Chapter Text
"Mom, what do owl trainers do?" Keiji asks when they're sitting at the dinner table and takes a little bite of rapeseed to test the taste, then shoves the whole thing into his mouth.
"Owl trainers?" his mom scowls slightly, thinking, then gives him a smile, "They take care of owls and teach them how to do all kind of things. Where did you hear about owl trainers, Keiji?"
He swallows the food and smiles brightly, his eyes wide.
"There is a boy in other class. Bokuto Koutarou," he furrows his eyebrows for a moment, but then he's smiling again, "He said I can call him Kou. Kou will become an owl trainer when he grows up."
"That's lovely! Is he your new friend?" his mom asks and Keiji nods slightly.
"We played with volleyball together, so Kou said we are friends. He also said that he will have hair like owl horns when he grows up," Keiji laughs, "Kou is a bit weird, but I like him."
"Is he? Isn't he just really interesting, so that's why you like him?" she gives him a warm smile and Keiji thinks for a moment before repeating her words.
"I like Kou because he is interesting," he says and giggles silently. He likes the sound of it and when the next day he says it to Koutarou himself, he's greeted with the widest smile he's ever seen in his life.
-
Akaashi smiles fondly to himself when he sees a poster advertising an event with owl trainers from various countries. Every time he passes it, it reminds him of elementary school and Bokuto Koutarou - a boy who liked owls more than anything. He's gone through the names on the poster before, searching for characters that would make up the name imprinted in his memory. When he thought he found it, the characters didn't make it until the end of the name and Akaashi sighed to himself, realising that the only kanji characters for "bokuto" are for species of owl that is going to appear during performance.
He wonders if Bokuto has hair like owl horns now, and he tries to imagine it, letting out an amused puff. He hasn't seen Bokuto for more than ten years now, and he can't help but think how things would have turned out if he had never transferred schools.
He takes a deep breath, enjoying the last sips of the iced coffee before entering the little local hospital he's helping out at. Akaashi's not a medicine student and he's never attended any special courses for nursing, but he grew up with his aunt teaching him everything she knew herself, and now he finds himself coming to help her in the hospital whenever he has some free time.
He can't do much without any degree, so usually he only takes care of crying kids with bruised knees, cleaning their little wounds and putting a plaster if needed, shows people to the doctors they need to see or simply helps out his aunt with some papers. It makes him somehow happy though, and he stops by reception desk, knocking on the counter.
"Tsukishima? Are you here?" he asks in a silent voice and soon a tall blond man comes from the back.
"Oh, hello," he says, and a small grin appears on his face, "Did you come here just to bother me at work again?"
Akaashi lets out a heavy sigh, then puts his elbows on the counter, "Stop telling the same thing every time I come here," he smiles at his friend. Tsukishima is one year younger than Akaashi; he's studying medicine though and thanks to his dad working in the hospital has gotten part-time job here. They've known each other for years as Akaashi's aunt and Tsukishima's father are not only colleagues but also good friends, and they've gotten quite friendly during that time, too.
Tsukishima sniffs.
"And don't pretend you don't like it," Akaashi adds and it makes Tsukishima laugh. "Anyway, are you free this weekend?"
Tsukishima looks at the calendar, then furrows his eyebrows, "Only on Sunday evening. I'm going to some conference on Saturday and then have to submit a paper about it on Sunday afternoon."
Akaashi hums, thinking, "There's that event with owls. I decided I want to check it."
"Didn't you tell that that friend of yours isn't on the list?" Tsukishima asks, then chuckles, "Or you're thinking you can meet him in the crowd? That's very doubtful."
"I'm not," Akaashi gives him a look, then shrugs, "It just sounds interesting, I want to see how it works. Want to join me if they still have tickets?"
Tsukishima thinks for a moment, then walks to the side and moves the mouse for computer screen to get bright, "Okay. If there are tickets."
Akaashi smiles, then walks around the counter and stands next to Tsukishima who checks the website for tickets.
Sunday evening show is sold out, and the only one available is on Saturday afternoon. Akaashi looks at the screen for a while, thinking what to do, but Tsukishima clicks the button to order the ticket.
"You should go," he says when Akaashi looks at him with questioning eyes. "You've been talking about this the whole month, so why not?" Tsukishima looks at him waiting for response, and when Akaashi lets out a heavy sigh and nods, Tsukishima types in Akaashi's name and phone number and confirms the booking.
-
Akaashi tries to keep his eyes on the owls in front of him, but despite himself he ends up looking around. There's nobody resembling Bokuto though, no one gets overly excited about the whole owl training thing, and Akaashi leaves the show right after the performance is finished.
When next day Tsukishima asks how did it go, Akaashi shrugs, saying that it wasn't anything special, and gets a teasing grin in reply.
-
Koutarou puts the book on the bench and squats down, taking Keiji's hand and pulling him down too.
"Look at this," he opens the book and shows the index page, "My mom bought me a book about owls, how cool is that!" he exclaims, making Keiji smile. "I let you choose which one you want to check first," Koutarou grins and Keiji hums, going through the list of owl species. He can't read all the Japanese names for owls as they contained unknown kanji characters; and having katakana and Latin words doesn't really help him much either. However, soon his eyes catch on a line of characters that ends up the same way you write Bokuto's name, and he points at it.
"This one. Great Horned Owl," he reads the name and Koutarou lets out a satisfied hum.
"Perfect choice," he opens the page and moves the book closer to Keiji, "Do you want to hear more about it? It's difficult to read, but my mom helped me. And I learnt everything, so I can tell you!"
Keiji looks at the beautiful photo of the owl, then back at smiling Koutarou, and nods.
"I want to hear more," he says and Koutarou takes a deep breath.
"First of all, this owl is the coolest one," he smiles and points at himself, "We share the same name! And when I grow up, my hair will look like this," he points to one of the photos and grins. Keiji tries to imagine Koutarou with his hair like owl horns, and smiles, his eyes shining.
"I want to see it," he whispers as if afraid that everything might disappear if he talks any louder. Koutarou gives him a bright smile, and takes two grasps of his own hair, pulling them up to make them look as horns.
"You will," he says and Keiji laughs.
-
Akaashi steals a few sips of coffee from Tsukishima's cup, then goes to get the white coat. He thinks for a moment, then decides to change into nurse shirt instead as it has short sleeves. He goes to ask his aunt if she needs any help, but she's okay, so Akaashi decides to go back to Tsukishima and help him instead. When he gets to the hall of the first floor, he runs into doctor Nekomata and slightly bows his head.
"Good afternoon."
"Oh, Keiji, just the right time. There are two young men in the waiting room, could you take care of them? One of them got scratched by a bird - clean the wounds and show him to Kiyoko for blood tests and vaccine just in case, would you? I've got to patch someone up now, see you around."
Akaashi has just enough time to nod before the man disappears, then he walks to the waiting room, looking around for the patients Nekomata has mentioned.
He stops in the doorway when he sees two men chatting among themselves, and his eyes land on a white and black mess of hair that remotely reminds of some horns, complimented by golden eyes and a wide smile. Akaashi almost laughs to himself when the picture of the man in front of him gets next to the imagine of Bokuto Koutarou he has stored in his memory, and he takes a deep breath, asking himself if it really is possible.
He's not the one injured, though, and Akaashi ignores his inner self that's demanding him to ask the name and make everything sure, so when he goes close to them, he turns to a scowling man who has some scratches on his right arm instead.
"Hello. I am Akaashi Keiji, please follow me to-"
"Akaashi Keiji?!" the man with white and black hair nearly shouts at him and when Akaashi turns to him, he's met with widened eyes and an opened mouth. "Wait, hold on!" he looks Akaashi right into eyes for a moment, then at his name card with kanji characters printed on, and smiles widely, "That's you, right? It has to be you! You went to Fukurodani elementary school for a couple of years, right? I'm Bokuto Koutarou, do you remember me?" the man in front of Akaashi is all sparkling and Akaashi feels his lips curl into a smile.
"Yes, Bokuto-san, I remember. Nice to meet you again."
"It's been forever, I can't believ-"
"My bad for intruding your little reunion, but my arm is kind of bleeding and I'd really love to have something done with it," the man next to Bokuto lets out a heavy sigh and stands up.
Bokuto rolls his eyes, "It's no big deal, stop dramatizing, Kuroo."
"What if I got rabies or whatever it's called. It's tingling, you know, and it's never a good sign," the man, who seems to be called Kuroo, groans, but the look in his eyes is far from anger.
"You can't get rabies from a bird," Akaashi comments calmly, and Bokuto gives Kuroo a 'See? Told you' look, "Please follow me."
They go into a first aid room and Akaashi gestures Kuroo to sit down. Bokuto leans against the wall, his eyes following Akaashi's movements as he carefully checks the wounds.
"You are lucky it is not deep, there is no need for stitches. What happened?" he asks, looking up at Kuroo who rolls his eyes and points to Bokuto.
"This idiot saw a hurt owl and tried to catch it."
"I wanted to help!" Bokuto gestures with his hands in exasperation and puffs, "That owl's leg is hurt, I can't just leave it like this," he adds and Akaashi has to bite on his lip to suppress a smile. Here's Bokuto again, talking about owls, and it feels like all the time they haven't seen each other has somehow disappeared. Akaashi doesn't know what kind of person Bokuto's become, but he doesn't seem to be much different from old times; the warmth spreads inside Akaashi and he slowly nods to himself even though he doesn't know if he's agreeing to Bokuto's words or his own thoughts.
"So he scared the shit out of it and made it attack me," Kuroo looks up at Akaashi and lets out a deep sigh, "Stay away from this guy at any cost. He'll ruin your life," he whispers, glaring at Bokuto, but there's a little smirk playing on his lips and Akaashi lets out a short silent laugh.
"Hey!" Bokuto jumps at the comment, crossing his arms over the chest in both defence and annoyance, "Don't listen to Kuroo, he's an asshole."
Akaashi lets out another laugh.
"I will keep it in mind, thank you. It is going to hurt slightly now," he says to Kuroo before starting to clean the wounds and Kuroo whines silently at the burn. Akaashi looks at it again, then carefully puts a bandage on it. "As long as you do not scratch the scabs off, it should not leave any scars."
"Am I done then?" Kuroo looks at his arm and frowns.
"I would recommend blood test just in case, and tetanus vaccine," Akaashi takes a sticky note and writes a few numbers on it. "Please go there, you will get everything explained by Kiyoko-san. It is on the third floor, on your left when you get off the elevator," he gives the note to Kuroo and waits for him to nod, "And please do not forget about your health insurance card, show it to Tsukishima-san at the reception counter or otherwise the expenses will not be covered at all."
"You got me into so much trouble," Kuroo gives Bokuto a look and grins, "You owe me."
-
"So, what about that owl?" Akaashi offers Bokuto a plastic cup of water and sits down next to him while he's waiting for Kuroo. The hall is empty and Akaashi's aunt said she doesn't need any help now, so he found himself here, the warm presence of Bokuto calling to him.
"Thanks," Bokuto gives him a weak smile, then furrows his eyebrows, "I'll go there again a bit later. That owl seems to be new here, probably lost and scared, so she's panicking. We saw her not that long ago, and it's barely afternoon; that's definitely not the time for owl to be that active. I can't leave her like this," he takes a deep breath, then sips at the water. Akaashi hums silently in reply and they stay silent for a moment.
"Are you often around here?" he asks again and Bokuto looks up at him, "I can't believe I've never seen you." Bokuto gives him a smile, shaking his head.
"No, I've never been here before. We came to see a volleyball match in the school nearby and ended up walking a bit around after that," he thinks of something and starts laughing, "When you think about it, the owl brought us back together," he smiles at Akaashi again, "You know, it's really strange, but now that we're here, I feel like we've still been friends all this time."
Akaashi takes a deep breath, then tilts his head back, resting it against the wall. "That's true. Even though a lot of things must have changed."
Bokuto nods slowly, and it's somehow sad, then finishes the water and starts playing with the cup in his hands. It seems as if he's just trying to entertain himself, but when Akaashi casts a glare at his face, Bokuto's chewing on his lip from the inside, a shadow of nervousness in his eyes. He doesn't comment on that, focusing his eyes on a ray of sun coming through the crack of the doors.
He stops himself from commenting on a lot of things today. On Bokuto's hairstyle, on his appearance in general, on the way he's so friendly with Kuroo and how somewhere deep inside it makes Akaashi think that he could have been there instead. On the almost unnoticeable glares Bokuto has been giving him when he's cleaned Kuroo's wounds. And on the blossom of feelings that slowly starts blooming inside him when he sees Bokuto smile. It's different from how it was in the childhood, but Akaashi's not against this change; instead, he just wants to feel more of it, see where it all goes, and check if that small blossom can become a fully blooming flower.
"Hey, Akaashi," Bokuto clears his throat, a smile back on his face, "I was wondering, can we exchange emails? That would be a pity, not hearing from you for another decade."
Akaashi lets out a puff at how Bokuto asks the question he couldn't voice out himself, then checks his pockets for the phone.
"Sure," he says, and it brings the widest of smiles on Bokuto's face.
Bokuto feels like spring coming to Akaashi's world, and it makes Akaashi smile, too, because spring has always been his favourite season.
-
Kuroo makes Bokuto bring him to the cat cafe that's not far away from the hospital.
"Aren't you cheating on your own cat?" Bokuto asks in whisper when they sit down at the little table occupied by a sleeping cat. "And why do you even know the place?"
"It's not cheating, it's like, I don't know, same as going for a massage to relax?" he laughs silently not to wake up the cat and Bokuto gives him a look, then snickers himself.
"I'd get jealous if I were your cat," he shrugs, eyeing his drink that has whiskers drawn in chocolate on the cream, "You seem to know all the cat cafes in the whole Tokyo and you go there a lot," he sighs, then closes his eyes and takes a sip, ruining the picture.
Kuroo waves his hand, shaking his head.
"I just go to these places when I really need to relax, but can't go home yet. Like now," he takes a deep breath, slowly stroking a cat that comes to his side. "So, what are you going to do about that owl?"
"Of course I'll go back. When we're done here, I'm going back. She should be a bit calmed down, there were no people around, so I'm pretty sure she's staying at the same place," Bokuto bites on his lip, then sighs heavily and lies on the ground. The cat moves from Kuroo to Bokuto and sniffs at his hair, then walks back to Kuroo, purring silently.
"What about the pretty boy?"
Bokuto opens one eye, just to see Kuroo's smirking face. "What about him?"
"I don't know, you tell me," he chuckles, "When we were playing truth and dare back in school and you got to tell the name of your first love, you said that you had never realised it, but now that you think about it, it probably was a kid named Akaashi. I've always thought it was some cute girl from your class, but it was him, right?" his smirk is even wider now and Bokuto groans, rubbing his face with both hands.
"Why do you even remember it?"
"Obviously so that I could tease you," Kuroo lets out a short laugh, then narrows his eyes, looking at Bokuto.
"What?"
"You still like him?"
Bokuto sits up again, and takes a deep breath, "It's not 'still' and," he shrugs his shoulders, a slight pout appearing on his face, "I don't know."
Kuroo's eyes stay on him for a bit longer, then he looks at the cat, muttering something to her while gently rubbing behind her ear. And even though Bokuto wants him to make fun of him, to say anything, Kuroo stays silent as if he hasn't heard any of Bokuto's words.
-
"You're insane," Kuroo lets out a sigh when Bokuto shows up at their meeting spot with an owl. "How did you even catch it?"
"As much as I hate owl training, that stuff can be useful sometimes," he flashes a bright smile and the owl turns her head to the side, but stays on Bokuto's hand. "And I think she likes me. Guess it was simply you who scared her last time," he shrugs and Kuroo slightly punches him in the ribs. Owl lets out a hoot, puffing her feathers a bit. Bokuto smiles again and slowly brings his finger to owl's head, stroking it gently. "We have a bond, don't be jealous, Kuroo."
"Please just shut up," Kuroo looks at the owl, then back at Bokuto. "So, what's next?"
Bokuto gives him a wide grin, and Kuroo starts shaking his head. "You are not bringing it back home."
Bokuto's grin just stretches wider.
"I called taxi. She's gonna get her first ride in a few minutes, aren't you excited for her?"
"I am not getting into a car with the owl who tried to kill me," Kuroo lets out a bit choked laugh and turns to the direction of the station. "You're nuts."
"Says a person who fell off the roof saving a cat." There's a teasing note in Bokuto's voice and Kuroo finds himself laughing loudly when he turns around.
"You know, I think I'll stay just to see this owl shit on you," he says, and Bokuto laughs at his words.
"Aw, isn't that lovely of him?" he looks at the owl, an extra note of sweetness in his voice, "Kuroo cares so much about you."
"And here I thought you can't get any more ridiculous," Kuroo lets out a snort, then snickers to himself. "The taxi is coming. Is it okay though? Getting in with a bird."
Bokuto nods a few times, showing thumbs up, a smile never leaving his face, "No problems. My uncle is working for the company, and his friend is coming, so it should be okay."
"Hey, give me your phone for a second? Mine's out of battery."
Bokuto fishes the phone from his pocket, missing the little smirk on Kuroo's face, and hands it to him before going to the taxi.
Kuroo's fingers move over the screen as he follows Bokuto, and when he gets in the car, he can hardly suppress the wide grin that's threatening to creep across his face.
It's for the good though, he says to himself, and takes a pack of tissues from his pocket, just in case handing them to Bokuto, as the car starts moving.
-
The light on Bokuto's phone is flickering when he gets it back from Kuroo when they go separate ways. He opens the chat and laughs silently. There's a message sent to Akaashi, saying that he caught the owl and if Akaashi wants to come see it one of these days.
He looks at the owl and slowly touches her head, a content sigh leaving his mouth.
"Let's go take care of your leg, okay?" he whispers, a wide smile on his face. The owl turns her head to the side and Bokuto giggles to himself.
Akaashi's reply says I'd love to and Bokuto laughs again, because after all it seems that there truly is a connection between owls and luck.
-
It's strange how natural going to Bokuto's home feels like; Akaashi looks at his phone, then turns left, walking slowly to see if the pointer on the map is moving the right way.
He finds Bokuto's apartment quite easily, getting further away from the main street until the only sound he hears is a lazy chirping of birds in the tree. He feels as if he left Tokyo for a while, and even though the busy streets somehow calm Akaashi, the atmosphere here is good and he feels welcomed.
He goes to Bokuto's door and waits a bit before carefully knocking on them. It's so silent that for a moment he thinks that Bokuto couldn't even hear it, but the door opens and there's Bokuto's smiling face greeting him.
"Hey, Akaashi! Sorry I couldn't meet you at the station," he scratches his head and shows Akaashi in.
"It's fine, don't worry," Akaashi takes off his shoes and steps up, "Sorry for the intrusion."
Bokuto smiles at him, waiting while he looks around. It's the first time Akaashi has ever been to Bokuto's house and he can't stop the little fluttering inside himself. There's a pleasant smell in the air, Akaashi can't say what exactly it is and he doesn't see anything that could be the reason for the smell. It makes him think of laughter and happiness. It's somehow a bit nostalgic; a bit like the smell after it has rained even though it wasn't going to rain for a few days. When he looks back at Bokuto, Akaashi realizes that it's simply the smell of Bokuto, of his home, and he stores it inside his head; next to all the memories from childhood.
He looks around a bit. There's a little kitchen counter on the left and two doors on the right, most probably bathroom and toilet. There's also a door straight ahead that is open, just a bit of light coming through the curtains, and Akaashi can see a bed and bookshelf in the room.
It looks like an ordinary apartment for one person to live in and Akaashi looks at Bokuto with questioning eyes.
"You live alone?"
"Yeah," Bokuto nods, then furrows his eyebrows, "My parents decided to move to Shizuoka where my grandparents live, so I'm renting apartment here."
"Oh," Akaashi hums silently, "Must be difficult, living on your own."
"I'm all used to it already," Bokuto smiles widely, showing thumbs up, "My parents help me and I've got a pretty nice part-time job, so it's all good!"
"Part-time job?"
"Yeah, I'm working as coach for volleyball team in a school close by. What about you, though?"
"That sounds nice. I live with my family," he gives Bokuto a small smile and looks around again, "This looks like a nice place to live."
"Oh!" Bokuto groans, "Why are we still here, let's go in. I'm so bad at these things, seriously, I just start talking and ignore everything around, sorry," Bokuto frowns a bit, seeming guilty.
"Don't worry about that," Akaashi lets out a short chuckle and Bokuto laughs, too. Having a small talk like this and getting to know a few more things about Bokuto felt nice and Akaashi enjoyed it, forgetting all about owl and feeling as if he just came to visit an old friend.
They walk to the room that is a little bit messy, but in a cosy way; a few magazines scattered around, some Polaroid photos with Kuroo and a few other people put on the walls together with various stickers, postcards and what not. Akaashi thinks about his own room, and somehow he feels a small thorn of envy stabbing him, as there seemed to be less memories in the room where he lived for years than in one where Bokuto has probably lived for just a couple of years. It's not that he doesn't like his own room, or his memories and life in general; he loves it, but somehow when he looks at all the photos of Bokuto with Kuroo he gets that same feeling as before. He wished he was in those photos with Bokuto too, he wished he had stupid glasses or ears drawn on his pictures with silly comments, he wished one of purikura photos with extremely fake make up and cheesy backgrounds would be on his wall, too.
He always thought that he couldn't have a better life, he has a nice family, a few close friends, he's studying what he has always wanted to and no one stops him from doing what he loves most, but somehow, now when he looks at Bokuto, he feels as if his life could have been even better with Bokuto by his side.
"Here she is," Bokuto says silently and it brings Akaashi back to reality, back to the reason why he came here in the first place. The owl is sitting on the back of the chair and when Akaashi comes closer, he feels this air around her as if there's a golden aura surrounding her, and even though she's quite small and probably young, her bright yellow eyes widen when she notices Akaashi, and the warm gold aura changes to more majestic one, filled with old and wise vibes. She turns her head a bit when Bokuto walks closer to her, and starts hooting silently. Her voice is pleasant, the song almost musical and Akaashi thinks it would carry away. It's captivating and he can't look away.
Deep inside he feels like he's experienced something similar before, and when he starts going through the memories, Bokuto comes to his mind and even though Akaashi's trying to think more, Bokuto's not leaving, his golden eyes looking right at him, his golden aura filled with majestic vibes too even though he's just a kid. It was captivating, and Akaashi couldn't turn his eyes away when the boy called to him, a wide smile never leaving his face.
"Amazing," he mutters, and even though the word contains much more than just talking about the owl, Bokuto doesn't know it, he doesn't catch on a short glimpse that Akaashi gives him, and simply laughs silently, gently touching owl's head.
"Right?" he smiles, but it fades away quite soon, a worried expression settling on his face. "Her leg was a bit injured, but it's healing fast."
"Isn't that a good thing then?" Akaashi asks carefully when Bokuto bites on his lip as if keeping something away. He waits for a while, then sighs heavily, bringing his eyes to Akaashi.
"I didn't notice it at first, but there are more wounds on her back, hidden under feathers. I don't know how she got them, but she didn't do it herself," he looks back to the owl, a sad smile on his face, "Someone injured you, right?" The owl puffs her feathers a bit, narrowing her eyes, but as Bokuto slowly moves his finger, caressing the feathers on her head, she closes her eyes and calms down. "I'd say someone caught her and tried to keep her, not knowing how to take care of owls," Bokuto's voice is calm, but there's a note of anger in it, as if he's trying his best to suppress it and to not start shouting.
Akaashi looks at the owl again, at how peaceful she seems to be, at how trusting she is of Bokuto. It all makes sense now, he decides, when he thinks of someone treating her in a bad way. That's why she was so afraid of being caught, that's why she attacked Kuroo. But now, when Bokuto made sure he's not hurting her, for the first time she's treated nicely, for the first time a person shows love for her and she seems to be holding on to this weak thread of happiness.
"Are you keeping her?"
Bokuto shakes his head.
"I'll wait until she's healed and then let her go. I don't want to take her freedom," he smiles bitterly, then adds almost inaudibly, "I don't want to make her suffer."
He sounded as if he knew what it meant to make owls suffer, but Akaashi can't imagine Bokuto hurting an owl. He doesn't know the Bokuto from now that well, but he's taking care of this owl, and the Bokuto from childhood has loved owls. It's frustrating, not knowing what exactly Bokuto's words mean, but Akaashi doesn't feel like he can ask it, at least not now, not yet. Maybe everything will clear out on its own, Akaashi hopes as he's not sure he will ever be able to ask about it himself.
"Do you want anything to drink? Coffee? Tea? Juice?" Bokuto asks, bringing Akaashi back to real life. He's smiling again, and it makes Akaashi's lips turn into a beam, too.
"Coffee would be great."
-
"Isn't that Akaashi!" Akaashi hears a bit familiar voice and when he turns around there's Kuroo greeting him with a lazy wave of a hand.
"Kuroo-san. Good morning. How is your arm?" he notices a small card in Kuroo's other hand, and adds, "And blood test?"
"No problems, all good," he gives Akaashi a wide smile that turns into a yawn. "I heard you visited Bokuto," Kuroo's lips curl into a shadow of a smirk that gets unnoticed by Akaashi, and he crosses his arms over the chest, leaning against the wall as if he's planning to stay here for a while.
"Yes, I did. That owl seems to be a lovely bird. Even though I do feel sorry that she attacked you," Akaashi lowers his eyes, but then a short laugh escapes his lips and he looks up again, "I feel like now I know everything there is to know about that owl."
"Tell me about it," Kuroo laughs, too, nodding his head a few times, "It's not a hawk, Kuroo, it's the brown hawk owl, or actually they're split now, so it's northern boobook, how dare you. You have to get her a few grasshoppers next time you come or we won't forgive you," he mocks Bokuto and they both end up laughing again. "He's amazing, right?"
"Indeed, it is impressive," Akaashi smiles, putting his hands in white coat pockets. A silent, somehow a bit sad sigh escapes his lips, but there's a glint of a smile on his lips when he opens his mouth again, "When I see him like this, I always wonder what it would have been like to have him around all the time," he takes a deeper breath, then the smile disappears and he frowns slightly, "I am sorry for saying it out of nowhere, it just slipped off my tongue-"
"No, no, it's okay, I get you," Kuroo looks at Akaashi, and there's so much warmth in his eyes that Akaashi finds it difficult to connect this expression to the usual sly smirk resting on the taller man's face. "No worries, though, you'll get to know it soon."
Akaashi gives him a questioning look and that sly smirk from before gets back to its place on Kuroo's face, "You two look like all those years were just a few days, I don't think that either of you will throw everything away now that you met again," he shrugs, "and you know the saying," he waves around with his hand, rolling his eyes a bit as if Akaashi should understand everything from gestures only, but then gives up and uses words instead, "Nothing happens for no reason, right?" he winks, as if knowing more to the story, and Akaashi finds himself at loss of words. Kuroo lets out a short laugh, then straightens up and gets a bit closer to Akaashi, his fingers taking Akaashi's name tag, "Akaashi Keiji. That's a nice name," he chuckles when Akaashi thanks him with a bit confused look on his face. "I told you to stay away from Bokuto, but I guess it's all for the better," he shrugs, "Want to go somewhere together with me and Bokuto?" he asks and Akaashi thinks for a moment.
"It would be nice," he says and Kuroo shows thumbs up, then it changes to peace sign when he says goodbye, all of this reminding Akaashi of Bokuto. He hasn't spend that much time with either of them but he can already notice some things that both Kuroo and Bokuto do the same - be it thumbs up or peace signs with a smile or the way they laugh. It's somehow endearing, and Akaashi looks at his own hand, thinking when was the last time he used thumbs up or peace sign himself. He curls his fingers, then carefully straightens two of them, a weak peace sign in front of his eyes. He could get used to it, he thinks, and somehow, even though he still feels a bit confused about Kuroo and everything he has said, deep inside he feels a bit happier than on a usual day.