FF: The Fire in our Hearts; Khisher. (Chp 6; Pg 10) - Page 8

"Let's go for dinner and a movie," Ashar suggests randomly once she follows him inside from the park swing, and she looks up in surprise when she finds him addressing all three of the girls, eyes falling on her for a second before he looks at Sara.

She really didn't realize their presence and feels sort of alarmed at her dazed demeanor, but Sara looks a little furious and a whole lot annoyed.

"Kahan they yaar?" She asks irritably. Khirad looks at her for a second before she realizes that the query was aimed at Ashar. "Kab se dhoond rahe the tumhe!"

"Yahin tou tha," he responds easily. "Kyun, anything important?"

When Sara doesn't say anything for a couple of moments, he repeats himself regarding the movie suggestion. Zareen, like Khirad almost imagined, looks like a five year old who's just gotten her most favorite present from Santa.

"Yes!" She squeals, tugging on Ashar's hand excitedly. "Please, Bhai! We have to."

Ashar grins and Khirad finds herself doing the same at Zareen's adorable smile. "Of course, Zaru," he says affectionately before reaching up and messing her hair. She's too happy to even call him out on it, Khirad realizes, and it's really all sorts of endearing.

.

Khirad finds herself dressed in her favorite plaid shirt and skinny jeans with her hair loose, feeling casual and comfortable in her attire for the first time in days. It's not like she hates wearing Shalwaar Kameez - because, God, those are literally the most comfortable things - but she doesn't like the idea of fixing up the dupatta every five minutes, and she almost feels free without it hanging in her neck like a rope while she stands by the sofas in the hall, waiting for the three of them, wondering why she's five minutes too early for the first time in her life.

Zareen's going to be the last one out, she knows, so it really shouldn't be a surprise when Ashar and Sara walk down the stairs together, engaged in a conversation Khirad can't hear from so far away. Ashar, dressed in a white shirt with dark jeans, looks so carelessly at ease that she finds herself struggling to tear her eyes away from his crinkled smile as he converses with Sara, who looks lovely with a pink blouse and white jeans, hair tied up in a bun with only a few strands falling on her place - and Khirad finds herself thinking that really, they would make a picture perfect couple.

She starts to feel a little too casual when she looks at Sara's prim and proper attire, but then Zareen bounces down the stairs almost out of nowhere and Khirad tunes herself to her best friend, instead, who runs past the two and joins Khirad in a matter of ten seconds, excited, hugging Khirad like she hasn't seen her for a whole year. Khirad doesn't have the heart to tell her that they've only been apart an hour.

She doesn't turn around even once to look at Ashar and Sara when she feels Zareen take her by her hand and lead her out of the door towards Ashar's car - a black BMW, and really, Khirad should've guessed this - while they wait for the owner to follow.

"Well, well," Ashar breaks them out of their conversation, eyes falling on Khirad as he gives her a small smile. "Look who's early today."

A small smile settles on Khirad's lips when Zareen launches into accusations about how he's always the late one but he keeps saying otherwise, and she realizes he's smiling too, but he's still facing Khirad.

He unlocks the car instantly, and Khirad doesn't even blink twice when Sara makes herself comfortable on the front seat. She follows Zareen into the car, and finds herself seated directly behind Ashar, who's already begun lecturing Sara about how she absolutely cannot mess with his radio.

"God, Bhai," Zareen groans from beside Khirad. "You're like a whiny, possessive little boyfriend when it comes to your radio."

"Shush," Ashar laughs from the front, and Khirad smiles as the siblings launch into another banter, mind trailing back to her conversation with Ashar in the park, less than a couple of hours ago.

It's so strange, she thinks, that she's still trying to navigate where she stands with him. One second they're mocking and teasing, and the other Khirad doesn't know where to look when he's standing right before her. It's positively infuriating.

"Acha, Ashar," Sara cuts his argument with Zareen midway, "Why the sudden movie plan? You didn't even mention it in the morning," she asks.

He looks up at the rearview mirror, and Khirad catches his eyes and the unmistakable smirk.

"I was just bored, you know," he copies Khirad's words from earlier. "Zareen was busy with you and Zareena aunty, and my waaldein are too busy putting this idiot's wedding together- I've nothing to do, really."

Khirad can't help the laughter that bubbles out as he holds his gaze in the mirror, and he starts laughing too.

.

"You have to try out the pani puri and bhel puri, Khirad!"

Ashar watches Khirad enter the beautifully lit restaurant with Zareen and Sara as he follows closely behind, eyes never trailing too far from her form.

"I would, honestly," Khirad tells her. "But I'm terrified because I usually get sick and your wedding's coming up, so no, thank you."

Ashar's already made a reservation, so the waiter kindly guides them to the end of the restaurant to a beautifully situated table, the lights almost making it look heavenly. Khirad looks at it, awed, and he smiles at her reaction.

She sits with her left shoulder pressed to the wall - next to Zareen, predictably - and Ashar slides in before Sara, so he's facing her. He gives her a small smile and she smiles back before Zareen begins convincing her once again to try out the chaats and the pani puri.

"Look, Zara," Khirad tells her patiently, "The only time I eat this stuff is at home, when Ammi makes it. I always get sick when I eat it outside, no matter how good the restaurant is. You of all people should know this."

Zareen pouts. "Please yaar! What if it's psychological and you only get sick because you think you'll get sick. Just a bit?"

Sara looks at her, a soft smile on her lips. "Thora sa le lo, Khirad," she coaxes. "Zareen won't stop convincing you unless you've at least tried it."

Khirad almost looks at Ashar to plead him to take her side, but she stops herself. Sara's right, Zareen really won't stop until she tries a little, so she nods slowly, still unsure.

"Okay, I'll just try a little bit," she says, purposely ignoring Ashar's gaze. She knows he'll probably be watching her, forever the knight in shining armor for all the damsels in distress, and waiting for any sign of her discomfort so he can call Zareen out on it, but she stares at Sara and Zareen until his stare drops.

When the waiter comes, Ashar places the order clearly. "Three bhels," he says, "And three plates of panipuri, thank you."

"Please don't put onions in one plate of bhel puri," Khirad tells the waiter softly, and when Zareen scoffs at her, she addresses Sara and Ashar.

"I don't like onions," she says simply, glaring at Zareen. "They make your mouth stink."

Zareen only pokes her tongue out at her and laughs at Khirad's scrunched up nose.

"Ashar, you didn't order anything?" Sara asks, unaware of the little banter between Khirad and Zareen, which dies down when Zareen asks him why right after Sara.

"I don't like bhelpuri," he says simply. "You both know that."

"And I still don't understand why," Sara laughs before grabbing her bag. "You guys carry on, I'll be back in five," she says, and immediately Zareen shoots up from her seat, too. "Wait, Sara! I'm coming, too. I need to use the ladies room real quick."

She looks down at Khirad with a smile. "You and Bhai chill here, yeah? We'll be back in a few."

Sara's eyes immediately fall on her at Zareen's suggestion, and Khirad feels strangely uneasy now, but she smiles softly.

"Don't take your time," she laughs at Zareen. "Or I'll eat all of your bhel too."

Zareen's departing laughter leaves Khirad and Ashar in a sort of silence, and it feels strangely heavy, the air between them.

Thankfully, the waiter takes the exact moment to show up, three plates in his tray as he begins placing them on the table. The one in front of Khirad has onions in it, and she reaches up to check Zareen's and Sara's plates to check for the one without the onions. Her nose scrunches when she can't spot it.

Ashar's laugh breaks her out of her revelries, and he's watching her, thoroughly amused. "Kya hua?" He asks.

"None of them are without the onions," she complains like a child without meaning to, slightly pouting, and a small part of Ashar's registers that she's actually sort of adorable.

"You don't like onions at all?"

"Not when they're raw," she answers seriously. "They taste horrible."

"Alright," he says pensively, but his eyes are smiling, "Pass on the plate here, then," he suggests.

Her eyes widen. "No, no, it's fine."

"Khirrat," he teases, "Its fine. You don't like onions; we'll get you another plate. I'll have this one for you."

The for you slips out of his mouth before he can even think over it, and instantly she feels her cheeks heating up. He smiles at the table awkwardly, hoping she doesn't read too much into it.

"Hey, I'll take it, yeah?" He says, before reaching out for her plate. He's about to call out to the waiter when she stops him.

"I feel bad, now," she apologizes. "I'm sorry. You don't even like it, and I didn't even want to eat it in the first -"

He cuts off her rambling midway. "Look, it's alright," he laughs his crinkly-eyed laugh, and she finds herself smiling. "It's not that bad - you'll have another plate though, right?" He asks.

"Zareen will kill me otherwise," she answers with a small smile.

It's kind of ironic that Zareen and Sara take the exact moment to make their way back to the table, and Zareen immediately questions Khirad about why there isn't any bhel for her on the table.

Ashar answers for her, predictably. "They put onions in hers, too. So I've taken it instead. We'll get her another plate, don't worry," he teases.

Sara smiles, but Khirad can see a strange sort of calculation on her face. "Wait - Ashar, why didn't you just ask them to change it? I mean, it was their fault. You don't have to eat it if you don't want to," she tells him.

Khirad looks up, alarmed that the thought never crossed her mind, and Ashar wears a similar expression. He looks so out of sorts at Sara's suggestion, like it didn't even cross his mind that he didn't have to step in to save the day, but it gives way to a small smile.

"It's alright - it's not too bad, actually." Then, looking at Khirad with a secretive smile, he adds, "Let's get one without onions for Khirrat, too."

.

"If this backfires and I end up sick, I will murder you, Zareen Hussain."

Zareen laughs, loud and bubbly, as Khirad takes her first pani puri. "Your immune system is terrible," she teases. "If you do get sick, it won't be my fault. You willingly agreed to try it."

"I could sue you," Khirad counters with a small smirk.

"Yeah, sure," Zareen laughs, before doing a rendition of the worn out Indian movie court scene, a loud Khirad jhoot bol rahi hai, Judge Saab,' performed with the ease of an actor.

"You picked a wrong career," Ashar laughs at his sister. "Pakki dramey baaz ho."

Khirad laughs before her eyes fall on Sara, who's grinning at Ashar, and the memory of them after first seeing each other on the stairs slides back into her mind. It feels weird, like she's a spectator to a quiet love story, and something about that thought makes her pani puri lurch in her stomach.

.

"No," Ashar finds himself repeating wearily. "No, no. No."

Before him stands Zareen, with her best puppy dog face as blackmail. Khirad and Sara snicker at the side, thoroughly amused by the scene playing out.

"Bhai, please!" She pleads. "It's a really cute love story and it's got Ranbir Kapoor. It's a win-win situation!"

"Zareen, please," Ashar looks positively distraught. "I've got much better things to do than watch two people dancing in fields."

Khirad lets out a particularly loud giggle at that, and Ashar looks pleased. "See! Even Khirrat agrees with me! Leave me out of it, please?"

Sara protests at that point, too. "You're so opposed to the idea of love, Ashar," she complains softly, and there's an undertone in her voice, a strange sort of regret that Khirad's only picked up on now.

It goes quiet, then, like something that shouldn't have been said is out in the open and no one knows what to do, where to look. It's only then that Khirad looks up from the ground.

"Look Zareen, let's be fair. If he doesn't want to watch the movie, it's alright. He can go home and chill. We'll ring the driver when we want to go home. It's simple, really." She looks at Ashar with a small smile. "Happy, now?"

But he's not, if he's being honest. He feels sulky and ridiculous, even though he was seconds away from begging Zareen to leave him out of it. He was hoping there'd be at least a small attempt by Khirad to make him stay, but she seemed more than happy to have him leave.

"The driver's busy," he says instead, faking a sigh. "And we live a good forty-five minutes from here." He's stretching the facts, he knows - the driver's due to be back in around an hour, but he realizes now that he doesn't actually want to leave, just needs someone to ask him to stay.

"Bhai, just stay for the movie, then," Zareen tells him simply. She gives him a second to change his mind, but when he just shrugs his shoulders, resigned, she grins. "And now that that's decided, let's go get the tickets for Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani!"

.

When they finally find their seat after five minutes of hopeless navigating in the dark cinema, Ashar is pleased as he slides in after Khirad, with Sara on his other side. Zareen's sitting on Khirad's left, and Ashar thanks his luck because he's spared from her sonnets about Ranbir's eyes throughout the movie.

He watches the movie more attentively than he likes to admit, and finds himself laughing at the oddest moments, mind diverting only when he hears Khirad or Zareen giggle over something. It's not bad, he'll admit, and Deepika most definitely is quite a sight, so he grudgingly tells himself that the movie beats the three hours he'd be home on his own.

The cinema is oddly quiet, so it startles him when, towards the end, he hears a soft sniff from his left and turns to see Khirad trying her best to keep from crying. She's blinking rapidly, biting her nail to distract herself, and there's something so innocent in her wide eyes that it makes him smile fondly.

He doesn't know what he's doing until he pulls out his favorite hankie from his pocket and holds it out to her quietly. She takes it, startled at his observation, but smiles gratefully.

For a fleeting second, Ashar feels like the luckiest guy in the world.

.

thank you, as always, for reading.