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mediocre-writerr · 4 years

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don’t give up on me [jennifer jareau]

JJ x fem reader

Summary: SSA Jennifer Jareau, JJ for liking, is dating coworker Y/N, but what happens when Y/N gets kidnapped by the unsub? Also this is a very long imagine soo enjoy!

W A R N I N G: blood, wounds, kidnapping, slight mention of assault and mentions of death

*not my gif*

The jingle of JJ’s phone going off wakes you both up from your slumbers. You groan shoving my head into the pillow as she chuckles softly.

“Agent Jareau,” she begins and you hear the sounds of ‘mhm’, ‘okay’, ‘yes’ fill the silence, “Alright me and Y/L/N are on our way.”

“No. Nope. I’m staying right here.” you say shaking your head into the pillow.

“That was Hotch, we have a case here in Quantico.” you let out a groan and bury your face deeper into the pillow.

She laughs softly as she lifts your shirt a little to scratch your back lightly. You let out a soft sigh before looking at her. Her usual tamed blonde hair is everywhere and her eyes are still a little closed from just waking up.

You send her a small little smile before sitting up. You tuck her hair that is in front of her face behind her ear before kissing her softly.

“Ugh, morning breath!” she complains scrunching her nose up in disgust.

You place your hand over my heart like you’ve been shot before falling down onto the bed. Your tongue sticking out, “Agent Jareau...only a true love’s kiss could save me. Please help.”

She laughs to herself lightly before leaning down and giving me a small kiss, “Let’s go before Hotch really throws a fit.”

You let out an exasperated sigh, “Fine. By the way you should get used to my morning breath, you are my fiancé after all.” And she chuckles again lightly.

You guys get to the BAU and see everyone in the briefing room. You take a seat next to Rossi as he gives you a fist bump. JJ stood up in the front with Hotch giving him a small apologetic smile.

“Late night last night ladies?” Morgan asks with classic player smirk.

“Yes a late night of sleep that was rudely interrupted.” you look at Hotch and he stares at you with a scary glance and you put your hands up in surrender.

You like to keep the mood light in the BAU especially before or after case. The team deals with dark and twisted stuff all day. So you try to get the team to laugh and smile as often as you can.

“Now that we’re all here,” Hotch begins looking at the both you and JJ and you try your best not to laugh, “The unsub has left us a tape. It was left at the footsteps of the BAU. I’ll play it for you.”

The team turn their heads towards the projector and there’s a victim strapped onto the chair with a mask cartoon version of Prentiss on their face. They look terrified and are trying their best to escape the bounds that the unsub has them in. They’re breathing heavy, this isn’t staged. This isn’t fake. This is real life. Another person with a mask of Hotch comes in the background and shoots them right in the head and then they just stare at the camera.

“So this unsub definitely wants our attention.” Prentiss announces.

“They are very confident that they can get away with whatever they’re doing.” JJ chimes in.

“Like they’re trying to mock and taunt us.” Rossi adds on.

“The police department found the victims body: 24 year old, Maya Flynn. She was a young teacher who just got her degree. She was dumped in the alley by the BAU. Wrists had rope burns on them which makes sense as they were bound to the chairs.” JJ goes on and you look down to read the files.

“Reid and Rossi, you guys go take a look at the body. Morgan and I will go to the crime scene. JJ try to handle the press and keep all of the word of this to a minimum, do not under any circumstance leak the video tape. Alright everyone let’s catch and find our unsub.” Hotch announces.

“Wait-wait what about us?” Prentiss asks gesturing to the two of you.

“Prentiss, you were specifically targeted in this video. We don’t know what the unsub’s game is, but we know that you were their first kill. We need to keep you under watch here, you can help JJ or Garcia. And Y/L/N, you didn’t finish your paperwork from the last case and Strauss is on my ass about, so once you’re done with that we will reassess your assignment.”

Everyone leaves the briefing room to get to their assignments, but you, Prentiss, and JJ.

“Love, you didn’t finish your paperwork?” JJ stares at you with her death glares.

“No...I wanted to go home early.” I reply and she shakes her head before giving me a kiss on the head.

“Finish it up.” she says sternly.

“I will, be safe?” you ask holding your pinky out for a pinky promise.

She locks your fingers before we kiss our own hand, “Always.”

______________________________________________________

“Oh here comes Y/N! She goes for the 3 and SPLASHHH!” you yell as your crumpled up piece of paper makes it way to the trash can.

“You know you’re never going to get any work done and go out on the field if you keep messing around.” Prentiss points out clearly annoyed with just sitting here and doing nothing.

“You’re just mad that you can’t contribute to the case.” you contradict and she rolls her eyes before getting up from her desk, “Where ya going?”

“To get coffee.” she responds.

“Coffee machine is broken. Let me go get us some because I am starving and want a really good sandwich. Plus you can’t leave.” you point out grabbing your phone, keys, and wallet and shoving them into your pocket.

“Oh yes please!” Prentiss screams, “You’re the best!”

“I hope so I am your best friend,” you shoot back sending her a wink which led to her rolling her eyes again, “I’ll be right back. Text me your order!”

You walk the short stroll to our favorite cafe, one you’ve walked a million times some with Prentiss, JJ, and Garcia, but some on your lonesome. The breeze nice and cool, it’s a good break from all of the life threatening and disturbing things we see on a daily basis. All of the kids walking around holding their parents hands. Their eyes hold so much innocence, it’s sad that they don’t know the true dangers of this world.

The next thing you know the world went black.

______________________________________________________

Team’s POV

“Where’s Y/N?” JJ asks as the rest of the team walks back into the briefing room.

“She went to go grab us some coffee and sandwiches, she should be here by now.” Prentiss says and she stands staring at her phone searching for a text from Y/N.

They all sit down around the table looking at the board, trying to piece together every little thing, but coming up short. They don’t even have a profile they could give the local police department. That’s how stumped they are.

Garcia comes running into the room with tears filled in her eyes.

“Garcia? What’s wrong?” Hotch asks with concern laced in his tone.

“I got sent an anonymous video from the unsub. I tried to track down where it was sent from, but it was a burner phone.” she says speaking really fast, that’s how the team knows something is really wrong, when she’s speaking a million miles per hour.

The video starts to play from the TV monitor and gasps filled the room. There was Y/N strapped onto a chair, no mask on her face like the other video just Y/N and her trying to remain calm.

Most of them seemed to think Y/N was okay, but her best friend Prentiss and JJ knew better. They could see the fear glistening in her eyes.

The unsub punched Y/N across the face and Y/N’s head fell back. She continued to spit and cough out blood. JJ’s heart stopped and flinched slightly at the sight.

“Alright now that I’ve knocked the sense into you, are you ready to deliver my message?” the unsub asked, his voice distorted.

“No. You can’t break me, is that the best you can do?” Y/N asked knowing that it’ll hopefully give Garcia enough time to track something, anything down.

Then there came another punch. Her eye immediately started to bruise, “Come on baby. Do it for me.” the unsub whispered in a gross seductive voice.

“Jay,” you whisper, but the room is quiet enough that the camera picks it up, “I love you and for you I’d do anything.”

“That’s not what I asked you to say!” the unsub screamed punching Y/N again, “Now say what I told you!”

“He wants to ruin our lives. One by one, he’s been stalking us for years. If we don’t give him what he wants, he will ruin us.” she says finally following orders.

“Now what do I want?” he asks.

“Hotch he wants the files, something about the Black Hood. I don’t know why, but he wants them. Specifically from you and Rossi.” Y/N says blood dripping down her mouth.

“Good girl.” he whispers, “Now Hotchner, Rossi, Morgan, Jareau, Prentiss, Garcia, and Reid, Agent Y/L/N doesn’t have a lot of time. She’s definitely a tough cookie to break, but I never back down from a challenge. I’m gonna call you guys to set up a deal, you’ll know who it is once I call,” the unsub gets closer to Y/N and his mouth is right by her ear as his hands wander along her body, “And in the mean time, we’re gonna have lots of fun aren’t we Y/N?”

The camera cuts out and JJ releases a scream, “No! No! No!” she begins to pace back and forth.

“JJ get a hold of yourself right now. If your ability to go along with this case professionally is compromised then I will gladly have you sit this one out.” Hotch yells sternly.

“No you don’t get to tell me that I have to calm down. When we went after Foyet your emotions were compromised yet all of still stood by your side. No one questioned your authority. When Doyle went after Emily, all of our emotions were compromised yet none of us were threatened to sit this one out. So you have no right to do the same to me. I am not some local detective, I am a BAU agent!” JJ yells and everyone is taken aback in surprise, but she’s not wrong.

They all went through something, yet none of them were threatened to step down. Especially Hotch with Foyet. Hotch and JJ continued to stare at each other none of them willing to break until Reid chimed in.

“The Black Hood case, that was a case in Riverdale back in the late 80′s to early 90′s. Where the killer went around terrorizing the town focusing on ‘sinners’ and he wanted to cleanse the town. What would the unsub want with the files?” Reid asks and Rossi steps in to try and break the tension.

“Me and Hotch worked together on it. We caught the guy fairly quickly. I always thought that it was too easy, but they just explained we got lucky that he slipped. Maybe we got it wrong, maybe we didn’t catch the unsub.” Rossi points out and after one last look at JJ, Hotch breaks his position.

“It’s always a possibility, but that would make him in his mid to late 60s. It can’t be him now can it?” Hotch points out pointing at the video.

“No, this guy looks to strong and his temper is too high for an older man. Plus he was very sexual towards Y/N, an older man wouldn’t have that kind of hormones.” Prentiss observes.

“Maybe a son? A family member?” Morgan asks.

“But why would they want the files if they know their dad wasn’t caught?” JJ chimes in finally after getting her breathing under control, her hand resting on her stomach.

Something that Emily picked up on fairly quickly, but brushed it off. She’ll talk to her about it when the time is right. Not right now.

The cover photo of the video was Y/N sitting there with blood dripping down her mouth. The unsub right next to her ear. JJ’s eyes couldn’t leave that picture. The picture of you in pain and scared.

“Maybe it’s not the actual Black Hood’s son. Maybe it’s the one who was caught and framed for it. He died in jail recently didn’t he? That could be his son’s stressor. He believed and was told his dad was innocent for so long that maybe he knows it wasn’t him. He wants to prove his dad wasn’t as terrible as everyone thinks. Sorta like an avenger, he wants to avenge his dad’s legacy!” Reid yells at and Hotch nods.

“Sounds like a good start Garcia-” he begins to say, but Garcia cuts him off.

“Already on it sir.” Garcia responds tapping rapidly on her computer.

“I’m gonna get some air.” JJ says and the rest of the team nods, but she’s already gone before she can get a response.

Hotch nods his head towards the door to let Emily know to follow and make sure she’s okay which she gladly obliged to.

______________________________________________________

JJ’s POV

I ran outside the BAU doors and immediately threw up in the bush closest to me, tears pouring down my face. The thought of the unsub doing that to Y/N and watching it made me sick to my stomach. Not only that, but the thought of what he’s doing to her right now.

I felt someone hold my hair back which I immediately tensed up to, “It’s okay. It’s just me.” I hear Emily whisper and my shoulders immediately relax.

After throwing up my entire breakfast I look at Em and she has concern brimming her eyes, “I’m scared Em.”

“I know, but Y/N’s strong. She’s a tough cookie and I know she’ll fight whoever this asshole is just so she can be with you.” she reassures me and i nod.

“Are you okay? I know how close you guys are. You were practically attached to the hip ever since you joined the team.” I ask her and she lets out a small sigh before biting her fingernails.

“A part of me feels guilty, well all of me. I wanted a coffee and her being the sweet person she is wanted to get one for me, but it was also just an excuse for her to not finish her paperwork. But I also know that Y/N’s glad it was her and not me. If she let me go out like that she wouldn’t forgive herself, so she took the risk, just to protect me. And I know she’d want us to stay strong and keep things light, but it’s hard when we witnessed what we just saw and knowing that she went out to protect me. Not just me, but all of us. That could be any one of us right now, but she decided to take the leap.” Em responds shaking her head.

“She really is a hero...” I respond placing my hands over my stomach again.

Emily was about to say something before her phone went off, “Hotch says Garcia just got something. We gotta go back in.” I’m about to cry again when Emily pulls me into a hug, “We’re gonna get her back.”

______________________________________________________

Team’s POV

“What have we got?” Prentiss asks as her and JJ walk into the room.

“Rylan Svenson, 24 year old son of Brett Svenson. This would’ve made him about 12 years old at the time of the murders. A good enough age to know where your dad was at the time of the murders. He now lives in Richmond, Virginia after moving from Riverdale, 4 years ago, and makes the daily commute as a postal worker here in Quantico.” Garcia explains, “No criminal record, but grown up in a rough social environment. Seems like he was a bit of loner in high school because everyone believed his dad was the Black Hood.”

“I think we’ve got our guy.” Rossi states and everyone nods.

“Alright when he calls we need to keep him on the line for as long as possible. He’s gonna have Y/N do most of the talking so JJ?” JJ turns her attention to Hotch, “Can you keep her talking? Try to make conversation, we’ll try to have Garcia track down the call. Or see if we can notice something that we didn’t notice before.”

“I can keep her talking.” JJ nods and Hotch nods back.

______________________________________________________

Your POV

*3 h o u r s l a t e r*

“Wakey, wakey princess,” Rylan whispers to you, he just injected some drug into your arm causing you to pass out, “It’s time for your special call home.”

You can feel your heart rate rising even higher each time he injects a drug into you after back talking him. Your pant leg has a hole in it. He stabbed you when his hands started to bleed from all the punching and then he wrapped the wound. He can’t get what he wants if you’re dead. He sets up the video camera and hits the call button after a few moments the team answers.

You can’t help, but smile at Hotch and Rossi in front of you, “Rylan Svenson? Is that you?” Hotch asks and Rylan has an evil smirk on his face.

“Took you a while to figure it out huh Hotch?” he responds.

“I remember you. You were just a little kid when we met.” Rossi points out.

“Yeah and I told you countless times it wasn’t my dad!” he yells out which causes you to flinch back lightly, last time he yelled liked that a knife penetrated your leg.

“Jay,” you whisper again and you smile at JJ’s face appearing into the frame.

“Hi love, you stay strong for me okay?” she whispers back smiling sadly at the nickname that only you call her.

You’re about to reply when Rylan pops in, “You know I wish I could’ve kidnapped you instead Jareau. It would have been a lot more fun to see them rush to find you especially since you’re pregnant,” your eyes wide slightly at what he said, “Oh wait...no one knows yet do they?”

“Is that true?” you ask your voice raspy and dry.

JJ nods, “Yeah it is. I found out a couple weeks ago, IVF worked, love. We’re gonna have a baby.” JJ’s voice cracked and you couldn’t helped, but smile at the thought of your little family.

“Which is why I need you to keep fighting. I need you to stay alive and stay strong not just for me, but for us,” she whispers placing her hands over her stomach.

Little to your knowledge the boys noticed something in the background that gave away where you were and they were on their way now; JJ just needs to keep you on camera for a little longer.

“I need you to stay alive so that we can lay in bed during our days off or late at night talking about baby names. I need you to stay alive so you can come with me to his or her first doctor’s appointment and we can hear their heartbeat. I need you to stay alive so we can paint their new bedroom and buy cute little clothes for them. I need you to stay alive so our son or daughter can meet their mom.” JJ had tears running down her face now and so did you, your heart rate still rising due to mix of drugs in your system, “Please Y/N. Please promise me that you will come home to us.”

JJ extends her pinky out towards the camera and you do the same. She brings her hand closer to her lips and kisses it softly and you’re about to do the same when everything goes black again.

______________________________________________________

JJ’s POV

Y/N’s about to kiss her hand when all of a sudden her eyes rolls to the back of her head. All of a sudden her body starts to jolt as foam starts to come out of her mouth.

“Rylan Sverson hands up right now!” I hear Morgan yell.

Rylan automatically takes off through the backdoor, but knowing them one of them was waiting out there for him. Reid comes into the frame and releases Y/N from the ropes and places her on her side.

He starts to count out loud probably timing the length of the seizure, “We need a medic in here! Right now!” Instead of going back to counting Reid starts doing chest compressions.

“JJ meet us at the hospital, we’ll be right there!” Hotch points out and the camera cuts out.

I release a loud sob at the sight of Reid doing chest compressions. Garcia and Prentiss escorts me to the car, neither of them leaving my side throughout the entire car ride.

They keep telling me it’s gonna be okay, but I can’t listen to them right now. The only thing I can focus on right now is hearing from Y/N herself that she’s okay.

We get to the hospital to find the boys already there like they promised. They explain that the doctors have her in the operating room right now. Other than her bloodstream, her leg seems like the only part of her injured. Rylan injected her with a mix of cocaine, meth, and heroine causing her brain and heart to haywire. They needed to give her a blood transfusion to get all of the drugs out, it seemed like a simple procedure, but anything could happen.

Rylan Sverson died, he was shot multiple times by Rossi for trying to shoot Hotch for trying to negotiate.

The whole team sat with me in the waiting room. Strauss even stopped by for a little before ultimately having to leave to finish up the paperwork that you didn’t get to finish.

“I’m sorry that I snapped and threatened to take you off the case.” Hotch sat down next to me and said. “It’s okay, I understand.” I whispered back.

“You know like Reid when Y/N joined remember how young she was? A bright eyed innocent girl excited for her new job at becoming a hero,” he begins and smiles softly, “Usually that innocence and that brightness fades with time, all of these horrible things we see on a daily basis it’s only a matter of time before it does. But Y/N has been with us for four years and not once have I seen it fade. From the day I met her I knew I wanted to protect her like a sister so me yelling at you was just a way to yell at myself to stay calm and professional.”

I look up at him and he as tears forming in his eyes. I place my hand on his knee, “She’s gonna be okay.” and he nods agreeing.

Many many hours passed when Y/N’s doctor finally came out, “She’s okay. The wound in her leg is all stitched up and her bloodstream is still clearing out. We got most of the drugs out, but some still linger. So we want to keep her here a little longer for precautions. But she’s awake and alert asking for Agent Jareau here.”

“Thank you Doctor.” Hotch says with a small smile and he nods before leaving.

“You guys can come in too. I know she’d love to see you all.” I say and we make our way to her hospital room.

______________________________________________________

Your POV

There was a soft knock at the door and you saw the team standing there with smiles on their faces.

“Hey guys!” you try to say with much enthusiasm as possible, but your tired state made it hard.

“Hey kid.” Morgan smiles as he got closer before ruffling your hair and your scrunch your nose up in annoyance.

Rossi gave you a fist bump, Hotch gave you one of his nods and a small smile, Reid, Prentiss, and Garcia all piled on top of you in one of the best group hugs you could ever get.

“Jareau,” you say softly as she plants herself next to your bedside.

You can see the tears that are already formed in her eyes, “Y/L/N,” she smiles at you softly and you gladly return the smile.

“You did really well out there Y/N.” Hotch says, “You took the risk to go out there. You knew how dangerous it was, yet you still went out because you knew if any one of us went out it would’ve ended the same way. I wish you didn’t do that and thought of yourself first, but I think on behalf of all of us: Thank you.”

“Woah that was deep, I was just trying to get out of doing paperwork.” you joke trying to lighten the serious mood and the worried looks on their face, which worked, their worried faced turned into smiles.

“That’s the sarcasm and smart ass remarks we missed and appreciate.” Rossi adds smiling.

“In all seriousness, I couldn’t let Prentiss out there and I knew that if you guys took one step out there alone, it would’ve been any one of you. You all mean so much to me I couldn’t allow that to happen.” you say and they all send your grateful smiles except for JJ who just seems lost in thought.

Prentiss picks up on JJ’s behavior and decides to step in, “I think we should give you guys some time to talk.” the rest of the team nods before saying their goodbyes.

After they leave JJ just continued to stand there staring into emptiness, “Pull up a chair, stay awhile.” you say jokingly trying to see that beautiful smile of her, but ultimately end up empty.

“Jay, baby, what’s going on?” you whisper and her gorgeous blue eyes finally lock with yours.

“I almost lost you today. We almost lost you today.” she whispers emphasizing the we in her sentence and you let out a soft sigh.

You scoot over a little in your bed and pat the spot next to her so she can cuddle up next to you. She hesitates at first, but ultimately sits down. Her head immediately goes onto your chest as her leg wrapped around your healthy one. Your arms wrapped her body as she fit into you perfectly.

You kiss the top of her head when she’s finally settled in, “I’m right here Jay. I promise you, I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you or our baby ever. It will always be us.”

“I know what your intentions were and they were good, but if we didn’t get there in time. If one thing went differently, you wouldn’t be here right now and I’d be holding a lifeless body.” she begins to cry onto your hospital gown.

You let her cry playing with her softly, “But I’m right here now baby. I’m real, I’m not a dream or a pigment of your imagination. I’m right here.” you squeeze her a little tighter and she looks up at you. You plant a soft kiss to those perfect lips of hers.

You place your hand over her stomach before leaning down a little to whisper, “Hey there cutie. I’m your mom and I can’t wait to meet you! You’re gonna have the best little family out there. You’ll have Uncle Derek, Uncle Aaron, Uncle David, and Uncle Spencer. Your aunt’s are the best too, Aunt Penelope and Aunt Emily. You also have the best mommy out there, she’s a hero! And me and your mommy are gonna make sure we protect you and keep that little sparkle in your eyes for as long as we can. I promise.” you place your pinky over her belly before kissing your hand softly.

______________________________________________________

You and JJ walk into the BAU to visit the team with both of you on maternity leave for awhile it’s hard to see them. And it was especially hard when they were on a case when JJ was in labor.

You held JJ’s hand in one of your hands and in the other was the baby’s carseat. JJ knocked on the briefing room door before entering, everyone looked up and smiled at the two of you.

“You guys have another three weeks! Get out of here!” Rossi yells jokingly and we all laugh.

“We just wanted you guys to meet our son: Daniel Aaron Jareau or Dani for short” you take Dani out of his little carseat and hold him in your arms.

Everyone gathered around and witnessed the beautiful piece of innocence in front of them.

“Aaron huh?” Hotch asks raising his eyebrows and giving one of his rare smiles.

“Yeah right. Couldn’t have been Derek.” Derek scoffs.

“Or Spencer,” Reid chimes in.

“Or David!” Rossi yells and we all laugh.

“We just thought it was fitting.” JJ smiled at Hotch thinking back to the conversation she had with him back at the hospital.

“Well I’m honored.” he smiles even wider, probably wider than you ever seen it.

They all looked at the newborn in front of them. Each of them taking turns holding him. He had JJ’s beautiful blue eyes, but now they were mixed with your innocence that everyone seemed to love.

Dani Aaron Jareau was just another reminder that no matter how dark and twisted this world is, no matter how many bad things they witness on a daily basis, that there’s always some sunshine or light to fill the darkness.

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lilydalexf · 4 years

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Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Circe Invidiosa

Circe Invidiosa has 11 stories at Gossamer, but there are even more X-Files stories at her website. Some of my favs I’ve recced here before, like Make It Worse and Slap a Goatee On Me and Call Me Evil. She also made a bunch of X-Files collage art, including some cover art for fics (hers and others), which you probably saw if you were reading fic back when authors posted fics on their own websites where art could be shared. Big thanks to Circe Invidiosa for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Well, it would surprise me if people did read my fic. As it happens, I don't hear much feedback from my fic these days. Probably because the bulk of it is on Gossamer and my own site rather than AO3. Also, I was never a BNA. I worked a lot behind the scenes – hosting other authors' sites and making fanart and dustjackets. I think that's what I'd be remembered for, if anything.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience?

I miss the collective excitement and discussions we had as groups. When you got in with a group in the XF fandom, you felt like you knew everybody there. Now the fandom feels a little faceless except for the people I still follow from my old groups.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

Most of my experience was on Yahoo Groups. I joined Scullyfic while it was still there and then E-muse when it became an e-mail list, which I'm still a part of. I was part of several Yahoo Groups (can't remember all of them now), where I'd post my fic, RealPlayer slideshows (remember those?!), and collages. I never really took part in discourse because I'm shy and don't think anyone cares about my opinions (still don't!). The e-mail address I used for those groups was purged a couple of years ago, so I've lost all those messages.

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

My take away is that fanfic made me a better writer, thanks to having some great betas, and it made me a better professional writer for it (my real-life work is writing but not fun writing) because I learned to take criticism.

I also used to make a lot of fanart, collages and dustjackets for fic mostly. My big take away from that was that I really got into graphics and I got super proficient at Photoshop, which helped my own artistic endeavours and photography. I didn't realize how much skill I had developed until I've had to help someone with their graphics or photo editing.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

My mother was watching X-Files before I was and she was raving about it. I don't have a great relationship with my mom, but one thing she was usually right about was TV shows. It's where I got my love of Sci-Fi.

I think the first episode I watched was Ice, which definitely hooked me. As for when the shipping started, I remember we were watching Lazarus, and when Mulder was yelling at Lula (I had to look that up) about hurting the hostage Scully, my mom said, "Oh, he's so in love with her." And I was all, "What?! Pfff." But then I could not stop thinking about it. And then I thought about it way, way too much.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I was in my late 20s, and it was around the end of S7 and I kept thinking about what if these two dumb idiots actually talked one day. And I kept thinking about dialogue in my head about what they'd actually say. The internet was still in its infancy back then, but I'd seen fan sites here and there. So I decided to search around to see if other people were talking about it and thinking about it like I was. I was such a noob I'd never even heard of fanfic. Imagine my delight when I discovered it. I found a few stories and thought, 'Well, I can do that.' And I wrote up my first story, found a place to post it (wasn't Ephemeral the best?), got some kind feedback, found a really nice person (not sure she wants to be named since she used her real name in the fandom back in the day) who encouraged me a lot and directed me to all the e-mail lists and Yahoo Groups that I needed to be on, and then, Bob's your uncle, I wrote more and more.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

Periphery. Most of my experience in any fandom is now on Tumblr because that's where my attention span is. Show me pretty pictures and funny stuff. I am old now and don't want to think hard.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

Veronica Mars was my next fandom experience. A number of my XF friends got me hooked on VM. The VM fandom was a LOT younger compared to the XF fandom. When I joined the XF fandom, I was the kid compared to most of the other fans who were all goddesses and royalty in my eyes. But in the VM fandom, I was in my 30s and the rest of the fandom were all in their early 20s if not younger. It often showed, so I stayed out of discussions and just posted my fic once I started writing it. I took a new handle (invida) when I started writing VM fic. Just in case these kids felt like my writing sucked, I didn't want it getting back to the XF fandom that I’d branched out and failed spectacularly.

By then fandom experiences had moved over to LiveJournal. I never really got involved in the discourse or the fandom fights. I knew what people were saying and where the schisms were, but I was all about the fanfic and the pretty pictures. Most of my LJ friends just discussed the episodes and posted their fic and that was good with me.

What got me writing fic for VM was Anjou's brilliant VM fic Into the Blue. Seriously, if you love VM S1, read her fic. Just so beautiful.

VM was also where started writing a WIP, which was a wild trip. I wrote a much-loved WIP called Damn, Damn the Circumstance which people still ask me about finishing to this day. Someday…*wistful sighs*

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

Scully. She was everything! Lapsed Catholic, degrees in science, skeptic, always trying to work within the rules but still not taking crap. Yeah, she was the best.

Veronica Mars was great until she wasn't. I have a lot of issues with her beyond S2. And don't even talk to me about S4. For me, S1 was the best, I enjoyed the movie, the books were okay, but nothing else happened after that. NOTHING.

And the first character I ever loved was Princess Leia. She was also everything to me growing up. I wanted to be her. I still do.

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

Now and then. Not as much as I used to. I sometimes have it on in the background when I'm doing other things. Back before the pandemic, my BFF and I would have get togethers where we would play Scrabble, eat a lot of candy, and binge several XF episodes. I miss doing that. Hopefully, we will get back to that soon.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I am not an active XF fanfic reader right now. I will read any stories my friends put out. Otherwise, I only occasionally read some I come across on Tumblr in my feed, but I am not seeking them out. I will beta for any XF author who asks me as well.

I am reading fic in other fandoms though – Endeavour, Broadchurch, Sherlock…huh, I'm just realizing that's a lot of British stuff. I have been really into British detective series for the last few years.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

I used to run an XF fic recommendation site called How Will It End usually with at least one other person (I went through at least 4 partners on that project because I'm a control freak). We'd compile our recs and then I'd post them on my site. We'd also feature authors we really liked and interview them. Not unlike these interviews!

I'm terrible at giving feedback/comments. So I solved that problem by making a rec site. That way I could tell authors I loved their fics by recommending them. I didn't have to comment, I'd just say, 'I'd like to rec your fic'. And then they'd get promotion. Win-win. Back in those days, the fandom would absolutely roast you for promoting your own fic, so to get on a rec site was a big deal. Not that I had a popular rec site or anything. But I think authors really enjoyed being asked.

All that to say I've liked a lot of fics. I can pull up the archives of HWIE and show you all the faves I liked. :)

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

Back in the day, E-muse would hold Improv Challenges, where other members would give you a prompt that you had to include in your fic. I was always really proud of the stories I created from those challenges (No Earthly Means and Elephant in the Room if you want to read them).

I enjoyed writing Dead to Rights which is an XF/Dead Like Me crossover because I loved the challenge of writing a crossover. It was the first crossover I ever tried writing even though I only recently published it.

Otherwise, I like re-reading In a Graveyard, Importuning Life for Life, and Some By Virtue Fall. Of my more recent fic, I like Slap a Goatee on Me and Call Me Evil because the premise was ridiculous and I think it's funny as all get out.

Probably my favourite of my VM fic was Stay Outta Riverdale. Because: 1. The title is a Simpsons reference who doesn't love a Simpsons reference? And 2. I think I was hilarious throughout it.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I'm always open to writing more fic (and, of course, I don't mean my WIPs…don't look at me like that). Lately, my only motivation has been from writing prompts on Tumblr. I haven't had anyone give me a prompt in over a year, so here we are. I have snippets of dialogue in journals and word documents that have never found their way into stories. I'd be happy to dust off any of those and shoehorn them into a new story.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

The last fanfic I wrote was a mini-fic over a year ago (with a prompt from Lilydale!). I've written a bit of original fiction but I haven't been able to finish it. Otherwise, I do have a number of real life hobbies which are where my creative outlets lie now.

Where do you get ideas for stories?

Lately, challenges and prompts. It used to be from wanting to see more from a scene. I really had a thing for fill-in-the-blanks or scene continuations. And sometimes my motivation is just plain old spite. :)

What's the story behind your pen name?

Circe Invidiosa is the title of a painting by John William Waterhouse. Love the colours and the absolute malice on the face of the subject. It felt like a good pen name – the envious witch. That's me!

I chose it when I posted my first XF fic (which I cringe to read now, ugh so terrible) without knowing there was already a Circe in the fandom. Whoops. I tried to go by the full Circe Invidiosa or Invidiosa as much as possible after realizing that (invidiosa is my url and my username on a lot of sites, etc.). Now I think that I've been around long enough that it doesn't matter as much but I still like it.

As I said, I took the name Invida for the VM fandom which is just a shortening of Invidiosa.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

My significant other knows and that was quite a reveal (oh how awkward). However, the SO has been very supportive and has read all my stories since the reveal and sometimes betas them. The SO also wants us to collaborate on writing some original fiction but we haven't found a project that works for both of us creatively or timewise.

My BFF knows because I dragged her into the online fandom. We've known each other since we were 14, but our love of XF really solidified our bond in our 20s. She wrote some short but sweet fics under the penname Helen Quilley which I bullied her into posting, and we wrote Of Ladies Most Deject and Wretched together. She is mostly embarrassed that she wrote fanfic now but we still fangirl together.

No one else really knows other than fandom folks I've met in real life. And some friends know I've written 'short stories' but I don't elaborate. I work in a stodgy, uptight industry where anything fun or actually having a life is frowned upon.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

Over the first lockdown, I got my shit together and got my fic site, invidiosa.com, up and running again. My site houses fic by Rain (now @doctorhelena on Tumblr and AO3), Helen Quilley, ML (who I miss so much), Folieadeux, Shelba, TLynn, Oracle, Piper Sargasso, Diehard, and me. And I made all their dustjackets (except Folie's). The site got hacked a few years back and it was so much work to get running again that I put it off for years and years. I still feel terrible that I did not get the site back up before ML passed away, especially when ML had asked me about it a few months before she passed.

Anyway, all my XF fic is here: circe.invidiosa.com. I have 3 of my newer XF stories on AO3. And my fic-LJ also has some of my stories. Some of the newer stories are on Tumblr but the tagging is so erratic that I'd have to list several tags before you'd find them all. I don't know why I haven't moved everything over to AO3. Probably laziness.

I'm @invidiosa on Tumblr. I'm still on E-muse. I'm still on LJ. I'm always reachable by e-mail (invidiosa at gmail).

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

Thanks for reading, writing, and commenting. It is always appreciated.

(Posted by Lilydale on January 5, 2021)

#new post #old school x #xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #xf fanfic author interviews #circe invidiosa

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alexzalben · 3 years

Note

Hey Alex, who chooses the photos for your articles? For example the Riverdale Next to Normal one? Just wondering

I do... To give you a window about the thought process:

1. You want a photo that ideally has people close up, in this case it was a good, clear shot of Betty and Jughead.

2. Also want something that ideally references the story, though in this case there were no photos from the episode available. Still, Betty and Jughead are mentioned, hence including them.

3. Barring that, choose something that's easily recognizable as the show... I was waffling between this pic and one of Mädchen Amick, since she's the center of the episode, but, see below:

4. Choose something ideally with emotion. Here it was (hopefully) Betty and Jughead conveying surprise. Surprise! There's a musical. I know not a big surprise for hardcore fans, but for casual viewers, maybe there would be some surprise over the choice of musical (which turned out to be true, fwiw). The Alice pic was a little more even in its expression, so wasn't as grabby.

5. And the most important consideration are the editorial guidelines that my outlet, and all outlets have, based on the Associated Press standard, which are to push the agenda that Bughead is endgame.

I'm kidding about the last one. All photo choices are about trying to pair the best picture with the story; and not about getting clicks or pushing 'ships or whatever. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But there you go!

#riverdale

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snarkwrites · 3 years

Text

13 | gangsta ; sweetpea

NOTES:

It's been a while. I've had these two chapters written for a while now but I haven't had time to sit down, edit them a little better and post them. Since I have time now, I thought I'd go ahead and do that, whether you guys asked for these next two chapters or not.

Sorry this took forever! Sorry I'm so slow, I've been settling into a new house and taking care of some IRL stuff / taking a little break. I swear, I'm going to update everything sooner or later. >.>

I love you guys.

WARNINGS:

NON/ LOOSE CANON COMPLIANCE - this is the biggest warning, so if you’re into things that follow exact canon plot you are… definitely not going to like this. ANGST & SLOW BURN, HEAVY SEXUAL TENSIONSTARTING NOW, ACTUALLY - this is just so everyone who started reading this thinking the smut would transpire in a hurry knows that apparently, it is not. VIOLENCE / SWEARING & FIGHTING, POSSIBLE UNDERAGE DRINKING AND OTHER SHENANIGANS- look.. it’s high school. shit happens. also apparently, my ofc Alyssa uses the word fuck like all the time?…EVENTUAL SEXUAL CONTENT / A VIRGIN ORIGINAL CHARACTER- this one is self explanatory. yes, i plan to write a smutty chapter in this at some point. when? i don’t rightly know. it’s got a while before we get there. STALKER TW - this chapter marks the true appearance of Alyssa's ex, Dave Novak. It's hinted heavily that he's a gross asshole who likes to play mind games. ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING TW - This chapter contains an attempted kidnapping. If this is gonna bother you you're best off not reading it.

If you're under 18+, probably not a good or wise idea to continue reading this series. Because there are going to be a few dark and adult themes within. I'll warn here, of course, but you need to understand that I don't control you. If you continue to read after having read the warnings and you're upset or don't like something... Totally on you, friend.

PAIRING:

Andrews!Sibling OFC x Sweet Pea.

TAGGING:

@brithedemonspawn is the only person on my Riverdale tag list. If you want to be added, the link to do so is below.

OTHER PARTS:

ONE - TWO - THREE - FOUR - FIVE - SIX - SEVEN - EIGHT - NINE - TEN- ELEVEN - TWELVE - soundtrack

OTHER STUFF:

[ about my writing - tag list doc ]

THIRTEEN.

[773 - 589 - 7956] Quiet sleepy little town you’ve got here. I can see the appeal, scarlet.

[773 - 589 - 7956] I saw you last night. If I didn’t know what a treacherous bitch you were, I’d say you look more beautiful than ever.

[773 - 589 - 7956] Have you shown that new boytoy of yours all the dirty little photos you were sending me? I bet he’d fucking love to see that… Or did you actually let him see the real thing?

[773 - 589 - 7956] You can say what you want to the cops, scarlet. You and I both know you enjoyed sending me those dirty little pictures. Do your parents know what a teasing whore their daughter really is? I know mommy wasn’t too thrilled when you went running to her to snitch just because things got a little too real for you…

[773 - 589 - 7956] I’ll see you soon. It’s like I said, scarlet. You owe me. I intend to collect. You think this is a game? You can just promise things and then betray me like that? That’s not how this works, scarlet.

The second my phone was powered on again after school, it immediately started to go insane. The texts came in a flood. They were so disgusting and scary that I dropped my phone because my hands were shaking so hard I couldn’t hold it. I quickly picked up the phone and took a few deep breaths, attempting to pull myself together.

,, I can’t keep this to myself. I have to tell someone what’s going on.” the thought nagged at me for the thousandth time in two weeks and I decided that as soon as I finished my tutoring session for the day, I was going to go to the construction site and show my father the texts. Tell him that somehow, Dave was out of prison and apparently, he was here in Riverdale.

My stomach was churning and a bitter taste filled my mouth at the thought. I felt like a dead girl walking. How could I have been so fucking stupid? I should’ve told my father the first time Dave texted me. I should’ve done something.

I felt anger at the situation too. I came here to get away from everything, to put it behind me. I just wanted to forget any of it happened. How dare he show up and ruin everything? He was supposed to be in jail right now, not walking free!

It wasn’t fair.

I knew I’d never be brave enough, but I found myself thinking that if I did see him again, I wanted to strangle him. To give him a reason to be afraid of me for once instead of the other way around. To get even for the hell he put me through in Chicago.

I stepped out into the parking lot, taking a few deep breaths to calm down. Leaning against the brick wall beside the doors that lead into the building. Waiting. Trying to pull myself together. Half hoping that my brother was still here, still in wrestling practice.

Then I remembered that he didn’t have it tonight and that he’d left earlier with Veronica, Betty and Jughead.

Cheryl and Toni were already gone too. I’d stayed over because I was tutoring some kids in the grade below me. I didn’t think it’d take as long as it did. When I realized just how late it had gotten and that I’d be walking home alone in the dark, I’d panicked.

I could always call my dad.

That’s what I wound up doing. About halfway across the parking lot and just as my father’s phone went to voicemail , Dave stepped out and grabbed me, clamping his hand over my mouth before I could do anything other than scream.

My phone fell out of my hands and hit the pavement . I fought him off, managed to get out of his grasp and took off at a run. He caught up to me and grabbed me, trying to drag me towards his Chevelle that was parked nearby, idling. I fought tooth and nail, making as much noise as I could. Grabbing hold of anything I could to try and wrench myself free from his grasp.

I spotted Sweet Pea walking towards the school and I screamed louder. Fought harder.

“Sweet Pea!” I screamed his name, biting at any exposed skin I could get my mouth on Dave’s body. Clawing and scratching. Determined not to go quietly or without a fight. Sweet Pea disappeared from sight for a few seconds in the scuffle between Dave and I, and I was fighting so hard that Dave was struggling to keep a good firm grip on me…

XXX

He’d come back to school because normally, Alyssa was done and at Pop’s within thirty minutes, an hour tops. It had almost been two. Something felt off. Sweet Pea tried to tell himself the entire walk across town to Riverdale High that he was just being paranoid or overprotective. By the time the school was in view, he almost had himself convinced that he was just being a paranoid idiot.

Until he heard her screaming.

Sweet Pea took off at a run in the direction her scream came from, watching as a guy grabbed Alyssa and started trying to pull her towards an idling Chevelle nearby. He locked eyes with Alyssa before slipping out of sight. Getting himself into a position where he could slip up on the guy from behind and hopefully, distract him enough that Alyssa could get away.

The second she managed to smash her head into the guy’s nose hard enough that he dropped her, Sweet Pea spoke up. Firmly. “Run, Cherry. Don’t stop running.”

“No.” I stubbornly refused to leave. I wasn’t going to leave him to fight Dave off on his own. Not when this was my mess to begin with, my own stupidity coming back to bite me in my ass.

“Damn it, woman. Fucking go!” Sweet Pea practically growled as he lunged for the guy in front of him, spearing him against the side of his own car. The fight took to the ground, the two rolling around. For a second or two, Dave had the upper hand because he managed to get his hand on Sweet Pea’s throat. Sweet Pea used his legs, flipping them so that he was on top, swinging his fists with no real thought other than the sheer rage he felt about the guy trying to grab Alyssa. Dave managed to get the upper hand again, holding Sweet Pea against the concrete, Sweet Pea’s hand wrapped around his throat as he tried to squeeze harder.

Sweet Pea swore in frustration when he saw Alyssa slipping over to the open rear door. She emerged with a baseball bat, making her way over to the fight.

“What the fuck do you think you were gonna do, man?” Sweet Pea snarled in anger as he got in a few hard and fast punches.

“I was gonna get my hands on that little bitch you call a girlfriend and teach her a lesson.” Dave grunted out the words as Sweet Pea’s hand closed around his throat tighter and he managed to get Dave on his back again.

“The only one who’s going to learn a lesson tonight is you, asshole. Don’t fucking touch her.” Sweet Pea got the upper hand again, holding Dave against the concrete, smashing his head against Dave’s head as he sneered, “I’m gonna fuckin kill you, putting your hands on my girl.” and really tightened his grip.

Dave managed to shove him off and stood, the two of them fighting. Alyssa swung the bat at Dave’s lower back, almost connecting with it but Dave stepped out of the way at the last minute, making a grab for her.

“Cherry, I told you to run, damn it!” Sweet Pea growled as he lunged at Dave, sending Alyssa stumbling back, barely managing to keep herself from falling on her butt on the pavement. The two were rolling around on the ground again, punching and choking wildly and Alyssa spotted her cell phone and she dove for it, dialing 911.

Just as she was about to hit call, Sweet Pea choked Dave out and grabbed for the rope that had fallen out of Dave’s jacket pocket, tying his arms together while he was down. Then he rushed over to her, checking her over in concern, wincing at the pavement burn on her cheeks and the few scrapes.

“What the fuck happened to run, huh?” Sweet Pea asked, trying to catch his breath.

“I wasn’t leaving you here with him.” Alyssa panted. Sweet Pea took her cell phone and hit call, keeping his foot on Dave’s head to keep him down as he made the call.

Two minutes later, a cop car came racing around the corner and pulled to a stop behind the idling Chevelle.

The cop got out and wandered over. Glancing from Sweet Pea to Dave.

Alyssa spoke up.

“Sweet Pea was trying to save me, officer.”

“I’m going to need you two to come to the station and make statements.” the cop informed them after getting Dave into the back of the cop car. Alyssa nodded, hugging herself against Sweet Pea’s side. Sweet Pea slipped out of his leather jacket,draping it around her, because at some point during her fight with Dave, her shirt had gotten torn down the front.

The cop left, leaving the two of them alone.

Sweet Pea took a few deep breaths, pulling her against him. Squeezing her tight. Holding her in place. “Thank God I decided to come by here. If something would’ve happened…” he muttered against her hair quietly.

She pulled away to look up at him and he locked eyes with her, leaning in closer…

XXX

My heart was still hammering away at my chest. The adrenaline was starting to wear off and I was starting to panic a little as I began to realize what almost happened to me. How close I came to disappearing, having God knows what would be done to me by Dave.

I wasn’t thinking about how awkward me kissing him would be. I wasn’t thinking about anything if you want the truth. I rose up on my toes, grabbing hold of the front of Sweet Pea’s t-shirt, pulling myself up. My mouth brushed against the corner of his gingerly, trying to avoid the portion of his lower lip that was busted and bloody because it had to hurt like hell. His hands dug into my hips and he growled quietly, his mouth latching onto mine just as I went to pull away, stop myself before I went for it and kissed him in the heat of the moment.

The kiss deepened and I raised my arms, wrapping them around his neck. Dragging my fingers through his hair. My back met the side of the Chevelle with a soft smack and he pressed himself into me more firmly. His mouth continuing to hungrily devour mine.

The kiss broke a few seconds later, we pulled apart breathlessly and stared at one another in a daze. Sweet Pea wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and cleared his throat. Going quiet again.

All I could do was melt into him and try to wrap my head around what almost happened and what had just actually happened. He curled his fingers under my chin, tilting my face so that I had to look up at him.

“Who was that? Wait.. was that your ex?”

My jaw dropped. I blinked at him and then I nodded quietly. He swore under his breath and held on a little tighter. Pulling away again, his hands on my upper arms as he stared down at me. “I should’ve fucking killed him.”

“H-how’d you know about Dave? Did my brother tell you?”

“And Jughead. I don’t know everything. I just know that I told myself if I ever actually saw the asshole, I was going to kill him.” Sweet Pea answered quietly. Taking a few deep breaths and then adding a few seconds later, “We need to get to the station.”

I nodded in agreement. Sweet Pea scooped me up when he saw me take a step and wince, then try it again with the same outcome.

“I can walk.” I protested weakly.

“You fell. You probably twisted your ankle. Just… let me carry you, Cherry.” he muttered quietly, his voice a soft and concerned whisper as he gazed down at me.

All I could do was nod. Lean my head against the space between his neck and shoulder.

As we worked our way towards the police station, it poured out of me. Every single thing I’d gone through with Dave in Chicago. I grimaced as I told Sweet Pea exactly what had gone down and why I thought Dave had come to town and tried to grab me tonight and Sweet Pea’s jaw set firm.

I could tell that hearing it bothered him. And at one point, he muttered quietly, “If you don’t want to talk about it you don’t have to…”

“No, I need to get it out. I shouldn’t have kept the fact that the asshole was texting me to myself. Blocking his number obviously didn’t work because he reached out with a new one. I thought if I just ignored him, he’d lose interest. I thought it was just him, trying to scare me. I didn’t think he’d be stupid or brave enough to show up here.” I muttered, shaking my head at how stupid that sounded now that I was really stopping to think about it.

“He’s not gonna bother you again, okay? I’m going to make sure he doesn’t.” Sweet Pea muttered after a few seconds, just as we stepped into the station and made our way over to a sitting area to wait.

“You need to call your dad.” Sweet Pea spoke up after a few seconds that felt like hours.

I nodded. Taking my phone back from Sweet Pea, I dialed my dad’s number and I could hear the relief in his voice when he answered.

Static crackled and popped on his end of the line so I strained to hear.

“I’ve been riding around town looking for you for over an hour, tiny. What the hell happened?” my dad asked in a rush.

“Dave was waiting outside of the school tonight when I came out… If Sweet Pea hadn’t gotten there when he did I… he tried to grab me tonight, Dad.” I grimaced as I said it, bracing myself for all the questions and the lecture I knew I’d be getting because I hadn’t told anyone the second all this started.

,, to be fair, I definitely deserve it.” the thought came and I let myself have it. Leaning back in the chair, resting against Sweet Pea’s side slightly. Taking a few deep breaths.

My dad swore and I heard him punching at something, probably the dashboard of his truck. After a second or two, he spoke up. “Where are you two? I’m on my way, tiny. Right now.”

“We’re at the station giving a statement.” I explained.

“Thank god. So Novak got arrested? That’s good. I’m going to be sure to find out what I can do to make sure that little prick stays in a cell this time.” my dad responded as I heard him rev the engine on his truck.

The call ended and I leaned my head against Sweet Pea’s shoulder. He slipped an arm around me and took a few more breaths as if he were trying to calm himself down again because he was still angry and tense.

The cop who made the arrest found us and ushered us back to his workspace and we sat down. Telling the cop every single detail of what happened tonight. The cop let me finish and then spoke up.

“We’re holding him for Chicago. He apparently escaped. Attacked another girl… A Claire Watson… Then he came here. But everything you’ve told me will help keep him behind bars, Alyssa. Do you have a parent you can call?”

I nodded.

“She already called him.” Sweet Pea answered calmly as he folded his arms over his chest and glared at the cop suspiciously.

The cop eyed him, nodding. Managing a cordial smile. “That was quick thinking on your part tonight kid. Also stupid as hell. If he’d had a weapon, that could’ve gone wrong. Next time, call the station.”

“And do what? Let an asshole make off with my girl? Yeah, no thanks. I’m good. I’ve seen how fast you assholes respond to any call you get from the South side.”

“Not all of us are bad, kid.” the cop pointed out in a calm and even tone.

“Yeah, well… I wasn’t going to stand there and let him take my girl either. I did what I had to do.” Sweet Pea took a deep breath, rubbing his forehead. Calming himself back down.

I spotted my father and Archie coming into the station, heading right for us and I let out a ragged breath. Squeezing my dad so tight he almost couldn’t breathe when they got over to where we were sitting in the back.

My father spoke up, addressing the cop. “We will be pressing charges. So, whatever I need in order to do that, just tell me and you’ve got it.”

Sweet Pea cleared his throat.

“If it helps, here’s her phone.” Sweet Pea held my phone out to the policeman and he took it, nodding. “If there’s anything on here, that’ll help. If you’ll come with me, Mr. Andrews, we’ll get that paperwork drawn up to start the proceedings.”

My dad gave me another hug and stopped in front of Sweet Pea. “If you hadn’t been there tonight, kid… Thank you.”

“I wasn’t gonna let anything happen to her, sir.” Sweet Pea muttered, awkwardly letting my dad hug him too.

My dad made his way to an office with the policeman who’d taken our statements and I glanced up at Sweet Pea, grimacing at the bruises and scraped starting to form on his face and neck. The black eye and the busted lip.

“Archie, can you go get some ice or a soda can? His lips really swelling up..” I muttered. My brother nodded, taking some change from me to go do it. And this left Sweet Pea and I alone again.

“About that kiss.. I’m sorry, I.. the last thing I wanted to do was make anything awkward. I just got caught up in the moment and I can’t keep fighting the way I feel and I… Sorry.” I spoke up quietly. Prepared to give him an out. Afraid that I’d gone way over the line.

“Yeah, about that… I’ve been wanting to do it for a while.” Sweet Pea admitted quietly. Making me look up at him as he chuckled quietly. “You wanna repeat any of what you just said?”

I felt my cheeks burning. I pouted up at him and gave him a dirty look.

He smirked in response and spoke up. “I’m being serious. You were doing that mumble and babbling thing again.”

“You heard me.” I answered, biting my lip as I looked up at him.

“A little, yeah… But maybe I wanna hear it again, cherry.” he pulled me close and gazed down at me for a few seconds.

“Wait.. you wanted to kiss me?” I realized what he’d admitted. Gazing up at him, a little shocked.

“You’re trying to change the subject now?” he questioned, slipping his arms around me. I gave a soft laugh and muttered quietly, “Maybe a little.”

“When you say you can’t ignore the way you feel.. What’s that mean?” he questioned again, making me look up at him. I took a deep breath and toyed with the front of his shirt, trying to figure out the best way to put it to words.

The truth. Simple and direct.

“I care about you a lot. I lo--” I started to say that I loved him, but Archie cleared his throat behind us, holding out the soda can to me. Then promptly excusing himself again to go find our dad. I gently guided Sweet Pea down into a chair and sank down to sit on his knees. Gingerly pressing the cold soda can against his lip. And after a second or two, I finally got myself to say it again. “I love you, okay?”

He chuckled quietly. Locking eyes with me. Lowering the soda can to ask quietly, “Like a best friend or something.. Right?”

I shook my head. “More than, actually. Since that day at the car wash when I drenched you with the hose, I’ve… It’s been hard to make myself not look for you in a crowd. Yes, yes.. I know this is mushy and you don’t do mushy, I..” his mouth crashing against mine cut off the flow of my words and he muttered in a daze, “Say it again. Tell me you love me, Cherry.”

“I love you.” I managed to get the words out breathlessly. His mouth was latching onto mine all over again. The kiss deepening. His arms enveloping me tighter. Squeezing til I thought I’d get lightheaded between the deep and heavy onslaught of kisses and the way he was holding me.

“I love you too.” he mumbled quietly. Gazing down at me. Panting for his next breath as the kiss broke yet again.

“Okay, are you two done with whatever yet? Because dad told me to get Al back home. You can come with us if you want.” Archie surprised me by inviting Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea eyed him and nodded, standing after I’d finally managed to pry myself away from him.

As we walked out of the station, he slipped his hand down between us, lacing his fingers between mine. Giving my hand a squeeze as he glanced down at me.

#sweetpea fanfiction #sweetpea imagine #sweetpea fanfic #sweetpea imagines #sweetpea fic #my writing; sweetpea #my fanfiction; sweetpea #my fics; sweetpea #// stalker tw #// attempted kidnapping tw #// violence tw

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starrybumbles · 4 years

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Home Sweet Home

CHAPTER 1: Riverdale

Sweet Pea x Reader

Canon-Divergence.

Summary: In a world so big, how were you stuck in such a tiny town?

Word Count : 1877

Author’s Note: Hi guys! This is my first piece of writing I’m putting out so hopefully it’s good lol. I’m not even caught up with Riverdale tbh, and that’s bc there’s so little Sweet Pea. Back to the point though, I would love your guys’ review on this (:

Moving away from California was the last thing you wanted to do. It was your home- your safe place. So many good things happened there and now... it was miles away. The trees blurred into a green blob, right up until you decided to focus on one. Then it seemed to go in slow motion. A sigh escaped your lips, eyes flickering up to the rearview mirror. The backseat- along with the trunk- was filled with your bags. It left little room to actually use the mirror for what it’s meant for. But then again, no one was rushing to stay at the ‘town with pep’. (It was anything but.)

“It’ll be fine.” Your mom’s hand came to rest on your own. “Think of this as a fresh start.”

“I didn’t want a fresh start.”

There was a pause. The words had flown out faster than you could stop them. They left a bad taste in your mouth- complaining wasn’t something you liked to do. This whole move wasn’t your mom’s fault; people were shit and liked to shit on others. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I know what you’re feeling. But I really do think you’ll be happier here.”

As another silence hung over you both, you couldn’t help but wonder if that was true. Your life back in California was like a dream. You had a good group of friends, a best friend, and a place where you felt good and safe. It was a scene ripped right from the movie screen. But heading to Riverdale gave you a whole new perspective and you couldn’t say you liked it.

The sun beat down your back as you pulled the rest of the suitcases out of the trunk. You could already feel the sweat building up on your neck. Even in Riverdale you couldn’t beat Summer’s heat- go figure. With three bags in your left and a suitcase in your right, you stepped back to let your mom shut the trunk. Your eyes wandered over to the park’s sign, dingy from years of standing.

Sunnyside Trailer Park. Low Rates- No Pets- Swimming Pool.

A painted sun beamed with yellow and red rays right above the words. A line, the same shade of red, ran right through the second set below.

Many times you’ve been here through the years and you couldn’t say anything has changed. A small smile spread across your face. The outside of the trailers were tinged with dust and dirt. Only one mattered, though, and that one was just a few feet away. A little wooden staircase leads up to the door. Trash bins were lined up on the left, while an isolated box stood on the other. It was familiar- so familiar you already knew what the inside looked like. But it wasn’t home.

You walked up to the box and lifted a lawn gnome, grimacing at the rust on it. It was such an obvious place to hide a key. Your mother walked up behind you, groaning about how she should have thrown away more shoes. ( “You never know if I need them,” she’d said.)

You trudged up the stairs and opened the door, settling your luggage to the side. To your right was the living room, set with all the essentials. To the left was the kitchen. You purse your lips before turning.

“Hey, mom,” you called out. “You think uncle would mind if I munched on something?”

Her voice echoed from the bathroom. “I don’t think so! Just munch, though. I think we should go to Pop’s and get something.”

With that, you practically ran towards the kitchen. The cool air of the fridge hit you, a sigh of relief escaping. The feeling quickly fell as you saw nothing in there that would satisfy your hunger. You’d thought the fridge would be stocked considering your cousin was such a foodie. How did he get by like this? You closed the door, puffing out at the disappointment. Guess you’d have to wait for diner food. “So, uh.. when exactly are we going there?”

You watched your mom round the corner. “Soon. Uncle will be here soon.”

And, low and behold, your uncle walked through the door within the next few minutes. He wore a tired grin as he opened his arms toward you. Stepping away from the fridge, you wrapped your arms around him. His stubble scratched the top of your head. You murmured a little hello and your uncle returned it. That smile was still on his face as he greeted your mom.

“It’s good to see you, Forsythe.”

“Why don’t you ever use FP?” He groaned, holding her at arm's length. “I hate that name.”

“Well, it's your name.” She rolled her eyes, patting his shoulder. Your mom was the older one out of the two and she made sure everyone knew.

Despite the complaints from FP, you knew he wasn’t that bothered by it. Family was everything with you guys, even when you lived across the country. The constant contact with each other over the years kept that bond strong. It made you wish being here was under different circumstances.

The two adults shared a look before nodding. Your eyes shifted to the half empty coffee pot on the stove, left untouched since the morning. Of course your uncle knew about what happened in California. You figured the talk would happen later- out of earshot for you. A part of you hoped you’d be included, while another didn’t want to talk about it.

A buzzing noise reached your ears. You fumbled to get your phone from the back of your pocket. The screen lit up, soliciting a smile at the text. B/F Name, your best friend, had been texting you since you left. You missed her a lot. Never have you been so far away. Biting your lip, your fingers hovered over the keyboard as you responded. Maybe you would call her later if she wasn’t busy.

“Y/n, fix yourself. We’re gonna leave.”

You nodded without looking up at your mom and moved to the only bathroom in the trailer. The text was sent with a ‘ttyl’.

Looking in the mirror, you locked eyes with your reflection. Bags hung under your eyes. They weren’t noticeable unless you were trying to spot them. You ran a hand over your face, taking a deep breath. Fresh start- that’s what this was. A new page to write whatever you wanted. You clicked your tongue, then sighed.

_____________

Make the most of this, you thought, and nodded at your reflection before throwing the door open.

The smell of burgers hit you as soon as the three of you entered. Despite its years, Pop’s looked as good as ever. The floor was checkered with black and grey, the booths a bright red with silver padding covering the top. On the walls were several decorations, many being old photos. Even the people here fit the fifties-esque aesthetic of the diner.

At the register, your mom stood with your uncle, waving you over. A smile graced her lips, her hand reaching out to place itself on your back. Behind the metal table was a big man wearing an apron and a hat that had Pop’s Chock’Lit Shoppe printed on both. His smile reflected your mom’s. It took you a second before recognizing him.

“Well, if it isn’t little Y/n L/n. Look at you all grown up.” His voice was as warm as an apple pie fresh out of the oven.

You returned his smile, waving at Pop before shoving it back into the pocket of your jeans. “Hi. Been a few years,” you said.

“It certainly has. I’m glad to see you back.”

Pop nodded to both you and your mom before ushering you to find a seat. You followed the two adults down the line, feeling a bit awkward as you trailed behind. You could feel stares of other customers as you passed by. You kept your eyes trained ahead.

Pop had come by to take your orders and within that time, you found that your uncle worked there in his free time.

“So I’m hearing free milkshakes?” You grinned, eyebrows shooting up.

Your mom snorted. “Or maybe she could get a job and pay for them.”

FP nodded, pointing a finger at her. You gave them both accusatory glances.

“I’d like an extra hand around here.”

“It’s not like I wouldn’t try to get hired, but we just moved here! I need a little time to adjust.”

You slumped against the seat, and picked up a fry. Working at Pop’s didn’t sound like such a bad thing- you had at least a little experience under your belt. You glanced around the diner again, eyeing the empty tables. It shouldn’t be too hard. Turning towards your uncle, you continued, “I just need to get familiar with the place again. Adjust to life in Riverdale first before diving into being the town’s little go-getter.”

FP snickered. “Alright, kid.” His eyes flickered to the door as the bell attached to it jingled. “Now’s your time to start getting familiar.”

At his words, you swiveled around to meet Jughead. He looked a little stunned to see you. A second passed before a grin stretched across his face. You made your way toward him. Your arms wrapped around his middle with a squeeze.

As you pulled away, a group started to push past the doors and stand behind Jughead. You nudge your cousin, then step to the side.

“Jug,” you hissed when he didn’t follow suit. You gestured to the group, and when you made eye contact with the tall one you gave a smile. “Sorry for him.”

The one at the head narrowed his eyes at you. He crossed his leather clad arms over his torso, and you noticed that they all had the same jacket on. Jughead took a step back towards them, glancing at the tallest before switching back to you. It was then that you saw the same jacket on him that everyone else had. A small “oh” formed on your mouth as your brain connected the dots.

“Are you guys having some sort of club meeting?”

Jughead scoffed, shaking his head at your ridiculous question. “No, it’s…”

As he trailed off, his eyes shifted to something behind you.

“A.. project.”

Right, you thought. A project for what?

You wanted to ask. It was so obvious that he was lying about whatever this was. Yet your lips didn’t move. And you knew why. There was a lot that happened back in your old town; stuff that you’d rather keep in the dark. Even from Jughead whom you were close with. Maybe this lie was his way of telling you he wanted to keep this to himself. So you’ll let it slide… for now.

Two of the others looked to Jughead. The third one stared hard at you-- the tall one that you’d consider cute if he didn’t have such a mean mug. To avoid his gaze, you turned your back and waved the little group over. You all squished into a booth in the corner of the diner. Menus were passed around as Jughead grinned.

“Let’s eat!”

#riverdale #riverdale x you #cousin! Jughead #x reader #sweet pea x reader #sp x reader #southside serpents #southside serpents x reader

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oosteven-universe · 3 years

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Archie & Friends in Summer Vacation #1

Archie & Friends Summer Vacation #1 Archie Comics 2021 Written by Dan Parent Pencilled by Jeff Schultz & Bill Galvan Inked by Jim Amash & Bob Smith Coloured by Glenn Whitmore Lettered by Jack Morelli Get ready for a BEACH PARTY BONANZA with Archie and all his pals ‘n’ gals in RIVERDALE! It’s time for pool parties, barbecue blowouts, and maybe even a little summer romance… hopefully no one gets too sun burned! I’m really glad that we get books like this. The classic Archie style of comics is what I loved about them to begin with and the whole updating look was cute and interesting and has its place but there’s nothing quite like seeing the gang like we have for the last 80 years. This makes me miss the beach to be honest, having those great summers without a care in the world and now a vacation sounds just right in my mind. Right now the sun is shining and it’s hotter than h e double hockey sticks outside and it doesn’t matter because I have a smile on my face and joy in my heart and that’s what these kids do to you, they bring unmitigated joy and happiness to the reader no matter what time of day or year it is. I love the way that this is being told and how each segment seems to be able to lead directly into the next one like it’s one large story instead of four smaller ones. It’s pretty impressive but then again Dan himself is pretty darn impressive. While each story is a complete stand alone tale I’m gobsmacked by the way that the transitions from one to anther are so seamless and it feels like we’re just seeing one day then the next and so on and so forth so that it just feels normal and natural. The story & plot development, the character development and the pacing are all just incredibly superb and really pull the reader into the book beautifully. I love the way we see the dialogue, the character interaction and how you know that their personalities never change but somehow they still seem to grow and evolve it’s kind of uncanny. I am still awed by the fact that each of these is so complete with such smaller page counts and that I don’t feel like i’m missing out or jipped or anything, I don’t even feel the normal I get into the story and it ends feelings. The interiors here are bloody perfect. The linework is sensational and how we see the detail work come to life makes this so cute to see. I love the Hawaiian style shirts in the third story because they are so now and so back in fashion and seeing the creative use of the Tic Tac Toe game is pretty darn genius. Also Babette and Frankie yeah they were pretty spot genius as well. The use of backgrounds throughout and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show some exceptionally talented eyes for storytelling. I love that both Jeff & Bill know how these are supposed to look and they do it so well you can hardly tell that separate folks worked on the book. Glenn’s colours are always magnificent the man is a master colourist. How we see the various colour choices and how the colour is so solid and packed in or how the hues and tones utilised in the backgrounds bring this nice subtlety to the book is phenomenal. This book ended on the perfect note from one of the most unexpected characters. Though while I miss seeing Kevin around and even Reggie a bit this just goes to show that these teenagers are timeless icons that know how to have fun, get in trouble and make up for their mistakes. This is family reading at its finest.

#Comic Books #Comics Reviews #Archie Comics #All-Ages Comics

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kimmyiewrites · 4 years

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Batting Practice

Fandom: Riverdale Ship: Betty x Archie AN: So I couldn't exactly get the thought of Betty and Archie talking about how to move on after their father's deaths out of my head so this is the product of that. Also I write Betty as a softball player like she was in the comics so that's why they're both doing baseball/softball things.

They all had returned to Archie’s house after they had brought Fred home. They really weren’t planning on leaving him alone for the time being. After they finished the movie they had started after dinner, Archie tried to get them to all go home. Instead a sleepover happened. Veronica and Archie slept in his room while Betty and Jughead slept on the air mattress in the living room.

After he was sure Veronica was asleep, Archie slipped out from under her and tiptoed down the stairs. He fully planned on just going into the garage and having a moment to himself until he stepped directly onto the spot that caused the steps to creak. He froze, looking over to where his friends were and hoping that none of them woke up.

His prayers were not answered as a blonde head became visible from behind the couch. “Arch?” Betty asked, her voice raspy from lack of use. She had been trying to fall asleep but it just wasn’t coming to her.

“Go back to sleep, Betts.” He said as he continued his way down the last remaining stairs.

Betty shook her head and rolled off the mattress before meeting him in the hallway. “I wasn’t asleep anyways.” She smiled his way before heading into the kitchen. She grabbed two water bottles and handed one to him before settling onto one of the stools at the bar.

They sat in silence for a while, sipping on their water and just being there for each other. “Does it get easier?” Archie finally asked, when the weight of reality was getting to be too much. He knew his dad was like a father to all of his friends but no one besides Betty truly knew what it was like to lose their dad. So he had to know.

“Archie, my dad was a serial killer. I don’t think I’m really the best one to ask.”

“Please, Betty. I have to know because right now all I want to do right now is hit something.”

Betty sighed. She knew that anger all too well. “Then let’s go hit something. Baseball stuff still in the garage?”

He nodded, curious as to what Betty was thinking. There was a time where he used to know immediately but life had recently caused a shift in their friendship.

The blonde grabbed a napkin and a pen she found in the junk drawer, scribbling a note to the others in the house just in case they woke up before they returned. At park. Will be back soon. Betty and Archie

“I hated my dad after I found out that he was the Black Hood.” Betty started as the pair walked to the nearby park. They were quite the sight with helmets on their heads while still in their pajamas and bats resting against their shoulders. The baseball and softball sat in Archie’s pant pockets. “I had even wished him dead in the beginning. When he was shot all I could remember was everything before the Black Hood. He encouraged me in ways my mom never did. He just wanted me to do things that made me happy. Then I felt guilty for that because how could I miss a horrible person like that? He hurt me, us, so badly that my guilt then turned into anger. I can’t tell you it’s going to get better Archie, because I don’t know what it’s like to lose a parent who isn’t tainted by something as dark as the Black Hood. All I can really offer is just take one day at a time because one day I’m angry at him, one day I miss him, and another I don’t think about him at all.”

Archie nodded, taking in all that she had said. He really didn’t realize she was struggling that much with her dad’s death. Then again Betty was always really good at hiding how she was really feeling. He was glad she opened up to him though. “One day at a time, I think I can do that.”

“I know you can.” Betty smiled up at him, giving his arm a reassuring squeeze. “You got me, Veronica, and Jug in your corner always. No matter what you need, we’ll be there.”

They made their way into the tennis court, figuring that the fence would act as their catcher when they hit each pitch. “I may not know how to box but hopefully this is the next best thing. Honestly, I think I’ve upped my fast pitch with some late night target practice.” Betty laughed as they set up for Archie to bat first.

“You know I could teach you, right? It’ll be like when we played t-ball together.” He squared up, preparing to hit Betty’s first pitch.

“I think I’ll leave that one to you. I’m already pretty dangerous with a bat.” She reared her arm back, throwing the ball towards Archie.

Archie swung the bat, making contact with the ball and sending it to the other end of the court. At the sound of the satisfying metal clinking against the baseball, he smiled. “Okay, yeah, that’s still pretty good.”

Betty came jogging back to her spot from where she went to go get the ball back. “We should have brought more.” She laughed as she reared up for her second pitch.

“You were the one that said no to the bucket.”

“Well, yeah, that’s because it would have been too clunky to carry all the way down here. We didn’t want to wake anyone up.” She threw the ball and once more Archie hit it.

“Do you remember the first time my dad took us to the batting cages?” Archie asked when she returned to the makeshift pitchers mound.

“Yeah. We had been so upset that we were going to be separated during the season that he took us there to show that even though we were no longer on the same team, we could still practice together. He even helped me with my batting stance because I was missing like all of them at first.” She smiled fondly.

“And then when we both started pitching our dads would be our batters. We gave them so many bruises in the beginning.” He chuckled.

“Oh my god, yes. I’ll never forget how I nearly gave them each a black eye because they thought it would be safer to work with each other’s kid.”

“They were so wrong.” Archie laughed at the memory.

“So wrong.” Betty agreed, her laughter joining his.

Once their laughter died down, Archie looked at Betty, smiling fondly. Tears were filling both of their eyes at this point. “We’ll both make it through this.”

She gave him a watery smile as she dropped the ball and hurried over to his side. “I miss them both so much.” She cried into his chest as they wrapped each other into a hug.

Archie buried his face in her neck, holding her close as he let his tears fall. “I just can’t believe they’re gone. They weren’t supposed to be gone yet. What about graduation, college, our eventual weddings?”

Betty moved so she could rest her chin on his shoulder. She held her best friend as tight as she could. “We’ll just have to be there for each other during those things. We’ll cheer each other on as loud as we can at graduation, help each other pack for college and maybe even move in depending on things. Then for our weddings, you can be the one who walks me down the aisle and I’ll be a groomsman for yours.”

“I like the sound of that.” Archie sniffled.

“Yeah, me too. You’re still my best friend in the whole world, Arch. I’ll be here for you always.” She gave him a small squeeze.

“The same goes for you, Betts.” He returned the squeeze with one of his own and the two friends just held each other like that for a few more moments. Archie was the one to pull away first but he still didn’t let go of Betty just yet. “Alright, your turn. I don’t want to go back just yet. The house just feels heavy now.”

Betty nodded as she pulled away to get ready to hit a few rounds. “Yeah, I know the feeling. That I can tell you, gets better.”

Archie nodded, stepping up to their pretend pitcher’s mound. “That’s good to know.”

He reared up and threw the ball towards Betty who then smacked it. The ball wound up stuck in the fence surrounding the tennis court. After a few moments of laughter, Betty went twice more before switching so Archie could once more have a go. They switched off like that, sharing memories of both of their father’s well into the morning. When the sun began to rise, they headed back to the Andrews’ house and made breakfast for everyone. Well, Betty made breakfast, Archie mainly supervised and poured the drinks.

#riverdale fic #barchie #betty x archie #archie x betty #one shot #fanfic #batting practice #kim writes things

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Jake Reviews Amphibia: Handy Anne and Fort in the Road

It’s finally here... the second time i’ve said that in three days but hey, Amphibia is back! After a years hiatus due to the show being shoved out in a month to get it on disney plus faster (Yet they STILL don’t have wonder over yonder so I can finally watch season 2. God damn. ), one of the best new shows of a year stuffed with them is back! I was excited about this one from the start. A great premise, a gravity falls pedegriee, and the wonderful Brenda Song, who I had a crush on when I was younger despite not really watching the first suite life that much, though I will admit what I saw was pretty decent and had a wonderful cast especially song and Phil Morris as Mr.Mosby.. it was just overshadowed by i’ts two leads being really sterotypical (the cool but dumb hustler and the stick in the mud nerd) and I was more of a nick middle schooler anyway so I barely touched it. Granted if I could go back in time and trade which shows I watched i’d trade it for Zoey 101 in a heartbeat, another show with awful leads but the rest of the main cast was really good concidentally.

Anyways I did watch more of on deck to kill time and absolutley hated it. Seroiulsy the show really sucks: Zack and Cody were turned into basically worse versions of Zack Morris and Ross Gellar, worse because while their just as douchey as those two, Mark Paul Gossler and David Schiwmer can actually act and Cole Sprouse could not yet. I do say yet since Cole Sprouse has grown because he wasn’t half bad in the one season of riverdale I watched. Riverdale, what happens when you have the entire writers room snort a line of coke and then tell them to write the most insane archie fanfiction they can and stitch the results together. Just with Archie alone from what i’ve seen in read he’s started a vigilante posse ala homer simpson, nearly joined hte mafia, been framed form murder, had the local cheerleaders do a number for him while he played prison football, escaped prison to hide in canda from both his former mafia boss whose also his girlfriend’s dad and the cult based on a DnD knockoff, got mauled by a bear and LIVED, and now is a superhero apparently. WHy I haven’t gone back to at the very least review this clusterfuck is a mystery. But the point is the twins were really terrible at the time, and if the fact Dylan’s only major role recently is in the sequel to After, that film based on self insert one direction fanfiction, which somehow got a sequel while Birds of Prey probably won’t because god really does hate me. So it was bad and she deserved better, got better with the social network but hadn’t done much i’d seen, so a new cartoon starting her in her elment and in a great show for once had me pumped. And.. my faith paid off. The show is beautifully animated, ahs a wonderfully morbid and fully fleshed out world, top notch voice acting (including BIll Farmer who is so unreconizable as hop pop I thought he was voiced by charlie addler), great jokes, action and storytelling. Just a slam dunk that left be jonesning for me. And now in one of the best weeks for animation in a while, more is here. I do mean that: 3/4 of disney’s major animated shows returning and close enough finally airing it’s a good time. When we last left our heroes: Hop Pop buired the box that brought anne there and lied to her about it which even a year later I think is a terrible decision.. one made for understandable reasons as he clearly knows something more about it than she does, but one that’s bound ot backfire whens he finds out her new grandpa lied to her and betrayed her. The plantars also spent the season preparing to leave wartwood. Soon after, Anne was forced to finally stand up to her manipulative, if to my utter shock still caring about her and possibly being into her? I mean it’s not like I haven’t seen the “villian whose overcompensating for a terrible past and likes manipualting people redeemed and ending up smooching the somewhat reckless but good hearted heroine” before.

Anyways Sasha ends up nearly falling off a giant tower, Anne tries to save her, with the rest of her new family pitching in, and Sasha, realizing just how terrible she’s been just.. let’s her self fall, only saved because Grime caught her. And just remembering that sequence god dman.. the fact they actually got the rights to lean on me for it really dosen’t help. But the day was saved and while Anne had a huge bundle of trauma, the family was ready to finally set out soon. And now a year later i’ts time. Now i’ve gotten all the personal stuff out of the way, let’s hop to it and see what the new season has to offer. Full review with spoilers under the cut!

Handy Anne

So the Plantars are finally setting off. We don’t touch on the Sasha thing much, just a quick bit at the begining to show that while Anne is insiting she’s fine it really traumatized her. I do like kids shows starting to show more that sometimes heroes just DON’T bounce back after something like this, especially young ones. While it’ isn’t nearly to the extent of Steven Universe spending an entire season having his lack of thearpy and unresolved issues slowly destroy him, it’s still nice to see. But the main thrust of the episode is it’s vacation time brother!

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Yup after a few episodes of build up last season with the valley clear, Hop Pop has bought a suprisingly nice and affordable wagon (As Polly excitedly explains someone died in it) so they can finally set out to hopefully find Anne a way home. Their going to Oregon! I mean To newtopia, the beating heart of Amphibia: a bustling metroplis built on knowledge where they can hopefully find a way to get Anne and friends back home, while Anne hopes to find Marcy. The rest of the kids are also excited just to get out of the valley for the first time. Everyone’s pumped.. but Anne starts to worry when she finds out Hop Pop has asked his friend Chuck, the “I grow tulips” guy from the bug ball episode last season who I forgot about but was reminded why I love him and am glad to have him back, to watch the house as given Amphibia is hard enough to surivive on a good day, let alone if your a stationary building. And Chuck dosen’t insprie confidence so Anne decides to fortify the house. And her reasoning.. is actually really sweet and shows how much she’s grown: Instead of like most times where her impulsivness is the reason shenanigans and life thretaning situations happen here.. she’s hit with the hard relization her new family is basically risking everything, their home, their farm, their chuck, to help her get home.

So Anne decides to armor up the house, getting a fuck ton of shovels and a ton of suplies from the blacksmith guy who suprisngly for once DOES have what she needs for her veggies, to the point his not backtracking weirds anne out, and gives her a tub of goo. This can only end well! Meanwile the rest of the family pack. Polly having maybe 3 possesions gets done quick, Hop Pop is being anal reteitive as always with his ascots (hilariously done and Bill Farmer really is the MVP of this series), while Sprig’s gone half insane just picking out which slingshot to take as he never left, which polly of course exploits. But things natrually go wrong as the goo creates veggie monsters the family fights (with sprig even calling fight time because this is normal to them at this point) the next mornign and then one colosus that destroys the house... and Anne’s anger and heartbreak over it .. awakens something. See something I hadn’t heard about and didn’t notice at the ebgining of the series was anne’s eyes flashing blue while fighting the mantis in the first episode. Many couldn’t tell if it was leading somewhere or just an animation error. Here though her eyes go bright blue in close up with it being clear this is part of her.. the question what is it and why? Just what power does she have now? And will it save the world or destroy it? Questions for later Anne saves the day, an admits she screwed up but Hop Pop is understanding: He’s touched by her actions but also explains their not just doing this for her: their with her all the way and any sacrifice is worth it. And I like that part of hop pop: while he can be overbearing, just see next episode.. he does genuinely mean well and has genuine wisdom, something they sometimes forget with grandparent characters in animation. He’s crotchety and a stick in the mud, but he’s still throughly nice and understanding and it shows here: He’s going to get his daughter back whatever it takes.. almost. Hop Pop calls on chuck who in a whilrwind of tools and tulips fixes the place.. and proves to be every bit the legend I thought him. He sells tulips and he’s great. We’ll miss you chuck. But as they get ready to leave Anne brings up the box and Hop Pop, remembering what he did, hastily says it’s better with their contacts. WHich again just seems short sided: while he is trying to protect her, especially since next episode confirms there was some sort of apocalypse once so odds are her being connected to it might not be the best, he can’t dance around her connection to it forever, and hiding the fact some apolcaypse was caused by it is only going to backfire when some vilian reveals it or anne finds it out for herself. Taking her to a place full of infomration where he’ll now have to work to hide the truth is just asking for this to backfire. Not bringing it is one thing, dangerous people could still get the box and use it for their own ends.. we’ve seen female newt sabertooth in the promos and we’ve met Grime. But not telling her is just setitng himself up for a big and deeserved fall soon. But with that settled our heroes set out!

Final Thoughts I: Overall this was a good start to the season: my one real complaint is the town didn’t really see them off or anything, so the large and loveable supporting cast is just.. absent unless the series returns to wartwood at some point and it would’ve been nice to see them once last time. Even star vs, as bad as season 3 was, knew we wouldn’t be seeing most of the earth cast for a whie and had marco have a meaningful sendoff before he left. But.. given how tight the phacing seems to be this season judging by episode titles alone, and they only had 11 minutes here. I do think it could’ve been in hte next episode, but it dosen’t ruin a decent, fun start to the season really rooted in character stuff. Not the series finest 11 minutes, but still really good and a good way to start us off.

Fort in the Road:

First off your welcome for that episode screencap. Now this one’s also simple, but ends up having a rather sizeable revelation nestled inside. The Plantars are going down the road and while the kids want to you know explore, see places, actually enjoy the trip especailly since Sprig and Polly have never been anywhere else before, Hop Pop, being hop pop, instead just wants them to sit and be quite and follow his rules. I mean it is hte grind but you can at least make it FUN for htem; Just look at this guy.

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It took an episode longer than I thought to refrence the trail to oregon given this season is about a wagon trip, but I’m glad to do it .. and do it again. I will fit pays to be an animal in here somewhere I swear it. WE’ve got time left in the road trip. Anyways this goes down terribly, though some rules like not posing dramatically as it smacks of hubris and never ends well. But understandably the kids are annoyed about it: Anne can’t even compallin because i’ts not in the rules. So naturally as Hop Pop should’ve seen coming at the first opprotuunity Anne fakes being cart sick and they run off to see a weird looking ruin with Hop Pop chasing them and leaving the cart to polly because that can’t end well but he’s on a short time. And this is where the season drops a 10 ton atomic bombshell. Anne being kinda magic in the last episode and it being fully part of things now is intresting and shocking.. but this is miles ahead of it and casts Hop Pop’s actions: Turns out whatever the clamamity box did set techniology in amphibia back to a little above the dark ages. I mean they have full light thanks to lightning bugs, but their still leagues behind.. but were once up to at least mid 2000′s levels of technology. The machine seen requires a disk to stop, but it’s still far beyond what I expcted from this world. Naturally Hop Pop shows up furious, then gets stuck on the assembly line with the kids deseprate to save him, with spirg ending up doing sow ith the rule book. Also we get Anne’s wonderful repsonse to Sprig asking what a disk is: “I don’t know! i’m from another dimension not the 90s!” They surivive, the factory blows up and the kids apologize and agree to go back to the boring way things have been going.. but Hop Pop thankfully realizes he’s been a bit overbearing and actually gives a good reason why: He’s never taken then out of the valley before and simply got overprotective. This is his family after all, all he has left of his kid and all he really has left beside Sylvia and the farm. It’s understandble he’d go a bit overboard. But Hop Pop decides to compromise a bit in a nice moment: while the impalment fields are obviously a non starter, he does get the kids ice cream (Anne even admits at this point she dosen’t pick the bugs out anymore), and they genuinely enjoy the trip while Sprig (in a hilarious bit of lampshadng as he does it repeadtly) wonders jsut what they were making.. and as I spoiled it was robots.. one of whom is now following them. Wether this means new doom or the plantars getting a new robot family member I don’t know i’m hoping for the latter. Everyone needs a vision in their life. Final thoughts II: While having a bit of an obvious conflict with an obvious resolution the character work combined with the MASSIVE plot bombshell really make this enjoyable and I hope to find out more about just what the hell happened and what these robots are for. Just another good solid episode and an excellent duo to start the season. Next week: Things take a turn for the western and Anne learns to hunt and more about the glow. And with the glow you need to grow to glow... until then i’ll likely have mor ereviews on this channel, I recently reveiwed all of season 1 of close enough if your curious, and until next time.. play us out Willie!

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I love what i’ve seen of this throughly stupid movie. Bye ya’ll!

#amphibia #handy anne #fort in the road #season 2 #brenda song #bill farmer #the suite life on deck #disney channel #disney xd #disney plus #anne boonchuy #hopidiah planter #sprig planter #polly planter #sasha #lord grime

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multimetaverse · 4 years

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Riverdale 4x17 Recap

Finally the VHS tapes are back

Obviously Hiram isn’t going to die and his unnamed tv medical condition will be cured one way or the other but is he skipping out on doctor’s appointments because he thinks there’s nothing they can do for him or because he’s not actually ill and he knows it?

Wouldn’t Jughead’s Stonewall credits just transfer over?

Is no one on this show going to question why Charles is always working alone or why he’s always so willing to involve his teenage half siblings in his FBI work?

Mr. Honey saying that Hedwig would be more appropriate for a pre-Nazi Berlin was the funniest thing he’s ever been

Fred’s guitar!

Casey Cott said in an interview with Decider tonight that he acts as though Fangs and Kevin are somewhere between friends and boyfriends but he doesn’t actually know what they really are. Sounds like useful information for RAS to give his actors! For me this is the first ep I’ve actually seen Fangs be a good love interest for Kevin so I’m okay with Kangs though I still have my clown shoes on hoping for a Koose endgame

RAS revealed that it was actually the CW who asked him when he’d be introducing the Archies into the show. It’s nice to see them though obviously their being introduced now because the core 4 need some nice moments before everything blows up

Casey Cott is killing it ,why has Riverdale been wasting him all this time? The creator of Hedwig actually reached out to Riverdale and asked if he could help out with the musical ep and Kevin’s wig is from the movie which is cool

Casey revealed that the Karchie kiss was improvised and it shows in KJ’s reaction. It went a lot better for Archie then when Joaquin kissed him

Mr. Honey may be a stick in the mud but at least he waited until after Kevin was done performing to pull the plug

Sleepover is random but fun. I guess this is Kevin’s ‘arc’? Getting over his Farm past. I really appreciate seeing Betty and Kevin actually being friends

Sly little Twin Peaks nod with that slice of pie Cheryl slid to Mr. Honey, a nice little teaser for the Lynchian ep next week

Only Cheryl would think singing a song called Sugar Daddy to her principal is a good idea and that’s why she’s the best

Mr. Honey saying toodles was the second funniest thing he’s ever said

I keep waiting for Mr. Honey to be exposed as a pedophile or drug dealer or cult member or murderer like every other educator on this show but looks like he may just be what he seems? Just a normal straight laced principal

No surprise that it’s Hiram driving the wedge between Varchie, despite all the evil he’s done Veronica is still his heir. Though if I was Archie I’d probably be bringing up all the times Hiram tried to have him killed

Jughead is at an 11 all through his song

Is Kevin popular enough to get so many people to rally to his cause?

That Luke Perry flashback is gutting

Also that’s a retcon, it was Archie looking at Veronica that got him over his stage fright. Archie as an unreliable narrator or the writers trying to undercut Varchie?

Origins of Love is a bop

A long last we come to the Barchie. A kiss which will live in infamy

Better do your homework kids or you’ll get cucked

My god, the hands on the windows. This dream dance sequence intercut with their actual slow dance from the pilot is really bringing out the emotional big guns trying to sell Barchie to the audience. As an aside I think Archie’s hair has never been as nice as it was in the pilot

(Ed Sullivan voice): Ladies and Gentlemen, the Archies!

Well looks like the voyeur knows that Jughead is watching. That was well done creepiness on the writers part

Casey Cott was the MVP of the ep and I feel bad that his stellar performance will be overshadowed by the ship drama. Casey said that the tickle story line is coming back which makes it sound like this was the high water mark of Kevin’s story this season

I’ve thought since the pilot that Barchie would ultimately be endgame so long as the show wasn’t suddenly cancelled. Now I don’t think they’ll actually be together this season or even when S5 picks up after the likely time jump but I do think they’re being set up to be the final endgame since it looks like RAS will probably get the 6 seasons he wanted and has ‘’planned for’’. I think that Varchie and Bughead stay together while Barchie at the very least emotionally cheats before the voyeur reveals the tape of the Barchie kiss and that reveal sinks the ships and shatters the core 4

I feel that 4x17 will come to be seen as a turning point in that the show will never be as ‘good’ or at least as entertaining as it has been up to this point. This was one of the most disastrous ways that they could have set up Barchie and the damage done to relationships and characters would be nearly impossible for even a better show with better writers to fix. It would have been very easy to at least sink Varchie and Bughead should have broken up after their parents started dating and certainly after it was revealed that they share a half sibling

However, with the writers looking at doing a 6 year time jump after S4 eventually ends I can see the logic in using a cheating scandal to scatter the core 4. It falls flat though in that we really haven’t seen very much of the core 4 in quite a long time. Hell Jughead was at a different school almost all this season. It wouldn’t surprise me if we actually see a lot more core 4 scenes in the next few eps in a way to hurriedly build them up so that their partings will be more painful. The time jump is another disaster in the making; very few shows can pull off a time jump of more than a few months

Next ep should be interesting with the Barchie hand holding on the bed, the David Lynch homages, and hopefully more voyeur stuff. We already know Charles is shady and in league with Chic so it wouldn’t be shocking if he’s involved somehow. See you in a couple weeks Riverdalers

#Riverdale #Barchie #Bughead #Varchie #Betty Cooper #Archie Andrews #Jughead Jones #Veronica Lodge #Kevin Keller #Hiram Lodge #riverdale recaps

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amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines · 4 years

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Sweet Pea//Freeze Your Brain

Request: Can I request a song-fic with song Freeze Your Brain, with Sweet Pea/Reader, plot twist, reader is "JD" in it; for the plot maybe Sweet Pea's talking about how the Serpents are his family; sorta trying to help reader settle in to school

hey! first of all warning: death of a parent and abandonment. other than that, i hope you enjoy it! also, this has been sitting in my drafts for m o n t h s. like i wrote this last year at some point i think, so here ya go! sorry everything is taking so long.

“Oh.” Sweet Pea’s familiar voice makes you look up from the magazine stand you were staring at. You and Sweet Pea were in practically every singe class and you almost always sat next to each other meaning that you talked to him several times a day, practically every single day. From the conversations that you had had, you learned that he was a serpent, he was funny and he was cute as hell. “I see you’re familiarizing yourself with the local and only 7-11 we have.”

“Something like that.” You shrug and take a sip from your slush.

“Sooooo, what are you actually doing here?”

“It better than being at home? You?”

“Fangs wanted some Corn Nuts.” He replies and waves the packet in his hand.

“Oh.” You reply and go back to reading the front of the magazines.

“So, how are you finding Riverdale High?”

“Its okay.” You shrug. “I’ve been to ten high schools already so they’re kinda all starting to blur.”

“Oh. Do you think you’ll be staying here for a while?” He asks, a hint of hopefulness in his voice. Your eyes meet his and you send him a warm smile.

“Hopefully.” You nod. “It just depends on my dad. We have to move around a lot because of his work so there’s no point in ‘planting roots’ if you know what I mean?” You explain and he nods.

“Yeah, I get that. My mom was kinda the same before she left me. Instead of moving around she just moved in a lot of different ‘boyfriends’.”

“I’m sorry she left.”

“Its fine.” He shakes his head. “You know enough about me. Tell me about you. I’ve only had a so many conversations with you in class but I know nothing about you.”

“There’s not much to tell.” You reply and walk around to the drinks aisle. He follows closely behind you and picks up a bottle of soda. “My dad keeps two suitcases packed in the den no matter where we are so its really only a matter of when. Thats why I haven’t really bothered talking to people. I used to, but after the third school there’s really no point, don’t learn names or bother with faces. It easier that way.”

“That sucks.”

“Yep.”

“If it makes you feel any better I don’t like Riverdale High much. Its too preppy.”

“It is definitely the preppiest school I’ve ever been to.” You laugh softly and he smiles at you.

“I think you would have fit in at Southside High.” He says casually and you raise an eyebrow. “Thats the school the serpents went to before Riverdale. Southside High was closed down and we were transferred.” He explains.

“Oh.” You take another sip of your drink and move further down the aisle.

“Apparently we’ll ‘get a better education’ at Riverdale High. But you can’t get much of an education if you’re fighting people that hate you because you’re ‘invading their territory’.” He mocks and you laugh.

“Is the education the reason Southside High was closed?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “It was deemed a health hazard due to toxic fumes from one of the chemistry labs but everyone knows that Mayor McCoy just needed an excuse to close it down.”

“Ah.”

“So, how do you cope with moving around all the time?”

“You promise you won’t laugh?” You ask and he nods.

“Cross my heart.” He replies. “Scouts honour.”

“I don’t believe you were in the scouts.”

“Fine. Serpents honour.”

“Every time I feel like the worlds falling down and that I’m going to start having a breakdown, I always got to 7-11.” You admit and he stares at you dumbfounded.

“7-11?” He asks and you nod.

“Its like a concrete oasis.” You add and he laughs loudly. “You said you wouldn’t laugh.” You roll your eyes and start to walk away.

“I’m sorry.” He runs after you. “I just wasn’t expecting that.” He catches up to you and you stop walking so you can glare at him. “Tell me about why you love 7-11.” He continues and you raise an eyebrow. “I’m being serious. Tell me.”

“Fine. But if you laugh I will kick you in the balls.”

“Okay?”

“7-11 never changes. Literally every single store is the same, from Las Vegas to Boston. Linoleum aisles that I just love to get lost in. And the slushes. Don’t get me started on the slushes. They are God-like.” You ramble and he smiles at you. “Are you laughing?” You ask in a threatening tone.

“No!” He says quickly. ‘Its cute.”

“Hmmm.” You narrow your eyes at him and drink some of your slush.

“I really do live for the sweet frozen rush.” You say to no one in particular.

“I feel the same way about the serpents...kind of.” He interrupts your moment of thinking. “They took me in when not even my own mom wanted me.”

“Your mom’s an idiot.”

“I know.” He nods his head and you smile softly at him.

“Care for a hit.” You offer him your slush and he takes it from you.

“Who needs cocaine when you can just have one of these?” He asks.

“Exactly.”

“Anyway, so the serpents. Its like having a really weird extended family. We look after each other, its even written in the rules. Although I dunno if anybody has actually written them down or if they’re just remembered. But they’re the best family I could wish for. Better than my actual family.” He trails off and stares out the window for a few seconds. He’s clearly thinking about something unpleasant, but it passes and he quickly turns his head to look at you. “What about yours? Does your mom know you eat all this crap?”

“Not anymore.”

“What?” He asks worriedly, his eyes widening.

“When my mom was alive, we sort of lived normally but now its just me and my dad.” You explain.

“Sorry.” He apologizes. “But its nice you still have your dad.”

“We’re a littles less formal...and normal.” You mutter the last part. “He isn’t really around much so I had to learn to be an adult quicker than a lot of kids do. I learned to cook pasta, and almost burned the house down the first time.” He interrupts you with a small laugh and you smile at him. “I pay rent and stuff. Turns out the world owes you nothing.”

“Not even a cent.” He finishes your sentence and you face him.

“Exactly.”

“You know if you wanna fit in at Riverdale High, you need to know what you’re doing after. You ask literally anyone that goes there and they’ll tell you their life plan for the next 10 years.”

“Hmmm, lets see. I could go to a college, but who knows where I’ll be by then.”

“You could marry a lawyer.” He suggests.

“Hm. Depends on what type. Are they gonna be like a medical lawyer or one of those ones that get given to criminals when they can’t afford one?”

“In the middle? He’s the best at his firm, but his firm isn’t the best.”

“I could work with that.” You nod and walk towards the candy section.

“But.”

“Ooooo. There’s a but? Now I’m intrigued.”

“The sky’s gonna hurt when it falls.”

“Damn.” You sigh and he sends you a sympathetic smile.

“You better start building some walls.”

“Already have.” You wave your half empty slush in front of his face and laughs.

“Do you have any more insightful information?”

“Nope. Wait, don’t talk to anyone but the serpents. Now I’m all out.” He says making you laugh.

“Do yourself a favour then.”

“Whats that?” He asks.

“Freeze your brain.” You hand him your slushie and he nods.

“I’ve got brain freeze!” He says after a few seconds.

“Get lost in the pain Sweet Pea.” You reply. “Just shut your eyes tight until you vanish from sight. Thats what I do.”

“Thats not healthy.” He replies and gives you your cup back.

“I know. But do you have any other solutions?” You ask and move further around the shop until you finally decide where to stop.

“No.” He shakes his head.

“Exactly.”

“Fight pain with more pain.”

“Yep. Now you’re getting it.” You smile at him proudly. “Forget in six weeks you’ll be back on the road...and you’ll have to say goodbye to the only good thing you’ve had in your life for a long time.” You say sadly and look at Sweet Pea. He’s already looking at you, his gaze going from your eyes to your lips and back again. You lean in slowly, and he closes the gap, his hands resting on your waist. You pull back and smile at him softly. His expression mirrors yours and you both stare at each other for a few seconds before you turn away.

“On Monday do you want to sit with Serpents at lunch?” He asks and you hesitate for a moment while your filling your drink up. “Its not gonna hurt you to make some friends.

“You sure about that?” You raise an eyebrow.

“Try it.”

#sweet pea #sweet pea imagine #sweet pea x reader #sweet pea x you #sweet pea x y/n #riverdale #riverdale imagine #jordan connor #jordan connor imagine #jordan connor x you #freeze your brain #heathers

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joaquinwhorres · 6 years

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Bottle Rockets (Sweet Pea x Reader)

Summary: You don't need feelings. You don't need friends. You need to stop obsessing over the fact that Sweet Pea is spending his summer with Josie instead of lighting bottle rockets with you.

Based on Request: hello!! could you maybe write something where the reader was a northsider friends with sweet pea and he kind of ignored her while he was with Josie for the summer and now the reader is ignoring him and he's feeling miserable because he misses his friend (and maybe has actual feelings for her)? thank you 💚

Pairing: Sweet Pea x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 14,976

Author’s Note: This goes so far beyond the original request, but I started writing it, and the story just took life. I hope you love it as much as I loved writing it. [Insert normal begging/plea for feedback in asks and reblog form]. Also, I tried to capture some of the Sweet Pea we saw flirting with Josie. Hopefully, there was some success.

Warnings: Language (there's always language). Underage drinking. Minor jokes about killing yourself (because of boredom). References to sex.

When it came down to it, it was all the Black Hood’s fault.

If it weren’t for him, the town wouldn’t have been so on edge and quick to shut down Southside High, ignoring years of hostility and prejudice and throwing over half of the student body into the already crowded halls of Riverdale High.

And while that itself was less than ideal, the situation would have at least been manageable if The Black Hood hadn’t murdered Midge. Because that changed everything.

That led to Fangs Fogarty getting arrested. Which prompted Ms. Klump to shoot Fangs. Which incited the riots and all of that wreckage. Which landed you in the seat next to Sweet Pea for the remainder of Physics.

The first day of the new seating arrangement came with little warning or fanfare—unless of course, you counted the fact that the trophy case was still cordoned off with caution tape and pretty much the entire student body all slipped on Southside Serpent jackets yesterday under threat of death from Veronica Lodge and Cheryl Blossom.

But still.

Walking into physics with your teacher mumbling “Your new seat is on the board—as if he knew he was about to cause the Riots - Part 2–was the first indication that shit was about to go down. Looking at the list of names, with you being placed towards the back right corner and seated next to a kid whose name you did not recognize should have been your second clue. Because you knew everyone who was supposed to be in this class. And maybe if you'd used a little bit of deductive reasoning, you would have known who you were sitting next to before the hulking mountain of flannel and leather dropped into the seat next to you.

"This is bullshit," he grumbled, slamming his books on the table and pushing them up out of his way.

It was Sweet Pea. Of all the people in this class, you were sat next to the angriest one of all. The one who hated Northsiders with every fiber of his being. So much so that he threw a trashcan through the trophy case.

And whose best friend was shot by his classmate's mom, a little voice inside your head reminded you.

You ignored her, as you normally did when she brought up irrelevant or otherwise inconvenient facts.

"What?" he growled turning to meet your gaze.

You blinked twice, unaware that you had been staring at him and shook your head giving what you hoped was a casual shrug. "I just didn't know that your name was--"

"Sweet Pea." His brow furrowed even more than it had a second ago making his face even darker if that was possible. "My name is Sweet Pea."

You rolled your eyes and looked back up to the front, your eyes landing on the projected seating chart once more.

The rest of physics passed by in silence between the two of you, Sweet Pea keeping his head bent close to his notes and you keeping your eyes trained on Mr. Flutesnoot so you didn't take note of any of the other empty chairs in the classroom.

The rest of the week followed the same pattern as the first day. You arrived first and took your seat. Sweet Pea arrived a little later and dropped angrily into his. The two of you would silently complete your work, pack up as quickly and quietly as possible when the bell rang and then dash off to your last class of the day.

It wasn’t until the second week of the new seating arrangement that things took a turn. When you walked into the class, all eyes were on you. You walked down the center aisle to your seat, still feeling the eyes of your classmates on your back. It wasn't until you took your seat and looked up at the board that you understood why they were staring at you.

On the board, in Mr. Flutesnoot's scrawling handwriting were two words: bottle rockets.

Your stomach clenched as you took hold of your pencil, opening up to a blank piece of notebook paper and staring fixated ahead, your face stony. Because of this, you noticed Sweet Pea enter the classroom and the way that everyone's eyes seemed to flick from you to him. "This is gonna be good," Alex Cabot whispered behind you. Hushed snickers dotted the classroom, and this didn't go unnoticed by Sweet Pea. He scowled at row after row of students as he passed them on his way to you. The look did nothing of course, not even dissuading the oggling as he dropped into the seat next to yours.

You looked over at him and then put your eyes back onto your paper as the bell rang. Mr. Flutesnoot came back into the classroom. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen," he grinned and you rolled your eyes. He always seemed like an announcer whenever he was starting class. "I hope you're ready for our final lab of the year."

"Unit-Bomber is," Cabot snickered. "She's been waiting for this day all year."

"Probably ready to finish off the school," his partner, Fletcher Foley, added and the two boys chuckled.

“And I bet her partner is just dying to help her.”

“They still haven’t repaired the banner he cut.”

You picked up your pen, grinding the tip down into your desk. Keep your mouth shut, you chanted in your head. They're not worth it. Keep your mouth shut. They're not worth it. You continued to chant it throughout Mr. Flutesnoot's instructions and mini-lesson on factors to consider during the design stage.

"Alright, talk to your partners and discuss. What materials are you going to use? Play with the simulators to design the nose cone and wings and any other modifications you may want to make. Yes, Mr. Cabot?"

"We can't make this into an actual rocket right. Like, substitute real gas for water?"

Mr. Flutesnoot narrowed his eyes in confusion as you pressed your pen tip even harder into the desk. "No, you can't use rocket fuel."

"Well there goes the Unit-Bomber's big plans," Cabot snickered. You slammed your pen down and turned to Sweet Pea.

"So, any ideas?" you asked, sort of breathless. He jerked a little in his seat eyeing you, as if suddenly aware that you were about to go off at any second.

He shrugged his shoulders with a small shake of his head, and you gave a tight-lipped smile, pulling a laptop in between the two of you. "Why don't you play with the simulation, and I'll research what materials will work the best?"

"She has to tell him what to do because he's too stupid to actually understand directions," the voice came from behind you.

You watched as Sweet Pea's face went suddenly white and then dark, a snarl growing on his face and his fist clenching. If he had been a bit faster, he might have threatened to rip their throats out if they didn't cut the shit or some other kind of barbaric and totally justifiable punishment.

But he wasn't as fast as you

"Hey, so, if you're going to talk shit about us, can you at least try to keep it down a little?" you asked, your voice a vitriolic sort of cheery. "Or, I don't know, make it vaguer who you're talking about? We just get kind of distracted by how bad you are at it."

The rage was wiped away from Sweet Pea's face, replaced with a suspicious confusion.

The two boys behind you looked at each other as if trying to decide who would respond to your constructive criticism of their assholery.

"Ok, you're confused. Umm, quick tips--" you started, hearing the classroom around you gradually grow quieter. "When you're talking about someone behind their back it usually means that they can't hear you. Not that you're literally behind their back."

Foley's face was now completely blank. Cabot looked kind of annoyed.

"And if you were trying to bully us, you usually don't target a gang member who can beat the shit out of you. So cliff notes version: shut the fuck up."

"Ms. L/N!" your teacher reprimanded.

"Sorry, Mr. Flutesnoot,” you apologized, turning back in your chair to focus on the work.

"Freak," one of the boys muttered.

"Just one more quick thing," you turned back around. "Your material's old. The whole Unit-Bomber thing is last year. This year I'm the weird bitch who does shit like this--sorry, Mr. Flutesnoot--and also, hating the Serpents and Southsiders died with the Black Hood. So if you can stop distracting my lab partner with your mediocre middle school bitching, that would be great."

Silence followed as the class waited to see if and how they would respond.

"Are you finished Ms. L/N?" Mr. Flutesnoot asked, crossing his arms.

"I think so. You got anything?" you asked, turning to Sweet Pea. He shook his head. "You guys?" Cabot flicked a finger. You swiveled back to face your rather put-out looking science teacher. "I'm sorry, I don't think it'll happen again."

Mr. Flutesnoot nodded. "Right, well. The next person who starts it back up is going to find themselves in Mr. Weatherbee's office."

"Ok," you agreed before turning back to Sweet Pea who was looking at you as if you'd suddenly turned into a werewolf or had just started speaking Dothraki or something. "So you're good with the simulator?"

"Yeah," he agreed, and the two of you began work.

To some extent, you expected there to be some kind of blowback from you snapping in class yesterday. Earlier in the year, a freshman had snapped on a group of juniors, and the phone footage had gone viral, spawning the hashtag #thehallsarenotyourplayground (which coincidentally had made quite the resurgence when the Serpents rolled into town).

So, you were fairly surprised that aside from a few whispers and the casual wide-eyed look from people who were in your science class, no one brought it up. It didn’t become a thing. The was no hashtag.

If you had to guess it was mostly because everyone else was sick of Cabot’s shit too and there were bigger and better things to whisper about.

Betty Cooper’s dad was the fucking Black Hood.

Veronica’s jailbird father was first gentleman of Riverdale.

Some weird shit had been going on in Greendale.

And Betty Cooper’s dad was the fucking Black Hood.

So, by the time you walked into science class at the end of the day, it was hardly surprising that Foley and Cabot glared darkly at you and the rest of the class watched vigilantly as you walked down the aisle to take your seat, only to find other things to direct their attention at when no words passed between you and Cabot.

You quietly went about drawing your notebook from your backpack, flipping the pages to find the notes you jotted down yesterday. Both you and Sweet Pea had made good headway on your specific tasks. In fact, so far Sweet Pea hadn't really needed any hints or oversight from you. You had given him control of the simulations primarily because you already knew exactly what shapes are the best, but he had come to similar conclusions on his own. One day and you were beginning to think that this partnership may actually work out; you wouldn't have to take over the project and do it all by yourself as per usual.

A stack of books dropped into the table signaling Sweet Pea's arrival.

"Hey," he greeted and you glanced up at him, your brows furrowed in slight confusion.

"Uh hey," you said still staring at him suspiciously. Greetings were not part of the normal. In all honesty, talking wasn't part of the normal.

He nodded before sitting down, looking as content as if the two of you had carried out a whole conversation as opposed to three words. Oooookay then, you thought to yourself, turning back to your notebook as Mr. Flutesnoot began class with the reminder that today was your last day of building the rocket and on Monday you would do launches. He finished his spiel, walking over to his desk to his usual hiding spot behind his computer.

You slid out of your stool without a word to Sweet Pea and walked to the front table, perusing the different materials and selecting the ones closest to what your research turned up.

"You know students used to set off real model rockets," Cabot said casually, sidling up beside you and grabbing the same material you had just grabbed for your fins. "Now they can't even trust us with matches because of you."

You rolled your eyes, picking up some masking tape. "I didn't use matches," you mumbled.

He snorted, bumping into you as he picked up some masking tape as well. "I'm still surprised they let you back. Then again, it seems like now Riverdale will let anyone walk through its doors. Bombmaker. Drug dealers. Gang members. I bet they'd even let that murderer back if Ms. Klump hadn't shot him."

You dropped the masking tape, picking up some duct tape instead as you glared at him. He smiled smugly. "Just stating facts," he said lightly, exchanging his masking tape for duct tape.

"Someday someone's going to kick your ass, and I can't wait to stand there and watch."

"Is that a threat?" Cabot asked, watching as you turned on your heel and headed back for your chair.

"Just stating facts," you threw over your shoulder. Besides, you thought to yourself. If I was going to threaten you, I would point out just how easy it is to torch someone's car.

You arrived back at your seat, slamming the materials down on the table. Sweet Pea looked up at you from his work with a questioning glance. "You good?" he asked.

"Fine. Ready to work," you answered, shaking off the comment and the strange feeling that came from Sweet Pea actually noticing your frustration this time. He nodded but didn't look entirely convinced until his eyes fell on Cabot making his way back to the table behind you. His face darkened, but you didn't have time for his anger issues. "Can I see what you've got?" you asked, pointing to the notebook. He nodded, pushing it over to you so that you could read it more easily.

As expected, all of his conclusions were accurate. "Good call with the fins," you said, nodding. "Not a lot of people think about making them different sizes in the simulator."

Sweet Pea furrowed his brow at you for a second before you scrawled onto the edge of his paper. Fucking with them. You drew an arrow pointing back at Cabot and Foley who had gone suspiciously quiet behind you, the same way they had all year whenever it came to listening in on your work with whoever your partner was. Sure, it was perfectly fine to treat you like shit, but you always listened to the girl who knew enough to get you a free day in science class. It wasn't incompetence that got you the name Unit-Bomber and everyone knew it.

Sweet Pea nodded, his lips quirking up into a distant relative of a smile. "Thanks."

"So, you cut these two the same size, and I'll cut the other ones into the short and the long one," you grinned back. Sweet Pea took the material from you and began tracing the shape he'd researched as you waited for the scissors and the pieces he was cutting to make them the same size.

You heard the whispers of Cabot and Foley behind you followed by the quick scratching out of something in a notebook.

"Perfect triangles?" Sweet Pea asked, holding up the fins for only you to see.

"Perfect triangles," you smiled. Taking one and using it to trace the pattern of the remaining two fins. There was more whispered argument behind you, and a devilish grin crossed your face. Sweet Pea shared the look.

Physics had just gotten fun again.

It felt like ever since they caught the real Black Hood, the student body of Riverdale High found any reason to party.

AP testing was over? Party to celebrate your brains no longer being molten lava.

Dr. Johnson went home sick today? Party to celebrate a sub tomorrow.

Kelly Gordon got a new haircut? Party to show it off.

Student Body President elections right around the corner? Party to influence the vote.

That was how you ended up in Cheryl Blossom's house at ten o'clock on a Saturday night with a beer in hand. You’d had a flyer shoved into your hand by Veronica Lodge, and with nothing better to do, you’d decided that after the Black Hood maybe you were someone who went to parties.

But even if you had suddenly become someone who went to parties, you still weren't the girl in the middle of the dance floor laughing and screaming and surrounded by a large group of friends.

You stood off to the edges of the dance floor, close to the speaker, attempting to give yourself permanent hearing loss and maybe destroy your liver while you were at it. It was easy to lose yourself in the base--to let it take control of your heartbeat and run through your blood along with the liquor. It only took half an hour for you to stop thinking about the sound waves and frequencies and to just have fun like a normal teenage girl out at a party.

You let yourself go until you finished your second beer, and you departed from the safety of your spot for a refill.

It would have been nice if you really had blown out your hearing.

Because maybe then, when you made your way out of the living room, you wouldn't have heard Ginger Lopez' not-so-quiet comment.

"She invited the Unit-Bomber?"

You paused, your grip around your beer can tightening.

"You know what they say," Tina Patel smirked, flicking her hair over her shoulder. "Every vote counts."

"I don't know, I think they could do without one," Ginger snickered and Tina laughed.

"Someone should keep an eye on her. The last thing Cheryl needs is having another house burn down."

You took a deep breath and started moving again, making sure to bump shoulders with a laughing Tina as you passed by. Based on the screams that followed in your wake, her drink had sloshed into at least one of them. You grinned, moving deeper into the house where hopefully the proportion of bitches was smaller.

Thankfully, it seemed like it was. While still heavily populated, everyone in the kitchen was for the most part too far gone or pre-occupied to worry about the black sheep in their midst. You headed over to the table where drinks were piled. On your way, Ben Button was pushed sideways, bumping into you so that you stumbled into the tall figure standing next to the drinks table.

"Shit, sorry," you mumbled, looking up at the figure who turned around and peered down at you. Your eyes widened slightly with shock, seeing Sweet Pea frowning at you. Taking in your face, his shoulders relaxed a little and his brow smoothed.

"Could have just said hey." It was hard to tell if he was teasing you or angry based on the look on his face. He wasn't smiling, and his eyebrows were raised.

"Hey," you greeted, tentatively, reaching behind him to grab another beer.

"Hey," he answered, turning to face you fully. The people next to him moved away a little and your gaze fell back on him. He looked down at you expectantly as if you really had run into him on purpose and now had to carry a conversation.

"So you’re supporting Andrews now?" you asked with an eyebrow raised.

Sweet Pea shrugged. "Toni invited me."

"Forced you to come, you mean." You immediately regretted the snarky and weird way the words sounded falling from your lips. He didn't seem phased at all but shook his head slightly with a shrug.

"What about you? Don't strike me as an Andrews fan."

"I came to be swayed. You know, see what my vote was worth," you nodded, taking a swig of your drink.

"And it's worth....this party?"

You shrugged. "Better than a cupcake."

He snorted and shook his head at you. A silence settled between you two, not altogether uncomfortable but not exactly companionable either.

"Well, don't let me keep you from your friends," you said, taking a step backward.

He rolled his eyes. "Topaz left with Blossom a while ago. I think they're upstairs." And Fangs was still in recovery. "But I guess you should get back to your friends."

You shrugged. "I came alone." There was a pause as his brow furrowed lightly and he gave a slight nod in response to the statement. "I don't need moral support to get drunk and dance," you added, punctuating the statement with a sip of your beer.

He snorted again, and you grinned, basking in the warm feeling of triumph. You had made Sweet Pea, The Angry Gangster, laugh. Twice.

This time, he fully nodded, his eyes running over your body. "So, since neither of us has any friends to get back to, maybe we should stick together? It might make this party a little less...shitty."

"This party is far from shitty," you scoffed. "Free booze. Decent music. And just enough jingle jangle to make most of the people here not assholes. This is as good as it gets on the Northside. Besides," you took a few steps away from him, heading back towards the music. "I'm happy being by myself. See you later."

He raised his drink as a goodbye, and you turned around, taking a sip of yours to try to keep the smile from tugging at your lips.

It took about twenty minutes for you to realize that Sweet Pea may have been onto something when he said the party was shitty.

It was a gradual shift. The music got louder, and the bodies got a little bit closer, pushing in at all sides until you couldn't help but brush up against somebody every time you danced. Everyone's eyes were glazed. Girls' voices got higher pitched, and boys spoke less. A bad feeling had settled in the pit of your stomach, but it wasn't until you felt the cool trickle of beer dripping down your arm from where someone had just sloshed their drink on you as they tried to pass that you realized this party was no longer the best the Northside had to offer. You turned your arm in front of you, looking down to assess the damage only to realize you didn't have a napkin. You heaved a suffering sigh, staring up at the sky before bringing your eyes back down to the party and catching Sweet Pea's gaze. You placed two fingers to your head, cocked the makeshift gun and pulled the trigger, your head jerking to the side with the force of the imaginary bullet.

A smile crossed Sweet Pea's lips as he tipped some of his beer onto the ground. You smiled as well before turning and heading closer to the speaker system and proverbial higher ground.

It was only fifteen minutes until the next hint that this party had taken a downward turn. While shattering your eardrums seemed inevitable, the earsplitting music seemed to keep most of the drunks away and provide you with a little room to breathe. You were even managing to enjoy yourself once again. And then your eyes landed on Sweet Pea.

Or rather, your eyes landed on the blonde girl who was writhing all over the front of his body. Every time he backed away she would follow, too far gone to process the rejection, judging by the way she couldn't keep her head up and her hips couldn't quite match the tempo of the music. He looked up with a face of disgust that melted away for the most part when he caught your gaze. Instead, he lifted a fist and pounded it into his chest several times before his head lolled to the side. You laughed at the brutal stabbing scene before dragging your attention away to continue dancing.

You managed to stick it out for almost another full twenty minutes before suddenly the song that was blasting out of the speaker next to you turned to "Shots."

You swore loudly. Not loudly enough to be heard over the dulcet does of LMFAO, but loudly enough for a drunk girl to look at you as if you were crazy. Your eyes quickly scanned the crowd and it seemed like his must have been too because you found Sweet Pea's gaze in record time. You threw back an imaginary shot before clutching your throat and slowly sinking down into the crowd. When you rose back up he was smiling. He jerked his head towards the kitchen, and despite the fact that you were moderately enjoying your time alone, you found your feet leading you off of the dance floor.

By the time you reached the kitchen, he already had two shots in his hand--courtesy of a wasted Reggie Mantle--and passed one to you.

"So maybe you knew what you were talking about when you said this party was going to be shitty if we didn’t stick together," you said, clinking your glass to his and throwing it back. The cheap Vodka burned on the way down, but it numbed you a little to the party.

“Of course I was.” He hadn’t even winced at his shot. He plucked the cup out of your hand, putting it back on the counter and grabbing two beers instead, passing one to you.

You cracked the can open, taking a sip—a watery chaser to the burning liquor. “Well,” you gasped slightly as you finished your drink. “At least you got the true Northside experience before it imploded.”

“Imploding isn’t the Northside experience?” Sweet Pea quirked an eyebrow.

“Aw," you put a hand over your heart. "You get us."

He exhaled a laugh, taking a drink, and a small silence settled between the two of you. “So, you still happy by yourself?" Sweet Pea asked.

You raised your eyebrows. "You know when you say it like that, it almost sounds like an innuendo.”

He didn’t say anything. Instead, he just inclined his head towards you.

You offered half a smile, shaking your head. "I'm always happy on my own. Not sure if you picked up on this in physics, but I’m not exactly a people person.”

“I don’t know, I thought it was generous of you to try to help Cabot and Foley out with their rocket,” he offered straight-faced.

You smirked and gave a casual shrug as you took a sip of what was essentially alcoholic tap water. “Anyway, I think you’re better off without me hanging around. You seem like you’ve been having a pretty good time on your own.”

He stared at you blankly.

“I saw you having a blast with Heather.” His face dropped and you burst into laughter. “Not into Northside girls?”

“Not girls like that,” Sweet Pea answered flatly.

“Shame, she seemed to really like you,” you pushed. “You’ll break her heart.”

“She’s not even going to remember any of it tomorrow.”

“I mean, that is kind of the point of drinking at parties,” you said, toasting him before downing the rest of your beer. His eyes narrowed slightly as he seemed to give you an assessing kind of look. You slammed your can down onto the counter.

“Well, I’m going to take off. Leave before the cops come,” you announced.

"Need a ride?" He asked, and you tipped your head sharply to give him a questioning look. He was staring down at you with an almost challenging look. You squinted your own eyes attempting to size up the offer.

Accept a ride home from a Southside Serpent? Bad idea.

Accept a ride home from your lab partner? Not as bad.

Accept a ride home from Sweet Pea?

You shook your head. "I’m sure you can guess what I’m about to say.”

“You’re good on your own?” He guessed disbelieving.

You gave him finger guns and to be honest you weren’t even sure you could blame it on the drinks. “I can walk from here,” you said, straightening back up.

"By yourself at this time at night?"

"Survived the Black Hood, so I’m feeling lucky. Besides if someone kills me it saves me the trouble of the massive hangover I'm destined to have tomorrow."

Sweet Pea shook his head slightly, his lips quirking into his almost smile. "See you on Monday, then."

"Maybe," you threw over your shoulder. This time you didn't even bother to hide the smile.

Your walk home was uneventful. As a result, the weekend was swallowed up by a massive hangover on Saturday and rushing to do all of your homework on Sunday. By the time school came around Monday morning you hardly felt ready or rested and judging by the other zombies roaming the halls of Riverdale High, the rest of the student population was in a similar situation.

The day passed in a slow and dull sort of misery.

Until physics.

“Grab your rocket and then line up by the door, we’re going out to the field.” Mr. Flutesnoot greeted. The majority of your chemistry class was already along the wall, and you headed to the back to grab your rocket and join the rest of the class.

Scanning down the line you looked over the different versions of rockets. Some basic but functional and colorful. Others sleek and potentially good enough to give yours a run for its money. And a few were true disasters.

Among this category was Cabot and Foley’s. Because not only had they listened to every last sabotaged direction that you and Sweet Pea has given them, but they hadn’t even followed them well.

The thing had triangle fins of three different sizes and slightly varying shapes. The weight was focused in the bottom of the rocket and the nose cone was sharply pointed. Sweet Pea had tried to get them to cut holes in the rocket, but realizing that'd be taking it a bit too far and even Cabot and Foley weren't that stupid, you'd corrected him. That said, when he had them tape the whole thing with several layers of duct tape, you'd shrugged and let it go.

“Grab your rocket and then line up by the door, we’re going out to the field.” Mr. Flutesnoot said from the entrance of the classroom. You looked up from the line, your eyes falling on Sweet Pea who was scanning the line for you.

You held up, Ophiocus, and he caught sight of your green bottle, coming down to stand next to you.

“Hey,” he greeted.

“Hey,” you answered. He looked no worse for wear than usual. His hair curled above his eye in the way it usually did, and the dark circles that had been under his eyes ever since the riot seemed fainter if anything.

“How was your weekend?”

“Well, I’m here and breathing so you can guess how Saturday went,” you quipped. “You?”

“‘S fine.”

The bell rang and you waited for the sound to die down before you continued the conversation, but before you could get a word in, Mr. Flutesnoot started. “Alright, out to the field. Remember I expect you to walk through the halls quietly and respectfully.” You rolled your eyes but quietly trudged out behind the rest of your class.

“Did you see their rocket?” you murmured to Sweet Pea. He shook his head, stepping out from the line and craning his neck a little to see it. It wasn’t until the line turned to go out the side door that his eyes lit up and he fell back into step with you.

“You’re vicious.”

“I can’t wait to see it fly.” You flashed a crocodile smile.

Luckily you didn’t have to wait long. Their rocket was selected among the first ones to go, and when they brought it up for launch even Mr. Flutesnoot winced at the sight of it. When he backed up to set off the rocket you reached out and grabbed Sweet Pea’s bicep, squeezing it tightly in excitement. He looked down at you, and if your eyes hadn’t been fixated on the rocket that was about to go up, you might have noticed the warm amusement on his face.

“3-2-1,” you chanted along with the rest of the class.

The rocket made it up just a couple of feet before making a hard tilt and crashing down into the ground.

It was the worst one so far. And while the rest of the class giggled lightly at it, you roared with laughter at the looks of shock and confusion on their face, doubling over and clutching your sides.

“Ms. Y/L/N!” Mr. Flutesnoot admonished.

“I’m sorry,” you straightened, wiping the tears from your eyes and shutting your mouth to keep the next burst of laughter in at the looks of sudden realization and anger that flashed across their faces. “I know they worked hard on it,” you added trying to suppress a smile. Next to you, Sweet Pea snorted.

“Alright, well, let’s see yours then,” Mr. Flutesnoot said, as if your rocket would be a similar failure and teach you how bad it was to make fun of other kids in class.

You strode forward, handing him the bottle to set up before stepping back slightly to watch it. Sweet Pea moved up next to you.

The pair of you counted down along with the rest of the class, watching as the water poured out and your bottle shot up into the sky soaring far out over the field.

When it finally landed, a slightly shocked Mr. Flutesnoot directed Sweet Pea to measure the distance the rocket flew. And as he stood there watching Sweet Pea run out, you took the opportunity to turn to Cabot and Fletcher, both of your arms straight out in front of you, middle fingers high, one for each asshole.

But that moment was nothing to when, after Dilton came back with the distance his rocket flew, it was determined that your rocket was the top performer.

“Yes!” Sweet Pea shouted, punching the sky. The rest of the class offered some halfhearted congratulations, and you beamed at him.

“Congratulations the extra credit is yours,” Mr. Flutesnoot announced. “Everyone let’s head back in.”

“That was incredible. Fangs would’ve loved that shit,” Sweet Pea said. A glimmer of something shone in his eyes before the look passed.

“You know,” you said, casually. “This experiment is entirely reproducible at home.”

“Maybe the rocket, but how’d you launch it?”

“Bike pump,” you answered, simply.

He nodded, the grin reappearing on his face. Which slid off as Cabot pushed past, shouldering you. “Fucking Unit-Bomber.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Sweet Pea barked. Your eyes flicked up to Mr. Flutesnoot who was busy opening the doors to the school ahead.

“Why don’t you make me?” Cabot spun around stepping up into Sweet Pea’s face. Sweet Pea pushed him backwards, and Cabot pushed Sweet Pea. A few of the other Serpents in class noticed the scuffle and ran back to step in and crowd Cabot.

“Alright guys back in the building!” Mr. Flutesnoot called. Your attention snapped to him, seeing him craning his neck to see what was happening and who should be written up. Cabot held up his hands in the face of all the Serpents and under the scrutiny of your physics teacher.

Little bitch.

“Better a Unit-Bomber than a dumbass,” you remarked, walking past Cabot who was still held there by the rest of the Serpents until you and Sweet Pea were back in the building.

“You good?” Sweet Pea asked with a quick glance down at you as you rubbed your shoulder.

“Fine,” you shrugged, letting your hand drop.

His eyes remained on you, and you met his gaze, a strange and completely unwelcome flipping sensation in your stomach. You shook your head, stepping into the classroom, pushing the feeling down. You’d deal with this later.

The bell rang, signaling the end of physics and the fact that only one more class stood between you and the weekend.

“Hey, y/n,” Sweet Pea called out, stopping you on your way out of the classroom. You slowed down, waiting for him to catch up so you could walk out together. “I was thinking, do you come over to the quarry after school?”

You narrowed your eyes, looking at him suspiciously, ignoring the way your heart seemed to speed up a little at the offer. “Why?” You asked, drawing out the word.

“I got stuff to make a bottle rocket with Fangs. Thought we could use your expertise.“

You grew stiff and your face went blank. There it was. There was always something. “My expertise as the Unit-Bomber?”

Sweet Pea’s head snapped to you. “You think I’d say that?”

You gave a jerky shrug, looking straight ahead and continuing to your math class.

“Or do you just not want to be seen on the Southside?”

“Think what you want,” you said quietly, your throat feeling tight with disappointment.

Next to you, Sweet Pea bristled. “I asked because I thought you’d enjoy it but forget it,” he stormed off.

Guilt flooded through you. This always happened. Fuck. Things were easier when you just stayed by yourself. “Wait,” you called out, hurrying after him. “I’m sorry. I’m not... I don’t...” you ran a hand through your hair. “Can you give me a ride?”

Sweet Pea’s face remained stony as he looked back at you. You stood in silence until the warning bell rang. His shoulders didn’t relax. He didn’t ease up. Instead he said, “I’ll meet you out front after school.”

You were surprised when he actually pulled up and parked his bike out front at the end of the day.

You walked up to the bike. “Hey,” you said, softly.

“Hey.” The word came out short, and he didn’t offer anything else except for an intense stare.

Despite the fact that your skin tingled with discomfort, you refused to break his gaze. “Can we forget about how I was a touchy asshole who is apparently new to the concept of friendship?”

Sweet Pea snorted and visibly relaxed, shaking his head. “Get on the bike.”

You hauled yourself onto the back, wrapping your arms around his middle and trying to lose yourself to the feeling of the wind in your hair and sun on your face as he tore out of the parking lot and towards the quarry.

The drive passed mostly in silence. Slightly more comfortable than your other silences if only because you were fairly sure you’d have to lean up and shout in his ear for him to actually hear you. Instead, you occupied yourself by watching the landscape pass and ignoring the way your arms wound their way tighter around him every time he turned. Kind of like how, when you arrived, you fought to keep down the shock and outrage at his living situation.

He lived in a tent.

In fact, it seemed like most of the Southside now lived in tents. And it seemed like complete bullshit that the mayor or someone hadn’t spoken up to address the fact that half the town had lost their housing and were now living with minimal running water and plumbing.

If it weren’t for years of practice pushing things down, Sweet Pea might have seen it all on your face. But instead he looked at you and found only a blank sort of contentment. “Fangs!” Sweet Pea called, and out of a nearby tent popped Fangs Fogarty’s head.

He didn’t look like he’d been shot just a couple of weeks ago. His smile was bright and genuine even as he hauled himself up on crutches and hobbled out to greet you.

“Hey, what’s up?” He greeted, coming over to you. You moved a little faster to meet him halfway.

“Fangs, Y/N. Y/N, Fangs,” Sweet Pea introduced before disappearing into a tent. The introduction was hardly necessary. Everyone in Riverdale knew exactly who Fangs Fogarty was.

“Heard a lot about you,” Fangs said, reaching a hand forward and you shook it even as you cast a glance at Sweet Pea’s tent. Fangs chuckled at the look on your face. "You're one of the few Northsiders Sweet Pea thinks 'Isn't that bad.'" You snorted.

“Wow. High praise,” you said flatly, and Fangs full out laughed.

“For him? It’s about the same as declaring—“

“Shut up,” Sweet Pea cut him off, appearing with a couple of grocery store bags. “Or I’ll throw your crutches in the lake.”

“Whatever man I’m about to be off them anyway,” Fangs dismissed goodnaturedly but thankfully didn’t finish his statement.

“Sooo rockets?” you asked, changing the topic just in case Fangs decided he did want to make things more uncomfortable than they already were.

Fangs grinned, his eyes sparkling. “Yes.”

You wished you could have blamed how bad Fangs was at building rockets on the fact that he was injured. But given that most of his tasks were literally groundwork, it really came down to the fact that he was too excited and a shit listener. Without your constant intervention and shouting at him, the rockets would have turned out similarly to the SS Clusterfuck you saw in physics. As a result, it took twice as long to build the damn things than it should have, but eventually you had your rockets, Cobra, Viper, and Galileo ready to go on the launcher you talked Sweet Pea through building.

And while Fangs was a shitty engineer, at least he was funny and a good conversationalist and had just enough of a saving grace personality for you to not want to drown him in the quarry like you would have for anyone else.

“Mine first,” Fangs declared, pushing Cobra into your hands. You rolled your eyes and set it up, looking back at the boys.

“Ready?” You called back, and they flashed a thumbs up.

“Go!” You shouted, moving back towards them as Fangs pushed down on the tire pump, sending the rocket up. It was fairly impressive the thing went up at all.

He let out a whoop as if he had actually been a part of a real-life rocket launch. Behind the three of you there was some clapping. You turned to see Toni Topaz standing with Cheryl Blossom.

“Impressive Fangs,” Toni commented with a smile.

“Wanna set one off, Topaz?” Sweet Pea asked, holding Viper out to her.

“Nah, we’re heading over to Cheryl’s, I just had to grab a few things,” Toni shook her head, disappearing into her tent. It was hard to miss the way Sweet Pea’s face fell.

“Teaching them all your tricks Unit-Bomber?” Cheryl asked, quirking an eyebrow with a smug little smile. You glowered at her.

“Why? Looking for new ways to set your house on fire?” You shot back.

“Shit,” Fangs remarked.

Cheryl stepped forward and opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Toni who re-emerged from her tent. “Ready to go, babe?” she asked, looking expectantly at Cheryl. The redhead plastered on a smile.

“No need to be here when y/n inevitably blows up half the tents.”

Well, shit. Toni was making her soft.

You watched as they climbed onto their motorcycles and pulled away.

“I’ll say it: that was incredible,” Fangs said, looking over to you. “You out bitched the bitch.”

You shrugged, feeling significantly worse than five minutes ago.

“Why'd she call you the Unit-Bomber?” Fangs asked, genuinely. Sweet Pea reached over and hit him upside the head. “The fuck?”

“It’s what everyone calls me,” you shrugged, sitting down on the ground next to Fangs. “It’s Riverdale. You do one thing and suddenly that’s all you are. You guys know that.”

A shadowlike feeling settled over the group as the three of you looked out over the water.

“What’d you do?” Fangs asked, breaking the silence. Sweet Pea hissed words you didn’t catch. “What? She knows what I did. Half the town knows about your anger issues—“

“I caused an explosion during a unit final last year in chemistry. By accident,” you added.

“You are too good at science for it to have been an accident,” Sweet Pea commented.

You rested your head on your knees. “Well, it was.” You simply hadn’t known that the reaction would go that wrong and be that big. It had nothing to do with the fact that your boyfriend just broke up with you because you refused to tell him you loved him, so you canceled class because you wanted to go home, not sit behind him in chemistry.

The silence once more settled over your group, each of you in your own thoughts and miles away from the quarry.

That was, until Fangs spoke. “Well let’s blow some more shit up. By accident.”

"What are we doing today?" Fangs asked, clapping his hands and rubbing them together in his excitement. You rolled your eyes, continuing to unpack the contents of your grocery store bag onto the bank of the quarry.

After the first bottle rocket experiment, Fangs had insisted you come back to teach other 'actually cool science experiments.' "You can homeschool me until I'm cleared to go back," he'd suggested. And like a sucker you fell for it. Even after Fangs returned to school, you always found yourself climbing onto Sweet Pea's motorcycle and riding down to the quarry with them.

Out of habit. You told yourself. Because that's definitely why you did it. Habit. Nothing else.

As a result, there was a direct relationship between the proximity to summer and the frequency of you exploding shit on the Southside.

"Well if Sweet Pea remembered to get the brake fluid this time, I think we're ready for a real explosion," you answered, your eyes darting up to Fangs just in time to see the look of absolute glee light up his face.

"I have it. Hold on, it's in my tent," Sweet Pea grumbled, disappearing into his tent to grab the supplies. Neither you nor Fangs had let it go for the entire week that last Friday Sweet Pea had forgotten the crucial part of your experiment. As a result, the three of you had resorted to sitting by the quarry’s edge and just talking for five hours. It was boring, uncomfortable, awkward, and the reason you were thoroughly convinced that these boys may just be your best friends.

"Fangs," you directed, holding out the Dr. Bob soda bottle.

"On it," he chirped, ripping the label off of the bottle before unscrewing the cap and beginning to chug down the drink. You watched him, counting in your head as the off-brand soda slowly disappeared, stopping when Fangs finally pulled away. Half of the bottle was empty.

"31," you announced. "Best yet."

"I can do better," Fangs said, punctuating the statement with a burp. He handed the bottle off to Sweet Pea who had reappeared with the brake fluid in hand. He reached down, offering the chemicals to you, and you took it from him, your fingers brushing against his. Your skin tingled at the contact, and as normal, you swallowed hard and ignored it. Sweet Pea did too, instead bringing the Dr. Bob to his lips and gulping down the soda quickly. By the time he was finished, only a little remained in each of the pockets at the bottom. You took it from him, careful to grab it at the top and away from his hand and finished it off.

You also pulled out the notably smaller plastic water bottle and finished that by yourself.

"Alright," you gasped, putting the water bottle down. "I need you to fill the chlorine up until here." You pointed to a groove on the water bottle and let your shoulders drop when Sweet Pea took the bag of chlorine from Fangs. As always he stopped right when he was supposed to, placing the water bottle back on the ground next to you.

You offered the soda bottle up to Fangs, and he took it, swapping Sweet Pea for the chlorine.

"Fangs, I swear you better listen to me," you warned, rising up from where you crouched to point a finger at him threateningly.

"I always listen to you," Fangs scoffed, rolling his eyes and stepping forward towards the bottle.

"I mean it. This is actually dangerous."

"I mean it too," he agreed, but that damn glint was in his eyes, and you knew you were in for it.

"So when I say stop, you're actually going to stop pouring it into the bottle."

"Relax. Trust me," he soothed.

"No." Both you and Sweet Pea spoke the word at the same time, and Fangs face split into a grin.

"Ok, I promise I'll stop after you say stop," he agreed, and you nodded so that Sweet Pea reached out the bottle for Fangs to pour the chlorine in. You kept a careful eye on the mark you set in your head, watching as the chlorine fell to the bottom of the bottle.

"Stop," you instructed a little before the mark. The chlorine continued to pour.

"Just a little more," Fangs stated, his lips twitching into a smile.

"Fangs, stop," you snapped as the chlorine piled up over the mark.

"I am--"

Sweet Pea yanked the bottle away from Fangs and some of the chlorine fell out onto the bank of the quarry. He held the bottle out with one hand and punched Fangs hard in the arm with another. Fangs swore as he laughed.

"Give me that," you said, taking the bottle from Sweet Pea and glaring at Fangs. "You're the worst science student. You know that right?"

"You're saying that because I'm from the Southside," he folded his arms.

You shook your head, turning away to place the bottles even closer to the water. "I'm saying that because you're a moron. Sweet Pea, can I have the brake fluid?"

"Sometimes you're just as mean as Toni," Fangs complained.

"She's meaner. That's what makes her such a good replacement," Sweet Pea corrected.

You looked over your shoulder at Sweet Pea, your eyebrows furrowing. "Stop saying that."

"What that you're mean?" Fangs teased.

You stood up straighter, crossing your arms against your chest. "No, stop calling me a replacement."

"What should we call you then? An upgrade?" Sweet Pea smirked.

You shook your head, maintaining your serious expression and ignoring the way your stomach dropped at his words. While he had been making fewer and fewer comments about Toni (maybe due to the fact that she and Cheryl stopped by less and less), there was always one or two about how they didn't need her now that they had you. And you didn't like them. You weren't sure why. "You can't just replace someone Sweet Pea, that's not how it works. People are different."

The smiles fell from the boys' faces. "We know that," Fangs said, earnestly. "It's just a joke. Right?" He hit Sweet Pea in the shoulder who nodded. His face had a new look on it. Something you hadn't seen before and couldn't quite trace to a specific emotion or thought. You decided you didn't like it though. It made you squirm.

"Ok," you swallowed, tearing your eyes from Sweet Pea and turning around back to the bottles. "Bring me the brake fluid.

You didn't look to see who pushed the container into your hand, focusing instead on pouring a proportionate amount of fluid into each container and swirling it to mix it.

"Alright, step back," you instructed, and the boys followed you back to stand a few feet away, all of your eyes glued to the bottles.

The three of you waited in silence. Fangs leaning on your shoulder and Sweet Pea standing so close that if he were just a centimeter to the left, his arm would be touching yours. You waited as a minute passed.

"Fangs, you fucked it up," Sweet Pea commented.

"No," you turned, tilting your head up to face him. "Chemistry takes time."

He raised his eyebrows and moved a fraction of an inch closer so that his arm bumped against yours. You turned your attention back to the experiment and shifted to your left, leaning more into Fangs.

A new silence enveloped the three of you, this one slightly less comfortable than the last. So much so that twenty seconds later you were stepping forward towards the bottles. "Maybe I should have shaken them more---"

A whoosh of fire shot up from water bottle, flames shooting up to five feet high. You jumped, but before you could step back or react in any other way the soda bottle burst into flame with a roar, pieces of chlorine shooting up out of the bottle and whizzing past you. A hand wrapped around your wrist and yanked you back as the three of you scrambled away to escape the burning bottle.

To your left you could hear Fangs' uncontrollable laughter as you slowed to a stop, colliding with Sweet Pea. His arms wrapped around you to steady you, and you glanced up at him. "You good?" he asked, looking down at you with that face again. Your mouth seemed to go dry and the world seemed to spin, and one word rang through your head: out.

You stepped out of his grip, whirling on Fangs with your chest heaving, ignoring the way Sweet Pea's face fell.

"You almost killed me!" you shouted.

"I didn't tell you to step forward," he protested hands up, his eyes flicking from you to the smoldering remains of plastic. You opened your mouth to argue but instead laughter burst out. And then Fangs was laughing again. And Sweet Pea. And the three of you laughed until you cried and then you scavenged bottles from around the campsite to continue setting off explosions until it got dark.

You had taken to sticking around until it got dark after that. Most of the time the three of you would make dinner and eat together after the experiment, and then you'd talk until one of the boys offered to take you home.

Tonight, Fangs had let you know that he wouldn't be available to chauffeur you. "I have a rendezvous," he announced a little while after dinner, standing up from where the three of you had been stargazing.

"A rendezvous?" you repeated, leaning up on your forearms. "With who?"

"I don't kiss and tell, you should know that," he winked, and you rolled your eyes.

"Just make sure you don't get shot this time," Sweet Pea called out from his position on the ground.

Fangs flipped him off, turning to head over to the motorcycle, and you watched him go, a small spark of anxiety making it's home in your chest. You turned to look at Sweet Pea. "Do you know who?"

"Could be anyone," Sweet Pea shrugged, continuing to look up at the stars. You stared at him for a second longer, trying to figure out if he was deflecting or if he really didn't care before laying back down next to him.

It was tempting to push it. To see what he knew about Fangs’ love life. But something about the thought of continuing this conversation set off warning bells. Change the topic, the little voice told you.

"You know," you said, tucking your arms under your head. "I used to want to be an astronaut."

"Really?" Sweet Pea asked, turning his head to look at you.

"Mhmm," you hummed, keeping your eyes on the stars. "Back before I realized how much fun it is to blow shit up."

Sweet Pea snorted, returning his gaze back up to the stars. "Why?"

"They're so far away from all the bullshit," you whispered expecting to hear him snort again, but instead he was quiet. "And when I look at them, I don't feel so..." you trailed off, your chest growing tight with discomfort as you treaded close to the intimate. You abandoned the statement, taking a different route. "They just make you realize how small all of us are in the grand scheme of things. I like that." Sweet Pea was still quiet next to you and that tight feeling took hold of you once more. You'd shared too much. Gone too deep. You turned to him, fully intending to make a sarcastic comment--something, anything to alleviate the tension, but when you faced him you found that his eyes were on you once more, and your throat closed up, not letting any of the words that you'd planned get out.

"I like that too," he said. His eyes remained fixed on yours, and even though you desperately wanted to look away and back up at the stars or anywhere else, you stayed focused on him. Because dammit, you were going to keep this friendship. You would not self-eject. You would not break away. You would keep eye contact and continue the heart to heart even if it felt like you were being strangled by every prolonged silence.

"Can I ask you a question and you won't be on my shit for getting too personal?"

"Depends on the question," you offered a wavering smile before breaking your promise to yourself and staring back up at the stars, your eyes searching for familiar constellations, anything to separate you from the thoughts and the uncomfortableness of living in your own body.

"Do you really like being by yourself?"

You were somewhat relieved, and a wistful sort of sigh escaped you. "Mostly."

"Mostly?" Sweet Pea repeated.

"I can't do...I'm not a feelings person. It's easier to be by myself." You let a hand fall to the grass, twisting a couple of blades before tugging them out of the earth. "But it's not always...good."

Beside you, Sweet Pea started to laugh, and you swung out your fist, bringing it down to punch him in the stomach. The air left him in a quick exhale even as he continued to try to laugh. "You really are bad at feelings."

"Shut up," you grumbled, a prickly feeling on your skin. "I was being honest."

Sweet Pea attempted to pull himself together. "I know, just...you couldn't find a better word than 'good'?"

"This is why I don't do this shit," you grumbled pushing yourself up into a sitting position so you could get up.

Sweet Pea's hand darted out and grabbed your forearm. "Hey, I'm sorry, stay."

"Not unless we change the subject," you glowered.

The corner of Sweet Pea's mouth quirked up. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know. Tell me something embarrassing. Or don't. We can talk about motorcycles or movies or Hot Dog or anything else," you suggested, breaking from his grip and wrapping your arms around your knees.

Sweet Pea was quiet again, and you wondered if you could somehow disappear at this moment. You could just get up and walk away. Tell him that it was past midnight and you were tired.

"Can I tell you about this girl I like? Or will that make you uncomfortable?" Your stomach rolled, and you suddenly felt the urge to vomit. Instead you shrugged.

"As long as you don't expect me to tap into my romantic side and give some love advice, it should be fine." Your voice came out thankfully flat and sarcastic. You could practically feel Sweet Pea rolling his eyes.

"Like I need love advice from a robot," he scoffed, and you ignored the twinge of pain in your chest but didn't bother to hide the annoyance from your face.

If he noticed the fact that your spine straightened and you grew still, he didn't say anything. There was definitely no apology. Instead, he heaved a dreamy sort of sigh. A sound that quite frankly you should never have heard come out of Sweet Pea's mouth.

"Alright, Romeo, spill."

"She's just extraordinary," he stated simply. A part of you wished you had laid back down so you could sneak a look at his face, but you couldn't move. Instead, you picked at your nails, letting your science partner turned friend--probably best friend--spill his guts. "I don't know her that well...we just started talking a little in school, but I noticed her the first time I ever walked in Riverdale. She just has that sort of presence you know? When she walks into a room, people notice. And not just because she's beautiful. It's like, you can sense how confident she is. And she should be. She's the best at what she does, and I just know she's going to make it big one day, so I kind of want to take my chance now before I lose it forever..." he trailed off and you chanced a glance at him. He was staring up at the stars wistfully, and you looked back down at the ground, rolling a twig between your fingers. "I don't know. Even though she's a Northsider, she's kind of...intimidating. Hard to make a move on."

You could feel your heart pounding in your chest. "If she's intimidating, she's probably used to guys keeping their distance and never saying anything," you murmured. "Maybe take it slow. Play the long game."

"You know that almost sounds like love advice."

You turned back at him, throwing the stick you were twirling so it bounced off his side and onto the ground. He smiled and looked back up at the stars. “I don’t know. She seems more like a bold move type of girl.”

You shrugged. "I'm just a robot."

He didn't say anything. And despite yourself, you could feel your hopes slightly raise.

"But you think I should take a chance?"

Your heart beat faster. "Yeah," you whispered.

He nodded, thinking it over. “Maybe I’ll ask her in math or something.”

Your stomach dropped. You couldn't tell if it was in relief or something else. Because that would be wrapped up in your knot of feelings. What you could tell--what was factual--was that you and Sweet Pea did not have math class together.

That was the last time you saw Sweet Pea.

At least, it felt that way.

You started riding down to the quarry on the back of Fangs' bike, Sweet Pea meeting up with you later mid-way through the experiments. At first, you had made jokes that you needed him there in order to keep Fangs in line. After all, if he was gone, who was going to actually help you with the experiment?

But then he started coming just to watch the results of the experiments.

And then it started to take him hours to come back to the campsite, and he missed them completely, having to ask questions about just why there was rainbow covered foam everywhere or what had that charred out bottle even been originally.

And then he stopped asking about the experiments. By the last day of school he stopped coming at all.

It was the second week of summer before either you or Fangs talked about it.

The two of you sat by the edge of the quarry, covered in paint and the marks of your explosions littering the trees and the ground around you. It had been your most successful Post-Sweet Pea experiment yet. Presumably because Fangs was allowed to shake up the experiments and hurl ziplock baggies full of paint anywhere he wanted. The experiment was practically tailored to his destructive soul.

It was probably the post-chaos peace, the most disarming kind of quiet and calm there was, that made him ask.

"So," Fangs said slowly, looking over at you out of the corner of his eye. "How are you doing?"

Your brow furrowed in confusion as you turned to face him. "Good?"

He let out an amused exhale, shaking his head. "I mean with the whole Josie thing."

"Oh," you responded, still confused. "Also good?"

"Good," Fangs said, turning his full attention back out to the quarry.

You followed suit, watching as the water gently moved, the sunlight reflecting off the surface so that the water glittered. You tried to keep your mind focused on how beautiful the day was. How nice it felt to feel the sun on your skin. How peaceful the quiet was and how you didn't feel suffocated in silence when you were next to Fangs. Being still next to him was easy in a way it just wasn't with Sweet Pea.

"Why?" The word escaped. Lulled out of you by the calm afternoon and immediately your stomach clenched. You could see Fangs shift to face you slightly, his eyes running over the profile of your face as you purposefully kept your eyes out on the quarry, staying as still as possible.

Fangs shrugged, joining you once more in looking out over the water. "I just thought the two of you would be a thing."

Your heart stopped. Everything stopped. You’d been expecting it to some extent, but still. Carefully, you pushed down all of the feelings and discomfort that rose in your chest, keeping your mind focused on the moment you were in now, not letting it slide back to the night you and Sweet Pea stared at the stars or any of the times you rode on the back of his motorcycle, your arms wrapped around his middle to get to here. You focused instead on the facts.

Sweet Pea and you had never been anything more than friends.

You had gone into this wanting to be friends only.

Friendship was easier.

Friendship was safer.

"We're just friends," you said picking up a rock and throwing it into the water. "It's cool."

"Cool," Fangs echoed. He didn't say anything else, and after a while you let yourself be wrapped up in the silence too, enjoying just sitting with him.

You meant what you told Fangs.

You and Sweet Pea were only ever friends. Just friends.

You believed it with every fiber of your being.

Until you saw him and Josie at Sweetwater River.

While you spent most of your evenings with Fangs, destroying shit, causing mayhem and laughing until you couldn't breathe, you enjoyed spending the long summer days by yourself. Sometimes it was reading. Other times it was gardening. And on days as hot as today, you would go swimming, regardless of the risks.

You pulled your car in behind a maroon sedan, throwing the keys into your bag with your towel and heading down to the secluded spot on the river you favored. The fact that there was another car parked by the river wasn't too unusual. After all, it was the best parking space, nearest to where the river was widest and most of the high school kids and college kids home from break did their swimming. Your spot was firmly in the other direction, a narrow section of the river where it was a little shallower and therefore not quite as dangerous to swim alone in.

Due to the trees and brush surrounding the path, it wasn't until you were most of the way down to your spot that you saw them.

Laying out on a blanket, Sweet Pea hovered over Josie as she wrapped herself around him. You snapped your eyes shut, turning quickly and trying to block out the breathy sounds that were escaping her as you scrambled back up the path. You felt dizzy and nauseous. Even after you climbed into the front seat of your car and slammed the door shut.

You held on tightly to the steering wheel. So tightly your knuckles were white and your elbows locked into place and your back pushed against the seat of the car. And then you saw it again. Sweet Pea's hands gripping at Josie's chest as he kissed at the underside of her jaw. The look of ecstasy on Josie's face as she gripped tightly onto Sweet Pea's shoulders, his hand moving and cupping the side of her neck as he dipped his head to kiss along her collarbone.

You collapsed suddenly, your forehead banging against the wheel as you choked out a sob. Your body shuddered and shook with the force of your crying as you beat the wheel with the palm of your hand, every now and then missing the edge and startling the animals nearby with a honk.

It took a few minutes before you pulled yourself together enough to sit up, shoot off a text, shift your car into drive, and start back onto the main road.

It was another twenty minutes or so before you parked at the edge of the Sunnyside Trailer Park campsite.

"Hey, Y/N are you ok?" Fangs asked, coming to meet you as you slammed your car door closed, brushing past him as you stormed down to the riverbank, the plastic grocery store bag swishing and bouncing against your leg.

"Let's blow some shit up." Your voice was still gravelly, and you were certain your eyes were still red and wet. You may’ve even had a red mark on your forehead

To his credit, he didn't try to make you talk. He turned on his heel and followed you down to the river bank, following your instructions precisely before standing back and waiting patiently as you poured toilet bowl cleaner into the different plastic bottles. You walked backward slowly, your eyes on the bottles, only stopping when you felt your arm brush against Fangs'.

You watched as the bottles slowly filled with white smoke, the plastic expanding and elongating before finally erupting loudly, one after each other.

Fangs chanced a glance at you, concern and hesitation obvious as he stared at the tear streaks running down your face. You wiped them off with the back of your hand. "It's just the loud noises," you mumbled weakly, and he nodded, throwing an arm around your shoulder as you stared at the smoking remains of your bottle rockets. You stood there completely still for a minute, maybe two before you turned into him, allowing him to wrap his arms around you, holding you close as you sobbed onto his shirt.

Neither of you talked about that day ever again.

You found other conversation topics to fill up your summer. From Archie Andrew's court case, to Fangs string of unnamed conquests, to new methods of creating explosions, and once or twice the proposition that you should join the Southside Serpents.

You didn't go anywhere besides your home and the Quarry, and as it turned out, you liked your summer that way. It was safer. Better. No anxiety that you might run into anyone you didn't want to see. Which was why when Fangs invited you to come to Cheryl's end of summer pool party with him, you declined.

Because everyone would be there.

Fangs didn't try to convince you to change your mind. Because he was the best friend you could ever wish for. He didn't even tell you how in one week you were going to have to face the facts whether you wanted to or not. He nodded and mentioned offhand that Jughead had asked him and Sweet Pea to meet here in fifteen minutes. Which coincidentally reminded you of the chores your mother had asked you to do at home that you needed to get to immediately.

And that was why you were entirely unprepared to find Sweet Pea by your locker at the end of the first day of school.

"Hey," he smiled.

You didn't say anything, focusing on keeping your hands still, keeping your face straight, keeping your shit together. You raised your eyebrows, silently moving to open your locker. Sweet Pea turned, leaning his shoulder on the locker next to you.

"You look familiar. Weren't we lab partners or something last year?"

"Or something," you remarked quietly, putting your books back into your locker.

He snorted and ran a hand through his hair. "How was your summer?"

"Good," you shrugged. You tugged your backpack out, slipping it onto your shoulder.

"Yeah?" he asked. "Fangs told me about some of the shit you did." You hummed, closing your locker door and ignoring the way his eyebrows furrowed. "We should do a repeat tonight."

You paused, keeping your hand on your locker. "I can't."

"Hey," Fangs greeted, coming up to the two of you and hanging an arm over Sweet Pea's shoulder despite the height difference. Both you and Sweet Pea ignored the greeting.

"Why not?" Sweet Pea asked, shrugging Fangs' arm off of his shoulder.

Your eyes found Fangs' and then darted back to your locker. "I have homework for my AP classes already. Sorry," you said firmly and with noticeably absent sympathy. "I'll see you guys later." You gave them a brief tight-lipped smile before turning around speed walking your way to the bus.

You thought that maybe after the first week back your stomach would stop doing that dropping thing every time you saw him.

It didn't.

You also thought that maybe after the first couple of weeks you wouldn't want to throw up every time you saw Josie.

You still did.

Even though you knew she and Sweet Pea weren't together, you could still hear those sounds in your head which almost made it impossible to not puke.

But it did get easier to not think about it over a few weeks. You changed your seat in all of the classes you shared together, sitting in the front of the classroom, closest to the door so it was easy to scoot out. You ate lunch in the band practice rooms, primarily because it was easier to hide there than anywhere else and the band teacher had long since given up on enforcing school rules. You started to remember why you loved being alone so much.

By the time it was almost the end of the third week of school, you had once again perfected the art of being by yourself. Only caving every now and then to respond to Fangs' texts.

Life was better this way.

"Y/L/N!" You had been on your way to English when suddenly someone had grabbed your arm, pulling you to a stop. You jumped a little, turning to see Sweet Pea holding you by your bicep. "What's going on?"

"I'm going to class?" you asked, furrowing your eyebrows at him and attempting to calm your rapidly beating heart.

"No," he pulled you over to the side of the hallway and you stumbled a few steps before ripping your arm out of his grasp.

"Let go, shit," you mumbled, turning your arm to look at it as if expecting to see some kind of damage.

"Why are you avoiding me?" Sweet Pea demanded, folding his arms as he stared down at you.

"I'm not. I'm going to class. Trying to get an education," you rolled your eyes attempting to push past him.

He stopped you, grabbing you by the shoulders and bringing you back to face him. "Cut the bullshit."

"Get your hands off of me," you snapped, your eyes darting around him to see other students slowing down on their way to class to watch the confrontation. As if you were a spectacular car crash for them witness and assess the damage. Sweet Pea let go immediately, but his face grew darker.

"What's your problem?"

"No problem." You shrugged, keeping your face closed off and distant.

"So you're pretending I don't exist for....fun?" Sweet Pea guessed. "That's fucked up, Y/N."

Your eyes followed the students who were now blatantly rubbernecking, looking anywhere other than Sweet Pea. "Like you can talk.”

"What's that supposed to mean?"

No emotion. No feelings. Nothing. Just facts. you chanted to yourself. Just state the facts.

"Just that it's pretty convenient you want to exist and be a part of my life now, but where were you this summer?"

"I was busy," he said exasperatedly as if you were some toddler who didn't understand why her parents went to work instead of playing with her all day.

"And now I am. Sorry I don’t fit into your schedule," you shrugged, moving past him and out into the hall. The warning bell rang. It was the surprising sound that made your eyes sting.

"I thought we were friends," his voice called at your back. You whirled around, finding him much closer than expected. So close that if you had wanted to, you could have easily stabbed a finger into his chest. But you didn't want to. You didn't want to ever touch him.

"Yeah, so did I. Until I sat by the quarry all summer with Fangs while you were busy fucking Josie all over town." You turned back around to head off to class. "Fuck off," you called over your shoulder.

"Did you have to yell at him?" Fangs asked, leaning against the locker next to yours. You looked up slightly startled from where you had been exchanging your books. "Because he's being a huge pain in the ass now."

"I don't want to talk about it," you answered, shoving harder on your binder to try to get it to fit inside.

"Of course not."

You glared at him but didn't rise to the bait.

"You told him you saw him and Josie?" he raised his eyebrows.

"I told you I don't want to talk about it." You rotated the binder, hoping to fit it in the new way, pushing it until finally it slipped past the edge of the door.

Fangs sighed. "We didn't talk about it all summer. Give me this one conversation now."

"No." You slammed your locker closed, starting to walk away.

"This is why," he stated to your back, and you turned to face him, shocked to hear any sort of annoyance pass Fangs' lips. The words weren't heated, more exasperated. "This is why you two are so fucked."

You crossed your arms and remained silent.

"Neither of you will talk to the other."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Bullshit." Fangs dismissed. "You like him. He likes you. Discuss."

"Sweet Pea didn’t tell you? I’m just a robot. Nothing to discuss"

"You’re not a robot. You may not like to talk about your feelings, but it doesn't change the fact that you have them."

You felt indignant. At least you tried to hold onto that feeling even as your chin began to quiver. Fangs' shoulders dropped as he stared at you, taking a few steps closer.

“It’s not fair.” Your voice came out petulant and broken. “Why do I have to forgive him and get over it, and he gets to do whatever he wants. He ignored me for months but I can’t do it for like three weeks?”

“Are you really that petty?”

“Yes," you answered. “I don’t know.”

“Talk to him, y/n. Tell him about the day you went to Sweetwater River.”

“No. Never.”

“Then don’t. Just stop making me watch whatever this is,” he said, and with that he turned around and left you standing in the middle of the hallway.

You got fairly good at avoiding both Sweet Pea and Fangs after that. If anything, the confrontation with Fangs was a reminder of why it was always better to be by yourself. Even friends got too annoyingly involved for their own good. Analyzing you. Evaluating your emotions and your actions. Eventually everyone expected too much out of you.

And you didn't need that bullshit.

What you needed was to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and carry on without them. Like always. Show them you didn't need their approval. You didn't need their advice. You didn't need their presence in your life.

You were happy alone.

You were fine alone.

You would be ok alone

As soon as you showed them you didn't need them.

And that was exactly the opportunity presented to you by Veronica Lodge's invitation to attend her new speakeasy's opening night. It was also the reason you got dressed up as requested and put more than a minuscule effort into your appearance for once in your life. Because you wanted them to see that you were thriving own your own. And he could just eat his heart out that he had to live without you from now on. They. You meant they.

You pulled yourself from your thoughts, instead focusing on the details of the room around you. At how absolutely fabulous everything looked. The old-fashioned lighting. The velvet curtained stage. The classmates dressed in dazzling clothes. Everything exuded charm and class, and it was easy to lose yourself in the time capsule.

"Hey."

You turned to face the person who greeted you, ignoring the lurch in your stomach that you wished would vanish.

Sweet Pea stood there, hands in his pockets, staring down at you. He was dressed head to toe in black, his silky button-up shirt rolled up to his elbows and arms decked out with the usual bracelets he never took off. You couldn't help but notice the absence of his dog tags and wondered if he tucked them in for the night or left them at home. You hated yourself for noticing.

"Hey," you greeted softly, and he stepped closer, and now you couldn't help but notice that despite the fact he dressed up his hair was still a tousled mess, falling over his forehead in random curls.

Dammit.

"I didn't think I you'd come to this thing," he said with an exhale, stopping a few feet away.

"Why not? I like mocktails and music," you shrugged, swirling your own mocktail in your hand as if the action gave more authenticity to your words.

"Josie's singing," he answered simply. It took everything in you to keep eye contact.

"So?"

"I didn't think you liked her."

You shrugged, taking a careful sip of your drink. "I don't have any problems with Josie."

"Then why were you on my shit about this summer?" his eyes narrowed.

"Because it wasn't particularly fun being blown off all summer regardless of you were spending time with," you answered, tightly.

Sweet Pea crossed his arms and lifted an eyebrow. "What happened to you like being alone?"

You paused, and his eyes glittered with triumph. Inside your chest, your heart constricted as if it recognized defeat as well, and the only honorable way out was through a sudden heart attack and death.

"Fuck this," you muttered, placing your drink on the bar and brushing past him to dart up the stairs.

He followed, pushing people out of the way in his haste to catch up to you. "Can you stop leaving every conversation I try to have with you?" he called at your back as the two of you rushed through Pop's and out the front doors.

You stopped and spun. "Why? There's nothing to talk about. I thought we'd hang out this summer; we didn't. Obviously we're not as close as I thought. We're on the same page now."

"Why are you so mad about this?" he shouted, stopping a few feet away from you.

"Why are you so mad I'm ignoring you now?" you returned, watching people scramble to get out of their cars and speed walk inside. As if they were running away from a bomb they knew was about to explode. Which might be appropriate.

"Because it doesn't make any fucking sense!" he held out his hands as if he wanted to strangle you but instead curled them into fists and shook a little.

"I missed you, you dumbass!" You blurted out, chest heaving as you stared at him. He took the confession in the same way you imagined he'd take a punch. A look of shock passed over his face as he stepped back towards Pop's and then seemed to regain his balance and took a step forward. Your shoulders dropped as the anger seemed to drain from you, leaving you with all of the feelings you'd been so careful to push down. "All summer. I missed you. And you didn't miss me because you had her," you continued softly.

"What?" He asked trying to follow your words as your face heated up like it was on fire, and you felt like you wanted to cry or throw up or explode into tiny bits. You pressed your lips together, trying to keep it in, keep it down. You offered a jerky shrug. "So what was this all some kind of revenge?"

You shook your head.

"Then why the hell were you ignoring me if you missed me?"

You looked away from him.

"Dammit, Y/N!" he shouted, and you turned back to him.

And in the next second you darted forwards swiftly putting a hand on his shoulder to help launch yourself up, standing on your tiptoes and leaning into him, pressing your lips to his. His hands caught your waist, almost reflexively, supporting you even though his lips didn't move. Didn't press into yours. Didn't open. Didn't do anything.

You pulled back, sinking down onto your heels. Sweet Pea didn't say anything. Or move his hands. Instead he looked down at you with an eyebrow quirked.

You had thought---You swallowed the thought, pushing it down with the other ones, and letting the feeling that you had taken a bad situation and fucked it up even more wash over you. Fucking feelings. Your lips moved, trying to make any sort of words, but every time you attempted to say something your voice caught in your throat. "I can't--" you finally whispered, attempting to take a step back and out of Sweet Pea's grasp, but his hands tightened on your hips.

His face still seemed angry. Maybe even more now than before you had kissed him. "You've been avoiding me because you have feelings for me?"

You looked down at your feet.

"How long?"

You shook your head.

"How long?" His voice was slightly angrier, and he gently shook you by your waist.

"Since we set off the rockets in class," you whispered, still refusing to meet his eye.

He exhaled a disbelieving kind of laugh. "And you let me feel like an ass for liking you? And then again for having a summer fling so I could move on from you since you were clearly not interested?"

It would have been nice if you could tell him that you had no idea he liked you. Tell him that you hadn't purposefully distanced yourself and tried to make it seem like you weren't interested. That you hadn't convinced yourself you weren't interested. Because then you wouldn't have felt like such shit in this moment.

"I'm sorry." Your voice was still quiet. "I wanted to save you from this."

"This?"

"Me. Being a disaster who can't feelings. This always happens. It's why I blew up a lab. It's why I'm alone. I'm broken, ok? Just let me avoid you, and you'll be better off."

"No." Sweet Pea said quietly, pulling you closer to him.

"No?" Your voice came out smaller than you wanted it to.

"Not this time. No," he shook his head.

"It'll just get worse."

"We'll work it out."

You felt the familiar claustrophobic panic rise in your chest. The one from the way he looked at you the first time you set off an explosion by the quarry. The one that had taken hold of you at the lake while you were gazing at stars with him all those months ago. You looked up into his eyes and found them fixated on you, and it all felt like too much. The fact that he knew you liked him. And he liked you. And you guys would be in a relationship. Together. And how could a robot like you ever deserve someone like him or even come close to making him feel as happy as you did when the two of you were running away from a soda bottle that was about to explode.

But the promise of more moments like those and not having to see him with someone else, the knowledge that to some extent he hated not being with you too, the feeling of having him stand close to you with his hands firmly on your body. Those things would be enough to push through this moment and maybe even the next.

"Ok," you whispered, looking up at him.

"Good," he nodded, bending over and capturing your lips into his. And it felt like bottle rockets. Not the thrill of setting one off and waiting too long to run away, but as if you were the water bottle expanding and expanding, full of longing and anxiety and happiness and other emotions you weren't sure the names of, and now, kissing Sweet Pea, you were exploding into a billion pieces, feeling everything all at once and enjoying every second of it.

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