ʟᴏᴠᴇ- ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴜʀᴇ ғᴇᴇʟɪɴɢ | ✓

~ f i f t y o n e (b) ~

---

"Hai utna hi khoobsurat meri kahani mein tera aana,
Banaras k ghat se jitna ganga ka takrana!!"

---

"How- how are you still smiling? How are you still holding onto yourself Nandini?"

Manik's words were a mere whisper, but the silent night made it audible for the person sitting beside him. His voice was shaky, absolutely not because of the cold wind, but because of the coldness that has surrounded him from inside.

Nandini looked at him and Manik saw the hurricane of emotions in her deep eyes. He could see her vulnerability, her eyes were floating her raw emotions. And he realised that sometimes everything cries in you, except your eyes, he realised that just because she didn't cried it off, doesn't mean that it's not hurting.

So he did, what he felt he could do at that moment. He just entwined their fingers, filling the gaps between her fingers with his, giving her a silent message that the way his fingers filled the gap between her fingers, he will also fill any void in her heart. He won't back out, now today, not tomorrow, not until he is breathing.

And maybe because Nandini has learnt it a hard way that words can be deceptive, one can say something and won't mean them, but actions can. Because she has experienced it, silence screaming more than the mouth could and saw the actions revealing more than the words know. So, she has always try to fathom a person through his actions. And hence, she understood his actions too, which filled her body with warmth and peace.

"Let it out Nandini. Let it all out, and remember, to not hold your tears back when you will be telling me, that how cruel this world was to that pure soul, who didn't did any wrong. I want to know what and how that fifteen year old Nandini felt when her own family didn't trusted her. I want to know how much hurt the once upon a time Princess had to endure to survive in the world where bad oversights the good. And then, I want to see all the parts of you that you feel are not worthy of love, so I know where to begin. Show me, show me your thorns and I'll show you my hands teady to bleed."

By the end, Nandini was already in tears. Tears, because she felt loved, she felt wanted. And at that moment she craved nothing, but to let it all out as he said, and then cry in his arms. Crying while telling him that how very slowly and painfully this world had killed that fifteen year old. And most importantly, how her own family did the first attack and managed to bruise her soul.

"I- You know Manik, what hurted me most was- was that, I- I got thousand of scars on my heart and- and none was from the enemy. Each- each of them came from the person I- I had loved or trusted. I was fighting with my own family for the trust that should've come without asking for it."

Manik just clutched Nandini's hand as she went down the memory lane of how her own family broke her fragile heart, the memories which were still fresh in her heart, which still made her shudder.

.

Flashback

.

Nandini woke up holding her head which was throbbing with pain. She winced due to the sudden light as she opened her eyes. And after her eyes adjusted with the lights she opened them only to frown more as she found herself in an unknown place. Still holding her head due to the extreme pain, Nandini sat on the bed and looked around and only thing she saw were white walls, some hospital equipments and one bed beside hers. And she realised that she was in a hospital.

She pressed her head to remember how she came here and her mind processed faster than she realised and she was already crying when the memories which was like a nightmare filmed in her mind. She gasped as she realised what had happened with her.