#kritavarma

So my headcanon for their friendship is frankly only because the both of them were the starting factors for the Yadava massacre. 

Reading the Mausala Parva, my brain goes: wouldn't it be so bitter if these two used to be friends? Headcanon created. Boom.

In my head, they used to be very close when they were younger, and argued frequently and they argued big. But as they grew up, the arguments remained but they got more personal, more bitter and their friendship eventually fell apart.

When they're about middle-aged, those peaceful years before the Rajasuya, their friendship is not as strong as it used to be, but they're not willing to let go of each other just yet.

They also have a habit of dueling it out whenever they're pissed about something, or at each other.

I think the big "break-up" happens somewhere towards the end of the exile, before the Agyatvasa starts.

One day one of them goes too far and the other decides they've had enough. (Mostly Satyaki to me, Kritavarma's grown bitter by this point.) Tensions are rising as whispers of the the upcoming war ripple throughout the country and Dvaraka is obviously a major player.

And by the time the war rolls around, they haven't spoken to each other in months outside of business, and Satyaki vainly hopes that Kritavarma will fight with them, but all his hopes shatter the second Kritavarma declares his intent to fight on the Kaurava side and his heart sinks, knowing he's going to have to fight—maybe to the death—someone who used to be his closest friend a long time ago.

“The end, my son, is a fact of start itself. Similarly, death too is a fact of life. Why people fear death is funny.” There was something about the silence that told Pita shri everything that the person in front of him thought of. Pradyumna’s mind was stuck on the children he had seen the morning, barley 5. They didn’t deserve the curse. “They don’t, yes. But son life isn’t just your past or your future. Time can’t define life.” He was sitting now, looking into Pradyumna’s eyes, or maybe his soul. “Life is present, this second, this moment, this breadth.” When Pitra shri took Pradyumna’s hands in his, he was still surprised by the instant comfort it provided. “Live it my son, live the moment, live your life in a single moment” and then Krishna laughed.

When pita shri returned from the war, with an expression as empty as the road behind him, his heart wasn’t empty. He brought the curse, a cruel, detrimental and deadly curse and oh, a smile.

Pita shri had made it clear that nothing could be done. No penance or tirth could right this wrong.So they waited for the time to come the way a person with an incurable deadly disease waited for his end, this way the yadav waited for it’s doom. 

Something in Pradyumna wanted all of Krishna that he could have. When Pradyumna’s feet had crossed the gates of Dwarka for the first time, he was spotted with eyes filled with all kinds of expressions he was very familiar with, but then stood the women, her beauty, to be specific, stood out and besides her stood a man. As dark as night and yet as bright as moon, body of a fighter but ways of a dancer, Krishna. From that day on Pradyumna would dream of the treasures of childhood that he could never have. At night in his slumber, his mind would go back to the times when even the touches that called themselves motherly were everything but motherly and he would wonder, what would it be like to play in Mata Rukmini’s lap, tease her and what would it be like to listen to krishna sing, sing him to sleep? let me be a baby again. Pradyumna wanted to be on Krishna’s side all the time, his greatest companion but everytime Krishna would walk away from the field and look at Pradyumna with a confusing smile, pradyumna wouldn’t understand and he thought he would have known his father better if-  let me be a baby again. When small things made his father happy, he would look at him with wonder in his eyes, maybe he would understand if-  let me be a baby again. With the thought Pradyumna would sleep let me be a baby again. 

Krishna wanted that there be no other reason for the faith of Yadavas than his own son and so Samba was obtained. And with Samba another curse was obtained. Samba was a mirror image of Pita shri and something about that always bothered Pradyumna. That boy never used it for any good. The day the Rishis uttered those words, Pradyumna spent the day thinking of all the possible ways he could have stopped it. “Waste, you couldn’t stop it no matter what you did.” Krishna had told him while they gazed at the city from the place. The funny part is Pradyumna didn’t remember asking Pita shri that question. 

 Something about the way the wind blew changed after the curse of the rishis. People found it hard to point out problems in each other, but the more they thought, the easier it got. Every ripe fruit tasted sour, songs lost their rhythm, no smile seemed genuine, every breeze ice cold and the sun's rays burning hot. Every eye that had once looked at Pradyumna respectfully was now baleful. One day Krishna had suggested that they move towards Prabhas. “It’s better that way” he had said and the smile.

 In Prabhas they stayed in camps but what’s important was, they stayed together. The sea breeze on Prabhas beach felt strange, like it whispered ‘it’s here.’

Mayavati had her ways though. She would run her long fingers in Pradyumna’s hair at night, something that calmed him. “We can meet again somewhere” She would say, when she rested her head on his shoulders after she was done untangling his long hair, “Somewhere far away from here” and they would embrace like it was their last. And maybe it was.

The Vrishni had started drinking. Pradyumna couldn’t get himself to believe that it was just the stale liquid that made them glare at each other. 

Satyaki had been grieving for days now. The loss of his guru. His words felt foreign to Pradyumna when he told him about the misconduct the naryani sena had done to the Pandavas. Tears welled in Satyaki’s eyes and something about the way he hurriedly tried to hide them reminded him of a certain teen boy he shouldn't remember right now. Abhimanyu

Kritavarma shouldn’t have teased Satyaki with the topic of dharma in the first place but then again, who could have stopped him? And so it happened. Satayaki scratched just the parts of Kritavarma that made him oil Stayaki’s fire of sorrows. Somewhere in the middle when Pradyumna had involuntarily sided with Satyaki, maybe because something in the conversation had confirmed him that the naryani was the one responsible for the vyuh that swallowed Abhimanyu, the confidence it provided to the warrior was treacherous and what caused him to Move towards Kritavarma with a sword. Something in him wanted his father’s permission before he did what he did, so he turned to pita shri only to find him stopped in his tracks. Pradyumna didn’t realise he was standing until he saw Kritavarma’s head near his left foot. Pradyumna saw Stayaki’s sword slicing the necks of everyone who once had been on Kritavarma’s side. Pradyumna's heart might have stopped because his blood ran cold, his mind went numb with a wailing sound.

It’s here

The Bhojas and Andhakas were approaching Satyaki with a rage that visibly made them shake. Mata Satyabhama was screaming with the sorrow of what she had just witnessed, she was running towards Mata Rukmini’s kaksh but Pradyumna didn’t follow. He didn’t want to see his mother. Not right now. Instead he looked at Krishna to answer some unanswered questions, Krishna had been looking straight at Pradyumna but all the only thing he received from his father was a smile. And suddenly, Pradyumna felt like a baby playing in Krishna’s lap, listening to the stories of beautiful Gopis and sweet curd, listening to a Bansuri and oh, he was a baby. But the second he realized that, the dream vanished. Krishna’s eyes dared to reveal drops of tears when he lifted both his hands, blessing his son. Pradyumna didn’t want to hear the way Stayaki was screaming while being hit by pots that were supposed to be used for serving food. Pradyumna accepted his father’s gift by bowing his head or was he just hiding his tears? No one would know because in the next moment, he took his sword and walked towards Gandhari’s curse.

(ik im late ok? but here you go)