When Mayank arrived at the hotel Team India was staying in during WC 2019, Rahul met him at the door and dragged him off to the garden; they hadn't seen each other for a pretty long time.

They proceeded to chat heedless of time, and at some point the topic of Rahul's ban earlier that year—which he had studiously avoided all IPL—came up.

Mayank was kind of glad to hear him refer to it casually, so he could finally say what he had been meaning to ever since he saw that show.

"You need to choose your companions to talk shows carefully, K."

Owing to the fact that he had made up with Hardik a couple of days ago after ingoring him for five months straightaway made Rahul defensive.

"No, I don't," he said shortly. "Hardik's my friend, and he's a good person."

"If you say so," said Mayank doubtfully, since he did not know Hardik well personally and only knew Rahul's version, and Rahul had said some pretty unflattering things about him in the past few months.

"You don't know him," said Rahul, wondering why he felt so defensive.

"That's right, I don't," said Mayank. "Maybe he's a good person, but he's a terrible one to go with on a talk show—that too a talk show of that nature."

"You are no one to judge Hardik," said Rahul, scowling. "God knows why everyone in this country thinks they have the right to judge Hardik."

"Don't be stupid," said Mayank, smarting at being compared to the Indian media and public.

"I'm not," said Rahul. He caught sight of Hardik far away near the gates and said, "Now excuse me for a while, Hardik and I were supposed to go out for lunch."

"You knew I was coming today," cried Mayank, who was not big on the hiding emotions thing. "You could've planned it for yesterday or tomorrow!"

"Maybe I've decided I want to hang around with my friend instead of back bitching about him," said Rahul.

"That was not what I meant!" shouted Mayank furiously.

"I know exactly what you meant!"

Rahul stalked off to join Hardik. Mayank resisted the urge to pull him back and shake him hard and went instead to say a sullen hello to the rest of the team.

They spent the day keeping out of each other's way—Rahul because he was angry and later, slightly guilty, and Mayank because he was in the foulest mood possible (and Mayank never was in a foul mood.)

**************

11 years back...

"Rahul," whispered Mayank, sneaking into Rahul's room in the dead of night. "You awake?"

Now, Rahul had just been barely awake, and under normal circumstances, he would've shooed Mayank away. But they had had a truly terribly fight a couple of days back, and only made up that day in the evening, and Rahul wasn't inclined to be rude at the moment.

"Yes," he said, sitting up sleepily. "What d'you want?"

"To take you for a ride," said Mayank in the too-innocent tone that always made Rahul wary.

"Um, how?"

"Jack sir left the key of his car at the table, I snagged it," said Mayank with ill-disguised glee.

"Car?" asked Rahul in disbelief. "We're—well, underage!"

"You're underage," said Mayank dismissively. "I'll be 18 in less than a year, and I'm the one who's going to drive."

"I'm just one year younger to you, you know," grumbled Rahul for the umpteenth time as they tiptoed down the stairs like criminals.

"One year is a lot," said Mayank. "Like, a lot."

"Yeah, right," snorted Rahul. "Give me the key, I'll drive."

"Certainly not," said Mayank, raising an eyebrow and clutching the precious key to his chest.

"I drive better than you, Mayu," said Rahul sternly. (And it was true, at least he hoped it was. Of course he'd make a better driver than this grinning idiot.)

"I found the key," said Mayank. "And I'm older. Two very good reasons why I should drive. Now get in quick."

Mayank got into the driver's seat without further ado, leaving Rahul no choice but to get into the passenger seat.

Mayank started off real cautiously.

"Switch on the headlights," advised Rahul, looking at the dark road in front of them.

Mayank swore and switched them on, relinquishing his hold on the gear, and the car lurched forward and stopped.

Rahul took one look at Mayank's face screwed up with concentration and did not comment.

They made slow progress through the narrow roads outside their lodge, with rickshaws and bicycles overtaking them.

"Mayu? A bit of acceleration would not be out of order," suggested Rahul.

"Huh?" said Mayank distractedly. They were entering the main road now.

"We're going at 20 kmph," said Rahul in exasperation.

Now that he was out in the broad main road, and hearing the subtle scorn in his best friend's voice, Mayank pressed down on the accelerator hard.

The speed crossed 40...50...60...

The night wind whipped across their faces and Mayank laughed aloud, giddy with triumph.

"I'm driving, K!" he shouted. "I'm driving a damn car in the third gear!"

Rahul could not drive yet, hence he did not have a very good idea about gears, but he was pretty sure driving in the third gear was not a very good achievement for someone who claimed he could drive.

They were crossing 80 kmph, and the speedometer started worrying Rahul a little.

"Should we slow down a lit—" he started to say, but two things happened almost immediately.

Mayank got the fine incentive of overtaking the car in front of them and swerved into the wrong lane and a huge truck came barreling straight at them.

"MAYANK!" screamed Rahul, terrified, forgetting all about not distracting a driver when he's driving at 80, and Mayank swerved the car back into their lane and slammed down on the brakes—just in the nick of time.

Rahul felt a tremendous jerk forward, but turning on instinct he saw Mayank jerking forward and hitting his head against the steering wheel with a sickening thud.

With a sinking feeling, Rahul noticed that Mayank, unlike him, had not put on the seat belt.

"M-Mayu..." he stammered.

Mayank straightened up with a groan, rubbing his forehead, and turned.

"You're ok?" he asked, dazed.

Rahul glared at him.

"I'm sorry," said Mayank. "I shouldn't've—how do we get back?"

"Call Jack sir?" said Rahul.

"He's going to kill us," said Mayank, now terrified.

"We don't have any choice," said Rahul, grabbing his phone. "Your head hurts?"

"No," said Mayank quickly.

Well, the next day he got a lump on his forehead the size of a golf ball, so clearly he'd been lying.

The hiding they got from their coach that day was one neither Rahul nor Mayank ever forgot, but while 11 years later, for Mayank it was a dangerous stunt to laugh over and feel a little ashamed, for Rahul it had become a nightmare that still visited him sometimes, and in the nightmares, Mayank did not manage to swerve in time and hit his head—harder.

*************

So after exchanging harsh words with Mayank that day, Rahul had been expecting it, but that didn't make it any easier.

The nightmare had visited him every single night when he had fought with Mayank, and it always had the same effect on him—he woke up crying and screaming Mayank's name, and was possessed with the need to go and see immediately if Mayank was ok.

He won't talk to me this time, thought Rahul in panic, freezing outside Mayank's room.

But he had seen his best friend getting killed in a car accident moments ago, and he was still shaking all over—so even if Mayank did not want to talk to him, he needed just the simple assurance that Mayu was ok.

He pushed the door open softly and slipped in. It was dark and silent, too silent.

Even if he did not wake Mayank up, he needed to see him breathing, so Rahul switched on the flashlight of his phone and approached the sleeping form.

Of course Mayank's chest was rising and falling in a normal, alive rhythm, and even thought he had known it, even though he knew he was being stupid, Rahul dissolved into tears.

They were silent at first, the tears, but soon turned into gasping sobs, the screech of horns and blaring of horns still fresh in his mind.

Mayank jolted awake at the noise, and jumped out of his skin on seeing Rahul sobbing in the silver light of the phone.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded, quite forgetting to be cold for the moment.

"I'm sorry, Mayu," choked Rahul.

Because he had let him drive that car. Because he had told him to accelerate. Because he had been the one wearing the seatbelt.

Because he had vented his own guilt at treating Hardik unfairly by cruelly hurting Mayank. Because from day 1, he had always taken Mayank for granted. Because he had never valued his best friend enough.

"Well, too late," said Mayank, sitting up. "Why are you crying?"

"What do you mean by too late?" cried Rahul.

"I meant...never mind," said Mayank. "Come on, tell me why you are crying. Did something happen?"

"N-not really," sniffed Rahul.

"This is the fifth or sixth time I've woken up to you crying at my bedside in my whole life," said Mayank suspiciously. "What comes over you?"

Somehow Rahul could never tell Mayank about the nightmare.

"Are you sure everything's ok?" asked Mayank with a hint of concern.

"If you say you forgive me," said Rahul cleverly.

"I forgive you," said Mayank darkly, holding out his arms to his rarely vulnerable best friend.

For once bowing down to Mayank being a whole year older than Rahul (or so Mayank thought, much to his gratification), Rahul nestled into his arms, not quite crying any more.

"I'm sorry..."

"Ok, now you're overkilling it," said Mayank, thrown off-balance to see such an ususually humble KLR.

"Mayu, I—"

"You?"

"I—"

"You?" impatiently.

I don't want to lose you, not because of car accidents, not because of Hardik, not because of anything.

"Nothing," said Rahul.

Mayank grinned from ear to ear. "Expected."

Rahul finally relaxed, because he knew he would never lose this grin, nor the person who owned this grin.