Meerasim : Dastaan - E - Ishq

Aise Na Mujhe Tum Dekho II

Iss junoon e ishq mein kurbaan bhi ho jaun toh koi gham nahi 

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Meerab was in for a surprise when she was given a daughter's welcome in this stranger's home. The house, though full of people, felt strangely cold. Like love had never touched the hearts of its occupants and misery was a constant companion. 

Upon freeing herself from the man who had brought her to this haveli, she had keep a safe distance from him, giving only monosyllabic answers lest she test his patience again. 

The plan was simple : 

Explore, finalize exit strategy and run far and fast. 

It all almost felt as in she was in a simulation. 

Murtasim Khan had other thoughts going through his mind. A singular thought - Meerab Waqas Ahmed running in such intensity that he couldn't think about anything else. Now that he had her, she was only leaving this place as his wife. 

To others, this might seem extreme, but for him it felt like any other task that needed to be accomplished. A box that he had to mentally tick off. A hope that he desperately clung to.

Only she could be his salvation. 

Seek, target and conquer. Simple!

He had been her protector since their childhood and he would be taking that position now as well. 

He thought back to the day she had come crying to him. 

A whole foot shorter and three years younger, she stood crying before him. The ice creams that he had brought for them lied on the parapet, the hot sun melting them away. 

"Kya hua Meerab? Kisi ne kuch kaha, kisi se ladayi hui hai?"

She shook her head no, unwillingly to tell him more. But how could he just stand there and witness her tears and let the person responsible go unpunished? 

With as much emotional maturity he could muster as a young boy on the cusp on becoming an angry teenager, he had managed to get the truth out of her. 

Malik Zubair.

He had bullied her. 

It had invoked plenty of emotions in him. He and Zubair had been good friends, studying in the same school and both from feudal families owning large tracts of land, they had quickly become friends. In the blistering sun, they had played cricket and stopped only when they couldn't play any more. They had snuck out to have glasses of thanda rooh afza. But all that seemed eons ago, before they had been made conscious of the rivalries their family shared. They both had taken the news badly but had sought comfort with other friends. Malik Zubair was egged on by his new friends to get into fights with Murtasim. Most of the times, Murtasim had stayed away, not wanting to feed into this unhealthy feud. 

With the coming of Meerab in his life and seeing how important she had become Zubair had targeted her to be the only one to get through to his former friend and nudge into a fight. Zubair's calculation of his reaction had been correct but he had grossly underestimated the importance of the young girl in his life. 

Zubair and Murtasim had gotten in a fight and the latter had beaten the former black and blue for he refused to apologize to Meerab. It didn't matter that he had gotten the scolding of his life from his mother when he went home. What mattered was that the leech wouldn't bother his best friend ever again.