"if only anyone could tear open my chest they'd be surprised with the number of needles pierced into my heart - faaris"

Sulaaymaan had enjoyed the tea Afra had got for him in silence while she kept absently taking sips from her cup while staring in the air .

Trepidation was obvious on her face . Even though she had barely spoken more than a handful of words ever since she was escorted to the palace , he could understand her . They had talked relatively more but her words were mostly empty or discomforted . And perhaps that is how he had mastered her eyes . The emotions playing through them . The sadness reflecting through .

"What are you planning on doing ?"

He turned to look at her but her face remained in the same position .

"I have a few things in mind . But for starters , I'm going to have to let mama know that we are going to get married ."

Afra stiffened . And Sulaaymaan could feel her uneven breath .

"Miss Afra , I know you aren't comfortable with this . Trust me , it's not for me either ."

Liar .

"As soon as all this ends , I will divorce you ."

The words stung his mouth . No word before had ever had an impact as harsh as this one . And to think that he had started to live his life again , meeting her .

"That you sure should ."

Wow .

So much for being strong .

Everyday ever since the day she had stepped into his life , it had been the same way . She still wretched his presence . The same gut feeling of uncertainty and anxiety . Of anticipation and hope which only got severely crushed when her words weren't the ones he'd be looking forward to hear .

Ironic how words could kill people .

"Um , yes ."

He swallowed the lump in his throat .

"What next ?"

She asked and he found himself sighing . His mind was still revolving around the dejection and he felt oddly weak and lethargic .

"Hmm , I'm going to call in some special agents ."

Afra's eyes twinkled when she turned to look at him . He couldn't bear to look her in the eyes at a distance as close as that , so he got up and started pacing back and forth in front of the bed .

"Yeah , so I'm hoping we could get ahold of a clue or something . And also of course to reset the security system ."

She kept her gaze directed at him .

"What security system ?"

Sulaaymaan found her looking up at him with puzzlement . She never knew about it .

"Okay I forgot to tell you this . This palace is not guarded by agents as such . I....just didn't want to trust anyone . I ended up installing a security system whose password is only known to me and Mr Haamid so nobody can change the settings ."

Afra nodded slowly , elbows perched atop her knees . She took a few seconds and looked at him intensely before shrugging .

"Where does that lead us then ?"

Sulaaymaan sighed and rested against a wall at the farthest edge . Staring in front of him absently he could feel the responsibility seep into his skin .

"I feel like someone else tampered with the system or they got through the password ."

Afra pulled her legs up and adjusted on the bed .

"Who do you think that would be ? Don't you have any clues or hunches to start off with ?"

He smiled at her with his lips pursed tight . Keeping in mind the hidden facts he had extracted from his special team of agents , he knew he couldn't trust anyone . Which meant all of them fell under his suspicions .

He hated to admit to it but Haamid could be related too . The password was a secret between the two after all . 

He did not want to tell that to Afra though .

"I don't think I have any for now . But in Shaa Allah , something will turn up for sure ."

Afra silently nodded .

A few minutes of silence passed and Afra did not look like she was going to move . She was comfortably seated on his bed and he was uncomfortably avoiding her .

"Oh God , yes ! I've been forgetting to tell you this !"

She shrieked and snapped her fingers , turning eagerly to face him .

"Sulaaymaan , I've been meaning to ask you this for so long ."

She pulled the 'so' and relaxed in her position once Sulaaymaan frowned with concern .

"What is it ?"

She sighed and pinched her temple.

"I don't know why but I keep hearing faint and weird sounds from my bed . And I've tried to figure out what could be the cause but nothing has come up . I was wondering if you could help me out ."

Sulaaymaan didn't even give her the chance to question him about what he was going to do as he zoomed past her , hurriedly opened the door and turned around to face her .

"Do not , do not , come into your room until I message you ."

"Sulaa - "

"MISS AFRA , YOU ARE NOT GOING TO MOVE FROM THIS SPOT UNTIL I CALL FOR YOU !"

She was left with her mouth open as Sulaaymaan shut the door with a bang and left her alone in puzzlement .

Sulaaymaan opened the door to Afra's room and tiptoed further in . He could have mistaken her room as hers had it not been for the red and White décor . Their rooms were extremely simple and scarcely decorated .

He didn't know from where to start but the room in itself poised great threat .

When Afra said she had witnessed weird sounds , it was almost evident that something was wrong with her room .

He could be paranoid for jumping to conclusions but it was pretty suspicious . And he wasn't about to let anything escape his vision .

"Oh God no , have to bring Afra in here ."

He muttered cautiously and settled on the floor noiselessly before pulling his phone out and scrolling through his contacts to find Afra's .

Once he had managed to find her number , his thumbs lingered over the keyboard before he found a proper enough reply .

Miss Afra , walk into your room as noiselessly as possible and strike up a casual conversation .

After letting his phone sit on the ground , he clasped his hands and bit his lip hard .

They could be dealing with bugs and he didn't want to give them away . He had a vast knowledge on the different bugs used and if they were — let's say dealing with an Audio bug -— then he didn't want to be caught while talking about their plans .

A tinkling sound startled him and immediately his gaze fell upon the text he had received .

Sulaaymaan , what the heck are you upto ?! You're scaring me .

He rolled his eyes . Of course he was scaring her although that wasn't his intention . At the moment , he just couldn't bring himself to type a much more decent message .

You have to do what I said . Hurry up please . We don't have much time .

So I'm supposed to causally walk into my room and call out for you ?! And like that's not suspicious enough , I am to strike up a conversation with a man supposedly sneaking around in my room ?

Sulaaymaan sighed , shutting his eyes for a mere second .

Pretend to call me and I'll pretend to walk in . Tell me that you need some help with the laptop alright ?

Fine . Will do that . Coming !

Sulaaymaan threw his phone into the pocket at his breast and stood up . He attempted to wait at a spot but as she was taking longer than expected , he carefully began to walk up and down .

A click made him turn around from his position five minutes later and he found himself facing Afra who shot him a thumbs up .

After about walking halfway into the room while making sounds that would alert her position , she relaxed and started to shriek .

"Sulaaymaan ! Oh my God ! Sulaaymaan ! Somebody help !"

He rolled his eyes with a huff .

Dramatic much ?

She answered back with a tongue out emoji .

He smiled , enjoying his time with Afra's craziness . Perhaps this would be the first and the last time she would ever smile as brightly as she did today . As he pulled the door open with a bang and walked with loud thumps at the spot , he snuck glances at Afra who was giggling .

"Miss Afra ? What happened ? Why are you screaming ?!"

Afra shrugged and winked at him .

"Just wanted to see how my voice looks like when I scream ."

He slapped his face and gave her a wry look .

Now start searching and stop wasting time .

She looked at him and glared .

He huffed and nodded as she followed him .

What if it's a hidden camera we should be looking out for ?

Cameras don't make noise . Moreover , I've learnt quite a few things about these gadgets .

Sulaaymaan started to move across her room with his gaze fixed over every object . After going through the lamps , curtains , desk , wardrobes and bed , he positioned himself back at the foot of the bed and rubbed a hand over his chin .

"So Sulaaymaan , what are your hobbies ? I'm curious ."

"Hmm..... I've always loved calligraphy and I thoroughly enjoy gardening . I have been grafting roses for over seven years now ."

She listened with interest , nodding her head slowly . Her eyes were on him , anticipating more .

"Okay , wow ! Impressive ."

"You need to show me your creations sometime ."

"In Shaa Allah , one day if we are still together ."

She sounded surprised and Sulaaymaan smiled wryly feeling his cheeks burn a little . He was keenly focused on figuring out the cause of those noises but her words left him distracted for a while .

A second passed with him pulling the covers away and motioning for Afra to do the same from the other end . As soon as they had thrown away all the pillows and blankets on the ground , he asked Afra to step aside .

"Tell me about your hobbies ."

He causally brought up the question back again . Afra was beginning to answer when he showed her a hand and she paused .

He pushed his sleeves up , pulled his thoub up and tied it across his waist . With his gaze fixed determinedly at the mattress , he showed Afra a hand and she began to speak .

She couldn't though .

It was a little distractive to see him work like a true gentleman as he tried to pull away the mattress .

"Uh , I'm the sort of girl who keeps skipping between different hobbies . I can't stay at one place ."

Sulaaymaan chuckled while dragging the mattress along the floor and dropped it at a farther corner .

"Okay , get that — " he trailed off and huffed out a pretty loud sigh before smiling at her and motioning her to continue .

"Most of the times I love going through memes and laughing my head off . I've been recently going through as many as Quranic translations so that I can understand it better . And of course I'm trying my best to memorize surahs which could be pretty challenging but it's worth the time . I loved dancing a lot , but I've learnt that it's not appreciated in Islam . So I am trying to refrain from music and dancing , both ."

"That's nice . And I don't think you have to stop dancing as such . Just do it to yourself or maybe your friends . And in front of your mahrams too . And music is Haraam so you gotta keep away from it ."

She nodded slowly while keeping her eyes focused on the dashboard on the bed . Slivers of wood were penetrating through it and while Sulaaymaan was circumspect Afra still couldn't help but gasp loudly when he would shift his hands from corners to corners .

"What's your area of preference in academics ?"

Sulaaymaan tensed a little and shrugged his shoulders moments later . His hands were gliding against the bed's body as he was moving over it .

"Archeology . I've always loved that ."

Afra's mouth dropped open and Sulaaymaan snuck a glance at her . It took her a few seconds to recompose herself and clear her throat .

"Sorry , it's....just , you know I didn't expect you out of all the people to like a subject like that ."

Sulaaymaan shook his head in amusement as he worked tirelessly . After going through each section meticulously , he sighed and reeked a hand irritatedly through his hair .

He plopped to the floor and rested his back against the bed's frame while positioning his arm over the top of it .

"You're not the first one . Don't worry about it ."

Afra had moved a little closer to him and was about to get seated opposite to him when he shot upright with his eyes wide open .

"Afra , tell me why did you revert ?"

His voice was pressing and it was so intensely serious that she had almost burst into a series of queries . When it sunk into her that they were working under an exceptional state , she gulped the lump in her throat and tried to find her voice .

Meanwhile , Sulaaymaan had very professionally started to pull off a few wooden planks whilst attempting to not let the voice be too loud .

Afra was struggling hard to find her voice as Sulaaymaan pushed his arm further into the hollow space between the planks and urged her to speak up with his free hand .

"Um....yeah , uh....... I don't really have any dramatic story behind my reversion . I've always been given the freedom to choose what my heart desires and after interacting with a few Muslims and socializing with the famous Islamic centres , I ended up reverting ."

Sulaaymaan didn't answer instantly but nodded his head .

"That's interesting and totally unexpected . I had been prepared to hear some rather fantastical story ."

She smiled and clasped her sweaty hands together .

"Everyone's said that always ."

He went silent again and moved his hands skillfully . For a minute Afra could clearly see the stress marks scrunch up on his face as he dipped deeper and a minute later , a relieved sigh formed over his face .

"But I think archeology is a great field . It's that I wasn't anticipating a Prince to come up with that answer ."

Sulaaymaan smiled , came down from the bed and twirled something tiny in between his fingers in front of Afra's face .

"And I think mastering the observative skills is something that would leave you shaken up sometimes ."

« Assalaamualaikum Princesses ❤ .

Jazak'ALLAHU QAIRAN KATHEERAN for all of your prayers . Alhumdulillah , I'm better now . We all know how sticky colds could be !

All things aside , I've just been feeling very down . Don't even know why but I feel weirdly uncomfortable and suffocated .

Could you all leave back lots of comments to lighten my mood ? ❤❤❤ . I know I can count on you guys . ❤❤❤ .

I love you all so so much . Thank you from the deepest corners of my heart for all your never ending support . ❤❤❤ . It really genuinely means a lot to me . I'm always extremely grateful . ❤❤❤ .

Love you all . ❤❤❤ .

Take care all of you . ❤.  Winter's can be pretty challenging y'know.  ❤❤❤ .

Love ,
Me ;) »