Bade Acche Lagte Hain | MaNan

Love & Light -III

Well mostly all of you were correct in guessing about Swastik and Manik's conversation. :D.

I really enjoyed writing this particular chapter ;). Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one.

Enjoy reading...

***

"What was father saying to you? Anything serious?" Breaking the long silence, Nandini asks, his blank stare disturbing her.

"Do you want to go to Delhi?" He questions her in return of a question and she adopts a confused frown but there was a smile threatening to break out on her face as well, on the account of meeting her parents.

Watching her expressions, he knew the answer already and elaborates, "Your father, your family wants to meet you. They are missing you and father asked if your brothers can come to take you for pag phere."

"What did you say then?" She wants to hear the complete answer before building any hopes. His refusal will automatically shut the topic and she doesn't want to be disheartened.

"I said that whatever they and you want. They'll officially ask grandma and then you can tell them the preferable date you want to travel on." He shrugs in an obvious tone and she couldn't keep back the huge grin from breaking through.

"Really? Oh My God! I'm so happy!!" Elated and excited she unintentionally jumps on the spot and the thought of meeting her parents itself brought happy tears in her eyes. The news knocked her out in the best way. No matter how much care and affection she had received from her husband, she was craving for her family too. Living away, without seeing them for so many days together was in itself a task provided that she has never lived without them.

A combination of a soft and a sad smile adorns his lips. Seeing her smiling and happy, his face softens but the thought of her going away, is unwelcoming and constricts his heart. It was suppose to happen and it will be wrong and impossible to keep her to himself, always. He could only hope that her holidays won't be for long.

"Let's go, it's late." He says quietly and they both walk towards their house. Both were too absorbed in their world to have any sort of conversation. While his face was grim, Nandini's was radiating the delight.

"Suniye, can we fire crackers too?" As they neared their house, she requests him, her voice earnest and he wasn't in a position to deny, not that he would've otherwise. He nods and collects some pencil crackers from the polybag.

Nandini stands beside Renu who was holding Jay as he was jumping around the ground spinners. She looks around for Veer and finds him fighting with Manas over something. Anil and Pravati were with Nitin while Prakash was nowhere to be found. "Where is father?" She asks Renu who tells her that he's retired back as he feels suffocated with the smoke.

"Here." Manik nudges her softly and hands her the sparkling pencil cracker. They both had one in their hands respectively and Nandini beams at him in delight.

Peeking inside the polybag, she takes out an anar. Getting a discreet nod from him, she lits up the cracker and watches it's shower with a childlike grin. On her insistence, Manik burns another cracker but she wasn't here to stop. She jumps with a soft glee on her face when the rocket she fired, reaches the sky, booming and spreading it's crackle all over. Her excitement and smile was infections and Manik finds himself grinning.

For the world, the crackers and the lights meant Diwali, but for him, it was her smile.

****

Closing the main door and checking all the windows, Manik enters their room and finds her occupied with the kids. While Veer had his arms wrapped around her neck from behind as he jumped on the bed, Nandini was busy changing Jay into his night clothes.