Beyond the Meadows (A HulRat Fanfiction)

Chapter 12

When Rohit entered Rahul's room without knocking, Rahul was lying flat on his back, watching a movie in his iPad, his feet propped up on pillows.

He looked around at the footsteps and waved at Rohit.

Rohit deliberately started with an ominous, "We need to talk," which every kid used to be terrified of hearing from their parents in childhood.

Rahul looked baffled as he sat up.

"All right?"

"And I should make it clear I'm very pissed and in no mood to entertain untruthful or evasive answers."

Rahul visibly bit back a smile.

"I'll try my best, Professor," he said, so smoothly that Rohit had a sudden suspicion if these two had ever called him 'Professor' behind his back.

Rohit sat down across him and decided on-spot to go straight to the point.

"I was talking to Virat..."

All traces of amusements vanished from Rahul's face instantly.

"And he says he'd noticed something was wrong when you were batting, and you lied straight to his face. Did you?"

"Um, I wasn't sure--"

"I said, no evasive answers."

Rahul hesitated, then said, "Yeah, I guess I did lie."

Rohit didn't have to fake his disappointment when he looked at him.

"I don't see why he had to tell you, though..." said Rahul.

"I don't think he meant to tell me, exactly. More like it slipped out, because he's very upset, you know."

Rahul looked away.

"And I don't blame him," said Rohit. "He has every right to be upset."

"We haven't been on the best of terms lately," said Rahul defensively. "And it's not like he tells me everything. He didn't tell me Anushka was pregnant, you know."

"I already told him off for that," said Rohit. "Why didn't you tell him about the surgery?"

"When?"

"When you got to know you'd need a surgery, after the match against RCB?"

"I didn't tell him? Oh--yes--he didn't seem in a mood to talk that day. He returned to the hotel quickly, and I--I got the feeling he didn't want to talk--"

"Perhaps that had to do something with you not taking his side in his tiff with Gauti bhai," said Rohit wryly. 

Rahul opened his mouth to protest.

"Not that I'm blaming you, mind you," said Rohit hastily. "I'm just pointing out a bunch of stupid incidents. For example, after your surgery, why did you tell him to go if he wanted to?"

Rahul frowned. "Because he looked like he wanted to, and it turned out he did."

"I thought so," muttered Rohit. "And he took it to mean you were telling him to go."

"I would never tell him to go!"

"And he would never have wanted to go, either."

Rahul's fingers were clutching at the pillow a bit too hard, like he was forcing himself to stay in control. Rohit could see he was close to breaking down, too, but he was far better at holding it back than Virat.

Or maybe, he didn't trust anyone but Virat enough to completely bare himself.

"See," Rohit said wryly. "You're still scared to be fully yourself with anyone but Virat."