Broken Hearts and Strange Girls || Shivika AU FF

𝐗𝐈𝐕

Annika cut the phone call soon after to see Shivaay smiling at her. "What? Do I have something on my face?" Annika asked, drifting her hands from her cheeks to her jawline. "No, I just find your 'personal conversations' rather amusing," Shivaay shrugged as he turned to the road. 

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that—" 

"Don't be. I can almost relate." Annika looked at him weirdly. Shivaay, feeling her curious gaze, chuckled. "My friend, Farhan, and I go back to two years ago. He has really weird habits, like placing gum on the tip of his tongue and stretching it back so his tongue looks white. Once, I was working on some important paperwork and Farhan was doing his own thing. The gum fell out of his mouth and onto my papers. I got so angry that I screamed at him and threw my laptop to the floor," Shivaay said. 

"Whoa, anger issues!" Annika muttered. "Hm, I guess friends and work don't really mix," she remarked, and Shivaay nodded. 

"It's quiet. Do you have music?" Annika asked a few moments later. "Yeah. I have an album here somewhere," Shivaay said, scrolling through the screen in his car and landing on his Spotify playlist. "Feel free to pick something out of here," he said and went back to driving. Annika hit shuffle play. 

The first song that played sounded gloomy and sad, so Annika skipped. Two more sad songs went by, and Annika frowned. She was about to hit skip again, when Shivaay caught her hand. 

She swore a firework exploded inside her stomach, but she ignored it and looked at him. Shivaay's eyes were stony grey again, but they were lighter than they were when he was angry. Yes, she'd started paying close attention to his eyes as of late. They seemed to convey his feelings better than words. "Don't skip this one. It's probably my favorite on this playlist." 

Saying so, Shivaay dropped her hand and fixed his own back on the steering wheel, and Annika leaned back, listening to the lyrics. 

𝐴 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡. 𝐼'𝑚 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑖𝑥𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑠. 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛,𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑡, 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑡, 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒.

𝐼'𝑚 𝑎𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝐼 𝑎𝑚.𝑀𝑦 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑. 𝑆𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑚𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑.𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑒, 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑒, 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒.

𝐼 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝐼 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑑.𝑊𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑔𝑎𝑚𝑒. 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑏𝑜𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑔 𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒,𝐼 𝑔𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑔𝑎𝑚𝑒. 

Annika looked over at him listening to the song. His eyes were now clouded by a sheet of darkness. She remembered what Aishwarya had said. "With what he's been through..." But what had he been through? What broke him so much that he had resorted to listening to such songs, that he had quit working until today, that he had spaced himself away from his family and the people that loved him? 

Judging by the lyrics of his music, he was recovering from a heartbreak, that he wasn't fresh out of. He had been this way for a long time. 

The way that Adi said he was scared of angry Shivaay, the way Aishwarya seemed to miss the old Shivaay, the way Om seemed so distant from him, the way Tej Uncle seemed disappointed in him, the way Jhanvi Aunty seemed immune to him, and the way Meera had looked at him that night at dinner. 

How was Meera connected to Shivaay? And what had transpired between the two of them? What was Shivaay's past and how did it affect Meera? Who had these answers? Who could she ask? Aishwarya wouldn't tell her, neither would Om. Adi was too young, and Meera didn't seem to trust her very much. Kushal? 

Wait a minute. Kushal and Shivaay...what was their funda? They weren't friends, in any sense of the word. In fact, they seemed like they hated one another. So how exactly were the Thakur siblings connected to the mystery that was Shivaay Singh Oberoi? 

"We're here," Shivaay said as the car lurched to a stop. Annika looked up at him. There was only one person who could give her the answers to all of these questions. And that was the subject of Mission: Restoration S.S.O. himself.