【 reseda, 2018 】

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━━ Aisha Robinson has heard multiple rumors about Stevie Novak. She has believed almost every single one. She believed she bashed Titan's face in, and caused short-term memory loss in his best friend, Royce. She was convinced she dislocated Brucks' wrist. She remembers watching Stevie rip a chunk of hair out of Yasmine's head after Princess Plastic tried to bitch slap her for sassing her.

Aisha believed, without a shadow of a doubt, that Stevie was batshit crazy.

She also believed that Miguel was stupid for liking her so much. The girl who threatened to embarrass him in front of the entire school if he even breathed in her direction. The girl who had kicked his chair out from beneath him before he could sit with her, and watched with nothing more than apathy when he fell on his ass ... four times.

He still looked at her like she hung the freaking moon in the freaking sky.

She had Miguel in half of her classes, and he seemed really sweet. He would always sit with those two computer science nerds at lunch, but he always made a point of saying hi to her whenever he saw her. They were even partners on an English literature assignment.

It was actually when they met up in the library to do some research for their shared English project when she learned about Cobra Kai for the first time. Before the school was going into midterms mode, she had seen him updating the dojo website while waiting for her.

He mentioned he was doing karate over there since he wanted to learn about self-defense, and said nothing more.

Aisha had tried her hardest to act casually about it, but Cobra Kai would not escape her thoughts, especially as the cyberbullying grew to be more intense. It became less about the video from Halloween, and more about how fat and ugly and disgusting she was. It was less about her being a wallflower by the snack table, and more about how she was a waste of space on the planet.

She had a lot of emotional sessions with her therapist, but they came to the same conclusion that maybe, just maybe, Cobra Kai could be a good thing. In growing physically stronger and able to defend herself, she might be able to feel more emotionally secure.

So there Aisha was near the end of winter break, standing outside the dojo, looking past those yellow eyes on the sign outside the door. Through the glass door, she saw Miguel ( someone she totally expected ) sparring with the last person she expected to see in a place like this.

Miguel was on the floor with a hand on his chest, hiding his eyes beneath his arm with Stevie standing over him. A flash of white was present on his face and his body shook while Stevie leaned over him, back facing her.

She helped him up, and their hands lingered a little too long for acquaintances ... or really, friends. Their fingers were dancing around each other in the same way Aisha's used to dance with Sam's. The way Samantha LaRusso's now danced with Kyler Park.

The image of the two girls gave Aisha the push she needed to open the door.

"—three dummies. I don't want to be the ... fourth," Miguel trailed off upon hearing the bell ring before looking at her. Stevie turned, her face looking relaxed in a way her shoulders didn't.

"Can I—"

"No yoga until five," the sensei cut Miguel off, as he crawled out of his dingy office, "No matter how bad you need it."

Great, Aisha thought, he's a dick.

"Actually, I'm here for karate," she retorted, "I saw your website, it said there was supposed to be a session today."

"I appreciate you coming in, but there are no girls in Cobra Kai."

Taking note of Stevie's appearance, she stupidly pointed it out.

"But she's a girl?"

"Why the fuck not?"

It was shocking enough that Stevie decided to add anything. It was even moreso that she said something that was somewhat able to be in defense of her.

Johnny ignored ( and managed to piss off ) Stevie in answering Aisha, "Wrong!"

He pointed at Stevie with aggression that landed somewhere between annoyance and sheer animosity, "That is a headache!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Aisha watched as Miguel wrapped his arms around Stevie's waist, dragging her away from their Sensei. He spun her around, so that her back was to the prospective student and sensei.

Miguel barely glanced past Stevie to tell Johnny they needed to talk in the office before concentrating on her tense figure. His arms slipped off of her waist, but the pair stayed close together. He was whispering quietly to her, and Aisha couldn't turn away from how the tension began to escape her shoulders and into the air around them.

Stevie suddenly stepped back, "Fifty five."

Miguel furrowed his brow in confusion before what she said started to click for him, and moved around her to drag their sensei back into his office.

Aisha stood awkwardly, not necessarily wanting to be anything more than a blip on Stevie's radar. However, her conscience was damning, feeling the need to say something since she stood up for her in some form.

"Uhhh, Stevie?"

No turning back, Aisha.

Stevie was watching her, and Aisha had never felt so uncomfortable in silence, "I just wanted to say thanks. For saying something to him."

Stevie didn't say anything, staring blankly at her.

Before either of them could say something ( or continue to say nothing ), the boys walked back out and the sensei opened his mouth, "Okay. After further review, I've decided to allow female stud—"

Miguel nudged him, and the sensei rolled his eyes before fixing his sentence, "I've decided to allow more female students. But if you want to be in Cobra Kai, you can't act like a girl."

"What do you mean?" Aisha asked with an edge in her soft voice, "How do girls act?"

She didn't pay attention to how annoyed Miguel got, which was saying a lot if he was frustrated with Johnny. And she certainly didn't notice how strained Stevie's uninjured hand looked.

"Don't give me that. You know, all emotional, lo—"

Crack.

"Goddamn it!"

There were three very different reactions from the high schoolers.

Aisha looked mortified that her possible sensei got punched in the face by one of his students.

Miguel's blood pressure skyrocketed as high as his annoyance did.

Stevie was in the midst of a staredown with Johnny, as if she was daring him to say something, despite the fact that she was so clearly teeming with self-satisfaction.

Johnny glared at her with his nose between his hands before pointing at her, saying the last thing any of them thought he would say.

"Fair point."

Johnny, then, popped his broken nose back into place before turning to Aisha, "Shoes off, let's see what you got."

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━━ Aisha thought maybe, now that Stevie and her trained together, she would think ❛ Oh, Stevie isn't scary. She's just misunderstood. ❜

She was wrong.

Stevie was still creepy as hell. Her vow of silence was only broken to insult Sensei and correct Aisha's novice karate stances. ( Which, obviously they were shit. She started just started. )

The only time she had ever seen Stevie act vaguely normal was around Miguel. Particularly when they were sparring together. Sometimes, if she waited outside of the dojo, she thought she could hear laughter that disappeared the moment she touched the door.

That's not to say she didn't surprise Aisha. 

Really, all Stevie did was surprise her.

Stevie was a total mystery to everyone: her tangibility was as solid as smoke. The only thing people really seemed to know about her was that she had a violent streak and the skills to back it.

But what surprised Aisha the most about her was how loyal she was, whether she intended to be or not. Up until this week, she had been feeling the aftershocks of the Halloween video. People stopped finding it so funny when Yasmine mocked her at the start of lunch, and found her phone snapped in half and her car with three slashed tires.

No one saw anything happen, but everyone knew there was only one bitch who could do such a thing without a care in the world.

It was almost amazing how this girl who gave no fucks about her eight days earlier did more to protect her than the school had done. She had made her feel stronger than her parents had ever managed. She defended her better than her former best friend had ( who only seemed to care, now that she donned a scarlet letter on her chest ).

Stevie had only actively dealt with Aisha for a week, and yet, no one had watched her back the way she had.

So Aisha would support Stevie however she could. She wanted to claim the place by her side, but Miguel had beaten her to that a long time ago.

Nothing had changed in the sense that Stevie was still mean and cold, even to him. But she had changed her tune about him, especially from the days of empty milk cartons and fulfilled threats. She still kicked the chair out from beneath him on the occasions he decided to try to sit with her, but it was less cold. 

Almost like teasing?

Most of the time, however, Miguel stayed with his nerdy friends of the computer science variety. It didn't change the fact that he began to ignore her words more and more from that first day: constantly staring and smiling at her and sliding stupid little notes when he thought no one was paying attention during biology.

Perhaps Stevie's personality wasn't shiny by any means, but if unspoken loyalty was how she acted with a stranger, she could understand how Miguel might be totally infatuated with her.

Their sweet beginning opposed the disastrous ending of all of Samantha LaRusso's relationships.

Speaking of her former best friend, perhaps her implication of Sam being a slut wasn't her best moment. However, she found that, after being iced out for no reason other than gaining a seat with the cool kids, she didn't give a fuck. Especially if that was the final straw to kickstart the most impressive bout of badassery to ever grace the halls of West Valley High.

Perhaps it didn't start badass. A bully acting like a dick, and a victim, who had decency and the taste of revenge flooding his mouth.

Miguel turned it into something exciting.

Kyler turned it into his own personal nightmare.

In trying to attack Miguel, Kyler shoved some poor kid out of the way. He had done his best to avoid the fight, but it was difficult when the new kid had all these new skills out of nowhere.

Kyler was predictable.

But the person he shoved someone into wasn't ... and Stevie was even less so when she was wearing someone's shitty cafeteria spaghetti.

The kid was shoved onto the floor and his lunch plopped onto his face, and it was the first time he had been grateful to wear his lunch. Because everyone's focus was on Kyler being on the verge of shitting himself.

Aisha was probably one of many who found the transformation to be mesmerizing. She was also one of many who was bearing witness to it for the first time.

She went from vague annoyance to stone. Her silence was even more prominent when everyone was quiet.

She stood with rigidity, she walked with rigidity, she slid a lunch tray off of someone's table with rigidity.

She slammed that same lunch tray into Kyler's face, and changed everything about the way she moved.

Miguel, who had been ( and still was ) kicking ass, suddenly looked rather clunky next to the unnatural fluidity of Stevie's movements. Somehow, they still moved together like a machine.

As the only witness to the ❝ behind the scenes ❞ moments, it was much clearer to Aisha that Stevie was not only sparring with Miguel in the dojo. She was studying him. She learned every move in Miguel's repertoire, and she used it to make her next move.

Of course, Stevie didn't need to think that hard. The fight had been in Miguel's favor; all her intervention did was finish it much faster. Three of the four boys couldn't bring themselves to reinsert themselves into the fight, and Kyler ... Kyler was just an idiot.

With a shared look that could be considered nothing more than a passing glance, Miguel dropped to the ground as Stevie leaned so far back, her legs could have been a straight line. 

( Key word, could. )

Her legs were arched for the sole reason of kicking the hell out of Kyler's face in the opposite direction Miguel had swept his legs under. It was incredibly satisfying to watch two insane forces move in tandem, but the celebrated pair thought nothing of the cheers.

Aisha went to compliment them ( along with half of the student population ), and Sam went to thank them, but Counselor Blatt got to them first.

But even if she hadn't, Aisha had an inkling that neither Stevie nor Miguel would have paid much attention to them.

Not with the way they were staring at each other.

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━━ Stevie had a tendency to get in trouble for other people's mistakes. She had taken the heat plenty of times as the leader of a group of child assassins that included the likes of Oksana Morozova ( someone whose whole purpose on missions was to manipulate people; a bonus being that she couldn't stand the sight of the old her ) and Irina Popova ( someone who thrived in the realm of fucking up and creating chaos ).

However, she could count on one hand the number of times that she had fucked up. Like, actually fucked up with no one but herself to blame.

The first time was when she was four years old and freshly kidnapped. Most of the details of that night escaped her; her mind had been in a blender too many times for accuracy of that night. She did, however, remember a stuffed monk seal with matted fur from late night swims in the ocean that she didn't remember. She did remember a man in black protection gear trying to take it from her, a once stubborn and headstrong little girl. She did remember screaming through her tears as he ripped it in half when she refused to let go.

She remembered it because it was the first time she had ever been hit.

The second time was when she was nine years old. It was her first mission as team leader, appointed by Madame V. They were sent to eliminate a former partner of Dreykov. A team of six had caused an engine malfunction on his plane that killed over one hundred people.

Not him.

One of those same team members were tortured beyond recognition a month later.

She had never felt guilt weigh so heavily on her heart.

The third time was when she was thirteen, months before the fall of the Academy. It was the only time she had gotten in trouble that she had not felt any guilt for her actions. She had done a two month undercover operation with Annika Kosolova, the only Black Widow who didn't have any animosity towards her. Annika had made the foolish error of getting made, forcing the pair to be extracted early. Stevie had taken the blame for the only girl who felt called to save people, despite living in a place where the only way to survive to ensure that others failed to.

It was the first ( and last ) time that her heart had stopped.

Of course, in civilian life, the punishments would not be nearly as severe as they were in childhood. But even if they had been, she feared she would do the same for Miguel ( the only person who held a spot in her life now that she would do such a thing for ).

Despite her complicated relationship with authority.

Despite the deep-rooted issues with adults.

Despite the way she still tenses when someone exerts their power over her, she would protect Miguel. He was the first person to ever make her feel warm, to make her feel safe.

"I started the fight; I finished the fight."

"Miss Novak," Counselor Blatt responded with a false tone of confidence, "There were several videos taken of the fight. I know you entered the fight later, and I know Mister Diaz laid hands on Mister Park first."

"Because Kyler started shoving him after talking shit," Stevie intervened defensively before she decided to go on the opposition, "Miguel wouldn't have had to anything if you just did your fucking job in the first place."

The counselor opened her mouth, but Stevie refused to let her get a word in, even with the pain of swallowing, "Where were you when your golden boy beat him unconscious with his friends? On school grounds?"

Her face blanched before nervously responding, "There was no—"

"Proof?" Stevie cut her off, "If you used your giant ears for once in your life, you would hear them bragging about it ... constantly."

The silence was deafening in the office, with Blatt having the audacity to look nervous.

How did this pathetic woman survive for so long? And how is it when she looks about as angry as a baby, I still feel uncomfortable?

"If someone needs to be punished," Stevie broke the silence once she had calmed herself enough, "it's going to be me."

The counselor looked more like a scolded child before slowly giving in, "Very well, Miss Novak. I will need to contact your pa—guardians about your ... suspension..."

Stevie's jaw twitched at the slip up and her calm had disappeared, "You need to call my parents? I'm alone in a shitty apartment that I can barely afford, and you think I'm concerned about telling parents I don't have that I'm fucking suspended?"

It hadn't occurred to her just how loud she had gotten until she remembered Miguel was right outside. 

Most likely hearing that.

He knew a lot more than she ever anticipated telling him. He knew about the ❝ orphanage ❞. He knew about the shitty apartment. He knew that she didn't have parents.

Stevie's throat hurt even more than before as she swallowed an angry lump down her throat, "I don't have anyone you can call. It's just me ... are we done?"

Counselor Blatt flinched as she slammed the door, not having the heart to look at her as she left.

The same way Stevie didn't have the heart to look at Miguel as she stormed out of the school.

━━ i'm posting this on my last week in spain, how fucking wild is that???

━━ a little pov action from the og queen cobra, aisha robinson, and stevie not being as sneaky about her feelings as she thinks she is