In His Custody ✎ | (MaNan)

✰ 57 - temper tantrums

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH, this part in particular made me so so happy about them :") 

Please don't forget to vote, comment and share :P

⭒

Nandini

It was nearly half past nine when Inaaya's car stopped at my apartment gates.

"Thanks for the ride." I chirped. She did not have to detour twenty five minutes off the course of her house just to help me out, but after the long day, she had casually asked me how I was going home. Not having any specific plans, I had told her I would figure something out. The next thing I knew, my entire lab was cajoling me through multiple guilt-trips to take up Inaaya's open offer.

"Do you want to park and come inside for a while?"

She twitched her lips in disappointment. "Maybe some other time, love. I'll see you tomorrow. And message me if you are going in alone, I'll come with." With a meek smile, I got down and smiled. Her car reversed out of the colony and onto the main road, and I waved until the vehicle merged into traffic again.

Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I did not ward off the beam on my features. While I moved through the pedestrian gate, a familiar car invaded the taller, wider ones – it was my brother's. He was at the wheel and Mukti was in the passenger seat, so I raised my hand to garner their attention. Both of their faces strained. Even from a distance, something felt off.

The car disappeared down the underground ramp, unaware of my presence.

I scrunched my eyesbrows. Strange. Regarding that I could meet them in the house and gather my explanations, I headed towards our tower with a light skip in my steps, climbed up the stairs and unlocked the door to our flat. It was at that exact time when the elevator doors pinged.

My neck craned to see Mukti and Abhi walking out.

Pretending to not have caught a glimpse of them earlier, I gleamed, "Hey, where did you guys go?"

Abhi shrugged stiffly behind Mukti, who was rushing in between me and the door. "We went out."

"Together?" The tease, that would have usually been received with some outright protest, or sarcastic retort, fell into silence as neither of the two said anything. Something had gone terribly wrong. "What happened?" I urgently quipped, slipping my hand into hers.

She pulled me into the home, but distantly murmured, "I've just had a long day. I'm going to shower..." It achieved two things. One, it informed me that she will be using the bathroom a while, and two, that she did not want to discuss it with me.

Only one conclusion emerged from it all. "Did you guys fight or something?" I asked Abhi once Mukti was out of sight.

Abhimanyu irritably looked at me, "It's nothing, Nandu. Go do your own thing." I instinctively stepped back at the tone, that he had only once before used on me, on the evening that he stopped hanging out with his SPACE Academy friends and nodded. Just as I resolved that day, I promised myself I would never ask him about it again. 

⭒⭒⭒

3 December 2010

A bunch of keys flew into the air, catching the last rays of the dipping sun before landing with a soft jingle in a large palm. Through tactful negotiations, he managed to pocket it from one of the security guards in the Arts wing. When I had posed to him that he would get into trouble, he just shrugged.