Beyond the Meadows (A HulRat Fanfiction)

Chapter 2

Rahul was easily having the worst day of the year.

It started with him injuring his thigh painfully hard during fielding. He could barely walk, so he didn't come down to bat till his team was on the verge of fluffing an easy chase. He couldn't stand and pull off a miracle, but he hadn't even expected to.

It was hard to concentrate with a throbbing pain in your body--and though he'd been trying not to think of it as the match ended, he was dreading the tests and the reports.

Then Virat and Gauti bhai had to get into one of their altercations that day, and half their teams had to enjoy the show they were putting on (Marcus had actually been laughing loudly, Rahul made a mental note to give him a piece of his mind later)--and of course, Rahul had to be the one to intervene, which straightaway put him in both Virat and Gauti bhai's bad books.

And now, Virat was nowhere to be found.

After pacifying Gauti bhai and getting a earful in return about him daring to pacify, Rahul was limping to the RCB dressing room. Virat wasn't present there.

He had a horrifying doubt if Virat had ended up at the LSG dressing room in search of Gauti bhai again, and then he had to limp across the field all the way to his own dressing room.

Virat wasn't there, either.

Rahul spent quite a bit of time limping from place to place where Virat even had a slight chance of being, but he was simply nowhere to be found.

Finally, Rahul spotted Siraj and sighed with relief, because he'd begun to realize it was time to give up.

"Siraj!" he hailed. "Where's Virat, d'you know?"

"I think he left for the hotel with the first lot," said Siraj.

"Oh."

"You don't look well," said Siraj in concern. "You shouldn't be walking around with that foot--sit down--"

"I don't need to sit--"

Siraj turned a deaf ear to Rahul's protests and helped him sit down near the boundary. He did not miss the wince, either, because he gave him a stern look and asked, "Didn't the physio want to get you checked?"

Rahul nodded.

"And you're walking around?"

"I was looking for Virat," admitted Rahul. "I didn't know he'd returned...I'll give him a call and go..."

Siraj was called to board the last RCB bus going to the hotel as Rahul called Virat.

Virat answered when the call had almost rung itself out.

"Hello?" he said.

Not HELLO, RAHULIYA or HELLO, MOI, WHATSUP!

Rahul sighed again.

"Are you upset about that thing with Gauti bhai, Virat?" he asked.

"No," said Virat.

"Or angry?"

"Nope."

"Then what happened?" asked Rahul.

"What happened where?" said Virat.

Rahul was not just surprised; if he was honest to himself, he was a bit hurt, too. 

That Virat hadn't waited after the match and didn't seem to think he'd done anything out of the ordinary. Surely waiting after the match to talk was their normal?

Definitely.

It had been their normal for years.

"I mean--" Rahul paused. "Where are you?"