The sun was setting with an orange glow that evening, letting the snow banks reflect burning sunlight in the eyes of the people walking by. Hikari lightly shivered, in Akane-san's old coat. The woman had leant it to her because poor Hikari had barely any winter wear to begin with. It's a little big, but it's nice. Hikari tried to continue thinking these positive thoughts as the sleeves flopped past her hands, touching her knees. She was waiting for her other friends, Nao and Miu, since her break was almost over.

Soon Hikari began to lose focus on waiting for her friends and had zoned out in her own world. She noticed the thick, foot deep sheet of snow blanketing the ground and soaking her boots inside and out. She carefully listened to the soft tunes of the holidays coming from nowhere in particular. Maybe the snow sings…

"Hey! Kujou – san!"

The spacey blonde returned to earth as she noticed her four friends – Nagisa, Honoka, Nao and Miu, greeting her from the plowed sidewalk.

Her whole face brightened. "Hi guys!"

Her four friends walked over to the shivering blonde.

"It's hard to believe the year is ending…" Nao said, looking into the sky dreamily.

"Yeah." Hikari suddenly looked like she had remembered something. "Oh, yes, I almost forgot! Nao, Miu, Nagisa and Honoka were legendary warriors with me and we won nearly a year ago! Have you guys beaten your Dotsuko Zone yet?"

"Eh?" The two middle school students said together, as Nagisa and Honoka's eyes widened.

Hikari's expression was blank. "What? You two are great friends, you'd make a great Pretty Cure duo. Doesn't everybody have to fight as Pretty Cure one day?"

Nagisa laughed hysterically in nervousness. She began to push Hikari in the mobile café. "You better hurry, your break will end soon! Hehehehehe!" Oh, Hikari…you're so innocent it's dangerous…

Chapter Two

"New York, huh?" Akane-san said, as she washed dishes. They had just closed, but they were catching up on cleaning. "That sounds like fun. Maybe I'll get my business larger and we can go one day."

"We can!" Hikari said, her emerald-eyes sparkling. "Nagisa's parents were originally gonna go alone from the sixteenth to Christmas Eve, but they made a mistake of booking for eight people, so Nagisa is allowed to choose some friends to come along!"

Akane-san turned around to Hikari as she put a shiny plate away. "I actually feel really bad for Misumi-san's parents, that's a lot of money in the hole."

The blonde bounced around. "It is a bad thing for them, but they need six other people now anyways! Rie even said you and I could tag along! Please!"

Akane-san held her face in her hands. She wanted to do this for Hikari, especially since she never asked for anything while most thirteen-year old girls whined about everything. "What about the business? We can't just leave the store behind for over a week."

"This will be our big chance!" Hikari smiled. "Bringing our business to New York could make our popularity boom!"

Akane-san sighed deeply. "The sixteenth, huh?" She glanced at her calendar, noticing that that day was the fourteenth. "Oh, alright then."

"Thank you so much, Akane-san!" Hikari leaped for joy, running home much faster than her "cousin."

"New York – popo! New York – popo!"

"Gonna go on a plane – lulu! Gonna go on a plane – lulu!"

XXXXX

For Honoka, convincing her Grandmother to go wasn't as difficult as Hikari, but there were a few things.

"New York?" Grandmother put her wrinkly hand on her chin thoughtfully. "But who will feed Chutaro while we're gone?"

"Why don't we just bring him?" Chutaro seemed to bark in agreement with his teenage owner.

The elderly lady gasped softly. "But, your parents are coming here for Christmas!"

"Relax, we'll be back by Christmas Eve, I promise."

"Well…all right then."

Because everybody was allowed to go, Honoka, Grandmother, Hikari, and Akane-san spent the night at Nagisa's apartment on December fifteenth. Takeshi was cranky about the whole situation, but Rie tried to be optimistic about the whole situation despite how crowded the apartment became. She had set up slices of tako, crackers, cheese and whatnot for the evening. Everyone was in the living room, laughing up some excitement. Rie met up with Takeshi in the front hall, where he was hiding.

Rie smiled brightly, holding a plate. "Sweetheart, would you like some tako?"

Takeshi turned away, his back to her. "No thanks." He said this as emotional as a robot would.

Rie's face fell. "But, you love dried octopus…"

"I'm not that hungry right now."

"Come on, it'll still be fun." Rie smiled. "We'll just send off the kids with Akane-san and Honoka's grandmother, so we'll have some time alone."

"Some time alone?" He turned to her slightly, the shadows of the night creeping in the windows and covering half of his face. "We already get some time alone at home. The whole point of this trip was so we would get all time alone!" Rie tried to kiss him with one of her sweetest kisses, Takeshi always referred to them as her "sugar kisses", since they usually managed to cheer him up. However, tonight was not one of those nights. "I'm going to bed." He said coldly, pulling away from his lover.

Takeshi…

XXXXX

Akane-san and grandmother were sleeping in the living room, while Nagisa and her friends were sleeping in her bedroom. Nagisa was on her bed, and Honoka and Hikari were curled up in sleeping bags on the floor. Their minds were too flooded with excitement to put sleep in their restless bodies.

Nagisa put her hands behind her neck. "This is so exciting! I've never been on a plane before!"

Honoka sat up. "I have before many times, ever since I was a little girl." She smiled brightly, her ocean blue eyes reflecting the falling snowflakes outside of Nagisa's window. "But every time excites me just as much!"

Hikari blinked with a blank expression on her face. "A…plane?"

"Yes, an airplane." Nagisa said. "It's like a bus that flies high in the air."

Mepple turned into his Field of Light form. "Wow! Do you think that we would be able to see the Field of Light up there?"

"It doesn't go that high." Nagisa said, with a giggle.

"So it's…" Hikari blinked once again. "Magic?"

Honoka laughed. "No, not at all, the way an airplane works is much more fascinating than that." She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Airplane wings are curved on the top, which make air move faster over the top of the wing. It moves slower underneath the wing. The slow air pushes up from below while the faster air pushes down from the top. This forces the wing to lift up into the air."

Pollun jumped around. "I liked Hikari's answer better- popo!" He then flailed his arms. "Yay! I've never gotten to fly around in the Field of Rainbows before – popo!"

Nagisa smiled, and then sat up to look at her dear friends. "Hey, do you remember what Honoka said the other day about us being neighbours?" The teenagers nodded in agreement. "Well, for a little while we'll be in the same hotel room. That's kind of like being neighbours."

"Yeah." Hikari lay down again, her hair being wavy from being in a braid all day. "Honoka says it's exciting, but I'm kind of nervous about it."

"So was I, with my first time." Honoka smiled. "Then when you get on the plane you realize just how much fun it is!"

"But Nagisa isn't nervous about it." Hikari said. "She's never been on a plane before either."

"Are you kidding me?" Nagisa turned over on her side. "I'm extremely nervous about it!"

"Then-" Hikari was very confused. "why are you acting normal?"

"I learned this from many years of lacrosse tournaments." She gazed at the balcony, remembering how many sleepless nights she spent on there before game day. "No matter how many I play, I always get right nervous before the game begins. But then I started acting like I was confident and happy, and that reflected on how I actually felt." She smiled directly at her younger friend. "Besides, who wants a terrified captain?"

Hikari flipped on her back, staring at the ceiling. "Acting…like it…?"

XXXXX

Hikari twiddled with her thumbs, waiting beside her friends in the airport chairs. Mrs. Misumi says that we have to do a security check on our luggage, and send in our luggage, and get a security check on us, and go through all of these things. Why do we have to do these things? Why do we have to do so many things just to fly from one place to another? I'm so confused…

It was just her and the former Pretty Cure duo, since Akane-san was at a boating place to send her Tako Café truck to New York and would be right back, and Grandmother and the Misumi couple were getting ice cream with Ryota. Hikari ignored Nagisa and Honoka's excitable conversations as she just sat and twiddled her thumbs.

Lulun poked out from her pocket pouch. "Hikari? Are you okay – lulu?"

Hikari lightly smiled, trying to use Nagisa's method. "I'm fine Lulun. Thanks for asking."

Suddenly, the four people they were waiting for-Grandmother, Ryota, Rie and Takeshi- walked over to them in their row of chairs. Ryota was holding Rie's hand, despite the fact that he was twelve years old, and Takeshi was holding a vanilla ice cream cone. Grandmother was holding two chocolate ones, which she gave to Nagisa and Honoka.

"Kujou-san."

Hikari suddenly stopped spacing out at the sound of her name. She saw the vanilla ice cream cone in front of her face, but she was more interested in the person holding it.

"Nagisa said that you prefer vanilla." Takeshi chuckled. "You and me are in the same boat, kid."

Hikari's cheeks turned as red as Nagisa's when she sees Fuji-pi. "You-you didn't have to do that." She bowed. "Th-thank you very much."

"No need to be so formal." Takeshi handed her the ice cream. "You must be nervous for your first flight."

"I-I'm fine."

XXXXX

'FLYING – POPO!"

"FLYING – LULU!"

The children were sitting on different parts of the plane then the adults, so each Field of Light creature was on their laps, Pollun on Hikari's head and Lulun perched on her lap. They were clueless to the fact that in as little as a few hours, visions of sugar plums would not dance in their heads, but horror would.

Sorry this was short, and it will get interesting in the next chapter R&R please! ^^