Canon: Remove if not applicable.When something hits the back of his head, the force - and the ice patch hidden under the snow that he stepped on - made him fall face first into snow. At least he didn’t land on the shoveled stone path, but the snow was still hard. He hated sudden snowstorms that left ice and snow in its wake. He pushed himself up on his arms and shot a glare in the direction the projectile had come from, and he has to look past his sister. He got another snowball directly in his already snow-wet face. “Judal!” Hakuryuu shouted, and he slipped as he rushed after his cousin. The boy was laughing as he ran through the snow, entertained by his cousin’s anger. Running through snow was not ideal, it was deep and not easy to get through, but Judal was smaller and it should have been harder for him to move around. Somehow it wasn’t, though, and the boy kept throwing snowballs at Hakuryuu even as he ran.
As he ran through the garden, Hakuryuu stepped on something that was definitely not snow, and suddenly the world was moving, and his feet in the air. “Hey!” he shouted, and looked up. He stared up in disbelief as the snow rolled off of Razol, and she grinned at him cheerfully. “Heiya, Hakuryuu!” She shook her head to get snow out of it. “You’re not gonna catch him you know~ He’s been practicing his running, maybe he’ll join the track team!” Hakuryuu made a face. “Judal, in the track team?” he asked. Razol lifted him into the air, and put him on her shoulders. He grabbed hold of her hair just in case she let go in her excitement, since he had experienced that in the past. “Yeah, because he needs the skill to run from people he prank. See, he can run from you, right?” She points at Judal, who’s looking up from behind a snow bank of shoveled snow, that’s been turned into some kind of fart. “He’s just being mean,” Hakuryuu huffed. He scowled when the girl laughed. “He’s not, he wants to play but doesn’t think about asking first is all. You can have your revenge later. Judal!” She shouted at her brother, letting go of Hakuryuu’s leg with one hand to wave at the black-haired boy. “Let’s go in, Hakuryuu will play once he’s unpacked his stuff” Hakuryuu clutched tighter to her hair. “What?!” he shouts at her. She laughs, and from the corner of his eye, he could see Judal pummel through the snow toward them, just as fast as when he ran away. The other nine-year-old attached himself to the girl, looking up at Hakuryuu with big eyes. “Really!?” He sounded way too happy at the prospect of playing with him. “That’s right,” Razol said, hoisting Judal up in her arms. A girl of 15 should not be able to carry two boys of nine but the Alexius siblings had some weird strength, the whole bunch. It brought Judal way too close to Hakuryuu, and Judal grabbed Hakuryuu’s pants. “When En-nii and Mu-nii have left, let’s have a snowball fight!” he declared. Razol agreed readily, while Hakuryuu felt less inclined to do so.
It was nice and warm inside, though Hakuryuu got a face full of wet winter jacket when Judal throw his clothes everywhere the instant he was put down on the ground. “Hakuei!” Hakuryuu heard him shout, while he pulled Judal’s jacket from his head and removed his own jacket with more care and put them both up on hooks. When he entered the kitchen a couple moments later, and after having lined up his shoes in a corner, he found Judal attached to Kouen, while the older man was talking to a very cheerful-looking Hakuei. Hakuryuu narrowed his eyes and walked over, standing between him and his sister. Kouen might be married but you could never be suspicious enough of him. Kouen looked down at him with an amused expression on his face. To Hakuryuu it looked as if he was making fun of him, though. “Aneue,” Hakuryuu took his sister’s hand. “Let’s go.” He tugged at her hand, not seeing the amused glances his sister and his cousin exchanged over his head as he led her from the kitchen. “Why’s he so angry?” Judal asked Kouen, and Kouen shook his head. “Seems he doesn’t like me for some reason.”
Hakuryuu grabbed his bag, brought inside by his sister’s boyfriend after he had dropped it when Judal threw that snowball at his head, and led his sister up the stairs. “Hakuryuu, you don’t need to worry about Kouen,” she said. Hakuryuu looked over his shoulder at her. “I don’t worry about him,” he protested. He was suspicious of him, that was completely different. “Alright then,” Hakuei said softly. “You don’t mind sharing a room with Koumei and Yaqut?” she asked. “Mu-san has made up a mattress for you in there but it’s easy to move if you’d rather sleep in Judal’s room.
Hakuryuu shook his head. “With Koumei is good,” he said. If he shared room with Judal he would have to share room with Kouha and Rohroh too, while Koumei and Yaqut were not as rowdy, even if Yaqut still could be rowdy just like all the other Alexius siblings. “But I’d rather share with Aneue.” He didn’t really trust her boyfriend either, so why couldn’t he share room with Koumei and Yaqut instead of Hakuryuu. Hakuei ruffled his hair fondly. “You’ve met them several times before, it will be fine.” Hakuryuu pouted. That wasn’t the problem.
“Hakuryuu is jea~lous~”
Hakuryuu spun around, dropping his bag again and letting go of his sister’s hand. “Nanaumi! I’m not!” He protested. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Nanaumi grinned. “You think?” the six-year old girl said. “What d’you think Mor-chan?” Morgiana shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “Hakuryuu?”
Hakuryuu blushed when he realized that his cute step-cousin was by Nanaumi’s side, holding the family pet tiger in her arms. “Ah, yeah, no, Nanaumi is just saying weird things.”
“Am not,” Nanaumi said. She leaned close to Hakuryuu and whispered in his ear so Morgiana and Hakuei couldn’t hear her. “I’m sharing room with Mor-chan, I can tell her lots of things.” Then she pulled back as Hakuryuu blushed an even darker shade of red.
“Nana,” A big hand dropped down on Hakuryuu’s head and Hakuryuu jumped, startled. “don’t pick on people too much!” Takeruhiko laughed. “We’ll stay a few days so get along.” He removed his hand, and Hakuryuu patted his hair back in place best he could. Hakuei could ruffle his hair, that was alright, but her boyfriend doing it was just weird. “Mu and Kouen are about to leave.”
“Oh, they are in a hurry,” Hakuei chuckled. “I’d be too,” Takeruhiko said with a grin, and he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Hakuryuu fumed, glaring at him. But he turned away from him when Morgiana tugged at his sleeve. “Are you saying bye too?” she asked him. He nodded. “Yes, I am.” He followed her back down the stairs. He didn’t really care about saying bye to Kouen, but Mu was alright so he could say hello and bye to him at least. Going on vacation when there was so much snow outside… At least make it somewhere without snow and don’t just go to an onsen further north. They weren’t very smart.
“Why can’t we come too?” Kouha asked, arms stuck around Kouen’s neck and legs wrapped around his waist. “I wanna go to the onsen too.” Kouen tried to free himself from his younger brother. Narda was standing beneath them, looking between Kouen and Mu and holding on to their pants. Mu picked Kouen’s coat off the coat hanger, and put it over his shoulders since he couldn’t put it on properly. But he would only wear it while going out to the car so it was alright. Asha picked up her little sister to get her out of the way, but hold her up to Mu. The little girl gave him a messy kiss on the cheek, then she reached for Kouen and Asha handed the girl over to him. A little awkwardly, he took her and she kissed him on the cheek as well. Then she attached herself to the back of Kouha’s clothes. “Wonderful…” Kouen muttered, and crouched down. It took several minutes for him to pry them off, and many more after most of the other siblings piled themselves on top of him as well, leaving Mu to lift them off. Takeruhiko ended up laughing (way too much, in Hakuryuu’s opinion) and Nanaumi too. Like father like daughter, seriously, even when they were only adopted family.
“Thank you for taking care of them for us, Hakuei,-san, Takeruhiko,” Mu said, hands occupied with their bags and Kouen standing just outside with a hand on the doorhandle. “Of course, we’re happy to help. And it’s always nice to spend some time together. I hope you enjoy it.”
“In various ways,” Takeruhiko said, wiggling his eyebrows. It made Mu’s face grow red, and Kouen scowl. “Don’t make yourself ridiculous, Takeruhiko-san,” he said to Takeruhiko. “Mu, come on, let’s go already.” Takeruhiko giggled, and Hakuei shook her head at him as she watched the door close.
Takeruhiko leaned against Hakuei. “Hakuei, wanna see if their bed’s any comfy?” Hakuryuu barrelled right into his back. Judal seemed to think that was a fun idea (or maybe he just wanted to get in Hakuryuu’s way, that was another possibility) so he jumped the man as well. The result was Takeruhiko overbalancing. As he fell he tried to grab onto something to stop the fall, and he ended up pulling Hakuei down as well. Hakuryuu did not understand why his sister and the stupid daycare teacher had to laugh as if they were enjoying themselves so much, even after falling to the ground.