Arylie FF: I'm Happy Here With You

six ~ hulchul hui

kadmo ko sambhale, nazroon ka kya kare

nazroon ko sambhale, toh dil ka kya kare

... ... ...

After four days of Aryan's absence and Imlie's irrational behavior, Arpita was glad to see a bit of normalcy at the breakfast table early next morning. Aryan and Imlie were bickering about something work related, it was a bit of a routine now. There was no real heat in their argument and Arpita had a suspicion that at this point they argued with each other on mundane topics as a form of entertainment. They both were quite similar, yet very different from each other. Like mirror images.

Even now, they were perfectly mirroring each other. Both had similar bowls of cereal in front of them. But while Aryan's was plain oats with yogurt, heaped with all kinds of healthy hijinks he could think of, Imlie was devouring a mountain of Fruit Loops with milk. He was working on his tablet, while she solved one of her English learning worksheets. In between the pointless argument, she would ask him the meaning of words that she found difficult, and he would ask her opinions on some random Bhaskar Times employee. Imlie knew everyone working at BT personally.

Arpita was amused to see her mother looking dreamily at the pair. Seriously, Mummy needed a hobby. Maybe I should get her on Twitter.

She nudged her mother a little, warning her not to make it too obvious, in case Aryan noticed. Aryan, however, was busy nagging Imlie about having a more decent breakfast.

"You have a long day, eat something else."

"I'm good."

"There's no break between classes till 12."

"I'll be fine."

Aryan sighed, pushed his tablet aside and meticulously made a three layer peanut butter and jelly sandwich, then cut it into four neat squares and pushed the plate towards Imlie. She picked one square up without prompting, dunked it in her cereal milk and started eating.

"Gadhi," he muttered to himself, he raised an eyebrow to see his mother shaking in silent laughter. He looked at Didi, she was examining her nails as if her life depended on it, a mad smirk on her face.

Every single person is crazy in this madhouse, he thought grumpily and concentrated back on his emails.

"Aryan Baba, should I serve coffee here or place it in your car?" Gopal asked, serving Narmada and Arpita their tea.

"Car, car!" Imlie replied. "We don't have time, we're getting late."

"Excuse me, you are getting late, not me, I don't have a 7.30 class. Who told you I'm taking you?"

"ABP! Don't start this today, I really need the fast-forward you and your fast-forward Mrs. to get to class in time!"

"Maybe if you woke up early in the morning..."

"What you consider as morning is middle of the night for normal people, ABP."

"4am is a perfectly good time to wake up."

Imlie pouted and pulled at the elbow of his sleeve, "can we argue on our way, pleaseeeee? Please?"

Now he may be Aryan Singh Rathore but in no way he was immune to that pout. He gave up, "Okay, let's go."

Imlie did a little victory dance and followed him out, mimicking his walk behind him. Arpita laughed.

"Arpiiii, did you see how good they are together? How can I not wish for that?"