Disclaimer: I don't own any of the mentioned characters or Austin&Ally. Or pancakes.

Ally liked Mondays.

Not many people liked Mondays, but Ally was different from them. While others woke up Monday morning grumpy and dreading the week, Ally woke up refreshed and eager, looking forward to what a new week would bring her. She usually woke early in the morning, slipped on a bright and cheery outfit, then skipped out the door towards the future.

But this Monday, Ally woke up like everyone else: grumpy, and dreading the week that was about to come.

It was 7:34 when Ally first woke up, glanced at the clock, then collapsed back into her pillow. She liked Austin, she really did - he was a nice guy and he probably had more musical talent in his pinky finger than some people had in their whole body. But she really didn't want any 'fun lessons' from him. The last time they had tried that, she had been threatened with removal from both her cloud-watching club and the mall movie theatre.

"I have a horrible feeling about this," Ally groaned into her pillow. She barely contained the urge to reach for a lock of hair to chew.

By 8:04 Ally finally decided it was time she stopped mopping to herself. When Austin offered to do you a 'favor' (the word being thrown around very lightly here), he would see it through, no matter how much kicking and screaming she did.

Even though, to be honest, Ally admitted to herself that she usually caved into Austin's demands a lot faster than she would for anyone else.

Grabbing her clothes for the day, Ally slipped into the bathroom to prepare herself for the day. She knew Austin pretty well, and she knew that he probably wouldn't even be up until ten, but it never hurt to be prepared. If she really was going to go through hell week, she might as well begin it properly dressed and not in her pajamas.

Ally was brushing her teeth when the doorbell rang. She dropped her toothbrush into the sink in surprise - maybe it's the mailman? - but she shook that vague hope away quickly and dragged her feet towards the door. She peered through the door's peephole - blonde hair, brown eyes, good dress sense?

Apparently it was time for the 'fun lessons' to begin.

Hesitantly, Ally unlocked the door. Before she could even make up her mind to open it, Austin did so himself, throwing the door open and nearly smacking Ally in the face. He swept through her doorframe and grinned boldly at her, like he hadn't just let himself into her house.

"What up?"

Ally gave him a dry look. "A blonde maniac just charged into my house."

"Really?" Austin gave her a genuinely surprised look. Then it clicked. "Wait - oh, haha, funny, Ally. But you won't be saying that, young apprentice, once this week is over!"

She ignored her new title in favor of frowning as she followed him into her kitchen. "What are you doing in my house, Austin? I thought you were going to try to," she made a face, "teach me how to have fun?"

He grinned at her. "Today's the first lesson, right? So I thought I'd just start at the beginning. And you know the best place to begin?" From absolutely nowhere, Austin whipped out a spatula and held it over his head triumphantly.

"Breakfast!"

There was a pause where Ally stared at him, then at his spatula, then back at him again. Then she tilted her head to one side. "Let me guess…pancakes?"

"That's right! You catch on quickly, young apprentice. Today, we shall perfect the amazingly fun art of pancake making." Austin nodded at her sagaciously, his eyebrows furrowed together in a way that she assumed was meant to convey wisdom. "Fun Lesson 101: pancakes are always fun!"

For a moment, Ally just contemplated how she was standing in the middle of her kitchen on a Monday morning, Austin brandishing a spatula in front of her, and how it was an omen of the week to come. When she snapped back to her senses, she raised a shaky finger to point at the kitchen cabinet to her left.

"Mix," she muttered. Austin rushed over to fetch it and she sighed, slowly making her way over to the other side of the kitchen for a bowl and other utensils.

I might as well just resign myself to my fate right now, Ally thought to herself, watching as Austin rummaged for all the necessary ingredients. If Austin had bothered to wake up early just to come to her house to teach her how to make pancakes - well, then that just showed that the boy was as serious about teaching her to have 'fun' then he was ever going to get.

"Got it!" Austin exclaimed as he emerged from underneath the cabinet, the box of pancake mix clutched in his hand. He set it on the kitchen counter and switched to the refrigerator. Ally watched as he conjured milk and eggs from the fridge, then set them down near the pancake box. By the time all the ingredients were together, Austin's naïve gaiety had managed to coax a smile out of even Ally.

"You ready for pancake levels of fun?" Austin questioned, shooting her a teasing grin. Ally nodded at him. "Bring it on, pancake boy."

As the two of them set to work, Ally began to feel a shift in the emotions within her. Her nerves had began to settle down - it's only Austin, after all - she reminded herself - Austin's a friend, I shouldn't be uncomfortable with him. She darted her eyes to the side to sneak a glance at him. He was masterfully cracking eggs into a green bowl.

Wait, what?

"Wow," Ally suddenly blurted out, doing a double-take as he, again, flawlessly cracked an egg into the bowl. Austin looked at her and grinned. "You finally feeling the fun?"

Ally swallowed a blush and shook her head, "I'm just surprised you're so good at cracking eggs."

"Well I am a man of many talents," he winked, then gave her a genuine smile. "Don't be silly, Ally, of course I can crack eggs! How do you make pancakes without eggs?"

That made her laugh. Ally took the bowl from him and measured out the right amount of pancake mix. While she was doing that, Austin added the milk, and the two of them took turns folding it together until it was a nice, smooth consistency.

"Not bad," Austin said, then looked Ally right in the eye. "But the funnest part comes next. You sure you're ready for this?"

Something about the way his eye twinkled when he said that made a flame of competitively flare up within her. Ally squared her shoulders challengingly. "I'll say it again, bring it on, pancake boy."

"Good," Austin nodded. A mischievous twinkle appeared in his eyes. "Because as you're mentor, I, Professor Moon, assign you this exercise…" He let his words drag out for a moment to build the suspense and let Ally catch up with him.

Did he just say he's going to give me an assignment?

"Find the funnest, yummiest stuff to add to our pancakes!" Austin finally proclaimed, and triumphantly stood there as he allowed the rest of the world to bask in his genius. Ally blinked at him.

"Wait….we have to add stuff to our pancakes?" Ally repeated, bemused. She usually ate her pancakes plain, with only a dab of maple syrup. The idea of foods mixing never really appealed to her.

Austin gave her a look that said he clearly expected as much. "This is all part of the exercise." His gaze turned accusing. "I bet you don't even put maple syrup on your pancakes!"

Ally tried hard not to blush. "That's not true! I put…a little…"

His gaze didn't get any less accusing but got substantially more satisfied. Austin smirked at her. "And this is why you need lessons on this kind of stuff. Now hurry and find something, you're running out of time!"

That prompted Ally into motion. She wasn't quite sure why she was playing along with Austin's 'fun lessons' - it wasn't as if she truly thought she needed them or anything. Ally decided to settle with the reasoning that she had nothing better to do that day, and that pancakes were Austin's favorite food so she might as well.

First, Ally checked in the pantry. There were a couple cans of soup (chicken noodle pancakes? ew), a half-empty jar of jam (but it's boysenberry…also ew), some various unopened condiments (ketchup and pancakes? I don't think even Austin would eat that…), and a full jar of pickles. Ally brightened up considerably when she saw the pickles. But pickles and pancakes? Oh god, this is harder than I thought.

Finally, Ally spotted a forgotten box of cereal in the corner of the top shelf. She emerged from the pantry holding it hesitantly in her hand.

"Um…how about this?" Ally offered, and she couldn't keep a little hopeful twinge out of her voice. Hopeful? I need to work on this self-confidence thing.

"Cereal?" Austin gave her a look. He shook his head with an expression that implied he thought she was a little pathetic. "Try again."

Ally stuck her tongue out at him as she moved towards the refrigerator. "It had marshmallows in it!"

The refrigerator was pretty empty. Note to self, get some groceries. Ally eyed the vegetable shelf first, even though she doubted it would have anything useful in it. Ally didn't know anybody besides herself who enjoyed vegetables. Carrots, potatoes, and a head of cabbage…I don't think so. Ally moved on to the meat shelf. Steak and pancakes? Well, Austin does like meat. She shook her head. Unlikely…what about bacon? Ally eyed it speculatively and drew it out of the refrigerator.

"Austin?" He was licking some of the pancake batter off his finger and smiled guiltily when she gave him a reproachful look.

"Is that bacon?" Austin's eyes lit up. "Good thinking, Ally! Usually bacon's always the right answer!"

Usually?

"Too bad for you though, when it comes it pancakes, there's something even funner than bacon than you're missing."

His eyes twinkled. Ally refrained from pouting. Being childish was the last thing she wanted to do - Austin already acted like an overgrown four year old, if she started acting like one too, the two of them would never get anything done. She returned the bacon to it's proper shelf and moved to the freezer.

The freezer was as empty as the refrigerator. Ally blinked at the contents. I didn't even know we had rice…or a giant bag of chicken wings. She cocked an eyebrow at the huge bag but put it out of her mind a second later when she realized that they probably wouldn't go good with pancakes. She quickly surveyed the rest of the freezer. With every food item that she passed over, her despair grew.

If I don't find anything to put in those pancakes, Austin's gonna fail me…and I've never failed anything!

Okay, it might have been a little pathetic. But Ally was a good student and she was concerned about her grades, even a 'fun grade' from 'Professor Moon'.

Suddenly, Ally caught sight of something from the corner of her eye. Craning her neck further into the freezer, she peered closer at it, until a small smile began to bloom on her face. This might be it. Reaching in, Ally brought out the container and made her way over to Austin, a confident smile on her lips.

"I found it!" Ally declared, certain that she had finally passed her exercise.

There was a pause where Austin stared at the container she held up to him, turning it left and right, flipping it over then righting it again. Then a corner of his mouth quirked up and he raised his fist for a fist pound.

"Cookie dough? I approve. Good choice, young apprentice." Ally softly pressed her knuckles into his. "Now, onto the pancake making!"

Soon the two of them had settled beside each other in front of the stove, two pans, two spatulas, and a plate between them. Hesitantly, Ally poured a small dollop of pancake batter into the heated, oiled frying pan. As soon as the bottom had partially solidified, Ally tossed in a few chunks of cookie dough. A few quick flips of the spatula and their first pancake was done. Soon enough, both of them had finished with the batter, and had a nice large stack of pancakes between them.

"This looks really good," Austin drooled, his hands inching towards the pancake stack. Before Ally could even comprehend what had happened, Austin had flipped three pancakes onto his own plate, smothered all of them with maple syrup, and speared a little bit onto his fork.

Austin raised his fork to her mouth. "Now this is fun."

Ally looked at the fork, then looked into his eyes. Silently, with a teasing smirk, he dared her to try it. When her eyes drifted back to his fork, Ally grudgingly admitted that, even though it looked nothing like her usual plain pancakes, their cookie dough pancakes did look really good.

"We'll have to see about that," Ally smirked back at him, and leaned forward to wrap her lips around his fork.

Half and hour later and both of them had finished their pancakes. Austin, leaning back against his chair, gave a satisfied sigh.

"Those were A plus pancakes," he grinned, and Ally grinned back.

They were, she internally agreed. The cookie dough was cooked on the outside but still cold on the inside, which fit nicely with the hot pancake, and the maple syrup really just added an overall sweetness. Ally licked her lips and grinned. Those might have even been as good as pickles.

"In fact," Austin continued, "I might have to hire you as my personal songwriter and pancake maker!"

Her grin grew even bigger. Yeah, she decided suddenly, as good as pickles. "I don't know, you might have to pay me double for pancake privileges."

"Wait, I pay you?"

Ally laughed, leaning back in her chair like Austin. "Not yet you don't. But someday you will."

Austin laughed too. He was close enough that she could smell him, and feel the warmth radiating off his body. He smells like pancakes…then she stopped and mentally slapped herself. Of course he did, she probably smelled like pancakes too.

"But I hope you know that you're helping me clean up this mess that we made." Ally suddenly reminded him, cutting his laugh short. Ally watched as Austin ran his chocolate eyes over the dirty dishes, the egg shells, and all the ingredients still lying around the counter. Austin gave her a nervous smile.

"About that…." He began. Ally narrowed her eyes at him. "Well…I sorta promised Dez that I'd help him with one of his video projects today." His eyes darted to the clock. "And look at the time! I should've been at his house half an hour ago!"

Austin hopped off his chair and made a dash for the door. Ally chased after him with the vague hope that she could somehow force him into dish duty. Even though I know that's not going to happen.

By the time she reached the front door of her house, Austin was already a good few feet away, near her mailbox. The near-noon wind whipped around his hair and sent his blonde locks flying in all different directions. Austin gave her a jaunty wave.

"I think you learned a ton today, Ally." He winked. "But tomorrow we're gonna kick it up a notch, so you better be prepared!" Ally watched as Austin disappeared around the block in the direction of Dez's house. She felt an odd electric prickling sensation go up her spine.

Wait…there's going to be a tomorrow?

Ally didn't know if the tingling feeling she felt was fear or anticipation.

Yes! First real chapter done :) Austin and Ally have already finished with Pancake Monday, I wonder what Tuesday will bring them?

Shoutouts to reviewers for your support; couldn't have done it without you guys!