Disclaimer: Don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

In the heat of midday two foxes walked side by side. One was large more resembling a wolf than a fox with a sleek silver coat and crimson eyes. The other was smaller with a silky ebony coat and shimmering black eyes.

"Please Yoko," whined the black fox, "let us rest for awhile. We haven't rested since the beginning of our journey six weeks ago."

The silver fox looked down at Kaori. Her beautiful black coat had begun to lose its glossy sheen and the way that she picked up her feet and dropped them heavily where she had once been light footed screamed that she needed rest.

"No, we must get to the vault as soon as possible," he growled. "Honestly what use do you expect I will be if I am dead tired when we get there?" she asked her dark eyes flickering with black flames at being told no. He attempted to stare the girl down but she just calmly looked back up at him with an air of indifference around her.

"Fine," he finally said. She smirked at him, knowing that the verbal battle the he had just lost was one of the only battles that he had ever lost. She trotted to the side of the road where she laid down and instantly fell asleep.

'How in the three worlds did I get myself into this?' Yoko asked himself. 'The lazy good for nothing little bitch! Calm down. I need to get the diamond' he thought lying down next to her. Suddenly his nose caught a terrible scent. 'Humans' he thought his hair bristling. He looked around, his sharp eyes picking up nothing. 'Where are they?' His sensitive ears twitched when he heard branches above him move and he looked up in just enough time to see a bowstring become taught and the arrow fly.

It embedded itself deep in his shoulder. He let out a yelp of pain, then fell, and lay still.

The yelp awakened Kaori and she jumped up. She saw the humans climb down from the tree. There were three in all each talking of the great price they'd get for the silver fox's fur. Her hair bristled and she snarled her warning positioning herself in front of Yoko, prepared to pounce in a moment's notice.

"He has a pretty little mate too? This is our lucky day," said one particularly hairy human. His bowstring became taught. Kaori swooped down on him and tore open his throat. The only thing that he'd had time to do was make a gurgling sound before collapsing in a heap.

Blood poured from the open wound and splattered on Kaori's face. Her eyes flicked and her very soul howled with the need for more blood shed, more death. She whirled around to the other two men and lunged. The unfortunate man that her sharp fangs caught was torn to shreds when she was sure all the blood that she could have shed was on the ground bright red and smelling of a wonderfully familiar metal. The last hunter was already gone when she prepared for her last pounce. She bounded after him, her insatiable want for the kill now tearing through her body and seizing control of her mind. Her final amount of sanity cried out.

"Yoko!"

Grasping that sanity she skid to a halt. Her vision began to clear of the mist that had before clouded her mind. Yoko needed her now, even if he was a controlling egotistical self-righteous bastard.

Sighing at having her needs put second, something that she found happened quite often since she and Yoko had become so call "partners", she swiftly made her way back to the roadside and found that in his arrogance and pride Yoko had dragged himself away from the road, trying his best to keep from having his ego shot down.

Following the trail of blood that the fox had left behind Kaori found that this had cost him his consciousness. Shaking her head, Kaori padded over to him, took him by the nape of his neck and dragged him into some shrubbery. She nudged him with her nose and made a gentle growling noise.

After seeing that he truly was unconscious Kaori bit down on the feathered end of the arrow and let it slide out. Blood gushed from the wound that the arrow had made. She licked it until the blood flow had slowed so that she could examine him more easily. The wound was dreadfully close to his vital organs.

"Conceited bastard," she growled. "You shouldn't have dragged yourself so far. You made the wound worse." She scowled then put her paw and head on Yoko's and lay there, silently protecting the injured fox.

Yoko opened his eyes. It was pitch black outside. He looked up and figured from how high the sliver of moon barely visible between the tree branches that hung thick overhead it must have been around midnight. He stood for the first time realizing that he was in his human form. He shrugged and stretched out his legs. He must have been unable to maintain his fox form in his previously injured state. His keen nose twitched at the putrid smell of old blood and scanned his surrounding with sharp golden eyes. Upon turning he caught sight of two bloody and very dead men lying on the ground a few yards away.

That's right.

He'd been shot by an arrow… and Kaori had… Kaori? Where had that bitch gotten to this time?

Suddenly the bushes began to rustle. Yoko's hardened muscles tensed automatically from years of traps and ambushes. Out of the shrubs came a black fox with a branch of red berries in her mouth. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Yoko. A growl came from her throat before she laid the berries at his feet and in a flash of purple light transformed into Kaori.

"Why are you up? You're going to make it worse," she warned with a wave to his shoulder. Yoko looked down to discover that his shirt had been removed and had been replaced with clean white bandages that he hadn't noticed before. "I don't need your help," he replied coldly.

"Good, because helping you is the one thing that I hate more than spending time with you," she hissed, slightly hurt by the fact that Yoko didn't care that she'd tried her best to tend to him.

"Then why did you?" Yoko questioned, his cold, steady gaze unwavering. "I don't need you to hold me back and with an injured arm like that you would by weeks," she answered also holding her unwavering gaze.

Yoko was silent for a moment. "What are the berries for?" he finally asked. "They're floralite berries," she replied, "They'll help you heal faster." She gestured for Yoko to sit, which he did after a moment of contemplation of whether he should or shouldn't accept her help. He chose the latter.

She unwrapped the wound and squeezed some of the berries juice on the tips of her fingers. "This is going to sting a little," she warned. Yoko nodded. She applied the juice onto the wound as gently as possible. Yoko winced as a fiery sensation swept through his arm.

"Define a little," he grunted. "Quiet," she chastised. She gently blew on the wound and cooled the sensation. Yoko jerked his arm away and pain shot through him. "You shouldn't do that," Kaori said, slightly amused at Yoko's behavior. Yoko was quiet as she rebandaged his arm.

"We'd better travel by night in our demon forms from now on. The humans will be looking for two possessed foxes now," Kaori said, breaking the silence. "But-" Yoko was cut off by Kaori pressing a finger against his lips.

"Don't argue," she commanded. "Traveling by night will be easier on your arm." She put her finger down and Yoko looked like he was about to protest again. "If you argue with me I swear I will smash every single one of these berries into that arm of yours," she warned, daring him with her dark sparkling eyes to try her.

Yoko was silent though he glared at her, his eyes brimming with contempt. "Hate me as you will. I really don't care. We are going to rest until tomorrow night," she said as she stood. Yoko opened his mouth to argue but Kaori cut him off again, "Don't test me." In a flash of purple Kaori was a fox again and curled up in a little ball. 'Who in the seven hells does she think she's talking to?' he thought furiously. 'I must tolerate her. I must get the Black Death.'

He changed into his fox form and fell asleep.

R and R please!