As the euphonic melody of 'still with you acapella version' crept into Neel's ears, he woke up from his slumber and turned towards Abhro to behold his hermosa lover without snoozing the alarm.
"You're so beautiful." The words automatically slipped out of Neel's mouth.
The room buzzed with the heavenly harmonious voice of Jungkook until the alarm turned off on its own.
"Babe, wake up. It's 4:30 already. Don't you wanna go for a morning walk with me?" Neel said with a slumbery voice.
"Hmm. But I'm sleepy." Abhro said and pulled Neel closer, cuddling him and pulled the blanket over them a little more.
"Babe, I took permission from the warden with my blood, sweat and tears to see the sunrise. Now we can't be late. We have a lot of formality to do. Wake up quickly."
Abhro let out an "ugh" sound and woke up reluctantly. They were already in their sweatshirt and sweatpants, so they just put a jacket over them. They went downstairs in a couple of minutes and the formalities took another one and half minute.
Their fingers threaded into each other as they walked towards the hill where they went a few months ago on Abhro's birthday. It was still dark but now when there's a slight ray of the dawn enlightening the roof above them, they could see the hill had trees like the folklore album. Dark and eerie yet there's so much of peace and serenity. They were climbing to the peak to get the best view of the sunrise. Although if they would have had woke up at the same time and sat in their balcony, they could still see the sunrise, but until they had joined AIIMS Rishikesh, they never came to mountains. So they had a deep rooted wish to see how mesmerizing sunrises look from the peak.
Neel is a bit fast walker so, although he tried his best to slow down his pace to keep up with Abhro, it was Abhro who insisted him to walk at his own pace. He reached the peak a little earlier than Abhro. He extended his hand to help Abhro reach the peak because he got stuck between two logs. Neel sang with his dulcet deep voice, "Take my hands now, you're the cause of my euphoria." Abhro placed his hand on him and was pulled up to reach the peak.
" When I'm with you I'm in utopia." Abhro sang as soon as he beheld the surroundings.
The whole area was flooded with silence except for the chirping of the birds which was as sweet to the ears as the tranquility.
The light around them was increasing slightly. There was an aura of red, orange and yellow near the peaks of the distant snow-capped mountains and prussian blue hue in the upper regions of the palette of the nature. The already pulchritudinous gradient looked even more stunning when there was a radiant beam of light sparkling from those mountains. The snow-capped peaks dazzled as the sunshine shone upon them. As the sun was slowly rising above, the sky looked even more magnificent. Both of them were bewildered at this breathtaking beauty of nature.
The darkness of the black and white monochrome folklorian trees on the hill ebbed away when the red beam of sunshine fell upon them too. Soon after, the sunlight changed to the golden ball of light which they see the whole day but not as bright as that.
They stood still until Abhro uttered, "Love is neither black and white nor red, it's golden like daylight."
" It is." Neel said and turned to face towards Abhro. His hands moved up to his cheek to make Abhro's glittering dark brown eyes look into his. If anyone would have had seen them, they'd definitely say, "Oh, how insanely they're in love" because of how bewitched and captivated they were by each other that they forgot to blink. Neel walked two steps to stand closer to Abhro.
He tilted his head and went in for a kiss. The kiss was a slow and passionate one where both of them were enjoying each other without any rush or aggression. They were enjoying the taste of love. It seemed if they could have kissed forever, they'd have really done it forever. When Neel pulled out of the kiss, there was still a string of saliva tying their lips. Neel smiled against Abhro's lips while their foreheads were touched.
Neel crossed his forearms behind Abhro's nape and sang "And isn't it just so pretty to think, all along there was some invisible string tying you to me". There was a sonic pause when his hands crept under his sweatshirt grabbing Abhro's back muscles while Neel kissed his face almost like devouring it. He sucked his earlobes, going down his jawline, to the neck, to the lips to have a brief play with his tongue again, arbitrarily kissing his cheek between while kissing the whole countenance. The other hand seized Abhro's hair to have a better grip while kissing. And Abhro kept giving in for everything Neel did because he's a power bottom indeed.
Abhro crossed his forearms like Neel did a while ago behind his nape and started grinding their nipples and dicks against each other while they were bussing amorously.
"Our sons will be up with the sun if you continue doing that. Let's go back, dummy. " Neel said because he feared they'll have a boner after such an amorous moment.
Fast forward to the time between afternoon and twilight when they went to the library to borrow some reference books after their classes got over. It was the first time they were entering the library again after their first kiss. It was mostly Neel having the flashbacks because Abhro didn't know anything like that would happen in just a couple of minutes.
Neel wondered, "I'm so proud of myself that I gathered up the courage to kiss him that day or I'd have had fallen for him more and he wouldn't fall in love, again."
He walked along with Abhro and kept staring at him fondly.
"You won't take any book? You said you would." Abhro asked.
" Nah, I'm good. You're my favourite book anyways." Neel said and buried his face snuggling the crook of Abhro's neck while his arms embraced Abhro's waist.
Neel said in his mind, "You really had to give me a dejá vù, right? But you see, things have so changed so much over the past couple of months. You really are the epitome of 'he fell first but he fell harder'. You really fell so hard man. I hope you didn't get hurt by that. I love you so much, babe."
Abhro was, of course, enjoying Neel being a clingy dog but since they were in a public place and moreover, their college library, he unwrapped Neel's arms.
"Do you wanna go on a coffee date?" Abhro swiftly turned his gaze towards Neel while he was searching for his book.
"It's on me. Let's go. " Neel said and immediately put his finger on Abhro's lips to shh him because he knew he'd go like,
" WhEn I pRoPoSeD tHe dAtE iT's oN mEh". bruh.
When they came out, Neel was reminded of the lyrics of his favourite song," Gave me the blues and the purple-pink skies" because of how picturesque the sky looked when tinted in purple-pink hues. Also, it was under such a sky that he had his first kiss ... with his best friend turned childhood crush. No blue ever blued the way the few following days blued for him. It really was a deja vu day for Neel.
Nishant showed up out of the blue saying, "Can I tag along?" with the most adorably annoying face. It's like he's such a little piece of annoying imbecile bitch yet so adorable that you can't deny him anything. He's like that youngest brother in the family who annoys all his older brothers but is the apple of their eyes. But in reality, he's the oldest in his squad.
"Bitch, we're going on a date. I suppose you want to be a third wheel, don't you?" Abhro said bonking his head.
" Oh nah I'm good then. I thought you'd loiter around here. It's fine. You guys go ahead. All the best babes."
They bid adieu and embarked to go for the date. Abhro has already searched on Google maps "parks near me" and the nearest one was just 800m away from their hostel and there was a small cafe right beside it. He read in the comments that the park is huge and there's a lake at the end of the park. The next moment he knew this'd be the place where they'll have their first date.
"Bro, this is so fucking cute! Why did you not take me out on a park date earlier?" Neel said jumping and squeaking like a kindergarten kid as soon as they reached the park.
"Umm, take this as a return for your morning walk date perhaps" Abhro said shrugging his shoulders and then walking reversely while facing Neel.
Neel ran towards Abhro, clenched his hand, and ran at his top speed around the park dodging people like he dodges the homophobic people around him, till the air in his lungs gave up on him. They rested their hands on their knees and panted, struggling to breathe even more because of the high altitude.
Neel said even though he didn't get his normal breathing back "My... Lungs... my heart... Never got..." and continued after a gulp, " this much oxygen and happiness. Even though... We are.. struggling to breathe... I'll still love to run with you here... every evening for 10 minutes at least. I loved this."
" It's my honourable pleasure... That you loved this. Well, look there, he's selling cotton candy. Wanna have some? Remember, how obsessed we were with cotton candy in our childhood?"
" Of course I do. Every time we used to visit a fair, it was mandatory for us to buy it. Then we entered into a balloon obsession phase. I still am obsessed with balloons, not gonna lie." Neel said while paying the cotton candy seller.
" Seems like you're god's favourite today. They have balloons here, too. " Abhro said pointing to the balloon seller while they were returning from the cotton candy shop.
"And seems like someone planned all these for me?"
"Nopes not at all. It's a pure coincidence babe. I just knew it's nice and clean and aesthetic so I chose this place nothing else. "
Neel rushed to the balloon seller and stood there for a while being indecisive whether to buy one or not. That's when Abhro came to the rescue and said to the seller, " Give him five. " Neel gaped at him wondering how confident he was to buy not one,but freaking five balloons, being a 6ft tall, handsome man, wearing the lab coat with AIIMS monogram on it.
When they were walking towards the lake, Neel asked, "Bro, did you not think about people's judgment even for once?"
" Did you think about people's judgment when you were clinging to me in the library? Then why should I? I'm the proud bisexual dad of a proud gay kid anyways."
Neel chuckled and hopped like a rabbit with the balloons grabbed in his fist like a kid, indeed.
Even though the benches were empty, Neel chose to sit on his knees on the soft green grass. He rested his palms on the grass on either side of his knees and gawked at a beautiful little butterfly flirting on the grass blade tips. Abhro was seeing everything like a dad, indeed.
The sky was suddenly overcast with dark clouds which hung so low from the firmament that it seemed like it'll kiss the hill tops in no time. Soon after, drops of rain showered on them too. They quickly ran to the cafe nearby to not get drenched in the rain and ordered a frappuccino for both of them.
Since it became very windy, while running, Neel lost grip of the balloons and they flew away because of which he's become like a sad little kid who accidentally broke his favourite toy himself. He laid his head on the table and kept staring at the sky hoping to see his balloons coming back to him.
Abhro said while brushing his fingers on Neel's hair, "Baby, it's fine. I'll buy you another set tomorrow, a'ight? Please don't be sad now. I don't like seeing you like this. Look at me" and turned his face away from the window towards himself and continued, "I love you, hon. Please don't be sad. " He stretched Neel's lips to make him smile, and guess what, he succeeded.
The next quarter to an hour was spent mostly in admiring each other or reminiscing their childhood memories. The pitter patter of the rain on the glass window pane and the refraction of the glow of the fairy lights, hanging from the porch, on the trickling raindrops on the window added to the relaxing atmosphere.
Soon after, the gloomy clouds moved and revealed the beauty of the place in gloaming. The sun was painting the sky with its brush dipped in orange and red colours again. They cleared the payment at the cafe and came out to return back to their hostel.
They took another way back where they saw a long continuous row of wild Himalayan cherry tree full of buds of cherry blossoms. The pink colour was so eye-catching and spectacular. There was a puddle of rain beneath it. Neel, who was suddenly on a baby mode since the library date, hopped on to the pavement over the puddle while still holding Abhro's hands and again jumped down on to the road just where the puddle ended.