Where do you go?

The sun was setting slowly in the Makai sky as a familiar set of crimson eyes soaked up the last few rays. He sat silently in his tree, as he had every night for the last eight and a half months, ever since he left the Ningenkai in the middle of April. He would not admit it to anyone, barely even himself, but he missed the rag team he'd been part of. And the baka detective's assistant, the ferry onna.

But he wouldn't be welcomed back... not after what he'd done. See, those eight and a half months ago, he had done something unforgivable. He'd cheated. Not in a race, not in a game, but in love. He knew he hadn't done it on purpose, but the 'baka' ferry onna, she saw it quite differently. Or at least he thought she did.

The skies in Ningenkai were clouded over, as they had been for the last eight and a half months, dousing everything with thick, white snow. Ever since he left, her days had lost their sun; her eyes had lost their shine. Her friends did everything to try and make her smile, but nothing seemed to work.

It was now barely two weeks until Christmas, and she wasn't sure she'd make it much longer afterwards. Ever since that night, when he'd run off, she couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep and she just didn't want to be with anyone at all. No one could fill the space he'd left in her. No one, except maybe his little baby.

Yukina and Kurama, being the only two demons left in the group, sat in his

garden, forming a plan. "Botan needs Hiei...their child needs him." Yukina nodded, her koi was right. "Hai, but how will we get him to come back? He's still angry at himself." Kurama wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him, "We have to go fetch him."

Silence overwhelmed the couple as they stood up and began walking to Yusuke and Keiko's house. It was only a fifteen-minute walk, but it stretched on forever with the silence. Once they reached the small house, Kurama knocked on the door and they waited for someone to answer the door.

Hiei closed his eyes, leaning back against the tree trunk, and thought about his love. Botan had been the first woman to break into his heart, and the only. They were barely together a month when the other woman came into the picture, if only for a day. He could remember it like it was yesterday.

He and Botan'd had a row about Kuwabara being on the team, and he'd stormed off to wonder the park for a few hours. That was where he'd seen Aura. He'd meant to leave, when she tried to make a move on him, but he'd been so mad that he just went with the flow. To get back at Botan for making him angry and challenging his dominance as the male.

Needless to say, she wouldn't have found out if she hadn't come to apologize. She'd gone to the park, looking for him, and found him kissing and groping a stranger. She had stormed away, without so much as yelling at him, and he just up and left the park, forgetting about Aura.

Though she'd never have a chance to tell him, she held no anger. She knew it was her fault for making him so mad at her. She unconsciously rubbed her swollen belly, feeling her baby kick. She gave a silent prayer that her little one wouldn't look like Hiei, she wasn't sure she could survive with a miniature Hiei by her side.

She was due to have her baby in two weeks, on Christmas Eve. He didn't even know she was pregnant, she'd found out a couple days after their quarrel, and hadn't had the guts to find him and tell him. It wasn't like he seemed to care too much anyway.

Keiko opened the door to see Kurama and Yukina, and shouted behind her, "Yusuke! It's Kurama!" She invited them both inside, noting the solemn look upon their faces. Yusuke came running into the room with a baby in his arms. "Yo, what's up?"

"Can we borrow your communicator? I need to call my brother." Yusuke's usual grin dropped from his face and was replaced by a scowl. "If you must. But you better be telling him to get his butt over here for his baby." He tossed her the small pink communicator and she smiled at him, "Don't worry. I am."

She punched in the numbers and watched it ring. A few moments later, Hiei appeared on the screen, looking both annoyed and bored. "Hello brother! How have you been?" He gave her a sad smile and sighed, "I miss her. How is she?" Yusuke gave the back of the communicator a surprised look, Hiei actually missed her? He sure had a funny way of showing it.

Hiei watched his sister smile on the screen and her innocent voice surrounded him again, "She misses you. Nothing would make her happier than to see you for Christmas Hiei." His smile slipped into a small frown, again with this, "No she doesn't want me there." "Have you talked to her?" He shook his head, afraid his voice might betray him, "Then how would you know?"

It was now but two days before Christmas, and Botan was sitting in the company of Keiko, her baby Kira, and Yukina. "Botan," Yukina started softly, casting a quick glance out the window where she knew Hiei was waiting, "Do you miss him? Do you wish he was here?" She didn't need to mention his name, Botan knew she meant Hiei.

"Yes. I do miss him terribly. Our little one reminds me everyday..." Hiei fell out of his tree with a soft thud upon hearing her words. She was with child, and not just any child, his child. Without a moment's hesitation he jumped through the window, he had to hold her. The sight that greeted him brought tears to his eyes, there was his love, which he had betrayed, swollen with his baby in her belly.

"H-hiei! Why...how...when..." She couldn't even form a sentence out of shock, one moment she was saying how she missed him, and the next he'd jumped through the window and was starring at her like a starving man would stare at a feast. Only three words could extract themselves from his own mind, "Please forgive me..." Before he could blink, she'd flung herself into his arms as best she could and whispered, "Forgive, sounds good."

He wrapped his arms around her as tightly as possible without hurting her or the baby within her, and allowed the tears to fall from his eyes, forming tiny, swirling red and black gems. She pulled away from the hug after a minute and looked into his eyes, eyes that she had missed do much, and whispered, "But to forget...I don't think I ever could..."

Yukina and Keiko saw the broken look on his face and decided it may be best for them to leave, this was obviously something that Botan and Hiei needed to discuss alone, before she had his baby. They got up and left the room quietly, shutting the door behind them to offer their friends a little privacy.

"Botan...I swear I never meant it...I was just upset, and I..." She put a finger to his lips and silenced his jumbled explanation, "It is not that I won't forgive you. It's just that I won't forget to keep you happier this time." Her words stung his heart, she should not feel like this, it wasn't her fault, it was his. "No. It wasn't that you didn't make me happy...it's just that I let myself question my love."

She smiled and took his hand in her own, "Do you still love me Hiei?" He nodded, afraid his words would come out wrong, he wanted to tell her that he would love her no matter what, whether she was skinny or swelled with child. Whether she was young or old, he would always find her breath taking. "Say it...You have to say it, Hiei."

She may have been able to accept his simple nod so many months ago, but now, after nearly nine month's separation, she needed to hear it if she was to accept him back. "Hai, I still love you very much, my Botan." He rubbed his face gently against the crook of her neck, where a tiny scar remained from their wild month of confessions and love. He kissed the mark softly, wrapping his arms around her fondly, all he wanted to do was hold her close and never let her go.

But their baby had different ideas for the couple, it hadn't known its daddy for its many months of life within its mother, and it wanted to see him, hear him, be with him just as it had been with its mother. Botan groaned when she felt the sensation of water running down her legs. "Hiei...the baby is ready, it wants to see its daddy." His head snapped up and he looked at her panicking, were they even ready for the baby?

"Yukina! Keiko! Get the car ready!" Botan shouted, before doubling over in pain, "Hiei, help me to the door, please." Without any second thoughts, he did as she asked and helped her to the front door, where Yukina and Keiko had the car ready and waiting for them. Hiei helped her into the car and got in beside her, "To the hospital! Quick!" Keiko pushed the pedal to the floor and the car sped off towards the hospital, two anxious women up front and a smiling couple in the back.

Several hours later, Hiei was pacing outside of his love's room, listening to her cries of pain as she pushed, he couldn't take it! He had to be by her side, too long had he been gone from her, he should be with her! He ran into the room, and rushed to her side, "Come on Botan, you can do it."

He nearly missed the quick flash of pain that flashed through her eyes as she looked up at him, "Hiei, promise me...you'll take care of our baby..." He felt tears push against his eyes, trying to escape, "Don't talk like that Botan...we'll take care of our baby together. Side by side, my koi." He took her hand in his own and the colour slowly drained from his face, her pulse was weak, just barely there.

When the sharp sound of a baby's cry rang through the room, her eyes closed, and her pulse stopped. She was gone, but she had stayed long enough to give him the most precious gift, the only thing she could, her love, in the form of the only child he could ever call his own.

"It's a girl."