•  Desire •

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❝ This isn't a tinge of the sky,

But for you to colour me,

In any hue, your heart dreams of. ❞

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A single day split into the darkness to be guided by stars and into sparkle to be in the lone company of the sun. 

The night of Keshika was crowded with bleak silence. She had gained something startling in the valley, a dreadful experience but her heart was tickled for the first time. 

For Captain Viaansh his duty had taken him to another mission. The day was filled with light as the mission was successful but barren as he had lost his brother in uniform.

At the war memorial, he has come to pay homage to his friend. The agony of losing was the same every time with whom you have seen the worst and sorted the laugh; were now lost. To ensure the safety of unknown citizens he had let the shot impale his skin and led his devotion being written in red that bleed to the engraving of his immortal love.

'Jai Hind Captain Sahib.' Acting on his impulse he turned abruptly. Something he struggled to learn while being in civilian life.

'Captain?' 

'You saved my life… in a landslide.'

'Oh… Jai Hind.'

She expected him to say something but he just turned. 

Her eyes pursued him; it was overwhelming to see anything but him. He was putting a single blossom. She realised it was a personal moment for him so hesitantly she walked away. 

Her heart was in remorse to feel something for him in this place. She thought it was impermissible and to not inundate more in the guild she whirled toward the exit. She had already paid her homage.

That day, oblivious to the fact she didn't go to the women's coach she found a seat in general coach. The message from her friends made her open the app. She chuckled at that silly message.

But a sudden fall of MetroCard at her feet grabbed her attention and as she picked to give it the presence of the man beside her made her heart chase and her moments brought to an abrupt stop.

'Thank you.'

Her eyes recalled every attribute of that face. Many nights spent remembering that face, she had felt her first enchantment in the valley where she went to learn a new experience.

Foreign to her she found a new emotion. Those lines of worry on his face and his commitment were enough to inflate isolated emotions in her heart.

He typed a text on his phone. This time his face was steady, a cut was there which she failed to glance at last time..or maybe it was of new recollections. All emotions of his were still covered.

Like a drop of rain, he wielded vastly hidden emotions. She wanted to be that rays of sun that bring those seven blooms of the rainbow out of that faint drop. 

How would a smile look on his lips?

If the world moved along she was misplaced from it. Her world was static, right now lived here; beside her.

His intuition made him sense the pair of eyes at him. His fingers suddenly ceased typing and he gazed at her. Raising his eyebrows he looked at her questionably.  

She saw the similar dept in them but out of embarrassment she turned her gaze but her betrayer lips moulded into a smile. He found that— amusing.

Now the phone disappeared and notifications came to halt as both yearned to discern the existence of each other. Besides the heartbeat of her heart, only periodic announcements would be heard by her. To make her heart repose she would intertwine her fingers together and hoped the feelings clamped in her heart were that easy to untangle like her fingers

Periodically she would remove her gaze from her lap and look in front of her in the window. Due to the underground tunnels, she could see the faint reflection of theirs. She noticed his gaze in the same direction so she turned and glanced at him.

If it was conceivable she wanted the moment to stop. Her eyes reflected her emotions, she loosened up them. She wanted to reflect on her sparse feelings because at that moment words couldn't be believed. 

The opening of doors and the disappearance of the metro station were adequate to tell how short the journey was. She needed to say something to hold him. Eyes wouldn't be sufficient; she required the thread of words to speak unspoken.

And she did something that even surprised her. She talked to a stranger and not just that she asked something more startling.

'Would you choose one?' She expected to choose from two of her fingers. 

He selected one. 'What was that for it?'

'Would you comply with it?' 

'Ha? Sorry?'

'Remember you had chosen it.' A deep breath. 'Would you meet again?' 

'Sorry— again?'

'Yes. It looks like a lot has been left incomplete.'

'Where?'

'Anywhere.'

'Now?'

'Like Now.'

The next station is Mandi House.

She heard the announcement and saw the door opening to tell about the arrival of the station. And without a word, she got up and moved out. She saw his presence behind.

'Where now?'

'Agrasen ki Baoli'

Since it was afternoon, the place was coerced by tourists. Now only her heartbeat and he were there.

She wasn't here. 

Her heartbeat wished to lend a soft symphony of her words so she could assert those feelings to him. If not said then the vibration of those beats would settle in paper and coloured with the abyss of her emotions. But she couldn't cross that boundary.

'Do you know I don't even know your name?'

'Hello— Viaansh. Good Noon. I am Keshika.'

'That's Viaansh. But how do you know?'

'Saw on your uniform.'

'Oh.'

They sat down on the stairs. His eyes darted at the stairs and hers at him. A silence but the air wavering around them didn't make it appear as if it was something unusual. It was amicable as if in silence both their hearts were conversing.

'Every stair furnish a base. To a journey of adventure or life.

'Not every step is meant to be walked on. Sometimes you jump and join in with other sorts of joy.'

She got up only to jump and miss the stairs and lost her balance but held the wall before she could fall.

'And then you fall.'

'Not always because many times you have a wall and a person like you to give a second life. And allot a second opportunity to enjoy those joys.'

She sat three steps below him.  'Suno [Listen]. But sometimes it's good to fall.'

She halted to only peek in his eyes.

'In love.'

Red blossomed on her cheeks. 

'Captain. Have you ever lost your heart or fallen in love?'

'Not in the past but who could say of the present or future.'

She removed her gaze from him, holding the corner of the fabric. A single thread is joined to make clothes and gives several colours to fabrics. Same patience and bond are required in a relationship. Different colours and closeness.

Both of them were unfamiliar to them. Besides the feelings of longing no other colour was inferred, and a part of the name no closeness they share.

'Never got a chance to ask but what do you do?'

'I work in an IT firm.'

'How is the sky today?'

She looked there, a feverish wind was stroking it and heated rays of the sun had taken over but she found it—' Calm, peaceful, loved.'

'Sky is like a mirror. You see it according to your emotions. To a sad heart, it speaks of despair and loneliness in the vast sky. And in happiness a beautiful ample span of hope. So those are the emotions of your today- loved.'

'How is it to you?'

'I see the sky through your jhumkas. It's harmonious today.'

The jhumkas tangled with her hair and with her hasty swivel making the little bells elicit the subtle melodious sound. Unexpectedly his gaze and his smile widened the weight of the jhumkas so heavy that she removed one of them.

Holding it in hand through the mirror in it she saw the face of Viaansh and nuzzled it through her delicate finger. Something she couldn't do directly, as of now.

'Sometimes you want to trap someone in that reflector and later in your heart.'

No words were exchanged, they sat silently contemplating the sky and stillness. That cessation held the essence of their thoughts, something that wasn't to be told. Conveyed through those.

They noticed that visitors were coming. He got up but she led him by his finger.

'You know why we are here. There is something unsaid between us but what even I don't know.'

This time she looked at his rough hand that she had held through her little finger. The promise of those unspoken words.

'Aap bhi kuch bol dijaya.' [You also say something]

'Aap ne hi sab bol diya to ab hum kya bolo.' [You said everything now, what can I say?]

'We both know what it implies, so let the heart take the lead.' 

'Captain would be sharing your number?'

'Sorry?'

The request was unprecedented, surprising him.

'Number?'

'I thought only girls are shy to share? But looks like you aren't ready. You want to see my ID?'

'8 7 1 X X X X 9 4 5'

She hurriedly typed it down on her phone.

'And no, I am not shy. It's just I didn't expect it from you. Many things are still unknown to us. I guess we had to learn together.'

'Unknown?'

'Yes. Like I am no longer a Captain.'

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How was it? Do tell me about the pace. Since its a short story so things had to pick up fast.

Every view is welcomed. Thank you. Take care :))

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