Being flown to Mumbai and admitted in the hospital kicked off what was no doubt to be a very tiresome month for Rahul.
Most of his friends were playing IPL, Athiya was busy with a shoot--which was luckily in Mumbai, so she didn't have to choose between the shoot and visiting the hospital every day--and cricket experts were debating about the upcoming World Test Championship Final...none of which were remotely cheering for Rahul.
And then there was the matter of Virat.
It wasn't like they didn't talk. But it didn't feel exactly the same. Surely Virat called him less than he used to during both the previous phases when Rahul had been hospitalized?
Of course, Rahul had to acknowledge that RCB had two back to back matches, travelling between Lucknow, Delhi and Mumbai. His conscience also reminded him that he himself hadn't been a very friendly conversationalist lately either.
And those previous injuries...
They'd been long back.
It had been a different Virat, a different Rahul--who always waited for each other after RCB-KXIP matches, who would be the first one to call when either of them was in trouble, who were knit as closely together as brothers (who was the elder and who the younger varied sometimes, but mostly, the immature goof who had the number in his favour acted the big brother, too).
Over the week before RCB and MI travelled to Mumbai, Rahul craved Virat's attention all the time. It felt like he was starved.
Which was stupid and childish because he was in his thirties now and he couldn't go comparing his and Virat's equation when he used to be 22. The equation between two people was bound to change with time, and if he held it against Virat, he was an idiot.
When it came to Rohit, for example, Rahul reflected, or any of the others, he was okay with a normal amount of concern.
Adult relationship.
Yes. He had an adult relationship with Rohit.
With Virat, he didn't think he'd ever had an adult relationship.
Rahul's thoughts went in a loop.
That sort of non-adult relationship had to change with age and time, when two people were adults. Forget adult. He was past thirty.
He was sure he could have a close adult relationship with Virat, too...
Of course he would...
He couldn't possibly lose Virat.
Nevertheless, in the all the ways that mattered, he knew that his Virat was drifting away.
_________________
The MI and RCB teams landed in Mumbai together a day before Rahul's surgery was scheduled.
Virat and Rohit came to the hospital straight from the airport, which the petty, childish part of Rahul that was unable to grasp an adult relationship with Virat felt happy about.
"See you next week," was the first thing Virat said in a sickly sweet manner, and slapped Rahul's right thigh.
"Ow!"
"Oh, sorry--I thought it was the left one--"
"How can you think it was the left one?" said Rohit in a gloating tone.
They talked normally enough.
But somewhere, it felt like they could talk normally only because Rohit was present. When Rohit went out once for a couple of minutes, Rahul suddenly felt an uncomfortable tinge of awkwardness in the air, and wondered if Virat felt it, too.
He wished he'd asked.
But if he could have asked, he wouldn't have needed to ask in the first place.
___________________
On the day of the surgery, one day before the MI-RCB match, Rohit, Jassi, Ishan and SKY dropped in around noon. Siraj came in a while later.
"Where's Virat bhaiya?" asked Jassi.
"I thought he was already here--" said Siraj. "I didn't wait for him--"
"He'd be on his way," said Rohit, with casual confidence.
I wish I had your confidence, though Rahul, rather meanly, and felt guilty immediately afterwards.
He did have that much of confidence in Virat, of course he did. Even if things had got a bit strange between them lately, they could never not visit before a surgery if they were in the same city.
As Ishan, SKY and Siraj experimented with the glass tubes in the ward and Rohit, Jassi and Athiya talked in low voices, Rahul overthought.
There was no other word for it.
Earlier, Virat wouldn't even have needed to be in the same city to visit before Rahul's surgery.
Would Virat have flown cross-country today, if he'd not been in Mumbai and if IPL hadn't been going on? [With the IPL's jampacked schedule, even Hardik and Mayank, the stubborn idiots, had been unable to squeeze in a visit.]
Rahul couldn't honestly think he wouldn't have.
When around thirty minutes were left, Rohit's phone beeped.
"Virat says he's stuck in traffic, he's coming," he read out. His phone beeped again, and again, and again. "I suppose he doesn't realize there's no need to say he's coming two dozen times in one go."
Rahul wanted to ask for his own phone from Athiya, who'd kept it away at some point. But he had to be very casual about it, which, with Athiya's and Rohit's eyes automatically turning to him after Rohit read out Virat's text, wasn't easy.
To hell with all the overthinking.
"Can you give my phone?" he asked, very, very cautiously nonchalant.
Athiya handed it over.
Virat had sent him a bunch of texts and kept texting.
Virat: I'm sorry, there's a road blockade or something...
Virat: Should be there in a few minutes
Virat: I'm so sorry
Rahul: Don't rush on the road
Virat: I might have to hijack a fruitseller's cycle
Rahul: NO. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THAT.
Rahul knew it wasn't Virat's fault--Mumbai's traffic was unpredictable even without a road blockade--but he felt horribly hurt anyway, inside.
During both his past surgeries, Virat had been the first person in the ward, driving the nurses crazy by stubbornly never leaving his side at all.
Adult.
Be an adult about it.
_________________
Eventually Rahul had to part with the phone when he was taken to the OT ward. Everyone tried to enter after him, but a doctor gave a dire cough, so Jassi, SKY, Siraj and Ishan gave Rahul 'good luck' hugs and waited outside.
Athiya and Rohit flitted in and out of the ward till they were told to leave, too. Athiya gave Rahul a kiss on the head and left; Rohit patted his shoulder, offered him a wry smile and had almost left, too, when Rahul called after him.
"Rohit, isn't Virat here yet?"
"No, he said he's still stuck--" Rohit checked his phone anxiously. "He texted two minutes back, he'd be on his way..."
"Right," said Rahul.
He didn't think he'd managed to mask his bitterness from the look Rohit gave him before he was finally chivvied away from the surgery ward
YOU ARE READING
Beyond the Meadows (A HulRat Fanfiction)
Fanfiction"Maybe," said Rahul. "Maybe things aren't meant to be the same forever." "Maybe," said Virat. He didn't believe it, and yet he did. Because the 31-year-old man addressing him was KL Rahul, an Indian cricket hero, a husband and an adult, and not Rah...
