Blood of My Blood, Flesh of My Flesh (Bughead)

Dracula's Wedding

"Why is she here?" Kevin scrunched his nose up, focusing on Cheryl for the first time. She was currently making a fuss out of the entire party, turning what was once a nice get-together into the equivalent of a college kegger.

"They're agents of chaos, Kevin. They don't need a reason," Veronica said.

Sweet Pea, who stood beside them, spit up his drink.

"Ew," Veronica huffed, "Can't hold your beer, big guy?" She said. Kevin could tell she was in a particularly bitey mood.

"Repeat. That."

"That they like to make chaos?" Veronica repeated slowly, "I think it's payback." She added with a shrug, "So that..." She frowned. Kevin turned to see Sweet Pea turning sharply and leaving fast, his expression one that Kevin did not like at all.

Kevin turned, scrutinizing.

Was Cheryl using magic? There wasn't any other reason Sweet Pea would look so spooked.

He sighed. For as much as he thought he knew about the magical community, sometimes, he felt like a fish out of water.

XXX

"Hey! Wait! Sweet Pea!" Jughead called, watching his roommate turn and leave suddenly. He needed him. Whatever he'd been talking about with Kevin and Veronica had done something to him.

Damn it.

Well at least he still had Kevin...nope, Kevin was gone now too. Joaquin? Yes, it seemed Joaquin was still here, though perhaps it was out of guilt more than anything else. Well, one was better than none.

"You. We're going to talk," He said, pointing. Joaquin's expression didn't change, but perhaps his eyes flashed with worry.

"Dude," Archie bumped into Jughead, "Val's here. You think she wants me back?"

It took Jughead a few seconds to register what Archie was saying, partially because Archie was on his way to getting drunk.

He felt a flash of anger. Even though Archie didn't know what was going on in Jughead's life currently, Jughead couldn't deal with such trivial things right now. He opened his mouth to snark something to Archie, but Joaquin beat him to it.

"Andrews; no. Leave it." He said evenly.

Archie looked like a puppy that had just been kicked.

"But-,"

"If she wanted you back, she would have called. You're not well-suited and you know it."

Jughead paused. How did Joaquin know so much about Archie's relationship? Jughead chalked it up, at least for the moment, to the fact that Kevin was a gossip-hound, and likely was spilling all the info to his boyfriend. But something about this exchange bothered him, tickling the back of his mind.

But another problem for another day.

"You know what you can do? Instead of following Val around?" Jughead asked, "Keep Betty occupied."

"What?"

"I need to...work some things out. Just make sure she..." Jughead floundered. Make sure she what?

Well, he needed to have everything laid out perfectly before he filled her in on how strange their town really was.

"Just keep her safe. I don't trust Clayton."

Archie's eyes grew dark and he sobered for a moment, "Neither do I."

He was about to grab Joaquin by his stupid leather jacket and drag him to the little outside garage hut until he saw a flash of peppered hair and his whole brain just shut down. Joaquin gulped audibly, taking two steps away.