Insecurities (Mahirat)

Prologue

2021 T20 world cup

It had been one hour since indian team had come from practice. Virat decided to go and sit with mahi bhai as he knew that it was unlikely that mahi bhai would come again in the team for anything like this in future.

As they were talking, suddenly rahul came and sat beside them. He looked in a bad mood. And mahi and virat could clearly sense that.
"What happened rahuliya?" Vi asked him.
"Don't call me rahuliya and nothing happened." Rahul snapped.

Mahi and vi looked at each other now knowing that something definitely had happened.
"Rahul, what's wrong?" Mahi decided to ask.
"Mahi bhai nothing's wrong" Rahul said trying to assure him that nothing was wrong, but his tone of the voice said otherwise.

"Then why are you so grumpy rahuliya?" Virat again asked.
"I told you na don't call me rahuliya and i am not grumpy." Rahul repeated.

Mahi shook his head at virat indicating him to not tease Rahul as he looked in a bad mood.
"Rahul you can tell us, we are here to help." Mahi again tried to convince him.

"Well you both specially virat will laugh at me." Rahul murmured but loud enough for both of them to hear.

"We will not laugh" mahi assured him.
"Tell us what happened?" Virat asked curiously. Now that Rahul had said that they both would laugh and specially him, he really wanted to know.

"First promise that you won't laugh?" Rahul asked them both.
"Promise" mahi said but vi didn't say anything.
Rahul looked at virat expectantly and since he was not answering mahi said "cheeku?"
"Not gonna lie i can't promise because it depends on the thing that he wants to say." Vi answered grinning.

"See mahi bhai." Rahul complained.
"Cheeku" mahi said in a warning tone and virat sighed in defeat.
"Fine i promise" he said but he hid his hands behind his back and crossed his fingers something they did in childhood when they knew they were not going to be able to keep the promise.

Rahul also knew virat was fake promising but he really need to tell someone and who better than both him and mahi bhai? And even though virat would tease him, he still felt the need to tell him everything.

"I have a problem with harry and pollard's friendship." Rahul said.
"What?" Virat asked confused and mahi was also confused.
"They are too close and he only keeps talking about him. Can you believe it that after practice when we came, he called him to talk about how the practice went. They are too close. And also not only pollard, harry keeps on talking about all the mumbai players, foreigners and some juniors and how he loves to play with them. He doesn't love me anymore, we are not best friends anymore."

After listening to Rahul's rantings, vi couldnt help but laugh. And mahi tried to control his smile and keep a neutral face. But this was just too adorable.

"You had promised you wouldn't laugh." Rahul said annoyed.
"Well i had kept my fingers crossed, so the promise couldn't count." Virat answered still laughing.
"Mahi bhai make him stop." Rahul said to mahi.
"Ckeeku stop laughing." Mahi ordered and he also managed to keep a neutral face.
"I am sorry, i can't help. He's so jealous." Virat said "and insecure too. Like harry is your best friend, your brother, you both play together for india and you are jealous of pollard and other mi players. It's hilarious."

"Yeah well, you are saying as if you never got insecure or jealous for anyone? As if you didn't ever feel that your friend is going away from you." Rahul said.

This did make virat stop. He looked at mahi who was also looking at him. They both started to remember the incident that happened four years back. It was worse than what Rahul was feeling. He's just jealous of foreigners and other junior players who haven't even played for India yet, but they both felt jealous of their own indian teammates, they both actually felt insecure of their own little brothers due to some misunderstandings.

"I will not talk to you." This statement of rahul made both of them come out from their memories.
"Okay i am sorry,  maybe it is natural to feel jealous sometimes." Vi agreed, glancing at mahi bhai once but then again concentrating on rahul.
"But i think in a situation like this, what you need to do is talk with him." Virat said remembering his own experience. "And i know it's hard to get serious with harry, but you have to try. Rather than sitting here and feeling jealous, you should just talk with him and tell him how you feel. It's better that way. I am sure it's a misunderstanding. Harry loves you very much and if you don't clear this, it will very well sabotage your friendship."

"Are you telling this from your own experience?" Rahul asked suspiciously as vi was sounding so confident in his idea and had a expression of knowing it all.

"No" virat lied "had read it on Google sometime before but you know i found the article to be good."

"Yeah i also agree on this article that virat read" mahi said emphasizing on the word article.
"You should just talk with him rather than getting jealous. It will sabotage your own friendship with him and the person you are getting jealous of, his friendship with harry will not be affected, so at the end it's your loss." Mahi said.

"I guess you both are right." Rahul agreed. "Thank you, i will just go and talk to him."
And Rahul again thanking them, went away.

Mahi and virat were now alone in the room thinking about that time and virat decided to break the silence but just then his phone rang.

"It's anushka" he said unsure whether to pick it up or not.
"It's okay pick it up." Mahi said.
Virat nodded and then went to the balcony and started to talk with anushka and by the time they were finished the whole team had come in mahi bhai's room and they couldn't get to talk to each other properly.

Till dinner and even sometime after dinner, everyone were together, so again they could not talk. And when it was time to sleep, harry and rishu wanted to sleep in mahi bhai's room, so a dejected virat went to his room to try to get some sleep.

But neither he nor mahi could get any sleep. Because of talking to Rahul and remembering that incident they couldn't get it out of their mind.
The time when due to misunderstandings both of them had started to feel jealous and insecure and if proper steps hadn't been taken, their relation would have been in danger.

Virat didn't even want to imagine how far they would have gone, if they hadn't done anything to make it right. No one in the team, not even rohit knew that something was wrong between them. But in the end, some painful nights just helped them to make their bond stronger.
As both mahi and virat layed on their beds not being able to sleep, their minds took them four years back to the memories which had taught them how much they really love each other.