"Abhimanyu? What are you doing here?" Akshara asked, dumbfounded.
"Can I come in at least? It's pouring out here!"
"Umm, yes, sure. Come in." Akshara moved to the side to give Abhimanyu shelter from the pouring rain.
Akshara watched, trying her hardest not to stare like a fangirl as Abhimanyu stepped inside the community center and shook his hair, letting the rain water from his hair slash all over the place, with some droplets hitting her in the face too. Yeah, this man was no less than a Greek God and he left no chance to let her know of the same!
"Okay, now tell me. What are you doing here? In this weather?" Akshara questioned, snapping herself back to reality.
"I umm...came here to give you this." Abhimanyu brought something out of his jean pocket and held it out in front of her eyes.
"My charger? You came all the way here in this stormy weather to give me my charger!"
"Yes! I just thought I'd bring you your charger in case you had an emergency." He replied innocently, trying his best to not gag over the lameness of his own excuse. Now that he was here, he was beginning to see how desperate he looked. Yeah, coming here was a mistake but he had never been one to back down from a mistake before. So he was going to see this through.
"What sort of emergency?" Akshara folded her arms around her chest.
"Emergency as in you phone ran out of battery and you needed to charge it! You know, in case you needed to contact someone?" What the fuck was he even saying? His words already sounded stupid in his head but sounded even stupider once he spoke them out loud.
"What on Earth are you even talking about?! How did you even know where I was?"
"I...called Richa. She told me where you were." Not to mention he had received an earful for interrupting Richa's date night booty call time and gotten blasted for it.
"At this time of the night and she didn't ask you why you wanted to know where I volunteered?"
"She was busy so she didn't ask any questions." Preoccupied getting her sexual needs fulfilled would not have been the appropriate thing to say in this scenario.
"So wait, let me get this straight: you called Richa in the middle of the night —whilst she was on a date nonetheless so you could ask her which community center I volunteered and drove all the way in this stormy weather just to return my phone charger? Did I cover all the bases?" Akshara questioned, not buying any single one of his excuses of why Abhimanyu bothered to show up at the community center this late at night.
"Yes, precisely." He nodded his head like a diligent, obedient child, hoping Akshara wouldn't dig too deep into his flawed reasoning.
"You know, your excuse just want from plain bad to worse. But I don't have time to deal with you right now. I have my mind preoccupied with other more important issues." She stifled a groan thinking of the kids waiting on her to tell them their next course of action. "So you nah leave now." She ushered Abhimanyu, moving to open the door for him.
Leave? He didn't come all the way here, risking his life for her charger only to be told to leave!
Akshara opened the door for Abhimanyu only to be greeted by the strong winds and pelting rain blocking their vision and pushing them back inside and forcing Akshara to close the door.
Hallelujah for small victories! "You can't send me out in weather like that! What if I get blown away by the wind?" Abhimanyu asked innocently, pushing her buttons.
Akshara groaned. Great. Now she had 26 troublesom children to entertain instead of 25. "Come, since I can't send you back out in this stormy weather, you might as well come inside and help me keep this hellions entertained."
"Me? Kids? Entertained?"
Akshara sighed, rolling her eyes. "You are no less than a clown. So might as well put that special talent of yours to good use."
"Aww, you called me talented!" Abhjimanyu teased, flirtatiously, feeling a little tingle of pride in his heart.
"And a clown." Akshara mumbled, smacking him on the head gently, playfully.
Abhimanyu and Akshara paused in confusion at the playfulness with which Akshara had just smacked Abhimanyu's head. In flirtation, one could say. Akshars hesitated, her breath caught in her throat as she turned around to face Abhimanyu, feeling a sense of raw embarrassment.
"Umm, sorry...I didn't mean to..." Mean to what? Playfully flirt with him? Yeah, that sounds about right.
Abhimanyu watched the little flicker of hesitancy dancing along Akshara's eyes. She was embarrassed of her little gesture of playfulness. And for some reason, that made him happy. Very, very, happy.
He cleared his throat before responding. "Oh, okay, good. Or else I was going to have to file charges of domestic violence against you."
Akshara glared at him. "I like homicide charges better."
Abhimanyu chuckled at her response as he leaned down close to her ear, making her breath hitch, and her heart race. There was just something very irresistible about this man's aura and she was afraid she was falling prey to it.
"You know, after the intimate dreams you've had of me, I'd say allowing the little playful smack is the least I can do for you." He winked at her, taking her by surprise.
"Pfft! Shut up!" She so wanted to smack him in the head again but refrained herself. "Well, let's get going then. We have 25 very agitated kids to entertain."
"Kids?" Abhimanyu asked, casually, looking in Akshara's sight of vision to see a group of 25 kids staring anxiously in their direction. "Kids!"
"Why are you so surprised?" Akshara questioned.
"I don't like kids!" Abhimanyu complained, his voice sounding disgusted and fearful of the little kids as he turned to face Akshara worried eyes.
"What do you mean you don't like kids?"
"I mean I don't know how to deal with them! What do you even say to them? They are just...such small dainty creatures!"
"Hellions. The word you're looking for is hellions! And how can you not like kids?! Don't you have patients who are children?"
"Yes, but making small talk about their likes and dislikes as their doctor during a consultation is not the same thing as deliberately conversing with them for fun!" Abhimanyu explained, using a wide variety of hand gestures to put his point across.
"What are you even talking about? You are very weird, you know that?"
Before Abhimanyu could retaliate to Akshara's playful insult, Akshara interrupted him. "Ugh, fine. Whatever. Okay, Dr. Abhimanyu "I-Don't-Like-Kids" Birla, think of this as a case, where you have to help solve the boredom of your one patient except your one patient consists of 25 very smart and curious kids."
"See, now problem solving? That I can do, no problem!" Abhimanyu flashed Akshara his most mischievous and cocky smile.
"Good! Now let's go!" Akshara grit out, waning off patience as she dragged Abhimanyu by the arm towards the group of kids sitting on the ground, eagerly waiting for them.
~*~
As they came to a halt in front of 25 very curious little eyes, all Abhimanyu and Akshara could do was look at each other in hesitation and confusion about what their next steps should be.
"You're not a monster." One of the kids, Pari was her name as Akshara recalled, pointed out.
"Sadly, no, I'm not." Abhimanyu pouted, covering his face dramatically. "But I can be! Boo!" Abhimanyu hollered, widening his eyes like a manic and clawing his fingers out in the stance of scary monster from a children's movie. The kids all screamed for fun but slowly broke down in a tether of giggles.
"You're not scary at all!" Ishaan complimented in a fit of giggles.
"Oh no! Wait! Let me try again!" Abhimanyu turned his back to the group of kids and turned back again, his claws out, tongue sticking out on the side of his lips and this time instead of saying Boo!, he decided to go with a manic "Raaawwwrr!"
The kids giggled again. "Nope! Not scary at all!" They said in unison.
Akshara watched in amusement and silent admiration with a hint of smile on lips and sparkle in her eyes as she watched Abhimanyu interacting with the children. So playful, so joyous, so dedicated. She couldn't believe that this was the same guy who a few minutes ago had said he didn't enjoy working with kids.
But here, she could clearly see he had gained himself his own little fan-following in a matter of seconds.
Abhimanyu turned to face Akshara who was busy admiring him with a smile on her face. He raised his brows at her in question and she just stood there, shaking her head at him in mesmerization.
Clown. He really was a clown. But one adorable, goofy, clown, Akshara thought to herself as she watched him interact with the children.
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Okay, not going to lie but I found this chapter to be super cute. Argh, low key got butterflies. Next chapter will be equally heart warming and the last leg of the camp night sleepover!