Saree

"Sindhu what's taking so long? Should I come in?... Sindhuja?!" His voice had risen now.

"No, no. I'm coming..."

He waited by the bathroom door as it slowly opened. Sindhuja was standing there, towel wrapped on her hair above the still healing wound and face sprinkled with trickles of water. She was holding a mustard yellow, bunched-up saree in one hand and almost clutching the doorframe with the other, leaning against it. She only had her blouse and petticoat on, so he rushed to help her get to the nearest chair and then closed the door of their room shut.

Then returning with a glass of water from the bedside desk, he held it to her mouth as she took some quick sips. Settling her uneven breathing, she managed to compose herself again.

"What happened?" He couldn't contain himself from asking as he knelt down on the knees in front of the chair, rubbing his palm on her cold hand.

"I... I got tired from the hair-washing. And then, it also felt suffocating because of the steam..."

He looked worried. "This is why I was asking you not to wash your hair today. What if you had fainted inside there? Why didn't you come out before?"

"I'm sorry... I... I thought it wasn't that bad..."

"Sindhuja stop stretching yourself to adjust to stuff! If you can't put up with something, tell me; ask for help! Why do you try to tackle problems alone?!"

"Mitter babu, please!" Her final call for him to shut up, again.

He sighed. "Are you okay now?"

She nodded.

"Good. Get ready quickly, and take some rest. Sleep. Hm?"

She frowned looking down at the saree in her hand.

He noticed her brows twitching like the way they usually did when she wanted to say something."What's wrong?" He kept his hand on her knee and asked.

"Nothing... I was just very dizzy in there. I'll dress."

She stood up taking the towel off her hair and held an end of saree in, starting to drape it. He too got up and went to his desk to search for something. However, she soon called out to in a little voice."Mitter babu.."

"Yes?" He turned around to see the saree still half-wound around her waist, bundled and fallen at places. It had been about four minutes, he noted. She usually completed draping it in this much of time.

As if reading his thoughts, she said, "I can't pleat it... I thought it was blurring out because I was dizzy before. But even now... It blurs and moves around, and my hands just don't work... Like I can't control what they're doing anymore..."

"Ohh... I think you're still tired..." He carefully said while his mind echoed with Dr. Dutta's words from a few days ago: Next stage, Loss of hand-eye coordination.

"Can you... can you help me?" She pulled him out of the thoughts.

"Of course, darling..." He walked to her and took the saree in his own hands.

She tried to explain what to do to him. Eyeing the folds with furrowed brows, he turned his head to her.

"No no... I really don't get what you've done here... I'll undo the whole thing so we can drape it again instead of messing things like this."

"But do you know how to drape a saree?" She asked.

"Of course, I'm a Private Investigator, my dear! I know a lot of things about a lot of things..." He curled a corner of his mouth up.

She looked at him suspiciously.

"Alright, I've seen you at times..."

He quickly got to work before she could react to the guilty confession beyond a glare. Removing the saree and holding its length up in his hands, he started working on it, tucking it in and keeping it loose whenever needed. He asked her to take the Pallu herself as she wanted, and then took on with the most dreadful part- the pleats.

He messed them up a little the first time, but unwinding them and folding again with help from her, he managed somewhat okay ones. However, he frowned and unwound them again because they weren't good enough.

"Well; I said I know how to drape a saree, not that I can drape one!" He muttered frustrated while tucking in the thick bundle of pleats that he had managed at the fourth attempt as she stood in front, suppressing her laughter.

His fingers brushed by the skin of her stomach while tucking the pleats in which made her look up at him blushing. Noticing this, he decided to play on more. He pulled the Pallu of saree down from her shoulder almost purposefully and folded it back while stretching a brow up mischievously. Then his fingers took hold of the upper border of her saree at the pleats, lingering at her navel beneath the cloth and then tracing along the skin at her waist, to the back and up to the shoulder. She stood there turning red as he silently teased her. Finally, kneeling on his knees to adjust the pleats, he got up with hands on his hip and stepped behind taking a full look at her, declaring that it was done.

"This didn't go as bad..." He beamed while stepping closer again. "Especially when I'm used to only undoing your saree, not draping it."

She turned a darker shade of red as his cold hands slid beneath the saree, on the skin at her waist again. Closing her eyes shut, she felt his breath on her nose followed by his lips pressing on it softly. Then they found her lips in a disappointingly brief peck, to which she opened her eyes; only to find her hands already digging into his black hair behind the neck as he lowered his face smirking into her eyes. Before she could reason out more about his expressions, one of his hands was now pulling her saree at the chest lower, unbuttoning her blouse. Just one button down and he sucked at the valley parting her chest, forcing her to close her eyes again. He left a dark mark there and turned to face her.

"Now no one see, and no one will know." He whispered. His eyes glinted as his fingers fastened the button below in place again.

But she wasn't done. "And what about you?" She said pushing him so that they both fell on the bed, her upon him.

"Sindhu, no! Remember what Kaaki said?" He tried not to smile while holding her above.

"No one will know..." She grabbed his collar and pressed her lips onto his, parting them.

Things were just getting intense when she broke off midway, falling on her back besides him. She felt tired and heavy again, but turned sideways to revel at his annoyed face nonetheless. "See? You aren't the only one who can tease."

He smiled and put an arm round her waist again, pulling her close and hovering on top of her.

"You get punished for that." He lowered and kissed her greedily again, almost biting on her lips as she sunk into the bed letting him dominate over.

They broke off when she got really dizzy. Pushing him away with all her strength, she mumbled. "Mitter babu, stop! I... I'm feeling nauseous."

He read her face and switched back to being serious, the worry returning to weigh down his eyes. "Oh no, I- I'm sorry Rosogolla; was it... too much?" He asked sitting up and helping her sit up against the headboard.

"No, no..." She put an assuring hand on his arm. "It's not because of that. I'll just... rest."

"...Sure?" he took her hand in his.

"Yes, sure."

"I'm sorry; I got carried away... I'll quickly put on the bandage." He stopped. "But... your hair..." Her hair were still wet and all over.

Without waiting for her reply, he reached out for the towel and dried them. Then he found a rubber band and tied it loosely around.

"Tied it because wet hair shouldn't be pleated immediately, right?"

She nodded looking up at him, eyes glistening. "Thank you. "

He knew the look in her eyes, begging him to not care so much. To not get stuck. And ignoring it as always, he stood up. "Now, the bandages."