One Shot: The Question

Arnav watched his wife angrily change the channel and heard her mumbling something about "idiotic reporters" before she decided to give up watching TV. He was sure she had seen something about them on TV again. For some odd reason, the media enjoyed irking his wife with their senseless theories about why the ruthless ASR finally had decided to get married.

At first it was the gold digger theory which had made him feel incredibly guilty. He had sat his wife down and apologized again even though she told him there was no need and then he had Aman cause some serious damage to the news agency. After he finally had that theory destroyed, the cover up one had sprung up. A news agency started a rumour that he was secretly gay and Khushi was just a pawn to hide his true sexuality. To make things worse, a few models had decided to stand up for him by revealing their "encounters" to the media to prove how straight he actually was. The theory had been quickly debunked but he was left with a rather upset and pissed off wife on his hands. It had taken him a solid sexless week to make Khushi understand that his previous flings were stupid mistakes that had meant absolutely nothing at all.

Arnav shut his laptop and started to walk towards his bed mentally cursing whatever news agency that had upset his wife now. He sat behind her and pulled her into a hug. Khushi turned around to give him a quick peck before she proceeded to fill him on the latest news. Arnav had expected his wife to rant about the theory instead of asking a question that had caught him off guard.

"Why didn't you believe in marriage?" Khushi looked at her husband and saw a glimpse of surprise before he concealed it. She knew she had surprised her husband with her question and at that moment she realized how important the question really was to her.

"Because I don't need a piece of metal or paper to prove to society how much I love you. Even if we weren't married I would still feel the same way for you as I do now. You're the person I love no matter what and you're the person I want to be with for the rest of my life. I don't need to guarantee that to anyone, not to some priest, not to some god and certainly not to any family member. I just need to promise that to you. I didn't triple my love when I tied a string of beads around your neck nor did I triple my commitment for you when I filled you mang with sindoor. Those things didn't change a thing about how I feel about you."

"Why did you agree to get married then?"

"Because it was important to you. I may not believe in it but I know you do and how important it is for you. It doesn't hurt me or make me a smaller person to do something that I don't believe in for the person I love. It made you happy to go through all the rituals and it made me happy to see you happy."

Khushi quietly listened to her husband's answer as she fiddled with the beads around her neck. She knew she could never really change his views and in all honestly she didn't want to. It was who he was and the person she had fallen in love with. Khushi had already known the answer before she had even asked the question but she enjoyed hearing the candid confession from her husband. They were always going to be different but that was just them and it certainly didn't mean they loved each other any less.

Arnav moved to the centre of his bed and pulled his wife on top of him. Khushi shifted herself up and touched her husband's nose with hers before kissing the man under her. In that moment nothing mattered to her, she wanted to show her husband she understood and respected his views no matter how conflicting they were with hers.

Arnav placed a hand on the small of his wife's back and used the other to bring her leg around his hip. He broke away from the kiss and seeing how eager his wife was he couldn't help but laugh. He quickly promise to have Aman look into whatever it was that had frustrated her and mumbled a "love you" before he decided to end his wife's wait.