Hey guys! Merry Christmas Eve! So, this chapter has the second and third step combined in it, and a little bit more about these versions of Austin and Ally so I hope you guys like it! And since I want the last chapter ti be posted on Christmas, the fourth chapter will be up later today. So now that I'm dine talking... Enjoy!
Ally was watching the red numbers tick to her floor number on the elevator as she waited alone for it to stop. It had been a few days since her and Austin's Christmas marathon and they had decided yesterday that they were both free to do their next step.
During these three days, Ally had had fun saying hi and joking with him in the lobby and in the halls. The only thing she hadn't had fun with was the fact that everytime she talked to the blonde, she had gotten death glares from every female with in hearing distance.
She stepped out of the elevator when she heard the ding, the doors opening to let her out. She started digging her keys out of her pocket as she walked to her apartment. She looked up once she had got them, but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who and what was waiting in front of her door.
Ally looked behind her to see the elevator door still open. She silently thanked her inner shoe fairy for compelling her to wear a pair of her boots that didn't have heels today.
She slowly walked backward into the open elevator, pushing the close button frantically. Just then, to her abosolute luck, Austin walked by.
He looked up at the elevator and smiled when he saw the brunette. "Hey All— woah!" He said. He had obviously ignored her signs to be quiet and not say anything, so she pulled him into the elevator right before the doors closed.
"Um, Ally?" Austin said worriedly, watching Ally as she pressed the button that made the elevator come to a complete stop. She looked up at him and smiled apolegetically.
"Sorry, its just that, you know what it doesn't even matter. Not even important." She said leaning against the wall of the elevator and closing her eyes. Austin raised his eyebrows at her, swinging his keys around on his finger.
"If its important enough for you to freak out so much you pull me into an elevator and stop it completely, I think it kinda matters." He said, making her sigh and open her eyes.
"There was a guy in front of my apartment."
"Oh Ally darling, if you didn't like boys you could have just said so. I wouldn't have tried so hard to apologise a week ago." He said, making Ally roll her eyes.
"You are— you know what, I'm not even going to grace that with a brain patterned response." She said crossing her ankles. "The boy outside of my apartment was my ex-boyfriend for your information." She said, putting extra emphasis on 'boyfriend'.
"And you were running away from him, why? Was he really that bad a kisser Ally?" Austin said, now throwing his keys from hand to hand. Ally scoffed.
"Again, no. We broke up a year ago and he won't leave me alone." She said, and paused for a moment. "But, now that I'm thinking about it, he was kind of a wet kisser." She said, looking down at her shoes. Austin laughed.
"He keeps coming back to your apartment with flowers and gifts huh?" He said knowingly. Ally nodded.
"He comes to my work to, which I think is absolutely ridicoulous." She mumbled. Austin raised an eyebrow.
"May I ask a curious question Miss Dawson?" He asks, still twirling his keys.
"Depends on how 'curious' the question is Mr. Moon." She said, tilting her head at him. Her eyes started following the moving keys. "And stop doing that, your making me anxious." She said. A smirk appeared on his face as he shook some hair out of his eyes, like he was preparing to give a speech on World Peace and had to look charming and presentable.
"How serious were you and Mr. Desperate?" Austin asked, making Ally wince and bite her lip.
"He, uh, kinda asked me to marry him," Ally said, before looking up into the lights of the elevator, "On the same night I was planning to break up with him." Austin let off a low whistle.
"But, that's not the point! The point is that we broke up a year ago and he should stop annoying me and move on." Ally implied. Austin just shook his head. "You don't think he'll take the elevator when he leaves?" Austin said, making a viable point, but Ally shook her head.
"He won't, he hates elevators. Feels like they're going to drop him at any moment or some crap like that. But, I'm freezing so I'm getting out." Ally said, pressing the button that let the elevator go along with the button that opens the doors. She stepped out and let out a sigh of relief when she saw the space in front of her door completely clear.
"Did you bring the gloves I told you to bring?" Ally said, unlocking her door and throwing her purse on the couch. Austin leaned in the door frame, waving the black gloves that she had met him with in his hands.
"Wool gloves. These are my favorite so I hope whatever we're doing doesn't mess them up." Austin said. Ally emerged, a grin plastered firmly on her face. She had shed the coat she wore to work with a black marshmallow jacket with fur lining the hood. She was pulling on black gloves as well, but these were special. They were wool soft, but had leather fingerprints and leather palms.
"Why do you have cat burgalar gloves Miss Dawson?" He said, laughing. Ally just walked past him, shaking her head. "They're not cat burgalar gloves Austin." She said, opening the doors to the stairs.
"They look like it."
"I promise you they are not. Just special gloves for what we're doing." She said, trotting down the stairs. Austin followed down after her.
Ally walked all the way across the lobby, and across the street to Central Park. She finally stopped in an area with a leaf bare tree with white snow on its branches. The snow on the ground was still plush and white like a pillow. Austin was looking around, and had his back turned to Ally.
"This is really pretty, but what does it have to do with—" He had stopped mid sentence when a ball of snow hit his back. He spun around, and saw the brunette bended over laughing.
"What was that for?" Austin asked, watching the girl with amusement. Ally straightened up, and answered his question with a red hue to her cheeks.
"This is step two to our plan." She said, holding out her arms. "Christmas is, not just about the gifts and the cheesy repetitive Christmas carols, or how many lights you put up on your house." She said, raising her head up to the sky and letting the snow fall on her face.
"Its also, about having fun with your friends and family. And, being able to be a kid for awhile." She said, her brown eyes bright with spirit.
"So in honor of the childish part of Christmas, we are going to build a snowman and have a snowball fight." She announced, forming a snowball in her hands. Austin just shook his head. "If you say so, Miss Dawson. You are the boss. So what should we do first?" He asked. She smiled, pointing a gloved index finger at the blonde.
"I'm not the one who doesn't believe in Christmas. Its your pick Hero Boy." She said. Austin raised his eyebrows at the name, but didn't worry about it.
"Let's build a snowman." He said, making her smile.
He started rolling the bigger bottom half as Ally started on the slightly smaller middle half.
"A twenty-three year old guy making a snowman in the middle of central park. If any of my friends see me I will never live this down." He said, stopping the ball of snow under the canopy of branches. Ally just rolled her eyes, rolling her ball next to his.
"I'm twenty-three too you know. I am so risking my image for you." Ally said trying to lift the ball onto the other one. Austin laughed and rounded his ball to help the struggling brunette. He lifted it easily with his hands accidentally on top of hers as they both set it on top of the other ball of snow.
They're breath mingled as it made white clouds in front of them. Austin stepped back as they steadied it on top. They looked at each other.
"Do the top together?" Austin suggested. Ally nodded, the pom pom from her hat bouncing on her head, making Austin laugh.
They rolled out a snowball before rolling it around in the snow for five minutes to build it up so it was big enough to work as the head for their snowman. When they were done, Austin hauled it on top of the rest of their pieces. He leaned on Ally's shoulder as he looked at the three balls of snow appreciatively.
"It'd be perfect if only he had accesories." Austin said, with a sigh. Ally pulled a hat out of her jacket along with some black pebbles out of her jacket pocket. She walked forward and started placing the pebbles on the face and down his front. Austin grabbed the hat and sat it on the snowman's head.
"Go get some sticks for his arms." Ally said, pulling a carrot out of her pocket and placing it where the nise was to go. Austin walked to the tree and looked around, picking up some pretty good looking arm sticks. Austin went back and stuck them in the side of the snowman. Ally stuck a dollar tree cooking mitten on each stick.
"Now he just needs a name." Austin stated, looking at their snowman. Ally smiled.
"Charlie." Ally said contently. Austin looked down at her.
"Why Charlie?" Austin said, still looking at the brunette. Ally looked up at him.
"Because if I ever had a boy, I'd name him Charlie. No exceptions." Ally said, blinking her big doe eyes. "And Charlie is such a better name than Frosty." She said, adding a smile to her words. Austin smiled at her too. They stayed like that for a minute until Ally realised they were supposed to be having a snowball fight. She ducked out from under his arm, making him lose balance for a minute.
"Oh, your going to pay for that Miss Dawson!" Austin yelled after her as she hid behind the tree. He hid behind a snowbank that was already sitting a few feet from them. Ally gathered up a bunch of snow at her feet so she could quickly form snowballs while Austin quickly made a pile of the white weapons.
They spent about ten or twenty minutes lobbing snowballs at each other, barely missing Charlie the Snowman in the progress. They were having so much fun they didn't realise until they were both soaked in snow and chilled to the bone that they lived in one of the coldest states in America during the winter. They walked back across to the street after saying goodbye to their snowman Charlie.
They took the elevator this time, since neither of their legs felt up to making the trip up the stairs to the fifth floor. When the door dinged and Austin started to go toward his apartment, Ally grabbed his arm.
"Where are you going?" Ally said, with an eyebrow raised. Austin pointed towards his door.
"Home. Aren't we done?" He asked, but Ally shook her head.
"I must have forgot to say it earlier. We're doing two tasks in one tonight." She said. Austin smiled. "What did you have in mind?" Austin said, making Ally smile. She pulled him toward her apartment, unlocking the door and treading in.
Ally went into her room, calling behind her to turn the heater up. Austin did as he was told until Ally came out of her room, carrying a bundle of clothes in her arms. "Here. These are some of the clothes that Chandler left here and refuses to take back. These are the ones I haven't thrown out yet." Ally said. Austin raised a brow at the name.
"The guy that was outside my apartment earlier." She said, and Austin nodded in understanding. They both changed, Austin finishing after Ally. He came out the bathroom to her braiding her hair in the hallway mirror. Austin tickled her from behind to get her attention.
"Jesus," She said, jumping as she turned around. "You scared the life out of me." She said, and Austin laughed. "But your still standing there, pretty alive. Unless your ghost Ally." He said, with a sudden far away look in his eyes as he touched her nose gently before she hit his hand away.
"Come on, we have to start the next step before its too late." She said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him into the kitchen. He followed willingly, knowing that anything coming from the kitchen during Christmas from Ally was bound to be delicious.
They walked into the kitchen, Austin seeing a cookie tray, a plastic container of cookie cutters, and various cookie making ingriedients and tools. There was also a navy blue kettle and a small saucepan on the stove. Austin looked at Ally with a growing grin on his face that certaintly reached his eyes.
"Wait a minute, are we making—?"
"Christmas cookies!" Ally exclaimed, gesturing to all the stuff on the counter. Austin nodded his approval.
"I like this step." He said, rubbing his hands together. Ally laughed.
"Christmas, has a very major part. Leaving carrots and cookies for Santa Claus and his reindeer. Santa, is the spirit of Christmas when you are a kid, and even sometimes if you have a big enough heart, when your older too. So, to embody this classic tradition, we are going to make homemade Christmas cookies and hot chocolate." She said. Austin just kept on smiling.
"Yeah, I really, really like this step." He said. Ally laughed. She walked over to the iPhone dock she kept in the kitchen and sat her phone in, scrolling to her Christmas playlist. Jingle Bell Rock sounded through the kitchen.
"We will also be listening to Christmas Carols." Ally said. Austin shrugged, rounding the counter to stand beside Ally and grabbing the wooden spoon sitting in front of him. "As long as I get cookies and hot chocolate, I will be happy." He said, tapping her with the spoon on the nose again. She laughed.
"Yeah, you might not feel the same way after we've gotten through half the playlist. These things get pretty repetitive after awhile."
"Okay, I swear this one has come on, like, three times." Austin said, turning to Ally as she took the ball of cookie dough out of the freezer. She sat the ball on the counter, breaking it in half and giving one half to Austin to put in the freezer, while she rolled the cookie dough out over the light sprinkling of flour on the counter and under the piece of parchment paper she had layed on top of the dough. Austin turned around and looked at her funny.
"What are you doing?" He asked curiously, looking at her while she rolled the dough out with her rolling pin. Ally rolled her eyes.
"If I do it this way then I won't need to add extra flour, which won't make the dough tougher, and makes sure there won't be any bumps in the cookies. My mom made them like this." Ally said, peeling the paper off the now rolled out cookies.
"Is your mom a perfectionist too?" Austin said, and Ally looked down when he used the present tense. Ally still nodded, pushing a piece of hair behind her ear.
"Yeah, uh, she was." Ally said, reaching over to grab the plastic container with the Christmas cookie cutters in it, her eyes still downcast towards the cookie tray.
Austin rounded the counter to help cut the cookies. He noticed that something he had said made her upset, but he didn't know what. So, he tried changing the subject.
"You have a lot of different genres on your playlist." He said, and Ally smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes like it usually did.
"Yeah, back in Miami, my dad owns a music store. I grew up with every kind of music under the sun. If it had music in it, I probably heard it." She said, laughing a little. "It was fun, growing up surrounded by all these beautiful sounds everyday. Especially when your dad could teach you how to make them." She said, placing the last cookie on the tray as her doorbell rang. Ally popped a piece of the extra cookie dough in her mouth.
"Wonder who that could be." Ally said. She started to round the counter, but Austin beat her to it. He dissapeared around the corner before Ally could realise what happened.
"Austin wait!" She shouted after the blonde, but he had already opened the door to reveal her curly haired best friend. Trish raised her eyebrows as did Austin.
"Austin?" Trish said at the same time Austin said "Trish?"
Ally went from confused to really befuddled. "Wait a minute, you two know each other?" Ally said, wiping some of the flour that Austin had put on her face while they were mixing cookie dough. Trish nodded.
"Yeah, he was the talent I was telling you about the other day." She said.
Ally looked at Austin. "You sing?" Ally said, suprise lacing her voice. Austin looked down at her smiling. "I was about to tell you before my manager knocked on the door." He said. Ally looked from Trish to Austin.
"Wait a minute, you signed him?" Ally said, now excited for her friend. Trish smiled, laughing at her excited friend as well. "Yeah, I did. I was coming over here to tell you but it seems like he beat me too it. But, you were right, he is cute." Trish said. And Ally mentally face palmed herself.
She started mouthing words like 'Why' and 'Really' towards her latina friend before Austin turned around and Ally stopped, plastering a goofy smile on her face to compliment his amused one. "You said I was cute Miss Dawson?" He said. Ally opened her mouth and closed it a few times, probably imitating a fish out of water before she could find coherent words.
"Well, uh, you know it was, um, before, I, y-you know knew you, so I couldn't really, er, judge." Ally said, coughing to clear her throat.
Ok, so almost coherent.
"Well, Alls, that was all I really wanted to tell you. Austin, don't forget you have an important show at noon. Even Ally is going to be there." Trish said, making Ally's eyes snap up.
"I am?" Ally said, getting a text right as she said it. She slid her phone out of her pocket and read the text that was from her boss, telling her she was covering a new artist concert tomorrow at noon. Ally looked back up at her friends. "I am." Ally said, gulping. Austin tilted his head. "Your a reporter?" Austin asked. Ally shook her head, opening her mouth but Trish beat her to it.
"Not technically. She's the anonymus music critic that everyone listens to in the New York Times." Trish said, nonchalantly. Ally looked at Trish with a glare.
"Thank you, Trish. For making me no longer anonymus." Ally said. Trish smiled, getting a beep on her phone. Trish sighed when she looked at it, looking back up at her best friend and her client.
"I have to go, but I'll see you both later." She said, smiling and walking off, texting away on her phone.
Austin closed the door, and turned around looking at Ally who was looking at her feet.
"So you want to finish these cookies and hot chocolate or what?" Austin said. Ally looked up, her brown eyes boring into his hazel ones.
"Your not going to talk up yourself so you get a good review?" She said, and Austin smiled.
"Nah, I know you. No matter what I say, my opinion won't sway you. And plus, there's no way I'm interupting a perfect Christmas caroling cookie making session." He said, making Ally smile.
So, that's it! I hope you guys liked it and don't forget to review!