Untrodden Paths

Summary: a friendship rejected, a claim staked and an unfinished chapter reopened.
Where, Amrit tastes the consequences of her choices or glimpses the unchosen alternatives.
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They sit beside each other in a car, on a hot summer day - going uphill in a bumpy road. There is no chaar kadam between them, if Amrit is to shift her elbow would brush against Veer's.

The distance between them is not physical- it is intangible as every other bad thing in this world of powerful. They both have their share of pain - Veer has his ghosts, Amrit has her punishingly heavy jhumkas. Even as she breathes, she feels their weight slowly cutting through her ears. She feels the cold trickle of blood on the side of her throat and brushes a hand sneakily to wipe it off.

Behind closed eyelids Amrit presses away a tear. When she inhales the sharp throat line of her necklace jabs into her throat.
Involuntarily a gasp escapes her.

"Kya Hua?" Veer asks, his eyes remains on the road outside. The driver had slowed down now that they were approaching the temple.

Amrit could see people gathered in the temple yard. Rani Ma just had to go and arrange her campaign in this veneration too. She was greeting the released prisoners at their family temple- extending the blessings of their veneration to the new lives they will begin in India.

Veer's tone irks her. What does he care? Wasn't he the same one who put her in this trouble by not allowing her to return that God forsaken pushteni haar! And then on the top of it the man had the gale to laugh at her good intentions - reject her hand of friendship. Though Amrit too had second thoughts about that particular step after she extended her friendship in the spur of moment.

She hadn't yet forgotten the motivation she felt to be subjected to that condescending laughter.

"I don't want your sympathy -" he told her, looking over her with that condescending look. "Loog aksr jin se humdardhi jathathe hai - unse izzat nahi karte hai."

Amrit closed her fist around the flask, holding it fast against his attempt to snatch it.

"People usually respect those they expect respect from Kuwar Sahab - unko goli nahi maar te."

"Oof," says Veer. "Rakh lo," he raises his hands. "I have other bottles."

"Veer -"

He halts in his staggering walk towards the locked cupboard and looks at her over his shoulder.

"Kuwar Veer Pratap Singh hain hum. Humein kissi ki - kissi ki bhi- humdardhi ke zaroorat nahi hai. Aur nahi dosti ki. Put that in your head Amrit. My mother couldn't fix me. My mother - who is going to fix the country! If she couldn't- what will you do? Humein tumhari saat ki zaroorat hai- tumhari dosti ki nahi. " he returns only to glare down at her, brows frowned to concentrate.

"Zaroorat ho - Zaroorat raho. Kamzori matt bano. Kuwar Veer Pratap Singh ko kamzori ki aadat nahi hai."

Amrit shifted, looking out herself. She didn't want to talk to him. People who doesn't want to share their pain, had no business probing into others.

"Nothing." She snaps as soon as the car comes to a halt. Veer shrugs, disembarking first to make sure he could play the loving husband by opening her door instead of the valet.

Amrit feels crawling back in when she notices the crowd, Veer might have seen the idea crossing her face for he wraps an extravagant arm around her shoulders.

"Chaliye," he mutters in her ear, smiling at someone as he does. "Circus wahaan hai."

The priest makes a great fuss over them. Part of which Amrit thinks savagely is owing to the surprise of seeing Veer inside the temple - sober for a change. Rani Ma makes a great show of making a fuss too. To the benefit of the reporters and the strangers around. Veer rolls his eyes everytime her back his turned. Amrit swallows the laugh that threatens to bubble out of her mouth. It feels a rebellious happiness to see the woman being ridiculed when she keeps throwing her cruel smiles after making her wear those horrible jewellery.

The smoky, congested temple with its crowd makes Amrit feel light headed. She stumbles once and the necklace cuts a gash against her throat. She has to bite her lip to stop any sound from escaping. Veer is looking at her with a frown. Amrit returns the glare. It seems like a contest for a moment - over the holy flame that keeps smoking between them. A contest where the first to blink would lose.

"...ma ki zaamne kar dijiye." The priest finishes. Neither of them catches what the old man said as they are too busy glaring at each other.

"Hum ne suna nahi," Veer tells him, still looking at her.

The priest sighs. Yet his joy cannot be so easily cropped. He begins again.

"According to tradition you two should have married here. But since you didn't- Kuwar sahab it is only right that you repeat at least one ritual in Ma's holy presence. Ma ki zaamne Kuwar Rani sahab ki maang bhar dijiye Kuwar sahab. Phir samaj lijiye aaj ki pooja sampanah hogayi."

Veer blinks.

"No." He says without thinking at the same time Amrit says the same thing.

"What is the matter Veer?" Rani Ma cuts in. "Shaadi toh hogayi hai. Hogayi hai na?" She asks with a saccharine smile. "So why hesitate to repeat one little custom?"

"Aap ko shaq hai - Rani Ma?" Veer asks with a smirk. "Now do I gave to give proof of my own marriage?"

"Shaq?" Rani ma laughs. "Nahi. Humein koi shaq nahi hai - but if you behave suspiciously it is only human that I-"

"Pandit ji," Veer snaps holding out his palm. "Sindoor."

Amrit shakes her head. Reeling. No. Not this. Her vision blurs both with light headedness and the pounding of her heart. This was that one custom Randheer couldn't do. That one custom which once done could not be taken back. Amrit took a faltering step back, suddenly very aware what she had done by making this bargain with Veer. He would do anything to keep up his act. But she - did she want to give him something so close to her heart?

Veer held her by the elbow before she could move any further. There was a silent warning in his eyes. In that moment he was the same man who had told her - kabhi bhi kabhi bhi bhaag na Matt.

The world paused as his fingers brushed against the parting of her hair, leaving it stained a stark bright red - a mark of a non existence relationship. Amrit felt her lungs burning with the lack of air, she could feel the cold clammy feeling of blood against her throat, on her ears. For the life of her, for all her sinking heart - she couldn't breathe.

And as Veer moved to adjust the pally on her head, over his shoulder her eyes met someone else's. A gaze she did not imagine to meet ever again in this lifetime.
In the crowd, looking pale as a ghost as he stared up at her was Randheer.

Her vision blurs. All she could hear is the pounding of her own heart. She isn't aware of falling. But she was very aware of when her vision of Randheer was blocked by Veer, his arms going around her, shielding her- holding her. All she wanted to do was to push him away, had she any energy left.

Instead he held her against him. Urging her to wake up, tapping gently against her cheek. His voice was the last she heard.

"Amrit? Amrit?"

**
Song is for Amrit and Randheer, in honor and farewell to their beautiful love. I'm not going towards an Amdheer ending, that's why.