#because initially fp was formed because he was told to make a group with the other two | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

styomi · 6 years ago

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Request: Fever all through the night | Sweet Pea/OC

AN: This… this… I have no defense. Enjoy. My thanks goes out to salty-serpent for the amazing request, though I did take it a bit too literally xD

If you’d like to read more about Ruby and Sweet Pea, check out my Masterlist :)

Info:

Fandom: Riverdale Pairing: Sweet Pea/OC Rating: T Word count: 3147 (I… overdid it… again…) Request: #19 - Kisses in the Dark - While watching a movie - At his place - Sweet Pea initiates it

Continues from the last request: Love me tender, love me sweet, true, long, love me dear

Fever all through the night (this is the song for this damn request!! Urgh epic fit)

“What about you, Ruby?” Toni’s voice pulled Ruby back into reality. Her head shot up from the phone screen, where she’d been eagerly awaiting Mattie’s next message.

“Huh?” Was really the only reply Ruby could give to the question. The purple haired Serpent rolled her eyes, but repeated.

“Fangs and I are going out, Sweet Pea is watching GoT, finally, and Gorgon is bartending,” Toni listed. “What are your plans for the weekend?” Ruby’s eyes weren’t on her friend’s anymore, though. Instead, she was typing away on her phone quickly.

“Sure, GoT sounds good.” The petite girl replied in an absent-minded, airy tone. Toni looked over to Sweet Pea, who seemed to be doing everything but whistling to the side as if he wasn’t the topic of the conversation. Fangs and Gorgon, on the other hand, were anything but subtle, laughing so loudly that a couple of people in the school cafeteria turned and stared.

“So, your plans are going on a date with Sweet Pea?” Toni pushed with a smug smile, getting a wild reaction from almost all the occupants of the table. Sweet Pea spit out his water and then tried to save his dignity with a cough. Though, his cheeks were too red for that. Gorgonhead and Fangs, on the other hand, had no qualms about laughing it up. They looked like they were ready to fall off the bench and roll around the floor, by the way they were holding onto one another. Ruby, apparently, was too focused on texting.

“Uh-huh.” She replied absent-mindedly, making Sweet Pea’s expression take on quite an interesting form. Toni, on the other hand, looked more than pleased with herself. Since Ruby and Sweet Pea had gone on their first ‘semi-date’, which had just been the tall biker filling in for FP’s kid, Toni hadn’t gotten any insider info. They’d told her that the movie was fine, that they got wet from the rain and that they both had fun. For anything else, she was very much in the dark. And, Toni hated being in the dark. To top it all off, their stories were a little too perfectly matched. They quoted each other word for word, even when she’d spoken to them separately. Not even Fangs had gotten anything more out of Sweet Pea. So, Toni knew that she needed to get those two on another date. This time, a real one. Not just him filling in or her not knowing that it was a date. And, Game of Thrones sounded like the perfect binge watch for their little rendezvous.

Things between her and Sweet Pea had been odd since their impromptu semi-date which had ended in a kiss. It wasn’t that Ruby was uncomfortable. She had never been uncomfortable around Sweet Pea. They had their own dynamic, a magnetic push and pull, which she very much enjoyed. However, ever since she twisted her fingers in the lapels of his flannel and pulled him down for a kiss, she had been feeling a bit odd. Weird. Like she was outside of their usual push and pull element. Because, it wasn’t just offhanded flirting anymore. At that point, it was definitely something more. Because, he was definitely into her as much as she was into him.

So, learning that she’d agreed to go on a proper date with him, all the while thinking that it would be a group hangout, got Ruby to panic more than a bit. She spent over half an hour with Mattie on the line, picking her outfit. She wanted to be both pretty and casual. Even if it was a date, she didn’t want to look over the top for an evening of binge-watching Game of Thrones at his trailer.

Luckily, Sweet Pea was quite the talker over IM. They’d exchanged over a dozen messages, debating on snacks, drinks and who should bring what. In the end, Ruby was in charge of snacks, which were her specialty. She managed to bake some easy chocolate chip cookies, and bought the rest on her way to Sweet Pea’s trailer. She found the place easily enough, as it was close to Toni’s home. Sweet Pea opened the door before she was done knocking, looking surprised at himself for doing it.

“Hi,” Ruby awkwardly greeted and watched the way he had to gather himself before replying. Good, he was just as nervous as she was.

“Hey,” Sweet Pea’s voice was a bit higher than usual as he welcomed her inside. The trailer was pretty much what Ruby expected. A perfect man cave. There were minimal clothes around, luckily, which didn’t trigger her cleaning impulses. She had a pet peeve about wearing shoes inside or throwing clothes all around that drove her father insane. But, Sweet Pea seemed like he was tidier than Jo. Or, he had at least made an effort for her. “We’re in here. Netflix’s all set up,” then, he smirked at her mischievously and she felt her knees buckle. “I logged into Fangs’ account.”

“Naughty boy,” Ruby teased right back and placed the bags with snacks and the box of cookies on the table in the living area. She saw that Sweet Pea’s laptop was there, as beat up and taped up as she remembered it. Sure enough, there was the Netflix logo on the open browser, Game of Thrones seasons listed. “Where are we starting?” Ruby asked.

“From the beginning, if you don’t mind?” Sweet Pea tossed a few extra pillows onto the couch and brought glasses, along with a few different bottles. He had cola, juice and club soda, as far as she could see. “Fangs and Toni have been raving about me not watching the show, so I finally decided to give in to their nagging.”

“Sure,” Ruby nodded. She shrugged off her jacket and tossed it on the sofa chair in the corner before getting comfortable on the couch. “I’ve seen the show once, fair warning. So, I’ll try not to spoil anything.” Sweet Pea shook his head with a laugh, also plopping down.

“Feel free to squeal or look away. You can’t be worse than Toni.” After a bit more easygoing conversation, mostly concerning who was eating what and who wanted to drink what, Sweet Pea started the first season from episode one. Ruby found herself comfortably pressed against his side, not minding the way his arm casually draped around her shoulders not even halfway through the first episode. Sweet Pea complained about the low volume of the laptop jokingly, telling her to stop chewing the chips so loudly when there was important dialogue. Ruby, on the other hand, enjoyed how expressive he was as he watched the show, sometimes even yelling at the screen for a few chosen stupid decisions. Altogether, it was turning out to be an easy, comfortable date.

Halfway through season one, the two teens started singing along to the theme song in the beginning. It began with Sweet Pea humming it under his breath, and Ruby picking it up. Over the next three episodes, though, they settled into quite a duet while the theme played, laughing at the end. Sweet Pea proclaimed that Khal Drogo was his absolute favorite character, and Ruby didn’t have the heart to deliver the bad news which he would have to face sooner or later. She, on the other hand, admitted that she liked Arya Stark the best, to which she received a biting comment about height. All in all, their night progressed with easy conversation and plenty of hours of straining to hear the show’s dialogue.

“Oh, Gosh!” Ruby pulled away from Sweet Pea’s embrace, hitting the spacebar and stopping the episode in the middle of Littlefinger’s monologue.

“Urgh,” Sweet Pea groaned, turning away from her in order to grab another bag of chips. “If you’re going to pee again, please make it quick. I’m actually curious if they’re gonna kill him.” Ruby’s hand slapped his biceps at the crude comment softly.

“I’m not hitting the bathroom again,” she made a face at him. “It’s just, I remembered that I have earphones in my jacket pocket!” At that, Sweet Pea pushed her towards the other end of the couch, so that she could reach the jacket without getting up.

“C’mon, get them. Seriously, why didn’t you say so earlier? I’ve been straining my ears for the last five hours!” Ruby managed to lean over the arm of the couch, digging out her earphones, and then slither back to the tall biker as she untangled them.

“I forgot, okay?” The girl defended, offering him one earphone and plugging the cord into the laptop. Then, she pressed the spacebar again and actually had to lower the volume a bit so that they wouldn’t go deaf. But, when Ruby settled back into Sweet Pea’s side, with the earphones stretched in between them, she felt a comfortable warmth. Even pulling away in order to get the earphones had been too long without his body heat. With a small smile, Ruby remembered their kiss at the Drive-In and smiled to herself. Just as Sweet Pea offered her the chips bag and she raised her head to ask him about their relationship and what it meant at that point, everything went dark.

“W-what happened?” Ruby whispered, a little shocked. It was pitch black everywhere around her. All that she could feel was Sweet Pea’s body pressed against hers and couch underneath her. The earphone fell out as Sweet Pea moved a bit, hands tapping around in the dark.

“Just a power outage,” the tall biker told her. “We get our fair share of them. Nothing to worry about,” then, his phone screen lit up and Ruby saw the outline of his features in the dark. “Sorry, but my laptop battery sucks.”

“Noticed,” Ruby laughed. The machine had crashed as soon as the power had gone out. “Anything I can do?” Just as Sweet Pea was about to answer they heard giggling and cackling under the window. Familiar giggling and cackling.

“I’m going to murder them.” Sweet Pea spoke in a low, icy tone that promised bodily harm. Ruby’s hands were on his forearms before he could get up and find Fangs and Toni with murderous intentions.

“It’s okay,” she shrugged with a small smile. “They’re just trying to prank us, right?” When Sweet Pea still looked ready to bolt and perhaps grab an ax on the way, she continued. “If we don’t react, they’ll turn it back on, no?”

“Hopefully.” The tall biker finally grumbled and slouched in his seat. Ruby shook her head with a laugh as she took her earphones and rolled them up. Toni and Fangs really could be beyond childish sometimes, she decided. The girl made herself busy by tidying up the little bits of the snacks on the table which she could see under the light coming from Sweet Pea’s phone. When the table was surface was clean, she realized that there was nothing else to do and leaned back into the couch. There was giggling and cackling from under the window again. Ruby smirked, moving closer to Sweet Pea and grabbing his shoulder for purchase in order to reach his ear. He flinched, head whipping around to face her in the dim light of his phone, eyes wide.

“Say,” Ruby whispered, noting how his shoulder muscles instantly relaxed under her hand. “Let’s give them something to talk about?” Sweet Pea stared at her for a few moments, like a deer in headlights, before asking in a low, uncertain tone.

“Give them something to talk about or give them something to talk about?” Ruby shrugged, her hair cascading to the front with the motion. Sweet Pea’s eyes followed the long chocolate waves on their path.

“Former, if you’re uncomfortable with the latter.” The girl told him. Sweet Pea grinned at her.

“Former, because I sure as hell am not doing the later for Fangs’ and Toni’s amusement.” He shot back. Ruby giggled, pushing away from him and grabbing one of the pillows on the couch.

“Fair enough,” she smirked devilishly at him, before the light completely went out, his phone screen going dark. Then, there was a thump, which sounded like a body falling over. But, Sweet Pea felt the pillow hit the back of the couch and quickly caught onto the game. He grabbed his own pillow as Ruby moaned. “Oh, Sweet Pea!” He could barely reign in his laughter as he smacked his own pillow into the back of the couch. “Right there! Oh!” She was loud, unlike the tender quiet Ruby during their kiss and the little bit of snuggling they’d done at the Drive-In. It made Sweet Pea wonder if she was usually vocal during intimate moments. “Oh, God!” Snickering could be heard from underneath the window.

“You like that?” Sweet Pea growled out in a husky tone, having to catch Ruby as she fell over onto him, soundlessly laughing. He could see the outline of her face and those pale eyes in the dark, having a ton of fun. Then again, he was no better. He was doing everything he could to stop himself from laughing. “What else do you want me to do?” There was a gasp from under the window, followed by a thump. Ruby managed to gather herself enough in order to reply.

“Touch me,” she spoke in a fairly loud tone, smacking the pillow against the back of the couch again. “Help me get my shirt off,” Sweet Pea would be lying if he said that the whole charade wasn’t hot. Because, as much fun as he was having giving Fangs and Toni a vocal show, he would’ve loved to experience all of those things for himself. “Pans, pants.” Ruby panted, her lips pulled in a wide smile. Sweet Pea did the only thing he could, he responded with a dirty comment and enjoyed the snickering from under the window.

Soon enough, Ruby and Sweet Pea found themselves standing on top of the couch in the dark, holding hands as she jumped up and down in a slow rhythm, obviously creating the sound of a couple getting busy on the furniture piece. They kept yelling out random dirty phrases, moaning and trying not to laugh when they heard Toni and Fangs start a commentary on their ‘technique’ from under the window. Ruby actually had to stop jumping a few times and physically hold onto Sweet Pea so that she wouldn’t burst into loud laughter. Those were undoubtedly his favorite moments.

Her small fingers would squeeze his forearms and her head would press into his torso, muffled snickering coming from her shaking form. But, Sweet Pea reveled in the way she was completely comfortable in his presence. In the way her body heat transferred to every part of him that she touched, setting his skin on fire, despite the layers of clothing between them. He simply couldn’t wait until they got to that part of their new relationship in reality, and not just in a teasing fantasy.

“Go, go, go!” Sweet Pea heard Toni whisper-yell, undoubtedly pushing Fangs away from their hiding spot. Ruby was still jumping and shaking with laughter and he was still grunting and telling her obscene things when they heard their purple-haired friend say. “Our job here is done.” Then, all the snickering and talking vanished completely. After a few more moments, Ruby stopped jumping and looked at him. Sweet Pea couldn’t help himself. He started laughing loudly and it was like a dam broke. The two dissolved into uncontrollable giggles and cackles, holding onto each other in order to stay upright. Despite all the efforts, the two teens somehow ended up sitting on the couch after a small stumble, Ruby halfway laying on Sweet Pea’s lap.

“That,” she gasped out through her laughter. “Was legen-fucking-dary!” And she was giggling again.

“Yeah,” Sweet Pea gasped out through a chuckle before he realized that he was positively on fire. Everything was so hot. He was too hot. Like he was running a fever or something. But, it wasn’t the kind of fever that hit his head. Instead, it was the kind of fire that lit up everywhere Ruby touched. He slowly stopped laughing and stayed looking at the giggling girl. And, in his moment of realization, Sweet Pea found that Ruby was positively beautiful like that, chuckling uncontrollably in his lap. “Ruby?” He called out, making the girl compose herself a bit and look up at him.

“Yeah?” She asked, mouth still in a smile from all of the giggling. Sweet Pea’s hand came up, dwarfing her face as he pushed some of the wavy hair behind her ear. The darkness suddenly seemed like it was charged with electricity. Ruby’s mouth was open, short gasps coming out from all of the jumping. But, she wasn’t laughing anymore. Instead, her eyes looked like they had laser focus kind of intensity in them. Sweet Pea left his hand on her face, his thumb caressing her cheek gently, watching the way she shuddered and leaned into his palm.

“You’re beautiful.” He wasn’t aware of the words leaving his mouth. And, he certainly wasn’t aware of how breathless he sounded. He was only aware of her, Ruby, in his lap, with those utterly inviting lips popped slightly open in shock. And then, he had his other hand on her face, as well, pulling her in. Before either of them knew it, Sweet Pea was kissing her. Unlike last time, when she’d been shivering and cold, her lips were warm and soft. And, inviting. Very inviting.

The kiss was slow, made even more intimate by the darkness around them and their position on the couch. But, neither teen seemed to be uncomfortable. In fact, Ruby took charge of her position as soon as Sweet Pea deepened the kiss, coming to straddle his lap and pull him in even more, her arms around his waist. She gripped his sides with legs and twisted her fingers into the material of his flannel shirt, holding on for dear life. Then, their kiss came to a slow end, the two separating to breathe.

“Can you do that again?” The breathless, whispered words set a kind of fire in Sweet Pea that made all of their previous teasing moaning and groaning pale in comparison. For a few seconds, he tried to gather himself. Calm down his heart. Get some air into his lungs. But, he realized that it was absolutely futile. Those wide, pale eyes staring at him, waiting, would definitely be his undoing. So, Sweet Pea gave a shaky nod and obliged soundlessly, for once in his life, surrendering to another’s wishes without a fight. His lips came up to meet Ruby’s in a gentle, exploring kiss in total darkness.

And he did the same again, again and again.

Hope that you all enjoyed :D

Here if the taglist (still open): @enticinghell@projectcampbell@sweetscamille@xoxodege@mlvgren@this-is-the-way-it-ends @yerawizardharry99 @dinglemember @pleaseminho @laylaroseeeeeeee@cassieluci @lynniev @heartbeats-wildly and a special tag for @salty-serpent

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peterson50delacruz-blog · 6 years ago

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Showdown Game Assessment

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burberrycanary · 7 years ago

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Emotional Bandwidth & Triage (Riverdale 2.04)

Although I quibble with some of the execution, I’m pleasantly surprised that Riverdale is exploring the ripple effects of the downward spirals within Jughead’s life caused by the socioeconomic collapse and gradual disintegration of his family. Because, not only is the show exploring how these changes and traumas are impacting Jughead, the start of season two also shows the cascading impacts on the other people in Jughead’s life, particularly his relationship with Betty.

You may find love in the ruins (but standing in the blast radius still sucks)

Jughead has a troubling pattern of hurting Betty either deliberately or as collateral damage: Jughead lashed out at her during the disastrous birthday in 1.10; lashed out at her again in 1.11 after he learned that Archie and Veronica searched FP's trailer; and hurt her by distancing himself both physically and emotionally in season two. Only one of Jughead’s accumulating omissions and lies this season has been revealed to Betty so far—that he sits with the Serpents for protection—but his dishonesty has hurt Betty and will continue to hurt her.

Lining up all these hurtful instances like this disturbs me.

I remain sympathetic to Jughead as a character because his behaviors are driven by a combination of trauma and legitimately terrible circumstances. Do I wish my aloof weirdo son had fewer problems and behaved better when facing them? As a doting fannish parent, yes, of course. But as a viewer? Not really. The show has dealt Jughead a spectacularly bad hand and, to me, it humanizes Jughead for the almost non-stop terribleness of his life to have created maladaptive behaviors that increase the difficulty he has in making good choices for himself and for his relationships with the people around him.

That’s not a free pass, but I can empathize with him or talk myself around to empathizing with him, which as a viewer is more important than agreeing with his choices. I wish the pacing for these changes hadn’t been so abrupt and that Jughead’s characterization between seasons 1 and 2 felt more consistent. But those are critiques of the execution rather than the direction of this overall storyline. And I’m still rooting for Bughead because this pattern of behavior is a problem in his relationship with Betty—that needs to be addressed—but it’s not a defining characteristic of their underlying dynamic.

Betty has been a fucking champ so far this season, offering Jughead unconditional support, being mature in how she reacts not only to Toni but also to Jughead's dodgy evasiveness about Toni, as well as supporting her circle of friends. Betty has been put in a series of no-win situations and has made hard choice after hard choice: to stand by Jughead even if it means watching him join a gang, to blackmail Cheryl, to tell Kevin’s father about his self-destructive behavior, to help her sister leave Riverdale—the list goes on. You can have an interesting debate about whether she was right to do any of these things or if she did them in the best way possible. But these are all traumatic choices to face without even touching on the terrifying new layer of learning that she is an object of obsession for a serial killer.

Jughead’s behaviors are impacting Betty, too. Betty’s reactions so far have been calm, understanding and mature, but she’s accumulated a significant amount of hurt over a series of painful interactions. At this point, Betty wants reassurance that she is important to Jughead, especially because right now he's not acting like she's very important to him at all.

I still believe that she is. But his behavior conveys the opposite message.

As far as we know, Betty deliberately didn’t signal that she was in trouble at any point during their communication or interactions, which is an interesting shift in their communication patterns. When she gets Jughead’s disappointing text that evening, she doesn’t clarify how serious the situation she’s facing is or respond at all.

My theory is that Betty wants to have Jughead’s attention and support without having to wave a big red "I'm in trouble" flag at him. The accumulation of hurt she is feeling reinforces this very human desire for reassurance that she’s important to him.

But with Jughead facing so many severe problems, Betty’s lack of clear communication is feeding into negative interactions that could easily escalate into a vicious cycle of poor communication, hurt, loss of trust and accumulating resentment that further reduces and degrades their communication.

The brutal art of triage (don’t worry, ma, I’m only bleeding)

Jughead is drowning: trying to figure out how to survive is consuming most of his emotional and psychological bandwidth. In addition, I think that some part of Jughead has successfully internalized Betty’s consistent pattern of support with the uncharming outcome of starting to take Betty more and more for granted in this period of intense stress. Unfortunately, the taking-Betty-for-granted behaviors and the traumatized-kid-with-trust-and-abandonment-issues behaviors overlap and mutually reinforce each other in fascinating but deeply fucked up ways.

Jughead has demonstrated on multiple occasions intense loyalty and that he values supporting Betty. But my theory is that, as long as Betty appears to be doing more or less okay, Jughead is functionally deprioritizing her in his life for both valid reasons and selfish ones. It’s not that Jughead doesn’t care about Betty or that he cares about himself more than her. But he is in an ugly sort of triage mode and—as far as Jughead knows until he finds the letter—Betty can be put in the “things that are kind of okay” group as compared with the “things that are bleeding out in front of me” group.

But, as severe as Jughead's own problems are right now, I can't imagine him ignoring Betty if she'd given him any sign she was in trouble, let alone in serious danger. I can't believe that Jughead would have made the same choices if she texted him even something as small as, hey I really need to talk to you, after the missed call.

You can’t always get what you want (but friends aren’t chopped liver either)

Jughead wasn't there for Betty. That sucks. But Kevin, one of her closest and oldest friends, was. And I was happy to see that, not just because I'm starved for Kevin/Betty friendship interactions and I’m glad to see them make up after their fight, but also because limiting your support to just your romantic partner is deeply unhealthy and inherently unsustainable.

This is the extension of an important developing pattern of Betty having to turn to her friends rather than Jughead for support. In 2.02 when saving Pop’s came up and Jughead said that he couldn’t take on anything more right now, Betty had to rely on Veronica instead to help organize saving Pop’s. (And, in all fairness, Jughead still shows up to help her work the actual event. He’s reducing the amount of support he provides, not abandoning her.) But Betty’s friends are an important part of her support network, too, and Jughead not always being the person Betty turns to isn’t a bad thing—in the context of an open, healthy, supportive relationship.

This is part of the reason I'm so proud of Betty's reaction to the situation with Toni. She's not trying to stop Jughead from forming relationships outside of their relationship. She is trusting him and letting him be his own person who has an existence separate from her. Jughead’s support network is much weaker than Betty’s and this is part of what makes him so vulnerable right now. Betty’s behavior is amazing and healthy and not as easy as it sounds, especially when you’re that young and still in the early days of an intense relationship.

One vicious cycle feeds another (positive interference is a bitch)

We'll never know what Betty would have told Jughead if he’d picked up. Betty has a pattern of keeping secrets when she thinks she's protecting someone or sparing their feelings, so there’s no guarantee she would have told Jughead everything. My gut feeling is that Betty had an intense initial reflex to reach out for help and wanted the person she got help from to be Jughead. Being tacitly rejected by him hurt and frustrated her at a time when she was already struggling with layers of those same feelings and gave Betty the opportunity to tell herself, Well that's probably for the best, as her own maladaptive communication behavior of keeping secrets kicked in.

As soon as Jughead figures out how serious the situation with Betty is, he goes to talk to her and supports her through the rest of the evening. They snap back to being that rain-bedraggled sleuthing couple we know and love. I’m still not sure that Jughead has connected the dots between Betty calling him and when she would have gotten the letter. Putting the pieces together seems like the sort of thing he would work out in normal circumstances, but a fundamental driver for problems in their relationship is Betty and Jughead both being in persistently high-stress situations with their psychological and emotional bandwidth largely focused elsewhere. None of the characters in this season are being their best selves. What we are watching is how these characters fray and buckle under enormous pressures.

The darwinism of relationships (change or die)

Betty and Jughead are being forced by their circumstances into a more serious, adult relationship than most teenagers and many actual adults. Demands are being placed on them beyond their levels of maturity. And that means we’ll continue to see struggle and failure more often than the handful of breath-taking moments when they’ve stepped up for each other in a big way.

Even lasting relationships wax and wane. People go through phases of being more supportive and more self-involved. That’s natural. The underlying question should be how healthy is the overall relationship, do roles shift between individuals in reasonably balanced ways and how sustainable are the patterns of behavior.

Unpopular opinion time, but if Jughead can’t work through some of his baggage and find a better set of coping mechanisms then they should break up because he’s not at a place in his life where he and Betty can have a healthy relationship.

Right now the patterns of behavior in their relationship aren’t sustainable, which means there’s a clock ticking down to either the dissolution of their relationship or significant change. I hope Betty and Jughead can repair their communication and come out of this conflict stronger. I hope we get the character growth arc instead of the breakup arc. Maybe we’ll get both. But I’m interested to see how the show continues to explore the ways the problems in Jughead’s life create consequences that ripple outward and negatively impact his relationships.

Interested and, yeah okay, maybe a little heartbroken.

#bughead #betty x jughead #riverdale meta #bughead meta #jughead jones #betty cooper #otp: we're all crazy #otp: on borrowed time #riverdale spoilers #riverdale season two #my meta #mine #by burberrycanary #how to fuck up a relationship #jughead jones flailing traumatize mess

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protectjugheadjonesiii · 7 years ago

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Ever Since New York

Check the Ever Since New York Masterlist for series updates!

Pairing: Jughead x Reader

Description: After his junior year, Jughead goes to New York for a writing internship.

Warnings: some swearing, you might cry

Word count: 4,574

A/N: umm first of all thank you for 7000 followers?? holy crap. anywho wowowow this is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written. It’s based off of the song “Ever Since New York” from Harry Styles’s album (which I love btw). This is probably my favorite thing I’ve ever written tbh. Hope you all enjoy!

Tell me something, tell me something You don’t know nothing, just pretend you do

After years of saving the money he earned at the Twilight Drive-In and other odd jobs, Jughead finally had enough to buy a plane ticket to New York. He had discovered a writing internship there that he knew he had to do. It didn’t take much effort to convince his dad to allow him to go; in fact, FP even offered to pitch in some money. Jughead refused, claiming that he wanted to do this all on his own. He wanted to deserve this internship as much as possible.

He started talking to Veronica frequently, asking her about her time in New York. She, of course, gladly answered all of Jughead’s questions. She was glad to finally bond with her boyfriend’s best friend.

Jughead also pestered Betty with questions, seeing as she had done an internship similar to his two summers ago. It was a bit awkward at first, since the two of them used to date. However, they both got over their awkwardness for the sake of preparing Jughead for his internship.

“It’s really amazing,” Betty told him. “It’s a great experience, and you’ll learn so much.”

“What are other people like?” Jughead inquired. “Are they pricks?”

“Sometimes,” Betty laughed. “It depends. Do you know how many other people are participating in the internship?”

“Just one,” he answered, shrugging. “I don’t know who it is though.”

“Well, if they’re a jerk then that’s gonna suck,” she offered. “But if they’re nice, they may become one of the closest friends you’ll ever have.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Betty replied and nodded. “You’re gonna spend all summer with this other person. They’re either gonna drive you up the wall or become your new best friend.”

I need something, tell me something new Choose your words, ‘cause there’s no antidote For this curse, oh, what’s it waiting for? Must this hurt you just before you go?

“Have fun in New York, Jug.” FP patted his son on the back as they stood at the airport gate. Betty, Veronica, Archie, Fred Andrews, and Kevin stood behind FP, all wearing supportive smiles. Jughead glanced around at the group who followed him to the airport, filled with admiration of his friends and family.

“Thank you guys,” he said, fighting back a giant grin. “You didn’t all have to come, though.”

“Of course we did,” Fred Andrews argued. “We’re not gonna see you all summer, Jughead. We have to give you a proper send-off.”

“Well, proper send-off achieved,” Jughead laughed. He watched as others in the line began to move. “I guess I should go now. Thanks for this. See you all in August.” As he turned on his heel and walked away, the group of six gleefully waved at Jughead’s retreating figure.

“You aren’t worried about Jughead all alone in a giant city?” Fred asked FP as they exited the airport.

“Nah,” FP responded, waving his hand. “He’s a smart kid, he’ll find his way.”

Oh, tell me something I don’t already know Oh, tell me something I don’t already know

“Hi, I’m Jughead Jones,” he introduced himself at the front desk. “I’m here for the writing internship.”

The lady sitting behind the desk glanced up at Jughead. “Ah, yes! We’ve been expecting you, Mr. Jones!” she exclaimed, standing from her chair.

“Oh, am I late?” Jughead inquired.

The lady shook her head. “Oh no, not at all. Your counterpart just got here early, so we’ve been waiting for you to start.”

“My counterpart?”

“Miss (Y/N) (Y/L/N),” she gestured to a girl sitting on a chair against the wall, flipping through a magazine. The girl perked up when she heard her name, and saw Jughead and the receptionist staring at her.

“Is this him?” (Y/N) questioned, standing up and setting the magazine down. Jughead noticed it was a TIME magazine.

“Yes,” the receptionist answered. “(Y/N), this is Jughead Jones.” Jughead stuck his hand out to shake, and (Y/N) firmly shook his hand.

“I hope you’re not an asshole,” she blatantly said as they released hands, “because we’re gonna be stuck with each other all summer.”

“I was thinking the same thing about you,” he quipped.

(Y/N) raised her eyebrow in interest. “Quick-witted,” she noted with a smirk forming on her face. “I like it.”

“You better,” Jughead fired back, biting back a grin. “Like you said, we’ll be around each other all summer.”

“If we were together any longer, I’d worry about you falling in love with me,” she jokingly warned. “So be careful.”

Brooklyn saw me, empty at the news There’s no water inside this swimming pool

“When’d you get here?” (Y/N) asked as she and Jughead exited the building, their first day of the internship finished.

“Two days ago,” Jughead answered with his hands in his pockets. “What about you?”

“Last week.” Her pace was quick, and she seemed determined to get somewhere. “Are you hungry? Because I’m starving.”

“I would love some food,” Jughead almost moaned at the thought of food. He was only able to scarf down a small lunch in the midst of the business.

“I know this great burger place,” (Y/N) explained as she led the way to the restaurant. “It’ll make every other burger you’ve ever eaten seem like a pile of shit on a bun.”

“I doubt that,” Jughead scoffed. “There’s a diner where I’m from that makes the best burgers you’ll ever eat.”

“Where are you from?”

“Riverdale,” he said. “Pop’s diner, that’s what it’s called. If you ever find yourself in Riverdale, stop by Pop’s. Trust me, you’ll thank me.”

“Well we’re not in Riverdale right now, Jughead Jones,” (Y/N) reminded him. “So you should thank your lucky stars that I am your counterpart, because I’ve been here for the past week. You know what I’ve been doing for that week? Exploring, Jones. I have tried and evaluated twenty-one restaurants, and I know where to go for whatever you’re craving.”

“What if I’m craving Korean food?” he quizzed.

“32nd street, there’s a great Korean grill,” she immediately responded.

“Ethiopian?”

“There’s a quaint little place on 135th street.”

“What if I want to get wasted?” Jughead smirked.

“There’s a club a couple of blocks away with shitty security,” (Y/N) answered with a smirk equally as wide. “Or maybe I was just an exception, seeing as how attractive I am.”

“I think you overestimate yourself,” he scoffed, playfully rolling his eyes.

(Y/N) lightly slapped him on the arm. “I do not!” she retaliated.

“Whatever, keep lying to yourself.” Jughead quickened his pace, leaving (Y/N) behind him.

“Hey!” she called out, rushing to catch up to him. “You better not leave me! You don’t even know where you’re going.”

“You’re still here,” he noted, casually wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “Lead the way, (Y/N).”

Almost over, had enough from you And I’ve been praying, I never did before

“God, this food sucks,” (Y/N) whispered, gesturing towards the plates of Japanese food sitting in front of her and Jughead. “That place we ate at last week was so much better.”

“True,” Jughead agreed with a mouthful of food. “But this place is cheaper.”

“Rightfully so!” she exclaimed, jabbing at her tofu with a chopstick. Jughead silently laughed and shook his head, continuing to eat his fried rice. He watched as (Y/N) picked at her dish, examining each aspect of the meal.

It had been three weeks since their internship had begun, and Jughead and (Y/N) quickly became close friends. They bonded over the overwhelming amount of work at their internship and their food-discovering adventures. Jughead didn’t know how he would’ve survived an entire summer in New York without (Y/N) by his side. They even stayed at the same hotel, so during a sleepless night, one would wake the other and stay up all night talking. On those nights, they would drink hot chocolate.

“I’ve got the check tonight, Jug,” (Y/N) said, snapping Jughead out of his thoughts as she took the bill from the waitress. Jughead furiously shook his head.

“No, (Y/N), you got dinner yesterday,” he protested, reaching out towards the bill. “I’ll cover it tonight.”

“You got lunch!” she exasperatedly exclaimed. “I can handle it. Dinner wasn’t even expensive last night or tonight.”

Jughead huffed as the waitress returned and took (Y/N)’s money. “Fine,” he pouted, “but we’re gonna go out for desert, and I’m paying for it.”

“Fine.”

“Ice cream?” Jughead offered, standing from his chair. (Y/N) followed suit, and they exited the diner. She slowly grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers.

“I’m feeling frozen yogurt tonight,” she countered his offer, grinning up at him.

“What’s the difference?” Jughead playfully scoffed, trying not to blush at their hand-holding. They had started doing it last week after he almost lost (Y/N) in a giant mass of people.

“I swear to God, Jug, you said the same thing last week, and I explicitly explained it to you.” (Y/N) rolled her eyes. “Ice cream is-”

“Made with cream, whereas frozen yogurt is a yogurt-based treat,” Jughead quoted what (Y/N) had told him last week.

“I knew you paid attention to me.”

Understand I’m talking to the walls I’ve been praying ever since New York

In the middle of the night, the phone started ringing. Jughead, still half-asleep, answered it with his eyes remaining shut.

“You can come over,” he said, not waiting for the caller to initiate the conversation.

“Okay,” (Y/N)’s quiet voice responded, and she hung up. A few moments later, a soft knock resonated through Jughead’s hotel room. He rolled off of his bed, throwing on a t-shirt, and opened the door. (Y/N) stood in the doorway, slightly shaking.

“You cold?” Jughead murmured. (Y/N) wordlessly nodded. He gently grabbed her arm and led her inside, shutting the door behind them. He stripped the blanket off from his bed and draped it over her shoulders, wrapping (Y/N) in the soft white material. (Y/N) smiled up at him.

“Why do you put up with me?” she asked, sitting on his bed. Jughead mimicked her actions and sat next to her.

“What do you mean?” he questioned, furrowing his eyebrows.

“How are you not sick of me?” she elaborated. “I mean, we’ve been constantly hanging out for, what, a month and a half now? You know if I’m annoying you, you can just tell me. I’ll back off.”

“Why would you annoy me?” he asked, slowly wrapping his arms around her waist and pulled her into his lap. “You’re the best part about this internship.”

“You’re full of shit.”

“I’m not,” Jughead lightly laughed, slightly nudging her. “I’m serious, (Y/N). Before I came, I was asking my friend Betty about internships. She did one two years ago, so she knew what she was talking about. She told me that the people I’ll meet during this internship will either drive me up the wall or become one of my closest friends.”

“So I haven’t driven you up the wall?” (Y/N) inquired with a tentative smile.

“Of course not,” Jughead laughed loudly this time. A moment of silence ensued, both (Y/N) and Jughead overwhelmed by sleepiness.

“Is Betty your girlfriend?” (Y/N) broke the silence, staring up at Jughead.

“No,” he muttered, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. “She was,” he admitted, “but not anymore.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing bad,” he shrugged. “Sometimes things just don’t work out, you know?”

“Yeah,” (Y/N) muttered. “I had a boyfriend.”

“Really? That’s shocking.”

“Shut up!” she whined, elbowing him. “Yes, I had a boyfriend. He was actually a total dickhead.”

“How?” Jughead asked, growing concerned.

(Y/N) looked up at him and giggled. “Oh, you’re worried,” she cooed, placing a hand on his chin. Jughead swatted it away.

“Sue me,” he retorted, but then grew serious. “But really, what happened?”

“Nothing bad,” she replied, facing away from Jughead. “We were dating for a while, and… I don’t know. He never really supported me in anything. He wasn’t nice to any of my friends, and I didn’t notice for so long because I was so fucking smitten. Eventually it hit me one day, and I realized that he was horrible. So, naturally, I dumped him.”

“As one does,” Jughead nodded, nonchalantly tracing patterns on (Y/N)’s right arm with his thumb.

(Y/N) slumped and sighed. “What time is it?”

Jughead glanced at the clock with its blaring, bright red numbers. “Three o’clock.”

“Jesus,” she muttered, rubbing her eyes. “I should… I should get back to my room.” She jumped off the bed and trekked towards the door, her bare feet dragging on the carpet.

“Wait,” Jughead commanded, grabbing her arm. “Don’t go, it’s too late.”

“You say that as if I have to walk across New York City,” (Y/N) joked. “It’s fine, Jug, my room is down the hall. I’m not gonna get mugged.”

“No, but you may fall over before you reach your room,” he countered with a lighthearted smirk. “Just stay here tonight, okay?” (Y/N), too tired to argue, needed no more convincing as she turned around and climbed into Jughead’s bed. He laid down, patting the space next to him. (Y/N) tentatively settled next to him, slowly resting her head on the neighboring pillow. “You can get closer than that, you know,” he told her, amused by her unusually timid nature. She hesitantly scooted closer to him, until she was near enough for Jughead to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her against his chest. “That’s better,” he whispered into her hair. She draped one arm around his torso, the other arm tucked under their now-shared pillow.

“Night, Jug,” she murmured, eyes already closed. He smiled at her.

“Goodnight, (Y/N).”

Oh, tell me something I don’t already know Oh, tell me something I don’t already know Oh, tell me something I don’t already know Oh, tell me something I don’t already know

“Oh, Jughead, how is it?” Betty eagerly asked, her face displayed on his laptop screen.

“It’s been great,” Jughead answered.

“What restaurants have you tried?” Veronica questioned from her spot next to Betty.

“A bunch,” he vaguely replied. “(Y/N) is attempting to try every restaurant in New York City. I think it’s impossible, but she’s determined.”

“Who is (Y/N)?” Archie inquired, popping his head into the camera’s view.

Jughead laughed, “Where do I begin? She’s my ‘counterpart’ for the internship. We’ve become very close.”

“I told you,” Betty grinned. Jughead nodded.

“You were right,” he admitted. “Right when I met her, I… I don’t know, it just felt like something clicked between us. We’re inseparable.” Betty’s expression slightly darkened, but Jughead waved it off as a bit off jealousy.

“Ah, you’ve got it bad, bro,” Archie laughed at his best friend. Jughead rolled his eyes.

“It’s not like that, Arch,” he explained. “It’s like Betty said, you grow really close to people when you spend so much time together.”

“But you don’t blush when you talk about them,” Veronica noted, pointing out Jughead’s dusty pink cheeks.

“You’re imagining things,” Jughead scoffed. Betty, Archie, and Veronica shared a knowing glance.

“If you say so,” Veronica sing-songed. Before Jughead could respond, there was a knock on his door. A smile subconsciously grew on his face.

“Speaking of (Y/N),” he said, standing up and walking towards the door. He opened it, and, as expected, (Y/N) stood there.

“Are we going or not, Jug?” she pressed, grabbing his hand. “I told you the line for the rainbow bagels is super long. I don’t want to spend all of Saturday waiting for one, even though they’re so fucking pretty.”

“I’m video chatting with my friends right now,” Jughead told her, gesturing towards his open laptop. “Can you wait like five more minutes?”

“Fine,” (Y/N) huffed, crossing her arms. She stepped into his room, allowing him to close the door behind her. She followed him as he sat back down in front of his laptop, resting her chin on his shoulder as she peered at the screen. “These are your friends?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “That’s Archie,” he gestured towards the redhead, “the blonde one is Betty, and that one is Veronica.” (Y/N) smiled at Jughead’s Riverdale friends.

“You must be (Y/N),” Betty smiled. “Jughead was just talking about you.”

“Of course he was,” (Y/N) joked, nudging his arm. Jughead playfully shoved her back.

“So how’s it been? Three months with the infamous Jughead Jones?” Veronica inquired with a smirk dancing on her lips.

“Well it hasn’t been three months quite yet,” (Y/N) corrected her. “I’ve only gotta deal with this guy for two more weeks.” Jughead’s face slightly deflated as this realization hit him. “Let me tell you, he’s quite the handful.”

“We know,” Archie laughed. Jughead opened his mouth to say something, but (Y/N) interrupted him.

“Shit, I left my phone in my room!” she exclaimed, standing up. “I’ll be right back, Jug.” She turned and faced the laptop. “It was great talking to you guys. I hope we can meet sometime!” She quickly exited Jughead’s room. Immediately, Veronica, Archie, and Betty bombarded him about (Y/N)

“She’s perfect,” Veronica cooed. “She’s actually flawless, Jughead.”

“You lucked out, bro,” Archie told him. “She’s a keeper.”

“She’s absolutely amazing, Jughead,” Betty smiled. Jughead grinned and shook his head.

“You guys, I told you-”

“Don’t even go there,” Veronica interrupted him. “That girl is absolutely perfect for you. The way you two look at each other is… it seems like it’s from a fairytale. You two are soulmates, Jughead.

“She does seem great, Jug,” Archie agreed with her. “I mean, I’ve never seen you like that with anyone. No offense, Betty.”

“None taken, Archie,” she waved his comment off. “They’re right though, Jug. You never looked at me the way you look at (Y/N).” Jughead couldn’t think of a clever retort. “But be careful, Jughead. Like (Y/N) said earlier, you two only have two more weeks together. If you haven’t done anything up to this point, you might want to consider whether or not it’s worth it to start something now. Just ask yourself, is it worth the heartbreak that’ll happen when you have to leave her?” She pursed her lips as she watched Jughead’s face darken on her screen.

“Thanks guys,” he said halfheartedly. “Really, thank you. I’ll see you all in two weeks.”

Tell me something, tell me something You don’t know nothing, just pretend you do Tell me something just before you go

“Our last day!” (Y/N) exclaimed, prancing into Jughead’s hotel room. After the video call he had two weeks ago ended, he decided to give her a key to his room. “Our internship is over, and we have one last night to spend together, Jug. Out of every place in all of New York City, where do you want to go, Jughead Jones?” she asked seductively, a coy smirk growing on her face.

“I’m feeling burgers tonight,” Jughead answered, trying to stop his expression from deflating. “And then maybe we can get some cupcakes?”

“I like it!” she grinned. She grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room, beginning the trek to their favorite restaurant. “Jesus, I can’t believe it’s been three months already.”

“I know,” he agreed. “It seems like my plane landed just yesterday.”

“Yeah,” (Y/N) breathed. They spent the rest of their walk in silence, choosing to listen to the bustling New York traffic.

The waitresses at the restaurant, at this point, knew Jughead and (Y/N) as regulars. They didn’t even bother giving them menus, knowing exactly what each of them would order.

“You two are my favorites,” the waitress whispered as she set their burgers in front of them.

“Thank you,” (Y/N) grinned. “I’m sorry to say, but it’s our last day here.”

“Oh,” the waitress sighed. “Well, you two better visit. I don’t know what I’ll do without my favorite regulars.” She walked away, leaving (Y/N) and Jughead to enjoy their burgers.

“You know,” Jughead noted through a mouth full of burger, “I don’t know how you’ve tried almost every restaurant in New York City while becoming a regular here.”

“Talent, Jug,” she told him, wiping her mouth on a napkin. “It takes a hell of a lot of talent.”

They finished dinner and went to their favorite bakery to get cupcakes. On their walk back to the hotel, they fell into silence once again. It wasn’t broken until they entered Jughead’s hotel room. By now, almost all of (Y/N)’s stuff ended up in here. They found it easier, rather than constantly having to switch back and forth between rooms to grab their stuff.

“So that was our last day,” (Y/N) claimed, flopping onto the bed. Jughead stood by the bedside, crossing his arms with an amused smile.

“Unfortunately, it was,” he nodded. He jumped next to her on the bed, earning a shriek from (Y/N). He swallowed as he stared at her, knowing what he had to tell her. “Do you remember what you said to me on the first day we met?”

“That I know where to go for whatever you’re craving,” she answered with a grin. Jughead laughed and shook his head.

“No, the other thing.”

“I hope you’re not an asshole because we’re gonna be stuck together all summer?” she offered. He shook his head again.

“Nope.”

“I called you quick-witted?”

“No!”

“What is it?” (Y/N) demanded, sitting up so that she was hovering over Jughead as he remained laying down.

“You told me that if we were together any longer than just the summer, I might fall in love with you,” he explained, sitting up so that they were face-to-face. (Y/N)’s grin slightly faded.

“Oh,” she murmured. “Yeah, I did say that.”

“You were wrong,” Jughead said, trying to keep his voice steady. He slowly grabbed her right hand.

“Really?” she asked as her eyes followed Jughead’s hand.

“Betty told me to be careful,” he explained, “because we’re not gonna be together that long. And she was right. I mean, why would we risk an immense amount of heartbreak just for the sake of a blissful few weeks together?” When (Y/N) said nothing, he continued. “So I figured I could just suck it up and get through the rest of our time together and not say anything. It was a good plan, but you… you ruined it.”

“Sorry,” she quipped with a small smirk. Jughead lovingly rolled his eyes.

“No you’re not,” he laughed. “You’re not sorry, and you shouldn’t be. Within the three months we’ve spent together, I’ve grown closer to you than I ever have with anyone else. Hell, my ex-girlfriend said that we were great together.”

“She did?”

“Yeah,” he responded, grabbing her hands. “Jesus, (Y/N), I’m in love with you. I’m fucking in love with you, and it sucks. It sucks because I don’t know if I’m ever gonna see you again. And this is gonna cause so much heartbreak, for me at least, and maybe you too. I just… I can’t keep it from you anymore. But I also think, deep down, you already knew how I felt.” Tears clouded (Y/N)’s eyes, and her lips quivered as she quickly enveloped Jughead in a hug.

“Fuck,” she whispered into his neck. “Fuck, of course I love you, Jughead.” He pulled himself out of her grip and stared at her, stroking his hand across her cheek. They both leaned in, pressing their foreheads against each other. Their lips ghosted over each other, only millimeters apart.

“If I kiss you-”

“If you kiss me, everything is gonna go to shit, Jug,” she interrupted him. He nodded but didn’t pull away. They sat there like that on his bed on a minute, (Y/N) sitting on Jughead’s lap with her arms around his neck, foreheads touching and lips barely brushing.

The tension grew unbearable, so (Y/N) closed the gap and pressed her lips against his, trying to express what she had been feeling for the past three months.

Jughead, too, attempted to convey every pent up confession he had, wishing that kisses could speak. He wanted his hands, which were encircling her waist, to tell her how she charmed him with her wit. He wanted his eyes, which were closed with pleasure, to tell her how beautiful she was, especially when she trudged into his hotel room at three in the morning. He wanted his lips, which were pressed against hers, to tell her how much he loved her. He loved her, he loved her, and he wanted to keep saying it for the rest of his life.

For the sake of oxygen, the two pulled apart. They kept their foreheads resting against each other.

“Everything’s gone to shit,” (Y/N) whispered, and Jughead burst out into laughter. (Y/N) followed suit by giggling, and their still-entangled limbs caused them to fall onto the bed so that (Y/N) was laying on top of Jughead. This only caused the pair to laugh harder.

When their chuckles finally died down, (Y/N) climbed off from on top of Jughead and laid next to him, resting her head on his chest. She combed her hand through his raven locks.

“I’m sorry that I fell in love with you,” Jughead apologized, kissing the top of her head. They were slowly falling asleep.

“Thank you for falling in love with me,” (Y/N) whispered, eyes fluttering shut. “It may have all gone to shit, but it was worth it.”

Oh, tell me something I don’t already know Oh, tell me something I don’t already know Oh, tell me something I don’t already know Oh, tell me something I don’t already know

Jughead stepped off the plane and saw his dad and friends standing at the gate, excitedly waiting for him. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t even bother smiling. Immediately, everyone understood.

While they were awaiting Jughead’s plane’s arrival, Betty, Veronica, and Archie explained to the rest of the group about (Y/N). They told them about how Jughead spent three months falling in love with this girl, and they explained that they had never seen Jughead look so smitten before.

“How was New York, Jug?” FP asked, taking Jughead’s suitcase from him. Jughead shrugged.

“It was nice.”

“Good food?” he questioned, trying to get his son to open up. Jughead nodded tiredly.

“Yeah, food was great,” he replied monotonously.

“And the internship?”

“Helpful,” Jughead responded. “I think it’ll help me improve as a writer.”

“That’s good,” FP said, raking a hand through his hair. “You had another person with you, right?” FP noticed Jughead tense up at this.

“Yeah,” he answered quietly. “Yeah, I had a counterpart.”

“What was she like?” Jughead looked up at his dad.

“You already know who it is,” he replied, shaking his head. “Who told you, Betty?” FP pursed his lips.

“Yeah, her and Archie and Veronica. But listen, Jug, you’re going to have your heart broken countless other times. You’ll get over this girl,” he attempted to comfort Jughead.

“Dad, she wasn’t just a girl,” he protested. “She was amazing and quick-witted, and I fell in love with her and then everything went to shit. But the worst part is that it’s okay, because she loved me too. She fucking loved me, and I kissed her, and now I may never see her again.”

“Well if you loved her that much, you may see her again,” FP shrugged. “Fate is a tricky thing, son, but the universe seems to cooperate better if you love someone.”

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brothermouzongaming · 7 years ago

Text

Warmind thots

Better if only by a bit

I understand that Vicarious Visions made this expansion, a fact that is a little troubling if you ask me and my pessimistic tendencies. Even with that information, I almost forgot another developer had taken care of this expansion because it was very much along the lines of Bungie’s typical format. I still feel that these thoughts and feelings are relevant and still perfectly appropriate despite Bungie doing this a little differently this time around. The fact remains: nothing is going in the game that doesn’t have Bungie’s approval. Hell, as far as we know Vicarious merely did what Bungie would’ve done anyway, following a template that was explicitly written by Bungie. From what I understand they did design the Raid Lair but I doubt they were given such liberties with dlc given what we have is reported to have been lined up for a while. Regardless, the overall message of this is that the Warmind dlc is an improvement. The subtext is that such an accomplishment means fuck-all in the face of what can only be described as a huge flop for both Bungie and Activision. Despite what the financial reports may say. Changes to exotics are great and give us something to grind that improves our favorite guns. Escalation Protocol is a challenge that takes coordination but is still a great idea at its core. Nodes are another means of grind that again give guardians a reason to come back. Curse of Osiris was a low bar to step over, but at least they did it and did it fairly well.

“Dress-tiny”

Good god how is it that the dlc adds blander armors. I think the focus on armor is all wrong and centered way too much around looks but since it’s here; the least they could do is stand out. Hunters get straight up screwed with some of the least impressive and lazy designs I’ve ever seen. Literally solid color sleeves and a slightly different glove design. Titans are clearly the character type that inspires the artists the most because from the looks to the functionality they have it the best hands down in my opinion. My preferred class, Warlock, sits somewhere in the middle. With armor pieces that work like a dream in the field, some that are beyond useless and those are just the exotics. The legendary pieces rarely vary in any significant way beyond a couple points this way or that way between the whopping three stats you have to manage. So looks are really all that is left, and there isn’t anything definitive about a lot of these “legendary” pieces of armor. The shader situation is an absolute trash fire, hopefully, the Warmind dlc was gonna add some interesting tweaks to the color scheme...imagine my surprise when the color pallets are few and far between as far as anything really distinguishable. I put on four shaders on some pants and they all looked exactly the same. That’s one of Destiny’s many problems, it’s only half in with all of its ideas.

“Remember whoo you areee”

Lion King reference aside, I can’t be any more serious. *snaps fingers repeatedly* Hello Bungie, wake up! You are squandering all the goodwill built up in your past successes. I understand this is far from the team that brought us Halo: CE but I would’ve thought they would be fighting in its memory. The ambition is there, I commend and respect that much. The effort and execution, however, has been wildly lackluster. I can forgive a large amount of D1′s problems, it’s an ambitious idea that was gonna have some kinks and issues in it.

Company’s like Ubisoft and Capcom are giving away the occasional free update to games like The Divison and Monster Hunter World respectively. For Destiny 2 to become essentially the biggest flop of this generation and offer no respite or token of gratitude to the fanbase that stayed is miraculously idiotic. Oh what’s that? They gave us the broken Prometheus Lens? Aw, that’d be nice if it wasn’t the only gesture Bungie has made, and it released so broken it singlehandedly turned the Crucible into laser tag. Yes, that was fun, but it wasn’t even something Bungie did, it was an accident. That accident for a short period of time was the most exciting and engaging thing that has happened in D2 for a while now. The initial concept of Destiny is very promising, especially when you find out it’s in the hands of Bungie. I can’t help but feel that somewhere along the way they realized that the idea was better than the actual physical manifestation of it. Now that they’re in way too deep, all they can do is press on through the self-made muck and mire. Doing what they want to expand the franchise rather than improve it; coming from a developer I once revered it’s both infuriating and deeply saddening. Please Bungie, get it together for your sake, not ours. I’m not buying D3 and I have a funny feeling a decent amount of people won’t either, you aren’t an indie dev with no experience. Why are you acting like it?

Copy and paste

Warmind’s loot pool is vastly more interesting and enticing than that of Osiris. The sharp geometric shapes, as well as the sounds and skills associated with the guns, are very distinct and dare I say enjoyable. They don’t drop quite as often, Destiny has reverted back to its old ways in that sense and I’m not against it at all. If we get everything in the first week what’s the point of paying so much/ what’s keeping us here? My issue is the recurring problem of both reskins and returning exotics. Osiris was fairly wrought with reskins and even worse with poor and just unsavory perks, these guns rained from the sky I practically had to set up a direct deposit to my trash bin. Even better, these weapons seem to be tiered and earned with different kinds of currency. Now getting that new auto rifle or sub-machine gun feels good when it drops and not repetitive. The bringing back of D1 exotics is nice, there’s no reason in the world why some of these guns can’t and shouldn’t exist in this game. When two of the four guns are D1 guns, that’s when I get peeved. There needs to be more, I’m not talking truckloads but half the guns shouldn’t be D1 guns not for dlc we paid for. Honestly, how hard is it to design a new gun, what are you guys saving it for D3? Why not put out as much as you can to satisfy a fanbase that is struggling in the here and now? Seriously would it kill you guys to throw us a bone beyond fixing the issues we shouldn’t be dealing with at all? I know I can come off as entitled, but realize that this is a game with so much money behind it that I’m genuinely uncomfortable with the figure itself. This money could’ve gone to like... help people. Bungie got $500 million for the franchise as a whole, let’s say it broke up evenly which is about $166,666,666. Where the fuck did that money go? Destiny 2 is essentially one massive asset flip and when players like me were told D2 would progress the series, it’s done almost nothing but regress. So maybe as a paying customer who has been deceived and lied to since day one of this game, maybe in this instance entitlement is a little understandable.

Change ‘Gon Come

The exotic changes are good, this is a big step in the right direction. Destiny beat its dick to no end about being a power fantasy, then D2 came around and took away the power. These guns are starting to feel exponentially better, really living up to the “exotic” term. Escalation Protocol is brutal, I’m worried it is more difficult than any random group of guardians can handle. The most I’ve done a run with is four or five and I’m suspecting it may take somewhere up to seven. Hard isn’t bad but it’s crushing to the point where I can see players avoiding the event entirely to go complete something they actually have a chance of achieving. The title of this segment is two parts, change is coming to Destiny in the form of the development end. Changes to the game that are efforts in the right direction to give this game a sense of life and purpose. We’ll see what E3 holds, this “Comet” expansion is gonna be featured due to their “brand new game mode” or whatever, something that’s “never been done before int he genre of FPS”. I have no idea what that means but it sounds like th same high aiming that got us in this mess to begin with, we will see. The other half is the changes in the form of who plays Destiny/ how many people will be playing Destiny. I said it earlier and I’ll say it again. Four years is too long for a big name dev like Bungie to say “sorry guys, making games is hard”. You signed up for this, you had time to prepare. No one asked for Destiny, and though making games is no doubt very difficult; I don’t see how you can use that as an excuse in a case of sheer negligence and outright maliciousness by Bungie. Change ‘gon come, one way or another.

#Destiny #Destiny 2 #Bungie #Activision #video games #gaming #Warmind

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cheryllclayton · 7 years ago

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Sometimes It's Not What It Seems - Chapter 9 - Want

**TRIGGER WARNING** - this chapter details attempted sexual assault and violence, if you do not want to read it, I would suggest to stop reading right after the dance scene.

Phew, this is a rough one guys! I’ll apologize in advance, I’m sorry, don’t hate me.

Also I know my updates have been slower as well so hopefully this 11157 word chapter makes up for it!

The songs featured are: I Want You to Want Me by Cheap Trick and All I Want by Kodaline

Betty’s dress is inspired by this picture:

Please, please comment and let me know what you think!

FP sat in the office of his newly constructed garage trying to finish up invoices and part orders and year end paperwork before the holidays hit. He had saved some money over the summer and between that and any leftover or extra construction materials that Fred had let him buy for a bargain rate, he was finally able to build a decent size garage next to his trailer.

The space had enough room for whatever vehicle he was currently working on plus storage for all his tools and equipment. He had even included a little wash station and a small open office space which he currently occupied.

The garage had allowed him to keep working out of his home once the snow fell and he was grateful for the work and extra income but the last few months had been hectic between his construction job and his home business, he actually felt like he could call it that now, but the combination hadn’t left him a lot of free time.

That also meant that his interactions with Betty had become less lately and as the weeks went by, even the regular texts or pictures and the video calls just weren’t cutting it. He missed her like crazy, it was almost like she had sparked something within him that he never knew he had and when she left, she took it with her, leaving a void in it’s place.

He assumed the first few weeks after she had left would be the hardest and then eventually the emptiness he felt would fade, but he was wrong. Sure the initial feeling of loss wore off but the very essence of her clung to his heart, holding on at a deeper level. It didn’t help that almost everything he did or everywhere he went reminded him of her. Whether he was working on an engine or hanging out at the Whyte Worm, or just being in his own home, where her presence lingered the most. He could even smell her there sometimes, vanilla and strawberries, he wasn’t sure how that was possible after months of her being gone but it was like some sweet form of torture.

But the worst place by far was his bedroom; there was not a night that went by that he didn’t think about her in his bed, the way she felt, the way she moved, the way she sounded. It started affecting his sleep, to the point that he often resorted to sleeping on the couch just so he could actually get a few hours in.

She was due home in a few days and he should have been ecstatic but between the demand of work, the lack of sleep and the disaster that was their last conversation, FP found himself in a fowl fucking mood which had only further hindered his ability to concentrate on the task in front of him.

He swore pushing the papers away from him, deciding to call it a day, his mind wasn’t in the right place to deal with figures and numbers; he’d just have to finish up tomorrow. He leaned back in his chair pressing his palms to his eyes trying to dull the throb that had started as their argument replayed in his mind.

She hadn’t done anything wrong really, she was just trying to be kind, going out of her way to help others in pure Betty Cooper like fashion, regardless of who those people were and in return he had been a jerk. He could admit it and he knew he should text her and apologize but he was stubborn and wasn’t ready to grovel yet.

Their conversation had started out great, she was anxious to come home, he was excited to see her, they were catching up and making plans, then as usual, Ash happened. He could tell that she wanted to ask him something and that she was nervous about it, but nothing could have prepared him for the favor that burst from her lips.

She had started by telling him how Ash didn’t have any plans for the holidays, which FP thought was total bullshit, and Betty being Betty suggested that he come to Riverdale with her and Veronica since no one should spend Christmas alone.

Of course Ash was more than happy to accept the invitation but then came the issue of where would he stay. Betty went on to explain that she didn’t want to expose him to her mother for any length of time and she didn’t want to make him pay for a hotel since she invited him and all, so she thought that maybe Ash could stay with him, at the trailer. For a moment he thought she was joking but when he saw the unimpressed look on her face it had confirmed otherwise and he’s pretty sure his disbelieving snort and the blunt ‘No’ was not the answer she was hoping for.

He was miffed that she had thought he’d actually entertain the idea, what had she expected him to say? On top of not seeing her, it had felt like he had barely gotten to talk to her alone in months, so there was no way in hell he was going to give up the opportunity for alone time with her once she was home.

He had bit his tongue the last four months watching this guy strut around, smugly inserting himself into their conversations, strategically touching her as they spoke and always parading around in some state of undress like he didn’t know what a shirt was for.

It seemed like Ash hardly ever left her side which was more than evident by the amount of pictures that he had tagged her in on various social media forums over the semester, even in group photos he managed to be right there, predictably by her side, arm slung over her shoulders or around her waist. Unless they knew better, anyone looking would have assumed they were a couple, and FP’s dislike for the guy was further deepened a week ago when Betty had divulged that Ash had been super drunk and kissed her after their semester wind up party.

Betty had stopped the kiss and apparently told Ash that she wasn’t interested in him in that way and she had assured FP that Ash wasn’t angry and seemed to accept her decision without issue, but he didn’t buy it, a guy didn’t put in that much time and effort without expecting to reap some sort of reward. And when she had asked him why he wouldn’t even entertain the idea of Ash staying with him, he had told her as much, frustrating her even more.

And everything went further to shit from there. He had found himself snapping at her, telling her that she was naive, that the guy just wanted in her pants and that she was blind if she couldn’t see it. His words had shocked her, spurring her on as she called him selfish and ridiculous, reminding him again that they weren’t a couple and that it was none of his business who was or wasn’t in her pants.

She wasn’t wrong, on all accounts, but unfortunately between his current stress level and his jealousy and suspicions towards Ash, the words tumbling from him, spewing out like verbal vomit. He knew he was being an ass, regardless if he believed what he had said or not, but he was a stubborn ass and as much and he wanted to, in that moment he couldn’t force an apology through his lips.

In the end Betty had just stared at him, blinking back tears and to hell if his heart didn’t drop at the look on her face but before he could say anything further her stare turned cold and she told him not to worry himself about sleeping arrangements, she’d figure it out, and the last thing he had seen was Ash’s satisfied smirk in the background as she ended the call.

It had taken great amounts of self control not to throw his laptop from the table afterwards as he swore and stood up, knocking his chair over. He kicked it across the kitchen before slamming his palms against the table top leaning over it with his head hung. He knew he had fucked up but he didn’t want to think about the repercussions it could have right then, he needed to get out of his head for a bit so that’s how he had found himself here, elbows deep in engine grease and paperwork.

He sat back up, sliding his hands down his face as he leaned forward resting his elbows on the desk. It had been hours since their fight and now that he had calmed down, he wanted to call her but it was still the middle of the night in Paris.

He was debated sending her a text anyway when a loud knock vibrated off the garage door.

“What?” FP yelled to whoever was on the other side.

The door opened and Snake walked through, “If that’s how you greet all your customers I’m surprised you have any” he said in reply to FP’s welcome.

“You’re not a customer” he grumbled in response.

“Correction, I’m not currently a customer and you sure as hell aren’t convincing me to be one at the moment either”

FP huffed dropping his head and running his hands through his hair before looking back at the man, “Is there a reason for you being here or did you just come to bust my balls about my lack of customer service skills?”

“No I have a reason, the ball busting is just an added perk” Snake said while dropping himself into the chair across from him, “So, not that you’re usually such a people person but what’s with the extra shitty mood” he asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it” he said with a scowl.

“Let me guess, it has something to do with a certain blonde who’s been away” he inquired.

FP looked at him a little stunned, “Have I really been that obvious?”

He snorted, “I don’t know if the others have noticed but you forget, I’m your oldest friend, I know you, so what did you do to piss her off?”

“What makes you think that it was my fault?” he said sounding offended.

“Seriously? Because Betty’s an angel and you’re….well you”

“Thanks” he said dryly before continuing, “We got in an argument over Ash, her sketchy roommate that I told you about before. He has the hots for her and now she wants to bring him home for the holidays because she feels bad that he’ll be alone, and then she asked if he could stay with me” FP shook his head incredulously.

“Obviously I said no, albeit not as nicely as I could of, she got mad then I was an ass and said some things I probably shouldn’t have” he sighed rubbing his palms over his face, “You should of seen her face, I hate that I hurt her and now I’m worried I fucked everything up” he admitted.

Snake noticed the genuine worry on his friends face before speaking, “Look man, I’m sure she’ll come around, I know you’re important to her, but you have to get over this idea that it’ll become something more, put a cap on your jealousy and move on, it’s not good for you and obviously it’s effecting your friendship with her. Maybe you should get out and start dating again, like with women you actually have a chance with” he added, not being able to resist the jab.

FP glared at him not amused.

“You know, Kathy’s been asking about you a lot lately, said you’ve cleaned up nice” he teased, “And she’s going to be at the Christmas Party at the Whyte Worm, maybe you should consider bringing your dick out of hibernation” the Serpent said with an eyebrow wiggle.

“Jesus” FP grimaced, shaking his head at the mans crudeness, “Thanks for the suggestion but I don’t want to put any part of my body near that woman, besides the fact that I’m not interested, there’s a reason everyone calls her Crazy Kathy.”

Snake grinned, “Well don’t hit me, but I may have mentioned that you were unattached and that you would indeed be there on Wednesday night, so I should probably apologize in advance for whatever happens where Kathy’s concerned.”

FP groaned covering his face with his hands as he reclined further, letting his head fall over the back of the chair making Snake laugh.

“Hey, you never know, maybe you’ll hit it off and you can stop chasing this fantasy lay that will never happen”

“It already happened” he said, his voice muffled by his hands.

“What?” Snake asked, not sure he had heard him right.

Shit he thought, he hadn’t meant to say that out loud, FP sat up, dropping his hands and looked at his friend, “I said, it already happened.”

The other man stared at him in disbelief, “Bullshit” he snorted, “When?”

“Her last night here” he admitted, “And before you say anything else, it wasn’t just some fantasy lay, it’s not like that” he insisted as Snake leaned in, waiting for him to go on, “We don’t really know what it is yet but it’s not your normal one night stand. We both agreed it would be casual but it doesn’t feel that way, at least not to me and regardless what I told her, I’m not okay with her being with other men, but at the same I don’t want to pressure her into anything either or make her feel like she has to make a choice, I can’t risk losing her man and I’ll take her in whatever form I can get.”

“Holy fuckin shit!” he exclaimed, “I don’t know what to say, I’ve never seen you this bent up over a chick before, not even your wife!”

FP ran a hand through his hair, “I know, I….I think” he paused, then let out a breath of frustration, “I think I’m in love with her” he confessed, “And honestly, it scares the shit out of me.”

“Look, if you’re happy then I’m happy for you, I like Betty, she’s amazing but just…be careful FP, this is not a normal situation and anything that happens between you two is going to bring some drama and probably some rough conversations. You’ve been doing so well and I don’t want to see you fall back down the dark hole that consumed you after Gladys left.”

FP frowned at his wife’s name, “I appreciate your concern but that’s completely different, Lizzie is nothing like Gladys, in any way shape or form and I want to believe that we’d remain friends regardless what happens.”

“I hope your right” his friend nodded.

“Soooo, speaking of forms” he continued, “How is Betty’s?” he grinned mischievously, “Anyone can see she’s gorgeous, but what’s the whole package like?” he grinned, eyes twinkling.

“Fuck off man” FP growled, “I’m not giving you details.”

“Come on man! Let me live vicariously through you.”

“Yeah not happening and quit asking or I’ll have to tell your wife on you” he threatened.

“Okay, okay, don’t give me the details but tell me this, it was good, wasn’t it?” Snake prodded, thoroughly enjoying making his friend squirm.

“Jesus Christ” FP uttered, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he asked, as his face turned a slight shade of red.

His blush not going unnoticed by his friend who smiled widely at him, “I knew it!” he laughed, slapping a hand on his knee, “Are we too old to do the bro high five/fist bump thing? Cause I feel like we should.”

FP just scowled at him, “I knew I shouldn’t have told you” he declared regretting it already as Snake continued to look at him with that shit eating grin. “Wasn’t there a reason you had come here in the first place? One that didn’t involve my piss poor mood or my sex life?”

“Oh shit, yeah, kind of got sidetracked there didn’t I. Unfortunately what I came to tell you isn’t going to do anything to help your mood” he frowned as FP waited silently for him to continue, “I guess Viper heard some rumblings about one of the rival gangs from Greendale not being too happy about the Serpents going legit. Said they’re blaming us for the added attention they’ve been getting from the law since we cleaned up. They’re also not impressed that we’re no longer providing them with a steady stream of weed and they’ve had to look elsewhere at a higher cost” he informed.

FP let out a frustrated breathe, he closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose, “What else?” he asked, knowing there was more to the story yet.

“Viper heard rumors of retaliation, talk of clubbing snakes so to speak, and if those rumors are true, then we need to have our guard up, be ready for something to throw down” he finished.

“Fuck” he didn’t need this, none of the gang did, especially since they went straight. The men were happy, the business was good, and they’d finally started to turn legal profit, the last thing they needed was to wind up behind bars or worse.

“Okay, call the guys, tell them to meet us at the Whyte Worm. We need to bring everyone up to speed and figure out what to do with the information” he instructed.

Snake nodded and stood, already grabbing his phone to make the first call as FP grabbed his leather jacket off of the chair, shrugging it on. He had wanted a distraction earlier but this was not what he had in mind he thought as he followed the other Serpent out the door.

***

It was Wednesday, the night of the Christmas party at the Whyte Worm and FP stood at the bar pretending to listen to Snake and Viper bullshit while trying not to glance continuously at the entrance but he was pretty sure he was failing miserably at both.

Betty had been home for two days now and he had yet to see her. He had texted her the day after their argument, swallowing his pride as he proceeded to apologize, more than once. She told him it was fine, that she understood where he was coming from and that Ash would just stay at the Pembrooke with Veronica, her parents were hardly ever home anyways and they had ample amounts of room.

Her flight had gotten in early Monday morning and he had managed to talk to her on the phone briefly that day and to his relief, she didn’t sound distant or upset with him anymore. Unfortunately, between unpacking, making sure Ash had settled in at Pembrooke, the jet lag and her mother insisting that she spend her first days at home with her family, they had only managed that one call and a handful of text messages and he was starting to go stir crazy waiting to see her. His need becoming so great since she had arrived home that he had even briefly considered stopping by her house, but he quickly squashed that idea, realizing that it would only bring the wrath of Alice Cooper down on both of them.

He looked at his watch again, 9:04pm, she said she was coming tonight but he was getting nervous that she had changed her mind. The party had started at eight and the establishment was already packed, laughter bouncing off the walls as people danced and visited and drank, some already knee deep into holiday cheer.

Christmas lights and decorations had been hung from the walls and the ceiling, a colorful glow casting a sense of magic and romance throughout the room. He figured that it was that effect, mixed with alcohol, that was to blame for the extra PDA already taking place.

He frowned as he noticed people stealing kisses under strategically placed mistletoe or the few bold couples completely wrapped up in each other. He never used to be one for public displays of affection but now he found he envied them. Even if Betty did show up tonight, it’s not like he could just openly kiss her, nobody knows what happened between them, well besides Snake and Veronica, and he’s still not sure what they are or what Betty wants going forward, which is something they would need to figure out before letting anyone else in.

He ran his hand through his hair, trying to look casual as he glanced at the entrance again, he huffed when he didn’t see the blonde he was looking for and turned back to the bar only to see both Viper and Snake grinning at him.

“What?” he asks.

“Waiting on anyone in particular?” Snake inquires, making both men grin wider.

“Shove it, both of you” FP scowled taking a sip of his Coke.

“Well I think your wait is over” Viper said with a nod towards the entrance.

FP turned around, his eyes picking out her blonde head immediately. He watched her move her way through the crowd and as it parted and she stepped into full view, FP’s heart stopped and his breath left him. God she was gorgeous he thought as his eyes skimmed over her. She was wearing a dark plum spaghetti strap dress that dipped into a deep V in the front. It clung to her waist and hips before dropping softly to her knees. Her hair was swept up in a loose ponytail instead of the tight one she usually wore and small tendrils escaped to frame her face. She was even more beautiful than when she left he thought, if that was possible, either that or absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

A low whistle of appreciation came from beside him, breaking his stare and reminding him to breath. He glanced over and saw that Ferrett had joined him, of course the young serpent would magically appear as Betty did he thought, frowning to himself. He could see the lust already growing in the younger man’s eyes and was about to say something but Ferrett spoke first, “Who the fuck is that?” he asked, face dropping into his own frown.

FP followed his gaze back to Betty, she had stopped and was talking animatedly with Snake’s wife Amy and it didn’t take long for him to figure out just who Ferrett was referring to. Ash had appeared beside Betty, his hand resting on the bare skin of her back which was exposed by an even deeper V that mirrored the one on the front of the dress.

“That’s Ash” FP answered, his name rolling off his tongue with distaste.

“Boyfriend?” Ferrett asked.

FP grunted shaking his head, “No, not for lack of trying though”.

The men watched her as she moved on from Amy only to be pulled into a tight hug by Viper’s wife Joanie, Ash ever present, grinning by her side, his fingertips yet to leave her skin.

“I don’t like him” Ferrett stated making FP snort.

“Join the club” he scoffed, “Guy rubs me the wrong way, has since the day I met him.”

Betty was still visiting and hadn’t noticed them staring at her, one of the younger serpent’s girlfriends had now joined Joanie and they were all smiling and laughing.

“Well we can’t have him taking up all her time now can we?” Ferrett said, more a statement than a question, “I think it’s about time I said hello” he pushed off the bar, throwing a wink at the older serpent before heading in their direction.

FP watched as Ferrett swooped in, grabbing Betty by the waist and swinging her around and away from Ash. She shrieked in alarm and then laughed when she saw who it was.

“Put me down you oaf!” she cried, amusement on her face.

Ferrett set her down off to the side of the group and then to everyone’s astonishment, pulled her close and planted a kiss firmly on her lips. FP stiffened, jealously curling up in his gut and Ash’s jaw clenched as Betty’s eyes widen in surprise but before anyone could react Ferrett broke the kiss with a loud pop, pulling back but keeping his hands on her waist.

She stood there, still grasping onto his arms, a stunned expression on her red face. He chuckled at her and motioned above them, her expression turned into confusion until she looked up and saw the mistletoe hanging over their heads, realization cluing in.

She dropped her hands from his arms pretending to look offended as she swatted his shoulder with her clutch, a giggle escaping from her as he let out an ‘Ow’ and claimed injury.

“I see you haven’t changed a bit since I’ve been gone” she laughed and he shrugged, a large grin on his face, “You’re lucky I like you” she teased poking him in the chest.

“I’d still risk it if you didn’t” he said with smirk making her blush again.

“Stop it” she laughed, swatting him again.

FP watched the scenario play out in front of him and forced down the feeling of possessiveness rising in his chest. Fucking lovely he thought, not only is Ash here but Betty’s been here for five minutes and Ferrett’s already tossing his hat into the ring.

“Let’s go get you a drink” he heard Ferrett say to Betty as he put his hand on her waist, much to Ash’s displeasure, and led her towards the bar.

FP straightened when she noticed him leaning against the bar. He was nervous he realized as his heart started to pound faster, he wasn’t sure what he should expect.

His eyes met her striking green ones and he held her gaze as they walked towards him. He couldn’t hide the grin that tugged at his lips the closer she got, her smile lighting up her face in return and before he could process what was happening, her arms were wrapped around his neck hugging him tightly.

He was momentarily startled and it took him a second to respond, relief flooded his body as he embraced her, one arm sliding around her tiny waist and the other wrapping around and up to cup the back of her neck, he pulled her closer to him, lifting her to her tippy toes and closing his eyes as he breathed her in.

“God I missed you” he whispered in her ear.

“Me too” she sighed, shivering from the feel of his breath on her cheek and the scent of sweet cologne mixed with motor oil, a smell she now associated with home.

“You look beautiful Lizzie” he complimented against her cheek and gave her another squeeze before lowering her back to her feet.

She pulled back so she could look at him, hands still on his shoulders, “Thanks” she beamed, as she eyed him with her own appreciation. He was wearing a nice pair of black jeans with a form fitting, white button up shirt that he had tucked in at his waist. He had left a few buttons open at the neck and had rolled the sleeves partway up his forearms. The fabric seemed to move with him showcasing the muscles hidden underneath, the sight making her slightly breathless.

“Lookin’ good yourself Jones” she told him, biting her lip as she smoothed her hands over his shoulders and down his chest, fingering the buttons of his shirt.

His eyes darkened, fingers flexed on her hips, Christ what he wouldn’t give to get her alone.

A throat cleared behind her, reminding them that they weren’t alone. She dropped her hands and stepped back, blushing slightly. FP broke their gaze and looked up towards the person who interrupted their moment, not surprised to see Ash standing there looking unimpressed.

Betty was still flustered from their reunion and even though the men had technically met, Betty made introductions again to try and ease the palatable tension surrounding them. FP was the first to put his hand out, playing nice for Betty’s sake, but Ash hesitated, looking between Betty and the other man before resigning and grabbing his hand in a quick shake.

FP and Ferrett shared a smug look, the other serpent having noticed the stumble in Ash’s confidence as well and he seemed to be enjoying it just as much as he was.

Ash’s face remained stony and FP coughed trying to hide his growing smirk, “How about that drink?” he asked Betty.

“Yes, please!” she responded quickly thinking that she may need many before the nights through with the level of testosterone floating around.

Once everyone had their drinks, they had made their way to a corner of the bar, commandeering a large table. Betty ended up stationed between FP and Ash with Ferrett, Snake, Amy, Viper and Joanie taking up the rest of the seats around the table.

The conversation flowed smoothly and was centered a lot around Betty’s time in Paris, the women bombarding her with questions about everything from the sights, to the fashion and the food, to the French men.

The guys bullshitted back and forth, except for Ash who remained fairly quiet, only talking when addressed as he seemed to move quickly through the drinks.

The ladies were busy discussing Christmas plans when Ferrett leaned in closer to the table, “So have you heard anything further about the Greendale gang?” he asked Viper as quietly as he could manage amongst the noisy room.

“Nah, nothing new anyways, something’s going to go down I can feel it, it’s just a matter of when” he shrugged taking a swig of his beer.

“Well we have full membership here tonight if they try anything and we’ll continue to keep our ears and eyes open until we can be sure the threat is gone. We have to remain smart about it you know, make sure no one rides alone and keep our numbers up here in the meantime” FP said.

“What are you guys talking about?” Betty asked.

The men exchanged glances, “Just gang stuff Betty, nothing to worry your pretty head about” Ferrett said trying to sound convincing.

Betty looked back and forth between the people at her table, no one wanting to meet her eyes before turning to face FP, “What’s going on FP?” she questioned, a no nonsense tone to her voice.

He rubbed the back of his neck before meeting her stare, “It’s nothing I want you to stress about Elizabeth, just some talk that was brought to Viper’s attention”

“What kind of talk? Are you guys in danger?” she asked, concern tainting her voice as she addressed all of them.

FP took her hands in his and gave them a squeeze, “Look, right now it’s just rumors okay but yes there have been some rumblings about a local gang, apparently they aren’t too happy with the Serpents going legit, something about it causing trouble for them. Some threats have been made but we’ve taken precautions and hopefully that’s all they are, just empty threats, there’s no point getting worked up about it yet, alright?” he soothed brushing his thumbs across her knuckles.

She studied his face and could tell he was trying to down play the situation for her sake. She was about to pry further but then decided against it not wanting to add any further tension to the evening.

“Okay” she agreed but gave him a look that said the conversation wasn’t over.

The group continued their banter as the night moved on, Viper and Snake taking their ladies around the dance floor every so often as Ash and Ferrett took turns pulling Betty up to dance. Ferrett was having fun with it, enjoying the way it frustrated the other guy, however Ash seemed to get more and more riled up the drunker he got. The booze had also made him more confident and a little pushier FP noticed as he watched the two of them currently on the dance floor.

Some sultry upbeat song was playing and he watched as Betty swayed and rolled her hips as she moved along to the music, small tendrils of hair curled against the back of her neck as sweat glistened on her bare shoulders and back. She turned in a circle, eyes closed, arms raised bending at the elbows by her head as her entire midsection rotated causing her dress to stick to her. Images of her above him in a similar position popped into his mind and had him groaning internally as he felt his jeans tighten.

His frowned as Ash continued to put his hands on her, touching her whenever he could. Betty seemed to dodge most of his advances or use the beat of the music as an excuse to move away from him so the touches didn’t linger. FP assumed she was trying not to encourage him further since she was aware of his interest in her, however he could also see that she was struggling to remain polite as his advancements became bolder.

Ash took her hand and spun her, grabbing her waist with the other as he guided her across the floor. FP saw him look up and realized what the man had in mind as he had stopped them right under some mistletoe. He was going to take a page right out of Ferrett’s playbook.

Snake noticed his friend stiffen beside him and followed his gaze in time to see Ash grab Betty by the back of the neck and crush his lips to hers. FP growled moving to stand as he saw her visibly stiffen at Ash’s kiss but Snake put a hand on his shoulder stopping him, earning him a glare.

“Easy man, I don’t think Betty would appreciate you pommeling her friend, regardless what a douche he is. Plus, she’s a feisty one, trust her, she’s got this” he told him confidently.

FP listened but he didn’t sit and they watched as Betty snapped out of her initial shock putting her palms against Ash’s chest and pushing him away, there was fire in her eyes as she took his hands and removed them from her body. They couldn’t hear what they were saying but they could tell the conversation was heated. Even Snake stood as Ash grabbed her shoulders leaning in closer to her face as he spoke rapidly, but Betty quickly shrugged out of his hold saying something back that made Ash throw his hands up in the air before turning and stalking towards the bar.

Betty remained still, clenching her fists, she squeezed her eyes shut taking a large breath in and out, shoulders falling before turning and heading towards the back hallway.

***

Betty blinked back tears as she pushed her way through the crowd, she needed to take a moment to collect herself and headed towards the woman’s restroom but then remembered the small offices that resided further down the hallway and opted to try one of those instead preferring a space where she could be alone. She tried the first door and it was locked so she walked towards the other one at the end of the hallway and found it slightly ajar, she pushed it open and flicked on the light, it wasn’t a large space, just a desk, two chairs and a filing cabinet with a small printer on top but that didn’t matter, she wasn’t here for the furnishings.

She closed the door behind her then dropped into the nearest chair putting her face in her hands and let the tears fall. They weren’t tears of sadness, but tears of anger and frustration, she was mad at Ash for forcing things when she had already laid out how she felt and she was mad at herself for being stupid enough to think that he had listened.

Ash was having a hard time taking the hint, saying he didn’t see the difference between what he did and what Ferrett did. Sure Ferrett had kissed her too that night but that was different, Ferrett was always teasing and flirting but it never made her feel uncomfortable and she’s sure if she ever told him to stop that he wouldn’t continue to force it.

What the hell was she going to do she thought, she still had another ten days at home and Ash was supposed to stay the whole time. At least he wouldn’t be staying with her, plus she had made herself pretty clear in the argument they just had exactly where she stood, so hopefully when he sobers up he’ll realize what an ass he was and they can pretend like it never happened until he leaves.

She was wiping the tears from her face, making sure she didn’t have any mascara smeared under her eyes when the door opened making her jump.

“Jesus! You scared me!”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to” FP apologized, “I just wanted to make sure you were okay” he told her, noticing that her eyes were red from crying.

Betty released a shaky breath, “I’m alright, I just needed a moment alone.”

“Do you want me to go?” he asked taking a step back towards the door.

“No, No, I’m okay now” she answered grabbing his hand and halting his retreat, “Please stay” she said softly.

“Whatever you want Lizzie, is there anything I can do?”

She chewed her lip nervously, “Can you…can you hold me for a minute?” she looked up at him shyly.

He pulled her towards him and enveloped her in his arms. His hand making soothing circles on the skin of her lower back while the other cradled her head. She held him tight, burying her face in his neck, letting his touch calm her like it always did.

The scent of sweet vanilla invaded his senses as he held her and he brushed his lips across her forehead, a gesture that was meant to be caring and innocent but had his heart beat increasing all the same. He pulled back from her before he did something stupid, she’d dealt with enough hungry men tonight, he didn’t need to add himself to that list.

She unclasped her hands from around his waist but instead of letting go, moved them to his chest grasping a hold of his shirt front. She raised her eyes to his, drowning him in the green of her irises.

“I missed you” she whispered.

“I missed you too Sunlight” he told her, grasping her face in both his hands, rubbing his thumbs along her cheeks, “So much” he admitted, his voice low.

“Show me” she asked, her own voice breathy.

He searched her eyes for any sign of hesitance and when he found none, he stopped resisting his need and dropped his lips to hers, kissing her softly before pulling away, she looked up at him, eyes lustful as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. His eyes darkened as he watched her mouth and that was all it took for his control to waiver. He crushed his lips against hers again, this time greedily taking her mouth as he wrapped one arm around her waist and moved his other hand to cup her neck running his thumb across her jaw.

She pulled on the front of his shirt bringing him closer then slid her hands up around his neck and into his hair. She ran her tongue over his lips, begging for entrance which he granted with a moan as he dropped his hands, gripping her ass as he hoisted her up against him. She gasped, wrapping her legs around his waist and holding onto his shoulders as she continued to kiss him thoroughly, biting his bottom lip before breaking away and leaving kisses along his jaw to his ear. She nipped at the lobe before running her tongue down his neck latching on to where it met his collarbone causing him to tighten his hold on her bottom, pressing her core against him as he groaned.

He brought her lips back to his, not breaking their kiss as he walked them over to the desk, swiping the contents off onto the floor while he held her up with the other arm before depositing her on the wooden top.

“Fuck that was hot!” she exclaimed, lips still pressed against his.

He tilted her head back, taking his turn to explore the soft skin of her neck with his lips. He kissed and licked his way down to her shoulder biting just above her clavicle then sucking and soothing with his tongue, careful not to leave a mark that would show in her barely there dress.

She whimpered, hips bucking forward, rubbing herself against his painful erection.

“Shit” he hissed claiming her lips again as he felt the heat of her against him.

Her kisses turned desperate as her hands unfastened his belt and popped the top button of his jeans. She slid the zipper down as she peppered his jaw with kisses.

“Touch me FP” she begged between kisses as she slid his jeans down his hips.

Her request released something primal within him and he growled, running his hands up her thighs to her waist, bringing her dress up with them. He reached her hips expecting to feel her underwear but to his surprise found nothing. He looked down, his breath hitching in his throat as he saw her sex bare and ready for him.

“Jesus Elizabeth!” he moaned, his voice tight and low as he dropped his forehead to hers, trying to control his body before he ruined the moment for both of them.

“Panties didn’t really go with the dress” she giggled softly.

He grunted, kissing her hard as he ran one hand up her inner thigh before dragging his fingers across her, she gasped chasing his hand with her hips.

“Don’t tease me FP, not right now, I need you to badly” she whined.

He chuckled against her neck reveling in the way she reacted to him as he circled her clit with his fingers. She reached for his boxers, pulling them down to join his jeans at his ankles before wrapping a tiny fist around him, he groaned as he thrust into her hand, “You are an impatient little thing tonight aren’t you” he teased nipping at her throat before removing her hand from his cock and lining himself up with her entrance.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and he took her face in his hands, kissing her passionately as he slid into her. He swore as her tight heat surrounded him, his curse swallowed by her mouth as her own moan vibrated into him.

“Fuck yes” she whispered as she wrapped her legs around his waist pulling him in deeper. FP placed a palm flat against the desk behind her for support as he wrapped his other arm around her waist holding her in place as he thrust into her.

The two of them moving together in passion, oblivious to the set of eyes watching them through the crack in the door that they didn’t bother to shut.

***

The pair held each other, their breathing heavy, bodies sweaty and thoroughly satisfied.

“Are you okay, Love?” FP questioned cupping her face.

“Mmmmm” she hummed, eyes still closed, “Perfect” she rose up bringing her lips to softly meet his.

“As much as I’d love to stay here and kiss you all night, we should probably get back out there before everyone notices we’re gone” he chuckled, brushing a strand of hair away from her face.

“If they haven’t already” she said blushing at the realization.

“Well no one knows about us besides Snake, so hopefully that wouldn’t be where their thoughts went first if they did notice us missing” he lightened, brushing his lips across hers once more before stepping out of her embrace to pull his boxers and jeans from the floor. He tucked his shirt back in, smoothing the wrinkles out as best he could before doing up his jeans and belt. He walked back to Betty and dropped a kiss to her forehead before lifting her off the desk and setting her back on her feet. She ran her hands down her dress adjusting it until she was satisfied that nothing was out of line.

“Shall we?” he asked, grabbing her hand as he swung the door the rest of the way open.

“You go ahead, I’m going to make a quick stop at the ladies room and then I’ll be out” she told him.

“Okay” he nodded bringing her hand to his mouth and kissing her knuckles, “See you soon” he smiled giving her a wink and then he was gone.

Her heart swelled at his gesture, Who would of guessed that FP Jones was such a romantic she wondered, grinning like an idiot as she made her way to the restroom.

FP made his way back to their table, thankful to see only Snake sitting there, the rest of their crew must be off dancing or visiting and frankly he didn’t give a shit where Ash was. Snake smiled as he took in the wrinkles in FP’s shirt and the dopey grin on his face.

“So, did you have a good talk” he inquired as he took a swig of his beer.

FP nodded as he lit a cigarette, “Yeah, she’s better now” he replied as he exhaled.

“I bet she is” he smirked raising both brows knowingly at him.

FP’s hand froze as he brought the cigarette to his lips, he was about to tell his friend to fuck off but his good mood won out and instead he shot him a smug smile and a wink as he took a drag from his smoke.

Snake’s eyes widened at his friends wordless admission, “Well, I’ll be damned” he awed shaking his head, “I don’t know how you got so lucky but try not to fuck it up” he advised.

FP frowned at him, “Gee thanks” he scoffed making his friend laugh.

Betty returned to the table not long after, taking a seat next to FP, and the rest of the group seemed to follow soon after that. Ferrett bringing a round with him to the table for everyone except FP, who he brought a Coke instead.

“Has anyone seen Ash?” Betty asked not seeing him sitting at the bar anymore. Even though he was being a jerk, she couldn’t help but feel like, as her guest, she was responsible for him. Everyone at the table shook their head or answered 'No’. She gave another glance around the room before shrugging and letting it go for now.

“Whoa don’t look now FP but a whole lot of crazy is coming your way” Viper pointed behind him grinning, clearly amused.

FP glanced behind him before turning back around, “Shit” he mumbled, “This is your fault” he pointed at Snake accusingly who wiggled his brows at the man, obviously enjoying himself.

Betty glanced around FP and saw an older woman, about FP’s age she figured, with curly red hair heading straight towards their table, eyes zeroed in on FP’s back. She wasn’t unattractive Betty thought, with her curves and ample chest which were emphasized by the tight leather pants and low cut animal print top she was wearing but the look on her face was one of determination, like an animal stalking their prey and it masked any subtle beauty or softness her face may of had.

“Who is that?” Betty asked, but before anyone could answer she had reached their table.

“Well FP Jones” she cooed and he winced, “I’ve been looking for you” she said as she walked two fingers along his shoulder then ran her long red fingernails down his bicep.

FP sighed and stood to face her, knowing she wouldn’t just go away, “Kathy” he nodded.

“My, my, my” she chirped as she undressed him with her eyes, “Don’t you look good enough to eat” she appraised licking her lips and making Snake choke on his beer as he bit back a laugh.

FP shot him glare before turning back to Kathy, “What can I do for you Kathy?” he asked, slightly scared to hear the answer.

“Hmmm” she purred, running her nails over chest, “Oh I could think of a lot of things you could do for me FP and me for you” she flirted, looking up at him through large fake lashes.

He tried not to grimace as she pulled a piece of paper from her cleavage and stuffed it in his shirt pocket.

“Here’s my number, use it, you can take me out or…” she said moving closer to him, “We could stay in and you could just take me” she finished suggestively.

FP shivered but not in a good way as she kissed his cheek leaving a dark red lip print behind before blowing him another kiss and sauntering away.

As soon as she was out of earshot their table erupted as FP slumped back into his chair, Betty laughing right along with them but she handed him a napkin to wipe the lipstick from his face at least.

“Oh…my…God” Snake said trying to catch his breath, “That was fucking amazing!” he exclaimed before breaking down again.

FP pulled the paper from his pocket and flicked it at the man, “I fucking hate you” he said trying to keep the grin off his own face.

Betty took the napkin from him, wiping off the spot he missed, “Okay, so who was that?” she asked again, completely baffled by the woman.

“That was Kathy, better known as 'Crazy Kathy’ which is probably self explanatory now, and as you can see, she seems to have a thing for our man FP here” Ferrett explained grinning.

“Wow, she’s very determined, but she seems like a sure thing, maybe you should give her a call” she teased, making the table laugh.

“Shush you” he said dryly, pinching her thigh under the table.

“Speaking of determined, I think I found Ash” Amy cut in pointing at the stage where he stood talking to the DJ.

“Is he..is he going to sing?” Ferrett asked looking at Betty, “Does he usually do karaoke?”

“Uugghh! He has before yes, we went a few times to this karaoke bar in Paris with friends” she muttered having a bad feeling about this.

Ash walked up to the mic, “Good evening, this song goes out to the gorgeous blonde in the purple dress” he said pointing at her, his words weren’t quite slurring yet but he was definitely intoxicated.

“Oh no” Betty uttered, turning red with humility and covering her face.

FP squeezed her knee, trying to bring her some comfort as the music started, Betty recognized the song immediately and groaned as he started singing.

'I want you to want me.’

'I need you to need me.’

'I’d love you to love me.’

'I’m beggin’ you to beg me.’

“Wow, he’s subtle” Ferrett quipped.

“Like a sledgehammer” FP added grinding his teeth.

Ash’s eyes burned into her as he sang and she shifted uncomfortably, “I am SO sorry guys, this is so embarrassing” she proclaimed.

“Hey, don’t apologize for his asinine decisions, this is all on him” FP consoled, rubbing calming circles on her back.

“Yeah” Ferrett agreed, “Just ignore him, it’ll be over soon” he smiled reassuringly at her, “Want another drink?”

“Sure, and thank you Ferrett” she said returning his smile.

“Anything for you Doll” he winked and headed towards the bar.

“Honestly, I don’t know who’s worse” Joanie stated, “The idiot on stage or the one heading towards the bar” she finished, pointing a thumb at Ferrett’s back with a chuckle.

“The one on stage, no contest” Betty replied laughing.

Much to everyone’s relief, Ash wrapped up the song and instead of coming to their table like they expected he went back to the bar. He grabbed another drink and proceeded to just stand there, leaning against the counter staring at Betty.

“That guy gives me the creeps” Amy muttered, “How did you live with him for four months?” she asked incredulously.

“I swear he wasn’t like this before, sure I knew he liked me but he never acted this way, this is new” she attested, just as weirded out by his actions as the rest of them.

“He’s never had to deal with other men paying you such close attention before” Ferrett said, smirking at her as he passed her her drink.

“Hmm, yes, it’s oh so tiring having to constantly beat men off with a stick” Betty sighed dramatically, taking a sip of her cocktail.

“You’ve never hit me with a stick” Ferrett said proudly.

“Give her time” Snake quipped.

Everyone laughed at his joke, making the tension that Ash had caused dissipate.

A slow song started to play through the room, “Oh I love this song” Betty breathed.

FP stood, holding out his hand to her, “I think it’s my turn” he said “Dance with me?”

She smiled, taking his hand and letting him pull her to her feet, “Always” she answered sweetly before he lead her to the dance floor.

He held her close, one hand on her waist, the other holding hers as they moved. Betty hummed along with the lyrics against his chest.

'All I want is nothing more To hear you knocking at my door 'Cause if I could see your face once more I could die a happy man I’m sure’

'When you said your last goodbye I died a little bit inside I lay in tears in bed all night Alone without you by my side’

FP twirled her, making her giggle as she spun away from him, a vision of blonde and plum, He’d never seen anyone so breathtaking he thought before pulling her back and catching her waist again.

'But if you loved me Why’d you leave me’

'Take my body Take my body All I want is And all I need is To find somebody I’ll find somebody like you oooh’

FP swallowed, the haunting song resonating with something inside him. He placed a quick kiss on her head and she squeezed him tighter.

'So you brought out the best of me A part of me I’d never seen You took my soul and wiped it clean Our love was made for movie screens’

She pulled back catching his eye, he could see from the play of emotions on her face that it had struck something in her too. In some way the lyrics spoke of them but also of her past and the impact of the words weren’t lost on either of them.

'But if you loved me Why’d you leave me Take my body Take my body All I want is And all I need is To find somebody I’ll find somebody’

He slid his hand to her lower back, bringing her flush against him, she looked up at him eyes shining as he continued to lead her around the floor, laughing softly any time he would spin or dip her as they moved to the music.

He stopped and spun her one more time, then grabbed onto her waist and dipped her in a low sweep before bringing her back against his chest, their hands grasped between them. They were both breathless, her smile radiating right through him, seeming to touch his very core and he couldn’t deny it it anymore, he was beyond gone for her.

He dropped his forehead hers, losing himself in emeralds as they continued to sway with each other.

'But if you loved me Why’d you leave me Take my body Take my body All I want is And all I need is To find somebody I’ll find somebody like you oooh’

The song ended as another faster one took it’s place, bringing them out of their bubble. They stepped apart, almost shyly, not wanting to bring attention to themselves.

“I’m just going to go to the restroom, I’ll meet you back at the table okay” she told him softly. He nodded and she gave his hand a squeeze before dropping it and disappearing into the crowd.

He had just reached their table when he heard commotion at the front door drawing his attention, along with the other Serpents, to the entrance.

“We need to talk to some snakes” a loud voice boomed. The crowd quickly parted revealing a group of large bikers with wolves emblazoned on the their jackets, Howlers, the Greendale gang.

“Joanie, tell Muskrat to get on the mic and let everyone know the party’s over, then you, Amy and the other ladies take all the guests out the side door into the back compound like we talked about. If the coast is clear outside, open the gate and tell them all to leave, then lock the gate and stay put until someone comes to get you. If it isn’t clear, then everyone stays put until it is, got it?” Viper asked quickly.

“Got it” she replied giving him a quick kiss before running to find Muskrat.

A minute later his announcement comes over the loud system and everyone starts to rush out the side door, herded by the women. FP grabbed Amy’s arm as she passed, “Amy, grab Betty, she went into the washroom” he said, eyes pleading.

“I’ll get her” she nodded and hurried off.

A few minutes later, Betty stepped out of the restroom and right into chaos, there were loud voices and sounds of panic as everyone rushed towards the side exit door of the building. She stood on her tip toes, trying to see FP or any of the other Serpents. She caught sight of them across the room and could barely make out the group standing together over the crowd flowing past her. They were facing another group of men dressed in leathers. She could see both groups firing words back and forth at each other but there was no way she’d be able to hear what was being said over the noise.

She gasped as the guy in front, who looked to be the leader, lunged at FP, she saw them connect but didn’t get a chance to see what happened from there as someone grabbed her arm and pulled her down to the end of the hallway, shoving her into the office she was in earlier with FP and shutting the door.

She turned around to see Ash standing against the door, “What the hell is going on out there? And why are we in here? We should be leaving with everyone else!” she demanded.

“Well it seems that gang your friends were talking about earlier decided to make an appearance” he told her, “But don’t worry Betts, I’m sure we’ll be fine in here, plus I wanted some alone time with you” he leered at her in a way that made her nerves stand up as he stepped towards her.

She stepped back hitting the desk, “I don’t think that’s a good idea Ash, I don’t think we’re safe” she said trying to reason with him.

“Don’t worry Coop, it’ll be fine, besides,” he tilted his head, advancing again, “I finally figured out what you like.”

“What��what do you mean?” she stammered.

“You see Betty, for the last four months I was the nice guy, the sweet guy and where did that get me? Fucking nowhere!” he said, voice rising. “And you know, I had figured that you and FP had had something going on at some point but I wasn’t sure, that is until I saw you” he sneered, “I saw you Betty, propped right on that very desk as you let him fuck you!”

Betty’s eyes widened as he continued, “I couldn’t believe it at first, thought the booze was playing tricks on me, but then I heard him say your name, as your nails clawed at the back of his shirt and everything fell into place” he stated, tapping the side of his head.

“I don’t…I don’t understand” Betty said quietly.

“All semester I was the perfect gentleman, trying my best to be what you needed, but that got me friend zoned but after seeing you tonight with that Ferrett guy and then in here with FP, it occurred to me that I’ve been going about this all wrong,” he was pacing in front of her now, gesturing wildly with his hands, “You see Betty Cooper, you don’t want a gentleman” he said matter of factually as he pointed at her.

“I….I don’t?” she stuttered gripping the edge of the desk tighter.

“No, you don’t, you want someone who’s rough, someone who takes control of a woman, gives her what she needs without her having to ask for it.”

“No, no, you’re wrong, that’s not what I want” she insisted, terrified by where this was heading.

“Don’t deny it Betty, you have a dark side, you like it dark. But I can be dark too Betty and I want to show you” he smirked, his pupils blown with want and lust as he stepped closer to her again.

He saw her eyes dart to the door, “You’ll never make it” he told her cockily, taking another step forward.

Maybe not she thought but she had to try, maybe someone would hear her. As he took a step again she darted around him towards the door, her fingers just grazing the door knob when she felt his arms circle around her waist and he shoved her front hard against the door, pining her with his body.

“I told you you wouldn’t make it, Sweetheart” he said into her ear, running his tongue along it, making her shudder. He buried his face in her neck and breathed her in deeply, she could hear yelling and crashing down the hall and tried to concentrate on the noise instead of what was happening behind her.

He held her to the door with his chest, he was so much stronger than she was. Her cheek was pushed against the wood and he put his hands on her hips before sliding one down to cup and squeeze her cheek. She felt her blood boil at the violation.

“Stop” she yelled angrily as she tried to push him back off of her, clawing at him with her hands.

He pulled back slightly and grabbed both of her wrists, slamming them above her head and holding them tightly in one large hand.

“I don’t want to hurt you Coop, don’t make me hurt you” he said against her neck.

He ran his free hand up her thigh, over her hip and along her side, stopping once he reached her chest. She tried to move away from his fingers but he held her in place. He cupped her breast, running his fingers over her, “You are so fucking sexy” he groaned pushing his hips into her so hard that hers slammed into the door. She could feel his arousal pressed hard against her backside making bile rise up in her throat. She squeezed her eyes shut willing herself not to throw up as he roughly fondled her chest and ground into her again.

The raucous continued in the bar, she doubted that anyone would hear her over it but she can’t just do nothing, she needs to do something and if it doesn’t work well at least she tried.

Ash’s tongue trailed down her neck and she screamed out for help.

The next thing she knew she was being flipped around and she felt the sharp sting of a backhand across her cheek. She let out a sob as she started to slide to the floor, but Ash picked her up, placing her hands above her head again and holding them there like he did before, except now she was facing him.

He brushed the hair off her face that had settled there from the impact of his hit, “I told you I didn’t want to hurt you Baby, but you had to go and pull a Bitch move like that!” he bit out right in her face.

“I’m sorry, you…you don’t have to do this Ash, please don’t do this” she begged.

“Oh but I want to” he smiled, licking her from the base of her neck to her ear before whispering to her, “I’ve waited months for this” then he slammed his mouth against hers, she tried to keep her mouth shut as he pried at her with his tongue and when the opportunity arose, she bit down hard on his lip.

“Fuck!” he yelled in surprise licking his lip and tasting blood, “You Bitch!” he spat at her, prompting Betty to spit in his face.

He growled wiping his face with his free hand before wrapping it around her throat and slamming her head back into the door with such force she saw stars. He squeezed hard enough that it affected her breathing, tears leaking down her face as he spoke, “I’m done playing games” he warned.

He pulled her forward, yanking her towards the desk, she winced as her front collided with the edge. He took the hand wrapped around her wrists and brought them down to the desk above her head as his other hand grabbed the back of her neck, forcing her down, bending her over the desk.

He leaned over her, “No, no more playing, I’m going to take you now, right here on this desk where he did and I’m going to make you forget all about him” he promised.

Betty closed her eyes, squeezing them tight, tears leaking steadily out of the corners now as a sob escaped her throat.

FP where are you? Please help me! She screamed internally, hoping to will him into existence.

She swallowed back the bile again trying to force her mind somewhere else as she heard him undo his belt.

***

#betty cooper #fp jones #riverdale fanfiction

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