MN - The Fragile Magic ** Epilogue - Pg 140. - Page 26

The whole night, Mayank was drifting in and out of sleep, the moment nupur's hand movement over his forehead used to stop, his rational mind used to budge him to open his eyes, he tried not to listen, but still with his head hurting so bad, he had to open his eyes, but Nupur again used to close them with her palms, carrying on with her rub.

It carried out the whole night, when finally, nupur's mind had to surrender to the sleep bugs. Although, trying hard not to, but still she closed her eyes and the next moment she was unaware of everything around her.

Somewhere near the crack of dawn, she felt herself in hold of something strong, and opening her eyes she saw mayank cuddled all next to her, with his arms around her waist and head buried in her neck ' she was shocked and felt shivers throughout her body, but before she could react to them, she noticed his calm breathing ' deep , peaceful breathing.

"mujhe neend nahi ati hai Nupur.. " ' his painful, defeated voice echoed in her ears and here she was seeing him sleeping so peacefully. Tears started wetting her cheeks and she couldn't understand what passed through her mind that she entwined her fingers in his fingers, but mayank opened his eyes the very moment.

His head was hurting ' very severe, but his eyes met her eyes,

"good morning", she said smiling , but before mayank could smile back, he realized how close he was to her, and immediately moving away, he sat up, leaving Nupur with an awkward feeling.

"how are you feeling"?, she asked, sitting up, not letting this stupid awkwardness to bloom,

"hmm, bus sar main dard hai", he started rubbing his fingers and Nupur offered him a glass of water, "hope it'll help", she said smiling and mayank took it.

"it won't", he said drinking half of the glass.

"it will!", she said in a determined tone and mayank looked away,

"dekha neend a gayi na", she placed her hands over his hands and for a moment mayank couldn't help noticing ' how perfect her hand looked in his hand.

"tumhare hathon main bus mera hath acha lagta hai",kanchi infused their fingers together and mayank kissed them.

"mayank..", she said again, now pressing his hands and he pulled it away from her grip, "umm, haan, but my head is hurting very bad", he added quickly so she may not observe that how he left her hand,

"and that means .."

"that means you are not going to office today", Nupur completed his sentence in a joyous voice and mayank was in a shock for a moment.

"and now please I don't want the typical clich statement saying, aj tu mujhe bohat kaam hai",she added the last bit imitating mayank's deep voice and he broke in a giggle.

"nahi , aj kuch itna important nahi hai, but this headache is not going to go away by resting, ye sleeping pills ki waja se hai ..", he said in a low voice but Nupur was already out of the bed, showing that she hadn't heard his last statement, although she did, and before mayank could repeat, she was in the washroom, so sighing mayank lied down again, rubbing his fingers again over his forehead.

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It was warm milk that made his headache fade a bit and as he was feeling better, he got back to his favorite work that was going in his study and reading books.

Nupur wanted to ask him not to study and rest for his headache, but then she thought, he was not a baby, and too much pushing can cause irritation.

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Later in evening, after lunch, Nupur was catching up on her cooking shows and Mayank was in his study.

Rahul was sitting in his room, completing his home work, when ' bored from his Maths calculation, he decided to take a stroll of the home. His first destination was pranav's room, but as he peeped in, he was busy studying and seeing Nupur aunty sitting by his side, he decided not to go, he didn't want to study again.

Next he went to his daddy's room. The room was empty, his daddy was no where, but now what he saw of his interest was a huge pile of papers lying on the bed.

"WOW!!", he involuntarily exclaimed and rushed to the bed.

He loved his daddy's office papers, they were so smooth and plain, and what he loved the most was coloring them. He squealed and rushed to his room to bring his color box, and then comfortably setting himself on the huge bed of his daddy, he started sketching and coloring one by one, making different designs around the gorgeous handwriting of his daddy.

He loved this ' his favorite past time!!

"Rahul Sharma!!"

A strict , coarse, and deep voice alarmed him, and without turning he could tell who it was ' GOSH Rahul, you are in soup.

"Leave all those papers right now!!", the voice went more strict and he left his duckling in-complete and dropped the pencil and paper..

There was silence, but he could hear footsteps advancing towards him, and he could just wait , keeping his eyes closed.

"how many time have I told you not to touch my papers", the voice came very near, and Rahul opened his eyes to find his daddy sitting in front of him, staring him ' the only thing he was so scared off.

"I have asked you something!, how many times have I told you not touch my things?", he questioned again and Rahul for a moment tried to calculate, but it was such a large number that he didn't even knew counting till that, so he just lowered his eyes, "sorry daddy", he mumbled and although mayank's heart contracted the very moment, seeing that cute expression on his face, but he remained stiff.

"no sorries, this time it's punishment, I have forgiven you many times but you don't listen", he said arranging his papers, and rahul jumped in his lap, "sorry daddy,. I won't do it again", he snuggled closer to him but mayank pushed him away, "don't try to act smart, go bring your maths book", he announced and Rahul felt his heart sink.

"maths book?", he asked again to assure and mayank nodded, "yes maths book!!"

"dadddyyy", he pouted but mayank took no notice. He had to make sure that Rahul realizes that it is important to listen to elders.

"don't waste time, otherwise I'll ask you to bring your General Knowledge book as awell", these words came out of his mouth and Rahul was on his way to bring his book,

He brought the book, and mayank marked a complete set of 20 questions, " I want you to solve each of this sum , two times, and I want to see this alignment, before dinner, neatly done", he said and his expression showed that he was in no mood of bargaining so Rahul quietly took the book and made his way back to his room,

"Rahul", nupur saw him coming out of their room, with tears shining in his eyes, "kia hua?", she sat down in her knees and Rahul blinked to let those tears flow, "daddy has given me 20 sums, I have to do them two times", he said slowly with long tears flowing down his cheeks , "awww.. ", she wiped his tears and hugged him, "kyun beta",

"he has given me punishment, I sketched on his office papers", he added and nupur, separating him from herself kissed his forehead, "beta coloring on office papers is wrong, why did u do it?"

"I am sorry", he said still with tears and nupur kissed his cheek, "okay now rush to your room and quickly complete your work, then I'll make your favorite spaghettis in dinner with mango icecream, okay", she said , hoping to see a expression change and it did,,"promise?", he asked with shiny eyes and nupur nodded, "promise, now go rush", she said and the boy rushed to his room.

Nupur came in the room, and found mayank with a frown trying to erase the art of his son from his office papers,

"it will leave marks", she said and mayank sighed, "I know!, I wonder why is he so fascinated by my office papers, now I'll have to get all of them re-typed", he was irritated and nupur was in awe of his cuteness.

She picked up one paper and was startled to see the color patterns, "Rahul is so talented, just look at the color combinations", she showed him and he was still angry, "I know, but I would really appreciate if he doesn't shows his talent on my office papers", he huffed again and left the room with his papers, while nupur broke in a giggle

It was dinner time, and Rahul had proudly presented his assignment which was very neatly done and both the kids honestly confessed that paranv helped Rahul with a few sums which were difficult, and then ofcourse they both were awarded with an extra moose pastry form mayank's side in addition to nupur's mango ice-cream.

Mayank was about to lie down after that saffron milk, and again dreading how will he sleep when a knock on the door startled both of them.

Nupur immediately opened the door, and both the kids were standing in their sleeping suits, holding each other's hands.

"kia hua bachon?, itni raat ko ku jag rahey ho?", nupur was on her knees and mayank also came by their side.

"mummy can we request something?", pranav asked in a scared voice and mayank also sat on his knees, making paranv face him, "ofcousre beta , bolo kia chiye", he smiled affectionately and it infused strength in him.

He looked at Rahul and he also came forward, "daddy can we both have one room, please", Rahul said nupurs's lips curved in a smile while mayank took a moment to understand what he said.

"what"?, he was amazed and both the kids nodded together, "we want one room, hum ne raat ko batien karni hoti hain", this time it was paranv and this time mayank also smiled ,

"hmmm, do you both understand the meaning on one room?", mayank strictly looked at both of them and they were clueless of what should they know,

"you both will have to share things, you both will have to compromise, you both will have to be patient, can you both do that", he glared and both of them looked confused but again looking at each other they nodded, "yes we will", they said in chorus and nupur was impressed the way mayank was handling the kids. .

"and fights?, do you both promise not to fight"?, this time it was nupur, and both the kids turned towards nupur and nodded,

Okay then , you both can share a room" , mayank said and Rahul jumped to hug him, "thank u daddy", he was excited while paranv was excited too, but he was shy to hug mayank, and mayank sensing it, pulled him in a hug himself, which somewhat broke the apprehensions of paranv.

"okay now, lets shift your things, which room do u want?', nupur asked,

"paranv's room", Rahul said excitedly and all three of them were on the way to shift the room leaving mayank alone with a smile.

Mayank sighed and was happy at the bonding of the kids, but the next moment he realized he was alone in the room, and the first thing which struck his mind was SLEEPING PILLS ' they are with nupur .. her cupboard.

He knew this was wrong, but his head was hurting and he couldn't ask nupur to stroke his head everyday, and if not stroking then he had to take the sleeping pills.

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Nupur shifted a few things of rahul to pranav's room, assuring the kids that she will do full shifting tomorrow morning and tucking both of them in bed she kissed both their foreheads, and came out of the room, where she could hear their squealing.

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Mayank opened the cupboard, and it was full of her clothes, he displaced some of the clothes but couldn't find anything.

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On her way back to her room, nupur found that light of rahul's room was left on, she went to switch it off, but before she placed all his stuff toys in the basket when his hands sensed something hard in between the toys.

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Mayank was scanning his hands between her clothes to get the hint of something as a medicine bottle, but his hands struck something hard ' something as a photo frame.

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Nupur picked it up, her heart had suddenly started beating fast, she knew who it could be.

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Out of curiosity, he pulled out the photo frame, and it didn't take more than a second to assume who the smiling person in the picture was.

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This smile was so reminiscent to rahul's smile, and the woman in the picture was beautiful.

"kanchi .. nitesh..

They both took the names of the people who were .. the first love of their partners.

Chapter 8 - Page 44