Chapitre 62: Chapter 61

Charan woke up from his sleep in the middle of the night. It was a habit he had developed over time. He will check up on Akira at least once every night. He just wakes up like clockwork every day.

And as always today to he opened his eyes and stumbled from his room and went to check up on Akira. But once he was done making sure that Akira was still sleeping soundly, he strolled to the living room only to find Shreya buried her head in a laptop without sleeping.

He quickly checked the time and found that it was well past midnight. He walked towards her and stood in front of her. Shreya was so focused on her work that she did not even notice him.

Shreya was sitting on one end of the couch with the laptop set up on the coffee table in the front. Charan walked to the other side and crawled towards her laps scaring the crap out of her.

"Charan!!" She exclaimed once her heart started working again.

Charan did not really reply. He just snuggled in and circled his arms around her making himself comfortable. Shreya just gapped at him bewildered.

"Why are you still up??" Charan, at last, mumbled in his groggy voice.

"I need to finish this tonight. Anand uncle needs it in the morning for the meeting." Shreya answered but when she looked down, Charan was already fast asleep. She reached for the laptop. But her hands did not reach with Charan lying on the lap. She looked down and sighed seeing him clinging to her. She did not have the heart to wake him up.

So she just slightly wiggled here and there and took it from the table and kept in on the side. She balanced it awkwardly on the couch hand rest and started working. Her fingers flew over the keyboard with her full focus on the screen and the sound of keys tapping filled the quiet house. Charan slightly frowned at the sound but did not wake up.

Shreya stopped on her track. Her fingers hung there mid-air. She looked around. That's when her eyes fell on the earbuds she had been using for her conference call a while ago. She carefully reached for it and then plugged them on Charan's ears. The noise cancellation on those was top notch. So she started her work without worry at last.

When she finished her work, it was already almost morning. She just mailed all the needed files over and leaned back flopping her head over the couch while stretching the legs in the front. As soon as her eyes closed, she fell asleep right away in spite of not lying down. She was that exhausted.

That was how Akira found them both the next morning when she walked out of her room. She came and shook her dad awake.

"Hey, good morni…" but he couldn't finish his sentence since his mouth was suddenly shut by his daughter's small hand.

Charan gave her a questioning look.

"Somebody was using someone as a pillow last night!!" Akira whispered but there was a layer of icing on her voice as she pointed at Shreya still sleeping in sitting position with Charan on her lap.

Charan sat up quietly at last remembering where he was. He then looked up at the sleeping Shreya. She looked beat. He carefully picked her up and made way to his bedroom. Just when he was laying her down, Shreya opened her eyes on high alert.

"Hey, it's okay. Go back to sleep…" He said softly while gently easing her back to sleep. She closed her eyes back only when she heard the familiar warm voice of Charan.

When he carefully closed the doors and looked back, he was met with an angry lioness in the form of his daughter.

Charan gave her a sheepish smile scratching his head. In all honesty, he did not remember how he fell asleep so fast last night. He was just thinking about giving her some company while she worked but somehow he ended up falling asleep and that too on her laps. And more than that he did not understand how he did not wake up after that. He was a light sleeper, so slightest of sound, he would end up waking up even though he would fall right back to sleep. He would still wake up.

When he was pondering on this, Shreya's earbuds fell on the floor with a slight clink. It had been stuck around the sleeves of his tees for all this time.

"Well, that explained why I did not wake up!" Charan mumbled to himself but when he looked up he was met with his own daughter giving him a dirty look.

"She. Is. Not. A. Pillow!" Akira said angrily emphasizing each word and then turned back to her own room.

If looks could only burn, he would have already been a bag of dust. A shudder racked through him at just the thought! His daughter could be scary at times.

But since he couldn't really do anything about it now, he just went about the day. By the time he came back out after freshening up, he found Shreya at the kitchen counter. When he went near her, he noticed that she did not have her eyes open but was actually swaying right and left without support.

And as soon as his fingers touched her shoulders, her eyes flew open looking fierce. Charan had a sense of Deja Vu. But before he could ponder upon it his hand got twisted on his back painfully.

"Ow ow… Ouch, Shreya!!" He called out in pain.

Shreya's eyes widened when she realized her surroundings and instantly let go of his hand.

"I'm sorry… I am sorry…" She started apologizing instantly with her worried guilty eyes.

Charan looked at her concerned face. He swatted his hands several times to get rid of the pain.

"It's fine now…" He said in a soft voice and gave her a smile but then her guilty eyes were not lost to him. But still, he did not ask anything. He knew she will tell him when she was well and ready and he was okay with it.