Not Warriors- Awsten Knight

Chapter 47

Awsten figured that it was early morning when he heard a light knocking on his bedroom door, it took him a minute to adjust to his surroundings slightly alarmed by the four blue walls around him. 

He squinted slightly, rubbing his eyes and reaching over to his night stand blindly feeling for his glasses when he heard his moms voice from the other side of the door. 

"Hey honey." she calls out softly, hoping to get his attention without waking them up to harshly. 

"Yeah mom?" he replies to her, trying not to make too much noise in fear of waking up Claire who was securely snuggled up next him her breathing slow and steady. 

Ginny opens the door slowly, not putting her head inside due to wanting to keep their privacy. 

"I made breakfast, it's around 9:30 and I figured you wouldn't want to sleep the day away. There's no rush though, it's downstairs whenever you're ready." she tells him softly before closing the door behind her once more. 

He finally managed to find his glasses, slipping them onto his face and letting out a soft sigh. If it were up to him, they would stay in bed like this together for the rest of the day. Safe from everything in the comfort of his bedroom but he knew that they needed to get up, otherwise their entire schedule would be thrown off for when they had to go back on tour. 

He lays there for a minute staring at the ceiling, when he hears a groan from beside him and he stifles a laugh realizing that Claire is still not a morning person to this day. 

"G'morning beautiful." he says, turning on his side resting his hand on her cheek gently. 

He lets out a laugh when Claire grabs the pillow from under her head and dramatically places it over her head pulling the covers up over herself burrowing deep into the depths of the bed. 

"Not good morning." she says, her voice still tired. 

Awsten runs a hand up and down her back over the covers for a minute, "Can I come into your fortress with you?" he asks her gently waiting for her to nod. 

"Mhm, c'mere." she replies, lifting up the blanket but leaving the pillow on her head. 

He scoots down on the bed, lifting up the pillow placing his head next to hers tucking her hair behind her ear smiling at the sight of Claire laying there with her eyes still closed. 

"It's 9:30 my love, my mom made breakfast." he whispers to her, and he giggles when she cracks her eyes slightly at the sound of the word breakfast. 

Whenever Claire would sleep over in high school, Ginny would always make a big breakfast the next morning for everyone and they would sit around in the kitchen talking for hours about their weeks, his mom always said that she loved being able to catch up with her kids and he figured that this was what she was doing today too. 

"You have your glasses on." Claire points out, rubbing her eyes gently, and Awsten feels his face grow warm nodding in response. 

"You never wear your glasses anymore, I've missed them." she adds on, her voice still quiet. 

"You missed my glasses?" Awsten asks her with a small laugh, the two of them still buried under the covers. 

Claire hums in agreement with him, "I did, I always thought you looked handsome in them even when you hated how you looked in them. I remember how sad you were when the doctor told you that you had to wear them 24/7 in high school." she says reminiscing. 

Awsten thinks back, she wasn't wrong at all. Even though the doctor told him that, he still rarely wore his glasses. He just walked around blind despite everyone's objections and the frequent headaches he would get. 

"I think I remember you being excited about getting to see me in them more." he replies with a laugh, and she nods. 

"I was, you still didn't wear them though." she shoots back at him and he shrugs. 

Awsten rubbed his thumb against her cheek lightly, taking in the moments that they were spending together because he knew once they were back on tour these would be few and far between. 

He craved the privacy that they had at the moment on a daily basis, and couldn't help but think about what would happen after warped tour. The boys already had another tour lined up for November and December, their label was working them to the bone and he was terrified that the moment that they didn't get to spend every day together everything would crash and burn around them. 

Awsten pushed those feelings aside for the moment, not wanting to ruin the time they had together right now with his fears of the future. There was always time to talk about it in the future. 

"Do you think you're ready to get up?" Awsten asks her softly, and Claire shakes her head moving closer to him and wrapping her arms around him tightly settling her head on his chest. 

"I need this for a little longer, we don't get much time like this." she tells him, and Awsten feels his breath catch in his throat when he hears her voice crack. 

He nods, resting his hand on her back pulling her shirt up to trace circles on her back with his fingertips. 

"I was just thinking that too." he replies sadly, and Claire lets out a shaky breath. 

"Have they already booked you for another tour?" she asks him quietly, afraid of the answer that she felt like she already knew.

"Winter tour for Entertainment. The last Entertainment tour to be exact." he tells her, his voice lacking emotion. 

"These workdays are endless bear, I know I signed up for this but I'm so fucking tired." Awsten says, his voice cracking this time.

"You didn't sign up for your art to be disrespected, and to be worked to the point of your health being affected both physically and mentally Aws. Don't blame yourself for this." she replies, and he freezes. 

He hadn't told her about how bad his voice had been hurting him lately, and he thought that he had been doing a good job at hiding the fact that he was in so much pain. 

"I notice the way that you grimace anytime you warm up for Blonde, I know your throat is killing you. You're doing everything you can to take care of it but you're straining yourself." she says knowingly, and he shakes his head. 

"I don't know how you notice all of these things." he says softly. 

"I see you Awsten, even when you think you're see through. I can still see you." Claire reassures him, and he feels tears come to the corners of his eyes. 

"I don't see how it's fair that you're making me cry before 10am, but regardless I love you." he says, placing his chin on the top of her head as she holds him tighter to her. 

"I didn't mean to make you cry bub." she says with a sad laugh, and he shakes his head brushing her off. 

"Not a bad cry, it's just nice to know that someone is looking out for me the way that you do that's all." he assures her, and she pops her head up, resting on her elbows to look in his eyes. 

"I love you, I'll always look out for you no matter what." she says, leaning in to kiss him gently.