I VIKRAM I

I see Meera walking towards the house as soon as her mother leaves her. She looks really worried. And I can tell something is wrong from the way she walks with a hand against her back.

And I know what I should do.

Stay Away. That's what.

I should stay away from her and that means not following her around, which is what I'm doing right now as I excuse myself from the group, ignoring the look on Varun's face.

But I'm not just following her for the sake of it. She looked really angry, earlier, when I told her she looked great. And I want to know if it was because of what happened at that restroom earlier today.

Did I read her wrong? Did she not feel the same things I did? I wanted to know if she was angry at me because I almost kissed her or because I didn't.

I enter the house through the backdoor and I see her take the stairs.

"Meera", I call her as soon as she takes the last step. She jerks to a halt before looking over her shoulder at me and her eyes widen when she realises it's me.

She turns back and almost runs along the hallway, but I catch up with her before she can turn around the corner.

"Meera, stop", I tell her as I grab her hand and she turns around before saying, "Now's not the time, Vikram."

She looks panicked and I don't know what her problem is.

"You've been avoiding me", I state, as I move closer to her.

"What?", She asks as she finally stops trying to run away from me.

"You've been avoiding me. And I think you're mad at me", I say as I take another step closer.

"I'm not avoiding you. And I'm certainly not mad at you", she lies.

"I think I know why", I say, ignoring what she said.

"Why?", She asks, taking a step back as she notices our proximity.

"It's because of what happened in that restroom today. You're mad I didn't kiss you", I tell her, shocking myself. I didn't plan on saying that. I was just gonna ask her if everything was okay between us and leave. But I should've known, it wouldn't end at that with her.

She scoffs,"as if."

I move closer to her and she matches my steps, walking backwards until her back meets the wall and she has nowhere to go.

I place my hand on the wall near her head before looking down at her. And fucking hell. That dress.

That fucking dress.

She looks so fucking beautiful and all I want to do is rip that blouse off of her and put my mouth on her-

Control, Vikram.

I close my eyes before taking a deep breath to clear my head. I open my eyes after a moment and try not to get distracted by her bare neck. It looks more appealing with her hair done up like that.

I focus on her face, and big mistake right there.

Red lips stare back at me, begging to be worshipped.

I tilt her head up with a finger under her chin, "You're not mad at me for not kissing you? So you're telling me, if I kiss you right now, you won't like it? That you won't kiss me back?", I ask her raising my eyebrow.

I try to hide my smile as her eyes drop to my lips before focusing back on my eyes.

"I won't", she says, but her voice is weak, almost like a whisper. Like she's trying to make herself believe it.

"Really?", I whisper against her ears as I bring my other hand to her cheek.

I look back at her face to see her closed eyes and her lips parted. I want to kiss her so fucking bad.

"Tell me to stop", I beg her. Because, if she doesn't ask me to stop now, I don't know if I can control myself.

She barely shakes her head as if saying no.

"Meera....", I can hear the warning and desperation in my voice as I bring my other hand to the back of her neck.

"Vikram", she whimpers as soon as my fingers come in contact with the back of her neck.

And I can't take it any longer.

I do the thing that I've been wanting to do since the moment I met her that night, when she opened the door for me.

I close my lips against hers. And the moment my lips meet hers, a low groan escapes my lips. I bring the hand that was against her cheek to her hips and pull her closer to me as I deepen the kiss.

She kisses me back with equal fervour and I know she wants this as much as I do. I tilt her head to the side to get better access. She brings her hands around my neck and pulls me even closer.

I place my hand against her back to pull her towards me and she arches her back as she runs her fingers through my hair and it drives me fucking crazy.

I lick the seam of her lips and she opens her mouth to me. The moment my tongue meets hers, a moan escapes her lips. But I swallow it with my own. I trail kisses down her jaw before reaching her neck. I can't help but place a kiss on the hollow of her neck and she arches more into me, her fingers tightening on my hair.

I place open mouthed kisses across every single inch of her neck before sucking on her collar bone. And a gasp escapes her as I clench my hand around her bare waist.

She pulls on my hair bringing me back up to her lips. I kiss her back before tugging on her bottom lip with my teeth. A moan escapes her lips.

But as soon as I bring my palm against her back - naked back? - she pushes me away.

"Oh my god! Oh my god!", Meera keeps saying , putting a hand against her back.

"Meera, I -"

"Oh my god! It came off! Vikram!", She snaps at me.

It came off?

What is she talking about?

"What do you mean, it came off?", I ask her as I bring a hand to her shoulder to stop her from squirming.

"My last hook. It was the only thing holding my blouse together", she says slapping my hand off her shoulder.

"Your what?", I ask in case I heard her wrong.

"The hook on my blouse, Vikram. I was on my way to sew them back on when you cornered me here. Now my last hook came off and there's nothing holding my blouse together", she says looking exasperated.

"So, you weren't running away from me because you were mad at me?", I ask her like a dumbass.

She rolls her pretty eyes at me, "I told you I was not not mad at you and I wasn't running away from you."

"Oh", I say. I feel like an ass. Here she was running inside to make sure her blouse didn't come off and I chased her like a madman and kissed her in the hallway like my life depended on it.

"Yeah, so you can go now that you got what you wanted", she says.

"Hey! I didn't follow you here to just kiss you. You looked worried, so I wanted to make sure that you were okay. But then you had to go and lie to me about not wanting to kiss me", I tell her, offended that she thought I was only chasing after to kiss her.

Then my eyes catch something just below her collar bone.

Fuck!

It's a hickey. I gave her a fucking hickey. I can't believe I marked her like some punk. She'll kill me when she sees it. I don't think she can hide it with her blouse.

"What're you looking at?", She asks when she sees where I'm looking.

"What? No, nothing!", I tell her, but she looks down.

She looks down her chest and the moment she sees the hickey, her head snaps up.

Shit!

"You gave me a hickey?!", She asks, glaring at me.

"Meera, I'm sorr-"

"I can't believe you, Vikram. You gave me a hickey", she says placing her hands on her hips. She's scary when she's angry. And at the cost of sounding like a typical guy, she looks hot too. But still scary.

"Look, I didn't mean to give you a hickey, okay? I got caught up in the moment and I didn't even notice it until now", I tell her trying to calm her down.

"Is that supposed to make it better?", She asks. "How am I supposed to go down there with this freaking hickey on my chest?", she asks pushing the sleeve of her blouse back, which was sliding down her arms.

I keep quiet, knowing whatever stupid thing I say, will end up making her more angry. It's my fault. I shouldn't have kissed her like that before asking her if she was okay.

But do I regret kissing her? Fuck no!

I'll do it again and again.

Not that I'll tell her that, it'll just piss her off.

"I'm sorry", I tell her and I really mean it. I'm sorry for placing a hickey on her chest although it gives me an odd satisfaction seeing it.

"Forget it, I'll come up with something", she says, "but I have to sew some hooks on my blouse now. And you should leave before someone comes in and sees us like this."

"Do you want some help?", I ask her, trying to be useful some how.

"Do you know how to sew", she asks me with an amused smile.

"Well, yeah. My mom taught me when I was a kid", I tell her, scratching the back of my neck, feeling embarassed for some reason.

Her eyes soften for a moment before she says, "it's okay, I can do it myself. You can go now."

"I'll wait for you here. You go in", I tell her, as I shove my hands inside the pocket of my kurta.

"Vikram, you can go. I've got it", she protests, but I bring my hands to her shoulders before saying, "Meera, I'll wait for you. Now go sew those fucking hooks on before I decide to kiss you again."

She rolls her eyes at me before turning around to open the door and I get a view of her bare back.

Fuck!

I almost pull her back to me, but before I do something stupid like that, she turns back and closes the door after giving me one last look.

I told her I'd wait for her, not just because I wanted to make sure she was okay. But also because I needed a minute or two to cool the fuck down.

Stupid boner.

I try to picture something, anything to keep my mind off Meera and her lips.

But it's all I can think about.

I thought I'd get over my craziness once I kissed her, but I was so fucking wrong.

Now, I want to do it again and again. And again.

Varun was right, I'm such a fucking idiot.

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Hey guys! So Meera and Vikram's first kiss. I hope it wasn't awkward or lame. I have a very low self esteem , so you already know I'll think the worst.

But it's okay. This was a special chapter. I wanted to show some progress in their relationship. And I kept thinking of all the ways I could do that and then thought why not start with a kiss?

So here we are.

Hope you guys liked it. Don't forget to let me know what you think. Feel free to correct my mistakes and point out plot holes.

Anyone else a little pissed about MAPPA putting off Aot's ending for another year😭. No?

Anyways, have fun.

Love,
Gayathry
🖤