Hi!

So there are some stuff happening off pages here. They are mentioned in the passing conversations, but I wanted to give a hint in case the hints in the chapter are not clear enough.

Omkara did try to back out from the marriage, now that he knows how serious Ri is about not marrying him, so Tej - being Tej had handed Jhanvi divorce papers and as we know that leads to her setting herself on fire.

This is the aftermath. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter two

Peace
___

Her heels tapped loudly against the gleaming hygienic floor of the hospital's VIP section. Omkara looked up only when she stopped directly in front of him, her hands on her hips. His gaze took its time to reach her eyes, lazily moving past her strapped heals, denim skirt, acid green turtle neck and black jacket, silver tussles dangling from her ears and her hair pulled into a high pony tail. She looked a bit windswept, but her eyes gleamed mischievously nevertheless. Watching her obvious glee at his state, Omkara sighed unconsciously, he was exhausted.

She fell into the seat beside him, with a dramatic sigh, very well knowing her enthusiasm was railing him up.

"What do you want?" He snapped, hands tightly clasped together so as to keep his temper in check.

"I was being the good fiancee and checking up on you!" She said innocently widening her eyes. "You know, making you feel better."

He turned to look at her, biting his lip to stop uttering something that he would regret.

"I'm better, go on now!"

"Whoa!" She put her hands up in surrender. "Touche, aren't you?"

"Gauri," he sighed. "I know you hate me. But even enemies sometimes leave each other along." He turned away and stared at the closed door of the ICU, where his mother was still being treated and pressed his eyes close, clamping a fist against his lips to keep himself together. The events didn't stop replying in front of his eyes, the way flames licked at her figure, the echoing rings of her scream, and the fear that had paralyzed him; the fear of losing her. Omkara could not imagine a situation where he lost his mother, he wouldn't simply be able to move on, if that happens.

Tiny cold fingers grasped his other wrist, pulling his hand away from him. With a jerk he turned to find her examining his knuckles with a frown. It was then he remembered punching that windowpane in his desperation to reach his mother. The shreds of glass had cut into his skin, leaving it bloody and marred. He wondered why he didn't notice the pricking pain before.

"You can never protect another if you cut yourself," she muttered picking out a tiny piece of glass from his wound. He winched as their eyes met, her gaze was serious. "You're not my enemy Omkara." She sounded so sincere that it felt good, he let her clean his wound and she worked in silence, before pulling out a kerchief from her pocket and tying it around his wound. "I don't like you, or this tough guy act you keep pulling on me," she shrugged. "But I'm not an evil witch."

"That's a relief to know," he said sarcastically and she cracked a smile.

"I heard you tried to talk out of this with your dad; and I - appreciate that."

"And look where it landed me," he said bitterly and she sighed, letting go of his hand and shaking her head.

"I came to say good bye, but this hardly seems a good time for that." She got up to leave and he held her wrist raising an eyebrow in question.

"Bye?"

"Didn't I tell you, I'm not gonna marry you at any cost?"

"Are you eloping?"

She grinned, fixing her jacket, his grip loosing around her wrist stunned with her behavior.

"Now be a good boy and don't go running to my Dad, or yours -" she made a face. "I'll call him later and relay the good news myself."

She took a few steps before he called after her once more.

"Why come to tell me?"

She stopped, turned to look at him with a pout and shook hear head, shrugging her shoulders, her hands deep in her jacket pockets.

"Donno, wanted to see ya before I go." She grinned. "See the guy I almost married."

Omkara knew the sensible thing was holding her back. His father had made things clear, he had to get married if he wanted things to go his way. But something about the gleam in her eyes, the spring in her steps stopped him. Instead he gave her a thumbs up.

"Good luck!"

Throwing a mock salute at him, she skipped away, her frame shirking into the shadows in the corner. From a tiny corner of his heart, he envied that carefree life, one who would never taste the darkness as he was forced to. The girl he almost married.

**

"Good, tu yahan hai," Shivay said clicking the door shut behind him, folding his arms he looked at his brother who was sitting in the dimly lit corner of his room, headphones on and face buried in his hands. Omkara did not notice his presence until he was seated beside him and had lain a hand on his shoulder. With a jerk he turned to look at his brother.

"Why?" He asked gently. "When you know so well this isn't right, why are you adamant on doing it?"

"I don't have a choice Shivay," he felt like vomiting for he had repeated the same phrase countless times and it was beginning to taste repulsive. Bitterness coiled against his throat as he recalled the last time he had seen his fiancee.

"That girl isn't right for you," Shivay concluded. "Aur tu! I thought you were commitment phobic, straight engagement Karli?

"Had Mr. Oberoi left any other way out Shivay?" He questioned bitterly and then cracked a smile. "And you're lecturing me on right and wrong girls? The man who almost tied the knot with Tia?"

"And the man who forced Annika to marry him?" Shivay added the unsaid part to his sentence and sighed. "I agree I've done some things I'm not proud of, which doesn't mean you have to follow my path!"

Omkara pulled off his headphones and gripped his brother's shoulder.

"You have no idea what a great man you are," he said honestly, looking into his brother's eyes. "There are some problems in life that one can only solve by turning into Shivay."

"You're wrong," Shivay shook his head helplessly. "You were my moral compass all the time, I wish you could see that. You kept me from completely losing it. There would be no Shivay without Omkara - just - just don't lose yourself Om."

He had some reply for that, a way to move past the dark retreat of defeat flickering in Shivay's eyes. He knew exactly how his brother was feeling. He himself was disgusted at what he was doing, and sensed that Shivay thought it was all his fault. His brother always ended up blaming himself for whatever goes wrong in their lives, unlike the man who he was forced to acknowledge as his father.

But Omkara said none of that, instead dropping his gaze he stroked the band aid wrapped around his knuckles. It was her kerchief, he realized now, from the curly embroidery in the corner, spelling a G.

He mused what that feeling was, the sense of loneliness nipping at his heart. She was gone, yet she had managed to leave a trace of herself back, one piece of fabric, now stitched in her name and drenched in his blood.

"You find something you lose something Shivay," he said slowly, wishing Shivay wouldn't ask what he had found. "I can't lose her just yet."

**

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Thanks for reading!

Sorry about any disappointments!

Love,

Sakura