Comment. Vote. Tell me what you think. Ok bye.
Teri dhadkanon se hai zindagi meri
Khwaahishein teri ab duaayein meri
My life is from your heartbeats,
your wishes are my prayers now..
Anaaya x Hassan.
She opened the door to the bedroom, eyes glancing over to see Hassan standing in front of a mirror.
She could hear him mumbling something over and over again, but she couldn't really understand what was being said.
She moved closer, taking light steps so she could hear him first instead of disturbing him.
Her brows furrowed as she stood a few steps closer from the dressing table.
"Look at me, I believe in you. You can do this."
A giggle escaped her mouth as she heard him chant the words over and over again.
"Are you really, talking to yourself? In the mirror?" She questioned him playfully, finding this new side of Hassan slightly amusing.
She laughed one more time and he turned to scowl at her.
"Stop laughing at me." He stated seriously and she she realised how nervous he really was.
It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, ofcourse it was a different thing, since she had never really seen him out of his wits like that, so nervous and trying to sound confident in front of a mirror as a newbie.
It meant that he truly cared, that he really cared about this.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." She apologised, smiling at him.
Hassan blew out breath from his mouth.
"Are they all here?" He enquired. She nodded.
"Yeah."
"I used to scare the shit out of them, I don't understand why I'm scared now."
He admitted.
Anaaya remembered how she had gone to Hassan's firm one day, to drop some files. He had been in a meeting, without a care in the world, Hassan had told her to come inside.
He had conversated with her for over ten minutes, not caring about the fact that his people were waiting. He was in charge, and the ones in charge with him were qualified enough but not as smart as him.
Hassan wasn't just confident in his demeanour, he just didn't know the law, he preached it. He loved it.
He wasn't just in it because it paid the bills, because corporate lawyers had if the best or because corporate lawyers earned way more than the others, law was his life.
She understood his nervousness then. He had worked five years in this firm to reach a certain point, if he got voted out of it, he would have to put in five more years in another firm to reach a certain point.
"Well, you don't need to be. You speak the same way as before and your mind is functioning the same way. There is no need to be scared." She tried to comfort him.
It was true. He was weaker, yes. His body hurt, yes. His head hurt, yes. But his mind was functioning normally and his words were as witty as before.
Yes, the accident had changed his personality and it had altered a lot of other things but it hadn't altered his mind when it came to law.
She just hoped that the others would feel the same way.
"But I still walk like a cripple." He protested.
She gasped. How could he think like that? Cripples couldn't walk.
"A cripple can't walk. Be a little grateful, Hassan." She remarked.
Hassan looked away.
Tumhain kese yakeen dilaun ke aaj bhi tum se Behtar koi nahi hai? Tum qabil ho, tum bilkul wese hi ho jese pehle thay, bus thora ghabraye hue ho, thora sa darr hai tumharay dil main aur hona bhi chahiye, ye sab asaan nahi hai, ye sab asaan nahi tha.
How do I make you understand that no one is better than you, not even today. You're smart. You're the same as before, just a little nervous, a little scared. You have fear in your heart and rightly so, I know this isn't easy.
Mujhe nahi pata ke tum ne ye teen mahine kis tarah guzaare aur main jitna chahun, kabhi bhi wo Dard mehsoos nahi kar paungi Jo tum ne bardasht kiya.
I don't know how you spent these three months on that hospital bed, and no matter how much I want to understand or feel it, I can't ever feel the pain that you have felt, that you have endured.
Mujhe nahi pata ke Jab tumhara accident hua, us waqt tumhari kya haalat thi. Tum kis takleef main thay.
I don't know how much pain you were initially in when you had that accident, how you really were.
Us takleef pay mera koi zor nahi tha, us takleef ko main nahi rok saki magar is zehni takleef se tumhain nikalna bauhat zaroori hai.
And I had no control over that pain, I couldn't stop that, I couldn't help you. But this pain? This state of mental pain? It's very important to get you out it.
Anaaya left her thoughts in her mind, not bothering to say them out loud and instead cupped his face, both her hands going around to hold his face. His beard tickled her hands and she stared at him.
"Okay, hey, look at me."
"Look at me, I believe in you. You can do this." She stared into his brown eyes, repeating the same words that he had been repeating in front of the mirror.
The difference between both the times was this that Hassan didn't have the unflinching amount of belief that Anaaya had in him right now.
He was trying to grasp onto everything that he had lost in three months and it was hard for him, to believe in himself again, to believe it would be okay.
But she believed in him. Her heart did, even when her mind opposed it.
"Come on now," She whispered, Hassan didn't lean onto her for support, instead he held her hand and she held him by his waist.
He took a deep breath and entered the living room.
Liam was the first one to notice him as Anaaya quickly made him sit on the sofa, Hassan leaned back, in comfort.
"Ah, there he is. My man! How are you doing buddy? I visited you at the hospital but they didn't really let me in."
Liam seemed like a good friend of Hassan's, since her husband smiled at him and returned the handshake in a jovial mood.
"I'm better now, Liam. How are you?"
"I do miss my partner but other than that, perfect."
Hassan's eyes moved to the woman, she had her face focused on Hassan, as if she was observing him.
"Jessica." Hassan greeted first, eyes showing a different kind of confidence, one that Anaaya hadn't really seen in the past few days.
"Hassan." She greeted him back.
"I'm glad you're better." She continued.
"Thank you."
The awkward silence didn't remain there for long as Liam once again directed his conversation at Hassan.
"So where are your kids man? I don't see them running around or something.."
"They're asleep."
The kids had gone to the park with Maggie and the driver while Anaaya stayed back home, when they arrived home again, she could sense their tiredness so she had given them an early dinner and tucked her children into the bed.
Only Aira was awake and Maggie, she was upstairs, taking care of the baby girl.
"Oh well, and Anaaya, you're more beautiful than I remembered." Liam gushed again.
Anaaya smiled at the compliment. Donna jumped into the conversation too, her own mood showing genuine sincerity instead of some sort of mission that Jessica seemed to be on.
"Don't get fooled by her beauty, I read one of your pieces the other day and damn, you really busted that mysoginist Hollywood guy."
She raised her eyes at Donna's compliment. She hadn't received a work related feedback in so long that she couldn't help but respond as eagerly.
"Trust me, he deserved it. Us women fight so hard to get the same amount of respect and appreciation as men and then these people just ruin it all by running their mouth." Both Donna and Anaaya chuckled, Jessica on the other hand simply turned to Hassan.
"Speaking of gender equality, Hassan.. You remember those thirty cases of gender inequality in business world against Tony?"
Hassan nodded, his face showing no signs of confusion. The others listened.
"We lost that last one."
"How did that happen?" Hassan questioned in some sort of shock.
"You weren't there to guide this one." Liam mumbled to him but Jessica just clicked her tongue.
"Well, atleast we won majority of those." Hassan replied to Liam, ignoring Jessica.
"And your streak continued." Liam said back, Hassan chuckled.
"I like winning." He said it like it was a normal thing for him to say.
Everyone liked winning but not everyone won.
"What about Donna's case? Did you-?" Hassan turned to Donna.
Anaaya realised that as much as she was dreading this time and as nervous as Hassan was, this was the kind of conversation that he wanted to have.
This was what he wanted to talk about.
"I almost won that corruption case but I knew that if I lost this one, I would be getting a better case to build later on." Donna told him, she was a senior partner in the firm.
If any of the name partners resigned, Donna would be the next name partner, granted that she would have to invest half a million dollars like every other name partner, but she would earn much more than that.
"That's the difference between you and me. You want to lose small so that your reputation doesn't get hurt. I wanna win big so my reputation goes higher."
Hassan remarked. Anaaya looked at him with a smile. This man will always remain charming as fuck.
"And here I thought you'd be less arrogant now." She heard Jessica's comment.
"He's not arrogant, just confident with who he is." She quickly defended before Hassan could even respond to her.
"Says the wife." Anaaya wanted to argue at that remark but remained quiet instead, not bothering to say anything.
"So Hassan, do you remember that poisoned food case?"
"Reft sons and Co? The one where a hundred people died due to chemical leak in the food?" Hassan remembered it, Jessica nodded, not really expecting him to remember a case after three months.
"Yeah, their lawyer got a kickass argument in court this time."
"That's not possible, they shouldn't even have a solid argument." Hassan argued.
"Well, they did."
Everyone looked at him, usually, in the firm, he would always have a backup plan.
"What we can do is bring up all those people who were working in the factory at that time and get their statements recorded." Jessica and Liam both nodded in understanding.
But Anaaya saw something else.
"Their mouths can't be shut once you start questioning each and everything. And they can't plead the fifth on everything either."
As Hassan started to talk about more and more cases with them, she saw the way his eyes started to get slightly droopy and how she saw him getting sweaty even though Newyork was much colder now.
She could also feel him pressing his hands onto his legs, trying not to get noticed by anyone but she noticed it, she knew his legs had started to hurt.
Something that the doctor had told her would happen if he sat for too long.
"And that Sudan co-" Anaaya interrupted Jessica in between her sentence.
"Weren't you guys here to inquire about his health? I mean give my man a break guys," She tried to sound playful, cracking a smile at the end and the others did laugh, but not Jessica.
Jessica stared at Anaaya with a blank expression.
"We're just talking. And clearly he's interested in talking about it." She answered.
"I know, ofcourse he is. But his health is more important to me." Anaaya replied flatly, standing up.
"Dinner's ready."
She announced. She saw Hassan frown at her and she could feel his glare at the back of her head but she simply shrugged it off as everyone gathered around for dinner.
She knew he had been in a bad mood ever since she sort of defended him. But she had to interfere, she had to jump into the conversation because she knew it was tiring him off. No matter how much interested he had been in it, it was still unhealthy to tire himself at this stage of his recovery.
She had been tired herself, the moment their guests left, Anaaya had to clear the table and if that wasn't enough, she even washed the dishes.
Ew. She hated doing dishes.
But Maggie was already working so hard and Anaaya felt bad for her. She had to hire a new nanny, she knew that but there really was no one she trusted except Maggie and Sarah. Now Sarah was gone and that left Maggie.
Even the thought of Maggie leaving caused a rush of anxiety into her.
She had been tired herself, all she wanted to do was sleep but Hassan was yet to take his medicines and she hadn't even visited the children's room to check up on them yet.
"Come on, it's time for you take your meds." She said lazily, taking out his medicines from the tray as Hassan was laid on the right side of the bed.
"I can take them on my own." He grumbled, eyes focusing on the television that played behind her.
She rolled her eyes.
"I know you can but you've exerted yourself enough today."
"I don't give a fuck!"
Her eyes widened at his sudden outburst. If this was any other situation, she would have told him to fuck off himself and left the room.
But it wasn't. She took three deep breaths before sitting down on the edge of his side.
"Hassan, what's going on? Are you feeling okay?" She asked instead.
"Can you just leave me alone?" Clearly he was tired and cranky.
"What? Why are you-" Before she could even complete her sentence, Hassan looked at her, face showing signs of anger directed at her.
"You didn't have to defend me. You didn't have to tell them that I got tired by answering their questions."
He stated, telling her she shouldn't have poked into their business. Their conversation.
"Is that what this is about? Me telling them to lay off?"
"Yes."
"For God's sake, Hassan!" She exclaimed loudly. The day's exhaustion catching up to her.
"I hate you." He murmured weakly.
Three words that Anaaya would never believe coming from his mouth. Never.
A chuckle escaped her mouth.
"You don't. You love me." She said it like it was a fact.
"What you said wasn't necessary." He told her as she poured water into a glass and took out the medicines from their bottles.
"No. It was. I couldn't let you do this to yourself. You can't do this. Your body and your brain isn't healed yet."
She told him instead and put medicines right in front of his face. His calm demeanour changed again.
"Stop acting like my god damn parent, Anaaya."
"Well maybe if you didn’t behave like a child, I wouldnt have to act like one!!" This time, she had actually managed to yell.
But she just wanted him to sleep and she wanted to sleep too. That was all she wanted right now and Hassan just wouldn't stop fighting over petty issues.
Patience is the key, Anaaya. You have to be the patient one. He's going to be impatient at times, angry too. But you need to take care of him.
She remembered Dr Shepherd's wires of advice and instantly, took a deep breath.
"Okay, okay I'm sorry. It's my fault. I get it. Just please, take the medicines, Hassan. You need them and you need to sleep." She said again, voice soft.
Hassan looked away one more time, before looking down.
"Your eyes give away how tired you are, have your meds and go to sleep. Come on." She whispered, putting the medicines in his hand.
Hassan finally grasped the glass and then the medicine. He gulped them down his throat.
"I'm sorry." He suddenly apologised.
"Don't be. I shouldn't hassle you like this." She replied, switching off the lamp of his side.
"You're just taking care of me, I should let you." He whispered but it was audible enough.
She smiled at him.
She kissed his left cheek, then his right, before finally kissing his lips. Hassan didn't deepen the kiss but he didn't move away either, instead he held her hand tight, as if he didn't want to let go.
"You're not used to it. It's okay."
Anaaya moved back and saw Hassan hiss slightly as he settled himself into a different position.
"Tumhain abhi bhi dard ho raha hai na?" She questioned him, her tone wasn't accusing. She just knew he was in pain.
She was good at getting to know the things he wanted to hide. She always had been.
"Haan."
He admitted, not bothering to hide it anymore.
"Kab se ho raha hai?"
"Sham se."
"Kyun nahi bataaya?"
"Aur tang nahi karna chahta tha tumhain."
Anaaya sighed.
Why didn't he understand that the only thing that had helped her get through everything was the fact that she was there with him? Taking care of him gave her comfort right now.
"Maine tumhain kya kaha tha, Hassan?"
She enquired with a sigh.
"Tum meri humsafar nahi, humdard bhi banna chahti ho."
He repeated the words that she had said earlier.
"Toh phir? Apna dard mujh se to mat chupao yaar."
"Tum nahi hoti to mera kya hota?"
He questioned with a playful smile this time, she returned the same look.
"Toh phir Zeenat aapa bethi hoti yahan pay."
They whole heartedly laughed. If Hassan had agreed to marry Zeenat, he wouldn't even have met her.
He was so thankful that he did though.
He wouldn't admit it in front of anyone except her, but Hassan didn't know how to live in a world without Anaaya.
Not anymore.
__
Translation of the last part.
"Are you still in pain?"
"Yes."
"Since what time?"
"Since the evening."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to disturb you any longer."
"What did I tell you that day, Hassan?"
"That you don't want to be just my companion but also my pain sharer."
"Then? Don't hide your pain from me atleast."
"I wonder what would have happened to me if you weren't here with me."
"Then your cousin Zeenat would have been in my place instead."
--
Translation really ruins the urdu feel of the sentences lol.
Okay, hope ya'll liked this one.
Lots of Hassan and Anaaya!!