"What was that?" She asked, while putting a clean plate in front of him. He had his eyes trained on the file Gyan had left. When she asked that, he responded without looking up. "That was nothing you should be concerned about."

"But I want to know. What were you talking about? Kill whom? Why did you say that?" She grimaced as she said it aloud. What kind of brothers talk about sparing each other's lives?

Abhimanyu raised his eyes and fixed them on her. "Whatever wrong impression you're developing..." he began, but she had had enough. She interrupted impatiently, "I heard it. Okay? Gyan wants to kill you. Why?"

He blinked, averted his gaze, put down the file aside and picked up the spoon. "It's not him. He's only strayed. There's someone else, and I only realized that lately."

"I don't understand. Who'd even do that?"

He ate a spoonful before returning his eyes to her. "Sit down first."

She did so, and waited for his clarification which he did shortly.

"Gyan and I never really had time to spend together. I used to come home once a year, and that was all we had. Before reaching his adolescence, Papa used to take us to vacations, and we'd lost our playtime or bonding time – whatever you may want to call it, to that. Even so, he and Ritu were fond of me. Then Didiya and Dev came to live with us. Maa's attention turned towards them. Since I've always stayed away from family, this situational changes never bothered me that much. But, Gyan. Perhaps, he was affected by it. Eventually, he stopped playing with me when I came. Even Ritu complained the same, that he wouldn't play with her either.

"What can I say, no one has time to listen to a child's whine. Everyone ignored her words, and I, well, I never felt the need of bonding with someone. Aloneness is convenient for me. I'm just very used to it. Perhaps that's why the problem with Gyan never occurred to me. Papa was busy with work, Maa had work plus she used to attain the trials of didiya's case. Dev's biological grandfather messed with the case a lot. Then Dev's health condition came out. Things have been stressful for my parents. Since beginning. What do I say? Our childhood wasn't really filled with toys and treats we should brag about." He paused and stared ahead, not particularly looking at anything.

She dropped her gaze and gulped but didn't make any noise.

He resumed after a while. "Since he was growing and had no alike companion, Papa asked Shyam uncle to bring Rishi from time to time. So that the boys could play together and have fun. Rishi got along with Gyan although he was an adult around that time, 18 and Gyan was 11. In due course, Gyan changed as every adolescent boy does. After he turned 13, he started hanging out with older boys, Rishi and his friends were among them. When I came home in between my semesters, he started ignoring me. I had no say as I found the situation fitting for me. I'd spend time on my own, he'd stay out of my business and vice versa. I didn't realize when his neglect turned into hatred towards me."

Her eyes shifted to his plate. The food had gone cold again. She might have to fix another plate.

After a momentary pause, he continued, "Two years ago, after I completed my academics, I returned and joined the company. Rishi was already working there in finance, under his father's supervision. Gyan didn't like the board of director's decision of making me the CEO. But he couldn't say much, because it wasn't a biased decision from Papa's side. But all of a sudden, Gyan disappeared for three days after a week I started my work. When he returned, things deteriorated. He did something unexpected and unforgivable." Abhimanyu paused and shifted his steady stare on her. She held his gaze and waited nervously. "He turned up to my office one day after working time was over. I was present there, working overtime, and somehow, he knew that. He came straight to my cabin and set everything on fire."

She shuddered visibly. She remembered Sunny telling her the same story when they were in Darjeeling. "What happened after that?"

"I deleted the footages of three cctv cameras. I had to. He was a minor and since I'm his older brother, it's my responsibility to protect him. Additionally, I didn't want Maa to know about this incident. In fact, not many people know. Papa insisted on checking the footages again after a few days. He didn't listen to my prohibition. Accidentally, Papa found out the fourth camera that had slipped my attention previously. He learned the truth. I didn't want him to know it, but I couldn't do anything. After he learned it was Gyan, he wanted to punish him by sending him away. Vijay uncle prevented him considering Maa's heart. But Gyan got out of control more. Started bringing his older-friends home when Papa and Maa weren't around, started drinking, and smoking. Maybe drugs too – who can say? He even changed his appearance with long hair." He paused, then asked her, "Why do you think he got bitter over time?"

She held his gaze timidly. Was he asking her opinion on this? What would she even know about all this?

She blinked and shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe, he didn't have a companion."

"But he has had plenty of companions throughout his life! That doesn't justify all the wrongs he has done. But... why would he want to kill me – his own sibling?"

She really couldn't think of a proper reason. "I don't know."

Abhimanyu looked ahead and stared at the wall in front. "Because it's a conspiracy, and he's a pawn."

Her mouth fell open. Before she could ask anything, he added, "Everything is linked Shreya. Even the camera that was installed in my room was a part of this conspiracy. I am doubting this since the day of our reception party. But I had no clue until today. Doesn't matter how good a mastermind is, a single mistake can dig his grave. Fortunately, I got an opportunity and suggested Gyan would work in the company. And as I calculated, I got success. He brought me one of the invaluable proofs. He's the only one who could've done that."

Shreya's heartbeat quickened. She felt a sting in her chest and her throat closed in as she asked, "And the incident at the restaurant?"

He turned his face towards her. They made eye contact and her vision suddenly turned blurry. She could understand now what actually happened there, but still she asked him to get the confirmation.

Abhimanyu took a deep breath. "Yeah, it was me. I had a meeting there. A celebration dinner after a successful product launch. But..." he paused and observed her face. "You probably know what happened that day. Were you hurt?"

"So, it was you?" A drop of tear rolled down from the corner of her eyes, when she remembered that horrible day of her life. The person she bumped into was Abhimanyu, and... the realization hit her. He was shot on his hand and the wound she saw on his hand when they were in the tea garden guesthouse – was the same. More tears pooled in her eyes when he said, "Yes, I took you to the hospital if that's what you're asking."

Her constraint on herself broke down when he confirmed that. She held her face in her hands and cried uncontrollably. What if the bullet had hit somewhere else? A place whose wound wouldn't have revived? What would have happened then?

"Why are you crying?"

She shook her head but kept crying.

A while later, she sensed him pulling her chair away from the table. She uncovered her face and glanced up with teary eyes which was when he picked her up bridal style before sitting on the chair himself and sat her on his lap. As a quick reflex she wrapped her arms around his neck. But once she realized she wouldn't fall, she loosened her hold on his neck and wiped her eyes with the back of one of her hands.

"Why are you crying?" He repeated.

She sniffled. "You were shot."

"Yes. That's a given. But I am not dead. Am I?"

She hurriedly covered his mouth. "Don't say that."

He tightened his hold on her waist with one hand and with the other her removed her fingers from his mouth gently. "Why?"

"I don't like the thought of you getting hurt... or killed."

A corner of his mouth lifted up and it looked ethereal on his passive face.

"I know you like me. I want to know why and since when?"

She stared into his eyes. They twinkled intensely. She couldn't understand how could she envisage stars in a pair of human eyes.

She realized something. He was still wearing his spectacles and it was bothering her. She raised her free and stopped before it touched the temples of his specs. "Can I?" She asked softly.

Her whisper followed by his slightest nod which gave her the courage to remove his specs from his eyes before she put it down on the table. Her heart by now was running thousand extra miles per hour as she broke the eye contact for a moment. She searched for a proper answer but gave up shortly unable to find one. Her eyes traced back to the depth of his eyes when her attention caught on the cut of his left eyebrow. She raised her hand once again and lightly traced her fingers over it. "How did this happen?"

"It happened a long time ago. I don't really remember."

Her gaze dropped on his lips before it went back to see into his eyes.

"Abhimanyu, I – I don't know why, I just know... my heart has cultivated deep feelings for you since... I don't know when. Everything that you are... my heart aches for you. I don't care if you have flaws, I don't care if they see me as an opportunist, I don't care if they misunderstand me, I just know... I can't see you hurt. Even if you say it's impossible for us, I want to take the risk. Like, right now, I am extremely scared as I'm saying this to you, but still, I want to scream it out to the world how distinctively special you are to me. Even if the impossibility of us breaks me, makes me cry... I'd rather be with you than anyone else." Her voice cracked at the end.

He said nothing but listened to her attentively.

After a brief moment of silence, she resumed, "I just know that if I let you own my heart, my everything, it'd be one of my toughest forgo in life, and yet, I can't seem to stop myself." She choked on her own words as her eyes burned and heart ached. She softly cupped his face and grazed her thumb over his cheek lightly. "I know you're not an easy person to love. I know that you warned me before. I know that how scary it'd be living with no expectation...and yet..." Tears started streaming down her face. "I love you. Even when I shouldn't."

He blinked, and took a deep breath. The still air present in the tiny space between them grew heavier.

"Shreya, I don't understand love. But I know there are segments of it. What do you want me to do to reciprocate?"

She wrapped her arms around and buried her face into the crook of his neck.

"I have seen those arts."

"I know."

Her heart stopped. He knew? Oh my God! This man will be the end of her someday.

He added, "But those are just imaginations. They don't mean I want to perform them in real life."

"Don't you want to?"

"Would you like?" 

She didn't respond for a few seconds and he seemed to wait for her response.

"What if my answer is in negative?"

"I don't mind at all. I told you, they're just imaginations. They need not to be fulfilled."

She responded after a momentary silence, "When you love someone, you want to love their everything. Mind, body and soul. But if you can't understand love, sex is all you have left to give in return. Even if sex doesn't define love, it's still a part of love."

"Are you changing your values of life for me?"

"Sadhguru says, 'you need to know when to use logic and when not. All the beautiful things in life look stupid if you logically analyze them'."

He fell silent again.

She felt the rhythmic up and down of his heartbeat against her ribcage.

She raised her head and looked into his eyes, then at his lips and then back into his eyes. As if she was pleading him to understand her cues, although she knew it might not make any difference.

It did nonetheless.

He leaned closer and captured her lips with his. Two unlike worlds crashed into each other making time slow down. He didn't hesitate to press his mouth against hers and started moving his lips slowly. Like he had all the time in the world – as if he was out in search of his lost emotions. He adjusted her weight with one hand while with the other one he held the base of her neck steady. Her body tightly pressed against his and she reveled in that feeling. She loved having him close to her body -- it was like, her body had been craving for it since a long time. At that moment, she wanted to erase all the space they had in between them.

Their mouths moved in sync and she didn't even realize when she became too needy for air that her lungs were going to burst when he finally released her lips. She was panting heavily when she opened her eyes and stared at him languorously. He was already watching her, breathing slightly faster than usual.

"Do you like it?"

"Do it again."

And, so he did.

She might have had several kisses in her life, but when Abhimanyu kissed her the second time, it rocked her world to the moon and beyond and never stopped in between until satisfaction.

She did not expect it coming. But when it did, his effects on her spread brutally and limitlessly throughout the unknown space that she continuously found herself losing her poise.

She ran her fingers through his hair feeling each strand separately while he moved his lips against hers deliberately. She had her eyes closed in bliss and she didn't want to open them ever. She wanted to get lost in this feeling, in his arms forever. But her fantasy and reality were polar opposites.

He released her and leaned his forehead on hers. She kept his eyes closed when he asked softly, "Do you want to have sex?"

She didn't know what she heard but her response was spontaneous. "Yes. Make love to me."

After that, somehow, miraculously, he asked her out on a date. "Will you come with me Tomorrow?"

"Where?"

"A place you'll like."

"Yes."

For the first time, it was an easy answer.

..

Author's note: Or so she thought. 😭