MaNan FF - Angel In Disguise

#2- There's always a way

NEXT DAY

6 AM, Murthy's Residence.

"Aiyappaaaa! So late! Oh God, I missed my Riyaaz!"
Nandini, who had just woken up from sleep, panicked looking at the alarm clock. 6:09 AM it was showing, enough for Nandini to realize that she missed her morning music practice.

Hurriedly, she freshened up and went down to wish them a good morning. Seeing her disturbed look, Chachi spoke up.

"Pata hai tu subah jaldi uthti hai riyaaz ke liye, par kal sab flight se aake thak gaye na toh maine uthaya nahi. Rishabh bhi so raha hoga." Chachi explained. Nandini nodded and said that she would check on Rishabh and come.

She entered his room to witness a sight she never wished to see. A total mess of the room. But what was more horrifying for Nandini was not the mess, but Rishabh's condition. His attack.

Nandini at once rushed to a frightened Rishabh sitting in the farthest corner of the room and holding his head tightly. Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Kuch nahi hoga Rishabh, I'm there." Nandini said, stroking him back and forth, like a baby. Rishabh threw the vase nearby, and hearing the sound chacha-chachi, too, came up. Nandini consoled Rishabh and distracted him. Chacha-chachi were shocked looking at his condition, and even more shocked to see how Nandini was able to handle him so easily.
Nandini covered him in her protective embrace and soon was able to make him sleep.

"Nandu, Rishabh theek toh haina?" chachi asked.

"Ha chachi, abhi maine Rishabh ko sambhaal liya. Aap tension mat lijiye he's fine now. So raha hai." She explained.

"Yeh sab tab se ho raha hai na?" Chacha asked, Nandini looked down.

"Humesha se kya Rishabh ko tumne hi sambhala, jab... usse aise attack aate the?" chachi asked.

Nandini nodded. "If I wasn't around, Amms used to play an instrument to calm him down." Nandini said.

She hastily cleared some of the mess with chachi's help and ran away to her room.


"Inn bachhon se unka bachpan cheen liya Rab ji ne," Chachi said looking at a sleeping Rishabh, "main Nandu ke chehre pe woh smile dekhna chahti hu Murthy ji." She then looked at her husband. "Aur woh tabhi hoga jab Rishabh theek ho jaye. Doctor se baat kijiye, Nandini ko bas ek umeed ke sach hone ki zarurat hai."

"Main phone karke appointment leta hoon Shanno ji. Bas dono gems ka ache se khayal rakho." Murthy ji consoled her.

*********************************

9:30AM.
Malhotra Mansion. 

"Abey kumbhkaran bhi itna nahi sota yaar... utho tum dono, abhi ke abhi!" 

A furious Mukti was trying to wake up her two best-friends since the last two minutes. Every minute was passing like an hour for her, she more than excited for the first day at college. No, not for their first day, for the fresher's first day at college. While Dhruv had woken up at once on her call, Manik and Cabir were still sound asleep after partying hard till late night. 

"Aise nahi uthoge na tum dono, fine."
Alya understood Mukti is going to use her 100% positive resulting technique and tried to stop the war that was about to take place, but Mukti was in no mood to listen.

*SPLASHHHH!!!!*

"What the-"
"Baadh aagayi kya??"

Both Manik and Cabir woke up bewildered, not able to process what just happened.

"Tum dono sachi yaar, ek toh Alya aur mere bina party karte ho, aur phir subah uthne mein natak." Mukti said. 

Cabir retorted, clearly irritated of the good-morning treat he was just given, "Yaaaar. Security guard ne tujhe andar kaise aane diya? Wild cats are not allowed."