Chapter Text
Aditi liked to think of herself as cool-headed and rational. Sure, she had her moments, but she prided herself on her ability to make the right decision at the right time.
She hadn't always been that way, of course. She'd entered RAW as a nervous, shy, yet fiercely intelligent young woman, a trait that had landed her her position in Kabir's team.
Kabir was an…interesting person. As soon as she'd laid eyes on him, she could understand why he was so well-loved in RAW. Especially by all the female agents. Even she'd had a silly crush on him at one stage, heart skipping a beat when he welcomed her into the team.
His shitty personality balanced out his good looks, anyway. Still, Aditi developed a respect for his style of leadership, even when she didn't agree with his more…reckless ideas. But she wasn't paid to disagree, so she did what she did best: plan. Strategise, gain information on the enemy, so that their missions could go off without a hitch.
It was in the aftermath of those missions that she'd met Prashant. It was after that mission in Paris, if Aditi remembered correctly. She didn't go out on many field missions, but her and Kabir had been posing as a couple in order to infiltrate a smuggling ring. Their cover had been blown, and they'd barely managed to get out alive. Kabir had come out of it much worse than Aditi, who escaped with a broken leg and bruising.
She'd dragged him to their getaway vehicle, thoughts buzzing through her mind at a million miles an hour. Prashant had been the doctor to treat them both that day, barely glancing over the battered pair before directing orders at his team. He was ridiculously efficient, and within minutes, Aditi was whisked away to her own room, left to wallow in her thoughts.
The plan was her responsibility- Kabir had trusted her, and she'd failed, nearly getting them both killed in the process. How could she take pride in her intelligence when it had come so high of a cost?
A knock sounded at the door. “Miss Aditi?”
Aditi hurriedly wiped her tears as Prashant walked in.
“Yes?”
“How are you feeling? Your partner has been stabilised, and he'll make a full recovery.”
The relief of this sent Aditi over the edge, and to her horror, she found herself crying fat, messy tears of relief. “Thank you,” she bawled. “If I had just- I don't know, done things differently, this wouldn't have happened.”
Prashant was kind, she realised, as he didn't shy away from what she'd just dumped on him. Instead, he reassured her, and told her that she'd done the right thing.
“Besides, you brought him in even with a broken leg- you're amazing.”
She was amazing, and all her worries melted away as they formed a fast friendship, growing even closer when they realised they were from the same hometown. They confessed their feelings long after, and got engaged last year.
Aditi was happy- the smart, rational girl had found her place in RAW, with a husband who understood her and supported her, and she did the same.
She had made the right decisions in life.
She'd done the right thing with her job- she'd just finished talking to Kabir and Khalid, giving them a drive, and slipping Kabir a small vial. Truthfully, she was curious to know more, but she had allowed herself just this one day free of work-related things. That meeting didn't count- she had no choice. But now, draped in a beautiful kesavu saree, decked out in jewelry, she felt calm, content. She felt bridal, newly married to the love of her life. She would have to go out for the reception soon, but she sat for a second, savouring the quiet before she went out back out into the chaos.
As soon as she stepped outside, it was nothing but mayhem. Voices were yelling at her, telling her that her husband was giving first aid to a man that had passed out in the procession. People were dancing, oblivious to this, still in their celebratory mode, blissfully unaware.
“Where's Prashant?”
She could only watch numbly as they brought her to her husband, who was bandaging the shoulder of a man she thought was dead.
“Saurabh?”
Prashant looked up, eyes wide. “You know him?”
Suddenly, her knees felt weak, and it took all her strength to drag herself to a chair next to the bed. “Yeah. Do you remember the mission in Marrakesh? We all thought of him as a team member, but he betrayed us, and another of our team members got gravely injured killing him.”
But then why was he alive, chest rising and falling in this villa they'd rented for the wedding? Slowly, her mind connected the dots. Khalid had said he'd killed him. Had he lied? Kabir had called her before the ceremony, asking her to prepare an antidote to the poison, and insert a tracker into the drive she would give him. Surely it couldn't be- was Khalid covering for Saurabh, his fellow traitor? But that didn't make sense- she had seen how hard Khalid had worked to escape his father's legacy, he'd even taken a bullet for Kabir in Marrakesh. If he was going to betray them, wouldn't it have been easier to let Kabir die then?
It didn't make sense.
“Wake him up,” she said, rising from the chair and rifling through her purse.
“But- I just stabilised him! He'll be alright, but we should let him recover first!”
Aditi found what she was looking for. She pulled out a pistol- army grade. “Prashant, you're too kind. I need answers from this man, and I need them now.”
She needed to hear the words from his own mouth- why he'd betrayed them, why he'd sold Muthu and Pratik out to Ilyasi.
She shook him vigorously, pointing the gun square between his eyes. “Wake up!”
Little by little, he came back to consciousness, groaning in pain as he tried to sit up. His eyes widened as he registered the gun pointed at him, recognition glinting as he saw who held it. “Aditi?”
“Saurabh,” she hissed. She felt nothing but disgust towards this…vermin, who had caused the death of two of their team members and nearly killed Kabir and Khalid. Although now, she didn't know if she could trust Khalid, either.
“Aditi, wait,” he pleaded.
“Give me one good reason I shouldn't shoot you right now.” How dare he plead for his life like a sniveling coward, when he had no problem killing Muthu and Pratik?
“I'm not Saurabh.”
“What?” It was such a ridiculous statement, Aditi almost laughed at its sheer absurdity.
Clearly, he also realised how it sounded, because he immediately backpedaled, hands raising in surrender. “No, wait. Let me explain. I'm Khalid, the real Khalid. Are you really Aditi? Or do you just have her face…no, that's probably not right…” he trailed off, eyes darting around the room, as if to prove to himself that all this was real.
This made even less sense. What was this guy going on about? “Of course I'm Aditi, you idiot. Do you take me for a fool? What’s all this about the ‘real Khalid’? He still works at RAW.”
The man, whoever he was, sighed. “Let me explain.”
He launched into a tale about waking up in a cabin in Marrakesh, with the face of a traitor, then chasing down Firoze in Italy. His voice became quiet when he mentioned Naina, and he looked down at his hands as he spoke of his failure to protect her.
Unable to stop herself, Aditi blurted, “So what were you doing after that? Kabir went rogue after that, killing one of our informants, and other high-profile government workers.”
A haunted look came over the man's eyes. “I…Ilyasi found me. I was somewhere around here, I'm not sure. But I escaped.”
She felt a little bad- there was clearly more to the story than what this man was saying, but she had to know the truth. And truthfully, she was having a hard time believing his story.
“So,” she started to say, not quite trusting her voice not to betray her, “you mean to say that you're Khalid.”
“Yes.”
“And the Khalid who works at RAW…”
“Is Saurabh.”
“So he lied about killing Saurabh so he could take your place?”
“That's right.”
It made sense- Kabir had also confided in her that he had his suspicions about Khalid, but this story was…crazy. He looked exactly like Saurabh, it was disarming.
“How can I trust any of what you've just said?”
And that was the crux of it, wasn't it? She wanted to believe, to trust, but she was an agent, trained to see through the cracks in everyone's stories. She'd already been betrayed by Saurabh, already come to terms with his betrayal, and now only to be told that he had been working a few desks away from her all this time?
The man sighed. “Aditi, I don't know what to say. Please believe me. Don't you recognise my voice? If you'd like, you can run a DNA check- it'll match with my records, not Saurabh's DNA. Don't you remember? You taught me everything I know about hacking- it was only because of you that I got as far as I did.”
Aditi lowered her gun. Not fully, just a fraction. You couldn't change your DNA. And Saurabh had never learnt about computers from her, he was woefully technologically illiterate. Although, he probably actually wasn't, her mind helpfully supplied.
What could she believe? Sure, the voice was Khalid's, and his story was crazy enough to have at least a fraction of the truth, but the fact remained that the man in front of her wore Saurabh's face.
She looked to Prashant, who had sat there, stunned, taking in all the information. “What do you think?”
He sighed, placing a hand over Aditi’s own. “I may only be a doctor, so I don't know too much about what happened, but I have heard of such surgeries being performed illegally. While I was stitching him up, he was also muttering something about Ilyasi, and needing to get to Kabir.’
“That being said, I trust you. You know him better than I do- listen to your gut, and make what you think is the right decision.”
The right decision. Now.”
“You just gained consciousness, you're not strong enough to go on a mission yourself,” Prashant protested.
Khalid looked him straight in the eyes. “Then come with me.”
Aditi thought for a second- it wasn't a bad idea. Khalid was in bad shape, and she wasn't about to go on a mission with him in this elaborate saree. She didn't have enough time to take everything off, either. Time was of the essence- they'd already wasted enough time verifying Khalid's identity, and she trusted Prashant's intuition.
She handed Prashant her gun, looking Khalid dead in the eyes. “If he does anything funny, shoot.”
***
The river was beautiful. Khalid wanted to savour it, drink in every drop of Kerala's natural beauty, but he didn't have time for that. Death had passed him by, and he intended to finish what he'd started in Italy. He'd sworn to himself that he wouldn't let any harm come to Kabir sir.
Now it was time to deliver on that promise.
He'd failed to save Naina, but maybe, just maybe, he could redeem himself by saving Kabir. Things were finally looking up for him- what were the chances that he'd survived a car crash, managed to drag himself out and towards the exact place where Aditi was having her wedding?
Waking up to Aditi pointing a gun at him was definitely not something he wanted to repeat- privately, he thought that Aditi might even be scarier than Kabir when she was mad. Yet somehow, despite his appearance, she had looked past it, trusting him despite every fibre of her being telling her not to.
He didn't take that lightly- having Aditi in his corner made a huge difference to his chances in saving Kabir. He spoke into the earpiece she'd given him, relaying their location.
His mission wasn't over yet. He still had a chance to live, to repay his hero by saving him from another betrayal.
His foot nervously tapped as he scanned the river from the car window for any signs of the boat they'd taken. Where were they?
He could almost picture Kabir's dead body- he didn't think he'd be able to hold himself together if he failed another time.
Khalid hoped they weren't too late.
No, he thought, shaking his head to rid himself of the thought. Nothing was certain yet, and he still needed to get his revenge on Saurabh, in any case. Prashant stopped the car, and Khalid all but leapt out the door, sprinting down to the docks.
Prashant huffed as he caught up, helping Khalid untie a small tinny. It could barely be classified as a boat- it was small, made of aluminium, and was equipped with a small motor, and oars in case that failed.
It was perfect.
He didn't want to attract attention - it was small enough to follow the big boat without being followed, and they could row it if needed.
He could make out a small speck in the distance, and his heart thrummed with anticipation as they followed it from a distance.
They were far enough away that they wouldn't be spotted, but that also meant that Khalid couldn't really see what was happening on board the ship. He squinted at the back of the ship through his binoculars, and what he saw sent warmth flooding through his chest.
Kabir sat back on a chair, admiring the view.
He's alive, he's alive, he's alive, his heart sang as relief coursed through his veins. He couldn't resist letting out a slightly hysterical laugh, which earnt him a concerned look from Prashant.
At least, he was alive for now. Khalid could only watch through his binoculars what would play out next. If Saurabh tried anything funny, he would just take Prashant's gun and put a bullet through Saurabh's skull. He recalled Kabir bragging to him about how he'd killed Khalid's traitorous father. And just to be safe, I put a bullet through his right eye.
He would follow Kabir's example, he thought, as Saurabh approached Kabir sir from behind.
***
Kabir, despite all his years of experience, was nervous. The view was picturesque- the river was calm, and there were no other boats in sight. It was just them, the water, and the lush green forest that lined the banks of the river. Yet Kabir was on edge, so much so that the idyllic landscape did nothing to soothe his nerves.
His hands had a subtle tremor to them as he pulled out a bottle of wine. Maybe a drink would calm him down. It was one thing to be stabbed in the back without warning, but expecting a betrayal from a trusted friend was another level of torturous waiting. The pieces had come together slightly since Italy, and his suspicions of Khalid had only since increased.
He wanted to put his faith in Khalid, he really did. He'd distrusted him at the start, but he had proven himself capable, and Kabir had grown fond of the man. But he was different after Marrakesh. The first thing Kabir noticed were his eyes. Khalid had always had these warm, honest eyes that shone whenever he looked at him. When the sun hit them just right, they glowed a brilliant golden colour that made Kabir's heart skip a beat when he'd first noticed.
But when he'd met Khalid on the subway and given him the name of his next target, he’d noticed something. His eyes were dark and dull, the fire within extinguished. That was the first sign that something was wrong. There had been other signs, too- Khalid had pushed Kabir away from the path of a bullet, but there was no way he could have seen it in time, unless his blind spot had somehow vanished overnight.
The Khalid that stood in front of him was not the same man that he was fond of.
When Khalid had first joined them, Kabir was hesitant to trust him. His father had nearly killed him- who was to say the son wouldn't take his revenge? But as time went on, he saw Khalid for who he was, and the idea of him stabbing him in the back was almost absurd.
He didn't want to believe Khalid would betray him.
Yet all the evidence - the missing vial, the perfect vision, painted a clear picture- one of betrayal, this time by a dear friend.
“Can I join you, sir?” Khalid's voice rang out, clear as day from behind him, and he nearly jumped out of his chair. Calm down, he chastised himself. He'll notice you're on to him if you're so jumpy.
“Of course,” he smiled, trying to smooth out the tremor in his voice. He'd added the vial of antidote Aditi had slipped into his hand at the wedding. She'd warned him that it would take some time to kick in, depending on the dosage.
He desperately hoped that there would be no need for it to come into effect.
To his surprise, Khalid held out his own glass, looking at Kabir with pleading eyes. “Please, sir. It's a special occasion. You must allow me to share a drink with you.” And yep, that was the nail in the coffin for Kabir. Khalid never drank. It was haram, and Kabir respected his wishes. This…person, whoever he was, was not who he knew.
“Sure,” Kabir said, hoping his hands didn't shake as he poured wine into Khalid's glass. “To India,” they toasted as they clinked their glasses.
Bottoms up, thought Kabir as he drained his glass.
He looked back to Khalid, who had been watching Kabir down his drink. His own glass was untouched, and he was looking at Kabir with a peculiar expression. It was almost as if…what was it?
“Aren't you going to have a drink? It's really good,” he lied. He felt funny- his mouth felt cold, almost like the sensation of pins and needles. Khalid smiled, and Kabir was finally able to understand Khalid's expression.
He was watching him in anticipation, like a spider waiting for the entangled fly to stop struggling in its web.
Kabir put a hand to his mouth, trying to spit out whatever wine was left in his mouth. It was tingling now, and his fingers and toes felt numb. He looked up in horror. “You…” he trailed off, as he watched Khalid's mouth stretch out in a cold, humourless sneer as he poured his own drink overboard.
Shit. He'd expected this, had prepared for the possibility that Khalid would betray him, but he wasn't prepared for how painful it would be. He'd grown to like Khalid a lot, maybe even in some ways that could be considered unprofessional. He wanted to scream, to shake Khalid and ask him why, how could you do this?
But as it were, his face was losing feeling, and the world around him began to spin. Khalid’s face was becoming blurry, and Kabir began to see double. He looked like a two-faced monster, enjoying the sight of Kabir succumbing to the poison.
How long does this stupid antidote take to work? He thought as he fell to the floor with a crash, breaking a table on the way down. Shards of broken glass cut into his cheek as Khalid's disembodied voice floated above him.
“Did you know, Kabir,” he began, and Kabir hated the way he said his name, “that TTX has no antidote? At least it’ll be a quick death for you.”
You're wrong, he wanted to say, but breathing had become difficult, and it was taking all of his energy to force air down his throat. In, out. In, out. This antidote was taking its sweet time to work. Kabir hated it. At this rate, he might actually die before the poison was neutralised.
He could only lie there, gasping for breath on the floor, as Khalid sank back in a chair, legs sprawled out, the picture of victory.
Fuck, he thought. I'm actually going to die here.
Panic clawed at his throat as he continued to struggle with weakening limbs, barely listening to Khalid's story. Panic quickly gave way to disgust as he felt Khalid's hands in his hair, giving it a tug to force him to listen. Once upon a time, any touch from the man would have flustered Kabir, and he would've pretended that it had no effect on him.
As it were, he was just grossed out. Khalid forced him to look at Khalid's face. What once was beautiful had now been marred by scars that snakes across his face, marring his handsome features. “I wasn't going to tell you this,” he began. “I was just going to let you die under the assumption that Khalid killed you. But then I thought, where's the fun in that?”
He spoke about how Khalid had been shot in Marrakesh, and how they'd stolen his face and planted Saurabh into RAW. “There's something about this face,” he mused, “that makes everyone want to trust it.”
Kabir's heart sank. Khalid was dead- there was no way he could've survived that. He could visualise it in his mind's eye- Khalid would have been fighting Saurabh, maybe even winning. Then his body would jerk as he fell to the ground, eyes wide as he turned to face Ilyasi. There was no hope for his survival, he thought, as unwelcome tears of grief pricked at his eyes.
“Then,” Saurabh continued, “you somehow went rogue, killing Ilyasi's men left and right. How did you know? I needed you to trust me, so I pretended that I understood why you did it. And,” he paused, laughing, “you did!”
“You handed the codes right to me!” He grinned, waving the drive Kabir had given to him for safekeeping. “Ilyasi will love this. All communications at the border will be cut. The soldiers will be like sitting ducks- so vulnerable, no connection to anyone. Thanks for this.”
“It's funny, isn't it?” He pondered aloud. “You get maybe thousands of dollars for protecting your country. But you can make millions by betraying it.”
Slowly, Kabir started to regain sensation in his limbs. The tingling slowly had started to cease, and breathing was becoming easier as the antidote worked its way through his system. He still felt weak, unable to do more than tense his muscles as Khalid- no, Saurabh, he told himself. Not Khalid- he didn't deserve to be called by that name. Saurabh knelt down on the floor beside him, lifting him up in a bridal carry and carrying him towards the back of the boat.
Maybe, in another world, Kabir would have liked this contact. Giddiness would have risen in his chest like a lovesick schoolgirl as he desperately tried to hide how flustered it made him. Yet now, he just wished Saurabh would just drop him already. That face was creeping him out- and Kabir's sense that something was wrong finally made sense. The antidote was taking effect now- he was no longer fully limp in Saurabh's arms, and he was regaining feeling in his limbs. That took its sweet time, he thought, as he pondered how he would escape once Saurabh's back was turned.
Then Saurabh dropped him into the water.
No! His mind screamed, fighting the knee-jerk reaction to gasp and swallow a lungful of water. He wasn’t strong enough to swim yet- strength was slowly coming back into his limbs. He fought the panic that was rising in his chest, instead taking note of his surroundings.
Drowning was a mental challenge, he remembered from his survival training. The body could survive without oxygen for a while, but people mostly panicked due to the carbon dioxide build-up, breathing in too early. He had to stay calm. He extended his arms, trying to breaststroke his way to the riverbank.
It was slow going, but he was nearly there, when he felt a splash next to him. The next thing he knew, he was being pulled out of the water by a pair of strong arms, and found himself flat on his back on the riverbank, coughing up water.
It's beautiful, he thought dimly as he stared at the sky, his surroundings came into focus.
“Sir,” came an all-too familiar voice, and Kabir jolted up, hand pinned around someone's neck.
“Saurabh?” he breathed.
What? Hang on, he thought. That didn't make sense. Saurabh was just on the boat with him. He wouldn't have then jumped into the water to save him…unless…
The man who he had pinned to the ground had Saurabh's face and Khalid's voice. And if Saurabh wore Khalid's face, then…
No. That couldn't be.
With a start, he realised that he had let his guard down, and was now flat on his back. The man let go of him, flinching as though he'd been burnt.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I know I might not look it, but it's me. It's Khalid.”
It couldn't be. But still, his heart, stubborn as it was, refused to give up hope. He needed to be sure.
“What…what was the last piece of advice I gave you?”
His answer was immediate. “To always keep a partner on my right hand side.”
Kabir looked into his eyes. His face may have been all wrong- the face of a traitor, but his eyes were right- they were the eyes of a loyal partner. It was odd, he thought to himself. That he could still feel so much affection for a man who wore a traitor’s face.
That was a thought he would deal with later.
For now, his heart was still struggling to come to terms with the possibility that Khalid was alive in front of him.
Slowly, he sat up, heartbeat quickening as he inspected the man. The hope that blossomed in his chest was a fragile thing, and Kabir wanted to entertain his delusion a little more.
“Khalid? Is it really you?”
He nodded, eyes filled with tears.
Ah, what the hell, thought Kabir, as he embraced him. If he shed a few tears of his own, that was no one's business but his.
They must have been a sight to see- 3 men, two of them soaking wet and crying, hugging like a married couple, the third still dressed in a kurta, talking hurriedly on the phone to his wife.
***
The ride back was silent. All three of them were still processing what had happened, and honestly, Kabir couldn't believe it. He would ask Khalid more about how he'd survived later, but for now it was just enough that he was alive, stealing a glance here and there.
Aditi was livid when they returned.
She'd changed out of her saree into a comfortable salwar kameez, and Khalid was distinctly reminded of his mother as she gave each of them an earful.
“I cannot believe you all! Kabir, I gave you that antidote for a reason. Why would you then drink the poisoned drink if you know it's poisoned? That antidote was a last resort!”
Kabir knew that at times like this, it was just better to take it, even though he bit back his own retort that the antidote was clearly shit if it took that long to work.
“And you.” She turned her rage onto Khalid. “You could have died- who told you to jump into the river? Kabir would have been fine, but you just barely survived dragging your ass here and now you want to go swimming?”
Even Prashant, who was re-stitching the wound on Khalid's shoulder, couldn't escape. “Prashant, why didn't you stop him? These two have no braincells, I know that much, but you at least should have stopped Khalid!”
“I did try,” he protested. “I told him you'd given Kabir the antidote. But Khalid thought he was taking too long to resurface, so he jumped in anyway.”
Aditi rolled her eyes. “You're all idiots, the three of you.”
But even she couldn't stay mad at them forever, and she sighed. “I'm just glad you're all ok.”
For a moment, Kabir could almost pretend like it was the old days again. He and Aditi talked and laughed as she tracked the location of the flash drive, and Khalid leaned back on the bed, waiting for Prashant to lend him some clothes.
He stole a glance at Khalid, and the heat rising in his face quickly gave way to worry. Even in his training days, Khalid had been in top form, and his strong, muscular body reflected his efforts. Now, he'd lost a lot of weight, and Kabir could see his ribs when he breathed in slowly, like it caused him pain. And it probably did, if the purple and blue bruising that mottled his side was anything to go by. His shoulder was bandaged, and Kabir caught a full view of his back when he got up to put on a shirt.
Four bullet scars clustered high on his back, spread across his shoulders. Kabir's breath caught in his throat, and guilt quickly followed. How had he survived that?
Khalid must have caught the expression on his face, as he grimaced, changing quicker. “Sorry, sir,” he muttered. “I'll go do it in the bathroom.”
“No,” Kabir said, the words falling out faster than he could stop them. “Don't call me sir. Just Kabir is fine.” Kabir didn't deserve the respect that Khalid gave him, when it had taken him that long to work out that Saurabh was impersonating him. He wasn't there in Marrakesh, either. Khalid had taken a bullet for him, but he was unable to protect Khalid in the end.
Some ‘sir’ he was.
“What,” he paused, trying to find the right words. “What happened to you in Marrakesh?”
Khalid looked down, refusing to meet Kabir's gaze. He seemed…almost embarrassed, as if he'd rather talk about anything else. “There's not really much to say,” he began.
“I went after Saurabh, and I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gone off on my own like that. But I wasn't thinking- I was just so angry with him, it was like my feet led me there.”
Kabir's heart clenched. “Is that when he shot you?”
“Yeah. Then I woke up in a cabin next to the river- a boy pulled me out of the river. Without him, I'd be dead. Sir, if it's alright with you, can I reward him once this is all over? Please promise me that you'll make sure he's alright if something happens to me.”
“We can go see him after this is all over. You can tell him yourself how thankful you are.” Did that imply they'd go together? He only realised that implication after he'd said it, but he didn't really care. He meant it. “And Kabir is fine, please, I insist.”
Khalid swallowed. “Ok, Kabir.” The name felt strange on his tongue, and Kabir quite liked how he said it.
“I heard that you were still alive and had gone to Italy, so I followed you. I tried my best to protect Naina, I really did. I'm really sorry I couldn't protect her.”
Ah, Kabir thought. That explained the carnage at Firoze's mansion in Italy. Khalid had been there, just out of reach, while Kabir had been miles away on the boat. “So at that bar, that was you?”
Khalid smiled, golden eyes meeting Kabir’s own green eyes. “I'm surprised you remembered that.”
How could he not? He'd thought he was being delusional, but the real Khalid had been right in front of him the whole time. “Then what were you doing after I defected?”
The smile vanished from Khalid's face, and Kabir watched his Adam's apple bob in his throat as he swallowed.
“Ilyasi caught me,” he whispered, so quiet that Kabir had to strain his ears to hear.
Oh. There was clearly a story there, and Kabir wanted nothing more to know what that bastard had done to make Khalid so ashamed, but he couldn't ask that of Khalid. Despite his growing anger towards Ilyasi and Saurabh, he held his tongue, for Khalid's sake.
“But you escaped,” he blurted, both to remind himself and Khalid that that chapter of the story was behind them now, and there was still hope to stop Ilyasi and complete their mission.
“Yeah,” Khalid blinked, rubbing a hand over his face. “And now we're here.”
“And now we're here.” Kabir echoed.
Kabir wanted to say so much more, had so much he wanted to tell Khalid that he'd been holding back for the past few months. He wanted to apologise, for not noticing Saurabh sooner, for not realising his life for what it was. He wanted to tell him how strong he was for enduring all of that, and how proud he was. He wanted to let Khalid know that he'd missed him, and he was glad he was alive.
But he said nothing, out of consideration of Khalid's condition, and partly out of fear. Seeing Khalid had made him realise the extent of his feelings- sure, there was affection and respect, but something deeper was growing. Something that had been there since they'd started growing closer, and he'd considered him as a partner.
He told himself he'd think about it after the mission was over.
Khalid leaned his head on Kabir's shoulder, exhausted, and they sat there in silence, lost in their thoughts.
“I have a location for the drive, sir,” Aditi called.
“They're headed towards the North Pole.”