Veronica glided into the house, she had her hands clasped against her chest and she was on her tip-toes, humming and twirling to the songs that she and Archie danced to that night. She danced into her room, kicked her shoes off and found her phone to check if Archie was home yet. Archie had texted her just as she unlocked her phone to tell her he was safe and going to sleep so he could be awake early enough, Veronica sent him a string of hearts and then changed into comfortable clothes.

Even with all the sneaking around, dating Archie Andrews was the best thing that happened to her. When Archie dropped her off at the Pembrooke, he decided that a little more time wouldn't hurt so they spent an extra half an hour fooling around in the dark back seat of his truck. Veronica blushed and bit down on her lip as she remembered how he touched her and how he felt and the moans he dragged out of her lips ... Veronica shook her head quickly, she was going to need a cold shower if she didn't stop thinking.

She walked through the empty house, into the kitchen to get herself a glass of water, she was sure she was awake for almost 24 hours at this point but she had so much energy, she didn't know if she would be able to fall asleep.

"You're awake," Jughead asked and Veronica gasped, jerking the glass so that the water sloshed out of it and Jughead furrowed his brows and frowned. "Betty told me you were sick, she didn't say anything about being jumpy."

"I'm fine, you just scared me," Veronica said letting out a breath and grabbing a cloth to wipe the water. "What are you doing back? I thought you'd be at Harpers tonight," she said thanking her lucky stars that Archie and Fred had that early morning trip otherwise he would have been in the house with her when Jughead came in.

"Hmm," Jughead grunted and then walked back out of the kitchen to the living room where he promptly collapsed onto the sofa, shedding his jacket and shoes.

"What's wrong?" Veronica asked, sitting down next to him and handing him a glass of water.

"Why would anything be wrong?" Jughead asked, gulping down the water and then letting out a burp, grinning at the disgusted face Veronica made.

"I just thought you'd be drunker," Veronica mused, he was still pretty drunk judging by the way his words slurred but usually when Jughead celebrated, the boys had to carry him into the house, or he would have to crash wherever the party was because they were all in no condition to leave.

"I don't get black out wasted at every party I go to, might I remind you of your 16th where I was the only sober one," he told her with a roll of his eyes.

"May I remind you that you are the captain of the team who won the championship tonight," Veronica shot back, her worry fading a little when she saw him beam at her words. "If there were ever a night to get black out wasted, it would be tonight."

"I thought I'd leave it for the other guys," Jughead said with a shrug. "Didn't feel right to celebrate without Archie there, this was our win, we've been dreaming about this night forever."

"Oh?" Veronica asked, her heart hammering into her ribs, she felt a little guilty that Archie was with her when he should have been celebrating with his team. "I thought I saw you guys taking celebratory shots."

"And then he left me for a girl, so no, tonight was not my night," Jughead said with a pout and Veronica furrowed her brows slightly, Jughead's words told her that he knew Archie was with someone but he didn't look like he knew that girl was her. Jughead noticed the wheels turning in her head because he reached over and patted her knee. "Sorry kid, I know you were crushing on him again but he's taken."

"By who?" Veronica asked biting the inside of her lip, she knew that Archie might make up a relationship with a fake person to throw Jughead's of their trail and to give him an excuse to disappear for a couple hours, like he did that night.

"Some random girl he met online that's going to NYU," Jughead complained. "He refuses to tell me more or even show me pictures."

"Just her college is an oddly specific detail to know about her," Veronica said, knowing that Archie would have only brought up the college his 'girlfriend' was going to if he was going to tell Jughead about him changing the college he wants to go to.

"Because she is 'oddly' the reason that he's planning on ruining our college plans," Jughead said teasing her use of the word oddly and then frowned slightly at his use of the English language. "First Toni now Archie, I can never win."

"Oh," Veronica whispered again, she focused a lot on her brothers happiness throughout her life and ruining his most important friendship when she started dating Archie was one of her main concerns, she was hoping that when he eventually found out that the fall out wouldn't be as bad as she had built it up in her head. "I'm sorry that Archie left you for an NYU girl."

"It's fine," Jughead said with a chuckle, reaching out to nudge her. "There's still our graduation party, Archie's not allowed to be an infatuated with an NYU girl for that one."

"You need to stop teasing me," Veronica said with a roll of her eyes, but her brothers playful expression was gone, he was in deep thought now. Veronica wondered if he would talk to her about the things that were bothering him, they were always close but Jughead had always tried to play a parental figure for her while their parents were off being successful, childless business moguls, it hurt her that they weren't here for his final high school game and she knew it hurt him, though he would never say it, she wondered if that was what he was thinking about to make his mood change. "What's on your mind?"

"Did you know that Archie isn't the only one that left me for a girl," he said with a deep sigh, keeping his eyes averted from her and picking at the throw pillow he had pulled onto his lap. Veronica furrowed her eyebrows and looked at him confused and just a little amused, of all the deep dark confessions from their parents shortcomings to him knowing that she was the one with Archie that night, someone other than Archie leaving him for a girl was not something she thought would make the cut.

"What are you talking about?" Veronica asked, shifting on the couch, she wondered how drunk he was and how many of his close kept secrets she could get out of him while his guard was down.

"Has Toni ever told you why we broke up?" Jughead asked and Veronica furrowed her brows and shook her head, was he finally going to tell her why her all time favourite couple slash faux parents were no more?

"She told me that you would tell me why you were so wrong for each other," Veronica said remembering Toni's words from her birthday which felt like a lifetime ago. "I've honestly given up hope on ever getting the truth out of you two."

"That's not the sister I'm used to," Jughead said with a snort and Veronica smiled a little smugly at his implication of her being persistent in getting all his secrets out of him eventually, she was proud of how she could annoy him into talking to her. "Well, Toni left me for a girl, that's why we broke up."

"Woah, really?" Veronica asked blinking up at him shocked, that was huge, she never realized that Toni would be interested in anyone other than her brother much less other girls. "Wait did she cheat on you?"

"No, remember the weekend that we broke up, it was the first time Toni came home from campus," Jughead asked, taking a deep breath to steady himself for this conversation and Veronica nodded. "She told me then that everything was confusing and it had been for a while and that she loved me but she wasn't in love with me but the problem wasn't just that she wasn't in love with me anymore it was that she didn't think that she was even interested in men at all and she needed to figure it out."

"Please tell me you were nice to her about this," Veronica said trying to read her brothers face but he had his eyes fixed on the glass on the table, looking away from her and stopping her from looking at his expressions too closely. Veronica knew how sensitive Toni was and she knew that Jughead could be mean when he got angry, she just hoped he had enough sense to keep his anger in check when she came out to him. "Juggy?"

"I was not," he eventually said rubbing his hand across his face and getting up to walk over to the alcohol cabinet to pour himself a drink, Smithers and her parents kept the cabinet locked but Jughead had made a copy of the key years ago and they were none the wiser. "I was pissed, we had been together our whole lives, we had everything worked out, we had plans in place and we had this entire life that we were going to live happily and then she decided that everything was wrong."

"Oh no," Veronica whispered, staring at her brothers back, he looked tense. She kept thinking back to that conversation they had by the lake, about how it had been months since their breakup at that point and Toni was still confused and hurt, she had told Veronica that she couldn't explain it to her yet and Veronica didn't understand what she meant back then but it was making sense now.

"We fought a lot, as you are well aware," he said and Veronica nodded. "I said things I wish I didn't and so did she."

"What did you say?" Veronica asked quietly and Jughead shook his head, downing whatever he had poured for himself and pouring himself another drink.

"Nothing that I'm willing to repeat," he said and Veronica grimaced at the thought of Toni, confused and scared and Jughead just making it worse. "I was angry and I was not very kind, I lashed out."

"So the fight you had my birthday weekend..." Veronica trailed off, hoping Jughead would fill in some of the missing pieces.

"I made some off-hand comments about cheating and a girl she might be dating, we fought, she snapped at me for moving on too quickly and accused me of being intolerant, we fought more," Jughead said, giving up and just bringing the whole bottle back to the couch with him, he poured out some of the whiskey into a second glass and handed it to her, as if he needed her to have some alcohol in her as well. Veronica took the shot and made a face, shivering as the amber liquid burned its way down her throat. "It just kept getting out of hand."

"Did you apologize?" Veronica asked and Jughead nodded after a minute and Veronica sighed, relieved that Jughead didn't just let Toni go almost a whole year feeling like he hated her because of her sexuality.

"Archie knocked some sense into me after I told him what was happening," Jughead said with a sigh and Veronica frowned, Archie knew and didn't tell her? And then she realized that it wasn't his place to tell her something as big as this. "She said she understood, when she comes home for the summer holidays we'll talk, I promised her I would control my anger and she promised to do the same."

"Good for her," Veronica said, she loved Toni and she would always selfishly wish Toni would marry her brother just so she would stay in Veronica's life as close to a sister as she could get, forever, but more than her own selfishness, Veronica wanted Toni to be happy, she wanted her to find an epic love and if that love wasn't Jughead then Veronica would make her peace with it and just hope that all their years together meant that Toni would still want to pick up the phone when Veronica called.

"Yeah," Jughead said with a sigh and Veronica could see that he still loved Toni, he always would, she was his first love but he was different now, he was becoming more independent without her and as much as Veronica refused to accept Harper as anything more than a rebound, she had to admit that the girl had helped her brother move on faster than he would have if she hadn't pursued him.

"Are you ok?" Veronica asked after what felt like an hour of silence, the siblings completely engrossed in their own thoughts. Jughead looked up at her almost as if he forgot that she was in the room and nodded stretching forward to pour himself another drink, Veronica wanted to stop him, for the first time in her life wondering if her brother was using alcohol as a crutch at just 18 years old and if she should be worried but she thought she might bring that up when he was properly sober.

"I will be," he told her, flashing her the biggest smile he could and she laughed at how fake it was, launching herself into his arms to hug him tightly. "First loves are hard to get over kid, but eventually it all fades and you get through it, you'll understand one day."

"Who's to say that I haven't already experienced my first love?" Veronica questioned after they parted.

"Have you?" Jughead asked quirking an eyebrow up at her, looking more sober than he had the entire night. "And if you tell me that Nick St Clair was that love I might just throw up."

"No, of course not," Veronica said laughing, she knew that he was done talking about Toni. "He was surprisingly easy to get over."

"Thank God," Jughead mumbled with a roll of his eyes. "I should have kicked him out the first time he showed up here with flowers for the 'beauty of the penthouse', urg, how did you fall for that?"

"He was charming," Veronica said thinking that Jughead could have learned from him, he and Toni were together so long at that point that they didn't feel the need to romance each other anymore.

"He was smarmy," Jughead countered and Veronica furrowed her brows, that was not the word she would use to describe Nick but it sounded accurate enough.

"Is that even a word?" Veronica asked with a snort.

"I might be drunk but I know my words," he shot back, smirking at how easily he could make his sister roll her eyes at him. "You know I thought something was going on with you and Archie."

"You did?" Veronica asked, feeling her cheeks start to heat up and tried as hard as she could to keep her face neutral.

"Even threatened him to stay away from you," he said with a chuckle and Veronica quirked an eyebrow, she had eavesdropped on this particular conversation but she wasn't going to let her brother know that.

"Would it really be so bad?" Veronica asked tentatively as Jughead looked up at her. "For Archie and I to date?"

"I suppose not," Jughead said slowly as if he were considering it and she wondered if she and Archie and Toni were thinking too hard about how Jughead would react that they didn't consider the fact that if they were honest he might just be ok with it. "But then it wouldn't work and then I'd either have to live with awkward interactions with my best friend and my sister or I would have to choose sides and after everything that happened this year I might just get on that old bike dad has stashed in the garage and ride away from the both of you forever."

"Who's to say we wouldn't work?" Veronica asked her heart dropping to her stomach, her hopes of just telling Jughead that she was Archie's NYU girl completely dashed.

"V, I've known Archie forever, it's why I'm not too concerned about his new girl and these college plans he's making with her," Jughead chuckled and Veronica frowned deeply, waiting for him to continue. "Archie falls in love quickly and each time he thinks its the real thing and then he gets bored or someone else comes along and he gets distracted and that girl he was head over heels in love with is forgotten."

"Like Val," Veronica asked in a small voice and Jughead nodded, raising an eyebrow at her change in demeanour.

"Exactly, I love the guy but he sucks at relationships and I wouldn't want you to get hurt like that especially after Nick, just look at this as me saving you the trouble of thinking of dating him when this new relationship of his falls through," Jughead said amused and Veronica gave him her best 'who, me?' look. "You think I haven't noticed the extra long hugs and looks you've been giving him?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Veronica said slouching down in her seat, she wondered if Jughead was just trying to put her off dating Archie or if he was giving her actual advice.

"I'm sure," Jughead said and Veronica wondered exactly how obvious they were when she thought they were stealthy. "And besides, we're moving across the country for college next year, this NYU thing will be over by the time the summer holidays begin, I can promise you that."

"Why are you so annoying about me dating?" she asked, she wanted to know why he was so sure but decided against keeping the topic on Archie where she could just incriminate herself, instead asking something else she had wondered alot and since he was in a sharing mood she thought she would try her luck.

"I don't know if you've noticed but we're kind of alone here," he said looking around the house and Veronica nodded and looked at him as if waiting for him to make his point. "I realized a long time ago that I was going to have to be the parent around here kid, I mean they're here for birthdays and Christmas and if they remember maybe they'll be here next month for graduation but when was the last time you spoke to either of them, like more than a 5 minute phone call or check up text."

"I ... the week after my birthday," Veronica said sadly after a moment of actually thinking about it, she was annoyed with her parents because the winning game that they played was one of the most important of Jugheads life so far and she was sure neither of them had called to see how it went.

"From the moment they put you in my arms when you were born I knew I had to protect you, this pink squirmy, wrinkly, fragile thing, dad made me promise I would always help him and mom protect you," Jughead said and Veronica had to laugh at the description he gave of her as a newborn. "When they started extending their business trips, I realized that I was the only one there to protect you and one of the things I had to do was make sure you would never get your heart broken by the ridiculous boys that you were into."

"Oh," Veronica said softly, she missed her parents presence in their lives but not as much as she probably should have, because of Jughead and to an extent Toni.

"I hated Nick because I saw how invested you were and how dismissive he was, I tried forbidding you from seeing him but it seemed to make you want him more, and then there was Chuck, I don't know how you thought you were keeping that from me," Jughead told her and Veronica cringed, she truly thought that they were being so good at sneaking around. "And all those random one date guys, I don't know how many times Toni had to force me to let you make your mistakes, it was just so frustrating not to step in especially when you kept making the same mistake."

"You knew?" Veronica asked with raised eyebrows and Jughead nodded. "So you're telling me that I could have been dating like a normal person and I wouldn't have been locked up in this house for the rest of my days."

"I mean I wouldn't have been happy about it and I probably would have tried to lock you in your room until your graduation, but Toni would have had my head if I tried," Jughead told her with a sad smile, probably thinking about his and Toni's relationship. "I interfered wherever I could, especially when I got a bad feeling about the guy, you know that but if you dating Nick St Clair taught me anything it would be to let you be and then make sure the guy knew I would break his legs if he hurt you."

"And here I was waiting for next year when you weren't here to watch me to go truly crazy," Veronica said and Jughead made an unhappy grunt.

"I still have spies in Riverdale that will report everything back to me," he warned and she rolled her eyes. "I also have a promise from mom and dad that they will be home more often, I don't plan on leaving you completely alone after everything."

"Thank you Juggy," Veronica said hugging him again and burying her face into his chest, suddenly overwhelmed with emotions for her brother and the lengths he went to, to make sure that she was protected.

"You're welcome kid," he whispered back, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and hugging her back.

They stayed like that for a while, two siblings who were each others protectors, who were going to be on opposite sides of the country soon, who would forever be each others first priority.

It was early in the morning when Archie called her, Veronica hadn't truly fallen off to sleep yet. After her talk with Jughead, she had messaged Toni to tell her how much she missed the pink haired girl and that she had spoken to Jughead and that she would tell Toni all about it during their next phone call, then she sat on her bed thinking about everything Jugehad had said that night, about Archie, about her relationship with her parents, about his and Toni's breakup and about their own relationship.

"Hey Ronnie," Archie said when she picked up. "I was hoping you would pick up, I thought you would be knocked out."

"Me too," Veronica said and then cleared her throat, she sounded so croaky. "My voice still needs to get up."

"We just reached," Archie said and Veronica could hear a bird squawking in the background. "I probably won't have good reception for the rest of the day but I wanted to hear your voice."

"Well now that you've heard it, in its croaky glory," Veronica said, smiling as Archie laughed. "Will it get you through your day?"

"The only thing getting me through the day is knowing that I get to see you tonight," he told her and she felt herself blush happily and melting further into her pillows.

"Hmmm with Juggy as chaperone," she complained, her thoughts fluttering back to the conversation she had with her brother earlier that morning.

"Don't worry, I have a plan," he said and she giggled, his plans were usually ridiculous. "I'll call you when I'm back in Riverdale."

"Okay, have a good day with your dad," she whispered, already drifting off to sleep. "Archie?"

"Yeah babe?" he asked.

"You aren't going to get bored of me are you?" she asked in a small voice and she could picture Archies furrowed eyebrows and his frown at her question that had come so out of the blue, especially after their little date the night before.

"Of course not," he said, worry creeping into his voice and she cringed, she didn't want him to worry while he was with his dad. "What would make you think that?"

"Just something that Jug said, I'll tell you about it later," she told him with a shake of her head and then forced a laugh just so that he wouldn't worry. "Love you."

"Love you too Ronnie."

A/N : So it's been a while, hello I'm Bikerchick101 or Nikki and I write fanfiction, if you've forgotten like I seem to have, I do hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, it was one that I have been hesitant to write even though its one of my favourites but it is very Jughead and Veronica heavy, focusing alot on their relationship as siblings and their dynamic, which of course is the basis of this story (for me at least) so I hope you don't hate me too much for not having alot of Varchie content

I love this story so much but I have struggled with inspiration and time and everything else, so thank you so so much to the readers who have been patient and especially to those who review, reading your reviews really helped me when I was trying to get back into writing

I hope everyone is still staying safe and you enjoyed the stories that Cami posted for KJ's birthday, it made my shipper heart so happy, now we just hope that he posts something sweet for her birthday as well

Anyway, please review and let me know what you think, until next time (^^,)