A/n: Okay, so here goes the quick update! This is the longest chapter I've written, I think. Hope you like it!
Chapter 6: The Shock Of His Life
Khushi was seated at her favorite place in the house; on the bench, staring at the stars. She had a hot steaming cup of tea in hand and couldn't have been happier; or more confused. Her serene smile disappeared as reality caught up with her and the stars stopped resembling her parents. Taking another sip of the tea, Khushi thought, I'll have to push Arnavji out of my thoughts now or it will get stuck in my mind and I'll say something I shouldn't.
"Bitiya?" Khushi looked behind her to find her Bauji walking towards her, his unperturbed smile washing away any of her worries. So long as she had her Bauji, she was fine with anything going wrong around her. Khushi's smile returned as she moved to make place for him on the bench. Sighing as he sat, Sashiji looked at the sky, waiting for his daughter to start speaking; because he knew she couldn't remain silent for more than a minute.
When, surprisingly, after five whole minutes had passed and Khushi remained silent, Shashiji looked to the side and found Khushi gazing at the stars, quite happy and content to be there. Wondering if he should spoil that for her, he spoke, "Khushi, hamein tumse kuch poochna hai."
"Haan Bauji. Kya poochna hai? Kya ham itni daraavna hai ki aap chup ho gaye?" she asked with her natural mischievous smile and Shashiji almost decided not to ask her. But he needed to know whether his daughter really had any intentions towards him so he proceeded.
"Aisa nahi hai beta. Tum…Shyam ke barein mein tum kya sochthi ho?" he saw Khushi start lightly at the question and wondered if his Jiji had been right. But as quickly as the expression had come, it was replaced with a complacent smile.
"Un ke barein mein kya sochna hai, Bauji? Woh toh bas, ek achche insaan hai; hamare liye bahooth kuch kiya hai aur ham unhe bahooth aadar karthe hai," Khushi replied with a light shrug and Shashiji let out a relieved breath. For a moment, it had seemed as if Khushi had actually liked him and that, Shashiji couldn't have borne. "Kyon Bauji? Achanak aap kyon pooch rahe hain?"
"Kyon ki tore shaadi unse hone waala hain," Buaji's delighted voice interrupted the father-daughter talk and Khushi stood up, shock evident on her face. "Kya?" was all she was able to utter.
"Pareshaan math ho jao bitiya. Baito," Shashiji caught Khushi's hand in a reassuring grip and made her sit down, turning to Buaji. "Jiji, shaadi saadhaaran bath nahi hain; aur ye meri pyaari beti ki hai. Is bath ko kuch dino ke liye rehne dijiye."
"Hai re nandkishor! Ye kya bath hai? Achcha ladka mila hai; Khushi se bahooth pyaar kartha hai, unki khayal raktha hai, toh…" Shashiji cut her off, insisting her that he couldn't decide this soon. After complaining about his brother's indecisiveness and praising Shyam a bit more, Buaji took her leave.
"Ye sach hai, Bauji? Kya aap Shyamji se bath kar chuke hai?" Khushi asked, her panic still not abated. Patting her shoulder comfortingly, he replied, "Aisa kuch nahi hua hai, bitiya. Pareshaan math hona. Tumhari Buaji bas bath kar rahi thi ki kyon hamari Khuhsi ki shaadi unse…"
Standing up abruptly, Khuhsi started pacing nervously, wondering how to make her father understand without telling him the truth. Settling on the usual answer, she said, "Lekin hamein abhi shaadi karne ki kya zaroorat hai, Bauji? Jiji ki shaadi hona haina pehle? Phir mein shaadi kar loongi. Teek hai?"
Shashiji nodded, smiling as he hugged Khushi, hoping that by the time Payal was married, Shyam would be out of the picture. He wasn't ready to let go of his little daughter Khushi, not just yet.
XXX
Khushi was lying on her bed, staring at the stars floating about her; tonight, they refused to give her any calm. She was wide awake and thoughts kept running through her mind no matter how much she tried to stop them; she knew she would never fall asleep this late and got out of bed to try to calm herself by making Jalebis.
When she stepped outside the room, Khushi stopped on hearing Buaji and her mother speaking in hushed tones about Khushi's marriage. Buaji was consoling Garima saying that Shashiji would be easily convinced once he gets to know Shyam better and since Shyam had already shown so much attention and love towards Khushi, there would be no trouble. Khushi's heart began thudding dangerously as she hurried back to her bed before either of the women could notice her. Lying on the bed, she covered herself entirely with the blanket, as if it could save her from what was to come.
How was she going to escape this? If Buaji sounded so sure, she must have spoken to Shyamji; why hadn't he refused? Why hadn't he told them the truth about himself? For the first time since morning, Khushi realized that Arnav's doubts were justified. She should have known better than to trust her own assumptions too, Khushi thought, chiding herself.
But criticizing herself wasn't going to achieve anything; something had to be done and as brave as she was, Khushi knew she couldn't stand against her whole family and Shyamji. Just her Buaji would be enough to put her down and make her agree to anything. Her only hope was that this might be a huge misunderstanding which Shyamji might clear up but even she knew that she was hoping for far too much. Now there was only one thing she could do…
Aap hi ne kaha than na, Arnavji? Ki kisi ajeeb bath ho toh aap ko bathana? Ab ajeeb nahi, katharnak baathein ho raha hai… koi bath nahi. Kal aapse milenge aur sab kuch batha denge toh teek ho jayega…
The decision giving her peace, Khushi slept with an unaffected smile on her face.
XXX
"Amma! Hamein kuch kaam hai. Ham aake khaana khayenge," Khuhsi replied, fluttering about the house as she got ready. Not giving anyone time to ask her about her urgent work, she walked out of the house and took an auto to Shanthivan.
XXX
"Khushiji aap yahaan? Kuch kaam tha?" Anjali asked as she invited an anxious Khushi in. Seeing Anjali's face now, devoid of any of the worry or doubt about her husband, made Khushi hope even more fervently that all the things happening around her should be a really bad nightmare.
"Kuch nahi Anjaliji…ham bas… Arnavji se milne aaye the. Unse kuch poochna…nahi bathana…nahi…" Anjali chuckled at Khushi's stuttering and said, "Arre wah! Ye kya shock hai! Aap hamare Chote se milne aaye hai?"
"Woh asal mein…hum bas…" Anjali cut her short, still smiling, "Koi bath nahi hai Khushiji. Aap ko patha nahi hoga na… chote tho kal subah London chale gaye. Kab vaapas aayega hamein bathaya bhi nahi."
"Lekin unhone…" Khushi stopped herself from finishing the sentence. If Arnav hadn't returned back to Shantivan after meeting her, where could he have gone? Either way, she didn't want to tell Anjali the truth in case he had a valid reason.
"Teek hai Anjaliji. Ham baad mein aakar milthe hein," with a namasthe, she left the house, leaving behind a well pleased Anjali; Khushi's worried face giving her a delightful interpretation.
XXX
Ab kahaan doondoon unhe? Khushi wondered as she walked along the pavement, trying to think up places Arnav might have gone to. She didn't know him well enough to predict well and she was coming up with zilch options. The places she had come up with hadn't turned out to be fruitful and she had spent almost the entirety of the morning and most of the afternoon searching for him. She was getting desperate; she could have phoned him but she didn't have a cell anymore and even so, she wasn't sure if he would pick her call up. There were no pay phones nearby either. Crossing a junction on the zebra crossing, Khushi saw a flash of white.
Her eyes widened in surprise and she thanked Devi Maiyya for making her search easy as she followed Arnav's car drive on the opposite lane. Surprisingly, he stopped the car along the side and got out. He was talking to someone on his Bluetooth urgently.
Smiling at her good luck, Khushi began walking towards him, unaware that the signal which had been red when she had looked had turned green and that a vehicle was moving rather too fast towards her…
XXX
She wasn't looking at the road; Arnav saw the car speeding towards her but Khushi seemed unaware of it. Having triumphantly caught his attention, she smiled contently and began walking towards him, putting herself right in the path of the oncoming vehicle whose driver was trying desperately to stop. Arnav's eyes widened alarmingly when he saw what was about to happen; he began running towards her at break neck speed, thanking heavens that the side of the road he was running across was empty.
Khushi, confused as to why he was running, looked around herself and only then did she notice that she was standing in the middle of the road and that a fast car was racing towards her. A frightened gasp escaped her lips and she looked at Arnav's panicked face one last time before she closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the impact; that never came.
Arnav swirled her neatly out of the way of the car, which had stopped inches before where she had stood frozen. Breathing was becoming difficult for him as his mind imagined the hundreds of worst case scenarios that could have occurred. He closed his eyes tightly as he held her close, letting the fact that she was alive and well sink in.
Khushi held on to him without any thought to where they were; she was safe, he had saved her! She needed a few minutes, to absorb the safety, the warmth that she felt well up in her heart at the risk he had taken. He could have been hit as well as she could have. The fact made her heartbeat quicken; suddenly, she didn't feel so happy that he had risked his life to save her.
Arnav, who had by then gathered his bearings, and a little of his emotions, released her from his vice-like grip, "Tum pagal ho kya? Gaadi ke aage kyon is taraf bag rahi ho? Woh brake nahi laga to?" Arnav asked, agitated; he didn't even realize that he was shaking her or that he was holding her shoulder too tight.
"Ham toh…aapko bulaye the…" Khushi tried to explain, but he was having none of it. Waving away her explanations with an impatient hand, he muttered, "Bar bar aise hi kar detha hai; sabko museebath mein daal detha hai."
Khushi, who was standing close enough with him to hear him perfectly, was highly offended. Taking a step back, she gave him an unimpressed look as she spoke in her indignant tone, "Achcha! To aap ki sab problems mere vaje se ho raha hai, kya? Hamne aap se kaha ki aap apne hi ghar pe James Bond ka kaam kar dein? Kya hamne aap se hamein contact karne ki raastha nahi diya? Kya aapne hamare ghar pe, bevakoof ki taraf hamein doonda? Kya aap hamare peeche paagalon ki taraf gaadi chalne vale road pe baaga? Baath kartha hai Laad Governor ki taraf, kaam sab Charlie Chaplin ki taraf." Wiping her forehead with one hand, she held the other firmly on her hip as she tried to regain her breath.
Arnav was dumb struck; more than anything, he couldn't believe that someone had called him, Arnav Singh Raizada, Charlie Chaplin. It just…couldn't happen. "Kya kaha tumne? Charlie Chaplin?" he asked, his incredulity apparent in his voice.
Khushi hesitated for a moment; rebuking him when she was in the heat of anger was one thing but now, when she had got her mind back…"Ha. Tho kya karoge?" she asked, trying to show a brave face that she totally wasn't feeling.
"Sirf ajeeb nahi, paagal bhi hai. Di…tumhare liye kya kya karna padtha hai," Arnav muttered under his breath, looking around and noticing that they were garnering quite some attention.
Meanwhile, Khushi, who had been looking at Arnav's actions, asked, "Aap bhi apne aap se bholthe hein? Achcha, toh aap insaan hi hona chahiye," she was half speaking to herself and half to him and Arnav was confused; did he reply to her or did he leave it off as another of her ramblings?
Deciding on the latter (which would help him keep his sanity for a few more minutes), Arnav took a hold of Khushi's hand and led her to his car, opening the door to the seat beside him for her to sit on. His caveman like actions igniting her temper, Khushi waited until they were beside the sidewalk before she burst, "Aisa kyon hamein idhar udhar lekhe jaathe hai aap? Ham apne aap se chal sakthe hein."
"Kyon ki tumhe…kya raasthe ke beech mein khade hue jagadna hai?" Arnav asked, amused at her anger now. His anxiety at finding her in danger had passed for the minute and he was able to offer her a half smile as he indicated that she should get in.
Grumbling under her breath, Khushi got into the car and fastened her seatbelt; one good thing that had come out of traveling with the Rakshas was that she had learnt to deal with the death traps a.k.a. seatbelts. Placing her bag on her lap, Khushi fiddled with the decorations on it, waiting for Arnav.
Arnav got into the vehicle and a few minutes passed in silence. Khushi dared to take a sidewise peek at him; his hands were clenched on the steering wheel and his knuckles were quickly turning white. Hoping to calm him, Khushi, in a rare act of forwardness, placed a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.
Arnav started, turning to her with anxious eyes. "Tum teek tho ho na?" he asked in a voice that was, unusually, neither commanding nor criticizing. Khushi nodded, offering him a sliver of a smile to enforce her reply.
"Aap zyada pareshaan lag rahe hai…" Arnav seemed to recover from his trance suddenly at her words and his hand hastily pushed her hand away from his shoulder and muttered, "Mein teek hoon."
As she took her hand back to place it on her lap, it scratched against the leather upholster. "Aah!" Khushi gasped as a wave of pain hit her. Looking at her elbow, she tried to see where she had hurt herself but the wound seemed to elude her vision.
"Kya hua?" Arnav finally turned to look at her and seeing her holding her hand, he looked closely. There was a neat scratch that ran along the back of her hand near her elbow. It wasn't too long; Arnav guessed that Khushi had noticed it only when she had hit herself on the seat.
"Kuch nahi…bas chotisi…" Arnav sighed exasperatedly; opening a compartment on the dashboard, he took out his first aid kit and placed it before the little idol that Anjali had insisted on keeping there. It kept falling down frequently and he had complained about it to her but she had absolutely refused to take it away and he hadn't had the heart to remove it and hurt his Di.
Taking her hand in his grasp, he began cleaning the wound gently; Khushi hissed in pain and his hands halted immediately.
"Bahooth dard ho raha hai?" he asked in the soft concerned voice that she had heard only once before; when he had apologized to her. Shaking her head in a no, she whispered, "Antiseptic hai na? Jal raha hai."
"Teek ho jayega," he replied and returned to treating he wound. Once a Band-Aid was stuck on the wound, he leaned back on his seat.
"Thank you," Khushi replied in the same low feathery tone, unsure as to whether her words would spark his temper or not. He seemed to go off the handle without her doing anything at all these days and Khushi felt as if she was treading around a dynamite each time she encountered him.
Arnav seemed to have turned deaf; or if he had heard her, he ignored her under the pretense of replacing the first aid kit. Khushi thought he gave the task a little more concentration than was necessary.
Once he was done with it, Arnav started the car and began driving through the streets, keeping a steady note on the speed. Khushi wondered if it was for her sake or if he always drove this way. Remembering the time when they had gone to search for Anjaliji, she guessed not. Only after they had crossed the city limits did it occur to her to ask, "Ham kahaan ja rahe hein?"
The vehicle screeched to a halt and Khushi looked around, finding nothing but trees around; what could be here? Arnav got out of the car and began heading towards one side of the road; he soon disappeared behind a bush.
For the first time since she had come to be in his company, Khushi's heart hammered in fear. Where was he going? Was she supposed to follow?
That's it for now guys!!!! Hope it was okay? Do like/comment! They make me write faster!
Precap:
Shyam looked at Khushi's smiling face; how could he? For a moment, he felt guilty about what he had planned but he knew that Khushi would accept his actions, when she learnt of it. Nodding, he said, "All right, Khushiji. I'd be honored to fulfill your wishes."
Khushi smiled outwardly, though his words struck a chord in her; she had never noticed these things before but Shyamji's words didn't sit well with her at all. If only Arnav could be there to help her, she thought anxiously…
P.S.: From here forth, the chapters will be completely in English! Hope you guys don't mind?!
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