The sound of a motorcycle could be heard in the distance as the fog rolled in over the horizon. It was late, the sun had completely disappeared only to be replaced by a bright, full moon that hung in the sky precariously. It almost looked like a string was holding up the glowing orb and dangling it amongst the many stars that pinpricked the dark blanket of night.

The rumbling of the bike grew louder as it pulled into a spot outside of Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe. The figure on the bike wore a fitting black tee with matching jeans and to complete the look a leather jacket was slung over his shoulders. It was the kind of jacket that was real and worn, not a designer piece but a piece of who he was. However, this did not eliminate the attractive qualities the jacket emitted. For all its tattered edges and worn lines only enhanced the man's attractive features. His jaw was sharp and angular and when he leaned his head back to shake out his overgrown curls it seemed to stretch all the way to his ears. His incredible jaw was accompanied with high cheekbones that were so sharp they seemed to pull and poke through his skin. His unruly hair, much like his outfit and persona he carried around with him, was the colour of ink. And most of the time, a stray dark curl would fall from his crown shaped beanie, that was always perched on his head, and onto his forehead or into his impossible glacier eyes that pierced anyone who looked into them.

The man flicked his wrist to turn off the bike, cutting the engine and engulfing the outside of the diner in silence. The hand he used to turn and remove the key was adorned with bruises and split knuckles, a collection of dried blood adhering to the bony surface. His right leg stretched out to kick down the stand to balance the bike on its side as he threw his leg over the other side.

The towering figure made his way into Pop's diner, demanding the attention from the patrons of the restaurant but at the same time caring less if he got it or not. Although a regular to the diner since he was a kid, things had changed since then. Wandering gazes of fellow residents of Riverdale avoided looking at the black-clad figure, fearing to gain his attention and hardened gaze. The only person on this side of town that didn't treat him with fear was Pop Tate. Pop Tate always greeted the man with a kind smile and a warm meal, both which were rarities in the young man's life.

This time was no different, as Pop had already started a cheeseburger, or two, on the grill when he heard the roar of a motorcycle in the distance. The combat boot boy walked toward his booth in the far back corner, lean legs carrying him across the tile graciously. Although never spoken out loud it was known that this certain booth was Jughead Jones's.

This is why when he saw a blonde ponytail and a pink pastel sweater in his seat he halted, an eyebrow quirking in surprise. After a moment he continued waltzing towards the booth, sliding into the red lacquer seat across from the blonde.

The blonde looked up from her strawberry milkshake, green innocent eyes meeting his blue and hard ones.

"Can I help you?" the blonde asked, her voice soft with no bite.

"This is my booth," Jughead said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. However, he could tell she was new in town. He would have remembered a face like hers.

The Hitchcock blonde tilted her head in confusion, surveying the half-empty diner around them, "I think you can sit somewhere else, there are plenty of other empty booths."

"I want this one," he deadpanned, leaning back and stretching his arm across the back of the booth as if to claim the seat as his.

"Well so do I," the blonde quipped, curled ponytail swinging as she straightened in her seat.

The beanie-wearing boy couldn't help the twitch of his mouth as it went up in the corner, this girl was something else. Before either could say anything else Pop had put down two cheeseburgers in front of the boy, along with a vanilla milkshake and side of fries. He too paused seeing the blonde in Jughead's booth, only shooting her and then the Jones boy a glance before returning to the counter.

Jughead noticed the way the girl's eyes fell to the food and she unconsciously swiped her tongue across pink-tinted lips.

"Hungry?" he asked, picking up a burger and taking a large bite out of it.

The blonde shook her head fast, ponytail bouncing as she did so.

"No, no. Besides I can't eat cheeseburgers, my mom would kill me if she ever found out."

Jughead stared at the girl before him, noticing the dark smudges under her eyes and the sharp angles of her face. She was beautiful, no doubt about that. But there was something else about her, a lingering darkness or tiredness that seeped into her eyes and tinged her voice when she spoke.

"I won't tell if you don't," he replied, sliding over his plate to her.

"Is this a bribe so I'll leave you alone?" the blonde asked, hands curling into fists under the table to keep herself from devouring the burger whole.

Jughead shook his head, popping a fry into his mouth and chewing it thoughtfully. "I have decided," he started pausing to sip from his milkshake "there's enough room in this booth for the both of us."

"How generous of you," she replied rolling her green eyes.

"You have no idea," the older man replied, flicking his eyes up to meet hers once again.

The two stared at one another for a moment, drinking in each other's features and silently conversing in a way neither had done before.

The green-eyed beauty decided to break the silence, uncurling her fist to stick her hand out between the two in a friendly gesture.

"I'm Betty, Betty Cooper."

He stared at her hand for a moment, thrown off once again, but shaking it firmly as he replied "Jughead Jones"

"Jughead?" she sputtered, amusement lighting up her eyes.

"It's a nickname, trust me the real thing is much worse"

"I doubt that," she teased, toying with the straw of her milkshake.

He grinned at this, enjoying the banter. It had been a long time since someone had talked to him like a normal person instead of the leader of the Southside Serpents.

"Eat your burger before it gets cold," he directed, gesturing to the burger with a loose handful of fries pinched between two of his fingers.

Betty, finally giving into the gnawing in her stomach and the demanding gaze of the man in front of her, took a bite of the burger moaning at the taste.

Jughead swallowed hard, trying not to let the sound of the beautiful girl before him flood to his groin.

"So," Betty said, after swallowing her bite "you live around here?"

"You don't," he deflected, tossing the fries into his open mouth.

"How do you know that?"

"I would know if someone like you lived here, besides the population of this town is about 5 people."

"Well, I just moved here, me and my family," Betty explained.

"Why Riverdale?" he asked, leaning forward on leather covered elbows and letting the dark curl, that often did, fall into his eyes.

"Haven't you heard?" Betty exclaimed, fake shock lighting up her eyes as she leaned forward much like he did "It's the town with pep!"

At this Jughead barked out a laugh, causing the few people in Pop's to turn to their table in shock, no one had ever heard him laugh before. Betty laughed too, hers was much softer than his, sounding more like the bell above the diner's door than anything else.

"Honestly though," Betty said, her voice dropping to more of a whisper and her gaze leaving him "it was all my parent's idea. I didn't want to move, but they got a job offer here and decided to pack up our whole life. I mean it wasn't like I really had one back home but…" she trailed off, teeth coming down to clamp on her bottom lip nervously. "I'm sorry, I don't normally ramble like this" she blushed, pulling at her pink sleeves till they covered her hands.

"It's okay, I don't mind," he found himself saying before he could control himself. Maybe the pink tinge of her cheeks, that was driving him crazy, had gotten to his brain.

"Well, either way, we are here now so I'm going to try and make the best of it." She explained, a determined look on her face.

"And what does making the best of it entail?"

"I'm not sure yet," the blonde confessed, chewing on a fry from their shared plate.

"I have a feeling whatever it is, it will be great," he confessed, blue eyes meeting green as a type of vulnerability she had never seen before pooled in his.

She smiled at him, a soft sad smile that made his insides feel funny and his heart beat fast in his chest.

"Enough about me," Jughead wasn't sure if there could ever be enough of Betty Cooper but he let her continue "what about you? You're very…" she trailed off unsure of that right word to use.

"Badass?" he supplied, grinning wide.

She shook her head, twisting her mouth as she thought, which Jughead thought was adorable.

"Something I don't think they have made a word for yet, a mixture of authenticity and mystery and specks of hardness throughout. But I think there's something soft and sincere on the inside, I saw it in your eyes when you laughed. It was real, more real than anything I've felt or seen in a long time, maybe forever even. It's something that I think is entirely Jughead." Her cheeks tinted pink once again, but her gaze did not waver from his. She wanted him to know what she said was true, that it meant something.

This was not the answer Jughead was expecting. In fact, this was not the night Jughead was expecting.

"Where the hell did you come from, Betty Cooper?" he breathed, eyes wide and a dazed look in his eyes.

She smiled at this, peeking over the edge of her milkshake as she took a long sip, no longer thinking about the calories or hours in the gym it would take to burn off this meal. Jughead had seemed to make her forget all of this, even if only for a moment a weight was lifted off her shoulders.

"I could say the same about you, Jughead Jones" she replied, echoing his words back to him in the sincerest way.

The night at Pop's continued to much later than Betty's curfew allowed, but she was lost in the moment savouring the way he would erupt in laughter and how his mouth would turn up at the corner as he watched her talk. It was a quarter past eleven when Betty had realized the time, at this she jumped from the booth, startling the handsome boy.

"What's wrong?" he asked, unable to control the tug of his mouth as the corners pointed downwards.

"I'm so late, my mom is going to kill me!" Betty exclaimed, frantically trying to pull her light jean jacket over her arms but struggling immensely.

"Calm down, just tell her you lost track of time," he reassured quietly, even though there was no one in the diner to hear the soft words he spoke.

"You don't know her, calm down is not in her vocabulary, Juggie." The nickname slipped through her lips unconsciously, but she was too worked up to notice it. Jughead, however, was not. And he would swear to the day he died that he did not feel butterflies in his stomach or anything of the sort when she spoke it.

"It will be fine," he promised, letting his hands come to rest just below her shoulders as he looked into her moss coloured eyes.

And for some reason, unbeknownst to Betty or Jughead for that matter, this worked. The anxiety which seemed to be coiling in her stomach and springing out of control had managed to be soothed, if even momentarily.

The two were much closer than before, only a few inches separating them. His head was ducked down so he could look into her eyes and his thumb was rubbing soothing circles on her biceps. Betty, who had managed to half pull on her jacket made no move to adjust the sleeve which had fallen to hang from the crook of her elbow.

"Will I see you at school?" the blonde asked, realizing that they had skipped past the mundane stuff during their conversation.

"I'm not in school," he murmured back, trying to focus on anything besides the smell of strawberry and vanilla that was enveloping his senses.

"You dropped out?" she asked, surprising colouring her face as she could tell from the way he held himself he was very smart.

"I graduated, three years ago."

"Oh."

"Oh?" he questioned, trying to keep his eyes from flicking to her lips.

"I'm in high school…" she said, feeling childish all of a sudden. Even the word seemed juvenile to her now.

"I figured," he mused, a glimmer of a laugh reflecting in his eyes.

The sound of Pop closing up the dinner and flipping the sign to close caught them both off guard, as the two sprung apart leaving a more comfortable two feet between them.

"I-I should go," Betty stuttered, suddenly feeling embarrassed like Pop had caught them doing something intimate as her cheeks turned rosy.

"I wish you wouldn't"

Betty opened her mouth to reply but was beat to it as he added: "but I know you have to."

Betty nodded, moving towards the door whipping her head back to look at Jughead one more time before she left.

"I'll see you around, Betty Copper," he stated, pushing his hands into his pockets.

"Is that a promise?"

"It's a promise," he confirmed, tilting his head down till the last remaining light on in Pop's caught his eyes so she could see the sincerity that was held there.

"Then I'll see you around, Jughead Jones." She breathed, pulling open the door and letting it close softly behind her.

As soon as she left the light in Pop's seem to dim, and then after a moment went out. As if the diner knew what her presence did, lighting up the room with her smiles that were all teeth and her laugh that made his stomach clench and swirl in a way it never had before.

Jughead Jones, the leader of the Southside Serpents, stood in the dark diner with only the neon light from the sign outside flooding in to light his features. Pop Tate, who had known Jughead since he was a baby, could see a genuine smile lighting up the boy's face. It was the kind of smile that was real, it reached his eyes and even in the dim florescent light Pop could tell there was a real kind of happiness in Jughead's features, the kind that he had not seen in many years. The kind of happiness that a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, that just wanted someone to love him, deserved.

Riverdale, the town with pep! The blonde only scoffed. That's sure how it seemed on the outside, much like her, Riverdale had a dark side that no one spoke about.