Good evening...

Moving on... 💃💃💃

"Words in double quotes" - Talking

'Words in single quotes' - Thoughts

(Words in braces) - Telephone conversations

Chapter 18 - Oh Dear! Oh Bear!

#Cave#

In the chilly cave, with only the ashes of the tiny fire that provided them with heat for the entire night, two souls rested in each other's embrace, being each other's solace.

None of them spoke any words of comfort to each other. However, the silence that descended in the cave as they held on to each other was more comforting than any verbal consolation.

The wind lightly touched their cheeks and ruffled their, as if reminding them to wake up.

Laksh's nose scrunched up as Ragini's hair tickled it. He slowly came to his senses and woke up. With stealth, Laksh broke apart from her and looked at her lovingly, careful not to wake her up. He couldn't believe he never realized her beauty from the start. "Ragini, I thought that I needed to be with someone perfect. I was insecure being with any girl. You were the only one that I became good friends with. Even then, I tried to keep myself aloof. But..." Laksh patted his chest with a wry smile. "...but this heart didn't listen. Each day I spent with you, you became more and more important for me. And now, I just...I just can't imagine my days without you. You have become a habit to me. Sun rises in the east, water is blue. And it has become my routine to meet you."

A small smile broke out on her face. It seemed she was already awake.

Ragini blushed and opened her eyes to look at him. "I...I could say the same about myself."

Laksh blinked at her. "Wh-what?"

"I um...I like you Laksh." Ragini shook her head and looked at him in the eyes. "No. Not like. I love you. I love you Laksh Maheshwari." Ragini admitted. "I don't know when it happened. I don't know how it happened but...but I fell for you. I fell for you hard. That was why..." Ragini looked away in sorrow. "That was why it hurt so much when I came to know you thought of me as someone unworthy of your love. Someone broken and damaged for you to love. So-ow!" Ragini exclaimed as Laksh hit her on the head lightly and looked at her in anger.

#Village#

"Slowly! Slowly Nikhil. Don't rush it." Uttara tried to warn him.

After being found by Nitin, he had brought them safely to his house in his village. However, Nikhil was sick the entire night and Uttara was worried he would make his headache worse.

"It's...it's okay Uttara." Nikhil sat up straight with Uttara's help. "Where are we?"

"You're in my village." spoke Nitin as he came inside. He checked Nikhil's temperature and nodded with a satisfied smile. "Your fever seems to have calmed down."

"Who are you? I don't remember seeing you anywhere."

"He's the one who rescued us from the forest Nikhil. He's Nitin."

"I see." Nikhil acknowledged. Suddenly, he realized what Nitin said. "Wait a minute. Fever?"

"Yes. After Uttara and I brought you here, you were in a bad state. You even started mumbling things scaring us." Nitin admitted. "But Uttara took care of you. She was so worried about you and looked after you for the whole night. She didn't sleep a wink, and neither did she eat anything. I tried to make her eat, but she said she will only once you wake up."

Nikhil looked at Uttara in surprise. "You...you took care of me whole night? But you were tired yourself."

"I couldn't rest until I knew you were alright. After all, you got hurt protecting me back at the forest." Uttara replied, looking down in guilt. 'And also because my heart couldn't rest until you were alright. I thought I liked you. But now I'm sure that I...I love you Nikhil.' Uttara confessed in her mind, while a blush came to her cheeks.

"I see." Nikhil's eyes softened at her words. 'Guess I was wrong in judging her as a spoilt rich brat. It would be best to apologize to her.'

"Yeah."

As he kept looking at her, Nikhil couldn't help but find her cute when she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She smiled at him, making his eyes dart towards her lips.

He blushed as the thought about kissing those lips crossed him. 'Well Nikhil, you're a gone case now. Love eventually caught upto you too. A common fever that every man faces in his life.' Nikhil thought with a chuckle.

"Eh? Why are you chuckling Nikhil?"

Nikhil giggled louder at her question. "Nothing much. I guess I got
another fever."

Her eyes widened and she got up. Placing a hand on his head, she checked his temperature. "But your temperature seems okay."

'Because it's love fever. And you don't have a love meter.' He laughed out loud at his ridiculous thoughts. "Nothing Uttara. Just an inside joke."

"I think his fever finally took over his sanity." Nothing joked. However, he got serious soon. "You two still need to tell me what you were doing in the forest."

At Nitin's words, both Uttara and Nikhil's eyes widened remembering Commando and his men. "Shit!"

"Eh? Isn't it unethical for a girl to speak such words?" Nitin inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Whatever! Nitin, you need to help us find our way back. You see, I hired some fake men to act as goons for Ragini and my brother, Laksh. But they think I'm Ragini and Nikhil is Laksh. So they are after us. But the real Laksh and Ragini are in the forest. Not to mention that wretched Udip might be planning something dangerous to hurt them!" she went to grab Nitin's hand and looked at him pleadingly. "You got to get us back to the hotel where my father is. Please Nitin!"

'Must she hold him like that.' Nikhil thought with a pout.

Nitin blinked repeatedly, trying to process everything Uttara spoke in his mind. He chuckled. "Uh so...so basically, your own men are now after you because of a misunderstanding?"

(Nitin 👆)

"Yes."

"And your brother and his girl are also in trouble from another guy?"

"Yes!"

"So basically, you messed up and kind of hammered on your own thumb, didn't you?"

Uttara's flushed red in embarrassment.

"Yopo yopo!" Nikhil hollered from the bed while snickering.

"Whatever!" she glared at Nikhil. "Can we please move past this and try to get back to the hotel!?" she shouted.

"Fine fine. I was about to head out anyway. I got duties as a ranger." Nitin got up and opened the door to a nearby room. A tiny bear came out from there.

"Isn't this the one you were carrying yesterday?"

"It is Uttara. Along with you both, I need to get it back to it's mother as well. As a ranger, the safety of the animals and humans around are my responsibility."

#Cave#

"Why did you hit me?"

"Because you're an idiot."

"Well then you're a bigger idiot if you fell for an idiot." Ragini, not being one to back down, bit back.

Laksh's angry face turned into one of amusement. She kept looking at her with a smirm, while she watched him with a cautious and confused eye.

"What is it? Laksh? Just spit it out already!"

"Silly girl! You're the dumb one here and you call me a bigger idiot?" Laksh joked, looking at her fondly. "You really think you're not deserving of love?"

Ragini twisted her lips in irritation. "You were the one who said those words about me!"

Laksh sighed and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Ragini, listen. It's true. I won't lie to you. I really did think of you such way. But after what Maa said, it got me thinking. Although even Maa never was able to understand the full extent of my guilt and insecurity, she tried. Whatever she said that day got me thinking about Mansi's words. And I finally realized what Mansi wanted me to understand all along." he smiled and cupped her cheeks. "Mansi wanted me to be happy, but it didn't mean they have to be someone perfect in everything. Because perfection in love is just an illusion. Love isn't about finding the perfect person, but someone imperfect who could make my life perfect. She wanted me to find the one whose presence brought me happiness, the one that made me smile, the one for whom I can do anything. Looking at whom my heart says...my heart says, we're made for each other."

Ragini could feel tears at the corner of her eyes.

But they were tears of happiness.

She raised her shaky hands and placed them above his. She looked at him with moist eyes and a quivering smile. "But I am broken, Laksh. I have my own troubles. I have my own tragedies, my own dark past. You don't know anything about it. Do you realize that?"

"Do they keep haunting you like they do with me? You can share with me. I'm there for you."

"It's not that Laksh. It's in the past for me. But I've got my burdens. I hav-" she was stopped by Laksh putting a hand on her lips.

"I don't care. If you got problems, then I'll accept them as my own."

"Bw Ww-" she stopped speaking when he didn't look like he was about to remove his hand. She tried to signal him, but he just shook his head.

"I don't care. When I say I love you, it means that I'm agreeing to accept all of you. Your good things, as well as bad. I'll accept your beauty, as well as your scars. I'll accept your abilities, as well as your liabilities." Laksh removed his hand from her mouth and pulled her closer by the shoulders. "Yes you're broken. So what? I love every piece of it. If you got scars, I'll be the cure. If you've got skeletons in your closet, I'll remove them with the power of my love. You're broken you say. Fine. Maybe you are. But I'm ready to pick up each piece and join them until...until each piece unites leaving only marks...marks which I aim to turn into mere scars with my love. And then? Then finally turn them into faded signs that no longer matter. Love, will you let me be the guy who becomes the salvation to your solitude?"

Ragini could do nothing but nod vigorously at his words. Her tears wouldn't stop flowing from hearing the sheer intensity in Laksh's words and the passionate love that shone in his eyes.

Laksh gave a broad smile and opened his arms, wide. Ragini didn't waste a second to sugre forward and hug him with all her heart.

As they embraced each other with happy tears flowing from their eyes, the snow from the entrance of the cave slowly started melting away due to the morning sun. Golden light shown on them. As if, as if someone from above was blessing them.

A beautiful beginning to a beautiful day...and a beautiful relationship.

A time of two hearts finally accepting each other and being where they were meant to be.

Which is in each other's arms, together.

It was serene.

...

...

...

Or it would have been...

If it wasn't for...

"Grrrr!"

Laksh and Ragini were shocked out of their trance by the load roar.

Ragini swallowed hard as a cold feeling seeped through her heart from fear. "L-Laksh do...do you t-think it's the bear?" Ragini stuttered out.

Laksh nodded with a gulp. "Y-yeah."

"Oh no! What do we do? What do we do?!WhatdowedoWhatdowedo?!"

"We run. Come on!" Laksh got up and grabbed her hand. "Let's go!"

"Right!"

Together, they both headed out and looked around for the bear. Seeing it no where, they silently stepped out.

"Carefully Ragini. Don't take rushed steps. Take slow steps and make no sound." Laksh whispered.

"I understand." Ragini whispered back. "You sure it will work? Will we escape it? I'm...I'm l-literally shaking from f-fear."

"Yeah it will." he pulled her along with him. "Slow and steady. Slow and steady. Sl-" a growl from nearby made them freeze at their spots. "Um...I think it would be best to speed up a bit. Quick and rush. Quick and rush."

"But you said slow Laksh."

"Now I'm saying to rush okay?! Deal with it!"

"Why are you screaming at me damn it?!"

"I'm losing my mind from fright here if you didn't notice!"

"Do I look like I'm calm? I'm not doing ballet and zomba either!"

They heard a growl again interrupting their argument. This time, the roar sounded much closer.

Ragini gulped in horror. "Laksh I...I think it...it h-has returned."

"You think?!" he grabbed her and started running. However, as luck would have it, the bear appeared from beside the trees and jumped in front of them. "Aa! How did it get here so fast?!"

"It didn't get here fast. You were the one who misheard and took us in the wrong direction!" Ragini chided. "Oh what an oath of a boyfriend I've got!"

"What!? I was a topper in class, mind you!"

"What good is it if it doesn't help us escape?! You'll get both if us killed, even before our live story began!"

As the bear came near, Laksh pushed Ragini behind him and got ready. "Down boy down! Look bear dude, I'm sorry for calling you names earlier, okay? Don't eat us please. You don't want to eat us, trust me. We taste totally rotten. Worse than dead fish. She smells too!"

"I don't!"

"She does. And I fart!"

"That won't work Laksh. It's coming near. Do SOMETHING!" Ragini clung to him with all her might.

Laksh didn't know what he would do to escape, but he had to try. "Sh-shoo! Shoo!" he picked up a stone nearby and threw it at the bear.

The animal didn't even flinch as it hit him on the forehead and bounced off.

Laksh snorted in disbelief. "It didn't even hurt it?!"

"He's a bear Lucky. A stone would have hurt a man."

"That's freaking cheating! It doesn't even fight fair. That's not a very manly way to fight."

"It's a bear Laksh. It's an animal. How do you expect it to follow manly rules?! It isn-" the bear roared, interrupting her. "See? Even it agrees."

Laksh turned to glare at her. "If you understand it so well, why don't you go speak with it?!" he bit out in irritation.

Feeling a breath behind his neck, he turned around. The hairs on his body stood up seeing the large animal in front of him.

"Uh...ehehe...n-ni-ce bear. Nice bear. Ni-nice bear."

At the same moment, Nikhil, Nitin and Uttara reached near the place and spotted them.

Uttara gasped at the sight. "Bhai and Ragini! Oh dear!"

Nikhil swallowed the lump in his throat out of fear. "You should say 'oh bear's instead."

***********************************
To be continued...

If you liked this chapter, please consider giving your vote by clicking on 🌟. Thanks!
~ 🌹 Mona 🌹