Blood of My Blood, Flesh of My Flesh (Bughead)

Omen

"Poor Moose..." Veronica heaved.

"Is he okay?"

Jughead chuckled, pushing his fries around, "His name is Moose. He's fine. Right?"

Sweet Pea startled, surprised Jughead was looking at him. He didn't want to be here, under the scrutiny of it all, not how Betty had looked at him as though to ask why she was only finding out about this and was it something bigger than what it appeared.

Fucking hell, of course, it was. Nothing in this goddamn town was simple anymore.

But he couldn't be home either, now he might run into FP and be forced to ask what was happening. That might make him lose his cool.

"Yeah, bumped around a bit, but fine," Sweet Pea choked out.

"Dude? What the hell? I've been texting you!" Archie thundered, standing at the edge of the table, glaring at Jughead.

"Archie, Jug, and Sweets just told us what happened," Betty said with a horrified whisper, "It sounded awful!"

"Moose and I are going to the Southside to find those lousy Serpents, you in?"

"Hey, wait-," Betty startled, "You didn't say it was the Serpents who beat up Moose." She was glaring right at Sweet Pea.

"'Cause we don't know that for a fact," Jughead growled before Sweet Pea could come up with some flimsy response, "Archie, you're getting worked up over hearsay-,"

Of course, Sweet Pea knew it was his brethren, so he was caught. Not Serpents, he didn't think, but maybe wolves. Archie did have a right to be angry, but there was no way he could know without a shadow of a doubt. It was all just hatred and prejudice. And that Sweet Pea was fucking pissed about.

But hey, Jughead was on his side. It was sorta nice to have someone besides just him swearing up and down on the goodness of the Serpents.

Too bad Jughead was wrong at least in some way. If it had been Serpents, the only thing Sweet Pea could figure is a group had gone rogue.

"Worked up? Fuck man, this is about helping my dad!" Archie argued, "So are you in?" He swung his head to Sweet Pea.

"What?" Sweet Pea choked on his milkshake.

"To that bar. Joaquin talked about it once and I figured I could ask him, but you're...you're sorta part of this group and you jumped to help Moose last night and..."

"Dude, I definitely didn't want Moose to get more hurt, but fuck that. I'm not taking you over to the Wyrm on some little self-righteous crusade!" Sweet Pea said hotly, "Let the police do their job."

"No!" Archie slammed his hands on the table, startling a few patrons, "Keller's not gonna do shit! And Moose thinks he can recognize them again-,"

"It was pitch black last night! He's just saying that," Sweet Pea argued.

"And the Serpents are dangerous!" Betty broke in. Sweet Pea's argument deflated, staring at Betty, a bit hurt. She seemed to realize what she'd said because even Jughead was staring at her as though she had offended him, "I mean they're...well..."

You're werewolves! He's a human!

Sweet Pea heard Betty's thoughts and could not disagree. Sure, he knew all of them to be fuzzy and lovable some of the time, but since two wolves had nearly killed him and Jug, she wasn't wrong. And his pack didn't take kindly to people who came into their space accusing people of shit. Even if they were maybe half-way right.

"They're drug dealers," Veronica supplied.

"What?" Jughead looked crushed, "Says who?"

"Polly, right Betts?" Veronica continued, unaware of the unease that everyone sans Archie was now feeling, "Trev told Betty that Jason was dealing. It was for the Serpents, duh."