I stood in front of Sweet Pea, his arms around my shoulders as we chatted to Fangs and Jughead, catching up and talking about potential baby names.
"I think you should call the baby Jug, because you know I'm the brother you never had." Jughead winked at me as I just shook my head laughing.
"Yeah but I'm the actually potential blood-brother so I feel like you should call the baby Fangs in honour of me." Fangs smirked making both Sweet Pea and I crack up laughing, the two of them continued bickering on as Sweet Pea leant down and kissed the top of my head whispering to only me.
"If it were up to me I'd call them Dani-Pea. It's a mix of both of our names and that's what this baby is." I turned around when Sweet Pea said this to see if he was being serious and he actually was.
"Babe I love you but there's no way we are calling our child our 'ship' name from Kevin. It's not happening." I leant up and kissed him softly to stop the pouting that was about to occur.
"Gosh darn it, we may just have to have another baby so I can name them Dani-Pea, or maybe I'll just call them that as their nickname." Sweet Pea joked as he poked his tongue out at me, I shook my head as a response and held a smile on my face before turning back around and resuming our previous position.
Jughead and Fangs were now playfully arguing about the female versions of their names coming up with: Juggine, Jugith, Fareng and Fangsington to name a few. Honestly there were worst names that I wouldn't have wished on my worst enemy but it was good to see them talking about something over than wars, death and violence.
I looked up as FP stood on the small hand-made stage near the river, Cheryl and Toni stepped closer too us, both of their smiles were larger than I had ever seen them and it honestly made my heart smile at the two of them. Every time I saw 'Choni', yeah we are now referring to them as their couple name all thanks to Kevin, I couldn't help but smile. They fit each other as perfectly as Sweet Pea and I did and that right there was true love.
"Listen up now!" FP shouted in order to get everyone's full attention, it pulled me out of my daydream as I looked up once more. "Hey listen up! Some sixty years ago, the very first Serpent meeting took place on these same riverbanks. It makes sense that this is where we gather now and where I..." His voice halted as he took a deep breath in, making eye contact with Jug before nodding and continuing.
"Where I say my goodbye. Jughead would you step up here son." Shock filled my body at the fact that our king was stepping down but I was also so incredibly proud of Jughead for what was about to occur. Jughead had confusion written all over his face as he sat and stared at FP unable to process what was actually going on.
"Dad what are you doing?" Jughead asked softly as he stood up on the stage next to FP.
"What I should have done a long time ago." FP patted Jughead on the back before speaking loudly to all of us again.
"I'm retiring from the Serpents! For real this time." There was a small commotion as everyone looked at each other both confused and surprised, after all of these years FP was retiring completely. "Wow wow wow. My boy; my boy has never stopped fighting for this crew. Hell he almost died for it. That's why I'm giving you the mantle." Cheers erupted from all of us as everyone smiled at the Jones men on stage.
Cheryl and Toni stepped closer to the stage making me quite confused but I brushed it off as I continued clapping for both Jughead and FP. Sweet Pea cheered softly and hit Fangs in the stomach instinctively making Fangs flinch completely in pain.
"Sweets you are a bloody idiot he was shot four weeks ago remember?" I smiled at him as I shook my head at his forgetfulness.
"Oh shit dude I'm so sorry! Here have a drink." Sweet Pea apologised to Fangs as he handed him a new cup of beer only making the both of us smile before paying attention to the stage once more.
"Now as your first official duty as Serpent King" FP spoke as he reached his hand out, Toni stepping up to him unzipping her bag and handing him a bright red leather jacket. "I think you know what to do with this." FP smirked at Jughead nodding once more at him.
"Take it." A few moments passed between the two Jones men, both knowing damn well that he wasn't just talking about the jacket. Slowly Jughead smiled as he accepted the jacket and the throne from his father making us all smile and cheer more. Fangs and Sweet Pea both held up their cups as a sign of respect to them as everyone else continued clapping FP off the stage.
"Alright, alright. All I can say is; I love you dad." Jughead spoke his first sentence as our new king which only made me prouder.
"The Serpents will not die out, not on my watch." Whilst Jug spoke again Cheryl removed her existing jacket from her shoulders, Jughead extended an arm out too her motioning her up on stage. The smiles between Jughead and Cheryl alone were incredible but as I looked over to Toni I saw how proud she was of her girlfriend and it made me tear up a little bit.
Without another word Cheryl slipped into her brand new Serpent jacket with the help of Jughead, she had finally found her family and it was with us. As the jacket was fully on the cheers erupted throughout the entire grounds, we made them louder than we had before as we accepted Cheryl into our family.
After a few minutes of standing on the stage accepting all of the praise and love she stepped down and kissed Toni on the lips passionately making me cheer them on before they walked over to the three of us with Jughead now joining too.
"Welcome to the Serpents Cheryl, you were already family but now it's just official." I moved away from Sweet Pea and hugged her tightly, my smile couldn't be wiped off of my face even if I tried.
"Oh D it means so much to me that you mean that. I know we haven't always been friends, as a matter of fact I didn't particularly like the fact that you were the co-queen of the Serpents with Toni when I first met you but just like with my T-T I have fallen in love with you, in a friendship way of course but I really do love you and I'm so excited to meet this mini you in just over six months." Cheryl's hand rested on my now showing bump as she started talking to the little baby growing inside of me.
"Oh I love you too Cheryl and I'm so happy you found your soulmate with our beautiful Topaz." I hugged both Cheryl and Toni before stepping back to talk to Jughead as everyone else continued talking.
"So how does it feel to be the king of the Serpents Jones?" I smirked as I hit him playfully in the arm.
"Honestly this whole thing is so surreal but I wouldn't have it any other way. My dad became king when he was just two years older than I am now and it just gives me hope that I may actually do him well, you know?" I nodded as Jughead put his arm around my shoulders in a side hug.
"Despite my lack of biological parents FP is still my legal guardian, at least for a couple more months and I wouldn't change that for the world. You're going to do incredible Jones, you really are." I smiled up at the boy who was like a brother to me before we walked over to the group once more.
"Hey princess, I missed you." Sweet Pea smiled instantly as he saw me walk back over to him, he kissed me softly on the lips before looking in my eyes and smiling.
"I missed you too Sweet Pea. I promise you I will never leave you for too long though, you're not that lucky." I winked at him and kissed him once more as he cracked up laughing before taking a sip of his beer.
"I would never dream of leaving you princess. You're my everything. There is one thing I have to do though." Sweet Pea smirked at me before running up and jumping on the stage making me curse under my breath at the near miss.
"FELLOW SERPENTS!" Sweet Pea's voice silenced everyone more so in confusion than anything as they looked at my incredibly tall boyfriend standing on the stage. "I HAVE A VERY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF MY OWN TODAY!" Despite the fact that he had everyone's attention Sweet Pea insisted on yelling his entire mini speech.
"YOU ALL KNOW THAT DANICA AND I HAVE BEEN ON AND OFF FOR YEARS NOW BUT HAVE BEEN GOING STRONG FOR THE LAST FEW MONTHS. WELL LADIES AND GENTS! WE'RE HAVING A BABY!" I blushed rapidly as everyone who didn't already know gasped in shock and then started cheering.
"Get up there D" Fangs whispered as he pushed me lightly towards the stage. With all the courage I had I walked up on the stage to where my boyfriend was standing, I was convinced he had already had too much to drink but it just made the whole situation even more hilarious.
"Danica the night of the riot and the night we thought we lost Fangs, GOOD TO KNOW YOU'RE STILL ALIVE BY THE WAY MAN, I asked you one incredibly special question. I know you already answered this but I never did the actual thing of what you're meant to do. You deserve the entire world and I may not be able to find a way to give that to you but I will give you my entire world for the rest of our lives." I gasped as Sweet Pea got down on one knee to ask me the question that had already changed our lives. He took his mother's ring out of his jacket pocket but I saw it had been altered.
"I took this ring back the night you said yes and you were sleeping soundlessly in our now destroyed bed because I wanted to make it special for you and even more so to the both of us." He titled the ring slightly to show the engravements on the inside of the band: 'you have my world'. I begun crying as I looked at the beautiful ring which had now tripled in significance to the both of us.
"Danica Eden, I know I already know the answer to this question and I'm really hoping it hasn't changed over the last month but, WILL YOU MARRY ME?" Sweet Pea asked as everyone cheered and started clapping.
"Of course I'll marry you Sweets, you have my heart and I promise to give you my entire world too." He stood up and picked me up in the process as he spun me around making me laugh, kissing me passionately on the lips before placing me back down gently and sliding the ring on my finger.
"I was really hoping you hadn't changed your mind on us." Sweet Pea winked as everyone started coming up onto the stage and congratulating us.
"You know I'll never do that." I smiled as Sweet Pea kissed the top of my head once more making me feel whole.