Hoori walked quietly into the kitchen, surprised that Mikaeel didn't hear the soft thuds of her walker against the tiles. His back was towards her as he rested his head against the microwave, waiting impatiently for his milk to be warmed. He had left for the gym before the sun even peaked into their lounge and by the looks of it, had only crawled into their house a few minutes before. His hair was still wet and standing in small spikes and he had probably kicked off his shoes by the front door- a habit of his that she thoroughly detested.

She stopped when she was right behind him and only when he felt her finger lightly trace the ten little crescents on the back of his neck did he incline his head toward her.

"It's not what you think."

"And what do I think?" She asked, still rubbing her fingertip along those little red indents in his neck, causing tiny shivers to course down his back.

"You know what." He said as he caught her hand in his, stilling her movements before he moved it back onto the bar of her walker. "Do you want me to warm up your milk?"

"Please," she said softly before she turned away to towards the kitchen table. It was odd watching him in the kitchen. They had never had breakfast together in the year that they were married except for their honeymoon. He always left for the gym before she woke up and usually opted to order something instead of eat at home. She never understood it but she never minded either. She liked eating her breakfast by herself in the lounge as she watched the morning news- ignoring Mikaeel as he stormed in to take a shower and rush back out for work. Even during the weekends, she would eat her breakfast long before he even considered waking up and had never considered joining him when he did eventually stumble into the kitchen.

So this.

This was a very strange sight and she knew he was doing it for her. He probably knew there was still no way she could balance a huge mug with one hand and manoeuvre her walker with the other. It was still too early and her legs still felt much too similar to jelly to even attempt it. 

All she wanted was to be able to do things for herself again. She was getting frustrated and annoyed and she couldn't handle the fact that someone else had to be there to help her with these silly, mundane activities- even more so considering that someone had to be Mikaeel. She hated having him do things for her. With her aunty and uncle, she never minded but he was a different story. He hated helping people. It was just who he was so for her to have to rely on him to help her with miniscule tasks just had her feeling as if she was annoying him. She knew it wasn't her fault but she couldn't stop those niggly thoughts from plaguing her mind as she watched him stretch for her hot chocolate on the second shelf.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she only realised he had placed a fine, delicate looking cup in front of her when he turned back to the cupboard to look for his coffee.

"Thank you." She said before he could turn around. She figured he would be offended had he seen the awed look on her face as she stared down at her cup.

"I'm not waiting for you to drink spoon by spoon." He waved her gratitude away as he closed the cupboard door softly.

"Still, thank you." She began stirring in her hot chocolate, hoping it wouldn't be too sweet considering she had to guess at the measurements.

Mikaeel just nodded his head, unsure of what to say.

"Could we go shopping today, please?" She asked, once they had settled into their breakfast.

"For?" He asked, mentally smacking himself for forgetting that she couldn't drive at the moment.

"Just shampoo and conditioner."

"Can you be ready by 5?"

"Yes."

"I have one class till 4 so I should be here by then."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." He said as he stood up and walked away. The domestic came on Tuesdays. She could pack up the table.

...

"Hello." Mikaeel hated answering Imtiyaaz's phonecalls. He never phoned unless he needed something and the only thing he ever seemed to need was money.

"Hey, howzit?" He could hear the nervousness practically dripping off him. Good.

"Fine."

"Uh..." He was stumped at Mikaeel's abrupt reply. "I have a bit of a problem."

"Uh huh." He wasn't going to make it easy for him.

"Nuha's report is being held back."

"Why?"

"Well," Mikaeel could practically see him rubbing the back of his neck as he fumbled for the answer. "I missed her February payment."

"So?"

"I forgot about it."Imtiyaaz tittered, nervously. "So I need to pay a penalty fee..." His voice thinned out at the end of his sentence in preparation for Mikaeel's outburst.

"No, fuck that. I'm not paying shit."

"Please Mickey. Nooreen will chew my balls and spit it out if she finds out about it."

"With what fucking money?" He lowered his voice as Aaron turned in his seat to watch the commotion.

"Please." That was as close to begging as he was going to get.

"You got balls asking me for more money, ne?" Mikaeel shook his head as he gripped his pen tightly in his hand, barely noticing that his knuckles had turned white.

"Do you want me to ask Ilhaam? That crazy bitch won't even give me her snot in winter, you think she'll give me her money?" He seethed. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Grow some fucking balls."

"Fuck you, Mikaeel." Imtiyaaz began losing his cool. The thought of constantly lowering himself before his bastard brother all the time was getting to him and having the smug asshole continuously berate him began to pull at something highly violent within him.

"No, fuck you. I don't have to listen to your shit." Mikaeel winced as he realised the tip of his pen began pushing painfully into his palm.

"Please, I'm desperate." Imtiyaaz swallowed his pride yet again knowing he had no other option.

"How much is it?"

"2 grand." He said quietly.

Mikaeel sighed heavily as he calculated just how much would be going out of his account and into Imtiyaaz's for the month. "Send me the reference number."

He didn't even wait for Imtiyaaz to reply before he ended the call.

...

"Hey." His voice caused her to jerk in her seat, causing her to drop her book to the floor. She knew she should have been working on her exercises and her stretches after Michelle left but then it started raining and the weather just begged for her to sit on the couch under her blanket and do absolutely nothing.

"What are you doing home so early?"

"The lecture was cancelled." He dropped down on the seat next to her and closed his eyes as he leaned back. He had a shitty, shitty day. Starting with Ihsaan and his stupid wife, then Imtiyaaz then traffic then the cancelled lecture and then more traffic.

Then it started fucking hailing and that just did it for him.

"I'll just get dressed then." She looked at him questioningly, hoping he hadn't forgotten about their shopping.

"Go ahead." He mumbled before his mind drifted off- he was asleep before Hoori even left the room.

"Mikaeel." He felt her shake his shoulder lightly. "Hey, wake up." She said softly once again before he opened his eyes.

"You done?" He asked uselessly, considering he could see she was already dressed.

"Yes." She replied as she jammed her beanie onto her head, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ears.

"Okay, let's go." He felt sluggish as he stood up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Ihsaan had better not start his bullshit tonight.

...

"Mikaeel?"

"Ya?" He had brought Hoori's walker from the boot before he opened her door for her.

"Uhm..." She untied her scrunchie from the bottom of her braid before she retied it, fidgeting uselessly as she considered what to say.

"Yes?" he probed, leaning against her door.

"I feel kind of shy walking in there with that." She looked down at her hands, embarrassed at her current predicament.

"Why?"

"I've never actually been out in public since all this happened. I don't want people seeing me walking with a walker." He knee tapped nervously against her palm as she thought about it. She was probably paranoid but she didn't like the idea of people looking at her as she shuffled along. She felt embarrassed enough as it was to walk with it at home, she didn't even think about the possibility of walking with it in a crowded shop. If she was 60 years older, it wouldn't matter.

But dammit!

She was 24 years old yet she had the moving capacity of an 89 year old lady.

"Ignore them." He shrugged his shoulders. "If they stare at you, they're assholes." He sounded so casual as he said it that she couldn't help but be slightly comforted by it. "Okay?" He asked before he helped her out of the car.

"Okay." She answered, her lips tilted up into a small smile as she grabbed the bars of her walker and manoeuvred her way to the entrance doors.

"So, basket or trolley?" Mikaeel asked as he joined her inside.

"A basket will be fine."

"What do you need exactly?" He asked as they strolled towards the first aisle.

"Uhm... Everything." She bit her lip as she looked at him unsurely.

"Not just shampoo?" He asked wryly.

"No."

He didn't say anything- just motioned for her to move ahead as he walked slowly behind her.

He had never been shopping with her before. He hoped she wasn't the dawdling type- He wasn't exactly in the mood to spend the whole day amongst... girly items. But as he walked behind her and the basket got heavier, he found himself almost fascinated at the way she shopped.

She was so damned slow. She had to smell everything before she bought it.

And everything meant everything. She spent almost 20 minutes amongst the creams and lotions smelling each.

And.

Every.

Single.

One.

She didn't even read the labels to consider what it might smell like.

But it was fascinating watching her face as she smelt them. He knew which ones she didn't like because she practically banged the lid close before placing it quickly on the shelf but he also figured out the ones she did like. She would close her eyes as she breathed in the scent deeply... then she would do it again before she placed it slowly on the shelf and looked back at the bottle to memorise the name before moving on to the next one.

But her eyes kept straying towards one bottle and he knew that must have been her favourite.

And he was right.

After checking out each bottle, she picked up the light cream jar, embellished with gold writing and decorated with tiny roses before she deposited it into the basket and moved along.

She walked slowly up the shampoo aisle, considering which brand to use. He was sure she used the expensive brands. Their shower was always lined up with foreign sounding names and anything foreign sounding had to have been expensive.  But he never actually considered how they got there. He shrugged it off as he waited for her to decide what to use.

He knew she loved her hair. If there was one thing he knew about her, it was that. He supposed he liked her hair too. It was long and pin straight and it fell till the small of her back. And from all the toiletries in their bathroom, her hair care products made up the bulk of it. He had no complaints though. He liked touching her hair when...

No.

Just no.

By the time they got to the end of her obscenely long list, he was ready to chew his arm off. He was suffocating in boredom as she scanned through each aisle trying to consider if she needed something or not.

He was tired of this shit.

Fuck.

He almost swore out loud when he looked at the razors in front of him.

He didn't even know women had such a ridiculously large variety of razors and his wife had to consider every one of them. Why did women have to complicate everything? It's not as if they had to shave their beards that they had to worry about sensitivity and all that shit.
It was just a fucking razor!

They even had to add all of those fancy things to them. 

He was bowled over at the one that had a shaving cream bar attached to the head of the razor.

How the hell did they even use that?

And with his luck, she was probably considering which colour to choose as well- because they came in 50 thousand different colours.

"Hoori, it's just a razor," he grumbled, impatiently. He looked down into his basket and shook his head. He never thought he would ever be carrying a chick-basket. All she had to do was throw in a pack of tampons and that would just seal the deal completely."Pick one."

She chose the pack closest to her- of course it was a pack of normal, no fuss razors that came in 6 different colours. What was so God-damned difficult about that?

"You done?" he asked as she walked away.

"Yes."

About fucking time.

He turned around to join her and felt his teeth gnash against each other as he saw Shauyb and his wife walk up the aisle.

Maybe if he ignored him, he would go away.

"Mikaeel. Howsit?"

Or maybe not.

"Fine."

"Good, good." His gaze flitted towards Hoori and his eyes widened. "What  happened to you?"

Hoori reeled back, offended at his tone.

"Don't be rude, Shuayb." His wife chastised him.

"Sorry." He mumbled, barely even looking at Hoori as he did so. "So, did your results come out yet?" he looked into Mikaeel's basket, feeling only too amused to see him carrying all that shit.

"No." Mikaeel almost klapped him for bringing up his results. He knew he failed one of his papers and he had almost forgotten about the backlash he would receive from his mother about it.

"Oh." Shuayb looked back at Naazli, wondering what on earth she could be talking to Mickey's wife about before Mikaeel walked past him.

"I'll see you around." Mikaeel said before he walked up to Hoori and whispered something into her ear.

Fucking moody bastard.

"What did Naazli have to say?" Mikaeel asked as soon as they were settled back into the car. He was just as baffled as Shuayb was to see the two of them having what looked to be a pleasant conversation.

"She was asking about my physiotherapist."

"Why?"

"It turns out she and Michelle studied together."

"Oh." He could see Hoori shiver under her jacket as she blew into her hands to keep warm. "Do you need anything else?"

"No, thank you." She smiled up at him before she looked back out the window, allowing the car to fall into silence once again.

...

It was almost 11 at night when Mikaeel got into bed.

He was surprised Hoori wasn't already sleeping. He knew she slept early and he assumed she would have been tired after her day. But he couldn't care about all that at the moment. His eyes were already closing as he switched off the lamp besides him before Hoori's soft voice woke him up again.

"What?" He asked as he opened his eyes to look at her.

"I need your help with something..." He swore her face was luminescent as she blushed and her fingers wouldn't stop fidgeting with the threads on her sleeve.

"Uh huh."

"I need to shower."

Well fuck.