Vijay locking himself up in his house above.

halcyon

(adj.) a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful

After she and Chris had spent one heavenly week together, Kiara was rejuvenated and more than ready to return for work. She returned to find numerous articles smattered across the internet with 'close sources' claiming to have inside information on their relationship. Kabir, as per usual, had a meltdown as he kept himself busy putting out her fires. Of course he was thankful that she and Chris had decided to go official with their relationship as that made certain aspects of his job easier but that also meant another window of opportunity opened for people to make false statements as they were now. 

Still, Kiara kept her head high and persevered with the last few weeks of filming. Her anxiety regarding Vijay's well-being was increasing exponentially as Vijay had been uncharacteristically distant, opting to phone her for an hour or two instead of seeing her in person. His project had officially wrapped filming so his production crew was in the process of editing and perfecting the final cut of the movie. She couldn't be more excited to see the film as it was something he had planned for years, probably even since the start of his acting career. 

If someone was that invested and passionate about something, she had no doubt that the final product would be nothing short of immaculate. She didn't care what the critics or reviews said, her opinion would always remain the same. The two best friends were ride or die for each other and no amount of bribery, career opportunities or relationships would change that. With that in mind, she decided to check in and quickly shot him a text.

Kiara: Yellow.

Vijay: blue

Kiara: You've been M.I.A for days now and I demand to know why.

Vijay: i have not

Kiara: Yes you have!

Vijay: fuck off

Kiara: Don't get all snappy with me, mister.

Vijay: sorry... in a shitty mood

Kiara: Want to talk about it?

Vijay: maybe another time.

Kiara: That's it. I'm coming over.

Vijay: wtf why?

Kiara: Because I'm your best friend.

Vijay: so?

Kiara: So that means you're never alone and when things get really bad, you call me.

Vijay: i can't just trauma dump.

Kiara: Then work together with me! Being there for you isn't a burden.

Vijay: fine

Kiara: You didn't have much choice anyway. See you in 5 :)

Grabbing some takeout along the way as she dodged paparazzi, Kiara made it to Vijay's house in a record twenty minutes and was now resorting to insistently banging his front door until he opened up.

Her persistence finally paid off as he begrudgingly answered the door, "Stop before you bring my fucking door down!"

Steeling her spine against the onslaught of negativity he would inevitably present, she exhaled heavily, "Then don't hide from me."

"Why? Everyone else seems to be fine with it."

"Not me."

"Kiara, I don't need your help."

"And I'm offering it anyway."

Finally giving in, Vijay widened the door slightly to make way for Kiara as he turned to walk further into his house. She quickly locked the door behind her before scurrying to follow him. While she may not have been the most attentive best friend in the past week, she was not blind to the signs of another depressive cycle. It was always this way and as much as she tried to help, he had to want to change for any of her interventions to be effective. 

There would be months– even years, of highs where everything felt as it should and Vijay would remain in good spirits but then the crippling loneliness and despair would appear. Once again he would descend into that downwards spiral of depression, gradually withdrawing from the very people that could pull him out. It often grew tiring to be his anchor but if that was the cost of bringing him into the light, Kiara would gladly do it over and over again. The irony of it all was that she bled out so he could heal. 

They stuffed themselves full of greasy food and watched episodes upon episodes of Supernatural until Vijay was finally ready to talk. He told Kiara of his darkest fear of abandonment, the joys and grievances of producing, nightmares that haunted his conscience and kept going until he was inconsolably drained of energy at which point she picked up the mantel. He listened attentively as she told him about the recent attack and how it still dredged up panic, recounted meeting Chris' family and delved into the intricacies of her insecurities. No matter how absurd or trivial her perspective was, Vijay never once interrupted but instead accepted every sentence with the same respect she provided.

By the time Kiara finally got home, she had at least five missed calls from each of the girls– all of which started out slightly perturbed and progressed to full blown manic state. As soon as she responded to their texts, Diana was the first to call and check in.

Breathless after practically hyperventilating for a few minutes, she screeched, "Have you seen Daily Mail recently?"

Shocked at the revelation, Kiara frowned, "What? No, why?"

"Well some stale ass white bread Nick Jonas-looking dickwad just wrote an article on you apparently two-timing Chris after being spotted on a midnight visit to Vijay's house."

"Um, we're best friends so I did go over to his house late at night."

"How much do you think Kabir will freak out?"

"Hopefully not much? He'll probably warn me about public perceptions blah, blah, blah."

"Let me guess, you'll listen?"

"Depends."

Pausing for a second, Diana excitedly lowered her voice, "Are you two fucking on the down low?"

"Ana!"

"What? You can tell me, I won't judge!"

"I'm not sleeping with him!"

"So he gets to control what you do and you're not getting any dick out of it? That is positively horrific."

"With my current situation, it's probably for the better."

"Bitch, tell me you're not hiding death threats from me!"

"Ana, I get death threats every other day. This will be no different."

"Those death threats got worse in the last few months."

"I didn't have a relationship to target before then."

"Case in point."

Having finally managed to convince Diana of her stable mental state, Kiara moved on to respond to her resident doctor's text messages.

Alia sighed in relief when she picked up the phone, "Oh, thank God."

Chuckling at her dramatics, Kiara snorted, "What should I be thanking God about?"

"Ana said you were basically crying!"

"Well, clearly I'm not."

"I forgot how much she exaggerates."

"Yeah, thanks for spamming my phone though!"

"Please forgive me?"

"Only if you tell me about the brooding dreamboat you apparently met at work."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh really? I believe the words Ana used were 'future baby daddy' so spill your guilty little guts."

"She really needs to shut up and he's just some grump I caught bullying Hunter."

"Asshole!"

"That's what I said!"

"Really?"

"Well... not using the same words but–"

"Of course not."

Getting Alia to speak about herself was like trying to pull teeth out so after a solid half an hour of deflection, Kiara eventually managed to get her to talk about the mystery man that showed up at her workplace. In light of their recent breakthroughs regarding keeping in contact and seeing as how only two out of four of them were currently in the same geographic location, the girls made plans to fly into UK and meet up. Making Alia promise to meet up next week, she hung up to read through the remaining texts. In true Miya fashion, she refused to show how much she cared and opted to sending a few strongly worded texts instead of calling.

Miya: You alright?

Kiara: Yep, why?

Miya: You disappeared on us.

Kiara: Aww, were you worried about me?

Miya: Just don't do that again.

Kiara: I'm an independent woman. I'll do whatever the hell I want to.

Miya: You can be an independent woman and keep us in the loop.

Kiara: Okay, mom. I'm sorry for worrying you.

Miya: You should be.

Laughing at how desperate Miya was to hide her too-big heart, Kiara plugged her phone back into the charger as her mind worked a million miles a minute thinking about all the consequences of her decision tonight. Although this wasn't the first time the paparazzi had spotted two best friends on their usual sleepover, it was the first time after her relationship with Chris had become official. Right on cue, Kabir called in to inevitably lecture her on the importance of controlling one's image.

Deciding he could only handle so much verbal sparring, he groaned, "Jesus, Kiara, for once in your life could you just make my job a little easier? All I ask for is you two to tone down your nightly visits and overly touchy interactions."

He could practically feel her hackles raising as she quipped, "You know better than everyone that we're just best friends. It's not like we do these things intentionally!"

"Doesn't change the fact that this 'friendship' is the one scandal in my career I can't make go away and newsflash– people are noticing."

She inhaled sharply, "Kabir... I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"While your apology is much appreciated, it does fuck all to remedy this situation."

"I know."

"Look, I'm sorry to be so harsh. Everyone knows I love you like a baby sister but there's only so much I can do before management decides to reinstate me from my role as one of the board members."

Kiara supposed after running around putting out all her fires for the past few years, it was only fair that she try make Kabir's job easier. As such, she was willing to overcome her reluctance to reacting against tabloids in order to ease the strain from the agency's board of directors.

She ignored how her stubborn nature screamed against the decision and nodded in understanding, "Tell me what you need me to do."

He paused in shock, "That was easy."

"Well you're right, it's about time I start letting you do your job. While I love you like family, that's no excuse to abuse that affection. I didn't realise how much of a dictatorship our relationship had become."

"Thank you for admitting I'm right."

"Don't get used to it."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

While Kiara knew her boyfriend wouldn't misinterpret what happened, that didn't mean his publicists and agents would be equally as understanding. This of course meant that Chris being Chris would work overtime to ensure everyone was happy. There was no well-kept secret to maintaining long distance relationships and she knew this better than anyone. Having been in one with both Chris and Leon, she almost immediately realised the significant difference when both parties involved put an equal amount of effort into their relationship. While Leon spent most of his time complaining about busy work schedules and fatigue, Chris stayed up at ungodly hours to ensure they FaceTimed at least once a day.

Tucking her legs and snuggling into the couch, she smiled as he answered her call with his trademark, "Hello, trouble."

She should've been embarrassed by the schoolgirl giggle that bubbled up her throat but was too infatuated with his charming smirk to care, "Hello, hero."

"Before you start panicking, I know you're not cheating on me."

"Aw, shucks. I'm so glad you have at least that much faith in me."

"Hey, you should be proud of me for not overthinking it."

"Baby steps, I guess. So how's your week been, bub?"

"Dreadfully boring until you."

"That's cute."

"Nah, your dimples are cute. I'm dashing, romantic, hot– take your pick really!"

Blushing hard as she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, Kiara suddenly remembered her call this morning with her family this morning and recalled her father practically demanding to meet Chris so he could 'judge the boy himself'.

Quickly sobering up, she tried to offhandedly pass his request, "Oh by the way, my family really want to meet you."

Pretending not to have heart palpitations at the mention of meeting her father and brother, he exhaled sharply, "Oh."

"Uh oh. I know that face, bub."

"What face?"

"The one you make when you're sweating up a storm but trying to act cool about it."

"You know... I don't like that you know me this well, trouble."

"Gah, don't lie to yourself. You love it."

"I love you. There's a difference."

"Not to me, bub."

She paused, looking like she bit her tongue before saying something he probably wouldn't like, as he snickered at her half-assed attempt to appear nonchalant, "Alright, trouble, out with it."

"I've got nothing to say."

"For a lawyer, you're a shitty liar."

"Hey!," she huffed, giving in as she realised he would persist; "Jay and I are flying out to Hong Kong this weekend."

"Okay..."

"So I was wondering if you were free?"

"Kiara Mathew, are you asking me out?"

"Maybe."

"Well then my answer is maybe."

"Okay fine I'm asking you out, Mr. Evans."

"That's more like it."

"So is that a yes?"

"Yes, trouble."

"Good, so long as you don't mind flying to a different continent."

"With you? Never."

For the next two hours, Chris and Kiara spoke about everything under the sun from Robert's new bedazzled trainers to the scorching Mumbai heat. Eventually the conversation weaned to a stop and she was left smiling softly as he drifted off to a deep slumber. She waited a few minutes to make sure he was comfortably asleep before ending the call and retiring to her own bed.

When the weekend rolled around, Chris was so amped up on nervous energy that he had resorted to pacing back and forth while waiting for his ride to the airport. As much as Kiara tried to reassure him, there was no consoling the monster within him just waiting to ruin his plans. Anxiety was a beast– one he never truly managed to slay but simply learnt to tame. Now it lay restless in his chest, clawing at his ribs as he felt the walls around him close in. He knew the tell-tale signs of a panic attack and realised he was dangerously close to having one so he called the one person who could calm him down.

The call barely got to two rings when she picked up, "Hiya, bub."

He sighed in relief, "Hey trouble."

"You feeling okay?"

"Better now."

Somehow instantly knowing what he needed, she laughed, "I know it's easier said than done but try not to worry. My dad is honestly not as scary as people make him seem and I'll be by your side every step of the way."

"I just don't want to disappoint him."

"You won't and if he bullies you, I'll defend your honour.

"My knight in shining armour."

"You bet. Don't worry, main hoon na."

He frowned at the Hindi phrase, "What does that mean?"

"Oh shit, I forget that you don't get Bollywood film references sometimes– which, by the way, I'll need to remedy very soon. It basically means 'I'm here with you'."

Hanging up after Kiara successfully managed to steady his nerves, Chris shook his head and chuckled as he thought of all the times she would randomly burst out with Hindi or Malayalam phrases. He doubted she even realised she was doing it and he'd usually let it go, somewhat understanding the meaning with the context she used it in, but occasionally he would ask for a translation. 

It was fascinating to learn about the different subtleties of Indian culture and the more Chris asked, the more he realised how much he loved to watch the excitement in Kiara's eyes when she spoke about her country. Internet trolls and tabloids fabricated stories of her lack of commitment to Indian cinema but what they couldn't deny was her profound love for India. No one could fake that kind of dedication to their culture and it was for that reason that whatever they wrote fell on deaf ears as people realised her true nature. 

What made her stand out from other celebrities was her accessibility to fans. She truly enjoyed getting to know those around her so the public were well aware of her character because she was so sociable with anyone and everyone she came across. It was with those final parting thoughts that he stepped into the sleek black car, preparing for the fifteen hour journey ahead of him as they drove to the airport.

Haven't updated in a while! Super excited to get this chapter outtttt! Please don't forget to comment and vote!