Tere bin OS

Chicken soup

This is for you Akhanmur
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Climate change brings along with it flu and fever; it happened in the case of Murtasim Khan too. It was a fine morning and Meerab woke up to a burning Murtasim beside her. She was too worried that she didn't knew to call a doctor or tend to him herself. It was a first time for her to see Murtasim sick. She had seen him injured and had seen him with the fish allergy and also the cold, but never with a high fever.

"Murtasim, open your eyes." Meerab patted on his cheeks to wake him up.

"Sone do yaar," he mumbled in his sleep, turning to the other side. Keeping the back of her palm on his cheeks, forehead and the crook of his neck, she was sure if was not a normal fever. Immediately jumping towards the cupboard, she got hold of the thermometer and without a second thought she inserted it into his mouth.

The action woke him up. "What are you doing Meerab?" He yelled at the sudden intrusion of his personal space.

"Chup, bilkul chup!" She asserted as she shushed him to keep quiet while she placed the thermometer inside his mouth under his tongue. He gestured her what she was doing with his eyes. And she gestured him to relax for a moment. A minute passed and a peep sound was heard. Taking the meter out from his mouth, she read the temperature aloud. "39° C. You are having high temperature Murtasim!" She shreiked in worry. "Get up, let's go to the doctor," she tugged his arm along with her as she got up.

But Murtasim was not ready to even step away from his bed. Checking his own temperature by his hand, he stopped her, "Its not that high. The fever will be gone within a day of two. Everyone is having it yaar because its the climate change. I will have some herbal medicine and rest, I will be fine," he tried to console her as if it was Meerab who was sick.

"Are you serious?!" She scolded him, dragging the blanket away from his body so that it eases him to get up from the bed. "Get up, brush your teeth. I will prepare a steam water for you," she ordered.

"I don't even have the energy to get up from here," he whined, tugging the blanket back and covering everything of him except his head. Meerab bursted into laughter at the vision of Murtasim Khan cocooning inside a warm blanket.

"What?!" He reprimanded in embarrassment knowing well why his wife was smiling at him.

"I can't believe this is Khan Murtasim Khan!" She teased as her fingers lened towards his forehead to check his temperature again.

"I am fine yaar. I just want to rest," he tried again with his puppy face.

"Okay. You will rest. But sleep, don't look at the phone. I will bring your steam water and medicines. Will be back in a minute!" She agreed finally.

It was hardly fifteen minutes when Meerab returned back with a hot streaming pot in her hand held by cotton cloth.

"Murtasim, utho!" She commanded and he woke up with a jerk. Seeing it was her and she had brought him his cure, his scrunched face automatically turned into a smile.

"Thank you yaar!" He said in appreciation as he sat like a child on the bed with blanket around him and she kept the steam pot on the stool near him. Opening the lid of the steam pot, she added some tulsi leaves into it and then widened the blanket around him, causing it to fall on his face but covering himself and the steam pot.

"Inhale and exhale deeply. Get the steam into your nose and mouth and ears and throat. It will be good for you. And don't touch the pot, it will burn your hand. And-" she was cut-off.

"What am i, a kid?" He taunted her with his head portruding out. Staring back at his face, her emotions boiled over. "You, get back inside!" She pushed his head back inside the blanket and she heard a chuckle from the confines of the blanket which made her smile too.

Ten minutes of traditional medicine of steam inhale and Murtasim's fever calmed down a bit. "Uff, I am all sweaty. Switch on the fan Meerab," he said as he wiped the sweat beads on his face and neck with a towel.

"You yourself will tell me to switch off the fan after sometime, you will see," she teased while switching on the fan.

"So what? You can switch it off then!" He replied, leaning back on the bed rest.

"What am I, a machine to work as you say?" She taunted back, as she prepared a glass of water and some tablets for him.

"Uhuh, you are my wife. My loving, sweet, beautiful wife." He pulled her wrist towards him, making her fall on his chest.

"Someone is trying to be romantic while being sick," she gasped out aloud holding onto her balance by resting her hands on his chest.

"I am not trying. I am romantic," he argued back as he swallowed the medicine with the glass of water leaned towards him by his wife's hand.

"You can be romantic all you want. But now rest," she offered with a sweet smile on her face as she helped him lay back on the bed after switching the fan off on his request. She kept a wet cloth on his forehead that would help in lowering his fever.

"Rest for a while. I will make you soup since other foods will be tasteless for you now. Hmm?" She tapped on his chest to leave her hand from his hold.

"Chicken soup?" He was excited. But a glare was received in return, "Uhuh, herbal soup. You want to consume meat when sick? Tum nahi sudrenge!" She scolded him as she jerked his hands off from her wrist and walked to the door.  A faint whine was heard and that caused her to look back at him with a smile before she walked out to prepare what he was eager for - A chicken soup!
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A/N Surprise! Consequent updates! And it will continue to do so for few more days and that's how this book will come to an end 😊

I have read all your requests with ideas for one shots and I have chosen some among them because its not practical to write on every ideas. I had listed it down and reduced it to a few, and there will be two or three updates based on the ideas shared by you guys and then it will be epilogue. We will be bidding farewell with TERE BIN OS after that which is quite heartbreaking for me. But we will meet again afterwards with new stories and books hopefully.

PS:- its unedited, pls forgive for grammatical errors.

See you soon.