To Have And To Hold

3 - Ashley's Antagonism

"Here's my favourite couple," Ashley said, a wide smile on her face as Joey and Lauren walked up to the Olive Garden entrance for the Choose Our Destiny reunion dinner Lauren had scheduled.

Lauren rolled her eyes, she and Joey hugging their friend in turn. Corey and Brian were already there, so the group made their way inside. The conversation soon turned to how much they missed doing the show.

"Do you know what I really miss?" Ashley said.

"The great puns?" Corey suggested

"They were... not great," she said. "No, I miss counting how many times Joey and Lauren broke character to touch each other." Laughter rang out around the table and Lauren sighed, while Joey hid a smile.

"We weren't that bad," Lauren said, shaking her head. There was a silence as everyone stared at her, and she looked to Joey for reassurance. "Right?"

"No, we weren't," he quickly assured her, but he was frowning.

"Lauren, you couldn't keep your hands off him," Brian said.

"That's not true-"

"It was like you forgot that everyone else could see you," he interrupted her.

"It didn't matter what the scene was, who your characters were, you had to be touching him." Corey added.

"And you kissed so many times," Ashley said.

"Don't forget it's all on video," Brian reminded her.

Lauren opened her mouth, seeming like she wanting to argue, but realised they were right. Joey chuckled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his side.

"Why didn't you say something?" she asked, looking up at him.

He smiled guiltily and shrugged. "Can you blame me?" He knew she would have regretted it if she ever watched the episodes back, but he also couldn't bring himself to tell her to stop.

Her eyes softened and the last trace of annoyance left her. Joey pressed a kiss to her forehead and the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile.

"It was cute," Ashley admitted, and Joey and Lauren's attention snapped back to the rest of the table.

"Was it?" Brian said. Joey laughed, shoving his friend's shoulder lightly, and the tension dissipated. 

"I miss seeing our friends all the time," Lauren sighed as she and Joey drove home, her hand entwined with his on top of the gear stick. 

"Yeah, I really miss Brian and Corey when they're round our apartment at least once a week editing," Joey said. "And I miss you when I have to see you every day."

"Hey!" Lauren laughed. "Anyway, you know what I mean."

"I know. But there'll be new projects soon. And I am glad I've always got you."

Lauren squeezed his hand, and Joey felt the usual feeling of happiness that settled in his stomach whenever he was around Lauren.

"I'm so glad I met you," she said softly.

"Don't you dare get all sappy on me," he replied, having to force back his tears.

He glanced over at her, and they exchanged a brief smile, holding meaning that neither of them had words for. That was something Joey loved, the easy way he and Lauren could communicate even without speaking; there was just some indefinable connection between them.

Later that night, they were sat side by side on the couch when Lauren let out growl of frustration. Joey looked at her in concern. She tilted her phone screen towards him so that he could see the picture on Ashley's instagram which showed Joey with his arm around Lauren. The two of them were looking into each other's eyes, oblivious to the fact that the photo had even been taken. Worse still was the caption: 'Look at these two, they just need to get married already'. His heart sank.

He saw Lauren's comment of 'hahahahaha we're FRIENDS' and couldn't help barking out a laugh. She shot him a half-hearted grin. He picked up his own phone to look at the post, scrolling through some of the other comments to see the damage. Under one of them, 'joey and lauren are together????!?', Lauren had simply replied 'no'. He pushed down his feelings of anger at people prying into their private life, knowing how upset it made Lauren, and decided to try to see the funny side.

He turned to her, clutching at his heart. "Lo, why didn't you tell me you broke up with me?"Her eyebrows creased together for a moment before she understood what he was getting at, then she rolled her eyes at him. 

He wasn't ready to let it drop though. "Who's gonna get custody of Diane?" 

"Okay JoJo," she said wearily, patting his arm.

"What am I supposed to do with your birthday present now?"

She laughed, and Joey was glad to hear the sound again. Then she leaned across the space between them and kissed him, her lips pressing surely against his. He reached a hand up to cup the back of her head, his other hand landing on her hip and inching her closer to him. She pulled back with a smile.

"You gonna let this go now?" she asked.

Joey nodded with a grin, putting an arm around her shoulders and tucking her into his side. After about an hour Lauren yawned widely, so Joey pulled her up from the couch to get ready for bed. He scrolled through Twitter until Lauren climbed into bed, when he passed her her book - which was on his nightstand from where he'd taken it off her when she fell asleep while reading it last night. She gave him a grateful smile, settling back into his outstretched arm and flipping to her page. Joey sat there in the peaceful quiet, his fingertips lightly tracing over Lauren's shoulder, until she set the book aside and shuffled down the pillows.

"Night Lo," he said, pulling the covers up over her and leaning over to press a kiss to her forehead.

"That's not a proper kiss," she said, her eyes already closed but a smirk on her face.

He grinned, lowering his lips to hers in a slow, sweet kiss. "Better?"

"Mm," she said contentedly. "Night JoJo."

Joey shook his head fondly, settling into his pillow and putting an arm over Lauren. He fell asleep to the comforting sensation of her chest rising and falling.

A/N Sophie I promise this wasn't planned to coincide with our conversation about how Ashley would probably be the one to give the game away. Doing shorter chapters has actually made me more impatient for you guys to read it but I can only write so fast and I don't want there to be a huge gap until my next fic so I guess we'll all just have to suffer