Chapter 12.

Aadhya's P.OV~

Indeed, his remarks jab through my heart. Still, I understand his impeachments and his temper.

He just got me enraged when the initial piece he said was an indictment. Because, in existence, he is the one who warded me off and barred any conversation possible.

And now he is all angry and blabbering the first thing that comes to his mind.

He's already inflamed me sufficiently through the prior few days and now he's charging me for something I do not know about.

"Aren't I right? You should've mentioned it to me. You didn't have to injure my heart like this." His eyes pour his emotions accordingly, riling my heart.

His words have produced an eruption inside me, which abruptly seems out of management.

"Is this about today?" I will drive him off-guard. I will use this opportunity.

"What?" His eyes flutter, and his posture jitters as I cup his face between my palms. His skin feels smooth against my grasp as I brush his lips with my thumb.

"It is about today, right?" I add as I drag my body closer to his. His magnificent body feels stiff yet warm. "Are you jealous, my prince?"

"That's gibberish." He wriggles his neck away, hastily opposing my allegation as I drive my lips near his ear, including, "you saw Prashant helping me."

"Isn't that why you're so frantic? You assumed he was doing something else, right?"

"You're talking gibberish." He defends again, stomping off of my grasp to the side of my bed, as he stands, facing his back to mine.

"Why, every word I say is gibberish to you? You did not believe me when I exposed my identity, and now you don't when I uncovered yours." I stand with my back against him.

"Because both of the claims you made are gibberish." Scoffing at his response, I gradually accompany him to where he's standing, perching on the bed right in front of him, with my hands supporting my weight as I fall back.

"Are they? Your face says otherwise."

Aarav's P.O.V~

Her mocking tone yet playfulness bugs my inner cohesion. I find it arduous to reply to her. "Tell me something. Would you actually let me off with Prashant?"

My head freezes at her question. The perception of them together, just like this evening, develops in my mind. "Y-yes."

"Hmm? Would you not loathe it if I do the same things to him, I did to you?" I feel my heart blazing as her eyes poke through my soul, making it poorer.

"Are you visioning us together? If not. Do it!"

"Think about how I will look at him. What things I will do to him?" My breaths progress as her words develop.

"Think of my lips grazing on his skin, which once grazed on yours. Would you appreciate it?" My blood bitters up as I think of it.

"He will be such a good boy. Presumably better than you. He'll obey me, listen to me, and believe me, unlike you."

"Who claims he's better than me?" I burst out, impotent to envision them together and grapple with her words any further.

"He doesn't even perceive your likes and dislikes. He's not even mindful of your temperament. Of your judgments. The type of food you like. The music you appreciate or that you love liquor."

"And you identify all of this?" She responds to my unpredicted answer as I retort to her as swiftly as I can.

It's certainly doltish of her to demand me such a question after I just set forth the difference between him and me. "Of course I do!"

"Do you think Aadhya preferred all of this?" Suddenly, every claim I formed comes winding me, urging me to think the unimaginable.

"Why are you so quiet suddenly?" Her eyes peer the same at me, fierce and uncanny. From the bed, she rests.

She is right! Aadhya never appreciated liquor. I recall when she prohibited the maiden from serving alcohol in my chamber because she despised it so much and alleged to cherish my health.

She declared it's acceptable to ingest liquor sporadically, but never every day. That is why she halted me to drink in my chamber as it risks me to being an alcoholic.

And recognizing this Aadhya, she drank with me when the old Aadhya even despised the smell of the liquor. But why am I just right now commemorating this?

"Are you honestly not Aadhya?" I stumble to the ground, on my knees, peering up at her as my body solidifies from the unforeseen realization.

My speech cracks in response to my brain as my eyes drift, incapable of sustaining the connection. "Are you truly from the future?"

"I once explained everything. But you're just realizing this right now." She sits adjacent to my posture, adding, "do you genuinely believe that women are given the knowledge of sex in your time?"

"You're correct. I never got to demand where you learned about all the erotic endeavors. Even the minor minutiae are off the grid for young women. How can you perceive so extreme and unusual knowledge of intercourse from casual intimacy?"

My remarks are limping just like my body starts doing it. "You learned it from your time. You're not Aadhya." I sway my head in feedback to my words, noticing my body weaken.

"Bingo! I'm not!" Her tone has diminished, and her eyes are commiserating with my practically demolished body. I gasp in shock, drawing a minute to ask another question. "Are you? Are you real?"

I can't read the reason for her chuckling at my words. Why is she snickering like this? "Of course I am real! Why are you asking such a silly question? Are you sick or just shocked?"

"Can I? Can I touch you?" Proposing this question is extremely palpable and right than her chuckling cheeks again.

I'm petrified. Everything around me suddenly has grown wrong and unrealistic for me. And indeed I have touched her before, but I just wish to make sure. I wish to be secure that I have her.

"If that makes you believe me. Go ahead. Even though you've touched me multiple times." She speaks in such an uplifted manner, awaiting as I lazily draw my palm to her cheek.

As soon as the warmth of her skin brushed against my palm. It quickly lulls my inner cyclone. I feel her gentle skin thawing under my vast palm. I love how her small, delicate face can fit into my palms.

The sense of her being alive overjoys my heart. I feel like breathing again. My happiness surmounts my dazed brain.

"So, are you certain now? That I am real and not Aadhya. Do you believe me now?" Her words are numb in my head. All I can feel is liberation and leisure as I compete to maintain my stiff posture.

"That means you don't like Prashant!" I chortle out, perplexed by her sparkly eyes as her astonishment rises.

"Are you — are you okay?" She appeals as her tone carries worry for me, grasping my other hand on her lap. "Does that mean you also adore me?" All my brain is competent to think of is just her.

I can have her! All of her! She's mine! She wasn't lying!

For the spent few days, I've been slaughtering my heart, training myself how to face her with no emotion as my unrequited love thaws in my heart.

And now the chance of acquiring her affection reciprocated towards me overjoys my soul.

"Am I right?" I glower at her with hope as the bliss in me seeks to come out in the form of my sullied chuckle. I wait.

I wait, with a need for her to acknowledge my claim, as my eyes beg her lips to word my mind.

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--- Love, author! 🦋