I'm extremely sorry to be so late. Honestly, the response is so disappointing that I don't feel like writing anymore and I barely even come online. Anyways, just 7 more chapters to go.

Happy Reading! Inline comments would be love.

Warning:- Very long chapter ahead. Read in parts.

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N A N D I N I

Heartbreak isn't beautiful. It isn't writing poetry or staying up till 4 am listening to sad songs. It's breaking down in the middle of a busy street. It's seeing his face in every one you pass by. It's being okay for weeks at a time and then all of a sudden, you feel the ghost of his memories haunting you again until it breaks you down piece by piece. It's waking up from their dreams in the middle of the night and screaming until you stop seeing him all around you, and then let the hollow feeling in your chest rot you in pain like a decaying tooth. A heart isn't a cigarette- you can't just light it up and let it burn and then walk away from it, stomping it alone. The broken heart remains with you until your last breath, and you carry it to your coffin. Nothing about heart break is beautiful, and I wouldn't even wish this feeling upon my worst enemies.

But someone wished it upon me. Someone wished for me to die every second in a pain that had no cause, like a black hole in the middle of my chest ready to engulf me within. Though I did not give it importance, I couldn't even ignore the fact that my heart was now tainted and this tainted heart would be there with me until I live. Wounds heal. But scars remain forever.

But I wouldn't say my heart was hurting. It was healing. Even if as slowly as it must, it was healing. And there's going to be a day when I get up without feeling my heart broken, when I'd be just fine and smiling from all my heart, when everything's going to fall back to place, the way it's supposed to be. This might seem like a huge goal now. But there would be one day, when you'd heal totally. That day would come. And even taking small efforts is taking big steps. Don't be wanting to heal for someone else, heal for yourself. I learnt to stop living for others and start living for myself. And then everything makes sense.

It was me who mattered. Just me. I reminded myself one more time as i walked, the cold breeze moving across my face. One week had passed away and as I sat across the same beach, I knew I felt nothing. I knew the pain was over but I still couldn't stop feeling a presence all around me.

I felt someone was around me, as if someone was watching me. Pushing the lump away, I continued my night walk. Somewhere deep down, there was happiness in my eyes because after weeks or months I felt genuinely fine with no fear stumbling me. But I couldn't even ignore the hollowness, the absence in my chest as if my heart was missing when it was right there doing what it was supposed to.

There was a sudden sound that startled me from the bushes behind. I wasn't scared other wise but what made me conscious was there was a graveyard in the forest just beside the beach, and anything taking place here could be heard in the graveyard and vice versa since the two were just separated by a tall wall. The idea of ghosts scares me from my root. Blinking my eyes slowly, I turned behind to the source of the noise.

I knew going for a midnight walk was a terrible idea but it couldn't get worse as I saw three men in black clothes standing and staring at me with snarl smirks running through their thug faces. One of them moved towards me grabbing my arm and I closed my eyes, the first memory that came to my mind was of him, punching the goon that tried harassing me in the middle of the night and him protecting me. I opened my eyes and the next thing I knew, my fist landed on his chin and all the three looked taken aback.

I smiled to myself. Not the weak Nandini, anymore. I know how to protect myself.

I caught the man who was still recovering from my punch and kicked him where the sun doesn't shine as I pushed him to the ground and he groaned. The other two looked at each other before one picked out a knife and I squeezed my eyes. They didn't want my body. This was deeper. And no matter how strong, I couldn't protect myself from men with weapons. I was no captain america or someone trained in martial arts.

He flung it ahead and I flung back at my place as it slight touched my white tank top and I wished I would have worn something more appropriate than fitted jeans and a white crop top. The other one flung ahead but I escaped and ran where my feet carried me, into the woods. I screamed for help but I knew the only ones who could hear me were ghosts in the graveyard because no sane man would be at a graveyard at one in the night and I'd prefer dying than being helped by ghosts.

The fear wouldn't get off my mind as I ran in the darkness and hid behind a tree hoping to not be caught. The second I closed my eyes trying to catch my breath, his perfect face flashed in front of my eyes. His eyes, the way he blinks them, the way they are the most perfect shade of black with a tint of hazel that keeps holding me to him. His perfect smile. His beautiful face and everything about me that fascinates me. It was almost as if I could feel him around me and I smiled weakly. Even his memories gives me strength to fight back for myself.

"Ah!" I heard a scream and I immediately opened my eyes with a horror stricken face to see the darker goon with a sharper knife in his hand, laughing hysterically. Before I realised, he aimed it at me and my hands involuntarily covered my face to intake the pain with all I could but it never touched me. I had shrieked with terror as loud as I could but nothing ever happened except that a familiar cologne touched my senses.

I opened my eyes to another scream, just to witness the goon in pain with the knife in his stomach as he winced in the soil before his voice faded away slowly. A small cry left my mouth as my head shot up to see my guardian.

He looked relieved to see me fine as tears well my eyes. I didn't cry when they attacked me because it didn't make me feel anything. I was too numb to feel the pain they were inflicting when they were attaching me. But his mere presence filled me again with all the pain, with every emotion that I have experienced in the past months, as if warm blood gushing over my frozen heart, making it beat again. My hand slowly touched his white shirt and he held his hand upon mine as he pulled me towards him delicately, hugging me with one hand.

In the darkness, I couldn't see his face but I knew it was him in the way he hugged me, rested his face on my crown, treated me delicately as if I was a real princess and in the way his heartbeat still sounded like music to my ears, his cologne was still my favourite smell and only he had the power to make me feel every emotion deeply, making my heart beat faster than it ever has and it ever will.

"Princess", he called slowly and I closed my eyes even tighter. After 6,04,800 seconds, I heard him say princess, I heard his perfect husky voice which was now covered with tension, I heard his fear for losing me, I heard him beside me, I heard his heart beating next to mine.

"Are you okay?" He whispered and I nodded weakly. I couldn't see his face in the darkness and it frustrated me, i wanted to fight the darkness and see his face despite the promise. I'd break a thousand promises for him with no regret. "Hmm," I nodded, still catching my breath.

"I heard your screams and couldn't stop myself from coming here, I'm sorry I broke the promise," he said slowly, and I knew he was looking around to find danger. His voice was cold and distant and it pricked me every second that I was responsible for the pain i had given to the both of us when in real I had no idea if it even affected him to be away from me or was I the only one managing with sleepless nights and feeling his presence everywhere around me as if he was a ghost haunting me.

Our small conversation and my thoughts were interrupted by some more sounds like small snakes creeping around. "They're here, run," He whispered to me and before I could react, he locked his hand with mine and ran with me behind him and I blindly followed him as he led me through the darkness towards where it ended and we could see moonlight entering the thick layers of the forest.

My happiness did not last long as I realised we weren't getting out, we had reached a dead end; it was a cliff with a deep valley down that shined into a million shades of blue because of the light casted by the enchanting moonlight and a thousand stars overhead. I looked at him in worry but every ounce of my fear vanished the moment I looked at his face, his eyes that twinkled like stars in the dim light and the way he bit his lower lip looking around, I think I fell in love with him all over again. He was a drug to which I was ruthlessly addicted and I'd love to be until I live.

"Hold your breath," he instructed in a determined voice and I wish he would have given me a moment to tell him how he had managed to already take my breath away but he didn't because before I reacted, we were already in the air and fell into the water where ice cold water touched every bit of me, making me shiver. I was scared but relieved at the same time because until he was there with me, I knew there was nothing to worry about.

I was going to shout but he covered my mouth and pulled me towards him, his broad chest covering my petite body as we struggled to keep ourselves on the surface of the water. "Kahan gaye?" There was a shout upstairs, "saale ek kaam diya tha, ladki se bhi pith gaya!" The voice faded away into an unnecessary arguement. He concentrated upon listening to the conversation while I was just thankful there were not fishes since it was fresh water with a flow.

Every muscle of Manik's face slowly relaxed as he probably realised that they had gone too, but I kept staring at his face. He looked back to me and that was when I realised how our bodies were inches away and all that heat I suddenly felt in the ice water. Every drop of water that stuck to his white shirt made it more transparent, exposing his bare chest which suddenly made me conscious that I was wearing a white top too, which made everything translucent and my black bra visible.

His hand left my waist and reached his hair, slowly brushing it backwards. A red hue crept over my face as I too arranged my hair that stuck to my neck and wet top behind but my movements halted as I realised his intense gaze on me and the moment I looked up only to be stuck at his eyes. His hands re reached my waist gently, finger by finger sending sensations and butterflies down my spine and stomach and my body touched his, my breath rising.

His eyes slowly travelled downwards making me more conscious than I already was, making my breathing prominent. He smiled slowly and looked up again, his thumb slowly travelled from my forehead till my chin, touching my eyes, nose and then finally my lips, wiping the water drops off my face and I closed my eyes, my body bended behind as his nose touched mine, brushing it slowly and then he dipped his face in the crook of my face, kissing away the water droplets.

My fingers involuntarily reached his hair, holding it tightly. With every breath we took, I couldn't wait to take the next one, to unhook everything that happens. I felt an unknown desire in me, something that I had never felt for anyone. I wanted all of him at once and I wanted to give away my everything in that moment. I wanted to be closer to him than I already was even though I knew it wasn't possible because our bodies already touched each others leaving barely any space for air.

His hand traced my wet thigh as he locked my thighs over his waist, holding my lower waist, his hand travelling inside my top which stuck to my skin loyally. Desire and passion was over taking both of us and none of us wanted to stop. I kissed his ear lobe, slowly placing my teeth there and sucking the water drops off while his fingers digged the skin of my back and he shuttered. I loved every time he flinched when my lips touched his skin and I left no part of his face untouched except his lips, and he held my bare back.

"Don't do this princess," he groaned when my hand touched his shirt but his voice was heavy as i knew he wanted the opposite. My mind warmed me to stop but my heart screamed for me to go for it. I didn't feel myself anymore. I felt only passion. I felt only desire; the desire to have him, only to myself.

"It's too late for that, Manik," I whispered back as I pushed him into the water with all the force I had and he held my thighs around him tighter, as I pushed my face into his, taking his lips to me. He held my face between his palms and dominated the fierce kiss as we moved in such synchronisation that put musical chords at shame. It was as if I didn't just kiss him, I kissed his soul that spluttered his magic into me once again. I could never get enough of his lips and the magic they did to me.

The night had magic sprinkled with moonlight and stardust as unseen sparks flew everytime his body touched mine. The dim light made everything just more beautiful and I was finding some different serene in everytime he touched me, in everytime his face shined under the light of thousands of stars and everytime I looked at his beautiful face, I wanted it just to myself. I was falling in love. I knew it wasn't possible because I was already in love with him but with every passing second, my feelings for him was getting deeper. With every small firefly that glew above our head and every star that blessed us, I became more sure of my soring heart. We were meant to be, and no man could ever change that.

My fingers unbuttoned his shirt and I held him over his bare skin, feeling it for the first time as I rested them on his waist. He tore the thin material of my top open as he switched positions and pushed me to the rocks, his body overpowering mine. His left hand interlocked with my right hand and he bit my neck fiercely. He was monsterous and fierce when he was passionate and I wanted to see every shade of his tonight. His absence of seven days made me want him more than I ever had and I feared I'd get addicted to every magical touch of his.

I slowly opened my eyes for the first time in the past ten minutes and he was already staring at me with all the calmness which left me in a pool of chaos. "You're so beautiful," he whispered as his eyes moved lower and his hands caressed my lower back slowly travelling towards my stomach and I blushed into a new shade of red. I felt everything I never had and I would be proud to shout it to the world that it was Manik Malhotra who made me feel that.

"And so are you, beautiful," I whispered closed to his ear, once again wrapping myself around his waist as he unhooked my bra, letting his hands roam around my back with no obstruction of my bra straps. I closed my eyes sticking to him and he kissed my back, tracing his finger tips down slowly. He brought the first strap down my arm, and digged his head back into my neck, kissing me all the way down while I moaned a chime that I didn't know could be so musical.

My moans were obstructed by a sudden loud song of the default phone time that rung from the cliff, on the valley making us both conscious of our senses as I immediately pulled away, shy and timid like my usual times. The passion that was controlling me slowly vanished and I looked at us both. We were wet, still in the shallows of the valley where our feet touched the ground and the water touched our shoulders. We were still wearing our jeans, he was shirtless but I was still wearing my bra although it was unhooked.

His hand slowly re reached my bra, closing it this time and I said nothing. I felt way too shy to even look into his eyes anymore, it was as if I was a complete different person a few minutes back. I didn't know what I was doing and it was as if all my senses just belonged to him. His eyes looked around and stopped at my top which was torn apart and was floating away into the water in vain. He removed his shirt and quietly made me wear it, buttoning it himself.

We remained quiet but both of us knew we weren't ashamed of what happened here. He needed me, and I knew I needed him just as much, and there was no looking away from that. He still locked my hand into his as we walked out slowly. I was thankful for us being in darkness and just the moonlight, making us see just the necessary. We climbed up the cliff through the path and it was Manik's phone that was ringing, probably fallen off when we jumped in.

I clinged to him and our interlocked hands as a small baby, afraid he'd leave again. The pain of someone leaving might fade away after some time, but the way they leave remains with us forever, or atleast until we live.

"Nyonika," His teeth gritted together and it was as if I saw a monster in him, very different from the one I saw in the water because that monster was fierce but compassionate but this one could burn the world with bare hands and still have no regrets. I remained quiet. He knew better, for me and for him, and I had learnt to accept it.

We walked out from the woods and the darkness that didn't scare me anymore. Everything made sense now. "You left me because I thought I was in danger because of you, didn't you?" I whispered slowly. He led me into the woods and I followed blindly without looking ahead because I was busy staring at him as realisations struck me.

"I didn't just think that, I was pretty sure," he growled dryly and I nodded in disbelief. He was no one to take decisions for me, was he? I was the one who had the choice to either walk away or stay and I was the one to make this decision, not him. You can't just push away everything that you want to avoid. Sometimes, you have to learn facing and tackling the situations as well.

"You know what Manik, Edward left Bella for the same thing. He thought that he protected her by just leaving but Victoria got to her anyway and he ended up just making both of them miserable. And also, Bella fell in love with Jacob.  Though she ended up choosing Edward, but what if she hadn't? She might have as well accepted Jacob and learnt to be happy with what she has," I whispered and though he hadn't read twilight, I knew he understood because I felt him freeze, as though he went numb under my touch but still continued walking. I felt him going cold and I didn't want that but I wanted him to know that now is all we have. He has to choose if he wants me or he doesn't because I wouldn't keep waiting for one day he might return when he finds me worthy of him. Maybe I'd learn to find my own happiness. Without him.

His walk halted and I wondered why but I immediately knew when I faced ahead to see a small cottage. We had walked the opposite direction into the forest, and ended up getting deeper. He looked at me and I at him and no words shared but we knew what we were doing. We had no other option than to use this isolated cottage for the night and it already sent me chills, being in the same room as him, especially after what happened an hour ago but I was too tired, physically and mentally to bother ahead.

We entered inside and he figured out there was a small bonfire which he lit with his cigar lighter. The cottage was small but comfortable, having just one bed, one bathroom and some more necessities. I threw myself on one pillow while he freshened himself in the washroom and owing to the fact it was already getting to Dawn, my eyes were droopy and I felt sleep hitting me almost instantly.

I could hardly make out when he climbed into bed beside me but I struggled to keep myself awake because I was afraid that I might open my eyes and he wouldn't be there anymore, he'd leave and I'd be alone again. I wanted to make the best of every minute I had with him before he gives me a silly excuse to disappear from my life once again and act like I never existed.

"Please don't leave," I tried whispering and I didn't know if I even made sense of what I spoke but I felt his lips touch my forehead. "I'd stay until you want me to, I wouldn't make the same mistake of leaving you again," I think he whispered back scooping me into his arms and his warmth touched me.

"Promise?" I begged trying to keep my eyes open but I failed miserably.

"There's no going away this time. It's you and me, against the world. Promise," he wrapped his arm around me carrying me into the most peaceful slumber I've had in the past few months. I didn't know if I was living a dream or dreaming the reality but whatever it was, all I knew was I was with him and until I was with him, everything was going to be fine.

Because this time, it was us, against the world and that is what I hoped for it to be; me and him, humesha.

~from fighting each other to fighting the world together, they fell in love~

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