CHAPTER 32:
"It was Yaya's birthday. We figured after all she'd done for everyone this past year, she deserved something to celebrate." Zelena keeps her arms at her side to avoid the sudden movement that would set Tory off physically, though she desperately wants to wrap her arms around her body to shield herself from the iciness radiating off her friend.
The blonde sucks her teeth mockingly, leaning in closer to the brunette who allows her to get close. She nearly utters something but a different commotion to the left of her causes her head to snap in that direction, exposing her completely to Tory who is no longer under Zelena's watchful eye. "You know if you would have never left Cobra Kai, it wouldn't have to be like this." Tory's words awaken the curious cat forever living in Zelena's mind rent free and the vague, foreboding sentence turns Zelena's head back toward the blonde. "If he never left, it really wouldn't have to come to this."
"Kreese kicked me out. And he didn't want to be that way anymore." Zelena defends, noting the subtle way Tory prepares herself for a physical altercation by stepping back only slightly.
"Hey, get away from her!" A voice shouts from off to the side. Neither girl pays much attention to the edge of the tone nor the actual source. Both are entranced by one another, silently acknowledging the way they were quite literally two sides of the same coin. Light and dark, day and night, peace and war- Miyagi Fang and Cobra Kai.
Tory rolls her eyes, her chest briefly jerking in sync with the huff that escapes her. "You really think that Hawk doesn't exist anymore because he chose to break up one fight? Because he showed up to a couple of practices?" Tory's lips press together, considering the destruction that would be left in her wake should she continue down this road.
"People can change given the right circumstances. It doesn't happen overnight-"
A threat is angrily shouted from the left of the pairing once more, though neither can make out the words. The two girls watch the oncoming company, Tory in what should be glee that the two traitors are getting what they deserve, but is really a discontent bringing her sickness and Zelena in complete horror. She notes the dark blue hoodie Eli had grabbed from his trunk before he locked his car indefinitely for the time they were here and then the glimpse of face from the person in the black zip up opposing him. Robby.
Eli swings first and actively knocks Robby to the floor, quickly straddling him and throwing a few punches mercilessly to his face. Zelena races to the pair, grabbing her date at the elbow just as he swings his arm back to strike Robby a fourth time. She yanks backward, even swinging her body weight that way to send Eli onto his ass. Her feet shuffle her frame between the pair of barbaric boys with her arms outstretched.
Both boys scramble back onto the soles of their feet, manuvering forward on the balls of them to stand chest against palm on either side of Zelena. They silently size each other up, seething in their own fury, while Zelena feels their surges of negative emotion against her palms. Her words and voice fall on deaf ears, something she doesn't necessarily mind until Robby narrows his eyes and presses harder against her hand to egg on Eli. Eli steps forward too, igniting the fire within Zelena as she watches this useless, pissing fight.
Her arms bend inward, causing the two boys to stumble forward and thanks to gravity, cause them to smack heads. Though she had not intended harm to either of them, she smiles at the irony and places her hands on her hips. "Maybe that was enough to knock some sense into you two idiots," She chides over the groaning boys who rub the area of their foreheads that had been impacted.
The fury surges through the blonde, seeing the girl who has it all settling the long time burning battle between Hawk and Robby.And the truth seeps into her mind, the same one Zelena had begun to admit to before they boys interrupted them. A truth Tory didn't want to think about because it always tore her apart. Everything in her aches and burns with her indecisive crisis. "It also doesn't happen in two weeks. And if you really thought that calling him by his old name and wrapping him in hugs and kisses," She makes kissy faces to hide the twists of pain in her expression, "Or even fucking him would actually make him your dream man, then you really are as stupid as Kreese says you are."
Zelena swallows the lump rising in her throat at the rudely mocked words Tory spouts out like a leaky water faucet. She turns back to face the blonde. Her eyes drink in the way Tory's eyes glaze over like it had when she was talking about her mom and was trying to disassociate- when she was in the most pain. "T-"
Tory snaps her fingers in front of her chest with a soft bounce of her hand like she's just realized something new as she crosses the space between them. Her index finger then jabs into the center of Zelena's chest, recalling the image she saw every time Miguel crossed her mind. An image that had been impossibly worse than actually watching Sam and Miguel kiss. His arm wrapped securely around her back and waist while he leaned her back. The way their bodies touched as they danced and how Zelena carelessly laid her head against his shoulder. Just like Tory would do when she couldn't quit laughing at the stupidity and obnoxiousness of Miguel's jokes. "You aren't though. And that's why you went for your new dream man." Venom drips and Zelena can feel the air go stagnant at the oncoming accusation. "Miguel."
Zelena can't help herself. After everything she'd whispered to Tory in the fallout of the bomb Sam and Miguel had dropped when they kissed at Moon's party- all the times Zelena held the blonde when she cried or tried to self destruct. And she had the audacity to accuse her of wanting to be with Miguel? She laughs in Tory's face. "You think," She can't stop cackling at the absurdity of the accusation. "You think I want Miguel?" Tory firmly nods her head once and Zelena motions to Eli. "I'm on a date with Eli."
"And Sam was in a relationship with Robby. I was in a relationship with Miguel. A single date seems a really insignificant boundary when it comes to that. A minor bump in the road." Tory stalks forward and once more Zelena doesn't step back. She ignores the voices trying to warn her, screaming to get ready for the fight.
"I'm sorry he did that to you." Zelena tears up, remembering how horribly it had all ended up. The way it shattered the confident girl she'd always seen Tory as and how infuriated it made Robby- how Miguel had used it against him in the school fight. Her eyes meet the killer baby blues opposing her date and watches the way they soften when they meet her gentle gaze. "I'm sorry Sam did that to you." She then glances between the pair, "I'm sorry they both did that to the both of you. No one deserves that." Her eyes lock back onto Tory, having at least received a nod and a tight lipped smile in affirmation from Robby. "But I don't want Miguel in that way- at all."
Tory quietly snaps, "I don't believe you." Everything within her chants 'liar', growing louder and louder with every advance she makes.
Zelena tosses her arms outward, "I can't make you."
'I can't fix it' leaves Zelena's lips though Tory processes it as 'I can't fix you'. Samantha LaRusso returns to haunt her from that day at the Beach Club, dripping in righteousness and a strong declaration of already 'knowing' what was going on. The assumptions she made about everything Tory had spent her life trying not to be. A fraud. A thief. A liar. "You bitch! I don't need fixing!" Both of the blonde's fists going flying at, seemingly, the speed of light. Her left smacks against the right side of Zelena's face while her right hand hooks into Zelena's stomach.
Eli steps forward to place himself between the girls, but Robby steps around Tory and blocks the move his old rival makes to grab Tory. "I just want to protect, Zelena. Now get. Out. Of. My. Way." He watches the way the brunette falters in his step, slowing the block down but he still tilts his body to the side, effectively keeping him away from the pair of girls. His eyes dart behind Robby to keep his eyes on Zelena, knowing she could definitely hold her own. But his heart drops to the pit of his stomach, watching her still form, weakly blocking the oncoming force of fury Tory places upon her.
An old rage reignites in him when he notes the hesitation upon Robby's face but his lack of actual response to the situation he's watching unfold. He attempts once more to slide by the Cobra. A hand roughly grasps his shoulder, yanking him back from his advancement to the girls and without any consideration of possible consequence, Eli swings his arm forward into Robby's stomach. He gives him zero chance to properly recover, quickly crossing the space Robby had stumbled back to, and swinging again with his right fist. It connects with Robby's cheek but at the cost of a punch to his own stomach. Eli growls and he can physically feel himself inwardly change.
Hawk was back.
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Zelena
"Fight back!" Tory roars, thrusting another merciless fist powered by rage in my direction. The force of her punch runs right through me, shoving me backward. My feet stumble over one another in their naturally uncoordinated state and my body tumbles to the floor. Pain throbs in my back where it collides with the cement of the public sidewalk and a familiar pulsating sensation echoes from the back of my head. She continues to scream for me to get up, to fight- and gives me the chance to stand to my feet- but I can't find it in me to fight her. She knows I could give her a run for her money. We'd trained together so many times before and often joked about there being a draw if pitted against one another in a tournament. We are equals. We were supposed to be.
My eyes draw, at first blankly, upward to the night sky lit with the slight twinkle of small stars outside our atomsphere. A soft smile paints across my cut up lips as the pain slowly ceases and I focus more deeply on the shades of blue and the constellations I can see. A defeaning holler rips from someone's throat and a new weight places itself upon my body in an almost muted sense. I could feel and hear the changes physically, but they felt so weightless- so distanced. My head swivels side to side, upward and downward, taking every hit she throws, but I nearly don't feel a damn thing. Peace like I'd felt mid fall that day on the staircase returns to my body, blanketing it in warmth that deflects all the punches.
The blows soften until they suddenly, completely cease from landing at all. My consciousness returns to the present moment, focusing on the blonde atop me with tears rolling down her cheeks. "I could never fight you, T. I wouldn't." I whisper, reaching my hand from my side to gently grab hers. A sob escapes her lips the second my hand brushes against hers. She jerks her hand away from mine, leaning back onto her heels and standing from her sat position on me. Her entire body stumbles back a step. My loose lips speak my unspoken mind. "And for the record, I love Eli- Hawk- whatever name he wants to go by. It's always been him."
Her hands cup around her mouth, completely covering it while shock adorns her previously enraged expression. A different body hovers over mine, though I can still feel the same waves of rage and pain that radiated off Tory, radiate off him. His right hand lifts, growing larger as it closes the distance between its position and my face, but it never makes contact with my flesh. It even draws down in a hover, like he's trying to find the perfect place to touch so it'd heal me. Pain overrules the intial flames of anger gleaming in his irises. "Z, I'm so sorry. I-"
"You don't get to call her, Z. Only her friends call her that. You made it clear, by doing this, that you aren't her friend." Eli snaps, jerking his head to look back at the blonde lingering around behind him. A shiver runs down my spine though I'm not cold, not even a little bit. He's back. My subconscience lowly utters in warning, forcing me to closer observe his behavior- his body language. He straightens his posture and narrows his eyes at her. "All she ever did was believe in you and you fucking did this!"
"I'm sorry!" Tory sobs, but screams back at him though it isn't nearly as loud as he sounds. "I-"
His body begins to lift off the ground with the power of his legs straightening out from beneath him. "E, don't." I whisper, feeling my body's range of movement slowly return consciously. It still isn't fast enough. His head whips around to glance at me, but he doesn't look at me, he looks to me- seeing only the surface stained by trickling lines of blood and budding bruises. He stands to his full height and spins on his heel to face her- advance on her. "Eli!" I cough in short sputters following the call of his name that doesn't stop him. "You do that- you hurt her and you're just like them. You revert back to Hawk- go back on everything you've done so far. It's a rabbit hole."
I swallow harshly to ease the fire building within my dry throat and force my limbs to move. My arms slowly bend at the elbows, burning with the bruises yet to outwardly show. I lean on them as if they were fine. Hawk has clearly reappeared, his fists clenched tightly at his sides while his back muscles move beneath the cloth of his sweater. He's at least trying to contain himself. His feet continue forward and Tory squares herself off, stancing herself for a fight she knows may be inevitable. One that she brought upon herself. My conscience reminds me the second my heart lurches in my chest, pleading with my mind to say something to get him to stop.
"HAWK!" The last resort takes every single ounce of energy roaming through me, but it actually succeeds. He turns back to look at me with darkened features, darkened eyes that soften ever so slightly. I wince as pain shoots into my thighs when I lift both legs at the knees to hold my weight and push me into a sitting position. His eyes snap back behind him to the blonde and the brunette rising onto the soles of his feet once more, holding his nose that Hawk had probably broken. My lips part and like he can hear my single breath, preparing to utter more words in a last attempt to stop him, his eyes turn back to me. And his whole body turns.
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THIRD PERSON
Against her better judgment, she stands onto her feet completely, leaning against the wall for extra support as Hawk practically jogs back to her side. His arm slowly slides around her waist, beneath her left arm, but resists fully resting the weight of his arm against her to avoid further pain. "How can I help, Angel?" She knows he doesn't mean to sound so dark as he does when he addresses her and that it is the pressure of his anger weighing in his voice, but the simple sound still sends a shiver down her spine and flutters in her stomach.
"Does she need an ambulance?" An older gentleman inquires, his wife not far behind him as they walk toward Zelena.
Zelena smiles through the aches and burns, shaking her head in denial of the additional assistance. "I'm okay. Really. Thank you though." She leans back into Hawk's outstretched arm, ignoring the threat of a hiss breathing out between her lips by clenching her teeth together. She grins to hide the tightness in her jaw and glances up to her date who furrows his eyebrows together. Her legs begin to move to the side to leave her contact with the chilled wall side, making it through the turn, but then she stumbles the second she attempts to walk forward.
A pair of arms not adorned in the dark blue fabric Eli had been wearing, catch her around the waist. "Zelena-" Robby softly calls, causing her eyes to draw upward from the pitch black cloth pulling across his chest to the baby blue eyes many girls adored so much. "I didn't realize she was going to- I'm so sorry." His hands go to draw up to her face, tears rolling down his cheeks the longer he stares and his fingertips stop growing closer to her face. "I, this wasn't supposed to be- no one was supposed to get seriously hurt."
"No one ever is." Zelena's whisper is met with a gentle brush of her hand across his cheek, before she glances behind him at the crumbling Tory who is still frozen in horror of her own actions. Her arms wrap around her chest, trying to comfort herself the best she can though it does nothing to ease the sobs racking her body. Zelena's eyes flicker back to Robby's, "Yet someone always does." She steps back from his hold and bumps into a different, firm chest with her back. "You should ice that Robby. Doesn't look broken, but definitely bruised- badly." Zelena doesn't say anything else about his injuries like the cut across his cheek nor the lingering bruise that she believes existed before his rumble with Hawk.
The arm from earlier returns around her waist, this time laying across her stomach and pulling her flush against his front rather than into his side. Zelena can feel the tension in Hawk's body as he contains his undeniable protectiveness- his fury- to the best of his ability. She places her left hand over his which rests atop her stomach. In response, he wraps his right arm around her and steps into her body, forcing her forward to get the pair of them out of this situation. He could only hold back for so long. And seeing Robby be soft with Zelena after talking shit to his face and preventing him from saving her from Tory only enraged Hawk more.
Zelena moves her feet faster than she probably should, well aware of the ticking time lingering behind her. She forces her eyes away from Tory as she passes, unsure of how she would even approach the bomb herself. Where Hawk had actively worked to retain as much of his violent rage as he could, Tory had released it freely until it had been exhausted. Technically so did Hawk- except Demetri was on the receiving end of it. Her subconscience chides in sync with the skipping beat of her heart.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
Soooooo yes- what did we think??? Obviously we gotta see Hawk again because you can't convince me we aren't going to see the return of Hawk again in Season 4 (well like we will but I mean dark Hawk, ya know). Also, these characters in this show got some ✨unresolved issues✨.
Chapter 35 is currently in the works and Chapter 36 story is already being graphed out... 😈 can't wait for y'all to read it.
As always and forever, thank you new and OG readers alike for reading this story! I love and appreciate every single one of you!!