ArShi FF: Fragmented Colors

Chapter 18: Euphony

A/N: First off, apologies for the delay dear readers. I am in the midst of final exams and have been quite busy. Here it is though! Hope you enjoy :) 

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"The answer is simple."

That, is when she realizes that the answer truly is simple. The answer is in his very presence, the touch of his fingers in her hair, of his beating heart beneath the palm of her hand.

And then, of his lips meeting her aching ones in a kiss that sealed fourteen years of waiting into one single moment of truth.

He kissed her like it were the first time. In more ways than one, it did feel like a new beginning. He kissed her tentatively, slowly at first and then all at once. With each passing second he held her close as the urgency grew to unrecognizable heights. He kissed her like a madman, as if she would slip away like grains of sand between clasped fingers, as if she was a wave upon a shore visiting just for a splash only to merge with the blue seas once again. He kissed her like it were the first time, but with such need, as if it were the last.

"Arnav," His name leaves her lips in an unconfined gasp in the midst of it all, urging him to stray, to look into the haze of her half closed eyes.

"Khushi," He hushes in a whisper, sending it out to the night sky where it mingles with the chill of the breeze.

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Neither of them could tell after how long or by what measure, but soon they found themselves inside the four walls of her dimmed room while the sangeet still continued outside. She had held his hand in the garden, conveying words through a language only he could read before leading him away with a slight tug, away where silences spoke. They had entered the warmth of her room and for a while just looked at each other, confirming the other's presence, and the fact that this very moment was the most generous reality had ever been.

He holds both of her hands in his, admiring the way she smiles with her eyes when she looks into his, before he catches a piece of paper fall from the table from the wisp of a breeze through the slightly open window.

Khushi follows his trail of sight and curiously watches as he makes his way over to the frail paper lying on the ground, picking it up before turning it over. She visibly notices the changes in his features as he takes the contents of the paper in, and she realizes what he has seen.

"You..." He manages, for the lack of right words in his daze of astonishment.

She walks to stand before him, looking at the paper in his hands that mirrors his own face with strokes of lead.

"I had lost all pictures of you, but I had you etched in my mind. Year after year I tried to bring onto paper my imagination of what you would have looked like as time passed by. Every time I sketched, I ran my fingers across the paper with your face drawn on it, hoping that one day I'd be able to forget somehow," Khushi admits, running her fingers across the paper he held with the same longing that reflected endless, sleepless nights.

Arnav stops her hand and raises it from the paper to his face, running it down his skin.

Warm and tangible.

She smiles tearily, stroking his eyebrow, his eyelid, his cheek and then his lips, breathing when he softly kisses the tip of her fingers. Keeping the paper aside his arms immediately encircle her to bring her close, and yet never close enough. Lips meet in a frenzy, his kisses soon running a trail of fire down her neck, branding her skin with heat. Khushi clutches onto his shoulders, struggling to stand.

"Make love to me,"

She feels him stiffen all of a sudden, moving back to look into her eyes.

"Khushi... Are you sure?" The thought of being with her is what kept him up every night with longing, but he wants to assure that it is what she truly wants, that it is him she truly wants.

She touches his heart with her palm and takes a step closer, silently affirming his doubts. Arnav gives in at that very moment, letting go of every last pieces of restraint that now seem futile. Between urgent kisses he opens the golden clip that holds the silk of ebony together, her now open hair liberating the redolent scent of jasmine. She tugs on his suit and within moments it is on the floor, his tie soon joining in a heap. His fingers graze the expanse of her waist through the flimsy georgette of her sari, his control slipping every time she shudders with unhidden pleasure from his touch. Eyes locked with hers he kneels down, placing a peck on the side of her hip before standing up again, amazed at how it still feels like the time he first held her in his arms. As if those fourteen years had never existed.

Khushi can't help but blush at the fire in his steady gaze. Her hands make their way up his chest, unhurriedly tugging the buttons of his shirt open one by one. They slow down to feel and caress, aware of every breath as they take the time to uncover, unwrapping each other as if the other were a gift. Soon they stand in an embrace amongst clothes astray on the floor, two hearts beating under bare skin that crave the touch it deserves.

She takes him in, the broad shoulders, the honey dripped tone, the silver glazed hair. The veins on his strong arms, the thirst of his lips, and those warm, umber eyes. A man in every sense, a much different picture from the boyish charm she remembers.

His fingers absentmindedly draw circles on the small of her back, the sight of her leaving him awestruck. She is fuller now, her wider hips fit like a missing puzzle piece beneath his hands, the swell of her curves tantalize his senses, soft and delicate against the rugged firmness of his own chest.

Khushi feels his lowering gaze on her and can't help but raise her arms to her stomach self consciously. A sudden awareness settles in when she realizes she doesn't look the way she did, her body isn't as petite or small framed as it once was.

Arnav notices her hesitance, quickly moving her arms away. "You are so beautiful," Lips fluttering on her collarbone, "So, so beautiful,"

She feels as if she can fly, caressing his cheek as the scruff of his beard pricks her skin, a tinge of pain she could get used to.

He then carries her before laying her gently on the cotton sheets in the darkness of the room, illuminated only by the glowing moonlight rushing in through crystalline curtains. Lips crashing in a persistence so strong, two bodies seem like one. She rakes her fingers through the waves of his hair as his hands and lips press against her, missing not one single inch of her skin. He groans when she arches up in need, linking their hands that pierce the pillow they lay upon. Breaths mingling, she cries out achingly in a desire to be his. He presses a kiss to her forehead and then the swell of her breast, joining them in the most intimate form of harmony known to a man and a woman.

"Arnav..." The blatant raspiness of her voice sends heat coursing through his veins, pumping with desire he had never encountered before.

"Look at me," The burning plea compels her to look into his eyes, moaning in ragged breaths as he takes her to release, playing a harmony so sweet she can taste it in his mouth.

He lays beside her for several minutes afterwards, drawing in her scent as she settles into a seamless sleep. Her hair is sprawled across his pillow just as he had once imagined, making him wonder if this had all been one of his countless dreams. He watches her closed eyes and the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest, amazed at how he had spent the most beautiful night of his life with the woman who carries his heart. After all, it isn't his to call anymore.

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The morning sun's rays reach her eyes and Khushi reluctantly opens them, her arm searching for his warmth around the bed before her mind is even awake. Surprised to be greeted with emptiness beside her, she sits up, realizing he must have left sometime during the night. A smile forms before she can stop it as she's flooded with memories she can still sense and feel with stunning clarity. Her eyes catch a small piece of paper by her bed side table, folded under a stem of a blooming rose. She picks it up, unfolding it with care.

Khushi,

Last night meant everything to me.

I can't wait to see you soon,

Arnav

Never in her life did fifteen simple words have the power to tie her speechless, breathless, or so hopelessly hopeful.

Never before, until now.

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A/N: I hope it made you flutter in some way <3

– Rain