Iniquity: a tale of guilt and love || Completed

25. Baby Steps!

~ my steps can stumble, you can fall too but together we can help each other walk~

Shravan woke up the next morning when Suman parted the curtains deliberately letting the sweet sun rays fell directly on his face. He opened an eye to glance at the alarm clock and it showed 6:00 am in the morning. Turning, he kept one more pillow above his face obstructing the light, and was about to drift into the slumber when he felt tingling sensations in his left toe.

Jerking it away, he tried sleeping again, but the sensation was persistent. It tickled him on his right sole, and then left, between fingers too. He had to rub his feet over each other to make it go away, but it would back in a few seconds. Irritated, he rubbed his feet over the duvet but to his sheer frustration, he could now feel his entire sole tingling, like someone was moving a finger over it all. It was overall making him feel ticklish.

"Sumo!", He muttered under his breath, and called her to get him rid of whatever was troubling her, but to his dismay he had called for the devil herself.

A carefree giggle erupted from her lips, and Shravan opened his eyes to find her source of amusement, when finally the realization dawned on him. She was the creator of the trouble and she was giggling at him.

"Sumo!",he sat up, irritated so early in the morning when Suman walked up to him, and lovingly combed his hairs through her fingers.

"Good morning husband!", The small wish made his morning actually good and he smiled back at her.

Shravan was never a fan of lavish things, these small and simple gestures were enough to make him genuinely happy.

"Good morning w- Sumo!", He was still hesistant to acknowledge her as his wife. Somewhere he still felt the guilt of ruining her life, by not only trying to destroy her emotionally but also by tying her with his own shattered one.

Suman, simply chose to ignore him. She knew it would be difficult for him. The doctor in Chandigarh had warned her already.

"Let's go for a morning walk?", Shravan was tired even after the sleep but the expectant gleam in her eyes made him agree. Anything to make this petite woman happy.

They walked through the roads early morning, hand in hand. Suman talked about the chirping birds and Shravan told her about his London mornings. A simple conversation and yet it felt like so much peace to them. It had been a while they had simply talked, and not let their turmoils ruin them.

They stopped at Tom uncle's tea stall.

" Two cups of hot ginger tea please", Shravan asked and Tom uncle laughed.

"Yes, I remember. Extra ginger for you, and spicy Masala one for Suman bitiya", he smiled at both of them.

" Some things have remained constant, haven't they?", Shravan looked at Suman, who in turn tried to read his eyes. Was it his deep rooted insecurities asking her, or was it just him?

"Yes. Like our friendship", her answer made him smile bitterly. A flicker of rage erupted in his eyes but before it could explode, a soft touch of her hand over his balled fist calmed it.

"Isn't it? Neither years of separation nor the fuel of insecure relationships could break it. Even when we weren't on talking terms, we did care for each other. Only because our friendship remained a constant", Suman's smile wiped the remaining traces of the seeds of rage in his mind and when they both blowed the hot tea, the rising fumes cleared their hearts even more.

Walking back home, Suman's eyes stopped on a garden of Tulips in a roadside home garden. She looked back at Shravan hoping he would use his long hands and get her one from the bunch that looked so, adorable. But to her utter dismay he was talking on phone, his brows furrowed, and she pouted in sadness for a minute before shrugging it off.

Flowers look good on trees anyway!

Entering into the mansion, they saw the entire family in the drawing room, tensed. But as soon as they saw them, all their faces brightened up.

"Bhaiya!", Pushkar jumped on to Shravan who staggered before holding on to the door behind him.

" I thought you left me again!", It was a whisper, not meant for anyone to hear, but the rabbit's ear Shravan had he did. Ruffling pushkar's hairs, he held his hand and dragged him to the dining table, like earlier, when they were kids, and would come over to each other's house on special occasions.

"Let's compete again?", Shravan smirked, and Pushkar's happy eyes dilated more in amazement on seeing the glint in the eyes he was getting habituated to see dead.

In front of them lay veg kababs, Kamini's special recipe that the kids loved and Mewe ki barfi, Nirmala's special.

The two brothers hogged food like two buffoons starved for weeks, and missed the smiles on all the faces that stood behind them. At one point though, when Shravan put the first piece of the Barfi in his mouth, he froze.

His taste buds still recognized the taste they once loved, and maybe still did, and on a reflex, Nirmala had tears in her eyes, standing behind him, ready to bear his wrath when he would turn and leave, leaving the plate untouched.

But, it never happened. Shravan gulped the lump in his throat, and the sweet, and then continued to fight with his brother, winning the food eating competition like always, with the margin of half a sweet.

Sometime, just a lack of protest is enough to convey a ray of acceptance. That morning brought with itself the same for Nirmala.

After finishing the breakfast meant for the entire family, Shravan and Pushkar turned to find the entire clan misty eyed, and passing a small formal smile, Shravan scooted upstairs, while Suman rushed to the kitchen.

Once into their room, Shravan vomitted more than three fourth of what he ate to make Pushkar's mood better. His stomach churned inside as he sat on the bed, exhausted from the continuous vomiting. His body was still coping up. Food still made him nauseatic.

Suman entered with a glass of sweet lime water and a plate of his favorite Poha.

" I am proud of you, much more than you think I am", she whispered as she handed him the glass which he was instructed to gulp in small sips.

As he gulped a sip, Suman naughtily placed a peck on his right cheek, then left cheek, at times forehead and jaw, and then the nape of his neck. She could sense his smile growing wider, and his mind getting distracted from the stomach cramps. Also, he had started to take smaller sips.

"Greediness is sin", she meowd in his ears before placing a chaste peck on his ear lobe. Shravan could feel a shudder running through him.

" They thought I would run away at the sight of the sweet, didn't they?", He aksed her, and she sighed.

"They did. We had given him that opportunity. But I also saw the happiness in her eyes when you ate it without a fuss", Shravan loved this about her. How she used 'We' when it was only about him, and how swiftly she answered him about 'Her' when he had deliberately mentioned 'They'.

" You can't fool me", she chuckled when she saw him adoring her through his eyes.

How easy it was to understand him when his eyes spoke, for his words had a bad habit of contradicting him. A small wave of remorse hit her.

She was so habituated to believe the words of the seventeen years old, innocent, Chasmish Shravan that she thought the same would apply to this insecure, shrewd, shattered lawyer. Only if she knew that the Shravan which came back had mastered the art of using words to protect his heart, and only his eyes spoke the truth.

She smiled at the realization and was about to walk towards the cupboard when a firm grip on her wrist stopped her. She did not realize when her free hand gripped the hem of her kurta in anticipation.

" Sumo?", His voice was tender.

Suman turned to face him, her eyes full of question.

Shravan shook his head, and smiled, leaving her hand. His eyes travelled to the bed table, and her followed suit, when a gasp escaped her lips.

There lay a bunch of white Tulips, the same one she loved from all her heart.

It didn't matter that he still hadn't said her the three magical words, his gestures were enough for her, at the moment.