4. Nightlife
"She's down."
Betty murmurs the two words as she exhales an exhausted sigh of relief, strolling out to where Jughead is hovering in the doorway, checking through his emails on his phone.
He'd been planning to make a start on the dishes while Betty bathed their daughter before reading her to sleep, however he hadn't managed to get that far. So, Jughead's head pricks up from where he'd been focusing on his phone, sending her a small smile from across the room before his face creases up regretfully.
"Damn. Sorry, I was going to do the dishes and clean up while you were putting Ems down."
Crossing the room sluggishly, Betty glances over to the damage done by tonight's apricot chicken with a little wince before shrugging Jughead's apology off.
"Don't stress, they're not going anywhere" she mumbles as she wraps her arms around her husband, sinking into his body as they stand together in the middle of their small home.
Returning the embrace, wrapping is own arms around her smaller frame, Jughead holds her against him, pressing a kiss into her hair as they just stand there, enjoying the moment together in total peace and silence.
However, after a few moments of standing there silently, Betty begins to squirm from within her husband's arms, reaching up and extending herself on her tippy toes to press a kiss to his lips. He notices her efforts and what she's attempting to do, meeting her halfway as their kiss is followed by another, and another, and another.
As their moment begins to grow a little more heated, Jughead simultaneously begins to entangle their hands as his fingers curl around her own while he deepens their kiss, taking a few small steps to lead the two of them towards their bedroom at the front of their home.
Betty goes along with it for as long as she can before she has to pull herself from him after one more kiss, followed by a groan.
"Oh, babe, I can't... If I go to bed now, I won't be able to get back up again. As Alice Cooper's offspring I'm physically incapable of leaving the dishes for tomorrow. I need to clean up first."
Betty's groan is followed by a similar sounding one from her husband as he slumps his head on her shoulder for a moment before pressing a kiss to her cheek.
"Do you want a hand? The sooner we get them done..."
Betty chuckles at her husband's remark as he fights off his agitation.
"Don't let me ruin the moment, Jug" she coos, running her hands up and down his arms. "Let's just move it to the lounge and I'll do the dishes a little later before we head to bed."
Betty doesn't need to say another word before he's leading them over to the lounge, where they are quick to collapse down on as he pulls her along with him with a gentle tug of her wrist followed by a squeal. Realising the noise that had escaped from her lips leaves them still in the silence, sitting there upright, cautiously still and silent for a few minutes, desperately hoping that the sudden burst of noise won't lead to cries from Emi's room.
Thankfully the noise doesn't seem to wake Emi from a few rooms over and the two of them pick up where they left off, kissing each other over and over with little giggles and grins throughout as the moment continues growing more and more heated.
However, just as Jughead begins to move to her neck, the two of them are interrupted by a double ding of a message from Betty's pocket.
"Ignore it" he mumbles, not letting himself lose any focus from his fixation on his wife as he presses kisses to her skin.
Betty willingly complies, not even looking at her phone as she runs a hand up through Jughead's dark locks that have been exposed from his beanie; the security blanket that he doesn't need with his girls.
The text is quickly forgotten until another two messages come through within moments, just a few seconds later, followed by another, leaving Betty biting her lip and trying to muffle her giggle while Jughead blocks the tone out from his mind, successfully.
A few more minutes pass before being alerted to a fourth and fifth then a sixth and seventh message that come through, interrupting the couple yet again.
However, this time Betty pauses and pulls away, placing their moment on hold, yet again.
"Hold on babe" Betty murmurs, pressing a gentle hand to her husband's chest as she reaches for her phone that's tucked into her pocket while her own chest rises and falls breathlessly. "It's unusual for someone to text so many times without a reason. It might be an emergency."
Pulling her phone out, she quickly finds that the messages are all from one person, with several similar messages consisting of a link then a sweet little message from her father-in-law to accompany it.
"Where's the fire? Who's dying?" Jughead grumbles, displeased with whoever might be interrupting their alone time and for whatever reason that may be for.
"It's your dad... He's just sent me a few more links."
While Betty is even reading through her messages, another link followed by a personal message from FP comes through alerting both of them to the notification.
"Is he on eBay again? You've created a monster, Betts. You've unleashed the damn shopaholic in my father."
Betty chuckles at his dramatics, though she doesn't dispute what he's saying.
After all, it had all started with Betty when she had sat down and shown her father-in-law to the website, blowing his mind and opening him up to the world of eBay as she found and bought a replacement piece for his bike that was hard to get a hold of.
"Really? That's all you have to do? And you can find anything?"
Betty chuckles as she remembers her father-in-law's complete wonder and amazement as she stepped him through the process, finding the part and ordering it for him within minutes. Previously the older Serpent has always been reluctant to buy things online. However after showing him how to do it for himself once more Betty had unwittingly created a monster just as her husband said.
Since then, each day FP has been sending Betty links to everything and anything under the sun that he has found which he thinks or knows may interest herself, his son or his granddaughter.
"It's sweet, Jug... He's always on the lookout on there for stuff for us and Emi. You know that little musical set in Emi's room? He found that."
Jughead just releases another groan as his head flops back against the lounge dramatically.
"Can we please stop talking about my dad right now?"
Betty giggles at Jughead and the creases on his forehead, simply pressing a kiss to her husband's lips to appease him as she swings her leg over his lap, straddling him on the lounge before speaking in a low whisper.
"Don't worry... I only have one Mr. Jones on my mind."
The couple quickly pick up where they left off with the moment between them quickly intensifying and escalating after the interruptions are gone... Until Betty's ringtone begins to bellow from within her pocket.
As Betty exhales a sigh, climbing off of his lap, Jughead's falls back against the lounge with a groan.
"I'm gonna kill him... This is harassment."
Betty chuckles, leaning over to press an apologetic kiss to her husband's lips before he exhales a sigh, getting up and announcing that he's going to make a start on the dirty dishes. Meanwhile, Betty pulls her phone out, chirping sweetly as she answers it, as though she's just been sitting around waiting for a call.
"Hey FP. How are you? Sorry I just saw your messages. Thanks for the links."
"Hi Betty, that's all good. I hope I wasn't disrupting your night."
Betty glances back to her husband where he's unhappily adding detergent to the running water in the basin, deliberately speaking a little louder for his sake.
"Oh no, don't worry. You're not interrupting us at all, FP. We've just put Emi to bed and now Jug's just making a start on the dishes."
Across the room, Jughead shoots his wife the offended look that she had been anticipating with her attention split between the two Jones men as the other continues speaking and explaining the reason behind his call.
"Oh good... Now, were you still on the lookout for a dollhouse for Emi? I've found one that's going for a good price on eBay. It's ending soon, less than twenty minutes to go. It needs a bit of TLC but I'd be happy to give it a lick of paint and neaten it up for her. I think it'll come up a treat. Emi would love it. If you're interested, I'll start bidding for you."
Over the phone, Betty smiles at her husband's father and the care and love he shows to her daughter, touching Betty herself in turn. She is so immensely grateful for Jughead and his family who continue to choose Emi to be theirs.
"Oh thanks, FP... You really don't have to if it's too much of an inconvenience. But if you think the price is okay, you can give it a go bidding on it and we'll just fix you up for the cost."
"Oh no, it'll be my treat, Betty. If I can win it I'd love to do it up to spoil my granddaughter but I just wanted to make sure that you hadn't already picked one up already. You can get things for an incredible price here on eBay, did you know? Anyway, I've got to go. It's getting to the pointy-end of the auction and there's a bit of competition on this one. Enjoy your night, Betty. Bye."
Betty chuckles to herself as she ends the call and puts her phone in her pocket, walking over to her husband who is washing up the dishes as quickly as he can as she approaches him, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind as she presses a kiss to his shoulder blade.
"He's trying to win a dollshouse for bubba. It's one that he wants to do up for her" Betty explains in a whisper before stepping away and taking the tea towel, stepping in to help her husband with the dishes and finish the job off.
However, while the dishes were meant to be the only interruption to their evening together, FP continued to message every few minutes, updating Betty on the progress of the auction, along with the fact that he'd won, before sending through and informing her of all the details with the delivery turnaround and all of his plans to upgrade the dollhouse for their seventeen-month-old baby...
#
While he has always been a typically heavier sleeper, Jughead has found that ever since he and his girls have moved into their own home, any little sound has been enough to wake him up, urging him to do a sweep of the house and checking that he and Betty had definitely locked up every door and window that night.
Normally Jughead's sweeps come up clean with nothing. However, tonight the result is a little different, startling the young man as he walks into the kitchen, clutching at his chest, realising he's not alone.
Jughead gets over his scare almost instantly, moving across the room to pick his daughter up, pressing a kiss into her messy, light-brown hair as he rubs her back soothingly.
"Hey, bubba... What are you doing up? I'll take you back to bed."
Just lately and ever since Emi moved into her very first big girl bed upon their move to their new home, Jughead and Betty especially had been suspicious of whether the toddler had been staying in her bed all night long, after a few suspicious finds when morning rolls around.
However, neither of them had heard any evidence of the escapades through the baby monitor nor had either of them caught the little girl in the act before now.
Bringing Emi into his arms, the toddler begins to squirm and quietly protest, trying to get message a across to her dad with her limited vocabulary as her big, brown eyes look into his blues.
"Dada. Noms. Noms noms dada. Ta please."
As he holds her within his arms, Jughead grins at the toddler with a nod of understanding.
After all, one of Jughead's proudest parenting moments to date had been teaching his daughter to call food -of any type, at any time- 'noms'.
"Are you hungry, Ems? Funny that; daddy's always hungry..."
Jughead walks across the room with Emi in his arms, rocking her gently as he begins to riffle through the cupboards and the fridge, finding any snacks for the two of them.
Eventually he finds some leftover chocolate pudding from a few nights ago, feeling the presence of his sweet tooth and all the while knowing that Emi can manage eating it with ease. After all, she had absolutely devoured the dessert when Betty gave her a teeny tiny portion of it the other night after her steamed veggies.
"Noms noms dada" Emi babbles, just about vibrating in Jughead's arms as he carries over the leftover to the dining table in his other arm.
Then, as Jughead places his daughter down in her high chair and secures her in with a kiss to the top of her head, Emi releases an excited little squeal just as she does come dinnertime, knowing what is about to come next expectantly.
"Shhh, quiet bubba... Don't wake mama."
Then, pulling two bowls and two spoons over from the kitchen putting the plastic variety in front of the toddler, Jughead scoops a few smaller segments of dessert into Emi's bowl, smooshing it up a little to make it easier for Emi to scoop it for herself before dishing up a much, much larger serving into his own bowl.
Before the chocolate pudding meets his lips, Jughead looks down to the toddler in the high-chair beside him with a stern expression that just makes her erupt with a giggle.
"Now, this stays between us, okay kiddo? Your mum will have my head if she knows that we had desserts at this time of night..."
And, it would have stayed a little secret between father and daughter in the dead of the night... That's if it weren't for the bowl and spoon along with its matching plastic counterparts that were left in the sink for Betty to discover the very next morning, finding the evidence of the daddy-daughter feast that just brings a silent smile to her lips.
Bit of Bughead, bit of FP and a bit of daddy-daughter time. Hope you all enjoyed this one. I'd love to know what you thought.
Next one: Jughead and Betty face some life-changing news.
