Kebchii says: I had just proved to myself and you guys that time management is not my forte. Oh, glob. Thank you for everyone who still follow this story. Don't worry. This time, I'm making sure my updates will be faster than before. Surely, it wouldn't take another year. Time check: 12:49 in the morning. *laughs hysterically*

Disclaimer: I will never own them. Never.

Summer Heat

Kebchii

"Ooh!" Kagura stared in awe at the sight of the infamous waterfall of the resort. "This is so wonderful!" She turned to Otae who was behind her.

Otae nodded. "It is great, isn't it? But wouldn't you want to see what it would look like at the sixth level?" The waterfalls were divided into eight levels so they had to climb up to get to the higher ones. They were currently at the third level.

"I bet it would look just like this, though," she muttered under her breath as Otae went ahead of her. Kagura stayed for a little while, agitated to finally swim in it.

"Come on, China. We're falling behind."

Kagura turned to the owner of the voice and stuck her tongue out at him. Sougo continued his steps and Kagura found herself staring at his butt. Huh. It didn't look cute like others would say when they see the butts of the person they like.

Wait, what?

Momentarily disoriented, Kagura lost her footing. She hadn't even realized she was falling until she saw the sadist reach out to her and grab her by the waist. "Eh?" Kagura looked over her shoulders and gasped when she saw she was seconds away from a ten feet fall.

Sougo was in front of her, his arms still around her and it seemed to have gripped tighter. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked, concern etched on his usually stoic face.

Kagura nodded abruptly as her face started to heat up at the sudden attention. She felt a sting on her foot when she tried to stand on her own. She crouched down and saw her ankle swelling a little.

"Good work, China. You just earned yourself a sprained ankle," Sougo commented as he took hold of her injured foot. The girl yelped and shouted curses at him. He sighed. "I guess there's no helping it."

Kagura blinked, confused, when he started to slip his arm under her legs. "W-wait!" She flailed. "What do you think are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to have to carry – "

"Okita-kun. You can stop right there," someone had said, his tone cold.

Both slightly jolted at the familiar voice and looked up. They were surprised to see Gintoki looming over them with an icy glare, especially towards Sougo. Gently, Sougo withdrew his arm from under Kagura's legs and stayed silent.

"Gin-chan…" Kagura watched as Gin crouched before her, his back facing her.

"Come on, Kagura," said Gin as he looked at her over his shoulder. She shrugged and climbed on to him. Gin stood up and adjusted Kagura on his back, careful not to further hurt her injury.

"Danna – " Sougo called but he was once again interrupted.

"Don't make my daughter go into dangerous situations just so you could flirt with her." Gin glared at him once more before continuing on climbing up, followed by shouts of protests from the brat on his back.

All Sougo could do was clench his fists.

"Seriously!"

Shinpachi watched Kagura fume as he finished tending her injured foot. She was seated on a rock as soon as they have arrived at the sixth level. "Come on, Kagura-chan. Okita-san doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all, anyway." He apologetically smiled and walked to where Gin and the others were.

The girl huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms over her chest. Not only was she unable to enjoy swimming in the water, but Gin-chan just had to say embarrassing things.

"Oi, China."

She jerked, sitting straight up and looked over her shoulder. There Sougo stood, his usual face indifferent. "What is it?" she asked, finding annoyance to be a great way to hide her embarrassment.

"Is your foot okay?" he asked and bobbed his head as he gestured to her said foot.

Kagura tried moving her foot around only to cringe when it hurt. "It still hurts but I'll be fine." The boy didn't say anything in response so she took it as a chance to say something about what happened earlier. "Hey, Sadist…" she trailed off, making sure he was listening. "About what Gin-chan said earlier – "

"Forget about it," he said as he pushed his hands to pockets of his shorts. "Danna was right, anyway."

So he really was trying to flirt with her? Kagura blushed at the thought. "But – "

"Excuse me~!"

"Eh?" Kagura blinked at the high-pitched voice and watched as a familiar girl ran up to then. Soon enough, she realized it was the same auburn-haired girl who had bumped into the sadist the other day. Her eyebrow rose when the girl talked to the sadist in a very familiar way. Kagura stared at the girl who continued to yap like she wasn't even there listening in on them. She felt smug when the girl visibly shivered and cautiously glanced her way.

"Eh, she's been staring at me," the auburn-haired girl whimpered. "Is she your girlfriend?"

Kagura gasped at the bluntness of the shameless girl and blushed at her sudden question. "Wha - !" She pointed at Sougo as she stammered unintelligible sentences. "No!" she exclaimed and looked at the sadist. He was looking back at her, indifferent as usual, but she felt there was something else to it. She didn't put much thought about it as she turned to the shameless unknown girl before her. "Who are you, anyway? Suddenly asking a question like that." She seethed.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She turned to Sougo and smiled brightly. "My name is Saine – "

"I don't care."

" – but you can call me 'Sai-chan' – "

"Like I said, I don't care."

Kagura sweat-dropped at the response the sadist was giving to her. Typical. She jolted when the girl – Saine – turned to her yet again.

"I'm so glad you aren't his girlfriend," Saine let out a relieved sigh.

Kagura's eyebrow twitched. Can this girl get any more subtle?

Not a moment later Saine's friends called out to her. "Ah! I have to go – "

"I don't care," came Sougo's monotonous answer, but the girl seemed to ignore it.

" – I look forward to seeing you again, Okita-san." Her smile brightened.

"I don't," Sougo muttered as Saine ran to her friends.

Kagura glared at him. "When the hell did you tell her your name?"

He shrugged in response. "I dunno. I guess it kinda slipped out." He wondered why in hell was China pouting at him like an adorkable puppy. He turned to get some drink before he did something stupid and have Danna kill him for it.

"I'm going to get some drink," Kagura heard him say and watched as he walked away. She sighed and stared at the pool of water she will never be able to swim in. She tried moving her injured foot but as expected, it still hurt.

"What happened to that?"

Kagura yelped in surprise and almost fell down from the rock she was sitting on. She looked up and was stunned to see a familiar blonde-haired boy standing in front of her. She mentally screamed in horror. This was the person she beat during the beach volley competition. Kagura composed herself and thought that if this guy mentioned anything about her trick during their match, she was going to punch him in the face.

"I tripped," she answered cautiously, racking her brain for the guy's name. Shinpachi once mentioned it to her.

His face scrunched up in concern and Kagura blushed when he suddenly bent to look at her foot further. "It's not that bad," he commented and Kagura was afraid he was going to touch it. She sighed in relief when he straightened his back instead. "It was treated well so it'll heal soon enough."

Kagura remained silent as he charmingly smiled at her. No wonder this guy was popular with the ladies. He was sweet and had a really nice smile. She almost felt bad for using that trick during their match. Almost. To compensate, she smiled a little and asked for his name.

"I'm Touyu. We faced each other during the beach volley competition."

Kagura's back straightened immediately and she eyed him warily. Her fist was clenched and ready but she blinked when he simply grinned at her.

"I tried getting your name after our match but I had trouble." He scratched at the back of his head as his grin turned sheepish. "I hope you don't mind…"

Amused at his antics mixed with relief about him never mentioning her embarrassing move, Kagura giggled. "Kagura. My name is Kagura." She looked at him, confused, when he merely stared at her. "Is something wrong?"

Touyu jolted, as if he was snapped out of his reverie. "Ah, sorry! You just have a really cute smile so I kinda…" he trailed off as he looked away and covered his face with his hand in a futile attempt to cover the blush forming on his cheeks. "Oh, shit. What am I saying?"

Kagura was stunned and she felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. No one had ever told her she was cute, not even jokingly. She frowned and thought that not even the sadist told her she was cute.

"It'd be nice to meet with you more, Kagura-chan." He gently took her hand and nearly brought it to his lips when suddenly he jerked forward when something hit his head. Hard.

They both turned to look who the offender was and found Sougo standing with his usual nonchalant face. "Oops, my bad. The can slipped out of my grasp."

"What the hell? You did that on purpose, didn't you?!"

Sougo ignored Touyu's complains as he walked his way towards Kagura. He gave her the other beverage that he brought and picked up the one that he threw. He offered the can to the other guy and watched him glare at it.

With a tut, Touyu ran his hand through his hair to compose himself. He turned to Kagura and smiled, perfectly aware of blood-red eyes glaring at him. "I'll see you around, Kagura-chan."

Kagura nodded in response and soon her view of Touyu's retreating figure was blocked. "Eh?"

Sougo glared at her and she glared back. "So, you're friends, huh?"

She gently thumped the can in her hand against his chest. "What's it to you?" When she looked up, she held her breath. Sougo was looking at her. His eyes were so dark and intense she felt uneasy and excited at the same time.

She stilled when he placed his hand over hers that was placed on the rock and bent so his face was in front of hers. "Don't flirt with idiots, Kagura."

Sougo straightened his back when someone spoke from behind him. "I wouldn't do that in front of that sugar freak if I were you," he heard Hijikata comment. He flipped him off as a response.

Kagura wasn't really paying attention to what Sougo had said after that. She merely nodded when he said something about going to get a new drink since he didn't want to drink anything that connected to a certain bastard's head. When the sadist was far enough, recollections about what happened earlier invaded her mind.

When he had placed his hand over hers, she was stunned to the point she wasn't able to say anything. And when he bent, his face was suddenly so close that if he moved even just a little, their lips would touch. The sudden realization of what happened or what almost happened had Kagura covering her face with both of her hands, knowing full well it blushed a deep crimson.

In the duration of their stay at the falls, Gintoki kept a close eye on his daughter and a certain sadistic student. He couldn't really complain as the kid was constantly lending his injured daughter a hand. However, the blush on Kagura's face when she clung to the boy's arm for her to walk fine was making him uneasy.

"You shouldn't worry about someone else's love life when you have your own to worry about." Gintoki glared at Katsura.

"Would you like to have some tea?" Tsukuyo asked with a small smile as he turned to her.

Flustered, he nodded and said his thanks, entirely forgetting about the two teenagers just a few feet away from them.

"I'm the pervert? Whose eyes were on my rear end, not two minutes ago?"

"That was hours ago!"

"Aha, China. You just spilled your milk."

"You perverted sadist. Get away from me!"

A kick on his rear end was done.