COBRA KAI | NATURE VS NURTURE
season three, episode two

〔 AND I'D GO A THOUSAND MILES 〕
━━ montell fish                  

❝and i'd go a thousand miles
just to find you❝

               SOME DAYS HAD passed and Willow finally found the strength to show up at school. The idea of facing the past again terrified her even more with every second she thought about it. She felt as if some of her wounds were still too fresh and bruised to heal that easily, and so it was clear that she was still not ready for anything that involved the incident.

               After Blair explained it to her, she finally understood that some people reacted to many things differently, and there was nothing wrong with her feeling traumatized by the things that happened. In fact, she was given every right to — so many bad things had managed to happen in one day. No one would say that something like that would happen on the first day of school.

               However, the biggest surprise for Willow was that her father accepted the hesitation that was still in her. Well, of course not from the very beginning, but still.

               Some things managed to make progress in her life, although the other ones still stayed the same, and she couldn't decide if she should be happy about that.

               Well, she tried her best to, but it was really hard when her best friend, and also the pretty much part of her was in a coma. She didn't give up, though — as long as Miguel was fighting, she was as well.

               "Thanks," she muttered and grabbed her bag before hanging it over her shoulder. After that, she walked away from the security guards, still not being used to their presence. That shouldn't be a surprise to her, though. Not after what happened.

               She took some steps through the hall, biting her cheek in nervousness as soon as her green eyes met the stairs. She tried to push away the memories that appeared in her head, but failed again. They were haunting her like the worst nightmares.

               However, her lack of concentration didn't last long, because as soon as she stepped forward, her body collided with someone, almost causing her to fall, but the person grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back. A short, but panicked breath left her lips. That was definitely not the perfect way to start the halfly first day at school.

               "Oh, I'm so — "

               "Got you," the very familiar voice declared and with that, the girl felt her body tense immediately. In the moment when she glanced over at the blue eyes that belonged to Eli Moskowitz, lots of emotions had punched her right in the face. "Hey, sweetheart," he added, a small grin playing on his lips.

               Willow blinked several times, her pink lips twitching in confusion. It was not a long time ago when she found out about John Kreese coming back to Cobra Kai and taking it away from Johnny. Of course, it was a big disappointment and maybe even a small surprise to her, but nothing could be really compared with the way she felt when Blair told her about Eli still being there with some of her, now, former friends.

               "Loo?"

               "Hey," she answered quietly, trying to hold back herself from grimacing at the single thought of people's gazes being on her just like they were some days ago. She was tired of being the person to gossip about.

               From the girl that was involved in the buffet incident she changed to be the girl that lost her best friend in a school fight and was attacked by some psychopath. Strange.

               "Where were you all this time? I looked for you everywhere, and you weren't there," his blue eyes narrowed at the girl, who anxiously glanced around again and swallowed at the heaviness of people's stares on them. This apparently didn't go unnoticed by him, so he pulled his hands away from her waist and grabbed her hand. "Come on," he muttered, starting leading her somewhere without any other words.

               Her eyebrows slightly scrunched in disorientation as she followed the red-haired boy, trying to keep up with his steps. She took a deep breath as they walked past some friend group that immediately went silent when the boy's attention shifted towards them. Eli smirked and then stopped in the middle of some corridor, his eyes lingering to the very familiar wall that was never taken by anyone.

               That's why it was always Loo's and Eli's favorite spot in the past — because no one ever has ever been standing there. It wasn't the so-called wall for losers for no reason.

               "What are you —" Willow started, her surprise growing in the moment when Eli sat on the floor, leaning his back against the wall. He tilted his head back to get a good view of the girl, who, after a moment's hesitation, took the seat next to him. "You do realize where you are sitting right now, right?" she questioned. He shrugged.

               "Yeah," he responded shortly, and when he saw the look on Willow's face, he opened his mouth to say something else. "And I don't really care about what anyone would think," he added, the violet-haired girl nodding her head in understanding.

               After that, she decided to come back to the previous topic, "I just couldn't do this all earlier, you know. Everything here still kind of reminds me of him," she explained, making the boy's head snap to her immediately.

               "You mean Miguel,"

               "Yeah," she confirmed with a deep exhale coming out of her mouth. "I thought that after all these weeks passed, I was finally ready to make it, but it turned out that I wasn't." she declared, not being scared that the boy would make fun of her. Even after everything that happened between them, she still had her hopes in him.

               "When you walked out of the school, I wanted to run after you, but I wasn't sure how you would react," he admitted, bringing back the day they both saw each other after so much time without any contact. He looked straight again and murdered some couple that passed by them with his gaze, seeing the weird looks they gave them. "How's . . . your wrist? Does it still hurt?"

               Willow nodded slightly, "Yeah, but not that much as before. The doctor said it should heal soon," she announced, Eli grinning, glad of the girl's words.

               "And how's . . ."

               She interrupted him before he could even say the rest of his question, "Besides that I'm quietly watched everywhere I go, it's good. Still miss my old room, though. I had so many memories there,"

               He gave her a small room before an idea came into his mind, "Like punching me right in the face with your old iPad?" he questioned, both of them looking at each other and chuckling quietly.

               "That was an accident!"

               "Yeah, right,"

               When the two stopped laughing at the memory, Willow frowned slightly, still looking at Eli, "Don't you miss it sometimes?" she asked, him not knowing what she meant. "The old times?" she explained.

               He looked down at his hands, having no idea what to say. From one side, he missed the past, but from another one, he surely didn't.

               "Sorry, it was a dumb question," she apologized and that was the time when the bell rang in the school. She quickly stood up and glanced at the boy for the last time, forcing a grin on her lips. "Bye, E." after saying that, she wanted to leave, but got stopped by Eli's hand landing on her health wrist. She blinked several times.

               "I missed you," he stated, Willow's mouth opening a little, not expecting the words to leave his lips.

               Before he could add something else, she answered him. "I missed you too, Eli."

               And with that, she left the boy alone with his thoughts. When she was far away, he covered his face with his hands and tilted his head back, groaning when the sudden heat hit his cheeks.

━━ ⋆｡‧˚ʚ 🩰 ɞ˚‧｡⋆ ━━

               WHEN WILLOW'S neighbor called her and told her that some creep was hanging around her house, she tried her best to get there as soon as possible. Luckily, Blair was there to be her personal driver, so she got there in a few minutes. She gratefully kissed the girl on the cheek as a way of goodbye and walked out of her car, already looking around for the sign of the mentioned man.

               And well, when she saw him sitting on a nearby bench, she felt herself freeze for a few seconds. Not because she was afraid, but because even with his unkempt appearance and his battered face, she recognized him immediately. Johnny Lawrence.

               With a determinate face, she watched as Blair drove away and then she made her way towards the blonde man, who was too busy with the bottle of alcohol in his hands to feel her presence. Only when she cleared his throat loudly, he glanced over at her and a shock flustered on his face. That was also something she didn't understand. He was literally sitting in front of her house.

               "Thumbelina? What are you doing here?" he stammered, and she grimaced at his drunk voice. Her arms crossed her chest as she nodded towards the building on their right.

               "That's my house," she responded, not even trying to cover the madness and coldness towards the man.

               He wasn't there when she called or tried to visit him, but when she was starting to forget about the promises he made to her and Miguel, he appeared in her life once again, but in a state that wasn't pleasing at all. She shook her head in disbelief. He was still the real, old Johnny — unpredictable.

               "Wait, really? You're living in the damn hospital, kid? That's, uh, slay. Read that word on this internet thing. Stayed here," he patted the side of his head with his one finger, and Willow scoffed at his sudden lack of knowledge.

               "Well, I'm really surprised that you even have this, because that's surely not a damn hospital," she muttered, mentioning his brain that seemed to not be at the right place. She glanced at the bottle of alcohol, and then quickly smacked it from his hands, making it land in some bush. Johnny groaned in displeasure, then rolled his eyes. "How did you even get there?" she questioned, ignoring his reaction. She did the right thing.

               Johnny put a single finger to his lips, pretending as if he was thinking about something. When he finally remembered something, he smiled dreamily, "Talked with your mamasita. Told me something about this bus stop shit, but using them is for pussies, so I got there myself," he explained, Willow closing her eyes before taking a deep breath.

               That did not explain much. Well, maybe only one thing.

               "You were driving completely drunk? Are you serious right now?" she raised her voice with outrage, him waving her off before scratching his new beard. "God, you're worse than a kid. Can't believe you trained someone about not being a pussy, when you're literally acting like one right now,"

               Her words were enough for him to open his mouth in shock, "Hey, I'm not a pussy, Thumbelina! Handled these dudes at the bar, showed them to never mess with Johnny Lawrence and boom!" he made the sound of a punch.

               "Yeaah, right. Shame that you didn't handle yourself. Did you even see the way you look?" she pointed to him. He frowned in disorientation. "Like a bum. Or creep, alternatively."

               "That's — that's not true!"

               "Yes, it is. You're scaring everyone in the neighborhood," she announced and glared at her house again, and then looked for Johnny's car that was nowhere to be found. "Where did you even park your car?"

               "Car? I drove on this electric something. Lost it on the way,"

               Willow's hand hit her forehead, because she really had enough of the man's attitude, and the image of him sitting on the bench for the rest of the day or, what's even worse, going somewhere drunkily, terrified her. With that, even though she was still mad at him, she felt like leaving him all alone like that was a bad idea. Luckily her father wasn't home yet, so he couldn't see Johnny Lawrence, completely drunk, in front of his house. He would get pretty much pissed off.

               Even more if he'd see him inside. Willow didn't have much of a choice, though. The Lawrence man had really bad ideas when he was drunk.

               "Ugh, come on," she commanded, him scrunching his eyes in disorientation.

               "Wait, come where?"

               She rolled her eyes, "Come where? Come where? Inside." she mocked his voice, and then raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to finally stand up. "Ugh, are you going to finally move or something?"

               Instead, he even asked a dumber question than before, "Come where inside?"

               She groaned in displeasure, already having enough. She grabbed his arm, trying to pull him up by force, which didn't really come the way she wanted.

               "You know what? No more questions,"

               "Yeah, right," he chuckled and stumbled a little when he finally stood up. Willow put his arm around her, so that she would stabilize him a little.

               When they made their way to the door, Willow unlocked them quickly and led the man inside then helped him sit on the couch in the living. She then locked up the doors again, and walked to the kitchen, wanting to give the man some water. He didn't have much time to sober up, because Sean was coming back in a few hours, so Willow wanted to help him as quickly as possible.

               In the moment when she walked into the living room again, her eyes narrowed at the man, who was holding some old picture in his hands. When he saw that she was back, he put it back into the pocket of his jeans and grabbed a glass of water from her hand.

               "Thanks, kid,"

               "Yeah, don't think that it makes me not mad at you anymore, because I am pretty much mad," she reminded him, causing him to furrow his eyebrows and grimace when he drank the water. "And I don't see the sense in driving here when you didn't even show up at the hospital or contact me past those weeks," she added.

               He put the empty glass at the small table and then shook his head, "I was at the hospital. Your father just kicked me out," he claimed with a shrug. "Guess he's still pissed off that I almost stole his babe in highschool. Not surprised, though. Addie was a really hot babe," he declared, not really realizing that he was just telling that to the daughter of Adelaide and Sean Froud.

               With that, she blinked several times in confusion. "What?"

               "Yeah. Been friends for years. Kissed her once at the bar, then at the tournament, and then kicked your father's ass. That one was pretty funny actually," he announced with a dreamy face before he realized what he had just said. Willow's face drew in surprise. "Aw, shit."

               "You kissed my mom while she was dating my father?" she questioned, trying to process what she just heard.

               Johnny seemed hesitant at first, but seeing the desperate look on the girl's face, he continued. "He was an asshole. Me and Addie knew each other before I turned into one too. We were . . . madly in love. She liked me before my Cobra Kai phase, so when I joined in, I lost her, and then she met Sean. She fell for him so hard that I knew I needed to move on," he explained, and the girl's face dropped.

               That sounded pretty familiar to her and Hawk's story. Well, maybe with the small difference that she didn't fall for anyone else. Instead, she got targeted by some psycho.

               "I don't get it. Why did you kiss her twice when you knew that you needed to move on?" she questioned, and he swallowed nervously.

               "Well, you know, kid, sometimes it's hard for you to fully lose your feelings. When I saw the spark in her eyes — the same one that was always there when she looked at me — I couldn't stop myself. I though that I had my Addie again,"

               "But you didn't," Willow suspected from what she just heard.

               "Yeah, no shit. I could have her if I would only tell her something, and not push her away when I needed her the most. I let Kreese manipulate me, and I made the bed myself," he muttered and once again, made Willow worry about Eli. She didn't want to have the same story as Johnny and her mom.

               "And you didn't even try to fight for her or anything?"

               He shook his head, "Nah, Addie hated violent guys. She would hate me even more after this,"

               "That doesn't sound like you," Willow looked at him suspiciously, and he sighed in surrender.

               "Okay, maybe I tried to fight Sean, but ended up getting my ass kicked by LaRusso. I tell you, if it was one to one, I would win,"

               Willow snorted, "Yeah, right."

               And a short scream left her lips when she got hit with some pillow right in her face.

━━ ⋆｡‧˚ʚ 🩰 ɞ˚‧｡⋆ ━━

               WILLOW WASN'T SURE on what time Johnny had left her house, but he did it before Sean came back from some work. With that, the girl was finally allowed to go into her room and lay in her warm bed while watching some heartbreaking movies that only made her feel worse.

               Now she fully understood how Miguel felt when Johnny told him about the past he had with Mr. LaRusso, and she guess she started understanding, why her father hated the man so much — he literally tried to steal his girlfriend, and even kissed her two times, which actually seemed like something he would do.

               So she was right, Johnny Lawrence was unpredictable.

               Willow threw the popcorn into her mouth as she was watching some break up scene, which actually made her laugh more than cry. When she was ready to burst into laughter, her new Harry Styles ringtone started playing in the room, so she paused the movie and sang the music for a few seconds before finally looking at the name of the contact that was calling her.

               That was the moment when her body froze completely.

               Miguel.

               Miguel Diaz was calling her. She picked the call up immediately, and before she could even speak, the boy's exhausted voice echoed from the phone.

               "I read the letters, Wills."

✹ —— nat speaks !

i hope you guys liked the chapter, and i'm sorry that it's so late, but i thought about some scenes for so much time that time passed so quickly 😭😭

also, i finally gave you some of the explanations why Johnny and Sean hate each other sm

and Johnny learned a new word slay 🥰🥰🤪😍