Main Hoon Saath Tere (OS Series with IshqKaRang)

OS #4 || Fascinated With You||

In the humid, dry, arid weather of Somnath, as sun beat down nineteen-year-old Shiva's back, berating him to do work; one woman stuck out like a sore thumb. She was slender like a flower, blooming in all the right places. Her light-colored eyes, her flushed cheeks, her peachy skin... she wore a pale peachy-pink embroidered salwar kameez with her long hair swaying even in this humid weather that tended to sink everything to the ground.

Maami-Ki-Behen-Ki-Beti by day, his Raavi by night. His childhood playmate now was a full-blossomed woman. As lovely as she was today, he knew her beauty would age like fine wine. He heard the tinkling of her laughter, and he froze mid- lifting a bori to stare at her, enthralled by her. As she grew up, Maami and Maama had noticed the looks Raavi's beauty was attracting and they reduced, no, limited, nay controlled her interaction with the world.

Need a math tutor, she came to their house to teach Raavi. Dance teacher was specially arranged for her, friends came over to her house, Maama or Gaumbi or Dhara accompanied her all times to protect her to keep her sheltered until she got married.

Yet Raavi's effervescent personality, her cheeky humor, her innocent stares couldn't ever be contained or cloaked demurely, and he was... fascinated. So, like a loon, he stood outside in 44-degree heat at 4 PM because he knew Raavi would be walking from school. This would be her last few days at high school, as she finished up her CBSE board exams and then she was off to college.

He'd have to bribe Anita to find out if she was attending an in-state college, and her college schedule, he thought to himself, not in the slightest bit feeling like a creep. This is all I ever have of her, he told himself. Stolen glances of Somanth- Ki- Sabse- Sundar-Ladki, until she got married and left him forever.

Raavi walked slowly as she inched closer and closer to home, dragging her feet, counting the inches until she got to the doorstep of her home into the cage until she was let out again the next day for school.

Through her lashes, she discreetly stared at Shiva Pandya, lifting a bori wearing nothing but a ganji and khaki pants. Shiva, physically and mentally resembled his namesake. Tough as stone, immovable as rock, he was stubborn and passionate. Her childhood nemesis had grown up to be a fine specimen of a man. Shiva would bend the world to his will before he let the world break him.

They were different as chalk and cheese; she was about to fly off to college and he was a 12th dropout. Yet for their differences, he couldn't stop staring at her when their paths crossed. His eyes couldn't hide the young, carefree lad who played cricket at night, his winsome smile, his unsung honor, and Raavi was...fascinated.

Raavi gulped observing his sweat stained shirt, the sheen of hard work and grime of physical labor clung to him, as he let out a grunt trying not to buckle under the weight of the bori or the world.

She twisted her ankle and tripped on air, as his muscles rippled with exertion and a lone drop of sweat dripped from his forehead, down to his temple, cheek, neck, jumping over his Adam's apple before slipping into the 'v' of his ganji.

"Raavi! Walk properly!" snapped Anita Di, whacking her across her arm.

"Sorry," she softly muttered, a touch apologetically.

Shiva was her bachpan ka dushman by day, her partner in all her sexual fantasies at night. He was the little rascal who refused to let her play with his brothters but in her dreams, all they did was play and dance to the tune of her sexual fantasies. Would she ever be allowed to be with Shiva freely? Talk to him, as she had seen other girls do? Hold his hands... and bear his children? She asked herself before she tossed her head back and laughed at her own silly question.