Hey, hey! So according to my universe, two days ago would have technically been a year after the world ended XD Something to think about, I'd guess ;)

Thank you as always to my loyal reviewers: Sarai Carrasco, Guest, Guest, Guest, Guest, and Serptent818.

Guest: Glad you love it! I fully intend to!

Guest: I'm glad I can make your day a little bit better!

Guest: Sorry for the delay XD

Guest: I fully intend to finish this...eventually. I have a lot of chapters planned out, but actually writing it? Who knew to write a story you actually had to sit down and...write!

Serptent818: Oh god, stupid baby names. That's like one of my biggest pet peeves. Like, I'll get on a tanget if I start on about it. But, moving on. I actually don't have a Spotify, so like, send any and all Serpent songs my way lol. And I LOVE those three songs, although two of them give me major other OTP vibes (Mostly because they're the couples I heard them first associated with- Dramione and Summertime Sadness/Bonkai and Hypnotic) but I see where you're thinking about it ;) And yessss, Your'e so right about MCR! That album came out juuust about the time I was starting to gather my own music/my mom stopped caring if music was 'explicit' or rocky or whatever, so I had 'Sing', but not much else. It's made me re-discover it, though, so thanks! And yeah, in BOMB SP does have a totally different vibe, which I was sorta going for because a) it's started much earlier, so all the shit hasn't gone down yet and b) SP has always been much more a 'part' of the world and FP and all that, as opposed to here where he's just a kid on his own for the most part. And no fear, there will be some SP/Betts! Finally, as per your final question, I don't want to just text block up here, so it will be below in the bottom Author's Notes!

August 20th, 2018

Sweet Pea came in before the sky was dark, as he always did.

"Here," Betty said, handing off half of her sugary concoction to him.

"What's this?" He asked.

"To celebrate...that you would have been a senior, and my birthday." She said. Sweet Pea was just using his fingers to dig into the treat and hadn't bothered for a spoon.

"Today's your birthday?" He asked, bits of crumbs falling from his mouth.

"No." Betty sighed, "My birthday was August 12th and I didn't know we passed it." She gave a watery smile.

"Oh, that sucks. Seventeen?" Sweet Pea surmised. Betty gave a sharp nod, "Well, seventeen isn't that great. You're not sixteen and you're not quite eighteen. Just ask me; seventeen was the shittiest year of my life so far."

"Worse than your mom dying?" Betty asked before she realized what she was saying. She slapped her fingers over her mouth, mortified. Sweet Pea either realized she meant no malice, or he didn't care that much.

"Yeah. It was a blessing when she left this earth. The literal end of the world? Nothing can be worse than this," He insisted.

"Well, when's your birthday?" Betty asked, glad to see him grinning and acting more the regular around her. Suddenly, Sweet Pea's mood changed. Betty cussed whatever she'd said to change that, but honestly, it wasn't even that difficult a question!

"Fall."

"Do you have to be like that?" Betty snapped, irritated.

"Like what?" Sweet Pea puffed out his chest, crossing his arms.

"So freaking mysterious about things that, I think, aren't that difficult of questions!" Betty said, "We've been together months, shouldn't I know?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, I think it does! I like to hold onto these things, you know?" Betty implored.

"It didn't even matter when the world hadn't been run by walkers. Pretty much no one celebrated it," Sweet Pea gave a shake of his head, "But I forgot. You have a thing about making birthdays a big deal, even if it's unwanted."

Betty's expression darkened immediately. Somehow, Sweet Pea had heard about the disaster that was Jughead's birthday party last year. The first big fight she'd gotten in with Jughead was that. It was, she'll admit, not one of her finer moments. However, from the look in Sweet Pea's eyes, she knows how carefully those words were chosen. It wasn't said out of a moment of passion and malice, it was something he knew would sting, something he'd thought about saying.

"I think you're being an asshole just to be a jerk." Betty rubbed her arms, a defensive motion, holding back tears of utter frustration, "Why?"

"I am an asshole, Cooper." Sweet Pea replied lazily. She'd wondered why Jughead had disliked Sweet Pea so much when all he'd ever been to Betty was somewhat kind, if not civil. However, a personality was rearing its ugly head and Betty wondered which side of Sweet Pea was true; this side, or the side she felt she knew.

She gave a firm shake of her head, "No. You make others think you are, but you aren't."

"God you have to go out and save the fucked up ones, huh? Does that get you off?" Sweet Pea laughed harshly, "I totally am a jerk."

"You keep saying that," Betty argued furiously, "But for some reason you've thrown up these walls again! I do not believe for a second that this monster is the real face of the same guy I've been traveling with since May! The guy who watches me sleep so protective, the guy who was upset when Toni and Cheryl left, the guy who sleeps next to me." She pointed out. When his expression did not lift, "Jordan-,"

"It's Sweet Pea," He snarled, standing, pacing, "It's Sweet Pea, Betty Cooper!"

"Yeah, but you told me that name and it means something." She grabbed her plate from the table, forcing herself to set it down in the sink carefully instead of hurling it there, like she wanted, "Are you going to leave?"

"What?" This seemed to pause him. He faltered, his expression dropping.

"Leave? Are you going to leave. Because you've suddenly made it seem like I don't know you and I shouldn't trust you and you don't want to be here." Betty was terrified at the thought of living alone, but she was strong enough to have the will to live. She'd figure something out. She steeled herself for his confirmation.

"What?" Sweet Pea repeated, "No...of course not. I-,"

"Then snap the hell out of it," Betty spun, leaning against the counter and slamming her fists down, "And I'll let this whole stupid fight go if you just tell me your birthday!"

Unsureness plagued Sweet Pea's face. He wavered, biting his lip. Betty realized she still had his dog tags in her pocket and sighed, putting them back in front of him. He grabbed them out, and then mumbled something. Betty nearly didn't hear it.

"Huh?"

"October 9th."

"That's-," Betty broke off abruptly, the words nearly coming out of her mouth before she fully registered it. She looked back to Sweet Pea who looked torn between guilt and anger.

"Uh-huh. A week after Jughead's." From Betty's confused look, he continued, "Yeah, I know it. I know the date. FP wouldn't shut the hell up about his son's birthday every year, weather he was talking to him or not. It's a date in my mind I can't scrub away."

"Ah."

"And I knew if I said it, you'd only think of Jughead."

Betty met his gaze, frowning, "Is that why you've been so distant? Are you jealous I think of Jughead?" She wasn't even angry, at this point, just confused. And, truth be told, she rarely thought of Jughead moment to moment. Maybe, if something sparked her memory and because they had been together a long time, but it wasn't like the direct weeks after. And if she was thinking of Jughead, what was it to him? However, she shook her head.

"Jordan, I really don't think about him much anymore. Maybe a little nostalgically, but it's not like I...I don't…" Betty fumbled, "You pointed out yourself that we didn't date too long in the real span of things. In a couple months, I'll have been with you longer and that really puts things into a perspective."

"But you should be thinking of him," Sweet Pea said testily.

"Okay. I'm just really confused now," Betty pinched the bridge of her nose, "I don't get it."

"What is there to get, Betty?" Sweet Pea had stood up somewhere in her stumbling explanation and he now paced, "I shouldn't have told you that. I shouldn't have been...I should have told you to go to Arizona."

"On a wild goose chase?" Betty asked, "We might have never found anything. I accepted that a long time ago."

"I am an asshole, though-,"
"Oh, hell, we're back to this?" Betty threw up her hands.

"-because you should still be in love with Jughead and I've been saying things here and there go get you over him, to make you act like it wasn't all that it was." Sweet Pea finished.

"So you'd rather me be crying and sad and depressed, all over the house? You're angry because I've begun to move on? I didn't think you two were that close!" Even Archie, who was Jughead's best friend, hadn't denied kissing her too much last winter.

"We aren't." Sweet Pea was quick to confirm, "Which is why I've been doing that. And I...on your phone...you really love him."

"Loved, maybe." Betty frowned, "I mean, I love him in the way that I've always loved him, but I don't think I love him anymore, present tense." She tried to connect the dots in her mind. She was an investigator, it shouldn't have been so hard, but the point Sweet Pea was trying to make- his motivations- were still muggy to her.

Looking at her and Jughead on her phone had set Sweet Pea off. He somehow felt guilty for encouraging what Betty felt was inevitable. Maybe even without Sweet Pea, she still didn't think she'd go to Arizona with no leads. Jughead had always been the romantic. It was Betty who had been the one who thought with her mind before her heart. She probably would have gotten over him at the same pace, or she wouldn't have, but she knew that even at this point Betty Cooper wouldn't still have been crying about a boy.

She'd thought about the future with Jughead, sure. The fact it was gone hurt a little, but they also could have naturally broken up in time. From the way Sweet Pea was talking, it was like he thought he'd broken up Romeo and Juliet. As cute as it had been for them to pretend, Betty was a realist. She knew that their love wasn't written in the stars. It was just two teens that were lucky to find each other.

"We fought a lot," Betty said after a quiet second, "The pictures of us? The Instagram posts? The messages? That was just a small part of it. We started out really good, but even then, I threw him that stupid party after he told me not to. And, then we were always hiding things from each other. I think we got back to a good place at the end of it, and I'd rather leave the memories there than that we ended badly, you know? And, up until that last night, there was so much that both of us were trying to juggle that we hardly saw each other anyway." Betty's eyes filled with tears, "It could have gotten bad again. He could have broken up with me, or I with him. This town had too many secrets." She said, referring to Riverdale, which was one of the biggest wedges in their relationship.

"You can't know it would have ended," Sweet Pea said, almost longingly, "That choice was taken."

"I don't know it would have ended good! He basically proposed to me, at sixteen! Neither of us were ready for that." She said, "And then Archie got arrested and we were trying to take down mob bosses and drug dealers and serial killers. That's stuff for adults. We were sixteen." Now, only seventeen and not that much older, Betty admitted that she wasn't any more ready to deal with this, but in an instant, sixteen seemed so young.

"Betts," Sweet Pea said and then frowned, "Betty." He corrected himself. Betty was pretty sure he'd just started calling her 'Betts' to piss off the memory of Jughead.

"You can call me Betts. That's okay." Jughead was hardly the first one to ever give her that nickname, he was just the first to use it so frequently.

"A part of me feels you should just be with him." He mumbled.

"As opposed to?" Betty asked, "Sweet Pea, do you…?" She trailed off, looking down. It was to hide the redness creeping up her neck, the heat over her whole body. She hadn't known he'd looked at her like that, she'd thought she had been alone in her fantasies.

He took a step to her, sighing. His fingers traced over her jawline and he gave a sad smile.

"Goodnight, Betty." In his answer, it said what he left unsaid. But, at the door to upstairs, he paused, looking back, "He really loves you, too." He added, so quietly she almost didn't hear.

"Loves, as in present." Betty murmured, "What does your gut say. You still think he's alive?"

"Does it matter? You don't believe in that to begin with." He asked, and then, more forcefully, "Does that make a difference?" Betty opened her mouth, struggling for a reply. What would be better to hear? What would be worse? Sweet Pea never gave her a chance to answer and exited, leaving her panting and angry and sad all at the same time. She wanted to run after him, follow him. But she couldn't. Betty didn't push it, not tonight. She let him walk away. Where would he go anyway?

He didn't return back to their bedroom that night either. As Betty contemplated it all, and the fact that she knew Sweet Pea was attracted to her in some way but had this sense of morality all of a sudden and guilt about Jughead that kept him away. She thought about how this had been their first huge fight too. She thought about how it didn't feel real with anyone, any sort of relationship, until you had a fight with them that mattered. You didn't get this angry with acquaintances, you didn't use words to hurt casual Facebook friends, and you didn't get so heated over a kid who served you ice-cream once. No; the fact they'd fought confirmed a line that they'd crossed without even knowing it.

August 21st, 2018

Betty does not push the issue. By morning she has worked this through her mind so many ways, so many times, that he is sure of her thoughts. There is one very big truth that she cannot go without acknowledging; she cannot lose Sweet Pea, and right now having him is more important than her own childish crush.

Had this world not been how it was, had it been normal, Betty would have never stopped until she got a better answer. If her and Jughead had broken up again, and this time it really was forever, and Sweet Pea had happened to start hanging around her at Riverdale, her reaction would have been different. Or, more aptly, if breaking up with Jughead wouldn't have been her choice and he had been forced to move back with his mom and Jellybean and Sweet Pea was having these same weird feelings holding him back, Betty would still have not accepted the wall he was putting between them. Betty would have gone and kissed him and not let him say no.

But this was a different world now, and the truth of the matter was, Sweet Pea was the most important person in her life. She could not jeopardize that.

He wasn't just a friend, as Archie had been. He was more than a best friend, like Veronica had been. At this moment in time, he was even greater than a lover, like Jughead had been. Sweet Pea was her partner and Betty longed for a dictionary to find a more apt word. Currently, she wouldn't have been able to find a singular term to describe him, but here it was. They were each other's protectors, confidants, companions, and sanity. Maybe the word to best describe him would have been to say that he was her family.

Yes, that was it, he was her family now. Frankly, the only family either of them had left. Alice Cooper was plucky, so Betty wasn't discounting that she might be kicking around somewhere. She's not sure about Polly, because having two babies changes things. She hopes her father is dead, but honestly, a psychopath like him is probably handling things just peachy. So, the might still be alive, but none of them are here. It's only those here that matter anymore. In this world, worry for people you cannot know are out there is wasteful. There are so many more present, more tangible things to be worrying about. In truth, she cannot even give worry to Jughead, if he is alive. She can just hope for the best and that's about it. And, since she still firmly thinks he's dead, the best is that he died fast and that his family do not hurt too bad.

A long time ago, when she was 14, her mother had told her that you can choose your family too, not just your friends. At 14, this had greatly confused Betty, because no one had asked her if she wanted Polly as a sister or her overbearing mother as her mother. The only thing Betty could think of is that it was a subtle way of her mother reminding her to choose her future husband wisely, since they became your family one day.

Now, Betty was sure she was talking about the Serpents, perhaps feeling regretful. It was true; you made your own family. You might share blood with certain people, but that did not mean that they were your family, not if you didn't want them to be.

Betty wished she could explain to Sweet Pea that she'd chosen him many times over in the past few months, enough so he shouldn't be so self-conscious.

If she was thinking back on it, there were three marked times in which Betty Cooper choose Sweet Pea over all others. The first; that day when they exited the Lodge apartments after being trapped there. Betty could have gone one way, him the other.

The second (and, in Betty's opinion, the most important of times) when she choose to stay with Sweet Pea instead of going with Toni, Cheryl, Chuck, and Ethel to New York. She choose a grouchy serpent over her own cousin. That was the day she cleaved away the ties of bound family and really made the distinction that held true today.

The last; when she choose anywhere but Arizona, when she let Sweet Pea choose to.

But, she also knows Sweet Pea enough that if she tries to fix this all right away, he'll just push her away stronger than before. So, she lets him be for about three days. For three days they pass around each other like ships in the night. Sweet Pea throws himself into tilling and planting and gardening and spends longer hours than before out there. Betty really hunkers down and tries to figure out how to get electricity because it's not too much longer until winter and they need it, along with heat too.

When she gets antsy or wants to go and confront Sweet Pea, she goes out and kills walkers from the pits.

Betty's darkness, which shows up even less than it ever has, is still around. It's always going to be around, she's come to terms with. However, darkness in a pretty dark world is turning out to be okay...especially when survival is so based on killing things. She's hesitant to call them people, because they truly aren't. There's no glimmer of humanity or of humane recognition anywhere in their soulless eyes. The spirit that once inhabited them are simply gone. Ghosts in the machine.

It's never been stated between them, but she feels like Sweet Pea leaves the walkers for her to kill on purpose. She thinks half of it is to bolster her own abilities to shove a knife into a skull. She thinks the other part is that it's an effort for her to curb said darkness.

Being able to take her machete and slice down enemies is strangely therapeutic for Betty. Whenever she considers about how fucked up that actually is, she recalls her father was a literal serial killer and she thinks that, actually, she's fairly well-adjusted.

On the third day since their 'big fight', Sweet Pea flops back down on the left side of the bed, as though nothing happened between them. He uses his toes to shuck off his shoes, sighing into the pillow.

"Are...we good Sweets?" Betty almost doesn't want to ask. She does not want to jinx it. Sweet Pea just turns over, smiling quietly at her. She sees that he's managed to fix the dog tags. His fingers rub over the beads, and for a second, there's only silence.

"Yeah," He finally agrees, "We're always going to be good."

It's the acknowledgement that they're likely going to fight again, but it's also a promise...they're not going to leave each other. Betty thinks this is very adult of him (and, technically, he will be soon) and just watches him roll back over. Sweet Pea is asleep in moments.

She can quell her feelings for him, the feelings she's not even sure how to classify, to keep this. Nothing is more important to her.

September 1st, 2018

Betty manages to get the heat up and going just before it starts to get a little cold. Not unbearably cold, but chill in the air cold, at least at night. She also manages to hook up some of the solar panels they found and, for the first time in a very long time, the house flickers to life. It's not a long-term solution, but it's a solution for today and that's what really matters. Day by day. Tomorrow, if this all goes to shit again, they've dealt with that once. They'll deal with it again.

"Oh, god. I forgot what AC feels like," Sweet Pea says, sitting right in front of it, "You're amazing, Cooper."

Sweet Pea's farming, however, is not quite as successful. Betty can tell that her and Sweet Pea have one thing in common; no one is a worst critic to them but themselves. Sweet Pea blames himself endlessly and violently for the meanger crops that manage to grow.

Betty tries everything to get him to listen to her, and finally just decides to be firm.

"Look, stop wallowing." She says, and he jolts at her voice, "We got here late. You started planting way after you should have. We know better for next year. First year we were bound to have some rough parts. I mean, we still have cans, so we'll just stock up and use those. We'll hunt too. We'll focus on staring as soon as the snow melts next year and we'll read and get better. You've never planted anything before so," Betty weighs her hands. At least he managed potatoes, which she knows they can store a long while. They have a root cellar.

"Yeah but I-,"

"Not another word!" Betty hopes she looks slightly terrifying when she puts her hands on her hips and scowls. Terrifying enough to make him stop, hopefully.

"But you managed to get the whole house working."

"It's not the whole house. I still have plenty of things to work on, Sweets," Betty rolled her eyes, "Plus...nature is unpredictable. Wiring and electronics are, even if we don't understand them right away." She pointed out, "With enough time, I was always going to get it. Even if you had all summer, the crops still might have sucked, and it wouldn't be your fault at all."

When Sweet Pea didn't respond, just kept his head low, Betty started to leave the room. She did still have other things to work on, like water, especially if they didn't want their pipes to freeze.

As she was leaving, she heard him say, "I just want us to get to next summer."

"I do too," Betty said, "And we will. We'll chart food, be careful, dry meat once we start hunting. Sweet Pea, we will survive."

At Sweet Pea's still darkened mood, Betty glances around their main area. Her eyes catch on the patio, something that's used pretty rarely at the moment.

"Sweets, you know what the fall means?" She asks.

"That all my plants will die?" Sweet Pea mutters sourly. If Betty didn't know better, and maybe she doesn't, she'd say that Sweet Pea was actually very attached to his plants in a very paternal sort of way.

"That we can finally use the hot tub."

There's a pause. When Sweet Pea looks up, his face has split into a grin.

September 15th, 2018

They can't use the hot tub right away. It's dirty and gross and Betty can't find chlorine anywhere. Plus, to use it at all, that's a bit of energy. Actual literal energy. However, she's willing to use it maybe once to appease Sweet Pea. But they still need chlorine. She adds it to her ever-growing list of things they need to get before winter really hits.

On September 15th (because now she's started to keep track), she declares that maybe it's time that they take a trip into town, something neither has done since arriving here. They've been out, but not very far from their own little space once or twice, but they haven't spent a day gathering supplies since they were road tripping. The day is hot and Betty isn't sure how many more hot days they have, so they should take advantage of a day that is begging to be spent not inside. If this were the normal world again, a day like this was one she might consider playing hooky (but never gain the courage to do) but spend all her time after school laying in her yard and ignoring her school work.

She looks over Swee Pea's leg, and it seems to be healing up nicely. Soon, it will be nearly healed, though she's sure it will still have a scar. It's healed enough so it's no longer a burden and she figures that if he covers it in a plastic bag or something, when they hot tub is cleaned and ready, he can use it.

They take a day to go around the compound and make their lists of what they need to get. It's a little scary, leaving their house. There's the fear that someone else might be here when they get back, but splitting up (Betty staying or Swee Pea staying) is simply not an option. Besides, Betty has gotten into the groove of living here and it might feel strange to go back out into town where things are still destroyed. This house, here, it's easy to act like they're on a vacation where the AC and the water main have burst and it's just them, but it's still all normal. They will, once again, be confronted with the fact that the world has ended out there.

She wonders if there will be others? Other humans?

Betty wonders what would be the worst outcome; to find other humans while they're out, to see signs that other humans were there, or to see no sign of human life at all?

If they find other humans, there's the chance they're not friendly and they end up having to fight not only walkers, but other people. Betty can kill a walker. She can kill a human, if pushed to, but she's not sure she'll like it.

If there were signs of humans that came by before, then it's the crippling reality that Betty and Sweet Pea have missed them, other people who could be helpful or friends or even someone they knew. Or, it means that maybe this group could follow them back to their sanctuary and that's terrifying too.

Finally, if there's no one...or, no signs of humans from a recent point, that means they're really, alone, doesn't it? And, isn't that worst of all?

"No, defiantly if we find others." Sweet Pea doesn't even think about it, when she asks him, "We've been alone for months. We know we're alone. I don't know why that would suddenly freak you out now? And I've done a lot to survive, but having to kill other humans- even if they were shitty people- I dunno...that would just feel, yeah."

Betty sees his point, but disagrees.

On September 16th, they wake at dawn. They've decided to take the U-Haul, because they're hoping to get pretty much everything they'll need for the rest of the winter, conceivably. Neither wants to have to leave again, but no one says it out loud.

"Where is your list, Sweets?" Betty asks when he comes down to the car with just his headphones and iPod.

"Where's yours?" He parrots back.

Betty waves a piece of loose-leaf. Her list is very strictly reasonable things. She can, internally, say that if they have the chance and room they can grab more 'fun' things, but obviously survival is the number one. Sweet Pea snatchces her list away and reads it, humming to himself.

It reads;

Food

Clothes-specifically warm clothes

Medicine

CVS/Walgreens

Books

Firewood, pre-chopped, if possible

Blankets

Restaurants

Walking

Hospitals

Gasoline

Chlorine and other Hot Tub items (Bathing suit?)

Solar or Wind Powered Generators

Candles

Batteries

Radio

Large Bins

Sewing machines

Salt/Smokehouse

Hunting materials

"Yes, yes, very smart." Sweet Pea says and Betty resists the urge to roll her eyes, "We're going to bring back a whole hospital?" He asks cheekily.

"You know I mean to go through and grab stuff, items, from it. Like, sutures or that staple gun you love so much." Betty says. Sweet Pea shudders as he recalls stapling his skin together.

"Yep," His voice is the most sarcastic he can make it, "Large bins? That's specific."

"Like, just any large bins," Betty makes a hand motion, "For rainwater collection, I mean, even if I get the heat on, it won't be for a lot and we should have a back up. Plus, we can't be going back to the streams, so we might have to bathe in a large bin, and, yeah." Betty explains her thoughts. She doesn't know why. It's not like Sweet Pea's opinion on this list matters. However, Sweet Pea nods thoughtfully.

"And salt? Just vats and vats of salt?"

"I guess I should have marked it, but salt for the winter, to get rid of ice as well as salt for meat. So, yep, basically. Vats and vats of salt," She adds dryly, "And you just decided, what, not take a list?"

"Actually, I have it right here," He shoves up his sleeve to show a list written down his arm with scraggly sharpie, "Paper is a resource that's gonna run out one day, Cooper. I'm actually being smart by doing this."

"Uh-huh, 'crept you can't really read it." Betty grabs his arm, twisting it to read Sweet Pea's handwriting, which isn't usually so horrendous, but then again he's writing a large list onto his flesh with a Expo marker or something. She thinks he just couldn't find paper or forgot to and did this like ten minutes before he came down.

His list is very different.

Tractor (GAS!)

Cow/goat/dog

Seeds

Booze

Guns

Arrows

Traps

Cans

Farms

Money

Boat

Glow sticks

Fish

Exercises stuff

Board games for when we're bored af

Apple Store (But I'd settle for a record/CD store)

Banjo

Grain crusher

"Yeah," Betty snorts, "I have, well, a few questions about yours. Lemme just...let's just go through it one by one." She feels like his needs some explaining, "First, you want to get a whole tractor?"

"It would make planting a whole lot easier," Sweet Pea says.

"And, cows? Goat? Dog?" Betty scrutinizes him.

"If we want milk or cheese ever again, we gotta find a cow or a goat. I mean, if any are still alive, we gotta get 'em now, or else we won't have them. And I think a dog would be cool, you know? We can train it to be a guard dog."

"Sweets, we can barely survive ourselves and you want to add another animal to that?"

"A useful animal. Maybe a chicken…" Sweet Pea grabs a marker from his pocket, uses his teeth to uncork it, and scrawls 'chicken' as an addon to his list.

"Booze, I guess that doesn't need explaining, but I don't think that's totally needed...um, cans?"

"Like cans to make walker alerts. I guess with food, that solves that."

"Right. The money? Rob a bank, you're saying?"

Sweet Pea shrugs, "If we both think the world is going to fix itself one day, which, let's say we do, I want to be properly prepared. Plus, no one's gonna know it was us. If not, maybe I just want to know what it feels like to hold like a million bucks in my fingers."

Betty decides to just let that all go, there's still more concerning or confusing things to get through, and the day is waiting.

"Boat? For that tiny lake?" She points to the lake on their property, clearly a man-made one.

"That sorta goes with fish. We get some fish so that by next year, they've populated and all and we can catch them every so often. I guess we don't neeeed a boat."

"No, not really."

"Fine," Sweet Pea mumbles and uses the marker to cross it off. He keeps 'fish', however. It's not a bad idea, Betty just thinks any fish that survived are long dead, since no one's been around to feed them. This means they might have to go fishing...somewhere.

She figures glow sticks aren't the worst investment, since it's light whenever you need it and exercise stuff makes since too, because they'll be holes up all winter and need to stay as fit as possible to fight walkers.

"Last one...erm, do you possibly mean, a mill?" She says, pointing to the last thing on his arm.

"Yeah! That's the word. You done grilling me? Oh! Do we have a grill? We should get a grill." Sweet Pea says and Betty just sighs.

A couple noooootessss

-I meant to update this chapter on Dec 6th but got totally overwhelmed with school. Why you ask? That's actually the day that the episode with Betty's Serpent Dance aired. That's the day that I, and I think many of us, became Sweet Betts shippers, due to his face during it...never have I ever been able to poinpoint the day one of my obsessions started... I say we should make Dec 6th SweetBetts Ship Day! Who's with me?

-When I actually went and researched how long Betty was actually with Jug...it really wasn't that long for them to be making all those declarations. I mean, it feels longer cuz it's over two seasons, but the entirety of s1 took place in like two months, did you guys know? So, yep...

-I always feel like the first fight between a couple is a HUGE deal, which is why I showed it...plus I love me some good ole angst

-So, sorta a note, when I also wrote this (or, the fight, since I wrote the fight way before I wrote anything else) S3 hadn't aired. At the end of s2, and for most of s2, Bughead was sorta rocky. S3 they have been markedly better and I enjoy them more again.

-For some bizarre reason I cannot explain, I totally thought Jellybean and Gladys were in Arizona? Like legit? I'm not sure where that came from...

-The rating for this fic will change. I wasn't sure about it before, but out of the blue I had the urge to write some good old SweetBetts smut, so I did. It's far away from now, but be aware that the rating will be changing for sexy times!

Lastly, above, Serptent818 asked frankly what it's like to live in cold ass states. Since Betty and Sweet Pea are now living in one of these states, I actually thought it might be interesting for everyone if you live somewhere warm. However, feel free to also skip because it will be long!

*So, I've lived in Wisconsin most of my life, so like, I'm talking on good authority. Wisconsin in particular is crazy because we can go through all four season in one week. It's normal for the weather to drop or rise 40 degrees in one night. In other places, like Cali, where my bro lives, he talks about how it basically stays within a 20 degree window. Lol not here. You have to be prepared for literally anything.

*In the summer, it gets up to 80s and sometimes 90s. In the fall, it's rainy and usually 50's. In spring, 40s. In Winter...well, average, around 20-30, but it can get very, very, very cold. I'm talking -30 with windchill. That's not usually till Jan tho. Dec is usually pretty mild and not very snowy and then it's 'winter' from Dec-April. It even once snowed at the May Graduation at my college. It was a miserable commencement ceremony, from what I've heard of it.

*We don't get a TON of snow (at least, not by most midwestern standards). We'll get two or three big dumps, but more than that, it just gets COLD. I remember my senior year, we had five days of school cancelled because it was legit too cold for the busses to run. It was -45 for nearly two weeks straight. But, when it gets cold is totally a shot in the dark. Sometimes, it's cold and snowy by Halloween, other times it's warm enough to wear sexy skimpy outfits.

*Wisconsin is mostly farmland. There are about five 'major' cities, but if you get outside of any of those five mins, it's literally cows and corn. Because of that, in my childhood town, there were kids that lived up to an hour away and just drove in everyday (we actually had to ban tractors from parking in our parking lot, since kids sometimes drove tractors to school. Fall harvest is still totally a thing that kids are pulled out of school for) and the rule is, that if your county cancells school because the roads aren't plowed, you aren't required to come into your high school. So, this one kid who lived out on a farm, was snowed into his area for about a month. It was fun, until it wasn't. He literally started Skyping into classes.

*You pretty much have to have clothes for all occasions, but specifically warm things. If I get sweaters from anyone, I'm happy. The BEST Christmas gift I ever received was a stadium jacket that goes down past my knees, becuase I get so much use out of it. It's for nearly negative 30 below weather. But, because we get so cold here, like people will not put on coats/winter clothes until the last second. My brother says it's so weird in Cali because people will put a jacket on if it goes below 50. Most Wisconsinites wouldn't even think to put a jacket on until about 30. I mean, I'll literally look at the weather and unless it's 32, I usually don't bother with my super warm jacket. You'll have kids wearing shorts in 32 degree weather and it's just like 'yep, normal'. I had a roommate from Connecticut and our first semester in college, it got to around 20 degrees and she was like 'Lexie, you're right, it DOES get cold here' and I was just like 'Oh...oh honey...it's not even that bad yet...this is nice weather...'

*All kids learn how to drive (usually illegally by like 14) and everyone knows how to drive in snow. It could be blizzarding and we'd probably still be out there. It takes a lot more than that to stop us

*NEARLY EVERYONE IS A HUNTER. My fam is the odd family out because we just don't hunt. But I swear to god it's a religion here. My old HS, which was super preppy btw, cancelled school on Open Season starter days because they knew MOST of the school would skip anyway. And, a lot of people actually sustain themselves on what they catch and eat. I mean, in general, we don't have a ton of vegans/vegetarians here. Meat is a big part of our culture because for more than half the year THINGS DONT GROW

*When it is warm here, it's humid as hell. Mosquitos are awful.

*Everyone has a cabin or knows someone that has a cabin 'up nort'. Some Wisconsinites have a 'Youper' accent which sounds vaguely Canadian. We have something called the Wisconsin 'Ope' which is this little exclamation we make when you like have to pass by someone or bump into someone. It replaces sorry, but can be used for just about anything else, and we'll know what you mean.

*There's almost nothing to do in a lot of the smaller cities, especially because it's cold all the time. So, in High School, the things to do was to go to the movies or wander around the malll...or drink. There's a reason why Wisconsin has 8/10 of the drunkest cities in America...We specifically like our beer here

*You just get used to the cold. I literally can wake up for college classes, look at the weather, go 'huh...it's -35 degrees...guess it's time to walk to class!' and you just do it. I don't think my college has ever cancelled classes school wide. I did have a professor that didn't count you for attendance unless you walked in wearing a coat, gloves, and a scarf because it's just stupid to not wear those around

* A lot of people around here are survivalists just because, well, a lot of living here is basic survival. The hunting. Knowing how to work a generator or solar panels or wind turbines or what have you. I know the basics of wilderness survival and I hate camping as it is. We also all have a love for board games, for when the power or internet goes out. Internet up in the woods as it is is usually spotty at best.

*We really do love cheese and milk as much as you all say we do. It's good af here though, and so cheap. We have something here called Cheese Curds which are little pieces of cheese either deep fried (omg so good) or we have fresh cheese curds, which are the curds left over and they're fresh and squeak when you chew them and it's utterly delightful. You can only get good cheese curds in Wisconsin, so if you get it anywhere else, it's a fake.

*I said Hunting is a religion? I take that back. Packer fans are. I grew up in Green Bay, so it was like...a sin not to like the Packers. I mean, we as a town collectivly own them, so it's pretty cool. I even own a part of the Packers. And all the players are just so NICE and down to earth, really. But on a Packer's home game, Green Bay is DEAD. It's the best time to do anything because no one is around. And it's a thing to go to a Packer's game in -below weather. You're not a true fan unless you've done it once. You drink a lot of beer to stay warm.

*The sun sets super early and rises sorta late. My dad goes to work before it rises and comes home after it sets (around 5pm) so we spend most of our time in just darkness. Because of this, depression is super prevalent. It's so easy to just feel like doing nothing. SAD is no joke, y'all. I don't mind it, but it gets into a lot of people's heads really easily.

*Finally, you can take us out of the cold, but it's in our blood now. My family took a summer vacation to Alaska (see) and we took a tour on a glacier and guess what? We found people from Green Bay working up on a literal sheet of ice. Just goes to show XD

Hope those answered your questions in general! It was super fun to write out!