Chapter 25: Brown Sugar
Khushi studied the girl as her mask came off. She had an easy smile when she was looking at the twins that made her not just pixie cute, but actually pretty.
"That's a looong name." she heard Jay say and looked down to him with a smile.
"That's why no one ever calls me that. Everyone calls me V." the girl answered.
"V? As in the letter V from the alphabet?" Nikhil asked now and Khushi pursed her lips to not laugh.
"As in V for Vendetta?" they all heard and turned to see...
Well, who was this?
Khushi looked up and down at the form swathed in pitch black with wide blue detail running in a V of sorts across the chest and shoulders and down the length of both arms. There was a black wig with full shoulder-length hair and an eye-mask. It was no super-hero that she had ever seen before.
"Or V for Veronica?" the man asked again, looking at Vaibhavi.
She turned to Vaibhavi to see her reaction and saw the girl's eye narrow before they widened almost imperceptibly in... recognition?
"No no Rajeev chacha! V as in Vaibhavi. Vaibhavi Singh Raizada Mac... Mac..." Jay stumbled at the last part and Khushi helped him out and finished for him, "MacDowell."
And then what the child said struck her.
Rajeev??
Her face whipped around to look at him again, suddenly in a new light.
What had ASR said? That Rajeev had kissed Vaibhavi thinking that she had been... her?
That seemed strange now, because evidently the two knew each other. As crazy as that seemed, it was still a more plausible explanation than ASR's hypothesis – that Rajeev had wanted to kiss her! Of all preposterous ideas.
"You two know each other?" She asked, looking back and forth between them before settling her gaze on the girl.
She saw Vaibhavi raise one eyebrow sardonically as she answered, "That depends on who is behind the Nightwing costume. This is one superhero who is notoriously interchangeable underneath. So, who are you? Dick Grayson? Jason Todd?"
"Ah, you speak DC and Marvel. Excellent! A girl after my own heart!" They heard from behind them and turned to see Sohan standing there with Lavanya.
"I was telling Rajeev that not many would recognize his costume." He added, lifting Jay and Nikhil into the crook of each arm, just like how ASR carried them.
"I am Vaibhavi. Thank you for extending an invitation to ASR's unruly American cousin." Vaibhavi put out a hand towards Sohan and then pulled it back suddenly realizing that his hands were full.
Sohan smiled and waved in introduction.
"Mama, her name is V. It rhymes with your name and Bee Masi's. V, Lee, and Bee." Jay said in excitement as if this was some incredible miracle.
Khushi noticed Lavanya look V up and down, now that the mask was off and her face was visible in all its pixie glory.
"Yes, please do meet my cousin, Vaibhavi. A proper introduction to all was not possible earlier." She heard from behind her and her heart skipped a beat.
In keeping with the theme of the party, she felt as if everything were out of sorts, as if this was some episode of Twilight Zone that Sohan and Lavanya had concocted without any of their knowledge... the Clark Kent and Lois Lane with their Hulk and Spiderman children and two Catwoman prowling the floors, one falling into the arms of a Lex Luther masquerading as Wolverine and another whose kisses were stolen by some superhero named Nightwing that she had never heard of before. It was all very... Twilight-Zonish.
She was surprised that after that initial flare of recognition and caustic dig at his costume, Vaibhavi ignored Rajeev completely. She couldn't quite see Rajeev's expression, but the man definitely seemed to have only Vaibhavi as his focal point now.
"I don't see the family resemblance at all." Lee said, looking back and forth between Arnav and Vaibhavi.
"She is part Scottish." Arnav said in answer, as if that explained all.
"The 'cool' gene in the family skipped Arnav and came directly to me, which is why you can't see the family resemblance. Ain't nothing Scottish about it." Vaibhavi interjected with a smile.
"More like her tongue is comprised entirely of venom, which invokes resemblance to a reptile rather than a human." Rajeev said, drawing a silent gasp from Khushi. She looked at Lee and noticed that one of her eyebrows had shot up as well, mimicking the same shock.
Vaibhavi looked taken back for a split second before she went back to ignore-mode.
If Rajeev was repentant, it was not evident through his mask, but ASR finally caught on and said, "Do you two know each other?"
Khushi saw Vaibhavi shake her head while Rajeev remained stubbornly silent. As an awkward silence ensured, Sohan cleared his throat and Lavanya took Jay from his arms and said, "Food is served everyone. Let's eat."
Just as everyone else walked towards the dining room, Khushi turned in Arnav's direction. "See, he wasn't kissing me like you thought. He was kissing her. They know each other."
"That just means that he is half f**ked now and not full-f**ked like before. Either way, Brown Sugar, he is f**ked."
"It's Brown Dynamite." She said automatically, correcting him.
He stepped closer to her and the long whiskers of his Wolverine beard tickled her ears as he said, "Dynamite has too many syllables. Sugar sounds much better." With that, he walked onto the dining room, making her stare after him in a convoluted mix of disbelief and confusion.
Did the mighty ASR seriously just flirt with her? And that too, with that cheesy line?
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