I Can't Say "I Love You" | Kuroo Tetsurō

Chapter 7: Cats and Owls

Silver and black streaks of hair stuck up like a great horned owl. Golden irises watched carefully as the object of curiosity looked around her frantically.

"Akaashi," The teen called the attention of his companion as he discreetly pointed towards the girl wearing red framed glasses. "She looks lost. Should we help her?"

The one he called Akaashi followed the direction his friend was pointing and took notice of the girl a few feet away from them. From the way her eyes anxiously darted around, it was obvious to anyone that she was indeed lost.

"I suppose we should, Bokuto-san." Akaashi nodded and followed after the golden-eyed male as they made their way towards her.

"Excuse us!" Bokuto popped out from behind her and cheerfully greeted, earning a yelp of surprise from the girl. He looked down at her; she looked like a scared little animal. "I saw you walk around in circles. You lost?"

"A-Ah- I'm- You see- Eep!" She hunched down and made herself smaller by tucking her arms into her chest.

Bokuto wasn't aware of it himself, but his gaze can be pretty intense. So he tilted his head slightly to the side and blinked owlishly at the whimpering girl without a clue in the world.

It was the young man's companion that broke the intense stare by lightly hitting him on the back of the head.

"Bokuto-san, please stop making her uncomfortable." Akaashi scolded.

She looked up when she heard the other guy yelp in pain. Her eyes were trained on the stoic one with messy dark colored hair. He appeared to be the intellectual type of guy. Cool, calm, and collected. However his friend was the complete opposite.

"Akaashi, did you really need to hit me?" Bokuto whined loudly.

This one was loud and energetic, she could tell. He sort of reminded her of their own ace, Yamamoto Taketora. Heck, even Lev seemed to match this guy's personality. Always cheerful, always moving around.

"Sorry, but you shouldn't stare at a girl so intensely. It's making her nervous." Akaashi explained and gestured towards the frightened small one.

Awkwardly, she stood up straight and waved.

"Oh? Was I making you nervous?" Bokuto leaned his face closer to hers as he studied her face. She responded by giving off a startled squeak and taking a step back.

"Bokuto-san, please stop it." Akaashi sighed in exasperation.

"MIRAI!"

A familiar voice caught the girl's attention and the three of them looked to the source. "K-Kuroo-senpai..!" Mirai sighed in relief at the sight of the Nekoma captain. Kuroo jogged over to them with Kenma lagging behind.

"Jeez. Don't scare us like that. I was worried when you disappeared all of a sudden." Kuroo let out a weak smile.

"Oh? Kuroo, you know this girl?" Bokuto pointed at Mirai in wonder.

"Hm? Yeah. She's Hoshizora Mirai, our new manager."

Bokuto awed and stared at the glasses wearing girl again with even more curiosity than before. It was like a small helpless mouse being watched by a hunting owl. Mirai felt the goosebumps on her arms forming.

"Bokuto, you're going to scare off our manager." Kuroo smirked, his tone was teasing. "We just got her, you know."

Bokuto grinned and gave the middle blocker a high five. "Kuroo! What are you guys doing here?"

"Don't just suddenly change the subject, you damn owl. Besides, we should be asking you that." Kuroo said, glancing at Akaashi.

"We came here because Bokuto-san needs new shoes." Akaashi replied with a sigh. "His old ones broke."

To show what he had meant, Bokuto took a pair of worn out volleyball shoes out of his bag. Kuroo sweatdropped at the sight. "What did you do to get them that way, ran across a mine field?"

"I-I just forgot to replace them!!" Bokuto blushed in embarrassment.

"They look like the mouth of an alligator." Kenma commented quietly.

"It's not that bad..!" Bokuto sulked, dejection in his eyes.

"Actually it is." Akaashi was quick to counter.

"AKAASHI! You were supposed to back me up there!"

Mirai covered her mouth and barely managed to hold back a laugh. "This guy is funny!" She thought to herself.

Hearing her giggles, Bokuto hmph-ed at her. Mirai thought his pouting face was adorable and she couldn't stop giggling. Akaashi was worried that his captain was going to go into dejected mode, but sighed in relief that his captain was smiling with no hard feelings.

"I'm Bokuto Kōtarō, a third year from Fukurodani. I'm the captain and ace of our volleyball team." Bokuto grinned and shook her hand enthusiastically. He pointed towards the dark haired teen next to him. "This is our setter, Akaashi!"

Mirai turned her head to face Akaashi, her hand still being shook by an exhilarated Bokuto, and nodded in greeting. Akaashi bowed his head in return.

"Akaashi Keiji, second year. Nice to meet you." He said.

Out of nowhere, Bokuto suddenly gasped with an idea and invited the three Nekoma students to his shopping excursion. "Eh?" Akaashi and Mirai looked at each other in surprise.

"Shopping is more fun with more people! Right? Right?!" Bokuto eagerly pressed his face closer to Mirai's as if she would know the answer. Did he expect that all girls enjoy shopping? Was she being categorized into that list?

"Why not? We were just walking around anyway." Kuroo grinned and nudged Kenma, who sighed and mumbled something about wanting to go home as soon as possible.

With the energetic ace in the lead, the others had to jog to catch up to him. Other than Kenma's constant complaints about wanting to go home, Akaashi's tired sighs, Kuroo's friendly banter with the owl-looking ace, and her legs screaming for some rest, Mirai somewhat enjoyed herself.

Bokuto went in and out of various stores to find the perfect pair of volleyball shoes. Along the way, Akaashi had been telling Mirai about his experience as a setter in Fukurodani. Their overall friendly conversation did not go unnoticed by Kuroo, who was walking a short distance ahead with Bokuto and Kenma.

"Sooo... Kōtarō-senpai is usually this hyperactive?" She smiled while asking this, enjoying Akaashi's rants about Bokuto's so-called dejected mode.

Akaashi raised his eyebrows in response, almost stunned. There was a short silence between them and Mirai internally panicked that maybe she had said something odd. "Erm- Sorry, did I say something weird, senpai?"

"...Did you happen to call Bokuto-san by first name?" He asked.

"Hm? Oh, yes." She laughed nervously. "I grew up out of the country so I naturally call everyone by their first names. I hope that's okay?"

"That's fine by me!" Bokuto cheered.

"Bokuto-san, were you listening?" Akaashi frowned.

"Hehe, yeah. I couldn't help it! When I heard my name I kind of just turned my head." He scratched his head, looking embarrassed from being caught. Then, he grinned widely at Mirai. "So does that mean you call Akaashi-"

"Keiji-senpai? Yes." She answered him before he could finish.

Akaashi felt his cheeks grow warm at the sound of his name rolling off her tongue so casually and he distracted his attention to the pavement. Kuroo frowned a bit and stopped walking.

"Does she really call everyone by their first name?" He wondered, thinking about a time Mirai called him by his first name.

When he couldn't think of any, he had the dawning realization that he was probably the only one she called by last name.