Climb Every Mountain, With You (Shubman Gill x Ishan Kishan)

Once a big brother, always a big brother

Sara's speech had put some part of Shubman's anxiety to rest. A large part was still there, so he pushed the visit to his parents till evening, reasoning that Ishan had fever, his parents would be out for tea, di wouldn't be back yet and everything. 

He finally brought up the topic.

"Will you come with me to my home for a bit, Ish?"

Ishan kept his tone normal. "What for?"

"Di said....and I thought, too...I should go and tell them..."

"Okay..."

"Okay to me going and telling them or okay to you coming?" asked Shubman hopefully.

Ishan smiled a little. "If Nisha's aunt and uncle are there, won't it be weird for me to go?"

"It's going to be weird irrespective, if you're there, I'll feel braver...." Shubman knew he was being selfish, yet he went on. "You know. You get better motivation for a challenging feat if the prize is right in front of you."

"Prize," repeated Ishan.

"Yes, you," said Shubman, grinning. "You're my prize."

Ishan sighed, but Shubman could see he was holding back a grin, too.

"All right, I'll go with you."

Afterwards, Shubman was to feel the most selfish jerk of all times, because there was a shock waiting for them at his home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shubman's mother opened the door and froze for a second. Then she ushered them in, saying, "It's good you came along, Ishan...."

There was quite a crowd in the living room. The ones across from him father, Shubman assumed, was Nisha's aunt and uncle. Then his eyes moved to the remaining two on the sofa against the window.

God.

God.

GOD.

"Your parents were hoping you'd be here, Ishan," Shubman's father said.

Ishan's eyes were wide with terror like a deer caught in the headlights.

Shubman closed his eyes and prayed they could go back in time. There was no way in hell he would have convinced Ishan to come along.

When he opened his eyes, he found of course that they had not got back in time, and now Ishan's parents were coming up to him, and Ishan was clearly fighting not to step back.

"How are you, Ishu?" Mrs. Kishan asked.

How do you think he is? thought Shubman furiously.

"Are you all right?"

Ishan couldn't quite speak so he just nodded. He couldn't keep himself from flinching when his mother hugged him.

Shubman felt possibly the worst he had ever felt in his life. How could he have pulled Ishan into such this?

"We understand we were unnecessarily harsh on you," Ishan's mother said. "We....could have dealt with the situation with a lot more understanding."

Really? Shubman shouted in his head.

Ishan's father put a hand on his shoulder. "So we can move past all that and you can come back home with us, son."

They weren't shouting, in fact they were speaking quite gently, but they could have been yelling for all Ishan looked like.

Shubman forced himself to look away.

He was forcing himself not to say something rude to Mr. and Mrs. Kishan that he would dearly have liked to when Ishan spoke in a hoarse whisper.