title: take care

inspiration/playlist: take care- rihanna and drake, treacherous- taylor swift

disclaimer; not mine, bros.

warnings: solid T for a bit of language and one scene that's a bit racy

pairings: Kira/Trent, Austin/Ally, mentions of Austin/Kira

After this, she's not going to go out with any of the guys from her dad's record label, she promises herself.

Every time, she just ends up with her heartbroken.

Looking back on it, this has been one of the better ones. Usually her relationships end because the guy was using her for her father or something like that. This time, he'd just realized he had stronger feelings for another girl. She couldn't blame him. She'd noticed it first, after all.

She sighs softly. Maybe one of these days, it'd work out for her.

/

She usually spends her weekends at Starr Records. She always had, even as a little girl, where she'd stood in the recording studio, standing on her tippytoes to see her daddy's latest superstar through the glass partition.

"Someday, sweetie, maybe you'll be the owner of this label. You'll get to make people's dreams come true."

She nods eagerly, not telling him that she'd actually rather be in the booth, recording.

But, because she's grown up here, she does learn how to work all the switchboards and machinery.

Sometimes she helps in the booths, mixing a new single for the latest "it"

girl or boy, nodding her head to the music.

It's the perfect distraction for her the weekend immediately after her and Austin's break-up. She loses herself in the music, not having to think about all of the pain she doesn't want to feel.

That Sunday, her father brings a brand-new artist to her booth. The only other singer recording today is Austin, and he knows better than to do that to her (especially not when Ally had tagged along), so she gets stuck with the newbie.

Except he's not, really. He's fresh and slick and knows his way around the studio already, despite it being his first day.

After the fourth take of his new single, a cookie-cutter pop song written by who were supposed to be the world's best songwriters, he stops and takes his headphones off.

He mouths something unintelligibly and she puts her own headphones back on.

"I can't hear what you're saying. Come out here." She tells him.

He pops his head out of the door, knocking his grey fedora to the ground.

"I asked you for your name, sweetheart." He smiles smoothly.

She rolls her eyes. As if she hadn't this type of guy before. "It's Kira." She smirks.

"And you're T-Fame. Got a real first name, T?"

He looks down at the ground for a second, smiling bashfully, then looks back up at her.

"Yeah. It's Trent."

"Well, Trent, it's nice to officially meet you, considering we've been recording together for about two hours. Speaking of which, you should get back to it."

As soon as he gets settled on the stool, she turns his mic up so she can hear him.

"Are you saying my first five takes weren't good enough?" He teases, covering his heart with his hands, feigning hurt.

She cocks an eyebrow in response and cues up the background music.

"Not even close."

/

Her father appoints her to be T-Fame's tour guide to Hollywood. She's not sure why, though, he seems to know how to navigate this society as well as she does, with his oozing charisma and slick charm.

Though she does have sixteen more years of life in the spotlight under her belt than he does, so maybe she could be of some assistance, anyways.

She invites him to be her plus one to the annual Young Hollywood, and they sit at one of the booths off to the side as she watches Austin walk around hand-in-hand with Ally.

Trent follows her gaze right back to his ex-enemy. "Why are you staring at Austin Moon? " He asks, tongue recoiling in disgust as the name rolled off his tongue.

She keeps her stare intent on the happy couple, shiny brown eyes peering over the red cup of ice she held pointlessly to her glossed lips.

"We..had a thing." She replies evasively. "I think."

Trent snorts. "You and Austin?"

"Mhmm. But I kind of ruined it by making him realize how much he liked Ally."

Her new charge lets out a low whistle. "Wow. That must've sucked. You know, I hate Austin, too."

She sets down her cup, rolling her eyes. "I never said I hated him. Like I said, it was kind of my fault in the first place." She smiles sheepishly.

"Well, the fact that he left you just gives me more reason to hate him. 'Cause, y'know Kira, I think you're pretty dope."

She grins, looking up into his eyes. "You're not so bad yourself, T."

He holds up his cup of Pepsi. "Cheers."

She lifts her ice cup to his. "Cheers."

They drink to the sake of being past members of Austin Moon's life, and to the new beginning they were making without him.

/

She's not going to lie, she's starting to find herself becoming quite attracted to the newbie.

But she made a promise to herself, and she wasn't one to break her promises.

/

He asks her out casually after one of their many recording sessions. There's no buildup, no pregnant pause between his feelings and his words, it just comes out.

"Would you want to, like, go grab a sandwich or something with me from that deli down the street?"

She lifts her head from the switchboard to look at him,startled.

"What?"

"Kira, I'm pretty damn sure you heard me the first time-"

"No, no, I did. It's just...what?"

He scoffs playfully. "Is it really that hard for you to understand the fact that I'm asking you out?"

She shakes her head frantically. "No, no, I understand that part. And I totally would, but after Austin, I kind of promised myself I wouldn't date guys from my dad's record label and-"

Trents groans and walks nearer to her. "Kir, I am not going to let that blondie ruin another thing for me. Please. One date. If you want, we don't even have to call it a date. It can just be sandwiches." He pleads, taking her hand.

She bites her lip. "Fine. I still don't get why you hate Austin so much, but fine. One date."

/

Long story short, one date turns to two, two turns to four, which starts to turn into a serious relationship.

Word starts to get around, starting with Austin.

He corners her in the studio, one day, grabbing her elbow so she can't walk away.

"You're dating Trent?" He asks disdainfully.

She tries pulling her arm back ,but he keeps a firm grip. "Yes, actually, I am. I don't see why you care. You're with Ally now."

"Yeah, I know, but that doesn't mean I don't care about you. I mean, I know firsthand how much of a jerk Trent can be. I just don't want to see you get hurt." He says, sincere worry flashing in his light brown eyes.

She finally rips her arm back with an assertive tug. "I'm a big girl, Austin, I can take care of myself." She retorts. "And you may think Trent's a big jerk, but really, he's no worse than you."

The next person to find out is her father, which is admittedly scary.

"Kira, I don't like you seeing Trent. I meant for you guys to have a casual, professional friendship, not a serious relationship!"

She groans. "Ugh, dad, I'm fine! I'm happy with Trent! Why can't you just accept that?"

Jimmy smacks his hand down on his wooden desk, blowing a loose sheet of a recording contract to the ground.

"Because Kira, he's not a good guy!"

"And where'd you hear that?!" She yells, throwing her arms up in the air, fighting her urge to cry.

"Austin told me how he stole their song!"

"Ohhh." She moans. "Why is he all I hear about these days! Austin, Austin, Austin! Everyone seems to think of him as some perfect little golden boy, but he's just as flawed and mean as any of us can be! I am almost seventeen years old, Dad, I'm capable of making good decisions for myself!"

"He's not good for you!" Jimmy protests.

"You don't know anything about me, then!"

She storms out of the recording studio, into the bright sunlight of the Miami afternoon and into her white BMW.

She pounds on his front door, shifting her weight back and forth on her black wedges.

"Kira?" He asks confusedly.

Wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and pressing her lips fervently to his, she hops up and straddles her legs around his waist.

"I want you. Now." She whispers heatedly against his neck.

"A-are you sure?" He asks, trying to balance her and closing the door at the same time, trying not to get distracted by the feeling of her lips trailing down his neck.

"Yes." She says definitely, because he is good for her and she knows that and she doesn't care if no one else believes it.

So he carries her up the stairs to his bedroom, happy to oblige.

/

Three weeks later, he holds her hand tightly through a pregancy test and kisses her softly through the negative sign.

/

He thinks about the irony of it all sometimes, the fact that once again, he'd found himself picking up what Austin had left behind.

Except this "leftover" had turned out to be the best thing that had ever happened to him and he had genuinely fallen in love with her, so maybe for once he had something to be thankful to Austin for and not something to hate.

And as he watches her play his guitar in the corner of his bedroom, her black curls cascading around her glowing face and her smile that illuminated his world, he realizes just how much in love with her he was.

With Kira, he didn't have to be slick T-Fame, he could be his normal dorky self and still make her laugh and she'd still be there even though no one else ever had been (that was the reason he'd copied Austin after all, everyone always loved Austin Moon but no one ever loved that jerk Trent) and she had come into his life and changed everything up and suddenly he couldn't imagine living life without her.

And, for the first time, he smiled and thought, Thanks, Austin.

/

She invites Austin to the wedding mostly because she still considered him a friend, but partly because he'd been one of the ones who said they'd never make it and damn, it felt good to spite him.

He comes up to her at the reception, arm-in-arm with his own wife, inevitably being Ally.

"So maybe I was wrong." He grins sheepishly, scuffing his shoe against the tiled floor.

She smirks. "Yeah, I know." She intertwines her fingers with her new husbands' and gazed up into his eyes.

"I figured that out seven years ago."

He chuckles and kisses the top of her head and Ally excitedly whispers her parting wishes of luck and farewell as Austin drags her away.

When it comes time for the daddy-daughter dance, Jimmy pulls her close and smiles warmly at her.

"You know, I'm really proud of you." He says, twirling her around.

"For what? Not listening to you?" She laughs.

'No. For listening to you.Your heart. Your feelings. No matter what any of us said, you stayed true to yourself. And you're happy, babygirl. As a daddy, that's all I could ask for." He explains, withholding his tears.

She looks up at him. "Thanks, Daddy."

/

In a way, she'd kept her promise. She hadn't gone out with any other guys from the record label.

Just one. And she was happy with that.

Because he was the one.

And she keeps her promises.

(fin)

A/N WHOA KIRA AND TRENT HOLD UP WHAAAAAAAAT?

Haha, I'm not going to lie, this was actually kind of fun to write. I sort of like it, not because of the content, but it was just such a weird pairing which made it intriguing. But actually, I can kind of see them together ( not canon, of course)
I know it probably seems like I'm publishing stories like crazy but I literally have 2k+ words of story ideas and I'm just trying to work through them and luckily this turned out short enough that I wrote it in an hour.
So yeah, while I know it's a bit rushed, I quite like this, and I hope you do too :)

(Oh yeah I suck at endings btdubs)