Mine (a Riverdale fanfiction)

Like Any Idiot in a Rom-Com

You are the best thing that's ever been mine.

- Taylor Swift

Thinking back on it, Jughead Jones could never quite pinpoint the moment when Betty Cooper stopped being the girl he had known since kindergarten ... the "girl next door" ... the girl who had always been in love with Archie. He couldn't count how much time the three of them had spent together over the years, both Jughead and Betty drawn to be near Archie, neither of them particularly aware of the other except as another person in his orbit. But now—now it was different. Now Betty was the light that drew Jughead, like a moth to its doom, and he wasn't sure when that light had begun to shine.

Maybe it was in the office of The Blue and Gold, when she trailed her fingertips across the dusty tops of the computers as though they were a gateway. When instead of letting her mother push her into being a perfect pink princess, as she had for years, she started allowing her own interests, her own passions to drive her to become something more. He suddenly could see her determination, the intelligence he had always suspected was there but that she had hidden so well under her perky ponytails and pretty sweaters. He could see her, for the first time, as a partner. Someone he could talk to. Someone he might even be able to trust.

Maybe it was after she had seen her sister, and he realized for what felt like the first time that a perfect pink princess might just feel the same pain as a reject from the wrong side of the tracks—when he thought of how much he wished he could see his own sister again and felt his heart ache along with Betty's as a grieving Polly was dragged away from them.

Standing here in her bedroom, watching her torture herself over her parents and her sister, wondering if she was crazy, Jughead was overwhelmed by how much he suddenly needed to comfort her, to show her what a brave person she really was. Looking at her now, it was hard to breathe, hard to think. And before he knew it he was holding her face tenderly in his hands and leaning forward to kiss her, because he didn't have the strength to stop himself.

Betty let it happen. She even kissed him back, which was more than he would have anticipated, and when he drew away she smiled.

And then Betty's Nancy Drew detective instincts reasserted themselves, and Jughead could not possibly have found her more attractive than he did right at that moment.

*****

So much happened in the hours after Jughead's unexpected kiss that it was late into the night before the memory snuck up on Betty unaware, taking her breath away as she relived it, tightening her chest and sending that unexpected heat flooding through her body just as the real kiss had. Where had that come from? Had there been something she missed, some sign she hadn't seen? They were good collaborators, able to make the same leaps of logic, willing to dare to follow a clue where it led, but did that mean more? Did she want it to mean more?

She thought of Jughead, so familiar. Part of the everyday furniture of Riverdale. Archie's friend, and hers by default ... but she trusted him. She liked him. Beyond that ... she closed her eyes and relived the kiss again. Maybe there was something beyond that.

*****

Jughead hadn't intended to move beyond that kiss, not with everything that was going on in Betty's life, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. He hated to see her hurting, could feel her pain as if it was his own. He didn't even notice that he had put his arm around her, in front of their friends, until after he had done it. And Betty reached up to cover his hand with her own, as though him touching her like that was the most natural thing in the world.

He couldn't remember the last time he had someone in his life he could casually reach out and touch like that. It felt—good. Better than good.

The last person he had wanted to share that with was Archie—but when Archie noticed and asked him about it, well, telling Archie felt good, too. After all these years, suddenly Jughead was the one who had something.

*****

Betty hadn't thought anything of Jughead's casual touch except the comfort she felt with his arm around her. Only when Veronica pulled her aside to ask about it did she realize that she had hoped for that comfort, that she had put her hand on his to keep him there with her. There was something between them, she thought, something that felt—real. Her years-long love for Archie still hovered just out of sight, but it was fading, as if it had never really been there. Jughead saw her when he looked at her. His head wasn't in the clouds, the way Archie's always was. He saw clearly, he saw through what was fake—and what he saw in her made him want to see more.

It was entirely possible, Betty thought, that she wanted to see more, too.

*****

Later that night, in the rain, after the fruitless search for Polly, Jughead offered to walk her home. Not because she needed protection, but maybe because she needed him ... and very much because he didn't want to leave her. Something about being with her made him feel alive in a way he never had before.

He reached for her hand as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and she accepted it in the same spirit.

"You didn't have to walk me home," she told him.

"There's a killer on the loose, remember? Besides—" His voice caught in his throat. What if she didn't want this to be a ... thing? What if ... But he had to try. He forced the words out as best he could. "Isn't this what—you know."

She looked at him, not helping at all.

"What ... people like—us, who have gone through what we've gone through, do?" That was quite the sentence construction. Being this close to her, all he could think about was how much he wanted to kiss her again. He was a little surprised he was speaking English, to tell the truth.

Her hand shifted in his, the fingers loosening and tightening.

"What is it? Besides ... everything."

"She wouldn't have run away if it wasn't for me, Jug," Betty protested, and he immediately felt guilty making this all about him, when she was still terrified about her sister.

"Betty. Your parents were the ones lying to her and keeping her in the dark. You did the right thing telling her the truth."

"It's funny," she said. "This isn't the first time Polly's run away from home. When she was nine, she and my mom got into this huge fight and she disappeared for hours. The whole neighborhood was out looking for her."

"How far did she get?"

Betty stopped still, and he could practically see the strike of lightning in her face as she realized where her sister must be.

"What?" he asked, waiting for her to tell him.

But instead she took his face in her hands and kissed him. "Thank you for walking me home. I'll call you later. Good night!"

And she was gone, leaving him standing in the rain staring after her with a goofy smile on his face like any idiot in a rom-com.

He resisted the urge to sing ... but only just.