ArHi SS: Quiet places (Read warning) [Completed] - Page 17

No, I haven't forgotten :-) I am adjusting to a new schedule so once that's done, I will be spamming my own thread :-)

Read all the 3 chapters in one go even the Warning.. loved the awesome thought behind to write a something about a relationship between a couple who love each other but at the same time when try to get pleasures in some different arrangements from each other in the confines of the bedroom, the societal presumptions raised their head as khushi being a traditional girl seeing a red band on her husband's wrist got a thought as if she is doing something immortal by hurting her husband.. however if she have got any such marks on her body she would have been ok with it.. well arnav is not happy to hear khushi being not comfortable in their arrangement as he is somebody who believe in pleasures and contentment and he is right what they do in their bedroom can't be immortal.. I feel instead of middle ground arnav needs to make khushi know about her needs or preferences and what she is doing is also for her contentment too.. why i want arnav to do so as khushi is confused she was thinking of speaking to payal or anjali about it.. instead i feel her husband should be the one who needs to introduce his wife to a world where both are equal participants and are drawing results equally.. khushi have got up to empty bed instead arnav should have taken her into his arms and made her more comfortable after those thoughts about which she is not sure.. Khushi needs to be made aware that she is having every right to do anything she wants to do to get pleasure in her life and her husband is not only the one and she can do certain things for her own happiness too where she is investing so much for her husband's happiness, she too is having equal right on happiness and her husband too needs to do certain things she like.. hope Khushi is able to get all her happiness, pleasures, contentment too.. loved all the chapters and will be looking forward to read more.. best wishes and happy writing Quiet Places 😊

Originally posted by: RockBarbie

Update on monday / tuesday :)

Chapter 4: Metamorphosis

It was as if the past few weeks was spent in an alternate reality that got unplugged the moment Khushi voiced the moral ambiguousness of the arrangement she had with Arnav. A politeness had settled between them that perplexed Khushi but made the rest of the family happy. An odd line made to their conversations - "Arnav has lost much of his anger after his marriage" and then they would throw a sly look at Khushi. In reply, she would offer them a tight smile and forcefully shove the lump down her throat. Their relationship had altered again and had gone back to how it originally was. There was nothing wrong between them yet she felt her world had tilted on its axis.

Her stomach had dropped when she had found herself alone the morning after their arrangement was dissolved. She knew it was over the moment she exhibited her doubts. Arnav had iterated several times over the weeks that she held the whip; metaphorically that is. The reigns were in her hands and she could pull the plug when she wanted to their agreement. Her doubts gave enough ammunition to Arnav to stop wanting what he wanted. The momentary loneliness was soon forgotten when she had breathed first time in weeks without any guilt or conflict consuming her every waking moment.

The awkwardness, however, was a massive punch in the gut when it came unannounced in the territory which she had known like the back of her hand. "Ouch...watch your elbow Khushi..." "Crap, sorry Arnav, I thought I had removed all of my hair pins..." Suddenly they were fumbling around each other second guessing their moves and the memory of their partner's movements, sullied. The post coital bliss never came as both tried to reconfigure their sleeping arrangements. After several trials, Arnav had simply pulled her towards him, - her naked back settled in front of his chest, his nose nuzzling the back of her head. Something had loosened in her chest when the awkwardness had dissolved into tenderness as their bodies breathed in synchrony.

She was shocked to discover the next night that awkwardness wasn't really gone between them. She kneed him in lower stomach while she lost balance on top of him. He had keened in pain and whined when tried to move him from the fetal position he had settled for. It had taken them handful of days to get back to the grove but they had managed to surpass the initial awkwardness and breezed through their daily life as if nothing had altered between them. The anxiety that Khushi had begun to feel had dissipated and her stomach didn't curl in disgust when her fingers tapped on Arnav's pale wrist.

It had been three weeks since they had returned to pre-arrangement, as she had started to call in her head, life. It was three full weeks of normalcy, polite conversations and a conscious avoidance of the collapse of arrangement. She was where she wanted to be, she had what she wanted yet an unknown parasite had settled in her flesh. There were times when her skin felt too tight for her body, her stomach too hot and her limbs cagey from an inexplicable predicament.

"Do you think I have unresolved daddy issues?" Khushi asked, running her index finger on an iPad and eyes fixed on the content she was browsing. She was leaning on the headboard and Arnav was sprawled on her lap relaxing after a long day at work. Her words startled him out of the haze he was in and he sat up with less grace than he generally carried himself with.

"What. The. Actual. f**k." He asked wildly. "Where are you getting this shit?" He asked and snatched her iPad.

"Hey!" Khushi swatted his hand unsuccessfully as Arnav's grip didn't give her a chance. "I was reading that," she mumbled watching him read the content with wide eyes.

When Arnav didn't say anything for few minutes, Khushi's resilience broke. "I read somewhere that a wide age gap when consciously chosen by a partner sort of reflects those kind of things. I am nineteen and you are like...forty or something."

"I am twenty nine." Arnav bit out haughtily.

"Twenty nine and three quarters," Khushi corrected gently. "Look at it this way Arnav - when you turned eighteen and voted in some form of government elections, I was probably learning what two plus two was. Or that I was still in my diapers when you were peeking into dirty magazines."

Arnav groaned loudly. "Thanks for putting disturbing images in my head," he grumbled and shoved the iPad under their bed, subtly declaring bedtime. "I didn't see you refusing my proposal because I was older than you," he leered at her. Khushi burst out laughing.

"What can I say?" She said, slipping out of her nightwear. "I have a thing for older men," she pounced on him and swallowed the laughter that tried to escape from his mouth. The kiss was clash of teeth and tongue as neither could stop grinning and in Arnav's case laughing. She felt lighter when he easily sunk into mattress and underneath her, her weight a solid reminder of sanity and happiness.

"You miss that, don't you?" She asked settling her face in the crook of his neck and nuzzling that area. It had taken three days to figure out the spot below his jaw to be the one that would be his undoing if planned accordingly. He yelped when she bit him right below his jawline, his stubble burning her chin in the process.

"It doesn't matter what I want," he moaned when she ran her tongue on the area she bit. It took few moments to clear the haze in her mind when his words finally settled.

"What did you just say?" She asked, shifting away from him.

"...what?" Arnav looked at her, confused.

Khushi simply stared at him and watched his eyes lose the curtain of desire. "What just happened?" He asked softly.

"It doesn't matter what I want." She said and exhaled loudly. "Why would you think something like that Arnav?" She asked, hurt evident in her voice. Arnav's face crumpled at her question but he soon schooled his feature to reflect passive indifference that he definitely wasn't feeling.

He looked at her as she watched him from under her eyelashes. He could give a haphazard answer that would mollify her for the moment but wouldn't completely resolve the underlying issue. Instead, he decided to hit her with the truth. "After I lost my parents to a dirty scandal, the only goal in my life was to restore my family name. Nothing came easily to me Khushi. I worked for every brick in this house. I made decisions that my family didn't like but never said no' to the comforts that came along with it. I never chased happiness because every time I did so, I also had to pay the price." He smiled inwardly when Khushi scooted closer and rested her cheek on his bicep. "And then you came along."

"And?" Khushi asked, taking his arm underneath her cheek and wrapping around her shoulder. Arnav swallowed the warmth the bubbled in his chest at the trust and intimacy Khushi exhibited as if it was the most natural thing to do.

"And I thought that the universe finally had stopped f**king with me and decided to give me a big fat bonus." He bent forward and gave her an Eskimo kiss. "You."

"So you think you don't deserve to ask anything: either from me or from our marriage." Khushi lifted herself on her elbow and settled her cheek on her palm. "And this, according to you, is healthy." There wasn't wonderment in her voice but the admonishing tone of a mother calling out the stupid decision her child was making.

"Doesn't our religious texts say we need to find happiness in what we already have and not be greedy for more?" He replied. His argument sounding weak to his own ears. Khushi raised an eyebrow and gave him an "Are you this stupid?" look.

"Maybe you should quit giving awfully shitty explanations when you are sounding only half-moronic." She replied instead. Arnav turned his head away from her and exhaled. She reached out and turned his head back to her. She ran her thumb on his cheekbone remembering the blush it would get tainted with when she took control.

"You talk as if you have a lot of experience in this sort of thing," Arnav said softly.

"I don't." Khushi's response was immediate. Her thumb didn't leave its spot and her eyes never left his. "But I have been reading about...a lot of things." She began slowly. "I am inexperienced Arnav; not only in this but in many aspects of life itself. Can you...please...Can you...please...?" She stopped unable to continue.

"What is it Khushi?" Arnav asked, placing his palm on hers thus sandwiching it between his cheek and his palm.

"Can you please give me some time?" She asked softly.

Arnav furrowed his eyebrows. "Okay. But for what?" He asked, confused.

"I need some time to be me, to be a part of us and to be the person who can make a decision without doubt or second thoughts. I want to be able to actually talk to you and not to blurt out what's on my mind without any filter. It stops being endearing when words hurt without intending to be so. I can't afford to act irrationally in any circumstance and bemoan when the consequences smack me on my face." She rested her cheek on his chest and sighed in contentment when Arnav's fingers started carding through her hair. "I am nineteen Arnav and I haven't experienced the world the way you have. I have some growing up to do, you know."

"There you go making me feel like a disgusting old man again," he said snidely. Khushi was surprised at the laughter that erupted from her throat. "I understand Khushi. Maybe it was too early for us to do something other than plain vanilla."

Khushi smiled into his chest and dropped a kiss there before lifting her head. "I will not forget what I said to you three weeks ago. I don't know what I feel about the entire experience yet. I honestly don't care about what people think about it Arnav but I do want to know if that's what something I wish to do instead of choosing it to do because it's beneficial for the non-physical aspect of our relationship."

Arnav smiled and nodded after several moments of silence. Khushi moaned in contentment as she nestled further into him. The silence this time held promise of a lifelong contentment that was soon to start.

"You sounded almost like a twenty one year old after that tiny speech," Arnav said snickering and breaking the prolonged silence.

"I was aiming for a twenty three year old." Khushi grumbled a reply.

"Keep learning. Keep growing." Arnav said in half jest. Khushi didn't miss that.

"I will catch up to you one day and that day you will tell me everything you want from me and from our life. We will plan together to materialize them, okay?" Her question didn't leave much room for further speculation.

"I will be waiting for that day Khushi. It's a promise." He replied gently.

Satisfied with the answer, Khushi fell silent and closed her eyes.

Arms filled with each other and many fragmented promises, they fell asleep.

THE END.

res

All's well that end's well. I say that because ...

I have more to say but for now 19 and 29... Dammit they are both kids! When she says
I haven't seen life like you have - I went what has he seen at 29!! I've aged. Thank you for the reminder, RB! Sigh! Super sigh!

The ending was strangely satisfying.. I don't remember the arguments I had after chapter 3.

Nice ending. I loved their conversation.