A vihaan Bulbul ff...Last Part updated on 18/6/13

She had not heard his story...but yet it didn't paralyze her ability to accept its significance. He had been weeping...and at once, with a feeling of sudden, wild abandonment, she looked back to check if he might have come out.

When the storm of grief had spent itself Vihaan went to Anika's room alone. He would have no one follow him. There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this Anika was stirring only so slightly...her dishevelled hair strands running rampant on her almost white face. Pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted his body and seemed to reach into his soul, Vihaan knelt beside his fianc...his friend...his love. There was something coming to him and he had been waiting for it...fearfully. What was it? He did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But he felt it, creeping out of the darkness of the night of his mehendi... Reaching toward him through the resounding words that Anika had hurled towards him at the pub. He wasn't fit for her.

She was young, with a serene calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and yet a certain strength. The ceremony had been cancelled due to ill health of the bride to be and Bulbul nodded to herself wondering if the wounded stranger was the real reason. She saved herself the effort of expounding on her theory to her uninterested colleague and stepped out in the open square before the mansion. Mona caught hold of her daughter and Bulbul rushed them both into a waiting auto. Getting drenched could prove poor for her mother. As Mona wondered how to word the catering fiasco to her daughter, Bulbul's stare was fixed away on one of the windows of the retracting mansion. It reflected the silhouette of a man oddly familiar to her.

"HOW DARE THEY???"...Bulbul screamed angrily on her cowering mother. She was a petite...yet her rage was tremendous. Always had been...remembered Mona. Even big enough to rival the Hulk of Rajbeer's movies...Mona smirked...or even beat him. Mona's smile faded as she rushed out of the kitchen just in time to restrain a fleeing Bulbul. "I need answers"...Bulbul hissed... "and my money". "We can do it tomorrow. Their daughter is not well." The mention of 'not being well' stirred a memory in Bulbul and she waved it off with a flicker of her hand. Why...and exactly what was troubling her? As her daughter seemed to lose her fizz Mona spotted the torn dupatta and looked in askance at Bulbul. "Just an accident" & bulbul waded off towards her room. Her mother thanking babaji for finally listening to her prayers of granting a cooler head to her daughter.

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Anika didn't remember what happened last night. Everything was so blurry… And now she was, sleepy and feeling like crap. She felt like somehow millions of vihaan's relatives had sneaked in her head and had began singing their entire hindi song repertoire using the most powerful and sadistic microphone on earth. She felt sore, dizzy, confused… This wasn't a new feeling for her… Well, sort of, because she was a party girl and really liked to hang out till...VIHAAN... Her mind stood on alert with that name. But as soon as she tried opening her eyes..."Damn…!" She felt like someone was spinning the bed. "It's ok...u need rest" Vihaan's voice floated towards her...covering her with the warmth. & she smiled... regretfully. "I am sorry... I didn't mean..." The rest of her words were drowned by the slight pressure of her lover's index finger on her dry parched lips. Her eyes rested on the horrendous ring he was wearing and she sighed...no longer having the energy to seek out another argument. "You take care" and with that Vihaan left her. He had wanted to talk to her...mend things between them...and yet her look at the ring... He simply turned his attention away towards the ruckus going on downstairs.

"I refuse to believe that anything...anything..." Bulbul spluttered as Vihaan completed her utterance "cockroach" ...smirking slightly at the weird enmity females harboured against one of d toughest creatures on earth. But Bulbul defiantly stood her ground against the mention of that foul thing which she soo detested. On a better day she herself might have shrieked at anybody trying to bring her even at a feet's distance to a cockroach...but today she might bear even that.

Instead of sorting out matters with her fianc, vihaan was now stranded with a completely out of place female. FEMALE...he had to remind himself, especially because she was so distant to d impression of d feminine species he had held all these years. her eyes were bare...with d reminiscent of sleep...Her face not d same shade of white as his lovely fianc...and her lips had thinned to the point of disappearing as she pursed them harder lest any hungry eyes find them...like him. "WHAT"...Vihaan jolted himself...he had been staring at her lips...how unlike himself...

"WHAT what?"... Bulbul too awakened her senses in that precise moment...senses that were drowning in the sight of his deep eyes...so clear dat she had wanted to look into them forever...FOREVER?... Vihaan's WHAT had saved her. "I want to personally meet whoever accused my mother's food as contaminated." She said it with such a rare pride that Vihaan was taken aback at the warm glow of her eyes and the slight smile resting on her lips...her lips... "oo God!!" groaned Vihaan. Now that was d limit...thought Bulbul...D guy in front of her...refused to speak in more than one word...and here she yearned for more of his voice...HIS APOLOGY...she snapped at herself mentally. Before vihaan cud do d same...Jatin walked into the scene. Bulbul turned around and her stance changed. Jatin reminded her of d past...and her eyes betrayed d sorrow. Vihaan looked through d cold air between the FEMALE and his favourite man, as Jatin said, "There would be no need of that. The ceremony was cancelled from our side and by the terms of the contract, the payment of d food prepared wud be transferred to the account."

Bulbul opened and closed her mouth like a fish trying to struggle despite being in water and Vihaan turned away to think about the problem of that cancelled ceremony ever taking place. Last night's fear came in multitudes. Anika was d light dat had burned thru him as he had left his home in Australia and come to India...only to see d smile of satisfaction on her beautiful face. How he longed for a moment of bliss with her and as happy moments of past caught with him...and so did dat FEMALE voice...which he suddenly realized was a bit husky...another negative point in his list of familiar feminine characteristics.

"I said I want an apology for humiliating my mother and her hard work among your esteemed guests." That was it. "Listen Lady. First your catering service serves us contaminated food, yet we show d decency to pay you your dues, & now you have d galls to demand an apology? Don't you think dats a bit crossing d line of our tolerance? You may leave Maam." D finality of Vihaan's sentence bristled with his repressed anger of all dese days. Bulbul was stung. The crystal clear eyes had frozen and she took a moment to come to terms with d hurt...d hurt which hurt a bit more dan it shud logically have and Vihaan took the moments respite to stalk away.

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