The Jones family was once again on their way to Riverdale. Most of Betty's brothers were coming with their partners, including Nate who was again back together with Kevin. The problem was, these two had adopted a five-year-old cat from a shelter and had nowhere to leave him. After arguing with Betty's mother, the cat had been allowed in the house, just as Bubbles.
When Betty parked the car in front of her home, she kissed Jughead's cheek on the passenger's seat and shook him awake gently. "Babe, wake up. We're here." The guy's eyes drooped open slowly and he looked around in confusion, face still a bit pale. "Feeling better?" the blonde asked him, tenderly brushing her palm against his forehead.
"I'm fine, baby," he breathed and peeked towards the backseat where Bubbles had started barking and Bea was giggling with the dog, babbling something in her own made-up language. "What's the time?" he sighed.
"It's almost five. My mom will have the dinner ready in no time..." She managed to make him smile with that and smirked with him. "I swear, you're the only person who will ever be hungry while sick."
He hummed. "Maybe Bea, too. She's my daughter after all." He winked at her, and Betty sniggered while unbuckling her seatbelt, he out of the car already. Jughead let Bubbles run around the front yard while Betty took Bea out of her seat.
"Mama, I'm hungry," she told her when resting her head against the blonde's shoulder.
Betty smiled and kissed her baby's cheek. It was one of the easiest sentences for the little girl to say, because she heard it all the time, and used it almost as much. "Grandma's making dinner."
"Nuggies."
"No, baby, I don't think she's making nuggies for you," she chuckled, eyes moving to Jughead who was grabbing their bags while grinning to himself.
"Dada nuggies."
"Daddy's not making chicken nuggets for you either, baby," Jughead said and kissed her head. "Here, you wanna help daddy with this?"
Bea smiled big, taking her favorite stuffed animal from his arms and holding it in her arms. "You got those?" Betty asked, balancing the kid on one arm, a duffel bag thrown over her other shoulder.
"Yeah, baby, take her inside."
"Sure?"
"I'm fine," Jughead insisted. "Go. I'll be there in a sec."
"Hey, how's Jughead?" Alice asked when Betty joined her in the kitchen, hoping to help her mother clean up rather than be with all the guys in the living room. Theo had a new girl with him as always, Nate was staying with Kevin's family (since it was a lot quieter) but were here for the night, and Chic had his pregnant girlfriend there as well. Which meant a lot of noise, lots of old Just Dance to being with. She was thankful they were looking after her baby.
"He's better. He took a medicine so he should be down for the night."
The older woman sighed and let Betty start putting the dirty plates into the dishwasher. "What a shame he had to get sick for Thanksgiving. You think he'll be better soon?"
"Honestly, I think he'll be okay tomorrow. He didn't have any fever today... And also I wasn't surprised. The doctor said it was contagious, and he said he'd take care of me even if he would be sick himself, so..."
Betty had a gentle smile lingering on her lips, making Alice do the same. "He's a really sweet guy, Elizabeth. I'm happy you decided to get together again when you did."
The blonde's face changed at that a bit and she peeked at her mom's reaction to see if there was a knowing look or not. Surprisingly enough, there wasn't. Smirking to herself, she kept putting the dishes away, once in a while letting her eyes travel to her mother's face.
She decided she should tell her. But not tonight. They needed to do it with Jughead. Together.
Jughead woke up first the next morning. He felt a bit drowsy and immediately knew it was because of the medicine Betty had given him last night. When the weird state of being cleared away, he frowned at the fact that his arm was dead. The guy was about to pull it away from wherever it was stuck, but he froze when his green eyes landed on the blonde sleeping on it.
His left arm was stretched out under Betty's head, and her hair was messy, a strand of it in her mouth accidentally. Smiling at her, his nose scrunched up a bit as he carefully tried to remove the arm without waking the woman up. He failed. A rather adorable whine escaped from her mouth, outing the clear annoyance of having to change her position.
"Sorry, honey," Jughead murmured and pressed a kiss to her forehead while moving his shoulder and fisting his hand a few times.
"What's the time?" Betty breathed, burying her nose into his bare shoulder. He couldn't help but notice that she was wearing one of his old S t-shirts—something that he had left to the Cooper house even after the two broke up in high school. It had always comforted her to sleep in one.
Jughead turned his head to find the small alarm clock that Betty had always had and sighed. "It's eight."
The girl let out a sigh, and her eyes never even opened before she was breathing again evenly, fast asleep. Jughead chuckled and gently slipped out of the bed, knowing he wasn't as sick anymore, maybe just had a cold. Planting a kiss to Betty's head and checking on Bea in the crib, he tugged on his sweatpants and a t-shirt and left the room, Bubbles in front of him happily wagging her tail.
When he got downstairs, a few people were up already. Hugo smiled at him from the couch when he let the dog into the backyard. "Morning, kid," he said and received a sleepy g'morning from the thirteen-year-old.
Next, he went to the kitchen where people could be heard talking. "Hey, dude," Theo said immediately. "Feeling better?"
Rolling his eyes at the worry on Hal's face too, he nodded. "I'm fine." He turned on the sink and washed his hands, knowing extra help in the kitchen would always be needed with a big family like this. "Need a hand?"
Betty's dad gave him a thankful smile as he pointed on the table. "Apparently Theo's not a kid anymore and Hugo is nowhere near the state of getting up and setting the table."
Jughead chuckled at that, hearing the youngest boy laughing in the living room, a simple amused smile on the older one's face. "I still admire how all of you have even breakfast together every morning."
"You do too," Hal reminded him.
"Yeah, well, we only have one kid. It'd be a bit harder with seven and everyone they have brought. And their boyfriends' dads." He smirked at the fact that FP had been invited to their place for the entire day, starting from the breakfast.
"Your dad's my best friend, too," the man mused.
"Plus, you're a husband and not a boyfriend," Theo added with a nod. "Don't think my girlfriend's dad would be invited."
"Maybe he would if you didn't change them more often than socks," Jughead mumbled and earned a spoon thrown in his way, all the men laughing when it touched the ground.
He needed to talk to Betty. It had been over a year now. They definitely had to tell them.
Once everyone was around the table, everybody was trying to be quiet but didn't succeed. They were all talking in small groups or pairs, even if the person was sitting over the big oval table. Betty and Jughead were speaking quietly about random everyday things while emptying their plates, and occasionally stealing some food from the other.
Bea was seated on her lap, and Jughead kept laughing at the way their daughter was eating. She had mastered feeding herself with a spoon, but some—or most—of it still spilled over her shirt or face, or in this case, Betty's leggings. It had come to the point where she no longer tried to fix the problem and just let the girl eat in peace, knowing she had other clothes for later anyway.
When Jughead reached for the apple juice and filled Bea's cup with it, he grabbed an orange one later and poured some more to himself and Betty, not even waiting for her to ask him to do that. It had started coming naturally now. Just helping each other out.
"God, you two are actually acting like a married couple," Kevin smirked suddenly, and everyone started getting quieter when Nate decided to speak up as well.
"I mean they kinda are one."
"Why is everyone bringing up our marriage suddenly?" Betty frowned.
"You gotta clean that floor up later," Jimmy mentioned, grinning at the way his niece was eating.
"It's my pants, not the floor."
During that small conversation, the others had kept teasing about the marriage thing. "Why is it so bad, anyway?" Jughead murmured, sticking his fork into Betty's last bacon.
"That's mine," she mumbled but grinned when he winked, already placing it into his own mouth.
"Because of that, exactly. You're being cheesy. All the time."
"We're not," Betty argued.
"Yeah you are," FP said, agreeing with her brothers. The blonde gave him a look as well, feeling as if he was her second father. She was natural and comfortable around him too, so she guessed maybe they were acting cheesy and shouldn't have been that close... But that was bullshit. They just got along great.
"I mean I can definitely see why you're married," FP's girlfriend agreed.
Betty and Jughead smirked and shared a playful look. After a brief nod, Jughead spoke up. "Actually, she only agreed with getting married because we went to the court to get Bea and they said a single parent couldn't do it so we had to lie about having an apartment and being engaged."
Everyone simultaneously shut up, staring at them in shock. "Ha-ha, funny," Charles said, rolling his eyes.
"It's true, Chaz," Betty smirked. "He just blurted out he was getting married and we had to do it fast, but not too fast to make you think we're crazy. So we made up this stupid story, but actually started going on dates and fell in love again. He did propose to me in bed too, with a ring, but the first time I said yes was in the courthouse."
Nobody seemed to know what to say, either too confused or shocked, but when her father's mouth did open, Betty had noticed their daughter done with eating, and got up, making her father shut up again. "I gotta clean her up."
And so she left with a wink at Jughead, apologizing with her eyes while laughing at him. He glared at her, but there was a soft glint in his greenish eyes that could never be erased while looking at her.