ZaYa OS| You are my sweetest downfall

Her hands were cold. She was shivering too. The overhead light flickered a two or three times. The sterile smell one often associates with hospital clouded her senses. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, yet they did not.

She held it in for the hope of good news.

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Aaliya, he will be alright."

She nodded her head. He has to be. For her. For mami, for mamu..

Her whole body wrought with worry, a sense of foreboding entered her mind. She could not afford to lose him. Not now...not when she had finally learned to tolerate him, like him a bit too..

The door opened and they wheeled him out in a wheelchair. She gasped at that sight.

Mamu rushed forward to the doctor, with Mami and the whole family in a tow. But her eyes were trained on him. And the usual lively eyes were resigned now. There was a mask of indifference there. And the fact that there was no hope left in them pierced her heart a million times.

*****

"Zain, please take your meds.." Suraiyya pleaded to her son.

"Mann nai hai mom. Please go."

"But Zain.."

"Mom! Can you please leave?" He raised his voice a bit. He was tired and irritated with his life right now. And his mom sitting there irritated him just more.

Suraiyya hid her tears from her son. She did not want to see him cry.. did not want to mourn his death before the time was due..

"Aap jaiye mami, mein de deti hun.."

Zain rolled his eyes and huffed. He waited for his mom to leave and turned on his Mamu Ki Bhanji.

"My mother failed to give me medicines, what are you going to do? Force these down my throat?"

"If I have too, I will Kitkit. Now stop being selfish and take these medicines."

"I? I am being selfish? Are you serious right now? It is not you who has cancer, is it?"

"No. But you have. And I am the one who has to live while you rot away." She held back her tears.

"I am the one who will look at the side of the bed and think that oh, Zain used to sleep here. I am the one who gets to miss you in the morning when there is no one to fight with me on who gets to go first. I am the one who will miss making lunch for you. I am the one who will miss you terribly when seven strikes. I get to be the one who will be stuck here in this room where everything will remind me of you and you are saying that you get the worst end of it? If so, then I object!"

Her voice grew louder with each sentence until it cracked at the end.

"Wow, Mamu Ki Bhanji." Zain said after a minute or two of silence. "I am pretty sure only dogs were able to hear you at the last part."

She cracked a smile begrudgingly and held out the medicine. "Tou ab yeh le rahe ho ya aur bolu?"

He took the medicines quietly.

"Fayda kya?" He asked as she put the mandatory pillow between them. She raised her brows.

"Medicines ka.." he said clarifying. "What is its use when I am going to die anyway."

Aaliya kept mum as she switched off the lamp and snuggled in her comforter.

"Maybe because we will not feel guilty."

"Hmm?"

"We. The ones who are left behind.. not feel guilty. At least we can reassure ourselves that we did what we could. Everything that we could.."

"Ji Ammi, aap apna dhyan bhi rakhiye. Kal baat karte hai. Ayat ko bolna ki uska pura dhyan exams pe hone chahiye. Rakhti hun. Khuda Hafiz."

She walked into the room. "Zain?" she called out when he was not on his bed. "Kaha ho?"

"Wahroom mein MKB. Ata hun."

A few minutes later, she heard the voice of something breaking from the bathroom.

"Zain?! She rushed to the door and banged on it. Kya hua Zain?"

"Zain darwaza kholo Zain!"

The door clicked and she entered looking worried.

He was standing there in jeans that hung low on his hips, a towel hung around his arms.

"What's wrong?" She asked looking at the mirror that was now broken.

He clasped her hands and run them through his hair.

"Oh Zain." She said miserably when large tufts of his curly hair came out in her hands.

*****

He sat on the stool before the mirror and stared at his reflection. Aaliya stood at his back, sniping away his hair.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

The great Zain Usman Abdullah, the co-founder of a new age software company, riddled with cancer.

The thought clenched his heart and squeezed the hope out of him. It wasn't supposed to be this way. He thought miserably. Everything was going well.. his business was flourishing, his empire building rapidly, he had an amazing wife who was a great friend although he considered her his enemy before..He had just come to terms about the fact that he might even love her when he got to know about his looming death..

"Why don't you find me revolting Aaliya? I puke every time I eat, I bleed everywhere, now my hair is coming out. By this time, next week I will be bedridden and unable to go the washroom. I will be bald. Will you leave me then?" He said quietly.

"Zain.."

"One reason Aaliya.. one reason you are staying with me...One reason that is not sympathy.."

Tears fell down her eyes as she cut his hair. His eyes implored her to answer him.. begged her even.

But she couldn't.

Because she couldn't say that the reason was that she loved him.

Not because she was afraid of him not loving her.. rather because he will not be able to make the promise of forever and ever after that.

She wiped his head with a cloth. He was crying too.

"You have no reason Aaliya? To stay with me?"

Pain riddled her heart as she saw him in that state of grief. Self pity was a dangerous thing.

So risking her heart like every time she does when she was with him, this time with a guarantee that it was going to be ripped in a million pieces, she went up to him and kissed his mouth.

And kissed me 'til the mornin' light, the mornin' light

And he kissed me 'til the mornin' light

Thank you so much! I thought I had to wait AGES to read a comment since the forum was so deserted😆

But this just proved ki u people stalk the forums too😛

Thank you itna sara ^_^

Thank you😊

Thank you so much!😳😳

nd what do you mean by you sign? I am sorry, didnt get you😛

Oh. It was very emotional but awesome di.

I m speechless nd I can only say dat I can feel Aaliya's pain.