When Dans dark chocolate eyes flickered open on January 13th 2015, he felt a sure change in the air. It was cooler and crisp, sharp round the edges and tasted of winter. He breathed in, and slowly exhaled. And again. And again.

He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and running his hands over his head to smoothen down his morning dark mass of hobbit hair. He yawned, stretching his arms out and slipped into his pyjama's under the warm duvet which hid him from the cold but strangely exciting tinge to the air.

It was a teacher training day, and it was six o'clock. He could lay here in the warmth for hours and hours, then slip on his headphones and listen to dub step loud without waking Phil. Phil slept like a kitten, all curled up, hugging his knees to his chest, a hand over his green blue eyes, shielding them from the plain white light of the winter sky.

"Phil" he rasped across the room, his voice low as not to wake Kate who was still asleep, and would be for the next five hours. He felt a little bad waking Phil up, but it couldn't be helped. The younger boy groaned like it was the end of the world. He rolled slowly out of bed and onto the floor, the pillow flopping onto his head. He was shirtless but wore shorts in the night, kind of thankfully.

He rubbed his fringe away from his eyes and yawned. "Dan" he murmured. "I- I thought it was….day off" he whispered. Dan smiled. Whenever Phil was overly tired or emotional his voice changed to one of a desperate, confused little kid. It was pretty sweet. Dan chuckled. "Phil" he repeated. Phil abruptly lifted his head, shaking off the pillow and kicking away the duvet that was drooping out of his bed.

"What?" he moaned. Dan slid out of his bed and crouched next to him. "I think it snowed last night" he whispered excitedly. Phil snapped out of his weary sleep phase and his blue green eyes brightened and blinked fully open. He gave that sweet smile of an innocent kitten and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Really?!" he cried, grinning delightedly. Dan removed a small strand of wispy black hair that covered his right eye. "Yep, let's have a look!" he dragged Phil up and they leapt towards the window at the back of the room. Phil perched on the wide ledge whilst Dan struggled with the blinds that filtered in the light. He heard a gasp from Phil and hopped up next to him.

It was his turn to gape. The world was covered in a thick blanket of white powder that seemed to hide everything away. It was completely untouched and pristine. It sparkled and glittered in the weak sunlight. Pure white, perfect, almost unreal. He saw Phils wide adorable grin. Dan laughed.

Before the two of them knew it they were rushing downstairs shushing each other as not to wake Kate. They fought to get their coats and trainers over their pyjamas and then laughed at how ridiculous they both looked. Was thirteen really too old for this? Of cores not, and if it was, who cares?

They pushed open the door and were confronted with the cold morning air. It was freezing and Dan was begging to regret not brining a scarf or gloves. But he was too excited to mind too much. He and Phil felt the child like anticipation of running outside and destroying the perfectly still and unmarked snow. Then they giggled and rushed out, trying to make as many footprints as they could.

A couple of times Phil slipped in the mad excited rush but just shrugged and shook off the snow. He looked so cute, all smiles and snowflakes clinging to his tufty black hair. He jumped to the ground and scooped up a handful of snow. It was almost the same colour of his skin. He gave a mischievous look at Dan and moulded it into a ball.

Dan accepted the challenge and quickly rolled a clump of snow from the ground into a compact lump and hurled it at Phils head. It caught him clean in the neck, almost knocking him over with the force. Phil frowned for a second then the two of them burst out laughing and chased each other round the front garden and over the street, throwing snow balls to each other and mainly hitting.

When it was about 7.00 the two of them were tired out by their sudden morning rush. But they didn't feel ready to go inside yet. They lay down on the floor and laughed quietly, their hands held softly together. They shivered just a little but were warmed up by running.

Phil turned his head towards Dan. Their blue and brown eyes locked and they gazed at each other like they'd never stop. "Our lives are made in these small hours" Dan whispered. Phil chuckled and nuzzled into his snow covered hair. "I like snow days" he giggled.