It has been a lazy and an unproductive day for the girl as she sat down with her friends in the café for lunch. The three of them ordered Nasi Beriani, an indian styled rice dish, and they ate their meal with vigour and drank their cold drinks, quenching their thrist after the long walk in the heat. Spring has been in the Australian air for more than a month and there was only more heat to look forward to in the coming summer season. Chatting and joking between spoonfuls the three girls tried to enjoy their last day of pure no-work hours before they begin to cram for their exams in two weeks time. After they ate, they each sat back and ate a slice of sweet binka, when the eldest of the trio spoke in her native tongue to the girl wearing a pair of glasses, "Hey, Jon and the others are going to the Gay & Lesbian Parade at Northbridge tonight. Are you going?"

The petite girl blinked & answered in the same language, "Dunno. Do they have room for me in the car?"

The older girl nodded slowly, "I think they do. I think it's just them four. They're going to park at Joe's apartment and walk from there."

Noor pushed her glassed up before she fiddled with the fork, "I'll think about it."


~~~~

It was easy to come to a decision. It was the first gay and lesbian parade for her and even when she could probably see another one in a year's time, in her mind there was no time like the present especially for this kind of event.
However at the moment, her mood is close to being foul when she realised that they were already late and they had to walk faster, soring her sore feet further since she has been walking since this afternoon. When she and her companions saw people beginning to walk in the opposite direction, presumably going home she panicked, hoping that no, the parade has not yet ended, no, the parade has not ended....

She whopped joyfully when she saw that the parade was still on and after conforming with her companions, the five set out to catch the beginning of the troop. Finally they made it and the Noor squeezed her way to the front of the line with her camera ready.

Click! Click!

"Ooh! Cool.... Oh my..., " she giggled as she watched a troop of men in light blue spendex briefs with matching caps dance in synchrony with the hip-hop music 'B-Boys & Fly Girls'.
At least they don't get chilled. It's kinda warm tonight... the girl thought, seeing the dancers sweat as she tried to pull off her white sweater when suddenly a tall dancer at the end of the line caught her eye because he was busy trying to peev another dancer in front of him by tugging at the other's cap. The taller dancer was ignored but he finally succeeded in wrenching a response from the other by pinching the spandex clad bottom.

"Sendoh!!" The shorter dancer yelped whirling around to punch the taller one's stomach.

"Oof!"

"Sendoh...?" Noor wondered out loud before the aforementioned dancer looked at her from his hunched position and gave her a playful wink behind the painful expression.

"IT IS SENDOH! AND KOSHINO!! OHMIGOD!!!" the girl shrieked and quickly tried to take a picture of the pair in their male (& sweaty) glory. It was too late for her unfortunately for she couldn't get a clear shot and the dancers were soon out of sight.

"Damn it!" the girl cursed. Maybe she could run after him but that would mean giving up her space and the patrol officers have been quite diligent in trying to organise the crowd.

"Must've imagined it," mumbled Noor trying to console herself with denial.
Seeing painted topless women dancing on a float, made her forget her loss as she began taking pictures to share with her friends back at home.
"The guys will never believe this..." she chuckled.

Then came a group of drag queens in sequeins, silk and feathers and walking in more-than-two-inch heeled shoes that the fanficcer knew she wouldn't be able to wear comfortably, let alone walk in a straight line without tripping face first on the concrete ground.
Those drag queens' legs even looked better than hers....

Noor scrubbed her eyes with her knuckles. Was that who she thought it was?

Hanagata?!!
To her surprise it was indeed the Shoyo player wearing casual clothes and was acting as a flag bearer, walking along side one particular drag queen who kept touching and kissing the embarassed spectacled-boy rather armorously.

Squinting her eyes, her closest guess on the identity of the drag queen would be Fujima. Sure, he was wearing a very tight sequeined dress with a white straight cut wig and glittering make-up but there was no mistaking those deep green-set eyes and that androngynous face. Quickly, she tried to snap a picture but again luck was not with her. As Kylie Minogue's song "Spinning Around" blared from the speakers of an escort car, the crowd kept jostling her about and one spectator's arm accidentally hit her face when he was trying to wave.

"Sorry," the guy apologised.

"S'kay," the girl mumbled rubbing her nose. Damn, another missed opportunity.

Another catchy song coming from an oncoming float made her turn around to see what came next. In a wide cage which was decorated with party paper, gauzy cloths and balloons were 8 dancers, men and women in leather or skimpy clothing moving to the beat of Madonna's 'Music'.

"Wooho!!" Noor cheered with the other spectactors, waving and taking pictures from the eye-catching group of participants.

Red and white lights flashed in the cage flickering along the dancers body, catching the glitter on their skin.
"Niice..." cooed the Noor delightedly when realisation made her heart stop two beats. At the far end of the cage was a pair of young men, one in tight leather pants and an open vest, leaning and grinding seductively against the other who seemed to be trying to get away but was held prisoner by the lean body in leather.
"M-Mitsui?!!"gaped the girl, staring at the scene before her. Then the other guy had to be Kogure!

The spectacled-boy didn't seem to have been dressed for the tiger dance with his faded jeans and light-blue shirt but knowing Mitsui, the scarred-face boy have probably kidnapped his friend and held him captive for the whole parade.

"Please, just one shot..." prayed the girl when suddenly her hand was jerked away from the camera's button.
"K'so!"

"Ah? What?" asked her female companion who was looking at the shorter girl in puzzlement.

"Nothing," sighed Noor in dismay. The cage has already disappeared out of sight.

"Can you hold this for a moment?" the girl with the grey sweater asked, handing Noor a roll of film.

The shorter girl received it wordlessly waiting for her friend to load her own camera with a new roll of film.
"I went crazy with the guys in spandex briefs just now," the author's friend said laughingly as she got ready to take more pictures of the oncoming participants of the parade.

"Yeah," Noor said ruefully.

"Hey, they look kinda mysterious don't they?" commented her companion at the group wearing black outfits with white masks over their faces. Eight of them were carrying a make-believe coffin over their shoulders with red roses over the satin cover and as Noor got ready to take a photograph of the masked group, one of the paraders gave her a lazy salute. The girl grinned but then her smiling lips fell open into a shocked 'o' when the young man flipped over his mask to give her a rougish wink.

"K-Kishimoto!!" Noor stammered staring at the Toyotama player whose long-hair was cut off to a style the player used to have when he was in the first year. As the author continued to make a fool of herself letting flies and other night bugs fly around in her mouth, another masked parader winded his arm around Kishimoto to peer at the stupified girl.

The newcomer flipped over his masked as well to show Noor an amused smile that nearly made the girl swoon.
"Minami!!" Noor shrieked, steadying her trembling hands to catch a picture of the Toyotama pair. Unfortunately, three young women dressed as cats suddenly appeared to twirl and dance in front of her, stealing precious lens space away from the dynamic duo. The petite girl growled but short of pushing the taller girls away from her scope of vision, she couldn't get them to move away without being rude. Soon the sombrely-artistic crew disappeared among the crowd. The sound of motorbike engines being gunned drowned out the author's dismayed groan.

Already, Noor felt suffocated by the exhaust fumes by the Harley Davidson motorbikes but it didn't stop her from snapping away to catch pictures of the lesbians and gays in leather and chains riding their huge bikes with their partners sitting behind.

They were a rather spectacular bunch with their numerous decorations of piercings and tatoos on their bodies and with the other spectactors, Noor cheered them on as they drove by. In the middle of the convoy, the girl saw a redhead wearing an open leather vest and black jeans driving a worn but still-shiny looking Harley and sitting behind him was a brunette in a leather jacket over a white t-shirt and a pair of dark jeans to match.
They look familiar... thought Noor.

A thought of a possibility occured. "It couldn't be..." she breathed, "... but I saw Sendoh and the rest... could it be?"

Yes, it was the infamous Golden Duo of Shohoku and they were certainly enjoying themselves tonight. Hanamichi was ecstatic by the attention he and the other bikers were receiving from the spectators but Rukawa was only intent on feeling the redhead's muscled body under his palms as he held onto Hanamichi from behind.
Running towards the duo to get a clear picture would get the girl run over by the other bikers so she could only watch helplessly as she allowed her favourite couple to pass her by.

After the bikers, two first aid vehicles drove by hinting to everyone that the parade has come to an end. A hand clasping on Noor's shoulder made her turn around to see her cousin grinning at her from ear to ear.
"Seen it all?" he asked.

Noor shrugged. "It's ok, I guess," she answered trying to keep the note of forlorn out of her voice.

"Yeah," said one of their male friends, flicking away his cigarette, "Last year was better. A few sponsors dropped out this year."

The short girl sighed, "Ah well."

It has been one of the surprising events in her life. Not only was she able to watch from close-up a gay & lesbian parade for the first time, but her favourite Slam Dunk characters were in it as well. The problem was who would believe her since she couldn't get a decent picture of the yaoi heros to show and gloat around?


~~~~

"Kitsune, we've stopped."

"So?"

"You can release me now. It's not like you're gonna fall or anything. Anyway, weren't you supposed to hold me at the waist?"

"What?" drawled the fox-eyed boy as he ran his fingers over the redhead's chest, "You don't like this?"

The nimble digits intentionally brushed over a nipple and Hanamichi instantly forgot to breathe, "K'so! Don't do that here!"

The raven-haired boy's small smile was sly as he twisted around and placed himself on the redhead's lap.
"How about this?" Rukawa asked wrapping his legs around the redhead's hips.

"Or this...?" a nip on the ear lobe, "...or this...?" a nip of the chin, "...or how about this?" a nip on the bottom lip. Hanamichi groaned and let his mouth be plundered.

"Damn, it's hot. It's so hard to breathe with this," a teenager in a black outfit gasped as he wrenched his white plastic mask off of his face.

A shorter teenager took his mask off as well and asked coyly, "Do you want me to give you mouth-to-mouth aid, Kishimoto?"

Kishimoto pulled Minami close and smiled, "Oh, please do, captain."

A spectacled-boy with brown hair stomped past the twining Toyotama players and walked towards the Shohoku couple still on the Harley making out. Following behind him was Mitsui with a smug grin on his face who recalling how delicious Kogure felt against him in that cage for the whole hour.

"C'mon, Min-kun," the scarred-face player began cajoling his best-friend, "You looked terrific!"

Kogure blushed as he began to button up his shirt which was gaping half open by Mitsui's dextrous fingers earlier on, "I was supposed to be in charge of the lights! ONLY the lights! Not in the dance!"

"But you felt so good..." whispered Mitsui in Kogure's ear. If possible, Kogure blushed harder.

"Where are the others?" Kogure asked, pushing a chuckling Mitsui away from him.

"Here," came a voice from his left. It was Hanagata still carrying his flag with a very feminine Fujima beside him. Kogure marvelled how the Shoyo captain was able to walk steadily in those shoes.

As is reading Kogure's thoughts, the Shoyo captain answered, "It isn't easy, trust me. Damn, these shoes hurt!"

Turning to Hanagata, Fujima asked, "Toru, can you carry me home? Onegai?"

"You can take the shoes off," Hanagata pointed out but Fujima was persistent.

"But my feet are sore."
The Shoyo centre sighed and conceeded as his friend put on his best puppy look, "Yosh."

Fujima didn't even hide his delighted giggle as Hanagata fluidly hefted him in his arms after handing over the flag to Kogure. As his friend carried him away, Fujima waved to the others over Hanagata's broad shoulder, "Oyasumi nasai!.....What was that Toru? Oh, it's midnight already? Ok. Ja ne, minna-san!"

"Where's Sendoh and Koshino?" asked Kogure, batting away Mitsui's busy hands which were pulling at his shirt again.

Kishimoto and Minami were too occupied to answer and the only one who didn't have his mouth full was Rukawa who was allowing Hanamichi to nibble at his ear which he has just pierced for the night's occassion.

"Rukawa?"

"......."

"Rukawa?"

"......" The fox-eyed boy was too busy enjoying the feel of Hanamichi's teeth pulling at the two loops gracing his left ear, to be able to answer his senior. Vaguely, the no.11 rookie wondered if there were other good places on his body to pierce for the redhead to play with.

"Hanamichi?" tried Kogure ignoring Rukawa's annoyed glare.

"Mmph?" the redhead mumbled as he lifted his head from his nibbling.

"Sendoh and Koshino. Have you seen where they went to?" asked Kogure again.

"Dunno. I saw Koshino being hit on by a drag queen and Sendoh going to his rescue," Hanamichi answered as Rukawa nuzzled at his neck.

"So where do you think they are now?"

"Somewhere," said the redhead distractedly, "All I know is that handbags make neat weapons and you should see that guy run with those heels."


~~~~

A few blocks away:

Koshino cuddled closer into Sendoh's warmth as the two shared a long kiss beside a building at the quiet part of the street.

"Thanks for the jacket," Koshino whispered after Sendoh released his mouth, "It was getting chilly."

"And how about another kiss to thank me for saving your virtue?" grinned Sendoh, lowering his face again.

"I could've handled that guy myself," protested Koshino, pushing at Sendoh's arm.

"I dunno," laughed Sendoh, fingering a small bump on his head, "That red handbag of his felt tough than it looked."

Koshino snickered, "I thought your hair could stand against all hard objects."

"Ha-ha," said Sendoh, swooping down to stiffle further mirth from the shorter boy by claiming his mouth with another long kiss.

Unbeknowest to them (as if they would be bothered anyway), a certain fanficcer and her friends have just stepped out of an arcade nearby after a session of various games.

"Ok, let's start walking," said Jon as he began to trudge towards the direction of their parked car.

Noor sighed wearily, "Aa."
Her feet would be really sore tomorrow morning...

~Owari~