Level Horizon (Haikyuu!! WingedAU)

Year One 1/8; Providence

A/N: It is December 24th and Nyx is a whole year older, and like three months later than when I wanted to start posting. Honestly... Leveler Drabbles is less of a 'story' in the typical sense and more of a collection of somewhat individual events that are related and set to a meandering background plot line riddled with time lapses, so I'm not sure it will be anywhere near the caliber of Level Pair. And yeah... drabbles are typically around 100 words-- and exactly zero of my chapters are anywhere near that. I dont think any of them are even close to 1000 words, and I'm sure at least one is probably something like 10000.

If you haven't read Level Pair, I highly recommend so that you will be up to speed on everything and not blindsided by occasional mentions of past events. My sincerest apologies for the LONG wait all you wonderful people, I hope what follows makes up for it.  As always, feel free to send me thoughts!

Year One 1/8 Providence

When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky. ~Gautama Buddha

Koutarou Bokuto steps out onto the porch, stretching his shoulder with a whisper of annoyance, but an easy grin on his face. The way the angled sunlight stretches over the waves in the east combined with the glistening dew still lingering on the beach grass makes his chest swell with anticipation; it is a beautiful morning.

Koutarou loves the way the sun burnishes bronze across his skin in the summers with soft warmth, and he loves the light caress of a breeze over his face. He loves the smell of rain and even the feel of crisp air hitting his lungs in the winter. Koutarou loves the way tired muscles breathe a sigh of relief after a long day, and he loves the slow awareness that overtakes him every morning when he opens his eyes to a new one. He loves a good meal surrounded by people he knows well, and he loves the rush of blood in his veins when his heart does that half skip right before he leaps to swing at a ball. He loves the thrill of a good hit, and he loves the feeling of connection and unity he has with everyone.

Koutarou doesn't know if he's ever been happier to be alive.

More than once, he's tried to pinpoint what exactly he'd done that the universe has swung so much in his favor that he's found himself here. He lives on the beach with Akaashi and the most interesting group of people, and spends his days playing Volley and eating great food surrounded by friends that are more aptly called family than anyone he's related to by blood. He and Akaashi had been part of an owl parl, but it had never felt anything like this.

Koutarou knows where his mother and father are, could find them if he needed them for something, but owls rarely kept in contact with family once they flew the nest. They occasionally congregated in parls if the solitary life was unappealing, but they differed from many other avian groups in that since owls were generally stag by their very nature, when they did team up, groups were often very small and might range from a handful of individuals to perhaps a couple dozen.

But where leaving a large flocking avian group like the Karasuno sentry ranks would often be akin to desertion and treason, an owl parl was more impersonal and individuals could join or leave at will. The catch was that in a parl, you followed the rules to the letter. And one universal rule was emotional distance.

Since owls didn't migrate like many other avians, they bore the brunt of hard winters head on, and in this competitive world when their environment reached for the depths of its harsh limits, compassion could kill you. Emotional distance meant establishing hunting territories and ensuring they were maintained. It meant that avoiding starvation required not forfeiting game to another. It meant survival without the intrusion of empathy for the plight of someone else.