After a long time, ne?

Is anyone even reading this, rn? 😂 I mean it's been so long even I forgot the plot and had to reread it before typing this chapter.

So Ragini fics are still on? I mean so many years have passed and she now has so many other shows too...that's why I'm just wondering if the RagSan/RagLak community is still active or not.

Answer readers please. And answer with honesty, k buds? 😁

🌹 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

"Words in double quotes" - Talking

'Words in single quotes' - Thoughts

Moving on 🕺

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Losing Himself

"Here."

Ragini smiled as she took her ice cream cone from Laksh. "Thanks Lucky."

Laksh chuckled. "Considering my luck, I think I ought to change my nickname to Unlucky."

Ragini looked at him sadly. "Lak-"

"No. It's okay. I was just trying to lighten the mood. Was a bad joke. I'm sorry."

Ragini shook her head with a smile. "Well, your awkwardness sure is funny though."

"Glad my lack of people skills is entertaining you."

"Heh, you only get 50 out of hundred though."

"Extra points for handsomeness?"

"Hahaha...seriously Lucky? Hahaha..."

"I'll have you know that I'm 100% serious!" Laksh couldn't help but snicker himself. However, his smile soon disappeared as he noticed tears in Ragini's eyes as she laughed, but cried at the same time. "Oi, oi, oi Rag..Ragu...you're scaring me. Are you okay? Did...did I do something wrong?"

Ragini shook her head and looked at him with a soft look. "Its...its just that its been so long since I laughed like this. This bickering is what I used to do with Sanskar...the old Sanskar. Now, he's all about business, money, deals and that...that bitch Manisha! He doesn't care about my feelings anymore. He just sees me as his possession. A property that he wants to own!"

Laksh didn't know what to do. Even though she already told him what has been happening between them, he doesn't want to ruin things further by blaming Sanskar all the more. "Ragini, maybe he just doesn't know how to tell you he still loves you."

"All he needs to do is say it like he means it! Prove his actions like he means it! That he's not just a heartless money maker but he genuinely wants to fix between us!"

"Maybe he ju-"

"Stop!" Laksh closed his mouth seeing her glare. "You're just defending your brother. What about me huh? Aren't you supposed to side with me. Aren't I your best friend?!"

"Okay Sanskar is wrong then. He deserves everything bad happening to him."

"Don't curse him damn it! If something happens to him, I swear Lucky, I'll not leave yo-"

"The fu- weren't you trying to blame Sanskar right now?!"

"Don't shout at me!"

"You're the one who was shouting at me!"

"Um...are we interrupting?"

"Shut UP!" both Ragini and Laksh shouted at the voice, which was Uttara's. Beside her, stood a surprised Sanskar.

"Oh...what are you doing here Uttara?" asked Ragini, getting up from the bench she was sitting on.

"Well, I texted Laksh where you guys were and he told me you both were in this park. So, we came to pick you up. Well, Sanskar came to pick you up, I mean. Me and Laksh will be going home now."

"Why would you inform your brother where we were after I just told you everything?!" Ragini glared at Laksh.

"Oi! Uttara just asked me where we were. She informed Sanky. How was I supposed to know?"

"You're an idiot like always!" Ragini huffed out with a roll of her eyes.

"Well, takes one to know one."

"So you do accept that you are one."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"ENOUGH!" hollered Sanskar. "Get in the car Ragini. Now!"

Ragini glared at him with all hate she could muster.

Uttara was the same beside him. "What are you doing Sanky? You said you'll try to fix thing between you two. Not ruin it further!" she whisper shouted at him.

But Sanskar was too far gone in rage to care.

"Bhai, calm down. She'll go with you anyways. You don't need to boss her around." Laksh meant it in a joking way, but only got a glare from his brother.

"Don't think you know us after not being here for over a year. Now move!" with a shove, he pushed Laksh back and grabbed Ragini's wrist.

Even when she resisted, he forcefully pulled her off towards his car.

Laksh tried to follow, but was held back by Uttara. "No Laksh. He's right. We weren't here. Let them sort it out themselves. We shouldn't interfere. Let's go home."

Laksh watched as Sanskar left with Ragini as he walked away with Uttara. 'Okay. I'll let them sort it out...for now.'

#With Sanskar and Ragini#

Ragini grit her teeth as the car swiveled right at a turn. Sanskar was driving like a mad man. 'Well, if I die here, I guess it will stop the pain that I've been going through in my heart for a year.' she thought humourlessly.

Her thoughts came to a halt as she felt the car jerk forward. Sanskar had halted the car and made it come to a sudden stop.

"Get out."

"Wh-what?"

"I said Get. Out."

Ragini was about to question him again when she saw how tight he was gripping the steering wheel. His eyes, although looking ahead, looked so fierce that Ragini felt as if she was sitting beside a feral animal.

No matter their differences, she knew him better than anyone else. And she knew he was asking her to get out not for himself, but for her own good. Because he wouldn't be able to stop once the terrible thoughts in his head comes out spilling through his mouth. He knew she would be the target and that's he was giving her a solution.

An escape so that he doesn't ruin their strained relationship further.

Ragini silently nodded and timidly got off the car, watching him as he drove away, looking at her in the mirror with a gaze that seemed terribly apologetic, as well as ...betrayed? Ragini didn't understand what she did wrong to make him feel that way.

#With Sanskar#

Sanskar drove at full speed towards his office.

He felt like breaking something.

Anything!

The look in Ragini's eyes as she argued with Laksh. That sight...that playfulness.

The look of amusement and silent admiration. The look that he had been wanting from her for over a year. that old bickering between them. He could never get it back. Whenever he tried to joke or snark playfully, it ended with an argument which was filled with hate.

Sanskar would feel how much of that hatred leaked with each taunt and reply she gave him back.

But when she was arguing with Laksh, she seemed like the old Ragini.

'Why!? Why was she like that with him. Why not me!? It should have been me! ME!'

Sanskar drove all evening trying to calm his raging mind. But nothing seemed to help. The freeness that Laksh and Ragini shared was making him imagine scenarios of Ragini leaving him again and again. Laksh and Ragini were people who once loved each other. And now that there was no Swara and he had grown cold, who knows if Laksh and Ragini were growing closer? Who knows if they had been secretly chatting the entire year?

All such poisonous thoughts were driving him crazy and frustrating him to no end. He visited a bar to clear off his mind. But it only made them worse.

He couldn't go home in this state, lest he ended up arguing with Ragini again. So, he decided to stay the night at his company.

It was 8 pm by then, but some of his employees were still there, about to leave for home. As he entered the gates, he quickly parked his car and walked inside, not carrying the way everyone flinched as he passed, looking like a crazed person. He threw open the door to his office and sat down on his chair, throwing everything on the table with a shout.

"Oh Sanskar. Surprise seeing you here." Manisha drawled in a teasing tone with a seductive smile.

Seeing her only fueled his anger further.

"Had another argument with your not-girlfriend-but-the-you-want-her-to-be girlfriend?" Manisha asked leaning over his table.

Sanskar stood up in anger, went round the table and grabbed her neck. "DO. Not. Try. My. Patience. Manisha."

Seeing his fierce mood, every employee that was packing hurriedly left with what they had, escaping through the elevator as soon as possible.

Manisha, on the other hand, was smirking, enjoying the closeness with Sanskar. In her twisted mind, Sanskar didn't seem like a threat to her. instead, she was turned on by how Sanskar was touching her.

"My, my! I didn't know you like it rough, Mr. Tough Guy."

"Shut up! It's your fault that Ragini left the mall angry at me. You made me utter those words! You made me act like....like a damned scum!"

"Oh, don't even try laying your guilt on me Sanskar. You always had a choice."

"No, I didn't!"

Manisha internally smirked. Sanskar was in such an emotional wreck that he was playing right into her hands. 'I don't know what you did Ragini. But I'm glad.' She looped her hand and grabbed his hand that was pressing her neck. "Yes you did, Love. You could have said no. You could have moved away from me and told the Malcolms the truth. But no. You prioritized money more than her feelings for you."

"NO! You made me choose it!"

"Yes. Yes, I did. But the final call was yours to make. You could have just said no. After all it wasn't just an international deal. You know I wouldn't leave you and maybe got another one. Yet, you didn't."

Sanskar looked down in shame and distress. Yes, he knew she was right. But...but he needed the Malcolms. They would help him rise in power much quicker! That's what...that's what Manisha said.

The sudden realization made him recoil back and step away from her. "You...you witch! You wretched witch! You're the one who made me think that it was an ultimatum. You're the one who influenced me to think that they were the fastest way to climb up!"

"And was I wrong? No. I never had been." Manisha walked closer in a slow manner, as if she was talking to a scared animal. "Look around you Sanskar. The empire you've built. It has always been me who has pushed you where you needed to take a stand. And look where it got you. You got money, fame...power! You think you and Ragini, and your so called lovey-dovey feelings would have been enough to get you all this?"

"Who said money was my goal, huh?! I wanted power because I never wanted someone to take away my loved ones from me! I didn't want Ragini taken away or something happening to her like it did to Swara."

"Exactly my Love. Exactly. And you're doing it. But Ragini is still too naïve to understand this. You're not." She cooed at him as she held his arm. "Now, you have power. You have a name in the world and the world respects you. Thus, they respect Ragini too. They know what will happen if they try to harm her. and its all because of the power that you have now. You hurt her feelings but Ragini will realize soon how lucky she is. How you're protecting her, like you realized how the world runs. She's just too innocent to realize it. And isn't that what you want? To make sure she remains that innocent girl without knowing how dark the world can be?"

"But...but she hates me now." Sanskar whispered, not caring that Manisha was slowly but surely pushing him back and making him sit on the couch, getting on his lap.

"Oh darling, but why are you being selfish now? You said you're doing it all for her, didn't you? She is what matters to you most, isn't she?"

"Yes, but..."

"But what? She's angry at you. But besides that, she's now all that you wanted. So why are you thinking about what you're not getting right now? Why do you want her affections when you know if you're vulnerable, then she would be in danger because everyone would know she is your weakness. Do you want that, Sanskar?"

"No..." came his shaky reply, feeling at the edge of breaking down. Manisha was manipulating him, but he was too far gone to realize that in his emotional state. The alcohol that he had consumed was blurring his rationality and all her words were weakening his walls, breaking them further.

He was like a flower wilting, and Manisha was enjoying picking apart every petal...slowly.

'People like flowers. That's why they pluck them to keep them, even knowing it will ruin them. I like you Sanskar. And I'll have you even if I know it will break you.' Manisha thought with a twisted desire as she pulled his face closer to her. "And who is the one who let you gain this power to protect your loved ones...your Ragini?"

"Y-you."

"Yes Sanskar. That's right. It was me. So let me take the wheel now as well. Let me heal you. Let me make it better. Take out all your frustrations on me. Use me. Feel me. Let me make it better for you. Just let it go Sanskar. Let it go."

Sanskar felt numb as he felt her lips upon him. But his alcohol ridden mind made his body betray him.

He kissed her back. He did as she told him. He decided to let go of all his thoughts, all his insecurities, all his emotions and just...let go. All he was concentrating now was how she was making him feel and how he was starting to enjoy every bit of it.

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To be continued

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~ 🌹 Mona🌹