Behind the rigidity

Pain as well as medicine

"I never said you can hide away your palms.Bring then forward.Now"
"Sor .."
Samarth didn't have time for such things so he simply took hold of his left hand this time and gave two consecutive hits yet again .WHIP WHIP.
"I am not going to ask to forward them both.Neither will I bring it myself now.Either you keep both of them in place or I double your punishment "
Ved stood still .
"One..Two...Thr.."
He knew better than to let him complete.
"I thought so"
WHIP.WHIP.WHIP.WHIP.WHIPWHIP.WHIP.WHIP.WHIP.WHIP

His father alternated the hands while Ved jumped and begged the whole time rubbing his hands together after every set.Though Samarth had reduced the strength but the first 4 strikes on his wet palms had scared him, so he couldn't register anything other than the fact that he was being hit.

"No more no more please"
"Two more" his father assured him this time though still in a cold tone.
WHIP WHIP
As soon as the last two landed Ved started rubbing his red hands vigorously, blowing upon it.At that moment Samarth wanted nothing but to hide his baby under his arms but he know he had to be rigid this time in order to make sure he never repeated things which could be threatening for him.
"Vedant look here"
He turned around with tears streaming down his face at the first instance, hoping for a hug and showed his father the reddened palms
Samarth's heart broke into million pieces as he closed his eyes to compose himself and continued
"What did we learn Today ?"
"Papa pain Papa pain"
He remembered a baby Vedant who used to form incoherent words to talk with them
"What lesson did we learn today Vedant?I want a proper answer this time" He raised his voice a bit angry on his own self
Ved got startled and hiccupped as he answered
"T..to ne.ver touch electric devices carelessly or just for fun"
"Bring your rough copy and write that exactly. Word to word.100 times. WITHOUT A SINGLE MISTAKE,while kneeling in that corner, facing the wall." He said  pointing towards a particular wall.
Ved hiccupped again and more tears spilled down the face in reply.He never could take such coldness from either of his parents,both of them comforted him immediately after punishing.So when his Papa didn't hug him the gravity of his act started sinking within himself and he knew he had done something serious indeed .
"Have some water and get to work.I won't repeat . Number each sentence" Samarth's facade softened for a bit as he offered the water and sat on the sofa.
Ved slowly drank the water, walked to his room,brought his pen & copy and slowly knelt down in the corner.He looked back quite a few times hoping that his Papa or mumma would come near him to atleast scold him but just a look from his Papa turned his head back over.
It took about one and half hours for him to write the 100th sentence,his knees were hurting immensely and the well beaten palms worsened his condition.
"Mumma..done"he called out meekly when his mum came to keep something on the table
She nodded and with a soft small smile said,"I'll call Papa"
Ved didn't have the courage enough to get up before permitted to.
Samarth entered the room while Bhavani was about to call him
"He has finished his work" She silently held his arm signalling him to not be harsh anymore on their kid and in reply he blinked back.
"I'm going to pick up the dry clothes" she went up to the rooftop

"Vedant,come here with your copy"
He sat down on the sofa while Ved took baby steps towards his Papa
Samarth, though he had presumed that as usual there would be mistakes,but he would let them slide and not punish him anymore, but was surprised to see the perfect completion of punishment actually without a single mistake for the very first time.
He was reviewing the last few lines when Ved held his ears without even being told
"I'm sorry Papa, I'm really sorry, I'll never go near any electronic device again,and I'll listen to you and mumma.Pakka wala promise, please aur gussa nai, I'm sorry" he apologized sincerely as few tears spilled down his face again
That was it for Samarth as his facade was completely down and he hugged his son tightly as never before.Even his eyes had some traces of tears.
"Mera bachcha,Papa loves you very much"
Ved cried loudly as his Papa hugged and consoled him finally
"Bas beta bas,no more tears"
He rubbed his son's back soothingly .
After several minutes when Ved was ready to part,he wiped away all his tears and kissed his forehead
"You know beta,we got so frightened.Anything could've happened to you, please never repeat that again , promise?"
Samarth extended his hand to get his promise
"Promise" Ved kept his palm upon is father's.
"Mera baby" he hugged his son again
"Now go ,find mumma and give her a hug,she got very scared,go"
Little tornado sprinted towards his mumma bear and stuck like a Koala.
"Mummaaaaaa"
Bhavani hugged him with closed eyes, assuring herself once again that her child was okay
"Wapas nahi karna aisa ,okay" a drop of tear left her eye
"Mumma,why are you crying,papa said no more tears" his little palm wiped away all her traces of sadness
"Yess chalo ab go and start taking a bath, I'll come and apply the shampoo "
"Okayyyyy" he went away with the same speed he came.
"Dheere Ved dheere" Bhavani shook her head.

The lunch was filled with Ved's cute antics and banters.He fell asleep while playing with his father in the living room after lunch and Samarth yet again carried him to bed as Ved had time left before he went outside to play with his friends.
Tucking him to sleep,Samarth opened Ved's fisted palms.They didn't look as red as before but there were very slight traces of his hits.He held both his hands and kissed them multiple times, brought back a cream and applied it in the places where he had punished his kid.
He was caressing his knees that must have pained due to kneeling down for such a long time on the hard floor when a hand upon his shoulder shifted his focus

"Naaraz hoga na mujhse ? He thinks that his father is so bad haina,who keeps on punishing him ?" The grown up man asked like a baby wanting the much needed assurance
"If he had thought so,would he ask for comfort from his same bad father ?" Bhavani questioned back
He looked at her hopefully
"Don't overthink yourself Arth,you yourself were telling me na ?
If he was not punished today,he could've repeated the same thing in future, just like he did today after the diwali incident.Toh would we have the capability to bear such a thing?"
"Never,we will not let any harm come to him"
"For that he needs to careful about himself as well.Sometimes we need to portray ourselves harsh in order to secure the future.Dekhna ajke baad he won't dare to repeat it again,and he knows that we love him no matter what"

Samarth felt really lucky to have found such an understanding woman in his life who could handle both of them with such grace.He got overwhelmed and hugged her by waist and hid himself in her,an act which often Ved.And Bhavani did the usual thing which she often did to her little kid.She caressed the head of her bigger kid as well with a smile.

          ~ ✿⁠ ⁠♡ ✿⁠ ⁠♡ ✿⁠ ⁠♡ ~

The next part of ch 6  is here.
The punishment and reaction must feel a little exaggerated but I've seen kids with extreme curious minds and took inspiration from the same.
Let me know your take upon this.
Suggestions as well as healthy criticisms are welcomed
I'll be back again with a new chapter,till then stay safe and smiling 💗