Updated (Ch 17) Aastha and Shlok FF - Match Made In Heaven *pg51 - Page 22

Here is the next chapter. Sory if it's too long.😆

Match Made in Heaven - Chapter 14

When Astha at last returned home, it was to find that the rest of her family members along with Abhay and Raj had gotten together to throw her a welcome home party.

She was very happy despite her state.

She was surprised when Abhay came and hugged her when she walked into the door. They had become very close in the last few weeks.

Astha didn't have a brother but she figured that if she did have one, she wanted a brother just like Abhay. It seemed that Abhay and Shlok never got along before and since Abhay found out from Joti how Shlok had been treating her, his hatred for Shlok had only intensified. He took on the role of Astha's protector

Astha sighed, and shook her head.

She was happy enough to sit through the inquiries after her health. She blushed once at praise from Raj, and shared an amused glance with Joti. She was eager to be alone, and so pled a headache - which was really non-existent - and excused herself, making her way up to her room. It wasn't that she really wanted to spend anymore time in bed than she'd already been forced to, but it was the one place she'd not be disturbed.

She was settling into her bed when Joti entered the room. But she wasn't really surprised to see her. They hadn't spoken in some time, and the look on the older girl's face told her she was itching to talk.

"So," Joti began, "was placing the flowerpot at the right spot worth spending two weeks in the hospital?"

Astha sighed exasperatedly. "Of course it was. And I'm not in the mood for any lectures about personal safety, either, thanks."

Joti bit her lip. "I wasn't going to 'lecture' you. I just wanted to know if I could do anything for you. You look down."

"I am down," Astha moaned, resisting the urge to bury her head beneath her blankets.. "Shlok came to see me." She snuck a hesitant look at her friend.

"This is bad?" Joti arched her brows in a pitying manner.

Astha shook her head, staring at her hands, plucking at her blanket. "I don't know,"

"Well? What happened?" The girl settled on the edge of her bed and looked at her expectantly.

Astha shook her head, and then added in disgruntlement, "I finally found out why he's been paying me so much attention to me"

"And?"

"He said he did it because Raj challenged that a girl like me would never fall in love with a guy like him and he set out to win the challenge." Astha flopped back fully onto her pillows and stared at the canopy.

"Obviously...I was giving him more credit than he deserved, I supposed." Joti looked at her thoughtfully. "I really thought he was in love with you."

"Yeah, well. I guess it worked, in his favor, anyway. I should have known. He claims he 'can't' love anyone."

"That's the biggest lie I've ever heard," Joti said in outrage.

"I think he really does believe it." Astha rolled onto her stomach with a very slight wince, and sighed.

"He's scared," Joti commented wisely.

"He is - he admitted it."

Joti looked at her in surprise. "He admitted it?"

"Yep."

"So he doesn't want to 'see' you anymore?"

"Not at all. He just wants an understanding, I think," Astha said bitterly. "He wants me, but on the grounds that he doesn't have to make any kind of commitment. That's what I got out of it, anyway. He doesn't understand why I'm angry about being used, either."

"What did you say to him?"

"Not much...he told me to come and 'talk' to him when I've grow up a bit. Accused me of being immature." Red stained her cheeks at the memory.

Joti said something very rude beneath her breath.

Her lips quirked into an unwilling smile.

"I'm not going to worry about it," she said after a long pause. "I'm going to forget all about him, completely ignore the miserable sot - "

"Right - so why are you wearing his necklace?" Joti asked primly.

Astha froze, and then rolled her eyes. "I hadn't meant for anyone to see that," she muttered finally, reaching up to finger the warm ornament.

"I'm sure you didn't," the other girl remarked dryly.

Astha sighed gustily. "God, what am I going to do? He's going to drive me crazy, I swear!"

"From the way you've been acting, I'd say there's a fair chance he already has," mumbled Joti beneath her breath as she patted her hand in friendly commiseration.

Joti sighed. "Listen, I'm going to go and let you sleep - I'll come and wake you for dinner, all right?"

Astha covered her face with the pillow again and listlessly waved her on.

When she was again alone, she listened to the blissful silence around her and drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

Two Weeks Later...

Astha was once again in the garden tending to her favorite white roses, lost in blissfulness.

She heard footstep and turned around to see Shlok walking along the garden.

Shlok grinned wickedly . He caught sight Astha looking across at him and allowed himself to look his fill. Her cheeks were wind burned, her flaming brown hair wild and tangled and catching the sunlight like a multi-faceted diamond, sparking embers of lighter and darker red and orange throughout the soft mass.

She tried to hood her eyes as she watched him, but he could see her looking at him curiously, her soft brandy brown eyes steady. Shlok ran his eyes over the length of her legs peeking from beneath the salwar, and slowly, deliberately lifted his hand, pushing his hair from his face to let her see exactly where his eyes were directed.

Astha actually flinched, and hurriedly turned so that he was facing her slender back.

Shlok thought for a moment, and a slow smile slid across his lips. So...his wife was again frightened of him - it made sense, he thought. In the past three weeks since that day he saw her in the hospital, Astha had done her best not to come anywhere near him.

She was probably worried about getting attached to him again. He'd hurt her - he hadn't really meant to, but he hadn't really cared rather, to be truthful - she'd just been a means to an end. 'She still could be,' he told himself thoughtfully.

He couldn't decide whether or not he liked the thought of her being scared of him again. Few months ago he would have gone out of his way to terrify her had he found out, but now -

Astha was standing nearly behind him, staring.

Shlok let his eyes lock with hers for just a moment, then he dropped his - and caught sight of a silvery glint at her throat. The sight of his necklace against her skin made him pause as a surge of possessiveness streaked through him. In the end, his pride won out, as it always did, and he walked away.

**

It was hard to believe it was Diwali already.

Astha was to spend the 2 weeks at her parents for the Diwali. And she was surprised when Varad and Joti announced that they will be coming along with her as well. She had to invite Raj and Abhay and was even more shocked when they said yes was well. So it was decided that Varad along with Sojal and the rest of the gang would be spending two weeks at her parents home.

Anjali and Niranjal were to go away for that two weeks to visit the family ancestor temple so it was perfect.

It was during breakfast, while listening to the excited chatter of the others surrounding her, that she the thought first occurred to her.

Where would Shlok be spending Diwali?

Astha looked over at where at sat, bordered by unsympathetic 'friends', looking apathetic, indifferent, to his hostile surroundings.

She felt her heart quicken as she watched his lips curl into a mocking smirk - which was coincidentally, currently aimed her way.

Astha cursed beneath her breath as his gaze settled on her, and she automatically dropped her eyes. Why was she acting like a frightened little girl around him again? Nothing had changed between them not really - except for the fact they weren't speaking or kissing at extremely inconvenient intervals...

Perhaps it hadn't been such a great idea to come shopping to buy Diwali presents for everyone.

"Don't look so down, Astha," Joti said from the opposite side. "You got everyone a gift - you should be pleased."

'Everyone but him,' Astha told herself silently. She hadn't told Joti she'd really been looking for a present for Shlok - she wanted to be spared that pitying look her friends face took on whenever she mentioned him.

She couldn't concentrate on anything- she was still distracted by thoughts of Shlok. Really, what did one buy a man who had everything?

Well, everything but-

"THAT'S IT!" Astha exclaimed in a loud, victorious shout.

Astha was too excited to care. "Come on - we have to get back home!"

"What is it?" Joti demanded as Astha collected their packages and threw open door. "You're acting very strange - "

"I am!" Astha all but crowed. "I am absolutely, undeniably, certifiably nutters - but that's it, Joti! God, I wish I'd thought of it before!" She hurried down the crowded street.

"Astha, wait! What are you talking about?"

Astha paused, breathing hard and grinned back over her shoulder at Joti.

A wicked light sparkled in her brown eyes, and an excited flush had risen in her cheeks. Joti couldn't help but grin back at the ther girl - it had to be the first time in months she'd seen Astha so - animated.

"You're going to think me completely mad - but I've been thinking, you know, about getting Shlok something for Diwali. I mean, he hasn't got anyone to celebrate it with this year right since everyone will be away? I couldn't not get him anything - "

"Of course not," Joti said agreeably, wondering what had gotten into her friend.

"But, I couldn't find anything! Nothing! All day long, we've been at it, and I couldn't find one single, solitary thing worthy of him - "

Joti had to suppress a heartfelt sigh. Shlok Agnigotri was such an idiot! Here Astha was, positively agonizing over the fact that he just had to have a present for Diwali, acting so patently in love and so unselfish it made her own chest ache in reaction to the injustice of it all, and he thought she was immature?

" - so simple - "

Joti shook her head and stamped her feet. He did not deserve Astha at all...

" - just call Mum, she would be so happy, after I explain - "

Really, that Astha could even think about the wretched boy in a kindly manner after all he'd done was unbelievable!

" - home, with us!"

Joti only just barely managed to catch herself before she tripped.

"You what?"

"You what?"

Two pairs of eyes stared at her dumbly across the hall.

Astha grinned unrepentantly at the two men gawping at her. It was certainly a moment to savor - it wasn't often a girl could shock Raj and Abhay into absolute silence.

"I said, I'm inviting Shlok to come stay with us at my home for Diwali."

Abhay snapped his mouth closed and then shook his fist at her in an almost comical fashion, he was so infuriated.

"We are going to you house so that you will be happy. How will you be happy with Shlok around to harass you !"

Raj finally blinked. "Abhay's right - it's really not a good idea, Astha - "

"It will be ok. My parents will be upset if I don't take him with me. I don't want then to worry about anything."

"Sure. Why not?"

Astha, who'd been wincing slightly and holding her breath, let it out with a big gush.

"Really?" She eyeballed the man who was most likely the instrument of her own destruction, suspiciously. That had been far too easy...

She had found him walking out of the dining Hall, and asked him point blank to come home with her over the holidays. His only reaction had been a tiny widening of the eyes.

Her nerves jangled insanely beneath her skin as he looked down on her with those cold eyes that suddenly didn't seem so very cold at all.

"Yes, really...I always wondered how the commoners lived..." he drawled in amusement.

"Shlok - " Astha began in angry exasperation.

"I was only kidding, Astha, really. But I do have to wonder at the sudden change of heart...I thought you were hell bent on hating me."

She looked up at him with a small smile. "And I have to wonder at the speed of your acceptance - I thought you had decided I was 'immature'.

She watched his lips twist, and then he smiled at her ruefully. "I was rather pissed off at the time,"

"Me too," she said. "But, it's Diwali, and I think that we should be able to set aside our differences for a few weeks, don't you?"

Shlok gave a small nod.

Astha gave him another smile, and before she could stop herself, leaned upward to press a kiss to his lean jaw. "Be ready in the morning - I'll meet you in the dining hall."

She was already walking away before he could say anything, and it was a good thing too because she barely made it out of sight before her knees gave way and she had to collapse on a sofa between bedroom.

She'd actually gone and done it - Shlok Agnigotri was going in her own house.

Forget that he'd used her, forget that he 'could' be an arrogant little prick -

Shlok was coming home for Diwali!

Shlok stared after Astha as an all too pleasant tingle raced its way through his body.

He was still in shock that she'd actually invited him to share Diwali with her. He'd hidden it well, sure, but the surprise was still there - and what the bloody hell had possessed him to accept?

Diwali was just another day, after all.

Shlok swallowed a snort and realized his eyes were still attached to Astha's gently swaying bottom as she walked quickly away. He cursed and mentally shook himself.

It took him a few minutes, but he finally managed to get his straying feelings under control.

Later, in his bed that night, Shlok lay pondering the creature that was Astha Kiloskar. She was rare, he had to admit - rare in her feelings, in her stubborn but eventual forgiveness, her wit and way of speaking. Her fiery looks were hard to knock as well...

Shlok closed his tired eyes and smothered an ignoble yawn - he hadn't wantedto think of the other thing, either, but his mind was just so naturally devious, so well trained to seek out the possible usefulness of others towards his own ends, that the thought had just popped right into his head.

He felt a lazy, unfriendly smile curl one end of his lips as he began to drift off to sleep.

The holiday at Astha's house would give him the perfect chance to aggravate the hell out of Raj and Abhay.

Life was good again.

All thanks to Astha, of course...

__

Originally posted by: Vsoujanya

Awww! I love that Shlok is just as affected by Astha as she is affected by him. I can't wait for the Diwali update. Im sooo excited, hope all the gang make it back in one piece.i hope to read an update super soon. 😆