Riley watched the hosts playing in the snow through the window of the cabin. Since her brace was so big, she was unable to fit any sort of boot over it to protect her foot from the snow. So she stayed inside and watched the others play, feeling a bit envious despite herself. Ghost was lying by the fire and chewed loudly on a large rawhide, completely oblivious to his master's feelings. "I think we should go outside and play too..." Riley said half to her dog and half to herself. With a sudden burst of determination, she stood from her spot and waddled over to the kitchen, "Now... I just need to find something to keep the snow off..."

No matter where she looked, she couldn't find any sort of material that was large enough to cover her cast but still be comfortable enough to move in it. The longer she looked, the more frustrated she felt and the more frustrated she felt, the louder Ghost's chewing seemed to get. "Ghost!" She finally screamed in frustration as she grabbed his rawhide from him, "If I have to hear you chew for another goddamned second I will send you back to the pound!"

The husky followed her as she stormed across the kitchen and threw the rawhide in the cupboard under the sink. "Jeez..." she muttered to herself, "finally some peace and quiet." Though she was immediately soothed by the silence, the look Ghost was giving her was distracting her. "Don't look at me like that. It was all your fault, slobbering and slurping on that thing. You were being gross!" Finally, she just turned her back to the dog and looked at a blank piece of wall, trying to think of a different way to get outside.

While she was turned away, Ghost began scratching insistantly at the cupboard door and whined quietly. "Ghost..." Riley muttered impatiently, "You're being a real big-Hey!" She yelled when she heard several objects crash to the ground as Ghost dug into the cupboard and pulled out his rawhide. "Ghost! Look at this mess!" The baker screamed as she looked at the cleaning containers and dish rags her husky pulled out. "You are being so annoying today dog I'm gonna... hey wait..." On hands and knees, she crawled over to the mess and pulled a garbage bag from the midst and studied it. "Maybe..." she stuck her cast into the garbage bag and tightened it around her leg, which completely engulfed her enormous brace.

With her leg covered, Riley went outside and took a deep breath of the crisp, winter air that blew through the trees. "This will be good Ghost. We're free."

Meanwhile, Mori was pulling Honey on a tobaggan up a big hill that was covered with the freshly fallen snow. After their photoshoot for the new calendar the host club was going to sell, it was time to just have fun and Honey was having the time of his life. "Takashi?" The small boy asked, "Can't you tell Rye-chan to come play with us?"

"Riley is hurt. She shouldn't be out here in the cold." The taller cousin said, imagining Riley sitting inside with a cup of hot chocolate and a book to keep herself entertained. "She'll probably come outside anyways," Mori thought to himself as the two reached the top of the hill.

An unusual silence fell between the two cousins with the sound of Tamaki and Haruhi having a snow ball fight with the twins breaking the silence. "Do you think Rye-chan is pretty?" Honey asked suddenly, trying to get his cousin to admit his feelings for the baker who was waiting in the cabin. Mori, on the other hand, was completely thrown off by the question but was unable to stop his face from going red with embarrassment. The small blonde smiled and exclaimed, "You do don't you?"

Hoping to use the temperature as an excuse, Mori turned to his cousin and adjusted his scarf, "It's cold."

Not believing him for a second, Honey continued to say, "I know you do! You're always looking at her when you think no one's looking, I noticed! And-" he stopped when he saw Ghost come bounding through the snow mounds with his tail wagging so fast that his whole body shook.

Soon after the white husky made his appearance, then the two hosts began to hear someone else trudging through the snow and also heard heavy breathing. Once Riley was actually in sight, she was bundled in a big red jacket with red fuzzy ear muffs covering her ears and one red mitt covering her left hand. "Hey sweets," she managed to choke out through laboured breaths, "jeez that hill is steep," she said more to herself than to the hosts.

Honey hopped up from his toboggan and hugged her, "Rye-chan! I thought you weren't able to come out because of your foot."

To show off her handiwork, Riley lifted her foot out of the snow to reveal a garbage bag tied around her leg to cover her brace from the cold snow. "I have my mutt to thank for this one. I never would've figured it out if he hadn't been so annoying."

Mori, who was once again momentarily stunned by the baker's sudden appearance, felt like he had a thousand things to say to her but, out of all of the words he could have said, he heard himself ask, "Riley where's your other mitt?"

"Well my taciturn friend," she began as she dug a hand in her pocket, "I tried to get it on but I dunno I couldn't get it over my bandage on this hand and I dunno I couldn't get it." Without thinking, Mori took the other mitt from her and easily fit it over her bandages. After though, he was unable to let go of her hand as immediately as he should have and enjoyed the feel of her fingers through the thin material of her mitten. The baker enjoyed the lingering moment as much as the host did, hoping the seconds would stretch to minutes.

While this transpired, Honey came up with an idea to get the two closer. "Takashi! Rye-chan!" He exclaimed, which broke the trance the two were in and caused them to break apart. "You should both go sledding! You can share my tobaggan!"

Feeling bashful, Riley shook her head, "Me and- no no I don't think that's a good idea sweets I mean we'd both have to sit on that and if I sat in front of him then that'd mean I'd be between his-" her face flared before she finished her sentence and she shook her head again, "oh my goodness just no. I do not think that is a good idea sweety. I'll just you know go and not go down the hill you two have fun though."

Unwilling to give up, Honey nodded and attempted to push the two closer to the sled, "You need Takashi to go with you though. What if you need to stop at the bottom of the hill? You can't use your foot so you'd just keep sliding through all the way down the mountain! That's why Takashi has to go with you." Honey knew this wasn't true and that she would stop eventually but tried his best to make them believe that he believed what he was saying.

Thankfully for him, they did. The two looked at each other before allowing themselves to be sat down on the sled with Riley in front of Mori between his long legs. Both of them were so embarrassed they didn't say a word to each other as Mori grabbed the rope of the sled, causing his arms to wrap around Riley's torso.

Unsure if she wanted the ride to last forever or to end quickly, the baker found herself thinking of how close Mori was and the way his body almost enveloped hers. "Oh my... this is... I can't believe this is happening."

She didn't know it but she wasn't the only one unable to believe the situation they were in. Mori felt his whole body tense before they even began their decline down the hill. He did want to hold her closer, to not let her go for hours but his body would not break out of its tense state to move even the slightest.

Then it was over. Neither the baker nor the host felt the toboggan ride start and barely felt it end at the bottom of the hill near their cabin. "Well," Riley said as she stood from the sled and kept her gaze from meeting Mori's, "I think I've had enough fun outside. This is all, yeah. I'm done outside. Thanks for the... ride." And with that, she escaped inside the cabin and immediately went to the phone to call her friend Dakota.