Kebchii says: Hi, guys! Thank you for following this story up until now. You know, it's really hard being an Engineering student so you have to excuse my late updates. Anyway, I don't wanna keep you. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama and it's characters. The only things I own are the OCs that will probably annoy you 'cause they keep piling up in this story.

Summer Heat

Kebchii

"All right!" A hard slam was heard and every student in the classroom turned their heads to the board. They watched as the young man adjusted his glasses, seeming satisfied at having caught his classmates' attention.

"Oh, it's just Patsuan."

"What do you mean 'it's just Patsuan'?!" Shinpachi cried out. "Excuse you but I'm actually one of the main characters here!" With a tut, he patted his hand on the board. "Let's just focus on the matter at hand. The cultural festival is coming up so we have to decide on what event we would want to do."

Kagura turned from facing Soyo-chan and listened, intrigued after hearing the words 'cultural festival'. Festivals always excited her; that meant food stalls, after all.

"If you have any suggestions, feel free to raise your hand and say your piece."

Soyo raised her hand and was acknowledged. "What about a café?"

Chatter within the students erupted at the girl's words. Someone suddenly shouted, "Let's do a hostess club!"

"Like those with females that wear skimpy kimono?" Another voice asked.

"Yea-"

"What? No. That's no good. That's not even legal," Shinpachi interjected.

Otae clasped her hands in delight. "Oh, what an interesting idea. I think I can manage well if it's a hostess club."

"Aneue, how can you say you can manage it well? Don't tell me you've actually worked in one before."

"Yeah!" Kondo agreed, ready to support the love of his life. "We can divide into two and have a host club for females."

Sougo nodded at the stalker's direction. "That's a great idea, Kondo-san. The guys can wear briefs as uniform. We can totally profit more with that."

"You guys… you do know we're in school, right? You do realize that, right?"

"Oh!" Kagura exclaimed when she thought of an awesome idea. "We can call it 'Maximus'. It has a sexy feel to it."

"Sounds gay to me," came Sougo's monotonous remark.

"You fugger-"

Shinpachi felt like his soul already left his body. His classmates were a bunch of idiots.

A few hours later, Kagura sighed and slumped at the passenger's seat of her dad's car. It was too bad the Maximus project was not approved.

"I guess it would've been interesting," Gintoki commented as he drove and kept his eyes on the road.

"Right?!"

Kagura slumped back on her seat when her father asked her what they decided to do instead.

"Café. The theme is 'schoolgirl' so there's no problem with the uniforms. The only difference is that there will a band that will play random or requested acoustic songs."

"Band, eh?"

Kagura didn't answer. Instead, she grumbled at how Maximus was such a waste.

On the following days, students bustled around as preparations were done here and there. Stalls were being set up and rooms were being reserved for different classes with different kinds of events.

Kagura paused from decorating the sign of the café when she noticed a familiar lump of sand-colored hair. The other students in the room watched as four men confidently entered through the doorway.

"Kondo-san," Otae called out as she watched the gorilla, mayo-freak, sadist brat and anpan boy enter the room with guitars and a beatbox. "What are you doing?"

Kondo, delighted at the fact that Otae was the one who initiated the conversation, paused and beamed as he answered. "My family and I have always been into music," he gestured at the others. "We are very happy to be able to audition here in Japan's Got Tal-"

A smack on Kondo-san's head was done as Otae's eyebrow twitched. "I shouldn't have bothered asking."

Sougo was wordlessly tuning his guitar in a corner when a shadow loomed over him. He didn't bother to look up as he spoke, "China, the boobs on your head are so distinct even in your shadow that I can't anymore."

Kagura held herself back from smashing the guitar on him. Instead, she folded her arms over her chest and smirked. "So you guys are the ones who'll be playing, huh? Do you even know how to play that, sadist?"

Sougo looked up and his eyes were half-lidded as if bored. For a few moments, he didn't speak and Kagura thought that he was being annoyingly stupid as usual. Like, did the gears on his head move like a snail for him to think about what to say that long? She rolled her eyes and was about to turn on her heels when he suddenly grabbed a nearby chair and dragged it in front of him.

"Sit down, China."

Confused, she demanded why. All she got as a response was a rather harsh yank on her arm that slammed her butt on the chair. Sougo released her and Kagura huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Get it over with so I-"

Sougo started to play, plucking at the first few notes of the song. He mentally smirked at the fact that he literally made the girl speechless.

Kagura was even more surprised when he started singing. He sang about eating cucumber for lunch and she tried her best to suppress a giggle.

…but you're smiling and it's something I like on your face. Yeah, it suits you…

Unconsciously, her lips turned into a small smile and surprisingly she found the act sweet, if only it was truly done for her. After all, the sadist was only doing it so he can have another thing to gloat about later. Sougo strummed the last note and Kagura was snapped out of her thoughts.

It was a moment before he spoke. "So?" He tried not to sound so eager.

Kagura raised a hand against her mouth, deep in thought. "I think…" she looked up and stared at blood-red eyes with a serious look on her face. "…that you should just play the guitar and keep your mouth shut." She jerked when the boy suddenly grabbed one of her buns and menacingly asked to repeat what she just said. As usual, she ignored it and continued to share her opinion. "I mean, it's going to be a problem if customers wouldn't come to the caf-"

An eyebrow twitched and Sougo wasted no time to pinch both sides of the girl's cheeks to stop her from being a total tsundere about it. Why couldn't she just admit the fact that what he did was so sweet that she nearly cried buckets? Tsk.

Shinpachi's glasses glinted when he spotted a pair of slacking students. "Oi! You two! Get back to work!"

"Welcome." Tama greeted and gestured the inside of the room.

Otae smiled as she observed the whole café. It was the first day of the cultural festival and the café was getting a more than average amount of customers, the majority of it being teenagers as they unmistakably enjoyed the band that was playing. Various requests were done and it was a relief to know that the band was doing well.

Kagura approached her. "Anego, another strawberry parfait, please."

"It's for sensei, isn't it?" She asked as she took note of the order. Kagura nodded. "It's great that he's really supporting us."

"Ah, no." Kagura waved a dismissive hand. "He just really loves the stuff."

Otae giggled. "Your shift is almost over, Kagura-chan. Are you gonna visit the stalls?"

Excited, she nodded and asked who had the same break with hers so they can go around together. Otae checked the schedule and said, "There's only one. It's -"

"Me."

Turning, Kagura stared at Sougo. The smirk on his face was annoying. With a bored face she asked, "Why am I not surprised?"

Sougo shrugged, "I can't help it if the Fates think we're meant for each other." The gagging sounds Kagura was making made Sougo wonder if the Fates did a terrible choice.

Just then a random girl peeked through the door and brightened when she saw the vermilion-haired girl. She glanced at the paper at hand and nodded when the description on it was spot on. Otae noticed her when she walked towards Kagura. Both Kagura and Sougo turned to face her.

Otae smiled at her and asked if she needed anything.

The girl smiled back and gestured at Kagura. "Are you Sakata Kagura?"

Confused, Kagura merely nodded.

The girl then turned to Sougo. "And you are Okita Sougo."

Sougo, albeit hesitant, nodded as he shifted his weight on his other leg and waited for her to continue. However, the girl only smiled and in a blur, the sound of metals clinking was heard.

The metal was cold against Sougo's wrist and it wasn't long before it all finally hit him.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Kagura screeched and lifted her now cuffed wrist. Sougo was pulled forward when she did and that was when the horror of it finally struck both of them.

Apparently, they were handcuffed to each other.

Kagura continued with her violent reactions while Sougo stared at their cuffed wrists. Interested, he lifted his gaze to the girl and raised an eyebrow.

Once again, the girl smiled. "I am from the Rabu Chain booth! Someone signed your names on the list and paid for it."

Kagura, enraged and horrified, demanded who was it that signed her name.

The girl shook her head. "I apologize but that information is classified." She clapped her hands together and grinned. "The cuffs won't be removed for the next two hours so you can enjoy each other's company! After all, it's so much better to enjoy the festival with the person you like, ne?" She winked at Kagura who no sooner blushed.

As the Rabu-Chain girl skipped out of the room, Kagura was left staring at the metal closed around her wrist.

"Hey," Kagura looked up when the boy with the other end of the cuff spoke. "We don't have much of a choice. Let's just get going."

Kagura glared at him. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

His response was a forceful tug that almost sent Kagura's face to the floor.

Four food stalls later and Sougo was having a hard time keeping up with the food Kagura was devouring. Even with one hand, her ability to chow down food didn't dwindle at the least.

He thought of something else to go other than food stalls and his eyes caught a certain flyer.

MANNEQUIN SHOW

"Let's try that one."

Kagura looked at the flyer the boy was pointing at. She threw away the wrapper of the food she just finished as she read. "Not just your ordinary mannequin show. Well, that's interesting!" Her eyes lit up as she nodded at Sougo.

Sougo went ahead, his right arm falling behind as it was cuffed to Kagura's left. A soft grunt escaped the girl's lip but it was enough for Sougo to hear. He abruptly turned and asked what was wrong.

"Sadist," Kagura said in an almost uncharacteristically pleading way. "Can you walk a little slower?" She turned her gaze to their connected wrists. "The cuffs are biting against my skin."

As she spoke, Sougo's eyes had already ventured downward. Light red marks were evident against her pale complexion and he wanted to kick himself for being an ass. Although it shouldn't have made too much of a difference since he had always been an ass to her. But, still.

"Sorry," he said and walked closer, loosening the strain against their wrists.

Kagura shrugged. "A sadist will always be a sadist." She paused when she felt his long fingers slip through the spaces of her own.

"This is much more comfortable, right?" Sougo said as soon as her eyes turned to him.

Kagura rolled her eyes and dragged the fair-haired lad to where the Mannequin Show was. Said laddie wasn't able to see the small smile tugging at Kagura's lips.

Fifteen minutes later, they were out of the room and Kagura's smile reached from ear to ear. "That was fun! I didn't expect those beautiful mannequins to turn into monsters!" She laughed as she remembered the horrified faces of the others who were there for the show. She noticed Sougo was only staring at her. She smiled at him only because she was in a good mood. "What?"

Sougo smirked as he their joined hands together and pressed his lips against the back of her fingers. "When you smile, you don't look like a monster yourself."

Kagura's cheeks flamed but her face was scrunched up in annoyance. Why was it that he always end up making her feel like a total emotional mess? "Idiot!" She tried to free her hand from his grip but the boy relented.

"Sou-chan?"

Kagura and Sougo both stopped and turned to the unfamiliar voice.

In all fairness, Kagura was surprised to see a young girl with flowing brown hair wearing a pastel sundress. She was pretty.

"Who?" Sougo asked, indifferent.

The girl tore her eyes away from their entwined hands. Confused, brought a hand up her chest as if to introduce herself. "It's me, Miho, your fiancé."

Wait, what? Kagura abruptly turned her attention to the boy beside her as she felt his grip on her hand tighten. She was more surprised to see his face showing how annoyed he currently was at the moment. She didn't get to say anything as the girl once again spoke.

"But our parents already talked about this." Miho's pretty face was still scrunched up in confusion.

Kagura looked from Sougo to Miho then vice-versa. Was this for real? She looked around trying to see of she was being 'Hidden-camera' pranked.

Suddenly, Sougo moved their still joined hands over Kagura's head to rest his arm on her shoulder. "Apparently, I have a girlfriend."

For a moment it was silent. Then Miho broke the ice. She pointed a finger at Kagura. "Who? Her?"

Kagura's eyes focused on the dainty finger pointed at her and then, "WHAT?!"

...and POOF! It became Koko Krunch! I honestly don't know where I'm going with this story anymore. Sorachi-sensei is rubbing off on me. But, of course, I'm just kidding. HAHAHAHAHAhaha...haha...ha. Also, who do you think set them up for the Rabu-Chain?

Edited 2017.