Bonds of Trust

Bonus Chapter II

"Ugh", Saheer let out a sleepy groan as he felt a weight on his body, right from his neck to his legs. he wondered what it was. Prying open his eyes, he tried to wiggle when he noticed Veera's head resting on his chest and her arm around his neck.

Looking down, he saw Ovi sprawled carelessly on his torso with her head resting on his stomach and her arm on Veera's stomach.

'Great, now these two are using me as a bed, but what about the weight on my lower legs?'

He wiggled his legs and felt something akin to fur caressing them.

'Ahh, that cheeky little Doraemon.'

Well the only thing was that Doraemon was now not as little as he used to be. It had been a little more than two years that Veera and Ovi had gotten him. And the cheeky little brat had an important place in Saheer's heart, right after Veera and Ovi.

But now Saheer was faced with a rather difficult predicament. His bladder had been screaming in protest, yet he could not even move an inch thanks to his wife, daughter and his dog - all of them literally sleeping on him.

"Veera, Veera, get up.", he tried shaking her torso with his only free body part - one of his arms, but to no avail.

'Ovi had rightly called her a Kumbhakaran.', he thought

(Kumbhakaran - a figure in Indian mythology who was said to sleep for unusually long periods of time and would be difficult to wake up)

'Accha (is it) Saheer, should I tell this to her?', his subconscious threatened him.

'You do realize that you are a part of me right?', he retorted.

'Stop arguing and focus on your bladder.', came an angered reply from within.

'Either I am going crazy by arguing with myself or my mind is such a great bully.', he thought and then shook his head at his stupidity.

Suddenly he felt a kick on his left leg.

"Ahh, Ovi.", he groaned in pain seeing his daughter moving around on his torso.

He tried to shake her to wake her up, but again, to no avail.

"What to do now?", he wondered aloud.

As if an idea struck him, a wide grin lit up his face. He tried to locate his phone which he had placed on the nightstand.

"Ahhh, bhoot (ghost)", Ovi shrieked loudly waking up from her deep sleep. Hearing her shriek, Veera too got up abruptly, her frantic eyes trying to adjust with the bright sunlight.

"Woof woof", Doraemon's barks had gotten a bit louder and he jumped out from the bed.

Here, Saheer held back his laughter and muttered, "Finally.". His plan had worked. He had played the infamous alarm clock music on his phone to wake up these three sleepyheads.

"What do you mean by finally?", Veera mumbled sleepily. It seemed rather difficult for her to shrug off her sleep today, it being the weekend.

"Princess, there's no ghost, it was just this alarm clock music, and Veera, sweetheart, its high time the three of you got up from using me as your bed.", Saheer's tone was highly sarcastic.

"Why papa? I only get the weekend to rest.", Ovi whined and was about to fall back on her papa's tummy, when Saheer held her back and picked her up within his arms giving her to Veera.

A sleepy Veera caught her and tucked Ovi within her arms, the two of them going back to sleep. It was a matter of a few moments before Veera started snoring lightly and Ovi snuggled deeper within her embrace.