Work Text:
a kiss and a cupcake from veronica lodge
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inspired by becca's gifsets
Archie sighs for the hundredth time when he places the dismantled sign and stand in the bed of his father’s truck. Next to him, Betty and Veronica talk with their arms linked, excited about the success of their campaign, but Archie is regretting how he offered to be their muscle.
“I counted one-hundred-and-twenty-eight,” he hears Betty tell Veronica. “Which means I need to bake another batch of cupcakes for those who didn’t get one. Most of them told me they’d be content with another kiss, though.”
Archie forcefully slams the truck’s door closed to the sound of their laughter.
“How many?” Veronica asks Betty.
“About fifty-two. I mean… If you don’t mind kissing their other cheek, it’d be a lot cheaper and faster than baking.”
He watches Veronica tilt her head to the side, appearing to consider it.
“Don’t worry Betty, I’ll buy the cupcakes,” Archie intervenes before she can. He doesn’t have more than a hundred dollars left from his allowance savings, but he’ll manage. He’ll ask his dad. He’ll do something. “Do you need them for tomorrow?”
“Preferably, yes,” Betty says. She and Veronica exchange a look. “But it’s so much easier to just let V…”
“Tomorrow, got it,” Archie interrupts, opening the passenger door to Veronica. “Are you ready? We gotta go.”
Veronica raises one eyebrow, an expression that Archie knows well—are you really trying to tell me what to do, Archiekins?—but he decides to ignore it this time, nodding at the open door.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, B,” her voice gives away the rolling of her eyes.
He helps her up into the truck but her hand quickly pulls from his once she’s seated, and he shuts the door behind her.
“Bye, Arch,” Betty says quietly, walking through the parking lot to the Cooper’s station wagon.
Bye, Judas, Archie thinks. He has the impression that Betty orchestrated the whole thing: the stand, the cupcakes, Veronica being the one kissing cheeks left and right. Why couldn’t she be the one kissing everyone? His girlfriend insisted she be the one to host the exchange since Betty stayed up the night prior baking for hours.
He feels bad after thinking that. He sighs yet again, with a shake of his head. The past couple of days have been never-ending. The constant drama surrounding Veronica and her family was just the beginning. Most days he’s been defending her honor to anyone who says anything against it, even Jughead at lunch yesterday with his stupid hunger strike.
“Ok,” he says as he gets into the truck. “I’m gonna drive you home and then I’ll do something about the cupcakes.” He starts the engine and grips the steering wheel a little tighter than usual.
“Make sure you sprinkle them with all your outpouring testosterone,” Veronica says, in that tone that she always uses when she’s annoyed with him.
Archie clenches his jaw so not to say anything that will get her even more annoyed. The atmosphere is heavy between them in the car—she opens the window at some point, her lips pursed as if she’s refraining from saying what’s on her mind, too.
He stops at a red light and glances over at her. She’s looking at him too, and their eyes end up meeting. Veronica narrows hers.
“It’s funny,” Archie ends up blurting out before he can help himself. “I wonder how you would behave if I ran some fundraiser that involved girls getting in line to kiss me.”
She juts her chin up a little defiantly, holding her ground like always. “Isn’t that what you were doing three months ago?”
That gets him mad, feeling the burning flush of his skin creep up the sides of his neck.
“Not that it matters, Veronica, but that was completely different. We weren’t together and you weren’t sitting front row to watch everyone stand in line with pure excitement to kiss me.”
She laughs a little humorlessly as he drives through the intersection towards The Pembrooke. “You could just say you’re jealous, Archiekins. It’d be better than this strong case of toxic masculinity.”
He is jealous. He spent his lunch break watching her lip print make its way onto other cheeks beside his own, scowling at the customers who lingered just a few seconds too long. He’s been in the locker room before dating her, he knows what those guys who promised to vote for her think about. More than once he had been congratulated for nailing a fucking ten, man!
“I’m sorry. I just don’t like it.”
Veronica reaches down to the floor, shuffling through the bag sitting next to her high-heeled feet. When she sits back up, she’s got a little smile on her face and it eases some of the tension in his chest. There’s a box perched in her lap and she opens the lid, retrieving a chocolate cupcake.
“Since you were too busy brooding while I campaigned to get in line yourself, I saved you a treat.”
She slides across the bench and even more of the tension fades, feeling as her nails scratch lightly at the nape of his neck.
They approach the street that takes them right to her building. With the pull of his turn signal, Veronica stops him with a breathy whisper against the shell of his ear. “Keep going.”
He abandons the blinker and continues driving straight, before Veronica points to a spot off the main road.
“Pull over.”
He does as he’s told, feeling a mixture of anticipation and nervousness—anticipation given the way she sounded when she told him to pull over, and nervousness for what will surely be a few minutes of her scolding him for acting this way.
“Here,” she opens the lid and gets some of the chocolate frosting on her forefinger. Archie feels his face heating up when she feeds him the frosting. The flavor explodes in his mouth. “Do you like it?”
Archie licks his lips, nodding in agreement, watching as Veronica swipes more frosting with her finger, this time eating it herself. She makes quite a show out of it, closing her eyes and humming, and he knows exactly what she’s trying to do.
“I don’t have to prove anything to you, Archiekins,” Veronica says, breaking a piece of the cake and giving it to him. It crumbles a little on her fingers, and his tongue catches those crumbs. “But I hope that, at this point, you know that there isn’t anyone else in the world I want to kiss.”
“Yeah?”
A bit more of the cake smudges against her palm and he brings it to his face, kissing it with little darts of his tongue.
Her eyes darken and she nods her head, licking some chocolate off her lips. “Yes.”
Archie feels himself react even further when her thumb hovers over his lips, smearing a little bit of the residual icing along the bottom one.
Next thing he registers is the swing of her leg over his lap, bringing her to straddle him. Her mouth seeks out his, her tongue tracing and teeth nipping his bottom lip, cleaning it from the remaining chocolate. Archie opens his mouth against hers, hands automatically grabbing her ass and pulling her closer.
Her tongue tastes extra sweet, there’s a low moan coming from her throat, and he’s grateful that this type of kiss isn’t part of the campaign.
His hands run up the sides of her red sweater before she’s pushing him back with a playful tsk and her mouth sucking at his neck.
“Hands where I can see them, lover.”
Archie chuckles, his hands sliding down beneath her skirt, back to her butt. “Not a chance, Ronnie.”
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