A/N: Funny story. Sylwrites (ao3) posted the first chapter of her own neighbours au a few days ago (meet the morning, which you should definitely start if you haven't already), and we had a good laugh over how our U-haul scenes are... well. I'll let you make up your own mind on that.

Point is, we decided together that neither of us was going to change any details we had planned, and you all get two neighbour au's at kinda the same time. #sorrynotsorry

do me a favour,

can your heart rate rise a little?

would you be so kind? by dodie clark

It felt like he had been driving for weeks.

The air conditioning in the rental truck was broken and it was the middle of August. Sweat kept gathering on his forehead, even with the windows rolled down. Jughead reached for a bottle of water, feeling his back unstick damply from the driver's seat. When he sat back a moment later, he tried to ignore the urge to cringe.

He wanted a cold shower and a hot meal, closely followed by a soft bed, but the likelihood of that happening was hovering around 0%. He had to get to the apartment, do the walk through with the building manager, and then unpack the truck largely by himself, unless Archie managed to get away from work early.

737 miles down, only 18 to go.

Jughead glanced in his mirrors again, making sure JB was still somewhere behind him. And there she was, one car back, barrelling along in his old Honda. With air conditioning.

This had been a whirlwind.

Jughead was just finishing school himself when Jellybean had called him, distraught.

"Jug, I don't know what to do," she'd whispered. Something had happened, and she was hesitant, but he had to know what it was in order to help her. With some coaxing and reassurance, Jellybean had reluctantly informed him that she was pregnant. Jelly was 20 years old, but she was still living with their dad in Riverdale, in a trailer park, with gang associations. And she was determined not to raise a child there.

"Have you - are you sure?" Jughead remembered asking.

"Positive," she'd groaned. "What am I gonna do, Jug?"

"Come live with me," he'd suggested half a beat later. It was the most obvious solution.

From that moment on, everything had been thrown into chaos.

Jughead had pushed through finals and finished his undergraduate degree before looking for an apartment for them - all three of them - in New York, where he was living. Jughead figured it would be easier for Jelly to take classes or work while in a big city with his help, than it would be for her alone, in a small town, with no help. Not that he had a single idea of how to care for a baby, other than the basic 'feed it, change its diaper, make sure it doesn't fall from a great height' method.

He'd applied to jobs all over, hoping for something with good pay, but for now he was a stocker at the local grocery store, working as close to full time as he could get.

As it happened, his roommate, Archie, had been thinking about moving in with his girlfriend, and so the timing had actually worked out for everyone. Arch would go live with Veronica, and Jug would find a place suitable for himself, his sister, and his soon-to-be niece or nephew.

"We're totally gonna cramp your style," Jelly had said once the tears had stopped.

"Like I had any to begin with," he'd quipped, making her laugh.

That was how, a few months after that fateful phone call, he found himself moving his little sister and all her stuff from rural Indiana to the Big Apple. Now he just had to finish the job, and get everything upstairs into their new apartment, hopefully before the sun went down.

By the time they pulled up to the building, Jughead was ready to fall asleep. Nonetheless, he pried himself out of the seat and stood, stretching his back with a groan. Jelly pulled into the space behind him half a second later, and did the same.

"So, this is home now?" she asked, walking over and looking up the red building with him.

"Better than the trailer park, at least," Jug commented.

"Much better than the trailer park, are you kidding?" She wrapped her hand around his arm, just over his elbow. It was warm, and they were both clammy from the heat but it didn't matter. She gave him a little squeeze and he looked over at her. "Thank you. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You're family, JB. That's what family does." He pulled her into a hug. Her hair was a dull, silvery white with what he thought had been a tint of purple at some point, but it had grown in a bit now, her dark roots showing. He gave one of the pieces in her ponytail a tug, which earned him a swat.

"Welcome home, then."

The walkthrough went pretty quickly, and Jughead officially signed the lease and took possession. JB skipped from room to room, looking out each window, inspecting every closet, sighing happily, and throwing windows open in a somewhat dramatic fashion.

"Which room do you want, Jug?" she called from down the hall.

"The smaller one," he called back, his voice echoing in the empty apartment.

"Are you sure?" His little sister appeared from out of the bathroom, ears perked.

"Yeah. You're gonna need the room more than I will." Jughead refilled his water bottle from the tap, gulping some down a moment later.

"What if you get a girlfriend?" she continued.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, JB." Jughead tried not to laugh. He very much doubted he was going to have time to have a girlfriend, even if he managed to meet a girl he actually wanted to date. He was going to have to work as much as he could where he was, and maybe get something else for a few shifts a week. Babies were not cheap, and at some point, JB wasn't going to be able to work.

"Fine. Let's get a move on." JB headed for the door, propping it open.

"Actually, why don't you go get groceries? I'll start, and Archie will be here soon."

"I can help, Jug. It's fine."

"I know you can, but why don't we just not argue about this again?" Jughead sighed. "It's three flights of stairs. You shouldn't be going up and down them repeatedly."

"Oh my god, I'm not a cripple," she scoffed, but he could tell by her tone that she wasn't going to argue again. "What do you want for dinner? I'll go get stuff for that."

"Whatever you want. Simple cause I don't know where all the kitchen stuff is," Jughead reminded her. "Do you have enough money?"

"Yep, I got it," JB breezed.

They trekked back down the stairs and Jughead pulled their bags from the backseat of his car, the one she drove into New York, and set them on the lip of the moving van.

"Got my phone, got my wallet, I'll be back soon!" JB chirped, tucking her small bump in behind the steering wheel again.

"Put gas in the car, too, you damn hooligan," Jughead exaggerated with a fist wave, wide, robotic smile in place as she pulled away, shaking her head at him.

Jughead started moving stuff up to the apartment, and it was slow going. The air in the stairwell was still and stagnant in the heat, making his back damp again immediately. He was just about to start taking side tables and chairs up when he heard someone call his name.

"Oh, hey! I didn't know you were coming," he said, looking up to see Veronica. She was dressed down as far as he had ever seen in his years of knowing her, in some shorts and a loose shirt.

"Of course," she responded with a smile, leaning in for a quick squeeze. "Many hands make light work. Archie's on his way now, too."

Veronica grabbed few boxes with Jughead and followed after him up to the third floor, chatting all the while.

"How was the drive? And leaving the park?"

"It was okay. I hadn't been back for years. I'm really glad Jelly decided to come out here though, it was a mess."

The boxes were labelled in scribbled font and they moved them to their designated rooms.

"How's she doing?"

They descended again for another run.

"Alright, I guess." He shrugged. "I don't think she really wanted to leave Dad. But she didn't really have a choice if she wanted to give the baby a better childhood than we had, which seems to be the case, thankfully." Jughead paused to shift and stack some things. "How's living with Arch?"

"Does he always just leave his socks wherever he steps out of them?" she asked. "Like, I knew he did that sometimes, but I did not know that was a daily thing."

Jughead snorted, holding the door open for her with his elbow.

"Just wait until he starts leaving you half a tablespoon of milk in the container."

Betty carted her tote bag along, nearing home. It was stuffed to capacity, and digging into her shoulder in such a way that she was sure she would need to schedule some sort of chiropractic appointment in the next week. Which, of course, was just what she needed in the middle of a busy summer wedding season.

There was a wedding that coming weekend, and she was in full damage control mode. The caterers they had contracted for this particular reception had just had a plumbing problem, and they had to have their entire kitchen floor jackhammered up to replace some faulty pipes.

That left Betty in a scramble to find another caterer to feed the wedding guests, and so far it wasn't going all that well.

"Kevin, I know it's last minute - yes, I know - but I'm in a very tight bind here," she spoke into the phone scrunched between her shoulder and her ear. "I wouldn't ask unless it was my absolute last -"

Her building was one door away, but the tote bag strap chose that moment to snap under the weight of everything, sending a cascade of papers, pamphlets, receipts, and bills scattering around on the Brooklyn sidewalk, her agenda flopping open and letting all its contents fly free.

"Oh my god - I'll call you back," Betty rushed to step on a nearby florist directory to keep it from blowing away, and then very quickly scurried around to try and snatch everything up without flashing a stranger her underwear.

"Woah, mayday."

Betty turned briefly at the voice. A young woman with pale lilac hair was bending down to catch some papers for her, and she heaved a sigh in relief.

"Thank you," she said, accepting the wad of essential nonsense from her outstretched hand.

"No problem." The woman grinned. "Did we get it all?" She looked around quickly.

"I think so." Betty mirrored the woman's actions, casting a glance around the sidewalk, before she held out her hand. "I'm Betty, nice to meet you."

"I'm JB." The woman shook it. "Do you need some help with that?"

JB pointed to Betty's broken bag, and everything wadded up and shoved back inside. As she shifted, Betty spotted the belly poking out over the woman's jeans and the massive bags of groceries in the backseat of the open car Betty assumed was the woman's.

"I should be asking you that." She nodded vaguely in the direction of the Trader Joe's bags overflowing with food.

"I'm fine," she laughed easily, pulling her shirt down. "Besides, I've got help on the way. Any minute now."

As if on cue, two men came bounding down the front steps of Betty's building, both sweaty and bedraggled. One tall and dark, the other slightly shorter, stocky, and ginger-haired.

"Jellybeeeeeean!" the one with red hair called, reaching the women first and enveloping her in a large hug, pulling away a moment later. "What are you packin' in there?"

"They say it's a baby but it might be an alien, we aren't sure. Jug's hoping for a brand new toaster oven, but I keep having dreams about gourmet ice cream makers, so who knows," she gave her slightly rounded midsection a pat before squeezing the ginger man once more and reaching to hand him a grocery bag.

"And who's this?" The dark-haired man ambled behind the ginger, his hair sticking to his forehead before being raked back.

"This is Betty," JB - which must stand for Jellybean - said. "She had an unfortunate bag-snapping accident. Betty, this is Jughead, and Archie."

"I'm also your neighbour, I think," she said, holding out her hand to each of them in turn, "if you're moving in here."

"As we speak." He nodded toward the moving van a few parking spots up.

"Well, welcome! If you need anything, I'm in 208. Are you guys… Do you need some help now?" She pointed at the stuff still hanging out in the moving van.

"Nah, we're almost done," the man named Archie replied.

"Thanks though!" JB gave her another grin.

With a round of goodbyes and nice-to-meet-yous, Betty lugged her bag to her hip and headed up the front steps, praying that when she called Kevin back about the caterers, some luck would have swayed her fortunes.

"Thank you so much, guys," JB groaned, leaning against the threshold at the front door.

"Yeah, seriously, thank you." Jughead nodded. "Are you sure you won't stay for dinner tonight?"

"No, Jug." Archie shook his head. "You guys are beat, we're beat. You can feed us a thank you dinner another day when we'll all be able to stay awake for it."

"We'll see you again tomorrow for the rest of the stuff." Veronica smiled, pulling JB in for quick hug.

"Safe drive home." Jelly waved, sending them off. "Goodnight!" She sagged again for a moment before standing and closing the door on the hallway. "What the actual fuck, I'm tired and I hardly did anything."

"I told you, demon spawn. That's what you get for being such a hellion." Jughead shrugged. "I need food in the next 37 seconds or - yes," he hissed, "you got the bacon ones."

Jelly had returned from the store, stocked up on the basics and a few extra bits she knew Jughead liked. He grabbed a handful of chips out of the bag and proceeded to devour them.

"Okay, I'm gonna throw dinner together, go shower. You stink."

"How rude," Jughead snarked. "I just dragged your mattress up three floors so you can sleep all comfy tonight. I don't even have my mattress here yet."

"Yes, thank you, truly. But please go shower." Jelly laughed, giving him little prods in the direction of the bathroom.

"Do you know where that new shower curtain went?" he called back to her. The hardwood under his feet creaked as he made his way down the hallway.

"I put it up already!"

Truth be told, he was desperate to get under the water, and made no more fuss about her orders. He located his bag with the essentials he'd packed the day before, and quickly washed up.

When he emerged, squeaky clean and sleepy from the hot water, he threw clean sheets onto JB's bed for her and found some for him to go on the couch. Veronica had made sure all the things they would need in the first 24 hours were easily locatable because moving was the worst thing ever, and she was a genius.

Jelly was just taking something out of the oven when he ventured back out into the living area.

"I hope grilled cheese sandwiches and tater tots are to your liking because that's what I wanted."

"No complaints," Jughead groaned, sinking into the couch cushions with a soft flump . "I guess we'll just eat something green tomorrow. That's a thing we have to do now, right?"

"Now ? We've been adults for a while, Jug, so that comment is alarming."

A/N: Let me know if this interests you! I love me some semi-central JB. There needs to be more of her around these parts, imo.