This is just a quick little thing I wrote on the memo pad of my phone :) I started it a couple weeks ago when I had a billion snow days, then I re-visited it this week and finished it up!

Takes place a not long after book 6. Please note, this is NOT TVF! I tried to keep OOC-ness to a bare minimum.

Enjoy!

In the past few months, Darren had come to the conclusion that there were plenty of advantages to being a Vampire Prince. For example, you get to sleep in the biggest cells in the mountain. You get your own personal water closet - with a seat. You get first pick of whatever fresh food happens to be in the Mountain. You can scare absolutely anyone away with just one glare. (This really applied to Mika and Arrow. Darren, not so much. Paris chose not to glare.) And you can basically do whatever you want with absolutely zero consequences.

With the exception of having a bit of old-fashioned quality fun.

Darren couldn't sock-slide down the halls. He couldn't play practical jokes on an unsuspecting Larten Crepsley. He couldn't swap stupid jokes with Harkat if anyone else was listening. He couldn't scratch funny pictures into the rocks.

Technically, he could have done these things. But it would have seriously undermined his credibility as a Vampire Prince. Not to mention it would probably earn a gang-beating from his fellow Princes. Hey, there was no such law that said Princes weren't allowed to kill each other.

So Darren faced a dillemma: He was incredibly, painfully, awfully, terribly bored.

It was approximately January by everyone's best guesstimate. The Mountain was freezing cold inside and out, and it was completely snowbound. A recent blizzard of monstrous proportions had buried everything in a thick coating of snow and ice which made tracking, hunting, walking, even flitting impossible. So the inhabitants of Vampire Mountain were stranded. And developing some extremely serious cases of cabin fever.

There was no new news of the Vampaneze or their silly Lord, maybe the purple fiends were as snowed in as the Vampires were.

But one thing was for certain; whatever they were doing had to be a lot more fun than what the Vampires were currently up to.

Because the great Princes and Generals of Vampire Mountain were currently up to a whole lot of nothing.

"So... Does this happen every winter?" Darren ventured, tipping his throne back on its back legs.

"Hasn't been this bad in 50 years." grunted Mika, who was currently picking his teeth with a shard of deer bone.

"Greeat." sighed the boy Prince, leaning his throne forwards and almost falling flat on his face.

"Well, sometimes we all make snow angels and go skating on the lake!" Arrow stated.

"Cool, really?" asked Darren delightedly, regaining his composure.

"Nope."

Darren frowned and went back to tipping his throne backwards.

Just then, Harkat came skipping merrily into the Hall of Princes, toting an icicle which was almost as tall as he was. He was closely followed by Seba -who was carrying what looked like a dead hairy animal- and Larten who was wearing a furry hat and matching coat. All had very red runny noses.

"Hey Darren! I found an...icicle for you...to eat...just like...you wanted!" The Little Person announced very happily and very loudly.

As Mika, Arrow, and Paris (in that order) shot Darren some very strange looks, Darren sincerely regretted sharing his favourite winter tradition of chomping icicles with the Little Person.

"Um, thanks Harkat... Could you please go put it in my cell, for um, later?"

"It'll...melt! Why don't...you eat it...now?" Harkat asked in befuddlement.

"Just do it please?" Darren replied through gritted teeth.

Harkat shrugged.

Arrow coughed in a way that unsucessfully hid a snort of derisive laughter.

"How is Mother Nature today?" Paris asked breezily, adressing Larten and Seba.

"The blizzard stopped!" They chorused as though they'd rehearsed it.

"YEAH!" Darren, Mika and Arrow bellowed with equal synchronization.

"However, it will still be a long time before news of any sort reaches us, and the blizzard may have stopped, but snow is still coming down." Larten added primly.

Mika pounded the arm rests of his throne in frustration.

"We cannot afford to wait any longer just because of the damn weather, we need to form a plan of action!"

"Agreed." Said Arrow grimly. "I believe we should gather the Generals and have them gather their troops then prepare for a pre-emptive strike. We-"

"What if that's exactly what they want us to do?" Mika argued. "We'd be walking right into their hands!"

Arrow bit his lip and looked troubled. Paris looked as bored as Darren felt.

When I had snowdays as a human, it actually meant a day off. Darren thought to himself.

Or at least he thought he thought it. But judging by how everyone stared suddenly at him, he'd in fact said it out loud.

Larten looked mortified. Harkat looked concerned. Mika and Arrow looked ready to kick him out of the Hall. But Paris looked interested.

"What is this...snowday...of which you speak, Young Shan?" Paris asked gently.

"Um...well, for humans, when the snow gets really bad, you can't um, go anywhere, or do anything productive, kinda like right now...and the schools get closed so everyone gets to sleep in and um, eat cereal for lunch, and play outside, like go sledding and make snowmen, and-"

"What are snow-men?" Interruped Mika suspiciously.

Darren suddenly had an impulse so crazy it just might work.

"I could show you."

"A marvellous idea, Darren!" Paris smiled warmly. "All this talk of war and violence while being cooped up in here must be doing terrible things to our mind. Prehaps a 'snow-day' would do us some good."

Darren grinned like Paris had just given him the world. For the first time in years, someone was really speaking his language!

###

"I don't get it." Said Arrow loudly, 15 minutes later when they were all gathered outside in their warmest cloaks. "How do you make a man out of snow?"

"Well, Arrow, when a boy snowflake and a girl snowflake love each other very much-" Mika smirked.

"Actually, you make them by rolling snowballs." Darren cut in quickly.

Blank looks all around.

"Perhaps a demonstration?" Paris encouraged.

"Um, alright..." Said Darren awkwardly, picking up a handful of snow and packing it into a neat little sphere. Then he began to roll it.

And he watched the facial expressions of the world's toughest Vampires morph from complete disengagement to total WOAH as the snowball grew to be as tall as his belly.

"Now, I need a slightly smaller one to put on top?"

Paris, still smiling, graciously obliged and rolled some snow into a nicely proportioned middle section which he placed atop the first.

"Very good!" Darren praised happily. "Now for the head."

Arrow took this upon himself, and scooped an armful of snow which he dumped on top of the body.

Darren forced a smile. "Phenomenal effort, now-"

But as soon as it had been built, Mika and Arrow withdrew their swords and proceeded to splice the newly-born snowman to bits.

"What are you doing?" Darren shrieked at a slightly higher pitch than he'd intended.

"Well, what else were we supposed to do with it?" Asked Arrow suspiciously. "It looks exactly like our practice dummies."

"Well, it's not!" Darren groaned. "It's supposed to be like a person! Made of snow!"

Mika frowned. Arrow scratched his head. Paris twirled his beard and looked deep in thought.

"Would you guys like to try?" Darren persisted.

Harkat took him up on this, and compiled a little mound of snow about half his height.

"Now you need a face..." Said Darren thoughtfully, picking up a handful of stones and handing them to the Little Person. Harkat looked at the snow pile with an artistic eye, and then distributed the stones into a little face shape... With a lop-sided mouth and no nose. Then he scratched in a line or two to look like stitches, and stood beside his masterpiece with a huge grin.

"Perfect likeness." Darren chuckled.

Harkat's grin intensified, then was wiped off his face completely as he was knocked backwards by a humungous snowball.

"Oh gods, Harkat. I'm sorry!" Gasped Mika, who had apparently whipped the snowball. "I was aiming at Darren!"

"Of course you were." Darren grunted, gathering an armoad of snow in preparation to retaliate.

"Darren! What have I always taught you?" Mr. Crepsley scolded. "Violence and revenge solves nothing!"

"Ah Larten, allow the boy to live and learn." Said Paris with a slightly sneaky smile. Then the two of them watched as Darren lobbed the snow at Mika, who easily ducked. The snow then smashed full-force into Arrow's face. Darren gasped in horror. The bald Prince calmly brushed snow from his eyes, and then advanced on Darren, picked him up, turned him upside down and stuffed him into a snowbank.

Darren emerged spitting ice pellets, to see Larten, Mika, Paris, Arrow, and Harkat completely abandoning themselves to laughter.

"SNOW...BALL...FIGHT!" Harkat roared as soon as he saw Darren, whipping a handful of snow.

"You're on, Mulds!" Darren shot back, reciprocating the assault.

The Princes and Larten wasted no time in joining in, and soon the picturesque forest clearing was a battlefield of whirling snow-clouds, slashing icicles, and flying balls of very solidly-packed percipitation. Not to mention shouts of:

"GET HIM!"

"DUCK!"

"Haahahahaaa I GOTCHA!"

"Not the face, NOT THE FA- ouch!"

"How does ...THAT... taste?"

"Let us make a rule about not hitting faces!"

"Pffff. What are we, silly humans with organized sports?"

"Gotcha again, Crepsley!"

"Yahooo!"

"You are all full of shenanigans!"

"Learn to live a little...and eat my snow!"

So it went, in utter bliss 'till Darren was having such a wonderful time he lost track of the passing minutes. The scene in front of him began to blur, and the playful figures of Harkat, Larten, Mika, Arrow, and Paris became those of Steve, Tommy, Alan, and Annie. So many years ago, they'd spent hours upon hours frolicking and playing joyfully in the icy powder. Every time the school shut down, they spent their days roaming through yards, working on snowmen -both building and wrecking- and engaging in thrilling snow-wars, and of course finishing the day out by drinking hot chocolate with too much sugar and watching cartoons-

He was suddenly yanked out of his daydreaming by a huge amount of slush being dumped into the back of his shirt.

"Acck! Mr Crepsley?" He yelped.

"Indeed!" Said his mentor with a wide grin. "Did you think I was fully incapable of having a bit of fun?"

"No, I just thought your idea of fun was sitting around and making up rules." Darren chuckled, clawing snow off his back.

Then Harkat sailed by, nailing Darren in the knees with another well-placed hit. He flashed Darren a delighted smile ran off to aid Paris who was being buried by Mika and Arrow.

It wasn't looking good for Harkat and Paris, they were buried up to their necks and the younger Princes were packing on more snow. Darren audaciously whipped a snowball at Mika, momentarily blinding him. Then the boy Prince tackled him, bringing him down into a snowdrift. With his face muffled by the snow, for a moment Darren thought Mika was scolding him loudly - but no! He was laughing, actually laughing! Darren whooped in shocked delight, then sunk back into the snowdrift beside his comrade, laughing with equal force.

Arrow paused his burying of Paris and glanced up at them.

"What in hell are you boys laughing at?"

Mika attempted to formulate a reply, but was struck down by laughter once again. His fellow Vampires plus Harkat found this incredibly humorous in and of itself, and they soon sunk into the snow, also immobilized by laughter.

"This is so stupid!" Arrow grinned hopelessly.

"We're supposed to be Vampires!" Mika sniggered but without a hint of regret in his voice.

Darren was laughing far too hard to even begin a reply. This was absolutely the most fun he'd had in years. He'd fought insane animals, he'd walked through fire, he'd killed Vampaneze, he was the youngest Prince in history, but he was still a boy.

And he'd never been more relieved to remember this fact.

After gods-know-how-long, the laughter subsided into a comfortably tired silence, and the 6 creatures of the night stared upwards into the heavens, all lying face-up in somewhat of a circle.

"Beautiful..." Harkat breathed. "So many...stars."

"There's Orion! And the -what do the bloody humans call it- the Big Dipper! And Venus! And Hercules! And could that little one possibly be Mars?" Paris gasped excitedly, taking in each and every planet and constellation.

"Um, sure." Said Arrow with half a smile.

"What's that...flashing one?" Harkat asked.

"Yeah, is something exploding up there?" Mika wondered.

"That's a airplane, guys." Darren snickered.

"Oh. I didn't know they had lights on 'em." Mika grunted.

"They have to see somehow!" Said Darren.

"Right, the silly creatures cannot see in the darkness. I always forget." Larten chortled.

"It's not thaat bad. We manage." Darren snorted.

"'We'? You still count yourself as one of them?" Arrow inquired curiously, tilting his head sideways in the snow.

The question took Darren by suprise. He had to think for a moment before he could answer honestly.

"I don't count myself as one of them...but I don't not count myself as one of them either. I'm not a human...or a Vampire. I don't know what I am."

An awkward silence settled over the Vampires like a blanket of snowflakes on dead trees.

Paris dug his elbow sharply into Mika's side.

"Oww, Paris! You have awfully sharp elbows. What the hell was that for?"

The old Prince coughed pointedly and gestured.

"Oh, right." Mika grunted. "Darren, of course you're one of us!"

" I mean, how could you not be?" Arrow added kindly. "Look at everything we've been through."

"You are as true a Vampire as any I have ever met, and well-worthy the title of Vampire Prince." Paris contributed with a smile.

"Aww, you guys!" Darren grinned and blushed violently and was extremely glad this was hidden by the snow that had begun to fall again. "Really, I did what any honorable person would have done. And the battle was the least I could do, I had fun working with the spiders-"

"Not the battle!" Mika snorted, waving away Darren's explanation. "That's old news."

"We were talking about this." Said Arrow simply.

"Huh?" Darren demanded, not comprehending.

"You have just introduced us to a new tradition." Paris informed him with delight. "What did you call it?"

"Snow...day!" Harkat wheezed joyously.

The Princes nodded in assent, and Larten grinned wolfishly.

"What...really?" Darren gasped in shock which quickly morphed into euphoria.

"It is not healthy to spend our days locked in a hall, discussing terrible news and deciding how best to systematically eliminate the enemy! Necessary as it may be, we were in dire need of a little holiday." Paris recited.

"I thought...you guys would think it's childish." Darren admitted.

"It was." Mika shot back. "But that doesn't mean we didn't have a hell of a time!"

Darren giggled happily and tossed one more handful of snow into the air before the 6 comrades helped each other to their feet and retreated back up into Vampire Mountain to see if they could find a substitute for hot chocolate and cartoons.

Review despite the corny-ness?

And PLEASE R&R my new fic Snow N Sparks. I don't see why A Butchered Masterpiece has like 30-something and SNS only has 8 in the same amount of chaps. Sorry if I sound demanding, I'm having a crappy week and that's bugging me! I can write more than just humour, ya know!

Also, I've said it before but people aren't getting the message: I hate when I get an inbox full of alerts from the same person who's faved/subbed ALL of my DSS fics, and didn't leave a single review. Seriously? So if youre gonna fave, REVIEW TOO.

Lmao peeeeace :)

*Roxxy,