Disclaimer: I do not own Austin & Ally.

"Ally, we're talking a walk on the beach, not trekking through the Sahara Desert."

Austin wrinkled his nose as Ally dotted some sunscreen onto it.

"Better safe than sorry, right? I'd prefer not to resemble a steamed lobster on a date with my boyfriend."

His stomach did little flips as the word boyfriend left Ally's lips. They'd been going out for more than a week now, and she'd called him that countless times already, but it all still felt new to him.

"You'd make a really cute lobster," Austin grinned, but Ally just gave him a dry look.

"Cute or not, I don't think getting sunburnt would feel all that great. Not to mention," she added, "I probably wouldn't want to be hugged if I had a sunburn."

Austin was suddenly very alert. "No hugs? We can't have that," he said with a serious voice, grabbing the bottle of sunscreen from her. He squirted a generous amount into his hands and began vigorously apply it to his arms and legs.

Ally laughed at his antics as she took the bottle back from him, applying some to her own limbs. She was just about finished when Austin's voice caught her attention.

"All done! Time to go to the beach!"

Looking up, Ally stifled a laugh as she took a glimpse of Austin's face. She snorted into her hand, hoping he wouldn't notice, but it was too late.

"What is it?" he asked, a confused expression washing over his face.

Ally bit her lip to keep from giggling. "Uh, I think you missed a spot."

"Really? Where?" Austin lifted his arms and carefully inspected them, twisting them around in awkward angles. Finding nothing, he moved on to check his legs.

A small laugh escaped from Ally's lips, and Austin lifted his head, a pout etched onto his features.

"What's so funny?"

"Here, let me take care of it."

Getting onto her tiptoes, Ally gently rubbed the excess sunscreen off his nose and used her fingers to distribute it along his face. She started at his forehead, pushing his messy bangs to the side so she wouldn't get sunscreen in his hair. Then she moved down to his temples, making sure to cover both sides evenly.

Austin watched her as her eyes crinkled in concentration, and couldn't help the smile from working its way onto his lips. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he mentally noted how cute she was when she was focused on something, like when she was in the middle of writing a song. She was working the sunscreen across his cheeks and over his nose again, careful not to get sunscreen in his eyes. She hadn't even noticed that they were trained on her.

She applied more sunscreen above his lip and then went on to cover his chin before moving on to his jaw. Her fingers slowed a bit, taking a moment to admire his sculpted jaw and the smooth skin over it. Austin must have noticed because he was starting to slowly close the distance between the two of them.

"You know," he started, his voice low, "we don't really need to take that walk on the beach, right?"

Ally nodded her head absentmindedly. She hadn't realized it, but she was beginning to lean in too. Her eyes followed the line of his jaw, tracing it with her fingers again. But when her gaze landed on his lips, she snapped back to reality.

"Oh! I almost forgot!"

Austin's half-lidded eyes shot open at her exclamation and he literally had to take a step back to keep from falling over.

Digging into the pocket of her shorts, Ally produced a tube of lip balm and lifted it to show Austin.

"Can't forget about our lips."

"What?" Austin asked, still trying to find his way out of his stupor.

"SPF for our lips. We don't want those to get sunburnt either."

Finally out of his daze, a wolfish grin settled onto Austin's face. "Because that means no kissing, right?"

Even without getting sunburnt, Ally suddenly resembled a lobster. She forced down the blush, but it was no use. "What? That's not what I meant! That's ridiculous. I mean-I just-it's not like-" She sighed, finally gave up on her stuttering and opened the tube of lip balm, applying some as Austin laughed at her silently.

"Here," she said once she was done, holding the tube up to him.

"I don't need it," he said with a sly smile.

"What? But what if your-"

Not letting her finish her sentence, Austin leaned down and pressed his lips against Ally's in a long kiss, pulling away before she could register what happened.

"I told you I wouldn't need it." She blinked a few times and watched blankly as Austin rubbed his lips together and made a smacking noise. "Yum. Pineapple."

The sly smile was still on his face, but this time it looked a little too smug for Ally's liking. Finally, she scoffed disbelievingly and shook her head before turning in the direction the door, a wry smile on her face.

Catching her hand in his, Austin caught up to her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Ready?" he asked, smiling down at her.

Ally was about to answer yes when an idea occurred to her. "Almost." Reaching up on her tiptoes again, she pecked him on the lips before making a mad dash toward the beach. Over her shoulder she called, "That's for stealing a kiss!" still running as fast as she could.

Austin stood stunned for a second before regaining his senses, a wide grin spreading across his face before chasing after his girlfriend.

Austin was beginning to really hate the weatherman. Could anyone blame him? The man was just feeding him lies!

It usually rained in Miami regularly, but Florida must've been in its dry season because it hadn't rained in almost two weeks. Not that that was a bad thing. Usually the rain got in the way of Austin's plans, but this time, he really, really needed it to rain. How else was he supposed to sing and dance in the rain with Ally?

The weatherman had predicted a 70% chance of rain that day, and all they got was an overcast sky. Austin proceeded to curse the television, receiving strange looks from his parents as they watched him yell at the screen.

This was ridiculous! He'd been waiting for a rainy day for weeks now and he was beginning to grow impatient.

"Calm down. It's bound to rain any day now," Dez said. He was on Austin's laptop playing a video game, while Austin sat dejectedly in his bed.

"Yeah, but I don't want to wait! I've been planning this for weeks! Ally and I would go for a walk in the park, then it'd start to rain, but we wouldn't have an umbrella, so we'd get all wet and then we'd play in the downpour. See?"

Dez quirked an eyebrow from his spot at Austin's desk, his eyes not leaving the monitor. "Wasn't that a scene from that movie we watched a few weeks ago?"

Austin scoffed guiltily. "Pfft. No. They weren't going for a walk." Quietly, he muttered, "They were on a picnic." Finally turning away from the laptop, Dez shot him a look. "But that's not the point!" Austin exclaimed. "The point is, it just won't rain!"

Dez shrugged his shoulders. "Then improvise."

"Improvise?" Austin asked skeptically.

"Sure. You don't have to be in the rain." The pair sat in silence for a moment when, suddenly, Dez shot up from the desk chair he had been occupying. "I've got an idea!"

"Austin, what's all this about? I thought you wanted to go to the park."

Ally looked up to give Austin a confused look. She had come over to his house, expecting to go for a walk in the park and was slightly caught off guard when he pulled her in through the door so they could step out to his backyard.

"I know, but I thought we could just hang out back here. It's a beautiful day and everything. And it'll just be you and me."

"Alright, I'm up for anything," she said, smiling up at him. "But is there a reason you didn't want to go to the park?"

Austin tried to keep the grin off his face, not wanting to spoil the surprise. "It was missing something."

"Really?" she asked, the puzzled look on her face again. "What?"

Before he could answer, a jet of cold water caught the both of them off guard. A shriek escaped from Ally's lips, goose bumps appearing along her bare arms. Austin's hair was matted against his forehead and they were both soaked.

"I told you to set it to mist, you doof!" Trish called up to Dez.

The latter of the pair was perched on Austin's roof, garden hose in hand.

"The nozzle's stuck!" Dez struggled with the hose, still getting Austin and Ally wet in the process.

"Dez!" Austin shouted, trying to avoid the stream of water. "You said this was a good idea!"

Finally, Trish had gone to turn the water off, but Austin and Ally were both soaked to the bone.

"You took advice from Dez again?" Ally asked, keeping her voice level.

Austin shrugged sheepishly, water dripping from his clothes and hair. "Surprise?"

"Yup," she nodded, "definitely surprised."

"I'm so sorry, Ally! I was planning on singing and dancing in the rain, like I wrote in our song! But it hasn't rained in weeks, so Dez came up with this idea and-"

"I think I know where this is going," she interrupted, wringing the water out of her hair. "But," she started again, "I appreciate the gesture. Even if I inhaled some water." She gave him another smile, and reached up to give him a hug.

When the pulled away, they were joined by Trish and Dez.

"Austin, I'm so sorry! I swear that wasn't supposed to happen," Dez said.

"Yeah, we kind of figured," Austin said sarcastically. "It's okay. We should get inside and dry off though."

"Man," Dez sighed, "I had this all planned out! Now what am I going to do with these?" From behind his back, Dez pulled two water guns. "These were supposed to be the downpour."

"You know," Trish started, "I think I've got a few ideas."

Before Dez could notice, Trish swiped the water guns from his hands, handing one to Ally before shooting water at him.

Ally followed suit, laughing as she and Trish aimed their water guns at the boys.

Not one to be outdone, Austin ran and grabbed the garden hose, coming back to drench the girls from head to toe.

They didn't stop until half an hour later, girls against boys, and everyone sopping wet and cold and laughing.

"Not quite singing and dancing in the rain, huh?"

Austin had a towel around his shoulders, now in dry clothes, but his hair was still damp. Trish and Dez had headed home now, but Ally was wrapped up in one of Austin's sweatshirts, her hair also wrapped in a towel.

"No," she said, unwrapping her hair and combing her fingers through it. There was a wide grin on her face. "But it was a lot of fun."

"Yeah, but I still think it was missing something."

"What's that?"

Instead of answering, he brought a hand up to rest on Ally's cheek and leaned down to give her a kiss, letting his lips linger before pulling away. Ally's eyes stayed closed for a long moment. When they fluttered open, she met Austin's soft gaze.

"You know," he finally said, "our big Notebook moment."

Ally laughed a bit. "You mean a big kiss in the rain?"

"Yup."

"I don't know," she said, a gleam in her eye. "Kissing the enemy? That probably wouldn't be a very good idea."

"We'd have to keep it a secret then," Austin said playfully. "We can have one of those forbidden loves. Like in Romeo and Juliet."

Ally snorted, not able to help herself. "The Notebook and Romeo and Juliet? I hate to break it to you, Austin, but we aren't living in a romance novel."

"We can try," he said cheerfully. But, quickly, he added, "Except we don't die in the end. Nope," he shook his head, "we only get to have happy endings."

Ally smiled up at him. "Okay then," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "So, what part of the book are we at now?"

"The part where the super cool and good-looking guy kisses his amazingly talented and beautiful girlfriend."

"Who is also his enemy and has to keep secret because-"

He pulled her in for another kiss.

"Austin, we've been on the road for two days straight and we haven't had a real meal since! You really want to load up on chocolate bars?"

"But Ally, it's the world largest chocolate bar! We have to get souvenirs!"

Ally shot her boyfriend a dry look. They'd been dating for two years now and he still managed to act like he was five years old sometimes.

"Can't we just take a picture with it? We don't need a million bars of chocolate," she said with a sigh. "What we need is real food. We're only a week into our road trip."

"Exactly!" Austin conceded. "We're only a week in! So we can get real food later!"

Without waiting for her to answer back, he turned back to the seemingly endless candy shop to scavenge for more treats.

Ally suppressed the immense urge to groan out loud and shifted her weight onto her other leg, arms crossed and her head shaking slightly.

"Your boyfriend going a little crazy too?"

A voice caught Ally's attention suddenly and she turned to meet the bemused gaze of a pretty blonde girl. Making sure for a moment that she was speaking to her, Ally nodded in agreement.

"He's insisting that we get every flavor chocolate bar."

The blonde girl gave Ally a sympathetic look. "Mine has been at it for almost two hours."

Ally shook her head again. "Boys."

The blonde nodded in agreement, about to say something else when someone interrupted her.

"Charlotte! They have peanut brittle too! I know it's your favorite!"

A brunette guy came running up to the two girls, a can of peanut brittle in one hand and a shopping basket with a dozen different sweets in the other.

She didn't notice at first, but after a moment, to Ally's utter bewilderment, she recognized him.

"Elliot?"

The guy looked up at the sound of his name and turned in Ally's direction, meeting her wide eyes

"Ally?" he replied, a smile working its way onto his lips. "Hey! I haven't seen you since, like, two years ago!" He proceeded to move forward to give her a hug, and after getting over her shock, she hugged him back.

"Hi! It's great to see you again!" Pulling away, she then gave him a confused look. "What are you doing here?"

"I go to college around here," he replied. Reaching behind him, he looped an arm around the blonde girl's shoulder. "This is my girlfriend, Charlotte."
"We've already met," Ally said, but she turned to face her again. "I'm Ally. It's nice to meet you."

"You too," Charlotte replied with a smile.

"So what were you two talking about?" Elliot asked, directing the question to the two girls.

"Oh, nothing really," Charlotte started in a dry voice. "Just talking about our immature boyfriends."

The girls laughed at Elliot's pouting face. Eventually, he began to laugh along with them, when he noticed something. "Boyfriends?" he asked Ally. "Wait. Does that mean you're here with-"

"Ally! Check this out! They have pancake-flavored jellybeans! Look-" Austin stopped short when he saw that Ally had company.

"Elliot?"

"Hey, Austin. It's nice to see you again."

"Ally," Austin started, turning to face his girlfriend, "what is he-"

"Elliot goes to college around here," she answered before he finished his question. "And this is his girlfriend, Charlotte." She turned to face Charlotte again, "This is my boyfriend-"

This time, Ally was interrupted. "Oh, my God. You're Austin Moon!"

Austin grinned. It was always great to meet a fan. "Yup. That's me."

"I love your music! Every single song on your last album was amazing!"

"Well, I can't take all the credit. That was mostly Ally," he said, wrapping her hand in his.

Charlotte looked beside her at Elliot. "You didn't tell me you were friends with Austin Moon."

Elliot brought a hand up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well, I guess you can't really say we're friends."

"Yeah, especially since he told me to pull myself together and finally tell Ally about how I felt about her. Oh. And he called me an idiot."

Austin grinned at the memory, and when he looked toward Elliot, he saw that he was too.

"No hard feelings?"

"Nah. And everything worked out in the end."

Next to Elliot, Charlotte piped up again. "This is so cool! I can't believe I got to meet you!"

Ally snorted. "Don't flatter him too much. His ego's big enough as it is."

"Hey!" Austin protested indignantly.

"Besides," Ally said, ignoring him, "he's still that guy that was going crazy over the world's largest chocolate bar and all of this candy a few minutes ago."

"Because it's awesome!" Elliot said.

"See?" Austin said, nodding towards Elliot. "He thinks it's cool too!"

The pair high-fived each other, and Ally fought the urge to roll her eyes. From the corner of her vision, she could see Charlotte doing the same.

"Have you seen the rainbow cotton candy yet?" Elliot asked Austin excitedly.

"No way! They have that here?"

The two boys wondered back into the vast candy store, animatedly chatting between the two of them and leaving Ally and Charlotte alone again.

"See?" Ally said, shaking her head. "Boys."

"But we love them, right?"

The two girls giggled as they watched as their boyfriends excitedly spin cotton candy like little kids.

"Yeah, I think we'll keep them."

"Home at last!"

Austin dropped all of his luggage onto the ground and unceremoniously collapsed into bed, face-planting into the mattress.

Ally leaned against the doorframe of their bedroom, watching with an amused smile as Austin wriggled his legs over the side of the bed.

"We haven't even been gone for that long."

"A month." His reply was muffled because his face was still in the sheets. "A month of living on a tour bus." He turned his face so he could face her. "I missed our bed."

"The beds on the bus weren't that bad," she said, making her way to the foot of the bed.

"Yeah, but they were really small, so we couldn't sleep next to each other."

Ally snorted. "That didn't stop you from trying to crawl into my bunk."

He grinned slyly at her. "Even you have to admit that was fun."

"Trying to sleep in a tiny tour bus bed next to my rather huge husband? Yeah, sure," she said sarcastically. "Tons of fun."

"Hey, it's not my fault I'm on the tall side," he argued, flipping onto his back. "And you're so tiny! You barely took up any room on that bunk."

"That doesn't mean I wanted to be squashed between the wall and your body while I was sleeping."

"I don't know," he said, raising his eyebrows suggestively. "I think you liked it. And you never kicked me out of your bed."

Ally tried to fight the blush rising to her cheeks, but they still tinged pink. "I don't know what you're talking about."

A sly grin was on his face. "Sure you don't," he drawled sarcastically. He let out a sigh then. "Now that I think about it, I'm going to miss those beds. Now I don't have a valid excuse to be in your personal space when we're sleeping."

"That's never stopped you before, either."

"You're right," he said, the sly grin still on his face. Before she realized what was happening, Austin reached up and grabbed her hand, pulling her back onto the bed. Ally let out a small yelp in surprise, and suddenly found herself trapped with Austin's arms firmly secured around her waist.

"Austin, what are you doing?"

"Going to bed," he replied, his eyes closed.

"It's three in the afternoon."

He shushed her, and settled his head into the pillow, his cheek resting by the top of her head. He could smell Ally's shampoo and he pulled her even closer to him, removing any space that was between them.

Instead of trying to fall asleep, Ally watched Austin. There was a small smile on his face, and she could feel the rise and fall of his chest against hers as he breathed deeply. She could hear him quietly humming one of their songs under his breath. When the humming stopped and his breathing became even, she thought he had drifted off to sleep, so she was a bit surprised when she heard his voice.

"Remember when we finally told each other about out feelings?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," she replied, her voice quiet too.

"Remember how we ended up taking a nap in the practice room afterwards?"

"Yeah." Ally smiled at the memory. "We were just kids back then."

"I know. But even if we were just kids, I knew I wanted to be with you. That you were the one for me."

"Really?"

"Mhmm," he replied, nodding slightly. "I asked you if this was just some dream I was going to wake up from."

"And I said I'd be right next to you when you woke up."

"Yeah. But you know, this kind of is a dream." He finally opened his eyes and met her gaze. "It has to be a dream because I have everything I could ever want."

"Trust me. This is way better than a dream. It's all real."

"I know. And that's the best part." He smiled down at her. "Thanks for always being next to me when I wake up."

Ally's own smile mirrored his. Reaching a hand up, she brushed his hair away from his face before resting it against his cheek. She closed the small distance between them and pressed her lips against his.

Austin wrapped his arms even tighter around her waist and that fuzzy, floating feeling was coursing through him again, just like whenever he kissed Ally. When they pulled away, he rested his forehead against hers.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

AN: Hello, readers!

I know. I haven't updated in forever. I know. I promised I would update a week after the last chapter. I know. I know. I know. I'm really, awfully sorry that I made you wait this long. Trust me, I wasn't planning on updating this so late, but, like I'm sure many of you have experienced before, life gets in the way. And in my case, life decided to kick my ass and totally make me miserable for the past few weeks. So, again, I'm super sorry I updated so late.

Also, to the people who left reviews reminding me that I hadn't updated in a while: I promise I'm very aware when I'm not updating, and the guilt honestly eats me up inside (like, a lot), but I'd much rather post something of quality that I'm proud of over something rushed and unsatisfactory (at least in my eyes, anyway). I'm sorry I made a promise saying I'd update a week later, but, again, life is unexpected, and kind of bites you in the butt sometimes.

Please realize that fanfic isn't my first priority (not matter how much I want it to be). This is something I do for fun and enjoyment, and there came a point in the past few weeks where writing suddenly wasn't fun anymore. It felt more like an obligation, and I never want that to happen. And I thought it'd be best if I just focused on my priorities first. So please forgive my hiatus.

But let's move on from that, shall we? It's finally over! I hope this is something that you guys like because I'd hate to disappoint you. Thank you to all you lovely readers! I loved writing this, and I'm so glad so many of you liked it! I know, there were some rough patches, but I worked very hard on this, and I appreciate all the feedback I received. Thank you so, so, so much! You guys are amazing!

And special thanks, again, to ExtremeSaucicity for giving me some inspiration for this chapter and just being an all-around great and supportive person!

I hope you enjoyed this! Reviews are welcome and appreciated!

xoxo Cherie