"When did you start loving me this much, Abhi? That you didn't even think twice before taking three bullets for me?"
Vaanya whispered to herself, covering her mouth to prevent the whimpering sounds from escaping her lips.
"Ma'am, you can meet sir, he's awake," a nurse tapped on Vaanya's shoulder. "Just don't make him talk too much because he's still weak and critical," she requested with a polite smile, and left after Vaanya thanked her.
The wife slowly pushed the door inwards, and with that little sensation of the gate opening made Abhir open his eyes.
Although it was hard for him to open his eyelids as sunlight was directly hitting his face from his right, but just a mere smell of Vaanya's natural fragrance caught him up.
"Vaanu?" He whispered in a hoarse voice, trying to open his eyes and getting up to see her face.
"Yeah, Abhi. It's me," she ran towards him as soon as she saw him trying to get up. "Don't move, just stay still, you're still in a critical condition and under observation for the next 36 hours, so don't speak,"
Vaanya glared at him as she gently sandwiched his fine hand, and lightly caressing his hair while looking at him with fearful eyes.
"If you'll cry, then I'll have to get up, wifey," he warned with brows quirked up in tension seeing those tears in her eyes.
"Fine fine, but promise me, you won't speak, neither will you move until the doctor say, okay?" She held up her pinky while wiping off her tears.
"Okay," Abhir chuckled, nodding at her as he entwined his pinky with hers, without breaking their eye contact.
And they just set in. In this moment. This pure, alone moment of theirs. It feels like ages since they've been together like this, alone with each other. After Vaanya's accident when she recovered from her injuries, they both started normally with their office, and then this Vivaan's case caught Abhir all day and night in work, which gave them no time to spend with each other at all.
"Abhi,"
Vaanya called, carefully caressing his cheek as Abhir lovingly gazed at her face. Her eyes almost sucked back tears when she recalled that he'll get up and torture himself if she cried right now, so controlling herself, Vaanya sniffed, and a tight smile pressed across her lips.
Sometimes caressing his hair, sometimes his cheek, she pulled a stool to sit beside him, and bend down close to his face, not breaking their eye contact for even a minimal second.
"Since I can't speak as per your orders, I can still listen, you know? So how about you complete confessing and apologizing or thanking me that you were doing when I was shot, hmm?"
Abhir's eyebrows danced as he suggested the idea to her, making her laugh at him.
"So you enjoyed that, huh?" She chuckled, looking at his relaxed expressions.
Abhir nodded fervently making her smile even brighter.
"Can you tilt my bed to forty five degrees from down there, I can't lay like this, my back hurts," he asked with painful expressions, and Vaanya quickly got up to search for the circular button and lift his bed up to forty five degrees, so now they could easily face other and talk.
Coming back to sit, Abhir took her hands in his, and smiled lightly, pulling her closer to himself.
"Abhi," but her smile was soon gone as she came closer to his face, giving him a long peck on his lips, helping herself to not cry while their lips were attached.
"What was the need to sacrifice yourself for me? Those bullets were for me, then why did you take them?" She uttered, attaching her forehead with his, eyes closed as she reminisced the moment when he was shot right in front of her.
Horrified by the glimpses of that scene, she jerked to open her eyes detaching their forehead as she got back to caressing his cheek.
"Did Revanth tell you this?" Abhir queried, suspecting the only person who Abhir saw screaming from the top floor, but he ignored him because saving Vaanya's life was his priority.
"That's not important, just answer me," she rebuked sternly glaring at him, making him raise hands in defeat.
"How could I have let you die in front me?" Abhir chuckled, trying to ease her emotions.
"And how the hell can you die in front of me?" But Vaanya reprimanded, lightly slapping his back hand to show her disapproval.
Abhir sighed looking at her face.
"Vaanu," he called, pressing her hands in his soothingly.
"This is what I've vowed to do for you all my life, on our wedding day, Vaanya," he looks in her eyes with determination but gentleness. His eyes curved a little from the corners as if smiling at her through his eyes, rather than his lips.
Vaanya couldn't be sadder listening to this line. She would have felt the luckiest if the situations were different, but seeing him on death bed, how could she be happy listening to this?
Not at all. Never at all.
"Do you even realise how I felt when you were shot? What if the reverse would have happened? Wouldn't you feel bad then?" she questioned, her eyes wandering to search an answer in his eyes, that he kept neutral while looking at her.
"Since I couldn't see you dying, I reversed the situatio-"
"Hahaha, just how funny and thrilling it is, right? Being a lover boy, and saving his wife like a typical south Indian hero by taking bullets for her. It's fun, right?" Vaanya chirped excitedly.
And the only fault that Abhir made was that he agreed with her, that made him earn a tight slap on his arm.
"You can't slap me-" he tried to fight.
"I can," but Vaanya interrupted with a glare. "If you talk rubbish, I can even kill you myself," she pointed a finger at him, growling and roaring at her husband who was still in a critical condition.
"And stop laughing like a dog, Abhi," her facial lines creased in annoyance when she saw him chuckling at her expressions.
"Dogs? Do they laugh?" He questioned innocently, expressions like that of a lost child.
"I don't know, but you are laughing like one, so don't,"
And when the wife threatened, husband had to shut up anyways, so he did, like an obedient partner. But his smile still never faded away, finally assured that he didn't die, and it wasn't his last time seeing her when he was parted away from her before being taken inside the OT.
"I'm sorry for our past, Abhi," she sadly announced, attaching her cheek with the back side of his hand, looking towards the door, avoiding his eye contact.
"I never wanted to be rude to you ever since the starting. It was just for a night when I thought I saw you misbehaving with Aira, but when I was proven guilty, I still never thanked you for anything, neither apologized. I know it's late to do so now, but I'm really sorry for everything about Aira that I did to you," she sniffed, slowly caressing his fingers those were entwined with hers.
"And I was always guilty towards you since the moment you came, and sat beside me for hours in my University after I came back from the crime scene of Aira's death point. I knew I did wrong by calling you a molester, and still being rough with you even after months passed by, and we met again in the restaurant for our first date for the marriage,"
She finally turns her face towards him, seeing him seriously listening to her that made her smile weakly.
"I kept rejecting you, kept trying to stay away from you, even brought Vivaan up saying he's my boyfriend when for real, I never ever saw him like that. He was just my best friend all that time, and nothing else, trust m-"
"When did I ever distrust you, Vaanya?" Abhir interrupted with a normal pitch, taking control and now caressing her hand instead.
"Why do you think I ever thought like that?" He questioned with a normal face.
"Do you think I don't even trust you this much? The bare minimum?" He added, slightly lifting his brows this time, but soon smiled to ease her down.
"Vaanu ji," Abhir smiled, looking at their hands. "Let me confess something to you, today," he gazed back up in her eyes, building curiosity and confusion both in her mind.
"When I first met you in that auditorium, and you spilled ink all over me, you already marked me as yours that day," he confessed.
And Vaanya's mouth fell agape. She couldn't believe what he said.
That day? He likes her since then?
"Honestly, I had never seen a girl like you in my entire life, and the moment I saw you taking such a strong stand for your friend, I was impressed that very moment," he uttered, proudly looking at her with a pleasing smile.
"You're right now thinking that you liked me first? Na-ah my girl, it was me,"
He chuckled. Laughing at himself internally at the thought of how love stricken he has always been for her, and never came to realise it until he almost thought that he broke her heart with Isha's and Samyukta's truth.
"And even I didn't realise it until that night when you heard me talking to Isha, about Samyukta. I really thought I ruined everything and lost you. I was so scared that night, that I had no clue what to do and how to make it up to you,"
He confessed, horror in his eyes, but overpowered by relief that she was understanding back then and gave him the fair chance to present her with the truth.
"And Vaanya, stop apologizing to me. You did nothing wrong by calling me a molester at all. In fact, I didn't even know you that time, yet I was so proud to see you being brave enough and stand against me to protect your friend. What you did in that moment is all justified after seeing what our country and men are like in this generation, Vaanya,"
He tightly pressed her hands in his, caressing her as well as providing her the strength that she needs as a woman in this moment.
"Whatever you did, whatever you blamed me for, I never really had a problem with it at all, because after seeing Kriti, and Aira both, when I saw you, and your bravery, I just wished both Kriti and Aira too were like you, Vaanu," he smiled, his eyes unable to express anymore how proud he was of her.
"You're an inspiration, my love. You inspire me. Then how can you be sorry for inspiring people, huh?" He hauled her towards his face, cupping her cheeks in his hands.
"And don't think I'm saying all this out of love. No. I'm being brutally honest about how I felt, and still feel so," he announced, determined. His eyes spilling the fire that his heart felt.
"So don't apologize to me, instead, apologize to yourself for blaming yourself about Aira all this time. She loved you, Vaanu. Like Vivaan told, she was also proud of you, she was also hoping the best for you, and she also always loved you, so please stop blaming yourself for everything. For me, for Aira. Because we both were never hurt by you at all,"
He squeezed her cheeks as adrenaline rushed through his veins. If he could, he would award her with the highest respected award in the universe right now.
"Aira, and I, we both are proud of you, Vaanu, so please stop blaming yourself," he says.
But his hand felt a teardrop that directly fell from her eye on his skin, weakening his spirit of talking to her because he cannot tolerate these years in her eyes.
"I'll still blame you for your this condition because those bullets were for m-"
And as he saw her almost breaking down, he didn't let her complete and tugged her face towards his, capturing her lips with his to make her stop talking rubbish that she was going to speak.
"You, and me, are now one, Vaanya," he speaks in between the kiss. Voice muffled, and breath hitched, but he didn't care.
"And taking a bullet for your safety is the least I can do, because I can't live without you, Vaanya," he confessed, breaking the kiss as he looked closely in her fearful eyes.
"My life without you is now just fictional, because without you, everything seems unreal now. You are my reality, Vaanya. And not having you, means I'm also not alive anymore-"
"Please don't say that," Vaanya attached her lips with his to apply the same tactics on him, and make him stop talking as well.
"Just don't ever say that, please. I beg you, Abhir. It's hard to hear you say that, and it's even harder to breathe now because I already saw you touching death and coming back to me, so now I can't bear to even hear such words for you, understand? Not even if they're said by you,"
She glared in his eyes, face only centimeters apart as he rebuked her husband.
And the poor man just obediently nodded at her.
"I can't imagine my life without you, Abhir," she cupped his face.
Write a comment ...