The arcade had always been one of Hawk's favorite places.

He'd taken Sky here on a date more than once, but even before that, when he had still been Eli, he had spent so many fun days here with Demetri, playing the games, trying to smash their old records, escaping reality the best they could in the world of games, lights, music, and fast food.

But all that stupid nerd stuff was of course in the past now. He wasn't here to play the games tonight, he wasn't that guy anymore. Tonight he was running through the arcade with his friends, laughing loudly as they stole some chic's tickets, snickering as he knocked the ball from some poor kid's hands. He enjoyed the havoc and the chaos he caused, it filled the hole in his chest so that he could almost pretend that it didn't exist at all.

He was the Hawk and he didn't care about anything.

He didn't care about his fight with Mom yesterday, he didn't care about his piece of shit Dad. Flashing a grin to his friends, he rushed through the arcade, ignoring the yells of the girl whose tickets he had stolen, Hell, he didn't give shit about her either. And he didn't care about Sky, the fact that she had ripped his heart out of his chest. He was tougher than that, and the louder he laughed, the easier it became to believe.

He slammed the tickets on the counter, and the fat nerd in a stupid Golf N' Stuff uniform behind it turned to look.

Chris.

Hawk hadn't known Chris worked here, but all the better. Glancing at his former teammate, Hawk let out a dry, amused laugh.

"Hey buddy!" he smirked, drawing Chris' attention to himself.

"Hey, prize wench," added Assface, earning a laugh from Hawk.

It had been a while since Hawk had seen this loser who had quit Cobra Kai after Hawk had trashed Miyagi Do. That sudden memory almost stung - not the one about Chris leaving, that pathetic nerd had always been too soft for Cobra Kai anyways - but the memory about trashing the dojo, stealing the medal, losing Sky—

Hawk shoved those images away, pushed them into the farthest corner of his mind. He wasn't going to think about Sky, not tonight, not ever again. After last night's embarrassing jerk off session while watching Sky's photos, Hawk had decided that enough was enough. Sky had dumped him, It was over, and he wasn't going to think about her again. He would fill that hole in his chest, by any means necessary - and so far this night was going great.

Chris frowned, glancing from Hawk to his friends. "What do you guys want?"

"Well, to spend our hard-earned tickets, of course," Hawk replied, faking a serious face. "Why don't you be a good girl and grab us one of those bobbleheads?"

With a frown, Chris turned and walked to the shelves to pick up the said item - which was exactly what Hawk had expected him to do. With one, swift move he jumped over the counter and started grabbing everything he could get his hands on, filling his arms with stuffed animals.

The look on Chris' face when he noticed, was fucking hilarious. Hawk couldn't help laughing when he tossed the prizes to his friends over the counter, and jumped back, ignoring Chris' alarmed shouts.

"Thanks, Chris!" Assface laughed, as they were rushing out. "Tell your mom I miss her."

"Yeah, and tell her to stop calling me," Hawk mocked, making a rude gesture.

Hawk didn't stop to hear what that nerd replied, his legs carried him out of the room and he couldn't stop laughing as they ran through the arcade with their stolen prizes.

They made their way to the abandoned laser tag place next door, their loud laughter and nonstop joking filling this empty place, filling the hole in Hawk's chest.

It was just him, Assface, and Mikey here. Rickenberger was the one who had originally come up with the idea of coming here tonight, but hey, it sucked to be him. Hawk had heard from the others that Rickenberger was still in bed after the beating Hawk had given him the day before. He had a concussion, apparently, and Hawk knew he should've felt bad about it, but he didn't.

He didn't care about Rickenberger. That asshole had earned it for what he had done to Sky—

Why the fuck can't I stop thinking about her already?

Angrily Hawk aimed a fierce kick toward a stuffed kitty that was balanced on a fence, making it fly to a nearby wall. The guys laughed and clapped their hands, which made Hawk flash them a grin.

"Brew time, man—" said Assface and started opening his backpack.

This was what Hawk had been waiting for. Hell Yeah, he wanted a beer. He needed one. A nice, cold beer, maybe a whole fucking six-pack, however much it would take to get Sky finally off his mind—

— except that Assface had forgotten to bring an ice pack and the beers were warm.

"Who the Hell wants a warm beer?" Hawk asked angrily and tossed the beer back at Assface.

Assface looked at Hawk like he was afraid he'd start throwing punches - but Hawk only shoved him hard. He wasn't going to beat up Assface for some stupid beer. Unlike what his teammates now probably feared, Hawk wasn't out for their blood. With Rickenberger it had been different, that asshole had been asking for it after what he had done to Sky—

And again she was on his mind, and again it felt just like taking a shot right through his heart.

He swallowed hard and clenched his fists, trying to hide his moods from his friends, when the lights suddenly went off, and a group of people walked into the abandoned laser tag town, as if they thought they were in an old Western movie.

"What the Hell—" started Mikey, but Hawk interrupted him.

"What do you want?" he snarled at that LaRusso bitch, who stood in front of them with her gang of losers, as if she fucking owned the place.

"Payback," replied Sam, her eyes burning.

Hawk glanced from Sam to her friends, and let out a dry laugh - there was Chris, a couple of Miyagi Do's whom he didn't know - and right next to Sam, stood Demetri.

Talking about payback!

In a heartbeat all that Demetri had done, flashed through Hawk's heart, feeding the hungry pit in his chest. Demetri with his stupid Yelp review, Demetri giving the speech at Moon's party, Demetri kicking him into the trophy case, Demetri turning Sky against him–

His fists clenched, as he let the anger engulf him.

"Oh, I'm in—" he breathed - but it was Sam who threw the first punch.

And just like that the fight was on.

The action swept Hawk in, just like it had in the school fight, the fierce adrenaline rush turned him into a raging fire.

There were five Miyagi Do's and only three of them, but the fight was even, they could easily win this thing. Hawk exchanged a couple of punches with Sam - he wanted revenge on that bitch too, she was the one to blame for Sky getting hurt in the school fight after all. But it was dark, and everyone was kicking and punching, chasing each other through the maze, and soon the fighting teens got scattered in the laser tag place. Briefly, Hawk noticed that Assface was getting a beating from Chris, but he couldn't stop to help as he found himself punching a guy whose name he didn't even know. He had lost sight of Sam and Demetri, the ones he really wanted to beat into a bloody pulp, but this dude just kept coming at him. Hawk let out a low grunt as his bruised knuckles met with bone, then pain shot through his abdomen as he wasn't quick enough to block the kick that hit him in the gut—

"Sam LaRusso! Where are you bitch?" Tory's voice cut the air like a knife, and suddenly everything stopped.

Screw their former disagreements - that girl couldn't have chosen a better time for her grand entrance.

Hawk kicked away the dude he'd been fighting with, drew in a couple of sharp breaths - and found himself face to face with Demetri.

The fight around them was turning, now Cobras were beating Miyagi-Do's all around him, but Hawk barely noticed. Demetri stood in front of him, lanky and tall in his green Yosemite T-shirt, the low, blue lights casting dark shadows on the planes and angles of his face, and for the first time in ages, there was fear in his eyes.

"Eli—" Demetri tried, backing away, but Hawk followed

Anger twisted his features, he tasted steel and rage on his lips that were drawn back, revealing teeth.

"It was your fault—" he groaned, clenching his fists. "You turned her against me!"

"What? No, I didn't—!"

"You always wanted her for yourself—!" Hawk yelled, his voice breaking. "You made her break up with me!"

"You did that yourself!" Demetri tried, retreating. "Eli, just listen—"

But he was past listening. Demetri's eyes were wide, there was fear in his voice, and Hawk let that fear feed his anger, he let it fill the hole in his chest, until nothing remained of it, until the roaring ache for violence silenced every other sound in the world.

How easily he defeated that nerd now, how easily he threw him to the ground. He pushed Demetri against the floor with force, driving his knee between his shoulder blades, pulling his arm back, bending it so that Demetri cried out with pain.

"No! Please, stop! Eli, stop! Stop!" Demetri started pleading, his voice thin and raw. "It's me! Don't do it! No!"

But Hawk kept him in his grip, kept bending that arm, kept inflicting more pain in Demetri, because—

What the fuck am I doing?

For a heartbeat, his resolution faltered. The Cobras had gathered around him and Demetri, they were cheering and shouting, but Hawk only heard his own, frantic heartbeat, Demetri's panting, panicking breaths.

Groaning, Hawk gripped Demetri's arm harder and pushed his face against the floor. He knew he needed to finish this fight, he knew there was no way out of this, but to fucking break Demetri, the same way he had broken Rickenberger, through pain and fear and blood. That was the only way to win, so then why the fuck was he hesitating?

"Help me!" Demetri cried, panic breaking his voice and something in Hawk's chest was breaking too, his anger, his resolution, his need for revenge.

This was the moment of payback he had been waiting for, the moment he had been dreaming of since last summer. Now he would finally make Demetri pay for all the shit he had done—

But he couldn't.

This was Demetri in his grip, breathing fast and shallow, begging for help. This was Demetri, who had walked to him on the first day of kindergarten, and started talking about superheroes, not giving a shit that Hawk was the kid with the deformed lip, who could barely get one word off his mouth. This was Demetri, who had taken his hand and helped him up from the ground after some kids had beaten him up and stolen his lunch money in first grade. This was Demetri, who had visited him in the hospital after he'd had to have corrective surgery on his lip when he was 13, and he hadn't been able to speak for a week. This was Demetri who had introduced him to computers, Demetri with whom he had gone to the computer camp six times, and the last time they had won the coding competition together. This was Demetri, his best friend, his Binary Brother, Demetri who had encouraged him to talk to Sky at the Halloween Dance last year, Demetri who was Sky's friend too, and Sky would hate Hawk if he hurt Demetri, but not as much as Hawk would hate himself—

But it didn't matter anymore what Sky thought. There was a hole in Hawk's chest, and if he let Demetri go now, it would never be filled.

"Do it! Finish him! He deserves it! Do it Hawk!"

Those were the voices of his friends, of his teammates. These are your brothers and sisters, Sensei Kreese had said, this is your family.

"No, it's fine, I'll go—" Demetri was almost sobbing, and Hawk thought he'd throw up. His chest was heaving with fast breaths, his head was spinning. This was Demetri, this was his friend, his brother—

"Hawk, finish him!" came Tory's sharp voice, and Hawk clenched his jaw, gripped Demetri's arm harder, his knee pressing Demetri's back between his shoulder blades.

No mercy, that's what Kreese had taught him. Was he going to have second thoughts now? Was he going to be a pussy who couldn't finish a fight? Demetri deserved this, he had started this war a long time ago, and Hawk was just finishing it.

He was filling the hole in his chest. He wasn't finishing just Demetri, he was finishing off Eli too.

Groaning, he yanked Demetri's arm back with force and heard how the bone snapped.

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