jai x chitti babu — this one's for you homegirl @stanleykubricks ! hope you like it ♡
pulse falling, blood pressure fluctuating, frantic movements and chatter that sounded no more than a buzz in his ears.
heat slipped away from the body, slowly, as if his spirit was leaving it's vessel. he felt cold, triggering a memory that remembers the cut of chilly november breeze, sleeping on the porch outside with nothing but a sheet of newspaper over himself, barely useful in containing his body heat.
his brothers were inside, tucked in with a warm blanket. he doesn't feel envy or neglect, only a wishful thought:
just some warmth is enough.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
atamjeet kicked the flat tire, deserted on a road with nothing around. inside the vehicle was a man once feared, now unconscious.
“ vaiguru, inka parikshistunnava? ”
( god, are you still testing us? )
rubbing his face, frustrated, the loyal follower makes a desperate plea to an unseen force as he makes up his mind.
he couldn't waste a single moment.
“ ma bhai ni kapadukodaniki oka dari chupinchu— ”
( please show me a way to save my brother— )
looking around the deserted surroundings and with the sun's rays only just beginning to tear through the night, atamjeet wrapped jai's arm around his shoulders and dragged him along to the best of his ability.
twelve kilometers was his limit, yet he kept pushing himself to bring the older male along.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“ what, sattipandu? you're roaming around with malli recently? ” asked a man with a cheerful voice, laying on wheat straw.
the sun was only beginning to come up, and they had been on their way to their village after picking up new motor parts.
“ who told you? ” sattipandu asked nervously.
“ you're going to get me killed, ” groaned the short male under his breath, before speaking louder for the deaf man to hear.
“ a passerby snake, ” he smiled to himself, raising his eyebrows curiously, “ nijame na? ”
frustrated, sattipandu joined his hands and pleads, “ chitti babu, you can't tell anyone! please help me marry malli. ”
“ marry— matter's gone that far, huh? ” he pretends to consider, sitting up and looking over at the road, “ what will i— STOP! ”
sattipandu jerked ahead when the driver hit a sudden break while chitti babu was already hopping out of the tractor the second it came to a halt.
“ please— please help! help us get to a nearby hospital. our car broke down, ” requested atamjeet, hand applying direct pressure on the stab wound over the makeshift dressing torn out of a cloth.
the engineer barely heard what the tired male said, instead his gaze settled on the bleeding wound on the lifeless stranger.
“ our village is a few minutes away, come! ” the bearded male urged, helping atamjeet carry the wounded man to the tractor and helping him onto the straw bed.
he yells at sattipandu to drag jai's body up carefully, going up himself and giving a hand when it proved difficult.
but they manage somehow, assessing the nasty stab wounds and urging the driver to go faster.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
the doctors kick atamjeet out when he begins to freak out at them, with sattipandu going along to calm him. chitti babu sneaks inside, asking the doctors to save the man somehow.
he never did well with people hurt, and his own brother's death had traumatized him, but not enough to numb him to the sight of blood spilled.
watching as the doctors paced around, he could faintly catch a glimpse of a finger tapping once, twice, and then no more. without thinking, he pushed through despite the doctor's protests, holding jai's hand and rubbing it to generate some warmth.
“ emi kaadu, emi kaadu. jeevitham entho undi mundhu, chey odalaku, sir. ”
( nothing will happen, nothing will happen. there's a lot of life to live ahead. don't let go of [ my ] hand, sir. )
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
a sudden warmth in bitter cold. sadness pushed aside to make room for life, for what he could achieve in his last fight.
it grows hot suddenly, feeling as though his spirit was returning to his body again, heat flowing up from his fingertips through his arms to his chest.
jai wonders if this is what a loving embrace feels like.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
a sudden gasp as the stranger woke up, looking around in confusion.
“ don't move, you'll start bleeding again, ” chitti babu first met those dark eyes with a relieved smile.
holding jai's hand in his still, he tells him that his brother had just gone out to get food. he joked that they had to push him out because he had refused to leave jai's side.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
afternoon sunlight poured through the ward window, showcasing the honey eyes looking at him with a softness jai wasn't used to. he trails his gaze to his hand clutched by a warm one, and watches quietly as the cheerful man put something between his eyebrows.
the young man speaks as though they had known each other a while.
“ ma oori anjaneya sindooram. tondaraga kolukuntavu, ayine bratikinchadu mari. ”
( the sindooram of our village's hanuman. you'll recover quickly, he saved you after all. )
“ where— ” jai could only speak weakly, barely the usual commanding voice.
chitti babu reads his lips with furrowed eyebrows and lightens up when he understood.
“ you're in a hospital in our village, ” he tells him, “ rangasthalam. ”
over the past thirsty years, jai had been longing to belong, failing every step of the way until he forcefully made a place for himself where he didn't belong still.
but fate was a funny thing. it brought her finest actor to the intended theatre at last.
fun fact: rangasthalam means ‘ theatre ’ and yes, #chittijai are low-key married [ refer to: sindoor moment ]. also, it's not very good, and i don't know why this style of writing is what my muse for jai is fucking around with, but hopefully it's not too terrible.
