Chapter 35

Here's your next part guys, I hope you all enjoy it! Sorry to hear about your nightmare, RJ and glad that 'Cadet' could be of help!

Chapter 33:

Raj wakes early due to habit, blinking his eyes against the sunlight filtering in through the tent's opening. Smiling, he looks down at the girl asleep in his arms. During the night they had shifted position so that Raj lies on his back, still with his arm around her shoulder. Naina lies with her head resting on Raj's chest, her arm flung across his stomach.

Unable to resist, Raj lifts his other hand to stroke her hair, and Naina mumbles, trying to move herself even closer to Raj and shutting her eyes tightly against the sun.

Raj tries to work out what the emotion is that he's feeling right now. He realises that it is, quite simply… contentment.

Eventually after five minutes of pretending that she's not really awake, Naina opens her eyes. "Good morning," she tells him sleepily, dropping her head back down again to bury it in his neck, and pulling him tighter.

"It certainly is." Raj replies, "If only I could wake up like this every morning."

"Of course you can wake up like this every morning, just tell me and I'll start sleeping in your room," Naina tells him jokingly, "Then you can explain to Major Nair exactly what I'm going here."

"Oh god, Naina, I was having such a nice morning, and you had to mention him."

Naina laughs, and resists Raj's attempts to get up, not moving from her position on top of his chest.

"Don't get up just yet," she tells him, "We don't have to be at breakfast for another hour."

She crosses her arms on his chest and leans on them, looking him in the eye. "So, you managed to resist me for an entire night." She teases him.

"Well it was difficult, but I managed to stop myself." Raj jokes back.

Suddenly he sees a mischievous look come on Naina's face, and knows that she's planning something.

"What?" Raj asks, slightly nervous due to the look in her eyes, "I know you're planning something."

"Well," Naina told him, "Wouldn't it be fun if we let them think that something actually had happened, you know, just to see their reactions…"

Raj stares at her as if she's crazy. "You're joking, right? I have no desire to get killed by either Alekh or Dr Shalini while I eat my breakfast."

"Well when you put it that way, I suppose it isn't that great an idea." Naina says, playing with his hair with one hand, "But you have to admit that it would be good to see the looks on their faces."

Still moving her fingers through his hair, Naina rests her other hand lightly on his chest.

Raj is incredibly aware of her closeness, of the softness of her body on top of his. The mischief in her eyes and the smile playing on her lips are too great a temptation for him. Quickly he flips Naina onto her back, rolling on top of her.

Naina stifles a giggle, not at all nervous. She knows that Raj doesn't really intend to do anything to her, they're both just in a playful mood.

"What's so funny?" Raj asks her, "That wasn't really the reaction I was hoping for." He tells her, and she's tempted to ask him exactly what the reaction he wanted was.

Gazing up at him, Naina blushes at the intensity of the look in his eyes. His body is hard and lean against hers, and she knows how much strength he has. She trusts him so much that it hadn't occurred to her until now how difficult for him it might actually be to stop himself from taking things further. He's a man after all, not a saint.

"Are you going to get off me?" Naina whispers, not really wanting him to.

"No." Raj replies, and leans down to kiss her, brushing the hair back from her face while he does so. He kisses her with enough pressure that her lips part, allowing him even greater freedom. As the kiss becomes even more heated, Raj moves his hand down to Naina's hip, slipping it underneath her t-shirt to rest on her skin.

Suddenly Raj stops, and lifting himself up slightly, he looks at Naina.

"What?" she asks him, confused by why he's looking at her that way, and wishing that he hadn't stopped kissing her.

"Naina, now is the point when you're supposed to tell me to stop."

"Oh, right." Naina blinks at him, her mind only half working through a cloud of sleepiness and desire. "Well then, stop."

"Excellent work." Raj tells Naina, and lifts himself off her, sitting up.

"Sorry," she says a bit sheepishly, "I didn't realise it was my job to tell these things."

Raj grins and leans forward to kiss her again.

"Okay stop!" Naina tells him, "And I mean it, otherwise we really are going to be late for breakfast. I haven't even done my hair yet."

Getting a comb out of her pack, she begins to separate the strands, ready to begin braiding.

"Can I do it for you?" Raj suddenly asks.

Naina states at him, "Raj, do you really think that you know how to braid a girl's hair? And if you do, then my next question is whose hair have you been braiding? Should I be jealous?" She asks him jokingly.

"Well, I admit that I don't have any experience, but it can't be that hard." He tells her, "I was the best in my class at tying those rope knots of Major Nair's, it can't be more difficult than that."

Naina is a bit unsure about placing her hair in Raj's hands, especially after this justification from him, but she allows him to braid it anyway. Facing away from him, she can feel his hands deftly move through her hair, braiding it lovingly. Naina can't help but smile, knowing that he's doing it wrong, but not minding at all. When he's finished, he tilts her head back with his hands and places a kiss on her forehead.

"Well, shall we go?" Raj asks and they set off in the direction of where the campfire had been the previous night. They walk silently, glancing at each other with small smiles every few seconds.

They arrive to see that everybody is already there, except for Major Nair and Ali who have gone jogging.

Raj and Naina walked over to the kettle that hung over the fire and Raj crouched down beside her while Naina made them both tea and handed his to him. The look he gave her warmed her far more than any tea possibly could. Then they grabbed their breakfasts and went over to their different sides of the fire.

As soon as Raj sat down, Shalini turned to him. "So Major, how was your night?" she asked, obviously wanting to check up on him.

Remembering Naina's words from earlier, Raj fixed a slightly guilty look on his face and avoided meeting Shalini's eyes, "Uh, it was good, Doctor." He replied, trying to make his voice sound as embarrassed as possible.

Shalini just stared at him wide eyed, her mouth hanging open as if she was a fish. "Major, you didn't…" she whispered, her tone absolutely shocked, turning around she quickly made sure that Suriji and Lolitaji weren't listening, "After all the warnings I gave you???"

Raj's face suddenly broke into a grin, Naina was right, it had been worth it to see the expression on her face. "Relax Shalini, I was only kidding you!" Seeing that Shalini still seemed slightly suspicious, he reassured her more, "I swear that nothing happened! Now tell me how your night was?"

Relaxing now that she knew for sure he had been joking, Shalini sighted. "Do not even ask, I don't think I'm volunteering for a mentorship camp ever again."

"That bad?"

"Worse." And Shalini narrated the entire story to Raj.

He was in stitches by the time she finished, unable to control his laughter.

"No wait, the story's not finished yet." Shalini told him, finally beginning to see the funny side of things herself. "Wait until you hear what happened this morning…"

**

Earlier that morning…

"ARGH!"

"ARGHHH!"

"Cadets, what the hell is going on???"

As instructed by Shalini the night before, Huda had gone to sleep lying across the entrance to the tent. When Yudi decided he needed to go out to use the bathroom, he thought it was a better idea to simply step over Huda rather than waking him up.

Yudi had just lifted one leg to step over his friend when Huda suddenly woke up. Still half asleep, and panicking at somebody standing above him, Huda had yelled, and tried to sit up. Unfortunately, Yudi's leg was still half way over Huda and the movement had unbalanced him, making him fall backwards and also yell.

This was when Shalini had woken up.

By the time she finishes, Raj is laughing even harder, holding his sides since they're hurting so much.

"I'm definitely never coming on mentorship camp again." Shalini told him, "And if I do, then I want a female cadet."

**

On the other side of the fire, Pooja was unsuccessfully trying to get some gossip out of Naina.

"Come on doost, tell me what type of sms's you sent each other last night?"

"There was nothing like that, Pooja. Honestly, we just went straight to sleep." Naina replied, blushing slightly. She definitely wasn't going to mention what had happened in the morning.

"What a shame," Pooja told her, "You finally got some uninterrupted talk time and the call was wasted! And me? Even at breakfast, that Mucchad has sent Ali on roaming!"

"The talktime wasn't wasted, Pooja." Naina told her, "It was nice to spend some time alone no matter what the circumstances were." Honestly, she become happier just being in the same room as Raj.

At this moment, Ali and Major Nair arrive back, Ali waiting to collapse until he'd made the Major some tea, wanting to prove he could be a good protg.

That done, he came and sat down next to Pooja, leaning against her shoulder. Ali was only slightly less shy now that his and Pooja's parents had accepted their relationship, he still wasn't likely to express much affection in public.

Pooja gave him a sympathetic look, she knew exactly how difficult it was to have Major Nair as a mentor.

"Guru, what's wrong?" Ali asked, noticing that Alekh hadn't taken his eyes off the other side of the camp fire.

Naina knew exactly what was going on. "Please Alekh, would you stop glaring at Major Rajveer as if you want to murder him?" She said, a bit fed up about it, "Honestly, nothing happened! Stop being so overprotective!"

Reluctantly, Alekh turned away from where the teachers sat, muttering "It better not have." Under his breath.

As annoyed as she pretended to be, Naina didn't really mind Alekh acting in this way. Whenever he was with her, she didn't feel Navin's loss quite as much. Nobody could replace Navin for her, but at least in Alekh she had found somebody that was like a brother.

"So guys, what are we actually doing today?" Naina asks, she'd been too distracted to find out from Raj.

"Major Nair said that we'll be going canoeing," Ali replied, "Apparently it will be a competition between cadet and mentor teams."

"That's not fair!" Pooja exclaimed, "Yudi and Huda's team has a double battery!"

"More like double the problems," Alekh commented quietly enough that the two boys couldn't hear.

They began to eat their breakfasts then, still talking and laughing as they heard stories about what had happened in Alekh's and Yudi and Huda's tents the night before.

Suddenly Pooja realised that there was something different about Naina today. "Naina, what did you do to your hair today?" she asked her.

"Why? You don't like it?" Naina hid her smiled and touched the end of the braid. "I thought a change would be good."

"No, it's not that." Pooja replied quickly, not wanting to offend her friend, "It just reminds me of one of Major Nair's rope knots."

Naina really tried hard not to laugh, but her eyes met Raj's and there was nothing she could do to control herself then.

Shaking his head at her behaviour, Major Nair had a look on his face that clearly said 'This is why women shouldn't be allowed into the army.'

The rest of Naina's friends didn't have a clue why she had suddenly started laughing, but Pooja had suddenly understood.

"You must really love him if you'll keep a braid that bad in your hair." Pooja whispered to Naina, once the others had turned back to their breakfasts.

"I really do." Naina admitted to her friend.

She was completely and utterly in love with him.

Naina started to eat her breakfast, trying not to glance across at Raj. She didn't need to look to know that he was watching her.

Suddenly she couldn't wait to go canoeing.