BLOOM • awsten knight

20

{tw! mentions of suicide & death}

APRIL 2018

Awsten's head falls to rest on Elle's shoulder, as the title sequence for another episode of The Office begins; they must have watched almost three seasons over the last couple of days, and they've finally reached Elle's favourite, season four.

Awsten's finally been able to feel like he can relax; a few days ago, he got a call from Geoff letting him know that Chloe had their baby, and told him all about their newborn daughter, Rory.

He met her shortly after and couldn't stop telling Elle about her; he wants her to meet Rory desperately - he isn't entirely sure why, but he thinks that seeing Elle with his god daughter would make his heart burst - Jawn even commented, saying how that would be the final straw to push Awsten to finally fall for her completely.

However, Elle wanted to allow time for the people closest to Geoff to spend time with Rory; she still feels like she intrudes sometimes, and feels like half a stranger to them, but really, everyone is just as fond of her as Awsten is.

No one else agreed with her reasoning, but she was adamant, so Awsten figured he wouldn't push it, and he'd wait for a while to introduce her.

The pair have mostly spent the last couple of days lazily, though, allowing Awsten to catch up with his sleep schedule, which has still been lagging behind from tour.

Even in his sleepy state, it's nice for Elle to have Awsten by her side; she likes the close contact, and when he allows his eyes to flutter closed for just a few moments, he absentmindedly shuffles closer to her.

The comfortable silence that settles between them, with only the TV as background noise, allows Elle's mind to wander.

She thinks back to Leeds, when Taylor and Awsten had a conversation while they were walking through the city centre; it looked serious, and Elle definitely doesn't believe that it was about her hip problems.

"What're you thinking?" Awsten mumbles, shifting in his spot, but Elle notices that he's not looking up at her just yet.

"Huh?"

"You feel tense, your breathing changed," he sits up a little straighter, and she can't help but feel baffled at how he noticed the slightest change in her demeanour, especially without even looking at her. "What's up?"

"Thinking about what Taylor might have told you," she keeps her eyes on the TV ahead of them. "In Leeds, and you had that secret, side-conversation."

"Oh, yeah," Awsten nods, remembering it clearly. "She didn't tell me much specifics," he sits up, fully now, "I think she wanted to leave that up to you."

"Okay, so, what did she say?" Elle questions.

"She wanted to know how much I knew already, said we seemed close," Awsten vies for her eye contact, as he crosses his legs on the couch. "Said that you've lost a lot of people."

"There it is," she nods, having a feeling that Taylor would have brought up something along those lines. "She didn't like, try to guilt trip you into staying friends with me, did she?"

"What? No, of course not," Awsten frowns, looking concerned. "Like I said, she didn't really give me specifics about who you lost, or why, or how, and you don't have to tell me, but if you want to, you can."