The house was abuzz with the preparations for attending the wedding. Everyone was either getting ready or ironing their clothes, all except the one who was still deciding what to wear and that person was none other than Irsia.

"You aren't ready yet!" gasped Baneen,  who was standing at Irsia's door.

Irsia looked up from staring at her three dresses that were sprawled on her bed and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, braced herself for an earful from her mother and turned to look at her.

"Why aren't you ready yet? We are about to leave. Everyone is almost ready. Zahra, your younger sister, is already waiting near the car and look at you! Tsk. Tsk."

"Well, I couldn't decide what to wear," she answered sheepishly.

"You've been up here for almost an hour and--"

"Only fifteen minutes. Don't exaggerate, mom," she said before her mother could complete her sentence.

"Don't you dare give me this attitude."

"But I was just stating the fact."

"Shut up and get ready in five minutes. We are already late."

"Okay, but just tell me which one should I wear? Black, blue, or pink?"

Before her mother could answer her question, Aazir knocked at their door. "Mama, we are getting late."

"Yeah I'm ready. It's your--"

"Why aren't you ready yet?" he asked, looking at his sister.

"God! I can't decide what to wear. Just select one of the three and I'll be ready in five minutes."

"Just wear whichever and be downstairs in five minutes. Everyone else is already in the car."

Irsia just stared at her brother. "Aazir, had it been so easy don't you think I would've been ready by now?"

"Aazir?" They turned to look at Sibtain. He looked extremely dashing in white khandress.

"Yeah."

"Everyone is waiting."

"Yeah sorry. It is just that my sweet, lazy sister isn't ready yet and she can't decide which dress to wear."

"Had you or mama selected the dress for me I would have been ready by now."

Sibtain looked at Irsia, who was busy glaring at her brother, and smiled. "Black."

"What?" Irsia and Aazir asked.

"The black dress and besides, isn't black your favorite color?"

"Yes. Thanks." She picked up the dress and walked towards her changing room and bumped her shoulder intentionally with her brother on her way. "See? It wasn't that difficult," she said looking at her brother and mother and then looking at Sibtain she muttered a thanks. Both Aazir and Sibtain laughed at her childish behavior and her mother playfully rolled her eyes.

"We are waiting downstairs," her mother shouted while closing the door.

 When Irsia finally came out of her room looking beautiful in black floor-length dress with matching hijab and one-sided black and golden dupatta, the house was unusually quiet. She came down the stairs and her eyes landed on Sibtain who was scrolling through his phone.

"I'm ready. Where is everyone?"

"They..." He lifted his eyes and the moment his eyes landed on her his words got stuck in his throat.

"They what?" Irsia asked. He quickly gained his senses back and responded.

"Sorry. Umm, they left."

"Left? Without me? How could they?"

"You took more than fifteen minutes getting ready so I told them to leave without you." Aazir answered standing near the kitchen.

"It's not my fault that hijab wasn't obeying my orders," she said pointing towards her head with an annoyed expression.

"What?" Aazir asked looking confusedly at her.

"She meant she couldn't tie her hijab properly."

"Exactly. Aazir, you should take classes from Sibtain. He understands your sister more than you." Had either of the two looked at Sibtain at that moment the slight blush and the smile which was dancing on his lips wouldn't have gone unnoticed.

"Yeah, whatever," Aazir answered.

"How do I look by the way?"

"Good. Now let's go we are getting late. The nikkah will be starting within an hour."

"Yeah let's go." Sibtain agreed. Together they walked towards the door.

"You two go sit in the car I'll lock the gates." Aazir said while switching off the lights.

"You look beautiful," Sibtain said as Irsia was about to open the car door. Irsia blushed a little at his sudden compliment and muttered a quiet thanks.

"You don't look that bad yourself," she gave a tiny sideways smile at him and got inside the car. Sibtain smiled hearing this and turned back to look at Aazir, who was walking towards them.

"Thanks for the compliment," he said as he himself got in the car.

"Feel blessed," she answered back which earned a low chuckle from him.

When they reached their destination they saw Abu Bakar and Shahzain standing outside. As they parked the car the other two walked towards them.

"Whoa! Someone is looking very beautiful," Shahzain said nudging Irsia as she got out of the car and stood beside him.

"I know," she said flicking her imaginary hair back over her shoulder.

Irsia went inside the tent that was meant just for the women folk and spotted her family members. As she walked towards them she was stopped by many relatives whom she greeted and also hugged a few. Finally after what felt like an hour to her which in reality were only five minutes or even less, she sat with her family.

"Finally you are here," her mother said.

"You left without me." She pouted.

"Thank God we left without you. Everyone was asking about us. They had already brought Zoya downstairs and she was almost done with reading the Quran."

"Oh! So I missed that."

The guests, Zoya's in-laws, arrived and the women folk started to sing the nikkah themed songs. The khatib arrived after some time and the khutbah-tun-Nikkah (marriage sermon) started and everyone grew silent and listened to it; the women from their tent, and the men mostly from inside the room, where the sermon was being delivered. Some of the men were sitting outside. After the sermon was delivered and the prayers were said the food was served to the guests. Sibtain walked out of the room along with Aazir after serving food and his eyes landed on Irsia who was coming down the stairs with Zahra and some other girl. They smiled at him and walked towards the tent. Sibtain sat with Aazir on the sofa that was placed on the porch.

"Did they ask the groom?"

"Obviously. They asked him back home in front of the four witnesses and only after he said yes did they come here."

"Okay and when did they ask Zoya?"

"Before the guests arrived. We were on our way here at that time."

"Okay. But I like the one where both the bride and the groom are asked in front of each other with a veil between them. That's how my friends, Aamir and Mehr Naaz's nikkah took place."

"Don't worry I'll convey this wish of yours to Safa aunty."

After having their dinner, Zoya's henna ceremony began starting with the henna being applied on her hands and feet followed by the cutting of cake that her in-laws had sent her.

"My favorite!" Zahra exclaimed, seeing the chocolate truffle and Irsia groaned. "You are so boring aapi. Who doesn't like chocolate flavored cake?"

"Me. I mean I don't dislike it but it isn't my favorite either."

"Then I'm having your share as well."

"Only half though."

"No full."

"Not a chance."

After having cake Irsia, Zahra, Manahil, Sibtain and Abu Bakar left for home after saying goodbye to the hosts and promising them to be back tomorrow morning.

"You should have seen the look on Sibtain's face when the dish after dish were being served," Abu Bakar told the ladies in the car.

"Hey! It's not my fault that whenever I thought okay this is the last dish for the evening, the wazaa, is that what you call the person who was serving us those dishes?"

"Yes he is called wazaa. He is the professional cook for wazwan."

"Okay so this wazaa guy was just coming back with dish after dish and besides this was my first time eating like this; in that large round copper plate."

Abu Bakar laughed remembering the look on Sibtain's face when he had told him that he and three other people were supposed to eat together from that same large round copper plate. "That large round copper plate is called tream in Kashmiri."

"Okay so today I learned three new Kashmiri words. Tream- that plate, wazwan- the food served in that plate and the wazaa- the one who cooks and serves it. Right?"

"Absolutely."

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