when 77 met 32 [ishman ff] [shubish]

2026

Ishan's POV:

I had come back on the team. I was the happiest when I got to play alongside the international players again. When I first stepped into cricket, I knew that there was nothing that I would rather do and there was no place that I would rather be at. This was it. my destiny, and if it wasn't my destiny already, I would do anything to make it one.

The first game that I played after returning to cricket again was memorable indeed. I had made a double century yet again. It was in a test series against Sri Lanka. Apart from regaining my foot in cricket, I had noticed something else also. There was something about Shubman that wasn't like before anymore. I had thought about it while I was on the break, that when I returned and if I did, things would change completely.

With Shubman, although things had changed, it wasn't like we weren't as close as we were before or anything; we were actually closer than we had been before if that was even possible. There was a change of a different kind that I noticed that day. We were playing together after such a long time that maybe I was analyzing things a bit too much, but he looked happiest when I scored well.

Shubman even did a little dance on the field to celebrate my century. I felt amazing. It seemed that he had become a bit protective of me, maybe because of what had happened, but it still felt different. Every time the media brought me up in a conversation with Shubman, he instantly became defensive. I noticed this change on numerous occasions. Shubman's distaste for the media and their lies was not new at all, but his standing his ground to defend my name in public was new indeed.

I didn't need protection from the media; I had become immune to it all, but it still felt nice to have someone have faith in you and believe in you so much. I felt overwhelmed sometimes. When Shubman was around me, I felt like I could walk with my eyes closed and still reach the destination safely. It was a weird analysis, but that was how I was, paying attention to useless details all the time.

I missed out on so much during my time apart, and I had a lot of catching up to do. I spent time with the team members every day, trying to catch up on everything. It had become routine at this point. Wherever I went, Shubman always seemed to be around. If I even had a single frown, he would make sure to know the reason behind it. It all seemed strange to me at first, but then I thought maybe this was how it had always been; perhaps I just hadn't noticed it before.

I remember when I got my first injury in cricket, Shubman looked more worried than anyone else, but I had always dismissed it as friendly affection. Our friendship has always been different from the usual norms, and people have always pointed it out. I never gave it any thought. I was content with whatever I had with Shubman. There was one thing that I knew, and that was I never wanted to lose Shubman, ever.

"Hey, Ishan, how are you?" Suhani asked as she walked past me in the lobby. "I am fine; how about you?" She had come to live with us for the upcoming tour. We were all sitting and relaxing because we didn't have much practice scheduled at the moment. When other members saw Suhani, they came over to greet her too. She was quite a sweetheart.

"What are you listening to, loverboy?" she asked Shubman. She liked to call him that for some reason that I didn't quite understand. I mean, in the years that we have been friends, I have never seen Shubman in love. At one point, I thought he was incapable of falling in love. I decided to ask her about it today. "Why do you keep calling him that?" I asked, turning quite a few heads. I had no idea why they were so surprised.

"Well, I call him that because that is what he is, a loverboy," she answered, confusing me even more. "You are in love with someone?" I turned to Shubman. "No," his answer didn't sound genuine at all. I knew when he was lying. Shubman Gill was a terrible liar. "You told her about it, but not me? I was supposed to be your best friend, Shubman," I said, hurt by his negligence. "Oh no, sweetie, you got it all wrong; he didn't tell me anything; it's just that I am not blind."

Suhani said, making me frown. "what?" I asked because there was something that she needed to get interpreted through that sentence of hers. Did she mean that I was blind? Before I could ask her about it, she got a phone call and excused herself. I turned to Shubman, "Since when have you been in love with this girl, and when did you plan on telling me about her?" I asked him with sharp eyes. Shubman's eyes dropped at the question.

"Well, should I answer for him?" Rishabh asked from behind me. "It has been years since he first realized, and no, he would have never told you about this person." He answered when I nodded. "why though?" I asked, feeling hurt. "Because Ishan, he doesn't plan on acting on his feelings." Rishabh said, making Shubman protest, "What?? You don't plan on letting her know?" I asked him. "Well, Ishu, there is nothing that can be done about it, so let's just forget, okay?" He said it was making me more mad.

"What do you mean, Shubi? You do realize that you are THE Shubman Gill, right? Just ask her out. I am sure that she won't say no." I tried to reassure him, but the more I spoke, the more his face dropped, and he just got up, gave me a small smile, and left the room. Did I do something wrong? Did he already ask her out and get rejected? But which airhead would reject Shubman?

Later that day I had a conversation with Rishabh where he said something between the lines of 'maybe you are limiting your thoughts with a she? Maybe you need to think beyond it?' when I asked him about this person that Shubman liked. That one sentence had my brain occupied for days and weeks. What was Rishabh trying to say? Did he mean that Shubman wasn't actually in love? Or did he mean that he wasn't in love with a woman?

Was Shubman gay? But that was impossible; he liked girls. I know he did, and if he were to be gay, I would know, right? Was he so good at closeting himself that even I didn't notice? No, that was just impossible. Maybe he was bi. Yeah, that seemed like a possibility. But why wouldn't he tell me about it? Did he think that I would judge him if I knew that he liked men? But why would he rather trust Rishabh than me? That was just ridiculous.

I started to pay more attention to Shubman these past few days, and I noticed quite a few things. Shubman knew me better than anyone else; maybe he knew me better than even I knew myself because, how? He knew my coffee order, he knew what I wanted to eat at what time, and he knew my likes and dislikes like the back of his hand.

The other day Suhani had put some face mask on me by threatening me into it, and when Shubman saw it, the first thing that he did was to check the product for ingredients because apparently I was allergic to papaya and I had completely forgotten about it. He looked so worried while checking it that it warmed my heart for some reason.

I felt like I had been completely blind these past few years because there was no way those eyes could be ruled out as friendly affection. It wasn't just that, right? I wasn't overthinking at the moment, right? There was something deeper than the eyes could see, and I wanted to know what it was. I could feel Shubman looking at me at any given time. It wasn't weird at all; Shubman had always been the one staring, but was it as normal as I thought? Did friends do that?

After using all the ways to irritate someone, I used my final blow on Shubman. I cooked for him. I was a terrible cook, and I was well aware of it. People were scared of me cooking for them; it was a threat. I proposed to cook for Shubman one fine evening, and without batting an eye, he agreed to it. I cooked terribly, but I put extra effort into making it taste more horrible than it initially did today.

I was waiting for Shubman to spit it all out and curse me, tell me how terrible I was at cooking, and ask me to never cook for him again, but he ate all of it. He ate all the food, refusing to even share it with people who didn't suspect the poison in disguise. I tried to taste it just to make sure that it was the same as what I had prepared, but he didn't even let me have it. When I asked him about how it was after he was done eating, he just said that it was amazing and that I should cook more if it made me happy.

'Cook more if it makes you happy.' Those were his exact words. I got butterflies yet again. I had no idea about what I was trying to prove with all of these theories, but the constant butterflies that I got in Shubman's vicinity were increasing at an alarming rate. I started noticing every little gesture of Shubman after that.

All the times when he massaged my foot just because I frowned once while walking or when he would cook for me after noticing that there was something I disliked on the table, or even when he got up before me and tucked me in the blanket so I could sleep more comfortably. The most shocking part was that I realized that Shubman has always been like that. All of these gestures were not new at all. and I started to accept that I really might have been a bit blind.