Did You Know Me? (Shubman Gill x Ishan Kishan)

Courage

Shubman woke up the next morning snuggled in Virat bhai's arms with a splitting headache under the most bizarre circumstances.

"Get up, you two!"

It was Rohit bhai's voice.

Rohit bhai waking them up.

The world had turned on its head. The World Cup must be what was responsible....

Then Shubman remembered what had happened after the joy of winning the WC. The bottom fell off from his stomach.

"You've come to wake us up, Ro?" Virat bhai stirred and woke up, and gave Shubman a squeeze. "Feel better today?"

"No," said Shubman. The awful pressure at the back of his eyes was back, combining with the exploding headache.

"Aw, Shubi, come on....how come you're awake, Ro?" asked Virat.

"Ishan was banging around so loudly in my room, I didn't have a choice," said Rohit. "And that reminds me, he's refusing to say what happened, so maybe you can throw some light, Shubi?"

"No, Rohit bhai, I can't," said Shubman desperately.

"I don't see why you're getting like this, Shubi, can't you just go and talk to him?" said Virat bhai.

"He won't talk to me," said Shubman.

Rohit nodded. "He probably won't, at this moment."

The confirmation only made Shubman feel worse.

"But I'm working on it," Rohit promised. "He's every bit as upset as you, so I'm hoping he will give in to talking with you real soon."

Shubman didn't share in his faith.

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

Everyone groaned and complained as they gobbled down a bit of breakfast and rushed through their packing to avoid missing the flight to Delhi. The BCCI head office was going to decorate their shelves with the World Cup that evening, which was necessary, but nobody could understand why they couldn't have given them a single day to get over the hangover. 

It was also turning out to the very worst day of Shubman's life, because Ishan went around with his headphones stuffed firmly in his ears. He did not look upset like Rohit bhai had described. And he did not look at Shubman even once.

And Shubman was scared.

Till yesterday, he would have died laughing at the idea of him being scared to go and talk to Ishan. Today, in spite of knowing he had to do it, and wanting to do it, every time he took a step towards Ishan, he felt cold with fear.

How could he be scared of Ishan?

What was the worst Ishan could do?

Shout at him? Refuse to talk to him? Refuse to look at him?

The last possibility sent chills down his body.

What if Ishan refused to look at him ever again?

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

At the airport, Shubman screwed up every bit of courage he had to walk up to Ishan. Ishan looked forbidding. His headphones were still on.

"Ishan," Shubman began. His voice came out small and shaky.

Ishan firmly kept looking down. Possibly he couldn't hear through the headphones, Shubman told himself hopefully.

"Ishan," he said in a louder voice. "Will you please take that off and listen to me for a bit? ISHAN?"