"Sky!" Hawk cried, tasting panic on his lips.

He was still partly on top of her where he had landed, and Sky—

She was gasping for air, her lips drawn back to reveal her teeth. It was like she didn't even hear him like she didn't even realize he was there.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

Though he had been hurt many times - beaten by his bullies - he had never physically hurt anyone, not like this. Nothing had prepared him for this, for the raw pain he saw on Sky's face—

And she was the last person in the universe he wanted to inflict pain upon, the fucking last!

"Sky, are you alright—?"

"Move!" That was Sensei Lawrence, and the tone of his commanding voice made Hawk crawl off Sky, to free his legs that had been tangled with hers. He stayed by her side, on his knees, as Sensei Lawrence crouched down and took a look at her. Sky was pressing a hand on her left shoulder, her whole body was tense like a string, her lips thin and strained, her face pale as a sheet.

"Hey, Ginger, you alright?" Sensei asked with a surprisingly gentle tone and placed a hand on her arm.

"Don't... call me... Ginger," Sky breathed through her teeth, and Hawk let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"Can you sit up?" Sensei asked. "Let me see that shoulder?"

"Just... give me... a second." Sky managed, between sharp gasps of pain.

"Take your time." Sensei replied, and turned his ice-blue eyes at Hawk.

"What the Hell happened?" He asked angrily. "What did you do?"

Hawk turned his eyes down, he could still taste the iron of fear on his lips. "I tried to hit her chest but she turned and I hit her shoulder instead. She has an injury—"

"What kind of an injury?" Sensei Lawrence asked.

A fucking bullet wound?

"I'm not sure—" he began, but was interrupted by Sensei, who took another worried glance at Sky. "Miguel, go and get the ice bag."

"On it," came Miguel's swift response, and Hawk heard his running footsteps leaving the room.

"Sky, I'm sorry—" Hawk said, again. The anxiety made his whole body tense, his muscles trembling. He couldn't even look at her face, his glance was fixated on the mat somewhere near her head. "I didn't mean to—"

"Give me a hand, Eli." She replied, her words barely audible.

He didn't even remember to correct that it was Hawk, not Eli. He gave her his hand and pulled her up into a sitting position, where she took a couple of shaky breaths before turning her eyes to meet his.

"It's not your fault," She said with a thin voice. "It was my mistake, I thought I had you."

Hawk swallowed the lump in his throat, he felt naked in front of her, sure that every emotion could be read from his face.

You have me, he thought, you can have me any way you want to.

"You still won, if we count points," Hawk said, lowering his gaze. "You got two, I only got one."

Sky only gave a small nod. "Yeah, I guess."

"Fine, you can sit, you can speak," interrupted Sensei Lawrence. "Now let me see the shoulder."

Sky pursed her lips together but hesitated only for a couple of seconds. Then she pulled off her T-shirt, giving a sharp gasp of pain when she had to move her left arm. Underneath, she was wearing a black sports bra that revealed the shape of her chest, the soft curves of her breasts, and even at a moment like this that sight went straight to Hawk's gut like a shot of tequila.

With a jolt he remembered the time she'd been in his bed, her slender fingers opening the buttons of her shirt, revealing the skin, the pink lace bra. He remembered how those boobs felt against his chest when they were kissing, and a need for more flashed through his core.

He had imagined they'd be making out tonight, that he'd get to touch her, to feel her breasts on his palms, her lips that opened for him–

What the fuck, dude? Snap out of it! She's never gonna kiss you again, not after this fucking fiasco.

Still, he had to fucking force his eyes off her boobs, back to her shoulder—

His throat went tight as he saw the scar, the area around it that was now red and swollen because he had punched his fucking fist there.

"Shit, what happened to you, Ginger?" Sensei Lawrence asked with a low voice. He raised a hand as if to touch her scarred shoulder, but Sky flinched and his hand stopped in mid-air.

"Got shot." She replied silently, her eyes on the floor.

A moment of silence followed.

"Who did it?" Sensei asked.

"Doesn't matter," Sky replied, still not looking up. She pulled her T-shirt back on. "You got that ice—?"

"Here," said Miguel and tossed the ice bag to Sensei, who carefully placed it on Sky's shoulder. She accepted the bag and pressed it against the wound like she'd done the same a thousand times - which she probably had.

"I'm sorry about this, about all the fuss," Sky said after a short silence. "It's not serious - well, not anymore—"

"A piece of advice, Miss O'Brian." Sensei Lawrence said, standing up. "If you got an injury, let me know. Okay? We don't want any lawsuits from angry parents—"

"Don't worry. My dad isn't going to find out about this. Not from me."

"Good. Can you stand up?"

"Yeah, I think so—"

Hawk was on his feet in a heartbeat, offering her a hand and she took it, pulling herself up on her shaky feet. She held his hand for a moment longer than would have been necessary, and her palm was warm against his, her fingers small and slender.

He never wanted to let go. He wanted to pull her close, to wrap his arms around her body, to breathe in the scent of her hair—

He fucking wanted to keep her safe, so that no one would ever hurt her again - but he imagined he was the last person she now wanted near her, and true enough, she pulled her hand away and broke their contact.

Sensei Lawrence turned to face the rest of the Cobra Kais - who Hawk now realized had been watching the whole scene - and dismissed them. They left reluctantly one by one, and Aisha stopped to talk to Sky on her way out. "It's good to have another girl in the team—" Hawk heard her say. "I hope you stay."

Sky gave her a weak smile and a nod. She was still holding the ice on her shoulder and leaning her back against the wall, and Hawk felt all wrong and hollow in his stomach when he looked at her. The guilt over what had happened brought a foul taste to his lips.

"You okay, man?" a voice asked, and Hawk turned around. It was Miguel, who had a worried look on his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine—" he replied, glancing at Sky. "Just, you know. Feeling like shit."

"Come on, it wasn't your fault."

He shrugged. "Still. I guess I pretty much ruined my chances with her—"

"Maybe not, she'll come around. Just take Sensei's advice and ask her out. Why not take her to that milkshake place? It's close by."

"What, like now?"

"She looks kinda shaken, maybe that'll help." Miguel said, and then added: "But dude, that scar - you know who shot her?"

"No. She didn't tell me."

But she said something about her ex being a psycho asshole, so maybe that's it.

Sudden anger flashed in Hawk's heart at that thought. To think that Sky had had a boyfriend, that she had loved someone and that person had... what, tried to fucking kill her?

"Rough shit, huh?" Miguel said. "But hey, I gotta go, I'm meeting Sam later."

He gave Hawk a fist bump before leaving, but Hawk barely noticed. His whole attention was already back at Sky.

She was still leaning on the wall, near the text that said Strike first, Strike Hard, No mercy, and her face was almost as white as the wall behind her. She looked so small next to Sensei Lawrence, who was talking to her, and Hawk's stomach clenched on a knot with anxiety.

She's fucking tiny, like a head shorter than you are. How could you hit her like that? Fucking idiot—

He shook his head, swallowed the lump in his throat, and walked closer.

"Sensei—" Sky was saying. "I hope this doesn't mean I can't train here. I... I would really like to come back."

"So, you have a shoulder injury," Sensei replied. "So what? Everyone has a weakness. That shoulder is yours, you just need to learn to work around that."

A small smile touched her lips, then disappeared again.

"You'll teach me then?"

"Yeah, I'll teach you, Ginger." He said with a dry laugh. "Now, go home. We'll start your training tomorrow. Get you off that capoeira shit and start learning some real moves."

At that Sky glanced at Hawk. "You hear that?" she said. "Looks like I passed the test. I am Cobra Kai material after all."

Hawk's heart twisted in his chest.

Wasn't this what he had wanted?

But now, all he wanted to do was to shout at her that she should leave, that he couldn't take it if she got hurt again, that this wasn't safe—

He didn't. Instead, he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his joggers and gave her a nod with a forced smile.

"Cool," he managed. "Can I... I mean, can we maybe talk—?"

He was painfully aware of the way Sensei Lawrence was looking at him as he was trying to get one fucking sentence out of his mouth. It looked like Sensei was about to roll his eyes at his pathetic attempt—

"I'll take you home." Hawk said, straightening his back, tilting up his chin. "Just to make sure you're alright."

"What, on your bike?" Sky asked, and that was the first genuine smile he saw in her eyes since the incident.

He blushed fiercely. "No, I... I can call my Mom—"

My mom?

Jesus, could I be a bigger loser?

He didn't even dare to look at Sensei's face. So much for being an alpha—

"It's fine." Sky said. "I got a car, well - technically it's not mine but dad's... anyways. But you want to come with me? Just in case."

He broke into a grin. "Yeah, sure."

And that's when it hit him - Sky was asking for him to come with her, to her home, where they would be alone, maybe in her room where there was a bed—

He swallowed, his throat was suddenly thick and dry. Maybe he wasn't the last person she wanted near her, after all.

Sky glanced at him and raised a brow. "Don't get any ideas," She said, "My dad is home."

"Right," he managed. "I mean, I won't—"

"Get out of here, both of you." Sensei said with an annoyed eye roll. "I don't get paid enough to watch this shit."

______________________________________________________________________________