It's been a while since I posted... but here's another chapter about the finale of the show! It is pretty long with a lot of background information filling in what went during the 3 years of the breakup- sorry that it may be a bit of a boring read. I'll have another more notable chapter more about the tour coming eventually, but like usual, I don't know when. Thanks!

(Duets & Destiny, right after timestamp 20:11)

Neither Austin or Ally wanted to separate in the slightest after the Helen show; their emotions had so drastically changed in such a short amount of time, and deeper than just their feelings, the entire outlook of their futures had changed. The countless hours Ally had spent convincing herself that she was doing great in college and didn't need Austin in her life melted away as soon as he appeared in her mirror backstage at the Helen show. The memory of emotions that would rise painfully in her chest, the image of his smiling face flashing across her eyes anytime she was out with friends, making her heart burn. She'd go to her songbook- her new songbook, that is, she'd given the old one to Austin- and write out the same lyrics she'd already written over and over, out of words to describe her emptiness in the last few years of college after their breakup, and full of lyrics all about the two of them being together.

Her college experience wasn't all terrible, but Austin would always show up in moments that didn't even make sense. Déjà vu of the smallest memories of being with him made her ache for entire days, and that would happen when in lectures, eating, studying, going to bed, laughing, playing piano- anything she did. Hearing one of his songs, especially those that they worked on together, would really put her over the edge. In the past 2 years her roommate Maisy, who turned out to become a good friend- unlike her former ones- tried desperately to drag Ally out to weekend parties hoping for her to makeout with some random guy and forget about Austin, but it typically ended with tears in their apartment as she realized she could never bring herself to be with any other guy. At least "not yet" she'd say- and it had been nearly three years since their official breakup. It ruined many of Ally's attempts to fit in as a carefree college student. She did make a lot of friends and could have an occasional weekend of fun, but along with some of her close friends came many superficial people allured by her status.

Kelsie, her dorm roommate freshman year, was a bit of a nightmare, obsessed with the fact that she was rooming with a popstar, and then when that wore off, extremely jealous of her relationship with Austin. In the couple of times Austin came to visit her freshman year she gave them zero privacy and was clearly attempting to sabotage their reunion, and in the meantime being long distance with Austin was hard enough. When they decided to take a break at the end of that year, Kelsie made the heartache more miserable than it needed to be with her constant cryptic comments and purposeful sharing of gossip about Austin moving on and being seen with other girls- Ally knew none of it was true, but it was still hurtful to hear about it and see it all the time. She always felt amazed when students at Harvard didn't act as respectful and wise as she had expected, but going there taught her to never make a blanket judgement about any group. She had met a great array of people, and thoroughly enjoyed all of her crazy friendships and experiences in school despite her breakup and the absence of her music career.

The next year Ally chose to have an apartment, so Kelsie moved out and Fatima moved in, which was a huge relief for Ally at first since Fatima was not a jealous narcissist and they got along really well, but the problem was that she was very popular and was never around. It only amplified Ally's loneliness in the apartment studying all the time without Austin, Trish or Dez around 24/7, and her inspiration for songs were at an all time low, especially for upbeat music. Luckily with her career on hold there was no pressure to come out with new music, but meanwhile she had to endure a painfully long year of trying unsuccessfully to ignore any of Austin's new singles, most of which were songs that she had written for him in her songbook just before she left for college. She did notice that he didn't release a full album that year- he had to be running low on the songs she'd written him, and based on the couple of depressing acoustic singles that he'd released along with her songs, she figured that it had to be difficult for him to keep using hers. She knew they were indirectly about their breakup, but could never bring herself to really listen to them. She was in enough pain as it was without hearing his voice like that. Luckily for him he mostly toured that year instead of needing to produce a full album- she would frequently accidentally see paparazzi photos of him alone, and it saddened her to notice that the familiar spark in his eyes that she loved to see on his last tour seemed to have gone out.

Ally's Junior and Senior years had become somewhat more tolerable with Maisy living with her an becoming a best friend, distracting her from her heart break with late night hypothetical scenario laughs, creating goofy songs, going out for each of their 21st birthdays and even studying in the library with some other music enthusiasts. Maisy was a fun and quirky guitarist in a small campus band, so Ally had someone to talk about and work on music with even if she couldn't have Austin or her career. They would have deep talks frequently and she liked that Maisy didn't view her differently due to fame. She had become more inspired to write songs in those happier times, but they were all still rooted in her only sense of love- they all were about her and Austin, even if she didn't mean them to be.

At the time she returned to Miami for the Helen show she was feeling ten times more confident than she had been 2 years prior when she realized that he and Austin would not be ending their latest break, but thoughts and feelings for him still invaded her heart all the time. It was a consistent reminder of the void in her where she knew deep down he was supposed to be. Stepping into the Music Factory again brought on a wave of flashbacks of being with him and a pain so powerful that it almost made her break down in tears, but with Trish there she made no sign of those emotions. She suppressed her feelings as usual and was very grateful to see her- Maisy was amazing to have around at school, but she missed Trish all the time. She'd only been able to hang out with Trish over the summers when she wasn't touring, and just a few days and weekends of every school year.

Austin, on the other hand, had always felt a little bit uneasy talking to Trish ever since the break up, especially when the topic of Ally would even slightly come up. His last few years of touring and trying to produce music had been a slew of disappointments as he came to discover that breaking up with Ally completely was insanely harder than just being away from her all the time in their long distance relationship. He had a constant hope deep down that she'd made the same discovery, but like her, he tried the method of ignoring her existence and blocking out their memories and his constant feelings for her for three years. Performing any of his old music was so painful that he felt like he could barely breathe by the end of some of his first concerts after the breakup set in, sometimes fighting back tears and avoiding any meet and greets or photos. Trying to belt the lyrics that he'd sang so many times- thinking of Ally with every word and knowing that she was right there with him either backstage or next to him every time- on his two back-to-back post-breakup tours required some serious work on compartmentalizing. If he couldn't force himself to be apathetic while performing, he would have flown out to Massachusetts and come running to Ally many times. He'd come close to it several times every year as he tried writing his own music and could only produce sad acoustic songs that weren't very good- but help with music was low on the list of reasons why he wanted to see her.

He'd had some good times collaborating with a couple different artists in the past year and making some new friends on his tours, but he never had a break from his feelings for Ally nagging at him, especially as he produced the songs she'd written for him in her songbook. He'd even tried dating a girl named Courtney for a couple months after his first tour in the summer after Ally's Junior year, but he couldn't shake the feeling that any time he touched her it felt like he was cheating on Ally. His lack of physical affection wasn't fair to her and they broke it off as soon as Austin was about to leave on his second tour, and he knew in the back of his mind that Ally's senior year of college was starting at that time too. He wondered all the time how Ally was doing and if she constantly thought about him like he did her, but they had totally broken off all communication. It was not for a lack of care for each other, just the fact that they knew the second one of them reached out, they'd want to drop everything to see each other. And that wasn't safe. They couldn't get back together, it was best for both of them. Way too painful. Right?

Now, as they stood together recovering after Helen's set fell apart around them, it was clear that making themselves believe that was a fallacy that only hurt both of them.

"I think we should go talk?" Ally said in the form of a question, and Austin nodded happily. They both took shaky breaths as Ally led him backstage by the hand, still in shock that she'd just felt his lips meet hers again for the first time in three years. A sensation they both could only dream of for so long. Just holding his hand made her heart race. They reached her mirror and for a few moments just stood looking at each other, still a little breathless after the fiasco that had just happened onstage, before Austin said something.

"I guess... we're a team again." He said, beaming.

"Are we doing this? Do you really want to tour together?" She asked, her hopes rising visibly.

"Of course, I wanna do everything with you."

Just hearing his voice, let alone the words he'd said, gave Ally a rush. Her arms draped around his neck and his hands joined her waist simultaneously. It was almost difficult to kiss with their smiles. They parted quickly after a few moments, too aware of other people being in the vicinity and too eager to talk again to get too carried away, but their hands didn't move.

"There's so many things I want to ask you." Ally began, glad that his arms were still around her.

"Me too… I can't believe I missed out on everything you've been doing for three whole years." He exclaimed.

"I know… I don't even know where to start. How did your tours go?"

"Uh, they were pretty good, I guess. The second one was better, but honestly, the first one was really hard. I missed you so much- for both of them. But when I had to sing our old music it was so painful." He admitted looking genuinely upset, and she felt her heart burn as she related to what he said. It also made her get butterflies a bit as he referred to his old songs as "our" old music, for some reason.

"I completely understand… I kind of tried to revive my career a few times... but all I could write about was you. I just missed you. I hope you at least were able to have fun on your tours." She replied truthfully, and he didn't look too confident.

"I wished you were with me every day, but I did have some fun with my touring. It just took a long time to be able to enjoy any of my music. I was so lost without you." He said with hurt in his eyes, and their lips met again.

"I could barely enjoy college until this last year. Music became like a side thing for me. It's what I said when I joined you back on your first tour, I need you around to inspire me." She admitted. They could barely part long enough for her to say it. However, hearing footsteps coming closer from a distance prompted them to stop and catch their breath again.

"I'm so happy, you have no idea." Austin said, still close to her lips as they kept smiling and holding each other close.

"No, I do." She responded, and they had to kiss one more time.

"But, as usual, the whole set just broke. We should probably help with that." She continued, and they both laughed as Trish and Dez approached.

"Aww, this is so much better than I even imagined." Trish exclaimed upon seeing them pressed together backstage, almost seeming tearful before she remembered why she and Dez had come to find them.

"I'm with you. But just a heads up, Helen is not too happy right now. She's looking for you guys." Dez warned, his glee fading, and Trish nodded her head rapidly. Wincing, Austin and Ally separated and reluctantly moved towards the stage, where they then faced the wrath of their host. Helen was extra furious about the set after Dez' stalling had frayed her nerves for the whole night, but he had conveniently sent Austin and Ally to take the heat for that. They apologized over and over and promised to pay for everything, and Helen cooled down and congratulated them in the end, but there was not exactly a joyful invitation for them to come back to the show anytime soon. Relieved with the way the night had finally ended, they all met up together again where they had been backstage.

"What do we do now? You two are together again, we've got a big tour to plan, music to make, press to deal with after your duet, and will you both be staying in Miami now? Can you even stay for tonight? Austin, you still have more shows... I mean what is this year going to look like? What will this next week look like?"

Trish went on and on, trying to figure out how to move forward as her life plans had just come not only to a halt, but a total turnaround. Still in shock at the situation, the four of them excitedly threw out ideas about what was to come. Austin kept Ally's hand in his the whole time, almost feeling scared to ever let it go, and she had no objection. After some phone calls with Jimmy Star and Ronnie Ramone that could have gone more smoothly, their duo was official. The one major catch: they'd have to start a world tour in three weeks. Ronnie wanted Ally to jump right into the tour after three years of not producing anything. So far, it would be ok for them to be a duo under two separate labels, if they could start the tour immediately.

"Wait, how is that going to work? There's no way we can get everything planned in that time… and I still need to finish out some more shows in these next three weeks. I'd be done with my tour and then immediately jump into it. I mean I'm definitely willing to do whatever it takes, but still." Austin said, trying not to show too much concern, because he didn't really care how hard it would be, he just wanted it to happen.

"I guess that while Austin goes to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and like 8 other states in these next two weeks, us three will need to get busy getting this thing figured out. It's gonna be a world tour… we need to figure out all the destinations and dates, advertise, do a photoshoot, plan choreography and dancers, order instruments, lights, costumes, and other rentals, book hotels, flights, and venues, deciding on music, and so much more… will you two be able to help me?" Trish asked Ally and Dez, looking like if they didn't say yes, she might faint.

"I was going to stay in Miami to be with my dad for a little but anyway, so yes, I'll be here and I'll do anything you need to make this work. Also, I have a lot of songs that will work for the two of us to sing on the tour if we can have just a little time to practice them. I'll send you the best ones as soon as I can Austin." Ally said sincerely, and they all looked hopefully at Dez.

"The only project I have right now is the Rockumentary, so I'm definitely going to help. One thing though, are we all going to be able to go on this tour? Not to invite myself, but is that the plan? And could Carrie join for part of it?" Dez answered, and the other three were relieved. Austin responded right away.

"Of course you can come, and obviously Trish can too. Bring Carrie whenever you want. This is going to be so cool."

Dez held a very dramatic silent celebration for himself at the news.

"Yeah, if we can all stick together for this again, that would be amazing." Ally added, and Austin was glad they were on the same page about it since he didn't consult her about who could be with them.

"Ok… this may work! We are going to have a crazy few weeks, but this is the start of something amazing. I can feel it." Trish announced excitedly, and they all shared in it.

"I seriously cannot wait. I don't want to leave you guys tonight. I have a flight I need to leave for in like ten minutes. It sucks that I need to finish out this tour all by myself while you guys are prepping, I'm really sorry." Austin said, upset that he was barely getting any time to reconnect with Ally. She squeezed his hand and met his eyes.

"It's ok… you can't help that. We'll have so much time together on the tour… and let's call when you land." Ally assured him, feeling her heart skip a beat as she thought about the time they'd have together soon, performing, travelling, fancy dates, etc. He smiled and she could barely stand that they were separating that night, but she was beyond excited to spend the year with him.

"Yeah… I'll call when I land. I already miss you guys. I'm so glad this happened." Austin said once more, and looking at Ally again made him want to kiss her again, but he just hugged her tightly before running off to get himself together for his next flight. The four of them were completely elated, but it would be a tough few weeks figuring everything out. Ally didn't care though. She was just thankful to have Austin again. The last hour or so already felt like a dream, none of them could fully believe that it had happened.

(Later that night)

When Ally heard her phone ring and saw her screen light up with her and Austin's prom photo- meaning that his plane had landed and she could finally talk to him again- her heart was still doing flips. She hadn't seen that image pop up in so long. She was at her dad's house, trying to relax in her practically empty old bedroom, but she felt like her brain was buzzing after everything that had just happened. She didn't hesitate to pick up her phone- their duet had been echoing in her head for hours after they had parted at the Helen show and she couldn't wait to talk to Austin again.

"Hey Ally. It's so weird to be able to call you again." he started, and Ally flopped onto her bed trying to suppress a grin upon hearing him.

"I know… I was scared that my phone would glitch or something when your number popped up. It's been too long." She joked.

"No kidding… I don't even know where to start right now. By the way I'm at my hotel now so I'm totally free."

"I can start… What all have you been doing other than touring? do you have any new hobbies? Did you ever stop by the music factory? How has Jimmy been treating you? How are your parents? Sorry if that was too much already."

"It's totally fine, you know I don't mind talking about myself."

"Ha ha."

"But really, I've done practically nothing but tour. I did meet some cool people and friends that hung along with me for parts of it, but as far as new hobbies? I don't know… I've become a better cook! My best dish isn't cereal anymore. Now I can make some good pancakes."
"Seriously? That's a huge step for you! Now you can actually have pancakes on demand! And as I've told you hundreds of times before, cereal isn't a- nevermind."

"I know right, after you weren't around to make me pancakes all the time I realized that instead of finding places to order them from everywhere I went I should just learn to make them myself."

"Good thinking."
"To answer your second question, no, I basically never went to the Music Factory. Trish had it well staffed all the time so I never needed to teach, and it was painful to go in there and think of all the memories. Plus, it just felt weird being in the A&A Music factory without both A's, you know?"

"I definitely get that. Honestly, I avoided being there too. For the same reasons. If it still looked like the Sonic Boom, it would be even worse… memories of you, Trish, Dez, even my mom and dad would still feel fresh. You singing 'I think about you' to me the first time we liked each other is still probably my favorite things you've ever done… that was back in Sonic Boom. You know, you're pretty great at romance." She added, and she could picture Austin's shy smile behind the phone without seeing him.

"Except for that one time when you thought waking me up to see the sunset at the crack of dawn without tell-"
"Yes yes, I remember." He groaned dramatically.

"But it was romantic in the end."

"Yeah, I'm glad… that ended up being really nice."

They had a small moment of silence as they reflected on that memory, now happy to remember it instead of it being painful to think about.

"Since you asked about Jimmy… for someone who initially hated that we were together so much that he banned me from performing, he was pretty upset that we had broken up. Just because I had less success at my shows and my numbers went down, but still. It was frustrating. He's not really my favorite guy as you know."

"Oh I know, he's not mine either. Meanwhile if Jimmy asked Dez to go play tennis with him next week, his dreams would be fulfilled."

"You're so right, Dez like idolizes that guy. What the heck." Austin said, and they both laughed.

"And my parents? If their mattress store is open, they're happy. They already called me tonight though after watching the Helen show… they are super excited that we're back together. Even though they always rivaled with your dad, they love you so much."

What he said made Ally's heart warm surprisingly, she always felt like Mimi and Mike were a little indifferent towards her.

"That actually means a lot. I'm glad their store is still going strong."

"What about your dad? How are his giraffe paintings going?"

They kept chatting about surface level things that they wanted to know, laughing about random memories as they went, but eventually they got to some of the questions they really wanted to ask.

"So… how was college? After the last time I visited?"

"You can probably guess the gist of it, I was sad for a long time about us, and about not making music. It was rare for me to get through a day without everything reminding me of you for like two years. I saw news and photos about you all the time. I was happy for you, but also upset of course. However, it was a huge relief to get good roommates after freshman year. You know how bad Kelsie was."

"Ohh yeah, I know. I don't think we got to have a good conversation for more than a minute when I visited you for the first time. She was everywhere, like a mosquito biting. She did not want us to enjoy reuniting."

"Yeah, it was awful. It's part of what made it so hard to be together. It was painful to be apart, and when we could be together it was so frustrating that it felt like we weren't."

"Exactly. I'm glad you got better roommates."

"Me too… but I did have fun in college. My roommate for the last two years is the best, her name is Maisy. We've had a lot of fun together, before AND after drinking became involved. Did you hear that I'm pretty amazing at musical theater karaoke with some cocktails in my system?"

"No, I definitely didn't. I need to see that." Austin mused with a laugh, wishing they were together in person already. Both of them wanted to ask about if they'd been in any other relationships, if they'd kissed or done more with other people, etc. but it didn't feel right to bring it up just yet, so they didn't. For the moment they just enjoyed catching up, growing more and more excited for their tour with every minute that passed. They talked for another full hour before Ally knew she needed to sleep, and she drifted off enjoying that her world was turned upside down. Despite everything that had happened that day, saying and hearing "I love you" before hanging up that night was her favorite part of it all.