Part 2
Omkaara Singh Oberoi met Gauri Kumari Sharma twenty-seven years ago. Omkara was thirteen, attending St. Teresa's for the first time, and Gauri was everything he was not. Most notably, she was was popular despite being a scholarship student. Omkaara, meanwhile, shut himself off from his fellow students, and was too quiet (and too rich) to make friends easily.
It's a wonder that they ever spoke two words to each other, let alone became friends. Gauri has always joked that fate played a daring hand, and Rudra always attributes it to his influence, them being in the same year at the time (though really, Rudra Singh Oberoi was far worse than Omkaara in those days). Omkaara has never offered his own opinion on the topic, but privately he thinks he must have chosen the task of friendship in order to keep both of them in line. For all the good it did, what with getting roped into their schemes more often than not, but at least his teachers all told him he was a good influence.
The point is, while Omkaara doesn't quite know how their friendship started or, really, worked, it did. Indeed, it had thrived. And it's weathered seventeen years of all sorts of storms, including Gauri disappearing for eleven years--a result of an accusation he had thrown her way for a crime she hadn't commited
(Omkaara searched for her relentlessly once truth had come to light, without fail, and Gauri told him, after, that it she knew he was going to come to his senses, but she was still hurt. She was heavily sloshed at the time, and it had come out far too honest for comfort.)
Twenty-seven years of stormy friendship in no way prepares Omkaara for what he walks into upon entering Oberoi mansion.
"Shh," Gauris murmurs, beaming at Omkaara. She has Vivaan against her shoulder sound asleep as she sways back and forth and runs one hand gently along his back. "Good to see you, old friend."
"You saw me just last week," Omkaara says, and hopes that the quietness of his voice hides the way it cracks. He swallows. "Are you sure you haven't killed him off?"
"Nah, he's fine. Was singing some of my Ma's old lullabies and he went out like a light."
Omkaara is suddenly very glad he came now and not, say, ten minutes ago. Singing. God.
"Well." He clears his throat. "Seems like you've got a handle on things, then." Somehow, against all expectation. Has Gauri ever been around a baby in his life? Maybe some of the kids she worked with Omkaara has never met, but certainly no one he knows.
"Just making it up as I go, yeah?" Gauri coos gently at Vivaan and leads Omkaara deeper into the house so he can set the baby down in his cot. "There you are," she murmurs when Vivaan fidgets a bit. She tucks a blanket close to him and Vivaan latches on, gnawing sleepily on a corner as he drifts off again. When Gauri straightens, she releases a slow breath and steers Omkaara back out to the kitchen. "I can handle him when he just wants a bottle and sleep, it's the waking hours that scare me. What happens after his nap?"
Omkaara does a poor job covering his snort of amusement, judging by Gauris's wounded gaze. "He's still very small, Chiraiya. Mostly all he does is eat and sleep and cry."
"See!" Gauri says, pointing a finger at Omkaara. "That, that right there! The crying! I'm not cut out for that sort of thing. That's what I need you for."
"Well, you've got some time." Omkaara eyes the clock. "He'll be down for a good hour or two, I'd wager." It's early yet, not quite gone five, but Omkaara suspects Shivaay will take full advantage of as much time away as he can get. Especially if Gauri hinted to him that she'd con Omkaara into helping. "What's your plan till then?"
"Spending some quality time with my best friend?" Gauri says with what he probably thinks is a winning smile.
(It is, but Omkaara will never admit so aloud.)
"Well, seeing as you've already got me here, I suppose." Omkaara sighs, but accepts a playful nudge to the shoulder. "I'm surprised to see you don't have a date night tonight. It's Friday, isn't it?"
Gauri shrugs, and again takes Omkaara's arm to guide him into yet another room. The family room, now, where she flops onto the couch and pulls Omkaara down beside him. "Ended things with Salman," she finally admits.
"Good," Omkaara shoots back, carefully not allowing himself to dwell on why that's such a relief to hear. "He was too old for you and your mother was ready to turn into a dragon and roast your arse for even looking at him."
"Ma adores me," Gauri says with a casual wave of indifference. The worst thing is that he's perfectly right, she does, even if she finds herself baffled about it. Still, Salman is eleven years Gauri's senior. he had still been attentive to her and never treated her a miss, but it will still be a relief to have it over, Omkaara is sure.
"So what happened?" Omkaara asks, trying to be supportive.
Gauri shrugs, leaning back and focusing his gaze up towards the ceiling instead of at Omkaara. "Bit of a row about how I wasn't emotionally available. Which is true enough, anyway, and Salma deserves better than a girl who's been gone on someone else damn near forever, yeah?"
Omkaara blinks, parsing that. It makes something twist unpleasantly in his belly. "I...didn't know you were," he tries, which seems safe enough (and true), but Gauri still goes very red and shifts herself away by a few fractions.
"No, no, you wouldn't, it's, ah. Well, maybe not as serious as all that." Gauri looks as though it's exactly as serious as all that, but Omkaara doesn't say so. This has become an entirely uncomfortable conversation all around, and he'd have it finished sooner rather than later, if given the option. "Anyway, we agreed it was better to end things before we wound up hating each other, parted with a kiss and a promise to stay friends, you know. All very cordial."
"That's good," Omkaara murmurs, halfway lost in thoughts he'd rather not be thinking. "So. No date night for you, then."
"Well, unless you count this?" Gauri flashes a halfhearted grin at Omkaara, doesn't even include the lecherous wink Omkaara would normally expect from him.
He rolls his eyes because it's better than saying any of the things that immediately pop into his head. "Two friends and a baby seems more like the setup to another bad sitcom than a date, Chiraiya, but the offer is of course appreciated." He doesn't quite hit the sarcasm he tries for, but he thinks he manages a close approximation.
Something in Gauri's eyes dims, but she covers it well with an exaggerated yawn and stretch. "Well then, if you're all about breaking my heart, I suppose I might just nap along with the kid."
Omkaara hesitates. He doesn't understand the look he saw pass over Gauri's face, and it's rare that he doesn't understand Gauri these days. He doesn't like it. Doesn't trust it. "You're all right?" he asks, because really that's the only thing that matters. "I mean truly all right, not your usual blustering version where you're really not but want everyone to believe you are."
"I'm all right, Nandi," Gauri replies softly. "Better with my best mate here." The smile seems a touch more genuine now, and the coiled tension in Omkaara's chest eases a bit. Perhaps this, then, was why Gauri wanted him here. Not for help with a baby he clearly (somehow) knew how to handle, but for simple companionship. Omkaara won't begrudge him that.
"Well. Let's see what's on the television then. I'm sure we can find something watchable." So saying, Omkaara picks up the remote and carefully doesn't look at Gauri as they settle more comfortably beside each other.
They don't speak again, waiting for Vivaan to wake from his nap and neither particularly focused on whatever is happening on the screen, but it's not an uncomfortable silence at all.
This was supposed to go one way and then it did a U-turn and went in a completely different direction. I don't hate it. Next part is the last part though. Enjoy!
Edited by .Aashna. - 8 years ago
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Jodha Akbar
