Next Morning.
Niharika woke up from her sleep, but when she returned to this world, they were sleeping on her brand new bed, Ranvijay hugging her tightly. His breath fanning her cheeks, his arms holding her close. Her left arm felt numb, probably because, Ranvijay was lying on it whole night.
The separation made him babier.
"I should cook something for his breakfast, what time is it? Oh no, already 8! I need to cook him break fast. I don't even have enough supplies, I need to go shopping." She thought to herself.
But when she tried to remove him gently from her, his sleep got disturbed. A sleepy, irritated Ranvijay growled in his heavy raspy voice, "Let me sleep", hugging her even tighter.
"God, I am even deeper in love!" Niharika awed at his morning voice.
She whispered to him gently brushing his messed up hair, "Listen na, I need to go to the market real quick, I just shifted two days ago, I have no grocery. If I won't go to the market, how will I cook your breakfast, hmm?"
Ranvijay groaned again, rasping in his morning voice, "See it later, I wanna sleep now, let me sleep please, I haven't slept for days." He nuzzled into her neck again.
This broke her heart even more. "I shouldn't have left him there." She whispered an inaudible sorry kissing his forehead, hugging him and drawing gentle circles on his back.
Time skip, 11 a.m.
This time, both of their sleep got disturbed by Ranvijay's ringing phone. He begrudgingly answered it, "What?... Ohh.. umm.. Cancel the meetings if there is any today. I will take a leave today and don't call me, unless it's a emergency... Yeah... no.. no.. I am fine...no need to call any doctor, Niharika is here with me, don't worry."
"Who was it?" Ranvijay hugged her again answering, "Dhara, she was asking why am I late, she thought I was sick." "Ouh, by the way, what happened to you? You never miss office." Niharika asked with furrowed brows.
Ranvijay looked up at her, with love dripping from his honey laden sleepy eyes. "Don't embarrass me asking why." He gave his billion dollar smile, hovering over her, hiding his face in her crook.
Niharika smiled and played with his hairs. "It's okay, if you wanna rest." Ranvijay whispered in her neck,"Honestly, I wanna be with you," sending shivers all over her body.
She somehow controlled herself when she felt his stubble, "Haven't you shaved?"
"I haven't eaten properly, and you are worrying about shaving?"
"My bad, husband. But stop scratching me with your stubble at least."
"Nope." With that he started tickling her, rubbing his stubble on her cheeks, and neck. Both of them broke into laughter, Niharika counterattacked tickling his waist. They were giggling and laughing, rolling over the bed.
Finally, they stopped when they were in tears after laughing so much.
Niharika looked at him, dreamily saying, "You complete me, in every way."
Ranvijay looked at her with his raging, bubbling, unstoppable affection, and pecked her forehead.
"Let's brush,"
"I don't have extra."
"I will use yours."
"Eww,"
"What eww?"
"You will use my used brush?"
"So what, I kiss you like crazy, every chance I get, what's wrong with your brush?"
"Are you sure, you are the same hygienic Ranvijay?"
A glare from him stopped her from further investigating, when she was about to get up, he caught her wrist, "Niharika, can you wash my hair for me?"
She nodded smiling, "Only on one condition,"
"Accepted."
"Let me finish."
"Say it."
"You have to go shopping with me."
"Whyyyyy, you know, how much I hate shopping."
"You just agreed!"
"Fine, what do you wanna shop?"
"A lot, I just shifted two days ago. I need to buy groceries, kitchen supplies, bathroom supplies, a speaker, and I think we need to go see for refrigerator, geyser, and a washing machine maybe. But for the time being, let's just buy the refrigerator, I have to give EMI of this flat for six more months."
"Are you thinking of settling here?" Ranvijay asked with sad eyes.
"You can come to me anytime, this is your home too. But, I won't go back there."
"Why?"
"I don't wanna stay somewhere that doesn't belong to me or you."
Ranvijay realized what she meant, lowering his head, he said, "I am sorry, I should've told you."
"Let's not talk about that, I have you now, I want to enjoy your vacation. I want to cash my husband before the workaholic strikes in."
Ranvijay smiled at her.
"As you say, my Queen. But, first feed me, and help me wash!"
She chuckled, "Sure. There's a shop downstairs, go and bring some bread and eggs. I will make tea till then."
He jumped to the washroom getting fresh, followed by Niharika. While she was making tea, Ranvijay came with what she wanted.
"Niharika, I brought eggs, bread and also brought cheese."
"Okay, Egg and cheese sandwich, it is."
"See, I also brought your shampoo and conditioner."
"Smart boy!"
They enjoyed their tea and toast, after which she sat down on bathroom counter, with Ranvijay, shirtless, between her legs. She was massaging his hairs with shampoo and warm water.
They may not have a bathtub filled with bubbles of soap, but their very own bubble was enough to satiate them.
After massaging his scalp, Niharika went to his nape, shoulder, Ranvijay groaned in relief. She kept on massaging him, and he was this close to falling asleep. After a relaxing massage session, she left him to bath, while herself got ready in an pale sea green coloured saree. Ranvijay's weakness was light yet vibrant shades.
He never said, but from his looks, Niharika understood that he loves her most in sarees.
When Ranvijay came out of the bathroom, with his wet hairs, just a towel around his waist, both of them were frozen in their place. Niharika at her half naked husband, and Ranvijay at his beautiful wife in that light coloured saree.
"Your clothes must've dried by now", she quickly escaped from there, making Ranvijay blush and smiley at the same time. "The fire is burning same on both sides," Ranvijay whispered to himself, ruffling his hairs.
After Ranvijay got ready in his yesterday's clothes that she has washed and dried, Ranvijay carefully noticed her flat. He didn't get a chance to see it yesterday, as he was way too focused on his wife.
The flat was not that large like his, but was spacious. Mostly it had that homely smell, the perfume of Niharika, not those artificial chemical, but her very own cologne.
He looked at her messy room, typical of Niharika. While she was jotting down the list, Ranvijay started tidying up the room.
"Let's g..", Niharika was shocked to see her clean room, with made up bed. Ranvijay still folding and keeping something in the corner.
She smiled at him, they were so different from each other, yet so effortlessly belonged together.
She back hugged him, "Thank you, let's go."
Ranvijay mocked, "Do I have a choice?"
She only showed her tongue mocking him back.
He only smiled and grabbed her hand, stuffing his mobile and wallet in his pocket, going outside.
The whole day they shopped for house items. For hours, they chose curtains for their windows, bedsheets, cushions, groceries, kitchen supplies, mats, organizers. Don't even ask about the chaos.
New to all these, Ranvijay mistook kitchen cleaner with sanitizer, cushions with pillows, tawa with fry pan and what not. His excuse was, "They all look the same, how do you expect me to understand !!!🤷♂️"
Lastly they booked a refrigerator, which Ranvijay forcefully paid for.
Niharika was ecstatic to have had shopped with her husband. It was a dream come true for her.
On the other hand, Ranvijay never knew, he would feel this much energized to just shop potatoes and chicken with his wife. He was getting the feel of actually having a family.
He never knew, the person who hated social contact, the person who hated grocery shopping will love to see his wife arguing with a vegetable dealer regarding the price of vegetables.
Too tired to cook, they both went for chicken rolls in lunch and pizza for dinner.
And how can you forget thumsup?
The day ended with them watching a movie on laptop, munching on pizza, the movie was obviously a romantic animation, "Howl's Moving Castle", through out which Niharika couldn't stop fangirling over Howl, irritating the shit out of Ranvijay.
So much so, he threatened to mess up her laptop, if she fangirls one more time.
The night got even better, when Parth came by. The three of them thoroughly enjoyed a movie marathon night with pizza, meat balls and thumsup.
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P.s. I am a sucker for cute Ranvijay!