FF : This Time Forever (Episode 7)

I know I promised that I will update soon and believe me the update was ready with two days but to my bad luck, I lost my cell phone, more like somebody stole it. Though I bought a new one, but I lost all the updates I had written for my ff’s. Not only my Swaragini ff’s but those also which I write on India forums and hadn’t update in long time due to my exams. So I had to write the update from the scratch and here we’re now.

Link to the previous update : http://www.tellyupdates.com/ff-time-forever-episode-6/
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“To which beautiful lady does this heart belongs?” The voice startled Sanskar and he lost his hold on the necklace. But before it could hit the floor, a hand caught the falling piece in the middle. Sanskar turned to face the man in whose hand now lied the crystal heart of his mystery girl.

There in front of him stood his cousin, his maternal aunt’s son, Shivin Raichand.

“Shiv! What a surprise bro.” Sanskar hugged Shivin and gave him a pat on his back. “How did the vacation go?” asked Sanskar as he broke the hug.

“Paris was fantastic. I needed this vacation more than I had thought.” Shivin smiled as he kicked off his loafers and plopped on Sanskar’s bed, “So…?” he drawled.

“So…?” Sanskar imitated.

Shivin narrowed his eyes at Sanskar and waved the dangling pendant in his hand, “Whose heart is this? You doing something behind my back?”

Sanskar chuckled, “What are you? My mommy?” Sanskar tried to get the pendant back but Shivin acted fast and pulled his hand back.

“Boy I am your elder brother, so you’ll tell me everything!” Shivin said. His expressions serious like that of a mother from whom you are hiding the candy you sneaked out from the secret jar.

“Just 15 days! You are just 15 days elder to me not 15 years. Now give me that pendant back.” Sanskar tried to snatch the pendant back but Shivin again stretched his hand away from Sanskar’s reach.

“I will not give this back to until you tell me that to whom this crystal heart belongs. You got a girlfriend or something. Ahaan, a girl in my boy’s life, tell me about her.”

Shivin sneakily pocketed the pendant and kept his fist closed tightly making Sanskar believe that he still had the pendant in his hand.

“Shivin give ut back to me!” Sanskar demanded.

“First tell me about this girl.” Shivin demanded back.

Sanskar’s frustration was growing, “Shivin! I said give me that pendant back.” Sanskar’s voice held an edge, it sounded a bit scary. But Shivin wasn’t the one to back down easily, so he prodded Sanskar further for answers.

“At least tell me her name. I swear I wont ask you anything else.” he asked.

“I don’t know!” Sanskar grabbed Shivin’s fist and tried to open it by force. Both of them by now were literally lying on the bed. Sanskar was lying on top of Shivin and both if them were writhing on the bed.

That’s how Laksh saw them when he entered the room holding a package that came for Sanskar. “Bhai woh….uh-oh.”

Both Sanskar and Shivin went still at Laksh’s voice. Tilting their head they looked at Laksh who stood at the door, a package in his hand trying to control the laughter that was threatening to escape.

“Whatcha doin?” Laksh laughed as he made his way inside the room towards the bed, were Shivin and Sanskar were lying on the bed. Tangled.

Sanskar hastily stood up, kicking Shivin in the shin as he stood up straight. “What the hell!!” Shivin yelped as he began massaging his shin. “Its okay if you don’t want to tell me the name of your girlfriend, I…”

Sanskar’s eyes widened as he realized that Shivin might reveal something he didn’t want Laksh to know about, so he clasped his hand over Shivin’s moth, muffling his words. But it was already too late.

“Girlfriend?” Laksh asked, his brows raised in a questioning manner.

Shivin bit Sanskar’s hand and shouted out loud, “The one whose pendant necklace he carries around with him.”

“Teri toh!” Sanskar placed his hand over Shivin’s mouth once again but yet once again Laksh had heard what Shivin meant to tell him.

“You carry a girl’s, sorry your “girlfriend’s” necklace with you!?!” Laksh was curious as well as surprised.

“No..no way Laksh! You are believing him? I don’t have a girlfriend.” Sanskar fumbled out.

“Then who does this belong to? Don’t tell me that its yours.” Shivin was successful in removing Sanskar’s hand from his mouth. He hopped off the bed as fast as he could and brought out the said piece of jewellery from his pocket.

“Look!” he handed it over to Laksh who eyed the pendant and Sanskar curiously. “Bhai?” the question he wanted to ask was clearly written over his face, Sanskar need not to ask Laksh to voice it out.

“Goddamnit!! I told you guys that I don’t have a girlfriend! This belongs to the girl who I danced with last night at the party. Your date Laksh.” Sanskar yelled out. The day was turning out to be very bad for him.

“Haawww…you fantasizing about your brother’s date?” Shivin drawled in a dramatic way.

Sanskar narrowed his eyes at him, “Shut up!” He placed his hand over Shivin’s face and pushed him away.

Sanskar went towards Laksh, his hands were itching to get that pendant back, “After she left, I found this hooked to my brooch, I tried to find her but she had already left and I didn’t even know her name.” he explained.

Laksh, understanding the situation and the look on Sanskar’s face, deliberately said, “Oh! So this is Gini’s.”

Sanskar’s interest perked up, so his mystery girl’s name was Gini. Nice name. Behind him, Shivin, who was now lying on the bed, head raised to a level using his hand as support, drawled in a teasing way, “G-i-n-i….”

“Gini? But there was no one on the guest list by this name.” Sanskar bit his tongue realizing that he had revealed too much.

“I tell you, he’s fallen for her!” Shivin remarked.

“Dude! Shut up or else I will tape your mouth shut. How can i fall in love with a girl whom i met just yesterday and for your information, it was masquerade party, I don’t even know how she looks!” Sanskar huffed out. Never in his life he had to explain himself this much.

Shivin shook his head and he pinned his cousin with an intense gaze, “Sanskar, if you haven’t seen her face that doesn’t mean that you cant fall in love with her. Love isn’t about looks or personality, its about what you feel in your heart. You might have met her yesterday only, I know you think that live happens gradually in the long run but my dear brother, sometimes only a moment is enough to fall in love.”

This ended with a pin drop silence in the room. No one spoke a single word for few minutes but then…Sanskar burst into peals of laughter, “Look who’s talking. The biggest Casanova in the world is preaching me about love. Dude…that was too much.”

Shivin eyed him, “Believe it or not. This is the truth.” And just like that he stood up from the bed and started walking out of the room. He stopped midway, “I am going to my room. Gonna stay here for now. Dad’s at it again.” saying this he walked away.

Laksh let out a sigh, the early cheery environment turning dark. Actually Sanskar’s aunt and Shivin’s mom died years back leaving him in custody of his father who after his wife’s death, got married to the other woman with whom he had an extra marital affair and 3 children. Though Mr. Raichand cares about Shivin but Shivin couldn’t accept his new family and knowing well that his mother suffered a lot because of his father and his other family, Shivin didn’t want to be connected to them in any way.

Apart from this, the other reason for argument between Shivin and his Dad is Shivin’s way of living. Firstly, Shivin didn’t and never want to join his family business, he holds 20% shares in the Maheshwari business and has his own software company. Secondly, Shivin lives his life freely and has an image of a Casanova among the female population. He’s been spotted with number of girls, dated many of them and media has termed him as the biggest player and a womaniser which irks his father to no end. His father loves his reputation and Shivin tries his best to destroy that.

“Oh! I completely forgot about this.” Laksh said gesturing at the package in his hand, bringing Sanskar out of his thoughts. “Bhai this came for you.” Laksh gave that package to Sanskar.

“Its from whom?” Sanskar asked.

In response Laksh shrugged, “Don’t know. And bhai i will give it back to Gini when I’ll meet her, okay.” Laksh told as he pocketed the pendant much to Sanskar’s displeasure but he could hardly act on it, so he just nodded. Laksh went away, he needed to finalise the designs for the wedding costumes of Karan and Shilpa aka KaSh, as their fans like to call them.

Alone at last, Sanskar opened the seal of the package and started unwrapping it. Ir revealed to be a wooden box with symmetrical designs carved on it. On the top of the box was a sticky note that read;

“For the beginning….”

And it undersigned by Vikram, Vikram Pratap Singh. Sanskar blinked his eyes and read the note twice, trying to decipher the cynical message. What beginning? And what’s Vikram’s purpose of sending this. Sanskar placed the note away and opened the box.

Inside it was a vintage hunter pocket watch, rustic gold in color. A lion with a sword and shield was engraved on its lid. He caressed the engraving, a send of familiarity simmering inside him.

He had seen the emblem somewhere but the question was, where? Sanskar opened the lid of the watch and as soon as it opened a tune started ringing;

Link to the tune :
As the tune kept on ringing, Sanskar could feel his head start aching. He started hearing voices he had never heard before while the music from the pocket watch kept blaring. He pressed a hand against his head, his breath laboured, as the voices became louder and louder.

“This is for our beginning…”

“Will kept it with me always…”

“Mine. Just mine. Every bit…”

“My Shona…”

Not able to handle it anymore Sanskar fainted and fell on the floor, the pocket watch securely clutched in his hand.

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Ragini gasped and woke up from the nap she had been taking. She was talking to Shilpa, planning about her wedding and didn’t realize when sleep took over her senses. She glanced at the clock and noticed that hardly 15 minutes must have passed after she slept.

Ragini removed the blanket off her, Shilpa must have covered her with it. She poured some water in the glass and drank it in a gulp. All of a sudden she was feeling restless as if someone close to her was in pain or maybe needed her.

Though it didn’t make any sense but Ragini was really apprehensive about it. She got off the bed, locked the door of her room first and then went to the right corner of the room. She pulled the rug aside, pulling a key out of it. Hidden under the rug was a secret passageway cut-out in the floor. Ragini used the key to unlock the circular door. Opened it looked like a hole in the floor but actually it lead to a secret room.

http://i.imgur.com/uSfn3Nw.jpg

Ragini’s secret room used to be her play-room when she was a kid, which she herself later on converted to her personal hideout. She sat on the slide joined to the hole and let her body slide off it.

The room down there was dimly lit, the sunrays coming through the mini glass windows being the source of it. Ragini switched on the lights and for a moment she let herself enjoy the warmth that the place held.

It was of the same area as her room, there was everything she could need. Ragini walked onto the left where her painting equipments were kept. She liked to paint and she was very good at it.

There was a incomplete painting on the easel. One couldn’t guess what it was because of its incompleteness. Ragini cleaned the palette and squeezed out different colors on it. Instead of a painting brush, she picked a palette knife, a sponge and a paper towel to complete the painting.

She had been trying to complete this piece since 2 weeks but she had lost the idea of it but the 15 minutes nap had kind of focused her mind and soul on the very idea that had made her start this painting. She worked on it religiously, every color, every stroke, she painted with a passion that only comes out when she paints or draws.

And the final result….

Ragini breathed deeply as she stared at the now complete painting. The scene was normal, a simple situation. It was raining and a girl had trouble holding her umbrella but what was not so normal was the person standing at the far corner, apparently staring at the girl in trouble. Plus there was a kind of familiarity attached with the scene she had painted.

Not wanting to read too much between the lines, Ragini removed the apron and washed her hands. She left the painting on the easel and climbed up the slide to her room. Once back in her room, she changed her bandage and walked outside. She so needed to get out.

Ragini walked into the drawing room, where Shilpa was sitting on the sofa seat with a bowl of her favourite masala peanuts in her hand while her mother was talking on the phone.

“So, what do you think? Can Ragini go with Shilpa?” Sharmishta asked.

So it was her father. Ragini rushed to sit beside Shilpa, took a handful of peanuts out of the bowl and began eating as she nervously eyed her mother who had this serious & sad expression on her face.

“What did Dad say?” Ragini asked as soon as Sharmishta ended the call.

“He said that you can go with Shilpa.” Sharmishta said, her serious expression still on.

For a moment Ragini and Shilpa thought that Shekhar hadn’t granted them the permission to go, Sharmishta’s expressions were so serious that her words took a minute to register in their minds.

Sharmishta couldn’t hold back her grin as she looked at Ragini and Shilpa’s faces. She chuckled, “Pack your bags Ragu. Get set go!”

Pure joy replaced the confusion. Both the girls jumped in happiness, dropping the bowl of peanuts. The glass bowl shattered to pieces. “Oopps! Sorry auntie.” Shilpa apologized.

“It’s okay beta. No need to apologize, you girls just go and prepare for the wedding.”

Shilpa and Ragini literally ran towards Ragini’s room, the best friends were extremely happy. Sharmishta called a servant to clean the shattered glass. She didn’t want to be superstitious, she couldn’t help but think if this glass breaking was a good omen or a bad one?

Precap: (I know you guys are waiting for RagSan to meet again. Believe me I am desperate for that as well 😛 So here’s the good news)

Ragini and Sanskar to meet again but Sanskar is unaware that Ragini is his mystery girl whom Laksh calls “Gini”