Author's Notes: Sorry, just noticed I messed up in the last chapter – Nana has green eyes, not light brown. Also, I apologize for making Nana so out of character in the last chapter. I'm not happy with their fight myself and will probably rewrite at some time (when I figure out how), but I wanted to continue with the story. Also, since I don't think I mentioned it, this story will become a Husky/Nana at some point. There will be no Husky/OC pairings with any merman. Thank you for reading and please review, even if it's only to point out a mistake on my part.

Disclaimer: Don't own +Anima.

Between Husky and Nana, dinner was far more subdued than usual.

Husky was alarmingly quiet, at least Prince Lee thought so. The impression he'd gotten from the child's earlier interaction with his friends was more of a hot-head then the silent, brooding type. Something was definitely on his mind as he ate without really seeing his dinner.

Nana was just as quiet, and obviously sulking over their fight earlier. Every now and then she would glance towards Husky and open her mouth to say something, then quickly shut it and turn to staring at her food.

Cooro kept the conversation going, continuously asking Lee questions and telling stories of their own. He kept asking Husky or Nana for their opinion, trying to get them to join in, but it was hopeless. The two obviously needed some time.

And it was quite obvious the large Kim-un-Kur, Senri, never really said much. He looked concerned about Husky and Nana, but didn't seem to think it was a big problem.

After dinner, Lee said farewell and that he'd visit them again tomorrow morning. He thought he'd try get Cooro on his side about Husky coming with him for a while to learn more about fish "+anima", but a passing comment about the idea had the bird-child's eyes going huge and alarmed, so he quickly changed the subject.

Lee left for the night. Husky, Senri, and Cooro went to their room, and Nana to hers.

The next morning, Husky got up early. He hadn't slept well, still feeling bad about his fight with Nana. He frowned, climbed out of bed, and nudged Cooro.

"Hmm? Whassup?" mumbled Cooro, still pretty much asleep.

"Do you have any wire, and maybe some cord or string?"

"Yeah. My bag…" Cooro mumbled, gesturing limply at his own bag on the floor. "Help yurself…" he turned over and was snoring lightly in seconds.

Husky pulled out what he needed from Cooro's bag, then went over to his own bag and pulled out a small knife and the pouch of river rocks. Nana had some neat little tools he could've used, but he didn't want to talk to her until after her apology gift was done.

He fixed his bed, then sat on it and spread out everything in front of him. A hairpin or anything like that would probably be too tricky on his own, and he didn't want to ask for help this time. But a pendant he could probably do. He set to curling and fitting the wire as best he could around one of the larger gems.

After a while, he started getting the hang of it. He could use the edge of his knife to bend the wire in the right direction, then twist it with his fingers to the shape he wanted. He managed to make a pretty sort of cage fitting around a large green stone, then set to work on setting some smaller blue and yellow stones around it. He didn't really know how it would come out, but was pretty satisfied with it so far.

He was at it for hours, barely even noticing when Senri and Cooro woke up and started getting ready. They soon left for breakfast.

Nana, wanting to make peace, came to check on him when he never showed up at the breakfast table. The door was open, so she went on in.

There was Husky, sitting cross-legged on his bed, fiddling with something small in his hands, a large handful of pretty stones sitting in front of him on the blanket.

"Husky? You didn't come to breakfast," began Nana timidly.

He obviously hadn't noticed her, as at the sound of her voice he jumped nearly a foot and fell off the bed, the little object in his hands falling to the ground. Nana picked it up and held it up to look at it.

"GIVE IT BACK!" cried Husky, diving forward and snatching it from her.

"Sorry!" yelped Nana, taking a step back.

She leaned forward as Husky quickly snatched up the stones on the bed and shoved them all in a little pouch, along with the little wire-wrapped stone.

"Did you make that? It's really pretty," she began, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Y-yeah."

"What is it? Jewelry? Are you going to wear it?"

"It's…" Husky suddenly found himself at a loss for words and fumbled with the pouch and the tools he'd been using. Rather than admit it was a gift, and for HER at that, he resorted to ducking the question entirely.

"It's none of your business, Nana!" he said quickly, blushing and not meeting her eyes.

Nana took a step backwards, her hands clenching her dress.

"Why do you always say that?" she asked, the hurt plain in her voice.

"Look it's just… Not now, okay?"

"Is it so hard to talk to me lately? Am I in the way?"

"Not now, Nana! I'll be in for breakfast in a minute."

"No, Husky! I need to know!" Her voice suddenly turned desperate. "I really, really need to know!"

"WHY? Just leave it be!"

"Because I like you!" she said.

"Leave me alone!" Husky retorted, then froze as what she said actually registered. Had he heard her right? Had she said… what he thought she'd said?

Her face was stricken and pale, and it took Husky a moment to remember what he'd just told her. Oh, no! Wait!

Nana's green eyes filled in tears and she ripped off her flower pendant, throwing it at him.

"FINE! See if I care!" she shouted, running out the door, nearly crashing into Lee as she bolted down the hall to her own room.

"No no no no NO!" growled Husky, sitting on the floor, his hands fisted and grinding into his temples, as if trying to punish himself. "That is NOT what I meant! Why does she have to choose NOW to be such a girl?"

He looked down at her flower pendant, then gently picked it up off the floor and stared at it, his own eyes filling in tears of frustration and pain.

She gave back the pendant. Did that mean… he didn't have a chance anymore? Had he really gone too far?

She should know him better than that, right? She should KNOW that he didn't mean it when he said things like that. Hadn't she been the one to explain that to Cooro? To come after him when he was being a stubborn pain?

"I get it," said Prince Lee, leaning in the doorway, a slight smile on his face.

Husky quickly wiped his eyes and glared over at the cocky red-haired prince.

"Girl problems, right? That's probably why you were so defensive about me thinking you might be a girl."

"That not why! And I don't like her!"

"Sure you don't, Husky. Just keep telling yourself that and sending her running out the room crying. You know, I don't usually care about anyone not a fish-man, but that was a pretty sorry sight."

"WHY are you even HERE?" demanded Husky, getting to his feet.

"I told you yesterday. I want you to visit my kingdom."

"Oh, shut up!"

"It would get your mind off things."

"Yeah, right!" was the sarcastic response.

"Do you really want to go out there and face her before working things out in your own head?"

Husky frowned, not able to reply to that.

"Come on, just for a couple days. You and your girlfriend will both get some time to cool off and think things over, maybe figure out if you really want to like each other that way, or if you'd be happier just being friends."

"I don't…"

"Just a couple days. Aren't you the least bit curious about a fish-man kingdom?"

"… Okay," answered Husky softly, after a moment's silence.

The prince's face lit up, though the response had barely been whispered. "Wonderful!"

"But I have to tell them first."

"Of course, I'll wait outside the inn for you."

Husky went down to the breakfast table to grab something quick and tell Cooro and Senri.

"Lee knows some other fish +anima, but they're kind of shy and live underwater. He said he'd like me to meet them, and they sound pretty cool…"

Cooro's eyes were wide. "You're leaving?" he cried out.

"Just two days! I'll be right back!" quickly added Husky, fidgeting. "We were planning on staying about that long in this town anyway, right?"

Cooro sulked, but then sighed. "If you really want to, Husky. We'll be waiting for you." He looked up, his dark eyes meeting Husky's, strangely full of determination. "And if you don't come back, we're coming to get you," he said.

Senri nodded. "See you," he said simply, taking another bite of the pastry he was eating.

"Okay. Bye, guys. I have to say goodbye to Nana, then I'm off."

Husky left the table and walked ever so slowly down the hall, changing his mind at the last second and running to fetch his stuff from the room. When he had everything, only then did he take a deep breath and walk down to her room.

He heard sobbing even through the door, and it took everything he had in him to knock.

There was a shuffling sound and the sobbing lessened. After a moment, there were light footsteps and the door swung open, revealing a hopelessly disheveled Nana.

Before he could say anything, the door closed again.

"Go away."

"I am, Nana."

"… What?"

"I'll be going with Lee to visit some fish +anima. I'll be back in two days."

"Oh… Okay. Goodbye. I… I do hope you have fun."

"Err, yeah. Thanks. See you."

Husky turned to leave, and actually was halfway down the hall, before he frowned and took the flower pendant from his pocket. He rushed back and hung the necklace from her doorknob.

"I'm sorry, Nana," he whispered, unaware that she was still leaning against the other side of the door and could hear him. "I think I like you too."

Nana took too long to react, almost half an hour in fact, and Husky was long gone by the time she jerked open the door and ran after him. She didn't even see her necklace until she came back, realizing she'd missed him. When she did, she smiled excitedly at it and slipped it back around her neck, cupping the flower pendant and holding it close to her face.

Author's Note: Hope that wasn't too clumsy, and I think this 'fight' scene worked out a little better. I have next to no experience including any romance in my stories, so I apologize if I messed up and promise to do better when/if ever I rewrite this story. Next chapter, the fish-man kingdom! Thanks for reading and thank you thank you thank you to my reviewers!