An alarm goes off somewhere in the room, and Austin groans as he's pulled out of his sleep. He hears tapping as Ally presumably feels around her nightstand blindly for her phone until she hits the snooze button, and then the sound turns off. Austin rolls over and drapes an arm over her, pulling her into him.

"We should get up," he mumbles, already feeling himself dozing again. Ally makes a tired noise, and he yawns. He opens his eyes and sits up a little, squinting when he accidentally stares right into the single beam of afternoon light streaming into his room from the crack between his blackout curtains. He leans over Ally and grabs her phone off the nightstand. "I'm giving us thirty more minutes. You said it's gonna take a while to get ready, and you know we have to kick off the last night of the festival with my parents—"

"Shut up," she groans, pulling the covers up to her chin.

"Just warning you." He sets the alarm and puts her phone back before collapsing next to her.

"Talk to me again and I'll rip out your kneecaps and make you wear them like shoulder pads."

He pulls her closer and kisses her hair. He's pretty sure the alcohol from last night hasn't completely left his system, because even though the party in the streets ended at sunrise, he and Ally didn't stop until the late morning. But since Ally is evidently pretty hungover, he's perfectly happy still being a little drunk.

Before he can fully drift off to sleep again, the second alarm goes off. Ally manages to turn it off again, but then she lays right back down. He sighs and forces himself to get out of bed before picking up their clothes from last night off the ground and tossing them in the laundry basket in the corner of his room. He lets Ally sleep a little longer while he brushes his teeth, then he gives himself a pep talk in the mirror to prepare for what he's about to endure.

"Ally," he says when he walks back into the room. She doesn't respond. "Ally," he repeats, making his way over to her side of the bed. "You gotta wake up." He leans down to kiss her cheek, but she suddenly jerks, her shoulder hitting him in the face, and he falls over with a hand covering his aching jaw.

"Why don't you ever let me sleep?" she whines, apparently unaware that he's in pain on the floor.

"I ask myself that question every time I have to wake you up," he mutters, forcing himself to his knees so he can look at her. As much as he loves her—and he does, more than anything—she looks pretty awful. Her makeup from last night is smeared all over her face (and his pillow), she has dark bags under her eyes, and her hair looks like an eagle tried to make a nest out of it. And judging from every other day of the festival, it's going to take a while for her to get ready. "C'mon, the event starts at eight. You have two and a half hours before we have to be there."

"I don't wanna get up."

"I know. But it's the last night of the festival! And after that, it's the last time we can get away with sleeping together before we're stuck in separate rooms for another month."

She opens her eyes just barely, but still enough to level one of her famous glares on him. "I hate being woken up."

"I know you do. We can sleep all day tomorrow."

She closes her eyes again. "Go away and start getting ready yourself. I'm up, I promise."

He sighs and stands up. "If you fall back asleep—"

"Just give me a minute."

He presses his lips together, but ultimately he decides to just leave her alone, opting to shower in the hopes that the scalding water will help wake him up. Luckily, Ally's already gone when he comes back out.

"Next year, you're being the angel," Austin calls as he examines his all-white outfit in the mirror in Ally's room.

"You wouldn't be able to take me seriously," she replies from behind her closed bathroom door while she finishes getting ready. "Besides, I'm sure you look great."

"I'm gonna stick out in the crowds, especially since people will see what I'm wearing when we're with my parents."

"Then wear your costume from last night for the event, then change before we go out."

"It's already in the laundry."

"Well, then, quit complaining. It'll be fine."

Austin sighs, running a hand through his hair. For once, they're not running late, but he's getting impatient anyway. The sooner this stupid kickoff event is over with, the sooner they can actually go have fun for the last night of the festival.

Suddenly, the door opens and the handmaidens helping Ally get ready file out of the room. When Ally walks in, his jaw about falls to the floor.

Her dress is a bright, sparkly red, with a low-cut, corset-style bodice and two wide slits in the skirt that end on her upper thighs. She's holding a matching red mask with little devil horns over her eyes, but her glittering red lips are curled in a smile.

"So?" she says, dropping her mask and walking over to him. "What do we think?"

He shakes his head, still speechless, as he takes her hand and she twirls slowly under his arm. "You look…"

"Hot as hell?" she suggests, wiggling her eyebrows at the joke. Even her eyeshadow is a sparkly red.

"I was going to say positively sinful."

Her grin widens and she wraps her arms around him. "Add 'sinful' to the list of words that sound ten times sexier with your accent." He smiles. "Say it again."

"Sinful."

She giggles, then tilts her head. "Your costume is missing something."

He frowns, looking down at himself. He can't even compare to her, of course, but he thought he looked pretty good, despite not loving the color. "It is?"

Ally presses a hard, lingering kiss to his cheek. Then, after nodding in approval, she turns him around to look at himself in the mirror. Sure enough, his right cheek now has a perfectly-shaped lipstick stain.

He grins, meeting her eyes in the mirror. "You're right. Much better."

"Do you think your mom will get the joke of us being an angel and a devil?"

He snorts, which a voice in the back of his mind reminds him he shouldn't do when he's supposed to be in prince mode. "Do you?"

Ally laughs again and loops her arm through his. "C'mon, we should go so she doesn't cut into our party time with her 'Five minutes early is ten minutes late' speech after the kickoff."

"Look at you, all responsible," he says as he leads her out of the room.

"I'm not spending the last night of Solstice being lectured by your mother. She already caught me in the hallway this morning sneaking back to my room wearing your clothes."

His eyes go wide and he stops, looking at Ally. "She what?"

"It's okay. I told her I drank too much and got sick, so you took me to your room to take care of me and gave me your clothes to change into."

"Did she buy it?"

Ally shrugs. "She didn't ask any more questions."

He relaxes a little, and they keep walking. "Good enough for me."

"Me, too. Although, I'm pretty sure she knows."

"How about we just don't think about it," he suggests.

"Good idea."

When they arrive in the courtyard in front of the castle where the event is being held, they're immediately surrounded by guards and led to the stage where Austin's parents are sitting. He can pinpoint the exact moment his mom sees Ally, because all the color drains from her face.

"What do you think, Your Majesty?" Ally asks, doing a twirl for the queen.

"This is wildly inappropriate," she says quietly.

"That's kinda the point," Ally replies with a wink. "C'mon, the fun of Solstice is being able to dress up and drop the whole royalty act for a night!"

"It's not an act, Ally, it's a way of life."

"You look lovely," Austin's father pipes up, looking uncomfortable.

"Thank you," Ally says pointedly before lifting her chin and looking at the queen again. "How I dress doesn't change my poise or manners or any of the other royal shit you've been trying to teach me."

"Let's not do this here," Austin says before his mother can say anything else. "Can't we just agree to disagree and move on?"

Austin's mother takes a deep breath, and he can tell it's taking everything in her to stay cool. But then her shoulders relax and her face softens ever so slightly, and that's how he knows just how much she cares about Ally.

"Just…behave, please."

"Always," Ally replies with a smile at the queen.

The rest of the event goes by fairly smoothly. Austin's parents each give a speech about everyone coming together for the festival and the history of it and a bunch of other things he doesn't really pay attention to. Then he thanks everyone for coming to celebrate at the palace with them, and then he and Ally have to put on their diplomatic faces while they follow his parents around to greet all the noble families in attendance.

Then, right as he and Ally are about to leave once they're no longer needed, his mother asks to speak to her privately. Ally squeezes his hand tightly before following the queen away, and Austin frowns at his father.

"How mad is she?" he asks.

His father shrugs. "I don't think mad is the right word. They just have very different ideas about…well, everything."

"She does like Ally though, right?"

"Your mother is very stubborn," the king starts. "She always had a vision of what your future would look like, and Ally doesn't quite match that vision." Austin's heart falls. "So it was a little difficult for her to come to terms with that, but none of that is Ally's fault."

"Besides antagonizing her."

His father chuckles. "That just goes to show that Ally really is family. They may butt heads, but the love is there, and that's what matters."

Austin nods. "Ally loves her too," he adds. "She's just…scared, I think, because of all the royal stuff Mother's drilling into her head. She's afraid she won't be good enough."

"She loves you, and that's the most important thing. Everything else will fall into place, and your mother knows it. She just wants you to succeed as rulers."

Austin hesitates. "Maybe we'd be more successful if we had more time to prepare. Ally's learning everything about Ocheria and the royal life and ruling from scratch, and we're only here during the summer. I'm not sure we'll be ready by the time I'm twenty-five."

"Perhaps you should move back here then, so you both can receive instruction year-round, especially now that you've both graduated university."

Did he just make things worse?

"No!" he says quickly, but then he clears his throat. "We…we can't. Ally is, um, considering going to grad school to get her doctorate and do research."

His father raises an eyebrow. "Is she really? She doesn't seem like the type to want to do more school."

"She went to university though, didn't she?" Austin points out.

"I'm not going to make you move back to Ocheria," the king chuckles. Austin breathes a sigh of relief. "Although it is a bit concerning your first instinct was to lie."

Austin shrugs helplessly. "Ally calls it storytelling."

"Well, if you promise to at least be honest with me from now on, I can talk to your mother about giving you more time."

"She won't try to make us move back, will she?"

"She might, but we'll figure it out. If you think that the best place for you right now is America and you need more time before you become King, then that's what you should do."

"Thank you, Father."

His father claps his shoulder, then focuses his attention on something behind Austin. "Oh, look," he says, "they didn't tear each other apart."

Austin turns around as Ally and his mother return. He knits his eyebrows at Ally, but she gives a slight shake of her head as she slips her hand into his. Then she gives his hand two quick squeezes, their sign for We'll talk later, and intertwines their fingers.

"Well, we're gonna go enjoy the festival now," Austin announces.

"Be safe," his mother sighs. "Make good choices." Then, after a pause, she seems to remember who she's talking to. "At least try to make good choices," she amends, looking at Ally.

"We'll try our very best, Your Majesty," Ally replies with a salute, and then she and Austin are off before his parents can get in another word.

"Okay, what did my mother wanna talk to you about?" Austin asks a little while later as the two of them wander the streets sharing a bag of Ally's favorite potato cakes.

"Nothing bad," she says, pulling Austin's arm towards her to use the savory dipping sauce he's holding. "I think she's trying to…connect with me."

"Connect?"

Ally shrugs. "I dunno, she was saying how she knows I'm working hard at all this royal shit—"

"She said royal shit?"

"I'm paraphrasing," Ally says, rolling her eyes. "She apologized for her reaction to my costume and said something about wanting to 'set me up for success in the eyes of the people' or whatever, so then I said I don't care what the people think, and she said she admires that about me but image is important, which is about where I started zoning out. And then she noticed I was zoning out and said my mother must be the most patient woman in the world." Austin winces, and Ally snorts. "Yeah, so then I kinda snapped at her saying my mom gave up on me ages ago, and she remembered what happened, and then she told me she'd never give up on me." She shrugs. "You Moons are persistent as hell."

Austin smiles. "You should be used to it by now."

They lapse into a comfortable silence as they finish their food, and after they throw away the trash Ally hugs his arm. "I hope you know I'd never give up on you either," she says in a failed attempt at a nonchalant voice.

He kisses her hair. "I know."

"I mean it," she says, looking up to meet his eyes. "I've probably been freaking you out with all my complaining about the lessons and you being forced to get married and become King so soon, but that's all it is—complaining."

He nods. "I talked to my father, though. He said he's gonna try to get me more time."

"Us," Ally says, intertwining their fingers. "He's getting us more time."

"This is the most sappy things you've ever said to me in succession."

"Don't ruin it." Austin grins. "I'm just trying to say that I don't want you to worry because I've been dragging my feet on all this. I love you and I fully intend to be with you forever. Marriage is just…"

His grin softens into what's probably an embarrassing, lovestruck smile. "A lot?" he offers.

Ally's face softens too, and she nods. "You get it." She sounds a little surprised and a lot relieved.

"Of course. We're in this together," he says, squeezing her hand. "Have been since the first time I brought you into all this, and we always will be."

She smiles, then takes a deep breath. "Okay, sappiness over. I'm not saying anything else nice to you for, like, a year."

"Pretty sure that's super unhealthy."

Ally sighs. "I know. I hate this mood I'm in."

He tilts his head. "What mood?"

"I don't know. I feel…soft," she says, scrunching her face.

"Maybe the devil costume brought all your prickliness to the surface, which left your insides all mushy."

"So you're calling me a cactus."

"Yes."

"Fair. Can we go get drunk now?"

"My love, I thought you'd never ask."

After a few hours of drinking and dancing with the crowds, Austin just about can't take it anymore. He drags a giggling Ally to a dark alleyway between two buildings and pins her to the wall, kissing her hard. She responds in kind, hooking her fingers through his belt loops and pulling him closer before wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I was wondering how long you'd last," she says breathlessly when they pull away. He opens his eyes to look at her, and the lipstick-smeared, cheeky grin on her flushed face is almost too much for him. "I think this is my best costume of the festival."

He lets his hands fall to her hips, and his pinkies brush against her bare thighs where the slits in her dress start. "Agreed."

"Your Highness!"

They both freeze at the voice. He would recognize it anywhere, and he knows Ally would too. He pulls away just enough to see her when he opens his eyes, and she looks at him pleadingly.

"Don't," she says quietly.

"I have to."

"You really don't."

He sighs and presses a soft kiss to her lips before turning towards the voice. "Lady Brooke," he says as she walks over, dressed like a peacock in a gown made of turquoise feathers and holding a matching mask in front of her face. "What brings you to this…random, dark alley?"

She crosses her arms, sour judgment written all over her face. Just as he's about to reach for Ally's hand, she crosses her arms too. He purses his lips.

"I was looking for you, actually. You still owe me a dance from your graduation party. But then I saw…this." She scrunches her face, then narrows her eyes at Ally. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but Prince Austin is royalty. There is etiquette and rules that clearly you will never understand. You can't just—"

"Don't you get tired of following us around?" Ally asks. "Seriously. This is a nationwide party, Brooke—"

"Lady Brooke."

Ally rolls her eyes. "Aren't there a million things you'd rather be doing than bothering us? Nothing you say or do is gonna change anything in our relationship. And, judging by the way things are going," Ally continues, glancing at Austin, "it's very possible I'll end up being Queen one day, so…you know, if you're that worried about etiquette around royalty, you might wanna check yourself first."

Brooke lifts her chin. "No one will respect a slut as Queen." Austin immediately sees red, his fists clenching at his sides. "Or a King who can't speak for himself."

He takes a step towards Brooke, even as Ally grips his wrist. "You will never speak to or about Ally that way again," he says, shocked at how eerily calm his voice sounds, especially because he can feel his hands shaking. Brooke's eyes go a little wide, and she takes a step back. "And you're going to leave us alone. Forever." She opens her mouth to speak, but he shakes his head. "No." He nods towards the alley entrance. "Now leave."

Brooke swallows and purses her lips. He can see in her eyes that she's seething, but she also looks a little afraid, and she rushes away.

Austin exhales heavily and leans his back against the wall. "I'm sorry," he says, looking at Ally. "I'm so sorry."

She shakes her head. "Nothing I haven't heard before." She takes a little step closer to him. "Besides, you getting all mad and defensive like that…was very sexy."

He chuckles a little, and she starts kissing his neck. He closes his eyes and leans away from her, sighing again as he rests his hands on her waist. "I'm sorry," he says quietly.

She looks at him, smiling softly and clasping her hands around his neck. "It's okay."

"No, it's not. It's the last night of the festival, and this is your favorite holiday, and now I'm ruining it because I let Brooke get to me."

Ally giggles. "You know I like seeing you lose your cool every so often."

He meets her eyes. "It's not worth ruining the night."

She plays with the hair at the nape of his neck, and he closes his eyes again. "The night isn't ruined," she says. "Besides, we should probably go back anyway. You're getting your jacket all dirty, and I really need to get out of this dress."

He lets her lead him through the busy streets back to the palace, and somewhere along the way he starts feeling a little better. And then by the time they get back to his room and her dress comes off, he's feeling a lot better.

His mother stops enforcing the separate bedroom rule after the festival, and Ally doesn't seem all that surprised. A part of him wonders if Ally actually convinced the queen to let her stay in his room for the rest of the summer, but a bigger part of him doesn't want to picture that conversation.

But then his mother calls him into her office and surprises him even more.

"Your father told me that you and Ally don't feel ready to become King and Queen in three years."

He swallows and nods. "But…we also want to stay in America."

"It's tradition for the next King or Queen to be coronated at twenty-five."

"I know." He looks down. "I just—I don't want to freak Ally out. She's really anxious about the whole thing."

His mother smiles a little. "You and Ally aren't exactly traditional, are you?" Austin purses his lips and shakes his head. "She and I have been talking, trying to figure out what your future is going to look like."

His eyes snap to hers as he remembers all the times since the Solstice Festival that Ally has disappeared without explanation. "You've been asking Ally about our future? Mother—"

"I'm asking the questions that you seem too afraid to," she says, looking at him pointedly.

"I know she loves me, but I don't want to overwhelm her."

"Can I give you some motherly advice?" she asks. He nods. "Be honest with her. About what you're feeling, what you want, what you see in your future. I think you might be surprised."

He swallows and nods. "But…she really does see a future here? As Queen, with me?"

His mother reaches out and squeezes his hand. "That's a question for her. But as for your coronation, I think we can afford to give you two a few more years. We can push it back until you turn thirty." Austin smiles. "But that is it," she adds. "At thirty, ready or not, you become King."

He nods. "Deal. Thank you, mother."

She smiles a little more, then opens her desk drawer and sets a small box in front of him. "You might need this a little sooner than that, though."

He opens the box, revealing his mother's engagement right. His eyes go wide and he closes it quickly, glancing around as if Ally might be able to see somehow. "What am I supposed to do with this?" he whispers.

His mother laughs a little. "I think you know, sweetheart."

"Ally isn't ready for—"

"Like I said, you might be surprised."

He swallows. "Last time we talked, she said…"

"Perhaps you should talk again."

After that extremely confusing conversation, he goes through their last week in Ocheria in a bit of a daze. It isn't until they arrive back in America that he manages to snap out of it.

"Hey, Ally," he says, leaning against the doorframe of Ally's art studio.

"Austin, what have I told you about not startling me when I'm painting," she says absently, stepping back from her easel to look at her work so far. Then she turns around. "Wait, you sound different." She smiles. "Welcome back to the land of the living."

He's a little distracted for a moment. The light from the sunset shining through the window behind her makes her look like she's glowing, and it reminds him of their first date. Her hair is tied in a messy bun out of her face, and she's wearing a pair of ripped, paint-stained denim shorts and one of his old university t-shirts.

"Wanna tell me what's gotten into you this past week?" she asks, raising her eyebrows knowingly. But that bright smile is still on her face, and his racing heartbeat calms down a little.

"My mom and I had kind of a weird conversation before we left Ocheria," he says. "I guess I've been in my head about it."

"About what?" she asks. "Not having to be King 'til you're thirty? I'd think you'd be jumping for joy."

"That, but other stuff too," he says. "She said you and her talked a lot about the future…? Our future."

Ally sighs and sets her paintbrush down before walking over to him. "You know how she is. Every time I do something wrong, she freaks out and asks what my intentions are with you."

"She made it sound like those conversations weren't just your normal conversations. She seemed to think it would be a good idea for me to be super honest about what I want."

Ally frowns. "You haven't been honest about what you want?"

"No, of course I have!" he says quickly. "I guess I just…don't really say everything. I don't want to freak you out."

She smiles a little. "I appreciate you caring so much about me being comfortable. But…I want you to be honest with me."

He swallows, searching her eyes. "Ally, I love you. You are my future."

Her smile grows, and she wraps her arms around his neck. "I love you, too. And all that stuff I said before about not knowing if we'll still be together three years from now…you know I'm just kidding, don't you? You're my future, too."

He relaxes, like the weight of the world has been lifted off his shoulders. He grins and hugs her tightly. She moves a hand into his hair and kisses his cheek.

"I really needed to hear that," he says quietly. "I…really needed to hear that."

She pulls away and meets his eyes. "Hey. I'm sorry for making you worry about our future together."

He shakes his head. "Don't be. I mean, I always knew you loved me and I knew you didn't have any intentions to go anywhere. But it's really nice to hear you say it when it's just us, you know? When you're not just saying it to get Brooke to leave us alone or make my mom happy."

She nods. "Well, I mean it," she says, kissing him softly.

When they pull away, he can't stop himself. "I wanna marry you," he blurts, and then he immediately freezes in nervous anticipation of her reaction. Her eyes go a little wide, and he freaks out. "I mean…I mean someday, I wanna marry you."

She swallows. "We just talked about honesty."

He tightens his arms around her. "I'm being honest. However long you need. I just…I do want to marry you someday."

"I wanna marry you someday, too," she says, smiling a little and relaxing in his arms.

The box he's been carrying around since his mother gave it to him suddenly feels heavier in his pocket. He searches her eyes, then finds himself pulling the box out and opening it, kneeling down.

Ally's eyes go wide and she takes a step back, her lips parting in surprise.

"We can wait as long as you want," he says, his heart pounding. "But I really just…I want this. I want you, forever. So, officially, will you marry me?"

She watches him, then nods slowly. "O-okay. Yes," she says. Her lips slowly curve into a smile. "Yes."

He grins, his mind reeling, and slips the ring onto her finger before standing up and kissing her. She stumbles backwards, giggling against his mouth and draping her arms around his neck. He bends and picks her up, wrapping one arm around her waist and pressing his other palm to the back of her head. She wraps her legs around his waist and uses one hand to pull out her hair tie, and her loose curls tumble over his hand.

"I love you," he murmurs in between kisses, grinning like an idiot. "Your Highness."

She laughs as he carries her to their room and lays her on the bed before climbing on top of her. He kisses her intensely until he has to pull away for air.

"What changed?" he asks, searching her eyes. "At the beginning of the summer, you couldn't even imagine getting married. And now I just proposed, and you said yes."

She smiles and brushes his bangs out of his eyes, resting her hand on his cheek. "I don't know," she says as he leans into her touch and smiles more at the feeling of the cool metal of the ring against his cheek. "I just kind of realized that I didn't really have a reason to be so freaked out. I love you, and I always have, and I always will. And I know that we can do anything together."

He grins and kisses her again. "Now that we're engaged, that makes you officially a princess, you know."

"Oddly enough, I'm okay with that," she giggles. "Even your mom's insane dresses and tiaras."

"You do realize we're gonna have to have a royal wedding, right?"

"Trust me, your mom has been telling me about all of this basically since day one. I think I might be more prepared than you, actually." She smiles at him. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too. Princess."

plot kinda disappeared but i just wanted to write and finish something bc my mental health is Bad rn. anyway love u all