|: Photographs :|
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A/N: Based on the song 'Photograph' by Ed Sheeran. Concept suggested by luvcidduodosti. It's quite a long one, so those who can, please bear with it.
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"Daya, here's your strong black coffee," Shreya exclaimed, a smile playing on her lips as she emerged from his kitchen carrying two coffee mugs. It was after a long time from their work hiatus when they had got to spend some quality time in solace. Daya, who was seemingly engrossed in watching something on his own phone and grinning to himself, suddenly noticed Shreya approaching him and hastily shut the screen before turning to her with a meek smile.
It did not go unnoticed by Shreya as she happened to catch a glimpse of his mobile screen before he closed it. From what she could figure, there were pictures of a girl, though she could not see the face. Placing the coffee mugs on the table, she raised an eyebrow, "What is it? What was that in your phone?," she demanded, and Daya coughed hesitatingly. "No-nothing! Uhh- just some random stuff!," he grimaced uncomfortably, without looking at her.
Shreya, by now, was already in an interrogative mode, her arms folded against her chest as her big, dark eyes narrowed dangerously at her boyfriend. "Don't lie to me, Daya! I saw some pictures of a girl in your phone! Who is she?," she gritted her teeth, the last part spoken with a hint of alarm. "It's nothing, really! Ju-just some secretive information shared only among ACP sir, Abhijeet and me. I- I cannot tell you about it," he answered, hoping it would convince his girlfriend.
She, however, was not in a mood to let it pass. Certainly not after seeing photographs of a girl in her boyfriend's phone. Although she trusted Daya more than her life, she still wanted to know why he had pictures of some other girl with him. Especially when he had mentioned nothing about it to her, and to top it all, was hiding it from her.
Her silky locks fluttered against her shoulders as she shook her head in disbelief, giving him a bemused look. "Ohh really? Secretive information? A girl's photographs! Daya, are you telling me about this or should I ask Abhijeet sir?," she spoke in a warning tone, and the otherwise resilient senior inspector slumped his shoulders in defeat. "Ok fine! Have a look," he rolled his eyes as he opened the aforementioned screen on his phone and displayed it to her advantage. As she took the phone in her hands, she was bewildered, shortly before her expression changed into that of apparent nonplus. There were many, countless photographs of herself taken in varied situations, most of them with her bearing weird expressions.
She looked at her boyfriend in sheer horror. "What in the world?! Why do you have so many pictures of me? I… I look horrible! And when did you take all these photos?!," she shrieked, and Daya winced momentarily before facing her. "Excuse me! The girl in these photos looks extremely gorgeous, so you have no right to call her horrible! This is why I didn't want you to know," he supplied, snatching his phone back from her hands.
"Daya, seriously? Let me see. I didn't even realize how and when did you manage to take my pictures in such… such hideous expressions! I want to delete most of them!," she jumped for the phone, but Daya was quick this time. "Let a single photo get deleted, and I'll make you do the same case report five whole times, inspector Shreya! And I'm not even kidding here!," he warned, moving his phone safely out of her reach. Needless to say, Shreya furrowed her eyebrows, accepting defeat and flumped on the sofa with a very huffy expression.
Daya, flashing his trademark victorious grin, sat beside her on the sofa, scooting close to her. With the same huffy expression, she looked at him as his arm went around her shoulder. "At least tell me, when did you take all this whatever you call 'photographs'! I mean, all this while you've been secretly clicking pictures of me without even letting me know! This is so not fair!," Shreya mumbled like a kid, her tone softening down as Daya started caressing her neck.
"Do you want to know when did I take all these photos?," he whispered in her ear, moving closer to inhale the scent of her silky hair. "With pleasure," her lips forming a broad grin, as she looked at him, causing him to lose himself in her eyes. He planted a sensuous, lingering kiss on her lips before pulling his phone out from his pocket.
After spending nearly ten whole seconds in scrolling through the entire range of his girlfriend's pictures, Daya finally settled on one. "Ya, so this one is wh-," he started, but was abruptly brought down by what seemed like an ear-splitting shriek from his right side, so violent that he instinctively moved away a few inches, scrunching his eyes shut. "Eeeeee!," Shreya was evidently appalled. "Oh my God Daya, I had fallen sick here! My face looks so swollen and I look PLAIN UGLY!," she screamed, and Daya glared daggers at her, looking thoroughly offended. "You look beautiful!," he affirmed in a rigid tone, totally unlike the soft, romantic tone he used while telling her the same thing otherwise. He absolutely hated it when she thought low of herself. He wanted her to know that she was capable enough to give anyone a run for their money.
She pouted like a five-year-old, and Daya's irritation jumped out the window as he settled back close to her, recollecting the memory in the picture.
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"I hate this! I ha-aaacchooo-hate *sniff* this! Why-aaacchooo-why do people catch a cold?!," Shreya was sprawled on the sofa wearing an over-sized sweatshirt, bundled up in a thick blanket and massaging her head with a balm, a handkerchief in one hand. She had caught a viral fever with a terrible cold and a sore throat, and was feeling utterly weak and drained-out. The fact that she was alone at home and had been forced to miss going to work was making her feel more miserable.
She dragged herself up from the sofa with a great difficulty when the doorbell rang. Amidst a couple of sneezes and a few unpleasant curses for the person at the door, with an intention of literally strangling them for disturbing her at that moment, she opened it to reveal a very radiant looking face with a broad grin on his face. He was holding a bouquet of fresh red roses. In an instant, the thoughts she had a few minutes ago vanished into thin air and she silently took the curses back. "Daya! Hi!," she greeted him with an extremely feeble voice, dizzying a bit because of the weakness. The bulky senior inspector instantly steadied her by the waist. "Hi sweetheart! How are you feeling?," he whispered a bit too gently, helping her sit on the sofa before placing the flowers in a vase nearby.
"I'm not-aaaccchhoooo- g-good! I feel sleepy all the time *sniff* because of all these medicines. My nose is blocked and my head feels so heavy! Aaacchhhooo!," she wheezed.
"Just a matter of some more days, darling, and you'll be fit as a fiddle!," he smiled, tucking a few strands of her unmade hair behind her ears and leaned forward to kiss her. "Do-don't kiss me! *sniff* I don't want you to catch the infection," she tried pushing him away, but he held her more firmly. "I don't care, baby!," he mumbled before planting a deep, passionate kiss on her lips. She gave a faint yet radiant smile, as the blush crept up on her pale face. "I'm going to make something for you to eat," he said. "I don't want to eat anything, please! Aaacchhoooo! I just want to sleep!," she whined, sniffing her nose for the umpteenth time that evening. "But you need to, dear. You have to take your meds."
"Fine, wake me up when you make something," saying this, Shreya lay down on the sofa and closed her eyes. The fever in her body was making her difficult to stand or sit.
As she slept twitching her nose a couple of times, Daya noticed how innocent and cute she looked, even with a swollen face, with a reddened nose and with those baggy eyes. He didn't know why and how he felt like capturing that moment- the moment where she was not in her best self- but he took his phone out and silently clicked her picture before turning toward the kitchen.
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As he walked into the bureau carrying a file, he saw her typing something vigorously on her laptop, her features contorted in a frown. It wasn't particularly a busy day, but there were quite paperwork to be done and Shreya had been assigned for the task by ACP Pradyuman. With everyone else having their own work to do, she was left with no one to help her.
Needless to say, she looked stressed and completely oblivious to the surroundings due to the pile of papers occupying nearly her entire desk. She stretched her neck a bit, scrunching her face as she let out a weary sigh. Daya had been watching her from a distance and couldn't help smiling at the way she was so engrossed in her work, how pretty she looked when she was focused on one particular thing and how her short hair brushed against her shoulders every time she turned her head.
A thought suddenly came to his mind, and he turned to leave from the bureau but something made him halt in his track. He smiled discreetly as he captured her in his phone, very stealthily and carefully as not to let anyone else know.
"Shreya, there's one more file you need to work on. Start working on it right now, I want it finished before EOD," Daya handed her the said file with a perfectly straight face and Shreya gave him a look before taking it. "Fine," she muttered with gritted teeth, evidently annoyed by the fact that he seemed so indifferent to the workload she already had.
Daya turned around to leave, grinning from ear to ear as he walked out of the bureau and hid behind one of the pillars. When Shreya opened the file, she saw two energy bars and a note which said-
'Eat these, you'll feel better. And don't stress yourself too much, just do as much as you can. Dinner tonight at eight at your favourite restaurant. I love you! PS.- Even if you feel tired by tonight, I have ways to make you feel good. *wink*'
Daya was thoroughly enjoying the way her features changed in an instant after reading the note and placing it carefully in her purse. The way her face turned the colour of a ripe strawberry, - ohh, how he loved those crimson red cheeks! – the way her lips formed a beautiful curve as she blushed, covering her face with the file was something he could die for.
He had kept his phone camera ready for this exact moment to be seized. When he finally had his desired photograph of her blushing face, he kept staring at it for a long, long time.
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"Tarika, I did not flirt with the girl at the cash counter! Now stop putting that baseless blame on me!," Abhijeet complained, banging his fist on the table and slightly leaning forward to make his point. "Ohh yes, you did. I saw you!," Tarika grumbled, copying her boyfriend's act of banging on the table. Only this time, she banged both her fists and her voice was faintly louder than that of Abhijeet, proving that she was no less.
They were with Daya and Shreya at a restaurant having dinner together. Abhijeet and Tarika, however, seemed completely heedless to their friends sitting beside and found it extremely important to argue over a trivial matter, though they kept their voices in check considering the surroundings – much to the relief of Daya and Shreya, who seemed to be enjoying the entertainment they were getting.
Amidst a few more banging of fists, rolling of eyes and shaking of heads, Daya was more interested in looking at Shreya, sitting across the table and giggling furiously at her friends' childish antics. He had often noticed how absolutely divine she looked when she laughed, chuckled, jumped with extreme happiness, got furious or annoyed when she was in her own self – when she seemed unaware of people noticing her. He adored the way her facial expressions changed when she was in her own world doing something, be it reading a text message or studying an important file or a clue.
Daya kept staring at her, his chin settled in his palm, thankful that Abhijeet, who never missed a chance to pull his leg whenever Daya even spoke Shreya's name, was distracted in convincing Tarika.
It was Abhijeet's voice which broke his trance. "Daya, tell her yaar! She always does this!," the sharp shooter said in an irritated tone. For a second, Daya thought of strangling his best friend for disturbing him in that precious moment. "I want no part in this!," he answered in a firm tone, vehemently shaking his head and Abhijeet gave him a look, muttering an incomprehensible swear word before turning to his girlfriend.
When he went back to doing what he loved the most those days, he saw Shreya still trying hard not to burst into laughter and covered her mouth in an attempt to continue chortling inaudibly.
Daya couldn't help smiling at his girlfriend, noticing how adorable she looked when trying to suppress her laughter. Aware of Abhijeet's sharp vision of scrutinizing the tiniest of things, Daya cautiously held his phone straight, and before quickly clicked a picture of his still giggling girlfriend.
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"I cannot believe this! You are catastrophically sly and fit to be a cop in disguise! Or should I say – stalker in disguise!," Shreya exclaimed with a broad smirk once Daya had explained the story behind some of the photographs in his collection and when she had gone through each of them.
"I know, I know!," he scoffed moving closer to her and nuzzling her neck.
"But seriously, why do you take so many pictures of me?," she wanted to know. "Because they give me strength. I want to capture as many memories of you – of us – as I can. And these pictures, all your expressions in them, they are a reflection of your soul. They give me the power of promising myself that I must retain all these emotions in your life, always. They tell me that I want to be and I will be by your side when you feel all these myriad hues every single day, every single second." Shreya hugged him tightly, overwhelmed and completely speechless by the amount of love he had to shower on her and how he never missed a chance to do so.
"By the way, there's something I need to tell you," Daya said, his voice suddenly becoming serious once they had separated from the embrace. Shreya raised an eyebrow. "You remember on last Sunday, when you had gone for a function with your family and I said I'd just stay at home and relax?," he asked and she nodded in affirmation. "I… I lied. I was… umm… actually out for dinner with… with Priya," he revealed, gulping with trepidation and looking at Shreya from the corner of his eye.
Shreya was decidedly livid. "Priya? Your neighbour? The girl who always tries to hit on you, in spite of knowing you have a girlfriend, right? She asked you for dinner and you agreed to go?!," she demanded, seething with anger. "I had no choice. She was forcing me and I couldn't say no," Daya grimaced, looking down like a kid being punished by his teacher. "You couldn't say no! Really? I'm telling you, Daya, if that woman tries to get close to you again, I'll freaking punch her in the eyes so that she wouldn't dare to look at you ever! What does she even think?!," Shreya's wrath was increasing by the second and that was when Daya exploded into peals of laughter.
Shreya became angrier and was about to hit him on the chest when he caught her hand, still guffawing furiously. "Hold on, hold on! I'm kidding, alright! I didn't go anywhere, I was at home itself," he assured his fuming girlfriend and cracked into fresh howls of laughter.
"I hate you! You're so, so bad!," Shreya wailed in annoyance, smacking him hard on the arm and turned away from him. "Look here!," he said and swiftly took a picture of her vexed expressions, concealing his giggles. "This is what I needed," he showed her the newly taken photograph and she stuck her tongue out at him as a response.
"Taking pictures of a girl surreptitiously behind her back. That's so bad!," Shreya teased him narrowing her eyes, an impish smile dancing on her lips.
"But you know what, I forgot to capture one moment which will always be special," he whispered in a seductive tone, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Shreya understood what exactly he was referring to, but decided to play along. "And what is that, mister?"
"That natural glow on your face after the first time we made love," he murmured in her ear, his hand slowly going from her shoulder down to her arm and she snuggled closer to him, her face turning brilliant scarlet. "Well… you always have another chance for that," she said, winking at him. "Then we'll see who's more devious," she added with a twinkle in her eyes.
Daya smiled in spite of himself as he pulled her into another intimate kiss that night, preparing to add another memory to his collection.
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~~ The End ~~