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Zaydaan x Aaina.

The feeling of sleeping in your own bed is extra ordinary, it's a feeling that no one can really describe, a feeling that makes one feel so comfortable, so incredibly warm and contented that nothing else could even compare to it.

My first international trip as a first lady and as amazing as it felt to be there, by Zaydaan's side, being here at home and sleeping near to him in our own room, that felt like home.

But with the morning, came my task of speaking with Ahad.

It was rather weird.

Usually, Zaydaan hated whatever bond I had with my friend but for some reason, to help his brother or whatsoever, Zaydaan had actually asked me to go and talk to him.

So while he got dressed, I had to go and meet up with Ahad.

So I did.

Walking from our wing of the house towards Ahad's room and then knocking on it twice before entering, I spotted Ahad by the window with a cup of tea in his hands.

Typical morning for every Pakistani.

We wake up, we drink tea and then we actually wake up.

I passed him a smile, putting all the mean things he had said to me away and accepting that my own mistake had caused a hurdle in our friendship, yet I was risking it again.

Putting the bad thoughts aside, I patted on his shoulder.

"Aaina! You're back." He exclaimed, saying his Salam.

I greeted him back with a Walaikum assalam, sitting on the chair by the window as he did the same.

"Yeah, we arrived last night but you were asleep. How are you?"

"I'm good, how are you? How did it go?" He asked me about the summit.

I hardly knew what went inside the summit, but as far as my knowledge, the summit was quite successful from Zaydaan's perspective.

"It was wonderful, really amazing." I gushed.

"Although the flight got a little unpleasant." I mentioned, he frowned sipping on his tea.

"Arey, why?"

"Because Zaydaan said that the opposition had announced his idea and presented it as their own." I reminded him.

He raised his eyes, as if he had totally forgone the information.

"Oh man, I forgot to tell you. I was talking about it with Saaniya and she said that they had it planned already, so basically it was their idea from the start." He explained.

A part of me wanted to trust Ahad's judgement, Ahad who was my friend and Ahad who wanted to find the one.

Maybe Saaniya truly was the one for him.

But instinctively, I believed in Zaydaan's judgement and the more I thought about it all myself, all my doubt went towards Saaniya and her family.

They were the opposition, they hated the government.

"Dont you think it's shady though?" I enquired, Ahad shook his head without even thinking.

"Not at all, Saaniya wouldn't lie to me."

"You trust her too much," I whispered, hoping that I wouldn't offend him.

"Once you get to know her, you'll trust her too." He said back.

I wanted to talk more about Saaniya but Ahad himself had proposed that I get to know her, so instead of questioning him about the whole drama, I focused on the task at hand.

"Really? Then what's the waiting for?" I asked, standing up.

"Matlab?" He stood up as well, placing his now empty cup on the table and looking at me.

"Matlab, arrange a meeting between us. I'd really like to meet the woman who made Ahad want to settle down."

He smiled again, the Ahad smile with twinkle in his eyes and teeth showing bright, I felt guilty, so guilty.

"Won't bhai be mad at you?"

"Whose gonna tell him?" I shot back, Ahad laughed at my rebelliously funny words but nodded anyway.

As if anyone needed to tell Zaydaan anything, Zaydaan always knew.

"Alright then, I'll talk to Saaniya right away."

"And I'll go wake up that husband of mine."

With that, I excused myself out of the room, breathing out deeply through my nose twice to get rid of the guilty feeling in my heart.

--

When I arrived back in my room, Zaydaan was already waiting for me near the door.

"What did he say?" He questioned in a haste, as if he was ready to leave.

Judging from his casual attire, I realised he didn't have any meetings today, just office work. Which meant that either he was going to be home too soon, or too late.

"He said that he's gonna arrange a meeting right away." I replied.

"Good, see, it wasn't so hard, was it?" It wasn't hard for a man like Zaydaan. A politician.

Someone who had to lie constantly to fit in a certain image, to fit into the kind of person the nation wants to see. But I wasn't like him.

I didn't lie, I tried not to. I didn't like to deceive or play games or manipulate. That wasn't my personality.

So it was hard.

But I had done it anyway.

For Zaydaan but also for Ahad.

"I feel guilty." I admitted. He clicked his tongue, picking up his phone.

"Don't. You're merely doing what I'm asking you to do." He said it so casually, I didn't even think he cared that I was almost betraying Ahad again.

He probably didn't.

"Are you leaving now?" I asked him as a small yawn escaped my mouth.

Thankfully, I had nothing to do for today, Other than one assignment that I wasn't planning to do on my own.

"Yes, I am." He answered, opening the bedroom door to leave.

"I'll see you for dinner?" I asked, hopefull.

Zaydaan shrugged.

"Don't count on it but I'll try to be home."

"Okay, see you."

So Zaydaan left and I decided to get some sleep since it was the only thing that sounded freaking good right now.

-

Sitting in his office, with his head completely drawn to the recent facts and figures, the summit, the visit of the crown Prince next month and the preparations for it, everything was jumbled up.

Even though he was completely focused on doing his work, the moment Ahad walked inside his office, as if nothing had happened between the two brothers, as if they hadn't called each other out and insulted each other, Zaydaan's mind got distracted instead.

He looked at his brother, his intelligent and smart, his gold medalist brother, who just couldn't understand that his freaking girlfriend was playing him.

Ahad walked inside the room, strolling like he was in the market, then sat on the chair opposite to Zaydaan.

"How did the summit go, bhai?" He questioned himself, not bothering to say Salam and instead talking about something that he knew Zaydaan would answer.

"It went better than I expected."

"What happened?" He asked next.

Zaydaan raised an eye at him, not even bothering to hide the disgust he felt as he thought about Ahad and his girlfriend.

"Are you sure that I can trust you, brother? After all you've been the one to tell Saaniya about Aaina's foundation?"

Zaydaan shot at him, Ahad let out a deep sigh.

"I have not, I mean you can trust me. The opposition had that idea far before you had it." He declared. Zaydaan didn't but it for even a second.

The opposition would never invest millions of dollars like that, they would do it to sabotage his project, but never on their own.

"Saaniya, she's innocent. Too innocent." Zaydaan heard his brother say.

For a minute, he observed Ahad, the way his eyes shone as he mentioned her, the way he looked down, it wasn't like Ahad.

And then it dawned on him, so he said it out loud.

"She hasn't let you touch her, has she?" Zaydaan questioned him. Ahad closed his eyes for a moment, not believing that his brother was going to go that low.

"Bhai."

"That's it, isn't it? Your eyes are filled with lust, not love. Which means that she's not letting you touch her, that's why you think of her as an innocent bird." Zaydaan commented, Ahad scowled.

"I don't hide things from Saaniya because I trust her, I understand that as a person who doesn't know her, you have your doubts but she's good. I'll prove it to you one day."

The Prime Minister chuckled, he would have proof of what Saaniya chaudhry was doing behind Ahad's back in an hour. She was a cunning manipulative woman and Ahad was too blind to see it.

"Did you think about what I asked you to do?" He enquired. Ahad nodded.

"Yes. And my answer is both. I want to marry her and I want to be in power, I can have both."

"That's not upto you, Is it?" Zaydaan murmured, but knowing that he didn't have proof of Saaniya's 'innocence' yet, he decided to switch to another topic.

"But, before we dive into that, this is sworn to secracy but you're my brother and I'm trusting you." He started off.

There was a reason Zaydaan was telling him this, he wanted to see if he could trust Ahad completely.

"Okay."

"The Polish are investing ten billion dollars in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia has agreed to sign seven MOU's and we're adding two middle Eastern countries in CPEC." He announced.

Ahad, who was equally angry at his brother, still felt happy. Because Zaydaan was genuinely making good things happen in the country, all his hardwork was paying off.

It was like that, wasn't it? You could beat the shit out of your sibling but be happy for their success.

"That's amazing, and it's all after you've come into power." He remarked, Zaydaan nodded.

"Yes, I'm so relieved."

"But Ahad, you can't say this to anyone. We have to keep this a secret until it truly happens." He warned.

Please don't betray me, brother.

"I will."

"Ahad, there's one more thing." Zaydaan hesitated for just a moment, but then he let it go.

"I'm giving you twenty four hours to think about this, either you marry her and do whatever the hell you want to do, go against the wishes of baba, against mine and get fired from the ministry or you forget about her and get to keep the ministry."

He gave his brother the same choice he had give before, the one that Ahad hadn't taken seriously and said both, that he wanted both.

But Zaydaan reminded him that there was only one option. He had to decide.

"It's your choice, her or power."

Ahad stood up, he swallowed the bile down his throat, then looked at his brother with an anger that nobody had the courage to look at Zaydaan with.

"Today, we're at the same point again, the same point where you were a few months ago. We're different bhai, you and I. You're not baba and I'm not you. Just know that."

He reminded him of the past, to hurt him but Zaydaan didn't feel anything.

"I'll give you your damn answer in twenty four hours."

He stormed off, and Zaydaan sat back, working.

---

Aaina didn't understand Zaydaan lately, not that she could ever understand him but it was so unlike Zaydaan to come back home and inform Aaina of all that happened through out the whole day.

But she knew that questioning him about it would only make him close off to her, so as they both laid on the bed with the lights switched off, Aaina asked him something that she knew he would answer.

"A part of you hates your father, for asking you to choose. Right?" She questioning him in a soft whisper.

"Yes." He admitted after a few moments of silence.

"So you did the same to Ahad, you can understand how he feels." She explained, she didn't hear any response from him, just some shuffling in the bed and suddenly the lamp beside him was switched on.

In the yellow light that spread across the whole room, she could see the dark eyebags and the tired face of her husband.

Her husband who had been looking at her with a different gaze for days now.

"I know, but it's different." Zaydaan replied, she frowned.

It wasn't different. Just like Idrees Ziagil had asked Zaydaan to choose, today Zaydaan had asked Ahad to choose.

"How?" She asked him.

"You were good, I knew you were. You weren't the enemy, she is."

"Her family is, maybe she's not. Maybe she actually loves him." She tried to convince him, convince herself but it was of no use.

Sometimes, we want our enemies to be our friends for the sake of the people that we love. And sometimes, that turns out to be the biggest mistake one can ever make.

"If she did, she wouldn't be fucking a man behind his back."

Just when Aaina thought that no news could shock her anymore, this caught her off guard and she gasped.

One, because she didn't think that alot of women had the guts to screw men before marriage and two, because she didn't trust Saaniya, for sure, but not only was she betraying Ahad, she was also cheating on him.

She couldn't react to the intense news, so she just looked at her husband.

"Zaydaan." She whispered, not even knowing what to say. But Zaydaan knew what he had to say here.

"I didn't tell that to Ahad because i know it would break him. He loves a girl and she just used him." He completed. Aaina gulped.

"So you'd much rather let him hate you than hate her?" She enquired, moving her body slightly closer to him.

It came to her as a shock when his hand reached out under her waist, pulling her flush against himself.

"Yes, he's my brother. I don't want his heart to break." He replied.

"I never thought you cared about him like that." She said to him, he merely shrugged.

"He's my brother." He said it again, as an explanation.

This was the best he could do to explain any feeling that he possibly had other than anger.

"I should go to him but I don't how what to say. " Aaina mumbled, more to herself than to him but her husband denied that straight away.

"Don't. He needs to be alone right now." He instructed.

"So what happens next?" She asked him again. Zaydaan smirked.

"I get to see if my brother is as loyal to me as I am to him."

"That's why you told him everything, you want to see if he would tell that to her."

"Yes." He admitted.

"And if he does?" She questioned him again.

"He's my brother." Zaydaan started off, continuing. "But there's no space in my life for people who betray me."

Aaina remained quiet after hearing his words, she simply put her head on his chest and heard his heartbeat.

The same heart that couldn't love her, it beat rapidly under his chest and he could hear it, she felt so close to him, she didn't feel like he was a robot, she felt like he was human, human enough to care and human enough to love her.

She had grown used to his small caring words and his slightly protective actions ever since the attack on her, but sometimes, she craved for so much more.

She craved for the instant reflexive touches and the I love you's. She wanted that so bad.

As she heard the thumping of his chest, she called out his name, voice above a small whisper.

"Hey Zaydaan?"

"Hmm?" His voice sounded heavy, as if he was ready to doze off.

"You also told me all of it, the deals, the money, the secrets, does that mean you trust me?"

She quietly asked. Was he testing her out too? Or did he really trust her?

"I trust you with my life, Aaina."

He affirmed. So she smiled, and slept with her head on his chest.

Like there were no worries in this whole world.

---

What do you think? How's it going so far? Aaina x Zaydaan is a slow burn but I feel like we've come such a long way since the first chapter no?

And there's alot more left to Zaydaan :)) like alot!! And his back story is gonna be out soon too.