Both friends stood there looking awkwardly here and there. No one spoke anything waiting for the other to begin first. Lastly, Sulabh decided to break the silence.

"So you said you want to talk something," he asked looking at Shivang.

"Come sit it's high time we should talk" Shivang answered motioning towards the stairs.

Both sit there a few minutes relishing the rhythm of the flowing river in complete quietude. It started getting dark and people around them started to return home.

"What happened? Why are you hurt?" asked Shivang gently looking nothing at particular.

"You have no idea" questioned Sulabh perplexed.

"If I have any idea you think I would have let you slip away," asked Shivang mildly.

"But I thought you left me to let go like I never mattered" answered Sulabh with hurt in his voice.

"You never mattered that too for me are you serious? We were friends for 10 years. Don't you have a little faith in me? I would never leave you to let go ever" Shivang asked feeling hurt.

"You know I trusted you more than this but I thought you choose her over me. I felt that she replaced me in your life" Sulabh reasoned.

"She replaced you! Whom are you mentioning as she here?" Shivang asked quizzically.

"Subhra I felt that her love won over our friendship. Like they said people forget their friends once they fall in love" Sulabh answered in a small voice.

"What?" Shivang shrieked making Sulabh frown.

"Who is feeding you such nonsense? And why you felt like this in the first place?"He continued skeptically.

"You remember when I returned and joined college we were in the same batch. I always used to sit with you in school but here she took my place. She told me to back off as my place is inhabited in the class and your life. I just attempted to make her move from the place in between this chaos you came she complained and you slapped me for her without listening" Sulabh replied vexed.

"And how you tried to move her? By pushing and trying to throw her away from the bench. Is this a way to behave? She is a girl you should remember that. I didn't slap you for her I slapped you for your behavior. There is a certain way we should behave with a girl with respect. As a friend it is my responsibility to correct you" replied Shivang placidly.

"Fine but after this fiasco when I changed my place instead to come and sit with me you sat with her. Heck, you stopped talking to me" cried Sulabh scowling.

"I stopped talking and sat away so that you realize your mistake but you changed course, class, shifts everything, and decided that you should stay away from me" answered Shivang gloomily.

"Then the basketball match feud, after that the fencing challenge, and lastly that Shaswat guy. Man, you fight for him with me defending him while the whole mistake is his. One by one incident happened in a tow which kept increasing our distance Vairagi."

"It is not the incidents that but the peoples related to them broke us apart. And about defending Shaswat well then, you are my friend so I will naturally try to stop you from making a mistake not him. You have to understand we are no-one to judge anyone based on their choices and decide the punishment for it." 

"But you should try harder you left me to let go bro" protested Sulabh groaning.

"And you should understand that a relationship of 10 weeks can never replace a relationship of 10 years especially if the relationship is our friendship. And in my life no-one I repeat no-one can ever take your place" Shivang said looking at Sulabh fondly.

"Oh, vairagi unlike you we are ordinary humans we make mistakes but always remember sometimes the tiff of a moment can turn into a rift of a lifetime" Sulabh replied laughing.

"Yes you are human but not ordinary" Shivang replied smiling.

Sulabh hugged Shivang tightly. Both are feeling relieved that after having such a bitter 2 years they got each other back. Both made a promise with the holy water of Ganga that they would never let go of each other for anything unaware that no one knew about what the future has in store for them. Who knows this might be the peace before the upcoming storm.

"Let's go home Vairagi before our parents will hire a search party to lookout thinking us as lost," Sulabh said laughingly dragging him.

"Ahh, I would like to improvise instead of missing they would consider you guys dead especially taking cues from the experience of the past 2 years" someone replied from the back.

They turned to find their younger brother Samay and Anubhav walking towards them.

"What brought you both here that too together," Sulabh asked looking confused.

 Shivang shakes his head at his cluelessness while Anubhav rolled his eyes. Samay remains standing there indifferent feeling relieved watching his brother smiling content after a long time.

"Sometimes I wonder are you dumb or acting like one. You are forgetting unlike you guys we still are best of friends since childhood and I don't think this is going to change soon" Anubhav answered sarcastically.

"We came to check on you guys" Samay replied shooting him a glare.

"He wants to say that we came to make sure that you guys are still alive or....." Anubhav stopped in the middle feeling 3 pairs of angry eyes on him.

"Both our parents went to a marriage and they will return tomorrow morning. We are free for tonight so let's make a plan" Samay replied casually sitting on the stairs.

"Let's go to the club" Anubhav suggested getting a huge no in response from everyone. He is a party freak while unlike him other three prefer privacy away from the crowd.

"Let's go for a drive" Sulabh suggested again earning a big no with the reason that" we want to live unlike you we love our life" from the trio.

"Let's spend time together and catch up with whatever going on in our lives" recommended Shivang looking towards the trio with his forever enchanting smile.

"Oo Vairagi what would I have done without you? From where you got such amazing ideas" Sulabh replied fondly.

"Unlike you, he is rewarded with a working brain brother," Anubhav said jokingly. Bickering like this they left for their home deciding what to order for dinner.

"So everything falls back on the place in your Shivansh life. You looked relieved" Devi Parvati asked watching her husband smiling content.

"Mine but I thought he is your favorite Gauri" He replied looking at his beautiful wife struggling with different kinds of colorful leaves watching each one by one confused.

"By the way how this miracle happened all of a sudden," She asked in her trance.

"A wonderful couple mentored them" he answered back smiling.

"Hmm okay," she is still busy looking at the leaves in confusion.

"And you are forgetting that apart from your absence around me nothing can destroy my inner peace. I am always content anywhere with you having my side" he continued fondly staring at her wife's confusion-filled face.

"You know you always amused even after guys with these beautiful lines formed on your face each time different with different emotions". He smiled watching the pink hue covering her face making her exquisite standing in the middle of the beautiful white spread all over due to the full moon. No wonder any living cell got enchanted by his beautiful wife who in herself is the true definition of everlasting beauty.

"You are distracting me, swami. You always do that whenever I try to concentrate your gaze and these praises distract me from my mission. And what with the praises I am noticing from the last few days you are praising me a lot. What's the matter are you planning something behind my back or is there any secret you don't want me to know so you distract me always" she asked playfully with a raised eyebrow.

Mahadev's smiled faltered for a moment before regaining its composure which thankfully went unnoticed by his Shakti. She can directly see through him getting everything going inside him and he is fully aware that he can't hide things from her for long.

"Not at all, since when I got the courage to distract Prakriti herself. No sane person can dare to mess with his wife and especially when the wife is almighty Adi Para Shakti" He replied with a horrified expression resulting in her wife's melodious laughter.

"Swami I guess brother Narayan's company is turning you into a wonderful actor" she replied sitting beside him still laughing at his expression.

"You are underestimating me, my dear wife. You are forgetting I created this art of imitation and acting that too for you. But yes your brother excels in this and I can never be able to reach his level" he replied sweetly.

"You don't need to excel this anyway. You are my divine knowledgeable saint away from the materialistic things, completely different from the norms and beliefs of cosmos, easy to please impossible to understand and I don't want to change a bit in this" she replied with utmost devotion.

"And about praises I am not praising I am just stating my feeling. If I spend whole eternity praising you still I would never be able to praise you enough. With my entire knowledge I am unable to form a perfect line to tell you your worth in my life Parvati" he replied overwhelmed with the feeling of having her in his life. If there is one being who can understand the puzzle he is for cosmos, she is that only one.