Third person

"Nushrath for goodness sake get your ass over here, its 9:45,its gonna be 10:30 when I reach home after dropping you lady,I am damn tired today" Ahaana wailed at nushrath who still was packing her things into her bag,

'"stop screaming chukki ,I'll wash my face and be back in a minute, then we start home.. Kay?" Nushrath replied walking into the restroom.

Ahaana sighed and looked at the tiny numbers in her watch for the umpteenth time. just then the intercom rang, who would it be calling now? She wondered. shezaad isn't here, maybe its weasel face.

"Ahaana I need you right here now, please" he boomed and the line went blank, making Ahaana huff, she dragged her tired legs to Ilthumish's cabin but he was  nowhere to be found, she walked back to the corridor and turned into shezaad's room and there he was. head popping outta mountains of files, concentrating vividly on the screen.

"what now?" she demanded standing at the door.

"yes Ahaana, permission granted you can come in" he scoffed

Ahaana walked in rolling her eyes "what is it weejz, I wanna go home" she whined.

"stop calling me that lil fella and please please I'm in a desperate need of your help" he pleaded..

"okay what is it"she sighed, just then Nushrath barged into the room with a confused look on her face

"oii who wanted to go home very soon" she demanded looking at Ahaana with her eyebrows raised.

"I did,but your weasel over here wanted me to do something.. what is it again?"

"please please please, check these files again and make any corrections in the draft of the final report please, do them fast meanwhile Ill be done with these over here. Shezaad would be here in an hour with dad.. if I didnt complete it by then.. we are both doomed" he said in a hurry directing me towards the files in the desktop  while poring over the files in his hands..

Ahaana blew out her cheeks exasperated.. "2 days extra holidays for us and 3 buckets of cookie cream Ice cream what say? deal?" she demanded.

"you know what Ahaana you are unbelievable, get it done, I'll get whatever you want" he grinned making making Ahaana to poke her tongue at him.

she was half way done, when Nushrath who was most probably scrolling on insta,complained she was bored..

"weej?" she called out to Itthu making Nushrath  frown at her.

"yes" he answered eyes still on the computer. Ahaana smiled, he was getting used to the nickname he she was calling him..

"why cant you make your would-be work,instead of eating my head" she asked him.

"come on man, you want me to work her more after a tiring day of work, after all she is a human buddy" he shot back hiding an impish smile while Ahaana s mouth hung open in crystal clear defiance..

"then what am I cotton candy?" she retorted glaring daggers at him.

"Ahaana you cant make me work my wife-to-be, come on buddy its hazardous to the poor heart of mine" he replied smiling sheepishly while stealing glances at nush who was red as a ripen tomato.

"eww.. cheesy much" Ahaana scrunched her nose in disgust,faking to throw up."urgghh.. so you can make her best friend work as much as possible ne .. this logic slays..stop drooling already weeju and Nush stop.. just stop.. you and being shy is never gonna work" she spoke infuriated..

"whatever makes you sleep at night kiddo" Nushrath quipped frowning at her while Ahaana went back to work smiling.

Having got nothing to do Nushrath started wandering around shezaad's cabin looking around peeping at his books and the stuffs in his table when a teeny weeny locker caught her attention.

"hey what's in this?" she wondered aloud.. Itthu and Ana was too caught up in their works that they didn't hear her at all.

"huh.. she exclaimed in surprise "hey it isn't locked, I am opening it already" she screamed more like informed

"Nushrath Illiyas where are your manners lady" Ahaana rolled her eyes.

"chuck it bro.. as if you have" she mocked at her and started exploring the drawer.

"whatever, I'm preparing the final report so keep your crappy mouth shut ok" Ahaana informed

shrugging at her Nushrath started exploring the contents of the drawer, she found lots and lots of cards of foot ball players, and a rolled up poster of Ronaldo. "football freak" she muttered while Ilthumish exclaimed "yaayyy.. all done, only your part remains finish it soon kiddo" he laughed earning a glare from Ahaana.

Digging deep, Nushrath came upon some stickers, a broken spiderman watch, an old locked  autograph and stuffs. "I didn't know shezaad sir was a collector these stuffs are really cool" she declared with an air of surprise lacing her tone..

"yes he is, those stuffs he has been collecting since we were small, all those stuffs in that drawer has either a special event or a person behind It, you saw that spiderman watch in it? it was dad's gift for a footbatch match he won, he broke it in a bad fall once we were playing baseball showing off to someone, at last he had  to go home with a bruised arm, knee and a broken watch, but the duffer made sure not to cry infront of her and howled all the way home" Ilthumish chuckled stretching his arms and stifling a yawn.

"childhood love?" Nushrath asked in awe..

"since then till now" Itthu smiled..

Ahaana was laughing, listening to Itthu thinking how loyal and cute this love was. shezaad totally was a cute fellow back then too, showing off for a lil girl, that was damn adorable. her heart was longing to know would her pumpkin shell be waiting for her as shezaad is. but still she could not ignore the pang of hurt she felt knowing that there is another girl on earth who shezad is waiting for. she couldn't decipher the reason for the hurt and annoyance she felt thinking about that girl who didn't even have a face yet. shaking all those disturbing thoughts aside, she focused back on her work, wanting to hit her cosy bed as soon as possible..

Nushrath was about to close the drawer, when a little unicorn peeping from under some cards caught her attention, she pulled it out, only to see that it was a cute pink pencil with a cute white unicorn eraser top with rainbow stripes in its cute lil horn. It seemed dusty and a bit old.  Yet it was such an adorable sight..

"Man this is adorable, I wish I could get one like this too" she cooed..

Ahaana was reading the report for the final time after editing with a tenacious concentration, that she didn't hear her speaking.

"ask shezaad his life, he would give it in seconds, but that.. you wouldn't get it at any cost, lucky you got to touch it, all these years and he never let me touch it for once" Itthu exaggerated.

"what's so special in this? lemme guess, a girl again?"Nush questioned..

"yep, the same girl, it would always be that same girl." he replied.

"whoa that serious? I didn't know there is this part to shezaad sir, kay whats the story behind this? she asked bubbling with curiosity.

Just then ahaana hit the save button,having  finished her stuffs and stifled a yawn.. she rose from her chair.

"It was the one and only gift from his sweetheart, it was lil shez's love at first sight and guess what ? it all started with a punch" he giggled..

"just like yours which was with a slap, though it was me who slapped you" Ahaana winked while Itthu glared at her

"why do you keep on reminding it" he sighd

"you both stop, hey go on with the story will ya" she snapped concentration fully immersed on the cute love being narrated.

" we were playmates back then we were little, I guess we were about 10/12 and she was 7/8, I actually knew her the longest, we were childhood buddies since long, there was this play ground we used to meet over and play"

while Itthu went on describing with details, Ahaana s heart started thundering in her ribcage, she felt as if someone was narrating her life story back to her again, a small shard of hope germinating at the deepest abyss of her heart started growing larger with every seconds passing, it was as if her instincts knew where this was leading, to a destination she was yearning for years but a mixture of insecurity and fear started kicking in and prayed that it shouldn't be what it is supposed to be.though every single part of her screaming, praying allah to make it what she want it to be..

silly isn't it..how love, expectation and hope gives birth to fear making us a chaos in the process.

"once after shez moved on to my neighbourhood, I took him to our playground, that's where it all started after she punched him for that big nosy mouth he has, he was tailing behind her every second.. she wasnt allowed to play everyday so, except for the days she is allowed to come to the ground we would hang on her home gate to just get a glimpse of her.. Shezaad was in love.. no one could deny that..

After about 2 years when we had to move back, she with tears gifted her favourite pencil to him asking not to forget her, this dummy didn't know what to give her back, came running home and grabbed a big bracelet of safreen and gave it to her promising he will come back for her, beautiful isn't it, he still is trying hard to find her and never in these years did his eyes ever linger on another girl, she was his and he was hers, a duo made for each other, inshaa allah if allah wills they will find each other very soon" Itthu sighed.

Nushrath looked over at Ahaana at shock, she could see her friend frozen staring madly at the blue and white beaded bracelet which  never left her hand since she was able to wear it, a gift from her pumpkin shell, a symbol of their promise, his oath of love..

Nush could see that Ana's thoughts were running on the same line, her doubts were proving to be true, after all she was the only one who knew the exact story besides Ana, with her heart hammering in excitement "she screamed a little bit loud "what's her name". Itthu looked at her in surprise "too curious are we?" he chuckled.

"that's the thrilling and the sucking part of this story, she doesn't know our names neither do we know hers" he sighed.

"huh?" Nush croaked waiting him to utter one word, that one word to prove that shezaad is her chukki's pumpkin shell.

"her name was too long for me to pronounce so I called her 'ana'.. She always called me Mish bhai, after shezaad came he started calling her chukki and she called him pumpkin shell" he smiled taking the pencil from Nushrath's hand who looked struck for the world, even though she wished it to happen, she couldn't believe it is happening, stroking the little unicorn, he said " she was his chukki and he was her pumpkin shell, how I wish I could meet her, my little sister, you know what?" she wouldn't even know that I'm missing her, her Itthu bhai missing ana" he finished with yearning tears pooling up his eyes..

words can never suffice to express the feelings spurring inside Ahaana, instead her tears did all the speaking as always, but this time it was utter happiness flowing down her cheeks, all these while her Itthu bhai and pumpkin shell was close by she was rummaging through the whole world searching for them. she laughed at her own foolish self, agreeing that no one could be foolish as her.

one look at Nushrath and she came running engulfing her in a bear hug, while she cried her heart out in joy, her inner self screaming gazillions of thanks to almighty for finally finding her oldself  back. tears of gratitude,joy, and relief streamed down her cheeks and wetted nush's shawl who was also crying her heart out, not only because Ana found her love, but because she was marrying her Itthu bhai, she knew now no one could separate them for being best friends in this world and in Jannah too..

Ithumish was struck for words, he didn't know why these girls were crying but it pained his heart to see them cry.

"what is it Ahaana, Nushrath what happened" he spoke in a panic looking at the girls who were smiling with tears ornating their orbs.

"what is it, temme, whats wrong" he implored looking at them

in between sobs, Nush exclaimed at him "idiot, all these while she is here, chukki"

Ilthumish couldn't believe his ears, he wanted it to be true, but he didn't want to have his hopes high..

"what?" he croaked in astonishemt..

" Mish bhaai you are so stupid as always" Ana smiled with tears, removing the beaded bracelet from her hand and clutching it among her fingers.

Itthu's eye widened, breaking into sobs he fell down in sujood, thanking almighty allah for bringing his lil sis back..

she was infront of his own eyes, yet he failed to recognize her.. how crucial does the plans of fate prove out to be sometimes.. where did Shezaad get lost now, Ilthumish couldn't even think how Shezaad would feel knowing his chukki was right in front of them all along..

"AHAANA IS HIS ANA, SHEZAAD'S CHUKKI..."

Hey ya fellaaas.. im back..

Soo soo.. now that both of them found each other what do you think is gonna happen?
Guesses shoot em over here.. and dont forget to vote and comments..

And please please include me in ua precious duas.. with my exams coming up.. I am badly in need of your duas..

Sooo until next time..
See ya peeps..

Allah hafiz lovelies❤❤❤