MaNan : Love is Just a Word

8. Somebody

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"And the cow goes?"

" Ba !"

"Ohh, close. It's mooo ."

" Maa !"

"Very good! And the cat goes?"

" Ba !"

"Almost. Meow. Eh. Maybe that's a little too advanced-"

"Muuuu- wu !"

"Amazing! And the rooster goes?"

" Ba !"

"Only a little off there, buddy. It's ki-ki-ri-kiiii!"

" Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-baaaaaa !" Shrieking laughs follow, a mellow deep laughter underneath it.

Nandini rounds the corner and she knows what's waiting for her, but it's still so unexpected that she halts in her steps, something settling in the back of her mind like a misplaced piece found and being tugged into place.

It's a little past seven.

The lobby of the computer sciences department should be empty, and soundless, but Manik doesn't look out of place sitting on a bench and Aarav's giggles don't sound out of beat, the picture they make doesn't seem warped, like it was developed wrong, out of focus, but right, completely centered.

"He's too young for that. Words. To talk." Nandini realizes how stupid it is after she says it, cheeks coloring at how silly it is to say to Manik of all people.

Manik looks up. His hands flex around Aarav's back, settling once he sees it's Nandini. "I know," he says and there's I know and I know. Manik's is the latter, pleasant smile, kinder words. "But they're never too young to hear them. Words. Talking. Understanding starts as early as the adults in his life make it something of value. Plus, onomatopoeia is just fun."

"Oh," Nandini says, more sound than word.

Aarav perks up at it rather than Nandini speaking. He twists, head flung over his shoulder, an arm extended in Nandini's direction. "Ba -ma!" Nandini smiles. The whole day melts off of her like ice runoff into a sea of the things that don't matter.

She walks over. It's a seamless exchange, Manik already lifting Aarav, Nandini picking him up out of his arms and into her own. 

Aarav settled against her chest, she asks, "So were you going over the entire animal kingdom or just the sidelined characters in Zootopia ?"

"Well, we started with the tundra animals because, you know, penguins."

She nodded, "Right."

Manik continued again, "Though that's a misconception because most penguins don't actually live in the tundra."

Holding Aarav, she patted his back while answering, "Right ."

And so Manik talked more, explaining himself, "So then we hit some subtropical rainforest animals because it felt a little redundant to go through the taiga and temperate species at that point."

Nandini smiled as if she completely agreed with his point, "Of course."

"And then we did farm animals", Manik said.

With a frown, she asked, "Cats are farm animals?"

He gave her a straight stare, "Nandini Murthy, have you never been on a farm?" he asked her as if it was a crime not to know about the farm.

The younger was too distracted by the sound of her name in that order, in that voice, to take full stock of her mouth, the smile on it. "You have?" She asked him curiously.