ArHi FF! Gravity - Thread 1 - [Completed] - Page 93

Originally posted by: msin

So both the girls are adopted... Garima and pankaj have a large heart... Both these girls deserve love ..

I am asking you... It's good to have loved and lost rather than never to have loved..

Payal... She lost her partner at a young age... Why aren't her parents encouraging her to move on,.. Is it always necessary to marry somebody u love... What about arranged marriages ..aren't they happy..to marry somebody u like.. U may not love him with the same passion but at least move on...gradually with a family she would remember dev fondly..

Chapter 20: Blazing hearts and calming arms

"How are you doing?" Khushi jumped two inches from the bench she was seated on and let out a shriek. The plastic cup contain sugarcane juice escaped her hands and fell all over her dress. Book found a way to floor and she gaped at Arnav who was looking thoroughly amused.

"Were you planning on scaring me to death?" She clutched her hammering heart and shot a glare at his direction. Arnav chuckled at her reaction and handed her a handkerchief.

While she dabbed her dress trying to remove moisture, he removed his blazer, tie and rolled up his shirt to enjoy the mild evening breeze.

"Exodus, Leon Uris." He murmured picking up the book from ground. He flipped through pages and saw a memory tucked in between the pages. The words took him to a faraway land where there were no complications but only notoriety of being a teenager in prime. Khushi gently retrieved the book from his hands and he clumsily let it go. "You never gave this book back to me." He said not looking at her.

"It's mine," she said possessively, clutching the book tightly. "It has...too much of us in it, you know?" She said looking at the book on her lap. "I couldn't leave it behind either..." She trailed, adding the last bit softly hoping that Arnav hadn't heard it.

Arnav closed his eyes shut and swallowed the pain rising in his throat. He had no strength to fight the bombardment of memories when he was with her. He had no sanity left to build a fort to hide so that her presence wouldn't disintegrate his carefully built persona.

"I had a really, really bad day." He said forcibly changing subject. He felt a bit better when he saw Khushi placing the book on her other side and turned towards him. She knew that it was mostly a confession than a not-so-subtle 'back-off'.

"The merger you are working on isn't going so well, is it?" Khushi asked, resting her arms on backrest and leaning her head on it. He immediately relaxed looking at her attempt at detachment from their past and sticking to the current issues at hand.

"After one point, there are just one too many lawyers in room and it just looks like alpha males and their packs fighting for their turf." Arnav grumbled and grumbled some more. Khushi snickered.

"Are they fighting for the turf or your approval?" She joked lightly. Arnav rolled his eyes at that.

"I have been on these meetings since eight in morning and we continued the discussion through lunch and finally I just yelled at them and asked them to fix their presumptions, assumptions and expectations by tomorrow morning so that we can actually talk about real problem and not turf wars." Closing his eyes, he rubbed his temple vigorously hoping that building migraine would be abated by that action.

His eyes shot open when he felt cool fingers entwining with his as they applied pressure on his temples making him close his eyes back again and savour momentary relief. After several moments he opened his eyes and saw that Khushi was standing behind him and his head was rested on the rim of backrest and against her stomach.

His face was too close to her and she could see the soft brown specks in his eyes. She could almost smell coffee on his breath mingled with woodsy perfume. She smiled when he sighed in relief and slowly closed his eyes.

"I don't remember being you being scared that easily Khushi. You almost jumped when I spoke to you," Arnav said steering them again from a conversation he didn't want to have at the moment.

"It was...five years ago I think, when I was asked to go along with few people from different NGOs and visit a civil war affected town about four hundred miles from where I lived. It was only five day trip and we had to look at area, water sources, existing system - or whatever wasn't destroyed during war and collect related documents and drawing from the local district office and come back. These war inflicted places has this distinctive smell of death and misery and you fell that a shadow of the past lurks in corner waiting to bait you and consume you. What we didn't know that though war was long over, there were still renegade rebellions inducing panic and havoc every now and then," Khushi said. The children had all gone inside the hostel and the garden was completely empty.

"On the second day we were in government office or what used to be government office and looking at water piping layout of the town. There was a sound of shot being fired and windows breaking and the man standing next to me collapsed and in the process, took me to the ground as he fell. In two minutes every one in the room was dead except for me. I was paralyzed in shock for two hours and came out of it only when police came and started inspecting blood on my clothes. They asked me to leave the town immediately and arranged for a car. While I was waiting for the car in the lobby, the head of police came to me and asked me to take all necessary documents from the office so that their town can have drinking water facility as soon as possible." Khushi stopped talking and stilled. Arnav opened his eyes and saw her looking at the garden, her vision stuck in a different place and time - a different world of its own. He gently squeezed her palm. She snapped back to reality and looked at him. At that moment, she looked much older, more mature and...exhausted.

She resumed her work on temples and he went back to relaxing mode and closed his eyes. "The head of police helped me in getting documents, drawings into a discarded satchel and wished me luck. He said that he knew I wouldn't be coming back because no one ever did. It was too unsafe for anyone who wanted to help. I promised him that I would come back and handed him chocolates I had with me, to give it to his children."

"You went back, didn't you?" He asked not opening his eyes. He knew her very well that she wouldn't stop pursuing something which took home in her head. He wondered if something similar had happened which made her leave him.

"I did go back and I worked with local authorities. By the end of two years, we had managed to achieve modicum of our goal. At least people didn't have to walk miles to get and store water every day. They would get water for couple of hours daily which was a start." Khushi stopped and looked at Arnav and saw that his worry lines were all relaxed. She swallowed the truth that was trying to burst out of her to end her misery but they had a deal and she would always respect that. "After that incident however, I get startled very easily and panic comes naturally next." He felt her shrug.

"You had a tough life back there," he said. He had felt her gold band on his forehead when she was pressing it to relieve the stress. Every time the cool metal band touched his skin, flames licked his inners and felt that he would explode consuming her entirely.

He had seen it on her on the first day he met her and the day they had had lunch. He hadn't anticipated on this but he had an innate urging to ask. Before his mind could fully process the primal part of him, he blurted out the question.

"Why are you wearing the gold ring?" He asked. He turned to look at her and found that she was hiding away from the world, her long hairs curtaining around her face making it impossible for him to find out what she was feeling. She didn't answer immediately. She twisted the gold ring between her index and thumb - a nervous habit he guessed.

"I haven't been always wearing this, at least not for the first two years. I had to leave because I didn't know the entire truth and there was a fear that was galloping towards me with high speed and I felt claustrophobic in my environment. I removed the ring once I landed. One day I was on my way back from a refugee camp where we were setting up temporary water storage facility and on road I saw a family getting water from a well about three hundred meters away. Even the children had worn out plastic containers on their head. The youngest child tripped and fell which triggered the domino effect and the entire family were on their knees and the water they had collected spilled. Not all of it, but definitely more than half. The man and the woman went and checked if their child, their daughter, was alright. They didn't care that they had to walk back and fetch the water again but they were more concerned for their daughter. The boy, probably her brother, took out a piece of stale bread from his pocket and handed it to the girl. The girl wiped her tears and nose and took it gleefully. I stopped the car and handed over all the necessity things I had which I believed they needed and just drove back without a backward glance. I came home that day, wore that ring on my finger where it always belonged and when I turned around I could see my own family sitting in living room and watching television. You were sitting on sofa, our daughter was sitting on your lap, our son by your feet and the three of you were laughing at something. Our son runs to me and drags me to sofa. You smile at me and pull me by my waist. I relax my tired body and your arms around me provide the salve the emotional scars need." There was heaviness in Khushi's voice but it had the strength of the girl she once was.

"I knew it was my delusion and my longing for familiarity was playing tricks on my mind but I didn't care."

"Why?" He whispered, clasping her elbow and turned her around. He was shaken by the depth of sadness in her eyes and the lines that marred her face. He wanted to know the reasons for leaving him but more than that he wanted to know why she hung on to him like she did.

"My delusion was so tantalizing that I succumbed to it whenever I saw something so emotional that I couldn't handle dealing with it all by myself. Reality in those moments was too complex and too inhumane to deal with and I could get an emotional release by spending time with my imaginary family." She looked into his eyes and held his gaze. "I would go insane otherwise." She whispered.

Arnav put an arm around her and pulled her to him. In that moment he wasn't comforting the girl who dumped him at the very last moment. He was merely lending his shoulder to a severely emotionally scarred girl who needed him as much as he needed her.

"Do you know why I still wear this gold ring?" He offered as she sobbed on his shoulder. He felt her shake her head.

"I couldn't take it off as it was physically and emotionally impossible to do so." He said simply.

There were no melodramatic encounters or emotional triggers driving his decision. He did it because he didn't find the need to do otherwise.

It was just as simple as that.

Next Chapter: Chapter 21 - Old friend and dark truth

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting! Woo hoo!

"Do you know why I still wear this gold ring?" He offered as she sobbed on his shoulder. He felt her shake her head.

"I couldn't take it off as it was physically and emotionally impossible to do so." He said simply.

There were no melodramatic encounters or emotional triggers driving his decision. He did it because he didn't find the need to do otherwise.

It was just as simple as that.