Chapter 1: A Break From The Norm.

This is an FF based on the characters from Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon. 



If there is one other request I can make as a writer it's to urge you to listen to the music. The sound may not be to your taste but I have chose each song for the lyrics and to their significance for a chapter. Where I have failed hopefully they will help you understand.

Chapter 1: A Break From The Norm.

The buzzer rang for the fourth time that night as Khushi was paced back and forth in her apartment. 'Who the hell does he think he is? He can't just stroll in whenever it tickled his fancy' she thought to herself. The buzzer rang again.

"I am not opening the door. I'm tiered, it's late and you should go home Arnav" Khushi said hoping the determination in her voice would reach the pair of ears on the other side of the door. She waited to the boom of Arnav's voice, demanding her to let him in. She knew the routine by now. He would turn up at her door, she would eventually let him in and then the screaming match would begin. Of course all the complaints would be about how the other was so difficult to be around. Sometimes they wouldn't even know what they were arguing about. Lately, Arnav had been visiting more than usual, turning up on a weekly and now a daily basis. Even if it was for a couple of minutes, even if he had nothing to say to her. She stood there waiting for him to growl her name. But there was silence. "Oh thank god." Khushi sighed with relief, 'thank you thank you thank for saving me from that monster even if it's just  for tonight.' She sent up a silent prayer with her hands clasped together.

She turned away from the front door and decided to make her way to her bedroom when she heard a soft knock at the door. At first she thought she was hearing things, it had been a long and tiring day and she still had to finish marking homework for her class which she knew was due back for the following day. Then there was a second knock at the door followed by a third. Convinced that she actually was not loosing her mind Khushi stepped back to wards her door once again. "Who is it?" She asked, her voice slightly nervous. it couldn't be Arnav could it? His knocks usually woke up the entire building. This had to be someone else, but who? There was no reply. She stepped closer to the door when she heard him.
"Khushi please, let me in." His voice sounded husky and tiered. Khushi's annoyance returned, there was no getting rid of him tonight.
"This man will be the death of me." She grumbled before she began to unlock the door. She didn't like to go back on her words and let him think that he has won by letting him in, but Arnav didn't sound like his usual self and she wanted to make sure that he was okay physically and didn't need any medical attention. Not that she would be much help in that area.

She opened the front door slightly peeking through the gap to gauge his mood. He was standing with his head hung and eyes shut. One of his arms was pressed against the door frame as if he needed the support.
 "Arnav?" Khushi asked slightly alarmed at sight of him. She only ever saw him with his back straight, standing tall, almost regimental, robotic even. Seeing him like this, almost human, was new to her. His eyes flicked open at the sound of his name. He straightened up so that once again he stood taller than her.
"I heard that, when you said I will be the death of you." He spoke in a low voice as he strode in to her apartment and flung his briefcase, jacket and himself onto her sofa. 'God, a little help here.' Khushi prayed as she shut the front door. 

She walked over to the kitchen and came back with a cold glass of water and placed onto the coffee table in front of him.  As is customary in Indian culture, to offer a drink to a guest when they arrive, even if the guest was uninvited. Arnav picked up the cool drink without acknowledging Khushi's presence. He sat back and felt a sense of peace wash over him. After spending a whole day stuck in unnecessary meetings with some gutless investors and bird brained personal team this is exactly what he needed. A place unknown and untouched by the cruel corporate world.

"You can not just turn up here at any hour as you please and expect me to let you in." Khushi tried to catch her words as they spilled out of her mouth. Not because she didn't mean them but because she didn't want to have yet another argument and also there was that pile of marking to get back to. But it was too late and all she could do now was to wait for Arnav's tirade against her. Arnav glared up at her from the sofa, 'this is the calm before the storm' she thought to herself. She shut her eyes tight and braced herself for his verbal onslaught.

"Of course I can."  He simply replied before shutting his eyes and leaning his head back. There was no anger or hate in his voice, just a matter of fact. Arnav knew that had it have been Khushi who had turned up at his house at unknown hours he would not have thought twice before throwing her out. He had to consider the fact that she did let him in and allowed him to escape his own thoughts, and for that he would always remain thankful. Even on the nights when they had argued, Arnav was glad that Khushi was able to evoke some reaction from him that had nothing to do with his business. He felt less robotic. 'But isn't that exactly what you have been trying to do all your life Arnav? To switch your feelings off?' A little voice said. He tried to push the voice to the back of his mind. He wouldn't argue tonight, not with Khushi or himself.

 "What's to eat? " He asked in the same indifferent tone with his eye's still closed and his head still leaned back. Khushi stood there for a moment in both confusion and annoyance. So he wasn't going to get into it with her just yet but will demand to be waited on. She could feel her frustration burning her stomach, she needed to calm down. 'It's okay, Maa always said to treat your guests like god and if food is what he wants then fine.'  she tried to reason with herself. He didn't look like he was going anywhere anytime soon and she needed something that would calm her nerves. She made her way to the only place she knew she could find the answer, her kitchen.

Khushi glanced over at the kitchen clock, it had just gone past midnight. She could see that Arnav hadn't moved at all. Had he fallen asleep? The thought of him staying the night wound her up further, increasing her speed of icing the cupcakes with butter cream. 'He wouldn't dare' she told herself. She couldn't stand the man, his arrogance, short temper, total disregard for others and ice cold exterior made that clear from day one. However, there was something about him, a strange pull. She could never figure out what it was but she was completely fascinated by him all the same. He was complete control freak, know it all, holier than thou text book entitled rich boy but he was also unpredictable and that gave him an edge. She rolled her eyes at her own thoughts 'really Khushi, how did you get stuck with the bad boy complex, you should know better!' She scolded at herself. Only a year ago he had told her that he hated her and never wanted to see her again. And now he was here, in her apartment, Waiting to eat her food.

She had seen glimpses of a conflicted side him. A more subtle, less oppressing Arnav slipped through the tough armour from time to time. She turned to get the second batch of out of the oven. She knew there had to be more to him, it was evident in the way he cared for his sister.But it was just that. His warmth, his love, his emotional depth was all limited to his sister. Everyone else just got stuck with Robocop and that too the reboot version, painful.

"Cupcakes, at this hour?." He said with a quizzical brow. Khushi slammed the tray of freshly baked sugarless cupcakes on the counter top in front of him.
"Don't you have anything else, like proper dinner?" He asked. For a split second she was taken aback by his innocence. His hair was ruffled, the top buttons of his shirt undone, his tie gone. His eyes were scanning the kitchen like a little child avoiding to eat his vegetables. A part of her started to mentally prepare parathas for him, another part reminded her who she was preparing these mental parathas for. It wasn't that he wasn't handsome, far from it. And it's not that Khushi had not noticed either. No, Arnav was not the type of man who's looks you could simply ignore. He was tall with rich caramel skin and deep brown eyes and bone structure blessed by gods.
"In my home proper dinner is served at a proper time. If you wanted dinner you should have been here at 7pm" Khushi snapped. She, wasn't going to do it. She was not going to wait on this man hand an foot after all the grief he had put her through. She could feel Arnav's eyes on her weighing her down, but she didn't look up from her cupcakes and instead turned around to reach another serving plate from her cupboard. She shut her eyes tight again, waiting for him to snap back at her. But he didn't.

"Anyways," she pressed on out of habit, "I thought that if you, the great Arnav Singh Raizada, held no qualms in barging into a girls apartment in the middle of the night, then you couldn't possibly have a problem with eating desert for dinner. You get what you are given and you thank me for it. " She said with a smug smile and this time he snapped.
"Khushi Kumari Gupta, you need to get your facts sorted, I did not barge through you let me in." He growled. Any trace of innocence that she saw on his face not long ago was lost. He was standing pointing at Khushi with rage filled eyes. She grabbed her tray of butter cream cupcakes.
"Tomato Tamato. If you want to eat then eat otherwise leave." As she was making her way out of the kitchen, she could see that he was about to say something. He tried to grab her hand and in that same moment she grabbed a cake from her plate and shoved it into his half open mouth.
"Good night!" And with that she ran to her bedroom. She knew that if she stopped now all hell would break out. She also knew that he hated it when she walked away without letting him finished and it was too late to turn back now. Arnav spat out the cupcake.
"Khushi!" He shouted after her, wiping the butter cream from his lips.
"Don't forget to close the door behind you!" Khushi shouted back before she slammed and locked her bedroom door. 'If I'm not out there then he has no one to argue with or shout at or to wind up.' She was never the kind of person to leave guest unattended but tonight she couldn't care less. If he couldn't find his way around her little apartment then he was not the man of the world he makes himself out to be. She hurried along and sat down in the middle of her bed with her plate full of cupcakes. Knowing that she shouldn't but couldn't stop herself from filling up on them. Before she knew it sleep had engulfed her.

"Ugh, how can it be morning already?" Khushi groaned as she reached over silence her alarm,  thinking about how she would find the energy to keep up with her kids at school today. She brushed her teeth and had a quick shower before throwing on white sleeveless salwar kameez. She made her way out of the bedroom and to her little temple which was situated on her living room wall. After she had done her morning prayers she made her way into the kitchen throwing her scarf onto the sofa. As she was pulling her hair into a bun she stopped and took stepped back towards the sofa. Her hair, hands and mouth dropped at the sight of Arnav sprawled across the sofa in deep sleep.

She wanted to shout at him to get out. She wanted to yank him off her sofa and throw him out. But she couldn't move, she couldn't shout, she couldn't blink, and it was only when she realized that she wasn't breathing she took in a loud, sharp, gasp of air. Arnav stirred from his sleep to see Khushi standing shocked in front of him.
"Khushi, are you ok? What's the matter? What happened?" His voice was husky as he spoke. He saw the scarf she had thrown at him unknowingly and handed it to her without looking up at her. Khushi snatched the scarf from his hand to throw it down onto the coffee table in front of him.
"What happened?" She whispered. "What happened!" She exclaimed. "Please, please, please tell me you didn't spend the night here? Please tell me you went home?" Khushi clasped her hands in praye but all Arnav could do was  stretch his arms followed by his back. The sofa didn't do him any favours that night.
"Oh gosh,what's going to happen now? What am I going to do?" Khushi asked herself, starting biting her nails.
"Stop it, Stop biting your nails." He said evidently annoyed with her habit. Khushi removed her hand in equal annoyance that he was avoiding the issue at hand.
 "You didn't spent the night here, right?" She asked in a slight voice. Arnav stood up and face her with a stern look.
"Not at all. I went back to my beautiful home and walked into my beautifully perfect bedroom where stood and stared at my beautiful king sized bed and thought to myself 'This can't be more comfortable than khushi's sofa so I drove all the way back for this special, more than special sofa." His sarcasm always missed that that pinch of humor required to take the edge off.She stormed to the kitchen and started to prepare breakfast furiously.

"Didn't you think, not even for a second of the repercussions?" She said almost gritting her teeth at him whilst grabbing utensils and ingredients from various cupboards before slamming them on to the counter.  "What will the neighbors think? What will they say about us? And you know my neighbors are the nosy kind. Word spreads like wild fire in this place." Her arms and hands where flying around her in animated fashion as she tried to make her point. "What if word got back around to my dad?  Did you think about that? I mean what would I say to him? How would I explain? What am I going to do Arnav?" She finally stopped and slumped against the kitchen counter.
"Don't you think that if I had known that I was going to fall asleep that I would have just left?" Arnav explained. "You think I wanted this?" He wasn't angry, not yet but he was annoyed.
"Oh that's rich, just pretend as if I didn't make it abundantly clear last night that you should go home. But why should you listen to me? Why should you listen to anyone else a part from your big fat ego." They were standing about a foot apart as Arnav took another step forward.
"Look, Khushi, it's still too early in the morning for me to argue with you, so just stop. There is no need to tell anyone anything, especially your father. And as for my family, I'll tell everyone that I had spent the night in the office no big deal." He couldn't understand why this was an issue. They were both adults and more than capable of moving on from this. "And the neighbors?" Arnav continued. "Let them say what they want to. We haven't done anything wrong so what difference does it make to us?" His voice was full of conviction, he believed in every word he was saying, even if it was a lie to his own family.
"Of course it doesn't make a difference to you. But you forget what kind of society we live in Arnav. When a man sneaks out of a woman's home early in the morning it's the woman that is talked about not the man." She could feel tears begin to form in her eyes. All the horrible things that would be said about her, all the gossip of the snears behind her back. "This is your fault and there is nothing you can do to make it better." Khushi felt her heart race faster with every word. "Unless you can go back in time and never have come here in the first place. Yes why don't you do that, you are your own god after all so prove it. Undo it all." She spat at him. "Why did you come here? Why do you come here? Night after night, what is it that you are looking for? If its Lavanya then am not her, I won't give in to your demanding ways and I won't spend another moment with a man like you!"
"Enough." It felt as though his roar echoed throughout the entire city. "I am not just some man and you are not just some woman. We are engaged dammit!" He held Khushi by her arms. Not tight enough to hurt her but tight enough for her not to run away. "This is it. This is all it's ever going to be. Me and you. When will you understand?" There was despair, though not present in his voice it flooded through his eyes.

Florence and the Machine - Kiss with a fist. - Important to read the foot note by the Nick B who uploaded this video :)