One Shots #VariaSquad

Games I'm Done Playing

He watches her from across the room, his eyes drawn to her like coins to a magnet. She smiles secretively to herself, aware that he's looking and rather enjoying it. 'He's staring at you. Again,' states the man stood next to her.

She represses the urge to roll her eyes at the futile statement and turns to look at the person she's supposed to be paying attention to, making sure to wipe the smile off her face. 'I know,' she says, shrugging like she couldn't care less.

'You didn't even have to ask who,' the man says, sounding both curious and thoroughly put out.

'Oh come on Ranbir, do you honestly think that I don't know what it feels like to have Varun Dhawan staring holes into me by now?' she questions exasperatedly.

'What, you don't even have to look to know it's him?' Ranbir asks, clearly not believing her.

'No, no I don't,' she affirms, pushing back the laugh that threatens to leave her at the bewildered look she receives. 'I've known him for almost eight years now, I know what it feels like when he's looking at me. And besides, he's the only person in this room who could possibly be looking at me like that,' Or you know, in the entire world, she adds in her head.

'Why? What's so special about it?' Ranbir asks, sounding more like a sulking teenager than a fully grown man.

'Nothing I guess. Or nothing I can explain anyway,' she says with another shrug. Nothing I'm willing to explain, she corrects silently. 'Anyway, what's it to you? You do know we're not actually a thing right? Or did you miss that part?'

'No, I didn't miss that part,' he tells her grumpily, 'but maybe you missed the part where he came here with his girlfriend tonight, not with you.' She knows that he's expecting that to hurt, to subdue her and make her realise why he really shouldn't be looking at her like that.

It doesn't have that effect at all. Instead, she laughs, finally glancing over her shoulder to look at the boy who's still looking at her, giving him a smile that he knows is just for him and getting one in return. 'If it bothers you so much Ranbir, do something about it,' she suggests, tone both light and challenging as she turns back to him.

'I'm not Varun, you can't bait me like that,' the actor scoffs. 'I'm just reminding you to be careful.'

'I don't need to be reminded of that,' she snaps, suddenly aggravated. 'I know what I'm doing. And even if I did need to be reminded, I have plenty of other people to do it.'

'Oh yeah, you really know what you're doing, flirting with a guy who's about as loyal to his girl as it gets,' Ranbir mutters. The look he gets in return for that statement would have had him six feet under if looks could kill.

She's silently seething but she can still feel the eyes that are focused on her and she knows that he's amused, can feel it from the way it no longer feels like he's burning holes into her but like fingers running down her back and she both hates and loves it at the same time.

So she turns to Ranbir with a sweet smile that anybody who knows her should know means trouble. Unfortunately for him, Ranbir fails to realise that until after he's accepted her offer to go dance and the two of them are in the middle of the very crowded dance floor. In the midst of all the people and the loud noise, it's hard for them to maintain the amount of distance Alia usually tries to keep between them and, before long, he feels somebody's firey  gaze burning holes through him. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who it is looking at him, not when Alia Bhatt is dancing this close to him, looking like she's having the time of her life.

From there spot in the middle of the floor, Alia is able to see Varun staring at them, getting angrier by the second. She watches Natasha besides him, clearly resigned to the fact that he's not paying her any attention, evidently jealous but aware that there's really nothing she can do about it. Even though she knows she really shouldn't, Alia sends Varun a teasing smile and a quick wink. He narrows his eyes at her and, without a word to his girlfriend, he makes his way across the room towards them. 'Ranbir,' he calls when he's within earshot. The man in question turns, putting an amicable smile onto his face as he does so even though they all know his feelings towards the younger man are less than friendly at the minute.