The sight of a slumbering Rukawa on his bicycle is nothing new to strangers on the streets of Kanagawa. It is however a rare sight on the coastlines of Chiba: a prefecture sixty-six kilometres away from his home.

When he crashes into a palm tree, he isn't sure whether he's still dreaming or not. The moment he sees a coconut fall from the very same tree atop an unsuspecting man's head – rendering him unconscious – he realises that now's not the time to ponder these questions. So as a crowd gathers around the injured man, Rukawa does what he does best.

He calmly walks away.

Once he's at a distance from the scene he created, the rookie examines his bike's condition. The rim of his front wheel is twisted in a grotesque manner with several spokes detached; the top tube has been bent awkwardly to meet the down tube, and one of the levers controlling the brakes is jammed.

In other words he should make it.

Heaving a sigh, he clutches onto the handlebars and ambles aimlessly along the beach. It isn't the first time he has woken up in unfamiliar territory, yet he's never cycled so far unconsciously. Sixty-six kilometres is quite the record and he's pretty certain he doesn't want to break it in the future.

If the sight of half-naked fat men isn't enough of a punishment for Rukawa, the sweltering heat is. It doesn't help that he's wearing long pants and a black shirt, either. He could easily just take off his top to relieve himself of some heat, but then he'd be surrounded by half-naked fan girls (and they come in all sizes).

The vacant roll-mat under a large umbrella presents itself like an offering. Naturally, the ace would never think of passing up such a blessing.

Does it matter that it's not his? Nope.

Does he feel guilty for taking a stranger's roll-mat? Not at all.

For the first time, he finds himself thankful for the fact that there are idiots roaming around in this world. Well, idiots who leave their belongings unattended. He doesn't intend to actually steal these things; he's not that cruel. Besides, it would be nothing more than extra baggage for him when he goes home.

As he makes himself comfortable under the umbrella's shade, the rookie fails to notice the towering form behind him. It's only when he sees (or rather, feels) the ominous silhouette is he startled out of his reverie.

He peers suspiciously at the shadow's odd shape - leaning forward to inspect it – when he inwardly blanches. That wasn't the outline of a person.

It was the shadow of a gorilla.

"Rukawa-kun?" He blinks twice. The heat must be getting to him because he's pretty sure that's not the voice of an overgrown monkey.

"Are you alright, Rukawa-kun?" He shuts his eyes; a frown adorns his features. That is definitely not a gorilla.

A cool hand is pressed against his forehead and it takes all his self-control to bite back his groan and resist the urge to lean further into this person's palm. However, when he hears an all too familiar grunt, he bolts right up – tearing his face away from his sense of comfort – into a seating position like a fearful soldier because there's no doubt that the person standing behind him – looming over his vulnerable form – is his captain.

He looks up fearfully (though he will never admit it) to find himself cowering (he'll never admit that either) under the gorilla's glare.

"What are you doing here Rukawa?" Somewhere buried deep below the question, Rukawa senses an underlying sense of hostility.

"What are you talking about onii-chan?" His eyes drift to the petite girl crouched beside him. A part of him loathes the fact that it is Haruko's hand that brought him comfort (she already had an effect on him once in the past; he definitely doesn't want a replay of that night) yet a part of him thinks that it could have been worse.

"Isn't he here for your farewell party?"

The rookie looks at his captain with his eyebrows raised; he isn't aware of any upcoming parties. Then again, he may have been so traumatized after the last one that he chose to block out any mention of the word.

Judging by the guilty look on his senior's face, he's quite certain that even if he was listening for an invite to whatever party his captain planned, he wouldn't have heard it.

"HARUKO-SAAAAN!" In the distance he hears a moron shout.

"I'm coming Sakuragi-kun!" Finding an escape route from the awkward situation she herself caused, Haruko does not hesitate to leave the scene and join the redhead.

Takenori looks at Rukawa in disdain for several moments before he says, "Don't take it personally." He pinches the bridge of his nose, "I'm leaving to the University of Kyoto next week so we're throwing a farewell party."

Rukawa nods.

"And after what happened at the last party," he grimaces at the mental image of his little sister and their ace player engaged in lip lock, "you shouldn't have expected an invitation."

Rukawa nods again.

Everyone on the basketball team knows of the strong sibling bond between their captain and Haruko. Only a person with severe brain damage would attempt to make a pass on Takenori's little sister in front of him.

At the last party, Rukawa had not only tried but succeeded.

So really, he isn't that surprised. Even though their captain knew he was intoxicated, he's still less than comfortable with the notion of his innocent little sister and the ace player of their team in the same place.

"Since you're here you might as well join us." He grumbles half-heartedly and walks away not before saying, "And keep your hands to yourself."

Rukawa sighs. He might as well have a sign on his forehead with the words sexual predator written in bold.

"Mitsui! What are you doing?" Ryota watches his senior with an expression akin to horror on his face.

Meanwhile, the ex-gangster wears a grin as wide as the Cheshire cat. He lifts a hand to his lips and looks downwards. "Shhh Ryota! Kogure's sleeping!" With the maniacal grin still in place, he crouches down and eyes his year-mate like a predator would to their prey. "We wouldn't want to wake him up now, would we?"

Ryota gazes at him suspiciously; Mitsui may have left the path of violence when he re-joined Shohoku's basketball team, but it's impossible for a person to change themselves completely.

And as an ex-gangster himself, Ryota empathises with him.

So instead of preventing the sharpshooter from creating mischief, the point guard joins him.

Half an hour later:

Kogure wakes up to the sound of birds chirping, waves crashing and people snickering. The moment he opens his eyes the sun attacks him. He lifts a hand up to shield himself from the sun's glare and looks away from the sky. Only to wish that he'd stared at the sun long enough to make himself blind. In fact, he wishes everyone on the beach suddenly decide to gaze at the flaming ball of fire long enough to make themselves blind.

Or at least long enough for him to get out of the layers of sand encasing his body that conveniently forms the shape of a mermaid, breasts and all.

Hanamichi was looking forward to the beach party for a number of reasons:

1. He gets to see Haruko in a bikini.

2. The sneaky kitsune wouldn't be there to spoil his fun

3. He gets to see Haruko in a bikini.

It turns out none of these reasons are true. By some stroke of misfortune, he finds the black-haired bastard getting cozy on his roll-mat and Haruko has yet to take of her clothes and reveal her beautiful bikini-clothed body to him.

But Sakuragi has a plan.

"Haruko-san!" He calls out, effectively breaking her focus on Takenori and Rukawa.

"I'm coming Sakuragi-kun!" She runs towards him and he can't help picturing her doing that at a much slower pace with a lot less clothing on.

The sound of her panting breaks him out of his Baywatch daydream. "Do you want to go for a swim?" Despite his pathetic attempt at nonchalance, she accepts his offer.

"Sure! Just let me get into my swimming suit."

He decides against watching her strip when he sees the intimidating figure of her brother approaching them in the distance, opting to turn around for the sake of her modesty. The moment her shirt and shorts are discarded he whirls around and nearly dies of a nose bleed.

Haruko – clad in a flowery printed blue two-piece, grabs the stunned redhead and drags him to the water with her. Just when Sakuragi controls his raging hormones, his eyes catch sight of his crush wearing a bikini with droplets of water running down her body into secret places.

Before any more blood could leave his nostrils, his foot throbs from a burning sensation. When the rookie tries to move his foot back and forth underwater, the stinging feeling intensifies. It is only when he looks into the water to find a jellyfish wrapped around his foot, does he scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHH! HOLYMOTHEROF-"

By the time his teammates hear his plea for help, Sakuragi's body is already submerged underwater. Haruko wastes no time in diving below the surface to find her friend, kicking with all the strength her legs possess to the mop of red hair descending at a rapid pace.

Somehow she manages to lift his body above water level and keep him afloat. She feels her lungs expand as she takes huge gulps of oxygen while bringing him back to the shore. When Sakuragi's unconscious form is on dried land, a circle of strangers form around the pair, thriving on their crisis like people watching a movie.

Placing an ear to his chest she hears a faint heartbeat; she sighs in relief. But when she doesn't see his chest rise and fall, Haruko can feel panic bubbling inside her. "H-he's not breathing!"

Forcing herself to stay calm, the younger Akagi interlaces her fingers together and starts pumping his chest for a sequence of 30 times.

Rukawa never thought his day would turn out to be like this. It's bad enough that his sleep-cycling issues landed him in a completely different district; now he's forced to attend another party and his captain thinks he has the hots for his baby sister.

But this?

This just made his day.

It's not that Rukawa secretly wishes for the moron to drown (even he isn't that cruel); but everyone has to admit that Sakuragi is at his best when he's unconscious. Besides, the do'ahou is stubborn in all senses of the word; he won't go down so easily.

And then he sees Haruko performing chest compressions.

He knows what she's doing; he knows that she has no other option left if she wants to save their rebounder.

He also knows what happens next in CPR.

Under normal circumstances Rukawa wouldn't give two shits about Haruko giving Sakuragi mouth-to-mouth. All of a sudden, a memory of their make out session at the party comes to mind and the ace comes to a startling realisation.

If he kissed Haruko, who's about to practically kiss the moron, wouldn't that mean that him and the do'ahou pretty much...

Oh hell no.

Just as she leans down to press her mouth over Sakuragi's, Haruko feels a muscular arm wrap around her naked waist and pull her up into a standing position. Perhaps if she isn't so worried about Sakuragi, she'd register the toned chest muscles pressing against the bare skin of her back.

However, her main priority at this point is her best friend.

When she tries to wiggle her way out of this stranger's grip, the arm around her tightens.

She pleads, "Can't you see he needs my help! Let me go!"

He responds by kicking Sakuragi's side and murmuring, "Do'ahou. Quit pretending."

If this is any other day, Haruko would pass out at the mere thought of her crush holding her so intimately. But the possibility of losing one of her closest friends is not something she could smother with her own fantasies.

When she sees the once unconscious teenager jump onto his feet, she stops struggling.

"AAARRGHH DAMMIT RRRUKAWAAA!" Sakuragi points to the boy behind her, his face the same shade as his hair. "You RUINED my genius plan!"

It is only when she feels the rumble in his chest as the stranger grunts an undignified, "Hn," does she actually realise who is standing behind her.

Her face flushes a bright crimson. She doesn't dare to make a sound in fear that Rukawa would realise he's still holding on to her. Fortunately the ace is too distracted by the profanities being thrown his way by his teammate.

"You're just jealous because Haruko-san was going to kiss me! Stupid teme!"

The crowd surrounding them disperses when Hanamichi's "near-death experience" is over. However when an extremely muscular man with a group of equally built men make their way towards the trio, they all come back to see a new drama unfold.

And they're in for a treat.

Sakuragi pauses mid-rant when he sees the bulky figure of his captain approaching. But it's too late. His voice is loud enough to be heard from the other side of the beach, and it is definitely loud enough to be heard by Akagi Takenori.

Rukawa raises a brow at the moron's sudden silence. It isn't like the do'ahou to leave his rants unfinished, so why stop now? Unless…

"Sakuragi…"

His reaction is instantaneous. Takenori's booming voice reminds him of the misleading position he's in. Rukawa snatches his arm from Haruko's waist as though the skin-on-skin contact burns him. Then he takes a few steps backwards to distance himself just for good measure.

It isn't like Rukawa and Sakuragi to fear anyone. But when their captain is in overprotective brother mode, they inwardly cower like bunnies in a fox hole. After all what's the point in protecting your pride when your life is in danger?

Rukawa curses his luck. Just when he thinks his day would be going uphill, Kami has to land a gorilla in his path.

Thankfully Kogure is there to save the day.

"What happened?"

The redhead – keen on avoiding his captain's deadly glare – eagerly welcomes the conversation. He points to his right foot, "I was stung by a jellyfish!" He tactfully leaves out the part where he pretended to drown and become unconscious to get Haruko to perform mouth-to-mouth on him.

All of his teammates gasp (excluding Takenori; he's still upset about Sakuragi's attempt to kiss his imouto) at the red markings on his foot except for Mitsui who snickers at his misfortune.

"What's so funny about it, Mit-chan?" Sakuragi growls.

Instead of getting worked up over his undesired pet name, he smirks.

"Do you know how to treat a jellyfish sting?"

Puzzled by Mitsui's question the basketball players look at each other, hoping somebody has their own answer to his question. Because judging by the shit eating grin on Mitsui's face, they are all pretty sure they won't like his answer.

Fearfully, Kogure asks the dreaded question. "How?"

The grin on his face stretches wide enough to fit a large banana in sideways. The expression on their sharpshooter's face striking fear into every living being, plants included.

Rukawa can officially say that this day sucks. Just when he thought something would go right for once today, it all comes crashing down on him again. And now they have to waste more time on taking care of this do'ahou because he got owned by a jellyfish.

"How?"

The ace could almost see all the potential time he could spend sleeping being wasted on that moron.

And then he sees Mitsui unzip his pants.

"Urination."

Maybe his day isn't so bad after all.

So this fic is dedicated to the amaaaazing chibi-Nao!

[Your six words - sleep, heat, beach, gorilla, kiss, jellyfish]

Have a great week everyone!