Jassi couldn't figure it out.

Rohit bhaiya might expected he'd be able to, but he couldn't.

And it was a miserable feeling, being unable to figure out what had gone wrong between him and Hardik. If he tried to think carefully, he didn't recall the last time they'd spoken properly. A large reason of that, of course, was that Hardik was being weird ever since they'd flown to the US.

But before that?

They'd spent the IPL in silence, too. Both of them, individually, and with each other.

What did that mean?

Were they friends? Were they acquaintances? Were they friends-turned-acquaintances?

The last was the worst.

No, he couldn't figure anything out.

Jassi muttered a good night to Rohit bhaiya and sprinted where he was sure he'd get answers and advice and no disappointed look—Virat bhaiya was never disappointed in his younger brothers.

He was little blind that way, and normally Jassi didn't get to exploit it since he didn't give reasons for him to be disappointed—but today he needed to.

_______________

Virat bhaiya was holding court with Jaddu bhaiya, acting out some extraordinary story to an admiring audience of Shubman, Yashasvi and Kuldeep, and a sniggering audience of Yuzi and Rishabh.

"Hi, Jassi!" Yuzi hailed. "Join us—Jaddu bhaiya had a crazy encounter with a cop the other day!"

"Did he indeed?" said Jassi drily.

"Sit," said Jaddu magnanimously, "and I shall banish all your doubts."

"I'd love to, Jaddu bhaiya—but I need to talk to—"

"Come on, Jass," cried Virat bhaiya.

"Virat bhaiya—" A protesting Jassi was dragged by Virat's overbearing arm to join him on the bed.

"We should call the others, too," said Shubman. "Where's Hardik bhai?" he asked Jassi.

"I—I don't know..."

"I'll call him!" Shubman jumped up and bolted for the door. "Don't resume till I'm back, Jaddu bhai!"

As Jaddu assured him he wouldn't, Jassi felt faint with an unnamed horror. He couldn't face this strange, underconfident Hardik without knowing what was up with them.

"Virat bhaiya," he whispered. "Will you please come outside with me once?"

Virat, engrossed as he was in enacting Jaddu's story, couldn't not hear the desperate note in Jassi's voice.

"Sure," he said, surprised, and told the others, "Jassi and I'll be right back."

________________

Jassi dragged Virat bhaiya up to the terrace to avoid any chance encounter with Hardik and Shubi.

That got Virat even more concerned. "What is it?"

"The thing is—" Jassi paused, wondering how best to frame it. "Virat bhaiya, I don't know what's...what's wrong with..."

"Jaddu's recklessness?" A bulb lit up in Virat's head. "Don't worry, Jass, his stories are really exaggerated. The cop did not actually shoot at him, y'know."

"That was where the story was heading?" said Jassi in disbelief, before he realized they were deviating. "No, Virat bhaiya, I'm not worried about Jaddu bhaiya's recklessness!"

Virat's complacency in his detecting skills took a bit of a hit.

"What are you worried about, then?" he asked.

"Hardik," Jassi managed to say, finally. "I'm worried about Hardik—because he's been acting so abnormally—he's quiet—and humble—and he doesn't laugh or even smile properly anymore—and I think—I think it's my fault. Rohit bhaiya...seems to think it is."

Virat bhaiya's concerned expression had changed.

Into disappointment.

Jassi looked away, down at his feet. If he'd somehow succeeded in disappointing Virat bhaiya, he had done something terrible.

Virat bhaiya led him to sit on a ledge and joined him.

"Do you really not know how much your support matters to Hardik, Jassi?"

"I did support him—!" Jassi spoke vehemently. "I hated the toxicity surrounding him these last months—"

"Did you let him know that? Did you show it in any way?"

Jassi fell silent.

"Did you take him aside once and tell him it—whatever was happening—was not his fault? Did you even speak normally to him the past two months?"

"I didn't feel like talking to anyone, Virat bhaiya," mumbled Jassi. "You can't imagine how horrible the time was...people on the streets were yelling abuses, our home crowd was cheering our opponents, everyone on social media was lashing out at us..."

"At him," corrected Virat gently.

"It's the same thing," said Jassi.

"To you, maybe. To you, I understand, the suffering was always about all of you—but don't you realize how much worse it was for Hardik? The country he has given his all for tearing him apart, his wife and son not around, his best friend isolating himself..."

"I didn't isolate myself from him—he didn't seem in a mood to talk, either, none of us were—"

"But you left the place," said Virat. "Hardik couldn't afford to leave. I'm not blaming you...and neither is Rohit, I'm sure. But you know, Jassi, you mean the world to Harry. He didn't get to look up to his safe space all this while when he was going through the worse phase of his life. And I'm sure he would've taken it on himself."

"Taken what on himself?"

"You avoiding him—or as you say, avoiding everyone. He would've thought it was his fault, and you can't blame him for thinking that, can you?"

"Why would he think I thought any of the crap was his fault? He was the one being victimized with no good reason—no reason at all—"

"I get you, Jass," said Virat. "But I'm not the one who went through all that crap. If I was, I'd be a lot less inclined to believe that someone who didn't speak to me normally for two months was supporting me inside, secretly." As Jassi opened his mouth to protest, Virat added quickly, "I'm just saying, you need to talk to Hardik, even if it means fighting with him or explaining to him everything you said to me."

"All right," Jassi conceded in a small voice. "I'll talk to him and see what he's been thinking...if he can't understand how hard it was at that point to pretend things were normal—"

"You don't stay with people just because it's convenient, or just when it's easy," broke in Virat. "Do you?"

Jassi looked up at him.

"Y'know during that captaincy transition phase, there was a time when it took an effort for me and Rohit to just talk to each other. The board's decisions, my decisions, the disapproving atmosphere in the team...everything had got so awkward, it felt so weird. And at times, to me—and I'd guess to Rohit, too—it did feel that pulling away would've been easier. But neither of us did. No matter how hard it had become, we stuck to being normal with each other—and we made it through. I don't know what would have happened if either of us had withdrawn, Jassi. I don't want to know, because it still...scares me."

Jassi felt a chill of foreboding.

"And that's—that's—what you think has happened to me and Hardik?"

"No!" said Virat hastily. "No, of course not—but it might, if you don't talk, and let things hang the way they are..."

Jassi contemplated. "Do you think Hardik is pulling away from me, Virat bhaiya?"

"I think he never would, if you weren't," said Virat, from his heart.

"So you're saying, if I talk to him, he will stop being so humble?"

"I don't know if he'll be alright immediately after the trauma of the two months, but I'm pretty sure he'd stop being humble with you."

Jassi couldn't tell him how much that reassurance meant to him, so he only put his arms around Virat bhaiya and buried his head in his shoulder.

________________

A/N: I'd forgotten how much I loved to write about big-brother-Virat.