You Deserve to Know

A/N: Something I've been working on on and off for some time now. It started out because I took a ceramics class and really liked the idea of Cooro being a potter when he got older, but then my love of gayngst kicked in and I had to make it all touching and fluffy and adorable. It ends sort of abruptly, but, it sort of felt good to end it there. Right now it's a one-shot, but part of me wants to write another lemon for these two, so we'll see.

The wasn't beta'd so I expect there to be a few grammar problems.

Enjoy~

The whirl of the wheel quieted as Husky cried out in frustration.

"RRRGRR! Why can't I do this!" he snarled, shoving his petite hands into the sides of the collapsed sheets of red clay that used to make up the walls of his bowl.

"Ah, Husky! Stop!" Cooro gasped, almost in a panicked manner, halting his pottery wheel to reach over with his own clay-glopped hands to stop his friend from further destroying the collapsed creation. "Awwwww, you could've saved it! Only one side collapsed; you could've made it a saucer with a little spout!" The crow sighed a bit, eying the mess on Husky's wheel before turning back to his own.

Husky crossed his arms, smearing red clay all over them. "I'm not good enough to do that. How the hell do you make this look so easy?"

Cooro dunked his sponge into a pail of opaque red-orange water, then gently pressed it into the side of his perfectly intact, almost finished pot. He began pumping the foot pedal to start up his wheel again. "What do you mean?" he asked, letting the sponge smooth out the surface of the red clay as it span.

Husky threw an arm out at Cooro's pot. "You throw clay like it's as easy as walking down the street, and everything you make is perfectly formed! How the hell do you do that?" he snapped bitterly, reaching over to claw all his sticky, wet clay from the surface of the wheel.

"I dunno," the crow shrugged, dropping the sponge into the bucket. He moved to place his hands on either side of the wall to begin pushing it in to form the neck, only pausing his wheel for a second. "I just have fun with it." He glanced over at his fishy friend, smiling warmly. "You can just blob up that clay and try to make something else. There's lots of ways to make something out of it that don't involve throwing."

Husky huffed, dropping the sticky blob into the center of the wheel's plate so it stuck. No, he would throw something by the end of the day. Besides, the clay was too wet to make just anything anymore. The fish eyed the way Cooro was tenderly pushing the clay in while it span slowly, successfully making a smooth, proportioned pitcher neck. He hmph'd, then turned to his own mound.

He began pumping the foot pedal like he was using a spindle and a loom to weave together yarn, giving the potter's wheel a slow rotation. He dunked his right hand in his bucket of water, then began to morph the blob into a cone, occasionally rewetting his hand or grabbing his sponge. Husky glanced back at Cooro, who has stopped his wheel to properly pinch a dent in the rim of his pitcher to guide the liquid that would surely flow from it someday. He frowned, then turned back to his cone. He dug his index finger into the center like Cooro had showed him, creating the inner wall.

As Cooro had just finished using a special tool to cut a base into the bottom, there was a sudden whirr to his left followed by a shriek from Husky. As he turned to look, Husky's half-formed bowl ripped apart in pieces and was flung every which way as the wheel span out of control. Globs of red clay flew into everything in a 6 foot radius, and both Husky and Cooro had to shrink back from it to avoid getting hit in the face.

"Husky! Take your foot off the pedal!" Cooro yelled, staggering up from his seat. He quickly seized the fish by the waist and yanked him back off his stool, and they both tumbled into the floor. The motor's whirr slowly died down to a halt, and the clay stopped flying.

The two friends sat on the floor, Husky in between Cooro's legs with his back to the other boys chest, both a little dumbfounded. Husky was panting lightly from adrenaline, the skin underneath the little globs of clay stuck to his skin stinging gently from impact.

"…What just..?" he mumbled, reaching up to wipe his forehead with his arm, smearing more clay onto his skin.

"You ran the wheel too fast, and the wall of your bowl was so thin it just ripped apart, I think…" Cooro explained gently, nuzzling his chin comfortably into Husky's shoulder as he sat back against the wall behind him. Husky grumbled and flicked his hands at the floor, the water and clay still stuck to them flipping off onto the stone. He started to wiggle himself away from Cooro with an annoyed frown, but soon found himself seat-belted in place by a pair of partially clean forearms.

"Hey, it's not the end of the world," the crow cooed, pulling Husky's back against his chest comfortably, ignoring the slight squirming. He leaned in to rub his nose into the fish's cheek. "Besides, you can always try again. I could help you if you wanted."

Husky tried to shrug away from Cooro's face, a light pink flushing his normally pale cheeks. "I can do it myself," he snapped stubbornly, grabbing on to his companions arms to try and 'unbuckle' them from his waist. "Now let me up; I want to go punch something."

Cooro frowned. "I finished my pitcher, so we could do something more productive if you like~," he mumbled quietly at Husky's ear, tightening his grip on the boy between his legs.

"What? No!" Husky snarled, digging his fingernails into Cooro's arms to get them to release. "Senri and Nana are supposed to be back anytime now with the rest of the food from the market! Jeeze, you're always like this whenever we're alone. Is there ever going to be a time you don't try and do something perverted to me!"

The bird grinned and gave the boy a few pecks on the cheek. "I always feel like this around Husky; I can't help it," he hissed, moving his lips down into Husky's neck.

"Stop it, Cooro!" the fish barked, clearly annoyed as he tried to push the other male's face away with little luck.

"Kiss me and I will~" Cooro giggled, continuing to peck at Husky's neck and cheek.

Husky groaned heavily, taking a few moments before giving in, "Alright, alright! I'll kiss you, but you just get one!"

"Yay!" The crow grinned, throwing his arms up into the air in triumph. Husky took the opportunity to scramble forward out of the other teen's grasp. After standing, he grumbled and held out one of his still nasty hands.

"I'm not going to kiss you on the floor. I'm covered in enough garbage already," he explained to the confused expression on his best friend's face. Cooro, grinning again, wrapped his fingers around Husky's hand and swiftly pulled himself up. The fish looked away at where his ripped 'bowl' still sat on it's pottery wheel, a pink color flushing over his cheeks as Cooro gently wrapped his arms around his slender waist.

"C'mon, Husky," The bird +Anima smirked, leaning his head a bit to look at Husky's face. "You can't still be embarrassed about this after 2 years of being together."

Husky pursed his lips, brows furrowing. "I can if I want to be," he grumbled, gently circling his fingers around what he could of Cooro's biceps.

Chuckling gently, Cooro leaned forward and captured his lover's lips in a firm embrace. Having expected it to be just something short and sweet, the feeling of Husky eagerly trying to keep them connected pleasantly startled him. All too happy to oblige, Cooro pressed back with more passion, squeezing the fish +Anima closer against his torso. A gentle moan escaped Husky's busy lips, followed by a soft, warm tongue demanding entrance into Cooro's mouth. The crow, savoring his lover's unusual demands for attention, didn't even hesitate to let the boy in.

He became so lost in everything that he hadn't noticed Husky had let go of his biceps until something large, slimy and cold was pressed into his lower back and smeared down underneath the waistband of his beige shorts and into his undergarments. He found himself shrieking in surprise and tearing away from Husky, whose kiss-swollen lips curled into an amused grin to match his barking laugh.

Cooro, very disappointed he couldn't have been connected to the fish longer, reached behind him and scrape some of the nasty, wet, red clay from where Husky had smeared it on his skin, and immediately chucked it right into Husky's left eye.

The androgynous-looking male squealed and instinctively grabbed at the eye, vigorously peeling the offending goop from his lid. Sending a dark growl Cooro's way, he grabbed a handful of clay from his wheel and hucked it at the giggling crow.

Next thing they knew, the remains of Husky's failed bowl were being flung every which way as the two teenagers chased each other around the kitchen/living room combination of their cabin house. Red clay was thrown into the counter and the floors; even the ceiling had it's fair share of globby wet goop stuck to it. Shrieking and laughing echoed through the small, 3 bedroom house, even after Husky had tackled Cooro to the floor and began a wrestling match. The two had practically rolled all over the kitchen floor in their attempts to escape or keep the other down.

Cooro, as usual, finally took dominance once he forced Husky face first into the ground, straddled his hips, and pinned his wrists into the grouted stone tile. Both were panting heavily.

Husky grunted and weakly struggled in his companions hold, and Cooro's lips curled into a proud, triumphant grin.

He leaned over to Husky's ear. "I win again~"

"God dammit," Husky panted, whipping his head to one side to attempt a dark glare at Cooro's face.

Cooro didn't even have time to chuckle before a fierce and horrified wail filled the confines of the little house.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU TWO DO TO THE HOUSE?"

The two males looked up at the front door, which was wide open to reveal a frighteningly livid Nana, who was shoving her market bags hastily into the large arms of the tall, confused man behind her. Both Cooro and Husky felt the hairs on their neck stand on end.

Oh man they were toast.

"Nana!" Husky spoke quickly, shoving Cooro off his back and scrambling to his feet as a fierce blush began to stain his cheeks.

"Hi you guys!" Cooro chimed happily, carefully standing from where he'd toppled over.

The bat +anima was immediately upon them with a horrifying ferocity that sent both boys recoiling in fear. "COORO! WHAT is all over the house?"

Said crow +anima chuckled nervously, instinctively covering his head protectively. "Uhhmm… Clay..?"

"And WHY is there clay all over the house?" the short woman growled, fire ablaze in her eyes as she spoke.

"Well uhm-"

"Cooro, didn't I SPECIFICALLY tell you NOT to work on any pots today!"

"Yes…" Cooro's voice cracked as he spoke, glancing nervously over at Husky, who had begun to inch away from the scene.

"So WHY and HOW is there clay on the walls?"

"Uh-uh..," Cooro stammered. Thinking quickly, he reached out and swiftly yanked Husky back into the scene. "It's all Husky's fault! He wanted me to show him how to throw clay!"

Husky, startled by the movement and sudden accusation, emitted an upchuck of mindless noise that sounded a lot like a mixture of surprise and complete disbelief. "Only because YOU started working on that pitcher the baker in town commissioned you to make for him!" he countered sharply, swatting at the other male's hands.

Nana went to scream some more, but caught herself when she felt someone nudge her shoulder. She paused to look up at Senri, who was blankly staring towards the ceiling.

"Clay… Here, too," he mumbled, pointing up at a smaller blop of red clay that'd managed to attach itself to the plaster.

At the sight of the rest of the mess, Nana all but exploded into hundreds of tiny pieces.

"Fuck you."

"I said I was sorry, Husky! Can't you forgive me already?"

"No."

Cooro whined childishly and stomped his feet slightly before turning back to the wall he was scrubbing. "Hussskkkyyyyyyy~~! I don't like it when you're mad at me!"

"Well then maybe you should stop MAKING ME mad at you," Husky snapped hotly, dunking his scrub brush into the bucket of water next to his stool. He grumbled as he placed the brush atop a blob of clay on the wall and began scrubbing. "This isn't how I'd planned on spending my afternoon."

"You started it, ya know…" Cooro mumbled, pouting. He glanced sideways at his companion. "All I wanted was a simple kiss."

"There's no such thing as a free lunch," Husky replied hotly, flicking water at Cooro. "You didn't have to throw it back at me."

The crow pouted again, his face falling. "… You didn't have to put it there in the first place. It was rude," he mumbled under his breath, moving to scrub his part of the wall again.

Husky growled. "If you have something to say, say it to my face," he snapped, dropping his brush back into the bucket before turning to face the brunette.

Cooro blinked, then frowned. He set down his brush. "You're rude," he spoke simply, crossing his arms. "I haven't been able to be alone with you for awhile, so I just wanted a little kiss. But you went and smeared clay down my back. Then you blame getting in trouble on me?" He scoffed a little. "And 'no such thing as a free lunch'? We've been dating for two years! How come I can't do something like that without some kind of retaliation from you?"

The fish flushed, clearly taken aback and even a little offended by what was being told to him. He moved to respond, but was cut off.

"This isn't the first time, you know!" Cooro snapped, an uncharacteristically annoyed tone crossing his lips. "I've had to wait for your permission for everything since we agreed to go out! Do you know how frustrating it is for your boyfriend to shove you away whenever you go to give them a kiss? AND you act like everything we get in trouble for is my fault!"

"TOO MUCH TALKING NOT ENOUGH SCRUBBING!" Nana screeched from the other room, causing the two +Anima in the living room to jump and immediately scoop up their scrub brushes. They continued their scrubbing with newfound fervor, reminded that their lives were on the line.

For what felt like an eternity, the only noise in the room was the scraping of bristles on the walls and the squish of clay as it was cleaned up. There was an awkward tension in the air as they worked, and Husky felt like he was suffocating in it. He knew he was mostly at fault for the clay fight, and as fun as it was, he knew it was in poor taste to blame it all on Cooro. The crow was right; he was rude. Is rude, even.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" the fish apologized quietly as he cleaned. "I don't mean to act like that. It just sort of comes out."

Cooro huffed, but otherwise ignored Husky as he scooted down the wall to work on another spot.

Husky frowned. "I'm still nervous about us, Cooro," he admitted, pausing his scrubbing. "…That's all. I don't want to push you away. I'm just scared."

The crow blinked. "Why?" he asked, wiggling his brush around in his bucket as he finally glanced over at the other boy.

"… If the police find out…" Husky shrugged a little, scratching his head. "…I don't want to be separated from you, Cooro. And I'd be the one considered engaging in homosexual acts, because I'm on the bottom…"

Cooro blinked owlishly at Husky for a moment before standing. He turned to face his fidgety companion and frowned. "Husky, you don't HAVE to be on the bottom." He tilted his head. "And the police won't find out; we never do anything outside of the house."

The fish flushed a bright red at the suggestion, and quickly wiped at his nose to try and hide it. "….I don't mind being bottom…." He mumbled in a small voice, quickly turning back to the wall to busy himself in his embarrassment. "I'm just.. paranoid."

There was a short silence following Husky's admittance, which was interrupted when Cooro reached over and flicked water at the side of the silver-haired teen's face. The fish +anima squawked, rubbing his face and glaring at the grinning boy.

"You worry too much!" The crow giggled, dipping his hand back in his bucket. "Nothing's going to happen to us, I promise!"

"But you can't really say that; we don't know what could- HEY!" Husky snapped, taking a few steps away from his friend once he was pelted with water droplets again. He quickly reached into his own bucket and threw what he could of a handful of water at Cooro, who screeched happily and tried to dodge it.

Pretty soon the two teens were running around the living room, dodging splashes of murky clay-water and diving behind furniture. Their cries of fun and laughing shrieks overpowered warning yells from Nana, causing them to make more of a mess and forget that they were currently already on the female's 'to die painfully' list.

Their bliss was cut short when the bat +anima came screaming into the room, her long brown hair and grass-green eyes practically ablaze with fury.

"Fuck you."

"Okay fine, that one was my fault. But you have to admit it was fun."

Husky looked down at the floor of the septic irrigation ditch they were rerouting through the yard, then back at Cooro. "Unfortunately, THIS is not. This is very UNPLEASANT."

Cooro frowned, looking down at the actual fluids that had begun to leak through the dirt wall of the other ditch and trickle through the new one. "… Well, I also have to admit I didn't plan to spend the rest of the afternoon ankle-deep in this."

"Goddammit, there's nothing wrong with our septic storage! This is why I hate women; you can never manage to do something RIGHT when they're on their bleeds!" Husky all but snarled, digging his shovel into the ground. "Making us wade around in shit-water is NOT proper punishment for what we did!"

The fish started drastically when the crow came up behind him and buried his nose in the back of his neck. He quickly pulled away and looked back at his friend, an intense look of displeasure on his face.

"C'mon Husky, if we calm down and work without complaint she might let us back in when we're done," Cooro purred, otherwise ignoring Husky's recoil to wrap the boy in his arms and nuzzle behind his ear. Husky shrunk down into his shoulders at the feeling of the other male's nose on his hairline and grumbled darkly.

"If she doesn't let us back in I'm going to punch her in the face," he snapped, trying to resume his work while still in the crow's hold.

Cooro planted a kiss on the back of the teen's neck, a little smile on his lips. "That's mean, Husky. Nana's reasonable; she'll let us back in. And when she does…" He nipped at the left junction of Husky's neck and shoulder, then gave it a quick little lick before the other boy could shove him away. "I plan on having my way with you..~"

Husky rolled his eyes, wiggling out of his friend's hold. "Oh wow, such a romantic, sexy thing to say while we're standing in a literal stream of crap. I'm so turned on right now," he droned sarcastically, stuffing the shovel into the ground to pull up more dirt.

The crow giggled, grabbing up his shovel to continue helping extend the irrigation ditch.

It had gotten very dark and very cold by the time the two had finished their rerouting of the septic irrigation. Nana had calmed down - something Cooro and Husky knew had to have been the work of Senri doing something like letting her snuggle against him while she knitted – and when she saw how freezing and covered in unpleasantries they were, they were ushered into the house and into the bathroom. She went on about things like how she 'hoped [they] learned their lesson' while she drew them up a hot bath, and even had the nerve to tell them to 'stay quiet' if things ended up getting 'rowdy'. Husky was sure to throw a hairbrush at her as she shut the door.

Before the fish could even turn away from the door, he heard Cooro splashing into the tub and sighing contently as he sank into the warmth.

"Mmmm… Hurry up Husky, the water is perfect!" the crow chimed merrily, stretching out in the footed porcelain tub before dunking his head under. Husky turned towards the tub, but looked away in embarrassment when his companion surfaced. He frowned.

"I'm not going to get in while you're in there," he stated flatly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Cooro pouted as he pushed his thick hair back from his face. "Why not? We used to bathe together all the time!" He whined, grabbing onto his long tail of hair to pull it back behind him on the surface of the water.

Husky scoffed a little. "We were a lot smaller back then. I doubt we'd fit very well now."

"Sure we could fit! And I could wash your back for you," the crow spoke happily, leaning his arms against the side of the tub to try and coax Husky into joining him. "I know you don't want to sit around feeling all dirty until I'm done."

The fish +anima pouted, waiting a few moments before turning away. "Fine. But don't think this is going to happen very often." He tried to ignore Cooro's gleeful squee as he pulled his shirt over his head and began to unbuckle the belt on his work pants. His heart was already pounding; he'd done more than just be naked around Cooro, sure, but somehow he was still so nervous and embarrassed when it came down to it. Like the other boy would suddenly find something about him he didn't like, or that he'd get bored, or something equally distressing.

Once fully stripped down, he hesitated.

The worst part was always anticipating how Cooro would react to seeing his naked body. It'd always been a good reaction, but somehow Husky always thought about how one day Cooro might look at him and shrivel his nose in disgust, like he did whenever Nana tried to feed him cauliflower.

Husky turned around.

He could feel his face heat up when Cooro's chocolate eyes appraised his form in awe, gazing up and down and around his body like he was a piece of art. He could practically feel the orbs caressing his smooth legs as they took their time on his thighs, then down his knees, then on his calves.

Finally, the crow sat back against the tub and looked down at the water with a frown on his pretty, cork lips.

"Maybe you're right. We should probably take separate baths."

The silver-haired boy's pounding heart almost stopped entirely before it fell into his intestines. He could already feel his eyes beginning to sting. He opened his mouth and gaped a few times before calmly crouching down to gather his clothes again.

"….O-oh…" he mumbled, pushing some hair behind his ear.

Cooro blinked at the distress in Husky's voice, and looked over. He gazed at the other boy's face as he scooped up his shirt, and when he spotted the moisture at the corners of his bright blue eyes, he gasped.

"No! No, Husky, that's not what I meant!" he babbled quickly, leaning heavily against the side of the tub to try and grab onto the other male before he ran off. "I mean, your legs are so long and slender and pretty, and since I'm taller than you I don't think we'd fit!"

"It's okay, Cooro, you don't have to make excuses," Husky replied in as steady a voice as possible, standing straight to pad towards the door. "I'll just go and wait for you to be done."

"Husky!" Cooro spoke urgently, nearly lunging from the tub to grab a hold on Husky's wrist. "Husky, wait! You know that's not what I meant!" He was almost pleading, his eyes wide and his face plastered in worry. He pulled the upset boy back towards the tub, trying to turn him around in the process. When he wasn't met with resistance, he quickly stood up the rest of the way up and pulled the teen into an almost clingy hug. "Fine, okay, we can try and take a bath together."

"…Just forget it," Husky mumbled, letting his arms dangle by his sides instead of holding on to Cooro's wet shoulders as he was forced to lean over the edge of the tub.

"You're beautiful," the crow stated suddenly, quietly, as he buried his face into Husky's neck. "You've got this amazing drive to do things, and you don't take other people's crap, and you're absolutely everything I'm not, and I'm still so completely head over heels in love with you sometimes I don't know what to do with myself."

The light-eyed teen only blinked as Cooro began to rattle off all this nonsense, his eyes wide in mild surprise and confusion.

"I love it when you blush, and I love it when you try and cover up your real feelings with bad excuses, and I love it when I get to pull you close and just be with you," the brunette babbled, desperate in convincing Husky that he needed to try and stop being so insecure. "I love how you're healthy but still so thin, and how you're just short enough that I can kiss your forehead without moving, and I love the way your skin feels under my fingers, and when we're connected, I feel like a hand who found that one glove that fits like no other glove will."

Once the topic of his physique was brought to light, Husky's face lit up a bright red and his heart sped. It was painfully obvious how his nervousness and paranoia got him insecure and, unfortunately, emotional when it came to Cooro's feelings, but…

"Shut up," he mumbled, embarrassed, but somewhat confident now. "I get it."

He carefully pushed himself out of the other boy's hold and stepped into the warm water. Cooro's face brightened drastically, and he quickly moved to sit back down and get comfortable. Husky frowned, and after pondering many different ways of trying to sit in the small tub with his friend, he finally placed himself between Cooro's thighs and leaned back so the top of his head was nestled comfortably under the crow's chin. His knees were sticking up out of the water, but, he was already so relaxed he didn't really mind.

Cooro chuckled merrily as Husky situated himself, and gave the other male a peck on the top of his head once he was settled. He wrapped him up in his arms and snuggled him impossibly closer, all kinds of happiness radiating off his body.

"…You don't have to name all those things you.. love about me… you know.." Husky mumbled after the comfortable, warm silence that followed their snuggling, his eyes focused on where he was cleaning out the underside of his nails. "You just… have to say 'I Love You' and I feel better…"

Cooro smiled brightly, nuzzling his face into Husky's hair. "But I feel like I don't tell you everything enough," he mumbled contently, tightening his grip. "And you deserve to know."

Husky, still flushed, tilted his head back against Cooro's collar bone to look up at him, his lips parted slightly as he did his best to see the other boy's face properly. He lifted one of his hands out of the water and placed it on the back of the crow's head, then pulled him down into a soft, emotion-filled kiss. After a few moments they parted, and Husky looked back down at the water.

"…. If something ever happened to you, I would become this lifeless shell of a person until the heartbreak killed me," the fish mumbled, wrapping his arms over Cooro's. After a few moments where the brunette was surely confused, Husky looked back up at him and smiled softly. "… You deserve to know."

Cooro blinked a bit, then smiled and leaned over to give the boy another sweet kiss.

"… I love you too."