ArShi One Shots [compiled]

OS | For Eternity

originally written and shared on January 28 2013 as part of the Adieu IPKKND Contest on India-forums;

Their story wasn't ordinary, neither was it extraordinary but there was something between them that created that raw spark that illuminated them with a circle of their own. With a few more ramblings, fights, and nights filled with love, six months had passed leaving behind a trace of beautiful emotions that heaved inside them.

The faint crackling outside became bolder with the sun's rays resurfacing among the cloud and peaking through hedges and windows. Her soft hands rubbed against his hard as her fingers clasped tightly onto them while struggling to bury her face deeper in his chest. The posture of his face changed causing her arms around him to tighten. His eyes fluttered open, his gaze falling upon her angelic face that rested against him.

He noticed the sun rising outside, the colors blending in the clouds, and the silky softness around him sinking. Feeling the roughness of his hands on hers, he traced the profile of her arms. The tingling feeling burst inside her and after squirming for a while and hiding her face in the pillow, she stifled a yawn and sat up, leaning against his arm.

"Why did you wake me up?" she uttered softly, the word almost slipping her mouth while her eyes remained half-closed.

He bent his face down to nuzzle her neck but as soon as he did, she pushed him away, settling herself firmly beside him while her head was still on his shoulder. "Aarav can come in!"

"I thought children sleep late in holidays." He replied with his eyebrows scrunched.

"Well, he is your son and from last week of the holidays, he's been driving me crazy by waking up at seven sharp every morning and playing those awful video games." Her voice reflected her tired state, "and to add to that, Amara doesn't stop crying after getting even a glimpse of that game."

She yawned, eventually tilting herself and cuddling on his chest while he continued to stare outside.

"Did something happened Arnav?" she asked after a moment elapsed between them in silence.

Her voice was music to his ears but a slight change in tone had a tendency to bring him crashing back to the dreamy sensation he traveled while listening to her. Turning his gaze towards her, he noticed the concern clouding her hazel brown eyes.

The precision of her eyes was something that enthralled him. Her nose was perfect, straight yet with a button edge and her lips, red and luscious but what made him frown was the slightly scrunched eyebrows that expressed the conflict that seemed to build inside her. His hands traveled towards her face, brushing the strands from her eyes and shifting his gaze back towards the sky that reflected through the sky he let the words slip from his mouth, his husky voice echoing.

"Every time I happen to see something abstract, something that has a deeper meaning to it, I think about us." His voice softened with emphasis on 'us', as he squeezed her hand and realized the soft curve on her lips. "But it's not always the happy thoughts that seem to fly through me. It's those entire days where our lives were miserable. The times we met and then with our marriage. Things grew out of control and even after we got married there were tons of things that just came along and granted that we made time for each other, it was never something that either one of us deserved. I mean, to some extent I did deserve but you didn't and I feel like that something might to the 'us' we are today. Not just you and me but Aarav, Amara, and Aryan too." His tone was toppling and even though he felt her grip on him and her assurances he felt his vulnerability dripping by.

She looked towards him, his caramel brown eyes flickering with honesty, and just by the caresses on his forehead, she knew he was scared. She slid her hand from his grip, softly putting it on his cheeks.

"I think it's finally time you hear this." She let out with a sigh. "When I fell n love with you, I didn't know it was love. All I know is that it was something that could just get me in the worst of the situation. I began to struggle to point at your mistakes just so I can hate you again. I wanted to hate you so much after our marriage that maybe somewhere along the way that hatred grew so intense that it flipped itself into love. When you left for London the first time after our wedding, there were these tangled thoughts that somehow convinced me that I just can't hate you anymore."

She sat up straight looking into his eyes, "I was scared too once. I don't know why though. I never figured that but I know for a fact that nothing will ever be able to break us apart. Not even us ourselves."

They sat there drinking in their own words, letting their thoughts sink into them, and with relief spreading both the faces, they collapsed over each other, their arms enveloping

The brightness outside spread over the garden, the light reflecting off the clear water and the blue sky showing itself underneath the warm rays. The door was pushed open and the couple stayed in each other's arms the way they ought to be. The boy was almost six and the other carrying a playing little baby girl was thirteen. The family jumped over to the bed snuggling with their parents.

Some things are best left unsaid while some evaporate after floating in the air. Their eyes met as the children got themselves comfortable and in that instance, they knew, that nothing would be breaking apart. Like the blending of colors that throw out hope, their story will never end without splattering more of that color.

All was well.