Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that appear in Austin & Ally.

Note: I FINISHED WRITING THE LAST CHAPTER! I'm sooooo happy!

Bandin' Together

Chapter 14

Austin POV

Well that's all well and good, Dez, I thought, but that doesn't help my situation much. After six years of hiding my feelings, to just come out and tell her wouldn't be good enough. I had to do something special.

I returned to the piano and saw Ally hard at work scribbling on a yellow pad of paper. She looked up at me, a wide, warm smile on her face. My heart thumped wildly and I could feel my blood rushing.

I turned quickly and escaped to the kitchen. I most certainly was in love with Ally Dawson, not that I had any doubts before, of course; and definitely more so than when I was sixteen. My internal systems returned to normal reluctantly and I returned to the piano, fighting my urges every minute. Don't kiss Ally. Don't kiss Ally. Don't kiss Ally. Don't kiss Ally.

Eventually, when all of our serious juices ran dry, we wrote a song about a squirrel. A squirrel who cried a river and drowned the whole world.

BREAK

That night there was nothing on TV and everyone had returned to their homes a long time ago. So I broke down and clicked select on a romantic chick flick. Goodbye, man card, maybe I'll see you again one day. At first, however, the movie was only supposed to be background noise. I was going to write, but I couldn't think of anything, and the paper remained crisp and clean.

I am ashamed to say that the movie sucked me in without even trying. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, now my man card will never return! Then, the main female character asked the main male character a question that ignited a spark in my poor defeated brain.

Why do you love me?

Somewhat irrationally, I thought about Ally and if she would ask me that question. How would I answer?

I hit the record button so that I could watch the end later, then I pulled the paper on to my lap and started writing a list. I quickly hit ten things, then I got an idea. An amazing, wonderful, idea that just screamed romantic. The absolute most awesome way for me to confess. (And to get it through to my more imaginative female fans to stop sending me letters and articles of clothing that I didn't even read or keep, that would be an added bonus.) A song. A song would be perfect.

BREAK

For the next week, I locked all the doors and windows, and I turned my phone off. I wanted no distractions or interruptions until the song was finished. I ignored the pounding at the door, and instead focused on pounding the piano keys till they made the right sound as I hit the right notes. Ironically, the lyrics were the easy part, especially when I was so used to making a melody, then writing words to match the emotion. This was the complete opposite.

The stupid tune had me stumped. I tried fast, I tried slow, I tried fun, heck, I even played with dark for about thirty seconds. Then, as I was sitting at the piano and growing more and more frustrated, I saw the sheet music for the Squirrel Song.

I started playing it, hoping to be inspired, but as I played, I matched the lyrics to the notes. As soon as I realized what I was doing, I whooped and buckled down. It was going to be a long night.

BREAK

"AUSTIN!" Dez called out angrily. I rolled over in bed, hoping he'd go away. He didn't. He crashed into my room and ripped off my blankets. "Austin, enough moping. Trish had Ally confirm that she's single and has been for well over a year. There is no boyfriend, so get off your putt and tell her."

I yanked the blankets back. "I knew all that. I asked her ages ago. I haven't been moping. I've been writing a song."

"I thought you and Ally were back to being partners."

"We are, but I couldn't exactly write a song for Ally with Ally."

Dez was silent for a moment, connecting the dots. "And you're going to use the song to confess?" he clarified.

"Yeah, at the end of my next concert. I cleared it yesterday. I just had to promise to release the song as a single."

"Don't tell me you mean the concert in two days that kicks off a world tour? Dude! You know she won't be able to come with you, right?"

I pulled the blanket up over my head. "Knowing Ally, she'll need the time to think."

I'm evil, and I'm only going to get more evil. Hmmmmm... Is my ending evil... You can't know because you haven't read it yet. HAHAHAHA!

Review! I need them to make sure that I don't turn this into a tragedy out of spite.

-LeAcH