Kebchii says: I am sorry. I deeply apologize for updating so late. I'm not going to tell you that the reason why I didn't get to update soon is because my phone, where I mostly write my drafts, crashed. No, I'm not going to tell you that. Although I admit that I'm YOLO. I just love Gumball, okay?! Please don't kill me…

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. I will never give justice to Sorachi-sensei's genius.

Summer Heat

Kebchii

Gintoki slammed the door to the trunk of the Starex that he borrowed from a friend. "Everything's set. Get in, you two."

"I get dibs on the front seat," Shinpachi claimed.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Kagura answered. She slid open the door of the vehicle and settled herself on the back part just before the luggage compartment, leaving the seat in front of her vacant.

Shinpachi watched as she bent over her seat and rummage through, considering from the sound of it, some plastic. Not a moment later, Kagura straightened and was triumphantly holding a box of Pocky. "Kagura-chan, what are you doing?" The Pocky stick stopped halfway to her mouth.

After settling on his seat, Gintoki turned his attention to the suspicious girl at the back. "Oi, Kagura. If you're going to ingest all the food and leave us with nothing, I'm going to throw you out and have you become a loser. You got that?"

Kagura pouted as she nibbled on her stick then sunk in her seat in defeat and nodded.

Satisfied with her response, Gin revved the engine to life. "Kondou-san's group are the closest from here so we'll have to pick them up first." Shinpachi informed him.

"Can't we just skip those three idiots and move on to Anego?" Kagura commented as she dug for another stick from the box.

The perm-head looked at her through the one-way mirror. "It's your fault why they're coming with us in the first place."

Once again defeated, Kagura sunk further on her seat and kept her mouth shut.

As soon as the van came to a stop, Kondou waved enthusiastically and greeted the persons by the dashboard. "Konnichiha! Good to see you well, bro-in-law."

"Don't call me that!" came Shinpachi's usual retort.

While Kondou and the others had their usual bickering, Sougo let himself in the vehicle. He spotted the orange hair as soon as he opened the door. "Yo, China." Her curt nod bothered him a little. Just a little. He was about to slide himself in the back part and sit beside the monster girl when someone grabbed at the collar of his Hawaiian shirt from behind. Sougo looked over his shoulder and saw it was Danna.

"Uh-uh, Souichirou-kun. I'm sure there's enough space for you in the vacant seat here in front." Dead-fish eyes stared at bored red ones and it was a while before Sougo finally shrugged and sat on the seat in front of Kagura.

After securing their own luggage, Hijikata got inside the vehicle and sat beside Sougo. Kondou soon followed. The vehicle revved back to life again and started moving. Kondou caught sight of Kagura in the back and immediately greeted her. "China-san, why are you there all by yourself?"

Kagura patted the empty seat on both sides of her. "Anego and the others will sit here beside me."

Kondou answered her with a crooked smile. "Ah, but I'm pretty sure one more person can fit here beside me."

Still nibbling on a stick, she stared uninterested at the love-struck fool in front of her. "I don't know. It still depends on Anego, after all."

Shimura Otae knew that the worst has come as soon as the vehicle stopped in front of her. The abrupt open of the door and the grinning idiot that emerged from it only confirmed it.

Otae ignored the all-too-familiar declaration of love and turned to her dear friend. "Kyu-chan, there's this one thing that have always boggled my mind." Although her friend doesn't really show it, she knew that Kyuubei was curious, so she continued. "Why do gorillas have hair all over their body except for the ugly part where they need it the most?"

Tears pricked at Kondou's eyes and he was sure that his ears were internally bleeding; he still did his best to make his tone cheerful. "Otae-san! Come sit here beside me!" A flat-out 'No' was the response he got. "But there's still space for one person here! We should maximize our use on this vehicle. We don't know what challenges and hardships that our dear Sensei has done just to get this Starex."

Gintoki merely sat, relaxed, on his seat, picking at his nose as he waited for the usual banter to end. Otae seemed to really think about it, though. "Only if Kyu-chan sits right next to me."

"But only one person can..."

"Kagura-chan, can you scoot over?" Otae called to Kagura.

Kondou immediately panicked. "Ah, wait! Wait!" He turned, "Toushi! Help me out here."

Hijikata scratched at his nape, "I don't really know what to do with this."

Sougo sighed. "I guess it can't be helped," he muttered under his breath. Then he exclaimed with a fairly loud voice, "Danna, it can't be helped." While the perm-head tutted at him, Sougo turned, faced the back of his seat and saw the confused expression on the girl seated just behind them. Ignoring the inquisitions from the bastard beside him, he placed his palms on the back of his seat then lifted himself up.

"Oi, Sougo, wait. You could just go around -"

The flaxen haired boy dived onto the backseat, making sure that his flipflop-clad foot gets in contact with Hijikata's face, hard. His fall onto the backseat was not great, though. Because as soon as half of his body got past the back of the seat he just occupied earlier, Kagura was there to slap his vulnerable face away to oblivion. Well, not really to oblivion as his face slammed against the hard window of the vehicle. She could've just pummeled his head onto the seat, it would've been much less painful.

Sougo gathered himself together and when he was seated comfortably on his new seat, he glared at the girl that was already on the other side. "What the hell, China?"

"What are you doing here?! Go back to where you came from!" Kagura flailed her arms in front of her, hoping to shoo away the boy.

"Cut that out!"

"Oi, you two!" The irritated voice of their sensei stopped them from doing anything to each other. "If you still want to go with this summer vacation stuff, you better lay down your weapons and behave there like children of your age are supposed to."

"But, Gin-chan..."

"'Buts' are for delivering shit." And with that, he turned the ignition and started the ride.

With a huff, Kagura crossed her arms over her chest and tried to sit away from the sadist as far as possible, and that was to stick on the side of the vehicle and plaster her face against the window. She spared a glance at Sougo moments later and saw that he looked bored as he gazed at the window just beside him. In that same moment, it seemed that he decided to spare her a glance as well. Their eyes met and Kagura couldn't fathom the reason why she hadn't looked away and ignored him. Instead, she stared at his eyes and noticed for the first time they were red as a rose's petal. She could have looked at it more had she not seen the smirk that had made its way to his face.

Kagura quickly looked away, feeling her face flush out of embarrassment. It took all of her willpower not to strangle the boy to death for catching her off guard and making her feel weird. Maybe it wasn't her day at all. The vehicle moved to a stop once again, and the door opened revealing Katsura in summer attire and Elizabeth beside him. "Zura, why don't sit here in the mid -" Her suggestion was cut off short when a hand closed around her wrist and suddenly yanked her to the other side.

"Don't make it harder for them, China." Sougo said, his tone and voice monotonous.

Kagura gritted her teeth in annoyance. "You bastard..."

"Leader," Katsura greeted as he took a seat beside her. Elizabeth followed and considering her actual size, Katsura had to ask them to scoot a little and give way.

It was like the world suddenly turned upside down for Kagura. Not so long ago, she was doing her best to get away from the flaxen-haired boy. At present, she was practically glued to Sougo that she can barely move. If she moved even just a little, they would be touching. For some unknown reasons, in which it began to irritate her, if they touched she could just as well freeze over.

Sougo had to lift his arm and sling over at the back of the seat to give them, or rather China, more space to fit into. Who knew that dumb duck could take up so much space? Who was he to complain, though, when he was enjoying the fact that he has his arm around the girl's shoulder. Said girl, however, was as stiff as a board, so he decided to do something about it.

Kagura felt Sougo's face lean closer to her and she tensed up immediately. "China, relax." His hot breath tickled her ear and she felt a shiver run down her spine. "If you'd rather me do something to relax those tense muscles of yours..." he trailed off but didn't get a chance to continue as she elbowed him in the gut.

"You shut your trap," Kagura watched Sougo double over in pain.

Though his stomach ached, Sougo noticed that the girl did relax. She was actually leaning on him. Leaning. Before he could jinx anything, he relaxed himself and carefully wrapped his arm around her shoulder lightly.

While Sougo wanted the ride to be a little bit longer, Kagura wished otherwise.

Ehh, is the pace too fast? Too slow? Tell me what you think, please（/) v (\)

Edited 2017.