❝The only kind of love I want is one where even if it is just for a short moment, it feels like I have lived a lifetime in that moment with that person. ❞ - Jhanvi Raichand.
**You CANNOT read this as standalone. Read Dare to Be before reading this...
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2.39 After The Rise
I could just tell - being back here was not easy for Aarush. He seemed to be in front of me but his mind was somewhere else.
After he turns the lights on from a switch board in the far corner of the wall, I follow him further inside the palace. We glance up towards the stairs on hearing clicks of a boot against the floor. A guy appearing to be around my age stops at the center where the staircases from two ends of the hall meet. His gaze is fixated on Aarush as he speaks, "So the rumors are true. You are alive after all."
Aarush passes Inaaya to me before taking a single step in front of us. His voice is clipped as he questions, "What the hell are you doing in my house?"
His words cause me to place a protective arm around Inaaya's back as I worry the two might have bad blood from the past. The guy resumes walking down the rest of the steps. Reaching the floor level, he pauses, "Your house? As I seem to recall it, you don't live here anymore. I do. Ergo, it's my house."
Aarush scoffs placing his hands intimidatingly on his hips, "Arrogant, as always. You haven't changed one bit."
"Have you?" The unknown guy answers taking calculative steps towards us. "Still going around carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. Tell me, how far did that get you?"
"Far enough." Aarush continues to answer in a tone that does not give away whether I should be wary of this intruder or not.
The guy scoffs, now standing only a step away from Aarush. "Would it have killed you to ask me for help, Rawal sa? Or did you take me to be a coward who'd run away when you needed him the most?"
Aarush's eyes harden, "How many times must I tell you to not call me that?"
He rolls his eyes, "Cut the tough act, bhai sa. You can't waltz back in here after years and be..."
His words are cut off as Aarush takes the final step to him and pulls him into a long-lasting and tight hug. A small smile takes over my face as well whilst tension leaves my body. Bhai sa. It was a relief to know their relationship and also the fact that he had a brother still alive. I was happy for him, for this reunion. I can't imagine how in the world Aarush must have kept himself away from him.
This brother of his, however, puts up a fight by trying to break free from the embrace with his set of complaints and perhaps legitimate reasons to be upset, "No, don't you dare hug me. Why didn't you tell me you were alive?"
Aarush doesn't force him into the hug as he pulls back. But, he does place his hand on his neck to get his brother to look at him as he points out, "If I had, if you knew I was out there somewhere, would you have ever stopped looking for me? No. You wouldn't have moved on in life, Randeep. And the path I set out on was not one to drag my little brother in."
