Rahul was absolutely dreading the day KXIP would travel to Bangalore for the away match against RCB.

Normally it used to be cool every year. His parents would treat him like a king when he went to stay at home in between the IPL.

Not this time.

His dad was absolutely furious at the KwK fiasco. He had run down every single of his friends down to the dust in the last few weeks.

Hardik, especially. Well, he was already so furious at Hardik that he hadn't resented it much.

But his dad also seemed to think Virat had influenced him in some day. Well, how was that possible? Virat hadn't even gone there with him. And though to the world Virat was hot-tempered and abusive because of his aggression on the field, Rahul thought fiercely, they didn't know him.

He knew it wasn't really his dad's fault. He was a professor after all; and these things were not good for his family image.

If his dad was angry with Virat and Hardik, it was nothing compared to how furious he was with Rahul himself.

As he was going from the airport to his house, Virat called him, just randomly as he did.

"Landed?" he asked.

"Obviously I did, because otherwise my phone would've been switched off," said Rahul grumpily.

"Are you driving?" asked Virat, hearing a horn in the background. "You know you're not supposed to receive calls while driving!"

"I'm in a cab," said Rahul, rolling his eyes. "Dad couldn't bother to send the car to the airport today." His voice had turned gloomy.

"Why not? What happened?"

"He's... he's furious with me, Virat. I don't think he's going to forgive me anytime soon."

"But it's been two months, Rahuliya!"

Rahul was too weary to even protest at the nickname.

"It's not his fault. These things hurt people in the academic line really bad," he said.

"But he should have sent the car," persisted Virat.

"Virat. I'm not walking home. I'm just sitting in cab. That's easier than driving!"

Virat couldn't very well deny it, so he said instead, "Won't you come to the hotel at all?"

"No, I guess. Can't give him more reasons to blast me."

Virat's cheerfulness plummeted.

"Ok. See you during the match, and don't worry, he'll come around. Just don't answer back or anything if he scolds you, that is not a cool idea," he said.

If he insults you, I will answer him back, thought Rahul at the back of his mind.

"I'm not stupid," he said out loud.

Virat snorted with what seemed suspiciously like laughter to Rahul.

He's ridiculous, thought Rahul, shaking his head.

______________

Virat lay on his bed and began to ponder on the issue.

Clearly Rahuliya's dad had no sense of gratitude. You get a kid like him, and remain angry with him for 2 whole months for something that wasn't even fully his fault?

Rahul was upset. Of course he was; Virat could sense that. He had always been fonder of his dad than anyone in the world, and this was affecting him.

Could he do anything?

Couldn't he?

A bell rang in Virat's mind.

Of course he could.

______________

Rahul was eating his lunch in silence later that day. Mom was silent. Dad was silent. What could be do but remain silent as well?

This atmosphere is awful, he kept on thinking. When will dad relent? Would he ever relent? Why if he remained disappointed in his son all his life? Could he live with that?

The doorbell rang.

Rahul jumped up quickly, eager to show him that he was still willing to help his parents in any little way he could.

"I'm going," he said.

His dad said nothing.

Rahul walked heavily to the door and opened it and stared.

Virat was grinning at him widely, looking extremely well groomed and decent.

"What are you doing here?" asked Rahul in a panicked voice.

He was beginning to panic.

"I've come to talk to your parents, Rahuliya. Move," said Virat.

"No! Virat--no, that's a very bad idea," said Rahul in despair.

"Who is it?" came his mother's voice from the dining room.

Virat opened his mouth. Rahul covered it in horror, whispering urgently, "Will you go back, for god's sake?"

Virat glared and raised a packet which he had been holding. It was from a sweet shop.

"You won't go back without giving this to my parents," stated Rahul.

Virat forced Rahul's arm away and said, "You got that right. Now let me do my job, you little idiot."

Rahul knew Virat's obstinacy too well, so still smarting over the 'little idiot' part, he led him inside.

His mother and father stared in silence.

"My...er...our captain," mumbled Rahul nervously, feeling compelled to explain himself.

"Hi aunty, hi uncle," said Virat, extremely polite and charming as always.

"Hi, beta," said Rahul's mother. "How come you're here?"

"I just wanted a word with you," said Virat, smiling so nicely that Rahul didn't even know what to think.

Virat offered the packet of sweets to his mother, saying, "I got this on the way, aunty, will you feed some of these to him please? He's taking his fitness a bit too seriously these days, look at how thin he has become!"

Rahul's face burnt.

But guess what? The surest way to charm an Indian mother is to bring up her child's health.

"I know, that's what I've been telling him for months, but when do kids listen to their parents? Apparently, he's grown up now," said his mother.

"Yeah, it happens with kids his age. They think they know better than all of us," said Virat sympathetically.

Rahul mentally groaned. How old was Virat, fifty two? Why was he acting his mother's age?

As he soon found out, partly to his dismay, partly admiration, Virat's tactics were working amazingly.

"Sit down, beta, sit down. Do you want tea or coffee? Or anything else?"

"No aunty--thanks, but I've just had lunch. I'm sorry for dropping in at this hour, but I was passing this locality, so I thought..."

"We're glad you came...is there anything you wanted to talk to us about in particular?"

"Yes... about him, actually," said Virat, quite obviously referring to Rahul.

Nice to speak in front of him as if he was not there, thought Rahul sarcastically.

"Oh," said Rahul's father, who hadn't spoken a word till then. "Go upstairs, you," he told Rahul.

"I want to stay!" said Rahul indignantly. "I can stay, can't I?" he asked Virat.

"No, go upstairs at once," said Virat sternly.

Rahul scowled and stormed up the stairs.

Traitor, he thought.

He was going to listen in from the staircase anyway. So he settled down, out of view of his guardians. Apparently there were three of them.

He couldn't hear the conversation very clearly, but he got enough snippets to know that Virat was well and truly charming both his parents in a way only Virat could.

"How's your research going, uncle? Rahul was saying that you've discovered an interesting topic of hydrology."

"No, no, aunty, don't bother..."

Rahul could bet his mom was trying to make him eat/drink something.

"I know it's a very serious matter, uncle. But you know he did it just in sync with the nature of the show. He did not mean anything bad; nor will he ever."

"Virat beta, I don't think anyone can say things like that without meaning them."

"What did he say, uncle? You didn't watch the entire episode, did you? We watched it a lot of times, each time falling to detect any mistake Rahul made."

"Hardik certainly did. Can you keep him away from bad influences in the team, beta?"

Suddenly Rahul's entire body burned with shame.

He had been ignoring Hardik ever since that incident happened, but when phrased like that by his dad, it seemed like a disgusting thing to do.

Of course Harry wasn't a bad influence--and yet he'd been treating him like one.

Make up with Harry as soon as possible, Rahul mentally noted.

He was so engrossed in his miserable thoughts that he missed the next part of the conversation; yet somehow he was sure that Virat had managed to defend Hardik.

"Rahul's polite and well-mannered, hard working, kind hearted and efficient, and one of the nicest person in our team," he suddenly heard Virat say. "Please don't judge him for a fleeting mistake, uncle, aunty...your son is still the same, just the person he was five years ago."

Rahul froze on the staircase.

"I want to believe you, beta..." his father said.

"Then please do. I've known him for quite some time now, since his IPL debut, and I'll always take care that he doesn't stray into the wrong way. And he hasn't. We're all proud of him. The whole team."

Rahul couldn't catch what his mother said next.

"So you'll forgive him, won't you, uncle? Treat him like your son again? He loves you too much, and even if he hasn't shown it, he's been miserable ever since you got to know about the incident."

"I will...I will, I want to, I was just a bit disappointed--"

"Which is perfectly understandable," said Virat courteously.

Then their voices went down to a murmur and Rahul strained to hear but couldn't.

After a while, he heard footsteps approaching, and he fled to his room hastily and closed the door.

Almost immediately the door opened and Virat entered.

Rahul pretended to concentrate on a random book opened in front of him.

"I know you've been eavesdropping, so quit pretending," said Virat drily. "Aunty is calling you downstairs to finish your lunch."

"Are you staying?" asked Rahul.

"If you let me wait in your room then yes."

"Wait in my room." And Rahul rushed downstairs to finish eating as quickly as he could.

He soon discovered, to his surprise and delight that both his father and his mother had suddenly forgiven him completely. It was as if nothing had ever happened. His dad even patted him on the shoulder while crossing his chair.

Rahul was back in his room in seven minutes and found Virat lying on his back and leafing through one of his dad's Civil engineering books.

He went and snatched it away and sat down beside Virat.

"What?" demanded Virat.

"How do you do it?" was all Rahul could ask.

Virat grinned and sat up. "It's my natural in-built charm, Rahuliya. God gifted."

Virat was God gifted, thought Rahul.

Better still, Virat was a gift from God to him, because surely, surely no one else had got an elder brother like him?

A/N: Rahul's dad is HOD of Civil in a college of his state. My dad is HOD of Civil in a college of my state. [I'll be a Civil engineer in two years too].
God, I'm the proudest 🤭