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

Trophy

Everyone converged on one smart response to Virat bhai.

"We'll think about it."

Funnily, Ishan didn't trust any of them one bit.

For a couple of hours, things were somewhat normal. Virat bhai was invited to dinner by Shubman's mother and Shahneel di returned home. Luckily, neither she nor Shubman or Ishan were forced to stay for the family dinner. Sometimes Ishan felt Virat bhai was a superhero too, like Shubman thought. He couldn't think of a worse nightmare than having dinner with three sets of stupid parents.

There, he had thought it.

Stupid.

Stupid. Stupid.

They didn't have any hold on him anymore.

When they were outside on the lawn, Shahneel gave Ishan an unexpected hug. When she let him go, Shubman did the same.

Ishan figured he must not be looking normal at all.

He didn't feel normal. He felt it in his bones that his parents would take him back tonight, somehow. All that nonsense about how they could have been more understanding....surely it was a bid to take him back and re-establish their power.

The thought of going back with them made his blood go cold.

Shahneel and Shubman were talking about Sara's show and how Virat bhai had turned up suddenly, which meant probably it was Sara herself who had urged him to. Shubman kept his fingers tightly wound with Ishan's, but it only made Ishan feel worse.

There was no way he would be allowed to stay back in this city....

There was no way but to return to his....home....hellhole...

"Ishu, I'm really sorry." Shubman broke into his worries. "I shouldn't have forced you to come."

"You didn't know they would be here," said Ishan.

"Still." Shubman pressed Ishan's hand to his chest affectionately. "Do you think we should leave?"

"To your relative's place?" asked Ishan.

"Yeah."

"No good," said Shahneel. "His parents are here, ours will definitely bring you guys back."

Ishan's words slipped out before he could stop. "Shahneel di, I don't want to go back with them."

"You won't have to."

They turned. Raj was striding towards them.

"Bhaiya?" said Ishan, astonished. "I didn't know you had come along...."

"No, Mumma and Papa obviously didn't tell me," said Raj, sounding furious. "They left when I was at the clinic. They couldn't have taken me along, could they....after all, I might have held them to the false promises of treating you nicely.... Have they?"

"Not, um, not very badly."

"Not nicely either," said Shahneel sharply. "They are still trying to take you back, hinting that you have nowhere else to go."

"I'll go and tell them to disown me, too," said Raj. "Then you and I will stay together, Ish."

Ishan was struck with awe and terror.

"Don't go in right now," Shahneel said. "Let Virat bhai try to soften them up first."

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

They didn't waste much time once Virat bhai was gone. All of them were drawn into a conclave again. The only bit of relief was Diksha's parents had retired to the guest room, which meant two less people against them, and Shahneel and Raj were present, which meant two more people for them.