Fanaa

Epilogue

A year later

"Ouch Papa" Aaira grumbled for the nth time, while Abhimanyu brushed through the knots in her hair.

Abhimanyu had been trying and failing to do a fishtail braid on Aaira's hair, it had seemed so easy when he had watched the youtube tutorial, but they had been at it for 2 hours and all he could manage was a floppy ponytail, he was a cardiac surgeon for God's sake !!! How the mighty had fallen.

Aaira let out another groan of frustration, and Abhimanyu quickly tried to take control of the situation, his daughter usually had a sweet temperament, but she had also inherited his lack of patience, "How about I do the braid that I did last week, the one with the butterfly clips?"

"Okay, fineeee"

15 minutes later, Abhimanyu turned Aaira around and felt his breath catch, his daughter was truly her mother's parchai. Aaira looked like an angel in her baby blue lehenga and Abhimanyu knew he would be having a hard time warding off potential boy friends as she grew older.

"Jaldi karo Papa, the wedding will start soon."

Abhimanyu and Aaira descended down the stairs, the Singhania mansion had been decked with gorgeous flowers and twinkling lights, the air buzzing with excitement and joy, after all their eldest son was finally getting married.

It had taken some time, but Krish and Naina had finally decided to get married in Udaipur itself, surrounded by their loved ones.

"Maasi !!" Aaira yelled out before running towards Kaira, Abhimanyu quick at her heels, he knew his daughter, if left unattended God knows what mischief she would get upto.

"My princess, look at you, so beautiful" Kaira gushed before quickly applying a kala tika behind Aaira's ears.
"Hey Abhimanyu, I see the youtube tutorial worked wonders" Kaira gently pulled his leg while Abhimanyu rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

Over the past few months, things between him and the Singhania family had improved leaps and bounds, and now he shared an easy camaraderie with Aaira's uncles and aunt. After all, they were all bonded by their love for Aaira, and only wished for their child's happiness.

"Aaira baby, wanna come and scare Vatsal Mamu with me?" Kaira asked with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, Aaira quickly nodded and before he knew it, the two partners's-in crime had whisked off to scare Vatsal, who he could see was standing precariously next to the pool, too busy on his phone.

He heard Vatsal yelp in surprise along with a splash in the background, but got distracted by the chimes of an anklet, he felt his heart start pounding as the familiar scent of vanilla and lavender engulfed his senses. Abhimanyu closed his eyes taking a deep breath, a slight smile gracing his lips and turned around, and felt his heart stop.

His Akshu stood before him, looking absolutely resplendent in a matching baby blue lehenga, her hair (which had now grown up to her chin) open in soft wavy curls.

"Hi" he whispered, feeling his cheeks heaten up. Hi ? Was that all he could come up with ? He mentally facepalmed himself, God he was worse than a schoolboy with a crush.

"Hey" Akshu's eyes lit up, giving him a lopsided grin.

Then before he could chicken out, he took a step forward, and lightly brushed his lip against her cheeks.

Akshara's cheeks turned a delightful red, and Abhimanyu let out a chuckle, "You look gorgeous."

"Thank you" she murmured, biting her lips and it took every bit of his self control to not tug it out. Yup, he was screwed! He was head over heels in love with the mother of his child.

Things between them were good, great even- Akshara's surgery had proved to be successful, and now a year later, she was in complete remission.

It hadn't been easy, Abhimanyu quickly realised that Akshara still held herself responsible for the death's of Neil and their baby and it had nearly gutted him to realise that he who had worked so hard to release her from the shackles of her childhood trauma had been the person to push her into an even bigger abyss. It had taken a lot of counselling and therapy for Abhimanyu and Akshara to sort out their issues and fears. Abhimanyu had to come to terms with own past and deal with the fact that his relationship with his mother had been unhealthy and co-dependent.

It had taken time, but they were now successfully co-parenting Aaira. Abhimanyu had moved out of Birla house and now lived in an apartment of his own which had a room dedicated just for Aaira and Ruhi whenever they spent the night.

Aaira and Ruhi had quickly bonded, and were now two peas in a pod, it had been a bittersweet moment for Akshara and Aarohi to realise that their daughters had broken the cycle, that they were not destined to repeat their mistakes. Perhaps through their daughters, even they would be able to live out the sisterhood they had missed in their childhood.

Akshara and Abhimanyu had decided to take it slow, they knew that they loved each other but they also knew they couldn't rush it, like they always had. They were older now, and better yet were parents now, any decision they made would affect Aaira and they didn't want to confuse her too much.

And so it was weekly dinners, movie nights, the occasional Parent teacher conferences (Akshara was relieved that it wasn't just her who was going to get chewed out by the teachers for the various pranks Aaira got up to - thought perhaps it's time she sent the actual perpetrators - Vatsal and Kaira to one of these PTA's).

Akshara and Abhimanyu shared another grin, before walking towards the mandap.
As they showered their blessings on the newly wedded couple, their eyes met - Maybe one day, they too would find themselves sitting on a mandap, on a beautiful day like this, with their Aaira by their side, but for now they were friends and co parents and that was good enough for them.

A/N - And there we have it - the end.
Also this epilogue is dedicated to everyone who commented to not kill Akshu off - come on guys do you really think I could actually kill her off 😭

Ngl, it feels very surreal to have actually finished this story, my first ever. When I first started writing it - it had just been a two shot but then your guys comments and votes motivated me to actually make it a fully fledged book - so a big thank you to you all.

I hope you guys enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed writing it, I always felt that Abhira getting back together would require a long phase of healing and co parenting and I hope I was able to justify that in this book.

Do comment, and let me know your thoughts about the epilogue or the parts of the book that you enjoyed the most.

Also if you guys would like to read other one shots and short stories based on the leap - do check out Roohdariyan on my profile

Lots of love and a big thank you once again <3