#2 Rajeev needs a hug

Ananya and Rajeev smoke (because I want her to) and Rajeev is RuAn’s investor. Just because she smokes, doesn’t mean I am taking the Indian web series route of showing progressive women smoking.

 Enjoy, RuRa fans!

Slightly inspired by Made in Heaven, Amazon Prime.

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Ananya rolled her eyes at Rudra, who huffed and threw himself on the chair. She walked out to the parking lot. She needed a smoke, seriously! Dealing with two man-children was too much!

She sat next to Rajeev, who looked at her and passed her the cigarette.

“Why do you keep fighting with him?”

“Why does he keep fighting with me?” Rajeev asked instead.

“You instigated him,”

“Because he is a jerk face! And I am not fighting him; I am fighting myself,” He murmured and extended his hand. She raised her eyebrows and didn’t pass him the cigarette.

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing!” He moved away from her, snatching the cigarette. Ananya squinted her eyes for a few seconds as his words started making sense to her.

“You have a crush on Rudra!” She yelled to the empty parking lot.

“Jesus, woman!” He shushed her.

“Sorry,” She said, her eyes sparkling with laughter.

“You have a crush on him?” She asked in a normal voice this time.

“Yeah!” He replied hesitantly.

“But you can’t tell this to anyone.” He threw the bud of the cigarette on the ground and looked at her pleadingly.

“Yeah, sure! I mean, I won’t tell anyone,” She nodded and ran her fingers across her lips as if to signal that she is sealing them.

“Thanks,” He smiled embarrassedly.

“It’s just that I am not comfortable accepting my sexuality,”

She looked at him in confusion.

“My dad, uhh, he beat me so hard that it broke my arm when he found about my boyfriend in school,”

“I am so sorry,” She said sympathetically.

“I haven’t come out to anyone, after that, except my mom, and she is quite ok with it. My dad took me to a psychiatrist, and when he tried to convince my dad that it was ok for me to like boys and wear what is considered feminine clothes, he almost wrecked his cabin. Then he took me to some hermit who tried to fool us into paying loads of cash for some medicine that could “cure” me,”

“That sucks! I am sorry you had to go through all that bullshit,” Ananya kept her hand on his shoulder.

“It’s all in the past, though I wish I could come out in the closet, you know,” He shrugged.

“As long as you are happy about it, you needn’t come out to anyone,”

“I know.” He smiled.

“Thanks for the cigarette,”

“Thanks for the chat,”

“Promise me you won’t fight with him; dealing with your fights won’t look that amazing in my CV,”

Rajeev rolled his eyes and smiled.

“By the way, am I your sautan now? Seeing that we both have a crush on the same man?” Ananya asked him.

“Well, maybe, and we both won’t get him, so we are sailing in the same boat,” He winked and started walking.

“Idiot!” She yelled at his back.