A Hardik Pandya/Shubman Gill Fan Fiction

Future

~FLASHBACK|

"Just get out from my life! Don't show me your face again!" Amara screamed after Hardik who grabbed hold of their son's hand and marched out the house.

"Fine. But mark my words: nor should you ever come into my child's life in the future and I won't ever come into your child's life. Advait will be my responsibility, and Natasha yours. Never come into my life again. Stay away from me and Advait. Forever." Hardik's hoarse voice seems to cut her heartstrings.

The thud of the door leaves the mansion in deafening silence: their conversation, their relationship; their memories gone.

Amara grabs hold of a crying Natasha from the cot and giving her a little shake, merely 6 months of age. "Come on, Natasha. We're leaving this place." She wipes her cheeks and packs her bag, an occasional sob escaping her lips. Her mascara had now smudged. An evening that had meant to be of understanding, emotions, fun had transformed into a divorce.

*flashback ended

"Natasha! Natasha Mehra! Wake up now!"

"Mom pleaseee let me sleep." Natasha, Amara's 20 year old daughter's muffled voice came from under the pillows.

A 41 year old Amara shakes her head as she whips the duvet off her daughter. "Nat, come on, I'm going to the hospital in half an hour so I'll drop you off to college on the way." She checks her watch quickly as she opens the curtains in Natasha's room.

"Urgh." Natasha sits up in bed, her hair all ruffled. Suddenly Natasha's phone rings from the side table, however before she can reach it,Amara grabs the phone and answers it.

"Hello?"

Natasha gulps as she awaits her mother's response.

"Hello? Hi? Hellooo?" Amara says. She finally cuts the call and hands her daughter's phone back to her. "Kaat diya."

"Mom! Can't I answer my own calls now?!" Natasha exclaims in exasperation.

"Arey, you just woke up, I thought I'll help you out - and Vaise bhi - who would call you at 7 am?" Amara says, startled at her daughter's defensive response. "Chalo, get ready fast and come down - DJ has made your favourite - dhoklas." Amara's voice fades as she leaves Natasha's room and goes downstairs.

Natasha sighs. "This is probably why dad left mom. She's so over protective!" She mutters.

Natasha had always wondered why her mom never told her about dad, why he left, where he was now; she didn't even know his name, her own father's name was unknown to her. All she knew was that he was a bad man, the only thing her mom had told her, and she had blindly believed that statement all these years, but looking at how strict and overly interfering her mom was in her life, perhaps her dad wasn't exactly the 'bad' one.

💗

"Good morning, baby ji." DJ, the cook/nanny/caretaker of the house says happily, with a huge gleam on her face as she prepares breakfast for her madam and Natasha.

"Morning, DJ." Natasha says, giving her a quick hug before cramming a dhokla in her mouth hurriedly as she sees her mom picking up the car keys.

"Arey have two more at least!" DJ cries after Natasha who is now trying to get through the door with a pile of 5 books in her hands.

"I'll be back for lunch, DJ!" Natasha cries. "Bye!"

"Bye Baby Ji!"

💗

"Ved, I'm so sorry, mom picked up your call this morning and even dropped me to college. I promise we can go to the movies tomorrow." Natasha hugs Ved, her boyfriend.

"It's okay Nat, it's not your fault your mom's so possessive." Ved leans in and gives Natasha a peck on the lips."

"She's a nurse, maybe that's why she's so boring." Natasha chuckles.

She smiles quickly and moves back from him. "I gotta go, I'll text you in a bit." She sits on her scooty and drives back home. She quickly turns her phone on silent and throws it into her bag before opening her house door, to see her mum sitting, reading a newspaper, much to her surprise.

"Hi mom, you're home early today?" Natasha asks hesitantly.

"Hm... and you're home late today?" Amara looks up at her daughter from her newspaper.

Natasha looks at her, dumbstruck, not knowing what to say. Her lips press against one another.

"That wasn't a rhetorical question." Amara stands up and puts her cup of tea back in the kitchen. "You were with that boy weren't you?"

Natasha gulps. "He's a friend, mom."

"Just a friend? It looked more than the 'just friends' zone." Amara looks at her with a smile; a nasty one.

Natasha sighs. "Mum, please. Why do you have to be so controlling? He's not a bad person."

"Natasha how many times have I told you not to befriend those college boys?"

"But why?! He's good, he's not like-"

"Natasha, I'm not saying you can't have a boyfriend, you can't date etc... all I'm saying is now's the time to study, you're in medical school - do you really want all that unnecessary stress in your life on top of your career?!" Amara walks up to her daughter and places a hand on her cheek.

Natasha rolls her eyes, shrugging her mum's hand off her face. "God mom, career career career - that's all you ever see. I'm meant to have fun at my age! And I don't even understand - you got married at 20 So why can't I have a boyfriend?!" Natasha bites her tongue as she realises what she blurted out. The perfect example of what they say is rubbing salt to one's wounds.

Amara sharply inhales as what her daughter said was the truth, and the truth is always bitter. Amara looks down at her feet as Natasha scurries past her and bangs her bedroom door shut. At the time marriage at 20 and kids at 21 seemed amazing, but it didn't take Amara long after being with Hardik to realise the magnitude of the mistake she had made.

She shouldn't have married at 20. Not with Hardik. 20 years of separation taught her however, to be independent - something she stresses to her daughter, Natasha, justifying her desperation for Natasha to be something and not give up on her career like Amara did herself.