This is my first fanfiction for Archie comics. I tried to write a few about a year ago but that was before I really got into fanfiction so I didn't really know what I was doing. But I'm a huge Jughead and Betty fan and I'm a lot more experienced now so I thought, why not!

This is supposed to be 3 to 5 chapters long. So it isn't going to be super long, but longer than I could possibly fit into one chapter.

Trying to incorporate everything I know from the comics (and I've been into Archie for a while and know just about everything there is to know about Jughead Jones so if there are any references you don't get, sorry about that.) Hope you enjoy anyways! Please review! This is my first Archie story so I want to make sure I got it right! :) Thanks.

Part 1

His Crowned Shadow, Always Protecting Her From the Sidelines

Jughead Jones sat on the sofa, upside down. His feet were in the air, hanging over the back, and on his lap sat a plate with a few of Pop Tate's takeout burgers. He was busily munching them down, thinking what a boring Sunday afternoon it was going to be, babysitting Jellybean when he could be out with Archie and the gang.

But he guessed it didn't really matter. It wasn't like Archie was even available today. He was out with Betty seeing the new sci-fi movie that had just come out. They wouldn't be home until dark and by then, it would be too late to do anything together.

"I guess I'm going to have to settle for you, Jellybean!" He said, ruffling her hair and getting a laugh out of the baby. "You were always my favorite anyway." He smiled.

He popped another burger into his mouth and continued to watch the screen, thinking absently that maybe it would be a little easier to watch if he was right side up, but being too lazy to do anything about it. For a while, he was comfortable there in front of the TV but after an hour or so, Jellybean started to get restless.

She climbed onto his now empty plate without his noticing, so when he lowered his hand to get another burger, he yelped when he, instead, got a handful of little sister. "J-Jellybean!"

The baby girl giggled, happy to have gotten her brother's attention. "What is it, sis? Getting tired of the same old afternoon sitcoms?" Jughead asked, a serious look on his face, despite the fact that he was talking to a baby who hadn't yet quite gotten the hang of English.

"Maybe you should take her outside, Jughead. TV and food might never get old for you, but she's a growing kid who needs her exercise!" Said Jughead's mom, passing through the living room on her way from the kitchen.

"You're right, ma! That's what I'll do." He grinned at Jellybean, picking her up off his lap. "Let's go to the park, Jellybean! What do you say?"

The little girl laughed and grabbed his nose.

"Ack! I guess that's a yes…"

Jughead walked down the path in Pickens' Park, his little sister in his arms. "Let's fine a nice big oak tree to sit under, Jellybean, so I can maybe take a bite or two of the food I brought." He said, laughing nervously at the girl, who stuck her tongue in his face. "Yeah…you got your stubborn streak from me, didn't you?" He scratched the back of his head with his free hand and laughed.

But Jughead stopped when he heard something off in the distance. His eyes went a little wider than their usual half-closed glance when he realized it was the sound of someone crying. "Who's that…?"

Jellybean got quiet as well, putting a small arm around her big brother's neck from her spot in his arms.

He continued down the park path a little farther, rounding the corner to see someone sitting on a bench, her legs curled into her, her arms wrapped around her shins. Her head was ducked down, but over the back of the bench he could see that she had long blonde hair. It was Betty.

Jughead just stood there for a moment, surprised. Thoughts rushed through his head. What was Betty doing here? Wasn't she supposed to be out with Archie? Jughead couldn't imagine what could have happened to leave her here, crying on a bench in Pickens' Park. He'd always liked to think the best of his friends, Archie included. So what was wrong?

"Looks like it's our job to cheer her up, Jellybean…" Jughead said, thinking sadly: Time to cheer her up…again.

He walked up silently behind the crying girl, standing just far enough behind her that she couldn't see his crowned shadow. Her cries came out as stifled coughs and whimpers. Her hands had a white knuckle grip on her knees.

Her hair was beautiful. She was wearing it down, like she almost never did, and it was curled and shining as if she'd just had it done but the big event that she'd been preparing for had never come.

He looked at Jellybean and smiled. The baby girl smiled and nodded.

He lifted her over Betty's head and bent forward, putting Jellybean into Betty's lap, at the same time leaning over her and whispering, "What's wrong, Betts?"

Betty's eyes snapped open. She lifted her head in surprise, her mouth slightly agape.

Seeing her face for the first time, Jughead flinched. Tears streaked down her cheeks. Her face was red and puffy, as though she'd been crying for a long time.

But somehow he still noticed the way her hair was down around her shoulders, a small strand pulled up in the back with a red ribbon. He still saw the dressy shirt he wore, adorned with silver lining around the low V-neck. The tight, dark blue jeans that she was so attached to.

He put his hand on the bench back and hopped over into a sitting position next to her. "Not stressing over Ms. Grundy's next quiz I hope. You know you always ace those." He said, smiling casually.

Betty was staring, wide-eyed, at Jellybean in her lap, who was giggling and playing with Betty's tear covered hands. She was silent for a minute.

But Jughead knew her, and he knew that wouldn't last long.

Sure enough, in a minute or two, Betty started to lose her newfound composure. Her bottom lip trembled. Her eyes squinted shut. He could hear her silent choking sobs.

Jellybean curled into her lap, wrapping her tiny arms around Betty's waist. Betty sat there, crying, no longer trying to hide her tears from the boy sitting next to her.

Finally, Jughead sighed and abandoned his previous cheery demeanor. "Betty…what happened? You can tell ole Juggy. So spill."

"It's n-nothing, really…" She said, putting her face in her hands and wiping away the tears. It was useless, Jughead thought, quietly. For every tear she wiped away, it was just replaced by a few new ones.

I should do something about that, Jughead thought, his eyes narrowed.

He gulped, unsure if he could do this. But he ignored the thoughts in his head and lifted his hand to Betty's chin, turning it towards him. "This…" He helped her dry her tears with his shirt sleeve, causing her to gasp. "isn't nothing."

"J-Jughead…" Betty pulled away, her hands shaking. "Really, I'm okay. I just need s-some time to be a-alone."

Jughead looked at her, a worried, possessive cloud over his eyes, which were wide open. He didn't look half asleep, for once. For once, he was paying attention to something with everything he had. His mind wasn't preoccupied by food or sleep. He looked at Betty intently. "Who made you cry, Betts?"

"Nobody!" She corrected, then laughed him off. "I guess I just like to feel sorry for myself."

"Betty, tell me what happened that made you so upset." He asked, grabbing her by the hand and holding onto her wrist tightly.

"J-Juggy!" She gasped. "W-What are you doing…"

"Consider this a hostage situation." He reasoned. "I'm not letting you go until you tell me why you're crying alone on a park bench. Now come on, spill your guts to Dr. Jug-Jug. Have you met my associate, Nurse Jellybean?"

Jellybean smiled in her spot on Betty's lap, tugging on the edge of her shirt.

For the first time, the smallest smile came to Betty's lips, before disappearing, replaced by a look of sad relief. "You can't tell my parents about this." She said, still sniffling. "They'll just tell me they told me so, and yell at me…and…I just don't want to hear it…"

He smiled sweetly. "You know you can always come to me, Betts." He faked zipping his lips.

She nodded, breathing in slowly as if trying to steady her breaths. "Y-You know how I was…supposed to go to the movies with Archie tonight?"

Jughead stiffened visibly. "Yeah."

"Well I was all ready to go, and Archie was supposed to pick me up so I was waiting on my front porch…" Her lip trembled again. "I saw him driving by with Veronica in his car right on schedule with when he was supposed to go with me." She shook her head, bangs hanging in her eyes. "She must have found out he was going on a date and asked him to go out with her on the same night. He probably totally forgot about me."

She was crying again. "I was so stupid to think I'd actually gotten the best of Veronica this time. I thought maybe if I dressed up real nice, if I got my hair done up, maybe I'd be good enough for him…but I'll never be good enough…"

She bent over, staring at the ground, tears falling from her face and soaking into her blue jeans. But she hesitated at the sound of breaking wood. "W-Wha…" She looked up.

Jughead's hand was wrapped around the arm of the bench, and the wood was cracking as his fingers tightened into a white-knuckle fist. His eyebrows lowered in a deep frown, his mouth tight, he gritted his teeth.

"Jughead, stop!"

His eyes snapped open. He looked at the bench where he'd bent the wood slightly. "Did I do that…?"

She stared at him.

"Heheheh…" He scratched the back of his head, giving her a half smile. He sighed. The smile faded when he saw that there were still tears in her eyes. He put a hand on her shoulder, and pulled her awkwardly into him.

She gasped, falling into his side. "J-Jughead! What are you…"

"Sorry. I've never been good at this comforting stuff." He said, thinking to himself, I should be, by now.

"I…I don't n-need…comforting, Juggy." She whispered, though even as she said it, her voice was shaking. She certainly didn't try to pull back, just let him hold her there.

Strange. She'd never noticed how strong he was. First, what he had done to the park bench, and now this…she'd always imagined Jughead as the lazy sluggard everybody had always painted him out for. The slacker he'd painted himself out for. But maybe he wasn't so useless after all.

"Sorry if I'm kind of rough, that is. It just pisses me off, this love business…"

"W-What?"

"But don't think you're not good enough, okay?" He was seething, his breaths heavy, his head bent down. "Because I think you're just fine, and if Archie can't see that, then so what?"

She stared, in shock. "Huh?"

Jellybean sat on the other side of the bench, playing with her feet, watching the scene unfold.

"Veronica is just a no-good jealous-type." Said Jughead. "I don't know why Archie doesn't see that…and I don't know why you don't see that…but my point is, she'll only ever by the jealous-type and Archie, God bless him, will never be strong enough to resist her little guilt trips." He pounded his fist against the wood of the bench. "That's why I never bought into this boyfriend girlfriend crap. It's all mixed signals, I tell ya. At first you think you're in some honeymooning heart-eyed perfect relationship, and suddenly one of you gets distant, and the other gets busy with work or school, and before you know it, someone's cheating and the other's hurt."

"Jughead…" She couldn't believe how mad he was getting. She'd never seen him this angry about anything before, not even Pop Tate's when he ran out of burgers.

"That's why it's best to just stay out of the love game, unlike the majority of hormone crazed teenagers! That's why I spend my time eating and sleeping. Now that's something you can count on in this world. Food and a comfy bed. And Archie's my best friend, I try not to say anything bad about the guy, but how stupid can you get? If you're into girls, I get it. But don't get greedy and think you can have more than one."

What was Jughead saying? Betty could hardly believe her ears. He'd never said anything like this before. She remembered all the times she'd ever come to him about things like this, and realized with a little shame that she'd actually leant on him a lot in the past. She couldn't even count the number of times she'd cried to him about how Archie had dumped her for Veronica, or how Archie and Reggie were fighting over them again and Veronica was taking advantage of the situation, asking Archie out on a date when she knew Betty had been planning to do the same thing.

The only one who had been steady during that whole time was Jughead. While Archie and Reggie, though they had known her as long as Jughead had and were just as close friends, had always had a wall up with her. It was always, "Who's going on a date with who?" and "Who's dumping who for who?"

Jughead was the only person she could predict. It was always either food or sleep with him. Nothing more, nothing less. And always, when she was in tears in her bedroom after finding out Archie had gone out without her, or when she'd been set up with Reggie by a scheming Veronica, it was Jughead she called, Jughead she turned to.

Always…it was Jughead who talked her down from the imaginary cliff she stood on.

And the next day, he'd wave to her and wink and ask if she wanted to go to Pop Tate's. It was as if he was trying to make up for Archie's faults, trying to right his friend's wrongs. At Pop Tate's with Jughead, it never felt like a date. It was always just a casual lunch out with an old friend. Never did she have to worry about boyish comments from him. Never did sh have to think about what his ulterior motives might be. He was casual that way. They were just friends. And he was just glad to spend time with her because that was the kind of person Jughead was. Simple, but good all the same.

Tears formed at the corners of her eyes. Jughead was still ranting, his arms waving around to illustrate his point. But she had stopped hearing what he was saying. All she knew was he was there, next to her, and he was one person she knew she'd always be able to turn to. One person she could always count on.

She wrapped her arms around the boy's waist, her chest resting on the large white S on his red t-shirt. She hugged him tight, able to close her eyes calmly for the first time. The choking in and out of her breaths stopped and her breathing steadied.

"B-Betty?" Jughead stopped talking, his eyes wide. He looked down at the girl. One second she'd been sitting next to him quietly, and the next she was hugging him for dear life? "Betty…did I say something wrong? What is it?" He hesitated. "Are you crying again?"

"No…"

He was surprised at how calm her voice was. The hurt sound mixing into her words was gone.

"Thank you, Jughead."

His face was pale. He hadn't been expecting that. "Er…y-you're welcome. No need to thank me, though, Betts…I'm just doing what any friend would do."

She shook her head. "No, you're doing what no one else did."

He went silent. It bothered him that no one else had. It bothered him that every time Archie relented to Veronica's wishes, he was the one who had to pick up the broken pieces. And it wasn't even picking up the pieces that made him mad. He would have done that anyway. But it made him furious that Archie thought he could keep on doing it, and even more so that Betty let him.

"Come on, Betty." He stood up, slipping out of the quiet girl's arms. She opened her eyes slowly. He noticed, surprised again, that she'd been getting quite comfortable there.

What a strange thought…

"Come on where?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.

"I'm taking you home."

Her eyes widened. "But if I go home now, my parents will just know it didn't work between Archie and I…and they'll just tell me what they always do…" She said, looking self conscious.

He thought, The movie is over by this time. Archie and Veronica should be getting back to Archie's place right about now. He eyed the setting sun.

"Well than come back to my place." He said, folding his arms. "You know my parents will always welcome you there."

Her eyes went wide. "W-Well…I…" She looked uncomfortable.

He waited.

When she looked back up at him, there was a small blush on her face. "Sure, Juggy. Why not?"