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Archie stands in what remains of his living room, trying to figure out if there’s anything salvageable left in the rubble of his house. Sunlight peeks through a hole in the ceiling, a reminder of how much work is still left to do. He wants the house to be livable as soon as possible, worried that he’ll overstay his welcome at Jughead and Tabitha’s apartment, even though they’ve told him before that he can live with them as long as he likes.
He loves Jughead and Tabitha, they’ve been nothing but kind to him in the time since the explosion, and his relationship with them still feels new and exciting even as they’ve fallen into a comfortable rhythm with each other. It feels almost selfish that he could get to have this, that two people could reciprocate his feelings for them and want to make it work between the three of them. He’s still trying to find his footing around them, to figure out how he fits into a relationship with two people who’ve been with each other longer than they’ve been with him. And with Jughead, who’s still a half-stranger to him after seven years of no contact, that’s been even more difficult.
The sound of the front door opening brings Archie out of his own head, and he tenses at the noise before Tabitha steps into view with a Pops bag in hand.
“Hey, I thought you might want some lunch.” she says, handing the bag over to him.
Archie relaxes, walking over to take the bag from her. With no furniture left in the house, he’s forced to sit on the floor to eat, and tries his best to ignore the sawdust that gets kicked up into the air at the movement. “You didn’t have to do that, Tabs.”
Tabitha shrugs and sits down next to him. “It was pretty slow at the diner, and I wanted to pay you a visit.”
He smiles at her and opens the bag, but before he can start eating, he’s distracted by Tabitha resting her head on the wall behind her and letting out a sigh.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just-” Tabitha cuts herself off, a troubled expression on her face. “First, my diner burns down, and then my boyfriend loses his hearing in an explosion. It kind of feels like everything’s falling apart except what the three of us have going on.”
She reaches across the space between them, lacing her fingers together with Archie’s, who squeezes her hand in an attempt at comfort as he tries to think of how to respond.
“That sucks.”
Tabitha lets out a laugh at his bluntness. “Yeah, it does. Thank you for being here, by the way. Not just for me, but for Jughead.”
She looks away from Archie, sounding more vulnerable than she did before. “Things have been really tough recently, and as much as I want to be there for Jughead, I’m too busy to support him in all the ways he needs. So, thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I’m your boyfriend, it comes with the territory.” Archie says, wrapping an arm around Tabitha’s shoulders and pulling her closer to him. She buries her face in the crook of his neck.
Silence falls over the two of them. Archie stares at the wall in front of him, trying to stay as still as possible so he doesn’t jostle Tabitha. There’s something about what she said that doesn’t sit right with him, but he’s worried bringing it up will just make her more upset. When he was with Veronica or Betty or Josie, they were never this open about their struggles, and he feels like it’s only a matter of time before he says the wrong thing and Tabitha closes herself off in the same way.
“You know that you can lean on us too, right?” Archie’s voice is barely above a whisper, and a part of him hopes that Tabitha won’t even hear him.
It seems like she does though, by the way that she lifts her head off his shoulder and stares at him, waiting for him to continue.
Archie takes in a deep breath, trying to find the right words for what he wants to say.
“Jughead and I can support you too; you don't have to do everything yourself. If you need someone to take on some weight right now, I can do that.”
For a moment, Tabitha doesn’t react at all, but then she wraps a hand around his wrist and tugs him into a hug. He rests his cheek on the top of her head, holding her tight.
“You’re a good boyfriend, Archie.” Tabitha says.
Unable to keep a smile off his face, Archie pulls away from the hug and busies himself with opening the temporarily forgotten Pops bag in front of him. He takes out a burger, peels back the wrapper, and holds it out for Tabitha.
“You hungry? Whenever I’m upset, I always feel better after I eat something.”
Tabitha looks at him fondly. “I brought that food for you, not for me.”
Archie shrugs. “We can share it.”
Although she doesn’t seem entirely convinced, Tabitha accepts the burger, taking a bite before passing it back to Archie. It’s a compromise, and there’s probably a better way for them to both get to eat, Archie’s too tired to think of one right now. Just like Tabitha did, he takes a bite of the burger and hands it to her.
The two of them sit in a comfortable silence, both exhausted and taking the time to rest. As they finish eating, Tabitha looks around the empty living room, her eyes darting between the parts that are completely repaired and the ones that are still destroyed.
“The house looks good.”
Archie snorts, and gives her a disbelieving glance. She scrunches her nose up and shoves his shoulder playfully.
“You know what I mean. It looks a lot better than it did before, and you’re doing most of this work yourself. It’s impressive.”
The compliment brings a smile to Archie’s face. “Thanks. You know, if you need someone to fix up Pops, I could always do it for you.”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that.” Tabitha says.
“I’d be happy to do it.” Archie crumples the Pops bag into a ball and throws it towards a trash can, watching as it bounces off the side and rolls away towards the dining room. Tabitha laughs at his failure before standing up to retrieve the crumpled up bag, leaving Archie alone with his thoughts.
It should only take a few more months before the repairs on his house are complete and he can move back in, and while that’s exciting, he doesn’t want to stop living with Jughead and Tabitha either. They hadn’t talked about what would happen once Archie’s house could be lived in again, or how things would change if he and Jughead did start living there together again. In the past, every time they’d lived together had been circumstantial, but asking Jughead and Tabitha to move in with him would be different. It would mean something more than it has before.
Pushing past the nervous feeling in his gut, Archie stands up to meet Tabitha as she re-enters the room.
“There’s something else I wanted to ask you.”
“Yeah?”
He hesitates, the words suddenly feeling stuck in his throat.
“Archie?” Tabitha prompts him to keep speaking, her brow furrowed in worry.
Archie sucks in a deep breath, trying to keep his anxieties from overwhelming him. Taking a step closer to him, Tabitha reaches out and laces their fingers together once again.
“When the house is done, do you think you and Jughead would want to move in here with me?” he asks, refusing to look up from the floor, scared he’ll see rejection of Tabitha’s face.
For a terrifying few moments, she’s completely silent, before she cups Archie’s cheek and tilts his head up so she can press a soft kiss against his lips. The tension leaves Archie’s body, and he brings a hand up to brush Tabitha’s hair back from her face, his nerves melting away.
Tabitha pulls back, leaving enough space between the two of them to talk but staying close.
“I’ll have to talk to Jughead, obviously, but I’m pretty positive that his answer will be a ‘yes’ as well.” She pauses, and when she speaks again her voice is quiet. “The two of us love you a lot, Archie. You know that, right?”
Archie grins at her, wrapping an arm around her waist so he can pull her into a hug. “Yeah, I know.”