The first time Virat made the mistake of yelling at Bhuvi was during an ODI in 2014.

Bhuvi conceded a no ball six in the last over of the first inning, and Mahi bhai didn't react, but Virat stormed up to Bhuvi in the heat of the moment.

"Those extra runs are going to fall on us, you know!" he shouted harshly.

Bhuvi's head was right down, and he said in a terrified voice, "I'm sorry..."

"Not just a six, bowling a no ball as well," muttered Virat nastily as he walked away.

Any other bowler would have lost his temper by then, and maybe Virat was expecting that at the back of his mind, too. But Bhuvi didn't.

Virat took his position and faced the pitch and saw Bhuvi returning to his run up point, his head still down.

And Virat began to feel bad.

After the inning ended, Virat hastened to fall in step with Bhuvi as the team was leaving the field.

Bhuvi glanced at Virat and the full force of his adorable eyes hit Virat and made him feel even worse, because Bhuvi still looked upset with himself, and not a bit angry at Virat.

"No hard feelings, Bhuvi?" said Virat.

"Of course not," said Bhuvi at once, sounding quite relieved.

Virat felt like a complete jerk at Bhuvi's reply, and from that day, he just found it impossible to yell at Bhuvi ever again.

Whenever things went wrong on the field, it was common to see Virat shouting and cursing his teammates. Bhuvi always remained the exception.

___________

Two years later, when Virat was in an all out isolation mood after his break up with Anushka, his team was naturally worried about him.

He had snubbed all advances so far and no one was particularly eager to try and talk sense into him.

"Jinks would've been useful here," said Jaddu one morning.

"But he won't be back for another week," said Ash.

"You go, Bhuvi," said Shikhar suddenly.

"Why me?" asked Bhuvi, horrified.

All the others, however, were impressed with the idea.

"He's not going to snub you," said Ash.

"Hopefully," said Jaddu with a wink.

Bhuvi stood up determinedly. Being fonder of Virat than most people in the team were, he wanted Virat to come out of depression as much as the others.

"I'm going."

___________

Bhuvi knocked on Virat's door. There was no answer, so he pushed the door open softly and looked in.

Virat was hunched on the bed, his gaze fixed on some random thing.

"Virat?" said Bhuvi timidly.

Virat ignored him. Bhuvi went to him and touched his shoulder gently. "Virat!"

Virat shrugged away his hand violently and said, "Go away!"

Bhuvi stepped back quickly but said, "Do you want to talk about it, Virat? We're all..."

"I thought I had made it clear I don't want to talk about it!" spat Virat rudely.

"But..." said Bhuvi, through every instinct in him was telling him 'leave him alone!!' "But it's not going to help if you keep it all to yourself. We're all your friends, Virat, we want..."

"I DON'T NEED HELP, I'M FINE!" shouted Virat furiously.

Bhuvi tried not to feel hurt at Virat's rare display of temper on him.

"You're not fine, Virat," tried Bhuvi, though he sounded even more timid that how he'd started.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW? HAVE YOU EVER HAD A GIRLFRIEND?"

Well, Bhuvi did have Nupur as his girlfriend at that time, and Virat seemed to realise that, because he changed track and continued, "... HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN UP WITH HER? THEN HOW DO YOU KNOW!"

"You're getting unnecessarily touchy...it suggests you're not fine, really," said Bhuvi practically, but Virat was not in a very practical mood just then.

"GO AWAY! GO AWAY!" yelled Virat at the top of his voice.

"Virat--"

"Bhuvi, if you don't leave this moment--" began Virat threateningly.

"All right, sorry!" cried Bhuvi, terrified, and he fled from the room, his courage giving way.

Virat fell into an even heavier depression after he scared Bhuvi away with his rudeness.

___________

After Rohit finally succeeded in bringing Virat back to normal, something none of the others could do, Virat began to recall Bhuvi's timid but genuine attempts and his cruel reaction, and he began to feel guiltier by the minute.

Everyone was visibly glad to see Virat becoming normal again. Virat joined his team for dinner for the first time in days and he made sure to sit beside Bhuvi.

Bhuvi looked at him and smiled in his usual adorable manner, which would make anyone give in to any request of his, Virat thought.

"No hard feelings, Bhuvi?"

"Of course not."

__________

Three years later, in 2019, the count of Virat yelling at Bhuvi was still only two, whereas it must be 15+ for all the others.

_________

And three years later, on 10th July 2019, when Virat and Bhuvi were sobbing in each other's arms, desperately trying to deal with the loss of the WC they had dreamt of for years, Virat wished for a moment that he had let in Bhuvi that day.

He was good at this comforting thing.

Bhuvi wasn't timid or childish anymore; he was sensible, level headed and dependable, but he was still the same Bhuvi Virat had learnt to love right from 2012, and would always love, without any doubt.