From @/KGBKBG on ao3:

"Do you think you could do Eli/Demetri as if Yasmine never came back for prom and they are standing in the corner without dates and Demetri is trying to cheer Eli up and then suggests they dance together. Eli is kind of nervous because he thinks it'll mean more to him and it does to Demetri, but they dance and then kiss and they find themselves in a confusing situation because they both really liked it"

Did You Mean: how the prom should have really gone?? Lmao. No hate towards Yasmine, she should be happy w/ Moon and stop being used to progress male storylines

Thinking about that scene in kk1 where Ali was in that shower costume with Daniel (and he was all flustered over her giving him a flower! Mans said screw gender roles, no wonder every man in that universe has it out for him!) and he leans his head against hers while they dance and he really wants to go in for the kiss but is shy and respectful and doesn't...and I think that's very sexy of him

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Demetri didn't think he would ever get used to this look on Eli's face.

Over the years, he'd studied the many looks of Eli Moskowitz. He didn't remember much from his toddler years, though he remembered that when he first met Eli in kindergarten, he had the biggest ear-to-ear smile, almost like a cartoon character. Demetri couldn't give a damn about the scar on his lip, he was too preoccupied by Eli's shirt, which was from the 80s Voltron cartoon. Demetri immediately started excitedly chatting with Eli, before the years of bullying and worsening anxiety, and the two became best friends within minutes.

Demetri was never deterred by the bullies; Eli got them for his lip, Demetri for generally being a nerd. He was always there to comfort Eli, usually with sarcastic comments, which worked out well for the pair of them.

Over the years, Eli's smile faded, became rarer than Demetri actually being good at whatever video game he was currently obsessing over. Demetri slowly became a stranger to that too-wide smile and was accompanied by a frowning, watery-eyed Eli. An Eli that wore too-big, too-brown sweaters, trying to cover up and remain unnoticeable.

And then, with the changes and corruption of Cobra Kai, the new Eli. The new looks, the new expressions, someone Demetri wasn't welcome to be friends with.

"Hawk" was always scowling, always sneering and angry with the world and anyone that chose not to be bitter alongside him. Even his smile was downright psychotic, usually because he'd tormented Demetri and his friends while doing so.

But then there was the end of the line, when Eli remembered who he was, for the most part, and who his friends were supposed to be. And mostly, things were back to normal, and Demetri could see that Eli seemed more relaxed now. Still a badass, still more muscular than Demetri could ever be, but he was still Eli to him.

Demetri always knew they would be on the sidelines at prom.

They were on the sidelines for every dance, too shy and awkward and geeky to ask a girl on a date. Demetri acknowledged to himself that Eli could probably get a date. He knew it wouldn't be Moon, who was now happily dating Yasmine, but Eli could have found someone. He excelled in karate and had the body to prove it, not to mention the back tattoo. Demetri was never a fan of the entire "Hawk" persona, nor such a big permanent change as a back tattoo, though he had to admit it was a bit cool.

Perhaps it was the look on his face, not meaning to scowl but still coming off intimidating. Not to mention, since the removal of his mohawk, Eli's short hair looks like it was shaved in boot camp or juvie.

"I don't understand how you didn't get a date," Demetri voices aloud after a long, thickening silence. "Me? Sure, I can't get a girl even if I am wearing my best suit, but you? Karate king that you are? Well, we're both pretty good, but you actually look like you do something—I'm rambling..."

Eli breathed a sigh, but it was a humored one, and he spared Demetri a smile. He never did mean to be very expressive with his lips, though he still was. He did that quick-quirking thing, something of a White People Smile. "You're alright, Demetri. I don't really care about that kind of stuff, anyway. Sure, it'd be nice, but...now I don't have to worry about dancing..."

"Do you not like dancing?" Demetri asked, incredulously. "Because if you're gonna lie and say you don't, I just wonder what you've done with the Eli who loved The Yule Ball. The Goblet of Fire is your favorite Harry Potter book, and not even because of the dragon. It's because of the dancing."

Sometimes, Demetri feels a pang of guilt when he teases Eli like this. It was okay in the days before Cobra Kai, but after...how he brought up Eli's bed wetting at the party...

Sometimes, Demetri feels like he isn't allowed to make fun of Eli like that anymore, like that bridge has been forever burned. But then Eli smiles at him, and laughs and tells him to shut up, and it's all okay.

Demetri has worried about everything and everyone since the day he could comprehend his own existence. The only thing he never had to worry about was when he and Eli were friends. He, mercifully, didn't have to think about the dumb shit he was saying four times before actually voicing it.

He loved that feeling, the impulsivity.

"Dance with me," Demetri said, the words rolling off his tongue, yet again, before he can swallow them with his other five course meal of emotional repression.

Eli looked up at him, eyes stunned and shy and so much like the brown-sweater-wearing Eli, though his face is hardened like Hawk. "Really?" The single word, uncertain.

"Yeah, why not?" Demetri settled. It wasn't as if Eli would leave him if he said no. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we're not Hogwarts-letter-receiving age anymore. We're Hogwarts-graduating age. As tragic as it is, we're never gonna have a Yule Ball. So, let's make this our Yule Ball."

Eli frowns slightly, still uncertain as he looks at Demetri's offering hand. "This doesn't sound like the kind of music they'd play at the Yule Ball." He offers, cynical, but still takes Demetri's hand.

Demetri is just as uncertain, but he takes Eli to the dance floor, unnoticed in the mass of students. He takes Eli's hand and puts one—(not blushing profusely, oh god, was he sweating? What was this, middle school?)—on his waist.

Eli starts to put his hand on Demetri's shoulder, looking almost casual about the entire affair before he stops. "Wait, what are you doing?" For a terrifying moment, Demetri thinks he's backing out, that he'll leave him again. "Why are you leading?"

But his voice his shy, too shy to be accusatory, and Demetri smiles about the one thing he's always been able to hold over Eli's head...literally. "I'm taller than you." He remarks smugly. "It's not my fault. But the taller person leads the dance."

Eli looks vexed at this, but says nothing more on the matter, surprising Demetri. The entire odd situation seems to have made Eli revert to shyness, which didn't seem his style nowadays. Perhaps he was just worried about hurting Demetri...the thought dreaded him, so he pushed it aside.

Demetri noticed a far off gaze in Eli's eyes as he started to move closer to him. The way things were going right now, Jesus had a whole Terry-Silver-Mansion size of space to hang out in between the two. "Eli?" Demetri asked, his voice soft, concerned, not imposing and boisterous as he usually found himself.

"Mm?" Eli hummed in response.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?" Demetri asked, some attempt at playfulness, though his voice is too low, too genuine for that.

"Nothing serious," Eli smiled, shaking his head. "Just...our first dance. Sixth grade. You showed up in a full suit, and I showed up in jeans and my dad's dress shirt that was way too big."

Demetri lets out a huff of laughter at that. Indeed, he'd far out dressed everyone in his class, while Eli looked like a five year old playing dress up. "Say what you will about me, but I thought you were adorable." He teased, and part of him meant it...which made him frown, for only a moment.

"Whatever," Eli laughed. "You looked like you were trying to market Beyblades on Shark Tank."

Demetri laughs again, and slow dancing really shouldn't be this funny, because a girl dancing with her date next to them gives them a dirty look. "What a super specific insult. I must have really been on your mind for you to remember it so well."

Eli gives another quirk of a smile, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, well...we were less confident, then. Less sure of what we wanted and how to get it..."

"Yeah?" Demetri asks, dipping his head a bit, feeling Eli's soft hair brush against his forehead for a moment before he pulls away slightly in politeness. "Speak for yourself, I'm still not confident. I think I know what I want, though, generally speaking..."

The second song wraps up, and a third slow song starts playing. Damn, they're really catering to the couples; Demetri is nervous in the fact that he's relieved.

Eli nods, and Demetri nods, swallowing as they both avoid each other's eyes for a moment longer. And then:

"Demetri?"

Demetri doesn't know if it's a question so much as an uncertain order. "Yeah?" He settles for, leaning back close to Eli, if only to hear him better.

And then Eli's hands are moving behind Demetri's neck, and Demetri can feel them shake as if Eli was doing something forbidden. Because then Eli's pulling him down into a kiss.

When they were five, Eli was curious about how another person's tongue felt against his own, and Demetri agreed to help out his little experiment. They didn't kiss, they just stuck out their tongues and touched them together quickly. Then a teacher saw them, and they got in time-out for not keeping boundaries.

All that bouncing around in Demetri's head to say: this was nothing like that.

Eli's lips were soft against his own, needy in the way that he was always itching for a fight these days. Needy in the way that he seemed to have wanted to kiss Demetri desperately for the longest time.

Demetri didn't have the fainted fucking idea as to why.

When Eli started to pull away, Demetri went in for one more quick kiss (or perhaps two), as if worried he would forget immediately what it felt like.

As if worried the world after this would be tilt on its axis, blurry and dazed like when the pair had tried to open their eyes underwater at the public pool.

Demetri can feel Eli's unsteady breath against his lips, can see his eyes alight with worry when he opens his own.

"That was...bizarre," Demetri says, surprised he can still articulate words that are not a desperate plea for Eli to kiss him again. "But, um...I liked it. A lot. It made sense. And I'm just glad it made sense to you, too, because I've wanted that for a while...I, um." And he's sure Eli knows this, and curse his emotional vulnerability, but he says it anyway. "I've never kissed anyone before. And I'm glad my first kiss was you...we can try other firsts, if you want." He shoots finger guns, and then he's mortified that that is the move he's pulling. "I'm sorry."

Eli laughs and shakes his head, shooting finger guns right back. "How about we ditch this place and go to yours?" He asks. "We could watch Goblet of Fire."

Demetri grins at the prospect and the potential it had. Ice cream and friendly cuddles were already in the mix, though now he was picturing an entirely new scenario. One in which Eli ends up on his lap, kissing him with all that pent-up desperation...or perhaps the other way around. He nods, taking Eli's hand and leading him out, Eli starting up an eager conversation on the lost potential of merpeople on his way out.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Is it obvious I don't know how tenses work?

Also one of the unrealistic but understandable aspects of Cobra Kai given that it's written by a bunch of middle aged dudes is that, like...people don't get bullied for being nerdy/geeky anymore? Like if you're cringe about it, like you bark at people and Naruto run down the halls and shit, then yeah you'll be made fun of...but like I'm nerdy and I feel like most people my age (18, I'm not that much older than the characters are supposed to be) are too, we're just mostly chill and it's cool

Anyways, I'm gonna publish this and go to bed, tomorrow I'll do some editing and post it on ao3...because this is a hot mess and I want it to be good for the person who requested

But yes, childhood best friends to enemies back to friends to lovers is some ✨good soup✨ and I look forward to writing more of them when/if I get some ideas

Until next time

~mw