Can Never Stop Looking out for You (A HulRat fanfiction)

The beginning of 'HulRat'

Kind of to his own surprise, he was enjoying Virat's company. Strange, but there you are.

The best part, of course, was that Virat hadn't alluded to cricket in any way. Whatever Mahi bhai had said, Rahul felt the longer he stayed away from the cricket field, the better.

He thought about Mayank. He thought about their childish dreams of making their debut in the same match, opening side by side for India. Maybe scoring a century each and making India win in glory.

Instead he'd opened alone. And made a disaster of it.

"Who's your best friend?" asked Virat out of the blue.

Rahul wondered if Virat could read minds.

"Um, there's a guy in my Karnataka team called Mayank," he said.

"Agarwal?" said Virat.

"Yeah, you know about him?"

"Of course. I am the vice-captain of the Test team, y'know," said Virat teasingly. Then his face flushed in confusion as he realized he had said 'vice captain', not 'captain.'

There was an awkward silence before Virat broke it himself.

"Then Mayank and you must've been playing for quite a long time together?"

"Since U-13," said Rahul glumly.

"You don't sound very happy about it," observed Virat.

Rahul glared at him.

"Um, sorry," said Virat quickly.

"I wanted to make my debut with him," confessed Rahul. "In the same match. One of those fantasies, you know..."

"Yeah, I know," said Virat. "I have one like that, Rohit and I win a World Cup together with Rohit being highest run-getter." He looked kind of embarrassed. "I don't know why but I feel very strongly that he has to be highest run-getter for us to win."

"Whenever I imagined our debuts I imagined Mayank getting a 150, and me getting somewhere between 100 and 150," said Rahul in wonder.

"We may be more similar than we know," said Virat, back to his solemn tone that was beginning to make Rahul suspicious. "Do you like to sledge?"

"No," said Rahul firmly. "I don't."

"Ah but when you play with this Australian side it becomes necessary at times," sighed Virat.

Mahi bhai didn't sledge, thought Rahul.

"You won't judge me by sledging on the field, Rahuliya, would you? Most people do," said Virat.

"I don't judge anyone," said Rahul rather stiffly. "So I'm not going to judge you either."

Virat mistook Rahul's tone for his hatred of sledging.

"Ok," he said, grinning and resting his elbow on Rahul's shoulder. "It's clear you do judge people who sledge. Never mind, I'm nice enough off the field to make up for it."

The strange thing was, in spite of not wanting to, Rahul believed him.

Their conversation turned to pets. Then to Virat's relationship with Anushka Sharma. Then to their families. Then to pretty much everything except cricket, and before they had realized it was past well past midnight.

"Practice session early tomorrow morning," declared Virat, catching sight of the wall clock. "I can't be the one keeping the youngest member of the team awake so late."

"I'm not the youngest member of the team," said Rahul.

"Really?" Virat winked.

"Yeah well, you're just four years older than me," retorted Rahul. It didn't even feel weird, retorting to your national captain. Maybe because Virat was such an extraordinary goof?

"Exactly," said Virat. "Four years....you want to know what changes can come into a person's mentality in four years, Moi?"

"What the hell is Moi now?"

"It's just a nickname," said Virat earnestly.

Rahul's eyebrows shot up.

"No, I do not want to know what changes can come into a person's mentality in four years, Virat," he said distinctly. "Good night."

"Good night," said Virat, beaming.

Why was he so happy all the time, wondered Rahul as he walked back to his own room.

Well, Mahi bhai's 'favour' had done at least one good thing, he thought glumly as he laid down on the bed. He had spent a whole evening without worrying about his game.

Without Virat's goofy companionship, it was right back again, and it was a long time before he could fall asleep that night.