Avantika's POV
We had taken some time to compose ourselves. We had cried, sobbed bitterly and since we had left Aaru back at home with Dev to look after him, we did not want them to see us in this condition. I had spoken what I could in front of Dr. Godbole and had vented out in front of Abhiram too, but now I was feeling all worn out, exhausted from within. I do not know if its normal to feel this way after such intense sessions with counsellors, or that Abhiram too was feeling this way, but all I wanted to do was curl up in the bed and fall into a deep slumber. Although, even that seemed improbable as of now, seeing that the thoughts of today's conversation would keep swirling around in my head.
As soon as I had gotten down from the car, Abhiram was quick to jog over to my side and entwine my hand within his own.
"Please rehne do Avi.", his tone was pleading.
(rehne do - let it be)
I turned to look at him and found him gazing at me with his pleading eyes. I understood that he felt the need to hold me close to himself, he needed that assurance and I let him have that assurance. I knew he needed it, and despite of my outburst and all of those bitter feelings that had resurfaced, a distant corner of my heart needed it too.
We waited for Dev to open the door as Abhiram rang the bell. I only hope Aaru and him would have somehow kept all their shenanigans in check - I mean I know those two become really chaotic together, but a person can hope right.
What we saw in front of us, took our breaths away and not in a good manner.
"Yeh kya hai?", Abhiram was the first to react since I still stood with my jaw dropped.
(Yeh kya hia - what is this)
There stood in front of us a black shirt and jeans cladded Dev who seemed to be entirely drenched in flour. In his arms, a blue t-shirt cladded Aaru who appeared exactly the same as him, drenched in flour. Both of them grinning shamelessly at us.
"Oh, welcome home Ram, Avanti.", the first idiot opened his mouth,
"Momma, dadda.", the second idiot, who was our son extended his arms which were completely covered in flour towards us, which we managed to evade.
"What have you two done? Dev?", Abhiram asked in an exasperated tone and then directed his glare towards Dev.
"Oh, don't kill me with that laser glare of yours Ram. Its all because of this Aaru. He bullied me into baking a cake for him. And you know my cooking skills right?"
Aaru stared at his uncle in disbelief.
"Yeah, your non-existent cooking skills.", Abhiram still continued to glare at him.
"Ram, tum bhi na.", Dev chuckled like the idiot he is.
(tum bhi na - sort of implies that he's playfully shying)
"Taarif nahi kar raha hoon.", Abhi continued glaring at Dev.
(Taarif nahi kar raha hoon - I am not praising you)
"Dadda, Dev liar. He bake cake.", Aaru wiggled within Dev's arms.
Dev gasped dramatically.
"Remember young man, you are still in my arms, I can drop you anytime.", Dev narrowed his eyes at Aaru who was then quick to tighten his arms around Dev's neck.
"What, ahhh Aaru, don't strangle me now, I am not dropping you, idiot.", he tried to free his neck from Aaru's grip.
"You idiot,", Aaru retorted giggling.
"No, you idiot.", Dev retorted, or more like whined. This man child.
"No, you."
"Enough.", I finally reached my limit.
"Dev, you are going to take a bath yourself and then also bathe Aaru. Abhiram and I will figure out how to clean the mess you have created."
"But Avanti...", that idiot still wanted to interject.
"Enough, do as she says, now.", Abhi pointed his finger towards Aaru and his uncle in warning. The two were quick to act on the warning and sped off towards the bathroom.
Abhiram and I glanced at each other at the same moment and burst into laughter. Those two idiots. You can handle Dev single-handedly and Aaru too, but the two of them together - that's a disaster.
"Hey, we are back."
Abhiram and I just had a glass of water and immediately got in action to clean the mess in the kitchen - flour strewn everywhere, a liquid paste of the same flour lying carelessly in a bowl, some cocoa powder strewn around - every nook and corner of our otherwise pristine kitchen was now covered in flour. Dev was so getting it from me.
"Aa jaaiye Maharaj, Rajkumar, aur kucch seva kare hum aap ki?", Abhiram's sarcasm was on point.
(Aa jaaiye Maharaj, Rajkumar, aur kucch seva kare hum aap ki? - Welcome king, prince, how else shall we serve you)
"See Aaru, he's ready to serve us."
The both freshly bathed idiots had the audacity to chuckle and giggle in front of us.
"You have one minute to take Aaru with you and go sit in the living space Dev, before I hit you with this broom.", Abhiram pointed the broom in his hand towards Dev who once again was quick to understand the warning and ran away from the kitchen, a giggling Aaru in his hand.
"I tell you Avi, this man is going to spoil my kid and teach him some bad manners.", Abhiram spoke decidedly, but I could sense the underlying whining in his tone.
"See its okay. They are bound to do mischiefs, you know how chaotic the two of them become together. Its okay."
"Hmm.", he said reluctantly.
"But the next time, we will be sitting and the two of them will clean all of this, I am telling you. And Aaru being the cheeky little thing that he is, will make Dev clean the entire mess. Will serve him right then.", he shook his head and got back to cleaning the floor, while I continued cleaning the counter.
"And now that the little hurricane is playing in his room, Ram, Avanti, sorry guys, I created all that mess."
Abhiram chuckled at him.
"Why so formal Mr. Dev. Itna bhi drama mat Kar."
(Itna bhi drama mat Kar- you do not need to act)
Dev grinned at him.
"But on a serious note Dev, that was a welcome distraction for us. We had been really disturbed and your shenanigans took our minds off a lot of things.", I assured him.
Dev nodded seriously.
"Both of you know that I won't ever pry in things as these, but guys, just tell me one thing - are you both fine?", he asked in a serious tone.
I smiled at his warm protectiveness. That was the thing about Dev, he never pried upon, but the brother that Abhiram and I consider him to be, he was so very protective towards us, so very supportive and the kind of person you could always rely upon.
Sometimes I wonder if I should have told him about this earlier, or perhaps Abhiram should have done that, but then again he was caught up in his own colossal affairs and honestly, at that time, my mental state was so very disrupted that I could not even think straight. Not that its gotten better now.
"As fine as we could be Dev.", I answered his question, my voice calm, my mind too - at least for now, it seemed so.
"Everything will work out Avanti, I know it, I can feel it within. You two are like couple goals man. I know this idiotic person here, this Ram, he just messed up things - how I wish to have known about his stupidity earlier, his irrationality earlier - I would have knocked some sense into him, and Avanti, I do not just mean it metaphorically, literally too."
"I wish Dev. How I wish to undo it all.", Abhiram whispered in such a broken and devastated tone, that the three of us suddenly grew quiet.
"Koi nahi, it's all going to be fine. I feel it, I know it, hmm.", Dev was the first to break the silence and patted Abhiram's head affectionately.
(Koi nahi - no worries)
"Don't be disheartened mere (my) Ram.", he whispered.
Abhiram spared him a wry smile. As much as I had the bitter feelings at the top of my immediate thoughts today, it pained me to see him like this, but then again, he had brought this upon us. The pain and hurt persisted and it will for the time being, and for some time more top, but the pure love underneath still triumphed at times. Our mind is such a weird thing. It just can't be indifferent to the person we love.
"By the way Dev, when are you bringing an addition to us?", I teased Dev, not just because I wanted to create a distraction from the tense atmosphere around us, but also because I was genuinely curious.
Dev blushed.
"Are you blushing Dev? Wait a minute, you are blushing Dev.", I clapped my hands in excitement. Dev averted his eyes and scratched his neck nervously.
Abhiram chuckled.
"You know Avi, this is the second time I have seen him blush. The first time"
"Shh, shut up.", Dev tried to shush Abhiram and caught ahold of his hands trying to dissuade him from speaking.
"Oh you shut up Dev, Abhiram tum kaho.", I urged on.
(Tum kaho - you speak)
By this time, Dev had already shifted near Abhiram and had held his neck in a chokehold trying to cover his mouth, while Abhiram was chortling aloud while trying to keep Dev at bay.
"In our fourth grade na Avi", he glanced at Dev who was still trying to warn him to keep mum. Abhiram snickered.
"This man had a crush on our history teacher Ms. Desai. So whenever it would be her lecture, he would try to impress her very hard and answer every question."
"Ram, shut up."
Abhiram had successfully gotten out of Dev's hold and was now standing on the other side of the couch. As Dev tried to get up to catch ahold of Abhi yet again, I took his wrist in my hand and gestured Abhiram to continue.
"Haa, so what happened was, on Teacher's Day, we had gotten little presents for our favourite teachers. This idiot, he had gotten a red rose for Ms. Desai. And when she entered the class, he blushed. Now, mind you, Dev was a bit chubby then, so when he had blushed that day, he looked like a red balloon."
"Avanti chhod na yaar, and don't listen to your idiotic husband."
(Chhod na yaar - drop it dude)
"Shush Dev, the cat's already out of the bag, and you do recognize na, that even if you stop us right now, he will tell everything to me after you leave.", I pointed out the obvious.
Dev now had a defeated look on his face and Abhiram smirked at him.
"You two are so evil.", he uttered and palmed his face trying to hide from us. We chuckled at his state.
"So, he blushingly approached her desk. The class was silent, surprisingly by the way. And then he held that rose in front of Ms. Desai and said 'Miss will you marry me'."
"My goodness...Dev", I burst into laughter along with Abhiram while Dev groaned into his hands.
After a good two minutes or so, I had sobered up or so I felt, because one look at Dev's embarrassed face and I burst into laughter yet again.
"Go laugh, snort, chuckle and giggle at my misery.", he whined while the two of us held our stomachs with all that laughter.
I barely controlled my giggles, "Abhi, phir kya?"
(Phir kya - what next)
Abhiram wiped his eyes, and still snickering continued," Just like us, Ms. Desai too burst into laughter. Now she had taken this as a joke, but another person saw this too, who was not as pleased. Our principal was passing by and she saw this drama."
"Dev, wow, you had already found a way to fame since childhood."
Dev glared at me, and threw a pillow cushion which hit my face causing my laughter to cease for that minute. But again when I saw his embarrassed face and imagined him proposing his teacher - a little boy in his school uniform, I clapped my hands teasing him and again burst into laughter.
"And then ensued another big drama", Abhiram continued amidst his chuckles.
"Uncle and aunty were called by the principal, and he was reprimanded. And you know what he spoke as justification?"
I shook my head in excitement to know more. Man, this was so interesting.
"He had seen a movie where the actor proposed like this, and he told the principal that since he liked Ms. Desai, he too copied the actor."
We both glanced at Dev and for the umpteenth time today, burst into laughter. I was literally rolling on the couch till then, while Dev had launched an attack of couch cushions on the both of us.
"I so hate the both of you right now, and more than Avanti, you, Ram.", he glared at the two of us.
"Yeh toh tabhi se draamebaaz tha.", I said panting.
(Yeh toh tabhi se draamebaaz tha - he was so full of drama since then)
Abhi shared a high five with me.
After a whole fifteen minutes of rest with the both of us still snickering in between and Dev groaning and whining, we had finally calmed down a bit.
"Aaru is my only true friend in this home - you two, arghh", Dev complained.
"Tch, tch, poor Dev.", Abhiram teased the now completely embarrassed Dev.
"Hey, wait a minute. Because of Dev's Ms. Desai, we completely forgot to ask him why he was blushing now. Come on, tell us Dev.", I suddenly remembered our original topic.
"Oh why? For you to tease me more.", came his sarcastic reply.
"That means there's something for us to tease you, isn't it Dev?", Abhiram teased him only to be hit in the face with a cushion.
"Yaar (dude) stop with these cushion attacks. They aren't really as soft as you think.", Abhiram whined rubbing his forehead.
"Avi we need to purchase some new softer ones."
"You know what, I am leaving now. I will bid goodbye just to my Aaru, you two are such idiots.", Dev made a face and rushed into Aaru's room evading us.
As I was tidying up the kitchen after dinner and Abhiram was tucking Aaru in, I wondered about the ironic day that today was.
Initially filled with the trepidation of that session with Dr. Godbole, and then those intense, bitter emotions, then my breakdown in the car, Abhiram's extremely turbulent state of mind, and then Dev and Aaru's shenanigans - a day filled with grievous emotions had ended on such a light note. Honestly, this distraction was so very needed. Otherwise, the both of us would had been drowned in the turmoil of our thoughts for the remainder of the day today.
Yes, those bitter thoughts needed to be gotten rid of, and they would take time, yes, we still need to find answers, Abhiram does need to come up with an explanation, but not today. We have had enough of that for today.
So, how did you like Dev and Aaru in this chapter?
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See you later :)