Priyanka yawned, rubbing her eyes groggily, her slippers making no sound as she made her way into the dark deserted kitchen. Her phone chimed softly, indicating that it was past two in the morning.

She sighed, shoving her phone into her short's pocket. She was having one of her sleepless nights again, where no matter how many positions she'd try, sleep just refused to come to her.

"might as well feed you" she muttered to her tummy, her eyes scanning the contents of the refrigerator. She finally settled for a carton of Badam milk.

She took a long sip and turned around; " gwaaak!" milk spurted out, through her nose, her throat closed, and she bent down in bouts of cough.

"Wow" Anika murmured, perched on a stool in the dark, fighting back a smile "didn't see that coming"

"What are you doing here?" Prinku gasped whipping her face, her nose was still burning from the milk "I almost peed my pants!"

Anika chuckled "that would've been funny"

"Which part? Milk coming out of my nose, or the part where I could've passed out from a heart attack?"

Anika waved her hand, dismissively "you are fine. And keep your voice down"

"Easy for you to say, you don't have sticky milk to wash from your face" Prinku muttered, splashing water softly on her face "What are you doing here, sitting like that at this time of the hour?"

"Waiting for you"

Prinku paused washing her face and glanced over her shoulder "have you been eating excess sugar again?"

Anika rolled her eyes, and patted the empty stool on her side "come on over"

Prinku dried her face, plopped herself onto the stool "care to answer my question without any dumbness?"

"Couldn't sleep" she said, her mouth full.

"Is that chocolate brownie?" Prinku crinkled her nose peering into Anika's bowl.

Anika nodded "it gets you sleepy, you should try some"

"No thanks"

"Right. Because you obviously are very sleepy, but it's just a everyday thing that you keep raiding the kitchen in the middle of the night"

Prinku stared at her "are you always this sarcastic?"

Anika shook her head "This is exclusively for you, you seem to trigger something inside me"

"Lucky me"

They both fell silent, enjoying their snacks.

"So....." Priyanka trailed, setting down her carton "are you going to tell me what's going on between you and Shivaay bhai?"

Anika almost chocked on her brownie, but she hid it well "nothing"

Priyanka nodded "of course"

Anika threw her a small smile, sending a silent thank you to her acting skills.

"But" Prinku paused, taking a slow sip of her milk.

"But what?" Anika asked hastily

"Nothing" Priyanka smiled innocently "am just not sure if I imagined the whole part where you caught bhai's hand and asked if anything was wrong, and him just brushing you off. Because as far as I can remember you two couldn't stand in the same room for a second"

Anika pursed her lips. Priyanka sipped her milk, feeling Anika's eyes boring into her.

"You're good" Anika sighed finally.

Prinku grinned "am a journalist. It's my job to notice things others don't"

"Ya well, there is not much story to it" Anika chewed hard "he is just being a difficult ass and not telling me something I need to know"

"Does it have to do something about your trip?"

"No the trip didn't mean anything"

"Really?" Prinku raised her brows, "well by the looks of it, you were a total dead person for two whole months, working and studying during the daytime and crying in your sleep in the night"

This time Anika couldn't hide, as she chocked, Prinku slid her glass towards Anika and she gulped it down in one go "ok, how much do you actually know?" she demanded, her heart thudding rapidly in her chest.

Shivaay was going to kill her if he found out that his little sister knew about their little expedition where they almost got killed by goons.

"Quiet!" Priyanka hissed.

"Tell me" Anika hissed back.

"Nothing! I just know that something happened between you two on that trip, and whatever it was had been giving you nightmares ever since. I heard you sobbing one night when I was out for some water. That's all I know"

Anika narrowed her eyes. "Am telling the truth!" Prinku pressed, her eyes round.

Anika sighed pinching the bridge of her nose "was I really that loud? The crying I mean".

"Well..."

Anika threw her a desperate look.

"I could only hear it because I stood outside your door and pressed my ears to your door. Otherwise it was not that loud" Prinku told her what she wanted to hear.

Anika picked at her brownie "if you saw all of it, why didn't you say anything to me"

Priyanka stared at her, falling silent "I... felt what you needed then was space. The last thing you needed was someone coming in and asking you why you were crying in the middle of the night. And I know there are things in this world that won't let you sleep"

"It's complicated" Anika whispered.

"When is it not?"

"I just...." Anika started, then shook her head "it's complicated"

"Don't worry, you'll figure it out"

Anika snorted "I don't think that's gonna happen anywhere sooner"

"Do you some curfew or something?" Anika blinked at her, she shrugged "then what's wrong in taking time to figure it out?"

"You're a lot smarter than you look" Anika said after a moment.

Prinku's lips pulled up "don't judge a book by its cover I guess"

"I do have a lot of time, maybe meanwhile you can tell me your story"

"I don't have a story" Priyanka replied quickly. Too quickly.

Anika almost laughed out loud "honey, any girl who is sitting on a kitchen stool in the middle of the night drowning in milk always has a story"

"Well this girl doesn't"

"Then maybe you could tell me who that guy is who is giving you sleepless nights"

Priyanka snapped her head up "who told you that?"

Anika's lips pulled up in a smirk "you just did"

Prinku's cheeks toned red and threw the rest of her milk down her throat "it's late. I got to go"

"Why? You aren't going to sleep anyway"

Priyanka stopped looking at her. Anika's grin simmered and she reached out placing her hand on Prinku's "hey....you don't have to tell me. I know it's complicated sometimes"

"No. it's not complicated" Prinku whispered, she looked at Anika, a familiar feeling of agony starting to build in her chest, every time she had to think about him " it's not complicated at all. I met a guy. I liked him. I thought what we had was something real. It felt real. But he didn't." she took a deep ragged breath, tears building behind her eyes "but he didn't. And he left."

"Left?"

"Yes. Left as in disappeared. Completely and utterly from my life." Her throat closed "I can't blame him am worth nothing to stay back for."

"Prinku" Anika said sternly standing up "that is not true"

A single tear slipped onto her cheek "really? I can't seem to come up with anything that will say otherwise"

"I...." Anika stopped, staring, her heart melted at the sight of her. "if ever I see that guy, am gonna break his nose" she blurted out softly and ferociously, grabbing a rolling pin that was beside her.

Prinku blinked and pursed her lips and suddenly burst out laughing.

Anika looked at her bewildered "what? Why are you laugh-"She clapped her hand on Prinku's mouth " you are going to wake-"

"BAHAHAHA!!" Prinku slapped her hand away, crouching down and holding her stomach.

"You are soooo going to get us fucked" Anika hissed.

"You are going to..haha.. going to .. Break... His nose?" Prinku gasped in hysterics.

"uhhhh..."

"In your fluffy slippers and a rolling pin?"

"Well I..." Anika looked down at her slippers and her rolling pin, and her lips curved up and soon she was grinning "yeah.. I was really going to" her eyes shined as she watched Prinku struggling to hold her laughter in.

"Ok Ms. am-gonna-wake-everyone-up- with-my-laugh.. do you wanna get some sleep or what?"

"Ya" Priyanka grinned, jumping up.

"Night then. See you tomorrow?"

"Yaaa obviously" Prinku rolled her eyes before bounding up the stairs.

Anika shook her head smiling. She fell into her bed with a content sigh. She remembered Prinku spitting milk from her nose and laughed loudly. She felt lighter, bit happier for reasons she didn't know. She sighed, her eyes drooping. It was the first night, in a long time she slept in solace.

**********************************

A/N: Hola people,
We know you have been waiting for our update. Its taking a lot of time cause we are having continuous duties in our hospital. We are trying to do our best, both here and there.

You people have been waiting for Shivika story but oops! Have to wait some more time for it cause it's high time to get into the actual story. The main plot is yet to come. So be patient guys.... we ll get there soon.

Also thank you for all your love. You guys have been really kind and friendly all along. Just keep loving us.

P.S: please don't skip chapters if it's not Shivika's. Dont forget to vote and comment.