The next evening Rohit was in his room, there was a match next day. He didn't wanna admit it but he was kinda missing talking to Virat. Even shouting on him made them feel better. But now that there was this silence that he couldn't bear. Yesterday he had still been in anger but as the time was passing he was thinking if he had overreacted. Like yes Virat had shouted on him, but frankly it was a stupid run out. And he knew Virat's nature. He should have kept his cool. The dinners and team sessions were painful. They had to walk past each other like strangers and Rohit had never imagined this could be this painful. He sighed and got up for team dinner

After dinner that night, Virat returned to his room. It had been such an awkward affair. He couldn't tease Rohit. Nor take a jibe at him. But it pained his heart seeing Rohit laughing with Sikhar. Why had he been so rude to Rohit after a stupid run out? They happened once in a while, its natural. Yes, he had been mad because Rohit would have scored well that day. But he needn't have been a jerk about it or fought like that in front of Mahi Bhai. He so wanted to go to Rohit and make up but he couldn't now. The silence between them almost reminded him of 2014, things had been almost like this between him and Mahi Bhai then. Thankfully things had gotten much better after that and Bhai was with him now. He had never though the silence with Rohit would effect him the same but it was effecting him. He forced himself to go to sleep, they had a much tomorrow.

The strategic discussion before the match was the only time the team was serious at any given point. But even that serious discussion came as an respite to Virat and Rohit it seemed. MS watched them with amused eyes. "So it has started to work" he thought

In the match Rohit and Sikhar got off to a good start. But Rohit got out just after scoring a century, and Virat walked into bat. India put up a target of 285. During the fielding half too they couldn't talk much.

The next night Rohit was hanging out with Harry and KulCha. And Harry was as usual teasing Kuldeep.

"You have such small kid like face. Looks like you are still on cerelac." Hardik joked while Kuldeep sulked.

But Yuzi's protectiveness kicked in and he spontaneously said "Atleast people didn't confuse him with Dhabe Wala chhotu when he was young."

Hardik looked at Yuzi completely stumped.

Rohit and Kuldeep burst out laughing.

"Look at your face Harry" Rohit said laughing "I have gotta tell this to Vi. What a clapback Yuzi."

He was about to get up to go top Virat, when Kuldeep called him "But weren't you two fighting? And hasn't Mahi Bhai asked you not to talk to him?"

Rohit stopped dead in his tracks, of course he couldn't go and tell Virat this right now. And they were fighting weren't they, gosh, he just wished that he could go to Vi and make up.

Hardik winked at Yuzi and Yuzi realised Harry was just doing this to do what Mahi Bhai had asked them. And Yuzi raised his eyebrows in admiration.

Virat was in his room, scrolling through his Instagram when his eyes fell on a fan post. It was sketch of him and Rohit, and it was captioned Rohirat forever. He almost liked it but stopped himself he didn't wanna cause a media stir. Liking a picture should be harmless but you never know media. And he didn't want that, especially with him and Rohit not talking to each other. He thought of sending that pic to Rohit, but then suddenly remembered that today in the evening he was with Jassi and Sikhar and he had casually said feeling smug,
"What if I just text Rohit?"

"I am pretty sure by not talking Mahi Bhai meant texting too." Sikhar had said.

"No he didn't" Virat said stubbornly.

"Well he won't talk to you of he finds out." Jassi said "Can you bear that?"

"But he said nothing about texting." Virat said adamantly.

"Weren't you guys fighting?" Sikhar asked amusedly "why are you so eager to text him?"

"We are." Virat said adamantly "l am not texting him. I am just saying there is a loop hole. He didn't stop me from texting Ro."

"I did. Not speaking to each other means not speaking, no texting, miming or writing letters or anything else." MS said from the door and walked away, apparently he was passing by the corridoor and had heard this. Little did Virat know Jassi had texted MS to come.

Later MS texted the same instructions to Rohit too.

"Fighting it seems." Sikhar muttered under his breath knowing that Virat was starting to badly want to make it up but would never admit that to Jassi and him.

"I can't send him the pic" Virat thought back in the present, not even bieng able to bear the thought of Mahi Bhai not talking to him. But it pained almost as much now that he couldn't talk to Rohit.

The day of the second ODI, Rohit and Virat were taking every opportunity on the field to chit chat. But they were limited. Their longing to talk was visible. As though they had forgotten all about their fight. And MS watched them with an loving indulgence. And then like one bad thing on another the match got rained out and England won due to DLS, tying the series 1-1. And they couldn't even rant about the irrationality of the method together.

Rohit and Virat even had tried to cheat once or twice in corridor but someone or the other seemed to be at their heels to stop them. It was weird, as though the whole team was onto them.

Moreover even MS was maintaining a distance from them. Not talking or hiting them up like normal. He was doing it because he knew they would whine to him to let them talk and his resolve would break at their whining, he didn't want that. But this was making it even more tough for Rohirat.

One more day passed, and the things were becoming harder and harder. And they were reaching the snapping point.

"Why did he give us such a punishment?" Rohit whined to Jinks.

"Do you consider it a punishment?" Jinks asked.

"What else is it?" Rohit said.

"I don't know, you both say all the time that you don't want to talk to each other." Jinks said

"Yeah we do" Rohit said "Bhut we never mean that."

"I know that" Jinks said "There hasn't been one time when you had stopped talking. You both just sit on my both sides and pass snarky comments on each other claiming you both don't wanna talk and eat my ear off in the process."

Rohit smiled sheepishly.

"Why can't bhia see this then? Why is he doing this to us? Rohit whined.

"I think he can say that very well Ro. Frankly speaking Ro I don't know what he is thinking." Jinks said "Give it some time he will allow you both to talk. And he cares for us. He won't cause you two deliberate pain would he?"

"Thats true." Rohit said. "I will go and call Sam."

Bhuvi was coming to Jinks's room as he saw Rohit go out.

"He was complaining about Mahi Bhai wasn't he?" Bhuvi said.

Jinks nodded.

"I have spent the whole evening listening to Virat do the same. I said to him to talk to Mahi Bhai after the ODI series but he wasn't in a mood to stop complaining." Bhuvi sighed "Had to escape by telling him that I had to urgently call Nupur."

Jinks laughed.

"Hope whatever Bhai is doing works. Atleast my headache will be less. Whenever these two fight it's me, you and MS walking the tight rope." Jinks said.

"Yeah...hope it works." Bhuvi agreed

Next match, England had set a huge target of 310. Jassi was the only bowler who could bowl a little well. It seemed like it wasn't India'd day. Sikhar got out early. Virat and Rohit were on the crease. Rohit gave Virat a cheeky grin even in the tense situation as he walked in "Run when I call, please" he said. "Do remember to call before blindly running." Virat retorted. And both of them burst out laughing just like that absolutely forgetting they were having a fight. The silence had killed them. Now that they were on the field. They were allowed to talk. Virat and Rohit went on to play a gem of an innings absolutely annihilating England's bowling. They chichatted in the middle between overs. "It feels good to talk to you like this." Virat said with sight of relief once during that. "Feels great to me too." Rohit said with all the warmth in his voice. And they both grinned at each other. Best friends don't need to apologise always, there anger was gone anyways. They had forgotten why they had fought, because these 3 days of silence had made them long for each other. India went on to win that match. There was celebration all around.

But as soon as they were back in the dressing room they had to behave like strangers again, avoiding talking to each other consciously. All the time they felt MS's sharp eyes on them. The little chats on the ground had made it even harder for them to do this now. "I will talk to Bhai today." Virat decided. "It's unbearable now."

A/N: Here's the update as promised. Please keep those in-line comments coming, they are my fuel to write.

Next update coming tomorrow...