Posted:
Recipe: Shravan + Sumo + Car + Kulfi + Oxford/London + FLUFF + secret ingredient. *devious laugh*, here you go!
For
the second time in the past few months, Shravan Malhotra was under Sumo's car
changing the clutch. She had claimed that he didn't know how to install it
properly which is why it got messed up again in the first place. And Shravan
wasn't one to back down from a challenge so he had given her a pointed look
before going to his room change out of his white collared shirt and black coat.
He
had returned outside the Malhotra house in a pair of black sweats and a dark
grey long sleeved t-shirt with a bag and a look of determination. Sumo was
sitting on the bench by the front door trying to escape the piercing heat of
the sun but decided to grab a chair and sit by the car to see the
"master" at work.
Sumo
thought it was quite comic to see him sprawl out on the floor and wiggle his
way under the car. Once again, his long legs were the only part of him that she
could see. There were a lot of noises coming from under the car as he worked,
he was hell bent on proving that there was nothing that Shravan Malhotra could
not do. Plus, he would be lying if he said that he wasn't doing this to impress
her.
Their
relationship in the past few weeks had been...interesting.
With Shravan's mom back in his life, and his misconceptions cleared he couldn't
help but admit that he had been wrong about women...and that there was a
particular woman he liked a lot more than he admitted to himself, and it wasn't
just the fact that she stuck by him through it all and how much she cared for him.
He
couldn't help but realize how jealous he had been of even the thought of
another guy with her, and he couldn't help but notice how important she was to
him, and he caught himself wishing that she would always be a part of his life,
just like she was now. That wasn't the only thing he noticed, he also let
himself think about how beautiful she
was, of course, he had thought that she was pretty as soon as he saw her after
coming back. But that day at dinner, and many times after that he had caught
himself staring at her. One day they were just sitting around, watching yet
another movie, and he looked over at her and couldn't stop looking, it was like
he was seeing her in a different light. She was laughing at a scene, and all he
could think about was how beautiful her smile was, and how her eyes lit up when
she laughed. His hands suddenly itched to touch her face and let his fingers
linger, he knew the skin would be soft under his touch, but he wanted to spend
time tracing every inch of her face with his fingers, and then his lips. This
had taken him by shock of course, at first, but then he realized that he was
always past the "just friends" phase and he hadn't really moved on like he
claimed to.
She
noticed the changes in him, he looked at her differently, she found that the
two of them would sometimes just look at each other for too long, and she
couldn't help but notice his proximity. They were always at ease with other,
but now it was like they were constantly in each other's space. He stood closer
to her when he talked, he would sit right against her, his hands lingered on
her longer, his eyes strayed on her lips and they seemed to end up in
predicaments where if they moved even a little bit they would end up kissing.
Like
this morning when her seat belt refused to unbuckle, he was trying to help her
and he looked up at her only to find that they were only a few centimeters
apart, she noticed his eyes flicker to her lips as hers did as well, and she
wished he had closed the distance between them and just kissed her, because she
thought about it a lot ever since he placed a kiss against her forehead while
he was thanking her for bringing his mom back into his life, and she felt how soft his lips were. They had both
completely frozen as they stared at each other, their eyes kept flickering from
the other's eye to lips, a honk had broken them out of their reverie.
A
clank broke her out of her thoughts. "Ow." Shravan murmured from
under the car.
"Are
you okay?" Sumo asked trying to peek under the car.
"Yes."
He said back.
"You
can stop when you get tired, it's hot."
"I
am not going to stop until I fix this stupid clutch." He said back.
"You're
a lawyer Shravan, not a mechanic."
"I
know what I am." He snapped back causing her to grin. He was so easy to
annoy.
"Just
give up Shravan."
"I
bet you I can make this stupid thing work." He challenged.
"Challenge
accepted and don't call my jaan
stupid."
"If
I fix your jaan you have to do whatever
I ask of you." He answered back, she hesitated for a minute, but this was
Shravan.
"Deal.
Same thing from me too!" She said.
"Deal."
There was a smugness in his voice that she didn't catch.
"I
told you!" He laughed happily as Sumo sighed, the car was working perfectly for
the third day in the row unlike last time.
"Yeah
yeah."
"Sumo,
you should say thank you, such bad manners."
"Thank
you Shravan." She rolled her eyes, this was the third day in the row that they
were on a test drive, in reality,
they were both just looking for opportunities to spend time together, they
started working on Sumo's Delhi-Brahman list.
"That
didn't seem heartfelt." He said.
"Did
you want a round of applause?"
"That
and our favourite India Gate kulfi should
do."
"Is
that what your fees is this time?"
She asked with a smile thinking how easy he was.
"No,
I am not going to let you off that easy Sumo!
I just want kulfi." He said with a
grin as she pulled up to their favorite place to grab kulfis. She parked the car on the side of the road and came to a
halt.
"Lets
go deplete the kulfi stock then." She
said trying to unbuckle her belt again. Her face flushed when he leaned in
again to help, but this time he didn't look down at the belt buckle but rather
his eyes stayed on hers as she felt his hands trying to get the stubborn buckle
to give up. Her breath hitched in her throat when his hands grazed the side of
her stomach accidentally.
The
buckle had come loose already but he didn't want to move away, especially when
he heard her breath hitch and her eyes widen. He didn't miss how her eyes
flickered down to his lips and for a moment he thought about just closing the
distance between them and ending this torture that he'd been putting himself
through for weeks but this was not the place, so he backed away slowly as the
seat belt started to recline back into its place.
"Thank
you." She whispered, her voice sounded hoarse to her own ears. He smiled back
at her and opened the passenger side door as she opened hers, they walked
towards the stall side by side, hyperaware of each other.
They
ordered their kulfis, and sat under
the shade of a tree on the side of the road. The day was hot and muggy, and the
area was crowded due to its proximity to India Gate.
"Delhi
heat is going to kill me one day." Sumo groaned as she ate and watched people
walk by, some of them had huge cameras in their hands, others were just rushing
to navigate through the dense crowds. They used to do this a lot, just sit or
stand around here and watch the people walk by, sometimes going as far as creating
back stories for them.
"You
wouldn't be able to live anywhere else." He said looking ahead, he knew her,
she wouldn't want to leave Nana Ji behind.
"Delhi
feels like home." She smiled, she was
used to the traffic jams, the topless rickshaws and the monuments around the
city.
"That
it does." He murmured digging into his second kulfi. "But it's not the city, it's the people."
"So
hypothetically, if your whole family moves to London, it would feel like home?" She asked looking towards him.
"Nope,
you're missing a few people." He said looking her right in the eye, he didn't
look away and neither did she, she was pretty sure that he meant her with the way he was looking at her
right then but she told her heart to not get its hopes up until he explicitly said
something. But it was hard to not do that these days with how things seemed to
be between them.
"You've
never told me about Oxford or London." She realized suddenly.
"They
are two very different cities, you
can walk diagonally through Oxford in about 30 minutes if you know where you're
going but London, you can spend a whole month in London and not get through all
the sights."
"Which
one did you like more?" She asked wanting to know more about his life there, to
learn how her Shravan had become this Shravan.
"London.
Oxford got boring after a while, but the libraries were to die for. Especially
the Harry Potter one!"
She
laughed at the excitement in his voice, he was a huge Harry Potter nerd and she
knew he would have loved England for that reason alone. He had even gotten her
hooked, they had watched the first four movies together, and then he left and
she didn't have the heart to watch the rest of them without him.
"So
that's the only memorable thing about Oxford?" She laughed.
"No,
I loved Oxford. Oxford was a new world for me you know - a fresh start. There is
something about the city that is very enchanting, maybe it is the old buildings
or the atmosphere. The air is fresh, the grass green and the trees old, the
town wasn't very crowded during the school year apart from the students, and
the people who worked in town. But more than the city, it was the people around
me I think. A lot of them were like me, total nerds and I got to learn a lot from the friends I made there. They
were so sure of themselves, confident and outgoing - things I wasn't. So I
learnt from them, I learnt how to love myself the way I was because a lot these
other people had learnt to love themselves and were happy."
Suman smiled at his words,
it was clear that those years had a lot to do with who he was today. "It shows,
you are definitely more confident and assertive now, you carry yourself differently."
"I
think a lot of it had to do with my growth spurt though, it was like I shot up
overnight and when my next-door neighbour and I became friends, and he
dragged me to the gym everyday. I
wasn't scrawny, ugly Shravan anymore." He shrugged.
"You were never ugly, you were cute back in the day
too-" Sumo cut herself short when she realized what she was saying. He had a
smile on his face though because of two things, a) she thought he was cute back
in the day, and b) she used "too". Shravan knew he was good looking, the
attention he'd gotten over the years had proved that much to him, but there was
something about hearing it from her mouth that made him feel really good about
himself.
"More good looking than
Jairaj?" He teased causing her to roll her eyes.
"Tell me more about your
friends!" She said trying to change the subject and he let it slide.
"His name is Rishi, and thank
god he could cook or I would have died. The Indian food in Oxford sucked, his food wasn't amazing as yours,
meri masterchef, but it was much
better than what they pawn off as Indian food in Oxford."
"It couldn't have been that
bad." She laughed.
"Trust me, there were like
4 Indian restaurants in Oxford and they all catered to white people, the food
was so bland and they put sugar and coconut in everything. You had to bus all the way from Oxford to Southall to
get good Indian food."
"Okay, so fact number one
about Oxford is that they need a good Indian restaurant." She laughed.
"Yeah, fish & chips and
pizza gets tiring after a while. And the only thing I learnt to cook was pastas
and stuff, I'd put paneer in them and load them up with spices because I craved
Indian food so much. I'll make it for you one day, cooking for a chef should be interesting, you can't be
harsh though."
"I won't be." She laughed.
"I'll hold you to that."
"So when am I being wowed
by your culinary skills?" She teased.
"You're already being
harsh." He laughed when she started giggling at the sight of a tall Shravan
burning things in some random kitchen.
"Continue please." She
laughed biting into yet another kulfi.
"London was better than
Oxford on the food front." He continued. "And it was such a lively city, there
was so much to do and see...not that I got around to a lot of it since I was so
busy studying and then working."
"Did you do the whole London Tourist List, like the Eye, Big
Ben, Madame Tussaud's and such?"
"I saw them from afar,
never went up on the Eye though."
Sumo gasped at the answer.
"You were in London and you didn't go on the Eye?!"
"At first I kept waiting
for a sunny day to go on it, which was stupid, and then after a while it kind
of slipped my mind since I saw it so often."
"I can't believe you,
that's the first thing I would have done. What about the Warner Bros Studio?"
She asked.
"Negative on that too." He
said, there was a reason he didn't go there. It reminded him of her and her excitement at going to it
one day as they watched the Harry Potter movies together. He hadn't watched
past the fourth one either because it was their
thing but he had read all the books so he knew what happened.
"Pinch me, I must be
dreaming." She gasped.
"Stop being so dramatic."
"But you were right there."
"Actually, the studio is a
bit outside of London."
"Still Shravan!"
"It was something we were
going to do together." He said quietly while looking ahead. A small smile grew
on her face at his words.
"I haven't watched past the
fourth movie, I couldn't do it without you." She said back, still looking ahead
of her.
"You haven't watched them
either?" He asked in shock turning towards her.
"Either?" She questioned,
he shook his head with a sheepish smile. "So, we need to have a Harry Potter
marathon soon." She laughed happily.
"Definitely."
"You went to the library
though!" She said referring back to his earlier fanboy moment.
"It was in Oxford." He
shrugged. "We can go again" He said biting into his kulfi, Sumo froze next to him.
"We?" She asked.
Shravan looked at her now,
and he could tell she was taken aback by his words, but there was a hint of a
smile and hope in her eyes at what his words implied. He didn't really know
what to say to her because lately whenever he thought of anything in the
future, she was always there, right beside him like he wanted her to be. "Well,
remember I need to take you back to scare my friends and the other people that
bother me?" He laughed.
"Is it just me or do the
movies get progressively darker in colour as well?" Sumo said as she sat beside
Shravan on the floor of the Malhotra living room. The rest of the Malhotras
were missing in action because Vandy Bhabhi had taken them to her sister's wedding
anniversary party.
"They do." Shravan nodded,
they were currently on the fifth movie, Order of the Phoenix, because Sumo had
insisted they watch from the first movie to the last. The more movies they had
to watch, the more time they got to spend together.
They were currently sitting
right next to each other, the sides of their bodies touching even though there
was ample space. They had somehow moved closer as the day went on. They were
trying really hard to concentrate on
the movie, but their minds seemed to wander to the person beside them.
Sumo felt overwhelmed by
his scent and the white long sleeved t-shirt he was wearing, there was
something about the colour white on him that she loved. She could feel the
heart emanating from his body, it seemed to be seeping into her and her heart
seemed to beat faster and faster, it had nothing to do with the dragons on the
screen.
Shravan found himself
watching her more than he watched the movie, she was always so expressive and
today was no different, she cringed and held her breath when there was a tough
scene, she would grab his hand and squeeze it tightly when it happened. She got
startled when things appeared out of nowhere and seemed to move closer to him
reflexively. Having her sit next to him was both a blessing and a curse, he was
enjoying it immensely but his mind wanted to go a step further, he ached to
wrap his arms around her and pull her into his lap. He had a feeling that her
head would fit perfectly under his chin.
"Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh
my god." She said as the dragon started throwing flames at Harry Potter, he
smiled as her hold on his hand tightened. He turned to watch her because she
was way more interesting than anything on the screen. Her eyes were wide and she
watched the screen intently. He didn't know what made her scream but all of a
sudden her head was buried against his shoulder. Shravan gulped and his slight
movement caused Sumo to realize what she was doing.
She looked up at him and
was taken aback by the look in his eyes, his light brown eyes suddenly looked
darker and more intense like he was trying to stare into her soul. His lips
were parted and she could hear him breathing just as hard as her. Her eyes
flickered back up to his eyes to notice that his gaze was on her lips. She was
about to move away but he lightly squeezed the hand she was grasping and she
stopped where she was.
Her heart hammered in her
chest and she felt every part of her body twitch in anticipation as his face
moved closer to hers. He stopped when their noses were almost touching and
looked her in the eyes. "A kiss
should suffice as my fees this time."
He murmurs to her, surprised that he can string together a sentence when every
nerve in his brain is screaming at him to close the distance between them and
kiss her. He's done waiting, they've been in this situation so many times in
the past week that he's aching for her, this back and forth between them needed
to stop.
But he waits patiently
because he doesn't want to force this on her, yet he knows that this is what
she wants as well or he wouldn't have asked. She moved away from him and he felt
the disappointment flow through him. He was about to apologize but she
surprised him as she got up on her knees and navigated herself so she was
straddling him, her knees on either side of his thigh, his hand automatically went
to her waist to stabilize her. Her face was at level with his now and there was
a slight smile on her face as her eyes flickered between his lips and his eyes,
and he felt his heart pound away in his chest.
Her heart had skipped a
beat as soon as he asked for a kiss because she's wanted this for weeks. She
doesn't really know what comes over her but she quickly got onto her knees and
straddled him, if he wanted a kiss as his fees
she was going to give him a proper one. The feel of his hands on her waist made
her skin feel like it was burning, and her own hands found their way around his
neck as she closed the distance between them and their lips meet. She should
have been nervous, this was her first
kiss after all, but with him...she didn't feel that way at all.
Their lips moved against
each other, slowly. Her head instinctively turned at an angle as he used the
hands he had around her waist to pull her closer. He kissed her back, softly,
in direct contrast to what he was feeling. They pulled away for a second and
their eyes met, there was a slight smile on both their faces and that's all it took
for them to close the distance between them again, this time their lips moving anything
but slowly, they were testing the waters of a new territory. His hands were
placed firmly on her waist, pulling her closer. Her hands glided along the
sides oh his neck and into his hair, pulling the strands. With this his limited
restraint vanished, and his tongue swept across her bottom lip making her let
out a gasp and letting him in, and suddenly the kiss that had started as soft
and sweet was now firm and frenzied.
She didn't know which she
liked better, the former made her heart flutter and the latter seemed to set
her on fire. He bit her bottom lip suddenly and she couldn't hold back the
moan, her body arched into him more and he made a sound that was almost a growl.
His
whole body felt like it was on fire, he couldn't believe that this was
happening, but he knew that this was
what he was waiting for. He didn't think it was going to be like this though,
this frenzied, this passionate yet so sweet. It was like he
couldn't stop once her lips had touched his, if he were to die right then he
would have died a happy man.
Loud
cheering coming from the TV caused them to finally move apart, their eyes
opened and they looked at each other before bursting into laughter. They were
quite a sight, lips swollen, eyes wide and sparkling, heaving chests and
flushed faces. Sumo let out a giggle as the cheering continued in the
background, she had forgotten all about the movie. Shravan let out a chuckle of
his own before grabbing the remote and turning the TV off, Harry Potter could
wait. His hands cupped her face between his hands, his thumb tracing her cheek
lightly.
"So,
you haven't moved on, have you?" She
asked, but she knew the answer, she could see it in his eyes and in his actions
for the past few weeks. Just like he could tell she had feelings for him. Yet,
his eyes grew wide at her words and he put two and two together.
"When
did you read the letter?" He asked curious, his hands dropping from where he
was cupping her face back to her waist again, holding her where she was.
"The
day you sprained your ankle." She answered, her hands were still wrapped around
his neck, she is still playing with the hair at the nape of his neck and she
didn't want to stop.
"Is
that why you kept asking me to give my love another chance?"
"Mhm."
She nodded. "I wanted to let you know that a certain oblivious girl wasn't an
oblivious woman anymore."
"And
you couldn't have said that straight up?" He asked.
"When
you were preaching about having moved on?"
"I
guess not." He said sheepishly.
"You
didn't answer my question." She said.
"I
thought I'd moved on, but I obviously hadn't." He admitted.
"What
made you realize that?" She asked, her fingers were playing now pulling on his
hair lightly and he let out a little groan that made her eyes flicker to his
swollen pink lips, she bit her own lip unconsciously.
"You
have to stop doing that if you want me to keep talking." His voice was hoarse
as the words left his mouth, her face flushed causing him to chuckle, he
grabbed her hands and moved them to rest on his chest before moving his own
hands to her waist again. "Jairaj and your story made me realize it."
"Seems
like my story worked then." She laughed.
"You
planned this?"
"Mr.
Shravan Malhotra, I know you well enough to know that you hadn't really moved
on."
"So
what are you trying to say?" He asked. She paused and looked into his eyes,
there was a hint of hope in them yet a fear, perhaps of rejection, she had
unknowingly rejected his love many times before, and a part of him was scared
that she might do it again and she wasn't going to have any of that. Although
her plan had been to make him confess first, it didn't really matter at this
point.
"I
love you Shravan." She whispered, her own hands cupped his face gently. His
eyes grew wide in shock, he felt his heart stop for a second before it picked
up double time. The words sounded like music to his ears, he had waited for
this, for so long. "You know when a girl says that to you she expects a
response." Sumo mumbled, her hands dropping from his face to his chest when a
whole minute passed and he hadn't said anything.
"I
thought it was obvious that I love you." He smiled.
"It's
still reassuring to here." She mumbled looking down at her hands.
His
right hand found its way under her chin and forced her to look up at him. "I
love you Sumo, always have, always will." He said, his words were slow and
clear, yet confident. The smile on her face was almost blinding, and his was
much the same. They sat in the middle of the Malhotra living room, she was
still straddling him with her hands placed comfortably over his heart, one of
his hands was on her waist and the other was busy caressing the soft skin of
her face as their eyes danced with each other.
This
time he closed the distance between them, he brushed his lips against her cheek
softly, the light touch along with the feel of his stubbly beard, sent shivers
through her whole body, but he didn't stop. His fingers would trace her
cheekbone and then he would place kisses along it, then he would move his
attention to her nose, and then her forehead, repeating the same actions. It
was like he was trying to memorize her face with his fingers and lips. His
fingers moved the hair framing her face behind her ear, and he cupped her face
again just looking at her. Her breath was coming in gasps now, every touch
seemed to make her feel like she was melting into him.
They
kissed again, and this time it was familiar, they knew exactly how they fit
together. It was hard to kiss because they were both trying to hard to not
smile, but the happiness that flows between them makes the sloppy kisses a
hundred times better. He rested his forehead against hers as they both smiled
at each other. Her knees were hurting now, and he realized this when she moved
uncomfortably. She navigated herself off of him and tried to sit beside him but
he was not ready to let her go yet so he pulled her into his lap. She smiled
and melted into him, her back was against his chest, she fit perfectly against
him, he rested his head on the top of her head and wrapped his arms around her,
his hands resting on her stomach.
"Comfy?"
He whispered into her ear causing the hair at the back of her neck to stand up,
she nodded. "Good." He said before grabbing the remote and turning the TV back
on. He rewound it back to the part where they had stopped watching. But it was
no easier to pay attention this time either, she could feel his heartbeat, his
scent surrounded her and her body felt like it was on fire. But at the same
time she felt peaceful, like all was right with the world.
It
wasn't any easier for him, all he wanted to do was lay her down on the couch
behind them and kiss her until she was gasping for air, but he knew they had to
take it slow because the moment they crossed that line he didn't know what was
going to happen - because the physical side of their relationship was new, the
emotional side they had been working on for quite some time now.
But
he was content where he was, especially when she snuggled into him more and let
out a content sigh and rested her hands on top of his on her stomach.
X-X-X-X
If you haven't already read the OS I posted yesterday, you can read it here --> Vertigo. Another OS will be posted tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that, it may be a bit different than the usual. 😆
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