A/N: Yay for the news of Season 4! Now for a movie? :D

Ho hum~ I want more airings of of A&A episodes!

Thanks to Anne and WinterFairy7337 for their amazing betaing!

I do not own Austin & Ally.

"What do you mean, 'Michael is missing'?" Dez asked nervously.

"IT MEANS THAT HE'S LOST! GONE! NOWHERE TO BE FOUND! YOU DIG?"

Austin placed a hand on Donna's right shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Donna, please, you need to take a deep breath and calm down," he said soothingly.

Donna shoved his hand aside. "CALM DOWN?" she yelled at Austin, looking at him as though he were insane. "HOW CAN I CALM DOWN? MY BEST FRIEND'S DISAPPEARED!"

"You need to tell us what exactly happened then we can help to look for him."

Frustrated, Donna wanted to shout again, She wanted tell Austin off for acting so calm when he was supposed to be panicking. Instead, his words were processed into her brain and she forced herself to take a slow, deep breath in order to compose herself. Austin was right; this was no time to be losing her mind.

"The two of you weren't home by dinnertime," she started explaining in a calmer tone. "We tried calling several times but neither of you picked up."

"There is no need to worry about us! We are grown men, you know," Austin pointed out, giving her a small smile.

"Yeah! But you're not from around here!" Donna argued. "We were worried that you guys might've lost your way or gotten into trouble again!"

Austin and Dez exchanged glances as the girl let out yet another sigh of frustration. She started chewing on her nails—a nervous habit of hers—and paced the room, clearly alarmed and distressed. The boys were beginning to feel quite guilty indeed.

"We will go and look for him. You will stay here in case he calls or comes home," stated Austin. "Call us if he contacts you, alright?"

Donna nodded as she worriedly saw the two guys out the door.

After a quick discussion, Austin and Dez decided to split up to look for Mike. The former of the two soon found himself in a quiet part of the neighbourhood.

Peeking into dark alleys and querying the few passers-by that he had encountered, he himself was starting to get worried as well.

After what felt like hours, Austin leaned against a stretch of wall decorated with graffiti, pondering on his next course of action.

Where in the world was Mike?

Sighing heavily, he wondered just how much of what was happening real or not. He was suddenly filled with a sense of dread. Thoughts of worse-case-scenarios, from all the 'what ifs' to the 'could haves' plagued his mind and he felt his control slipping further and further away from his grasp. Filled with inner turmoil, he felt like he could burst at any minute. More than ever, all he wanted now was to be back home with Ally, Trish and Dez. He wanted to be back home with his family.

But now another one of his family members was lost, and he was still helpless. He berated himself for not taking care of the child more. After all, he was the adult in the whole situation, and a future king to boot.

He took a minute to clear his head and was planning to search the next block, when he heard a little sniffle.

Looking around haphazardly, he identified that the noise was coming from behind a large smelly thing deep in the alley.

"Michael?" he called out softly as he carefully stepped over shards of broken glass and…was that thing moving? Austin gave a shudder as he called out again. The sniffling immediately stopped.

"Austin?" a small scared voice echoed back.

Austin looked behind the large smelly thing to find no one. 'Strange.'

He was startled by the lid of that large smelly thing opening and he smiled down at the shivering pile that was peeking out at him.

"Michael? What are you doing inside this large smelly thing?"

"You mean the dumpster?"

"Uh, I guess?"

"Well, some really tall boys were chasing after me because I refused to give them my allowance. I tripped over the glass but managed to hide in here from them."

Austin frowned as he carefully lifted the boy out of the dumpster. His eyes widened as he noticed the silvers of glass sticking to the boy's bloodied knees.

"You can put me down now," stated Mike, for he remained dangling in mid-air.

Austin merely eased the boy into his arms as gently as he could, lest he hurt his knees any more than they already were.

"Uh—"

"You're injured," interrupted Austin sternly.

"But…" Mike started to protest but stopped short upon seeing the look of anger on the blond's face.

The walk home was rather silent. Only when Mike couldn't take the silence anymore did he pipe up with a soft, "Sorry."

Austin looked down in surprise at the boy. "What for?" he questioned.

"For getting lost and making you mad. And Donna's probably gonna kill me!"

Austin chuckled at the look of fright on the kid's face.

"I'm not mad at you," he said. "I'm mad at myself for not protecting you. And you were not lost," Austin reassured Mike. "You just chose the long way home."

Mike could have sworn that the man almost looked like a king at the moment.

Dez was stealing glances at Trish throughout lunch the next day. They were seated at the same table, thanks to their shared friendship with Trent who was oblivious to the staring. Trish however, ignored him the entire time.

-flashback-

Dez looked at Trish in surprise. She didn't seem to be as upset as she should have been.

"So you heard the entire conversation just now?"

"Well, that, and I knew about it a long time ago. Trent isn't the best at keeping things on the down low." Dez assumed that that meant that Trent was not good at keeping secrets.

"I see…" Trish looked surprisingly nonchalant about the whole thing to Dez's surprise.

Trish gave his confused look a knowing smirk. "You're wondering why I don't seem dismayed."

Dez gave a slow nod.

"Let's just say that we both have our uses for each other." Trish's expression darkened slightly.

Dez decided not to pursue the subject matter as it seemed that it troubled her. He figured that she would perhaps share with him her reasons once she was ready.

The two of them sat down on the bench that Trent had vacated, quietly watching children play on the nearby playground.

Dez snuck a peek at the girl; she still seemed a little upset.

"Well!" he suddenly announced, startling the girl out of her thoughts.

"The most challenging issues can be successfully explained, if one has puppets and a box of crayons."

'What?' thought Trish.

She watched as Dez skipped over the children. In about fifteen minutes, he had somehow managed to create a mini puppet theatre using cardboard, scraps of cloth and used water bottles all found lying around the field. She could only gape.

"Let children be weird. Weirdoes have passion and crazy ideas. They make us think," Dez said in a high-pitched voice, entertaining the children, their parents and caretakers. Even passers-by had stopped to watch, commenting on the inspiring stories that the puppeteer was acting out.

Trish was still watching agog when the redhead ambled back to the brunette.

"Trish?"

No response.

"TRISH!"

"Ahhh! What was that for, you doof!"

"You were staring into space," shrugged Dez.

"Oh…well. That was…that was pretty amazing."

"Thanks!" beamed Dez.

"Anyway, I gotta go." Trish stood up to leave.

"Wait! Erm. So you are still going to continue dating Trent?"

"I…I don't know," said Trish caught off guard. "What's it matter to you anyway?"

"Well, I-I…" Dez didn't know what to say without sounding or looking like a creep who was overly concerned.

"Well, just…don't let other people tame you too much. Keep some wild," Dez said as he raised his hand to caress Trish's cheek. Trish almost lost herself to the strangely familiar soothing motion before she caught herself.

Smacking away his hand, she narrowed her eyes at him and slapped him. "Are you crazy? Don't. Touch. Me." With that, she left him alone in the park, his hand on his stinging cheek.

-end flashback-

Dez sighed.

Trish's eyes flickered to him for a moment before her gaze returned to her food.

Austin watched Ally twirl a strand of her hair whilst she spoke to someone. He couldn't see the other guy clearly through the crowd in the corridors, but he could hear them.

"Hey Dallas," Ally greeted him demurely.

Austin wondered about Ally's sudden change in her mannerisms.

"I was at the library yesterday but I didn't see you."

Austin thought back and realised with a jolt that Ally had indeed been looking for someone at the library; this person named Dallas. Interesting that he had the same name as his duke. Wait. Ally had been blushing. She had been all shy and demure…did she like this guy or something?!

Austin glared at the unknown guy until the crowd cleared and he saw the man himself.

"Dallas?!" cried Austin.

-end-

A/N: :O

So my dad is taking care of his friend's dog for a couple of weeks, and I'm trying to deal with it by managing my zoophobia. Not cool.

Anyway, the chapters are subsequently getting longer as we approach the end soon. Hope you enjoy them!