Love knocks again (Arnav Khushi Fan Fiction)- Completed

Chapter 22 (Part 2)

Chapter 22

(Part 2)

Everyone around Arnav was asleep. Long flight from Canada to India puts people to sleep either due to exhaustion or boredom. Arnav had neither. While his body did feel tight at places due to his busy schedule and two long travels in just matter of four days, his mind provided enough excitement for his body to remain energized. Boredom is a far cry when Arnav was too busy contemplating the best way to approach Khushi once he landed in India.

Last three months weren't easy for Arnav, nevertheless engaging. He wouldn't call his decision to try and reform a decision made overnight. His self doubts and self-sympathy, as Aman would say, always deterred him from acting on it. So, it is safe to say while the thought has been seeded long ago, only the motivation was formed overnight.

Arnav didn't have a plan. Facing life one day at a time instead of hiding in his house in itself felt like a step forward. Arnav was not sure what to expect, what to change, only thing he was sure about was that he wanted Khushi's support. She was motivation and destination in equal measure. Her lack of communication dejected him. He understood why she preferred the distance, but that didn't stop him from feeling let down. It was only few days later that Arnav realized that whatever reason forced her to stay on the shadows in his reformation of life stage, it has only done him good.

Hope someday you love yourself enough to let you live again. That is what she has said in her last message to him. The one that he has read hundred times since he received it. If Khushi has been any more involved in his life in these months, he would have only changed him to the way she likes and try to love Arnav that he is in her eyes. He wouldn't have got a chance to go back to the Arnav that he was before his second divorce or explore freely what changes he would like to adopt from who he is now.

Whatever might be Khushi's reason to stay away, Arnav saw the bright side of it. If this isn't the biggest hint that he is a changed person, then nothing could be.

Stretching his legs as comfortable as his seat in the plane allowed, Arnav clutched the pillow close to arms and pulled down his eye mask. Sleep was a far cry. He was only expecting to weave dream in more comfortable position.

It was ill-mannered to go to someone's home straight from airport at 5 AM and even more presumptuous to expect to be greeted warmly. So, Arnav was ready for any kind of welcome he was to receive from Khushi as he stood in front of her door knocking. She can even send him back home and ask him to return on a more appropriate time as far as he only gets to see her once.

Khushi was in her tattered old yoga pants and pale yellow tank top with a scarf of all shades of green thrown around her shoulder carelessly. Her eyes were puffed up due to sleep, or lack of it. Arnav could see eye gunk on one side of the eye and remaining sleep making the other side slit narrowly.

"Arnav?" she asked in a mix of wonder and shock.

"I am sorry." He said. No one knows if it was for waking her up so early in the morning or for everything else. Either way Khushi accepted it with a nod.

Khushi eyed his luggage and boarding pass still tucked in the front pocket of the coat hanging from his hand. Her sleeping mind woke up with a hop and everything took its place in her mind like a puzzle.

"What are you doing here?" She hoped that one question summed up everything she wants to ask.

"I know I shouldn't have come this early." Arnav said as he looked around to see that the sun has still not risen. At least that saved them from having any audience. "I wanted to see you Khushi. Also, I wanted to thank you for helping me overcome whatever that was holding me behind."