I didn't cast the woman another glance as I loosened the tie around my neck.Frustation and anger building up in my veins.I just wanted all of this to be over all ready.All the illusions to be washed away quickly.She wasn't praying just a few minutes before I came, it was all just in my memory.It was just my mind messing with me.

Looking through the vanity, I saw the woman bent to pick up my jacket.

" You really enjoy doing all this.Why don't you come back already."I said not restraining the blunt rudeness and harshness coating my words.Gritting my teeth together, I leaned against the dark wooden vanity table.

" I am really tired for the night so if you please disappear , I would retire for the night."I said folding my arms across my chest.Massaging my temples, I closed my eyes tightly.

Opening my eyes, I found the woman gone.And as always she disappeared like thin air between us.Or me.

Slamming my palms angrily against the wood, I moved towards the bathroom door but something just made me stop dead in my tracks.As the wind knocked out of me, I stilled.My mind spiraling.The charcoal of my eyes narrowed as I held onto the little sanity that remained inside me.

Near the bedroom door stood Amal.A glass full of water remained in her hand as she stared at me.Her grey eyes sad and ashen.She was as beautiful as ever.Haseen.

A painful ball bobbed inside me as I fought hard to utter anything out.The blood in my veins turning cold.I felt as if someone had smacked me across the face as I looked at the woman.

" Disappear-"I uttered out with much difficulty.Wanting her to wash away like all times but I knew the reality because she didn't disappear this time.She remained put.She remained there.Lively and real.Just before me.

Amal.

My Amal

My haseen Amal

The grey eyed woman moved forward.Her each step shortening the distance between us.I swallowed roughly down my throat.A fire igniting within my fibers.Like a statue, I remained frozen.

" Arsalan-"

The whisper broke through the molecules of the air between us.Her word hitting me hard as I breathed in deeply.She was here.She was really here.

Just a step between us and she moved closer.Her watery grey pools looking up at me as if I was the only man on Earth her eyes yearned for.Like I was her everything.Her hands stopped on my shoulders as she held on them.Standing on her tiptoes, she did the unexpected.

She pressed her lips on mine.Taken back by her actions, I closed my eyes letting my life led me away.Letting Amal led me away.Pain seared through my heart and then spreading throughout my body.

A mix of hot and cold bolted inside me.Ice and fire.Water and flames.

The softness of her lips pressed onto mine, making me inch just a little closer to her.Her fingers tightened on my shoulders and I felt her ease on her feet.My tall figure towered over hers with our lips in a painful kiss.Wrapping my arm around her slim waist, I pulled her up.

Out of breath when she pulled away from me, I didn't let her.Like an angry beast, I pressed my lips sternly on hers.Not giving her even a minute to breath properly.But in the moment I didn't care.Kissing her hardly, my anger punished her yet she didn't complain.Biting on her bottom lips, I felt her hands press on my chest.

Soothing the little bite with my lips, I pulled away.Removing my arm from around her, I pushed her away.I breathed heavy trying to gulp as much as oxygen as possible.Amal wasn't surprised with my actions, instead she looked prepared.Running a hand through my hair, I pulled at my strands harshly.A low groan escaping my lips as I closed my eyes.Opening them, I found Amal wiping away her tears.

Her hands reached forward before she cupped my face.

" I have hurt you very much-You are very stressed about me, right?"She asked her eyed scanning my face for her unanswered questions.

I remained blank not showing anything.

" I must have made you suffer a lot, right?"She asked a little louder now.

Her lips wobbled making me follow the action.Blood on the corner of her mouth as tears after tears slipped down her face.Her fingers were cold against my face, as she cupped my face firmly.

" I am sorry."Was the whisper she managed to say before letting her hands slip by her side.Her face dropped as she stepped back from me.Surrending before me, she cried only.

My heart thudded against my chest.Just one sorry and I found myself falling down.Crumbling bit by bit.

" Why are you here?"Was the first question I asked.My voice sounded stern but I let it be.

The woman wiped her tears harshly away, each drop like ice to my burning wounds.Her eyes filled with determination as she looked up at me.

" I need to tell you something.Infact I want to tell you everything."She said.

As if something had possessed me, I pushed her body against the nearest wall.In a flash I had trapped her within the cage of my arms as I placed my hands on either side of her.Her loud gasp dying on her lips as her breath hitched.

Glaring at her with my blazing orbs, I slapped my hands on the wall loudly.Making the woman to jolt in my cage.

" After all these months you're here to tell me everything.After all those sleepless nights and darkened days you are here to tell me everything.To tell me something or everything I already know."I roared making the woman flinch but her softened features didn't waver for even a second.

" When I needed to tell you something.You left.You left me on my own after making me the happiest man alive.You burned me because you were afraid."I gritted my teeth.My nostrils flared as I breathed out.My hard jaw tightening as I looked darkly at the woman.

" Seven months.2 weeks-"

" twelve days and thirty eight hours."The woman herself completed for me.Her eyes looking up at my widened ones.

Was she counting too.

" You weren't the only one with sleepless nights and darkened days."She said.

I brushed my thumb against the corner of her mouth wiping the blood away.She looked away for a second.

" But you don't have this right.You are not to decide to just leave and come back whenever you wish, woman."I said glaring her still.

She just shook her head lightly.The innocent answers written on her face making me step away from her.Running my hand through my hair, I turned my back to her.

Soft foot steps padded towards me.And Amal pressed her head against my back.Her fingers curling around my arm, as she held me.Silence filled around us but it was bound to be broken.

" Four months before, Aunty Shahana passed away.I was left alone in Islamabad.Sikander bhai had gotten married but my loneliness didn't effect at all.Since the day I stepped out of this home, I found myself falling.I never wanted to go away.I never wanted to leave you.But I had to.Every power was pulling us apart and I alone was the defender.I wanted to stay but I had to chose.So I chose Aunty.I counted every single day.Cried every single night.Missed you every single day.Loved you every single day."She whispered the last sentence very low yet I still heard it.

My eyes turned glassy making me remember the fateful night where we separated.

Amal

" You were right, I was scared.Infact I was very scared.You don't know how hard was it to say the words to you Arsalan.I killed myself before even uttering about leaving you."Amal said.

A heaviness filled my heart as I moved away from her.

Why was I running away from her?

Rounding the bed, I sat on her side.The moisture in my eyes from a few minutes ago now ran down the side of my face.Looking straight at the large windows I replayed all the events from the past few minutes.

Amal silently came before me.Making me avert my eyes to her.Her long black hair were in a low bun, wrapped on the nape of her neck.Her slim figure was adorned with a red shalwar kameez as her white dupatta remained on her side by her shoulder.Her grey deep pools were filled with black kohl and a light lipstick was painted across her lips.

Dull gold glass bangles remained in her wrists.And her large wedding ring standing proudly against her finger.Her rouge strands shaped her face as she brushed them away.

" Arsalan-"She breathed out making the charcoal of my eyes to clash with her grey ones.

" I am here before you just the way you always wanted to see me.Dressed like a newly wedded bride.Your bride.Because before leaving I promised to stay in your nikah, and I trusted you.I trusted my lo- I trusted you more than myself.Knowing that I was hurting the both of us, I came back.Wanting to end the misery, I travelled alone through the flight here.I never expected such confidence from myself but for you I did it.I came to London alone for you.But now if you don't want me to stay.I would go.."Her voice broke like our hearts.

My mind registered her words quickly and just as she turned to go away.I pulled her wrist, making her jerk and land on my lap.Holding her in my arms, I pulled her closer.

" Damn, I am not letting you go ever again."I said in a low whisper.Nuzzling my face in her neck, I breathed in.Her arm came up as she encircled it around my shoulder.

Pulling away from her heated skin, I pressed a kiss on her forehead.

" I am never letting you go away."I said receiving her light laughter.Her eyes crinkled yet her eyes were glassy.

" Amal I lo-"Amal pressed her palm against my mouth stopping me.

" shsh."She said before cupping my face.

" Don't say anything right now Arsalan.Just listen to me first."She almost pleaded making me nod at her request.She smiled making me return her gesture.

" I.Love.You. And today I am not scared to love you.I am not afraid and nor am I shy.I am not afraid of what the future holds for us.I just want you to do whatever you've been doing to me.You brightened my world with your own light.You sacrificed for me.You cared for me.You made me feel special.You did everything for me but Arsalan along the time you never stopped for me.You never stopped to know that even if ai was following you or not.Like an ocean you let me fall for you and thats what I did.I didn't follow you yet I fell harder for you each day.Your sweet gestures and kisses made me feel alive as if life was also stored for me.You changed my life.And you became my everything."She stopped and caressed my face.Feeling so loved by her, I kissed her.

Slanting my lips over hers, I angled her head.The once painful kiss that we shared some minutes ago was now turned into a loved one.Pulling her incredibly closer, I tightened my hold around her.Amal pulled back and stopped me.

" I ask you to let me love you because I want to spend all the next coming seconds of my life with you.I want my everyday starting with you and every night ending with you at my side.Because Arsalan Khan I won't accept anything else other than you.If I want someone in my life then its you only you.I love you and I would always love you indefinitely, infinitely, irreversibly till eternity.And your name is the only thing I remember."She confessed making me grin.She leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

I grinned and didn't even waste a second before saying.

" I don't know Amal how it all started but I loved you since the day you opened up to me.Since the day you trusted me.And most importantly since the day you loved me.I waited for this for seven months.I brought roses that day so I could tell you how I felt for you."My smiles faltered and so my wife pecked the corner of my mouth muttering a small sorry.

" I won't let you go on your own, I would stand by your side always, you protect you and to care for you.I would always love you too."I said grinning.

Hugging her closer, I wrapped my arms her soft frame.

" I am home."She whispered in my embrace.

Pecking her hair, I whispered as immense happiness buzzed in all my being.

" Oh God, I love you janaan."Her arms only tightened around me.

Time had seemed to be ignored by either of us as we lay in bed entangled in each others arms.We talked about everything and nothing.I told her about how I dragged my life without her and she told me about how she suffered without me.And in the end when we got tired, our words got silent.

When the large crimson sun greeted us with the very first of its ray, the sky still dark outside.I caressed Amal's hair as she rested.

My tired eyes were fixed on the dark sky outside as my wife rested on my chest.Sighing out loudly, I looked at Amal's face finding her eyes wide open.

" You didn't sleep?"I asked, huskiness added in my exhausted voice.

Amal looked up to me, a smile fitting her lips.

" I was afraid that if I slept you'd disappear."She confessed.

" I thought the same."I said truthfully.I didn't even get a wink of sleep because I feared that last night would only be a beautiful dream.

Amal moved up, settling besides me as I watched her.Covering us with the blanket, she held onto my hand.

" Sleep and neither of us would go away."She promised.

***

And thats it !!

I didn't reply on the comments but I'd do that soon ..

Shower me with comments on this chapter too .. waiting already !! :) :)

Until next time,

_Hafsa