Partner

Summary: Iss mehel mein humare bhi kahi aanken hai janab...

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"Achcha," Veer says one evening.

Amrit was finishing her next write up at the desk and he paced the room, proof reading what she had finished.

Veer didn't ask why Amrit kept the library door bolted and Amrit hoped he wasn't about to ask now.

"Have you ever been curious how it feels to get drunk?"

Amrit causes a huge ink stain in her paper. She shakes her head and continues to write.

"Have you ever stolen your father or uncle's pipe and smoked in secret Amrit?"

"Have you been drinking in secret Kuwar sahab?" She asks instead. "You sound very drunk to me."

"Arre kyun? Girls are curious about those things - aren't they? At least the girls I've known did."

"And you've known many?" Amrit turns to him now, eyebrows raised. "French girls?"

Veer pauses in his stride, looks at her with amused eyes and smirks.

"Are you very jealous Biwi sahab?"

"We are steering away from the topic," Amrit says side eyeing him. "You did not tell me why you were asking such a ridiculous question."

Veer comes to stand behind her, she feels him gripping the carved headrest of her chair. He leans over and places the pages he was reading on the desk. She turns her face upwards and looks at him, waiting for an explanation.

"I wanted to know if you have an idea of what Nasha is. You have skipped over a very good analogy here." He says, pointing at a paragraph.

"Iss duniya mein har cheeze ek nasha hai, biwi sahab. Daulat, shaurat, thaqat - sab ek nasha hai. A man not fallen to one is destroyed in the other. Those days patriotism was a drug, people were intoxicated. They were given this mind altering vision that they could create a new nation - all lost their minds, leave a good few." He paused. "Aisi kya dekh rahi ho?"

"Kuch nahi."

He bends over her upturned face, until their noses almost touch.

"Bohut kuch sunai deta hai uss kuch nahi main. "

"I received a letter today, Begam sahiba forwarded it. Ek ladki hai. Srighar mein. Refugee hai meri tarah. Woh chahathi hai ke hum unka interview kare."

Veer doesn't move from where he is peering over her face.

"Tum kya chahati ho?"

"She was kidnapped and forcefully married by a man," she said slowly. "Begam sahiba thinks I am the only one she will talk to, now that she is traumatised. She thinks we can connect over our similar experiences."

Veer says nothing. In the golden glow of her reading light she sees the understanding in his face.

"She is pregnant. She has escaped that man but she may never escape the consequences of his actions. I - I wonder will she ever love that child? Does a child deserve that kind of a fate? Does a woman deserve to be forced to make such a choice?"

She closes her eyes, drawing in a shuddering breath. The thought tortures her and she has no words to translate it to.

It had taken her four years to shut the doors to those memories, those fears. Amrit didn't want to peek through their keyholes and find her ghosts digging themselves out of their graves.

The cold tip of a pen between her brows brings her back.

She had almost forgotten that her face was turned upwards towards Veer, who had taken the liberty to mark her forehead with a dot of ink. For a moment Amrit stares into his eyes.

"Woh ladki tum nahi ho - Amrit," he says, matter of fact -ly. "Nahi woh aadmi yeh - " he casts around. "Farook Ansari hai. It is a good thing to sympathise with people you write about - but do not substitute yourself in their places. Yakeen maano, tumhare hisse ki dardh Bhagvaan de dete hai. Auron ki dardh apne kandho mein na liya karo."

"Mathlabi ho aap."

"Kush kismati se," he smirks at her. "Selfishness is also a hard earned quality. Tum nahi samjhongi biwi sahab. Unhone tumhe aisi banaya hi nahi. Ab woh poocho jo Pooch na tha."

"Can we go? Can I go - meet her?"

"Of cause. If that's what you want."

"But what about Rani Ma? What will we tell her?"

Veer straightens up, rubs his hands together. It is an unconscious action of his when he is deep in his thoughts.

"How many days do you need?" He asks then. "A week? Seven days at least? Two to get acquainted, three for proper interviews and two more to finalise."

Amrit says nothing.

She has no idea how it is done. She has never done this before. But maybe Veer has. In the pause that follows she feels the insecurities clawing at her, what if she fails - what would Farida Begam say?

"Tum karlongi Amrit," Veer tells her. His tone is certain, finite.

"Aur hum tumhe le jaayenge wahaan, Srighar. Buss ek shart hai." He looks at her pointedly before holding out his hand for her to take.

Amrit places her hand in his, and pulls herself to her feet.

There is something so magnetic about Veer, about this raw confidence of his that doesn't allow room for doubts to linger. But then there is that selfishness to him too. He doesn't do charity.

"What do you want - Kuwar sahab?"

The way his eyes drop, trailing a path along her lips and throat promises a wicked reply.

"Saat dino ke badle saat raatein?"

Amrit draws back her hand as if he scalded her.

"Huh?"

Veer bursts out laughing, so loud that in the customary silence of the library his laughter resonates.

"Haye, yeh laali," he says mockingly. "How could someone blush so much? I didn't mean it in the sense you think Biwi sahab. Srighar is the seat of the heir. Chacha sahab used to handle the estate there but Ma sahab is very angry with his way of things. During the election season someone has to go there, keep the high society circle in her grasp. She will definitely not sent Chacha sahab this time. Toh hum sochrahe the ke kyun na hum dono chalte hai? Catch is, you can do whatever you want during daytime but at night you will have to host and entertain the boring royal crowd, and associated society who will turn up to see the heir and his bride. Ma sahab will never know what else we did - if we keep the Srighar upper class in her good books."

Amrit looks at him in speculation.

"You will do that for me? Will Rani ma allow you to go?"

"Shrighar is the seat of the heir Biwi Sahab. Technically it should be my responsibility. Ma sahab cannot stop me from going if I express my willingness to."

"Then I-"

There is a loud knocking at the door.

"Ab kaun kambhakat..." Veer mutters under his breath. "Go back, finish your writing. Yeh jo bhi hai hum dheklenge."

Amrit delays for a moment. Something in Veer's eyes change.

"If this is secretary sahab you are keeping yourself locked up from, he is not meeting you. Maaf kijiyenga, hum aap ko le kar bohut hi zaada mathlabi hai."

Amrit stares at him.

"Veer I haven't - I would never seek him out- I-"

"Shh," his finger presses against her lips. Amrit draws in a hiss of an inhale. "Humari ghuroor ho tum, humse kabhi safai mat do."

He tilts his head gesturing her back to her abandoned work while he himself vanishes down the aisle between bookshelves, going to answer the door.

*

It is Randheer of cause. Veer feels his blood boiling at the sight of this man, at the reminder that Amrit still thought of him with her dying breath.

Oh, he would probably not forget this as long as he shall live.

"You have developed an annoying habit of being in places you should avoid Secretary sahab," he says instead in a clipped tone. "In case you've forgotten let me remind you, the library is open to public only till 4 o' clock. It's well past seven. Humare biwi sahab andar kaam kar rahi hai. Aap jaaiye, kal subha aajaiyenga."

Randheer gives him a look, and makes a move to walk past him. There are liberties Veer could allow, there are slights that he would not.

"You can't go in Randheer," he doesn't even try to sound friendly anymore. "Go and find that green booklet you got when you joined our staff. It has protocol written on the cover - should be easy enough to find. Ladies of the rajparivaar don't meet stranger men of no consequence alone at night, and I'm not in a mood to chaperone you. There is a reason why certain areas are out of bound after certain times of the day. Jaa ke ma sahab se kehe do, unki yeh chal nahi chalne wali."

Randheer pauses for a moment and Veer's smirk is a knife edge.

"Iss mehel mein humare bhi kahi aanken hai janab, sambhal ke rahiyenga," he says then.

"I know you were the one who set that attack in motion, intentionally or not. I'd have paid you with interest, chup hai toh kissi aur ke liye hai, isse kamzori samajhne ki galthi mat karo. Warna hum Aisa khel khelenge ke tum jiss ki sapne dekh rahe ho woh Sapno mein bhi Tumhara naam nahi lengi."

"Meri Amrit kabhi tumhari nahi ho sakthi."

"Tumhari Amrit? Kaun hai woh?Yeh jo Amrit Andar hai, woh na kabhi tumhari thi, na kabhi hongi."

With that Veer shuts the door in his face and Randheer hears the unmistakable click of a bolt being put from the inside.

*
Amrit jumps at the sound the door makes. By the time she reaches the door Veer looks murderous.

He clutches his fist and bangs it on the wood, the door makes another scary sound.

"Kuwar sahab?"

"Hum se baat math Karo abhi," he says, heaving a ragged breath.

Every line of his frame is taut with tension, and knuckles have turned white in his fist. Farida was right when she said this man had a lot of fire inside him, such suppressed anger, such tightly reined temper - that he could burn everything around him.

Amrit reaches for him slowly, with an unsure hand. She places it on his back.

He doesn't move.

Slowly, she pats him, in time with each exhale.

Suddenly Veer turns, grips that wrist and pulls her against him, turning so that their places were exchanged, she is pressed against the door now, caged by his much larger frame. He looks down at her, still breathing hard, still trying to rein himself in.

"Tum humari ho!" The statement is a low growl deep in his throat.

Amrit feels the words stirring a shudder within her. Her heart picks up, and unwittingly she looks into those eyes.

Veer bows over her, eclipsing her to the view of the library and still holding her eye.

His intention is clearly spelled out in that dark gaze. Amrit turns her head away, a hand clasped over her the thundering pulse at her throat.

Veer pauses, reining himself on a inhumanely tight will. Those words mock him in the back of his mind.

Meri Amrit kabhi tumhari nahi hongi...

And here she is, proving him right. Proving that, that man knew her better, knew her heart better. Had all this time he been reading her all wrong? Had he simply projected upon her what he wishes to see?

Veer steps back, cursing him self for hoping again, for finding another person who might keep him dangling in this chase after a mirage all his life. Why do they come to his life at all?

He punches the door again and Amrit jumps, a startled gasp escaping her. Fear, the last thing he had wanted to see, discolour her eyes. She too, is afraid of him.

God help him, he couldn't bear it anymore!

Veer shook his head at her when she tried to reach for him and walked away instead, somewhere down and further right, a door slammed shut.

**
There is a certain build up here that will take up where I want this story to go.
Hope you understand this conflict is therefore needed.

Don't forget to vote and comment if you liked the chapter :-) As always open to your thoughts!
Thanks for reading!