Betrayal and tears(Season 1) | ✔

Chapter Three

Khushi helped Arnav settle on their bed and once sure he was comfortable, covered his lower body with a duvet. The smile which bloomed on her face since Arnav was brought home after another day of hospitalization, was still very much intact, causing the said Arnav to simply stare at her, mesmerized by the effortless curve of her lips.

"What are you looking at?" She asked as she sat herself besides him, finally catching his unwavering gaze on her.

He shrugged with a faint smile. "Nothing."

He reached to tuck her fringes behind her ears, then cupping her face, he gently pulled her against his chest. 

Khushi smiled at his gesture and held him tighter, closing her eyes in pure relief and bliss. She sent a silent prayer to her Devi Maiya, thanking the latter for blessing her with this moment, for keeping her Arnavji safe, for failing the attempted..

She paused her thought right there, feeling it stabbing her heart with a knife called fear and unbeknownst to her, tears started flowing out of her closed eyes, the moisture of which soaked through Arnav's navy blue t-shirt, making him aware of her emotional state.

He sighed, falling into a smile as he continued to stroke her hair. 

"It's not necessary to cry over everything, you know?" He joked, earning a broken chuckle from her. She angled her head to look up at him without loosening her hold around his waist.

"It is now. I'm just so happy to see you safe." She said, trying but failing to brace her voice from breaking. A glistening drop of salty liquid escaped her doe shaped eye and trickled down her bright red cheek, making his heart constrict painfully.

At that moment, she was like an open book to his scrutiny, every line of which was screaming only thing - her love for him, her sincere gratitude for having him in her life. And he hated that for a second. He hated to see her surrendering herself to someone who didn't deserve her, he hated to see her ready to give him her heart, the same heart that was bruised by none other than his cruel actions multiple times in the past. He hated, to see her trusting him yet another time, when all he has been doing since the day they met, is doubting her every single approach.

But as she closed her eyes and leaned on him, the warmth that spread through him dissolved the hate into rapture, and he wrapped his arms around her, wanting to prove himself worthy of her given chance, at least this time.

"I'm sorry." 

He whispered abruptly, for once, without caring about how he sounded or whether his tone displayed his vulnerability or not.

"I'm so sorry." He choked again, this time as she lifted her face to reveal her knitted brows, pulled together to form an adorable confusion on her angelic face.

Her confusion grew into panic when his eyes welled up and she tried to sit upright, only to have his hold tightened around her back, plastering her front to hard rock chest. She gasped, feeling the contact between them causing friction in her senses and stared at him, with her unsure eyes.

She wasn't used to this, neither to this closeness for more than a minute nor to his emotional form, and so, consequently, she did not know how to react.

"Khushi, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have accused you. Please, forgive me?" He asked the next second, whilst cupping the sides of her face, and she only felt her lack of awareness about reactions increase.

Another thing she wasn't familiar with was his apologies. He sure did say sorry to her in the past, but it was always either a fleeting whisper or a teasing move of his lips and never a full fledged apology, like the one he was ready to offer her now. Even the following few days, after his lash out and before his accident, he mostly used the help of actions to woo her back, and not words.