Achilles' Heels: An IPKKND FanFiction

Chapter Nine: Per Me Reges Regnant

I was never alone.

His words rang in her head. Khushi look a deep breath and allowed her gaze to leisurely trace the creases that spread gingerly over his otherwise suave sweater as they crawled to his arm merging with those over his chiseled muscles. A frown mirrored on her forehead as her mind attempted to probe the mingling patterns of the meandering folds and tucks on him before they rested on his eyes. But his eyes showed nothing.

Or so she thought.

Maybe there were too many facets to the vivid chocolate of his eyes for her to see things. She blinked and stared at the carpet under her feet when she realized that it wasn't him. It was her. Maybe she had simply forgotten to understand people around her.

Maybe because her mind and heart were no longer connected.

But she didn't care. She didn't realize when her eyes flickered to his face and back to his sculpted torso in an instant. Her eyes then resumed sketching invisible lines over the edges of his long, pointed fingers for no apparent reason. She didn't know when or why her eyes abruptly lingered on the tip of his fingers. Maybe she just wanted to avoid the molten honey of his eyes that she knew were looking at her.

Maybe she was afraid of what she might read into them if she dared to look back.

A tidal wave stormed rampant in her heart, disturbing the peaceful rhythm as her thoughts finally began to settle down. She wanted to, but she couldn't bring herself to blame or understand the untamed torrent of emotions that danced hysterically inside her. She felt her breath quicken when she remembered his words yet again.

And I had you. In here.

Something changed. She knew it was something that made her happy. But it also made her sad and empty - all at once. Her frown deepened as a shiver ran down her spine, setting the tone for her frail body to unwelcome the unknown that was perhaps yet to come - or maybe it has come already. She didn't know. She felt her will to comprehend the situation slipping from between her fingers. But she forced herself to give up on her heart and focus on her mind instead, for she knew she can do that, for she knew that her heart and her mind were two autonomous shares of her - no longer together.

His words kept bouncing back at her, pounding thunderously over the sealed confines of her heart . As if someone had recorded it his voice exclusively for her. As if someone was continuously replaying it. As if someone was bullying her to bow to them. As if the words were the abstract that was the sole reason behind the chaotic furor in her.

And I had you. In here.

And then she was pulled out of her thoughts as a soft music of a ringtone rippled in the air. The vibrations from the phone reverberated louder and louder with time, amplifying tenfold against the glass table in the center of her suite. She walked to the table in daze and half-leaned over the table to pick up her phone.

She stared at the smiling picture of Anjali for about half a minute when it went away from her screen. A second later, the device flickered brightly for the fraction of a second and notified her of a missed call. But the light was back within a minute of its waning. But this time it was Lavanya.

She blinked, shutting her eyelids for a bit longer than necessary. And she blinked again, allowing her burnished, weary tears to escape their refuge in front of their assailant - who also happened to be the savior. This time, she finally allowed herself to look into those eyes.

Eyes she loved.

But instead of feeling empty, clueless as she had for the past few minutes, she felt a prick inside when she registered a man staring hopelessly at the phone in her hand.