Tiger's True Destiny (Tiger's Curse fan fic)

Ivory and blue

Some 15 hours later, I stood before the full-length mirror in Nilima's room where she had hidden me away from a way too curious Mr. Kadam and a waaaaay too motivated Kishan, who had actually gone as far as to climb the walls and jump on my balcony to catch a glimpse.

So we had relocated. Nilima's room didn't have a balcony, which made getting ready a lot easier for us and gaining access a lot harder for Kishan. We'd heard him cursing when he found out, but it was already too late by then. Nilima and I had shared a very private smile. Somehow her relationship with my ex-boyfriend and soon to be brother-in-law, had firmly cemented our relationship as sisters. She never seemed jealous of my past with him, and I didn't begrudge her the love she now finally had in her life. She'd earned it. I guess she had beenwrong at the Star Festival after all: her true love had been closer than she'd thought possible at the time.

Fidgeting with the Scarf, that had turned ivory with shiny cobalt blue threads in my hands the second I had touched it in Durga's temple, I stared at my reflection. The colours of the Scarf shifted a bit, moved with my mood from elated, to nervous, to overjoyed and stressed-out, but they remained steadfast white and blue. White as my tiger, blue as his eyes.

Okay Scarf, work your magic. I sent a silent command to the magical item to create my wedding gown around me. I had some images in mind from leafing through endless stacks of wedding magazines with Nilima (and Mr. Kadam, who was strangely invested in the fashion aspect of my wedding planning), but I trusted the Scarf knew me better than I did myself and was sure that I'd end up with a dress beyond my wildest dreams. I just hope it wouldn't say 'I love tigers' like that pair of pajama's it had conjured up once in a cinch. That would be hard to explain to the normal people attending the festivities. It would be great seeing Jennifer from Wushu again though, and Li who'd accepted the invitation because a free trip to India with his new girlfriend was just too good to pass up.

Thankfully, the wedding dress ended up perfect. It was the same ivory white as the Divine Scarf had been only a minute or two ago, and had pale blue beading accentuating my curves around a sweetheart neckline. The skirt was a lot more poofy than  I would have thought I'd like, but to my surprise it was gorgeous. I felt like a princess. And even though the Rajaram princes technically hadn't been active as royalty for centuries, I guess in a way I would become one today. At least to those who mattered.

Lost in thought, I nearly jumped a foot into the air when warm, strong hands grabbed me tightly from behind and rough lips pressed a kiss on my cheek.

"Ren! You can't be here!" I shouted out indignant, but when I turned around, it were golden eyes and not blue ones I was confronted with.

"Kishan!" I shoved him playfully and he was nice enough to pretend I'd made an effect by taking a step back, laughing goodheartedly all the same. "How did you even get in here?" I asked. "Did Nilima ..."

I looked at the door and there she was, looking sheepish and stepping out to give us some privacy.

"Sorry Kells, but you do know I have some influence on Nilima now. She is my fiancée after all." That didn't stop him from taking my hand in his and kissing it lightly, however. I sighed. There would always be something between us, but Kishan's chivalrous kiss didn't send goose bumps up my arms, nor did it make me want to rush towards the altar and marry him instead. I saw the same sentiment reflected in his golden eyes. We were both happy with the way things has turned out, the people we ended up with.

"I thought it only fair that I should be the first to see you in your wedding dress, since Ren saw you first, you know, generally speaking."

"Sure, tiger boy. And it has nothing to do with you knowing Ren will be furious when he finds out."

Kishan grinned impishly: "What's a wedding without a little sibling rivalry? Come on, Kells. He knows how I feel about Nilima, and I know how you feel about my big brother. But you're my best friend. And I was way too curious to see if you'd go with a sweetheart neckline or a halter one."

"You have been reading too many wedding magazines", I laughed at his use of the specific terms.

"How could I not, they have been everywhere for the last three months! But in none have them have I seen a wedding dress as fine, or a bride as beautiful."

"Ahum, that's enough of that, I think", Nilima said with her arms crossed, glaring at us from across the room she had re-entered. Her wide smile and glittering eyes at seeing the front of my Scarf-made wedding dress soon negated her previous expression: "Miss Kelsey, it's lovely!"

"You should really stop referring to me as 'miss', Nilima", I said, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, soon she'll have to call you misses", Kishan contributed with a wink while he draped his dark, muscular arm around his girlfriend, who smiled up at him lovingly. I looked at the two of them, so right for each other in their differences, their similarities. They challenged each other, they were a force to be reckoned with: Nilima one of organization, Kishan one of ... well, everything else. They were made for each other, just as much as Ren and I were. So weird we never saw that before.

Nilima eyed the Scarf and noted that maybe she should get her own wedding dress made now we had the Scarf, granted to us by Durga for the day, before it would disappear into the divine realm or wherever it went again. "Or you could just wear one of the fifty wedding dresses you had Kadam fly over for Kelsey, should Durga not have accepted her request to borrow the Divine Scarf?" Kishan suggested calmly.

My eyes widened in shock. I knew she probably had some dresses on stock for exactly that reason, but fifty? I sincerely hoped Kishan was overreacting. Nilima read my mind and said: "47 to be exact."

Then Kishan, suddenly overcome with a forceful passion and admiration for his fiancée, kissed Nilima hard on the mouth and swept her off her feet. He carried her out like that, and I remembered the many, many times he had carried me in his arms. To be fair, most of the time I was gravely injured by a Kraken of giant shark or whatever. It wasn't like that. It was never like that. He had always protected me as he would a little sister, always coveted me as something that belonged to his brother. He loved me, sure. But he had never carried me off like that.

Would Ren do so, later this evening, stepping over the threshold with me? I bit my lip thinking about it. We had waited so very long ... but it would all be worth it tonight, on our wedding night.

I wasn't left alone with my sultry thoughts for too long, because soon it was time to get things started. Mr. Kadam knocked on the bedroom door en was crying before he even came in and saw me. Yet his arm never wavered as he walked me out of Nilima's room and towards the spectators awaiting my descent from the stairs. It was all very dramatic, let me tell you.

Wiping away a tear while another disappeared into his short-trimmed, white-gray beard, I kissed Mr. Kadam on his stubbly cheek. A grandfather, a father, a mentor, a guide. He had been so many things to me. It was only right he'd be the one to walk me down the aisle. I felt sort of bad for Mike, who had taken me in after my parents died and to whom I owed much too, but he'd have his own children to give away one day.

"You truly make for a stunning bride, as you will a loving wife and a wonderful mother, Miss Kelsey." Just as I was about to protest that he too, should stop calling me 'miss' after all we'd been through, the quests that had forged this family, he corrected himself: "Excuse me, misses Rajaram."

I laughed nervously, a sort of bubbling sound, as I walked with trembling legs down the stairs, towards the man waiting at the end the line. Ren. My Ren. His cobalt blue eyes locked with my brown ones. He smiled, looking gorgeous as ever. In a matter of minutes we'd be husband and wife. My nerves melted away. With every step I took, I knew my feet and my heart were leading me towards my true destiny.