A Peppermint Winter

Greetings! We're back with another story for you all. As the title says, it's about Christmas, so I'm trying my best to write a light story. Please read, and enjoy. :)
–Sakura-tan.

Writer: Sakura-tan
Editor: Kyoko-tan
Disclaimer: If we owned Gakuen Alice, we wouldn't be writing a fanfiction about it. ._.;; (Higuchi Tachibana owns Gakuen Alice, not us!) And also, the title is from a song sung by Owl City.

Summary: Perfect temperature and fresh snow on the ground makes one think it can't get any better. However, the fact that it's on Christmas Day makes it a whole lot better. Featuring Natsume's family and a bunch of others, how they spent this day and who they meet.

A couple of notes: Thank you Kyoko-tan for the epic title, which by the way, we do not own. Owl City owns this title. :)

Now, on with the story!

It's a nice sunny day outside. The right amount of sun, with the blue sky and not one cloud makes one think that this winter can't possibly get any better. However, what does make it better is the fresh snow that is lying on the ground and on the bare branches of the trees.

Not only that, but being able to enjoy it makes this day even better. Yes, it's Christmas! Having all of this on Christmas Day can't be wasted.

"Oh my goodness, it's such a nice day out!" A woman cheers inside her house, as she is looking outside to her backyard. "Dear, get off your bed and come take a look!"

"Yes Kaoru," the husband replies, rubbing his eyes, and then once he saw what his wife was telling him to see, he stopped and looked outside, astonished. "Wow, it really is nice outside."

"Yeah, we should make a large buffet for breakfast this morning for celebration of the great weather," Kaoru suggests, "but we should ask the—"

"MOM! DADA!" A child's voice is suddenly heard down the hallway, and footsteps were heard soon after.

Kaoru and her husband sweatdrops.

"Well, at least that answers that," Koaru quickly says to her spouse before the young girl runs into their room, coming to a halt when she's right in front of her parents.

Kaoru picks her up into her arms. She was five years old already, but she was surprisingly light.

"Aoi, quiet down a bit please, it's still morning, and—"

"Sorry mommy, but did you look outside? It's really nice out!" Aoi blabs on as she is pointing to the window behind her parents. The dad was about to reply until a boy comes into the room.

"Be quiet Aoi, you just woke me up," the other child of age six says in an annoyed tone as he was rubbing his eyes, "you see this all the time."

"But we always have school, so we can't go outside to play in it."

"Who cares?"

"I do!" Aoi rebuts, and then pulls on her mom's pajama shirt.

"Mom, can we play outside today?"

"Sure honey. How about you invite your brother?" Koaru suggests.

"I don't think he'll want to play."

"Natsume, why don't you play with your sister outside? Your dad and I have to clean the house and prepare the food for the guests tonight."

"… Fine." Natsume leaves the room and goes into his.

"Yay!" Aoi shouts as she jumps for joy. She then skips down into her room to get ready for breakfast.

"Natsume is such a good brother," the dad concludes.

"Yep, and Aoi is a well behaved little sister. Aren't we so blessed?"

"Of course," the dad remarks as he kisses his wife on the cheeks, and they resume to get changed as well.

"Hhaaaa~" Aoi subconsciously makes the sound of astonishment as she marveled at what the family made for breakfast.

"Yeah, it's amazing," the dad follows suit.

Each person in their family was assigned a serving to make. Kaoru was assigned eggs and bacon (and everything else involving the pan) while her spouse was in charge of making the mini-sandwiches (and pretty much everything involving cutting and using sharp utensils). Aoi got the job of setting the table (with the help of her family when she needs it), and Natsume was in charge of getting the cereal and preparing the drinks that each family member wanted.

"Let's dig in!" Aoi shouts as she is just about to reach for an egg with her plate and chopsticks.

The rest of the family does the same afterwards.

After breakfast, the whole family pitches in to help clean up as fast as possible, and gets ready to go outside, well, get ready for Aoi and Natsume to go outside while their parents got ready for the celebration they were going to have at their house.

Kaoru and her husband gets Aoi and Natsume (mostly just Aoi though) dressed for outside.

When they were done, Aoi runs outside, dragging Natsume along. This is when Natsume realizes how strong and fast his little sister has become.

His train of thought is interrupted when all of a sudden, he feels a jolt, then comes crashing into the snow, suddenly on top of his sister, who had faceplanted into the snow.

"fpfgbff!" is what Natsume hears her sister, who was under him, mumble while her head was in the snow. Natsume gets off her immediately.

"Smart one," Natsume says as Aoi gets up, wiping the snow off her face.

"I must've gotten too excited…" Aoi confesses while she sweatdrops.

"This is why you don't run outside."

"Yeah, sorry about that, but look, packing snow!" Aoi exclaims.

"Great. Perfect to…" Natsume picks up snow, puts it in a ball, and sneers at Aoi.

Aoi, sensing this, backs away. For a five-year old, she's pretty smart.

"Don't you dare hit me with it, or or or…" Aoi looks around while thinking of what to do to defend herself. She then thinks of an idea, and picks up snow, and rolls it into a ball. She crosses her arms, and does a small evil laugh.

"Hee hee hee," Aoi laughs. Before she could do anything else though, a snowball comes flying onto her jacket. (Natsume wouldn't hit her in the head, or she'd get hurt, and he'd get in trouble.)

Aoi puffs her cheeks and attempts to throw the snowball that was in her hand. It fell not far from her. Upset, she was on the verge of tears when a hand comes in contact with hers.

Natsume was standing right behind her, and had his hands on hers.

"Here," Natsume makes a snowball and puts it in her hand. Then, he helps her throw it. The ball lands much farther down their backyard than her first attempt.

"Hhaaa," Aoi's face light up. All of a sudden, she hugs Natsume.

Natsume, completely not expecting this, falls onto the floor with Aoi still hugging him. He tries to get up, but the fact that Aoi was hugging him prevents him from getting up.

Irritated, he wants to push her off of him, but then he realizes that Aoi was really happy, and that she really appreciated it. He decides that he should give in just this one time, to make her think that he does care about her… because it's true. He decides to hug her back, just for a moment —

— One moment their parents didn't miss.

When they were waiting for the water to boil in the kettle (the modern model), they decided to look outside to see how they were doing, and they saw Natsume helping Aoi. Right away, they got their camera, and took pictures. They were surprised to see Natsume hug Aoi, and that's when, yes, they took a lot of pictures, enough to make stop-motion pictures.

Natsume and Aoi play for a while longer, making snowmen (they decided that quantity is better than quality), snow angels and making other things out of snow, like a chair and an igloo."

Around lunch time, they decide to return to their house.

When they come in, they are greeted by the nice smell of food: rice, vegetables and meat, combined with hot soup.

Aoi and Natsume take off their boots, jackets, gloves and hats (while Aoi had to take off her snowpants and scarf, as she had extra layers on).

They sit down at the table as they see that their parents finish cleaning up the counters and the stove. Both awaits for their parents to be seated at the table so that they can start eating.

Aoi had her hand around the soup bowl to warm her frosty hands from being outside.

Once their parents sit down, they start eating and talking.

"When are the guests coming mommy?" Aoi asks.

"At around 3-ish?"

"What time is it now?"

"It's 12:25, so in…" Kaoru thinks for a couple seconds to calculate how much time left until they start arriving, "2 hours and 35 minutes."

"I can't wait for the party then!"

Natsume can't help but think why his sister didn't even bother to ask the more obvious question, so he asks instead.

"Who are the guests?"

"Finally, someone asked that question!" Kaoru exclaims. "Ruka's family, of course is invited, and there's another couple more families that you haven't met before. They both have girls the same age as you, Natsume."

"Great," Natsume mumbles. Now he knows that he isn't going to enjoy this party that his parents decided to have at their house.

In the past years, they always had it with only Ruka's family. However, they had to cancel it last year because Ruka's family had to go visit his grandparents overseas. It was a family emergency—obviously, they wouldn't tell them last minute that they weren't able to come, unless it was a very important circumstance.

As a result, his parents decided to have a larger celebration this year — the more the merrier, they said—since the weather was predicted to be marvelous, and all three families were available.

"Don't worry Natsume, it'll be fun. Remember to include your sister however."

"Yeah yeah," Natsume replies as he sips some of his soup.

"Oh, and can you two clean your rooms before they come?"

"Aww, mommy, I don't want to… why can't you clean it?" Aoi whines.

"Just because all of our rooms are connected doesn't mean that I should clean it," Kaoru explains to her kids.

In their house, they have five bedrooms, one is the master bedroom (where Kaoru and her spouse sleeps), a door that connects to Aoi bedroom, and another door on the adjacent side of the master bedroom that is connected to Natsume's bedroom.

The other two empty rooms are for when they grow up. When that time comes, they are planning on renovating the two connecting rooms and make a guest room. Currently, the two empty rooms are serving as guest rooms.

"Aww, fine…" Aoi obliges.

"The faster you clean your rooms, the faster you can go back to playing outside," Kaoru persuades, "and that is all you have to do, oh and if you want to help us wrap their gifts!"

Kaoru knows that Aoi enjoys wrapping gifts. Natsume doesn't have a problem doing chores. People say that he's a really obedient child. Adding his quietness and his above-average-than-his-age-IQ to that aspect, he's not that hard to deal with.

"Yay! Okay, deal," Aoi responds as she puts a spoonful of rice into her mouth happily, and grins at her parents.

Thus, their day went like that after lunch.

Soon, it was time to greet the guests.

The sound of the doorbell was heard.

Kaoru and her husband goes to open the door, and greets the first family.

Natsume and Aoi are quickly trying to finish up the last-minute chores they were doing, and that includes hanging up their jackets that they always leave on the railings where the stairs were. (In the end, they did help their family as much as they could, even though they only had to clean their bedrooms). They were curious at which family is at the door first.

"Welcome Ruka! How are you doing today?" They hear their mom greet the guests.

"Good, thank you" Ruka, a very close friend of Natsume replies in a polite manner, "is Natsume around?"

"Of course, he's by the coat closet," Kaoru answers back.

"Thank you," he replies before he takes off his winter clothing and meets Natsume.

"Hey," Ruka greets Natsume.

"Hey," welcomes Natsume.

"Ruru-kun!" Aoi shouts as she walks up to Ruka.

"… Hello Aoi," he replies, with a "what is with this nickname?" smile.

"She's been trying to make nicknames for everyone lately," Natsume says bluntly as he hangs up the last jacket.

"It's true," Aoi adds, "I call my daddy 'dada!'"

"I see," Ruka responds and sweatdrops.

"Let's go to the family room," Natsume changes the subject.

"Sure."

"Okay!" Aoi jumps after she replies. "Yosh!" She raises a fist in the air and runs down the hallway to the family room. Ruka pulls Natsume and runs after Aoi.

'It seems I'm getting dragged a lot today,' Natsume thinks as he sighs, and just lets his friend pull him down the hallway.

They didn't notice that the other two families were already here, and saw all of what just happened.

"I think you two will get along great with them," Kaoru says to the two young girls, while her husband is talking to their parents.

"Yeah, they look fun to play with!" One girl shouts as she runs down the hallway, dragging her friend down the hallway like how Ruka did to Natsume, except more aggressively.

"Stop pulling me Mikan," the girl that is being pulled by her friend says, with irritation evidently in her voice.

"Sorry Hotaru, but I really want to meet them!" Mikan halts when she sees the three others making contraptions out of Lego.

Aoi, sensing this, looks in their direction, and waves as her face lights up with a large smile.

"Come join!"

Mikan, happy that her and her friend are invited to play with them, joins to make the large car that they are making at the moment.

"I'm Mikan, and this is my friend Hotaru. We are both six years old," she introduces, and then looks at the two boys on the other end of the room, one that is looking at them with a smile, and the one that seems to be deeply concentrated on what they are making.

"I'm Ruka, this is Natsume," Ruka says, "Welcome! We're building a car; you can help if you want."

"O-kay!" Mikan and Hotaru start helping to build.

After a while, Mikan then takes another piece of Lego and is about to put it on the top when someone's hand stops her.

"Eh?" Mikan looks at the person who is holding her hand. It is the boy-that-was-so-deeply-concentrated-on-the-building", who went by the name of Natsume.

"It goes there, weirdo."

Mikan feels insulted.

"Okay, sorry, and don't call me weirdo. That's mean," Mikan says to Natsume as he moves farther away from her, towards the rear end of the car.

"… Fine, annoying girl."

"Say that again," Mikan says in a taunting voice.

Ruka and Aoi looks at the arguing pair with an "uh-oh, this doesn't look good" expression, while Hotaru had an impassive look, but at the same time, seems to be a bit concerned.

"Annoying Girl."

"WHY YOU—" Mikan doesn't finish her sentence when she stomps towards him.

"Polka-dots, you're going to tear the house down with your stomping and talking."

"NA-NA-NATSUME!" Mikan shouts as she pulls onto his collar, while Natsume has this emotionless look on his face.

"Mikan!" A woman's voice is heard. Mikan knows right away who this voice is.

"Mo-o-m," Mikan says rigidly, "it's not what you think."

"Mikan, I thought we taught you to be courteous and have good manners!"

"But but but, Natsu—"

"Apologize immediately and get ready for dinner, all of you," Yukihira adds onto his wife's comment.

"Yes daddy," Mikan replies.

"Yuka, Yukihira, is there a problem?" Kaoru asks as she approaches where Mikan's parents are standing.

"We are just getting the kids to get ready to eat," Yuka and Yukihira replies as they walk away with Kaoru to the dining room.

Mikan was about to apologize to Natsume until she recalls what he said:

"Polka-dots, you're going to tear the house down with your stomping and talking."

"Wait, why polka-do—" Mikan finally understands why he called her that and is now furious.

"NATSUME, YOU MORON!" Mikan yells.

"You still haven't apologized yet," Natsume replies with a smirk on his face.

Mikan was about to retaliate until Kaoru's voice calls them.

"Kids, dinner time!"

Mikan realizes that she's hungry and wants food. She completely disregards what she and Natsume were arguing about.

"Let's go eat!" Mikan says with a large smile, while Natsume's eyebrow twitches.

'… What type of girl is this?' Natsume thinks to himself.

Mikan and Aoi take the lead to dining room, with Ruka, Natsume and Hotaru following close behind.

Natsume, Ruka and Aoi stare at Mikan in awe and disgust (okay fine only Natsume stares in disgust).

Mikan is throwing food down into her mouth so quickly and fast, that of course they would react like that. Hotaru is just simply used to it, so she disregards how impolite her friend is being.

Natsume on the other hand, is wondering how she isn't fat yet. It seems that she can eat more than her parents. Speaking of her parents, he wonders why they haven't scolded her yet. He looks at them, and sees them happily talking with the other parents. He can tell where Mikan got her genes from: the mom was politely eating while the dad is smiling and eating everything as well. Not as fast and much more polite, but he looks like the outgoing type.

Natsume just facepalms.

Ruka just sweatdrops when he notices Natsume staring at them and facepalming.

Then Ruka looks at Hotaru's family. They seem very conservative, and polite, almost the complete opposite of her friend's family. However, it seems that the parents don't mind their differences. They are all chatting and eating happily.

The kids can learn something or two.

"Hotaru, can I have your octopus?" Mikan asks her friend.

"No, weirdo."

"Hotaruuuu," Mikan gives her the puppy dog look.

"Uhhm, Mikan—" Ruka is interrupted by Natsume's voice.

"A weirdo and a food hogger."

"Am not! " Mikan shouts at him, slamming her fist against on her plate accidentally. The food lands across the table, onto Aoi's head.

Thankfully it was just a piece of bread.

"MIKAN!" Yuka yells at her.

Mikan, realizing what she had done, immediately went to Aoi.

"SORRY!" Mikan does that repeatedly while she bows continuously.

"I-it's fine, Mi-Mikan," Aoi says between her chuckles.

"Sakura…" a deep boy's voice is heard.

Mikan, slowly turns around, her body completely rigid from that voice.

"Na-Natsume?" Mikan slowly says, frozen at the voice and the aura that Natsume was emitting.

"You annoying polka-dot underwear-ed girl, I'm gonna get you…"

Mikan, finally getting what is going on, runs away from Natsume. Natsume's bad aura disappears. Natsume sits back down onto his seat, and eats while the people sweatdrops.

Ruka and Aoi starts laughing, while Hotaru was on the verge of laughters too. Some of their parents are confused, while some are laughing along with Ruka.

"Mikan shouldn't mess with a sibling that has an overprotective brother," Kaoru comments.

"You can say that again," Yuka remarks. "At least that taught her a lesson of having good table manners."

Mikan, observing everything, hides behind a pillar, feels proud of loosening the atmosphere, completely disregarding the fact that Natsume tricked her just now. She knew that this party was going to be fun. Thinking that she could go back, she went back into the dining room.

When everyone has finished eating, they all pitch in to clean up and put everything in the sink.

Now, it was time for everyone to exchange gifts and go home.

"Here's a gift, Ruka," Mikan says as she gives him a gift.

"And here's yours," Ruka responds.

Hotaru goes up to Natsume and hands him a small gift.

"Merry Christmas," Hotaru says as she gives a small smile.

"You too," Natsume replies as he gives her a small gift too.

"Mikan is going to grow up a dense person, I can tell," Hotaru advises Natsume.

However, Natsume doesn't seem to get it. "How does that have to do with me?" He counters.

"…"

Ruka approaches and breaks the awkward silence, and hands a gift to Hotaru.

"Merry Christmas!" He smiles the whole time.

"Thanks," Hotaru answers.

Natsume, wanting to get back at Hotaru, says to her:

"Be nice to Ruka or I'll hurt you."

"Like you'll hurt me."

Natsume is about to retaliate when he is also interrupted. Not by Ruka, but by Mikan.

"Natsume, Merry Christmas! Oh and also, your house is really nice," Mikan says as she smiles a kind and gentle smile.

"… Thanks."

"Ehh, Natsume said 'thanks'? I never he'd—"

"Be quiet Aoi."

Mikan chuckles.

"You two seem to have a nice relationship..."

"Mikan, Hotaru, Ruka, it's time to go!" Kaoru yells as their parents are dressed to leave.

"Coming!" The mentioned children reply. They quickly dress, getting ready to leave.

Hotaru and Ruka have already left, and it just leaves Mikan's family.

It seems that Natsume's and Mikan's parents have a lot to talk about, as they just met each other.

"Bye, Natsume and Aoi, can't wait to see you again!" Mikan shouts as their family was finally leaving the house.

"Bye!" Aoi shouts, as Natsume just gives a small smile, that Mikan barely notices.

Their dad closes the door. The family starts cleaning up and getting ready for bed.

As the parents tuck their children to sleep, the parents ask their kids how they thought of the party and kiss them on the foreheads. When Aoi is getting tucked in by her dad, Kaoru goes into Natsume's room.

"How did you like the party? Did you enjoy it?" She asks her son.

Silence arouses in the room.

"It was… fun," Natsume responds quietly after the long wait.

Kaoru's face lights up.

"I'm glad it was," she replies as she kisses him on the forehead.

"Good night."

"Good night," Natsume answers as his mom closes the door.

"I hope to meet the weird girl again," Natsume mumbles really quietly as he drifts off to sleep.

-おわり-

Hope you enjoyed it! Reviews are always appreciated. Please read and review our other stories, as well as visit our homepage/blog (link to blog is on homepage).

Thanks for reading, and Happy Holidays.

–Sakura-tan.

PS: did you notice my reference of "Dada" at the beginning and Aoi mentioning it afterwards?