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Deep in the twist and turns of Riverdale High, the boys locker room is filled with strife.
"Shut up Mantle!" Kevin yells over to the smug jock, attempting to finish getting dressed after his shower, now only Reggie and himself left in the locker room. Just his luck.
"What are you going to do about it? Are you going to cry to your daddy?" Reggie continues to jeer, throwing on his shirt and grabbing his bag from his locker.
"No, Reggie. Unlike you, he doesn't need "daddy" or his money to solve his own problems." Jughead slinks in to the room to pick up his bag as well with an almost imperceptible smirk.
'What do you know about it, Carrie?" Reggie taunts angrily and Jughead rolls his eyes.
"That whatever fucked up thing you did to Kevin is going to bite you on the ass very soon, Mantle." Jughead accuses in an acidic tone, spotting Kevin's bruised cheek.
Reggie actually looks scandalized for a moment before Kevin cuts in.
"He didn't do this," He explains pointing to the bruise before adding, "He's just being a Dick about it." Kevin finishes dryly.
Reggie glares but Jughead looks at the jock unimpressed before turning to Kevin.
"What happened?" Jughead questions in a flat tone but with a hint of concern.
"Just a few of the water polo jocks being themselves." Kevin says with a shrug before reaching for his bag, already having gone past todays stupidity.
"And what were you doing there, Reggie? Planning to join in?" Jughead accuses before turning his back on the taller boy to help Kevin up. Kevin gives him a thankful smile and Reggie glares again at the pair.
"For your information, I was trying to get the other members of the football team to leave him alone. We already lost Jason and Archie is on the varsity team now. I need everyone to not get expelled. In fact, you should be thanking me." He says with an air of confidence and both Jughead and Kevin roll their eyes.
"Besides, if I didn't stop the rest of the team, Moose would have taken them out and got suspended himself. He's very protective of his new 'little buddy', Isn't that right, Keller?" He mocks lightly, enjoying verbally sparring with Jughead.
Kevin just glares and both of the smaller males turn their backs to Reggie again.
"Are you ok?" Kevin nods and smiles, "I've had much worse in ROTC and boxing. I just want to get today over with to get some ice and Tylenol at home." He says with a small laugh and waves goodbye to Jughead while turning to leave.
"I'll see you later Jughead, don't hurt Reggie's feeling too much." He says with a smirk and begins to walk off while Reggie starts to say something, but Moose suddenly comes into view and Reggie's protest dies in his throat. Staying out of Kevin's view, Moose follows the smaller boy out looking between concerned for Kevin and murderously glaring at Reggie.
"Well, whether or not you did it, Moose is going to be out for blood. Hope you don't get caught in the crossfire, kind of." Earning a blush from Kevin who quickly speeds out the door leaving a shocked Reggie and a smug Jughead alone in the locker room as he watches the giant try to catch up with Kevin.
Shouldering his bag and preparing to leave out the door, Jughead is suddenly stopped by an arm shooting out to block his path.
"What do you care, American Psycho?" Jughead rolls his eyes and looks Reggie unimpressed.
"I care that one of the few decent people at this school is getting bullied, by people with IQ's somehow lower than yours. I didn't think that was possible." Reggie stares down hard at the smaller male but Jughead doesn't flinch.
"Why do you care if Moose pulverizes my face? You want to keep it pretty for yourself?" Reggie asks smugly and Jughead just smirks.
"I don't. But I known you long enough that even you don't stoop that low. Most of the time. You're not a bad guy, your just a douche bag most of the time. As much as I would love to see your face rearranged, you didn't do that to Kevin and I'm not exactly sure your pretty face would survive." He says with a wink at the end and Reggie is speechless.
"Now, if your done, I have to get to class." Jughead shakes him off and attempts to move past when Reggie blocks his path further.
"Do you really think that Jughead?" Reggie asks suspiciously with a small amount of venerability and the smaller male is exasperated but nods, trying to ignore the slight flush at the large boy saying his name.
"Your not as terrible as you think you are. Just a dick sometimes. Just be smart enough to leave Moose and Kevin out of it." He warns and Reggie can't argue that point but is surprised by Jughead's lack of scorn and the shock is shown across his face. Jughead rolls his eyes but explains.
"Moose is your friend, I really doubt your going to keep mocking him if your going to loose your best line backer and one of the few people who enjoys your company. For the most part anyways." Reggie gives him a glare.
"Why wouldn't he enjoy my company?" Reggie asks confidently.
"Because despite the fact that homophobia is fun for jocks like you, it's not exactly a joke to Moose, or Kevin for that matter." Reggie considers this with a frown, surprising the smaller male.
"Although, I'm sure Kevin will understand. Homophobes are often the deepest in the closet." He says with a slight smirk and ducks out of Reggie's way, ignoring the horrified look that freezes Reggie in his tracks.
"Hey! Come back here, Virgin Suicides!" He calls out after a moment but Jughead just shrugs him off and disappears in the thick of the crowd as he put his headphones on.
Reggie just hopes this is one of the few times that Jughead was wrong.
**********************
Meanwhile, With Kevin.
Groaning at the pain blossoming from his cheek as he attempts to smile and wave at Betty and Veronica down the hall as they head to cheerleading practice. Waving back, they turn towards the gym while Kevin makes his way down to the student lounge, luckily on his free period while he waited for the day to be over.
Closing his eyes and letting his head rest on the back of the chair for a moment, but quickly opens them at the sounds of muffled crinkling plastic and pills in a vial. Opening his eyes in shock, he opens his eyes to a blushing but very uncomfortable looking Moose standing above him and leaning down slightly to look at the mark.
"Ummm... Hi." Kevin starts, not really sure why Moose had gone to all the trouble after yesterdays discussion in Biology class.
Looking into Moose's concerned brown eyes, Kevin blushes slightly and looks at him in question.
"Uhhhhh.... I've gotten used to getting knocked down on the field. Thought this would help." He explains in defense, attempting to avoid looking Kevin in the eye again as he hands over an ice pack covered in cloth and a bottle of Tylenol.
Kevin smiles softly and gets up to take the icepack and the bottle, meeting Moose's eyes hesitantly when he finally looks back at Kevin.
"Thank you." The smaller boy says gratefully, lifting up the icepack to his cheek and turning to his backpack for a bottle of water.
Moose returns his hand to rest protectively on Kevin's shoulder when the smaller male sits back down as Moose eyes follow him down, looking like he wants to say something but hesitates.
"Moose? What is it?" Kevin asks with a raised eyebrow and soon the room starts to fill with other students slowly coming in.
"Can we talk later?" Moose asks nervously, eyes darting to the football team starting to enter and Kevin can only nod before the large male squeezes his shoulder gently and takes off, after handing a piece of paper to the confused boy. Kevin just hopes Moose is going to football practice and not a stop off to see the Aquaholics.
Opening the note, Kevin sees five words and a number, written in Moose's typical clumsy scrawl.
Tonight. Behind Pops. My car. 9.
****************************************************
Reggie arrives at football practice with a surprisingly few amount of team members missing, although quite a few appeared to be at least a little worse for wear. Moose shows up as well, looking somewhere between pleased and apprehensive, bloody and cracked knuckles in the open like a warning. Reggie attempts to get closer to the lighter haired man but Coach Clayton starts the practice and all thoughts of Jughead and Kevin are lost to the two football players, if for only a short amount of time.
After practice, Reggie quickly jogs after Moose, stopping in front of the linebacker to catch his attention.
"Hey Moose! What's with the beat down?" Reggie questions, not really sure he was about to believe Jughead about Moose willing to defend Betty's GBF.
Moose looks down as if seeing the cuts and bruises for the first time, and simply shrugs.
"You said you didn't want the rest of the team to get suspended. Now they won't do it again." He says with an almost innocent smile. Reggie looks at Moose suspiciously but the darker skinned male catches sight of Midge and takes off with a burdened expression, giving him a dismissing wave.
'What is going on?' Reggie asks himself, catching sight of Jughead with his headphones on and starts to take off in his direction.
Despite spending so much time working out and preparing for football this summer, Reggie is still about 20 feet away when he sees it coming. Mrs. Cooper's car.
Keeping his eyes on Jughead, he realizes both driver and pedestrian do not notice the oncoming collision and before he can even think, Reggie rushes forward and tackles Jughead, sending both of them flying on to the concrete sidewalk as Mrs. Cooper passes by without a second thought of slowing down.
"Jughead! Watch where you're going!!" Reggie bellows out, quickly righting himself and reaching down to pull Jughead up and steady the shorter boy while looking down at the graze on Jughead's pale cheek as well as checking for any other injuries while holding him for a moment.
"I wasn't the one going 80mph in a 40mph zone." He replies sarcastically, but clenches on to Reggie possibly a little longer than usual before attempting to pull away from Reggie but the stronger boy holds him in place.
"I guess you do care." Jughead says softly, with a hint of irony before looking up to meet Reggie's eyes.
"I don't want to." He says angrily before sighing and continuing, "But I do." Jughead looks shocked by the admission but Reggie quickly walks off and Jughead is still too much shock to follow as the heat from Reggie's body slowly dissipates from his skin.
*********************************************
"How could you?!! After all we meant to each other this summer!" Midge screeches while Moose winces and tries to placate her, holding up his hands in a defensive motion.
"Midge, I'm sorry. I just don't feel it." Moose pleads, not wanting to upset someone that meant so much to him, even though he didn't feel the same as he had before.
'You went to beating up every guy who ever looked at me and the last three weeks you've barely looked at me yourself. Now you look like you're beating up half the football team. What's going on? Who is she?" Midge demands and Moose's eyes go wide and he shakes his head.
"No girl. I promise." Moose says truthfully, in a way.
Midge glares up at him to show her displeasure despite Moose attempting to be gentle with their break up.
"I'm sorry, Midge." He says before walking off with his head down towards the gym.
"All I have to do is make him jealous again." Midge mutters under her breath with a smirk, not noticing Kevin Keller's shocked gasp from behind his locker at both her and Moose's words.
*******************************************
"Reggie! What the hell is going on? Kevin's got a huge bruise on his face, Moose is on the warpath and I haven't heard from Jughead all day. What did you do?" Archie ask angrily once he spots Reggie at his locker, loading books into his backpack.
Glaring at the redheaded male, Reggie turns back and Archie spots a large area of road rash on his forearms, and tares on the raven haired boy's jeans with a few droplets of blood showing through.
"Wouldn't believe me if I told you, Andrews." Reggie responds harshly and turns away toward his last class, hoping for the day to end soon so he could talk to the food lover.
"Mantle! I'm serious, I haven't seen Jughead since lunch and you guys had the last class together before he left." Archie counters with a glare and Reggie throws the same expression back.
"As I said, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. I have Math now." He leaves the redhead with a confused expression on his face and Reggie smirks, oddly pleased that he shared something with Jughead that Archie had no part in.
"If you really want to know, ask him yourself." Archie looks at the taller man in shock but he quickly moves out of view and Archie is left feeling like he missed something important. In that moment, Ronnie's words come to haunt him about what she felt for Betty, without her, Veronica feels like she missed out on the way her life was meant to be.
******************************************
After Math, Reggie seemed to be on edge, causing even the rest of the football team to avoid him for the remainder of the day as they did Moose, and boy, did those parallels make him uncomfortable. Heading to Pop's, Reggie immediately searches for the slight boy and is relieved to find him at his usual booth, writing on his laptop as usual.
"Jughead?" Reggie asks carefully and Jughead doesn't respond. Reggie looks almost hurt but Pop smiles and points to his ear.
"He borrowed a pair of the new kids earbuds, he says the other ones got broken when he almost got hit by a car. Looks like your the one who saved him.' Pop says proudly and Reggie looks down almost bashfully at his slightly bloody clothes and shaken appearance.
Pop waves at Jughead to get his attention and the boy looks up with a long forgotten look of joy that is quickly replaced by shock as he catches Reggie's eye. Immediately, a bruise on Jughead's jaw and neck stand out adding the scrape on his cheek against his pale skin and Reggie, despite not wanting to show anything to either man, quickly approaches the booth and sits down next to the smaller boy, holding up his cash and holding up five of his fingers before pointing to Jughead.
Pop looks at him again with a proud smile and Reggie good naturedly rolls his eyes but smiles back at the restaurant owner before he turns away to start making the burgers. As soon as Pop's eyes leave the pair, Reggie quickly turns to Jughead and glares at the shorter male.
"What happened? Do you have a death wish, Girl, Interrupted?" He attempts, trying to get the smaller males attention and Jughead looks up and gives him a crooked smile but goes back to his laptop.
"Come on Jones, I'm even bribing you. Just .... talk." Reggie implores, nearly reaching out to touch the marks on his skin and Jughead looks at him strangely.
"Why would you want to know what's going on with me? Especially at 9:00 at night alone, Blindside." He smirks and turns back to the screen but Reggie pushes it away out of the beanie wearing boy with a surprising amount of care.
Jughead finally turns to look at Reggie and he nearly breathes out a sigh of relief.Moving himself closer and leaning down to invade Jughead's space, Reggie attempts his usual intimidation tactics of getting closer and imposing his figure but Jughead meets his eyes unimpressed but sighs and slumps slightly in defeat.
"It the Southside Serpents." Jughead finally answers in a flat tone after a moment of silence and Reggie looks surprised at his words but is not entirely shocked, having grown up with all three generations of FP Jones.
"No smart comment?" Jughead questions carefully and Reggie just looks down at the smaller raven haired male with a mix of concern and suspicion , replacing the usually smug look.
"Not for this, no. As you said, I'm a dick, but not a bad guy. Mocking you for this is veering into 'beyond ass hole' territory." He says almost soothingly but keeps the familiar 'Mantle' sneer in place, as if it would distance himself from his own words.
Jughead seems impassive but his expression relaxes slightly and thankfully, the burgers arrive and Reggie takes one for himself while sliding the other four towards Jughead. The boys eat in silence after Jughead gives him a thankful glance that Reggie turns away from hurriedly, neither teen able to see the small smiling gracing Pop's features.
***********************************************
Behind Pop's -
Moose's pulse is quick, a slight sheen of sweat on his brow, feeling the anticipation and excitement like he had felt before a big game. 8:58. Kevin walks up to the neon lights of Pop's and see's the surprising sight of Reggie and Jughead sitting companionably while Jughead is nearly dosing off on the bigger boys shoulder. 8:59. Moose catches sight of Kevin and they lock eyes for a moment before Kevin gets in the passengers side. 9:00.
Before Kevin can question why Moose asked him out here for something other than a tryst in the dark, the larger male quickly catches sight of the now purple bruise and absentmindedly moves to cup his cheek when Kevin's eyes widen slightly.
'Anything but kiss.'
'So Saturday?'
'Moose has an official girlfriend, Midge.'
'I'm sorry, Midge.'
'Ummm... Hi'
Flashes and snippets of conversation and memories battle for a moment but Kevin ultimately takes hold of the situation and looks to Moose's eyes for confirmation. Seeing his blown pupils and nervous demeanor, Kevin smiles slightly and looks up at the football player, trying to gage his intentions. Seeing nothing but nerves and concern, Kevin decides it's best to just ask. Without breaking eye contact or moving away, Kevin raises an eyebrow and Moose takes the opportunity to act.
"So did you just want to check on my injuries or-mffffff!" Kevin's voice is muffled by Moose's lips crashing against his own in a brief clash before the jock pulls away panting with a slight amount of panic mixed with a feeling of accomplishment.
"I....Uhhhhhh.....Broke up with Midge. Now I'm closer to you on the spectrum." Moose says with a degree of confidence and Kevin can't help but let out a small laugh. Quickly stopping to avoid upsetting the football player, Kevin gives him a slight smile and shakes his head teasingly while patting his knee.
"That's not really how it works Moose. Sexuality has more to do about who you like, want to be with or feel something for. Not just who your dating." Kevin explains softly, almost disappointed. Looking down, Moose covers Kevin's hand with his own and looks almost bashfully at the smaller male.
"I want to be with you. I feel something for you. I'm just not ready for everyone else to know. Yet." Kevin looks at the football player with shock and amazement, not thinking that his brief time with Moose had caused such an effect on either of them.
"I guess I can live with that." Kevin teases with a grin and Moose smiles brilliantly, proud to have gotten who he wanted and excited for what was to come next. Kevin reaches up for a soft gentle kiss that leaves them both wanting more.
"So...What time to you have to be home tonight?" Moose questions slyly and he is rewarded by the sound of laughter and the hand on his knee climbing up his thigh.
**************************************
Jughead had passed out in the booth, two more burgers, three sodas and a giant sundae later after Reggie had long since given up on getting the smaller raven haired boy to talk any further. Knowing Pop would let Jughead stay, he almost leaves him with the kindly gentleman but decides against it, no matter how mad the sarcastic boy would be in the morning.
Gathering up the surprisingly light Jughead in his arms after carefully putting all of his possessions in his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. Reggie looks sadly at the meagre belongings for a moment, realizing what this had meant. Jug didn't have anywhere to go. Nearly cursing himself for not realizing it sooner, Reggie quickly deposits Jughead in to his car, then living room before bringing the sarcastic boy to the spare bedroom next to his and lays him down, setting his belongings beside him. Reggie had never been so happy that the Mantle house was almost always empty.
Quickly scribbling a note, Reggie leaves the paper in Jughead's line of vision and takes off, going to bed with many heavy thoughts and feelings in his heart.
When Jughead wakes up in the morning, he's pretty sure he didn't survive being killed by Alice Cooper. He wakes up full, in a warm and comfortable bed. In the Mantle's guest room.
Quickly shooting up in bed, Jughead feels the ache from yesterdays near misses and realizes that he survived. Because of Reggie. Spying the note on the bedside table, Jughead reads it curiously with a small smirk, rolls his eyes then rolls back over in bed to continue to catch up on sleep. He'd talk to Reggie later.
To Donnie Darko
Don't get mad. Pop didn't have to say anything. Went to get food, you bottomless pit. Just sleep, I promise you don't have to talk right now.
From, The Blindside.