For Our Love Series Fanfiction

Eid Mubarak

"Where?" I asked.

"To get mehendi done." He joked. "Just come, yaar." He led me away, as Ahad and Zafar were too busy discussing cricket.

"Papa!" A screaming Iman followed me, tangling herself around my legs.

"Papa, Mani hit me!" Ibrahim told Arhaan, wrapping his arm around his father's leg.

"Iman, that's not nice." I immediately looked at my daughter, who was trying to hide behind my legs.

"He hit me first!" Iman said accusingly, pointing at her cousin.

"Ibrahim!" Arhaan said in a warning tone.

"Nobody should be hitting anyone." I said.

With our second-born children holding onto us, Arhaan and I went to a café close by and ordered coffee. Mani and Ibrahim got cartons of juice and they sat besides us like the well-behaved children that they weren't.

As we chatted about old times, my phone buzzed and I glanced down to see a message from Mina.

<Mina: Please, please, please tell me that Mani and Ibrahim are with you!>

<Fawad: Yes, meri jaan. Relax. Arhaan and I came to a café and the cheeky monkeys followed us.>

<Mina: They scared the lives out of us! Please tell her not to leave without telling me the next time!>

<Fawad: Got it. Don't worry.>

I looked at Iman. "Jaan, you need to tell your Mama before you leave the next time. Ibrahim, you as well. They're all worried."

"Ice cream?" Mani asked me, cheekily.

I could already tell that this kid of mine was slowly learning to take advantage of each situation. She knew she was up late, and that her mother was busy, and she was trying to convince me into getting her whatever she wanted. I hadn't been like that till I was at least twelve, and Mani was already like that. I looked up and saw Arhaan giving me a knowing smile and I knew that he was thinking the same thing.

"No ice cream at this time." I told my daughter.

"Papa..."

"If you insist, I will take you home and you'll have to go to bed." I told her, firmly.

Mani threw her empty juice carton on the ground, as a form of protest.

"Pick that up and throw that in the bin, Mani." I pointed towards the discarded carton. "Now. You shouldn't throw rubbish around like this. We've always told you this."

Iman got up and begrudgingly took the juice box to the bin.

"Good girl." I told her.

"So, doesn't our Iman want mehendi done?" Arhaan asked her, fondly ruffling her hair as she went to sit beside him this time, clearly mad at me.

"It's yucky!" Mani made a face.

"You are yucky!" Ibrahim laughed at her.

"Ibrahim!" Arhaan told him off. "Don't say that!"

"Mamu." Mani snuggled up against her maternal uncle. "He's mean! I don't like him."

"Iman..." I said, wearily, before I looked up at my best friend. "I feel like we'll always be telling our kids off like this."

"Waqt badal gaya hai, yaar." He nodded. "We're now where our parents used to be."

*"Times have changed, man."