"Kia! Kia! Kiara!"

Tarun shouted as he chased the little toddler. Kiara shrieked and laughed hysterically as she ran away from her elder brother, a brush with red paint in her right hand. A few seconds later, she turned her head a little to check if her elder brother was getting closer.

"Tarun! Stop chasing her. She will fall if she keeps running like that." Aranya reprimanded her brother with arms spread out to the left and right as she blocked his way.

"Aru di, get out of my way!" Tarun's face was red in anger.

"No!"

"Aru di!"

"No!"

Tarun then pushed Aranya aside but she was fast to grab his hands and quickly locked him in a tight back hug.

"Aru di! Let me go! Let me go!" screamed the young boy while trying to let loose of Aranya's hands but his elder sister tightened her lock.

Kiara had stopped running when she heard her elder brother scream. She turned around and continued to laugh and shriek. She thought that her older siblings were in another one of their wrestling sessions. She clapped her hands and cheered the two, splattering some blue paint everywhere around her.

Screams, laughs, cries and yells filled the air of the activity room.

"What's going on here?" Karan stopped dead in his tracks.

Aranya and Tarun were now on the floor. Aranya had her arms around the chubby boy's chest while her legs locked with his as Tarun squiggled and squirmed to get free. Meanwhile, Kiara was happily minding her own business, drawing on one of the walls that were now also 'decorated' with her small palm prints. Her dress was also not spared. A scrapbook on the floor near the wrestling older siblings was also painted with smudges of colors. Next to the book were tubes of watercolor paint and paintbrushes, long and short, and a palate as well as a glass of dark water. There were colors splattered everywhere.

"Kids?"

"Papa! Help me! Papa!" Tarun wailed.

Kiara turned to look at Karan, grinning wide showing her rows of white baby teeth. Her face and hair were also smudged with blue, red, white, and yellow paint.

"Papa! Red! Flower!" She showed Karan the brush with a blue color and pointed to the painting on the wall before continuing with her drawing.

Karan did not know what to do first. Should he stop the wrestling or should he suppress his daughter's painting talent and stop the work of art in progress?

The remaining kids had also arrived, except for Tanvi sleeping soundly in the nursery.

In an instant, Tejasswi went to her youngest kid and held her by her arms. "Kiara, What have you done?"

"Mumma! Mumma! Red! Flower!" She giggled and showed her the brush. Teju had to turn her face to the side to avoid the brush. She then took the brush away from the little girl. "That's beautiful Kiu, but Mumma thinks it's enough painting for today." Kiara pouted and protested.

"Sunny, do something." Teju tilted her head towards the girl and the boy on the floor.

The wrestling session was still on. Kiaan and Veer watched in amusement but wondered who and what started it. Their bet was on Aranya as she liked to tease her younger brother.

Karan quickly went to the two on the floor and pulled away Tarun. The boy turned around to hit Aranya but Karan was quicker and held his shoulders.

Aranya then stood up and faced her parents. Kiaan and Veer came closer. They were puzzled too.

"What was going on here? Aru? Tarun? What happened to the room? And why are you two fighting?" asked Karan.

"It's Aranya di's fault Papa, Mumma." Tarun was now crying.

"No, it's not. It was Tarun's fault. I was just protecting Kiara," protested Aranya.

"Protecting from what? From who? And Aru if you were protecting Kiara, how did she manage to end up like this, and what happened to the room?" Tejasswi asked.

"Tarun was going to make Kiara fall."

"No! I wasn't," cried Tarun. "Mumma, Papa, I didn't do anything."

"But he chased Kiara."

Everybody looked at Tarun questioningly. Kiara, on the other hand, managed to let loose from her mother and went to the lying scrapbook on the floor. She then tore some pages of the book.

"Kiaraaa!" cried Tarun. He quickly freed himself from Karan and ran to his younger sister. He roughly took the book away from her, startling the little girl and making her cry.

"I was trying to avoid that," stated Aranya.

"Avoid what?" asked Karan

"Tarun making Kiara cry or hitting her," explained the oldest girl.

"But Kiara ruined my scrapbook," Tarun was now on the verge of crying.

"This one is on our family trip to the States. I was going to take it for my art project. Look. Look what Kiara had done to it. She ruined it. Now, what would I submit in school." He showed the book to the family and the tears rolled down his chubby cheeks. Tejasswi motioned her husband to console the crying boy while she held Kiara who was still crying.

Karan then went to him and kneeled to face him while the other kids looked on. "Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. I am sure Kiara didn't mean it, Tarun. Maybe she thought she was helping you. She is still small. She doesn't understand what she's doing."

Tarun looked into his eyes. He was still feeling angry at Kiara for ruining his hard work. He had spent almost three days on the scrapbook.

"Aru?" asked Teju.

"Yes, Mumma," answered Aranya.

"You were supposed to look after Kiara right?"

"Yes, Mumma."

"What were you doing when Kiara started to paint Tarun's book?"

"Mumma?" Aranya was startled. 

"What were you doing?"

"I... I was reading a novel, Mumma."

"And you didn't see what Kiara was doing?" Aranya slowly nodded and guilt crept in. Kiaan, Veer, and Tarun watched their sister lower her head in shame.

"I am sorry Mumma."

"And why were you wrestling with Tarun?"

"Because I didn't want him to chase Kiara. When I heard Tarun scream her name, I saw he was chasing Kiara and looked angry. I didn't want him to hurt Kiara."

"But she ruined my book," defended the boy. Karan held his arms.

"Did you know that Kiara drew on the wall too?" Aranya looked at the wall behind Teju. It was full of paints and drawings. "No, Mumma."

"Aru, how old are you?" Karan asked.

"12, Papa"

"How old is Tarun?"

"7, Dad"

"Who's older?"

"I am, Dad"

"If we could turn back time, would you do the same thing, or would you approach the situation differently when you saw Tarun chasing Kiara?" Tears started to pool in Aranya's eyes.

A couple of minutes later, "I should have looked after Kiara better because it was my responsibility to babysit her today. If I weren't too engrossed in the book, I would have noticed her coloring Tarun's book and stopped her, rather than fighting with Tarun."

Karan and Tejasswi nodded, satisfied with their eldest daughter's answers. The remaining kids stood quiet, taking in the lessons from the incident, while Kiara patted her mother's cheek with her palm, smudging it red, blue, and yellow.

Aranya then went to Tarun. She hugged him and said "Sorry, Tarun. I am sorry. I will help you do the project. There are still other pictures right?" Tarun nodded.

"Tarun" It was Teju. He lifted his head to look at her.

"You know that your father is right. Kiara is still small, she thinks that her actions are all play and fun. I understand that you are sad and angry about the ruined book, but you should have also tried to control your anger and not hurt her. When she grows up we'll tell her what is right and what is wrong, Okay?"

Tarun looked at his mother and then at Kiara who was now playfully tilting her head left to right, right to left, and widened her eyes at him. "I wuuuvv yuuu..." "I wuuuvv yuuu..."

Teju smiled and looked at her little girl. She pinched the girl's cheek. "You are a naughty girl. Naughty, naughty Kiu. But you love your elder brother, right Kiu?"

"I wuuuvv yuuu Taun."

"Kiu, go say sorry to him."

Tejasswi then put Kiara down and she went to her elder brother hugged him and kissed his cheek. Tarun hugged her back.

Everything was going to be alright.

"Alright. Now, let's see the damage shall we?" said Karan as he stood up and looked around the room.

"Flower! Butterfly" cried Kiara and ran to the wall. But before she could reach it, Karan quickly hoisted her up.

All six kids stood next to each other as they 'admired' Kiara's artwork. What was once white was now replaced by colors, patterns, and drawings. Kiara clapped her hands and pointed to the wall. "Tree. Bird."

"Not bad for a three-year-old, right dad?" asked Kiaan, to which Karan nodded.

"You're right, Kiaan. I like that flower." He pointed to a blue flower.

"Ouch!" Teju had smacked his arm.

"What? It's true. I like it, Laddoo."

"Yes, Mumma." "I like it too." "Nice, Kiara." "Hmmm..." said the other four kids.

A little while later, "Are you all done admiring the work?" queried Teju. "Does anyone want to snap some pictures of it?"

Everybody turned to her, some with a puzzled expression, others with curiosity but Karan then pulled out his phone and took some pictures.

"Alright, then. Since all of you like the artwork so much, you get to clean up the place and paint the wall back to white."

"Mummaaaaa..." "Laddoo?" "But Mumma...."

Teju then took Kiara from her husband and kissed him long and deep.

"Sunny, I want the wall as before, say, latest by the day after tomorrow."

"But... that's not fair, Laddoo."

"Mumma, it's not our fault. It's Aru and Tarun's fault." Kiaan protested and Veer nodded in agreement.

"Well, if you all work together, the task will be completed faster," said Tejasswi.

"Come Kiu. Let's get Mumma's Kiara cleaned up." Teju then turned around and waved goodbye to her protesting husband and children.