OS: Revelation

Her eyes glazed over as she stared out at the forbidding river, its strong current lashing out at the rocks and boulders that dare lie in its path. Her shaking hands held the red pea coat closer to her form as her gaze slowly lifted from the river below to the ravine that ran down to it, and from there to the upturned car balanced precariously on its side, inched from the steep drop that would mean certain death. Its familiar yellow streaked with black decals etched itself into her numb mind, memories of past glories passing through in black and white; she glared at the piece of metal that had done nothing to protect the man who had put so much care into it. How could it? How could she?

-----

"I don't have time for this Siddhant, can you please stop being so selfish?"

"What's selfish about this Riddhima? All I'm asking is that you give me one day, just one day."

"But it had to be this day of course, when you knew I had an important meeting?"

"You have a meeting everyday Riddhima, it's not like it's anything new. You know what, forget it. Go to your stupid meeting and come home whenever you feel like it, I don't f**king care!" She shook her head in frustration hearing the sound of the door slamming closed and soon after the roar of an engine as he flew down the street.

-----

She stumbled slightly as a lean form rushed past her, her eyes following him curiously as he ran up to a policeman standing near the wrecked car. Her ears perked at the temporary distraction, picking up on a slightly familiar voice that was angrily blasting the startled officer. She quivered, chills running through her body at the thought of coming closer to the damaged steel that had taken so much from her. Biting back the uncharacteristic whimper she inched slowly towards it, the form of the familiar stranger looming in front of her, her voice catching as she called out to him.

"Mr. Raizada?"

|-=-|

He could easily win the worst husband award, he was quite aware of it. He wasn't one to shower her with gifts of flatter her with poetry. Strong and silent was what he did best, she'd said so herself. Except of course when he wasn't silent, his greatest fault, he knew, was his inability to hold his tongue. Lashing out was his reaction to anything that infuriated him, and a lot of things infuriated Arnav Singh Raizada. He should've learned to control it, if not for his sake then hers.

She who had given so much without asking for anything in return. His breath caught as he maneuvered his car up the hilly road, it was so high, what on earth was she thinking? What was he thinking? How would he fix this? How could he ever fix this?

-----

Can you come home early today?"

He barely looked up from his phone as she posed the question, filling up his plate as she spoke.

"You know I have a meeting," he replied while digging in quickly. He rolled his eyes as he saw her purse her lips thoughtfully, waiting for the skewed reasoning that was sure to follow.

"But still-" she began.

"No," he cut in with finality, "I'll be coming home when the meeting finished; work comes first, you know that."

Her glare matched the one adorning his face as she stood up, "even today," she lamented. "Of course, what else can I expect from the great Arnav Singh Raizada? "

He threw his fork onto the plate, leaning back to watch in annoyance as she walked away with her half eaten plate, "where are you going?"

Without giving him a reply she tossed her plate into the sink, pausing to grab her purse before silently passing him. Sighing in exasperation as the door slammed behind her, he glared at what remained of his breakfast, before tossing it in the sink beside hers, and stalking out to his own car. Its wheels squealing as it followed hers down the street before abruptly turning the corner which sent in the opposite direction.

------

"Mr. Raizada?"

The beckoning didn't register at first; his ears had gone numb, his body frozen. Not from the brisk winds that surged across the outcropping, but from the sheer weight of the words pouring onto him from the annoyingly calm and trained uniformed form before him. His eyes stared straight at the pale face before him, the light dusting of freckles catching his attention as he looked everywhere but where he wanted to. From the furthest corner of his peripheral vision he could see it, the abandoned burst of blue fury still perfectly preserved unlike its yellow counterpart. She hadn't been inside, he realized, she was standing, she was outside, here. Coming out of his revelation, he caught the man's final words, his mind balking as it registered them into his frenzied mind.

He didn't think before he acted, never had when it came to her, why should it be any different today.

|-=-|

"Mr. Raizada!" she exclaimed again, her voice was laced with panic as she rushed towards the quivering form thrashing the unsuspecting official who was desperately trying to calm the enraged man attacking him.

"Don't you f**king tell me to stay calm!" The deep baritone screamed as he shoved away the hands that pulled frantically at his arms. Finally, as a wave of mental exhaustion seemed to kick in, the man let her pull him away, her insistent hands clawing at his pristine black jacket. Her persistent tugs lead him away from the disgruntled man, who had by now had attracted the attention of his many colleagues.

The hazel eyes with their honeyed tint finally looked away from the scene he'd caused to meet his rescuers concerned steel grey gaze.

"Ms. Modi?" he asked in a daze, the infuriated tone was now laced with confusion as he looked to the woman he'd parted ways with roughly an hour ago. He looked from her downtrodden face to the wreckage laid out before them, understanding settling in, "Mrs. Modi," he whispered.

|-=-|

A pained groan hummed in his ears as he awoke, followed soon by a guttural shriek when he tried to move his hands. It wasn't until he tried to turn his head towards the source that he realized that the source was, in fact, him. The conscious awareness of the pain came with this realization, a wounded cry leaving him as he felt his body surge with awareness, feeling like it had been set on fire while a thousand needles poked at it simultaneously.

|-=-|

Her eyes hurt, that's the first thing she realized, they hurt like they did when she awoke after crying herself to sleep. The soreness, the stinging when she tried to open them, it was all so very familiar. Squinting slowly, she caught sight of the sun heading slowly towards the horizon; her mind was in limbo, unable to decide if the sun was diving into the depths of the flowing river, or if, in fact, the river was being lapped up by the sun's rays.

Her wonder with this mystery gave away to the realization that she lay on the side of a river, surrounded by rocky foliage, and she hurt. She hurt so much. So much that she felt like all her senses had gone numb.

|-=-|

*NOTE*

Ok, so either I haven't been paying enough attention in my English classes, or I've been paying too much attention 😆

You decide, but because I managed to majorly confuse a good portion of you through the multiple POVs and vague ambiguous language, here's a short summary of what happened in this part 😆:

Riddhima gets to the accident site and observes her surroundings; she has a flashback about the last time she'd seen her husband. She's knocked out of her thoughts when a man she vaguely recognizes brushes past her.

The man is Arnav who regrets not being a good husband, having a flashback that explains why he feels he could've done better. In true ASR style he vents his frustration through anger and violence, being pulled off of the police office he was beating up by Riddhima who had placed him as Mr. Raizada.

Arnav comes to the realization that Riddhima- with whom he'd had a meeting earlier that day- was in fact Mrs. Modi and not Ms. Modi as he knew her earlier.

The last two paragraphs are essentially both Sid, Khushi, and then Sid's observations and thoughts. Somewhere close but far the two people at the center of this whole storm are awakening and realizing as Sid puts it, that they're in quite a pickle. [That's a figure of speech 😆 I just realized it might be kinda regional, it means they're in a difficult situation.]