Previously - Nandini and Aryaman are attacked after they are returning from one of their missions. The news of their death spreads but nobody knows what they actually look like. On the other side, Manik meets a feisty customer at his shop and engages in a battle of words with her. Who is she?

Nandini

(Austria)

Who is he? What does he think of himself? That brat! I swear if it wouldn't have been for Mukti, I would have loved to kill him. I hate people who show me that kind of attitude and don't take me seriously. That guy just made it to my hit - list. It would be for his own good if we don't cross each others paths ever again. Thankfully, the other guy at the instruments' shop was bearable and gave Mukti the strings that she so desperately wanted. That girl will hear it from me. Firstof all, she forced me to go with her on a stroll, then she suddenly had to buy guitar strings. On top of all this, that boy! Ughhh!! I've only been here for a few hours and I already hate this place!

'Here. your coffee,' Mukti says passing me a cup. I glare at her before taking the cup from her hand. 'What? Don't give me that look. In fact, I should be the one being angry. What was that? Aren't we supposed to be underground? Couldn't you control your anger! We can't afford to get into any kind of trouble right now!'

'Exactly, Mukti. We are supposed to be underground! Meaning, we shouldn't be roaming around on the streets buying stupid guitar strings!, I shot back at her. Before I could say anything further, Aryaman interrupted our argument, 'Calm down girls! Nothing happened right! There's no need for the both of you to get so hyper!'

I turn and glare at him and so does Mukti. He sees our expressions and raises his hands in surrender, going back to his phone.

I rolled my eyes at him and turned back to Mukti. 'And anyways, it's not my fault that guy was such an imbecile! And you really think we'll get in trouble, or, get noticed because of that idiot. Come on!'

I took my coffee and went to the study. Aryaman had been recovering quite well these past two weeks and even my injuries were almost healed. Other than a slight pain in my head injury, I was fine. As for Aryaman, his cuts had healed but the cast on his arm was still there. His head injury was a lot better but the bandage was there. He had been on bed rest for about 10 days as advised by Dr. Bhatnagar. We'd only landed in Austria today in the morning. And now that we were here, it was time to put our plan in action.

Back in Dubai, Abhimanyu had managed to convince everybody that I was actually dead. The doctor who made the postmortem report had had a very happy reunion with his family. My men would be keeping their eyes on him and his family. At least for as long as I don't punish those responsible for my accident, so that he doesn't open his mouth.

The door to the study opened and Mukti came in. She looked frustrated. I crossed my arms looking at her, as a sign for her to say what she came here for. Her tense shoulders dropped as she sighed, 'Look Nandini, I didn't mean to shout at you. But I'm just worried. We can't expose ourselves to any kind of potential threats. Especially not at this time and you know this very well. And maybe you think that I'm over reacting but I can't help it. I can't afford to lose you!'

Her eyes had turned misty and my heart swelled with all the love that I had for her. From ever since I remember, she had been with me. My only family, really. But, you see, I'm not the same Nandini Murthy anymore who could easily express her emotions. Now, I'm NM, and NM doesn't show emotions as easily as Nandini did. So, I did the one thing that NM could do. I gave her a small smile of acknowledgement.

But Mukti rolled her eyes, dabbing at them with her finger and said, 'Oh come on!' She came towards me and hugged me tight. I awkwardly patted her back. Like I said, I don't know how to express emotions anymore.

Mukti finally left me after a good one minute and gave me a big grin. I chuckled at her and my eyes went towards the door where Aryaman stood leaning on the frame and looking at us with an all knowing look on his face. I narrowed my eyes at him, 'Mr. Aryaman Khurrana! May I ask what on Earth are you doing here, standing all on your own and not sitting your ass down on that couch, or better yet, on your bed, as you were supposed to?' Seriously what does he even think of himself.

Mukti turned towards the door just in time to look at Aryaman roll his eyes at us. She raised her brows looking at him. He gave a sickly sweet smile and said, 'Well, you both were patching up. How could I miss the 'Bharat Milap'?!' I gave him a blank look while Mukti looked at him sternly. 'Really, now,' she said. He gave an exasperated sigh moving away from the door and stepped inside the study. 'Oh, come on! I'm bored! And I'm tired of just sitting in one place. It's a punishment for me, like I'm 7 all over again! I want to go out! You two went out while I was sleeping and didn't even bother telling me. How is that fair! I want to go out as well and I wanna go now!', he said stubbornly.

Mukti turned towards me and we exchanged a look. She looked amused while I maintained my straight face. She turned back to look at him and said, 'Wow! That was quite the rant! Let me just think how should I decline your wish, okay?' I couldn't help but smile at that. Aryaman looked at the both of us wide eyed. 'You both are making fun of ME?!'

I rolled my eyes at his drama at the same time as Mukti said, 'God!! Aryaman!! You are such a baby at times!' He simply shrugged his shoulders and looked at me. O...Kay. What now!

He took a deep breath and said, 'Nandini. I saved your life! And this is what I get!' He even looked at me as if I had betrayed him in some way! This guy and his theatrics I tell you! I simply looked at him and said, 'Yes Aryaman. You saved my life and that's exactly why you get this treatment. Also, this emotional blackmail doesn't work on me.'

At this, he turned to look at Mukti. She shrugged her shoulders and said, 'Me neither.'

Aryaman came up to my table and said, 'Hey, listen! Let me go out just this once and I promise I won't trouble you again. At least for a few days. Mukti, I won't even talk to anyone so you don't need to worry about our cover blowing up!'

He looked at us expectantly and we shared a look. I was kind of enjoying troubling him. I picked up my coffee from the table and took a sip. Great! It's turned cold. I put it back on the table and sat at my place. When Aryaman didn't get a reply from us, he took that as a sign to continue trying to convince us.

'Guys! Say yes, come on! What are you thinking!', he said being restless. I finally decided it was enough torture for him for a day.

'OK, fine! We'll go!'

His eyes lit up.

'But on one condition! You are going to your room eight now and you will lie down on that bed for 2 hours at the minimum. No getting up, no moving around. If you do that, I might consider your request of going out.'

He looked at me with an irritated expression and said, 'This isn't fair!'

'I don't care', I retorted.

'Fine! See you in 2 hours!', he huffed and left, while me and Mukti were chuckling at his reactions. Anyways, now that THAT is sorted, time to get some actual work done.

I turned to Mukti, 'Is there any update from Abhimanyu?'

We knew it was the Joseph's who did that attack but I wanted the exact information about who exactly did it because the way it was planned and executed, they surely had some guts and it surely was one of their higher ups. Once I am done with that person, it's Joseph I'll be going for. Even though I do have quite the list of enemies, the Joseph family tops that list.

'No, not yet', she took the seat across from me. 'But you are the one he'll get in touch with as soon as he gets something concrete. You know how he is. Doesn't like giving half information.' She smiled as she talked about him. Wow, these two sure belonged with each other. They are not your typical lovey dovey couple, yet their feelings are pretty visible to everyone around them. Right from their first meeting when he saved her life. Yeah, talk about movie-like. And that was the day Abhimanyu's life turned around completely.

While saving Mukti, he exposed himself to our rivals, who assumed he was a part of us and tried to kill him. Now, I couldn't let them kill the person who saved the life of my best friend, could I? Ultimately, he ended up actually becoming a part of us. And even though he denies, I know the reason, somewhere, was Mukti.

Mukti was still smiling, probably still thinking about him. I cleared my throat to bring her attention back to me. She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at me.

'What?'

'Nothing. Just that if he tells you anything, you make sure to tell me. Okay?' She nodded her head and left saying she'll be in her room.

______________________________________________________________

Exactly 2 hours later, Aryaman was standing at the door of my room all dressed and ready to go. It was as if he was just sitting in his room counting minutes until he could go out. Which, knowing him, was probably what he was doing. I told him to go get Mukti and wait for me in the hall.

When I stepped out of my room after about 15 minutes, Mukti was sitting on the couch scrolling through her phone and Aryaman was impatiently waiting for us by the main door of this two storey penthouse that we were currently living in. He looked exactly like a kid who had been promised a trip to the toy store if he behaved. For a moment I wondered what would it be like if the kid was denied his trip.

As tempting as that sounds, I'm not even that cruel. I reached the hall and asked, 'So, where are we headed?'

Mukti looked up at my voice and then turned to Aryaman implying it would be his choice. He came forward rubbing both of his hands and explained, 'Well, since the two of you so thoughtfully gave me well over two hours time to rest, I also used that time to do some research and turns out there's this newly opened restaurant not very far from here which serves amazing Indian cuisine and it's been long since I've had Indian, so that's exactly where we're headed. And after that we're gonna go for a stroll since I really want to check out the night scene over here. So, let's go!' And he walked straight out of the door.

I can already feel this is going to be a long night!