Incorrect Quotes and Shenanigans ft ICT

Ctrl U

I have written hot garbage. Read if you want😭
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Year 2007

Sourav was looking for a certain long haired kid of his. He had been feeling slightly concerned for the boy at the amount of unwarranted criticism his keeping was receiving after the South Africa ODI series. It didn't matter to people that the poor boy had just come back from the flu and was understandably out of his groove because of it. It didn't matter that he was the best wicketkeeper-batsman India has ever seen. No. These people had to go straight for his kid's throat at the slightest mishap. Sourav had to make sure Mahi wasn't affected by it. He probably wasn't, he was surprisingly level headed and mature for his age. But one could never be too sure with that one.
He walked into the team room, his hunt for the elusive youngster was coming up empty handed so far. The team room was almost entirely empty. Only Zak was there, sitting in a corner, flipping through a magazine. He frowned, a little concerned. Zak was a quiet person. But he loved company. He needed people around him all the time. Plus he wasn't much of a magazine guy, he preferred the good old sleep and watch TV routine. God, why didn't these kids just talk when they were feeling down?

"Zak?"

Zak looked up and smiled instantly on seeing who it was, "Hi Dada,"

"You okay kid?" he asked gently, approaching him.

Zak gave him a bright smile, "Yep, I'm fine,". It was horribly fake, Zak didn't do bright grins. He smiled like he was trying to stop his face from stretching upwards but his heart was far too happy to listen to him.

"Zak," he warned sternly, but not unkindly.

Zak sighed, "I'm just a little stressed about the match Dada. Nothing else,"

Sourav drew up a chair beside him, "Why stressed? Now? The match is a week away, "

Zak flipped a few more pages morosely, "I'm making a comeback AGAIN, Dada. How many times do I have to get up after falling before it actually sticks?" he asked desperately.

Sourav ran a hand through his hair, scratching lightly at his scalp, "A hundred more times atleast,".

Zak looked absolutely dismayed at his answer, " I don't want to fall a hundred times,".

Sourav laughed lightly and made him turn towards him by the shoulders, "You misunderstand me Zakky. It's not just you who will fall a hundred times. We all do. Every other match, somebody who scored a fifty, scores low. Every other match somebody who took a fifer, leaks away all the runs. Everybody is falling only kid. We just have to keep picking ourselves up and proving that we can do that again and again,".

Zak took his answer in carefully. He was one of the more intelligent ones of his kids. Always challenging, always dissecting before doing anything. He needed logic otherwise Zakky wasn't going to listen to anybody.

Sourav had succeeded though because Zak did give in with a tired smile.

"I guess I'm just overthinking this, aren't I?"

Sourav smiled, "Mmhm," he answered, ruffling his hair fondly. Job one done. Wait, this had been job two actually. Job one had been Mahi. He turned to Zak, "Do you know where Mahi is?"

"Probably in the basement. They have a game room there," Sourav was about to leave when Zak added, "Though he should be back in his room by now,".

A strange thing occured to Sourav. He may be blowing his own trumpet. But he was good at recognizing patterns. And there was a pattern that was just now occuring to him.

"How come, you know where Mahi is everytime?" he turned suspiciously towards the kid, "You two don't even hang out much,".

Zak looked at him, suddenly wide-eyed and innocent, "Y-yeah but he is the wicket keeper you know. A bowler's best friend? We need to discuss plans and stuff, like what if one of us gets a brilliant idea suddenly and we need to find each other before we forget it? We need to keep track of each other so," he explained, far too smooth and quick.

Sourav was going to question him more when the door swung open with such force that his first thought was Yuvi. To his absolute surprise, it was Mahi.

Mahi stormed halfway through the room before coming to a stop and looking directly at Zak. He didn't seem to have even registered Sourav's presence. His face was blank, emotionless. But his eyes, his eyes were spewing darkness. Who the hell had pissed his Mahiya off?

"Ctrl U," Mahi's voice was low, flat and absolutely fucking dangerous.

"Ctrl U?" Sourav parroted, completely confused.

Now Mahi looked at him and made a half assed attempt at looking normal, "Hi Dada,".

Sourav opened his mouth, just what was going on?

Zak who was looking between them worriedly quickly intervened, "Ctrl U as in Ctrl Us as in me and Mahi. Because we need to discuss bowler-keeper things, control-control the field and stuff,". He was blatantly lying. Ctrl U was code word for Yuvi fucked with one of them far too much and now it was time for retaliation. MS and him, did not hang out much that was true. They were both far too introverted for there to be a conversation going. They did vibe together but that was it. However both suffered from one disease called being the friend of Yuvraj Singh. They had bonded over that and soon, after much trauma sharing, it had been decided that something had to be done to keep that rascal in check. So they had formed this unit, Ctrl U (Zak was sad to say that he hadn't come up with that clever name). Ctrl U basically took revenge for all the team's suffering. Mostly it was small things, like getting Yuvi blamed for things he hadn't done; or resetting all his alarms to wake him up four in the morning. But sometimes... sometimes extra measures needed to be taken. And by the look on MS' face, now was one of those times.

"Bowler-keeper things?" Sourav asked incredulously.

Zak nodded hurriedly, "Yep. Yep. Very important. Gotta go Dada, see you later," with that he got up and rushed into one of the side rooms, dragging MS behind him.

Sourav followed them, curious and worried, standing outside the door to catch snippets of the conversation that followed.

"Atleast see where I am sitting, who I am sitting with. Do you want to blow our cover?" Zak was hissing.

"I couldn't help it. This was a level four offence. All my chargers are gone, the keys of my new bike are missing," Mahi hissed back.

There was a pause before Zak replied "That sounds like a level three,".

"The back ups of my back ups are gone too. He took the spare key and papers of the bike too,".

Even Sourav wanted gasp at that, though he couldn't because he was eavesdropping. Zak had no such compulsion.

He gasped, "Oh fuck yeah, that's a level four,".

There was a prolonged minute of silence, that filled Sourav with dread. What was going on in there? Zak and Mahi, they were men of Rahul's mould, though Zak was like him on field. They were gentle, nonviolent, kind boys who did not seek out trouble on their own. But they were also intelligent, ruthless and relentless like their elder version. And he knew from personal experience, pissing of men like Rahul Dravid was a bad idea, a very bad idea.

It got worse somehow, as low chuckles echoed through the door. Low sinister chuckles. Sourav backed away wisely. Whoever had done this, may Lord rest his soul in peace.