~Yes Captain~

~I lost my Cheeku to him for the first time~

"He is!!! He definitely is," Mahi had admitted feeling that spike of bitterness again and Yuvi had absolutely not missed that bitterness in Mahi's words. He turned to Mahi eyes questioning, worried and curious as he asked his bestie, "So, what's about the new kid?"

"I don't know...I didn't get to spend much time with him," Mahi had admitted to Yuvi, knowing his bestie would know without doubt what he was going through at this tour. The wounds from the tour of England hadn't yet healed and the repetitive defeats in Aus, wasn't helping his mental frame anyway. The critics, the injury, the failures, troubling his friend a lot. So, they didn't talk about it again.

Mahi and Yuvi were having dinner when Mahi's phone rang again. It was a call from Sonu, after the day. Sikhar, Rohit, Sonu, Ishant all were on the call telling him about everything that happened around and all Mahi could notice was his missing Cheeku. Where was Virat? Didn't he want to talk to him? Normally, he was the first person to call him but now...

Noticing, Mahi looking a little down and all but guessing the reason behind it, Yuvi queried about Virat's location.

"He went out with Rahul," Rohit provided sounding not that enthusiastic and Mahi looked more gloomy but he didn't let the kids know that as they continued whining to him. Mahi listened to them as always, laughed with them but Yuvi could feel something was troubling his bestie.

"What happened?" Yuvi couldn't help but ask Mahi worriedly, watching him look totally brooding.

"I knew, it was just a matter of time," Mahi began looking at Yuvi with sorrowful eyes.

"Matter of time for what?" Yuvi asked worried.

"Matter of time before I lost my Cheeku to him" Mahi finished, eyes full of misery. The whole tour he could feel his Cheeku drift away from him. His Cheeku who was always with him, following him around like a puppy wasn't around him. From the moment that lanky misty eyed kid walked in, something shifted in his Cheeku. It was his Cheeku but something felt different to Mahi.

He just didn't know what?

At first, he was happy with how far Virat was going to make the new kid feel at home in the ICT but then he could feel the shift in his Cheeku's demeanour. Rahul replaced Rohit in the squad and Virat didn't seem even half disappointed as he usually was whenever someone replaced Rohit. The night before Rahul's debut Virat was with him not Rohit. Even when Mahi gave the debut Cap to Rahul. He could see the proud glint in Virat's eyes. Virat's eyes which didn't stray even for a minute from Rahul's excited face.

He hadn't ever seen Virat like that, no he haven't ever seen Virat being like that. He had seen in his eyes the way his retirement hurt Virat, He had seen the way his decision to leave due to injury shattered something in Virat but Virat understood and respected his decision. Like the rest of them. They were hurting but they understood him better and Mahi could feel it every moment they stayed with him that day, not leaving him even for a moment.

All of them spending time in his room before dinner, Mahi was certain all of them had planned to stay in his room that night because his return flight was at 4 am, none of them wanted to miss it. After dinner, Mahi had seen how uncomfortable Rahul looked with them and the way he excused himself claiming to be sleepy. He retired to his room and for the first time in his life, Mahi had seen an expression of extreme crisis on Virat's face torn between following after the kid and staying in the room with his Mahi bhai.

Virat's eyes had brimmed with extreme pain as he stood up and excused himself from the gathering in Mahi's room. He looked in pain but he had walked away, hugging him one last time on that tour, Virat had followed behind that kid and at that moment Mahi knew somehow he had lost his Cheeku to that kid. His Cheeku had drifted away. For the Cheeku he knew wouldn't have left his room for anyone knowing it was his last night in Australia.