AN: Whee! A gift for cause she was the only one who bothered reviewing my last story. Again, this is slash, so if that doesn't appeal to you, I suggest you leave.

The young boy stood in front of the door to Nova's room, sweat running down his brow as he braced himself, fist raised in the perfect position to start knocking. The flat metallic slab in front of him was all that stood between him and… well why exactly was he here again?

It's not like Shugazoom will end if he doesn't do it, after he began to lower his hand, Chiro caught himself and cursed under his breath. He took a deep breath to steady himself, this was a far more daunting task then it should be, considering everything he had gone through in the past years. All he had to do is knock; after that, it would be easy.

And yet, as he told himself this, he was still standing there, stiff as a board; although far more sweaty than one. He was able to tell himself that, less than three years ago, he was able to ask Jinmay out no problem, and this was way smaller than that.

Well, actually, it wasn't; in fact it could easily be argued to be larger, but telling himself the truth probably wasn't going to be doing him any favors.

And thus, after four minutes of standing at the door, looking like a complete idiot, Chiro knocked. Three times, in rapid sucession.

"Yeah?" The muffled voice of Nova called out behind the door, Chiro subconsciously searching her voice for any sign of stress that would give him reason to leave, "Who is it?" He had no such luck however, Nova sounded perfectly fine.

"Uh, it's Chiro." He called out, somewhat meekly, although in his current state it was all he could muster.

"Oh, hey, come on in!" She responded happily.

The door slid open smoothly and Chiro stepped in, doing his best impression of a boy who wasn't completely ready to run back to his room, where he could put the problem off for another day. "Hey, Nova."

The yellow monkey was sitting on a bean bag chair, holding a book. "Hey, what's up?" Were Chiro more attentive at the moment he may have noticed that the book was upside down, and that there appeared to be a stuffed animal sticking out of her closet.

As it was, Chiro was content to merely sit down across from Nova on her other beanbag chair, "Um, I wanted to talk with you."

Nova placed her book down, "Really?"

Chiro nodded, "Yeah, I mean, you've kind of been like the older sister I never had, so…"

Nova raised an eyebrow, starting to take notice of Chiro's tense appearance, "About what?"

Chiro shifted awkwardly in the seat, "I wanted to get something off my chest, and you seemed to be the best candidate."

Now Nova was confused, "Not Antauri?"

Chiro gulped, "I'm… afraid about how he might take it."

Nova's eyes widened, if Chiro didn't want Antauri to know… "Chiro, you're not in trouble right?"

He shook his head, "No! Well, kind of, I mean, I haven't done anything…" Chiro looked to the floor and sighed dejectedly. "I'm so messed up."

Nova looked at Chiro sadly, wondering if she should call Antauri in, "Chiro what-"

"I think I'm gay." He mumbled.

The yellow monkey stared at Chiro in silence for a moment, "What?" She stated, very confused.

Chiro looked up at her, "I like guys okay!?" He exclaimed.

"Whoa, Chiro, calm down." She quickly made her way over to Chiro, who seemed to be on the edge of crying. "It's okay, I'm not judging. I just thought… you and Jinmay seemed to like each other for a while there."

Chiro smirked sadly as he thought about the pink haired gynoid that he had broken up with last year, "Yeah, I thought so too, but we broke up for a reason. I think I just confused liking a girl my age for the first time, with being in love. Or I don't know, maybe I'm bi and we just fell out of love."

Nova sat down next to Chiro, "So what makes you think you like men then?"

Chiro chuckled, somewhat honestly, which Nova was glad to see. "Trust me, I… know, okay?"

Nova smirked at that, before frowning again, "Chiro, it's not that I don't appreciate that you came to me with this first, but… why? You know Antauri wouldn't care."

Chiro's spirits fell back down, "It's… not just that. I know because I have a crush on someone."

"What, who? Oh, no Chiro don't tell me it's one of those two jerks who used to bully you!"

"What?! No! Shuggazoom no!" He shook his head in disgust, "Although, that would probably be easier."

"Huh?"

Chiro looked ashamed, "Promise you won't tell."

Nova placed her right hand over her heart, this was obviously very important to Chiro, "Swear."

Chiro took a deep breath, "I have a crush on Otto."

To an outside observer, one would wonder if Chiro found the ceiling of his bedroom especially interesting that evening.

He supposed he should be very glad; after all, not only had he been able to tell someone the truth finally, Nova had promised, albeit somewhat wearily, to keep his secret crush safe.

He had acknowledged and agreed with everything she had said, he was barely of legal age, Otto was far older than him, and they were two different species (although he was sorely tempted to point out her brief crush back on the planet with all the cat people).

But, he couldn't bring himself to care. Oh, the logical part of his brain thought the entire thing was stupid, no doubt, but the logical part of the brain rarely had a say in the realm Chiro currently found himself in.

As it was, his stupid crush was just that, a stupid crush.

It was then that Chiro heard a knocking at his door. "Hello?"

He wondered if it was Nova, checking up on him, it had been a few hours since they talked, and she might be worried about him.

"Can I come in?" A cheerful voice responded.

Of course. Of course it would be Otto, because whatever deities ruled over the universes had a sick sense of humor. Or, who knows, maybe Nova had broken her promise, and now Otto was coming to laugh at him.

Chiro shook himself out of his stupor and sat up, Nova wouldn't do that. So why was Otto here?

"Come in."

"Hey Chiro!" The green monkey practically bounded into the room when the door opened, wearing his usual smile that infectiously spread happiness wherever he went; it almost worked on Chiro too, enough so, at least, that he was able to put on a fairly convincing fake.

"Hey Otto, what are you doing here?"

Otto pouted, adorably, which Chiro noted, was his usual state of being, "What? I can't just decide to pop in on my friend? I need to have a reason?"

Chiro laughed, "You know what I meant."

Otto shrugged, "Well, to be honest, I do have a reason this time." He hopped up onto the bed.

Chiro swung his legs over the side of his bed, "And what would that be?"

Otto's smile seemed to shrink a bit, and the green monkey seemed to become embarrassed as he sat himself next to Chiro. "Well, how do I put this? Did I do something bad Chiro?"

"What? What do you mean?" Bubbles of worry began to flick across Chiro's thoughts.

Otto frowned, and he straightened the bed sheets under him, "Well, you've just seem really down lately. And over the last few weeks, you've been sort of avoiding me. I didn't accidentally say something, did I?"

"Of course not, you didn't do anything like that!" The last thing Chiro wanted Otto to think was that he disliked him.

"Then what is it?" Otto asked. "Is something bugging you Chiro?"

Chiro sighed, "You could say that." That and quite a bit more in fact.

Otto smiled, "Well, you can always tell me, you know that right? I always find talking to other people helps me with my problems. It's what I did all those years ago after I tried asking Gibs-" Otto suddenly stopped talking and quickly covered his mouth, as a rich blush filled his cheeks.

"What?" Chiro was curious; had he and Gibson gotten into a bad fight years ago, before he had joined the team, maybe? Even to that day Gibson would occasionally snap at Otto, something that always made him a little angry. Maybe there was a reason behind it. "What happened between you and Gibson?"

Otto was clearly embarrassed, and a little nervous as well, it seemed. "Um… we kind of all agreed not to tell you when you joined. We figured it might freak you out." Otto seemed to mull this over for a second, "But I guess you've been a member of the team for so long, and we're such good friends, it's kind of worse to not tell you, especially if you ask about it. Promise you won't tell the others I told you?"

Chiro nodded, and Otto continued, a mild blush still on his face. "Well, you see, a while back, I kind of… liked Gibson."

"What?" Chiro did his best to keep his voice down, but it still came out fairly loud.

Otto ignored this and continued, "Yeah. I asked him out, but he said no, and we kind of had a big fight about it." He frowned, "That wasn't too long before Mandarin betrayed us."

Chiro was in a state of near disbelief, "So- so you're…?"

Otto nodded, and put on a big grin, one that didn't quite reach his eyes, "Yup, I'm gay Chiro. Just another weird thing about me huh?"

Chiro shook his head, vehemently disagreeing, "That's not weird Otto. There are plenty of people like that."

Otto shrugged as he swung his feet idly, "I guess so."

Chiro frowned, "Why didn't Gibson like you?"

Otto sighed as he laid back on Chiro's bed, "Well, apparently he's asexual. But he also said that even if he wasn't, I'm way too childish for him."

"That's not true." Chiro argued.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you aren't childish. Would a child be able to keep the robot up and running? And yeah, maybe you're a little goofy sometimes, but someone on this team needs to be able to tell a joke. Shuggazoom knows Sprx can't."

Otto laughed, "Did you hear him try to tell that joke to Nova last night? The one about the five moons of Parzon?"

Chiro snickered, "Oh man, I don't think I've ever heard a joke so badly killed!"

The two laughed about this for a moment, before Otto sighed again, "So you really don't think I'm childish?

Chiro shook his head, "No, I think you are… light hearted, and funny, and always trying to help everyone. If Gibson thinks that's childish, well then he can go be an old fart, I'd rather be a child alongside you Otto."

Otto beamed, a slight blush on his face, "Thanks Chiro, that means a lot." He suddenly seemed to realize something, "Oh my gosh." He slapped his forehead, "Here I've been complaining to you about stuff that happened years ago, when I was supposed to be making you feel better!"

Chiro attempted to brush his concerns off, "It was nothing Otto."

Otto persisted, "No, tell me! It's only fair. After all that, I'm basically required to help you."

Chiro blushed, "It's stupid."

Otto stood up on the bed, and looked Chiro right in the face, "You'll only feel better if you get it off your chest."

Chiro was silent for a few moments as Otto stared straight into his blue eyes, and him back into the black, glossy orbs. He sighed, "I realized that I'm bi."

Otto's eyes widened, "You did?!"

Chiro nodded, "Yeah, and I also realized I've got a big crush on you." He smiled awkwardly, "You okay with that?"

Otto stayed silent for a moment, before slowly breaking out into an enormous smile and then pouncing on Chiro.

After Chiro's head hit the mattress, he opened his eyes to see Otto straddling on top of his chest, his face a few inches above his own. "You won't mind if I do this then."

And with that, Otto captured Chio's lips in a kiss. It was quick, their lips touched less than a second, and it was different, Jinmay's lips were metallic, but Otto's were soft and pliable, and seemed to have more of a spark to them, if that made any sense; Chiro immediately knew he had to have more.

Within another second, Chiro had grabbed the back of Otto's helmet and pulled him straight back to his lips. This one lasted longer, and Chiro moaned as their lips wrangled over each other, the sensation driving him wild. After about half a minute, Otto pulled back and grinned, "That was amazing Chiro."

Chiro giggled, "You thought so too huh?" He sat up and hugged Otto tightly, who returned the gesture. "You're so adorable Otto."

Otto snickered, "You aren't so bad yourself." As he pulled back for a moment, something caught his eyes. "Hey Chiro, can I ask you something?"

He nodded, "Sure, anything."

"Can I groom your hair?"

"Huh?"

Otto nodded, "Yeah, ya see it's kind of still in our instincts to do that, me and the rest of the team, even though we keep ourselves clean enough to not worry about it. And I've always wanted to do it to you, your hair seems so nice!"

Chiro regarded the wild mop upon his head as he glanced in a mirror across the room, 'nice' wasn't a word that often came up when describing it. "Um… I don't see why not?"

"Thanks!" And with that, Otto unceremoniously climbed atop Chiro and began combing his finger through his hair.

"Whoa!" The sudden shift in weight cause Chiro to fall back down onto the bed, yet Otto continued.

"Your hair is so soft Chiro! And it smells nice too, but not like shampoo, it smells like you."

Chiro blushed, he supposed he was to take that as a complement, "Thanks?"

In only a few moments, Chiro was very much enjoying the grooming too; without much to clean, it was basically a glorified scalp massage, and feeling Otto's fingers go through his hair felt very intimate. "Wow this feels great Otto!"

Otto smiled, "I'm glad you think so! It just feels so good to do this."

It continued that way for several minutes, at which point Otto had fulfilled his need, and Chiro told him that he was welcome to groom him whenever he felt like.

"So what now?" Otto asked.

"What do you mean?"

Otto looked slightly uncomfortable, "Well, what are we?"

Chiro smiled as he took Otto's hands into his own, "I'd really like to be boyfriends with you Otto."

Otto smiled as he gripped Chiro's hands, "So would I."