Burn ▹ Ashton Irwin

thirty one

"Ashton." I whispered the next morning, getting down on my knees so my face was level with his. I tried to shake him awake but he ignored me, unconsciously scrunching his nose and pulling the fluffly white quilts over his entire face.

He's been asleep all day, it was already passed noon. I have spent the morning waking up, laying beside Ashton while he snored and squirmed around in his sleep, making myself breakfast in Luke's kitchen, having a pretty long convresation with Luke (I told him that Ashton slept soundly through the night and his bandages were working pretty well), and now I was back in the room to wake Ashton up. I felt like there was a lot that needed to get done today, and I was also getting pretty lonely without him being awake.

"Ashton," I pulled the blankets off his whole body and gazed over his torso as he twitched his legs and snorted again. He still didn't wake up, so I sighed and decided to check on him anyways. I carefully lifted up his shirt and peeked down at the bandages that still hugged him around the waist. It looked the same as it did last night, so I don't think anything went wrong while we slept.

"Wakey wakey." I sang under my breath, nudging Ashton's side again. All he did was snore again and unconsciously push me away.

I stepped away and sighed, resting my hands on my hips in defeat. I should probably just let him sleep, because I'm assuming he wouldn't want me pouring water and cleanser on his wounds without his permission first. I guess I could just check up on him when he eventually, which should be relatively soon. I mean, he can't sleep forever, can he?

I covered Ashton back up with the blankets and left the room, quietly shutting the door behind me. I walked to the kitchen and saw both Michael and Luke standing at the counter talking between one another. Luke turned when I cleared my throat and gave him a concerned look. I wanted to talk to him about a lot of things, all reguaring Ashton, since Luke seems to have the most medical knowledge out of us all. In the back of my mind I was kinda worried that Ashton's condition was more than just a few bullet wounds and scratches. I just wanted him to be 100% safe, that's all.

"Hey, how's he doing?" Michael asked. I stood across from them and shrugged my shoulders.

"I'm not really sure," I replied. "I mean, he's alive, so that's a plus."

Chuckling under his breath, Luke popped more bread into the toaster. "Yea, that's definitely a good sign."

"Again with the fucking toast!" Michael groaned.

"It's for a sandwhich!" Luke retorted, putting his hands up in defense when Michael threatened to punch him in the face. "It's almost lunch time, is anyone hungry?"

"No, I'm fine..." I said quietly, mostly to myself as my mind began to wonder off again. You could hear Ashton snoring away in the other room if you strained your neck back enough, but I was still feeling nervous inside. What if something happens to him? What if doesn't wake up for some reason?

"Should we take him to a doctor or something?" I asked to no in particular. I kinda just threw the question out in thin air because I didn't know if it was a valid one or not.

Luke took his toast out of the toaster and put in on a plate. He scrunched his nose and shook his head. "Nah, he's fine. Trust me."

"Are you sure?" I kept going, taking quick glances towards the room in which Ashton was still sleeping in. "I mean, I trust that you stopped all the bleeding-"

"I did, and I got the bullets out," Luke explained. "And if we were to take him to an actual hospital you know what we would all get? Exposure."

"Exposure?"

"They're doctors. They'd find out who shot him, then they'd find out what we were doing in that basement in the first place, then they'd find everything out about Ashton..." Luke's voice trailed off and he looked at me, as if to say 'come on, this is obvious.'