As the last box was brought up to Arjun's penthouse, Neha announced, "Rahul and I have decided to throw you two a welcome home party."

Sanam grumbled, "No! I'm very tired, and I'm sure Arjun is too." He was the one who did most of the lifting. Sanam had barely gotten enough time to take a day for relaxing.

Neha rolled her eyes, "I'm not saying we have a party today. You obviously look very tired. So, rest tonight. Tomorrow, we celebrate."

Neha left no space for argument, and it was confirmed by the finality in her tone. Her hormones were all over the place with the pregnancy, and she was going to take full advantage of the fact to be as stubborn as she deemed fit. Others in the family could only abide to her whims.

Rahul and Neha left to return home. After locking the front door and walking back to Arjun's room, she placed her hands on her hips and sighed, looking around at the boxes she needed to unpack now.

Arjun too walked in after her, draping his arms over her shoulder. "Well... home sweet home."

She lightly leaned back into his chest, her body aching and sleep calling out to her. "Home sweet home." She repeated. It all felt more official now. As much as she would rather sleep, she had work to finish. "Back to work." She said reluctantly moving out of the safety and comfort of his arm and walking to the packed boxes. Almost two hours later, the essentials were unpacked, with most of the things being books. Her medical journals that she subscribed to.

It was only 9 when they were done with dinner. Sanam laid down on the bed whereas Arjun was at his study desk watching YouTube videos on the laptop. She thought of going to sleep early, but twenty minutes later when it didn't come, she got tired. She was so used to falling asleep past midnight and having only 5-6 hours of sleep per day that having all this free time was killing her. She had no idea how to spend her time. She was spending the minutes right now worrying over what she would do tomorrow when there was nothing to study for the next two weeks till her fall semester would start.

She walked up and leaned back against the desk, pulling out his headphones. "Doing anything important?"

He shook his head, taking off the ear plug from his other ear, "Nope, I thought you were going to bed so I put in headphones."

Her shoulder slumped, "I did try, but it's too early. I'm as wide awake as an owl."

He chuckled pulling his laptop screen down, "And let me guess. You're worrying about not having anything to do?"

She narrowed her eyes, "Am I that predictable?"

He stood up from the chair, "No, only when it comes to things with your studies that you're predictable. Anyway, let's see... want to play cards?"

Her lips moved sideways, "Hmm, I don't know. I haven't really played cards since I was a kid."

He shook his head admonishing. "Shame, Sanam. We have to turn you into a fun person these next two weeks." She narrowed her eyes but he grinned instead and opened a drawer and pulled out a deck. He nodded her over towards the window where there was a two seated couch. She walked over and sat leaning against its arm, one leg tucked under her while the other touched the floor. He mimicked her position and started shuffling the cards. "Let's start with the easiest game on the planet. Do you know how to play Go Fish?"

She bobbed her head to the side, "I think?"

"I'll teach you as we go along then." He quickly offered before he got an idea, "How about we make it interesting?"

"How?"

He explained, "Every time either of us draws a card, the other person gets to ask a question. Any question and the other person has to answer honestly."

"Okay," she agreed.

He smirked for she had no idea what she had just innocently agreed to.

"Wait," She said just before he'd deal the cards. "Any questions as in including deep personal questions?"

He offered her a raised brow, "Why not? Scared?"

She scoffed, "Psht. No. Bring it on."

With a smirk, he dealt each of them 7 cards.

Arjun asked, "Any 3's?" Sanam shook her head at the first round itself and reached for a card. Deciding to start off easy, he asked. "Are you still in touch with your childhood best friend?"

Well, he thought it was a simple question. It wasn't. She looked away from him as she answered. "I didn't have any."

His brows knit in confusion, "We all have best friends in school."

"No one wanted to be friends with someone who wouldn't hang out with them after school." She said in a clipped tone for he was already tugging at her emotions.

He fell silent realizing her dad must not have let her go over to her friends' houses after schools. His jaw clenched as a result, registering things with her parents were rockier than he'd imagined. He had assumed it might be just the way she saw him treat their mother that had her not believe in relationships.

"Any J's?" She asked, clearing her throat and continuing the game.

He blinked away from her forcing his expression to soften before glancing down at his cards. He handed over the 2 J's he had, asking for Queens and she handed over the one she had. At her next question, he drew a card.

She asked her question, "What are your nightmares about?"

He flickered his gaze over to her, "No beating around the bush, huh?"

"You keep not answering them." She defended her reason thinking he wouldn't ever tell her if she didn't ask it now.

He gulped before promising, "Alright, I'll tell you before we call it a night." She opened her mouth to object but he didn't let her, "We didn't make any rules that we had to answer right away."

She glared at him grumpily, "Fine, but you're not going to deflect this anymore."

He nodded, "I promise."

She accepted that and they moved on. After a couple of minutes, she got the chance to ask a question again. "According to you, what's the biggest sign of a weakness in a person?"

"Not being true to yourself." He answered as he picked up a card from the deck. "You can lie to the whole world if you want, but if you lie to yourself, you're just cheating on yourself and that is going to get you nowhere."

He asked next, "What do most people overestimate or underestimate about you?"

She took a few seconds to come to an answer, "I think people overestimate how I interact with people. I mean they usually think I'm smart so they assume I can talk my way out of anything or that I must have social knowledge but I'm pretty bad at reading between the lines on things people say to me. It's like if you have to tell me something, you have to tell it to me straight up."

He understood she didn't catch on to hints as well as people thought she observed. She was a lot more book smart. It's why she preferred dealing with facts and logic in the science than the uncertainties.

After three more questions and only one more of her question, she grumbled. "It's not fair. I feel like I'm the only one answering."

He laughed, "It's a game, sweetheart. I haven't rigged it or anything. Now answer. What's your dream vacation?"

"Okay, don't judge. I know people say Venice is the sewage city of Europe, but staying there would be my dream vacation. All the historical sites and..."

He cut her short there itself, "Say no more. I got it. You and your love for history. Honestly, one of these days, I'm just going to admit you into a museum. Oo wait, when you die, I'll just..."

She kicked his leg, "So mean!" He laughed at her expression. She negotiated, "Just for that, even if you get the next question, I'll ask you one."

He shrugged his shoulders, giving her that. He had been mean at mocking her deep interest in all things dead and antique. Though, he did understand that she liked them because they were from the past. There are a reflection of reality then. Things that wouldn't change on her because it had already happened. She truly believed the saying that you can learn a lot from history.

"If not working in the family business, what would you be?"

He answered in a heartbeat, "Chef. Girls find male chefs sexy." At her glare, he winked at her.

She muttered, "It's useless asking you things."

He laughed, "Or I just know how to ask better questions."

They bantered about, laughing and teasing each other for the next hour as they finished the game. Well, it didn't end. He ended it when she started to yawn, "how about we call it a night?"

She answered with another quick yawn, "Ye-yeah." She placed her cards upside down on the couch so he couldn't see her cards and walked over to the bed. He did the same and used the restroom first. He did remember the promise he had made to her even if she was sleepy and it had slipped her mind.

Five minutes later when he had changed into his track pants and an old shirt, he returned. Turning off the lights, he slipped into bed from the other end. Bringing his head on the pillow, he called. "Sanam?"

She answered in a faint hum, "Hmm."

He was sure she was half gone for the night. Still, he had to say it. He had been thinking of telling her for some time now. If he didn't say it now, all the convincing he had done to himself would have been for nothing.

"I was kidnapped."

She didn't answer, barely registering his words.

"Sanam?"

At her lack of response again, he sighed. He should be relieved at not having to explain, but he didn't. He actually wanted to open up to her. He couldn't claim to fall for her and not let her into his heart by sharing all his vulnerabilities.

"Good night, beautiful." He whispered, reaching his hand forth to tuck her hair behind her ear. Her head snuggled into her pillow at the touch. It brought a smile on his face. She didn't know it, but he had definitely observed this. Each time he had done that in the past, she'd react by unconsciously leaning into the touch and letting out a small sigh as if with that one gesture, he took away all her troubles.

~

Sanam stirred awake at the vibration by her side. Searching for what woke her up, she realized it was Arjun's phone on her side of the bed. She turned her head to him but he seemed to be in deep sleep. There was no caller ID, but not knowing whether or not it'd be important, she answered.

"Hello?"

The voice replied, a female. "I need to talk to Arjun."

"He's asleep right now. Can I take a message?"

"Who is this?"

"I'm his wife, you are?"

"So it's true."

Her brows burrowed in confusion, "What? Who are you?"

"No one."

Before Sanam could say anything, the phone call ended. Shrugging, she returned the phone to the table. She also made a mental note to remind him to put a lock of some sort on his phone. He had the most basic protection: swipe to unlock. Anyone could go through his phone. Being the public figure he was, she found this very careless. Even if he had nothing to hide, putting a passcode hurts no one.

She closed her eyes to go back to sleep. A second later, they flew open recalling the words she'd heard before going to bed.

I was kidnapped.

"What?!" She exclaimed louder than she had anticipated. He jerked up in a sitting position.

"What? What happened? Mom!"

"You were what?!" She exclaimed again, ignoring his startled reaction.

He turned his head to face her and realized where he was. His shoulders relaxed as he breathed in. "God, Sanam. Don't scare me like that."

She ignored him again, turning on the lamp and turning to face him. She repeated the question, "You were kidnapped?"

He stopped rubbing his eyes at the question, sleep fading away. It was the middle of the night and she wanted to talk about this now. "Oh. You heard me?"

She swatted his knee as it was folded in a sitting position. "Ofcourse I heard you. I wasn't unconscious. You don't tell people that when they're half asleep!"

He sighed, "Could you please stop yelling?"

She felt guilty suddenly. He had told her and she was scolding him for doing that instead of the normal way to react at such news. "I'm sorry." She apologized in a normal voice. "Uh... what – what happened?"

He mumbled to himself, "So I guess we're talking about it now." She couldn't tell him they could talk about it later, because how could she? It was a huge thing! She was too curious. "Ten years ago... I was kidnapped. For almost a year, I didn't see my family. She... she manipulated me into believing they didn't care, that they stopped looking for me a long time ago. I didn't want to believe her at first, but every day when no one came to my rescue, my twelve-year old self started to think she may be telling the truth. One day, they did find me and then, I did learn my parents never stopped looking for me. It just took them long because they didn't receive a ransom call or anything. The police didn't have much to go off on to find me."

"It just made me feel so guilty afterwards because... how could I think my own family would stop looking for me? They loved me to death... still do. But anyway, she was caught eventually and it was an easy case. She was put on trial and sentenced to prison for fifteen years. I thought I would get past it once I was back with my family, but I had spent a long year kidnapped. I started getting nightmares. I didn't tell anyone about them because it would only break their heart. Even today... whenever I'm away from home, I get them."

He had looked away from her while giving her the shortest version of his childhood trauma. She understood why he had to keep it brief. He didn't want to relive those moments extensively. If she had to think back to her own childhood, she wouldn't want to dwell on it either. It wasn't the brightest or the happiest either. It wasn't as dark as his, but it had an element that left an imprint on her.

She reached over to hug him, but before she could, he placed his head just above her knees. Her hand instead went to his head, patting it softly before she rested her head atop his and rubbed his back to offer comfort as best she could. "I'm sorry, Arjun. No one should have to go through that." She truly meant her words. She used to think she had a rough childhood, but she was wrong. He had it worse. He actually had parents who loved him, who wanted him, and he had been kept from them.

She had often wondered the reason behind his nightmares, but generally, he was so normal that she never would have come to this guess. She realized just now... just how much he kept hidden within. He never let it to the surface. With this one back story, everything about him was crystal – his love for his family and friends, his fear behind his closed ones leaving him, why he had once asked her if she wouldn't go anywhere... everything.

When he didn't say anything in return, she felt compelled to ask the question. "Do you know why she...?"

He shook his head, "She never said it in the year she kept me and after she was caught, I didn't want to see her more than I had to. I was back with my family. By then, I didn't care enough to ask either."

"Your nightmares..." She carefully asked, treading on thin waters. "Are they about the time when you were...?"

"Mostly." He answered honestly, lifting his head from her lap "Sometimes they are about the different scenarios I had made up as a kid thinking I was abandoned by my family."

"That's why you once asked if I won't go anywhere." She said it as a statement, recalling his words after one of the nightmares. She couldn't imagine how it would have been like had she been kidnapped when she was twelve years old and kept in imprisonment for almost a whole year. She was sure it could mentally and emotionally break an adult, let alone a kid.

He sat up, pulling away from her lap. "Yeah... Sanam, I don't care if for you this is some arrangement. For me, you're also a part of my family now."

She leaned over and wrapped her arms around him tightly for one not caring for personal space or if it was more than on friendlier terms. "You don't have to be scared, Arjun." She meant every single word from what she said next, "She may have stolen your childhood, but she can't take anything else from you. We won't let her." Pulling back, she cupped his face and looking into his eyes, she promised the words she had said to him before as well. "No one is going anywhere."

He nodded, convincing his heart and brain to believe her words. She was confident of her words, and he wanted to trust that confidence of hers. He reminded himself he wasn't a twelve year old kid anymore. He didn't have to be afraid. He was much stronger. He had to remain strong.

Alas, the heart is heart.

She wiped his tears away with such tenderness that he embraced her once again, burying his face at the crook of her shoulder and neck. As he inhaled, her scent filled his nostrils. Her perfume from the day before was very faint, but it was there lingering on her skin. At his exhale, the warm breath fell on her skin, bringing about goosebumps on her skin. She rubbed his back as if that would offer her comfort as well.

It was hard to wrap her mind around his struggles. She had never seen a guy cry... and seeing him tear up and be so vulnerable, it tugged at the strings of her heart. She was so unemotional generally with the walls she kept up but in this moment, she felt her emotions give in. She had to swallow multiple times to not cry herself with just the thoughts of what he must have gone through in that tragic year being away from everyone he loved, everything he was familiar with.

His family was rich. They had every cliché of the popularity. And yet, deep down, he was a boy next door with hidden insecurities and fears he was fighting daily. She felt proud against the odds that he turned out the way he did. He had all the reasons to give in, but he fought it and today, he was in front of her. He held a loving, caring, affectionate and a kind soul in him. He lived happily as best he could by not letting his past weight him down.

Gently pulling back, she asked with a sniff, "Is that why you go for therapy?"

"Oh, uh... no." He answered. "Not for the nightmares. It's for what followed after the kidnapping."

She waited for him to give her more so she could understand, but he didn't. Instead, he asked, "How did you wake up suddenly?"

She didn't push him for more answers for he had given her more than he might have intended to share at the break of dawn. "Oh, you got a phone call." She reached back to get his phone and pass it over, "It was weird. It didn't have a caller ID and I didn't know if it'd be important so I answered it."

He easily waved off that portion, not being too particular about her answering his phone. "They didn't say who they were?" He asked as he unlocked it and checked the phone log. But, his instant reaction told her he already knew who that number belonged to when his jaw clenched.

She asked for confirmation, "You know who that is?"

He muttered, locking the phone and throwing it back behind his pillow. "Yeah. No one I am interested in talking to."

Sanam had one guess who it could've been but she didn't ask him as his expression had changed drastically into anger.

Jiyah.

~

author note;

dun-dun-dun! I bet none of you expected this ^_^ and Jiyah is slowly but surely starting to make her presence... I wonder what happens when they come face to face xP Yes, I'm evil and cliche. Ofcourse the ex returns, haha. 

Question: do you imagine her character to be + or - ? Also, the question remains: why does Arjun go to therapy? Any more assumptions after this piece of his childhood and what you can already deduce about Jiyah? 

Look forward to answers/votes/comments/criticism!