Kurama was silent for several minutes as he picked his way through the food that Mei had placed in front of him before looking up and catching her staring at him almost as if in disbelief before noting that her own food was yet untouched.
Lowering his chop sticks a bit, he swallowed what had been in his mouth- a half chewed baby tomato- and asked, "Why aren't you eating?" His tone sounding somewhat more aggressive than he meant it to be.
She seemed to mentally shake herself and looked away from him as she muttered a soft, "I normally don't eat in the morning." Which he translated into- 'I'm not hungry right now.' and narrowed his eyes upon hearing. The demon in him straining to break through the barriers he had erected in his mind to supress it and it's instincts even as it cried out.
His mate was practically starving herself- Such behavior was not to be tolerated!
As the male it was his job and duty to protect and care for his mate. That was a given no matter what kind of demon he was, however foxes were infinitely different.
Should their mates prove incapable of caring for themselves (by hunting, killing, defending themselves and such) then it was his job to get up off of his ass and run down as many rabbits and phesents as he could and rip their damn heads off to offer his female as food and then set up as many deadly traps as possible without snaring her within one.
However because he couldn't defer to his demonic side in this matter, he would have to take a much different approach.
Setting his chop sticks down for a moment he decided to try coaxing her into eating using charm. It had often been what he had used on his mother when she had become gravely ill so perhaps it would work for him. Forgetting for a second that he had manners drilled into his head by his mother- he proper an elbow on the table and then settled his chin in his palm and said in his gentlest most irresistible tone, "Will you please try? For me? I'm beginning to feel lonely eating by myself..."
Flushing slightly, Mei started to look a tad bit uncomfortable to him. So he tried one last push. "If you don't want to feed yourself then perhaps I should feed you, hn." He said adding a tad bit of a seductive tone to his voice hoping that she wasn't totally immune.
Thankfully she wasn't. The second she made his tone and the emotion behind it her chop sticks were in hand and she was practically wolfing down her food faster than she could chew it.
Which both amused and surprised him since he hadn't known there was another person in the country who could wolf down their food as quickly as he usually did when others weren't watching.
Why his mother used to comment when he was younger that the moment he had food in front of him during lunch or dinner that she was afraid to reach for anything. The running joke was that she'd probably lose a hand or something.
Of course back when he was much younger- he hadn't bothered to correct her assumption because she was probably right. Demon young ate anything and everything they could get their hands on. Even if it wasn't food. It was simply the way they were from birth.
Still... Unless Mei happened to be a demon hybrid as well- he should probably get her to slow down before she wound up choking on her food.
"Um... Mei-"
"Mmm?" Mei made the sound around the food in her mouth as she shoveled in a little more and then suddenly paled and dropped her chop sticks and dish- sending what was left of her food across the table as she thumped her chest several times.
Blanching Kurama practically jumped out of his chair and yanked her out of her own and thumped her on the back as hard as he could without injuring her and waited with bated breath for her to cough and start wheezing for air. He must have grit his teeth each time he thumped her on the back, because every time he touched her his jaw ached a little more.
One minute passed.
Then two, and then finally as it occurred to him to try and call for help on her phone, she finally managed to swallow the bit and slumped back against him coughing and wheezing. Exhaling in relief, Kurama made a mental note to try breaking her of her bad habits while working on breaking his own.
His foolish need to see to her health could have cost her her life. And that was yet another thing that was unacceptable to him.