Chapter 10

Naina wakes in the morning to find Raj still asleep beside her, something that she's not used to. Usually by the time she wakes up he's already left for his jog, but she supposes that the pain killers Shalini gave him have knocked him out. She's relieved, since she doesn't think he should be doing such strenuous exercise the day after losing quite a bit of blood anyway.

It's the first time that Naina has ever seen him asleep, and she shifts onto her side in order to watch him. He seems far more peaceful like this than he does while awake, and his hair falls over his forehead messily. She resists the urge to push it back from his forehead, knowing that the movement might wake him up.

Instead, very quietly and slowly, Naina gets out of bed and heads for the bathroom to get ready for the day, intending to allow him to sleep for awhile longer. When she returns dressed and ready for her day at college he still hasn't woken up, so Naina goes to the kitchen to prepare some chai and breakfast, thinking that it would probably best if he had it in the room today rather than having to go to the mess.

She is just opening the door, returning from the mess where she has gotten some ingredients from Suriji when Raj wakes up, sitting up slowly and wincing slightly as he flexes the arm that was injured.

"You didn't wake me up," he tells her, sounding slightly embarrassed for having slept so late.

"It's better for you to get as much rest as your body needs," Naina tells him in a very no nonsense tone. "And there was no way I was letting you go for a jog today."

Raj smiles, looking amused at the way she's talking to him. "How could I forget?" he asks her, "I can't get away with anything when my wife is a doctor in training, can I?"

Naina feels like blushing and can't believe how ridiculous she's being. After all, it's not the first time he's referring to her as his wife, but he never addresses her as that when they're alone together.

"Anyway go and get ready," she tells him, "And try not to get your wound wet. After you're dressed I'll apply fresh bandages."

Raj looks down at the bandage on his arm to see that there is a small blood stain there. It's not the first time he's dealt with a wound that needs to heal, but it is the first time he's done so with somebody who is so worried about him.

"I'll be careful," he promises her, and taking his clothes with him, heads to the bathroom.

By the time he comes out, he can smell toast and mushrooms and eggs frying, and can't believe how delicious it smells. Generally they have so little time in the morning due to Naina's college that they both just eat their breakfast in the mess.

Smiling, he makes his way to the kitchen, peering over Naina's shoulder as she stands by the frypan, waiting for the eggs to be ready.

"I can see that I should get injured far more often," he jokes, "This smells far better than Suriji's breakfasts."

"Well you definitely need some protein and iron," Naina tells him, "And you don't need to get injured to have breakfast cooked for you, you just have to wake me up earlier."

Raj looks embarrassed at having suggested that he would like her to cook more often.

"Naina I know how busy you are with your college at the moment," he tells her, "I don't want you to have to take on any extra responsibilities."

"Still, maybe occasionally…" Naina tells him, "Even I miss cooking, when I was at home I used to help Ma. And Bhaiyya would often say that my pakoras were the best he ever tasted."

She stops after mentioning Navin, and realizing that she has become emotional while caught up in her memories, Raj decides it would be best to distract her.

"Well then I'll definitely look forward to the pakoras," he tells her, "But for now this breakfast is looking too good to resist, is it ready yet?"

Naina nods, and places the breakfast onto two plates before filtering the chai through a sieve into the mugs. "But first we bandage your arm again," she tells him, looking at it with concern.

"But the breakfast will go cold." Raj protests, looking at his plate longingly. It really is a long time since he's had home cooked food, as much as he loves Suriji mess food just doesn't really compare…

"It will just take a minute," Naina tells him, and sure enough it's done quickly, she's had more than enough practice before now in class.

Raj takes a bite of his breakfast and smiles, thinking that this must be the reason why people get married. Then he feels slightly bad for thinking it, as it is quite an old fashioned concept that the wife should be the one to cook.

"Naina, this is excellent." He tells her, "It's lucky that you don't get time to cook everyday, otherwise I would have to jog twice as far just to stop myself developing a belly like Suriji's."

Naina smiles, knowing that he's trying to joke with her in order to keep her spirits up, having realized how terrified she was yesterday.

"Well I know I don't get time to cook everyday, but it would be good to do so on the weekends from now on." Naina says thoughtfully, "Even I'm sick of canteen food."

They finish their breakfast and after washing the dishes together, Naina collects her books and bag, ready to leave for college.

"Would you like me to…" Raj starts to offer.

"Definitely not," Naina tells him, back to strict doctor mode, "I don't want you straining your arm and causing the wound to open again. I'll get one of the orderlies to drop me."

"Have a good day." Raj tells her.

"You too," she replies, "Just try not to do anything too strenuous."

After she leaves Raj prepares his materials for the day and then heads to class, running into Shalini on the way.

"How's your arm now?" she asks him, "I didn't see you two in the mess this morning, did you oversleep?"

"My arm is fine, it's not hurting too much." Raj tells her, "And no, we didn't oversleep, Naina made breakfast this morning."

He wishes that he didn't sound so gleeful about it, but really the food was very good. And it wasn't only that, there was something about her gesture that touched his heart, the care that she showed in looking after him makes him think that things are finally working out.

Shalini smiles, amused by Raj's obvious happiness. "Breakfast was that good, was it?" she asks him, "Or is it more because of the one who made it?"

"What if it was both?" he asks her, refusing to feel embarrassed at her teasing. "Anyway, I have a class to teach, so I will see you later." And he walked away, still with the same smile on his face.

**

Naina returns in the afternoon and after placing her things in their room, she heads to the canteen, intending to do some study.

However she soon realizes that it will be just about impossible if she remains there because the whole canteen is in an uproar, the students excitedly discussing something.

"What's going on?" Naina asks Pooja, "Why is everybody so excited?"

"They've just announced the fresher's ball!" Yudi cuts in excitedly before Pooja can answer, "Man, I am so excited. I will definitely be Mr Fresher, and it's going to be such a rocking night!"

"Arre Yudi-o," Huda drawled, "First find a date and then become Mr Fresher, you know that it's only couples allowed."

As soon as Huda pointed this out, Yudi started to look a little worried, not having thought about this before.

"Don't worry Yudi, I'm sure you'll find a good date." Naina said reassuringly.

"From where?" Yudi asked desperately, "The only girls I ever talk to here are you, Pooja and Dr Shalini. Obviously I can't go with you or Dr Shalini. Pooja, would you go with me?"

Pooja looked a little shocked, while Ali just stared at Yudi awkwardly. "Actually Yudi," she finally said, "I was planning to go with Ali. You'll go with me, won't you Ali??"

Ali looked a bit embarrassed as everybody turned to watch his reaction. "Of course Pooja, as long as you're sure that Rohit won't mind." He said, blushing slightly.

"Oy Osool, why are you worried about that 'out of range caller', Huda told him, "Our Punjaben wants to make her connection with you, so just forget him."

"Dekh Hudabhai," Ali said a bit angrily, "I don't appreciate comments like that so keep them to yourself, Pooja and I are just going as friends."

Naina decided that it would be best to distract them before a fight developed between Huda and Ali.

"Well at least Ali and Pooja are sorted out, who is everyone else going with?" she asked.

"Has Huda ever had a problem finding girls?" The Jat asked arrogantly, "I just have to announce that I'm available and there'll be a queue of them waiting to ask me."

Everybody else rolled their eyes at this statement.

Aalekh just shrugged. "Nobody." He said, "I don't need to go to this 'fresh ball'."

Naina didn't think it was the right time to correct his English right now.

"Well I do want to go!" Yudi exclaimed melodramatically, "Guys, help me come up with a plan, I need to find a girl who will go with me."

"Don't you have a sister?" Naina asked him.

"Please, I'm not that desperate." Yudi replied, "I'm not going to the fresher's ball with my own sister."

Naina laughed, realizing that he'd misunderstood her. "That wasn't what I meant," she told him, "Why don't you ask your sister to fix you up with one of her friends, I'm sure most girls would love to go to a ball at a military academy."

"Not a bad idea," Yudi said, "Although I'm not sure that any of Neelu's friends would really suit me, but still if there's no better option…"

"Well you'll all have to tell me about it in great detail," Naina tells them, "I can't wait to hear what happens."

"But you'll be there too." Pooja tells her, sounding as if she can't believe that Naina hasn't realized.

"I will?" Naina asks, "But it's a fresher's ball, and I am not a cadet."

"But our teachers are still coming," Yudi informs her, "And of course Captain Rajveer needs a date as well, so you'll be attending too."

Naina couldn't believe how nervous the idea made her, she hadn't realized that she would have to go… dress up… dance…

"Then I suppose that you won't have to tell me about it," she says quietly, and then quickly excuses herself, announcing that she needs to go and study.

Raj finds her in the bedroom half an hour later, bent over her books with a worried look on her face.

"What's the matter?" he asks her, concerned, "Are you having trouble with your homework?"

"No, that's fine." Naina tells him, "I was just in the canteen…"

"Where all the cadets are very excitedly discussing the fresher's ball," Raj broke in. He'd also passed by on his way to their room, and had heard them from out in the hallway. "And?"

"Do we have to attend too?" Naina asks, "I thought that it would only be for the cadets."

"There's no way that we would ever leave them unsupervised in those types of conditions." Raj tells her, "At the very least, a fight would definitely break out. Therefore all of the teachers attend but try to stick to the background as much as possible."

"And I have to go too?" Naina asks, still looking worried.

"Naina, what's the real problem?" Raj asks her, "I thought you would be excited to go."

"I've never been to one of these formal dances before," Naina tells him, "I didn't even go to my own high school dance, it was at the time of Bhaiyya's trial and…"

Raj nods, understanding perfectly.

"Well then this will be your very first," he told her, "Generally we have quite a few formal dances a year in the military so you'll probably get used to it quite soon."

"Actually I don't know how to dance." Naina admits.

"At all?" Raj asks, a little surprised.

"Well of course I can do that filmy type of dance, anybody can do that." Naina says, "But formal dancing…"

Raj smiles, relieved that it's only this she was worried about.

"Then that can be fixed very easily, Naina." He tells her, "After all of the boring formal balls I've attended, I can definitely teach you to dance."

Naina nods, now looking far more relaxed about the idea of a ball.

"Well shall we get started?" he asks her, his eyes twinkling.

"Now?" Naina seems a little surprised.

"Well there's no time like the present, and we've only got a couple of weeks left until the ball, so yes, right now." And standing up he pushes the table and chairs back to make them some room.

Naina looks like she's both amused and unsure about this, and Raj bends forward and offers her his good hand. Hesitantly, Naina places her own in it. Raj tugs her forward so that she's standing closer to him, then places her other hand on his shoulder before putting his own on her waist, pushing her forward so that they're even closer now.

Naina looks slightly uncomfortable, and Raj pauses. "Relax, Naina." He tells her, "Just take a deep breath and then we'll begin."

She nods, takes a breath and relaxes slightly. But to tell the truth, in the two years they've been married, this is the closest that she's ever been to him physically and she can't help but feel a little nervous. His hand is very warm on her waist, and she can feel the strength of his arms as they hold her.

"So in formal dance the man leads," Raj tells her, "So now follow the steps I make, it's alright to look down at your feet the first few times."

Naina nods, and looking downwards she tries to mirror his steps. He makes sure that he goes slowly and keeps the steps simple at first until she's gotten the general idea. Once Naina has mastered the basic step, Raj decides that it's time to make things a little bit more complicated.

"Now step to the left," he tells her, showing her the move. "Exactly. And now to the right, perfect."

He continues to show her various steps and before long Naina has relaxed and begun to enjoy herself. Raj's heart melts as he sees her laugh when she makes silly mistakes or finally gets a step right, he wants to give her all the happiness in the world, wants to make sure that that smile never leaves her face.

Deciding that she's mastered the other steps well enough, without warning, Raj spins her out and then just as quickly brings her back in. Naina collides with him, her hands instinctively going to his chest to steady herself as Raj's remains wrapped around her waist. She gazes at him in surprise for a moment before looking away, blushing slightly and trying to control her breathing.

Reluctantly, Raj releases her, taking his arms from around her waist and she takes a small step back, still not looking up at him.

"Well I think you've mastered the basics now." He tells her, "I hope you're not nervous about the fresher's ball anymore."

Naina shakes her head to say no, and they start moving the furniture back into its place.

Raj observes her while she's not looking, smiling slightly. They have made some progress, but there is a lot still remaining.

After all, everything can't happen in one day.