#appa and nana 😫

[gauri-vishalakshi]

Vasantha

A chronicle of the 1939 spring vacation of a certain Komuram-Alluri... (set approximately 18-19 years after the events of RRR)

Pairings: Ram x Bheem, RamBheem x daughter!reader

You were, to put it mildly, excited beyond words to see your dads again. After weeks of begging, Ram and Bheem had finally agreed to send you off to schooling away from Delhi, and it was finally time for your spring vacation. After everything had happened with the Scotts, Ram and Bheem had adopted the other little girl Lady Scott had "collected": you. You were too young to remember your parents, and had immediately formed a bond with Bheem and Ram, from booping Bheem's nose to tugging on Ram's hair and laughing every time he winced.

You had never known any parents other than your dads. It had always been them, no matter how hard you tried to reach farther back in your memory. It had been Bheem nana's kurta that that you held onto when you learned to walk, toddling towards a beaming Ram appa with his hands outstretched. It had been Bheem's curls into which you had tied little pink bows, Ram's arrows which you had chewed on, which had inspired some "discussions" between your parents. ("Arrows cannot be a substitute for teething toys, Ram!") It had been Bheem who had taught you to sing, Ram who had taught you to read. Ram, who had taught you archery, and Bheem, who had taught you to make poultices. Ram who had taught you how to hurt, and Bheem who had taught you how to heal. You knew little things about them that you didn't know about your birth parents, like how nana had scars down his chest both your dads refused to talk about, and how appa walked with a slight limp and sometimes buckled at the knees when he thought you weren't looking.

They had done everything to make sure you didn't feel the "absence of a mother". You never understood what that meant, really. But you had heard what society said, no matter how hard your parents attempted to shield you from it. Once, in first grade, you had gotten sent to the principal for beating up a classmate for insinuating "you can't have two dads! That's weird!" Ram had been proud. Bheem had not. You'd also heard "a girl needs a woman's touch". And you'd always had that too, in the forms of your Sita pinni and Aunt Jenny. Your pinni had taught you how to throw a mean right hook ("Where do you think your appa learned how to punch?"), which of course meant she took the blame for my beating-up-a-child incident. ("I'll take the blame, and I'll do it proudly!") Your aunt told you about how you were when you had first arrived, speaking only Tamil and incredibly reclusive. That part had prompted some reactions out of your fathers. ("NO. Chinni shut her mouth sometimes?" "Appa, tell nana to stop!" "Aapu, bangaram. I didn't know that either, but if we don't stop now, she'll go off on a tangent." "Appa!" )

While you had connected to Bheem through music, Ram bonded with you over your shared love of Tamil. Since it was your mother tongue, you recognized it as one of your earliest memories, and Ram, being a master of almost every language in India, was happy to converse in it with you so you never lost that part of you. Hence, you called him "appa", in Tamil, and Bheem "nana".

You were shaken out of reverie by the sound of the startlingly loud train horn cutting through the previously silent morning train. You ran off, gathering your luggage as quickly as humanly possible before scanning the crowd for your family. "Chinni!" You heard your family's nickname for you and whipped around to see your entire family waving at you from a corner of the station, holding a colorful, multilingual sign with your name and welcome in at least five different languages. You dissected the sign with your now-skillful eyes, analyzing it to discover who did what part. You were sure the wood had been sourced by your nana Bheem, the words had been written by your Ram appa, your Sita pinni had carved the sides to create a clean border, your Aunt Jenny had provided the pigments, and the colorful, hand-drawn designs were the work of-Malli akka? Sure enough, you spotted the older girl next to your nana. You saw your dads, your thaatha (Ram's babai), your aunts, and the girl who was basically your elder sister and started approaching them, your luggage in tow.

Your parents immediately flocked to your side, Bheem and Jenny taking your suitcases as Ram and Sita questioned you intensely about your school year. "Have you been eating properly? Have you been reading new books? Do you have a boyfriend yet?" That last question was from Sita, to which you groaned "Pinni!" as Bheem turned to look at you, wide-eyed, before proclaiming, "Please, I'm not ready for boyfriends!" Ram looked you straight in the eye before saying, in an inordinately serious voice: "No boys until you're at least forty." "You're forty." You retorted, watching as he scoffed. "So?" Choosing (wisely) not to reply, you turned to Malli and started inquiring about her health, as well as her mother Loki pedhamma's.

After everyone else had walked on ahead to your home, your dads stayed back to walk in pace with you. "So, how's our favorite daughter doing?" Ram started, bumping your shoulder with his own. "I'm your only daughter, appa." You said, laughing. "Not true." Bheem retorted. "We also have Shivu." You bit your lip to keep from laughing out loud as your appa gave your nana an unamused look over your head. "Bheem, we've been over this. Your fucking pet demon-snake is not our child-" This statement stretched the confines of your self-control as you clenched your fists to keep from bursting. You silently sipped some chai you had acquired from right outside the train station as Bheem shook his head in outrage. "That demon-snake, as you call it, is harmless! It's been in our room for months and it hasn't tried to kill you yet, which is more that I can say for Scott-" "It's been WHAT?" Your clearly horrified appa burst out, and it was too much for you as you started choking on your chai, uncontrollable laughter bubbling out of you as your eyes watered. Ram gave Bheem a "we-will-be-having-this-conversation-later" look before patting you on the back, trying to get you back to normal, and eventually the efforts of your dads paid off as you stopped choking.

"Nana, really?" You shook your head as soon as you had been cleared by both Doctor Bheem and Doctor Sita that you weren't about to go into cardiac arrest. When you shot your elder father a look at their fussing, he had simply laughed at you and said "You'll get used to it." "Anyway, how have you two been holding up without me? Nana, have you been applying coconut oil to your scars? Appa, have you been regularly exercising your knees? Have you both been-" "We're fine, Chinni!" They exclaimed in unison, though smiling at your concern. After a decent walk, your trio had finally reached home, where your pinni was waiting for you with an aarti. Bheem walked a little faster as you neared the house, but you stuck with your slow pace, accompanying your appa as he limped down the road. "Your nana and I are so glad you're home, thalli." "I am too, pa." Then, after a brief pause: "You haven't been exercising your legs, have you?" Ram chuckled, a low, warm, familiar sound that you'd loved since the day they'd brought you home. "Stop worrying about me, bangaram, and enjoy the vasantha."

Translation: vasantha - spring in Tamil

A/N: I may continue this, but that depends on if y'all like it or not! Please don't hesitate to give me feedback or fathers-daughter moments you'd like to see between RamBheem and their daughter! Tagging some wonderful people @lil-stark@rambheem-is-real@manwalaage@contemporarykafka@thewinchestergirl1208@maraudersfansassemble@how-is-it-in-london@itsfookingloosah @seherie @redirection04 @idk528 hope y'all like it!!