(Not) Easy people to handle

Chapter 5

The next evening, the team had to attend a ceremony that involved them sitting in the front rows of a dark auditorium for hours and hours while people on the podium gave long speeches.

Exactly the sort of thing that got Venky most impatient.

He sucked at sitting still for even a minute. He couldn't even doze off with his eyes open like VC and Russell had already done. His standard way to make it through these ceremonies was, unfortunately, out of the question today—lean over and constantly whisper to Nitish.

Nitish was the only one who kept whispering back instead of simply nodding or humming.

The first half-hour felt like half an exceedingly stagnant month to Venky. Harshit and Vaibhav, on his either side, were also dozing with their eyes wide open. Right in front of him was Gurbaz, who was actually listening, and kept shushing Venky if he tried to say anything.

Nitish was two seats beside Gurbaz. He'd probably sat so far away from Venky on purpose. Honestly, Venky deserved it for his captaincy jibe earlier, which had been plain mean seeing how Nitish had done his best with no experience of ever having led an IPL team.

That made up Venky's mind. There was simply no way he would survive the next two hours otherwise, so he leaned across Vaibhav and VC and got his hold on the back of Nitish's chair.

Nitish jumped out of his skin when Venky whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" he asked.

Venky was relieved. "I am prompting you...what you should say."

Nitish snorted.

"I'm not night blind on purpose, you know," said Venky.

"I did say sorry, right the day after," protested Nitish.

"But—"

VC cleared his throat. "Excuse me, gentlemen, could you continue this after we've got out of here?"

Venky registered he had his elbow resting heavily on VC's shoulder to support himself.

"No, we couldn't," Nitish whispered. "But what, Venky? Didn't I say sorry less than half a day after I said it?"

"You did, but...it was a horribly insulting thing to say!"

"You've said a lot of horribly insulting things later, too!"

"What did I say?" asked Venky.

"You called me bossy."

"You are bossy."

"Please," VC groaned, trying to dislodge Venky's elbow. "Get off me."

"Stop it," Venky hissed, and turned back to Nitish. "You're bossy. That's not an insult. Necessarily."

"But you said it like an insult!"

VC covered his ears, closed his eyes and prayed for patience as Venky and Nitish threw accusations at each other in whispers the entire duration of the show.

_________________

Later, the rest of the team was astonished to see the two of them emerging out of the auditorium arm in arm.

"What happened to you both?" asked Russell.

VC gave a bland smile and rubbed his sore shoulder.

"My shoulder happened," he said darkly. "If I can't bowl day after tomorrow, it'll serve you right, skipper."

"Don't you dare make excuses," said Nitish. "We're going to qualify, all right?"

"You remind me of Gauti," said Narine without expression.

"I remind you of Gauti bhai?" Nitish asked incredulously, because he was pretty sure he'd done nothing to deserve to be likened to his idol.

Narine had to be sarcastic.

Wait—Narine didn't know what sarcasm meant.

Was he serious, then?

"You seem to create the same atmosphere with all the—er, shouting," added Narine.

And Nitish got off feeling a confused sort of pleased.

_______________

Of course, there was a lot of grief to be got now that the comparison had been made.

KKR's qualification dream crashed with a heartbreaking 1-run loss to LSG in the last match. But Rinku had very nearly pulled off another miracle, and the team was completely in a mood to celebrate their star of the season, who was the only one who didn't seem to realize he was a star.

Before the end of the season party, VC and Russell caught hold of Narine; offered him his favourite cranberry juice.

"Here, take this."

Narine nodded.

"In return..."

________________

When Nitish walked into the hall, he got a bunch of scandalized looks.

"Hi, Nitish, you're here?" asked Russell, sounding surprised.

"Why wouldn't I be?" asked Nitish, also surprised.

"Nothing, nothing—it's just, Gauti never used to attend end of the season parties, you know," said Russ.

"He sat in his room, making strategies for the next season," said Narine solemnly.

"Oh," said Nitish, taking a step back in confusion.

He did want to become like Gauti bhai so badly.

So he accepted the advice, bid his teammates farewell and returned to his room to make strategies.

______________

Once the laughter had died down and the dancing begun, Rinku said, "I'll go and call him now, will I?"

"No," said Venky. "He deserves this for being the cannon he's been all season."

Everyone nodded.

After fifteen minutes, Rinku said plaintively, "We really should go and tell Nitish bhaiya we were having him on."

"All right, if it bothers you that much," said Russell lazily. "Send Venky—he can't see much of the party seeing it's night time anyway."

"Will you stop overusing that joke?" asked Venky.

"You think?"

No, Venky didn't.

So he dragged his feet resignedly to hammer on Nitish's door.

"Skipper! Come and join us, the party isn't complete without you!"

________________

And yes, Nitish could definitely say he was glad Shreyas was back.

***

A/N: Venky continuously whispering to Nitish during the KKR jersey launch event was what actually put this craving to write KKR fanfics in me. They are all adorable beyond words, and I am already terrified of next year's mega auction.