35 ~ Longing Kiss #3
(He had missed a significant part of his training. There were rules, procedures... and then things just kept getting complicated. His health also started deteriorating.)
"And?"
(Aur?)
"Woh training continue nahi kar saka."
(He couldn't continue his training.)
I looked at her. "Was he expelled?"
Dadi sighed. "Kuch aisa hi samajh lo."
(Something like that.)
The words stayed in my head.
I looked back at the uniform. And I remember Dadi told me about Dada ji's love for joining Army force.
And suddenly I realized I knew so little about my husband.
And I had never even known.
"Unhone mujhe kabhi bataya kyun nahi?"
(Why did he never tell me?)
Dadi looked at me. "Shayad use uss baare mein baat karna pasand nahi."
(Maybe he doesn't like talking about it.)
I lowered my gaze.
My fingers tightened around the edge of the uniform and suddenly, another memory surfaced.
The brutal scar across his upper chest.
The way his expression had changed when I asked him about it.
The way he had stopped me from touching it.
I carefully folded the uniform exactly the way I had found it and placed it back inside the box but I couldn't stop looking at it.
I wanted to know about it. I didn't want to uncover it because I was suspicious of him.
I wanted to uncover it because I wanted to understand him.
I wanted to know what had happened to the boy who had once dreamed of serving his country.
What had made him give up that dream?
What exactly had happened during his training?
Why had he never spoken about it?
I closed the box.
And somehow, I knew I wouldn't be able to rest until I had answers.
I had been waiting for him without even realizing that I was waiting.
I was sitting with my books spread around me, pretending to study while my eyes kept drifting towards the clock every few minutes.
My exams were getting closer, my syllabus was becoming more terrifying by the hour, and yet somehow, the moment I heard the familiar sound of his car engine. I stood up from the bed and immediately ran downstairs.
The front door opened, everything else disappeared from my mind.
He had just stepped inside, dressed in his formal clothes.
He loosened his tie as he walked in, barely looking up before his eyes found mine.
Something in his face changed instantly.
The tiredness didn't disappear completely, but his entire expression softened, as though seeing me had somehow made the weight of the day lighter.
And before I could even say anything, he was already walking towards me.
My heart doing something embarrassingly strange inside my chest.
The moment I reached him, his arms wrapped around me and pulled me against him with a familiarity that had started becoming dangerously comforting.
He held me close, one hand settling securely around my waist while the other rested against my back, and I could feel him breathe out slowly against my hair.
"I missed you."
The simplicity of those words made my chest tighten.
"I missed you too."
I didn't know what possessed me after that. Maybe it was the relief of seeing him home. Maybe it was the way his arms were around me.
I looked up at him, and for a few seconds neither of us moved. His eyes searched mine, curious and warm, while my heartbeat became louder with every passing second. Before I could overthink it, I rose onto my toes and pressed my lips against his.
Kartik froze. Just for a moment. It was barely a second, but I felt it.
His arms tightened around me as if he hadn't expected me to make the first move. I almost pulled away, suddenly shy beneath the intensity of his gaze, but then his expression changed. The surprise melted from his eyes, replaced by something softer, deeper, and unmistakably affectionate.
He lowered his head and kissed me back.
The kiss was gentle at first, almost careful, as though he was giving me time to change my mind. But when I stayed close, when my fingers curled lightly into the fabric of his shirt, something in him relaxed.
His hand moved slowly along my back, drawing me closer, and his lips lingered against mine with a warmth that made me forget every thought I had been carrying all evening.
I could feel the faint exhaustion still clinging to him, yet there was something almost peaceful about the way he kissed me now, as if coming home to me had been the one thing he had been looking forward to all day.
I closed my eyes and let myself stay there.
There was a strange, beautiful comfort of finally being able to admit that I had missed him too.
His hand rested securely around my waist while I had one hand curled into the front of his shirt as I sucked his lower lip.
Until...
Thud!!!
A loud sound echoed through the hall.
Something had clearly fallen to the floor.
Kartik and I broke apart instantly.
My eyes flew open, and I turned towards the sound and then I wished I hadn't.
Chachi was standing a few feet away from us.
She had one hand frozen in mid-air, while several things that she had apparently been carrying lay scattered across the floor.
But that wasn't what made me want the ground to swallow me whole.
It was her face.
She looked absolutely horrified.