"What do you mean I was gifted to you?"
"It is not good to eavesdrop but you heard it right. You are a gift that was forcefully imposed on me."
"Y-You... are.... lying..."
"Am I? You know what? Gift is a very fancy term for you. 'Trash' suits you be...
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"What the... When did you guys arrive?" Yuvaan snapped up from the couch and rushed towards the two women, who had entered our house with their luggage.
"Thanks a lot for coming on such a short notice," I said and touched the elder woman's feet.
She gave me her blessings and caressed my hair lovingly. "How could I say no when you asked so politely? And it has been such a long time since I met my brother."
Yuvaan grinned and hugged his cousin sister. She was older than us and had a fourteen year old daughter, who at the moment was staring at me and pulling Yuvaan's sleeve to gain his attention.
"Maamu (Uncle), I am here too," she complained.
Yuvaan gave her a bear hug and pulled her cheeks. She whined when Yuvaan teased her about her short height, while her mother laughed at the exchange. Both mother and daughter looked similar: round face, broad forehead, black hair, and dark brown eyes.
"I am still growing, Maamu. Don't make fun of me. By the time I turn eighteen, I will be taller than you," the young girl said.
"Sure, why not? I will also like to see you grow past 6ft, shorty." Yuvaan chuckled.
"Enough both of you," Yuvaan's sister scolded. "Mysha, are you going to shower all your attention on your Maamu only?"
Mysha stuck out her tongue in embarrassment and came forward to touch my feet. I stopped her before she touched my feet and hugged her. She stared at me for some time and glanced at Yuvaan, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.
"I like her. I approve of her to be my aunt," she said.
Yuvaan smacked her behind the head. "Did your brain stop growing since kindergarten? She is my wife; why are you giving your approval now?"
"Maa, Maamu is hitting me."
Mysha's mother, Navya, rolled her eyes and told me not to bother with the two weirdos. Even though Mysha was a lot younger than Yuvaan, he never held back from pulling her leg whenever both of them met. She was his niece, but he always treated her like his younger sister.
"Let them both do whatever they want," Navya told me, and we went upstairs to get their luggage set in the guest room.
When we came back downstairs, Yuvaan and Mysha were fighting over the TV remote, and Advait had arrived too in time for lunch. He was having fun watching both uncle and niece acting like cavemen over an electronic device.
I went inside the kitchen to prepare lunch, while Navya went to meet Advait. Just like Shruti Aunty had suggested, I invited Yuvaan's cousin sister and her daughter to let Yuvaan stop overthinking about other stuff. I thought that Yuvaan only had his mom and friends, but seeing him smiling with no care in the world around these two women, it was clear that he was very close to both of them.
