Can you write something with Vrishasena and Arjuna? Arjuna would have been such a good uncle and all of them would have been such a cute family.
Hello there anon! You're right on time, I wrote this in the return train ride lol.
About Arjuna being an uncle to Vrishsena, I'm not sure if you're asking for a canon-divergence? Let me know if you have a specific scenario in mind. But, for now, here is a canonical one:
3 times Vrishasena found his Uncle, +1 time it was otherwise.
1.
Indraprashtha's Palace of Illusions is larger than the one in Anga, and infinitely more complicated than the one in Hastinapura. Vrishasena is, simply put, quite lost. His father's is in Uncle Duryodhana's retinue and far too busy smoothening the Prince's ruffled feathers to pay him any mind. The other Kings are not people he has been introduced to, and he's pretty sure approaching them for such a trifle would start a war. That left the Pandavas.
Vrishasena stops at the huge double-doors leading to the garden. Made of mahogany wood, they are twice as broad as he is tall, and eight times as high. He studies the carvings on them while he contemplates his options. Yudhisthir he refuses to ask for help - the Emperor-to-be referenced etiquette and scriptures eleven times in the six minutes he has known the man. Crown Prince Bheem is out of question, for obvious reasons. The twins are a good choice, but he doesn't know where they are. That leaves Prince Arjun, who is strolling in the garden with the King of Dwarka.
Vrishasena gives the guards a dubious look, then makes his way towards his target. Krishna notices him at once, and a beatific smile brightens up his face. He spreads his arms wide and turns towards Arjun. "Look, my friend. The Prince of Anga is here."
Arjun notices him and offers him a polite tilt of his head. "Namaste. How may I help you today?"
Vrishasena bows. "Namaste, I was looking for Prince Abhimanyu."
Arjun's face goes from courteously disinterested to downright suspicious in less than a second. "Why?" he asks, far too curtly in Vrishasena's estimation.
Krishna throws back his head and laughs. "These are two young boys in a bunch of nagging kings engaged in politics. What did you think would happen, Parth?"
Arjun flushes. Vrishasena hurries him along. "We're acquainted, Prince. He was gracious enough to offer to show me around."
"Oh," Arjun mumbles. "Try out the kitchens, he's always trying to charm an extra sweet out of the cook."
Vrishasena bows again. "I thank you. Have a good day."
He is quietly backing away when he hears Arjun's stiff reply. "You too. I hope you like Indraprashtha enough to visit again."
2.
Hastinapura's Palace is a veritable playground for his brothers and the Kaurava children. Vrishasena, as the eldest of them all, has been saddled with the unenviable responsibility of minding them today. This, naturally, involves a great deal of screaming and shouting on his part, and a much greater indifference on the part of the children.
"Do not run in the corridors!" he yells after Lakshmanaa, who gathers up her skirts and runs faster. "They have been wiped. You're going to slip! Lakshmanaa!"
Lakshmanaa lets out a shrill shriek as he comes dangerously close to snatching her hand and turns around the corner. Vrishasena's only warning is a muffled "oof!" before he skids around the corner himself, and barrels straight into someone.
They collapse in a heap - him dazed, Lakshmanaa laughing and the man grunting out in pain.
"Oi, you!" says a feminine voice. Vrishasena looks up. A beautiful woman looms over them, dusky face cut through with a bright, toothy smile, eyes sparkling like diamonds. "Please free my husband," she requests, shoulders shaking with laughter. "Warrior though he may be, I fear he will not live long like this."
"Empress Draupadi," he manages, then scrambles over to see which of Kunti's scions he has had the misfortune of knocking over. Of course, because the universe hates him, it is his father's mortal enemy.
"Prince Arjun," he greets, somewhat stupidly, then drags a still-giggling Lakshmanaa off him. "Are you hurt?"
Arjun rubs his forehead. "Apart from my pride? No, I don't think so."
"We're sorry," Lakshmanaa offers, not sounding apologetic at all. "Brother Vrishasena is having a hard day."
"I wasn't the one who knocked him over," he protests, half tempted to wring his hands in frustration.
"You did fall over, though," Draupadi points out, then starts laughing again.
"Where are you going?" Lakshmanaa asks, not even portending to be subtle about changing the subject.
"Your father invited us to a Dyut Sabha," Prince Arjun says, just eager to move on. Humiliation is not a good look on him.
"I hope you enjoy your game," Vrishasena offers, then bows. "Come, Lakshmanaa, let's go."
"Listen, Vrishasena," Arjun calls after them. Vrishsena waves the little Princess away. "Don't tell Angaraaj this happened."
"Lakshmanaa will tell Unc- er- Prince Duryodhana."
Arjun sighs. "Duryodhana has seen lots of embarrassing situations first hand. One more is no gain for him."
"Okay," Vrishasena shrugs. "I won't lie to him if he asks, but I won't tell him on my own either."
Draupadi gives them both a bemused look, but Arjuna nods. "Thank you. That is all I ask."
3.
It has been many years since Vrishasena saw Arjun. The Pandava Prince looks different now. His gaunt face is shielded by a scraggly beard, his hair is tangled and haggard. The finery he once bore with ease now hangs loose from his lean frame. The war and Abhimanyu's death have worn him down, perhaps more than it has worn down Vrishasena.
It is not easy to keep pace with Arjun - fabled archer that he is. But Vrishasena is Karna's son, blessed thrice by love of his parents, of the Kuru clan, and the love of his people. Ten times he pierces Kunti's youngest child, ten times more he goes after Dwarka's King. He fights even as his father and the Kauravas draw close, and Arjun taunts them with the inevitability of his demise.
The sight of him makes Vrishasena stop heckling Bheem. His charioteer tries to steer them after Bheem, but Krishna cuts through their path and draws up in front of them. In the distance, he sees the white conch of his father's flag flutter ever closer. Arjun lifts up his bow in challenge, and Vrishasena thinks quietly to himself, Death has come for me.
He does not have the breath to speak, but he thinks of his father and pleads fervently, Let me fight, let me go, and Karna, whether he hears it or not, stays away. Arjun's arrows take off his arms one after the other, and then take off his head. Vrishasena does not have the time to feel anything but relief.
+1.
Sometimes, Arjun thinks, it is better to be ignorant and live in bliss.
Yudhisthir sits slumped on the ground, head buried in his hands. Draupadi is quiet, eyes turned heavenwards in a blank stare. His other brothers are gathered around, gaping at their mother. Even Krishna is silent and still.
"I want to go home," Sahadev says suddenly, sounding like the little boy he was all those years ago when they made their laborious way from Shatashringa to Hastinapura. The words make Arjun's heart ache.
"We will be going home right after," Kunti soothes, placing a hand on his arm. He had ever been her favourite child.
Now, Sahadeva throws off her hand and turns away. "No!" he shouts, choking on a sob. "I will not go to that graveyard. I want to go home!"
Yudhisthir lets out a strange sound, somewhere between a hiccup and a cough. Arjun looks towards the burning pyres. Karna he cannot mourn - their history is longer than Vishnu's endless serpent and deeper than the waters of the ocean. But he thinks of Vrishasena, Karna's son and his nephew, sprawled on the ground - without arms or a head, and his stomach turns. He thinks of Karna killing Abhimanyu and can feel nothing but rage. He thinks of Vrishasena coming after Nakul, and feels his heart leaden with sorrow.
Somewhere among the burning pyres Vrishasena's body smoulders. Arjun dares not go search for him.
"I'm sorry," he tells the bitter winter air. He watches the words mist in front of his face, watches the mist float heavenwards, mingling with the smoke from the pyres. He thinks of himself weeping over Abhimanyu's mangled remains, thinks of Karna stoically arranging Vrishasena's severed parts for his last rites. He thinks of devoted friends and silent mothers and cursed thrones, and apologizes no more.
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