The Vows We Exchanged

5) Moving In

"Crap!" Mayank mumbled, panting heavily as he leaned against the elevator door. "Why the heck do you have to take a maintenance break now of all times?" he ranted at the elevator in a weak voice. His legs were out of strength to keep him up standing so, he slid himself down and sat against the elevator door.

As his breathing began to return to normal, his eyes turned to the two boxes sealed boxes lying in front of him. One was as big as his skinny long torso and the other almost triple the first one. Overwhelmed by their sized, he shifted his gaze to the plate on the wall which denoted the number of the floor he was on. 'Floor 12', the plate read. "Still six more to go," he sighed in defeat.

It was Sunday and the only day he had gotten off in the last two weeks. Taking the opportunity, he had thought that the day would be perfect to move in at his new flat at Crystal Heights in Worli. As decided, he called for the shipment crew and was about to happily move in when he realized that the elevator was under maintenance. The shipment crew bailed on him after last few boxes were left, compelling him to do the heavy lifting.

"Why do I have to go and pay a fortune to get an apartment of eighteenth floor?" he scolded himself. He looked back at the boxes. He had already taken up two and only these two remained. Although it felt like a death sentence to scale the remaining six floors. He accepted defeat and closed the only eye he had functioning thanks to the bandages covering half of his face. As much as it was inconvenient, he needed that on for his plan to work.

"No... not yet," A voice echoed in his mind. "You can't stop now... not now! You gotta stand up! You can't give up..." The voice said, pushing him to stand up.

"And why can't I?" Mayank asked, tired.

"Because it's 'our' Ninja way!" The voice said, hoping to stir up some confidence.

"But I'm not a Ninja!" Mayank replied with a grin.

"Um... I don't care! You just can't give up now ya know!" the voice yelled. Mayank chucked at himself and pushed himself back on his feet.

"Yeah, yeah. Pipe down Naruto. I'll get back at it!" Mayank drawled. He opened at music player in his phone a switched to a Japanese song 'Kanashimi Wo Yasashisa Ni', allowing its high beats to boil into his blood through the earphones in his ears.

"Now you're talking!" and Naruto's voice fade back into the depths of his mind. Pushed the smaller box to a corner near the stairs and picked the larger one. It took him a moment to shift to 'Hardwork Mode' before he started climbing up.

As he took a U-turn along the stairs, bringing the thirteenth floor within his sight, a muscle guy rushed down past him. He almost made him lose balance but Mayank handled that. Focusing back to the climbing he walked up to the thirteenth floor and placed the box in front of the elevator.

"What are you doing here?" he heard another voice ask. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't any of his imaginary anime characters. He pulled out an earphone and looked around. Towards his left, he found Aaruhi standing in surprise.

She was wearing a casual white cropped shirt with black leggings. Her hair was made into a bun, eyebrows raised and her eyes and mouth open wide. He struggled to keep himself from smiling at that lovely expression of her. "H... hi? Am I supposed to know you?" he decided to execute the plan's phase one right away.

Aaruhi stared blankly at him, even more surprised to hear that. "How could you forget the very girl who took you to hospital even though you completely wrecked the windscreen of my car!" She said furiously.

"I see..." he acted even though he knew he was no good at it. "You must be Aaruhi Kaushik then!"

"Obviously I am!" she declared, crossing her arms.