Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Konomi Takeshi does. I'm merely playing with them for the moment.

A/N: This was originally written for the PoT Beat the Heat fic exchange.

Lemon Cinnamon Raspberry Dream

"The goal of today's training is quite clear." Inui adjusted his glasses, looking seriously at the gathered regular team. "We need to train your endurance. To do that, the best way is to train under extreme conditions." His expression turned into a wicked smirk, he added, "Such as the current heat wave."

"That's just cruel, nyaa!" Eiji complained, crossing his hands behind his head. "Inui's such a meanie! It's no good to train in this heat; we'll just end up fainting and withering away!"

"Now, now, Eiji," Oishi said. "It's not like we can choose the weather for matches, either! What if we have a match on a horribly hot day?"

"Then the opponent is just as screwed," Eiji replied, sticking his tongue out. "I'm absolutely sure no other team ever trains in such horrible conditions, nyaa! Only Inui is sadistic enough for this!"

"Well, Kikumaru does have a point." Inui adjusted his glasses again, ignoring the surprised gasps, exclamations, and other such sounds at his agreement. "Of course, I cannot force anyone to participate in this exercise. However," his smirk turned even more wicked, "there will be a penalty."

"A penalty?" Eiji made a face, stepping back. "You don't mean…"

"Indeed." Inui's smirk got even wider. "This." He presented a clear water bottle. Inside it they could see a suspiciously murky liquid with shades of purple mixed in. "Super Cool Inui Heat-Beating Juice. Guaranteed to keep you… cool." Even with the sun currently boiling their blood, everyone knew that the 'cool' in this case would hardly be a pleasant thing.

"Eww," Momo said. "That looks like it will kill you if you drink it, it really looks like that!"

"My, that drink looks interesting." Fuji smiled happily, looking for all the world as though he was just dying to get a taste. "But what exactly is this exercise of yours, Inui?"

Inui's smirk got just a bit wider. "It is…" a moment of ominous silence, "an ice cream hunt."

"Whaaaat?" Momo exclaimed. "Ice cream? There's ice cream? Where?"

"In quite a few places, actually." Inui adjusted his glasses. "There are several ice cream shops around this area. However, somewhere in the vicinity there is a very special shop." As they gave him questioning gazes, he continued, "There is only one ice cream shop in all of Tokyo that sells lemon cinnamon raspberry ice cream."

"…Lemon cinnamon raspberry?" Taka-san blinked. "That sounds… quite strange, really."

"Aww, don't be like that, Taka-san!" Eiji said cheerfully. "It's ice cream, so it obviously can't be bad, right? Nyaa, tell more, Inui! So we have to find that shop, right?"

"Exactly." Inui nodded. "The shop is owned by a relative of mine; I have talked with him about this exercise. Once you find the shop selling this flavour, tell him your name and make sure he notes it down. After this, practice is over for your part, and you'll be free to go wherever you want."

"Is there a penalty for that?" Echizen asked, tugging his cap down. "Or can we just spend the rest of the day walking around in search of this shop?"

"Well, if you want to, I suppose so," Inui said. "But if you were thinking of taking a nap or something, you might want to reconsider. The shop owner promised one free ice cream to every one of us who finds their way there in two hours."

"Free ice cream?" Eiji's eyes flew wide. "Yaaaay! This is the best exercise ever! Don't you think so, Oishi?" He clung to Oishi's arm, receiving a slight smile in return.

"…What's the catch?" Kaidou frowned. "This sounds a bit too nice for one of your exercises, Inui-senpai."

"Well, I never said it would be easy, did I?" Inui raised his eyebrows. "When I said the ice cream shop would be somewhere close to this place, I was using rather relative terms." He smirked, pushing his glasses up his nose. "In this case, 'in the vicinity' means 'within a five kilometre radius of this spot."

"Five kilometres?" Momo echoed. "But that's a long way to run, especially in this heat! And if we don't even know which way it is…"

"Exactly." Inui smirked. "This is a test of both luck and endurance. The faster you are, the more places you can check within the two hours – but in this heat, very few people can keep up a good speed for too long." He glanced towards Kaidou. "Kaidou, I quite expect you to excel in this task."

"…Fsshuuu. I'll do my best, Inui-senpai." Kaidou glanced away. "So… when does the time start?"

"Well…" Inui glanced down at his watch. "I'd say approximately… five seconds or so ago."

"Huh?" Eiji blinked. "You should have given us a warning, nyah! Come on, Oishi, the time's ticking away! Hurry, hurry!" Grasping on Oishi's hand, he started dragging him away. Everyone else scattered around, running every which way to start their search. Inui alone stood still, watching the team spread around.

Once everyone was out of sight, Inui sighed a bit, adjusting his glasses once again. "Really," he said, "they are almost too easy to predict, sometimes. There was a 97.8 percent chance this would be the result of my words."

With this, he turned around and walked to the doors behind him. Pushing them open, he nodded at the shopkeeper. "Good afternoon, uncle," he said. "The two hours start now."

*

"Eiji?" Oishi asked his partner once they'd run for a while. "Do you have any kind of a plan for the search?"

"Well, obviously, nyah!" Eiji replied. "Do you really think I'd just run around and check every ice cream shop without any kind of a plan? Silly Oishi!"

"Well, it sure looked like that for a while," Oishi replied, slowing down a bit. Eiji slowed down also, probably without even fully realizing it, thankfully all too used to Oishi setting the pace. "So, care to share this master plan of yours with me?"

"If you insist." Eiji stuck out his tongue. "We'll just run right past all the shops I know, nyah, because I know none of them sell such a weird ice cream flavour!"

"…Somehow, I'm not surprised." Had Oishi been an anime character, he might now have produced a gigantic sweat drop. "That sounds like… an Eiji kind of a plan."

"Ehh? You have a better idea, then?" Eiji asked.

"Well… to be honest, not really," Oishi had to admit.

"See?" Eiji stuck out his tongue. "So leave thinking to the great Kikumaru-sama!"

Oishi just chuckled and did exactly so, instead concentrating on making sure neither of them ran himself to exhaustion.

*

"Tezuka." Inui glanced at his watch, licking his spoon before sinking it into his ice cream again. "Only ten minutes. I'm fairly impressed."

"I should have realized it earlier," Tezuka sighed, his expression just as serious as ever. "Like everyone else, though, I was thrown off by the comment about distance and didn't realize we were standing right in front of an ice cream shop."

"I know." Inui smirked. "Quite ingenious, don't you think?"

"…If you say so." Tezuka took a seat next to Inui, then nodded at the shop keeper. "Thank you for assisting in our practice."

"Oh, it's not any trouble," the man replied cheerfully. "Sadaharu-kun is not only my nephew but also one of my best customers. I couldn't really say no to him."

"Really?" Tezuka raised his eyebrows, turning to look at Inui. "I never really thought you the type to like ice cream, Inui."

"Well, even I have my quirks." Inui ate another spoonful of the red-and-green striped ice cream. "Although I do admit I'm rather selective about what I'll eat."

"Oh?" Tezuka eyed the ice cream. "And what is that? Mint and strawberry?"

"Not… quite." Inui smirked. "It's actually spinach and octopus. Care for a taste?" He took some into the spoon, offering it to Tezuka with a wicked smirk.

"I… think I'll pass." Tezuka shook his head. "I'm not quite one for such… unusual… flavours."

"Well, then what would you like, Tezuka-kun?" The shop keeper smiled at him. "You did make it back within the time limit, after all. We serve quite an impressive variety of flavours here, if I do say so myself." He nodded towards the list on the wall nearby.

Tezuka quickly scanned the list. It was… impressive, all right. He was beginning to think he knew where Inui had got his peculiar tastes. "…I think just plain vanilla will do," he then said blankly. He really was not craving for cactus ice cream.

"Really, Tezuka." Inui sighed. "You're quite a boring one, aren't you? You really should broaden your horizons every now and then."

"I'd rather not broaden my horizons with something that will possibly make me sick," Tezuka replied dryly. "…Besides, you already knew I would take vanilla, didn't you?"

Inui shrugged. "It was a 83 percent chance," he said. "The remaining 17 percent being the remote possibility Oishi had managed to influence you with his taste for chocolate ice cream."

Tezuka's lips twitched, just a little. Probably not even Inui's ever so observant eyes noticed a thing. "There's nothing wrong with plain vanilla."

Inui's smirk was decidedly wicked, now. "Prove it."

*

"Do you like ice cream, Taka-san?"

"Ah… I eat it sometimes, yes." Taka-san smiled a bit. "What about you, Fuji?"

"Well, not so much, really," Fuji admitted. "I'm not too much into sweet things. But then," he grinned, "if this shop of Inui's has such weird flavours, it's sure to have something less than sweet, too, wouldn't you think?"

"Well, I really can't imagine lemon ice cream would be too sweet," Taka-san commented, scratching the back of his neck. "So… you know any ice cream shops around here that we could ask?"

"I think there's one behind that little park there." Fuji pointed. "We should be able to cut right through it."

"Ah, okay." They weren't exactly running, nor quite walking; a peaceful half-jog the most comfortable pace for them. After all, they wanted to find the shop as soon as possible, but neither thought it very wise to exhaust themselves right in the beginning. "There seems to be a nice little path right through the park…"

"Oh, wait." Fuji stopped, looking at something. "Isn't there someone lying under that tree?" He frowned a bit. "I think I recognize that uniform…"

"Oh!" Taka-san's eyes widened. "It's the Hyoutei tennis uniform! I wonder if he's all right…" He started approaching the tree instead of their intended destination, Fuji following without a protest. On such a hot day, it wasn't exactly impossible to think someone had collapsed there.

Upon closer inspection, they noted there was nothing to worry about. The curly-haired Hyoutei player was rather peacefully asleep. Fuji chuckled. "He's the one who won against Yuuta," he said. "Jirou, wasn't it? That was a fun match."

"He was quite impressed at your skills, wasn't he?" Taka-san remembered. "But then, that's only natural, you're such a great player after all…"

"Aw, you flatter me, Taka-san." Fuji flashed him a bright smile, making Taka-san flush a little. "Although I wonder… is it good for him to sleep in this heat? He's in the shadow now, but the sun will soon move to shine right down at him…"

"You're right," Taka-san replied with a worried frown. "I'll wake him up." Crouching down next to Jirou, he gently shook his shoulder. "Hey, wake up, please!"

Jirou mumbled something, turning onto his back. "Mmm… Kabaji, let me sleep… just five more minutes…" he muttered.

Taka-san smiled a bit, then shook again. "You really should wake up," he said softly. "It's not good to sleep out when it's this hot…"

"Huh? You're talking…" Jirou managed to open his eyes enough to look at Taka-san. "…You're not Kabaji."

"Well, no…" Taka-san scratched the back of his neck. "We just, well, we thought…"

"You shouldn't fall asleep out in this heat like that," Fuji said, smiling slightly. "It's not healthy if you're too long out in the sun."

"Huh?" Jirou blinked as he heard Fuji's voice. Then his eyes flew wide and he bounced up. "Wow, it's you! You're such a great player! I wish we can play against each other again soon!"

"I quite wish so, too." Fuji smiled happily. "Before that, though, it's no good if you get yourself sick by getting sunstroke."

"I won't, I won't!" Jirou let out an embarrassed chuckle as he scratched his head. "What are you doing here? Do you have club practice in the park or something?"

"Well, yes and no," Fuji replied. "Our manager sent us out to look for one particular ice cream shop."

"Ice cream shop?" Jirou blinked. "What ice cream shop?"

"We don't know the name," Taka-san explained. "We were only told they sell lemon cinnamon raspberry ice cream."

"Oh, that one!" Jirou smiled brightly. "I know a lot of ice cream shops, but that's one of the most fun ones! I even got Atobe to go there once, but he really didn't like any of the weird flavours. He sure is strange, don't you think? Anyway, if you have to find it, I can show you the way! It's not even very far, I don't think!"

Fuji's smile got a bit brighter. "We'd be very happy if you agreed to help us."

*

Momo was running.

Granted, he had started off running, but then he'd slowed down for a moment. Now, though, he was again running, running as fast as he could. And the reason for this was running right before him.

"I'll catch you yet!" Momoshiro yelled at Kamio. "You rhythm idiot!"

"You wish!" Kamio replied, his feet beating the ground rapidly. "I'm faster than you any day!"

"No way!" The hunt for the ice cream place had entirely deserted Momo's mind. He'd still been thinking of it a while ago, but then Kamio had arrived, commenting on how slow he was running, and really Momoshiro you should stick to walking before you hurt yourself or break someone's bike. There was obviously no way Momo was going to back down from such a challenge. Which was the reason they were currently both running down the street under the burning sun, only barely avoiding any collisions with innocent – and quite bewildered – passers-by.

"Just give up, Momoshiro!" Kamio turned to shout over his shoulder. This was when someone came from behind the corner. Momo tried to shout out for him to watch out, but there was no way for Kamio to stop in time anyway. He ran right into the newly appeared person, Momoshiro crashing on top of both as he also failed to stop in time.

"Owww…" Momo whined as he got up. "That hurt, that really hurt!"

"You're one to speak," an annoyed voice snapped. "Ugh, my skirt's absolutely ruined! I never expected to be forced into wrestling today!"

"Huh?" Momo and Kamio glanced at each other, both recognizing the voice. Then Kamio, too, jumped up. "Waaah! An-chan!"

"Tachibana's little sister!" Momo exclaimed. "Did we run into you?"

"Oh, no." Tachibana An snorted as she got up, brushing dust off her skirt. "I just happened to be lying on the ground right where you decided to do a pile-up."

"I'm so sorry, An-chan!" Kamio shouted, bowing deep in apology. "Please forgive me! I never meant to –"

"It was all his fault!" Momoshiro announced. "Sorry, Tachibana's little sister!"

"Whaaat?" Kamio exclaimed, enraged. "It was all your fault! Yours alone!"

"No it's not, it'd definitely not! You are the one who challenged me!"

Who knew how long the boys would have been yelling at each other had they not been interrupted. Thankfully, An was there to end their useless argument. Grasping the front of both of their shirts, she glared quite successfully up at them.

"This is both of your fault," she said. "Therefore, you both owe me an ice cream."

"Ice cream?" Momo blinked. "…Oh, yeah, I was supposed to look for that."

"And still you started fighting with me?" Kamio asked, happily forgetting he had been the one to first comment on Momo's speed.

"Don't start another argument, now," An said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I want my lemon cinnamon raspberry ice cream, and I want it as soon as possible."

Momo stared at her. "Um… you know where to get that?"

"Well, obviously. I wouldn't be asking for it otherwise, would I?" This time it was An who blinked.

Momoshiro grinned brightly. "You know what, Tachibana's little sister?" he asked. "You just became my new favourite person."

*

Kaidou ran.

He was used to such exercises. This would be no problem. He would simply check every ice cream shop he came across; sooner or later he would find the right one.

But until he found it, he would run.

*

Echizen was not exactly in a hurry. Despite Inui's words, the mere promise of free ice cream would not make him run more than he absolutely had to. The best way to find such a weird ice cream flavour, he figured out, would be to ask people. Somebody was sure to know where to find such a shop.

Turning around a corner, he blinked as he looked at himself.

Upon closer inspection, of course, it was not himself after all. Instead, he was staring at that little copycat of Yamabuki. "…Dan, isn't it?"

"Yes desu!" The kid smiled brightly. "Wow, I never expected to run into Echizen-kun in such a way!"

"Yeah, sure." Echizen tugged his cap a bit lower. "Look, I don't have the time to chat right now. I have to find something."

"Oh?" Dan tilted his head to the side, apparently not having any intention of leaving him alone. "What are you looking for, Echizen-kun?"

"An ice cream shop." Echizen looked at him thoughtfully. Dan did look like the type to eat sweet things… "You think you could help me?"

"Oh, sure desu!" Dan grinned brightly. "What kind of a shop are you looking for?"

"One that sells lemon cinnamon raspberry ice cream." Such a weird combination… Echizen wondered if anyone actually ate such a thing.

"Hmm, let's see…" Dan thought for a moment. Then his expression brightened again. "Oh, I know that one! I sometimes go there with Akutsu-senpai desu!"

Echizen blinked. "Akutsu… eats ice cream?"

"Well, not usually desu." Dan fidgeted a bit. "But, you see… this shop sells tobacco-flavoured ice cream, too, so sometimes I manage to persuade him, you know?"

Echizen looked at Dan's bright grin and wide, puppy-like eyes. After a moment, he chuckled slightly. "…I guess." Adjusting his cap again, he asked, "So, you going to show me the way?"

"Sure desu!" Dan grinned. "Just come this way, Echizen-kun!" He then started running right to the direction Echizen had come from.

Shaking his head, Echizen followed. He really should have known…

*

"…I think we're lost, nyaa." Eiji looked around somewhat helplessly.

"I'm sure the situation's not quite that bad, Eiji." Oishi did his best to smile to hide his own worry. "We just haven't been to this area before. If we keep walking, we'll probably come across something familiar sooner or later."

"Or maybe we'll just get deeper into the strange area!" Eiji pointed out. "Nya, Oishi, you really think we'll find the way home?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Oishi patted Eiji's head somewhat awkwardly.

"Yay!" And, without any further warning, Eiji suddenly kissed him.

Oishi didn't know what to say or do. As it turned out, though, it didn't really matter. By the time he was somewhat prepared to talk again, someone else had already broken the silence.

"Well, well, well. Isn't this sweet." St. Rudolph's manager eyed them with a smirk. "Such good data on you… nfu."

"Ah, Mizuki-san," Oishi said. He really didn't feel comfortable around this person… "I'm sorry, Eiji just got a bit carried away…"

"What are you doing around here, anyway?" Mizuki twirled a lock of hair between his fingers. "I didn't know you came into this area often."

"We didn't mean to, nyah!" Eiji announced. "Stupid Inui just sent us out looking for some strange ice cream shop! I bet it doesn't really even exist at all…"

"Really, now?" Mizuki's smirk got just a bit more worrying. "Inui-kun did?" He chuckled again. "Nfu. An… ice cream shop, you say?"

"Exactly." Oishi sighed. Then, he asked, not really daring to hope, "Do you know anything about them?"

"But naturally!" Mizuki tsked. "Really. With such heat lately the locations and menus of the local ice cream shops are most essential data."

"Then would you help us?" Eiji asked, tilting his head to the side. "Please?"

"But of course." Mizuki chuckled again. "It is merely my duty, after all, to prove that my data is at least as good as Inui-kun's, wouldn't you agree?" He smirked. "So, what is this shop you're looking for?"

*

"Of course," Inui said, looking down at his data and then at the gathered team, "as some of you might have realized had you stopped to think, this wasn't only a test of endurance."

"Eh?" Momoshiro blinked. "What do you mean?"

"The most effective way of action," Inui replied, "would have been for everyone to spread out. You all have cell phones; it would have been rather easy for someone to inform all the others once they found the shop. We are, after all, a team. Even if we play our matches separately, successful team work is quite essential."

"Aw, don't be like that, Inui!" Eiji protested. "We all found our way here in the end, didn't we?"

"Indeed." Inui adjusted his glasses. "Kaidou simply kept running, relying on nobody but himself. Tezuka noticed my scheme right away. Taka-san and Fuji were led here by a Hyoutei student, and Echizen by Dan-kun from Yamabuki. Momoshiro arrived with two Fudoumine students and kept fighting with one of them until they finally left, and Oishi and Eiji were helped find this place by Saint Rudolph's Mizuki, who immediately started purposefully annoying both myself and Fuji."

"In other words," Oishi said with a sheepish smile, "we had good team work with people who weren't from our team?"

"Exactly." Inui shook his head. "I cannot even say whether this was a great success or an absolute failure."

"This is all quite interesting," Fuji said, smiling a bit. "However, there's another bit of data I'm quite a lot more interested in."

"Oh?" Inui raised his eyebrows. "And that would be?"

"When Taka-san and I arrived… why was Tezuka feeding you ice cream?"