Leaving everything that was in her hands, Katherine came close and hugged Akira from behind, and as if like a baby she started weeping in her embrace.

She could trade anything to have her parents here today.

Anything!

She started going back and forth into the lanes of memory when she heard that knock on the door. Katherine quickly retracted and wiped the tears away from Akira's face and said,

"Come on in!"

And in came the father-daughter duo, Shawn and Kate.

"Whoa! You are still not ready Akira?" asked Shawn as he closed the door behind him.

"She is gonna unless you guys disturb us," said Katherine as she resumed her work.

"We are not here to disturb you. We are just going to watch you," said Kate and perched herself up on the bed. Narrowing her eyes Katherine looked at Shawn as she didn't want to be disturbed.

"Hey, it was her idea. She was missing you guys and she dragged me here. Don't look at me like that!" said Shawn and raising his hand in his defence he started walking back towards the door.

"What about you?" asked Katherine with a sly look in her eyes.

Shawn stopped there for a moment and then turned back.

"Well, I kinda miss you too...," he said and shrugged his shoulders. 

"Arrggghh... you guys are going to do gross things again. Aren't you?" said Kate rolling her eyes and rolled upside down on the bed? Somehow that tiny monster cracked everyone up.

"This one!" exclaimed Katherine and rushed towards Shawn and gave him a quick kiss and when she was done, she wiped away the lipstick stains from his lips and winked.

"Eh... Hm..." Shawn cleared his throat and left the room and Katherine went back to business. Kate kept hopping inside the room as the girls focussed on getting ready.

"Where are you guys going for a honeymoon?" asked Kate.

"Kate!", exclaimed Katherine unable to believe the audacity of the little one but Akira blushed and said, "I don't even know. Raymond told me that it is going to be a surprise."

She fiddled with her pyjamas as she spoke. Her fingers busy with the threads and her eyes lowered, she was clearly turning all scarlet. And seeing her blushing like this Katherine poked her finger on her back and whispered into her ears,

"It's not like you are going to do something new that you haven't done! Why turn red?"

Holding her cheeks in between her palms, Akira got up and said, "I need to use the loo. Excuse me!" to which the mother and daughter had a laugh. Coming close to Katherine, Kate asked - "My ten dollars! I told you, she would run to the bathroom if you mention the honeymoon."

"Yeah, yeah!" said Katherine and took out a ten-dollar bill from her wallet and stuffed it inside Kate's jeans, and said- "Fine. You win. Now off you go!" 

Inside the bathroom, as Akira looked at herself in the mirror, she could realize how bad she had been blushing. Taking a tissue paper she soaked it in water and lightly tapped it on her cheeks and took a deep breath. This was the day she had been waiting for like ages and when it was here, she couldn't believe that it was actually happening.

Two-three minutes later, when she came out of the washroom, she saw a lot of cars approaching the house from the window and stopped to look at who was who. She saw her team-mates, Mike's friends, Walker enterprise people, all crowding up and walking towards the backyard.

Seeing her looking out of the window curiously, Katherine asked, 'Are you looking for someone in particular?"

"Erm... no...", said Akira and came back and sat on her stool. People had started flocking in, and she had so less time to get ready. So with all seriousness, Katherine started giving last touches to her hair before moving on to makeup.

And while Katherine was busy with her locks, Akira opened her phone and opened her WhatsApp. All her messages still had a single tick.

"How come he hasn't even switched on his phone?" wondered Akira for a while and but then kept the phone away as Katherine was about to prep her face.

Her flawless, glass skin didn't need any foundation, but still, in order to make her look like a princess, Katherine dabbed her face with a light layer of the foundation after concealing a few stray freckles. Se then lightly powdered her face and bronzed her cheeks. A light mauve pink shade of eye shadow added a touch of drama. And to top it off Katherine added the perfect winged eyeliner. The only thing that was pending was lipstick.

"Which one?" asked Katherine as she opened the box containing myriad shades of colour. 

Mover her fingertips over a couple of shades, Akira pouted and said, 

"I can't decide," and then like Bambi with huge doe eyes, she looked at Katherine, flapping her eyelids. 

"Gosh!!! No wonder my brother is head over heels in love with you," said Katherine and picked two shades to mix, relentlessly red and ruby woo, two of her favourite shades from MAC cosmetics. She traced the bullets on her lips with the utmost care, not to stay even the fraction of a millimetre and when she was done, she arched herself back and took a good look of her before commenting,

"Damn you look pretty! My brother is a lucky dog."

"Jeez, Katherine, at least for once take the side of your brother!", lamented Akira and turned towards the mirror to take a good look at herself. She wanted to look pretty today and Katherine had indeed done a fine job. She was looking no less than a Disney princess.

A bit overwhelmed, she tuned towards Katherine, but before she could even speak a word, Katherine flipper her hair back like a diva and said,

"Yeah, Yeah... you can thank me later!"