FF - The Promise - Thread I - Chapter 1 to 68 - Page 74

Chapter 57

Madhu woke up feeling warm and cozy and moved further into the warmth but was stopped by a huge wall. She frowned in her sleep wondering what the hell was it. As her eyes fluttered open, she realised that she was facing Rishab's chest. The memories of last night flashed before her eyes. The way he held her till she fell asleep, the way he peppered her face and hair with tiny kisses, the way he looked into her eyes and said that he loved her. She smiled at him. She drew herself closer to him and blushed when she felt him hard and huge against her stomach. Abby and she had discussed about guys and their morning uprisings, but she had never experienced it first hand.

She was brought out of her stupor when she heard some commotion outside.

She put on some clothes and stepped outside to see the ongoings of this morning. Just as she was going to say something, she heard a "Shhh!" from couple of people. She frowned at Abby and reached up to rub her eyes before turning to follow her pointing finger.


"What's going on?" she whispered, watching as Adam moved backwards, stopping every few feet to drop... she squinted... bits of a granola bar? He turned his head and nodded at Akash and her eyes widened when he unzipped the entrance to Rishab's tent, the same tent she just came out of.


Adam leaned inside and placed a few more of the crumbles before backing away and high-fiving Akash as they both hurried back to the other side of camp.


"What're you guys doing?" she whispered.


"Just playing a prank on Kundra," Akash said as he grabbed his digital video recorder and scampered over to the other side where he stretched out on his stomach and aimed it at the opening on Rishab's tent.


"Remember those little pika's?"


"And those pika's are around?" Madhu got to her feet quickly and moved closer to her best friends, all the while keeping a eye on the entrance to Rishab's tent.


Akash grinned at them. "They're not usually this high up, but we saw one a while ago... looked like a hungry little fella."


Madhu shook her head, but grinned. Abby snickered looking at Madhu. "God, girl, you looked in a mirror today?"


Madhu brushed her unruly hair back and shot the finger at her friend as she quickly downed her first cup of morning coffee.


"I love you too, Abby."


Akash motioned for everyone to be quiet as a little furry head appeared near one of the snowy outcroppings of rocks. The creature slowly followed the granola trail, pausing occasionally to rise up on its hind legs and peer around at them.


Madhu took several steps back when the furry little creature made it further into the camp.


Akash grinned when the pika munched on a bit of granola and studied its surroundings. It sat up on its hind legs and reached out, tiny clawed paw touching Rishab's tent as it leaned forward to sniff the zipper. The whiskers twitched as it caught the scent of more food and it dropped back down to all fours before creeping inside.


"Oh my," Madhu muttered, amused as she waited for the curses that were sure to come out of the tent in no time.


Rishab frowned when he felt a cold breeze blow through his tent and in his mostly-asleep state he couldn't rationalize the feeling. He rubbed the side of his face against his bag when something tickled his cheek and his mind became a little more alert as he wondered if Madhu had woken up and was stopping to kiss him before going outside. It would explain the cold air. He was smiling as he opened his eyes and he immediately froze when he realized he was nose to nose with... his eyes had automatically crossed as he tried to focus on the thing and he blinked several times to bring his eyes into focus. His eyes widened when the creature suddenly came into focus and he jerked back when it moved towards him.


The movement startled the pika and it responded by emitting the high-pitched whistling sound and running around the tent like some sort of possessed rodent. Rishab cursed at it and struggled to get out of his sleeping bag, which only upset the creature more. He finally got one hand free and tried to swat the pika out of the tent, but only succeeded in causing it to increase the pitch and volume of the horrific ear-splitting sound.


He finally got to his knees and tried to do a cross between hopping and crawling in an attempt to get free of the tent and the pika. He made it to his feet and near the entrance and then jumped to avoid stepping on the frantic pika, throwing him off-balance and he crashed through the opening and into the snow.


The others burst into laughter at the scene unfolding before them, holding their stomachs and sinking to the ground as they gasped for air.


Rishab looked around, trying to get his bearings as he fought with the sleeping bag and finally shook free of it. He rubbed his hand over his face and then ran a hand through his hair as he glared at the culprits. "You guys are gonna get it," he warned.


Akash only laughed harder and pointed at his good friend. "That'd be a lot more threatening if you weren't standing there in your smiley-face boxers."


Rishab looked down and winced at the bright yellow boxers with the stupid happy face right over his crotch. Damn it! The stupid things had come with his last purchase and he had completely forgotten that he had packed them. Who really paid any attention to what boxers he was pulling on in the dark?


"Sexy," Madhu called, winking at him.


He shook his head. He couldn't even pretend to be mad when she was sitting there looking at him like that.


"Damn man, those are really ugly," Adam said.


Rishab ignored him. "Akash, I'd appreciate it if you'd get your little friend outta my tent before it destroys something." "It's your tent, man."


"And it's your critter... get it outta my tent so I can put some clothes on. Preferably before I start singing soprano."


"Fine, I'll get it out," Akash said and went towards the tent. He crouched down in front of it just as it came out, surprising him. He hadn't counted on that and he stumbled backwards and landed on his ass.


Adam laughed so hard he fell over on his back in the snow. "That was priceless!" he howled.

*****

Madhu sat in her tent and searched around her pack for another pullover she could wear. It was freezing cold again and she hoped that another layer of clothes would help to keep her a little warmer. "f**k," she hissed when she pinched her finger in the camp stool while getting it out of the pack.


"Those work a lot better if you don't stick your fingers in them," a warm voice offered and Rishab grinned when she looked up and noticed him sitting in the entry.


"Uh-huh, thanks for that glorious bit of advice," she mumbled and pulled her hurting finger against her body.


"Here, lemme see it," he said as he ducked inside and sat down across from her. Everyone was busy putting their tents up and getting settled for the night before getting their evening meals ready.


"There's nothing to see," she said but held her hand out for him.


He could see where she had pinched her finger, but it wasn't going to leave a mark or hurt for long. He lifted her hand and pressed his lips to the tiny injury.


"You didn't give me the good morning kiss you promised," she said quietly. She had wondered all day if their conversation the night before had really meant something.


"I was standing outside in the snow in a pair of happy face boxers, Madhu..." He made a face and released her hand to hook his thumb over his shoulder. "They're all busy right now... would you settle for an early evening kiss?"


She placed her pack aside and crawled over to him on all fours in a sexy, cheeky way. "We really need to get you some decent boxers, baby."


"Didn't care for those, huh?" he muttered, watching her as she crawled up to him.


She shook her head. "No."


"Just for the record, I didn't buy them on purpose. You should see the black ones I usually wear."


"Uh-huh."


"But I sincerely hope when I do wear them next around you, I won't be wearing them for very long." he smirked.


"Hey, Kundra, where are you? I need the radio set," Akash called from somewhere outside.


"Damn it," he growled as he fumbled with the zipper on his coat and pulled out a couple of band-aids and grabbed her hand. With his free hand he reached over to tug the zipper down and he yelled at Akash. "Hey, it's in my tent."


Akash crouched down in front of Madhu's tent and glanced inside with a knowing smirk.


"Hurt my finger," she declared, feeling totally stupid because she knew he wasn't buying it.


"Uh-huh," he drawled, shooting a speculative glance at his friend.


"Hey, I thought you were looking for the radio," Rishab reminded him.


Madhu rolled her eyes. Way to be subtle, Rishab, she thought. She waited until Akash walked away again. "That was totally obvious."


"Madhu, you forget, Akash knows... he's not gonna run out and make an announcement to the entire world. Even if he wanted to he couldn't."


"Sorry," she muttered, "didn't mean it that way."


"No, baby, I know that." He held up the band-aids in his right hand. "My dumbass jumped, too." He smiled and moved into her space so he could give her a little kiss. "We don't really need to hide this from our friends. They know about us and from what I have seen, they are overtly supportive, if you have noticed. Not that I have been overly handsy around you, but I can still tone it down till you want to tell them officially." Remembering how each of them had their hand in bringing the two of them closer.


She smiled and leaned against him. "Think we can stay up a little longer after the others have gone to bed again?"


"Yeah, of course." "Okay, you'd better go now."


"Alright. You can make dinner tonight," he said as he backed out of the tent.


"Huh? No fair," she told him and started to pull some clothes off to pull on the pullover she had been looking for.


"Sending me out into the cold while you're taking clothes off isn't fair," he complained.


"I'm just taking something off to put on even more."


"Can't blame a guy for trying." He winked at her and straightened up to go and make sure everyone was ready for the night ahead.