P.s: This chapter is a result of a sleepless night and a few of Abir's shayaris. It's more like a filler chapter, with apparently a little happier Mishbir - together. And a little of Kunal and Ketki too. There are so many people, and so many perspectives, I always feel like I am loosing on something. But anyway, this is it. Happy reading.

Kunal couldn't remember the last time he had actually fallen asleep. It all seemed like it had been going on in for centuries, while it's been what? Hardly Three days?

Three days ago he found out he wasn't Meenakshi Rajvansh's son, and everything fell apart. Yet, it hadn't hurt him as much that morning as it hurt him right now to see his elder brother writhing in pain,but in absolute silence. Kunal was yet to wrap his head around what Abir had revealed hours ago.

Mishti had tried to harm herself.

Kunal sucked in a deep breath as the realization dawned on him that if by chance anything would have happened to her, there wasn't any way Abir would see the light of another day. It had taken Kunal this breakup and the last two months to grasp that what Abir shared with Mishti wasn't just love. It was almost a sacred devotion that those two had for each other - they really were the light of each other's lives. You do them apart and neither was gonna survive. He rubbed his forehead, trying to relieve the headache a bit when he heard the washroom door and Abir finally opened it after five hours. Kunal breathed in sheer relief to see his brother standing on his own feet by the door, but that relief was extremely short lived because he realized Abir was slightly swaying in air.

"Bhai", he acted on impulse and held his brother by his shoulders, helping him to the bed.

"Time? What's the time?", Abir mumbled in a whisper, finding it hard to keep his eyes open.

"It's four in the morning", Kunal answered, and the something striked him, "When was the last time you ate something Bhai? Have you had anything today?"

Abir frowned at the question, trying to remember if he had. He remembered having breakfast with Kunal and Mishti  yesterday at the resort. Then they had all returned back, and the showdown had happened. He had skipped lunch and eventually dinner yesterday. Today he had woken up late and immediately left the house - every second here had felt like a heavy weight on his chest. Mishti had found him in the temple, they hadn't had lunch and returned to her home in the evening. And then, with whatever he had got to know, dinner was a long forgotten business.

His lack of answer was an answer enough for Kunal. He felt tears stinging the back of his eyes looking at his brother.

"I will bring you something to eat", Kunal spoke and was about to leave when Abir stopped him.

"I have to meet Mishti at six, I can't keep her waiting", Abir was restless as he looked at the watch. Kunal nodded, promising him, "You won't, I promise". Abir looked at Kunal for a long moment before tearing his eyes away and resting his head on the pillow. In another minute, the exhaustion has lured him to sleep, but a burning pain in his right wrist kept him aware of his surroundings even through the dreamless sleep.

Kunal stood in the kitchen and dabbed his plams over his eyes to hold his tears. His heart was hurting so bad, but he couldn't scream it out. Earlier, even through the minute moments of grief he would latch on to his brother and let his warmth mend everything in his world, but this time Abir was destroyed for worse, and Kunal could not possibly keep his selfish need to be held over his brother. But did that selflessness made him feel any better? It certainly didn't.

It still continued to hurt just as much.

Pulling himself from his funk, Kunal tried to breathe deep and concentrate on what he could possibly feed Abir at this hour of the day. If the roles were reversed, Abir would probably make him his famous noodles, like always. It was their thing - Abir's way to sometimes manofy Kunal and sometimes comfort him. But Kunal knew nothing about the Kitchen. He wasn't certain if he could lit up the gas even.

Approaching footsteps made him look up and he sighed in sheer relief to see Ketki standing near the entrance of the kitchen.

"Ketu, thank God you are awake. Please help me fix something for Bhai, he hasn't eaten-", Kunal's ramble was cut short when Ketki ran towards him and wrapped him in her embrace. Kunal was frozen for a moment but it was something he needed desperately at the moment, he hadn't even realized that his cheeks were wet all this while he was talking to Ketki.

Ketki had always lived an extraordinary sheltered life, and sometimes it had made her question her existence too, for nobody except Abir and sometimes Kunal seem to even value her opinions or her thoughts. But today as Kunal finally fell to his knees, she continued to hold him and rub his back, taking over the situation and trying her best to comfort him. She made him have some water first and then quickly fixed a plate of cheese sandwiches for Abir with a glass of juice. Together, the duo walked up the stairs to Abir's room, but found him asleep.

Kunal saw the time, it was almost five thirty.

"Should we wake him up?", Ketki asked doubtfully, but Kunal knew it wasn't a option.

"We have to. He has to meet Mishti at six and at this point in their lives, I don't think he would forgive us if he is a minute late", Kunal sighed and Ketki nodded in understanding.

Together they managed to wake Abir up, and have him eat at least one sandwich and half the juice. Abir felt nauseated even for that, but looking at the distressed face of his siblings he somehow ate what he could before quickly changing into a full sleeved shirt and his black jeans, and running out of the house with his jeep keys.

He couldn't wait to see Mishti again.

-------

Nishant entered the house post his morning jog, and almost fell on the sofa tired. His eyes scanned through the house and wasn't really surprised to see nobody was really up, even though it was nearing eight in the morning. Everybody had had a rough night, and probably slept quite late, so he decided to surprise everyone with special breakfast today.

Smiling to himself he fetched his phone from the pocket of his joggers and switched on the internet. A lot of notifications flooded his phone but a series of Whatsapp messages from Ketki caught his attention.

She wanted to meet Mishti later today, so she wanted him to let her know when Mishti and Abir returned from their early morning date.

Nishant frowned. The message was sent at 6 in the morning.

Mishti had a date with Abir?

He jumped out of the sofa and ran to Mishti's room, only to find her sleeping, with Naira cuddling her. Kartik was sleeping on Kuhu's bed. Nishant slightly shook Mishti, making her whine a little but eventually she managed to open her eyes and look at him.

"What do you want early in the morning Nannu?", Mishti complained, still wanting to go back to sleep. She hadn't had such a good night's sleep in a while, and Naira's warmth as she continued to hold Mishti close felt home.

"Didn't you have a date with your lover boy?", Nishant asked straight away, and Mishti sat up with a jerk, waking Naira in the process.

"Shit, what's the time?", she haphazardly tried to locate her phone or her table clock but Nishant answered it for her, chuckling at her reaction.

"Ten minutes past eight", Mishti didn't even wait for him to say anything anymore and jumped out of the bed, fetched her clothes and into the washroom.

Naira looked at Nishant confused, who only laughed, sitting on Mishti's bed, and patted Naira back to sleep. Kartik didn't even bother waking up with all the noise anyway. His beauty sleep was precious.

Mishti walked out in her signature black track suit and halted in front of the mirror as she put her spectacles on. A slight smile lit her face as she adjusted her favorite pair of spectacle. After a long time, she was beginning to feel like herself again, and even though she knew it was a very small growth to how she woke up every morning otherwise, she respected the growth like her therapist had taught her. Every step, no matter how small was important.

She hurriedly applied her lotion and lined her eyes with her kohl stick, before putting on her favorite fragrance. Satisfied, she picked up her phone and ran out, trying to call Abir in the way. The phone kept ringing but nobody seemed to answer.

"Ajeeb Rajvansh! Why do you keep the phone if you won't answer it on time!", she blabbered to herself, peddling her cycle faster wanting to reach the lake side as soon as she could. She didn't even know if Abir was still there or had already left. It was two and a half hours past the original time. To top that he would not answer her calls or messages. It worried her and it scared her at the same time.

What if she reached there and realized she wasn't worth the wait to him?

What if he had left, angry at her for being so late?

Or maybe, what if he had slept in too? Forgot about their supposed meeting?

Was she strong enough to take another heartbreak, no matter how tiny, at that very spot that had broken her heart like a fragile mirror before?

A part of her heart told her she was worrying without a reason, Abir wouldn't do any of that to her, but another saner part of her mind was in splits. He had done it before, why couldn't he do it again? She had given him all of herself, and he had used that as an opportunity to break her trust - in herself and in himself, in the worst way possible. What made her so sure he wouldn't or couldn't mess up again?

Suddenly Mishti felt her palms sweating, and her breaths getting heavier. She began to peddle slow, trying to relax herself, counting back from hundred to one in her mind. She would reach now any moment and she would be able to see for herself if her heart won or her mind.

The sheer relief that she felt to her bones when she saw his jeep parked outside, was something she would never be able to find words for. She somehow managed to park her cycle properly and made a mad dash inside, where she could see him sitting on the bench.

Abir turned his head on hearing the rustle of leaves and hastened footsteps and stood up with an ear to ear grin when he saw Mishti running towards him. Before he knew she had ran into his arms, breathing heavily but smiling against his chest as she rubbed her nose in. His hands tightened around her too, as a reflex, all the mad thoughts crawling inside his mind suddenly gone away.

"I am sorry I overslept", Mishti pouted breaking the hug feeling a lot better already , and finally meeting his eyes as he shook his head to dismiss her unneeded apology.

"You came", his voice was full of wonder and awe as he continued to stare at her, holding her by her shoulders, looking at her with so much adoration, like she would disappear the moment he looked elsewhere - it made her cheeks slightly flush.

Abir on the other hand finally relaxed, the knot in his stance opening up. A huge part of his mind had began to believe she would not come, she was anyway better off without him - and those thoughts were scary if nothing else.

"Ofcourse I came", Mishti shrugged before slapping his chest slightly, "and If you had the decency to pick your phone you would have known I was late", her nose flared as she glared at him in mock anger.

"Phone?", Abir realized when she asked that he had forgotten to bring his phone, "I guess I forgot to bring it".

Mishti raised a brow, shaking her head again. This man was really Ajeeb. Who in his right mind forgets to keep his phone with himself? She shuddered thinking the one time she did - Badi Maa had literally turned the entire house upside down.

Abir looked on guiltily. He couldn't explain that his entire purpose of keeping a phone was Mishti, and after her, he had again gotten callous with it. Didn't throw it away, but he wasn't particular about it either. There was no one waiting for him to answer it, reply back anyway. For him, it was always her.

Mishti didn't need to be told that though, she could just read his explanation in his eyes. It wasn't much of a surprise to be honest. His family has lived with not knowing his whereabouts for so long, it was only her insistence that he had finally brought himself a phone - so that she wouldn't worry about him, so that she had a way to contact him. Without her it wasn't so much of a shock to know he forgot about his phone.

But he didn't say that out loud, and she didn't acknowledge it out loud too. They understood each other's predicaments and that was enough for them.

Mishti noticed how Abir had put out a nice, fluffy picnik mat for them under the shade of the banyan tree. She grinned and held his hand, dragging him to the spot. Removing her shoes she immediately settled down and pulled him with her. In another minute, Abir's back was to the tree and Mishti was sitting with her head on his chest, his right arm draped around her, while she played with the hem of his sleeves of the left hand, for which he was relieved.

It was finally time for their pending conversation.