It's Finally Over {Tag: Nita}

Naveen gently ran his thumb over her skin at her words, a small smile tugging at his face. "I wonder if they'll be as close as we were.." He of course was referring to how inseparable they were when they were children. Naveen was so protective of her, even back then. They had their fights but most of their time together was good. He treated her like the princesses in her fairy tales and he always did his best to be her knight. Never before would he have thought that they would be married a century later, much less with children. When he noticed her look down at her wedding ring, he suddenly remembered something he had been waiting to give her. "I almost forgot..I have something for you." Without explaining much more, he climbed out of bed and moved over to the bookcase. He didn't bother dressing himself as me moved and he reached behind the books on the shelf, searching for something. A relieved sigh came past his lips as he found it and pulled out a small wooden box. "I was hoping to have given this to you a lot sooner but...the restoration took a bit longer than I had hoped." Naveen moved back over to the bed and sat down in front of her before handing her the box. "I should have told you about this but...I wanted it to be ready before I gave it back to you." He motioned for her to open it, biting his bottom lip in anticipation to see her reaction. Inside of the box was the charm bracelet their mother had given her the day she was born. All eighteen charms were there, each one for a birthday, including the last one he had given her the night of the ball. Each one shined like it was brand new and hadn't gone through years of tarnishing. "I found it...the day I came home to our village and found it destroyed. It was mixed in with the rubble of our house and...of course I had assumed the worst back then. It wasn't until I found you again at the lake that I brought it out and tried to fix it up." Naveen ran a hand nervously through his hair. Before he found her, he had carried that bracelet with him everywhere. It was sort of like a good luck charm for him. But the day he found her again, he had wanted to give it to her but it looked awful after years of being in his pocket and burned from the fires of that night. He had worked on cleaning it up until the night before he was taken by Evangeline..the night he had finished it. It was supposed to be a gift for their wedding, even though it was a terribly late gift.

Naveen didn't realize he had been holding his breath waiting for her reaction and he sighed in relief. "I carried it with me...everywhere I went because I missed you. It went through a lot so it took longer than I had hoped to restore it." He leaned into her as she pressed her lips against his and gently moved a hand up into her hair. "It looks like I'm very behind though.." He teased, his fingers running over the charms. Each year he'd give her one on her birthday but after spending a century apart...she should have so many more. He wondered what his father would say if he knew that Naveen had found the bracelet, much less restored it. Though when she mentioned getting one for Mira, he grinned and let out a small laugh. "I'm glad you said that..." He reached over and pressed on the bottom of the box, revealing a hidden compartment beneath the false bottom. Beneath it was another bracelet almost identical to Nita's only it had one charm. The charm was a golden sun that stood out against the silver chain. "It's too big for her now but...getting a charm for you each year was the highlight of my life and I want Narcisse to have the same with his sister. Though for him, I still haven't decided on what to get for him." Naveen ran a hand through his hair and bit his lip. He had little memory of his mother before her death but one of his fondest had been the times they would sit in the garden when Nita was still just a baby. She would teach him the powers that each flower or herb could possess and he'd make crowns for Nita to protect her. He still remembered the promise he had made her one day in the garden when Nita was three. She had gotten in trouble with their father because she broke something in his study and Nero had been furious. Their mother made Naveen promise to protect Nita at all costs, even if it made their father upset with him instead and of course he agreed.

Naveen grinned at Nita's response to Mira's bracelet. It would be years before she would be big enough to wear it but he couldn't wait to see it. When she took her bracelet out of the box, he set the box down on the bed and moved to help her. He took the bracelet from her and gently took her wrist, fastening it around her. The silver chain stood out against her dark skin and it made his heart skip a beat. It had been so long since he had seen her wear it and now that she was, he never wanted her to take it off again. He ran his fingertips lightly over each charm, remembering each year he gave her each one. "That was the one thing I looked forward to every year...when your birthday would finally come around and mother and I would pick out the perfect charm for you. After she passed..." Naveen sighed and placed a kiss against one of the charms. It was a golden rose that had been their mother's favorite. She picked it out the year she died and Naveen had to give it to Nita alone for the first time. "Without her, it took me so much longer picking out one for you. It took me three months to find you the perfect one for your eighteenth birthday and then.." He shook his head, trying to push away the memories of when their village was destroyed. Even though he had Nita back in his life now, that memory was still fresh and he hated thinking about it. "I'm just glad that you can have it again." Naveen leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss against her lips.