SMZS One shots (Comp)

Kartik's Story (Interlude)

A/N: And this is Kartik's story for you folks! 

Warning: Auto corrects and typos are always behind my back so please forgive me for any mistakes. And please don't get mad at my attempt at typing Hindi, it is NOT my First or Second language so I am prone to make mistakes.

There was once a time where Kartik was happy with his life. A loving mother, a busy but caring father, a few friends... He was happy. But it was short lived. First, his mother died, saving him from an accident, causing his father to resent him. When he was seven, it became worse.

He had started expressing himself weirdly, people used to say, as he dyed his hair or did something that other boys normally didn't do. He was usually spotted around the girls, especially Devika, who was the one who stayed with him till the end. And then the shameless flirting he used to do with the boys, something which was unnatural for the people in his street.

He couldn't understand what was going on when people started sneering at him or berating him for the way he spoke with boys. 'Wasn't this normal?' he used to think as he looked at the elders around him. Then came the end. He had asked a boy to hang out with him alone and his dad dragged him home and started beating him up, trying to beat the evil away from the boy.

From then on, life was hell for small Kartik. The boys at school and home always used to make fun of him, the adults looked at him weirdly, no one wanted to play with him, except Devika and his home life was unbearable.

And he retaliated to every accusation, he lashed out at any offender and definitely sought out each and every opportunity to defy his father at every stage. He was determined to run away from home along with Devika, who was the rock of his life, the ray of light in the darkness.

But words always cut deep. And the words of one's own father telling him that he doesn't deserve to be loved? That always cuts the deepest. This thought getting repeatedly reinforced in his mind by each and every one who he had tried to love but in the end always ended up hurting him, both physically and emotionally.

It was Devika who always brought him out of these dark waters, keeping him afloat from sinking into the sea called depression. Then his escape came in the form of college, in Delhi, away from his home, away from all the negativity. Kartik was very happy. He packed his bags and left to Delhi.

And college provided him the exact weapons to rebel with his father. He was restless, always bunking classes whenever he didn't feel like it, hanging out with anyone and everyone he could get, he even got two dates with cute guys! But they turned out to be bisexuals who leaned more into girls but... oh well! At least they didn't berate him or beat him up for being a gay, so that was a plus point.

There was always full out arguments with his dad, which ended up with Kartik either getting full out drunk or spending the night ranting to Devika, who had also come with him to Delhi for higher studies. Well... better to say that she moved to Delhi with her dad as he didn't trust Devika around boys... at least her dad didn't outright hate him.

There was one point where he had got a tattoo on his neck, a black outline of a triangle, just to spite his dad and anger him it did. He had spent the whole night getting a earful from his dad about how he should save money instead of doing all these unwanted things as he wasn't going to support Kartik any longer. 'As if I needed his oh so wonderful support' he thought as he left home forever.

He rented a nice but affordable apartment, whose owner surprisingly didn't mind that he was gay after that one time he brought home a boy as a date. The guy had just told him to keep it down.

He was reasonably happy with his life and was even more proud of his sexuality, always effectively shutting up people who bad mouthed him. He got himself a nose ring, saying that it suited his personality, ignoring the comments people used to give him for that.