A Bride To The Five

Chapter 19

Arjun laid the platter of food on the nightstand.  His eyes focused on his brother, and their wife, who lay deep in slumber, in Bheem's arms.

He probably should have been jealous,  or at least that's a reaction he had expected, but all he felt was a reassurance that she was safe with him.

That he took care of her, when Arjun couldn't.  He reached out, putting a loose curl behind her ear.

Twilight illuminated her face, his breath caught in his chest. Her sheer beauty still managed to knock his breath out.

"Took awhile to console her." Bheem's words were gruff, his eyes were focused on their wife,  while his hand continued to caress her hair.

"What did she say?" He asked, he wanted to know, so once he knew who had dared to hurt her in such a manner, he would make them pay.

"She said she felt dirty. Something about feeling their touch, and what if we hadn't reached on time." Arjun could hear the wrath behind his brother's words, he noticed how his grip tightened on their wife.

Arjun's eyes fell on his hand, and noticed, that he too, was clutching her hand too tightly.

They were protective by nature. Life had thought them the hard way to protect what was theirs.

In this huge world, there wasn't much that they could call theirs. What really mattered to them.

It was family.

Throne, money and power, never really appealed them. They never counted it as theirs.

In this huge world they had only a handful of people, they could really call family. Who really wished well for them.

And their enemies as well as fate had snatched away too many of those few people.

Which in turn made them all the more protective.  May it be their mata Madri or Pitashree Pandu.

Life had been too cruel. Attacks were made on them when they were young to break apart this family, Bheem was poisoned.

Their own cousins had planned to burn them all alive. 

Things like this had made them all the more protective of their family. Panchaali though a recent addition in their family, had been no less important.

Time and again, she had proven herself.  Her innocence and selflessness had made them protective towards her, and this attack had just arose a new level of protectiveness.

Tracing his thumb on her soft supple cheeks, Arjun gazed at her silently.

Draupadi. 

He didn't really know what to make of her, she was beautiful,  attractive,  caring, innocent, and most importantly his wife. 

She made him feel things he never once experienced in his life. "She didn't deserve this." His words were soft, but in the silence of the night his brother heard him.

"No one ever does." Came Bheem's reply, who too was gazing at his bride.

"At times I really fail to understand her." Arjun confessed, his voice taking a distant tone. "What do you mean?" Bheem asked, frowning in confusion.