Stay With Me - Rikara OS (potential to be SS)

Stay With Me

*working title - not finalized, suggestions appreciated!*

"In the craziness of my own problems, I temporarily forgot your true nature I was witness to in Bareilly. Your true self may be hidden from everyone else, but not me."

"And what about your true self? When you need me, you make me stay back. When you don't, you ask me to leave you alone. Tell me, what am I still doing in this house if I have no relation to you? What is my purpose here? Why have you stopped me?

Gauri sighs, small tears escaping her eyes as she says, "You have no answer, right? That's fine. Your silence is my answer. I don't want to trouble your any longer. I will leave. And there is nothing you can do to stop me. I will concoct some lie so that the family lets me leave. I am so lucky to have met them but I will have to break their heart. I am too much of a burden to your happiness."

Omkara winces in pain when he hears that Gauri wants to leave. What is that hurt? Why does he feel this way to a woman he knows to have destroyed a family's happiness? Jhanvi Thakurain gave her life because of Gauri. Gauri happily paraded around that house, having the audacity to welcome him into her home'. Yet, he can not forget all the things she has done for him in this house - as his...wife. There was that word again.

For so long he carefully avoided it, avoided the feeling of it. But she never once hesitated in her wifely duties. She cares for his brothers, she cares for his bhabhi, she loves his mother - what has she not done? She takes care of small, miniscule things for him like biscuit wala chai.
This is what is so confusing. Who is Gauri Kumari Sharma? Which persona is he supposed to believe?

Gauri could see Omkara's eyes were clouded in confusion. Was he rethinking his opinion about her? Was he thinking about his behavior towards her? It didn't matter. For her, it was too late. Too long has she been the brunt of the emotional turmoil going on inside Omkaraji. Too long has she had to withstand his hot/cold behavior towards her - one moment hating her, the other moment calling her cute. One moment calling her his inspiration and the next second, turning his back to her as if she doesn't matter. Enough is enough. She is done playing the abla nari. So what if she isn't as well educated as these Oberois, that does not make her any less. She is done allowing herself to feel small and worthless. When a situation is harmful, it becomes time to leave. And that is exactly what she is going to do.

But where will she go? If she goes back to Bareilly, her mother will suspect all is not well and that may cause her health to decline. No, she could not risk her mother's life over her own troublesome marriage. She will have to go somewhere else - start over and make a name for herself. After all, if she could come to Mumbai alone for her so called husband, she could certainly go to another city, alone, for herself. She deserved that much.

Omkara spent the entire night in his art studio, lost in his conflicting thoughts about Gauri. The painting of her was still only half done, but this mind was certain. He would talk to her, calmly, without losing his temper. There were things he needed to clear, two Gauri's in his head needed to be consolidated. Is she who he met and hated in Bareilly or is she the lovable, cute antic filled woman who lives in his house today? He did not know. All he knew was the thought of not seeing her everyday - smiling with Shivaay, laughing with Rudra, chatting nonstop with Anika Bhabhi - that hurt him more than he had ever known to be hurt.

With this new resolve in his mind, Omkara went slowly to his, sorry their, room, expecting nothing to have changed. And yet the moment he pushed open the door, a cold restless feeling hit him. Something had changed. It was like his room wasn't welcoming anymore. He further explored his room and did not find anything immediately amiss. Sure her silver studded payal wasn't lounging on the table like he had seen it last, but that just meant she wore it today, right? His books were all in order, but there were none of the Speaking English for Beginners books intertwined in them. He remembered fondly when she had ask Shivaay for help improving her English so that she may blend in with his world more. "Is that just another facade? Surely not?", he thought to himself.

And then he spoke aloud to the empty room, in a tone that was a tad too hopeful, "Perhaps she had gone early for tuition with Shivaay? Yes, of course, that must be it. That is why I don't see her books anywhere."

Omkara continued towards the closet that they both shared. Well, shared was an understatement. Every time he went to grab one of his clothes, he was accosted by brightly colored ornaments that made all kinds of sounds. She truly wore the most colorfully resplendent things - as if she had taken his paint pallet and dumped it over herself, but in the most artistic way possible.

But now, as he opened his closet doors, only the dull colors of his kurtas and vests lifelessly hung before him. "Where did all the color go?

And at once, all the subtle clues washed over him like a damp, suffocating fog - "She's gone."