Hokkaido was beautiful this time of year.

Neku gazed out the window of the bus as the snow and ice covered scenery moved past. Shiki sat beside him, doodling in a sketchbook. Earlier he had joined her in this, and several pages had some doodles that seemed to face off against each other (an entire page of stick figures at war on one page), or doodles that grew off of and were inspired by each other (jagged graffiti-like designs surrounding smoother and different shapes, yet somehow working well in harmony with each other), but two people bent over a sketchbook at once can make drawing difficult, and Neku had eventually given up, leaving Shiki to her sketchbook while he watched scenery go by.

Beat and Rhyme sat behind them, both excited about the trip. They were going to spend New Year's with their cousins in Hokkaido, and Neku and Shiki had been invited along. The normally quiet Rhyme had surprised the whole group with her obvious excitement for the vacation, and had spent the first hour of the trip animatedly telling the two teens in front of her all about their cousins and where they lived, and what the four of them could do while they were there. She couldn't seem to stop talking, much to the amusement of Shiki and Neku, but poor Beat seemed to be getting his fill of it, so she had eventually quieted, and was currently asleep.

"Yo, Phones."

Neku looked up from the window at Beat, who was leaning on the back of his seat, and looked like he was about to join his sister. "Yeah?"

Beat yawned. "Think you're gonna be awake the whole trip there?"

"Probably. Why?"

"Got a pillow or somethin' I can borrow?"

Neku stood up and pulled his pillow down from the overhead luggage shelf and tossed it to him. "Just don't drool on it."

Beat rolled his eyes as he took it. "Ha, ha. Wake us up when we get there."

Neku nodded and sat back down, digging through his bag on the floor for his MP3 player and ear buds before pulling out a book as well. Popping them in and turning on some music, he flipped to the page he left off on when Rhyme had started talking earlier. After about an hour or so, Shiki shoved her pillow against his side before leaning on it and going to sleep herself. He glanced down at her before marking his place in his book and going back to staring out the window. Shiki was a light sleeper, and he didn't want to wake her up by moving to turn a page or something.

He needn't have bothered. Beat started snoring a few minutes later. Shiki woke up and blinked a couple times before glancing behind her, and Neku handed her his old lavender headphones, which he had brought with him as well. She looked at him confused, and he nodded back at Beat before replying, "They block out outside sound real well. Might help."

Shiki looked a little skeptical, but put them on anyway before going back to sleep. Neku shifted to try to make them both more comfortable before continuing to stare out the window. Beat and Rhyme had moved to Shibuya from Hokkaido about eight years ago, so the scenery was stuff they'd seen before, and Shiki had mentioned her family going to Hokkaido on vacation once or twice, but Neku, born and raised in Shibuya, had never even seen snow before outside of books and TV shows. This was all new to him, and he was fascinated by how different everything looked when there was snow everywhere.

He was also cold, but that was to be expected. At least the bus was heated.

He hadn't even noticed he'd dozed off until he was jarred awake by the bus stopping. Since they were the only ones left on the bus, Neku figured this was their stop, and shifted his shoulder gently to wake Shiki up before standing up and leaning over the back of his seat to give Beat a good shove, who sputtered for a moment before waking up.

Neku nodded out the window. "This our stop?"

Beat blinked blearily for a second before following Neku's gaze. He nudged Rhyme, who slowly opened her eyes and looked out the window, then woke up instantly and nearly knocked her brother over in her excitement to leave the bus.

Beat stretched. "Answer enough for ya?" he mumbled, tossing Neku his pillow.

Neku smirked at the twelve-year-old's back and gathered up his bags, pulling his coat on. If he was cold in the bus, he imagined it was worse outside. The cold didn't seem to bother the siblings, having grown up in it. While Beat and Rhyme both were wearing jackets, Rhyme was without her usual knit cap and Beat was even wearing shorts. Neku felt a little out of place beside them in a baseball cap he'd pulled on to keep his head warm and a long coat that Shiki had made for him specifically for the trip. As he stepped out of the bus and into about six inches of snow, he made a mental note to thank her again for it as he pulled the hood up over his hat. He knew Hokkaido was cold, but DAMN. Shiki was similarly bundled up, but seemed to be holding up better than he was.

As they walked to a van waiting for them at the station, Beat turned back to Neku with a big grin on his face. "Little cold there, Phones?"

Neku glared at him, but other than that didn't even dignify the crack with a response as he climbed into the van after the larger boy.

A man and woman sat in the front, and they smiled and waved as everyone introduced themselves. Neku found himself packed in between Beat and Shiki as they started driving off, and listened in on conversation. Apparently only Isamu was related to Beat and Rhyme by blood, and Kazuko was his wife. Neku was a little surprised, as this wasn't the first Bito family gathering that he and Shiki had been invited to, and he had learned pretty early on that Beat and Rhyme were part of a very large family, so to hear that it was just going to be them, Isamu, and Kazuko was a bit of a nice surprise. Neku was still getting used to dealing with people, and crowds still didn't really agree with him.

Rhyme engaged Kazuko in an animated conversation, and Isamu was busy driving on a slightly slick road, so Beat and Neku amused themselves with a few games of rock-paper-scissors while Shiki joined in Rhyme and Kazuko's conversation when Rhyme spoke about Shiki's sewing talents.

After about fifteen minutes of driving, they arrived at Isamu and Kazuko's home. Beat and Rhyme were out of the van faster than anyone, staring at the remaining Christmas decorations. Rhyme was so excited she simply could not stand still, and hopped from one foot to another even with her heavy backpack full of a week's worth of clothes. Neku climbed out after Shiki, looking out at their surroundings. Isamu and Kazuko had a rather large house, two stories and made to look like a log cabin. He was pretty sure there was probably a basement, too. There were no other houses around, and the house was surrounded by trees on three sides and a lake on the other. He had to admit it was very nice.

He was pulled out of his musings when something hit him in the side. He looked down to see a clump of snow on his coat that hadn't been there before. As he stared at it for a while, wondering how it got there, another clump of snow hit him near where the first had hit. Startled, he looked up in the direction it had come from, and saw Beat scooping snow off the ground and packing it into a ball before hurling it at him again, this one hitting him square in the chest. He scowled before bending down to gather up some snow and trying to pack it into a ball like Beat had done, but when he threw it, it disintegrated, and didn't go far enough. Growling, he tried again, but with the same result, and another snowball from Beat hit him in the back of the head.

Deciding this wasn't working, Neku decided to try another tactic. He threw his hood down and charged. Beat was bigger than him, but he was faster, and used his momentum to his advantage when he tackled Beat, successfully knocking the other boy face first into a snow drift. Shiki and Rhyme were both laughing when both boys pulled themselves up, covered in snow. Neku's hat had come off when they'd landed, and he shook as much snow out of it as he could before pulling it back down over his unruly orange spikes.

Beat was laughing as he shook snow out of his long blond hair before clapping Neku on the shoulder. "Remind me never to pick a snowball fight with you again."

Neku smirked back at him before reaching up to ruffle his hair… with a handful of snow.

"Oh man!" Beat spluttered. "That ain't right! Get back here, Phones!" He ran after Neku, still shaking snow out of his hair, but a big smile on his face the whole time.

That still didn't stop Neku from sprinting to the front porch where everyone else was waiting for them, a victorious grin on his face.

Rhyme was still giggling at them, mostly because Beat's hair was sticking up in places and still mostly full of snow, and Neku's hair was so full of snow from his hat that his hair almost looked pink. Neku was pretty sure both he and Beat looked ridiculous, but at the moment he didn't care. Taking his hat off once more, he shook his head violently, throwing snow everywhere, and Rhyme and Shiki yelped as some of it landed on them. Seeing this, Beat smirked and did the same, earning another cry or surprise from the girls. Rhyme scowled at them, but the fact that she was trying desperately not to smile ruined the effect. Shiki simply rolled her eyes as she pulled her glasses off and wiped the snow off them. "Nice. Both of you."

"Ey, I'm a sharin' person, yo." Beat chuckled before following Rhyme inside.

Shiki shook her head before putting her glasses back on again, and Neku tapped her nose before darting into the house after Beat, leaving a small clump of snow there. "Very funny, Neku!" she called after him before he disappeared around a corner, only to poke his head back around said corner to stick his tongue out at her before disappearing again. Shiki sighed and wiped the snow off her nose before shaking her head, but still unable to stop the small smile that formed from the two boys' antics.

Beat and Rhyme, having been here before many times, already had a room set up for both of them in the basement, and they quickly went to drag their stuff downstairs. Neku and Shiki's rooms were upstairs, and they shared a balcony overlooking the lake. Neku went out to take a look as soon as he'd gotten into some less snow covered clothes. The hill the house was on sloped downward here, to the point that the basement was at ground level on this side, and there was a door leading out to the lake from the basement level. Because of that, the balcony was much higher off the ground on this side. The view was beautiful, but being higher up, the wind was a little stronger, and he got cold pretty quick, and went back inside.