Pasty this is dedicated to you. I don't even have a name for this, but your post on positivity inspired it:
Kelly
Hidden Warrior
Kanta stopped Mehek at the door, afraid for one minute to leave her alone in such a fragile state.
"Nahi beta, the sun is setting... you haven't slept since...please at least now come and rest."
Her eyes bearing the raw evidence of her sorrow, Mehek shook her head. "I just need a moment Chachi, some fresh air. I will just take a walk in the hotel's garden. I promise, I will go to bed as soon as I return...please Chachi?"
How could she deny her, Kanta thought as she watched her heart-broken niece head for the hotel lift. She heard the elevator sound and then the soft whirring when the door opened on their floor. Hastily she crossed the corridor and knocked on the hotel room adjacent to theirs.
The lush landscape: the pride of the resort was even more beautiful in the last rays before twilight. Traversing the garden's main path, Mehek couldn't help but smile a little when the fairy lights turned on, their activation coinciding with the failing light. It gave an even more ethereal air to the walkway that entwined through elaborately landscaped grounds. She walked on, finding peace in her surroundings, and it was then, in the still of the place that she heard it: the soft chanting that beckoned her to come closer. Stepping off the path she followed the sound through an area denser with foliage. It was as she suspected, but yet to comprehend, until another noise to her left stole her attention.
"Jaan..."
She had forced so many tears from her eyes in the last twenty-four hours, that she couldn't imagine that she would have any left, but just the low timbre of his voice, was enough to have liquid spilling once more from her dark orbs, but this time in relief. He was safe...and now he was here...and dammit he shouldn't be. She moved in his direction to tell him just this.
He met her halfway and took hold of her hand. "Is everyone settled now?" He asked gently as he reached up to caress the face of the woman who was his everything.
Silently she nodded. Her voice hitched when she spoke, "E...everything went as planned, all I needed to do was to produce the credit card that the room reservations had been made with. The staff: all of them have been very accommodating."
As they should be Shaurya thought, as he stared soulfully into his wife's eyes. He knew he didn't have much time, and would soon have to leave, in order to continue with the farce their lives had become, but not before he did one thing.
"Chalo, Mehek," he whispered leading to the spot where she was first drawn. Once there, he guided her take a seat on the ground, and then nodded the priest who waited.
"Shaurya..."
He looked at her sternly and shook his head. Word for word, he could probably recite her complaint: that this wasn't necessary, that the secret court-marriage he had insisted on as a precaution once he realized the full scope of the plots against him, would suffice, but he would have none of it. God would bless their union, and nothing: not the schemes of his enemies, who had dared to include his wife's family in their plots, would stop this from happening tonight. Besides, he thought, gazing lovingly at the woman who, with her unyielding faith in him, had become his source of strength, it was no less than she deserved. He knew the rightness of his decision, when he saw the adoration in her eyes just for him, when the pandit told them to stand for the pheras.
Although he had taken every care, Shaurya reached up and arranged her hair so that most of the sindoor was obscured. Likewise, he watched as she adjusted the cherished wedding chain so that it was hidden under her blouse. He had complete trust in her that she would do what needed to be done in the coming days in concealing both, until the time when he would return to her and claim her before all.
One embrace was all they were afforded, before Shaurya called out for his brother-in-law who Mehek, in her quest to come to him, hadn't even noticed following in her wake.
"Take care of her Mohit; until I return," he offered by way of greeting to the young man who stood in the shadow of one of the surrounding trees.
It took everything in him to let her go afterwards, however in order to souse out those who had dared to wrong him and bring about their end, he had to do just that. But without a doubt, he would return. Once the danger had been vanquished, he would definitely be back to claim his princess once and for all.