By:
wolf demoness
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or
anything else you recognize in this story.
This is an AU and has nothing to do with my previous fic, Moments in Time.
Cast of Characters:
Hatanaka,
Hiroshi: (I don't know his name so I made one up! ~_^) The newlywed husband of Hatanaka, Shiori. The father of Hatanaka, Shuuichi. The stepfather of Minamino, Shuuichi, who is
also known as Yoko, Kurama.
Hatanaka,
Shiori: Formerly
Minamino, Shiori. The newlywed bride of
Hatanaka, Hiroshi. The stepmother of
Hatanaka, Shuuichi. The mother of
Minamino, Shuuichi, who is also known as Yoko, Kurama.
Hatanaka,
Shuuichi: The
son of Hatanaka, Hiroshi. The stepson of
Hatanaka, Shiori. The stepbrother of
Minamino, Shuuichi, who is also known as Yoko, Kurama.
Minamino,
Shuuichi: Also
known as the spirit fox Yoko, Kurama.
The stepson of Hatanaka, Hiroshi.
The son of Hatanaka, Shiori. The
stepbrother of Hatanaka, Shuuichi.
Prologue
Once upon a time in the world
of demons nearly a thousand years ago there lived a young maiden in her
father's home. She was lovely in both
body and mind; generous and kind and above all things she was very happy. For you see her mother was the high priestess
of the God Inari and her father was the architect that built and maintained His
shrine. The God was pleased with the
family's toil and favored them in all things.
In the fall their harvest was always plentiful. In the spring beautiful flowers bloomed in
the gardens surrounding the small cabin the family lived in and perfumed the
lands about them with sweet fragrances.
Neither injury nor sickness touched them. And throughout the years the family rose in wealth
and respect amongst their fellows in the community.
After
some years the young maiden's mother brought her to the temple to present her
to the God and enter her into His service.
As she approached the altar the God greeted her warmly. Inari appeared as a handsome young Kitsune
with long silver hair, ears, and tail.
He appears no older than twenty human years and has limpid gold eyes,
which appear lit by an inner fire or a warm glow that attracts others as moths
to a flame. The maiden blushed as He
took her hand and asked her name. She
bowed her head and gave her name, Sakura, the cherry blossom.
That day
the young maiden entered her novitiate in the
After
the maiden's second hundredth birthday, Inari began to notice a change in
Himself. For reasons He couldn't fathom
He began to ask the maiden to accompany Him on His long walks through the
forest at day break, He would watch her at work in the gardens, and ask her to
dine with Him within the inner sanctum walls.
When out of her company He was agitated and restless. He had an odd tightening in His chest when He
chanced upon her in the halls. When He
made her smile His immortal heart skipped a beat and He tried ceaselessly to
make her smile as often as He could.
Eventually He became so distressed that He sought the advice of one of
His wisest priests. The knowledgeable
priest gently laughed at the young God.
He smiled and touched the God's brow telling Him to think it over
Himself and to follow where His heart led Him.
Inari
watched the maiden tending the gardens and ministering to the people who came
to her for advice and for healing both spiritual and physical. She was a wonder and the God could barely
bare to be out of her sight. Slowly He
came to realize the love that existed between the two of them. He came to notice that her smiles, her true
smiles, were for Him alone. The
brightest flowers from her garden she'd bring to His altar and she'd sometimes
lurk outside the doors of His inner chamber in the early morning desiring a
dawn lit walk to begin the day. In time
they came to share their love with one another.
There was never a happier couple in any of the three worlds. Never one pair of souls who expressed such a
pure and abiding love for each other, but alas it was not to be.
In time
the maiden brought forth a male child, born of the love that existed between
the two. The innocent babe was their
greatest expression of devotion to each other and all unwittingly he was also
their undoing. The King of the Gods
called Inari into His presence on the eve of the babe's birth. He gave a warning unto the Fox-God. Telling Him that to accept this child as His
own would be to endow that babe with the divine power of the Gods. Should the child grow wicked he would have
the power to destroy the worlds. A war
amongst the Gods could erupt if the child was unable or unwilling to follow the
strictures of the ethical code the Gods adhered to. Therefore, Inari could not accept this child,
He must send him away all unknowing of his parentage and send the mother with
him. He must never know the
circumstances of his birth and therefor he and his mother must travel to the
farthest regions of the Makai where the worship of his father did not extend.
Inari
begged the King of the Gods to allow Him to raise His son. He would be noble and courageous, a credit to
all the Gods in the three worlds, Inari promised the King. But His pleas feel on deaf ears. And so the maiden was banished from the lands
of the God Inari. She took with her the
son she had borne the God and never returned to the lands of her birth. Having lost the son that He'd never even been
allowed to hold and the love of His immortal life Inari retreated from His
people. The God sank into a great
depression. Often He could be seen
walking in the forest surrounding His temple with tears clinging to His
eyelashes and salty tracks staining His cheeks.
Friends brought Him into their homes and young mothers brought their
children to Him and placed them on His lap.
The God always loved the children of His followers, but now His joy was
tainted with the pain of His loss.
When
they failed to prevail upon the mind of the God the leaders of the Kitsune
entreated the King of the Gods to aid their beloved divinity. The King of the Gods was deeply moved by the
love the Kitsune had for Inari and for the suffering that the young Deity was
forced to endure. He was not heartless. He grieved for the loss that the young one
suffered and though He could not relent and reverse His decree He gave unto the
followers of Inari an enchanted mirror and a promise. When Inari took the mirror into His hand it
would reflect the image of His son and King Enma promised that should the child
prove to be honorable in all things then, at the appropriate time, he may
rejoin his father. The grateful
followers returned to their God bearing these gifts, which He received from
them with great delight.
As time
wore on Inari watched the image in the mirror grow from that of a cherubic
infant to the dashing good looks of a young man. At all times the God wore the mirror on a
chain around His throat and He eagerly awaited the day His son would be
returned to Him. And so the Fox God
Inari returned to His people with an even greater vigor. And the love the Kitsune had for their God
grew by leaps and bounds as He blessed them with His divine passion, His ardor
for life and gaiety and happiness in all things. And above all they were imbued with His hope
for the future and His abiding love for love itself.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter
One
It was
evening in the Hatanaka family household when Hiroshi Hatanaka returned home
with a surprise for his family. Hiroshi
had recently married a woman by the name of Shiori Minamino. After a courtship of two years the man had
finally worked up the courage to propose to the long time widow. It was a beautiful night the night he'd
proposed. That night they'd gone to
Shiori's favorite restaurant for dinner then the two had taken a moonlit stroll
through the park. When the couple had
reached the new water fountain built into a courtyard in the park's center,
Hiroshi had dropped to one knee, taken the woman's hand, and asked her to be
his wife. Shiori happily accepted and
the two were married the next fall.
Hiroshi, unable to choose a best man, split the difference and had his
son and Shiori's son act as his best men.
And so, standing in the very courtyard where he'd proposed, amid the falling
autumn which had clung to the trees with a stubborn tenacity until that very
day when they peacefully drifted down on the assembled wedding party, the two
families were merged into one.
Now when
most families merge there's usually some tension between the stepchildren and
the parents. Usually there's some type
of control issues that have to be dealt with, the stepchildren fight with each
other and with the new parents trying to reestablish the social hierarchy in
the household. Hiroshi had anticipated
trouble with Shiori's son especially.
The boy's father had passed before he was old enough to remember the man
and for the last fifteen years it had been he and his mother alone. When Shiori had fallen ill he was left to
himself and assumed the role his father would have taken had he been
alive. The young man was fully able to
care for himself and his mother, he was in every sense of the word independent
and because he was such a well-behaved youth his mother never placed
restrictions on him. She never
questioned him on his friends, where he went, or what he did. He was left to his own devices most of the
time, in a remarkable display of maturity for someone so young, he never seemed
to cause any trouble or do anything questionable. Sure he would disappear sometimes, but he
always called and he always seemed to have a very good excuse. Even the hooligans he'd befriended seemed to
be reforming under his positive influence and Shiori was happy to let her son use
his best discretion in dealing with them.
Shuuichi was very independent and Hiroshi had anticipated difficulty in
trying to get the youth to answer to him as a father after such a long period
of independence. Since the youth was
seventeen Hiroshi had planned to give him more leeway than his son, who claimed
only thirteen years. But the boy seemed,
not happy but content to allow the older man to lead the household and make
decisions for the family as a single unit.
It was puzzling to the older man, but he wasn't about to try fixing
something that wasn't broken.
In fact
the only tension in the house stemmed from the coincidence that Hiroshi's
former wife and Shiori had both loved the same name and jumped at the chance to
name their first born sons Shuuichi. A
problem that caused some confusion in the household, but was easily solved by
the instituting of nicknames. Little
Shuuichi ended up being "kid" or "kiddo," which had the
young boy less than thrilled. Of course
his nickname was nothing compared to his brother who ended up being called
"Red" most of the time. The
older boy took it in stride though and refused to be ruffled by the slightly
less than respectful sobriquet. Little
Shuuichi, or "kid" as his father had taken to calling him when both
boys were around, also fit into the family seamlessly. He had always wanted a mother, since his had
passed on so early in his life. Shiori
was a loving woman who was delighted to have another son, especially a little boy
in the house. Her own son had always
been independent and serious; even as a small child he was never the type to
come to his mother with his problems or even a scraped knee for her to kiss
better and tell him that everything would be okay. Shiori, who was delighted to be given the
opportunity to play mother hen to little Shuuichi, doted on the boy and little
Shuuichi was happy to let himself be mothered by the dark haired woman. Rather than becoming jealous as most
teenagers would, Shiori's son seemed genuinely pleased by the affection his
mother showered on the young boy. Hiroshi
was greatly impressed with the teenage boy; he had a level of maturity that
belied his age. He was intelligent, well
mannered, fastidiously tidy, and polite.
He was devoted to his mother and to Hiroshi's great relief put up no
power struggle when Hiroshi moved into the house. He was a good son, the kind of son a man
could be proud of.
The only
trouble Hiroshi ever had with the boys was the intense hero worship little
Shuuichi subjected his newly acquired brother to. Once Hiroshi even heard Shiori's Shuuichi
talking his son out of dyeing his hair red. Despite all his cajoling and
outright bribery Hiroshi couldn't get little Shuuichi to cut his hair for the
life of him though. Shuuichi, the older
Shuuichi that is, seemed happy to have his little brother with him. He treated the little boy as a part of the
family immediately and spent time with him frequently. The boys would go shopping, out for ice
cream, for a walk in the park, or the redheaded youth would help his brother
with his homework. Little Shuuichi
frequently stormed into his brother's room and took over the older boy's
computer while he studied or sat and watched TV on the small screen in the
older boy's room. Hiroshi couldn't
believe how well the boys got along with each other.
Hiroshi
was very proud of his family. They'd
gone through a tough time and they'd dealt with it very well. In his opinion they deserved a treat, a
little surprise. That's why Hiroshi had
stayed late at work the last few nights, laboring to finish the projects he was
responsible for so that he could take time off in the next week. He booked a little cabin in the mountains for
the two weeks the boys would have their winter vacation from school. It was all planned, on the day that Shiori's
Shuuichi had his last exam before winter break at Meiou High they would leave
on a two-week vacation to the mountains.
The resort he'd booked had indoor and outdoor activities; skiing,
hiking, and snowboarding for those who wanted to spend the day outdoors and
arts and crafts as well as games in the lodge for those who chose to stay
indoors. It was with some excitement
that Hiroshi left that night to return home.
Shuuichi's last test was in four days time and tomorrow morning he was
going to announce the trip to his family and get them started with packing for
the trip. It would be their first
vacation as a family.
It took
the older man half of an hour to arrive home and when he did he noticed from
his parking space in the front driveway that there was a light on upstairs. Shining from the corner window, through the
closed curtains of his stepson's room there could be seen a dim light. Hiroshi shook his head and smiled. He guessed quite correctly that Shuuichi had
stayed up late into another night studying.
The dark haired man entered the house and locked the door behind
him. The porch light had been left on in
anticipation of his return and this he extinguished with the simple flick of a
switch. Hiroshi carefully opened the
door to the closet near the front door.
He hung his coat up and removed his shoes, slipping on the soft padded
slippers the family wore in the house.
His briefcase he set in its appointed position. Knowing that his wife would leave something
out for him he retreated to the kitchen where, sure enough, there was a plate
awaiting him in the microwave. Opening
the plastic contraption Hiroshi inspected the night's fare. His wife was an excellent cook, though his
stepson sometimes outstripped her, but then Shuuichi always came up with the
oddest recipes he'd ever heard of. A
great deal of which involved small game animals, like doves and rabbits. Shiori was at a loss as to where her son had
acquired his interesting taste in food; she'd never cooked anything of the
sort. However, Shuuichi's meals, no
matter how unorthodox, were always excellent and the family eagerly devoured
whatever he set before them. Though,
little Shuuichi had asked that no one tell him what he was eating until he was
through with it, please.
Hiroshi
chuckled softly at the memory and lifted the plate to replace it in the
refrigerator. He smiled at the folded
note he found underneath the plate. A
love note from Shiori. Hiroshi stowed
the paper in his pocket and began to move through the house, checking that all
the doors were locked and the lights out, before he quietly walked upstairs to
his stepson's room. A thin line of weak
light spilled out from under the crack in the door. Hiroshi carefully opened the door and peered
inside to see, just as he'd supposed, his stepson fast asleep, hunched over his
desk, head pillowed on an advanced calculus text. The desk lamp behind the youth's head lit his
long red hair, providing a halo of light around his sleeping face that
emphasized his dainty, almost effeminate, features. Hiroshi felt badly about it now, but when
he'd first seen the elegant, for there was truly no other way to describe him,
youth he'd worried that the boy was "batting for the other team," so
to speak. The boy seemed entirely too
beautiful, and his long hair! Also, the
pink school uniform that the youth was forced to wear didn't exactly scream
masculinity. The redhead was polite and
soft-spoken, graceful and impeccably clean in a way that was unheard of for the
average teenage boy. It was mildly
unsettling and the youth seemed to fit quite nicely into the stereotype. Not that Hiroshi had anything against gays;
he just wouldn't know how to deal with that.
However, shortly after meeting Shiori's son, he was disabused of that
idea.
******
One
night Shiori was working late and called to ask Hiroshi to stop by her house
and check on her son before he went home for the night. When he go his fiancée's house he rang the
bell and was greeted by the red haired youth and his female companion, whom,
Hiroshi was fairly sure, was not supposed to be in the house. He raised an eyebrow mutely asking the
green-eyed youth for an explanation.
Shuuichi, blushing furiously, turned to introduce the two. "Hiroshi-san this is Botan," he
said gesturing to the blue haired girl.
What a strange color of hair dye she used, Hiroshi thought to
himself. "Botan, this is my
mother's fiancé," Shuuichi finished.
Botan
grasped the man's hand and began to vigorously shake it. "Oh, it's so nice to meet you
Hatanaka-san! I've heard such good things
about you and Shuuichi. Little Shuuichi
that is, not this Shuuichi." The
girl said rapidly gesturing at the youth by her side. "Oh my, look at the time!" she
exclaimed over her watch. "It's
been a pleasure meeting you, sir. But I
really must be going!" the girl bounced off the steps and began to run
toward the sidewalk. She called behind
her, "Bye Shuuichi! Don't forget
about that assignment tomorrow!"
"Young
Lady, do you need a ride home?" Hiroshi called at the rapidly retreating
girl. "It's almost dark."
"Oh,
no, sir! I don't live far away. I can manage.
Goodbye! So nice meeting
you!" She waved behind her as she disappeared down the street.
Hiroshi
turned back to the boy on the steps.
"A school friend?"
"Hai,"
Shuuichi looked down blushing.
Hiroshi
smiled and slung an arm around the boy's shoulder. "How about I forget to tell you mother
about this and you agree not to have dates over to the house when no one's
around?"
"Alright,"
the youth said sounding immensely relieved.
"It's
a deal then?" Hiroshi held out his hand.
Shuuichi
took the proffered hand and shook it firmly, "Deal."
******
As far
as Hiroshi knew Shuuichi had been true to his word. He's such a good son, Hiroshi thought to
himself. The older man pulled himself
from his memories and moved toward the sleeping youth. His most difficult exams were in a few days
and he was putting in extra time studying.
Overworking himself as usual.
Hiroshi noticed how proud it made Shiori to receive her son's perfect
scores from his school. And after
spending several months in the same house with the two, Hiroshi had noticed
that Shiori's son would do very nearly anything to make her happy, even if it
meant studying himself into a stupor every night for weeks on end. To be completely honest Hiroshi wasn't
entirely sure that that was healthy, but he was a newcomer to the relationship
and it wasn't really his place to interfere, yet. If Shuuichi continued to work himself until
he passed out at his desk every night though Hiroshi was going to have to do
something about it. Shuuichi needed to
think about himself sometimes, not making his mother happy. Though he couldn't really blame the young
man. Shiori had been so ill for such a
long time; she'd nearly died once. With
his father gone, wasn't it natural for the youth to cleave to the only family
he had left? But there comes a time when
you have to let go a little. As far as
he could tell the redheaded youth was getting between four and five hours of
sleep a night. Hiroshi decided that he'd
talk to Shiori if things got any worse.
Shuuichi should be enjoying his youth; after all you're only young once,
right?
Hiroshi
smiled down at the sleeping youth.
Suddenly he was very glad that he'd insisted on an early departure date
and that he'd decided to work late every night this week. It was worth it. Shuuichi was working so hard he deserved, no
he needed a vacation. Sighing softly,
Hiroshi shook the redhead's shoulder until incredibly jade green eyes blinked
open to blearily look up at him.
"It's late," he said smiling down at the young man. "Why don't you get some sleep?"
Shuuichi
sighed and pushed his chair away from his desk.
"Okay, " he yawned wide then stretched and stood. Hiroshi and his stepson were about the same
height, the older man being just an inch or two taller. Though that gap was fast closing as the
redhead had grown a good three or four inches in the year Hiroshi had known
him. The older man helped his stepson to
bed with a hand lightly pressed to the young man's shoulder applying a gentle
pressure to steer the still groggy youth toward his bed. Once the youth had crawled under his blankets
Hiroshi said his goodnights and shut off the lamp in the youth's room before he
left for his own room.
As he
walked down the dimly lit hall he mused to himself. Shuuichi truly was an oddity. His vibrant red hair and jade green eyes were
represented nowhere in Shiori's family, nor in her deceased husband's. Hiroshi would have thought that the boy had
been switched at birth, but that Shiori had confided in him that she and her
husband had had the baby tested when his red mane began to grow in. There was no mistake; Shuuichi was Shiori's
son. A strange son. Beautiful to the point of femininity, one of
the youth's pet peeves was that he was constantly mistaken for a woman. A mistake made all too easy by the youth's
long red hair, fine bone structure, and distinctly curved hips. Hiroshi had suggested that he cut his hair,
but by Shuuichi's reaction, you would think that he'd been spouting
heresy. The youth was very attached to
his long red mane. Shuuichi's slightly
disturbing beauty made Hiroshi nervous.
His blood began to boil every time he'd take his family out and catch a
glimpse of lustful eyes following his innocent young stepson. Shuuichi never seemed to notice the attention
he attracted and that made Hiroshi very nervous for the redheaded youth. The breaking point came when Hiroshi chanced
upon his stepson walking home one night.
As he was crossing the street to walk with the youth a rather drunken
man stumbled out of a bar and into Shuuichi's arms. Shuuichi, being the considerate person that
he is, tried to prop the man up against the building before leaving. Just as Hiroshi stepped onto the sidewalk to
help his stepson deal with the inebriated man said man grasped the young boy
around the waist and pulled him in for a kiss.
Shuuichi forcefully pushed the drunk away and, with a snarl of disgust,
turned to leave him lying in the gutter.
He was rather startled to see his enraged stepfather standing right
there. Hiroshi was a bit ashamed of it
now, but his stepson had had to talk him into leaving the man in the gutter and
walking home before he did something drastic.
The only benefit of that
night was that it seemed to impress upon the redhead that his stepfather cared
for him and not just for his mother.
Though they never told anyone of that night and they never spoke of it
again, the youth was more open with his stepfather and actually began to engage
the man in extraneous conversations rather than the polite, if somewhat forced,
chit chat that had defined their relationship before.
Eventually
his concern had spurred him to ask the teenage boy if he wanted to enroll in a
martial arts class after school only to find that the boy was already studying
under a priestess living on the outskirts of the city. Shiori herself was surprised to learn about
this, but they were all delighted when a few days later the young man asked them
if they wanted to observe a sparring session at the temple. It was a festive environment when they'd gone
to the temple and met the diminutive priestess and saw her pupils
practicing. Shuuichi fought a small
black haired boy, who Hiroshi had only briefly seen in his son's presence
before, while a boy with orange hair and another with greased back black hair
sparred on the side. The orange haired
boy, who he later learned was named Kuwabara, and the boy with the greasy hair,
Yusuke, seemed to spend more time goofing off then sparring, though what they
were doing seemed deadly enough.
Shuuichi and the short boy, Hiei, were fighting with such intensity that
Hiroshi wondered why the priestess didn’t stop the fight. They looked like they were trying to kill
each other, and the older man was slightly disturbed that his stepson was armed
only with a leather whip while the smaller boy was slashing at him with a very
sharp looking katana. However, the fight
abruptly ended, with both opponents standing, at no signal that he could
see. The two turned and wandered over to
watch Yusuke beat Kuwabara into the dirt.
When the orange haired youth was lying in the dust, head spinning,
Yusuke laughed and helped him to his feet.
Shuuichi rushed over to help Yusuke dust the stumbling youth off and
began teasing him good naturedly, which the taller boy seemed embarrassed by,
but forgot all about when a diminutive young girl rushed to his side. Hiroshi smirked at the obviously smitten look
that crossed Kuwabara's face when the young woman with the rather interestingly
dyed hair held her hands to his cheeks and asked him if he was all right. Hiroshi smiled at the obviously smitten young
man and the girl, what was it with kids and hair dye these days?
The family returned home late
that afternoon in high spirits and Hiroshi was convinced that Shuuichi could
take care of himself in a fight, but he still worried. It was his duty as a father after all. Shuuichi was remarkable not only for his
beauty, but he was intelligent and wise beyond his years. He seemed to have, as the saying goes, an old
soul. Hiroshi was proud to the point of
bursting the first time the redhead had introduced him as his father.
******
In the
morning when the entire family was awake and gathered around the breakfast
table, Hiroshi pulled a pamphlet for the lodge from his coat pocket and handed
it to his new bride as he kissed her on the cheek in greeting. "I've got a little surprise," he
whispered in her ear.
"What
is it?" Shiori asked as she unfolded the paper. "You didn't?" she asked.
"Mmhhm,"
he hummed hugging her close. "What
do you think?"
The two
Shuuichi's exchanged long glances before Little Shuuichi jumped up and ran
around the table until he could peer over his stepmother's shoulder at the
pamphlet. "What is it? I wanna see!"
Shiori
laughed as she passed the pamphlet to the excited little boy. "It's wonderful," she said turning
to return her husband's hug.
"Cool!"
little Shuuichi said as he flipped through the pamphlet.
"Do
you like it, Kiddo?" Hiroshi asked.
"Yeah! When do we leave?" little Shuuichi asked
practically jumping up and down in excitement.
Shiori's Shuuichi held out his hand to the young boy wordlessly asking
to see the pamphlet. Shuuichi handed
over the thin booklet and the red haired boy's eyes widened when he saw the
cover.
"Three
days," Hiroshi said holding three fingers up to the boy. The older man turned to where his stepson was
sitting at the kitchen table flipping through the pamphlet. "Like it, Red?"
"Yes,"
Shuuichi smiled up at his stepfather.
"I've never skied before.
How long will we stay?" The
youth asked calmly.
"I've
booked a cabin that sleeps four for two weeks.
You boys will have to share a room though."
"That's
fine. Isn't it Shu-kun?" the
redhead asked his little brother, who nodded so vigorously in reply that he
managed to make himself dizzy in the process and had to catch the table's edge
to keep his balance. Hiroshi put a hand
on the boy's back to steady him and the entire family began to laugh at the
boy's antics.
"Well,
go on boys. You're going to be late for
school if you don't hurry," Shiori shooed the two out the door handing to
each of them a sack lunch she'd packed.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
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.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter
Three
Shiori
and Hiroshi were sitting by the fireside in the lodge talking with some fellow
vacationers and sipping hot cocoa when a storm warning was announced on the
lodge's loud speaker. Shiori looked up
sharply at Hiroshi when she heard the warning asking all guests partaking in
outdoor activities to return to the lodge.
"Don't worry," Hiroshi told her wrapping an arm around her
shoulder. "I'm sure they'll be in
soon," he assured her. Turning to
the couple they'd been conversing with Hiroshi said, "Our sons are on the
slopes this afternoon." This
prompted a conversation on the children each of the couples had.
Shiori kept nervously glancing
between the lodge's main door and the clock resting on the fireplace's
mantle. After half an hour had passed and
the warning had been sounded twice more she tugged on the sleeve of Hiroshi's
jacket to get his attention. "I
think we should go look for them," she said.
Hiroshi looked up at the clock
and turned to his wife's worried face, "Okay. I'll go to the cabin. You search the lodge. Alright?" Shiori nodded and they said a hasty good-bye
to the couple and stood to begin looking for the boys. However, before Shiori moved off, the woman
caught her arm and asked if she could help.
Gratefully, Shiori described the two boys and the woman and her husband
began to help Shiori look for the boys in the lodge. After searching every room in the lodge, to
no success, Shiori returned to the lobby to wait for her husband. The young couple who'd been helping her look
for her sons came into the lobby a few moments after she arrived to tell her
that they hadn't found anything. When
Hiroshi came through the door he immediately understood that the boys weren't
in the lodge with a single glance at his wife.
"They're not in the
cabin?" the worried mother asked.
"No, and I asked the
instructor if anyone was on the slopes before I came in," he said. "Shh, it's okay," he soothed his
wife when tears began to leak down her cheeks.
"We'll find them. I'm going
to go talk to the lodge manager. Wait
here, alright?" Shiori nodded and
the young woman quickly drew her aside and found her a seat by the fire.
At the report of the missing
boys the lodge staff quickly made an announcement on the loud speaker calling
the boys by name and asking them to return to the lobby or phone the front
desk. The announcement went to every
cabin, was broadcast throughout the lodge, and on the slopes. When no response came after fifteen minutes
another announcement went out asking everyone to report two boys matching the
description Hiroshi gave the manager.
After that Hiroshi turned pictures of the boys he'd had in his wallet
over to the lodge staff and they fanned out, searching the lodge and grounds
around as best they could through the storm.
After an hour and a half of searching and night had fallen on the
mountain, the lodge staff readied a search party. The storm had grounded any air searches they
might have mounted, but they still sent out snowmobiles to search for the
boys. Five hours after the boys had
first been reported missing the local authorities were called in to help the
staff search for the lost boys.
******
Kurama
was pushing his brother as hard as he dared to get him off the mountain. The boy was trying his hardest, but between the
raging storm and his injured ankle they couldn't walk very fast and so they
weren't getting very far. Kurama himself
was beginning to suffer from the cold.
His human body couldn't cope with the frigid weather as well as either
of his demon forms could. His fingers
were numb in his gloves and he couldn't feel his feet anymore. He'd resorted to channeling youki into his
limbs to ward off the numbing chill, but he couldn't risk forcing too much
youki into his human flesh. His human
body tolerated his demon energy, letting it swirl around in his blood and
circle lazily around him, but to directly absorb the foreign energy into his
very cells was dangerous and damaging to his human DNA. He began to long for the warmth the fur coat
of his fox form afforded him. However
uncomfortable the redhead was, his brother was much worse off, the young boy
was beginning to stumble as the cold seeped into his limbs stealing their
warmth and leaving the boy insensate.
Kurama wasn't sure how far they were from the lodge. The snow was falling too thick and too fast
for the kitsune to see very far and the wind was blowing wildly, scrambling any
scents he might have followed. Kurama
was growing frustrated. His human body
was too weak, it dulled his senses to where, though they were well above
average for a human, he couldn't find his way through the storm's rage. Inwardly the fox castigated himself for his
stupidity in not noticing the storm earlier and taking this useless risk when
he had his human brother with him. There
was absolutely no excuse for a kitsune as old as he was to be caught in this
sort of situation. His brother was counting on him! The boy was failing before the fox's very
eyes and there was so little he could do about it. Inari-sama, Kurama mentally swore,
he was being beaten by bad weather of all things! This was certainly an attack on his ego if
he'd ever seen one before.
Determined
to do everything he could to save his brother, the fox supported the human boy
as he gently but firmly urged him to keep moving. Humans were, by and large, the most gentle
creatures he'd ever come across. Kurama
would never be able to forgive himself if anything happened to this boy. After about an hour of walking Shuuichi began
to become unresponsive to Kurama's occasional questions and gentle prompting
for motion. The fox would help the dark
haired boy up when he fell and hold him until he was sure the boy could walk on
his own again. Eventually Shuuichi
slipped. He fell face first down a small
slide and slid about ten feet away from the kitsune and this time when he fell
he didn't try to get back up. Kurama
moved over to lift the boy out of the snow and was alarmed to find that he was
falling asleep. "Shuuichi! Shuuichi!" he called shaking the boy
awake. "You need to get up. You can't sleep right now!"
"'M
tired," the boy whined groggily.
"I
know. I know you're tired, but you need
to stay awake for just a little while longer!" Kurama got the fragile human awake and semi
alert. If he didn't get the boy to warm
up soon Shuuichi was going to die on the mountain. There was nothing else he could do; he had to
act fast. Kurama began to strip his
clothes off. When he was done he pulled
the boy's jacket and boots off and began to layer his clothing over the boy's. Carefully he channeled small portions of his
energy into his brother's limbs to ward off the chill and bring sensation back
to the frigid appendages. The moment he
began the process of feeding the boy his youki, he felt the cold cutting
through his body as if it were a knife; freezing trails of liquid cold fire
blasted across his back and shoulders borne by the snow laden wind and winter
chill. His human body was rapidly
loosing warmth in the frigid weather.
His hands were becoming stiff with cold, he was beginning to shiver, and
he was loosing sensation in his skin, but the boy was becoming more alert with
the added heat the kitsune's clothes and energy provided.
"No!"
Shuuichi began to fight him, when he forced his jacket over the human
boy's. "No! You need these! I'm fine!
I'm fine!" the human boy yelled out, struggling and crying as his
brother held him down and forced the rest of the clothes onto him.
"Listen
to me, Shuuichi," Kurama started.
"I need you to trust me.
We're going to get out of here, but I need you to do what I
say." He held the human boy's face
in his hands and forced the boy to look into his eyes.
Hot
tears froze on the boy's cheeks, "But you need them," he moaned
pitifully. "You'll freeze to
death. Take them back! Please?"
"Shuuichi,
I swear on my honor and the lives of everyone I love that we are not going to
die here!" Kurama shouted at the boy.
The boy looked up at the redheaded youth, though salty tear tracks still
marred his cheeks he managed to calmed himself some and, gathering his wits, he
looked up at his brother. Shuuichi's
dark brown eyes bored into his brother's emerald-green orbs. The young human has the most intense gaze Kurama
had ever witnessed present on a human face.
The irises of his eyes were so dark as to be nearly indistinguishable
from his pupils, Shuuichi's stare was deep and riveting, an endless expansive
void that took everything in and allowed nothing to escape. Such was the visage of the child as he found
himself in the extremities of their earnest situation. Now the little boy turned his searing gaze on
his brother and the uncommon level of comprehension that he witnessed in those
eyes gave the concealed kitsune pause.
Kurama smiled sadly, "Don't you trust me?" the redhead
asked. Shuuichi nodded mutely. Kurama closed his eyes and took a deep
breath. Everything he'd worked so hard
to keep was about to be put in jeopardy.
He let go of the boy and backed up a few paces.
Shuuichi
watched as his brother's crouching form in the snow was swallowed up in what
looked like a cloud of steam that tingled with flashes of blue light and
crackling electricity. When the steam
cleared the small boy found himself facing a rather large animal, which he
vaguely recognized from drawings and pictures he'd seen as a fox. It had big golden yellow eyes, silvery fur,
and was staring straight at him.
Shuuichi's breath hitched and he scooted back a few paces in the snow. The fox stood and inched closer to the
boy. Shuuichi was startled to realize
that the fox had more than one tail, he was fairly sure that foxes only had one
tail, not five! Shuuichi whimpered in
fear when the animal advanced on him, but froze in his place, unwilling or
unable to move for fear of the claws he could see sinking into the snow
underneath the animal and the ivory fang tips he glimpsed when the fox
momentarily shifted it's jaw.
Kurama,
who was happy to be back in his warm fur coat, was desperately trying come up
with some brilliant strategy that would get the cowering human to trust him
that, most importantly, didn't involve another transformation. He'd found some months ago that he could
shift back to his natural form fox form, though it required a great effort. However, his halfling humanoid form that he'd
gained as a youth in the Makai was almost impossible to maintain for any length
of time, if he could even attain it. It
took so much youki to shift between any one of his forms. Yes, technically he had the power to take his
humanoid form, but there was a barrier in place that he had to fight against
every minute that he remained in that form.
That barrier was Shuuichi Minamino, or rather, his human body. He was in human flesh and so when he tried to
take that form that was half fox and half human in appearance he felt a pull in
either direction. It was as if he was
balancing on the tip of a needle and was being pulled downward in two
directions. Eventually he'd fall into
either of his low energy forms, the fox or the human. Once in either of these forms he could exist
without too much effort, it was just the middle form that was nearly impossible
to manifest and the shift between them that was so draining to his strength,
physical and spiritual.
Kurama was now faced with a
situation. He could not exist in this
weather in his human form. If he
attained his halfling form the energy drain he'd suffer would not allow him to
remain conscious long enough to appreciably help Shuuichi. Therefore, he was relegated to his fox form,
which had the unfortunate side effect of terrifying the human that he was
trying to aid. He needed to calm the
boy, but there were some problems with that; for one thing he didn't want to
waste the energy with another transformation, or scare the boy further, or
expose himself to that intense cold again.
Deciding that his best chance lay in acting as pathetic as possible
Kurama swallowed his pride, and thanked every deity he could think of that no
one was around to see this, before he dropped to the ground in front of the
terrified human and gave a low canine whine.
Artfully he gave the boy his best imitation of what humans called
"puppy dog eyes" and let his ears drop against his head. He whimpered and crawled forward on his belly
until he was within a couple feet of Shuuichi's outstretched foot.
Shuuichi watched as the fox
came to rest next to his right foot; he didn’t dare move. Quietly the boy held himself absolutely
still, fine tremors wracked his body and he was vaguely aware that he was
begining to hyperventilate. For several
long moments fox and boy remained motionless, each observing the other, trying
to anticipate who should be the one to make the next move. When Shuuichi's breathing began to slow and
his muscles lost some of their tension, Kurama slunk forward and nosed at the
toe of his brother's boot, then he quickly backed off. When Shuuichi didn't respond, but continued
observing him he crept forward and rested his head on the small human's
shin. He huffed quietly, and whined in
the back of his throat, flicking his ear to dislodge some accumulated
snow. Patiently he waited until the
human boy reached out to gently touch his muzzle with a gloved hand. The fox rubbed back on the proffered hand
causing the boy to smile and begin lightly stroking the fur between his
ears. "S…Shuu…ichi?" the human
asked. Kurama yapped an affirmative and
began to wag his tails. He pawed at the
boy lightly, careful not to shred the human's clothes on his claws, and whined
low in his throat. The kitsune kept the
act up and slowly let the human acclimate to his presence until the boy began
to pat his head and neck more firmly.
Taking this as a cue Kurama darted in and rubbed his head against the
boys cheek. He then pulled back and
cocked his head to the side giving the boy his best imitation of that look that
always made his mother "awww" when she saw a dog on the street do
it. Kurama's artful performance was
rewarded when Shuuichi started to giggle at the fox's antics.
Inwardly sighing in relief that
the boy wasn't terrified of him, Kurama decided to get his brother moving
toward the lodge. The young human only
gave a slight jump when the fox leapt up and ran a few paces out into the
snow. Kurama turned and yipped at the boy
before he ran up and grabbed Shuuichi's jacket between his fangs. He tugged on the jacket to get the boy moving
in the direction of the lodge. Now that
he was in his natural form Kurama could smell the scent of fire and humans
coming from the lodge below them. He
could also tell that they were not as close to the lodge as he'd hoped and that
they needed to turn slightly to the left in order to move toward where the
scent was coming from. They'd been
walking away from the lodge! But as long
as they were going down the mountain they were still getting closer.
Kurama
got the boy moving in the direction that he needed to be after some
cajoling. Shuuichi walked alongside the
fox, clutching at the fur on his back or his throat from time to time to
balance himself as the descended the slippery terrain. Every now and then Kurama would pull the
human boy to a halt and let him catch his breath and lean against the fox for
comfort. They never stopped for long,
Kurama still held out hope that he could get his brother off the mountain
before night fell. However, that was
beginning to look more and more like a fool's hope with every minute that
passed. But they kept on anyway.
The boy and the fox walked
until just after night had fallen. When
it became appallingly apparent that they were not going to reach to lodge any
time soon and that the storm was worsening Kurama decided to search for
shelter. Even with Kurama's jacket and
clothes layered over his own there was no way the human boy was going to
survive the storm unscathed without shelter of some kind. "What are you doing?" Shuuichi
asked tiredly when he noticed the fox sniffing the ground and diverging from
the path they were following. Kurama was
a bit miffed by that. How did Shuuichi
expect him to answer? He couldn't
exactly talk intelligibly like this.
There were times he really wished he had Hiei's telepathy. But there again, he wouldn't ever be willing
to have a jagan implanted to gain it so he chalked it up to wishful thinking
and tried to forget about it.
Kurama
whined at the boy and continued to sniff the ground. When he'd located a nice place he led the boy
inside. Shuuichi was nervous and paused
at the entrance to the cave Kurama'd found.
"Are you sure?" he asked the fox eyeing the opening
mistrustfully. The fox whined and gently
grasped the sleeve of the boy's jacket in his fangs and gave it a light
tug. "Okay," Shuuichi
said. He took a deep breath, squared his
shoulders and began to move toward the cave entrance. Once inside the cave Kurama found a dry,
relatively clean spot, and lay down on the ground. It wasn't a bad cave; no rodents or other
inhabitants, no filth. It wasn't warm,
but it was out of the wind. It was
better than other caves the fox had been forced to shelter in during his
lifetime. Kurama briefly entertained the
thought of starting a fire, but there wasn't any dry wood around here and he
was too tired to manifest enough to start even a small fire. That and he'd have to be in his humanoid form
to tend the fire. The fox directed his
amber gaze to the shivering boy huddling in the cave's center. Shuuichi had been traumatized enough for one
day. Kurama didn't want to frighten the
boy anymore than he already had.
Shuuichi crawled over to sit closer to where Kurama sat. The small human boy looked around inside the
dark cave as best he could and hugged himself for warmth. "I'm scared," he murmured
quietly. Kurama whimpered and moved to
sit next to the human boy. He nuzzled
Shuuichi's cheek with his muzzle to reassure him. The dark haired boy wrapped his arms around
the fox and hugged him closely, burying his face in the fox's soft silver
fur. After a while his deep even breaths
let Kurama know that Shuuichi had fallen asleep on the cave floor. Kurama settled down next to him and covered
the boy with his tails to keep him warm.
******
Yusuke
was bored out of his mind. He was
sitting on the sofa at home, after having pushed his mother's empty beer cans
and liquor bottles out of the way, channel surfing. His mother was passed out behind the sofa,
snoring loudly. Yusuke had rolled her
onto her side to make sure that she was still alive in the morning and put a
towel down to protect the carpeting, just in case, other than that he'd just
turned up the volume on the TV to drown the sound of her snores out. There was nothing good on tonight. Yusuke was just about to shut the thing off
and go to bed when a familiar face flashed across the screen. Curious as to what the fox had done to get
himself on TV, he turned back to the channel he'd hurriedly flipped
through. A newscaster was sitting in front
of a screen that had pictures of Kurama and his stepbrother on either
side. "…authorities continue to the
search for the missing boys, but search efforts are hampered by gale force
winds and heavy snow fall. Our prayers
and thoughts are with the parents as we hope for the swift rescue of their
children." The woman turned to the
side and the screen changed behind her, "In other news, a storm warning is
in effect for…" Yusuke turned the
TV off and got up to call Koenma.
Half an
hour later Yusuke found himself sitting in front of Koenma's desk watching on
his viewing screen as a silver demon fox watched over the sleep of a heavily
bundled human child. "Now that's
something I never thought I'd see," Yusuke said.
"Yes,
I quite agree," Koenma said.
"Do
you want me to go get them Koenma, sir?" Botan asked.
Koenma
stared at the screen for a moment more before pushing his chair back from his
oversized desk and beginning to pace around the room. "No."
"No!"
Botan screamed. "You can't
seriously want to leave Kurama out there and what about the boy?"
"Kurama
seems to have things well in hand. I'll
monitor the situation from here and dispatch you if there's any need."
"Koenma,"
Yusuke sneered, "I think this qualifies as trouble. His family's gonna find out! You know Kurama doesn’t want that."
"Actually
if they did find out it might expedite some of that paperwork father's been
complaining about," Koenma mused to himself.
Yusuke
growled. How could the godling be
thinking of paperwork at a time like this?
Not to mention that Yusuke was especially leery when his teammate and
his teammate's family were included in paperwork the prince of death was
handling, but he'd deal with that later, if he had to, right now Kurama was in
trouble. He needed help! But Yusuke was curious as to what the godling
had up his sleeve. "What
paperwork?"
"Ah!
Hahahaha." Koenma laughed nervously.
"Nothing! It's nothing. Why don't you go home, Yusuke?" the
little god began to push the tantei out of the room. "Botan and I will take care of
things."
"Koenma!"
the young man protested as he was pushed out of the door.
"'Night,
Yusuke! Get some sleep!" Koenma
said as he slammed the door in the boy's face.
Yusuke, never one to take a hint, pounded on the door until some onis
worked up the courage to lead him away.
******
It was
early in the morning when Kurama heard snowmobiles outside the cave. Quickly he nosed Shuuichi awake and set about
pushing the boy toward the search team.
When he got the groggy boy out into the line of sight of the rescue
party he hid himself behind a snowdrift.
Sure enough the rescue party ran toward the boy as soon as they'd
spotted him. The humans pulled Shuuichi
into the snowmobile and started the engine.
Kurama heard the boy protest, "Wait. My brother, he's still out here. We can’t leave without him." The boy's concern and loyalty touched the
fox, especially since he now knew his brother wasn't exactly human, but
Shuuichi couldn't have raised the issue at a worse time. Kurama was tired, he couldn't transform like
this, Koenma certainly wouldn't be happy if a silver youko showed up on the six
o'clock news and even if he could transform back into his human form how was he
supposed to explain how he hadn't gotten hypothermia and died sans clothing? He had to hide from the search party, moving
quickly he found a small patch of trees and settled behind them where he could
keep an eye on Shuuichi, but stay away from his would be rescuers.
The
humans questioned the boy and conducted a brief search of the area. When they found nothing they radioed another
unit giving them the coordinates they were at before racing Shuuichi down the
mountain. Kurama ran as quickly as he
could, shadowing the snowmobile while making sure to stay out of eyesight. He was already tired from the walk, the
transformation, and staying up all night guarding Shuuichi, the run took a lot
out of him. He nearly collapsed in
relief when he saw the faux timber façade of the lodge in the distance. Kurama watched, as his brother was loaded
into a waiting ambulance at the lodge.
He saw his mother and stepfather run into the ambulance and go with the
boy to the hospital. Kurama waited until
the crowd had cleared and crept to their cabin.
Too tired to transform and reach up to turn the doorknob, Kurama grew a
small weed that was clinging to life in the frozen ground by the door up into
the keyhole, springing the lock and opening the door all in one smooth
motion. The fox gave a toothy grin at
the small trick he hadn't used in decades.
Yawning widely, he vigorously shook the snow from his fur before he
nosed the door open and slunk inside. He
then recalled the plant, shrinking it to its original size, well maybe leaving
it just a bit healthier, it had helped him after all, before he pawed the door
shut and padded to his bed. Utterly
exhausted and assuming that his parents would stay at the hospital for at least
a few hours Kurama collapsed onto his bed and curled into a ball, wrapping his tails
around himself before falling into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Shortly
after the kitsune had fallen asleep, Botan appeared in the room. Smiling at the sleeping fox, the blue haired
girl walked over to the edge of the bed.
Gently she prodded the kitsune's ear with her index finger to see if she
could wake the demon. Kurama's ear
flicked back and he shifted his tails so that one covered his face. Botan giggled at the drowsy fox, she passed
her hands lightly over his body, barely grazing her fingertips through his fur,
checking for injuries. The sleeping
kitsune yawned and a pair of tails uncoiled from around his haunches and
thumped against the bed a time or two before stilling. Botan covered a giggle with a free hand. Kurama was so sweet when he was asleep, she
thought, he'd be so embarrassed if he could see this. Still smiling she prized his legs out from
under him and pressed a finger to the pads of his paws to heal a few small cuts
and abrasions before stroking his fur lovingly and departing to report that
Kurama was safe and healthy to Koenma.
They had a big job to do after that.
They had to get a fake news report out saying that the boys had been
found and erase the memories of everyone who was still looking for the
kitsune. It would be time consuming, but
they'd done it before and humans were easily pacified. So long as the danger was over they didn't
really care how the situation was resolved anyway.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
To
Be Continued.