Royally yours

34. Strawberries and salt?

Daksh

I returned home around 9 p.m. and had my dinner. Maitri said Chaitra had her dinner and is in her room along with her cousins. I saw her and her cousins sneaking out to the terrace. It was Hithen dragging her and Akash and Dev following them.

I, Rohan, and Akash had a conversation with our eyes and followed them out of curiosity.

"Now, say why did you drag me here?" Chaitra asked after Hithen left her hand finally.

"To have your ice cream." He replied and took out a bag lying behind a chair. 

"Idiot. Couldn't you say that before? Now what will we do with this?" Akash asked forwarding a bag in his hands. 

"How would I know that you were going to bring one?" He shrugged. Chaitra smiled at them.

"It's not the first time brothers. Let's complete it." She shrugged and four of them took seats on the chairs.

"Dev bhai why didn't you bring a tub?" Hithen asked to which Dev shrugged.

"He took me to the parlor after lunch," Chaitra replied and took out the ice creams and spoons.

"Why didn't you take me?" Hithen whined to which Dev laughed before answering.

"I thought of buying it for you all but then I remembered how Ishika used to identify the food from a distance during her pregnancy and dropped the idea thinking about Bindu. And you had a meeting at that time if you remember?" He questioned to which Hithen nodded understandingly.

"Let's start our race?" Chaitra raised her eyebrow suggestively and traced a line on both tubs dividing the ice cream into two equal parts.

"1... 2... 3... start" Hithen announced and all of them started having their ice creams. Dev and Chaitra are sharing a tub while Akash and Hithen are sharing the other.

Chaitra was having her ice cream but Dev pulled it away when she completed a few scoops. She looked at him pouting.

"You will catch a cold." He announced and fed her one more spoon before completing the tub himself. 

"I won! I won!" Hithen started jumping up and down.

"Yes, you did. Now dispose off these tubs. If Bindu finds out about these she will chew us alive." Akash said pacing both the tubs in his hands. He nodded and took them away. 

"Now I know why she never had any relations and was hesitant about marrying you," Rohan said and I raised a brow at him waiting for him to continue.

"Look at the way her brothers treat her. Who needs an outsider's love when she is the princess of her brothers? And she was not ready to leave them to stay with a stranger. But now as she agreed to be with you, you should never let her feel left out or unloved. She is habituated to being the center of attraction for all of them and their first priority. You should fill all their voids. Never let her cry or you will find me against you along with her brothers. She is too precious to be treated anything less than a princess, she is so naive and pure soul." Rohan said and warned me at last. I agree with him. She is very special to all of her family and they are ready to hand over their prized possession to me trusting me the least I can do is to never let her face any difficulty.

"I will never let that day come Rohan. She is my life and you will find me standing between her and every problem coming her way not being her problem." I replied and he gave me a nod smiling. We went back leaving the siblings to spend their time.

The next two days passed in a blur and today she is leaving for Udaipur with her cousins. She is very excited to meet her bhabi and nephew. I went to her room to talk for a while before she left. I knocked on the door and she opened the door.

"Daksh? Come in!" She was surprised to see me and moved away to let me in.

"Are you done packing?" I asked her taking a seat on the couch and she sat beside me.

"Hmm. I am very excited to meet my munchkin. I haven't met bhabi for 3 months! Can you believe it?" She asked sighing. I smiled at her words.

"I wish you could meet them too!" She exclaimed and I nodded at her.

"I have a meeting planned in Udaipur. If the date finalizes before a week I will definitely come and meet them." I replied and her eyes lit up listening to this.

"Nijamga?" She squealed and I gave her a confused look not understanding what she asked.

"Really?" she asked again understanding my confusion. I nodded positively and kissed her forehead.

"Call me once you reach," I said and she nodded getting up. She gave me a hug and kissed my cheek before walking out to her family.

She took blessings from elders and hugged youngsters. She stood in front of me.

"Bhabi, isn't there any hug for bhai?" Maitri teased her and she blushed looking down. She took two slow steps and wrapped her hands around my torso slowly. I wrapped my hands around her shoulders pulling her closer. 

"Bye!" She whispered.

"Bye and take care!" I whispered back and kissed her hair before letting her go.

She and her cousins left for Udaipur while her parents left for Hyderabad saying her father had a few important matters to deal with.

I went to my office and indulged myself in work. My assistant confirmed my meeting with Rudraprathap Rajvanshi on Wednesday which is three days from now. 

Maybe we are going to meet again in Udaipur jaan! 

I completed my work and returned home in the evening. The scene I saw made me shocked. Nithi Di was glaring at Rahul who was looking like a deer caught in light. Abhishek, Rakshit, Ronak, Maitri, Aakansha, and Akshaya are controlling their laughs. Naksh is standing beside me equally shocked.

"What did he do now?" Naksh whispered to me and I shrugged my shoulders.

"Why did I get an unloving husband and careless brothers?" Di whined with a wobbling lower lip.

"What did we do now?" Abhi, Ronak, and Rakshit asked at once.

"What happened Di?" I asked walking towards her. Her glare made me realize I had made a mistake by letting my presence known.

"Do you know Chiatras' brothers bought her ice cream?" She questioned and we all know that we are gone now.

"Baby it was her brothers, not her husband. Why are you angry at me?" Rohan asked trying to throw all of us under the bus and escaping himself.

"Di, it's just an ice cream!" Rakshit shrugged and she threw a pillow at him.

"Ice cream can never be just. It's ICE CREAM" She yelled stressing the word.

"You people don't love me. I know!" She started crying. Rohan made her sit and sat beside her. I sat in front of her on my knees and Ronak sat on the other side.

"Di we all love you and you know that. We were just concerned about your health." I said taking her hands in mine and kissing her palms.

"Ha, baby. See, even Akash didn't get ice cream for Bindu. It was not good for your health and you both already had too much junk food yesterday. I will take you to have it tomorrow afternoon. Now stop crying." Rohan said kissing her forehead and she nodded wiping her tears.

"I want strawberries now!" She declared and Rohan nodded getting up. He came back with strawberries. She ate one and then went back to the kitchen and came back with chocolate syrup. She had 2 strawberries dipping them in chocolate and scrunched her nose again. This time she bought salt with her. She cut the strawberries and sprinkled salt on them and started having it. 

We all looked at each other and then her shocked by her weird taste.

"What?" She yelled and we all ran in different directions giving excuses.

But strawberries and salt? How does it taste?