Against the World (A KulCha Friendship Fanfiction)

A mature younger twin

"Kuliya," said Virat, entering the room and sitting down beside him. "Don't be upset, Kul...he'll be ok..."

"What is he doing?" said Kuldeep.

"I don't know," aid Virat, because he didn't. "Maybe you can ask him and see."

"Did you ask him?" asked Kuldeep.

"Yes, and he didn't say anything properly."

"Did Rohit bhai?"

"Yes, same."

"Did Mahi bhai?"

"Same," sighed Virat. "He's in a tearing rage at the moment."

"Then why would he talk to me?" said Kuldeep, scared at the prospect of facing a Yuzi in a tearing rage—a very unfamiliar territory, because Yuzi was one of the most good tempered people in the team.

"'Cause you're Kul, and he's Cha," said Virat. "That's why."

__________

Kuldeep knocked at the door softly.

"Yuzi? Can I come in?" he asked timidly.

"Kuldeep?"

"Yeah, it's me..." said Kuldeep, alarmed to hear him calling him by his full name.

Yuzi trudged to the door and opened it, avoiding Kuldeep's eyes.

"You wanted to say something?"

"Yes," said Kuldeep firmly, entering the room and sitting down with an air of owning the place (because both their rooms in any hotel belonged to both of them). "I want to say several things."

Yuzi looked nonplussed at this unusually bold Kuldeep.

"You're being a moron, Yuzi," said Kuldeep, taking the plunge. "That's the exact word for what you're doing."

"Did you just come to tell me off?" said Yuzi wisfully. "'Cause Virat bhaiya, Rohit bhaiya and Mahi bhai have already done that."

It made Kuldeep ache to see Yuzi wistful and listless.

But this was something only he could deal with—Virat bhaiya had been right, he realized now.

"Maybe it's because you deserve it. Jaddu bhaiya is not fit to play, and we haven't qualified yet. What do you think the team is going to do without two spinners in the subcontinent?"

Yuzi grunted non-commitally.

"We're going to qualify," said Kuldeep. "Even with you banned in the next match, we will qualify. But you will not get yourself banned before the semi-final or final."

"This isn't about a league, Kuliya, damn it!"

"This isn't about us, either, Yuzi—da-damn it." Kuldeep nearly choked over the word. "This is about the country we are representing, the team we're playing for. This is about Rohit bhai, Virat bhai, Bhuvi bhai, Shikki paaji and Jaddu bhai, who have done nothing but faced knockout losses for the last seven years!"

Yuzi gazed at him in absolute silence.

"We're not going to lose another knockout, least of all due to a player getting banned."

"I didn't get banned out of fun, you know," said Yuzi."I didn't want to get banned or anything."

"You could have controlled you temper," said Kuldeep, forcing himself to speak coolly and objectively. "Now the whole world knows what they have to do to break Team India. Just provoke their lead spinner with stupid jibes."

Yuzi's chin trembled, the events of the past few hours finally taking its toll.

"You sound like you hate me, Kul," he whispered, wishing his voice wouldn't shake so.

"Yuzi—!" cried Kuldeep, thunderstruck.

"You do sound that way. Like—like you only care about India winning and nothing else."

"No—no, I didn't—"

"You didn't even try to sit beside me on the bus," choked out Yuzi. "And now—"

Kuldeep flew forward and hugged his twin, his elder brother and best friend, his other half, miserable to hear the tears in his voice.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"I hate it when they target you on the field, Kul. And I feel like I'm not in control of myself at all when they do," confessed Yuzi.

"Then you have to learn to control it—for my sake," said Kuldeep. "Because imagine the guilt I face when you're banned on my account?"

"You're feeling guilty?" asked Yuzi in surprise, trying to get a good look at Kuldeep's face without breaking the hug.

"Of course," said Kuldeep, not untruthfully.

"I'll—I'll try to control it," said Yuzi seriously. "I promise."

"Not just try..." persisted Kuldeep.

"Fine," sighed Yuzi. "I will not get banned before the semi-final," he said dramatically, and looked at Kuldeep with a small smile. "That'll do for you?"

Unable to smile back, Kuldeep nodded.

They let each other go and sat in silence for some time, which was unusual for KulCha in general, because one or the other was always chattering.

"You're angry with me?" Yuzi asked finally.

"What? No! I thought you were the one upset with me..."

"I am, of course," said Yuzi. "You didn't sit beside me on the bus, you scolded me when you're supposed to be my baby brother, you—"

"I'm not supposed to be your baby brother," protested Kuldeep, thinking that it sounded far too insulting.

Finally Kuldeep sounded normal, like his own Kul, and Yuzi reached over to pull his cheeks.

"What else are you then?" But he meant it as a rhetorical question.

"I didn't sit beside you in the bus because Virat bhai said so," said Kuldeep, still bothered about that.

"God, Kul, I'm not upset about that, I was joking," said Yuzi affectionately. "Let's bring your things to this room?"

Kuldeep assented, and they set off together, arm in arm, the best of friends again.

Yuzi meant to keep his promise; he did. But once he had retired, he could hunt down the villains who had ever hurt Kuldeep and murder them one by one.

Ahahaha, that was a good idea!

_________

Yuzi kept his word and India played the semi-final at full strength vs England and won.

Unfortunately, they lost in the final to Australia.

The stars, as it turned out, are always against giving some people their heart's desire. Too bad the 2014-21 Indian team fell in that category.

A/N: Sorry for ending the story like a cynic, but I am a cynic, so what can I do? Also to all the people who told me they're waiting for this update (specially Niya Niyati25) --sorry for having kept this story hanging for so long; wasn't in the mood somehow.

Happy birthday, my Kuliya, my precious Kuliya whom I hated in 2017 because I could not let Jaddu go, and whom I love almost as much as Jad now. (Almost)