During the last afternoon practice session on the eve of the KKR vs DC match, Shreyas and Rishabh kept barging into each other's camps. It wasn't like they were meeting each other after a long time, but it had been ages since they'd been on an IPL field together.

IPL time, to Shreyas, had always been majorly about Rishabh.

He was glad Rishabh still felt the same, even if their camps were different now.

Back in the hotel afterwards, Shreyas lay on the couch and contemplated.

It didn't feel strange, captaining KKR any longer. He felt completely at home. Every time it was DC he faced, however...

It didn't help that the DC camp was very similar to the one he'd left three years back. If it had changed, it would have been easier. But since it hadn't, every time he observed them from KKR's nets or sat with them, he felt like he had gone back in time. Straight back, three years.

He didn't notice the door opening till Venky's voice came.

"Coming for a walk, Shreyas?"

"No," said Shreyas.

"Coming. For. A. Walk. SHREYAS?"

Shreyas genuinely did think Venky hadn't heard his reply, so he said politely enough, "Er, no, I don't..."

"I heard you the first time," said Venky impatiently, "and it wasn't a question."

Shreyas got shirty at that. "I'm not going anywhere."

"So you're going to pine away after DC the whole evening? It's not even 6...start at 8 or something..."

Shreyas glared.

Venky shrugged back. "Come on, now."

Shreyas glared some more, though he started to get up, too.

"It's no use making faces, skipper." Venky hauled him up. 

"I have a name, can you please use it?"

"God, you're cranky. That's why they always say, don't start pining early in the evening."

*******************

Nitish, Rinku, VC and Suyash were all lurking around in the corridor, apparently to join in the walk. Shreyas didn't know whether to be pleased or insulted.

So he chose his usual route: be disagreeable.

"You check both sides before crossing a street, even if it's one way, Suyash..." "If you say another word of Tamil, either of you, I'll throw you in front of a moving bus!"

Two years back, he couldn't have dreamt of being this particular version of himself with this bunch of people. He didn't know when it had shifted.

"Ah, you wouldn't, skipper," said Venky.

"Think you're real smart, don't you?" Shreyas asked Nitish, as he tried to discreetly steer them into a coffee shop (he'd been issued orders to reduce his coffee consumption by his physio lately).

"Clearly, you're smarter." Nitish grinned and slung an arm around him.

Shreyas caught Nitish's wrist and asked, "Why do you wear appalling stuff like these? Even the street dogs are running away, see."

"Where?" asked Suyash, looking around.

"They ran away," said Shreyas. "That's why you can't see 'em anymore."

Nitish glanced at his flashy watch ostentatiously. "Needed to keep track of the time, that's all."

"Why the time, Nitish bhaiya?" persisted Suyash. "It'd be barely seven--"

"We have to get back by eight." Nitish winked at Venky, something Shreyas did not miss. "Shreyas has to start pining latest by then."

"After who?"

"Shh," said Nitish.

"Shh," said VC.

"After--" began Venky.

"SHH," went Shreyas fiercely. 

"You wouldn't have me keep the kid in the dark, skipper..."

"I have told you every day since the start of this season, Venkatesh, don't call me skipper."

"You spoilt the effect of the threat by using his full name, skipper," chided Nitish. "But it's understandable, your pining hour's approaching quick..."

Shreyas, who was mostly so pissed and indignant with his team making fun of his tragic past that he couldn't dwell on his tragic past, glared at Nitish and Venky and turned to VC.

"Doesn't it annoy you when these two always side with each other?" he demanded.

"All the time," said VC.

"Then why don't you do something about it!"

"You're the leader, skipper," said VC innocently. "Plus, I have a language advantage over one of them."

"Plus, you're not in mourning," said Nitish.

"What d'you reckon, could we nip over for tea?" Venky asked him. "And return before eight?"

"In case you guys are not aware," said Shreyas, "people can pine while walking, too, you know!"

"What is pine, bhaiya?" Rinku was forced to ask finally.

Venky almost fell down, he was laughing so hard. Shreyas had to fight hard to keep a straight face--imagine the humiliation if he laughed.

"When your girlfriend dumps you and leaves, you'll automatically know what's pining, Rinku," said Nitish superiorly.

This time Venky did stumble. VC caught him just in time.

"We already have one injured batsman," Shreyas told Venky with a baleful look at Nitish. "Do not injure yourself too."

"Sorry, skipper--"

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me--"

At that point, Rinku, who hadn't fully grasped the meaning of pining, but had understood it was something truly tragic, asked, "Who left you, Shreyas bhaiya?"

Shreyas gave up trying to keep a straight face as everyone howled, and hit Rinku's shoulder with exasperated affection before throwing an arm around him. "God, Rinku!"

And he did not have the leisure to pine once till very late night, just before he fell asleep.

********************

For most of the evening, Nitish had been euphoric watching the record-breaking match from the hotel. Eventually towards the very end of the 100-run victory, his euphoria was replaced by a miserable feeling of missing out.

Why wasn't he there to celebrate with his own team in a match that would go down in IPL's history books?

Who did KKR belong to as much as him, apart from Gauti bhai and Narine and Russ--okay, and a few others? Didn't he deserve to be on the field on a moment like this?

Stupid injuries.

By the time his team returned to the hotel, Nitish was in a very cranky mood. The first person to drop by, as it happened, was the captain, who came to give him a blow by blow account.

"You saw, right? Did you see how many unbelievable things happened the same day? Did you see Angkrish's reverses? They reminded us all of you--he's a fitting replacement, isn't he? And Sunny smiled at the presentation!"

"I saw it all, you know!" said Nitish. "On TV!"

"I know," said Shreyas, wondering at the less-than-warm tone, "but don't you want the first-hand account? The box office account, as Angkrish--"

"The box office where I wasn't present?"

"Er--"

"All these years I played for KKR," said Nitish. "When you were captaining DC, DC thrashed us. When you were captaining KKR, DC thrashed us. When I was captaining KKR, DC thrashed us. And for one day--for once--I'm not on the field! And...!"

Shreyas backed away.

"We thrash DC. Like. This. Because I wasn't there!"

Shreyas blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "You were there, Nitish!"

"WHERE? IN YOUR HEARTS?"

"Um, yes! You're always there in KKR. In me, in us...all of us."

"YOU REALIZE I DIDN'T DIE?"

Shreyas almost fell off the edge of the bed. And he was absolutely horror-struck.

He'd never in his life had anyone acting like this with him, and he very conveniently didn't realize it was generally he who behaved like that...with everyone. 

*******************

The first conclusion he jumped to was that Nitish hated him.

"And I didn't even do anything," he complained plaintively outside.

"You did," said Venky with a straight face.

"Did what?"

"Hurt the poor soul."

Shreyas looked even more horror-struck, so Rinku felt bad instantly.

"No, you didn't," he said, to Venky's god-Rinku! expression. "You know Nitish bhaiya, right? He shouts on everyone when he's in a cranky mood."

"He never...shouts..." said Shreyas, unconvinced.

Everyone gave him bland smiles.

All right, Shreyas had heard the stories of Nitish's colourful captaincy last year. But hearing stories of someone's temper and experiencing it first-hand was just not the same.

*******************

All his fretting about falling out with Nitish without doing anything wrong was put to rest in less than ten minutes.

When the team gathered for a very late dinner, Nitish made a beeline for him and said, "Sorry for yelling at you, Shreyas."

Shreyas stared.

"Don't tell me you're going to stay mad over it," Nitish said, sighing, "though I'd deserve it."

"Oh! No, no--I'm not going to stay mad over--I mean, I'm not mad..."

Nitish beamed. "Now I want the box office account--"

"See?" Rinku told Venky bitterly. "He gets a sorry from Nitish bhaiya, too. Only I never do."

Venky laughed and ruffled his hair.

"Yeah, but you are a bit of a pushover, aren't you?"

Rinku decided against asking what a pushover meant. He'd ask Shreyas bhaiya later.

*******************

Eventually it did dawn on Shreyas that what Nitish did with him earlier was the exact same he did regularly...with Rohit bhaiya...with Virat bhaiya...with Rishabh...with Rahul...with Shresta...who did he not do it with?

And he never made it up later like Nitish had.

Shreyas sat bolt upright.

Maybe a taste of his own medicine was exactly what he'd needed to show him the error of his ways.

After all, it was never too late to start.

He sprinted down the corridor and up the stairs to where DC's rooms were and hammered at Rishabh's door.

A half-asleep Rishabh opened the door. "Wassup?" he asked, yawning.

"I'm sorry," gasped out Shreyas.

"For sending us to the bottom of the table? Yeah, you're not forgiven."

"Not for that. I'm sorry for--er--being so, um, rude to you all the time--for taking out my temper on you--"

Rishabh touched Shreyas' forehead with the back of his palm.

"--I mean, for using you as a punching bag--"

Rishabh went into his room and returned with a glass of ice-cold water.

"--and for never realizing how long I've been doing that--"

Rishabh shook a sachet of milk power into the water.

"Rishabh," complained Shreyas. "Are you listening?"

"Drink," said Rishabh, thrusting the mixture into Shreyas' hands.

"Why?"

Rishabh led him to sit down. "Rohit bhaiya says milk powder makes you feel better when your brain's short circuiting."

Oh, no. Rohit bhaiya.

"Thanks for reminding," Shreyas told Rishabh. "I need to make an important call to Rohit bhaiya."

"At this hour?"

Shreyas was already striding into the balcony, chugging down the water-milk powder emulsion. "Hello, Rohit bhaiya?..."

******************

A/N: The way Venky and Shreyas stood and vented their excitement together the whole time extra ordi-Narine was batting 😭💜