Step One
He's been fighting with Archie for an hour now. It's the same story it's been for the last few months, Archie not listening to logic while protecting the guilty. They're facing off in the Andrew's living room, yelling the same things over and over again. There is no compromise either can come to, not while Jughead watches Hiram Lodge destroy their town with Archie's help.
He doesn't think Archie is the bad guy here, he thinks he's ignorant to the damage, the absolute destruction of the town they grew up in. Where they rode their bikes to the river, the treehouse Archie fell out of, which resulted in a broken arm when they were ten years old. The back path to Pop's they discovered the day they snuck Betty out of her room after an Alice Cooper on the warpath ended with Betty in tears and condemned to her room for a week.
They all ended up grounded for that one in the end but the happy smile Betty had the entire time while she enjoyed her milkshake was worth it.
Making the less fortunate homeless for a prison ran for profit should be a no brainer situation. Hiram Lodge has Archie convinced it's going to bring jobs and help the ones who need it. He doesn't grasp that the prison will house those less fortunate when they can't fight unjust charges with nothing but paid off cops, judges, and public defenders. For-profit prisons only make money when they're full.
He doesn't see that yet. He doesn't see that the Twilight is gone and Sunnyside is gone, that even Pop's was a casualty. He's sees the promises of a businessman who is the father of the girl he loves. Archie is loyal. That's never been a problem, the problem is that he's not always loyal to the right cause.
Being loyal to your girlfriend's family? That's a good thing. It only becomes a problem when that loyalty causes damage to the relationships with your father and the best friends you've had since you were a kid.
"Do you not see what's going on, Archie?" Jughead yells, stepping forward with his arms crossed, looking incensed.
"Mr. Lodge is bringing jobs, Jug! He's helping our community," Archie responds, insistent, running his hand through his hair in frustration.
Jughead is pacing, getting himself worked up more and more with each passing second. "If you truly believe that, then I don't even know what I'm doing here."
"Neither do I!" Archie shouts, frustrated.
Betty and Veronica have been sitting on the couch, having made up days before. Something that included tears, yelling, ice cream, and oddly enough to Jughead, manicures. He's immensely glad he doesn't have to understand all women, just Betty, when he heard the whole story. Both girls jump to their feet as Archie yells, Veronica getting in front of Archie, Betty walking over to Jughead's side.
"Guys, is this worth your friendship?" Veronica wants to know, standing firm.
"Yes, Veronica, it is. This isn't him stealing the last piece of pizza, this isn't him sharing a stolen kiss with Betty during a traumatic serial killer shakedown-"
"Jug, I was complicit in that too, you know that," Betty interrupts. "And you know had I been thinking clearly I would have never, ever-"
"Damn, Betty. Harsh," Archie interjects.
Veronica rolls her eyes at him and looks back at Betty as if to say, Boys, right? as Betty tells Archie, "Don't take it personally, Archie, that's more about Veronica than you-"
"Wait, what?" Jughead jumps in.
"Oh my god, B. These boys are ridiculous. Jughead, please absorb this through the wool on your head and into your brain, Betty loves you. Betty loves me. Betty loves Archie. Mistakes were made or do you want to talk about what bad choices someone can make while they think their entire world is burning down around them?"
Jughead stops in his tracks and looks up. No, no he does not want to talk about things he wishes never happened. "Not really, no."
"So why are you harping on ancient history?"
"Because it's not! Archie, you siding with Hiram Lodge is going to not only get people hurt, but probably you too in the end! He's manipulating you! Why can't you see that?"
"Okay, are we supposed to go with that terrible segue or-?" Betty asks Veronica with confusion on her face.
"I honestly don't know. It's like once their ego is involved all logic disappears and they just start beating their chests trying to prove they're the very best gorilla in the jungle," Veronica responds, arms crossed and looking displeased with both Archie and Jughead.
"Apt," Betty agrees while considering Jughead's angry stance.
"Jug, I know what I'm doing, okay? And I think you're wrong, this town needs these jobs," Archie pleads with Jughead, running his hand through his hair in frustration.
"The fact that you think that without being aware of exactly what you're fighting for tells me a lot, Arch. This isn't taking away the Twilight, this is making people homeless, keeping crime rampant to keep prison profits up, the injustice of what's going to happen to the people deemed less because of their address! How do you not see that? You can't be that dumb."
"Yes, because I must be dumb to disagree with you, of course."
"Just remember you said it," Jughead says to him, continuing his pacing across the Andrew's living room. "Veronica, why aren't you trying to talk him out of this? You, of all people, know this isn't a good thing."
"Because, Jughead, like the Lodge women before me, my machinations are done in the quiet of the storm. Archie will make the right choice in the end, he always does."
"Ronnie, are you saying you don't agree with your own father?" Archie asks her, shock on his face.
"Archiekins, I love my father but he's ruthless. I'm waiting for you to stop dating him so I can resume dating you," she tells him archly.
Both Betty and Jughead snort a laugh out at that, making an already agitated Archie more irritated.
"Then someone explain to me how a safer town with more jobs is a bad thing?" he implores to them.
"It's not safer, Archie. It's a corrupt system that keeps the justice system from being unbiased while making money off of people who were already at a disadvantage. Jobs? Sure, for some. To have a prison make profit, they need criminals. If they have no criminals to make money, they are going to create them. Do you get that? Some person who may or may not be guilty of something minor is now a felon and kept in prison for how long? That's not even including the dirty cops, lawyers, and judges. Not everyone is your mom, Arch. Some people don't care who they hurt as long as they get what they want," Betty explains to him.
"Fine, then what are you going to do about it, Jughead?" Archie questions him.
"I don't know yet."
Step Two
"Why didn't you tell me the Black Hood was calling you again?!" Jughead barks at a distraught Betty.
"I don't-"
"No, Betty, this is ridiculous, after the last time you'd think you'd realize what a bad idea that is!"
"Jug-"
"Dammit, Betty! What if he wanted you to meet him and I didn't know, if no one knew where you-" he cuts himself off at the guilt on her face. "Jesus, Betty! You did it again? Why?"
"I took Chic to him. I don't know what happened after that, I swear," Betty pleads her case to him with big wet eyes. He's going to make a valiant effort to stay mad for more than thirty seconds this time. Or, at the very least, pretend to be mad. It's for her own good.
"Betts, you can't solve everything by trying to figure it all out yourself," he tells her, trying to get through to her better judgment.
He immediately figures out what he just said as her entire faces changes from contrition to some variant of Really, we're saying shit like this now after the stunts you've pulled? "In my defense, I've always said you were smarter than me."
"Jughead, look, he threatened to kill you last time, not just keep you out of my life, but to take you out of it permanently. Do you know what that would do to me? I couldn't take that risk!" Betty cries as she takes his hand in hers.
"Yeah, actually, I do. There is nothing about me loving you that has been safe. I gave you the power to destroy me a long time ago and now everyone else knows how to destroy me as well. So, yeah Betty, I do know," he asserts in a soft voice with a hand on her cheek. "Doing things apart don't work, you know that. Didn't we learn that lesson already?"
"I made myself like him, Jug. I'm so ashamed of myself, I don't want anyone to see my evil."
"Betty, you're not evil, you're not even evil adjacent. Turkey bacon is evil. That time Veronica got Pop to switch my burger with a veggie burger was evil. You? You are the best person I know and the only time your light dims is when the rest of the world tries to put you in the shadows."
"All of these deaths, they feel like they're on my hands, their blood is on me and I don't know how to live with that," she admits to him, looking down at her hands. He feels like her shame is palpable and he can't live with her hating herself.
"These deaths are not on you, you didn't kill anyone. Every choice he made was because he wanted to make it. He hurt people because he chose to. He chose to stalk and harass and threaten you. None of it is on you. You can't keep these things to yourself, Betts, you know that."
He's got her gathered in his arms before she can say anything else and feels her crying into his shoulder. "It's going to be fine, we'll figure it out."
Step Three
Jughead remembers the first time his dad said they were moving to Toledo, as he sat there in the truck, staring at the prettiest girl he's ever known thinking about his family, his friends, his life, and her. Leaving her seemed insurmountable then. He remembers the sting of betrayal he felt less than two hours later standing in the hallway watching her cry with devastation in her eyes.
That he tried to leave without saying goodbye to her is something that fills him with shame now. That his mother didn't want him fills him with anger. Anger that is still there, simmering under the surface each time he talks to Jellybean but not his mom. It seeps out when he's trying to sleep and thinks about how she just left him to fend for himself with an alcoholic father and a creased picture of his baby sister.
And it's the only time he's grateful she left, when he stops and thinks about Jellybean being part of this life. His dad can't protect him, he can't seem to protect himself, the idea that Betty may get hurt fills him with the sort of fear people save for the monsters in their closet. His closet is a gang war with a criminal underbelly full of people willing to murder you for the land you're standing on. To do nothing but sell their drugs and ruin lives while making the money they refuse to do without.
He is pretending to handle Betty's constant state of danger well, he thinks he's doing it better this time around. Jughead knows now he was never going to keep her out of it, she'll look him in the eye and tell him she's doing it anyway then walk away from him with steel in her spine. At least this way he will have some idea of what's going on instead of finding out after the fact that she's been getting body parts in the mail or burying their best friend alive. So wrapped up in threats from Penny Peabody, in her selling part of herself on a dirty stage just to keep herself close to him, in the idea that he's the reason she might get hurt that he becomes the reason for part of her pain and loneliness.
That part is what chokes him in his nightmares, he spent so much time pretending she was fine if he wasn't there he completely ignored the fact that he could have said his last words to her. And the idea that those words wouldn't have been I love you is something he can't forgive himself for. He knows Betty Cooper is going to offer herself up every time something needs to be done. The very least he can do is be the person standing next to her while she does it.
So, when his dad tells him for the second time that they're moving to Toledo, he ignores the part of himself that misses Jellybean and normalcy and says, "I'm not leaving Betty."
He's not making that mistake again.
Step Four
This had better be a dream, he thinks to himself as he sees the scene of his friends, his family at his graveside.
I can't believe they put that name on the headstone. If this isn't a dream, I am totally haunting them for this, he keeps thinking.
He can see Betty, crying and asking him to come back. She's got his hat in her hands, she's running her hand across the stone, tears running down her face and he can't comfort her. He can't do anything but observe. The helplessness of not being able to touch her, not being able to wipe the tears off of her face, say something to let her know he's with her, he's always with her is frustrating him.
Being gone at sixteen isn't the best of lives, he knows, seems like a real waste but to him, missing out on what Betty is going to become is so much worse. He's never going to see her graduate high school or go to college now. She's going to have a career, a life, a family without him and though he'd rather die all over again than take any part of those things away from her, he feels the emptiness of knowing that now, he won't be part of it.
He wanted to see her in a white dress walking towards him with flowers in her hair with their friends standing next to them. He wanted to see her with paint on her face as they paint their first house, to see her sleeping like a starfish in nothing but his shirt on a Sunday morning. For her to angrily throw out the fifth houseplant she's killed despite the promises of it being easy to care for according to the salesperson.
To pick out their first dog and her to be justifiably angry when she figures out he's sneaking it food so it likes him more than her. It won't work, of course, not even pilfered bacon can overcome the allure of Betty Cooper's love but he wanted to try. That no matter what they did or where they ended up he'd always have the family he made to come home to.
He'd never admit it but the dream Archie had of them moving to NYC sounded perfect to him. Late nights and early mornings, not enough sleep and too much coffee while moving on and growing up with the girl he loves seemed like a really ideal life. Maybe they'd live together after a while. Maybe at the start. All he knows is he wanted the option.
He figures it would be his style to spend the afterlife angry at the chances he's going to miss. There's no stopping the bitter thoughts that come over him, looking at the girl he's spent half his life in love with crying over the only thing that remains of him.
He wanted to give her everything she's ever wanted. He wanted to laugh and fight and go to sleep feeling like the luckiest bastard on the planet.
He wanted a life with her.
Hearing her beg to come back, that their story isn't over makes him wish he could just wake up. Wake up and tell her he loves her.
So that's what he does.
Step Five
The last person he can remember who asked what he wanted was Betty. He may have been asking for her help but she always wanted to know what he needed and these new expectations are already weighing heavily on him. Who leads a gang in high school? Especially when he's always seemed to face their opposition when he needed their support. There's this aftertaste of hypocrisy and this bar of judgment he feels held to and he doesn't know how he's going to handle it when it happens again, and he knows it will.
It's fine to date a Northsider, as long as he's not the one doing it.
It's fine to use offense as a defense, as long as he's not the one instigating it.
It's fine to use defense as an offense, as long as it doesn't seem like it was his original idea.
He doesn't forget Sweet Pea wanted to use pipe bombs to send a message and he doesn't forget that he's the one thrust into drag races and drug runs and turf wars and while he willingly did it, he knows he's always going to be the sacrificial lamb.
They wear the jackets that show them as a family, they all have the same snake on their back but he knows he's the one who will end up wearing their sins on his.
If he wasn't who he was, would Betty had to have prove herself so much? Is the legacy of his name the reason she shed her clothes and dignity when others have walked in with open arms? Is it the relationships he's built since he was a kid that keeps him as a leader but under scrutiny? He's got roots in the Southside but he's kept his feet firmly in the Northside until he chose to cross back over that line. And the line he walked over, it started as a way to protect the people he loves. It may have been altruistic but it was always rooted in a selfish desire.
Will that be something he pays for in the future? He wonders how much more blood he will end up having on his hands before he stops feeling the weight of inadequacy and starts feeling the weight of authority.
The rush of victory doesn't matter in the middle of the night when you don't know what's going to happen next and everyone looks to you for answers. He's proud to be their leader, he's proud his dad thinks he can handle it. He knows he'll always do what it takes to keep the people he cares about safe.
That's not what keeps him up at night, it's the fear he's going to fail that has him forgetting to breathe, the never ending worry of what's next and how do we fix this and will I ever escape this life that creeps into his thoughts, making sleep a distant memory.
There is, he thinks, a point where giving this responsibility to a sixteen year old is probably a bad idea.
The past shame he felt when telling Betty his dad is a Serpent sits heavy in his stomach, because he was ashamed. He's not who he was but he's not forgotten where he stood before. He hopes you don't have to abandon the core of who you are to be who need to become. That's not growth, that's a fiction you wrap yourself in to pretend you're happy in the fantasy you're creating. He's no longer ashamed of his Serpent connections, he feels he's adding to the family he's already built for himself.
Now, if he can lead a gang, graduate high school, keep Betty safe and happy, and not die doing it, he'll think he was successful.
It shouldn't be too hard.
Step Six
He feels comfortable in a booth at Pop's, he always has. It's an escape and it's home and it's kept him warm and fed when nothing else was doing the job. No matter who he becomes or where he goes he knows he'll never feel out of place in a vinyl booth, arm wrapped around Betty, stealing her fries and drinking a milkshake. While Veronica is a newer addition, he knows she's supposed to be there with Archie, laughing with Betty, throwing sarcasm at him when he throws it at her first.
There are certain things he knows about his life and this is one that he never wants to change. Even if the location of the booth changes by city he needs the people to stay the same.
Out of the hospital and celebrating life, he's eaten more than even he should have attempted, listening to Veronica coax Betty into shopping with her the next day, he finally pushes himself out of the fog from overeating. "No can do, Veronica, Betty is going to be busy tomorrow."
"Oh really?" Veronica asks him, a smirk overcoming her face as she leans forward in the booth because she knows what's going on. She helped plan it for crying out loud.
Betty looks confused but doesn't contradict him.
"Yup. So, you can convince her to spend her Blossom blood money the day after, okay?"
Archie is in his often affable state, relaxed with an arm on the back of the booth. "What are you guys up to?"
"That is classified information," Jughead answers, feeling Betty's stare burning into him.
"So, what you're saying is that after your near death experience you need Betty to nurse you back to health? Have you cleared your Nurse Betty plan with your doctor, Jughead?" Veronica questions, raising an eyebrow and looking inordinately pleased with herself.
He chokes on the fry he was eating and sees Betty turn bright red. On one hand, he's a private person and on the other he knows they know he and Betty are having sex. Plus, Veronica isn't getting the upper hand this time. "Cleared and ready for takeoff, Veronica. I do appreciate your concern though."
"Jesus christ," Betty murmurs into his shoulder, hiding her face in the fabric of his shirt.
"Well, far be it from me to stop that flight. Just buckle your seat belts for safety and enjoy the ride then, you guys," Veronica quips with an innocent smile.
Archie looks at him then Betty. "Wait, you guys are going somewhere?"
Betty starts laughing and he can't help himself as he laughs with her. Veronica pats his hand and tells him sincerely, "Eden, Archiekins, they're going to Eden."
Veronica just smiles at Jughead, he knows she's working through a heavy amount of guilt and, like Betty, is trying to atone for her father's sins. He also knows she's having way too much fun messing with him seeing as she helped him with putting his surprise together. And while it's true may never be his favorite person, he's infinitely grateful Betty has a friend like her in her life.
Sure, if it weren't for Betty or Archie he thinks he'd never have even spoken to her. Maybe a reference about the Devil Wearing Pearls or something else both steeped in pop culture and insulting but she's brought more good than bad to the lives of the people he loves most. So when she winks at him with a conspiring smile he knows he's just going to have to let this one slide.
Step Seven (Eden)
With Betty resting in his arms, he's finally calm. Sure, his arm is killing him, he definitely should have let her do more of the work and he'll be feeling it for at least another week but of all of the regrets he'll have in this life, every chance he has to be with her isn't going to be any of them.
It occurs to him that after the last few months of their lives, he wants to make sure Betty knows how much he loves her, how much she means to him, just how very much he needs her to be part of his family. She's the family he's chosen but he needs to know if she's going to pick him to be hers in return.
The added bit of ego he always ends up with after an orgasm seeps through his tone as he lays her on her back to look into her face. "I wanted to ask you something. Now that I'm the Serpent King, I was wondering how you felt about being my Queen?"
She's got a soft smile on her face as she touches his face and replies, "You asking me to join the Serpents, Jug?"
He pauses and thinks he is but it's also more. Maybe he didn't realize it when he said it but it feels like a promise of an after for them. An always. It's more than a question and less than a vow but he thinks they'll get there when they get there. And that's okay for now, he just knows he wants her to choose him at this moment.
"Sort of," he answers her and he can see her confusion mixed with comprehension as she pushes him a little so she can sit up.
"Jug-"
"You don't have to answer right now," he interrupts, "take your time and let me know-like tomorrow at lunch or-"
She cuts him off with a laugh while putting herself into his lap. She's taking his face between her hands and pressing her lips to his while he wraps his arms around her back, happy just to have her in his arms.
Until she presses her hips to his, that is. Their coupling is often intense, like the desire to be with each other is always punctuated with the possibility of being interrupted. And though they're both inexperienced he likes to think they make up for it with enthusiasm.
He can feel her shudder as he nips softly at her jaw as he pulls her closer to him, pushing her hips harder into his. He feels himself growing harder at the friction, her soft moans in his ear, skin pressed on skin as the sheet she had wrapped around her fell to her waist. She's pulling on the hair at the back of his head they way he likes when he hears her whispering a please into his ear as she tugs his earlobe between her teeth.
He can't repress a shiver at that and feels her breathy laugh on the skin of his neck as she kisses her way over his shoulder as he moves towards her collarbone, biting the soft skin there a little harder than gently, moving his hands further down her back to pull her closer to him.
Her hands are tightening at the back of his neck as she leans back and adjusts up until he can feel her sinking down onto him. He lets out a groan as she releases a sigh and with his hands on her hip, gripping them tightly, he helps her move on him. She closes the space between them, the movement and friction causing her thighs to shake as she takes what she needs from him.
He's happy to be of service to her while he wraps his arms around her again, trying to keep the volume of his breathy yes, Betty, yes at a respectable decibel. When her entire body starts to tremble he can feel her coming down with gasps into his skin as she tries to catch her breath. He can't help but follow her and bites her shoulder with a groan.
They're both laughing when they part but he doesn't let her go, he keeps one arm wrapped around her again and he thinks to himself he's finally content.
And if contentment is Betty then Betty is his Eden. And nothing sounds better than that.