A/N: This is actually the second Austin and Ally fic that I've written, but this one was a bit shorter so it got typed first. It's kind of just silly and a story I had to get on paper. It's basically just an attempt to learn the characters in a category that's new to me. Anyway, enjoy. R&R! Thanks! –Mac
Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally.
You Make My Brain Melt
Somewhere in the middle of concerts, songwriting, unrelated shenanigans and music videos, Austin Moon falls for Ally Dawson. Austin Moon, being Austin Moon, should be able to just tell her how he feels. But Austin Moon in love with Ally Dawson is not Austin Moon in his right mind, and when Austin Moon is not in his right mind, everything goes wrong. His life turns into Dez on a good day: chaotic, frazzled and, more often than not, no one understands the words that are coming out of his mouth.
Trying to play it cool, like Austin Moon in his right mind plays it cool, doesn't work because Ally has this kind of silly grin that makes Austin's brain melt—at least that's what the sensation feels like. Ally also has this way of looking at him like he's this really special person—yeah, she looks at a lot of people she cares about like that, but when she looks at him like that personally he feels like he's the only one who gets that look. So when she looks at him like that or smiles at him with that silly grin—which honestly is like 99% of the time—his brain goes kind of goopy, his heart races like it just entered the Indy 500, and his mouth no longer recognizes the English language.
That's why, even when he tries really hard to tell Ally how he feels, he botches it up.
The first time goes a little something like this: Austin steps off the small stage after a concert and hugs his partner Ally—a little too tightly and a little too long—in celebration of a successful concert. She smells really good when her head is tucked in against his neck and he gets a face full of her soft hair. With any other girl this would just be awkward, but with Ally it's like exactly where he's supposed to be. So he thinks, now is as good a time as any to tell her how he feels. He pulls back a little so he can look down into her eyes. Austin stares into Ally's eyes and says, this exact quote, "You make my brain melt." Ally frowns and passes it off as residual nervous excitement. His statement is the truth, but without taking a tour through Austin's inner most thoughts, Ally has no idea what he means. He dared Dallas to do a better job—not literally, because it seems the other boy in Ally's life can string more than five coherent words together when in her presence. Austin Moon, being Austin Moon, shrugs it off and vows to do better next time.
The second time ends in such embarrassment and just pure internal humiliation that he just doesn't speak of it ever.
The third time is such an enormous blunder, that he really can't comprehend how he screwed it up. Ally asks him this question: "Do you like anyone Austin?" Here he thinks he has the perfect opportunity. After two opportunities wasted over his inability to act like a normal human being—at this point he should just dye his hair red, start wearing pants with geometric patterns on them and call himself Dez—he is given another chance to redeem himself. All he has to say is one word, one syllable, and it's out. He just has to say "You." Easy as pie. He's got it in the bag. Even when nothing can go wrong, something goes wrong. Instead of saying that he likes her, he blushes a deep red and says in a long, drawn out whine, "NO!" Of course, Ally is not convinced and begins a long rambling speech about who in the world he could possibly like—listing literally every eligible teenage girl he knows (even some he doesn't—while staring him right in the face, in hopes that some tick or expression will give away his mystery woman. She doesn't think to include herself in the list, so she gets nothing from him. She eventually gives up and is none the wiser about how he truly feels.
The fourth time, he plans it. He thinks that the problem the first few times is that Austin Moon not in his right mind is no good at spontaneity. So he takes every little detail into consideration. He invites her to dinner at his house so they are in a controlled environment with no outside distractions—that was his downfall the time he does not speak of. He writes out his speech so he doesn't have to come up with the words on the fly. Everything is in place, except for Ally. A couple of hours before she's due at Austin's, Dallas finally gets up the nerve to ask her out, so Ally cancels with Austin. So that time was a failure, not on his part, but a failure just the same.
The fifth time comes right after Ally and Dallas break up. Austin has been waiting for their relationship to end—he feels terrible because he wants Ally to be happy, but he would rather it was with him. He doesn't mean to tell her while she's still crying over Dallas breaking up with her, but she buries her head against his shoulder and the words slip out. His timing is abysmal and he cringes, waiting for a slap or a punch or for her to pull out of his arms, but none of it comes. It is possible to screw up a screw up, Austin learns. His bad timing has even worse timing, because the one time he actually gets the words out properly is at the worst possible moment and she doesn't' even hear them because she already cried herself to sleep on his shoulder.
The sixth time is apparently the charm. Austin and Ally are out to lunch with Dez and Trish, and they lock eyes over the table. This is the moment. This is THE moment. Austin leans forward and from beside him Dez says, "Austin is in love with Ally." Ally smiles and from beside her Trish says, "Ally loves Austin too." Austin takes Ally's hand across the table and smiles back at her. Austin's head is still kind of goopy, so he doesn't really notice that he never actually said the words and neither did Ally, but neither deny the truth of the statements and that obviously means everything to him. So while Trish is still complaining about how she "has to do everything for them," Austin kisses Ally for the very first time. At least that's something their friends don't have to do for them. And Austin Moon, being Austin Moon, doesn't botch that up.
