Chapter 84: "Spark a Fire"

Hi Losties! Long time no see! I'm probably the worse writer around, but I told myself I should not miss an update on International Bee day! 🐝🥰 Enjoy!

Post your reactions as you read, please! It's another cheesy update🌝

First draft: June 2018

The breeze blew a stray strand of hair across Salma’s face. She tugged it behind her ear, listening to the gentle tinkling of the flowing water. She and Zayn were sitting by the stream, eating wildberries. They had had sandwiches and some heavenly brownies in a proper picnic but they found the berries in a nearby bush and decided to pick a few for old time’s sake.

Zayn kept catching Salma staring at the ring on her finger. Initially, he feared she was worried about the threat of marriage that the ring promised, but then saw the excited twinkle in her eye and heaved a sigh of relief. She was admiring it, he realized.

Salma moved her hand from side to side, in the sun, smiling as the gems glittered.

“Tell me about this ring,” she said after a while, pushing her hand in front of him.

“Um, it’s something Bee uses as an excuse when she wants me to kiss her hand,” Zayn commented, without looking up, choosing the riper, redder berries of the lot.

Salma stiffened, an tingling feeling crawling up her spine. Noticing the change, Zayn told himself off of threading onto dangerous waters. He laughed, hoping she would know he was joking. Salma drew in a shaky breath but she still looked flustered.

“I was kidding. You should have seen your face.” He joked, throwing a berry at her. She cracked a little smile, blushing with embarrassment. Zayn reached for her. “Come here. “

Salma scooted a little closer. Zayn knew she was fighting off her discomfort for his sake. And that she was she was still unusually shy of initiating physical contact. He smiled at her, threw an arm around shoulder, pulling her closer to his side. He felt her shoulders tense, but he played it off, knowing she would relax into his touch.

“What do you want to know?” Zayn picked up her hand. “I already told you I carved it, hoping it would serve as a reminder to you for the fact that I love you, very, very much!”

Zayn felt her shiver at his words and a blush crept up her cheeks, but he acted like he did not notice waiting for her reply. Salma cleared her throat, trying to come up with a response.

“Um, the colors?” she said randomly.

Zayn smiled at her evident timidity.

“The colors? Let’s see,” Zayn said, taking her hand in his. “Well, I wanted to brighten it up a little, so the guy I was learning from suggested his collection of colored glass. Too artificial, I thought. Bee likes the colors of nature. So I met a gem dealer. He had these smaller remnants cut out after shaping the bigger rocks. I figured I could work with those. After sharing my design for the ring with him, we set down to shaping and polishing the gems we would need according to the dimensions of my blueprint for the ring. ”

He brought her hand closer, pointing out at different parts.

“These yellow ones are called topaz,” he told Salma, who was looking at the tiny dew of yellow in wonder. “The green ones are called peridot, and sapphires were used for the darker shade of green for the leaf. The wings have embers . . .” He moved her hand to point to the bee’s abdomen. “The black bands of the abdomen are onyx. And what’s left . . . Oh yes, the red pieces down there, that’s rubies. That’s it. I figured you liked colors so . . .”

Zayn looked up to see her looking at him with adoration. She was close. So close. His mouth felt dry. He swallowed as his gaze dropped from her eyes to her lips.

“Can I keep it?” she asked quietly.

Zayn snapped out of his trance, feeling his face heat up.

“What? Of course!” Zayn chuckled, confused by her question. “This is why I gave –“

“No, I mean,” she pulled back slightly, sitting up so she could face him better, “Just this one. Can I keep just this one?”

Earlier, Zayn had wanted to put the other ring on her but she refused. He gave it to her anyway, and told her to keep it.

“You can wear that when you feel people might judge you,” he had added uncomfortably. The facevalue of the ring did not matter to Zayn or her, but he knew there were subhuman beings out there that would make her miserable by making fun of her. Even if she did not care, Zayn did not want anyone tormenting her, telling her that her worth to him was that of a wooden ring. He would cloth her in gold but he knew her happiness did not lie in some valuable metal. However, he would never give anyone the sightless excuse to make her unhappy. “Keep this one for us,” he had said, referring to the wooden ring and then closed her hands over the box with the platinum-gold ring. “And this one for everyone else.”

“Why?” Zayn asked out of interest.

“Because you’ve carved it with you own hands so it’s more personal,” Salma said with a shrug. “The other is just a ring. It feels cold and foreign.”

Zayn’s face split into a smile.

“You’re not making it easy for me to stick to my promise,” he said.

Salma frowned in confusion.

“What promise?” she asked.

“The promise that I won’t kiss you till you do, no matter how bad I want to,” Zayn replied.

Salma turned a deep shade of red, andlooked away shyly. Zayn bit back a smile. He did not know how to explain it, but he enjoyed watching the Super Bee became all flushed and nervous around him. Zayn was still thinking how her bashfulness was warm and cute, quite different from her unease that gets a hold of her at times, when Salma suddenly stopped fidgeting with her ring, leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

Zayn froze, his eyes going wide.

“I tell you to not make it hard for me and you kiss me?” Zayn asked, watching her go back to avoiding his gaze as if she had not just pecked him on the cheek.

“I, uh, I just wanted to – um, thank you,” Salma struggled with her words as she went back to figedting with the ring on her finger.

Zayn eyebrows flew higher.

“And thank me you did?” he said.

Salma cleared her throat, her cheeks burning red.

“Yeah,” she croaked.

“Oh no, you didn’t!” Zayn cried, tackling her in a hug, his fingers digging into her sides. He started tickling her.

Salma squealed with laughter, squirming in his hold.

“Stop! S-stop! C-come on!” She shouted, uncontrollable laughs erupting form her lips. Zayn ignored her, a devlish grin on his face. “S-Stop! Ple-ease!” Salma grabbed at his hands trying to push them away. “Z-zayn! S-stop!”

“Alright! Alright!” Zayn laughed, bundling her in his arms. “I’ll stop.”

With his arms circled around her waist, he smiled, feeling happier than he had felt in long, long while.  He kissed her shoulder. A gentle touch she definitely did not feel through all the layers of her clothing. Zayn sat back against the tree, with a contented smile playing on his lips.

He loved her. God! He loved her so much!

Watching her, gasping for breath, completely drained of energy, her head resting against his bent knee. Her cheeks flushed, her lips parted, her brown eyes breathtaking; she was beautiful. So, so beautiful and so within his reach.

Zayn clenched his jaw, looking away.

Please give me the strength to keep my promise, Zayn prayed, Please, Allah, don’t let me break it.

As if to test the honesty of his intentions, and the strength of his promise, Salma’s train of thoughts seemed to have pulled in the very same direction. She pulled away, sitting up straighter.

She looked up at him and opened her mouth, but then blushing, she shut it close and looked away. Zayn’s felt his muscles stiffen.

Please, please please, ya Allah . . .

She cleared her throat and tried again.

“So, um, I was thinking,” She began, not meeting his gaze.

Zayn sat up, crossing his leg underneath him, feeling restless.

“That?” he urged, when she didn’t continue.

Salma let out a breath, fidgeting with her fingers.

“That, um, I think I am ready,” she said quietly. Zayn heart started to beat embarrassingly loudly. “To - to move in. With . . . you.”

By the end of her sentence, she had gone so quiet that Zayn barely heard her. He watched in a stunned silence as Salma risked a glance to check his expressions. He was wide-eyed, his lips parted in surprise. Salma blushed furiously, turning away, trying to hide her face by giving him her back.

Zayn had trouble believing what he had heard. She wanted to move in? To be his, completely? Did that mean she finally trusted him totally, with her mind and heart, body and soul?

Zayn felt like he was dreaming. How could any of this be real? He wanted to make her repeat what she said. He resisted the urge to do so, however. He had to control his feelings and approach the matter calmly.

Zayn could not afford to make a wrong move. Not now.

He reached for her hand, taking it in his, still dazed.

“You want to fix the date?” he asked slowly.

Salma swallowed, before turning to him, her eyes trained on the ground. She nodded quietly. Zayn reached to fix a strand of her hair behind her ear, stroking her cheek. Involuntarily Salma pulled away from the soft caress of his fingers, ever so slightly, but then she resisted the urge and gave in to his touch.

No, Zayn thought to himself, she was not ready.

He realized Salma may have accepted the idea of having him close to her, but she was not yet ready to move in. In her head, she was still very much, a single person. The idea of ‘we’ and ‘us’, though familiar now, were still something she would want to wait on.

“Why?” Zayn asked, smiling a little to not make her suspicious.

Salma struggled with the answer, throwing him a hasty glance before looking away.

“Because you want- well, I mean because . . . you know,” she mumbled. Zayn raised an amused brow, making her sigh in defeat. “I mean, it has to happen, some day, so . . .”

She was rushing into things for him, Zayn guessed. He figured Salma felt guilty for holding back from him what was permissible, so she was pushing her discomfort aside to let him relish her as he wanted.

“No,” Zayn said, taking her by surprise. He let out a breath, leaning forward and grabbing her tiny waist. Salma gasped when he pick her up and setteld her down next to him by the tree, exactly where she belonged. “It doesn’t have to happen some day.”

Zayn pulled her into his arms and relaxed back, stretching out his legs.

“What does that mean?” Salma asked, giving him a confused side stare.

“It has to happen on a perfect day,” Zayn replied with a smile, keeping his eyes trained on the shimmering surface of the stream. Salma relaxed into him, making him smile even wider.

I made a promise, Zayn thought to himself, a promise not to force myself on her.

He would kiss her, he knew. He would kiss the world out of her. But only when she trusted him, and was comfortable around him enough, to rise on her tippy toes and reach for his lips.

“How about after the World Cup tournament?” Zayn suggested, smiling down at her.

Salma mirrored his smile, the relief of having bought herself some time, showing in her twinkling brown eyes.

“I like that,” she said.

“Yeah?”

She nodded, grinning. Zayn swooped down to kiss her nose. She wrinkled it adorably.

“It’s a promise then,” Zayn whispered.

Salma frowned when he raised his pinky, but then laughed, linking her pinky to his.

She was happy. So happy that it felt surreal. And it took even herself by a surprise.

“I’ll hold you to that promise,” she whispered back.

***

“What time do we leave?” Salma asked once Zayn was done praying.

Salma had sat back and watched him pray 'asr. It was odd but curiously delightful to see him do something so disciplined and subdued. She was on her break, so she had just told him to go ahead and pray - not really getting into why she was not praying, or if she would join him. Salma was relieved that Zayn did not ask either. He either knew what was up, or just assumed she had finished praying on the spot she had been sitting on the entire time.

Zayn held up a finger, asking her to wait since he was making dua and doing the dhikr. Salma felt her heart warming at the sight. She wondered what he prayed for.

Zayn sat back, rolling down his pants and reaching for his socks and shoes.

“In about half an hour,” he replied. “We have to get back to the road while the sun is still up.”

Salma made a face, falling on her back on the grass.

“I don’t want to leave,” she cried.

Zayn chuckled.

“I would oblige, Queen Tomato Bee, but your dad made me promise I would bring you back home safely by tonight or he would not agree to making arrangments for our ‘Hurried Eid’ celebrations,” he explained.

Salma laughed, then became quiet, watching the blue sky visible through the clearing in the trees.

“Are you leaving for the tournament soon?” she asked.

“Yep,” Zayn replied. He put on his shoes, feeling upset about having to leave her again so soon. He knew once the games start, he would enjoy himself, but he would miss her so much, especially now that she expressed joy at having him around. “I leave in ten days,” he added with a sigh.

Salma sat up suddenly.

“We have half an hour?” she asked.

Zayn stilled his movement.

“Yeah, why –“

“I have to get back to the shack!” Salma said, getting to her feet quickly.

“Bee, what’s up?” Zayn frowned, standing up too.

“I forgot something there!” Salma rushed, reaching for his arm. “Come on.”

Zayn was utterly confused by her haste but followed along nonetheless. He had lost her among these trees a couple of times, all horrible experiences, and he was not at all keen on losing her again.

“What did you forget,” Zayn asked, holding her hand securely as the two doged and dived, past and underneath boulders and branches.

“A piece of art,” Salma said, a little out of breath now.

Zayn frowned, blinking.

“A piece of art?” he echoed her words, stepping over a gnarled root carefully. “Bee, there’s nothing in that shack that you can take away.”

“I’m not taking anything away,” she replied as they crossed the small opening through the leafy wall and came out into the opening. Salma jogged up the path leading to the shack with Zayn close in tow. “I have to add something behind.” Before Zayn could ask, Salma raced up the stairs. “Come on!”

Still clueless and confused about her sudden rush to the shack, Zayn followed her into the room he had once occupied. The two looked around, at the walls covered in their sweet memories, a little breathless after their race.

“Now that we’re here,” Zayn said, breathing heavily, “Please be quick. We really can’t be late past our timestamp at the slope.”

“I’ll be quick, don’t worry,” Salma reassured, a little absent-mindedly as she studied the paintings and then walked towards the empty space near the last of their beautiful memories. She studied the planks next to the hexagon of Zayn holding her snuggled into his embrace, trying to keep her warm.

“This spot,” she said, pointing to the wall. “I want you paint another memory.”

Zayn could not help the quiet laughter that escaped his lips, feeling his heart swell with love for her. He walked up behind her.

“And what memory would that be, I wonder?” he asked, circling his arms around her waist and placing his chin on her shoulder.

“You know it already,” she replied.

“I do.” Zayn smiled, lifting his chin. “I planned on coming back to paint our proposal here. A nice hexagon with the Queen Bee saying yes!”

Salma laughed, taking a step away from him, her eyes still on the wall.

“I really love that you had to rush me here to personally show me where to paint it,” Zayn said, eyeing her affectionately. “You couldn’t have just told me on our way back? I’m touched.”

“Yeah,” Salma replied in distracted sort of a way. “And here.”

Zayn gave her an inquiring look as she put her hand on the central spot of the wall, softly grazing her fingers along the planks.

“The heart of this room,” Salma continued. “I want you to paint another memory. A continuation of our story . . .”

Zayn frowned a little.

“Do I know what that is?”

Salma turned around to face him.

“You have to keep it PG though,” she said in all seriousness.

Zayn raised his brows questioningly.

“Mhmm?” He bit back the smile tugging at his lips.

“Yeah,” she replied turning back to the spot with a frown. “It has to be like through a veil. Only those knowing what the walls witnessed can understand it. Others just see something beautiful, but not exactly.”

Zayn smiled, taking her hand in his and pulling her towards himself. He circled his arms around her waist again.

“I’ll try to do the best I can,” he promised, then booped her nose. “But we have to go now.”

Salma wrinkled her nose. She grabbed his jacket to stop him when he tried to step away.

“But you don’t even know what the walls would have witnessed,” Salma said smugly.

Zayn was just processing her words to think of a comeback when his head spun, the reality around him crumbled and his whole being was shocked to a still. If it was not for his heart bursting out with fireworks of joy and a tingling warmth shooting to the tips of his fingers and the roots of his hair, he would have thought he was hallucinating. Heck, it was more believable that he was being delusional, compared the fact that Salma, his very own Queen Tomato Bee, had raised herself on tippy toes, holding herself steady by grabbing his jacket, to claim his lips with soft, warmer ones of her own, enchanting him into a delirium, with the ecstasy of their very first kiss.

Author's Note:

*Cough* so that happened! 😳🤭.

She kissed him on international Bee day😅. Poetic!

Anyway, Happy 🐝 day.

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Lots of love

J.