COBRA KAI | DECEMBER 19
season three, episode ten

〔 FINE LINE 〕
━━ harry styles              

❝we'll be a fine line,
we'll be alright❝

             WHEN SOMEONE would ask Willow about the moment when the world suddenly went quiet, she would describe for them the present situation.

             She pulled her legs to herself as she sat in some corner, her body trembling and not giving her any possibility to move. Bitter tears dropped from her emerald eyes and familiar screams echoed in her head as she watched Rickenberger and some other boy from Cobra Kai grab Demetri just the same as Hawk did before he broke his arm. She tried her best to move and help him, she really did, but felt as if she was stuck.

             Stuck like in a cement.

             Her fast breath terrified her. Even though she was going through a lot of panic attacks since everything that happened, she still wasn't used to it.

             This couldn't happen. Not again.

             "Hey! Yo, Hawk. Free shot," Rickenberger called out for the Moskowitz boy, who stood in the middle of the living room, looking as if he was fighting with something.

             Willow's lips let a shaky breath, and she put her hands on her heaving chest. She felt an anxious feeling ran through her body as she looked away from Eli, and then her attention fell on Miguel, who was getting beaten up by Kyler. She was almost choking on her own breath when she looked between everyone, and saw that Eli was no longer standing in his place. He was running towards Demetri.

             Her head shook, wanting to push away all the thoughts backwards. The rest of the hope she put in the boy . . . it disappeared. She closed her eyes, not wanting to watch what was going to happen.

             She heard grunts of pain, fighting noises and the sound of glass breaking, so her eyes shut even more. She was so scared to even look that was — everything she felt at that moment was too much for her.

             "Wills!" Miguel shouted after a few seconds, and she heard some footsteps coming her way. Her body tensed a bit, and she tried to fight everything not to scream when she heard some body fall on the ground close to her.

             What was happening?

             Was it finally over?

             She wasn't sure. All she knew was that after a few seconds someone crouched down in front of her, and then their arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a tight hug. She flinched when the scent of a very familiar cologne got into her nostrils. Eli.

             "Loo,"

             Hearing his soft whisper, she was now sure that it was him. She winced as she slowly opened her eyes, and could see him, Miguel pretty much beaten up, Demetri, who seemed alright and . . . Kyler laying on the ground unconsciously.

             Well, he was one of the people she didn't feel bad for.

             "Loo," Eli repeated himself, pulling away from her to have a better look at her wet from tears face. She blinked, not knowing what was happening, and tried everything not to flinch as his hands cupped her face delicately, his fingers wiping away the tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry, I — " he started, and swallowed heavily, seeing that she was doing everything to avoid his gaze.

             "I know," she responded, her voice causing him to grimace. She wasn't lying about anything she said to him.

             Hesitantly, she used his help to stand up and felt confused when she looked around and couldn't see Blair and Sam anywhere around. That was the moment when she realized that Tory wasn't there as well. Holy shit.

             "Blair and Sam," Miguel, understating his best friend's stare, breathed out.

             They all glared at each other before Willow felt herself being pulled outside and then towards the place where the Miyagi-Do's trained.

             When they were finally there, she sighed, seeing the three girls there, looking as if they were ready to fight. She didn't miss the cuts on both Blair and Sam's faces, which left her speechless.

             "Guys, stop!"

             "Tory, the flight's over." Hawk announced as they all stopped in front of the girls, who looked over at them, surprised. Blair frowned, sending Willow a questionable look as she saw the Moskowitz boy standing on their side.

             Tory's eyebrows raised, "It's not over," she objected, then turned to the LaRusso girl. "This will never be over. You hear me?"

             Blair scoffed, "Shush finally, can you?"

             "You know where to find me," Sam answered the Nichols, smirking a little at the Johnson's words.

             With that, Tory's gaze fell on Willow and the others again. She felt uncomfortable when the girl took steps towards them, then stood in front and looked between her and the two boys that were in Cobra Kai once.

             "Traitors," she commented, a grimace appearing on Willow's lips straight away. She felt even more disappointed in the moment when Tory's cold eyes looked between her and Hawk. "You better watch your back." she threatened the boy.

             When she was ready to walk away, Demetri stopped her. "He won't have to. He's got friends watching it for him." he said firmly, and Willow could wonder how he was able to forgive Eli so quickly.

             She couldn't. Even if she wanted to, she wasn't ready. Every single thing that happened between them in the past was still somewhere in her mind, making it hard for her to move on.

             Her head turned aside, the boy doing the same in sync, so it was not a surprise that their eyes were connected in an eye contact a second later. Eli gave her a small nod, which was hardly invisible for anyone, but her, so she returned it, then looked back at their friends.

             They were going to be alright. They needed to be.

— ೋღ 🌺 ღೋ —

             TRUTH NEEDED to be said — Willow and the others needed a serious break after the fight that was suddenly caused in Sam's house.

           Blair and Willow sat on the couch in the living room of the Froud girl's apartment, wide grimaces on their lips as Adelaide and Carmen were dressing their matching wounds. After they drove everyone to their houses, they decided that telling Willow mom first was the best option, but after her father found out too, he was completely furious. Not at them, though — at Cobra Kai. With that, it didn't take him a lot of time to get out of the apartment and drive to the dojo, repeating that he'll get revenge on Kreese.

             And Willow didn't argue with any of that. By the time, she started understanding what her father was really capable of. She just prayed for him to not get into any trouble.

             "Does it hurt a lot, sweetie?" Adelaide asked the Johnson girl, pointing to the big cut on her left hand. She gave her a small nod in response, and looked back on the phone, her smile fading as her mother didn't pick up any of her calls.

             She wasn't surprised. After her parents divorced, her mom wanted the best for them, so she spent a lot of time at her work. As a plus, they got a lot of money. As a minus? They didn't really have their mother and daughter bond anymore.

             Right now, Adelaide Froud was more like a mother for her.

             "Oh, I'm sorry, honey." Carmen apologized to Willow as she began to disinfect the wound from which she had previously removed pieces of glass.

             The girl sent her a forced grin, "It's — it's alright." she announced quietly, her eyes focusing on the ceiling as she did her best to push the image of the fight away from in front of her green eyes.

             After some time, her feelings continued being mixed. Of course she was happy that Eli switched sides and finally saw the mistakes he made, but did that mean that everything between them was good again?

             No, not at all.

             They both needed time to fix things, to talk, to explain things, and of course to heal.

             "I'm almost done," Carmen stated, and giggled in amusement as the violet-haired girl breathed out in relief after hearing her words. She didn't admit that to anyone, but it did hurt as hell.

             It took the woman a few more seconds to make sure that Willow was fully alright, and after that the girl stood up, stretching her pained body immediately. She flashed a small smile towards her best friend, and walked to the kitchen, then drank a sip of the water before turning her attention to the front doors that suddenly opened with a slam, Johnny and Sean showing up there.

             "Sensei? Mr. Froud?"

             "What happened?" Willow questioned, seeing their beaten up faces.

             Sean clenched his jaw, "This asshole will pay for —"

             He got cut off by Johnny, "We're gonna have to work together."

— ೋღ 🌺 ღೋ —

             THE PLAN TO FINALLY find some peace for Willow was easy. After a few days, she forced Demetri to go Christmas shopping with her (because most of their friends didn't have time), turning their thoughts into something other than the things that have happened recently. Of course he complained every single time they stepped into another shop in the mall, but as soon as they walked into the Comic Book Store, his mood turned around immediately.

             For Willow it was just the same as him, but also different. Ever since Eli and the other Cobra's fought with Demetri in this mall, she avoided it as much as she could. When she finally brought herself to stand up for her nightmares, it caused a lot of memories to come back.

             And when it came to the argument she had with Eli back then, she felt a shape of a grimace form on her lips.

             "Did you talk to him?" the question leaving Demetri's lips made her attention fly back to him, her eyebrows slightly furrowing in confusion.

             "What?"

             "Hawk. Did you talk to him?" he claimed, his eyes finally turning away from some comic he had been watching for some minutes now. She was ready to ask him how he knew that she was thinking about the Moskowitz boy at the moment, but he managed to get ahead of her with the answer. "Oh, please, Frills. You've been looking at the necklace with his initial as if you were in some trance or something,"

             She scoffed, glancing down on her hands before her gaze came back to the boy, "Of course I didn't, Meat. It's been only a few days, and the fact that he isn't in Cobra Kai anymore doesn't mean that everything between us is suddenly fine," she announced, and he nodded his head in understanding. She had a point. "And after the things he had done, I just — I can't bring myself to look at him and not see them in front of my eyes. My image of the real him was suddenly replaced by his Cobra Kai phase and I hate it,"

             The Alexopoulos' face softened straight away. Even though both of them didn't have the same contact as they had some months earlier, they still cared about each other the same, and of course, understood each other. Especially that they were going through a similar situation.

             "And when I remind myself that somewhere deep inside he's still the same Eli Moskowitz we've known for so long, I feel bad for being mad at him and a part of me really wants to forgive him, but I feel as if I wasn't strong enough to do this," she explained, exhaling deeply as her fingertips touched the necklace with their initials again. "Um, sorry for talking so much. I don't know why I —" she started, but he interrupted him.

             "Because you still like him, Frills."

             Willow blinked at his words, really not expecting him to be the one saying that.

             He scoffed indignantly, "What? I can give girly advices too. You think with who Hawk was yapping about you?"

             "He was talking about me?"

             And that was the moment when the boy's eyes widened as he realized what he just said. His lips formed into a thin line, seeing the look Willow gave him. He shook his head.

             "Hey, I'm soo hungry. Let's go eat something!" he quickly changed the topic, making the girl groan in displeasure.

             "I'm not hungry,"

             He raised his eyebrows at her, suspicion washing on his face. "Oh, please. I've heard that way too many times from you to actually believe that, Frills." he announced and started leading his best friend out of the store. Hearing his words, she felt an unpleasant feeling in her stomach. "And if you don't want to tell me what's going on, we can just, uh, what do you girls do in situations like this?" he asked, confused.

             She shrugged, "I don't know. I don't like thinking under pressure. It'll probably show up in my head later,"

             "Okay, can we go eat something now? I really meant it when I said I was hungry,"

             She rolled her eyes slightly, "Fine."

— ೋღ 🌺 ღೋ —

             IT WAS CHRISTMAS. Willow breathed a sigh of relief as she finally managed to leave her family for a moment and return to her room. She took the jewelry box from her desk and opened it while sitting on the windowsill, her emerald eyes glancing between the moon outside and the two necklaces with the initials W and E. She didn't know why, but after Demetri forced her to eat his chicken, she came back to the store, and bought the necklaces. She just couldn't stop herself.

             Her head leaned against the window and another exhale left her lips, meanwhile her face softened.

             "Merry Christmas, Eli." she whispered, staring at the sky filled with stars and pretending as if the Moskowitz boy could hear her right now.

             Meanwhile, Eli did the exact same thing, grinning softly as he was looking at the moon too. He clenched the phone that was in his hands, trying to finally find the strength to try and see if Willow still had him blocked everywhere.

             He closed his eyes, tilting his head back, a breath of defeat getting out of his lips. "Merry Christmas, Loo."

⌗ —— nat speaks !

TIME TO START ACT FOURRRRR IM SO EXCITED NGLFDDYP

AND WE'RE SO CLOSE TO THE COME BACK OF FROUKOWITZ ‼️‼️‼️