@bcysnextdoor || soulmate AU starter
Pain exploded along the ridge of Archie’s cheekbone just as he was about to take a bite from his burger in Pop’s Diner -- his head jerked to one side, and the sandwich fell from his fingers as he cursed. Fred stared at him in surprise from across the table, one eyebrow raised disapprovingly at his language, but Archie ignored him. “Oh my god, what the hell was that?” he demanded, one hand cradling the side of his face as the pain receded to a dull throb.
“I don’t --” he cut off abruptly, curling down around the new stabbing pain in his side, and then his kidney. “I’m going to kill him if he’s in another fight,” he ground out, forcing himself out of the booth. “Seriously. I’m going to kill him.” The first time this had happened was the night Jughead endured the so-called Gauntlet -- Archie hadn’t been able to sleep all night because of the pain. It wasn’t until two days later, when he saw Jughead and all the bruises, that the pieces clicked into place. The new Serpent had promised he would be more careful -- clearly, it hadn’t worked!
He made it out of Pop’s and halfway down the sidewalk before his knuckles began to sting; apparently, Jughead landed a blow of his own. Archie broke into a run and found his supposed soulmate in the middle of the road, Reggie on the other end of the blows. Two of the other Serpents were there, too, fighting the other football players, and what the hell? Again?
“Knock it off!” Archie’s voice was winded; Reggie had just landed a pretty solid punch to Jughead’s chest. “For god’s sake, Reggie, knock it off, or I’m telling coach you’re fighting again and you’re going to be riding the bench for the first game of the season!” He put himself between his teammate, glaring hard. “Seriously, stop. Go home, before someone calls the police.”
There was plenty of grumbling and another several insults spit from both sides, but eventually, Archie was left standing there beside Jughead alone, his face still aching in a way that told him Jughead wasn’t feeling great at the moment. “Come on,” he said with a sigh. “Come home with me and I’ll help you get cleaned up. And then we’re really going to have to talk about this, because you’re not the only one who feels like he’s been in a street fight, now.”
