Rishi and Lakshmi One-Shot Compilation

Disinclined

His eyes are watered with tears, as he extends his hand at the behest of the Pandit who guides him through the motions of marriage.

In all honesty, he does not require the guidance, he remembers it all like the lines littering the palm of his hand; from the day he had entered a seven lifetime promise with his Lakshmi.

The thought is chilling, and as he sees her in his fragmented mind, dressed as his bride, with her mother's dupatta connecting them, and a smile so radiant, he cannot look away.

He thinks then, they couldn't even achieve one lifetime together and with it, she fades away from his sight. The thought, the lack of her, makes him laugh in pain, and as his tears spill Malishka places her hand in his.

His mother steps forth to dry his tears, unable to see them, but unable to understand the reason for them.

He looks towards his mother, eyes pleading for a moment, for another pause to this cursed union yet he remains unrewarded, his love for his first and only wife going unnoticed by the woman responsible for making his heart.

He shakes out of her grip, and as his gaze turns to Malishka he thinks he sees Lakshmi for a split moment, but she caresses his face and the shadow he sees of her falls apart and shatters before him.

He turns his head to the side, his father watching him in pity, and his grandmother in anger for not fighting harder.

He grows nauseous with the contact and settles upon muttering her name like a prayer for strength that he is in desperate need of.

It is a foolish thought, wanting her to be near, he knows, but it is the only sane thought that keeps him breathing.

His eyes close for a fraction of a second as the pandit chants the mantras that his ear plead deaf too. Instead he chooses to think of the last time he had seen her, accompanied by Ayush who bore testimony to the fight that spilled between them.

"Lakshmi."

"Go and get married Rishi." He can remember shaking his head, trying and failing to grasp her hands.

"I am not marrying her Lakshmi."

"Why? You tried the first time. You won't have to stop this time Rishi. You'll finally get everything that you wanted. You'll get her."

"After everything that has happened Lakshmi, you're saying this?" He can still feel the pain his heart bled at her words but in her avoidance of his eyes he knows her heart bleeds profusely, and at the sight his patience weans thin.

"I am tired of saying this over and over again. I love you Lakshmi! Can you not see that? Can you not hear that? Or are you just playing ignorant to both." She shakes her head.

"You don't love me Rishi. If you did, neither of us would be seeing this day. We would not be separated and our marriage would still very much be intact."

"That's not fair." He remembers saying, and at his voice cracking he remembers searching her eyes desperately.

"I am not stopping your marriage to Malishka not when this is what you truly desire regardless of the words you utter. I will not stop this marriage when your mother, aunt and girlfriend have been draining my mental peace all for this moment. The sacrifice I have made has to be worth something. If you want to stop it, do it alone. I wash my hands of this Rishi. I wash my hands of you."

"You don't mean that." He remembers pleading, and if he hadn't see her tears he may have believed that she did mean her last words. But still, in his memory he remembers her evading him to a point of success.