One Step At A Time - A SaiRat TS

Part 3

Sniff.

That miniscule sound coming from somewhere in the vicinity was anough to wake Virat up.  Pushing his covers down, he sat up with a jolt, his eyes immediately going over to the other side of the sinhagadh fort that Sai made a point to put between them night after night.

Where was she? He frowned when he found her side of the bed empty.  

"Sai?" he called to the empty room, quickly scanning the room for signs of her.

Her study table - empty.
The bathroom - lights off.

Now he was starting to get worried.

"Sai??" He called, louder this time,  walking to the door - to his surprise, he found the latch on - which meant Sai had not stepped out of the room.

Turning around he peered outside to the balcony - the soft glow of the balcony lights confirmed his doubts that Sai was indeed in the balcony.

Slowly, and taking care not to disturb her, he walked to the balcony. Sai was seated in the sofa, her back to him, huddled over something, her shoulders slightly slouched. A quick glance over her shoulder told him that she held something on her lap, gazing at it as if in a trance.

He didn't how he knew, but something told him that she was sad. And that saddened him.

He lifted his hand, then stopped as he realised thay maybe Sai wanted to be alone now, which was why she was here - lost in thoughts.

Looking back, he threw their bedroom a look, should he go back?

He turned around and looked at Sai, would she like it if he made his presence felt - was he welcome here now?

Sighing, he took a tentative step forward when she spoke, barely audible, "aap ruk sakte hai, Virat sir"

The corner of his lips curled up in a smile and he quickly walked around to her, "how did you know?"  He asked, sitting down beside her.

She looked up at him now, her large black eyes glistening with tears and something inside of him shifted.

"Sai..." He muttered.

She shook her head wordlessly, tilting her head down to her lap. He followed her eyes and found that she had a huge album laid out on her lap.

A little girl, about 5-7 years old smiled widely up at him, her little hands hoisting up a HUGE balloon, probably bigger than her. There was a twinkle in her large black eyes and excitement shone on her face.

The smile on his own lips grew wider, and so did the warm feeling in his heart - he was glad that this joy and excitement hadn't diminished as she had grown - in fact, with time it had only magnified.

" This was taken on my 6th birthday" Sai commented, confirming his thoughts, as she ran a finger over the photograph, "itne saare gifts, but Aaba says I kept playing with this till the air went out. I loved this the best" she said, looking up at him, a smile framing her lips and a faraway look in her eyes as she reminicised. 

Virat smiled back at her, remembering the joy and excitement on her face as he had given her the balloons on her result day and by the lakeside, " of course you did" he said fondly.

Sai found herself gazing at Virat Sir, by now she was used to the softness in his voice in moments like these, but it was the hint of fondness that took her by surprise - and she liked it??

There seemed to be a butterfly dancing around her stomach - biting her lip, she placed her hand on her stomach and pressed lightly, as if to stop it.