Pairing: NanaxHusky, HuskyxNana, Nasky. You get my point? :]

Warning: A few Husky past spoilers. ;]

Disclaimer: Really? Does it LOOK like I own Plus Anima? Seriously. If I owned it, do you really think it would be over right now? With only TEN volumes? And Husky and Nana never got together? Yeah right. Dream on. ;]

It was cold. Oozing. Frankly, it was a disgusting feeling, what he was going through right now.

But what do you expect?

How many times was this...? Ten...? Eleven?

Now staring straight up into the darkened night sky full of stars that seemed to be mocking him, the boy narrowed his eyes and took in a few more deep breaths of much-welcome oxygen. He was trying to kid himself, he knew. Pfft! Eleven times! Yeah right! He'd been going through this sense the day he'd swam out of Sailand forever. And he was trying to say eleven?

Maybe he really was as stupid as everyone had called him back then.

Now, he cringed.

"I'm not stupid! I'm not! Stop it!"

"Husky's right, guys. It's not nice to insult a lady!"

"Damn it! Shut up!"

"Heh heh! What are you going to do about it, Husky Voice? Huh? Gonna screech at me? Gonna call Mommy's guards? Careful now. The King may hate you if you get into trouble!"

Without thinking, Husky slammed a fist into the forest floor beside him. The fire that had been burning in the center of his group of friends had gone dim, and now it was just him and the moonlight. Ocean blue eyes flicked over to the rest of the group, looking at their silhouettes one by one. His eyes came to rest on Nana last, and before he knew it a tiny, gone unnoticed by most smile fell onto his pale, smooth features.

Maybe it was for the best that he'd become a plus anima.

But when he thought about it, it was hard to weigh the pros and cons.

Because really, he'd never known friends before this went and happened. Before he was pushed into a lake and almost drowned. Before —before...

It was hard for him to put a worth on them. It was them and the ability to swim against having constant nightmares and being stuck with the power to go into one of the things he hated most.

But of course, there was no going back now, so what did it matter?

Taking in one more deep, almost-soothing breath, Husky wiped the last of the cold sweat from his forehead and slid his eyelids closed again. He hoped he could get at least a little bit of sleep...

Now engulfed in his own darkness, the boy's thoughts took hold.

He wondered if Nana had realized how much it scared him the day she and Senri left him in the flooded lake. They'd been taking a nap, and before he knew it a nightmare had come around again. Suddenly he'd been shocked awake but the nightmare was still going. He hadn't known what to do. If his anima powers had instinctively kicked in, there was no telling what might have happened next. His next thought had been, Can they swim? Because, truthfully, he didn't know. He'd never asked before, actually. Never needed to.

But at that moment, he'd had a few moments of screaming in his mind. No! They can't drown! Can't!

Then, of course, he covered it all up with looking pissed off when he saw them sitting there on the surface. Soon after that, he'd asked the girl if she could, in fact, swim.

Slowly, ever so painstakingly slowly, sleep engulfed the pale boy.

"Hey, Nana?"

"Huh?"

"Can you...Uh...Like, swim?"

She glanced at him with a small, girly half-smile. "Yeah, actually. I'm not very good, but Mama taught me how when I was kind of little. We used to go swimming in a little creek that ran through the forest in our town."

"Really?"

"Well, duh. Why would I lie about something like that?"

"Ah...I don't know...Just nevermind. Drop it, okay?"

Why did I...Snap at her like that?

He could hear his own voice echoing behind the now-frozen picture of him looking at Nana with an angry expression.

Was I really angry at her...?

"No." Husky said to himself, even though he couldn't see anything except the picture in front of him.

Liar.

"Wait, what?" The boy stopped looking at the picture and turned in a full circle. He stopped when he'd done a 180.

And there, standing before him, was himself.

Just shorter. Smaller. A younger version with cold, sad eyes that were filled with hate for the world and the people in it.

"You were angry." It said coldly. "At her. More-so at yourself. You were jealous."

"I wasn't!" Husky was taken aback by his younger self's words. What on earth was it-?

"You were! You were jealous that she knew how to swim! Jealous that she could get in the water and not have to worry about turning into some kind of monster that the whole world hates! You were jealous because one of her parents took the time to teach her how to do something needed in life! Something she'd never have to worry about being picked on over!"

The older blue-haired boy's breath hitched. He took a step back, only to find there was nothing solid behind him.

His younger self walked towards him, hate flaring off it in waves. But when it reached Husky, it had morphed into something he hated more than himself. Hated even more than water or being scared.

Because the woman that stood before him was the number one reason he'd been the most frightened in his entire life.

Standing there was the woman who tried to kill him.

"No one needs you here. Stupid, incompetent boy! You are nothing but in the way! Just get out of everyone's hair and die!"

And with that, she pushed him hard in the chest.

And he fell...

SPLASH!

Staring up, he wondered why he wasn't the one dying. The one engulfed in water. His mind was distant; his vision was foggy. Why was Nana screaming silently like that? Reaching for him? It was as if she was trying to push through glass; she was pounding on the surface.

Husky opened his eyes a little wider. He wasn't moving; wasn't trying to. What if he was the one drowning?

Wait...That made no sense.

He stared up at his pale hand, which had somehow managed to be floating up above his head. Like it was reaching for the heavens, for the sky, for Nana...

And another absent thought floated through his mind: now he was wishing that damn glass plate surface wasn't there. Wouldn't it be so much more fun if Nana was down there too? Maybe? Heh. He doubted she'd come there to join him though. Yeah, right. Why would she ever want to be there in the dark anyway?

But he took one look into her face and gasped. Then the burning-water feeling rushed in again; chilling him inside-out and numbing his limbs. He tried to breathe but just more liquid rushed in and reached for her in agony.

Nana!

He desperately wanted her to grab his hand; to stop beating on the surface and to go beneath it. His vision was starting to blur. Was he really going to die there? His ears were ringing, and the pressure in his head made him feel as if he was going to explode.

Nana...

His fingers twitched, and slowly, ever so painstakingly slowly, his eyes began to slide shut...

"Husky."

The voice was quiet and small, but enough to jerk the boy out of his 'sleep' and back into reality.

"Husky, are you okay?"

He couldn't find any words. He just stared at her lightly-tanned face and into her emerald-green eyes, his own wide and horror-stricken.

Nana was sitting over him, face hanging feet above his own and gold locks reaching the ground. She had her hands on his shoulder and she stared deeply into the ocean-blue depths in silence. His voice was still missing, and his thoughts were too crazy for him to even think. All he could do was lay there and stare at her while listening to the echoes of his nightmare ring through his ears as the thumping of his ever-growing headache lacked to cease.

Her gaze softened, and without another word she took her hands from his shoulder.

A sudden thought shot through his head with a pang, and even though the headache was excruciating, it made his heart hurt worse.

She wasn't leaving him, was she?

That was cleared up fairly quick, though, when he felt the soft, warm skin of her arm slide behind his neck, and the weight of her head replacing her hands. Her other hand quietly laid itself where his heart's frantic beating was starting to slow down, beat by beat.

Husky's tired eyes didn't move from their position as they looked on into the sky, in the exact place where Nana's eyes had been staring at him only moments before. But his gaze softened and his eyelids slid half-closed. Ever so slightly, his head tilted and he breathed in the scent of her hair. The color of his pale skin now completely took over his eyes, but the dark wasn't so cold anymore.

Yes, it was then definite that the pros outweighed the cons.

But he couldn't hear the next three words that escaped the girl's lips, because the boy had already fallen asleep.

Well. Frankly, I thought that this was a pretty good contribute to the small number of actual Plus Anima stories that reside here on FanFiction! :] I'm actually kind of proud of my little one-shot, and it only took me a little bit of time to write it out. x'D I was inspired last night when I was rereading volume three. I needed it because Senri is on the cover, and my friend wants fan art. Lawl. xD

But no matter! Thanks for reading this! :] Okay, now I have a question. Is it Nasky? Huna? X] I mean, really. I kind of like Nasky, myself, but...

Look at

the poor

POOR,

thing!

It is a

lonely,

little

speech bubble,

keep it com-

pany?

:]