To Have And To Hold

1 - Stolen Sweatshirt

Joey hummed to himself as he drove home from a long and stressful day of work, his mind wandering as he sat in traffic. He was looking forward to seeing Lauren and Diane, his two favourite girls. Ever since he and Lauren moved in together three years ago, Joey's life had improved more than he could have imagined. Just getting to see Lauren every day made him so happy his heart could burst. He got to cuddle up with her on the couch, hug her when she had a bad day, fall asleep beside her every night, and they were always right there to support each other. He could spend nearly all his time with her now, which was all he really wanted in the world. He still couldn't believe how lucky he was.

Unlocking the door to their apartment, he immediately felt more relaxed when he saw Lauren on the couch, the TV turned on low while she stared down at her phone. He let his shoulders drop, immensely grateful to be home. Lauren looked up at the sound of the door opening and smiled widely when she saw him. He kicked off his shoes and went to join her, putting an arm around her shoulders. She instinctively leaned her head into him, but Joey was more concerned with what he had just noticed she was wearing.

"Honey, why are you wearing my sweatshirt?"

"What?" she asked, lifting her head back up to look at him.

He plucked at the oversized fabric with a smile, eyeing the sleeves which came down over her hands. Lauren wearing his clothes was a fairly regular sight, but one he loved nonetheless.

"Mine's in the wash," she shrugged.

"No it's not." He pointed at the back of the couch, where her own sweatshirt was currently located.

She sighed heavily, resting her head back against his arm. Joey couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease her for wearing his jumper, knowing she'd put it on because it smelt like him.

"Aw, Lo, did you miss me?"

"Shut up," she said, rolling her eyes, but she couldn't hide the smile from her face. Joey grinned, pulling her close to press a kiss to the top of her head, before they settled down to catch up on TV together. Joey would never take for granted getting to come back to a loving home and hold his life partner in his arms, and he hugged Lauren a little tighter.

In a pause between episodes, he picked up his phone to check Instagram, and saw that Dylan and Shashona had posted about their engagement. His eyes flicked to Lauren's phone screen, where he saw that she was looking at the same thing.

"That's sweet," she murmured in regards to the post, glancing briefly up at him before back down at her screen.

"We're gonna have so many weddings to go to," Joey chuckled. "First Darren and Mia, then Jaime and Andrew, Brian and Meredith, now Dylan and Shashona..."

"That means I actually have to buy new outfits," Lauren whined as Joey laughed at her.

"Who are you trying to impress?" he asked with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter if you'll still love me no matter what I'm wearing. I'm gonna get so much shit if I turn up to every wedding in the same thing."

Joey chuckled, knowing she had a point. She rested her head on his shoulder again, and he stroked her shoulder gently with his thumb, lost in thoughts about weddings and Lauren.

"I'm gonna marry you one day," he said quietly, almost not realising he'd spoken aloud. That is, until Lauren sat sharply upright.

"JoJo, what the fuck?" she said, her voice noticeably higher than usual.

Joey's heart pounded in his chest. "Calm down Lo, I said one day, not right now."

He felt her breathe a sigh of relief. "Yeah, okay," she said dismissively, relaxing back into him.

Joey was thankful she'd let it go so quickly, because he could have kicked himself for saying something like that without thinking. Even so, he couldn't shake his nervousness that maybe she didn't want to marry him. They'd talked about getting married before, of course, but only in vague terms, something they'd get to in the future but weren't going to worry about yet. But seeing all their friends getting engaged and planning for weddings was making Joey more and more certain of what he'd known for a long time; he really wanted to marry Lauren. Based on the way she'd just reacted, though, Joey wasn't sure the same could be said for her.

He managed to put the thought aside, deciding he could worry about it later. Besides, if Lauren didn't want to get married, then he was happy with that. He was lucky he got to spend the rest of his life with her, he could never ask for more than that.

He was gazing at her with his chin in his hand while they sat at the dining table that evening, still thinking about how lucky he was to have her. Lauren's eyes flicked up from her plate and caught Joey's eyes.

"JoJo?" "Huh?" he asked, sitting up.

The corners of her mouth turned up in a small smile. "Why were you staring at me?"

He smiled sappily. "Because I really love you," he told her truthfully.

She tilted her head to look at him endearingly, reaching a hand across the table to hold his and linking their fingers together.

"I love you too."

He could faintly feel her pulse, his own heart rate slowly matching it, and he knew there was nowhere in the world he'd rather be, and no one he'd rather be with.

A/N Back again! Lenita was complaining about how no one ever wrote multi-chapter fics where these babes are together from the beginning and even though I told her that was for good reason, I still took it as a challenge to write one (that didn't include a break up because like I could put myself through that) so here we are. This is for all my richpez girls but especially Sophie who is as ever at the heart of every fic I write. I hope you all enjoy because you're in for a sickeningly sweet ride (won't it be nice not to be tortured for once?) It's so soft I almost died several times while writing it. Also, I've split the chapters up so this is gonna be more but shorter parts to (theoretically) give me more time to write my new fic, although I don't know how that's gonna work out because it's looking to be the most plot intensive fic I've ever written. Okay love you all bye!