Her Home
Note- this is a work of fiction. It is not written with the intention of insulting anyone or misguiding people. My oc belongs to me. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited
Pairing: Ranveer Singh x Dhriti Sharma
Dhriti was having a bad day. The kind that she could feel in her body. Working as a professor was hard, especially when she had seniors who loved to dump their work on her.
She had woken up in the morning with a very happy mood, her boyfriend was in bed with her as he had no shoots, they had breakfast together and they made out for a little while before she left for work.
College, that day, had other ideas about how her morning would go.
She'd barely set her bag down in the staff room when Dr. Wagh, who taught Property Law and had never once, in three years, addressed her by name rather than "Sharma," appeared at her elbow with a stack of answer sheets that was, at a rough glance, at least sixty papers thick.
"Dhriti, I have a small favour. My daughter's exams are this week, I really cannot manage evaluation for the second-years right now. You'll do it, no? You're so quick with these things."
"I have my own third-year submissions due Friday, Dr. Wagh, I'm not sure I—"
"Just this once. You young ones manage everything so well, I don't know how." The stack was already on her desk before she'd finished the sentence, the matter apparently settled by virtue of having been raised at all.
She was still staring at the pile twenty minutes later when Professor Deshmukh from Constitutional Law wandered over with the specific, unhurried curiosity of someone with an entire free period to fill.
"So Dhriti, I heard you are dating some big shot bollywood actor?" the question made Dhriti panic, for her relationship with Ranveer was clearly a secret.
She laughed nervously waving her hand in a dismissive manner, "Just a rumour Professor, you know how these students are"
The Professor, hardly convinced but still nodded, she settled on the chair uninvited "So do you wish to be with someone? I have a nephew-"
And that is how Professor Deshmukh occupied her entire free period talking about potential matches though Dhriti had tried her best to dodge the topic.
It went like that for most of the day — not any single thing that was unbearable on its own, just an accumulation of small intrusions, each one reasonable enough by itself to be hard to object to. Someone else's photocopying she ended up doing because the machine "confused" her more than them, apparently.
A dean's-office meeting that ran forty minutes over because nobody else in the room seemed to feel any urgency about ending it, while her own stack of ungraded work sat waiting exactly where she'd left it.
By the time she got into the car that evening, she felt wrung out in a way that had very little to do with any one event and everything to do with all of it together, on top of a week that had already asked more of her than most weeks did.
And now she sat on the couch in their shared living room, a hand clutching her stomach as she felt
the day finally catch up to her. The front door banged open before she could even process it.
"Dhriti! Dhriti, dekh main kya laya hoon—" Ranveer stopped mid-sentence the moment he saw her on the couch, plastic bags still swinging from his hands. The grin dropped off his face like someone had wiped it clean.
("Dhriti! Dhriti, look what I bought-")
"Hey. Hey, kya hua?" He was crouched in front of her in seconds, bags forgotten on the floor, both her hands caught in his.
("Hey. Hey, what happened?")
"Nothing, just a long day." Her voice came out smaller than she meant it to.
"Long day nahi lag raha, baby, you look like you fought the entire world." He pressed his palm against her forehead, then her cheek, checking for fever the way he always did, like it was a reflex. "Bata na baby, what happened?"
("It doesn't look like you just had a long day, baby. You look like you've been battling the whole world. Tell me baby, what happened?")
Dhriti's eyes watered and as a reflex Ranveer pulled her in his arms. She buried her face in his chest and let a few tears fall "Dr. Wagh dropped all his answer sheets for me to check, baad mein credit khud le jayenge ki dekho beti ki shaadi ki taiyari karte karte bhi meine answer sheets check karli. Uper se woh Professor Deshmukh, she tried to set me up with her nephew! I swear-"
("Dr. Wagh dumped all his answer sheets on me to grade. Later, he'll take all the credit himself—'See? I even managed to grade the answer sheets while preparing for my daughter's wedding.' And on top of that, Professor Deshmukh tried to set me up with her nephew! I swear—")
Ranveer's eyebrows forrowed and he separated from the hug "Hein? Konsa nephew? Kyu bana hai bhai unhe gali ki aunty?"
("Huh? Which nephew? Why has she turned into one of those neighborhood aunties?")
Despite herself Dhriti almost cracked a smile "Veer baby, chodo na usse"
("Veer, baby, just let it go.")
Ranveer shook his head "Esse kesse chord du? Meri girlfriend ki setting karva rahi hai, mein bhi to janu kon banda hai"
("How am I supposed to let it go? She's trying to set my girlfriend up with someone else. I want to know who this guy is too.")
Dhriti smiled at his actions making Ranveer smile too. He kissed her forehead and said "Go and change, I bought chinese, wahi restaurant ka jo tujhe pasand hai"
("I bought chinese from the restaurant which you like")
While she was in the washroom, Ranveer took out the food containers and cracked open two cans of diet coke knowing her obsession with it.
Dhriti walked back to the living room, barefoot and wearing one of his shirts with her shorts. She hugged him from the back and stood on her tip toes, placing a kiss on her neck.
"Thank you" she whispered against his ear resting her head on his back. Ranveer turned around and wrapped his arm around her waist "Dinner kare meri jaan?"
("Let us have dinner my love?")
They ended up propped against the headboard a few minutes later, containers spread across the blanket, the movie already thirty seconds in because Ranveer refused to sit through the studio logos. Dhriti had her plate balanced on her knees, picking through the noodles, when she noticed her portion of vegetables kept disappearing.
"Ranveer."
"Hmm?" He didn't even look up from the screen, chopsticks already diving back into her plate.
"Woh mere vegetables hain."
("Those are my vegetables")
"Tu khaati kahan hai unhe. I'm just helping." He popped a piece of capsicum into his mouth, entirely unbothered, eyes fixed on the TV.
("You never eat them anyway. I'm just helping.")
She rolled her eyes but let it go, mostly because it was true, she would've picked around them anyway, and mostly because he'd said it with that same easy grin that meant he'd already known before she'd even served the plates.
Akshaye came on screen somewhere around the Goa trip, and Dhriti's whole posture shifted, just slightly, just enough. Ranveer smirked and bumped his shoulder with her
"you know? Akshaye bhai is playing Rehman" Dhriti's head snapped towards him as he casually declared that he would be working with her childhood crush.
"Bata doon unhe? That there's a professor in Mumbai who watches this film every month just for him?"
("Should I tell him?")
"Veer—"
"Main serious keh raha hoon, next time milunga toh bologa, 'yeh raha meri girlfriend ka number, she is your biggest fan"
("I'm serious. The next time I see him, I'll say, 'Here's my girlfriend's number—she's your biggest fan.'")
She hit him on the arm, not hard, laughing despite herself. "Chup karo, you're so annoying."
("Keep quiet")
"Teri galti hai, itna obvious crush rakhegi toh main toh chidhaunga hi."
("It's your fault. If you're going to have such an obvious crush, of course I'm going to tease you.")
"I will actually leave this bed."
"No, you won't" he said, far too pleased with himself, and pulled her in against his side anyway, dropping a kiss into her hair like it settled the matter. She let herself be pulled, her protest dying somewhere in the fabric of his t-shirt, and he tugged the blanket higher over them both, one hand still idly stealing carrots off her plate.
Somewhere between Goa and the drive back to Mumbai, her eyes started slipping shut. She fought it for a while, mostly because she didn't want the day to end on anything but this, but eventually she gave up, tilting her face up to press a slow, sleepy kiss to his jaw.
"Goodnight," she mumbled, already half gone.
"Goodnight, jaan." He shifted the plates off to the side without disturbing her, muted the TV halfway, and pulled her in properly, her head tucked under his chin, her breathing already gone even and slow against his chest.
He stayed there a long while after, not sleeping, just watching the muted movie flicker across the room, one hand resting light over hers.