Kiss

"Are you sure about this?" I asked as a knot formed in my stomach.

"Absolutely." She said with that motherly smile that used whenever I was acting very childish.

The smile that I loved so much.

'Who are you fooling. You love every one of her smiles.' Lily said teasingly and got a blush out of me in return. That cheeky girl.

'You shut up.' I said and ignored any more words coming out of her before my thoughts went back to the topic at hand and the knot forming in my stomach returned full force.

"But are you really sure about this. I mean… they are going west. And we are… not going west."

"Yes. I am absolutely sure about this." She said, her smile proving me with a momentary distraction but not doing anything else beside that.

She sighed at my antics and I realized that I must be acting very childish and irrational right this moment but I had the tendency to become like this whenever my family was involved and she understood it.

"Ashok. Calm down." She said as she took my hands in hers, her palm feeling exceptionally gentle despite all the callouses and scars. "Take a deep breath"

"Okay." I said and and did as she said, my worries lifting a bit as my heartbeat returned to normal and mind slowly calmed down.

"Now I'm going to talk. And you're going to listen. Alright." She said gently, I found neither the strength nor the reason to deny her such a simple request so I just nodded back to her.

"Ashok, you have the tendency to worry too much. You think that if you're not close to your family then something will happen to them."

"But…" I started but stopped just as soon as her finger found my lips.

"Sshhh. I'm talking right now."

I nodded.

"Now as I saying before. You tend to worry too much and believe that you always need to be near them in order to protect them. But you are forgetting that your family members are not weak. In fact, both Rahul and Neha, along with her Hollers are currently stronger than you."

"I…" I started but stopped as she gave me a look that reminded me that she was the boss right now so I should shut up and listen.

"You need to put more trust in them Ashok. Just because you are not there does not mean that they will wilt away like flowers." She said as her grip on my hands became tighter "Put your faith in them. Trust that they'll be alright on their. And that they're not children who need your presence to be safe."

I sagged at her words and let out a sigh in defeat. "You are right. I know you are. But I still can't stop worrying about them."

She smiled warmly at me before she brought me into her embrace.

We've been doing that a lot recently. Getting touchy-touchy.

Wait! Wrong thought at the wrong moment. This is sentimental time.

"They'll be alright Ashok. Plus, we you return, you'll be far more stronger than before which will allow you to protect them to an even greater extent. So you don't need to worry. Okay." She said as she cupped my cheeks and forced me to look in her eyes.

Those beautiful brown eyes.

"Yes." I said. As if there was anything else I could have said.

She let out a giggle at my expression, as if she was already capable of reading my mind.

She probably was. I was never particularly good at hiding my emotions.

"Okay." She said as she stepped back, making me feeling a bit lonely because of the lack of contact. "Let's go then."

I nodded back at her, strengthening my resolve to go to the place that'll lead me away from my family.

Just as we were about to start on our journey, the horizon was filled with brightness, as if a second sun has just been born into earth.

I squinted my eyes at the phenomenon for a few seconds before the brightness finally subsided and a ball of light rose in the sky, pushing aside all the clouds in the sky with it's mere presence.

I gulped as the implication of what happened finally hit me.

"They really did it. Didn't they?" I asked.

"That they did." She replied as we both watched in a tranced as the ball rose higher and higher and a large amount of dust and smoke rose from the ground, completing the mushroom cloud that I've always been so fascinated by whenever I watched it in movies and TV shows.

It is so much more frightening to look at in real life.

And beautiful.

Unknowingly my hands reached for Netra's and I found them midway, as her hands reached for mine as well.

Our fingers touched each other, finding it's hand to coordinate for a few awkward moments before we found each other interlaced our fingers tightly with each other.

I looked at her and found her looking back at me with those gentle eyes of hers.

The eyes that I could look at for an entire life time and call it a life well spent.

'Had she always been shorter than me.' A stray thought entered my mind, desecrating the perfect moment before I crushed it down and did what I intended to do for a long long time.

I cupped my cheeks and my lips found hers tenderly for a moment before we embraced each other and the kiss turned fierce.

Then the wind produced by the nuclear weapon hit us and our hair and her clothes fluttered in the air but we were too entranced with each other to care about anything else.

We separated for a moment, looking at each other, eyes conveying emotions that had been suppressed for so long.

"I love you." I whispered softly. The words coming naturally to me.

"I love you." She whispered before we fell into a kiss once again.