Cobra Kai | Different But Same
season one, episode ten

whatever it takes ━━ imagine dragons
❜break me down and build me up❜

               THE OTHER DAY was really stressful for the Froud girl, because it was the actual day of the tournament ── something Willow was waiting for really long time, but also something that she didn't even tell her family about. She was too scared of her mom's reaction, because she made it clear that she hated karate. With that, the girl was scared that her mom would hate her too.

               When she woke up, she needed a few minutes to remember what had happened the other night and how exactly she ended up being in Blair's guest's room, but then, the memories hit her like a hard punch from her opponent, which had left an open wound. She couldn't do more than grimace when the image of Hawk and Moon kissing showed in front of her eyes.

               She felt hurt and angry at herself and everyone else, so when she heard a slight knock on the door, she breathed out heavily before saying a short 'come in'. Just then Blair walked into the room, closing the door behind her with her leg, because her hands were occupied by a tray with a glass of some shake, toasts and a headache pill.

               "Good morning, sunshine. How are you feeling?" the dark blonde haired girl asked, earning a simple shrug from her new guest. Willow felt a lot and that was the problem ── talking about feelings wasn't her speciality.

               "You mean after I drank too much alcohol or after the boy I liked kissed some other girl in front of my eyes?" the Froud mumbled unpleasantly, which caused Blair to groan as she sat on the corner of the bed and held out a glass with a mysterious drink towards her. Willow raised her eyebrows, trying to ignore her headache as soon as she did that. "What is it?" she asked.

               Blair was quick to answer as she saw the hesitant look on the girl's face. "The best hangover cure you'd ever get. I swear, it always puts my friends on their feet," she declared, Willow smelling the scent and choking on how unpleasant it was.

               "What the hell did you add in here? It smells like total shit," she immediately pushed her glass of drink away from her, making Blair roll her eyes.

               "Chill, it's just a fruit cocktail. I figured out that you'll want to somehow hang on to the tournament," the blue-eyed girl exclaimed, and looked at the other girl's phone that laid on the bedroom table. "You should check your notifications soon, I bet your friends are worried. I mean, your phone buzzed half of the time when I was with you," she advised.

               A realization hit Willow's face. "Oh, fuck," she cursed, because she suddenly remembered that she didn't tell anyone that she came back home. She took a deep breath and drank the cocktail in one gulp, grimacing before taking her phone and turning it on.

               Her eyes opened widely as she saw tons of notifications as soon as she entered her PIN code. There were thirty-eight missed calls from Miguel, forty from Demetri, twenty from Aisha and fifty-nine from Eli. Seeing that, Willow bit her cheek and scrolled down, feeling even more embarrassed when she saw the messages her friends sent her. She felt bad for not telling them anything and just leaving the party, but she didn't think clearly then.

               Miggy ᦗ : where are u?

               Miggy ᦗ : were starting getting worried ab u

               Miggy ᦗ : did someone hurt u?

               Miggy ᦗ : hello?

               Miggy ᦗ : please answer

               The blonde took a heavy breath and texted the boy that she was okay. She did the exact thing with the others until she saw how many messages Hawk had sent her. At first she wasn't sure what to do, but then decided to open the chat with him. Blair, worried about the girl's sudden change, cleared her throat loudly.

               "Everything's okay, Wills?" she asked. Willow shook her head quickly before turning the screen to her new friend so that she could see what the Moskowitz boy had texted her.

eli ᰔᩚ
where are u

eli ᰔᩚ
demetri said that u didnt
feel good

eli ᰔᩚ
why didnt u tell me anything

eli ᰔᩚ
are u ignoring me

eli ᰔᩚ
did i do something

eli ᰔᩚ
can u at least tell me if u r safe

eli ᰔᩚ
answer my calls loo

eli ᰔᩚ
cmon

eli ᰔᩚ
hey?

eli ᰔᩚ
did i do something?

eli ᰔᩚ
r u with someone?

eli ᰔᩚ
u left w some dude?

eli ᰔᩚ
what did i do?

eli ᰔᩚ
im not mad at u anymore

eli ᰔᩚ
answer me

               "What should I do?" Willow asked for help. Blair quickly grabbed her phone and typed something out, immediately sending it and giving the girl her phone back. She frowned before reading the message and suddenly opening her mouth.

loo ᯓᡣ𐭩

sry, was busy w a friend.

loo ᯓᡣ𐭩
im fine tho

               "That feels sooo dry," The Froud girl added. The Johnson girl only shrugged in response and an innocent smile appeared on her face.

               "Good, because that's what he deserves after hurting you," she muttered before clapping and standing up. "I'll give you some fresh clothes and then we'll ride to your house to get your karate things or something," she announced.

               Willow nodded her head. "Okay,"

｟ ━━━ °⌜ 赤い糸 ⌟° ━━━ ｠

               BLAIR'S CAR STOPPED on the parking lot that was close to the All Valley sports arena, which caused Willow to sigh in relief, because the dark blonde girl was a really terrible driver, who made her feel actually scared about her own life. She hadn't noted anything as soon as the thought that she'll never get into her car again ── at least not when she would be aware of everything that was happening around.

               She left the vehicle and walked towards the Johnson girl, who immediately linked their arms together and started leading them towards the building's entrance where her Cobra Kai friends were already standing. As soon as they were close enough, Miguel looked over at them and ran to the Froud girl, hugging her tightly.

               "Don't ever do something like that again. I thought you got kidnapped by someone or something!" the Diaz boy shouted, making Willow smile sadly. As they pulled away from each other, he looked at Blair, a confusion being visible on his face. "Oh. Who's this?" he questioned, pointing to the blue-eyed girl, who had a soft grin on her lips.

               Blair was quick to introduce herself. "I'm Blair Johnson. Wills was with me and my friend the other night," she exclaimed, Willow side-eyeing her, because of the lie she partly made, but then realized that Blair wanted to help her with making Hawk jealous.

               And guess the plan started working, because the two girls could see Moskowitz clench his jaw in, most likely, jealousness.

               "Nice to meet you, Blair. I'm Miguel Diaz, um, Willow's friend and neighbor, but I, uh, suspect you already know it," the brunette boy replied, looking a little nervous because of the Johnson.

               She slightly nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah," she said.

               Willow fixed her bag and looked around. A disorientation showed on her face as she realized that Johnny was nowhere to be found.

               "Where's Sensei?" she asked, the others turning their heads to her, but shrugging in ignorance.

               Hawk joined the girl's question. "Yeah, the tournament's gonna start soon,"

               "He'll be here,"

               Suddenly, Bert spoke up, causing everyone to doubt Aisha's words. "I don't know about that,"

               "What are you talking about?" Aisha asked with confusion.

               "I saw him last night at the mini mall. I was buying . . . a carton of milk. When I heard him in the parking lot, yelling ”we're all gonna die” or something like that," the smaller boy announced and Willow opened her eyes widely.

               She was seeing Johnny drunk pretty often as his neighborhood, but the situation still made her worried about the man. Yeah, she didn't like him very much, but she didn't wish for anyone to get hurt ── well, mostly she didn't.

               "Wait, why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Aisha outraged furiously. Seeing a scared expression on Bert's face, Willow unlinked her and Blair's arms just to put an arm on the younger boy's shoulder.

               "I don't know. I guess I'm just so used to seeing him drink, it didn't seem like that of a big deal," he shrugged slightly.

               "Well, we're here and he's not. So it's officially a big deal. What if something happened to him?" Hawk exclaimed.

               "Like what?"

               "I don't know. Like he drove his car off a cliff or he bought a gun and blew his brains out," the blue-haired boy's words made Willow and Blair both grimace to each other.

               The Froud girl sighed loudly. "Hey, first of all, he always does things like that when he's drunk, so he's probably going to show up in some time. Second of all, you guys stop shouting at my kid,"

               After her words, Hawk looked over at her, his face immediately softening and a small smile appearing on his lips.

               "Plus, Sensei would never kill himself. It's too pussy a move," the Robinson added.

               Blair blinked several times. "So if I would, like, kill myself, I would be a fucking pussy?" she asked. The blonde girl gave her a head shake.

               Hawk cut off their small interaction. "Whatever. I mean, we're here. We're gonna have to do it without him,"

               "Do what without me?"

               With that, Willow sighed in relief as she saw Johnny walking towards them. It was the first time she was so happy to see him.

               "Sensei,"

               "We didn't think you were going to show up," Hawk told him.

               "I may not always win, but I never back out of a fight," the Lawrence declared.

               "Great, let's sign up," Miguel suggested, but Johnny shook his head.

               "Not yet. There's one more lesson I have to teach you,"

               Willow felt someone hand on her arm, so she looked there only to see Blair, who quickly spoke. "I'm gonna be on the audience. Good luck, Wills. You can do that," with that, she hugged her quickly and then walked away.

｟ ━━━ °⌜ 赤い糸 ⌟° ━━━ ｠

               ❝YOU'VE ALL learned to strike first, to be aggressive, not to be losers. I've taught you to strike hard, put every ounce of your power behind everything you do, but I haven't taught you the third rule of Cobra Kai . . ." Johnny continued his speech, his students listening to him carefully. "No mercy. The older you get, the more you're gonna learn that life isn't fair," he added.

               Willow clenched her hand on her other wrist, because her nervousness started showing up even more. A regret was a strong word for her ── she just wished that her mom would like Cobra Kai, so that she would know about the tournament and show up at it to cheer her daughter. But she didn't, so all the Froud girl had was her friends and she was crazily grateful because of it.

               The feeling of someone being there for her was pretty good.

               "You wake up one morning feeling great and then life throws a spinning kick to your balls. Takes a bit steaming shit in your mouth," Willow came back to listening to her Sensei and realized that guess she wasn't the one, who had a bad day. "You get an F on a test. You get suspended. You fall in love with a girl and some other dude comes and steals her away. Your car gets set on fire. Just when you think things are going good, everything falls apart. That's how it goes,"

               The green-eyed girl couldn't stop herself from sighing, because the man seemed to talk from his experience once again. He was right this time, though ── just when Willow thought that things were going great, everything fell apart.

               "Life shows no mercy, so neither do we. We do whatever it takes to keep our heads above water. We do whatever it takes to keep moving forward. We do whatever it takes to win!" Johnny shouted, Willow smiling at his speech that wasn't that bad. "Remember, who you are. You're badass. You don't give a shit. You kick ass. You're Cobra Kai."

               Willow and Miguel made eye contact and nod to each other before shouting together loudly. "Cobra Kai!"

               "Yeah!" the rest shouted back.

               "All right, guys, let's get down there and kick the shit out of everybody," Johnny added.

               "Yeah!" they shouted.

               Willow was going to take the white gi from her bag, but Johnny stopped her. "No. You're not wearing those."

｟ ━━━ °⌜ 赤い糸 ⌟° ━━━ ｠

               THE BLONDE GIRL listened carefully to the announcer, meanwhile styling her hair into a slick ponytail. After Johnny's speech she felt much better than earlier. She decided that whether she would make it or not, she would take the tournament as something to have fun in, not something to cry about. The most important thing for her were the people that were there for her and the memories that would stay after. Willow didn't care about winning or losing ── she cared about her friends and her family. By fighting in the tournament she just wanted to show the others that she could also become someone to be proud of someday.

               "Loo?" Hawk's voice was heard behind her, so she quickly turned around, hiding the hurt expression that waited to finally show on her face. "Look, I know that we're not on the best terms right now, but── Good luck. I know you can do it," he muttered, stretching his arms out in front of him and hesitantly pulling the girl into a hug.

               Willow froze in the moment. Her heart stopped as she felt Hawk's hands tighten on her waist. She wasn't sure whether she liked it or not ── the image of him kissing Moon was still haunting her every time she closed her eyes. After a while, her hands wrapped around his neck unsure, the boy resting his head in the crack of her neck. She missed him. She missed her Eli and the moments when they could feel extremely comfortable with each other.

               Their kiss and their feelings ruined their friendship.

               "I know you can do it too," the girl whispered, ignoring everyone around that looked at them. "Just── don't take it too personally, okay? Losing doesn't mean that you're weak. You aren't weak, Eli," she added, the boy slightly nodding his head.

               "I won't," he promised and the two pulled away from each other.

               With that, they finally heard the announcer again. "From Reseda, returning to the tournament, we have . . ." Daryl couldn't and his sentence, because the Cobra Kai students ran into the building, shouting loudly their dojo's name.

               Willow was right behind Miguel, so she repeated every step he made, flashing a kind smile to the audience that immediately gasped because of the action. The blonde girl could catch Demetri with Moon, but also Blair and, surprisingly, Tanner, so she gave them a small wave before jumping on the mat and also turning to face Daryl.

               "Not that's what I call an entrance!" the man commented, the Froud girl grinning with excitement as she raised her head proudly. "And a badass name for a dojo. Let's hear it for Cobra Kai!" he cheered, causing people to applaud.

               "Go, Wills! You can do it!" Blair and Tanner shouted together, the mentioned girl showing a heart with her hands towards them.

               "Yeah, go, sis!" suddenly, Willow turned to where Miguel's yaya sat with his mom and saw her little brother here. She didn't know how he ended up being there, but she was truly happy.

               Well, until she heard Moon's yells that were pointed towards Hawk. With that, the boy smiled slightly and turned to the Froud girl, clearing his throat loud enough for her to hear.

               "You know, I──uh, Moon and I are a thing now," he declared, Willow's breath stopping as soon as she heard his sentence. It felt as if her nightmare had become true. That only made her look at him in silence and bite her cheek nervously, wanting to stop herself from saying something she might regret later. She should be happy that the Moskowitz boy was happy, but she wasn't. Not really. "Are you mad?" he asked hesitantly.

               A forced smile showed up on Willow's lips when she shook her head quickly. "No, no── of course, I'm not. I'm glad that you're happy," she declared, trying to look credible enough for him to believe her.

               He glared at her, his eyes being filled with suspicion. "Are you sure? Because if you aren't then──" he started, but she interrupted him.

               "I am, I promise, E. You were right at school, we wouldn't work out," she shrugged.

               "Oh," he answered, now being the one, who felt pain inside.

               Right after that, Willow's smile fell as she watched a really familiar boy pass by them, sending Johnny a stare that seemed to be something only he could understand.

               A realization hit Willow just in time, because Robby Keene was the same boy she had passed on her way to the dojo, and the same boy who had seen her, Miguel and Johnny hugging from a distance.

               The girl still wasn't sure if this was just an accident or if something was really wrong, but she was sure that she obviously didn't like it.

               "All right, folks. Get ready. It's karate time."

natalia speaks . . . !

theres only one chapter left to start the act two and im soo fucking scared 😭😭

also, hawk's and willow's delusional is so ughhh so i cant wait until the moment when they'll finally realize that theyre not over each other 😣😣