Chapter 20: All fun and games until

"So you really yelled at your captain?" Bokuto asked as we walked into the arcade.

"Well I was yelling, but not to anyone in particular. Felt like I wasn't talking to anyone to be honest." I stopped as we stood in the doorway of the dark glowing room, filled with neon lights and the sounds on dings, bongs, and dungs.

It was a dark glowing wonderland, with not a lot of people in it. It was a Monday night after all.

Bokuto and I both put our school uniforms back on after practice. Better than being in sweaty t-shirts and shorts. The fall breeze was starting to come in. I was gonna have to start wearing sweatpants over my skirt soon. I hate the cold. I don't understand how the girls without tights put up with it in the winter time.

Bokuto grabbed my hand and pulled me down one of the aisles of games, "Come on," this one's my favorite.

It was some old rodeo game, with a cowboy shooting at bandits. He laughed in complete satisfaction. "Is this what it's like in America?"

He can really be an idiot.

"Yeah, like 400 years ago." I laughed, eyeing the games, trying to see what I wanted to play. I stepped away from Bokuto, not going far though. Just over to a racing game. I sat down in the seat and pumped the gas to start the game.

As I was playing, trying to fight my way up from 4th place, I heard someone call out, "Well if it isn't the great horned owl himself!"

"Hey, hey, hey," Bokuto called out, "You know it!"

"Here all alone I see. What do you say Kenma?"

"I'd rather not Kuroo, I just wanted to play some games." Said a smaller voice.

I figured I should probably help since someone was talking about jumping Bokuto but the fool could hold his own at least for a little while.

I still had one more lap to go and was trailing the second place car with the first place car in sight. This is my last shot to pass them.

"I'll take you on any day," Bokuto's voice boomed, "Besides I'm not alone, I'm here with Baby Bird."

"Funny, I don't see your girlfriend anywhere."

"She right," Bokuto paused before shouting, "Uh, BABY BIRD WHERE ARE YOU!"

I suppose he couldn't see me in the bucket seat behind him. I threw a hand up, waving it through the air. "I'm right here."

I started to go off the track and had to swerve back into place, rushing to put my hand back on the wheel. I was just about to pass the second place car, I was right there. At least before a giant owl landed in my lap.

Bokuto dove into the single bucket seat wrapping his arms around my neck. His body landed in my lap, causing me to lose the wheel.

"No," I cried out, frantically trying to grab it around him.

He held on tight crying, "Baby Bird, I thought I lost you!"

I was able to grab the wheel and peek over one of his shoulders to try and finish my race. I managed to slip to fifth place in just that small moment. "Dang it," I grumbled, stepping hard on the game, pushing to make it back to third before the race ended. And yet, I ended at fourth.

I began slapping Bokuto's heavy body, "Get off me you big baby! You made me lose."

Bokuto looked hurt as he stood up looking down beside me. He'll get over it.

"You were going to lose anyway," said a small voice on the other side of the chair.

I saw Kuroo leaning over the top of it, but on the other side was a boy from Kuroo's team. The setter.

"You don't know that," I said. It couldn't have been that obvious that I was struggling to surpass the computers.

"If anyone were to know, it would be Kenma here," Kuroo said proudly, pointing to his short friend.

"I remember you two from the practice game," I said standing up.

"The one with the quick straight downs. Kuroo had a hard time keeping up with you," Kenma said. Is it just a setter thing to be so monotone?

Kuroo shouted, "That's not true, but..." he stared down at his feet saying, "That shorty. He was incredible."

I tried to think of any incredible shorties on Bokuto's team and I couldn't think of one. I guess Bokuto couldn't either because he asked, "Shory? What are you talking about?"

Kenma spoke up again saying, "Shoyo Hinata from Karasuno."

"Karasa-who? Never heard of it," Bokuto said plainly, "They probably won't even make it far enough to be crushed by me."

"Well you seem confident," Kuroo smiled but Kenma did not as he said, "Don't be. They're not very good now, but they're determined to grow. It's almost scary the amount of effort they put in. Everyone of them wants to be the best on the court. It's exhausting really."

"It doesn't matter," Bokuto said, in his rare, serious tone. I looked up to him, his amber eyes glowing with the neon lights, "At the end of the day, they're just another competitor for me to defeat on my way to the top. Same as you."

Kuroo laughed, smiling wide but with such sharp eyes as he said, "Well look at Bokuto getting all ballsy in front of his girlfriend."

His eyes still sat so serious as he replied, "Which one of us made it to nationals last year?"

It was silent, so much intensity between the glares of the two giants, it seemed to thicken the air. It was hard for me to breathe. It felt as though everything in life was meant to be still at this very moment. And so it was.

That is until Kenma walked away calling them fools and Kuroo challenged Bokuto in Pinball. I sort of tagged alone with Kenma for a while, until Bokuto dragged me away to play dance dance revolution.

It was going on 10 when we finally left. Nothing left to do but shower and go to bed once we got home. And I get a strong feeling that was the plan. Intact with his father as little as possible.

We rode our bikes home and playfully Bokuto asked, "So can I sleep over again?" His voice was playful, but his eyes, they seemed to sink in, falling deep.

I tried to keep things light asking, "Are you going to crawl into my bed again?"

A grin slipped to his face as he said, "Maybe?"

"Then no," I said, peddling a head of him, rounding the courning to see his mom, standing outside the house.

I stopped when I rounded the corner. She spotted me just as Bokuto came around the corner. She started running towards us.

"Mom?" He rode towards her a little more before hopping off the bike, letting it drop to the concrete as he ran towards her.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

I stayed back as he looked over his mother, looking for any hint of her being hurt. She was breathing deeply, and checking over her shoulder back to the house as she said, "You have to go to the Ito's tonight. Your father, he's in one of his moods and... he needs his space."

"Mom did he-"

"You have to go, Kotaro! Go around the block, I don't want him seeing you or Zara." She took a bag off her shoulder and pushed it into Bokuto's hands, then gave her son a shove saying, "Go."

He looked like he wanted to say something. To do something. Still, he slung the bag on his shoulder and listened to his mother. He got back on his bike, and rode back to me saying, "Come on."

We rode around the block so we didn't have to pass Bokuto's house. We stashed the bikes in the back yard and went into the house in silence. I didn't know what to do, what to say. But Mrs. Ito seemed to know. The moment we were inside, she opened her arms wide, and Bokuto fell into her tiny body, burying his face in her shoulder.

He had to bend so far down that he just ended up falling to his knees. She kept her arms around him, saying in a soft warm tone, "It'll be okay. She's strong." She smiled a little as she pulled him back so he can lock at her, "That's where you get it from."

I was looking at the back of Bokuto's head. I couldn't see his face, but I could still see the despire in his body. But as each moment passed of soft smiles and pats from Mrs. Ito, I could see him uplifting, just a little more.

Mrs. Ito looked up to me, "Zara, why don't you go ahead and shower first. I'll have some food out when you're done. After dinner, Bokuto can shower and you two will get straight to bed. School in the morning."

"Yes, Mrs. Ito, I nodded."

"Oh, and Bokuto will be sleeping in your room. I'm afraid that rug of yours is the softest thing we can offer him for the night."

"Yes, Mrs. Ito," I nodded again. I turned to my room, looking around the small house. She was right. The floors were hard wood, and the Ito's didn't even own a couch. Just two arm chairs. It was just the two of them for most of their life. They never needed room for more.

Everything went as Mrs. Ito said it would. We were both clean, fed and ready to sleep in no time. Bokuto laid on the rug and I on my bed as Mrs. Ito bidded up goodnight. She turned the light off and left the door cracked.

The darkness was still for a moment, until Bokuto said, "Goodnight Baby Bird."

"Bokuto?" I said in a hushed voice. First thing I said since we got home. I wanted to say something, just, didn't know what. Honestly I still don't know what.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry this happens sometimes." Man that sounds stupid. But I don't know what to say.

The silence was heavy around us before his voice cut through. Just a quiet sigh, "Me too."

"Goodnight Bokuto."

"Goodnight Baby Bird."