Page 21 of A Lab Rat’s Guide to Fated Love

At some point, his gaze followed hers, and he began staring at the moon, too.

He didn’t know exactly how long they were there—minutes, maybe hours—but it’d gotten lighter by the time Nori finally moved.

It was the relentless chirping of the sparrow perched on her knee that made her take notice of her surroundings again.

When she turned to meet Vir’s concerned gaze, the brown in hers softened.

“You have the same eyes,” she said, and a corner of her mouth lifted. “You used to stare at me exactly like that back then. Like a kitten. How could I not notice before?”

A wave of relief washed over him, and he flashed her a grin. It grew wider when she smiled back at him. Her joints popped noisily as she stretched out her limbs.

“You looked better with the runny nose, though.” She shook her head in mock disappointment as they made their way back inside.

S orry… about earlier,” Nori said, biting a corner of her toast.

“Did something happen? Did you have a nightmare?”

“Nothing happened. I... couldn’t sleep.”

“Do you want to rest for a bit now? ”

“I’d rather not. I will get nightmares if I do.” She pursed her lips. “You look so concerned. It’s fine. Really. It’ll pass.”

“Do the nightmares have something to do with…” Vir paused, his eyes drifting briefly over her wrist. The angry jagged lines there were still seared into his brain.

“Yes.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She looked at him for a long moment, as if deliberating.

“Not today.”

Vir nodded, and they ate the rest of their meal in silence.

N ori’s mood improved slightly after their long, late afternoon walk. While the sticky darkness still hovered over her emotions—opaque, ominous, and dominant—and she was visibly exhausted, not having slept at all last night, there was a slight shift. Even if a little, it was progress.

“Wait. Your shoe.” Vir pulled her to a stop as they walked in through the purple wrought iron gates. Crouching in front of her, he reached for the laces on one of her sneakers that had come undone and quickly secured them with a knot.

“Done,” he said, rising back to his feet, fully expecting her to protest and tell him she could’ve done it herself or something along those lines.

What he didn’t expect was Nori reaching for his face to brush a strand of hair away from his brow.

He paused as her soft fingertips left trickles of warmth where they’d just barely grazed his skin.

Her expression didn’t betray a thing, but he felt it, the ever-elusive spark— longing . That’s what it was.

He caught her hand just as it started to drop away, and his heartbeat quickened in response, bracing him for what was coming next—the melancholia. Perhaps anger, too. And for an excruciatingly long moment, he stood still, waiting for her emotions to switch. But they didn’t. Not this time.

The sun danced in her eyes as they bore into his, and his grip on her hand tightened, squishing her fingers together, disbelieving… hoping… that he was reading her right. That it wasn’t wishful thinking.

Against his better judgment, his gaze dipped to her mouth. Her bottom lip was chapped and reddened at places from her chewing on it all morning. He fought the impulse to stroke his thumb against it—partly to soothe, but mostly to feel if it was as soft as it’d always looked.

His breath unsteady, he tore his eyes away from her mouth. And as his gaze found hers again, the brown in them softened, like melting chocolate. They shone and darkened at the same time as her lips parted, right as he sensed the longing in her grow.

The intensity of it hit him like a punch.

“Nori…” Vir exhaled sharply.

He leaned in, throwing every bit of caution away. Needing, with a deep desperation, her soft bottom lip to be sandwiched between his.

Someone cleared his throat nearby.

Nori jumped, startled, before taking a few deliberate steps away from him. There, she stood glaring at her feet as two bright spots of pink appeared on her cheeks. The moment was gone, and so was the longing, replaced by a rush of sheer mortification.

Vir mentally cursed at his friend as he watched Fehim march towards them, looking equally, if not more, embarrassed than he was. Ryan followed close behind; his hands balled into fists at his sides.

“Um, hey,” Fehim muttered.

“Hey,” Vir replied. In his peripheral vision, he noticed Nori shake her head at Ryan right before he pulled her into a hug.

“Happy birthday, shorty!” Ryan exclaimed.

“Happy birthday!” Fehim chimed in.

Nori winced as if the two men had just hurled profanities at her instead of birthday greetings.

“Thanks,” she said, and her lips pursed together into a thin line as Ryan let her go.

“It’s your birthday? Why didn’t you—?” Vir began.

“Yeah, I don’t—please just pretend you didn’t hear that,” Nori mumbled awkwardly before turning to the other two. “Why didn’t you call? How long have you been waiting for us?”

“We just reached here actually.” Fehim waved a dismissive hand .

“I was about to call you when you walked in,” Ryan said, looking from Vir to Nori and back, and an angry tick appeared in his jaw.

Vir ignored the blatant stabs of hostility coming off him as they made their way inside. He had a pretty good idea why the guy suddenly despised him so much.

“Since you don’t like birthdays,” Ryan said, ripping open a brown paper-bag to reveal takeout food containers inside. “We haven’t brought any cake. Just regular food and some wine.”

“And juice for you,” Fehim added to Vir.

“Thank you,” Vir mouthed. “Where’s your car? I didn’t see it outside.”

“We didn’t drive here,” Fehim replied. “My uncle was travelling this way, and he offered to drop us off. We’ll be taking a cab back. It’s already booked for later.”

“I wish we could stay longer, but we have to be back for tomorrow’s assessment,” Ryan said, patting the top of Nori’s head. “How about we eat in the garden? The weather looks great.”

They brought out a floor mat and a light blanket to sit on, and ate and drank, chatting in-between mouthfuls of food.

Well, mostly Fehim and Ryan did. Between the two of them combined, they barely gave Vir a chance to get a few words in.

Nori remained quiet for the most part, while bobbing her head and smiling at just the right pauses.

She seemed to be trying hard to act cheerful, but the blank nothingness had already started seeping back in.

Vir kept stealing concerned glances at her. Ryan, too, he noticed, was looking at her with a mixture of worry and something else he couldn’t quite put a finger on.

“How are things in Delhi?” he asked.

“None of them know your location.” Fehim shrugged. “And there isn’t much they can do unless they know, so… It’s all good. They’re keeping it hushed. The news hasn’t even gotten outside of the department. How are things on your side?”

“The mites reached a redundancy of two-point-two percent already,” Nori replied. “There were a few hiccups, but things are looking good so far.” Her mouth stretched into a yawn at the end.

“You look tired,” Fehim observed. “Why don’t we head back in, and you get some rest? ”

“M’fine.” Nori yawned again, shivering slightly as the chilled evening breeze blew past them.

Vir took off his jacket and draped it on top of hers.

“Let’s go,” Ryan cut in just as she opened her mouth to protest, a fresh wave of annoyance coloring his tone. “It’s getting dark, anyway.”