Professor Khan ✔️(completed)

41. w a p i s - return

(Not edited 😭😭😭)

"Look me in the eyes." 

His lungs were battling to take another breath. Her voice cut through the chaos. The turmoil coming to rest as he stared into her eyes. They held the galaxies, the stars, and the light altogether. Her eyes held his world.

"You say the word once and I will hold your hand we will leave okay?"

The brown of her alluring eyes held his soul and comfort. What would I do without you? He didn't have to say it. She understood, leaving a chaste kiss on his cold lips, she held his hand as Ayla pushed open the door to his past.

His legs were trembling when he stepped his foot inside the massive door. Stepping into the living room, the wave of memories whirled around him.

"Asfi, zma zargiyya"
(Asfi, my heart)

His mother's voice echoed through the colossal living room that was embellished with the artifacts from across the world, but his mother was not there.  He frantically looked around. Maa.

"Asfi Lalaaa... catch the ball..."

His hands jerked around to catch the ball that wasn't there along with his ten-year-old brother.

"Asfi Lala," A nine-year-old Ayla in her pigtails came running to him and started whining.  "Look at Kabir Lala... He stole my cookies and pulled my hair. Now they are loose."

He jolted around once more. Ayla was standing there, no longer in her pigtails. Her hair was now pin-straight. The brown of her eyes no longer holding that naiveness.

Now they were holding the darkness of the unshed tears. The words strangled in her throat. The silence drenched in affliction and agony.

"Ayla!" The words barely left his lips in woe.

"Lala,"

Her arms wrapped around him. The grief in her sobs tugged at his heart. She held on to him, the angry grief and anguish bottled in her were now flowing and shedding on his shoulder. Her sorrows were ablaze in her tears.

"I'm sorry, bachay." His lips were quivering. She was merely three years younger than him, but she was his little Aaloo, like his own daughter. "I'm sorry for leaving."

He wounded his arms around her and pulled her closer.

"No," She wiped his tears away frantically. "No, don't be sorry. You're never going to be sorry about anything, okay? I'm just emotional because if Mama saw you here like this here, she would've been so proud."

"Not much about that hair length though!" A voice reached him with the warmth of the sun and softness of the moon.

"Momster," He bit his lips as if he was back in his teens standing there in corner guilty with Zach after they pulled another prank on her. "You are as short as I left you."

Ayla stepped back and he came face to face with a tiny woman who was a feisty lawyer. Her hair still falling over her shoulder, but now they were a mix of salt and pepper. Her eyes were of the reflection of his best friend. Yet the love and warm affection of them reminded him of her mother.

"Come here," He bent down as she hugged him. "Well look at you now grown in to be a camel."

A hearty laugh left his chest as she ruffled his hair as if he was still ten.

"Your mother would have been absolutely proud and beaming with joy. I m sure wherever she is, her heart is at ease."

"Thank you, Amma, It means a lot." He pulled back and held her hand in assurance. "He's here. He just needs a little bit of time to get his mind straight."