Disclaimer: Not mine!

FYI: I have never been skiing and therefore am making this up as I go along, so please just bear with me. I don't think there's anything too unbelievable in here, but as I said, having no first hand experience, this is my best guess.

Providence of the Divine

By: wolf demoness

Chapter Two

Three days later the family could be seen packing their car and making ready to drive to the mountain. Shiori's son had taken his little brother shopping the day before and there were several bright packages going into the back of the van as the family intended to spend Christmas on the mountain. As they drove to the mountain they sang carols in the car and little Shuuichi chatted endlessly about skiing and snowboarding and all the fun things he was going to do on the slopes. Meanwhile his redheaded brother quietly read and threw in occasional comments, adding to the conversations going on inside the van. As night was falling the redheaded boy asked his stepfather if he wanted him to drive for awhile. They switched places and the redhead finished the drive to the Lodge.

Arriving on the mountain everyone was in high spirits. Hiroshi checked the family in at the registration desk in the main lobby and they all went to their cabin to unpack and settle in. The resort was geared toward families and had cabins perfectly designed for the family of four. There was a large central room with a television and fireplace, a small kitchen, an equally small room connected to the kitchen with a dinning table in it and two bathroom connected to as many bedrooms. There was a room for the boys with two western style beds sitting side by side in the room's center and a room for the adults with a queen sized bed in it's center. The boys began to pack their things into the room they'd been given. "Shuuichi?" the little boy called to his brother.

"Yes?" the redhead asked as he continued unpacking his things and stowing them in one of the twin dressers in the room.

"Can we go skiing together?" the little boy asked hopefully.

The redhead smiled and said, "We're going tomorrow, Shuuichi."

"No, I mean you and me together. Without mom and dad."

"Alright, if you want to." The little boy nodded his head up and down so swiftly that he made himself dizzy and fell back on his bed until the room stopped spinning. The green eyed youth laughed at his brother and, deciding that he'd really done all the packing he wanted to than night, tossed the rest of his bags in the room's only closet. "Let's ask if we can go see the Lodge."

"Yeah!" the boy jumped off the bed and ran past his brother into his mother and father's room. When the older boy came into the room he was amused to see his young human brother on his knees begging his father to let him go to the lodge.

"Shuuichi we're not done unpacking. We'll take you in half an hour," Hiroshi was telling the boy.

The kitsune laughed inwardly and spoke up. "I'll take him. We can meet you in the lobby in half an hour, if that's alright." The fox in human form always enjoyed spending time with his stepbrother. It was gratifying to see the boy happy and he also gained valuable information about young humans. Information that he'd found irrelevant in his own youth. It was only by close contact with the young boy that Kurama realized how poorly he had acted the part of a young human boy. To his great relief Shiori hadn't seemed to notice and, since she'd had no other children at the time to compare him with, she'd never grown suspicious of her child's strange behavior. Of course there was that one time when his parents had thought he'd been switched at birth with some other couple's baby and had taken him to the doctor's to make sure he was theirs. He'd passed that test easily. His body was, genetically speaking, that of Shiori's human son even if his soul was that of a demon. And he supposed that he could be excused from that. He certainly hadn't altered the body he was in, well consciously anyway, and the test wasn't spurred by his behavior. Although, as he remembered, Shiori received endless compliments on how well behaved her baby was and how he never seemed to cry.

Shiori smiled up at her oldest child, "Thank you, Shuuichi." She turned to her husband; "It wouldn't hurt to let them go ahead, would it?"

"Alright, go on," Hiroshi waved his sons out of the room.

"Yes! Thanks, dad! Bye, mom!" Shuuichi yelled out as he grabbed his older brother's hand and proceeded to drag him from the room.

Shiori watched as her sons left the room. She walked over to her husband and wrapped her arms around him. Sighing contentedly she said, "We have such good boys."

"Yes. We do," he agreed.

******

The next day the family hit the bunny slopes. Kurama who'd never skied before was a natural. The redhead learned very quickly, though he did have some spectacular falls while he was learning that had his little brother rolling on the ground in tears. Little Shuuichi had gone skiing with his father before and so was off the bunny slopes and onto the intermediate runs rather quickly. After about a day the whole family was ready to join the little boy on the more difficult runs. It was great fun. Shiori and Hiroshi couldn't get the boys to come into the lodge for lunch or dinner; they were having so much fun on the slopes. Kurama was having quite a good time. He felt like he was flying as he dived down the mountain. He imagined that this was what it felt like for Hiei when he ran. The world rushed by in a blur and the wind blew cold against his face, it was an exhilarating experience.

Finally when the boys were exhausted, though Kurama was trying to appear more tired than he actually felt, hiding the fact that his demonic strength gave him more endurance than normal humans, their parents pulled them into the cabin. Shiori fussed over the boys forcing them to shower and change their clothes before they caught a cold. When the boys were comfortable and warm she went into the kitchen to make them some snacks. Just as she was finishing the sandwiches and pouring some hot water into cups to make cocoa Hiroshi tapped her shoulder. He held a finger to his lips signaling her to be silent and lead her to the living room where there was a sleeping boy on each end of the room's small couch. Little Shuuichi was lying lengthwise across the cushions resting his head on the arm of the couch and propping his feet up on his brother's lap. Shiori's boy was leaning against the back of the couch his head turned to the side pillowed on the back cushion of the sofa.

Hiroshi gathered his son in his arms while Shiori lightly shook her son awake. "Come on, let's get you to bed," she said.

Kurama nodded and stood allowing his mother to lead him off toward the bedroom. Hiroshi tucked Shuuichi into bed and Shiori gave her son a goodnight hug before retreating from the room. "Tousan?" Kurama called from where he was sitting on his bed.

"Yes, Shuuichi?"

"Can I take Shuuichi out on the slopes tomorrow? I promised him that we'd go together while we were here," he asked.

Hiroshi smiled, suddenly feeling very proud of his stepson. "I think that would be a wonderful thing for you and your brother to do."

"Goodnight, Tousan."

"Goodnight, Musuko."

When Hiroshi arrived back in his room his wife was already in bed. He quickly changed into some nightclothes and climbed into the bed with her. "Red asked me if he could take his brother out on the slopes tomorrow."

"What did you say?" Shiori asked sleepily.

"I told him that it was fine. I'm glad they get along so well."

"I am too," she said. "But are you sure it's a good idea for them to be out there alone."

"Their good boys. Little Shuuichi knows how to ski pretty well and Red has a good head on his shoulders, I don't think there's anything to worry about," he said.

Shiori looked at her husband through the dark of the room. "I hope you're right," she said before she snuggled into his arms and let sleep take her.

******

"Hey, Shuuichi! Watch this!" Kurama's little brother called out as he shoved off to speed down the slope he was on, coming to a stop in front of the kitsune with a dramatic flourish, spraying snow all over his brother in the process.

"Very nice," the fox commented as he dusted himself off. He and the young boy had left early in the morning and spent the day on the intermediate slopes.

"Can we go on that run?" the boy asked pointing to one of the more advanced runs.

"Shuuichi, I don't know that run's awfully…high," the fox said as he looked up and up and up the mountain to where the run started.

"Please? I can do it! Dad's taken me on higher ones than that before and you're doing really good today," the boy begged. "You haven't even fallen over today."

Kurama blushed and held his head in his hand, "I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"The one where you fell over the bush or that one where you hit the tree?" Shuuichi asked innocently with a wicked grin on his face.

Kurama sighed heavily. Oh, what was the harm, he thought. "If you can do that run over there," the redhead pointed out a higher level run, "without ending up hugging a tree or falling face first into a bush I'll take you on that run."

"Really?" the boy asked. "Okay!" Shuuichi virtually shot over to the lift and got in line. He did the run perfectly and scooted over to his brother, virtually beaming.

"Let's go," Kurama said and the two got in line.

"Hey, kid!" one of the lodge staff ran over to where the two were standing. "You have to have an adult with you to go on this run," she smiled down at Shuuichi.

"I'm with him," Kurama said softly.

The woman looked up; "You're eighteen?" Kurama smiled and nodded making eye contact with the woman and giving her a slow smile. He released just a tiny pulse of youki into his aura, which mesmerized the human woman. "Okay," she sighed dreamily.

"Thank you," the fox gave the woman another smile and pushed his brother forward as the line moved. The woman was left standing in the snow gazing longingly at the redheaded young man. Little Shuuichi looked up at his brother questioningly; he was stunned and thrilled that his brother was lying to the lady just so he could go on the run. He had the coolest brother ever, he was sure of it. Kurama winked at the flabbergasted little boy and continued to move with the line. Shuuichi looked back to see the staff member finish writing on a piece of paper. She shoved her pen back into her coat and tore a strip from the bottom of the paper before she ran up to the brothers. She smiled and pressed the paper into Kurama's hand before running back to her station, watching the line.

"What did she give you?" Shuuichi asked. Kurama glanced at the paper before handing it over to the inquisitive little boy. "She gave you her number?" Kurama shrugged noncommittally. "Are you gonna call her?"

The kitsune looked down at the young boy amusedly; "Do you think I should?"

"She's cute. Didn't ya like her?" Shuuichi had heard the rumors about his brother. Not that he'd believe anything like that. It made him angry to hear people talking like that about his big brother just because he didn't date a lot. He had a lot to study! He went to one of the hardest schools in Japan; he had to study a lot! But maybe, Shuuichi thought, if he got pictures of his brother and the girl he could make the kids at school stop talking about him that way.

"She is cute," Kurama said. And the girl was. All put together with everything in the right place and proportion, from what he could see through her winter gear, but Kurama just didn't think he could date someone that young. Though he looked like a teenage human, inside he was a seven hundred-year-old youko spirit and he had little to no interest in adolescent human women. A beautiful youko vixen was more to his tastes, but where was he going to find one in the ningenkai? A beautiful youko vixen with deep fathomless eyes that you could drown in, velvety smooth pert sexy ears, long legs, firm bosom, silky smooth hair perfect for running your claws through, and a long silky tail that swayed just so when she walked. Mentally shaking himself and repressing his over active imagination Kurama brought himself back to reality. Some times he really missed the Makai. Shuuichi was looking up at him hopefully. Kurama took the scrap of paper from the little boy and pocketed it. "Maybe we'll run into her before we leave," the redhead suggested for his brother's benefit.

"Yeah, okay," Shuuichi said already planning how he could get his brother and the pretty young girl together before the trip was over. It was starting to snow lightly, just a few soft white flakes falling gently to the ground, as the boys got on the lift, but the sky was relatively clear. Shuuichi hoped that it would stop soon, before they finished the run.

When the two got to the top of the mountain, Shuuichi wanted to have a look around first. They were up really high and there were fewer people at the top. This slope was considered an adult run so there really weren't any guides and instructors to hold your hand and walk you through the procedures. It was starting to snow a bit harder now and Shuuichi, contrary to what he told his brother, was nervous about the run. He wanted to wait for the snow to stop before they went down the mountain, until then he stalled by tromping around the top. Kurama was getting nervous, the sky was darkening and the snow was starting to fall faster and heavier. It tickled his senses; the storm was coming in with unnatural speed. Very suddenly there was a drop in temperature that alarmed the kitsune and it became hard to see through the snow, the wind began to kick up, howling through the sparse foliage of the withered trees at the mountain peak. "Shuuichi, I think we should go back!" he yelled.

"What?" Shuuichi yelled above the roar of the wind. Kurama moved closer to his brother and gestured for him to come back toward him. Shuuichi, understanding the signal began to walk toward his brother. He had almost reached the agitated fox when he lost his footing and fell, sliding part way down the mountain. "Shuuichi!" Kurama yelled as the boy slid out of sight. The fox discarded his skis and the gear he'd been carrying and ran, as quickly as he could toward the human. "Shuuichi, where are you?" he called out. When he heard nothing he tried to sense the boy's aura. Kurama was by no means a sensitive; he especially had trouble tracking human auras. They were usually weak, barely registering on his mental radar. Kurama hadn't been around Shuuichi long enough yet to be able to pick his aura out of a crowd like he could his mother's. The moment he reached out with his mind to find his brother he was expecting to be disoriented by sensing all the humans on the mountain. When he only got one signal, originating directly in front of him, Kurama was relieved and upset at the same time. On the one hand he now knew where his brother was, on the other there was no one out here to help them get back to the lodge. They probably all went down the mountain when they noticed the storm moving in, Kurama reasoned. One problem at a time, he decided before moving over to pick his brother out of the snow. "Are you okay?" he asked as he helped the boy stand up.

Shuuichi stood up, grimaced, and lifted his right foot off the ground, "I think I twisted my ankle."

"Can you walk on it?" the fox asked absently feeling himself falling back into the calm analytical mind frame he preferred whenever in a threatening situation.

The boy took a few experimental steps before turning back to the fox holding back tears. "It really hurts." The boy was obviously trying to be brave about the whole thing. Kurama sighed, it was fairly obvious that they had to get off the mountain quickly or the human boy might freeze. Kurama himself could weather the storm, though he really didn't want to. He was a plant wielder. He liked green growing things not rocky mountains covered in snow with scraggly pine trees and lichens struggling to grow in the mountain's poor soil and the thin air.

"Sit down," the fox ordered. There was no helping it the boy was going to have to walk down the mountain. There was no way Kurama could carry him that far. The redhead pulled the boy's right boot and sock off and began to inspect the injured joint. Normally he would have given the boy herbs to ease the pain and wrapped the ankle in bandages with still more herbs to speed the healing process. But if he summoned the plants Shuuichi would know that he wasn't what he pretended to be. He didn't want to jeopardize the secret he'd been keeping for the last seventeen years if he could help it. Kurama unzipped his jacket, took off the sweater he had under that and finally pulled off the shirt he had under that. Quickly he put his sweater and jacket back on; it was getting very cold out.

"What are you doing?" Shuuichi asked holding back tears. The boy was smart, he could tell that they were in a bad situation.

Kurama began to tear the shirt into strips. "I'm going to wrap your ankle, then we're going to get back to the lodge."

"Is their anyone up there?" Shuuichi asked timidly as the fox tightly wrapped the fabric around his ankle. Kurama was not happy with the situation. It was one thing to be trapped on top of a mountain alone, it was quite another to have a young injured human boy with him. He needed to get his brother off the mountain before they both succumbed to hypothermia, Kurama's human body, though more resilient that the average human's, was still was not immune to the effects of the extreme cold. If he went back up the mountain they would loose precious time, if he just started walking them both down the mountain he'd have some explaining to do. How would he explain away how he knew no one was up there or why he didn't check? But if he went back up he might be able to find a better way down. Was that worth the time they would loose? Did he really have a choice?

"I don't know. I'll carry you up to the top and we'll check." Kurama finished his make shift bandage and put Shuuichi's boot back on. "See if you can walk on that," he said helping the boy to his feet.

Shuuichi took a few steps, "It still hurts, but I think I can walk on it," he said.

"Okay. Let's go," Kurama said as he moved over to pick the boy up. He started walking toward the mountaintop.

"Wait," Shuuichi twisted around in his arms, "My skis."

"We'll get you new ones," Kurama told the little boy.

"Do you think mom and dad will be angry?" the dark haired boy asked quietly.

"About the skis?" Kurama asked.

"Yeah, and that we came up here."

Kurama sighed. "They might be upset, but it was my decision to come here and I know they won't care about the skis."

"But if I hadn't made you wait we'd have been back before the storm started," Shuuichi said in a small voice.

Kurama smiled at the human he carried; "It wasn't your fault. We've just had some bad luck, that's all. We'll be more careful next time." Inwardly Kurama was cursing his stupidity for not being more careful when he was with the human boy. They got to the top of the mountain. There wasn't a good path down that the fox could see. Though he couldn't see very far in the storm. "Shuuichi, I think you're going to need to walk on your own for awhile."

"What are we gonna do?" the boy asked as the kitsune lowered him to his feet.

"We're gonna take a little walk down a mountain," the redhead smiled at the human boy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N:

1) Hi! I want to thank all my great reviewers! I'm very flattered by the response I've gotten. I had mixed feelings about this fic and truly I wasn't sure whether of not I was going to post at all, but if you keep reviewing I'll keep posting, 'kay?

2) Ermanil Luinedhel Elfobbit. Hi, interesting screen name. ^_^ Anyway, I was so excited to get a review from someone interested in mythology. Greek mythology is a hobby of mine and I'm just thrilled to have the chance to dive into a new genre. Well, I wanted to say that, you're absolutely right. I know that Inari him/herself is not a kitsune. That part is a figment of my imagination, as it the entire society and culture I've constructed for the kitsune. However, I'm not using the original Inari lore in this fic. There is a variant of the "original" Japanese kitsune myth that emerged at about 800 CE in which Inari becomes the God of the myobu kitsune. I call this a variant because the kitsune originated in India and were not linked to Inari in any way shape or from until through cultural diffusion the concept passed to Japan from China. After some time the kitsune became associated with the Shinto rice/fertility deity, first as his messengers and temple guardians then became so intrinsically linked to Inari as to be seen as his people. As a matter of fact the Shinto Inari is a mixture of his original form as the Japanese god of rice, the Buhddist goddess Dakini, the Shinto goddess Ukemochi no Kami and her male equivalent Ogetsu hime no kami. So as you can see I'm capitalizing on one of the many variants of the Inari myths, but it works for my purposes. Kudos, for picking up on it! I always love to run across someone who's done their homework! By the way, there's a great essay about kitsune by Watts Martin at , if you're interested. Thanks again for the review, hope to hear from you again. By the way, what's your take on the way kitsune gain tails and their coat color changes? I've found so many differing systems that my head is spinning, I'd appreciate a second opinion from an informed source. Thanks so much! You just made my day; you know that? ;-)