Making Her Mine- An IPKKND story.

Chapter 82 - Sangeet

Arnav met Khushi downstairs for the Sangeet, and seeing her happy face made him want to give up the dance, yet again. She looked beautiful, in a shiny red outfit, and was thrilled to see him in his shiny red outfit. Did he really need to do anything else?

But she loved the other dances. She sat beside him with a huge grin on plastered on her face, clutching his arm and squealing with delight every time someone new went up on the stage to dance: Lavanya and NK, Payal and Akash, Nani and Buaji, Mamaji and Mami, even little Aarav and the Prakash trio.

He couldn't back out now. Could he?

"I'm going to go get a drink of water," he said to Khushi when the supposedly final dance was done.

"Wait, I'll ask the server —" Khushi began. He gestured frantically behind her back at Di for help, and she came over in a hurry, exclaiming over the various performances. Khushi forgot about the water, and launched into exclamations about what all she liked. Arnav took the chance to slip away, and was immediately grabbed by NK near the stage.

"Nannav! Here—" NK handed him a black cloak that looked like it belonged to a magician, to put over his shiny red sherwani. Arnav accepted it, unsure if it was an improvement or not, but tried to resist the sparkly red scarf that NK slung over his neck.

"It's part of the costume, Nannav!" NK insisted, as Arnav stretched his head away from his cousin, teeth gritted.

"All right. Now go!"Arnav still hadn't fully made up his mind, but NK shoved him to the darkened stage. He stumbled forward, right to the middle. It was too late to back out now. Okay, fine, fine, he was doing this.

There was a collective gasp when the spotlight illuminated him in the ridiculous outfit, standing in the middle of the stage. He squinted at the audience, and saw Khushi's face, bright like a beacon. Her mouth was hanging open. Arnav smiled, finally convinced that this wasn't the worst idea in the world. The music began.

He stepped down from the stage, the spotlight following him, and went to her. When he held out his hand, she placed hers in it automatically, and followed him without any resistance back to the stage.

Okay, first step, the make his hands into little planes flying off his eyes. Ridiculous.

"Aankon ki... gustakhiyaan maaf ho..." the song went - Forgive the audacity of my eyes... Khushi clapped her hand over her mouth. Okay, this was not so bad.

Putting away the thought that he was probably embarrassing himself out of his reputation, Arnav moved around Khushi, remembering all the stupid steps Mickey had taught him. Not looking away from her, because she looked radiant, as if this was the most incredible thing she had ever seen.

Finally, the mash-up ended with a song about her deceiving eyes "dagabaaz re" in which he had to shove her shoulders playfully with his. An uproarious cheer broke out when the music ended.

Shy again, he shuffled quickly to the back of the stage, hoping to sneak out while the cheering went on, but Khushi grabbed his arm. "Arnav Ji!"

He smirked to cover whatever remained of his embarrassment.

"I — I can't believe..." she was saying.

He quirked an eyebrow. "Who's Salman Khan now?"

-

Khushi still hadn't gotten over it, even after he had been overrun by the mass of family and friends congratulating him, calmed everyone down, and diverted conversations to something other than his dancing.

She would be smiling and talking to someone, and then glance over at him with a renewed look of amazement. He grinned every time she did that. This was way more fun than he'd thought.