Discordance

Chapter Fifteen

"Love?" His voice echoed in his room, what the fuck was she talking about? It took him a moment to realize that Akshara was talking about Ishika. OH. He opened his mouth to clear things with her and explain how Ishika and him had dated for a while but he was over it now, he just used her as an excuse. He wanted to tell her that while at one point in life he thought he loved nobody more than Ishika, he wasn't sure it was something more than a teenager's infatuation and the love that he thought he had had vanished completely at her lack of compromise. To him it was clear that if you loved someone, you would move mountains to be with them and while he had kept his end of the bargain, Ishika had staunchly refused to keep hers and he had lost what little love or respect he had for her since then. So no, he wasn't in love, he was just a young delusional man back then.

"So friends?" her voice cut through his musings and Abhimanyu jerked out of it to see her face riddled with anxiety. Was she this nervous about his response? His heart itched inside his chest for some reason at the term "friends" he didn't want to be friends with her, but her anxious wringing of hands left him no choice. "Sure, I can be your friend Monkey" he said ruffling her hair hoping to stop her from looking at his face and the thousand flashes of emotions crossing it. She immediately took the bait and growled at him, she looked so cute when she was mad that Abhimanyu felt it like a punch in his gut. He wanted to keep her safe and secure, this layer of protectiveness washing over him out of nowhere.

"Yesss" she punched the air and to his shock, hugged him tight. So innocent, so pure! Abhimanyu grinned as he hugged her back but the grin was quickly wiped away when he realized he liked this physical contact between them a little too much.

"Okay, I'll forgive you" she said and Abhimanyu pulled away peering down at her reddened cheeks.

"This easily? You have to make me work for it." He refused to be someone who walked all over her, especially now when he knew her. "I was horrible to you." He whispered guiltily in her hair.

"S'okay" she mumbled her voice muffled into his chest, "I'm used to it"

She could probably sense the chill in his demeanor because she instantly moved away, brushing invisible lint from her clothes and before Abhimanyu could ask her what she was talking about she had made an excuse of showering and locked herself into the bathroom. She kept throwing these random statements in the air and Abhimanyu felt like he still didn't know his wife at all, of course he didn't, they had barely been married for 2 months.

He was lying down on his bed waiting for her to come out so he could question her when he heard her soft singing in the shower, something she had never done before, and Abhimanyu's hair stood on edge as he got up and tiptoed over to the bathroom door and tried to listen closely. Her voice was so stunning that it rooted him to his spot, his heart thudding. It was some old song he faintly recognized, and Abhimanyu quite literally felt the ground shift beneath his feet. So besotted was he by her voice that he didn't even realize when her voice kept coming closer and she barreled right into his chest the moment she opened the door, causing both of them to tumble on the floor.

Her hair was damp from the shower and her cheeks were still flushed from the hot water and being this close to her, the vanilla essence permeated his very being and Abhimanyu felt like his brain was foggy and he couldn't think or see anything clearly apart from her. He stayed in the same position staring at her causing her blush to deepen as she pulled herself up and refused to meet his eyes but Abhimanyu couldn't move.

"Abhimanyu" she said her voice kept getting higher but he was still in his own bubble. Finally she bent over him causing her hair to fall around them like a curtain as she shook him hard