𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐕𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐎 : 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐎𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐬

..𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄..

unwind with - Kaho na Kaho by
Amir Jamal

I stood a little behind him, my feet sinking into the damp earth, the smell of moss and smoke clinging to the morning air.
The forest no longer felt suffocating as it had yesterday.
Sunlight streamed timidly through the canopy, scattering patches of gold on the ground.
The sharp buzzing of the helicopter blades reached us from the distance, a sound that promised safety.
His eyes, unwavering, stayed fixed on the sky as though he could pull the aircraft closer with just his gaze.
Mine, however could not leave him.

I should have been relieved, grateful, even smiling perhaps, for the thought of leaving this wilderness behind.
But my heart was a prisoner to something else entirely.
To him.
To Kabir Amory Arya, the man who stood like a wall between danger and me, the man who without meaning to, had changed the rhythm of my breaths forever.

Memories of last night wrapped themselves around me like invisible vines.
Those herbs had been cruel.
I had never known my body could betray me like that, filling me with a fire that made me restless, needy, unrecognizable to myself.
I had feared what he would think.
Would he look at me differently?
Would I see in his eyes the same mocking I had endured from others all my life?
But no,his gaze had carried nothing but steadiness.

He had not made me feel ashamed.
Not once.
He held my trembling hands as though they were not a burden, as though they were not betraying me.
“Breathe, Aaravi.”
He had said softly, as if teaching me how to calm the storm in my veins.
I knew the herbs had reached him too.
I could see it in the way his chest rose with unsteady breaths, in the tightness of his jaw, in the heat of his skin when our shoulders brushed.
And yet, he had fought it, fought for control with a discipline only years of restraint could give.

But desire is a tide and even the strongest swimmer is swept away eventually. When our resistance broke, it was not shameful but it was inevitable.
I still remember the way the night air had wrapped around us, the moonlight spilling like silver over his face.
There had been no hesitation left between us, no fear.
Just surrender.
It was not just a union of bodies rather it was a union of something deeper, something sacred as though the forest itself bore witness to vows we never spoke aloud.
His arms around me had felt like safety, like belonging.
And when his eyes softened against mine afterward, I knew, I had given him not just my body but something much more fragile.
My heart completely without any hesitation.