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

Draped in tricolour

Have you ever seen a monkey on sugar rush?

Well, now Rahul had.

Because the way Virat was behaving at the end of that day's play in Rahul's room, jumping around, cheering randomly, telling him over and over again, "You did it, Moi" or "What did I tell you, Rahuliya" or "I knew you could do it, kiddo" and stuff and nonsense like that—he could only be compared to a monkey on sugar rush.

Clearly Virat was far more excited that Rahul was, himself. It was incredible, really. That a simple century from a teammate could render Virat into a state of absolute brainless excitement.

"Can you calm down, Virat," Rahul was forced to say finally, because Virat was seriously interrupting his call with Mayank. "Please?"

"Why aren't you more excited?" Virat asked him.

"Why are you so excited?"

"It's your first Test century, Moi! It's a HUGE deal!" cried Virat.

"I know," said Rahul. "Just not as huge as you're making it out to be," he muttered.

"Oh, c'mon, you idiot," said Virat, beaming. He seemed unable to keep a straight face for more than two seconds that evening. "Smile a little—smile!"

Rahul deadpanned.

"You remind me so much of—" began Virat, then stopped.

Whoever Rahul reminded Virat of, the recollection seemed to be hurting Virat

Rahul felt a rush of concern. He recalled Virat's tears after his century, and they hadn't exactly seemed like tears of happiness or anything. It had seemed like something was bothering him badly. Rahul remembered what Mahi bhai had said and quickly sprang into action.

"You said you'd give me a treat if I played well, have you forgotten?"

"Did I?" said Virat, his grin back in place.

He hadn't, but Rahul nodded anyway.

"Ok," conceded Virat. "After the match. D'you think we might actually win this match?"

Rahul smirked.

"Have to think that—a great man once told me, don't lose hope, because if the players lose hope the opposition has already won."

Virat laughed. Rahul felt a queer sense of achievement at having managed to distract Virat from whatever had been making him sad.

Mahi bhai would have been proud.

*************

They didn't win. But they did draw, and it was not, overall, a very bad performance on their end.

"They lost 4-0 last time they visited us," Virat whispered to Rahul as Australia was collecting the trophy. "We lost only 2-0."

The two of them were, as usual, standing near the back of the crowd of their team. Yes, that had become Rahul's 'usual' by now.

After the Presentation, as the team was boarding the bus, Rahul automatically made for the empty seat beside Virat.

Virat was currently bent over his phone, staring into it intently. Rahul caught a glimpse of the picture displayed on it, the flash of tricolor, a younger Mahi bhai and Virat...draped in trilocolour...after winning the World Cup 2011, he realized.

Suddenly Rahul remembered Mahi bhai's words.

'He's a good person with a heart of gold...'

'He makes mistakes, bad mistakes, but he will realize it, he always does...'

'Didn't I tell you he's not my enemy? I can't go away without being sure that he'll be ok...'

And most importantly, when he had asked if Virat, of all people, needed help, Mahi bhai had said—

'Oh, he does. You have no idea how much.'

Virat looked up and found Rahul looking down at him. He hastily covered the screen of his phone with his hand and tried to grin casually. However, Rahul did not miss his red eyes, nor the fact that he was blinking around 5 times more than usual.

But since Virat was ignoring it, Rahul complied as he slipped into the seat beside him, returning the smile.

Rohit came up to them as the bus lurched into motion.

"Virat," he began. "You know we can't do this without him. What if it's not too late, Vi? Can't you—"

"It is," said Virat heavily. "It is too late."

They'd evidently assumed Rahul had no idea what they were talking about, because they continued speaking on what seemed like a pretty confidential topic freely.

"Why d'you think—"

"We already played a match without him," said Virat. "He won't come back now."

"And how many times did I tell you to swallow your ego before this match?" snarled Rohit, who had clearly just realized the truth in Virat's words.

"Look, I'm sorry, Ro," said Virat. He sounded like he was forcing himself to speak boldly, but Rahul could still sense the misery underneath. He wondered if Rohit could, too.

"Yeah well," said Rohit. "There are a few things that can't be cut by sorry."

Virat dropped his eyes from Rohit.

And Rahul found himself saying, out of nowhere, "Maybe he had his reasons, Rohit."

Rohit looked at him like, bro, who are you?

Rahul was aware that he had spoken out of turn, without even knowing what had happened to lead to Mahi bhai taking that decision, he knew he was in no place to be airing his opinion, but Virat had been looking so—alone—against the hard stares of the whole team that he just couldn't help it.

Virat caught his eyes, looking disbelieving and unmistakably—grateful.

Then he shook his head and said ruefully, "It's ok, K."

K sounded much, much better than 'Rahuliya' to Rahul.

Rohit's expression was unreadable.

"Can I take this seat, or...?" he asked Rahul, quite politely.

"Sure, sure!" said Rahul quickly, darting up.

Virat smiled at him, his eyes twinkling in spite of being rather tearful.

"I still owe you that treat when we get back, kid."

"Kid," repeated Rahul in disgust as he went away to let Rohit and Virat talk in peace.

He took a seat alone near the front, but he didn't mind. He kept running over how much he'd learnt about Virat in just one week. How he genuinely wanted his players to play well. How he felt happier than his teammates when they played well. How he was so tactless and so well meaning at the same time. How he needed like 5 seconds to make up an annoying nickname and annoy the hell out of people. How good he was at distracting overthinkers from their worries. How his eyes twinkled when he smiled. How he spread confidence and cheer around the dressing room. And how, in spite of the aggressive, self-sufficient exterior, he did need someone taking care of him.

Rahul was so glad Mahi bhai had chosen him for the job.

He would always take care of Virat.

He would, whether it was for Mahi bhai or for some other reason like...like...

Because he couldn't very well not take care of him.