Suffered in silence ~~ Legend of Sumitranandans

Seasonal Change

Honestly, that title. It's almost like I am gonna lecture you people about the heat wave here. Which I am not gonna do, so put your chappal back on.

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A month. That was the time that had passed since Sugriva's coronation. And well, as expected, the rains had begun to pour.

But as it was the onset of monsoon, the weather fluctuated too much. The days were too hot, but it rained during nights. He knew very well that perhaps after a week or so, it would rain during the day as well, but that didn't improve the matters. Because humidity was at its highest, and Lakshmana, who insisted on doing everything all alone for his brother, came to a horrifying realisation that he might fall sick at the rate this was going.

No, he told himself firmly. He could not afford to fall sick. That was absolutely out of question. He needed to be there for his Bhaiyya, who was getting restless with each day about the safety and whereabouts of his wife. If he fell sick, it would burden him with absolutely unnecessary stress that he did not need, not when he had too much of his own to deal with.

Things were different when Bhabhi was around. When she was with them, she would make herbal concoctions for all of them before monsoon to build their immunity, and so none of them ever fell sick. But now, he thought with a pang, she wasn't here to run behind him yelling about how he should stay careful and indoors during this time of the year.

Bhabhi. He usually never thought of her, for if he did, he would surely and certainly go back to that horrifying day, those torturous words that still made his heart bleed. It was ridiculous, or so he thought, that he was still hurt by those words. It had been months, and in his point of view, those months should have been enough to make him forget and move on. He understood that she said what she said in a fit of rage, and he should forget it. But he was unable to. And that was the problem.

It was horrible, really. Now that he and bhaiyya had no job but to just sit and wait, those torturous words and her cold behaviour towards him came back to him with more force than he thought was possible. So, he tried to stay busy. He was out in the sun almost all the time, collecting berries of new and different sorts for his Bhaiyya, in the sheer hope that he would like one of them enough to eat them a little more than what was required to survive. In the process, he would at times forget to eat himself. He would collect firewood to light fires during night and would collect huge leaves to cover the small gaps in the caves to prevent the hot sun from entering. He would roam around in the jungles surrounding Rishyamukha aimlessly for hours on end, but would return before his brother began to panic.

The amount of communication that he had with his Bhaiyya had reduced quite significantly. Rama would hardly do anything but stare into nothing, probably thinking about how and where his Sita was. It was heart breaking for Lakshmana to watch his otherwise lively and optimistic brother that sad. And hence, he avoided any communication with him, the only conversations between them being Lakshmana insisting Rama to eat and Rama in turn asking him if he ate. Lakshmana would lie, most of the times, that he did, for it was better than bothering his brother with things he didn't need to worry about.

But that day, it was impossible to hide from Rama how tired he was. And well, Rama did notice.

Lakshmana's hands shook ever so slightly when he placed a basket full of fruits near Rama. His face was pale, drained of all colour, his eyes hollow and covered in dark circles. Rama frowned in worry.

"Laksh? Are you alright? You look sick" He asked, getting up from where he was sitting. Lakshmana quickly looked away

"Yes. I am fine, Bhaiyya" He said softly. He clearly wasn't fine, because his voice was trembling, something which never really happened before.