A/N: So, I've never written a story about real people before, and I was hesitant to publish this, but after seeing a lot of pictures and interactions between the two of them over the past few months, I felt the need to write about how absolutely adorable I think they would be as a couple. This is obviously fiction, I actually do not think they are together, but if I were either one of them, I would strongly consider it. They have some serious chemistry and let me tell you, you're only a teenager once, it goes by way too quickly, so you have to seize the opportunities that come your way. Just sayin', the two play off each other really well and sometimes special things are waiting there right in front of you. Set in the not so distant future, they're both 18 and in the third season of Austin and Ally.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, not the show, not the characters, not the songs. I am not affiliated with nor have I ever met anyone depicted in this story.

Rating: T for mature themes and language

Everlong

There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back

Well tell her that I miss our little talks

Soon it will be over and buried with our past

We used to play outside when we were young

And full of life and full of love

-Little Talks, Of Monsters and Men

1: sleeping here instead

He lay in his bunk, blankly staring at the carpeted wall above him. It was pitch black except for the light green glow of his watch alerting him that it was almost 1 AM. Everything was eerily quiet, his brothers and sister already all fast asleep in their own bunks. The motor roared below him, its vibration typically able to soothe him to dream-filled sleep on most any other night.

But not tonight.

He tossed and turned, one direction to the next, trying to lull himself into some comfortable position. He turned up the volume on his iPod, trying everything from Metallica to Mozart, but nothing could calm the thoughts in his head.

He always felt a buzz after a show, and tonight was no different. He loved to see the adoring faces in the crowd; he liked to be blinded by the lights and deafened by the screams. With every beat of the drum, every strum of the guitar, he felt an unbelievable rush run through his whole body. He felt this incredible power when he was up on stage, like he was absorbing all of the energy from their fans. He felt invincible. But tonight, the high from the show wasn't the reason he lay wide awake. Even though everyone had told him he had performed a great show, he had felt a little off afterwards, off kilter. He was a little moodier than usual, and he wasn't sure why.

He checked his phone for the fiftieth time after the show, no new texts. A dozen new mentions at least popped up since the last time he checked his Twitter a few minutes ago. Still no messages from the one person he wanted them to be from. He saw she had been having a pun-filled conversation with some guy and couldn't help but feel a little irritated. That was his job to make her laugh, who did that guy think he was?

The infectious beat of the Lumineers filled his ears as he automatically started tapping his hands to the simple melody. The complexity of the arrangement really struck him, as he picked out the banjo, the guitar, and the tambourine and listened to each instrument individually, repeating the song over and over. The lyrics really resonated with him, the parts about sleeping and family were very apropos to his life. He did feel a little bit lonely on the road, even though people surrounded him constantly. The one person whom he knew could make him feel better wasn't around. Maybe that had something to do with it.

His fingers quickly flew over the keypad, hitting send before he could stop himself. It was getting late there. He shouldn't have bothered her. But she would be awake. She had to be.

What are u doing?

She texted back immediately, sending a surge straight to his chest. There was something comforting in the fact that despite the distance between them, they were connected, doing the same thing.

Getting ready for bed, how was the show?

Phenomenal as usual. ;)

So humble. Where are u?

Somewhere b/w Chicago n STL.

Fun! I gg to bed.

Why, I can't sleep.

I see that. I have school tomorrow.

Lame.

I will see you next week. GO TO SLEEP.

Sweet dreams

He smiled as his phone flickered off. He continued to tap his foot to the beat, his mood immediately improved. He loved that about her, even though she wasn't physically present, her positivity was contagious. He didn't know anyone else like her. She appreciated the good in everything and was upbeat and endlessly energetic. He certainly was not like that, he had his moods, just ask anyone in his family. The casting directors had gotten it right, he and his co-star were truly opposites that made a complimentary pair.

"Dude, if you don't stop tapping your foot, I'm going to rip it off! And you won't have a leg to stand on," Rocky mumbled sleepily from the bottom bunk, kicking his foot into Ross's backside.

He stopped moving his feet, mentally writing down that pun to share with her later. He snuggled up, his arms wrapped around his pillow, thinking of how her cheerful face would erupt into a smile at his brother's stupid joke, as he finally drifted off into dreamland.

"Morning guys," Mom said cheerfully as she made her way into the common area of the bus.

A bunch of mumbled good mornings greeted her, but the guys barely looked up from the video game they were playing. She moved to stand in front of her boys with her hands on her hips.

"A little tired this morning, guys?"

Rocky ripped open the foil casing of a pop tart and popped it in his mouth. "Yeah, well if Ross hadn't been remaking Drumline with his feet last night and not sexting his girlfriend, maybe some of us would have gotten some sleep last night."

"Whatever, man. Like you haven't kept us all up before with your snoring," Ross protested, giving his older brother a glare. He intentionally left out any rebuttal about the girlfriend comment, no use in fanning the fire. When it came to Rocky, it was just best to try and change the topic. Annoying big brothers.

Rocky huffed, "I don't snore."

"Umm, yeah you do," Riker replied with a snicker.

Their mother held up her hands for a ceasefire. "Who were you texting?" she directed at him after giving Rocky a stern look. Of course, their mother would bring the topic right back up, when he was trying to distract away from the subject. Even she was sabotaging him.

He hesitantly replied with a little lie, "Laura, she had a big test today and I was just wishing her luck."

"At 1 in the morning?" Rocky questioned disbelievingly, his eyebrows raised.

"It was 11 back in LA, dumbass," he retorted sharply.

"Ross!" their mother warned.

"Sorry, it was 11, idiot." Ross furiously punched the buttons and flicked the controller, but it was no use. Rocky threw down his controller and got into his younger brother's face.

"Oh how do you like that, maybe if you'd gotten some rest, you'd be able to beat me, son. That's how you do it." He gave Ratliff a high five, celebrating a little too excessively. Ross wanted to punch him in the balls.

"Whatever, dick. At least girls like me." Ross tossed the controller to Ryland, and stalked off towards his bunk.

"Good comeback, Bro," he laughed as Ross gave him a secret middle finger out of the view of their mom.

He had started the morning off great, he woke up bright and early, having had a pleasant dream. It was the kind where you couldn't quite remember what it was, but you felt pretty good when you finally opened your eyes. But then his jackass brother had soured his mood significantly in the way that only he could.

There were only a few more shows until the end of the tour, and then Ross would go back to everyday "normal" life. Hopefully without having stabbed one of his brothers before that point.

Ross loved touring, playing live music, and meeting fans, but he did also miss his daily routine on the show, without his family suffocating him all the time. He loved them all, but lately you couldn't turn around without hitting one of his siblings. What he really needed was some privacy. He was a teenage boy; he needed alone time to do teenage boy things. A few months with your family on a nationwide roadtrip, and you would long for solitary confinement, too.

Speaking of, his sister sat near the front of the bus working on her computer, her pink headphones covering her ears. She looked up at him wordlessly as he sat across from her at the small banquette. He plugged in his iPod and pulled out a script to study. Sometimes he got along with Rydel the most as she was always off doing her own thing and didn't ask any questions. Most people thought she had it the roughest being the only girl, but he thought she was pretty lucky. Even though he and his brothers gave her shit all the time, she pretty much got to do whatever she wanted. Plus, she got away with everything.

He read a few pages of the script, but he couldn't concentrate. It wasn't even an episode that focused on him and Ally. Well, Austin and Ally. Sometimes he had to differentiate between the two. There was a lot of Trish and Dez stuff revolving around a mystery-solving plot, which was great, because it put the spotlight on Raini and Calum, who deserved every bit of the attention. Every time there was a Trish/Dez centered episode, it took the pressure of carrying the whole show off him and Laura. Their two characters were finally together, and the fans wanted to see more of it. That made for very exhausting shoots and learning extensive dialogue. Not that he was complaining, though. He had the best job in the world, it was just a lot of pressure.

Good thing the writers played a cat and mouse game with their viewers, almost giving them what they wanted to see one week, but then interspersing an off topic episode in between. They really did like to fuck with the audience a little bit.

He personally wanted to see where they were taking the relationship, Austin and Ally being a Disney show and all. Obviously, they weren't going to take it as far as he would have liked, they weren't on HBO, but he wanted them to at least show a kiss between their characters. They'd gone through the trouble of shooting those scenes, so why not use those takes?

Maybe their writers just liked playing cruel jokes on their actors, knowing full well how awkward having to kiss your co-star over and over again in front of your parents and siblings could be.

It's really awkward. Especially when her father is staring you down in his quiet Italian Mafioso way. And when your mother is practically squealing how cute you are to everyone on set and snapping pictures to post on her twitter. You are 18 years old, and it is embarrassing.

They were good kisses though. She was soft and warm, and she smelled like vanilla. He would never forget that first time. She was so on edge, she practically jumped a foot in the air when he tried to touch her cheek for the scene. Her lips had quivered just at they touched his, her anxiety about the whole thing was palpable. She was so nervous, had been for weeks leading up to the big day. He thought it was adorable, and he teased her mercilessly about it. He was her first kiss. And then her second through fifth kiss. It was chaste and very brief, but very comfortable, like he'd been kissing her for years. It was all good, if not a little timid, but they were some of the better onscreen kisses he had ever had.

He turned on his iPad and scrolled through the R5 tumblr feed, chuckling to himself at all the fans who "shipped" Austin and Ally, and even more comically, him and Laura. He had been surprised to say the least when he found out there was even a name for their coupling, the very clever and catchy, "Raura." And those fans were hardcore, always bringing it up whenever they did appearances together. What he loved even more was that it made Laura squirm, even though she tried to play it off all cool. She avoided the topic anytime she was asked, immediately deflecting to nervous laughter or anything else. Raini even got into the fray, changing the topic for her even when he or Calum brought it up in a live chat or on Twitter. The girls really had no sense of humor about it at all. He actually thought it was kind of cute that they all thought they'd make a good couple, but the fans would be very disappointed to know that there wasn't anything going on there at all.

"Hey, Ross," Rydel kicked him under the table to get his attention.

"Yeah?" He took out one earbud and met her eyes.

"Would you look at this video?" She pressed play to show him a lyric video she made for their next single. It looked great. She was much better at this stuff than any of the boys, but he wasn't going to admit that.

"It looks awesome. You should post that. " He clicked to make the screen bigger, but accidentally clicked onto Rydel's twitter page. The brown haired girl in one of the icons caught his eye, and he realized she was still carrying on a conversation about novel puns with this dude. Who was this guy with his endless literary puns? His eyes imperceptibly narrowed. Not cool, dude, not cool.

A/N: So, what do you all think?