**RATED M**
*A general warning for readers who find intimacy scenes uncomfortable, feel free to skip over the first part.*

Rewrite the Stars

Summary: Aap humein ya toh bana dengi ya mitta dengi. Kuch aisa rishta hai humara."

◇◇◇

The day dawns and Amrit is oblivious to it. She sleeps on her side, turned to him even in her sleep. Unbound hair is scattered over her arm and face like a flimsy veil. The burgundy of his sheets make her look paler than she is, setting off the peach tones of her complexion.

Veer holds his breath, watching how the streaming sunlight brings out hints of copper in her hair, tones of rose gold to her skin. Her lashes are long, curled at the ends. There are copper hints there too.

He reaches with a cautious hand and brushes back that flimsy curtain of hair which shields her from his feasting eyes.

She is his, to brand into his memory, to savour and cherish, he wishes to be undisturbed in his perusal.

His fingers trail over her arm, along that smooth expanse of skin. Her skin responds by breaking into goosebumps along the trail of his touch.

"Are you cold?" He murmurs and draws her close.

Even in her sleep, Amrit burrows into his warmth, folding herself into his arms as if it is the most natural thing to do. Veer's hands continue their exploration along her spine and her appreciative sigh sings in his ear.

His mouth presses against her throat, upon a particular point he had lavished his attention the previous night. Her entire being shudders at the sensation and Veer smiles, gratified by her responsiveness.

Her unblemished skin has already darkened there, forming an insignificant yet endearing monument of passion.

He traces it with the tip of his tongue and Amrit writhes. Her lashes flutter, her arms tighten around him.

Veer is right when he says he is always warm. He is. There is a toasty warmth about his embrace, about his skin pressed against hers, about his hands trailing fire or his breath singing in her ear.
He plays her like an instrument he knew too well. Like that old violin of his, she thinks as her sleep dissipates.

"Biwi - sahab," his tone is hot silk. Amrit shudders, impatient hands trying to pull him closer.

He doesn't comply, instead those maddening hands continue their sweet torture, kneading her soft flesh, caressing, lingering.

"Veer -!" Her voice raises and breaks, her eyes are fully open now, staring at the burgundy canopy above them.

He trails a finger, only one tantalizing finger round and round and round around one of her nipples, rather oblivious to the statics that run through her entire body, or the liquid heat that pools in her core.

His eyes flickers up and holds hers rather victorioisly.

"Tell me what you want."

Her exhale is broken. Tormented.

"Touch me." She breathes, her eyes flicker shut.

Veer arches an eyebrow.

"I am. Aren't I?"

She writhes, she gasps.

"Not there. Not like that."

"Poor Biwi sahab," he kisses her cheek. Amrit hisses. "I think I don't know what you mean."

His hand trails over her thigh, getting tantalisingly closer to where she wanted him, but never reaching. The want throbs inside her, the ache once sweet is now liquid fire.

"I think you will have to be a bit more specific."

"Veer!"

"Hush Jaan," he nips at her ear. "Tell me how much you want it?"

"Please - please -" She squirms, her eyes begins to water. "Don't-!"

Veer rises above her and looks down at her, dark eyes alight with victory.

"Let me make it easier, what will you give me in return?"

Oh the brute!

To stimulate her and then make deals on it, tears of fury escape her eye, he reaches over and kisses them away, his mouth lingering over her eyes in ghosts of kisses.

"Anything..." she promises.

"Hum Kahi le chaliyen chalongi? Bina sawaal kiye, bina kuch jaane?"

"Haan."

His hand closes over her throbbing centre and Amrit lets out a hushed moan. Veer drinks it from her mouth, into a kiss that is flavoured with her pleasure, her unconditional surrender, her sweet release.

Veer gathers her into his arms and closes his eyes for a moment, burying his nose in her sweet smelling hair. Amrit's heart throbs against his, still coming down from a wonderful high. Her breath comes out in short puffs. The rose gold of her skin glows, flushed anew.

He is putting the discussion off. Veer bites into a nudging regret. He isn't going to ruin her day with his problems early in the morning. He will tell her, once she has had her fair share of a joyous day.

Her cheek is clammy when he presses a kiss there. Amrit hums in the back of her throat.

"Janam din Mubarak ho biwi sahab," he mutters.

Amrit blinks, pulls away a little and looks at him.

"Aap ko kaise pata?"

Veer smirks at her, nips playfully at her swollen lower lip.

"Is there anything I don't know about you?"

Amrit considers this, an endearing frown between her brows. Veer gives up and confesses.

"When I was going to marry you I asked your brother for your horoscope. He said it was lost during the partition and instead gave me your birthdate and time of your birth, so that rajpurohit could remake your birth chart."

"Unhone kya kaha?" Her voice is small. "The royal priest?"

"Oh the usual, lakho mein ek hai, which I already know." He kissed her forehead. Kismatwali hai. Again who needs him to tell that?" He hissed her nose. "Raj karengi - I will see to that of cause." His mouth lingered on her jaw. "Aur -"

"Aur?" Amrit sighed, her thoughts getting blurry again.

"Aur," his mouth returned to that particular spot on her throat and began to assault her senses again. She could feel the smile he pressed upon her raw skin.

"He said you will have many - many - glorious - sons."

"Oh!" Amrit chokes on her breath. "How many exactly?"

Veer chuckled. Then looked at her and unable to help himself his laughter only grew. He buried his head against her, she could feel each delicious vibration of his laughter.

"Shall I go and ask him?" He suggests between laughs.

"Nahi!" Amrit protests just as he has expected. "Don't - just don't!"

"Abhi chaltein hai -"

"Veer!"

With effort he stops laughing and instead cups her reddened cheeks.

"Aap jab ghussa karti hai, duniya ki sab se masoom ladki dhikthi hai." He tells her. "Rajpurohit Ji ne aapko humara bhaggya bulaya tha. Aur kaha ke shayaad uss waqt, uss haalaton mein aap humari nahi hongi. Hum chaahe kitne bhi koshosh karlein aap ko apne saat baand nahi paayenge. Aap rukhengi toh apni marzi se, nahi toh nahi. Par hum, hum ek baar aap se mile, kudh se mil jaayenge. Badal jaayenge. He called you my destiny or my doom. Aap humein ya toh bana dengi ya mitta dengi. Kuch aisa rishta hai humara."

"Aur main kya kar rahi hoon Veer? Aap ko bana rahi hoon - ya mitta rahi hoon?"

"Kudha nahi ho tum," Veer kisses her temple and nuzzles there. "Kissi ko banane ya mittane ke liye. Jaan ho humari. Tumhi se zinda hai, bass. Tum nahi toh hum nahi."

He says it so easily, so convincingly that it washes over her.

Tum nahi toh hum nahi.

He traces that awe in her face with faintest of kisses and pulls away to grin at her dazed look.

"Aur Akif ne kaha Ranjhan se,

Humse mohabbat ki tu farmaish toh kar le,
Jaan de denge, dil ki guzarish toh kar le."

Amrit chuckles, and rises to press her lips to his, tracing along his smile.

"Aur Ranjhan ne Kahi, wah wah wah!"

And they laugh, giving into easy laughter instead of drowning in longing or the treacherous waters of implied, unspoken love.

*

His hand presses against her eyes cutting of her vision. Instead all her other senses are highlighted, sharpened as she allows the darkness to wash over her.

Amrit could hear each of Veer's inhales, could feel the burn of each his exhale against the side of her throat, or sometimes her jaw. He is close enough for his heat to seep through clothing and meet her, his other hand is splayed across her waist rather possessively.

"Where are we going?" Amrit asks softly.

"Tum wade se mukhar rahi ho," Veer murmurs in her ear, his breath hot enough to make her shudder, his fingers draw tantalizing lines on her bare midriff. "Kaha tha na, bina sawaal kiye..."

A hushed breath leaves her and his grip on her tightens.

"Yahaan se sambhal ke," he continues to mutter in her ear.

"Three steps to climb down, hmm, one, two, three."

He takes her hand and the ground beneath her moves. Amrit falls into his waiting arms with a startled gasp.

Her eyes remain closed as Veer's arms tightens around her. She could hear that steady and cold heartbeat of his.

Veer looks down at her, his heart brimming with warmth. She didn't for a moment try to peek, satate her own curiosity. Such was his Amrit, bound by her word.

"You can open your eyes now," he tells her, stroking her cheek as he steadied her. And her lashes flutter and lift.

They are standing on a rowboat, slowly drifting away from a river bank, rowing man gently cutting through the sunlit water.

The water is golden in the blush of dawn and still. At a certain point, it looks as if the new sun melts and drains off towards distant sea, in a stream of rose gold.

Amrit drags in a breath, full of the scent of evening and the beauty and serenity of it all hurts.
Shrighar is always washed gold, always springing before her like some page of a long lost fairy late. Amrit feels rather small amidst all that splendor. A girl from nowhere, trying to grasp the sky on a whim.

"Tum ne ek hi cheez maangi, aur hum abhi taq nahi de paaye. Tumhe yahaan se lekar nahi jaapaye," Veer tells her, his arms folding around her from behind, hands seeking and taking hold of hers. "But today is your day, I want to keep you away from everything hurtful. Iss Shrighar mein aisi ek hi jaga hai jaha ma sahab kabhi nahi jaati."

Amrit turns to look at him and he gestures ahead with his eyes. Turning around her breath falters.

They are coming up on the other bank by then, and a smaller, more ornate, more ancient sandstone structure rose above from the golden bank. It wasn't added into and altered like the main residence, but definitely more cherished and revered. The time seems to turn back centuries to the very beginning of the Pratap Singhs.

"Ranimehel," Veer's voice pours in her ear. "Dadi sahab's residence."

The boat jerks as it docks and it rocks violently for a moment. Veer holds her through that tremor and climbs out first, helping her to follow.

They stand in the shade of that colossal, yet silent building, staring up at the vision it made in the glow of the first light, looking at the same thing but seeing different things altogether.

For Amrit sees the four hundred years of history that she had often heard boasts of. She sees the prestige and the legacy of Pratap Singh family, the heart of Shrighar.

Veer sees his childhood, or the scraps of it that he cherished. The good memories of his father and his grandmother.

Daadi sahab's will had been such that everything remained the way they did when she still walked those halls. He could close his eyes and will himself back to boyhood, and her smile would ring in his memory. His eyes begin to burn and Amrit's hand squeezes his. Veer blinks and looks away, knowing well enough that he did not fool her.

"You know several generations back, Pratap Singhs were polygamous. Only the maharani lived in the main residence. The other wives lived in Ranimehel, until the king calls for them or calls on them. It is the official residence of the dowager queen mother, an unofficial court that the old queen would run. Imagine, those girls being terrorised by the ever present saas!"

He chuckles, leads her in, ignoring the servants who bow themselves out.

"Then those times were done," he continues. "Daada sahab never brought a second Rani. So, Daadi sahab lived here alone. Sometimes she used to bring me over," his eyes took a glen of recollection.

"Those were her last years. She didn't go out of the palace much. She was weak. But she used to send maids to fetch me, I loved it here. I used to look forward to see a particular maid, daadi sahab's messenger."

He says it all laughingly, but knowing the terrors he used to escape from during those short, sparing moments Amrit tears up.

The courtyard they enter attacks them with its thick fragrance. It is lined with kamini trees, white, fragile flowers carpeted the ground beneath each tree and scattered that heady, somewhat stirring smell.

Amrit stops short catching her breath, taking in the heady scene they made. The courtyard was secluded, the mehel surrounded it, its vast balconies silent and deserted. At the very centre, only glimpsing through the branches of those closely knitted, flowering trees was an infinite pool.
It reflected the sky, now a brandished a shell pink fading into smoky silver. More flowers floated on the still, coold surface.

There is something rather sensuous about the ambience, that play of light and shadows, slightly obscured from view, yet opening up to heavens. The fragrance that is thick and intoxicating yet simple and natural.

All her senses seem to have highlighted, each breath filling her with that scent. Amrit was rather aware about Veer's presence behind her, of his hands on her skin, of his breath stirring against her nape.

"Pasandh hai?" He mutters.

She nods mutely, wondering if that was the proper word for it.

"Humein bhi," he hums. "Come, this courtyard opens directly to Daadi sahab's chambers."

Amrit holds him back, her other hand reaching to grasp their handhold.

"Why are we here Veer?"

The moment their eyes meet is lit in the light of sunrise, it creates a golden halo around his head, casting his expression into shadows.

On the other hand it touches her in hints of gold everywhere. Neither of them could draw their eyes off.

Veer lifts her hand entwined with his and presses a reverent kiss on her knuckles.

"We are celebrating your birthday, biwi sahab. Twenty first is such a milestone that requires celebration. We will spend the entire day here."

She reaches for him, tips of her fingers trail over his face.

"Aap ke aankon mein kuch aur hai."

An startled gasp leaves her half parted mouth when his arm drapes over her waist and pulls her close. Veer looks down at her, allowing his breath to fan her face.

"Tum ho. Aur kuch nahi."

And indeed his eyes are filled with her, with her image brandished in rosy gold of morning sun. Amrit draws in a breath, overwhelmed.

The intensity of attraction between them, the pull that tugged at her is frightening. Amrit thought she knew love, it was sweet, it was exciting. But what she felt for her husband, what he stroked in her was striking, earth shuttering.

It isn't a feeling that she could imagine to grasp in her hands or her words. He could meet her eye from a distance and set fire to her conscious. Such power, never in her two decades of existence did Amrit allow anyone.

Now a new decade was starting. One that would be full of him, just like his eyes were full of her.

Veer brushes a thumb beneath her eye, drawing away a tear that she did not know was there.

"Tumhare aanke bhi na baat baat par bhar jaati hai." His hands cup her face as Amrit blinks away the tears.

"Main kudh ko tujhe de doon, tu mujh ko le jaayenga kaha," her startled eyes clashes with his and Veer smiles. "You wanted to know. Toh lo. Yeh ek aisi jagah hai, jaha hum kush the. Jaha humare apne hua karte the. Jab tum se hum apna Dard baat sakthe hai toh humare har kushi par bhi tumhari haq hai. Hum ne aaj taq kudh ko bhi kudh par na diya ho, utni haq hai tumhe. Aao, hum apne aane wale kal ko, apne beete hue kal se milwana chahte hai."

**
We are on the cusp of 20K!! I'm going to give you a character gallery to celebrate this milestone, where you can meet my inspiration for many of the OCs in CK. Girls, get ready for Anwar and Co. 😉
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We shall meet again soon!