HOLI.
Siya ~
" Siya if I go and give this glass to bhai, he will most definitely doubt me so you will try too.Here. If he refuses mine, he won't refuse yours. Double safety net" Samarth bhai said, handing me the glass and I gave him a nod.
" We are so damn smart bhai. He will never find out." I grinned before he made his way to Arjun who was with Jahanavi and Kritik and I waited to watch from afar when Cockroach came to me and I told him the entire plan and currently, we both were waiting for Samarth bhai when Arjun called me there.
I looked at Cockroach before making my way to where they were standing with the glass in my hand.
" What is going on here?" I asked in the most unaware and innocent tone I could muster up.
" Bhai thinks that we are in cahoots and trying to get him to drink bhaang." Samarth bhai started his brilliant acting and I took it further.
" What even Arjun? Where is trust? I thought that is important in a marriage, is it not?" I spoke the first random shit I could think of to cover our asses up.
" I know a drama when I see one, Little Flower. If there is no bhaang in that, you should not have a problem in having a few sips." He raised an eyebrow and gave us his ' I KNOW YOUR BULLSHIT ' look.
" Why....why should we prove anything to you?" I shot back, narrowing my eyes at him.
" You most certainly don't have to." He leaned back at the counter, folding his arms and a playful smile on his lips.
" Okay....then have this." I extended the glass in my hands in front of him, challenging him to drink it.
" I have one. You both should accompany me too." He picked a glass from the waiters who were roaming around and I internally cringed.
" Go on." He added, taking a sip of the actual thandaai while Samarth bhai and I had bhaangs in our glasses and we couldn't help but share a look and gulp.
Now if we drink it, we will most definitely be high and if we don't, Arjun will be proved right. It was a situation where one way or another, we were bound to make fool of ourselves and in every scenario, he will be proved right.
Samarth bhai started to gulp the glass down and something came over me too as I followed his actions, praying to not get high but that was just impossible. Even God wouldn't and couldn't help me now.
" Yeah yeah...try and prank more, It will always backfire on you." My conscience made fun of me and I rolled my eyes at myself, keeping the glass away.
" Samarth you are impossible." Preeti bhabhi stormed over to us. She must have found out that there was bhaang in the glasses.
" No bhabhi. Your brother-in-law is impossible. He doesn't trust me. He did not drink the glass I offered him." I pointed a finger at Ranaji and my tongue started to stutter. Shit.
" Oh god she had a glass of bhaang in her hands too?" Mumma asked who was standing with Papa, Mom and Dad and they made their way to us too.
" I knew something like this was going to happen." Cockroach had joined us too.
" Yeah yeah you are toh Shivji yourself only na that you know everything?" I asked, keeping my elbow on his shoulder for some support.
" Ranaji, she is all yours. We fail to handle a sober Siya, a high one is most definitely not our cup of tea." Cockroach made fun of me before gently pushing me away to where Arjun was standing and he stabled me, placing his hands on my arms.
" Wh...what kind of an idiot brother are you? Should I tell mumma what you did that time when I got home from college and....." I had no control over my tongue whatsoever.
" Yes yes, and we went to have dinner." Cockroach added but that wasn't how I remember the story!
Arjun ~
I had seen my brother plotting something with my wife yesterday afternoon then evening and now tomorrow morning and they were predictable at best.
Samarth had made it his life's mission to annoy me from the moment he realised that I was his elder brother and Siya would try everything in her power to make fun of me, thinking it would annoy me but what I had not expected was this. They finished both their glasses the moment I turned around to greet a guest and the outcome was Preeti currently running after Samarth and me feeding the fifth gujiya to my wife.
" More more more more more." She kept chanting, sitting by the counter and couldn't help but smile at her.
" Enough Siya. Do you want to get sick?" Her mother asked, coming to her and asking her to get up.
" Please Mumma. You know I love it. Why are you stopping me? See, this is called a gujiya and it is made once in a year so why not stuff myself at once too? You should also eat." She picked one again and put it in her mouth and offered the one in my hand to Maa.
" Ranaji, she has gone out of control. Please don't let her eat anymore." She looked at me and I gave her an assuring nod.
" He cannot stop me. I will eat it. Cockroach, you idiot, do you have more?" She asked, making way to her brother who was talking to Dad but he shook his head in a no.
" Rohit bhai, do you love your only sister?" She then tugged her brother's hand.
" I do and that is why I am not going to get anymore of it." He told her and she left her hand to come back to me.
" Ranaji look at those people. Your....your haan! I am your queen. See, your queen wants more of it and it is your duty. Now go." She was trying to balance herself still but her feet were still wobbling as I held her by her shoulders.
" You cannot be having any more of it Little One. First off, you are high on bhaang and eating so many sweets will not help your cause." I tried to explain it to her but who was I kidding.
She does not listen to me when she is sober and has her capacity to think, right now she is stoned.
" What kind of King are you Arjun? You queen, your wife has such a small demand and you won't even fulfil that?" Her eyes widened and she hit me on the chest in a feeble attempt to hurt me.
" Siya, enough. You can't have any more of it. Come on, let's get you some water." I held her hands to stop her and she stilled.
" Water?" She asked, a blank look in her eyes before they watered up and a lone tear escaped her eye and a kind of pain in my chest erupted for the first time, something foreign to me. It hurt.
" Why?" I wiped it away from her cheek and asked, referring to the tear.
" Because....because....becaus....what did you ask?" She clutched the sleeve of my Kurta and looked at me with those big brown eyes like I was only the one who mattered to her at the time. A look which I had never seen in her eyes before today. Just like that, all the pain was replaced by a feeling unnamed, a happier one at it.
I shook my head and took her hand in mine as we walked inside the Palace.
" I don't want water. I want gujiya." She again demanded, whining as I made her sit and asked one of the workers to fetch a glass of water.
" You can have more tomorrow." I promised to her but she is too stubborn for her own good.
" Why don't you ever listen to me?" She crossed her legs, pulling a cushion to her chest as she sat on the couch and I took a seat next to her.
" Have this." I gave her the glass and she gulped it down before I could blink.
" More." She gave me the glass and then turned to face me but moved herself away in a lying position, keeping her feet on my lap and closed her eyes.
The help refilled the glass and left after keeping it on the table.
" Do you want to sleep?" I asked, keeping a hand on her feet and saw an anklet adorned which made a ringing sound as she sat up again.
" No. Let's go out again. I want to play Holi! All I've done is eaten and not playing." She threw herself on her feet so fast that it must have left her dizzy and she fell back next to me.
" Careful, Little One." I asked as she tried to get up again but Siya was too excited now to listen to anyone as I let a laugh out at her annoyed expression when she failed to pull me up after trying for a minute perhaps.
" I am so glad that I made you those promises during our wedding Arjun, you totally deserve them." She slurred and then threw my hand back to me, angrily and I stood up.
" I only know of one, little flower. Tell me about the others." I took a step closer to her and she took one back, involuntarily, perhaps.
" Gla...gladly. I will tell you as soon as I remember them." She spat back and I moved a step closer again. Once again, her feet took her back.
" Anyway, we are going now, let's go." She held my hand again and started dragging me back to the lawn where she made her way to Samarth and Preeti. I followed her.
" Bhai why does this happen to us?" She asked to my foolish brother who was sulking in a corner.
" I don't know Siya. Ours was a foolproof plan. We had a backup too and yet, we failed." He stood up and came to stand next to me.
" Why do you have to be so smart to figure everything out bhai? This is not fair." He complained and then just like that, out of the blue, I found myself drenched in ice cold water with, for god's sake, pink colour dripping all over me and I averted my eyes to look at the person who did it and the momentary anger vanished looking at that grin on her lips just like that.
How could I be mad at her when she held my heart?
Siya ~
I had no idea what I was going and why was I doing it. I was feeling like I was at the highest peak in the world and even if I jump from there, I would not die. It was fun!
As I threw water on Arjun, that was perhaps the best part highlight for me of the year and his was so worth watching that I couldn't stop laughing.
Cockroach and Samarth bhai joined me too while others tried to stop themselves from laughing.
" What happened Ranaji? Do you want to say something to me?" I asked him, raising a brow, smirking to ignite a furious reaction out of him when everyone else had finally distracted themselves.
" Of course I do, little flower." He said and stepped forward, trying to close the distance between us.
" But you will have to catch me first!" I took a few steps back quickly and started to run in the opposite direction, laughing my heart out.
I turned to see if he was chasing me and indeed, he was as I increased my pace of running.
" You won't be able to catch me Ranaji! Forget it." I teased him, crossing the pool and stepping into the Queen's Courtyard where even he couldn't come without my permission.
" Oh no Arjun. What will you do now? Break a thousand years old Royal tradition?" I teased him as he stood out while I sat on the grass, giving him sass.
" You can't stay there forever Siya." He deadpanned and I rolled my eyes.
" You don't know that." I don't even know what on earth was I talking about at this point of time.
I sat and he stood like that for a few moments, staring at each other before I got bored and averted my eyes which then landed on the swing.
I wanted to swing.
" You can come inside but on a condition." I tempted him.
" What condition?" He sounded skeptical as he should.
" You will make me sit on the swing and push me." I negotiated.
" Not like this." Was his direct quick reply.
" Not like what?" I narrowed my eyes at him.
" You won't remember any of this when you wake up after having a sleep Siya. I don't want you to ever forget that moment when you sit there like the Queen you are and command me to your service. I want you to remember every detail about that day when I surrender to you in all the senses there are to be." His words weren't making much sense to me but I felt so flattered that I myself walked to out of the Courtyard and stand in front of him when suddenly, I remembered about the portrait I was sketching of him and couldn't get his eyes and lips right, no matter how much I tried.
" Fine Arjun. Don't listen to me in this matter either but stand still in front of me right now. Can you do that or you will refuse me for that too?" I had no control over my tongue whatsoever.
He raised an eyebrow for an explanation which I blatantly refused but he complied and stood still as I raised my hand to keep it on his left cheek and tip-toed to look into his eyes.
" No matter how hard I try, I still can't get these eyes right for some reason." I told him, looking into them.
They were a beautiful shade of brown. Darker than mine but with a mix of hazel. Almost similar to dark bronze, an extremely rare shade.
" Get my eyes right?" He asked, even more confused than he already was and I couldn't stop the smile spreading across my lips.
" Yes! I haven't looked at them long enough to paint them Arjun. Perhaps that's why I still cannot get them right." I complained without letting my focus waver from his eyes.
" You have been painting me?" He pulled me closer to himself and connected our foreheads as my hand still lied on his cheek.
" Yes. I am. Do you know that your eyes talk to me Ranaji?" I asked him, giggling.
" I know, Little One. Yours have been talking to me ever since I looked into them." He confessed and a blush must have crept across my face and I averted my eyes away finally and in that moment he smeared the gulaal all over my cheeks.
" When am I getting to see this painting?" He asked as if he had not just done that.
" I don't planning on showing it to you. In fact, I wasn't even planning on telling you this or letting you find out that I have been painting you." I told him the truth.
" And why is that?" He raised a brow curiously.
" Because then I would have to tell you the reason why I had been painting you." I replied and could feel myself pouting slightly.
" You don't want to tell me that?" He questioned again, that enthusiasm and curiosity never going away.
" No Arjun. I don't want to tell you that when I look into your eyes, I find the entire world in them most of the times when I am not mad at you. I don't want to tell you that when your hair sometimes fall on your forehead, I have an urge to push them back because they distract me from looking into your eyes. I also don't want you to know that even though your hair sometimes irritate me, I still want to run my fingers in them like this." I was so lost into talking to him and reached my hands out to run my fingers into his hair and his hand protectively rested on my waist, making me shiver.
" Happy Holi Siya." He said and I couldn't find it in myself to be mad at him then.
" Happy Holi!" I exclaimed and placed a peck on his cheek before distancing myself from him and this time, I wanted him to stop me from getting away.
" Stop me Arjun! Just like they do in movies. Why are you being so un-fimly?" I whined as I came to him myself.
" The bhaang is making you say and do things which you would never have otherwise, little flower and I am not about to do anything which you will regret later. When you come to me willingly, it will not be because you are not in your senses. It will be when you want it to be." He pecked the top of my forehead and then on my right temple before holding my hand again, making our way to the lawn again where everyone was still playing Holi.
I went ahead to the kids and spent my rest of the time with them and my brothers.
" What is your real name Cockroach?" I asked my brother, giggling and he looked like he had seen a ghost.
" Chuhiya, do you have a death wish?" He asked, throwing water on me.
" I don't, but you do!" I shouted back, throwing him inside the huge water pool, laughing.
" Bua, let's all go in the pool!" I heard Kritik say but before I could make sense of what he was about to do, he held my hand and jumped inside the pool and we were followed by Jahanavi, Preeti bhabhi, Hansika Bhabhi, Tanaya Bhabhi, Samarth Bhai and Rohit bhai as we continued to laugh and play with each other, tiring ourselves out to extreme ends.
But after all, Holi does not come twice a year!
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