Wherever You Stray, I Follow (Kunwar Pratap/Ajabde [PrAja])

28//~chhipkali~

When Ajabde returned to their (her for now) room that night after changing into comfortable clothes, ready to retire to bed after the hectic day she had, she was not ready for more drama.

She was infuriated the moment she entered her room and her eyes landed on the piles of 'gifts' on her bed. She saw expensive-looking clothes and jewelry but the paints and mangoes hidden underneath went unnoticed.

"Chalo abhi khade khade humara mukh kya dekh rahi ho. Jayo yaha se, hum kisi se kehke tumhare liye naiye vastra aur abhushan bhijwadenge," Rani Dheerbai had said. These clothes were probably sent by her.

This was the last straw of the day.

"YEH SAARE VASTRA KISNE BHIJWAYE HAIN?" she called out to the maids outside her door. They hurried inside.

"Ji woh pata nahi," they replied.

"Yaha rakhke kaun gaya?" Ajabde asked.

"Kadachit Maharani Dheerbaisa ki dasi aiyi thi, Kunwaranisa,"

She didn't even need them to answer. She already knew it was Rani Dheerbai. She had purposefully insulted her by sending her these.

After all the comments she passed today, this was the final insult. The cherry on top of everything. It was basically like saying: "Since you're practically a beggar, let me donate some clothes and jewelry to you because we all know you can't do any better,"

She hated that woman from her core.

"Yeh sab hume abhi yaha se bahar chaiye. Isme se kuch hume humare kuksh mein nahi chaiye," Ajabde ordered. They all nodded and hurried to move everything out of her room.

Right then, Kunwar Pratap walked in.

Just what she needed right now.

The large smile he had on earlier faded away slowly as he sensed the tense atmosphere and the unhappy Ajabde. He watched one by one, each and every single one of his gifts taken out of the room.

"Ab aapko kya chaiye?!" Ajabde snapped.

"Kuch- Kuch nahi," he replied and walked right out of the room. Ajabde must have really hated his gifts if she was practically throwing them out, he thought. He knew he should have just gone to the market to select himself or even better, called the tailor here so Ajabde could pick everything. It was idiotic of him to leave everything up to Chakrapani and Venidas.

It was clear that Ajabde was in no mood to voluntarily let him back in despite his attempts.

But he could not sleep in the guest room again.

Despite their big screw-up, he only had two friends he could rely on besides Ajabde. And with no visible way out of this problem, he traced his steps back to his friends to ask for advice.

"Ab kya hua?!" they both said at once as soon as they saw him.

"Bhabhisa ko aapke uphar pasand nahi aiye kya?" Venidas asked.