Work Text:
Day one – Monday
Jughead finds himself in Veronica Lodge’s penthouse apartment in the depths of New York City. He feels extraordinarily out of place in his second-hand plaid shirt and ex-gang leather jacket (the Serpent embellishment had been painstakingly hand-ripped off because he likes this jacket), but at least, he thinks to himself, he isn’t still wearing that rugged old beanie.
Veronica’s apartment is nothing short of grand and everything Jughead has always imagined it would be. Even after being friends, by proxy, with her for almost two years now, he will never get used to being in her neck of the woods. That, he decides, is some contemplation for another day.
Today, he’s here to visit his girlfriend’s best friend, not because he adores Veronica and her extravagant ways, but because he needs her advice. Yes, for the first (and probably last) time, he needs the advice of Veronica Lodge.
He’d contemplated asking his own best friend, but in the end, as much as it pains him to say it, he needs that feminine touch of his girlfriend’s best friend.
Veronica welcomes him with open arms and an offer of mimosa, which he politely declines, before she leads him into her office. Of course, this is a conversation they could easily have on a couch, one that’s probably worth more than his entire life up to this point, or failing that, just stood up in the kitchen, but he has to remind himself that this is Veronica Lodge. She has these strange and unnecessary habits of a super-rich person. Especially in the big apple.
He sits on a swivel chair he’s sure is covered in real animal fur (even the thought alone makes his skin crawl) and focuses intensely on not wheeling or spinning around like his inner child wants him to. He is here for proper adult advice. Proper. Adult. Advice.
“So, Jughead,” Veronica says in her slightly-put on posh voice, drawing out his name into more syllables than entirely necessary. “What can I do for you?”
Her glare makes him anxious, but he pushes that away, reminding himself that though she may be the ‘one and only’ (in her dreams) Veronica Lodge, she’s still his friend. Sort of. Either way, Betty likes her, and that’s enough for him. “I, uh, I’m after–” he splutters ineloquently.
Veronica’s lip quirks up just enough for him to notice, but she softens her gaze and leans across the huge desk. “Is it about Betty?”
He nods hesitantly, avoiding eye contact, instead fiddling with the zipper of his jacket.
Then her voice becomes panicked. “Oh my god, is she all right? Wait, she isn’t in the hospital, is she? Do you need money or–”
He can almost feel the way she’s cycling through every worst-case scenario in her head, problems and solutions popping up quicker than she knows how to deal with. Because of that, he interrupts her with a slight chuckle and allows himself to meet her eyes. “No, no. Betty’s fine,” he reassures. “It’s… something good, actually. I hope.”
Her eyes light up. “I’m listening.”
Day two – Tuesday
“Veronica said you went ‘round yesterday,” Betty says when he wanders into the kitchen, following his nose to find her cooking dinner. Automatically, he can tell she isn’t accusing him in any way. If anything, she’s just curious. She knows how unlikely a friendship between Jughead and Veronica is.
He stops at her side, flopping his head on her shoulder. He watches as she adds butter to, what looks like to him, a pan of simmering tomatoes, though he’s certain it’s a sauce to accompany the pan of boiling pasta. “Smells good,” he mutters, not purposely ignoring her statement.
She murmurs a sincere thanks before wrapping her spare arm around him, squeezing gently. She drops a kiss to his hair, but she’s far too quick to go back to methodically stirring the sauce for his liking.
So, naturally, in response, he lets out a low whine, and she giggles.
“You’re such a child,” she points out, her tone nothing but fond.
Grinning, he pulls himself away from her, but only enough for her to grab a fork from the drawer. “You love me,” he protests, exactly like a child.
She pouts as she rolls her eyes at him, handing him the fork. “Test the pasta.”
He does as she says, taking three pieces instead of one. “Done,” he says triumphantly when she doesn’t scold him for it. Or, well, maybe she doesn't notice.
As she plates up the dinner, he hovers annoyingly until she ushers him away. With a loud sigh, he gives up and grabs the grated cheese from the refrigerator, sitting all alone at the table a few feet away.
When she sets the plates down, he pulls her towards him, arm wrapped loosely around her waist. She ends up half on his lap, totally just as he intended, and her lips on his, definitely what he was aiming for. She giggles into it, arms flailing slightly as she almost falls head ass first onto the floor. Even so, she makes no effort to move away, despite their cooling dinner.
After just a few kisses, his stomach starts growling at them both, so she reluctantly untangles herself from him, sitting in the chair opposite instead.
“What was that for?” she asks as she grabs the cheese, a light blush spread across her face.
He shrugs. “To say thank you.”
She hands him the bag and picks up her fork, loading pasta onto it as he adds cheese. “You know there’s no need.”
He’s mirroring her actions, but a few seconds behind, so he’s piercing pieces of pasta and tomato as she shoves hers into her mouth. Somehow, he still thinks she’s the most breathtaking person on this planet. “I wanted to.”
She flashes him a smile instead of talking with her mouth full. Her appreciation comes through just as much as his does.
Once he’s swallowed down his first mouthful, he starts loading up his fork again, but before he continues eating, he catches her eye. “I did see Veronica yesterday, by the way.”
“Oh yeah?”
He nods. “She has her uses.”
He’s expecting her to curse him and exclaim that ‘ that’s my best friend you’re talking about!’ but it doesn’t come. What does come, though, is a contemplative smile and her almost silent voice. “Interesting.”
Day three – Wednesday
“How come you aren’t up?” Jughead asks in his groggy morning voice. His eyes have yet to adapt to this level of darkness in their bedroom, but he can just about make out a lump on the bed that he assumes is his girlfriend. His ‘ should be getting up’ girlfriend.
In response, she groans loudly. She flips over onto her back, her arm slapping down on the side of the bed he’d usually be if he wasn’t hovering in the doorway wondering if he can use the bathroom or not. “No work,” she mumbles into his pillow. “Sleep.”
It takes him a good thirty seconds to decode what she’s said, then another twenty to decide if she means she doesn’t want to work or if she isn’t working. A vague recollection of their conversation from the night before comes to mind, so he decides she isn’t working.
Which, if he would’ve thought about it more yesterday, he could’ve set his alarm for fifteen minutes later and so would have still been in bed with her right now. Alas, he is not. And he does have work today.
Well… that’s another thing. He has to pop into the office to collect some paperwork because they wouldn’t mail it out to him (just because he only lives twenty minutes away, doesn’t mean they should drag him into work early one morning), hence the early hour, but then he’d arranged to meet with Veronica again. At his place. With Betty there.
That can’t happen.
“Are you… home all day?” he asks, less than inconspicuous.
Luckily, Betty’s mostly asleep state doesn’t catch on. “Kevin’s coming later,” she hums, but before he can question her further, her quiet snores fill the room again.
He sighs on his way to the bathroom. He’ll have to ring Veronica on the way to work.
Veronica is, predictably, upset with him. Well, if upset means passive-aggressively pissed off. Which… it’s understandable, really. They had plans and he disassembled them last minute. He knows how high in demand the company of Veronica Lodge is.
“How about…” he begins in an attempt to bring her back around to his idea. “Hey, I know. Can you email me some ideas? Just starter ones while I check mine and Betty’s diaries for when we can meet again.”
Thankfully for him, her voice shines through the phone, as happy as can be. “Oh, Jughead! I’ve been waiting for this day!”
He takes that as a good sign. “Uh… thanks?”
“I have a Pinterest board dedicated to this!” she exclaims, and he can hear typing in the background. “I’ll invite you to join! Plus a list of dates for when I’m free to meet up again.” She doesn’t pause long enough to let him interrupt. “Thinking about it, maybe it’s best if you come here. Then we can make a mood board! How wonderful does that sound?”
He nails the combination of both delighted and mildly concerned in his voice. “I still have to get away from Betty without her suspecting any–”
“Don’t you worry,” Veronica’s firm but strangely comforting voice says through the static phone line. “I’ve got a list of excuses too.”
Day four – Thursday
“You work too hard.”
The sound of another person’s voice makes him jump out of his chair, hitting his knee on the edge of the desk. “Fuck,” he mutters as he rubs it better before he turns behind him to see, of course, his girlfriend standing in the doorway. A mild stream of panic runs through him as he sees her eyes darting around the room, so he quickly and as discreetly as possible switches tabs on his computer to a more work-appropriate one.
“You all right there?” she says with a grin. She makes no effort to move from the doorway but she is holding a mug of coffee he hopes is for him. When he nods, she steps into the room and hands him the mug. “Thought you might need coffee.”
“Always,” he replies instantly. “Thanks.”
She perches herself on the edge of the desk, her back towards the computer screen so any strange tabs go unnoticed. “What’re you up to?”
He shrugs. He can’t exactly tell her he’s looking through a Pinterest board Veronica sent him because that’d raise questions. Questions he doesn’t have the answers to. Or at least, answers she can know. “Meant to be working,” he replies instead.
A smirk flashes across her face. “Meant to be? Not going well?”
“Other things on my mind,” he mutters, running a hand across his face. “Like how much I don’t want to write an email to Graham about how crap his article was without coming across like an ass.”
She chuckles at that, and he’s pleased. Not only has he successfully made her laugh, but he’s also distracted her from what she’s not meant to know.
“Is it that bad?” she asks.
“He uses the wrong ‘there’ four times.”
The look of disgust on her face says it all. “Rather you than me writing that email.”
He grins but it ends up being more of a grimace. “Hence the meant to be .”
Her eyes meet his, and he can tell she’s calculating in her brain. Her lips quirk up ever so slightly that it’s barely noticeable unless you’re looking, and a light blush he recognizes as one brought on by said calculating thoughts.
She tilts her head to the side and bites her bottom. “Can you take ten?”
“ Ten ?” he exclaims, throwing his hands up in the air. There’s a smile on his face, though, one he can't get rid of. “Who do you take me for?”
“Ten is generous, I thought.”
He doesn’t take his eyes off of her as he locks his computer and trails his fingertips from her knee up her side until he reaches her chin. His touch is gentle, hesitant even, but he knows she can tell how much he wants this already.
Suddenly dropping his hand, he pushes back on the desk and stands up. He takes her hand now, and practically drags her to the couch behind him. She immediately understands where he’s going with this, forgoing any pretense as she starts to unbutton her blouse.
“Having a couch in here was the best idea,” he whispers as he watches her every movement.
She discards the blouse and climbs on top of him. “I hope your webcam isn’t on,” she says before finally kissing him.
Thoughts of Veronica’s ideas board runs through his mind the whole time.
Day five – Friday
A text wakes Jughead up a whole twelve minutes before his alarm goes off. Betty is already up and about, though, so he’d only been partly asleep since she left him half an hour ago.
Still, a text is not what anyone wants to wake up to. Well, a text from Veronica Lodge, anyway.
With blurry eyes, he unlocks his phone, the bright light almost blinding him even though it’s on the lowest brightness setting possible. He clicks on the messages app, slightly disappointed to see no other notifications. Still, one’s enough.
Today at 1, Veronica has said. Tell work you’re taking an extended lunch.
Partly unfortunately, he doesn’t have any excuse. There aren’t any work meetings this afternoon, nothing for him to use as an obstacle. He’s got a pretty quiet day aside from editing Graham’s article to make it fit for publishing on Monday, but that shouldn’t take long.
With a sleepy sigh, he types out but what do I tell Betty? and presses send.
Half a day later, he’s telling Betty that he has to pop into work to see Graham in person. She sends him a sympathetic look and asks for a Starbucks on his way home. That, he can agree to. Hopefully, it’ll help ease his mounting guilt, too.
Then, he’s off to Veronica’s. He’s armed with his laptop, a credit card (just in case), and hopefully enough strength to disregard some of Veronica’s more… extravagant ideas.
In her office, she’s laid out a spread of tiny sandwiches and cups of coffee, which he appreciates endlessly are forgoing actual lunch in order to be here. She tells him to take his pick, but to take particular notice of the ones he strongly likes or dislikes.
“I like everything,” he says with a shrug. “But I don’t think we need to sort out–”
She cuts him off. “Best to be prepared, Jughead.” She flashes him a grin before turning to her computer. “Now, do you want to start with how or with what ?”
Only vaguely understanding her question, he picks with what , hoping that means what he thinks it does. If so, he has some idea of how , but Veronica’s feminine, if not overly outrageous, touch will be useful for the with what .
And naturally, she’s prepared for this question—undoubtedly both questions—with yet another Pinterest board.
They sift their way through every conceivable option until Jughead gets to ones more price-appropriate. He’s not as super poor as he grew up anymore, but he’s not as rich as Veronica either, but he wants this to be special. A decent mid-range one is where he’s been aiming.
“This is a once in a lifetime purchase, Jughead!” Veronica huffs after a few too many visits to the same webpage.
“I can’t afford it!” he spits back, frowning.
“I thought you wanted my help.”
He feels a pang of guilt. She’s doing him a massive favor here. “I do, I’m sorry. But… you know I’m gonna disagree with you sometimes, right?”
She ducks her head and nods. “How about we try again? We could go shopping.”
As much as he wants to shoot that idea down, he knows it’s a good one. “You’d do that for me?”
Veronica smiles. “For you and Betty.”
Day six – Saturday
“What’s the plan for today?” Betty asks as he pours them both a cup of coffee. She’s sitting at the table in her pajamas, messy hair, and half asleep.
Jughead, on the other hand, is fully awake and dressed for the day. He’s wearing his usual three layers—undershirt, t-shirt, plaid shirt—and his hair is mediocally styled. It isn’t until that moment he realizes he forgot to tell Betty he was busy today.
“I, uh, hm.” He stops in his tracks, using his spare hand to rub the back of his neck—a nervous habit he’s had for longer than he can remember. As he slides into the seat opposite her, he forces a smile. “I’m sort of busy today.”
She narrows her eyes at him. “ Sort of ?”Her confusion is typical, really, and expected. He doesn’t ever go out on a Saturday. They’re usually reserved for spending time with Betty after a long week of work. When he doesn’t reply, she tries again. “Doing what?”
He’s known her for long enough to know she isn’t pushing him. She’d never do that; she’s just curious by nature. And so he indulges her, just slightly. “I have to pop into town,” he says lightly because that’s the truth.
Except, that only puzzles her further. “Town? Can I come?”
He expected that one and automatically shakes his head. “Sorry. I’ll be back for lunch though so I’ll bring Starbucks again.”
Though he senses her suspicion, she doesn’t push him, instead taking a long sip of her coffee.
Shopping with Veronica is not something Jughead ever, ever wants to repeat. She’s so pedantic, rude at times, and just straight up annoying. Unfortunately, her advice is spot on every time.
He manages to sway her towards some of the less expensive shops. Whilst he is willing to pay a little more than strictly necessary, he is not able to pay Veronica Lodge prices, but she finally understands and appreciates that, not pushing him any further.
After four different shops, all in which someone delightfully recognizes Veronica, something catches his eye in a way none of the others have so far. She automatically notices, gasping loudly despite the surrounding company.
“It’s perfect!” she shrieks, clapping far too loudly. “Betty will love it!”
The staff member, and apparent friend of Veronica’s, turns to her, confusion spread across his face. “This isn’t for you, ma’am?”
Grin on her face, she shakes her head. “My best friend! He’s—” she nudges Jughead in the side “—finally doing it!”
Jughead feels a blush spread across his face as the man meets his eyes and says, “Congratulations, sir.”
“Not yet,” he says, wincing. He doesn’t want to jinx anything yet. He has one hundred and one things to be concerned about before any congratulations are in order. When he hears Veronica clear her throat beside him, he plasters on a smile. “But thank you. I think this is the one.”
On the way out of the shop, his wallet feels lighter but the small box tucked away in his jacket pocket feels as if it’s weighing him down. “I don’t want to wait, Veronica.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugs, digging his hands deeper in his pockets. “I want to ask her as soon as possible.”
There’s no shock on her face as he expected. Instead, she asks a simple question. “When?”
His answer doesn’t surprise either of them. “Tomorrow.”
Day seven – Sunday
“What’s the plan for today , Mister?” Betty asks, a glint in her eye as she mirrors her words from yesterday morning. Today, though, they’re still in bed. Both half asleep, both unmoving from their warm cocoon.
He knows she’s getting at spending the day in bed . Another typical Sunday with Betty, which normally, he wouldn’t mind. Except today, he has different plans. Plans that do, in fact, involve getting out of bed, dressed in outside-appropriate clothing, and going for a walk. He has a destination in mind and a small box to hide in his pocket, but these plans are Veronica Lodge approved, so he’s sure getting up will be worth it.
After a short moment of silence, he tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear and smiles. “You mean the world to me, you know that, right?”
His words visibly take her aback. It’s not that he doesn’t tell her these sorts of things regularly, it’s just he still manages to get her every goddamn time. He knows it, too, which is partly why he keeps saying them. Mostly because they’re true, of course.
“You might have to remind me,” she says through a sly grin.
“I love you.” He presses a chaste kiss to her lips. “I love you.”
Satisfied with that, she kisses him back. “I love you .”
“Oh, by the way,” he mutters in between kisses until they part long enough for him to get his words out. “We need to go for a walk later.”
She doesn’t get the chance to respond because he’s kissing her again.
They make it to his destination of choice with little incident, only a few questions from Betty, and with enough time that they’re seated on a bench for the sunset. The reds and oranges of the sky melt into the lake in front of them, and it’s almost too beautiful to be real. He and Veronica thought it’d be the perfect setting: a secluded lake a few miles from their house. Now they’re here, he can’t quite believe how right they managed to get it.
“This is… amazing, Jug,” Betty breathes, her eyes fixed on the landscape.
He can’t help but agree. “Worth the trek, eh?”
“Definitely.” She’s quiet for a few moments before turning to him, a look of something in her eye, maybe hope, and a smile on her face. “What’s this all in aid of?”
A voice in the back of his head, distinctly but unsurprisingly sounding like Veronica, whispers, “Now, do it now.” He finds it difficult to ignore her at the best of times, let alone when she’s making sense, so he takes an unsubtle deep breath and shifts around awkwardly.
“What, Jug?”
He retrieves the box from his pocket, managing to hide it enough in his hand that she doesn’t realize what he’s doing straight away. At least, not until he’s stumbled to the ground on one knee and fumbled with his shaky hands to open the box.
When he looks up at her, her hands are covering her face in shock and tears are building in her eyes. Good shock and happy tears, he hopes.
The whole speech he’d mentally prepared last night disappears from his head and he’s left with no choice but to freestyle it. Even as somewhat of a writer, his ineloquence shines through.
“Betty, I have loved you for…” A nervous laugh. “Longer than I can remember. You’ve…” Adjusting his position. “Made my world so much better, and I can’t see…” Moving the open box so she can actually see what’s inside, if that wasn’t obvious already. “A future without you.” He lets out a frustrated sigh. “I…”
She’s watching him intently, her hands now resting on her lap, her face plastered with a grin as tears spill from her eyes. He smiles.
“What I’m trying to say is…” A final deep breath. “I love you, Betty Cooper. And there is no one I’d rather spend the rest of my life with. So… if you’ll have me… will you marry me?”
She says the one word he’s been praying to hear. “Yes.”