Alphabet ≫ Jarchie

Katenjammer III

Katzenjammer— the one where Jughead is a lovable dumbass and he and Archie solve little mysteries. No one asked for this. You're all waiting for me to publish the new fic and finish the other part II's, I know. This one shot just makes me happy and I'm so stressed and not confident in my writing at all right now. So hopefully you'll enjoy this as much as I do :)

☀︎☁︎☀︎

Waking up to his boyfriend's body slung over him, long leg stretched across his waist and arm wrapped around his neck, had become a fond morning ritual in their shared bed. But this morning, Archie woke up to an unprecedented amount of distance between him and Jughead, who was up surprisingly early and curled up into the left side of the bed.

"Jughead?" Archie mumbled in confusion. He sat up and rubbed his tired eyes before taking a better look at him, but all he could see was his back side and a mess of black hair. "Why are you so far away?"

"I'm not feeling very well," he said quietly. His voice sounded wide awake, like he'd been up for a while.

Archie leaned over and rested a gentle hand on Jughead's forehead. "You don't feel hot," he said with a frown. "What hurts?"

Jughead pulled his hand away. The gesture wasn't necessarily rough, but it did sting. "I don't know. I think I just need to rest."

"Do you need me to get you anything?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Not even breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Since when are you not hungry?"

"Archie, I'm fine," he said harshly as he pulled the blanket up over his shoulder. "I just want to stay in bed."

Archie blinked in surprise, not knowing what to do. Jughead was hardly ever moody or distant. He was this positive ray of sunshine all the time, full of energy no matter how dire the situation. It was painfully annoying, but Archie loved it. He loved him enough to know that something was really wrong.

"What time did you come home last night?" He asked innocently, more awake now.

"Maybe a little after one." After a second, he sighed. "Sorry, I should've told you I'd be home late. Yesterday was kind of crazy."

"What happened yesterday?"

No answer.

Archie smiled a bit to himself, knowing he had a lead. "Is that what's wrong?"

"No. I told you I'm just not feeling well, okay?" Jughead mumbled, but there was a lot less contempt in his voice. He just sounded desperate and sad. "Don't you have things to do today?"

Now he did. Archie climbed out of bed with new purpose and picked up some random clothes off of the floor to throw on. After he was ready, hair and teeth brushed, he grabbed his keys and wallet from his night stand and looked back at Jughead's curled up form. "I'm going to figure out what's wrong and I'm going to fix it," he promised.

Jughead grunted in response.

Archie shuffled over toward him, leaned down, and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "You're cute when you're moody."

A small smile graced his lips before he turned his body away from him again.

First stop, Jughead's job.

Archie left the room and went to grab a snack from the kitchen. His apartment was a lot different now that Jughead moved in. For one, it was a lot messier. The kitchen was only ever clean at night or early in the morning. By lunch, the sink would be overflowing with dishes, the fridge would be raided, and empty snack boxes would litter the counter. In terms of decoration, they replaced Archie's kitchen table for Jughead's, a thrifted piece of crap that he got all of their friends to spay paint black and tag with their names and random doodles. It was a huge eye sore, but Archie didn't mind it too much. He was never too big on sentimental but looking at the piece of junk every morning put a small smile on his face.