❝You're such a fool, baba!❞
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“Psst! Wake up, sweetheart.”
Rohaan whispered close to his six years old daughter's ear while shaking her up and frowned when she only pulled the comforter over her head as a response.
“Aania, we have work to do.” he tried again, but this time his daughter slammed her little hand on his face to push him back.
“Jayen yahan se, baba. Aj Sunday hai.” (Go away from here, baba. It's Sunday.)
“Sunday ki bachi,” he whispered in a scolding voice while rubbing his nose. “We have to make ice cream for mama's birthday. Have you forgot about it?”
The six year old immediately shot up straight in her bed, all thoughts of sleep leaving her mind, and stared at her father with round eyes.
“Pehly btana tha na!” (Should've told me sooner!) she said while face palming herself and Rohaan gave her a poker face in return before standing up from her bed and gathering her disheveled self in his arms.
The little girl gasped. “Baba, my hair!” she exclaimed when her eyes caught her reflection in the mirror close to the door as they went out of her room. “I look horrendous!” she whisper-shouted.
“Zip your mouth, right now!” Rohaan stated in a quiet voice as he descended the stairs carefully. Aania quickly did the gesture of zipping her mouth with her pointer finger and thumb before saying a silent 'done'. An involuntary smile appeared on the man's lips before he sighed and set his daughter on the ground near the kitchen island.
Aania patted down her hair to make them look less of a nest and raised a brow when she found her father putting the ingredients to make the ice cream on the island.
“Where are the mangoes?” she asked while setting her hands on her waist. Rohaan paused after hearing her words and slowly turned to face her.
“Um... we actually need them?” he asked, confused.
The six year old slapped a hand down her face before throwing both of her arms up as a disbelieving gesture.
“Of course! How else are we supposed to make mango ice cream when there are no mangoes in it?”
Rohaan chuckled nervously before rubbing the nape of his neck. “We add artificial flavor...?” he stupidly offered, making his daughter to roll her eyes.
“You're such a fool, baba!” she stated while crossing her little arms over her chest.
“Oye, tameez se,” (Hey, behave yourself,) the man replied with narrowed eyes. “I'm your father.”
“A very foolish one, unfortunately.” Aania fired back without shame, making her father's jaw to go slack, and he stood there at loss of words to reply with.
Finally, he settled with; “No pocket money for you for the next seven days.”
The girl merely shrugged in response and tossed back her chestnut hair before coming over to stand near him and said; “Help me up.”
To say Rohaan was bemused would be an understatement, but he couldn't just ignore her outstretched arms, so he sighed heavily before grabbing her and she wound her arms around his neck while smiling and pressed a kiss on his cheek.
“I was only joking, you're the best dad in the world.”
“Sure,” he drawled. Aania ignored his poker face and said with a single clap of her hands.
“Let's get some mangoes.”
“From where?”
“From our neighbors.” she replied with a mischievous smile and Rohaan groaned.
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Rohaan was never going to let his daughter lead the way next time, because he didn't know when she said 'from our neighbors' it actually meant stealing from their mango tree which could be seen from their backyard.
“What are you doing?!” Aania's voice snapped him out of his wandering thoughts and he looked down to see him rubbing the spatula on the counter instead of the bowl.
“Oh God!” he exclaimed before correcting his mistake and mixed the actual ingredients. His daughter shook her head in disappointment.
“Pta nahi kya bany ga apka... ” she sighed tiredly and Rohaan glared at her.
“Chup kar ke bethi raho.” he chided while wagging the spatula and it accidentally resulted in some of the batter to land on her face, and both of them gasped. A laugh escaped his lips when he saw her crunched up expression and she wiped off her face before narrowing her eyes.
“This is war.” she declared in a deadly tone and didn't give Rohaan any time to process her words before grabbing a handfull of the batter and throwing it at his face.
It soon evolved into a full kitchen fight between the father and daughter at three in the morning with loud laughs and surprised giggles. The matter turned more messy when Aania threw a fistful of the blended mangoes at her father and he let out a battle cry before lunging at her. The girl let out a shriek and ran towards the door but stopped abruptly when she caught her mother standing there with a murderous look.
“Explain. This. Mess.” she ground out and Aania yelped before running back to her father who was clearly not braver than her when it comes to his wife Izzah.
“We were— uh... we were just... ” he stuttered while coming up with a response and Aania smacked a hand on her face. She rolled her eyes before stepping forward and said with her chin jutted out in courage.
Inside she was ready to bolt for the backdoor, though.
“Happy birthday, mama.” she raised a hand to gesture towards the kitchen. “We covered the whole kitchen in mango ice cream for you as a present. Feel free to lick anywhere to have a taste.”
Now it was Rohaan's turn to smack a hand over his face but a laugh escaped him none the less when his wife shrieked in fury and both of them ran to the backdoor to escape into the backyard, with Izzah in a mixed state of amusement and anger hot on their heels.
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Whoops! It really was a hard thing to write because I had to cover it all up in only 1000 words 😁
How was it?
P.s I think it's kinda boring TBH 👀 but this idea popped up in my mind out of the blue and I just had to jot it down immediately XD
Thank you WattPak_2020 for taking this initiative to represent south Asian writers, hope you like it :P
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