Swiftcurrent Creek Wake me up before you go-go

he chuckled, shaking his head slowly, bemusedly, as she frolicked. kaaphi nahin, beti, adi murmured kindly. he sank to his belly in the grass, placing his nose on his paws and watching her. lekin lagbhag.

did it sound like music to her, like his mother's voice had to him? god, he was only perhaps a moon or two older than her when rekha had disappeared. imagine if dawn. . .

no. she wouldn't. they wouldn't. aditya would not let his children's youth be spoiled and fragmented by absence. for all he'd relished traveling the world so young, there were just as many nights he spent alone and crying, yearning for his mother. not in a million years would he wish that upon lakshmi and anand.

main tumse mohabbat karti hoon, he said, stressing the word from before—as if he could, with steady tongue, imprint it onto her heart.