In true Archie Andrews fashion, it takes the end of the world for him to realize that he may be in love with Betty Cooper. When the virus first broke out no one in Riverdale was really all that concerned about things, they were such a small town they figured they had months to wait before they really had to worry about Zombie's taking over or the virus reaching them but in reality it was only weeks. The Lodges were the first to leave, and back then Archie wished he missed Veronica more than he did, but when her dad had torn her from the town and they had all vanished it was like a whole weight had been lifted form his shoulders. Archie knew that the Mantle's had gotten out and he was thrilled with that, he wasn't too sure where Reggie was, but he liked to think that his friend was safe and well. If he was going to be absolutely honest with himself, the very first person that came to mind when they heard news of things getting close was Betty, and she was just about the only person other than his dad he cared about. Polly was away at the farm and Alice was spending more time on the Southside than in her own home, so much so Archie couldn't help but worry about her. He and his dad were prepared to go at a moment's notice, the truck was loaded up with supplies and he was surprised at how ready his dad seemed for all of this, but there was no way he could leave town without knowing that Betty Cooper was safe.
It turned out he didn't have to in the end, because Betty is in the truck at the side of him when they make their run for it, Fred driving the two scared teens to safety. Betty wept against his chest, and he couldn't stop his own eyes as they welled up either. Jughead was gone, along with FP. The thought alone terrified Archie because if they couldn't survive, the rest of the world was screwed. It wasn't that they weren't prepared, when the virus reached town and people began to turn in a matter of hours it was the Serpents that had allowed so many people to escape, and more than half of them were killed as they took on the arrivals. Archie found it more than a little ironic that the people the town loved to hate so much were the ones that ended up giving their lives to save people. Alice wouldn't leave FP's side as things got bad, and Betty hadn't wanted to leave her mother but Archie and Fred had just about managed to pull her into the truck as they left Riverdale. Fred had wanted to leave with just his son in tow, but he had refused to leave with at least trying to find Betty first, and the two of them had ended up on the Southside along with everyone else, Betty's blonde hair catching his eye just in time for him to get her out. Archie knew for a while Betty would hate him, but he could only hope she would forgive him when she had had time to mourn everything she had lost.
The Zombies weren't like people were expecting, they were fast and dangerous and they hunted in packs, Archie didn't think he was going to dream about anything else but the sounds that they made for a very long time.
For a few months they had stuck with Fred, making their way to what everyone was calling Haven somewhere in Pennsylvania, Betty was skeptical that such a place could really exist but Archie had hope and for now she was living with that. If she tried hard enough, if she really tried, when she was asleep in the back of the truck, Archie and his dad camped out by the fire, she could pretend that the world wasn't ending, it was almost like their old camping trips, and when they were done they would pack up and go home. But home was gone, her mom was gone, Jughead was gone, there was simply death in every area they came across, and for as far as they could see. Their journey wasn't easy, roads were blocked, whole towns were infested, there had been far too many close calls with one of them nearly not making it, but somehow, they were surviving. Betty was amazing, or so at least Archie thought so, she had adapted to life on the move with alarming ease. Gun on her shoulder, knife strapped to her thigh, with her blonde hair more often than not matted with dirt and muck Archie wasn't so sure she had ever looked more beautiful – the apocalypse suited her.
Fred had noticed pretty soon the way Archie looked at Betty, and it comforted him, it was something he and his friends had spoken of for years before all of this had happened, whilst their children had been growing up and still so innocent, the possibility of Archie and Betty falling in love. Knowing something so pure as love could still happen even when everything else was crumbling down was a comfort he needed. He'd tried to speak to Archie about it on more than one occasion, but every time he did his son would either turn pink or shut him down, mumbling something about Betty not being over Jughead, or that he was just imagining things. But Fred knew, he could only hope that they would too one day.
Betty was probably the only one who wasn't, in some form, aware of the way that Archie looked at her, because she refused to be that girl. She didn't care if the world was ending, if they spent their day's dodging Zombie's and sometimes camped together simply so they didn't freeze, she wouldn't be a last resort for Archie Andrews. If he didn't love her before the world ended then he didn't get her now either. Besides she had bigger things to worry about now, where their next meal would come from, why Archie or his dad had been gone to long – was everyone she loved back home dead? Or worse were they zombies now. It isn't like she hasn't thought about him though, it would be impossible not to, he's half of her whole world now along with Fred, and she's never really realized how deadly he can be until this moment which is ironic considering they've faced a serial killer together. Betty was glad that it was Archie she was facing all of this with though. It would have been great, if they could all be together, and she missed Jughead, but she was glad it was Archie she was facing the end of the world with and she didn't know why. There was just something about him that felt like hope, and home and he was her comfort whenever things felt really bad, which didn't happen until they lost Fred.
To this very moment, that had been their hardest day, and when the sun went down and they tried to rest for five minutes it still plagued the teens thought's. In their guts they had both known it was going to happen. Fred had broken his leg when they had been out gathering food and he had managed to fall through a floor in an old warehouse that looked like it had been given up on long before the apocalypse had started. It had seemed like the perfect hide out for a while, it was remote and it didn't scream 'come and loot me' because there was nothing of real value there for a while, but it had turned out to be their demise. This time it had been Betty's turn to drag Archie into the truck, she didn't want to leave Fred behind as much as he hadn't but whatever was coming for them was coming fast and they didn't have time to get themselves and Fred in the truck. From then on it had been just the two of them. It had been her turn to hold him whilst he cried, for her to be strong until slowly, he had cried a little less each day and they had gotten back onto the road, moving as much as they could each day. Betty had lost count of how long that had been now.
Most of the time they spoke about their childhood, or about the people back home they missed, anything to keep the mood up whilst it was quiet and they waited to fall asleep, which never took really long they were so hungry and worn out a lot. They would lay out and watch the stars if they could, just like they had when they were kids but when they were in new area's they often found somewhere to camp out for the night where they were covered and had plenty of exits.
"Arch…" Betty whispered as she rolled over and looked at him, that was one thing Archie was grateful hadn't changed, they had both lost their parents, and their whole worlds, but she still called him Arch. "I think it's your birthday soon." She smiled gently across at him, they had lost their calendar a while back, and days were blurred so much now with the two of them having to sleep as and when they could, so she had no real idea when it was, but by her guessing it was soon. "You're going to be 18." Archie gave a small laugh and nodded, it wasn't much to celebrate anymore, he had been an adult for months now, and this wasn't where he had seen himself on the day that he turned 18.
Rolling over the red headed male smile in her direction, it was crazy to think she was the only part of his life he had left, would he have felt this okay with it all had it been Veronica laid out next to him in the abandoned barn they had managed to find. "I guess you're right." He whispered, a frown appearing on his face.
"Do you remember the promise I made you? When you turned 18?" Archie asked quietly.
"Of course I do, you said that you would ask me to marry you. How trivial now huh?" Betty mumbled, she wanted nothing more than to roll over and break the gaze between the two of them but that would be too obvious now.
"I don't think so. I mean it's just me and you now -"
"Archie…"
"No Betty…" The male was cut off as Betty pulled herself up from the ground, grabbing her jacket and gun before she stormed outside into the open, Archie staring at her with a hung jaw before he scrambled after her himself. "Are you crazy?! Betty its dark get inside!" He spluttered as he reached for her arms, trying to keep his voice down, there was no way of knowing who or what was around without being able to see anything.
"I'm not coming in unless you promise to stop talking!" She knew that she was being childish, and that she needed to get her shit together, but she was also stubborn and she had no intention of letting him continue whatever it was he was saying.
"What? What was wrong with what I was saying?" Archie countered, trying not to let the hurt in his voice show.
"Everything Arch…please stop or I'm not coming back in with you."
"So you would rather die than hear how I feel about you?"
"Yes Arch, because it would still hurt less." Betty answered, her face a picture of vulnerability that she hadn't worn in a long time.
"I don't…why?" Archie pleaded as he took a step towards her which she matched with another one back.
"You can't love me now, you can't love me just because the world is ending and I'm your only option." She explained as a tear spilled over onto her cheek. Archie could only stare on, as his gun fell to his side, wondering how the hell she could think so little of herself, even now when she was just about the only think that had kept him alive.
"Betty, I don't love you because you're the last option." The male breathed out as he looked at her, he should have known she would find a way to think less of herself, she always did and he only wished he could make her see herself the way that he did. Everything about her was perfect, her heart, her resilience, the way she moved when she was on the hunt, the way he watched her strip apart her gun to make sure it worked and then switch to reading a new book they had found to keep her mind engaged on something, she was as brilliant as she was beautiful.
"You're just saying that, you have to say that but be honest, if you could choose if you had Veronica here or me, you'd choose her." She could take on a zombie with super human strength and she still felt insignificant stood here in front of Archie Andrews like she had that day on the porch. "I won't be the second choice forever."
"Betty I haven't thought about Veronica in…months, I have no idea where she is, if she's even still alive, she was gone long before we even left Riverdale, but even if she was still alive, if she was stood right here, and I had to make the choice, I would pick you. I loved you when we were 4, and you gave me your ice cream because I cut my knee, and when we were eight, and you comforted me, even though I was the one that had made you cry hitting you with my football, I loved you when we stood in that dance hall and you called us a power couple, I loved you when you stood on that porch, when you loved Jughead, when I climbed into that coffin to make sure nothing would happen to you, I have always loved you and I may have the worst timing in the world at figuring that out – but I don't love you because you're the only person left, I love you because you're the only person I need." Archie was aware he probably sounded like he had just been hit over the head and he'd lost his mind, and somehow she was crying more now than when he had started, so he didn't know how he was supposed to fix this. "Please Betty…" Archie sighed but he was cut off as she closed the space between them, rising on her toes to press her lips to his, startling him for just a second before he wound his arms around her waist, keeping her close as he returned her kiss with more force than she had started it.
As she pulled back she stared up at him for a moment, her blue eyes wide and her lips still parted ever so slightly as she tried to find the words to say to him. "Was that I love you too?" Archie asked her, his smile growing just a smidgen as he stood with his arms still wound around Betty's waist.
"Archie you were my entire world before I even knew what love was, and now you're literally the only person on this planet I care about…If you let anything happen to you, I swear to god." She sighed as she rested her forehead with his, her own smile growing to match her own. "Yes, I love you too." She whispered up to him, reaching to press another slow kiss to his lips. Neither of them had any clue how much longer they could make it out here on their own, and they had no idea if they were ever going to find Haven, but for now, they could be Haven for each other, Zombie's be dammed, Archie Andrews and Betty Cooper were an inevitable love, all they had to do now, was fight to make sure that they lasted long enough it could survive.