Me and You // Eli Moskowitz / Hawk x Reader

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 27: 𝑀𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑦

"You get stuck like cement." Miguel replied. "Exactly. To be a great fighter, you gotta learn to adapt." Sensei said, before turning to the words on the dojo wall. "This creed on the wall." He said. "Follow it to the letter, it'll make you strong. It'll make you formidable. It will also make you an asshole." He explained. Eli looked down and away from the letters after Sensei's last statement.

"Cause that's just black paint on a white wall." Sensei spoke to the class again. "But life's not black and white. More often than not, it's grey. And it's in those grey areas where Johnny Lawrence's Cobra Kai... sometimes shows mercy." Sensei said.

Eli furrowed his eyebrows and looked over to Miguel again for a moment. "Doesn't mean you can't be badass. It's still a requirement. But you have to learn to think not just with your gut, or your fists..." Sensei looked at Eli. "But to really use... this." Sensei continued, tapping his head.

"Which leads me to today's lesson." He said, walking towards a small bench as picking up a small board. He held the board up to his face, and smashed it with his head. The students let out sounds of astonishment. "Headbutting." Sensei announced.

Eli, Miguel and I looked at each other, slowly nodding our heads with smirks on our faces. "Grab a partner." Sensei said. And at that, we started practicing. Students walked towards each other, finding their partners. I looked over to Eli, and he looked back at me.

I raised my eyebrows, silently asking if he wanted to be partners. "Oh no. No way I'm headbutting you." Eli said, shaking his head. "What! Why not!?" I asked. "Because I don't want to hurt you!" He responded.

"Oh please. Come on! I can take it. Headbutt me." I said, preparing myself for the headbutt. Eli sighed. "Are you sure?" He asked, and I nodded. "Are you sure you're sure?" He asked again. "Yes, Eli. I'll be fine. Bring it on." I said, waving my hands so he'd come closer to me.

"Fine..." he said, getting ready to headbutt me. I stood there with my eyes tightly closed, preparing for the pain. I'll be fine. I'm tough. I'm strong. It's just a headbu—

My thoughts were interrupted by Eli's head coming into a painful contact with mine. My hands fly up to where his head met mine and I stumbled back a little. "Are you ok?!" Eli yelled, quickly coming to my side.

"I'm fine!" I said through my hands. "Are you sure? Let me see!" He said, lifting up my head to face his. I slowly lower my hands, to reveal a large amount of warm, red liquid plastered around and dripping from my nose. "Oh shit!" Eli gasped. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do it that hard! I knew I shouldn't have agreed to it."

"Eli, it's ok! I'm fine, really. I just need to go clean up a little." I said, looking down to the ground where there were small drops of blood that dropped from my nose. "I'll be back. Go ahead and practice on some other people." I said, before turning to get to the bathroom.

I went into the bathroom and closed the door. I started to clean up my nose with a wet paper towel. I wiped and wiped, but the blood was still spewing out. "Damn." I whispered to myself.

Eventually, I stuck a piece of toilet paper up my nose, in hopes that it'll stop the blood from dripping out. Some toilet paper was still sticking out of my nose, and I could see more blood slowly being absorbed into it. I shrugged and left the bathroom.

I walked back to the mats, and Eli caught eye of my in the mirror. He turned around quickly and ran over to me. "It's still bleeding? Are you sure you're ok? Do you need to go to the hospital or something?!" He asked quickly, putting one hand on my back and another on my arm.

"No no no, Eli. I'm fine! I promise! It looks worse than it feels." I reassured. "It looks funnier too." We both laughed. "Well. You did it to me... so it's only fair if I do it to you back." I said. He smiled and stood up straight. "Hit me." Said Eli.