We start out after Anatomy of a Murder. This is basically just fluff. I'm too tired to commit to more right now. Lol. It's going to be a long, dry summer, my babies, and I'm sad.

Jughead sat up fast, disoriented, head throbbing, body stiff from sleeping on the small couch. He looked around the Andrews' garage. It was real. It had all been real. Everyone he cared about had betrayed him. First Archie and Veronica, and then Betty. Even though had been cleared up, it still hurt him.

Then Fred, the one man he'd looked up to, the man who'd been his standin father, had turned his back on him, too. Hearing Fred say that Jughead was trouble had almost been worse than seeing FP arrested for murder. Where was he going to live now? Archie still wanted him there, but Fred didn't. He didn't know how much longer he could stay, even if he was couch surfing in the garage.

Even though FP had been cleared of the murder charges, his dad was still in jail and would be for awhile. He and Betty had made up, but everything between them was still strained and tense. And god damnit he was so mad, at the world, at Sheriff Keller, at Archie, at Veronica, and at his own mother, and he'd partially taken it out on Betty. She'd been there beside him, never giving up, fighting at every turn to clear his father, even when Jughead himself had given up. Of course it had been the worst days of his life, but he should have turned to her for comfort, not pushed her away.

The intimacy of a relationship would always be a little difficult for him. It might take him years to get over his fears and fully let her in, but Betty Cooper was stubborn. She wouldn't give up on him. She understood why he was the way he was. It had taken Betty pointing it out to him, but he now realized that it was his mother's fault.

All his life, he'd thought FP was the deadbeat parent, but he'd been wrong. FP was an alcoholic. Gladys was just a shit person and a worse mother. It wasn't because she'd had an addiction or struggled to financially support him, but because she'd never wanted Jughead. He'd been conceived by mistake and she'd always seen him as such. A blight to her life, the end of her freedom, the start of everything bad. Mothers were supposed to love you no matter what, even more than fathers. But Gladys Jones never loved Jughead, and he'd spent his whole life trying to be good enough for her and he was done chasing after her. In his time of need, he'd swallowed his pride and called her, but just like always, the timing wasn't right, she was too busy, she just didn't give a damn about her oldest child and only son.

He'd been so blinded by the rejection of his mother that he couldn't even call upon the one person in his life that was there for him. His girlfriend, the perfect Betty Cooper. He knew she hated that word, but that's what she was. Smart, brave, kind, protective, and loving Betty. She was perfect to him.

If it wouldn't have been for Betty, FP's name wouldn't have been cleared. If it wasn't for Betty, Jughead would have lost it long ago. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't understand what it meant to love and be loved.

Throughout this whole mess, even when he'd been mad at her, she'd been there, giving him space, but still standing beside him, patiently waiting for him to lean on her. She let him feel his anger.

He needed to see her now, to seek comfort in her. She'd told him earlier tonight that Alice and Hal went away for the weekend, hoping to reconcile and rebuild their marriage. Polly would be asleep in her room down the hall. Instead of spending another cramped night on the couch in the garage, he could put his arms around Betty and just sleep. And do other things.

He pulled on his shoes and beanie, and put on his jacket. As he walked across the yard, it started to snow again, fat snowflakes hitting his shoulder, soaking into the wool of his hat. He found the ladder tucked behind the bushes on the side of her house. He was halfway up the rungs, when he realized maybe he should have called her first, or maybe knocked on the front door. With everything that had happened lately, even with Jason's murderer being found out, knocking on her window and waking her up in the middle of the night might freak her out a little. But when he reached the top of the ladder, he saw her bedside lamp was on and her journal was in her lap.

He tapped on the pane of glass, and she looked up at him and smiled. It brought him back to the first time he'd climbed through her window. He'd been so nervous to kiss her, and now it was so natural to do it whenever he pleased.

She opened the window and he climbed through. "I thought I'd wake you up," he said standing up.

"I couldn't sleep." She closed the journal and rested it on her thigh. She had on a soft cotton shirt and shorts that left her legs bare. He felt himself hardening already.

"What's up, Juggie?" she asked, her eyebrows drawn up in concern. She'd been so loving and patient with him. While Jughead had been in a constant state of unease and illwill, Betty had been continuously worried about him.

"Nothing," he replied. "I'm just sick of sleeping on that tiny couch in the garage. Wanna have a sleepover?"

"Always." She scooted over, peeled the covers back, and patted the mattress beside him, but he remained standing. "I was actually hoping you would have come over earlier."

"I should have started the night out here. I've just been such a dick lately that I wasn't sure you'd want me to come over."

"You haven't been a dick. You've been rightfully stressed and tense." She got onto her knees in front of him, reaching up to push his jacket off his shoulders. "You know what relieves stress?"

"I think I do," he said, smiling down at her.

"The other night, the night after your dad was arrested, I was laying in bed, trying to fall asleep, but I heard a noise. At first I thought it was you, climbing up my window again. You'd been so distance-which I totally understand-but I had hoped you'd come to talk things through, but it was actually my dad breaking into our house to destroy evidence. I was so disappointed. We haven't been alone together in days, and I was missing you."

"I'm sorry," he said.

"It's okay," she said. "I understand."

"You always understand. I believe you love me, I have since you told me for the first time, but I know it now. I see it in everything you do for me, how you never give up, how you fight for me. You saved me. You saved my dad. You and your smart brain and unwavering stubbornness are the reason."

"I'd do anything for you, Jug."

He leaned down and kissed her. "And I for you."

She sat back on her heels. "Both of our dads are innocent."

"Yeah, but mine's going to be in jail for a while." He paused to sigh. "Fred doesn't want me in staying there anymore."

"Did he say that?" Betty asked.

"Heavily implied it. I've been sleeping in the garage. My mom doesn't want me either."

"I do. I want you. I always will. Stay with me."

"I'm sure Alice would love for us to have a sleepover every night." He thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "At least we're not related like Polly and Jason were." Betty glared at him. "Sorry. Too soon."

"We could tell my mom that you're going to sleep in the basement." She straightened up, biting her bottom lip as she rubbed the front of his pants. Since they had started talking, he'd softened a little bit, but with the knowledge of what was coming, he stiffened again in no time. "And every night, after my parents are asleep, you can sneak up the stairs and climb into bed with me." She reached beneath the waistband of his pajama pants, and sprung him free of the confines.

"That's a great idea, Betts, but you know Mamma Cooper wouldn't allow it."

Her hands started to work over him, making him sigh. Why had he kept her at arm's length for the last few days? Betty Cooper was exactly what he needed to forget his troubles. She was the answer to everything.

"Alice likes you. I've told you that she's always had a soft spot for you. My mom-"

"Can we please stop talking about your mom while your hand is doing that?"

She looked down and giggled. Her fingers had formed a tight fist around him. "Yeah. I think that's a good idea," she said. Betty got back onto her knees so that she could kiss him, but she kept her fingers tight around him as she continued to stroke him. She reached for her shirt, but Jughead removed it for her.

It'd been too long since he's been with her, in between her thighs, inside of her. He pushed her back gently to the bed and climbed onto the mattress with her. He nudged her knees apart and settled between them.

"I've missed you," she said, her voice coming out ragged as his fingers slipped in and out at an intoxicating rhythm. Then his thumb found that little bud of nerve endings at her core. As always he applied the perfect amount of circling pressure, causing her hips buck forwards, making her moan.

He pulled my underwear down the rest of the way, over my hips and down my legs, his fingers still moving within her, faster and faster, harder, but before she could come, he sank into her. As always, she was wet, and soft, and inviting. A goddess when he was just a mere mortal.

"I have loved you my whole life," he said. "I will love you until I die, and even after, until the end of time."

"I love you, too," she said. "I always will."

Then in unison, they both started to move. He closed his eyes, overwhelmed by the thousand sensations she stirred in him. There was no ending to her or to him. They were one being, one heartbeat, one soul. This was love, intimacy. This was all he ever needed to make himself whole. Betty Cooper had brought happiness into his heart and saved him from himself. And he would spend the rest of his life fighting her darkness, chasing it away with the light she had brought into his life.

He felt her shudder beneath him, and that was all it took. He stilled, kissed her, and rolled onto his back. She snuggled up next to him, and he wrapped his arms around her. As the snow came down outside, they drifted off to sleep, knowing Jason's murderer was dead, knowing they loved each other, and knowing this would last forever.