Tale In The Red Sand

Chapter Nine

"You seem tired". Remarked Warsame, enjoying his light breakfast of buttered toast and coffee. He took a long sip from his cup while his watchful gaze bounced between Ercole and his daughter. Hibaaq had just entered the dining room holding a plate of freshly made malawax in her palms. She set the plate down along side the other dishes in the middle of the table, pausing in her movements after the words left her father's mouth. She stared at him like a deer caught in headlights.

Clearly, they were both unsure of who exactly the abrupt remark was appointed to, given the pair were very much fatigued from a sleepless night. Warsame took note as they walked into the room, both at their respective times, a few minutes apart, heads slightly lulling every once in awhile and eye lids half shut, apparent, especially in his daughter. They were obviously worn out from staying up, and for reasons unknown to him.

Hibaaq swallowed her spit uncomfortably as she straightened in her stance. "I'll be fine." She answered, assuming that he was addressing her, though it would've been way more easier to tell if Warsame hadn't been skim reading a copy of the morning news paper at the time he spoke.

He nodded attentively at his daughter.

"Ercole you should take the day off, enjoy the city or stay in if you like, you've been working too hard." Warsame praised, dismissing any protest from the tortured workaholic as he held up a hand. "And thanks to you, we've landed an astonishing deal with that Swedish corporation. Please, you are allowed to rest son."Warsame smiled warmly at him, and with the same exact doting in his eyes as when he looked upon his daughter. Ercole was like the son he never had and never knew he wanted until the moment he met him. Naturally, Warsame grew fond of Ercole during their travelling months. He was in awe of his drive and the immeasurable love for his family despite their peculiar tendencies of frigidness towards him. He brought a family man with an excellent work ethic a whole new meaning. Two of many qualities he admired.

"Well, if you say so." Ercole shrugged, suppressing the urge to gape his mouth in a tear jerking yawn. The thought of staying in bed and sleeping for hours until the sun was at it's peak in the sky made the tiny hairs on his face and neck stand up within raised goosebumps.

"Aabo, you actually made the deal? Hibaaq leaned over the table to press a kiss to her father's cheek in congratulation.

"Actually?! You didn't think we could, I'm heartbroken Hibaaq." Warsame feigned a poor performance of sadness, making her playfully roll her eyes at his cringeworthy antics.

"I knew you would, Aabe."

"Alhamdulillah, thanks to Ercole too." Warsame nodded with a grin as he viewed Hibaaq give Ercole a notorious grin of her own. Like father like daughter. Ercole couldn't contain the unyielding flush of blood that reddened his cheeks as they peered at him with such adore.

"I'm going to get to work as well, the welfare event isn't going to organise itself." Hibaaq gave her father another feathery kiss on his stubbled cheek and left the two men in the dining room.

She took hastened steps to her bedroom running on lowing incentive, one honeyed malawax and lack of a good night's rest, although she managed to write a few notes down and make a few phone calls, until
eventually the fatigue had caught up to her. Next thing she knew, Hibaaq 'accidentally' fell into her bed and softly snored all her worries away.

When she finally woke up from the well needed slumber, she found a series of sleep lines on the side of her body she had been resting on, looking as if one side had completely lost all hydration in perfectly embedded lines.

"Hibaaq"! A holler came from the room next door. Then she remembered Ayeeyo Warsam and her needs, swept from her mind the moment she decided to take an impromptu nap. Hibaaq shot up and out of her bedroom. The remaining sleep in her bones groaned in protest, but she stood in Ayeeyo Warsam's room in no time.