It was Jinks' 31st birthday, falling during quarantine. They'd wished him on video call and all...the usual stuff. Jinks' mild reactions at all their howling wishes had made Virat miss him very much all of a sudden. If he could have one wish granted at that moment, he'd fly to Jinks house with a bright orange frosted cake and attack him with it, just to listen to his exasperated protests.

But the corona had taken care of that wish.

****

When Ajinkya Rahane came into the Indian Test team in late 2013, he introduced himself to the team as 'Ajinkya'.

Virat, who had had issues with big, confusing names for a long time, frowned.

"Ajinkya..." he muttered. "Ajinkya..."

Rahane looked plainly confused.

Mahi bhai threw Virat a warning look. Virat subsided, making up his mind to think of a nickname later.

In the first practice session of the season, Virat was batting in the nets with Bhuvi bowling. Rahane was waiting beside Virat for his turn.

Rahane was quiet and withdrawn, maybe a little awkward in a group of people who already knew each other for months and were really close. Bhuvi, under Rahane's influence, went quiet as well, and Virat was starting to feel uncomfortable about the silence, so he suggested taking a break after an hour.

Bhuvi joined Virat on the ground. Virat indicated Rahane to sit down too, and he complied with a small smile.

"Bhuvi," whined Virat to break the silence. "Bhuvi!"

"Yes?" asked Bhuvi mildly.

"Your name is weird, so we gave you a super nickname," said Virat, broaching the topic.

"Yes...so?"

"Ajinkya's name is just as weird, so he deserve a nickname too, doesn't he?"

"I have a nickname," said Rahane hastily. "My parents call me Ajju."

Virat snorted in disgust. "Ajju is a very bad name."

Bhuvi looked horrified at his reaction, but he had not yet grown up to be the adult figure he was in 2020, so he had said tentatively, "It's not that bad, Virat."

"Ajinkya...Ajinkya...Ajinkya...."

Bhuvi had experience in this field, of course, so he sent a sympathetic glance at Rahane.

Rahane was looking at Virat curiously.

"Jinks. Jinks," said Virat. "JINKS!"

Jinks drew back, alarmed at his sudden overexcitement.

"Jinks?" repeated Bhuvi.

"Isn't it cool?" Virat asked Bhuvi.

"No, it's not," said Jinks firmly, because Bhuvi could reply. "It's terrible. Please call me Ajju."

Virat looked utterly disappointed to see his wonderful invention being greeted so.

"I won't call you Ajju," said Virat. "Jinks is so much better!"

"Virat," began Jinks.

"Why are you three sitting here and bunking practice?" demanded Rohit, coming up.

Virat stood up quickly. "We aren't bunking practice..."

The other three looked at him, deadpanning.

"Well, we were," admitted Virat. "But we were doing an important thing, giving him a nickname." He prodded Jinks on the head.

Rohit was grinning. "What did you decide on?"

"Jinks," said Virat. "Short for Ajinkya. He loves his new nickname," he lied cheerfully.

"Really?" said Jinks drily.

"Come back and practice!" called Virat, bolting for the nets, as if they had been the ones blabbering away.

Jinks and Bhuvi followed him.

----------

It became a sport after that. Virat calling him Jinks. Jinks trying not to reply.

"Jinks! Are you coming down for breakfast?" yelled Virat, barging into Jinks' room.

Jinks kept quiet.

"I'll take that as a yes," said Virat, not a bit offended at the snub.

"I'm coming," said Jinks, because he hadn't mentioned the name in the previous sentence.

They walked down together (Rohit was still sleeping, of course), Virat bombarding questions at a rate of hundred per minute, trying to trick him into answering to Jinks.

"Which batsman do you look up to the most?"

"Rahul Dravid," said Jinks. "You?"

"Sachin sir, of course," said Virat. "Though Rahul sir is very great too; we're lucky to have so many legends aren't we, Jinks?"

Jinks sent him a sideways glance and remained quiet.

Virat changed track and continued.

"What is your favourite colour?"

"Um...orange?"

"Mine is red. What is your favourite number?"

"I dunno," said Jinks. "27 maybe. Yours is 18?"

"Yes, and 10 too, and Jinks, what is your favourite animal?"

Jinks slapped his forehead, but he had started to laugh too.

"You're completely nuts," said Jinks, the first time of many, many times he would say so in the future.

"You responded to 'Jinks'!" said Virat triumphantly.

"No, I did not! I did not say what my favourite animal is!"

Virat sighed. But he would succeed.

-----------------

He did succeed. Not by some great plan of action or anything, but by plain pig-headed persistence.

Of course Jinks gave in at the end, laying down the condition that no one else called him that, too. He was not granted that.

Now, he was Jinks to everyone, and Jinksy only to Virat sometimes. Some of them may call him Ajju to his face occasionally, but no one really considered him anything but Jinks.

That was clear as the birthday wishes came in for him. Everyone called him Jinks. Well, they spelled it as Jinx sometimes, but Virat didn't mind.

He dug up an old photo of the two of them from his gallery and updated his Instagram story, wishing him with the name 'Jinksy' (because he had to be different from the rest of them, of course), and Jinks had gotten used to Jinks, but Jinksy still pissed him off.

Rather to Virat's annoyance, Jinks did not react at all for a long time. Then, he reposted the story with the message 'thanks Cheeku'.

After a while of staring at the photo, Virat smiled. His Jinksy had been picking up a few tricks from him lately.

He settled down on his bed comfortably and called Jinks for one of their looong calls which regularly happened whenever they were away from each other. Maybe Jinks had been waiting for it, too, because he received it at once.

"Jinksy," greeted Virat.

"Yes, Cheeku?" said Jinks innocently.

They both laughed, and their call lasted 2 hours 33 minutes before Radhika came in and said, "There are other people waiting to wish you, too, you know, and they're calling on my phone."

"Got to go, Vi...bye!" said Jinks hastily. Then he added, "We need to meet soon."

"We do," sighed Virat.