#sweetb

Whoops, this turned into the longest drabble I’ve written yet. (Also, it was the final SweetBee pairing request in my roster. Maybe I was trying to hang onto them.) Hope you find it worth the wait!

1. “Do you want me to leave?”

AND

13. “I couldkiss you right now!”

AND

17. “This is all your fault!”

Jeeze Louise, when the Serpents celebrated, they celebrated. Betty dodged more than one swaying indulger on her wayto the storeroom to top up Toni’s supplies. The girl hadn’t asked for anythingor sent Betty to run this errand for her, but that was only because she hadn’thad a chance. Drink orders, both slurred and enunciated, had been flying sinceBetty had walked into the Wyrm an hour earlier. She couldn’t understand whyToni had decided to bartend on the night of her girlfriend’s acceptance intothe gang. Maybe Cheryl had requested to be thrown in the deep end, forced tointeract with her universally leather jacketed new extended family. Predictingher cousin’s eccentricities was a battle just waiting for Betty to lose it.

Another toast to the newest Serpent went up as Betty snuck down the backhallway, grinning. It was possible that Cheryl hadn’t quite known what she wasgetting into with this gang, but it was highly probable that the Serpents wereeven less prepared for Cheryl.

Now, she knew the storeroom was back here… Aha! A propped open door. Bettybounded to it, eager to return to the party and surprise Toni with herhelpfulness. She hauled the door open (it was heavier than she’d thought) andbegan to step inside. Abruptly, she stopped, her sneaker scuffing the oldlinoleum. She wasn’t alone: Sweet Pea sat on the floor across from where shestood, back against a shelf. Feeling awkward to be alone with someone she’dnever really had a conversation with, Betty faltered, twisting the doorknobbehind her back to channel her discomfort. He glanced sharply up at her.

“Do you want me to leave?” she asked, trying to be polite and not nosy,though she did wonder what one of Toni’s best friends was doing in, essentially,a closet on such a momentous occasion.

Sweet Pea shrugged, though he looked at her carefully. He’d gone off on heronce in the past, but Betty liked to think they could see a little more eye toeye now that the whole community had begun to be knit back together―Cheryl, asNorthsider as a Northsider could be, being admitted into the Serpents wassurely proof of that.

“Go or stay, just don’t―”

Betty stepped forward to hear him and lifted her hand from the doorknob.

“―close the door.”

There was a solid slam from directly behind her. Betty spun as Sweet Peahopped to his feet.

“Oh my god!” she exclaimed, rotating and tugging at the doorknob. “Is itlocked? Why is it locked?”

Sweet Pea shouldered her aside, trying the doorknob for himself. Even in themidst of her panic, Betty found strength to roll her eyes.

“It’s always locked, Girl Genius,” he replied sarcastically. “Room full ofbooze―” Sweet Pea gestured around them, “―bar full of alkies―” he thumped hisfist against the door, “―you don’t think they keep it locked?”

Not a particular fan of being condescended to, Betty turned to face SweetPea, ready to reply until she realized they were practically chest to chest,standing there between the racks of bottles and cans stacked to the ceiling.

“So, um,” she started, taking a cautious step backwards and swallowing hardunder the tall boy’s rather intense gaze, “how did you get in?”

“It was already open. Sometimes they keep the bolt fired and let the doorrest open so they don’t have to unlock it every time.”

“Then how did it shut?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Sweet Pea joked meanly, letting his head fall to theside as he accused her in not so many words, “why don’t we ask the person whowas fiddling with the fucking doorknob right before we got locked in here!”

Just giving you guys a heads up that Betty and Sweets make a porno is now Partners In Pleasure! 

Hello! I certainly can! Please enjoy Sweet Pea and Betty’s adventures in babysitting!

5. “I’m going to take care of you, okay?”

AND

7. “You did what?!”

Betty was on her knees in the laundry room, sorting pastel baby clothes fromeven paler pastel baby clothes, when she heard Sweet Pea scream. Although shetried to rise quickly, one of her feet was asleep and she barely managed toprevent herself from toppling over the laundry basket.

“Sweet Pea?” she called back in alarm, grabbing the doorjamb and whippingherself out into the hallway. He didn’t reply.

What could be wrong? He’d accidentally hurt one of Polly’s twins? He’d seena suspicious figure moving in the backyard? The other Black Hood, yet to beapprehended? Betty panicked as she ran to the kitchen, where she’d left SweetPea in charge of feeding the babies the organic, dog-food-looking mush thatPolly had been recommended by someone from ‘the farm.’

When she slid on sock feet into the dining room, Betty saw both Juniper andDagwood sitting in their highchairs, the former looking slightly startled whilethe latter chortled to himself, staring towards the kitchen. Betty followed thebaby’s gaze to her boyfriend, who was clutching a hand to his eye.

“Oh my god!” she exclaimed, hurrying to him. “What happened?”

She tried to peel the hand away from his face, but Sweet Pea wouldn’t lether.

“Juniper didn’t want her orange, mashed up… whatever it was… so I gave it toDag.”

“You did what?! Sweet Pea, I told you, Dagwood only likes the green, um,whatever it is.”

“I thought he’d play ball for me, Betty,” he explained, squinting one-eyedat her. “I figured if I sat him down, man to man… Ouch.”

Betty sighed and gripped her boyfriend by the elbow, steering him to thesink.

“Come on, you probably have baby food in your eye. Bend over the sink andwash it out.”

“Actually, I think it’s the way Dag jabbed the spoon into my eye that didthe most damage,” Sweet Pea reasoned, tucking his dog tags into the neck of hist-shirt so they wouldn’t swing into the sink.

“Why was he holding the spoon?”

“Well, he wouldn’t eat the stuff when I pretended it was an airplane, ahelicopter, a firetruck, or a motorboat, and I was running out of transportationnoises, so I thought I’d let him have a try at it. Which is when Zorro Jr.thrust for my eyeball.”

Sweet Pea waved her off as she attempted to splash water up into his face.

“Chill, Betty. I’ve had a lot worse, you know.”

Unneeded and startled by the reminder, Betty retreated to the dining room,kissing Juniper’s forehead, then lifting the grinning and kicking Dagwood fromhis chair. Thank goodness nothing serious had happened and she could give apositive report to her mom and Polly when they returned home from a much neededmovie night. As many times as she attempted to mollify herself with thatthought, Sweet Pea’s words echoed in her head like dripping water in a cave.

“Betty?”

She glanced over to see Sweet Pea dragging the hem of his shirt across hiswet face. The smile wouldn’t stick on her mouth as she approached him, Dagwoodleaning forward in her arms.

“Did I scare you?”

“Of course not,” Betty replied shortly. “You don’t scare me.”

With a grin, Sweet Pea laid a hand over his heart.

“Way to kick a guy when he’s down.” She didn’t reply, rubbing her face intothe side of the baby’s head. Sweet Pea groaned. “I do stupid shit, Betty. Sometimesit’s for a good reason, but that doesn’t protect me from getting hurt. I can’tjust stop being the way I am because I’m with you now. The tattoo on my neckisn’t the only thing that makes me a Serpent.”

He pointed a long finger at the gang mark, exposing the old knife nicks onthe back of his hand. Heart getting squeezed somewhere in her throat, Bettyreached out and took that hand, balancing Dagwood in her other arm.

“I know―” she started.

“There aren’t two versions of me,” Sweet Pea interrupted heatedly. “Thereisn’t the gang member and the babysitter, two separate dudes.”

“Sweet Pea, I know that. I just… Inever want you to get hurt because of me.”

Her boyfriend laughed hard and Dagwood rocked in her arms, trying to getover to the grinning boy in black whom he’d readily adopted as his uncle.

“There’s one thing that has changed,” Sweet Pea admitted, taking the babyfrom Betty while she went to get Juniper, who was beginning to fuss. “I’m goingto take care of you, ok? The exact same way I know you’d take care of me.”

Betty opened her mouth to argue, but her boyfriend cut her off.

“No, you have to accept that,” Sweet Pea instructed. “I’m always going tothrow myself on a knife for you, babe.”

“Or a plastic baby spoon,” Betty said wryly, the funny expression on herniece’s face making her smile, “as the case may be.”

Hi! Of course, and thank you for your patience!

68. “Well, this is where I live.”

The pedestrian signal was flashing red and his jacket was over hershoulders. The pair of them stuttered forward and back, his rubber-soledsneakers longing to squeak, yet unable on wet concrete; it had rained whilethey were in the movie. When they, tacitly, decided to wait to cross ratherthan racing to the other side of the road before the light firmly forbade it,Sweet Pea’s hand shot out and clasped Betty’s. He was jumpy and everythingbelow the shoulder felt paralyzed, but he’d done it. He had her hand! Now what?

Sweet Pea exhaled and let his gaze sneak sideways until it locked withBetty’s and she smiled and he panicked.

“So you liked it? The movie?”

His first words in four blocks, and an almost exact copy of those he’d saidas they’d pressed out of the Bijou’s doors.

“Yeah.” Betty laughed a little, probably at him, but he deserved it forbeing so goddamn spacey. “What did you think?”

“Kickass,” Sweet Pea stated. “I’ve never gotten away with stealing anythingtrickier than a wine bottle. It’s nice to have role models.”

She laughed harder and he felt her fingers wiggle and twist until, suddenly,miraculously, they were intertwined with his. What he didn’t bother to say wasthat his real favourite part of Ocean’s 8had been the vibrant costumes; Sweet Pea was near certain that was the elementhe had to thank for letting him stay focused on the screen instead of the angelsipping cream soda and smelling like GIRL in the seat beside his.

“How did you pull that one off?”

“Oh, straight up the sleeve, then clutch the arm like you’re favouring aninjury,” Sweet Pea explained with a shrug. “Child’s play.”

Betty gave him a respectful nod, lips in a pink smirk that darkened near themiddle. Probably had a tongue fuchsia from her soda. He was still staring ather face when her eyes turned greener.

“Let’s walk,” he said, jerking his head at the signal now in their favour.

They hadn’t exactly talked aboutwhere they were going, but they’d left the Bijou with a buzz, eyes glimmeringfrom being on a first date that didn’t feel over yet to either of them. SweetPea just felt… connected to her. He knew if he’d walked her home, he would’velaid down on the lawn and stared up at her window all night, heart thumping,eyes uninterested in the stars.

They crossed to the other side of the street and Sweet Pea could feel thatthing happening―that thing that happens at a dance, where the partners inchtogether, so slowly that the song might end before they’ve reached that pointwhere their adrenaline dies down and they can tell they’re holding the otherperson like they want to, like they wanted to when they started dancing, butdidn’t have the guts to. It was going on between him and Betty because theuniverse was a conscientious and benevolent place that cared for Sweet Pea andwanted to put his accomplishments up in the sky as constellations like thelargescale version of taping a kid’s art to the fridge.

Their hands loosened from each other’s and their inner arms rubbed together,then Betty’s fingers were sneaking along the back of his shirt and holding abelt loop of his jeans on the far side from where she was walking along next tohim. Sweet Pea lifted his hand and brushed her hair away from the back of herneck to lay his arm there. It dangled over her shoulder, warming the leather.

Apparently, Riverdale had kept on existing while they were wrapped up in therightest first date he’d ever been on(out of, ok, not so very many), because they were standing outside of hisSouthside apartment building.

“Well,” Sweet Pea said, looking down and aligning his shoe with a gruesomecrack in the sidewalk, “this is where I live.”

He felt Betty’s hip when she tucked herself closer and watched her eyelasheslower as she probably devised a plan to take off, possibly including the words,‘thanks, but no thanks,’ or at least the sentiment.

She said, “I like it.”

“No shit?” he gasped. “Sorry.” Sweet Pea swallowed, collecting himself. “Youwant to…?”

“Mhmm,” Betty agreed.

Your wish is my command!

72. “You deserve so much better.”

AND

99. “Idon’t care what they said, it doesn’t mean shit!”

What a fucking night. Invasion of the Northsiders, a variety show thatturned into a strip show, F.P.’s un-retirement… and it was only 11 o’clock!Sweet Pea snorted to himself in amused amazement. None of it really hadanything to do with him, but even being a spectator tonight was exhausting. Hehauled the front door of the Whyte Wyrm open, stepping out to get some coldnight air in his face, and halted abruptly, pressing himself back into thedoorway. There were Betty and Jughead, having it out in the parking lot.

Having it out? That didn’t make sense, considering the girl had just swungherself half-naked around a pole for her boyfriend’s entertainment. What acouple of idiots.

Sweet Pea was about to go back inside and leave them to their argument whenhe realized Betty was crying, catching the neon reflection in her eyes as heturned his head away. And Jughead was leaving her, striding across the parkinglot to the street. What the fuck?

No, he should get inside. Swipe a drink of somebody’s beer or bully Fangsinto another game of pool.

He made it as far as gripping the edge of the door, then glanced back atBetty, standing there, shivering and alone.

“You deserve so much better,” he mumbled as kept her in his sights. Then, “Shit.”

At a jog, he approached her, shoes crunching broken asphalt. Betty glancedaround, wiping at her face and crossing her arms protectively.

“You ok?” Sweet Pea asked. She looked startled. Maybe she really didn’tknow him, but even his closest friends would’ve been surprised to hear him activelyinquiring into how someone was doing.

“Fine,” she said shortly, sniffing hard.

“Don’t lie to me, Northsider,” he suggested. “You’re talking to somebody who’sbeen lying since he could talk and I do it a hell of a lot more convincinglythan you do.”

Betty glanced up at him, clearly trying to be angry, but looking desperatelysad.

“I’m not ok,” she confessed.

“Yeah, well,” Sweet Pea shrugged, wondering what he was doing, having this conversationhere, now, with her. “Jones has his head up his ass like 90% of the time, so I’msure he’ll come aro―”

“He dumped me.”

“He did?”

Betty let out a short, cynical laugh that hurt someplace deep inside SweetPea’s chest.

“Yep. Apparently my Serpent dance didn’t go over very well with him.” Shepaused to wipe at her eyes again. “Or with my mom, or F.P., or―”

“I don’t care what they said, it doesn’t mean shit!”

She gave him a wary look.

“Why would you say that?” Before he could respond, trying to scrape a castleof an answer out of the thoughts that turned to sand the longer he looked intoher eyes, she continued. “Why would you care? Why are you being nice to me?”She took a step away from him.

“Betty―” He took that same step, after her.

“No, don’t answer. Please,” she begged, the word warbling out of her on thewings of a sob, “don’t answer. You told me what a good liar you are. I couldnever believe what you said.”

He couldn’t figure out how to get the words he wanted to say to this heartbroken,beautiful blonde going in the same direction, but his hand knew how, and thatdirection was straight for her. Instinctively, Sweet Pea stroked her bare upperarm, feeling goosebumps. He breathed out, heart racing, and she shuddered astheir eyes met, though the skin under his palm was growing warm.