Hello folks! Tannu here. Writing my second OS on this forum 
The title is from an Allstar Weekend song I like ~ Come Down With Love 🤣
Dedicated to all my new friends on the forum, thanks for such a wonderful welcome 
This story is to remind us that siblings are an anchor, and have your best interests at heart, even if you are scared of giving love a chance! 👍🏼
Hope you like it. Would appreciate any criticism and/or feedback
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Plot: This is an AU story based in the MHRW zone, where Raghav is meeting with Keerti and coincidentally sees Pallavi having a blast with her folks! This one is more based on a sweet brother-sister understanding, where Keerti is noticing her Anna being completely enamored by a person he constantly keeps claiming is his enemy.
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Can I be completely honest with you for a minute, Anna?" Keerti asked as she sat down across from her brother at the cafe table.
Raghav hadn't seen Keerti arrive at their table. He didn't even realize he had company until Keerti had spoken. Raghav's attention was fixated too entirely on a point across the room. There was a chance that he wasn't aware of what he was agreeing to when he replied.
"Sure, Keerti."
Keerti leaned over the table and snapped her fingers directly in front of Raghav's face. This finally broke him out of whatever trance he was in. Raghav blinked and drew his brows together as he focused on Keerti.
"What?" Raghav demanded.
"You're not fooling anyone," Keerti said.
Raghav plucked off a piece of the medu vada off Keerti's tray and dropped it in his mouth. "About what?"
"About what? You know exactly what I am talking about," Keerti said. When Raghav reached for a second piece, she knocked the offending hand away. "No. You don't get any more of my medu vada if you're going to keep playing dumb. You can buy your own."
"I'm not-"
Keerti narrowed her eyes and kept her hand at the ready as Raghav's hand began to creep back toward her lunch.
Raghav pulled his hand back to his side of the table. "Fine, keep your medu vada. I'm not hungry anyway."
"Uh-huh," Keerti mumbled and started to dig into her food. With her mouth full of vada only half swallowed, she went on. "So, let's pretend you're not being a complete doofus, so we can have a mature conversation."
"You shouldn't start a mature conversation by talking with your mouth full," Raghav replied with a grimace. "You're almost spitting."
Keerti wiped her mouth and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Mr. Manners. But let's try to stay on topic."
"What exactly is the topic?" Raghav asked.
"You and your obsessive denial," Keerti said.
"Humor me," Raghav tapped his fingers in rhythmic pattern on the table top. "What am I in denial about?"
Keerti's eyes wandered across the cafe until they landed on the spot Raghav had been staring at earlier. Reflexively, Raghav followed his sister's gaze and tried to maintain his neutral expression when he picked out what had been lined up in their sight. He turned back to the table and focused on an area where the paint on the table top had been scraped off. It was better than meeting Keerti's eyes, which were now boring into the top of his head. Keerti was not to be deterred though. A little resistance would not stop her. Keerti was a small yet powerful ball of fury when she was determined.
Keerti cleared her throat and Raghav tried not to groan as he looked up again.
"You have feelings for Pallavi," Keerti said, and leveled a look at Raghav that dared him to deny it again now that it had been said out loud. It was a look she had most likely learned from the aforementioned Marathi spitfire.
Instead of trying to deny it or change the subject, Raghav tried to evade it entirely by staying completely silent.
"I'm going to take your silence as tacit agreement," Keerti said, "and continue this conversation like we're both on the same page."
Raghav continued to blink at her, giving not even the smallest facial tic to indicate what he was thinking behind his forced blank expression.
"Great, so here we go," Keerti clapped her hands once and rubbed them together like a genius. "You seem to think that pretty face of yours hides everything, but you've got tells, bro, loads of them. Anyone who looks closely enough can see it. You know, besides the fact that, before I came over here, you were literally staring at her for five straight minutes."
"I wasn't" Raghav started.
There was that look again. It didn't look as good on Keerti. Raghav actually preferred it on Pallavi, even though seeing it on her usually meant he was in real, deep trouble. There were a lot of things he liked better on Pallavi. The dress she was wearing that day, for instance. He had been staring at her long enough, while she chatted with her siblings across the cafe, to notice that she was clothed entirely from Manasi's closet. It wasn't hard to figure out. This particular blouse revealed so much of her shoulder that he hadn't been able to stop staring. Then she had laughed, tossing her head back, spilling all her masses of curls down her back. God's honest truth, he had been staring, but he wasn't the only one. Eyes from all over the room were attracted to her. He was far from Pallavi's only admirer. Of course, none of them had an Keerti breathing down their necks.
"Fine, I was staring," Raghav admitted. "But that doesn't mean anything."
"Pfft," Keerti shook her head. "You always do this. You did this all through teenage life with your crush, dancing around each her, but never admitting how you really felt, and ultimately missing your chance to be together."
"That was for the best, though," Raghav said. "It wasn't meant to be. We weren't ready for anything real, and by the time we were, I was at another stage of life, I was ruined, and we were over each other."
"That's true," Keerti said. "But you had a crush on her. This thing with Pallavi, it's something different. It's something more."
"Look, Keerti"
"You've been doing this for almost two months now!" Keerti raised her voice so Raghav couldn't interrupt her. "If the two of you keep skirting around each other like this, by the time DSE’s luck rolls around, you'll have spun out of each other's orbit. You'll have missed your chance. And, Anna, I don't want to see that happen to two of my closest people."
"You're talking like all I have to do is walk up to her and tell her how I feel," Raghav said. "You're forgetting that I could ask her and she could say no. She will say no. That's the whole reason I've never said anything. It's bad enough knowing that she doesn't feel the same. The last thing I need is to hear her say it out loud."
It had always been easier for Raghav to deny his feelings for Pallavi: Deny, deny, deny was his mantra. Pretending he didn't like her hurt less than admitting that his feelings were unrequited. He didn't have to tell her how he felt to know it was one sided. Anyone with half a brain could tell that she didn't look at him as anything more than a friend. He only assumed that she didn't like him that way, because she obviously didn't. There would have been indicators if she did. Pallavi wouldn't have been able to hide it even if she wanted to.
She wasn't built to keep those kinds of emotions to herself.
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Allstar Weekend ~ Come Down with Love
Pati Patni Aur Panga
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
