Barchie Oneshots

A.A+E.C

Archie and Betty knew they were soulmates a week after they met.

At the rambunctious age of three, Archie moved into a new house, one that happened to be right next door to the home of Betty Cooper.

Alice, ever the Good Samaritan, brought a tray of brownies over to welcome the new family.

Betty cautiously tagged along, nervously running her fingers along the hem of her mother's blouse.

When Fred and Mary answered the door and saw little Betty, wide-eyes and stubby fingers, they called to their own son, hoping to make him a friend in their new neighborhood.

Archie and Betty went out to play in the yard. Fred watched, while Alice and Mary had lemonade in the kitchen.

The pair quickly hit it off. Betty thought Archie was the coolest kid in the world because of his red racing shoes and the fact that his tree had a swing. They spent many hours racing around Archie's back yard.

Such was the norm for the next week. Every day after preschool, Archie and Betty played together until the sun went down, then they would beg their parents to have dinner together.

In hindsight, Fred would later muse, it was obvious from the beginning.

It was not until a week after they met that Alice noticed Archie's tattoo. Not everybody had one, and up until then, she assumed Archie didn't either. But there the initials were, rested in the crook of his elbow, a bolded E.C.

Frantically, she rushed Archie to his door and rung his doorbell. Once Mary opened it and greeted him, Archie bounded up the stairs to his room, leaving Alice free to speak with Mary.

"Mary, I've discovered something rather important about our kids. I saw Archie's tattoo."

Mary's eyes widened.

"Yeah, E.C." She responded.

"Well," Alice continued, "Betty has a tattoo of her own as well. A.A."

The realization hit Mary like a truck.

"So what you're saying is..."

"I believe Archie and Elizabeth are soulmates." Alice finished.

That night, Mary and Alice took their children aside and told them what they had uncovered.

At their tender age, Betty and Archie didn't quite understand the gravity of the situation. They knew what soulmate tattoos were, and they knew soulmates were in love, but they didn't know what that meant.

So, they went about, business as usual.
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As they grew, Betty and Archie remained best friends, paying little mind to the tattoos that joined them. It created some awkwardness every once in a while, but they were unwilling to allow some stupid tattoos ruin a perfect friendship.

"Some soulmates are just platonic, right?" Betty had said to Archie in the fourth grade.

"What's platonic mean?"

"It just means friendly love. Not romantic."

Yeah I guess," Archie had said, furrowing his brow. The statement irked him for some reason.
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They had wanted to keep their tattoos a secret, but like everything in Riverdale, it got out eventually.

Through elementary and middle school, the pair was teased mercilessly, though they tried not to let it bother them.

A particularly nasty incident happened at the eighth grade Junior High school lock-in, during a tawdry game of Truth or dare started by Cheryl Blossom.