Old Man Syndrome (O.M.S)

"Be happy for no reason like a child. If you're happy for a reason, you're in trouble, because that reason can be taken away from you."

-Deepak Chopra

(Just enjoy the happy moments of your life without thinking about the future, because the future is always dark and you will regret not appreciating what you had once it's lost.)

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Gauhar's POV

"Here's your a hot cup of coffee for you Miss Siddique." The smell of freshly prepared coffee entered my nostrils, causing me to sigh dreamily. I wrapped my fingers around the cup thankfully, enjoying the warmth of the hot drink on my fingers.

He settled down in front of me, a content smile forming on his lips as he took a sip of his coffee. I. felt my eyebrows raise involuntarily in awe as I watched him drink the hot drink as if it were nothing.

Did he perhaps not feel the heat? Gosh this isn't good… he was quickly threatening my superpowers and that was incredibly damaging- to my self confidence.

"Um...is there something on my face Miss?" I heard him ask, as he felt his face for anything that might be stuck there.

I placed my chin as I continued to stare intently at him, narrowing my eyes I said "Ah yes Mr. Mishra, there actually is something there on your face that's distracting me."

The ready blush again dusted his cheeks, he started frantically trying to find the offending substance on his face as he tried watch himself in his reflection in his dark coffee.

Which is extremely useless, let me tell you. The spectacles of the girl sitting on the table adjacent to ours was a better mirror, but maybe Mr. Mishra using it that way was a bad idea. Couldn't have random girls drowning in the depths of his eyes as he just tried to check for the offending piece of food stick in his teeth, could we?

Can't have any heartbroken casualties in the hospital now, can we? Especially on top of the thousands of other cases that came here on a regular basis.

I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped me when he furrowed his eyebrows, staring intently into the depths of his coffee cup, trying to scrape at the invisible piece of food stuck in his teeth. The intensity with which he was scowling into his cup made me scared for the cup's fate.

If looks could kill, the cup would be a pile of broken ceramic by now. And the scariest thing was that I couldn't even put it past him, he could just be hiding another superpower just like his ability of heat resistance.

The sound of my laughter distracted him from his task, he looked up sharply. His eyes silently questioning me for the reason of my mirth.

"Is that thing gone from my face Miss?" He looked at me hopefully, looking like a lost schoolboy. And indeed in his company I did feel like a big old bully, enjoying his discomfort as he kept blushing at the things that I said.

But I couldn't help myself. I never claimed to being the owner of a kind soul anyway, so I guess it was alright. (It's NOT! Conscience screamed, but she was annoying so I conveniently ignored her.)

I shook my head, pressing my lips together to stop myself from grinning like an idiot "No Mr. Mishra, I don't think you can't take out that thing from your face even if you wanted to."

He looked alarmed as he tried to understand what senseless crap I was spouting "I fail to understand Miss, why can't I remove it from my face even if I wanted to?" I could see that he was annoyed, but even then he was so polite that it was almost adorable.

If it were me, the person who irritated me this way would be drenched in hot coffee. But this isn't me we are talking about, with my inability to control my temper and amazing sense of humour.

"You can't remove it from your face because they're a part of your face." I calmly replied, trying to imitate the gentle tone of voice that he employed to talk in.

My explanation did nothing to reassure him as he looked at me puzzled, as if I had lost my marbles. What he didn't know was that I had no marbles with me in the very first place to lose. But I'm sure he was quickly understanding that.

"The thing on your face that's managed to distract almost everyone around you….are your eyes Mr. Mishra." I watched him intently, waiting for the telltale blush to bloom on his face. But all I got was immense disappointment.

He stared at me, clearly unimpressed by my amazing sense of humour. I was quite sure he was regretting agreeing to help me now, now that he got a taste of my true maturity.

"Well…." I trailed off looking into the distance, hoping desperately for divine intervention to bestow me with the intellect that I had seemed to lost.

"You need to be careful with who you see with those eyes, because a girl nearly spilled hot coffee over herself because of you." I gravely informed him, watching with satisfaction as the expression on his face softened.

Of course this was not the entire truth as the girl had split cold juice over herself, but those were intricacies that I chose to ignore. It could very well have been hot coffee….

"By the way, I had to thank you Mr. Maurya." He raised his eyebrows in question as he sipped his coffee "You might be wondering why, so I'll clear it out for you."

I straightened myself up and cleared my throat "Well thank you for tolerating my crappy sense of humour. I would totally understand if you would like to leave me here alone."

"Your sense of humour is perfectly fine Miss Siddique, in fact it makes me feel slightly jealous that I don't possess humour of that sort. But maybe I AM the old soul that people accuse me of being." He sighed wistfully, staring at the ceiling.

"Ah that's easily remedied, just hang out with me and you will soon acquire the sense of humour of a twelve year old child." he smiled at my words, and I felt strangely accomplished that I was the reason for that smile.

"However, we need to start fixing your old man habits right away." I announced, which caused him to sit up straight "Let's begin with how we address each other. I would really appreciate it if you would call me by my name. Miss Siddique makes me feel as if I'm my mother."

"No Miss, you are the daughter of my employer and hence I should address you with the respect that you deserve." He muttered, staring into the dark depths of the coffee on his cup. Totally missing the point that I was attempting to make.

Was I a bad teacher or was he just incredibly dense? I hoped it was the latter.

"How old are you Mr. Maurya?" I asked, looking at him intently hoping to drive the point into his head with just the sheer force of my gaze, as he resolutely avoided eye contact with me.

"I am 26, why do you ask Miss?" he looked up, his eyebrows which I noticed were the same dark color as his hair were furrowed in confusion. Gosh was he purposely being daft? I hope not...or the coffee in my cup would reside in his sleek hair.

"Ah! You're not much older than me then. Quit making me feel like an old woman." he seemed ready to argue as he opened his mouth, but I beat him to it as I remembered something "And and and, you still have your punishment pending." I reminded him, promptly causing all the color to drain from his face.

Ah at last a reaction that I liked.

"The….p-punishment Miss?" he gulped audibly, his eyes clouding up in fear. I marveled at how a simple word like that managed to instill such fear in a man as strong as him, but I chose not to dwell on that at the moment.

"Yes sir, punishment. I hope you did not forget about it. It would be very disgraceful if you did." I knew I was again playing up to his old gentleman side by doing this, but I figured that this case was a little tricky. Hence it required some amount of slyness.

"No Miss I did not, I am ready to bear whatever punishment you assign to me." he clenched his teeth in determination, his grip on his coffee cup tightening to the degree that his knuckles turned white.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked, watching him through the swirling wisps of steam that emanated from my still surprisingly hot cup of coffee.

"Absolutely." He asserted, his blue eyes sparkling resolutely at me. I noticed that he looked stiff as if he was holding his breath in, as if he were waiting for me to spell out his death sentence.

Jeez what an overreaction. It was kinda cute though….(get a hold of yourself you idiot! Reason called out. Just like the spoilsport that she always was.)

"Then your punishment is to stop calling me Miss Siddique. From now on you are to call me by my name." I announced, watching him intently as I took a sip of the coffee, waiting for the reaction to me roundabout way of making him concede to it.

I immediately regretted taking the sip as the taste of the sub-par coffee coated my tongue. Wincing as I noticed that the lingering bitterness was tainted by some weird taste that I couldn't quite put a finger on. Mrs. Abercrombie would have probably sued these people for selling such trash coffee, good thing that this is a hospital or they were in serious trouble.

I ventured to take another sip, needing the coffee in my system no matter how bad it was, apart from handling my anxiety. I now had to make sure that Mr. Mishra acted at least a little bit like the twenty six year old man that he was. Since these were dire circumstances I surmised that I would have to suppress the coffee snob within me.

I could already see her sulking in the corner of my mind as I sipped the hot beverage, focusing on enjoying its warmth rather than its taste.