After the last conversation with Vrishaketu, despite everything, Arjun had felt rather optimistic. According to Jyesht, he had been very 'smiley' for the first week after they had returned to Anga.

Everything was still terrible of course, but Arjun thought he could tentatively say that Vrishaketu no longer hated him.

He hoped he wasn't taking a huge leap in logic but... despite the boy being clearly supremely annoyed by him in their last conversation, he was somehow not radiating the aura of hatred.

But now, given that Vrishaketu and Angarani Vrushali had not been back for a month, Arjun felt slightly trepidatious, even as he tried to reassure Uttara.

"He is angry with me." Uttara said miserably. "What if they don't return again?! He hasn't even written to me!"

"Nothing like that will happen." Arjun told her, even though he had had the same thoughts more than once. Now that there might be a chance to build things with Vrishaketu, he did not want it to slip away. "Besides Vrishaketu would definitely come to visit his grandparents and kakis even if he was upset with everyone else. I'm sure they are just caught up with work in their Kingdom. They spend almost half their time here, you know. They have to rebuild too, right?"

When Uttara looked a little less worried that everything was over with Vrishaketu, Arjun spoke again.

"He might be upset with you but that's a little warranted, no?" He asked her seriously.

Uttara huffed. 

"Even if he doesn't like you, at least he spoke to you, right? I made sure of that. Instead of thanking me, you are scolding me, Pitashree?"

Arjun immediately felt guilty because she was right and then he remembered Vrishaketu's words about how all of them kids used emotional exaggeration to get out of stuff and how he was apparently 'naïve' to actually believe it. Well.

"I'm not going to praise you for locking the two of us in a room Uttara." Arjun said, doing his best to remain stern. "It might have had.... desirable results but the thing itself was not right."

"See, your grandfather is not being nice." Uttara said, looking down and patted her swelling belly.

Arjun snorted. It was still strange to think that he would soon be a grandfather. He was still rather young compared to Pitamaha who must have been around eighty when they had first arrived at the palace. Thinking about Pitamaha suddenly made Arjun very sad again. The image of the bed of arrows flashed in his mind and Arjun violently shook his head to clear it.

"Pitashree are you alright?" Uttara asked worriedly.

"Yes, yes I'm fine." Arjun sighed.

"Right." Uttara said, unconvinced, but decided to let the matter drop. "Anyway, I was thinking, if they don't show up in another week, why don't we go to Anga?"

Arjun felt his jaw drop open.

"We can't do that!" He hissed.

"Why not though? They are the ones who come here all the time, like you said, so maybe we should go!" Uttara looked excited. "Besides, unlike them, we don't have much work to do here! We can go along with Vrish's grandparents!"

Arjun pursed his lips. He really did not want to pop her bubble but despite that fact that Vrishaketu probably didn't really hate him anymore, Arjun didn't want to take any chances. He remembered how upset the boy had been when he had stepped into the forest clearing that had belonged to his father. Arjun didn't want to think just how upset he would be if he dared to upset the sanctity of his father's palace(No matter how much he wanted to know more about the kind of person the King of Anga--his Jyesht, had been when he was not busy showing his animosity towards Arjun). 

Arjun didn't want to ruin the delicate balance they had gained.

Also, it wasn't as if they could just show up without invitation. After all, since the war had ended and Jyesht Yudhishtir had ascended the throne, the Queen and Prince of Anga hadn't come to Hastinapur until an open invitation had been sent.

"Maybe later." He said and hated himself for the way Uttara's face fell.

Maybe, if someday things ever got to that point. 

(Uttara could probably still go, Arjun mused, but he didn't like the idea of leaving her alone even though he was certain that she would be safe.)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Queen and Prince of Anga did show up another week later. Uttara was practically bouncing at the balls of her feet while waiting for her friend to be done talking to his grandparents first.

And she was waiting right around the corner from his grandparents' chambers so that he couldn't escape.

When Vrishaketu turned around the bend of the corridor, she pounced on him(well more like suddenly grabbed his shoulders, but in her current state of ahem, swollenness, it was semantics).

"Dear lor-- Uttara what are you doing?!" 

"You weren't here for a month and a week!" She exclaimed, trying to shake him, but he batted her off easily, much to her displeasure.

"Yes, I know--"

"You didn't even write once to me! I know you wrote to your grandparents, which of course is obvious, and I know I'm not nearly as important, but you could have written once!"

"Uttara--"

"I thought you hated me now! Do you hate me now?" She asked, eyeing him intensely.

Vrishaketu appeared to be actually thinking about it which made Uttara's heart sink to her stomach. Surely, he didn't actually--

"No, I don't." He said with a little smirk and she sighed in relief before realising he was messing with her and smacked him on the shoulder.

He laced his arm with hers.

"I was busy. Listen, we're in Hastinapur for a lot of the time and Hastinapur even after everything, has so many people to look after its citizens. Anga doesn't. Our Council does its best of course and they help us immensely-- they were all handpicked by Baba from among the people. They're pretty successful and thus we have been mostly been able to make the system of living in Anga for half or three-fourth of the month and spending the rest of the time here, work for decades given that it's a smaller Kingdom, but the Royal Family is often needed for longer in their own Kingdom, you know."

Uttara sighed. "I know. Pitashree said something similar. I was being kind of awful, right? But  just...I was afraid you would really never talk to me again."

She looked up to see that Vrish had strange look on his face. "I was--I am upset with you. But that does not mean I'm going to stop talking to my best friend."

Uttara smiled. "I'm your best friend because I'm literally your only friend."

"That's true." Vrishaketu said.

"Hey!" Uttara exclaimed indignantly. "You were supposed to deny it and say that I'm the best friend you've ever had, anyway!"

He laughed. "Alright. You are the best friend I've ever had in my whole life." Seeing the look on her face, he added, "I'm serious. It's true. Everybody here is and was my family but I've not really had many friends."

Uttara felt a little bad that he was still not even considering her as family, but it was alright. He either would come to think of her as such or wouldn't. They would be best friends anyway. She was more concerned about him and Pitashree Arjun, but she wasn't going to make the mistake of bringing him up again. However, to her surprise, Vrishaketu brought him up first!

"Say, were you complaining about my absence to Prince Arjun?!"

So Uttara felt two things. The first was shock at hearing Vrishaketu actually voluntarily bringing up Pitashree and secondly, a swell of embarrassment. 

"I was merely wondering out loud why you were not here." She tried to say, flushing.

"You were!" Vrishaketu said, grinning. "You were actually whining about my absence to Prince Arjun! You missed me!"

Uttara looked at him like he was crazy. "Of course I missed you, you bloody idiot! How did you realise that just now?!"

Vrishaketu grinned and unlaced his arm from hers to wrap it around her shoulder. 

"That's so sweet, but you shouldn't bother other people with whining about how much you missed me." He teased.

Uttara rolled her eyes. "It's hardly like I was going and bothering other people, I was only bother Pitashree Arjun. And he didn't mind it, because despite not knowing you very much, Pitashree still somehow missed you. He had been all smiley for like, a week, after your last conversation."

Vrishaketu stopped short. Uttara bit her lips wondering if she had made a mistake by adding that last part. But for once, he had brought Pitashree up first, so she didn't think he would have minded that much.

"Are you serious?!" He asked her incredulously. "He had been all 'smiley'?!"

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Arjun found himself running into Vrishaketu once again, the day they returned.

"Um, hello." He said awkwardly and was met with a deadpan look, which to be fair, he probably deserved.

"Uh, it's good to see you, have you met Uttara by the way? She was really missing you!" Arjun said quickly, to try to dispel the awkwardness that inevitably ensued every  time they came face to face.

"Not just her, from what I've heard." Vrishaketu muttered while raising an eyebrow at Arjun.

Arjun blinked. 

"Will you walk with me, Rajkumar?" Vrishaketu asked and Arjun almost fell down in shock.

Somehow managing to keep his jaw from dropping as far as the ground, he hurried to answer.

"Of-- of course!"

He followed Vrishaketu to wherever he was leading them all the while feeling disbelief and elation grapple with his heart. 

Arjun found himself being lead to Mata Gandhari's gardens and then Vrishaketu went and plopped himself down on one of the benches. Arjun gingerly sat down on the other edge of the bench but to his surprise, Vrishaketu didn't protest.

The light from the setting Sun painted everything in shades of orange. The atmosphere was rather serene. Arjun wondered if it would remain so for long.

"Why are you doing this?" The boy asked abruptly. "Why are you like this?"

"I'm afraid you're going to have to be a little more specific than that." Arjun said wryly.

"You don't know me." Vrishaketu plainly stated. "My father was your enemy. You killed him. You killed three of my brothers."

Arjun winced terribly, a shiver going down his spine and a familiar pressure building up in his chest.

"It was war though, and I've been made to understand that I cannot judge someone based on who they have killed in a war. But I don't forgive you. I don't like you. I've made that very clear. And yet you continue to get to try to know me whenever given the chance. We haven't even spoken properly several times, yet apparently you missed me when I was gone for too long." 

The last part of his statement was coloured in disbelief and Arjun felt heat rise to his cheeks despite the tightness in his chest.

"So. Why?" The boy finished.

Arjun opened his mouth to answer but found the words stuck in his throat. What was he supposed to say exactly? Arjun didn't think Vrishaketu would like the answer that he wanted to get to know the brother he killed, through him. Or that the boy reminded him of his son. But Arjun wanted to be honest and the second option seemed to be better than the former one at least, though Arjun felt himself cringe while even trying to think of how exactly to say it, because he didn't know how to say it in a way that wouldn't come across as weird and possessive.

Now that Arjun truly thought about it, other than those two somewhat vague reasons, he didn't actually have an explanation as to why he somehow felt so attached to Vrishaketu already, despite the fact that boy didn't really like him, was traumatised enough by him that he could not stand Arjun's presence alone in the dark and that they hadn't even had more than two civil conversations.

But Vrishaketu was waiting for an answer. 

"Well, Rajkumar, are you going to say something or are you going to keep sitting with your mouth open?"

Arjun abruptly closed his mouth shut with a click, a mild scowl marring his face at the snark.

Then he took a deep breath and started again.

"You kind of...." Arjun trailed off and then picked up again. "You kind of remind me a bit of my Abhimanyu." His voice cracked at the end and he cleared his throat, the pressure in his chest increasing again for a moment as he managed to get the words out.

Vrishaketu stared at him. Arjun panicked.

"That's nothing to do with you of course!" He hurried to say, to reassure him, before mentally smacking himself. What did that even mean?! Vrishaketu reminded him of Abhimanyu but it had nothing to do with him?! His brain must have lost half its logical reasoning capability at some point during the war.

"I--I mean, you're just you but you just remind me-- and you don't have to do anything and I don't expect anything of course-- it's just that--" Arjun fell silent before he could make an even bigger fool of himself.

Vrishaketu blinked several times.

"Oh." He cleared his throat. "Right." Then he proceeded to look highly uncomfortable.

Arjun once again felt himself flush.

No! Making Vrishaketu even more uncomfortable was not the goal! he thought desperately.

Arjun almost wanted to take back the words. But words were like arrows. Once you released them, they could never be taken back.

And then something astounding happened.

To Arjun's absolute shock, Vrishaketu very hesitantly raised a hand, pulled it back and then raised it again and then extended it towards Arjun, proceeding to awkwardly pat his arm a couple of times. He immediately pulled his hand back and had a strange contorted look on his face the whole time, but.... but...

Vrishaketu had voluntarily initiated physical contact! With Arjun! And Arjun assumed that the boy had meant it to be comforting.

So he was pretty sure that he could now guarantee that even if Vrishaketu didn't like him, he at least didn't hate him.

Progress!

Vrishaketu stared at him some more.

"Do you want to smile?" He asked suspiciously.

"Why--why would you think so?" Arjun asked, indeed doing his best to not smile.

The boy's eyes narrowed. 

"You want to smile, don't you? I can see it on your face."

There was a beat and then Arjun couldn't hold back his smile at the boy's antics. The fact that Vrishaketu was even talking to him like this was such an enormous improvement, that he could feel his heart swell and this time the pressure building in his chest was of a different kind. The happy kind.

Vrishaketu groaned. "You're always smiling for no reason!" He said, shooting Arjun a highly annoyed look. "Their was a war, we've all lost so many people and as much as I hate to admit it, you've lost people as well, Rajkumar. How can you smile so much, for God's sake?!"

Arjun would say that at the moment at least, he had reason to smile. But well...

"We're all mourning Vrishaketu. And we'll mourn for the rest of our lives. But we should smile as much as we can because otherwise our lives will become dull. And besides, our lost loved ones would want us to smile more, no?"

Vrishaketu pursed his lips and looked away.

"Right." He said, sounding unconvinced. 

He looked at Arjun again and then looked away. 

"Right I uh... I should go...."

"Right." Arjun agreed, getting up.

Just as Vrishaketu turned around to leave, Arjun called out, "Are you going to talk to me again?"

The boy shot him a look. 

"Can't seem to avoid it, can I?"

That wasn't a disagreement. In fact it might even have sounded a little like agreement.

So, I'm pretty sure lmao that precisely no one is going to tell me that we are moving too fast because this is literally Chapter 30. But I will still ask: is the pace alright? Because it took a long time for Vrishaketu to talk to Arjun even a little so now that their relationship is on the upward curve, if it suddenly improves a lot quickly it will be weird.

Also lmao, I always end up writing Arjun as super awkward. No one has complained so far though, lol. At least in these situations the awkwardness in warranted XD.

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