Paint You Wings // Ashton Irwin [au]

Forty-six

Emilia's POV

Softly poking my cheek, Ashton tries to wake me up, but he doesn't realize that for the past five minutes that he's been doing this, I've been awake. I've stayed silent for so long because I like to hear him as he whispers to me in his low morning voice that sends chills down my spine. "You're so beautiful," "Emmie," "Wake up," "I've never noticed the freckle by your nose," "It's cute," "I love you." With everything he says, I have to fight the urge to smile. I love hearing him talk to me. He doesn't filter himself and instead, says whatever is on his mind.

"You do realize that I know you're awake," he says, poking me one last time and keeping his finger there until I push it away.

Opening my eyes, I look over to Ashton who is lying on his stomach with his cheek resting against his pillow and his eyes half-closed. "How did you know?" I ask.

Even this early, his chuckle is enough to make my stomach flip. "Because you've been playing with my feet this entire time."

I shuffle my feet against his. "My toes were cold."

"Your toes are always cold," he retorts. "I don't understand why you don't just wear socks to bed."

"Because I don't like wearing socks when I sleep. It feels weird and they always end up coming off by morning anyway."

"I guess I'll just have to stick with being your foot warmer then." He pushes himself up and his arms flex in the process as he hovers over me. "Good morning." He smiles and pecks my lips softly, barely even touching me.

"Good morning to you too." I smile lazily and reach my hand up to brush his wavy hair out of his eyes. "What time is it?"  

"I want to say some time after noon. I've been too busy trying to wake you up to check the time."

I'm not used to sleeping in during the week anymore, but now that school is over, I don't really have a reason to wake up early. I would prefer to sleep longer, but Curly here isn't having it.

He looks so much different as he lies above me; blissful in a way, but at the same time he looks at me like I'm going to fly away any second and wants to have every detail of me savored and encrypted in his memory before I'm out of view.

"I'm not going anywhere," I say.

His face twists in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"You're looking at me like I'm the last thing you're going to see. I'm not going anywhere."

He presses his lips together and sighs. "I know you're not and I don't mean to look at you that way, but can you really blame me?"

There's only one person who comes to mind as he says that. Even though he doesn't like to admit it, he still has his problems with Natalie. I don't want to push him to tell me about it because it might just anger him, but I also don't want for him to keep it bottled inside.

"I really don't want to talk or even think about that," he says. "All of that is done and over with and I have you now. I have someone who loves me right in front of my eyes and that takes precedence over everything. So let me look at you like you're the last thing I'm going to see because I'd be satisfied with just that."

My lips involuntarily curve up and his own smile affirms everything he has just said. At a loss of words, I change topics to avoid any more conversations about Natalie and return to the present. "How long have you been awake?"

"Not too long. Once you started playing footsies with me, it was hard to go back to sleep," he jokes and a giggle escapes my lips. "So I need to ask you something."