Always - AbhiRa OS # 2

Always - An AbhiRa OS [OS # 2]

"After all this  time?"

"Always" - Severus Snape, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

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"From now on I'm a one writer girl"

"Thank you"

"Always" - Kate Beckett, Castle

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"Thank you for having my back in there, Thank you for being there for me"

"Always" - Richard Castle, Castle

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"I need you to know that our partnership, our relationship has been the greatest thing to happen to me. You are an amazing man and I love you with all my heart. Always" - Kate Beckett, Castle

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AbhiRa OS # 2 - Always

Akshara Goenka looked up at the night sky. The twinkling stars smiled down at her. She threw a sideways glance to the man walking beside her.

Her man. She thought with a smile, her eyes automatically travelling down to her left hand and the engagement ring gleaming on it.

Never had she thought she would be engaged at 22.

A soft chuckle escaped her as she thought back to their story - it wasn't exactly a love story.  She had met him while she had been on a trip with her siblings, and had taken an instant liking to him. But unknown to them, their families had already been talking about their rishta.

Akshara hadn't known what to make of her feelings for this man she had only briefly met at a trip, but when her grandmother had asked her if she would be interested in meeting Dr.Abhimanyu Birla as a prospective groom, her heart had said YES!

And they had met, not once, but twice, before saying yes. Akshara had been initially confused, she liked him, she had liked him a lot, but saying yes to a marriage based on a meeting?! And the fact that he had said yes to her confused her more.

He was a successful doctor, came from an affluent family, extremely handsome, and from the little she had come to deduce from their meeting, was well mannered, calm, composed, mature and sorted.

While she was.....she was just Akshara Goenka - with no glowing academic credits, or achievements to her belt. She was a plain, normal girl who loved music.

And she had told him that when they had met for the second time. And boy, he wasn't pleased.

Akshara looked down at her lap, her fingers tightly entwined as she waited for an answer as if her life depended on it. Maybe it did. She didn't know. All she knew was her heartbeats were picking up speed, and her breathing was starting to become deep.

Oh no. Oh no. oh no

"Yahaan dekho" the same deep voice that calmed her, the voice that touched that part of her that made her feel safe, made her feel connected.

Was it normal to feel this connection to someone you'd met 3,4 or 5 times?

She looked up into his eyes.

And those eyes - the eyes that spoke to her, the honesty in them that touched her heart.

"You think you are... Plain?" He said, sounding as if it was unimaginable that the word could be associated with her. And the earnestly in his face and eyes made her believe in his conviction.

She bit her lip and nodded.

He chuckled, slightly shifting in the bench they were seated to retrieve his phone. Without a word, he thrust the phone to her, "listen" he said, pressing the 'play' button.

And she would never forget that, ever. It was his voice, talking about her.

"Heard a voice today. A voice so calm, a voice so beautiful. A voice that soothed my fraying nerves"

She looked up at him, tears pooling up. He lifted his hand and softly brushed her tears away with his index finger, while playing the next recording with his other hand.

" Akshara Goenka. That's her name. Met her at the trip. As beautiful, as simple, as sincere as her voice.  Tumne mujhe jeet liya Akshara"

Tumne mujhe jeet liya Akshara.

Wow. Really? Her mouth forming a small 'o' she looked up at him.

Reading the disbelief on her face, he scooted closer to her, "I'm a doctor, Akshara, not a poet" he started saying.

Her heart still beating rapidly against her chest, she quickly looked down at the entwined fingers in her palm again, wringing them compulsively.

He grabbed her balled hands in his, an action, to her surprise, that immediately calmed her, and comforted her so much that she looked into his eyes with a smile.

"You're enough" he said, looking deeply into her eyes, but reaching the depths of her soul, "I promise you, Akshara Goenka, you're enough" 

The tears flowed freely down her cheeks now and she didn't even try to brush them away.  Because there was also the biggest smile on her face, and she was left wondering how one person could make her cry, but also could make her heart soar at the same time.

It was good few minutes that they sat like this - facing each other, hand in hand, eyes glued to one another, the only sound between them made by their steady heartbeats. With a sigh, Akshara turned her hands and intertwined her fingers in his.  His brow shot up in surprise momentarily as he looked down at their intertwined fingers before looking up at her with an understanding smile. 

"Thank you" she muttered when she finally found her voice. 

"Always"

Had she fallen in love with him then? Maybe not. Maybe a little.

Had she known that he was the one for her? Hell, yes!

So what did that make their upcoming wedding? A love marriage? An arranged marriage?

Jo bhi ho, Akshara thought contentedly, she couldn't be happier.

In the months of knowing him, and with all those phone calls which extended well into the morning, Akshara could now say without a doubt that she was falling head over heels in love with him, one day at a time. But she hadn't told him that - not in words, but she suspected he knew.

In the  months of being engaged to Dr. Abhimanyu Birla, of knowing him, and of falling in love with him, she had come to believe what he had told her in the very beginning of their relationship - 

That, all her insecurities, anxieties and shortcomings not withstanding, she would  be enough - not just for him, but for herself too.

Always.

**** THE END *****

Some notes - 

1. The word 'Always' has a special place when in my heart, thanks to Prof.Snape from the HP series and the amazingly awesome Rick Castle and Det.Kate Beckett, from the Castle series. The lines I quoted before starting this OS belong to the writers/creators of those characters/series, so I take no credit. 

I just tried to give this word an 'AbhiRa' mark - I hope I succeeded. Whenever I think of AbhiRa its the soft tender romance that comes to mind, hence the softness in this OS. 

2. The line 'I promise you, you're enough' is a song by 'sleeping at last' 

3.  Read and Review, please.

Mridz.