A/N:
A(n) (extremely) late birthday gift to my girl, Neha. So sorry for the delay sweetie. Hope you like it; and that I'm forgiven for this supreme delay.
Oh, and Shruts says hi everyone.
...
Downpour
He gets up to someone yelling from downstairs. Going by the high pitch of the voice, he guesses that it belonges to the owner-er, daughter of the owner of the house. She is shrieking and yelling at the same time. How she manages to do that, is beyond him.
But his concern is that she is screaming. All the time he's been staying at their house, he's never known her to scream or yell or raise her voice above the required level. And then, as he wakes up fully, he realizes that there is another sound in the house, a sort of phsssss type sound. He gets up from the bed and as his feet touch the ground does he realize what all the screaming and yelling is about.
"Shit!" he mumbles under his breath as he runs for the bathroom. The entire floor of his room is wet with water flowing with a considerable speed out from the bathroom and out of the room.
He closes the water tap he has left open. But the quantity of water collected in the sink makes the pipe connected below it to dramatically let out a sharp sprinkle. With his eyes closed, sometime during his struggle to stop the sprinkle, he knocks the pipe hard and the pipe breaks, drenching him completely in cold water.
Just after the pipe comes in his hands, a similar sound is heard from the room below.
"Shit!" his says out aloud this time. I am so dead. True to his thoughts, the same high pitched voice yells, with twice the sharpness and volume, "Inspector Kavin! Get down here right now!"
Kavin makes his way to the kitchen below, dreading each step he takes. Muttering a prayer, he pokes his head in to the kitchen.
And sure enough, just as he had imagined it, there she stands, glaring fiercely at him.
One hand on her hip, the other holding an umbrella over her head. Kavin is sure, if he stares into her eyes long enough, he can see fire in them just like it is shown in cartoons. She is doused in water, head to foot.
Kavin turnes his head to look at the pipe below the kitchen sink broken and spraying water in hundred and eighty degrees around it. A drop of water falls on his head making him look up and he gaspes. The ceiling is leaking. The amount of water on the floor tells him that the drip of water from the ceiling had been strong before he closed the tap. No wonder she is standing with an open umbrella.
He cannot meet her eyes, which are dead fixed on him.
"Care to explain this?" she cocks up an eyebrow at him.
A wet srand of hair is stuck to her cheek. Kavin is filled with the sudden urge to tuck it back behind her ear. He shakes his head slightly, wondering how any part of his brain thinks that up or notices that little detail.
"I am extremly sorry Purvi-" he starts before she cuts him off mid-sentence.
"Mister Kavin, I do not want to hear your sorry; I asked you to tell me the reason for this downpour" Kavin notices the formality she has enforced into the conversation with the 'mister' instead of calling him just by his first name.
"I wanted to bathe but there was a water cut. So I left the tap open before taking a short nap, thinking that the sound of the running water would wake me up and I could take my bath" Kavin confesses. He knows, the quicker the truth is out in front of her, the better.
"Are you nuts? What sort of an idiot does that?" she says rather sharply.
Okay, that was a bit harsh. "Umm...the water is no longer dripping from the ceiling. You can close the the umbrella" he sheepishly tells her. It earnes him another glare before Purvi closes the umbrella and steppes forward. Kavin reflexively takes a step back. Even though he doubts it, he does not want to be anywhere in the vicinity of the umbrella. An incident in monsoon involving Purvi throwing a closed umbrella-and almost fatally injuring-this goon they were chasing has stuck in his brain somehow.
"Dad is going to kill me when he finds out that the entire house had been flooded!" she says strapping the umbrella shut.
"Uhh...s-sorry about that" Kavin swallowes as he remeberes how the umbrella, with its strap shut, had hit the guy right in the head.
"Oh God, all my books!" Purvi says rushing into the hall where her books are packed into boxes. The boxes have all got wet bottoms, the water soaking into the cardboard.
"Here, let me help you" Kavin liftes the boxes, "Any idea where you will put these?"
"No idea" Purvi replies looking around, "The kitchen is flooded, the floor of my room is wet, no need to ask about your room and the Drawing hall"
"The guest bedroom. The one next to mine-that room is empty" Kavin tells her.
Purvi just nods her head in agreement and starts on the stairs. Kavin silently followes her as they start arranging the books in the spare room. Done with it, they both go downstairs again.
"We have to clean the entire mess-" Purvi's sentence is left abruptly incomplete owing to the doorframe coming in her way and her foot getting caught in it; and along with Purvi, it takes down all the nearby wires and cables.
It's evening and the entire house is blanketed into darkness within a second.
"NO!" her loud wail rings through the house, "Stupid wires!" Kavin can make out that she is close to tears.
She's freezing. It took more time than she assumed to arrange the books and she is wet head to toe. The cold is making her shiver and she's tired. It has been a long and tiring day at the bureau. Purvi does not have energy anymore. All she wants to do is fall into bed, engulfed in blankets and sleep.
What has gotten into you? She scolds herself. Just get up and clean up the mess, she orderes her brain.
"Huh. The power is cut. Looks like we have to clean up the mess in the dark. What say we change into some dry clothes first?" Kavin asks her.
"I don't have any dry clothes. Even my wardrobe is leaking. All the clothes must be wet by now" she tells him sadly.
"Why didn't you say that first? We could have saved your clothes"
"No. The books are far more precious. I don't mind staying in wet clothes; but I cannot bear the thought of damage to any of my books" she tells him frankly.
Kavin smiles. "Wait for a minute" he says rushing back to his room. Purvi can't help but notice the splash his every step makes. It's like she is trying to figure out his location. Like her mind is with him.
Oh shut up.
A few more splashes later, he returns with a lump of cloth in his hads. Dry clothes? Her mind hesitates. Purvi is freezing in her icey clothes that are making her shiver at every touch of breeze and she could really use some dry clothes right now, "I am not wearing your clothes" she tells him firmly.
"They are not mine. These are your clothes. I picked them up from the laundry" he shrugs.
Oh.
She takes the clothes. Purvi knows she owes him an apology, "I am sorry. For screaming at you and cutting off the power and being such a jerk" she says in one breath.
"Hey" Kavin puts his hands on her shoulders and makes Purvi face him, "Relax, you know? It's not your fault that the power was cut off. It is my fault that I left the water running like an idiot and I am really sorry about that. You're stressing too much, okay?" Kavin gives her a slight shake as she mutely nods her head.
Kavin's hands on her shoulders send a dizzying warm streak down her spine. And despite those goddamned chilled clothes clinging on to her, she feels warmer.
When Purvi is back downstairs, warm in her dry clothes, she is notices Kavin has already changed and found and lit candles and has dried the kitchen counter. A small smile tugs at the corner of her mouth, which she quickly sends away as he notices her and nods.
"Dinner is going to be a task" Purvi remarks, "without lights in a post-flood condition"
Kavin puts the box in his hand back on the shelf and turns around to Purvi with a amused look on his face. "You actually joked. Partially; but that still counts. Well, it was a play with words really but...you do have a sense of humour"
She presses her lips into a line and says, "Well, dinner is still going to be difficult"
"True. But not with instant noodles" Kavin takes out the packets.
...
"Hey" Purvi mumbles softly as she smiles up at him.
"Hey" Kavin repeats back and drapes his arm over her shoulders.
"This is really comforting you know" she tells him as she rests her head on his shoulder.
"Why, I am flattred" he replies.
"Lose the drama" she tells him but smiles again nevertheless.
He's had this dream before. Purvi and him sitting together that way. Wait, is she actually saying something?
"Hey! Wake up!" Purvi calls out to him. For a moment he wonders why the house dark. And then all the wet memories flood in his brain.
The house sort of suffered a flood because of me. Right.
"I thought you were looking after the noodles while I cleaned up my room" Purvi exclaims.
"Sorry" he apologizes and get up.
...
"What is that?" Purvi points to the gift-wrapped box kept inside the glass-case.
"That is a small token of thanks for your father. For renting out the room to me in your house" he says.
"Huge mistake" Purvi says, "he would have never done that if he would have known you were going to bring a tsunami in here"
"You really enjoy making me squirm like a well-salted earthworm, don't you?" Kavin askes her.
Despite herself, she laughs. Her laughter is contagious; Kavin shares the smile.
...
With a plate full of noodles in their hands, they both stand in the room, silent.
"Where do we sit?" Kavin says out loud the question that has them standing as they are.
The couch has become the humble abode of the wet clothes. Every inch of it has been covered with the clothes left to dry. The table hoists the boxes filled to the brim with books, books, and some more books. The only dry place in the visible range, as Kavin spots it and tells Purvi, is the window sill. She looks at Kavin like she's ready to hurl him right out through the very same window sill.
"Hey, don't give me the look, alright? Can you spot any other dry place? I don't know about you, but I am not sitting on the wet floor" he tells.
"How are we both going to manage on that window sill?" Purvi makes a face.
Like the gentleman he is, Kavin assures her that he is perfectly comfortable standing and urges Purvi to enjoy his 'incredibly amazing instant noodles' on the window sill.
"Come" she tells him, scooting into the corner as much as she can. He grins at her and sits on the sill, both enjoying the warm treat in their hand.
"Nice noodles, I must say" Purvi says, without looking at him.
"Glad to know" Kavin tell her. He can't help but notice how the little light from here and there, shines in her eyes.
Oh my God, did I really think that? So cliché. Ugh!
"Why are you wrinkling your face?"
"Hmm?" her question brings him back from his thougths.
"Earth to Kavin" Purvi says snapping her fingers in front of his eyes.
"Whoa, whoa, wait. What is this?" Kavin says taking Purvi's wrist in his hands.
"Oh, that, it's nothing. Just a little cut from yesterday's hike with Abhijeet sir" she tells him.
"What hike? And how did you get the cut?" he tries his best to not run his fingers over the cut. Instead, he traces his thumb along the scar; a burning desire inside him to slash fatal scars on the person responsible fot the cut across Purvi's wrist.
"Abhijeet sir and I went to this abandoned warehouse to do some investigation. Turned out, the warehouse was actually a house to five goons. So three against Abhijeet sir and two against me" Purvi sighs, trying her best to maintain a nonchalance she is unable to, given that Kavin is still holding her hand.
"Who-who did this?" Kavin asks her.
Just tell me the damn name. Tomorrow's sunrise is that bastard's last.
"Local" Purvi shrugs. Kavin nods, understanding. It was some local thug.
"And what happened after that?" he nods at her, indicating her to go on.
"Well, Abhijeet sir knocked the guts out of his three pals and the one who me gave me the cut? His nasal cartilage is in ruins" Kavin smiles.
"Punching on the nose always helps" Purvi tells him like a it's a fact, "and the other one; lets say he cannot move his thighs apart for some reason" Purvi finishes with a smile of her own. Kavin's eyes widen at her statement and he says, "Well, I am seriously having second thoughts about sitting here with you!"
"I would say, you flood my house another time, and your fate is going to be similar" she says with laugh.
"Wouldn't dream of that after hearing what you did to the thugs. Guess we shuold go in" Kavin says getting off from the window sill. As they stand side by side, silently washing the dishes, Kavin is the first to speak, "So the downpour wasn't all that bad...the both of us bonded quite well...I mean-" he hastily tries to cover up but Purvi merely nods, "not all that bad" she agrees.
...
"So...good night. I'll call the electrician tomorrow" Kavin says as they awkwardly stand in the hallway.
"Yeah, okay... goodnight" Purvi says. After another moment of fiddling with her sleeve, she turns on her heels.
"Purvi?" She turns around again, "Hmm?" she asks him.
"Umm...I uhh...I think I-" before he has a chance to complete his sentence, Purvi holds up her hands, "Don't. Really...don't" she says with a rueful smile. Kavin nods his head, his breath getting caught; a pang of sadness and hurt crashing his stomach. Purvi walks back and Kavin turns to head his way.
"Kavin?" this time, he stops dead in his tracks. Before he can completely turn around, Purvi is standing in front of him. Pulling Kavin down by the neckline of his shirt, she lands a kiss on his cheek. Kavin's eyes widen as Purvi pulls back, her face somewhat flushed, with a small smile.
"Good night. See you tomorrow" Purvi tells him.
"Yeah. Good night" he tells her as she goes and he watches her disappear behind the door of her room.
The downpour wasn't all that bad.