My Crows - (Haikyuu x Reader story)

Chapter 24 - The Battered Dove

Waving your free arm for him, you shook your head, "no one important, I just remembered something that happened a long time ago".

Nishinoya raised an eyebrow, but he didn't push for an answer. Instead he lifted the bottom of your blanket to cover his legs because it was cold, and you did the same on your side with your lower back cushioned by your pillow. "Thank you, Yuu-chan" You said quietly, he just scoffed in recognition and looked away, but his fingers were still pinching your pointer and middle finger together.

"Why did you have to go off on your own like that?" He scowled, "you're not a hero, you're a teenage girl with bad knees.. you're not supposed to try to stop poachers".

"I had to try" You said, your smile quickly falling at the mention of your injuries and you suddenly felt very aware of the bandages covering you now, and the dried blood in your hair.

As the libero glanced back out of the corner of his eye, he quickly became aware of how much his comment had actually upset you, and he tsk-ed at himself before harshly pushing his dark hair back along his scalp, "just... stay safe ok? We don't need to be worrying about our manager when we should be focusing on our game tomorrow with Nekoma."

There were tears in your eyes, but even you could see the small flush of pink that trickled over his cheeks as he finally let go of your hand. You quickly pulled him into a hug before he could pull away, wrapping your arms around his shoulders.

"Thank you again, Yuu-chan" You whispered, and pressed a kiss on his cheek just beside his ear, before you let go and scrunched up you nose cutely in front of him. "I guess I should get some rest for me to cheer for you tomorrow."

"As long as you don't embarrass me" He shrugged and left the room, pulling his jumper over his head that he picked it up from the floor.

It was like all the air had rushed out of the gymnasium. Even the watchers had silenced as Hinata's feet landed back on the ground. "He's figured out how to change his spike path mid-air then?" Coach Ukai drummed his fingers against his chin as you sat next to him on the plastic chair beside the court.

The end of the match against Nekoma, and it was one of the fiercest battles you'd seen yet. Even though they lost, Kageyama and Hinata seemed to be in very good sync, not to mention Tanaka and Nishinoya's incredible efforts as well to get and maintain such a close game.

A surge of pride erupted in your chest like a sunflower blooming, petals stretching out across your skin as you smiled brightly, your heart fluttering like the wingbeats of a butterfly. 

"What's this expression (Y/n)-san?" Sugawara smiled warmly at you as he gently placed a hand on your shoulder, standing beside you with the other Karasuno players that hadn't been subbed into the game against Nekoma.

"Ah" You blushed, the sunflower seemed to keen towards him, Sugawara was always bright and cheerful, like the sun. "Sorry Suga-kun, I guess I must be making a weird expression".

He winked, in an effort to make you less anxious about what kind of face you had been pulling when you were practically beaming at Hinata and Kageyama. "I'm proud of them too" his grey hair was fluffy as he rocked his head gently to the side to look down at you, since you were sitting down.

By now most of the court had been cleared off in preparation for the next volleyball match, since there was still one left for several of the teams. The gymnasium became noisy again with whistles and the sounds of volleyballs smashing across nets and open palms.