9 years later:-
"Arhaan, wake up. It's your son's birthday." A heavily pregnant Aadhya spoke to her sleeping husband.
"Let me sleep some more."
"No. It's your son's birthday, and you want to sleep?"
"It's not like we are having a party in the morning. Please, let me sleep."
"I should be the one sleeping, considering the huge child I am carrying inside my stomach. But, this guy. Oh God! You are making me crazy, Arhaan."
Arhaan's droopy eyes flew open, and he sat up on the bed with a jerk.
"Oh, so now you don't even remember the troubles you put me through yesterday night?" He asked sarcastically.
"What troubles?"
"You were the one who woke me up at 3 in the morning because you were craving for a strawberry cheesecake. I had to find a bakery and request that old woman to make you a fucking cheese cake."
"So? You are my husband. The least you can do after making me pregnant is fulfil my cravings."
"You talk as if I was the only one enjoying the baby making process."
"Shut up." Her reddened cheeks made him throw his head back and laugh.
Although he had laughed like this a total of hundred times, it still made Aadhya's chest warm from the thought that only she could make him laugh like that.
"It's been almost a decade, and the mention of our love making session still reddens you?"
"Well, unlike you, I am a human. I do feel shy." She shot an angry glare at him just when a soft knock was heard on the door.
"Come in, buddy." Arhaan called out to Aayansh whom he knew was outside their bedroom door.
A thirteen year old Aayansh opened the door with a wide grin etched onto his handsome face.
"Hey! I am so happy today." He jumped toward the bed in the center of the room and threw himself into his father's arms who wrapped him in a hug.
"Happy Birthday, my son." Aadhya and Arhaan wished their son together. But, Aayansh only thanked his father which seemed to upset his mother.
"I put you into my stomach for 9 months, and you show all your love to your father? This unfair world, I tell you. My baby, please don't be like your brothers and father." She dramatically placed her palm on her protruded belly.
Yes, brothers. Plural form, because Aadhya had given birth to another baby boy who was named Aarnav and had just recently turned 6 years old.
The both of them had wished to have a girl child, and Arhaan had even ordered a bunch of cute dresses for his daughter. But it all went in vain.
That didn't mean that their love for their second boy had decreased. They loved him as much as they loved Aayansh and the upcoming baby.
"That reminds me, where is Aaru? Is he still sleeping?" Arhaan asked his oldest son, who shrugged in response.
"I don't know. I will go check up on him." Aayansh hugged his sulking mother and kissed her cheek to melt her anger and then rushed out of the door.
"Our kids are growing up so soon. I don't want them to grow up." Aadhya wept.
Arhaan cooed and hugged his wife, who nuzzled her face into his bare chest.
"It's okay. We have one coming on the way. You can play with the child as long as you want."
"What about the other two then? I don't want to lose them."
"You won't lose them. They will stay with you forever, won't they? Now, stop crying and let me get ready. I will meet you downstairs, okay?"
"Okay. What do you want for breakfast?"
"Why? Are you going to cook? I told you-"
"Pallavi is here. She said that she will cook."
"Oh, then tell her I want to have a sandwich."
"Okay. Bye."
Arhaan smiled and kissed her lips softly before getting up from the bed and taking a quick shower.
Meanwhile, Aadhya moved herself down the stairs laboriously. Her pregnancy was giving her a lot of problems. She couldn't move around much because of her swollen feet, and it was difficult for her to see her feet because of her oversized stomach.
"Hey! Why do you move so much when doctor has clearly told you to rest as much as you can?" Pallavi gently scolded her and pushed her towards the couch.
"Pallavi, make your brother a sandwich please." Aadhya said instead.
"Okay!" She said and after adjusting a cushion behind Aadhya's back and under her feet, she disappeared behind the kitchen counter to make all of them a hearty breakfast.
After Arhaan had approved of Pallavi and Rachit's relationship, he had immediately proposed to her and they had gotten married at the end of the year.
Pallavi was living a normal life. Well, as normal as a person whose brother was a Mafia leader and husband a famous lawyer and CEO of a big firm could go.
"Mumma!" Aarnav's sweet voice was sounded from the foot of the stairs.
Aadhya looked up and saw her two sons hopping towards her with the biggest grins etched onto their faces.
"Hey, my cutie pies. What's up?" She smiled when they plopped down beside her.
"Papa is going to office." Aarnav pouted.
"What? Why? He promised that he will stay at home for the whole day." Aadhya frowned.
"He was going to, but then he got a phone call from his assistant. She said it was very important for him to go." Aayansh spoke with a shrug of his shoulders.
"I won't let him go. This is not fair. It's your birthday, and he is going?" Aadhya's determined eyes evoked different emotions from her two sons. One was happy, while the other was scared for his poor father.
Aayansh was so mature for his age that Aadhya sometimes used to forget that he was just a kid.
"It must be really important if his assistant called him, mumma. Let him go." Aayansh almost pleaded because he knew that if his mother set her eyes on something, she will go to any heights to gain it.
"No. Where is your father?"
"Here. What's wrong?" He sighed when he saw his wife looking at him as if she was going to eat him alive.
"What is this? You promised me that you won't go anywhere today." She spitted out those words.
"I know, love. But there is an emergency I cannot ignore. I promise I will be back before noon." He pecked his pregnant wife's forehead.
She sighed heavily, and nodded with a heavy heart,"Okay. But if you don't fulfill your promise, I won't talk to you for the rest of my pregnancy phase."
"Okay." He smiled and kissed his sons' forehead and his upcoming baby's too before making his way out the door.
"Wait! What about your breakfast?" Pallavi called out from the kitchen before Arhaan could leave.
"I am getting extremely late. Sorry, but you eat it on my behalf."
"You ass, I spent an hour in preparing your breakfast." She grumbled, which Arhaan decided to thoroughly ignore and then finally reached the door without anyone stopping him.
Just as he was about to head out, he heard a call for him,"Don't forget to bring a box of strawberries."
His wife had strangely gotten addicted to strawberries now a days when she didn't even like them before.
He chuckled and nodded before shouting 'I love you', for which he didn't get a reply.
He chuckled again, knowing how childish she was (or how childish she had become).
***
Arhaan came home only to get surprised in the end, because there was no-one in the living room like he had predicted.
'The party should have started by now.' He thought with a frown.
"Aadhya? Aayansh? Aarnav? Where are you all?" He shouted for them, but to no avail.
When he couldn't hear any response, he headed to the kitchen to find his sister who was blushing profusely.
"Hey! You are still here?" Hearing her brother's voice, she tried to compose herself but her heavy breathing and red face gave it all away.
"Of course. It is my nephew's birthday. Why wouldn't I be here?"
"Where are the kids?"
"In your room. Why?"
"No, I mean, where are Aayansh's friends? They were supposed to come by 6."
"Oh, Aadhya didn't tell you? Aayansh cancelled the party at the last moment because he didn't want to celebrate his birthday without you."
"Was Aadhya mad?"
"Fuming. I had to give her a dozen chocolates to stop her rambling about the hundreds of ways she could use to kill you and dump your body." She smirked and walked away, leaving her nervous brother behind.
***
"Aadhya? My baby. Please let me come in." Arhaan begged his wife who had locked him out of the room.
"No. Because of you our son had to cancel the birthday party. Do you know how sad and disappointed he was?" She said through the door.
He felt a surge of guilt crawling up his chest at her words. He had tried to clear up his schedule for the day, but there was an emergency that couldn't be ignored.
Now that he thought about it, the emergency was not worth his wife and son's sadness.
"Mumma is lying. I am not sad or disappointed, papa. It's okay. I know it was a very important matter, otherwise you wouldn't have left in the first place." Aayansh's voice was loud enough for Arhaan to hear clearly and sigh in relief.
He was so proud of being Aayansh's father. He was so understanding and good that it made him tear up.
Aadhya sighed and glared at her older son, which gained a little giggle from her younger son.
She opened the door to see a tired looking Arhaan, and she immediately felt guilty for making him more tired than he already was.
The days were getting hectic as Aadhya was passing her third trimester. She was getting more and more emotional and demanding.
There were times when Arhaan wanted to pull his hair out and just live in the mountains for some peace. But, again, it wouldn't be worth if his wife would not be with him.
She was crying a lot now. Whether it be for a small thing like forgetting to eat her lunch, or for a big thing like this.
"Come in. Are you hungry? I will get you food." Aadhya's sweet voice made him sigh in content and pull her in for a hug which lasted for less than 10 seconds because Aadhya didn't want their sons to witness the public display of affection. They were too young for that.
"No, don't go. I will ask a maid to bring us food." Arhaan said while stepping inside the room and sitting on the bed beside his two sons.
He ruffled their hair, which earned him a smack on his hand from them, and laid down on the bed.
"Tired?" Aarnav asked his father, who smiled in response and nodded a bit before closing his eyes and then opening them quickly when he realised he had to ask something to his older son.
"Hey! Why did you cancel your birthday party?"
"I didn't want to pressurise you to come home quickly. And I didn't want to celebrate my birthday without you either." Aayansh shrugged.
Arhaan smiled and pecked his forehead, before saying,"Then let me make up for it. Let's just have a family time together. We will watch movies, play games or do whatever you want to."
"Oh! Can we invite uncle Rachit too?" Aayansh asked, excited for some time with his family.
Now, don't get this wrong. Aadhya was home all day long because of her maternity leave, but Arhaan was busy most of the day and night. Because of this, Aayansh used to see his father once a week. So, it was after so many months that they would spend time together as a happy family.
The last time they did this was on Aarnav's birthday the previous year, and the two brothers had absolutely loved it.
"So, you like Rachit now?"
"No, he's still a bit cold. But it's fine. Since he is bua's husband, I will tolerate him for a night."
"Okay."
"What are you talking about?" Aadhya asked her husband and kids since she had zoned out for most of the conversation.
"Love, we are going to watch a movie together. You might want to sleep now so you don't sleep later." Arhaan smiled and kissed her forehead lightly when she squealed in delight.
Aadhya quickly wrapped herself in the quilt and slept as soon as Arhaan and the kids left the room.
'I will continue to love you for the rest of my life, Aadhya.'
He stared at the closed door with an unmovable longing in his eyes and then sighed and looked down to see his younger son looking up at him with an expectant look.
"You want to play video games?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
Aayansh and Aarnav squealed and shouted in joy when Arhaan agreed to spend his time in playing some video games he didn't even like.
If his younger self would have somehow seen this day, then he would have surely died of heart attack.