Besabriyan

4|FOUR

"Amma meri aulad kidnap ho gayi hai!" Daniyal came running to the kitchen to his mother who was busy making breakfast with Manha. Manha, who gawked at her nephew, shrugged off her amusement and laughed at him. He looked at his phupho in bewilderment before he was whacked on his head by his daji.

"Kya behki behki baatein kar rahe ho, samne dekho apne." He looked above from his grandmother and found Maheen walking into the kitchen with a plate of omelet and makkan ki roti. Rolling eyes at Daniyal dramatically, she went to daji, lowered to her face level and kissed her on his cheeks before walking out of the kitchen muttering a-tere munh na lagun main subah subah- to Daniyal and sat down on the sofa to have her breakfast without any drama now that Daniyal was up.

"Kahan jaane ki jaldi ho rahi hai tumhe?" He came out of the kitchen to her with a plate of his own breakfast.

"Jahan bhi jaana ho, leke toh tumne hi jaana hai." She plastered a fake grin as she shoved a piece of omelet into his mouth to shut him up.

Maheen wanted to explore the markets and the city on their day off instead of just wasting away at home. She wanted to look at the beauty of Islamabad and admire it. She had so many things to do and so many things to get but it was her schedule that couldn't be loosened up or be changed. She wanted to look at the handcrafted things and jewelry they sold on the streets and write about them. She wanted to look around and see what people did in their rush hours and in their free time. She wanted to walk aimlessly in the streets of Islamabad and feel the air brush past her face. She wanted to feel it all. She wanted to feel what life felt like outside university and laptop.

"Nahi leke gaya toh ghar ko sar pe chada lena hai tumne phir mera class laga rehta hai saara din."

"It's nice to hear it from you."

"phupho , your daughter wants to elope." Just when Daniyal got up to run away, Maheen kicked him in the back causing him to tumble but before he could fall face-first, Maheen pulled him back and made a face at him.

No one present there paid attention to what they were doing in the middle of the house, it was as though Maheen and Daniyal were not there at all and nothing irked the duo more than their indifference. Now that they had failed to bring their attention to them, Daniyal sat back next to her and started eating in silence- pushing her away by her shoulder whenever she poked his bicep.

"Where do you want to go?" He asked, out of the blue- bringing her back from her thoughts. The bickerings had died down once her mind began to list the things she wanted to do but doing it alone was not her cup of tea, for she had never done anything without him. Daniyal had been her brother, her best friend and her protector. There had been talks when they did their bachelor's that the duo were dating. But who would know what Maheen had gone through at young age that made her aloof from the rest of the world, besides him. They might bicker, they might run after each other throats, they might kill each other and bring back to life but there wouldn't go by a single day without them taking care of each other.

"Just explore the city, look what we have in here and buy a few random stuff." She sighed looking at the way he eyed her- as though he was holding himself back from swallowing her.

"Are you going to make me walk?"

"Why do you have legs then?"

"Why do you have eyes, you don't see the world as it really is." The only thing he disliked about her was that she romanticized everything. When he himself was afraid of loving someone after seeing his phupho 's fall from high- after hearing so much about her love and how she couldn't have it for the rest of her life. Manha was nothing less than a mother to him. He loved her as much as he loved his own mother.