People talk, but people don't know
You can't make plans, just live as I go
People talk, they don't understand
Love and pain go hand in hand

Amethyst had been sleeping peacefully that night. Jughead didn't snore like he usually did and gave her enough room so that she could stretch her whole body out. Amethyst was having an intense dream about being in a battle with a bear when Jughead moved so suddenly that it caused Amethyst to wake up.

Amethyst opened her eyes to see what made Jughead so startled, and noticed a group of men standing over the bed with snake masks on.

Amethyst rose her eyebrows in an instant as she sat up in her bed.

"Your initiation begins now," the man at the front, Sweet Pea Amethyst realised, said. "With you assuming guardianship of the Beast."

Amethyst held her hand up. "I swear to fucking god if you throw a snake onto this bed, I will be wrapping it around your necks."

One of the guys with a mask on chuckled before whistling. They all walked out of the room, and Amethyst could hear pitter patter on the wooden floorboards outside before a dog jumped onto the bed.

"You gotta be kidding," Jughead said in relief.

"Aww!" Amethyst said brightly, patting the eager dog and smooshing his face in her hands. "He's so beautiful. You're so beautiful," she said in a baby voice.

"It's Hotdog," Jughead told her, patting the dog as well. "I can't believe they're making us guard a dog."

"I would quite literally have this as a job," Amethyst told him. "I would get people to pay me to play with their dogs." Hotdog began to lick her face and Amethyst grinned. "Look, Jug, he's getting more action than you!"

Jughead gave her an incredulous look before lying back down in the bed.

"Come on," Amethyst said quietly, patting the space between her and Jughead. "You can lie down in between us, alright, baby?"

Hotdog turned around on the spot a few times, before collapsing between the two teenagers.

Amethyst hummed. "That was easy."

"Go to sleep," Jughead told her.

Amethyst lightly rolled her eyes as she got into bed. "Alright, Mr Jealous. Whatever you say."

Amethyst closed her eyes, but not before noticing the smile on Jughead's lips.

•

"So, what do you think of the Beast?" Toni asked Jughead and Amethyst, who were seated on the couch back at the cabin.

Amethyst softly patter Hotdog's fur as he slept beside her.

"He stinks and he barks all of the time," Jughead told her.

"He's not barking right now," Amethyst told him.

"Every new recruit has to take care of Hot Dog. It's tradition," Toni told them.

"Trust me, I remember when Demarcus was given him," Amethyst shivered at the memory of having dog shit all over his tent.

"By the way, this is our third Hot Dog," Toni told them.

Jughead frowned. "Hot Dog the third," he said. "It's getting borderline ridiculous."

"Says you, Forsyth Pendleton Jones the third," Amethyst smirked at him.

Jughead rolled his eyes and lightly shoved her,

"Okay, you ready to go through the rules again?" Toni asked.

"Yeah, sure. We've had a long enough break;" Jughead said, before sitting up straighter on the couch. "A Serpent never shows cowardice."

"If a Serpent is killer or imprisoned, their family will be taken care of," Amethyst said.

"Serpents, uh...."

"No Serpent is left for dead," Amethyst piped up. "A Serpent never betrays his own. In unity, there is strength."

"How can you remember these so well?" Jughead asked her.

"Seriously, Juggy, there are only five rules," Amethyst told him.

"You need to focus, Jughead," Toni told him. "You need to take this seriously."

"Okay, I am, Toni. I swear to god I am," Jughead said, rubbing his eyes. "It's just—First the Beast and now these laws?"

"To be honest, I thought the trials would be much harder," Amethyst said.

"They get worse. Trust me," Toni said. "And why the change of heart, anyway? Why go from conscientious objector to full-fledged member?"

"Because of something you said," Jughead told her. "My dad was the only one keeping idiots like Sweet Pea in line. Dariela used to help him as well. Someone just needs to step up to keep an all-out war from erupting."

Amethyst sighed. "We are taking this seriously, contrary to what Sweet Pea and a few of the other Serpents think."

•

"What is the first law?!" Tall Boy yelled in Amethyst and Jughead's face.

Amethyst was so confused as to why they were yelling, but went through with it nonetheless.

"A Serpent never shows cowardice!"

"What is the second law?!"

"If a Serpent is killer or imprisoned, their family will be taken care of!"

"What is the third law?!"

"No Serpent is left for dead!"

"What is the fourth law?!"

"A Serpent never betrays his own!"

"What is the fifth law?!"

"In unity, there is strength!"

All of the Serpents chorused with, "In unity, there is strength!"

Tall Boy held his hands out to silence everyone.

"The amount of saliva on my face, oh my lord," Amethyst said quietly, wiping it off.

"Sorry 'bout that," Tall Boy said quietly back. "Now, you two know the laws. Now it's time for the next trial."

Sweet Pea and a few other Serpent's moved to the side, revealing two glass boxes with a rattle snake and a knife in each.

"Retrieve the knife," Tall Boy ordered.

Amethyst screwed up her face as she looked at the snake. "You know these are poisonous, right?"

"Not if they've had their venom sucked out," Demarcus told her from beside Hudson.

"Okay, Sweet Jesus, I'm doing this," Amethyst stepped towards one of the boxes with a rattle snake inside.

"Okay, do that count thing I saw on that show," she said quietly, referring to the three second count that leaves no time for you to contemplate everything. "One. Two. Three." Amethyst threw her left hand into the box and wrapped it around the knife, not before the snake lunged and bit her hand. Amethyst screwed her face up in pain and bit her tongue to try and not cry out and then pulled the knife out.

"Mother fucker," Amethyst mumbled as she shook her throbbing hand, handing the knife to Hudson.

After Jughead watched Amethyst do it with ease, he did the same thing and took the knife out.

Demarcus handed then disinfectant and a roll of bandages.

He shrugged as Amethyst gave him a confused look. "Might get infected. Then you would need to get your hand chopped off."

Amethyst gave him a look before her and Jughead walked over towards where Toni was sitting with two spare seats in front of her.

Amethyst sat down on the stool and looked at the two puncture marks on the back of her hand, and then to her palm where she had another two.

"The fucker went right through," Amethyst said with a frown before dropping the disinfectant on with a hiss and began to wrap it up.

"Are you alright, Buttercup?" Jughead asked her.

"I'll live," she replied.

"Are you two both okay?" Toni asked them.

Jughead gave her an 'Are you serious' face as he began to wrap up his hand. "A rattlesnake, Toni. A rattlesnake bit us and drew blood."

"One that had its venom glands removed, okay?" She said.

"I would say it would've been removed, otherwise everyone in here would be ten feet underground," Amethyst said.

"The important thing is that you showed no fear, grabbed the knife, and remembered the laws," Toni said. "Although, I was sort of surprised you went through with it, Amie."

"I was too," she replied. "But I used the three second rule to get me through it."

Toni frowned. "Three second rule?"

"Y'know, if you're going to do something gutsy, count to three and then do it so it gives you less time to contemplate backing out of it," Amethyst told her.

Toni hummed. "I'll use that," she said. "You two are almost Serpents now. You just have one final trial now. Which may be the worst, depending on the person."

Amethyst sighed and placed her head in the palm of her good hand.

•

Amethyst and Jughead we're sitting on the couch later that night back at FP's trailer, eating noodles that they had ordered from the Chinese restaurant. They were watching some stupid reality tv show while Hotdog boringly licked Amethyst's foot.

"Can you imagine if our life was actually like this?" Amethyst asked Jughead, watching as someone a grown ass woman cried when her mother bought her the wrong colour earrings for her birthday.

"I would probably dump you if you turned out like this," Jughead told her.

"I would dump myself, too. Don't worry," Amethyst smiled.

Amethyst suddenly flinched when Jughead went to hold her left hand.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

Amethyst shrugged. "It'll stop hurting soon."

Jughead sighed and shook his head before turning around so he was facing her. Amethyst looked at him strangely in return.

Jughead reached forward and grabbed onto Amethyst's right hand. "Sometimes...." he began, "Sometimes I just wish we could leave," he said. "Leave Riverdale. Leave this war against the Northside and Southside. Just....leave."

Amethyst smiled lightly. "I wish life was that easy," she said. "But then we have our family here, and our friends that we can't just leave when they're going through all of this Black Hood shit."

"But they don't matter to me as much as you matter to me," he said.

Amethyst smiled lightly as she shook her head. "You're too beautiful," she told him. "But we can't leave. Not yet, anyway."

Jughead nodded in understanding. "Maybe when the semester finishes and it's the summer holidays, we can go on a holiday somewhere. Just you and me. And we'll just relax. Maybe over your birthday week. Does that sound good?"

Amethyst smiled. "That sounds perfect," she said."I better start saving then."

Jughead grinned and nodded. "I better stop spending all my money on food, then."

Amethyst grinned before leaning in and softly pressing her lips onto Jughead's.

A soft knock was sounded on the door and the two teenagers pulled away.

"What's the bet it's Toni?" Amethyst asked as Jughead stood up.

"I'd say it's a solid 85%," he replied, before opening up the door. "You win," he called out.

Amethyst turned her head and watched as Toni walked into the trailer. She frowned as Toni ringed her hands together and nervously looked between the two.

Jughead, noticing her demeanour, said, "What's up?"

"I, um...." she began. "I came to warn you, I guess." Amethyst frowned. "If you're having any second thoughts, now would be the time to back out because the final trial is on a whole other level."

Amethyst frowned. "Are you talking about the Gauntlet?" She asked. "Because I thought they just named it after something from Harry Potter."

"If it's anything like the Beast, we'll be fine," Jughead told her. "It's, like, Whatever."

"No, Jughead, it's not whatever," Toni said. "You join us, you gotta be willing to die for us. Because we will for you. And you little Northside friends? You're gonna look up one day and they'll all be gone, because that's what happens when you join a gang. The Serpents are no exception.

Amethyst looked at the muted television in thought. Was she prepared to lose her friendship with Betty, Archie, Cheryl and Veronica?

Jughead nodded first after staring at Amethyst for what felt like minutes. "Consider us warned," he told her. "Thank you, Toni."

•
I actually had that dream about fighting the bear. Every year, I get placed into this forest place where I have to kill that scary bear from the Disney's Brave movie. And like this time, I was friends with everyone from Harry Potter (Draco more than most if you know what I mean) and then they all had to leave because this giant bear came and I was tasked to kill it.
It was pretty intense.