The Exchange

Saans

The minute she arrived to the lake, she felt him...she felt his presence, she sensed him in her heart. And while her breaths were still not in her control, while her entire body was still shaking, she felt peace come over her. The same peace she had felt at the airport, in the concert venue, in the parking lot. The same peace that she had been missing for the past year. The same peace that was only possible when her life was beside her. She finally let go of her throat, and placed her hands on her heart. "Abhi...." she gasped... 

And, while she was still many meters away from him, he heard her. He heard her plight, he heard her desperation. He immediately got up from the ledge of the lake, and turned around. "Akshu?" he asked himself. And with that, he started walking...he started running in her direction. He started following the sound of her breaths that his heart heard loud and clearly...he started following the sound of his OWN breaths...and in those breaths, he heard her song, he heard her music...as every melody that she had ever created was for him...every melody that she had ever created WAS him. Even in her gasps, even in her lifeless pleas, he heard her sing...because now that he was near her, now that she felt him close to her, in her every gasp, in her every struggle was an ode to him... 

The moon shone down brighter than it had in the past year...as if it was bestowing its silent admiration upon these lovers that loved each other so deeply, so fiercely, that they had given up their everything...they had sacrificed every inch of their being in each other's honor. The moon lit his path as his soul led him to her...and the moon lit the distance in front of her as she stood, unable to walk any further...as she stood, waiting for him to find her....as she stood, the day she had been waiting for for the past year finally here....

After running for what felt like an eternity, he saw her. He saw the back of her head...he saw her wearing the same black hoodie that he had gifted her on her birthday...the same hoodie he had told her to hide in...the same hoodie that he had warned he she could not use to leave him...but she had done just that. However, in this moment, the pain she had caused him, the heartbreak he had felt...none of it mattered. All that mattered was that she was here. All that mattered was their reunion.

"AKSHU!!!!" He screamed. 

And with those words, she turned around....their eyes seeing each other for the first time in a year, their hearts truly beating for the first time in a year, their souls whole for the first time in a year...

He went and grabbed onto her, telling her to breathe...telling her to calm down...

"Akshu, Akshu, please breathe. Akshu breathe....Akshu...dekho breathe...Akshu mein ne tum ko kitni bar bolą hai...mein tumko aise nahi dekh sakta...acha Akshu...AKSHU...sing...please...Akshu...." 

He pled with her over and over again, wiping the tears that were falling uncontrollably from her eyes...just as she took his tears into the palm of her hands...each tear her holiest, purest, most sacred water...

And then, it happened. He took her into his arms, pressed her against his chest...he embraced her more tightly than he ever had...he loved her more passionately than he ever had...

She clutched onto him, holding on with every ounce of strength she had left...if this was a dream, she would never let it end. If this was her imagination, then she hoped she would be here forever... 

The entire universe, the entire galaxy heard their sobs...their sobs full of pain, full of relief, full of hope, full of fear, full of heartbreak, full of solace.... 

And just then, her foot slipped behind her...and she fell into the lake...the very lake that had united them, the very lake that had witnessed a love like this for the first time since it had existed, the very lake that sent the deepest sense of deja vu down her spine...the very lake that was was so different, and yet exactly as the same as the one that first brought them together...the one that had first led him to her...the one that had first realized that these two people were two halves of the same whole, that these two people were god's greatest miracle..that these two people were sent to earth for the very purpose of being each other's heartbeats, of being each other's everything. 

And when she fell into the water, she took him with her...they fell arm in arm, soul in soul, heart in heart...they fell together...they fell for each other...they fell into each other...and while to the world it may have seemed as if they were drowning, the truth was that they finally found life...they finally breathed...