There was a knock on the hotel room door and Riddhima pulled her head back, allowing Armaan to get up. He had been patting her head absentmindedly running his fingers through it and she didn't stop him. It felt good. It was almost a gentle head massage for her. He opened the door and let the employee in. He put the bowl of cold water and a hand towel on the table. Then, he even put two hot cocoas and dinner on the other table. Armaan thanked him when he asked if they needed anything else. The man left, pulling the door shut behind him.

Armaan turned to Riddhima. "Come, eat something first." He helped her get up as she refused to let her hands out of the sleeves of his hoodie which were ofcourse too big on her and covered her hands. He didn't even ask her to and went on to feed her a morsel of soup. There were many things on her mind which she pushed away. She didn't want to think. She would move her eyes away from him and on the TV screen to avoid looking at his eyes. She was not going to be hypnotized right now by staring into his eyes.

Once again, she was finding herself to be completely lost in him. It was one of the reasons she had left three years ago, wasn't it? She didn't want to lose herself in her feelings for him. And yet... here she was again!

The aftertaste of the soup made her realize she had just been played. Armaan had mixed the medicine in it. She was about to complain when he gave her a narrow look which silenced her. Even she knew that he knew that she wouldn't take the medicine any other way, if not tricked. "Aren't you going to have your dinner?" She asked seeing the plate of pasta untouched. Ever since the food came, he had only been feeding her.

"I will," He told her and put the empty bowl of soup on the table. Taking the bowl of cold water, he dipped the hand towel in it. He knew it'd be too cold for her, but it had to be done. He didn't have the heart to measure her temperature. Just feeling it, and his instincts of a doctor told him it was higher than normal fever. "What?"

Smiling, she answered the reason she had been looking at him with interest, "Who would've thought a famous celebrity would spend his vacation in Goa holed up in a hotel room taking care of a sick person?"

Though she was trying to tease, he genuinely smiled back. "I'm just Armaan, basket. Always just Armaan for you."

It didn't matter what his public figure was, how much his fan following was, how much he earned, or the places he had been to for his concerts. For her, he had always been a simple boy who could share his deepest secrets and fears with without a second thought of being judged or made fun of. Okay, yes. She did tease him a lot. But it was all in good humor. It wasn't teasing in the form of bullying. For her, he was always going to remain that next door guy she had known her whole life.

"Now, close your eyes, please." He added in a soft voice when the teasing left her eyes at his sincere words. He understood she must have felt the depth behind his words. Riddhima listened and just a few seconds after that, she felt the cold and damp towel on her forehead. Her eyes flew open. It was way too cold. "It'll get better," He assured with a soothing voice. She knew she'd get used to the cold towel after it had been there for over some time.

After a while, she simply let the heavy sleep in her eyes take over. She figured it must be from the medicine she'd taken. She only remembered him changing the towel four times before she had fallen asleep.

With the sneezes that had stopped, he figured out that she had fallen asleep. He turned the TV off and the lights as well, leaving only the lamp light on.

Though, he didn't leave her side. He took the towel off of her forehead and allowed her skin some time to return to normal so he could check her temperature again. Ofcourse, if he touched her forehead right away, it would be cold. In sleep, she shivered a bit. He grew an instantaneous dislike for the night weather. He sat the other way so instead of facing her, he would be sitting in the same direction in which she was sleeping. He slipped his feet under the blanket and lifted her head from the pillow to rest it on his chest. Once again, he rubbed her arms and palm.

While later, he put his hand on her forehead and felt a little bit of relief. Her temperature wasn't back to normal to say the least, but it had gone a little down. As long as it wasn't increasing, it was good news for him.

Riddhima stirred in sleep and as her neck was in an awkward position. The soreness woke her up. In the dim light coming from the lamp, she saw her head was on his chest. She pulled herself up on her elbow and tried to recall when he moved next to her. Even though she had managed to pull back a little on her palm, his hands were around her, securing her tightly against him.

"Armaa-" She began to call him out of his sleep. Unless and otherwise he himself moved it, she knew she had no energy to free herself.

"Shh. Go back to sleep." Armaan replied. His eyes were still closed. She couldn't tell if he was awake or if he was simply talking in sleep.

Reluctantly, Riddhima let her hand rest back on his chest. He shifted down so he wasn't half-sitting and was completely laying down on the bed. With him, she too was now laying down, only, her head was on him and not the pillow.

"Feeling better?" He asked as his hands went up to her forehead to check for fever. Once he said that, she knew he had woken up but wasn't opening his eyes.

"Hmmm..." was all that she managed to reply. The sleep from the medication was gone and she wasn't sneezing as much as before either. She was able to think and she couldn't understand Armaan's actions.

"Your fever's down." He muttered in sleep. "Not completely normal though."

"Didn't you have some 'reading' to do?" It was the reason he had given to everyone for staying and not going with them.

He opened his eyes at that and glanced down at her, "It's not as important as you." He saw the change in her eyes. He ran his hands over them, closing them. "Now, back to sleep."

She reopened her eyes. "Just one more question?"

He had to smile at her stubbornness. She never quite listened to him. She's always push him for questions. "It can wait till tomorrow." Despite not wanting to, she had to close her eyes and call sleep back to her.

His thumb grazing back and forth on her arm, he too fell back into slumber minutes later embracing her familiar presence he had deeply missed over the years. All he hoped was that he would be successful in what he wanted to do. He only had a week left to himself before his life would no longer be his once again.

===

Riddhima and Armaan's pictures snapped at the calendar launch and the two of them leaving the launch together were once again a part of Page 3 news in the Entertainment section of the papers. In the last few weeks, they had made the news multiple times. Often, it was of them leaving in the morning for college. Or snapped somewhere in the city: going to the studio, coming out of the studio, some café where they had lunch with friends, and so on.

Seeing that Armaan was often snapped with her, the negatives that had been published in the first few days following the album launch had died out. Armaan had also revealed that the female voice in the audio album was Riddhima, since the official music video wasn't yet published on YouTube. Everyone wanting to learn more about Riddhima were now following her whereabouts, trying to get a quote from her. Fortunately, she was always either in classes or in the hospital or with their friends. And whenever around the studio, she was with Armaan and his entourage would make sure they weren't bothered.

That night, Armaan was filling out some forms for college to pull out of the program. Riddhima was on the bed on her stomach, her song book in front of her. Though, as always, she was writing on spare pages before going ahead to add the lyrics to the song book. Armaan looked up from his packet when he felt yet another ball of paper hit the back of his head.

"Basket, you've never wasted so many pages. Be a little environmental friendly and do test runs of your lyrics on the laptop." He chided her, picking up the ball of crumbled page and throwing it in the small trashcan in the corner of the room.

"Eh, no lectures right now." She stopped him, for she was writing something that meant a lot to her, but just wasn't satisfied.

He put the packet aside, walking to the bed and jumping on it on his stomach as well. "What are you writing anyway?"

"Just... something." She answered vaguely, for it wasn't her usual romantic lyrics. They were more meaningful, and she wanted to get them right. After seeing Khushi tonight, she had felt the need to right something that would call out to her. Till now, she only put down her feelings into words. Now, she wanted to try and put someone else's feelings into words.

He suggested when she crossed out a line on the new sheet of paper and went to crumple that up as well. "You've obviously hit a mind block. How about we sleep and you can continue this tomorrow?"

She shook her head, sitting up and pulling a pillow on her lap. Placing the book on top of it, she objected. "No, I need to get this out tonight. That feeling is stuck in my heart."

"Let me see, maybe I can help?"

She shook her head again, hiding the page that had the most written on it. "No, not yet."

He looked into her conflicting eyes and understood what she wanted. She didn't want to be rude, but she also wanted to be left alone. He gave her that space, knowing she would come talk to him or share these lyrics when she was satisfied with him. He nodded, sat up as well and pressed his lips over her temple. "It's okay, basket. Wake me up if you need me to talk you to sleep, okay?"

He let her know and she answered in an affirmative, though it hadn't happened for a long time. Lately, they'd both be just so exhausted that they'd go to bed right away without her feeling the need to talk so her mind could rest from worrying.

She had the day off tomorrow given it was the weekend. She decided even if she couldn't sleep on her own, she'd let it be. She didn't have to be in her right mind frame tomorrow.

She didn't realize when two hours passed by before she was finally satisfied that what she wanted to tell Khushi, what she wanted her to follow had been penned down to the best of her ability.

Putting the book away on his desk and making a detour to the kitchen for water, she returned to bed and slipped inside the blankets after turning off the lights. She inched closer to him and even in sleep, he shifted to wrap his arm around her. She rested her head on his bare chest, snuggling in to the warmth and closing her eyes.

Sleep came easily to her.

She was learning that slowly by slowly, her state of insomnia was fading away just by having Armaan back in her life – this time was much more than a friend. To add to it, her main concern for Khushi was diminishing as Khushi was returning to being her own self instead of pulling away from the world and hiding behind an invisible barrier.

===

Khushi was taking the dresses and other things they'd bought out of the shopping bags and in their suitcases. She came across a musical notes charm bracelet. "Riddhima, where did you buy this?" She turned and held it up. "It's pretty! Kind of matches that charm on your necklace."

Riddhima was shocked seeing it. She hadn't. She soon understood there was only one person who would. Impulsive anger got the best of her and she took it from Khushi and left the room. Just then, Angad entered. He asked, "What's wrong with her?"

Khushi shrugged, just as confused as him.

Riddhima entered the boys' room and held up the bracelet in front of Armaan after turning him in the chair he was sitting on and taking off his headphones. "What is this?"

He looked at her as if she was asking a rhetorical question. "Uh... a bracelet?"

It only angered Riddhima further. "I know that. Why did you buy it?" When they were out shopping earlier, she had admired it in the store, but hadn't bought it. It was a bit out of her price range. Even if it weren't, it wasn't something she needed. It was just something that had caught her eyes due to the similarity Khushi mentioned – it went well with the charm on her necklace.

"How can you be so sure it was me?"

"Armaan, please! Don't play those games. Just answer my question."

"Because I wanted to," he simply stated nonchalantly.

She was taken aback with the reply. She didn't know what kind of a response she was expecting, but it wasn't this. "Why? Armaan, you just don't get up out of the blue and decide to buy an expensive 9000 rupees bracelet." Like she said, out of her price range.

He turned away from her and took his book from the desk before sitting down on the bed and opening it to a random page to read it. "Like I told you, I wanted to." Riddhima pulled the book out of his hand and held it behind her when he tried to get it back. She wasn't leaving till he replied. She wasn't going to have him divert the topic either by ignoring her and reading a book. "Riddhima, my book."

"Armaan, my answer," She replied in the same stern tone.

"I've already given that to you. Now, my book."

"That doesn't answer my question. You're not getting your book back until you do." She was determined to get the answer. They hadn't had an argument ever since they had gotten back. Riddhima seemed to have forgotten what he was capable of. He clenched his teeth and got up, forcing her to take a step back from the bed.

"Riddhima, give-me-my-book-back," He spoke out each word. When she didn't, he grabbed her hand which was behind her and with his other hand, he tried to snatch the book. She struggled to not let him snatch it and hold on to it with all her strength. "Riddhima... give it back," He whispered looking into her eyes with a dangerous glare that could have scared anyone but her.

She stopped trying to struggle against him as she winced. Neither had he known nor did she acknowledge until then how strong his hold on her wrist was. She winced once it started to burn. He too realized when she looked to her side trying to look at her hand which was twisted behind her. He loosened his grip on her wrist but didn't let her go completely. He was going to get the book back.

She had another way of winning. She let go of the book and stepped back. When he had the book, he let go of her wrist as well. "Fine then, have your book and your bracelet. I'll take my question back with me."

It was Armaan's turn to get angry; not that Riddhima wasn't still mad. "What am I going to do with this bracelet?"

She turned to face him. "You should have thought of that before you bought it." She gave him a challenging look.

He started taking steps towards her. She started walking back. He continued to retrace her steps till her back hit the wall. "Are you mad at me because I bought this or because I bought this for you?"

In that moment, she didn't know why exactly she was mad. Why she really mad at him because he had bought her something she liked? Or was it because he spent all that money on it? She couldn't decide. On top, forced to look into his eyes was weakening her inner resolve. She moved to her right to leave, but he blocked her way. He repeated the same to her left. Trapped with his arms at both sides of her, the wall behind and him in front, she had no place to escape to.

She found her voice to whisper the words to him. "Armaan... move."

"Not before I get my answer."

"I asked you one first," She tried to get her way out of the situation.

"And now, I'm asking. Besides, you took your question back; even though I think I've already answered it."

He had. He had told her he bought it for her when he questioned if that was why she was mad. She had no further rebuttals on not wanting to answer the question. Her face tightened before she spoke, "Fine, even if you've answered my question, I am not accepting the bracelet. You can return it tomorrow."

He smugly informed, "If I remember correct, a board on the shop read 'no refunds'."

"Then exchange it for something you'd like."

"There was only one thing I liked from that shop." He threw the challenge back at her, leaning in to whisper in her ear. She hated that her blood was pulsing and rushing her heart beats. "Now, you don't really want 9000 rupees to go to waste, do you?"

Glad that her hands were free, she pushed him back, knowing he had eased up and wasn't expecting her to. "I'm sure one of your girlfriends would love to have such an expensive gift."

He did not like what she said – girlfriends. He circled her wrist and pulled her to him. Her back crashed against his chest. Holding on to her hand, he walked a stop towards the bed and took the bracelet. She tried to pull her hand back seeing what he was doing, but he glared at her. "Stop," It was an order.

He had circled the bracelet around her wrist and was fastening the ends. "I don't want it." She remained adamant trying to twist her wrist out of his grasp.

"I didn't say I was taking 'no' for an answer." He turned her hand up and shifted the bracelet so the front showed in the right place. He let his fingers linger on the inside of her wrist for a second longer briefly running it over her pulsing nerve. "There. Now, you don't really know why you're mad at me. So just accept it, will you?"

She didn't know what else she'd have to do before he got the message that she didn't want it. Why did she not want it? She didn't know. He was right about that. Even though it had been years, he could still read her. She didn't buy it herself because it was expensive, for a bracelet. She didn't like the fact that he bought it, again, because it was expensive. She began to unlatch it using one hand. He sighed and pulled her hand away from it. "Consider it an early birthday present."

She tried to control her anger. "Armaan, birthday gifts are not this expensive."

"I believe a combined gift of three yours would be." Who was to explain to her that he would buy her everything in the world he could afford if she'd just let him? This birthday gift was just an excuse.

She didn't buy his answer, ofcourse. She squinted her brows together, for he seemed to have an answer ready for everything. How was she to explain to him that she didn't want him spending such money on her impulsively? He couldn't buy things for her just because she had stopped in a random shop and admired it for a second longer than normal.

===