Author's note: Oh, come on! Don't tell me you've never been tempted? Sorry, but I couldn't resist this idea once it popped into my head. It's just CRYING to be written, you know?
Disclaimer: I do not own +Anima. Or Husky very well may have ended up a girl.
Prologue…
"I AM NOT A GIRL!" screamed Husky, ripping the dress off his head and shoving it into Nana's arms.
"Now, Husky, we're trying to make this easy for you," said Nana, her face completely serious. "We care about you and you need to know there is no reason to hide…"
"What do I need to do? Strip?" demanded Husky.
Nana blushed. "Look, Husky, we know already, and girls shouldn't say things like that! Even if they are bluffing!"
Husky practically ripped off his vest and shirt revealing… absolutely nothing but a normal boy's chest.
"Do I need to take my pants off too?" he demanded, glaring at Nana.
"Oh, that's right! I did see Husky without his shirt before," said Cooro thoughtfully. "That time he hit me with the rake at the circus…"
Nana froze, her sudden doubt clear on her face. Had she been… wrong?
"But… you never go bathing with the guys…"
"I'm in the water every day, idiot! Remember who catches the fish we eat?"
Her light brown eyes widened in realization, and she lowered her head in shame. "I'm sorry, Husky. I just really thought… I mean…"
Husky growled and yanked back on his shirt. "Just don't do it again."
Good thing I haven't hit puberty yet, thought Husky, as she huffily plopped down against a tree, hiding her furiously blushing face behind a thick gloved hand.
Was she really that much of a stupid girl? You'd think she'd be better at this by now.
She'd been raised as a boy since childhood, since her father had reluctantly elected to allow princesses in the running for king, mainly to appease the dozens of wives who had not been able to bear him a son. Their eldest daughter would be allowed to be in the running for the kingship, provided she be raised as a boy, placed under the same restrictions and forced to endure the same strict training and education the princes had to go through. She would lose her place if her queen mother had a son, but until then she was of equal rank to any of her half-brothers.
No one had ever dreamed Princess Myrrha would exceed any of their instructors' expectations, even defeating her half-brothers in combat training. Of course, her position was far from stable. Being a girl, she was expected to lose her edge in fighting once her half-brothers hit puberty and begin to develop muscles she never would. It was extremely unlikely her mother would not bear another child, being a favorite of his highness, and with that came a high possibility of her losing her position with the birth of a brother. Even so, the other queens worried, listening to the stories from their sons of Myrrha's brilliance. And as they worried, their fear turned into hatred.
It shouldn't have been a surprise when one of them tried to kill her, but it had been.
Husky's other hand, the one not hiding her face, subconsciously went to her neck and she squeezed her eyes shut, remembering Lady Dylana coming over to her, a strange blank expression on her face. The woman's hands grabbing her around the neck and squeezing until all the fight had left her. Just as color and sound were fading from the world, the pressure lifting and disappearing as she felt her body swung over. The sudden rush of water and cold, the feeling of sinking to the bottom, opening her mouth to gasp for air and only finding water, the very water painfully flooding into her oxygen starved lungs. Looking up, and seeing a vague circle of light from the sun, so far out of reach, and the silhouette of a fish just as the world started to fade to black…
"Husky? Are you alright?" asked Cooro, crouching in front Husky, not caring that she just wanted to be left alone.
"Yeah, yeah. Can't believe you thought I was a stupid girl. I hate girls. Nasty, selfish, mean girls," growled Husky, shoving Cooro back from where he'd been hovering in her face.
"Hey!" shouted Nana indignantly. "I said I was sorry!"
"Whatever," huffed Husky, closing her eyes and stubbornly turning and pretending to be falling asleep, only 'waking up' when Senri announced dinner with a quiet "Food's done."
Several months later…
"Sir, we really shouldn't be doing this in Astaria!" whispered the panicked voice of a young man to an older man sitting across from him. The two sat at an outdoor table at a loud and boisterous restaurant.
"No one cares here, Ralen. You've seen how Astarians treat +anima. With prejudice, fear, and hate. +Anima don't even dare show themselves here, for fear of being attacked. At least in Sailand they don't have to hide."
"Yes, but crossing the border to kidnap children…"
"It's nothing like that, Ralen. We're merely searching for a certain type of slave for a very specific customer, that's all."
"A mermaid, Ieno? Really, it can't be that hard to find a beautiful fish +anima."
"I've told you. This customer is so incredibly exacting. I've shown his dozens of fish +anima, and he's rejected them all, including several very pretty girls. But for two million gillah, any effort is worth it."
"Which brings us to stalking children without parents," said Ralen, the disgust evident in his voice.
"Yes," answered Ieno, sipping from his mug. His eyes glancing over to the latest group they'd found. This one had a teenage grey-haired Kim-un-Kur boy and three Astarian children, one a black-haired boy, one a blond-haired girl, and one a silver-haired child dressed like a boy, but pretty enough to easily be a girl.
Author's Note: Let me know if you think I should rate this M for Husky taking off her shirt. I went with T because there's nothing to see, and I'm not going to be using swearing, sex/rape, or any graphic violence. I tried to work the scene without Husky stripping, but it just wasn't working. "Proving it" is just so totally Husky. As for couples, this obviously won't be a Husky/Nana fic. I might work in a little Cooro/Husky, because Husky would so obviously fall for Cooro if he was a girl (after the flying scene in the first arc), but there won't be anything more than maybe a little kiss. Remember, people, these are kids! Oh, and If anyone has their ages, could they send them to me? I only got their birthdates, which told me nothing but Cooro was about a little over half a year older than Husky. Lastly, I feel it has to be said that I will NOT be rewriting the series with Husky as a girl, using all the same cities and characters and everything. I will be assuming these experiences have happened / will happen with the new factors I put in the prologue, but my plot will be (hopefully) original. Hope to have a new chapter out in a few days.