The news came like a flash of a rainbow against rain and sun.

Rohit's message: 'Ash's in.'

Someone had asked if Axar wouldn't be fine by the time of the World Cup. Someone said they probably shouldn't have taken the risk anyway.

A dozen people spammed congratulations, happy emojis, dancing and flashing and screaming stickers. Half a dozen yelled at Ash on the group to put down his existing calls and take theirs.

Kuldeep asked, 'Jaddu bhai, where are you vanished?'

After that everyone called for Jaddu.

Jaddu was not quite fully aware. Even as he switched between the chat and the news tabs, his head was going overdrive. Then his fingers changed the news site to a flight booking's.

An hour later, Reeva found him putting on his boots, a bag slung across his shoulder.

"Where are you going?" she asked in surprise.

"Chennai," said Jaddu.

"Pardon?"

"I'm going to Chennai. I'll be back by tomorrow."

"Are you on drugs?"

"Of a kind," mused Jaddu, and walked out.

***

It was two hours past midnight that the bell rang. Preethi groaned and got up.

"Who's it so late?" Ash asked sleepily.

"If it's the paparazzi or any of your fans again, I'll stab them with the kitchen knife," threatened Preethi and grabbed the knife for good measure on her way to the door. "Who is it?"

"Er," said a slightly sheepish and very familiar voice, "me."

"Jad?" Preethi pulled open the door so fast she nearly accidentally stabbed their guest. "There really is a decent time for--how the hell are you in Chennai? I thought you'd gone back to Gujarat. Okay. Okay, don't tell me. You travelled to Chennai right now. You set off after the final squad was declared. Damn it, Rohit was saying you'd be up to something like this--"

"He does hold me in high esteem," said Jaddu, beaming.

"Some people might call that questionable esteem," said Preethi, "but you're here, so it's no good debating that. I don't suppose you have informed anyone, so I'd better tell Reeva and the team what's going on."

She hunted around for her phone.

"And while we're at it, welcome," she called. "I suppose you're hungry--"

"Starving."

"And I suppose you have come to see your twin. HEY, YOU! GET YOURSELF DOWN HERE AND MEET YOUR FAN!"

"MY FAN'S STABBED BODY?" Ash yelled down.

"NOT YET."

"I don't like the sound of this." Jaddu eyed the knife suspiciously.

"What? I'm tired," Preethi defended. "And now I see the fridge is empty, so you have to starve to sleep, I'm afraid."

"WHO THE HELL IS IT, PREETHI?"

"HEAVENS ABOVE, COME DOWN AND SEE."

Ash strode down the stairs. Jaddu waited patiently for him to catch sight of him and jump out of his skin.

Unfortunately, Ash did nothing but raise an eyebrow.

"You're here, are you? Jinks owes Rohit a visit to the rhino sanctuary, I have no idea why Jinks put faith in your sanity."

"Rohit actually guessed?" said Jaddu, aggrieved. "They've been having bets over it?"

"You bet. You're predictable, Jad."

"I pride myself on unpredictability--"

"You're so unpredictable that you've become predictable by now. In any situation, we only have to ask: what is the craziest thing one can do? The answer is what Ravindra Jadeja will do."

Jaddu started to laugh, but was cut off immediately by Preethi's, "None of that! If the girls wake up and see you, there will be no more sleep tonight."

So Jaddu had to force back a tremendous burst of laughter, which was hard to begin with, and made much, much worse by Ash starting to laugh.

After that, of course it was hopeless to even try.

Preethi chased them out of the house (they'd been standing at the doors anyway), and Ash and Jaddu laughed like a maniac into the skies of Chennai, and not even they would claim themselves to be sane.

How could they be?

"You--" gasped Jaddu. "You don't even have to travel for the first match--"

"I have to for the first warm-up match," said Ash, who liked to be correct all the time.

"We're in the World Cup squad. We're in the World Cup squad. We've been in the World Cup squad only once before--though we have both played two each--how outlandish!"

"Do you even know the meaning?" asked Ash, who had stopped laughing quite so hard.

"Nope, just heard Bhuvi using it once when Hardik asked him how we liked his new hairstyle," said Jaddu.

"He used it about your hairstyles in your '14-'15 phases, too," said Ash drily.

"Bet he did." Jaddu's laughter had given way to musing. "'14-'15. We've come a long way, haven't we, Ash?"

"Yeah," said Ash. "I reckon we have. And--"

"We are in the World Cup squad," said Jaddu, laughing again.

"That wasn't what I was about to say."

"What were you about to say?"

"Never mind," said Ash.

"What were you about to say, Ash? What were you about to say?" Jaddu caught Ash's arm in a claw-like grip. "What were you about to say?"

"Heavens," said Ash, trying and failing to twist his arm out of Jaddu's grip, but maybe he wasn't trying very hard. "You said we've come a long way, so I was saying we'll go a long way further, too. Even if we're not in another World Cup squad again."

"I know," said Jaddu, wondering if he'd got sand in his eyes. "It's just--"

"I know," said Ash.

***

From 18th June 2017, whenever Jaddu got to the field in the afternoon for his favourite format, he had felt something was missing inside him. Something that had been cut away from inside, and over the past six years, he'd forgotten what it felt to be whole.

He'd thought it had been due to ODIs getting forever mixed up with the run out, due to him directly playing a role in India's loss. He'd thought it had been the loss of the trophy they'd gone closest to since CT 2013, and the loss of a Champions Trophy, which was almost more important to him and his team than a World Cup. He'd thought it might even have been due to Nidhyana's birth amidst that turmoil; Reeva certainly thought so. He'd come up with a dozen reasons, a hundred reasons over the four years, four months, each as likely as another.

Now he knew that the missing piece had been Ash all along.

Because finally, he felt whole.

***

A/N: Ash in the World Cup squad is a dream, I know. It can't be real. But I don't want to wake up.