Flashback to 6 years ago...
"Little Princess.." Tenma brought your attention away from your Nintendo, and you lifted the little (F/c) machine away up to reveal the cheeky grin of the fierce 'Little Giant' lying with his head in your lap. His black hair was slicked back from the light layer of sweat after only just coming off his 3rd game of the day.
Whistles and the reoccurring thumps of the volleyballs landing inside and beyond the court lines echoed throughout the competition gymnasium you were sitting in.
"Haiii (Yes) Tenma-kun?" You said with a pout, using a sarcastically cheerful tone with your eyes closed as you refused to look down to the snickering ace in your lap.
He bit his bottom lip, reaching up to grab the loose portion of your (H/c) hair that had poked over your shoulder and gently pulling on it until you lowered your head just a little. As you looked to his hand to see what he was doing he craned up his neck to kiss your forehead just above your left eyebrow. "Don't tell me you're still mad at me?"
As he leaned away your face was flushed a bright red and your cheeks were tight and pulled back in frustration as you tried to repress your blush and refuse to smack the ace in his pretty face.
Dropping his grip on the bottom of your hair he grabbed your hand over his head and could feel your fingers curled into a fist that he then tried to wiggle into to hold your hand and sooth the rage he'd just boiled up in you.
"Princess I promise you we'll go to the zoo next Sunday! It was last minute ok! She said she was free for me to take her out on a date what was I supposed to do?!" Tenma awkwardly laced his fingers into your smaller ones in a childish attempt to get your forgiveness. "I promise.."
You exhaled sadly and turned your eyes to look down the court at the current game that was on between two of the attending prefectures. "I never thought you'd cancel our plans to hang out with some other girl.. I thought I was your favourite girl".
The 15-year-old looked up at you; his neighbour and the girl he'd been babysitting and looking after for the past 3 years on and off, and couldn't help but kick his legs in glee. "Gah! Of course my little princess you are my favourite girl on this entire planet!" He reached up and pulled himself up, squashing you into his embrace with his head over your shoulder.
At 11-years-old, and very aware of your crush on your babysitter, your whole face turned red once more and you dropped your Nintendo as tears welled up in your cheeks, "Don't cancel me again for some stuck up girl cheerleader!"
"I promise! Never again!"
You cringed a little at the memory, gosh I was so in love and over the top, I keep forgetting he had to deal with me that whole time.. You smiled a little, chewing the strawberry slice from the top of your takeaway berry smoothie that Kiyoko had brought back for you.
In the end Tenma never even dated a girl for more than a couple weeks across his whole high school career, you just never accepted anyone he introduced, they weren't good enough for him.
You rubbed your nose into your other shoulder, "Those girls must've really hated me..."
"Who hates you, Baka-chan?"
Your eyes darted up to the libero sitting in front from you who'd been meticulously re-wrapping the bandage on your arm for the past 10 minutes, while Kageyama had fallen asleep in a chair beside the futon they'd set up for you, in the room next to the boy's training dorm so you'd be close by.
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.
Coach Ukai had left your side some time ago to discuss strategy and the outcome of the game, and you quickly nodded goodbye to Sugawara before him and the rest of the boys went over to join him.
You barely even registered the buzz in your pocket before you realised it had been ringing over and over again for more than a minute. As you desperately pulled it out, you were so shocked to see the name you accidentally hit the wrong button.. and hung up instead.
"Ah! NO!" Panicking, you quickly jumped onto your Call app and scrolled up to the most recent name, smashing your forefinger down on it and holding the phone up to your ear.
As you waiting for the phone to ring, you found that sunflower blooming even more. Then her ear pressed flush against the phone as she heard his voice, "Little Princess?"
"T-Tenma-kun?" You quickly covered your hand towards your phone so he could hear you better against the noise of the gym. "Why are you calling?"
"Do I need a reason to call you?" He laughed on the other side of his phone, "I was just calling to tell you I'm leaving for the US for my manga tour in a few days. We were going to go watch a movie before I go right? Maybe get dinner after?"
You snickered, leaning forward as your elbows brushed the tops of your knees, "that sounds like you're asking me on a date Tenma-kun".
"Well you've kept me waiting long enough haven't you?" His voice sounded like honey as he chuckled, you crossed your (F/c) converse over each other with your and resting between your knees.
"You make no sense sometimes" A hand reached out in front of you and you took it as someone helped you to your feet. You pressed your hand against the stomach of your shirt with your phone pressed between your shoulder and your cheek.
As you looked up, Kuroo had a towel around his shoulders and a water bottle he was drinking from with his free hand. "Come on then, dinner with me, tomorrow night. We'll even go to a nice restaurant in Tokyo with my latest sellout pay check!" Tenma said while you busied yourself lifting the bottom of Kuroo's towel up to his forehead to dab it dry.
"You're so sweaty" You giggled quietly at Kuroo as you covered the speaker for the phone. "Alright then" You said back into the phone as you turned to the side, blocking any of Tenma's reply from Kuroo's keen ears. "I'll even wear a dress".
"My Princess in a dress!?" He sounded so fake-shocked as you had to hold yourself back from laughing and disrupting the atmosphere of the large school gym. "I can't remember you in anything other than sport's gear and kneepads".
"Well we haven't seen each other in a few years.. I've grown up quite a bit since then"
"I don't doubt that--" Someone shouted to Tenma on his end and you rand your fingers back through your hair as you strained to hear what he said in reply. "Ah sorry (Y/n) but I have to go, I'll text you later baby chow!" He hung up before you could reply and you were left standing there as Kuroo pulled the phone away.
"Old boyfriend?" He grumbled, looking at the name on the phone before he handed the phone to Kenma.
"Old friend Kuroo-kun, and hey what are you doing giving Kenma my phone?" You tried to reach for it but the shorter blonde pulled it away with a quiet huff and you soon heard the sounds of Mario Kart as he opened the game on your phone. "Guess your phones are still in the lockers huh?" You smiled and instead ruffled Kenma's sweaty hair.
"Baka-chan, you're needed" Nishinoya interrupted and you couldn't even get your phone back as the libero pulled you away back over towards the Karasuno boys around the coach.
"Ah good that you're here (Y/n)-san" Ukai patted you on the shoulder, he smelled like the sandalwood car fresheners in his shop, "I want to set up a similar training schedule to the one my grandpa used to train your junior national team". He handed his coach's notebook over to you "this is going to help us prepare for the Interhigh competition".
"I see" You gave Kiyoko a wink and she giggled at you, rather sceptical that Ukai was trying to employ such a strange training regime. "But that training burnt out an entire national team in one competition? I'm pretty sure I'm the only girl from that team still playing".
"What's with this program?" Tanaka scowled as he stuck his chin on your shoulder to look at the notes and time schedules you were riffling through. "Sounds like old Ukai was mad".
"Might as well have been" You snickered at the coach and he gave you an unamused look.
He raised his arm to calm down the superstitions about this training, "No don't you worry, we're not going full boot camp. We're just going to try out some new things once or twice a week so it won't interfere with your school work".
"I'd be excited to see them try it" You pulled your bottom lip under your top teeth with a happy smile, closing the notebook and politely handing it back to Coach Ukai. "Walking handstands and sand sprints, sounds like we'll be taking some trips to the beach".
"I'm gonna crush this new training!" Tanaka threw an enthusiastic fist into the air.
"Well yeah if Baka-chan could do it that must mean it was easy" Nishinoya scowled at you, but when you smirked the corner of his mouth tipped up in a half smile.
"Lets do it then, and win the Interhigh!" Karasuno cheered as Coach Ukai finished his speech, and you grinned in euphoria, the sunflower as bright as ever in your chest.
GAH it's not a good chapter but I've been holding out on writing for too long! SORRY!!! But I'm happy to have at least updated this story and hope to continue it, even if the time is far apart between chapters.