"When you become a parent, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children."

Hassan x Anaaya.

"Abaan, eat your sandwich." Anaaya pointed at her five year old who had a sour face made, he pushed the plate away from the table.

Anaaya sighed. Her hair still wet as she had just gotten out of the shower.

Maggie made such delicious cheese sandwiches but apparently, Abaan was not in the mood.

"No, mama. I want paratha."

He said instead, Anaaya sighed.

"Maggie can't make paratha, baby. Come on," She said with a soft smile, pushing the plate towards Abaan again.

Her boy, yet again moved the plate away from him and instead looked at his father for help.

"Anaaya, tum bana do. Basic Khana to aa hi gaya hai tumhain." (Anaaya, you can make it. You know how to cook basic food now.)

Hassan said, looking up from his phone at his son.

Since it was Sunday, both the husband and wife had planned to get brunch together.

It was almost twelve already, she knew they would never make it.

"There's no point. He won't eat it, he's just stalling us." Anaaya responded to Hassan's earlier statement.

He turned towards his son.

"What's wrong? You don't like the sandwich?" Hassan asked Abaan, who shook his head.

"No baba. I want paratha."

He said again, insisting that he only wanted to eat a paratha.

"Fine, but promise me you'll eat it then." Abaan nodded, holding out his pinky finger in front of Hassan, to promise that he would.

Anaaya knew he wouldn't be able to finish it but she didn't argue.

"Okay?" Hassan looked at his wide who whined out loud.

"Sahi hai, main weekend pay bhi kaam karoon." (How's it fair? I have to work on the weekend too.)

Her husband chuckled at the slight outburst and stood up with her, holding the uneaten sandwich plate and his own glass of juice.

"Come on, I'll make the coffee." Hassan said to her, she nodded, turning the stove on.

"I want omelette too." Abaan voiced out again, a deep sigh escaped her mouth. She looked at Hassan with a raised eye.

"And omelette. I'll make the omelette."

He remarked. He knew Anaaya always provided the kids with all kinds of food but she hated cooking and somehow her kids had forced her to do the very same thing.

She had spent half the night reviewing a book that her publishing company had decided to publish, editing and marking the mistakes.

So he understood her annoyance.
Still, he saw her take out the dough from the fridge.

She started to make the paratha as Hassan took out an egg at the same time.

"His teacher texted me yesterday and said he had called another kid ullu ka patha. God knows how she even spelled it out."

She informed him, chuckling as she remembered how horrified she had been when she had first read Abaan's teacher's message.

Hassan turned to look at her, eyes gleaming with amusement.

"For real?"

"Yes. Where the hell did he even learn that word? We don't even curse in front of him." She wondered out loud.

Hassan knew from where.

"From my father. He must have jokingly said it over the phone."

They shared a laugh over that. Uncle Shafqat would always call Hassan 'Ullu ka patha' He didn't care if Hassan was in a meeting or in the court, he would simply say it and then laugh.

Anaaya remembered a few days back Pakistan when he had been teaching Abaan how to say desi words with a funny accent.

"Uncle Shafqat bhi na." She trailed off, both the husband and wife taking it lightly.

They knew Abaan would forget it soon. He was a child after all.

She put the paratha on the stove and added oil on it, while Hassan made the omelette on the side stove.

"Acha..Hassan.." She trailed off again.

"Yes, Anaaya?" He mumbled.

"I was thinking..." She dragged.

"Achaa, toh aap sochti bhi hain?"

He teased her, playfully asking is she could think too, she scowled but then broke into a smile.

"Shutup, suno na. I was thinking maybe we should move to a bigger house."

She stated. Hassan frowned at her sudden suggestion. Was this place not good enough? He loved this apartment.

"What? Why?" He questioned.

"The children are growing up, we don't even have a guest room." Anaaya replied.

Hassan still didn't seem convinced and shook his head instead. they lived in one of the most high class places in New York. He had paid millions to get this place.

He didn't say anything, as he fried the omelette and then put it in a plate.

She touched his arm, making him look at her.

"We live in an apartment, Hassan!" She exclaimed.

It wasn't that she didn't like the place, it was just that lately she had been feeling bored of living in a place that resembled a skyscraper.

When she would look down from the windows, she would just see moving cars and busy streets, somehow it annoyed her. It had become especially annoying in the past few days.

"With stairs, Anaaya. It's a three bedroom lavish apartment." Hassan argued.

"Lavish? Seriously?" She rolled her eyes.

"Yes, do you know how much I had to pay for this place? Its in manhattan, for God's sake."

His voice got a little loud. Anaaya finally took off the paratha from the stove and put it in a plate.

She put the omelette and the Paratha in a tray for Abaan to eat.

"Money is not a problem for you. And if it is, then I can help." She said side by side as she walked forward towards the living room.

"Did I ask for your help? It's not about money, it's about the fact that we don't need a bigger place."

He replied, scoffing.

She put the tray in front of her five year old and then looked at her husband again.

She can understand how he thought the place was enough.

What if their parents or someone from their family wanted to visit them. Where would they stay?

The guest room was occupied by Maggie and Sarah. Even though Sarah took off in the evening, while Maggie only stayed three nights a week, the room was still occupied by their stuff.

"We don't? The twins and Abaan live in one room, there's our bedroom and there's a bedroom for Sarah. What about Aira? And the twins always get disturbed when we wake Abaan up for school."

She explained to him. He clicked his tongue.

"The twins are going to start their own school in a year. That's not a problem." He said as a response.

"And what about our daughter?" Anaaya asked.

When Aira was born, Anaya wanted to keep her close, since she didn't want to keep the baby cot in her own bedroom.

She changed her walk in closet into a small baby nursery. She hadn't realised how much things would change after becoming a mother.

The place where she would organise her branded bags, now was filled with feeder bottles and baby diapers.

Even her own wardrobe had several clothes of Aira and her boys.

Hassan was the only one who had not changed his closet even a little bit. In fact he was still annoyed about Anaaya keeping her bags and jewellery in the top shelf of his wardrobe.

So the place where she would get dressed and take millions of selfies was now turned into Aira's nursery.

"I had to change my dressing room into Aira's nursery." She told him off.

"Because you didn't want to change the 'aesthetic' of our bedroom." Hassan argued.

She groaned out loud.

"You literally have an argument for everything."

He smirked as the words left her mouth but then put on a straight face.

"Give me one good reason why we should move."

He stated calmly. She inhaled a deep breath too.

"Because I want a house, not an apartment. I want a garden and a porch and a big terrace, like we had in Pakistan."

She wanted to have a place that would not feel so robotic. Somehow, her routine, their routines had started to annoy her.

They would wake up at seven everyday, they would change and rush to wake up Abaan, they would send him to school and can go to their own work places.

One of them would come back home during lunch time to pick up their five year old from school and spend some rest time with the children, go back to work and then come back in the evening.

And then after coming back from work, their busy routine would make them feel so guilty that they wouldn't leave their children out of sight for even a moment.

Even the weekend would pass by so quickly in groceries, taking the kids to the park, getting their weekly checkups done.

She wanted a place where she wouldn't feel so busy. She knew it sounded crazy to Hassan, a place won't make any difference.

But she still wanted a house, not an apartment but a house that she could call home.

She leaned against him, kissing his shoulder blade. Something she always did when he got frustrated.

"Okay, how about this, Let's buy a house together. You and me." She suggested.

He looked at her as if she was being completely unreasonable.

"Again? Anaaya, money is not the fucking issue here. And I told you never to say such things to me. I didn't even want you to take the grocery responsibility!"

Since both of them worked and earned their own living, it was only fair that they equally paid for each and everything.

Even though Hassan was liberal, he had Pakistani genes, which meant accepting any money from his wife was like a huge hit to his ego.

Still she had managed to convince him that she would buy the groceries on her own.

"I did because I wanted to.. Okay? We're a team." She said back.

He had her arm, making her stare at him.

"Look, we live in an elite area. A house will probably cost less than what I paid for this place. But it's close to our offices and Abban's school is in the vicinity. We can't just move because you're bored."

He tried to explain to her. She shook her head.

"You still don't understand. What's wrong in a little bit of change?" She questioned out loud.

He frowned, walking forward to sit by Abaan who was not really eating the paratha, just staring and nibbling at it.

"There's a time for everything, Anaaya. Grow up." He mumbled, smiling down at his son.

Anaaya was about to reply as well when Maggie's footsteps and the giggles of her three year olds reached her ears.

"Good morning, my babies. Finally awake?" She asked gleefully.

Maggie put the kids on the floor as they walked towards their father. Hassan stroked their hair as Maggie entered the kitchen.

"They are so hyper this morning. They just wanted to come down."

She told Anaaya. She nodded, putting down two bowls of cereal in front of the kids.

"That's okay. Come on, let's have breakfast."

She fed them bite by bite, even though they were capable of doing so, she knew they would throw it all over themselves.

"And Aira's here too." She said as she looked up once again only to see Sarah holding her daughter. Hassan stood up upon seeing his favourite child.

"She woke up because of all the door banging, Sorry Anaaya."

Sarah murmured. She had stopped talking to Hassan, ever since Anaaya caught her trying to flirt with him.

It had resulted in Hassan storming out of the house after asking her to leave.

Sarah had apologized profusely, Anaaya had told her to leave as well but after her initial anger had died down, she decided to give her another chance.

Only because Sarah was good with the kids and Anaaya wanted to be selfish.

"No, that's okay!" She said back as she saw Hassan take Aira in his arms.

"Hello, my love, oh oh that's a cute smile."

He gushed, eyes crinkling as he smiled at his daughter.

"Maggie, use the strawberry jam for Rohaan, he hates the other one." Anaaya instructed a she saw Maggie putting on the wrong jam.

Rohaan liked the strawberry one where as Zayaan liked the apple one.

Maggie nodded, doing as she was told.

"Mama, I'm done." Suddenly Abaan announced, standing up and putting his plate on the table.

He wasn't done at all, he had only taken a few bites and had left more than half of the paratha on the table.

Anaaya sighed, looking at her husband tiredly as if telling him I told you so.

Hassan chuckled, playing with Aira instead.

"Atleast he took a few bites." He defended his boy who was now busy playing with the fishes in the small aquarium.

He loved fishes for some reason. He had been obsessed with getting them and had cried until Hassan had got him an aquarium installed.

"Yeah well, maybe if-" Anaaya was about to respond and Hassan waited for her to complete her sentence but suddenly, like a jolt of electricity, she felt like she was going to fall.

Her head spinner all of a sudden, things moving around her so fast that she had to lean against the wall to brace herself.

She tried to take deep breaths, trying to feel okay but it failed as another wave of dizziness hit her.

Hassan, upon noticing her leaning against the wall with eyes closed, walked towards the kitchen with fastened steps.

He held her shoulder, touching it only to make her feel his presence.

"Naaya? You okay darling?" He whispered, she tried to say something but was interrupted as Abaan came and pulled her by the waist, barely reaching it but pulling it anyway.

"Mama, I need new fishies." He whined, Anaaya tried to take another deep breath to atleast be able to reply but she failed feeling dizzy.

"Mama, more." Rohaan, on the other hand demanded for more bread.

"Anaaya? What's happening?" Hassan asked her once again, she nodded slightly.

"I feel dizzy." She told Hassan, he frowned.

"Mama, more fishes." Abaan said once again, insisting that he needed more fishes. Rohaan and Zayaan on the other hand kept budging her for another slice of bread.

Hassan knew that he could never fully pay attention to Anaaya, if the kids were not distracted.

He crouched down lower, on his knee with Aira in his arms. He caressed Zayaan's cheek.

"Abaan, why don't you go and watch TV? I'll bring you more fishes in the evening. Okay buddy?" Abaan nodded in enthusiasm.

He knew that if his father had promised something, he would fulfill it. He went back to watch the TV.

Hassan called out Maggie and Sarah followed behind.

"Maggie, give them another toast." He handed over Aira to Sarah, who happily found interest in Sarah's red hair.

Finally, as the couple were all alone, he cupped her cheek.

"You, come..sit. You didn't eat anything since last night. Did you?"

He accused, his tone was soft but filled with worry.

"No." She denied. She had infact eaten a slice of pizza, but she had some other thought in mind.

It was better if Hassan thought her dizziness was due to low blood pressure.

"That's why you're dizzy. Jitna time mujhse behas kar rahi thi, kuch khaa ke behas kar leti."

(The time that you spent in arguing with me, you could have spent that in eating and then argued with me)

He murmured, pouring down a glass or orange juice in front of her.

"My head hurts." She winced.

He nodded, taking out a pill from the cabinet and then picked up the plate that Maggie had put on the kitchen counter.

"Acha, drink up. Here, have some of Abaan's paratha and I'll get you a pill. Then, you rest. Alright?"

He affirmed. Anaaya nodded. There was nothing more that she wanted to do but lay down right now.

"Okay."

"Good, now eat up." He kissed the top of her head and was about to do it again when suddenly his phone started to ring.

He took it out from his pocket and attended the call.

"Hello? Yes Yuhan? No, I'm actually home right now." Anaaya heard him talk to his assistant.

"Why? I thought they were supposed to land on Monday." She could see the scowl on his face and slowly, his face started to show signs of anger.

"That's not my problem. Is it?" He said rudely, Anaaya paid attention to the conversation, finding her husband getting loud.

"Maybe the other partners don't have a fucking life." He remarked in a high pitched voice.

"I can't come. How's that for an answer?"

Anaaya knew Hassan had his own rules. He hardly ever went to work on the weekends, no matter how important the client was.

But she also knew that he loved this job, he loved law and she didn't want him to stay at home thinking about work.

It was much better if he left. Besides, there was something she needed to do.

"Hey, it's okay. You go." She said, patting his shoulder. Hassan didn't look convinced, arguing over the phone anyway.

She clicked her tongue, pulling at his arm.

"Hassan, I'll be fine. Maggie and Sarah are here anyway."

She said firmly. He sighed.

"Sure?"

"Yes. Now go."

So after getting ready, Hassan left for office.

Nearly an hour after Hassan had left, Anaaya called for Maggie as she laid on the couch, playing with Aira.

"Maggie? Listen.." She trailed off.

The brunette woman stood at a side, staring at Anaaya.

"Yes, Anaaya."

"Can you go and get me a pregnancy test strip?"

And by God, she hoped she wasn't pregnant.

Again.

--

Okay so where do you think I'm going with this story?

Make sure to vote and comment, tell me what you think so far!!

Chapters in this story will be slightly longer and it will only have maybe 20 chapters!!

Probably.

I love putting pictures so you guys can visualise while reading you know?

Okay!! Their kids are an important part of the story but trust me, not that important!! So they won't be so visible in like every chapter. It's just that I'm building the Sequel and they have children now ya know? So yeah.

Hope you guys liked this one!!