Aru Shah One Shots

Leaping Through The Years

"Um, like I said, you literally just stepped in a pile of dog shit that was right in front of your face. And second, Mini has Brynne! And I couldn't have noticed the sudden change from road to curb, but you should at least be able to see dark brown on light gray!" Aru exclaimed.

Brynne sighed. "Change of plans: follow Hira's voice." Hira ran ahead, shouting back, "This way!"

Quite a few near misses with germs later, Mini arrived in front of a door. At least, she thought it was a door. Hira knocked on the door-not-a-door and called, "Rudy! Open the damn door!" So it was a door.

"Jeez, I'm coming," Rudy yelled from inside, followed by a crash.

"That wasn't the thing, right?" Hira asked, pounding on the door. "Rudy?"

Silence. Then he said, "Nope, not at all." His voice was much closer now.

"It was, wasn't it?"

Rudy didn't answer, instead pulling Mini closer and placing a kiss in her hair. Mini let herself be embraced for a moment before pulling away. She didn't want to contract any diseases on her birthday. "Hel-lo, birthday girl! Are you ready for your surprise?" he asked in a cheery voice.

"A surprise that you surely ruined," Brynne muttered.

Rudy hissed back, "Shut up, I didn't!"

"Mhm, sure, we'll see," she said, following them inside.

"Aru? Aiden? You coming?" Rudy called out the door once everyone else was inside.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure," Aru responded, making her way inside, then resumed her argument with Aiden, which had evolved from the color of dog shit to the reliability of Sharpies.

"So, what now?" Mini asked, leaning back against the sofa she was seated in. "Can I take my blindfold off now?"

"Wait, wait, wait, we're not ready yet," Aru called to her from somewhere far away.

Mini sighed. "More waiting it is, then."

After five minutes (though it felt more like fifty), she was allowed to open her eyes.

She stared at the giant bottle of hand sanitizer at the center of the table, then at the five people standing around it. Wait a minute . . . there's seven. She gasped.

"Nikita! Sheela!" Mini bounded out of her seat to go give them both a hug. She hadn't seen them much since college, and she was especially glad that they'd come to visit on her birthday. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be at school?"

Aru cleared her throat. "As far as the school knows, they're both sitting at home, bedridden with hives."

Mini laughed, then went around giving everyone else hugs for the awesome present they had gotten her. (Rudy insisted on a kiss, to which Mini happily agreed.) Her other giant bottle was close to finishing anyways, and this would save a trip to the store. Once she was done, she went right back to the bottle and squirted out a huge pump of sanitizer. Hopefully, this would cover the multitudes of germs she had just gained.

As she picked it up, though, she noticed a tiny slip of paper underneath. Setting down the bottle, she picked it up and read aloud the contents. "221B Baker Street." She frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Aiden smiled. "You figure it out. It's your scavenger hunt, after all."

Mini gasped in surprise. "Really?"

Hira nodded. "Yup!"

Scavenger hunts may sound kiddy, but Mini loved them. Her parents would always set one up every few months, and Mini would breeze through as fast as she could, some of which even her brother couldn't solve. Her most favorite part were the clues, since the logic puzzles reestablished brain cell connections, making it easier to remember things she couldn't allow herself forget. Imagine she forgot how to make an incision in someone's skin during an operation. God, that would be embarrassing. Mini mentally shuddered.