"You chose these ornaments for me, didn't you?" Krishnaa questioned as Arjuna picked up the pearl-studded golden kundalas from the dresser.
"The ornaments are your brothers' gift for you, Parshati," he responded, attaching the kundalas to her ears attentively. "It's your brothers' duty to give you ornaments. Why would you think I would be the one behind them?"
His teasing tone made her pout as she said, "My brothers' have gifted me with the jewelry but I know that only you could have had this extra care and overprotective shade even while selecting jewelry. Pearls? My brothers would have chosen the heaviest of jewels on the face of the Earth!"
"You are taunting me or taunting your brothers, Krishnaa?" Arjuna chuckled as he placed the golden maang tika with a single large pearl in the midst of it, on her hairline over the sindhura.
"That means you are agreeing that the jewelry is your selection, isn't it?" She raised her eyebrows at him through the mirror as he crowned her hair with her chudamani, ensuring that the two hair ornaments stayed at their respective places without getting entangled.
"Just like mine was your choice, Your Highness!" He shook his head fondly at her as he picked up the couple of pearl necklaces of different sizes and pinned them around her neck. Her nuptial chain was already adorning her neck so he adored her with only one long golden haaram apart from the light pearl necklaces. "That's why they make me look heavenly, am I right?"
She snapped her head up towards his face on the mirror at his words, her eyes dilating with bewilderment as the color of the sindhura splashed across her cheeks. "Self-admiring, are you?"
"I can read your gaze, Hridayeshvari, and your heart too!" He fixed the golden armlets on her arms and took the pearl-studded bangles next, sliding them through her hands. "Am I wrong?"
"You look heavenly all the time, Jishnu!" She stared at her own lap as she spoke, biting her lip in slight embarrassment as he slid the shining rings through her alta-painted fingers.
"You look more heavenly than the heaven itself, Padmakshi," he replied smiling as he put the waist chain with small pearls hanging from it around her waist, making sure that it was loose enough so that her womb would be free from pressure. As he was pinning the waistchain cautiously, he kneeled down to adjust the hook and Krishnaa could not stop marvelling at his unwavering commitment to the task he had undertaken as an expression of his love. His famed focus and appraised concentration in archery was shifted to her waist chain at that moment, and the realization of that fact increased the blush on her cheeks. Oh, how much more would she blush?
Once he was done with the waist chain, he rose up, drew the golden anklets into his palm next and moved towards her front so that he could adorn her feet with it. As he was about to take her red-painted foot into his hands, she took it back quickly, her eyes widening in sudden realization of what he was going to do, that he would touch her feet to adorn her with anklets.
"Krishnaa!' Arjuna exclaimed, frowning. "Let me complete the shringar with these anklets!"
"If you want to put anklets on my feet, you can do it without touching my feet!"
"What?" He was almost dumbfounded. "How... but why are you saying that?"
"Arjuna, I will not feel good about it..." She fidgeted with the end of her uttariya as he blinked incredulously.
"Krishnaa, this is not fair!" He huffed. "I have adorned you with all the jewelry and you are making my efforts fruitless at the end of it, saying that you will put the anklets yourself. Even if I put them on your feet without touching your feet, I will not feel good about it."
"What's there not to feel good about it?" Krishnaa was astounded with his logic.
"It will make me feel distant, Krishnaa," he revealed, making the most effective, pleading eyes. "Just imagine if I told you not to touch my feet anytime, how would you feel about it?"
"I... but I have the right to touch your feet!" Krishnaa uttered firmly.
"But your husband is deprived of that right, that fortune, that contentment. Does this sound acceptable to you?"
"Arjuna..." Krishnaa shook her head, sighing. "Try to understand what I'm intending to say. You shouldn't-"
"I know what you are thinking but that is not true. I will support all your thoughts but not this one. I want to touch your feet not out of any other emotion but love. Accept my love, please?" He took her hands into his own and squeezed them to ease her nervousness. "I won't do anything against your wish. But you have to understand that all of my actions are out of my deep love and affection for you. Do not think that it's insulting to me to do something with love. Parents too touch their newborn babies' feet. No sin touches any of them because it's about love, about pure love!"
Hearing his words, she couldn't stay stubborn about her stance anymore. She could feel his earnest wish to put the anklets with his own hands and none of his arguments were incorrect. She finally nodded her head in acceptance as his face lit up with joy. Without wasting a single moment, he drew her feet into his hands and put the anklets around her ankles. As he caressed her feet softly after putting the anklets, Krishnaa could intensely feel the love he was talking about. A full, radiant smile bloomed on her lips as he looked up into her eyes. Then he stood up on his feet and to her great consternation, he bent close towards her face.
His Indra-like magnificence had taken her breath away as he touched the kohl on the edge of her eye slowly and applied the dot of kohl behind her ear. They shifted their sights towards the mirror as they beheld their reflection beside the other's reflection, and the image was nothing short of perfection. For some time, Krishnaa and Arjuna couldn't believe that they were seeing themselves in the mirror. It was a celestial couple they perceived, and not perceived, but they experienced it.