"The Knights
&
The realisations"

During their little meeting last night, Virat made Rohit promise not to hide anything from him again. They knew the visions were foretelling the future of them and their friends.

"Whatever you see from now on, you're gonna share it with me. We'll do the protecting thing together, yeah?"

Nodding to his friend's words, Rohit had gone to sleep, too tired with all the stress the following weeks.

XXXXX

The next morning they had successfully averted a potential mishap when Rohit had a vision of Ishan getting locked inside the small storage room in the ground they were practicing.

"Points for the Knights!" Virat grinned at Rohit as they high-fived at their accomplishment.

"Knights, Seriously?"

"We are the knight in shining Armor, Ro, protecting..."

Virat's explanation was left unfinished as Rohit made a signal for him to shut up, pointing at something, or rather someone he had seen from the corner of his eyes.

Someone was looking at the two!

Virat, catching on to Rohit's drift, shifted his attention discreetly to the observer, a stranger who seemed way too interested in their conversation.

"Let's get back to practicing, Vi; we'll discuss this later." Rohit whispered the last part as both of them shared a knowing glance and started jogging toward the pitch.

"Could it be?"

"We don't know yet, Vi. Let's just be careful from now on."

"What's with all the secret talk between these two?" Jinks asked Jaddu as they saw their two friends trying to discuss something subtly, 'trying', being the keyword here.

"Do you really wanna know? At best, they could be fighting about the menu, or who's Bhai's favourite. It could also be..."

"Got it, Jadd! You don't really have to mention all the possible reasons."

"If you say so"

Jinks shook his head at the other's antics and then shifted his attention back to the duo in question; they would tell him if something was up. Reassuring himself, Jinks got back to his practice, while Jaddu and Harry decided to see who was a better runner and started sprinting around the ground, the rest joining in too.

"Loser would have to wake Cap Ro up!" Harry announced loudly, which made the others pick up their pace.

"Why do we know them again?" Rahul asked Jassi.

"If we had a choice..." Jassi sighed as both of them looked at the bunch of ICT dog-piled upon each other, when did their little race become a wrestling match?

--

Too tired with all the running and the showdown, which was later made into a duel by Sir Jadeja, the team decided to call it a day.

As they were heading toward their team bus, Rohit stopped in his tracks, his eyes taking on a distant look. He had another one of those premonitions, and this time it was about the team bus. In the vision, he saw their bus's tire bursting, and the vehicle careening off the road - an accident caused due to the tires, an accident that could be averted.

Virat, who was walking just behind Rohit, bumped into him, which made him snap out of his daze.

Glancing at his friend's face, Virat understood it was related to their ongoing 'mission.'

Without a word, he stood by Rohit's side, ready to take action based on what the latter had foreseen.

"The tire," Rohit mumbled to Virat. It appeared perfectly fine from a distance. But, upon close inspection, Rohit found some sharp rock pieces and a pin just below one of the tires.

"These could have led to a disastrous blowout on the road" Rohit gulped, his heart pounding as the haunting flashes of the could-be accident came flooding back to him.

The weight of their mission to protect their friends was a heavy burden, and the realization of how close they had come to danger weighed on him.

"Bhaiya! We're getting late, please come na!!" Jassi's voice snapped Rohit out of the horrible zone as his hand was held tightly by Virat.

"Yeah, coming guys" Virat answered on their behalf, "You good?" He asked the other, who still looked somewhat shaken by the vision and the implications.

Rohit squeezed Virat's hand and took a deep breath, trying to push back the haunting thoughts aside. "I'm fine, let's go" he said, and they continued towards the waiting bus, reassured having taken care of the pins and pieces lying on the road.

"I'm sitting with Virat bhaiya!"

"Dibs on Rohitaa"

Virat looked at his best friend who gave an affirmative nod in his direction and walked to sit beside an ecstatic Yuzi. Virat sat with Kul and kept stealing glances at Rohit, still worried about the other.

Jinks noticed the whole exchange but thought of giving them space, pegging another Rohirat fight as the reason.

If only he knew what really was going on...