In the woods

Summary: "Hawa hai - pani hai - bas aag ki todi kami hai."
"Khel toh rahi ho tum, aag se."

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Overhead the drizzle continues, rising slow tendrils of mist from the ground below. Yet the branches entwined overhead keep most of the rain from finding them.

In Veer's eye Amrit sees the effect of her words. So she pushes on, pressing a hand on his cheek.

"Shishe ki gudiya nahi hoon main - na koi farishta. Mujhmein bhi aag hai, ghussa hai. Main bhi kissi ke liye lad sakthi hoon. Mujhe yeh haq dijiye Veer. If you truly, honestly consider me your wife - then give me the chance to be your wife."

Veer moves abruptly pressing into her, pressing her against the bark. The proximity allows him to properly search her eyes. He caresses her face.

"Aise na bolo," his breath fans her face. "Humse raha nahi jaata. Hum toh barbaad hai pehele se hi, tum bhi tabah ho jaaongi. Toot jaaongi, iss mohabbat mein dard hi dard hai.You are going to be hurt - biwi sahab. I have tried, God knows, but I can't do this, tum se door raha nahi jaata."

"Some moths are meant to burn, kuwar sahab. Aur woh mohhabbat kya jissmein aag na ho?"

Something rustles in a distance and Veer draws still. In the pause that follows they hear voices.

"There is an abandoned vehicle down there. People who brought it can't have gone far."

"Dheere bol bhai. They have guards in the main residence. Are you not clear enough with your instructions? Ghar mein ghusna hai. Apne aadmi ko nikalna hai. Saat mein uss aawaz wali ladki ko bhi. Nobody should see us and no evidence should be left behind.

" We are already in enough trouble with this shahi parivaar getting involved. Pata nahi woh doctor ka bachcha kya kya bata diya dar ke maare. Usse toh waise bhi marna hai. Humara naam na lei bass!"

"Suna hai badi sundar hai woh aawaz wali. Maarna - zaroori hai kya?"

There is a dark chuckle that follows the lewd question. Veer's hand fists somewhere next to her head and Amrit hears the popping sound of his knuckles.

"Woh Rana sahab ke yahaan jaayengi, soch na bhi matt. Hasn't Rana sahab been clear on that?"

"What will such an old man do with a pretty girl like that -"

"That's none of our business to think about. Unhe joh bhi karna ho - humara kaam bass logon ko unke paas pohochana hi hai."

Amrit opens her mouth just as Veer covers it with his palm. He shakes his head at her, pressing both of them into the shadows with his larger frame towering over her.

She eyes him questioningly, urgency to warn those at home eating away at her. Veer does not allow her to move.

"If one of those men as much as touch a hair on your head I'm going to commit murder," he growls in her ear. "Want to see that happening?"

"But Veer -" Amrit whispers back. She cannot deny the delicious tremor that his words cause, still a rational part of her mind keeps up the argument. "They will get to the house."

"Let them," Veer says savagely. "DIG of the area is there. He could deal with it, otherwise what is the use of him?"

"Papa sahab yahaan hai?"

"Humne bhulwaya hai. Humare haato uss doctor ki khoon na ho iss liye." For a moment Amrit says nothing, she stares up at him feeling the extent of his wrath and knowing that she had brought it about. "Let them go and get caught. It is just the sort of opening I need against Chandra Singh."

The sound of footsteps draw closer and Amrit sinks into Veer's embrace. Her aching foot makes her waver and one of Veer's hands splay on her back, balancing her weight against him. Neither of them speaks anymore well aware of the lurking danger.

Amrit cannot help but feel a misplaced happiness towards the circumstances that brought them here, that brought Veer no matter how unwillingly into her arms.

His arms hoist her and takes her along with him as he swiftly turns, drawing deeper into the woods, pressed against a new tree and melting into a new shadow. He breathes down at her.

"Itni khush hone ki zaroorat nahi hai."

Amrit bites back a smile.

One of the men screams, a shout of pain that is followed by a string of curse words.

"Traps!" They hear him spit. "Everywhere! Caught my foot in a damn bunny snare!"

Veer taps on her shoulder, drawing away from the tree as companions of the injured man gather around him to assess the situation. He is close enough that she could read his lips in the dimmest of lights.

"Can you walk?"

Amrit shakes her head, leaning against him her arms sneaking around his neck. Veer expels a breath, knowing full well that she is playing the situation to her advantage but unable to help the concern that bled into his conscience.

Her arms sneak around his neck and mischief glitters in her eyes.

"You can't bear to leave me here - how did you think I will leave you to face all your trouble?"

"I see something there!" One of the men shouts, now completely forgotten about their previous stealth.

He fires wildly.

Amrit pushes at Veer, both falling but her frame shielding him. The ground foliage slips beneath them and he places a hand to cover her head as they roll down the slope. Above them those men are shouting into the night, sparks of one more shot lighting up the shadows.

"Someone was there! You heard them! Someone was -"

Far below, that she could bearly hear them Amrit draws a breath, staring at the cross crossing branches above and the falling rain.

"-here!"

Veer moves covering her entire vision with his frame as another shot goes off. She could hear the puffs of his exhale as he tries to catch his breath. Amrit lifts her hands to his shoulders, feeling the tension that bunches up in his muscles.

Anger simmers in his eyes, twitches along the taut muscles of his throat and throbs along his pulse. Amrit lays a hand against his heart, feeling the steady beat beneath her palm and causing Veer to draw a tattered inhale.

She raises her eyes and looks at him through lashes clinging with raindrops, dragging her gaze leisurely up to meet his eyes.

A moment before, her heart had been clenching at the same possibility but as she ascertained for herself that he was unharmed relief filled her.

"Kya kar rahi thi?" He demands. There is a thought behind those wine rimed orbs that eludes him. He cannot help but ask, fuming. "Lag jaati toh?"

Those fingers tap against his heart, bunching at the material of his shirt and pulling him closer.

"Lag jaati toh mil jaati na aap ko woh mauka Chandra Singh ke khilaf... you were ready to stake everyone back at the house for it."
Veer raises an eyebrow, caught in the spell of those wine rimmed eyes. Yet his jaw remains clenched.

"I was - I am," he tells her, skeptical and unashamedly dismissive of her criticism. "But not you. Poore duniya dav pe laga doon, tum nahi. Kabhi nahi."

"Hmm..." she presses on. Neither of them are actively sheltering from rain any longer. The droplets trail down the sides of her face, along her throat. Veer gulps a wayward thought sinking its claws into his conscience.

"Yeh Akif nahi Veer bol raha hai. Akif ko apne maksad se matlab hai, mujhse nahi. Akif ki tarha sochiye, shaant hojaaiye."

"Humein Ranjhan se nahi apne patni se matlab hai -" Veer bites out, scoping her off the wet foliage into his arms.

"So Ranjhan can just shut up. Have you seen your face? You are white like a sheet! You are shivering! How long has it been since you've regained consciousness? Aisi rakhi jaati hai apni kyaal?"

"Veer woh log..."

"Chup! Ek aur lafz nahi."

To Amrit's chagrin she begins to shiver. Her hands bunch up Veer's shirt and she buries her head against him, motified. It cannot hide the way her frame shudders though, and Veer is well aware of each tremor that passes through her.

Instead of the boathouse which was completely out of their way by then, Veer takes a different route and sooner than she would have imagined is bolting shut a door behind himself. It's a small, wooden cabin with a sloping roof that Amrit could touch if she reaches out.

The air smells of dust, herbs and blood. Veer deposits her on soft fur laid out on the thinnest mattress imaginable. The cot groans under her shifting weight.

"Yeh - kahaan-" she manages through clattering teeth.

"Hunting cabin," Veer tells her shortly. She detects the distaste in his voice, the aversion to this place. He moves away melting into the darkness that press into her eyes. Amrit hugs herself trying but failing to stop the shivers.

"Let me block the window so we could light the lantern. No need to light beacons for those idiots." He mutters to himself before blocking the square far above that shimmers in a faint blue with more fur.

Amrit clenches her clattering teeth as he fumbles with a lantern, a watery amber light fills the wooden cabin, giving her glimpses of guns mounted on the walls - antlers and stuffed heads of animals that stared down at her. There were axes and knives in a corner, there were herbs laid out to dry and heaped bundles of dried skins - then those fur.

Her eyes takes a turn and her heart sinks, by the time her gaze fits into Veer's Amrit feels her stomach turning.

"I know," he says, looking rather ill himself. "I hate it here." He comes to her, kneels before her and takes her hands clenched into fists. "But it's safe. No one who doesn't know the way can find this place in the dead of the night. Don't look around - try - try not to look around."

She shivers harder, hating all the death that surrounded them - trying and failing to keep her gaze away. Veer embraces her out of concern.

"Are you very cold?" He murmurs and then answers himself spitefully. "Of cause you are! You are drenched. Pagal ladki..." Amrit burrows into him, her head is growing heavier as her limbs - the shivering comes with an ache from inside her now. She feels sleepy, numb and a little disoriented.

"What are you doing?" She asks him with difficulty, trying but failing to comprehend. Veer lifts one of her hands to his mouth and blows a heated breath on it.

"I'm taking off your clothes. They are wet and making you colder," his hand on her shoulder pause. "Do you want me to stop?"

Amrit shakes her head rather disoriented.

"I'm cold," she presses her cheek on his shoulder and exhales her eyes shut tight. "I don't like it here." Her voice shudders. The walls feel as if they are closing up and Amrit struggles with a breath. "I can smell blood."

"It's your own," Veer's voice is quiet. "You foot is bleeding biwi sahab. Like this you will come down with a fever."

He wraps her in a blanket that - thankfully - smells of herbs; then covers her with fur. Amrit fights to keep her eyes open as their lids draw heavier.

Veer places an open mouthed kiss on her knuckles before moving to check on her ankle injury. His hands are tender as he cleans the wound. Supplies stocked in the hunting cabin to treat hunting injuries coming to his aid. Amrit hisses when the antiseptic stings on her raw skin. Veer's eyes flickers to hold hers.

"Shh. Bas. Itni si baat hai," he says, holding her foot still when she tries to pull it back. Amrit pulls the furs up and tucks them under her chin.

"Your hands are toasty warm," she says. "Are you feverish again?"

Veer shakes his head and she narrows her eyes suspiciously.

"Come here!" She orders, her voice still weak but her resolve returning. Veer ignores her and bandages her foot. Amrit's hand bunches at his collar and tugs him towards her. "Come."

She lays a flat hand on his forehead, eyes peering at him. Veer touches her cheek.

"We don't have time for this Amrit. They might chance upon us. I need to keep you safe."

"And I -" she says arms snaking around his neck pulling him close enough to share a breath. "- need to feel you close. I need you here. I need you."

"I am here," he protests. "It's just that I can't-"

"You can - you will," her trembling fingers work on his buttons and Amrit peels the shirt off his tensed shoulders. "Meri kayaal rakhni hai toh apna fikra kijiye pehele."

"Amrit - Stop!" There's a warning in his tone, a falter that he tries to disguise with it. Amrit ignores him.

"Aap woh Veer rahe nahi jinse main ne shaadi ki. Woh shaatir hai. Matlabi hai. Aag hai uss mein."

Amrit's fingers span along his throat. There is an invitation in those eyes, open, undaunted. She knows that he could not resist her and right then, she had him just where he is most vulnerable, in her arms. The power he had given her over him, she revels in it.

"Aaj jhal ne ka mann kar raha hai, Aap kya rokhenge?" Her voice drops into a caress and she presses her cheek against his shoulder. "Hawa hai - pani hai - bas aag ki todi kami hai."

"Khel toh rahi ho tum," he snaps catching hold of her wondering hand. "Aag se."

"Mat jaao Veer," her voice softens the earlier playfulness melting away. "Bas mujhe aur kuch nahi chahiye."

Veer drops a kiss on her hair, gathering her close. His resolve has crumbled beneath her soft spoken words, ever softer touches. It had always been a fragile thing - his resolve to stay away from her - much too weak against the fire of his yearning to be held and cherished.

It still felt like a sin, to be loved so much and so deeply, to have her in his life but he had no fight left in him anymore.

Amrit presses her mouth on his shoulder, before resting her forehead there. He runs a hand along her spine, feeling the cool, clammy skin beneath. If it was the only way to keep her safe, he would keep her right next to him for as long as he was able to.

"Hum yeh Akif wali naqab utarne wale hai," he speaks to her hair, eyes closed as his fingers comb through. Amrit stills and looks up at him with searching eyes. "Justice to my father should be done by his son - not Akif."

**
Ah, some quality time in the middle of nowhere - coming up!😉
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