If there was one person Kurama hated to argue with, it was himself. And especially when both halves of him so wanted to go- even Minamino Shuuichi's sluggish blood was stirring. The sidewalks shimmered wet like the lips of a just-kissed lover, damp and inviting under the mellow glow of streetlights. The wind was cool and sweet after a sticky summer day, begging to be felt through silvered ears and tail.

But beg and plead and whine and sulk as Yoko Kurama might, Minamino Shuuichi had a hefty exam tomorrow and there was the slight problem of responsibility to consider. And so the yoko side of his persona was stuffed down deep inside and Shuuichi went back to his textbooks.

The kitsune part of his nature, however, could not care less about this human Pythagorem or his theorems, and quietly sent a subconscious call into the rainy evening. Then he settled back to wait.

"Y over x is equal to the inverse variable-"

Tap Tap Tap.

Kurama blinked, turning around in a chair that he'd deliberately placed away from the window and its seductive rainfall.

A pair of hot crimson eyes burned against the dark clouds like fierce embers in damp ash. There was a brief white flash of koorime smile against the glass and Hiei tapped one long fingernail against the pane again. It wasn't to get Kurama's attention; it was just because Hiei liked the sound of it. And he could just have easily have lifted the latch to come in, but he would rather make Kurama get up and open it. That way the fox couldn't say he'd trudged in uninvited.

"Hiei!" Kurama's red hair blew giddily in the breeze that had slipped in with the demon. "What are you doing here?"

"Hn." Hiei folded his arms and surveyed Kurama's room like he always did, as if looking for spies or something worth stealing. "You asked me to."

"I did?" Kurama latched the window closed again and fussed with his hair, wishing he hadn't gotten a taste of that gorgeous thunderstorm wind. "When?"

"Just now." Hiei picked up a small box, sniffed at the contents, sneezed, and then replaced the incense back on the kami-dana. "You said you wanted a run." He tilted his head impishly at the fox, fang glinting as he spoke. "A hunt."

Kurama's heart tripped over its next measure of regularly scheduled beats, ancient instinct flaming to life at Hiei's words. More pregnant with meaning than the thunderheads were with rain, a hunt implied a chase- and a capture.

Yoko Kurama mentioned, in passing to the rest of his psyche, how perfect Hiei would look running in the rain. How likely it would be for him to actually catch Kurama. What Hiei would do with him once he did.

Kurama shivered violently, turning to shut the window and realizing he already had. " I- I'm sorry, Hiei. It must have just been wishful thinking. I've got all this work to do and-"

"This?" Hiei's small nose wrinkled in disdain as if the math smelled foul. "This human rubbish is keeping you from rain?" Hiei snorted. "You've gotten soft, Kurama. Huh. I wouldn't worry about your work- I'd probably have you caught in ten minutes."

Kurama's spine stiffened. "You could not!"

"You're right," Hiei said, from the depths of Kurama's closet where he'd gone digging for something. "Probably wouldn't take five, the way you've deteriorated."

"You couldn't catch a silver yoko if your life depended on it, Koorime." Kurama tossed his hair, green eyes glinting with dangerous gold.

"Oh yeah?" Hiei righted himself.

"Yeah!"

"You're on." Hiei flung his findings at Kurama's feet, the silk drawstring pants crumpling into a claret pile. A pair of sandals that were more slender straps than shoe clattered after them. Reikai clothing, buried in Kurama's closet. Raiment worthy of yoko prey.

"You have one minute from when I see you leave this window." Hiei blurred to the sill and crouched there, grinning. "Then I come after you. Better be thinking about where you want to be caught, kitsune. Because I don't care if it's in the middle of the Ginza, I'm taking what's mine." And he was gone, the window banging wide and letting in a gust of wind and rain.

Kurama glared at the clothes for a moment, but he knew when he'd been had. He sighed and began stripping slowly out of his PJs. HE took his sweet time about it, fully aware that out in the dark in the trees Hiei was watching and waiting. Kurama put the sandals on first, carefully winding the narrow strips of kidskin around his thighs, then slowly sliding into the silk pants. Hiei's desire, just outside the window, flared in the room with all the force of battle ki. Kurama allowed himself a smile. He knew full well he'd be caught tonight, and so did Hiei, but both of them also knew that it was only because Kurama wanted to be caught.

The flexible soles of his sandals made no sound on the gable outside his window, and in the music of the rain he was silent, leaping like a shadow from the roof and running the minute his toes touched earth.

He slipped into the nearby shadows of the spirits' mirror world to escape the city, moving out of human perception in a matter of minutes. The world became a blur around him and he decided to forego the pleasure of his Yoko form. The tall broad-shouldered fox-demon shape was not as swift a runner as the slighter human boy, too easily caught by the forces of physics that Kurama remembered only briefly that he should be studying. This time it was the fox spirit who won dominance. The sidewalks turned to highway under his sandaled feet, then beaten dirt, then grass. Safely away from civilization Kurama slipped into reality again, and Hiei's scent flared behind him, the hunter undeterred by his prey shifting between worlds.

Kurama had followed the storm back to its source and then ran with it, slowing so he could enjoy the run at a mere human speed. Exactly one minute's race behind him, Hiei checked his pace as well, slowing to stay even with him. Curious as all his kind were, the fire demon was not going to try and catch Kurama until he knew where he was going.

Kurama laughed out loud, not quite winded, and plunged into the forest in front of him. Here any other hunter would have lost, for the trees parted willingly before the kitsune and closed the way behind him. Hiei was swifter and more confident, and he slipped between the weaving tree trunks before they could bar his way.

The rain fell in thick, warm drops, drenching Kurama's hair and wetting the silk pants so thoroughly that they clung to his legs, showing the sandal straps in sharp relief. The whole world smelled of earth and wet and green. The plants around Kurama whispered joyously, singing in their own way as they greedily made love to the rain.

Hiei was only a few steps behind by now, closing on his target. The ki of his desire was a wilder, more metallic tang in the energy of the rain-soaked midnight forest. Kurama didn't have to look back to see him, knowing how the grasses would be up to his shoulders, small body deftly weaving around trees. He did not break the rules by going up into the branches, if he wanted the prize he was going to have to play fairly for it.

Kurama jumped a small stream and tossed dripping hair out of his eyes. They were well into the mountains by now, high enough for the air to be thinner, the forest older and less willing to give up its secrets. Kurama was still able to detect the scent of old stone, and though he knew this chase was benevolent instinct still steered him to a haven for his kind. He turned around a stand of trees and a grassed-over path opened at his feet. Fallen leaves leapt into the air, startled by his passing, and they had not yet landed again when Hiei burst out of the junipers, racing after him.

~Oh, is THAT where you're going?~ Hiei's voice sounded in Kurama's head, smugly. ~Think Inari will protect you?~

Kurama laughed, the sound flashing like his bare arms in the foliage. Thunder rumbled distantly. ~ I know the prayers she likes best.~

The night rain had brought up fog around the old shrine, wreathing it in streamers and veils. The rain had stopped, briefly, the moon peering out of ragged clouds before submerging again.

Hiei came to an abrupt halt beneath the stone Torii gate. Nature had almost reclaimed this isolated spot, but even the thick carpet of moss under Hiei's feet seemed to whisper more secrets than the Koorime would ever know.

"I know you're here, Kurama." Hiei took two steps into the fog, his voice disturbing the rain-laden bamboo trees that spilled droplets into his hair. "You've been caught. Surrender."

"I surrender." The moon broke free as if on cue, and it was a small trick of kitsune theatrics to make the fog roll away. Kurama sat on a wide stone bench beside a small stream; the centuries-old rock covered in moss as lush as velvet. One leg was drawn up underneath him, but the other dangled free. Long strips of white leg were visible where the branches had torn his pants into streamers; the soles of his sandals were worn through. He was not out of breath.

"It is not," Kurama said, as if expecting Hiei to argue with him, "The middle of the Ginza."

"No," Hiei smiled, his belts clattering to the path as he approached, "It is not."

"Nor," Kurama continued, as Hiei's tank top was flung into the underbrush, "Could you have caught me if I didn't want you to."

"That's debatable." Hiei smirked triumph, looming over the kitsune on the low bench. Thunder rolled again, and a light mist of rain silvered the air between them. "Beautiful when you're running." Hiei ran his palm slowly down Kurama's chest, and Kurama arched back, sighing. "No wonder you were hunted."

"Not for the same prize you seek." Kurama spread his thighs slowly on the bench, what was left of the clinging wet silk spoke more than his unsaid words of seduction. "You caught me." Kurama reached up to bat playfully at the teargem dangling from Hiei's neck. "So claim me." His hand fisted in the satin cord, tugging Hiei towards him.

Hiei bent down for the kiss, his fingers sliding into an aperture in the silk to run slowly over the leather sandal strap wound around the inside of Kurama's thigh. Kurama twisted under the touch, lifting his hips wantonly as a firehot tongue licked greedily into his mouth.

Hiei smiled to himself, mockingly biting at the kitsune's throat, a ritual gesture of a victorious predator. Kurama was willing but not tame by a long shot, the hunt still thrumming in his blood and bringing him closer to his unpredictable silver form. It made it harder for both of them to wait, spirit world adrenaline working its way though their veins. The rain was no longer content to drift gently and became a downpour, wind shaking the topmost branches far above them, slicking their skin as they pressed closer together.

"Hot," Kurama whispered, his hands tangled in the soft upward sweep of Hiei's hair. "You're always so hot."

"Take these off." Hiei ordered, tugging at the dark ruby tatters of pants.

Kurama stripped out obediently then drew one leg up slowly, spreading himself wide to reach for the ties of his sandals. Hiei pushed his hand away, interposing himself between Kurama's legs.

"Not those. Leave those on." Smiling, he pushed Kurama down against the soft mossed stone.

"Mine." The Koorime whispered quietly, the possessive note so naive it lacked any darker intent. "My fox."

"Yours," Kurama sighed, green eyes closing as small warm hands stroked his skin, teasing each nipple until they begged for sharp kisses from that molten mouth, fingers curving around the sweet ache between Kurama's' legs. "Aa! Hiei..."

"Ch'. Impatient, fox?" Hiei's slighter frame rested easily on top of Kurama's. "Hold still."

Kurama's eyes closed slowly as he was taken, head tilting back and Hiei's name a long slow pleasured noise exhaled between his lips. Hiei always wanted to take his time when he was able to have Kurama in this form, knowing that the red-haired, green-eyed slender human boy was not as eternal as the silver yoko. Kurama in either shape was always too much for him though, as overwhelming as hothouse roses. Instinct took control and the rain pelted down on them furiously as he drove into his fox's heat. Kurama's hands tore the thick moss as he lifted his hips for each offering, mewling softly in his throat.

When the end came it was surprisingly slow, rich and languid and they stilled to savor it coursing through them. Kurama kissed the silk ward over Hiei's jagan as he came, flooding warm in the cool rainy evening.

Hiei made a soft noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob, and fell forward into the embrace of his sated prey.

While they lay still the rain stopped for good, moonlight blanketing the forgotten shrine and the lovers in eerie blue light. Kurama stroked Hiei's hair as the koorime nuzzled into his neck, sighing contentment.

"I wonder," Kurama said dreamily to the stars visible through fragments of cloud, "What would happen if I caught you."

Hiei lifted his head, crimson eyes narrowing. "You do, eh, fox?" He grinned. "So do I." there was a blur of motion and Hiei was gone, whisking up clothing as he went. Kurama giggled quietly to himself, counting only to thirty before rising gracefully to his feet and sprinting after him.