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lilibetts · 5 years ago

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Please wait, LoveAlarm is syncing itself to your heart!

Falling In Love With Riverdale, Theme 1: Sugar

Part 1/3

At this very moment in the not-so-idyllic town of Riverdale, Betty Cooper is 16 years, 41 weeks, 1 day, 20 hours and 34 minutes old and, to see Kevin describe it, she has been in love with Archie Andrews for 1 year, 5 months, and 14 days.

From inside the relative security of the F Hallway girls’ bathroom, she takes a deep breath to mark the magnitude of the moment, and hits [Install] on her phone. It takes less than a minute for the blue line to complete a circle and once it does, she opens the app and fills in her personal details.

Please wait, the app cheerily asks her, bright pinks and blues swirling across the screen, LoveAlarm is syncing itself to your heart!

Well, Betty sighs to herself, there’s no going back now.

LoveAlarm is the latest matchmaking app to launch and in the two weeks since, it seems like *everyone* at Riverdale High has downloaded it. It syncs itself to your heart and a bright red heart alarm would ping if there is someone within twenty feet who loves you.

Naturally, the romantic landscape of Riverdale High School has been completely leveled.

Midge Klump and Moose Mason both downloaded the app, only for it to tell Midge her love was unrequited. Ginger Lopez had situated herself in a prime location outside the gym doors when basketball practice let out—nobody within twenty feet of her—in the hopes that when the team’s star power forward, Anthony Parrish, came out, their phones would mutually ping.

Instead, it was Ben Button who walked down that stretch of the hallway; instead, it was Ben Button who made her phone ping. Then Anthony came out and *his* phone pinged, but Ginger’s did not again. According to the school grapevine, Ginger had lost her shit and called Ben a ‘baby-faced freak’.

Truthfully, the whole concept behind the app horrifies Betty, but she has to know. Making sure that every possible setting for the app is set to her phone’s vibrate function, she shoulders her backpack and heads into the cafeteria.

The walls are decorated from corner to corner with red, white, and pink streamers in anticipation of the Valentine’s Day party that will be held on Friday. PizzaShak is giving them a great deal on heart-shaped pizzas.

Her friends are at their usual table in the corner and with every step Betty takes, she is closer to knowing. When Archie hears his phone chime once she is within the twenty feet circumference, will he put two-and-two together? Will her own phone buzz with the truth? All around her, the crowded cafeteria is full of hopefuls checking their phones.

The round table has three curved benches attached to it. Kevin and Veronica share one, and across from them, Jughead and Archie split the other two. Betty slides into the space on Jughead’s left, exchanging happy hellos with her friends. Wordlessly, she hands over one of the two sandwiches she’d packed for Jughead to take. As always, he makes a show of letting out an aggrieved sigh when he spots the lettuce and sliced tomato in there with the turkey, but dutifully takes his sandwich while sliding over the remaining brownie square from his vending machine packet. This is their unspoken pact: she makes sure the bottomless pit that is Jughead Jones is sated with something healthier, he makes sure she gets a non-Alice-approved treat.

The sandwich she made is gone in three bites.

<Good?> she signs, arching one eyebrow.

<You know it,> Jughead replies, still chewing the last mouthful of turkey sandwich.

Betty has been deaf since she was three years old, after a bout with meningitis, and just because she’s well-liked among her peers doesn’t mean many of them would go as far as to learn sign language for her. That Kevin, Archie, Jughead, and Veronica have is part and parcel of why they’re her best friends.

A booted foot taps insistently against hers under the table and Betty turns away from Jughead, still grinning, to focus on Kevin.

/Did you watch The Bachelor last night?/ His hands move as rapidly as he speaks.

/No,/ Betty tells him. /Unlike you, I actually studied for the History test./

“Har har,” Kevin deadpans. They’re both distracted by Veronica clapping her hands.

“OMG!” she says gleefully, slapping Kevin’s bicep. /Kelley is an ICON! I told you./

As much as Betty loves her friends’ ridiculously dramatic day-after recaps, she’s too distracted to really pay attention to whatever last night’s spectacle had been about. Across the table, Archie is checking his phone, thumbs tapping and sliding across the screen. A wide grin splits his face and he turns the screen out to show Jughead.

3 people in a twenty feet radius love you!

Betty flushes and looks away, embarrassed. Of course. As covertly as possible, she takes advantage of everyone’s inattention to check her own phone.

Zero.

Nobody within a twenty feet radius loves you.

As Cheryl Strayed wrote, “acceptance is a small, quiet room”. As the realization sinks in, Betty watches, as if from a greater distance, Archie glancing around at the nearby tables, determined to figure out who those three people could be. After a few murmured words from Jughead that she can’t decipher thanks to his head being turned away from her, Archie takes off to make the rounds. A process of elimination, most likely.

Betty isn’t sure what she feels. Irritation more than disappointment? Relief? The latter emotion surprises her, especially now that she knows Archie isn’t in love with her. Kevin, and then later Veronica when she’d arrived in Riverdale, have been after her to confess her feelings to Archie but Betty has kept demurring or putting it off. Her usual excuse being that she’s too scared to wreck her friendship with him.

Sure, they’re right when they say she’s being a coward; but is her relief after the LoveAlarm revelation just relief that now she won’t have to actually bare her heart?

She turns off her phone.

******************************************

He knows he shouldn’t be, that this definitely qualifies as eavesdropping, but here Jughead is, glancing up and over to the table where Betty is sneakily carrying on a conversation with Veronica.

It’s 7th period Honors Bio and all they need to do is finish a worksheet before the bell rings, which is easy enough, but Mr. Beeker had also stipulated silence in the classroom, so it’s a clever loophole that Betty has found. Abby, her interpreter, is absorbed in her phone, leaving Jughead to covertly watch shifting hand shapes and fingerspelled letters.

<You’re not as s-t-e-a-l-t-h-y as you think you are,> Veronica signs smugly.

<??>

<Your phone. At lunch. You d-l LoveAlarm.> Smugness melts into concern. <Well?>

This is news to Jughead, and unwelcome news at that. He shouldn’t be surprised that Betty has downloaded that stupid app and really, he should’ve seen it coming. Dread fills him as he awaits her response.

Of course Jughead refuses to download LoveAlarm. Why would he give an app his heart data? They’d only sell it to soulless companies looking to target him with ads tailored to the object of his romantic yearning.

Betty.

The facts are these: Jughead Jones is 17 years, 3 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes old. He’s also been aware that he’s deeply, irrevocably in love with Betty Cooper for 1 year, 4 months, and 19 days. An eternity, basically.

A rare beam of sunlight has broken through the February gray outside, casting a pale glow on her downturned face, the long eyelashes that brush her cheeks. It’s the flare of her nostrils and the tight press of her lips together that tell him she’s upset.

There’s a sharp pang in his chest.

<He doesn’t.> The words, accompanied by a shake of Betty’s head that makes her ponytail bounce, are all he needs to understand.

Jughead isn’t obtuse, he knows which ‘he’ they’re talking about, the only one ‘he’ it could be: Archie. Blame Kevin, he’s shit at subtlety.

So, Betty had downloaded LoveAlarm and now she knows Archie isn’t in love with her. The latter isn’t news to him but he would’ve been fine if Betty had continued to go through life not knowing that particular fact. But it’s the sentence that comes next that breaks his heart.

<I have a zero. Nobody loves me.> What goes unspoken but, to Jughead, is writ large upon her face is: ‘I’m not lovable’.

He looks away from their conversation, angry that anyone would make her feel like this. Ashamed that he is a guilty party in this.

That night while lying on his bed, Jughead finds himself torn.

What he had seen earlier has given him food for thought. Which is just as well because he likes to take the time to think broadly and deeply, much in the same way he likes to eat. Next to him on the bed, his phone is open to the App Store, and LoveAlarm waits there patiently, ready for his decision.

Is Betty Cooper worth it? Unquestionably Yes.

Is he willing to risk discovery? Having his heart spilled right out there for her to see...even worse, for others to see? Vulnerable and already bruised, where it’d easily be crushed into messy smithereens?

Unable to answer that, his brain circles back around to the first question: is Betty Cooper worth it?

With a low, drawn-out groan, Jughead hits [Install] and gives corporations access to his heart.

#bughead #avarosier writes #riverdaleevents

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justatiredghost · 4 years ago

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Living for the Moment Chapter 2 A series of glimpses at Klaus’ life if he’d met Dave in his mid 20s. His life isn’t magically transformed, love can’t fix either of them when they’re both homeless and in a bad place. They’re not even really ready for a relationship yet. But maybe a supportive friendship can set them on a better path, the two of them inspiring each other to take care of themselves. It’s going to be a long and bumpy ride, and the question is, when will they actually admit to themselves that they have feelings for each other?

Klaus rarely slept well. The most he could hope for most nights was a few hours of unconsciousness by getting blackout drunk or high, which unfortunately wasn’t known for being all that refreshing. This morning was no exception; what he’d taken the night before did the trick, but could only last so long and as it wore off, the voices of the ghosts always waiting at the edge of his mind slowly rose to the full force of their screaming and wailing. It jolted him awake with a start and he scrambled out of bed, breathing heavily, searching for his things and, most importantly, any drugs that he might have hidden away.

“What a beautiful morning,” Ben said, taking Klaus’ spot on the bed

Klaus muttered a curse under his breath as he tried to ignore the concerned or irritated looks of the others trying to sleep at the shelter. He only had a few pills left, that would have to do for now. He flipped Ben off as subtly as he could before heading for the exit. He needed a cigarette. Desperately.

“Oh, come on, don’t be like that,” Ben said, suddenly at his side. “You’re so grouchy in the morning. Let’s go do something fun for a change.”

“How about you take your ‘fun’ and--”

Before he could come up with some sort of colorful finish, he nearly walked directly into another man. Looking up, he completely lost his train of thought as he found Dave staring at him in equal surprise. Considering Dave had taken center stage in some of his half-remembered restless dreams, he had a second of wondering if he was just really high or still dreaming. He wished he was high.

“Hey,” Dave said with a smile. “Small world. Good to see you again.”

“Is it?” Klaus asked, legitimately curious as he lit up a cigarette in the doorway. “That’s not usually the reaction I get after standing someone up.”

“That was just kind of a line,” Dave admitted like he was sharing a secret, opening the door so they could both move outside, and probably so Klaus wouldn’t get yelled at for smoking indoors. “But now that you mention it, I had a good time otherwise so it’s not like I can be too annoyed.”

“Sure you can,” Klaus said. “I believe the appropriate reaction is usually anger.”

“Is it? If I had to pick, I’d say a little bummed, maybe,” Dave said with a shrug, pulling out his own cigarette. Klaus whipped out his lighter and held it out for him before he could go looking for his own. “We all got lives, man. You gotta go, you gotta go.”

Ben coughed, only half disguising the word ‘pushover,’ in the middle of it. Klaus ignored him.

“Can’t blame you for enjoying the ‘Klaus Experience,’” Klaus said with a wink. “Although, maybe you’ll get a kick out of this. I actually thought you’d stood me up.”

“Really? Does this mean you’re mad?” Dave asked.

“Hey man, anyone stands me up, it’s their loss,” Klaus said emphatically

“That’s the spirit,” Dave laughed.

“That’s the truth.”

“It certainly is,” Dave said with a much too sincere smile. “But I gotta know, how exactly does that work? You thinking I’d stood you up?”

“Eh, I got a bit high, lost track of time,” Klaus said with a shrug, taking a drag. “You know how it is.”

“I sure do,” Dave said, nodding sagely, although Klaus wasn’t sure if he actually agreed or was just humoring him. “If it wasn’t intentional, any chance you’d let me make it up to you? Promise I won’t stand you up this time.”

“What?” Klaus said in surprise, barely stopping himself from choking on smoke. He hadn’t expected Dave to want anything to do with him after, well, everything.

“Yeah, let me by you a--” he dug around in his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins. “A coffee?” He sounded much too hopeful and Klaus was irritated with himself for finding it endearing.

“Well, how can I say no to coffee?” Klaus said, ignoring Ben’s disappointed sigh. Someone who wasn’t likely to get too angry at his antics was definitely someone worth keeping around, he reasoned.

“So,” Klaus said, making himself comfortable on his side of the booth, stretching his legs out. “Do you usually buy coffee for people who stand you up?”

“Depends,” Dave said, immediately pulling out the little sugar packets and making a game out of stacking them, building a little sugar packet house. “Can these people make me laugh so hard alcohol comes out of my nose?

“You have strange standards, but I am hilarious, so I’ll give you that.”

“Besides,” Dave said, handing a sugar packet to Klaus, inviting him to join in. “I had to apologize for making you think I’d stood you up.”

“And yet I’m the one who should be apologizing for actually, if unintentionally, standing you up,” Klaus said, gesturing with the packet before building onto Dave’s little house.

“So? Are you?”

“Am I what?

“Going to apologize.”

“Yeah, sure, I guess I should,” Klaus said, clearing his throat like he was about to give a speech, hand over his heart. “I’m so sorry for standing you up. And for depriving you of all of this.” He gestured to all of himself, winking yet again.

“I’m not sure how I survived,” Dave laughed. “But really, it’s cool. Who hasn’t gotten high and lost track of time before? But what about you? Do you usually go on dates after standing people up?”

“I mean, I did have fun last night, so—” Klaus admitted, because he couldn’t deny that he was a flake and, really, it was probably better that Dave knew that up front.

“I knew it,” Dave exclaimed, apparently missing the point, but Klaus wasn’t going to correct him if he wanted to take the ego boost and leave the rest on the table.

“Don’t get all full of yourself, every party I attend is a good one, so really you can only take half credit.”

“That’s more than enough for me.”

“Hi, Dave,” the waitress said, coming over to their table. “The usual?”

“Yeah, two coffees this time, Cheryl. Thanks.”

“You got it.”

“Come here often, then?” Klaus asked once the waitress left.

“Well, my work is right across the street,” he said, gesturing to a construction yard they could see from their seats. “We’re almost done with this job, though, so it’ll be a bummer to find a new place that won’t kick me out for drinking endless free refills.”

“Pretty face like yours, I’m sure you’ll manage.”

And he actually blushed at that. It was adorable and he would have liked to dwell on it and tease him, but the waitress was back. Dave seemed a bit relieved at the distraction.

“I got some fries for you both, on the house,” she said, setting it down in front of them.

“Oh, wow, thank you,” Dave said, smiling at her.

“I think she has a thing for you,” Klaus whispered across the table to him once they were alone again.

“She’s not really my type,” Dave chuckled. “And to be honest, she’s probably just glad I’m not here alone for a change. I think she was beginning to think I don’t have a social life”

“Well, either way, I’m completely happy to take advantage of your good fortune.”

“All jokes aside, thanks for getting coffee with me,” Dave said, holding his mug up like he was gonna toast him.

“Yeah, apparently I should stand you up more often,” Klaus said with a whink, taking his own drink in hand.

“Or,” Dave said, drawing the word out like he was trying to get his courage up enough to actually finish the sentence. “You could find out how things go if you stick around.”

“Hmm,” Klaus said, acting like he was considering, like he hadn’t already made up his mind the moment he agreed to coffee. “Sure, I’d be willing to see how it goes”

“Are you going out again tonight? We can meet up at the same place. And hopefully we can avoid standing each other up this time.”

“Sure,” Klaus said. “So long as we can skip the preamble. Flirting across the dance floor was fun and all, but I’m pretty sure our night could be better spent.”

Last night, they’d continually gotten distracted from the main reason people usually meet up at clubs. While it had still been fun and another night of the same would have still been enjoyable, Klaus wanted to make sure there was no doubt where he’d like the night to end up even if it was obvious neither of them had a place they could go home to together. There were other ways to have a little fun, after all, and Klaus certainly wasn’t above back alley or bathroom escapades.

He decided that the easiest way to get this across was to reach his foot out, running it along Dave’s ankle and up his calf. Dave’s eyes widened in surprise, but he grinned back, a blush creeping across his face, and attempted to surreptitiously reply in kind. Instead, he misjudged the distance and accidentally kicked his leg, causing Klaus to gasp mock-accusingly and kick back.

From there, things quickly devolved into some sort of competitive game of footsy, the rules unclear. All Klaus knew was that it was taking everything they had to not laugh out loud and disturb the other tables. He wasn’t sure why things with Dave always turned out so ridiculous, but he was having more fun than he had in a long time so it wasn’t like he was going to complain.

The game ended abruptly when Dave banged his knee on the table, nearly spilling their coffee. They both stopped, trying to look innocent, until they made eye contact and immediately descended into giggling, Dave rubbing his tender knee. They got a few glares, but really that only caused them to laugh more, leaning close together conspiratorially.

When Dave eventually announced that he had to get to work, Klaus was once again struck by how easy it was to lose track of time when they were together. And it was strange how disappointed he felt as he headed down the sidewalk after saying his goodbyes. Then again, he’d gotten coffee and had eaten more than he usually did, so maybe that was the only reason he felt so reluctant.

“So, you’re going out again tonight,” Ben said, clearly disappointed as he fell into step beside him.

“I thought you said you liked the guy?” Klaus asked.

“‘Like’ is a strong word. I’d like it more if you didn’t go to clubs at all.”

“Well, we both know that’s not gonna happen,” Klaus said, pulling out another cigarette and grinning at his brother.

“You said you’d take me to that free art gallery,” Ben persisted. “We should go there instead.”

“Sorry, it’ll have to wait,” Klaus said and he really did feel a bit guilty for putting it off for so long. “I gotta resupply. We’ll go another day, okay? Now, help me figure out which dealer might actually give me an advance until I can get my hands on some cash.”

Ben sighed heavily, but at least he didn’t disappear.

#klaus hargreeves #dave katz #klave #the umbrella academy #klaus x dave #umbrella academy #fanfic #living for the moment #my fic

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daddyllodge · 4 years ago

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Poisonous blood || Riverdale au

chapter two

read here or on ao3

word count : 2067

༺═��─────────────═༻

" and over here we have the courtyard—" kevin keller began to say as he leads the new girl to a empty table. the second they bumped into each other before class stared the two raven haired teens hit it off.

veronica lodge was the utter definition of beauty. her long black hair and alluring eyes it was nearly impossible not to notice a girl like her. most of the guys didn't even bother to try and hide the fact that they were practically undressing her with their gaze.

who could blame them though? the young latina had curves and she knew it; her clothes only seemed to enhance them all the more— despite the winter coat she wore.

setting his lunch tray onto the table he chose for them, veronica followed suit; taking a seat next to him. she listened intensely to his words, eager to learn about all that was riverdale high.

" there's a lost of cliques here— allow me to introduce, " kevin said with a excited glint in his eye making veronica smiling response, gesturing for him to proceed.

" over there we have the ever so cliché popular group; lead by the queen of the damned herself, cheryl blossom." kevin began, nodding towards the only redhead girl surrounded by a large group of girls and guys.

as soon as he said this, however, veronica noticed the redhead turned her gaze towards them— almost as if she heard kevin's words.

both girls eyes met and quickly the two girl looked away.

" she's pretty. "

kevin snorted, " just wait till you see her true self. "

saying nothing in response she let kevin continue all the while taking a bite of her cafeteria food which if she was being honest, wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.

taking a slow breath, kevin went on to discreetly pointing with his plastic for to the group behind him. " over there we have the down to earth kids that almost everyone loves— or at least pretends to, "

veronica furrowed her brows in confusion, " what do you mean ? "

" well," kevin paused taking a sip of his bottled juice before he continued " take valerie brown for example, she's a soft spoken girl that loves to help and while that may be a great quality it also is her greatest weakness. she'll put others well-being before her own and so it makes it easier for others to take advantage of her pure intentions."

upon hearing this, veronica felt a wave of sadness and worry as she looked towards the girl kevin was telling her about.

seeing this kevin smiled sympathetically, " don't worry, that girl can very much take care of herself." he waved veronica's worry off.

" not to mention she has two older 'sisters' who always look out for her. " kevin smiled. " like melody, "

" that girl is a force to be reckoned with, she'll go to the ends of the earth for her sisters; with a temper matching the devil's melody is always there to protect those who've earned her trust and loyalty; though she does tend to go off the rails sometimes she always has someone to bring her back. . . " the sheriff's son rambled on, clearly have some kind of friendship with the two girls he was talking about.

" josie mccoy, she's the level headed one— a leader if you will. " kevin explained pointing towards the third girl of the group.

looking over kevin's shoulder, veronica caught sight of a thin girl wearing a yellow jacket with eyes fixated on a sheet of paper laid out on the table she was sitting on with melody and valerie leaning over her.

" she's wise and courageous and most importantly fair. josie loves her sisters even if their not her biological ones she loves them as if they were and is always there to keep them balanced. "

veronica smiled, " that's sweet. " she said fondly looking away from the group of girls that smiled and laughed at one another.

kevin nodded, " yeah, they're at whole lot better than those mutts over there. "

the sound of hatred coming from the bubbly boy caught veronica's attention, turning to the boy who was glaring at a group of guys.

" mutts ? " veronica questioned and out of the corner of her eye she could tell the redhead— cheryl, was looking at them again.

" they're all dogs, v. " kevin said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world; which in his eyes it was.

" i dated one of them before; let's just say he wasn't allowed to be sleeping with the sheriff's son. " he glanced at one of them and for a moment lingered on before looking back to veronica.

picking at his food, kevin continued. " sure, they're pretty to look at but get past the false exterior and you'll be running for the hills. "

veronica looked towards the group of guys curiously; eyes studying every single one of the guys in the group until they landed on a pair of icy blue eyes that were starting back at her intensely.

a eerie feeling washed over veronica and suddenly her breath hitch as the reminder of her first day in riverdale, when she was chanced by an beast like wolf. veronica almost shuttered at the memory of him chancing her flashed across her eyes for a split second before she blinked and the memory was quickly pushed to the back of her mind.

it wasn't until then that, veronica remembered the note she found at the foot of the bed the morning after her indecent.

the words written on the paper were noticeably written in a hurry but even then, veronica had found herself reading the two lines over and over and it wasn't until that moment at the courtyard with kevin that veronica realized she had unintentionally memorized what the note said.

❝ 𝒊 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 . . . ❞

❝ . . . 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆. ❞

the words echoed in the back of her mind as she met a pair of cold blue eyes, looking at veronica as if he was surprised by her mere presence.

" that's jughead jones, " kevin spoke bitterly once he noticed the two looking at one another. " he is the so called ' leader ' of the group, and by extension the biggest dick of them all. "

" . . . that's if you don't come across his twin brother, who name ironically is— " kevin was quickly cute off by the bell ringing signaling the end of lunch, making the young teen sigh.

" i'll tell you more later, " kevin said gathering his things before standing " what class do you have next ? "

"ap biology with- . . . " veronica pulled her folded up schedule out, quickly reading the teacher's name, " mrs. ruiz ? "

before kevin could respond his name was being called through the intercom, requesting his presence in the main office.

" it's okay, kevin. " veronica smiled. " go, i'll be alright on my own. " she reassured the boy who was clearly worried about leaving the new girl by herself.

" i have your number, text you soon ! " kevin said before running off to the main office.

and so, veronica grabbed her belongings as she began to stand only taking merely two steps before feeling a pair of pricing blue eyes on her making her heart race.

refusing to look in his direction, veronica quickly walked back into the school's building.

she may have been new to the school but she knew better than to get involved with someone like him; the second veronica's eye met jughead's she felt something— something that made her want to stay as far away from him as possible.

' it's a big school, shouldn't be all that hard. '

veronica thought to herself as she blankly looked at her schedule, vigorously re reading the room number as to not go through the horrid embarrassment of going to the wrong class. the young lodge had been so focused on memorizing the room number that veronica did not bothering to look where she was going until she felt herself collide with something hard with such force that she was almost knocked down.

though, before her body could hit the floor a pair of hands held her in place; almost immediately, veronica was engulfed into a sweet warmth that allowed the apples of her cheekbones to color into a bushing pink.

veronica eyes snapped up to meet a pair of dark— guarded brown eyes looking back at her own.

" i— " she began to say but his presence alone was oddly familiar and the overwhelmingly scene of comfort that seemed to surround him was all too much for the young girl to say anything else other than a breathless apology before rushing off .

the ghost of his hands on her hips was still present by the time veronica made it inside the school building, where she ignored the looks she received that were all a mix of attraction and curiosity. her heart was racing just as fast as it was when the dark wolf chased had chanced her.

veronica's vision clouded with unshead tears as the sensation of her throat closing up began to make her feel as though she was suffocating.

somehow managing to make it into the girls restroom her chest began to rise and fall at an alarming rate as she paced back and forth the empty restroom. veronica knew what this was, she knew if she didn't settle down she'd probably pass out; she knew no one would ever believed her if she tried to tell anyone what happened in the woods two nights ago.

" veronica ? " a blonde with a pale white complexion hesitantly approached, worried lines showing at the sight of the raven haired teen who looked at her with wide eyes.

almost immediately, the blonde haired girl rushed to veronica's side " you're hyperventilating, " she muttered taking the brunette's hand in hers letting the shorter girl squeeze onto the limb as tight as she wanted. " purse your lips and breath . . . slowly, v . . . slow breaths " she coaxed softly never once taking her worried gaze off of veronica.

" it's okay, you're alright. "

veronica didn't know this girl, she didn't know how or why she knew her name much less why she was helping her but as veronica did as she was told, she couldn't help it but feel glad she the blonde had came in when she did.

it was clear her mind was having a harder time to actually process what had happened in the woods with the wolves, one wanting veronica dead while the other protected her. veronica knew that was the real reason why she had such an abrupt panic attack but when the blonde girl asked her what happened veronica could only think of one thing to say.

" not a big fan of being the new girl. "

that was a lie.

veronica loved being the new girl, the attention it brought her but it wasn't until that very morning that veronica found herself unsure if she still liked being the new girl.

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cheryl-in-a-barrel · 6 years ago

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I deserve it - part 3

Here is the third and final part to “I deserve it,” my alternative take on the choni fight scene in 3x12. If you haven’t yet, pls read part 1 and part 2 before this one.

It’s been a few days. Since Cheryl and Toni have spoken.

Cheryl’s avoiding Toni, even if she wasn’t the one to walk out of that bathroom, she’s the one now staying as far away from the other girl as she can, because well, she thinks that’s what Toni wants. She’s done enough damage already by not taking Toni’s feelings into account, so this time, that’s exactly what she plans to do. Toni didn’t want to see her, Cheryl knows that, so she’s staying away, trying to do something right for once.

All that mattered anyway was that her plan to talk with Jughead worked. Cheryl caught sight of Toni out in the parking lot after school with her serpent jacket being worn proudly over her shoulders, back where it belongs.

Toni has her family back, and she’s safe and sound in the gang that’s offered her shelter for the past three years. At least Cheryl was able to fix something. She may have destroyed her relationship with Toni, but she fixed this. It was something.

Cheryl’s gotten a number of calls and text messages from Toni all day, but after the fifth call, Cheryl turned her phone off.

She was done being selfish.

Toni would be much better off without Cheryl constantly dragging her down, and Cheryl was determined to make sure Toni was only given the best. The best didn’t include Cheryl.

Things are better like this.

Even with all the pain her poor, fragile heart is in, she knows she’s doing the right thing.

Toni told her to get some perspective, and well, she has.

Enough perspective to realize that people were just better off without Cheryl Blossom in their lives.

Maybe her mother is right, maybe it really should have been Cheryl instead of Jason who got shot and killed last summer.

Maybe that was how the story was meant to be written.

…..

“Hey, Jones!” Toni shouts, immediately spotting Jughead and Betty sitting at a booth in Pop’s the second she walks through the door.

“What’s up, Toni?” Jughead asks, momentarily moving his gaze from Betty, as Toni comes stomping over to their table.

“Have you seen my girl come by here? She’s been avoiding me all day and I need to talk to her,” Toni explains, not really paying attention to the couple in front of her as she scans the rest of the diner for a flash of long, red hair.

“Nope, haven’t seen her since that other night she came over. I don’t know why you’re bugging so hard though, isn’t it nice to have a break from the ice queen every once in awhile?” It’s a poor, poor attempt at a joke, and Betty is kicking Jughead’s shin under the table as Toni crosses her arms and narrows her eyes on the boy.

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” She asks, voice steely, posture tense.

“He didn’t mean it like that,” Betty tries to deflect, looking sheepish. Jughead only straightens up and matches Toni’s glare with one of his own.

“All I’m saying is Cheryl can be a lot to handle. If she’s giving you the cold shoulder maybe you should just take it…I mean, don’t you think you can do better, Toni?”

“Oh no,” Betty is mumbling to herself as she puts her face down into her hands. Jughead had a serious problem knowing when was the right time to keep his opinions to himself, this, being the perfect example.

Toni allows her anger to take over as she moves forward and grabs Jughead by the collar of his shirt.

“Cheryl is the girl of my dreams, and the best thing that’s ever happened to me. So no, I can’t do better, not in a million years. And maybe you’d know that if you got off your damn high horse for two seconds and realize there’s more to people than the surface level bullshit you get stuck up on. Playing God with the serpents is one thing, but you keep your holier than thou attitude the hell away from my girlfriend.” Toni pushes Jughead away from her before angrily exiting the diner and getting as far away from that boy as she could.

He may be the serpent king, but Toni isn’t sure she’ll be able to follow someone like him anymore. When Jughead kicked her out, it really opened her eyes to the kind of person he is. The kind who would banish her from her own family even after he’s made the same mistakes that he crucified her for in the first place. None of them were innocent, and to pretend that some were more worthy than others, because what, Jughead deemed them to be? That was fucked up no matter how you look at it.

When Jughead offered her solace with the serpents once again, she thought he’d came to his senses. That he made the wrong decision, and he wanted to make up for it.

But then he told her it was Cheryl that begged him to give Toni a second chance. That it was Cheryl who came to him with pleas to make things right. Cheryl, who asked for nothing else but to give Toni back her home that had been so cruelly ripped away from her.

Cheryl, the girl she loves.

The girl she needs to find.

Toni had no idea where she was, but she had a few ideas of places she could check, and so, she gets on her bike and goes to do just that.

…..

“Oh JJ, I wish you were still here. Nothings been the same since you left. Sometimes it feels like you leaving is what started this whole miserable chain reaction of masked vigilantes, and dark, unsolvable mysteries in Riverdale. It’s like the world just couldn’t handle losing someone as precious as you.” Cheryl sits at Jason’s grave, staring at the neat carving of his name in stone through glassy eyes.

How she missed her dear brother.

With her parents only focus on her being strictly confined to seeing her as their emotional punching bag, while treating Jason as their golden boy who could do no wrong, Cheryl thinks Jason must have been the only person who truly was better off with her in his life.

At least she was able to actually provide him with something helpful. Even if that thing was their parent’s abuse. She took the hits, so Jason didn’t have to.

“I miss you so much,” Cheryl cries, hear tears making a mess of her makeup, not that she cares.

She thought losing Jason would be the worst pain she’d ever know, and in part it still is, but losing Toni in addition to her beautiful brother, hurt her in ways she didn’t even know was possible.

Cheryl’s alone, with no one but herself to blame for it.

And it hurts.

It feels like her soul is on fire, screaming for salvation as the flames pick her apart piece by piece.

As dramatic as it may sound, Cheryl’s always felt things with just a little more strength than what was considered normal. Perhaps that’s why her actions were often over the top, because she needed the outside to mimic everything she felt on the inside.

But she doesn’t know how she’d be able to recreate what she’s feeling now. With the only people who have ever meant anything to her gone, she didn’t think the pain she was left with would ever heal.

“Cher?” A voice calls out gently, and Cheryl jumps from the unexpected visitor, furiously wiping her tears with her hands as Toni comes closer.

“Toni? What are you doing here?” Cheryl asks, nervously watching the other girl.

Toni slowly lowers herself down until she’s sitting on the cold ground of the cemetery, same as Cheryl. She leaves a little space between them, even if her instinct is to scoot closer.

“I’ve been looking for you,” Toni explains, “You’ve been dodging me all day, and after checking a couple other places, I knew you must have been here.”

Cheryl nods in understanding, and averts her gaze back to Jason’s grave, finding it way too difficult to look at Toni right now.

She should have known Toni would find her here. The girl is stubbornly persistent, and more clever than people give her credit for.

“Why didn’t you answer my calls?” Toni wonders, looking at her girlfriend and trying not to let the sight break her heart.

Cheryl shrugs, and moves her knees up to her chest.

“Because I’m done dragging you down with me, Toni. You shouldn’t even be here right now, just go.”

“What?” Toni says, shock taking over her expression as she tries to process what Cheryl just said.

“You’re better off without me constantly bringing you into all my messes. You were right okay, I’m too busy being Cheryl, never thinking about how my actions hurt all the people around me. I don’t deserve you, Toni, so just go away.”

Toni can’t believe what she’s hearing.

How could Cheryl possibly think she didn’t deserve her?

How could this beautiful, intelligent, sensational girl think so little of herself?

Toni gives up on the whole space thing, and crawls over to Cheryl’s side, not stopping until their bodies are pressed together, and Toni has Cheryl’s face cradled in both her hands.

“Are you out of your mind?” She asks, her voice shaky.

“Ton—“

“I love you.”

Cheryl whimpers, blinking back her tears.

“No you don’t.”

“Don’t you dare try to tell me otherwise. I love you, Cheryl Blossom. And you do deserve me, we deserve each other, because we deserve some sense of happiness in our fucked up lives. I was mad, okay? Mad at the announcement about Moose, and mad about getting kicked out of the serpents, and mad about everything that’s happened to us ever since summer ended, but do you seriously think that meant I wanted to just give up? On us? Babe, you’re the best thing in my life.”

Cheryl grips the sleeve of Toni’s jacket and pushes herself closer to the girl, taking advantage of their close proximity after so many days apart.

“I’m sorry, Toni. For everything. For doing what I did to Moose, and for being so careless with the serpents, and for causing chaos at every turn without thinking about how it could affect you. How can you possibly be ok with staying with me after everything I’ve done?”

“You made a couple mistakes, Cher, but I know you, and I know your heart, and I know how good it is. I mean look, you got me back with the serpents, babe. I can’t thank you enough for doing that… You can’t change what’s in the past, but you don’t have too, all you need to do is keep trying here in the present.” Toni finishes by leaning down and leaving a kiss on Cheryl’s forehead.

“Do you really mean that, TT? You’re not just saying this because you feel obligated or pitiful?” Cheryl feels the ever present insecurity creep up in the back of her mind, despite Toni’s reassuring words.

Toni decides to give Cheryl her answer with something other than words. Sliding her hand over to grip the back Cheryl’s neck, Toni pulls her in for a kiss, capturing her lips and tasting the salt from both their tears as she does.

The next thing Cheryl knows, she’s on Toni’s lap, and her girlfriend is holding her steady as they soak up as much of one another as physically possible.

Four days since they’ve last spoken, since they’ve last kissed, or felt each other’s touch, or held the other’s hand. It was torture, and they just wanted, so desperately, to be together again.

“You’re my everything, babe, don’t you get that?” Toni breathes, as her lips part from Cheryl’s for the tiniest of moments.

“You’re the most important person in my life, TT. Please don’t leave me?”

“Never,” Toni says it like the mere idea is the most insane thing she’s ever heard, “I could never be that stupid.”

Cheryl wraps her arms around Toni’s shoulders and hugs her tight. Hugs her like her life depends on it.

She loves this girl. Loves her with her whole damn heart. Cheryl doesn’t have a single clue what she did to deserve a girl like Toni in her life, to deserve that warm smile, and those pretty eyes, and her extraordinary mind.

She doesn’t understand why she was given such happiness. But while here in Toni’s arms, where she feels safer than she’s ever been before, she’s starting to think, maybe, just maybe,

She deserves it after all.

#choni #fanfiction #riverdale #cheryl blossom #toni topaz #riverdale 3x12 #choni fanfiction #I deserve it

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serpentupemotions-blog · 6 years ago

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I’m With You | Sweet Pea x OC | Part Two

Cora Chase doesn’t really know what to expect when she moves back to Riverdale, only that it’s been thirteen years since she’s been gone and she wants to rebuild her relationship with her father. She definitely doesn’t expect to be thrown into a friendship with Sweet Pea, the boy looking for a job at her father’s auto shop.

A/N: Toni and Cheryl are in this. Please imagine that they are still the characters from early season 3, events that occurred during season 3 episode 9 and after just don’t exist in this universe.

Warnings: Swearing and injury (accidental, not violent)

Word Count: 5k+

Thank you to @steve-harringtonnn for helping plan and edit this!

“Ready to go?” Joe asks, walking into the front office at 5:10. Ten minutes after everyone was scheduled to leave, enough time for him to wait for all the employees to clock out and say goodbye to each of them before leaving himself. Riverdale Auto Shop was the only auto shop in town and Joe could have made a pretty good living with his steady customer base. But he had always insisted that as the shop brought in more profit it would go to paying his employees higher wages over having more profit for himself. At the end of the day, when Joe was there to see everyone off, it was clear that he cared more about his employees and the shop than making money.

Cora looks up from the stacks of papers scattered on the desk. She hadn’t made any plans for the summer when she made the choice to move back to Riverdale. She figured she may not even stick around long enough to warrant making any plans. It hadn’t taken her long to figure out that her dad was in over his head with the office duties of Riverdale Auto Shop. His filing system was tossing papers into stacks on the desk in hopes that he would never actually have to find them again. Cora had offered to help out, not realizing she would immediately land on the payroll. She was on day three of trying to sort it all out, each time she felt like she had made progress it seemed like the stacks were only growing. “I’m on a roll, I think I’m going to stay for a bit. I’ll see you at home though.”

“Well don’t stay too late, it’s not going to go anywhere overnight,” Joe says, heading towards the door.

“That’s what I fear,” Cora says, looking up at her dad with a smile when he laughs, heading out the office door.

A couple hours pass by quickly as Cora grows increasingly frustrated with the serious lack of organization. The ticking of the clock on the wall seemed to get louder the longer she sat there. The sun was beginning to set outside. A warm yellow glow cast through the front windows of the office, illuminating the fine dust particles hanging in air.

Finally, the ticking clock wears her down and Cora pushes the office chair away from the desk, standing up and walking to the wall it was hanging on with determination. Reaching up she leans on her tiptoes, teetering around before placing her hand against the wall to steady herself. Cora is barely able to grasp the bottom of the clock at its height. The weight of the clock is unexpected and the loose grasp that she has on the bottom of it sends it toppling to the ground. A slight shriek of panic escapes her lips as she jumps backwards, out of the way of the clock which lands on the ground with a loud thud and a shattering of glass. Cora’s heart races as she takes a deep breath. At least the ticking had stopped.

“Are you alright?”

Jumping again Cora turns towards the voice, seeing Sweet Pea standing in the doorway between the shop and the office, his hand holding the door open. Her hand flies to her chest to try to calm the hammering of her heart. “Yeah, I’m okay…it was just ticking so loud-,”

“So, you needed to destroy it?” Sweet Pea teases, stepping out of the doorway and letting the door between the office and shop swing shut. Walking over he crouches down, picking up the pieces of glass scattered across the floor.

“I can clean it up,” Cora says quickly, leaning down across from him to help pick up the pieces of the broken clock. She reaches out for a large shard of glass at the same time as Sweet Pea, fingers brushing against his. The unexpected contact makes her muscles tense, the fingers of her left-hand clenching slightly before quickly releasing again. Cora’s pain receptors work to drop the glass from her hand before her brain even registers what happened. Moments later the blood and searing pain draw Cora’s attention to the cuts on her palm and fingers. “Shit,” she hisses in pain, standing up quickly, all the glass falling back to the ground as her right hand instinctively cradles her left.

Sweet Pea places the pieces of glass into the nearby garbage can as he stands up with Cora. “Come on,” he says gently, placing his hand on her upper arm. His gentle touch guides her through the front office and into the bathroom at the back of the hallway between the office and shop. He quickly turns on the tap and wraps his hand around Cora’s wrist, guiding her hand under the running water. Cora avoids looking in the direction of the sink, not wanting to see the damage she had done. Her stomach churning slightly as a dizzy sensation washes over her body. “Are you okay?”

“Mhm,” she hums, lips pressed firmly together as she nods quickly. She wasn’t convincing herself that she was okay, and she was pretty sure she hadn’t convinced Sweet Pea either.

“Grab some paper towels,” Sweet Pea tells her a minute later, nodding to the paper towel dispenser behind her. Reaching over Cora does as he says, glad to have something to do, even if just momentarily. Sweet Pea’s hand loosens around her wrist, turning the water off after she brings the paper towel to her hand, pressing it against her skin without looking at it. Sweet Pea washes his hands as Cora keep pressure on the cut, drying his hands and pulling a first aid kit from under the sink in the bathroom. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” Cora whispers, watching Sweet Pea as he easily takes control of the situation, not hesitating as he reaches over and wraps his hand around her wrist, guiding Cora’s hand in front of him. Her eyes focus on the wall on the other side of the bathroom, not wanting to watch what was happening. Feeling it was enough.

“There,” Sweet Pea says and when she looks back, his hand is still wrapped around hers, cradling it gently. Cora swallows hard, heart hammering in her chest. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” she says, nodding reassuringly. Taking a deep breath, Cora steadies herself a little. Maybe it was the cut on her hand that was making her heart pound and her legs feel shaky. But she knew that wasn’t the only thing to blame. “What are you even still doing here?” she asks, desperate to talk about something, anything, that could get her mind off the path it was headed in.

“I’m working on a friend’s truck, your dad said I could use the shop as long as I locked up on my way out.” He was completely steady, his hand still wrapped around Cora’s hand, although he seemed to not even notice that. “I didn’t know you were still here.”

“I’m working on stuff in the office,” she says, realizing seconds after the words leave her mouth how stupid that sentence was. Of course that’s what she was doing, that’s the only reason she would be still be at the shop. This wasn’t like her. Flustered was not a state Cora was used to. She never had the option to let herself get flustered. She had to be bubbly, outgoing. She had to know all the right things to say, to have a plan and a plan B of what she was going to say if plan A didn’t go over well.

“Oh.” Sweet Pea laughs. “I thought you were just here doing some aggressive redecorating.”

Rolling her eyes Cora finally build up the courage to move her hand away from his, “I should go finish cleaning that up,” she comments, turning towards the bathroom door.

Sweet Pea shakes his head, using the fact that he was closer to the door to his advantage and stepping out before her. “You’re not going anywhere near that glass,” he chuckles, walking down the hallway and back to the office. “Just sit down and don’t touch anything sharp.”

Following him Cora sits down on the chair behind the desk, watching as he resumes picking up the larger shards of glass along with the broken clock face. “I’m not a child, I could have handled that.”

“I’m sure you could have,” Sweet Pea says, entertaining the thought as if she really was a child. “Next time you can try again,” he adds, looking over at Cora with a smirk that elicits an eye roll from her. Cora picks up a foam stress ball she had found on the desk while organizing, playfully tossing it in Sweet Pea’s direction.

Sweet Pea catches the ball smoothly, chuckling as he tosses is back in Cora’s direction. “Don’t be mad at me, you’re the one who couldn’t handle touching me.”

Cora can feel the warmth creeping up into her cheeks, accompanied by a feeling of embarrassment and stupidity. She was too old to be blushing at such a stupid comment. Even if there was some truth behind the stupid comment. “Shut up, asshole,” Cora grumbles through an undeniable smile as she watches Sweet Pea sweep up the glass shards.

Cora gets to her feet quickly when the office door is pushed open, a figure in a leather jacket stepping through it. “I’m sorry, we’re closed,” Cora states nervously, immediately regretting not having locked the door earlier.

“Relax,” Sweet Pea chuckles at Cora’s tense body language, “this is my friend, the one whose truck I’m working on.”

“Did my dad say you could invite people over? I’m going to have to write you up for this.”

Sweet Pea’s friend shifts nervously, stepping back towards the door. “Uh, no, he didn’t invite me. I invited myself in…I’ll go. Don’t write him up.”

Cora snorts, a smile spreading on her face. “I was joking,” she assures Sweet Pea’s friend. “Although he actually is going to get in trouble for breaking that clock...possibly fired,” Cora says with a playful smirk, nodding towards the garbage can sitting beside Sweet Pea that held the broken clock.

Sweet Pea shakes his head with a smile, leaning the broom against the wall. “That’s not the thank you I was expecting for saving you from yourself.”

“You’re Cora, right?” Sweet Pea’s friend asks, drawing Cora’s attention away from Sweet Pea.

Cora’s eyebrows furrow as she looks at him, glancing back to Sweet Pea out of the corner of her eyes. “Yeah…how did you know that?”

Sweet Pea suddenly clears his throat, reaching over and lightly hitting his friend’s arm. “Come on, man. I need your help if we’re getting your truck back on the road for tomorrow.”

“I’m Fangs, by the way,” Sweet Pea’s friend says, walking through the office towards the shop, a couple paces behind Sweet Pea. Fangs stops in the doorway, turning back to face Cora once Sweet Pea had put some distance between himself and Fangs. “Hey, tomorrow is three-dollar pint night at the Wyrm. Sweet Pea and I usually go with a few of our other friends. You should come,” he says before turning back around and walking into the shop.

“Fangs seems nice,” Cora says, sitting beside Sweet Pea in the shade behind the shop during coffee break. Cora clutches her mug of coffee between both her hands, adjusting on the uncomfortable truck bench they were sitting on. At one point in time the old bench had been ripped from the truck it belonged to, fastened into makeshift outdoor seating. Joe was not the type to let things go to waste.

Sweet Pea nods, flicking the ash on the end of his cigarette to the ground. “Yeah, he is. He’s like a brother to me.”

“He invited me to the Wyrm tonight,” Cora says, unsure whether it was a piece of information that Sweet Pea already knew.

The hesitation that follows is enough to answer the question. Sweet Pea turns his head to the side to look at Cora. “Oh…like, uh,” Sweet Pea coughs uncomfortably, straightening his back as he sits up, “as a date?”

Cora laughs and shakes her head quickly. “No, not as a date,” she says, looking into Sweet Pea’s eyes. “Is he single though?” she jokes, smiling teasingly at Sweet Pea. “Why? Do you not want me dating your friends?”

“Date whoever you want,” Sweet Pea mutters dismissively, bringing his cigarette back to his lips.

Cora raises her eyebrows, giggling nervously. “I won’t go, it’s fine if you don’t want me to hang out with your friends.”

Sweet Pea turns back to Cora, a look of regret in his eyes. “No, that’s not…I didn’t mean that. Come, it’ll be fun…I want you to come.”

Cora waits a minute before breaking the slight tension with a smile. “Okay…but I don’t actually know what the Wyrm is.”

Sweet Pea chuckles, leaning over and pressing his cigarette into the coffee can half-full of sand. “I’ll pick you up at eight.”

“Thank you,” Cora says as Sweet Pea hands her a pint of beer before gesturing for her to follow him through the bar. The Whyte Wyrm was not crowded, though for a Thursday night they had pulled a respectable crowd. Most likely the turnout a direct result of three-dollar drinks.

“Hey guys, this is Cora,” Sweet Pea says as he gets to a table tucked away in the back corner, gaining the attention of the people sitting around it.

“In the flesh,” a guy with an empty glass of beer in front of him mutters, muffled laughter ensuing as if nobody was aware the joke hadn’t been discreet.

“What-,” Cora begins to whisper a question about the comment to Sweet Pea before he proceeds with introductions. It wasn’t that loud in the bar for him not to have heard her. Cora shakes it off, focusing her attention instead on the introductions.

“Cora, this is Fangs, as you know, and Toni, Cheryl, Axel, and Finley, but they go by Fin.”

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Cora says, taking a seat at the table with Sweet Pea, placing her glass of beer in front of her.

“I’m glad you could come,” Fangs comments, but his eyes only remain on Cora’s for a split-second before he’s looking at Sweet Pea with a knowing smile.

“So,” Fin says, drawing Cora’s attention away from the silent interaction between Fangs and Sweet Pea. “You just moved back to Riverdale, right?”

“Fin,” Toni hisses under her breath, shooting a glare across the table in the direction of Fin.

“What?” Fin exclaims, hands flying up in defense, “are we supposed to pretend Sweet Pea hasn’t told us about her?”

Cora turns her head to the side, looking up at Sweet Pea as he avoids looking in her direction. She laughs softly, using her elbow to nudge his arm gently, his body tense as he looks in her direction with an uncertain smile.

“Why?” Axel suddenly asks, lifting away the silent tension that had settled around the table. “Why would you want to move to Riverdale?”

“I just want to get to know my dad better, it’s been thirteen years since I’ve spent more than a few weeks a year with him,” Cora says with a shrug, fingers slowly turning the beer in front of her in circles.

“Where did you grow up?” Fin asks.

Cora shifts nervously in her chair under the full attention of the table. She didn’t mind being center stage, she did however grow anxious when the topic was her childhood. “I didn’t really grow up anywhere,” she says, trying to keep her tone casual. “My mom was a bit, uh…flighty, I guess you could say. We were almost always moving around, it was a miracle if I spent a full school year at one school,” Cora explains, laughing softly despite the fact that she had long ago realized how her mother’s lifestyle had seriously impacted her life in more ways than one.

“How’s the first week of your internship been, Fin?” Sweet Pea asks and Cora feels the tension in her body dissipate at the change in subject. She was grateful for the redirection of the conversation, though she wasn’t entirely sure if Sweet Pea was aware of what he was doing.

Fin shrugs, leaning back against their chair with a sigh. “Well I found out I’m really good at doing the coffee run and photocopying. Not changing lives yet.”

“You will one day,” Axel states. “You already have an internship and you haven’t even started your first year of university…I still think you should go into entertainment law though, forget criminal law.”

“No fucking way,” Fin laughs. “If anything, you make me not want to go into entertainment law, so I won’t ever have to work for you.”

“Hey! …. I would let you say you work with me.” Axel chuckles and pushes his chair back from the table, scanning everyone’s glasses before realizing he was the only one who had already finished their beer. “Lightweights,” he mutters before walking away from the table.

“Pool?” Fangs asks Sweet Pea, nodding in the direction of the pool tables.

Sweet Pea looks at Cora, hesitating to answer Fangs. “Are you asking my permission to go play pool?” Cora asks, laughing quietly.

“I, uh,” Sweet Pea chuckles, shaking his head as he pushes his chair back, getting to his feet. “No, I wasn’t.”

“Right,” Cora replies sarcastically, a teasing smile on her face as she watches him walk away, glancing over his shoulder, chuckling to himself when he hears her comment.

Cora’s attention is brought back to the table, listening to the conversation between Toni, Cheryl, and Fin for a moment before joining in. By the time Sweet Pea and Fangs have returned Cora had finished her beer, lost in the conversation at the table. Getting to know people was no longer a challenge for Cora. It had always felt like Cora was constantly in a state of having to make new friends with the way her childhood had been spent bouncing around from place to place.

“Do you want another?” Sweet Pea asks Cora, standing next to her at the table and pointing to her empty glass.

Cora shakes her head, looking up at him. “No, thanks. I need to be sober to beat you at pool. I’ve been told you’re good, but I think I can take you.”

Sweet Pea raises his eyebrows, the corners of his lips pulling into a smirk. “Willing to put some money behind that?”

“Oh, I’ve seen the payroll at work, I know how much you make, and I just wouldn’t feel right taking money from you,” Cora teases.

Sweet Pea chuckles, shaking his head as he stares down at Cora. He extends his hand to her with a smirk. “Come on then, show me why you’re so confident.”

Cora pushes her chair back, reaching out and taking the hand that Sweet Pea was offering. His hand was much warmer than hers, skin rough against her soft skin. The touch didn’t leave her feeling as flustered as the day before, the expectedness of it when she reached out for him taking away much of the power that it had over her the last time. Cora follows him a few feet to the pool table, their hands falling apart as soon as they get there, before either of them have to acknowledge it.

“Fuck, you’re good,” Sweet Pea comments after the game, taking the pool cue from Cora to put into the cue rack. “I really didn’t expect that.”

Cora laughs softly, watching Sweet Pea put the pool cues away before walking back in the direction of the table. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Pea.”

“So?” Axel calls when Cora gets a couple feet from the table. Sweet Pea hangs back a couple paces, watching her with intrigue. As Cora gets back to the table Sweet Pea changes directions, heading for the bar.

“It was close,” Cora tells him.

“Don’t care. Did you beat him?” Axel presses.

Cora nods, a smile on her face. Axel practically launches himself across the table, narrowly escaping knocking over many glasses, giving her an excited high five. “Finally, giving Sweet Pea some competition.”

Sweet Pea returns to the table, dropping into the chair beside Cora and setting another pint of beer on the table in front of her. His arm slings over the back of her chair, hand resting against the wooden frame. “Your prize.” Sweet Pea chuckles.

“My prize wasn’t just bragging rights?” Cora reaches over, picking up the glass and taking a sip, her eyes remaining on Sweet Pea.

“That beer is poor man’s hush money…he doesn’t want you to tell anyone you beat him, it’d ruin his reputation,” Fin chimes in.

Cora laughs softly, setting the beer back onto the table and reaching over, patting Sweet Pea’s thigh gently. “Your secret’s safe with me,” she tells him with a playful wink.

“I’ll play you if you’ll buy me a beer when I win,” Axel says, arms crossed in front of him on the table as he leans forward with a mischievous smile.

“It’s three-dollars, Axel,” Toni comments, shaking her head as Axel shrugs carelessly.

“And you’ve never beat me before,” Sweet Pea tells him, reaching into his wallet and pulling out a five-dollar bill. “I’ll add it to your tab, asshole.”

“I’ll buy you all the drinks you ever want once I get my first record deal,” Axel chimes, standing up from the table and turning towards the bar. “I swear,” he adds, calling it over his shoulder as he walks away.

Cora looks around the table, at the group of friends in front of her. Friends who had known each other for so long. Had grown up in the same town, the same one town. Saw each other go through awkward phases, embarrassing moments. Had supported each other in the worst times and celebrated the best. Cora smiles through the bittersweet feelings, lost in her thoughts for a few minutes before Sweet Pea’s laughter at something Fangs had said draws her back to reality, back to enjoying the night with these new people.

“Thanks for letting me crash your night with your friends,” Cora comments, sitting in Sweet Pea’s truck in the driveway of her house.

“They’re your friends now too.”

Cora is silent for a moment, trying to determine exactly how she felt about that, about all of this. About the strange feeling she had in her stomach, all of this was too good, too easy. “Well thank you, anyway. I had fun. See you at work tomorrow.”

“Cora,” Joe says, walking into the front office from the shop on Friday morning. Cora looks up from the papers on the desk she had been staring at for far too long, not actually doing anything with them. “I buy the guys lunch from Pop’s every Friday. Usually we rotate who takes care of getting orders and picking it up. I was thinking now that you’re here maybe you can deal with that?”

Cora nods, her head aching slightly. Maybe the fourth beer had been a mistake. “Yeah, I can do that,” she tells Joe with a forced smile. No way was she about to fess up to the fact that she was hungover and that the idea of going into the loud shop to collect food orders made her want to crawl into a hole. Picking up a sheet of paper and a pen she follows Joe back into the shop, instantly wincing at the sound of a drill echoing through the shop.

“Pea,” Cora wines as she gets to him, drawing his attention from his where his was standing over the open hood of a black minivan. “What do you want for lunch?”

Sweet Pea turns around, not hiding the smirk on his face as he looks over at her. “Feeling a little rough?”

“Just tell me what you want for lunch…actually, just write it down for me,” Cora says, reaching over and handing Sweet Pea the sheet of paper with orders scribbled all over it. “How are you fine?”

“I only had one drink. You had, what was it…five? Don’t worry, you’ll figure out how to do weekday nights out now that you’re hanging out with our friends,” Sweet Pea says, handing the paper back to Cora.

“Four,” Cora corrects, taking the paper back from him. “I only had four drinks, not five.”

Sweet Pea chuckles, shaking his head and turning back to the van. “Oh, right, you just can’t handle your liquor.”

Cora groans, rolling her eyes. “I’ll see you when I bring lunch back. Though I might just accidentally forget your order,” she says jokingly before turning around and walking out of the shop.

The bell above the door of Pop’s jingles as Cora walks through it, the diner almost completely empty. Cora walks to the counter Fangs was standing behind, wiping absentmindedly at the countertop. “You don’t look great,” Fangs comments when Cora gets closer, sitting down on one of the stools at the counter.

“I know,” Cora huffs, placing her arms on the counter and resting her head against them. “I don’t usually drink much, especially not when I have to work the day after.”

Fangs laughs, his hands on the counter as he leans against it. “Your order is almost ready.”

“No,” Cora whines, not lifting her head away from her arms. “I can’t go back already,” she jokes, slowly sitting up straighter. “They’re torturing me with the constant drilling and hammering and banging and crashing.”

Fangs walks around the other side of the counter, sitting down in the stool beside her. “Tell everyone I’m really sorry their order was late, it was just so busy here, we could barely keep up.”

Cora places her elbow on the counter, resting her head against it as she looks over at Fangs with a smile. “Thanks,” she whispers.

Fangs reaches over, straightening out a napkin dispenser sitting on the counter. “Well I doubt anyone will believe that Pop’s was swamped on a weekday afternoon, but don’t mention it.”

Cora laughs softly, her eyes falling shut for a few minutes as she relishes in the quietness of the diner. “How long have you and Sweet Pea been friends?” Cora asks, her eyes opening again to look over at Fangs.

Fangs shrugs, taking a moment to think before answering. “Eight years, or something. Why?”

Cora sighs, sitting up straighter and glancing at the clock on the wall. “No real reason,” she admits. “You two just seem so close.”

Fangs follows Cora’s glance and stands up, heading back around to the other side of the counter to get the order. “We are,” Fangs comments before disappearing into the kitchen and returning with two large paper bags of food. “Axel and I were talking about having a bonfire out at a quarry not too far from town this weekend. I’ll text you if we decide we’re going to, in case you want to come.”

Cora takes out the credit card her dad had given her, one of the business cards. “Sounds fun, I’d love to come,” she tells Fangs while paying for the order. “Talk to you later,” she says with a smile, taking the bags and heading back to her car.

“Took you long enough,” Sweet Pea teases, walking into the break room with a few of the other guys as Cora sets the bags of food down onto the table.

“They were just so busy,” Cora laughs, ducking out of the way of everyone making their way towards the food. “Outside?” she calls back to Sweet Pea who simply nods in response, not needing more of an elaboration on her question.

A few minutes later Cora is sitting out behind the shop, on the old truck bench. The day was especially hot, and she was trying her best to ward off the nausea that the drinks from the night before had bestowed upon her. Sliding towards the edge of the seat Cora shuts her eyes, resting her head against the back of the bench.

“Maybe you should go home early,” Sweet Pea suggests, sitting down beside her. The bench squeaking and shifting under his weight.

Cora opens her eyes slightly, rotating her head to look over at him. “No, my dad will know I’m just going home because I’m hungover. He knows I didn’t get home till two last night.”

“Well are you trying to make it seem like you’re not hungover? Because you’re doing a shitty job.”

“You know, you bought all my drinks for me last night,” Cora points out, sitting up straighter and opening her eyes fully. “Thanks for that, by the way. Actually, I’m not being sarcastic, even if that’s why I feel like garbage today.”

Sweet Pea snorts and shakes his head. “What was it? Twelve dollars?”

“Whatever, it was still nice of you. Just take my appreciation.”

“Fine, you’re welcome.” Sweet Pea chuckles. “I would love to spend twelve dollars on you again next week if you want to come.”

Cora giggles and shakes her head. “Three dollars, maybe. Or perhaps zero, I’ll just drink water next week.”

“You’re a cheap date, Cora,” Sweet Pea jokes. The smile on Cora’s lips fades as she looks over at Sweet Pea, whose demeanour also tenses. He clears his throat nervously. “I didn’t mean…a date, like, uh, my date. It’s just, you know…a saying.”

“Yeah,” Cora nods, “yeah, of course. I know,” she adds quickly. “Fangs said something about maybe going to a quarry this weekend, or something,” Cora says, swiftly changing the course of the conversation.

“The quarry,” Sweet Pea says, making Cora laugh.

“Sorry, the quarry.”

Sweet Pea looks at her, relief clearly written across his face that the conversation had been rerouted away from his stumbling explanation that he wasn’t suggesting they had been on a date. “Yeah, he texted me earlier about it. You going?”

“Are you?”

Sweet Pea nods, shrugging with one shoulder. “Don’t have anything better to do.”

“You’re really making it sound like it’s going to be a great time. But yeah, I’ll go. I broke the clock, so that ruined my plans of sitting around all weekend staring at it,” Cora jokes, remembering Sweet Pea’s comments from the first day they met.

Sweet Pea chuckles before sitting in silence for a second, nervously adjusting a couple times on the bench. “There’s a meeting with the Serpents on Sunday afternoon that I have to go to, but do you want to go see a movie at the Bijou with me after that?”

“Yeah, sure,” Cora says casually, shrugging as she pulls her vibrating cell phone from her pocket.

Sweet Pea nods slowly. “Great,” he mutters, watching her stand up as she stares at her cell phone screen.

“I have to take this, talk to you later,” Cora says, hitting the answer button on her phone screen. Pushing the back door to the shop open she heads inside, towards the front office.

Sweet Pea watches Cora walk back inside longingly, as if he were watching any chance that he may have had to clarify that he had been asking her on a date disappear for good.

Thank-you for reading! Part three will be out next week. Hope you enjoyed!

Tag List: @reblogserpent

#sweet pea x oc #sweet pea #riverdale #sweet pea fanfic #sweet pea fanfiction #riverdale x oc #riverdale fanfic #riverdale fanfiction #sweet pea riverdale #riverdale sweet pea

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theangriestpea · 6 years ago

Text

Mercy Killing

A/N: I'm sorry this took longer to churn out than I had planned. I wrote Fireworks in between chapters to kind of give myself a bit of a break. I'm a little stuck on this fic now, not entirely sure where to go with it. I think I'll start bringing in plot points from the show to help me along though they're not going to cannonically line up. Coss-posted on AO3!

Chapter Four: Discovery

Half a bottle of whiskey lay on her oak table, beer bottles littered around beside it. Lav was in Fangs’ lap again, turned sideways she that her feet were on the middle of the couch between both boys.

“So, question or a shot?” Fangs’ asked her with a devious smile. They were playing this stupid game where either you had to answer an (usually) intrusive question or take a shot of whiskey. It was to keep her mind off of what had just happened with Jughead.

Lav’s stomach turned at the thought of another shot. She had avoided his questions almost entirely. Now that it was her turn again she knew she’d have to answer if she didn’t want to puke again.

She let out a somewhat frustrated sigh, “question, I guess. Just go easy on me.”

Fangs grinned, his grip around her waist tightening slightly as he laughed triumphantly. Sweet Pea glanced at them before taking a swig of beer, his grip on it straining the glass of the bottle. In his other hand he was going through Snap Chat, looking at photos Toni had posted recently.

“Who was your greatest lay?” He asked, having wondered for a while. Lav was a tease but she didn’t really pursue sexual partners. That being known, he knew she wasn’t a virgin because she had told him before during one of these games.

Lavender rolled her eyes at him, thinking that he already knew the answer. If she lied then he’d just challenge her and make her take a shot. “You.”

Sweet Pea nearly choked, he had no idea Fangs and Lav had slept together. He was immediately offended that Fangs didn’t tell him about it. He shot his friend a narrow-eyed look. How could he keep this from him? Maybe he was embarrassed to have fucked a Northsider.

“Hate to break it to you, baby girl, but we’ve never had sex. I’d remember.” Fangs said, clearly amused by her thinking that they’d done it and that he was the best. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. As much as he liked Lav and loved the prospect, he wouldn’t overstep their friendship like that. Not unless she really wanted to.

Lav gave him a look that was ebbed with confusion, “it was last Fourth of July. At the Wyrm. We’d been playing pool and I got stupid drunk off of an Old Fashioned and tequila. You left bruises that lasted almost two weeks.”

Fangs shook his head, “I was outside all night with the fireworks. Tall Boy put me in charge of them. I barely had anything to drink that whole night.”

Sweet Pea’s tan face blanched. “Fuck!” He snarled out as he stood up abruptly while placing his phone into his back pocket. Then he stormed out of the trailer, slamming the door behind him so hard that the picture frames on the walls shook.

The teens looked at each other silently wondering what the hell had just happened. “Maybe someone snapped him a dick pic?” Lav asked, not really knowing if that would cause that kind of reaction but also figuring that it would.

Fangs laughed at the thought, “I like dick pics.”

Lav rolled her eyes, “because you like dicks, dummy. I don’t think Sweet Pea does…does he?” She was suddenly confused. She’d seen him with plenty of girls but never with any guys.

“Nah, he doesn’t swing that way. A shame, really.” Fangs joked.

*~~~~~~~~~~~*

Sweet Pea threw his half empty beer bottle onto the ground, the green glass shattering against the dirt. He had retreated into his trailer where he was flipping furniture and smashing lamps. Anything to get this aggression out. The heat of fury on his brain making his pursuit of destruction relentless.

It couldn’t have been her. The girl he slept with in the back of the Wyrm of the Fourth was blonde. She was taller. She never said her name but fuck it couldn’t have been her. In the back of his mind a voice was telling him that this was why her body looked so familiar, this is why he recognized her almost bare form that night on the side of the road before he even saw her face.

He punched the wall in a fit of rage, the drywall easily giving in under the force and leaving a massive hole. His eyes roved up to the American Flag that was pinned up above the now cushion-less couch. What would his father think if he knew he’d hooked up with some whore from the north side of the tracks?

Pea almost instantly regretting thinking that, knowing deep down that Lav wasn’t a whore. She hadn’t seemed to have hooked up with anyone since then. Not to mention she had said he was the best she’d ever had. Christ, she was the tightest he’d ever had, though the quickie wasn’t necessarily something to brag to his friends about.

He cursed at himself again, throwing another punch at the plaster to create an even bigger hole. For fuck’s sake, he had liked the girl he was with that night. The way she showed off her assets to him by bending over the pool table. The manner in which she threw her head back with each shot. The catty glances and tiny smirks on her red lips. How she effortlessly let him manhandle her around in the stock room. There was no possible way it could have been her.

*~~~~~~~~~~~*

Toni had come over later than night to help cook some dinner for all of them. Cheryl had accompanied her in the usual fashion. They arrived to see Fangs and Lav drunk out of their minds with a mess of empty bottles all across the living room.

“Should she really be drinking?” Toni asked incredulously. She didn’t like the idea of them being hammered if another pack of Ghoulies were to roll up and try and finish the job they had started. If they even knew where she lived, of course.

Fangs shrugged, taking a final swig of beer. “She’s fine.” He slurred, pulling Lavender against him.

Lav let out a light giggle at him. “Hey, Toni. I have a question. You remember the Fourth of July?”

“Of course I do, I was the only sober one inside.” Toni said with a roll of her eyes. There was a faint smile on her lips though. “Do you remember who I was with?” Lav asked, hoping that Toni would know the answer to the question as to who she had slept with that night. Both she and Fangs had been dying to know. It had to have been another Serpent, there was no other explanation. One of the other teenagers, definitely…hopefully.

Toni was silent for a moment, “You were both pretty hammered.” She said, thinking back to that night. “But you were with Sweet Pea. He took you to the back room and you two made some pretty impressive noises.”

Lav’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. Fangs nearly jumped from the couch, the only thing keeping him seated was the weight of her on top of him. “I fucked Sweet Pea and you never told me?!” She asked, her voice raising an octave in desperation. Not only had she slept with him but she had admitted in front of him that it was great.

The tan girl gave her a puzzled look. “I just thought it was so bad that you two never wanted to talk about it. That’s why you were always fighting.”

Cheryl was shocked as well, “you let that behemoth take advantage of Lavie?” She asked. As interesting as she found this turn of events, she felt sorry for Lav. For the look on her face was so distraught, like she’d been punched in the stomach with a strong fist.

“I didn’t know her yet.” Toni said after shrugging it off, “Plus she kissed him first.”

She had forgotten about that too. She remembered him guiding her to the dimly lit room and him asking her how she liked it. He forced her to say a few choice things that she didn’t want to admit out loud. “Did I?”

Toni laughed lightly, “Oh yea, grabbed him by the dog togs and planted one right on him.” An amused expression crossed her face as Lav looked horrified. It’s not like she wasn’t physically attracted to Sweet Pea but he seemed to absolutely loathe her.

“That’s why he stormed out…” Lav said, starting to panic, “he figured it out.” She squirmed out of Fangs’ grasp.

Cheryl looked over the scene before her, “So you’re saying that neither of you remembered a night of hot passion in the back of that hazy excuse of a bar?”

Lav was standing, pain etching its way through her bruised ribcage. She held it briefly before starting to pace back and forth. “Not until a few hours ago…” She mumbled, obviously embarrassed by the whole thing. “Sweet Pea yelled and left in a hurry after I-“ She cut herself off, not wanting to admit once again that she had actually really enjoyed sex with Sweets. It just wasn’t fucking fair.

Toni was giving her more inquisitive looks, “after you what?”

“She said sex with him was the best she’d ever had.” Fangs said gently, not really knowing what Lavender was feeling as she moved back and forth. They could see the unblemished skin on the side of her face turn bright red. She could feel the pull of the stitches on her thighs. Her cast laid heavy in her crossed arms.

Both girls tried not to laugh. Not at their stressed friend but at the situation. “Sweet Pea hates me. He’s going to hate me even more now that he realizes we had sex.” Lav said, stopping for a moment to rub her eyes. “This is so fucked.”

Fangs shook his head, “Sweets doesn’t hate you. I keep telling you that and you don’t believe me. He just has this thing about Northsiders, something his pops ingrained into him as a kid. You know what they’ve done to us. Raid our school before closing it down completely. Throw FP in jail. Hell they’ve thrown all of us in jail as some point except for maybe Jughead. They write horrible things about us in their papers, blaming us for all of their problems. He doesn’t understand that just because you lived over there, that doesn’t mean you’re one of them. You’re dad lived on the Southside your entire life. You visited him twice a month until your mom left.”

Lav sat down next to him leaning against him for even more support. He put his arm around her shoulders. “Didn’t you practically grow up with Jughead? SP used to say he was a Northsider too. Still does sometimes when his friends come around.” She let out a sigh. Sweet Pea had been so vehemently against her from the start and she had no idea why. She did the dance, she shouted the laws to a crowded bar. Hell sometimes she still got up and swung around on the pole when she was drunk enough. Why was she never good enough for him? And why did she have this sinking feeling I her stomach at the thought of him being so angry with her?

Pea had never hit a girl before. She had no reason to think he’d be violent towards her, but after recent events…Her head was fluttering with anxiety induced panic. Worst of all, she knew he’d be back. He had to come back. FP’s orders.

“What am I supposed to do?” She asked, really having no idea what the next step was. So she had sex with Sweet Pea and it was great, so what. She wasn’t the only girl he’d slept with. Maybe the only Northsider but not the only Serpent. This didn’t change anything. She knew that night she was just going to be another notch in his bedpost, and she didn’t care then so she shouldn’t care now.

Fangs got up. “I’ll go talk to him while Toni stays here and cooks.” There was a smile tugging on his lips. “Okay? Just give me some time and I’ll fix this.”

Lav looked up at him with hopeful eyes, “thanks, Fangs. You’re the best.”

“I thought Sweet Pea was the best?” He joked, earning a glare to his back as he left.

*~~~~~~~~~~~*

Sweet Pea was on his porch smoking a cigarette. It was the third one in a row. Why was he so damn bent about this piece of information? Maybe it was because he had tried so hard to convince himself that he didn’t like her. That he didn’t notice the languid way her hips swayed to music when it was playing at the Wyrm. Or the little laugh she would let out when Fangs said something particularly dumb. The look she’d give any guy flirting with her as if telling them they didn’t have a chance. It wasn’t the look she’d given him on Independence Day. It wasn’t hungry or full of want. It wasn’t reciprocated. It had never been reciprocated except that night when he approached her and demanded that she play a round of pool with him. If he was going to be honest, then he had been searching for that girl every night since. A second round sounded great. He wondered what else he could convince her to do for him since she gave in so easily to his commands, even obviously turned on by them.

Fangs walked up to him with an oddly serious look on his face. It wasn’t something Sweets usually saw outside of Serpent meetings. “So how was it?”

“How was what?” Sweets asked dumbly, pretending that he didn’t know what his best friend was talking about.

“Banging Lavi in the back room.” Fangs asked, a hint of smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. His comment earned him a heated glare from the smoking teenager.

He knew he’d been found out. Lav didn’t seem to remember much more than he did. “It wasn’t her, that girl was blonde.” Pea said after taking another drag.

Fangs rolled his eyes, “Lav was a blonde before she went purple. You don’t remember?”

Pea honestly didn’t. He paid as little attention to her as possible. Perhaps in the time between their rendezvous and him being formally introduced to her, she had dyed her hair. It was plausible. “She was taller.”

“She was probably wearing heels, dumbass.” Fangs said with a sigh, sitting down beside his friend on the stoop. “Look I know she looked hot that night, I remember her outfit because I helped her pick it out. Toni said she kissed you first so fuck, no one blames you for giving into that kind of temptation. I don’t get what the big deal is. She’s a Serpent by blood. It’s not like anyone outside our circle knows. Though Cheryl and Toni found it awfully amusing…”

Sweet Pea let out a growl, “if they fucking tell anyone-“

“I don’t think they will.” Fangs cut him off. “Out of respect for Lavender…You still didn’t answer my question.”

Pea shot him a warning look that told Fangs to back off or he’d get the same treatment the inside of his trailer did. “It was fine.” He muttered after snuffing out his cigarette. “She came too fast.”

Fangs stifled a laugh. “Isn’t that usually your problem?”

Sweet Pea punched him in the arm to shut him up. Fangs yelped in pain and rubbed the spot on his bicep with a pout on his lips. “I really liked her though.” Sweet Pea admitted, hanging his hand a little as if he had lost the battle to keep secrets from his friend.

“So? I get you have this thing with Northsiders but her father lived on the Southside for years. She spent a lot of time in this trailer park too.” Fangs let out a small sigh, “right now we have a job to do, so push all that shit aside and let’s go eat whatever Toni decided to make.”

Pea ran a hand through his hair, “fine.” He grumbled in defeat.

A/N: Surprise! Fireworks is Mercy Killing cannon! Go check it out to see exactly what happened that night between Sweets and Lav!

#sweet pea #sweet pea x oc #sweet pea fanfic #sweet pea fanfiction #riverdale fanfiction #mercykilling #fanfic #fanfiction #riverdale #purpuraserpenta

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forasecondtherewedwon · 6 years ago

Note

49, 12, 31, 88 prompts choni please😊😊

Thank you for the (very polite) request!! I’m inserting a cut in this one because it gets a little dirty.

49. “I may be an idiot, but I’m your idiot.”

AND

12. “Say it!”

AND

31. “You weren’t supposed to laugh!”

AND

88. “See, now, wasthat so bad?”

From the seats directly behind Toni’s came the voices. Third time in thelast fifteen minutes, according to her laptop. She closed her eyes in annoyancefor a few seconds, then opened them to find her place in the notes she wascurrently taking. At the front of the hall, Cheryl Blossom―Toni’s girlfriendand the ambitious young professor of Sidewalk Chalk: Murder and the Small TownPsyche―continued the lecture. It was just her third in the electiveone-semester Criminology course, yet Cheryl’s class had filled after wordspread about her thrilling first presentation; telling the story of the time she’d shot the Black Hood serial killer with an arrow really put butts in seats. Toni already showed up early,but lately she’d had to defend her territory with implied aggression, slingingher Serpents jacket over her chair with the symbol visible to all and hercombat boots propped heavily on the back of the chair one tier down from her inthe auditorium.

Today, however, it wasn’t space she felt the need to defend as much asProfessor Blossom up at the front, animated and commanding as ever, while thejerks behind Toni fucking whispered and muttered through theirinstructor’s brilliant and surprising insights.

“It was her brother,” the one guy hissed to his buddy. “This chic’s got somekind of complex ‘cause her brother got wacked.”

“He didn’t get wacked, dumbass,” the other kid replied―finally, Tonithought, the gossiping was coming to an end. “That’s like in the mob. It wasthe dad.”

Toni ground her teeth together, fingers stilling over her keys.

“Huh?” Apparently the first boy hadn’t been listening. Possibly payingattention to the lecture for a brief second. How fucking novel. Toni tilted herhead to the side sharply, cracking her neck. “The dad was in the mob?”

“No, the dad did it. Total psycho.” He snorted in laughter. With almostpainful concentration, Toni saved the document she’d been typing her notesinto. “Makes you wonder how close the school checked the daughter out beforehiring her.”

“Alright, asshole,” Toni snapped, twisting around in her seat. “Time to shutyour mouth before I climb over this chair and shut it for you.”

The pair exchanged glances, then the cockier of the two crossed his arms andsmirked down at her.

“Get your hearing checked. The only one talking is you, so quit disruptingmy education.”

“I heard you, you piece of shit,” Toni hissed, barely noticing that headswere starting to turn in her direction. “You better start showing ProfessorBlossom some respect.”

“Gee, Dan,” the moron joked, looking to his brainless companion, “what’re wesupposed to do? Stand up and applaud every five minutes?”

“I heard what you said,” she repeated, feeling like her eyeballs were aboutto catch fire, so powerful was the hatred of her gaze.

“Didn’t say anything.” Condescending eyes. Arrogant shrug.

“No,” Toni goaded, “go ahead. Say something else about her. Go on. Say it,”she spat, then, “SAY IT!”

All little sounds in the room died. Wincing, Toni heard Cheryl’s clear,strong voice trail off. She rotated back in her seat and snapped her laptop shut.

“Please leave,” the professor spoke firmly, but calmly.

Cheeks burning with embarrassment and anger, Toni stuffed her things intoher bag and rose quickly. She whipped her jacket from the back of her chair todrape it over her shoulder. In motion, Toni heard the zipper connect withsomething with a click and a scrape and hoped she’d just scratched the screenof the dickhead’s laptop. It would have to do, she thought, booting the door atthe top of the lecture hall open with her foot while she felt everyone’sstares. It would have to do because she had better things to do besides waitaround until class ended and kick the kid’s ass up and down the foot court.

An hour and a quarter later, sitting in the Crim professors’ hallway withher bag at her side and her knees bent up in front of her, Toni listened toCheryl’s heels approaching. Without looking up, she followed hergirlfriend’s movements. The zip of her purse. The extraction of office doorkeys. The key in the lock. The squeak of old wood being forced open. Toni gotto her feet and trailed Cheryl in, catching the door as fingers with red nailsreleased it.

For a full minute, they sat across the desk from each other and stared. Tonifelt like she was back in the principal’s office in public school, one of themany times she’d taken the blame for something Fangs or Sweet Pea had done; itwas to even things out, since they were punished much more often than she was.Honestly, this situation didn’t feel so different. It had been those two bastardsbehind her, not her.

“So,” Cheryl finally began, “you were an idiot in my class.”

Toni exhaled hard through her nose.

“I may be an idiot, but I’m your idiot. I was defending you.”

“I can defend myself,” Cheryl insisted, smoothing her hair over her shoulder.

“They’ll just come back to the next class and do it again. Talk about youlike you’re a freak, nothing but a headline. Or somebody else will.” Tonigripped the edge of the desk hard, leaning towards her girlfriend as she triedto make her understand. Sometimes you had to stand up to these people. It wasthe Serpent way.

“They probably will,” Cheryl tranquilly conceded. “And the next class, andthe next, and the next, and then they’ll get back their exam results and findthey scored a good 15% below what they’d thought.” She gave Toni a little frownof fake disappointment. Toni raised her eyebrows.

“That’s unethical.”

“What’s unethical is the mandate in this program to weigh the exam so highlythat a grade below 50 means you fail the whole course. Pair that with theuniversity-wide bell curving system and, well,” Cheryl shrugged heartlessly,“those poor boys really don’t stand a chance.”

Toni grinned and threw herself back in the stiff chair reserved for officehour visitors.

“How silly of me to forget you always play the long game. I’m impressed.”

Cheryl sent her a critical glance.

“Perhaps not as much as you should be. You caused a disturbance in my classtoday, Miss Topaz. I can’t have you so ardently devoting yourself to myprotection. It’s bad enough the faculty knows we’re friends. More than that andwe could be in serious trouble.”

Rising from her seat, Cheryl circled the desk and sat on its edge, legscrossed in front of Toni.

“Well, what do you suggest?” Toni asked slyly, eyeing her girlfriend’s legs.

“Since having you write lines presents the problem of chalk never quiterubbing off of a blackboard, you will instead repeat what I say.”

Toni waved a hand to signal she was ready. Cheryl straightened up, butstretched her leg out, letting the toe of her shoe trace up Toni’s shin.

“Say, ‘I will not interrupt Ms. Blossom’s class again.’”

Toni repeated.

“Say, ‘I will remain calm and trust in Ms. Blossom to dole out punishment tothose who deserve it.’”

Toni repeated.

“Say, ‘If I fail to obey Ms. Blossom, I recognize that I too will deserve tobe punished and will submit to her completely at the time and in the manner ofher choosing.’”

Toni started to repeat, but giggles bubbled up her throat, devolving intouncontrolled cackles.

“You weren’t supposed to laugh!” Cheryl complained, giving Toni’s shin aquick kick.

“Oh, come on!” she protested. “The dirty teacher/student routine? A littleobvious, don’t you think?”

“You can’t expect me to be in this position and not take advantage of itspotential applications for our sex life,” Cheryl argued, tossing her long hair.“I know you let me win our fights, but how many times in our lives am I goingto have legitimate authority over you. Doesn’t it turn you on? Even a little?”

Toni narrowed her eyes skeptically.

“It’s dated.”

“I’m not.” Locking eyes with hergirlfriend, Cheryl began to unbutton her red blouse. Toni rolled her eyes.

“This is too much for me.” She rose from her chair, grabbing her bag.Staring hard at the closed door, Toni wanted to reach for the knob, turnit, and exit. She wanted to prove Cheryl wrong. Her arms remained lowered.

“Is it?” Cheryl wondered, coming up behind her and grabbing one of Toni’swrists. With a gentle pull, she turned Toni to face her. Aggressively, Cherylbacked her into the door. Toni forgot what she was supposed to be arguing andkissed her, sliding her hands into her girlfriend’s open top.

“Is this too much?” Cheryl asked again, drawing out of their kiss, her facestill close to Toni’s.

“No,” Toni admitted quietly, running her fingers through Cheryl’s hair asher girlfriend moved to kiss her neck.

“Is this?”

“No,” Toni gasped when she felt teeth.

“This?” Cheryl’s hands leapt up to cup Toni’s breasts through her t-shirt.Her chest heaved.

“No.”

“So this ‘dated’ teacher/student thing…” Cheryl spoke against Toni’s neck,“… it might be something you could enjoy?”

Toni nodded, running her hands around to Cheryl’s back, looking for theclasp of her bra.

“See, now, was that so bad?” Her girlfriend wondered.

“Feels a lot better than flunking my exam would,” Toni agreed with a grin,nudging her lips to Cheryl’s.

I have officially received a request for the final available prompt (which puts me at a couple dozen yet to write). Which means…

If you’re here for Choni, I’ll have plenty more coming up as I continue to write drabbles for the requested prompts.

#my writing #drabble #riverdale drabble #choni drabble #riverdale #riverdale fanfiction #choni #choni fanfiction #cheryl blossom #toni topaz #southside serpents #southside serpents drabble #southside serpents fanfiction

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ao3feed-choni · 7 years ago

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by Ashrocksit08

Everyone just kind of assumed they were having sex. Neither girl could blame them for the conclusion; So obviously, a coupling of these two sexy individuals had to mean they were taking full advantage of their combined sexiness with well… sex. Considering how touchy the two ladies were when they were around one another didn’t make it a hard conclusion to jump to, which is probably why their sex life had become a topic of discussion the night of Jughead’s birthday party.

or...

A game of never have I ever opens a can of worms for Cheryl and Toni.

Words: 1083, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Riverdale (TV 2017)

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F

Characters: Cheryl Blossom, Toni Topaz, Jughead Jones, Fangs Fogarty, Sweet Pea (Riverdale), Kevin Keller, Archie Andrews, Veronica Lodge

Relationships: Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #choni #cheryl blossom #toni topaz #madelaine petsch #vanessa morgan #wlw #riverdale #femslash #multi chapter

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aresaphrodites · 7 years ago

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Wicked Games Chapter Fifteen

Blame the amazing beta, @itstenafterfour, for where this chapter left off. ;)

TWO. CHAPTERS. LEFT.

The words echo back at her deafeningly. If she hears them one more time in her mind she might just die. Or go deaf.

Hello, baby sister.

Baby sister.

She looks at Chris, studying him properly. Can this even be true? Could he really be her brother? He did look like her...somewhat.

“I don’t understand,” she says as she looks at him. “Why did you send me all those weird messages? If you were my brother…” she trails off as she remembers the biblical passage he had sent her when everything first started. It said that if a man and woman laid together...something about marriage.

Why would he make it seem like he was interested in her romantically if he was her brother? The entire thing sends chills down her spine.

“I didn’t want you to be like all the other girls in the industry,” Chris says with a sigh. “You’re my baby sister, after all.”

“But now you want me dead?” None of this makes any sense to her but he smiles all smug as though she’s in kindergarten and doesn’t know how to add one plus one.

He strokes her cheek again. “I was trying to protect your virtue. I didn’t want any of those guys taking advantage of you, but don’t you see? I have to be the one to kill you. I’m the only one allowed to hurt you.”

“Why?” She whispers out, eyes finally watering. She hasn’t cracked yet, under the pressure of the situation, but damn is she close to losing her mind. “If I’m your sister then why would you want to hurt me?”

“Because I’m the only one with a good reason. You didn’t work for a thing in your whole life. You don’t deserve all of this special treatment.” His eyes harden. “Why did they keep you but not me? They ruined my life but gave you a perfect one so now I’m going to take away the thing they love: you.” He nods at her like it makes all the sense in the world.

She’s been studying his features this entire time, trying to see how they look alike. He has brown roots poking out underneath of his hair, but her and her sister have always been known for their beautiful blonde hair.

“Your hair is brown. I’m a blonde. My parents both have blond hair.” She knows she’s grasping at straws here, but she desperately wants this to not be true.

“Did you sit through science in high school, Betty?” He spits this at her as though she’s stupid. “Dominant and recessive genes. Mommy dearest isn’t a natural blonde. Surprised?”

Since when? It seems he’s got an answer for everything and she feels herself deflate.

“But Cheryl?” The things she heard over at Cheryl’s house, she didn’t think that up by herself. She knows what she heard. She knows what she saw. “Is she in on this too?” Was everyone against her? Everyone she ever thought she could trust?

There’s a loud laugh that rips her away from her thoughts. She wants to retreat into her mind, to hide from the torment, but she can’t.

“Oh, you poor deluded soul,” Marisol says with a smile. “Cheryl might be the only real friend you ever had. That bitch decided to stick her nose where it didn’t belong. She had all your mail forwarded to her house so you wouldn’t have to deal with any unexpected packages. Her reasoning at the post office was that she loved you like a sister. And she fights like a bitch. We might just have to deal with her after we’re done with you. No survivors and all that bullshit.”

Her mind reels. Cheryl had her back? So that entire confrontation at the mansion, Cheryl was genuine?

Betty feels her walls crumble a little more. This entire time Cheryl had been on her side and now, because Betty had acted impulsively, the redhead could be in danger and she was as good as dead anyway. Then she remembers the day at Whole Foods and she looks at Marisol with a glare.

“You killed Veronica,” she seethes. “Why?”

“That bitch had it coming,” Marisol hisses as she walks towards Betty, “talking to me the way she did. If that privileged skank would have just kept her mouth shut then she’d still be alive. That was pure impulse.”

Betty can’t help the tears that leave her eyes. Veronica didn’t have to die. She should still be alive right now, but all because Betty trusted a random psycho bitch, she was dead.

“Why are you even doing this?” She spits at Marisol venomously. “What’s your part in any of this? Are you my long lost sister or something? Is this one big family reunion?”

Marisol glares at her. “No, sweetie. I’m with him.” Betty watches in disgust as Marisol walks over to Chris. The brunette wraps her arms around him as she brings his face down to hers, and begins to make out with him. They’re putting on a show and Betty understands why they’re together; two psychos made for each other.

“I do what he asks me to do,” Marisol says when she pulls away from Chris. “When he told me he wanted to torture America’s sweetheart, I couldn’t think of anything better. He knows how much I love him and I’d do anything to make him happy. And Veronica? That was just a plus.”

How could she liken her best friend to what, a self esteem boost?

“You’re sick,” Betty whispers out. She doesn’t know what else she can say right now. There are too many thoughts flowing through her mind and no way to let them out without getting a bullet in her brain.

“Perhaps, but as long as I come out on top, I really don’t care.”

Marisol walks away from Betty, taking Chris with her, and for the first time since she’s been in the basement, she completely focuses on Jughead who’s still sitting across from her. The tape on his mouth won’t let him talk but she mouths a simple ‘I’m sorry’ to him. If she would have gotten anyone else in the entire world as her bodyguard, then Jughead never would have been discovered by Chris. He’d still be living his life somewhere and he’d be safe.

Jughead just shakes his head, trying to tell her not to worry; not to be sorry. He pulls his arm up as much as he can, like he’s trying to show her something, and Betty sees that he’s still in the handcuffs from the police station. She looks at him in confusion, not understanding what he’s trying to tell her right now.

They just sit there and stare at each other. They can’t move, their bodies are bound to the seats they’re in, but Betty can’t look away from him. She’s trying to memorize every part of his face. If this is truly the last time they’re ever going to see each other, then she wants to die with the memory of his face fresh in her mind.

“I’ve had enough of playing nice,” Marisol says as she walks back into Betty’s view, “let’s have some real fun.”

The blonde screams out as Marisol hits her in the leg with a tire iron. Pain erupts throughout her entire body and Jughead screams from behind the tape, thrashing around as he tries to get free.

“It’s all very poetic,” Chris hums as he walks over to Jughead. “The irony of it all. You decided to attack me with a tire iron one night, so now you get to watch the same thing happen to your girlfriend.” He bends down and places his hands on Jughead’s face, forcing him to look at Betty who’s crying out as Marisol hits her over and over again. “How does it feel? To know that you can’t protect her? You’re not even twenty feet away from her and you can’t help her. You just have to sit here and watch her get beaten. That must suck; to be that useless.” Chris lands a punch on Jughead’s cheek and Betty watches in horror as his head snaps to the side. Chris doesn’t stop though. He keeps on punching Jughead repeatedly until Jughead stops bringing his head back up. His black hair falls over his eyes as his entire body goes limp.

“Stop!” Betty cries out as Chris brings his fist up again. “Leave him alone! You want me dead, fine, kill me, but please. Leave him alone.”

“You’ll both die tonight, I’ve got some vengeance that needs to happen, so he’s not getting out of anything.” Chris says, but he forgets about Jughead as he walks over to her. “In fact, let’s make a game out of it! One of you gets to watch the other die, how fun is that?”

Betty cries, curling in on herself. She can’t watch Jughead die. She can’t.

“I say we kill her and let him watch,” Marisol tells him.

Chris looks like he's thinking it over before he finally nods. “Untie her.”

Jughead shuts his eyes tightly at that and Betty knows that he's thinking exactly what she had been thinking earlier. He can't watch her die. It's an impossible situation.

Marisol is quick as she unties Betty and then grabs her roughly by the shirt to drag her over to Jughead. She dumps her in front of him and Betty falls at his feet. She looks up at him and his eyes are watery and pained as he looks at her.

Marisol went off to get something, so she's not around them right now. Betty’s legs are too weak and bruised from earlier; she can't even try to fight back right now. She knows that even if she tries, the odds won't be in her favor. She’ll just make everything worse.

“I love you,” Betty whispers. It's the first time she's said it and she doesn't miss the way Jughead’s eyes widen at her confession. She hadn't meant to say it, it just came out but she realizes that she means it completely. She does love Jughead. She loves him in a way that she's never loved anyone before; that she’ll never love anyone in ever again.

Dying can't be that bad, she thinks to herself as she looks at him, as long as she's looking at his face when she finally does. If his face is the last thing she sees before she dies, she thinks she’ll be okay.

“I love you,” she repeats again and a tear falls from his eyes at her words. She reaches out and touches his leg with her hand. She closes her eyes as she finally feels him underneath her. Her hand shakes as she realizes this could be the last time she ever touches him. Slowly, she moves forward and places a kiss on his knee. “I always will.”

“How sweet,” Marisol says as she yanks Betty’s hair back and presses the cool metal of a gun against her temple. “Too bad you'll never get to hear him say it back.”

“Be quick.” Chris orders. “I don't want her to feel any pain.” His words are ironic but Betty doesn't have time to joke about it anymore. All her energy has left her body. There is no way out, no miracle, no sudden magic plan that’s going to drop into her lap. She’s trapped, they both are. That’s the reality of it all.

She locks eyes with Jughead, begging him not to look away from her. She needs to see his eyes. They’re crazed as he looks back and forth between Betty and Marisol.

She has so much she wants to say right now. She wants to tell Jughead sorry. She wants to tell him that she wishes they had more time, because God, she really does. She wishes they had met in any different way. She likes to think that they’d always find each other; in another version of reality, in another time. It feels like her and Jughead were always inevitable. She just wishes their ending would have been different.

“I know he said to be quick, but I wanna play a game.”

Betty wants to scream out at the words. She’s sick of Marisol and all her games. If she’s going to die then she just wants to die. She doesn’t want the other girl to drag it out.

“I only have one bullet in here,” she says as she jams the gun against Betty’s head as if the blonde didn’t know what she was referring to. “If I shoot three times and you’re still somehow alive, maybe I’ll let you live a little longer.”

“You might want to say bye to your little boyfriend,” Marisol laughs out as she presses the gun harder against Betty’s temple. “You never know which one will be the one to do the job.”

Betty doesn’t say bye. She refuses to say bye. She knows this won’t be the last time she sees Jughead. Whether it’s in another life or another world, she’ll find him. She’ll always find him.

“I love you,” she mouths to him. She needs to say it as much as she can before she can’t say it any longer.

She closes her eyes, scared.

She hears the click of the trigger but nothing happens. Marisol giggles to herself and Betty sits completely still, frozen in fear.

“Lucky girl! Let’s go again!”

Betty begins to pray in her head. She hasn’t prayed in years, but right now on her knees, she prays to anyone listening.

She waits for the next click to come, for the inevitable bang of the gun to sound. But it never does.

“What the fuck?”

Betty opens her eyes and watches as Jughead swings one hand forward, knocking the gun out of Marisol’s hand. She looks at him closer, not understanding how he got out of the handcuffs, when she sees one of his hands is cradled against his side. He fucking broke his thumb to squeeze his hand out of the cuff. Betty slides forward while Marisol is distracted by the gun that’s now across the room, and pulls at the rope around Jughead’s ankles, freeing him quickly.

He rips the tape off his mouth with his hand that isn’t injured and he looks at her.

“I--.”

Before he can finish his sentence, a gun goes off.

Betty watches as his eyes go wide. She looks at him in confusion and then in horror as he crumbles in on himself, knees buckling from underneath him.

“Jughead?” She screams out, reaching forward to catch him in her arms. “Jughead!” She pulls her hand away from her back and that’s when she feels it; a sticky, wet liquid on her palm. “No,” she whispers out as she lifts up her hand and sees the blood on it. “No, no, no, no…”

Jughead looks over at her and opens his mouth, but nothing comes out but blood.

“Jughead!” His eyes close slowly and his head falls to the side.

“Jughead, Jughead, Jughead,” Marisol mimics. Betty looks up and sees her standing, holding Betty’s gun in her hand while the small revolver is still on the ground across the room. She must not have wanted to waste any time. “Is that all you know how to say?”

Chris comes running down the stairs. Betty hadn’t even known that he had left.

“What the fuck happened?” He yells out as he sees Betty holding Jughead on the floor.

“He wanted to get brave so I had to teach him a lesson.”

“Well then,” Chris seethes. “Game over, Betty.”

Tag List: @novelistjugheadjones @thedenisecarla @eliza-hamilton-helpless @pearlywise @oldfashionedvanilla

#bughead fanfiction #Wicked Games Fic

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enigmaticbughead · 7 years ago

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In Defense of Archie Andrews: A Rant

Ok so before I begin, a few disclaimers: * I don't ship, have never shipped, and highly doubt I will ever ship Barchie. I'm a buggie, through and through, from basically the very first time Jughead saw Betty in the diner, because I think that Jughead is better for Betty, and he encourages her to grow as a person and she does the same for him. * I fully support everyone's right to ship whoever they want. These are fictional characters in a fictional world, after all, so your preference on who should be with whom doesn't matter all that much in the end (although I'm well aware that we take these ships very seriously, myself included. Literally if Bughead breaks up permanently I low key might not even continue watch riverdale. That's how invested I am emotionally in their relationship) * I also think you have the right not to like a character, even for no reason, the same way you have a right not to like a person in real life for no reason, (as long as that dislike doesn't lead to you being unjustly cruel to said person or, likewise, fans of that character) * Also this gets a little rant-y, and there will probably be lots of colorful language. That said, I don't think the hate Archie is getting is deserved. For basically two reasons: 1. A lot of folks are pointing out that Archie is an asshole, and doesn't treat the women he is romantically involved with well. This is true, and I won't argue that point. He's a total fuck boy. HOWEVER, I feel like it is important to note that he probably didn't start that way. That's probably not how he would have turned out if it weren't for Ms. Grundy, who, in case you forgot, raped Archie. Granted it was statutory, and he "consented" to being involved with her, but there was also a lot of grooming happening, and she took advantage of him in about every way to get what she wanted out of him. I mean, think about it: early in the season, THE ONLY REASON Miss Grundy agreed to get back together with him was to keep him quiet about the fact that they were at Sweetwater River on the 4th. That's emotional manipulation at its prime. After everything that happened with Miss Grundy, Archie is not capable of being in a healthy relationship. She really fucked him up. And that's not his fault. He was a VICTIM OF STATUTORY RAPE and EMOTIONAL ABUSE and tbh if you think otherwise about that situation, you can fuck off bc you're enabling rape culture (yep, I'm low key THAT tumblr feminist bitch). I'm not saying this excuses anything he's done, or that it makes him magically not an asshole, but it explains a lot, and goes to show that he at least deserves some kind of sympathy from us. I honestly feel really bad for him. And 2. Let's be honest, all of the kids in this show is kind of an asshole. I'd argue that Betty is probably the only character who is unequivocally good, although she is my favorite character so I may be a bit biased. Literally everyone in the show has hurt Betty somehow. Archie has done shady shit, sure. But so has Veronica (kissing Betty w/ out her consent, kissing Archie when she knew how Betty felt about him, etc etc), so has Cheryl (obviously), and yes, so has Jughead. Honestly, as much as I love Jughead, and I absolutely LOVE Bughead, there have been many times where I was less than pleased with the way Jughead treated Betty. For example, I feel like he displaces a lot of anger and blame on her sometimes, just because she's an easy target. In the most prominent example, at his birthday party, instead of yelling at Archie for letting Cheryl and Chuck crash, he gets mad at Betty for throwing it in the first place, even though she didn't intend for it to get out of hand like that, she didn't really understand how much he hated his birthday and she was just trying to do something nice for him. And honestly in same said argument, I got real pissed at him when he made the "or until Archie changes his mind and wants to be with you" comment. That was a REALLY low blow, and honestly if I were Betty, I would've been done with him then and there. Although, I'm really glad that she wasn't, because as we come to find out, a lot of his cruelty is unintentional and comes from emotional baggage and scarring. So why can't we extend the same understanding to Archie? I agree that Barchie shouldn't happen, and that it would be bad, for both Betty and Archie. Honestly, I wish that boy would just be single for a while and figure his shit out because he's a hot mess, and trying to bury his pain in various romantic/sexual exploits clearly isn't working. But, I don't think it's fair that so many people hate Archie. I don't think it's fair to put people down for shipping Barchie. It's honestly pretty reasonable to ship Barchie, especially for viewers who are coming from the comic fanbase. In conclusion, let's not be THAT fandom that lets our shipping differences come between us or hinder us from appreciating these really well-written, deep, interesting characters. We all know we're better than that. Thanks. 💕

#riverdale trash #riverdale #cw #shipping wars #archie andrews #betty cooper #jughead jones #barchie #bughead #can we please #can we not #archie x betty #betty x jughead

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starlightafterastorm · 8 years ago

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My Thoughts on Bughead’s Emotional Intimacy/Vulnerability

With Each Other and With Others

From episode 1x01 - 1x10

Both Betty and Jughead have issues with letting themselves be comfortable with emotional intimacy. However, as the season continues and as their relationship evolves, Betty and Jughead gradually become more comfortable in letting themselves be more emotionally vulnerable with each other.

Buckle up because this gets kind of long. More under the cut.

There are few people that Betty lets herself be vulnerable with.

Kevin. Kevin is the first person we are shown having a conversation with Betty. He encourages her to take Archie by the reins and be assertive in her feelings for him even as she’s reluctant. The scene in her bedroom sets them up as close friends and confidants. And even if we haven’t seen much of them together since the first couple of episodes (give them more scenes together please) it’s clear that Betty considers him a dear friend.

Archie. While Betty shares her feelings with Kevin and Veronica and they encourage her to share them with Archie, Betty is incredibly reticent to open herself up in that way. She tries, in the diner and at the dance. But neither time ends happily. Betty is deeply hurt and is reduced to tears but even then she holds back. She keeps the deepest hurt to herself and tries to mitigate the amount of emotional devastation it has caused her. She runs away from Cheryl’s party, walks away from Archie multiple times, and keeps quiet about just how hurt she is to Kevin. She smiles it away until it gets too much and then makes the decision to separate herself completely until she eventually gets past it (fairly quickly actually).

The exception to that is when she lashes out in hurt at Veronica before forgiving and being forgiven. And I think that how they handled that situation allowed Betty and Veronica to become closer friends than they otherwise would have been.

Veronica. She shares Polly’s story with Veronica so soon after meeting her. It makes sense. I think they both felt that kinship that would spark a lifelong friendship between them. They both knew that this is the person who is going to be their BEST FRIEND no matter what. After the closet scene, Betty puts up her walls again and lashes out in anger. But she slowly lets them down again after they make up. It’s clear from later conversations that the girls are sharing their issues with each other, from both sides, though we don’t get to see a large majority of the conversations that must be going on. Betty is shown to be confiding in Veronica and Veronica is shown to be equally confiding in Betty about her dad.

As much as she trusts and cares for Veronica, I think Betty still holds herself back in some ways from reaching out emotionally and letting herself be completely vulnerable. It’s not for a lack of trust, but I think it stems from a place of “I don’t want to burden you”. Look at how quick she is to deny Veronica when Veronica offers to house Polly. She says explicitly that Veronica has her own things she’s dealing with. And in episodes 1x03 and 1x10 Betty plays off her dark side even when Veronica tries to talk to her about it and when she asks her if she’s ok.

I think it’s the same with Archie and Kevin. They’re aware of these issues in Betty’s life but I think she’s hesitant to involve them because she doesn’t want to bother them. Another example is when Archie offers to help Betty and Jughead and she declines because she thinks he has other issues with the talent show.

With Jughead, it’s different. As much as we can speculate about how much Betty shares with Veronica, Kevin, and Archie, we are actually given the scenes she shares with Jughead. The conversations she has with Jughead are incredibly relevant to the plot but relevant in the fact that she is sharing it with him. Betty willingly lets herself be vulnerable in front of him over and over again. She shows him how distraught she is over Polly and her parents and he is there to offer words and hugs and kisses of comfort.

Jughead becomes deeply involved in very personal aspects of Betty’s life, issues that drive her to near tears in 1x06 and 1x09. And she lets him. In comparison, when Archie apologizes for not being there for her, Betty demurs and states that he is there now. But Jughead is the one we see her leaning on, who talks her through her problems, and even helps comfort her crying mother in 1x09.

From Jughead’s perspective, he is very much NOT COMFORTABLE with emotional intimacy or vulnerability on his own end. He uses “sardonic humor” to relate to the world and as a shield. The only people we’ve seen him be vulnerable to are Archie, F.P., and Betty.

Archie. Archie is Jughead’s best friend. That friendship was incredibly strained to the breaking point at the beginning of the series. We saw pointed, almost passive aggressive leading into aggressive remarks between them that then eventually lead into more vulnerable moments. BUT I personally find fault with how Archie unthinkingly exposes Jughead’s vulnerabilities and/or takes unintentional advantage of his trust in him without taking responsibility.

So much of Jughead’s vulnerabilities revolve around F.P. and the rest of his family. It’s the biggest wound in Jughead’s life. He tries so hard to protect that wound, to hide it away as much as possible so that when he is exposed, he feels at fault for it.

In 1x07, Archie startles him in the locker room and Jughead is forced to reveal his homelessness. Likewise with his dad’s alcoholism and unemployment. Jughead tries desperately to mitigate the amount of information about his home situation as much as possible but Archie forces his hand anyway. This is echoed much more harshly in 1x08 when Archie discovers F.P. leads the Serpents and immediately confronts Jughead about it, in an inappropriate time and place in front of an inappropriate audience. However their friendship re-stabilizes and later Jughead and Archie share a brotherly moment where Jughead apologizes for keeping the secret from Archie but Archie does not apologize in turn for exposing Jughead’s vulnerabilities. In 1x10, Jughead tells Archie explicitly about why he doesn’t feel comfortable about his birthday and then Archie witnesses Jughead snapping at Betty for throwing him a surprise party. However, Archie then almost immediately invites the whole group that Cheryl brings in despite Jughead’s wishes.

F.P. Jughead lets himself be vulnerable to his father in times of emotional turmoil. There’s the scene in front of the police station in 1x07 and in front of Archie’s house in 1x10. Both times, Jughead is visibly distraught and cannot hide away his distress in front of his father due to immediate circumstances. Both times Jughead is also angry, probably at both the circumstances that have led to F.P. confronting Jughead and at the fact that the confrontation is taking place at all.

Betty. With Betty, Jughead has found someone where he can be comforter and comforted.

I think that Jughead is FAR more comfortable being the comforter rather than the comforted. He is far more comfortable being the person that Betty can lean on with her own issues. I think that it’s completely obvious that he thinks the world of Betty. 1x09 is the absolute proof of that. He admires her and thinks she is so much stronger than everyone else, probably himself included.

If he can be the person who can be there for her when she’s struggling then I think that would be something he takes pride in. Jughead is incredibly intuitive and he’s known Betty for so long. He probably recognizes what a big deal it is for Betty to open herself up to him. (Although I don’t think he quite understood the full implications calling Betty “perfect” and he definitely was not aware of JUST HOW MUCH Betty was trying to deal with in 1x10).

In being vulnerable himself, Jughead has a much harder time. The kiss in 1x06 is the first time we see Jughead let down his guard completely around another person. Jughead opens himself up to rejection and his relief is palpable when Betty reciprocates the kiss. And it is directly precedented by Betty herself being vulnerable about Polly and her parents. The kisses and the time spent together and their whole relationship in general is already so much more than I think Jughead ever expected but when it comes to getting to the darker parts of his life Jughead has already said it, “I was ashamed”.

It was INCREDIBLY LOVELY to see how Jughead opened himself up to a deeper emotional intimacy with Betty in 1x08. Even in just admitting that he was ashamed at all. That honesty and the way that Betty is able to soothe him in the way that he continues to soothe her fears about her family was beautiful.

Jughead could have shut down. He could have walked away. He could have made excuses for why he didn’t tell Betty. But he didn’t. RIsking her anger and the end of their relationship, he waited to talk to her ON HER TERMS (boy probably waited for HOURS as Betty settled things with her mom and sister). THEN, he was completely honest with Betty, acknowledged that he should have told her sooner, and agreed with her when she says she wants to know all of him.

While the fight in 1x10 is absolutely a very vulnerable moment for Jughead, I think that THIS direct confrontation about who his father is and where he comes from is what Jughead might consider the darkest part of himself. That fight in 1x10 is a continuation of Jughead’s low self esteem issues but this in 1x08 is a part of the source of it all. And explaining himself to Betty as well as bringing her with him to confront his father is a huge step in accepting a deeper emotional intimacy with Betty.

It’s also so incredibly important that, when confronted with Jughead’s vulnerabilities in 1x08, Betty does not place any blame or pressure on Jughead. She asks only for his honesty and trust and gives him unconditional belief in return.

Going into 1x10, both Betty and Jughead are tested.

Even though Betty and Jughead have opened up to each other far more than they have with anyone else and far deeper than they probably have ever expected, that doesn’t mean that they won’t falter or make mistakes or regress a little bit.

As much as you can trust and support one another, opening yourself up to someone is scary. It’s terrifying. It’s a continuous evolution and journey and takes an incredible amount of courage to do and to keep doing. And continuing to do so as Jughead and Betty have chosen will allow their relationship to grow.

We have to remember that Betty and Jughead are 16 years old. They’re teenagers and they have already handled so much stress and tragedy in their lives with more emotional maturity than a lot of the adults on the show. They’ve handled their relationship SO MUCH BETTER than most adults on the show.

Betty’s mental health issues is incredibly near and dear to my heart and I understand why she throws herself so fully into Jughead’s birthday party and why she redirected the conversation about Chuck at the movie theaters. The stress is getting to her and she’s trying desperately to keep her head above water while not letting her struggle show. She wants the stability of being “normal” rather than the chaotic whirlwind her mind must be now. So while she does care deeply for Jughead and does want to make his birthday the best one ever and wants to make him incredibly happy, part of her reasoning for throwing the party was selfish. AND THAT’S OK.

I’m writing another meta on Betty and her mental illness and “perfection” but the basic gist is, Betty is a flawed person who gets to make mistakes and be selfish sometimes. She is not perfect. AND THAT’S OKAY. It’s HUMAN to be selfish and still have good intentions and struggle. I like that she’s not “perfect”.

We get to see Betty struggle with her mental illness all episode 1x10; from her mother advising her to NOT trust Jughead with everything, to hiding away her anxiety about Chuck, to fighting with Jughead, and then to Chuck outing her issues in front of everyone. In the end, we see her admitting just how much she is struggling to Jughead and it is absolutely wonderful.

I cannot tell you how incredibly brave it was of Betty to show her hands to Jughead. As someone who struggled to reveal the depths of her own mental illness to her own best friend, I know that Betty must have been terrified of Jughead’s reaction. The biggest difference in Betty’s vulnerability in this episode versus other times she has been vulnerable in front of Jughead is that this is about HER. It’s about her issues and her flaws and willingly offering him physical evidence that she’s not “perfect”.

Jughead’s vulnerability in 1x10 revolves so much about his insecurities. We’ve seen him bullied and arrested for being weird and for coming from the wrong side of the tracks. We’ve seen him ashamed of who his father is and the family life he’s come from.

I think THE MOMENT Jughead got spooked and threw the brakes HARD was when Betty sang him Happy Birthday. Already he’d been not happy at the fact that Betty threw him the party but then Betty brought out that cake and sang him Happy Birthday and it was beautiful but haunting, as he says. The way that scene is filmed and the focus on Jughead’s face is very dreamlike, which I think was purposeful. It’s a DIRECT callback to Jughead’s dream in episode 1x07. That look on his face was the exact same face he made in the dream right when he flashes to his drunk father and right as Archie calls him out for “stabbing him in the back”.

Jughead’s belief is that every time something wonderful happens, every time he lets himself be happy, it gets taken away from him. Pushing Betty away, snapping at her and instigating that fight is a defense mechanism. Having this “perfect”, girl next door, cheerleader, caring, smart, strong, wonderful girlfriend was too idyllic and too dreamlike for Jughead to ever really believe in. Having Betty bake him a burger birthday cake in a crown sweater and sing him happy birthday was as “perfect” an image as having dinner with the Coopers and sitting next to Betty, smiling with a wedding ring on. It was too “perfect” to be real.

But it WAS REAL. And it scared him.

With everything he believes about himself and his penchant for drama and pessimism, Jughead was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. They were on “borrowed time”. And with the party and the fight, Jughead rationalized it as “Yeah. This is when that borrowed time ends” (Thank you F.P. for pushing Jughead to work it out and TALK TO HIS GIRL)

So much of that fight was more about Jughead’s insecurities than anything Betty had done. The party was the catalyst but it just set off his low self esteem issues. Jughead was lashing out in order to protect himself. Even as he was lashing out, it was more self deprecating than finding any faults with Betty. He kept praising her even as she denied it and found so many faults within himself.

The diner scene later was gorgeous. It was the two of them, in a booth at Pop’s, with Jughead’s beanie off, TALKING THROUGH THEIR FIGHT AND THE CAUSES OF THEIR FIGHT. My god. I don’t think I need to tell you what an amazingly rare scene that was.

Jughead and Betty both acknowledged that they were only looking at it through their own perspectives. Jughead acknowledges that Betty was trying to do a nice thing for him. Betty acknowledges that Jughead didn’t want the party and she shouldn’t have thrown it for him. Neither can look each other in the eye until the end of their confessions.

Jughead opens up about how he doesn’t believe in people being nice to him. He “short circuits”. He gets scared.

LOOK. DO. YOU. REALIZE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? HOW HARD IT IS? TO ADMIT THINGS LIKE “I’M ASHAMED.” and “I’M SCARED”. I KNOW YOU DO.

And Jughead admits them to Betty. Slow and hesitant and closed off in body language at first but then he opens himself up both figuratively and physically as he turns more fully into her. He tells Betty he is scared of getting hurt and rejected for being himself.

Betty absolutely recognizes these sentiments. They’re exactly why she asked Mama Cooper for advice earlier on. So she responds with her own fears. She tells him that something is “very, very wrong with her”. That there’s a “darkness” inside of her that makes her do “crazy things”. Jughead looks at her almost like he can’t quite fathom it at first, like he almost wants to protest.

But he doesn’t. He sits there and listens quietly and lets Betty say what she has to say. And when she opens up her hands to show him her self harm scars, he gently closes her hands and places a soft kiss to them.

It can be compared to when Betty is confronted with Jughead’s vulnerabilities about his father in 1x08. Just as how Betty does not place any blame or pressure on Jughead, in this exchange it is Jughead who offers unconditional support when faced with what Betty considers the lowest part of herself. And just as how Jughead was the one to initiate the kiss after Betty expressed her belief in him, Betty is now the one to initiate a kiss after Jughead tenderly holds her damages hands.

They’ve had their first fight and now they’ve had their first makeup conversation.

Will they still have issues and make mistakes later on? Yes. Absolutely. Being in a relationship is about growth and evolution and ups and downs. But the way they’ve progressed so far shows just how serious they are about each other and how serious they are about this relationship. They’re scared teenagers dealing with more than they should and it’s terrifying to try and juggle a serious relationship in the midst of all of it. However, as much as it scares them, they’ve now come to a deeper understanding of who the other person is. They recognize it and accept it and find comfort in each other.

It’s a recurring pattern in their relationship that I have no doubt will continue as their relationship grows. Give and take. Reciprocity. An equal exchange.

#Bughead #bughead meta #riverdale #betty cooper #jughead jones #riverdale meta #betty x jughead #jughead x betty #emotional intimacy issues #i hope that people enjoy this?#my weird ramblings about my feelings about this couple #meta

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tea-and-cardigans · 8 years ago

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OTP Questions Part 3 - 500 Followers - All Requested Fills.

Hi Readers.

This post is collecting all the filled prompts requested from the important OTP questions, posted with my announcements and thanks for reaching 500 followers.

There is a keep reading break after the prompt “Which one is super ticklish” for mobile readers.

Let me know if you enjoy reading these fills as I am thinking about doing something similar for over the hiatus period, and just want to make sure people are still enjoying these.

Now to get back to my one shots.

Who talks smack while playing video games?

“Betts, we need to talk.” He said as he entered her bedroom, his voice had that soft intonation to it a tell tale sign that he was going to tell her something she likely did not want to hear.“Nothing good ever came from that sentence.” She said putting away her book onto her night stand and looking at him expectedly. He took a deep breath before sitting on the edge of her bed. “It’s about what you said the other night.” She looked at him confused, her eyes searching his for what he might be talking about. Her mind racing through the things that she had told him last night, she had said she loved him but they had told each other that so many times that she had lost count. “I don’t know what I’ve said.”

“It’s the trash talk Betty, it’s getting pretty personal, Archie said he doesn’t want to play with us anymore.”

“Why because I called him a baby for missing the easiest shot in existence?”

“I think it may have been the string of expletives after that that he took exception to.” She rolled her eyes in response. “And what you then said about his music.”

“Fine we won’t play with him any more.” She shrugged moving to pick up her book again. “Don’t need people on our team anyway who can’t handle a little criticism.” She huffed. He loved that she was passionate in everything that she did. That there was no room for compromise when it came to performance. But when she was playing she was brutal, he was sure he could see the beginnings of tears in Archie’s eyes after she had stripped him down in front of their other team mates. He had to fight back the laughter of her sitting in her perfectly pink and floral bedroom, in most likely one of her prim and proper sweaters, ponytail swinging from side to side as she shouted down the mic at Archie who didn’t know what had hit him.

Who would rock the boat while the other one screams at them to stop?

It was supposed to be a romantic row boat ride along sweet water river. Not exactly the most romantic spot since Jason’s body was found there but there was only one river in Riverdale and Betty had said she wanted to be wooed. So he had taken it upon himself with some helpful suggestions from Ronnie to organise the perfect first date. In amongst their sleuthing and investigating they had never actually had one and he was pretty sure that the trip to Jason’s abandoned car didn’t count. It had been about a week since his dad had been cleared and he had begged, yes begged, for Betty’s forgiveness. She had told him that she did not blame him and they swore to each other that there would be no more secrets between them, again. She was dressed in a yellow sun dress and was the very vision of everything that was good and pure in Riverdale. He couldn’t help but smile at her as he lifted the picnic basket Ronnie had packed and lent to him for the day. She had also convinced Reggie Mantle to lend them his boat, or rather his father’s small row boat. Cheryl had offered but Ronnie had politely declined given the history of that particular boat. He packed everything into the boat and she took her position at the stern of the boat relaxing and soaking up the sun. The way the rays were hitting her hair made him, want to call of the boat ride and just spend the day wrapped in each other arms by the bank, but he was on a mission. Once they were out in the middle of the water he stopped rowing and she smiled at him looking at him over her sunglasses.

“Do you know what I have always wanted to do?” She broke the silence and he looked at her, wondering what was going on in that head of hers. She gave him a mischievous grin before she put a hand on either side of the boat and swayed her body making the boat rock in the water. Jughead caught off guard at the movement grasped the side of the boat for dear life. She let out a laugh, feeling a sense of freedom wash over her as she gave it another rock, it was childish she knew it but this was something that Ms Perfect woudn’t do she would just sit there demure and peaceful. Jughead on the other hand felt nothing of the sort, he felt sick and was pretty sure if she didn’t stop soon he was going to be seeing his lunch make an unwelcome reappearance.

“Betts, please, stop.” He shouted. She froze mid action about to make another move, staring at him and the unusual pale colour he had turned. He took a couple of deep breaths and she moved to sit with him moving the boat again, and he made an unpleasant sound. She apologised for rocking the boat and took the oars rowing them gently to shore, while Jughead laid back, with his eyes closed willing the uneasy feeling to go away. As she helped him out of the boat and onto the shore, he swore this was the last time her would take romantic advice from Veronica Lodge. Which one hogs the blankets at night? or Big spoon/Little spoon?

He watched her wrapped up in her little private cocoon which consisted of their blanket and doona. He tried to gently tug the blanket back towards himself seeking some warmth and protection from the cold night. She huffed and he could swear she just gripped tighter. Sighing he went to the dresser and pulled out the back up blanket. He draped it over his body and started to drift off into sleep. Feeling a gentle tugging on his blanket he opened his eyes to see that Betty was trying to steal his new blanket. He moved his body to be able to enter her private cocoon, pressing himself against her back, his arms wrapping around her torso and nuzzled his face into her neck, breathing in her scent. She sighed happily in her sleep and seemed content now with the new source of heat, warming her body.

Which one is super ticklish?

She sets upon him immediately and he begs her to stop. She is relentless, ever since she found out his weakness she has been exploiting it. They had been in her room, taking advantage of a day off school with no Alice Cooper, no interruptions. Her hands were exploring her body as she lightly moved her finger tips under his shirt, gently brushing against the cool skin of his stomach when he let out a laugh, she stopped her movements and he seemed to be able to regain his composure urging her to continue. She moved her fingertips across up higher to his rib cage and he stifled another laugh with his hand. He apologised, all of a sudden feeling bashful. She instead moved her hand away from his chest and gripped the back of his neck pulling him in for another kiss, pressing her body against his, eliminating any further laughter from their encounter.

Which one sings and which one dances?

He swings around the lounge the sound of her voice filling their small apartment. The small child in his arms laughs and squeals at his exaggerated movements. He dips her low before lifting her up in the air, another round of her laughter filling the room. Betty continues to sing, despite almost falling into a fit of giggles herself at the sight of the two of them in their pyjamas dancing along to her singing and the background music of the radio. He dips her head and she is giggling hysterically. He mouths the words, not wanting to ruin the song with his own tone deaf voice. She watches on from the kitchen her heart melting at the sight of her husband Jughead Jones dancing with their 2 year old daughter around the lounge while she sings along with the radio. Her daughter comes running over to her, before dragging her over to him insisting that it is her turn now, and he takes her hand in his own before pulling her close as they waltz in the small space, the only real dancing he knows, ingrained in him from their wedding as Evie continues to dance on her own around them, twirling and bowing with her teddy bear.

Who wakes up first?

After years and years of being up at the crack of dawn to study or run or practice a new cheer routine, she has never been able to sleep in. But she doesn’t leave the bed instead she props herself up on her elbow and watches the sleeping boy next to her. His beanie on the side table, even when he started sleeping over he would keep it on. Until he was finally able to let her in fully, share every part of himself as she had with him. She brushed his hair away from his forehead, freezing at his sharp intake of breath, before moving back when his deep breathing resumed. Sometimes she would let him sleep, she knew he needed it the peacefulness that it brought away from his normally chaotic life. Other times she could not contain her hands to herself and she would wake him gently from his sleep her hands moving softly over his body, down his bare back, up his arms, a soft kiss to his neck. He would welcome her soft body pressing close to his and wrap her in his arms.

Which one cries more during movies?

“Please don’t tell anyone.” He said sniffing, as she handed him a box of tissues.

“I think it’s sweet, your so sensitive.” She said reassuring, wrapping her arms around him.

“It’s stupid I know it’s stupid but it’s just.” The images on the screen continued to play, highlighting his face, eyes swollen and puffy, cheeks wet with tears.

“I know.” She ran her hand up his cheek, brushing away his tears.

“I mean.” He breathed deeply, thinking about the scene was about to set him off again. “It’s his dad, and he thinks it’s his fault, but it’s not.” He gave another loud sniff.

“The Lion King is going on the list isn’t it.” She got out her notebook and pen, flipping to a page and writing the title of the film they were watching.

“I mean what kind of person thinks this is okay for kids.” He choked out. She smiled at him and wrapped her arms tightly around him snuggling into his chest. They had started the ‘never again’ list after watching My Girl, that one had had him sobbing, after he had tried to hold back his tears, grasping her hand so tightly. She had warned him about this one and he had insisted that he could handle it, it was a kids cartoon after all. She put the notebook away again and pressed a light kiss to his cheek.

“Don’t worry Juggie. Your secret is safe with me.”

Who would throw the other into a pool?

“Drop me right now, Forsythe!” She screamed at the top of her lungs,struggling against the strong arms holding her above the ground, her legs kicking furiously. Veronica was shouting at her own boyfriend, Archie who had also picked her up from the lounge chair she was relaxing on. It was spring break and the first time they had all caught up again after leaving for college, they were spending it at a quiet resort just outside of Florida. At the suggestion of hitting the pool Betty and Veronica had grimaced before agreeing that they could lay in the sunshine catching up on all the gossip since they had seen each other last. Jughead and Archie had tired of this quickly and had tried to convince their girlfriends to join them in the pool to no avail. It was then that Archie had come up with the suggestion of throwing them in with a mischievous glint in his eye which was soon shared by his best friend. The two girls continued to struggle as they came closer to the edge of the pool.

“Nope.” He answered back and she continued to struggle. There was a loud splash followed by a shriek as Veronica hit the water. Splashing Archie as he started to laugh at her from the edge. As he was nearing the edge of the pool he lost his footing completely as she tried one more last ditch effort to release herself from his arms, they both went crashing into the water, they both rose up, spluttering water, his dark locks fallen over his eyes as he tried to force them back away from his face. The daggers she threw at him soon subsided as she was splashed by Veronica who had swam over to the couple. Betty shot him a playful smile before splashing Veronica back and getting ready to splash him, as he beat her to it the water hitting her in the face.

Which one goes to bed first?

She goes in his office to say goodnight, kissing him on his cheek before she heads up to their bedroom. Inspiration has hit him and he grunts a goodnight as his fingers continue to fly over the keyboard, words streaming from his head directly tp the screen in front of him. She tries to hide the disappointment on her face as she leaves his office she knows how he gets when he is writing so focused and determined. She climbs into their bed looking over at the empty space where he would usually be and pulls the cover up to her chin wishing that she had his body heat next to her to snuggle into and keep her warm.

By the time he makes his way to bed, she is fast asleep, snoring no less, blankets wrapped around her keeping her warm, he gets into the bed himself gently trying not to disturb her as he gently tugs the doona to cover his own body as well as hers. She stirs at this and moves an arm to wrap around his torso as she shifts her body to be against his. He feels guilty for letting her go to sleep alone that night and promises her in his sleep that he will make it up to her tomorrow. Who whispers inappropriate things into the other’s ear during inappropriate times?

When the truth of Jason Blossom’s killer had been revealed he had moved back with his dad, and things were good. He was sitting now once again in the Cooper home, with his dad, Mama Cooper and Betty, smiling over at him from her seated position next to him. They had made up and made the most of their new found time together without the murder of their fellow student hanging over their heads. They had started exploring each other, during late night visits in her bedroom, the back of F.P’s pick up truck, anywhere they could catch a private moment. Alice announced to the table that it was time for dessert and FP offered to assist her with plates and such. Betty shot him a coy smile before she leaned over to him, resting her hand on his shoulder as she brought her lips to his ear, whispering gently.

“I’m not wearing any underwear.” He almost choked on his water, as she returned to her seat shrugging her shoulders and busied herself with her skirt while his eyes followed her actions, his mind racing.

“Peach pie for dessert.” Alice announced as she entered the room with FP trailing behind with the bowls and spoons. Jughead’s eyes darted from Alice back to Betty and finally his dad, seated opposite him giving him a look. He had never considered skipping dessert before, until now.

Which one is the junk food junkie and which one gets mad at the other for eating bad?

He can tell that she is frowning at him, even though he cannot see her face. The huffs and sighs are indication enough about her thoughts on his current diet. It hasn’t changed since he was a teenager, burgers, fries, milkshakes. Betty is currently on some God awful diet that she has been conned into by Veronica and had tried to recruit him for as well. She warned him that eventually his metabolism would not be able to keep up with him and he had responded that that was a problem for another day. Betty could only look jealously at his plate, before back to her salad.

“Go on.” He said. “I won’t tell Veronica.” Rolling her eyes she grabbed a fry from his plate and popped it in her mouth.

“You are such a bad influence, Jughead Jones.”

Which one rides the shopping cart out of the store?

“You have seriously never done it?” He asked her, his voice disbelieving.

“Do I look like someone who would do something like that?” She responded as if he had forgotten who her mother was. No way would she have let Betty Cooper ride the shopping cart out of the store.

“I suppose not.”

“But I am totally up for it.” She said her smile beaming. “I mean we are leaving tomorrow for college. Why not?” Her smile was contagious and he nodded his head eagerly. So they stood at the register, the shopping for their road trip loaded into the trolley. Giving each other conspiratorial looks, before giggling to themselves like a pair of mischievous children. The shopping attendant paid them no attention and Betty handed them her card paying for their supplies. They were now at the exit and she felt a wave of nervousness hit her. She could hear her mother’s voice in her head, it was not becoming of a lady, she could fall, she pushed that voice away as she felt his hand on her shoulder.

“Ready?” He asked and she nodded her head. She took a deep breath as she pulled back the shopping trolley and then pushed it forward sharply placing a foot on each side of the trolley just above the back wheels, holding on as the momentum pushed her and the trolley forward. She let out a loud laugh as she and the trolley flew towards the exit, Jughead was laughing too trailing behind her.

Which one gives the other one the silent treatment when they are angry with them?

“You have to talk to me.” He implored her, sitting next to her at the lunch table at school.

Silence, nothing. She hadn’t even acknowledged him when he had sat down next to her. Not his usual greeting, a smile and kiss to his cheek. It had become so much part of their routine that he had felt lost when she didn’t. They had had their first argument, and it was silly over an article for the Blue and Gold. He had written it and she had made some edits that he didn’t agree with. That was it, but now she was giving him the silent treatment. He hated it. He longed to have her talk to him, even just look his way, instead her full attention was on her salad, stabbing it aggressively with her fork. “Please Betts, I’m sorry.” The only sound he got from her was a ‘humph’ before she was again stabbing her fork with a new found passion. It was another day before she finally gave in her words exploding from her mouth, from the tension of not speaking to him for the few days. Even now he knew when he had really pissed her off as she would always retreat into herself rather that then spew hateful words from her mouth. Who kills the spiders?

“Get it Betty, get it!” He screamed from his position on the desk chair in the office of the Blue and Gold. He had first seen it when he had moved a box of old newspapers from when the school newspaper was in it’s prime, and everyone in the school was reading it. Betty had recruited him to try and bring back some of that magic from a time gone by and despite his concerns over the newspaper trying to change his voice he had agreed to help her. He wanted to help her, in truth he would do anything for Betty if she continued to look at him with those expectant eyes, wide with trust and hope. She had screamed herself when she first saw it as well, big, hairy, black. Jughead however had given a high pitched squeal before jumping on the nearest chair available teetering on top of it. She had looked at him with amusement as he urged her to take care of the problem. Betty now over the initial shock walked over to the desk picking up an empty cup and an old newspaper. As she walked over to it, Jughead warned her to be careful. She placed the cup over the spider, quickly sliding the newspaper underneath to safely capture the spider so that she could transport it to the open window. She calmly dropped it outside and returned to Jughead still cowering on top of chair. She held out her hand to help him down from the chair, as he returned to the ground somewhat embarrassed over his reaction.

Who worries about what they will look like when they are older?

‘Shit’ he thought to himself there was another one. He had found two the previous week and this was the third. A silver hair, clear as anything in amongst the dark waves surrounding it. He pulled it out, before running his hand through his hair searching for more. He felt her hands wrap around his waist pulling herself close to him. He thought about whether he should search for his beanie start wearing it again after all these years, hide it away. She looked at the worry in his eyes, confused, as she ran her hands through his dark locks.

“Did you find another one?” She asked guessing the reason for his concern.

“What if..” He started but before he could finish she urged him to turn around to face her, placing a hand on his cheek. She smiled sympathetically at him.

“It doesn’t matter to me.” She said, the sincerity clear in her voice. He pulled her in for a hug, burying his face in her neck. “Besides I think a little gray would look hot.” She joked, as he let out a sigh and returned to the mirror. Who is the most affectionate?

He needs to hold her, all the time, needs to show her how much she means to him. He doesn’t care about the looks from the others as her wraps his arm protectively around her. How he moves to nuzzle into her neck at their booth at Pop’s breathing in a scent that is deliciously Betty. After the arguments, the words he has thrown at her he needs to show her that he is sorry, that he needs her. After Homecoming he had been a mess, he had said words to her that he couldn’t take back no matter how much he wanted to. She had stuck there taking each one, each leaving their mark on her, each word making her press just a little bit harder into her palms, bite her lip a little bit deeper, the tears in her eyes rising to the surface. And all she said was sorry, all she wanted was his forgiveness. The stab of guilt he had felt when Archie and Veronica told him that she had nothing to do with their plan, that she had vowed never to speak to either of them ever again, made him feel sick. He would spend his life making things up to her with gentle kisses, hands clasped under tables, arms wrapped around her body as she slumbered. He would show her everyday, how sorry he was.

Most common argument?

“We are not having this argument again Betty.” He said from down the hall. It was the same every year around this time. She knew it was coming and that tension that it brought to the household.

“There is no argument Jug, we went to yours last year this years it’s mine.” She shouted back.

“But this is Evie’s first Christmas and I promised Dad.”

“You what?” She poked her head around the corner, giving him a disbelieving look. “Are you trying to guilt me now? Pulling the first Christmas card. Besides it’s her second Christmas.”

“She didn’t even know what was happening last year. This is her first ‘real’ one.” He reasoned.

“Nope we agreed last year we take turns. That way it is fair.”

“We could always try a joint one again?” He tried to compromise. Betty was not so keen to relive that particular experience. Suffice to say that Alice Cooper and Gladys Jones were not the best of friends at school and that seemed to have carried through to adulthood.

“Juggie, we agreed to take turns to save these arguments. This year we will have Christmas Lunch with the Coopers and then travel to Toledo to see yor parents on Boxing Day.” She had taken his hands in hers, her tone calm and soothing.

“Fine.” He said, giving in. “But on Evie’s birthday.” He started as Betty threw her arms up in surrender as he continued to follow her down the hallway.

What is their favorite feature of their partner?

Betty loved Jughead’s hair. They way it felt under her fingertips as she would brush it away from his forehead as she moved in to kiss him. The way it felt as she ran her fingers through it as he pushed his body up against her own and she tugged just a little to spur him on. The way it would curl at the edges of his beanie, poking out from underneath it’s woolen prison. The first time he had removed that beanie from his head she knew that that hair that he hid from the rest of the world, that he had allowed her to see was her favourite part of him.

Jughead loved Betty’s hair. The way it would loosely hand around her face as he looked up at her, swearing that she was some kind of angel as the light bounced off her hair. The way it bounced in her trademark ponytail as she cheered and danced on the football field, as he watched proudly from the sidelines. He loved the way it would feel bunched in his hand as he lowered his lips to hers meeting in a passionate exchange of lips and tongues, feeling her rawness come to light. Most of all he loved the way it contrasted to his own dark locks, just as she did to him.

Nicknames? and if so, how did they originate?

“You can play with us, if you have no one else to play with.” She stated simply and he looked up at the small girl, with bright green eyes and shiny blonde hair in pigtails. He shrugged his shoulders his typical non comital response. He was also shy, it had only been a week since they had moved here, back to his dad’s old home town. He was eight and unsure of most people. But something in the little girl’s smile was welcoming and as she stood there waiting with her hand outstretched to his. He decided that he would take it. She pulled him up with an exagerated movement pretending he was heavier than he was. A small boy with red hair came running up to them shouting excitedly that his dad was going to buy them icecreams at Pop’s after school. “Do you like icecream?” She asked him and he nodded enthusiastically. “You should ask if you can come with us, I love icecream, vanilla is my favourite.”

“Mine is chocolate.” Said her friend.

“I like all of them.” He admitted before looking down at his feet.

“Hey babies, what are you doing with that kid.” The girl crossed her arms as she heard an unwelcome voice heading their way.

“Go away Reggie.” She answered back.

“No way Betty. I want to say hello to Jughead here.”

“Huh.” She looked between the two confused.

“That’s what they call me.” He said softly. Not that it was any better than his normal name.

“Reggie don’t be so mean or I’ll tell them what I saw on our last school trip.” She threatened pulling herself up to meet the taller boy’s eyes.

“You don’t know anything, Betty.” He spat out her name.

“I know I saw you sitting at the back of the bus and Mrs Harris has to bring you a spare pair of pants when we got off.” She said finishing by raising her eyebrows in challenge, smiling to herself as he backed down and sulked away. Betty put her hands on her hips in triumph. As her friend Archie let out a giggle.

“Reggie pee’d his pants.” He managed to get out before he erupted into laughter clutching his sides.

“So what’s your real name?” She asked him.

“Really I think I prefer Jughead.” He admitted.

“Well I’m going to call you Juggie.” She decided, but looking at his face added. “If that’s okay?”

“Yeah but only you get to call me that.”

“Thanks, Juggie.” He liked the way she said his name, she had turned it from an insult into something familiar and kind.

“I need a nickname for you too.” He responded.

“I’m Betty, that’s already short enough.”

“What about Betts?” She seemed to think about this for a moment before nodding her head.

“Okay but only you get to call me that.” She put out her hand for a handshake and he eagerly gave her his hand. Archie meanwhile was wiping tears away from his eyes.

What do they do when they’re away from each other?

He misses her, he goes and sits in the booth at Pop’s, their booth. He gets his regular order and pulls out his laptop, opening his latest chapter of the novel of Riverdale and the murder of Jason Blossom. Betty had left earlier in the week for another Summer internship. She had at first told him that she was going to turn it down, that she would find something local in Riverdale so that she could be near Polly and the twins, her mum and him. But he had urged her to go, to not give up an opportunity like this and that he would help the Coopers as much as he could with the new arrivals. He had at times felt out of his depth but he enjoyed spending the time with the Cooper family, feeling like he was needed and that he belonged. Mama Cooper had even invited his dad over for another dinner to make up for the last one, which they had both been grateful for. He smiled as he saw an email pop up from Betty, she was doing well, currently Skyping with Polly and the twins, but she wanted to see him and asked whether he would be available that night. Jughead eagerly responded advising that he would.

Later that night he eagerly opened his laptop in his own room, in his dad’s home. It felt good to be back, and that his dad was making another go of things and seemed to be making it this time despite the set back of being wrongly arrested for murder. He couldn’t help but smile when she popped up on the screen, her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, glasses on, no make up. His eyes widened as he noticed what she was wearing, a loose t-shirt with an ‘S’ clearly printed on the front.

Who would sing to their child back to sleep?

“Your turn.” She said as she returned from the nursery to their lounge. He could see the defeat on her face, they had been trying for the last 3 hours to get baby Evie to settle. They had tried rocking, a drive in the car, dancing awkwardly around the nursery, patting, shushing everything. He had taken a deep breath and walked back into the nursery, while he noticed Betty slouching in the chair, her head in her hands. It had been hard on her, the birth, then coming home and although Mama Cooper was helping through the day he was worried about the pressures that she may be placing on the new mum in addition to Betty’s own expectations to be the ‘perfect’ mum. He scooped Evie into his arms and moved to the rocking chair. At a loss for what to do next he started to sing, he knew his voice was horrible, Betty had told him before that he was tone deaf, but he had to try something they hadn’t. Evie noticed the sound of his voice and began to stare at him listening to the tone of his voice, as he sang the only thing he could think of. An ad that he had heard earlier on the radio on his way home from work. Eventually after repeating the song more times than he could keep track of she started to close her eyes. Betty who had been anxiously observing through the crack in the door breathed a sigh of relief as he placed the small infant back in her bassinet, resting a hand on her stomach as she stirred before slowly extracting his hand and army crawling out of the room. Betty offered her hand to help him stand before pulling him into her arms in an embrace, almost collapsing on him in exhaustion.

“You are a miracle worker.” She breathed into his neck, and he gripped her tighter. “Although I am seriously worried about our child’s taste in music.”

Which one says no to their kids or yes?

The kids had already worked out who was the one who would let them get away with murder, let them go to the cool parties and stay out late. And they knew it. He hated the phrase ‘Go ask your mother.” Growing up but was completely dependent on it now. He swore those two could get him to agree to anything, a bit like their mother in that way, a pout of the lips, the whine in their voices, eyes wide and pleading and that was it he was done for. They were in front of him now, pleading with him to let them go to a party with the boy next door. He had uttered the sentence and they had both gone away in a huff, knowing what their mum would say. However they returned to the lounge with victory plastered over their faces.

“Mum said yes.”

“She what?!” He asked, jumping up from his chair. Heading in the direction of the her office where he was sure the two giggling girls had just come from. “You said yes.”

“Yeah, they are old enough now.” She replied casually, while he ran a hand through his hair.

“There will be boys there, Betty, boys.” His voice straining at the end of his sentence. Given the reaction from his wife who simply shook her head at him while smiling to herself. It looked like their roles were about to change.

Favorite non-sexual activity?

She has decided that this is her favourite thing, wrapped up under a million blankets, her boyfriend snuggled in against her watching “It Happened One Night”. It was their regular movie night, Fridays, popcorn fresh from the microwave, no Alice Cooper keeping a not so covert eye on them. Even with the craziness of the hunt for Jason Blossom’s killer this was a constant a piece of normalcy in amongst the chaos of their current lives. It was one of her favourites and even he had raised an eyebrow when she suggested it. She had reasoned that it was a classic and she was in the mood for a love story. Jughead could see so much Betty in the main character, her strength, her stubbornness and drive to not just follow her family blindly. He loved to watch her while she was watching the movie, her smiles, her laugh and the enjoyment on her face as she watched the two characters on screen fall in love. It would be his turn next week and they would continue the tradition, passing it on eventually to their children, their Friday family movie night.

Who wants to stay in bed just a little longer?

“Stay with me.” He says still laying in bed, blanket slung loosely over his hips, bare chest, hair messy from his night’s sleep and Betty can already feel her resolve starting to slip.

“I have to get up for classes.” She says, trying to convince him as much as herself.

“You’re too smart for classes. You don’t need them.” He flatters her. It is partly true, he is proud of his brainy girlfriend and admires her commitment to do well, but for now he has other things on his mind.

“Hmm I think you may have an alternative motive there.” She eyes him suspiciously, as she moves to pull her shoes on sitting on the edge of the bed.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. I just want you to come back to bed.”

She throws a look at him and he simply smirks back in response.“But you know if things lead to other things.”

#bughead #bughead fanfiction #OTP questions fills #holy crap i wrote 6000 words #betty x jughead #betty cooper x jughead jones

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