Growing Pains
Summary: "What is your biggest fear?" "Dez is going to marry Trish and they're going to want to live with me." As much as she loves her friends, Ally decides to tell them that maybe it's time they grew up.
Disclaimer: I do not own Austin and Ally. I'm just a fan.
Author's Note: This is a future fic and takes place when they are in their early 20's.
Austin Moon dropped another chip into his mouth, not paying attention to his surroundings. Around him, he heard the chatter of a few customers inside Sonic Boom and the sound of rain outside in the streets of Miami. Austin found this strange. Lying on the counter, eating chips wasn't strange. He always hung around Sonic Boom. What was strange was that Dez and Trish weren't around. Pushing his friends out of his head, Austin turned his head to watch Ally taking a tuba down from the display on the wall to show a customer. Even after being married to her for five years, he was still so irrevocably in love with her. Thinking he'd steal a kiss from her later while she was working, Austin turned his attention back to dropping chips in his mouth.
"No food in the store," Austin heard Ally's voice exclaim, just as a hand quickly snatched his bag of chips away.
Abruptly, Austin sat up to see Ally drop the bag of chips in the garbage. "Ally!" he complained, hopping off the counter and over to the garbage to grab the bag of chips. Picking up the bag of chips, Austin reached his hand inside to pull one out. Peering closely at the salty chip, Austin carefully checked for grime from the trash. Satisfied with the inspection results, he shrugged his shoulders before popping it into his mouth.
Watching her husband's antics, Ally scrunched her nose in disgust. Then ignoring Austin's crazy antics, Ally focused on the customer she was helping and giving him back the right amount of change. "Thanks for shopping at Sonic-"
Ally wasn't able to finish her sentence because a horrible, heart wrenching scream filled the room. As the customer hurried out of the store, and Austin dropped the bag of chips in surprise, Ally turned towards the sound of the scream. Looking at the practice room, Austin and Ally saw Dez standing outside the room holding up a dog leash attached to an empty dog collar.
Ally groaned. "No pets in the store!" she exclaimed.
Leaving the chips on the ground, Austin strode up to stand next to Ally. "Cool!" he exclaimed. "Dez, you got a dog?!"
"What?" Dez asked confused. "No, my parent's think a dog is too big to have in the house." Shrugging his slim shoulders, Dez continued with, "I got a pet mouse."
"Dez, that collar is too big for a mouse," Ally pointed out.
"I know," Dez nodded in agreement before shrugging his shoulders because he was confused. "I think that's why I can't find him."
Ally opened her mouth to say something to Dez, but before she could a customer shrieked about a mouse in the store. Shrieking herself, Ally jumped into Austin's arms in time to see the mass panic of customers run through the door.
"Mr. Squeaks!" Dez exclaimed mortified as he flew down the stairs to search for his pet.
Dez sighed in relief at the sight of his pet when the mob cleared out of the store. Smiling, Trish walked into Sonic Boom and halted in front of the doors. Throwing her arms in the air to pose in a way to extenuate herself, Trish excitedly exclaimed, "Guess who's moving in with Austin and Ally!"
Austin's jaw dropped in shock, as did Ally's. Surprised to hear Trish's announcement, Austin felt his arms go weak as he dropped Ally in shock.
xXx
His blond hair hung over his eyes as he dropped his head, resting his forehead on the top of the piano in the practice room at Sonic Boom. Ally was lying on the top of the piano, her long brown curls, mixing with his blonde hair. "No," Austin kept muttering over and over again. "No." Austin's hair became disheveled as he shook his head. "No!"
The back of Ally's head kept connecting with the top of the piano. "What do we do-?" she moaned, dragging out the word do.
"I don't know," Austin replied as his head continued to connect with the hard wood of the piano, "but she cannot live with us."
Ally agreed with her husband's statement as she ran a hand over her brown hair. A small inkling of an idea popped into her mind as she began to smile. Abruptly, she sat up, so her feet were resting on the piano bench, next to Austin.
"We could-"
"No!" Austin exclaimed, abruptly picking his head up to look at her.
Ally, a little taken aback by Austin's comment argued, "You didn't even hear my idea!" She jumped to the ground.
"No offense Als," Austin retorted, "but all your ideas are bad. I mean come on, a kick me sign isn't very original."
Now, Ally turned to pacing the room to rejuvenate and try to come up with a plan.
Smirking, Austin pivoted in his seat at the bench so he was facing Ally. "Here's what we do," he said, before pulling her close to whisper his idea to her.
Ally stopped pacing as she listened to him. "That could work," she agreed with her own smirk.
xXx
They returned to the ground level of Sonic Boom to see Trish chasing Dez around the store with a stapler. Dez hopped over the top of the counter, trying to get away from the angry Latina. "If you don't stop talking to that stupid mouse, I am going to staple it to your face!"
Austin and Ally looked at each other and sighed. Something like this was always happening between the two of them and so they were not surprised to hear Trish threaten to attach a mouse to Dez's face. So, ignoring the violence Trish was trying to impend on Dez, Ally skipped over to their friends. Austin right behind her.
"We've made up our mind," Ally told Trish who was still chasing Dez with a stapler.
"And we've decided that you can live with us!" Austin continued.
Trish immediately stopped in her tracks and dropped the stapler. "Really?"
Ally looked at Austin a little uncertainly. "Yeah," she drawled out lamely. "Of course. Why not?"
Austin knew Ally's tone. Trish knew that tone. Everybody who ever knew Ally knew that tone. Ally was lying. Immediately, he scooted closer to her and jabbed his wife in the ribs to get her to stop babbling. "Yeah!" Austin exclaimed excitedly. Turning around, he effortlessly picked Ally up by the waist and seated her on top of the counter next to the cash register. Austin hopped up next to Ally. "It'll be great having you live with us!" He dangled his feet off the edge of the counter, his heels kicking the side. "You're our manager and it'll just be so much easier for you to book our gigs if you know our schedules. And if you live with us, you'll know our schedules and won't have to threaten us to cancel our date to go to a cd signing or something."
Trish smiled. "See, that's what I was thinking."
Austin continued. "Ally and I have been entertaining the thought of having kids," Austin admitted with a smile. "And with you there, it would make our lives so much easier. After we have kids, Ally and I will still need to work on our relationship, a lot more than ever and so knowing that you're always around to babysit will be a huge relief for us."
Ally smiled at her husband. Of course, if they ever did have children, they would never let Trish nor Dez babysit. As much as they loved their friends, they didn't want to shell out thousands of dollars to pay for their nonexistent children's therapy bills. Yet, she played along.
"Besides, I have the store to run and we can't really bring a baby to concerts-"
Austin cut Ally off and continued, watching Trish's expression change to one of horror as they continued to mention children and babysitting. "And it's not like it'll be awkward for you living with a married couple," Austin said. "Your parents are married and you live-"
He never finished his sentence, crashing his lips onto his wife's, holding tightly onto her hips. Adding tongue to deepen the kiss, Austin felt Ally's fingers playing with his hair. Smirking against her lips, Austin felt Ally's hands trail down his body until they found the hem of his t-shirt. Hastily, Ally pushed it upwards, revealing his rock hard abs.
Trish was horrified. She hated snot-nosed and sticky finger kids and babysitting and if Austin and Ally kept going at each other like horny bunnies like they were now, then the whole kids' thing was bound to happen sooner than they thought. She needed a plan. A good plan. A fast plan.
Dez was still talking to that stupid pet mouse of his. She'd rather kill herself than actually go through with the horrible thought that popped into her head. But it would give her a place to live and her out of the whole babysitting thing. Besides, it wasn't like it would be forever. Just until she met rich man or won the lottery.
"Dez!" she shouted to him. He stopped talking to the mouse and looked up. "Stop talking to your ridiculous pet and get over here! We're getting married and moving in with Austin and Ally!"
Dez screamed and ran out of the store.
They weren't expecting that. They had expected Trish to think through all the reasons why she should not live with them, not force Dez into marrying her. Ally removed her roaming hands from Austin's abs and his t shirt fell back into place. Austin removed his hands and their lips disconnected.
Making out in front of Trish didn't work.
It was time for plan B.
What was plan B? Right. To come up with plan C in a hurry.
Sighing, Ally jumped off the counter, her hands clasped together. Slowly, she walked over to Trish and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Trish, we're not in high school anymore. You're 23 years old. You parents decided to make you start paying rent or to find your own place. And to do that, you need to have a steady job. We love you, but you can't live with us Trish." Austin jumped off the counter to stand behind Ally, giving her support. "I'm sorry, Trish, but maybe it's time you grow up."
Trish stepped back and Ally's hand dropped to her side. "Oh." She left the store, clearly upset.
Ally knew her best friend was hurt at her words. She sighed, leaning against Austin, who hugged her waist from behind. As hard as it was for Trish to hear those words, it was even harder for Ally to say them. She wished she didn't have to say them, but it was time for Trish to grow up.
"I'm really sorry, Trish!" Ally called after her friend, pulling away from Austin's strong embrace.
Austin held onto her tighter. "Don't worry, Als," he said. "It's not like she'll be mad at you forever."
xXx
Ally glanced around the store. After the zaniness of yesterday, she was grateful for the slow pace and the quietness. Of course it was only quiet because Austin decided to stay at home today and Dez and Trish were nowhere in sight. Only a few customers looked through display cases at the many instruments and accessories. Handing the correct change back to a customer, Ally said, "Thanks for shopping at Sonic-"
She was unable to finish her sentence.
She was interrupted by someone banging on the drums.
Not banging, playing. They were really good.
Turning around, Ally looked to the drum set. There, banging away on the drums with his bleach blond hair flying around his face was none other than Austin Moon. Ignoring the other customers, Ally turned her back on them and stepped around the counter and over to her drum set playing husband. "Austin!" she groaned. She stomped over to him. "How many times do I have to tell you not to play the drums out on display?"
Austin stopped playing and grinned up at her. "It's okay, I'm an awesome drummer."
Ally returned the grin. "At least you're not using corn dogs this time," she said, remembering the time they had first met. Crossing her arms over her chest, she asked, "What are you doing here? You said you were going to stay home today."
Shrugging his shoulders, Austin stood up from the stool and placed his drumsticks in the back pocket of his jeans. "I got bored."
"Austin!" a high pitched voice exclaimed from nowhere, followed by Dez running through the back door, flailing his arms around, holding a video camera in one hand.
Rolling her eyes, Ally quickly pecked Austin's cheek before returning to work. So much for peace and quiet, she thought.
Dez came to a stumbling halt beside Austin. "You got to see the new tricks I taught Mr. Squeaks!" he exclaimed, turning on the video camera.
"No pets in the store!"
Dez looked over at Ally who was selling a harmonica to a little girl. "Oh don't worry, Ally. I found him a smaller collar so he won't get lost." He said, revealing the tiny mouse in the palm of his hand.
Watching the little skip out of the store clutching her new harmonica tightly with her pig tails bobbing up and down, Ally turned to look at her friends. She frowned. "That's Trish's hair tie."
If on cue, Trish barged through the front door of Sonic Boom and throwing her arms in the air to pose like she always did, she exclaimed. "Guess who got their own apartment!"
"Oh my, God!" Ally exclaimed running over to hug her friend. "That's great, Trish!" Austin and Dez picked their heads up from giggling at the footage that Dez had already shot on his camera. Releasing her friend, Ally stepped away and walked over to the boys. Trish followed her. "What are you laughing at?" she asked, curiously.
"Mr. Squeaks learned how to play dead!"
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Trish announced, once again posing. "Guess who got a job at Mr. Meety's Steak and Shake Shop!"
Austin looked at Trish and started laughing. "There's a guy named Mr. Meety?!" Ally jabbed in the ribs.
"Do I still have to marry Trish?"
"No Dez," Ally replied with a roll of her eyes.
"But Mr. Squeaks already paid for his tuxedo!"