Page 96 of A King's Oath

“A little better,” she tried to slur. But one look at his face, and her play-act died. “It was your birthday eve last night!”

“It was,” he smiled.

“Shit! Samarth! You spent it making me drink nimbu paani and eating my leftover dahi-chawal…”

“It was fun.”

She huffed, forgetting to sway. Last night was real, but now she wanted him to go and enjoy his day. Practise, run his horses, do whatever he liked. Avantika pushed her shoulders back and held out her hand — “Happy Birthday.”

He eyed her face, then her hand, then again her face. A smirk graced his lips as he extended his hand to shake hers. “Thank you.”

“Now go and enjoy your day. I don’t have any chocolate or anything to feed you. I haven’t even unpacked! Oh shit…”

“Relax, relax,” he pulled her, hand and all, to the sofa. “Sit down. I unpacked the bag of essentials for the kitchen and homeware. I also got the basics last night. Milk, bread, cheese, some bananas and apples. Peanut butter…” he grinned.

“I am not Cherry,” she grumbled. Then got an idea. She pushed to her feet and ran into the kitchen.

“Ava, sit down!”

“Wait there.Yousit down!” She shot back, making him lower himself back to the sofa.

“What are you doing?”

“Close your eyes.”

“What? Why?”

“Close them, Samarth!”

His lips pursed, but his eyes squeezed shut. Only halfway.

“I can see you are peeping. Shut them properly!”

He squeezed them tighter. Avantika slowed her movements, just looking at him basking under the 8 am sun, sitting in her hall, still in last night’s clothes but looking so fresh. His hair had begun to come down to his forehead. The boy.

She quickly chopped an apple into thick round slices, cut out the seedy part, then slathered peanut butter over them, stacking them to look like a cake. She didn’t have a candle so she took a matchbox along.

“I can smell the peanut butter.”

“Unsmell it then!” She padded closer to him. “Don’t spoil it.”

“Ok,” he smiled, eyes now relaxed in their closing. Avantika sat down in front of him on the coffee table and set the plate of apple cake in her lap. She then carefully struck a match and held it in her hand.

“Open!” She grabbed the plate in her other hand and held the two together — “Blow fast!”

He blew it instinctively, pulling the matchstick out of her fingers, laughing. “What is all this?”

“Happy birthday to you!” She sang, grabbing the sloppy apple slice and peanut butter cake and holding it up to his mouth. His eyes popped wide, and he reared back before stretching his mouth even wider to accommodate the massive thing. He still couldn’t, and ended up spilling the slices as he bit into it, the peanut butter smearing over his nose.

He held the now dismantled slices out to her but she shook her head — “I’ll stick to dahi-chawal today.”

“Good idea,” he popped the pieces into his mouth, licking his thumb clean. She reached out and wiped the smear from his nose, laughing. His body was vibrating too as he licked his fingers clean, his head down, eyes on the floor between them.

“I heard it, you know?”

“What?” His laughing face popped up.

“You, talking to your family…”

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