AryLie OS - Laughter

Everyone knew Aryan Singh Rathore did not smile.

Imlie knew Aryan Singh Rathore did not smile in front of the world.

Imlie knew Aryan Singh Rathore did not smile in front of the world because his smile was reserved for only two people in this world.

His mother and his sister.

And why wouldn't he, they were amazing people. People who could make him smile at their weird antics. People who could make him smile only sometimes.

Yes, Aryan Singh Rathore did not smile, especially not in front of the world, but the people he did smile for, those people also did not make his lips twitch for more than a few seconds.

She had never seen Aryan Singh Rathore smile in front of the world.

She had seen him smile only in front of his sister and his mother.

She had never seen him laugh.

Until then.

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Contrary to popular belief, Imlie knew when to start talking and when to stop. It was just that she didn't like to listen to that voice inside of her sometimes. Maybe most of times.

Today was such day. She knew she didn't need to talk, she knew that it could be dangerous to talk in such way, but she also knew that if she did not talk she would regret it.

So here she was, in a Delhi State Transport Bus, going to research for an article, to an orphanage, which may or may not be involved in human trafficking, and for the life of her, she couldn't be more focused on her work, now more than ever.

If it weren't for egoistic, narcisstic and misogynistic b*st*rds, she probably wouldn't have interfered. Interfered where a man, who could easily weigh like a 100 kilos, was occupying a seat specifically reserved for pregnant women, while a pregnant woman, eight months if the belly indicated anything, stood there, waiting for him to vacate it.

These men were plain stupid. And she did not know how women in working class dealt with them. But some men were not stupid and asked the 100 kilo ka bhoj to get up from the seat, and while doing this he also placated the fire inside of Imlie to make the stupid 100 kilo ka bhoj in this duniya to 100 kilo ka bhoj in another duniya.

But alas, she was too quick to feel placated. Because the 100 kilo ka bhoj was not only a b*st*rd, he was an opinionated b*st*rd.

An opinionated b*st*rd who began ranting, "Kyun, main kyu uthu? Pehle main chada tha iss bus main to pehle seat bhi mujhe hi milni chahiya naa. And waise bhi agar pregnant ladies ko itna hi shauk hain kaam karne ka, toh woh khadi bhi reh sakti hain. Warna jaaye apne ghar aur waha baithe, jitni marzi utni der baithe. Main nahi uthunga."

Imlie was so angry, and she was also ready to fight this 100 kilo ka bhoj when an idea struck her. She knew it was stupid and likely result in either bloodshed or just plain humiliation, but the idea was now stuck in her head. Like a parasite.

She moved towards the commotion and stopped the not-stupid man from talking, interrupting him, she said, "Arey kya kare hai didi aap, dekh nahi sakat hai ki ee saheb garbvati rahe." And as soon as she said this the 100 kilo ka bhoj spluttered while the woman laughed.

She did not stop at that and continued while looking at the 100 kilo ka bhoj, "Arey konu baat nahi saheb, aap eeha baithan rahiye, aakhir aap ka pet kahat hai, ke aap nau mahine se garbvati hain. Waise maanna pade hai sahab apko, kaise kar liye aap, humein to samaj aahe khaatir thoda waqat laage, par hum ab samaj gaye hai. Waise humein ee kahen toh nahi chahat hai, par kaa hain naa, desh ka sawaal hai. Ka hai na humaari desh ki jon population hai naa, woh bahut badi jawat hai. Toh apni ghode ko thoda lagam dijiyega."

At that everyone in the bus was laughing. She could hear the pregnant woman laughing, and the not-stupid man too.

But she could only see 100 kilo ka bhoj spluttering more and more, going red from the top of his ears to his cheeks. He looked at the audience they had and then at her. Pointing his finger at her he quickly got off the bus at the next stop.

The pregnant woman thanked her before settling down in the vacated seat and she gestured that it was nothing, while the not-stupid man stole furtive glances at her.

Throughout the journey to her stop she could feel eyes on her, but thankfully, she could also feel that they weren't malicious.

But what she had failed to notice that a girl had recorded the entire show in her phone.

And maybe this could come back to bite her in her ass.

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The thing was Imlie was so used to having a faulty support system that she didn't know what to do with it when provided with a functional one.

She was not used to people waiting on her.

She was not used to people waiting for her.

And she had told so when she had began residing in Aryan Singh Rathore's house. No, not to him, but to his mother and his sister.

And yet they insisted on doing so. Everyday.

The problem was that Imlie was not used to sharing her problems with people, but when they ate, they insisted on talking about the problems they had faced that day, even when the one to whom the problems were shared with could not understand half of them.

Like how Narmada shared her woes of not having a bahu, and how Aryan ignored half of her rant.

Like how Arpita was worried about her mother's insistance on getting Aryan married, and how Aryan did not want to get married.

Like how half the time Aryan talked about business, etc and all the three women ignored him.

Like how Imlie just had a hunch regarding a topic and how Aryan just asked how many people would like to read it.

And so, dinner time usually was the three women chatting and insisting Aryan speak, and then trying to shut him up when he spoke only to talk figures and numbers. But it always began with Narmada pouting and complaining about another society girl her beloved son has rejected. So imagine her surprise when Arpita directly asked her how her day was.

And she was also not the only one confused too. Aryan looked equally clueless.

Aryan questioned his sister on what she was on about when Arpita told Aryan that she was,

" Kaa... terendering?" Imlie asked, unclear.

Arpita laughed and said, "Trending, matlab, social media main jab sab tumhari baat kar rahe hain. Jaise ki aaj, tum twitter par trending ho."

She only understood half of what Arpita said and turned to look at Aryan, only to see him shocked. He looked at Arpita and said, "Twitter par pregnant women trending hai Di." and then he turned to look at her and said, "Tum pregnant ho?"

Indignant, Imlie's eyes widened and the exclaimed, "Kaa, hum garbvati? Nahin hum toh..." and then Arpita laughed again and said, "Aisa kuch nahi hai Aru, ek baar khol ke toh dekho."

Imlie too, unsure of what was going on, leaned to her left to look at Aryan's phone. They were almost leaning on each other. This made Arpita and Narmada share a look, finding it amusing that their Aru was letting anyone so close to his person.

They watched them watch the video showing why Imlie was trending. They watched Imlie lean back in her chair as she realised what she was watching. They watched Aryan's demeanor change as he played the video again.

They watched Aryan's posture loose as he played the video a third time.

They watched Aryan loose it when he watched the video a fourth time.

Aryan Singh Rathore, laughing.

Not just laughing with his mouth, but with his whole body. He was not just laughing, no, his eyes were twinkling, his shoulders were shaking, his hand not holding the phone was slapping against the dinner table. His head was leaned back as he guffawed.

Imlie was stunned. She had never seen him laugh, she had hardly ever seen him smile, but at that moment, in that moment, watching him laugh, she knew what Narmada and Arpita were on about. She realised the truth of their statements.

She could see that Aryan laughed like a man who was out of practise.

She could not take off her eyes of his laughter, nor could she be deaf to the sounds she never knew he could make.

She looked at Narmada and Arpita and felt like she was intruding on a private moment. She could see how they were hiding their tears behind their laughs. She could see the tears of happiness as they laughed along with their son and brother, probably for the first time in a long time.

Imlie was pushed out of her thoughts when Aryan looked at her with the same laughter in his eyes and said, "Tum na kamaal ho Imlie. Jungli but kamaal."

And Imlie felt overwhelmed. She knew she should be used to praise now. After coming to Delhi, she had been praised as much as humiliated, but she still was more used to humiliation than praise.

So she did what she always did, shrugged and ducked into her food.

She listened to Aryan's laugh die down, chuckle by chuckle. She turned to look at him and watched the realisation on his, for once, unguarded face. She watched him as he physically pulled himself back inside.

She didn't know what possessed her then, but she was desperate to not let him pull himself back, back to how he was when they first met.

She grabbed his arm, his bare forearm, and said, "Tum jab hase rahe toh tum bhi kamaal lagat rahe. Tumka tumhar hasee itna sambhal ke rakhe ki konu zaroorat nahi hai boss babu."

Maybe she had gone mad but she moved her hand from his forearm, to his head and ruffled his hair a bit. And never had Imlie saw a person look more like a cornered animal before than Aryan looked like in that moment.

Slowly retreating her hand and ducking back into her food, she kept silent throughout the entire meal. Strange from her, but this family was a little bit used to her, just as she was to them.

Nothing more significant happened after that, apart from Aryan behaving a bit strangely. But that was neither here nor there.

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It was much later, when Imlie was in her room and just waiting for her mother's call that she got a group message, and when she checked it, it was that video. Avoiding the gossip that was prone to happen over the video, she thought back to dinnertime.

She couldn't help but chuckle at the echo of her boss's laughter. But she did stop when she realised what she was chuckling at.

No no no no no no no, this could not be happening, she could not be feeling anything, she had no place in her heart, mind and soul for another person. She did not want another person in her heart, not after when the last one had evacuated it so abruptly, leaving her heartbroken and regretful.

Just no.

But she couldn't get the image of him laughing out of her mind.

She could not stop thinking how he looked so much younger, so much near his real age, with his body shaking in laughter and eyes twinkling.

Ugh, Sitaa Maiya. Why?

She knew it would come back to bite her in her ass.

And bite her it did.

Sorry for the weird split posts, but this error called spam contents are not allowed would not let me post that together.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy it...😊

Bookmarking. Will come back to this tomorrow.

Nice... Keep it up...😊

That was great and very cute!! I couldn't stop laughing 🤣

Woah, what a lovely OS !!! and I would love to see ASR smile and laugh in real too.
really liked it !!👏
keep writing more author!!🤗

love,

lez ❤️