"What are you boys doing here?! Sab ladke get out!" Swarna glared at Kairav, Abhimanyu, Neil and Parth, pointing at them to leave whilst earning giggles from the girls.
Abhimanyu looked over Swarna to see Akshara sitting beside Shefali, Reem and Saanj. All the girls were wearing lenghas in different shades of green. But all he cared for was to see his Akshara wearing a dark green floral lengha and looking absolutely stunning while doing so.
Akshara glanced up to see Abhimanyu staring directly at her, making her cheeks flush as images of their morning rendezvous flashed before her eyes. She secretly waved at Abhimanyu, smiling shyly at him. Akshara eyed the girls sitting around her carefully to see if anyone was watching before touching her hand to mouth and blowing Abhimanyu a flying kiss.
"Akshara? What's wrong?" Mimi asked, catching Akshara touch her hand to her mouth.
Thinking quickly on her feet, Akshara feigned a yawn as to not raise suspicions. "Nothing Mimi. Just tired." She lied, earning a smirk from Abhimanyu.
Akshara glared at Abhimanyu for poking fun of her white lies. Abhimanyu moved his hand to his waist in a dramatic move to catch Akshara's flying kiss. Unfortunately it was a move that did not go unnoticed by Kairav.
"Abhimanyu? What are you doing?"
"Hmmm kya? Oh nothing. Just swatting away the mosquitos, that's it." Abhimanyu replied, glancing back at Kairav.
Before Kairav could respond, Swarna was quick to intervene again. "Sab ladke out. Bahar niklo. This event is just for the girls."
"But Badi Maa, hum toh already bahar hai, garden mein. How much further out can we go?" Abhimanyu asked innocently.
"So shouldn't you be telling us to go inside instead?" Neil joined in on the conversation.
"Neil toh Neil, lekin Abhimanyu, tum bhi? I thought you were the mature one." Swarna responded at the antics of her younger would-be grand son-in-law.
Abhimanyu held his ears in apology. "Sorry, Badi Maa. But it's not fair. How come we can't party with you all too?"
Akshara laughed as she watched Swarna and Abhimanyu banter. She had always wanted a husband who would get along with her entire family and treat them like his own. And Abhimanyu was just that. He made her heart fill with love, joy, and gratitude knowing that she fell in love with and was about to marry the most gracious and charming man to walk the planet.
"Hum sab yah sirf Akshu?" Manjiri teased, walking up beside Swarna, making Akshara blush.
"Maaa. You too? How can you off all people think that?" He replied, passing a glance at Akshara before turning back to Manjiri and Swarna.
"Because I'm your mother and I know what goes on in that mind of yours. Currently Akshara naam ki headlights flash kar rahi hongi." That quip earned a few snickers from the boys.
"Lekin Manjiri Maa, this is my Mehendi too. I can be a part of it, right?" Parth asked, slyly.
"Nope. All of you boys have to leave. This is an exclusive girls event only." Nishtha came to stand beside Manjiri and answered Parth's question on her behalf which earned her a death glare from her two elder brothers.
"Then why is Vansh here?" Parth whined.
"Vansh is helping us with the music. He's our DJ today." Swarna answered.
Abhimanyu's eyes lit up at that mention. "Haan perfect! We'll also help Vansh with the music. How will he handle everything? Right bhai?" He nudged Parth on the shoulder.
"Right! Absolutely!"
"No. You all have to leave. Now! And Vansh is also going to be leaving soon too. We have traditional ghooghaf clad henna artistes coming to do the henna and they've requested it be a female affair. Which means no boys allowed! So bye boys. Out!" Swarna warned them, strictly.
When the group of boys made no move to leave, Saanj, Samayah and Reem took it upon themselves to push them out and away from the garden area. The garden area was covered in little colourfully draped cushioned sofas surrounded by an array of floral arrangement.
As Abhimanyu, Parth, Neil and Kairav were unwilling and forcefully thrown out of the garden area, their resolve to join in on the girls Mehendi party strengthened. It didn't matter if by hook or by crook, they'll find a way to get inside the Mehendi party.
This was his first Mehendi function with Akshara and he sure as hell was going to be spending it with her. No doubt about it. It was just a matter of how he went about doing so.
And as if God was on his side too, his gaze fell upon 5 women adorning sarees with their faces covered all the way to the chest with their pallu, walking towards the garden carrying bags —of if he were to place an expert guess —was henna.
He excitedly tapped on Parth and Neil's shoulder pointing them towards the group of local women. He exchanged glances with his brothers and Kairav to know they were all on the same page.
"No guys, I'm out." Kairav said, shaking his head.
"But why?" Neil asked.
"Because you may not know Mimi or Badi Maa but I do. If they catch us sneaking in, then we'll get our asses handed to us. Mimi is very strict about wedding rasams and festivities. So if you guys want to be khatron ke khiladi and play with danger, that's on you. But count me out." He answered and walked away before anyone else had a chance to reply.
Abhimanyu turned around to look at Parth and Neil and saw them contemplating the idea too now. "Bhai. This is your Mehendi too. Agar aaj nahin toh kab?"
Parth's brows furrowed as he glanced over at Neil to see he was watching him eagerly too. Parth looked back at Abhimanyu, gaining courage and nodded his head. "Let's do this."
Abhimanyu and Neil gave each other a victorious smile. "Let's do this." They exclaimed in unison.
~*~
Akshara was happily clapping along to the voices of Mimi and Swarna singing old wedding folk songs when she felt a warm summer breeze run through her hair and the little baby hairs rise up at the nape of her neck.
She watched in curiosity as her gaze fell on 3 ghoonghat clad women making their way towards them. She furrowed her brows as she watched then walk, unevenly, taking forced feminine steps, as if they were caricatures of women and not real women.
Weird.
Their sarees were tied messily and their faces not visible at all. She watched the women disperse, one went to sit beside Shefali, one went to sit in between Saanj and Nishtha while the tallest one with the broader shoulders made her way towards Akshara.
Without speaking a word, the woman sat down beside Akshara and extended her hand.
"Main aapko mehndi laga doon?" The voice was feminine but had a masculine tone, as if someone was purposely trying to speak like a woman.
Feeling a bit creeped out, Akshara shook her head. "Nahin, you can apply Mehendi on someone else. I'll wait my turn."
"Kyun? Main bhi Mehendi achi lagati hoon." The undertone of that voice. Akshara could swear she had heard it before.
"No..." She was about to decline the offer again when the woman forcibly pulled Akshara's palm towards her.
"Mujhe ek mauka de jiye..." The saree clad woman requested as she began to outline Akshara's palm with henna.
As the lady began applying henna on her, she felt the lady's hand wander its way up Akshara's arm, ticking her. The unknown hand began caressing the inside of Akshara's wrist —inappropriately —making Akshara's eyes widen in shock.
"Yeh aap kya kar rahi hai?" Akshara asked, pulling her hand away from the intrusive lady.
"Main bus check kar rabi thi ki aap haath itne soft kaise hai? Kya hai aap ke itne mulaayam haathon ka raaz?" The lady replied, pulling Akshara's hand back into hers.
"Please aap sirf mehendi lagayiye." Akshara response back, still uncertain of why she was feeling so weird but her familiar around this lady.
As the woman began to smoothen out her palm, Akshara began to sense that she had felt this touch before. The small caressing of her wrist and the tiny circles being formed in the middle of palm by the lady's thumb. She had felt it before. All of it. That touch on her hand did not belong to a woman. The touch was firm and masculine. She swore she knew that touch.
The touch belonged to him. She would know his hand and his touch in a crowd of millions. It was him.
"Abhimanyu...?" She whispered, pulling her hand away from his. She looked around frantically in Mimi, Swarna and Manjiri's direction as to not raise suspicions.
"At your service Ma'am!" Abhimanyu lifted the ghoonghat off his face and winked at Akshara before covering his face again.
"What are you doing here?!" She squealed, a bit too loudly earning a tight squeeze of her wrist from Abhimanyu.
"Shush!" He whispered back harshly.
But it was already too late, Mimi had already caught a whiff of Akshara's uneasiness.
Abhimanyu gave Akshara a panicked look through his Saree's pallu which was equally reciprocated by Akshara.
Shit.
They were about to be caught by Mimi.
<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>
This is Part 1 of the Mehendi shenanigans. I hope you like it.
It's a shame we can't hold polls here but I had a quick question to ask.
A) Are you okay with the descriptive sexual content like the one found in chapters 10 and 34?
or
B) Would you like me to just like skip over that and insinuate they had sex?
I'm just asking because I'll go with whatever majority says for the next chapters (if and when they end up having sex again)