A/N: Happy Birthday, Moon Step...even if it is two months late

Part One: Open Space

"How long an hour can take, when you're staring into open space. When I feel I'm slipping further away, I remember that everyday I get a little bit closer to you." --The Wallflowers

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Jin was a curious sort.

He rather thought it one of his more endearing qualities, really, though Touya said it just made him a pain in the ass. Jin didn't mind; he was a pain in the ass. And he liked it that way. More than once he'd considered if perhaps this was the reason he and Yusuke got along so well.

Still, his relationship with Yusuke aside, Jin couldn't help but wonder if it was this natural curiosity, or something more, that drew him to her.

Her.

A human...

...A demon slayer.

It was preposterous at best. He didn't even like humans, not really. Smelly creatures, they were. Wore their decay and vice like a winter coat. Vile and stupid in most cases, Jin had never spared them a passing thought until Yusuke came along.

And what's worse, a demon slayer. Gods, he wasn't even going to get into that.

And yet despite it all, he was absolutely fascinated by her.

They hadn't much to say to one another at first, which might have been unusual for him had it not been for the fact that he rarely saw them. And though he seldom crossed them, it was enough for him to know something wasn't right. Jin always was more perceptive than he appeared, and he was more than a little certain they were hiding something. That they were involved with Yusuke at all was enough to support the theory.

Kurama, especially, had tried to keep things quiet (Jin was under the impression then—and now—that it had been for the priestess' sake, though the fox would die before he'd admit to having a...crush he believed the humans called it...on a 17 year-old human girl. He was, after all, pushing 1,000), but Jin wasn't stupid. Honestly, just watching their reaction to the most simple devices had been evidence enough for him to put things together.

All it took was a good strong bottle of firewater for Yusuke's lips to get loose.

He hadn't asked the details of how they all met, but he wasn't really surprised at all. Hell, it was damn near universal law. Honestly, how long could two groups of substantial strength and spiritual ability go on functioning in the same general locale without eventually running into one another? It was a cosmic imperative in his opinion.

But that wasn't the point, and Jin didn't give a fuck anyway. She interested him, and as far as he was concerned, it was enough.

"You know, you could just go talk to her."

Damn that frosty little bugger. Always trying to make sense of things. "It's not so easy, lad."

"I find that rather hard to believe in your case," the ice master intoned. "You could talk the ears off an elephant youkai."

He cast Touya a rather pointed glare, though even his most serious stare came out in good humor. The wind apparition heaved an exaggerated sigh. It wasn't as though he hadn't tried that before, anyway. Once. They'd spoken just once outside of casual pleasantries, and Jin would forever recall the incident as one of the most embarrassing of his life.

Honestly, the words had just spilled out, and for the life of him, he still had no idea where they or the accompanying lapse in judgment had come from, but suffice it to say, he wouldn't be doing it again.

At least, he didn't think so.

If nothing else, he could say he'd learned a very valuable lesson about human females that day, he reflected, rubbing the needles he could almost swear were still there from under the skin of his cheek. Damn, she had a hell of a backhand...though, he felt it somewhat necessary to keep that information to himself for the moment.

"Ah, you wouldn't understand."

"What's not to understand?" The ice master was looking more and more amused by the second. "You like this girl," Touya held out a hand to stop the interruption he knew was coming, "and don't bother denying it because we all know better—and rather than just talking to her, which I am under the distinct impression you are afraid to do, you've opted for stalking instead."

Jin gaped like a landed trout. "I...I don't stalk," he stammered. "I observe."

Touya quirked an incredulous brow. "You stalk. Which, might I add, could be considered creepy by human standards."

"Now listen here—" but the look of 'don't insult my intelligence, I've known you entirely too long for you to hide anything from me' stopped him cold. Jin sighed, frustrated with himself. "I don't...Gah! I don't know, lad," the wind apparition kicked up his legs and floated mid-air on his back. "There's just somethin' about her. It's not even that I like her—not that I'm opposed to a good roll in the hay—but I just..."

"Bullshit."

Jin sat up and faced him, still floating.

"I've never seen you get this worked up over a casual rut," Touya remarked pointedly. "You like this girl."

"Maybe," Jin grumbled and placed his hands behind his head and looked up into the clear, blue sky. "It's more than just that, tho' lad. It's like...like I know her somehow. Like...ah, forget it, man."

Touya never was one easily dissuaded. "Like?"

"I said forget it."

"Not a chance," the ice apparition grinned broadly, thoroughly enjoying his companion's discomfort.

Jin exhaled heavily, knowing there was no way Touya would ever let him just drop the subject. The ice apparition was like a pit bull sinking his teeth in when it came to anything he had an actual interest in knowing.

"...Home," he responded quietly, forcing down the heat in his cheeks. "She feels like home."

The smirk melted off Touya's face like watercolors in the rain. "Those are serious words, my friend."

For once in his life, Jin had nothing to say.

"You hardly know this girl," Touya observed.

"Not at all, really," he concurred.

The ice master was quiet for a time, staring off toward the same clearing Jin had been focused on for the better part of the day. She was there of course, at a distance, working the same kata she'd been perfecting for at least the last hour. The slayer was rather precise for a human, he'd give her that. And not bad looking either, Touya had to admit. Her body was lean, toned in a way most humans couldn't manage. She was such a tiny thing it was hard to tell it, though. Often Touya couldn't help but think if it weren't for that enormous and utterly ridiculous looking weapon she kept strapped to her back, a good stiff breeze would have blown her right off her feet.

He was decidedly smart enough to keep this information to himself, however.

Hiei had not been so wise. And one cool, Autumn eve when their acquaintance was still relatively fresh and enough firewater to drown the neighboring city was consumed on their part (and by their he meant the boys of the group...at least, he thought so...most of the evening remained very, very fuzzy), the demon had made this observation, along with a number of doubts concerning her abilities, known...rather vocally. And loudly.

Watching Hiei get his drunk ass handed to him by a human girl was, quite frankly, the funniest shit Touya had ever seen in his life.

A smile tugged at the corner of the ice master's lips. Hell, no wonder Jin was so taken with her.

"Alright," he said, clapping his hands once in a show of resolve. "I think it's just about time you did, then, don't you?"

"I told ya, lad," the wind apparition sighed, "it's not so easy."

"Nothing worthwhile ever is," Touya rebutted, meeting his comrade's eyes with sincerity. "Go to the girl. Get to know her while you've got the chance."

Jin seemed surprised at his response and looked about to protest before the ice master cut him off with a pointed stare. "Go to the girl," he repeated for emphasis. "Before someone else does."

As it turned out, someone did.

And he choked down the irony, bitter in his throat, as the electric sting of steel on steel burned the evening air around them over and again, as it had every night for the last three and a half weeks. Touya had been right, of course, not that Jin would ever tell him. Hell, he wouldn't have to. By now he was certain pretty much everyone they knew had become suspicious of the time the slayer had been spending with the fire apparition.

It burned and crushed inside his chest for reasons he had yet to fully understand, though he thought it might have to do with the knowing that, indeed, it was entirely his fault.

He'd been stalk—ahem, observing her for nearly four months when the other demon had approached her in the field that day with the focus of fierce rage. Jin couldn't say what prompted the anger, but it didn't matter—with Hiei, there needn't be a cause, only a victim.

They met each other with the force of a thousand waves breaking upon the shore, striking and cursing in a vicious symphony. Had Jin only the tiniest doubt of her ability, he'd have intervened on her behalf, knowing what the forbidden one was truly capable of.

He didn't move a muscle. After all, he knew precisely what Sango was capable of, too.

Still, it left a deeper hollow in the pit of his chest, one that he didn't care to identify. And when it was finally over, and the demon's anger spent as they held one another at the mercy of trembling blade and baited breath, Jin felt his heart plummet straight to his knees with bitter realization.

They'd been dancing.

And would continue to do so, every night from that point on, with he as a silent witness.

The wind apparition sighed heavily, turning away from the latest in a series of ever-longer pauses and awkward spaces between the two. He should've just walked away then, and he knew it. He was unsure of her intentions, but Hiei's were quite clear as far as Jin was concerned, though he doubted that even Hiei knew it just yet. Regardless, it wasn't often someone like Hiei opened himself to another in any way, and the part of Jin that wanted to be a good comrade (he told himself that it was not so much for Hiei's benefit, as it was simply the way of things) told him he should've just bowed out gracefully.

But then, there was the rest of him. The part that, up until recently, had never backed down from anything, never sat by idly and watched what he wanted slip away without so much as a breath of protest. The overwhelming part of him that told him it was time to do something. Yes, there was the rest of him.

...And the rest of him said to Hell with Hiei.

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Part two up shortly. Thanks for reading, and please feed the author!