UNFURLING FATE.

Keeping promises.

Third person.

Her hair fell in loose waves down her neck, her eyelashes slightly curled and matted from all of the crying she did the day before. Her lips were slightly parted as she slept. The morning sunlight beamed on her face, highlighting her features.

The sight was doing something to him. Sometimes, it confused him how suddenly the realization of the feelings he had for maryaam hit him. The first time General met maryaam, he did not give her a lasting glance, determined to set the standard of their marriage from then.

But the second time he met her, something about her vulnerability and her softness filled him with a need to protect it and never give her a reason to harden. Soon, he realized that he was trying to improve her, to build her up, the question was why did he care? Despite being a soldier, he was not a person with some sort of hero complex. He also tried telling himself that she was his wife so she was a direct reflection of him, even with that being true, the realization that it was a lot more than that slowly but surely creeped up on him. Then he started to look at her a little longer than necessary, started to observe her and the all encompassing beauty that was maryaam. His attraction to her started becoming unavoidable.

Yet somehow, he hid it well. But then maryaam made him laugh. She brought out a side of him he'd thought was lost completely. She made him dance! Something he hadn't even done in his youth. She made him want to be better and fun. She made him feel giddy, she brought out his inner child.

And though she didn't know it, maryaam healed him in more ways than one. He refused to properly sit and analyze his feelings, until yasmen came back, and until maryaam left.

Seeing how her absence left his life and his thoughts a mess, General affirmed that without her, there was no him. His 5'6 doe eyed angel, he was entirely hers for the taking.

General didn't know how long he watched her sleep, but i, who happens to be the butterfly flying about just by their window, can tell you that he'd only slept for two hours after fajr. He stared and thought for hours up until the sunlight started to creep in, making it easier for him to memorize each and every feature of hers.

Her eyes stirred a bit and then opened slowly with a soft yawn, she looked almost taken aback by her husbands presence there, still getting used to waking up beside him and him actually looking at her like she was a person worth being looked at. Like she was art.

"Good morning." She murmured.

"Good morning, maryaam."

She quickly sat up and looked at the alarm clock on the bedside table, "SubhanAllah, it's 11am. Why didn't you wake me up?"

General continued to stare at her, "why would I do that?"

"Uhmm.. do you want to starve?" She got out of bed and picked up a bathrobe from the sofa, quickly putting it on. General chuckled at the way she wore it the moment she got out from under the covers. It seems maryaams bashfulness can only be hidden for so long, never gone.

"Come back here and let me talk to you. Your maids are back." He informed her and sat up on the bed.

Madinah slowly walked back to the bed and sat down with her arms folded, staring pointedly at him. Even if they were back, she had to tell them what to make.

"How do you feel about our conversation yesterday?"

She thought about it briefly, "I have processed it enough. What happened to her was really pitiful. I just don't know what to expect." She told him the truth while fiddling with her fingers, getting overwhelmed by his intense stare.

"Look at me."

Well as we all know by now, it did not came out suggestive in anyway so she had no choice but to do so. "In sha Allah, there's nothing to expect. We're just going to listen to what she has to say."