Lost | ✔

Chapter Four - A Walk In Nature

The next morning, Khushi woke up before ASR, given that she barely fell asleep to begin with.

Feeling an ache all over her body, she groaned as she stood up, her eyes squinted against the first rays of the morning sun. She turned on the spot and found that her companion was still asleep. The shawls she covered him with were pulled over his face.

The burst of warmth was back again but this time Khushi snapped out of it the very next moment, not quite at ease with the heat all over her face. She shook herself and that was when she registered another kind of ache, this time from her stomach—hunger.

She suppressed another groan and looked around with brooding eyes. She had not packed any food for her trip to Raizada House, as she thought this was all going to be a brief meeting. But now, she was starving and she was sure ASR would too when he wakes up. At that thought, that irritable pang of guilt was back again. She did not think she would be able to handle it if he went empty stomach just because of her.

Her heart once again heavy with the realisation of where her stupidity brought the two of them, she took her bag and started walking. Perhaps she could find some fruits—they were in a forest for heaven's sake—but somewhere she knew that her chances of finding food were not as high as the chances of her getting lost, this time alone.

Nonetheless, she was determined to not let someone starve because of her and as if God was finally on her side, she found a guava tree not even five minutes after. Feeling ecstatic, she started harvesting the fruit, taking as much as the tree had to offer, given that there was no saying how much longer they’d be lost here for.

Satisfied with her hunt, she straightened herself and turned back to return to where ASR was sleeping, only to find him standing just behind her. She yelped, thinking for a second that she was face to face with some kind of apparition, but as she stabilised herself and got a better look at ASR, perhaps—she thought—an apparition would have been more preferable. He was furious, his eyes as menacing as they were yesterday when he had interrogated her for her uninvited presence in his car.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” He asked, his voice low yet so intimidating that Khushi had to clear her throat a couple of times to find her voice.

“Fr--fruits.” She said, gesturing towards the guava tree. She watched as he took his eyes off her for a few seconds to take in the tree but then resumed his threatening scrutinising without saying another word. That irked her, because she felt that the situation was pretty self-explanatory and that she did not deserve to be stared at like that—as if she did something so stupid, he could not believe it.

“I was hungry and, and I figured you would be hungry too when you wake up. So, I thought of finding us some food.” She explained herself nonetheless, but ASR’s expression did not bulge. If anything, he looked more miffed.

“You could have gotten lost.” He said in a matter-of-factly voice, then added with a shake of his head, “I don’t get it, is it some kind of habit of yours? To run straight into trouble, willingly?”

“I was keeping track of where I was going!” Khushi exclaimed defensively, tired of his relentless taunts.

“And besides, looks like you’ve forgotten that we are already lost.” She added, using sarcasm on purpose, though she knew exactly what he meant.

He raised his eyebrows and continued his exasperating scrutiny for few more seconds, during which, Khushi noted, at least his anger vanished.

“Next time, wake me up.” Saying so, he dropped off his bag on the ground, along with the shawls that Khushi did not notice at first. She stared at him as he sprawled the shawls on the ground, then sat himself comfortably on them.