Hey everyone!

Welcome back, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Austin and Ally or anything you recognise from the show in any way, shape or form, nor do I own any recognisable brands, songs or lyrics within them.

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Chapter Six

Ally's POV

When Austin suggested getting food, I can honestly say that was the most relieved I had felt in a while – I really needed to eat!

Of course I agreed that getting food was probably a good idea, and then asked Austin if there was anywhere he recommended to eat.

"Well, I have my favourite place, but I don't know if you'd necessarily want to go there right now." He replies, which catches my curiosity.

"Really? Well where is it? What kind of food does it do?" I ask.

"You see, Ally, my favourite food of all time, ever, in the entire universe…" he says, turning to look at me in the eye, and I nod for him to continue. "is pancakes."

I giggle slightly at this revelation. "Go on." I prompt.

"And Palm Bay just so happens to have an IHOP." Austin finishes.

I giggle again and look at my watch. "Austin, it's 2pm." I say, my point being this isn't really the normal time of day to eat pancakes.

"Exactly, which is why I said you might not have wanted to go there right now. But, I say, there's never a wrong time for pancakes." He says, puffing his chest out slightly which just made me laugh even more.

"Well then, Austin, I will take your word for it. Come on, where's this IHOP at?" I reply, and his face lights up like a lightbulb.

"Really?" He asks.

"Yeah, now come on I'm starving!" I reply with a smile.

"Woohoo! Pancakes!" He shouts before grabbing my hand and starting to run with me down the street, my laughs filling the air because of this childish-acting man.

After a couple of minutes we get to the restaurant. I've only ever been to an IHOP a couple of times back in Miami. It was nice enough, I could just never really be bothered to go out there much and none of my friends were really huge pancake fans, definitely not to the extent Austin seems to be!

We get seated at a small booth and Austin glances at his menu for about a second before putting it down again. Clearly he has his favourite that he's gonna order. I decide I'll just trust his judgement and order the same as him, he seems to be a bit of an expert anyway.

We keep chatting like we have been the whole morning whilst we wait, we have never ran out of things to say so far.

After a couple of minutes a waitress comes over. She's stunning, to say the least, and her name tag reads 'Kira'. "Hey Austy!" She says when she reaches us.

Austin groans and looks up at her. "Hello Kira." I give him a confused look but he just looks back at Kira again.

"What can I get you?" She asks in a sickly sweet voice.

"I'll have my usual." He deadpan replies, looking down at the menu. Kira nods and scribbles something down before turning to me with a scowl on her face.

"And you?" She asks in an evidently harsher tone.

"U-Uh I'll just have the same as him." I reply a little nervous under Kira's heavy gaze, no doubt looking like a pathetic idiot.

She nods and scribbles something else down before sending another big grin Austin's way and turning to walk – more of a strut, really – towards the kitchen.

I look back at Austin. "Who was that?" I ask a little confused.

"Kira. She's my ex." Austin replies, twirling the straw round in his glass. "Don't worry about her, she was just jealous that you're here with me, she was one of those overly-clingy types." He explains, and I nod in understanding.

"So who's your current girlfriend then?" I ask, this time it's my turn to spin the straw in my glass. "No doubt someone as stunningly beautiful as Kira." I continue.

"Actually I'm single right now." He says nonchalantly, causing my eyes to spring back up to him and my heart to do a weird leap for some reason.

"Really?" I ask.

He chuckles. "Yeah, why's that so hard to believe?"

In my mind I'm saying 'because you're an utterly gorgeous and insanely sweet guy' but I obviously don't say that out loud because I don't want to look like a complete psychopathic freak. "Oh, no real reason, I just assumed you would be taken is all." I timidly reply, feeling myself blush and mentally cursing myself for it.

He chuckles again. "What about you, anyone back in Miami got your heart?" He asks.

I will myself not to become weak and cry when I think of Dallas back home, but I know he can tell I'm just putting on a brave-ish face. "No, not anymore…" I reply, intending to sound strong and indifferent but it actually came out in a weak, scratchy whisper.

I look down as tears start to prick the backs of my eyes, ashamed to be crying again in front of Austin. I feel so stupid.

Then I feel a warm, comforting hand placed over mine, and look up to see Austin's delicately sitting on mine, rubbing it gently. "Hey hey hey." He said in a gentle, quiet voice. "It's okay. You don't have to talk about it."

I nod, feeling so frustrated with myself. "I want to tell you, Austin, trust me I do. I'm just not ready yet."

"Of course, it's no problem." He says with a very light chuckle and gentle shake of his head.

"Thank you, Austin." I say, smiling once again as I look back up at him.

"No problem Als." He replies.

Our food comes, and I was definitely right to go along with what Austin ordered because it was amazing! Fortunately it wasn't Kira who served us our food, I wasn't prepared to face that level of awkwardness again!

When we're done, and despite all my protesting, Austin insists on paying the entire bill. We leave the IHOP and begin to walk down the street. It's only just gone 3pm, but it's already starting to get a little darker and we decide to head back to the lodge.

The IHOP is all the way on the other side of town from the lodge, so when we're just gone halfway back the sun has set, but it is not yet completely dark. One thing that took me by surprise, however, was the temperature. It's been warm all day, but as soon as the sun went down the temperature plummeted like a stone.

We were walking along the beach and a sudden breeze off the ocean hit us, making me feel even colder. I was wearing a leather jacket, but it was really more for show and style than actually keeping me warm. Austin noticed my shivering, and offered me the zip-up jacket he'd picked up just before we left the lodge this morning. I didn't want him to get cold so I told him to keep it, but once again he insisted and, well, let's just say I wasn't really mad when I took it from him and put it on. It certainly helped with the warmth, anyway.

We got back to the lodge, and the warmth that hit us when we walked in did not go unnoticed. I gave Austin his jacket back. Part of me was expecting, and kind of hoping, that he'd do the stereotypical thing of telling me to keep it, but I think we both knew that was a stupid idea.

"Well thank you for showing me around today, Austin, I had a great time." I said, throwing my arms around his neck and hugging him.

He quickly returns the hug, wrapping his arms around my petite frame. "No problem, Als, I had a good time too." He says gently in my ear.

I don't know how long we keep hugging, and honestly I don't care, but eventually we break apart. "Goodnight Austin."

"Night Ally." He replies, before turning to walk back behind the desk as I turn to walk towards the stairs.

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There you go, chapter six!

I wish I had more time to refine this chapter, and actually this whole story, but that's life and I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out.

Austin and Ally are getting closer, but she still hasn't told him about Dallas yet. Maybe that will be the final thing keeping her from opening up completely to him…

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Catch you later!