Shubman's pov

Ishan had pinned me to the ground. He looked at me all shocked and I mirrored his expressions. I was shocked to the core because this 'Ishan', the 'Ishan' that had just pinned me to the floor felt different, completely different than the one I knew. He instantly got off me as if being this close to me was physically hurting him, and he hastily muttered an apology. This finally got me out of my shock and what he had done, finally dawned on me.

I looked at him and gave him a big grin and he looked back confused.
"You did it."
I proudly said, to which he just sadly nodded his head. Wait....why did he look so sad? Shouldn't he be happy? He had been training so hard for the past few months to achieve exactly this.
"Why are you not more excited or happy?"
He shook his head, as if dismissing his own thoughts.

He then looked at me and gave me as big of a smile as he could muster and replied with,
"I am happy! I just can't believe it."
Well it did take all his dedication and hard work to finally being able to defeat me, so it made sense why he couldn't believe it. Despite it feeling like a long time, I think he was actually the quickest to defeat me. It only took him a little more than two months, and he even beat Virat bhai, who took around three months.

"Our next mission is tomorrow....you wanna join?"
And despite himself being way too excited the first time around, this time he hesitated. He didn't happily say yes, or jump up and down with joy. Instead he looked like he was being forced to come. Like he didn't want to come.
"You know you don't have to, right?"
"No, no, I want to."
"You sure?"
"Yes."

"Then why do you look like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like someone's forcing you?"
"It's not like that. It's just.... the last time I was with you guys on a mission, you got seriously injured-"
"It wasn't that serious-"
"-and I don't want that to happen..... Wait... Did you just say it wasn't that serious?"
"uhh yes?"

"Well then you have something seriously wrong with your brain because it took you ONE MONTH to heal."
"If you're worried about me, then you shouldn't be, because trust me, I can handle myself."
I said taking his face in my palms and caressing his cheeks, in a comforting manner.
"It's not just you, others could get hurt because of me. The mission could fail-"

"I will handle everything. You just take care of yourself and be sure you don't get hurt. I will look after everyone else."
He slowly nodded a little, sighing. I didn't really brief him about the mission, and he didn't ask about it either. He just seemed like he wanted to go to bed and so he went to his room, excusing himself, telling me he was going to take a nap and I just nodded.

I visited the warehouse and discussed about the last minute touch ups to our plan. After we were completely satisfied with the plan, they asked me to stay for dinner but I declined and went back home to Ishan. When I entered the mansion, it was dead silent and I looked at my watch to see it was 8 pm. I went up to Ishan's room and quietly peeked into it to see that he had still been sleeping.

I cooked for him and went to his room and tried waking him up, but all in vain. I kissed his forehead softly, admiring his adorable sleeping figure for a little while more and then kissed him on the lips. This time he finally woke up and I was probably really red, due to the embarrassment. I left to let him freshen up and he then came downstairs, to have dinner. After dinner when he was quietly making his way back to his room, I stopped him.

"Ishan?"
He turned back around.
"Hmm?"
"Stay with me?"
He just looked at me with an expression on his face that I couldn't quite decipher.
"Sleep next to me tonight?"
I further elaborated and he lightly nodded. I gave him a small smile, which he returned, but his didn't look happy.

The next morning, we woke up early to go the abandoned place, where Abd bhai was kept. Ishan kept fidgeting the whole time, and looked nervous throughout. Halfway through the car ride, I placed my hand on top of his, trying to stop his fidgeting and hopefully provide some comfort. He started taking deep breaths to control his mind from wandering about.

"It's okay."
He turned to look at me, raising his eyebrows.
"Whatever happens today. It will all be okay."
"How are you so sure?"
"I'll make sure of it. I'll make everything okay. I promise, just trust me."
He nods finally relaxing.
"I trust you."

We soon reached the place and saw a few of The Spades men outside guarding the place. We started taking them out one by one and made our way inside. We all split up to look for Abd bhai. Ishan was close to me the whole time and even when everyone split up, he stayed with me.
"Vi bhai, did you find him?"
I asked through my earpiece but when I didn't get an answer, I panicked a little.
"Vi bhai?"
Asked Siraj Miya this time.

I turned to look at Ishan with a frown on my face and Ishan gave me a concerned look, when Siraj Miya didn't get a reply either.
"Not yet Shub."
I was even more confused by Rohit bhai answering instead.
"Ro bhai? Where is Vi bhai?"
"He's here. He's just extra focused and a little panicky, so I'm pretty sure he didn't hear you."
"Oh ok... tell him to not worry so much. We'll find him."

"I don't think he would hear me either right now, so let's just wait until we find De Villiers."
I started searching around again, when more of The Spades men showed up. They must've found out about our appearance here. We started fighting them and I told Ro bhai to continue looking for Abd bhai along with Vi bhai. As The Spades men and The Aces men were fighting, suddenly the police showed up.

"Fuck."

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Um okay, so I updated. I should be given some kind of an award for this.