How it all begins - AKA "When boredom strikes, Khushi becomes extra creative and Arnav is a mumbling mess and pretty much nods to everything Khushi says."
"Khushi, can you get the operations manager of our eastern facility to send me STITS project report?" Arnav said while walking into Khushi's office.
"Like right now?" Khushi asked, eyes glued to her laptop.When Arnav had upgraded his laptop because the new one he had set his eyes on was fancier and shinier than the almost two year old one, he had passed on his old laptop to Khushi much to her delight. Naturally she had taken it to their IT department, formatted it, upgraded it using Arnav's personal credit card and made it work better. Arnav had pouted for a week.
"If it isn't an inconvenience for you. Because, you know, I am not your boss or anything." Arnav said sarcastically."Sir, are you going through that phase of reminding every person around here that you own this company and talk about yourself in third person?" Khushi replied cheekily without bothering to look up and continued to read.
Arnav huffed in response and flumped on a chair. "What is that you are reading that's gotten you so engrossed in it?" Arnav asked rubbing his forehead. "Another harlequin romance?" He sniggered at his suggestion.
"Check your email. I have sent you the link to the stuff I am reading." Khushi mumbled a response and went back to her reading.It took fifteen minutes for Arnav to formulate a response.
"What the f**k is a fan fiction?" Arnav squinted at his laptop screen hoping to find an answer in there. Nope. There weren't any. There were some awfully written sex scenes that had gotten male anatomy completely wrong and female anatomy overtly exaggerated. He imagined the scene in his mind and couldn't fathom how two people could possibly perform the act unless the breasts of the woman were in constant motion all across her torso and they both had hands that reached their knees. He wondered if he could leave a review or draw a picture to the author so that they could fix the blatant errors in writing."Sir, they are stories written by fans about TV shows, books or movies they love. It's a thing now and it's a big thing with many people, you know? The link I gave you is for a fan fiction site where you can read stories about your favorite fandom." Khushi replied, finally looking up.
She grinned at his confused expression. "So if I want to explore the homoerotic subtext between Sherlock and Watson, I can read some fan fiction to...understand it better." Khushi had the gall to wink at him.
"You take that back and take your grubby paws off of my favorite fictional characters." Arnav retorted hotly.
Khushi smothered her giggles and shrugged indifferently. "Don't worry sir. They are not my thing, really." She placated him. Arnav nodded in acceptance but the dirty seed of idea was deep planted in his brain. Now it was showing him images he never wanted to imagine and wondered if he could get Khushi to scrub his brain with a strong bleach. Or get the Inception team to reverse idea.
He took out a bar of chocolate he had been wanting to eat for hours but frowned when Khushi immediately snatched it and replaced it with an apple. Sighing, he bit into the apple ceremoniously to spite her.
"So..." He said clearing his throat. "Do you read fan fiction?" He hedged.
"Oh yes sir! Loads, in fact. Like last night I finished reading Pride and Prejudice so I am checking out some of its popular fan fiction. I have all the context from reading the book and now I read the stuff that may have happened behind closed curtains, dingy store rooms and quiet meadows that Austen didn't get to write. I mean the book practically provides hooks for all the hate-sex it could have had." Khushi waggled her eyebrows.
Arnav looked mildly disgusted.
"Oh come on sir," she coddled him. "Don't tell me you want to explore some of your favorite characters more than others for the depth they bring to the fandom and the love you have for them."
"But this isn't story Khushi," he pointed at his laptop screen. "This is some woman's wet dream."
She shrugged. "You get that a lot in fan fictions sir. People insert themselves into the stories or write their fantasies and call it a story. But that doesn't mean all of them are bad."
"Bit defensive there little sparrow," Arnav grinned.
Khushi scowled. "I don't like to be generalized sir." She sniffed.
Arnav's eyes bugged out. "Wait. Don't tell me. You WRITE fan fiction?"
"I want to but I can't sir! I can't write the way people on this site write. I try to write but it doesn't get anywhere." Khushi said sadly.
"This is your moment asshole. Swoop in, offer to help her and sweep her off her feet. Anjali has stored enough trashy books on her shelf to plagiarize ideas from." Jarvis, Arnav's subconscious generously offered an idea instead of the usual berating. "Go make daddy proud."
"I'll help you." Arnav blurted and winced at the shrill of his voice. He directed an inward glare at Jarvis for the constant stream of bad ideas when it came to Khushi.
"You will sir?" Khushi's eyes looked bright and impossibly hopeful.
Of course he couldn't go back now. "Yes, I'll help with your...you know...writing and stuff." He replied dully. It's not like he was running a massive company or anything.
Khushi's face radiated with a wide smile. "Awesomesauce! Let's write bunch of OS before we start writing an FF."
"What's an OS?" Arnav asked but Khushi was giddily making an account on the website.
"Wait Khushi. What's an OS? What's a FF? Maybe we should talk a bit about it first? Khushi? Are you listening to me?" Arnav rattled while Khushi dutifully ignored him.
"This is going to be so much fun. Grade A entertainment really." Jarvis cackled.
What had he gotten himself into?
Edited by RockBarbie - 10 years ago
Anupamaa
10