FF : Curiouser and Curiouser!(Ch17pg104)DISCONTINED.See Pg106 - Page 52

As Abhay entered Piya's room, he did a double take. Piya was sitting poring over a book and scribbling something on the side with a pen. She was absorbed in her work, utterly unaware of him, so he took the opportunity to study her at leisure. She was wearing shorts and a yellow tank top. Piya liked wearing different things, especially when the sun was down. And right now, he thought she looked like...a human. No princess-ness about her right now.

She was wearing her hair up in a messy bun, one of the strands falling forward. He itched to tuck it back behind her ear.

Shoving the thought away, he cleared his throat. She jumped and let out a startled squeak, then recognition set it and she grinned at him.

"Hi, Abhay. What did you do today?"

Piya wondered why her heartbeat had tip-tilted for a second. Abhay was her friend, nothing more.

He tilted his head, studying her. "Are you busy? I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Well, actually-" She put the pen down and looked at him. "Why don't you come in and see?"

He came forward, pulling a chair to sit in front of her. She handed the sheets of paper she'd been working on, to him. "Haseena said I could do this in my spare time. I had a lot of it today."

He frowned down at the first page. "Erm-"

"It's that book you gave me," she hurried to explain. "Chemistry, see? So I was reading it, and I thought- a lot of our elements are like yours. So I made a table to see if they were the same ones. And I was right, look!"

He looked down. She pointed to the bottom right corner of the page. "Look."

He stared down at it, then looked back up. "You think Esplit and Potassium are the same things?"

She nodded. "I mean, I might be wrong. I could have made a mistake between Sodium and Potassium, they seem quite similar, do they not? So I thought, well..." She trailed off, trying not to appear as though she was boasting. She wanted him to be impressed, but she didn't want him to think she liked to blow her own drum. Wait...was the idiom correct?

Abhay stared down at it, his blue eyes widening- and then he feverishly began flipping the pages, glancing through her work.

"You worked through all this today?" He asked, sounding more disbeliving than impressed, much to her chagrin. She folded her arms. "I told you I did. Why would I lie?"

He gaped at her. "My god. Do you even realise what you've- You've gone through the whole freaking periodic table in one day!"

She blinked. "Is that bad?"

Abhay blinked, too, and then he shook his head and grinned. "No, Piya. It's just...I never realised you were that clever."

She frowned. "I wasn't being clever. I already knew most of those things. Except the last few ones. Humans are actually...ahead of us that way. My god, if I could get to use this-"

She trailed off, aware that Abhay was staring. "What?"

He shook his head, a strange smile on his lips, as he leaned forward and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'll talk to Chand to get you more books on Chemistry. You'll probably be good enough to teach people in two weeks. I had no idea you were this good, Piya."

Something warm unfurled in her heart, uncoiling and untwisting till her chest felt tight and her throat choke. She'd hadn't felt this...undilutedly happy in...ages.

"Thank you," she said haltingly. "You think I could be...good?"

"You're already brilliant," he said, his smile lopsided. "All we have to do is give you more material."

"Thanks."

Heat flooded her face, and Piya ducked her head down and took back the sheets of paper from him.

He made no comment, and they sat in silence while she did her best to continue cataloguing the actinides, fiercely aware of his stare on her, yet not having the courage to lift her head and ask him why.

"You nervous about the party?" He asked after a while.

Piya paused as she considered the properties of Mestikons against those of Fermium. Not much was given about Fermium for her to be sure.

"I don't know," she confessed. "Sometimes I feel nervous, and at other times... I feel excited to be meeting so many humans. I hope I don't goof up badly."

"You won't," he said, touching her knee in what was clearly a comforting gesture, yet which simply unbalanced her nerves. She frowned. "I wish I had more time. It isn't fair."

"Don't worry so much," he said soothingly. "Think about your elements. I should go now."

She nodded. "Of course. Thank you for coming here."

He nodded, and left her room.

Abhay went directly to Chand and Haseena's room, scratching lightly on the door. "Come in."

He pushed open the door and entered. Chand and Haseena were sitting in facing armchairs, looking up at him. "There's been a development...Dad," he added, the word alien on his tongue. "About Piya."

Chand and Haseena exchanged a quick glance before Chand spoke. "What is it?"

He hesitated, then said, "She is inordinately brilliant at Chemistry."

"She has always been bright," Haseena assented. "No," said Abhay. "You don't understand. She's gone through all the properties of all the elements already. She knows them all."

Chand's brows furrowed. "Is it so?"

"It is," he insisted. "You can go see her work if you want. She needs more books on the subject."

Chand raised an eyebrow. "More books? She needs to learn how to conduct herself around people- the party, for example-"

"No," said Abhay. "What she needs is to have some happiness and freedom. Look- this isn't her world. She's not even complaining- much. So why should she be denied what pleases her?"

Chand smirked. "It appears to me that you should look for a course in law, Abhay."

Abhay rolled his eyes. "Fine. Don't give her anything. See if I care."

"You do," said Haseena, smiling slightly. "And as certain as I am sitting here, you'll probably be going out right now to get her the books you think she needs."

Abhay said nothing.

"In fact," Haseena continued, "Maybe you should. It is your observation, after all. Your suggestion. Besides, you do know how to use your credit cards, don't you? Chand?"

"He does," Chand affirmed.

Abhay frowned. "Fine."

He swept out of the room, annoyed.

Once he was gone, Chand turned to his mate. "You are devious, my dear."

Haseena smirked, staring into the depths of the blood swirling in the goblet she held in one slender hand.

"I did learn from the best, did I not, tsera?"

*********************

An hour later, Abhay returned to the house,carrying several books in the shoulder-slung bag that he was supposed to be using for when he started college.

He went to Piya's room to give her the books.

The room was in darkness, but moonlight was streaking through the window, so he could clearly see Piya lying on top of the sheets in the tank top and shorts she'd been wearing when he left her. Her hair was open, splayed over her pillow, her legs crossed in the shape of the number 4.

He gently set the books on the table and went to her side, staring at her almost motionless figure, except for the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed easily.

She wasn't having a nightmare right now, but he couldn't count on her not having one later. She had them every night, and it bothered him.

Thankfully she remembered nothing of it in the morning.

He slid to his knees beside her bed, so that his face was at level with hers, and waited.

It hit her approximately two hours later, and he knew at once when her breathing increased and she began thrashing about.

Almost without conscious thinking- almost by habit, he slid his arm under her back, avoiding her skin- and pulled her to him, murmuring nonsense as she sniffled.

Her hand reached out blindly and he took it, letting her grip it tightly.

"Don't leave," she whimpered. "Please don't leave me."

Every time she said it, his gut twisted. She thought she was talking to her lover- Vikrant. It wasn't her fault. It shouldn't bother him to be a substitute- yet, it did.

He was supposed to be her friend, damn it. He wasn't supposed to notice how soft she felt. He wasn't supposed to care if she longed for someone else's hand.

Gradually her sobs subsided and her breathing eased. Abhay arranged her back on the bed- the past days had taught him that she would have a more or less peaceful sleep till morning- and retired to his own room.

As he undressed, a humourless smile curved his mouth. In his earliest days, he had longed to be back in the human world ; in the later years, he had longed for one conversation with the Princess. And now he had both. Only, he was no longer a human in a human's world, and the Princess- Piya- was almost farther out of his reach than ever before. Because he'd never thought, never actually believed, not even when she'd been betrothed, that had they been equals, that he wouldn't have had a fair chance. But now they were equals, and now he knew... He never would have a fair chance.

How was he supposed to compete with the man he'd seen in her memories?

*********************

Abhay, Chand and Haseena were waiting in the living room, hours before the party. Waiting for Piya to show up. She'd locked herself in the room three hours previously so she could dress.

All three of them looked up at the approaching footsteps.

Haseena gasped in horror and Chand blinked in shock. Abhay almost let out a laugh and managed to cover it up by coughing violently.

Piya was wearing yellow. From head to toe and in between.

The long gown she was wearing was of a bright canary yellow colour. On its own, it probably would have looked nice.

If Piya had not accessorized it with a bright yellow hat with a yellow feather. And yellow bracelets on her wrists. And a canary yellow handbag which gave off an overall, quite blinding effect. And she was wearing slippers- predictably yellow. She looked blinding.

Haseena found her voice. "Piya! What on earth is this nonsense! Go and change at once!"

Piya raised an innocent eyebrow. "But I only matched everything. Do I not look good?"

Haseena gaped. "Piyashree! What has come over you? You know what you have done! Go change and for god's sake don't you wear a single yellow thing!"

Looking contrite, Piya scurried back to her room. "Er- perhaps you may have been too harsh, Haseena," said Chand. "She is new to human fashions-"

Haseena sent him a quelling look. "You know she is not. She is purposely being difficult."

Abhay got up from his seat and hurried to his room, picking up his mobile phone and returning to the drawing room. He'd found out how to work the camera a few days ago, but hadn't found a reason to use it. Now...he just knew he would.

Piya came down forty five minutes, this time in a bright red frock, knee length red books, a ruby choker and her hair pushed back with a bright red hairband. She'd also applied liberal amounts of rouge to her cheeks and bright red lipstick.

She grinned from the top of the staircase, fully aware of exactly how horrifying she looked. There was a khi-chakkk sound and a bright flash. Abhay was holding his phone up at her.

For a second, she was puzzled, till she heard Haseena's warning voice. "Piyashree..."

She turned and went back up to her room, checking the clock. She still had two hours left.

Abhay hadn't enjoyed himself so much in years. Piya paraded in front of them in several blinding getups : bright pink and fluoroscent orange, then lime green and electric blue. She also wore a cropped top and a short skirt, at which it was Chand's turn to take umbrage. Abhay had to physically restrain Haseena twice.

And then the bell rang. Haseena cast a desperate look up the stairs, where Piya had just gone.

"Perhaps you should go and see," said Chand gruffly. "Make sure she dresses properly."

Abhay nodded. "Of course. Dad."

He left them to welcome the guests and went up.

Piya was finally wearing the outfit she'd picked out earlier : a strapless, knee length frock in a pure indigo colour.

The only problem was, that the zip at the back had got stuck halfway up. She let out a curse as she fought with it, fearful that she might break it and nervous that she might have to go down with half her back on display.

And then she saw his reflection in the mirror in front of her.

Abhay was standing right behind her, his lips pursed and his expression hard. Was he going to shout at her?

The thought made all the mischievous pleasure she had received that evening vaporise. No doubt, he'd think her a flighty, self absorbed, shallow person.

Fine. Let him.

She squared her shoulders and spoke to his reflection. "You just going to stand there, or are you going to do something?"

His gaze shot up to hers, his normally blue eyes the colour of coal. "What do you want me to do?" he asked very quietly.

What was wrong with him? She swallowed. "The dress. Can't you see the zip's stuck? Zip me up!"

His mouth curled as if she'd said something funny. "Yes. I can see that."

He moved closer, his hand resting on her skin for mere seconds, yet it burned her as though it were fire.

Vikrant, she thought. Think of Vikrant-

She closed her eyes tightly, and summoned Vikrant's face to her mind's eye. Yet within seconds, Vikrant's smiling face vanished, to be replaced by Abhay, staring at her with that unfathomable expression. She couldn't hold on to the image of Vikrant.

Abhay watched Piya's face through the mirror, as she scrunched her eyes shut, a pained expression on her features. Did she hate his touch that much?

That made him set his teeth. He resolved to finish the task at hand as quickly as possible.

The zip really was a mad thing, stopping every centimeter or so.

Even so, he persevered till he finished the job, his finger still holding the zip.

Her eyes flew open and they met his in the mirror, and then he saw it in her eyes. Something stark. Something...familiar. Before she closed them again.

He couldn't help himself. He leaned down and pressed his lips to the exposed back of her neck. She was wearing one of the expensive perfumes which the other vampires had no doubt bought her, and it was addicting as hell.

Piya's eyes flew open as she felt something warm...and moist...touch the back of her neck. In the mirror, Abhay's head was bowed...at an angle.

Her heart stopped.

Three seconds later the light pressure on her neck was gone, and Abhay stood behind her, his face a mask of stark lines.

"Your childish antics have made you late," he said, his voice cold. "Get dressed. I'll see you downstairs."

And then he was gone.

Piya sank down into the chair. Numbly, she did her hair up in the way she'd done ages ago. She glanced at herself in the mirror. Yes, she looked a lot like herself in her twenties.

But Abhay had kissed her. She knew it. She'd felt it. He'd kissed her. On the back of her neck. And then he'd gone all cold.

Why had he done it? They were friends. He didn't see her that way. He couldn't. He'd seen her kill someone.

But he had. Why? Damned if she knew.

She gave her reflection a final once over, slipped her feet into the black heels, and pasting a friendly smile on her face, exited her room.

She started down the stairs, dimly noticing the many faces that began to turn to her. She was simply going through Haseena's instructions, "Remember to smile...do not look too arrogant...but do not look servile...make eye contact..."

Eye contact. Right.

Her gaze scanned the crowd, resting on Abhay, standing in the very middle of the hall. Her breath caught and Haseena's mumured instructions began to echo in her memory again.

He had dressed. Abhay was wearing a white shirt and black trousers. He was holding a glass goblet. Several women stood near him- the people he had no doubt been talking to before she'd arrived. But now, he was simply looking at her, his gaze steady.

And somehow, that gave her courage.

When she reached the bottom, Chand was there, taking her arm and steering her off to meet everyone in the room.

"Haseena's niece," he explained every time. "She's practically a daughter to us, especially after poor Ragini died..."

Everyone clucked and made sympathetic noise, then decided that she looked very decidedly pretty, and which side of the family did she favour? Whereupon Chand said, very proudly, "Her mother's, of course. Is it not obvious?" He asked, with a glance to Haseena.

All in all, Piya thought, it wasn't so very different from a normal...gathering...in her younger days. The faces and the names began to get mixed up after a while, but a few remained : Misha Dobriyal, who was, quite interestingly, wearing men-clothes, and a very charming, and quite real grin on meeting her. She also drank the alcohol freely, a thing Piya felt most curious about. Did not overimbibition dull the senses?

Another was Tanushree-please-call-me-T-Ambolkar : Piya couldn't understand why someone should shorten one's name quite so much. Although, she finally realised what a disaster using her full name would have been. And also because she was wearing very...feminine dresses that showed her rather nice figure to full advantage, yet she and the men's clothes-wearing Misha seemed to be quite fast friends. T seemed indifferent to drinks.

Then there was Mr.Tripathi, a portly man with bushy moustaches who, to her great horror, actually caught her cheeks and pulled them, grinning all the while : it took her several seconds to remember than it was a gesture of affection made to children. That made it imperative that she smile back, and so she did. If there was anything Piya took pride in, it was her ability to smile at a moment's notice. Smile properly, and not one that looked obviously fake.

Mr.Tripathi took her to meet his daughter, Neha, who was generously endowed, in all aspects, and seemed to take pride in highlighting it. She actually seemed to take pride in everything : her school marks, her academic performances, her many exceptional talents ("Did you know I almost won a reality show?") as well as the amount of boys currently sniffing around her skirts.("Honestly, you'd think there are no other girls *sniff*)

For her part, Piya had seen shorter dresses than her own among the humans, yet nothing seemed to emphasize short like Neha. While she went on and on, Piya amused herself by wondering exactly when the top bit of her dress would explode. It didn't seem very...comfortable. Piya would never wear something like that, she decided. No dresses which were in danger of exploding if she breathed too hard. Or which gave an observer an eyeful if one happened to bend down. Which, if one happened to be Neha, seemed to occur a great deal.

Suddenly realisation struck her. No wonder boys went sniffing around her skirts. She almost giggled.

"Why are you smiling?" said Neha suddenly, and Piya blinked. Oh, curse it. She must have smiled involuntarily.

"Oh, I... I was just remembering someone from my hometown," she said. "She was a lot like you."

It wasn't a lie. She had known a lady called Dhriti who had been the very same. In ballrooms, Piya had avoided her like the plague.

"Oh, of course." Neha looked mollified. "What was your hometown, again?"

"I...er..."

"Dubai," came a smooth voice from behind her, and unmitigated relief washed over her as she registered Abhay. "My cousin spent her childhood, and a major part of her teens, in Dubai. It was only three years before that she visited us for the first time. Of course, none of us thought..."

As Piya watched, Neha's face looked slightly panicked. "Oh...I...er..of course. It's a very sad situation...er...is dinner served?"

She hurried off.

Abhay threw her a disgusted glance. "Brainless idiot. How did you stand her for so long?"

She looked up at him, the question about the kiss on the tip of her tongue, but furiously quelled it and smiled instead.

"I did not have any way out. Why did she leave just now?"

"Can't stand talking about anything she doesn't know," he said dismissively. "Makes her look dumb, when she tries to look anything but."

And this time, when Piya giggled in response, she didn't have to fake it.

Sobering, she looked up at him, wondering if she should ask him now...

"You've done better than I'd expected," he said encouragingly. "You did really well."

She swallowed the question and smiled. "I've done this before, you know."

Understanding flickered in his eyes, and he squeezed her elbow. "Chin up."

Then he was gone, weaving effortlessly through the crowd.

Piya watched him go. Now that she watched, she saw a difference in him. It was in the way he walked, the way he held himself. Not as a slave. Not anymore.

A pang pierced her. They'd done it to him, her people... Her betrothed, she finally acknowledged. Kabir had never shown any kindness to the Mutants. And she had turned a blind eye to it, flattered by his attentions. They had taken the spark out of him, out of people like him. So many others...who should have been here instead of her, who should be laughing and talking like the other humans in this room.

She accepted a glass of a green liquid from a waiter, drinking it in one go to slake the tightness in her throat. Once the party was over, she could go back to her room and have her blood.

She smiled at a random young man who approached her, smiling as he complimented her "angelic beauty" that was surely "otherworldly", among other things. She stifled a grin as she considered telling him exactly how otherworldly she was.

Men were the same, whether in her world or this : they'd showered her with all manner of compliments before the war had happened. She'd heard them all, and now, she knew not to set much store by it. She remembered exactly how many of those men turned away from her later on, when her curse became known, when she decided to join the Hospice.

People were fickle, and well she knew it.

Still, it was pleasant to be complimented, and engaged in conversation, however insincere.

She bitterly envied Abhay, who would be going to college with these people. He'd make new friends among the people who were his kind. Maybe he'd fall in love or something with some pretty girl and live a fairytale.

The thought should have cheered her. That it didn't confused her. She was going to be his friend for real this time. She would not begrudge him happiness. He deserved it.

Eventually, the party broke up, and Piya finally relaxed her cheek muscles, which felt as though they were permanently locked in a grin.

Tired out, she bade Chand and Haseena- her aunt and uncle- good night, then trudged up to her room, kicking off the high heels as soon as she was in.

Exhausted, she changed into a nightgown and went to the washroom to wipe off the makeup from her face.

Abhay was in equal parts disappointed and relieved that she hadn't questioned his lapse of judgement earlier in her room. What had he been thinking?

The last thing he wanted was for her to slot him in as a substitute for the lover she had lost. A loss she was still coming to terms over. What had made him do it?

And why hadn't she asked him about it? Probably embarassed, he reflected. No doubt, she wanted to remain friendly with him- and stuff like this would simply complicate everything.

A huge part of him was grateful. He didn't want to give her explanations. He didn't want to tell her the truth. And he didn't want to tell her lies.

It was best if she never pressed him for an explanation.

He'd thought that party would have been boring, but it wasn't. His social skills were no doubt rusty, but he'd managed to have amicable conversations with Misha Dobriyal and Sumit Kapoor, who seemed more willing to talk to him than most others.

Some of the people had irritated him- like Neha. Like several boys who'd been talking of Piya.

It had taken all his self control to turn resolutely away and move to the other guests.

In his room, he changed into a shirt and slacks, then opened the bathroom door. Only to see that Piya was busily washing her face.

Her hair was down, and she was wearing a long nightgown that billowed around her like a cloak. It was a matronly white colour, with little purple flowers, and still Abhay had to repeat the word "friends" in his head several time.

Piya wiped her face and turned. "Oh. Hi."

"Hi," he said, errant thoughts back in control. "Ridding yourself of the greasepaint?"

"Oh, yeah," she said, smiling. "Well- I'll be going then. Good night."

She didn't leave however, clearly waiting for him to say something.

"Yeah," he echoed. "I'm starting college tomorrow?"

Her eyes widened in obvious shock, and then she smiled. "That's great. Okay, good night."

She turned and left the bathroom, shutting the door with a decisive snick.

In her room, Piya sank down on the bed, refusing to give in to misery or envy.

If only...if only she could be good enough to be able to go to college, too. With him.

PS. Yeah. This has been really, really late. Apologies. Forgive me and do comment.