shubman gets tense when ishan stops responding to the kiss all of a sudden.
“did i overdo it-”, he begins to say, pulling back. hint of a frown surfaces on his face before he pauses, blinking in disbelief.
“ishan?” he pats his cheek. once, twice, thrice. “oi, ishan.”
he fell asleep.
“what the fuck.”
it is beyond shubman's reach how one can just fall asleep at such a moment.
“what is wrong with him?” he groans. he tries to nudge ishan but gives up when he starts hearing soft snores. he contemplates throwing him out of the bed but decides against it because. well. he looks kind of adorable.
shubman scrunches his nose, trying to fight off the fondness but his lips slowly curve into a small smile.
the next morning might bring regrets, he knows, but he couldn’t care less. the fact that ishan at the very least knows at the moment that it's shubman who he's kissing, gives him a weird sense of relief.
even if ishan forgets it. or pretends to.
shubman doesn’t see ishan until breakfast.
he left his room right after waking up before flashbacks of last night cloud his mind. he’s basically testing the waters, letting ishan direct the situation. he is anxious to face him but it helps that they have a game soon so the focus of his thoughts divert naturally.
shubman looks at ishan standing in the distance, talking to yuzi. he looks…normal. unfazed and lively as usual.
ishan’s eyes lock with his momentarily, and shubman feels something tingly spark up in him. but ishan looks away before any tension could build.
huh. no smile? no wave?
‘you see each other every day,’ his brain consoles him.
surya takes a seat beside him. “what’s up with ishan, man?”
“why?” shubman sits up straight. “is something…wrong?”
“Yeah, something is wrong with him,” surya says, chewing on his sandwich.
shubman’s stomach takes a leap.
“he was mixing peanut butter and jelly,” surya adds with a grimace. “ugh, it was starting to look all slimy and totally inedible.”
shubman would have smacked surya is he wasn't a senior. he sighs instead, “he likes it that way. made me try once, wasn’t too bad.”
“there you go acting like a married couple.”
shubman rolls his eyes at that.
“here comes your wife,” surya adds, nodding towards ishan who comes to sit with them.
“who's his wife?” ishan asks with an amused smile.
shubman squirms a little at their sudden proximity. for someone who was full-blown making out with ishan last night, he sure feels antsy inside.
“you, of course,” surya says like it's obvious.
ishan scoffs. “why am i the wife and not him? what gender roles are we pushing here?”
surya looks at shubman with a teasing smile. “why don't you show him why?”
shubman almost chokes on his juice. “uhuh. why don't you go and talk to your wife and let us mere unmarried mortals wallow in self pity and drown in our…singleness?”
surya snickers and pats his back, getting up to join hardik and rohit in their heated conversation about vada pav or whatever.
shubman's fleeting gaze finally lands on ishan. he shoots him a smile.
“the fuck you smiling for? wanna fight?” ishan says, grabbing a sausage from shubman's plate.
“can't you be normal for a minute?”
“shut up. i woke up in a weird position and my shoulders may be aching.”
shubman wiggles his fingers. “do you want a special massage?”
ishan gives him a flat look. “i'll pass. your massage make me feel violated.”
“ugh, don't make it sound creepy.”
their conversation flows like always, with ishan bringing up the most random topics and shubman finding nothing odd about it.
“it was fun, man. rachin matches my vibe so it's all good,” ishan says after relating to shubman about last night.
shubman nods, fidgeting with his food. “it's the indian in him probably.”
“what'd you do last night? apart from rotting in your bed,” ishan asks.
“i, uh…right, we had this pool party. me, hardik bhai, shreyas bhai and siraj bhai.”
“so, you were their waiter.”
“yep.”
ishan yawns, stretching his arms. “man, i didn't even drink a lot. but it feels like im missing out something.”
shubman gulps. “okay, i've heard enough about your outing. rachin this, rachin that,” he blurts in an effort to cover up.
“why? jealous?” ishan chuckles.
shubman sighs. “yeah, someone took my bitch.”
that gains him another smack.
shubman doesn't know how to feel about ishan being so nonchalant. well, it's not like he expected him to remember whatever happened between them. it would have been eating him up inside if ishan really did. but for some reason, this isn't it either. he wants to see ishan's reaction. he wants to know if it felt good for him like it did for shubman.
slight disappointment settles on his chest but he shakes it off as they head for practice.
“oh, by the way,” ishan speaks before parting ways, turning to shubman.
“don't leave a hickey next time. it's too sunny out to wear high-collar.”
if shubman gets out early, ishan is to blame.
why would you drop a bomb like that without any warning?
does ishan have no regard for shubman's sanity?
moreover, he just walked off to talk with virat right after that. shubman didn't even get to respond. not like his brain would have functioned but still.
and most importantly. hickey? does it mean he checked in the mirror? he probably remembered everything then? he wasn’t drunk enough to start with.
also, what does “next time” mean?
is it a threat? a promise?
he just wants to pull ishan to a corner and ask him endless questions. also maybe kiss him a little. okay, a lot.
“shubman yaar, focus,” bumrah says. “practice mein hagega tu?”
shubman scratches his head, giving an apologetic half-smile. “sorry bhaiya!”
damn it, ishan.
shubman looks over to the guy responsible once he's done. ishan waves him to come over, with a smug look on his face.
extending a water bottle to him, he says, “you don't look too well, anything happened?”
“you happened,” shubman grumbles as he drinks.
ishan smiles brightly. “you know, rachin's gonna kick your ass on field if you bat like that.”
“what are you trying? to rile me up with that?”
“is it working?”
“no.”
“aw, shucks.”
shubman huffs with a guarded expression. “you act like im jealous of him or something.”
“you are.” ishan replies with a playful smile as he fixes shubman's gloves.
“im not,” shubman argues. it's for no one to know if he is, okay?
“i have a lot of friends too,” shubman says. not very mature of him.
ishan smirks. “friends, you say. your dick gets up for them too?”
shubman stares at him, flabbergasted. he starts fumbling with his words. “wha- you- you are so vile.”
he walks away, fussing with a deep blush creeping onto his nape. this is not fair. ishan can't go on making shubman flustered every time.
he'll have to turn the tables around.
it was a close chase but india ended up winning it. the kiwis don't look much disheartened, confident about their flow.
“mate, that was stoked!” rachin compliments shubman once they're off field.
shubman high-fives him with a grin. rachin then turns to ishan.
“and ishu, you were a beaut out there. almost made me sad to have your wicket.” he says, hugging ishan.
“would rather have you take it than anyone else,” ishan says with a wink.
shubman is still stuck on the ‘ishu’.
“when'd you two get on nickname basis? what do you call him, rachu? chinu?” he asks later when rachin leaves.
“his name, shubman, his name.”
“hey, don't say my full name.”
“that's your name, shubman.”
shubman pouts. “okay, ishan. i'll never call you ishu again, ishan.”
“you just did.”
“that was one last time. you’ll be begging on your knees to hear me say ishu.”
“you just did. again.” ishan holds himself back from smiling. he can't help but find shubman's stupidity cute.
shubman whines and is about to embarass himself again before ishan inches closer to his ear.
“besides, i'd rather do something else on my knees than begging,” he whispers.
shubman freezes. this is a dangerous game they're playing.
he looks into ishan's eyes which seem composed as ever.
“you see that wall behind you? i'll pin you to it and make you a moaning mess right here if you don't shut the fuck up,” he says.
that surprises ishan. he chuckles nervously, saying, “hah, you got an exhibition kink?”
shubman isn't really in the mood for jokes. he smashed some good balls today and stayed focused throughout the match even though his eyes wanted to search for ishan after every run.
“i want my reward,’’ shubman says.
“for?”
“for letting you fall asleep on me yesterday, compromising with my hormones.”
ishan flusters a little at that. “well, that was…that was kinda crazy, wasn't it?”
shubman wants to laugh, recalling the scene. “who even does that? it should be illegal.”
ishan bites his lip, feeling a bit embarrassed. “wake me up with a kiss next time.”
“you're expecting a next time?” shubman asks with an amused smirk.
“you’re not?” ishan smirks back.
“i'd be lying if i said no.”
it's all still confusing for shubman. he has no idea what will come from fooling around with his best friend. is it risky? not if they both don't mind it, right?
it's not like they have feelings for each other or something. it's way less complicated than any of the relationships shubman has had with girls.
kissing a guy doesn't make him any less straight. besides it's not any guy, it's ishan. everything kind of seems to fade away when ishan is in the picture.
“oi, earth to, shubi?” ishan interrupts his thoughts.
“huh, yeah.”
he wants to stay with ishan but he doesn't want to hold anyone of them down with useless questions.
“touchdown in auckland, we should probably go pack,” ishan says checking his phone.
shubman has to make sure this doesn't go beyond anything physical.
“yeah, let's go.”
he wants to be selfish and not think about consequences. he'll never be this young again so he might as well make some bad decisions.
—x—
author's word:
rip to those who thought i'll let them have sexy alone time so easily lol.
anyways, i noticed that we reached 10k reads! that's awesome, thank you so much for reading! i didn't really expect anything, writing just for fun and self satisfaction.
btw ishan and shubi posted on insta and just look at their comments on each other’s posts haha. the ship is sailing so well. they’d have the most scandalous dating rumours if they were kpop idols lol.
now, about my question in the last chp. most of yall inclined towards softcore smut so that’s what i decided, i’d be comfortable with that too. but i think i’ll add few bonus chps after the story ends, for those who said hardcore. i think this will be fair to all :)