Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Enti SI garu, do you find criminals on beaches as well nowadays?” Dhruva playfully asks, settling down on a log, propping his feet up to avoid the sand particles.

“There are many bad men like me in this country,” Daya jokes back as he skips some rocks into the ocean. “Why won’t they visit beaches as well, ASP garu?”

Daya’s back is turned, so Dhruva takes the time to appreciate his fellow officer (purely out of curiosity, nothing else of course). He’s dressed in a form-fitting dark purple button-up, with faded jeans and a leather belt. The top two buttons of the shirt had been loosened, giving Dhruva a view of his collarbones the whole morning they had patrolled together. 

Well, it felt less like a patrol and more like a date, but that was just how it was with Daya. He didn’t really care about the job, and just kept flirting with Dhruva instead. Normally Dhruva would get irritated, but he was there, wasn’t he? At least Daya didn’t interfere with Dhruva basically doing both of their jobs and kept offering him snacks. He had gone and bought two ice cream cones for the both of them, accurately guessing Dhruva’s favorite flavor (peanut butter). Daya’s choice had been chocolate chip mint, because he was an asshole like that. What were Daya’s favorite things, Dhruva wondered. Somehow Daya had taken the time to guess Dhruva’s, yet Dhruva didn’t know much about the other man. 

“SI garu!” he calls out. Daya turns around, eyebrow raised, but there’s a slight smile at the corner of his mouth. “What’s your favorite food?”

Without hesitation, Daya answers, “Fish soup, fresh from the ocean.” 

“I’ve never had it fresh,” Dhruva admits. “We don’t have beaches back where I’m from.”

“What!” Daya is suddenly animated. “Well, we’re here at a beach now! Tell me, do you want it? I’ll go talk to the fishermen!” Dhruva nods, and Daya runs down the width of the beach to where the fishermen are, with big green fishing nets. 

Dhruva smiles at his retreating back, cheeks red at the thought of Daya doing all of this for him. He wished it could be like this between them all the time. No arguments about what’s right or wrong, just happiness. 

-

Daya watches as the fisherman he talked to tries to pick the best fish out of the basket to serve. And of course it should be the best fish, this soup was for his Dhruva after all!

Speaking of the other man, Daya looks over to the far end of the beach, expecting to see him in his blue polo and khakis waving at him. However, Dhruva is not there. Daya takes off his sunglasses and checks behind him, but there’s still no sign of Dhruva. He hears a car start in the forest area in front of him, whipping his head around just in time to see a group of men load Dhruva’s unconscious body into the trunk of their pickup. 

Daya sees red, and sprints after them, ignoring the shouts of the fisherman behind him. The car is too far away for him to run, so he changes directions and heads to the motorbike that he and Dhruva had ridden to the beach. With it, he’s able to catch up to the truck, which suddenly stops. Daya drives around to the front of the car, and sees that the driver’s head has been slammed into the steering wheel. He’s awake, Daya thinks with relief. His Dhruva really is a capable one. 

A few more men come flying out of the car with the doors, and another is punched through the roof. One crawls out of the car clutching his bleeding hand, and attempts to run away. 

Daya advances on him as the man’s eyes widen with fear. He kicks him in the stomach, and when he drops to his knees, elbows him in the jaw. Daya turns around to see how Dhruva is doing.

He’s bleeding from the back of his head, but otherwise looks okay, and has beaten up the rest of the men that attempted to kidnap him. 

Daya walks towards him, still worried but considerably less so. “ASP garu, you’re so beautiful all the gang leaders are sending their men to kidnap you.” he mock sighs as Dhruva rolls his eyes. “I can’t even blame them, I would definitely-” Daya pulls Dhruva in by his waist to check a minor cut by his lip. “-do the same,” he whispers, noticing how Dhruva has almost stopped breathing at the proximity and is looking at Daya’s lips.  

They stay suspended in that moment, until Dhruva gently pushes Daya away and grins at him. “Then I would punch the shit out of you the same way I did with those men on the ground.”

Daya laughs. “So fish soup is still on?”

“Of course! Being kidnapped isn’t anything new to me. Fresh fish soup is, however.” Dhruva jokes back. 

“Ok, darling, I’ve got it.” Daya speaks into his cell phone as Dhruva walks into the station. Daya glances at Dhruva, then ends the call with, “I’ve got to go, see you later.”

Dhruva frowns at Daya. “Who was that?”

“A friend of mine. She runs an animal shelter, and she called me to prosecute a man who abused his pet bird. I assured her I would put him in jail for it.” Daya shrugs. “I don’t care about the bird, but you gotta do something if a pretty woman asks you to, y’know?” He smirks at Dhruva, whose frown deepens. 

It was totally a work related call. And Daya flirted with him all of the time. There was no need to get upset over a ‘darling’, or a ‘pretty woman’, Daya probably referred to everyone like that. Dhruva chooses to walk over to his desk and start sorting out the day’s files instead of responding. 

He didn’t care. 

He really didn’t. 

-

The next day, a woman comes into the station wearing a purple and black floral patterned blouse, and jean shorts. She’s carrying a box of... something. 

Dhruva closes the file he had been reading expectantly, waiting for the woman to see him and come over to state her business. Instead, she walks straight over to Daya, as if she owned the place. 

Daya’s face brightens when he sees the woman. “Bangaram!” 

The woman grins and sets down her box, sitting down on the corner of his desk. 

“Adedede, you didn’t have to come all this way, I could visit you at your shelter!”

“Well, I wanted to come over. And give you these.” She opens the box, and Dhruva cranes his neck to get a peek. It’s a bunch of sweets and snacks, but in the middle there’s a reheatable container of what looks like soup. 

Hopefully she was getting married and gifting him all of this. Peeda odilipothundi. 

Dhruva shakes his head. What had gotten into him? The woman hadn’t done anything wrong, and yet he was cursing her. Daya was allowed to have friends. 

“I brought you your favorite!” The woman states, opening the soup container. Her voice is melodious and sweet, Dhruva notices. “Authentic fish curry!”

Dhruva takes it back. Daya is not allowed to have friends. Especially ones that give him fish curry. He still remembers the time they had been patrolling on the beach, Daya going out of his way to talk to the fishermen and have them make some fish curry for Dhruva after he had said he never had it. Dhruva had always recalled it fondly, and they had been back to the beach for not-dates several times after, with Daya taking care to make sure Dhruva always got fish curry whenever they were there. 

“Shanvi bujji,” Daya starts, and Dhruva hates how his eyes are shining. “Did you make this?” The woman, Shanvi, nods, smiling. “I thought you were vegetarian! Did I finally convert you?”

Shanvi laughs. “No, I had a friend of mine make it. But don’t worry, it’s made exactly as you like it.” 

“Murthy!” Daya barks. “Fetch me a spoon!”

Narayana Murthy rolls his eyes and shuffles over to bring him the spoon. Dhruva felt bad for him on most days, he was one of the few sincere officers working here and had the misfortune to have Daya of all people as his boss. 

Daya tastes the curry, and almost moans. Dhruva’s fist clenches. “Bangaram, this is so good!”

Dhruva intervenes.

“So, how do you two know each other?” He asks, making his way over to the pair. 

Shanvi turns around. “Oh, you must be ASP Dhruva!” She holds her hand out, and Dhruva shakes it. “Big fan of the way you handled the Siddharth Abhimanyu case.”

“Thank you.”

“And as for your question, well,” she turns to give Daya a fond look, and Dhruva fights to keep a frown off of his face. “We met when someone kidnapped all of the dogs at the shelter, and he helped me get them back. He’s a very caring person, and loves animals as much as I do.”

“Really,” Dhruva asks. Daya winces and gives him the nonverbal cut it out symbol, but Dhruva doesn’t care. The lies he told this woman were not his problem. 

Dhruva suddenly remembers yesterday’s phone call, and realizes the ‘darling’ on the phone must have been Shanvi. He internally scowls. 

“Yeah!” Shanvi goes on, oblivious to the situation. “He’s been a very good friend to me. You two are working together, right? How has the experience been for you?”

Well, Dhruva thinks, two can play at this game.

“It’s been a pleasure to work with my darling Daya, of course.” 

Shanvi’s eyes go wide. There’s a choking sound, and both of them turn to look at Daya, coughing out some curry gravy. He stares at Dhruva. 

Well, Daya kept flirting with him and making him lose his cool, so can’t Dhruva do the same back?

“Your... darling Daya?” Shanvi asks. Is she jealous? Good. 

“Yeah.” Dhruva lets his fingers slowly skim up and down Daya’s arm, feeling the goosebumps left in his wake. “We have so much fun together, right kanna?”

Daya swallows, and nods. 

“Oh my god,” Shanvi gushes. “This is literally the plot of one of my romance books.”

Dhruva snaps out of it. “What?” he asks, confused. Why was she not jealous?

“You guys are so cute together!” she continues. “Are you living together? You two should adopt a dog! From my shelter!” she lowers her voice, but not her excitement. “It would be great PR!”

Daya recovers from his initial tongue-tied state, to Dhruva’s regret. “Ah, we’re not living together yet, but I see that happening sometime in the near future.” He winks at Dhruva. “With all of the nights he spends over at my place-”

“Thank you for the sweets,” Dhruva cuts him off, addressing Shanvi. 

“Of course! And you’re welcome to have some too, I didn’t mean to accidentally exclude you.” He nods at her in appreciation, and takes a kaju out, finishing it off as Daya walks her to the door. 

He comes back grinning in disbelief, and Dhruva suddenly remembers how much of a fool he’d been acting the last few minutes. 

“Did you seriously just flirt with me, ASP garu?”

Dhruva refuses to answer, going back to his own desk. 

“Did she make you jealous, ASP garu?” Daya calls from the other side of the room, and Dhruva buries his face in his paperwork. 

I hate this man, Dhruva thinks fondly as he hears Daya’s delighted laughter. 

They’re back on the beach, and this time Dhruva is the one to hand Daya a freshly roasted corn cob. Daya sends him a soft smile in thanks, and continues his rambling about the best car model. 

Dhruva has spent a few months with Daya at this point, and is comfortable walking side-by-side with Daya on the wet sand, the waves lapping at their feet every few seconds. Their hands occasionally brush, sending electric tingles down Dhruva’s spine. He’s not stupid; he recognizes the signs of a crush. Dhruva just hates that it has to be Daya. 

These days, Daya is much more pleasant to be around, or maybe Dhruva has just gotten used to his antics, but Dhruva can’t ignore the differences in their core moral beliefs for much longer. 

Daya turns back to look at him, stopping in his tracks. “What’s wrong? You don’t like your corn?”

Dhruva plasters on a fake smile, and shakes his head. “Just work stress.”

Daya raises an eyebrow. “You do know we do the same job, right?”

“No, I do the job while you stand around looking pretty,” Dhruva rolls his eyes, and immediately realizes his mistake.

“So you think I look pretty?” Daya tosses his corn aside and gets into Dhruva’s personal space. 

Dhruva blushes, but holds his ground. He’s gotten much better at flirting back in the past few months. Just as he opens his mouth, Daya’s face hardens at something behind him. Dhruva’s police training kicks into gear and he whips himself around, scanning for danger. 

To his surprise, it’s the same group of men that tried to kidnap him a few weeks ago. He raises his eyebrow at Daya, who nods back. Both men start approaching the group slowly, casually, and Daya calls his men for backup. When they’re about five feet away, the men seem to realize who they are, and run, faces paling. 

Daya and Dhruva give chase, and since the goons weren’t smart enough to separate, it’s not long before the officers have the group at gunpoint. 

“Who was it?” Daya barks at who seems to be their leader, a raggedy man with matted long hair. 

“I don’t know anything, please don’t kill me!”

“Who wanted me kidnapped?” Dhruva asks. 

“It wasn’t you, we made a mistake, we’re sorry!” 

Dhruva sends a look of disbelief to Daya. It’s not everyday people ‘make a mistake’ by kidnapping a police officer. 

“Who were you guys supposed to kidnap then?” Daya snorts. “Ambani?”

The leader frantically shakes his head. “Nobody, a nobody! Just some bastard!” 

“His name, NOW!” Dhruva yells.

“Lokesh, he works at this animal shelter! We received information that he might be with SI Daya, so we thought it was you, sir!”

Daya frowns off to the side, whispering the name under his breath. It looks like he’s familiar with the person. Dhruva keeps going. “Why did you want to kidnap him? Who sent you?”

“Waltair Vasu! Vasu anna sent us! We have nothing to do with it, he just paid us!” The group is close to groveling at their feet, and Dhruva sneers in disgust. 

“So you were ready to kidnap an innocent person because of money? What was Vasu going to do to Lokesh?”

“Lokesh had dirt on Vasu’s brothers! Something to do with Lokesh’ theda bitch sister! Vasu wanted Lokesh dead!” 

It’s silent for a second before there’s the whack of a gun hitting a jaw, and the leader moans in pain, blood dripping down his chin. Daya chuckles to himself. 

“That’s where I recognized the name from,” he says as his men arrive in their police cars to arrest the goons. “Lokesh and his mom came to my station to report his brother Deepak, who had been missing for forty days. So that was Vasu’s doing, huh.”

Dhruva pieces together a few pieces of the timeline. “The day I first arrived here in Vizag, you had let Vasu’s brothers go.”

Daya thinks for a second. “Oh! They must’ve been in the cell when Murthy arrested them for kidnapping Lokesh’s brother.” He leans towards Dhruva, grinning mischievously. “They paid handsomely though, so I can’t regret letting them go.” He frowns when the other man pushes him away.

“Why can’t you ever be serious about a case?” Dhruva demands. “Why is it always about money for you?”

“Hey, chill out, bangaram. Not everyone is a goody two-shoes.” Dhruva isn’t listening, though. 

It was okay since Dhruva had been in Lokesh’s place that day, he knew how to handle himself in a fight. But what if it was Lokesh there? This was an innocent man, an upstanding citizen that had the guts to fight the resident crimelord of the city and the bravery to blackmail his brothers. That spark would’ve been snuffed out instantly, all traces of rebellion against Vasu destroyed. 

Hang on. “Brother?” Dhruva asks. 

Daya shrugs, though his face betrays some discomfort. “Lokesh’s brother is trans. Looks like those goons didn’t care.”

“And it doesn’t look like you do, either. You let them go that day.” 

“You’re right, I don’t. These days you only become successful and climb the ladder if you’re corrupt like me. If you’re a monster, if you’re an apathetic bastard like me. Take my advice, Dhruva, and let it go.”

Dhruva shakes his head, a determination filling up inside of him. “We’re going to save Lokesh, and find out what happened to his brother.” He turns to look at a stunned Daya. “And then we’re going to put those fuckers back into jail, along with Vasu.”

"What part of my expert advice did you not unders-”

“Please.” Dhruva interrupts. “Just do this one thing for me, as a friend. Once this case is over I’ll probably get transferred back to my area anyway.”

Daya is staring at him strangely. “As a friend.”

“Oh, come on, Daya, did the time we spent together these last few months not mean anything to you?”

“As a... friend.”

Dhruva realizes where this is going, and he takes a second to steel himself against what is probably the second most vulnerable confession he’s had to make in his life. 

“If you’re serious about the flirting, if you want it to be anything more, then do this one thing.” 

For a second, Dhruva is scared he’s misread the situation, that the innuendos and flirting were all just a show, and now he’s humiliated himself. Or worse, that Daya thinks Dhruva is reciprocating his feelings in the exact same way. Of course Dhruva likes Daya, is crushing on him even, but Daya is... at least a normal gay man. Unlike him. 

Instead of the rejection he’s expecting, Daya’s face lightens in hope. “I’m serious,” he says softly, and Dhruva can’t help but smile back. 

The two men stare at each other for a few seconds longer, then Daya breaks the silence with a loud yawn and a stretch. “Alright, we’ve got a shit ton of work to do,” he grins. “Where do we start?”

Dhruva laughs shakily. He can’t believe this is happening in their relationship, but first they have a case to solve.