"We… should be fine… here… geez." Aaron bent over, hands on his knees, panting as he finally stopped at the fountain in the centre of town.
The girls dropped onto the stone rim, all four of them gasping for air. Ishaan was the only one laughing, loud and breathless, like a man who had just stepped off a roller coaster.
"Now that is an adventure story," he said.
"This doesn't go to Ma and Baba," Aaron said, straightening up. "They're sick enough as it is."
"Obviously."
"I mean it, Ishaan."
"I said obviously!"
Aaron turned to the girls. They were still shaking a little, hands tight in their laps, and their eyes kept flicking between the two of them. They weren't scared of the thugs anymore. They were working out whether to be scared of them.
Without a word, Aaron and Ishaan took two steps back.
The younger girl's shoulders dropped, just slightly.
"I'm… sorry," Aaron said, fidgeting with his hands. "About earlier. We didn't really have time to, uh… explain. I'm Aaron. This is my brother. Ishaan."
"Yo," said Ishaan. "What's up?"
"Aaron," Aaron said again, in case he'd forgotten. "I said that already."
"You did."
"Ahm… Sorry if we…scared you", Aaron bowed his head slightly. It was a reflex, and he wasn't sure why he'd done it.
"Please don't," the older girl said, standing before he finished. "You've nothing to apologise for. If anyone should be bowing, it's us."
Her voice was soft, careful, every word set in its place like a plate on a table. It was too perfect. Under it, he caught the faintest tremor, like a string that hadn't quite stopped vibrating.
She took a step toward him, and her leg buckled.
It was small. A hitch in her stride, quickly corrected, as though she'd been trained not to let anyone see. But he saw. The scrape ran from her knee halfway down her shin, dirty and raw.
"You're hurt," he said.
"It's nothing."
"It's bleeding."
"It's—" She stopped. "…Slightly bleeding."
"Sit," Aaron said, and then, much more quietly, "Please."
She sat.
He was crouched in front of her before he'd decided to be. His bag was already open. Gauze, Dettol, bandages, all the things he'd packed for a certain thirteen-year-old who attracted disaster the way other people attracted compliments. He had done this a hundred times. He had never once thought about it.
Now he thought about every step.
Clean the wound. Don't look up. Wrap it, not too tight. Don't look up. He had faced six men with knives, and now his hands were trembling over a bandage.
"Careful," Ishaan said from behind him, in a voice that was just a little too innocent. "He's very dangerous with that."
Aaron ignored him.
"Two grown men," Ishaan continued, to the girls now, as if giving a lecture. "Chased by a boy with a water bottle. Completely calm. Absolutely terrifying. Then two girls say hello—"
"Ishaan."
"—and he forgets how words work."
"Ishaan."
"I'm just saying. I've seen him talk to a wall with more confidence."
Aaron kept his eyes on the gauze. His ears were burning.
The silence that followed stretched, as if the whole square were holding its breath.
Then the younger girl spoke.
"You know," she said, and her voice was wobbly, but her eyes were bright, with a mischief that was clearly the only way she knew to stop shaking, "we're the ones who should be scared right now."
Aaron looked up.
"You don't have to be so nervous," she added, grinning. "We're not going to bite." A pause. "Well. I might. Ask him."
Ishaan's mouth fell open. "Did she just—"
"She did," Aaron said.
"I'm Estella," the younger girl announced, as if she had just cracked a secret code. "That's Isabella. And you two are…"
"Aaron," Aaron said.
"Ishaan," said Ishaan. "The handsome one."
"The snack-hunting raccoon," Aaron said, tying off the bandage.
Ishaan opened his mouth to protest, and Estella burst out laughing. Aaron heard Isabella laugh too, the real kind, surprised out of her, like she'd forgotten she could.
Ishaan opened his mouth to protest, and Estella burst out laughing before he could. Aaron heard Isabella laugh too, the real kind, surprised out of her, like she'd forgotten she could.
"I'm going to get a drink," Ishaan announced, with great dignity, "while I still have a reputation." He wandered off toward a vendor.
Aaron zipped his bag shut and sat down at an arm's distance from the girls, trying to look like a person who talked to people regularly.
"I've never seen anyone beat up grown men and then fail this badly at a conversation," Isabella said. Her voice had finally eased.
"Circumstances," Aaron said.
"Circumstances aside," Estella said, leaning in, "I'm curious. You're obviously tourists. How did you find your way out of that alley so fast? Even locals get lost in there."
"Well, my brother and I were roaming here for about a few hours before we heard you guys, so I was able to see a lot of the alleyways, at least the entrances. As we circled the block, I saw the different sizes of the buildings, and when we rushed in, I knew the roads were a bit twisty and turny, so before I acted as a decoy, I took a long way out to get the final feel, and then, well, I just visualised the map in my head"
Two faces stared at him.
He heard himself and winced. "Sorry. I just… notice things. It's an annoying habit."
"Wait," Estella said. "Are you some kind of genius?"
"No. It's not—" He shrugged, eyes on the ground. "It's just noticing. Anyone could do it."
"Anyone could not," Isabella said.
He started to say something, and she cut him off, gently but firmly.
"If it's that ordinary, then what does it make us? We were the ones who got caught." She held his gaze a beat longer than was polite. "Don't do that. Not many people could have done what you did."
Aaron blinked. Compliments usually slid off him like rain off a window. This one didn't. A small, startled smile crept onto his face.
"Thanks," he said. "For saying that."
"FEELAS, YOUR BOY IS BACK!"
Ishaan came striding across the square with four paper cups balanced in a cardboard tray, held high like a trophy. "Hope my grand entrance didn't ruin the romantic moment."
"Took you long enough, Mr Energy," Aaron said, accepting a cup. His ears had gone pink.
Isabella looked at Estella. Estella looked at Isabella.
"You are a unique bunch, you know that," Isabella said at last, shaking her head.
Aaron looked at his cup. Looked at the ground. Looked at Ishaan, who was grinning like he'd won a prize.
"…We really are," he said.