shadows of the past [bughead]

Chapter 5: muscle memory

Jughead gets woken the next morning by a shrilling sound that rings through the house. He stretches on the couch that he's been crashing on for the past few weeks and feels his muscles tensing from the uncomfortable position he slept in.

Turns out it's Archie using the mixer to prepare a protein shake. He turns to looks at the clock and groans in annoyance before pulling a pillow in front of his face.

"Sorry, man. I didn't mean to wake you," the redhead laughs at his friend.

"It's not even six a.m.," he complains, "What are you doing?"

"I was going for a run. Wanna join?"

Jughead huffs jokingly, "Yeah. No way on earth am I going on a run with you. You trying to kill me?"

Archie throws his head back in laughter and proceeds to grab his keys, "You have anything planned today?"

"Actually, yeah. I wanted to do something," he murmurs almost more to himself but his friend nods and waves him goodbye.

"Archie?" he calls when he's about to leave.

"Yeah?"

"You might want to put on a shirt."

-

"Uhm, hello? " Betty opens the door a few minutes later, still dressed in sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt, her hair all messed up and thrown into a bun and her eyes are still heavy from not getting any sleep. It's so early, she hasn't even had time to finish her first cup of coffee yet.

"Morning," Jughead mumbles and shoots her a soft smile. His hair is in it's usual messy form but unlike her he's wearing jeans with a plain gray shirt on top and looks rather put together. Normally, she'd be embarrassed about her appearance but right now she really doesn't have the energy to care.

"Sorry, if it's too early. I just figured you'd be up by now."

Betty looks at him and raises an eyebrow. It's not that she's not happy that he's at her door. She'd never complain about seeing him, especially after she had snapped at him the night before when all he did was be kind but she doesn't expect it. She would also much rather lay in bed all day in misery and figure out this case.

"I saw your mom leave," he explains as if he needs to justify his presence again and she realizes that she hasn't done anything but stare at him like an idiot.

"Everything okay?" she questions warily, not sure what other reason he could have for visiting her.

"Yeah," he stumbles and scratches the back of his neck, "I was coming to make you breakfast?"

The blondes nose wrinkles in surprise, "Oh. Is that a regular thing now?"

Jugheads posture relaxes a bit as he lets out a small laugh, "I mean, if you don't mind?"

"I don't," she smiles and feels herself get a little nervous as she lets him in. God, she really is all over the place. His presence alone is making her all bashful and giggly and they aren't even exactly friends yet.

"Coffee?" she asks to wich he eagerly agrees while following her into the kitchen.

She hands him a fresh cup a few minutes later, "All black, as always," and can't help but grin at the little routine they're falling in again.

She settles down on a chair while he grabs a bowl out of the cupboard and collects a few items out of the fridge.

"I was thinking Pancakes?" he suggests and she gets lost in memories for a second. She's back in time, 9 years ago in this exact same kitchen. It's her birthday and she's woken by a shrilling siren sound ringing through the house. She shoots awake and immediately runs towards the noise, throwing the covers away in a hurry. What she finds is a hysterical looking Jughead, wearing nothing but boxers, swinging a towel over an enormous amount of smoke coming from the stove to keep the fire alarm from going off.