Hey All! Sorry again, I know I've been away for ages, I kind of just lost motivation to work on it for a while, and I was working and studying like crazy and all that jazz. But to make up for it, it's substantially longer than usual and so hopefully you like it.
I definitely don't own anything you might happen to recognise in it, thankyou to every one of you for reading, you're all stars.
Love you, hope you like it.
The next day dawned sunny and beautiful, birds chirping, flowers and leaves swaying in a light breeze - the works.
For Ally however, the day started in a rather unusual fashion. She woke up, gradually feeling the sunlight hitting her eyelids and letting herself slowly be pulled back into consciousness bit by bit, taking in little details at a time until she was fully aware of her surroundings.
Ally was pressed firmly up against Austin's chest, his arm around her waist, pulling her impossibly closer to him, his nose nuzzled into her hair and his breathing slow and heavy.
None of which was particularly unusual. What caught Ally's attention was the rather hard something which was pressing into her lower back. With a squeak which woke Austin she realised exactly what it was, making a bad situation into a rather awful one, and giving an interesting start to the day.
So now, Ally was sitting outside of the bathroom, waiting for Austin to finish up so that she could apologise, so that she could tell him it was perfectly normal (something which she had no doubt he already knew), that she wasn't going to take it personally, and that all was well.
Unfortunately, when Austin opened the bathroom door wearing nothing but a towel wrapped rather loosely around his hips, his hands raised to dry his hair with another towel, Ally's mouth went a little dry and the speech she'd been rehearsing conveniently left her brain, instead leaving her with short strings of sentences which made no sense but came together to basically mean:
Holy shit.
Austin smirked a little at Ally's slightly open mouth and her complete lack of subtlety in running her eyes up and down his torso.
"Alright there, Als?"
"Hm? Oh, uh, absolutely. Completely yes. Great. Fantastic even. Um. I was just. Well I was going to say sorry about this morning and everything. You know. Totally normal, not taking it personally and all that. Um. Yeah."
"You sure you're okay? You sound a little off." Austin remarked, throwing his extra towel onto the bed and pushing his arms above his head in the way he knew for a fact made his arms look fantastic and his ab muscles stand out. Ally's mouth dropped open a little more before she abruptly closed it, taking a few seconds before she answered.
"Yep. Fine. Shower time for me."
"Maybe go a cold one?"
Ally froze with her back to him for a second, turning around and fixing her sharpest glare on him (but with a slight tilt to her lips which let Austin know she was glad he'd broken the tension) before regaining her regular confident walk (with a slightly emphasised swing in her hips), and flipping Austin off on her way.
They had the day to themselves. Just Austin and Ally and all of Texas to explore. Well, not really all of Texas - Mimi had made them promise they wouldn't get too far from home and that they'd be back in time for dinner, but still.
A whole day to be Austin and Ally without pressure of eyes watching and judging and having to pretend to be something they weren't.
Austin had planned the day out, and he was ready to impress. Ready to maybe try to show Ally that they could be something more, and still be them. To show her that they were Austin and Ally but that he maybe wouldn't mind them becoming AustinandAlly. He'd kept his lips firmly sealed on the subject of where he was taking her, but he was hoping she would love it. And if she did, then that would be just another part of what made him love her.
To say Ally was looking forward to it was an understatement. To say she was bouncing off the walls was probably still a slight understatement, but something substantially closer to the truth.
Austin refused to tell her where they were going, telling her to put on something comfortable and meet him in the truck. When he walked outside she was sitting in the passenger seat, nearly squealing and bouncing out of her seat, her eyes trained sharply on his every move. He was wearing comfortable clothes himself, and was carrying - what? A picnic basket?
He threw it into the bed of the truck (with the carefree ridiculousness that only Austin could pull off without making you want to murder him for being so careless), and hopped into the driver's seat, turning on the truck and beginning to back them out of the driveway without more than a breezy "Hey." to Ally.
Ally lasted as far as the main road (so approximately 100 metres) before she caved and asked him (for the millionth time) where they were going.
Her response was a pointed glance and a marked change of subject, but it was accompanied by a fond smile. The kind of smile that Ally thought maybe Austin reserved only for her.
They reached an open field, one of many that they'd passed and Austin pulled in, parking the car and finally turning to face Ally. He looked, well, he looked a little nervous, to be honest.
Ally put her hand reassuringly over his and Austin took a deep breath. She had to love it. She would. But- no, stop worrying. She would.
"So here we are."
"And here would be where exactly?"
Ally Dawons, ever the smartass. "I used to come here a lot when I was a kid. Dad and I built a treehouse up the top there, and I'd come here whenever things got too much, or whenever I wanted to get away from the house, or try my hand at songwriting yet again. It's kind of my special place I guess."
Ally's eyes softened at every word, her heart bursting for the beautiful boy in front of her.
"Ever come up with anything good? Song-wise, I mean?"
"Nah. Never got the hang of it until I met you."
Ally's heart shattered into a million pieces. And then Austin smiled a little nervously at her and every piece came back together again, and in a better arrangement, pieces she hadn't even realised were missing finding their places and making her feel… whole.
She was in way too deep.
Austin watched Ally's face carefully, trying to gauge her reaction. It looked as if she was going through a fair few emotions, a lot of them new to him and passing too quickly for him to place, but a soft smile settled on her face and she leaned in to give him a soft kiss on the cheek, a whisper of a kiss, easy to miss but wonderful when noticed.
Austin relaxed, pulling himself and the picnic basket out of the truck, watching as Ally bounced down, walking behind him as he made his way to the tree.
They climbed up, making their way to the very top, only to find-
An utterly chaotic mess of childhood debris.
There were crumpled up papers, toy figurines, a superman cape in the corner, a record player with too many vinyls stacked haphazardly beside it. There were posters plastered on the walls and toys strewn on the floor.
And yet somehow… she loved it.
She wanted to find out the story behind each of the figurines, which ones were his favourites, which ones he wanted to be, which ones were the ultimate villains.
She wanted to make him dress up in the cape and tell her all the stories about it and give him endless shit about it. She wanted to end up wearing it for the rest of the day and having him watch her with those fond eyes.
She wanted to uncrumple the papers and see what he'd written on them, see what went through the mind of a reasonably uncomplicated boy who hadn't experienced love and who hadn't known how to say the things on his mind.
She wanted to go through his vinyl collection and see how his taste had matured and to see where it had grown from. She wanted to pester him about finding someone like The Backstreet Boys or a soundtrack from some cheesy childhood TV show.
Austin watched Ally as she took it all in, and this time (to his delight) he could read every single thing on her face.
"What do you think?"
"Austin. I love it. Thank you for bringing me here."
"Well. No problem."
Ally walked around carefully, picking her way through his things and Austin watched. After a while of silence as she looked at the posters on the walls, she asked "How many people have you brought up here?"
Austin scratched at the back of his neck, feeling his feet begin to fidget a little. He'd, probably naively, hoped that this wouldn't come up.
"Um. I mean."
Ally paused and switched her attention over to him. He sighed.
"I mean you would be the first."
God. She was a goner.
A soft look passed over Ally's face, the kind that Austin sort of thought, and definitely hoped, were reserved just for him.
They passed the day in a haze of chocolate covered strawberries and soft drink in plastic cups and chicken sandwiches. Austin told her stories about his childhood and Ally listened, her rapt attention on him the whole time. Ally discovered everything she'd wanted to know and more, and she repaid him with endless stories of her own. They joked and teased and talked and laughed and relived the days of sticky hands and wide eyed-wonder. Of easily scraped knees and even more easily scraped hearts and of endless dreaming.
They made it home in time for dinner, and when Mimi opened the door, it was to a glowing pair of teenagers, the day still fresh in their minds and being endlessly picked apart and relived by each.
Because they'd shared the beginnings which had led them to each other. And they had each, unbeknownst to the other, fallen just a little more in love.
Apologies yet again about how long it took, but hopefully you liked it!
Reviews and favourites, etc. never fail to make me smile so thankyou to everyone who has, and pretty please leave me a review if you liked it.
All the love, have a phenomenal day/week. :) x
