After taking a bath, Karan joined everyone in the receiving room. He was becoming restless and he just wanted to meet Neha. Everyone observed this but pretended to be ignorant. Avantika pretended to be busy and escaped to make necessary arrangements for Breakfast.
"By the way when are Varun and Varsha coming back? It's been what.... ten days.", asked Sheetal, enjoying her tea with others.
"Yes, they told they will be coming back by today evening.",said Smita.
"Is it about the deal which involved the Government?",asked Alok looking interested. The Singhs were involved in the Real Estate and Development areas whereas they - the Singhanias were involved in the Construction Field. Hence not only their families, even their business were closely interwined, not that they have any problem with it. When Adarsh came back from army to take over his legacy, Alok was the one who helped him, guided him. They lived upto the saying that family is marked not only by the blood we share but also by what we do for each other and how we support each other through thick and thin.
"Yes that one. Varsha, under the guidance of Varun managed to snag the deal.", said Adarsh proudly, like a peacock showing its feathers, making everyone burst out in laughter.
On the other hand,Karan was gradually turning into a lost puppy. His body was with them but his mind was not and Avantika guessed where it was. Seeing him like this, Avantika finally could not control herself. She went to him and poked him while he was pretending to be invested in their conversation but was failing poorly.
"You can go and wake Neha. Either way in future after your wedding it will become your job. So you should have some experience right. Go, see you half an hour later.", saying this Avantika pulled him towards the stairs. "Thank me later.", whispering this she pushed him towards their room.
"Thank you.", saying this Karan hugged her and rushed upstairs leaving everyone to themselves. After Karan left there was pin drop silence but in a few seconds, laughter and chatter again filled the room.
...............
Karan entered the room. His eyes focussed on the girl on the right, completely huddled in her blanket. The sunrays, filtered through the curtains, fell on her face making her look like an angel. Her black hair was in an adorable messy bun while she was hugging a teddy tightly in her arms. On moving closer, he noticed it was the teddy which he won for her when the five of them went to Neha's college fest. This made a sweet doting smile appear on his face, completely different from his usual jovial self. The room was divided into two sections, the right half belonged to Neha whereas the left belonged to Avantika. The room was white in colour and their sides could be differentiated basing on the colour of the pattern on the walls. Avantika had patterns in navy blue similar to her, calm and mature whereas Neha's side had patterns in magenta marking her bold and cheerful self.
Karan went and sat next to Neha. He removed the strands of hair covering her face. Neha woke up feeling someone passing fingers through her hair. She looked around with half opened eyes and on realising that it was not an unknown presence, she used his lap as her pillow and went back to her dreamland and at the same time kept his hand on her hair. Karan was astonished as well as happy, his face adorned with a bright smile, his thoughts being-'My Neha remembers me even when in sleep.'
Neha realised that the hand was still in her hair and not moving. She turned around and burrowed her face into Karan's abdomen, and nudged his hand in her hair. He started massaging her scalp, making a smile appear on her sleeping face.
.................
While downstairs Avantika went around passing cotton to everyone, leaving everyone confused. She immediately put cotton in her ears and even asked others to do so. Soon everyone heard a loud shout from upstairs. They looked at Avantika, full of confusion.
"She must have realised that she was not dreaming, Karan Bhai(Bro) was there with her for real and not just in her dream.",she said making everyone chuckle in understanding.
................
Neha, while in a drowsy state, realised someone was patting her head for real and it was not her imagination. She opened her eyes and saw Karan. She realised that she was lying in Karan's lap with his hand stroking her hair. She was still muddleheaded and thought of pinching herself to check whether she was dreaming. She felt nothing on pinching and hence she was getting ready to get back into sleep.
Karan was observing Neha all along. He knew Neha was a deep sleeper but he didn't know whether to laugh or cry when Neha pinched him to check whether she was dreaming.
"Neha....wake up...it's time for breakfast. Come on everyone is waiting for us downstairs.", Karan tried to wake her up softly. Initially, Neha swatted his hand away but under his persistant poking she sat up on the bed and glared at him. After a few seconds, she let out a loud scream and jumped out of the bed, leaving a dumbfounded Karan behind.
Neha ran downstairs anxiously. The first person to come into her view was Avantika.
"Avi, I think I have gone mad. I just saw Karan in our room. Do you think that just because I am missing him so much, I have started hallucinating?",making it difficult for Avantika to control herself from bursting out laughter on her poor sister's face. Same was the situation with everyone.
Karan, after overcoming his initial shock, followed her downstairs. He heard her thinking about hallucination and chuckled, making her turn around. Neha poked his cheek.
"He is real.", turning around, she said to Avantika. Neha's brain started working after such a shock. She finally realised Karan came back in real. She turned around and hugged him tightly.
"You are finally back..", said Neha with a huge smile. She, in her pjs, messy bed hair and cute misty eyes, was still the most beautiful girl in his eyes
"Yup, I have been back for already an hour. But someone was not ready to leave the comfort of her bed.",saying this, Karan smiled and poked her puffed out cheeks. Neha pouted and then realised Kaan must have seen her embarassing condition when she woke up. Thinking about this, her cheeks turned red and she wanted to hide somewhere.
After looking at the adorable interaction of the two, the two mothers in the room could not hold themselves back and awwed while the fathers had smiles on their face. Realising that they were not alone, not just the three of them, Neha wanted the ground to swallow her. Not having anywhere to go, she hid her face in Karan's chest who hugged her back, resulting in another bout of laughter around her. She could even feel Karan's suppressed laughter through his chest. She was also smiling but she was very much in hiding at the same time.