he snatches the sketchbook out of her hands before dropping onto the end of the couch. She snaps a ‘hey!’, thumping the side of his thigh with her boot. He smacks her feet away, leaning back to get comfortable on the couch. Flipping through a few pages of the book, a few of the drawings are familiar: snakes, flowers, the White Wyrm, a few sketches of Toni and himself and a pretty good rendering of Hot Dog. He flips another page, huffs a laugh, then turns the pad back to face her. On the page is a drawing of Sweet Pea.

“Shut up,” she snaps, diving to make a wild grab for the book. Fangs easily holds it out of her grip, laughing. It quickly turns into a wrestle for the book until Toni interrupts.

“What are you two doing?”

“Someone’s got a crush,” Fangs crows from underneath Dora, who’s still frantically trying to get her sketch pad back. A smirk grows on Toni’s face at that.

“Shut up the both of you!” Dora snaps again, finally yanking her book out of his hand and making a point to jab her knee in his stomach as she gets up. She drops back onto the couch, ignoring the teasing-cooing from the pair as she continues finishing her drawing.

———

“It’s a good look on you.”

Dora’s voice is quiet as she drops into the seat near him. It’s late. There are only a few people in the White Wyrm now, the music’s low and slow. Sweet Pea’s playing pool alone in his new serpent jacket. He glances back at her and she finally gets a look at his face. Bruised to hell. The guys certainly hadn’t taken it easy on him during the gauntlet.

“Sweets …” she says softly, taking a step closer and reaching up to touch his face. He’s got a black eye and god knows what else underneath his clothes. Body shots are common during the gauntlet. He winces even under her gentle touch. “You should let my mom take a look at you. They don’t call her Doc for nothing, y’know?”

He shakes his head lightly and touches his fingers to the back of her small hand.

“What are you still doing here? You should be getting some rest.”

“My parents kicked me out,” he says finally. That freezes Dora’s blood, if only for a second then she’s burning; but anger won’t help anyone. Not tonight. So she pushes that rage down, reaches up to cups his cheeks, making him look at her.

“You can stay with me for tonight and tomorrow we’ll find somewhere for you to stay. You’re one of us now, and serpents always help our own.”

———

Summer rolls around. Cheryl and Toni take off on some ‘romantic cross-country motorbike’ trip. The Serpents have lost the Southside, but they’re not going to stay down. The Northsiders have their own issues going on with The Andrews Trial. Troubles and issues and being kicked out of the Southside aren’t enough to stop Dora from getting into fights with Malachai though.

Dora’s not the type to back down from a fight and Malachai’s not afraid to hit a girl.

She drops by Sweet Pea’s tent, bruised, bloody and cut up, but smiling. She’d managed to get back the butterfly knife Malachai had stolen from her a few months earlier during the riots.

“Doc’s not around?” Sweet Pea asks, concern crossing his features, gently grabbing her chin to turn her face from side to side, checking her injuries.

“Nah, she’s busy. Thought you could gimme a hand?” He sighs, shaking his head before grabbing her hand to drag her off to where Doc kept the medical supplies.

Dora peels her jacket off, groaning quietly at the pang of pain in her arm. There’s a deep slash across her bicep. Pushing herself up onto the wooden table, she crosses her legs at the ankles, watching him. A smile draws across her face as Sweet Pea turns back to her, a clean damp cloth in his hand.

“Do you always have to get into fights?” He asks, carefully wiping the blood from her bicep. Dora snorts.

“You’re one to talk. Besides, Malachai’s a dick,” she shoots back, wincing slightly as he starts to patch her up.

“You’d think he’d know better by now.” He brushes her hair back from her temple, pressing the cloth to a small cut near her hairline. She just shrugs.

“Well, you know, some guys can’t take a hint.”

She quirks a brow at him, a smirk growing on her face, and he pauses a moment. Dropping the cloth down, he plants his hands on the table either side of her. Her hand reaches up, bunching his shirt in her fingers as she pulls him in. Their lips are bare inches apart, both waiting to see who moves first.

A few seconds and then Sweet Pea moves, pressing his lips to her’s.