Jae grinned at Misty, before pecking her on the lips briefly and following her into the apartment. A short moment of affection that really only was just part of her excitement. It was hard to belief how much all this once scared her, when now just the thought of her soulmate being near was like a balm her soul but also set her heart of like fireworks of her mark that appeared on Misty's collar bone. "Yeah let's get this moving," she said, though her eyes never really drifted away from her mate, barely acknowledging the others in the room.

Elliott knocked on the open door as he, Javi, and Erik behind him, "Did someone mention us?" he asked, having parked the truck and followed the others up to the apartment at a bit of a distance. He smiled cordially at everyone, giving a small way.

Davvin chuckled, "Yep, we've already assigned y'all the heavy lifting tasks."

Misty chuckled at Jae's show of affection, but didn't have a chance to return it. There was later for that. She met Jae's eye, portraying that thought with just her gaze. They didn't need words and she knew it. They both knew it. "Right, that means my bed and chest for sure, then the table with the glass inlay is pretty heavy too," she answered with a quick glance at the trio who just entered through the door they left open. Gazing at her mate for a second longer, she finally pulled away to supervise the moving.

"Really, thanks for coming to help. You guys got this?"

Erik made a face as he stopped just past the door, crossing his arms. "Why do we have to be the ones to carry the heavy stuff?" he complained. Labor was for the plebs and he was definitely not one of those, but Javier just punched him in the arm harder than necessary.

"We can hardly give them to Tavis or someone with rainbow hair, right?" he chuckled, leaning close to Tavis to tease. "They'd for sure find a way to break it!"

"That's fine with me," Davvin said, holding up his hands, he really didn't want Jae annoyed with him if he or his mate did manage to break something. "Just point me in the direction of boxes and I'll happily carry some of those. Tav can come with me and carry stuff that's not breakable, just in case." He said, his voice gentle, knowing his mate was a klutz even when he was careful. "Though perhaps don't let Javi anywhere near that table either, I don't think he can be trusted anymore than we can." He smirked at Javier as he said this, knowing the other would react.

Tavis scowled harder at Javier and Davvin who just had to agree. "Hey. I'm not that bad!" he snapped, even if he did break things often-ish. He wouldn't admit to that and send Davvin a particularly nasty glare. "Jerk." Spinning away, he went in search of the lightest box he could find in rebellion. The rest of them could work. He'd just carry useless shit.

Jonah rolled his eyes at the entrance of so much noise and rolled off the couch he'd been waiting on, leaving Raz still stretched out there. "Don't worry," he said to Tavis. "I'll join you in the useless box carrying crew. I hope you don't mind." He patted a box labeled 'clothes' with a grin of his own.

Javier pouted hard, though the look he sent Davvin was just a little dangerous. "Now that's just silly. I'm exactly the type of person who should carry a table," he huffed. Pointing at Tavis, his grin turned devious again. "Coming from the person who barely even put a ring on it."

"I have no clue what you're talking about," Davvin replied somewhat haughtily to Javi, not about to give him the satisfaction of a response, and walked away from him, even if he couldn't stop himself from reaching across his hand to finger with the ring. The weight still unfamiliar, but somehow very right on his hand.

Grey stretched from where he'd been curled up on the edge of the couch as well, though he didn't say anything, he'd forgotten how very loud and overwhelming their two groups of friends could be when all together. But he did follow after Jonah and Tavis, looking around for lighter items to carry, aware of the limits of his strength and size. He smiled softly at Tavis, "We'll all just make sure their apartment looks awesome once they get there." He paused, "I like your rings by the way," he added, cheeks flushing a bit, gesturing between Davvin who was still messing with his ring and Tavis's own hand, having noticed the glint of the opal as something apart from the other rings Tavis wore.

Javier huffed again, but went to scope out the bed, nearly dragged Erik by the shirt sleeve after him. The blonde man had no intentions of carrying anything heavy and was still caught up on Javier's words. "What the fuck are you talking about? Ring?" He glanced between Davvin and Tavis just in time to catch Grey's approach toward the later. Javier paused as well to watch the show.

Hearing Grey's words, Tavis turned slowly, then almost exploded backwards in a jump. "Rings?!" he yelped, his hand flying reflexively to the newest one. The most special one. A second later, his face lit up with a victorious smirk. "It's about time someone noticed my ring. Do you know how long it took Davvin to freakin' propose?!" He held the ring up for all to see as he continued to crow. "I mean, really. I had to ask!"

Davvin groaned at his mate's sudden outburst that wasn't exactly how he wanted to tell everyone, but he really shouldn't be surprised that it did burst out of Tavis in such a way. But then Tavis had to go and finish his statements and he groaned louder. "Hey!" he exclaimed, "Maybe I just knew that waiting for the right moment would be the best option. After all, it was never a question of if we were gonna get engaged. Just when." He finished in a pout, mainly because that's not really the reason, but maybe the others would believe that.

Jae laughed, "Oh my god. Is this why y'all two were so sappy on the ride over? Why didn't you say anything?" she asked, it's not like they wouldn't all be happy for them.

Javier burst out in laughter and clapped Erik on the back. "See! I told you!" Erik just groaned in response.

"The fuck?" How did what Javier say even constitute as a 'told you so'? Still, he couldn't help the smirk that pulled on his lips as he looked at the two now engaged mates. "Tavis proposed? God, you must have waited too long then, Davvy. That's serious! But you know, go you."

Tavis sent them all a dirty, but still proud look. He was soaring on his own happiness too much to let them get to him. "What's wrong with me asking first? Anyway, this ring is way cool and we were not sappy all the way here," he added, shooting Jae a look. Like she could talk anyway what with her own mate hovering only half a foot away. "And we said something now."

Davvin huffed a sigh, knowing no one believed him, "I was trying to get the words out and then this one just blurts it out instead," he grumbled, not sure if anyone would care, but he had been trying, Tavis still just beat him to the punch. "Just wait when y'all go to propose to your mates, you'll see, it's not easy."

Elliot chuckled at the mess that was his group of friends, "So when's the wedding?" he asked, knowing neither of the two of them were organized enough to get going towards that very quickly, but figuring the question might make them blush.

Erik had to laugh at that. "Oh, fat chance!" Looking at his mates, he figured they had all the needed as it was. What were tacky rings anyway? They were the same married or not.

At Elliot's words, Tavis mumbled to himself, his face growing red. Wedding? They hadn't even talked about it in detail. "A-ah, you know...wedding. We're still working on that..." he managed. Eyes darting over to Davvin, he blamed the other man for making this simple situation into a mess.

Misty laughed. "Well if you need help, we girls can probably lend a hand," she offered with another laugh. Squeezing Jae's hand, she couldn't but feel even more elated with the good vibes in the air.

Elliot hummed in agreement with Erik. He never really saw the need to get married to his mates. They were soul mates what more did they need. Besides, any attempt at a wedding with Erik and Javi would surely in a mess, not that he'd say that to them. Not that Tavis and Davvin's wouldn't be. But then it was just his friend's, not his wedding, so he could ignore the craziness sometimes.

Davvin looked back at Tavis, aware his mate was trying to blame him, "I'm not the one who had to announce it aloud to the whole room." He grumbled, "I even ignored Javi when he first noticed, but then, it's so easy to not give him what he wants."

Jae nodded in agreement with her mate, "Yeah just let us know and we'll help, but really we should get moving before the day gets to hot and one of us passes out trying to move something." Also, she was eager to have the day over and just cuddle up with Misty in their apartment.

Tavis let out another huff. "Yeah, but you're the one that can't agree with what I say about the wedding, so we can't actually figure anything out." Making another face, he spun away with far more dramatics than necessary. He grabbed the box he singled out earlier and hefted it into his arms. "Then I claim this one. You guys moving or what?"

Still grumbling under his breath about the others comments, Javier inspected the bed once again. "Fine. So we'll start with this I guess," he pouted. Really, it had been getting so fun and now they had to work. Not that he minded. Kicking Erik in the shins to make sure he didn't either, he motioned for Elliot to help on the other side. "Just uh, how are we doing this?"

Chuckling under her breath, Misty let out a sigh of relief as everyone else started to work. Raz joined the trio with the bed and the others found their own task. So at least for a second, that just left Jae and Misty. She turned to her mate, smiling. "Thanks. Some one needed to say that.

"Well let's get this show on the road!" Davvin exclaimed, moving on from the argument with Davis, as it was really appropriate for the moment and it would just lead them down the same circular route they'd already been on. They just needed to move forward, but it wasn't like they could elope. Davvin's family would throw a fit, but the thought of it seemed more attractive everyday. It was all just a show anyway, but he'd knew they'd end up getting their eventually, and have some sort of wedding with his family and whatever family of Tavis's showed up, most likely his uncle, but no one else beyond that.

And with that the oddball group of both of Misty's and Jae's friend, the world did go quickly, heavier objects carried out by the trio were loaded into the larger car, though they'd probably have to make a second trip to get the rest of them as none of them really had a truck which was best for situations like this.

The afternoon wasn't without mishaps, a couple of boxes got dented, there was some good natured screaming and yelling and overall they were a loud bunch, but within a couple hours the cars were loaded to be taken over for the first trip and everyone was ready to move on to the next part, which was moving everything into Jae's apartment.

When they arrived at Jae's, everyone was more than ready to get the task over with. Not that they just felt tired. At least two of them completely brimmed with excitement. As the boys started unloading furniture, Misty plopped down on one of the boxes she brought in from the front of the car. Jae stood behind her, more actively ordering the placement of items. Which was hard enough considering the help present. Misty let out a laugh as Tavis just placed the small end table he'd been helping with at the first empty place and even with Jonah and Davvin nagging that it didn't go in the middle of the dining room, he refused to pick it up again. The whole scene should have been annoying, but Misty looked on it with fondness. They only needed a few more hours and then this place would be theirs.

Tilting her head back to grin at Jae, Misty let the love shine clearly in her eyes. "Hey look. We're already almost there." Almost there. Yes, almost to the heaven they were trying to create. Misty meant so much more than they almost finished unloading, but it didn't even matter if Jae understood. She was just so happy and so ready to through her arms around her mate without worrying about who might bump into them. "I'm too happy to work, you know."

Jae smirked whispering to Misty, "Well, I mean there's enough people here I'm sure they wouldn't notice if we just started directing traffic and let them do all the heavy lifting." As she said this, she shifted her eyes around the room. It wasn't like there was much stuff left to move anyway, "Come on, let's start unpacking some stuff, we'll let the boys handle the rest." She grabbed Misty's hand and pulled her toward the living room and a box, pulling it open without much regard of what was in it, knowing they'd find a place. "Come on!" she exclaimed, that same excitement she'd been feeling bursting back out.

Misty grinned and charged after Jae after a second. Right! There was still so much more to be done. "Let's do this then," she hummed. Looking down into the box, she started pulling things out without looking at them in detail. Plates, bowls, obviously kitchen stuff. It didn't matter. She stole a look at Jae. "Do you think we can get those guys to hurry it up and get out of here faster?" Setting aside the dishes on a nearby counter, she leaned closer to Jae, crinkling newspaper packing under her knees. The soft sound felt anything but in the otherwise noisy apartment. "I really want to be alone with you soon. There's so many things to say, you know. So much to do! Don'cha think?" Tilting her head, she gave another grin before standing to take the contents of the first box to the kitchen. At least this part was easy.

"Well, we could try being gross and lovey dovey that might chase a couple of them off, but unfortunately with our friends, for the most part, I think they'd just torture us about it for the rest of our lives," she looked around at their friends and the apartment, "But it does seem most of the big stuff has been moved, we could always feed them and then shoo them out, so it can be just us." She grabbed a few plates from Misty's hands, moving to the cabinet to stack them on top of the plates already there, blending together their stuff on a simple level, and feeling far too giddy for such a simple act.

Misty shook her head with a short laugh. She doubted acting lovey right now would solve anything even if it would make her heart feel a little happier. They already became the sort of couple that could act like that whenever despite their rocky start. It made her want to laugh, but she refrained in order to view the cabinets with their now mixed dishes. "Yeah, I guess that's the right way to do it. Pizza? If I order it now, it should get here by the time they finished moving everything in. We can just unpack while we wait. Make sure we have enough plates!" she added with a real laugh.

"Pizza sounds great. Order like five large and just get cheese and pepperoni or something, I don't feel like messing around with everyone's preferences. Order some drinks too cuz I definitely don't have enough in my fridge for that herd of elephants." She said, a couple of thuds ringing through he apartment, as she walked towards the kitchen, rifling around to see if she could find some paper plates somewhere in there.

It didn't take long for the pizza to arrive once the order was placed, and it took even less time for everyone to have gathered around the boxes spread out on the table, each with a plate in hand and a couple of slices of pizza on their plates. The volume in the room was loud as everyone chatted back in forth, their friend groups easily starting to meld into one, as Davvin teased Raz about something, clearing riling up the other male while Grey watched on laughing slightly and Tavis and Javier got lost in a conversation that could only lead to trouble. And at the center of it was was Misty and Jae, next to each other, but talking to their friends, Misty chatting amicably with the remainder of the trio, which sounded something to be like the story of how they met. Jae couldn't help the feeling bubbling up in her of contentment, even as she also wanted to throw everyone out of their apartment and snggule up on the couch with her mate and never move again.

With the pizza ordered and now spread out on the table, Misty leaned back with a sigh and smile. "Why do I feel like I don't believe that story, and yet I do...?" she added to the conversation with a shake of her head. Picking at the last of the crumbs on her plate, she spun it, watching the grooves on the paper blend together. It didn't take much to feel full, and a little warm and too comfortable in this atmosphere. As they finished their pizza, they started to say their good byes. Tavis and Davvin left first, muttering something about plans for the night. Misty didn't want to know. Grey vanished all on his own, leaving not long before the rest of the Fruit Cocktail. Finally, it was just them and the trio.

Erik leaned back with a stretch, realizing just how quiet the room got after so much noise. Javier still laughed like a complete idiot, finishing a story only he thought amusing. And maybe Elliot. He wasn't sure on that. Glancing to his side, he looked at Jae and Misty, then smirked a half second later. "Javi," he cut in right before the other man dropped into yet another awkward tale. "I think it's about time for us to go, idiot. Don't kill them with stories!" Pushing back his chair, he nodded his head toward Elliot. "Ready? We also have things to do tonight don't we?" he added with a smirk.

Jae tried not to seem overly eager as she ushered the trio out of the door, but she doubt she succeeded, she was practically vibrating with the realization that once she closed the door behind them, it'd be just her and Misty. It's not like it took them long to leave anyway, the three of them seeming to get just how much the two needed this time alone.

She closed the door behind them with a final goodbye before turning back to look at the apartment, what was now their apartment. As she stepped away from the door, Misty rounded the corner from the kitchen, clearly finished cleaning the mess from dinner up. Jae smiled at her, soft. "Well this is it. This our place now. Can't believe it's finally happened." she paused, grabbing Misty's hand and leading her to sit on the couch, "I can't believe I was ever once afraid of this. Like how could I be, when this, us, you is clearly going to be the best thing about my life." She snuggled into Misty's side. "I'm just so happy, I get to be with the one I love."

Still wiping her hands off on a napkin, Misty met Jae by the door. "I know, finally. I missed you so much," she murmured as Jae took her hand, pulling her away to the couch. Misty let the napkin fall to the floor, not caring right now if she made a mess. That was for later, like the boxes, and real work. Right now, she needed to marvel in what they just achieved. She really had missed Jae. All the time they had to spend apart up until now--and she knew it would only get worse--as well as at dinner, so desperately wanting to be alone with her mate. Now that she had it, she radiated with happiness.

Leaning against Jae, she breathed out before Jae's words really hit her. A second later, she jumped away, her eyes alight with excitement. "You said it!" Misty exclaimed. Her cheeks flushed, but with so much more than embarrassment. Her gaze softened, even as her grip tightened on Jae's hand. "Love. You said the one you love. You know that's the first time you said that to me..." She let her eyes slip closed, a sound of pure contentment escaping her lips. "Thank you."

Jae chuckled at Misty's face, leaning in to kiss her as she pulled away she said, "I know, and I'm sorry it took me so long to say it." she paused, "I've kinda been wanting to say it for awhile now, but no time every felt really right," Jae grinned at her mate, faces still close together, "But now, with us finally moving in together. And the future spreading out before us. I just wanted you to know. I love you, so much." There was a wetness to her eyes, though no actual tears, just an outpouring of the emotions inside her. She couldn't resist pressing another kiss to Misty's mouth, pouring the emotions she'd just expressed into the kiss.

Misty sniffed like she might cry herself. However, the bubbly feeling inside her didn't come out as tears. She kissed Jae back, just as passionate, letting the feeling last long enough to savor it, like this moment. She thought that maybe, she might drown herself in this moment, but she didn't want to come up for air either. "I love you too, Jae. Like, you have no idea." Sitting back against the couch's armrest so she could continue to look into her soulmate's shining eyes, she shook her head. She could have sworn she saw tears gathering there and she knew her own cheeks were flushed a happy pink. "But in reality, I think you know exactly how much..." With that, she let herself fall forward again to wrap Jae in a hug, face pressed into the girl's shoulder. And there she sat, more happy than she ever thought she could be.

~~~Three Years Later~~~

Jae ran a hand through her hair, now a deep burgundy, the pink locks from when she met her mate, a thing of the past. She sighed as she look at the door in front of her. She just had to get through security and then she'd be able to see Misty for the first time in three months. Once again thankful she'd been able to pull a few strings with Grey and get a backstage pass without her mate finding out.

It seemed the two of them were on some level always destined to be apart. What with Jae working at the hospital, often overtime, and Misty's group on a never ending rise to fame, which had lead to the very tour that had taken Fruit Cocktail all across the country. And Misty further away than she'd ever been from Jae before. It was too long since they'd seen each other and she felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach, like they did back when Jae wasn't ready to admit that Misty was her mate.

She couldn't suppress her grin as she was let in the backdoor by the security guard and was greeted by the band's manager. She was always amazed that they had a manager now. They were that famous. It looked like the deal with Erik all those years ago had really been worth it; she still chuckled to think about it. The manager quickly lead her through the maze of backstage, "I'm gonna go get Misty, and don't worry. she doesn't suspect a thing."

"Thank you," Jae grinned and looked around the room she'd been placed in. She took a deep breath and braced herself, joy overwhelming any sense of nervousness, knowing her mate would be overjoyed to see her.