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"Vigilant In Love!" - The Neo Diaries- An AvNeil Series
"Sugar!" - Chapter 1
*"My broken pieces...You pick them up..Don't leave me hanging, hanging...Come give me some...When I'm without you...I'm so insecure...You are the one thing, one thing...I'm living for...
"Avni!" called out Neil as he walked into their room. His mood was not good. In fact, his face resembled a thundercloud. He looked around the room for his wife and saw the bathroom door was closed. "Avni are you in there?" asked Neil, tapping on the door. He could hear some sound inside and he wanted to confirm she was in there. He turned the doorknob and it opened. Sometimes Avni didn't lock the bathroom door. After all, it was only the two of them that used this bathroom. So a lock was not really essential.
Neil heard the shower going and saw the silhouette of Avni in the shower. "Avni" he said again, his tone slightly stern. Hearing his voice, Avni turned off the shower. The tone of his voice alerted her to the fact that he was not happy. "Oh Oh..." thought Avni. "Sounds like he's really mad!"
"Yes Neil...give me a sec!" said Avni as she opened the shower door partially and realized the towel was out of reach. She would have to step out. "Neil...can you please pass me the towel?" she asked as she reached her hand out of the shower.
So now she didn't want to step out of the shower when he was in the room? Interesting. He knew Avni was modest, but she could be bold and naughty when required, and sometimes she came out of the shower when he was in the bathroom and got her towel herself. He remembered one time when he had been standing there and as soon as she had reached for the towel he had grabbed it off her and pushed her back into the shower again. Needless to say, they had been in there for the next 30 minutes and he had laughed at her saying he had got her dirty again. Normally that memory would make Neil smile but even the memory of that was not enough to get him out of his angry haze.
"Why don't you get it yourself?" snapped Neil. "Why so shy? It's nothing I haven't seen before!" he said.
"Neil!" said Avni, in a tone that indicated she did not want to play games.
"Fine!" said Neil as he took the towel and placed it on Avni's outstretched hand. Avni took it and closed the shower door and quickly dried herself. Then she wrapped the towel around herself and stepped out of the shower. As Neil heard the door open, he looked up and saw Avni in her towel. Her hair wet and droplets of water clinging to her skin, Avni looked beautiful. Neil felt himself react for a moment to the sight of his dewy wife. But he had to focus. He was angry with her and he was not going to let his guard down.
"What's up Neil? What's with the attitude?" asked Avni her brows raising.
"Outside. Now!" said Neil as he turned around and marched into the bedroom.
"Ok...!" said Avni with a roll of her eyes as she followed Neil. On the way she grabbed her robe from the towel rail on the back of the bathroom door and put it on, and pulled her towel off and hung it on the rail. She stepped out of the bathroom and walked into the room.
"So what's going on?" asked Avni and Neil turned around to look at her. He then saw that Avni was no longer in her towel but her black silk robe. It clung to her curves in all the right places. Water was still glistening on the skin of her neck and the V created by the robe, not to mention her damp hair was framing her face, her lips looked pink and slightly parted. For a second Neil found himself speechless, as he was struck by his wife's beauty and sheer desirability. Any other time and he would have reached for her and started by kissing off those drops of water clinging to her skin and then there wouldn't have been any conversation for the next half hour. But this was not any other time. He had a mission to accomplish and that was paramount. He closed his eyes to block off the alluring visual and opened them again when he was focused on the task at hand.
"Where were you?" he asked without any further ado.
"Out!" said Avni with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders.
"With?" asked Neil his brows raising.
"A friend!" said Avni.
"Who?"
"You don't know...him!" said Avni after a moment of hesitation.
"Really? Coz I thought I knew all your friends?"
"Well you thought wrong!" snapped Avni.
"Clearly!" Neil snapped back.
"Why this sudden curiosity to know about my friend? I do know people you don't know Neil and why do I feel this is an interrogation? What next? Will you bring the polygraph out too?"
"I might just do that!" said Neil.
"Ok that's it. Tell me what the hell the problem is!"
At that Neil snapped and moved forward and held Avni by her arms, bringing her close to him. He looked down at her. "The problem is that you were with him!" he said his eyes flashing.
"Him?"
"Neo!" said Neil as he looked at Avni with accusing eyes.
"How did you know about it?" asked Avni equally accusingly.
"Because muje har criminal ki kabar hai! Did you really think I wouldn't know where Neo was or where you are? I have been handling Vidyut's security for months. I know where he goes and where his stuff is going! So it's not rocket science to figure out where you are and who you're with! It's called Logic and 101 of policing!" said Neil with a sarcastic smile.
"So what if I went to meet him?" asked Avni defiantly. "I believe in what he's doing!"
"I told you I don't like you hanging around with that vigilante! It's not a good look if someone ever sees you or recognizes you!"
"I cover my face Neil...it's called logic and 101 of being a vigilante!" said Avni with a dry laugh.
"Stop being flippant Avni. You just got out of jail, you want to go back in again?" He asked raising his brows at her.
"Stop being such a killjoy! I've done this for years, and I know how to protect myself. As long as that Vidyut is not punished then I will make it my personal task to help anyone and everyone take him down. Neo is doing that and I won't stop helping him in any way I can!"
"Fine. Don't listen to me. Not like you ever did!" said Neil with a curl of his lips.
***FlashBack***
2 months before, Neela had found some evidence of Vidyut's illegal activities in Mexico, which she had given to Neil. Neil had wanted to call Vidyut and tell him he had information that can incriminate him but Neela had intervened and told him it was too risky to do this. She told Neil she would use her lawyer to contact Vidyut and say that she had hired private investigators to find out information about him and his illegal activities.
"No Neela Ma this is too risky, you can't approach Vidyut!" Neil had protested.
"No Neil, the risk is for you to approach him. If he becomes MLA he could turn this around and try to use it to harm your career. Who knows what spin he will put on the fact that you tried to blackmail him with information? I am a private citizen. I can hire anyone to look into anything. Plus I am rich, so I can afford it. Vidyut knows this too. So let me do this! I don't want you to risk losing your job over this Neil!" Neela had suggested wisely and in retrospect, Neil knew she had been right.
Neela's lawyer had approached Vidyut and said that Ms. Ayesha's Mother Ms. Parikh had information about his business in Mexico that could potentially damage his chances of becoming MLA, and that in exchange for her not handing this information to the Mumbai Police, she wanted him to present the evidence he has to absolve her daughter. Vidyut had been cornered and he had asked for 24 hours to make a decision.
Within 24 hours not Vidyut but Bhallu had confessed to the murder of Juhi. He had said that he shot Juhi and framed Avni on the behest of Ragini Pandit, who held her and Avni responsible for the closure of her trafficking business and for her being captured again. He had said that as her loyal employee, he was following orders. Vidyut made himself look good by bringing Bhallu in himself and saying he brought him in as soon as he found out he had committed this crime. He said that as a Law Abiding citizen, he could not hold on to this information, even if it implicated his Mother and her loyal employee.
"That bas***d Vidyut!" Neil had said to Neela. "I can't believe how he came out looking good from all this! But because of the deal you made with him, I can't even hand the evidence we have against him to Interpol. I am going to have to find out something else, something more. This means, I have to keep being Neo. This won't end till I get that bas***d and all his chamchas in jail!" Neil had said with fresh determination. Avni had been released and Neil had continued his nocturnal activities as Neo. Avni had returned to Khanna house, but Neil had never told her he was Neo.
***End of Flashback***
"Neil...I am just helping someone who is doing the right thing! Neo is our only hope of bringing down that felon Vidyut. After what he did to me, after his cheap offer, pushing you into arresting me, helping Neo is the least I can do!"
"Avni...I know why you are doing this, but you have to understand that being associated with a vigilante is not good for you. You are the wife of a senior police officer. If it ever comes out that you helped Neo, you may land in jail again!"
"That is a risk I am willing to take!" said Avni. "And this time I will have no issue being arrested or going to jail, because it's for the right reasons!" said Avni with conviction. Her eyes serious.
"You really believe in this guy don't you?" asked Neil, his eyes and tone equally serious.
"Yes I do. He's my Hero!" said Avni with feeling.
At this, Neil's eyes flashed. His displeasure clear. "Her Hero? Neo was her Hero? So what does that make him? (Neil...you ARE Neo), he chided to himself. (Yes but Avni doesn't know that). So technically another man was Avni's hero now?" Even if that man was him in another guise, Neil could not help feeling the burn.
"Anyone can be a vigilante!" said Neil in a cutting tone. "But bringing someone down within the bounds of the law is a lot harder!" (I should know) thought Neil.
"But sometimes the law doesn't work, and we have to bend the rules! You'll never understand this Neil, coz you are so textbook. But we need guys like Neo, just like we need gangs like Case 123. At one time you used to think of Ananya as a criminal too. So I guess Neo is just another criminal to you! But to me, he's a Hero!" said Avni.
"Yes of course, coz you identify with him!" said Neil.
"Yes, I do. We are the same, him and I! We have a bond!" said Avni with a small smile. Neil did not like the feeling behind that smile.
"A bond?" said Neil flippantly. Avni's clear affinity and rapport with Neo was starting to grate on him. Even though he was Neo, Avni didn't know this, and in essence, she was identifying with and finding a common connection with another guy. Neil was not the insecure or jealous type normally. But when it came to Avni he was. He could not help feeling a sense of insecurity that his wife preferred another man's company or more accurately felt a strong bond with a man other than himself. Yes, she had a close and unbreakable bond with Ali. He had learned to live with that. But that's all the competition he was willing to take. He didn't want to have to compete with his own outlaw self as well.
Something in his tone made Avni look at him closely.
"Oh my God!" said Avni looking at Neil with sudden clarity..."You're jealous!"
"NO!" said Neil. But even to his ears, it didn't sound convincing.
"Yes you are!" said Avni with a twist of her lips. "You so totally are! I should have realized this before!"
"What does that mean?" asked Neil.
"I mean, you used to be jealous of Ali...of course it makes sense that now you're jealous of Neo!" said Avni with a small laugh.
"I'm not jealous!" said Neil as he felt his face starting to warm under her gaze. (You have got to be F**king joking...) Neil told himself. (You're blushing? Stop it Neil!)
"You're blushing!" said Avni as she started to giggle.
"I'm not blushing!" said Neil his teeth gritting.
"Awww...Neil...your so cute!" said Avni as she moved closer and placed her lips against his warm cheek.
As she started to move away, Neil cupped the side of her face and brought it closer to him. He captured her mouth in a short but passionate kiss, at the end of which Avni was left breathless as she looked up at him dazed.
"Does he make you feel like that?" whispered Neil holding her gaze.
"He hasn't kissed me yet!" Avni whispered back.
"And he never will!" said Neil his jaw hardening as his eyes flashed.
"Don't be so sure!" said Avni as she stepped away from Neil and giving him a small wink walked towards the cupboard to get her clothes. She went towards the bathroom and stepping through the door, she looked back at Neil and gave a small laugh before closing the door. He heard the sound of a click which indicated she had locked the door.
Neil started at the door and then ran his hands through his hair as he looked up at the ceiling.
"Was Avni falling for Neo?" The very thought was unpalatable to him. Just like Superman was Clark Kent, Batman was Bruce Wayne and Spiderman was Peter Parker, Neo was actually Neil Khanna. He now understood why those men had never wanted their love interest to love their vigilante self, but their "Real" self. Because who he really was, was Neil, and he wanted Avni to love Neil. Not Neo!
Inside the bathroom, Avni leaned against the door and smiled. "Gotcha!" she thought to herself. "Neil...my darling...you are a very intelligent man...lekin aap se bhi zyada akalmand loag hai! Now this game will continue, until you yourself crack and tell me that your Neo! Until then, prepare to burn, coz this time, Ananya won't be holding back!"she told herself with a laugh.
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*Lyrics derived from the song "Sugar by Maroon 5 - Album "V - 2014
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Hi everyone,
I'm back! Even I can't believe I got enough inspiration to start another story. This will again be several shots on how Neil is jealous of Avni's growing closeness to Neo, little knowing Avni knows who he is. But she is playing a game with Neil to make him tell her he is Neo.
Please give me your feedback and let me know what you think!
Cheers
Mandy the Banker, now again a writer! 😊
DO NOT COPY THIS POST AS IT IS EXCLUSIVE TO INDIA FORUMS.
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"Vigilant In Love!" - The Neo Diaries - Index
"Sweet Punishment!" - Chapter 4
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"Say My Name!" - My AvNeil-NK Index
Shiv Shakti
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
