Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Warmth of Ice ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Dustbunny doesn't own YYH... and I don't own a life...I'm gonna go cry in a corner now.

Bunnydust: I remember when that guy was just annoying. Now he's depressing, too...Man, that's annoying.

Marshmallow: Right. Anyw-

Dustbunny: Why are we just standing around talking!?! Zephyrus could post a Touya/ Keiko fic any second! We need to have this up before that happens!

Kurama: Well, if she can post at any second-

Dustbunny: No more talking! On to the ficcy!

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Touya sat outside in the snow to meditate. Inside Genkai's dojo, he could hear the others at their training- for the most part anyway. It sounded like Yusuke, Jin, Chuu, and Kuwabara were goofing off again. It also sounded like Genkai was growing impatient again. No surprise there euther.

Touya was just begining to block out the noise when he heard a new sound. He turned his head to investigate and was surprised to see a young, brown-haired human girl closing the door. Even more surprising was that she wore no coat or gloves to protect herself from the cold, instead just her school uniform to show she'd come from there directly. Yes, it was Keiko, Yusuke's girl. Or, rather, Yusuke's ex-girl. They'd been broken up for almost five weeks now.

It never ceased to amaze the ice master that the girl continued to come to the place despite this one fact. She'd come constantly before the incident to encourage Yusuke, now she came to encourage the others as well. Further more, she never so much as the smallest fuss about it either, even when she was temporarily forgotten and was treated to the sight of Yuske and Botan flirting. She'd simply turn her attention to something else.

But for whatever reason she was at the dojo or what she was and wasn't doing, Touya didn't think that she should be outside dressed as she was. Humans were very prone to illness after all.

"I don't think you should be outside without warmer clothing," he said as politely as he could. "It's cold and you might get sick." He was surprised when she glared at him.

"If I felt like dealing with that sort of attitude, I could have stayed insied and talked to Hiei or Shishiwakumaru," she stated coldly. Realizing that he didn't know what he'd done to upset her, her eyes softened slightly, "Just because I'm human doesn't mean that I can't take a little bit of cold," she continued.

"I'm sorry if I offended you," he told her as he stood and brushed the snow off of his pants. "I can't always judge the temperature acurately. I thought it was colder out."

"Apology accepted," Keiko replied and beant to gather some of the soft snow in her hands.

Touya was surprised. He'd always been under the impression that humans hated snow. He was so busy pondering over this new information that he didn't notice the snowball until Keiko called out, "Heads up!" It was hard not to notice the snowball when it connected solidly (or at least as solidly as a snowball gets) with his face.

Touya stood in shock for a moment while Keiko laughed quietly with the lower part of her face covered with her handsat the look on his face. When he finally came to, he glared at the giggling girl and wiped the snow from his face.

"Cute. Real cute," he told her. "You think that's funny, huh?" He glared harder at her when she shook her head despite still chuckling behind her hands. Hungry for revenge against his assailant who continued to giggle, Touya quickly scooped up a hand full of snow and chucked it in Keiko's direction.

Unfortunately for the assulted shinobi, he hadn't packed the ball well enough- as he had been in such a hurry to throw it- so very little of the snow actually made it as far as he'd wished. Not that it would have mattered as Keiko, who'd been expecting a return fire (so to speak) had summersaulted secret agent style behind a tree.

Smirking happily to herself, she carefully packed a tight ball of snow. Just as she was preparing to get into attack position, she heard someone clear their throat behind her. She spun around just in time to be pelted by about seven snowballs. Her fornt now matched her back which had been coated by her little 009 act.

Keiko held her hands up protectively and yelled at Touya to stop. When the barrage had dissapated, she looked up at Touya's smirking face. He was obviously very pleased with himself. There had to be a way to get him back, and Keiko saw it above her when she rolled her eyes. Then, she quickly turned her focus back to him so as not to alert him to her scheme. Unknowingly, Touya even offered a way to assist her.

"So, what do you say? Truce?" he asked, still smirking, and extended his hand toward her quite mockingly. Barely hiding her smirk, Keiko extended her own hand as if to except his.

His smirk growing wider, Touya prepared to shake Keiko's hand. But at the last second, Keiko jerked her hand upward and grabbed a low branch of the tree she'd spotted. Before Touya could contemplate her action, Keiko hand tugged the branch with all of her might, showering the snow from it and several higher branches all over the surprised boy standing opposite her.

As Touya shook off the surprise, Keiko dashed to the other side of the tree. But, once again, she'd underestimated him. While she'd prepared to attack, he had swiftly climbed up the tree to one of the higher branches. Standing below him- without knowing it- Keiko was becoming impatient for him to come around. She was just peeking around to the other side when:

"Looking for someone?" Keiko had just enough time to lookup and then take precisely half of a step before Touya rocked the tree in a way so that the brach he stood on, as well as every branch below him, to dump it's entire snow content on top of her.

Feeling rather accomplished and avenged, Touya jump down and landed lightly in front of her. Keiko glared as she brushed the snow off of her. Touya continued to smirk as he helped her to get the snow off of her back. Grudgingly, Keiko held out her hand once more. Touya started to take it and then hesitated. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her a few feet in distance from the tree.

"Okay, now let's shake on it," he said. Smiling, Keiko took his hand and shook itas they both said a quiet, "truce." After a few minutes of silence, they both started laughing.

Shaking her head slightly, Keiko walked a few feet away to a patch of snow that they had yet to turn up. Spinning around, she let herself fall back into the snow and moved her arms and legs to create an imprint. Touya watched and wondered exactly what the girl was doing.

"Help me up?" Keiko asked as she carefully pulled herself into a sitting position. Touya eyed her suspisiously.

"Why don't you get up on your own?" he questioned with even more suspision than his face showed. Keiko just smiled and gave a small laugh.

"Because it'll mess up my snow angel," she explained. When he looked confused and not entirely convinced, she continued, "There aren't exactly any tree branches around here." This was true, so Touya took her hand and pulled her up beside him. He then investigated the print that she'd made.

"It's a snow angel," she told him as if it explained everything. She then pointed out the reason's for the name's origin. He seemed to think it over for a while before walking to the head of the impression, careful not to disturb it.

Keiko watched him in wonderment as he bent about a foot in front of it and began tracing a pattern with his finger in the snow. A few seconds later, a halo hovered above the angel, looking rather realistic (especially for something made in snow).

"Every angel needs a halo. It seems more liek you now anyway," he explained his action, causing her to blush. She seemed about to reply something when her eyes suddenly got wide with surprise and she cast her gaze upward.

"Look," she neary whispered without looking away from the sky. "It's snowing again." She said the statement with the sort of glee that a child might use and her eyes shone to match her voice. Touya couldn't help but smile at her. In another minute, though, he was again confued by her actions.

"What are you doing?" he questioned. Keiko was sticking her tounge out repeatedly and holding it upward. She stopped this activity to answer him.

"I'm trying to catch the snowflakes," she told him and then went back to work.

"Why?" Touya questioned further. This time it took Keiko longer to answer.

"I just am," she told him. "It's just something people do." Touya decided he'd have to be content with the answer.

"They're getting bigger," Keiko announced. Sure enough, while the snow kept falling at a gentle pace, the small, dainty flakes were slowly being replaced by larger, fatter flakes. Clearly excited by the fact, Keiko danced around a bit as she attempted to capture them.

Touya watched her and shook his head. Keiko's face had gradually begun to take on a cold nipped look, and yet here she danced around with no form of winter clothing whatsoever so as to taste flakes of frozen water.

What happened next, it seemed to Touya, he had no control over. He had had no intention (at least not that he could recall) of doing what he did, and yet it was executed as if he'd been planning it for some time.

As Keiko's tounge ventured from it's home to quest for one of the icey crystals, it found Touya's tounge instead. Within seconds, he was holding the surprised brunette against him and his tounge had followed her's back into her mouth.

When Touya realized what he was doing, he felt he should pull away. But the stronger force within his mind told him to stay put. If he broke the kiss now, it would be incomplete somehow. After all, Keiko wasn't trying to push him away or reject him. She had yet to react at all, actually. He saw no reason to pull back until he knew her reaction.

Well, her reaction came alright. He wasn't sure what he'd expected her reaction to be, but he was definitely taken by surprise. He now stood a few inches away, a hand held to his smarting cheek and his tounge aching. He didn't know which set of teeth was responsible, but the sudden jerking motion had cause one set to bite this tounge. Judging by the way Keiko's mouth was working, she'd been effected the same way.

The silence was more than he could take and began to apologise but was cut off by Keiko.

"I hope you know how rude that was. Just grabbing me all of a sudden like you did," she said to him sternly. Her eyes were stern as well, though it seemed almost forced.

"I'm sorry," he told her quietly. "I really didn't mean to..." he broke off and tried to find a way to explain what had happened.

"Try that again," Keiko told him. He stared at her in shock and she blushed. "If you want to, I mean. But then I guess if you didn't indend to the first time-"

"Oh, no!" he interupted. "It's just that...aren't you mad?" This girl was seriously confusing him.

"Oh, I'm mad alright," she told him. This was even more confusing. "But, I can recognise that people make mistakes and you've already apologized..." she let the statement hang.

Touya took a step closer to her, leaving less than an inch between the two. She looked up at him and seemed to give him permission with her eyes. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him. Her arms easily found their way aroun his neck. Even more slowly than his arms had moved around her, he began closing the gap that separated their faces.

Meanwhile, seval relieved sighs filled the dojo. The door was cracked open just enough for the ten figures to look out at the couple.

"Things seem to be okay between them now," Kurama spoke out loud. The others nodded in silent agreement.

"Well, it's 'bout time if you was to ask my opinion," Chuu stated matter of factly.

"No one asked your opinion, but I'll agree with you anyway. He's only stared at her EVERY FREAKIN' DAY. And we've been sitting here for how long again? It was almost getting boring," Kuwabara added his two cents.

"Yeah, it was," Shishi agreed. "Although I thought for a second that he was going to follow her to the ground when she first fell to make that snow angel thing."

"Why would he do that?" Rinku asked.

"So's 'e could-" Chuu began only to be cut off by Botan.

"You really are awful, you know that? Honestly! Out in the snow," this only led Rinku to be more confused and Shishi to smirk.

"He'd have kept her warm enough I'm sure." Botan was ready to come back at him, but Rinku interrupted.

"What are you guys talking about?" he near shouted in exasperation.

"You'll find out when you're older, kid. Now be quiet before we wined up missing the good stuff." Rinku was obviously not satisfied with the answer and felt the need to complain.

"What 'good stuff?' They're just standing there!" he reported grumpily and a bit worriedly. When they'd embarced he'd seen it as a good sign, but now nothing was happening.

"Oh, they're just savoring the moment and all that mushy stuff," Yusuke explained to him.

"Yes," Botan agreed. "I was a bit worried when he fell victim to her smack attack, but they seem to be okay now." This rose another question.

"Why did she even slap him? I mean, if she was just gonna kiss him anyway, what was the point?" Rinku questioned.

Shizuru answered, "He overstepped a boundry line when he grabbed her unexpectedly. She was just making sure he understood his proper place."

"Miss Shizuru is right," Yukina nodded. "She couldn't have simply allowed her to continue kissing her and give him the idea that he could just have his way with her whenever he felt like it."

Everyone was so involved with the scene unfolding before them, they didn't notice the old psycic come up behind them.

"Don't any of you have anything more productive to do than watch them as if they're a soap opera?" The voice startled them so that they all cried out and jumped up. This caused the smallest bit of a tangle amongst the bodies.

"Typical," she said and shook her head.

"It's not our fault if the tv is on the blitz," Jin told her with just the slightest bit of embarrassment. (A/N Okay, you all know what he sounds like and I'm not in the mood to fit his words to his accent)

"Actually, if I recall correctly, Jin, it was you who smashed into it," Genkai stated quite simply. "Now, to further my earlier statement, I know that you all have things to do. I suggest that you do them. Now."

This finally got everyone off of the floor as they slowly wandered into the areas of the temple that they currently belonged in. When they'd all left, Genkai walked back across the room to the still open door. She peeked outside and smiled a small smile. The couple had since eliminated the distance between their mouths.

Feeling a chill from outside, Genkai noted that it was growing colder and wondered if she should have some hot tea or cocoa for Keiko at least. But as an opening appeared in the fall of the snow between herself and the pair that stood currently unaware of anything but eachother, she saw that no such thing was necessary.

Smiling once more, the old master closed the door to prevent the cold air from entering. She had gotten a clear veiw of Keiko and was almost surprised. No one seeing the girl for the first time at that moment would have believed that she'd been out in the cold for any amount of time. Genkai wouldn't believe herself if she didn't know better.

Keiko stood out in the open amidst swirling snow and now cold winds. The only thing sheltering her was the ice demon in whose arms she was currently ensconsed. Despite this, she showed no sign of cold. The cold red which had begun to come over her face and hands had actually disappeared. In fact, the girl didn't look as if she could be warmer.

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Hiei: Glad that's over.

Bunnydust: Seriously. What we just expirienced is a very good reason why people who tend to avoid any sort of mushy-ness should never attempt fluff.

Dustbunny: Yes! I have a Touya/Keiko fic! <laughs manically>

Marshmallow: That whole Jin/Keiko thing seriously sent her over the edge. She's lost it.

Yusuke: You mean she had it to begin with?

Dustbunny: It may not be the best, but I wrote it! And it's Keiko/Touya!... Wait a minute, why are we just standing here!?! We need to post this before Zephyrus posts hers!

Marshmallow: But I haven't told the readers to reveiw yet.

Dustbunny: No time! We need to post this NOW! Top this Zephyrus!

Touya: Shouldn't be too difficult. --U

(NOTE: Hey, Zeph, hope you don't take any of that rambling offensively [if you're even reading this] I just consider you to be a big rival.)