Chapter Text
I feel like a part of my soul has loved you since the beginning of everything.
― Emery Allen
“You know Chuck, right?”
“Yeah, of course,” Betty nods. She sits close, fiddling with the fraying of Veronica’s couch. “What about him?”
It's not a conversation she wants to be having but it's been weighing on her lately. And, Betty... Betty’s her friend now. She attempted to tell Cheryl but her advice is paired with tough love and she walked away with the same heavy feeling in her stomach that's been festering for weeks.
Everything is so easy with Betty, even with the question of what their relationship means hanging over their heads. More days than not she hangs out with her, helps her prepare for dinner, and is gone again before Alice can come home. Things should be easy since homecoming. Veronica can't help but feel like she's making a problem out of nothing.
She feels selfish for feeling this way. Her mom received a promotion at Pop’s and her hours have mellowed out a bit. She doesn't have to have dinner with her while she's on break, or see her coming home from the night shift as she gets ready for school. But Chuck Clayton’s something that refuses to ease up on her, no matter how much easier things should be.
“Veronica?”
She snaps out of thought and meets Betty’s eyes. “Sorry,” she says softly. Her eyes dart down to her thumbs. “I - I slept with him - Chuck - after the dance. In his car. And I just feel so disgusting about it. As if I already wasn't the New York whore, the whole football team seems to be staring lately.”
“Oh, Ronnie. It's okay,” Betty assures. Though the frown adorning her face makes Veronica think otherwise. “What you want isn't anyone's business if you don't want it to be.”
“But I didn't want it.” Betty’s eyes widen. “No, no, god, not like that. It's just… like I was sinking back into the person I used to be.” She frowns and lifts her eyes again. “I used to be awful.”
“Cheryl used to be awful too, and look at her now.”
Veronica vividly remembers the Vixens grumbling about Cheryl’s attitude only a day earlier.
“Okay, maybe Cheryl isn't the best example but she tries.” Betty places her hand over Veronica’s. “The point is, Veronica, that none of us knew the old you. Maybe you were mean. Maybe you really were like Cheryl, but the Veronica I know now is kind and caring. You were there for me when nobody else was.” Her hand squeezes. “It’s okay to make mistakes.”
Relief floods Veronica in the form of tears that Betty’s quick to hold her though.
Chuck Clayton is pushed from her head for two weeks. But it’s brought back into light when Reggie Mantle beats her to their lunch table that day, leaning arrogantly against it as Veronica takes her seat. He’s all cocky smile and arrogant attitude and he’s so much like Chuck Veronica kind of wants to throw up all over again.
There were a lot of Reggie Mantle’s back in New York. Veronica can’t say she misses it.
“Come on, Ronnie,” he pushes while Veronica glares up at him. “Chuck told us all about you. Come to the carnival with me.”
The carnival. It makes her eyes roll. Apparently it’s the only interesting thing that happens in Riverdale. Veronica’s heard gossiping about it for weeks. She supposes that Reggie is to the carnival what Chuck was to homecoming.
“Sorry,” Veronica shakes her head, and she lies because she’s sick of Reggie and his refusal to leave her alone. “I already have a date.”
Reggie looks amused; like he doesn’t believe her. “Who then?”
“Me.”
They both look over to see Betty, brows furrowed. Veronica instantly breathes a little easier as she drops her lunch tray next to Veronica’s and settles down next to her, unnecessarily close.
For a moment Betty achieved the impossible and stunned Reggie into silence. (Veronica, too, but for entirely different reasons.) It only lasts a moment; he rebounds quickly. “Oh, some chick on chick action,” Reggie grings, waggling his brows at them. “Didn’t know you swung that way.”
Betty presses closer. “So now that you have your answer, leave.”
But Reggie’s relentless. “Well, if you ladies are ever interested in creating a Mantle sandwich…”
“What did you just say?”
Archie appears at the table then, fire lit behind his eyes. Reggie laughs awkwardly and clasps him on the back. “Relax dude, kidding,” but he makes some excuse to leave anyway.
And maybe it was Archie who did the rescuing, really, but Veronica squeezes Betty’s hand all the same, mirroring her gesture from just a few days prior.
Like most things in Riverdale, Betty’s eye heals. Even the faint, stubborn yellow rimming that lingered for a week after everything else has faded away. Betty and Archie start talking again, as friends this time. He even joins them for lunch sometimes. Veronica even hears he’s talking to Jughead again these days. Everything becomes easier, really this time. People have stopped talking and the worst summer of her life is pushed to the back of her head.
By mid November, fall’s seeped into Riverdale, tinging everything a pleasant warm orange. Well, everything except for Betty’s petrifyingly pink bedroom that Veronica can’t help still grin at every time she’s in her room.
Today’s no different than most days this month. Veronica’s in Betty’s room again after school. She’s smiling at her pink decor, at Betty’s embarrassed smile, at the song that Betty puts on for them.
It’s been so much easier to smile lately.
“Stop with that face,” Betty groans, flopping down onto her bed. She flips back over and looks at Veronica, feigning misery. “We’ve been over this a thousand times. I haven’t redecorated since I was ten.”
Again, all Veronica can do is smile. “Maybe I could help you with that sometimes.”
Betty rolls her eyes. “Let’s just work on the calculus homework for now.”
It’s something they’d taken up last month; they made excuses to hang out with each other to mask how often it truly was. Veronica’s happy that it’s carried over to November as well. They’ve fallen into a pattern that involved each other so quickly it’s like the universe is trying to tell them I told you so . But Veronica doesn’t let it. She’s not going to let something as silly and uncertain as color dictate who she falls in love with. She reminds herself of a younger version of herself, one before Betty and Riverdale who thought soulmates might not even be real.
But, in that same thought, she’s still drawn to the girl who’s face is scrunched up as she works on her homework. They go to school and pretend like the only open seats next to each other, they act like they’re each others last partner opportunity and pair together, and more often than not Veronica trails behind Betty home only to leave again before Alice gets back.
(Betty protests any sort of revenge that Veronica suggested following her showing up at midnight. It’s not safe, she explains. So Veronica will wait to hand Alice her ass for now.)
Yesterday they chalked their hangout up to Betty needing help with arranging student council volunteer opportunities. Today Veronica needs help with calculous. Veronica anxiously wonders when they’ll hang out for the sake of themselves, rather than hiding behind these excuses that are becoming more and more obvious by the day.
Though, she doesn’t have to worry about that much longer.
Veronica’s homework lays on the ground, mostly untouched save a few problems she actually tried before gossip and social media got the best of her. Occasionally, Veronica will roll over and show Betty some cute animal she found on Twitter to distract her from very adamantly finishing the homework that isn’t even due for another two weeks.
She peers up from her phone to look at Betty. Little hairs fall out of her ponytail, framing her face. And every time Betty starts mumbling about a difficult problem, she curses softly under her breath. It brings an irrationally wide smile to Ronnie’s face. Betty insists she never swears. Veronica’s kind of honored that Betty’s comfortable enough to slip up around her. It's with that thought that Veronica’s brought into another one. She figures that Betty’s the most beautiful girl she’s ever met, and then, if it’s dramatic to think so. But Betty literally gave her the gift of color just from looking at her so she lets the mushy thought warm her for a moment.
Without warning, Betty’s glances at Veronica, redirecting the warmth to Veronica’s cheeks from being caught. Briefly, irrationally, she wonders if Betty somehow heard her inner thoughts.
“You’re staring,” Betty chides, setting down her pencil and smiling warmly at her. “Where’s the homework you’re supposed to be doing?”
“I’m looking at better things to do than my homework,” Veronica blurts out, her mouth quicker than her mind.
They both freeze.
“Oh my god, wait. That came out wrong,” Veronica’s flush deepens. She doesn’t even care if she’s being dramatic anymore. She’s mortified .
To her relief, Betty just bursts out in laughter. “Sheesh, V, at least let me take out on a date first.”
Their confrontation with Reggie pops into her head. Veronica knows Betty probably doesn't actually mean anything from the joke - she didn’t mean anything from the lie she gave to Reggie - but she finds herself saying: “Really?” nonetheless.
It makes her feel a little better when Veronica watches Betty’s cheek tinge with color, too. “That’s actually what I was going to ask you,” Betty says softly. She sets her notebook aside and sits up. “Even though pretending like you haven’t been staring at me doing my homework for the past hour has been exciting.”
“Betty,” Veronica pouts.
Betty just laughs again. “You’re aren’t going to the carnival with anyone yet, right?”
Veronica’s head tilts. “You weren’t lying to Reggie?”
“I mean, at that point I hadn’t asked you yet…” Betty trails off, moves to open her nightstand drawer and starts rummaging through it for whatever she’s trying to find. She produces two brightly colored tickets with a shy smile.
“It’s kind of a big deal here. It’s the only exciting thing that happens in Riverdale, if you don’t count the whole murder thing that people still talk about.”
Veronica stares at her. The carnival. With Betty. As a date .
“Soooooo,” Betty drawls when Veronica doesn’t respond; she holds an orange ticket out to her, “do you want go?”
Veronica can’t find it in her to be embarrassed about how quickly she says yes.
After she gets home (and gushes to her mom for nearly an hour about she has a date with Betty Cooper) Veronica decides that she’s upset that Betty beat her to the first date milestone. She had all intentions of being the one to woo in their relationship, the one she didn’t even know had truly started yet, but Betty, and her talk about colorful carnivals, picking her up on Saturday night made it hard to refuse.
So when Betty mentions to Veronica offhand how much she misses their old little drive in, Veronica absolutely decides she’s going to woo her the only way Veronica Lodge knows how: all out.
She pokes around - because Betty and Jughead aren’t the only ones who can do a little digging - and she finds out that the old drive in was demolished back when they were sophomores. Something about Jughead living there that she doesn't quite understand and a biker gang that she doesn't want to get into to sends her to Kevin for answers.
A long, confusing history of Riverdale and their phone call ends like this: “Yeah, I have a driveway, Ronnie. Why do you ask?”
She’s at Kevin house the next day after school with a box full of junk food, dvds, and a projector. Veronica borrowed the projector from her theater and borrows a white sheet from the Keller’s to hang over the garage. Well, Sheriff Keller helps her and his son who are grossly unqualified to do anything that requires a bit of height and handywork. He also helps them set up the projector, and the speakers, and walks them through how they’ll get the movie to play when they’re ready. Veronica can’t thank him enough and he just pats her on the head, wishing her luck with her girl .
“Oh my god, dad,” Kevin gasps. “You can’t just say what we’re both thinking.”
He laughs. “Have fun you two!”
Veronica considers it a miracle that they only bicker for twenty minutes about what movie they’ll watch.
In the end, Kevin wins - “It’s my garage, Lodge.” - and chooses some old horror movie that he swears she’ll thank him later for. It’s Veronica’s idea to invite the rest of their friends; deep down she wants Betty to have the honor of taking them on their first date. Veronica’s perfectly happy with first claiming their grand romantic gesture.
“I’ll text the rest of the gang, you go pick up Betty,” Kevin commands, dragging the rest of the blankets and pillows out into the driveway. He fishes his keys out of his pocket and tosses them to her. Veronica catches them with a frown.
“I’m from New York,” she says sheepishly. “I can’t drive.”
Kevin rolls his eyes and mumbles something about her being spoiled under his breath when she hands them back.
“It’s a good thing she lives five minutes away then,” Kevin says. “Now go.”
Veronica practically buzzes the whole way to Betty’s house, thinking of all the ways that something spontaneous like this could go wrong. The most pressing of her problems are Alice opening the door when she beckons for Betty. Maybe Betty isn't even home. She'd hate to come all the way over here, all five minuets of walking, just to return to Kev’s Betty-less. She contemplates just calling Betty as she rounds the corner and approaches the house but soon realizes she doesn’t have to make that decision. The garage door is open and inside is Betty, lying underneath the same car she’s been working on a few months.
Veronica invites herself in and tries to be quite but the clicking of her heels gives her away.
“Mom?” Betty asks. The car stops making the sound it was moments before.
“Try again.”
At that, Betty shimmies out from underneath the car and she stares up at her in confusion.
“Veronica? Why are you here? Are you okay?”
“I came to steal you away actually,” Veronica explains. Her eyes linger on the dark grease that sticks to Betty’s collarbone. “If you aren’t too busy?”
Betty sits up and smiles. “I always have time for you, V.”
The embarrassing blush that creeps up her neck makes Veronica’s relieved that Betty ducks inside to change her clothes quick.
Betty reappears again, less greased and in cleaner clothes and by now Veronica’s significantly less red. They start the short walk back to Kevin’s.
“I get the feeling we’re going to Kevin’s but are you going to tell me why?”
Veronica refuses until Kevin’s comes back into view.
The rest of their friends are all already lingering in the driveway, waiting for Veronica and Betty to arrive so they can start the movie. “Tada!”
“You didn't.” Betty grins.
“But I did,” she responds. “And tonight we’re watching a horror movie in the true drive in fashion.”
“The movie was my idea,” Kevin points out, pressing play.
“Yes, but everything else was mine.”
They divide themselves and claim blankets on the driveway to watch the movie. Cheryl and Josie are curled underneath a set of blankets bickering about who gets to feed who popcorn. And for a brief moment, Kevin attempts to join Betty and Veronica’s before Veronica sends him a pointed look and he rolls his eyes and relents.
“Scoot over, heteros,” Kevin commands and Archie and Jughead share a look.
“Oh,” Kevin grins, a whole lot more interested in his movie arrangements now, “is bisexuals a more appropriate term now?”
Veronica settles in her cocoon of blankets and holds out the covers for Betty to join her. Betty drops down next to her, warm and sure. And even though they've kissed before, this feels far more intimate. Betty curls into her side and sighs softly.
“Veronica,” Betty whispers after the movie’s been rolling for a while. Veronica startles, horror movie and all, and Betty subtly shifts closer to her.
“Hm?” Veronica hums. She’s met with Betty’s slightly glossy green eyes and she frowns. “Is everything okay?”
“My mom was being a bitch tonight,” Betty confesses softly. “I told her I was taking you on a date. Thank for rescuing me.”
And then Betty presses a kiss to her cheek and Veronica swears warmth erupts in her heart.
Saturday comes overwhelmingly fast and for the greater portion of the day, Veronica’s getting ready for Betty to come pick her up at six. They’ve come a long way from the I-refuse-to-acknowledge-your-existence type relationship that they shared the first few weeks of knowing each other.
The universe is kind of funny like that.
“Mom, do you still have that yellow dress I like?” She’s already tried on every yellow clothing item in her own closet. Twice. Veronica wants to wear yellow. Yellow feels right. She didn’t know it at the time but yellow was the color of Betty’s sweater when she met her months ago.
Hermione appears in her room a few minutes later and holds up just the dress she was looking for. “You mean this one?”
“Yes,” Veronica squeals, tripping over herself to run forward into her mom’s outstretched arms. “Thank you.”
“Are you nervous?” Hermione asks, pulling Veronica back to get a good look at her.
“It’s Betty. She makes me feel calm.”
With her dress situation sorted out, she’s finally able to worry about the rest of herself.
She applies her makeup and works out the kinks of her hair. She stares at herself in the mirror for a truly vain amount of time before she snaps back out of it in search of the perfect heel. She loses track of time wondering which heel Betty will like best. She startles when her mom calls out to her. “Honey, Betty’s here.”
Is it really six already?
A quick check of her phone confirms, yes, it is six. On the dot, actually and Veronica smiles at Betty’s punctuality. Veronica quickly hurries to shove on the very first pair of heels she debated on and stumbles out into the entry room as she rushes to put them on.
Hermione obstructs Betty from her view as she rounds the corner, drawing closer to the. Betty says something Veronica doesn’t quite make out and then they’re laughing, Hermione taking a subtle step back and - there she is.
Betty.
Betty practically glows with her hair hanging free from its usual ponytail. Her golden hair matches her soft yellow sweater that she pairs with a white button up underneath. She looks like she did the first day she saw her; the day she began living in color.
“We match,” Veronica says when she finally reaches her.
“We do,” Betty agrees. She produces a bouquet of yellow flowers that Veronica hadn’t spotted before and hands them to her. Her heart putters pathetically as she brings them near her face to smell. “And, uh, I got those for you if you wanted to put them in some water.”
Hermione breaks the moment with her cooing. She takes the flowers from Veronica and runs to the kitchen to put them in a vase.
“Thank you, Betty. They’re beautiful.” Veronica stops herself from adding, but not nearly as beautiful as you.
“Flowers, Ronnie!” Her mom’s smile is still so wide when she comes back Veronica wonders if she'll burst. “And look at you two. I want pictures.”
Hermione ushers them together and pulls out her phone. “Mom…”
“I'm sorry, baby, but it's not everyday my little girl goes on her first date with her soulmate.”
Both of them share a look. “Mami…” Veronica groans.
“Okay, okay, go,” Hermione nods, taking a few last pictures despite herself. “Have fun, be safe. You text me if you need anything.”
She pulls Veronica into her arms and presses a kiss into her hair. Betty’s far taller than Veronica, than Hermione herself, too, but that doesn't stop her from pulling her into her arms and squeezing just the same.
“Be good, girls,” Hermione smiles as they shuffle out the door. “Bring a coat, Veronica!”
But the two of them are already gone, giggling distractedly at nothing at all.
“Your mom was right. You should've brought a coat,” Betty says later, her fingers dancing over the goosebumps that have raised on her bare arms. They’ve just barely left Betty’s car
More rise, but these new ones weren’t caused by the cold.
“You can keep me warm instead,” Veronica teases.
“Nice try but I think I have a jacket in my car,” she says absently, continuing to trace up and down Veronica’s arm. “Let's go get it before your mom kills me for letting you freeze.”
“But the carnival-”
“Will still be here after I'm not worried that you're in danger of frostbite.”
Betty drags them back off to her face. Veronica supposes that the warm jacket Betty produces is worth ruining her outfit for. It means that Betty is keeping her warm and Veronica’s always been one to get her way.
By now, the carnival grounds shimmer and glow. The sun’s set and the colors and lights of the carnival are allowed to shine through. There’s a unique combination of funnel cake and cigarette smoke that feels inexplicably like New York. Though, home has started to feel more and more like a feeling and less like the city she once belonged to.
(Veronica tries not to wonder why.)
When they get there - again - their usually easy relationship shifts under the pressure of the word date. They stand in line to get their wristbands and make idle conversation until they reach the front. A gruff man takes their their tickets are tears them in and replaces it with yellow wristbands.
Veronica holds up her wrist excitedly for Betty to see. “Look! It was meant to be!”
Inside the carnival grounds, things and people bustle about. Riverdale shuffles by her in a light she’s never bothered to look at them before.
Betty pulls her along to all her favorite rides. On the Cyclone, Veronica’s squashes into Betty’s side while they ride and laughs until she almost vomits. In the fun house they take so many pictures in the mirrors that the ride operator nearly kicks them out. Betty buys them snowcones that they eat even though the air around them bites. They sit in dewy, half wet, half frozen grass and all Veronica feels is warm.
One snow cone wiser and they brave the carnival grounds again, hand in hand this time. Veronica suspects it might be to keep them from separating because that's nearly happened tonight - twice - but it still feels incredibly nice.
Veronica catches a flash of red hair and a familiar beanie a ways ahead and starts to tug Betty in their direction.
Betty must see them, too, because she’s shouting; “Juggie! Archie!” a moment later.
The boys slow down and Betty and Veronica are able to catch up. Both of whom look at their linked hands curiously before Archie proposes they all get funnel cakes together.
“Dude, they're on a date,” Jughead whispers fiercely when he thinks that Veronica and Betty can't hear them.
“So are we. What's the problem?”
Questionably sanitary carnival food becomes ten times as enticing when the smell overwhelms the carnival grounds and Betty keeps talking about how good it is. They gorge themselves on sweet fluffy cake (Jughead eats an entire funnel cake by himself while Archie pouts beside him with a candy apple that has a fly stuck to it.) Veronica buys her and Betty their own funnel cake, topped with powdered sugar and ice cream.
“You’re being a bad date, Juggie,” Betty chastises, pushing their remaining cake to Archie with a smile.
“What? I paid for this,” Jughead defends around a mouthful.
“Well, you boys have fun,” Veronica says rising, tugging Betty by her hand and pulling her with her. “ My date and I are going to seize the night.”
By seizing the night, Veronica means ride the one ride that's made her nauseous just looking at it the whole the night. The Zipper.
Riders are literally caged into their seats to keep them safe. The gleeful screaming coming from the compartments is easily misunderstood to Veronica’s ears as panicked when they slot themselves a spot in line. Veronica presses into Betty shamelessly while they wait in line for their turn; partly because her legs are still cold and exposed to the cold air, but mostly because the rickety sounding metal seems to groan louder with every step they take toward it.
“Are you nervous?” Betty asks, bemused. Her arms still wrap around Ronnie in her confusion. “I didn’t think Veronica Lodge was scared of anything.”
“I'm not scared of anything,” she defends. But she looks up at the near nauseating twirling the Zipper does and sighs. “Except maybe this particular carnival ride.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I’m here then, right V?” Betty grabs her hand and squeezes.
Veronica relaxes a little and squeezes back. “Right.”
Still, later (on the merry-go-round this time because Veronica could barely stand by the time she gets off the Zipper) Betty tells her that she doesn’t think she’s had someone squeeze her hand so hard before. Veronica relived the rides thereafter are tamer.
People start to funnel out of the carnival grounds now and while they move sluggishly back to the front, Betty points out all her favorite rides and giving them each their unique backstory. “Juggie and I rode that one until we threw up when we were nine,” she says, pointing at the Ring of Fire. “And Cheryl and I nearly killed each other when were twelve on that one when we were forced to ride together.” This time she points at the Caterpillar Train. “And that one - ” Betty’s finger points back at the Zipper -
“Is where I nearly died!” Veronica finishes with a shudder.
The best part of her night, though, comes later. They meet up with Archie and Jughead again. Jughead is the proud owner of a plush whale, and Archie an inflatable guitar that squeaks every time he whacks it against Jughead’s head.
“I’ve always wanted one of those giant bears,” Veronica admits thoughtfully.
Betty grabs her hand and tugs her off toward the games. Jughead and Archie are unphased when they disappear again.
“Come on then.”
“Where are we doing?”
“Winning you a prize, obviously. What kind of date would I be if I didn’t?”
Veronica grins. “And they say chivalry is dead.”
In the end, twenty minutes and ten dollars down the drain, Betty’s forced to admit defeat to the ring toss game. But luckily for them, another teen works the booth who stares at Betty like she’s the entire world and ends up giving the obnoxious bear to her when she asks nicely and bats her eyes.
“Thank you,” Betty beams at him, then quickly presents the bear to Veronica.
The bear is bigger than her and nearly bigger than Betty. And she may not have won it but Veronica’s thankful all the same. She says her thanks like this:
Her eyes flutter shut and her lips press into Betty’s - finally - tasting faintly of faraway funnel cake and ice cream. She hears Betty inhale, feels her hands settle on her hips. Veronica toys with the soft baby hairs at the base of her neck and she can't help the sigh that follows. Of all the things they've had tonight, Veronica knows that Betty is the sweetest.