After The Rain

Chapter Seventeen - The Ocean's Songs

I want to plant a seed in your mind, some tiny particle of thought that bears a remnant of me. So little by little, day by day, you find yourself thinking of me, until one morning, you will wake up and realize you can't think of anything else.

- Lang Leav (Anything Else)

~

Arnav could not sleep that night. As if the Sangeet had not given him enough to think about, he just almost had a heart attack when he heard his sister scream and found, amidst the commotion in her room, that there had been a scorpion lurking around.

It had taken him and Akash almost an hour to find the thing, and then several more minutes to convince his sister to stay in his room for the night and to make her promise him that she will not be leaving his sight the following day, regardless of what rasam they had to do.

He had been just reached the door of his room when she said something that made his earlier anxiety at her security—and fury at the sight of Shyams simpering face as he reassured Arnav that he will take care of his sister— disappear, and put his mind back to the litany it had assumed since the evening.

"I'll call Khushi-ji myself. I'll inform her of the change in location."

The mention of her name had stirred something in him and as he crossed over to the guest room and put down his duvet and pillows, he found himself once again reminiscing the evening. When he laid down and closed his eyes, he instantly felt himself transported back to when he had seen her standing on that stage, forlorn and disappointed.

He did not understand the rush of emotion that he had experienced. Did not know why he had suddenly felt a protective possessiveness. All he had known was that she was sad, she was most probably close to tears and that he needed to go to her.

Did he regret it?

He opened his eyes, thinking. It had been like the last time he had given in to the call of instinct but unlike the night of Diwali, when the song ended and the applause brought him back to the reality of their situation, he hadnt felt a wave of bewilderment. On the contrary, he had never felt more at peace.

A grin broke on his face, and he almost sighed longingly.

He had been closer to her than the night of Diwali. Free to pull her closer, to feel the smoothness of her skin, to give in to a song that he had previously dismissed as being melodramatic, but which now seemed too perfect for them—at least for him and what he was feeling.

Almost dreamily, he brought his hands in front of his face. He could still feel her, and he wanted again to touch her, maybe this time for a while longer.

It was frightening, how good it felt to have her against him and how perfectly she seemed to have fitted in his arms. It was scary how easy he felt it would be to keep her there forever.

Damn it.

He sat upright in his bed and ran his hand through his hair, trying but failing to reign in his grin. At last, he gave in to a slight chuckle with a shake of his head.

What on earth had happened to him?

His behaviour couldnt have been more the opposite of his usual self. He knew his family were unlikely to recover from this 180 turn in his character any time soon. He still remembered their dazed faces as they slowly and carefully surrounded him after his performance, as if they were seeing him for the first time.

He had acted nonchalant about his aid to Khushi and had claimed that there were things more important than victory. He snorted again. Di and Nani had almost fainted at that and NK looked outright outraged. Arnav had, after all, instilled all kinds of fears in him since the day of his bet with Khushi, threatening him with all the awful things he could think of if he fails to win the competition.