So, I was looking for a source of inspiration to write another Auslly fic since I hadn't done one in a really long time, and I came across a list of AU prompts on Tumblr. The one that I chose for Auslly was, as you may have guessed, the one in the summary.
An attractive blond boy was the last thing Ally wanted to see when she was wearing a unicorn janimal and letting her hair frizz in the privacy of her dorm room. Ally had been studying for her biology midterm for three hours straight and felt so exhausted afterward that she decided to turn in early-hence the janimal. If she had known that the person knocking on her door wasn't her roommate Trish, Ally never would have let this stranger see her like this. Maybe she wouldn't have minded so much if he wasn't so good-looking. He wore an unbuttoned purple and black plaid shirt and a white undershirt that was slightly stretched by his chest muscles. His messy blond hair needed a cut, if the fact that he had to blow his bangs out of his eyes was any indication. His broad blinding white smile and his smooth peach-colored skin made Ally think that maybe those male celebrities weren't as photoshopped as she thought.
"Hi, I'm Austin," he said.
Seeming to ignore or not notice Ally's sloppy appearance, the boy stretched out his hand towards her, and she carefully shook it. She was still too shocked to offer her own name, and an awkward pause followed as their hands stayed locked together. His hand was very warm.
"I don't know you but I need some place to stay for the night, my roommate's getting some," Austin blurted.
Ally yanked her hand out of his and stared bug-eyed at Austin, who bit his lip and shoved his hands into his dark jean pockets.
"I'm sorry, that was way too abrupt," he apologized. "I'm just desperate, cuz, y'know, it's Friday night, and everyone else on our floor is out partying. You're the only one who's in, and I really need to a place to crash right now. I have to leave with my band for a gig super early tomorrow morning."
A montage of the hundreds of times Austin passed by her with a guitar strapped to his back suddenly came to Ally's mind.
"Wait a minute… you're Austin Moon!" exclaimed Ally. "Your group won the Battle of the Bands last month."
Austin nodded and popped his collar. "That's right."
"I didn't recognize you without the yellow and green face paint."
"Hey, gotta show school pride. My band and I are really excited for our gig tomorrow. It should be our biggest one yet."
Ally squinted. "You said you had to leave early tomorrow. Don't gigs usually happen at night?"
Austin grinned, looking at least fifteen percent cuter as a result, according to Ally's calculations anyway. "This one is happening in the afternoon, but it's a long drive there and our lead guitarist is a spaz about getting to places on time."
"Sounds like me," thought Ally.
Austin grinned wider, and Ally realized that she had accidentally spoken out loud.
"So can you do me a solid and let me sleep here?" he asked earnestly.
A million little Ally figures sprang up in her head waving red flags and screaming ABORT ABORT, CREEPER ALERT! Ally couldn't let a strange boy sleep in her room-especially not when it would be just the two of them. Alone.
"Just for a little while," pleaded Austin, sensing Ally's hesitation. "You can leave the door open until my roommate hopefully takes the tie off the doorknob and you can boot me out."
Ally's eyes narrowed as she scrutinized Austin's puppy dog pout, an expression that never worked successfully when Trish tried it, but it somehow worked very effectively when Austin used it. Ally checked the clock on her desk. 10:08. Trish probably wouldn't be back from the silent dance party across campus for another hour or so. She could handle Austin for a little while, and when Trish returned she could kick him out without Ally having to deal with the guilt from doing it herself. It might be a slightly cowardly move, but Ally wouldn't tolerate the smell of boy when she woke up in the morning-not that Austin smelled bad, now that she thought about it. His musky cologne, which he didn't overdo like other college guys she'd met, tickled her freckled nose as he leaned in expectantly for her response.
Ally finally nodded and stepped aside. "Just for a little while."
"Thank you!" cried Austin as he entered.
Austin stopped in the middle of the floor and looked back and forth between the two beds on opposite walls. The floor of Trish's side of the room had clothes piled on top of books piled on top of pop magazines until only a few square inches of carpet could be seen. The bed and several other items had various animal prints ranging from tiger, to zebra, to leopard. Meanwhile, Ally had all of her binders, books, and folders color-coded and neatly stacked on her desk and in her bookshelf. The new label maker that her dad had gotten her for her birthday had prime position on her small nightstand by her bed. Ally saw a smirk on Austin's face as he turned his head and pointed at her bed, which didn't have any wrinkles in its blankets or any pillow out of place.
"That yours?" he asked, although he sounded like he already knew the answer.
Ally glared, not appreciating this guy typecasting her-even if it was accurate. She quickly shook off her annoyance and nodded. After she gave her approval, Austin made a belly flop on top of her bed and rolled around like a horse in its favorite patch of grass. He stopped when he noticed Ally's stuffed gray dolphin wedged between a pillow and the wall, and he gasped. Snatching the dolphin, he pressed it to his cheek and let a goofy smile come onto his face. After a few moments, he realized Ally was watching him and ducked his head to avoid her amused look.
"His name's Dougie," she said.
Austin looked up, and Ally frowned. Why did she tell him that?
"He's really soft," Austin said quietly.
"It's okay, you can sleep with him," said Ally, turning away from his brown-eyed stare.
Ally skimmed through her books in search of her song book, since she couldn't go to bed until Austin had left and she didn't want to deal with more biology that night. By the time she glanced back at the bed with her book and a pen in hand, Austin's eyes were shut and his arms were crossed over her stuffed dolphin. Ally turned off the light on the ceiling and flicked on the lamp next to her reading chair before setting her pen to work. Fifteen minutes passed with only the sound of Ally scribbling, crossing out, and revising song lyrics on the yellowish lined pages of her brown book.
"What are you doing?" Austin suddenly asked.
Ally flinched and realized that Austin was sitting up on her bed with the dolphin still pressed against his chest.
"I thought you were going to sleep," Ally said.
"I can't relax," said Austin. "The more I think about how I have to go to sleep, the less sleepy I feel. Can we talk a little? Maybe it'll tire me out."
Ally snorted. "Yep, because talking to me is so exhausting and boring."
"I didn't mean it like that," said Austin, lowering his head and blinking; Ally thought his eyelashes should be made illegal. "So, what are you writing?"
Ally sighed. "I'm working on a song."
Austin lurched forward and crawled closer to her until his cologne began tickling Ally's nose again.
"An original song?" he asked.
"Yeah," replied Ally.
"That's so cool! I'm awful at writing songs. The band never lets me in when they're doing a songwriting session."
"That sucks."
Austin shrugged and rested his chin on his hand. "I bet you're really good."
"How do you know? You haven't even seen any of my songs."
"Well, I can fix that-"
Austin reached forward, but Ally snapped the book shut and held it as far away from him as her arm would allow.
"Don't touch my book," she warned.
Austin dropped his hand and his head, but his eyes remained locked on hers.
"How long have you been doing that?" he asked.
Ally shifted. "Since I was five."
Austin whistled. "Your musical talent is almost as impressive as mine."
"Almost?"
"I've been playing every instrument known to man since I was four. First time, I was playing the drums with corndogs."
"That sounds… disgusting."
"Maybe. But you can bet it sounded awesome."
"For the record, my dad owns a music store, so I know how to play quite a few instruments myself."
"Oh really?"
As he said this, Austin sat up, swung his legs around, and leaned forward on his knees as his teasing brown eyes challenged hers. Ally began to worry that his cologne was going to turn her brain into soup if she let this boy get any closer. She pushed him by the shoulder until she had enough space breathe properly again.
"What are you studying?" Austin asked.
"I'm double majoring in English and music," Ally answered.
Austin blinked several times. "Oh, dude, me too! I mean, not the English part because ew, but I am majoring in music!"
"Really? That's amazing."
"Yeah," Austin said.
As he looked at Ally, his smile seemed to falter just slightly, and he began to pick at a loose string on his jeans.
"Y'know, I don't meet too many music majors," said Austin. "My dad always said music was a waste of time. He said I had a bazillion in one chance of making it."
Ally gawked at Austin. "That's exactly what my dad said to me."
Austin lifted his eyes again to meet Ally's. "Really?"
Ally nodded shyly, and Austin chuckled.
"I never thought I could have so much in common with the bookworm on my floor."
"What? Bookworm? How do you…?"
"I always see you in the hall with a book in your hand. I keep checking to see if you ever run into anything while you're walking and reading, but you never do. Can you teach me your navigating skills some time?"
Instead of waiting for Ally to respond, Austin yawned, fell back on her bed, and closed his eyes. He stayed quiet for so long that Ally assumed he had finally fallen asleep; some time later, she heard rustling sounds and turned around to see Trish sliding through the half-opened door. With bleary eyes, Trish glanced at Austin's sleeping form and frowned at Ally.
"Girl, don't you know the necktie rule if you want a night alone with a guy?" Trish asked.
"I, uh, like not that, er…" Ally nervously clasped her hands as she searched for coherence. "I mean, it's not like that - "
"Whatevs. Do you want me to kick him out?"
Ally stood up, looked down the hall, and saw the multi-colored, flower-patterned necktie still hanging from what she thought was Austin's room.
"No," Ally said finally. "He's, er, his roommate's made use of the necktie rule."
Trish marched to Austin, cupped her hands around his ear, and shouted, "Yo, Moon!"
"Ah!" cried Austin, falling off the bed and crashing at her feet.
Trish laughed and prodded him with her glittery pink big toe.
"You're sleeping on the floor tonight, 'kay?" said Trish.
Austin grunted, and Trish threw down one of her pillows for him to rest his head on.
Trish opened her laptop, switched on the camera, and turned it towards Austin. "If he makes a move to attack us in our sleep, we'll have all the evidence we need to convict him."
Ally heard Austin's suppressed laughter through the zebra-patterned down pillow.
"Very funny, De La Rosa," he grumbled before falling back asleep.
"You two know each other?" asked Ally.
"We have history class together," answered Trish. "Also, his band has talked to me about making me their manager." Trish leaned toward Ally and added in a low voice, "If I wasn't already dating Jace, I'd make out with this guy in a heartbeat. Good choice, Ally."
Ally tried fumbling a response, but by the time she could fully respond to Trish's implication, she was already in bed and snoring in sync with Austin. Ally put away her song book, wriggled underneath the covers of her bed, and, after glancing at Austin one more time, shut off the last light.
Ally was in the middle of a dream where she had found a world that was made entirely of pickles and was ruled by a goose king, when an airhorn alarm blared from below her. After a moment, someone shut the alarm off and groaned as if every muscle hurt. When Ally opened her eyes, she saw Austin pushing his tangled mop of blond hair off of his forehead and checking his phone. He noticed her movement and offered a small sheepish smile as she removed her janimal hood to see him more clearly.
"Sorry for waking you," he apologized as he stood up and cracked his neck. "I'll be heading out now."
"Okay," she replied, slipping off the bed and following Austin to the door.
Austin stopped and looked down at Dougie the Dolphin, which was still tucked in the crook of his arm. If Ally were being honest, the stuffed animal looked happier with Austin than he had ever been when sitting alone on Ally's well-made bed. Austin offered the dolphin back, but Ally shook her head.
"Go ahead, keep him," she said.
Austin's eyes widened, and he cried "Dougie!" before he rubbed his cheek against the dolphin's fuzzy head.
Ally giggled, and Austin froze mid-snuggle as he turned his gaze to her.
"Never speak of this to anyone," he warned.
Ally raised her hands in surrender, but even his glare couldn't settle her twitching mouth as it fought to grin.
"Thanks for letting me sleep here," Austin said.
"Have a good gig," Ally said.
Austin paused, and although a few moments of silence passed, Ally surprisingly didn't feel awkward this time.
"You should… come see me perform some time," Austin suggested, scratching his ear and directing his gaze slightly off base from hers.
"Maybe I will," Ally replied.
"Cool." Austin hugged Dougie and stepped out the door. "I'll see you around."
"Later, alligator!" Ally cried as he began walking down the corridor.
Austin snorted, and Ally clapped her hand over her mouth as she grasped how cheesy that must have sounded. However, when Austin turned around with a smile so wide she thought his mouth would break, a reassured Ally wiggled her fingers in a final wave. With a two-fingered salute, he bade her farewell before Ally finally shut the door and sighed. She had a strong feeling that she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.
I wrote this during my spring break in March, but as soon as I emerged from my well-earned vacation, school gave me a hard slap in the face. It still stings, but hey at least I finally published this!
Edit: Judging from the reviews, people are wanting more from this story, but it's intended as a one-shot. Unless we get a repeat from Kisses of an Apple where the story passes the 100-favorite marker, I probably won't be adding another chapter. This isn't me goading for more favorites, it's just me saying that right now I don't have the ideas or the time to continue it, but as time passes I might. We'll see how it goes.