Sorry for the extremely long break in between chapters. I work 12-16 hour shifts and go to school. I started the story on my winter vacation. I plan to get back into it! Also please note there are parts of Botan's speech where I leave out some letters. It's to stress her failing voice. It's not hard to figure out what she's saying though.

Pneumonia had been a lot more painful than what Botan originally anticipated. Her lungs were exhausted from coughing as much as she did, it felt like a chore to lift it to breathe. Her throat was so raw sometimes the blood she coughed up was from there, and not the lungs. She drank so much water to combat the dryness she was actually sick of the taste, or lack thereof. Her appointment to reveal the sex had long since passed. Kurama told her she was not well enough to go, and he told her it would probably be weeks, even with herbal therapy, before she recovered enough to go anywhere outside the house. It was just so difficult to fight off the bug when she barely had enough life energy to create the heir of Hiei.

"Osicle..." Botan rasped towards Hiei. Her voice was almost gone, and most of the consonants were lost in the rasp. Hiei obliged without much argument. He always gave her the eye roll, or the sigh, or the growl but at least he complied. In fact he hadn't even chased her for sex in a long time. He's been moderately well behaved. He brought her grape, which she turned her nose at.

"It's all that's left" Hiei said throwing it at her. Botan growled "Ant,...you o,..." she coughed "The sore?"

Hiei paused "The store?" he questioned

"Yea" she rasped sucking on the popsicle.

"I am not going to the store. When we shared this house years and years ago I told you that you were doing all the shopping. So many disgusting humans in one place fighting over the last bag of potatoes drowning in fat." Hiei sneered.

"I an't go!" Botan coughed again. "We'ree unnin ou of food" she tried to stress to him.

"There's still pasta in there. A hell of a lot of it." Hiei defended.

"I'm ick of it" she began to cough so hard she retched a little.

"You'll eat it, and you'll like it" Hiei said as he rose from the bed. "In fact I'll make some right now" and with that he walked away. Botan allowed her head to fall back onto the bed in frustration. Kurama had her eating every 2 hours in order to keep her strength up and provide her with some energy that she was lacking. Her belly had grown especially more round and her toes were starting to disappear. It was almost disturbing to her that she still felt no kicks or punches from the child. Kurama really had no explanation for the mystery either. He expected her to lose sleep over how much the child would move. Kurama suspected she might be so exhausted that the baby wasn't receiving all the energy it needed to be so active. He promised her she would feel it once she recovered. She could although feel it fluttering around. Fluttering seemed to be the best word, it felt like a butterfly flying around inside of her. She could feel it turn and shift. She often thought about asking Hiei to feel it but when she would get his attention the baby would stop. Hiei didn't believe in it anyway.

Hiei appeared back into the room with a small bowl full of pasta. Botan actually pretended to be asleep in order to get out of eating it. Hiei set it on the nightstand and walked away slowly. He knew she was awake but didn't feel like fighting with her again this morning. He opened the cupboards and boy was Botan right. They had no food whatsoever, except for two boxes of pasta. Hiei heaved a little as he realized that like it or not,...he was going to the store.

Hiei began to trudge down the sidewalk to the corner market Botan always went to. The glass doors slid open for him and he watched other humans hustle and bustle around the store on their phones, screaming at their children, waiting in lines. He walked down the first aisle looking over everything in cans. He grasped 2 cans of soup he remembered at one time being in the pantry. Hiei tried to remember the foods that Kurama put on the list and he considered nutrient dense. Hiei shrugged and grabbed stalks of broccoli and bananas. He picked up a gallon of milk and realized his hands were pretty full. How did Botan carry all the groceries? His eyes gazed into the corner of the aisle where an elderly man was gazing over the yogurt section, standing behind an empty cart. It looked like a pretty good device to carry all the bullshit he had in his hands. He began his slow walk towards the end of the aisle way, and reached his hand out, swiping the cart from the old man so fast the old man didn't even have time to turn around.

"Did you just steal that cart from him?" A voice came of a middle aged woman staring at him with her snobby, disbelieving eyes.

Hiei chose to ignore her and continued to walk away.

"EXCUSE ME SIR! That was that gentleman's cart." She defended the old man, who still hadn't noticed. She was beginning to draw attention from others. Hiei turned to gaze upon her. His eyes were icy and looked as if they were made of glass. He noted her collared shirt with a cardigan over top, her numerous assorted bracelets, and her metal pins on her purse, the phone gripped just a little too tight in her hand. She looked like a soccer mom if Hiei had ever seen one. Hiei steered the cart until he was directly in front of her. At first he said nothing, which he suspected may have scared her more than when he spoke.

"You're going to shut your whore mouth." Hiei whispered. "If you speak another word, I will tear the lips off your face and plaster them across your ass" he assured in a calm voice.

Her response was skeptical at first, but when Hiei began to lick his lips she turned away quite fast and started a brisk pace away from him.

Hiei walked another aisle or two. He grew tired of examining every aisle for what it held. Finally Hiei just started chucking stuff into the cart, without checking or caring about what it was. When he saw the door again and caught sight of the outside world it seemed too good to be true. Hiei started pushing his cart out the door.

"STOP HIM!" a voice shouted from inside the store. Hiei had never paid for anything that he bought. A teenager began to chase after him. He had braces, terrible acne, and sported jeans that weren't anywhere near long enough to cover his socks.

"You have to pay for that mister!" he said wheezing to catch his breath as he caught up with Hiei.

Hiei pulled him in by the fist full of his polo shirt. "Get. Away. From. Me" he said as he gave the boy a swift toss across the street and back into the market. Hiei resumed the trek back home, this time without a single soul daring enough to follow him. He threw open the door to the living room and shoved the cart inside. It made a loud clash against the wall and Hiei dubbed his job done. Botan had moved herself to the couch and was sitting mouth agape.

"Don't look at me like that." Hiei said inserting his hands into his pockets.

"Ank You" Botan gasped out. She had showered since he had left, Hiei took notice. Her hair was back in the pony tail although it didn't look quite so messy and dirty. Shorter pieces had fallen out and framed her face so elegantly. Her baggy sweater somehow looked so attractive and sensual draping over her body. It seemed to bounce back just a bit across her belly. For just a moment Hiei marveled at how gorgeous she looked. He didn't dare speak it. She reached in and noticed that there were no bags.

"Hiei,...did,...you ay for this" she asked lifting up a can of soup to inspect it.

"I got what I needed and I left" Hiei answered

Botan dropped the can of soup and began to shake her head. She laid here hands down upon her belly. This had become a new favorite resting position. She was obsessed with that baby. Sometimes Hiei wondered if it was normal. She seemed elated out of nowhere, which snapped Hiei out of his trance. "Hiei I can feel it's foot,..." she trailed off running her fingers across her belly.

"He's moving?" Hiei asked, trying to remain disinterested.

"No,...not really. This is just where it's resting it's foot right now. It's like right against my stomach. You can obviously tell." Botan said. At this point her smile had grown from ear to ear. "Give me your hand." she ordered.

"I don't want—" Hiei was ripped out his thoughts by his wrist and his hand was placed upon Botan's stomach. She forcefully moved her hands back and forth across the baby's foot. It was weird but Hiei could tell that it was in fact a foot without even thinking about it. "Hn,..." Hiei said taking his hand back into his own possession. "Don't do that again" he barked.

"I know,...it's amazing isn't it" Botan smirked. "I love it already."

"Let's not get carried away" Hiei sneered heading into bed.