(Not) Just a dream (OR, the ICT steals a groom)

The most thankless job of all times

"The--what?" said Shubman, blankly. "Conclusion to what?"

His words were greeted with deep sighs that emanated from the depths of his brothers' souls.

"To your answers," said Ash in a tone that made it clear he had no hope left. "An overall conclusion that can be drawn from your answers."

"An overarching conclusion, so to say," put in Hardik, seeing an opportunity to use another word he'd learnt last night from Anagram Magic.

"That's not a valid question," said Shubman, getting worried at the thought of losing those 100 points. "That's a--that's a--vague--"

"Subjective," offered Hardik, garnering several well-deserved kicks on his shin.

"Yeah!" said Shubman gratefully. "That's a subjective question with no fixed answer, Dilip sir!"

"How funny," said Jinks stoically. "We all know the fixed answer and you don't, Shubi."

Ishan snorted.

Well, to be honest, everyone snorted, but Ishan snorted the loudest of all. Shubman zeroed in on him.

"What--you know?" he said, stunned.

Ishan looked like he was about to yell the roof down, which would've been a good thing too, but Yuzi chose that moment to come flying into the broom closet, and when he saw Shubman and Ishan standing together, he cried something like, "WOO-HOO!" and showered them all with flowers.

Everyone shrieked.

"Don't celebrate too early!" Rohit scolded him, shaking rose petals off his shoulder.

"Celebrate what?" asked Shubman.

"Clearly, there's going to be no celebration," said Ishan nastily.

Shubman turned back to him, eyebrows shooting up with surprise (and betrayal).

"What do you mean?" he demanded. "Ishan, what do you mean?"

Everyone looked at Ishan with such fierce instructions in their eyes--there's your chance, grab it NOW--and that got Ishan terrified out of his wits.

"I--you--I--"

Yuzi, who had counted down to the time required for three words (be it I love you or you love me), hollered, "WOO-HOO!" and flung flowers into the air again.

"WILL YOU STOP IT!" Rohit yelled.

Shreyas, who'd got the worst of the flower shower, snatched the basket from Yuzi and dumped it on Yuzi's head. Half of it went into Kuldeep's eyes and nose.

Unfortunately, he was allergic, so as he started sneezing, Yuzi shouted, "You hurt Kul!" and pelted flowers with great force at Shreyas' direction.

Shreyas ducked, so Jaddu and Hardik caught the attack full on their face, and--

Of course, within five seconds, there was a full-on flower fight going on inside the broom closet.

Rohit forgot he'd been scolding Yuzi about premature celebrations and stuffed marigolds down Rishabh's shirt. Ishan forgot what he'd been supposed to say and ran to Rishabh's aid, and Shubman to Rohit's. Hardik cackled and snatched the basket out of Shreyas' hands and whacked people with it instead of with flowers. Jassi tried to wrest out the basket so that he could whack Hardik on the head with it. Jaddu climbed up the door so he could get the best angle. Virat, in a bid to steal Shreyas away from Rohit, helped him hold his own against Yuzi, who had to throw flowers and protect Kuldeep from getting a blast till SKY came over to protect him. Ash, after a minute of indecision about how to stop the fight and realizing it was impossible, ran to shake Jaddu off the door.

Dilip sir stood with Jinks and Bhuvi in the corner, clutching his head.

Why had he let himself be dragged into this?

Be it for Shubman and Ishan's happiness (the two of who were, presently, wrestling each other to grab a bunch of flowers from the floor), or be it for any 'crucial' mission his team wanted to accomplish--

Being a mentor to this team was the most thankless job of all times.

Now that the flowers had been used up, things were getting out of hand, because Hardik was still whacking people with the basket, Jassi was still trying to snatch it and everyone was scrambling around the closet to grab brooms and pans and buckets for offense or defense, screaming themselves hoarse.

"WHAT THE DEVIL ARE YOU DOING?"

An earth-shattering roar made everyone freeze in their tracks.

"TEN MINUTES! YOU SAID TEN MINUTES!"

Warily, they turned to find an incandescent Rahul towering over them at the door. His eyes were shooting literal laser beams.

"How--how come you left the ceremony?" asked Virat in a feeble but brave voice.

"I RAN," Rahul bellowed. "WE WERE SUPPOSED TO EXCHANGE GARLANDS AND I RAN AND YOU GUYS ARE HAVING A FLOWER FIGHT."

No one dared laugh.

Rahul stormed through their midst and pulled Shubman, who was sprawled with Ishan on the floor, up by the scruff of his neck none too gently.

"GO!" he shouted. "GO AND FINISH YOUR STUPID WEDDING!"

A hubbub rose outside, no doubt people coming to find out why the groom had run. 

Rahul gritted his teeth and lowered his voice, stuffing the sehra unceremoniously hard onto Shubman's head.

"Go outside and say you came out because you couldn't complete your wedding without us," he ordered. "We'll follow. And brush the damn flower petals off yourself."

Shubman was pretty much too stunned and confused to do anything but obey wordlessly. He brushed himself quickly and cautiously stepped out of the closet. 

"AND DON'T SAY A WORD ABOUT ME!" Rahul roared behind him.

"You'll give yourself away if you shout so loud," said Virat with a straight face.

That day, KL Rahul went the closest he ever went to kicking the living daylights out of Virat Kohli.

_________________

Once they'd all shaken the flowers off themselves, they trooped towards the slightly chaotic wedding hall in dignified silence, innocent as lambs.

But the commotion died down quickly enough, mostly thanks to Shresta and Shahneel acting like all this--the groom sprinting out in the midst of a wedding to fetch his friends--was very normal. The high from the impromptu fight had drained away, leaving the groom's brothers in a very sombre mood, except the most self-sacrificing one who was still shaking and fuming, and the groom's best friend, who was left with a cracking heart.

And in no time at all, the bride and the groom were standing, facing each other, a hundred cameras pointed at them.

They were holding garlands of carnations, white and red and pink and purple, and now Shubman was lifting his, and now Shresta was bending her head...

For the second time in an hour, Ishan turned tail and fled, dodging Rohit bhaiya's arm that stretched out to stop him.

At some point, Yuzi had put on that obnoxious song again.

'RINKIYA KE PAPA

HI HI HI HI HAS DELE'

Ishan covered his ears and ran till he was out in the lawns to drink in the open air, and then he screamed so loud, all the birds and the bees and the aeroplanes got scared away.