TWENTY

❝What if we don't make it out of here?❞

Ifrah swatted Aayan's hand for the hundredth time as he tried to pull her cheek. She moved her head away from his chest and threw him a glare.

“One more time and I'm gonna go sleep in the other corner.” she warned.

Her husband furrowed his eyebrows. “But you'll get cold.”

“Shut up.”

“Okay, babe.”

He pushed her head back on his chest and sighed. They had finished eating and were now preparing to sleep. Aayan crossed his legs at the ankles from where thy lied near the fire but he accidentally bumped Ifrah's feet and her head snapped up.

“Tumhy kya museebat hai?” (What's your problem?) she asked with a glare.

He smiled sheepishly. “It was an accident.”

Ifrah kept glaring at him while slowly placing her head back. “I'm really not in the mood.”

“What's wrong?” he asked while rubbing her arm. She closed her eyes with a deep inhale.

“I don't know... I'm just tired of being stuck here.” she murmured.

Aayan pursed his lips.

“Me too.” he said softly.

A comfortable silence enveloped them for a while before Ifrah spoke again, her voice so low that he couldn't have heard it with the heavy pitter patter if she weren't locked up at his side.

“What if we don't make it out of here?”

Aayan's heart clenched painfully at the depression in her tone and he squeezed her close.

“Listen to me carefully; we're gonna make it out of here. I'll make sure of that. The tourist boat will come again and we will be there to receive it on the shore, okay?” his voice was strong which helped Ifrah with the sudden cloud of pessimism. “In fact, they'd have known by now that we're missing.”

“Then why didn't they come back?” she couldn't help but ask with a sour expression.

“Maybe they did and couldn't find us...” he trailed off before he realized how depressing that sounded and changed his words.

“I mean, it's just a hunch. But considering the storms, I don't think they visited again.”

When she meekly nodded her head after some seconds, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Nice save, loser.

He moved his hand which wasn't supporting her head to pull her cheek and she actually clawed it with her nails this time, making him hiss in pain.

“What the fück, woman?!” he cried out.

“Kaha tha mujhy na tang krna.” (Told you to not bother me.) she replied, unimpressed, while getting comfortable and closing her eyes.

Aayan's heart stuttered when she wrapped an arm around his torso and all of his previous annoyance evaporated.

“I was just pulling your adorable cheeks.” he complained like a child. Ifrah scoffed.

“I know what you're trying to do.”

“What?” he fired immediately.

And because she was already starting to drown in dreamland, she stupidly voiced out her thoughts.

“You're trying to act all cute so that I take back my words from earlier and you can have your way with me.”

Damn it.

A chuckle reverberated through his body and it evolved into a laugh at her last words. Ifrah leaned back to glare at him with a red face when she realized her mistake.

“Besharam admi, I didn't mean it like that!”

“Of course you didn't, babe.” he kept laughing. When he saw that she was getting up from there, he quickly pulled her back and tucked her to his side despite her protests.

“Acha sorry na.” he said while kissing the top of her head.

Silence stretched out for a while before Ifrah spoke up. Her mind wasn't resting despite her eyes being shut like she was passed out.

“You never told me how you explained to Sarah about the proposal being a slip up.”

Aayan tensed. But he relaxed at the next moment when the memory played in his mind.

“I feel so bad because she was actually really happy about it. After all, the duffer sixteen years old me had said that I would marry her when we'll turn twenty.” he chuckled, but Ifrah didn't find any humour in it. Instead, her grip on his vest tightened a bit which made the raven haired guy laugh even more.

“You jealous?”

“In your dreams.”

“Wahan tou bohat kuch hota hai.” (A lot of things happen there.)

His suggestive comment made her face burn and she said out loud; “You're a complete jahil!”

“Your jahil, babe.”

“Shut up!” she said before saying in a collected tone. “What happened next?”

He exhaled heavily before replying. “I went to her house the very next day and told her the whole thing; that I was jealous and it was a in-the-moment kind of scenario.”

“How did she take it?”

“Thaparr parra chatakh kar ke, aur kya hona tha?” he said with a frown.

Ifrah's eyes flew open before she whipped back her head to stare at his face with wide eyes twinkling with humor.

“You kidding?” she asked. When he shook his head in negative, she burst into a fit of giggles and slapped his chest for good measure.

“Good for you!” she said between her hysterics, and Aayan glared at her.

“Stop it.” he grunted. Ifrah wiped her eyes before swiping the hair from his forehead, making his chest flutter and he grinned lazily.

“At least she took her revenge for her broken heart.” she teased in a low voice. He couldn't even scowl at her because she was leaning over him and looked so beautiful that—

She placed her head back on his chest and that's when the scowl came out.

“I'm gonna sleep now.” she told him while he threw daggers at the ceiling.

“Yeah,” he drawled. “Banday ki neend barbad kar ke mohtarma khud sonay lagi hain.” (After destroying the poor guy's sleep, you're gonna knock out.)

Ifrah chuckled but didn't say anything. Aayan's mind was swirling; her words from earlier playing in his mind. He wasn't going to admit it out loud, but his own hopes of getting out of this forest were dying as the day progressed. No matter how far they went, they seem to come back to the same fücking hut. It wasn't even funny anymore.

But he was still optimistic. He will get out of here, not for himself but for Ifrah. He couldn't bare seeing her vulnerable and hopeless at all.

A sudden shiver went up his spine and he glanced at the fire. It was still burning high. He frowned. He felt cold all of a sudden. Aayan tried to move but hissed when pain shot up his back and he froze. Ifrah's breaths had turned regular and he realized that she had fallen asleep.

So, with a tired sigh, he closed his own caramel ones too.

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Ifrah's sleep broke in the middle of the night with a drop of water hitting her on the nose. Her face crunched up and she turned it away to ignore the disturbance but another one landed on her head and she was forced to snap her eyes open.

She blinked a few times to get rid of the haze before staring at the ceiling and found out that it was leaking. Her eyes widened and she turned to face her husband but all the color drained from her face when she caught him shivering and breathing heavily.

“Aayan?” she called out his name as panic started settling in. She touched his forehead and gasped when she found it burning up.

“Oh God, it's a fever.” she muttered to herself before hastily moving the hair out of her eyes and leaned over again.

“Aayan, can you hear me?” she whispered.

He didn't reply. He was in some sort of unconsciousness and her blood ran cold.

He can't fall unconscious here, not when they're in the middle of a freaking forest without any means of proper healthcare!

Her head spinned and she quickly clenched her eyes shut.

No, you have to have a grip on yourself.

She mentally gave herself a pep talk while stopping her stupid tears from spilling. Patting her cheeks a few times, she stood up but stopped abruptly when she felt drops landing on herself. She has to do something about that leak or Aayan will get soaked.

The rain had stopped by now, and she quickly went to grab her bag before unzipping it and taking out her spare shirts. She took out Aayan's from his bag too before rummaging through it to find something sharp. Her eyes widened when she found a pocket knife in his bag but put the shock aside and started her work.

It was really unfortunate that she'd only five shirts but she made it work and made a blanket out of them. Throwing the knife in his bag, she went back to his shivering form and her heart broke.

She wasn't liking seeing him in this condition. Not one bit.

Swallowing a thick ball of tears, she draped the blanket over his upper half, covering up to his neck before standing up and grabbing the big banana leaf from the corner they used for placing their fruits. It had dried up by now, along with the ones which were covering the walls and ceiling; she realized, and placed it over the leaking area before kneading it in the branch at the center.

Ifrah went back to Aayan and moved the hair away from his forehead and it felt like his temperature has increased.

“I'm gonna go grab some water, okay? Just hang in there.” she whispered in hopes that her voice was reaching him even if he wasn't able to reply.

Ifrah took her water bottle and ran out from the hut towards the river in the dark of the night.

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N O T E

Too much romance can be a bit unhealthy so I prefer keeping my stories in an up and down environment

But OMG our boy has a burning fever! 🤧

(P.s do you guys remember my note at the first chapter? Fevers can be 'deadly' sometimes 👀)

Oh, one more thing; they had spare shirts in their bags. What do you guys thought? That they were carrying air in them all this time? 😒

Have a nice day 🙂