In the end, I did whatever I could to stave off her nightmares.

When I stepped outside, Vikram blinked a couple of times.
“You are surprisingly lovely.”
“You are unsurprisingly insulting.

He turned to me, mischief glinting in his eyes. “How
do they celebrate good fortune in Bharata? In Ujijain, we kiss.”
“Look elsewhere.”
“Are you sure? You spend an awful amount of time looking at my
lips.”
“That’s only because I’m horrified at the sheer idiocy of the words
leaping out of them.

No matter where we are, we’ll always share the same sky. We can always find each other in the same constellation.

I know your soul. Everything else is just an ornament.

Beauty, coveted though it was, could not outlive you. Only actions would.