Leaving her room, he went straight to his room feeling somehow detached from the ambience of the house. He didn't know what happened or what was so hurtful in what Najma said.

He jumped on his bed and laid on his stomach thinking of everything and nothing. He loved his little sister so dearly that he won't love to see a fly near her. She's a part of him, that he couldn't forsake no matter the circumstances.

He remembered when they were young and she couldn't say his name properly. Thus he taught her how to say Amis. It started from Amich before she finally got to say Amish then to Khamis. But she preferred to call him Amish all the time, hence he shortened her name to Naj.

He tousled on his bed and sat down. Najma made mention of a boy, that lingered on his heart as if it was it's permanent residence. As young as he and his agemates were, he knew how manipulative boys could be.

He remembered one of his school mates, Jibril boasting about how he's going to break his girl's heart and go for her friend. The boy was seventeen years old and was Khamis's senior. He was a bully, always punishing younger boys.

Sometimes he punished them by asking them to fill his buckets which were five and none of them was his. He all snatched them from small boys in junior sections which he loved to call with ‘the frogs’.

Khamis ruffled his ample hair and hissed. He didn't want Najma to fall as a prey of such boys. Thus he made a decision, he was going to change school. If daddy agreed with that, he would choose Najma's school as the new school he wanted.

His sister was his priority and he had to protect her.

****

He didn't go out for dinner that night and it made everyone worried. Mummy smiled because she knew her little boy more, she knew something must be definitely worrying him.

"Najma what have you done to your brother?" Mummy asked Najma who was playing with her food. Whenever he's around, they ate together and when school resumes, for the first few days she found it hard to eat alone without Khamis.

Now wasn't an exception, Khamis was around but wasn't eating with her so she couldn't eat properly. She forked the pasta and dipped it in a sauce before she took it to her mouth.

"Mummy I didn't do anything." She pouted, dropping the fork.

Hajiya Aisha smiled at her.

"Finish eating let's go and find out." Najma nodded and ate with difficulty. She flushed the food down with a bottled drink before she wiped her lips with a tissue and stood up.

Daddy coughed, stifling his laughter. He couldn't believe that Najma was utterly quiet throughout the food just because Khamis wasn't there. She was the type that talked and ate and on every other day, daddy had to warn her about talking. He told her it was a bad table manner to be eating and talking but no, she didn't stop.

He wondered the type of bond between the two kids. They did everything together, sleep and wake up together until last four years when they decided to have separate rooms for them since they had started growing up. Hajiya Aisha, his wife said there's nothing in leaving the two together because they were just kids and siblings. It took a lot of daddy's effort to separate them from each other because they found it hard to sleep all alone before they got used to it.

"Najma go and call him." She nodded and left the dining area so fast like a whirlwind. She angled to Khamis' room in a swift and there she good by his door, sighing and panting. She maintained her breath before she softly laid a knock by the door.

When she heard his voice slowly answering, she sighed yet again and pushed the door. Najma made a salam and entered.

He answered her and looked away. She inspected his room, painted in blue and white with a black painted bed. Khamis' favorite colour was black. He wanted black paint but they told him if his room was painted black, mosquitoes would disturb his life. Thus he chose the boyish color, blue.

"Amish," she whispered and plodded to where he was sitting playing GTA vice CT on his PS 2. He ignored her and kept playing his game.

Najma hated it when he was using his PS. She preferred him to involve her in whatever he did that's why she preferred to play mortal combat in his Sega.

"Amish..." She began to cry. He felt the sound of her cry penetrating into his heart. He tapped the pause button and made a face. He didn't like the sound of her cry, it irritated him and agitated him to a zone he disliked.

"What's it?" He asked.

Najma raised her head with tears pool eyes. She knew his weakness and she was always using it against him. She didn't know if he's oblivious or he just wanted to play along.

She wiped her tears. "I am sorry." She said taking his hand and dragging him to the door.

Khamis sighed and detangled his hand from hers. He placed both his hands on her shoulder and massaged them slowly. Without a word he dropped them and motioned for her to go out of his room.

"I won't talk about Ahmad again." She said with a confirmation.

He still didn't budge. Khamis was like that, he hardly forgive easily. Or rather forget easily, he would say he had forgiven someone but you could never read it from his eyes. He was a confusing human being as Najma liked to say. When he said something or made a decision, he hardly step back. Stead, he took the next pace until he reached where he aimed at.

"I promise to discard the teddy." She added.

She looked at his eyes, changing their shade to a more softer shade.

"Please let's go and eat, I couldn't eat too."

Khamis smiled.

"It's okay." He said.

Najma beamed. "True?"

He affirmed to her by smiling wide enough to reveal his beautiful tooth gap. Najma spread her arms and enveloped him in a hug. It was so brief, he shooed her away and told her to go out that he would change and come out.

"But..." She tried to complain. She didn't even know why he's being formal with her. If he had forgiven her, he should act all normal. Since the day he came back, he had been acting all silent which she didn't like. She thought it's because she called him Hamisu.

"No buts..." He pushed her out and bang the door giggling. He changed his clothes and went out to see her standing in wait. He shook his head thinking between him and her who liked the other more. Najma was very clingy to him.

Khamis shook his head. "My cat, let's go."

She grinned and covered her face shyly. Khamis laughed such that the tone resonated in her ears. Her heart leapt in excitement. She had finally gotten back her brother in full. Her brother who was very jovial with her.

When the reached the dining area their parent were not there. They had possibly retired to daddy's parlour. Najma served them food in the same plate and drew a chair to sit. Khamis dropped from his and pulled the chair for her. She sat before he pulled the next to her and sat too.

He forked a pasta and motioned her with his head to open her mouth. Najma opened her mouth widely. Khamis deviated the fork from her mouth which earned him a blow from her.

He chuckled loudly.

"Okay open your mouth now." He instructed, when she opened her mouth she held the fork together with him and took the food. She did the same to him before they started eating properly without playing anymore.

"What are your plans like, Naaj?" She stopped for a while munching the words in her brain.

"What plans?" She asked.

"After school."

"I want to study law. That's all. And after that I don't know what to do. Then maybe get married and start a family though I don't envision myself as a married woman." She blabbed.

Khamis furrowed his brows.

"But I am getting married and leave you here." He replied, wanting to hear her views. He also didn't have a plan in that aspect, he knew he was young to think of love not even to talk of marriage. He didn't see anything coming in that aspect. Maybe later when he's done with university.

"Then I will follow you to your house. It's that simple."

He swallowed the pasta he's chewing in and looked at Najma. There's a complete truth in what she said. He hated to admit, she's too childish.

"You won't ruin my marriage." He said.

"Who said I will?" She stood up, with an intention to leave. She didn't like the topic at all. It was just irritating her just like that.

Khamis noticed her and decided it's time to make her angry like she did to him earlier on. But then he knew she might cry and he didn't like the sound of her cry. Maybe he should forget about it and allow her to go but no, he didn't.

"I and my wife are going to chase you out of our house. And oh yes, you must leave because you will'nt be wanted around us." Najma stopped and looked at him.

When their eyes met, she felt hers becoming pepperish. His words were like paprika powder that made her eyes water in an instant. She didn't reply him, she didn't move, and she didn't leave. That's how it was since they were young. She didn't like anyone close to her Amish. She wanted him to talk to her alone, as she grew up, it intensified. She hated his family from his mother's side because she believed they were taking away her brother away from her.

Khamis smiled at her face, fueling her anger to another degree.

Najma looked at him as if asking him to apologize before she explode but he did nothing. He watched as she hide her face, cleared her threatening tears.

She turned with a smile. She didn't know from which sphere of her brain the answer she was about to give him came from. Maybe she had finally grow like mummy told her that, one day she would be grown and she would hardly notice the time it happened.

"I will make sure I find a smashing husband too. Maybe Ahmad will do." She said forcefully. Khamis couldn't believe he heard that from her. He just finished complaining that she was childish and now she took him off guard with an answer that sliced a part of his being.

He wanted to find an answer, why the utterance of the name Ahmad injure him dangerously. He wasn't supposed to be anyway offended since Ahmad didn't do anything wrong to his sister.

Khamis stood up and pointed his forefinger at her. "Naaaj!" He warned letting out the feeling he felt out in the way he called her name. She didnt flinch like she used to, her eyes weren't looking like they're apologizing. She wasn't giving him a puppy face either. It all left him bleeding from the inside.

She wore the same expression too and looked at him timidly. Maybe Khamis was taking her for granted because all he knew for all this while was her weakest point. Today she wanted him to know she had developed a strength too. He wasn't the only sensible and strong person.

"Amishhh!" She reciprocated in the same voice. He should know she had a feeling too. She had emotions aside crying. She had gazillions of them each yet to be unraveled.

Each of them turned on their backs and left the dining area angry of one another. They were all fuming with rage, all surprise of their outburst.

It shouldn't be a surprise though. Their days mostly end with a fight whether they liked it or not. There was a time when daddy promised to give them a gift if they did just five days without having a brawl. They failed on the fourth day.

Bottom issue was, each fight like a string, was bringing them close and enknotting them in a bond they didn't know of...

****