Hey guys! Silent reader (for the most part) on the forum, but been craving to write something on these two! Hope it's not absolutely terrible! Thank you for reading x
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lessons in humanity.
baat jaisi bemaaeni baat aur kya hogi,
baat se mukarney mein dair kitni lagti hai.
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He's got a hundred rules and she doesn't even fit in the crevice of any of them, he thinks.
It's not the most shocking realisation in the world, he knows that, but it's awfully hard to ignore when he starts to find her everywhere he looks - from the living room downstairs and the hallways to the kitchen, even, when she's sorting the cutlery for Tia or checking preparations Shivaay can't even begin to comprehend.
He's made it a point to stop walking past the room she temporarily inhabits, one that's always so bright he thinks it could light up a little village, because Rudra's got the incredulous idea that Shivaay is incapable of going a day without fighting with Annika. He struggles to make him understand that it's the fact that she can't do anything right, that all she's done is cause problems for him from the day he's met her, but Rudra, in some seemingly misplaced show of loyalty and devotion, declares that Shivaay's the only one that's been going out of his way to make her life hell.
"You didn't have to send her to jail, Shivaay," Om reprimands, and God, as if his entire family is still stuck on that one incident. Shivaay would like to tell them all about her other wrongs but Rudra'd probably compare him to Darr's Shahrukh Khan again and he realises that he can live his entire life without being compared to an obsessive villain so he bites his lip and frowns.
It'll take ages to make both Rudra and Om realise where he's coming from, anyway, and Shivaay realises that he really doesn't have the time for that.
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He wakes up with a startle.
Granted, he shouldn't even be surprised, because he's got more of a history with interrupted sleep than anyone else in this house, except perhaps Tej. Still, he flounces a bit on the bed, tries to locate his phone in his half-lidded daze.
Rudra chuckles over his head and his eyes instantly snap open to see the overgrown child towering over him like the 5'11 giant Shivaay had only hoped to become when he was little.
"Kya hai, Rudra?" He asks, voice as hoarse as ever. There's an underlying threat in it, too, because Rudra knows better than to wake up before his will on a Sunday. Still, he remains unaffected and points to the phone in his hand, instead.
"Lady Baba ka phone hai," he says simply, but there's a laugh in his voice like he's almost seconds away from teasing Shivaay again, so he takes the phone from his hand before he can come up with anything ridiculous while his girlfriend's on the other line.
"Jaao," he mouths, pointing towards the door. "I'll come hand it over when I'm done."
His youngest brother walks out obediently and it's only when he's out of sight that Shivaay turns his complete attention to the phone.
"Tia?" He asks, and he hopes he doesn't sound as sleep-rumpled as he feels, tries to clear his throat to project the semblance of some normalcy. "Itni subaah phone kiya?"
"Shivaay baby!" She shrieks, and it's not unusual but still early enough that he has to pull the phone away from his ear with a grimace. "Mein kabse phone karrahi hoon tumhe! I was so worried! Acha hua Rudra ne phone utha liya."
"Hm, acha hua," he's mumbling, he thinks. "Batao, kya hua hai?"
"I need you to talk to Annika about some changes in the wedding decor," she says, and Shivaay groans involuntarily at the sound of her name.
"I think you should do it," he says blankly.
"I've been trying," she explains politely. Shivaay sometimes wonders what she eats because he's only ever seen her lose her temper once, he could learn a thing or two, probably. "She's not answering her phone. Woh jab tumhare ghar aye tou tum bata dena. Please, baby! I'm flying to Delhi to see the designer."
Shivaay turns to the wall clock. It's 9:48, which means he has roughly twelve minutes until Annika's barging into his house, and his life, again. He sighs but hopes it isn't audible - she'll drive him mad one of these days, that he knows.
Tia continues talking like his opinion of Annika is the least of her concerns and rattles on about the changes he needs to ask her to make. He repeats them after her when she insists and rolls his eyes throughout, convinced he's not sounded this much like a child since he was ten years old.
"I've got to go now, baby," she says when she's sure he's got everything right. "You take care, love you!"
"Take care," Shivaay says distractedly, sorting through what he can wear around the house after his shower. She hangs up without another word and he tosses the phone towards his bed, already rolling his eyes at the thought of the human tornado that he finds in his way at least once a day.
When he rushes down the stairs half an hour later, he's already expecting to find Annika in the living room with Daadi, discussing invitees or gifts or whatever she's been hired for in the first place, but he's greeted by the sight of Rudra on the couch with his headphones in his ear.
She's fifteen minutes late, he deduces, and is just about to express his displeasure at her lack of professionalism when she walks in through the main door, dishevelled like he's never seen her.
She has a moment or two of being distracted before she realises she's reached her destination. Shivaay's watching, has his face composed and ready for a quick jibe by her, but she turns frantic almost instantaneously, eyes glancing around the room like she's searching for something she can't seem to find.
"Hello?" He asks monotonously. "Oberoi Mansion pehli baar dekha hai kya?"
It's a cutting taunt and he's ready for her to fight back but she meets his eyes and she looks lost. "Daadi hain ghar pe? Mujhe unse baat karni hai."
She's probably upstairs, he knows that, but he shakes his head. "Kya kaam hai?"
At his pointed retort, she seems to get some of her trademark fiery annoyance back. "Mujhe Daadi se kaam hai, aapse nahin. Please unhein bulaaiye."
The please is only said as a formality, he knows this, but he can hear Rudra shuffling off the couch to find Daadi, so he takes a second to look at her form. She seems like a mess in the same clothes she wore yesterday, hair tied up in a bun atop her head and eyes bloodshot like she hasn't slept a wink.
He thinks that if he cared for her, he'd almost be worried.
Before he can say anything about it, though, Daadi's rushing towards her almost immediately. "Bolo beta," she's asking, maternal as always, but her voice's taking on a worried tinge like it does when her grandkids are concerned. Shivaay wonders when Annika became just as dear to her.
"Daadi, aap aaj gifts ko dekh lijye ga. Maine kuch cheezein order ki hain, woh baara baje tak ayengi. Pinky aunty ki cheezon ka bhi order de diya hai, woh paanch baje tak deliver hongi."
She's talking faster than usual but Daadi follows her every instruction. "Tumhe kuch kaam hai aaj?"
Before she can answer, Shivaay's already interrupting the flow. "Isse kya kaam hoga? Jo kaam hai woh tou theek se hota nahin hai."
She ignores him like he'd never spoken and turns her attention to Daadi instead. "Saahil hospital mein hai. Raat ko admit kiya tha lekin abhi tak discharge nahin karrahe. Shayad aaj bhi poora din wahin rahe tou main aaj nahin aapaongi."
Shivaay's startled when he looks up but her eyes are fixed on Daadi as she apologises, who waves everything off and tells her off for coming all the way instead of calling.
"Poori raat phone charge nahin kiya tha issi liye band para hai. Socha aake aap logon ko bataadoon warna aap wait karengi."
Daadi slaps her head lightly but she's touched, he knows it, and Annika's just making her way out the door when Rudra calls out after her.
"Aap kaise jaogi hospital?" He's asking, concerned as always, and Shivaay doesn't say it enough but his little one's got the purest heart he's ever seen. "Main chor doon?"
The refusal's at the tip of Annika's tongue, it's obvious, but Shivaay speaks before she can. "Tum rehne do, Rudra." Her eyes almost turn steely when she looks at him and there! Finally something other than the despair he's seen on her face since she's walked in. Satisfied, he continues, "Mein iske saath jaata hoon."
Three pairs of eyes are going to bulge out of their sockets, he knows, and they follow him as he walks away to get his keys and makes his way back, but nobody says a word. Even Annika, who he's surprised hasn't tried her hand at a useless refusal he's not going to pay heed to anyway, hasn't said a word.
"Chalein?" He asks pointedly and there must be something normal in it for her to calm down and nod.
"Thank you," she says, and it's aimed at both him and Daadi but he silently leads the way.
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They drive there in silence, the kind he didn't think he'd ever think he'd be blessed with around her.
It's a bit unusual too, if he's being honest, because he's so used to taking every opportunity to fight with her head on, that the silence seems a little like wasted potential. He'd spared a glance at her, when they were caught before the traffic lights, but she'd seemed lost to the world and it'd been so reminiscent of himself after the Om incident that he'd looked away without saying anything.
She turns to him incredulously when he parks the car instead of stopping at the drop off, but he ignores it and steps out of it before she can. She rushes out, too, but Shivaay can see her priorities shift instantly. With another thank you that sounds so foreign he almost can't believe it's the same girl he's known for weeks, she rushes inside with complete disregard to whether he's coming or not. Shivaay doesn't rush, can see her dark hair through the crowd he walks through and follows quietly, uncomfortably reminded of his stay here when he was poisoned.
Annika comes to a halt outside one of the doors and Shivaay stops too, watches her watch the boy inside helplessly. She would do anything she could to get him out, Shivaay knows, because her desperation reminds him of his own from a few weeks ago, but she chooses to walk inside with heavy steps, more tired and worn out than he's ever seen her.
If this was an argument between them, she would've stood with her back straight, head held high and eyes piercing into his, unwilling to give up for fear of seeming weak, but now the fight's knocked out of her. She must know that he's still around but it doesn't seem like it even crosses her mind when she curls up on the chair beside the bed, hands clutching her brother's fingers.
In his entire thirty two years of living, Shivaay Singh Oberoi has never felt like an intruder, but something about the scene before him has him looking away. Maybe it's the unfamiliarity at finding her in no control of herself or maybe it's the fact that he never thought he'd ever witness it - never thought he'd ever see this strong, loud, arrogant and infuriating girl being rendered speechless.
It's the first time he's seen it and he surprises himself when he involuntarily looks away, unwilling to observe any more.
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He's probably been outside for a total of five minutes when she comes back out.
"Ghare jaiye, SSO," she says, and hearing her not addressing him as Baagad Billa is a surprise in itself, he realises. "Mujhe yahaan chorne ke liye thank you."
He dismisses her thank you in his head and eyes her critically.
"Doctors ne kya kaha?"
He surprises himself with the question - he doesn't care, a voice in his head whispers, surely he shouldn't be acting like he does - but she answers solemnly. "Chaar ya paanch ghante lagenge, phir I can take him home."
He nods like he does when a deal goes the way he wants it to, and he's reaching for a pen instantly. When he can't seem to locate paper in his pocket, he excuses himself to the reception a few steps away and asks for some. When he makes his way back to her, she's looking at him like he's the strangest man she's ever met.
He's used to ignoring her, he thinks, so he doesn't say anything even when he can feel her eyes burning a hole in the back of his head while he scribbles onto the paper and turns to her as professionally as he knows how.
"Yeh number hai mera," he says simply. "Jaane ka time ho tou call karlena. Driver ajayega tumhe ghar chorne."
Before she can say anything, he cuts through with a, "Use the hospital phone, it's allowed."
He leaves the paper on the chair they're standing next to and walks away almost instantly, running his fingers through his hair.
When she calls out, predictably to say thank you for the third time in the day, he pretends he's too far away to hear.
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There, all done! Let me know if you liked/hated it! Thank you x
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