Kyon Nahi ✓ || (neirohi)

Bonus (2C) Happy Birthday Aaru

Bonus (2C)

Nothing helped him work faster than deadlines and delaying work until the last minute. And the fact that he wanted to do something really thoughtful for his hardworking doctor wife since months prior to the day added to the pressure now. He should have planned this from before, and should have stuck to the plan, yet he was well-versed with procrastination and this time, he had crossed a line in being tardy. And having an ever busy doctor wife who never really liked huge parties did not help him either. He had brainstormed all the possible ideas to celebrate his wife's birthday and he came up with nothing that would make her happy. He could have taken a trip with the entire family, but doctors were busy with the post pandemic effects, he could have planned a surprise at the mansion, but to handle four kids (Karika included) and plan everything was a no go, he could have gifted her something expensive, but she literally could afford whatever she wanted.

Then what in the world could he do for her?

And this question hit him a day before her birthday and Neil realised at 12 in the noon that his wife's birthday was in twelve hours and he had to do something, else Aarohi would just be disappointed and act indifferent like she does to hide her emotions. It had been seven so seven so years for their marriage and Aarohi still kept so many things to herself and all Neil had to was glance at her and understand her, sometimes he could decrypt her eyes, sometimes he was too tired to and sometimes, sometimes it was just too overwhelming.

Lately he had not seen her as much as he had expected, when the pandemic had hit the country, Neil had permanently shifted his entire company base from Bangalore to Udaipur, to be a little more closer to his family, to soak in the warmth of the people who were alive and not keep business the main motive of his life and while he did what he wanted, Aarohi did what doctors did, put their lives at stake for others to be safe. Abhimanyu and her, were always on-site, always fighting for others, putting themselves at risk, putting others at priority, going out at odd times, returning home devastated and completely drained. The deaths they had seen, encountered and handled, was something Neil and Akshu could never in this lifetime and both the bhabhi-devar pair treated their doctors as another version of God himself and never brought their overwhelming doctor lifestyle as a point of argument or disagreement.

They adjusted to their better halves being warriors, and paced themselves according to their lifestyle, many-a-time Akshu came to the aid of Neil whenever he was mad at Aarohi and her profession, which as a normal human he was entitled to and Neil helped Akshu to calm down whenever Abhi left work and her and their kids. The reason the kids were more drawn towards Akshu and Neil were that their other parents' were never home, and when they were, they were not allowed to sit or interact with them for the scary virus that had invaded their country. Such were the initial days, and although now the matter at hand was resolved to quite an extent, there were traces still of the damage the virus had done and in that, both the doctors had missed on a lot of things, and their significant others had missed them.

That being said, this birthday was important for Neil more than it was for Aarohi, because he knew she had taken a leave and that for one whole day, he could actually see his wife in flesh and not on the little mobile screen of his, he could actually hold her and the very thought of his very pretty wife in front of her was motivation enough to do something for her day. But now when the day was so close, Neil feared what was he to do to make his wife feel special and he had nothing, so he sat on the sofa, head in his hand, and worried about his fate.

Not that his wife would create a scene if he did not celebrate her birthday, unfortunately, she was not those kind of women who got mad at their husbands missing their birthdays. The reason he said unfortunately, was because Neil would love a wife who would be dramatic and speak her heart out instead of keeping it all in. Aarohi was one of those who never spoke aloud except when asked, that was the one promise Neil had taken from her, to tell her when he asked her and only the truth and Neil was glad that she kept her promise.