Arylie FF: I'm Happy Here With You

thirty-four ~ bas tumhe chaha karoon

raat din dil mein tumhe dekha karoon

main tere baare mein bas socha karoon

... ... ...

Aditya's high spirit was too much aggravated to get completely shut down, but it had dimmed considerably by the time he reached home with Imlie. She'd remained mostly delirious or unconscious, desperately calling out for her Amma and Aryan - it's alright, she's having nightmares. That guy must have scared her way too much that she's acting like this.

Even to his own self, the excuse felt juvenile and silly. But he didn't want to consider the alternative. He patted her head as she kept shaking and jolting up before going back to her trance. The cab driver noticed and asked what happened to her, Aditya made an insincere excuse about his wife falling sick. The driver kept quiet after that, until...

"Aryan Sir, you forgot your change?" the guy called out.

"What the hell did you just call me?"

"Is that not your name?" the driver seemed surprised, "your wife kept saying it?"

"Mind your business," he snapped at the driver and snatched the change. He'd meant for it to be a tip earlier. But morons don't deserve it. He nearly dropped Imlie on his quest to grab the money but managed to hold on by a thread. "Come on, we are home, Imlie can you walk?"

She didn't respond, so he carried her again. Better this way, because he had a nasty, niggling feeling that if she was in her senses, she'd be difficult and try to run away. There's no running from me anymore, Jhalli. How the hell did you get attached to that man? You belong with me!

His good mood deteriorated further when the reactions from his own family members were not exactly what he expected. They started by expressing concern on Imlie's health, then began the questions. What's she doing here, why did you bring her here? What happened to her? Did you do something to her?

Who needs enemies when this is his family?

"Will you all please calm down, Imlie is my wife, so I brought her home, okay? Now if your interrogation is finished, I'm going to take her to the room. She needs rest."

"What do you mean wife?"

"What do you mean room?"

Aditya sighed, he'd anticipated that his mother might be difficult about the whole thing but he'd genuinely thought Rupi would be firmly on his side. But she was looking at him with a slight frown on her face that was making him nervous.

He sat down and slowly began to explain the paperwork mishap and how they've failed to follow through with the proper proceedings of a divorce. "So it means, she is right where she belongs. With me, with us. Now she'll stay here because we are not going through the divorce anymore. Destiny had given us a loophole. What happened, are you all not happy? I thought you would be happy for me?"

"Adi bhai," Rupi frowned. "You mean to say, there was a paperwork mishap, and Imlie just readily agreed to be your wife again and come back home? And she fell sick on her way?"

"Why wouldn't she want to be back?" Aditya questioned back, ignoring the later part of the question. Subterfuge was necessary. He couldn't have a proper conversation with Imlie, but he was sure once he'd explain it to her properly, she'd be agreeable. She is Imlie, the existence of her own marriage would matter more than anything else.