I'm Darkness || Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones [2]

You Were Given The Power

They left the hospital right after, not exchanging any words. Eleanor was following Archie close by, watching his every move. He only stopped walking when they reached his house, and he had to unlock the door.

"Hey, Vegas." Archie bent down to greet the sweet dog.

Vegas quickly ran to Ellie as well, and she patted him on the head, kneeling to kiss him quickly, before standing up again and glancing at Archie, seeing that he was grabbing the leash.

"What are you doing?" She asked, confused.

"Walking him."

"No. You need to go take a hot shower." Ellie touched his hand and took the leash from him, "I will go walk him. It wouldn't be the first time."

"No." Archie took it back, and bent down to put it on Vegas, "I want to do it."

Before the blonde could argue something else, Archie was already walking out of the door, leaving her behind to close it. She sighed loudly before following him.

They walked side by side for a while before the redhead finally started talking, even tho his eyes were still on the dog walking ahead of them and never on her.

"Before we got Vegas my Dad was like this is gonna be your dog, little Archie, your responsability. You'll walk him, give him his food, feel his water bowl, take care of him when he gets sick." Archie told her the story, "I wanted him so bad I said yes."

"I remember." Ellie looked up at him, "You came up to me and told me how scared you were of not being a good father. I told you –."

"You're gonna do just fine. I can take care of him while you do your homeworks." He gave a half smile with the memory, "And you did, you still do."

"I love Vegas." She looked at the dog with care, "But I know you love him way more than I do."

"That's the thing. Now when I get home late from football practice my Dad has already walked him, and Saturdays morning my Dad takes him out so I can sleep in. Everytime Vegas gets sick, my Dad always goes with us to the vet." Archie ran his tongue over his lips, "The truth is no one loves Vegas more than my Dad."

Eleanor didn't look up from the dog, it crossed her mind that poor Vegas wasn't aware that the person who supposedly loved him so much was fighting for his own life back at the hospital. Then, she finally looked up at the redhead, and thought that maybe if Archie didn't know as well, it would be so much better – so much pain that would be avoided.

But he knew, and she knew too.

"Do you remember that time when... we went to find the scary monsters at night, and we went into the hoods..." Ellie found herself speaking with tears threathning to fall, "Your Dad was the one who found us, all dirty and crying and scared. He got so mad that –."