Crows Like Shiny Things (Hinakage)

A Night's Sky

Kiyoko had never assumed this would ever happen to her. And now, she was standing in the middle of her room, in her night gown, in front of something that was standing with opened wings like an omen of death at her window.

She sighed.

"Bokuto-san I will be exiled if anybody sees you here."
"I know I know!" he chirped, carefree as ever, then proceeded to clasp his hands together.
"Me too, my tribe fears humans! So I snuck out at night, easy peasy!"
He was met with the most exhausted and deadpan expression one could muster.

"Mah, why so gloomy?? C'mon c'mon I wanted to see you!"
"I have school tomorrow and you probably need to tend to your tribe as well."
"What's school?"
"...nevermind."
She sighed again.
"What do you want?"

Bokuto grinned, feathers fluffing up in an excited manner.
"You said you know the other tribe!"
"That is... correct."
Silence.

"Well, show me!"
Kiyoko stared at him for a couple of seconds, then looked down at herself.
"Bokuto-san I'm not even dressed. Also I have no idea where their village is. I said I know a a couple of them, and that we play volleyball together. That's it."
"Ehh??? You telling me right now I came all the way for nothing??"

Bokuto plopped down on the floor, sulking, wings spreading out on the ground to take up most of the space at the window. She did wonder how he even managed to climb through the window without twisting one of them, big as they were.
And yet, she felt bad, seeing him so worked up and disappointed.
"I... s-suppose I can help you find them at least..." she finally mumbled, a little shy.

In an instant, Bokuto jumped up onto his legs again, and beamed at her.
"Really?! Really?!"
"Shhh!!! You're going to wake up the whole village....!" She folded her arms, looking longingly over to her soft futon, and knew she would not be getting any sleep for the rest of the night.
"I...  know the general direction. But I don't want to search the forest at night, with bears and other predators roaming around."
"Haa? No that'd be stupid. We'll never find 'em like that."

Bokuto grinned, turned around and spread his wings wide.
"Hop on~!"
"...w-what?!"
"Hop onto my back! Finding 'em is gonna be a piece of cake from the skies!"

Kiyoko turned pale, backing a step away.
"A-absolutely not, I prefer not to die."
"Mah, don't be scared, I'm an ace! I'm hella strong, look at those wings~ I can carry you no problem."
"I'm not even dressed!"
"No time to get dressed, also, you look perfect. C'mon c'mon!"

The girl took a glympse at the door behind her, then back at Bokuto. She felt a little helpless, and to be honest, the longer he was here the higher the chance one of the village's lookouts would spot him. Finally she let out a soft groan and buried her face into her hands. Was this the sign she had been praying for at the shrine?
Why was it always her that had to do this kind of stuff?

Scratch that, Tsukishima was babysitting a winged child, Kageyama was exiled and nearly married to one of the birds, and Asahi had an overconfident bird courting him.
"...y-you're sure you're not gonna drop me...?"
Bokuto turned around, took her hands into his and smiled sunnily into her eyes.
"Promise."

With a soft whine of displeasure, Kiyoko wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning onto his back, careful not to squish the feathers below.
"Aight! Ready or not, here we come!"

Kiyoko could only hold back her scream as Bokuto shot out of the opened window, barreling up into the sky with Kiyoko holding onto his neck for dear life.

"Haa, I'm so excited! We're gonna find 'em, zero issue~!"

***

It felt only a few seconds before Kiyoko's grip started to losen. There was no weight pushing her down anymore, no gravity pulling at her.
She was sitting. But on what? Bokuto, obviously. But how?

Slowly, Kiyoko forced her eyes just the tiniest bit open. The wind was blowing through her hair, and she had trouble keeping her eyes open without them tearing up for a couple of seconds.

When she finally adjusted, Kiyoko was looking around in awe.
Stretched on for miles and miles, the eternal forest, and above them a nightsky filled with brilliant stars, guiding her path.
Kiyoko moved her hands, now gently holding onto Bokuto's shoulders as she sat on his back, wings effortlessly carrying them above the breeze.

It was unlike anything she had ever seen before.

The moonlight gently reflected in the thousands of tree crowns below, and even though she was very unsure of all of this, she had to admit:
It was one hell of fun.

"Where do we need to go?" Bokuto interrupted her thoughts and she gasped a little, startled. Kiyoko almost forgot why they were doing this in the first place.
She pointed her hand, into the direction of a mountain in the distance.
"They always fly off into this direction!"
"Oya oya, ain't that a nice place to live~!"

Kiyoko was barely paying attention to their actual goal, she was leaving the search to Bokuto. Instead, Kiyoko was smiling to herself, enjoying the crisp nightair, the soft sound of Bokuto's wings gliding through air, and the glimmer of moonlight all around.
It was mesmerizing, watching those giant wings carry not only him, but an entire human on top of that.

After a while, Bokuto let out a gasp.
"Wait, I see something!!"

An excited chirp left his throat as he pointed to a group of trees, a clear visibly construction build within their crowns.
"R-remember to land gentle...!" Kiyoko cautiously reminded, and Bokuto laughed a little.

Almost like a feather falling, Bokuto flew small circles around the village, slowly but surely losing height. And the more the trees came into view, the more impressed Kiyoko was.
That was more than just a tribe. That was an entire community, with houses and common areas and decorations and plants-
She smiled to herself as she held tightly onto Bokuto's shoulders, hugging him close as he dipped down the last couple of meters, landing soundlessly on the mossy ground.

"Huh? Who put a ladder here? That's so useless."
Kiyoko laughed, and while Bokuto chose to use his wings to fly up into the crown, she took the ladder to reach the top of the tree.
"They probably made it for the singular human living here."

"Oh. Makes sense."