Fates

Part 63- Questions And Answers

"Dad I sa-" Riya said trailing off mid-sentence, not knowing what to say.

"What happened, Princess?" Abhi asked confused.

"Dad... what are you doing here?" Riya asked chickening out at the last minute.

"Oh, I wanted to stay with you tonight just in case. If that's okay with you?" Abhi asked.

"Of course that's okay, it'll be like a sleepover." Riya said smiling, going to sit down on her bed.

"Wait you shouldn't go to sleep with wet hair, you'll get sick, let me dry your hair. Where is the hair dryer?" Abhi said caringly, looking for the hair dryer.

"It's in the drawer." Riya informed Abhi pointing towards the dressing table.

"Okay scoot over so I can dry your hair." Abhi said once he found the hair dryer, coming to sit behind Riya on the bed so that he was leaning against the headboard, and Riya was sitting in front of him.

'I'll ask Dad once he's done drying my hair.' Riya thought to herself as Abhi was drying her hair, gently running his fingers through his daughter's hair to take out any tangles.

"Should I braid your hair too?" Abhi asked once he was done, unknowingly stopping Riya from asking him the question.

"Do you even remember how to? It's been such a long time." Riya said questioningly.

"Of course, I remember how to. I spent half of my life trying to learn how to do hairstyles. It's kind of hard to forget that." Abhi said with a chuckle as he thought about how many hours he had put into learning how to do girl hairstyles.

"Okay if you say so. Just don't make it like the first time." Riya said jokingly, as Abhi picked up a comb and started to gently comb out any tangles.

"Ugh. None of you will let me live that down will you?" Abhi asked with a cute pout, smiling softly as he thought about the event.

"No not really. It was so bad, Papa. You made me into 'chudail' it was such a mess." Riya said with a chuckle as she thought about how she had looked.

"Okay, now you're just exaggerating. It wasn't that bad. In my defense, it was your first day of school, and we were already running late, so I didn't have enough time to perfect the pigtails. Plus your Booji and Meera were both on business trips so I didn't have any experienced women to help me. But it wasn't that bad, sure one pigtail was smaller than the other, but that was it. It was pretty decent for my first try." Abhi said defending himself.

"Oh, it was really bad, Papa. The pigtails fell apart the minute I went to class." Riya said with a chuckle. "I was walking around with my hair covering my entire face, looking like a ghost from a horror film the entire day." Riya said laughing out loud.

"Hey that wasn't my fault, it was you who would never let anyone cut your hair. You were so tiny, and your hair was as long as you. You were like a tiny 'Rapunzel' in real life." Abhi said jokingly.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean you're hairstyling failure did help me out." Riya said smiling.

"How so?" Abhi asked curiously when Riya didn't elaborate.

"Oh wait I never told you, did I?" Riya asked now remembering that she never told Abhi this story before.

"Okay so on my first day of school, there were some kids a few years older than me in the upper class, who tried to bully me into giving them lunch money. And I was so small and they like super tall compared to me, so even if I tried to run away they would catch up to me eventually." Riya said thinking back to that day.