I knew it!

***
Shivaay walked into the large doors of the cooking institute. He had bought it the week before, seeing its asset value. And now visiting it, he knew why it was so high.

The cooking institute was located in the centre of city, mobilised, well equipped and had the best chef as teachers here.

"Welcome sir! How are you today?"

"Hello, very well! Thank you for asking, I must say this is such an well managed institution", Shivaay said shaking hands with the secondary manager of the institute, who showed him the way around.

As Shivaay made his way in the institute, a very familiar feeling passed and he turned behind immediately. It felt as if his sense-o-meter got its target after an whole year, it felt as if she was around, it felt homely.

You know the cliched part, where the hero senses the heroine, but here, it was hope. Hope that maybe, he'd finally meet here, maybe he'd get a chance to rectify all his mistakes, maybe he would see her.

Much to his disappointment, he found no one and was going to continue walking when he heard two girls talking.

"Yaar, Anika left already or what?"

"Yup, just like a second ago, why?"

"Ohh, I had to ask her about the party"

"Oh Okay"

He knew it, he felt it. That feeling, the feeling that only she could provide him with, that, those emotions, Anika was here.

The fact that she was here, close, in touching distance made his heart race. She might have stood where he stood, she might have touched what he touched, she might have seen him, what if she had seen him?

If she had, then she ran away, once again, but this time, he won't let her away from him, after all the sleepless nights and restless feelings.

***

It had taken Anika everything to not break down in front of her colleagues or in the auto, but right now as soon as she entered her home, tears raced down her cheeks.

She saw him, after a whole year, 13 months and 21 days to be exact. He looked weak, he looked tired and looking at him Anika wondered if he ever slept in the past few days, or months.

His sight continued coming in front of her and not being able to hold the pain anymore, she fell to the floor in a disheveled heap as her grief poured out in a flood of uncontrollable tears.

Why? Why was he back? Did he see her there? Does he know anything about her? Will he even remember her?

Questions kept on coming to her mind till she heard a voice, his voice, to be precise.

"Doesn't seem like you are happy?"

***

As soon as Shivaay had got to know about Anika's presence, he had practically taken the whole institute over his head. He wanted to know every minute detail, where she lived, what was her number, what she did, how much she earned and more precisely, how had she been over the last year.

As soon as Shivaay got her address, he rushed out and was going to to start the car, when his message box pinged, with an message from the private investigator he had assigned, to get to know about Annie.

Subject: RJ Annie

He read the information over and over again, until clutching his phone to his heart, he kissed the picture of Annie, or now he knew his Anika, he knew it.

She was always there for him. And now he'd make sure, he would be there for her!

On reaching the building, it had taken him hardly 2 minutes to reach the 12 th floor. On opening, he found her apartment door open and as soon as he saw her, his breath was caught in his throat.

God, what has she become?

Tears welled down his eyes as he saw her crying like that, it stabbed his heart. He looked at her, she had lost weight, she had become weaker and he doubted if she had even been taking care of herself.

But more than physically, what had she become emotionally? She was here alone, in this apartment and god knows how many times she had broken down like that? How is it if she's so broken, her voice held healing powers, when she talked as Annie?

As her sobs grew louder, Shivaay came out of his trance and walked up to her.

"Doesn't seem like you are happy?"

The moment she turned, Shivaay stepped behind looking at her blood shot eyes. He could see that she was shocked and after a few moments of silence, she stood up, trying to sound as confident as possible, she said, "I don't know what you are talking about Mr. Oberoi!"

"Ofcourse you don't", he said and before he could continue he saw her turning. Hence, before she could move away, he caught hold of her wrist and they felt sparks running up their body.

"But I do and I want you to know, that, I love you Anika. I know I realised late, but you know I can't live without you, I need you! It's simple and maybe you realised this before I did, but leaving me wasn't right, not for me not for you", he said and Anika turned behind looking into his eyes. The love his eyes reflected was an assurance, that he said that 'I love you' with the outmost honesty possible.

"But I don't", she said and he rolled his eyes before pulling her closer, which made her breathing noticeably uneven.

"Ofcourse you do, that's why RJ Annie exists!", he replied and her eyes widened, how did he know?

"Who's RJ Annie?"

"Seems like you had a memory loss or something, RJ Annie aka Anika", he said pulling her closer and she felt herself smile or rather blush.

"I don't care I hate you!"

"No you don't, you love me or even if you don't, my love will be enough for our lives, because now I am not letting you go anywhere", he said with extreme sincerity in his voice and Anika fell in love, again, at that exact moment.

"Okay, maybe I do", she replied, in a casual tone and he grinned like a Cheshire Cat.

"But how did you know I was RJ Annie?"

"Because", he started pointing on his heart first, "this heart recognised this one", he completed pointing at hers.

Beaming with happiness, Anika flung her arms around his neck, jumping on him partially and hugged him with all her might, making him smile in contentment.

"I love you too Shivaay!"

Maybe, even the night gave answers.

***

Someday all the love
you've given away,
will finally find its way back to you
and it will stay.

***

That was the last shot!
This SS is very close to
my heart, because of its plot.

Late Nighters, was something
I want to dedicate to everyone
who stays awake because of
one thing or the other.

Personally, I love staying up
at nights, especially if like
everyone else is asleep,
and that's how I got
this whole plot idea.

I also wanted to ask,
if you guys want an
epilogue sort of thing?

Please do vote and comment!

XOXO,
Ishika❤️