Harry looked over at Michael and nodded. "She showed up with the other one." He pointed briefly to Osanna. "They stayed with me for a few days last time they were in town." And if that wasn't enough to satisfy Charity, well, he'd just hope she didn't aim her wrath at him. Because he really hadn't told Naomi where they were going to be, and it'snot like he'd expected her back so soon.

Michael nodded in understanding and went back inside, waving to the children as he did so. The kids all took that as the signal to start up the snowball fight again, and they all took up their 'arms.' Naomi raised a hand when she saw this.

"Hold on," she called. "This isn't right, you need a snow fort first."

"It takes hours to build a proper snow fort," Molly pointed out. "And Harry's no help with that, either."

Harry scowled at his apprentice. "Hey, I help when you ask me to! I make the fort taller than anyone else can."

"Which is only helpful to you." The other kids muttered their agreement, and Harry sighed. There was no winning against the Carpenter children, so he caved, holding up his hands in acquiescence.

Naomi just grinned.

"Give me fifteen minutes," she said as she knelt down to really get her hands into the snow. Flaring her youki a bit, she started to work on building a snow fort. She'd built such things in the past, and so she knew exactly how to put one together quickly.

The Carpenter children all watched as she worked, silent in their awe. Harry just snorted and moved out of the way. He was impressed, but he also knew that she did it a different way than how he worked. Sort of. His was will and training, and she already had a born predisposition to the snow.

True to her word, there was a serviceable snow fort standing in the yard fifteen minutes later. Standing up, she brushed the snow from her clothes and grinned, her face slightly flushed from both the cold and the work but her eyes bright.

"There," she said. "A snow fort."

The kids all went to go inspect it and see if it was actually any good, poking and prodding at it. It had to be able to withstand that, after all, if it was anything near a proper fort.

Naomi let the kids poke at the fort. She knew it would hold up against their inspection, so she moved to stand over by Molly.

"Is it good enough, you think?" she asked. "I haven't had snow this good to work with in a while."

"Oh, yeah. That's good." Molly grinned briefly. "I thought you lived somewhere permanently cold, or something. At least, that's what Osanna was saying."

"Not really," Naomi replied. "Osa and I live in the same place, across the street from one another. Summers get hot just like every where else that normal people live." She shrugged. "Winters have been mild back home lately. It didn't get properly cold this last year." She paused as Molly's words really sunk in. "Wait a second, who else speaks sign language around here? Osa can't talk."

"Mom." Molly shrugged. "We didn't know she could until she saw Osanna trying to communicate a little while ago. Apparently there was some swearing involved that we didn't know about. They had a nice long talk, and Osanna seemed very happy about that."

Naomi snorted. Yeah, that sounded like Osanna.

"I'm glad someone else can understand her, then," she said. "I hadn't even thought about that before, and I should have." She ran her fingers through her hair absently, and pulled a second forward for a moment to look at it. The blue was wider than it had been before her training with her father, but it was still well within her normal range. She got the feeling that it would always be a bit wider, now, and so was normal.

Molly blinked. "Well, we got that figured out. Apparently she's not much good in a snow ball fight. But she got Mouse involved, which is more than Harry's ever managed."

Naomi waved a hand.

"She and Mouse are buddies now, apparently," she replied. "Dogs tend to like her." Not that she would tell Molly exactly why, but still. She grinned and scooped up some snow. Why waste her own energy when she had ready-made materials right there? "Now, watch this." Carefully, she made the snowball and took careful aim. Then she threw it towards Harry. The snowball split mid-air, half smacking into Harry, and half managing to hit Hiei.

Harry just yelped, unprepared for the attack, and managed to get it all shaken off his person. Hiei, however, was too stunned to move for a moment. The snow slid a little, and then melted off his and evaporated, as did a perfect circle of snow right around him. He glowered at Naomi for that.

Naomi couldn't help but giggle a bit and widen her stance just a smidge. If there was going to be retaliation, she would be ready for it. She was already in her element, so to speak, which made things all the more fun.

Hiei looked at her for a moment before he held out one hand. Nothing happened for a moment, and then fire sprung into existence in his palm with a 'whoosh!'. All the Carpenters scattered, and even Harry looked wary.

Naomi rolled her eyes.

"Showoff," she said. Absently, she threw another snowball, using it as a diversion to distract from the snow she stirred up with her youki around his feet, trying to at least dust him in snow before it melted.

Hiei let out a little more youki, melting more of the snow, before he jumped up to avoid the snowball, landing lightly in a tree. He smirked down at her, clearly challenging her.

Naomi grinned.

"Oh, it's on now," she said as she scooped up a handful of snow. She packed it in hard, using her youki to reinforce it, before adding more snow to it to create a snowball the size of a basketball. She tossed it into the air at him, and it split into about six smaller snowballs as it went.

Hiei was still for a moment before steel flashed and he landed on the other side of her, closer to the house. All six snowballs fell into half-melted halves. He'd reinforced his own blade with youki to get rid of them. This was actually decent training for both of them. He made a mental note to find somewhere with plenty of snow and demand they do this more often.

The thought that they were one step away from flirting by doing this didn't even occur to him.

Naomi paused with an indignant gasp.

"That was cheating," she accused. "How much more of an advantage do you really need?" Scooping up some snow, she hurled it at him in a purely human effort, in spite of the substantial translucent-blue section in her hair. A few tiny shimmering pinstripes had appeared, but she barely noticed. It was clear her control was better than it had been last time.

"It is not cheating if you failed to inform me of your rules," Hiei said with a smirk. He ducked the snowball flying at him, briefly wondering if he should retaliate. Then he decided that no, he shouldn't. His snowball would end up melting before it got all the way to her.

Naomi narrowed her eyes a bit, though she was still grinning. Concentrating for a moment, she jerked one of her hands up, and four lumps of snow shot up from the ground, straight for him.

Hiei smirked and kept his sword away this time, instead using his youki to melt the two that got closest before he jumped over the other two, landing lightly behind her.

"Is that all?"