Always & Forever | Bughead Oneshots

Trials And Tribulations Of Bedtime

y'all, i finished criminal minds earlier after watching it for four months and three weeks, and, y'all....that shit made me cry so hard. enjoy this!!

Agere

"Try to stay awake while we're heading home; I want you to be able to sleep once you get in bed," Jughead said as he looked in his rearview mirror. Betty was in the backseat holding her arms and looking out the window through tired eyes.

Once the two were out of Veronica's party, he'd opened the front passenger door for her, only for the blonde to tug on the handle of the backseat. The Jones man realized then she'd regressed, most likely out of exhaustion from the late hour of the night and the draining socializing.

"Okay?" Jughead asked, still looking back at his girl. "Okay," Betty answered in her small voice. He chuckled softly before starting up the car and maneuvering it off the lot, letting the soft hum of the drive stand out against the silence.

Betty was slumped slightly in her seat, looking around out of boredom and realizing how hard it was to stim without her stuffies or gear. Her compromise--she found--was to pull gently on her dangling earring, until the act caught Jughead's eye and he discouraged her from doing so.

"Don't tug, baby; you can get hurt from that."

She sighed and let go of the jewelry as her caregiver grabbed his blazer from the seat beside him. He reached back to hand it to his girl, saying, "You can play with this instead." Betty took the coat graciously, letting it warm the revealed skin of her arms as she played with its sleeves.

Jughead had never been one for formal wear, so he truly didn't care if the fabric got wrinkled or even torn, making it the perfect substitute for his girl to use in lew of her earrings. The blonde had managed to slip the blazer on beneath her seatbelt and used it to keep her warm while playing with the sleeves that ran past her hands.

"You could, baby?" Jughead asked, already reaching for the dial to control the temperature. "Yeah," Betty answered softly, laying her head against the window and yawning. The Jones man turned the heat up a bit more as the regressed girl closed her eyes gently, disassociating.

"Betts, honey. Please try to stay awake," the Jones man said, his voice gentle. Betty opened her eyes slowly, remarking, "I sleepy." "I know, I know you are, bub, but I promise you'll get to sleep once we get inside and in bed, okay? Promise."

The blonde yawned again and Jughead sighed, knowing he'd need to keep her entertained in some way with the house still being half an hour away. "Do you wanna play the color game?" he asked, hopeful. 

The color game was a grounding technique the two used during Betty's panic attacks and a game to cure boredom in which one of the pair would tell the other to point out a certain number of things around them that matched the color the other had picked.

"It too dark," Betty answered, looking around the car and not being able to make out a single color, save for the red and white lights from the fuel tank and buttons on the front. "Yeah, I guess you're right, sweetheart."

"I like blue," Betty said, looking at the dim car floor. "But I don't see it." "Yeah? Why do you like blue, bubs?" the Jones man asked, figuring conversation was a good way to keep the blonde awake.

She shrugged as she tugged on the oversized blazer's sleeve and replied, "It's pretty." "Can you tell me three things that are blue?" he asked, looking in his rearview mirror before making a right turn.

"Umm," Betty hummed as she thought. "The sky, um...water," she paused, thinking over stereotypical blue things. "And Bubbles!" she exclaimed, making Jughead laugh light-heartedly. "Yes, Bubbles is blue," he praised with a smile.

They went on talking about colors instead of finding them for the rest of the drive until the car was pulling into the Jones/Cooper driveway and Jughead was helping Betty out of the car. She clung to his hip as he carried her inside, taking the girl to their bedroom.

"Let's get you into some comfy clothes, 'kay?" he suggested, taking the blonde to her walk-in closet. "Okay," she answered, letting her boyfriend unzip and help her out of her ankle-long black dress with a slit running up the left side. 

He gave her a light gray sleepshirt and some comfy pants before holding her hand and walking her to the bathroom counter, where he took off all her jewelry and makeup. She brushed her teeth while Jughead changed into his pajamas, ready to get some sleep after the long night.

"Okay, princess, let's get you all tucked in," he said, walking with Betty over to their bed and letting her get under the covers before reaching for the blankets. "I need Lavy first!" she said, reaching for her lavender blanket before Jughead was shooing her hand away gently.

"Yes, yes, I know that, baby," he said softly. For as long as Betty could remember, she'd had sensitivity to texture and with that came her comfort fabrics; at bedtime, she needed her lavender blanket against her legs, her fluffy white blanket on top, and her knitted yellow blanket against her arms.

Midway through tucking her in, Jughead had knocked over Betty's white bear stuffie and she noticed immediately. Instead of asking for it in her arms, the blonde got up from the bed and went to its edge, picking the bear up and cuddling it in her arms as she walked back over.

She pet its head as if to apologize for the drop and made her way back onto the mattress as Jughead started to re-tuck her in. "I want wa-wa," Betty whined after her caregiver was done layering blankets.

He sighed with a smile and said, "Okay, bub. I'll be right back," with a hand on her cheek until he was walking away into the kitchen. In his absence, the blonde mumbled to her bear and played with its fur and booping her nose against its.

When Jughead came back with her water, Betty immediately reached her arms out, making her bear fall once again. "I got it," he said before the blonde could get out of bed for the second time. He returned the fallen stuffie to his girlfriend's arms before helping her take a few drinks of her water.

"That good?" he asked, wiping under her bottom lip with his thumb. She nodded before kicking her legs slightly. "Okay, baby; I know you've had a long day, and those little eyes of yours are just begging to close, so go ahead and get some sleep. And I'll see you in the morning."

"Wait," she said, sitting up. "What is it, pumpkin?" Jughead asked as Betty made her way out of the covers and walked towards the bathroom. The Jones man sighed, knowing how an hour ago, she was slumped over and falling asleep in the backseat of the car and now she couldn't stay in bed.

Once Betty came back and her caregiver had adjusted the blankets on top of her, he gave a kiss to her forehead and re-said his goodnight, only for the blonde to chime in one more time, remarking, "I hungy."

Jughead sighed before running a hand through his hair. "You want a quick snack?" he asked. She nodded as the Jones man stood, asking, "Crackers sound good?" "Mhmm," Betty answered before heading back to the kitchen to grab the box of crackers from the pantry.

When he came back to the room, she was sound asleep.