✔️Tale as Old as Time (Kunwar Pratap/Ajabde [Praja])

16//~next in line~

anyone can love a rose,
but it takes a lot to love a leaf.
it's ordinary to love the beautiful,
but it's beautiful to love the ordinary.

"Saubhagyavati!" I said startling her. "Kiske vicharo me dubi hui ho?" I teased her.

"Lagaan ki haldi lag gayi hain, ab to chaho to bhi nahi mil sakti unko," Heer teased laughing.

"Aap dono ruko!" she ran after Heer and me but Heer went to go hide behind Hansabaiji so she got to me and smeared her hand on my face.

"Yeh kya kiya!?" I asked her as she laughed. I tried to wipe it off but only succeeded in spreading it in further and getting it onto my hands as well.

"Lo chad gaya lagaan," Hansabai said. "Aisa manajata hain ki hone wali bindini ki haldi kisi kunwari kanya ko lage to uspe lagan chad jata hain,"

"Hum nahi mante," I said trying with all my might to not think about Kunwar Pratap. I wasn't ever supposed to get married because I wasn't supposed to fall in love. That was rule number one of training and it was against the plan.

"Stick to the plan!" My father had engrained it into me.

"Aapke maan ne na maane se kya hota hain? Agli doli to ab Ajabde ki hi oothe gi," Heer said pulling me out of the thoughts.

Everyone laughed. I blushed and ran out of the room to go wash it off my face. As I pretended I hated the thought of marriage personally and not because I had been brainwashed to, my mind kept wandering back to Kunwar Pratap. I didn't notice as I bumped right into him.

I looked at him equally irritated at getting the haldi on his face as well and we both burst out laughing.

"Aap bhi!" we both exclaimed.

"Dhule ki haldi lag gayi, ab to lagaan chad gaya samjho" I teased him. I instantly forgot about all of my past problems. The pink of his cheeks could be seen through his dark brown skin as he blushed.

"Aur aapka bhi. Dhulan ki haldi to aapko bhi chadi hain," he teased back. It was now my turn to blush furiously. We both saw ourselves out the other way to wash our faces.

:~:~:~:

"Yeh kya peele phool lagaye hain? Pure mahal me gande ke lage hue hain to either kyun yeh wale lagay hain?" I asked a dasi.

"Kshama kijiye baisa, who phool wale ko vapis bulva ke badalva deti hoon,"

"Rehne do, barat nikalege ab thodi der mein. Tab pohchega phool wala," I said moving a nearby ladder and grabbing the mala off the plate.

"Baisa, aap yeh kya kar rahi hain. Mein kar deti hoon," she said.

"Aap jaiye aur barat ke swagat ki tayari kijiye," I said. She hesitated and then left. I was used to this, I hung up the garland from one side and then tried stepping down from the ladder to hang it from the other side when my lehenga caught onto my leg and I slipped.

"Ahh!" I said closing my eyes in preparation for the 6-foot drop but it never came. I fell right into someone's arms. I looked up to see Kunwar Pratap looking at me in the eyes. And that's when the garland fell on top of us.

I was torn into two pieces. My mind and my heart both had their own opinions. Somewhere deep inside me, I thought I could be happy with him and still continue with the plan but no 'stick to the plan!' and the plan was to stay out of things like love and friendship. I was breaking so many rules when I had been told not to.

I didn't know how to feel at the moment so I left it on Kunwar Pratap. I searched his eyes for an answer but got lost into them. There was so much depth in them.