Hawk rushed into the dojo, kicked his shoes off in one angry motion, and went straight into the back room.

He was early - the lesson wouldn't start for some time - but the anger that was dripping off him like venom after the phone call with Sky had forced him out of the house, into the only place he knew where he could let the anger light and burn. And burn it did, it made everything in him hot and ready for violence, his first punch was fierce enough to peel the skin off his knuckles.

It was Demetri's face he imagined his fist hitting, instead of the black leather of the punching bag. Demetri's stupid, arrogant, nerdy face. Hawk's fist struck Demetri's high cheekbone, again and again, it smashed his nose, crunching bone, scraping skin, he knocked off Demetri's teeth, and he kept on until there was nothing left of his former brother but a puddle of bloody pulp, but still, the anger didn't let go of him.

He knew this wasn't the real thing, this was just letting off some steam.

The anger wouldn't be satisfied before he got his revenge in real life - and that he had been deprived. Demetri had gotten away with everything - with the Yelp review, with joining Miyagi-Do, with the stupid speech and kicking him into the trophy case—

Hawk groaned as his fist met the punching bag again.

And to think that Demetri was out there with Sky, that it wasn't enough that he had humiliated Hawk in front of everyone, in front of the whole school - now he was after his girl too?

A wolfish growl left Hawk's throat when he punched the bag again, the impact making the bones of his hands and arms rattle. He welcomed the pain. He breathed in the anger, so that the spark grew into a fire, into a raging inferno. He wanted it to consume him until there was nothing left. Until he couldn't feel a thing. Until he would find a way to get even with that asshole—

And when that time came, Demetri wouldn't even know what hit him. He would go down so hard he would never get back up again.

Hawk had been punching the bag for some time, enough to make his now shirtless upper body glisten with sweat, when he heard how other people started to arrive. The bell on the front door jingled, he heard happy, chattering voices - but he paid them no attention. He simply kept doing his routine of fierce punches and kicks, low grunts and panting breaths falling off his lips.

"Hawk," came the low, raspy voice of his Sensei, and finally Hawk turned around. He bowed, trying to catch his breath.

"Yes, Sensei?" He wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Are you going to join us?"

It wasn't a question, not really, but a reminder. Even if he was the best of them, the most loyal, Hawk got no special treatment, and it was time for this soldier to join his ranks.

"Yes, Sensei—" he said, clearing his throat and picking up the jacket of his gi from the floor where he'd tossed it.

"Good."

Hawk brushed the piece of clothing back on and tied the belt around his waist, as he followed Sensei Kreese into the main dojo. All the others were already there, their small group of students, a bit too small for Hawk's liking now that Sky had quit, Miguel still wasn't back and even Bert and some others had been kicked out because they'd been too soft, showing mercy to a goddamn hamster.

Thinking about that made Hawk feel uneasy, so he pushed that thought away into the same place where he kept all the other undesired thoughts, like his earlier quarrel with Sky on the phone. He shoved those thoughts away with force and slammed the door of the closet where he kept them.

And then he noticed someone in the room, someone he hadn't seen in weeks and a sudden, fierce anger roared in his chest, making him see red.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" He growled, closing the distance between himself and the girl with sandy hair.

"Miss Nichols is here because I asked her to come," came Sensei's voice, and Hawk turned to look at him over his shoulder, stopping right in front of Tory.

"But she—" Hawk stopped talking mid-sentence. He swallowed and took a breath, to keep his voice respectful. "But Sensei, she's the one who kicked Sky down the stairs so that she ended up in a coma."

Sensei's eyes narrowed as he stared at Hawk, letting out a slow breath.

"The way I hear it is that Miss Nichols was fighting the LaRusso girl, for a good reason. And our former champion decided to get into a fight that wasn't hers in the first place. And she lost." A hefty silence followed his words. "You can't blame anyone else for her... misfortune. And you can't blame Miss Nichols for winning a fight."

Hawk's chest went tight, the anger was still roaring inside of him when he turned his eyes back at Tory. The girl hadn't said anything so far, but her chin was up, her eyes were dark and defiant. It was obvious that she knew Kreese had her back, that everyone would side with her on this matter. No one here cared for Sky, they all thought she was a traitor and a loser, a stupid slut who deserved what she had gotten.

That's why Hawk hadn't told them he was back together with her. It was his secret. And he knew it needed to stay a secret, he knew that, but still—

When he looked at Tory, all he could see was Sky lying on the floor in a pool of blood, her nose smashed in, her arm broken, and the horrible, suffocating fear of losing her was on him again like an endless night, killing everything that was good in him.

He would never forget. He would never forgive.

"I don't care what anyone says," Hawk breathed to Tory's face. "If you ever go near her again, I will fucking kill you."

It wasn't even a threat. It was a statement, a fact. If Tory so much as looked at Sky the wrong way, he would rip her spine out through her mouth and watch how she choked in her own blood. Hell, he would've done it right here right and now, had it not been for Sensei standing next to them.

"Look, I'm just here to do karate," Tory replied. "Is that going to be a problem?"

"A problem? The problem here is you. You almost fucking killed her—!"

"Christ, try to get over that already," Tory breathed angrily. "She's gonna be fine. And I don't want anything to do with your stupid ex."

Hawk resisted the violent urge to smash his fist into Tory's face. "Call her stupid again, and—"

"Enough." Said Sensei Kreese with a tone that made Hawk shut up mid-sentence.

Reluctantly he closed his mouth. The anger inside of his chest was still like a raging fire, the yearning for violence made him see red - but he swallowed it down, forced himself to take a breath, then another, willing the flames to go down until the anger wasn't an all-consuming inferno anymore but rather like smoldering coals, still burning hot, but now under his control, at least for a moment.

"Miss Nichols is one of us," Kreese said sternly, looking at Hawk with a narrow-eyed stare. "Cobra Kai is not just a team. It is a family. I expect you to respect that."

"Yes, Sensei." Hawk muttered, turning his eyes down.

When the lesson ended, Hawk was exhausted. The anger he had felt before - towards Sky and Demetri, and then towards Tory - had finally worn off. His muscles ached after the brutal training Sensei had put them through, his face and body were covered in sweat that would soon dry and leave behind a thin film of salt.

He wanted nothing more than to go home and take a shower, a long, hot shower that would ease the aching of his muscles - and then fall into the bed too tired to think about anything.

"A word, Hawk." Came Sensei's voice. Hawk closed the zipper of the bag in his hands, and threw it over one shoulder before turning to look at Kreese.

"Sensei?"

Kreese waited until everyone else had left, his eyes following the last of the students out of the door. His silence made Hawk feel uneasy - even more, because he had a hunch what this was going to be about.

"Is this because of what happened with Tory?" He asked as soon as the bell chimed as the door closed behind Rickenberger, who was the last to go.

"You seem to be very protective of Miss O'Brien."

It was a statement and didn't seem to require a response, so Hawk gave none. He simply gave a nod and turned his eyes to the mat. Now that everyone else had gone, the room was silent, empty. The air smelled of sweat, with a hint of iron.

"Perhaps you want to get back together with the champion, is that it? Or perhaps that already happened and that is why you would want to protect her, even if it means going against one of your teammates?"

Hawk's glance snapped up, met the observant stare of the older man.

"Yes, Sensei."

He hadn't been planning to tell anyone at the dojo about him and Sky - it was private, it was nobody else's business - but he wasn't going to lie to his Sensei, who only had his best interests in mind, even if the lessons were often hard.

Kreese let out a low breath that turned into a chuckle. For a while he didn't say anything, but when he spoke his words were slow, deliberate.

"It is love, then?"

"Yeah," Hawk replied, tilting up his chin. "It is."

"And you think she is the one?"

He nodded. It was true. Sky wasn't just the first girl he had loved - she was the only girl he had loved, the only girl he would ever love. Even if they had argued today, that had been out of love too, out of his need to have her for himself, forever. She was the sun of his days, the moon in his night sky, she was the only thing he really, truly cared about. She was the one and only and he would fucking marry her one day—

But that brought his mind back to their argument. It might not matter that he loved her so that he would burn down the whole fucking world for her. She had stood him up to be with Demetri, and fuck, who knew, they might be making out at this very moment.

That thought tasted foul on Hawk's lips, and he grimaced. His fists clenched on his sides.

"I understand you feel protective of Miss O'Brian," Kreese spoke slowly, his voice familiar, raspy, and low. "She is a sweet, innocent girl, isn't she? A soft one? She is not tough, not a fighter like us. She needs someone to take care of her, isn't that right?"

Hawk gave a hesitant nod. "Yes, Sensei."

Another chuckle. "I understand. I knew a girl like that, once. She was sweet and soft too, and I wanted to protect her. I wanted to take care of her."

Hawk's brows knotted. "What happened?"

"Things didn't work out," Sensei replied and shrugged, but the look on his face was the same as before, as if he was unaffected by the memories, however bitter they once might have been. "But it is better this way. Losing her is what really made me tough."

Hawk opened his mouth to say something - what, he wasn't sure, but then closed it again as Kreese continued talking.

"I tell you this because I want you to know that I understand. It is good that you want to protect your girlfriend. That's what a man does. But a man also stays loyal to his own people. These other kids—" he gestures around as if there had been other people still in the now empty dojo "— they are not your enemy. They are your fellow soldiers. Are they not?"

"Yes, Sensei."

"Even Miss Nichols."

Hawk clenched his jaw, but in the end, he gave a nod. "Yes, even Tory."

"Good," Kreese said, meeting Hawk's eyes. "Because it's not really Miss Nichols, you want to be angry with. It is them. The Miyagi-Do's. They are the ones who are responsible, for humiliating our dojo, for getting Miguel and your girlfriend hurt. And I need you to remember that. Can you do it, son?"

Son. The way Kreese said that made Hawk's chest swell. He would have done anything to hear that again, to hear the pride in the older man's voice, the deep undercurrent that told Hawk that Sensei expected high things from him, that he trusted him.

"Yes, Sensei–" His shoulders rose with his fast inhale. "I understand."

Kreese chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest, as he observed Hawk like a proud father.

"That's my boy."

And Hawk leaned into those words, leaned into the promise of greatness in them. It took a long time before he understood how cruelly he had been played.

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