Nothing can Change Us (A Virat-Jinks Friendship Fanfiction)

Assurance

The opportunity came up next morning.

"Half Moon Bay," read Jinks from the newspaper at breakfast. "The pictures look great--should we visit it once?"

"Oh, we already visited it day before yesterday," said Jaddu, which was a flat lie.

"It was quite beautiful, wasn't it?" said Virat convincingly.

All the rest agreed at once.

This time Jinks was openly hurt.

"Couldn't you have waited for one more day?" he said, trying not to sound hurt or angry.

"We just..." said Rohit vaguely. "You can still visit it today. It'll only take a few hours."

Jinks could have asked them to visit the beach again, or to go to some other beach with him, but he discovered that he didn't want them anymore.

"Right," he said shortly, and went back to reading the newspaper without another word.

Rohit immediately felt awful, because Jinks was clearly upset at their words, but Virat had already started planning everything in his mind.

___________

Jinks left the hotel alone without talking much to his friends, because he was genuinely feeling upset by then. It was like they didn't even consider him as a part of their clan anymore.

Maybe a day at the beach would help him clear his mind. Or so he hoped.

__________

Virat was in his element back at the hotel, that is, he was issuing orders in a highly over excited state.

Rohit and Shikhar had gone out to buy a cake from the best confectionery they could find.

Kuldeep and Yuzi returned with a packet of balloons and all the kids were engaged in blowing them.

Kuldeep blew one particularly large balloon and cried, "Look!" in a very proud voice, and Hardik promptly burst it.

The exploding sound, combined with Kuldeep's wail of protest and Yuzi's of indignition at the injustice rendered to his Kuliya made Virat drop the box he had been holding in shock, and Bhuvi told Hardik scathingly, "I'll send you to bed if you don't behave."

"You wouldn't," said Hardik cheekily.

"Try me," said Bhuvi grimly, and Hardik hastily apologised to Kuldeep.

Virat himself was engaged in the most intricate part with Bhuvi and Jaddu. They were putting the final touches to the box that contained a message from each the members, and would project them on the wall by turn in random order every time the box was tapped.

Jaddu had come across this impressive thing last week and had bought the parts immediately but the assembly had to done by the user.

It took them the best part of the afternoon to set up everything. Finally, before returning to their rooms, they put Hardik as guard at the door.

__________

When Hardik saw Jinks coming back, he swiftly called Virat, and led by the captain, their army thundered down the stairs. Hardik turned and fled into the corridor behind the reception.