On a fine morning Ramit knocked on his wife's door. His marriage was just a year old and it somehow turned into an abyss. At least, to him. How did everything change? He thought about it almost all the time. His wife always said she loved peace and calm in her life but where was the line between that and how they were? Living apart and just meeting once in a while. They were married, for god's sake.

He stood to one side. If she finds him through the peephole, it would be a wasted journey. Whenever she found him 'disturbing,' she'd turned a blind eye and completely ignored him and his words, to keep her 'peace.' And he was there, disturbing her, or rather trying to disrupt her plans. She had rented out this place during her college and bought it out as soon as she had made enough money. Few moments later, she opened the door and he quickly went in. She had a look of disapproval on her face. He didn't know if he was heartbroken yet, but he definitely felt very bitter.

"You're done packing?" He asked with a dumb expression on.

"Yes?" Her reply was curt, too curt.

"I finished lining up everything. I can come with you." The last five days were the busiest he'd ever been. He chose two more assistants and decided to trust them while he'd be remote for who knows how long.

Moments passed. It was like the calm before the storm. He could feel her seething with anger.

"I don't want to live with anyone!" She shouted. It was rare for her to lose her calm like that. Her tone was always measured, no ups and downs, no holding back, and unaffected by anything.

"No, listen to me..." he tried softly. He gently caught her arms.

"I told you long before that we won't live together." She slapped one of his hands away.

"I know... But I want to know why? It's been a year. Won't you still tell me?" In fact, their relationship was pretty good when they started out, but just for a month. In fact it was so good, he had his hopes pushed to the clouds.

She gave him a hard stare. He slowly withdrew his other hand.

"I have work to do. I should go now." She said calmly and turned away, checking her keys, passport and visa.

He took a deep breath in. He was scared, but he had to put all his cards out. If hell breaks loose and everything falls apart, let it! "I went to your office. Your boss told me that you chose to be transferred there yourself."

Strangely, there was no change in her countenance at all.

"Yes, I did." The tilt of her head was a precise translation of how she mocked him, without a trace of guilt.

"And you lied to everyone saying it was not in your hands..." he said in disbelief. Everyone, his parents, her parents and finally to him.

She shrugged it off. "Let's just get a divorce! I'm going!" She banged the door and left to catch her plane.

Left alone, he stood silently. He sighed and walked around to find another set of keys. The place was relatively new to him. He carefully searched in all the corners she would keep the keys to hide them from him. But he found none and walked out with a weak smile after locking the door. Once down, he opened the trunk of his car. The luggage he had packed hurriedly came into view. He sighed again. Moving the luggage a bit, he made room for the potted plant that caught his attention just before while he toured the house. There was no dropper nor any other make do water facility. She left it to die in that empty house.

As he drove out of the building, he remembered he didn't have any work at all. Maybe he should use this time to break some habits. He sighed one final time thinking about his wife. He loved her once. But lately it was like an ingrained habit he wished to change. A bad habit he wanted to break. Why did he still love her?

...

Next month he flew to France to find her. It was enough gap for her to cool down and let her act like whatever happened wasn't of importance. And he... thought it was good for him, so much for breaking habits. He phoned her soon after. After many rings she finally picked up.

"What is it?"

"How are you?"

"Good."

"Oh, I came to Paris. Where are you living?"

"We'll just get a hotel. Is tonight okay?"

"No." He was resolute this time. What was marriage to her, really? Just sex?

"Sure, just tell me when you have time."

"Not to a hotel, take me home."

"You need me to book you a flight back? Is your account exhausted?" She said spontaneously.

"Cut it out, you know what I'm saying. Just give me your address."

"I don't like people in my house. I'm busy."

"Are you not people!" He said with some frustration but the call was already cut.

...

He did not leave. Before, although they were in the same city, she'd lived in her one person apartment. He lived in his own condo. All that while, whenever someone questioned, he'd cover up one way or the other, or just take the blame himself.

After a week, his itinerary there, which had meeting 3 co-founders of his company who lived in Europe, was done.

He had a baby company, just a month old, that he had started with a team of peers. But he didn't reply on that completely. He had a stable job. By immense luck, his employer let him start his own business.

During university, a girl, Preeti asked him to join what was called 'Protectors'. He could not help but laugh at the name, after which he quickly apologised. Preeti was in the same class as him and hailed from India too. She teamed up with some seniors for a competition and the theme one of them drew was 'Protectors'. They already had 4 on the team and they were on a hunt for the last teammate. All the 4 were computer science majors. They needed someone to take care of the encryption, which was an essential for the theme they picked. So Preeti had come to the mathematics college and found him, an Indian who also had computers as his minor. He agreed to join them.

For that competition, they developed a security software and ended up as runners up. However after that, Ramit proposed to work on something more instead of the team being dissolved. Each of them recognised the potential and capabilities of the other. He had himself learned quite a lot in the hours he put in for the software. They gathered more people to join in and the number finally went up to 10. As the project would need, they also had a student from journalism school on the team.

They called themselves 'Protectors 10', as fancy as it could get. The project was aimed at a complete decentralised and anonymous journalism. Only then, would every news be seen in every perspective. They believed in empowered and united the world. Known for his calmness even in pessimistic situations and being the initiator, Ramit was their leader of sorts.

It was more of a hobby to all of them. But the faith they had in being 'Protectors' was everyone's fantasy. It opened their ideas with no bounds at all. Truth to be told, research went on more than any tangible work there.

It was only a year later that they finally made a program. It was an elementary version of what they dreamed of. Some of them had already graduated and he would graduate and had to leave for home soon too. It took a while for everyone to get back to their dream project.