Few years later...

"Okay, you know what? This isn't working anymore. I am SO done!" Aashi yelled, banging the spoon on the kitchen counter, a furious look on her face.

"What happened? I did not do anything now," Abeer said from the other side of the kitchen, slicing onions for his eggplant curry.

"That is your problem! You never do anything," Aashi practically screamed, making Abeer flinch at her tone. Abeer turned to face his wife of twenty five years, strands of hair falling off from her tight braided bun, looking exceptionally irate with him. Or perhaps it was the universe? Abeer wasn't sure. It was a look he had seen a lot on her face in the last two decades. Especially after their daughter was born, Aashi had a perpetual scowl on her face for most of the days. And it took all his strength to cajole his wife to let go their daughter's mischiefs and get her to calm down. Not that he was complaining, he secretly liked seeing her all worked up and then getting her to cool down with his smiles and out-of-place touches.

"Why do you say so?" Abeer asked calmly, managing to put enough amount of anxiety in his voice. After twenty-five years, he had mastered the art of talking to his angry wife.

"Why? I have to be the freaking bad cop all the time, ever since Abha was tiny! And you get to be the cool dad! This isn't fair; I'm always the strict, pissed mom who nags at her and restricts her from doing things! Sometimes you ought to be that parent!" Aashi growled, looking downright livid. Abeer had transitioned from a quiet, handsome hunk to a cool dad magnificently. Whereas Aashi had only developed headaches and an affinity to a hoarse throat in the last two decades.

"Aashi," Abeer said smoothly and stalked towards her with THAT look in his eyes. The look that, even after twenty-five years, made her go absolutely nuts. It was cruel what a look from him could do to her.

"Don't," she warned, her finger pointed threateningly at him.

"Don't what?" Abeer said slyly and pulled her by her waist, her hands resting on his chest.

"Don't do this," she said crossly, eyeing him angrily.

"You're talking in circles today, Aashi. What has gotten into you?" Abeer laughed internally at his wife's annoyed look and pulled her closer to him, enjoying the warmth of her body. It surprised him how much she affected him even now. And it satisfied him to no end how much he affected her after two entire decades of togetherness. Abeer planted a kiss on her jaw, moving along the jawline to her earlobe, where he nibbled at it, just the way she liked it. His heart purred at the way she shivered in his arms. He was about to proceed to her neck when he felt resistance.

"Not now! Abha might see!" Aashi hissed, making him rest his cheek alongside hers.

"You've changed into a shy woman, Aashi. I didn't think you had it in you to be one," he whispered in her ears, forcing her to shift away from his warmth.

"No, I'm still the same," she said firmly, looking straight at him, fire blazing in her chocolate brown orbs. It was true. Aashi's spirit had remained just as it was the first time he had met her all those years ago. The first time he had fallen in love with the fire behind her eyes, the pure spirit of her being. It enthralled him how much he loved her. And everything about her. He pushed away and looked at her, really looked at her. Sometimes, he forgot how attractive his wife was. Wife. Aashi. Those two words sounded musical together. He had simply dreamt of days like this, when he would flirt, tease and make her blush, and then she would make him blush even harder. He had no idea that everything would fall in perfect tandem, and he would be living his dreams one day. It was a rare gift; being able to live your dreams. He had been lucky enough to have that. "But you're drifting away from the point," Aashi's voice brought him back from his dreamland, making him look at her.

"And the point is...?" He asked, his arms still circled around her.

"That the room is closed. Closed!" Aashi said, her eyes frantic.

He sighed. "It's not a big deal."

"It's a boy, Abeer! A boy! He is with her in her room!"

"Yes, I have eyes. I can see that," Abeer said sarcastically, to which Aashi only glared at him.

"Go and open the door to her room. Without knocking!" Aashi instructed, trying to disentangle herself from her husband's arms. But Abeer held her in a vice-like grip. There was no way she could get out. She shook her head, but her heart danced as she looked up to him. It wasn't everyday that you met a woman who could boast about how committed, devoted and madly in love her husband was with her even after being together for such a long time. And it wasn't everyday a woman could say how madly, deeply and irrevocably in love she was with her husband of twenty-five years.

It was a blessing, what they had. And an even greater gift in the form of their daughter who had only brightened their lives with happiness. God had been kind to them.

"Tsk tak, you have no sense of boundaries. Calm down, okay. She is my daughter too and I also only want the best for her. She is twenty now, and we have raised her well enough to make her decisions. Give the poor boy a break, he has hardly spoken anything since he came here. I am telling you, he is terrified of you," Abeer spoke, making Aashi bristle. Did he mean she was scary?

Abeer didn't stop there, unable to gauge his wife's sudden dark mood. "You are turning into an aunty now," he said, tugging a hair strand behind her ear. It took every ounce of willpower in her body to not hit him with something. Abeer seemed to realize he had hit the wrong chord and he cleared his throat. trying to improvise.

"Ahem...no, I just mean you are getting old." That was it. The nail in the coffin. Aashi glared ferociously at him, making him gulp audibly. He could sense he had said some very, very wrong things.

"Leave me, NOW!" She gritted her teeth, trying to wrench herself out of his hold. He loosened his grip on her but did not let go.

He took a deep breath and proceeded to explain. "I meant you are forgetting things. You had your first boyfriend when you were...what..16? Remember we met that guy in the concert..." Aashi's eyes widened as she rushed to put a hand on his mouth.

"Don't you dare! What if Abha hears it? She will think of me as a hypocrite," she rushed out, glancing behind her shoulder and sighing when she saw the closed door.

Abeer rolled his eyes at her antics and pulled her hand off his mouth. "But she already knows," he said simply.

"How!!" Aashi whipped her head to face him, shocked at the declaration.

"I told her, is it a big deal? I didn't think so. She even called you a cute rebel."

"ABEER SEN!!! You are going to be the death of me," she screamed and wrenched herself out of his arms. "Both of you will be. You told her that! And you say that it isn't a big deal to you? I was sure when we had met him you had turned red with jealousy with the way he had addressed me," she sassed, arms on her hips.

The memory made him blush but he covered it up by saying, "Aashi, age makes you secure. My point is it is good she feels safe enough to tell us everything, don't take that away by being cynical. She is your daughter..."

"Exactly my point! Which is why I know her," Aashi said, pointing a finger at him. Abeer rolled his eyes and stalked away, knowing when to quit his battles. With Aashi for a wife, you had to know when to give up and when to prod her on. You only prodded her at night, in bed, alone. And the other times you simply shut up, or let your silence speak more than your words.

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The lunch time was even more somber. Abeer had prepared eggplant curry while Aashi had cooked biryani for the guest they had at home with them. Abha's boyfriend. Aashi didn't pretend she was stoked at having him over for lunch. She passed on the biryani to him after everyone, at last.

"So beta, what do you do?" She cleared her throat and asked the shifty, lanky boy with rectangular glasses perched on his nose.

"I'm studying aunty," he said simply, taking a nervous bite of his biryani. "This is very good," he murmured with his mouth stuffed with the flavored rice, forcing her to flash him a fake smile.

"Where, beta?" She asked condescendingly. The daughter-father duo glanced at each other, aware of the sarcasm in her voice.

"IIT Delhi, aunty," he answered kindly. Aashi was taken aback to know that he was studying in one of the most prestigious universities of the nation. Abeer tried to cover his smirk by stuffing food in his mouth. She nodded.

"Which engineering?" She continued to probe.

"Mechanical, aunty," he said, smiling a bit. Aashi being her classic self already had prejudices against mechanical engineers. They were the boring sort. Abeer and Abha seemed to have read her thoughts and passed a little glare in her direction which reminded her of how blunt and narrow she could be at times. She bit her lip at the condescension directed at her, but she ignored them. She cleared her throat and Abeer passed her a glass of water, clearly mocking her. She spared him an angry glare.

"I... aunty...I want to say...something," Kartik, her daughter's boyfriend said, shifting nervously in his seat.

"Say na," Abeer and Abha said in unison. Aashi always thought it was annoying and adorable at the same time when they did that.

"I am serious, aunty."

Though Aashi knew where this conversation was going, she found ethereal joy in things being spelled out to her and watching the guy squirm with nervousness and anxiety.

"About what?" She asked and fixed him with a look. She knew it was sadistic, but it satisfied her, how out of place the poor boy looked.

"I am serious about Abha, aunty. I know you are worried about her but I will always care for her and keep her happy. She will do the same for me. We perfectly fit in each other's lives. I know you don't like cheesy lines but, I...I don't think I can...live without her," he said in a single breath and gulped down a glass of water.

Though the first part felt very generic, the last line made her heart melt. She never expected the timid boy behind those spectacles to say all that. She knew how it was to not be able to live without someone. It was a desperation she had lived. And he had said it so wistfully, sincerely, that only a heartless person wouldn't melt at those words. And while she was tough, she wasn't made of granite. Abeer looked over to his wife and smiled appreciatively at what he saw. While the two others wouldn't be able to see it, he knew she had melted at Kartik's words. His wife's hard eyes had melted, giving way to a soft glow he loved way too much. Her face remained stoic, but he knew, in her heart she had accepted the relationship. Aashi had always appreciated sincerity.

"Here," she picked up a vessel and moved her hand ahead to offer it to Kartik but he suddenly got up from his chair, knocking it down and moved away from the table as if he had seen a ghost.

"What?" Aashi barked, startled at the boy's actions. Abeer looked up, surprised.

"You...aren't you going to throw it on me?"

"What?" Her eyes widened with confusion. "Why would I do that?"

"It's eggplant curry," the boy said, as if that should explain everything.

"So...?"

"You threw it on Abha's dad when you were angry once, so I thought that..." he said sheepishly, regretting his existence. Abeer choked on his laughter and looked over to his daughter to see her coughing frantically in an effort to control her chuckles.

"Who told you that?" Aashi asked, her voice clipped with anger.

"Umm...Abha."

Abha immediately defended herself saying, "Baba told me," pointing to her father.

Aashi glared at everyone and Kartik sat down just as they all finally let their guffaw hit the ceiling. She soon found herself joining in the laugher, and as she saw her little family laugh their hearts out, she agreed to let her daughter do as she wished. It was, after all what she had wanted from her own parents too.

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After the lunch when Aashi went in the living room to get her phone, she heard Abeer talking to Kartik on the front porch.

"I trust my daughter enough to let her make her own decisions. So does her mother. But she's strict, and doesn't accept easily. And while she and I have both accepted you, it goes without saying that you keep my daughter happy," she heard Abeer say, his voice uncharacteristically hard. "I have gone to great lengths in order to secure my loved ones' happiness in the past. Let there not be a repeat of that," he subtly warned the boy, looking him squarely in the eye.

"Yes, yes uncle," Kartik said hurriedly and nodded, rushing down the stairs the minute Abeer nodded his farewell. Aashi smiled to herself at her husband's words. He was cool, but not unconcerned.

She walked back to her room. She sighed, and strut towards the window, gazing out to the dull evening sky. They had had a late lunch, so it was almost evening when they finished their meal. She stood there, ruminating on the last twenty-five years.

They had passed astonishingly soon, but at the same time, she felt content. She actually liked how life had turned out for her. She glanced at the birds, flying merrily in the sky, and was reminded of her best friend, Taira, who had decided to fly free like a bird years ago, and chose to do that every single day. After a few months of going back to Marco, she decided to settle in France, not because Marco was there, but because she wanted to start a new chapter in her life. And you don't open a new chapter on the same page, do you? She worked back and forth from France for a year or two before completely settling in Paris.

After a few years, they had a child together, Ray. Marco and Taira didn't get married. Taira had said there was no need for validation in their relationship. They already had that. And Marco was a free soul, he wasn't keen on fixtures. He was committed, yes, but they both saw marriage as a fixture, and they decided it didn't suit them. They live as partners, happy in their small little world in a remote corner of Paris; two famous, wealthy people choosing a quiet, happy life for themselves.

And then there were Abeer and Aashi, two people the very definition of dedication, working together to make life better for one another and their family. After their engagement, the first thing they did was to buy the apartment Aashi then lived in from her parents, since it was a perfectly good apartment and they wouldn't have to go hunting for another. After a few years, when they had Abha and were well off to afford some other place, they shifted closer to South Delhi. It hadn't been an easy ride for them, but they enjoyed every bit of it. Because they were in it together. They rode through the rollercoaster together, as one, holding each other's hands, choosing to love each other every single day and living the dreams they had dreamt.

Aashi was lost in her own train of thoughts when Abeer slipped in the room and wrapped his arms around his wife, resting his chin on her shoulder as they both looked out of the window, content now that they were home, in each other's embrace.

"What are you thinking?" Abeer whispered, a tender look on his face.

Aashi let out a loud sigh. "That how a goody-two-shoe took my life by a storm, and made me live my dreams," she smiled and turned around to face her husband. Her dream. Her reality. He looked down at her, love pouring from every fiber of his being.

"I'm not-"

"Shhh," Aashi cut him of, placing a finger on his lips. And then she smiled, and kissed him on the mouth.

"Goody-two-shoe it is," she murmured against his lips, wrapping her hands around his neck.

"Goody-two-shoe it is, then," he murmured back and pulled her closer to him, kissing her deeply.

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