"What are you doing?" Siddharth asked.

Radhika gave him a bored look. All of a sudden, she started moving her hands back and forth.

"Does she have a mentally ill background? Possible," Siddharth mused with concern.

No one would want to be left with a mentally unstable person, that too, in the middle of no where. What if, the maniac of a girl killed him?
No one would even find his body for an autopsy. He couldn't trust Rudra now, when he had gone missing on him.

Siddharth smiled nervously.

"Rads-poo, what are you doing? He asked in a baby tone.

Radhika raised an eyebrow but ignored his odd behaviour.

"Who knows? Maybe he is mentally unstable. Great! Already an NPD patient, now lost his nuts too," She thought.

"Can't you see? I'm roasting fishes," she rolled her eyes at him.

"Done. Psycho's on lose. Curse you, Rudra. If I die today, my ghost will haunt you, for the rest of your lifetime," Siddharth whined.

Radhika gulped on seeing Siddharth's expressions change in infinitesimally less seconds.

"No doubt. This man needs psychologist's attention. What if, he attacks me?" Radhika's eyes widened.

She looked around frantically.
"Nuh! I'll just hit him where it hurts the most," Radhika thought.

Her lips pulled up in an evil smirk.

Siddharth's insides shivered in slight fear. He chanted another set of vicious curses to Rudra, the likes of which only Rudra knew.

Siddharth exhaled deeply. He could not sit back and fret over it. He had to handle it carefully, very carefully.

He laughed.
"Rads-poo, there's no fish."

Radhika, by now, was totally confirmed that the man infront of her was a serious case of mental instability.

She gave him a sugar sweet smile.
"Oh my! There isn't. Duh! Why are you irritating me then? Can't you see, I'm waiting for them to return?"

Siddharth's thoughts took a 360 degrees turnover. He stared at the dense tree lines.

"Where do you think they went?" He asked.

Radhika shook her head in disappointment.
"Tch, tch. When a grown up man and woman disappear into woods, you don't mourn like your cat just drowned in a bowl of water."

"Rather, you sit back and wait for the 'good news'," Radhika air-quoted 'good news' and gave Siddharth a look of disapproval.

"Didn't know, Rudra had such a dumb friend."

"Are you crazy? How can you be so cool about it? What if, something happens?" Siddharth almost shrieked.

"Rudra is with her," Radhika defended.

"Damn it to hell! That's what I'm worried about.
Rudra. Is. With. Gauri." Siddharth yelled.

Siddharth clutched his head then, pointed his finger towards Radhika.
"Are you her friend or enemy?"

"What the hell!"

"Yes, you could be one of those witchy friends," Siddharth said.

Radhika was breathing fire, right now.

"What did you call me, you fudging moron?"

Siddharth smirked.
"Rads, the witch."

And their bickering went on and on.

.
.
.

Gauri pushed Rudra off of her and sat up.

Rudra just rolled on the ground and stared at the twilight sky, a smile stretched on his face. He wolf-whistled, making Gauri resemble the darkest shade of tomatoes.

"Damn right amazing!" He exclaimed loudly.

Gauri covered her flaming face with her hands. Now, she perfectly understood the meaning of downright embarrassment.

Rudra's arm wound round Gauri's waist from behind, drawing her close.

Gauri jerked and found her body stuck with his, with her head resting beneath his chin and his palm resting on her abdomen.

Swiping the dark tresses to the other side, he planted feathery kisses on her neck and made his way upto her earlobe.

"St... stop," Gauri breathed.

She felt him smirk while kissing her.
"Do you want me to?" Rudra asked. His voice laced with indefinite amusement seemed to tease her.

Gauri opened her mouth to argue, however all of her plans went flying straight to the dustbin, when Rudra started his sweet torture, again.

He pulled her more close, his lips skimming on her soft skin. He didn't kiss her, but the act was enough to wreak havoc inside Gauri.

"Miss. Gauri?" Rudra's palm traced her arm.
"You were... "

He dipped his head on the curve of her neck.
"... saying something."

A breathless chuckle left his mouth. Gauri shivered, both with pleasure and mortification.

She pushed him with her elbow and got up, that led Rudra to let out a full-fledged laughter.

"He wasn't like this when we first met," she mused.

"I don't unveil myself on the very first meet, do I?" Rudra said.

Gauri's eyes widened, "Mind reader?"

Rudra smiled.
"It was all written on your face."

"Face reader, then," she thought.

"Kind of," Rudra spoke.

Gauri narrowed her eyes.
"Stop it," she demanded.

"Stop what?" He asked in a confused manner.

"Ugh! Stop answering to my mind voice," Gauri huffed.

Rudra laughed and coiled her yellow dupatta round his hand.

Gauri glowered in irritation and snatched it. While adjusting it back, she took in her surrounding. In the middle of woods, at the time of twilight, she was alone... with Rudra.

Rudra's lips pulled up into a smirk. He leaned back and stretched his legs.
"Are you, by any chance, thinking what I am thinking?"

"Wha... " Gauri cleared her throat.

"What?" She squeaked.

Rudra pulled himself off the ground and walked towards her with predatory steps.

"Nothing much... " he drawled.

A glint was visible in his eyes, causing Gauri to retreat a few steps.

"You and I... in woods. Almost, night time," he shrugged and kept walking.

"Alone... " he whispered.

Gauri was prepared to scream her head off. The doubt she had was, would anyone listen her? And most important, would her voice come out anytime soon?

Gauri turned around with a motive to take off but all in vain, because next thing she knew was that she was pinned against the tree, while being crushed by Rudra's muscular frame.

"I could do anything to you."

The way he stressed out anything, caused Gauri's pupils to dilate fractionally.

"You... " Gauri trailed off, tremors running through her body.

"I... " Rudra's hot breath caressed her cheeks.

"I would love to do 'anything'," he chuckled.

"But let's save it for future, what say?"

"Shut up." Gauri chided.
"Shameless."

Rudra bowed dramatically.

"Why miss, shamelessness is my birthright," he said, winking at her.

They walked all the way back to the first spot where they had left Siddharth and Radhika. Gauri escaped many near falls, which were induced due to Rudra's prurient comments thrown every now and then, that too, with a poker face.

Finally, they managed to creep out of the shrubbery, only to hear Radhika's yelling.

"I will pull out your hair, bald headed monger.
No, I'll chop you into pieces, rip out your intestines and chuck it down your throat, you a****le," she yelled.

Both, Gauri's and Siddharth's jaws dropped off the hinges.

Rudra clapped slowly, impressed to the core.
"Wonderful. Go Rads!"

Gauri gave him her meanest scathing glare, with little to no avail on his expressions.

"Thanks," Radhika chirped.

Rudra patted her shoulder in encouragement.
"You make me proud Radhika but try to include more bloody and gory words next time."

"Will definitely keep it in mind, sir," Radhika said with a respectful undertone.

Gauri could only shoot up to few glares. She approached Siddharth cautiously, who was standing without as of, a flinch.

"Bhai, are you alright?" Gauri questioned.

Siddharth glanced at her seriously.

"My ears are bleeding, sister. I think I lost the sensations too."

Gauri gave him a nervous chuckle.
"I know Radhika can be quite colourful with her words but... "

"Don't kid, Gauri," Siddharth intervened.

"Adding colourful as an adjective will be a disgrace to the word itself. Her curses were dripping inky black."
Siddharth flinched visibly.

"By the way, where were you? Are you fine? Did... "

Had Gauri not stopped Siddharth, he would have crushed her with questions.

"I am fine," Gauri said.

A tint of pink appeared on her cheeks which didn't go unnoticed by Siddharth.

Rudra flashed a devilish smile and Radhika gave her a Cheshire cat grin.

"Two of my friends disappeared for hours into the woods and the rest remains as history," Radhika exaggerated.

At that very moment, Gauri wanted to dig a hole and crawl in it with her Shinchan's figurine.

"It's late already, we've to drop them too," Siddharth grumbled, rescuing Gauri from further mortifications.

The ride to Gauri's home was quite an embarrassing affair. Both, Rudra and Radhika left no stone upturned in making her cheeks flame up. She was sure, her cheeks would turn red permanently.

"I want a thesis from you, Jaan on what took place there."

Radhika had ordered her to do so before getting off of the jeep. The jeep halted pulling Gauri out of her thoughts.

She quickly gathered her things and got down but Rudra's hold on her wrist stopped her.

Rudra gestured Siddharth to turn his head.

"What?" Siddharth questioned.

"Turn your head," Rudra said.

"What?" Siddharth exasperated.

Rudra stared at him emotionlessly, then scratched his forehead and muttered something under his breath.

He faced Siddharth with a bright smile.

"Warning for Mr. Siddharth Sisodia: If you don't put the bone in your neck to use and turn your head towards left, then get ready for your virgin eyes to witness something that will corrupt them."

"Because I'm going to put my lips into use and kiss her," Rudra concluded.

He smiled again.
"You were given fair warning." Saying this he tipped his head towards Gauri, given that Siddharth had already turned around.

Once again, he captured her lips into a smooch. Gauri could do nothing but blink at the turn out of events.

He grinned and winked at her before waving a bye.

Gauri hit her forehead and giggled.

She opened the door of her bedroom and twirled in circles, laughing vivaciously.

She saw herself in the mirror, the girl there reflected so much happiness. So incredibly beautiful feelings shook her like autumn leaves. The blush painting her cheeks just added to her beauty.

A heart-rending smile bloomed on her face.
"Not bad Miss.Gauri. Not bad."

Resting her forehead on its cold surface, she laughed breathlessly.

"Rudra Pratap Rathore, what did you do to me?"

.
.
.

The wind caressed Rudra's face, soothing him. His hair danced in air, forcing him to run his fingers through it.

His eyes twinkled under the ceiling lights of the jeep.

"Gauri... " he whispered.

"My Gauri... "

The lips failed to pull up into a smile. Didn't stealing few moments from time always brought along grave repercussions?

He looked out of the window smiling grimly. No one could best time, he knew that.

"Gauri... " he exhaled.

"Rudra's Gauri. Always."

.
.
.

Devendra Raj pulled the photograph out of the envelope. A young woman in her early twenties was smiling back at him brightly.

He stared at the photograph without blinking.
The smile was so contagious that he almost smiled.

"Gauri Singh," he uttered, finally giving up to the temptation.

Devendra smiled. A genuine ones, in years.

.
.
.

"Gauri Singh... " Veer repeated the name for the umpteenth time.

His eyes glittered. Today, darkness didn't have a place in his room. After 10 years, every crook and corner was drenched in bright lights. No darkness, no sadness, no redemptions, no repentance...

Happiness... only pure happiness.

Widened eyes, sunshine smile and raised eyebrows, the said girl stared back at him from his phone.

Luck had decided to bless him. He had found the reason... of his life.

"Gauri Singh."

.
.
.

Kanhaiya Lal could only gaze at the chessboard. His queen was caged, no way to escape.

"Checkmate."

Kanhaiya Lal lifted his gaze to his his opponent, his lord.
"How?"

The man infront of him laughed boisterously.

"Remember, Kanhaiya. You should always have your eyes upon the queen. Once you get it, the game's all yours."

Kanhaiya smirked in return.

"Kanhaiya... " the man called.

"Yes, my lord," Kanhaiya replied.

"Next time you question me, will be the last day of your life."

Kanhaiya Lal gulped the lump and nodded.

"Good," the man whispered.