Words That Were Said

"Sorry to bother you, but are you Austin Dawson and Ally Moon?"

"Uh, sort of."

Ally shook her head as she came out of her thoughts and back to the present. That scene had been playing over and over again in her head ever since it had happened a few weeks ago, and while in the beginning she had tried to ignore the reason why it was stuck on repeat, she eventually got fed up with the continuous loop enough that she confessed to herself that there were two words in particular that she liked hearing. Unfortunately, despite having come to terms with her feelings on the matter, the stupid scene still wouldn't leave her mind.

At first, it hadn't affected her too much. After taking a few seconds to recover from hearing "Ally Moon" come out of someone's mouth, she was able to forget about it and act normal around Austin. Even when she kept replaying it in her head that first week, it hadn't affected her interactions with Austin.

But now after hearing and thinking about it so much all the time, every time she saw Austin those two words echoed in her mind. Ally Moon. Ally Moon. Ally Moon. And she's not proud to admit that her thinking has gone deeper than just the words. No, of course her stupid brain had insisted on picturing her kissing Austin, marrying Austin, living with Austin, and freaking having kids with Austin. So not only did she mentally hear "Ally Moon" every time she saw Austin, she also kept getting distracted and picturing their future together.

And, yes, she knows that it's disturbing and irregular. Heck, they're not even dating (anymore, that is). Those kinds of thoughts are questionable enough to have when you're young and dating someone. So to have them when she isn't even dating the boy (even though she wants to be—whose stupid idea was it to break up, anyway)? And when she's sixteen? Yeah. She knows that she needs to get some help.

Needless to say, hanging out with Austin is suddenly a lot more stressful than it ever was before.

Yet there's no way she's giving it up. Austin's her best friend (sorry, Trish!), and she needs him in her life. And then of course there's also the fact that she likes him— and according to recent thoughts, maybe even loves him—so, duh, what girl doesn't want to hang out with her crush? Even if it means pretending that she isn't disappointed when she wakes up in the morning and the other side of the bed is empty.

"Ally?"

She'd gotten lost in her thoughts again. Oops. "Oh, uh, hi, Austin."

"Are you okay? You looked like you were thinking really hard about something, and I know that when I'm thinking about something too hard, my head starts to hurt. Do you need an aspirin or something?" he offered.

Cue the future images of them flashing in her brain. Sheesh, even when he says something completely stupid, he still triggers butterflies in her stomach. "Uh, no. But thanks."

Austin grinned. "No problem." Stupid cute grin. "Hey, when do you get your break?"

Ally glanced at the clock before turning her eyes back to him. "Any time, really. Why?" She narrowed her eyes. "What are you planning?"

He smirked and leaned forward on the counter. "Don't worry, Ally. Noon was the time of the really big sale."

Ally sucked in a breath as her heart started pounding. She knew that he'd only said "noon," but it was still close enough to "Moon" to cause a reaction. Hoping her voice wouldn't crack, she squeaked, "Um, what sale?"

"The sale that the videogame store is having! Noon was when some of the big things went on sale, but everything else is still on sale today and tomorrow. And I wanna go today before it's all been picked through," he explained. He leaned even further over the counter until he was only inches from her face. "So, what do you say?"

"I say that you are way too close to my face and if you get any closer you'd be kissing me which we can't have and you need to back away so that you're not invading my personal space anymore," Ally blurted out in a rush, the closeness reminding her too much of certain dreams she's had.

Austin stared at her with wide eyes as he slowly leaned back. "Okay?"

Ally stared back at him with an equally shocked look on her face. She swallowed hard as she desperately searched for something else to say. "Um, so, why don't you take Dez with you? He's more into videogames than I am."

"He's busy walking his pet alligator, and besides, I want you to come with me," Austin answered in a daze, still giving her a questioning look.

She feels her face flame red at his touching remark. "Oh."

"Yeah." The two stared at each other, both trying to decide if they should bring up the elephant in the room. "So . . ."

"Yeah," Ally said slowly. She bit her lip, and then she turned around and called, "Dad? Can I take my break now?"

Mr. Dawson came out of his office almost immediately at her call. "That's fine. Have fun with Austin!"

She nodded before going around the counter and looking hesitantly at Austin. "Coming?"

"Of course." He caught up to her, and, as they started walking side by side, he asked, "So have you written any new songs since I saw you last?"

Ally breathed a mental sigh of relief that he was just going to ignore her earlier comment. "Austin, I just saw you yesterday."

"Well, yeah, but you practically breathe songs. And being the amazing songwriter you are, I'm sure that sometimes it only takes you a few minutes to write a whole song," he replied, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Her face reddened again, and she used her hands to try to rub away the redness. "Stop it."

"Stop what?" he asked innocently, smirking in amusement and winking at her.

Seriously? Is he trying to kill me? "Austin," she whined.

"Ally," he mimicked. Shooting her a sideways glance, he remarked, "You're cute when you blush."

What the heck? This is intense flirtation, even for him. What is his game? Then she spotted the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. Oh, dear pickles, he knows! He knows because of that stupid slip I made earlier, and he's messing with me because of it! "Austin Monica Moon, I swear, if you are—"

"Look, Ally, Moon Malts has a deal today, too," Austin interrupted her, temporarily forgetting about his little game as he focused on the prospect of food. "Can we go? Can we go?"

Ally had frozen at the first part of his sentence, and she completely forgot about what she was saying before as she choked out, "Did you just say Ally Moon?" And the mental images are back.

Austin stopped and glanced at her. With a blush on his face, he coughed and said, "Uh, yeah, I guess I did. But not like that . . ."

Ally quickly nodded her head and tried to move on. "Um, right. I know. I mean, I knew that. And yes, let's go." She attempted to start walking again, but Austin caught her wrist and pulled her back.

"Wait, forget about that." Ally frowned and opened her mouth to question him, but he kept talking before she had a chance to. "What's up with you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she mumbled, trying to pull her wrist out of his grip.

Austin held onto her and grabbed her other wrist as well. "Seriously. You've been acting strangely ever since we were judges on America's Top Talent."

"What?" Ally tried to play innocent, but then she sighed. "You noticed it since the show? I thought I hid it well."

"Ally." Austin wove their fingers together and gave her a small smile. "It's you. Of course I noticed."

She blushed again. "Oh." She paused, and then said defensively, "Well, what about you? What was with you today? You were so . . . you know . . . like . . . flirtatious."

"That was only because of you!" he exclaimed. "Because of you and your earlier comment."

She pursed her lips. "So you were making fun of me."

"No! No, it definitely wasn't meant to make fun of you," he rushed to assure her. "It was . . . it was . . . hey, it's your turn now. I answered some of your questions. Now you need to answer mine."

Ally laughed nervously and tried to pull away again. "Um, well, how about we just get on with shopping, yeah?"

"Ally." She made the mistake of meeting his eyes. Feeling all of her resolve crumble with one look into his warm brown eyes, she sighed and tore her gaze away.

"Do you remember when we first met Lucy?"

He smiled. "Yeah. How could I forget? She was like a mini-you."

"Yeah, well, um." She laughed nervously again. "That moment when she mixed up our names? Yeah, uh, it's kind of stuck with me."

Austin cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"I mean . . ." she trailed off, then tried again. "I keep replaying the scene in my head. Or, more specifically, the words that were said."

"The words that were said . . . ?"

"Ally Moon, Austin! I keep thinking of the words Ally and Moon together! As in, my name and your last name! As in, what my name would be if I married you!" Her eyes widened. "I did not mean to include that last sentence!"

"You keep thinking of what it would be like to marry me?" Austin asked slowly. Ally bit her lip and nodded, trying to read his face.

"I mean, it didn't start that way. At first, I kind of just ignored it. Like, the two words were in my mind all the time, but I didn't really dwell on them, you know? But then eventually they wore me down and soon I was always thinking about the words and about you and about kissing and dating and marrying you! And I don't even know why, 'cause we're not dating, and I wasn't trying to think about this so much, but it just kind of happened, and then today earlier when you were leaning over the counter I thought of how I kept thinking about kissing you and panicked and then you said noon right after my name, which reminded me of Ally Moon, but I managed to get past it, but then you actually said the two words and I freaked because it was like you knew, and speaking of which, your ridiculous flirting didn't help with anything, I mean, it made it all worse, and—"

"Ally, slow down," Austin cut her off, placing a hand over her mouth and smiling. "You're rambling and not making any sense."

She stared at him nervously, barely moving a muscle as she waited anxiously for him to continue.

He kept looking at her thoughtfully for several moments before removing his hand and bringing it back down to grasp hers. "Ally, I'm going to ask you a question, and all I want is a yes or no."

She nodded, too wound up to say anything.

"Can I kiss you?"

She gaped at him in shock, but then quickly realized he was waiting for an answer. "Oh, um, yes! Yes."

"Good," he mumbled as he pulled her tightly against him and crashed his lips against hers.

Ally let out a tiny moan as she felt his lips moving across hers. Kissing Austin in her dreams was nice, but kissing him in reality was amazing. He nudged her lips open with his tongue, and Ally couldn't help but press herself further against him and moan again when she felt his tongue swirling around her mouth. This boy was insanely talented at kissing. While she'd obviously kissed him before when they were dating, those were sweet, chaste kisses. This kiss was something entirely different, yet better.

Eventually, they pulled apart and stared at each other with glazed eyes while breathing heavily. Ally thought it looked like Austin was about to say something, but then, instead, he leaned down and pressed another hard kiss to her lips.

"Austin," she mumbled when he leaned back.

"Yes, Ally?" he asked hoarsely, resting his forehead against hers.

"I think . . . I think I like you. No, I mean, I know I like you. I never stopped. But I think . . . I think I might even be in love with you," she whispered, keeping her eyes trained on the floor.

He chuckled softly and whispered back, "Yeah, I kinda gathered that when you said that you wish to marry me."

"I didn't say I wish to marry you," Ally murmured with red cheeks. "I said that I'd just been thinking and dreaming about it."

"Well, you didn't mention the dreaming, but I don't think you would have been doing that stuff if you didn't want it at least a little bit," Austin replied quietly with a small grin on his face.

Ally adjusted their position so that she was burying her face in his chest as she said, "That is true."

They stood together like that for what felt like hours. Finally, Austin broke the silence by murmuring, "Hey, Ally?"

"Mmmm?"

"In case it wasn't obvious, I still like you too . . . maybe even love you. And even though I didn't obsess over the Ally Moon thing as much as you did, I still noticed it, and I still thought about it. A lot."

"Yeah?"

He pulled back slightly so that he could kiss her again, and then, with his lips still firmly against hers, he smiled and said, "Yeah."

Author's Notes

Disclaimer: Don't own anything you recognize! Although I do own the name Moon Malts. Yeah. Don't ask.

This oneshot was the result of getting stuck on the whole "Ally Moon" thing in Moon Week & Mentors sometime last night (you see what I did there? :D). I literally stopped the episode right after those two lines just to write this.

And if someone already had this idea and has a story about it, I apologize! I'm not trying to copy you. I haven't read anything based off of this episode, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Thanks for reading!