+"No." So much for hoping Akaashi was wrong.

If the coaches were irritated, Bokuto's mother was pissed. She definitely had that motherly what-the-hell-are-you-thinking look on her face. But could you really blame her? Her seventeen year old son had just walked through the front door holding a tiny owl in his hands. Not some realistic looking stuffed animal, a living, breathing owl.

"Please?" Trying to help, I echoed the word. That earned me a look from his mom. Though I couldn't tell if it was one of surprise or annoyance.

"Absolutely not!"

It didn't look like we were doing a good job of convincing her. "But he can't even fly!" After seeing it once before, I recognized the signs that Bokuto was starting to show. He was getting ready to self-destruct again. That could either make this more troublesome or win us this discussion.

"You are not keeping that thing and that's final!"

Yeah, she totally gave in.

Bokuto's family was pretty normal, which was a bit of a surprise to me. Then again, the world could never handle another Bokuto, so it was probably a good thing that his family was not like him.

Dinner with them was interesting. At that time I sat on Bokuto's shoulder, watching him as well as his parents and younger sister. The three of them were talking to each other about normal things like school and work and the occasional mention of Bokuto's sister's friends. The childish ace, however, was too busy stuffing his face to talk. I'd never seen him so quiet before.

Sometimes he'd share a bit of his food with me. His mother didn't notice that for a long time, but when she did, I could practically hear her thoughts saying, "How did I end up with a son like him?" It was then I tried to use my feet to make a sort of thumbs up signal, but that's not so easy if you don't have a thumb. That earned me surprised looks from his family and a loud laugh from Bokuto.

After that was all over with, I found myself sitting in Bokuto's room. He was currently doing something somewhere else in the house, probably showering or something since he didn't do that right after practice, so I decided to explore around the bedroom.

It was surprisingly clean, except the desk over by the window. It had several papers scattered about as well as a few books. He didn't seem like the kind of guy who reads, so I assumed they were for school. Maybe that would be a good place to check out first... if I could figure out how to get over there.

After a failed attempt at flying there, a voice called out to me. "I guess you can't fly, huh?" I turned my head to see Bokuto's sister standing in the doorway. No one had mentioned her name, so I had yet to learn it. "That explains how Kou got a hold of you."

Slowly she walked over and lifted me up. "You wanted up here, right?" she smiled, setting me down on the desk. "I kinda feel sorry for you, you know? My brother's a nice guy and his heart's in the right place and all, but he's kind of an idiot. Living with him is bad enough for me, but you're kinda stuck with him more than I am. I can't imagine all the stupid things he'll do with you."

Inside, I was laughing a little. Compared to Bokuto, his sister was as normal as you could possibly get. It was a nice change. Maybe she would actually understand better than he would. That was when I had an idea.

I reached over and grabbed on of the pencils off the desk. But as I tried to figured out how to hold it, I realized it was a bit big for me. So I set it down and searched for a smaller one. Finally finding one, I tried to write with it. Unsurprisingly, it was about as easy as writing with your feet as a human. But after a bit of work I manage to scribble out one word.

"Girl?" Bokuto's sister asked, looking down at the very messily written word. "You're a girl?" I nodded.

"What?!" Oh, looks like he's back. The two of us looked over to see Bokuto standing by the door... in nothing but his underwear.

"Koutaro, put some clothes on!"

He ignored his sister's words. "You mean I've been calling him a boy all this time and he was really a girl?" Bokuto was starting to look like he was going to self-destruct again. Guess Akaashi wasn't kidding when he'd said that even the littlest things could change his mood.

"You're hopeless," his sister said to herself before leaving the room. Luckily, her harshness had just distracted him from what he'd been thinking, saving me from having to deal with a self-destructed Bokuto. "And put your clothes on!"

Before anything else could happen, his phone signaled that he had a new message. As he picked it up and looked at it, a big, idiotic smile appeared on his face. "It's Kuroo!"

Something tells me it's going to be a long night...