Skin

Part 23- All A Dream

"Okay your clothes are pressed and John is preparing your coffee, hurry up and take a shower so that you can leave for work." Nirmala said the next morning as she was walking here and there tidying up the bedroom as NK who was sitting on the bed just looked at her in confusion.

Because last night when he had come inside the room Nirmala was already laying on her side of the bed and he too had wordlessly laid down on his side of the bed, both of them facing away from each other, both of them knowing that the other was awake, both of them choosing not to say anything because they didn't even know where to begin.

But as NK awoke the next morning, Nirmala was already awake, smiling brightly as she did her routine, acting as if the last year hadn't even happened.

"Why are you doing this?" NK voiced his confusion out loud, making Nirmala pause. And NK no matter how hard he tried couldn't figure out why Nirmala was doing all this for him when he had treated her so badly.

'At least please don't take this right away from me.' Nirmala thought to herself in a broken voice thinking that NK didn't want her to do all this for him because he no longer considered her his wife.

"Bahu come downstairs!" Bua yelled from the living room before they could say anything else.

"Coming Bua ma." Nirmala said as she quickly left the room, without once looking at NK.

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"You can use the bathroom first." Khyati said just as Rishi woke up, while she was standing at the dressing table applying makeup.

"What?" Rishi asked confused in a sleepy voice still half asleep, thinking that he had imagined whatever Khyati had just said.

"I'm going downstairs for breakfast. You use the bathroom and come downstairs too." Khyati said as she exited the room without even letting Rishi say anything else. While Rishi just watched her go in disbelief wondering if all this was a dream.

******
Meghna smiled as she woke up, opening her eyes to look at Kunal who was still sleeping, both of them holding each other close.

"Topper, staring is a bad habit." Kunal said teasingly with a smile, eyes still closed.

"Well so is pretending to be asleep, Wrong Number." Meghna replied just as teasingly as Kunal opened his eyes.

"Ah this feels like a dream, doesn't it?" Kunal asked with a happy sigh as he looked around his childhood bedroom while holding Meghna just a little bit tighter, afraid that all of this would go away.

'Because it is a dream Kunal, a fake dream that will shatter as soon as Bua dadi leaves, and we will be thrown out of this house again.' Meghna thought to herself in a broken voice, not voicing her thoughts because she didn't want to upset Kunal, who was the happiest that Meghna had ever seen him in the last year.

"What happened?" Kunal asked worriedly, instantly noticing the slight shift in her features, causing Meghna to smile softly, mentally shaking her head at herself for thinking that she could ever hide something from her Kunal.

"Nothing. I think we should get up now." Meghna said as she got up from bed and walked towards the bathroom, giggling at Kunal's cute pout as she shut the door behind her.

******
"Karan, get out of the bathroom. I need to shower too, I'm going to be late for work." Naina said as she knocked on the bathroom door for the tenth time that morning.

"Use the bathroom downstairs." Karan said from inside the bathroom.

"But all my things are in this bathroom." Naina explained.

"Well, what am I supposed to do about that then?" Karan asked sarcastically, to which Naina made a face, going back to pacing impatiently.

"Karan, how long will you take?" Naina asked as she raised her hand to knock again, leaning towards the bathroom door, only to stumble into the bathroom as the door abruptly opened, about to slip because the floor was wet, closed her eyes in fear of the fall that never came as two strong arms wrapped around her back to keep her from falling, and when she opened her eyes she realized that she was inches apart from Karan's muscular and very bare chest, instantly moving away and blushing red as she turned around and covered her eyes.

"Well I was going to tell you to use the bathroom now, but since you're already here… carry on." Karan said teasingly, as he exited the bathroom closing the door behind him, and only when Naina heard the door shut did she open her eyes, with an embarrassed but soft smile, because this was the first time in a year that Karan had joked with her.

******
Rishi was looking around for Khyati all around in the house, still in disbelief wanting to make sure that he hadn't just imagined their conversation in the bedroom.

But when he didn't see her at the dining table he looked all over eventually somehow ending up outside the Chauhan mansion in the driveway when he saw something that made him question reality for a moment.

"What are you doing?" Rishi asked shocked as he looked in front of him, so very confused.

******
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A.M.🙃