By the time their next international tour came by, things were normal again.
Rohit bhai and Virat bhai gave the pair of them superior looks, like 'what did we tell you?'
Ishan had to give them that much...they had always been completely sure he and Shubman could not possibly stay at odds for more than a few days. There was a lot more to it than met their eye, though, which they couldn't see, for which Ishan was glad.
The first unspoken rule of their new normal was their friendship became a no-touch sort of one, which was very weird for the change. Also, there was definitely no acting like a couple in front of the cameras. That was the stupidest thing they'd ever done, anyway.
And Shubman thought twice before making a joke.
Imagine that.
In spite of Ishan assuring him several times that he didn't need to be like that, it seemed to him Shubman was kind of always scared to be himself around Ishan, which made Ishan sad.
"Ish?" said Shubman one evening, pausing the movie they were watching.
"Yeah?" asked Ishan, surprised at the tone.
Shubman took out a bunch of papers from his purse, very carefully. "Do you, maybe, want to put these back in your album? I fixed them the best I could."
Ishan took the pictures. Some of it had been cellotaped, all had creases all over. It was like they'd been torn and put back together painstakingly.
Just like their relationship.
Ishan's vision blurred.
"You could, um, get new ones if you think these won't look nice," said Shubman anxiously.
"Thanks for keeping them safe, Shubi," Ishan said, smiling, but not looking his friend in the eye for fear he'd see the tears. "Of course I'll put them back."
"Oh!" said Shubman.
Ishan looked up when he had managed to blink back his tears, but as it turned out, there was no need, because Shubman had tears in his eyes, too.
"What are you crying for?" said Ishan, like he hadn't been doing the same ten seconds back.
"No, it's just...the thought of these poor mistreated photos going back in your album makes me really...happy."
"You act like a ten year old sometimes, Shubi," said Ishan.
"So do you," said Shubman at once.
They laughed.
Whatever they'd gone through, Ishan was glad they had still at least never stopped caring for each other.
So long as they cared for each other, they could fight through anything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After the final and the "incident", Shubman stopped going out with random girls, or so it seemed to Ishan. He wondered if Shubman was sleeping with girls and hiding it from him so as to not hurt him.
It was certainly possible.
But seeing that they spent most of every day of the week together, it was possible he actually had stopped his flings. Ishan did not know whether to feel guilty about it. He decided not to, because he had enough guilt to deal with as it was.
It was like a drug, the memory of their kiss, a drug that got you desperate to taste it again, but you knew you couldn't have it because it was bad for you and would end up destroying you.
He wished he hadn't been so stupid.
He wished he hadn't been so drunk.
He wished he had never tried to see how it would feel to kiss Shubman.
It had been the worst mistake of his life.
And he had a lifetime of regret staring at him.