Ashaangi One Shots by Azzz

LOCK(ED) DOWN -BONUS-

Sivaangi lay on her side, her head resting on one hand and another hand caressing the features of her sister's 4 months old baby. The aunt and nephew were having gibberish conversations of their own while her mother and sister were busy in the kitchen.

Baby Abhinav was cheerfully shaking his hands and legs while his aunt entertained him. She tickles him in between, he laughs flaunting his cute dimple which reminds her another cute dimple of a grown baby. This has been kind of a routine ever since he left. 

Even though she convinced him to stay a little longer on that day and he agreed, he got an emergency call from his mother and he had to rush back to Coimbatore as soon as her sister and parents arrived. He greeted her family and quickly left after a small talk.

It's been more than 3 months and she's been missing him terribly. Every nook and corner of the house is filled with his memories. She could picturise him everywhere doing the things he's been doing there. Having baby Abhinay by her side is the only way to cope with all the excessive missing.

They haven't contacted each other after that. He didn't even send a message to ensure he had reached home. A day after he left she casually asked her mom "enna, un marumagan ooruku poitanama? Athai ta keatiya?" 

Her mom eyed her and chided "unaku ipothan keakanum nu thonutha? Nee ellam enna jenmam? Avan rendu vaaram unna evlo poruppa paathukitan.. ooruku safe ah poitana oru formality kuda keka maata? Yean oru varusham kalichu vandhu kealen" 

If only her mom knew what she was going through internally. "Seri romba pannadha.. adhan ipo kekurenla? Sollu"

"Poitan poitan.. unkuda avlo naal enna paadu pattaano paavam" her mom sighed and carried on with her cooking.

Sivaangi made a face to her mom and thought avan paadu pattan, nee paatha?! and left the kitchen.

She wasn't ready to enclose the new dynamics of their relationship to anyone yet. She had built an image throughout the years and she couldn't let it break so soon. Especially to her own family. Hating and mocking Ashwin has always given their group a liberty and it made them appear to be the 'cool' in front of the elders who insulted them for not being as great as Ashwin. 

Revealing her feelings to Ashwin is one thing, but revealing that she has turned even slightly soft to him to the other family members is going to be another whole different issue. 

Firstly, they would mock her and will try to prove their point that Ashwin indeed is the greatest of all. Her problem is not accepting that, of course, but to surrender to those who ruined their childhood by comparing and still doing that. No way. 

Secondly, she would be subjected to unwanted teases. They would definitely use his name to pull her leg, because according to them if a girl is sweet to a boy then she has feelings for him. Especially when the boy is her morapaiyyan. It's quite common in the family but she isn't gonna let them do it with her eventhough she has already developed all kinds of feelings for him. 

Above all, she cannot imagine what would be the varieties of reactions from each of their other cousins if they got to know Ashwin and Sivaangi don't hate each other anymore. Yes, she agreed to tell Pugazh, she asked him to stay longer, but she had to come up with too many random excuses to escape speculations.

In other words, her Ego restricted her to open and show even the slightest of change of feelings she had for him to anybody else than him.

On another side of the state, Ashwin was casually working from home with her memories shoved at the back of his mind. There wasn't a moment he stopped thinking about her even though he wasn't sure if she would be thinking about him even on a rather smaller range.