serpent king & fifth avenue princess

And I totally forgot to post this to Tumblr and I didn't start advertising on here until months after I started because I forgot I had this lol. Please, for your viewing pleasure my very first one. It's simple and sweet and like 1200 words (oh how I was so naive to how many words I would write about them...)

“Hey, Archie…” Jughead sauntered into his friend’s garage. They really hadn’t spoken for a while, their lives taking them in separate directions. He missed his friend, honestly. For the first time in a long time, he thought their paths might be joining again. At least he hoped they would. 

“Jug! Hey! What’s the word, bird?” The ever jovial Archie. Even at his lowest he still had the most optimism out of anyone Jughead knew. 

“I was wondering if I could bend your ear for a minute?” He set his messenger bag down beside the stool next to Archie’s hotrod. 

“Sure! What can I do you for?” Archie searched through tools for a wrench to tighten something on his car, Jughead wasn’t sure what. At Jughead’s hesitation Archie looked at his friend. “Is it about girls?” Archie’s smile was a little too big. For once he could give Jughead the advice instead of the other way around.

“Uh… yeah… It’s about-”

“Ethel? No. Tabitha? No.” Archie started to guess. When Jughead started to correct him, Archie finished with “You know what? It doesn’t matter. If she’s caught your eye, I’m sure she’s the ginchiest!”

Jughead chuckled. “Yeah, she’s the ginchiest.” He thought about the beauty pageant and how he was sure everyone knew that he only had eyes for Veronica. “So… how do I…? How do I tell her?”

Archie popped up from the hood in surprise. “You? The writer? Can’t think of anything to say?” It was lighthearted ribbing but it still left Archie astonished. 

“I’ve tried. It just all sounds so… wrong.” He held his cheek in his hand forlorn. 

“In my experience? You just tell her outright. Like with me and Betty?” Jughead looked up, Archie and Betty were a thing again? “When we got caught earlier this year, I just told her that I liked it and she was a gas about it!”

“Occam's Razor.” Jughead acknowledged.

“Arkham’s Razor? What does Batman have to do with it? I mean you could try and be Bruce Wayne…”

"I want to hear you say it." It's an abrupt demand and she falters. "What?" "I want you to admit out loud that you never gave a shit about me," he presses on, drunk, impulsive, "that it was all just a distraction for you." "Don't be ridiculous, Jughead." His arms shoot up as she makes to turn away, boxing her against the brick wall. "Say it, Veronica." He's irrationally fixated on her mouth, on the choreography of it forming the words that had only ever been implied before. Needing to see them. Needing to hear them Coldly and without remorse.

Humbling isn't debilitating enough of a word. Humiliating is closer but lacks permanence. It's disfiguring to look at someone who left you for dead and in some completely fucked up stab of irony feel something gasp alive.

Chapters: 12/12 Fandom: Riverdale (TV 2017) Rating: Mature Relationships: Jughead Jones/Veronica Lodge ——

They were a fluke. An addictive accident, like LSD. And in time, all the ways their lives were supposed to go, the turns they were supposed to take, they’d start gaining volume. Taking up their rightful space. Crowding out the accidents until eventually, the two of them would course-correct into exactly what they were always meant to be. Strangers.