Setting: Afternoon, in the freshly cleaned scripture hall
The last mote of dust settled. The scent of old parchment and clean water hung in the air. Neer, having meticulously scrubbed the final shelf, set his cloth down. He didn't look at Agni, who stood like a statue near the doorway, his supervision a silent, heavy presence.
Neer (softly, his eyes fixed on the gleaming floor):
"Tell me,Agni... was my answer in class truly wrong? Is it a crime for a person to consider the feelings of others? To show a little mercy?"
Agni remained silent, but his unwavering gaze was fixed on Neer's profile, a storm brewing behind his own calm eyes, as if his very soul was answering in a language he couldn't speak.
Neer (with a tired, defeated smile that didn't reach his eyes):
"Fine.The classroom is clean. My duty is done. I'm going to rest."
He moved to leave, his shoulders slumping with a weariness that had little to do with physical labor. As he passed, a current seemed to crackle in the space between them. Agni instinctively took a half-step forward, a word, a sound, caught in his throat.
But Neer suddenly spun around. His hand shot out, not in aggression, but in a desperate, fierce grip around Agni's wrist.
Neer:
"Wait!"
Time froze. Their eyes met—Agni's a pool of deep, turbulent stillness, Neer's a thunderstorm of raw, unbridled emotion.
Neer (his voice laced with a pain so sharp it turned to sarcasm):
"You think you're so superior,don't you? Sitting on your throne of righteousness. Was my compassion so flawed that it deserved this punishment? You... you're just the Gurudev's perfect little disciple, treating every rule as a sacred verse from the Vedas. But have you ever truly understood anyone's heart? Do you even possess one? Do you ever smile, Agni? Do you ever laugh? Or are you so carved from stone and scripture that you've forgotten what it means to feel?"
The words hung in the air, sharp and accusing. He released Agni's hand as if burned, the ghost of his touch searing Agni's skin.
Neer (turning away, his voice now flat and empty):
"Fine.Go. Report my insolence. Fulfill your duty."
He stormed out, leaving a void in his wake. Agni stood rooted to the spot, watching the empty doorway where Neer had vanished. The rigid set of his shoulders finally slackened, and in the depths of his eyes, a silent, profound ache echoed—a reflection of an unspoken bond, a connection he could neither sever nor understand.
He then turned and walked slowly towards his chamber, each step heavier than the last.
---
Agni stood alone in the cavernous silence of the hall. The scent of Neer's efforts—clean water and old wood—was a stark contrast to the turmoil in his heart. The ghost of Neer's grip was a brand on his wrist, a tangible memory of the fire in his touch.
'Do you ever laugh?'
The accusation echoed in the sacred space, each syllable striking a dissonant chord deep within him, a place his strict discipline had long kept locked away. His gaze remained fixed on the empty doorway, a gateway through which a storm named Neer had just escaped. A war raged inside him—a lifetime of rigid control battling against a sudden, violent surge of unfamiliar emotions.
And then, a single, traitorous thought broke through his defenses, as sharp and painful as the grip on his wrist:
What if his fire holds a truth my ice has never understood?
The thought was more terrifying than any battlefield. Why did the sight of Neer's pain feel like a greater failure than any broken rule? And why did the silence he left behind feel so much like a loss?