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

Epilogue

On the eve of GT arriving in Mumbai, Ishan took an impulse decision.

He blamed it on how Shubman ended their call, "See you tomorrow. Good night, Ishan."

If he had said 'Good night, Ish' or 'Good night, Ishu' it was quite possible Ishan wouldn't have decided anything big.

Something about the way Shubman said Ishan undid him.

"Shubman," Ishan said to himself.

It didn't sound special enough.

"Shubman..."

Still not good enough.

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

Next morning, Ishan found it difficult to go about normal chores like brushing his teeth or walking down for breakfast. He muttered Shubman's name, trying to get it right, so continuously under his breath that Tilak offered him a cough drop.

That, combined with Shubman's message that they'd landed, made Ishan ditch the idea of breakfast and retreat back to his room.

He didn't have very long. The Gujarat Titans team bus had nearly arrived at the hotel and Shubman would be coming any minute.

The butterflies in Ishan's stomach bothered him so much he almost decided to leave it up to Shubman. But Shubman had stolen one of their proposals...Ishan definitely needed to snag this one.

"Shubman," Ishan breathed. "Shubman...Shubman..."

It was no good.

Why couldn't he get Shubman's unique, beautiful name sound as beautiful as Shubman could make his fairly ordinary name sound?

Maybe lack of trying... He could go on for hours of practice, he would...

"Shubman. Shubman. Shubman..."

"Shubman, Shubman..."

The door burst open and familiarly endearing footsteps stomped in before Ishan could stop.

"Shubman-"

"Why are you repeating my name?" asked Shubman, astonished.

Ishan turned to him hopefully. "Does it sound like a prayer?"

"Um, no. It sounds like a ten year old who has learnt his first swear word."

"I was not saying it like a swear word," said Ishan furiously.

"No, but you were repeating it..."

"Marry me," Ishan heard himself saying, utterly inelegantly.

"No!" said Shubman immediately. "I was going to do this!"

"That is not the answer I expected," said Ishan drily.

"The-the proposing thing was my job-"

"Too late," said Ishan. "Say yes."

Shubman grinned. "That's an interesting way of proposing, or um, commanding."

"Will you just say yes, damn it?"

"Yes," said Shubman hastily. "Of course yes. But you broke the Delhi airport rule-"

"There was no Delhi airport rule." Ishan rolled his eyes. "Trust you to ruin anything normal and nice."

"Sorry," said Shubman, contrite but smiling. "Ask again. Ask, not command."

"Shubi," said Ishan. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes," said Shubman, nice and normal this time.

"And since you're barely an adult even now, I'm pretty sure you'll never grow up. So you need someone to protect you." Ishan touched the dimples on Shubman's cheeks, which deepened as Shubman got what was next. "I'll do that job for all our lives. When you love something..."

"...you protect it," Shubman joined in. "It's the most natural thing in the world," they finished together.

"You need protection too," said Shubman. "You're not all that grown up."

"Sure," said Ishan sarcastically.

"Well, you need newspaper clippings and stuff sometimes." Shubman mirrored Ishan and cupped his cheeks. "I love you, 3000."

"I'm with you till the end of the line," returned Ishan.

"I love you," whispered Shubman, "in every universe. Even if we met at fifty, Ishan."

Maybe Ishan couldn't say Shubman's name like that. But he didn't have to lie when he whispered back, "You're my prayer to the universe, Shubi."

The shine of tears in Shubman's eyes made Ishan forget to breathe. It made him feel light headed, like he was falling for Shubman for the first time all over again.

He could, it seemed, never have enough of Shubman.

"I made you stop joking," Ishan tried to say.

Then, he choked up too.

They put their arms around each other, smiling and crying into each other's hair, breathing in and soaking in each other's familiarity.

Ishan could have stayed that way forever.

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

You think you fall in love with your soulmate and they fall in love with you, and there's your happy ending.

But that was just the beginning.

Who knew how much you'd have to fight to snatch your happy ending from the jealous jaws of destiny?

But there was one thing Ishan could say with certainty. 

The man in his arms was every bit worth every fight. And Ishan was glad that whatever battle he had to fight, he would fight with Shubman, by Shubman, and for Shubman.

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