A Flustering Experience

Daniya's POV

"Daniya hayati, come here and help Muqeet would you? He woke up early in the morning to give us a break from working in the kitchen by making some aloo parathas, but the lovely boy is struggling with it." My mom's eyes were practically shining as she watched him, I'm sure she would have stars in her eyes if we were in a cartoon.

Muqeet flashed one of his blinding smiles at my mother, making her smile wider. I could see the affection dripping off of her face. The annoying man unwittingly raised my mom's expectations to the sky, I was sure I was going to be given his example every time I dared to be lazy at home.

Damn him.

Releasing a long affected sigh, I nodded at my mama. This day was off to a horrible start already. I wanted to kill Gauhar for dragging me out of my peaceful slumber, and her brother for trying to be so goddamn thoughtful. This entire ordeal had been funny for just two point five seconds before it turned around and bit me in the arse.

Damn them all to hell.

Walking up to the counter I pulled up my sleeves, and glared up at the mess of a man beside me "Move aside will you? We're trying to make edible breakfast here and you're making that possibility difficult every passing second."

Hearing my mother clear her throat, I quickly replaced the glare with one of my sweetest, most saccharine smiles.

"Ouch, staying with Gauhar is negatively affecting you Daniya, you've gotten ruder by a factor of three since the last time I talked to you."

"Well would you look at that," I smirked as I looked up to meet his eyes at which he raised one of his bushy eyebrows "Looks like you've been keeping track, even measuring my behaviour by the looks of it."

"Don't mind him Dani" Gauhar intervened through a mouth filled with cereal. Quickly swallowing she continued "He has a lot of free time on his hand that he likes to waste. His observations don't mean he's a stalker so don't worry too much about it, I don't wanna get him out of jail for his creepy tendencies."

"I suggest that you kids stop assaulting him and carry on with working. He's at least trying to help me out here, unlike you who is stuffing her face with junk Gauhar" Auntie Hadiya called out, making Muqeet lean back against the corner and grin at us. It was annoying how good he was at charming these old ladies.

Damn cocky twat.

"Mama, are you even aware of what assault entails before accusing us of it?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in question. An uncharacteristic defensiveness laced her voice despite her tone being playful, and although it was difficult to notice I could see the hurt in her eyes.

"I don't want you to show off your knowledge of law so early in the morning. I don't think I can handle that, especially when I've not eaten anything." The words were harmless, and could even be taken as humour. But the strange bitterness in her tone caused a heavy feeling of unease settle in my stomach.

This feeling was only augmented by the forlorn expression on Gauhar's face. It was weird how something said so flippantly could affect her so much, when she was one of the most thick skinned people I'd ever met.

Noticing the change in the atmosphere Muqeet intervened, clearing his throat he looked at me with a meaningful look in his eyes "I have already prepared the dough and filling, I just can't figure out how to roll this stuff out."

"Give me that, I'll roll them out and you can fry them on the pan." I delegated, taking the rolling pin from his hands "And most importantly, are you sure this filling is edible?"

"You can check it out yourself." He pushed the bowl of the mashed potatoes infused with aromatic spices towards me.

"What if I die after eating this?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't worry Pinky, when you're with me I'll make sure nothing happens to you." his tone forced me to look up into his face. His eyes were earnest and the weird fluttering in my stomach returned in full force.

Nodding my head, I took a deep breath and braced myself for the worst as I put the spoon into my mouth. Muqeet watched me expectantly as I chewed on the soft fluffy potatoes, which were surprisingly tasty although it was a bit too spicy for me.

"So, how was it?" he asked, and the expectant, almost eager way way he asked me made me feel as if my opinion really mattered to him.

"It's edible. I know my mum is looking forward to having this, so I feel better knowing that your cooking won't put her in the ER."

"I'll take that as an 'I loved it but I'm too proud to admit it'" He smiled, his eyes dancing with humour and something else.

I felt a zing of electricity pass through me when my fingers touched his as he took the paratha that I had rolled out and put it on the pan. It was all I could do to not visibly flinch at the affect that he had on me.

Abruptly pulling my hand away, I took a step back. His face gave nothing away, did he not feel what I did? Did I want him to be as affected as I was?

I realised with a jolt of annoyance that the answer was yes. Clenching my teeth, I focussed on my work, hating how even my own thoughts were betraying me.

"Look at him trying so hard, are you training to impress some bird you've taken fancy for bro?" Gauhar asked, a knowing smile on her face "Despite being a nightmare of a brother, looks like you'll be a good husband to someone someday." She wiggled her eyebrows at him, making him chuckle.

"Of course Haru, why would I go through all these efforts if I didn't have a girl to impress." He winked at my mother "I'm doing all this with an ulterior motive but I think it's a bit difficult to impress her."

Although I pretended to focus on rolling out the dough in front of me, through my peripheral vision I noticed him look at me as he said that.

The room suddenly felt hotter as my palms started to sweat causing the rolling pin to slip from my hands. There was something seriously wrong with me, and it was irritating me to no end.

"Hey there? You alright?" he asked in a gentle voice as he bent to catch the rolling pin before it could fall on my foot "If you're feeling dizzy you can go sit down, I'll try to figure this out on my own. I know you've not eaten anything this morning."

Fishing a grape candy out of his pocket, he placed it firmly in my palm, his warm hand enveloping mine. I felt my heart skip as I realised it was my favourite flavour.

Maybe this day wasn't that bad after all.

Feeling grateful I popped the candy in my mouth, and snatched the rolling pin from his hands, "I'm fine, it just slipped out of my grip."

"You sure? You look a bit flushed."

I felt my grip on the pin tighten at his words, why did my face have to give away how flustered I was. And why was I even feeling flustered anyway, when the day was perfectly cool and pleasant?

And most importantly why on earth was he being so concerned and attentive? Gritting my teeth, I forced a tight smile on my face "I'm pretty sure, I think you should focus on the parathas or you'll burn them."

"Ah damn ouch" I heard him hiss as he pulled the hot paratha from the pan that had started to let out wisps of smoke, as he put it on a plate "this is all burnt"

Walking towards her brother, Gauhar took the burnt paratha and dumped it in the trash before leaning on the counter and turning towards us "I'll be good for once and offer you guys my assistance because its making me feel guilty watching you burn yourselves."

"I think it's better for our safety if you stay away Haru, don't feel guilty." I watched Gauhar glare at me as if I had betrayed her when her brother nodded with me in agreement.

"I'll ignore that rude reply. So as I was saying, I'm in the mood to be good today so big bro don't worry if you messed up the first time, I've heard somewhere that the first try might be a failure but you'd continue to improve as you go along."

I smile lit up on his face at her words, making his eyes shine and him look ten times more attractive.

Life was really not fair. And I was definitely sick.

"Well, would you look at that, my annoying little sister can also be tolerable if she wanted to. Pity she is a disagreeable wench the majority of time. I feel bad for the man who'll have to marry her, mans will have to sleep with an eye open knowing how murderous her violent arse can get."

"Just shut up and appreciate it or you'll earn yourself a nice little black eye before you blink again." She threatened, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I doubt you'd even be able to land a punch." He said smugly, flipping the paratha on the pan.

"I've done that a lot of times, while we spar. But perhaps old age is messing with your memory, or maybe my hits were so strong that you got amnesia due to them."

Ignoring her words he slipped the paratha on a plate and pushed it towards her "Here you go, have this before it gets cold."

The loud creak of the door caught her attention, bolting towards the source of the sound she leaned against the doorframe to check who it was. Leaving her brother's lovingly offered Paratha behind.

"Baba!" she exclaimed, almost jumping in her excitement, before turning around to look at her brother with an apologetic smile on her face. "I'm sorry bro and Dani, I think I'll have to leave now, I'll eat your awful cooking later so try not to eat it all."

As she ran out behind her father Muqeet huffed in irritation "well would you look at that, the rude twit decides to abandon my hard work and run away. Talk about gratefulness."

Although his tone was not serious I could see the droop of his shoulders, "Stop being dramatic, she asked you to leave some for her didn't she?" I pulled the plate towards myself and took a bite.

"How is it?" he asked again, his body unconsciously leaning towards me.

"Actually?" I say taking another bite of the paratha that was the just right amount of savoury and spicy "Not that bad, I guess we make a great team."

Stealing a bite from my plate, he nodded at me, a blinding smile decorating his face "We definitely do don't we?"

I felt a sudden warmth flush at my face at the way he looked at me, forcing me to look away and nod.

His dark brown eyes were warm like hot chocolate. And they were shining with appreciation and something else that made my breath hitch.

Clearing my throat I took the rolling pin and added some stuffing in the dough "Let's continue our work then, we got two scary ladies over here to feed."

"Who're you calling scary Daniya?" My mother's voice rang out, making the hairs on my neck stand in alarm. How did she manage to pick up on that? Putting on the most innocent expression I smiled at my mom "Ah no did I say scary? No mama I said sweet."

"Right Muqeet?" I asked with a meaningful look, elbowing the man beside me in the ribs.

"Wha-?" taking in my expression and my mother in front of me, he quickly nodded "Ah yes Auntie Ayesha, she said sweet little old ladies." flipping another paratha on a plate with a flourish, he walked towards her and placed it in front of her "Anyways, here comes your Paratha ma'am please enjoy."

If he was not already employed I was pretty sure he could earn a lot by charming the pants off of rich old ladies. Sugar mommies did pay a lot after all.