Hello you all! Hope you are doing fine.
Kindly ignore the typos, I'll edit later. ❤️
*****
Baby you etch in my blood
and then I feel you in me.
Breathtaking.
Shiva stares at the mess splattered in front of him. The last thing he ever wants to see is the so called chipkali lighting candles in the stormy night. Shiva scoffs mentally. Had he been in the store for long hours, he would not have Raavi in his house. Crazy woman. Dhara and his family were stuck in Ahmedabad, it is Shiva who has to handle the store and the house.
The apparant weather forecast gave a cyclone warning and Shiva forced them to stop there. But his Dhara bhabhi wouldn't let him stay alone will she? She has circuitously sent the irritable woman to his home.
"Pagal che? Mein kyun jaoon ghar? Mujh pe hukum mat chala!"
"Dhek Shiva! Baarish bohat ho rahi hai. Maasi ghar pe nehi hai aur Dhara di ne bola tumhare khayal rakhne ke liye. Chup chaap chal."
"Tumhe kya lagta hai, mein khud ka khayal nehi raksakta hoon?"
"Zyada bano mat warna poori raat bahar bheegoongi, bimar hogayi toh Dhara di ko boldungi ki yeh sab tere waja se hua!"
Raavi wears the crown to rule the arch of atrocious world. He couldn't bear her babbles so he walked to his home grumpily with her behind him of course. She entered in, went straight into Dhara's room and got herself comfortable with the clothes that he remembers she wore a long ago.
Dhara is giving her too much space and it irritated him.
Much to his own dismay, the power went off; leaving them in litters of boundless dark. For a woman who gets scared at the slight dim of lights, she courageously went to pull some candles from the kitchen cabinet and started lighting them up. Shiva rolls his eyes. How is going to tolerate her till the power goes on?
Why did his sister-in-law have to put such a humongous weight on his shoulders?
"You'll be okay with Maggie or do you want something else?" Her free high spirits browns him, she is too much smiling, just too much.
"Aur option hai?" He mocks a smile. He knows what the answer would be. She will not risk taking all the time out in kitchen. Huh, as if he can't cook for himself. He is not some kid to be taken care of.
"Nehi. Kyunki sirf Maggie hi bana sakti hoon abhi ke liye! Tum pucho ge bhi na...kuch nehi milne wala. Toh sochna bhi mat." Raavi smiles and sprints to the kitchen.
Shiva ruffles his hair, piqued at her choice of words. Some nerve she has. Anybody who dared to speak like that with Shiva found heaven in his fist. She is enjoying the irritation that is oozing out from him. Throwing her a rankling grin, he shifts to the kitchen; he is not interested in eating a food that is exclusively made by her. He needs to give his contribution too.
He picks two candles on the way and enters inside.
"Tu yehan kya kar raha hai?"
Shiva narrows his face to a scrunch.
"Check karne aaya hoon. Khane mein zeher milayi toh?"
Raavi grins, rolling her eyes at his bare accusations. Shiva frowns when he notices her cutting the vegetables.
"Nehi chahiye teri madat. Jaa." Raavi states, pushing his mind to get stunned.
"Oh hello. This is my house. I'll decide what I should do so.."
He snatches the knife from her hand and begins to chop the vegetables. He's not used to such unfazed attention on him. Definitely not from the woman called Raavi. Not in the twenty years of their life.
Thunder growls like a monster followed by a flash of lightening spilling a short but ginormous light. The translucent window gives them the idea of blow taking place in the outer world.
Shiva notices Raavi shuddering for a score of seconds, she replaces it with a pale smile immediately. Shiva nods his head impossibily, she is crazy for a reason. She looks like a rat peeking out from its burrow.
"Darpok." He mutters to himself. She is not the one to bear loud noises and of course, she is scared of darkness. He does not need to do a rocket science to figure her out.
"Did you say something?" Raavi questions as she places the pan over the stove and switches it on. Shiva stares at her. How is he not allowed to mumble to himself?
She pours some oil, letting it heat and mixes the vegetables that he has been cutting. Shiva on the other hand cooks the noodles after he finishes with the job of chopping.
Who would have thought that he would stay in the kitchen with the silly chipkali and cook a fast food for the night without brawling much? This is a haphazard for him. Metaphorical like adding spicy chilly powder on ripened mango.
Shiva's gut churns.
"I said, you are a darpok."
Her eyes grow wide. Just like the way he wanted.
"That's it Shiva? It's human emotion. Han dar lagti hai. Kya karoge?"
Shiva looks up to her, her smile does not reduce a bit. They are in a comfortable space. Literally! Why is he feeling like an alien? This looks like trouble to him.
"I can understand. I'm not Dev to hug or woo."
Shiva regrets in the next second. Why can't he keep his bloody mouth shut? Maybe because, he feels bitter when he watches her giggle childishly on speaking with Dev or when he got a note from her which clearly stated...
You have black beguiling eyes. Just the way I love.
The bitterness was gut wrenching when he passed the letter to Dev. He had an urge to snap at her for writing such absurdity. Her hopeful smile throttled his sanity. He wanted to puch Dev when he told he crushed the note threw it in the bin. Shiva was a seething mess that day. He still feels the same. Raavi is still being gleeful about the note lying with the company of empty trash cans and packets. She is jumping around this house for what? Espoir to plant the seedling?
Shiva grunts internally.
"What?" Raavi questions.
"Why would I woo Dev?"
Shiva stares at her brown eyes, there is irritation and anger. The candle light falls on her face, the visible anger grows oceanic. Did he not want this? To rattle her? He wanted a storm on the storm.
His heart thumps, the rush of adrenaline gives him an almost stumbling anxiety attack. he does not he want to ruin her mood now. He should have argued after eating. She will crib a little less if she ate. Now, she will not even eat a morsel and will torture her with his tantrums.
Idiot Shiva!
His inner voice taunted him. Angry Raavi and food will never go hand in hand. He should let it go. It's between his brother and her, they will sort it out.
She can smile with him.
Laugh with him.
Hold his hands.
Fight with him.
Kis...
No. Shiva needs to shut her fluttering mind. What Raavi needs is a reality check. On her face, till her bubble breaks.
"Get it straight. He crushed that note and threw it straight into the bin. That's nothing less than a rejection. Be strong enough to accept the fact."
Raavi's eyes befall on him. She gazes deep into his eyes. The calm waves become a swelling cyclone. Shiva's feet get cold. What is running in her crazy head? Why is she looking at him like that?
"So you are calling me a coward?"
"Yes." Shiva is blunt.
"So you want me to accept the truth?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
Shiva is flummoxed by her answer. Even more when she takes her steps forward, one by one; making him go behind.
There is a strange courage in her eyes. It tingles his skin, wobbling him in confusion. He knows her wilderness but the upgrade to her version is an expected turn of the table.
"One. I make Maggie with veggies cause Dev likes it."
She smiles. Shiva is wide eyed. He swallows at the her rustic words. He takes a step behind further, struck with shock.
Dev hates vegetables in Maggie.
But shiva loves it.
"Two. I come to the store and chase a certain Chattan Pandya because Dev likes it."
He is captured by her eyes. His vision suddenly falls on the wet hair that is stuck to her face. The luminance from the candle falls on her face, glimmering on her eyes and lips. He is tempted to pull her hair and...
He can feel the rantipole swelling in her. Wild like forest fire, astounding like his heartbeats; she is turning into the poem that she writes. His back hits the wall, he is trapped by her soft hands on either side.
"And ofcourse, black eyes can never belong to anybody other than Dev." Her voices tones down to a whisper. Shiva can feel his skin jumping in goosebumps.
"Not to any Bhootnath specially."
Blood rushes through his vessels, heating his face, making him shiver. He is grateful for the power cut. But he is surprised at the information, the orphic haze dwindles like a spark of flicker in an entirely dark room.
She loves Shiva's eyes?
His heart drums ferociously
He is almost panting. Current circuits pass through his system, jolting him with amazement. Another lightening flashes across the place.The intensity is less in comparison with Raavi.
And her brown beguiling eyes.
Raavi rolls his trident pendant under her index finger and pulls him closer to her. Her warmness catches his breath away. He never realised how much he needed it until now.
"Hope I got it straight." She states, moving away after placing a small peck on his left cheek. Shiva freezes; he is gobsmacked, stunned, in a state of almost passing out. He didn't expect her to go this way.
He didn't expect her to kis...
Suddenly, he is deprived of her warmness. Her eyes on the other hand, holds the control of him. Shiva is anything but stable.
She is much more breathtaking in real than in his dreams.
He lets out his breath finally.
****
Book Talk
Shiv Shakti
