Bhairavi was sure she was in heaven, albeit a little tired. She felt soft grass tickling her skin, cool breeze caressing her limbs, soft sunshine smiling on her and heard the cooing of birds and chirping of crickets.

Reluctantly opening her eyes, she found herself near a small pond with deep blue-black water, and wondered if Maa had lied about heaven being full of eatable landscapes. "So you have woken up, how do you feel?" Bhairavi jumped on hearing Samanya's voice, so Rakshasas shared the same heaven as Manavas. 'Am fine. A little tired. Hey, sorry for killing you. It was not deliberate.'

"What?"

'Yeah, I mean, this is heaven right?'

Samanya looked at her with concern, "I caught you before you hit the ground but maybe your head did hit the ground.... Where do you think we are?"

'This is heaven, right? And you are carrying Amrit for me in that bottle? Although it looks really unpleasant for the nectar of Immortality I must say.'

Samanya started laughing, "Oh this is good. This is really good. You think we died, and went to heaven?" He sat on the ground and held his sides as he roared with laughter. Bhairavi was not amused and she began to feel embarrassed when his laughter did not stop, 'Samanya. Am serious. Stop laughing, if we are not dead where are we? What happened? The last I remember...' her mind went back to the entire stripping down, the feel of soaring temperature and burning up and then...ashes everywhere.

Confused, she asked, 'Tell me what exactly did I do? And how are you alive? I thought I vaporized everyone.'

"Well. Not everyone. In short, you undressed and then began to emit heat. So intense was your Divine Radiance that every Rakshasa who was looking at you with lust...turned into ashes. You technically beat them at their own game of desire."

Bhairavi stared at him, stunned. 'No, seriously. I did that? According to the visions during my Tapasya I knew it had something to do with their desire for my physical body. I just went with my instinct in there, and my emotions. Hey, wait a second. How are you not dead?'

Samanya gazed at her with intense, unreadable eyes, "When you started undressing, I turned my face away. I could not bear to see your public disrobing, nor disrespect you by enjoying that."

Bhairavi stared at him, not knowing what to say. Samanya filled her in, "After everyone turned into ashes, I covered you with your coat, and picked you up. Since your rage had half demolished the throne room, I carried you down the corridors carefully and met Bahurupi.

After thanking him for helping me previously, I told him that I renounced my throne, since I was the successor with my father and brothers dead, and named him the king in my stead. After handing him the royal ring and telling him to rule justly, to look after the remaining Rakshasa population well, and let humans be, I left. And well, I brought you to my favorite place in Aritar. It is inside the forest near my home, beside this pond. Few people know of it."

Only then did Bhairavi realise two things, one, she was naked under the coat and two, Samanya was the finest man she had ever known. But, without caring for the first and only focusing on the second, she pulled him in for a hug.
'Thank you, and I really mean it. What you did, going against your family and not disrespecting me even when you had the chance to, very few men, and even fewer Rakshasas would do that.'

Samanya held her close, relishing the feel of her short hair tickling his face as he hugged her tightly before releasing and facing her, "And I would do it all over again for you in a heartbeat. Not only because you deserved justice, but also because it was the right thing to do. You cannot imagine, Bhairavi, how terrified I was when you went off plan. Not for myself, for you, because I knew I could not fight all the Rakshasas at once to protect you. "

Bhairavi smiled at that as her eyes filled with tears. After a long time had her heart felt such peace, 'I know. But I don't need you to protect me. I just want you to be with me. Don't you ever think about being a hero and sacrificing yourself for me. I will kill you if you do that.' Samanya chuckled at that before Bhairavi did something he never expected her to.

She leaned forward and kissed him. Samanya's eyes widened before they closed and he pulled Bhairavi closer and kissed her back. She buried her fingers in his hair and urged him even closer, kissing him fervently. She had pushed away her attraction to him for so long that she simply could not get enough of him. When he parted her lips she sighed with pleasure and her hands locked themselves around his neck, leaving no space between them. When he felt her tongue probe inquisitively in his mouth, he groaned and picked her up easily by her thighs while she wrapped her legs around him before realizing her thighs were bare.

In a distant corner of his foggy mind warning bells rang, she was naked and if they continued kissing passionately like this, they would end up making love in a forest. And as splendid as that idea sounded, he did not want to rush through things or have her regret anything.

So, with great restrain, he set her down and pulled away. Bhairavi looked at him with a slacked mouth, her lips swollen, trying to blink away the onslaught of desire. He brushed her short hair strands away from her face, unable to stop himself from touching her. "I had to stop...you are not wearing anything under the coat. It would have been...difficult to control if things had escalated," Samanya said carefully, waiting to see regret in her eyes.

But all he saw was mirth and bliss, which shocked him. He was even further taken aback when she stood on her toes, kissed his lips briefly before announcing in his mind, 'Do you have my clothes or did you leave them behind?'

"Umm, I have them right here. Why don't you change while I....call our car to pick us up from another side of the forest."

Smiling at his bashfulness, Bhairavi dressed up after he left. After a long time had she felt so free, so empty of negative emotions. But one thing nagged at the back of her mind. She had never seen the monster of her nightmares, but she was sure it had not been Jaragarbha. Pushing that out of her mind she decided to give herself a day off. Today, she would eat and make merry. Tomorrow she can worry about everything else.

After she was decent she went looking for Samanya and found him a little distance away, explaining the location of pick up. On seeing her, he took another moment to ask him to hurry before cutting the call. Bhairavi admired him while walking. She found him beautiful with his green skin and swirling black tattoos, she found his red eyes kind and full of affection, and she found his touch soothing yet addictive. Damn, am turning sappy, she thought, get a hold of yourself now, Bhairavi.

'Hey' she called out to him.

"Hey yourself. When do you want to book a flight to Kolkata? It is 2pm. If we hurry, we might make it in time for the 6.10pm flight at Bagdogra. Else the next flight is tomorrow at 7.50 am, then 10.50am."

'Let's catch the 10.50am flight tomorrow. A few hours won't make much of a difference now. My last memories of leaving Aritar had been unpleasant. I plan to have good ones this time.'

"And you shall. Umm..." Samanya's voice trailed as Bhairavi came closer and put her arms around his neck. "I have never seen you so...free and openly affectionate. "

Bhairavi smiled at that, 'You never knew me before I changed. I used to be very outgoing and friendly and affectionate. The last one I still am, but with very few people. ' She poked her tongue at him while he laughed and kissed her cheek before holding her hand. "Come on, the car will be waiting for us. Let's go to the hotel and rest and eat food and well, let our hair down!"

On the way home, Bhairavi suggested buying some alcohol to celebrate and Samanya insisted on making her sample some local alcohol, "They are the specialties of Sikkim, trust me." They stopped at the market and bought some snacks, some local cheese as well as a bottle of peach wine, some Raksi, and some Chang.

After returning to the hotel they gorged on Maggi and slept till the evening. Rejuvenated, they woke up and invited the owner lady and her son as well and shared some of their alcohol though they did not have more than a glass each. But they did chat for a long time and the woman made Samanya advise her son to get married soon. "Well, if you do find someone you truly want to spend the rest of your life with, don't let them go." Samanya said, while looking at Bhairavi as she laughed with the grandma over something else.

After they left, the duo ate and drank some more before being pulled out to join all the other guests and dance around the bonfire set in the courtyard of the Home-stay. And they did. Letting go of all inhibitions and worries, unshouldering all their burdens for one night, Bhairavi and Samanya danced and laughed and spent the night holding onto each other tightly, they were drunk on romance and freedom and justice, for even if the night was temporary, they knew their bond wasn't.

A/N
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XOXO
Kaushiki.