Archive of Our Own ^beta

Betty shifted on the plush bed she had been sleeping in. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion because where she expected her cheek to nuzzle against her boyfriend’s chest, his chest hair tickling her porcelain skin, she felt the soft cotton sheets. Where she wiggled her fingers and expected to feel the hard plains of her boyfriend’s stomach beneath her fingertips, she was met again with the softness of the sheets beneath her.

She opened her eyes and realized that she was alone in bed. What time was it? And where was her boyfriend? Sitting up quickly, her eyes found the alarm clock on the bedside table.

3:00 a.m.

Betty sighed, she knew why the love of her life was missing from his side of the bed. When she was anxious, she’d feel a tightness in her chest and she would withdraw within herself as she tried to navigate what was bothering her. But for Jughead? Although he was the ‘stronger’ one in the relationship, always taking care of her, always going out of his way to make sure she felt loved and cherished, Betty had found out that when he was anxious, he had trouble sleeping.

She figured tonight was one of those nights when she saw the light peeking out from underneath their bedroom door and the faint sound of typing. Her heart ached and she threw the covers back, scooping up his discarded t-shirt from the floor and tugging it over her head before opening the door.

There had been so many times over the last few months that they had been dating where she would wake up in the middle of the night alone in bed and she would find him sitting at his or her kitchen table typing away on his laptop. The first few times she had found him like that, she’d been caught off guard, she knew something had been off with him but it was the first time she had seen him anxious. He was normally so calm, cool and collected. Not that he didn’t get stressed, because he did. It was the rigidity in his body and withdrawn demeanor that told her that this was just something else entirely.

In the beginning, she would put her hands delicately on his shoulders ask him what was wrong, and when he gave her the monotoned ‘nothing’ she suggested he to go to bed and then after he ignored her again, she would go back to bed alone.

But now? She wouldn’t have any of that.

Jughead did such an amazing job of taking care of her that she refused to do anything but the exact same for him. She opened their bedroom door, padding out to the front room of their hotel suite and found him at the only table in the room. She paused for a moment like she always did at the sight of him in only his pajama bottoms. There were times where her breath would catch in her throat as the thought of how she couldn’t believe that he was hers flitted through her mind. He looked up when he heard the door open, his brows furrowing together at the sight of her.

“Hey babe, did I wake you?” he asked.

She gave him a soft smile as she got closer. “You know I don’t sleep well when you’re not with me.”

He smiled back at her, opening his arms as she covered the last few feet between them. Betty crawled into his lap, pressing her face into the crook of his neck as his strong, muscular arms wrapped around her small frame. She heard him breathe her in, feeling his chest rise and fall as she wriggled impossibly closer to him. They sat like that for a few long moments, wrapped around each other, the sound of their breathing filling the room.

There was something remarkable about the power of physical touch. It had the ability to strengthen connections, to heal, to communicate, to influence and to soothe. A hand at the small of the back, a reassuring squeeze on the arm, a kiss on the forehead. All of those things, most done in passing, most done without a second thought had so much potential. For them, physical touch was many things; but right now, it was her way of telling him that she saw him, that she saw he was struggling and that no matter what, she was there for him.

“Do you want to talk about what’s making you so anxious?” Betty asked quietly.

Jughead sighed heavily, not answering.  

“Are you anxious about tomorrow? Or rather-” she looked at the clock again- “anxious about what we’re doing in a few hours?”

They were in Baltimore, Maryland for a few days before they joined her best friend Veronica at her parents’ beach house in the Hamptons for Veronica’s end of summer beach bash. They had been dating for about four months now and even though he had introduced her to all of his friends and his younger sister J.B. (who was actually Betty’s age), he hadn’t introduced her to either of his parents yet. She knew from the few conversations they’d had about his mother that he wasn’t fond of her, so the chances of Betty meeting her were slim to none. But his father was a different story. Even though he didn’t talk about him too often, she knew he was fond of his father. They talked every other Sunday at ten a.m. like clockwork. No matter where they were or what they were doing, Jughead never missed the phone call. She thought it was sweet and tried not to feel too envious of the relationship he had with his dad when her relationship with her own father was lacking.

So when he suggested going to his hometown of Baltimore a few days before they headed up to see Veronica to meet his dad, she had eagerly agreed.

He had planned their whole weekend: in the morning (or in a few hours rather), he was going to take her to his favorite diner not far from the house he grew up in, then they were going to go to his dad’s house and go sightseeing in the Baltimore Harbour and a place called Fells Point. She didn’t need a day full of activities, she would’ve been happy visiting Jughead’s dad at his house. Frankly, she would’ve been happy wherever Jughead was but she figured it made him feel better that they all had something to do.

“Come on,” she said, wiggling to get off of his lap. “Let’s try to get some rest before the sun comes up.”

Betty didn’t wait for his answer, she clicked ‘save’ on the screen and then closed his laptop before holding her hand out for him to take. He sighed and ran his fingers through the unruly waves of his dark hair.

“I don’t know, Betts. I’m not tired. What if I can’t fall asleep?”

She tilted her head and gave him a lopsided smile, no matter how many times they did this, he was always so stubborn about coming to bed.

“I can think of one thing we can do if you can’t fall asleep,” she responded in a seductive tone.

Slowly she started inching up the hem of his t-shirt that she was wearing and sashayed backward towards their bedroom.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Have you seriously not been wearing underwear this entire time?”

“Nope. Missed opportunity if you ask me,” she said before trapping her bottom lip between her teeth.

Jughead laughed, getting up from his chair at the table to go follow her.

***

Breakfast at the diner had been amazing and for the first time in her life, she questioned whether or not she’d found a better diner than Pop’s Chocolate Shoppe which was located in her hometown of Riverdale. Now they were driving over to his father’s house where she was going to meet Jughead’s dad for the very first time. It was a beautiful August morning, the sun was out and the sky was a radiant, cloudless blue. They both had gotten a coffee to go and considering neither of them got much sleep the night before, they both desperately needed it.

“So why doesn’t your dad live in your old neighborhood anymore?” Betty asked.

Jughead cleared his throat. “He was living over there for a while but after I signed my first book, I helped him buy a new place in a nicer neighborhood.”

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise, she had no idea that he’d bought his dad a house.

“Wow… that was… nice of you.”

He scratched the back of his neck, a sign she was quickly learning that meant he was feeling uneasy.

“I figured I’d help him out. It’s not a big deal,” He commented quietly.

Okay, Betty thought, sensitive subject.

They continued to drive in silence, not an awkward silence but a comfortable one. She appreciated that about the two of them; they could get wrapped up in their own thoughts as they drove along and neither of them had to worry if the silence was a bad thing. Whenever there were long moments between her and Archie, she always worried there was something wrong. Jughead had also told her that he’d had a similar experience with Sabrina and that he didn’t feel that kind of worry with her either. The more Betty thought about it, the stranger she thought it was. They had both been in long-term committed relationships before they met each other, he had even been engaged, and all the insecurities and worries they’d had in their previous relationships never even crossed their minds in their own.

They were falling for each other, hard and fast even though they still barely knew one another. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, they did know each other, but Betty felt like there was this imaginary line in their lives. On one side was their past, the way they lived their lives before they met in the coffee shop roughly four months ago. On the other side was the present and the future, and that was the side they knew the most about. Jughead knew the ‘current’ Betty and in turn, she knew the ‘current’ Jughead. Both of their pasts mattered, but not in a way that made either of them anxious or worry the view of the other was going to change once they knew.

“Can I ask you something?” Betty inquired, turning to him.

“Anything,” he quipped back.

“Did you take your dad’s side in your parents' divorce? Is that why you and your mom don’t get along?”

Jughead snorted. “Both of my parents were equally terrible. As you know, my dad is a recovering alcoholic and went to jail for committing a crime while being in a gang.”

Betty nodded, she remembered all of this. Jughead came over one night not too long ago and he’d paced the living room of her apartment like a caged animal before she’d worked up the courage to finally ask him what was wrong. Apparently, he had gotten into a fight with his little sister and she’d accused him of always taking his dad’s side and not taking the time to see their mom’s. Jughead had told her everything about his dad, how he was as a father while they were growing up, his gang involvement, and going to jail.

“And your mom?” Betty asked. It was a topic they hadn’t covered yet, and although she wasn’t sure it was the time or the place to have the conversation, her curiosity got the better of her.

His grip on the steering wheel got tighter, making his knuckles go white.

“My mom is just… mean. Nothing I ever did was good enough for her and she constantly, constantly reminded me that I wasn’t going to amount to anything just like my father. My dad wasn’t a perfect parent by any means, but at least he tried. He always told me he was proud of me, wrote me letters from prison. He even came to my first book signing and after the signing he told everyone that would listen to him that I, the famous author in the room, was ‘his boy’.” He chuckled at the memory. “I’ve done plenty of things that made my dad angry with me, I certainly didn’t make it easy on either of them to parent me, but at least my dad never made me question his love for me.”

Betty’s heart twisted at the image of a lost boy who wanted nothing more than his mother’s love as his family was being torn apart. She reached over and placed her hand tenderly on his forearm and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“I’m sorry,” Betty said quietly.

He shrugged. “It’s in the past now I guess. It just still stings every time I think about it. I thought that would go away as I got older, but I guess something like that never really goes away.”

She shook her head, thinking about her own conflicts with her mother.

“No, I guess it never does.”

Ten minutes later Jughead pulled up in front of a light grey house with black shutters and a fenced in yard. It was small, but Betty assumed that it was plenty of room for one man to live in and manage. They both got out of the car and walked toward the gate. Jughead opened it for her, letting her into the yard and then closing it behind them as they continued up the walkway. Right in front of the door was a gorgeous bush of white hydrangeas which were her absolute favorite. She stopped to smell them, lifting her sunglasses off of her nose and resting them on her head.

“These are beautiful, Jug. Did you plant these?”

Before he could answer, there was a booming voice coming from the screen door.

“That boy couldn’t keep a plant alive even if he painted his thumb green,” the voice said comically.

Betty looked up the few steps to the door where she assumed Jughead’s father was walking out. FP Jones was a tall muscular man, at least half a head taller than Jughead with jet black hair similar to his son’s, but his was a lot shorter and straight. He also had a lot more grey in his hair than his son did with a scruffy beard that was peppered with grey and white hairs as well. He crossed the small porch and descended the stairs, pulling Jughead into a hug.

“Hey, Dad.”

“How are you boy?” FP patted him a few times on the back.

“I’m good, Dad. I’m good.”

The two men released each other and Jughead’s dad turned to her.

“And you must be the infamous Betty,” he said holding his hand out to her.

Betty grasped his large, calloused hand with her own. “Mr. Jones, it’s so nice to finally meet you.”

“Oh please, call me FP. No one’s called me Mr. Jones for a long time, but then again, I don’t think my son has ever brought a girl home to meet me.”

Betty blushed scarlet, chancing a look at Jughead, who was also blushing.

“Well, I’m honored to be the first,” Betty quipped back, releasing his hand.

“Ha! I like this one, Jug. She seems like a spitfire. C’mon you two kids, come inside. I just need to finish up a few things before we head down to the harbor,” FP said, turning to go inside.

Her boyfriend followed his father and she started up the stairs after them both.

“I see you like them young, huh son?” Betty heard as they went through the door.

“Dad, seriously?!” Jughead groaned.

She giggled, today was going to be an interesting day for sure.

***

By the time they all made it back from their trip into the harbor, the sun had started its descent through the sky. They had been out a few hours longer than they had expected, but Betty didn’t care. She more than enjoyed her time with Jughead and his dad. She enjoyed their easy-going relationship and found how often they picked on each other absolutely hilarious.

When she got out of the car, she took a moment to admire the sunset. The sky was painted hues of blue, orange, purple, and pink. She loved the way the blues, pinks, and oranges blended together making the few clouds in the sky a bright purple. She’d never seen anything like it.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they? Nothing can beat a Baltimore sunset,” FP commented.

Betty smiled at him. “I’d have to agree with you there.”

Jughead got out of the car and joined them on the sidewalk, shoving his hands in his pockets. Betty thought he looked a little sad and wondered if they should spend another day in Baltimore.

“Well, I know you two have an early start ahead of you in the morning,” FP said.

“Yeah, we do. ” Jughead responded. “We want to beat the beach traffic.”

FP shook his head. “You know that’s impossible this time of year.”

He chuckled, crossing the few steps between him and his father, pulling him in for what she would describe as a bear hug. It pulled at her heartstrings and it cemented for her what he’d said about never doubting his father’s love for him.

After the two men released each other, Betty gave FP a bright smile, opening her arms to him.

“FP, thank you for the hospitality. I had a lovely time today,” Betty said as she hugged.

“Any time, kid. Thank you for bringing my boy down here to see me, I wish I saw him more often.”

“Well, you’ll just have to come to spend a weekend with us!” Betty said, clasping her hands in front of her in excitement.

“That’d be great, I’ve never been to the Big Apple before.”

“Then you have to come! I have a spare bedroom and I would love to show you around.”

“Maybe, I’ll have to check my work schedule,” FP said, scratching the back of his neck subconsciously.

“Well, if you are free, I insist. ” she said with finality.

FP laughed. “You got yourself a stubborn woman don’t you, Jug?”

“You have no idea.”

Betty turned around and stuck her tongue out at Jughead, who only smiled and shook his head at her.

“You kids drive safe now. Jug, I’ll talk to you on Sunday?”

“Of course,” he said as he got into the car and started it up.

They waved to FP as they pulled away from the curb. He waved back and continued to do so until they disappeared at the end of the street.

When they reached the on-ramp for I-95 and merged into the evening traffic, Jughead asked, “Did you have a good time today?”

Jughead had gotten an unexpected call from his editor while they were at dinner and went outside leaving Betty and FP alone. They had been walking all afternoon, so she was ravenous, probably a little dehydrated, and wasted no time in downing a glass of iced water as soon as the waitress placed it down on the table.

FP chuckled. “Easy there, kid. I can’t have anything happen to you while Jug’s gone. He’d blame me.”

Betty laughed, setting the glass down. “I doubt that.”

“I don’t know, he seems pretty taken with you,” FP commented, not dropping her gaze.

Betty blushed crimson, it wasn’t the first time someone had told her this, Jughead’s friends Toni and Kevin and her best friend Veronica had all commented how clear it was that they were head over heels for one another.

“You raised a wonderful man.”

FP shook his head. “I barely raised him, I wasn’t around that much when he was a teenager and I got out of prison when he was twenty-five. I feel like I missed a big part of his life.”

She immediately felt sad when she saw anguish and regret flash across FP’s face.

“Jughead doesn’t see it that way, I hope you know that. He speaks very fondly of you,” Betty said quietly, trying to reassure him.

FP cleared his throat, the tips of his ears turning a slight tinge of red. She figured FP Jones didn’t blush very often.

“You know, Betty, I can tell that you really care about my son,” FP continued.

“I do,” Betty confided. “I care about him a lot. Jughead means… the world to me.”

“I appreciate that. For what it’s worth, I only met Sabrina a handful of times and I never got the impression that she loved Jughead like you seem to.”

Betty felt her heart skip a beat in her chest. She and Jughead didn’t talk about Sabrina other than when they were discussing Archie and they were comparing something about the two. However, she had a feeling that Sabrina hadn’t cared much for him considering she’d cheated on him while they were engaged.

“I thought you said that I was the first girl Jughead brought home to meet you?” she asked swallowing.

“In the traditional sense,” he clarified. “Graduations and other family events didn’t really count. He never ‘brought her home’ to meet me or Gladys.”

“Oh. Well like I said earlier, I’m glad to be the first.”

“You know, even a blind person could see how he feels about you,” FP teased, winking at her.

Betty blushed again. She really appreciated the fact that his father was open and accepting of her, especially when her own parents (well, her mother) had not been as welcoming to Jughead.

“Hey, sorry about that,” Jughead said, as he returned to the table. “What are you two talking about?”

Betty smiled at him, reaching over to gently squeeze his forearm. “Yeah, I did.”

They returned to the hotel room and Betty immediately took off her shoes, cracking her toes and stretching them out on the floor. She sighed softly in relief because they were sore from walking the majority of the day. When she turned around, she found Jughead staring at her. He had been quiet the majority of the ride back to the hotel, but she’d figured that he had been sad about saying goodbye to his dad, so she didn’t mention anything.

“What?” she asked gently.

“Did you… did you mean what you said to my dad earlier?” he asked, his voice unsure.

She hesitated. “You mean when I invited him to visit us?”

Jughead nodded, taking a step closer to her. “Yes.”

“Of course I did, Jug. Your dad is great and I like spending time with him.”

Without warning, he closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her torso before lifting her and spinning her around their hotel room.

“Jughead!” she squealed in surprise.

He set her down, grabbing her face with both of his hands and kissed her, hard . The kiss was urgent and full of passion, his passion for her. She fisted his shirt in her hands as he leaned her back slightly with the pressure of his lips against hers.

When they finally pulled apart, her heart was racing and she felt a bit dazed.

“You are amazing, Betty Cooper. You are everything,” he breathed.

Betty stared into his eyes, wondering if she had any more room in her heart for the man standing in front of her. She thought she knew what true love felt like, she had been with Archie for a long time, she did love him, part of her knew that. But the other part? Even though it had been a short four months and most of their friends thought their level of infatuation with each other was insane , the way she felt about Jughead made her realize that how she felt about Archie didn’t even scratch the surface of what it meant to be in love.

“Jughead Jones, you are my everything.”  

Neither of them would ever know who moved first, the two of them were a blur of lips, tongue, and teeth as they made their way to the bedroom, tearing their clothes off as they went. Once she was naked, he lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his waist as he completed the last few steps to the bed.

“I want to be on top,” Betty panted into his ear.

She heard him groan low in his throat as he turned and sat down on the edge of the bed. Normally when they made love, he worshipped every single inch of her body before he made any sort of attempt to sink himself into her, but she didn’t have the patience for that tonight. She wanted him, wanted to feel the pleasurable stretch as he entered her. She was insatiable, wanton, and she didn’t want to waste another second without him inside of her.

She readjusted herself so that her knees were on the edge of the bed, bringing his arm tightly around the small of her back. She lifted herself and then came down on him - hard and fast, not bothering to take things slow. They both moaned in unison as she did it again, the slapping sound of their skin coming together filling the room. He grunted, gritting his teeth as she gyrated her hips while he was still in her.  

“Fuck, Betts,” Jughead rasped as he squeezed his eyes shut.

She ran her teeth lightly across his jawline. “You feel so good, baby.”

She picked up the pace, thrusting up and down on his lap in quick succession as he tightened his hold on her. Before long their bodies were slick with sweat and despite the protest in her thighs, Betty continued her relentless rhythm.

Jughead reached up with his free hand and twisted her nipple gently between his fingers as he attacked her neck and collarbone, nipping and sucking, mercilessly running his tongue all over her already over-sensitized skin. She moaned loudly, tipping her head back to give him easier access as she felt herself tighten.

Jughead leaned down and bit the top of her breast, the sting from his teeth sinking into her soft flesh sent her over the edge and she felt her body combust. He followed moments after her, cursing and pulling out before emptying himself on her stomach. She draped her arms over his shoulders as she rested her head in the crook of his neck as she tried to level out her breathing. Still keeping his arm around her, Jughead leaned over and grabbed the box of tissues from the bedside table and she reluctantly sat back up so he could clean her up. Once he was done, he laid back on the bed, taking her with him. She rested her head on his chest, listening to the quick thumping of his heartbeat against her ear.

“Geez baby, I know I tease you about being insatiable but that… that was something else.”

Betty giggled and peered up at him. “Got to keep my old man feeling young.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Yeah, yeah.”

“I love you,” she said, giggling again.

He lifted his hand, running the back of his knuckles against her flushed cheek. “I love you, too Betty, so much.”

She smiled, rolling herself off of him and tucking herself into his side. She closed her eyes and sighed contentedly, wondering what her life would have been like if she hadn’t picked up his coffee four months ago and drank it by mistake.

***

If there was one thing that Jughead didn’t expect, it was how hard it was to jog on the sand. Even though he was at the beach with Betty and her friends, he didn’t want to break his routine of getting up with the sun and going for a run. At first he thought it would be great, the salty ocean spray filling his lungs with the sun making the water glitter luminously as the waves rolled up onto the shore. It was almost laughable to him how wrong he was, his running sneakers getting filled with sand (that he honestly knew would probably never come out) and his calves burning from the resistance. Despite all of this, he kind of liked the challenge but didn’t want to spend his entire beach vacation sore, so he opted to do part of his run on the beach and the rest on the boardwalk.

That morning had been very much the same, he woke up wrapped like a vine around his girlfriend, cursed internally as he untangled himself from her and put on his running gear. He started in front of Veronica’s (gigantic and over the top) beach house and proceeded to make his way toward the boardwalk.

He and Betty had been at the beach for four days and tonight more of Betty and Veronica’s friends were coming in for Veronica’s end of summer beach bash. Jughead rolled his eyes just at the thought of it, reminding himself that it was just an excuse for the New York City socialite (a.k.a. his girlfriend’s best friend) to throw a party and spend money like it grew on trees in the backyard. Even though he had made a decent amount of money from publishing his books, it didn’t change the fact that he grew up poor with nothing to his name but the clothes on his back. He just never fit into that crowd and was perfectly fine with the fact that he never would.

Originally, he felt completely uneasy about the idea of spending five days with Betty and her friends on vacation. Sure, they had hung out every once in a while at happy hours and on weekends, but never in close proximity for days at a time. The Joneses never went to the beach when he was a kid, in fact, he didn’t see the Atlantic Ocean until his early twenties. He was nervous that he would get bored sitting on the beach all day and he would ruin their vacation, but lounging lazily on the beach turned out to be quite relaxing and he was able to make a dent in some books he’d been trying to get through for the past few months.

Not to mention, getting to look at his young, sexy as hell girlfriend in a bikini all day definitely had its perks.

They had been dating for about four months now and the connection they had was undeniably intense. It still took him by surprise when he thought about how quickly and deeply he’d fallen in love with her. Most of his friends commented that they were in the ‘honeymoon phase’ of their relationship, but considering he’d never experienced one of those before, he didn’t know for sure. Sometimes, when he thought about all of the things he was experiencing with Betty and how happy he was with her, for a brief moment he would wonder if he was ever this happy with Sabrina. It made him feel guilty, to have those thoughts, but truthfully, since being with Betty, he wondered how he and Sabrina ever lasted so long in the first place.

Betty Cooper was unlike any woman he had ever met and the love he felt for her was... all-consuming, like it lit his soul aflame. He thought about her constantly, even when they were physically together and all he ever wanted was to make her happy. With Sabrina things were different, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to make her happy, he’d cared about her for a long time, but she made it so difficult that after a while it felt damn near impossible to make her happy. She would come home from at day at the office and they would just wave at each other in passing.

In the end, Sabrina would barely look at him.

Betty was the complete opposite.

He loved the way she looked at him, the way her face lit up when he surprised her on her way home from work, or the crooked smile she would give him early in the morning when he was the first thing she would see. He had never, in his life, felt his heart expand with warmth like that just by the way someone looked at him. He also loved the way she greeted him. For example, whenever he came over to her apartment after a day of writing, she’d always open the door just as he got there, pull him in for a kiss and ask him about his day. The best part for him was that she genuinely wanted to know the answer every single time no matter how mundane it was. With Betty, ‘How are you?’ wasn’t tacked onto her greeting as an afterthought like most people; for her, she was actually asking the question, looking for an answer instead of just saying it.

It was also in the way that she went out of her way to take care of him. Betty Cooper was an ‘all or nothing kind of woman,’ it was easy to see that as soon as you met her but he never expected her to be like that in their relationship. A few weeks ago, he had to fly out to the west coast for an important meeting for an upcoming book tour and he had been out of his mind with stress and anxiety. It wasn’t the fact that he hadn’t been to a meeting like that before, it was just with a few of the higher-ups from the publishing company he was signed with. They wanted to meet one of their ‘best selling authors’ in person. Betty had helped him prepare for the meeting, but once she saw that his anxiety had not waivered despite their preparations, she took off of work and went with him on the trip. Sabrina had never been like that. Every time he showed her that he was even the least bit anxious or stressed she would tell him to ‘man up’ and get over himself.

Anxiety wasn’t a stranger to him, he had felt it often enough and he was used to dealing with it alone, but with Betty he didn’t have to anymore. Of course, she gave him space when he asked for it, but most nights when she found him out typing away on his laptop, she would just crawl into his lap and sit with him until he was ready to go back to bed with her. He smiled to himself, there were definitely some times she’d had to drag him back to bed (he was stubborn, he knew that about himself), but it was just the simple fact that he knew she cared that made all the difference to him.

The last time his anxiety was bad enough to wake him up in the middle of the night was right before he took Betty to meet his father. Even though it shouldn’t have been, it was a big deal for him. Things had been going so well between them that part of him, the part of him that things never work out for, was waiting for the other shoe to drop. That shoe being his father.

Sabrina and his dad got along well enough, but they had never really spent time together. Plus, even though she never right out said something, Jughead suspected that JB had been telling Sabrina things about their dad when he wasn’t around. That was probably the only thing that he regretted about going separate ways with Sabrina, the fact that she and JB had gotten so close and their parting only made it hard on the two of them. They were still friends and to Jughead’s utter annoyance, still hung out regularly, but he couldn’t control any of that so he tried not to dwell on it too often. Not to mention, to top it all off, JB did not like Betty and made it known each time the three of them were together. However, no matter how many times he apologized to Betty after they’d hang out with his sister, she would just smile and reassure him that everything was okay.

To his surprise, the visit with his dad had been amazing, he and Betty had really hit it off. She had even had gone as far as inviting his father to visit them so she could show him around. A feeling, one that was no longer unfamiliar to him stirred in his chest as he watched the exchange. At first when he felt it, he couldn’t name what it was or identify what it meant, but after a while he realized that it was belonging.

Betty gave him a sense of belonging that he’d never expected, there were times where he would look at her and he just knew why he was put on this earth. He was born to love her.

Jughead picked up his pace as he was nearing the end of the boardwalk, eager to get back to his girl. He was almost to the end when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He slowed his pace, looking into the storefront window and impulsively went in.

***

Later that afternoon after they’d had lunch, they were all out on the beach waiting for the party goers to arrive. Betty, Veronica, and Veronica’s friend Cheryl were all lounging on beach chairs down by the water while he, Reggie, and Reggie’s friend Moose were tossing the frisbee around. Jughead was never one for “bro time” or sports, but he could throw a frisbee with decent accuracy and he didn’t want Reggie or Moose to think that he didn’t enjoy their company.

Reggie Mantle and Moose Mason were definitely two guys that Jughead would never have been friends with in high school. Both of them painfully fit the stereotype of “jock” and a “basic bro”. They both had jacked up arm muscles, abs, enjoyed football, and drank beer while eating wings in sports bars. They were the full one hundred and eighty degree opposites of him. However, despite this, they had both made a real effort to include him in their conversations even though it was obvious that Jughead knew nothing about any of the subjects they were talking about. The idea of spending the week with them had originally made him anxious, but after the first night, and a few rounds of Call of Duty, he had become comfortable with them and to his utter surprise, he actually started to like both of them.

“So,” Reggie said as he threw the frisbee towards Jughead, “How are things going with B. Coop?”

Jughead shrugged good-naturedly. “As good as they could be I suppose.”

“That’s good man. I’m happy for the two of you,” Reggie replied.

“Yeah, I mean we’ve been friends with Archie for years but he was always such a jerk to her,” Moose chimed in.

Annoyance stirred up in his chest, it wasn’t the first time someone had told him how Betty’s   had treated her.

“Thanks, Moose,” Jughead said before throwing the frisbee to him.

“We’re not going to have any problems tonight are we?” Reggie asked, smirking and raising an eyebrow at him.

Jughead smirked back at him. “Not unless he does.”

Moose chuckled. “You are so protective over Betty, I wish I could find that in a man.”

“Well, if she ever dumps me you’ll be my first call,” Jughead said with a wink.

The three men laughed.

“What are you boys laughing about?” Veronica asked as she sauntered over to them with Betty.

“Nothing,” they all said at once.

Jughead opened his arm to Betty as she walked over to him, dropping a kiss on the crown of her head like he always did. It was strange, he didn’t expect Betty to bring so much more than just herself into his life when their relationship started. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so at ease in a social situation with people he didn’t know all too well. He felt lucky to have her and her friends in his life and everything else that entailed.

“You feel like going in the water?” she asked, looking up at him.

“I’d go anywhere with you,” he said, cupping her face before leaning down to kiss her.

When he pulled away, he couldn’t help but note the new shade of pink on her cheeks and he marveled at the fact that he was the one to do that to her.

“You two are disgustingly sweet,” Veronica said, with a playful roll of her eyes.

Jughead smiled down at Betty, never in his life did he expect to be accused of something like that but he didn’t care. Without warning, he scooped his girlfriend into his arms bridal style and took off towards the water. Betty squealed, wrapping her arms around his neck with a vice-like grip.

“Jughead Jones!” she yelled. “That is not what I meant when I ask if you wanted to go in the water!!!”

He got about waist deep before he unhooked her arms and then proceed to throw her, launching her in the air so that she landed a few feet away from him. She came up seconds later, sputtering and wiping the salty water out of her eyes.

“You are absolutely ridiculous!” she said as she walked back towards him.

“I know, but you love me anyway,” he said before cupping her cheeks again and pressing his lips to hers.

***

A few hours later, Veronica’s party was in full swing. Jughead knew that there would be a lot of people at the party, but as he looked around at the sea of faces, he didn’t expect that there would be this many. If Betty hadn’t been glued to his side for most of it, he definitely would’ve gotten a serious case of social anxiety and found a quiet corner to spend the rest of the evening in. She was currently on the other side of the patio talking with some friends from college while he was relaxing by the pool with a beer in his hand. As if she could sense his eyes on her, she looked towards him over the fire pit in the middle of the patio, catching his eye as she smiled at him. He smiled back, taking in her stunning features. She was wearing white shorts, a bright blue shirt where the sleeve came down to her elbow and the flames from the fire made her green eyes sparkle more than they usually did. Her hair was also down and in soft waves which was a rarity since she usually likes to wear her hair in a bun or ponytail.

His heart constricted in his chest, that familiar feeling stirring up again. It wasn’t the common feeling of butterflies and nerves that flowed through him when he saw her. It was more . When he looked at her then, he felt a combination of home, understanding, and love. It was like the sweet comfort of returning someplace familiar and he relished in it. It was the kind of feeling that made him want to run to his keyboard and write it down even though deep down he knew that no words could ever truly describe the way he felt for her. It was the kind of feeling that was magnetic, intense, forceful, and he never wanted to resist it when it came to her, ever.

The small box containing his purchase from earlier that day was currently burning a hole in his pocket and he was itching to give it to her. Instead of crossing the patio and taking her away from her friends, he stood from his chair and waited for her to look at him again.

He smirked when she looked for him not even a minute later. He nodded his head toward the sand and mouthed the word “Beach” at her. Her returning smile was enough to knock him off his feet before she lifted her hand, indicating that she’d meet him out there in five minutes. He nodded again in agreement and made his way towards the stairs leading down to the beach, deciding to meet her at the bottom.

***

Betty couldn’t knock the silly smile off her face. She loved how sweet Jughead could be sometimes and her heart thudded her chest at the idea of them having a private moment out on the beach. She wrapped up her conversation and proceeded to make her way to the beach where she knew Jughead was waiting for her. As she began to walk to her destination, ‘Shape of You’ by Ed Sheeran came on and Betty immediately cringed, remembering that it used to be her song with Archie. She frowned at the way her thoughts went, realizing that she hadn’t thought about him at all in a while. She had been too busy with work and when that wasn’t taking her time, she was in her blissful bubble with Jughead.

As if on cue, Archie stepped in front of her and blocked her path. She knew he was invited to the party and had seen him earlier in the evening, but she hadn’t really thought twice about him. He gave her his all American boy smile and from the way he swayed on his two feet, she could tell that he was already drunk.

“Hey B-betty,” he said, hiccuping slightly.

“Hi Archie,” she said and then proceeded to step around him.

Archie stepped with her and blocked her path again as annoyance flared in her chest.

“Excuse me Archie,” Betty said flatly.

“Don’t you want to dance?” he asked, reaching for her, “This used to be OUR SONG!”

Betty stepped back out of his reach. “No thank you, I’m on my way to meet Jughead down at the beach.”

Archie scoffed. “That old guy? How could you be attracted to that loser?”

“That loser is my boyfriend!” Betty seethed. “And he makes me happier than you ever could so don’t speak about him like that!”

“Aww c’mon, Betts, don’t you miss me?” Archie asked, reaching out for her again.

Betty couldn’t move back fast enough and soon as his hand found purchase on her arm, he yanked her towards him.

“No, Archie! Get off of me.” she yelled.

“Let’s dance to our song for old times sake,” he slurred as he began to move to the music.

Betty could smell the stench of alcohol on Archie’s breath and resisted the urge to gag. She continued to push against him so that she could pull herself out of his grasp.

“Arch, I said let go of me!” she yelled again.

People at the party were starting to stare at them, and out of the corner of her eye she could see Veronica and Reggie starting to move towards them.

“Hey, asshole.”

A hush fell over the party, the only sound was the music that was still playing out of the stereo speakers. Archie turned around, releasing her as he turned to see who was addressing him; but as time seemed to slow down, she already knew who the voice belonged to. Jughead was standing behind them, fist clenched and jaw set and Betty’s eyes went a little wide at the level of rage she saw on her boyfriend’s face.

“What do you want, scum?” Archie asked.

“When a woman tells you to get off of her, you get off of her. Did your parents not teach you fucking manners when you were younger or are you just that fucking stupid?” Jughead said, with a smoldering look in his eyes.

“Who are you calling stupid?” Archie barked before swinging at him.

Jughead side-stepped so that Archie’s blow missed him and then came up from behind him and put Archie in a headlock and started dragging him towards the beach.

“Jughead!” Betty yelled as she started to follow them. She turned around and saw that Veronica, Reggie, and Moose were following them, too.

When they made it out onto the beach, he released Archie, shoving him to the ground. Archie sputtered on the sand as he attempted to stand. When he finally did get up and turned around to face him, the two men were standing a mere five feet away from each other.

“What the hell man!” Archie yelled.

“I warned you,” Jughead said. “I warned you what would happen if you even looked her way again.”

Archie chuckled. “I can’t believe you’re getting this worked up over that crazy bitch! She’s not worth it.”

Before Betty could even take offense to what Archie had said about her, like a flash of lightning Jughead stepped forward and punched Archie straight in the jaw. Archie’s head snapped back right before he spun and hit the ground again with a sickening thump. Reggie and Moose started to run forward, expecting Jughead to keep hitting Archie but he didn’t. Jughead grabbed Archie by the shoulders and flipped him over.

“That is the last time you say something like that about her. In fact, that is the last time you say anything about her at all. If her name leaves your mouth ever again, I will end you. Do you understand?” Jughead asked, his voice dangerously low.

Archie coughed, wiping sand and blood off of his face. “Yeah man, I understand.”

***

Jughead released Archie and stood straight before turning around. Both Reggie and Moose were standing behind him while Veronica and Betty were clinging to each other a few feet away. A flash of guilt went through him when he realized the scene he had made.

He walked over to the two girls. “I’m sorry,” he said to Veronica. “I didn’t mean to ruin your party… I just couldn’t let him speak about Betty like that.”

Veronica nodded and before she could respond any further, Jughead grabbed Betty’s hand and started leading her towards the beach house, walking so quickly that he was practically dragging her behind him. He half thought about just lifting her up and carrying her the rest of the way, but once they got off the beach and back onto the patio, she didn’t have any trouble keeping up with his long strides.

Once in the house, keeping a tight hold on her hand, he led them up the two flights of stairs to the bedroom they had been staying in. He opened the door and tugged Betty inside and once she cleared the door, he pushed her up against it, framing her face with his hands before crushing his lips to hers. Maybe it was the adrenaline in his veins, but he was desperate to feel her like a parched man who saw the mirage of an oasis.

She inhaled sharply the second his mouth consumed her own effectively erasing all thought from her mind. In the darkness of the bedroom, it was just the two of them and their need for each other. They were a blur of sexual desire as their hands, tongues, mouths, and teeth covered every inch of skin that wasn’t covered by clothing. Without thinking, he grabbed the hem of her shirt and yanked it over her head before returning to his sensual assault on strip of perfect skin between her jaw and her collarbone. He bit down gently, causing her to cry out and buck her hips against his own, and for a reason he would never be able to explain, the sound she made brought him back to the current situation.

The one where his girlfriend was harassed by her piece of shit ex-boyfriend and he punched his lights out.

“Shit, Betty, we need to slow down,” Jughead breathed as he stepped away from her.

She was still leaning against the door, lips parted, her chest moving up and down as she attempted to catch her breath. After a beat, she pushed herself up off the door and nodded.

“You’re right, are you okay?” she asked as she gently grabbed his hand, the one that he had punched Archie with and surveyed the damage.

She couldn’t stand the idea of him getting hurt because of her. Before she could say anything, she felt Jughead’s hands gently cup her face and tilt it to look at him.

“Are you okay?” Jughead asked, his voice laced with concern.

Betty immediately leaned into his touch, it was second nature to her now, as easy as breathing. Like he was her breath of fresh air, every single time.

“Yeah, I’m good. I can’t believe you punched him,” she said.

“He shouldn’t have put his hands on you, first of all. And I wasn’t about to let him get away with talking about you like that. Like your crazy. I don’t understand why he keeps calling you that,” Jughead scoffed.

Tears, unbidden started to burn the back of Betty’s eyes. “I do,” she whispered.

Jughead looked at her, tilting his head slightly as his eyebrows furrowed together. “What do you mean?”

Betty lifted her hands to him, palms facing up as she slowly uncurled her fingers. She had been dreading this moment, knowing she had to tell him, but so terrified that it would pop the perfect bubble they had been living in for the last four months. Jughead took one of them in his hand to inspect it more closely, and when he stiffened slightly, she knew that he had found the silver crescent-like scars on her palm. Feeling ashamed for how she had marred her skin all those times wasn’t new to her. She knew that it was bad, at least the reasonable part of her did. The other part of her, at the time at least, had been drowning and the pain from her nail biting into the smooth flesh of her palm gave her the lifeline she so desperately needed. She didn’t know how Jughead would react now that he knew the truth, now that he knew about the worst part of her. She didn’t think he would leave, but she hoped that he wouldn’t look at her any differently, that his affection for her wouldn’t change. After a moment, he smoothed his thumb over the marks before bringing her hand up to his mouth to plant a kiss on her palm. She let out a shaky breath she had no idea that she’d been holding.

“Archie didn’t know how to deal with my anxiety and either did I,” she sniffed as she began to explain. “He used to tell me to ‘get over it’ and so I would dig my fingernails into my palms as a way to cope. I was able to keep it from him for a while, but when he found out towards the end he went ballistic. He called me crazy and told me that I should be locked up in a mental institution.”

Jughead pressed his lips into a thin line as he shook his head. “He shouldn’t have said that. You are not crazy, Betts. Besides, none of these are fresh, you are doing so well.”

Betty looked up at him, tears spilling out of her eyes. She was an avid reader, she had read plenty of romance novels and she had read countless ways of how people fell in love. But the one thing she never read about was how you could look at someone you loved and feel the other half of yourself, the half you didn’t even know was missing until that moment, finally falling into place.

“I haven’t felt the need since the day I met you,” she breathed, not breaking their eye contact.

His face fell a little as he gave her a look of unadulterated admiration that sent a chill up her spine.

“I love you, Betty Cooper,” he whispered.

Betty laughed softly before she brought her hands up to his face and pulled him in for a kiss.

When she pulled away she whispered back, “Jughead Jones, I love you, too.”

He scooped her up bridal style, like he had done earlier in the day but this time he had no intention of throwing her into the sea; but had every intention of throwing her onto the 1800 thread count sheets of their four-poster bed. She giggled with delight when he dropped her on the king sized mattress and immediately unhooked and discarded her bra, throwing it off to the side. She inched back towards the pillows as he unbuckled his pants, pulling his boxers down with them. Sometimes she took off her own bottoms, but more often than not she left them on, knowing how much pleasure he got from removing not only her pants but whatever lacey undergarments she was wearing as well.  

He crawled his way up the bed, putting most of his weight on his knees so that he could focus on taking off her shorts and underwear. He audibly groaned when he saw the navy blue thong she was wearing.

“I swear to god,” he said exasperatedly. “When you go underwear shopping, do you think to yourself, ‘How can I torture Jughead’?”

Betty brought her knees up slightly so she could roll onto her stomach. Leaning up on her elbows, she arched her back and reached back with one hand, snapping the thong against her porcelain skin.

“Oh, I could list a ton of ways that you torture me,” she said in a sultry tone. “I think it’s only fair that I get to do the same thing to you just a little.”

Jughead licked his lower lip. “Is that so? I’d like to hear this list of offenses that you have Ms. Cooper. How do I torture you?”

Betty got on her hands and knees, moving a little closer to him before reaching out and taking his hand, bringing it to her dripping wet heat.

“When you touch me here.” She shuddered as she drug his fingers across her sensitive flesh.

Jughead adjusted his hand so that he could start rubbing circles into her clit. “I see, do I torture you with just my fingers?”

“Your mouth-” Betty let out an audible gasp as he increased the pressure- “your mouth, too.”

“You know you're not so innocent with that mouth of yours either,” he whispered as he leaned over, closer to her ear.

Keeping his hand between her thighs, Jughead moved so that he was behind her, his legs straddling hers while his almost painful length pressed into backside. Leaning over, he put his left hand down near hers to keep his balance as he hovered over her, his chest to her back. He adjusted his right hand so that he could massage her clit with his thumb while sliding two fingers slowing into her.

From this position, his mouth was still right next to her ear. “Am I torturing you right now?”

“Yes,” she panted.

He pressed his length harder into her backside. “How about now?”

“Y-yes,” she panted again.

He picked up the pace with his fingers. “And what about now?”

Betty moaned loudly. “Oh god, yes.”

He smirked into her hair. “Good.”

Then without warning, he removed his fingers and slammed into her, causing her to cry out loudly. Tightly, he gripped her hips as he slowly withdrew himself and slammed into her again. She reached out and grabbed the pillow that was right in front of her to press her face into and muffle the sounds of her erotic moans.

After a few more times, when he himself couldn’t take it anymore, he picked up his pace. It wasn’t fast and rough, but it wasn’t soft and slow either. It was a pace between that he knew both of them enjoyed. However, just as he felt her walls begin to tighten around him, he pulled out of her and asked her to lay on her back. Gently, he lifted both of her legs so that her knees were up by her chest and her ankles were by his ears. He eased into her again, leaning his weight slowly against her until her body was almost bent in half. Then he picked up the pace again.

Betty squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh my god,” she breathed as she felt Jughead fill her again and again.

“Look at me,” he ordered as he felt her tighten.

Her gorgeous green eyes sprang open, glittering with love, lust, and passion.

“You are mine and I will always protect what is mine,” he said through clenched teeth, he didn’t have much longer now.

Betty nodded, “I’m yours, Juggie. Ah-”

Suddenly, he felt her hot, slick wall clench down on him as her orgasm started to rip right through every fiber of her being and he was close behind her, pulling out and coming on her stomach. He released her legs and rolled so that he was lying beside her.

“Holy shit,” he panted. “That was amazing.”

Betty leaned over and grabbed a few tissues off of the bedside table so that she clean off her stomach. When she was done, she nestled herself into Jughead’s side and hummed contentedly.

The last thing he thought about before he drifted off to sleep was how he never imagined the possibility of holding the entire world in his arms.

***

The next morning Betty awoke to Jughead drawing patterns lazily on her bare back, her face still pressed into the pillow. She opened her eyes reluctantly and turned to see him staring at her with a crooked smile on his face. It made her heart flutter. She stretched like a cat, arching her back and extending her limbs as her bones and muscles cracked in all the right places.

“G-morning,” she said sleepily before she let a yawn. “What time is it?”

Jughead shrugged. “Just after eight, I think.”

“Are you not going for a run this morning?”

“I was going to but I decided I wanted to spend the last morning of vacation with you.”

She couldn’t help the smile that broke across her face, she didn’t think she would ever get over how romantic he was on Sunday mornings. Some mornings he would let her sleep in, but more often than not he would wake her up early, demanding her attention. She loved every second of it.

She rolled onto her side and scooted into her usual spot against his side, her head resting on his shoulder.

When they layed like this, part of the time would be them laying into each other’s silence while Jughead dragged his fingers up and down her arm. The other part they would just talk about everything and nothing. It was their unofficial time, she thought, to get to know each other more.

She had told him more in those four months than she had told anyone in her entire life. In their bed wrapped up in the sheets, wrapped up in each other, she felt safe. Not just to tell him her secrets, but to just talk about whatever popped into her mind at the time. She had never had that kind of freedom with anyone. She’d gotten close with Veronica of course, and her sister Polly, but there was just something different about talking to him.

He shifted then, kissing her deeply. There was no tongue or the moving of lips, but the way he pressed his mouth against hers, she could feel him physically trying to pour all of his love into her. She was beginning to discover that sometimes it was just his way of telling her how much he loved her and it made her heart race.

“I want to give you something,” he said when he pulled away.

“Okay,” she breathed.

She sat up, pulling the bedsheet up over her chest as he got out of bed and went over to pull something out of the pocket of his jeans. She spotted a black, velvet jewelry box and her heart slammed up into her throat.

That…. He couldn’t be…. No, it is way too soon…. What if it is?! Her mind was racing.

“I saw this in one of the storefront windows when I was on my run the other morning,” he said tremulously as he sat back down on the bed. “It made me think of you.”

Betty swallowed hard, her hand shaking slightly as she reached to take the box from him. Carefully, she opened the box, gasping slightly when she saw what was inside.

“Jug-” she said, her voice breaking.

Inside the box was a necklace with two small charms on it. The first charm was a circular pendant that was silver and had the letter “J” stamped into it while the second charm was a round-cut, pink tourmaline stone.

Her eyes shot up to his. “This is beautiful, Jugie. Thank you.”

He smiled at her, exhaling forcefully as if he had been holding his breath.

“Do you like it?” he asked nervously.

“Of course I do!” she said. “But why did you get this for me?”

The tips of Jughead’s ears turned pink and she smiled at the sight, realizing that she hadn’t seen him blush like that since Veronica’s birthday party a few months back.

“Do you want the long version or the short version?”

She thought about it for a moment. “The long version.”

“I thought you might say that,” he said, laughing nervously. “Look, Betts, I know our friends tell us that it’s crazy how hard and fast we fell for each other in the past four months and I don’t know, maybe it is a honeymoon phase like the say, but…. But all I know is, I didn’t know I could feel the way I feel about you until you walked into my life. Even when I was with my ex-fiance, there was still this small voice inside of me that said something was missing and when I broke things off with her, that feeling only grew in my chest. I felt so lost to the point where I felt like a wild, caged animal; and then we kissed for the first time and all of that was silenced for me and all I could wonder was where you had been all of my life. Maybe we’ll work out, maybe we won’t, but I’m not going to let the fear of ‘maybe’ stop me from loving you fully. So, I got this necklace for you because I want you to have a reminder of how much you mean to me every single day.”

Tears filled the brims of her eyes. “And the short version?”

“You’re my whole world, Betts,” he answered without hesitation.

She took the necklace out of its box, holding the chain at both ends and handing it to him. Once he had the necklace, she moved closer with her back facing him and pulled her hair out of the way while he fastened the chain behind her neck. He kissed her bare shoulder when he was done.

She turned her face and kissed him. “I love you.”

He kissed her again, both of them smiling. “I love you, too.”