ShraMan SS: Meant to Be [AU][Complete] - Page 5

AWWW. THIS IS SO SWEET! I love this idea and I need more!!!! You are like ideas-ki-dukaan i s2g.

with lots of love

-anupriya

You literally have no chill Aarti bby, like I got your 10 PMs and FB messages hahaha, I am editing rn, will be up shortly!

"Sumo, breathe." Shravan murmured.

"Oh thanks I stopped breathing until you reminded me!" She snapped.

"Someone is antsy."

"This stupid plane is shaking Shravan." She seethed.

"It's just turbulence, we'll be okay. Go to sleep."

"I can't, it's not comfortable." She whined. "I like trains better than planes, at least you can move around without feeling like you're dying."

"Lean into me and just sleep so you don't drive the whole plane crazy with your whining."

"You are so rude." She said but placed her head on his shoulder and scooted up the seat a bit. "Why does it feel like you get taller every minute?" She whined closing her eyes and trying not to think about the shaking plane.

"Why is it always raining here?" Sumo groaned falling onto the couch next to Shravan in the common room of their dorm building, he was reading his textbook, a highlighter in his hand. An immediate smile made a way to his face when he heard her voice.

"You've only been here for two months Sumo, you can't complain about the rain yet. How was your test?" He asked noticing that she looked tired, the first round of tests at Oxford did that to you.

"Don't ask." She mumbled closing her eyes, she had gone to her room and dropped off her stuff before finding him, she wanted to forget that her books existed at the moment.

"You probably did fine, but maybe you should focus more on what the Professor is saying rather than his yummy accent." Shravan teased, Sumo and most of her friends in that particular class were obsessed with the Professor's voice.

"But his voice is so sexy." Sumo groaned causing Shravan to roll his eyes.

"What's so sexy about it?" He asked, he found it quite normal.

"It's like on the deep end on the squeaky to deep scale." She murmured.

"And where does mine fall?" He asked curious.

"Well, if you asked the question two years ago, it'd be closer to the squeaky side than the deep but now, it's getting closer and closer to the sexy deep." She explained.

"Sexy deep?"

"Yeah, when voices get too deep it's kind of creepy...like Snape's voice." She laughed, they had recently been re-watching the Harry Potter movies in their free time to prep for their impending trip to the Warner Bros. Studios, the Harry Potter sites around Oxford just seemed to fuel this preparation.

"Interesting." Shravan murmured, so his voice was approaching sexy, that was good to know.

"I am just glad that it is Friday and we're going to London tomorrow!" She smiled happily.

"Hm, what is on the to-do-list for tomorrow?" He asked. They did all the really touristy destinations the last few weekends, like the Eye, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham, and St. Paul's.

"I am thinking Trafalgar Square, National Gallery and then Piccadilly?"

"Sounds good."

"What time should we leave?"

"Early this time, first bus leaves Gloucester Green at 6:15." He reminds her, like every week, but they always manage to catch the 8:15 bus because her highness does not want to wake up at "that ungodly hour".

"Hm, did you eat dinner yet?" She asked.

"Nope."

"Wanna go out or make something?"

"You are tired and I don't want to set off fire alarms, lets go grab something."

"Thaikun or Tesco?"

"I need real food not packaged food, plus I want something spicy, so Thaikun." He says.

"Mhmmm, I don't feel like moving." She said, the couch in the common room was really comfy, it like swallowed you into its softness.

"I can't carry you without breaking my back so you have to move Moti." He teased, in reality, he knew that he could easily lift her, going to the gym was really starting to pay off.

"Shut up, I see the gym isn't working." She retorted, when in reality she can see that he is growing both upwards and sideways.

"Sumo, I am starving we can argue on our way."

"Is she single?" Mark asked Shravan, Mark knew that Shravan would know considering he was her best friend after all. The two of them were working out at the gym, Shravan was doing bench presses and Mark was spotting him.

"I don't think she's interested in dating right now." Shravan replied lifting the weight up, avoiding answering the question, he wanted to say no and tell Mark to get lost, but he didn't really have the right to do that. Plus, Mark was a good friend despite his fascination with Sumo.

"Should I ask her out anyways?" Mark asked hopefully and Shravan shrugged. He really wanted to just drop the barbell on Mark's foot at that point but he refrained and got up before moving to the Ab Crunching Machine. Shravan felt uncomfortable at the thought of Mark asking Sumo out, he wondered if she would say yes.

Mark and Sumo got along pretty well and he was a good friend to both of them, so it could be a possibility. Plus, Mark had that deep voice and British accent she loved so much going for him. The thought of Sumo actually agreeing to date Mark made his blood boil, Shravan knew that he had feelings for Sumo and that they had steadily grown over the years as they grew older. It wasn't just because she had grown into a beautiful woman, but because they knew each other better than anyone else, he liked who she was becoming as a person - confident, independent and caring - she never stopped surprising him. Every time he thought he knew everything about her, she went and did something that made him see her in a different light. He loved her company, and couldn't really imagine his life without her presence but he wasn't sure she felt the same way, they were best friends, yes, but it was hard to distinguish if there was a movement from that title on her side. And he didn't want to risk their friendship to find out.

"What's wrong?" Sumo asked Shravan later the same night, he looked distracted, like something was bothering him. He didn't even yell in exuberance when she declared that she had made him his favourite food.

"Nothing." He answered not looking up from his MacBook that he was typing away on, but thoughts about what she would say if someone asked her out plagued his mind. He knew it was bound to happen, he was surprised it hadn't already, Sumo was pretty and on top of that she had an electric personality that drew people in.

"Shravan." Sumo prodded, knowing that there was definitely something wrong.

"I am just stressed about this paper." He snapped, still not looking away from the screen.

"I am here when you want to tell me the real reason." She retorted before going back to her own assignment, a look of annoyance clouding her face. But they had gotten used to giving each other some space when needed, trusting the other to say something if the other needed to know about it.

"Uh, well, uh Suman I was wondering if, uh, you- would you like to maybe grab dinner with me Friday?" Mark asked Suman as she sat beside Shravan waiting for their bus at Gloucester Green on a Saturday morning, they were going to a football match with a bunch of other friends.

"Like a date?" Sumo asked taken aback, her eyes wide, she did not expect that. Shravan had obviously heard the words leave Mark's mouth, and he sat beside Sumo, he felt his body tense as he waited for her to answer. Mark nodded yes to the like a date question sheepishly, he was blushing now.

"Uh, well, Mark, I don't think that's a good idea-" Sumo started to say, and Shravan relaxed beside her as soon as the words left her mouth.

"Mate, she's dating Shravan!" Riya said from behind Mark causing both Shravan and Sumo's eyes to go wide as they looked at each other. Since when?!

"You two are dating?" Mark asked confused looking between the two of them, he was sure Shravan would have told him as much if it was true.

"No." Sumo and Shravan both shook their heads at their friends, this was awkward.

"Wait, you're not dating?" Their friend Melissa gasped stepping in front of Mark. "All this time we all thought you two were together." She spoke really fast as if she was in shock.

"We're not...dating." Suman said wishing that his conversation ended right where it was because it made her kind of uncomfortable, she could kind of see where they were coming from, and a part of her wished that she could answer the question with a yes we are dating, she supressed that part though, they were just friends and she wasn't going to ruin that.

"But you're always together, and you're so...comfortable with each other." Riya exclaimed, and she was going to say that they looked at each other like they were in love but she was cut off by Rishi, who came to the rescue of his friends.

"They're not dating." Rishi said. "Although, they should be." He mumbled quietly but no one heard the second part.

"Oh...I mean I've never seen you two kiss or anything...but I thought you just weren't fans of PDA." Melissa mumbled.

"Childhood best friends." Rishi pointed out saving Shravan and Sumo from the rather uncomfortable situation they had somehow landed into as the bus arrived.

Rishi sat behind them and thought about what had just happened, he wasn't surprised that everyone thought they were dating, they essentially acted like an old married couple, they quarreled and then made up - and their fights were cute for a lack of a better word, it was like they found reasons to argue and then make up. They did everything together, if they weren't by each other's side they were connected via their phones and they referred to themselves as one unit - whenever anyone asked one of them if they wanted to do something, it was always "we will be there, or we'll let you know". Even now the two of them were sitting together, Shravan was listening to music and Sumo had her head resting against his shoulder, her eyes closed because she always got bus sick. Anyone passing them on the bus would have guessed that they were a couple. Rishi sighed wondering if they would ever figure it out.

"He's so hot." Melissa groaned as she ran on the treadmill beside Sumo at the gym. If looks could kill Melissa would have fallen flat on her face onto the treadmill. But alas, she didn't and continued to ogle Shravan who was doing bench presses now. Sumo had to admit that she was right, he was so hot, he had filled out in the past year and a half and that sleeveless shirt he was wearing did nothing to hide his bulging arms. Sumo had started realizing just how hot her best friend was and caught herself staring at him in ways that were definitely not what friends did. In her head she was allowed to ogle him, but when someone else did, it was a definite faux-pas. Like now, every time Shravan did pull ups his shirt went up and Melissa groaned because she was obsessed with his abs. Sumo had a hard time dealing with the fact that her scrawny best friend was suddenly hot and that girls seemed to pant after him.

"You're here to workout, not ogle him." Sumo murmured speeding up on her treadmill, the poor machine was bearing the brunt of her jealousy and anger.

"But he's so gorgeous, the other day when all of us went to the Stonehenge, he looked up and the sun was shining so perfectly on him and his hazel eyes killed me." She swooned, she sounded totally obsessed.

"His eyes are light brown, there is no green in them." Sumo said, she knew the exact shade of brown his eyes were and how gorgeous they looked in the sunlight, she didn't need someone else to tell her that. She knew what his eyes looked like even before he lost the glasses and started wearing contacts.

"Sumo, can you find out if he likes me please? You're his best friend." She pleaded as Sumo got off the treadmill and grabbed the sanitizer and paper towel to wipe the machine down.

"I will do no such thing, he'll just get pissed at me and we'll end up fighting." She mumbled.

"Like the two of you don't always fight and make up in like two days anyways. Please Sumo."

Sumo didn't know what to say, she definitely did not want to ask him if he liked Melissa, at all. Because Sumo had more-than-friends feelings for him, something was changing between the two of them and she wanted to know what it was. His touch gave her butterflies all of a sudden, and she thought about it a lot more. Her stomach flip-flopped when he grabbed her hand as they walked places, he did that before too but it was different all of a sudden. When she felt sad about something, he would pull her into a hug, and she felt like staying there forever and felt like something was missing when he pulled away. Sometimes she caught herself just staring at him while he worked, she noticed things she hadn't before, like how his eyebrows scrunched up when he didn't understand something and the look of comprehension that dawned on his face when he did.

They spent so much time together that when she went back to her dorm room at the end of the day she felt lonely and missed him, even though she spent most of the time between and after classes with him, it didn't seem like enough. Their weekend trips to London and the surrounding areas were the highlight of her week, especially when it was just the two of them. It was like nothing existed except for the two of them, and she caught herself scrolling through her phone a lot more, looking at all the pictures they ended up taking on their trips with a fond smile.

"I'll see." Sumo mumbled to Melissa before walking to the change rooms.

"I don't get this, the exam is tomorrow, I am going to fail." Shravan groaned tapping his foot against the floor, and his left hand against the desk as he frantically flipped through his book.

"Shravan, calm down, you'll be fine." She said placing her hand on top of his left hand to stop the tapping. He looked up at her, his eyes looked off and he looked troubled. She sighed while getting up and grabbed his book and closed it, he needed to relax.

"Sumo! What are you doing?"

"Helping you." She said giving him a pointed look, daring him to speak again. She held her hand out to him asking him to get up, which he did, she dragged him to his closet. She grabbed a sweater and threw it at him while grabbing another hoodie of his for herself before stepping out of his room. She had a collection of oversized hoodies in her room, most of them Shravan's because they smelled like him and it made her happy, not that she would ever let him know that. She just washed and placed them back in his closet whenever he mentioned that his clothes were disappearing.

"Where are we going?" He asked following her.

"For a walk." She said causing him to let out a sigh as she stepped out the building.

"But I need to study."

"Shravan, forget about school for a few minutes please or this won't help you. You need to relax, I promise that you'll feel better and be able to understand what you were struggling with before if you just stop thinking about studying for a few minutes." She said as they walked in the dark, but the moon was almost full and there was enough light for them to see where they were going even without the antique streetlights that lined every cobblestone pathway. Oxford was usually quiet at this time of the day, the shops were closed and since it was exam time and a Tuesday, the students were not partying it up or walking around the streets.

Sumo loved Oxford, it was such a charming little town. The buildings were all so old and detailed, you could spend a whole month just exploring the city. She loved taking walks around and getting lost in the streets - Shravan laughed at her and said that Oxford was too small to get lost in. The cobblestone pathways, the intricate architecture, the green grass, the old trees and just the ambience of the city was amazing. The only thing she didn't love was the lack of sun, it rained way too much.

"Why are you so tall?" Sumo murmured rolling up the sleeves of his sweater that she had grabbed, it almost hit her at the knees. "Nirmala Aunty is going to be so surprised when she sees that her son has literally become a second Qutub Minar in less than a year."

"Why is my height the topic of every conversation these days?" He groans.

"Is it?"

"Yeah, the guys were talking about it at the gym today, and Melissa keeps saying you're so tall over and over again."

Sumo tensed at Melissa's name, Melissa found the fact that Shravan towered over her so damn hot and her crush on him seemed to be growing and Sumo was sure that Melissa would tell Shravan soon, and that bothered her a lot. She didn't know what he would say, Melissa was hot, and she had noticed that the desi guys in England seemed to be obsessed with white girls - so him saying yes was a definite possibility.

Sumo took a deep breath before the next sentence left her mouth. "That is because Melissa has a crush on you, a huge one."

"Oh?" Shravan asked genuinely shocked.

"You didn't know?" Sumo asked, she was sure that he would have picked up on it with how desperate Melissa was acting. Shravan shook his head. "Really?"

"Should I have?" He asked confused.

"She's been panting after you." Sumo exclaimed.

"Has she?"

"How do you not notice that she's always around?!'

"I thought it was because she was becoming good friends with you." Shravan said.

"Oh, well she likes you." Sumo said. The sentence was followed by silence, she expected him to say something but he didn't so she looked up at him to see that he was looking at her. "So?" She asked.

"So what?"

"I just told you that she likes you, what's your response? Do you like her, do you not like her?" Sumo asked exasperated.

"Why are you so interested?" Shravan teased.

"Because she asked me see if you like her." Sumo retorted.

"Oh, and you agreed to do that for her?" He asked, the curiosity evident in his voice.

"She's kind of pushy like that." Sumo mumbled.

"And what do you think?" He asks.

"About what?"

"About if I like her or not?"

"I don't know; you've never told me that you liked anyone except that one girl you apparently had a crush on in like Grade 4." She said as they walked down the street.

"I don't like her like that, she is a friend." He finally said causing Sumo to let out a sigh of relief.

"Maybe you should try to avoid her for a while then." Sumo murmured. "So she gets the hint."

"Hmmm. Want chocolate?" He asked as they passed Tesco, she nodded so they walked into the store to deplete it of it's chocolate supply as they did often, the chocolate in England was to die for, and the flavours interesting.

"Why would they keep the chocolate in the basement?" She mumbled as they stepped on the escalator to go down.

"To tempt people to be healthier?" He laughed as she literally grabbed one of every kind of chocolate they had.

"I am doing this for you. Chocolate has tryptophan, which releases serotonin, which makes you happy. So if you eat chocolate after mastering a chapter you'll feel better about yourself." She explained.

"I can't believe I am saying this, but you're such a nerd Suman Tiwari."

"Takes one to know one Shravan Malhtora. Now lets go back and study so we both don't fail." She murmured walking ahead of him.

"Do you miss how clean Oxford air is as soon as you step into Delhi?" Sumo asked as they stood by the baggage claim area waiting to find their bags.

"Yep, it takes a while to adjust to."

"I missed home though." She sighed happily as Shravan grabbed her suitcase off the conveyer belt.

"Sometimes I feel like I am your servant." He murmured as he put the suitcase on her cart. "What the hell is in this?"

"It is still lighter than your weights, why are you complaining?" She asked giving him an incredulous look.

"But why is it so heavy?" He asked.

"Shoes." She shrugged. "Oh! Grab the other one!" She said pointing to her other bag when it came into sight, he rolled his eyes and complied, placing it on the cart.

"I don't understand why you needed to bring two suitcases, we're going right back in a few months." He mumbled as they walked towards the exit, pushing their respective carts.

"I didn't want to leave all my things in the storage containers!" She retorted. They had emptied out their dorm rooms, and found a house off campus that Ramnath had insisted on buying for them and Sumo's mom had agreed to pitch in when he wrote it off as an investment, the two of them were staying there starting September after the current owners moved out, so they had taken all the things they had acquired over their time in Oxford and put it in a storage container.

"I told you, it's safe to store things there!" He reminded her.

"How can you say that? Have you ever used it before? No!"

"They have a guarantee Sumo!"

"They left arguing and they come back arguing." Priya laughed when she caught sight of her daughter and her best friend, she could tell that they were bickering because he had an annoyed look on his face as her daughter talked a mile per minute.

"They both look so different!" Nirmala gasped, they had both gotten taller, Shravan much more than Suman, Suman seemed to have gotten a bit taller and lost all the baby fat she had before she left as if she was being starved, and Shravan seemed to have grown in width as well.

"Eat another paratha! You are so thin Suman!" Maasi said putting yet another one in Sumo's plate and disappearing back into the kitchen before Sumo could say a word.

"They're going to make sure you gain all the weight back." Shravan laughed causing Sumo to roll her eyes and place the paratha in his plate, she knew he would eat it happily. He gave her a small smile before digging into the paratha causing her to shake her head lovingly.

They had been back for a whole two months now, and being back was kind of weird to them because they couldn't spend as much time together as they had in the past year. Sometimes they went days without seeing the other, like when one of them left to go see extended family or attend a wedding. The two months served well to make them realize how much they depended on the other and missed each other's company. They hadn't seen their own families and friends for quite some time and enjoyed spending time with them, but even then they both felt like something was missing.

They enjoyed days like this a lot, lazy days where they didn't have anywhere to go or people to see. Sometimes they just stayed in and watched movies, or hung out with the family, other times they went to their favourite spots around the city. Today they had both volunteered to look after the cute little Daboo, Suman was so attached to her little cousin that Shravan was sure she'd miss him the most when she went back. Daboo was such a chubby and cute one-year-old that Sumo literally wanted to cuddle him all day. The family had important parties to cater today so they were all busy, and Naanu was gone to a friend's birthday party; Preeti was away on a school trip, so the only person left to take care of Daboo was Suman and she was more than happy to oblige.

That is how Sumo ended up howling with laughter and rolling on the floor of the Tiwari Villa while Shravan sat on the sofa in absolute shock, the front of his shirt wet while Daboo lay on the sofa kicking his feet in the air and giggling cutely.

"I ca-can't believe t-that just happened." She got out between her laughter.

"It's not funny." Shravan mumbled wondering where he had gone wrong.

"Shravan, you're supposed to cover his thing when you change him, exposing it to cooler air leads to pee-pee all over you." She laughed.

"What's the point of telling me now?" He mumbled getting up as Sumo got up off the floor and grabbed the diaper from Shravan.

"Go find something to wear, I think I have your hoodie in my closet somewhere." She instructed him as she sat beside Daboo. "Aw, who's a good baby?" She asked Daboo in her baby-talk, tickling him. "Good job peeing on Shravan buddy." She cooed as she fastened the diaper.

"I heard that!" Shravan yelled from her room.

Sumo just rolled her eyes and picked Daboo up in her arms and lifted him above her head causing him to let out loud giggles. "You're so cuteee, I am going to dieee." Sumo squealed kissing his cheeks.

"I never knew you were so obsessed with babies." Shravan said coming back into the room, his shirt was off, and he was wearing his hoodie now, it looked small on him attesting to the fact that he was growing like crazy. He took a seat right beside Sumo and Daboo laughed and reached for Shravan, who took him in his arms and threw him into the air causing Sumo and Daboo to both squeal, for different reasons.

"You'll drop him!" Sumo chided.

"Chill Sumo." He rolled his eyes throwing Daboo up in the air again. Sumo stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her legs on the sofa and watched Shravan play with Daboo, there was something inherently cute about the sight. Shravan was very good with him, save the earlier mishap.

"He's growing up so fast." Sumo mumbled. "The last time I saw him he was so little."

"He was barely a month old Sumo." Shravan laughed.

"I know, it's like he grew twice in size." She said grabbing Daboo from Shravan and blowing a raspberry on his cheek causing him to let out loud giggles again. "I am going to miss him."

"You can FaceTime him."

"It's not the same." She shrugged settling Daboo into her lap and occasionally tickling him. He was more than happy looking between Sumo and Shravan and occasionally piping into their conversation with cooes of his own.

"I have a feeling that your kids are never going to learn to walk because you won't put them down." He laughed.

"Maybe." She agreed.

"How many do you want?" He asked curious.

"Two or three. It gets a little lonely being an only child." She said looking at him knowing he understood being an only child himself.

"That's true." He nods.

"How about you?" She asked.

"Enough for a soccer team." He laughed.

"Eleven?" She gasped.

"Ten, I'd be the goalie of course."

"Good luck finding someone to pop out ten babies for you." She teased.

"Okay, five, a half soccer team."

"That's still a lot."

"You could technically get 5 babies and give birth only two or three times."

"Twins and triplets are rare." She pointed out.

"I have some on my side of the family, you have some on your side of the family-." He stopped short when he saw her eyes growing wide. "So they're not as uncommon as we think they are." He added to change the meaning of the last sentence but they both realized that when they thought about a future family, it was with the other person.

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