~Yes Captain~

~Thank you for not giving up~

KL Rahul was sitting in the room allotted to him in the NCA, looking outside wistfully at the players practicing on the field. Oh how dearly he wished to be out there too!! He wanted to hear the whispers of the breeze as he sprinted under the golden rays of warmth. He wanted to feel the winds caressing his face but he couldn't because of quarantine.

Rahul absolutely hated being isolated. It brought out bad memories. He hated, no, absolutely loathed being isolated but still being isolated was the need of hour and so, he was trapped in this luxurious room with himself.

Well, he wasn't that good company for himself if he could say so. After all, his overthinking mind was all over the place, conjuring thousand scenarios and outcomes of things he had said or done once upon a time.

Bored and totally frustrated of his internal monologue. Rahul decided to skip to the other most dreaded thing in his life. The thing called social-media, logging in his personal secret and absolutely private account. He checked his feed full of his brothers post.

Yuzi posted the most!

Jassi had posted clips of eating- what was that? hybrid custard? or what?

Never mind!! Rah decided scrolling down and noticing his personal fav fan account. Well, it's name has nothing to do with his favoritism with the account. Yeah! He is speaking absolute truth the account being called ViratxRahulxHappiness isn't absolutely the reason why he is following it and he absolutely hadn't been boasting to the others about an account named after Virat and him! Yes! he might have shown them Hulrat content of thehulratclub every now and then but he wasn't boasting or anything, of course.

So coming back to present he scrolled through the feed spotting one of his most favorite on-field pic posted by his fav fan account. The Adelaide hug after his first century, sliding to the next post he saw the video of their hug and the bgm couldn't be anymore fitting.

"It's 6 years already" the caption read and Rahul couldn't help but agree feeling the nostalgia wrap around him. It has been six years already, six years and so much has changed. He has changed but what remained absolutely unchanged was them. Brothers! Yups always having each others back.

Six years seemed like a very-very long time to Rahul. So much had happened in the last six years, rise-fall-rise, small victories, large defeats, everything. He had witnessed almost everything in the last six years. Some very bitter moments, some very sweet stuff.

Life seemed like a dish in making to him with different masalas being sprinkled time to time to enhance the flavor of life. Some used more, some used less but there had been few people as constant as salt in food and sweetness in sweet dish in his life.

And Virat was one of those people in his life. His constant in every phase of his journey.

Many memories had faded and blurred over the time. Conversations forgotten, moments stored in some dark alley of his mind with only the gist of the emotions remaining. The happiness or sadness associated with those memories and from that whole tour their are many moments that had blurred in simple emotions in his mind.

But there are moments he remembered as clearly as the daylight too.

Moments he can't absolutely forget and that day is one such moment for him. He remembers the gloom that had surrounded him and the rest of the team after the third test. Mahi bhai was leaving, after taking retirement from test cricket. His last test match a draw. He injured.

Everyone was sad.

Everyone gloomy.

And Rahul was one of them too.