I ducked in and out of colorfully dressed celebrators, patting my braid to make sure none of the red flowers had fallen out.
"Kiran! Over here!" Cousin Saira, the woman of the hour, beckoned me over. The way she faced me, with the sun at her back, one could hardly tell her arms and feet were covered in intricate designs painted with brown henna. To satisfy my persistent aunties, I had a simple flower, the petals echoing out from the center to cover the back of my left hand. I put my foot down to insist that nothing touch my right arm, and Mum backed me up.
I reached my cousin, finally able to deliver the cream puffs she'd asked for what seemed like hours ago.
"Ah, so this is illustrious Kiran Singh, daughter of the famous Professors Singh." I caught sight of the unfamiliar voice, sitting at the feet of Saira's fiancee, Arjun.
The young man there grinned up at me.
"Shiv Gurmeet, Pleasure to meet you." He nodded, waving the henna bottle in his hand that indicated he'd like to shake my hand, but was otherwise occupied.
"I'm sure," I flashed him a smile as bright as sunlight and turned back to Saira and Arjun.
"Anything else I can do for you? Preferably before your mother thinks I'm not doing anything and sends me inside to babysit?" I nodded to the house of Saira's father, an imposing mansion in the Punjabi Countryside that both housed the children too young to enjoy the party, and barring any outsiders from viewing the exclusive Singh Family wedding party.
"Sadly, no," Saira's arms were held out like they wanted a hug, but both hands and feet were firmly held by four of her girlfriends, who still found space to draw ever more intricate designs in henna. It was ridiculous, but tradition stated that the more henna drawn on your body for your wedding, the happier and more prosperous your marriage would be. With his position and wealth, Saira's father would settle for nothing short of perfect for his only daughter.
I pondered briefly how I would have to deal with that at my wedding. I loved the designs, it was wonderful to watch them created, but I absolutely despised the feel of henna on my skin.
"Kiran, is that your boyfriend?" Arjun asked. I had met him scarcely two days ago, he was shy and modest, the opposite of Saira and her brother. Perhaps that was why her mother was so insistent on arranging a marriage between the two of them, hoping to balance out Saira's temper with Arjun's careful thinking.
I followed Arjun's gaze, and my heart dropped momentarily.
There in a calming cerulean blue, and surrounded by hundreds of garishly-dressed aunties and other women I didn't recognize, was my boyfriend of two years, Kaldur'ahm. The only boyfriend I'd ever had, actually. For a second he looked as if he'd be trampled to death, and I feared if he survived that, he'd be terrified into begging me to never bring him to see my family again.
Jai, Saira's younger brother, grabbed mys houlder, his right arm decorated with dozens of geometric designs like Arjun's.
"What say we bump up the performance an hour or two, distract the aunties for a bit?" He grinned mischievously.
I sighed with relief. "You get the cousins, I'll get their attention,"
He nodded, and Saira told one of her henna artists to tell the DJ there'd be a change in plans.
I dove back into the crowd just before Saira and Jai's mother could swoop in with another chore for me to do, and I congratulated myself at finally memorizing Artemis's escape tactics.
Thankfully, it wasn't a worst case scenario. the aunties weren't concerned about Kaldur's skin tone or trying to have him thrown out, but I could hear them asking all those match-maker questions busybody aunties can't hold themselves back from asking for more than two minutes.
"What is your job?"
"A general?" His answer sounded more like a question than the aunty's had been, but they were all too inquisitive to notice.
"Are you married?"
"What is your income?"
"Did you finish school?"
"Where do you come from?"
"Who are your parents?"
Before I could toss them all aside and rescue my boyfriend, a similar set of questions perked my ears.
"Kiran is older than Saira, is she not?"
"Yes, by nine months."
That was my father. And if I knew my parent's relationship with social events my mother was going to be right by his side.
I stopped to look around, and hid outside the tent where the voices seemed to come clearest amid the din of the crowd.
"She should be married then, shouldn't she?"
A lump caught in my throat, so brisk and to the point. I guess I was still used to the American way of dancing around the question.
"Actually..." That was my mother's voice, with that high-pitched inflection like when a student in her class asked a question she didn't know the answer to.
"Kiran has been going through a lot these past few years," Dad cut in smoothly, "We thought she should get back on her feet before we throw her into a marriage."
"She won't have forever you know. At her age most of the good young men are already married, if not arranged to be married."
I chewed the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming.
"We know that," Mum cut in, "We were in America for so long, the idea of arranging a marriage hasn't been on our minds."
"Ah yes, Americans and their go with the flow mentality," The same women from before sighed, and her male companion muttered something long and tiredly in Punjabi.
"You know our Karan, don't you?" The woman asked, before my parents could answer she pressed on. "He's in your history class, top of all his classes!"
I gagged, and Kaldur finally caught sight of me, flashing me a pleading look. I couldn't ignore him any longer.
"Hullo aunties!" I hollered and waved.
The all turned as one. "Kiran!" And descended upon me with cooing and cheek pinching, forgetting Kaldur and giving him space to breathe.
"To welcome Arjun to our family, Jai, myself, and our cousins would like to perform a special dance number we prepared for this evening. Would you care to watch us?"
The cooing resumed tenfold, and the aunties swept off to catch a glimpse of their favorite niece or nephew dancing for their older cousin, leaving me with Kaldur.
"You remember the steps, right?" I asked, taking his hand and leading him the back way towards the dance floor that had been set up. Saira's bridesmaids and Arjun's groomsmen were all but shoving everyone off to make way for Jai and his parade of tiny cousins marching out of the big house with purpose.
"I would never forgive myself if I let you down," He kissed the back of my right hand, causing the markings there to glow.
"Don't worry, I could," I promised him, leading him over to the parade of cousins. The little ones took to Kaldur like monkeys to a tree. Some begging to be lifted up high, and the shy ones grabbing his legs for shelter from the crowd.
Then they caught sight of Saira, beaming at them. I pointed out Arjun to them, reminding them why they were there, and they fell into position.
Even the tiniest cousin moved with grace and delicacy through the moves Saira's mother and I had choreographed for them, shy smiles were hidden behind tunic sleeves and saris as the crowd cooed and aww'd at them. Kaldur, Jai, and I were in the back, watching to make sure nothing went too wrong, just wrong enough that it could be fixed.
Fortunately, the performance passed without incident, and when we stuck the final pose, the crowd burst into cheers. The littlest ones ran to their mothers from the noise, but the older ones stayed to bask in the praise. Kaldur and I melted into the background, leaving Jai to deal with the cheek-pinching aunties.
"So, what was that all about?" Kaldur asked once the two of us were hidden away with a bowl of dates in the big tree at the canter of the yard, at the center of the whole party, as a matter of fact. Hidden in plain sight.
"What was what all about?" I asked, licking date remnants from my fingers.
"Right before you rescued me, you seemed utterly disturbed by something or other. What was it?"
I groaned, and let the date leaves fall into the mulch below. "The parents of one of my parents prized pupils are trying to get them to arrange a marriage between me and their son."
Kaldur went silent as he contemplated his date. "Did your parents say no?"
"I don't know, but they didn't sound too eager to say no," I said quietly.
Kaldur said nothing, his face as rigid as a stone as he slowly ate his date. That was far worse than him getting visibly upset at the fact that though we had been in a steady relationship for two years, had both met a majority of each other's families (I had brought him to a WEDDING for crying out loud, that was almost a proposal itself), and even seriously contemplated marriage between ourselves, my parents were considering marrying me off to another. A smart, well-off Hindu man whom I had probably never met before.
"You're doing it again," I accused, tossing a smaller date at his head.
He caught it. "I know, I am sorry. It is not on purpose, It's just..."
"Habit?" I ventured. Before I met him Kaldur rarely smiled, rarely allowed himself to relax and enjoy things. When you led a team of superheroes, you felt the weight of the world often enough. He was still a leader, but he was getting better at expressing himself more, and balancing his life with work.
"I don't know what to think." He said at last, "I understand your parents are deserving of your respect, especially after what the three of you went through together, and I do not wish to trample all over your traditions and cultural values, but I love you, Kiran."
His mouth hung open for a moment longer, searching for something to say. But it snapped shut abruptly. I wondered if he was thinking back to the day at Mohenjo-Daro, where, in a rush of joy and adrenaline, he announced to me that he wanted to marry me. Not right then, of course, but someday.
I tucked the bowl in between two branches and leaned over to place a kiss on his cheek. "I love you too. I love you so much."
He resisted smiling, so I leaned in to kiss him again and he turned to meet my lips.
We could have stayed there for the rest of the day, his head in the lap of my silk skirts while the dappled sunlight played through the green leaves of the tree.
"I can see you, Kiran!" Jai shouted what felt like hours later. I peered down to see he was joined by two smaller cousins, and one of his school friends.
"How's it going?" I asked drowsily. Kaldur was now sitting behind me, straddling the branch while he braided my hair again.
"He still hasn't forgiven you for ditching him with the kids!" Little Arya giggled. "Hi Mister Kaldur!"
Kaldur waved back.
Jai rolled his eyes, "Anyway, they're starting the fireworks, just thought you should know."
"Really? Is it that dark already?" Either I had gotten used to the slowly increasing veil of night, or my powers were acting up again.
"We can see them just fine from up here. Thank you very much!" Kaldur called down appreciatively.
Grumbling, Jai and the kids walked off again. Not long after, there was the telltale whistle as the first fireworks were shot up into the sky, followed by an explosion of color that pierced through the leaves and more whistles of fireworks.
Kaldur let me know he was finished with my braid by kissing the top of my head, and I leaned back against his chest again. As the crowd gawked up at the fireworks, no one would notice if I started a display of my own. Raising my hand with the glowing tattoo, tiny balls of light rained from my fingers before floating up above our heads. Some of them floated around Kaldur before settling into his hair like a halo.
"You're beautiful," He told me.
I turned on the branch to face him, his arms securely around my waist.
"Kaldur, let's get married."
He raised one eyebrow. "Right now?" The beginnings of a grin tugged on his lips, and I gave a chuff of laughter, smiling up at him.
"I'm being serious."
"So am I."
I laughed again.
"Okay, you do have a point. I want to get married as soon as possible, but there's so much going on right now, and I can't get married in the middle of Saira's wedding. She would never forgive me."
"And there's the matter of the League's chairmanship position."
"Do you really think they'll choose you?" I asked, "You're the newest Leaguer out of all of them besides me."
Kaldur bit his lip, "We can consider that when it happens at next month's meeting."
"I'm still in school, and there's that metahuman trafficking sweeping over the globe..."
"So we wait." Kaldur said. "Then when things have calmed down some, we can arrange the details with our families."
I smiled, ignoring the doubt at the back of my mind.
Of course, when you were a superhero, things rarely had a chance to calm down.