Climb Every Mountain, With You (Shubman Gill x Ishan Kishan)

World against us

In his life Ishan had thought the world had frozen several times.

When he got his first India call up, when he won the World Cup, when he kissed Shubman for the first time....

But he truly knew the meaning of the world freezing when he took Rutu's phone from Shubman's hands that didn't resist.

Mom.

Dad.

BCCI.

Media.

Aliens.

Animals.

When Ishan could separate his head from the ringing in his ears, he whirled around through the crowd of their teammates, who had all come to take a look, to find Shubman.

"I told you about the damn cameras!" shot Ishan furiously.

Clearly not in a state to form a defense or comeback or apology or anything, Shubman remained silent.

Ishan wished he could take his words back.

Rahul bhai stood up and said firmly, "Put away that news, Rutu. Nobody needs to talk about this, and Shubi, Ish, stop thinking about it."

"How can they," sputtered Rishabh. "How can they stop thinking about it? Is the BCCI going to be dragged in, Rahul bhai?"

Rahul glared at Rishabh.

"If it does, I'm here, all right?" Rahul went and shook Shubman, who was still frozen. "I have been part of a scandal, it will go high one month, two months, then people will forget all about it and move on to the next scandal."

The shake unfroze Shubman.

"That's right," he said. "Move yourself, Ish, we have a BGT to win and a WTC final to qualify for."

Ishan found it easier to mechanically obey in front of the others than giving Shubman a piece of his mind. As soon as they got a quiet space to themselves in the dugout, he unleashed it.

"Do you have any idea what's going to happen?" he demanded. "We are ruined for life, Shubman."

Shubman made a face. "Do you measure yourself by your social image? Do you?"

"No! But our careers-"

"Please," said Shubman. "Nothing's going to happen to our careers. We're not doing anything illegal."

"But-the way it looks-"

"Looks, Ish, looks!" said Shubman. "It's all about the way it looks. We. Don't. Care. About. The. Way. It. Looks."

"Our families-"

"I would really appreciate if you avoid that topic till the series is over," said Shubman.

Ishan had heard him sound so serious very rarely. So he could not ignore the command. Instead he released the breath he was holding in irritation.

"Ishu," said Shubman. "You know I loathe overreactions and you know I'm right in doing so. Stop being stupid."

"I'm being stupid?" asked Ishan.

"Yes," said Shubman. "I think so."

Ishan was glad they had to leave for the field then. He might have strangled Shubman right then without remorse, but would definitely have regretted it later on.

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

The Indian team always stepped into Adelaide after observing a minute's silence for December 2020's disaster. They didn't want Adelaide Oval to think they didn't take that disaster seriously enough.

The first day while they played, it wasn't so bad.

They won the toss and Shubman opened with Rahul bhai, and batted like a treat. But then he mostly always did. Sometimes Ishan found it harder to believe that the world's best batsman was in love with him than that he was a regular in the Indian cricket team.

Normally the thought made him smile. 

Today the thought made his heart sink.

He was glad he did not have to bat that day.

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

The news article, it became clear, had just been the trailer.

In the evening, back from the day's play, whichever site they opened, they found the incriminating picture flashing at them and people airing their opinion on this scandal.

And the comments.

They were just so ugly.

Part of Ishan had always known this was how a majority of their countrymen would act if they were ever to make their relationship public. But a small part, the naive, hopeful one, he guessed, had thought they might make an exception for Shubman, at the very least.

Shubman who was the country's hero, on his way to becoming a legend.

'Sara turned Shubman down, so he decided to go after someone who can't turn him down: a fag.'

'Cricket is a family sport, does not deserve to be defiled with people like these.'

'Hardik Pandya's show was bad enough but at least he hit on WOMEN.'

'Open letter to BCCI-Please keep a check on your employees to prevent them from shaming India in a worldwide stage.'

'Ladies and gentlemen...THIS IS OUR FUTURE CAPTAIN.'

Ishan knew he was definitely being stupid now.

Why was he reading these why was he reading these why was he reading these-

The phone was snatched out of his hand and replaced by a familiar hand weaving their fingers together.

"Ishu," said Shubman. "Do you remember once long back, the rumours about a rift between Virat bhai and Rohit bhai had upset me?"

Ishan swallowed the lump in his throat. "You would have taken them a hundred times over this."

"No, I wouldn't," said Shubman. "Here they are presenting our love in whatever way they want, but it doesn't matter. It's our love they are talking of anyway. That's still better than them talking about rifts between us."

"The way they want to present our love," repeated Ishan. "You don't know the way."

"I don't want to know," said Shubman. "I know the way it is and I don't know anything beyond it."

Ishan let Shubman hug him and stroke his forehead to somehow create an illusion of peace that lasted five minutes before Rahul bhai came and said BCCI had called for an online meeting with him tomorrow and wanted the pair of them to be present.