RiKara FS - Petrichor of Love

Four

Stolen moments

Tuj se bichad ke kya jiya
Jab saasen hi Teri rehemat ho
Tuj ko bhula ke kya kiya
Jab dua bhi tu, tu hi ibadat ho
Four years ago

Annika came out and closed the door behind her. Although her heart nudged her to, she did not slam it with a bang but all the same, Omkara jumped at the gentle clicking it made. He was sitting in one of the lobby chairs, waiting to talk to her. The dim light made his expression unreadable, but Annika thought there was hope in his eyes, and it startled her for she had never received anything other than an empty look from him. It broke her heart to shook her head at him, hands folded soon after she placed the tray that she was carrying on the nearest table.

“She said no to both medicine and dinner.”

“Is She,” Omkara bit his lip and massaged his temple with the tips of his fingers. “She is still mad at me then?”

Annika sighed, wondering how two people could be so oblivious to each other's pain.

“That's the problem isn't it? She can't be mad at you, she's not capable of it.” She said then, after much contemplation.

“You think I'm horrible too, don't you?” His voice was so soft that she almost didn't hear him. But Annika was a good listener and she heard what he said, she also heard what he did not.

“That's also a problem, that you think you're horrible.” She offered him a smile, although a worn one.

Omkara held his silence for a moment, regarding her with his thoughtful gaze and patted the seat available beside him, with a faint smile of his own.

“Sit with me,” he said simply. “If you have time.”

Perhaps it was his luck, or her fate, she did have time. With her brother off on a school trip there was no one waiting for Annika at home. And she took her job a tad bit too seriously. Not only did she planned weddings, sometimes she played Cupid to little truffles in the love stories around her.

“I've been talking for a long time. Not stopping to breath. Not stopping to think. Not stopping to listen. And now that I want to listen, now that I stopped, it's too late. She won't say anymore.”

“Gauri loves you, perhaps in an amount that cannot be reciprocated.”

“And it scares me,” he said slowly. “Like a man who sees fire for the first time would feel...scared and excited at the same time. It’s...it’s complicated!”

Annika let out a nervous laugh.

“You do have a way with words, even though your own thoughts are so confused, your words are pretty.”

He gave her a tight lipped smile.

“Thank you.”

“I don’t know what went wrong in your life Omkara - I can call you that right? But trust me, Gauri is not one of those things. Kismat se pyaar kissi ki zindagi mein aati hai, kuch log uss ki dua mein hi jal jaate hai.”
“Can you help me?”

“To make amends? No - I’d rather not,” she surprised herself by saying that. “Don’t get me wrong, I love playing fairy godmother too much, but things that are earned means more than things that are gifted. I think this is something you must do yourself. And I believe it’s just the way she wants it.”
**

It was the darkest hour of the night. The moon was nowhere to be seen and a cluster of pale stars dusted the cosmos. Knowing no soul was awake in the vast mansion, Gauri unlocked her door. The burns from earlier were still painful. But they did not sting as much as the wounds on her psyche did. It was not pain anymore, it was the bitterest of disappointments. The kind of feeling that haunted you after waking up from an unnaturally beautiful dream, with tears in your eyes and longing for something far beyond your reach still burning your heart.