On the eve of team India's reporting to the camp for the Test season from September 2024, Jinks walked into what was supposed to be his perfectly peaceful household to find a pair of banshees fighting at the top of their lungs.

"I want a brother! If he annoys you I will take Raghav back with me today!"

"You can't steal my brother!"

"Oh, you mean the brother who you pinched a minute back?"

"Aarya, did you pinch Raghav?" Jinks asked wearily.

"He tore my colouring book," wailed Aarya.

"He tore just one tiny corner," shrieked Samaira in fierce defense. "Uncle Jinks, Raghav is my  brother from today."

"No, he's not!"

"Yes, he is! Tell him, Uncle Jinks!"

"Tell him, Daddy!"

Jinks was doing some very quick thinking with the two girls' gazes fixed upon him hopefully. The momentary quiet was, however, broken by another pair of banshees--or werewolves.

"THAT'S WHAT YOU HAD FOR ME? GROW OLD? WE ARE NOT OLD."

"WE ARE NEARING 40."

"40 IS NOT OLD. Oh, hi there, Jinks."

"Hi there, Rohit," said Jinks with a closed-lipped smile. "Hey, Virat," and he went on hastily, "I just had to go out to the market for--"

Too late.

Rohit and Virat swooped down to grab an arm each of his and appeal for his support.

"Are we old, Jinks?" asked Rohit.

"Yes, we are," said Virat.

"Yes, you are," agreed Samaira. "And soon I will be old too, and I need a brother before I grow old, so I have to take Raghav."

Rohit gasped.

"Feel old, do ya?" taunted Virat in an Aussie accent (he'd been practising it for the Border Gavaskar trophy later that year, because he wanted to sledge in the Aussie accent this time).

"Okay," said Jinks. "Everyone, be quiet. Sammy, Aarya, I'll be back in a minute." He dragged Rohit and Virat into the hallway. "What is your problem now? Why do you want to prove we're old, Vi?"

"I don't want to prove anything," said Virat. "I am just stating facts."

"It-is-not-a-fact-it's-a-lie-made-up-by--"

"Shh," said Jinks sternly. "You'll get your turn, Rohit. How did the topic come up, Virat, and why is us being old to your favour?"

"Right," said Virat, warming up. "I found a wishlist of mine from December 2014. Nearly ten years back, that is. You know, when we were in Australia and that captaincy change thing was going on, Mahi bhai left, and I was miserable. I thought making a wishlist might cheer me up a bit. Oh, see, Jinks--the first one's for you." He extended a rather crumpled, yellowed piece of paper.

"Is it?" Jinks couldn't help smiling as he unfolded it. 

The first bullet point said: lift the Border Gavaskar trophy in Australia with Jinks.

Jinks' smile widened. "And that came true."

"I know!" said Virat, beaming. "Most of them did, in fact, even Rohit's."

Rohit made a rude noise from deep inside his throat as Jinks read down the others.

"Find Bhuvi a girlfriend," he read out, snorting. "Good progress on that, too--"

"He never would've proposed to Nupur without my advice," agreed Virat smugly.

"Win a World Cup final with Shikki..." Jinks trailed off, wincing.

"Yeah, that's the only one that didn't come true," mumbled Virat.

"Really? And this one did? Climb Mount Everest with Jaddu on horseback."

"Oh, that's not the one you're thinking," said Virat, waving a hand. "It's Jamnagar's Mount Everest. We climbed it once Jad taught me to ride a horse professionally. And mind you, it might not be as tall as your Mount Everest, but it is pretty tall."

"Congrats on scaling it," said Jinks with another of his closed-lipped smiles. "Make India Number 1 in Tests with Ash. Why Ash?"

"It was kind of our dream," said Virat. "When we dropped to seventh in Test rankings. We saw how 7 looks a lot like 1, if you just shift your angle a little bit. So we decided we'd be one again in no time."

"Er--"

"Look at the wish against my name," burst out Rohit. "Right at the bottom, too, look!"

"Grow old with Rohit," read out Jinks, and looked up at Virat. "Wow. That's--"

"The most insulting wish ever, right?" asked Rohit. "He couldn't find a single wish for me? He found for all of you, and not one for me?"

"Because I couldn't choose any one," said Virat with a dramatic undertone. "See, all of it--every good thing--I wanted with you."

"Really?" asked Rohit, taken aback but clearly pleased.

"Er, not exactly," said Virat. "I was in the middle of a fight with you when I wrote down these stuff, so I omitted you from the list."

"SEE, JINKS?" Rohit yelled, clutching his chest.

"But he did add you," said Jinks, glaring at Virat for his strange timing to be honest.

"When did you add me?" asked Rohit.

"Um," said Virat sheepishly. "A few hours later, after we'd made up."

"It's not that big a time difference," said Jinks encouragingly.

"But look at what he wrote," complained Rohit. "Grow old with Rohit? Grow old with Rohit? It's just a line of crap from movies--it could be applied to anyone, there's nothing special in it!"

"A line of crap from movies?" demanded Virat indignantly. "I said that to Anushka while proposing to her!"

"She's an actress," said Rohit, like explaining one plus one was two to a newborn kid. "She's used to such stuff."

"But I said that to my wife while proposing, so you can't say there's nothing special in it."

"A line that can be applied to anyone, evidently," said Rohit nastily.

"No, Ro," said Jinks, exasperated. "A line that can be applied only to the people he loves the most in the world."

That silenced both his friends.

"Oh," said Virat, clapping a hand over his mouth like this realization was new to him, too. "You're right! Jinks, you're right!"

"Shocking," said Jinks drily.

Virat threw an arm around Rohit and the other around Jinks. "I want to grow old with you, too, Jinks."

"Why, thank you."

"And--" Virat dug out his phone.

"Are you going to call up all your friends and say the same?" Rohit asked grumpily.

"Nope," said Virat nonchalantly. "Just to the ones I love the most."

He winked at Rohit, who tried to maintain a stony expression and didn't quite succeed.

___________________

"Hi, guys," Virat announced when the four video calls (actually, three, because Ash and Jaddu were both at the latter's place since tomorrow's camp was to gather in Chennai) had been duly connected. "We are meeting here today--virtually--for a purpose of grave importance, so I do not want any laughter. Everyone has to be serious."

"You don't say!" said Shikhar. "When are we not serious?"

"Shikh!" said Bhuvi. "Yes, we're serious, Virat. Go on, what's the gravely important purpose?"

"We are here," solemnly, "to make a wish each regarding the rest of us."

Rohit and Jinks shook their heads as Shikhar, Bhuvi, Ash and Jaddu stared.

"And though it may sound like a crappy line from the movies, and some people might say it's a generic cheesy line that can be applied to anyone, it is not."

"Is it like one of those trick questions?" asked Jaddu brightly. "Or where you put two elements from the Periodic Table together and make up a cheesy word?"

"What? Who does that?" asked Rohit.

"What was the Periodic Table again?" asked Bhuvi.

"Seriously, Bhuvi?" said Ash.

"Not everyone's an engineer here, Ashley," said Shikhar.

"Here," declared Jaddu, who'd been internet surfing. "Are you made of copper and tellurium? Because you're CuTe."

"What?" repeated Rohit in disbelief.

"I got one!" said Shikhar. "Are you made of beryllium, gold, and titanium? You must be because you are BeAuTi-ful."

As everyone roared with laughter, Jinks noticed Virat swelling with indignation and quickly stopped laughing.

"You all, stop it," he shouted above the rests' laughs. "Virat has something of grave importance to say."

Virat turned his glare on him. You're making fun of me.

No, I'm not, Jinks tried to say innocently. Sorry anyway.

"Sorry, Virat," said Bhuvi. "What is your wish?"

"I want to grow old with you all," said Virat.

Jaddu coughed.

"What now?" said Ash.

"Are you all deaf?" said Virat, glowering. "I said I want to grow old with you all. And you have to wish it, too. And since this is not a generic statement that can be applied to everyone, we have to say it to each of us separately."

"Er--"

"I'll show you what I mean," said Virat. "I want to grow old with you, Ash. I want to grow old with you, Jad. I want to grow old with you, Bhuvi. I want to grow old with you, Shikki." He turned to Rohit and Jinks on either side of him. "I've already told these two. Who wants to go next?"

Jaddu coughed again, but Shikhar was already speaking. 

"Me! Me!"

"Be our guest," said Ash wryly.

"I want to grow old with you, Ro. I want to grow old with you, Vi. I want to grow old with you, Ashley--"

"Wait!" said Rohit. "You didn't ask them if this is what they actually want, Virat! You just assumed everyone will want to make a weird wish because you want it. Everyone may not want to--um, for example--Ash might not want to grow old with--um--um--or I might not want to grow old with--er--"

"Your point is?" asked Jinks, as five other pair of eyes deadpanned at him.

"Nothing," said Rohit, forced to concede. "Go on, Shikki. Also, I'll go next."

"No," said Jaddu promptly. "I will."

"Why?" sighed Ash. "What difference will it makes who says it first?"

"The one who says last is a loser," said Shikhar in a very obvious tone.

"Right, I'm after Rohit and Jad, then," said Ash at once.

Everyone looked at Jinks and Bhuvi. Jinks sent Bhuvi a sympathetic smile across the phone screen, but Bhuvi spoke up in a half-shout, and very rapidly.

"I-want-to-grow-old-with-you-Virat-I-want-to-grow-old-with-you-Shikki--"

It ended up, of course, with all seven yelling in unison that they wanted to grow old with the other six, and Sammy and Aarya, holding Raghav between them, peered into the hallway, nodded at each other, and slipped off to the forbidden attic for their weekly stealth-hour. 

__________________

A/N: A 14-hours-in-advance birthday gift for sassy_reads because she knows I have no patience and cannot wait 14 more hours.