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

Nisha plugs one end

Shubman blinked against pre-noon sunlight falling over his face. Ishan was pulling aside the curtains.

"The light is ruining the dream, Ishu," complained Shubman.

"That was the purpose," Ishan said firmly. "Plus, it's past eleven."

"I'm sleep deprived."

"The solution to that is not sleeping for twenty four hours at a stretch, Shubi. Get up, get out of the dream, we have a lot to decide."

"Why can't you chill for a single day, Ishu?"

"I walked out on my parents," said Ishan. "I am not in a mood to chill."

Shubman felt guilty at his stupidity. "Sorry," he said, sitting up. "We have to decide where you stay. I'd say let's decide that once we've seen where I'm expected to stay after the wedding."

"You're thinking of going ahead with the wedding?" demanded Ishan.

"I'm pretty sure my parents will say the engagement can't be broken off," said Shubman. "And honestly, it will be awesome to pull off the wedding drama on the surface and be with you under the surface."

Ishan put his palms to his temple like he was at the end of his tether. "Which part of that is awesome, Shubi? Seriously, it's impossible to deal with you at times."

"Look," said Shubman, jumping out of bed. "I can't go and fight Mom and Dad again. I'm sick of them. After what they've done, I have no faith in them at all. And I won't go begging them to let me live my life the way I want. I won't speak to them at all, and the last thing I'm going to do is plead with them."

"Ask your sister if she can see a way out," suggested Ishan.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I'm not interested in talking about the stupid wedding, all right?"

Ishan pulled at his hair in a I-am-done-with-you way and looked like he was about to shout the roof down. Then he visibly calmed himself down and said, "Can you at least ask her who the girl is?"

Shubman really, really didn't want to do that.

He didn't know why that will had got into him.

He would not talk of the wedding. He would not take part in his preparations. He didn't give a damn about who it was with.

And he felt unusually firm on that decision.

"How's your fever?" he asked, reaching out to feel Ishan's forehead.

Ishan slapped his hand away. "Don't change the topic!"

"All right," said Shubman. "All right. That hurt, by the way." 

He shook his slapped hand at Ishan, who rolled his eyes. 

"Call. Your. Sister."

Shubman called his sister.

"Di, who is the girl?"

"What happened to your I don't want to know drama?" Shahneel asked tartly.

Shubman looked at Ishan. See, I knew she'd make fun of me.

Ishan sighed and grabbed the phone. "Um, hi, Shahneel di."

"Ishan!" shrieked Shahneel. "Oh goodness, you're here? Did your parents-"

"No, they didn't relent, but I left anyway." It felt both satisfying and sad to say that. He didn't want to hear Shahneel di's reaction. "Anyway, who is the girl your parents fixed Shubi's engagement with?"

"See, I don't want to know," Shubman had to add. "Only Ishan wants to know."

"What if it's Nisha?" asked Shahneel. "You know Mom and Dad were thinking of her."

"If it was Nisha, she'd tell me."

"If you'd let anyone tell you."

Shubman felt everything darken suddenly.

"It's not Nisha," he said, "right?"

"No, you idiot." Now it was Nisha's voice on the other end. "But I had to threaten to run away to prevent that!"

Shubman buried his head in his knees, suddenly seized by an unnamed horror at the idea of the unknown girl he'd talked of cheating on so casually being Nisha.

"Oh, God," he muttered. "Thank God it's not you."

"But," said Nisha. "It's my cousin. You know, my rich cousin. Daughter of my rich uncle."

"The one with the business in Ludhiana?" asked Shubman.

"Yeah."

"What-why-why did they fix it with someone from your family?"

"Maybe because no one considered cheating an actual option," hissed Ishan in a low, furious voice. "If you can't do it to Nisha or someone from her family, you can't do it to any girl. Now are we getting real?" 

Shubman didn't quite know what to say.

He did the only thing he could think of.

"What should we do, Nish?"

"Another round of tantrums and disappearance, possibly," said Nisha. "But we need time. They're fixing the date right now, my uncle and aunt are here."

"Date?" Shubman said.

"Yes, you idiot, date," said Shahneel. "It might be news to you but running away and pretending not to care about a problem does not actually solve the problem, brother. I can't believe you let the engagement go ahead."

"I let the engagement go ahead?" spluttered Shubman indignantly. "It was my choice?"

"You said it's fine!"

"I NEVER SAID IT'S FINE!"

"BUT YOU DIDN'T SAY IT'S NOT FINE! YOU SHOULD HAVE FOUGHT MORE! EVERY TIME I TRIED TO FIGHT, THEY ASKED WHY I HAVE A PROBLEM WHEN SHUBI DOES NOT HAVE A PROBLEM."

"THEY NEVER ASKED-"

"Shahneel di, Shubi," said Nisha and Ishan, almost together.

"What?" demanded both siblings in the same tone.

"It might be news to you both, but fighting between siblings and blaming each other when you are on the same side doesn't solve problems, either," said Nisha.

Shubman glared at Nisha (figuratively) through the phone. He could tell di was actually glaring at Nisha, too.

"I have a plan," said Nisha. "I'll go and convince my cousin to pull out of the wedding. Or at least delay it."

"How can she do that?" asked Ishan hopefully.

"Well, I doubt she'd want to get married to someone who is clearly in love with someone else," said Nisha drily. "Basically, Ishan, I have to go and convince her how real and irrevocable Shubi's love for you is. I'm pretty sure it'll be easy."

Ishan's cheeks flushed, which brought a smile to Shubman's face. He planted a kiss on each of them and spoke into the phone.

"Yes, it should be very easy."

"I'll go with her," Shahneel said.

Shubman chose the unsibling way. "Thanks, di."

"Make sure you remember that," his sister retorted, totally the sibling way.