This is a long one...and kind of a companion to the first one. Enjoy!

Take 2

Love

Summary – Jughead falls in love with Betty over the years.

Third POV

The dark-haired five-year-old in the paper crown lit up inside the day he met the sweet, little blond. He defended her against fake dragons and knew without a doubt that he would protect her from real ones if he had to. He watched her laugh and play with his fiery maned best friend and smiled to himself, wishing he could make her laugh like that. To be fair, he didn't try but he was always too nervous around her. He sat against the base of the tree that held his treehouse, reading a book of short stories as the other two ran around the yard.

"Juggie!" Betty called out to him. "Come play with us!" He grinned at the girl, putting his book aside and joining them in their game of tag.

"You're it!" the golden girl yelled, poking his arm and gleefully running away. His heart fluttered at the little touch and he took off after her.

~.~.~

When they were eight, Archie's dad took them to Pop's for milkshakes. The three kids squeezed into one side of the booth, Betty in between her boys. Archie got chocolate; Jughead got vanilla; Betty got strawberry. Betty bravely asked for a bunch of extra straws, boldly sticking three in each shake. She beamed at her friends.

"We can make a neopolite!" she exclaimed, proud of herself. Mr. Andrews chuckled at the young girl's announcement.

"I think the word you're looking for is neapolitan," he leaned across the table and stage-whispered to her. Their small group burst out laughing, Betty falling against Jughead's shoulder. He held his breath and tried his hardest not to stiffen at her touch. He craved her touch without realizing it, but when she would hug him or place a hand on his shoulder, he tensed up. Once Betty was able to compose herself, she sat up straight, reaching immediately for her milkshake. Jughead adjusted the gray beanie he started wearing after out-growing his paper crown and took a sip of his own. The three friends shared their different shakes, talking and laughing the whole time. Mr. Andrews watched them with barely masked amusement. He worried that one day, one of the kids would fall in love with one of their friends. He didn't know who or when but he feared someone would get their heart broken.

~.~.~

At thirteen, Betty's mom insisted she make some friends that were girls. She tried; she really did. But all pre-teen girls care about is makeup and boys and gossip. She wanted to play flag football and Frisbee. She wanted to hang out with her boys, Archie and Juggie. They were the three musketeers and always would be and her mom was just going to have to get over it.

"I just don't want to sit around and listen to them go on and on about who kissed who and who wore what and ugh!" Betty exclaimed, nearly whipping the football she held at the ginger boy. He barely caught it, almost falling in the process. Jughead laughed from his perk on the balcony of his treehouse.

"Easy there, Betts!" he teased. "You're here to help him get ready for tryouts, not to injure him." Archie shifted nervously.

"I really, really don't want to act like a teenage girl right now…" he trailed off, looking at his feet. "But I may have had my first kiss yesterday." His usual braveness reclaimed him and he looked back up, looking each friend in the eye in turn. Jughead climbed down half the ladder and jumped the rest of the way down. Betty's face fell slightly. Archie probably thought it was because 'he was acting like a teenage girl'. Jughead knew the truth thought and it made his heart clench. Betty fell in love with Archie sometime over the summer and Jughead desperately wished it were him she loved.

"Ohh," he mocked his best friend. "Do tell." He didn't care; not really. But he was curious.

"It was Cheryl," he blurted, unable to help himself. Betty gasped and even Jughead was shocked.

"What? How?" the blond nearly yelled.

"We were at that football party down by Sweetwater River and Reggie dared me," he explained. Betty looked slightly relieved.

"So you don't like her?" she asked, barely masking her hopefulness.

"Nah, not really. But now you guys gotta catch up!" he teased. Jughead snorted and Betty blushed and looked down at her shuffling feet. An idea light up Archie's features.

"You could both just get it out of the way, right now," he suggested, wiggling his eyebrows and pursing his lips. It was Jughead's turn to blush. Betty looked back up quickly, eyes narrowing at Archie's challenge. Before either boy knew what happened, the blond grabbed the brunette's shoulder and pulled him to her. She pressed her lips to his in a chaste first kiss and pulled away just as quickly, grinning at the boys.

"Coopers don't back away from a challenge, boys. And don't you ever forget it again." She turned and stormed off, towards home. Jughead adjusted the gray beanie he had recently cut into a jagged crown shape on his dark hair and retreated back to his treehouse. Archie stood frozen in the yard, confused by both of their actions.

~.~.~

Jughead yanked at his beanie that Betty had hemmed for him merely months ago. The jagged crown edges were beginning to unravel and it bothered her perfectionist ways. She's plucked it from his head one day, outside the Andrew's house and ran inside before he could protest. She'd fixed the crooked edges, and then hemmed them up tightly. She tacked the inner points to the base of the hat so it would keep its crown appearance without having to be adjusted as often. Then she'd casually strolled back outside with it behind her back, presenting her finished work to her friend. His face nearly lit up, but he controlled it into a lopsided grin.

"Betts! That's amazing!" he exclaimed, as she placed it back over his raven curls. "Thank you." He couldn't help but hug her, though he tried to avoid that now that the butterflies in his stomach fluttered at a mere glance. She squeezed back tightly.

"You're welcome, Juggie," she had whispered, before Archie had ran out of his house up to them, breaking up their embrace. But that was months ago. And now, Betty was gone for the summer and Archie had abandoned him. At sixteen, he was thrilled to go on an unsupervised road trip with his best friend. Until the day he stood waiting at the entrance to the trailer park he has lived in for the past year, waiting for the red-head to show. He never did; no call, no text, nothing. Jughead was floored. Perhaps his fellow football players finally convinced him that having a social outcast as a best friend was practically suicide. Maybe he met up with a girl. Or maybe, just maybe, he realized that he's too good to be best friends with the son of an alcoholic gang member. Whatever the reason, Archie abandoning him hurt. But what hurt more was knowing that Betty would soon follow, taking Archie's side in anything and everything. She practically worshipped the ground he walked on. There was no way she'd still be his friend when she got back. So he ignored her calls and texts and retreated into himself, watching silently as the town went on without him.

Jason Blossom's death shook Riverdale to its core. People went home earlier, walked closer to the people they were with. Fear coursed through the very veins of the small town as they realized that bad things can happen, even in these perfect towns. Jughead observed as silently as he could but people were desperate to talk about it and so if he was in close range, they even spoke to him. He kept his responses short or sarcastic and it usually made them leave him alone. He sat in his favorite booth at Pop's, gulping down black coffee and letting the words of his novel flow freely through his fingers. Although tragic, murder and mystery made a great subject. He suddenly felt eyes on him and looked up from his work to see sea-green eyes staring at him quizzically. He shut his laptop and nearly sputtered for words.

"Why did you stop talking to me, Juggie?" she asked, quietly. No accusation in her voice, only hurt. He sighed and explained that he knew she would side with Archie and just like that, they were friends again. Archie too, but that was more cautious and taken with a grain of salt. Jughead continued to observe everyone as well he could but most of his focus remained on Betty. He drank her in with a nearly unquenchable thirst until one day he couldn't take it anymore. He climbed through her window to check on her and she just looked so beautiful in her frilly pink room. He just couldn't resist anymore and he kissed her. It was a different kiss than their first, back when they were pre-teens, more meaningful. Just like that, they were inseparable. She was finally his, as he had always been hers. Jughead's heart fluttered nearly painfully in his chest every time he looked at her and he finally knew why.

"I've loved you for year, Betty Cooper," he whispered, between heated kisses in the office of their school newspaper. She just laughed and beamed at him, before pulling his lips back to hers, damn near close to devouring him.

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