Snippets, Incorrect Quotes and More

Brain cells and accidents (Ft. Mahi, Sr. Rahul and Rohit)

Brain cells and accidents

A/N - Sometimes you end up expecting too much and getting disappointed but at other times, you would like to have those two moments full of good thoughts.

And this is for AadeezTrashLuv

For her obsession with Singular Brain Cells

I have one brain cell and it bounces around in my skull like a windows screen saver.

When it hits a corner perfect, I'm allowed one good idea.

The phone was ringing for a really long time before Rahul Dravid could finally get to it and the name flashing on the tiny screen caused him to execute a double take.

He received the call so fast that the phone almost slipped out of his hands.

"Mahi? What happened?"

At a hindsight, this was not the most polite way to respond to a phone call but considering that it came right in the middle of their World Cup campaign and from a person who had notoriously remained absent from its proceedings, Rahul felt that he would not be judged too harshly.

"Can't I call you just like that? I need a reason?"

And of course the snark came through.

"You rarely do anything without reason, Mahi. Cut the false pretences. Are you okay?"

"Why will I not be?"

"Mahi!"

"Do not Mahi me! I am perfectly alright. A-okay. How is your Team?"

"My Team?" Rahul looked over to where 'his team' was practicing on the ground. "They are fine, I guess. And I am just the Coach, Mahi. More correctly, it is Rohit's team."

"Oh ya. Rohit. Captain man and all. Does it stop him from picking up calls? Picking up airs now, along with the wins?"

"Mahendra Singh Dhoni! What is wrong with you? Since when do you speak like this?" Rahul snapped, his voice only somewhat moderated. "The kid is practicing; has been since quite a while now. What did he do?"

MS did not reply for the longest time and when Rahul was squinting at the screen under the glare from the sun, trying to make out whether the call had disconnected, that he replied. "Sorry, Bhai. I... Is it okay if I talk to Rohit? Can you..." MS trailed off.

Rahul frowned but shook off his thoughts; he could not even begin to decipher MS Dhoni's thinking process and at this moment, did not have enough strength to.

"I will just give him the phone; give me a moment."

In the end, it was more difficult to quietly hand the phone over to Rohit than Rahul would have imagined, with everyone from Ishaan to Jaddu wanting to know who exactly wanted to speak to Rohit.

Shreyas asked with an unnecessarily jovial timbre; "Is it the BCCI? Pollard? Sammy? Ritika Bhabhi? Another women? Another anyone? A friend? Another best friend? A Film director? Choreographer?..."

"Oh shut up for one minute, Shreyas Iyer!"

It was a very relieved Rahul Dravid who finally lobed over that menace machine with a serious. "Talk to him", at the Captain of the Indian Cricket team; Rohit looked pretty taken aback.

"Who...?"

"Talk!"

And Rahul Dravid walked away.

It was a worried Rohit Sharma who held the phone to his ear, completely forgetting that he could have just checked the screen.

"Hello?"

"Am I speaking to the Captain of the Indian Cricket Team?"

"Well yeah. Who is... Mahi Bhai!"

"Oh don't yell out for goodness sake!"

Rohit grinned and walked away from his nosy teammates; Virat was the only one completely engrossed in his training, his AirPods jammed into his ears.

"Oh Mahi Bhai! We missed you so much. Why aren't you coming to any of our games? How are you?"

MS again maintained his silence for so long that Rohit was a little taken aback. "Bhaiya?" He prompted.

And then; "Where have you donated your singular brain cell, Rohit? Or has the Captain become too big for little things like thinking?"

"What? Bhaiya?" Rohit scratched his head, thought over his actions over the past few weeks, came up with nothing and went further back; he came up with a blank.

"You are having me on?"

"No Bhaiya! I really don't know what I did wrong!"

"How many tickets did you get due to speeding on the Mumbai-Pune expressway?"

Rohit was taken back and the oh-so-familiar pitter patter of fear clenched at his heart. "Bhaiya... Ughhh.. Actually, I was getting late and..."

"And you donated your singular brain cell. You learnt nothing from Rishab's case and you drive at bloody 200 kph on the expressway. Have you fucking lost it? Rohit Gurunath Sharma, you may be the Captain and the big man now, but it does not fucking mean that you get to pull all these shenanigans. The next time I hear that you have done something like this, I will ground you so fast that your head will spin."

Of his own violation, Rohit's lips turned down into a pout. "But Bhaiya, I was getting late. And I am the Captain and..."

"And so I cannot scold and ground you now just because you have become the Captain?"

Rohit interrupted at once. "I did not mean that, Bhaiya! I just meant that as a Captain, it does  not look good if I am late."

MS seemed to be taking some time to pull in his thoughts and patience. "Then you leave early, Rohit Shama. And if you are late nevertheless, then you tell Virat of any of the others. They will look out for you. You keep that singular brain cell intact for yourself. And you never ever speed. If you do..."

"Then you will ground me. Got it, Bhaiya. I am very sorry. I will not repeat it."

"And I can still ground you now that you are Captain and all?"

Rohit grimaced. "Sadly Bhaiya, that goes without saying." As much as I don't like it. Rohit did not verbalise it but a flutter of affection ran through him. "Will you come to one of our games, Bhaiya?"

"No, kiddo. And before you interrupt, I have my reasons. But be assured that I am watching every single one and cheering for all of you; praying for all of us."

Rohit raised his hand and captured the hint of wetness that had seeped through his eyelids. "Miss you, Mahi Bhai. We all do, but mainly Virat and I."

"I know. Take care and no more speeding."

The final instructions delivered, MS disconnected the call and Rohit remained sitting on the boundary line for a long time, until Rahul came back to reclaim his phone.

"Things okay?"

"Yes, Rahul bhai. Well... You won't ask...?"

Rahul shook his head. "No. It is between Rohit and his Bhaiya; if I had needed to know Mahi would have told me."

With a final nod and a clasp on Rohit's shoulder, the head coach of the Indian Cricket Team walked into the sunset.

Well, back to the Team, but it was the sentiment that mattered wasn't it? He smiled.

A/N - Your comments, and the story shines.

Take care all of you C: