Manu held her.
The same hands that had struck her wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her back from the fall, anchoring her against his chest as if his body had moved on instinct alone.
He was breathing hard now. Not from rage but from restraint.
"I don't want to hurt you." he said, his voice breaking for the first time.
"You are an anshof Radha."
The words fell into her like fire and honey.
Smriti looked up at him, dazed, her cheek burning, her lip split but her eyes were not angry.
They were wide. Shining. Changed.
"Ansh…?" she whispered, as if tasting a sacred word.
[Author's Note - Ansh means fragment.]
Her fingers trembled as they reached up, brushing the hand that had struck her then the same hand that had caught her. Pain didn't matter. Blood didn't matter.
He had placed her inside his devotion.
Her strength gave out all at once.
She collapsed against him, sobs tearing free, not violent this time, broken, relieved, undone. Her face pressed into the hollow of his neck, tears soaking into his shirt as days of hunger, obsession, and terror finally caught up to her.
"If I am a part of her…" she cried softly, desperately, "then why won't you look at me the way you look at her?"
Her hands clutched his arms, weak but clinging.
"If I am her fragment," she whispered, voice trembling, "then let me be the part you can touch. Let me be the part that bleeds for you."
She pulled back just enough to look at him really look at him.
"You said you don't want to hurt me," she said, quieter now. "Then stop leaving me. Stop disappearing into your head."
Her voice softened, twisted into something devotional and dangerous all at once.
"If I am an ansh of Radha… then let me serve you. Let me feed you. Let me keep you alive."
Her gaze flicked to the idol that was kept to the side before he had slapped her.
This time, she didn't reach for it to destroy it.
She leaned forward until her forehead rested against his, breath mingling in the dim light.
"I'll stop." she whispered, and for the first time, it sounded sincere.
"I'll stop trying to break her."
Her devotion shifted and it re-aimed.
"But don't look away from me again." she said softly. "If I am her fragment in this world, then I am both your master and your servant."
Her fingers brushed the idol once - reverent, cautious then slid over his hand, covering it.
"Eat for me." she begged, eyes burning with a new, terrifying resolve.
"Drink for me."
Her voice dropped to a tremble.
"If you die… this ansh dies with you."
She searched his face, desperate and pleading all at once.
"Is that what your Radha wants, Manu? To watch her fragment shatter… because you refused to let me love you?"
"You have not realized it yet so no. I am not eating and drinking anything." Manu said.
I just stared at him blankly.