Kisi aur din, kisi aur dhun (Drabble series) doubleupdate pg5 11/12

A small tribute to my first scene of this show, ever. The hug is the one on the day of the haldi, when Raavi comes with her Mausa and Maasi to thank Dhara for fixing the wedding.

Also, a suggestion to anyone who might want to also read the other drabble I put up today, do read that first. It's much more emotionally heavy and angsty compared to this lighthearted piece.

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Caging a fire

"Abey teri tho!", he had yelled as he'd rushed out, ready to throw her out of his house. Throwing herself at him in a hug had been a knee jerk reaction. Partly because she had truly wanted to share with him her joy at finally becoming a part of his family, and mostly because she knew it would throw him off. His hands had hung midair and she had felt the shock vibrate through him, every other emotion put on hold for the moment.

She hadn't really expected it to work though, until it had. Neither had she expected the peace and happiness that simply being in his arms had given her. It had been easy to write off as just her weird bond with him acting up, sometime frenemy sometime relatives that they'd been at that point.

But she had known then, deep down in her heart, that all that it took to cage the fire that was Shiva Pandya was a bit of love, and a good hug. Of course.

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Raavi watched silently as her little soldiers, four year old Tara and three year old Dikshit, turned towards her, proud smiles making their cheeks look chubbier than they actually were. They had just captured their Krish Chacha, who had been looking suspicious to her for quite some time now. And who had been keeping her away from her own bed room and in the upper floor ever since lunch. If only Shiva had stayed back, she thought wistfully. Then Krish, her eklauta and sabse pyaare devar, and the only person in the house except for her and the kids, would've received a dozen taplis for bothering her. That was his birthright.

All of a sudden, she heard someone bang on the door of her bedroom. From the inside. From the inside of her locked room. She turned to look at Krish with her eyes wide as he gave her a sheepish look. "Aye Krish!", a voice shouted from inside her room. Shiva's voice, from inside her bedroom, and his. "Mujhe bata hain tu yahin baahar kada hain! Abhi darwaaza khol de varna jab bahar aake tujhe ek dungi na? Khaan bajenge tere!"

Ah, now she understood why he'd kept her busy in the top floor of their house. Because he had held the tiger's tail, and now neither could he let go, nor he could he pull at it. In other words, trouble no matter what he did. The smart kid had chosen containment as the next best strategy. She glared at him as he slightly shuffled away from the door, lightly tapping the belan in one hand against the palm of the other.

"Krish! Darwaaza khol na mere pyaare devar", she sang at him, knowing that his plight was only going to worsen either way. "Aur bhaagne ka sochna bhi mat!!!", she warned him. Trapped with the kids holding onto each of his legs, and her standing right behind him, he really had nowhere to run to. Silence was all that could be heard on the other side of the door now.

Krish nodded jerkily, "Theek hai bhabhi, jaise aap kaho!", he said before his hands jerked at the lock and Shiva pulled the door open from the inside. The kids, smart people that they were abandoned their youngest Chachu, choosing to run away right then.

"Abey teri tho!", Shiva shouted as he rushed out, a thoroughly annoyed look on his face. But Krish, her eklauta and sabse pyaare devar? She didn't call him smart for nothing. He stepped to the side quickly, catching hold of her by the wrist and quickly pushed her towards her husband, towards her Shiva. And as she threw her arms around him in a bid to stabilise herself, she heard Krish shout out an "Enjoy!", before disappearing. Only the sound of his laughter and the children's giggles reaching them.

She felt his arms come up around her, banding around her and pulling her closer until air could barely pass between them. She raised her head from his shoulder, the familiar scent of cinnamon from the store soothing her heart. "Shiva", she whispered. He put his forehead against hers with his eyes still closed. "Hmm?" "Shiva, chod na", she said as the realisation that anyone who walked into the aangan could see them struck her. "Hargiz nahin", he whispered in reply, backing into the bedroom with her still in his arms.

Not to anyone's surprise, neither of them had been seen until chai that evening, and they had had to suffer through one cheeky devar and two confused little children.

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