I'm doing good now , mom yes good right dealen brother
Daelen choked on air ,his mind was wondering why she called him a brother.
After having dinner mom asked sara to bring the dessert
As she came back with a tray of brownies and icecream
I took the tray from her , sara sissy why dont you eat with us ,
Sara turn to leave but i held her hand ,
Yeahh. You never listen to me ,pleasssee i insisted her to eat she sat next to me adjusted her scarf
I served everyone and to myself too
After having first bite i became happy because brownie is my fav since childhood i clapped in tiny and enjoyed brownie.
Emris and aisha was smiling at her how she never leave sara be alone aisha leaned on emris shoulder she spoke in low voice yk she is just like you,
Emris pecked her forehead my doll she is your carbon copy im so lucky to have the three angels in my life
Pov - sara was an orphan and a single child left alone on street aisha and emris thought help the poor child but unfortunately ntg was found about her neither identity nore her ancestor someone left her alone near the empty road where no one live so they both decided to legally adopt her
Back to the story
After having dinner i went to wash the dishes daelen insisted me to let him do too so now we botge are washing dishes.
We stood by the sink , sleeves rolled up. Sara was in her room ,The warm hum of my parents' voices floated in from the living room-Aisha reminding Emris (for the fifth time) to drink his herbal tea before it cooled, and Emris calling her "sugar of my tea" like we weren't two feet away.
Daelen rinsed a plate and passed it to me, a little dazed. "Do they... do that every night?"
"Every single night," I said, drying the plate. "One time, they held hands through the whole grocery store."
He snorted. "I think I pulled a muscle smiling too much during dinner."
"Yeah, they're intense," I said with a grin. "But they mean well."
"I know," he said, quieter now. "Your mom... she made me take seconds. Twice."
"She does that," I replied gently. "She doesn't let people leave hungry-or unloved."
He glanced toward the living room, where my mom was now asking if he wanted fruit, dessert, or a blanket "just in case he felt a breeze."
"She's like... a mom-mom," he said, like he didn't quite believe it.
I tilted my head at him. "She is. And you're family now, Daelen. At least to her and Dad."
He blinked at that, genuinely caught off guard.
"They don't say things just to be polite," I continued. "If my mom calls you 'son,' she means it."
He looked down, lips pressing together. "I haven't had anyone call me that in years."
I didn't say anything. Just looked at him with doe eyes.
"You're allowed to have this," I said, my voice soft. "You don't have to earn it."
He swallowed hard, nodding once. "Thanks, Sof."
We went back to washing and drying-quiet again, but this time, it wasn't silence.
Next morning
Sara woke me up for fajar we both prayed salah in my room she went for a walk after havibg shower i went to do my short workout at our home gym
After coming i also got dressed had breakfat went to university
Campus was buzzing.
Not in the fun, Friday-energy way. More like the everyone-has-an-exam-and-no-one-slept buzz.
I was halfway through a caffeine-powered stride toward the commerce building when I spotted him.
Daelen. Leaning casually against a pillar, scrolling his phone like he hadn't destroyed my brain with budget graphs just the night before.
Yes he tutored me yesterday too
He looked up, caught my eye, and gave me that half-smile-lazy, familiar, a little too charming for someone who claimed to hate attention.
I felt my pace slow. Not because I wanted to-my legs just... did.
"Hey," he said as I reached him.
"You're early."
"You're late," he replied.
"I'm on time. You're annoyingly punctual."
He shrugged. "Old habit. Orphanage rule: early means you don't miss dinner."
My heart did that annoying squeeze again. He said it so casually, but the weight lingered in the silence after.
Before I could respond, a voice cut through the hallway:
"Wait-is that Daelen Ardyn?"
Two girls walked past, one clutching a textbook, the other openly staring at him like he'd just stepped out of a magazine shoot. Which, technically, he had.
"He's tutoring now?" the other whispered. "That's the model guy, right?"
I instinctively moved half a step closer to him.
Daelen didn't flinch. Just tilted his head like he was used to it.
"They think you're famous," I muttered under my breath.
"They think I'm trouble," he said, a little too easily.
"You're not."
He looked at me-really looked. Like he was checking to see if I meant it.
I held his gaze. "You're not," I said again, softer this time.
The noise of campus kept moving around us-buzzing, spinning, forgetting-but for a second, it felt like we were standing in the quiet middle of it all.
And just like that, I realized something I wasn't quite ready to admit out loud:
I didn't just like having Daelen around.
I needed him here, too.
In evening
He came at normal time and sat on couch
"Can we wait a bit before jumping into the torture?" I asked, sliding onto a couch.
He raised an eyebrow. "Already stalling?"
"Not stalling. Just... centering myself."
Can i pray it'll just take some minutes
Daelen noded
I pulled my prayer mat from drawer and gestured to the corner of the room. Sorry that you have to wait
Daelen blinked, then shook his head quickly. "Of course not. Take your time."
He turned away slightly, as if giving me privacy even in a nearly empty livingroom.
I laid out my mat, facing qibla, and began my salah-short and steady. It wasn't long, but it was grounding. The silence felt full in a comforting way, like the air itself was holding space for something bigger than either of us.
When I finished and folded the mat neatly back into my drawer, Daelen was still sitting patiently, flipping through his notes but not reading them.
He looked up. "You okay?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I just... need that pause sometimes. Helps me keep my head clear."
He smiled a little. "It shows."
I tilted my head. "What does?"
"You've got this calm around you," he said, almost to himself. "Like you're anchored somewhere, even when everything's chaos."
I felt my cheeks warm. "That's... probably the nicest thing anyone's said to me at university."
"Well," he grinned, "I aim to be helpful."
"Helpful would be explaining this nightmare of a case study."
"Your wish," he said, flipping the page, "is my academic command."
And just like that, we were back in tutor mode. But something had shifted.
There was more comfort in the silence now. Less distance between the pages and the pauses.
And somewhere between fixed costs and market trends, I realized I was starting to feel the same peace around Daelen that I found in prayer.
As we stepped out of the livingroom,
to yard. the sky outside had turned dusky-soft amber leaking into cool blue. I stretched, yawning.
"That wasn't as painful as I expected," I said.
"That's because I did all the work," Daelen teased, then gave a dramatic sigh. "The things I do for commerce and kindness."
I rolled my eyes but in a playful way. "Please, you love the attention."
He grinned, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Something in him had shifted. I felt it before I saw it
He got call from his gf or friend dk but it was definetley a girl
I gnored and leaved space for him to talk
And with just that he waved bye to me gesturing that he is going now
I waved at him
Tata
He chuckeld and waved again
Tata