Karan smouldering above.

cacoëthes

(n.) an urge to do something inadvisable

Donning her father's 'kiss the chef' apron, Kiara tied her hair back as she prepared the ingredients to make her famous Kerala chicken curry. She had spent the past two days engaged in exhaustingly long press conferences and interviews, making sure to keep the last day of the Hong Kong tour free so she could spend the day with her family before the cast flew to their next destination. Having carefully monitored her father and brother's cooking, she guided them as they placed the lime pie into the oven then shooed them out of the kitchen so she could cook in peace. She bustled around the kitchen, dancing along to the melodic tune of 'O Bi Karamel' by Ozbi.

Suddenly she was rudely interrupted by someone rapidly banging their fist against the front door, "Hellooo I'm starving!"

Recognising who the voice belonged to, Kiara washed her hands and took her own sweet time to open the door.

Vijay impatiently continued rapping at the door, "Open up, Mathew! I know you can hear me."

Not feeling particularly fond of his tone of voice, she slowed and retorted, "Remember that time when you shut up? Yeah, me neither."

"Open up!"

"Shut up!"

"Open."

Karan angrily walked over and interfered, "Shut the fuck up, dipshit."

"You shut the fuck up!", Vijay shouted back.

She threw her arms up in frustration, shoving Karan away from the door, "Both of you shut the fuck up!"

There was a long pause on the other side as Vijay let out a frustrated grunt, "Fine."

She released a relieved breath and swung open the front door, smiling victoriously at him, "Good boy."

Vijay pecked Kiara's forehead before removing his shoes and making a beeline for the kitchen as she followed behind him, grabbing cutlery along the way. Swaying her hips to the music, she carefully arranged the table as he crossed his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorframe.

He subtly checked her out, "Shit, if we weren't best friends, I might be slightly attracted to you right now."

She rolled her eyes in annoyance as Karan slapped the back of his head hard, "Oi, that's my sister you're chatting up."

"I didn't do anything!"

"What more do you want to do?"

"You giving me permission to do more?"

"No! No. Definitely not. Stop twisting my words."

"Then use better words!"

She slipped between them, wrapping an arm around each of their shoulders, "Dinner's ready."

Upon catching the mouth-watering scent of Kiara's cooking, her father snuck into the kitchen in an attempt to steal a bite before she plated the curry to serve but was unfortunately too late as the boys scrambled to divide their share. She laughed at the men as they comically competed with each other to grab larger portions, settling into her seat as she watched them. Deciding she couldn't be bothered to mess with them, she avoided the chicken curry and instead quietly worked her way through the remaining dishes.

Samuel smiled lovingly at her, "Sometimes I think you're the only reason we remain this close."

Karan jokingly added, "That, and we love food."

Sighing deeply, Samuel re-emphasised, "Nothing beats this– family."

Speaking through a heaping mouthful of curry and rice, Karan enthusiastically nodded, "And food."

Samuel gave in, laughing slightly, "Yes. And the food."

Having finally settled down and caught up on each other's lives, Kiara cleared away their plates and returned to serve the lime pie.

Unable to hold back anymore, Vijay blurted out, "Karan and Kriti broke up!"

Karan let out a strangled yelp as she gasped, "What?"

"She dumped me!"

"And you told Jay first?"

Vijay interjected, "He knows you hate it when he goes all man-whore."

Karan shoved him, "Dude!"

"She's your sister! She was going to notice at some point."

Ignoring their bickering, she exclaimed, "Again?"

"Yeah, I was going through a phase," he playfully tapped his chin as if pretending to think really hard; "Hey, didn't you just go through one of those?"

Vijay scratched the back of his neck, trying to evade answering, "Yeah, yeah."

Karan ran his fingers through his hair, "Look, things will fall into place on their own. If Kriti and I are meant to be then that's–"

Finishing his sentence in unison, Vijay muttered, "Unfortunate," while she said; "Unwise."

Karan gaped at them, "I was going to say 'fate' but sure, don't hold back."

Shrugging nonchalantly, Vijay leaned back, "I'm not apologising."

"Getting back together likely isn't an option anymore, anyway."

"Good."

"Okay but I might still have feelings for her."

Vijay exclaimed, "Oh my God!," then gestured to himself; "I'm suffering. Your shit is actually causing me physical pain."

Karan gave him the bird, "Fuck you."

"Would if I could."

They collectively rolled their eyes as he smirked and victoriously added, "I know the feeling is mutual."

She snorted, "Oh honey, the only feeling that's mutual is disgust."

The rest of the evening went by relatively fast and before they knew it, Vijay, Karan and Kiara were already making their way out of Samuel's house. It wasn't until she sat alone in her hotel room that she realised how much she had missed her family and that she didn't truly have one place to truly call home. While most actors were travellers, moving from one place to another and barely ever staying in the same place for longer than a few months, the one place that always felt like home was where they grew up. For majority of her life, she considered Hong Kong her home but nowadays she found herself travelling between India, Hong Kong and America with nowhere in particular to call home. 

She supposed it was a lonely way to live and while Vijay and Kiara appeared contradictory in almost all aspects, this was an opinion they both shared– though he would never admit it to anyone. It was for this reason that he took refuge in momentary pleasures like sex and alcohol. Because while her family always considered him as one of their own, it was still her family and he couldn't help but feel disconnected. Of course he never voiced these thoughts but she knew him well enough to understand when these feelings made themselves present and tonight was one of those nights. She recognised the distance he tried to put between them, could feel the sudden emptiness as he retreated to that dark place in his mind. But like every other time, she pulled him right back out from where he was drowning in misery and self-pity.

Grabbing his hand, she squeezed firmly, "I'm so grateful to have you in my life."

He smiled softly, "So am I, Kiara. So am I."

The next morning was a rush of suitcases moving back and forth from one car to another as the cast made their way to the next stop of their press tour– United Kingdom. Kiara felt a strange sense of nostalgia as she remembered her university days. It was a feeling she imagined Vijay was also experiencing, given that they had both studied in the same university. Having spent thirteen hours enclosed on an airplane, they were all looking forward to arriving as they sleepily rested in the car. Emilia, however, was practically buzzing with energy and spent the whole ride to their hotel pressed up against the car window excitedly pointing out various spots across London. 

They had been given all of today to relax and explore, which was a luxury during tightly scheduled press tours. Tomorrow morning would be full of back-to-back interviews but the cast would continue without Kiara and Vijay in the evening to accommodate their individual promotional schedules. Being invited to debut on The Graham Norton Show meant they were expected to put in double the enthusiasm during the morning promotional interviews to make up for lost time.

The car slowed to a stop in front of their hotel as each cast member moved out of the car one after the other while hundreds of fans and journalists crowded around just to get a look. Vijay glanced at Kiara, noticing her take shuddering breaths as she prepared to step out, and kissed the back of her hand before he turned to leave the car. Following after him, she inhaled deeply and plastered on her brightest smile as the camera flashes became blinding and the shouts grew deafeningly loud. She worked her way through the crowd, stopping to sign autographs and chat with fans. 

Suddenly the crowd progressively became aggressive as arms reached out attempting to grab at them. Vijay whipped his head around, frantically searching through the crowd to find Kiara and becoming increasingly anxious. She yelped as a camera bumped into her head and a reporter shoved his microphone in her face but the bodyguards were too busy trying to shove off the increasingly hostile crowd to notice. Vijay was instantly moving, moving through the crowd towards her as he shoved and yelled at people.

He wrapped his arms around her and let out a relieved breath, "Thank fuck, you're okay."

She crinkled her nose, "Quit being dramatic."

Playfully pinching Kiara's cheek and swiping her chin, Vijay laughed as he pushed the crowd aside. Suddenly the same reporter shoved his microphone into her face again and instantly, she felt the shift in Vijay's mood as his breathing fastened. Before she could stop it, his fist flew past her straight into the reporter's face as she gasped and tried to de-escalate the situation while the cameraman strained to capture everything. The idea of her being hurt only pushed Vijay further into a frenzy.

He grabbed the now bleeding cameraman by the collar and shoved the camera away from her, "Get that fucking camera out of her face."

She pulled the two men apart, tossing an apology over her shoulder as the bodyguards herded them towards the hotel, "He means all of that with a please!"

Vijay glared at the cameraman as they walked away, "You so much as look at Kiara the wrong way and I won't hold back," he strained against the bodyguards and shouted; "You got that?"

In the lobby, Henry paced back and forth as he spoke to his wife in hushed tones over the phone while Emilia and Poorna stood with their jaws practically touching the ground as they watched the disaster unfold.

As soon as they entered the hotel, Vijay immediately questioned Kiara, "Why did you say that?"

She huffed, "That was me negotiating peace on your behalf."

He whined, "But I don't want peace!"

"Too bad. I do."

He huffed and stomped away only to be faced with a furious Nicole, tapping her foot angrily against the marble floor, "You just had to go and swing, didn't you?"

He shrugged, "Going after Kiara? Bad move. They shouldn't have tried it."

Kiara held up a finger, "Uh uh. Nope. We are not doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Passing off violence as a noble act."

"It was a noble act!"

Rolling her eyes, Kiara flicked Vijay's nose and plopped down beside Jeffrey onto the lobby couch.

He peered at her, smiling faintly, "Well ain't he just sweeter than stolen honey."

She raised a brow, "That anger's going to do more harm than good."

"He's just protective of you. I'm sure he didn't mean any harm."

"Oh I think he meant a lot of harm."

He snorted, "Okay maybe he did but it comes from a place of love."

She frowned, "That's what worries me. I'm unintentionally hurting him."

"You couldn't hurt him even if you tried."

Jeffrey and Kiara both turned to watch as Nicole reprimanded Vijay, only for him to obnoxiously shove his headphones into his ears. Practically materialising out of thin air, Kabir popped up behind them and handed both Kiara and Vijay a copy of their itineraries for this week as his fingers frantically tapped at his phone screen. 

Noticing the busy environment as their colleagues drowned in preparations from their respective PR managers, agents and assistants, Vijay held a finger up to his mouth, indicating to stay silent, and grabbed her hand as they snuck away to their rooms. Quickly shooting a message into their group chat regarding evening plans, they high fived each other to celebrate their successful escape plan before separating to their respective hotel rooms for some much needed rest.

After settling in and changing into new outfits, Kiara met up with Jeffrey, Vijay and Emilia in the hotel lobby as they prepared to go out for dinner. Both Poorna and Henry decided to opt out of tonight's activities as they were exhausted from travelling. The girls linked arms, giving each other once overs as they complemented their outfits. Kiara barely had enough time to react when a little boy ran into her, accidentally drawing a line across the bottom of her white dress with his red marker.

His mother ran over and tugged him away, scolding, "I told you to sit still!," before haphazardly apologising, "I'm so sorry."

Kiara squatted to be at eye-level with the boy, now bawling his eyes out, and gently removed the marker from his hold, "Hey there, handsome. Do you think it was appropriate to run around with this?"

He shook his head, taking shuddering breaths as he tried to stop crying, "No."

She stuck out her pinkie finger, "How about you promise not to repeat this and I'll show you a magic trick?"

Excitedly linking pinkies with her, he nodded, "Okay, I promise!"

"Watch this," she said, taking the marker and drawing an identical curved line on her dress that connected with the accidental mark to form a heart-shaped design.

He smiled reticently, "What is it?"

"A heart! No matter what happens, always find the silver lining. Okay?"

Wrapping his arms around her neck, he gave her a quick hug before shyly pulling away, "Okay."

His mother glanced over her dress worriedly, "Please let me pay for your dry-cleaning."

She clasped the woman's hands, "No, no, no! Don't even worry about it."

The mother looked up, realising who her son had run into, and stammered, "Oh God! Kiara Mathew! Th-thank you so much, K-Kiara."

Waving goodbye to the boy and his mother, Kiara joined the others as they shook their heads at her antics.

Vijay pinched her cheek and swiped her chin, "That's my girl. You're just a big ol' softy aren't you, sweetheart."

She blushed, awkwardly shoving him away, "Shut up!"

Eighth chapter doneee! Please don't forget to vote and I always look forward to your comments!!