Black Widow | Cobra Kai

6. Hawk

Sloane curiously raised her eyebrow. "You got something planned I don't know about?"

Eli shrugged. "Guess you'll just have to trust me."

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"Can I get your advice on something?" Miguel asked while he sat down to stretch with Aisha, Eli, and Sloane. "I asked Sam out and she agreed to go as friends. I get it, you know, the stuff with Kyler, but now I don't know where to go. I need somewhere romantic, but not too romantic."

Aisha rolled her eyes and gave Sloane a 'Is he serious' look. Sloane gave her a playful smile back as Eli answered the question. "You could take her to get tattoos," he offered, to which Aisha laughed.

Miguel furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What?"

Eli got up and started taking off the top of his gi. "I know this guy, just hooked me up with this bad boy," he said and showed them the hawk tattoo on his back. It area was still a little red, but it was healing nicely.

Miguel's eyes widened. "Oh, shit," he said in amazement.

Aisha nodded. "That is badass."

"Right. Fourteen hours in the chair," Eli bragged. He flexed his shoulders, making the wings of the hawk move. "Sloane got one too," he added while he sat back down.

Miguel grinned and shook his head. "No way."

"You have to tell everything, don't you?" Sloane scolded Eli playfully. She loosened her gi and pulled her sleeve down to show the spider tattooed on her shoulder blade.

"Nice," Aisha complimented. "Wait. Are your parents okay with that?"

"Oh, they have no idea. Definitely gonna have to wear a T-shirt till college...probably longer. Please don't tell them," Eli responded while putting his top back on.

"Uh...Any other suggestions? Miguel asked.

Aisha shook her head. "Don't look at me. Sam and I used to be friends, we're not anymore," she replied, at which Miguel turned to Sloane.

"You could take her to the restaurant I work at. I could keep an eye on you two. If anything goes wrong, you can just give me one of these and I can come to your rescue," Sloane offered, tapping the side of her nose as for a signal he could do. "It's pretty pricey, though. Maybe not the best idea for a first kind-of-date," she added before turning to Aisha. "So you're not friends, but you still know what she likes, right?"

Aisha sighed. "Fine. I know that she likes chocolate and astronomy," she said.

Miguel nodded and smiled, like a lightbulb just went off in his head. "I can work with that."

Their interest was peaked elsewhere when they heard Sensei Lawrence talking to someone over the phone in his office. Aisha, Sloane, and Eli looked between each other for a clue as to what that could be about while Miguel ran to check on their Sensei.

A few minutes later, Sensei Lawrence came out and everybody stood up. "Class is canceled today. There's somewhere I gotta be," he explained rather vaguely before leaving the dojo.

Sloane walked over to Miguel to see what was going on. "What's that all about?" she asked while crossing her arms

"Cobra Kai is banned from the All Valley tournament. Sensei's gonna get us in again," Miguel explained. "Anyway, I should go too. Get ready for my sorta-date with Sam."

"Go get her," Sloane encouraged, patting his shoulder.

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Sloane tied an apron around her waist as she pushed the door of the locker room open by walking through it backward. She'd just gotten changed into her work uniform, which was pretty much just a black polo shirt with red accents and the restaurant's name and logo on the back and the choice of either a black skirt or black pants.

She'd been working here since she was thirteen, having started off bussing tables and rolling silverware. She'd lied about her age at the time, using hair extensions and makeup to make herself look older. Once her manager found out she lied, she pulled the sympathy card and managed to keep her job. By that time, she was fourteen anyway and it wasn't illegal anymore. And she'd been working there ever since, taking the evening shift multiple times a week.

On weekends, she'd work as a housekeeper in a hotel for a few hours during the day, but this was still her preferred place of work. The hourly at the hotel was higher, but with the tips at the restaurant, she made a lot more when working there in the evenings than she did at the hotel. There was one regular who tipped a hundred bucks when she came in. She was someone who used to work in the same industry while putting herself through college and now owned a successful business. The woman was almost single-handedly responsible for the money Sloane used for herself.

"Sloane, just sat table 20. You're up," Steph, her manager, said as she passed her on her way to the kitchen. She was carrying several empty plates toward the kitchen.

"Got it," Sloane responded while grabbing some menus. She put on her customer service smile and approached the couple sitting at one of the tables against the window. "Good evening. Welcome to The Red Door. My name is Sloane, I'll be your server tonight. Can I get you guys some drinks while you look at the menu?" she said while handing them the menus.

"Scotch, neat," a woman in a leather jacket said while she looked at the menu.

"I'll have a margarita," her date responded. "But with lemon instead of lime."

Sloane nodded. "Coming up." She typed the order into the computer and walked over to the bar. "Danny. Scotch neat and a lemon margarita," she told the bartender.

"You got it," Danny responded. "How have you been?" he asked while he started to mix the drinks. Danny was in his early twenties. Sloane had to admit he was pretty handsome and he had gorgeous hair. It was no wonder that the bar was usually quite busy, especially on Fridays and the weekends.

"Good," Sloane said, nodding. "You?"

"I'm great," Danny answered, giving her a smile. He gave her the drinks on a platter. Sloane grabbed it and brought it to the couple, after which she took their order.

Sloane walked back to type in the order and printed the ticket before her phone started ringing. She quickly went into the locker room to answer it.

"Hey, Sloane, you're a girl, right?" Miguel asked, barely even bothering with a greeting.

"Keen observation, Miguel," Sloane responded, deadpan, as she closed the door behind her. "Why?"

"I need your opinion on something," Miguel explained. He set his phone down and stepped back, showing off his outfit. He even made a little spin. He had on a dark red T-shirt and a red and blue striped button-up with some black pants. "What do you think?"

Sloane tilted her head as she watched him. "Cute, but not like you're trying too hard. Do you have some kind of braided bracelet or watch?"

"Uh..." Miguel trailed off and went off-camera. She could hear some drawers open and close as he looked for something. "I have this," he answered while getting back in front of the phone. He showed her a few brown and black thin braided bracelets.

"Yes. Put those on," she told him. It was a subtle detail that most probably wouldn't notice, but if he got close to Sam, it was something that could draw her attention.

Miguel did just that. "Thanks, Sloane. You're the best," he told her while picking his phone back up. "I gotta go. Bye."

"Bye." Sloane waved at her screen and hung up. When she came back out, she nearly bumped into her coworker Maddie, another teenage server and pretty much her work bestie, as Maddie liked to call it.

"Careful," Maddie teased, tucking an empty platter under her arm and running a hand through her brown hair. "How's your karate thing going? Kicking ass yet?"

Sloane rolled her eyes. "I could already do that. This is more like expanding my knowledge base. I'm leaning quite a lot, though."

"You're with that viral dojo, right? The one from that fight at your school? The video with that cute guy?" Maddie asked with her signature smirk.

Sloane chuckled. "Yeah. That's my friend Miguel," she explained.

"Gotta say, if all your karate friends look like that, I might have to join the dojo myself," Maddie responded. Her eyes drifted back to the restaurant, where she saw another party had been sat in her section. "Gotta go. Work to do," she said and blew Sloane a kiss on her way there.