Can Never Stop Looking out for You (A HulRat fanfiction)

Rahul's first Test century

Virat was trying his level best to not appear scared, but of course he was. His first match as Test captain, and the first innings had ended in complete disaster—Australia had scored a whopping 576, and last match it had taken all of his and Jinks' Herculean efforts to cross 400. What were the odds of them doing that again?

"Rahul and Vijay are going on open," he announced when the tired demoralized fielders were trudging back into the dressing room.

The team acknowledged him with nods; wary nods. No one had any delusion about their position in the match.

Virat glanced at Rahul, the person he had been spending most his time on and off the field for the last few days. He wanted to catch his eyes and smile or something when he realized that Rahul was looking positively terrified.

"Hey," said Virat, pulling him aside as the rest passed into the dressing room. "What's wrong, Rahuliya?"

Rahul, who according to Virat had a very convincing expressionless expression, employed it then and said, "Nothing's wrong."

"OH REALLY!" said Virat with loud and rather obvious sarcasm. "You look like your girlfriend dumped you and is going to marry a lesbian."

Rahul stepped back and shook his head, horrified at Virat's random analogy. Jeez, he didn't even have a girlfriend, let alone a lesbian one.

"THEN WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?" demanded Virat boisterously.

All of Rahul's pent up frustration and terror came to the fore at Virat's persistent tactlessness.

"Why are you making me open?" he asked in a fierce whisper. "What d'you suppose we'll achieve by me opening?"

Virat, suddenly feeling helpless, took Rahul by the shoulders and made him sit down on the nearest bench. Rahul kept staring at the floor fixedly.

"Look, Rahul..." Virat fumbled and stopped.

He suddenly realized it was the very first time he was talking to someone like an elder. Normally it had been the seniors guiding him. Mahi bhai, especially.

Don't think of Mahi bhai, thought Virat in despair. He couldn't think of Mahi bhai at a time like this.

Rahul's confidence was clearly shattered from his disastrous debut. Why hadn't he spoken to him about that a little before the match? Now they had, at best, five minutes before the openers would have to go out to bat.

Heavens.

What could he say to this broken kid? He had none of Mahi bhai's tact. None of Rohit's kindness. None of Jinks' patience.

And the 570 on the board glared at him.

What had he been thinking, driving Mahi bhai away?

Virat wrenched his eyes away from Australia's batting scorecard and decided to concentrate on the job at hand.

"Rahul I thought," tried Virat. He forced a more confident tone and said, "You need a bit of time in the field to get set, that's why I'm making you open..."

Rahul just would not look up from the floor.

"I've seen you in RCB...hell, I've even mentored you for a while; I know what you can do..."

Virat swallowed and sat down beside Rahul, wondering if on a scale of 1 to 10, Mahi bhai was 10 as mentor, he was a 0.5 or plain 0.

Since he couldn't get worse than he was, he closed his eyes and spoke whatever he was feeling.

"Rahuliya, I don't know how to explain this to you, but you are my trump card. This captaincy and everything....it's new to me and..."

Rahul glanced up at Virat now.