5 years later.

'On a scale of 1-10 : You're a 9 and I'm the 1 you need, Mrs Malhotra'

I smiled goofily at the cheesy pink note my husband had stuck up on the fridge. Love had certainly changed us both. He always found ways to make my days brighter and always let me know how much he loved me and I responded with equal fervour.

We still fight sometimes, but our relationship has become unbreakable - infinite amount of trust and devotion keeps us bound together. We just know we can't live without each other.

After our beautiful reunion in Mangalore, I had returned with Manik to Mumbai, and started attending SPACE again. It was just then, that Nyonika, having found an uber-rich guy who had come to India on a trip from Mauritius who showed interest in her, ditched her job and life in Mumbai and moved to Mauritius with him, where life promised her more money and a better life-style. It definitely caused Manik some amount of pain then, but it was all good riddance at the end. Chachi and Chacha were more than happy to welcome me back and so were all others. Fab 5 had grown a lot in popularity since then and achieved quite a name for themselves in the world of music. Navya ended up being a much-loved Radio Jockey, and I became a classical music teacher at SPACE. I didn't gain much popularity like the others, but I was more than content with my job and the respect I got from the students, despite being a relatively young teacher there. And my wedding to Manik last year was the icing on the cake. Life felt complete.

I opened the freezer and as expected, it had been restocked with all the flavours of ice-cream I loved. Manik took unconditional care of me. I had finished the last tub of ice-cream yesterday, and today he had it filled up again because he knew how much I craved it on my PMS days. I smiled even bigger at the sight and shut the door of the freezer.

My phone suddenly pinged and I picked it up to check. It was a message from Alya on Whatsapp.
'Here are some of the pics from our wedding. Drop by on Saturday to see the whole album, you two love-birds :P'

I scrolled down to see the pictures and my instantly felt like hiding my face somewhere in embarassment. Love-birds. Each and every person there began calling us this word after witnessing our extremely romantic conduct live . It was Dhruv and Alya's wedding last month. Yes, despite them being the oldest couple, their on and off tiffs made them the last one to get hitched in our group. But, the pictures made it seem like it was me and Manik getting married all over again. Our entry into the wedding was captured and it was him carrying me in his arms. Whether in the group pictures or just the candid clicks, me and Manik couldn't get our eyes off each other. His hand was always wrapped around my waist like it was stuck by glue there and even through the pictures, I felt my stomach clenching in excitement at the intensity with which he stared at me. I recalled how he had managed to delay our entry in the wedding with his ever-increasing romantic antics and giggled sheepishly.

Flashback :

''Nandu, how much more time will you take? Buddy will be on the way to his honeymoon by the time you finish.'' Manik shouted from the living room.
I rolled my eyes at his silly sense of humour.

''That wasn't very funny, Mr Malhotra. You should know by now that girls do take time to get ready. How else do you think we manage to look so gorgeous?'' I joked as I lifted my intricately designed emerald green lehenga and watched my feet in my high heels, carefully moving towards the living room, where he was slouching and playing with his PS4 on the couch as he waited for me.

''Nandu, you don't need to 'get ready' to look beautiful. You always look...''
I entered just then and as soon as his eyes settled on me, he stopped, his mouth dropping open in awe.
''Gorgeous..'' The word escaped his mouth slowly and I turned crimson as if on cue. He dropped the console and walked upto me, grasping me slowly by my bare waist under the short embroidered choli. My breath hitched as his long fingers slid around my waist and I admired him closely, feeling equally captured by the sight infront of me. He was dressed in a navy blue sherwani, his sleeves rolled up and hair gelled to perfection. His eyes blazed up with passion and love and I felt like the most beautiful person in the world under that gaze. My insecurites had been long ago been vanquished because of him anyways.

''Manik, you yourself were saying we're getting late. I think we should go..'' I said, trying to be practical, reminding him and myself too.

''Sshh.. Let me look at you to my heart's content.'' He said placing a finger on my lips and tucking my curled strand of hair behind my ear. ''Manik, last time you said this, we had ended up being disqualified from Musicana and in hospital beds.. I don't want anything bad happening today..'' I laughed, suddenly recollecting our Pre-Musicana night from 5 years ago where Manik had called me to the lone classroom for asking me out, saying this same sentence before his performance, but we had wound up in deep mess. Manik though didn't find it as funny and left me, turning around and saying in a low, hurt tone ''Haan..Sab kuch toh meri wajah se huwa tha uss raat..Because I'm the one who always causes all problems.. Let's go now. ''

''Arey, I didn't mean it that way.. Main toh mazaak kar rahi thi baba. And all that happened was out of your control that night..'' I realised my jest had misfired and ended up hurting him, and held his hand to stop him from moving away.

Manik didn't budge, seeming to be still upset, so I myself strode ahead and stood infront of him, continuing my clarification in a shaking tone, tears threatening to fill up my eyes as I spoke ''Infact.. you know how much I like it when with say such stuff so much love. It makes me feel..''

''Feel..?'' He asked, back to being my naughty and romantic Manik as fast as he had gotten upset, and he leaned closer to me, not having to bend too much this time because of my high heels that made up for the actual height difference between us. I wiped my eyes and made a scared-puppy face.

''F-feel..'' I stammered, my brain not functioning normally now.

''Yes.. Bolo..'' He said, inching even closer. I gulped, and my heart-beat increased at his husky tone. Next, he bought forward his hands to grab me again but the sudden movement unfortunately made me slip on my towering heels this time, my ankle twisting as I went down. AAAHHHH!!!!

Thus, the next hour went by in him tending to my foot and me convincing my super concerned husband that I could walk around and make it to the wedding. At the end, he agreed but only on the condition that I would put no strain on my foot. He carried me in to the wedding hall at the last moment in bridal style and even after I persuaded him to put me down, held me by my waist to support me the entire day. Not that either of us actually minded. We were happy to be stuck to each other.

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''Nandini is mine.'' Manik's growling voice reached the kitchen, breaking my reverie. I sighed and tossing my phone back on the counter, walked out to the living room where he was arguing.

''No. Mine. I saw you kissed her. Why?'' was the reply he got from the person in front.

''I am allowed to kiss her because she is mine, not yours. You have to stay away from her, or else..'' Manik threatened.

Abeer began crying and I ran upto him and picked him up in my arms to comfort him, shooting Manik deadly looks.

''Look, Manik uncle says you're only his.'' He complained, bawling harder now.

''No, Abeer baby.. I'm all yours. Don't believe Manik uncle. He's a bad boy.'' I said, placing kisses on his chubby cheeks and trying to calm him down.

''Pwomise?'' He asked adorably, looking at me with his innocent, big eyes. I nodded and he smiled toothily, placing a big wet kiss on the tip of my nose out of happiness and I cuddled him in response.
Manik glared at us all the while, like I was cheating on him with another guy, which was completely ridiculous to even think of , in the first place.

It was then the door-bell rang. I ran up to the door and opened it. Navya had come to take back her child. Her and Cabir's cute 3 old Abeer. Yes, they had gotten married early, much to everyone's surprise. She had asked me to look after Abeer for some time because she and Cabir had some work and couldn't take him along and I had happily agreed because I loved the child dearly.

I handed him back to Navya and bid them goodbye before returning to my own big and grumpy baby, Manik. He hadn't moved from the couch, sitting and sulking on the same spot.

''Manik, he's just a child. Why do you behave like that with him?'' I asked exasperatedly, placing my hands on my hips to emphasise how irritated I was.

''Why does he always behave like you belong to him? And I don't like the way you keep kissing and cuddling him. Only I have the right to it.'' Manik complained, pouting cutely.

Though he annoyed me, I loved this possessive side of him way too much and couldn't help melting at his adorable expressions. He hated sharing me with anyone, even if it was just a 3 year old toddler.

''Toh Manik, humara bacha hoga, tabhi tum aisa karogey?'' I mocked him playfully, sitting close and peering at his grumpy, swollen face, resisting the urge to pinch and peck his cheeks.

''Umm..Nahi. I'll love my child the most in this world and I don't mind sharing you with my kid. Infact I already love the little angel who's waiting to come down in your tummy from heaven'' Manik declared proudly in response, having forgotten his moping. He carressed my tummy lovingly as if I was already pregnant with his child and I suppressed a chuckle.

''Kya?! You don't love me the most then?'' I made a mock-upset face, enjoying irritating him.

''Uhh.. No, I love you both equally'' he replied, scratching the back of his head as he tried getting out of the spot I had put him in.

''I don't believe you.'' I responded, knowing well what I was inviting.

''Let me prove how much I love you then, Mrs Malhotra'' he said, now in a passionate and dominant tone, pinning me down and pressing his lips passionately on to mine. But in a moment, we both had to stop kissing because I couldn't stop giggling, suddenly realising how this is the way each of our teasing sessions end and in response, he couldn't stop smiling.

That's just how we were. Crazy and Unique. Mad about each other. Happy with each other's flaws. Raw. Extremely Passionate. But most importantly deep in love. Love that was never-ending and would outlast our mere existence.
Manik and Nandini will be forever.

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