In the Wake of the War

Chapter-29

"Everybody in this Palace has lost their minds." Vrishaketu announced, storming into Vrushali's bed-chambers. 

She raised her eyebrows, lifting her head from her sewing.

"What happened now?"

"The Empress invited me for sherbet and sweets and we chatted about Uttara's favourite colour and I told her a story about an adventure Pitamaha had with Mahamahim Bheeshma! The one in which those villagers in Panaprastha had come with the complaints of that one-eyed monster!" 

Vrushali blinked several times as he flopped heavily onto the bed, beside her.

"You--you had sweets with the Empress. And you told her a story?" That was... indeed strange. Even more surprising was the fact that Vrishaketu, instead of either sitting through the invitation huffily or straight up leaving, had told her a story.

(It gave her some hope that he might be on his way to healing.)

"Yes! She asked me to tell her about an adventure of my Pitamaha I had heard of, and-and she kept making all sorts of not at all veiled comments about 'being part of the family' because of Baba!" Vrishaketu said indignantly. "Can you believe the sheer audacity of the woman?!"

"Yes, I can, actually." Vrushali said, thinking of the fiery woman and how she had said that despite the fact that she would never forgive her husband, she was willing to consider him, and them by proxy, as family(This might have been helped by the fact that her Radheya was dead and gone, and therefore his being included in the family would make absolutely no difference and no one would have to make an actual effort for his sake because he was not there anymore-- She did her best to keep her turmoil from showing on her face.). "Anyone else wouldn't dare overstep like that, but the Empress would." 

But the fact that he had still not got up and had told her a story... well.

Vrishaketu continued ranting about Draupadi and Vrushali smiled softly, her heart steadying a bit as she looked at her son. As much as the grief still crushed them, she was glad to see Vrishaketu at least slowly start to return to his old self. He would still never be the same as before of course, after all the horror he had experienced, but then again, none of them would be.

The friendship with Uttara had been good for him. Having someone close to his age to spend time with seemed to have helped lighten him up a little. She would give the girl a hug the next time she met her--if she would permit it of course.

Vrishaketu was still going on. What was he saying?

Something, something, "Rajkumar Arjun"--

At the mention of Arjun's name and the expression on her son's face, she abruptly zoned back in to what he was saying.

"--believe that Uttara would lock me up alone with that man--"

"Wait, wait, what?" Vrushali cut him off, bewildered. "Lock you up?!"

Vrishaketu shot her a reproachful look. "You weren't paying attention."

"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. He huffed and she leant forward to give him a big kiss on the cheek. Seemingly mollified, he draped himself all over her.

"So what were you saying about being locked up?" She asked, running a hand through his hair.

"Uttara had the bright idea that locking me and her father-in-law in the same room would somehow be conducive to our improvements in our 'relationship'." He scoffed. "What relationship?! And it was so ridiculous!!!! And awful!"

Vrushali thought that with everything she was hearing, her eyebrows ran the very real risk of disappearing into her hairline.

"So, then what happened?" she asked quietly, wondering if being locked alone in a room with Arjun had caused any of his trauma to rear up his head, like it had when he had seen him in the forest.