MaNan: Unadulterated Love|| Completed

27. A Pain filled Reunion!

~ Because we were just kids when we fell in love, not knowing what it was~

Nandini  barged in only to find a heart wrenching sight that always managed to take her breaths away, yet again. Manik was sitting on the ground, with his knees drawn to his chest, and head resting on the mesh his hands made over his knees. Nandini with soft steps, settled beside him, and very softly patted his hairs, but he didn't look up.

" Manik?", She called him, and at the sound of her choked voice, he looked up. He wasn't crying, his eyes were dry, but Nandini could see the battle happening inside his heart.

He didn't say a word, and lay down on her lap, in silence as she kept on running her fingers through his hairs. Nandini knew this time it was not the memories or the guilt, it was the anger and the complains in his heart! It was the unasked questions he had for his mother. It was the eagerness to collapse in his mother's arms and yet the fear which was not allowing him to do so. He could not decide between his heart and mind.

Nandini did nothing other than ruffling his hair softly to calm him down first. When she saw him a little relaxed and in a condition to understand things, she made him sit up and looked at him with gallore of love in her orbs.

"Manik!", she called softly. He looked at her and again his eyes moistened.

"Maa", his voice was a breathless whisper.

Nandini had not only promised him for name sake, she actually acted like a  mother, sister and even a father for that lost little kid inside him. And hence she knew this call wasn't for his actual mother but for her.

Without a single word spoken, she wiped his moistened eyes, and cupped his cheeks, setting his hair, and handling him with love.

"Manik, what had happened, or what might happen, is not really in our hands. All we can handle is our present, and right now your mother is waiting for you. You don't know where she was all these years, what she went through! We know nothing, except the fact that you love her, and she loves you too, with all her heart!", Nandini explained, and he just listened without interrupting. He knew she was right.

" Let go of the past, go and do what your heart wants, what you have craved for these many years! Go and hug her, complain, cry, fight, just do not ignore her this way. Life is giving you another opportunity, Embrace it and get the pieces of your broken family together again", she explained her with such tenderness that he just got up and hugged her tight.

Nandini and Manik, right now were in a phase, where they didn't need words for communication. She understood his actions, the gratitude he felt, the acceptance he showed, and the fear in his body language, all from that one hug.

" Aunty is waiting. Let's go?", She smiled at him, and for the first time since morning,he smiled back at her.
Later, both of them drove back to Mumbai, to gather together all the parts of the puzzle his lives had been.

Veebha had been still sitting on the floor of their bedroom, the photo frames on her lap, trying to feel the essence out of them when a voice startled her.

" Maa!", the voice was enough to break down all her barriers again and in a swift motion, the mother and the son were seen in each other's arms, crying and smiling, wailing and ecstatic, all at once.

" I missed you so very much Maa!", Manik complained like a child and Veebha just caressed his face, kissing all over his forehead and cheeks, to ensure herself that her son was back.

" I missed you more beta", she said with affection.

"But you didn't come to meet me even once?",  he complained with a glum face, and she could see the longing in his eyes.