Unlikely To Happen

Part 23 - Moving Along

Part 23 – Moving Along

Morning found Maleeha curled up on Zaakir's chest. Her one arm was slung over his shoulder and her head was snuggled under his chin. Zaakir marvelled in her warmth and enjoyed the few peaceful moments he had with her voluntarily sleeping on him.

It warmed his heart and softened his resolve against her. How could he want to pretend that he didn't know her? How could he continue with the game of ignoring the fact that she was his first love? He couldn't, and he wouldn't. Deep down, he knew that it was time for him to confess the truth to her and to let her know exactly how much he loved her.

Trying not to wake her up, he slowly rolled his shoulder, however the pins and needles sensation stopped him. His arm was completely numb. A part of him wanted to wake Maleeha up, to get her off his shoulder, but a bigger part of him felt guilty. She was tired, they had been forced to endure situations that neither of them had ever expected. Both of them lead very sheltered, soft lives. They were never forced to spend a night or two outdoors, with limited supplies, no internet connection and in a terrible terrain.

"Are you up?" Maleeha groaned as she rolled over and stretched.

Zaakir couldn't help it as he rolled his eyes. "No."

She sat up and her hair fell around her shoulders in waves that stunned Zaakir. "Good," she muttered as she turned her back on him. "Now, you can tell me how you know about Lamia and Muwahid!"

He gave her a dry, humourless laugh as he rolled his shoulders, trying to get sensation back into them. His attention, however, was glued to Maleeha. The way the sunlight hit her hair and created a glittering reddish-brown halo, the sun gave her a dewy complexion that made her tiredness stand out. "You fell asleep last night," he told her, shifting the blame. He knew that he was the one who drifted off in his thoughts.

Annoyed, she turned and looked at him over her shoulder. "Maybe," she sassed him. "But you were the one lost in your own thoughts."

The smile he gave her creeped her slightly out. It hinted at untold secrets, as if he was a chasm of hidden meanings and things that she was not privy to. "Wouldn't you like to know what they were?" he wiggled his eyebrows at her while giving her a haughty smirk.

She flicked her messy curls over her shoulder, tilted her chin slightly upwards and then responded tartly, "Not really. I just wanted to know how you knew about Lamia and Muwhid."

A harsh wind blew the sand and tiny rocks around them, causing Maleeha's hair to fly wildly around her, disrupting her vision. She shivered as she wrapped her arms around her body and tried to cover as much of herself as she could to protect herself against the wind. Hastily, Zaakir crawled closer to her and pulled her against the crumbling wall, hoping to shield them both against the wind and potentially dangerous tiny rocks that could hit them.

One of his long, lean and heavy arms settled around her slim shoulders forcing her to curl underneath his arm and against his side. His dark head of straight, sleek hair rested against her head keeping her grounded to him. His brown eyes were shut, his long black eyelashes rested peacefully on his cheeks, casting a rainbow glittering shadow on his smooth and slightly tanned cheeks. His defined nose, long and lean like most of his well-kept body made Maleeha marginally jealous as she stared at him.

Why was he so handsome? She questioned herself. It made it harder for her to resist his unusual charms, his weird quips and his dry sense of humour.

Zaakir's dark and brooding stare, his intense look of concentration had become something that she found herself looking forward to seeing. It bothered her how accustomed she had become to his dark nature, his moody nature.