Strong By Heart And Mind

The second time Aisha opened her eyes was when she had recovered completely. A needle was pinched inside her vein which was connected to the glucose drop attached on a stand at the edge of the bed. The chair where Aditya was sitting in, was now occupied by Maya who was fast asleep.

Aisha got up and sat upright. She looked at the window from where the bright beaming light rushed in to shine upon her. For a second she closed her eyes as if taking a sun bath. A unique peace had gathered in her mind and heart.

She looked around the room. It was huge and beautifully decorated. That's when she felt the soft bed. Slowly all the memories of that night started to gush into her head. "Shit!" She said softly. She touched her lips however, she she no longer felt the warm touch of the man who had saved her. Her eyes widened on realizing what her mind had been thinking about. She tucked her face into the bedsheet in embarrassment.

"Oh! So you are embarrassed, now?" Aditya entered the room, waking up Maya in the process.

"Oh, my miss! When did you wake up?" Maya got out of her seat.

"Just now," Aisha replied while her eyes were still fixed on Aditya.

Maya opened the drawer beside the bed and pulled out some meds. "How many times have I told you not to try and act like you are some superhuman? Why did you not wear an overcoat? Do you know how worried I have been since the last two days?" She cracked out a medicine from the packet.

"I think you should get some porridge for her first," Aditya said, smiling softly at Maya. She placed the meds on a plate, and then quickly rushed out of the room.

Aditya walked towards Aisha and sat on the chair that was originally his. He looked at surprised Aisha. In the last two days, he couldn't get Aisha of his mind no matter how hard he tried. A girl rumoured to be sickly didn't seem weak to him at all. To him she appeared strong willed person. Why would a father disconnect his daughter from the outside world?

"Two days?" Aisha asked in astonishment.

"Yes. You had a 106-degree fever." He crossed his legs and placed his face in his palm, concentrating his eyes on Aisha.

"Oh my!" Aisha's reply was rather blunt. A normal person would have been shocked after hearing that they were almost a few steps away from death. It felt like she was not afraid of death or rather it felt like she knew this would happen.

"Aisha Khurana. Daughter of Dhananjay Khurana. The shy and sick princess of the Khurana household. Am I right?"

This grabbed Aisha's attention immediately. She turned to look towards Aditya's confident and cold face. Her complexion changed but soon she calmed herself down and sighed. "Those are just rumors." She replied turning back towards the window.

"But it seems like they are true. For example, the condition you are in right now. Aisha Khurana."

"That's not true. I am very healthy. It's just that I was running an experiment."

" On yourself? "

" Yes. "

Aisha had a very vague thought. She thought that if she could handle the cold of Mumbai she would consider herself strong enough to fight those monsters lingering in her life. But now that she had found herself on the bed, she had concluded that she was wrong. "And please do not add the surname to my name. It's annoying."

"Annoying? " Aditya raised an eyebrow, then continued, " What about your middle name?"

"That's annoying as well. Why do you ask?" Agitated by the questions, she would rather prefer to avoid talking about these things with this person.

"Anyways, I am Aditya Raichand." He stretched forward his hand that was deliberately ignored by Aisha. She looked at his hand and then his face.

"I know." A short reply that made Aditya laugh.

"Of course, you do. I am famous."

Irritated, Aisha sighs and then stares at Aditya with bloodlust. "This isn't your hotel, why are you even here? Get lost already. "

" My, you are one rude fellow. First of all, this is my family's hotel, which I will be inheriting soon. So I have all rights to be here."

Aisha laughed at it. She knew the future and in both the lives in which she had gone to Raichand's house, she had seen the young man's dream shatter like a thin glass. Aditya looked at Aisha for the next few seconds, confused. After sorting his thoughts in the meantime, he continued," Second of all, you are the one who asked me to stay here. "

" I mistook you for someone else. " she lied.

" Yes. Then I really should leave. " He got out of his seat and then walked to the door. However, before he left he had something to say to Aisha. " You have one hell of a scary personality. I must mention that. You are strong. Trying to fight against the cold, however, will still be difficult. I suggest, stop this rebellion of yours against the cold and wear warm clothes."

"Humans are hot-blooded animals. They change as per the weather."

"I'm not that good at biology. Yet even a fool like me knows that everything has a limit. Once that limit is crossed, either they blast or turn dry. I suggest you should stop this madness and concentrate on your real purpose. Instead of wasting your time on such useless experiments."

"My endurance is not so fatal. I can endure much more than this."

"Yes, you can see the result. Be strong by heart and mind not from outside. One should not go beyond the nature of their existence. But you came this far. That's good" Saying these few last words, he left.

Aisha had already realized that she had failed in her resolve towards cold when she woke up but hadn't understood that that was not a failure but a victory until Aditya explained it to her.

'He is a good man. I wonder why Arun is a bastard. He is the complete opposite of him. Even though they are half brothers, they still have the same father.' Aisha threw herself back on the soft bed and fell back in deep slumber.