Shubman stumbled blindly into their lawn and then outside. He didn't want anyone to come after him. Try to console him. He had to get away from...Ishan or di, whoever came...preferably, none of them.

What was there to be consoled any longer?

He clutched the low fence and bent over against it. He was crying so hard, he couldn't breathe. Darkness pulsated in his vision.

What have I done?

What have I done?

Something, nails on the fence maybe, pricked against his palm when he curled them tighter. Stupidly, this pain felt better. Of course it would. Of course it would.

He pressed his palm harder against them. He twisted the nail into them. The blood was good...it was distracting, distracting from what he had just said to his father.

No, nothing could distract him. He snatched his hands back from the fence and pressed them to his heart.

His father... His father was...

His best friend. His role model. His guide. His cheerleader. 

Part of him. Always, part of him.

Shubman screamed his sobs out.

"Shubi-" A hand gripped his shoulder.

It wasn't Ishan or di, like he'd expected.

"Come here, son..."

Shubman didn't need to be told twice.

He threw his arms around his father, blood-stained palms and all and buried his head in his father's shoulders, convulsing. His father patted his head and rubbed his back and held him very tight.

"Dad-" He could barely get a word out. "Dad, I'm s-"

"Don't say it," his father said. "You're not to say sorry for acknowledging my shortcomings for once."

Shubman clung on harder.

"Maybe," mused his father. "Maybe you were my trophy. Maybe you still are. But whenever I've imagined my trophy, I wanted him to be the happiest person who ever lived. I never wanted the slightest discomfort or hardship to befall you. And I have protected you from all of that, haven't I, Shubi?"

At best, Shubman could only nod.

"If you marry Ishan-" It was the first time anyone of their parents said that without wincing. "-you'll have to face a lot of hardships in your life, and I would've wanted to protect you from them again. But taking Ishan away from you and replacing him with a girl isn't the solution to that, and I'm sorry it took me so long to realize."

"Dad, it doesn't matter what anyone says," sobbed Shubman. "Back in...in Australia...none of it had been anything more than, than an annoyance till...till you..."

"I know," said his father. "When you were a kid, whatever mischief you ever got up to, my go ahead was all you would want. Shahneel used to get furious because naturally, I had to say no to most of them. I don't think you've changed much, Shubi."

Once again, Shubman couldn't breathe for crying.

"I will still try to protect you from everything bad," his father said. "From now, we'll fight together."

"Do you mean-?" Shubman couldn't say it.

"If I'm actually going to be okay with your relationship with Ishan?" his father said. 

Shubman nodded again.

"Look, I won't pretend to understand it all of a sudden. But since it matters so much to you, and to him too, and since he makes you happy, since you want him, and no one else...I am more than okay with it. And I promise I will try to understand it, and I'm sure I'll get there someday."

"Soon," Shubman added.

"Definitely," his father said, smiling.

His smile was genuine. Shubman couldn't help smiling back through his tears. But the tears didn't stop anyway.

"I'm glad for you, Dad," he said. "But neither Mom nor Ishan's parents are going to accept. So I don't really think I'm ever going to face that hardship at all."

"Who says they won't accept?" boomed his father. "Didn't I tell you we'll fight together?"

Shubman couldn't even formulate a What? before he was being led back to the house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We are going to accept Shubman and Ishan's love for each other, no matter how, as Virat put it, unconventional it seems to us. I think we can all agree that the two of them would not have fought us so far and refused to give up when faced with such opposition if they were not actually convinced they want to spend their lives together."

Shubman stared at his father, mouth half open.

He pinched himself to check the whole dream thing, too. It didn't seem vaguely real.

But the pinch hurt, so....

Shahneel was beaming, Raj frowning. Shubman's mother and Ishan's parents of course looked pretty much dumfounded, as did Ishan himself.

"Shubi certainly would not have." Mr. Gill looked at his wife. "He has listened to us all his life and now it's our turn to listen to him. I can't say with that certainty about Ishan." Now he looked at Ishan's parents. "But I don't think he would have cared about your approval so much if he hadn't been seeking it all his life, too."

Everyone was still silent, except Shahneel who whispered a quiet, "Hear, hear, Dad!"

"I will accept and stand by Shubman and Ishan's love for each other because that makes them happy, and my son's happiness is all that matters to me. Forcing a decision on him and making him unhappy in the process seems counterproductive to the whole cause of being a parent. If anyone else cares about their own decisions more than their son's happiness, may they please speak up?"

He look at the remaining three parents in the room with an unmistakable challenging gaze.

Ishan's mother was the first to speak. "No. I do not care about what people will say and think of my son more than my son's happiness. I thought I did, but I do not."

Ishan's eyes widened in disbelief.

"I was halfway prepared to accept it earlier," Shubman's mother said. "But I suppose if I actually had, I wouldn't have pushed for the safety net engagement, Shub."

"That's a very apt term," said Shahneel.

Their mother frowned at her before turning to Shubman. "As your father says, since being with Ishan makes you happy, I'm fine with it. I'm actually fine, this time."

"Brilliant," said Shahneel. "It's a wonder what a bit of raw honesty can do," she whispered to Shubman.

Ishan's father was the last to give his consent. He gave it in the form of a mere nod at Ishan, but Ishan must have detected something genuine behind it, because he smiled.

Shubman caught Ishan's eyes across the room, and then turned back to his father, who was beaming the widest of all.

Growing up, children think fathers are superheroes.

They are, Shubman thought. They really are.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Long into the night, Ishan and Shubman finally found themselves alone in the lawn. 

"Did that actually happen?" Shubman asked. "Did our parents just accept...us?"

"I don't know," said Ishan.

"They agreed to have their sons live with a man," said Shubman. "They accepted that straight isn't the only right way to be."

"There's no point in giving it a term like gay or straight, you know," said Ishan. "I believe there's only one person out there for everyone and that's it. Their country, religion, caste, class, gender...how does any of it matter?"

Shubman tilted his head, his cheeks dimpling.

"Well then, I'm glad I found the person for me when we were so young. We had a lot of time to be together and then fight them all and then still be together. What if we had found each other when we were, like, fifty?"

"In another world?" Ishan said, drawing Shubman to him and pressing their foreheads together. "I think there would still have been only one person I'd have loved. I don't think that would've changed. Ever."

~~~The End~~~

A/N: Epilogue remains.

https://youtu.be/tRFLs_-54gE