Hello! Welcome to another random installment of Amai and Jin general much and craziness. My keyboard is on Spanish and I don´t feel like changing it back right now, so I don´t know how to make a smiley… BUT I´M SMILING AT YOU RIGHT NOW OK. Dang, I can´t find my question marks… ok here´s the story, enjoy my mush attempts hahahaha

"Well, this was a failure."

Amai found herself sitting outside the hall on that slightly chilly night. Smoke from cigarettes and cold turned around her, the slight smell of nicotine sticking to her nose. She dared not itch it for fear of ruining the makeup her sister had worked so hard to put on her. Not that it mattered, anyway. She didn't plan on going back inside the dance, unless she absolutely had to. School dances were never as great as they seemed in the movies.

At least her dress was pretty cute. Her fingers splayed out against her thighs as she pouted, thinking back about the hour before she'd left for the dance, spinning in front the mirror. Her A-line, strapless turquoise dress spilled down to her knees like bright ink, her hair straightened with her bangs French braided behind her ear, and just the slightest hint of eye shadow… her sister had done so well for the night to be such a ruin.

She kicked her heels off and reached down to rub the small callus on her heel. Well, maybe it was a little hackneyed to be miserable at a party, but she couldn't help it. She was ready to go home. No sooner had she thought the words when a pair of headlights came up through the parking lot of the hall where the school dance was being held. The voice, however, came from behind her.

"Amai?"

She jumped nearly a foot in the air. With a sudden dreading, Amai turned her head toward her visitor. "Yeeeeeeess?"

"I thought that was you! What're you doin' out here, anyways?"

Amai's jaw nearly dropped. "What am I doing out here? It's my school dance! What the heck are you doing here?"

Jin shrugged, hands in his jeans pockets. If possible, Amai's jaw dropped even more. He was in human clothes. She usually had to fight tooth and nail to make him put a shirt on. Today he was wearing a sports t-shirt and jeans with a hole in the knee. She wondered momentarily on where he had found the clothing and guessed Yusuke. Amai abruptly shut her mouth, teeth clicking.

"Your lil' sister told me you were at some sort of…" Jin took his hands from his pockets and made circular motions, looking for a word. "…dance? A party of dancin'?"

Amai gave a half-hearted smile, "Yeah, a school dance. It sounded like fun, but…" insert frustrated sigh here.

"It wasn't?" Jin guessed, crossing his arms.

A short laugh from Amai was answer enough. She rubbed the back of her head and crossed her ankles in front of her. She was going to play it cool, just say it was lame and whatever. Instead, she leaned her head into her hands and sighed deeply.

"It's awful." She admitted with a groan. "None of my friends could come except Keito and she's hanging out with her boyfriend and I brought a date but he's just awful too-"

It didn't occur to her to be a little embarrassed until the words were out of her mouth. But it's not like Jin and Amai were dating or anything, just… occasionally found themselves in romantic situations that made Amai's heart hurt and head spin but didn't seem to affect Jin at all. She frowned, her face pink, but she managed to look up at Jin.

"Awful all 'round, huh?" Jin quipped, wearing a half-smile she'd never seen before.

"Yeah, sorry. I guess it all must be pretty boring for you. Human, teenager problems, I mean." Amai went back to rubbing her heels.

Jin was quiet for a moment before coming to sit next to her on the bench. The music was loud, even outside the hall. Amai sniffed.

"I think it's interestin'." Jin said. "I think yer interestin'. An' it's not all borin'. Well, somma it is, but not all o' it."

"Glad my life is relatively interesting to you," Amai snorted.

Now sitting criss-cross on the bench, Jin smiled. "So you were tellin' me why things're awful an' such."

"I was?" Amai leaned back, pouting, debating. Well, here was her mouth motoring before her brain: "Well, you see, I came here with one of my teammate's brothers, but he's a total dick. All he wants to do is grind and slip alcohol into the punch and make out in the bathroom, and I kinda just wanted to dance like a normal person and have regular fun. Regular, boring, fun. And I didn't wear my shoes enough beforehand and now I got blisters." She laughed. "Was that interesting enough for you?"

She turned her head toward him and watched him quietly process the information. She knew half of it was a foreign language to him. However, he'd have to wait to figure it all out because here came her date for the evening. Amai groaned, her head falling once again into her hands. Exasperated did not even begin to cover it.

"Hey, babe, what're you doing out here?" Makoto Hayashi was handsome, though his voice exhumed arrogance. And wasn't that always the case? The handsomer they were and the more they knew it, the more arrogant/dickish they were. He'd exited the hall with an easy smile but the expression quickly fell when he saw the strange ginger sitting next to Amai. "Woah, you won't hook up with me, but you'll do it with some guy that doesn't even go here? What the hell-"

Amai would never know if the latter part of his sentence was directed at her or at Jin, because no sooner had the words left his mouth did Jin speed over to the Hayashi, assess him for a split second, then punched him in the gut.

Hayashi. Went. Flying.

Amai could not even find the words. Leaning over the back of the bench, she saw that Hayashi had crashed some feet away from where he'd originally been standing, and at first she worried he'd been knocked out until she heard him groaning rather piteously. Amai stared at his crumpled form as Jin trotted over to him. The wind demon shrugged before cheerily walking back to Amai.

Jin stopped when he reached the back of the bench, hands on his hips and making a disappointed face at Amai. "Cain't even take a punch! He's barely even a lad, for sure not a man!" Jin shook his head disapprovingly, "Not worth e'en a minute of yer time. C'mon, let's get you home,"

He hopped inhumanly over the back of the bench, took her hand, and started walking. He barely waited for her to grab her shoes and stand up. Her bare feet slapping against the concrete, she finally found something to say.

"Oh my gosh," her voice was a whisper, growing progressively louder as she said repeated the phrase. "Oh my GOSH. You just-" she gestured behind her. "And he just- and…"

Another moment of silence and she stopped walking and burst out laughing. Jin stopped and turned around, an eyebrow quirked. His ears were wiggling, just a bit. Amai tried to stop laughing, but as always it just made everything more hysterical.

"Yer laughin'! At first, I thought you were mad at me, you weren't sayin' a damn thing!" Jin's unabashed smile seemed brighter than usual.

"I was in shock," Amai found that although she could stop laughing, the grin just wouldn't leave her face. "I'm still in shock. Of all the things to do- you just up and punched him! Is that how you greet everyone? You drag 'em into the sky or your punch 'em?"

"It's a fair easy way of figurin' out a person, doncha think?" Jin tugged on her hand and they started walking again.

"All I did was scream," Amai commented, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "I think I hit you, too. I can't imagine I made a good first impression."

Jin was quiet a moment before answering. "You'd be surprised."

Not trusting her voice, Amai held her breath and waited for the right answer to come into her head. It wasn't working, and she was feeling a little dizzy. Normal Amai would play it off jokingly, but the suddenly bashful Amai wanted to ask what he meant.

"What're you doin'? Yer face is all red- why're you holdin' yer breath like that?" Jin had turned to look at her, quirking an eyebrow.

Amai gasped, found that was difficult while holding one's breath, subsequently choked, coughed, and was still fighting for breath when she hurriedly replied, "Nothing! I mean, no reason. Just. You know. Um."

"I can't tell if yer blushin' or if yer face is red from holdin' yer breath,"

"Mm…" Amai muttered under her breath, "Both."

"Thas' good I guess," Jin turned around to smile at her. "So long as yer not sad anymore."

"No. Not anymore, I'm not. I was more annoyed, 'cause my sister made me look all pretty and the night sorta sucked," she laughed half-heartedly.

Jin peeked over at her, turning his head just a little. His eyebrows were raised and rather than the usual spark of mischief in his eye, Amai saw sincerity.

"Well," he drawled, "Ya do look pretty."

Though he had turned to face forward again, pulling her along after him, she could see that he was grinning. Amai matched his smile, feeling her face flush with pride and a little embarrassment.

"I prefer stunning," she teased, stepping quickly to catch up with him.

"Alright, stunning then." He looked down at her, squeezing her hand.

"Gorgeous, even?"

Jin pouted a little, "How many times do I hafta say it?"

"Until I get tired of hearing it." Amai winked, squeezing his hand tight. "Which will be never."

"Well, I'm not gonna say it anymore then, you'll get all spoiled an' such and yer ego will just explode! Cain't be havin' that now, can we?" Jin used his free hand to mimic an explosion, adding some sound effects before giving her a wise look.

A wise look. From Jin. About her ego. She gave him a sly look, almost pouting.

"Fine, I'll just have to find someone else to tell me I'm beautiful all the time."

Jin thought about this for a moment. "Like your mother?"

Amai whacked his arm with her shoes.

"Och, aye! You don' hafta be hittin' me every time ah make a joke!" Jin winced before a mostly-serious look came across his face. Tonight was a night for firsts, Amai supposed. "It don't matter how much yer sister dresses ya up, ya always look pretty."

He squeezed her hand tightly as she searched for words. She was about to make a joke when he continued.

"If ya really need someone ta tell ya yer beautiful all the time, Ah'll do it. Ya don't hafta find anyone else ta tell ya."

He was quiet for some time after that. Amai found herself, for once in her life, unable to make light of the situation. It felt very real and honest, but it felt a little bit like a clichéd dream too. She found herself shyly looking away, completely in awe. Just ten minutes ago Hayashi had been saying she was hot or sexy or smokin' or something, and all she'd been was annoyed. When he said she had a nice ass, she'd rolled her eyes. Jin said she was beautiful and her heart was in her mouth.

"Ok," she whispered so softly he had to turn and look at her to make sure she really had spoken. "Um, thank you, I guess."

"What fer? Don' thank me fer tellin' the truth atcha." He grinned again before pointing ahead with his free hand, gesturing to Amai's home. "We made it! Now you can get off yer sorry sore feet and inta bed!"

Amai made a noise in protest. "I don't wanna go in yet, my sister is waiting up to hear all about my failed attempts at dancing and boys and such. She's probably waiting in the hallway right now, right in front of the door. Waiting." Amai shuddered.

Jin made a noise and turned to Amai, a slightly insulted look on his face, "Well, I can fix tha' at least!"

"Hm?" was all Amai could get out before Jin snagged her around the middle and jumped up into the air.

And just like that, they were at her window. Amai's hands were knotted in Jin's human shirt and her knees were curled up into her chest. Small wonder she hadn't lost her strappy heels, hanging loosely from her wrist. Jin was quietly laughing as he reached his free hand to open the window, which was always unlocked anyhow. Amai was now pouting and she attempted to keep her voice at both a normal pitch and normal volume.

"That wasn't fair! You scared the crap out of me! I told you to warn me if you ever had to do that!" Amai managed to unknot one hand from his shirt so that she could smack him.

"Owch," Jin grumbled, clearly not hurt. His movements were gentle as he carefully stepped onto the window sill and swung her into the room. "There! Righ' as rain!"

Amai quickly freed her remaining hand, flushed with embarrassment as she stumbled just a little. "Uh, sure. Right as rain. Thanks, Jin."

"Well, 'course it's no problem! Anyway, I was tellin' Yusuke we could be havin' an arm wrestlin' match 'fore I went back to Genkai's, so I'll hafta see ya later!" Jin put his hands on his hips with a grin and an ear wiggle.

Half a moment of hesitation and he leaned into the window, hovering for a millisecond above Amai, who tilted her head to look up at him, perhaps tease him, when she lost the ability to think and Jin quickly kissed her cheek.

He leapt back out the window with a gigantic grin on his face, waving on hand at her. He bid her goodbye in a teasing tone: "Later, gorgeous," and sped off on a breeze that shook the tree outside her window.

Amai sat hard on the ground, the shoes tumbling to the side and her hands falling into her lap. When her older sister burst through the door with unabashed nosiness, Amai was giggling and smiling too hard to stop.