Teach Me How To Fly (A Koutaro Bokuto Story)

High School Boys Are Weird

The days after that seemed to pass by slowly. Bokuto was still hurting, but at least you couldn't see it unless you were really close to him. As a way of helping him to get over it, the entire team decided that they'd never mention the human that I used to be. The idea of it was a bit depressing for me, but I knew it was probably for the best.

Soon enough, it came time for the summer training camp. This time, we'd be going to Nekoma. Of course, we wouldn't be the only ones there. If my memory was correct, three other schools would be there. Shinzen, Ubugawa, and lastly the fated rivals of Nekoma, Karasuno.

When we finally arrived, I felt a bit relieved. Bokuto had woken up in a really good mood and on the bus ride, he'd explained why. It was actually thanks to a "super amazing dream" that he'd had which apparently had been about him and me when I was still human. Now I really wouldn't have minded that if it had merely been some innocent cuddle dream, but that's not how it was.

And the entire bus ride, he went and told Akaashi all about it. But that's the worst part. No, he decided that he was going to tell the whole story and not leave out anything at all. Every single tiny little intimate detail was so carefully explained that even the person with the least amount of imagination could have easily imagined it. In fact, Akaashi had to stop Bokuto by telling him that if ever mentioned a dream like to anyone ever again, he would never toss to him ever again.

Seeing two of the other teams made me feel a bit nervous. A lot of these guys were pretty big and that made them seem a bit intimidating, but with Bokuto right by my side, I knew there was nothing to worry about. In the end, everyone turned out to be pretty cool. Of course, I had yet to meet Nekoma's rival, who I'd heard a little bit about thanks to Kuroo and Bokuto's texts.

Karasuno arrived a bit later than the others, but it was nice having everyone finally here. Or almost everyone. Apparently, two of Karasuno's members would be arriving later due to some exams that had to be made up. Luckily though the missing duo showed up in time to play one match.

After the matches and practicing were over, a number of people kept practicing on their own. Bokuto, unsurprisingly, was one of them. And if Bokuto was practicing his spiking, you know who else got dragged into it with him: Akaashi and whoever he could drag into blocking for him. From what I knew, that usually ended up being Kuroo since the Fukurodani boys always escaped as fast as they could.

So as Bokuto kept practicing, I wandered about on my own. Though after the incident with Kuroo, I was a bit more cautious about other people. Didn't need to be stuffed into another smelly backpack again. Once in a lifetime is already too many times.

Along the way, I came across many interesting people. One of those being an energetic duo. One was probably the shortest here, if you excluded me and the managers, and had a tiny tuft of blonde hair amongst some brown spiked up hair. The other was probably about average height compare to everyone else and had a shaved head.

While I was rolling a stray ball along, the two had stopped in front of me, preventing it from going any further. I looked up and founded myself quickly being scooped up by the shorter one. "Look Ryu! It's got a little jersey on!" he said with a wide grin.

The other, who I assumed was named Ryu based on what his friend had called him, mirrored his facial expression. "Number Zero! That's so cool!" As a thought crossed his mind, the smile was replaced with a look of confusion. "Can an owl really play volleyball though?"

A laugh sounded not far from the duo. As one of Nekoma's players made his way over here, I quickly recognized him. "She's not actually one of the players," Yamamoto said, patting my head and taking me from the short one's hands and letting me sit on his shoulder. "But she's pretty much part of the team, ain't that right Kisa?"

I nodded, surprising the other two. "It actually understands! That's awesome!"

Yamamoto laughed again. "That's nothing! She actually had a conversation with Fukunaga once. Couldn't understand a word they were saying and he wouldn't tell us, but it was funny to watch." Ryu reached over and pet the top of my head. "Oh yeah! Watch this!" Yamamoto held up his hand. This was actually something he'd seen Bokuto and Kuroo 'teach' me, though this was the first he'd actually tried. "High five?" I took my foot and pressed it flat against his palm, careful not to scratch him with my claws.

That impressed the Karasuno duo making them go on about how cool that was, but Yamamoto wasn't done yet. "Fist?" He shifted his hand into a fist and held it up to me. I responded with the appropriate action, prompting more excitement from the pair.

Eventually, I was returned to Bokuto and stayed on his shoulder all through dinner. Everyone's reactions to that were even more amusing than his mother's. As my energetic ace shared his food with me, there were more than a few stares. "Bokuto's actually sharing his food? That's a first." and "He's crazy." were easily heard from a good majority of the people who knew him and his love of food.

Kuroo though, had an even more interesting thing to say. "You know, I'm pretty sure that counts as indirect kissing," he teased and I was thankful that I didn't happen to be eating something right at that second. "You are using the same utensil and I'm pretty sure I just saw you eat half of that last piece before you gave it to her."

Bokuto didn't seem to mind his friend's words. I, on the other hand, hadn't even thought about it like that until he'd mentioned it. Now that he had, I felt like I was blushing, though I was pretty sure that that was physically impossible. "So? We do this all the time. She can't fly or anything, so it's not like she can go catch something like normal owls." Not to mention that I had no idea how to do anything like that in the first place.

The way Bokuto explained it though, made it seem a lot less embarrassing than the way Kuroo had said it. It's simply a survival tactic, not... not what Kuroo says. He's just trying to provoke Bokuto, that's all.

"She's practically his girlfriend anyway, so what would it matter?" That time I did choke on my food a little. That... no... just no... Akaashi should not have said something like that.

My reaction prompted a worried look from the ace and many snickers from those surrounding us. "I don't think she likes the sound of that one," Kuroo barely managed to say through his laughter. From that point on, I think everyone spent more time laughing and joking around than actually eating.

That night, dinner ended for the two of us when someone's food spilled all over us. After finding out it was Karasuno's little blonde manager and that someone had bumped into her, I immediately forgave her. The poor girl seemed like she was a bit intimidated by most of the people here, which was made even more noticeable to me as she frantically tried cleaning everything off of Bokuto and repeatedly apologizing.

Fukurodani's ace didn't seem to mind it at all and simply picked a few bits of food off of his shoulder and ate them. If I could have scolded him for doing that, I would have, but I settled for letting Akaashi do it instead. "Bokuto, don't do that. It's disgusting."

"Food is food and food is good," Bokuto said, ignoring the words and eating another piece of food, this time taking a piece that had stuck to my wing. He reached for another but froze as he saw the look that his vice-captain was giving him. If I had to guess, Akaashi was mentally threatening him with the same thing as he had on the bus and it was definitely working. "We'll just go and clean up..."