Scent of a Man (Ishman/Shubish/Ishdik/Shubman Gill x Ishan Kishan)

Scent of a Feeling

Chapter Summary:

Someone got hurt, someone got jealous. Well, you get something, you lose something.

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Chapter 2: Scent of a Feeling

There was a knock at the door.

In the blink of an eye, Ishan pulled away. Shub opened his eyes only to find him on his way to answer the door.
Shub needed a moment to process everything that just happened, but the door opened before he could do that and a familiar figure emerged.

"Chal kya raha hain yahan?", Hardik said, narrowing his eyes back and forth at a shirtless Shubman with only a towel on and Ishan.

"Masti", Ishan giggled, as usual.
Shub was still stunned, frozen at his place, unable to talk; and here Ishan was, replying in such a casual tone as if nothing had happened at all!

Shubman quickly pulled himself together too and laughed dryly before turning his back on both of them to take his clothes from the wardrobe.

"Haan to bataiye, aapka kaise aana hua?", Shubman asked Hardik after putting his t-shirt and shorts on. Hardik was laughing hard at a joke Ishan made moments ago, so he took some time to say something.
"Yaar Ishan, tu raat ko yahan pe ruk ne ki soch nahi raha hain na?", he asked Ishu without answering Shubman.
Ishan quickly glanced at Shub before saying, "Nahi nahi, main to bas yuhi isse baat chit karne aaya tha, ja hi raha tha bas". Shub didn't know why, but this hurt. Just a moment ago Ishu was doing that and now just...? He felt angry at Ishu, he knew he shouldn't but he did.

"Was all that...just a joke?", he thought to himself. Ishan was always playful around Shub. Pulling his hair, hugging him from behind, holding eye contact for an uncomfortable amount of time- he was always pulling pranks like this. Shubman never thought anything of all this before; well, he wanted to, but he didn't. But this? This was too much. Ishan crossed a line for sure. If he was only joking and fooling around, he needed to explain himself. Although god knows why Shub didn't want that to happen, he didn't want that to be just another prank of his, he didn't.

"Thik hain, to fir to koyi problem nahi hain", hardik cleared his throat, "Actually main aj raat ko yahi Shub ke saath rukne ki soch raha tha", he looked at Shub, "Tujhe koi problem to nahi hain na Shubman?"
Shub and Ishan shared a quick but knowing glance with each other. It was not uncommon that Hardik would turn up at a teammate's door and spend the night in their room during tours, especially international ones. Even though he looked very rough and tough from the outside, funnily enough, Hardik was very much scared of ghosts. So much so that most of the time he never spent the first night at a hotel alone in his room. He never shared a room with either Shub or Ishan but they had heard stories from others. The funny thing was, no one addressed this problem of Hardik in a face to face meeting. It was a open secret that he didn't like being made fun of his one and only fear, so even though people giggled and joked about him when he was not around ,still nobody, including senior players, said anything or asked Hardik about this problem directly. There was even a running joke among the youngsters that if someone laughed at Hardik's face for being scared of ghosts, that person might end up being a ghost himself!

"Nahi nahi bhaiya, koyi dikkat nahi hain, aap rukiye na", Shub said in a warm, welcoming tone with a bright smile on his face; he was trying hard not to make Hardik uncomfortable.

"Thank you yaar", Hardik smiled back, "tu tension mat le, I will manage on the couch."
"Nahi nahi, aap bed lo na main couch pe sota hu", Shub tried to protest.
"Bilkul nahi, yeh tera kamra hain na, tu bed pe hi soyega", Hardik stood up from the bed and took a pillow, "Aur zyada masti majak mat karo tum dono. Raat ho gayi hain, Ishan tumhe bhi sona hain ab, kal morning practice hain, late huye to Virat ko main khud jakar shikayat kar dunga", he said in a joking manner but Ishan and Shubman both understood the implication, or dare I say, underlying threat.