Summary: Nana wants to see Cooro's smile again.

Set post-volume ten.

Written for Masu Trout for Parallelsfic.

Aftermath

By Dark Ice Dragon

Nana bit her lip as she stared at Cooro's back, fidgeting with a sleeve cuff. Kilter was small in the distance behind them, but she could still hear the thundering wingbeats of the hundreds of crows and she glanced back, expecting a cloud of black feathers to be following them.

There wasn't, the sky a dusky blue as the sun set; it didn't stop her from checking every couple of minutes. Just in case. She didn't want the crows to come back and try and take Cooro away again. She'd gotten used to his laughter, how he made Husky flail, his presence.

"Nana!" Husky called out, resignation written all over his face. "You're falling behind!"

Nana shook her head, trying to rid herself of those thoughts as she hurried after her friends. Cooro was with them now, with his anima.

His smile though, hadn't come back. Oh, he smiled, but it wasn't as quick, and it didn't last as long, sometimes falling as soon as he thought no-one was looking. Nana knew the others had noticed as well, keeping a closer eye on him, trying to do what they could to see his smile again.

She just wondered if it was a sign that Cooro hadn't brought his wings out since Kilter.

xOx

They'd found a small lake they could camp beside and Husky was busy trying to catch fish while Senri gathered berries in the surrounding foliage. Nana puttered around the camp, making sure they had enough firewood to last the night, double-checking their cover didn't have any holes and wouldn't break.

Cooro was sitting on the bank, his arms wrapped around his knees, shouting encouragement to Husky whenever the other boy broke the surface.

"You could help you know!" Husky yelled, waving his make-shift spear above his head.

Cooro only laughed but didn't shout anything back. His laugh was lower than usual, sounding forced, and Nana knew Husky felt the same when he continued to flail, trying to make Cooro join in. Nana dithered for a second before deciding what to do. Cooro always seemed happier after flying…

She went over to Cooro's side, smiling. "I want to help Husky with catching fish but…" She trailed off. "I haven't done it before; can you show me?"

Cooro blinked up at her. "Nana?" he said uncertainly, confusion written all over his face.

She knew what he was asking though. Her fingers twisted her sleeve cuff as she spoke. "Yeah. I thought about it and…this anima's protected me all this time. I would have never been this happy without it. I-" She stumbled over her words. "I wouldn't have met you all if it wasn't for my anima." Nana smiled at him, glad she was able to say it. "So, can you teach me how to do this?"

Cooro stared at her, and he didn't say anything for a few seconds before he smiled brightly. "Okay!" The time it took for his wings to come out was slower than usual but he'd called on his anima; that meant something, didn't it?

"You just have to herd them towards Husky with your shadow," Cooro told her when they were both in the air. Nana watched him carefully, trying to mimic him. Flying over water felt different from flying over ground, but Nana couldn't place why, she just knew that it was. Altogether, flying wasn't hard; what was hard was keeping an eye on Cooro to make sure they didn't collide every couple of seconds, and trying to seethe fish after the silt had been disturbed, giving the water a murky, dirty look.

Husky was able to spear one but he wasn't successful at the next couple of times. Nana wasn't sure if he was doing that on purpose, to give Cooro a distraction, but she still got frustrated anyway.

"We keep sending the fish your way but you don't catch any of them!"

Husky scowled and splashed water up at her. "You're sending too many!" he argued. "I can't target one!"

Nana flailed. "Can't you just throw it at the group?"

"No!" Husky said as he grabbed his own hair. "They swim out the way if you do that; you have to focus on one!"

"Argh!" Nana span around to start again. She glanced at Cooro from the corner of her eyes; he was smiling and laughing at them, gliding across the water, searching for more fish. Okay, good. But now they had to keephim smiling, and get dinner. Maybe they did have to do something different to catch the fish…

Frowning, she stared at one particular part of the lake, trying to see if there was a school of fish there. She saw a flash of scales and shrieked.

There was an explosion of water where her soundwave hit and she jerked back in a panic. Her soundwave had never done that before!

"Nana!" Husky spluttered right at the centre of the explosion. "Watch where you do that!"

Oops. "Ack! I thought you were a fish!"

"I am a – huh?" Husky stopped yelling and looked down. Nana tried to see what he was looking at. What was wrong? Was he paralysed? Was she going to have to carry him to the bank?

Something bobbed up next to Husky and Nana was just able to recognise what it was before two more fish rose to the surface, stunned.

"Oh, it worked!" Nana said, her eyes wide and raising a hand to her mouth.

Husky shot her a glare but didn't say anything as he collected the fish, tying them up with a reed.

Cooro grinned at her as she came up next to him. "Great job!" he told her, going around in circles above the lake.

Maybe she should have just kept trying to herd the fish towards Husky instead of cutting it short. Nana frowned as she tried to think, swooping close to the lake's surface before rising again.

"What're you doing?" Cooro asked her as he glided next to her.

Nana nearly went headfirst into the lake. She was able to catch herself before she did, but one of her wingtips smacked into the water, splashing her dress.

"Um, flying?" she said when she straightened herself out.

"Do you like flying now?" Cooro asked curiously, his expression a little distant.

"Yeah," she said instantly, smiling. "I never just flew before, it always had to be for something. And…I didn't like revealing myself as a +anima." Which he knew but she'd never said that out loud before.

Cooro didn't say anything on the way back to the bank. Husky had already prepared most of the fish when they got back and there were piles of berries sitting close to the fire. In the centre of the pile though were…

"Apples!" Cooro cheered as he dived for them, nearly scattering the berries.

Seeing the absolutely delighted smile on Cooro's face as he munched on one, Nana wanted to cover her face with her hands.

Apples. Of course they were the best thing to make Cooro smile.