Hey Guys🤗
It's my first work on ShaKhi and I hope you'd all enjoy reading it😳
This is set in the very distant future😆
**
It was almost 11 pm when Shaurya reached home. He crossed the living room and made his way to their bedroom, a tub of her favorite mint and chocolate ice cream in hand, secretly hoping that Anokhi was asleep already. On any other day, he would have loved to indulge her, or be indulged by her, but he felt exhausted lately. In between balancing his trips to Patiala to ensure that the opening of the new SIAC branch was successful and trying his best to be with Anokhi during her pregnancy, he hated how he could not give both his undivided attention. The Patiala branch was his baby, it was his dream project which he conceived and nurtured for so long and then, their baby. Pretty much in contrast to him, Anokhi, the ‘superwoman’ as he often addressed her, seemed to have discovered the secret to strike the perfect balance between family life and work. He would forever be amazed at how effortlessly she transitioned between her roles as a lecturer, a student writing her Phd thesis and a to-be mother. She aced all of them to the T making him wonder how he had spent a major part of his life believing that women could not balance both.
He was about to climb the stairs when he noticed that the lights in the kitchen were on. Changing his mind, he made his way to the kitchen, just in case. And true to his intuition, he heard her moans while approaching the kitchen area. Instinctively, he turned around to make sure there was no one in the vicinity. With a grin now plastered on his face, he entered the kitchen to see what his not-so-innocent wife was up to.
Anokhi, plopped onto the dining table, was munching on some unidentified snack. She had wrapped herself in a fluffy pink blanket and was looking like an absolute mess in her messy bun.
A delectable mess, nonetheless, his mind added.
“Hhhmmmm” she moaned again, breaking his reverie. He approached her to see what had captivated her so much that she had not noticed that he was in the kitchen. And any thought he may have conjured until that point flew off the window as he witnessed the scene in front of him. To say he was horrified would be an understatement.
“Anokhi,” he called her out, still reeling from the shock.
“Hi,” she replied, her eyes now open. “When did you come back?”
“Anokhi, what-even…,” he stopped, unable to grasp the incredulous situation.
“Why are you looking at me like I’ve grown two horns?” she eyed him curiously. “And you did not greet me, nor did you answer my question,” she added, seriously miffed at the fact that he ignored her questions.
“I`m sorry for my greeting etiquette, or lack thereof,” he threw sarcastically.
“It’s okay, I forgive you,” she answered, making him roll his eyes.
“Anokhi, what are you eating?” He tried again.
“Ohhh, that’s the marshmallows you bought me.”
“Yeah I can see that, but….” he paused, and reformed his question, lest he appeared too disgusted, “but why are you coating your marshmallows with pickles?”
She looked at him like he was stating the obvious, like dipping your marshmallows in pickles and relishing it was something she did every other day.
“Well, let me tell you what you are missing, I just discovered that marshmallows and pickles are THE deadly combo.”
“I`m not sure about the missing part, Anokhi, given that, as you yourself said, they are a deadly combination, I`m nevertheless very pleased at your discovery” he taunted.
But Anokhi was too busy scooping a spoonful of pickle and drizzling it graciously over her marshmallow to take offense at his words. Into her mouth it went, before the now very disturbed Shaurya could even stop her.
“Anokhi, I’m sure that they are delicious, but nothing can beat your favorite mint and chocolate ice cream, right?” he tempted her. Although he was not a fan of her extensive consumption of ice cream, it was the better option, right now.
“Oh, you bought it?” she asked disinterestedly.
He nodded.
“I don’t want to eat it now though, keep it in the fridge,” she said and took yet another marshmallow.
“You’ve got to be kidding me right now, Anokhi,” he answered, his irritation clear now. “I went out of my way to buy you this because you blackmailed me and now you don't want to eat it?”
“Hawww, liar, when did I blackmail you?” she asked, batting her eyelashes innocently.
“Are we seriously doing this Anokhi? Did you not blackmail me into buying this ice-cream saying that you were going to consume a spoonful of that damned mouthwash if I did not?”
“I was just saying your minty mouthwash could be an alternative to the mint and chocolate ice cream”
“Makes total sense Anokhi. How about we serve mouthwash as dessert next time we have guests over?”
“Are you complaining, right now?”
“Am I ever in a position to complain, Anokhi?”
“Why are you making it sound that I’m a perpetrator of some sort, and you are my tortured husband?”
He sighed and bit his tongue to prevent himself from saying anything that could further rile her up.
“And you are complaining so much about my cravings. You are lucky that I did not crave vomit-flavoured, rotten egg-flavoured, dead fish-flavoured jelly beans like Babli di craved when she was pregnant!” she lamented, stomping the marshmallow in her hand back in the bowl in an attempt to appear angry.
The two sisters were mad, he was sure of that now. Poor Vicky! And who the hell were making these gross inventions. At this point, marshmallows and pickles did not even look that gross in front of those jelly beans. He shook his head, miffed that he was kind of un-grossed by marshmallows and pickles now. This crap was growing on him.
“Anokhi,” he tried again, “you know this is not healthy, nah,” he cajoled. “You are consuming this weird thing so late at night, you could upset your stomach,” he continued, staring straight into her eyes, hoping that she would see the concern in them.
“You think I’m weird?”
Well, you ARE weird Anokhi. What sane person would eat this crap in the middle of the night. But, of course, if I cannot say this out loud, you’d flip.
“Of course not, love, I-”
“Why did you take so much time to answer then?” Anokhi cut back.
“Uhhhh”
“See, I said you are a liar, and a bad one. And if I'm weird, you are weirder because you married me! Hmpffff,” she finished with a pout as her forehead creased with irritation at her very insensitive husband.
“Anokhi, we’ll continue this ‘who is weirder competition,’ tomorrow if you don’t mind. It’s late as it is and this thing is not healthy for you or the baby!”
“You think I’d do anything that could harm the baby,” her voice now in a whisper, and her eyes filled with unshed tears, threatening to spill any moment.
Hormones. Those Goddamn hormones!
“When did I say that, love?” he moved closer, and tried to engulf her into a hug. But, a look at her fiery and teary eyes that were shooting daggers at him made him drop the idea. He had to bite his cheeks to stifle his laughter, why did she have to be so cute! Heck, I cannot even get properly angry or irritated with her.
He would never get enough of her, that he knew even before getting married to her. What he did not know was that he would be capable of loving every shade of hers. Be it her anger, her fear, her frustrations or her love, care or concern, he reveled in all of them - it colored his life with meaning. Shaking his head off those thoughts for now, he made a mental note to talk to Kanchan about this weird craving of Anokhi and decided to take her for a check up to her doctor the next day itself.
Meanwhile, Anokhi sensing that he was distracted took another Marshmallow, in view of prepping her snack. Her movements brought Shaurya back to earth, and before he could even think, he pushed her hands, a bit too fiercely, so that the freshly prepped pickled marshmallow, went flying to a corner in the kitchen, staining her blanket with oil in the process.
And like a kid who’s had their lollipop stolen, she started sobbing. Streams of tears ran down her cheeks, drowning him in guilt for acting so rashly.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, cupping her cheeks now. “I’m really sorry, really really sorry. Did I hurt you?” he asked as he wiped off her tears, that honestly made his heart clench like anything. “And I did not mean that you’d want to hurt yourself and the baby on purpose, You misunderstood…..No, no sorry, I did not phrase my sentence properly. I was just concerned about your health. And that’s why I pushed your hands off as well, but I was too rash maybe, I’m sorry” he fretted.
He was about to bend and kiss her to soothe any pain she could have been feeling, but one look at her oily lips, he decided against it.
“I'm not crying because of that!” she simply mumbled, making him retrieve his earlier posture.
“Why are you crying then?” he probed, his hands still cupping her face, still wiping it clean of those tears.
“I don't know why I`m crying,” she confessed.
“What?”
“I don’t know, maybe…” she trailed off, looking here and there, as if trying to find the reason why she was crying in the first place. And then, as a flickering tubelight, her eyes caught the oil stain on the blanket and she decided that this was indeed the reason why she was crying.
“Maybe, maybe....it’s because you stained this lovely blanket. It was for the baby, you bought it for the baby and you have now ruined it with oil,” she concluded.
Unbelievable.
This woman was unlike anything and anyone else.
Anokhi, indeed.
“It’s fine. We’ll buy another one for the baby,” he consoled her, and since she was distracted over the tragedy that the mighty pinky blanket had met with, he proceeded to clear the dining table. Catching her off guard, he picked her up in his arms and walked out of the kitchen. Anokhi, now overwhelmed with emotions, allowed herself to be carried as she rested her head against his chest.
“Shaurya,” she purred once they were on the staircase.
“Hmmmm”
“You are doing well”
He raised one eyebrow at her, silently asking her to continue.
“As SIAC’s director, as a husband, and I’m sure you would make a wonderful father,” she stated as a matter of fact.
And somehow, this tub of bliss in his arms, managed to ease all his doubts and insecurities without him needing to voice it out.
Shaurya would have loved to sleep with that thought in mind, but unfortunately tragedy befell him as she kissed him a very oily-yet-sweet-thank you. Maybe after all, he was going to be the one who’d empty the bottle of that not-so-damned minty mouthwash today.
**
So, how was it? Hopefully not too weird😆
Feedback and any form of constructive criticism is much appreciated. As I always say, Chapals are welcome, but only in pairs😆
Might proofread it later.
Cheers,
Keshni😳
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