"Damn it! How do they make it look so easy on Hillbilly Handfishin'?" Penis Breath groaned.
Day two of catching koi with our bare hands isn't going very well...
Instead of us all being quiet and focusing on catching the fish, everyone was annoyed and loud. We would mostly just throw our hands in the water when a fish came close, but this didn't help catch any of them. At this point, our patience was almost nonexistent.
"Agh! Shit! This is impossible!" Eli cursed loudly.
"Patience." Mr. LaRusso told us all. "You'll figure it out."
I groaned and squeezed the bridge of my nose in stress. I smacked the water in anger and sat down normally. I watched in silence as the koi swam in an odd, loose circle in their pond. Some swam around one particular fish, leaving it trapped in the middle of them all.
These damn fish are getting on my nerves big time. Look at them, swimming in there, care free, while we're up here trying to catch their slimy asses. I never would've thought fish would make me this annoyed.
Suddenly, Miguel spoke. "I have an idea." He said with a nod and a smile. Then, he started to step into the pond. My eyes squinted and my eyebrows furrowed as I tried to figure out his plan. Everyone watched him, confused.
"Come on, get in." Miguel told us. Everyone looked at each other, wondering if it was a good idea. I was ready to finally catch one of these damn fish, so I carefully slid into the water without questions.
"Oh, fuck it's cold." I said, shivering a bit.
"What the..." Eli said quietly as he watched.
"Well, come on, guys! Get in!" I waved them all into the pond. Soon, everyone slowly made their way into the water. I slowly made my way over to Miguel.
"What now?" I asked. He looked around the pond. "I, uh, hadn't thought that far yet..." He chuckled. "Maybe we can just try to catch them like this? I mean, we'd be closer to them." He suggested.
I thought and thought about what we could do. I thought about what we had already done, how we can change our previous tactics, how the fish swam...
How the fish swam!
They were swimming in a circle around another fish. So, maybe if we walked in a circle, we could coax them into the middle of the pond. Thus, allowing us a clean, but careful, grab of the colorful fish.
"I've got it!" I exclaimed. Everyone looked over to me, waiting to hear my idea. "Everyone, walk in a circle. Oh, and, try not to step on any koi..." I added. Everyone in the pond obeyed, and began walking in a circle around the middle of the pond.
The fish started to swim in a circle along with us. They slowly started to form a group under the wooden platform that stood in the middle of the koi pond.
"It's working. They're going under the board!" Eli commented, astonished. Miguel reached under the board. He gasped and pulled his hands out of the water again. But this time, a colorful fish occupied them.
I cheered for Miguel, relieved that one of us finally caught a fish. "We have a winner!" Mr. LaRusso yelled. "Well, we have two winners." He added.
Everyone looked over to Mr. LaRusso. "Y/n, Miguel, the teamwork you showed today was truly amazing. I'm very proud of you guys." He told us. Miguel and I nodded in thanks.
"I'm proud of all of you guys." He continued speaking to everyone. "Remember, you don't have to have all the answers. It's alright to ask others for help. Don't be ashamed."
Mr. LaRusso walked to a stack of towels. "Everyone come dry off." He said. Everyone climbed out and thankfully took a towel from Mr. LaRusso's stack.
☞︎ THIRD-PERSON POV ☜︎
Once everyone dried off as much as they could, Mr. LaRusso directed all the students to the sparring deck.
Mr. LaRusso walked onto the deck, before turning to face them all again. He told Miguel and Y/n to join him. So, they followed him up.
Mr. LaRusso reached into his pocket and pulled out two white cloths, decorated in blue. "Mr. Miyagi once told me," he started, unfolding the two pieces of fabric. "that this represents perseverance, courage, and strength." He explained to the two.
With the cloths now unfolded, the pair realized that they were actually headbands. The same ones that Mr. LaRusso always wears. "It also does a pretty good job of keeping the sweat out of your eyes." The dark haired man joked.
Y/n hasn't realized this, but Eli watched the girl in admiration with a dreamy smile on his face. He was proud of her. So proud.
As Daniel tied the headbands around the two students' heads, Johnny and the Miyagi-Dos arrived. They walked to the back of the dojo.
The students joined the other Eagle Fang students and watched the interaction on the sparring deck. Johnny, though, stayed back. He watched from a distance as his top two students bowed in front of Daniel with matching headbands around their heads.
"What the hell?" Johnny spoke to himself quietly as he watched. His two students smiled proudly in front of the Miyagi-Do sensei. He tried to think of a rational explanation instead of jumping to conclusions so quick, like Y/n and Miguel had told him on countless occasions.
He clenched his fists once, before taking a deep breath, trying to relax a bit. The day wasn't over. He shouldn't start a fight. Not now. Especially considering the state of things.
Now, all the students trained in the backyard of the Miyagi dojo; Johnny still teaching the Miyagi-Dos while Daniel taught the Eagle Fangs.
Daniel gathered the Eagle Fangs together and started teaching them a kata. It took everyone some time to remember the movements.
"Good job, everyone. Now you're gonna try it without my help. Everyone, spread out." He told them. The students broke off in different directions.
Y/n looked to her left and saw Miguel walking with Mr. LaRusso to one side of the koi pond. On her right, she saw Eli and a few other students walking to the other side. She looked back and forth, debating on which side she should go on.
She ought to go on the same side as Miguel and Mr. LaRusso, but decided to go on Eli's side. She jogged lightly to catch up with the red-haired boy. Eli looked over to her once she caught up.
"Shouldn't you be over there, Miss y/l/n? Since, you know, you're a teacher now." Eli joked. Y/n elbowed him in the arm. "I thought I should be over here. Since, you know," she repeated his words. "you keep getting the kata wrong."
"Oh, so you've been watching me?" He smirked. She looked over to him and scoffed. "Absolutely not. I just happened to look over to you, and thought you could use some help." She said.
"Oh yeah?" He chuckled. "Yeah." She repeated.
"Alright, well, why don't you help me out, then?" He added, as everyone got into the starting stance.
Everyone started the kata, moving onto the next stance with every signal from Daniel.
Every couple moves, Eli would end up doing something wrong. So, y/n helped him figure it out. Eli looked over to her every now and again to mirror her movements.
Or at least, this is was he wanted y/n to think.
The truth is, Eli knew this series of moves by the second go-around with Mr. LaRusso. He was purposefully getting the moves wrong.
When he did the wrong thing, Y/n would adjust his hands and arms into the correct position. Her touch warmed his skin and made his stomach flutter.
He pretended to look over to her to copy her movements, when really it gave him the excuse just to look at her. He thought she was beautiful. The most beautiful person ever. He couldn't think of anyone else as amazing as y/n.
While the Eagle Fangs practiced their kata, Johnny had the Miyagi-Dos doing push-ups. But instead of watching the Miyagi-Do students, he watched the Eagle Fangs. The same, nagging sense of jealousy filled him up as he watched Miguel and Y/n practice over there.
Johnny glanced over at them all day, hating the feeling spreading throughout his body. He knew he shouldn't feel this way, but he couldn't help it. He's been with them since the beginning. They've taught him so many lessons about being a better man, and he wants to repay the favor. He wants to teach them the right way to do things. He doesn't want them learning it all from LaRusso.
Johnny kept looking over his shoulder at Miguel practicing his blocks with Daniel, while the Miyagi-Dos practiced their kicking and punching on the targets in Johnny's hands.
After Chris did the combination, Johnny looked over to the sparring deck again. He watched as Daniel now encouraged Y/n. When he looked back forward, he accidentally lowered the targets, causing Demitri to kick Johnny right in the face.
"Oh shit!" Demitri gasped as Johnny touched his own lip. "Um, I'm not gonna get in any trouble, am I?" Demitri asked, hoping Johnny's answer was a no. But, of course, it wasn't.
Demitri's kick to the man's face gave him a one-way ticket to becoming a human punching bag. Demitri was strapped to a punching bag with cushions coving his torso, while the Miyagi-Do students punched and kicked Demitri on Johnny's command. Johnny even put his black headband in Demitri's mouth to stop him from talking.
While this was happening, the Eagle Fang students were meditating with Mr. LaRusso in the dojo. Well, some of them were...
Eli and Y/n saw what was happening to Demitri outside and couldn't help but laugh. They tried to contain their laughter, but Demitri's muffled groans always broke their focus.
Daniel would silently glare at the two laughing teens every small outburst of theirs. "Stay focused. Breathe. In and out." He would say to everyone, but mostly directed towards Eli and Y/n.
It was all over for the two when Demitri eventually got kicked in the balls. They bursted into laughter, letting out all the laughs they tried to conceal.
Once class was over, everyone on both teams grabbed their bags and made their way to the front of the dojo.
Y/n jogged up to Demitri and called his name. He looked over to her and smiled painfully. "Are you alright?" She asked him. Eli joined the two as well.
"Me?! Oh yeah, I'm fine." Demitri waved a hand, exaggerating some of his words sarcastically. "They're starting to turn back to their normal color, so..." He added.
"Awww, poor Demitri..." The girl laughed, wrapping her arms around Demitri. The dark-haired boy accepted her hug and put his arms around her as well. The two looked over to Eli, who was watching them with a smile.
"Get in here!" Y/n and Demitri invited Eli into the hug as well, and Eli gladly accepted. The trio pulled apart from their group hug after a moment and said their goodbyes to Demitri.
Once Demitri walked away, Y/n turned towards Eli. "You did good today, Haircut." She said with a smile. "Haircut? That's a new one." He chuckled.
"But thank you, Y/n." Eli added.
The was silent between the two for a moment, before Y/n spoke up again. "So, I've been thinking..." She started. Eli jokingly widened his eyes in fear. Y/n rolled her eyes and sighed.
"So I've been thinking..." she started again. "Did you ever want to, maybe, go-" The girl paused, after being interrupted by Daniel LaRusso, who was calling from the dojo.
"Y/n. Eli. Come in here for a second." He called the two into the dojo. Eli and Y/n exchanged a quick glance, before walking side by side to the dojo. Daniel shut the door behind them after they entered.
"What's up, Sensei LaRusso?" Y/n smiled. Eli smiled as well.
"I've been very impressed by the skills you guys have presented these past couple days. You guys really have some talent." He told them.
Eli and Y/n turned towards the other and gave each other a congratulatory high-five.
"However," Daniel continued, gaining the attention of the two again. "You guys have some problems focusing, I've noticed."
Their smiles faded and they shared a small, worried glance with each other. "We're sorry, Mr. LaRusso. It won't happen again, we promise." Eli apologized. Y/n agreed with a nod.
"I should hope so. I don't want to have to separate you guys. You're old enough to know better. I also don't want to see your potential go to waste."
They apologized again and promised to focus more next time. They both left the dojo and shut the door behind them. They started walking forward together in silence, before they both erupted into laughter again.
"What just happened?" Y/n laughed. "We just got yelled at like kids!" Eli exclaimed.
"You, Haircut, need to stop acting like a child during practice. It's distracting." Y/n told him. "Hey, it's not my fault I'm so irresistible to you." Eli smirked, dramatically cocking his head back.
"Yeah, right." Y/n chuckled. Just then, a car horn sounded through the air. The duo looked over to the sound, to see someone in their car with the windows rolled down.
Y/n was confused to see the man in the car, but not upset. Eli, though, felt horrible. His stomach dropped. His breath caught in his lungs.
Uncle Bucky.
"Buck, what're you doing here?" Y/n asked. "I thought we could go see a movie or something." Her uncle replied, talking to Y/n, but staring directly at Eli.
Eli got nervous under Uncle Buck's stare, so he looked down to the ground and took a step away from y/n. Y/n noticed Eli step back and furrowed her eyebrows.
Y/n nodded, agreeing to Uncle Buck's suggestion to see a movie. She looked back to Eli again. "So, I'll see you tomorrow?" She asked, taking slow steps towards her uncle's car.
"Mhm." He hummed quietly, still looking down to the ground.
After Y/n entered her uncle's car, Eli looked over to the car again. Bucky was still staring at him, as if shooting daggers from his eyes. Bucky shook his head sternly at him, before looking forward again and zooming off in his car.
Eli let out a held breath after the car left.
Of course he remembered that night. How could he not? He could still hear the harsh words spoken to him by Uncle Bucky...
You weren't there to protect her.
You did this.
Eli has worked too hard to get those words out of his head and to fix all the things he'd done. He doesn't want it all to just go to waste because of some guy who doesn't know the whole truth.
You know what? Uncle Bucky can fuck off, Eli thought.
Eli is strong. Eli is badass.
He knows who he is now.
✯¸.•'*¨'*•♡︎ ♡︎•*'¨*'•.¸✯