The Inseparable Princes

111. More Angst

Lakshmana walked into the room, not looking one bit as hesitant as he was on the inside. "Hey, Bharat!"

Bharata glanced up from the painting he was working on. "Hey! What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to...talk to you. And Shatru told me that you were here, so I came." Lakshmana explained. Bharata washed his hands whose fingers were caked in different paint colours, before wiping them and sitting down on a chair.

"I don't have to tell you to sit for you to do it!" he said, when he saw that Lakshmana still stood before him nervously. "Tell me. Is everything alright?"

"I'm sorry, Bharat. I was-"

"You're still talking about something that happened fourteen years back?!" laughed Bharata, clapping a hand on Lakshmana's shoulder. "Don't, Laksh. There's no point. You can forgive yourself for it. It's okay."

"Really?" asked Lakshmana meekly, still not convinced with Bharata's answer. The latter smiled. "Stop smiling. I can see that the statement I told you clearly hurt you. You don't even have to hide it!"

"Yeah, well, it did hurt. It still does. But that doesn't mean you'll curse yourself forever and ever. That's just not how it works." said Bharata, shrugging.

"I just wanted to apologise. Hoping I'd feel better then." Lakshmana admitted. "But I don't feel so." Bharata just looked up to see Lakshmana in the eye, his face resting wearily on his palm.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to help you 'feel better'. I think your problem is something else. Because I've forgiven you years back for what you did. It was wrong, I can never justify that act of yours, honestly, but I know your intentions weren't wrong. Perhaps I'd have done the same if our positions were swapped." Lakshmana allowed a tiny smile. "Maybe go and sort things out with everybody else you've fought with? I mean...I just want some solitude, alright? I'm finally getting to use some quality paints and brushes and canvases and you come and disturb me with your ridiculous, and rather unnecessary apologies!"

"Yeah, like you're going to end up being the greatest artist of the universe!" he snorted, rolling his eyes.

"You're just jealous, clearly!" scowled Bharata. "What have you got against my poor paints?!" Lakshmana laughed.

"What are you painting, though?" asked Lakshmana curiously. Bharata quickly dashed off to save his half naked canvas from being seen by the intruder.

"Move away! How many times have I told you NOT TO SEE MY WORK IN PROGRESS PIECES?! Don't you understand?!" he yelled. Lakshmana laughed, clapping, almost like a toddler.

"I love this so much!" he teased. "You look like a tomato! So much anger! Goodness!"

"Shut up! Get out!" said Bharata, showing him the door. "And please, don't come back to apologise to me and everything. I won't accept it if you try again."

"So have you forgiven me or not?"

"Are you dumb?" Bharata smacked Lakshmana on the head. "I forgave you long back. Many, many years back. I always knew that you didn't really mean for that scene to turn out the way it did."

★★★

"Shatru!" called Rama. Shatrughna didn't respond. Rama walked into the room, seeing that his little brother was lying down and reading a book. "Shatrughna?" He still didn't respond. Rama peeped a little to see that his brother had fallen asleep while reading the book. While an evil Lakshmana would've come into the room and clapped as loudly as possible, so as to wake him up and scare him at one shot, Rama just wouldn't do that. He gently shook him awake with a whispery call of his name. "Shatru, get up."