Song of the Chapter: Hum Nahin Tere Dushmanon Mein - Hungama
Dhruv watched the play of emotions across his older brother's face with growing amusement. Amusement that turned quite quickly to dread when Arnav's features settled decidedly on one fixed emotion. Rage.
Now Dhruv Singh Raizada was many things. He was not however, stupid. He knew well what Arnav was thinking, and knew well that it meant Anjali would be planning his funeral by the end of the week if she kept this up. He'd only wanted to come home for a nice vacation, be able to attend Akash's wedding, now that it had been post-poned, and then get a job and settle down.
But no. Obviously this plan did not suit his sister and now Dhruv found himself at the centre of his older brother's warpath. Dhruv was the unicorn, and Arnav was Lord Voldemort. Except Arnav had a nose-- but that didn't make much of a difference cause either way Dhruv was dead.
Flashback
"Di! Main agaya! I'm here!" Dhruv chanted running into Shantivan with his arms spread wide.
"Dhruv? Hai Bhagwan, tum kitne bade hogaye ho!! Oh lord, you've gotten so big!" Anjali's gaze raked over him, her hands cupping his face.
"Di Akash ne mujhe uss ghatiya insaan ke bare main bataya. Akash told me about that wretched man. You okay?" Dhruv gently moved Anjali's hands off of his face and clasping both her hands in his.
"Haan Dhruv, hum teekh hain. Humne voh saab bhula diya hai. Ab hum ek naiye aurat hai, hum mazboot hai, aur koi Shyam Manohar Jha humein todh nahin payega. Yes, Dhruv I'm fine. I've forgotten all of that and now I'm a new woman. No Shyam Manohar Jha will be able to break me." Anjali said passionately and Dhruv nodded, smiling softly down at his older sister.
`
"That's great Di! Akash aur sab lokh kahan hai? Where's Akash and everyone?"
Anjali called out and the entire family came streaming into the sitting room and Dhruv cheered and ran forwards to hug Akash.
"BHAI! AND HOW ARE YOU?!" He yelled, stepping back and Akash beamed.
"I'm fine, aur tum? And you?" Dhruv shrugged in response and Akash grasped his shoulders firmly before turning him to a petite woman by his own side.
"Dhruv, yeh Payalji hai. Meri hone wali patni. This is Payal, my future wife." Akash said shyly and Dhruv smiled roguishly.
"Ji Namaste. Hi." Payal said quietly and Dhruv responded in kind, trying not to burst out into song and scare Payal away before she'd even married Akash.
"Dhruv bitwa," Dhruv whipped around and threw himself at his grandmother, cheering loudly.
"DADI! Kaisi hai aap? How are you grandma?" Devyani Raizada laughed and responded that she was fine.
"Aap bilkul Chote jaisan laagat hai. You look just like Arnav." She said fondly, and Dhruv laughed, squirming out of her tight grip and greeting the rest of his family.
"Bhai kahan hai? Where's Arnav?" he asked finally, after stepping away from his Manorama Chachi -- Dhruv's father had been Devyani and Abhay Raizada's first born.
"Voh hospital gaye hain, Fateh ke saath, Khushiji ko lene. He's gone to the hospital with Fateh to get Khushi." Di responded, gesturing for Dhruv to sit beside her.
"WOW FATEH BHI YAHAN HAI? ITNA MAZA AYEGA! Fateh's here too? It'll be so much fun!" He gushed and Manorama laughed affectionately and nodded.
"Leken yeh Khushi kaun hai? Who is Khushi?" He asked looking around.
"Humari behen. My sister." Payal said quietly, smiling shyly at him.
"Oh-- wait hospital mein?! Voh teekh toh hai naa? Wait-- she's in the hospital?! Is she OK?!" He asked frantically, scooting forwards to grasp Payal's small hands.
"Haan Babua, accident hua tha, leken abh Sanka Devi teekh hui gayi hai. Yes, dear there was an accident, but now she's completely fine." said Payal's aunt and Dhruv nodded, settling back into the couch cushions.
"Bhai went to get her specially though-- chakkar kya hai? What's the deal?"
Anjali laughed gleefully, clapping her hands together and Akash rolled his eyes.
"PYAAR KA CHAKKAR HAI! IT'S A MATTER OF LOVE!" she burst out and Dhruv choked. Lights flashed in front of his eyes and he was dimly aware of Akash slamming him on the back and NK screaming that he was going to die.
"LOVE -" he gasped out, struggling to breathe "AND BHAI-" he sagged against NK , who looked horrified.
"Ho hi nahin sakhta. It's not possible." He said finally, breathing heavily and nodding to NK that he could sit down.
"Actually Dhruv I wanted to talk to you about that --" Anjali said slowly, wringing her hands now and warning signs immediately went off in his head.
"NAHIN! JOH BHI HAI MAIN NAHIN KARUNGA! ARRE MERE BHI KOI ZINDAGI HAI! MAIN MERE BHAI KE HATHON SE MARNA NAHIN CHAATHA. NO! WHATEVER IT IS, I'M NOT DOING IT. I HAVE A LIFE TOO! I DON'T WANT TO DIE AT MY BROTHER'S HANDS!"
"Dhruv!" Akash snapped standing up and grasping him tightly by the shoulders. "What would Dumbledore do?"
Dhruv froze and Akash nodded slowly. "For the greater good Bhai?"
"Haan Dhruv. For the greater good." Anjali said solemnly and Dhruv puffed up proudly.
"AANE DO BHAI KO. AGAR MAINE BHI UNKA PYAAR CHEENA NAHIN TOH MERA NAAM BADAL DO. LET ARNAV COME. IF I DON'T STEAL HIS LOVE THEN YOU CAN CHANGE MY NAME."
Flashback End
And now it seemed that they were going to change his name. To the Unicorn. What a funeral procession it would be. Arnav stared at him again and motioned for him to come upstairs. Dhruv squeaked and turned the other way pretending he hadn't seen Arnav's command.
"Margaya, lutgaya. Bhai toh meri- hai bhagwan. I'm dead, I'm gone. Arnav's gonna - oh god." Dhruv muttered under his breath, praying to Jesus, Waheguru, Allah, Devi Maiya anyone he could think of to save himself.
They all glanced at the staircase when the sounds of Khushi stirring reached them. Before anyone could react however, Arnav had, after a long scathing look at Dhruv, retreated to his room to check on her.
Anjali clapped with glee while Fateh smirked and everyone else celebrated. Dhruv however was sure of only one thing.
Margaya. He was dead.
________________________________________________________________________
Khushi opened her eyes groggily, immediately wary of the large amounts of sunlight streaming into her eyes. The kind of sunlight that was usually unable to permeate the walls of her awkwardly situated bedroom at Buaji's house. She sat up, rubbing at her eyes and wincing as pain struck through her.
It felt like she'd just been hit by a truck.
"You were." Said a deep, male voice from somewhere around the doorway. The tone was dark and bitter and it took Khushi a minute to realize that she must have said that out loud.
She removed her hands from her face and gasped as she realized she was in Laad Governor's room, in Laad Governor's bed! Swivelling her head towards the doorway, wincing at the pain, she gasped again as she took in the sight of Arnav leaning haphazardly against the door.
"Aap! Hum- kya- hum yahan kyaa kar rahe hain? Aap yahan kya kar rahe hain!? You! I- wha- what am I doing here? What are YOU doing here?" Khushi spluttered and she could have sworn she saw a smirk grace Arnav's full lips and a slight twinkle return to his molten caramel gaze.
"Khushi," he said mock-sternly, as he began to walk slowly towards her, much like a predator towards trapped prey, " Yeh mera kamra hai. This is my room." He finished as he came to stand right beside his bed, muscular arms crossed across his broad chest.
Khushi blushed as she was reminded of his words by the poolside, on the night of Payal's mehendi, when he had- had- done 'that.'
" Tum yahan iss liye ho kyun ki mujhe tumhe zyaada hilana teekh nahin samjha. Toh maine tumhe yahaan hi rakh liya. As for you what you're doing here, well I didn't think it was right to jostle you too much after I brought you home so I just kept you here." Arnav finished with a light one sided shrug.
" Haan, yeh bilkul inhi ki soch hogi. Laad Governor. Of course this was his idea. Laad Governor." Khushi muttered pushing her hair back out of her face as she looked anywhere but at Arnav. She glanced down and her cheeks pooled with colour upon realizing that her dupatta was strewn over the chaise on the other side of the room.
Arnav smirked as he heard her muttering, and tried to contain his own giddiness. It felt like eons ago when he had feared he would never hear his Khushi call him that again.
His smirk disappeared when he realized that she was troubled about something. He followed her hazel gaze across the room and caught sight of her discarded dupatta, the flimsy white piece of fabric thrown across his chaise. Arnav respectfully averted his eyes from Khushis form and slowly made his way to the chaise.
He leaned down and scooped the fabric into his large hands and turned to face Khushi, keeping his eyes averted.
Khushi stared at Arnav in shock and felt large amounts of affection swell up inside her at the sight of him gently handling her dupatta. The white fabric was a shocking contrast against Arnav's charcoal grey suit and black shirt and tie.
He moved his arms slightly and the fabric of his suit clenched around the muscles in his shoulders, outlining the lean fitness of his frame. Khushi felt something else begin to stir within her at the sight of his flexing muscles and the shocking demure and warm twinkle to Arnav's usually cold, stern gaze.
Khushi looked away when she realized she had been staring at the approaching Arnav whose attention had thankfully, been respectfully placed on something other than the exposed Khushi.
Arnav once again reached the bed and leaned forwards, almost trapping a shocked Khushi against the headboard.
Their eyes met for a moment, caramel against hazel, and Khushi could have sworn she saw his gaze drop to her lips once. She saw him lean in slightly and without thinking followed suit. But at the last minute he froze, pulling backwards and instead, with painstaking gentleness, draped her dupatta over her frozen frame, modestly covering her.
Khushi's eyes flew up to meet Arnav's and what she saw there unnerved her. Pure, raw affection. Fondness, warmth, relief, concern, and something else; something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
"Tumhari Amma tumhare liye kapre layi thi. Vahaan pade hain. Your Amma brought you clothes. They're sitting over there," he said gesturing to the open wardrobe where indeed a folded set of clothes had been placed.
"I'll leave so you can-" he trailed off, again gesturing towards the clothing and scratching the back of his neck awkwardly and Khushi nodded, blushing again and fixed her gaze on the stitching of his duvet.
" Agar kisi cheez ki zaroorat ho...If you need anything...call me." Arnav said quietly, and before Khushi could glance at him, shocked, he had gone. Closing the door behind him and leaving Khushi with an array of emotions she wasn't sure she recognized.
Awesome plz continue
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