Cry of the Unbroken ✓

✒ F A I T H

Note: This is a very dialogue heavy chapter. I've put all the references and sources at the end.

♦

This is how it ended –

"I'm taking him on a holiday!" Kate declared to Masroor on one weekend. Masroor had decided to take them to Cannon Hill park. Well, Masroor had invited Ahsan, and Kate tagged along.

"Holiday?" Masoor raised a brow.

"Yup," Kate replied. "I've saving up for a vacation for some time. Now I've got enough to go somewhere this summer holiday."

Ahsan hummed from between them, so Masroor guessed she'd already discussed with him. "Sure," he shrugged. "If you want to, I don't see why you can't." He paused. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Just thought I'd inform you, so you don't think I stole him away and sold him in a different country or something," Kate said primly. Then she noticed an ice cream truck and decided to buy ice cream for them all.

Behind her, Masoor blinked in confusion. Ahsan coughed out a laugh.

"What?"

"She just thought you deserved to know, after all the, you know."

Masroor hummed at that. "What guys do in your holidays doesn't really matter to me. How are you feeling about that? Has she said where you're going?"

"She said she'll give a list of places of choose from, or I can just tell her if I want to go somewhere specific." He blinked innocently at Masroor. "I can't tell her to take me Umrah, can I?"

Masroor laughed. "Well, no. I don't think that would quite work out. I want to go Umrah too." He sighed wistfully.

Ahsan nodded as if making a decision. "Let's start saving some money, then me and you can go Umrah!" He pumped his fist up in the air, then paused to look at Masroor. "...If that's okay with you, I mean?" He added shily.

Masroor smiled indulgently. "Of course. I would love to." He looked at Ahsan who grinned upon hearing that and was struck by how free that smile was.

The first few days after Ahsan had opened up, he was still skittish around him, eyes watching everything like a cornered animal, like he expected Masroor to turn around and give him the disgusted looks he had once received from his relatives. As weeks flew by and Masroor showed no such signs, being especially careful to ensure Ahsan never saw any of his negative reaction, Ahsan relaxed.

It wasn't all good and dandy, there were still days where he needed to be coaxed out of his shell. There were still days where he flinched away from Masroor's voice. There were still days where he would spend hours in the shower. 

But gradually, those days were lessening.

Slowly slowly, Masroor could see the smile from his youth returning home on his face. Gradually, the brightness started to become real once again, overall, he seemed a bit more youthful.

The smiles weren't very frequent, but when he did smile, it lit up his entire face. The first time, Kate just stared at him as though she had never seen Ahsan smile like that. Like a flower blossoming for the first time, or the sun peeking out of the horizon at dawn.

Something memorable, and precious.

♦

Listening to the reaction of Ahsan's chacha and chachi had made Masroor want to hurl, and a thought occurred to him. At that moment, he stayed silent and quietly listened.