FF(Arhi): Lavender [Thread 2 link - p. 159] - Page 80

Speaking of being someone else, how many Boogz are there? lol

Awesome as always. Hope the next update is longer and had more Arhi scenes

*rolls eyes at, well.. yeah*

P.S. D, do you know how hard it is to draw BBT while playing Pictionary?

Originally posted by: Krishnaluv94

Speaking of being someone else, how many Boogz are there? lol

absolutely love your writing style... easy, leisurely and that whacky humor. also wat caught my eye was the title of the chapters.. they are so so out of the box and unlike anything one usually sees. the title always makes me wonder wat haev you spun this time round :)

Originally posted by: Krishnaluv94

Speaking of being someone else, how many Boogz are there? lol

I given up trying to find out- that is one slippery cutomer, She's the Macavity of IF. And totally irresistable.
Hi! krishnaluv, am Lalita

grt update...the kids are hilarious...but missing arhi!!

Chapter 20: Pretenses

"A theme party? What's the theme?" V asked, looking up from where she was putting some green goop on Mami's face. Mami, for once in her life, was still as a statue as she gave her face over to be beautified by the US terror that she so adored to be scandalized by. He thought it was quite endearing, actually... after all the shocks that V gave Mami on a daily basis, Mami came back for more still... it was full-on hero-worship, he mused with a smile.

"Costumes." He told her, relaying Lavanya's requirement for the party. He thought it was a rather clever idea. V can be as V-ish as she wanted to be and no one would be able to tell. Not that he cared who took offense to V... that was their problem, not his or V's. But still... he wanted her to meet at least a few people in semi-normal circumstances... and other people's normal was hardly V's normal, so crazy and bizarre was a good theme to introduce her to society.

He saw her pause and turn her head in his direction, a twinge of interest gleaming in her eyes.

"What sort of costumes?" she asked.

He raised an eyebrow at her question before answering, "Any sort, as long as you are not..." he looked at Mami and left it unfinished.

He saw V look down at Mami and a slight smile came over her. Before he could stop her, she finished what he hadn't. "BARE-NAKED?"

He shook his head in exasperation as Mami's eager ears took stock of this fresh Googlee (What V has started to call terms that Mami was likely to Google). Even without opening her eyes, Mami tried the word out on her tongue. "BEAR-NEKKED?"

"I hope to God Mami's i-Pad has some serious virus protection. At this rate, she is bound to hit up on bestiality! Seriously V! Have a care!"

V looked at him and winked before turning back to lather more of the green goop on Mami's forehead as she asked, "How about Catwoman? She is fully covered up."

"Catwoman? You have a Catwoman suit?" he asked, walking to the dining room to pour himself some water.

"Oh please! I don't go anywhere without my Catwoman suit and my Flamenco dress. You never know when they come in handy."

The water that he had just poured into his mouth sprayed right back out and he coughed up at her answer. He turned around to face his errant cousin and saw Mami staring at him, wide-eyed.

"I am okay." He reassured Mami before he looked back at V. "Tell me you're kidding!"

She grabbed her throat in a promise gesture.

He shook his head as he said, "Then I guess that this couldn't have worked out any better."

"What are you wearing?" she asked after she finished up with Mami and walked into the kitchen to wash her hands.

What was he wearing?

"I haven't thought about it." he said as he resumed drinking the water. Lavanya had told him that she would pull the plug on the whole thing if he didn't dress up. He hadn't fallen for it, so she had used the lethal weapon. She had told him that the twins were excited about the party and were looking forward to seeing his costume and that it would totally bum then out if he showed up in his regular slacks and shirt. So... it appeared unavoidable that he would have to make at least a bit of an effort.

"Be Batman." V said then, making him scoff.

"Oh come on. Batman and Catwoman. That would be epic!"

He rolled his eyes. For all that V had taken up political satire in her adult years, she had been a comics-book nut during her formative years. Old habits died hard.

"I am not putting on that pretentious costume, that is for sure." He told her as he wondered how he could get in character without getting into funny suits. And then it struck him. "I am going to be Lex Luther."

She turned off the tap and reached for the towel and leaned against the sink as she dried her hands. "Ah, I see, you cheap-stake. Trying to get out of buying a costume. You have 20 shades of Lex's suits hanging in your closet."

He gave her a smirk and she laughed as she said, "You are a boring villain, AJ. Truly. Let's hope there is no Clark Kent there to knock you down with his awesomeness." An image of Lavanya's husband, Sohan, appeared in his head and he said, "Oh, I can guarantee you that there will be at least three, if not more, Clark Kents and Supermans there. But there will only be one Lex Luther."

"One Lex Luther indeed." She smiled. "Catwoman and Lex Luther. Even if the rest of the party sucks, we are going to f**king kick ass Arnav-ji."

He smiled. Any party that Lavanya throws wouldn't be boring. And he was curious to see what character a certain long-haired-cupid's-bow-lipped smart-talker was going to get into...

***

"Hot Damn!" Lee said when she opened the bedroom door that Khushi had used to change.

"Too much?" Khushi asked, looking down at the costume that was admittedly the most scandalous thing that had ever been on her body for all that it covered every square inch of her skin with the gleam of patent leather.

"Too much? To hell with that! It's perfect. Catwoman! Sohan is going to flip out!" Lee said with a smile.

Khushi laughed before asking, "So, what's yours?"

"Which one?" Lee gave a wink.

"What do you mean?"

"What he really wants me to wear is this Wonder Woman outfit that he got me from the States last year. It's been sitting in its awesome packaging all this time waiting for a good occasion to be taken out. Unfortunately, Wonder Woman is still too risqu for an Indian party; so that will have to wait for its private showing tonight just inside the bedroom." Lee smiled as she walked into the room with her outfit that was inside a black garment bag.

"So, what's in there?" Khushi asked.

"Ah, he is Clark Kent. So I am..." She turned and struck a dramatic pose.

"Lois Lane." Khushi finished.

"Indeed."

"And Jay and Nikhil?"

"Spiderman and Hulk, of course."

"Of course." She said with a smile as she walked over to gather her hair up and tuck it into a net hair-cap. Once it fit in neatly, she pulled on the rest of the cat-suit to cover her hair and most of her face.

"So you know nothing else about this Vaibhavi?" Lee asked as she slipped on Lois Lane's suit.

"Nothing other than her penchant for funny t-shirts and her aversion to littering. Oh, and watch out before picking on her size, because she does not take kindly to that."

"Hmm... so aren't you the least bit curious about what Arnav is going to be wearing?" Lee asked and Khushi's lipstick paused halfway through the lower lip. She caught herself and went back to applying the deep red lipstick and smacked her lips loudly when she finished before pronouncing nonchalantly, "I would be surprised if the man actually deigned to wear a costume."

"Oh, he will be wearing one, no question about it. My kids are his Achilles' heel. I told him that Jay and Nikhil would be devastated if he showed up for a costume party without an actual costume."

"Emotional atyachar."

"Of course. But watch! he is going to show up here with some outfit that is not all that different from what he usually wears. Oh, I seriously will kill him if he shows up here in that suit of his and says that he is Lex Luther!"

"You better make him suffer if he does." Khushi said before walking over to sit on the bed to pull her boots on.

A half an hour later, the guests started arriving. There were a bunch of children Jay's and Nikhil's age but there were many more adults. A few from the company, particularly those they had been there when Lee was still there, were invited as well. Amongst the company folks was Rajeev, who incidentally was a distant cousin of Sohan's; it was one of the reasons that she never shared her feelings about Rajeev with Lee. Not that she thought Lee wouldn't be supportive, but because she did not consider Rajeev to be a big enough deal to talk about him with Lee. True to Lavanya's request, every single person who came to the party was dressed up. All sorts of dressed up, in fact. Given than many of them were Sohan's friends, a good number of the DC and Marvel Comics superheroes and villains were represented. Batman, Ironman, and Joker were popular picks, evidently. The women were less comics-obsessed and had a bit more variance with a Jasmine, a snow-white, at least two Egyptian princesses, a princess Leia, and a number of other varieties. Costume parties were sort of Sohan and Lavanya's thing, so she had been to a number of them over the years. Arnav had been invited to previous ones and while he attended the regular parties, he never came to the costume ones, which should make today all the more interesting.

As she took a purview of the now crowded party scene from the 2^nd floor, she was glad to notice that she was the only Catwoman. Excellent. Now she was going to go on the prowl to sniff out a certain rich, ruthless, evil mastermind...

****

"You surprise me, Arnav bitwaaa!" Mami said, looking him up and down. Akash was in the background laughing while Anjali was standing by his side watching V's handiwork.

"I thought you were going to wear one of your suits and call yourself Lux Looother." Mami said, clicking along on her iPad before looking up. "This... this wolf man is nothing like Lux."

V laughed and walked to his other side to make sure the beard was stuck on and not peeling. "They're fine, V. Can we go now? "These steel claw things are starting to look like a law-suit waiting to happen. The sooner I get it off of me, the better." The claws were attached to fingerless gloves, but were long and pointed and definitely not retractable like the real thing. "Why don't we take these off and put it back on when we get there?" He asked and on this one point, V conceded.

"All done. Perfect." V said, backing away. Dadi looked at him and her eyes widened while Akash' look was now more approving than before.

"Perfect." Anjali said as she stood back as well.

"Alright, everyone, back off. I am starting to feel like I am in first grade. It's just a stupid costume party. Definitely not something that requires a family congregation of this magnitude. Let's go V."

"What is he supposed to be?" Dadi asked as V left to put on her Catwoman head gear and her boots that were about 6 or 7 inches with platforms.

"Volverin." Mami answered.

"Wolverine." Akash said in correction. "He is Wolverine."

****

Ooh, Arnav is going to have his non-retractable claws full with those Catwomen! Can't wait to get this show on the road!

I'm such a stalker. Thanks for the update, D.


I wanna be at this party. I'll be... Nirosha. :)

OMG I m loving this idea...damn I love how inovative ideas u put in..n still keep Arnav Kushi lavanya n everyone's character intact... absolutely loved ur update today...so much looking forward for next update...