Teach Me How To Fly (A Koutaro Bokuto Story)

My New Best Friend

"No." The words were out of Akaashi's mouth before Bokuto even had a chance to ask the question.

Bokuto looked down at the little animal in his hands. He didn't want to let it go yet. "But-"

"No," he said in a more firm voice. Now, normally I'd agree with Akaashi and any decision he made, but for once in my life, I was actually on the captain's side.

Of course, that might only have been because of where I was right now and that just so happened to be in the goofball ace's hands. Yep, I'm the little owl he's currently holding and begging Akaashi to let him keep. I wasn't always an owl though.

In fact, I'd only become one last night. How it happened I'll never know, but the last thing I remembered doing was saying to myself that I wished I could just get away from my life and fly away into the night like an owl... then when I woke up the next morning, I was in for the surprise of my life. Oh if only I'd said something that would have been easier to survive as.

Being unable to fend for myself, I'd had to search for someone, anyone who could help me out. And guess who I found first? You guessed it, the owl-haired ace who was now holding onto me. Lucky for me, he saw the owl thing as cool and had immediately picked me up and carried me to school with him.

Obviously though, he couldn't bring an owl to class with him. Even he knew that; so I spent the day outside. Most of that time was spent trying to figure out how my new wings worked. Every time I failed though, I swore the birds sitting up on the power lines were laughing at me.

Bokuto came out during lunch to see if I was still around. A smile lit his face and he spent quite a while talking with me and even shared a bit of lunch with me. I even tried to show him that I'd been trying to fly, but that only ended in failure. But when Bokuto laughed at that, I felt myself smiling. Maybe being an owl wouldn't be too bad.

And now here we were, standing in front of his teammates just before volleyball practice. Akaashi shook his head again. "Owls aren't supposed to be awake during the day, so it's probably sick," he said in his usual cold tone. "Just go leave it in a tree somewhere."

As Bokuto started to argue with the vice-captain, I opened my beak to speak. "I'm not diseased, you jerk! I'm not even a real owl! Don't you dare leave me in a tree!" Or that's what I tried to say. In the end, it only came out as angry screeching and squawking.

All of their teammates burst out laughing. "You just got cussed out by an owl."

"He's smart," Bokuto said with a grin. "And he can't fly."

I screeched at him once, trying to tell him he'd said something wrong. Of course, without a voice, he had no idea what I was actually saying.

Akaashi looked down at me, still held carefully in the ace's hands. "Toss him up gently, but don't catch him." Was he crazy? Bokuto just said that I couldn't fly! Why would he tell him to do something like that? I could seriously get hurt if I fell. When Bokuto did nothing, the setter repeated it. "Just do it. It won't get hurt."

The energetic ace looked down at me before doing as the cold-hearted boy had told him. No surprise, I fell to the ground. No matter how much I tried to flap my little wings, all it did was slow the fall and keep me from getting hurt. I cast a quick glare at Fukurodani's vice-captain before walking over and tugging at my new best friend's sock.

"Fine, if you want to keep it, keep it." Bokuto's face lit up at Akaashi's words. Never does he give in to the childish ace's demands and desires, so this was a huge deal for him. "But if it's a distraction then it has to go."