Work Text:
Cooper knocks quickly on the wooden door of Joko's house, flinching at the sound of thunder cracking loudly behind him. Fidgeting nervously as he waits for the door to open, he rocks back and forth on his feet.
The door creaks open, and Joko pokes his head out. "Who is it?"
"Me, Cooper," Cooper says, "let me in, the storm is really fuckin' bad and I don't think making a run for my base is a good idea."
Joko pushes the door, holding it open for Cooper to hurry inside before closing it behind them.
"The hell were you even doing to get caught out there, dude?" Joko asks.
"To be completely honest," the fish hybrid laughs, "I had a hit on you. But I can't really worry about that right now."
"Of course," Joko replies with an amused snort.
Another loud crack of thunder outside, this time just barely missing Joko's house, so the sound echoes loudly through the walls. Cooper jumps slightly, already shivering from the rain soaking his clothes, making him look more like a scared wet cat than a fish.
(It's a little funny, Joko thinks, but then he feels bad.)
"You can stay over," Joko says, "I don't mind."
Cooper smiles gratefully. "Thank you, man," he says with a sigh of relief.
"You look ridiculous like that," Joko vaguely motions to Cooper, "soaking wet and shivering like a chihuahua."
"Hey, hey, what the hell did I do to warrant this bullying?" Cooper sticks his tongue out.
"It's not bullying! It's an observation!" Joko retorts. "Look, you shouldn't stay in those clothes unless you feel like catching a cold."
"Sounds like an excuse to get me to strip," Cooper says.
"Shut the fuck up, I'm trying to be a good friend here, asshole."
Joko turns to head into the other room and returns with a pile of dry clothes, tossing them at Cooper. "Here."
"Thanks," Cooper says again, and he reaches to remove his shirt.
"IN THE OTHER ROOM," Joko blurts out quickly, shoving the fish hybrid in the room's direction and averting his gaze. "You fucking prick."
Cooper bursts into laughter. "Yeah, yeah, okay," he says as he heads into the other room to change.
He returns a few moments later, and it's clear that the clothes are a bit too big on him, but at least he's not shivering again. "What do I do with-"
"Just toss them in the laundry basket," Joko says before Cooper can finish his question.
Cooper nods, and taking the suggestion a bit too literally, throws the ball of wet clothes into the basket. It's honestly a miracle that he didn't miss.
"I don't think the storm is gonna let up any time soon," Joko sighs. "You can stay the night, but I've only got one bed in here, so either you can sleep on the floor, or-"
"That's fine!" Cooper says quickly, tail swishing back and forth nervously. "Uh, I can sleep on the floor, that's fine…"
"I was joking, dude," Joko laughs. "Unless you want to be miserable all night."
"Right," Cooper mumbles, glancing down.
(And that's the story of how Cooper ended up in Joko's bed, facing away from him and trying not to get too close. The fish hybrid is internally screaming.)
He doesn't notice he's shaking again until he feels warm arms wrap around him from behind. He makes a soft noise of surprise as he's suddenly pulled back against Joko.
"Fish are cold-blooded, right?" Joko asks, looking down. "You were shivering again."
Cooper grumbles out a few inaudible curses before shaking his head quickly. "Yeah, thanks," he says as he relaxes with a deep exhale.
He lets himself lean into Joko's embrace - he's just so warm and comfortable that Cooper can't help himself. He feels safe.
"'Course," Joko says, "nothing wrong with snuggling with the homies."
…Right. Cooper sighs, trying to clear his head of his racing thoughts and distract himself from how fast his heart is beating in his chest. Yep. Just guys being dudes.
Don't make it weird, Cooper. He doesn't think of you like that.
(All he can think about is how badly he wants Joko to lean down right now and kiss him passionately. And he hates it.)
His tail flicks uneasily. If Joko notices, he doesn't say anything. A silence hangs in the air between them for several passing moments.
After what feels like forever, Cooper says something. "...You're killing me here, man."
"Huh?" Joko asks, suddenly looking concerned. The worry on his face just makes Cooper feel worse.
"There's no way you don't know what you're doing, right?" Cooper replies quickly, voice shaking. "I don't know if you get some kind of amusement out of playing with my heart or what, but I just…"
His tail lashes with frustration before realizing that what he's saying is unreasonable, and his expression softens. "Sorry. That's not fair for me to say about you. Especially not when you've just taken me in for the night in the middle of this shitty ass storm."
He turns over and buries his face in Joko's chest. "Forget I said anything. I don't want to make things weird."
Joko's arms tighten their grip around him, holding him closer to him, and Cooper lets out a shaky sigh as he feels Joko's warmth envelop him. (It's honestly soothing in a way.)
When he glances up, he sees that Joko's hue has shifted to that strange, gentle pink that Cooper can never quite decipher.
(Joko's a lot of different colors, and Cooper's practically studied them all. He can basically read him like a book. But this color has always been an enigma to him, and he doesn't like that.)
"Coop," Joko says softly. "Just let it all out."
"Damn you," Cooper mutters. "This is embarrassing, you dick."
"No, no, it's not," Joko reassures him. "You gotta stop bottling shit up. I know you tend to, even the smallest things. Not healthy for you, man."
Cooper looks away, face burning with embarrassment. "I just-"
"You say all these things that friends don't say, do all these things that friends don't do, and I can't tell when you're being serious or just messing with me. It makes me feel so bad because all I want is for you to hold me close and kiss me passionately and tell me you love me too," Cooper says, his voice trembling even more than before as he continues.
"You give me hope every time and then I can't ever figure out how you really feel because everything you do is filtered through like 5 different layers of irony."
Joko doesn't reply, but nods to acknowledge that he's listening.
Cooper takes another deep breath.
"I know I'm an annoying brat, a constant thorn in your side - I just keep going out of my way to kill you and mess with your builds, I crave the attention it gets me."
He looks up at Joko, his expression unreadable but undeniably distressed.
"Why do you even tolerate me? I treat you horribly. I'm the worst friend imaginable, and yet I still want more. Isn't that selfish and cruel?" His breathing is sharp and panicked at this point.
"Cooper, hey," Joko says softly. "Breathe."
Cooper exhales, trying to calm himself. Another few moments of silence pass.
"You're not awful, Coop," Joko finally speaks up once Cooper's managed to calm himself down. "You're playing, and you know damn well I don't care about that. I wouldn't encourage it if I had an issue with it."
Cooper laughs weakly. "Yeah, maybe I'm being a bit ridiculous there."
"And secondly, I had no idea you thought of me that way," Joko continues.
Cooper looks almost dumbfounded at that. "Seriously? Subtlety isn't exactly my strong suit."
"Well, everyone around here acts like that, so it's kind of hard to be obvious," Joko chuckles.
(And well, he does have a point there.)
Cooper huffs and buries his face in Joko's chest again, tail flicking. "Sorry."
"For…?" Joko raises an eyebrow.
"My feelings?" Cooper shrugs. "Thinking about you like that. Doesn't it make things weird?"
"No, it doesn't," Joko says. "You're fine. You know I care about you a lot."
"As a friend," Cooper replies, looking down.
"Don't lie to yourself like that," Joko rolls his eyes. "And you're trying to call me oblivious. Cooper, I wouldn't be letting just any friend sleep in my bed all snuggled up to me like this."
"...Oh." Cooper looks up again, staring at Joko like a deer caught in headlights.
"Yeah."
"Oh."
Joko laughs. "Moron."
"Yeah, well, I never claimed to be smart," Cooper mumbles.
"Go to bed, you big homo."
Cooper sighs and closes his eyes, taking in the rise and fall of Joko's breathing against him. It's comforting.
As thunder continues to crack and rain pitter-patters on the roof of Joko's house, Cooper slowly begins to drift off to sleep.
As he does, he feels Joko lean down to press a soft kiss to the top of his head, and he smiles, tail instinctively wrapping over the both of them as sleep tugs him under.