princess || s.p

-8-

"Hey, what is all this?" Jughead questioned Toni as he entered the Whyte Wyrm, glancing around with raised eyebrows. Aria followed a few steps behind him, also looking at Toni in interest, slightly surprised that the Serpents would have their bar decked out in Christmas decorations with the gang members enthusiastically wrapping presents.

"Every Christmas we give back to the Southside. Toys for Tots, Meals on Wheels, kids and old folks living alone." Toni explained, looking up from wrapping a gift and smiling.

"The Hell's Angels do it." Fangs grinned, turning to look at the two, still holding wrapping paper in his hands. Aria smiled happily and stood between Toni and Fangs, wrapping an arm around each of their shoulders and squeezing them tightly.

"Sweet." Aria commented with a smile, releasing them and allowing them to continue working, still looking around the bar - half in interest, half in search of Sweet Pea, although she wouldn't like to admit that.

"I'm always down for charitable works. Hey, have you seen my dad?" Jughead asked, looking around the room searchingly.

"Why aren't you in school?" FP interrupted, his tone a lot harsher than Aria was expecting, causing her to jump slightly in shock.

"It was a half-day." Jughead frowned in confusion as he turned to look at FP, Fangs and Toni immediately busying themselves with wrapping more gifts in an effort to become invisible, while Aria hopped up to sit on the pool table and watched on in interest.

"Well, in that case, you can hold down the fort here, Jug." FP suddenly appeared much calmer, reaching for a duffel bag that Aria almost didn't want to know the contents of. She had only been hanging around with the Serpents for a couple of weeks now, but she had already learnt not to ask questions that you didn't want the answers to - and she most definitely did not want to know half of the stuff she had seen these guys going out to do.

"Or I could come with you guys." Jughead patted his dad's shoulder and forced a smile, FP sighing and dropping his gaze.

"Nice try. The answer's no." He replied simply, turning his attention to loading what Aria could only assume was drugs into the duffel bags.

"We do need another set of hands, Boss." Tall Boy pointed out. It was at that moment that Aria finally spotted Sweet Pea in a position by the corner, currently in the middle of writing something, completely unaware to the fact that Aria was openly checking him out. A smile pulled at her lips as she stood from the pool table and approached the boy, noticing how sharp his jawline looked in the luminous lights of the bar and biting her lip in an attempt to resist kissing him instantly.

"There you go. Let me pull my weight." Jughead continued, although now Aria had lost interest and tuned out of the conversation, sighing dramatically and plopping herself onto the barstool next to Sweet Pea.

"Rough day?" Sweet Pea smirked and turned to look at the girl, lifting his pen from the paper and glancing over Aria's face with raised eyebrows.

"I had to sit through Secret Santa, it was a lot worse than rough." She laughed softly and rested her hand over his knuckles, bringing a small smile to his face. "Who's the card for?"

"Toys for Tots." A smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he returned his attention to the card he was writing, Aria resting her chin on his shoulder and reading what he had written, smiling to herself at the message 'Every kid deserves a toy for Christmas, hope these will help that happen. Love, the Southside Serpents'. "And hey, before you get soppy, I've been told to write this." He glanced at her, raising his eyebrows.

"Don't ruin it." She laughed and shoved his shoulder, sitting up but keeping her hand over his, Sweet Pea making no effort to move his fist either.