This chapter goes through episodes 2x03-2x04.

It was oddly empty in the parking lot at the grocery store given the time. Normally it was bustling with mothers running last minute errands before dinner or workers on their break looking for something to eat either then or later. But it was almost desolate, and the once bright sky had darkened to a dull grey.

Fangs was running an errand for Tall Boy so Sweet Pea was the one taking Lane to the store, not that he minded so much. She was easy enough to get along with, and ever so often he'd sneak glances at her trying to gauge what she thought of him. She wore a black turtleneck and knee high boots over her jeans, and a pair of red gloves that covered only her palms and her fingers – closed off, guarded. And he thought she was beautiful.

But he felt her gloved hand grab his as they walked to Tall Boy's truck and he stopped looking down at her curiously to see her eyes set beyond him. He turned seeing the mass of bodies in studded leather and ripped jeans and he pulled her behind him cursing their luck, there was eight Ghoulies to their two. "Go back in the store," he told her reaching for his switchblade, knowing he wasn't gonna win this fight but he wasn't willing to just leave her to them.

"What do we have here," a lanky boy with dark stringy hair asked as they slunk toward the two. "It's our lucky day boys, looks like we found a couple of snakes to cut the heads off of. What do you say?"

His boys sneered with gleeful cruelty as they closed in around the two, and one of them recognized her. "Hey, it's the bitch who's been messing with our boys."

Sweet Pea's hand clenched into a fist, his features pulling together in rage. "She's not your bitch," he said flicking his switchblade open, knowing exactly where this was going.

The first boy who'd spoken smirked making a show of eying her, not liking how calm she appeared – he'd change that. "No but she will be," he said, his tone laced with promise. She was a pretty little thing, Malachai would like her for nothing else but paying her back for the shit she'd caused. "Take him down and grab her."

Sweet Pea held an arm out to keep her behind him feeling his heart racing as he eyed the guys stepping forward. But Lane ducked under it and positioned herself in front of him, her dark eyes fixed on the one who acted like the leader. He jerked to a halt caught in her gaze and stood unable to move or breathe, to do anything but stare as her features melted into something demonic.

"Oh shit she's doing it," one of them said and the others stopped looking from her to the boy that was now turning a faint blue. "Yo call that bitch off."

He'd been startled at first but hearing that word again in relation to Lane had Sweet Pea snapping out of it and he charged forward swinging. "I already told you asshole, she's not your bitch."

Before another Ghoulie could get Sweet Pea off of him Lane pulled off a glove and raised her hand snapping and it sounded like a gunshot. They all flinched and turned to her then the blue boy who was now slumped on the ground unconscious. His friends pulled back not knowing what kind of devil she was, but they grabbed their boy and carried him off with the promise to make her pay for whatever she'd done.

With the Ghoulies retreating Sweet Pea turned to where Lane stood with a faint smile, but mostly he was just confused. And interested. "Who are you?" he asked her softly, understanding now why Fangs had been so obsessed with knowing.

But Lane was still staring beyond him and her chest swelled heavily with every quick breath. "Get behind me."

Her widened eyes had his pulse jumping as he turned to see what was scaring her – so far nothing did, which meant it was something bad. With deeply furrowed brows he watched something take shape in the shadow of a tree, almost humanlike but it stepped into the light and its form fell apart as it pulled itself toward them. Even in his non-understanding Sweet Pea still put himself in front of Lane and as that thing rose trying to take shape he could feel himself shaking as it crept closer.

"Cinis Cinerem."

It seemed to burst into ashes that fell softly to the asphalt like snow, and still not knowing what was happening Sweet Pea turned seeing Lane rifling through the grocery bag. "What the hell was that?" he demanded feeling his thoughts spinning and his heart beating too fast and too hard and he couldn't catch his breath. "What the hell did you just do? What the hell's going on?" His tone rose with each word until he was almost yelling at her.

She grabbed the jar of pickles and dumped it out onto the ground. He was panicking not only from her hold on the Ghoulie but now seeing the formless scout, and soon what they were gonna do. Under normal circumstances she'd simply take his memory of this, but they didn't have a lot of time before it pulled itself back together.
So she looked up at Sweet Pea and very bluntly told him, "I'm a witch, and I need you to hurry up and get over it because I need you." Moving around him she dropped to her knees and stuffed her gloves in her pocket before gathering the ash into the jar. "I need to bury this somewhere no one's gonna find it, some place abandoned or in the woods. Anything."

I need you, he was stuck on her saying that and it was something he actually understood. So he nodded. "Fox Forest," he said hearing her short great before she walked to the car. And with nothing else to do he followed her and drove.

She held her hand out to him and he looked at it realizing he'd never actually seen them without gloves – she had small hands though her fingers were long and thin. Pretty, like the rest of her. Even if she didn't make sense. So he gave her his hand. "No, your switchblade," she told him in an irritable huff.

That attitude was familiar and it had him rolling his eyes as he fished it out of his pocket and shoved it at her. Every so often he'd look at her to see her carving some symbol in the top of the lid. "What is that?" he finally asked.

"A seal," she said blowing the metal shavings off when she was done. And she handed him his knife back, feeling a shock when his fingers grazed her skin. He had his walls up today but she could feel something beyond it, and after a moment she reached to where his hand was around the steering wheel feeling the way it tightened at her touch.

Her fingers were light as they ran over his knuckles as though feeling every bruise that'd been there, and it had something churning in his stomach making him feel sick. And as she grazed the inside of his wrist his walls crumbled and she felt the heat pool low in his stomach that had him losing his breath. Beneath his obvious attraction she saw his fear, not so much of her but for her. Getting what she wanted she pulled away hearing him catch his breath now that she wasn't touching him.

"Nothing's gonna come after me," she told him, meeting his eyes when he glanced at her. "This was a scout. Usually they take the form of animals and less often people, but this one couldn't because the magic used to summon it was weak. But we're sealing it."

"So it can't tell whoever's after you where you are," Sweet Pea finished for her, finding that at least sensible.

"Exactly."

He nodded thinking he understood but his head was spinning and he was having a hard time catching up. From the moment she stepped foot in the Wyrm there'd been something off about her. "So you're a witch," he said finding that word hard to say in terms of it being real. She nodded and he almost wished she'd told him it was all some big joke, but he couldn't deny it made some sense. "So magic and all that," he started, pulling off the side of the road next to Fox Forest, "it's all real? Like spells and potions and shit. You can do all that?"

Reaching the end of her patience, which her fried nerves did little to help, she huffed irritably. "For the love of god, keep up," she told him climbing out of the car.

She was infuriating as always and it was so normal to him that he scoffed a laugh and followed her as she trekked through the long expanse of untouched woods. They walked side by side for several minutes, Sweet Pea considering the worry of how they'd find their way out but he let it go figuring Lane would know, before she finally stopped deeming it 'right' enough.

As she dropped to her knees clawing at the ground he knelt beside her helping her dig the hole before she set the jar inside and stood dusting herself off. This time when she held her hand out to him he gave her his pocketknife, but she flicked the blade open and grabbed his wrist. "What the hell?" he exclaimed trying to pull away from her as she dug the knife into his palm. But instead of answering she held his hand over the hole dripping his blood over the jar, and he listened to her dark foreign words feeling the air around them grow cold before it seemed to fall still. As though any sound would break it.

Lane crouched down filling the hole with dirt and smoothing it until it almost wasn't obvious someone had been there. Wiping her hands on her pants she pulled the gloves back on and turned to see Sweet Pea watching cautious and unhappy as blood dripped down his fingers.

He looked down at the hand she'd extended to him and he considered making a run for it, leaving her and her magic behind and returning to his normal boring life. But even though he still didn't understand, she hadn't failed him yet. So he set his hand in hers watching as she spread his fingers so she could see what she'd done, and then he inhaled sharply as she bent to press a soft kiss on his palm. His throat bobbed with his swallow as his eyes flicked to hers and he lost his breath all over again, she kept doing that to him. He might have to consider it a problem.

She tasted a lot of feelings, most angry and bitter, but there were a few that were soft, and fewer still were thoughts of her and they seemed to burn him. As she pulled away his thumb dragged over her lips wiping the blood from them, and it was her breath this time that was lost as she blinked up at his dark eyes. This boy who rose to every occasion no matter how reluctant because he knew it's what was needed, his willingness to come to her defense either physically or verbally before he'd even liked her – this boy never failed to surprise her.

…

The sun had fallen and left the night dark when Fangs heard a knock on his door, and he pulled it open to see Lane and Sweet Pea on his doorstep with dirt on their pants. "He knows," Lane told him simply.

It left Fangs to catch up and he looked between them seeing something off about Sweet Pea, something in his eyes that made him look kind of small. "What, that we're kind of together?" he asked still not sure what was happening.

But Sweet Pea turned to Lane with hurt shining clear in his eyes before he'd pulled his anger around it. "You guys are dating?"

"No," was Lane's immediate answer. But she hesitated before correcting herself with, "kind of. That's not the point," her voice raised and sharpened with irritability. She looked to Fangs, getting herself back on track. "The other thing."

Her being a witch. He gave a quiet, "oh," as he finally understood, and he turned to Sweet Pea and told him, "yeah," with a nod.

Muttering to herself Lane rolled her eyes exasperated. "Deal with him," she told Fangs motioning to Sweet Pea who stood so unhappy she could feel it coming off him, "I've got something else to do. I'll see you guys later."

She left them there to talk about it, about her and what was real, what they'd seen. And she made her way to what was now her home and shut the door facing where Tall Boy sat on the couch with a beer in hand.

Looking from her dirty jeans to her tangled hair and her hard eyes he asked, "tough day?" And she sighed heavily before slumping on the couch beside him, close enough to touch but not actually touching. He knew Sweet Pea had her today, and from her morose attitude it wasn't hard to guess. "You had to know a few people would find out," he told her meeting her almost pouting gaze. "And you had to know it'd be your boys."

It didn't mean she had to be happy about it. There was still part of her that wanted to go home, it grew smaller everyday, but she couldn't just leave this place if there were people she cared about. "We saw a scout, I took care of it," was her immediate follow up. "But, sooner or later it's gonna find me." She didn't know what she was supposed to do then, if she'd be able to do anything – if she was strong enough.

"We'll deal with it when the time comes," he told her, looking at her then and remembering just how young she was. And so very sad. He held a hand out to her and watched her look at it for several moments before she pulled off a glove and slid her hand in his, filling his touch with the promise to be there for her so that she'd feel it.

Releasing a breath she let her head fall to his shoulder still holding his hand, feeling the love he had for her mother that he now had for her. There was something else, a want that pained him but he kept that from her. "What did you wanna talk to me about?" she asked, finally getting to the point.

She was done talking about herself, so he nodded and let her go. "You remember I told you Jughead Jones was transferring to Southside High?" He was FP's kid, the son of the Serpents leader and that was supposed to mean something. It meant nothing to Lane, but she still nodded for him to continue. "Keep an eye on him, he'll need it."

It's how Lane found herself the next day leaning against the locker between Sweet Pea and Fangs, who were collecting their things, watching the pale dark haired boy in the frumpy grey beanie looking suspiciously around him.

"Like what you see?" Fangs asked her, feeling his chest flush as he caught her staring. She didn't even glance at him, watching Jughead dodge someone's elbow. "Tall Boy told me to watch him. He's out of his depth."

On the other side of her Sweet Pea scoffed, "he's been on the Northside too long." He'd convinced himself he was an idiot and it was all in his head, because listening to Fangs talk about her last night it was clear who she was into. But he wasn't ready to be nice yet, he couldn't make himself look at her.

…

Jughead lay curled in on himself in the dim hallway as boots stomped his ribs and fists wailed on his head. There were too many of them and no one else in the school, it'd been stupid for him to stay after, for him to think he could get through this.

Coming down the hall her footsteps echoed like thunder and the Ghoulies turned seeing her just moments before she raised a hand and snapped. "Dark." The lights went off around them leaving in them in an eerie lightlessness. And they recoiled spitting curses, calling her a devil.

As the last of them left Jughead raised his head finding the pale blue emergency light suddenly back on, and he looked up at the girl who'd been watching him all day. She looked down at him without feeling offering no comfort or a hand up, and then she turned and walked away. Over her shoulder she told him, "you can either keep up or wait for them to come back."

With his sides aching he gathered his things, stuffed his hat back on his head, and jogged after her. He'd met a lot of people today, most of them Serpents like Toni; but this girl, she was strange. "What was that?" he asked, not knowing what exactly had happened because he'd been protecting his head. But it shouldn't have been dark like that, like there wasn't a single ray of light anywhere.

"A trick," she answered blandly without looking at him. "Sit with the Serpents, it'll be easier."

He was tired of being told that, of them trying to force him to be apart of it. "I'm not a Serpent," he told her.

Now she looked at him and her brow was raised. "Me neither," she said seeing that surprised him. "I'm from Greendale. But these people took me in when they didn't have to, the least I can do is get my head out of my ass and act like I appreciate it."

He scoffed wondering who'd planted that idea in her head, but before he could respond they reached the door he tried earlier that'd been chained. She raised a gloved hand to the bar handle and he heard a loud clang as she shoved it open. Following her outside he looked down to see the chains had fallen. "Was that a trick too?" he asked, wondering who she was.

"Call it whatever you want," she told him callously, her gaze settling on the boy straddling his bike waiting for her. Leaving Jughead on the sidewalk behind her she walked over to Fangs saying, "I thought you were ditching me again today."

He shrugged, his eyes on the sway of her wide hips. "I have time to drive you home," he told her, wishing he could take her out like he'd planned to. At the sight of her warm smile he raised his chin meeting her halfway for a kiss. "If I didn't know better," he mumbled against her lips, "I'd say you were sweet on me."

"Not a chance," she said breathless, as she continued to be with him. But instead of kissing him again her eyes flicked to the boy who still stood on the sidewalk watching them, amazed at seeing such a soft look on her otherwise stony face. "Need something?"

He almost jumped at her firm tone and Jughead shook his head. "I just," he ran a hand through his fisted hair, "thank you." She'd been there and she didn't have to be.

Swinging a leg around the bike she sat with her hips pressed against Fangs and told Jughead, "I'm not the one you should be thanking." She saw on his face he knew she meant the other Serpents, the ones who actually cared about his wellbeing because she didn't. Leaning forward she pressed a kiss to the soft skin behind Fangs' ear, and he shivered at feeling her teeth nip his earlobe before he drove her home.

.^.

Feeling someone graze his side Sweet Pea looked up from his lunch tray to see Lane climbing onto the bench beside him. He watched her set her brown bag on the table and carefully pull her gloves off placing them neatly beside her. Her shoulder was pressed against his, her leg was too, and at times like these it was hard to pretend it was in his head.

She unfolded the bag and tossed a bag of chips at him, seeing his small smirk as he took them. And then she pulled out her own chips and the sandwich she'd made and set it on top of the bag. Neat, meticulous.

"Can I sit here?"

Sweet Pea and Toni both looked up at Jughead, his face bruised and hardened, and Toni made room for him. He glanced at Sweet Pea seeing the fire in his eyes, and Jughead looked away trying not to feel like he was getting roped into this. He looked down to see Lane sliding half her sandwich on the ziplock bag she'd packed it in, and he looked up watching her dump half her chips onto the brown bag she used as a tray and then set the rest of the chips in front of him. She didn't look at him, he didn't have to show his thanks, it just was.

She felt Sweet Pea's knuckles brush her arm as he reached across to grab a chip, and as she buzzed with the feel of him she looked at his heavy eyes knowing he'd done it on purpose. And it left her body flushed and aching; he'd forced her to feel what she did to him. As he raised the chip to his mouth she snatched it from him, and he turned watching her pop it into hers.

.^.

Lane was sitting on Fangs' lap in the back office of the garage doing paperwork when Sweet Pea found them. He was sitting back in the chair with his hands either on her hip or encasing her thigh. And Sweet Pea had to pull himself together before he could speak. "We're going after the Northsider that pulled a gun on us," he told him, having already grabbed a group of guys looking for a brawl. Fangs was the last one.

Fangs looked up at where Sweet Pea stood consciously aware of Lane glaring at him unhappily. And it wasn't at the thought of him rain-checking yet another date, and that made him swallow heavily. "I already told Lane I was taking her out, I can't cancel on her again."

"You're serious?" Sweet Pea demanded, his blood boiling as Lane turned to him.

"Yeah, and I have half a mind to bring you with us. You're not going after some guy with a gun."

His eyes were dark as he sneered at her. "Your concern is very telling, but I'm not your boyfriend and I don't have to listen to you." Glancing at where Fangs sat behind her Sweet Pea told him, in a marginally softer tone, "enjoy your date."

"What was that about?" Fangs asked looking to Lane after he'd left. Sweet Pea was usually a little rough around the edges but he seemed to warm up to her in the past couple weeks, now he seemed so angry.

Lane knew why, she'd felt his jealously brush across her skin like wind. But what she said was, "wanna tell me about the guy with the gun." She had enough to deal with on her own, she was gonna get dragged into this the same way Jughead felt he was.

He looked away pulling his hands off her, not giving her the chance to get anything off his skin. "I'd rather tell you where I'm taking you tonight." He'd taken her out twice and then there was a span of weeks he kept having to cancel on her because the Serpents needed him, because he was still new and he felt like he couldn't say no. But it was just Sweet Pea this time, he thought he'd understand.

And just like that, she melted. Like butter in the palm of his hand, not all at once but slowly growing softer losing little by little – laughing and loving – until she was a puddle trembling beneath him.

It was dark in the trailer filled only with their heavy breathing as he rolled off her, feeling the air cool on his sweaty chest. "How was it for you?"

They lay turned into each other, him running the tips of his fingers along the expanse of her thigh and her with his necklace curled around her finger. "Well," she started taking a steadying breath as she tried to slow her pounding heart, "I felt my part, and your part ten times stronger."

From how hard she fought to keep people from touching her he'd never really wanted to know what she felt, but goddamn did he want to now. "I thought I felt you come twice," he said finding himself insanely jealous. But her mouth curled in this wicked little grin and his brows shot up. "Three?" he asked her and she nodded. "That is so not fair."

She laughed lightly pulling him closer, cupping his face as she kissed him gently. With her feelings and his all swirling around inside her the words came easily to her. "I really like you."

"I really like you too," he told her, no hesitation. They leaned into each other for a kiss, but a sudden blue and red glow had them pulling back as Fangs sat up. He moved to the window and peeked through the blinds to see Sweet Pea being thrown against the side of a trailer by a deputy. "Shit," he muttered as he turned looking for his boxers. "Stay here alright, I don't know what's going on but go back to Tall Boy's if I don't come back." When she didn't respond he turned for the bed finding it empty. "Lane?"

Sweet Pea glowered as his hands were forced behind his back and cuffed, feeling his eye starting to bruise, knowing the Northsiders probably blamed the Serpents for the whole thing. And even if they hadn't the Sheriff's office sure as hell would.

"What the hell?"

He turned at the deputy's exclaim and saw Lane standing naked in the rain a few feet away, and Sweet Pea's whole world seemed to crash to a sudden stop. She stood feeling the light rain catch in her hair as she held a glass to the officer, who stood stock still caught in her pale gaze hearing the faint rattle of a snake. Without the will to refuse he took the glass from her and drank.

Sweet Pea watched confused as the officer dropped the glass and turned uncuffing him. "You're free to go," he said in a voice that sounded far away, in a dream, before he returned to his car.

As if in a daze Sweet Pea turned to Lane seeing her walking back to the trailer where Fangs stood in only his boxers watching from the doorstep. Spellbound Sweet Pea followed.

Fangs closed the door after him and as Sweet Pea stood soaked and bruised Fangs shared a long look with Lane. Together they turned to Sweet Pea, who still felt like he couldn't move, and began pulling off his wet clothes. Lane pushed the jacket off his shoulders and pulled shirt over his head feeling how deep his breathing was growing, while Fangs took off the rest. And then they stood together pushing him onto the couch. Sweet Pea couldn't think straight as they sat pressed on either side of him kissing from his jaw down his neck, their hands roaming his chest. Her teeth grazed his tattoo, feeling how much it hurt him.

She took his face in her hands and turned him to her as Fangs sank between his legs, tasting on his tongue how confused he was, and beneath that how much he wanted this. Wanted them. With an arm around her and his other hand on the back of Fangs' head, Sweet Pea released a breath letting go of any lingering doubt as he gave in completely. His head fell back on the couch with eyes screwed shut and his mouth hung open, and when he'd gotten control of his body again he pulled Lane closer returning his lips to hers. He didn't last much longer, and he came in Fangs' mouth moaning into Lane's.

His chest burned as he caught his breath and he sat back feeling Lane's hand in his hair as Fangs crawled up his body pressing wet kisses as he went, until Fangs sat on the other side of him and Sweet Pea turned to kiss him too. Bliss, Lane let her hand trail over his collarbone, absolute bliss.

They crawled into bed together, Sweet Pea still between them as they both lay with their heads on either of his shoulders pressed against his side. Lane held her hand over his heart feeling it beat beneath her palm, Fangs held his own hand over hers, and she felt how content they both were and she sighed happily letting her eyes fall closed.