Chapter Text
▱◯♕
“It is not flesh and blood,
but heart which makes us
fathers and sons.”
—Friedrich Schiller◯
Jughead didn’t believe he could ever feel a pain worse than when Betty had ended things and left him and Riverdale behind all those years ago. He didn’t believe there would ever be words so cutting and heart-clenching as the ones she’d murmured through tears; “I can’t be here anymore, Juggie. I can’t be with you.”
Except, there are words that cut worse.
“You’re not even my real dad!”
Truthfully, he hadn’t been expecting it. A simple argument with his eleven-year-old son, Jughead had been stunned into silence when Tobi had thrown the words at him after huffily hearing the punishment of no video games for a week for his low grades.
Jughead knows Tobi loves him. His dark eyes and curly brown hair, sure, he doesn’t look a stitch like him, but Tobi is his. Hearing the brunt truth however from the boy himself, it cuts Jughead deep like a blade to his chest.
Like Betty, Tobi is highly empathetic and quick to realize his mistake. The moment the words tumble from his mouth, Jughead sees the way his eyes widen and his cheeks fill with color from shame. “Dad…”
“Put your controllers on mom’s desk.” Jughead orders, keeping his features together through the hurt. He then hurriedly turns around and walks toward his bedroom, shutting the door and leaning against it heavily while digging his fingers into his eyes.
He’s not going cry. He’s a thirty-six-year-old man, he will not cry.
He hears shuffling from the hallway as Tobi’s footsteps pitter patter across wood floors. They walk up to his door and Jughead can practically feel the boy’s regret and need to apologize. He’s so much like Betty in that regard, it’s a trait Jughead is proud to see carried through him.
Jughead doesn’t cry, but the ache in his chest lingers up until Betty comes home with their two other children. She senses a disturbance immediately when walking into the bedroom before handing over their youngest daughter over to him.
“What’s wrong?” she questions without so much as a ‘hello’.
“What? Nothing.” Jughead furrows his brows, dipping his nose into the soft blonde curls of their two-year-old, Olive, and kissing her tresses as she clings to his shirt collar. “Hi, Ollie.”
Betty gives him a scrutinizing look, trying to decipher the truth before she reluctantly begins to explain her day after he prompts her to fill him in. “—also, I think we’re going to have to find a different daycare for Peanut and Ollie. Chelsea had a sign up that her prices were going to be raising next month.”
Jughead adds his thoughts noncommittedly as they walk out of their bedroom and into the kitchen where their six-year-old is at the table stuffing her mouth with cubes of cheese from her lunch pail. With darker hair and a hearty appetite, their daughter Pauline takes after Jughead the most. When she sees him, she scrambles off her seat and runs over to him.
“Daddy!”
“Hey, Peanut.” He smiles, crouching down to hug her as their little one cries out in protest in having to share the affection.
“Pauline,” Betty scolds lightly at seeing the mess on the table caused by messy eating. “Come tidy this up, sweetheart.”
When dinner’s cooked and served, Tobi gives Jughead guilty looks through the length of the meal, and when it’s finally time for bed, after the girls are down for the evening, he and Betty go to Tobi’s room to tuck him in before he blurts out an apology, tears in his eyes.
“I didn’t mean it.” Tobi sniffs, rubbing his eye stubbornly and avoiding Betty’s questioning glance. “What I said earlier, I didn’t mean it, Dad.”
“Tobs,” Jughead grimaces, plopping himself onto the mattress as his wife lingers at the doorway. Tobi immediately moves forward and wraps him into a hug.
“I’m sorry.” He says through the fabric of his thermal shirt. “You are my dad.”
Turning his head to Betty, Jughead gives her a soft look. “You mind giving us a minute, Betts?”
“Of course not.” Betty answers, unfolding her arms as she walks to Tobi and gives him a kiss goodnight. “Love you, baby.”
“Love you, too.”
“To the moon and back?” she pushes his unruly curls from his forehead and places another kiss to his forehead.
“And to heaven.” He replies, scrunching his nose when she gives one final kiss to his cheek. “Mom,”
“Okay, okay.” Betty grins, glancing to Jughead and moving back to peck his own lips briefly. “See you in a few.”
When the door closes behind her, Jughead heaves a sigh and wraps his arm around Tobi’s shoulder. “Do you know why mom and I give you punishments?”
“Because I screwed up on my grades?” Tobi frowns dejectedly.
“To teach a lesson.” Jughead corrects, watching Tobi nod his head as he listens. “If we stop caring about our responsibilities, we lose privileges, not just as kids but adults, too. When you work hard, you earn more privileges. I’m not taking your stuff away just to be a jerk.”
“…I didn’t mean it.” Tobi repeats after a moment of silence.
“It’s okay, bud.” Jughead assures him, though his heart is tugging painfully in his chest. “I’m not here to replace your real dad—“
“But you are my real dad!” Tobi interrupts emphatically. Lip jutted out in a frustrated grimace, the boy regards him with pinched brows. “I know mom says she doesn’t want me to forget my real dad, but, you’re my real dad, too. You’re the only dad I know—the best dad! And I just…I wanted to hurt your feelings because I was mad…I’m sorry.”
There’s a tightening in Jughead’s chest—except this time, it’s not from hurt. Such a gentle soul, Jughead sees Betty in everything Tobi does and says. “It’s okay, Tobi.” He tells him gently. “I said worse things to my dad when I was your age. People say things out of anger all the time, though that doesn’t make it okay.”
“I don’t want you to hate me now.” Tobi tells him worriedly as his eyes get covered in a glossy sheen.
“I could never hate you.” Jughead squeezes his shoulder, giving a reassuring curve to his lips. “You’re my boy.”
Despite recently disentangling himself from affectionate embraces and mushy heart to hearts because of his growing age, Tobi clings to Jughead like he’s four again and lets himself be comforted. “I love you, dad.”
Jughead rubs his back, feeling himself smile as the love for his family swells in his chest. “I love you too, Tobs.”
“To the moon and back?” Tobi questions quietly, his hair tickling Jughead’s neck before he chuckles and responds.
“And to heaven.”