"Sometimes you search for love in words, and ignore the gestures, forgetting the fact that 'I love you' isn't always love".

Nandini sat on her bed, her head tilted back at an awkward angle, as she gazed outside the window, her eyes fixed on the moon. A deep and painful sigh escaped her lips.

"Why can't we have an alarm button to know what action of ours is going to hurt someone dear?", She whispered to the moon, but didn't get an answer. Her welled up eyes started leaking, and tears rolled off her cubby cheeks, falling down her chin.

"How could I be that selfish? Why didn't I know I will fall for the man I had been wounding that badly? Why is destiny so complicated?", She sobbed, but, alas, some questions didn't have an answer.

She clutched the hem of her skirt in her fists, resting her head on her bent knees, weeping lowly so that no sound escaped the vicinity of her room. The pale face of Manik, when he had spoken to her in the office, his pain, his weakness, everything was eating her inside. She didn't know for how long she wept, maybe until her heart felt light enough to just pump blood and not mess with her emotions, and Nandini drifted to sleep, the moonlight enhancing the beauty of her pretty face.

Manik woke up sometime later at night, thirsty. He sat up, rubbing his eyes, but was disappointed to find the side jug empty. He stood up, and walked down, filling the jug from the kitchen, and gulped a glass of water quenching his thirst. He was about to keep the empty bottle back in fridge when his eyes fell on a bar of crackle kept inside. Manik frowned. It had been so long that he had have chocolates at home, especially tucked in fridge like that. His mind travelled back into his memories, a decade back.

A grumpy seventeen year old Manik was sitting on Nandini's bed, while a seventeen year old Nandini was giggling looking at him.

" Why the hell are you laughing?", He snapped at her, watching her walk towards the mini fridge kept in her room.

"Well, there are a variety of reasons, but mainly because you love my laugh", she winked, and he fought his urge to smile back at her. Nandini then walked back to him, holding a bar of crackle in front of his eyes, and as soon as he saw it, he snatched the choclate munching on it with a happy glinter in his eyes. All the anger, and the grumpiness flew away of her large window.

" It's so easy to make you smile Manik", Nandini laughed but Manik paid no heed until he finished the bar.

"Thats because I don't want you to do extra hard work in pleasing me", he teased her and Nandini threw her barbie pillow at him.

"I don't want to please you anyway", she retorted, and Manik laughed harder.

"Yeah right. Whether helps you sleep better", he smirked before lying down on her bed, and drifting off to sleep in a matter of a few minutes.

Nandini sighed when he slept. She knew it was bothering him, watching his father standing out of their school every weekened. God knew whom did he came to pick up, without sparing a glance at his own son! Nandini cringed at the thought, and walked up to sit beside him, running her fingers in his meesy hairs. Manik relaxed a little more and hugged the pillow tighter in his sleep.

Nandini took out her phone to place an online order of a carton full of crackle bars. Manik had a lot of weird habits, and she had been the one to tease the hell out of him for them. She knew a bar of crackle helped him sleep better, especially at night. And that day onwards, she made sure to slip a few of them into his fridge everyday so that he could have them when he went for his midnight snacks, and sleep better.

They never talked about those chocolates and Nandini always presumed that Manik thought they were from his mother. But Manik had always known it was her, right since the day he had seen her 'my orders' list in her amazon account.

A wave of cool wind broke his reverie and he found the kitchen window open. Closing it, he was about to walk back upstairs when his eyes fell on the door to Nandini's room. Tempted, he walked in to find her sleeping uncomfortable in a sitting position. On a closer look, he could see the dried tear marks on her otherwise pink chubby cheeks. A wave of guilt struck him.

Earlier only he was suffering, but now with the truth all of them were suffering. No matter what, he could never deny that, Nandini's tears always acted acid to his heart, always!

Placing his hands under her knees and supporting her head, he made her lie down on the bed properly, wiped her cheeks, and covered her with the duvet. The frowns on her forehead were still prominent. Manik sat beside her and patted her head, watching them disappeaer as she slept peacefully.

Soemtimes he wondered how deeply have they both known each other to understand such minute and intimate details about each other. He just knew reflexly that patting her head lulls her to deep sleep, like she just knew a crackle helps him sleep better. A painful breath escaped him looking at her.

Why did they have to drift apart that way? Why had he to be so sensitive to these emotions?

Manik left her room some time later, munching on the chocolate and somehow it brought a smile on his face. He drifted into a peaceful sleep some time later.

A few kilometres away, Shiwali was still awake, going through some books. She didn't want to miss any point in trea-, bringing him back to life. She read and re read similar cases, made notes, forwarded mails to her seniors abroad. Now that the hopes had increased, she wanted to give her hundred percent. Her gaze faltered to her phone, and she desperately wanted to call someone, anyone for that matter and talk. But she had no other freinds. She had had only one friend the last seven years, Manik, other than a few acquaintances at her college and hospital. And it was fine before, because Manik made sure to talk to her atleast once in a day, but that day, the call never came. She waited and waited and waited, her heart crumbling in fear, as loneliness started seeping in her veins, but alas, nobody came to rescue. And with that the realization dawned on her too- she had made a single person the center of her own universe too, just like Manik had, but what broke her heart all over again is the realization that they were two different person and not each other.

Around half and hour later, Shiwali felt asleep, hugging her pillow, hiding her face into it. Life was going to be tough now, and she needed to be prepared for it.

----

The morning sun woke up Nandini with its heat and she yawned as her hand travelled to her side to fetch her phone. She slided the lock and her eyes widened.

10:30 am.

Shit! She sat up abruptly when her eyes fell on the date. It was a sunday, thank God! She got up from the bed and was about to move towards the washroom when her face broke into the widest smile.

For on the couch of her room lay a bouquet of stargazers, the one she had demanded from him when they first met after so many years. It also had a note.

"I also remembered the kulfi, but it might melt by the time you wake up. Sleepyhead as always!:-)"

Nandini laughed at it, and ran her nimble fingers over it again and again. His handwriting had changed in all these years, but she could still recognise it. The curves and the font was more or less the same. She kept it in her drawer and smelled her favorite flowers, happily tucking them in her bedside vase. The morning had started on an extremely beautiful note for her!

Manik on the other hand was feeling happy finally accepting it aloud that he yet cared for Nandini, even after all these years, and he had not forgotten anything either. He was ecstatic, and he was continuously calling Shiwali who was not picking up. She wasn't a late riser, and it worried him.

He walked down, still dialling her number when he saw Pakhi reading the morning newspaper. Pakhi looked up at him and smiled, calling him by stretching her hand. Manik smiled and sat near her, resting her head on her shoulder.

"What happened?", Pakhi inquired, watching his gaze fixed up on his phone.

" Shiwi is not picking up my call", he pouted and Pakhi sighed.

" She is busy. She called me a little while ago, and instructed me about your meals and medications. She said she would be busy today", Pakhi ruffled his hairs, and Manik frowned.

" It's sunday Maa, and it's our day. How can she be busy?", He questioned, confused. Shiwali had never missed a sunday with him, no matter how tiring her schedule had been, even when he tried pushing het away, she had sticked to him.

Pakhi could somehow see what Manik and probably Nandini couldn't. She understood what Shiwali was doing and it made her worried for her too.

Nandini came down at the same moment, in a beautiful sundress, happiness radiating her face.

" Good morning", she chirped and Manik smiled in response, while Pakhi just nodded. Nandini gulped but stayed quiet.

" What's up for breakfast?", She asked again, and Manik's stomach grumbled at the question, making both women laugh. Pakhi stood up to serve breakfast, her mind still on Shiwali and her hands mechanically doing her chores.

A few minutes later after breakfast, Pakhi was washing the dishes when Nandini came and stood behind her.

" Maa? What's wrong?", She asked. She didn't call Pakhi maa for namesake, both of them were really close to each other. Pakhi looked up at her, in a delimma. Nandini kept her gaze persistent though.

" I am worried, about Shiwali".