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Chapter 43:
Naina had been in a state of excitement for the past few weeks, ever since she had heard the news.
Finally, after six long months, Raj had been given leave.
She was disappointed that Alekh and Yudi wouldn't be coming along with him, but at least this way she didn't have to decide who she would be spending her time with. He would be arriving on Friday evening to spend the weekend before flying back on Monday morning. Naina was disappointed that it was for such a short time, but she knew he couldn't afford to be away from his soldiers for long. And Raj had promised that next time he would get leave after another three months rather than six.
Meanwhile, Naina had been driving Pooja and Neelu absolutely crazy with her behaviour. She was constantly fixing up things around the house, moving them to different places and cleaning things that weren't even dirty. A day before he was due to arrive, Pooja sighed in frustration as Naina adjusted a vase on the table for the hundredth time that week.
"Naina, just give it a rest!" Pooja had to stop herself from yelling at her friend, "I know you're excited about your Veer coming, but really and truly, there's no need to trouble that vase so much before he does!"
Casting one last anxious look at the vase, Naina left it alone and came to sit on the couch beside Pooja and Neelu.
"I'm sorry guys," she told them, "I know I've been a pain to live with for the last week, but I just want everything to be perfect when he arrives."
"Naina, trust me," Neelu said to her in a reassuring tone, "The moment he arrives he'll be so busy looking at you that he won't have time to notice our house at all."
Naina blushed at this, her heartbeats quickened just thinking about him, a strange warmth spread through her body when she imagined seeing him again, her whole skin tingled at the thought of his touch. She was so on edge that she could barely sit still. Whenever she tried to sit down she would get up again, needing to find something else to do to keep herself busy. She wondered if Raj was this affected as well, whether he was just as eager to see her, just as distracted from his work.
She didn't know how right she was, and that hundreds of miles away in Ladakh, Raj lay sleepless in his bed, unable to get her thoughts out of his head.
**
Class ended at 3pm and Naina had been planning to rush home to start cooking for that evening, since Raj was expected to arrive at about 5pm. He was going to have dinner with all of them, since Neelu and Pooja wanted to see him as well. Naina knew that they would have the rest of the weekend to themselves, so she didn't mind sharing him with her friends for one evening.
All day long she had barely managed to concentrate on her studies, the only reason she didn't give up was because she knew Raj would've been disappointed with her if she did. As soon as the bell struck three and the class was dismissed, Naina rushed outside, barely waiting for Pooja she was so excited. It was only when she had run down the steps of her college to the pavement outside that she skidded to a stop, her heart hammering against her chest, barely able to believe the sight in front of her.
There, looking as handsome as ever, and wearing his dress uniform, stood Raj, leaning against the hood of a jeep. Naina's breath caught in her throat, she lost all power of speech and stood frozen as she stared at him, so solid and real in front of her. She had waited for this moment for six months now, had imagined it, prayed for it, but nothing could have really prepared her for the sudden rush of happiness when she finally saw him face to face.
It was then that Raj looked up from examining his watch, and the smile that spread over his face was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud.
Unable to control herself any longer, Naina ran towards him, throwing her arms around him with such force that Raj was forced to step back slightly, in order to brace himself. Grabbing Naina around the waist while her arms were around his neck, he picked her up and swung her around in the air, crushing her tightly to himself. Naina didn't care about the fact that they were on a public footpath and that half of her fellow students and some of the teachers as well had stopped to watch what was going on. All she cared about was that Raj was in front of her, real and not a dream. She wanted to kiss him right then, and would've too if some of the naughtier girls in her class hadn't broken into cries of 'oooooohhhhh', always ready to tease somebody.
Naina blushed as Raj put her down, running his hand through his hair in quite an embarrassed way.
"Oy, missed calls, put yourselves on silent mode!" Pooja lectured them angrily, "My Zaara hasn't seen her Veer for six months, let them have their personal talk time!"
Shrugging, the girls from the class quickly moved off, having learnt quite early on that it wasn't a good idea to mess with Pooja.
Although he had now put her down, Raj kept a tight grip on Naina's hand, almost as if to reassure himself that she really was there.
"You're early," she told him, "We thought you would arrive at five."
"I managed to get an earlier flight," Raj replied, "I thought I would surprise you by turning up to meet you."
All Naina can do is gaze at him, drinking him up with her eyes. She is broken out of her daze by Pooja's small cough in the background.
"Naina, I think I'm going to go to the library to do some extra study." She told her, "Why don't you take Rajveer Sir home now and I'll be there around five?"
Naina looked at her friend gratefully, knowing that Pooja was just trying to give them some time alone together.
"Are you sure?" Raj asked her, looking a little uncomfortable and embarrassed. As much as he wanted the time alone with Naina, he felt bad about turning Pooja out of her own home.
"Yes I am," Pooja said, trying to hide a smile, "I need as much study time as I can get, these books are so difficult." Without waiting for a reply, she turned and headed back to the library.
Reluctantly letting go of Naina's hand, Raj motioned for her to get into the jeep. Both of them had so many things to say to each other that they had no idea at all where to begin. The silence was a comfortable one, but there was a type of tension in the air, both of them aware of the fact that they were about to be alone together for the first time in months.
Naina gave Raj directions to reach their apartment, which thankfully wasn't too far away from the college, since the amount of time he spent looking at her rather than at the road was sure to cause an accident.
As soon as Naina opened the door and let him inside, she began explaining nervously that she hoped he liked the place and that she hadn't been able to clean it properly yet since she had thought that he was coming at five.
But Neelu had been right, Raj wasn't interested in looking at the apartment, the only thing he seemed to be interested in looking at was Naina. Naina found herself blushing under the intensity of his gaze, the longing and the desire in it.
As Raj took both of her hands in his, slowly turning them over, running his thumbs over her palms in small patterns, Naina shivered.
"I missed you." Naina whispered to him, barely trusting herself to speak. It was all the invitation Raj needed to finally lean down and kiss her. He kissed her as if he had been starving for her for months, waiting for this one moment when they could be together again. As Raj kissed her, he tangled his hands in her hair, bringing her face even closer to his than Naina would have thought possible. Stepping back slightly he leaned his forehead against hers, his arms on her shoulders.
"I missed you too." Raj whispered, causing Naina to giggle slightly.
"I can see that." She told him, and he smiled at her in a way that would've melted her heart if it hadn't been done so long ago.
Raj leaned forward to kiss her again, only to have Naina hold up a hand to stop him.
"What?" he asked her confused, "Too fast?"
"No, not at all." Naina told him reassuringly, "But… the door."
Raj looked across to where she was gesturing to see that in his haste to kiss her, he hadn't even let her close the door on the way in. Laughing, with one hand he reached out to close it, turning the lock as he did so.
"Better?" he asked her.
"Much better." Naina told him, "You know, the neighbours…"
"Yes, we don't want Mr and Mrs Sahni getting calls about what their tenant is doing in their apartment." Raj joked.
"And what am I doing in their apartment?" Naina asked him somewhat flirtatiously, "I don't think that we've done anything yet that the neighbours could complain about."
"Well we can change that very easily." Raj informed her, and reaching down, he scooped her up into his arms, and carrying her down the hall, headed for the rooms there. Stopping in front of one door, he looked at Naina questioningly.
"No, that's Neelu's room." She told him, "Mine is the one on the right."
Swinging her around, he opened the door to the room with one hand, before shutting it with one foot while they were inside. Raj placed Naina on the bed gently and then sat down beside her, examining the room for the first time. There was very little furniture besides a bed, dresser and wardrobe. The most prominent thing in the room were the photos that Naina had everywhere. Some of her and her batchmates and friends, some of her and Raj, and some of Raj by himself. Raj smiled, thinking of his own room in Ladakh and the number of photos that he had displayed there.
Naina was now sitting cross legged on the bed beside him, and he reached out to touch her cheek as she leaned into his touch.
"I really, really, really missed you." He tells her, unable to express properly exactly how much he had longed for her while they'd been apart. "All of the letters and phone calls still couldn't make up for your absence."
"I know," Naina told him, taking his other hand in hers. "I crave just to hear your voice on the phone. When you send me a new picture then I'll spend hours looking at it."
"I know it's hard," he told her, now using his hand to draw patterns on one of her crossed legs, "But it's not forever, when you graduate we'll get married, and be able to be posted together."
Naina nodded, not trusting herself to look at him, she focused on the hand that was on her leg instead. Finally able to find her voice, she whispered the thought that had been in her head for the last six months.
"Do we really have to wait until I finish my studies to get married?" she asked him, still not looking up.
If she had had the courage to look at him then she would've seen the look of pleasant surprise on Raj's face, and the smile that was slowly spreading across it.
"I mean, if we got married now, then you would be eligible for leave more often," Naina explained, "We wouldn't have to wait to see each other for so long, and…" she stopped, unable to finish the sentence as a blush came to her face.
"Naina, look at me" Raj told her, tilting her chin up with one hand, meeting Naina's eyes, he told her very sweetly, "Naina if that's what you really want, then we'll get married tomorrow. I just thought that since your parents…"
"I don't know if they're ever going to agree." Naina told him sadly, "I don't want to waste my whole life waiting for their consent. I want you."
The look on Raj's face changed, his desire for her very easily seen. "Naina," he said her name softly, moving closer to her on the bed. "I have all these good intentions and then whenever I see you, they just melt away."
Naina took a very deep breath before saying her next sentence. "When did I ever tell you that you needed to have good intentions?" she asked him.
Raj's eyebrows raised at this, at the unspoken permission in her sentence. He moved even closer so that the distance between them was now merely centimeters, his leg brushing hers.
"Naina, don't do this to me," he whispered, "You know it's not the right time."
"Then when will it be the right time?" she asked him, "I'm not saying that we should… but there's nothing to stop us, and…"
She's unable to complete her sentence because Raj leans forward over the short distance between them, pressing his lips to her hungrily. The force of his kiss almost takes Naina's breath away, as his hands roam up her back, pressing her to him even more tightly.
Suddenly he broke away from her, breathing hard and barely able to speak. Loosening the cravat around his neck, he pulled it off before turning back to Naina.
"Naina, you had better be sure about this, or else stop me now." He told her, with a hint of desperation in his voice, "Because I'm not sure if I'll be able to stop myself later."
"You don't have to be so good all the time." Naina tells him. "Sometimes you should think about what you want too."
"I want you." He tells her quite simply, "And only you, but Naina…"
He can't finish his sentence because placing her hands around his neck, Naina brings his face forward again to meet hers, kissing him with such sweetness that he thinks he could quite gladly die here and now, without any regrets.
Lowering himself down so that he was now lying beside her, Raj ran his hand down Naina's side and onto her leg, gripping it through the thin cloth of her salwar as he kissed her neck. Reaching up, Naina began to undo the buttons on his shirt, fumbling slightly due to her rush and nervousness. Trying to help her, Raj's hand just gets in the way and they both start laughing nervously. Finally his shirt is undone, and Raj shrugs it off in haste throwing it somewhere behind him without bothering to check where it lands. He kisses Naina again, almost losing all remaining control as she bites his bottom lip lightly. She tugs his singlet out from where it's tucked in his pants, trying to get it off him and failing until Raj raises his arms to help her. The singlet joins the shirt somewhere on the bedroom floor.
Naina runs her hands over his bare chest and back for the first time, loving the feel of his hard muscles underneath her hands. Raj leans into her touch, while he kisses her jaw, her neck, her shoulder, pushing the material of her top lower so that he can reach more of her skin.
"Don't you dare rip my kameez." Naina warns him jokingly, "If you try to push it any lower then it's definitely going to break.
"Then help me get it off you." He tells her, completely serious, "Or I'm not going to be responsible for what happens to it."
Raising her back off the bed slightly so that he can slide her top up, Naina shivers as Raj leans down to kiss the soft skin on her waist that is now exposed. He's just about to take the top off her completely when the sound of the front door opening disturbs them both.
"Hey Naina, I hope I'm not too late to help you with the cooking!" Neelu calls out as she enters the house, both Naina and Raj freeze where they are, staring at each other with horrified expressions. They know it's only a matter of time before she comes looking for Naina in her room, and when she opens the door…
Which she does right then. "You know, it was such a busy day at college today, but I was thinking that…"
She stops as she suddenly notices the scene in front of her, Raj half naked and practically on top of Naina, Naina's flushed face and clothes all askew. It's perfectly obvious what she's just walked in on.
"Oh shit." She says, "I'm so sorry, I should've knocked, I just thought that he wasn't coming until five, and now…" she tries for a more normal tone of voice, almost as embarrassed as the both of them are. "So uh, how are you Sir?"
"Neelu you were never my cadet, you don't need to call me Sir." Raj tells her, sitting up straight and disentangling himself from Naina. He looked around the room, trying to work out where his clothes had gone. Finally spotting his singlet he grabbed it and put it on as quickly as possible.
"I'll just uh, go." Neelu tells them, turning around quickly, "I just remembered that there's something really important I have to do at college, and…"
"You don't need to go, Neelu." Raj told her, "We'll just uh, tidy up a little bit and then…"
"Right," Neelu replied, still looking very embarrassed to have disturbed them. "I'll just, go and begin preparing dinner." And then she practically ran from the room.
Naina looked at Raj with an expression that was half apology and half regret.
Raj sighed, "It's a sign, I know it." He told her, "It's telling me that I shouldn't be trying to do anything with you until after marriage."
"No," Naina told him, "It's just bad luck, we should've realized that Neelu would be coming home from college."
"In that case, then next time I'll be taking you to my apartment instead." Raj told her, his voice full of promise.
Naina quickly adjusted her clothing and ran her hands through her hair to straighten it, then glancing back at Raj who was still buttoning up his shirt, she left the room to find Neelu sitting on the couch, looking extremely uncomfortable.
"I'm so sorry, Naina." Neelu told her, sounding as if she truly meant it. "If I had known then I would never have…."
"It's okay, Neelu." Naina reassured her, "It was our fault for not realizing that you might be coming home." Picking up her phone from the bag she had dropped on the sofa earlier, Naina sent a message to Pooja telling her that she could come home now. When Pooja walked in the door fifteen minutes later it was to find Naina and Neelu both in the kitchen working on dinner, and Raj in the loungeroom, reading a magazine while still looking quite embarrassed.
Walking into the kitchen, she looked Neelu up and down, then pulled her aside, taking her into her bedroom. "Oy, unwanted caller." She told her, "Didn't you get my message not to come home?"
"I left my phone at home by accident today." Neelu replied sheepishly, "I swear of all the days…"
"You didn't disturb them did you?" Pooja asked, and at the guilty expression on Neelu's face she exclaimed, "You did, didn't you? I can't believe this!"
"Trust me, I would've preferred not to." Neelu assured her, "It was incredibly embarrassing, and I don't think I'm going to be able to look Rajveer in the eyes ever again." ; ;
"I can't believe you!" Pooja said, still very annoyed, "How would you like it if somebody disturbed your talktime with Alekh?"
"Well at least we've had some talktime, whereas these poor things…" Neelu shook her head, "I really do feel bad about it. Do you think we should leave them alone?"
"No, that would probably just make them more embarrassed." Pooja replied, "We'll just have to act normal and then give them some time alone together tomorrow."
"Don't worry, Pooja, I promise that when Ali comes to visit I'll make sure that I don't come home for the whole day." Neelu said sincerely.
Pooja giggled at that, "Ali is such a good boy, I don't think he's got any type of intentions like that before marriage. You probably wouldn't be disturbing us at all."
Neelu suddenly got a mischievous look on her face, "Well that may be true, but when Alekh comes to visit, I'm warning you now…"
"Bas, bas! I don't want to know!" Pooja said, putting her hands over her ears, "What you and Alekh do together is your own business, I'll be staying well away from the house!"
Laughing, the two girls left the room to rejoin Naina in the kitchen, finding that Raj had moved from the couch and was now perched on a bench, watching her cook.
"I wanted to help," he explained, "But she won't let me." Neither Pooja nor Neelu could miss the looks of adoration and affection that Raj was sending in Naina's direction. Evidently Naina had noticed it too, by the way she had started blushing again.
From then on it was more relaxed as Raj seemed determined to put the earlier embarrassment behind them, and enjoy his time here in Delhi. They joked and chatted while the cooking was done, Raj happily telling them about how well both Alekh and Yudi were doing and how they would both be coming for a visit in three weeks time.
While Alekh would be going straight there, Yudi would be stopping off in Ambala first to visit their parents, and, although nobody said it, everybody guessed, to visit Shalini.
They ate their dinner while still chatting about all of their friends, and what had been going on since they had last seen each other. Raj was able to tell them a lot more about the situation at the border than he could've in calls or letters. Luckily it was quiet at the moment, with no trouble expected in the near future, but they still needed to be alert.
It was quite late by the time they finished dinner, and after much insistence, Raj was allowed to help them wash up. It was then with some reluctance that Raj announced he should head back to his own apartment and that he would see them in the morning.
"You don't have to go, you know." Naina told him hopefully, "You've got your bag in the car, you could always stay the night here."
"Yes Sir, you could sleep on the couch!" Pooja told him helpfully, knowing how important it was to Naina to spend as much time with him as possible.
"You could even sleep in the bedroom, we wouldn't mind." Neelu announced, before suddenly realizing exactly how embarrassing that statement was when Pooja kicked her in the leg.
"Thanks guys, but I had better go." Raj told them, with one last look of regret at Naina, "I don't want to start your neighbours talking."
"There's no problem with the neighbours, Sir!" Pooja told him, "I doubt they even noticed that you arrived, and if they ask then we'll tell them you're my older brother."
Raj allowed himself to be convinced to stay the night, but insisted that he would be sleeping on the couch. Bringing him a pillow and a blanket, Naina waited until the other girls had gone to their rooms before kissing him goodnight sweetly and heading to her own room. Shifting on the couch until he was comfortable, Raj was very aware of the fact that Naina was only one room away, but he realized that now was definitely not the time. Tired from the journey, he went to sleep quickly, not even noticing when Naina crept out of her room quietly to sit on the floor looking at him.
The moment that Pooja got up in the morning and came out to the lounge room she had to stifle a laugh, then she knocked quietly on Neelu's door to tell her to come out and see. There, Raj and Naina lay together asleep on the couch, one of his arms draped over her, his head buried in her neck.
Quietly the two girls left the lounge room, heading back to their own rooms.
This time they would make sure that Naina and Raj weren't disturbed at all.
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