Pragya/Abhi Ficlet: Kiss-met?
setting: AU with Pragya engaged to Tarun and them travelling from Mumbai to Chicago to get married there where his family is based
*Tarun’s well-meaning cousin - the really good-looking one - gets Pragya & Tarun tickets to a Bulls vs Celtics basketball game and sends them out on an “All-American date”*
*Pragya is embarrassed by the whole thing but goes along with it, trying to be a good sport*
*Tarun is completely disinterested, and when they get to the game, he busies himself on his phone with “important work stuff” because he doesn’t care about basketball*
*Pragya tries to follow the game, but it’s not very interesting to her, and her attention wanders*
*She notices that the guy she’s sitting next to is actually Indian too. He has a baseball cap on, the brim tipped down to shadow his face. He’s leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, keenly watching the game. He’s huge and warm and it’s strangely cozy to be next to him, which makes no sense because he’s a complete stranger, he keeps sipping from his beer bottle, and her fiance is right next to her*
*She keeps looking around the stadium and eventually catches sight of the giant KissCam screens set up at strategic angles*
*She watches in puzzlement as video plays on the screen, panning over the crowds, not showing anything specific*
*Then she is amazed and startled when the camera suddenly zooms in on a random pair of people…the crowd starts to cheer loudly…and the couple caught onscreen share a quick romantic kiss!!*
*Pragya’s heart is racing and her cheeks are burning. She didn’t know this kind of thing could happen! What kind of place was America, that people could just be - compelled to kiss like that?!*
*She wants to ask Tarun about it, but he ignores her when she tries to get his attention. Finally she just shrugs and tries to be calm about it. Everyone else seems to think it’s perfectly normal…*
*Pragya keeps watching the game, and the screen…over the next hour, she can’t figure out who’s winning between the Bulls and the Celtics, but she’s fascinated to watch as the kisscam zooms in on two other couples..*
*After a while her mind starts to wander. She thinks about her mehendi scheduled for the next day, and wonders if Bulbul is getting into trouble with Tarun’s female cousins as they rehearse some special performance they won’t tell her about. She thinks about how tired Maa was to fly all the way across the globe for this wedding, and how disappointed she must be that it won’t be held in their own marriage hall. She thinks about how strange all this feels, and hopes that after they get married she will at least start to feel comfortable with Tarun*
*Suddenly she feels a rough shove at her shoulder, and she snaps into alertness. The stranger next to her is directing her attention to the kisscam screen - and the camera is focused on her!*
*Flustered, Pragya doesn’t have time to think, she just grabs at Tarun’s arm to get his attention. However, he continues to ignore her, eyes glued to his phone!*
*For one long moment, Pragya stares at him in disbelief. Then the roar of the crowds raises a matching roar of recklessness in her blood, and on impulse she turns to the stranger on her other side*
*Aware of the camera and the gaze of thousands of avid Americans on her, Pragya sets her hand on the stranger’s broad shoulder, leans up, and pecks her lips against his stubbled cheek - the most daring thing she’s ever done!*
*The crowd cheers, with a wave of ‘awww’ rippling through the stadium as they find her action unusually cute. The camera pans away, and Pragya starts to slide back to her seat, her heart still pumping double time*
*The next thing she knows, the stranger hooks his arm around her waist, pulls her into his lap, and starts kissing her - really kissing her!*
*Pragya is too stunned to react, shocked to suddenly find herself receiving her very first kiss in these most bizarre of circumstances - and liking it*
*Finally the stranger pulls away, and as she looks up into his face, she finds that he’s not a stranger after all - she doesn’t know him, but she knows exactly who he is!*
P: R-Rockstar Abhi?
A: *Winks and helps her slide off his lap* That’s how they kiss in America, miss.
P: *blushes* *stares at him* But the camera was already off of us!
A: I know. That was for you, not the crowds. You should ditch that loser, by the way. *tips his head to indicate Tarun - who is still busy on his phone!*
P: *Frowns looking at her hopeless fiance and then looks back at Abhi helplessly* We’re getting married in three days…
A: Mistake. If he won’t kiss you on camera or off, he’ll make a pretty useless kind of husband.
P: There’s more to marriage than kissing!
A: If you say so. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got to get back to the game, ok? Good luck with your shaadi, or whatever you decide.
P: Right…
*Abhi goes back to watching the game; Tarun continues doing who knows what on his phone; and Pragya sits very, very still in her seat, still trying to process everything that just happened…and wondering if the ridiculous, gorgeous, extremely re-kissable rockstar might just have a point…*
THE END
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