Well, here's the third chapter. Hope you enjoy. It was fun writing. As for any of you who are reading my other stories, I'll be updating tomorrow, so the next few chapters should be out by Tuesday. So, anway, read my story and have fun!!!

Chapter 3

Inherent Behaviors

When Kagome and Kurama speak, they will be outlined with these, /k/

After everything had calmed down again, Kurama attempted to talk to the female vixen. She had waved for them to follow her and raced quickly through the forest which led them to a tree house thought to be only found in movies, except hers was evidentially real. It was large and wooden built in the tallest tree, where it could overlook everything in the forest, although by now dusk was approaching thus making it very hard to see.

She had climbed up a rope, managing to create the wow affect again and then dropped down a wooden ladder, carved out of wood. The boys had then proceeded up the ladder and followed her into a den which was equipped with furs of every size stretched over bamboo furniture. It wasn't much, smaller than most houses anyway, but it was cozy and warm and it immediately made everyone feel welcome. So now here we are in the process of Kurama using a language he hadn't used since he was a kit. (Okay, for those of you who are reading this, I'm not going to make the barks and yips. I will translate everything being said. It'll start off as simple words and then progress into bigger sentences as Kurama and Kagome speak for the first time.)

Kurama now sat face to face with Kagome, and by the way she was still glued to his side. Evidentially she liked Kurama and felt safe with him, so she tried to get as close to him as possible, while his friends sat back and rested. It had been a long day.

/Hello/ Kurama tried. He watched as her face lit up in amazement and she grinned brightly at him. Yusuke and Kuwabara were now watching in amazement as Kurama's tone was dropped very deeply, deeper than usual and he began speaking, his voice coming out with weird yips and barks.

/Hello/ She responded back, yipping happily. She contemplated him for a second, tilting her head to the side, and then hoped into his lap, much to the amusement of his fellow teammates. Yes, even Hiei was amused. She burrowed into his lap and murmured in her language /safe/.

Kurama raised an eyebrow before tightening his arms around the little female before answering her.

/Safe/ He agreed. He raised an eyebrow at her and smiled charmingly. /Name/

She appeared to think it over, before a small smirk raced across her pink lips.

/You....Name?....safe/ She barked.

It took a moment before realizing she was teasing him. So she wanted to play like that, did she?

He reached for her sides as she watched him warily for any signs of attack. Without warning, he started tickling the skin underneath her arms, startling the poor girl. Having never been touched before, she was new to this, and thus, had no way of preventing his attack. So, she struggled and then whined pitifully, her voice coming out in playful growls.

Kurama was laughing merrily, feeling his kitsune side take over when he realized something atop his head had caught her attention. The next moment, he felt the soft electric touch of her fingers as she gently rubbed his silver ears, tipped in red. It was at times like this, that Kurama's appearance altered a bit. You see ever since his merging with Yoko and the completion of his sole, he had learned his appearance changed with his moods. Usually it was in his calmest form that he was in his ningen form, the form that everybody sees. But he could also change into his full kitsune form of Yoko Kurama whenever he was royally pissed. Right now he was amused so his appearance was sort of a cross between those two forms. His hair stays the same fire engine red, except now silver streaks are woven through and his hair becomes tipped in silver. His ears are silver, but now they are tipped in red. He has his claws, but they aren't at his fullest and he also grows fangs. (All in all, he's pretty hot)

Kurama was purring from the pleasure of having his ears rubbed, that he almost fell forwards when she let go. He could feel her eyes roam shamelessly over his features, taking in all his subsequent changes.

They were still staring at each other when Kurama noticed everyone else had fallen asleep. Kuwabara lay sprawled out on the wood floor, snoring noisily, droll already forming on the man's lips. Yusuke was passed out on a couch like bed, and had carelessly thrown and arm over his face. Hiei was gone; no doubt in another tree somewhere, where he could watch over them all.

He turned back to the female and noticed her eyes still watching him, glowing in the darkness. Suddenly she stood up and beckoned for Kurama to follow her. She stepped out of her little hut and climbed up a few ropes, before sitting herself down on the roof. Kurama made his way to her side and sat beside her, drawing her back into the safe canvas of his arms.

She purred contentedly, eliciting his own purring reaction. He watched the stars and realized he hadn't felt this carefree in ages. He hadn't held anyone besides his human mother in so long; he forgot how much comfort was to be found when wrapped in a female's embrace. He was startled out of his thoughts by her yipping voice.

/Kagome/

He barked an answering question to her strange word, before realizing she'd granted him her name. He smiled softly and ran his hands through her hair, as she sighed contentedly. This was the first step in making her his mate. Male youkai couldn't properly court a female until he had gained her name, symbolizing her trust. He picked her up and coaxed her into the shelter of his lap, before tucking her head under his chin.

/Kurama/ He responded roughly, completing the first step. They had formerly completed the first ritual. As for the rest, they would have to come later during the courting period. (I'll get to those later. And anything I write I'm totally making up)

/Protect?/ This time she voiced, well barked, a question.

/Hai/ He growled in her ear, nipping lightly at the nape of her neck, sending tremors up and down her spine. /Always/

/Promise?/ She whimpered back, shivering slightly with the cool night breeze. He blew in her ear before growling his answer.

/Hai/ And then Kurama picked up the sleepy youkai, placing her on his back so he could manipulate the vines to place them back on the hut floor. Picking her up, he made his way to a bed covered in warm furs and placed her on it, crawling in behind her, spooning her against his front. His arm went around her waist, anchoring her protectively against his chest, sleep claiming both youkai's at last.

Kurama was awakened the next morning by strange choking sounds. Opening one eye lazily, he looked around and spotted Yusuke, covering Kuwabara's mouth with his hand. They were both grinned suspiciously at Kurama until he realized what they were grinning at. Spotting Kagome in his arms, he tightened his grasp as she gasped and moaned, turning over and stretching her arms above her head, yawning, before blinking her eyes open to greet the morning and Kurama. He allowed a gentle smile to grace his lips as his eyes roved over the beautiful contours of her face. She looked so peaceful and content lying there in his arms.

Kagome made a move to sit up and Kurama reluctantly withdrew his arms, allowing her space to move around. She glanced around with quiet curiosity, before noticing Yusuke and Kuwabara, openly gawking at her morning features. At least Yusuke was nice about it, only drooling about half as much as Kuwabara.

Kagome felt the first tremors of Kurama's warning growl as he glared at his two friends, wanting nothing more than to rip their eyes out for blatantly staring at his woman. Kurama blinked. His woman? Boy, he was starting to sound so very possessive. It was at that moment that Hiei decided to grace everyone with his presence as he zipped in from the outside. He was immediately bombarded by Yusuke and Kuwabara's aroused scents and Kurama's rumbling warning growl. Quickly putting two and two together, he knocked out the two perverts before they had the pleasure of being fed to Kurama's death tree.

"Thanks, Hiei," Kurama spoke, the situation effetively defused.

"Hn."

Kurama got up then and pulled Kagome up with him. She growled something to him, to which he growled back. She whined and gave him the puppy dog face before he barked his defeat. Her face lit up and she hugged him and then spotting Hiei, hugged him too, before waltzing out her door and disappearing into the thick underbrush of foliage.

Hiei was momentarily stunned. She hugged him. A female had hugged him. And he'd let her. Granted, she was very attractive, but still. Kurama started to growl and then decided to laugh at his friend's shocked expression instead. He'd done enough possessive growling for the day, and he'd just woken up. Something told him, he was going to be doing that a lot from now on.

"Something got you worked up, Hiei," Kurama commented, earning him an irritated glare, then a deadly smirk.

"Yes, but not as much as you," he nodded indicating Kurama's, er, bunched up pants. Kurama had the grace to look embarrassed but he quickly recovered.

"So, where did she go anyway?" Hiei asked.

Kurama scowled. "Hunting."

Hiei sputtered. "Hunting?" Geez, alrady? he thought. Kurama sure is moving fast.

Kurama frowned. "Hai. She told me she wanted to go hunting. I wanted to accompany her. She said she'd be back soon and one look in her eyes and I couldn't tell her no."

Hiei smirked. "So, you've decided to court her then?" he asked, more than a little surprised. Kurama could hear the surprise in Hiei's voice and was still a little shocked himself. It wasn't like him to rush into any situation without thinking over every possible course of action. But one look at that kitsune, and he'd been hooked. From the moment, she'd rushed out and battled the neko youkai, to the moment she'd awakened in his arms, he was caught. Hook, line and sinker.

Kurama simply nodded. "Kagome," he whispered.

Hiei caught the whisper and his eyes widened.

"She told you her name?"

This time it was Kurama who did the smirking. "Hai."

It was at this point that Yusuke and Kuwabara woke up to find Kurama and Hiei seemingly in serious conversation.

"Oi," Yusuke stated, groaning. "What was that for, Hiei?" He rubbed his head, scowling at the little koorime.

"Yeah, shrimpy. Where do you get off hitting other people? It's not nice," the baka, I mean Kuwabara, stated matter-of-factly.

"Fools," Hiei simply muttered at the pathetic morons. "Because any other moment and you would have found yourselves at the wrong end of Kurama's rose whip."

Yusuke's eyes widened. "And why is that...oh," he commented, remembering the scene from this morning when he'd seen the two kitsunes cuddling in bed. He hadn't thought it was that serious.

"What?" Kuwabara asked stupidly. "I don't get it."

"You're a fool," Hiei stated coldly.

"Come here and say that to my face, shorty!" Kuwabara yelled. Suddenly flapping sounds emerged from an open window and Kurama was surprised to spot a rare flame colored parrot perch itself on the windowsill and glance curiously around at the newcomers. A moment later a black crow with blue deep blue and purple wings landed beside the parrot. For a moment the two stared at each other, before the parrot began squawking and flapping her wings. "SQUAWK!!!!" She called suddenly. "HENTAII, HENTAII!!!! MIROKU, MIROKU, HENTAII, SQUAWK!"

Everyone grew sweat drops on the back of their heads as the crow proceeded to chase the parrot out the window and into the rainforest below. Everyone stared in strained silence before Yusuke commented, "everyone did just see that right?"

Three heads nodded simultaneously. But the moment was broken when a sound called their attention back to the flap on the door, before Kagome stepped through carrying a large boar slung over her back. Beside her stood two massive Inu Youkai in their true youkai form, although the strangest part was they were smaller in size and stature. They were pure white in color and both had a blue moon on their forehead and two maroon stripes on each side of their muzzles. One dog stood half a foot taller than the other and seemed to walk in a princely manner, while the other sort of shuffled along.

Kurama moved to protect her when she barked at him.

/Stop/ She commanded and he was forced to obey. For that was the second phase of youkai mating. During the first week, the male had to carry out every order a female wished.

Kurama wanted to protest and growled and asked, /protect?/

She shook her head and yipped a, /no/ before stepping forward and nuzzling her head under Kurama's chin as she passed, assuring him everything was fine. Kurama calmed at her touch and allowed her to enter as she threw down the boar. She was bloody and excited as she turned back to Kurama proudly showing off her catch. He nodded to show her that she accepted his gift, for it was the female's job to hunt and cook the meet, during the courting.

The others, mainly the dumb one, was confused by the odd interplay of the two youkai, but decided not to ask, figuring it had something to do with kitsune youkai.

Kagome started a fire using one of her elemental powers, which at the time startled everyone, outside and placed the boar over some heavy logs that wouldn't burn very easy, cooking the tender meet.

While it cooked the boys decided to get down to business and started with figuring out where the hell they were.

So Kurama started questioning Kagome. Starting off by introducing everyone, Kurama pointed to each man individually for Kagome.

/Yusuke/ Kurama pointed to Yusuke who stated a, "yo," even though he knew Kagome couldn't understand him.

Sure enough Kagome turned to Kurama, a question in her eyes. /Hello/ Kurama explained.

Kagome nodded and made a move with her lips. "Y-ey-eyo," she tried, shocking everyone when she started to speak.

Kurama reasoned she was a fast learner and he nodded to her, while Yusuke grinned, gaining her happy smile in return. Kagome was so excited that she began bouncing around and rolling on the ground, yipping and shrieking with puppy humor, while the others watched in amusement.

Kurama pointed to Hiei next, who merely, "hnned". /Hiei/ Kagome seemed curious about him too, probably because he smelled like a youkai. She was about to go sniff him out before Kurama pulled her back into his arms and barked out a reprimand. As his soon to be mate, she wasn't allowed to be around too many unmarked and unmated youkai. She whimpered and wilted under Kurama's growl, saddened by this. But he kissed her on the forehead and hugged her to him, assuring her that she was forgiven. Seconds later, her smile was back on her face and she hopped excitedly in Kurama's arms.

Next Kurama pointed out Kuwabara, who was nodding his head very fast. Kagome stared at him before giggling at the strange ningen.

"Hey, she likes me," Kuwabara stated.

/Ningen, stupid/ Kagome yipped to Kurama, who smiled gently at her before nodding in agreement.

Kurama was about to begin questioning Kagome about where they were, when Yusuke interrupted. "Oi, what about her name? Don't' we get to know hers?" At this simple question, Kurama growled ferociously, frightening Kagome who yipped and burrowed into Kurama's chest, her hands gripping his haori. Kurama quieted and started to purr, hoping to calm her down, while Hiei explained.

"It is forbidden for a female youkai to tell her name to any other but her intended mate," Hiei explained. "In their case, they are already courting. Asking her name is like asking permission to be a second suitor."

"Oh," Yusuke and Kuwabara responded together, shocked, before Yusuke gulped and went pale. He turned his head weakly and tried to apologize to Kurama who glared but growled a warning.

"It's okay," Kurama responded, when he calmed down. "You didn't know. But if you must use a name, come up with a nickname." Kagome got up to prepare the meet for the males and they watched as she gave some to Kurama first before nodding her head for the boys to get their own.

Kuwabara was about to protest about not getting fed while Kurama did, but was stopped at Yusuke's shake of the head, Hiei's warning glare, and Kurama's rumbling growl.

After everyone had eaten up and had their fill, Kurama was now finally ready to question his mate. Coming up with the best way to ask her where they were, he pulled out a map and showed it to her.

He pointed to it. /Where?/ When she just looked more confused he half growled in frustration before reassuring her he wasn't growling at her.

/Makai?/

Her eyes widened briefly in recognition of the name and she began gesturing that she knew.

/Kinasei/ She responded and Kurama could for once sigh in relief. At least they were in Makai. He embraced her and spoke to Hiei through their mind link. Hiei, tell the others we're in Kinasei, the eastern most part of Makai. Hiei nodded and also sighed in relief. If that was true then they were only a few days walk from the nearest city. They could be there in a few days, him in a few hours if he flew real fast. From the city they could use a video phone to call into Koenma's office and get them out of this godforsaken place.

Where are you going? Hiei asked.

Kurama simply stood up and helped Kagome gracefully to her feet. Getting the message that Kurama was going to get in some quality courting time in before their departure, Hiei began to relay Kurama's message, before disappearing himself to go kill something. All this sitting around and doing nothing was driving him insane.

Meanwhile, back in Rekai, a nervous toddler paced back and fourth along his hallway, mentally debating the odds of running away rather than stay and face the wrath of Yusuke. It had been about a day since he'd dropped them off and knew they still wouldn't be able to make it to a video phone in a week.

And he still hadn't heard from Boton. Oh, where was that girl? How he needed her help big time with this one. Oh great now he was sweating.

A few hours have gone by now and we find our couple sitting in a small cave a few miles south of Kagome's home. Kurama and Kagome sit facing each other, outwardly looking like both were lost in thought, while mentally learned more about each other. Kurama had shown Kagome through his mind, his whole life; from the early days of the bandit Yoko Kurama through Kurama's teen years as he cope with a 300 year old kitsune in his brain.

Kagome, in turn, showed Kurama her early abandonment as she was dropped into the sea and washed ashore this piece of land, with only a few memories of her life before coming here. This piece of forest was a destination for all cursed Youkai and ningens. She showed him her little family here, consisting of the rough youkai, Sess and Inu, who were cursed once great demon lords, but were eventually cursed by the same miko 500 years ago, to walk the earth as common dogs. Kurama learned that they were the ones who found her and protected and looked out for her when they'd found her washed ashore. She also showed him the snake, Kikyo, who was the same miko who'd cursed the youkai brothers, and for her crimes had been forced into the body of a snake for all eternity. The last animal was a spider, who was once a hanyou who tried to corrupt the Shikon no Tama during the time span of Sess and Inu. The two brothers had defeated him though, and thus Naraku was cursed with the immortal body of a tarantula. Kurama was shocked to learn that the parrot and crow from before, were once Ningens and married back in the Feudal Era. They had both been cursed by Naraku after Sango's entire village was slaughtered and Miroku's father killed. That certainly explained a few things.

Kurama had been shocked to find out all she had been through, and was proud to admit he couldn't have picked a better mate-to-be. She was perfect, and very powerful. She was an elemental youkai, unlike Kurama in the sense that Kagome was sort of forbidden. Her father was part water youkai, part fire youkai, while her mother was a half silver kitsune, half moon kitsune, who controlled the weather. Therefore, she was forbidden in a sense where she wasn't supposed to be able to use all elements, kind of like Hiei

It was late by the time Kurama and Kagome started back toward the little villa and on the way were joined by some of her friends. Sango, the parrot landed on Kagome's shoulder, while Miroku flew overhead. Inu and Sess came out of the forest to stand on either side of her. When they realized that Kurama was indeed courting their charge, they both nodded in submission, realizing that now she had a mate to protect her. Both seemed saddened by this, so Kurama charged them with aiding her when he wasn't around. As they walked Kagome stopped and tugged Kurama back to her side, before snuggling under his arm.

Kurama breathed in her heavenly scent which smelled of roses, wine, and wild fruits. She also smelled like him, which made it all the more better. She was like a drug to his system, constantly needing more. Finally she sagged against him and fell asleep in his arms. He shrugged before smiling gently and lifting her bridle-style into his arms, carrying her all the way back to the tree house.

Yes, it was true. He truly couldn't have picked a better mate than Kagome.

Well, there it is. What'd you guys think? Come on, come on, write in and tell me. See ya later.

kura-kun's-lovr