The Wedding AU that nobody knew they wanted. I don't think we'll be in for a long ride, just for the short time Hallmark is airing movies on their channel.

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Chapter 1 You Want To Marry Me, We'll Marry

It was a perfect day for a wedding. The air was crisp and it smelled like fall. The trees were just starting to turn scarlet and orange.

Jughead craned his head to look for Betty, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet while he waited for the arrival of his lovely bride-to-be. It was the second Friday of the month and that meant it was his turn to play the groom.

Archie pressed play on his iPod and "Canon in D" started to play. Betty appeared with a handful of wilting weeds, her hair golden underneath the autumn sunshine as she started to walk towards him in her Vineyard Vines sweater and L.L. Bean wellies.

Jughead's heart skipped a beat when she smiled at him. He wanted to freeze time because he knew there would be a moment in time where she would be walking down an actual aisle and Archie would be the actual groom. He would be the best man, wishing for things he could not have.

Of course that was a while away and today, Archie was officiating the ceremony. Today, Betty was going to be his wife even if it was just all a game and they were actually too young to think about getting married for real.

The ceremony went by rather quickly because Archie didn't know most of it. He pronounced them husband and wife and threw acorns at them as they ran up the yard. Then they moved on to the next stage of the game, the first dance.

Betty was unlike the other girls in their grade, so they didn't dance to Justin Bieber or the Jonas Brothers. She had a love for older music, so she'd chosen a Carpenters song instead. They whirled and twirled while Archie danced with an imaginary bridesmaid while the lead singer warbled about waiting and adoring eyes.

It was the first time Jughead ever dared kissed her and even then, it wasn't full on the lips. Just the corner of her mouth, enough where he could taste her bubblegum Lip Smackers but not enough that she would totally be repulsed by him.

He pulled away and Betty blushed but didn't say anything.

"Betty Cooper, I love you," he whispered, not loud enough for her to even hear.

Betty stopped abruptly and for one agonizing second, Jughead thought she had heard him. But she took his hand and pulled him towards her house.

"Come on Archie! I made cupcakes for an after school snack!" She announced.

Jughead didn't think he would ever love her more.

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Sixteen Years Later

He proposed to her over coffee ice cream sundaes and This Is Us reruns.

She was in the middle of talking about pitching a series of articles to Marie Claire about fashion in television when he interrupted her.

"I think we should get married."

He felt like he was ten-years-old all over again, except this time he wasn't proposing with a cherry flavored ring pop and there wasn't going to be a ceremony immediately to follow in Archie's backyard. This time it was real, she would say yes or no and they'd be heading into 'til death do we part.

Betty stopped talking. "What?" she asked, her breath catching in her throat.

"I said I think we should get married," Jughead repeated.

Betty glanced at the television where Jack and Rebecca were getting married. "Is this because we're watching This Is Us? I know their marriage looks good but it's television, Juggie. We don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

Jughead shook his head. "No. I've been thinking about this for a while now. I love you, it's only natural we take the next step and not because society says so. I know we've only had terrible examples growing up and I know I've said that's a good reason not to get married because we could only be bad at it like everyone else. But I know if we don't try, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life. Because all I've ever wanted to since I was a kid is marry you."

Her eyes widened and she leaned over to press the pause button with their remote. "Really? You've wanted to marry me for that long?"

"We used to pretend we were getting married in Archie's backyard when we were younger," Jughead reminded her. "When it was my turn to play the groom, I thought about what it would be like to really get to be your husband one day. I knew I would never fit into your equation as anything more than a friend and I was okay with that. But now. . ."

"You never told me that," Betty said.

"Because Archie had already asked you to marry him first," Jughead explained. "But now we're all grown up and you're mine and even though I'm terrified, I would still like it if we spent the rest of our lives together."

Betty bit her bottom lip, she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him too. That wasn't even a question. She'd dreamed about him proposing for the better part of a decade but it had slipped away as he'd tried to talk them both out of it after witnessing the wreck of relationships around them.

Her own parents were still together, living the lyrics of a sad Carly Simon song.

But they weren't their families, he had said as much before he had kissed her for the first time and they'd fallen into an intimacy they would never get out of.

If anyone could make it last, they could. They'd already gone through so much together and came out stronger for it.

Betty nodded. "I'll marry you Jughead. I can't think of anything more I would like to do more."

"Hold on! I have something for you!" Jughead said, untangling himself from her arms and going to his bedroom.

Betty leaned over the couch armrest and watched him rummage through his underwear and sock drawer. After a few seconds, he found what he was looking for and came back, getting down on one knee when he did.

"Jughead?"

"I'm going to do this the right way," Jughead said. "Well, sort of. If I did it the way everybody expected me to, I would have proposed like Archie proposed to Veronica."

Betty shook her head. "It's okay, this is more our speed. This is more you. Go on."

"Okay, Betty Cooper, I have loved you since that first day I met you and you shared your chocolate chip cookies with me. My life has never been the same and even though I'm scared to death of what could happen, I know I want to try with you. I know I want to make it work with you. I'm tired of you leaving at the end of the night because we're not technically living together. I want you to stay forever if you'd like. So, will you marry me? Will you be my wife, you don't even have to take my last name," Jughead said as he took her hand and slid a band on her left ring finger.

"I already said yes," Betty whispered.

"I know but I wanted to do it the right way and you did tell me to go on."

Betty studied the ring, it was an art deco piece in a white gold with a wheat pattern setting. She knew enough about jewelry to tell that there weren't very many carats in the diamond, but it was still beautiful and it belonged to her.

"But you already had it—"

"I know. I know. . ." Jughead interrupted. "But I kind of hoped you weren't listening to me, or you were hoping I would change my mind or whatever it is girls think about when it comes to guys."

"Where'd you get it?" Betty asked.

"When we went to that estate sale in the Hamptons that one time. The old guy who owned the house practically gave it to me when he saw you. He asked if you were my girl and then he said he thought his wife would want you to have it. Something about your energy."

"You did not take an engagement ring from a poor widower!"

"He wasn't poor," Jughead said. "He had an estate in the Hamptons. But no, I didn't, I found it at an antique shop when I was writing that article about how to buy second hand books from thrift stores and used bookstores. I wandered into it by accident, as soon as I saw it, I knew you had to have it."

Betty leaned over to kiss him and almost fell off the couch in the process. He caught her before she did and he helped her stand up. She smiled at him and then he framed her face with his hands and kissed her.

When Veronica had gotten engaged to Archie, she said when he had kissed her it had felt like her first last kiss.

Betty didn't know what she was talking about.

Because your first last kiss with the person you were going to spend the rest of your life could only feel like a beginning.

TBC. . .

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Author's Note:

Real talk, it took me six attempts to write this first draft and I'm still not 100 percent happy with how this turned out. I'm hoping to gain momentum as I write this. I hope you'll tell me what you thought! The chapter title is from the Carly Simon song "That's The Way I Always Heard It Should Be". It is also the song that Betty is thinking about in reference to her parents.

Until Next Time!

Love,

Holly, 6/3/2017