Devakshi One-shots/Drabbles/Short stories

Building bridges (Part 6)

"UUUUMMMFFFFFFFF!!!!!" Dev grunted, instantly awake now, as Suhana jumped on him.

"Papa, wake up! It's morning, the sun is up!" Suhana sat on his midsection, shaking him.

He tried to orient himself, while recovering from the unexpected onslaught. Suhana was almost seven years old and weighed enough to knock the air out of his lungs when she jumped on him without warning. Especially when he was fast asleep. But of course, he would never say that to her. She could think of him as a trampoline and he wouldn't say boo.

"What time is it?" He was still too groggy.

"It's time to wake up! Come on Papa!!" She insisted, as her mother walked in. "Soha, you need to put your socks on."

"Papa isn't waking up. How can he sleep so late!"

"Because I am tired!"

"How can you be tired? You slept through the night, Papa!"

"Who told you that I slept? Your mother made me stay awake all night!"

"DEV!!" Sonakshi exclaimed, mortified.

He laughed at her scandalized expression and continued. "I really wanted to sleep, Suhana. Do you know that I kept telling your mother, that I am tired and that I needed to sleep, but she didn't le....." He stopped abruptly as a pillow hit him hard on the face.

"Mumma, why didn't you let him sleep? Didn't you say that we should all go to bed on time? Did you make him do work at night?" The barrage of questions and the stumped expression on Sonakshi's face tickled him to no end.

She herded Suhana out, glaring at him and he heard her mutter the word 'impossible' under her breath, making him laugh even more uproariously. His day was off to a great start now, with that word.

Of late though, all of his days were having a great start. And why not? Sonakshi and Suhana had moved into his apartment. It wasn't 'his' apartment anymore, it was 'theirs'. He could see both of his ladies' imprints everywhere. Sonakshi had told him a long time ago, that the world is pink-pink-rosy-rosy in love, but he had no idea there was literally this much pink in the world. It was blinding and gaudy and he loved every bit of it.

They had converted the guest bedroom into Suhana's room with a unicorn theme. Gunni helped with Suhana and Bhola bhaiyya helped with the household chores. After school, Suhana alternated between the Bose residence and his own house until either he or Sonakshi picked her up at the end of the day. They would eat dinner together and fall asleep telling lots of silly stories.

This was good for him. He hadn't ever mentioned to Sonakshi about moving back into Ishwari Niwas. It had taken her this long to come back to him. He could not risk this for anything. Especially not after what she had casually mentioned the other day.

"It's so taxing Dev. The bad memories always come racing after the good ones. It's one thing to visit your house, but it was hard to live there when we were alternating for Suhana. Especially with Vicky living there."

That last part had piqued his interest. "Vicky? Why are you pointing him out?"

"Vicky was always disrespectful towards me. And how can I live under the same roof with the guy who threw my family out of our own house?"

"Wait. WHAT?"

She had been really surprised then. "What? Don't you know? Vicky came and told us that you had signed the eviction papers and that it was on your orders that he was throwing us out. When I came to talk to you, there was the prenup incident."

Dev had been apoplectic with rage. VICKY. Ever since he had sold his office without informing him and pocketed the money, Dev had been extra careful about Vicky. He may be his cousin but hadn't proved to be trustworthy at all. Dev had hired private investigators to look into all his activities and had been fuming when he found out that it was Vicky who had sent goons to beat him up. If Sonakshi hadn't come there and rescued him, he would have been dead. Vicky didn't stop there and was also doing some shady dealing with that guy Thakkar. Dev suspected he was trying to steal and sell the new app his company was developing and had been in the process of catching him red-handed when he got to know it was Vicky who was responsible for his split with Sonakshi? The ungrateful wretch.