I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Thanks again for reviewing Jins-Irish-Grin. Lol. Glad to hear I did her personality almost completely correct. Ya, I'll admit I thought that some of the things I made her do weren't on target for her personality, but I wasn't sure how to change it. The whole arms up to chest thing I knew was odd, but if you think about it what other action could she have done other than a facial expression to show she was scared when Jin's arms were around her waist and they were flying? Lol. Oh well. (and don't kill me for the beginning of this chapter. Lol. I told ya I was trying to make this kind of realistic and this was how I figured someone would react to what had just happened)

On with the tale

Chapter 4

Kinomi squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the ice give way underneath her and anticipated to be unnerving cold of the water. Instead this very thought was contradicted as she felt unusually warm.

'You idiot!' she mentally screamed at herself for being stupid enough to wander out onto the lake and not notice. 'You got yourself killed!' This was the only reasonable explanation she could think at the moment of why she was warm.

'Now you'll never know if Jin likes you!' her mind screamed.

She felt something tighten around her. 'Must be death finally claiming my soul. Thanks Botan, thanks a bunch,' the last part was dripping with sarcasm in her mind.

"The water must have been really cold," she said aloud.

"'ouldn't know," an accented voice said, "Didn' touch it."

'I know that voice!' Kinomi's mind shouted. Her eyes snapped open and she looked over her shoulder to see a wearily smiling wind master. "Jin!" she cried with glee.

Jin's smile grew to the point were it looked kind of goofy to her, but she didn't care. Her feet were place on solid ground not a moment later, which is when she realized she'd been hovering over it.

She warped her arms around him and yelled, "I'm alive!"

"Of course ya are," Jin said slightly puzzled, "What did you think ya were?"

"I thought I fell in the lake and, and…" she buried her face into his chest and the wind master realized what she had been leading to.

He wrapped his arms around her protectively. "It's alrigh' Kinomi," he told her reassuringly, "Didn't I tell ya I'd never be lettin' ya fall?"

A quick flash of her first flight ran through her mind before she nodded. "You did," she murmured, "You did."

"'en don' be scared," he said lightly to her, all playfulness gone from his voice, leaving only tenderness and care. "Because I'll never let ya fall. Never ever."

Kinomi pulled away enough to look up into his face, "Promise?" A single tear found its way down her cheek.

Jin gave a small smile and nodded, "I promise." He swept away the stray tear with his thumb. "You needn' be worrin' anymore."

She smiled and hugged him tightly, resting her cheek on his chest. He wrapped his strong arms around her tightly, but not enough to harm her in any way, and rested his chin gently on top of her head.

After several moments Kinomi spoke, "You're warm Jin, you know that."

The wind master smiled and rubbed her back gently, removing stray snowflakes, "I ran 'ere from ol' Genkai's place."

"How did you know I was here?" she asked, slightly confused.

"Urameshi an' Kurama tol' me," he explained.

"They're still there?" Kinomi asked, "I thought they'd have gone back home to their families by now."

Jin chuckled, "Ya should know them better 'an me Kinomi. They be havin' a merry old time knockin' each other up."

Kinomi smiled, "You mean their sparring."

"'at's what I said," Jin said with a smile.

"What a day for them to be sparring," Kinomi said softly.

"An' what a day for ya to be wandering off on 'our own," Jin pointed out.

Kinomi gave a small smile, he was right after all. "I just wanted to think without the racket going on at my grandmother's place."

Jin chuckled again, "Understood." He kissed the top of her snowy head before slowly pulling away from her, "'et's be getting' back."

Kinomi, with her cheeks red, nodded. Silence fell between them as they made their trek through the park in the direction of Genkai's temple. Neither knew what to say to the other, but they took comfort in each other's company.

After what seemed to be an eternity Kinomi felt she had to break the silence in some way. "Jin…"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks for everything you've ever done for me."

Jin smiled down at her as they continued to walk, "Same to ya Kinomi."

Kinomi was slightly surprised by this, but quickly smiled.

As they passed by the snowman Kinomi had seen earlier she noticed another one, slightly smaller, built next to it. "That wasn't there before," she said aloud.

"Eh?" Jin questioned, not sure of what she was talking about.

"The snowman without the hat," she said as she pointed it out.

As he looked at the two snowmen and question came to mind, "Is 'at 'our hat?"

Before Kinomi could answer she was hit in the back of the head by something soft, causing her to yelp in surprise. A cry of, "Bull's-eye," alerted her to the culprit of whatever had been thrown at her.

As they both turned around Jin got hit in the shoulder by the same kind of object, which was revealed to be a snowball. "Yusuke! Kuwabara!" Kinomi yelled.

A teenage boy with sleeked back black hair and brown eyes stood there grinning. He wore his green school uniform, which wasn't even the right color for his school. Next to him was a taller teenage boy with curly orange hair and brown eyes. He wore his light blue school uniform, which again wasn't the right color, but it was closer that Yusuke's.

"You guys are so mean!" Kinomi cried, but her laughter canceled out any anger she might have felt.

Jin was the next to yelp as another snowball hit him, but this time in the back of the head. When he turned around he found a smirking ice master, "Merry Christmas Jin."

Jin made a face and with a flick of his hand the tree branch above Touya waved in the wind and let its contents fall. Touya made a surprised noise as the snow fell on top of him before yelling, "Cheater," and throwing another snowball at the wind master, hitting him in the chest.

With a playful growl Jin took off running after the ice master, who darted away from him. For a demon shorter than Jin he could certainly keep a fair amount of distance between them with little problem.

Kinomi laughed until she was hit in the leg by a snowball thrown, once again, by Yusuke. He stood there laughing until he was hit by a snowball in the shoulder, but it wasn't thrown by Kinomi. As the three of them looked to the culprit they found a teenage boy with mid back in length red hair and green eyes. He wore a green tunic with white pants and long sleeve shirt under it.

"Kurama!" Yusuke yelled, "You're supposed to hit her! Not me!"

"Oops," Kurama with a smiled, clearly not meaning it.

"You traitor!" Yusuke yelled and threw a snowball at the kitsune (fox demon) in disguise. Kurama ducked to evade it, laughing all the while.

Yusuke took a quick step to the side to evade getting hit by a snowball thrown by Hiei, a male teenage looking fire demon with black hair that defied gravity, white outlined bangs and red eyes. He wore black pants and black cloak like shirt.

"Ha! You missed Hiei!" Yusuke yelled.

"No," Hiei said with a smirk, "I hit my target."

Yusuke turned around and Kuwabara whipping snow off his face and broke out laughing. When he heard Kinomi call his name he looked towards her and got pegged in the face by a snowball as well.

"Ha!" Kinomi yelled triumph, "Bulls-eye!" she cried, mimicking what Yusuke had said when he had hit her for the first time.

Yusuke shook his head back and forth to get the snow off. "Nice hit there Kinomi," he called out to her, laughing.

"'et back here Touya," Jin called to the fleeing ice master.

"Not a chance," Touya said over his shoulder. Thinking up a quick plan he slowed his pace just enough to allow Jin get close enough so that he could tackled him if he wished it, but that wasn't the plan however.

Jin didn't catch onto this as Touya ran at his slowed pace towards Kinomi. The pink hair girl seemed startled, but was even more so when Touya flipped right over her. Now the ice masters plan was set.

Due to the wind master following so closely behind the ice master he could not stop quick enough to prevent himself from knocking right into Kinomi. He did however make an odd maneuver to prevent himself from falling on top of her by grabbing her around the waist and twisting on his feet so that he would hit the ground and not her.

The force of the fall and how they were positioned on one another, however, caused their lips to smack into each others. The two of them blushed deeply and Jin quickly let her go so she could scramble to her feet, where she muttered a series of apologies.

Yusuke and Kuwabara were lying on the ground dieing with laughter, Kurama was leaning against a tree to support himself as laughter racked his body and Hiei looked entirely amused. Touya, who was smirking, walked up to Jin, who was now sitting up in shock with red still ever present on his face, and smacked him in the back of the head, "Jin you old devil."

Jin rubbed his head even though the hit had be light, which Touya had meant it to be. "Sorry Kinomi," he murmured in embarrassment, "It be all my fault, not 'our own."

Being completely embarrassed even though they had both apologized Kinomi ran away from the group. Jin called after her but she didn't stop.

The wind master got to his feet and turned to the ice master. He grabbed his comrade's shirt and lifted him to his toes before shaking him, "Why'd you do 'at?"

"I wasn't the one who kissed her," Touya said as he was being shaken.

Jin stopped shaking him for a moment. "It's 'our fault!" he cried as he shook the ice master once again, "Now she 'ates me!"

Touya broke away from Jin and shook his head back and forth to get his senses back intact. His hair had come slightly loose from its hold, making him look through some of the light blue strands of hair that had fallen in his face. "Need you reenact Karie's actions towards me in the same day?"

"Sorry," Jin murmured apologetically. Karie was Touya's girlfriend and she had shaken his rather violently for not coming to see her in weeks.

"What are you moping around here for?" Touya asked him.

Jin looked at his questioningly, "Eh?"

"Go after her," Touya said motioning in the direction Kinomi had fled in.

"But she's mad at me," Jin whined and looked down.

Touya crossed his arms, "Is she mad or embarrassed?"

Jin looked up to find the ice master looking directly at him and knew what the right answer truly was. "Embarrassed," he murmured quietly.

"Then go after her and apologize," Touya said with a rare smile.

"But I did," Jin whined.

Touya rolled his eyes, "And how many times did she apologize to you?"

Jin understood what his comrade was getting at. She had apologized so many times he had lost count in his dazed state and he had apologized but once. He turned to run in the direction Kinomi had when he heard the ice master tell him, "Think of this as payback for last year."

At that moment he didn't quiet understand what Touya meant, but he figured he would eventually.

Muhahaha! I'm evil. Lol. Na, I'm just trying to make it realistic once more. You know the classic accidental kiss turns to mass embarrassment and so on down the line.

Hehe, see, she didn't fall in the water. I ticked you.

For anyone who doesn't know the whole deal behind Karie, that has to do with The Ultimate Christmas Gift (the Christmas fic I wrote in 2003). It's not that important for this fic, but it may clear up any questions you have concerning her… plus it might help you realize what Touya had said last (but it'll be explained in the next chapter anyway)

Only one more chapter to go! There's so many things to do in it too.

Please Review.

Thanks.