Hic Sunt Dracones

Archie/Josie: Heat or Mating

This takes places s3/book 3! Things to know is that Archie is a 'Grimm' (or, someone who although is a human has insider knowledge given by ancestors), Josie is a siren (more like a murderous mermaid than a cute Ariel), Betty and Cheryl are witches. Jughead also appears, and is a werewolf, but that's not pertinent to this story.

I decided to try my hand at a mating/in heat cycled story! I seriously love Archoise. I always tolerated Varchie on the show, didn't hate it didn't love it, but tbh I ADORE Archoise. I know that Josie will be leaving and that it seems Archie and V are getting back together, and that seriously bums me out because I think that Archie and Josie have one of the best relationships. Siiiigh. At least there's always fanfiction, amiright?

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Archie camped out on Josie's lawn for eons.

Well, that wasn't quite true, he admits.

He didn't really camp out, but he did sit on her porch. It was a very nice porch, to be honest, with a swinging bench and flowers. He also wasn't there for eons, though it felt like it. It was four hours, which was a lot of time when you're a teenager.

Archie hadn't seen or heard from Josie in three days. Not a glimpse at school, not a message on his phone, not even a weird Snapchat posted or a vague Instagram. No, it's like Josie had fallen off the face of the earth.

Of course he was concerned. He'd been concerned day 1. But he hadn't wanted to seem overly-concerned, since he and Josie weren't even defined as anything specific, but three days was past his limit.

No one seemed to be home. But, they had to be home eventually, right? He didn't really have football to occupy him right now, and to be honest he hadn't been able to focus on anything since mid day 2, so he had to make sure she was still alive.

In this town, that was a less ridiculous concern than one may think.

After 4.5 hours, during which time Archie had been reduced to watching weird YouTube videos to occupy his time, someone finally answered the door.

"Cheryl?" He blinked twice, "What are you..."

"I think a better question is what are you doing here?" She asked, shutting the door behind her, arms crossed and shoulders squared.

"I'm Josie's..." Archie made a vague arm movement. Josie would kill him if he said boyfriend, since she did not want to use that term.

"Amour, perhaps?" Cheryl supplied, tilting her head. It wasn't a secret, but they weren't announcing it to the world either.

Archie wasn't 100% sure of the word's meaning, but it sounded like love, so yeah, probably that. He nodded a couple times.

"I haven't heard anything from her in three days. She's alright, right?"

"She's ok," Cheryl agreed, "But it will probably be a couple days before you see her again."

"What, she sick?" Archie asked, his hands growing clammy. He frowned, worried.

"I suppose one could say that," Cheryl twirled her hair.

"Can't I see her?" Archie asked, staring to pace.

Cheryl looked almost sorry for him, "Oh, Archie..." She sighed.

In a flash, he got it. Or, got the very basics of it, "This is something magical, isn't it?" He began to ransack his brain. Had there been something written about a magical illness for sirens? For magical creatures? He scowled, trying to flip through the book mentally. He'd read everything involving sirens after his and Josie's first kiss. No surprises. He was drawing blanks. If there was some magical influenza, he was sure his family books would have mentioned it. They probably would have been fucking gleeful about it.