Mazhai.

Mazhai... (Rain)

She simply shakes her head from side to side, and hears her jimikkis tinkle in her ears. Too loud. So she takes them off one by one, laying out her dupatta in her lap and placing it in them. Her chain next. Then her numerous bangles. Her hands go to wipe away her bindi when he makes a sound in the back of his throat and she remembers his existence.

He still doesn't know where he should take her. She pulls up the GPS on her phone, entering an address close enough to her Uncle's house, yet far enough that he wouldn't actually figure out where she was staying, before handing the phone over to him, looking at his face to see if it would be an issue.

He just nods, placing the phone in a dock above the music system, and starting to drive.

She bundles her shawl up as thunder booms around them, and she shivers, the noise too much at the moment. He opens his mouth, then closes, and it reminds her of the goldfish her father had wanted for their aquarium years ago, before he had realised they truly were notoriously hard to take care of. L

It starts to pitter patter pitter against the doors and windows, and he hurries to raise the lowered windows, watches her shiver again, before reaching for the backseat with the hand not on the steering wheel.

It brings his face closer to hers and she is lost in the scent of sandalwood and something inexplicably male that she's never quite understood. And then the scent is stronger and there is a wonderful warmth over her lap and her hands and she looks down and it's a hoodie that looks nearly black in the dark but she's sure isn't.

"Oh."

He doesn't respond.

She keeps breathing.

And then she pulls it over her shoulders clumsily, her limbs knocking against seats and doors and the dashboard, before settling for looking out the window to distract herself from that damning scent.

A couple minutes later, she checks her phone, and they're barely five minutes away from where she's asked to be dropped, so she reaches out and takes her phone out of the dock. He turns quickly to the side, and she mumbles something about having to make a call before pulling her cousin's contact up.

"Hello? Shiv?"

"No! Just.... I'm sending you an address, pick me up from there? Please?"

"Yes, I'm okay. Relatively."

"Ayyo, not now Shiv! I'll explain later!"

And she catches his hands tightening on the steering wheel, his forearms flexing, and she notices just then that the sleeves of the white shirt he's wearing are folded up to his elbows neatly. Just the way she likes.

Stop!, she whisper yells in the sanctity of her own mind. But then he clears his throat and her eyes shift quickly to his face, his eyes peeking at her out of the corners, and he asks "Thamizha?", and Gods. Fuck. No. So deep.

Her mental stop!!!!! is a scream this time, and she nods with an unsteady hm-mmm just as he pulls the car over to the curb and idles.

She looks out, recognising the local deli her cousin loves and had taught her to love as well, and picks her phone up, considering if she should call Shiv or just wait when she notices a slender figure walking towards the car.