Anika woke up to the soft voice of someone waking her up. Was it all a dream? The wedding, the hospital, the garland around her neck? She struggled to open her eyes. A familiar face appeared before her. She blinked a couple of times before opening her eyes fully. She looked around and realized she was in a different room. A room that wasn't hers. Her eyes darted back to meet the pair of sea blue ones.

"Good morning!" He wished softly wearing his watch. It wasn't a dream after all. She was married to Shivaay. She sat up still disoriented. So much had happened the last thirty-six hours. The last thing she remembered was Pinky helping her undress and change into comfortable clothing after they had reached the Oberoi mansion at midnight.

"What's the time?" She asked tying her hair up in a bun.

"Ten minutes to eight-thirty." He answered getting off the bed and gathering a few files. Anika observed him. He seemed pretty stressed. She wondered how he was even keeping up with everything that was happening. She still felt tired after sleeping well for six hours.

He arranged the files in a pile and then glanced at her. She smiled understandingly. He walked up to the bed and sat beside her. "You okay?"

Anika nodded, the lines of worries were very evident on his forehead. She held his hand and gave it a light squeeze. "Everything will be okay!"

He looked at their hands and then up at her and smiled. "Thank you, Anika. I – I was – Daadi was so happy yesterday, haven't seen her so happy in a while. I just hope everything goes well." His voice trailed.

"Everything will." Anika assured him, "by the way, did you even sleep?"

He smiled. "Yeah."

"What time did you wake up?"

"Seven!"

"And what time did you sleep?"

"Somewhere around two!" he answered.

"Wow." Anika smiled.

"I can't sleep with tension." He admitted lowering his gaze.

"Oh!"

"Hey, you wrote my name," he muttered opening up her palm, as his thumb brushed over his name scripted on it.

"Is it your name? I thought it was my husband's." She jested.

He smiled brightly looking up at her. She leaned forward and kissed his forehead. "Everything will be fine." Anika had no clue why she felt it was necessary to give him that kiss. She had been noticing how the happenings of the past two days had rendered him tired and stressed. It was surprising to see him like that, the same man who always had a sense of control over the happenings.

"Get ready. We need to reach the hospital by nine-thirty. Before that, we need to go for this puja. Daadi made it very clear that we should." He spoke looking at her. The truth was still very unbelievable to him. She was his wife. He was a married man! The kiss she pressed on his forehead was like a knock of reality. There was a lot happening. Shivaay still needed to sink in a lot. But, right now his priority was Daadi's surgery.

"Anika," he called out to her when he noticed her picking out clothes from her suitcase.

"Yeah?" she turned to him.

"Wear something red, Mom had asked me to tell you. Just slipped out of my mind."

"Okay." She muttered placing back the yellow kurti back into her bag.

* * *

Shivaay's parents had accompanied the two of them to the temple for the puja. The ceremony was kept short. The pandit had tied a red thread around each of their wrists and had asked Shivaay to fill vermilion into the partition of Anika's hair. Every time he did that, a strange sense of responsibility washed over him. Throughout the entire drive to the hospital, Shivaay's gaze was stuck at her hands. Her hands adorned red bangles called chuda and his name written with henna on her hands.

* * *

Life turns around all too quickly. In one moment, you are happy and in the other you're sad. In one minute, you have everything and in another, it's gone. Two days after his wedding here Shivaay was, dressed in white at his grandmother's funeral. He still very absurdly remembered the smile she had given him, squeezing his hand as she was being taken to the operation theatre. It was hard to sink in the fact that she was gone. That he would never again hear her. Never again have her touch his hair or kiss his forehead. Tears streamed down his cheek as the pandit called him and his brothers forward to light fire to their grandmother's corpse, as her last wish was.

He sat in the silence of the room that was once Daadi's. His brother's sat in silence too. It was too hard for the trio to digest that their lovely old grandmother was gone.

Anika hadn't been allowed to attend the last rites. Being a newlywed Pinky had instructed her to neither wear white nor be spotted among the people mourning. So, Anika had gone back home. It had been two days, to the wedding. She was exhausted with the happenings around her. A little doubt had arisen in her head, was she a bad omen to the family? Anika wasn't the kind to believe in myths, superstitions or the entire concept of bad omens. But at the hour of distress, she found herself falling into the pit.

Lying on her mother's lap she had finally found the courage to voice her thoughts. Her mother had almost immediately rebuked her for thinking nonsense. Later, she explained how death was inevitable. If anything, they should be happy that Daadi got to witness the wedding before her death. Maybe her mother's words were right – Everything happens in its own time, nothing can be controlled by mankind.

She returned to her new home the next morning. Pinky greeted her summoning her to call the brothers who sat in Daadi's room. Anika hadn't spoken to Shivaay ever since the death of his grandma. In fact, he hadn't really spoken to anyone. The seniors in the family who had seen deaths before knew how to deal with the loss of a loved one and had fallen back into routine life. However, the three brothers hadn't.

"Rudra, Om, Shivaay, breakfast is ready." She said aloud entering the room. Omkara was flipping through an old album, while Shivaay sat on the bed with Rudra's head on his lap. Omkara sighed deeply getting up from the old single sofa that Daadi used to sit on very often. He walked past her outside.

She walked up to the bed and reached out to hold Rudra's hand. "Ru, come on, breakfast is ready." She said softly and he finally sat up looking at her. His gaze drifted to Shivaay and then he got off the bed and dragged himself out. Anika had never seen him so sad. She focused her attention on her husband. "Hey!" She whispered holding his hand.

"I can't still believe she's gone. It seems like, she is just away and, in some time, she'll be here telling about her journey." He spoke, his voice gave away his vulnerability.

Anika sat on the bed before him. Inhaling deeply, she spoke, "She's left for her eternal journey Shivaay. Don't hold her back in your thoughts of her return. At one point or another, we have to let everyone go. it's time you let her go. I am sure, she's excited to meet Daada Ji."

Shivaay's lips curved into a slow smile and his gaze moved up to meet the eyes of the woman who sat before him – his wife. He had a lot to learn about her. Anika scooted closer and wrapped her arms around his torso. He didn't expect it, nonetheless, he could use a hug. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders shifting closer. Closing his eyes, he let the human touch heal his sorrow.

Anika gently rubbed his back. She felt terribly bad for him. The Shivaay she had witnessed in the past few days was nothing like the man who she thought he was. Realization washed her, there was a lot about Shivaay she didn't know. Like this little vulnerable part of him, there were many more parts of him she didn't know existed. She pressed her cheek against his shoulder, before pulling away.

"Come, on, breakfast is ready. You must be hungry." She spoke softly while he held her hands.

"I need to bath," he said flexing the muscles of his neck tilting his head.

"You can bath later."

"I don't like to eat before bathing." He spoke getting to his feet wearing his slippers.

"Okay, you have a bath, I will tell mom." She spoke walking out of the room. A smile formed on Shivaay's face as he walked back to his room.

* * *

Fifteen Days later:

"Anika Bhabhi," Rudra called walking up to her.

"Yes, Rudra?" She turned to him.

"I need your help with my project. That marketing teacher is a pain in the a*s. For every five marks, she gives us a huge project assignment.

Anika smiled, "Cool, let's work on it post-dinner?"

"Cool. What about Bhaiya? Wasn't he supposed to return today from the Business trip?" He asked after climbing up a few steps.

"He said his flight was delayed. So, he might reach around one in the night."

"Oh, cool. So, you'll anyway be up until that so we can get my project done." He spoke more to himself and ran up the remaining steps. Anika smiled and made her way to the kitchen. It had been a week since she had joined her new job. She was actually loving it so far.

Ever since Daadi's death, there was a very solemn and sorrowful atmosphere at home. Everyone seemed to be very affected by her demise. But, the three brothers very much. Shivaay had busied himself in work and Rudra in college. Omkara was strange. Anika couldn't figure out what was up with him. It intrigued her more. He seemed unaffected after a few days, but there was something odd about him. Anika couldn't put a finger on it. He seemed busy with his own event management company he ran.

As for Shivaay, he had left for a Business Summit eleven days back. It was a last-minute decision. Anika knew because it was obvious, he had cleared his schedule for the days their wedding was originally planned for. Anika had a hunch that it was more to deal with Daadi's demise than business.

As for Anika, she had settled well with the family. She would return from office and have a cup of chai with Shakti, Shivaay's father. Tej and Jaanvi were always in travel. They overlooked the hotel business of the Oberois. So, travels across India was inevitable. Later, she'd spend time with Pinky in the kitchen. She barely contributed in cooking, the servants took care of it mostly. But she loved talking to Pinky. They could talk about almost anything on the planet. Post dinner was generally spent with Rudra. Sometimes she would be helping him with his studies, at others, they would play or watch movies. Needless, to put it in explicit words that – Anika was enjoying the company of a family.

It was a few minutes to one. The mansion was silent. Anika sat on the sofa of the living room, her attention on her phone. She quickly closed the tabs on her screen when she heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. Minutes later Shivaay walked in. Almost instantly a smile blossomed on Anika's face.

"Hey!" He greeted her glancing around the room. "Everyone's asleep?"

"Yeah. They tried keeping awake but all of them resigned from the idea." She smiled glancing at the driver who walked past them towards their room with the luggage.

"You had dinner?"

"Yeah, I did!" he replied glancing at his coat that was in hand.

Anika smiled looking away. This was so weird! "Let's go?" He asked.

"yeah, I will just ask Jayanth Kaka to lock the doors." She spoke referring to the old servant.

Shivaay smiled and headed to his room. Damn, he had missed seeing her smile. He hadn't realized how much he had missed her until he actually saw her.

* * *

"So, all settled?" he asked looking up at her when she entered the room. They did talk on the phone but they kept it very formal and short.

"Yeah!" She muttered pushing his suitcases to the wall.

He got up from the bed and walked up to her. She turned around, only to find him standing before her. Oh, finally! Finally, she saw those eyes. "it feels so good to be back!" He muttered taking another step diminishing all the distance between them.

She smiled and was slightly awkward when he hugged her. Gently she let her hands move to his back. He gave her a squeeze. She smiled as his embrace invoked those same old sensations of bizarre electricity and warmth in her nerves.

He broke apart holding her hands, "Sorry, for just – not being here. I mean we got married, and then. Daadi left us. I needed some time away to sink in reality. Mom's mad at me for leaving you back like that, but – "

"I get it. It's fine really. I know how hard it is to deal with the fact that you can never be with someone you love. It takes some time to understand that they live with us, in our hearts, always."

Shivaay smiled, "You're dad?"

Anika nodded lowering her gaze momentarily and then looked up, "You're okay right?"

"Yeah. I needed the break," he muttered. "I think I might just have a shower."

She nodded proceeding to tidy the bed. He glanced at her and smiled opening the cupboard. He pulled the draw while gazing at her. She was wearing a simple kurti with a patiala, her hands still adorned the huge set of red bangles, around her neck was nothing but the nuptial chain he had made her wear. A warmth washed over him, seeing Anika as his wife. He turned to his clothes only to find a black bra in his hand instead of his undies. "Oh!" he exclaimed awkwardly.

Anika looked up and her cheeks almost flamed. "Shivaay, that cupboard has my stuff!" She exclaimed walking over to him.

"Sorry – I – forgot!" he uttered looking at his wife's bra in his hand. He quickly dropped it back into the draw. Stepping away. His eyes met with hers. She bit her lower lip from laughing. Shivaay couldn't hold back his amusement now and he broke into chuckles. Anika laughed turning away.

"God, I need to get used to it!" Shivaay mumbled to himself but Anika heard it anyway, her cheeks turning crimson. What exactly did he mean by that!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Would love to know your views on it.

-Anami!