I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. I only own Hope and Kayla and Mamoru and any other original character I create.

Story start

As the darkness started receding, I woke up with a small groan as I tried to move my body. I felt sore everywhere and my head was killing me. A soothing smell entered my nose, as I turned closer to the smell. I tried to move my hands, but something or someone was holding one of them.

I used my free hand to reach out to try to see whatever was holding my other hand. My hand touched soft hair and the smell grew stronger. A small whimper escaped my throat as I moved closer to the smell. "What is going on with me?" I thought, as I could still not open my eyes yet.

I licked my dried lips as more of the smell got closer to me. It felt better to be near the smell. I could tell that it was a person because of the hair I felt earlier. I ran my hand through the hair gently as I slowly started opening my eyes. My vision was fuzzy and the lights in the room hurt.

The head underneath my free hand rose up and the hand holding mine twitched. "Hope, are you alright?" Kurama's voice whispered as my vision started clearing and his jade eyes met mine.

I gasped and removed my hand off his head. "Kurama," I said as my voice started coming back.

"Yes it's me Hope, I'm so glad you're alright," Kurama whispered as he pulled me into a gentle hug. At first, I wanted to give him a quick pat on the back and then scoot away from him, but for some reason I just relaxed in the hug.

"Hope," Mamoru's voice sounded at the doorway of the room. I looked over Kurama's shoulder and smiled at Mamoru. Kurama hugged me tighter and I returned the hug and waved Mamoru over. I felt so peaceful right now and I was not sure why.

Hiei appeared in the doorway as Mamoru ran over and hugged me from behind.

"I was so worried Hope," Mamoru cried as I felt a few tears drip onto my back.

"I'm ok now," I whispered as Kurama let me turn around in the hug and I hugged Mamoru as Kurama gently ran his hands across my shoulders and down my back. I shivered when he placed a kiss on the back of my neck. "Kurama," I said shakily before trying to get off the bed. My eyes grew wide as I thought of something that Hiei had told me about mates.

"Your body chooses your mate," Hiei had said and my breathing grew a little frantic as I looked at Kurama's confused face.

"Hope what's wrong?" Kurama asked as he reached out towards me.

"Fox look at her neck," Hiei said to Kurama and Kurama slowly reached towards me. I was frozen in place when Hiei said something about my neck.

"Why, what's on my neck?" I whispered as Mamoru grabbed my hand and gently patted it.

"It's a red rose with a white fox on it," Kurama whispered and my eyes locked with Kurama's eyes.

"Hiei does that mean what I think it means?" I asked Hiei while staring at Kurama.

"Yes Hope it does," Hiei said and I shook my head.

"Um I need some air, now," I said as I turned into my fire and flew out of the window nearby and outside. I flew in my fire form for a while before I grew tired. I landed by a stream with some wildflowers nearby. I lied down in the grass and let out a big sigh. "Body, why did you have to choose him as a mate now? I mean I don't hate him or anything, but I wanted to be able to choose if I wanted to mate with him or not," I thought as I covered my eyes with my hands.

Back at the castle, Mamoru was giving Kurama and Hiei confused looks. "What's going on?" he asked as he glared at the two men.

"Hope's body has chosen Kurama as her mate," Hiei stated seriously.

Kurama and Mamoru's eyes widened as they stared at each other.

"What?" Mamoru screamed while Kurama whispered it.

"They're mates, but not fully mated until they complete bonding," Hiei stated before walking out of the room. Hiei could feel Mamoru's anger at the moment.

"You better be good to her and listen to what she says or I will cut you to pieces and burn you," Mamoru threatened with a growl at Kurama before leaving the room. He needed to go calm down. He could do nothing about who Hope's body chose as a mate. He could just hope that Kurama treats Hope right.

Kurama was sitting still before he stood up and started walking outside. "She's my mate," he thought as the weight of the information sunk in. he had wanted her to be his mate for so long and now that she was he did not know what to do or how to go about the situation.

"Just let me handle everything," Youko said to Kurama through their connection.

"I'd rather you not," Kurama said to Youko as he continued to walk through the forest towards where he could smell Hope. Her scent set him on fire, but he calmed himself. He is not a weak demon that lets the scent of their mate make them want to go crazy like a young teenage male demon.

Hope's presence was close now as Kurama walked through some brush.

"Hope are you ok?" Kurama whispered as he stood at the edge of the forest line as he stared at Hope.

I looked over at Kurama and sighed. "Well to tell you the truth, I don't know how I am at the moment. I'm fine when it comes to the snake venom, but the mating issue is another ball park," I said as I placed my hand on my neck covering the mark, which represented my mate.

"Are you mad?" Kurama asked as he walked towards me as if he was approaching a rabid animal. I gave him a shake of my head before resting my head on my knees.

"Not really mad, just a bit annoyed that I couldn't pick a person to be my mate. Oh and another thing just because my body picked you to be my mate does not mean that we are going to be fully mated any time soon. You have to prove to me that you are someone I want to mate with," I said as I stood up and flew up into the sky.

"Alright I'll prove myself to you," Kurama yelled and I gave him a small smile.

"Good because I'm not mating with someone I don't see worthy enough and anyways we don't know each other that well, so we have to learn about each other too," I said before flying back to the castle.

I flew into the kitchen and as soon as I landed on the floor, I was pulled into a hug from Yusuke and Kuwabara. "So glad you're ok," Kuwabara said as he hugged me tightly.

"Yeah what he said," Yusuke whispered as he stopped hugging me. I smiled at Yusuke and then patted Kuwabara on the head and he let me go.

"Hope, Koenma wants to speak with you," Botan's loud voice yelled and I covered my ears with a small growl of pain.

"Can we postpone the meeting?" I questioned as Botan appeared in my line of sight.

"No," she said with a chipper smile and I just growled and told Hiei in my mind that I wanted him to strangle. Hiei gave me a small smirk before I started walking to Koenma's office.

"This is way too weird of a day," I thought with a shake of my head as I entered Koenma's office.