(During and after Boy Songs & Badges S2)

8 days after Austin and Ally broke the fake news about "staying friends" to Trish and Dez was a Saturday, and Trish was having to be a volunteer leader for her brother's pioneer scouts troop for the day. Ally and Austin had been able to have a couple of lowkey dinner dates at the mall and had enjoyed working on songs together for maybe an hour daily after school over the past few days, but other than that they were constantly surrounded by people who would recognize them. Not to mention that the chili contest and Stray Kitties contract fiascos had all happened within those days... it didn't leave much free time during that weekend. They acted convincingly like friends when not alone, but when they could be alone, any awkwardness they once had was quickly fading.

"Guess who got a job as a Pioneer Ranger troop leader? Let me rephrase that. Guess who's mom forced her to get a non-paying job as her brother's Pioneer Rangers troop leader?" Trish announced routinely as she walked into Sonic Boom.

Her annoyance over it was not helping Ally or Austin's mood as they faced their tight deadlines for Austin's interview with Jett Deely on "Video Countdown Live". Dez was being his usual self, an unhelpful goof. When Austin refused to let Ally help him with writing a song and she prepared him to begin writing in the practice room, his nerves began to set in. Of course there was no way he could do this without her. He'd ask Dez for help, but he figured that Dez would make the whole process twice as difficult. Nevertheless, he couldn't show her that he felt like he couldn't do it. He was proud of her for the opportunities she now had for herself and would never want to compromise that.

"Cool, thanks." He said as he sat on the piano bench, happy to have a moment alone with Ally while Trish and Dez were still downstairs, even though he was a lot more stressed about the songwriting thing than he let on. Ally had just given him all the supplies he needed to start writing his song.

"Oh! And I packed you a lunch, and some snacks!" She exclaimed.

"Ally, I'm not a little kid… Ooo, pudding!" Austin lost his cool quickly when he saw the chocolate pudding she packed. Ally knew that pudding would be the best motivator for Austin.

"Ahem… I'll be fine." He said trying his best to give her a serious look as she stood next to him at the piano bench. Looking down at his face was too cute for her, and after glancing behind her at the door, she leaned down and kissed Austin's forehead.

"Hey. I know you can do it." She told him, a little but shyly, and he smiled, clearly surprised.

"Thanks Ally." Was all he could say as she returned the smile, turned, and walked out of the room. Between school, work, practicing vocals, and being around Trish and Dez in all their free time, there had been barely any time for interaction between just the two of them in the past few days. This minor kiss was the first since the next night after the Butch and Bitey pitch, when they broke the news of them "staying friends" to Trish and Dez at the magic cafe.

His heart sank and his smile turned to fright as he remembered what he would likely be spending the rest of the night doing. He let his fingers fall onto the keys, but nothing would pop into his head. Nothing any good at least. He wished Ally hadn't left and thought of hundreds of fun things he'd rather be doing. This would be one long night.

8 Hours Later

"What am I gonna do? I need a song by tomorrow and I have nothing!" Austin exclaimed to Dez in the practice room after 8 brutal hours of toying with different piano melodies and scribbling out lyrics. Unfortunately nearly all the pencils Ally had sharpened for him were now dull because of this- not from writing amazing lyrics.

"I know you can write a song, You just need someone to bounce ideas off of, eh? Try me." Dez said, pointing to himself and looking determined.

"Uuuh, let's start with the melody. What do you think of this?" Austin said, getting his hopes up momentarily now that he had Dez's help. He proceeded to play the melody of the Alphabet song and his hopes sank again… did he really just do that?

After a stimulating performance of Dez's botched version of the alphabet song, Austin knew he had to show Dez how serious he was.

"Dez, this is serious. Not having a song ready tomorrow will seriously make me AND Ally look bad. It could really threaten my career to make myself look stupid like that." He said, trying not to be too frustrated with himself and Dez.

"I know I know man, but the alphabet song isn't gonna cut it. Let's go downstairs and maybe some new scenery will spark some pizazz?" Dez replied, giving Austin jazz hands.

"Ok, sure. But I still do not have a good feeling about this." Austin said as he rose from the piano bench and stretched out his whole body.

"How does Ally do it?" It just comes to her. She's such a good writer. She's just good at everything." Austin stopped himself, realizing he should probably keep his compliments of Ally to a minimum in case it sounded suspicious.

"I don't know Austin, but hey, you're good at eating pudding!" Dez said with sympathetic enthusiasm. Austin rolled his eyes, scooping all the empty pudding cups into the trash.

"In that case… go get another case!" Austin ordered, and Dez rushed out of the room to get some more pudding cases, a little scared of Austin's mood.

"This song is never getting done." Austin chided under his breath, following Dez out the practice room door and dreading trying to work on the song with Trish and the Pioneer Ranger troop in the lobby.

(The next day in the practice room, right after Ally told him how bad his song for video countdown live was. Episode timestamp- 14:00)

"That's good Ally! Man, you're getting good at lying!" Austin remarked. Him, Ally, Dez and Trish were in the practice room feeling relieved after Ally's suggestion that Austin ask to reschedule the interview due to volunteering with the Pioneer Rangers campout.

"I know. Oh no!" Ally said, and the three others smirked. Her look of stress faded quickly though as she looked over at Austin. They were both thinking the same thing.

"C'mon Austin, you'd better call Jett Deeley!" Trish exclaimed, interrupting Austin and Ally giving eachother a look that said "Actually… we are both really good at lying right now." Trish and Dez would really be impressed if they knew that Ally was effectively hiding that she was dating Austin behind their backs.

"Right, right, I'll call him now." Austin replied, and Trish gave Ally a look, mouthing the words "what was that look about?"

"I don't know" Ally mouthed back, hoping she looked convincingly confused. Trish gave her a weird look, but turned back to Austin as they heard Jett Deeley pick up. Ally hoped that Trish would just forget about her and Austin's cheeky exchange and not ask about it again.

(That night ,on the way to the campsite)

Austin and Ally were too stressed about the night's upcoming events to savor an entire hour alone in Austin's car together. The plan of dedicating Austin's unfortunate pioneer ranger song to the rangers campout and using it as his "Video Countdown Live" song was a breakthrough, and it definitely relieved their stress a lot. But there was certainly some unmistakable tension inside Austin's Tesla as he drove him and Ally to the camp grounds. He had treated himself to the car with some of the first money he earned from his record deal, and he'd just gotten his full drivers licence weeks before. It was an hour drive to the campgrounds and they had about 5 minutes of driving left- Trish and Dez left earlier with the Pioneer Rangers troop.

"Hey, I can tell you're still nervous. It's gonna be ok." Ally said to Austin as she noticed him gripping the steering wheel a bit too tightly. She reached over to his right arm and rubbed it to be comforting. She still had butterflies being able to touch him, and when he jumped a bit as she touched him she quickly pulled her hand away.

"Sorry.. I- guess I'm not sure how to do the girlfriend thing yet." She said feeling a bit embarrassed, and he looked taken aback.

"Oh, no Ally, I just jumped because I'm so in my head about this whole countdown live thing. I'm sorry, it was nice." and he made eye contact with her as safely as he could while driving.

"Really." He affirmed shyly and apologetically, and she smiled, placing her hand back on his arm as he drove.

"I just want you to know that even if things go wrong, the four of us will figure something out. Your career won't be hurt by this. When have us four ever failed to set things straight after a mess?" She said, trying to pump him up.

"Well, there was the time we almost had you stuck in a 5 year contract with a freaky singing kitty group, the time we let a kangaroo loose in the mall, the time you had wheatgrass teeth and wax hands and we destroyed a chili competition to find your family necklace, the time-"

"Ok ok, I get the point." Ally said, cutting him off. They both couldn't help but laugh. 2 of those had happened just last week.

"So we don't always do a smooth job of it, but I won't let this become a mess. Trust me." Ally said genuinely, and she could tell that this time her words really comforted him.

"Ok, I trust you. But promise me that when this is all over you'll go with me to the zoo so we can laugh at the monkeys? I need a break from this stress." He replied very seriously, in true Austin charm.

"Yes, I promise." She said and couldn't help but giggle. He was so cute. He was so him. They were pulling up to the camp and all she wanted to do was be closer to him. But that wasn't realistic, and now it was time to focus.

(The end of Boy Songs & Badges in the practice room. Episode timestamp- 21:42)

The campout event did get messy, as it tended to when it involved Team Austin. But the bear fiasco was hilarious in the end, and Austin avoided having to admit that he hadn't gotten a song done in time for the "Video Countdown Live" on live TV. He and Ally were in the practice room in the middle of what Ally called a "bear hug". The door was open, so it wasn't really an ideal moment alone for them. But their hug was clearly not a friend hug regardless. With their arms wrapped around each other's waists, neither felt like ever letting go.

"I can't believe I was missing out on this up until now." Austin thought to himself.

"I can't imagine writing songs without you, It would be un-bear-able." Ally said, clearly proud that she'd been able to slip in another pun. Austin pulled away from her enough to see her face, but not too far away.

"How many more of those bear jokes do you have?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Eh, six or seven." She replied. They pulled back together again and stayed that way for a while, chatting about the night's events, the upcoming weeks, and other random things that came to mind. It was natural and sweet. Austin admired her hair, her smell, her skin, everything. Being so close to her was something to savor. Dez came into the room after a few minutes which prompted Austin to head for home, but he hadn't seen them hugging.

All was well that night. Ally felt satisfied knowing that her songs were complete, and so was her heart. She couldn't wait for what was to come, although she had to admit to herself that it was getting hard to be secretive. As she did a quick inspection of the store and cleaned up the practice room, she wished she could express anything she felt about Austin at all times, mostly around her friends. She hated keeping this from Trish especially, but she knew they wouldn't have to for long. Things were falling into place and every interaction she had with Austin was less awkward than the last- they were figuring it out. She wrote all of this in her book and planned to text him when she got home.

Saturday 10:46 PM

Ally: Hey, maybe we could meet at Sonic Boom earlier than usual tomo morning? As much as I want to just spend time with you, we probably should work on your next song…

Austin: I'm definitely game for that, let's just meet in the practice room?

Ally: Yep! How about 9:00, and don't be late! That would be em-bear-assing! ;)

Austin: I knew I wouldn't go to bed without hearing another one… haha. I can bear-ly stand not shouting to the world that I'm with you. I can't wait to see you again Ally =D

Ally: You're the sweetest. I feel the same. Goodnight Austin.

Ally: Also, nice bear pun.

Her heart beat a mile a minute as she lay in bed. She thought about the kiss on the night of the Butch and Bitey pitch. In the moment she badly wanted another one like that, but longer, deeper, with no fear of someone barging in. She rolled over and over, thinking about the soft blonde hair she wanted to touch. The feeling of Austin's muscular body nearly lifting hers off the ground sometimes as they hugged. The thrill of their secretive relationship. The comfort of his presence. She realized that they'd only kissed sort-of 5 times. How could it be so few? She wondered if he was thinking about the same things right now... what if he wasn't? How many girls had he kissed before her? He was her first kiss, and she hadn't cared who else he might have kissed until now, but she pushed this out of her mind and focused on being excited to see him. She thought she knew what love was before being in this relationship, but she only had a glimpse. Day by day the full picture became a bit clearer.

I'll be working on chapter 3 and posting it as soon as I can. Thank you to those of you who have read this fic and commented!