Ahaan could not say no. He knew not how all this had taken place but in order for their children to be in a safe environment, he told Aditi that he was going to take care of the kids. Aditi had a noticeable smile on her face and Ahaan was just staring blankly at nothing in particular. The palace was filled with questions. Everyone wanted to know how Aditi got pregnant but nobody knew except the maiden of all maidens in the palace and it happened to be that a mystery had just unravelled.
8 moths ago
The Queen was searching for a new maid to care for her son. Preesha,a gorgeous maiden was selected to take up that position. This made her a point of envy for other maids who wanted a shot with the Prince Ahaan . Preesha was gentle. She seemed like someone who did not want to have any discussion with anybody, perhaps because of some form of inferiority complex she developed because of how unequipped she was academically. Anytime young Prince tried to talk to her,she would nod or make faces. Narren had no friends and although Preesha was 6 years younger than he was,he wanted to at least give her the benefit of his doubt. Ahaan finally took it upon himself to teach Preesha English.
He began with the basic alphabet,sentence construction, verbs and others then to idioms and ended with daily vocabulary. It turned out that Preesha was one very intelligent girl and aside that,she was a very fast learner. Soon,Ahaan began teaching Preesha arithmetic,geography,history,sword mastery,art,swimming and other things he was studying, including horseriding. A brewing friendship was turning out to be more than just an adventure but something else for both Prince Ahaan and Preesha. Soon,Prince Ahaan began sneaking Preesha into his classes,but the professors were especially fond of her wit and intelligence, they let her stay. After a long time, the friendship between the two was becoming a cause for worry to the people in the palace especially the Quuen and King. Everywhere Prince Ahaan went,Preesha was sure to be there and viceversa.It was becoming very disturbing. At a point, Queen Mohini wanted to get rid of Preesha but she was the only maiden who made her shy,quiet and introverted son behave more like other kids in the kingdom of Amaravati. Queen Mohini had no choice but to make her stay.
One day,while Ahaan was practicing horseback riding, Preesha called out to him and requested for a challenge. She was sitting on one of the oldest horses in the palace. Ahaan agreed and they raced to the forest that served as a border between Amaravati and its neighbouring kingdoms.
As they reached their destination, they saw an astounding sight to behold. A river with fresh water lilies was on full display. There was a waterfall from a mountain top nearby making the view very surreal. Ahaan got down and began speaking with Preesha. Surprisingly,a picnic was already set for them. Prince Ahaan sat down with Preesha as they discussed their future and other topics they both considered necessary in their life.They were never out of what to discuss. It was almost as if when they were together, the whole world came to a halt,observing every move and waiting for them to finish living the moment.
Ahaan was very sweaty and he wanted to have a swim. He asked Preesha if she wanted to join him. Preesha refused but after giving it a second thought, she agreed . Ahaan helped Preesha into the water and they had a cool swim. At a point,Preesha went down and was not coming up. Ahaan shouted her name several times but heard no reply. He went underneath the surface and Preesha was drowning. Ahaan helped her by using the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation technique and on the fourth attempt, Preesha coughed up water. Ahaan told her that he thought he had lost her and she told him to get off of her before thanking him. They began eating the pani puri,barfi,jalebi,ladoo,khakhra and pakora from the picnic basket. As they were enjoying the spicy snacks, a crumb from the khakhra was on Preesha's lips. Ahaan looked at her and made gestures for her to remove the crumb but it was not working. So,he leaned forward, tugged her hair behind her ears and cleaned it for her. As their eyes locked onto each other,they both shared a brief but passionate kiss and Preesha pushed Ahaan away and strode away on her horse. Ahaan found it difficult to believe that Preesha ended their intimate kiss abruptly like that. He also mounted his horse and began moving in the direction of the palace. He could not find Preesha. He searched everywhere and retired to bed,worried and exhausted.
Meanwhile, in the room alloted to Preesha and Diya, Ahaan was the topic of discussion. "I don't want our friendship to turn into a love tale. Besides, I know nothing about royalty and we can't be together. Even if we beat all odds, someone or something will separate us and make my life unbearable. I can't give us a chance but that kiss has ignited a fire inside of me and I feel as if it's my responsibility to fight for our relationship even as it is this young. I don't want to give him a chance else any consequences that come from this would be metted out to me" Preesha told her friend Diya about how she felt concerning Ahaan. Diya told Preesha to stay a bit distant from Ahaan and try to keep their relationship more in the friendship zone for now. She was only twelve and it was not right to be doing anything intimate with a young man,especially not the Prince of the influencial King Siddharth. Ahaan was finding it difficult to sleep so he got out of his bedroom and into the courtyard. He saw Preesha standing in the courtyard but her back was facing him and obviously, she didn't see him.
Ahaan hugged Preesha from behind while apologising to her for starting the kiss in the first place. Preesha wanted to push him away and tell him to stay away from her but a part of her really enjoyed all this. She accepted his apology as the sat on a garden seat and he stroked her hair till they both fell asleep.