|: A Night Gone Wasted :|
A/N: My sincere apologies to everyone. Sorry for the swearing, if anyone finds it offensive.
Warning: An entirely logic-less story. Read at your own risk!
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"Ugghh!" He grunts in irritation, his eyebrows scrunching together as a sudden wave of pain shoots up his head, hammering it like a hot metal rod beating a hard surface. His hands reflexively reach up to steady the throbbing head, and he slowly tries to open his eyes.
Rubbing his red, bleary eyes, he realizes the surroundings are familiar. Well, at least, he is safe in his own house. But, wait. Something is definitely not in place. With hair defying possibly all laws of gravity, he steadies himself. The next instant, he finds himself flopped down to the floor with a soft thud. "Oww!" He complains, softly rubbing his knee, still trying to wake up. The sofa is obviously unable to occupy his huge physique. Sofa?
Sleepily casting a few glances around him, his eyes suddenly shoot wide open. "Wha-", he blubbers. There had been times when he had ended up drowsing on the couch. But, this is something Senior Inspector Daya is unable to come to terms with.
Clutching his pounding head tight, the door-breaker attempts to remember the incidences of the previous night. All he can recollect are glimpses. Blurred, fuzzy glimpses. He shakes his head animatedly to have a clear picture. Futile.
"I got to know what the hell happened to me!" He murmurs, gathering himself up from the floor, and reaches for his phone lying stuffed inside one of the partitions of the sofa. Just as he is about to dial the number, he gets a call from the same person.
When he receives the call, the voice on the other end is nearly close to hysterical. "Daya, what happened to me last night? I woke up in the morning, and I find my head is aching like crazy, and... and I don't seem to remember anything!" Abhijeet's paranoid voice could be heard from the other end. Daya grimaces in confusion. "What? But... I thought you know what happened to me last night?! I just seem to remember in bits and pieces!" Daya sighs, his shoulder slumping in the loss of the only hope of learning the exact instances of the previous night.
Abhijeet's eyebrows perk up. "Wait. What do you mean you don't remember? You were the one who dropped me to my house! And how did I end up here on the sofa? My entire body's become sore now!" The sharp shooter is on the verge of tears.
"Abhijeet, how did all this start? What. Happened. Last. Night." He mutters under his breath, loud enough for his best friend to hear, who scratches his forehead in confusion. "All I can recall is we were in this restaurant, and I spiked your soft-drink, and then-" Abhijeet tries putting the incidences in place, when he is abruptly cut off by a loud shriek from the phone. "You what?!" Daya screams so violently, that Abhijeet momentarily parts the phone at least ten inches away from his poor ear, his eyes screwing shut.
Gulping down in fright, he puts the phone back to his ringing ear. "I.. uhh.. sp-spiked your drink!" He stutters, silently praying his best friend won't strangle him to death. On the other end, Daya is still extensively scandalized. "Abhijeet! You actually did that?! You know I don't drink!" He wails, already plotting ways of revenge.
"Come on, Daya! It was my bachelor's night! And one drink is completely harmless!" He explains in the most convincing tone that could come to him.
Post a pin-drop silence for exactly seven seconds, Daya opens his mouth twice to verbally abuse his best friend, but decides otherwise, and Abhijeet bits his lip fearing his best friend's outburst. Regaining his composure, Daya speaks again. "Umm... there's something you don't know, Abhijeet." His voice is somewhat meek and serious. "And, what can that be?" Abhijeet asks warily, now sitting upright on the sofa.
"I spiked your drink, too!" The muscle man blurts out, smiling sheepishly, and when Abhijeet reacts, the outcome is slightly less violent than that of his friend. "You... why... but..." Abhijeet can't bring himself to utter a complete sensible statement, after hearing his supposedly innocent best friend's confession.
"Do you even dare to think how Tarika will react when she learns her would-be husband has wasted an entire night getting... sloshed? God, please spare me the horror!" Abhijeet demands vehemently, banging his fist on his thigh, and Daya's reply is almost instant. "Do you even dare to think how Tarika will react when she learns her would-be husband apparently spiked his best friend's soft-drink? I mean, the best friend who has never ever tasted alcohol?!" His tone is indignantly sarcastic.
The sharp shooter's face contorts in a small pout, his chin resting on his palm, as he holds the phone in the other hand, looking completely lost. "It was a horrible idea, maybe, to have that God-forsaken bachelor's night! In that utterly useless again God-forsaken restaurant!" He remarks sadly, making a puppy-dog face at probably the empty walls in his house.
"The regretting part can come later, Abhijeet. First, I want an explanation on how and when did you get those guts to put whatever the shit it was in my drink!" Daya's voice turns impatient with every word. When his mind demands an explanation, Senior Inspector Daya is definitely not an easy person to deal with.
"Like I'm the only one on earth who spikes people's drinks! And you, Mr. Ohh-so-innocent soul, are an absolutely sane angel!" Abhijeet grits his teeth, practically visualizing himself strangling his best friend's throat with his bare hands. "I thought of giving you a special treat on the last few days of your freedom." Daya giggles childishly in spite of himself, and Abhijeet rolls his eyes, sighing deeply. "Treat, right!" He mutters.
It's not long before a dark scowl replaces the evil grin on Daya's face. "And would you be kind enough to explain the exact reason of giving me this treatment?" He wants to know. A wide shark-like grin flashes on Abhijeet's face, his eyes glinting mischievously, as he answers eagerly- almost eagerly. "I've always wanted to do that!" He quips, erupting into a fit of giggles.
Needless to say, that causes Daya to mutter something highly unflattering under breath, and he reflexively lifts the paper-weight placed on the table, holding it up to throw it toward his phone. After realizing the action would anyways leave Abhijeet unhurt, he just settles with a thoroughly vexed expression and a bitter "Just you meet me in the bureau!"
When there is no response from the other end, he speaks again. "Explain!" Daya says, his tone as flat as possible. "Yeah, so, I just remember till the point where..." Abhijeet starts, scrunching his eyebrows together and rubbing his chin, as he usually does when engaging himself in deep thought.
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"So, here we are to celebrate the last few days of your bachelorhood!" Daya smiles, settling himself in a chair in their favourite restaurant, and Abhijeet laughs in spite of himself, settling himself in the chair opposite to that of his best friend.
"Lifetime imprisonment they call it. It's true after all, I've already started to feel." He jokes as the waiter soon arrives to take the order. "One coke for me, and one orange-juice without sugar for my friend here. That's what he always has!" Abhijeet winks at Daya, earning himself a dark scowl in return.
Once the waiter is off, scribbling the order on the notepad, Daya turns to his best friend. "I hope you've started practising with doing the dishes and the cooking part." He teases, and to his surprise, Abhijeet is unperturbed. "Even that has a different kind of fun in it, you know. I mean, look at Freddy and Manisha bhabhi. They're still so much in love after all these years!" He smiles, staring distantly off at nothing in particular. "True that!" Daya nods in agreement.
"Besides, my Tarika is too sweet. She won't bully me, I know!" Abhijeet smiles coyly, looking at a seemingly romantic couple where the man is holding the lady's hand, and she is blushing at his gestures.
When Daya's theatrical throat-clearing brings him back to reality, Abhijeet annoyingly narrows his eyes at him, throwing a tissue paper-ball at him. "Abhijeet, I know Tarika- sorry, your Tarika- is not that conservative types, and is extremely understanding. But, I really want to make this little moment worth reminiscing for us, before you officially change your marital status. Like you know, how we used to spend endless nights in talking, teasing and having fun?"
"We will, Daya!" Abhijeet assures his best friend, and grins mysteriously as something occurs to him. Casting a glance across the restaurant, his eyes settle on a particular area, and he smirks.
Little does he know that, sitting in a chair opposite to him, Daya is already thinking of ways to make the night memorable.
"I'll just be back, Daya." Abhijeet informs his best friend, on the pretext of making a phone call, but instead walks toward the section they had never felt necessary to look at anytime earlier, the numerous times they had visited the restaurant. He whispers something in the waiter's ear, pointing to their table and goes off, a mischievous glint flashing in his eyes.
Daya, on the other hand, is playing with his fingers, emerged into deep thinking. Suddenly, his eyes lay on the same section which Abhijeet had been eyeing a few minutes ago, and he grins mysteriously from ear to ear. Once Abhijeet comes back, both of them put on their most innocent expressions ever.
Daya excuses himself on the pretext of visiting the restroom. "Ohh, I guess I forgot my phone back there in the washroom! Abhijeet, can you please get it for me?" He pleads, and Abhijeet frowns before hesitantly rushing to the washroom.
He is just too keen on witnessing the events that are about to follow.
While he is gone, Daya whistles to the waiter, and instructs something in his ear.
When Abhijeet returns, he is evidently furious. Giving his best friend a deadly glare, he settles down. "Daya-" He starts, but is cut off. "Sorry, I had it right here in my pocket. How careless of me!" Daya shrugs sheepishly, and Abhijeet mutters a completely unflattering swear word under his breath.
"Cheers to the end of your freedom!" Daya laughs. With the glasses clunked, they take a sip of their respective drinks, while observing any sign of change in each other's behaviour, and occasionally flashing each other their trademark innocent smiles.
Post a few talks on friendship, CID, marriage and various other stuff, Daya suddenly frowns. "I... I don't feel too good!" He complains. 'It's started working!' Abhijeet triumphantly says to himself, giving a worried expression to his best friend, who has now started feeling giddy.
"What's wr-" Abhijeet pretends to be concerned, but shakes his head violently, as the images in front of his eyes start turning fuzzy. "Wh-what's happening?!" He clutches his head to ease the shaky sensation occurring to him. 'The thing is taking effect!' Daya joyfully thinks, but grimaces in confusion, unable to figure the cause of the blurred pictures dancing in front of his eyes.
Exactly twenty-eight minutes after trying to learn the cause of sudden change in their health, the two Senior Inspectors are now wandering on the deserted street, their actions somewhat seeming a mixture of walking and teetering. Marginally teetering.
If ACP Pradyuman would have seen two of his most trustworthy subordinates in the condition they are now, he would have gone in a serious dilemma. Of either hitting his own head hard against a wall or burying himself alive.
Fortunately for them- and for him- he isn't there.
"Dayaaa! You're sooo niiicee! So und-underrr-unders-s-stand-understanding!" Abhijeet slurs, while attempting to walk straight, and ends up rotating around himself- thrice. Daya merely gives him a sluggish smile in return, struggling to keep himself on his feet.
"Bu-but I don't like youuuu!" He points- his index finger raises up in a crooked manner, if that's what is called pointing. A pout forms on his dark face and the Senior Inspector seems every bit a five-year-old kid who has been particularly disheartened with something. "Youuu h-had pr-pr-prom-mised me we'll get marr-rried together. You betrayed me!" Abhijeet gargles, now lending a few pokes in the muscle-man's arm, still flashing the child-like pout.
Daya sways his head in circles to get rid of the dizzy sensation, and gives his best friend a scornful look. He is slightly in a more conscious state as compared to Abhijeet.
Well, slightly.
"Why sh-should I?" He shouts at the sharp shooter, who looks down like a hurt puppy. "Who will dance then? I wanna dance at your wedding! See, I can dance... and I can groooooove!" The sluggish smile returns on his face, and he raises his hand to show a supposed dance move, but Abhijeet abruptly pulls the hands down. "You're a baaad dancer!" He scowls at the door breaker, who hangs his head down, a frown displayed on his face.
They spend a good thirty minutes gargling and wobbling on the street, talking things which made absolutely no sense, and supporting each other from falling flat on their faces.
Thirty-six minutes and nice seconds later..
Needless to say, they certainly are not allowed to drive in the state in which they are. "Tax-x-xiii!" Abhijeet waves to a public transport vehicle, but the driver passes by ignoring them. "Selfish rat!" Abhijeet swears after the cab, and Daya kicks a pebble in the direction where the cab goes.
Thankfully, after three more cabs pass by, earning the drunken Senior Inspectors' swears and missed pebbles, a Samaritan cabbie agrees to take them. Giving them an utterly disgruntled look, obviously unaware of their identity, the cabbie impatiently waits for them to board.
"Come, let's get you to your house!" Daya, who still has some sense left in him, tries to shove Abhijeet inside the taxi. "NO! I wanna enjooooooy!" Abhijeet yells childishly, struggling to free his arm from Daya's grip.
"Do you guys want to go or not?!" The cabbie grumpily asks, and Daya finally succeeds in pushing his adamant best friend inside the taxi.
The taxi-driver rolls his eyes in exasperation, muttering something under his breath, as he starts the cab.
"I'm getting married... I'm a happy man! Haaapyyyy... mmphh!" Abhijeet blubbers, but the next instant, is gagged by Daya, who is desperately trying to get some sleep, his head resting on Abhijeet's shoulder. "Shuuup!" He mumbles.
When they reach Abhijeet's house, Daya offers to escort him inside, but the sharp shooter is too vehement on going on his own. "Good niiighhh!" Daya slurs from within the cab, and the cabbie annoyingly speeds off without waiting for his passenger to get a reply.
"Gooooo niggghhh!" Abhijeet waves to an already gone cab, and teeters his way inside the house. "Stop moving, you!" He screams at a perfectly still flower-base lying on the table, and dashes on the sofa, one hand and one leg hanging down.
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When they are done recollecting the incidences, their respective houses are filled with peals of laughter, with Abhijeet literally holding a pillow to his chest to keep himself from exploding any further. "Th-that w-was one night!" He wheezes.
Daya is almost on the verge of rolling down on the same floor on which he was thumped a few minutes ago. "Lesson of the day- Never leave your drink unattended, not even with the person you trust the most." Daya chuckles, still sitting on the floor. "Especially when you're completely unaware of what they're up to." Abhijeet finishes with a laugh.
Daya's eyes gleam dangerously as an idea hits him. "Uhh, by the way Abhijeet, I have another pre-wedding gift to give you. I'm sure you'll love it. See you in the bureau!" With that, he disconnects the line, leaving Abhijeet to frown in confusion. "Now what's he up to, again?" He wonders, slightly gasping as he looks at the time in the clock.
Picking his car keys, he turns the door-knob to step out, when his phone vibrates in his pocket. A smile lifts the corner of his lips as he reads the name on screen. However, the smile vanishes the instant he reads the content in the message, and is replaced by an agonized frown.
'Abhijeet, you've got some serious explanation to do!'
It reads, and he flops the phone back in his pocket. "Ahh!" He sighs, now thinking of ways to convince his lady-love. This is one gift which, if not he, but Daya would surely love.
~~ The End ~~
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A/N: Just a clarification. The phone conversation scene is from both Abhijeet and Daya's side.
Some lines have been taken from PR and MM's stories, so thanks to them.
Thank you for the consideration, folks.