Of compromises and promises
Fandom: Riverdale
Pairings: Sweet Pea x fem!reader
Warnings: swear words, mentions of smut, angst but fluff at the end
Requested: No (requests are open, though)
Word count: 2.570 words
Summary: Sweet Pea has a habit of breaking promises due to being busy with Serpent jobs, often disappointing his girlfriend. (I suck at summaries, sorry)
I do not own the gif, Riverdale or most of the characters mentioned in this story!
Thanks for tuning in this time! This one has been sitting on my mind for a while, so I just had to write it down. I’m currently working on some of the requests I got send in, so don’t worry, they’ll be coming. I’m currently moving from the UK back to my home country Germany, so I’m not exactly sure when I’ll be able to finish and post them, so excuse me! As always, please mind that English is not my first language. However, I hope you enjoy this one and feel free to send in feedback or further requests. Until then. Lots of love, Elle x
As Sweet Pea opened the door to his trailer quickly, he notices that the lights were turned off. He could smell the scented candles that must have been burning a short while ago.
He knew he screwed up. He promised (Y/N) to be back in time for them to go to the Wyrm. It was her first night sleeping over at his while her family was in California, the first vacation without her, and he already pulled such a trick on her.
He told her he’d take her out for dinner after his job for the Serpents, as she wasn’t pleased at all that he had to go on yet another job.
Cursing under his breath, he walked towards his bedroom, where he expected to find his girlfriend, waiting for him with a frown on her face, ready to give him a lecture.
As he opened the door, he was facing darkness. The lights were out. It smelled like her favourite perfume, the expensive one she only ever puts on for special occasions. He scrunched his eyes together to see better in this pitch black darkness and looked over to the bed, but there was no one. She wasn’t here. As he turned the light on, he noticed the dress she wore so rarely over the chair at his desk. She knew that it was his favourite dress on her after seeing her wear it for a night, and it took her all her courage to put it on – she would describe it out of her comfort zone, but that’s the price she was willing to pay to make her boyfriend happy - and a lot of exercise to pull the zipper up. His heart wrenched at the sight of the dress discarded like that. On the desk, he saw the little mirror she brought here once, in front of it were used make up wipes and hairpins. He noticed the smell of hairspray underneath her perfume. She went all out for him, and he left her hanging high and dry.
He looked back to the bed as he tossed his Serpent jacket on it before his eyes landed on the set of black, lacy lingerie she once bought for his birthday. It drove him crazy every time she wore it, he was begging her to wear it more often, but she wanted to save it for special nights. This was a special night for her, he realised, and he ruined it, yet again. He was supposed to be here with her, get her mind off of her family having fun in California without her, and take her out. Treat her the way she should be treated.
Sweet Pea walked back into the sitting room and saw that the back door was slightly open. He had a few pieces of garden furniture back there, she loved sitting there and looking out to Sweetwater-River and the woods behind it.
He opened the door cautiously, aware of the horrible noises it always made. He wanted to oil it this morning, but forgot it in the rush he was put in due to the job.
Under a pile of warm, fuzzy blankets, he could make out her head, covered in her hair. He listened to her steady breathing for a while, before lifting her into his arms.
She woke up as he closed the back door behind him, scrunching her eyes together, before looking at him.
She looked confused, her eyes roaming the trailer before he put her on the bed.
“You’re back”, she says, as her eyes land on her dress and she realises in what kind of situation they were in.
“I’m so sorry, (Y/N) -”, Sweet Pea starts, but she cuts him off with her own voice.
“Spare me the excuses. I’m too tired for this shit”, she says, before gathering a pillow and blanket in her arms.
“What are you doing?”, he asks.
“I’m going to sleep on the couch. I’d drive back home, but I’d probably fall asleep on my way there, so I’ll do that in the morning. So, if I’m gone when you wake up, don’t bother”, she says, her voice stern, as she walks past him.
“(Y/N), please, let me explain it”, he pleads.
“No need. Fangs did that for you hours ago”, she says, giving him a sarcastic smile before closing the bedroom door behind her.
Sighing, he ran his hands over his tired face, before plopping down on the bed.
He decided to give her some time to fall asleep before carrying her back into the bed, switching places with her. He wanted to respect the space she needed, but he still thought that she deserved the bed more than he did.
10 minutes later, he was undressed to the pair of boxers he was wearing during the day. He opened the door quietly. The light was off again, he would have guessed that she was already deep asleep again, after not being awake for too long, but then he heard muffled sobs.
He closed his eyes in pain, knowing all too well that he was the reason for her crying. He saw that she had her head buried in her hands as she cried, her body shaking from the sobs leaving her mouth.
He made his way over to her so quietly, that he heard a teardrop fall to the floor, or at least that’s what he imagined the sounds to be.
She didn’t notice him standing next to her, so he reacted quickly and pulled her into his arms.
“Please, don’t cry, love. I’m not worth your tears and pain”, he says, his thumb wiping away a few of her tears before she buried her face in his bare chest.
“If you- If you keep doing this- all the time, I- I don’t want to end this relationship again, because- because I rarely get to see- you”, she says in between sobs.
04:47
The neon red light of the alarm clock on the bedside table shone brightly into her tired eyes. She looked over to the other side of the bed, only to find it cold and empty. He was still out. Just another night of tossing and turning around in the King Size bed of Sweet Pea’s trailer, and him not being next to her.
Sighing, she quickly looked on her phone and scanned the notifications for his name, but like expected, there was nothing. It’s been like that ever since the last fight they had. It has been rocky ever since then, but it only got worse as they started to accept the relationship as being the way it is now; distant, rocky and secretive.
She kicked the heavy covers off her and set her naked feet on the cold floor. (Y/N) started making my way through the trailer and ended up making herself a tea in the kitchen before sitting down on one of the brown leather sofas. She listened to the spring rain outside of the trailer and watched the wind rattling through the blooming trees of the new trailer park by the Sweetwater River. It was then, when she was focused on two birds building a nest in the dark night, that she heard an engine and saw a single headlight shining through the windows of the trailer kitchen. Moments later, Sweet Pea opened the door and looked with sleepy eyes through the trailer before setting his eyes on his girlfriend.
“Why are you up at this hour?”, he asked, and she only shrugged.
“I could ask you the same”, (Y/N) argued and tilted her head to the side, looking at him through hooded eyes.
“Had some Serpent business to attend.”
It was his turn to simply shrug at the girl before he turned around and walked through the kitchen and entered the bathroom.
As the light hit his face she saw his face for the first time since he entered the trailer, and she noticed the blood, the forming bruises and the bloody crust on his features.
“What kind of business?”, she asks him as she stands up, setting down the cup of tea on the kitchen counter.
“Ghoulies”, he says absentmindedly as he goes through the First Aid kit which she placed under the sink after he first came back from a fight. Just like she had it in her room at home.
He stars tending to his wounds as he hisses a couple of times, before (Y/N) takes a step into the bathroom and takes the wipes from his bloody hands.
“Sit down”, she tells him, since he is way too tall for her to tend to him while he is standing up.
He obliges and silently studies her while she wipes the blood off his face.
“Why are you even awake?”, he asks as she puts the wipes in the bin after she was finished.
“Because I was worried about you, like always, as you know”, she says, perplexed.
“You know I always come back eventually, you should just stop worrying and go to bed from now on.”
“I can’t just switch off my feeling.”
“I know, I’m not asking you to do that, I’m just saying that you need to stop worrying about me.”
She sighs and realises that this is it. It’s now or never. She needs to tell him what’s on her mind, right here, right now. She’s been thinking about doing this for about a month now, and even though it hurts, she had to do it. Just thinking about doing this pains her.
“I’m tired”, she says, eyes on the white tiles underneath their feet.
“Well, go to bed then, I’ll be there in a minute or two”, he says, innocently, with a soft smile on his lips as he brushes a single strand of loose hair behind her ear.
“No, I’m tired of this”, she says and feels her heart sinking. There’s no turning back anymore.
He looks at her confused as he takes her much smaller hands in his bigger ones. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t do this anymore, Pea. I stay up until sunrise every single time I decide to stay at yours because I don’t know where you are or what you’re doing, and nearly every time my worry proves to be reasonable. We barely see each other anymore, and we still haven’t properly talked about our last fight, as you avoid that at every cost.”
He looks at her through wet eyes and she feels her eyes water as well.
“So what is this? Are you breaking up with me? Tell me what I did wrong and I’ll fix it!”, he begs.
“This can’t be fixed anymore, Pea. We have been trying to fix this since last summer, it’s tiring for both of us. I get panic attacks every once in a while just thinking about what you do out there in the nights I wait endless hours back here for you.”
“(Y/N), I love you, and I’ll fight until my last breath for you. I’m not tired of fighting for you”, he says, his voice breaks as he confesses his feelings for her. “Don’t you love me anymore?”
“Don’t say that of course, I love you, and you will always have a special place in my heart, but I guess I just need us to be apart, at least for a while, until we both figure out what we want from this and what we can give for it.”
It’s at that moment, that he completely brakes. Thick tears are streaming down his cheeks. Seeing him in so much pain, she tears up as well and opens her arms for him. He’s never cried before in her presence.
He holds her close as his tears wet the T-Shirt of his that she was wearing.
They sink to their knees, still tangled into each other.
“I know that it hurts, hell, I’m hurting as well, this is far from easy for me. But it won’t hurt like that for long, it will get better soon”, she whispers and strokes through his dark hair. “I’ll get my stuff and get out to make a start, the earlier the better, for both of us.”
She entangles herself from his towering frame sitting on the cold tile floor, still crying as she leaves the bathroom with a heavy heart. She puts all of her things that she’s collected here over the last one and a half years into a couple of bags before getting changed.
“Let me drive you home, that’s the least I can do”, she hears his raspy voice in the door.
With the bags on her shoulders, she turns to him, as he comes over and takes the heaviest bags from her.
“No, really, it’s fine. I don’t want you driving back in the state that I just put you in. It’s just a quick walk, I’ll be fine”, she says, before trying to grab her bags, but he refuses.
“I insist”, he says, his voice stern and determent all of the sudden.
She just nods before he leads her outside.
It’s been 8 months since then and he got her to give him a second chance after three months of being separated from her, not able to bear the loneliness anymore.
“I’ll talk to Jughead tomorrow. I’ll take on fewer jobs, I promise. I’ll change my ways, just please, don’t leave me.”
“Just try for real, this time.”
“I will, I promise, babe. Give me this last chance and I’ll show you that I can do this, for you.”
“I don’t even want you to quit all the jobs, just to take on less, and to make some time for me”, she sighs.
“How about we make Friday nights date night? Just the two of us, no Serpent business or anything. Just you and me”, he says, stroking her hair.
“I’d love that, but I’ve got (your hobby) every Friday until 6”, she says.
“I’ll pick you up. And then we spend the night however we want to. And I’ll pick you up every morning before school if you’re not here. Alright?”, he asks.
“If you don’t break your promises, then I’d be up for all of that”, she answers, looking up into his eyes.
“And three nights a week, at least”, he adds, making her head tilt in confusion.
“Three nights, what?”
“Three nights that I promise I’ll sleep next to you, every week. At least thrice.”
“Okay, that leaves you room for four jobs a week, sounds like a good compromise”, she says, smiling up at him.
“Good”, he says pleased. “Are you coming back to bed with me now, then?”
(Y/N) nods, before gathering her beddings again. Before she can realise it, Sweet Pea picks her up, the beddings clutched to her chest. She started to giggle, hiding her face again in his chest, before he drops her onto the bed.
After playing her pillow and blanket in the right position again, she lays down next to him, and swiftly, he wraps her into his arms, holding her tightly to his body.
“I love you”, he mumbles tired.
“I love you too, Pea”, she replies, smiling slightly, before pressing a kiss on his shoulder, resting her head on his chest and falling into a deep, peaceful slumber next to him.
