#here. the problem with Miguel isn’t that he doesn’t understand that. he doesn’t want to acknowledge it. all of this suffering was for intent

[moonlesslights]

Miguel O'Hara x Reader.

a little lovely thing for you, loves <3

any comment about it is appreciated!

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After a long day dealing with all of the problems being the head of the Spider Community brings with it: catching bad guys and having to be realistic with the good ones just in order to protect them, even if the truth hurt them when he whispers it in a harsh voice after he looses all patience; Miguel found himself, looking at his reflection on the screen of one of the computers, tired.

His eyes wander to the wall next to him. 10:37pm. It is still rather early, most of the people and creatures in the building are probably still awake, and it is still three hours away from the hour he usually goes to bed too. But right now he knows he won’t make it till then, he has so much stuff to do, so much to worry about but his brain can only focus in one thing, can only tell him he needs one and only one thing right now. And it’s your fault.

He grunts when he jumps from the platform all the way to the floor, fighting with his own emotions and his desperation to get out of there. He is mad at himself for the way he’s acting, for the feeling of his body looking for yours… But he can’t do any more today, he knows what he needs and if he stays here like this he knows he won’t get anything done anyway.

Miguel walks out of his “cave”, as you used to call it, and goes on his way, swinging around a couple of times on his web and crawling some more across the diagonal pillars of the building to get where he was sure you were going to be right now. Because it wasn’t like he would often turn on the cameras on one of his holograms and played to look for you till the point of unconsciously knowing your favorite places to hang out by now. Of course not.

He’s so deep in his thoughts that when he finally hears your laugh just a few meters away, his heart skips a beat. And although his face doesn’t show any particular emotion when he walks up to you and your friends, he’s internally fighting with himself again for the whole situation. What was he doing here? Why is he acting this way? What was he thinking?

“Miguel?” You raise an eyebrow at him, he can see the confusion on your eyes but he especially takes notice of how you smile still, happy to see him. Happy to see him.

“Night.” He announces his presence, walking closer to you. The people around, which isn’t much, smile nervously at him, while some others seem unbothered by the new arrival. He looks at you for a moment and he doesn’t say a single word before taking you by the wrist and announcing again: “Night.”

“No, what? Wait… Miguel!” You look back, confused at his actions. You try to plant your feet on the ground and stop the both of you, but he easily continues to drag you across the floor and soon enough, taking you by the waist despite your insistence in questioning where were you’re going, swings you around in quick and confident movements till the noise of the whole building starts to be left behind.

You sigh and let the right side of your face rest against his shoulder. Surrendering to his actions and judgement.

He appreciated that, he liked it so much more than he wanted to admit. How you relax when you’re with him, how you trust him almost blindly, how you know, without him having to say a word, that he won’t hurt you. No matter what he did or how he acted without giving you an explanation, you trusted he would always have a plan. And even if he said to himself that he didn’t need anyone, he can’t deny —he can’t understand— how much he enjoys looking around a room after a particularly hard situation to find your eyes on him, the only ones that are never scared, the only ones that keep shining in trust… He doesn’t know what he would do if that ever changes.

If he reaches to touch you and you step back. If he calls your name and you don’t turn back. He has imagined, a couple dozen times, different scenarios, with you covered in blood, with you inside this very building, with you alongside someone else, but always the same eyes: like a rabbit staring at the fox baring his teeth, terrified, trembling. He always has to look for you after that image takes over his mind, almost convincing him it could be real. He can’t find himself at peace as he erratically opens and closes his hands, until you appear before him, smiling with so much warm that he can’t imagine, he won’t imagine, another emotion in your face than this one, where he reaches out for you and you don’t step back, where he calls your name and you turn around, where he can have you in between his arms for as long as he wants now, closing the door to all of the problems of the world outside.

You take his hand when he finally steps you down, guiding you across the dark hall to his room. You remain in silence but you can hear the thud of his heart beating inside his ribcage. You’re sure he knows you can hear it. You’re sure he can hear yours too.

As he opens the door and lets you get inside the room first, you relax almost instantly. His scent fills your lungs, making the air feel lighter at the very second your take in the first breath.

“Get comfortable.” He says in a neutral voice without even looking at you, and you know exactly what he means.

As he takes off his suit you walk to his closet. You take one of your favorite t-shirts of him to put on once you got rid of your own suit. It was fresh and it brushes your skin deliciously when you put it on, like cold water after a warm day under the sun.

You jump in the bed the moment he removes the cover, humming in content when you feel the cool blankets under you. Miguel lifts one of the corners of his mouth, his eyes are still tired but you can see that soft glimmer one can only take notice of in the dark, if you pay attention, where you can see how much he’s trying, how much hope he’s still guarding inside his own heart.

He climbs onto the bed with one knee, and lets his weigh fall onto his elbows first before finally letting himself rest on top of you with a soft grunt caused by the sore of his muscles. He buries his face on your chest, right between your breasts, closing his eyes almost immediately, easing in the feeling of your skin against his own. One of his hands lifts up, waving its fingers in the air. You laugh at his action, shaking your head.

“You could use your voice to tell me what you want.” You chuckle right above his ear, sending a pleasant shiver all across his body.

“Please?” He asks like he’s not sure of the use of that word.

You smile, lifting your hand and intertwining it with his. Only then, his brows relax, letting both of your hands fall back onto the bed, caressing your skin with his thumb running up and down in a tender swing.

“How are you?” You ask in a soft whisper.

“Better now.” He answers and you can’t not even begin to comprehend how much he means those words. He doesn’t know if he wants you to do it. One step out of the door and he looses the only thing that makes him human. “How are you?” He asks back, this time turning his head up to look at your eyes.

You chuckle. “Never better.” You tilt your head, allowing him to see that warmness in your eyes only reserved for him. His jaw clenches at the sole thought of someone else holding you like he does. He can’t allow it. He knows the implications of your having a whole life on your own universe, of someone waiting to steal you from him. He doesn’t think he could go over the fact of seeing you marry someone else… Well, now the thought of you walking down the aisle in white holding someone else’s hand has ruined his mood again. He frowns, looking down again. You laugh. “What was that face?! What is it?”

He doesn’t answer and you don’t wish to push him. He spends all the time being responsible of this whole place, having to be the voice of reason among all the others. You can’t blame him to act out all his foolishness when he’s alone with you.

After a couple of minutes with you running the fingers of your free hand along his hair, he finally drops out the words stuck on his throat:

“Choose me.” Not ‘stay’, not ‘don’t leave’, not ‘don’t go back’, but ‘choose me’. Even if you’re in another universe, even if we don’t see each other in months or years, even if we shouldn’t, choose me. “You’re free to leave, I would never ask you otherwise. But come back to me every time you do, please.”

“Miguel…”

“I know what I’m asking, but I promise I would never interfere with your duties in this organization nor anything in that matter. So choose to keep me by your side. So I… Fuck.” He buries his head even more, till the point his words are muffled by the t-shirt you’re wearing. “I might not survive. If… If you go. Y’know?” He says and you can tell how red his face probably is even without seeing it. “It won’t end well for me if you never come back from home.”

“Mhm…” You hum. “I see that that talk we had about opening to your feelings wasn’t in vain. You’re really putting on on practice…”

“Oh, c’mon.” He groans, turning around and trying to get up from his position, but your arms are quicker when you wrap around him, laughing out loud at his face.

“Come here, I’m kidding.” You smile, giving him a soft kiss on his forehead. Your hands start to draw figures on his back, with such tenderness he doesn’t have the strength to try to back up again. You take his chin and, after a few attempts, he finally gives in and looks at you. “This is home, Miguel.”

His eyes slightly widen at your words and his hands fight to cling to your body again, to bring your against him. Because it’s just never enough.

“Any love I have showed you, any love I show and give you from now on, is yours to keep.” You sigh. “I will not turn away, no matter how ugly things get. I will always find my way back to you.”

Miguel didn’t answered, three words were still dripping from his tongue, but what he felt for you was higher than what his voice could express, so he fell silent and took your face with his right hand and asked for permission with his eyes before kissing your smile. His lips against yours felt heavy and soft, you can feel his fear to hurt you in his careful movements, but you open your mouth, letting those three words slide in with his tongue brushing against yours like the sea crashes on the shore.

He drops his head to your neck, pushing with his thumb your jaw up, opening space for him to kiss and lick up in straight lines with his tongue. You wrap your legs around his waist, feeling him press against you. You haven’t taken this step yet, your intimacy grew from long nights talking and soft brushes of skin caressing skin, from mornings waking up beside each other, from the urgency to run to each other's arms, to hear your voice, to have his arms secured around you.

Miguel refused to take it any further because he thought, months ago, watching you sleeping curled against his chest, that if he tasted you whole, there wouldn’t be no turning back. It would be his perdition.

But now he realizes that even without doing that, his life would never go back to the same as it was before you appeared in front of him for the very first time. He doesn’t want it to be like that ever again. He knows, that from the moment he saw you, maybe even before that, one part of his soul tangled around you, and has refused to let go ever since. It belongs to her now. It had belonged to her since she was born. To be hers, to be his.

Maybe, he thinks as he takes both of your wrists above your head with one hand while the other caresses deeply on your hips as his fangs tease above your skin alongside his tongue and hot breath, it is time to go all the way in.

[bullet-prooflove]

Choices!Series Part 6: Run - Nestor Oceteva x Reader

Tagging: @annetje @anime-weeb-4-life @danzer8705 @drabbles-mc @alwaysachorusgirl @witches-unruly-heart @mysoulisasunflower @im-just-a-mississippi-girl @est1887 @the-wandering-lunatic

Part One: First Date (NSFW) - Nester and you have an unusual first date.

Part Two: Familia - (Feat: Marcus Alvarez) - Marcus discovers your relationship.

Part Three: Fair Trade - Miguel makes a proposal.

Part Four: Slaughterhouse Rules - Nestor deals with the aftermath.

The problem is Miguel Galindo, you want to kill him. You want to invade his fucking fortress up in the hills, put a plastic bag over his head and suffocate the other man until he understands what it is to pray for death. That impulse is all you can think about, it vibrates through your brain keeping you up at night. You’ve had this before with the others, and the only thing that resolved it was their destruction.

The Major, Jonesy, Matthews, DuPont, you see their faces in your dreams, the aftermath of their ruin. You see the bravo fade out of their eyes when they feel the first cut, and then the second, when they realise that you have no intention of ending it quickly or keeping them alive. They’d thought you were soft because of your gender.  You can still remember the disbelief in their eyes as you sit in their kitchen chairs, or on their tables, watching them bleed out slowly. You want them to feel each agonising breath, you want them to feel a fraction of what you felt as you fought and kicked and screamed in an abandoned Afghan home as they stood outside the door and fucking listened.

Just like Miguel had fucking watched as that animal tried to choke the life out of you. You’d had your choices stripped away from you all over again. The past echoing once more into your present.

If he was anyone else you would have hurt him, you would have shown him what it was like to have your control taken away, to feel truly powerless. But you didn’t because you couldn’t do that to Nestor. You couldn’t murder the only family he had left; you couldn’t inflict that pain upon him. And there was the issue.

The man you hated and the man you loved, entwined so precariously together.

Every time you tried to explain it to Nestor the words died in your throat because you knew the position it would put him in, you knew that you would be forcing him to choose.

The lover he’d known for only a pocket of time, or the man he’d grown up.

In the end you made the choice for him.

In the dead of night, while he sleeps, you take your go bag from the closet and you run.

You run as far away from San Padre as you possibly can.

---------------------

You’re a mess, you try to hide it, but Nestor sees it. He sees everything when it comes to you. You play with your food instead of eating it, when he wakes up in the night it’s to an empty bed because you’re up pacing or out running, anything to get rid of the thoughts that plague you.

It’s hypervigilance, he’s seen it before, felt it himself. The work the two of you do leaves you with a healthy dose of paranoia. He doesn’t know how to help you because when you do talk, you don’t tell him everything. There’s something stabbing at you underneath the surface, something you can’t bring yourself to say. He can’t force it out of you.

When you leave, he half expects it because this thing between the two of you it isn’t working, and he doesn’t know how to help you.

 What you need isn’t here, it isn’t him.

Love Nestor? Get added to his tag list!

Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[crowfootwrites]

Bruises | Part II [Nestor Oceteva x Fem!Reader]

Part II of the Nestor two-shot. This part is significantly longer than the first part, but we get to see Nestor takin' care of business, so. Also, there's a Marcus cameo.

Warnings: implied violence; gun usage; language | Words: 1,861

Part I of Bruises

Two days later, you’re back at work, opting for a floral catsuit to keep your bruising covered. Your sides, back, and thighs are starting to look pretty gnarly.

Nestor had indeed taken you to the hospital and stayed with you while doctors performed a series of ultrasounds and CT scans to check for any internal hemorrhaging; he was on the phone for a while and you could hear snippets of angry conversation, likely with Miguel or Marcus about finding the guy that did this. When you were given the all-clear, Nestor had taken you home, insisting on you taking it easy. He had made dinner and curled up with you on the couch, trying to avoid jostling you at all costs. When the two of you had finally made your way to bed, his fingers gently caressed you and he pressed soft kisses against the deep violet bruises blooming across your torso. You saw the quick flash of heartbreak in his eyes at seeing you hurt, and you had curled against him, falling asleep safely in his arms.

It’s a Tuesday and it’s early, so the club is still fairly slow. You’re bartending tonight, thankfully, glad to have a large slab of wood between you and everyone else. You’re not sure what progress Nestor has made on finding the guy, but you still have your job, so you count your blessings and don’t ask questions.

Another blessing: the other bartender for the evening arrives, and it’s an intimidating-looking girl you’ve worked with a few times named Morgan. All but the most confident (or the stupidest) patrons find her pin-straight black hair, severe makeup, and perma-frown a little daunting. No one ever fucks with Morgan and you’re glad to have her beside you for the night.

Things start to pick up around 11 and suddenly, it’s busy, even for a Tuesday. Morgan leans over to remind you about the drink special your boss is promoting, and you groan internally, knowing the tips are the only thing making it worth your while. You and Morgan make a good team, supplying drinks at a breakneck pace while club lights flash around you, obscuring most of what’s happening past the first row of patrons at the bar.

You’re throwing together a Jack & Coke when you hear it. The voice sends panic jolting down your spine as it requests a Budweiser. You stare at your trembling hands, a lime wedge clutched between your fingers.

You force your eyes upward and it’s him. The same slicked back brown hair, the same oily smile, even the same leather jacket. Your eyes widen and he looks back at you with a calculating gaze. Your immediate reaction is a desire to run. But as soon as the thought appears you dismiss it. The club is packed, and it would be easy for him to try something in the middle of a throng of people. No, the safest place for you is behind the bar, where other people can keep their eyes on you.

You force a smile that you’re sure comes out as more of a grimace.

“Sure thing,” you tell him, the pitch of your voice just a little too high. You hand the Jack & Coke to its owner, managing to spill a little on your shaking hands, then head over to the cooler for the beer.

You can feel his eyes on you and your stomach turns, bile burning in your throat. In the dark corner of the bar, shielded partially from view by Morgan, you can feel yourself breaking down. Your eyes flash around you in a panic. Everything and everyone feel too far away. You don’t see the bouncer by the door, and there’s no escape route that doesn’t take you past the man staring at you from the end of the bar.

You’re not sure what to do so you call the person you trust the most.

Nestor answers on the first ring. “Amor?” His voice is, understandably, apprehensive.

A whimper steals through your lips before you can get the words out. “He’s here.”

“Are you inside?” Nestor’s tone has lost all sense of worry. His words are clipped, business-like, and you know this isn’t going to end well.

“Yeah, I’m working the bar with Morgan,” you mumble, dropping your head into your hands as Morgan looks over at you with concern.

“Stay behind the bar,” he commands. “If he tries anything, break a bottle, get a paring knife. Whatever you gotta do, mi amor. I’ll be there in 15 minutes.”

The line goes dead and you take a couple deep breaths, glad that, despite what’s about to happen, Nestor is coming. You grab the Budweiser out of the cooler, pop the cap and plunk it on the bar top in front of him, not meeting his eyes.

“How’s your night going, babydoll?” The words slither out of his mouth deviously and you swallow around the knot in your throat. Your eyes glance to digital clock beside the register. Thirteen minutes to go.

“Busy,” you grind out through gritted teeth. You move to the middle of the bar to help a waiting customer, and the man’s eyes follow you as you make drinks. He doesn’t leave the bar. He sits and leers and you wonder if he thinks that he’s going to follow you out again at the end of the night. As if you wouldn’t have learned your lesson? Good thing he won’t be here ‘til closing, you think, as your eyes flicker obsessively to the clock, counting down the minutes until Nestor arrives.

Nestor, apparently, makes very good time when he’s angry, because you see him come through the door of the club with two minutes to spare. An audible sigh of relief passes your lips as his eyes find yours over the crowd and he makes his way to the bar. You bite your lip as your gaze lands on Marcus talking to the bouncer who has returned to his post. The bouncer, the same one who was working the night you were attacked, glances at you, then nods to Marcus. Marcus disappears into the crowd behind Nestor. You can’t help the tightening in your chest. This is going to be bad.

You come to stand in front of the man so Nestor knows who to see about their little assault problem. The man, still unaware of Nestor and Marcus’ approach behind him, winks nauseatingly at you and just as he reaches over the bar for your wrist, a firm hand clenches around his forearm and pulls back. The man jerks back on the bar stool and spins to face two vicious looking men in suits.

The man sputters, trying to yank his arm free, but Nestor has no intention of letting him go. “Who the fuck are you?” the man yells. You glance at Nestor’s hold on the man’s arm, his knuckles turning white as his grip intensifies.

Marcus paces around to the other side of the man’s stool, his hands tucked casually in his pockets. “We hear you like to hit women,” he says nonchalantly, bringing his mouth close to the man’s ear. His one free arm flies up, trying to hit Marcus, but Marcus was expecting it. He grabs it and yanks it behind the man’s back. Marcus steps back just slightly, drawing out his gun, keeping it low so as not to alarm the crowd. You see the added length of a silencer on the end of it as Marcus shoves it into the man’s side and you step forward.

“Not in here, please,” you beg, and Marcus smiles at you benevolently.

“Mija, what do you take me for? I would never,” he says, and you cock an eyebrow, knowing full well he would.

Between the two of them, Nestor and Marcus hustle the man outside as he yells frantically over the crowd. He can’t really be heard over the music, and no one appears to notice, likely assuming security was removing him. They take him to the back, towards the back door of the club that leads into the alley where he attacked you. The heavy door slams shut with a note of finality, and you try to put it out of your mind. It’s out of your hands anyway. It was out of your hands the minute you told Nestor about it.

You see Morgan looking over at you as you try to get back to work, willing your hands to be steady. She seems to know better than ask, though, and you’re grateful for that. Thirty minutes later, Nestor comes back in through the front door of the club, nodding at the bouncer as he passes. The crowd has thinned out and the bar is considerably less busy. Nestor makes his way over and you run out from behind it to wrap yourself around him in a hug. The fingers on your right hand find their way to their usual spot around one of Nestor’s braids and you give it an affectionate tug. It’s slight, but you feel him sink into your embrace, seemingly as relieved as you. You pull back and scan him from head to toe, your heart racing. He appears unscathed, but you do notice the tiniest drop of blood on his dress shoe and point it out to him. He frowns and grabs a cocktail napkin off the bar and leans to down to rub it off, as you release a tired chuckle. He crumples the napkin and puts it in his pocket, then caresses your cheek, tucking you against his body.

“He won’t be bothering you anymore,” he murmurs.

You sigh, partly relieved, partly concerned for Nestor. “¿Lo mataste?” you ask hesitantly, not sure if you’re ready for the answer.

Nestor pulls away to look at you dubiously, as though he can read you like a book. “You really want to know?”

“I feel like I need to,” you say with a shrug, but your grip remains tight on Nestor.

A hard look passes briefly over his eyes before he gazes back down at you with a lopsided smile. “We made sure he won’t be touching anything he’s not supposed to anymore.”

Your face contorts as you wonder what they did with the fingers, but you opt not to ask.

“And he’s not gonna come back?” you ask, your voice small. You’re sure Nestor can feel your heartbeat clamoring against his chest.

“Not unless he wants to die,” Nestor whispers soothingly, and you let out a heavy exhale. “And I talked to Jimmy at the door. He gets anywhere near this place, they call me or Marcus.”

Tears sting your eyes, and you sniff as you pull Nestor tighter against you. “Thank you,” you mumble into his lapel. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“So, what now?” you ask, unsure what a person does after they dismember someone in the darkened parking lot of a club.

Nestor pressed a kiss against your forehead, and you could feel his lips curling into smirk against your skin. He pulled away and met your eyes with a shrug. “Now we go home.”

[variousqueerthings]

Johnny and ADHD

alright, I’ve wanted to write something about ADHD Johnny for awhile now.

Waaay back in February @deliciousbananavoidpurse made this post and I made some haphazard additions, but now, at last, I ramble!

This isn’t really an addition to that list so much as a... idk, seeing it from an almost fic-but-kind-of-meta point of view. Those points In Practise, with an additional young Johnny.

1.

Johnny’s a kid. He and his mom have been living hand-to-mouth for as long as he remembers, in and out of schools, in and out of apartments and cars. Of course he’s going to be flighty, spaced-out, unfocused.

He’s an easy target – not very big (he doesn’t get a lot of good meals), dirty clothes, and… weird. He gets beaten up sometimes, but mostly he sticks as much to himself as he can and doesn’t go to school if he can help it. Laura saves up and gets him a walkman.

After that it’s like the world doesn’t exist to him at all.

She thinks that’s easier than trying to make him live in it. But he deserves better. They both do. So she makes a decision that changes everything…

2.

Johnny’s not going hungry these days. In fact, he eats constantly, like he’s making up for lost time. His clothes are new and he gets anything he wants. He’s enrolled in school properly.

But Johnny himself doesn’t change much. He’s vibrating with an energy he can’t explain – normal for boys – he skips school, he goes off somewhere in his own mind, struggles with making friends, gets into fights he can’t win, and all day he listens to music. Still skinny, still flighty, still weird.

Tries new things that become all-encompassing for him and drops them one day to the next – normal for boys, all normal for boys – and then -

3.

Johnny sees those boys: Tall, broad, leather jackets, rad bikes, shining, beautiful. He watches them through the window for hours, transfixed in a way only riding his bike and listening to music used to do. 

He joins Cobra Kai.

And finally, like a dam breaking, he focuses. He focuses like he’s a machine. Like nothing else matters. He takes everything happening at home, every beating he ever took, every failing grade (he tries, but school never manages to matter – the other Cobras help, simply by being there and sometimes especially Bobby forces him to sit down and write a paper, but he’ll never be smart, that’s fine), and he puts them into his fist.

He trusts Kreese to tell him what to think, what to feel, what to do. Finally, finally, everything makes sense. It’s just him and his body and someone he trusts telling him what to do with it. 

Nothing else matters.

4.

There are other things that matter. 

He’s getting his life in order so he can leave Sid’s and take his Mom with him. He’s going to be the right kind of boyfriend to Ali. He’ll do well enough in his final year to make up for the previous ones, and he’s got karate, and Kreese, who’s telling him he’s the champ. 

Who he can trust.

But he gets into trouble, he drinks, his grades continue to slip, and suddenly (or is it gradually, he can’t tell with time sometimes) Ali is telling him he’s changed – angry, volatile, forgetful, (okay he was always forgetful, but it’s getting worse – is karate the only thing he cares about?), but it’s fine, he can fix that too. He just has to change everything that doesn’t work. If he can be that good at karate, it just means he’s not trying hard enough everywhere else. Just needs to try harder.

Just. Easy. He has a plan. He has a hundred plans.

5.

It all blows up in his face and suddenly he’s faced with the truth: that there really is nothing he’s good for. Karate? What’s that ever gotten him? What else has he got to show for it? 

He’s still just the same kid he was – alright, he’s bigger, babes will stop and check him out, he’s learned how to charm people if he has to, but those are just scripts and they don’t work for long if he doesn’t have anything else to back them up and they bore him - they bore him in ways he thinks have gotta be different to what everyone else means when they say they’re bored. 

He doesn’t have a plan. He has a hundred plans. He doesn’t have anyone to tell him what to do. He doesn’t know what to do. He knows what to do.

He drinks more. What does it matter, he’s young, life’s short, there’s nothing he can learn now (and really, if you know a couple of things you can scrape by – when they turn off the lights he knows he forgot to pay the bills, when he gets arrested he knows he fucked up and let his emotions get away with him), and before he knows it it’s 2002.

6.

His mom dies. Robby is born. Someone smarter than him could figure out some kind of poetic meaning behind that, but he’s not smart, so he just lets the moments pass him by like everything else has passed him by.

He’s getting by with what he knows. The world outside is like a blur. He’s got what he’s always had: music, a car, his looks. He’s doing okay for someone in his mid-thirties who doesn’t know how to boil spaghetti and drinks first thing in the morning.

 Probably all the fighting. He kept it up, informally. Maybe because it’s too deep in his bones for him to let go of, even if it just reminds him over and over that he couldn’t take it. That he can’t take it.

He fights whenever it all gets to be too much and even the drinking doesn’t work. Sometimes he punches walls to fight himself. It’s like a sharp feeling that he can’t ignore that can only be silenced with fighting. The off-button.

7.

2017 (again, the past is a blur. 2017? what happened to thirty-five? What happened to being young? Someone who’s young is allowed to be like this, but he’s…)

He never owned a computer. He never learned new words or anything else that wasn’t immediately important. He makes a handshake deal, because his credit is shit, but also because he never figured out how contracts really work. He still struggles with bills (you can leave anything to the last minute and beyond and things can still turn out okay), struggles with communication. His old scripts don’t work any more and he can’t learn new ones. He’s forgotten enough promises he made to watch Robby’s matches or drive him to school – even his birthday sometimes, even when he writes it down and forgets where he wrote it down - that Robby wants nothing more to do with him. Forgets groceries. 

He’ll do or say something and people will look at him like he’s stupid and he doesn’t know why. He refuses to ask, because he just wants the looks to go away. He knows he’s stupid. He knows he can’t figure things out. He knows, okay? Shut up.

He’s not an alcoholic. He just drinks to wake up. To forget. To calm down (that electricity that existed in his body as a kid never went away, even though he’s so so tired. The machine inside of him that won’t shut off without a fight, won’t let him stop moving). To sleep. To drink. To do something.

He sees Miguel and has a hundred new plans. He sees the future like it’s right there and a million miles away. He was never good at implementing long-term plans. He thinks maybe karate can save him, just like it did when he was a kid. 

8.

There’s something wrong with his brain. Has been all his life. That’s not how he was told, he was given a bunch of tests and gently informed – undiagnosed it can lead to some of the problems you’ve had, it’s normal, it’s okay – like he’s dying of cancer. But that’s the gist of it. He didn’t fuck up because he didn’t try hard enough, he was always going to fuck up. That doesn’t make him feel better.

It means quitting the alcohol is gonna fail. It means he really is stupid. It means he could’ve never been the kid his mom needed. It means he was easy for Kreese to manipulate. It means Robby could be fucked up too and he’s failed him again. It means he’s not worth the time and pain that people invest in him, like his mom, Ali, Shannon, Robby, Bobby, Miguel, Carmen, Daniel -

“Hey.”

It means he’s got Emotional Dysregulation. Translated: he’s the kind of man who has to work extra hard not to cry (explains why he was such a pussy as a kid. Also explains all the pain in his chest and throat right before roughly... 70% of his most recent fights). And fuck, he just failed.

“What?” Anger is better. It’s also a dysregulation apparently, but it’s better than being weak.

“It’s okay,” says Daniel, and of course he’d think that – he’s never seen a nameable problem he didn’t wanna fix, but didn’t you hear LaRusso, you can’t fix this. Never could. 

“It’s not about fixing,” answers Daniel. “It’s about understanding. It’s about knowing who you are. If you know who you are, you can make a choice.”

“What kinda choice do I have?”

Daniel shrugs. “You chose to take in Miguel. You chose not to fight me, more times than I chose to fight you in the last couple of years. You chose that you wanted to know who you were. And you chose to try being sober. Those are all good decisions in my book. Anything else… we can figure things out from here. Trust me.”

He places a hand on the back of Johnny’s neck, grounding him. Daniel has that power. The power to make everything okay for a second. 

Johnny thinks: Please tell me what to do. I was always okay once you gave me something to do. Like karate. Figuring things out is… too abstract. Eventually though, he knows, if he’s patient, Daniel will tell him what to do next. 

He just has to trust him.

9. (Extra: things Johnny does, because of the brain he has)

Johnny trusts easily, despite it all. He’s honest (and sometimes too literal). He’s passionate. He’s driven. He’s loving. He feels, so so much. He’s protective and he’s loyal. He tries his hardest, even when everything – including his own brain – refuses to help. He believes in second chances for others (and he’s beginning to believe in it for himself). He’s good with kids when he lets himself be. He’s learning to be gentle with himself and others. He’s learning that bravery takes many shapes. He’s learning that he can learn, and he’s learning what he needs for that to happen. He’s a good mentor. He’s learning to be a better friend. He’s kind. He’s honourable. He’s trying to rectify his own mistakes, and he’s trying not to let the mistakes of others continue to impact his life. He’s moving forwards.

[authenticmiya]

Punching Bag - Hawk x Reader

Summary - Having a broken home made the reader rely solely on being apart of Cobra Kai, but life doesn’t get any better when she has to face her ex best friend everytime she goes to the Dojo. (Part 2 here)

Words - 1.3k

Warnings - angst

Swallowing the lump in your throat, you took a deep breath and entered the dojo. It wasn't a good day, in fact it hadn't been a good day in a long time. Missing out on karate wasn't an option. All eyes were on you as it looked like Sensei Lawrence had already began today's lesson.

"Y/L/N finally made it to the session. Fifty push ups on your knuckles once you are clothed correctly." Johnny told you, a slight ping of concern running through him as he noticed how different you had looked.

Johnny was the only father figure you had, but he wouldn't treat you different to any other student in his dojo. He listened to all your problems - despite his annoyance to girls who were all emotional and had a bitchy attitude.

"Yes Sensei." You sighed, heading into the changing rooms.

"Y/N you good?" Aisha was quick to follow you and you just nodded. She couldn't really force you into talking about stuff you didn't want to.

When you had finally come out, the students had been put into partners, but before you had the chance, you dropped to the floor and done fifty.

"Something's up with her." You overheard Miguel say to Hawk. Like Hawk gave a crap. He left you.

Once upon a time, before Hawk had become one ball of anger, he was your best friend. You, him and Demetri were the golden trio growing up. However, his swift turn into popularity, turned him into an absolute asshole. He didn't want anything to do with you and that's how it was left.

You'd never have left Cobra Kai because of him, despite all of the hurt and the bullshit he had put you through, because Cobra Kai was your only sense of security.

"Y/L/N you're partnered with Stingray." Johnny demanded, you nodded and stood beside him.

"Badass push-ups today Y/N." Stingray told you and you shot him a small smile. Usually, you were the only one who would never shut up. Always talking, always coming in with a bright attitude.

"Right as you can see, I have got two punch-bags over there, I want sting-ray, Diaz, Y/L/N and Hawk on them. The rest of you, facing the mirror." Johnny demanded.

"Time to let your anger out." Stingray chuckled but it really was time to let loose. Small punches, turned into huge punches, and eventually you could feel your knuckles start to slowly bruise, but it didn't stop you.

"Y/N calm down." Miguel tried to stop you but you blocked out all the noise. Miguel shot a look to his friend. Hawk was the only one who knew you inside and out, the only one who knew you for you.

"You wanna slow down on your right hooks?" Hawk questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"No." You snapped, hitting the punching bag harder.

"Y/L/N come on, I think you've had enough on this activity for one day." Johnny tried to convince you to move, but you wouldn't.

"Y/N!" Johnny shouted and the whole class went dead silent, causing you to stop.

"Your knuckles are bleeding." Hawk reached out but you pushed him.

"I'm fine." You snapped, before rushing to grab your bag.

"You're not leaving until we've had a discussion." Johnny stopped you from leaving.

"Well I guess we'll be here until Christmas then." This wasn't like you, you never ever spoke to Johnny like that. You weren't the bad guy. He had been there for you, for so many years.

"Everybody class is over, get out!" Johnny shouted.

"You two are staying here." Johnny pointed to Miguel and Hawk.

"What is going on with you Y/L/N?" Hawk asked.

"Don't act like you care Eli, you don't know me anymore." You shot him a dirty look.

"Believe it or not, I know everything about you Y/N, so either you speak up so we can help you-" You immediately cut him off.

"No don't play the I'm so helpful card. You can't help me. You're the asshole who chose not to be apart of my life, you left me. You fucking left me." Your once big bright eyes, had turned into saddened, dull ones. Hawk felt terrible, but he'd never admit that or even show that because of his reputation.

"You keeping it bottled up in that big ass head of yours isn't gonna do you any favours Y/N, what's going on?" Johnny sighed.

"I don't really know what's wrong with me Johnny." You whispered and the man had never really had to deal with the whole emotional ordeal in women, let alone a student he thought of as his own daughter.

"You're not good with this bullshit so I'd rather save you the time." You went to head back out the door, but once again, Hawk was there to try and stop you.

"I know you hate me with everything inside of you, but believe me, we want to understand what's going on." Hawk tried to comfort you.

"Last night, I got a call saying my electricity was being shut down because dad didn't pay the bills. I woke up this morning to a letter saying that if I didn't come up with the money in a week, I'd be evicted." You began.

"Y/N, I don't have a lot of money myself, but you know you can always come to me-" Johnny began.

"It's not as simple as that." You whispered, suddenly feeling the waterworks. Now you were never one to cry, so this was a huge shock to all three of the guys.

"Where is the deadbeat anyway? Florida for a business meeting or Japan for vacation?" Hawk questioned.

"Dubai. He's not coming back. He married some women over there. They're happily in love and now he no longer wants to pay for anything. I work two jobs and it doesn't compare to what the rent is." You were on full on rant mode.

"I've always fucking hated your father. He was a slime ball in high-school." Johnny groaned.

“I don’t want any pity from any of you. Look I came here to just let my anger out, and I have now, so can I please leave?” You asked.

“I’d rather drive you home.” Johnny insisted.

“It’s not really gonna be home anymore, so I’m just gonna walk to clear my mind, Thank-you though.” You half-heartedly smiled.

“Please can you get them knuckles cleaned up? That’s gonna hurt like a bitch in the morning.” Johnny wasn’t going to push your limits.

“I’ll see what my lame-ass first aid kit can do.” That made them all chuckle a little bit.

“Safe journeys Y/N.” Miguel gave you a side hug and you quickly exited.

“You’re gonna walk out there, and you’re gonna take her home.” Miguel pushed Hawk towards the door.

“Did you not just see how she acted towards me? I’m the last person she’d want walking her home.” Hawk looked at him like he was crazy.

“Stop being a pussy and make sure she’s home safe.” Johnny glared at his student and Hawk was reluctant, but was quick to follow after you.

“Y/N, wait up!” Hawk called out, stopping dead in your tracks, you turned around.

“What do you want?” You asked with your arms crossed over your chest.

“Look, we’re obviously not okay, and we won’t be for a long time but I will never be able to live with myself, if I didn’t make sure you got home in one piece.” Hawk told you.

“Okay.” You simply said, and his eyes nearly fell out of his head because you had been so hesitant and cold towards him - just like he had been with you.

“Okay?” He questioned, and you nodded. Hawk lead you towards his motorcycle and handed you over a helmet. You set off, behind Hawk, with your arms wrapped around him. The ride was silent, and you were soon knocked out of your thoughts when Hawk drove straight past your apartment complex.

“You missed the turning.” You told him.

“I know I did, but we all know you don’t have a first aid kit, I do, and once I’ve helped you fix them knuckles, you and I are talking.”

[ribbonsfallaway]

Sam vs. Tory Conflict

The Sam/Tory narrative from many is very weird to me. How it's always Sam instigating things [much like how people now have this narrative of Daniel in Karate Kid... No?]

I will say their first encounter was on Sam, but I get why she was wary of Tory. Their first interaction is at the beach club, and Tory mentions snatching a bottle of vodka, and how she could swipe the silverware from the place without anyone noticing if she wanted to. Sam replies she doesn't think "she should steal anything" and Tory replies "What are you? A nun?" Then saunters off with Aisha.

I feel like Sam was jealous of Tory hanging with Aisha, especially after Tory's smartass remark towards her. Then she finds out her mom is missing her wallet, and with Tory taking the vodka/bragging about stealing she thinks it's her. Clearly it's not, and clearly there is a high key difference between stealing vodka and a wallet. But these kids are 16. No one is really going to think logically like that. She's jealous of her hanging with Aisha and is wary of her, and handles it poorly by trying to grab Tory's purse. I will side with Tory here that she had every right to push Sam away from her. She herself even looked shocked at her falling into the table.

Their next interaction is at the roller rink. Sam didn't know Tory worked there, kind of apologizes [not for the purse thing], and Tory makes a smartass comment about "we can't all have daddy's credit card". Sam makes the next smartass reply when Miguel mentions Tory being in Cobra Kai. That really was their only interaction.

Sam is unfairly jealous, after Tory purposefully kisses Miguel in front of Sam, but 16 year olds... So. Tory sees Miguel and Sam talking and gets jealous/threatened. Sam isn't being great when she asks why he'd date a girl like Tory, which is unfair.

Tory however escalates things when she skates over to Sam and shoves her over. Sam retorts by doing the same thing. Both are pretty much equally petty at this point.

The next interaction is at Moon's party. Tory is the one who goes over to Sam and invites her to the drinking game poking at her with "unless tea parties are more your speed princess." Sam is game.

Tory loses, and Sam makes a poking reply to. "Guess somebody couldn't hold their alcohol." Both girls are being petty.

Tory sees Sam and Miguel kissing, and while it was wrong af... Sam was heavily intoxicated, and just found out Miguel is the one who returned Miyagi's Medal of Honor. It's not right, and I think she felt stupid and guilty after. Miguel also kissed Sam though. He was into it for a second until he pulled away and mentioned Tory. Still Miguel kissed back, but people only hold Sam accountable. I can't help but feel if it was reversed, people would still hold Sam accountble, and not care if she was the one who pulled away.

This is when things escalate. Now if Tory wants to kick Sam's ass... I wouldn't blame her. None of their interactions at this point have been positive, then she sees her kissing her boyfriend. Yeah cool. Get into a fight. But Tory takes things too far by announcing the fight over the intercom, and calling out Sam to fight then escalating it to the point of where she's dragging her by her hair, then getting out her cuffed metal/sharp bracelet and going for Sam's face/throat? Trying to maim her/kill her. That's when the weight shifted from both girls being petty to Tory being the main problem.

At this point Sam is avoidant af of Tory, and isn't until the fight at the arcade where the kids were sick of CK messing with them, and wanted to say "fuck it". Tory gets word and automatically goes there looking for Sam which triggers Sam's PTSD. Now it's dumb to pick a fight so I understand calling for Tory, etc. But I also get Sam and the rest here too.

Next time is Tory and the Cobra's barging into Sam's house after throwing Bert through a window [guessing that was Hawk], and Tory automatically goes for Sam chasing her, and then picking up num-chuks, and goes for her. Trying to injure her/kill her once more?

I will say Sam was awful to Tory this season. Picking on her at her job, threatening her at school, the comments at the party. Tory has been backing off for the most part, and is only responding to Sam.

I was annoyed with Sam this season, but I can't automatically blame her for not being gung ho with Tory, and not wanting her at her school after Tory tried to attack her/harm her twice. I can see why she felt loss of control, and just wanted to start shit/strike first. Was it right? No, but after all Tory has done to her. But I won't totally defend it either. Even if I think it's understandable.

Now that Tory has shown actual concern for Sam I hope they can hash things out. Maybe go back to that that at the beach club, and both girls both apologize for everything.

Because yeah Sam can be an asshole, but so can Tory and Tory tried to actually do harm to her on top of that.

So this whole Sam is always the instigator is as false as Daniel being the "bully" in Karate Kid. Which automatically loses points BTW when people say Daniel stole Johnny's girl. They were broken up at that point. Daniel didn't know of Johnny when he first saw her. To say he stole Alli away takes Alli's agency away from the fact they were broken up.

[hihellogoodbyebruh]

Stingy

Pairing: Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes x Black!OC

Summary: EZ has a problem sharing and his girl, Monique is quite over it.

Warning(s): Some angst with a fluff ending

Word count: 2,552

AN: Ahhhh my first EZ fic. Based on a request I received from the lovely @ly--canthrope with an assist coming from Ginuwine’s Stingy. Thank YOU so much for your patience and encouraging words. I hope you enjoy this xo

You can say I'm tripping but I'm stingy And I can't hide it Wanna keep you all to me I'm selfish, why try to fight it?

An abandoned episode of Girlfriends played on the tv in the background as a woman sat straddling EZ’s lap as the two made out. His hands were rubbing up and down her sides under her shirt and her hands were gripping his face. One of her favorite things to do was kiss her boyfriend. She loved that they could just get lost in each other and it was the perfect opener for the mindblowing sex that was coming.

The familiar ringtone and buzz from her phone’s vibration echoed against the coffee table as she received a text message. She pulled away from the kiss and turned her head, trying to see if she could read the message from her position. She felt EZ stiffen, his hands moving down her hips to grip her thigh.

“I swear to God, Monique.” EZ began, feeling himself become annoyed. He can’t even enjoy her company at home without being interrupted. He’s tried so hard to be understanding, but that selfish part of him was fed up. The opening of Galindo’s company really put into perspective how often he misses time with her.

As Miguel’s assistant she had a very big hand in putting the opening celebration together. She’d been Miguel’s assistant for a couple years now. Her mother was a close confidante to Dita before she passed away. Dita wanted to keep an eye on her so she asked Miguel to give her a job. She was fantastic at keeping things organized and she already knew about the other side of business. 

Working for Miguel was great because though some would hate being an assistant, he actually gave her a lot of responsibility. She was often put in charge of events while making sure everything in his life runs smoothly, at least on the legal side of things.She was so proud of her work tonight but she hardly had time to celebrate until she saw her man walking through the door.

She’d been with EZ, Ezekiel as she liked to call him because she loved his full name, for a little over a year. It was the best relationship she’d ever been in. He was kind, honest, caring, and oh so very fine.

She ended her current conversation before strutting over to Ezekiel, her arms immediately going around his neck. “Hi baby. I’m so happy you’re here.” She kissed his lips.

EZ loved seeing his girl in her element. She was very much out of his league in his mind and he felt lucky every day he woke up to her. “Hey beautiful.” He greeted her, hands resting on her lower back and pulling her close to him. “I see all your hard work has paid off.”

“It really has. Things couldn’t be going better. Especially now that you’re here.” She grinned at him.

“Oh yeah? You’re happy to see me?” He teased, smiling back so she kissed him again.

The two of them engaged in some conversation and heavy flirting before they were interrupted by her boss.

“Monique, I need you for a second…” Miguel announced, no time for pleasantries. He was always about his business. She could respect it but it was also annoying because he could have greeted Ezekiel

“Oh hi Miguel. We weren’t having a conversation or anything.” She sarcastically replied, giving her boss a look.

“Reyes..” Miguel acknowledged her boyfriend with a barely noticeable head nod before bringing his attention back to her. “You’ve put in the most face time with the Castillos and the lovely matriarch has requested your presence. We don’t want to keep them waiting, verdant?”

EZ rolled his eyes at Miguel but didn’t say anything. He was used to Miguel’s shit and honestly he didn’t like him either so the less they communicated the better.

The Castillos were a very important family that have entered into an arrangement with Galindo enterprises both on the legitimate and illegitimate side of business. It was already fragile so she wanted to keep everything on the up and up.

She retreated from EZ’s arms without a second thought. “Is everything alright? When we went over the final documents she didn’t bring anything up.” She began walking alongside Miguel but stopped in her tracks.

“I’ll be right back.” She walked back over to EZ and planted a distracted kiss on his cheek. 

He mustered up a slight smile and then she was gone. 

She didn’t come back until the end of the night.

She sighed, pushing her way out of his lap and snatching up her phone once she stood up. “He’s my boss, Ezekiel. You have got to let this thing with Miguel go. Enough is enough.”

“He just does this to piss me off.” And it worked. He wanted to have her all to himself, but he couldn’t do that with Galindo constantly texting her and having her work long hours. At this point it felt she was the one singlehandedly keeping his businesses afloat.

“So stop letting it piss you off.” She replied, like it was the easiest thing and to her it was. 

He shot up from his seat and exasperatedly asked, “Why do you always defend him?”

“Because you’re being ridiculous. You knew who I worked for when we started dating.” She was annoyed they were even having this argument. Her attention was focused on her phone as she replied to Miguel with the information he needed.

EZ grew even more irritated that even in an argument he couldn’t have her whole attention. “What could he possibly need from you at 2 in the morning? Hm?” He snatched the phone from her hand.

“Are you out of your mind? Give me my phone back!” She gasped, shocked at his audacity. She and Ezekiel had been together for awhile now and he’s never acted this way. He’s never lost his temper with her. “Things happen. Emergencies. I never say anything when you have an emergency with the MC.”

“Bishop doesn’t text all hours of the night. Bishop doesn’t hate you and try to disrespect our relationship at every turn. And quite frankly, Bishop isn’t a woman so it’s not the same at all.” Ez snapped, his voice getting louder.

“And just what the fuck are you implying, EZ?” There was a clear warning in her tone of voice as she matched his volume. Now they both were yelling at each other. She never called him EZ either. Always preferring to call him Ezekiel.

He knew he should have backed down and cooled off but he was beyond tired of this shit. The angry words slipped outta his mouth before he could stop them. “I’m just wondering what all the late nights are really about. If I’m dating Miguel’s side piece just tell me!”

That was a mistake. Yelling was a mistake. Saying those words was a mistake. He knew it the moment he saw tears form in her eyes. 

“Excuse me?” She whispered, voice slightly cracking. How dare he call her a cheater! He officially has lost his mind.

Ezekiel felt his heart drop into his stomach when he heard the hurt in her voice. It went too far. “I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry, mariposa.” He started to walk closer to her, but she stepped back from him.

“This has nothing to do with me. Or us. This is you and Miguel continuing to have a dick measuring contest. Th-this all goes back to Emily.” The name rolled off her tongue with mild resentment. The two never had a bad run in with each other, but all the stories about Emily and EZ’s past relationship and how she was the love of his life always made Monique get defensive.

“That’s not true.” EZ refuted, but she interrupted him before he could further explain.

“Yes it is!  And if somehow it’s not then we got some serious problems baby.” She just shook her head at him before demanding, “Get out.” 

You're the only one, you're the only love That's strong enough to claim me So please forgive me I'm just stingy But how can you blame me?

It’s been two weeks since the fight with Ezekiel and Monique was really missing him. She was mad that he would be such a dumbass, but she still just wanted to be laying back on the couch with him watching tv.

Miguel watched as she pushed her salad around her plate, clearly not hungry. “Todo bien hermanita?” He asked, watching as she finally brought her eyes up to meet his. This was the quietest lunch the two ever had. Usually she was talking a mile a minute.

She smiled a little at the nickname. He only called her that when he was concerned or when he really wanted something. Truth is, the two had a sibling kind of relationship. She just wished EZ had seen and understood it. “I’m fine. Not really hungry.”

“Hmm.” He hummed, taking a sip of his drink. “Nestor and I had a meeting with the Mayans yesterday. Saw your novio and he looked like shit.” Miguel casually mentions and she tries to act nonchalant even as her heart races at the mention of a certain biker. “Imagine my surprise when he asked to pull me aside for a chat.”

“What!” She gasped loudly, jaw dropping.

“I’m sure you could guess what we spoke about.”

“Miguel…” She was ready to apologize to him for whatever accusations were thrown his way.

“I know I’m very demanding. It’s part of who I am. I demand a lot from myself and from those around me, especially those closest to me. That includes you, hermanita. But I don’t want to be the reason for your unhappiness. Even if it is with Reyes..” There was only mild disgust in his tone and she took that as an improvement.

“It’s not your fault he doesn’t trust me, hermano.” She sighed.

“He is crazy about you, you know that right?”

Monique went to answer, but Miguel stood up from his seat. He grabbed his suit jacket from the back of the chair and walked over to her, pushing down gently on her shoulders to keep her from getting up. He leans down and whispers “If in the end, you don’t want him and he won’t take the hint you let me know. He can visit my pew.” 

She jerked her head back to give him a stern look, hating when he brought up that damn pew. He just kissed her head and walked away. She sat there dumbfounded for a second. “Wait, what-” She turned her head to call out to Miguel but her voice caught in her throat as she spotted Ezekiel right behind her. He walked over and took the seat Miguel was just in.

It was silent before she decided to break it. “You and Miguel working together? Hell must have frozen over.”

He cracks a grin at that. “Ha. Guess you could say we’ve called a truce. At least when it comes to a certain beautiful woman.”

“Calling a truce with my ‘side piece’? I’m sure Emily appreciates it.” She sarcastically replied, making him sigh in reply. 

“I never should have said that. I was pissed off and being a sarcastic asshole. This never had anything to do with Emily. Yes we have history, but I don’t think about that anymore. I haven’t for a long time.” Monique looked down, wanting to believe him but having a hard time doing it. “I think about you. I think about you when we’re apart, I think about when I’ll see you again, I think about our future when you’re in my arms. You’re never not on my mind.”

His words make her want to smile, but she wasn’t done. “Then what’s been going on with us lately? Anytime I answer a call or text from Miguel you’re huffing and puffing. You sit there literally pouting like a 3 year old every time I have to do something for work. What’s the problem?”

“First, I don’t pout.” She started to disagree but he loudly continued, earning a playful glare from her. “SECONDLY, I know you’re an independent woman out here making it on your own and shit. I know it’s just been you and your job for a long time. But now you got me, mariposa. I’m here by your side and I like spending time with you. I like the quiet moments at home and our nights out. I want more of them. You work so much and you forget about everything else. Me included.”

“What do you mean I forget you? I don’t forget you.”

“Galindo Enterprises.”

“What are...Oh-” Her face completely dropped as she remembered the night. She got pulled away by Miguel and never went back to Ezekiel. She didn’t mean to, but she ended up checking on other things with the party and even though it hurts to admit she did forget about him. “Oh baby…” She held one of his hands that was on the table between both of hers.

“I’ve never been the one to cling and I don’t like to be needy but you’ve changed me. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I love being in your presence. Maybe I am kind of a baby, but I think wanting your attention is a good sign for a relationship. I’m not asking you to quit your job, but some boundaries would be nice. ”

She felt so bad. He was absolutely right. She had been alone for a long time. She wasn’t used to sharing her life with someone else. An adjustment was obviously needed. “I never meant to make you feel like I wanted anyone or anything more than you. Or that I cared about those things more. I promise that I will work on communicating more with you and not just doing what I want with no consideration for you.” 

He nodded his head, but she had to add one more thing. “You do need to know that sometimes just like you can’t help getting called away the same goes for me. But I’ll talk with Miguel and we’ll work out something that works for us all. I can’t believe I didn’t realize. I’m so-”

Ezekiel cut her off before she could begin criticizing herself. “So amazing, captivating, elevating,” after every word, EZ placed a kiss on the palm of her hand. “Anyway you put it I’m happy to be your man.”

“I’m still salty at you insinuating I was sleeping with Miguel.” She declared, causing him to nod with a sad look on his face.

“How can I make it up to you, mariposa?”

“Hmm…” She pretended to think when she already knew what she wanted. She leaned forward and beckoned him closer with a wiggle of her finger. She whispered in his ear, “I wanna ride you with only your kutte on until you lose your mind.” She lightly bit his ear lobe.

She busted out laughing at how fast he scrambled out of his seat and took her hand, pulling her behind him as he hustled out of the restaurant.

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

Hello! So, something that always intrigued me is the concept of “reverse aus,” and I’ve been thinking about that in the context of Cobra Kai for a while now. How do you think it would go down if Demetri was the one to get roped into Cobra Kai? Obviously, I don’t think he would be as into as Eli canonically was (probably due to it becoming a special interest for him), but I’d be curious to hear your take on it. Would Eli end up going to Miyagi-Do like canon Demetri did, or would Demetri and Eli sort of become the new Evil Karate Husbands™️? And possibly, how do you think Demetri and Johnny’s dynamic would go? (I’m just going to awkwardly add that this is cc-tinslebee, coming to you live from my main blog because I don’t think Tumblr let’s sideblogs send asks-)

So this is actually the SECOND ask I’ve gotten about this scenario--Cherry sent in another one!--so I figured I’d give it a stab. Took me a while to work out how I think it would go and how everything would play out different if Demetri and Eli’s roles were reversed, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I tried to make it more interesting than just “Demetri does all the stuff Eli does and Eli does all the stuff Demetri does.”

Also I lowkey LOVE the idea of Evil Karate Husbands and even though that isn’t the direction this particular AU goes in, I might do a divergent spin-off AU to explore that too??? Because man...the thought of Miguel desperately trying to save his two best friends who have fallen to the dark side...*cries*

Fair warning that this AU is gonna get dark as shit--I fully belive things would’ve gotten equally fucked up between them in a role reverse AU, just, ah...in slightly different ways. A lot of this will not be Happy Times later on, much like their canon relationship XD

OKAY TIME FOR PAIN, LET’S GOOOO

Longboi post so be warned!!!

Season 1

After getting his ass handed to him--for trying to stick up for Eli, no less--Demetri was pissed. Why the hell was he paying some guy to beat him up for daining to have a problem with him bullying his best friend? Going home in a rage, he nearly texted Miguel to tell him he was quitting--but something stopped him just before he hit Send.

He remembered the look on Eli’s face just after Kyler shoved him away. He remembered seeing Eli stiffen when Kyler grabbed him by the chin, practically feeling the terror emanate from his friend’s body. He remembered how completely and infuriatingly helpless he felt.

It certainly wasn’t the first time something like that had happened. But maybe if Miguel was onto something--maybe if karate really could protect him and Eli from the bullies--it could be the last.

Mr. Lawrence (or Sensei Lawrence, as he obnoxiously insisted on being called) hardly let up on bullying Eli. Even at Eli’s request not to call him “Lip” and the pleading of his star student Miguel Diaz himself, the man only seemed to crack down harder--in some sort of twisted effort to “toughen Eli up,” Demetri guessed. Demetri defended Eli every single time, not mincing any words mouthing off at Sensei Lawrence. It got Demetri punched in the face, flipped on the mat, saddled with much harder drills than the rest of the class, but he didn’t give a shit. He wasn’t about to let anyone treat Eli like that, no matter what pain he had to endure for it.

Johnny, meanwhile, is immensely annoyed by this obnoxious, sarcastic kid who just can’t stop running his mouth--but working him twice as hard as the rest of the class is proving to be fruitless in shutting him up. But, Johnny’s finding, Demetri constantly antagonizing him doesn’t have to be a hindrance. Anger like that can be weaponized--the more he provokes Demetri, the more he insults and belittles that Eli kid he’s so attached to, the harder Demetri punches. The quicker he moves when he fights. The stronger he kicks. Johnny sometimes comes home after training covered in nasty bruises, almost entirely from sparring Demetri--they’re enough to make Carmen and Rosa Diaz worry he’s getting jumped on the way home.

One day Johnny takes his ribbing of Eli just a little too far, hoping to get an especially vicious reaction out of Demetri. Eli, pushed to the end of his rope, runs out of the dojo, barely holding back tears. Demetri starts to go after him, but Miguel puts a hand on his arm and stops him, saying they can both check up on him later.

When Demetri finds Eli after practice, Eli’s sobbing. “I can’t do this anymore, Deme. No matter what you say to him, he just keeps picking on me. It never stops.” Demetri winces, because Eli isn’t wrong--Sensei Lawrence really hasn’t stopped bullying Eli at all, and while Demetri was busy letting himself get riled up by it, he didn’t actually think to see how it was affecting Eli. “Well, I know it sucks now, and Mr. Lawrence is a huge asshole, but we’re learning to be tough,” Demetri reasons. “We’re learning to be intimidating. A few more months here, and the bullies will never touch us again! Just like Miguel!” And Eli just scowls, uncharacteristically angry for his timid self, and says “Well, it’s not worth it if I have to feel like shit the whole time! If every time I step in here I get everything about me picked apart, over and over again! I’m done with this, Demetri.”

And just like that, Eli is out of the dojo. Demetri can’t help but be disappointed--he’d looked forward to them training together, and seeing Eli become a badass, fearless fighter who could hand Kyler’s ass to him after all those fucked up things he said to Eli. And to make matters worse, Sensei Lawrence doesn’t stop using Eli as fuel to rip out Demetri’s rage long after Eli’s gone. “Oooh, Loudmouth, feeling sad today? Missing Lip the Quitter?” “You keep throwing punches like that, and you could get beat up by that loser with the fucked lip you were so enamored with. Although knowing you, you’d let him win anyways.” And Demetri can’t help but hate the man, but damn, if it doesn’t feel good to land an especially good hit on him, or jab him in the thigh with a powerful kick.

But things aren’t bad--Demetri still has Miguel, and their new friend Aisha. Eli still hangs out with them outside of practice, and indulges Demetri in his ever-increasing ramblings about martial arts, no matter how nervous and uncomfortable karate tends to make Eli. If Demetri likes it that much, maybe he should make an effort to show interest in it. The four of them crash Yasmine’s birthday party, and Demetri even finds himself smooth-talking them into getting alcohol with his newfound confidence. After all, if he can land punches faster than a snake can strike, how difficult can it be to weasel his way into getting a little beer?

Meanwhile Moon, feeling understandably unfulfilled in her popular clique, takes an interest in the Cool New Karate Gang in town, and after apologizing to Aisha at the beach rager, the two strike up a friendship. She comes to hang out with their group more and more, and Eli finds her surprisingly easy to talk to. Moon constantly makes an effort to include him when the others get to wrapped up talking about karate, and he appreciates her kindness and sincerity. It’s odd, really, how easy it is to have a conversation with her, considering how nervous he tends to get around her. But Eli doesn’t think too much about it.

When it comes time for the tournament, Moon and Eli go together to support their friends. Eli finds his gaze flickering back and forth between Moon and Demetri, lingering on each of them longer than he would care to admit--and he can’t quite explain why. Something about Moon’s wide, excited smile, the smell of cherry shampoo in her hair...but also Demetri’s smug, triumphant smirk when he pulls off an especially impressive move, the way his wiry arm muscles ripple when he fights. They’re both just so...captivating.

Demetri, for his part, is ruthless. Much more so than Eli has ever seen him be. He’s always been sarcastic and cynical, but resigned to his fate--at the tournament, Demetri lashes out in vicious ways the old Demetri would never have had the courage to pull off. He talks shit to the other contestants far beyond what’s considered “sportsmanlike”--and Eli can tell he’s not holding back, with the theatrical body language channeling every awful thing he’s saying.

Demetri fights like lightning--he weaves and maneuvers and strikes at breakneck speed, a limber, flashing form hitting all across his opponent’s bodies before they have any idea what’s happening. He dodges hits and jumps aside like he has some cosmic sense of when and where they’re coming. And it scares Eli, seeing a viciousness and relentlessness in Demetri that he’s never encountered before--but somehow, he finds, he just can’t look away.

Season 2

After the tournament, Demetri’s life has never been better. At the summer’s start, he’s still riding the high of the Cobra Kai tournament win. He didn’t take home the trophy, but suffice to say he got much farther than anyone believed a scrawny, lanky nerd ever would, and he is incredibly smug about it. He realizes, at the end of the day, he’s gotten what he always wanted after all--the bullies don’t come near him and Eli at all, and he can rest easy, knowing Eli is finally safe. However, he’s so busy embracing his new skills that at times, he almost forgets that was ever even an issue. His newfound fighting prowess has caught the attention of Yasmine, of all people--maybe someone who can throw kicks that good isn’t as much of a loser as she originally thought.

She finds out after her family’s plans to go to France for the summer fall through, and she finally patches things up with Moon after their fallout at the beach party. Moon can’t stop gushing about how amazing Demetri was at the tournament--both she and her new friend Eli (who Yasmine definitely thinks seems like a weirdo, but hey--maybe if Moon thinks he’s worth her time, he can’t be that much of a loser) were so impressed with him. Interest piqued, Yasmine joins their little but ever-growing group. She finds herself quickly drawn in by Demetri’s ever-growing confidence, intelligence, and surprisingly enjoyable (if somewhat annoying) sense of humor, and before long, the two are dating.

Yasmine and Aisha are...cool. Kind of. Yasmine doesn’t quite apologize, and the two aren’t friends by any stretch of imagination, but they tolerate each other, and Yasmine refrains from making awful comments and picking on Aisha in front of their friends. Aisha, for her part, does her best not to lash out or be mean to Yasmine either, keeping the peace mainly for Demetri’s and Moon’s sakes.

Meanwhile, it would take an idiot not to notice the rather starstruck looks Eli’s been shooting in Moon’s direction. Moon, for her part, is either entirely oblivious or simply doesn’t even think to consider a shy, timid, nerdy kid as a romantic option, even if she does consider him a friend.

Oddly, Demetri finds himself extremely bothered by Eli’s doe-eyed crush on Moon. He really can’t place why--he has a girlfriend already, so it really shouldn’t bug him so much that Eli is finally growing noticably interested in girls too, now that they tend to be in closer proximity. And it’s not even like Moon seems to be at all interested in reciprocating. Maybe, he figures, it’s the fact that Moon never would have even looked their way if it weren’t for the fact that he and Miguel and Aisha were the “Cool Karate Gang.” The same karate gang, of course, that Eli quit. That Eli didn’t have it in him to fully be a part of. And yet here he is, reaping the benefits still.

Interestingly, Yasmine also seems bothered by Eli’s affections for her friend. Demetri feels her stiffen beside him and sees her shooting disapproving looks whenever she catches Eli staring at Moon. Demetri isn’t sure why she seems to take issue with this too--perhaps she thinks Moon is too good for Eli, and her friend deserves better than a shy, awkward nerd.

Something about this mindset very much rubs Demetri the wrong way, but he pushes the feeling aside. Maybe he should count his blessings instead of being so inwardly critical of his girlfriend. After all, not everyone gets to date the hottest girl in school.

The day of Valley Fest arrives, and Yasmine goes to support her boyfriend. Moon and Eli tag along, eager to support their friends as well. Caught up in the thrill of the blaring music, the bright, flashing lights, the audience cheering, Demetri feels a wave of pride as he looks at his little group of friends that came for him, yelling and whooping and jumping up and down. For some reason, he finds his gaze drawn specifically to Eli, wearing a grin bigger than Demetri’s seen in months and eyes absolutely glowing.

Suddenly Demetri feels an overpowering urge to wrap Eli up in this world he’s fallen in love with, immerse him entirely in the karate that’s made Demetri feel so much more happy and free in the past several months. Grinning, he strides forward and reaches down, using the absurd upper body strength he’s built up since he’s started karate to yank Eli up onto the stage. He hands his best friend a wooden board and steps back, racing forward and snapping it in half with a jumping roundhouse kick. For a few seconds, Eli can do nothing but stare at the broken board, something shifting inside of him.

After that, Eli decides maybe it’s time to give karate another go. Something about the way Demetri positively shone onstage--how genuinely happy all of it seemed to make him--makes him thing it can’t be so bad, even if he does get taunted for his lip again.

He stops by the dojo the following week, gathering up every ounce of courage he has to ask that mean blonde man how he goes about joining the dojo again. He’s hoping against hope that maybe, after all these months of teaching students and a tournament win under his belt, the edge of his pathetic cruelty will at least have been taken off.

No such luck. Upon seeing Eli walk into the dojo, Johnny greets him with “Hey, Lip is back! Real world not treat you as nicely as you thought?” The two are, regrettably, completely alone in the dojo. Eli sucks in his breath--Demetri isn’t around, so if anyone is going to defend him, it’ll have to be him himself.

“Could you please not call me that?” His voice shakes as he says it, but nonetheless, he finishes the statement. It occurs to him that not once in his (admittedly brief) stay in Cobra Kai did he simply...request that Sensei Lawrence not call him Lip. Demetri’s approach was always to get angry about it, go off on the sensei about how wrong it was to mock someone’s appearance, but Eli himself had never been the one to make a case for Sensei Lawrence to treat him better.

It hardly helped. Sensei Lawrence just claimed that if he didn’t want him to call him Lip, he shouldn’t have a freaky lip, and then went on to claim whoever did his cleft lip surgery must have done an awful job. Eli attempted to move away from the topic, but Sensei Lawrence didn’t let up. “It’s hard to when it’s right in front of me. Hard to believe Demetri was so willing to defend you like some knight in shining armor or some shit. You’re pathetic.” Having heard enough, Eli storms out, anger overtaking him. How could he have been so stupid, to think this was going to go any better? Why did he think that just because this man had been willing to help Miguel and Demetri (who were normal) become badass meant he would extend the same treatment to the freak with the lip scar?

Eli calls Demetri in tears. “I don’t know how you can train with someone like him,” Eli spits out. “He’s a shit person, Demetri. I--I don’t know what you and Miguel are thinking. It’s like he gets some kind of...I don’t know, sadistic pleasure out of bullying people. He’s not any better than the people he claims he’s trying to help you fight.”

Demetri, to his horror, reacts only with scorn, scoffing and rolling his eyes. “God, all this drama because he was mean about your lip again? Jesus christ, grow a backbone, Eli. I hate to say it, but I think Mr. Lawrence was right--if you can’t even handle someone making some insensitive comments about your scar, how are you going to handle an elbow to the teeth? Or any training more intensive than a slap on the wrist, anyway?”

Eli can do nothing but just stare at him through the screen. Demetri, the one person who he has always been able to count on to not comment on his scar, the one person who has always comforted him or talked him through it when he cried, is brushing him completely off--being an asshole about the one thing Eli was certain he never would be. Why is Demetri, of all people, not taking his side on this?

All Eli knows for sure is that he doesn’t like this new version of Demetri one bit. What happened to the best friend who was always willing to fight for him, no matter what it took? Now, he seems more concerned with looking cool and tough and upkeeping some kind of ridiculous reputation than Eli’s own well-being.

Over the next few days, a rage he didn’t know he even had in him bubbles up inside Eli. He decides if Demetri’s going to play dirty, so is he. And maybe, if Eli plays his cards right, the old Demetri will come back.

Despite his long-standing frustration with the way adults treat him--delicately, condescendingly, like a Thing of Pity--Eli figures he can get some use out of it for once. If this is the only way they’re going to see him regardless, he might as well use it to his advantage. And so he goes crying to his mom, who he knows for a fact other adults talk about being a “valued member of the community” and probably has some influence and some strings she can pull. He bawls to her about how his best friend has turned into an unrecognizable jerk, all because he’s training with a middle-aged man with the mindset of a high school bully who has no issue verbally abusing his students. Sure enough, discussions are had with the Neighborhood Committee, phone calls are placed, and Eli overhears his mother vowing to shut down that degenerate karate place if it’s the last thing she ever does.

Meanwhile, back at the dojo, Kreese makes an announcement. The elderly, intimidating man has recently teamed up with Johnny to teach--and he gives Demetri the creeps, if he’s honest, but he seems to know his stuff when it comes to karate, so Demetri goes along with this new addition to the sensei roster. However, when Johnny goes off to visit his high school friends and leaves the kids alone with the new Sensei, Demetri can’t help but feel uneasy.

“Now, the dojo’s been getting some concerned phone calls,” Kreese says, arms crossed and expression difficult to read. He doesn’t seem to be angry--if anything, he looks faintly amused. “Parents of the local teenagers are worried. They think Cobra Kai is full of bullies. Think our methods are...abusive, even. They want to shut us down.” Worried murmurs start to echo around the room, but Kreese silences them as he goes on. “Oh, don’t worry. It won’t be a problem. I have my ways of talking people down. We know better, anyhow. They’re just...intimidated by us, because we’ve honed skills here they couldn’t even dream of having. But nonetheless...” Kreese smirks in a way that makes Demetri feels ever-so-slightly unnerved. “If you run into one of your little peers whining to your parents about getting rid of us, well...show them Cobra Kai can’t be messed with so easily.”

And suddenly Demetri’s seething, because he knows exactly who made sure those phone calls got made.

Eli, for all his timidness, is notoriously smart. Demetri knows this intimately. He’d hardly put it past Eli to be this cunning, to manipulate the pitying adults around him to get what he wants.

When the Cobra Kai kids take a trip to the mall later that day, Demetri knows exactly where Eli will be. Every Wednesday, a new issue of Dungeon Lord comes out--they used to go get it together, but since getting into karate, Demetri hasn’t been keeping up. Demetri would figure someone like Eli wouldn’t have the balls to go out in public alone, if not for the fact that he knew how invested Eli was in the current plot.

And so Demetri heads to the comic book store, a group of reluctant Cobra Kai “pledges” in tow. Maybe it’s a bit sadistic, but he likes having someone to be able to boss around--it feels nice to be at the top of the food chain for once. Lord knows it’s the first time that’s happened. And if he isn’t going to milk that tournament win for all it’s worth, then what even is the point?

When Demetri arrives, Eli turns to look at him in confusion. “What are you doing here?” he says, lip curling slightly. “I figured you were too tough for this kind of stuff now.”

Demetri just scoffs and crosses his arms. “Well, Mr. Kreese said the dojo’s been getting some calls from weepy parents concerned we’re bullying their poor kids. Saying our Senseis must be some evil, abusive monsters twisting and corrupting the neighborhood teenagers. So I think you know exactly why I’m here.”

Eli just looks at him with a doe-eyed innocence that makes his blood boil. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Demetri advances on him, eyes flashing. “Don’t bullshit me, Eli. I know you’ve been meddling.”

To his surprise, Eli looks up to meet his gaze evenly, pretense of naiveté completely gone. “And what if I have? I don’t like the influence they’re having on you.”

Well, Demetri doesn’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but he doesn’t like it. “What is it about Cobra Kai that’s got you in such a tiffy, huh? You’re jealous I found a way to fight back and actually protect us? You don’t like that I’m not a pathetic loser you can look down your nose at anymore?”

Eli just looks at him in bewilderment. “Jesus, no, that’s not it at all, dude. Just...do you even hear yourself? You’ve turned into such an asshole since you started all that karate shit. It’s like I don’t even know you anymore. You walk around thinking you’re hot shit and everyone has to bow down to you all because your dojo won some stupid tournament. Well, news flash, Demetri--nobody cares.”

The callous way Eli, of all people, says it can’t help but throw him off. Is that really what his best friend thinks about him now--that he’s just some arrogant prick strutting around flaunting his success?

And then Demetri remembers how he got here--what it was that pushed him to be such a hard-assed fighter in the first place--and he feels a wave of venom coarse through him so powerful that he nearly chokes on it. Before he knows it he’s grabbing Eli by the shoulders and shoving him up against the wall.

“You fucking ungrateful brat,” he spits out, his words poison. “I did it all for you, you know. Everything I did was so that I could finally protect you. And this is how you thank me? After I’ve been getting my ass kicked over and over again so you wouldn’t have to worry about bullies anymore?”

Eli is surprisingly unfazed. “And where was I when you were learning to be such a good protector, Demetri? Getting shit on as a tool to motivate you? Nobody bothering to check how I felt about that? A real good bodyguard you turned out to be.”

“And yet Kyler and his little posse haven’t bothered you once. Who do you think that’s thanks to?”

“Miguel too. You don’t get all the credit. And anyhow, not like it matters when your Senseis would just as soon take the same cheap shots.”

Demetri just curls his lip. “Don’t get mad at me because you were too weak to survive Cobra Kai. Because...what, a middle-aged karate teacher hurt your feelings? I’d like to see how you go about taking a real fist to the jaw.”

Demetri raises a fist as if to demonstrate. Eli flinches, anger and defiance suddenly completely gone as his eyes widen in horror.

“You’d actually hurt me?” he asks softly.

Demetri slowly lowers his fist, realizing the answer as soon as he sees the terrified look in his friend’s eyes.

“Consider this your warning, Eli,” he spits out, with as much venom as he can manage. “Don’t mess around with Cobra Kai, or things are going to get ugly.” He smirks--a little sadistically, he has to admit. “You saw the tournament. Well...you’d better believe that’s the least of what I can do.”

When a downtrodden Eli shows up at Daniel LaRusso’s front door, timidly requesting to learn karate, far be it from Daniel to turn away a new student. Eli’s sob story about how he’s being bullied and threatened by his best friend only makes the new sensei more determined to take him under his wing--Daniel is no stranger to bullying, after all.

The next time Cobra Kai goes on an outing to the mall, Demetri catches Eli in the food court, eating with Samantha LaRusso and that kid whose ass he kicked at the tournament--Robby Keene, was his name? Mr. Lawrence’s kid. This seems...odd. How would Eli have met them?

An unexpected wave of jealousy rips through him. How did shy little Eli manage to make other friends? Let alone with an ex popular girl, of all people. Nonetheless, he figures this might be a good time to make sure his ex-friend isn’t trying to start any more shit with Cobra Kai.

He catches Eli in the deli line, sliding up behind him and purring, “Oh, I hope you haven’t been poking your nose where it doesn’t belong, have you, Eli?”

Eli turns and glares at him with a venom Demetri didn’t know the other boy had in him. “Why, Demetri? Scared your precious Cobra Kai is going to lose all its coolness cred if it gets out how shitty you all are?”

Demetri seethes with anger again, and before he knows it, he’s shoving Eli out of the line and ramming him up against one of the pillars on the edge of the food court. The crowd of eaters around them “Oooooh”s, but Demetri ignores them. He raises a fist again, fully prepared to follow through this time. “I’d watch your mouth, if I were you.”

Eli just curls his lip, more defiant than Demetri’s ever seen him. “You don’t scare me, Demetri. I know who you really are.”

The Cobra Kai pledges start to loom behind them, ready to provide Demetri with backup if needed. Eli notices and scoffs. “Wow, siccing your goons on me too? Way to set up a fair fight, Demetri. You’re so badass.”

Struck by a sudden desire to prove him wrong, Demetri socks Eli in the jaw before he can think better of it. He pauses afterwards, momentarily shaken by what he’s done.

To his dismay, Eli’s horrified shock is short lived before he laughs darkly. “Well, you’re not the only one who knows karate now. I joined Miyagi-Do.”

Demetri just scoffs. Ah yes, a little karate training and Eli, of all people, is going to kick some major ass. “All right then. Let’s see what you got.” He takes a step back, allowing Eli to try and get a hit in.

When the fight breaks out in full force, it’s vicious. Eli throws the first hit, but it’s weak--he’s out of practice since abandoning Cobra Kai. Demetri has him on the ground in seconds, throwing punches and kicks with a speed and rage he had no idea he had. Eli barely has time to get up before he’s getting his ass handed to him.

What Demetri doesn’t count on is Eli’s new dojomates coming to his rescue, getting the smaller boy behind them and executing a near-perfect synchronized fighting routine. Even with his lackeys helping him, Demetri is completely annihilated--nearly unconscious on the food court floor within minutes. The last thing he sees before he passes out is Eli staring down at him, blue eyes wide with horror.

When word of the incident at the mall gets back to Moon, shit hits the fan--to put it lightly. Yasmine is with Moon when she confronts Demetri, but she doesn’t say anything--just stands glaring with her arms crossed while Moon goes off at him. “How could you treat Eli like that? He’s your friend!”

“Not anymore.” Demetri curls his lip. “He joined Miyagi-Do. He’s made it pretty clear where his loyalties lie now, and it’s not with me.”

“Who cares about Miyagi-Do?” She retorts. “He’s still your friend! Our friend! And I don’t like the way you’re bullying him.”

Demetri scoffs. “Don’t you get it? He’s just a pathetic nerd who can’t handle the fact that I’m cooler than him now. All he wants to do is drag me down to his level again, I guarantee it.”

Moon’s gaze is more poisonous than he’s ever seen it. She turns to Yasmine. “Tell him, Yas,” she says, her tone dangerously quiet.

Yasmine sighs. She says--with notable hesitation, Demetri notices--“If you don’t stop bullying Eli, we’re through.”

Thrown off, Demetri laughs harshly. “What do you care? You don’t even like Eli! I see those...disgusted looks you shoot in his direction, when you think we won’t notice.”

Yasmine bites her lip. “That doesn’t matter. Moon is my best friend. If she’s not okay with this whole...thing, then neither am I.”

“You’re not fucking serious. You’re dumping me because your bleeding-hearted friend told you I wasn’t being nice enough to a guy you can’t stand?”

Yasmine pauses, but ultimately stands her ground. “I’m sorry, but if it’s between you and Moon, it’s going to be Moon. So her word goes. So either stop with this whole stupid feud with Eli, or we’re finished.”

“I...” Demetri can only stare at her, shocked. He never could have imagined getting this ultimatum...and yet here he is.

He must have hesitated a second too long, because Moon grabs Yasmine’s arm and starts to pull her away. “I think that’s all the answer we need,” Moon hisses.

“Wait!” he called helplessly after them. Yasmine turns around once as she walks away, but only to spit “It’s over!” over her shoulder. As if for good measure.

Kreese finds Demetri circling a punching bag in the back of the dojo, spinning around it and throwing kicks and punches faster than cobra strikes. Seizing his opportunity, he advances. “What’s wrong, son?”

Demetri turns, tensing. He’s still wary of the man, but to hell with it--it’s not like he has anyone else to talk to. “Fight broke out with Miyagi-Do, and we lost. Pathetic, I know. Please don’t rub it in.”

“Cheer up.” Kreese smirks. “The fight isn’t over until you say it is.”

Demetri just sighs. “No use going in for a rematch. They’re strong. I couldn’t take them again on my own.”

Kreese’s smirk widens. “You’re a smart kid. There are other ways to fight back, you know. You don’t always have to beat them into the ground.”

As he leaves, Demetri lets that sink in.

Well, Demetri is nothing if not tech-savvy. May as well make some use of that Yelp Elite status. He spends hours setting up dozens of sock puppet accounts, programming them to post terrible review after terrible review blasting everything he can think of about Miyagi-Do. The encouragement of violence in youth (Eli had technically punched first, hadn’t he?). The weak, subpar fighting style that broke down as soon as it was challenged by serious fighters. The pretentious, culture-appropriating sensei. Daniel LaRacist indeed.

During the Coyote Creek excursion, Demetri finds himself pitted against Miguel, fighting in the world’s most intense game of what essentially boils down to Capture the Flag. Demetri, about to get the better of Miguel, finds that he can’t help but gloat about his little online attack. Can’t be long before a one-star dojo goes out of business.

When Miguel seems to take issue with it, saying the whole thing is mean-spirited and over the top, Demetri can’t help but scoff. Miyagi-Do has been plenty clear in declaring war--their little battalion at the mall proved that. Demetri wishes Miguel wasn’t still too caught up in pining over Sam LaRusso to realize that.

Miguel, meanwhile, decides this dojo war of sorts is getting out of hand. It turns out Demetri isn’t the only tech-savvy student in Cobra Kai--Miguel designed their website, after all. With a little bit of basic internet coding and some rudimentary hacking, he manages to access the sock puppet accounts Demetri made and take the bad reviews down. He even goes so far as to go over to the Miyagi-Do dojo and personally apologize for how Cobra Kai has been acting, telling Robby Keene that he found out who blasted the bad reviews and took them all down. “We’re not all assholes.”

Come Moon’s end-of-summer party, Demetri is surprised to get an invitation. He hasn’t seen her or Yasmine since they both chewed him out, and Yasmine ended things. But perhaps this is a show of good faith. Maybe Moon wants to be friends again--and maybe that means Yasmine’s come to her senses too, and might be willing to talk things out.

Moon welcomes him when he arrives, previous animosity gone for the moment. “Hey, thank you for inviting me. I’m...sorry,” he starts. “Of how we left things off. I was an ass to you and Yas.” “It’s alright,” Moon replies cheerily. “I invited you because...well, I’m hoping that before school starts, we can stop all the fighting and be friends again.”

His heart sinks as he sees Sam LaRusso lead a stream of kids through the door, Eli trailing at the end, and he realizes exactly what she means. The Miyagi-Dos are here.

He sits forlornly on a couch with Mitch and Aisha, thinking about how much worse this night just got. He brightens, however, when he sees a shock of blonde hair at the door not long after. So Yasmine came after all.

Moon grins in delight, calling over to her. Taking a breath, Demetri stands up and approaches the two girls, determined to smooth things over with them both.

He’s not surprised to see Yasmine make a beeline for Moon, not noticing him for the moment. What he isn’t expecting is for Moon to sweep Yasmine into her arms, kissing her full on the mouth.

Demetri stops in his tracks. The girls turn to him a few seconds later, seeming to notice him for the first time. They look at him expectantly, as though waiting for him to finish walking over to them. Or say something, and not just stand there gawking stupidly.

“Uh...are you two...um...like...uh...” All he can do is shuffle closer and gesture abstractly, not able to find words. Yasmine blushes and looks away, while Moon tucks a hair behind her ear, her smile strained.

“Yeah. It’s new,” she admits, laughing nervously. “We’re, um...”

“Girlfriends?” Yasmine offers, looking up and smiling at Moon with uncharacteristic shyness. Demetri can’t help but bristle--shyness she never showed him.

Well, far be it from him to be judgmental. Even if Yasmine broke his damn heart just now, Moon is still his friend. He gives them a strained smile. “That’s...that’s great! Happy for you two. No shame in uh...trying out something like that.”

Demetri excuses himself and sulks back to the now-empty couch, mind racing as he sits down. Is that why Moon was trying to encourage Yasmine to break up with him? Was it even about Eli at all? Did Moon just want Yasmine for herself? It seemed unlike Moon, but who could say?

And Yasmine...had she always wanted Moon, too? Is that why she seethed every time she saw Eli shooting lovestruck glances at her friend?

...had she even ever liked Demetri at all, or was he just a cover-up for the fact that she was...lesbian? How was someone as feminine and fashionable as Yasmine a lesbian, anyways? All the lesbians Demetri saw on tv cut their hair boyishly short and had about 5 nose rings and walked around in leather jackets and combat boots.

His thoughts are interrupted by the last sweatered boy he wants to see taking a seat at the other side of the couch, glancing nervously at him with darting eyes. What did Eli want? And why was he so nervous? He’d been unduly bold as of late.

“You seen the new Doctor Who trailer?” Eli mutters.

Something about the nonchalant way he says it--like this is the olden days, when Demetri always felt like shit about himself and had no one who tolerated him but Eli--makes Demetri’s blood boil. He scoffs. “I have better things to do than watch nerd crap like that.”

A short silence. “Capaldi regenerated,” Eli offers finally. “I know you weren’t big on 12.”

No more Capaldi? Demetri turns to look at Eli, interest suddenly piqued.

“What’s the new doctor like?” he asks before he can stop himself.

Eli grins. “She’s a badass.”

“She?” Demetri finds himself grinning back. “How progressive of them. Welcome to the 21st century, Doctor Who.”

A sudden giggling catches his attention, and Demetri looks to where Yasmine and Moon are sharing a chair across the room, tangled up in each other’s arms and trading soft kisses like they don’t have a care in the world. He tenses.

Eli seems to sense his discomfort, and sighs. “Hey, I’m sorry, man. If it helps at all, I liked Moon a lot, too.”

Demetri just scoffs. “Yeah, but I guess it doesn’t matter now. They just have to be gay, right?”

Eli gives him a strange look. Demetri shuffles uncomfortably, realizing what he’s probably thinking about. The...incident, 4 years ago. Demetri glares at him, hoping to banish the thought before it arrives. None of that meant anything--they were just dumb kids. Dumb kids doing dumb shit that didn’t matter.

“I don’t know, I mean...if they’re happy together, shouldn’t we just be happy for them?”

Eli reaches out and squeezes his shoulder, and Demetri hesitates. Their special touch. Eli still remembers, even after everything that’s happened.

For a moment he’s overcome with longing, wishing things with Eli could just go back to how they used to be. Back when he knew no matter what hell he went through at school, Eli would always be there to pick him back up again. But then it sinks in what Eli’s really trying to say.

Be happy for them. What a bunch of Miyagi-Do bullshit. Just accept his sad little lot in life, just like he used to do. Go back to nerdy little Eli at the bottom of the food chain, doomed to spend the rest of his youth admiring pretty girls from a vast distance.

He never wants that to be him again.

“Oh, fuck you, Eli,” he spits, grabbing Eli’s hand and yanking it off of his shoulder. Eli freezes, looking like he’s just been slapped.

“What, so I’m supposed to do like you, moping and pining and hoping a pretty girl will look my way if I wish hard enough and just sucking it up when she doesn’t? Well, I’ve had plenty enough of that--I’ve been on the top. And I’m going to be on the top again. But you? You’ll always be pathetic--you and your entire sorry excuse for a dojo.”

He gets up and walks away, bristling with an anger he can’t even fully place anymore.

As Eli watches Demetri go, he realizes he’s finally had enough. Demetri doesn’t want to patch things up? He just wants to keep being an arrogant shithead? Fine. But Eli’s not about to take his prodding and insults anymore.

Eli makes his way over to Moon--still his friend, despite the unreciprocated feelings--and Yasmine, strikes up a conversation with them. Yasmine, he notices, is being notably nicer to him--probably at Moon’s request. They get to talking about sexualities, and Eli accidentally lets a little something slip about Demetri.

When they were 12 years old, they had kissed. It was Eli who suggested they practiced kissing, to get ready for all the girls they would inevitably date. However, a bit of choice wording and it sounded like Demetri had planted one on Eli out of nowhere...and Eli, of course, hadn’t liked it one bit, because he was totally straight. “You can’t tell anyone, though,” he pleaded the girls, big sad eyes every bit as convincing as he had hoped. “Demetri doesn’t want it to get out that he’s...you know. Gay. He’s worried it’ll ruin his reputation.”

Moon nods sincerely, but Eli can tell from the almost imperceptible smirk on Yasmine’s face that she has other plans. If there’s one thing he’s learned about Demetri’s ex over the last few months, it’s that even trying to be a better person, she can’t resist a good bit of juicy gossip.

And from what Eli gathers...two girls dating? No problem, as long as they’re hot and popular. At least creepy guys can fetishize it. But guys liking other guys? Now that...Eli has a feeling that won’t go over well.

As soon as Eli excuses himself, Yasmine gets to work. A few whispers at the snack table when Moon isn’t looking, and news of Demetri’s supposed orientation spread like wildfire.

Demetri, meanwhile, is determined to prove Eli wrong. So what if Yas doesn’t want him anymore (or never did, the mean voice in his head keeps prodding)? He’ll find another hot girl to have on his arm. He’s a top Cobra Kai fighter, after all--it’s not like it’ll be difficult.

He saunters over to a group of girls, leaning up against the wall in what he thinks has to be a very suave way. “Hey ladies,” he says. “Name’s Demetri. I’m sure you’ve heard about me--seasoned Cobra Kai fighter, finalist in the All-Valley tournament. But no need to be intimidated--if any of you beautiful ladies ever need a hand with anything, I’ll--”

“Take it off of the nearest dick to help us out?” one of the girls cuts him off. They all break out in snickers. “No thanks.”

Demetri freezes. Why would they think...?

Then he realizes there’s only one person who could have made them think he was into that sort of thing.

He tenses. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but--”

“We’ve heard all we need to,” another girl says, eyeing him up in disgust. “Not interested in getting it on with someone who’s probably had his cock up another guy’s ass, to be blunt. Gross.” Before Demetri can say another word, the girls are gone, turning and slinking hurriedly off into the crowd.

Every time Demetri tries his luck with another girl, he gets similar rebuffs. And every time, he seethes a little more. Fucking figured--timid little Eli couldn’t take the fact that Demetri had worked up the confidence to win over a girl and he hadn’t, so he had to ruin Demetri’s chances with every other girl so he’d feel better.

Besides, Demetri remembers that day from 4 years ago. He remembers that Eli was just as into...all the stuff they did.

Unfortunately, before Demetri has a chance to go over and confront Eli about the whole business, the cops show up. He’ll just have to wait until school, he figures.

Meanwhile, word gets back to Sam that Miguel showed up at her door, apologizing and promising he took all the bad reviews down--apparently Robby didn’t relay any of this to her. When Miguel admits to Demetri about the drunken kiss, Demetri chuckles, slapping him on the back. “My man! Trying to build up a whole harem here, are we?”

Miguel sighs, looking sullen. “I cheated, dude. That’s shitty.”

And then comes the PA announcement. Tory Nichols is starting shit, and Demetri can’t pretend he’s not intrigued to see where this goes.

As soon as the fight breaks out, Demetri is overcome with adrenaline. He whips through the crowd, spinning and throwing kicks and punches like explosive flashes. All he can think of is Eli, Eli, little Eli...oh, when he finds him, there’s going to be hell to pay.

And it doesn’t take long--of course Eli is the one who tries to pull a teacher in to stop the fight. The fucking wimp.

When Eli makes a run for it, Demetri can’t help but smirk when he leads him straight to the computer lab. How very typical, for someone whose hero is Steve Jobs. He grins, something frighteningly sadistic bubbling up inside of him.

For a second it almost scares him, how badly he wants to drive his foot into Eli’s chest.

“Little Eli Moskowitz!” he taunts, before he can stop himself. “Cowering away in the computer lab, just like the little nerd he is. Can’t hide forever, outer. I know damn well what you told them about me.”

He tries door after door, continuing in a singsong voice as he goes. “Oh dear me, what would they say if they knew you enjoyed it too, Eli? Well, I guess they won’t believe me now. But I know. I know you’re no better than me.”

Ever since they were kids, Demetri has been the speedier one. They used to race across the playground at recess, pretending to be Quicksilver and the Flash, but Demetri always came out ahead. Long, gangly legs tended to do that. So when Eli turns to see Demetri in the doorway, and he makes a run for it, he doesn’t get far.

Demetri grabs Eli around the waist and throws him against the wall, whipping kicks and hits into his stomach and thighs faster than he can block. Demetri hardly notices the bruises forming, or the bleeding cuts.

It’s then that Eli does something Demetri doesn’t expect--flips the script, as it were. As Demetri reaches out to strike again, Eli surges forward and grabs him by the shoulders, flipping him around and pinning him against the wall. Maybe Miyagi-Do specializes in defense, but they still taught him how to throw a good hit or two. He throws defense to the wayside and starts raining punches down on Demetri--sloppy, uncoordinated, but something the “Strike First” Cobra Kai student is entirely unprepared to defend.

When his chest is stinging and his head throbbing, Demetri can’t take anymore. Eli was a lot more...well, powerful than he expected. At his first opportunity, he turns and books it. Maybe this isn’t a fight he can win after all.

Eli doesn’t chase. As angry as he still is at Demetri, he can’t stop thinking about the mars and bruises and cuts that appeared across Demetri’s face and skin as he punched him, mirroring his own, and he feels sick. He can’t hurt Demetri anymore, no matter what Demetri thinks of him now.

Demetri just makes it to the staircase when he sees Miguel motionless on the floor, Robby Keene looking over the railing. Sam LaRusson hovering over him. He runs to Miguel’s side, world crumbling around him.

Turns out he showed mercy, just like Mr. Lawrence always said to. And look where it got him. When John Kreese offers him a place in a new Cobra Kai, determined to make the Miyagi-Dos pay for hurting Miguel, Demetri isn’t about to say no.

In his grief, it seems like the only option.

Season 3

On the first day back at school, Mitch is quick to remind Demetri that there are other girls in the world besides Yasmine. Surely it won’t be too hard to work his charms on some of the freshmen--after all, word about that little incident with Eli when they were 12 can’t have gotten across the entire school, can it?

“Well, hello, ladies!” he purrs to a passing group, leaning against the wall in the most nonchalant way possible. “Welcome to West Valley High. I know freshman year can be intimidating, high school classes and new people and all, but if you ever need help with anything, I’m--”

“--the scrawny little gay kid who ran his pussy ass away from the world’s easiest fight?” one of the girls finishes scornfully. “Yeah, we know.”

As they walk away, he notices one shoot a flirty smile at a passing Eli, surrounded by his squad of Miyagi-Do losers. “Ooooh, you’re famous now, E!” he hears Chris say, and his blood boils all over again.

Ah. So everyone knew about Eli’s little triumph.

Mitch saunters over, and Demetri follows his lead. “Got something to say?!” he snaps.

Demetri’s eyes lock with Eli’s, and he glowers down at him. Eli’s face is tight, expression almost...sad.

Not like he’d expect anything less from that little crybaby.

“Oh, little Eli,” he chides. “I’d like to see you try and hide behind security.”

“I don’t need to,” Eli mutters, not breaking eye contact.

“Everything all right here?”

At the sound of the counselor’s voice, Eli does something unexpectedly bold. He sidles up to Demetri’s side and presses into it, throwing an arm around his shoulder. “No, Counselor Blatt, we’re all friends here!” he says, offering that shy little Eli smile that made every adult in a nearby vicinity go mad with protectiveness.

Eli’s arm is tight around his neck--like a chokehold. But, Demetri notices after a few moments, it’s shaking--the grip almost frantic. Like he’s scared of when he’ll have to let go.

Odd.

Demetri turns, and his and Eli’s eyes lock. He tries to give the shorter boy the most intense, seething glare he can under his forced smile, but Eli returns the look with equal intensity. Demetri jostles his backpack his backpack and thumps him on the chest, feeling an odd compulsion to touch his old friend right back.

Maybe he missed feeling Eli’s body underneath him. But that wasn’t a thought he could afford to spend a lot of brainpower on right now. “Yeah!” he says. Of course we’re still friends! Of course you didn’t fuck up my love life and humiliate me to the entire school because you couldn’t handle the fact that I was getting some and you weren’t!

When the counselor chides them about having somewhere to be, Eli just nods, murmuring, “Yeah, of course, Counselor Blatt. Sorry.”

As Eli pulls away, he pats Demetri’s shoulder a couple times. Small, almost imperceptible, but there.

Demetri can’t tell if it’s serious--if Eli still cares--or if it’s just a cruel mockery of their old touch. He’s not sure he wants to know.

When Demetri runs into Samantha LaRusso in the hospital and she insists she wants to help, he hardly expects a whole fucking fundraiser gleefully using Miguel as their poster child. As though the Miyagi-Dos weren’t the ones who put him in the hospital in the first place. When he catches a glimpse of the carwash while driving Mitch to practice, he decides he’s going to do something about it.

Beating up the kid is an easy fight, getting the money with Mitch and the others a sinch. Maybe at some point he would’ve felt bad for this--pummeling some short kid and then taking his charity money. But all he can think of is Miguel, his best friend, lying in a white gown and hooked up to wires. Because of this kid and his stupid “peaceful” dojo.

Peaceful, Demetri’s ass.

When Demetri walks into the cafeteria the following Monday, he’s not sure what he expects to see at Yasmine and Moon’s table, the place where he would be sitting, under different circumstances--but it definitely is not Eli Moskowitz with his hair dyed bright blue and spiked up. Miyagi-Do blue. Apparently all that coolness cred he felt he got from “scaring” Demetri off in the school brawl has gotten to his head, and he’s playing out his new “badassery” up to 11. He’s showing something to Yasmine and Moon, and they’re smiling and giggling. Yasmine, of all people, is smiling at nerdy little Eli’s antics.

Demetri squints, and sees that Eli’s showing the two girls a comic book--he recognizes the copy. It’s Eli’s limited edition Captain Marvel comic book, signed by Kelly Sue DeConnick herself. Demetri remembers standing in line with him at a con to get it a few years back--he’s pretty protective of the thing.

And now he’s using it to impress girls? Because apparently Yasmine and Moon are into that kind of thing? Oh, but of course Yasmine couldn’t be into nerd shit when DEMETRI was dating her, could she?

And those gooey eyes Moon is giving Eli, her little giggles--Demetri doesn’t like them one bit. What, now Eli’s worth her affections--now that his “nerdiness” is cool? Aren’t she and Yasmine a stupid item, anyways?

Deciding he’s going to put a stop to this, Demetri saunters over, lunch tray clutched so hard his knuckles are turning white. Before the group can react to his presence, Demetri picks up his chocolate milk carton and dumps it all over Eli’s stupid blue hair, making sure to get plenty on the rare comic book in front of him.

“Oh, I hope that wasn’t important, was it Eli?” he taunts, voice thick with mock sympathy. “That sure would be a shame.”

Eli turns to look at him, eyes wide with heartbroken shock. For a moment, the anger doesn’t set in.

“I had to wait in line 5 hours to get that,” he says quietly. “You know that.”

“Sure do.” Demetri smirks. “And it took all of 5 seconds to completely ruin. How tragic.”

Eli tenses, eyes darting around for a couple seconds. Demetri starts to walk away, his point made, when he feels an iron grip on his wrist. He turns to see Eli smirking at him, clutching his arm with more force than he ever thought possible from the once-timid boy.

“Careful there, Demetri,” Eli sneers. “Coming all the way across the cafeteria to bother me when you’ve got your cool Cobra Kai friends to hang out with? People might think you’re a little...obsessed with me.” Yasmine and Moon snicker, and Demetri bristles as he realizes the implication.

“Although I shouldn’t be surprised since you love obsessing over other boys, don’t you?” Eli goes on, like his point isn’t clear enough. “Y’know, I feel bad for Yasmine. I mean, any idiot could tell she used you as a beard, but I had no idea it was a mutual thing.”

Demetri tenses, willing himself not to lose his cool. “Really letting that little victory get to your head, aren’t you, Eli? Honestly, I was going easy on you. Now I know not to next time.”

It’s at that moment that Sam LaRusso decides to show up, sliding up next to Eli and glowering up at Demetri. “There won’t be a next time if I have anything to say about it,” she retorts.

Demetri can’t help but scoff. Of course Sam LaRusso would be all too eager to defend her little pet nerd now, even though she was all too happy to laugh at him with her mean girl friends a year ago. “I’m not scared of you,” he says. “Like you’d start any fight daddy couldn’t bail you out of. Or that doesn’t end with your ex boyfriend getting thrown over a railing because you couldn’t keep your hands to yourself.”

It’s a low blow, but Demetri doesn’t care. It’s hard not to look at this girl and see part of the reason Miguel might never be able to walk again.

Sam LaRusso shoves him just as the godawful counselor is sauntering over, but to hell with it--maybe Demetri could spin this to his advantage.

“She hit me, Counselor Blatt!” he cries out, pointing at Sam. “Attacked and physically assaulted me, completely unprovoked!”

“That’s not true,” Eli mumbles, eyes darting. Flawlessly slipping back into the poor little Eli role in a way that never fails to make Demetri seethe. “It wasn’t unprovoked. He started all this by destroying my limited-edition comic book for no reason.”

Demetri puts on his most convincing remorseful face and sighs. “Look, that was an accident. I just tripped while I was walking and my milk spilled. Anyhow, if your book’s that valuable, you probably shouldn’t bring it into a school cafeteria where people are more than likely going to spill food on it.”

He’d like to see the dumb counselor argue with that.

“Look, I don’t want excuses. I just want you all to respect each other.”

“Oh, absolutely.” Demetri turns to give Eli a forced smile. “Nothing but 100% respect in this environment going forward, I assure you. Sorry if we caused any problems.”

Please, just anything to make her leave.

With one last warning to Sam LaRusso, the counselor is gone. Demetri turns to the two Miyagi-Dos and smirks.

“To hell with respect,” he sneers. “Your lot hardly deserve it.”

It doesn’t surprise Demetri when Eli and his little gang of Miyagi-Do losers decide to start shit in gym class. What he isn’t expecting is for Eli and his stupid blue hair to start running next to him--right after he’s tried and failed to catch Yasmine’s attention after scoring a goal.

He’s been thinking about her all morning--was Eli right about her? Did she only use him as a cover-up?

...would no one ever want to date him for him?

Well, maybe if he won Yasmine back, he could disprove that. If Moon was going to be hanging off of Eli’s arm before too long, chances were her and Yasmine’s relationship’s days were numbered.

Whatever Eli is about to say, Demetri can already tell it’s not going to help.

And it doesn’t. “Wow, Demetri. Few guys are so bad in a relationship that they manage to turn their girlfriend gay. I hope you feel accomplished.”

Demetri balls his fists. “Say that again. I dare you.”

“You really did have a good thing going with her,” Eli sighed, voice laced with condescending pity. “It’s a shame she decided she could do better than some belligerent Cobra Kai douchebag.”

And then suddenly Eli lunges for him and tackles him, knocking him to the ground just as easily as Demetri once did to Eli at the mall.

Not that it ended up mattering all that much--Demetri was able to talk the Cobra Kai’s way out of trouble in the principal’s office, just as he so often could. Nonetheless, it seemed Eli was hardly turning out to be as much of a pushover as he thought.

When Mitch and the guys invited Demetri to go to Golf N Stuff--fuck around for a bit, cause some mayhem--he wasn’t about to say no. The thrill took over, running around, snatching tickets and prizes away, throwing them in the trash--he almost felt as powerful as Kyler must have, all those months ago when he tossed the lesser kids’ backpacks in the garbage. Is this how it felt, to be on top? To have everyone else too scared to mess with you?

Because Demetri loved it.

What he wasn’t counting on was Sam LaRusso and her little posse arriving to confront them in the laser tag arena--including Eli, face hardened and ready to fight.

Things seemed to be going pretty poorly--that was, until Tory Nichols and the backup arrived. That reduced Sam LaRusso to a sniveling mess, and finally it looked like this would be an easy finish.

Demetri found himself only stalling for a second when the way cleared for him to go at Eli. Something about the sudden terror on the other boy’s face made him hesitate, but not for long. Eli threw a weak punch, and Demetri quickly flipped him onto the ground, pulling his arm up behind him.

“No, please, stop, Deme, stop! It’s me!”

Deme...

Eli’s old nickname for him.

Demetri pauses, and suddenly he feels sick. Deme...Eli’s nickname. Eli.

Wasn’t all of this for Eli? To protect Eli?

And now here he was, about to hurt him. The one thing he swore he was going to stop everyone else from doing.

And then comes the goading cries from Tory, Mitch, and the others. Do it! Finish him! He deserves it!

He deserves it.

And then Demetri remembers what happened to Miguel when he didn’t take his chance to finish the fight with Robby Keene. Suddenly Demetri’s running out of the end of a hallway again, seeing Miguel’s motionless body lying on the stairs, and the rage and horror and mind-numbing devastation hit him all over again.

“Demetri, finish him!”

In a split second, Demetri makes his decision. Eli’s arm snaps in half.

All it takes is one terrible, pained scream from Eli for Demetri’s entire world to come crashing down on him. What the fuck did he just do?

He can’t even hear the other Cobras, gleefully congratulating him and sneering at the “pussy” on the floor. All he can hear are Eli’s pained sobs.

He’d seen Eli cry before, but never like this. Never thanks to him.

When everyone congratulates him next practice, Demetri barely hears. He’s just numb. All he can see is Eli, curled up and crying on the dirty cement floor. When Tory tells him she didn’t think he was going to do it, all he can manage out is that Miyagi-Do had it coming for hurting Miguel.

And as if his week can’t get any worse, here come Kyler and his goons sauntering into the dojo like they own the damn place. Demetri does his best to convince Mr. Kreese this is by no means a wise idea, but the sensei will not hear of it.

When Kyler and Brucks realize who he is, it only makes Demetri more livid. “Oh shit, it’s the yogurt backpack kid! Lip’s little friend! I thought he moved away!” When a fighting ring is formed, giving the new recruits a chance to “earn their spot,” Demetri is all too ready for combat.

He’s horrified at how quickly Brucks takes down Mitch, how quickly his friend is ushered out the door. It was bad enough to see Bert go, but this...this is different.

He can’t remember the last time he’s felt more alone.

When Kyler steps forward, looking for an opponent, Demetri volunteers before anyone else can. Mr. Kreese shoots him a surprised look, but he doesn’t care. This fucko has been making his life hell for years--he can already tell this is going to be therapeutic.

Demetri doesn’t hold back. The fight has barely started before Kyler’s had enough. A few fast hits and his lip’s already bloody, and he’s backing away. “No...please stop...”

And suddenly Demetri’s back in the library, on that afternoon that seems like an eternity ago, watching Kyler grip Eli by the throat. Hearing him sneer “who would ever want to kiss THAT shit?” like Eli was the most disgusting thing he’d ever seen. Feeling absolutely powerless, hand clutching the back of a chair as he burned with rage that had nowhere to go.

Well, he wasn’t powerless now.

And before he knows it Demetri has Kyler pinned to the ground, landing punch after punch to his face. Because, he realizes, at the end of the day, who gives a fuck if Eli’s on the other side?

That’s still his Eli, even after everything. The same Eli he stood by for over 10 years, the same Eli who he wished so long that he could protect from everything, the same Eli who felt like he had to constantly hide a tiny red line on his face because his peers collectively decided--for no good reason at all--that it was ugly.

And maybe he couldn’t make those people hurt the way he wanted to then, but right now...well, he could hurt at least one. And that was enough.

He doesn’t stop until Kyler is practically pulverized and his hands are drenched in blood. After throwing his last punch, he smirks, leaning down to whisper into Kyler’s ear.

“Now who’d want to kiss THAT shit? That’s right, asshole--I remember.”

Demetri kicks Kyler’s limp form as he walks away. He shoots Brucks a glare as he falls back in line--just for good measure.

When Miguel comes back to school, Demetri’s one of the first to greet him at the door. “Cobra Kai’s still going strong! It’s going to be great to have you back!” He’s a little confused as to why Miguel seems so hesitant, but he doesn’t worry too much about it--they can sort through all that later.

Miguel’s certainly taken aback by the clunky cast he sees on Eli’s arm when he runs into him in the hall--but perhaps even moreso by the fact that he has both shamelessly dyed his hair blue and spiked it up in a mohawk and is currently walking the school hallways with Moon on his (unbroken) arm. As it turns out, once word got back to Moon that Yasmine was the one who had shamelessly whispered around the school about Demetri being gay, she had broken things off with her. And, with his new “coolness” upgrade, she’d taken quite a liking to Eli.

Not like she had any way of knowing he’d been planning on Yasmine’s cruel gossip, after all.

But the cast, Miguel quickly learns, has a much darker backstory than anything he could have expected.

He wastes no time confronting Demetri about it in the lunchroom. “I heard what happened with Eli. How could you do that?”

Demetri’s stomach clutches. He scowls, determined not to show his discomfort.

“Wow!” He scoffs. “We go to all the trouble of getting payback on those assholes for getting you thrown over that railing, and this is the thanks we get?”

Miguel shakes his head, horrified. “Dude, who cares what dojo Eli’s in? He’s our friend! And in any case, it’s not his fault what happened to me. What the hell were you thinking?”

I don’t know. I don’t know. Demetri’s face hardens. He can only imagine how angry Mr. Kreese would be with him if he caught him showing any kind of weakness. Any kind of second-guessing.

But he can’t help it. Glimpsing Eli in that cast for the first time...

“Look, the Miyagi-Dos were the ones who picked a fight with us,” Demetri retorts. “We just had to do what we had to so they’d back off and leave us alone. We had to finish the fight.”

Miguel pauses, looking pained. “This isn’t...this isn’t you, Demetri. You’re letting Kreese get in your head. He’s trying to manipulate you, get you to...obsess over revenge so you’ll hurt people. But I know you, and I know you don’t want to. Eli, or anyone else.”

Demetri clenches his fists. “What would you know about how I feel about Eli?”

“Look, I can’t claim I know what’s going on between you two,” Miguel amends. “But you have to believe me--Kreese is dangerous. He’s using you. He doesn’t care about you, Demetri. Just...come to Sensei Lawrence’s new dojo. Please. Things can be like they used to. You don’t have to be in this...this war.”

This gives Demetri pause. “He...made a new dojo?”

Okay, so he’s still not Mr. Lawrence’s biggest fan--the man is an asshole at the best of times. But to be able to train with Miguel again...to be able to be badass without being expected to be some soldier...

He can’t finish speaking before Brucks’s voice rings out through the cafeteria. “Look everyone, Lip’s got a dick in his hand!”

Demetri looks up to see Eli being held by the cast, eyes darting around as the entire cafeteria bursts into laughter. Involuntarily, Demetri bristles.

And there it is again, that feeling of being the helpless kid in the library as Eli’s taunted. And even after all this time...he still hates it.

Miguel turns to him, shaking his head. “So these are your friends now? I thought you were better than that.”

And just like that, Miguel’s gone. Gone from the Cobra Kai table, gone from Demetri’s life.

It makes him wonder if he’s making a huge mistake. But he knows he can’t back out now--not when he’s this far in. Who would even want to take him back? Probably not Miguel and Mr. Lawrence--despite what Miguel said, Demetri knows there’s no way he’s going to forgive him so easily for hurting their other friend. And certainly not Eli.

What makes it even worse is seeing Eli later that day, curled up against some lockers with Moon. Moon is tracing over his cast in colored sharpie, slowly transforming the dick pic into a beautiful landscape and night sky. Eli is bragging about how the arm-breaking didn’t hurt that bad.

Demetri remembers when that soft little smile was reserved only for him, and a pit starts to form in his stomach.

Well, no use bitching. You did this to yourself.

It seems like the world is out to just make Demetri’s existence in Cobra Kai as shitty as possible these days. Mitch and Bert are gone, Miguel isn’t coming back, Brucks is being a royal douchebag like always, and perhaps worst of all, Robby Keene shows up at the dojo. Demetri tries his damndest to appeal to Mr. Kreese about how outrageous this is--this is the kid who paralyzed Miguel in the fucking first place, what’s the point of dojo-wide revenge if they just take in the main culprit like an old buddy? But of course Mr. Kreese spouts some nonsense about how they need all the help they can get for the All-Valley, and sometimes you have to be allies with people you aren’t the biggest fans of, blah blah blah. To make matters worse, Tory--not a friend exactly, but probably the closest thing Demetri’s got to one left--is getting far too chummy with Robby for Demetri’s taste.

Maybe Demetri’s insane, but it seems like more and more ridiculous shit is being handwaved in the name of...what? Winning a karate tournament? Getting revenge for a kid who’s already recovered, and doesn’t even seem to want it?

When word gets back to Cobra Kai that Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang are teaming up, Kreese sends the students on a special mission: Show the other dojos that even with their combined forces, they’re no match for Cobra Kai. It seems like a waste of time to Demetri--why antagonize other dojos just minding their business? It’s not like there was anything worth fighting for in this dumb war anymore, considering Miguel was on his feet again (literally AND figuratively). Nonetheless, Demetri finds he’s itching for a good fight--it’s been way too long since he’s charged into a full-fledged battle.

Maybe this will help him get it out of his system, if nothing else.

When the fight breaks out at the LaRussos, it doesn’t take long for Demetri to be overtaken by the thrill of it. Just like he was at the school fight. Just like he was at the tournament. He’s zipping through the house, landing kicks and punches left and right. And it feels good. With everything having been so awful lately, he can’t remember the last time he’s felt more alive.

And then he lands a fierce kick, and Brucks chest-bumps him. “Hell yeah! kick some ass! Dumb losers never had a chance.”

Brucks. The same kid who laughed when he saw Eli starting to cry about the comments he made on his lip. The same kid claiming Kyler tossing his backpack into a yogurt-filled trash can was “brute.” And now here he was trying to be buddy-buddy with him.

Everything comes crashing down on Demetri at once.

Miguel’s speech, saying Kreese is manipulating him. Saying Kreese doesn’t care about him. Kreese cherry-picking what does and doesn’t count as vengeance--hurting Eli, someone who had nothing to do with Miguel’s fall, does, but teaming up with the kid responsible for said fall apparently does not. Demetri’s friends being booted from Cobra Kai one by one, just for not being strong enough.

The sound of Eli’s screams and sobs in a dark laser tag room.

Miguel was right, wasn’t he? Kreese never cared about getting payback for him. He only cared about starting a war for his own sadistic pleasures.

Demetri hears grunting and whimpering, and he looks up to see two of the other Cobras kneeing Eli in the chest over and over. Pinning him into an arm bar.

“Yo, ‘Mete!” one calls out. “Free shot!”

Eli looks up, gaze full of fear and pain. Bright blue irises glinting with welling tears.

Once upon a time, Demetri made a promise to himself that he would stick with karate, aggravating as it may be, so he would never have to see that look on Eli’s face again. It’s time, he figures, that he finally made good on that.

His face contorts into a snarl, and he runs to Eli. Eli closes his eyes and scrunches his face, bracing for a pain that never comes.

Demetri kicks one Cobra to the wayside and smashes the other into a glass table with perhaps more force and adrenaline than he’s used all night.

When he turns to Eli, the other boy backs away, eyes still wide with terror. Demetri feels sick to his stomach, and the tears come before he can stop them.

“God, Eli, I’m so sorry,” he splutters. “I’m so fucking sorry, for everything. I don’t know what I was thinking, and it was all so fucked up, and--”

“Demetri.”

“--I’ll never hurt you like that again, but if you don’t want anything to do with me now, I totally understand, and--”

“Demetri.”

“--I was so awful to you, and I didn’t listen to you, and I should’ve been there for you, and I’m such a piece of shit friend and--”

“DEMETRI!”

Finally Eli raises his voice enough that Demetri pauses. “...yeah, Eli?”

“Please stop talking. I forgive you. Now are you going to shut up and help me finish this?” He raises a hand, as if to initiate their old handshake. An olive branch.

Demetri grins so wide he thinks his face is going to break, and he grips Eli’s hand like a lifeline. Something to finally pull him out of the darkness. “Yeah.”

They’re a lethal fighting team. Between Demetri landing speedy hits and Eli protecting him and shielding them both with his bulked-up form (where did he get all that muscle? Demetri wonders), they dispatch half the Cobras in minutes. Whatever rush Demetri was feeling fighting when he first got here is nothing compared to fighting with Eli.

When they stop the fight between Tory and Sam, Tory wastes no time voicing her disdain for the ex-Cobras. “You’d better watch your back,” she spits at Demetri, and he feels a chill run through him. Turns out this girl is terrifying when she’s not fighting on your side.

Eli intercepts her as she leaves, staring her down defiantly in a very un-Eli-like manner. “You’d better watch yours,” he growls. “Touch him, and I’ll end you.”

Demetri glances over in surprise. When did Eli get so bold?

Well...he thinks he could grow to like it.

Season 4 (because fuck it)

Demetri is hardly expecting Mr. LaRusso and Mr. Lawrence to forgive him, never mind let him into their new dojo. But life has a lot of pleasant surprises in store for him, it seems, after the shitshow it recently put him through. It’s also possible Eli (and maybe Miguel too) but in a good word for him.

Demetri can’t stop apologizing to Eli. Seemingly every day, he finds a new thing to apologize for. Eli gets aggravated with it before long, having to reassure Demetri at least 50 separate times that he forgives him for everything. Nonetheless, Demetri refuses to stop--because he’ll never stop being sorry.

Or trying to find new ways to make it up to Eli. Going easy on him during sparring. Buying him lunch after practice. Helping him perfect some of the most badass Cobra moves.

Things end between Eli and Moon. Eli can’t fully elaborate on why--he just tells Demetri something didn’t feel quite right. The spark died out, like Demetri’s adrenaline rush slowly seeping away toward the end of a fight. That, and, Demetri gathers, something seems to have been distracting Eli from his girlfriend as of late.

Most likely the approaching, high stakes All-Valley. Karate is Serious Business, as they’ve both embraced now.

Rumor has it Yasmine and Moon are trying again, Yasmine realizing for seemingly the first time how awful she’s really been and making an effort to be better. Moon makes her want to be better--more than Demetri ever did, he realizes. And maybe that’s okay--he and Yasmine probably just weren’t right for each other.

Then one day, after yet another one of Demetri’s long-winded apologies, Eli offers something other than an exasperated. “It’s okay. Seriously.” There’s a pause before Eli quietly says “I’m sorry too.”

“For what?” Demetri blurts out, baffled. Everything Eli’s done has paled in comparison to his own atrocities.

“For outing you,” Eli says simply. “That was fucked. And it wasn’t my place, even if I was mad at you.”

“It’s all right.” Demetri shrugs. “You were right, anyways.”

Eli gives him a strange look. “I was?”

“Yeah, I mean...” Demetri laughs dryly. “I don’t...like girls. I pretended I did, because I felt like I was supposed to. That’s what people expect you to do when you’re a top athlete and all that. But dating Yasmine, chasing other girls, it always felt...empty. Like I was just acting out a role in a play or something. And at the end of the day, I think...” He pauses. “I think I was always looking at you.”

Because the last few months have made him realize something. Training with Eli, teaching Eli how to protect himself, watching Eli step up and defend him from the mistrusting stares and the scornful whispers...

Just how much of the person he’s become is thanks to wanting to protect Eli. The fact that that was always how all this started.

“I love you,” he blurts out, before he can stop himself. “I know I did a shitty job of showing it, and I know you were with Moon and you’re not like that, but I need you to know, and I understand if you don’t feel--”

Eli cuts him off with a fierce kiss, pinning him up against the dojo wall with unexpected aggressiveness.

When Eli pulls away, he’s smiling softly. The same smile he gave Moon in the hall as she drew on his cast--the smile that’s once again all Demetri’s.

“I love you too,” he murmurs. “Why do you think I broke up with Moon? Every time I was with her...I couldn’t stop wishing it was you. She’ll never know me like you do.”

And Kreese had better look out because Miyagi Fang’s next big power couple is a force to be reckoned with--the snarky, frighteningly fast-attacking ex-Cobra, and the buff, blue-mohawked Miyagi-Do with more inner peace than anyone would expect.

SOME RANDOM SIDENOTES ABOUT THIS BECAUSE I DIDN’T FEEL LIKE PUTTING THIS ALL IN THE TAGS

~I’m sorry if anyone is OOC in this--I know Johnny is kind of a fuck, but he genuinely WAS pretty crappy to Eli at first and who knows if he would’ve treated him any better if he didn’t “flip the script”??? ~Dark/Evil Demetri is so fun but also so awful to write--I hope you like him being an absolute fuck because the Corruption Arc is REAL ~Yes, I DO in fact fully believe Demetri would go on a crazed revenge quest just like Eli/Hawk did out of his grief for Miguel--the boy absolutely loves Miguel and arguably would want vengeance as much as Eli if their roles were swapped!!! Because Demetri cares about Miguel SO FUCKING MUCH even if it’s not as obvious as it is with Eli but that’s a rant for another post ~I included YasMoon because fuck it, I thought it’d be interesting. That and, unlike the Cobra Kai writers, I am not at all afraid of what conservative audiences will say, so I am not afraid to make things as gay as possible. ~There’s a good chance I swapped Kyler and Brucks’ places near the end solely so I could have Demetri beat the fuck out of Kyler because I just really need that ~Yes, even without formally becoming “Hawk,” Eli could learn how to be a conniving manipulative little shit if he wanted to be. Look at some of the shit he pulls with the counselor in canon Season 3!!! Boy sure as hell knows how to play the victim. ~Honestly not sure if being outed as gay is better or worse than being outed as a bed-wetter, but I had to think of something that would pack the same kind of emotional punch. In Eli’s feeble defense, the West Valley High kids don’t seem like the types to be like...especially violent against queer kids (otherwise NO WAY would Moon and Piper have been able to be that open about their relationship), they’d just be assholes about it. So Eli wasn’t putting Demetri in legit danger here so much as just opening him up to a lot of ridicule. Which is still fucked, but hey, I DID warn you this would be kind of fucked up XD ~Maybe short, concise apologies work for Eli, bUT NOT FOR DEMETRI THE RAMBLER ~Dark Demetri chasing Eli through the school like a goddamn serial killer = 10/10 gave myself a big Spook writing ~Yes, Eli does still have (and always had) his “Hawk” traits, even without the formal “transformation.” I just think his “Hawk” side would be a little more subtle and subdued if he were in Miyagi-Do, but it’s still there for sure.

[youwontlikethisblog]

Locura Mia <3

Remember when Betty clarified everything to Mario and Armando about Nicolas role in Terra Moda and general manager?

She let them know that though Nicolas did manage Terra Moda that he didn't do anything without her say and that she was still the legal representative of Terra Moda.

One: that sets aside the fear of Betty giving too much responsibilities to Nicolas for the sake of him noticing her as she clears the air that she is the one with the last say.

Two: that Nicolas has Betty blinded.

This is both Mario's and Armando's worry, they talked about it at the cocktail the night before and Betty goes to clear the air so they aren't worried or distrusting of them.

However they still decide to enact the sinister plan.

When Armando realizes that Betty potentially cares for him as more than her boss its when the guilt of hurting sets in but when he hears Betty speaking on the phone with Nicolas he decides that he will make Betty fall in love with him.

Now, I want to make it clear that Armando is not in love with Betty. He's confused about his feelings. As well that Armando is worried about Eco Moda, the future of it, and his. That's why he agrees to do that.

Later that night when Betty returns to the meeting room after having spoken to Nicolas she tells them that because she's staying to work that he{Nic] will be going to talk and deal with the lawyer and Armando gets mad at her but she explains why it's important that they do that and Mario agrees.

Then Armando tells Betty to bring him the entire bottle of whisky and she asks if he's well and that he's drinking too much which he tells her to bring it to him.

When she leaves the room Armando tells Mario that she's no longer listening to him or obeying him.

This again proves again that Armando isn't solely worried about the company as now his subconscious is the one leading as he now worries that Nicolas is taking Betty from him.

I do believe that Armando would have fallen in love with Betty regardless of Eco Moda and Terra Moda.

What we have seen so far(before Nicolas was introduced as the love interest of Betty) was Armando slowly building a friendship with Betty as he was also developing feelings for her but all of a sudden these small moments of him just simply liking to spend time with Betty at the office and letting his guard down and letting her into his personal life come crashing into a wall of realization that he isn't ready to face and when he is being forced to face it he decides to deny it. Had it not happened like that I do think he would have ended up falling in love with her in the long run.

As a writer you have to think of all the possibilities that can happen. A scene you write has different alternative endings and you always go with the best one that pushes the story and the intensity forward.

So when watching the romance begin I often wonder what could have been of that scene and where that could have lead the story. When his original secretary quit because she fell in love with him the girls told Betty that Armando was never even aware of it and that he didn't even pay attention to her, it is a fact that Armando doesn't like getting involved with the employee's of Eco Moda so we can assume that it was true. After all when Bertha mentioned that Mariana had foretold that she'd quite her job Armando didn't even look fazed by it. He had no micro expressions or reaction to that. It was as if it wasn't important to him that she quit or why.

She wasn't important to him and she didn't really matter at all as he tells Betty that if she were to leave Eco Moda he would miss her.

Armando is hella drunk here. His eyes are droopy, he can't stand straight at times and he looks like he wants to run out of there.

Betty despite her feelings is trying to keep everything professional. When Armando tells her that they should cheer for something Betty cheer's for Eco Moda, now here Armando is acting. He isn't really talking with the heart.

I often talk about Armando but I am honestly so excited to finally start talking about Betty and her complexities because this romance isn't just from Armando's perspective but Betty's too and she deserves to be talked about more.

From previous episodes we know Betty had a relationship with a guy named Miguel. We know this because when Roman asked her to go out with them for the night as a joke Betty mentioned it after her Don Hermes didn't let her go and later that night after she got stood up she wrote in her diary something that personally moved me a lot.

"When will someone give me the opportunity to give them my love?"

Most times when we're watching a romantic drama or reading one we get this trope of the main character wanting to be loved themselves. They're searching for someone to love them because they've got this idea that love is meant on what others can give you. Armando is like that. He bases love on what others can give you, just like his parents and Marcela is the exact same way however real love isn't like that at all. That's being selfish.

Real love is wanting to give yourself without expecting anything in return and that's how we see Betty show her love towards Armando but the reason why it moved me so much to hear Betty say that is because she wasn't looking for someone to love her but instead she wanted to give her love, she wanted someone to give her the chance to give all the love she knew she could give to them. Betty, our sweet and kind Betty wasn't looking to be selfish in love.

However because of the fact that she did once love someone, she gave her love to someone who didn't appreciate it and just used her Betty is traumatized. It wasn't just heartbreak that she dealt with but she dealt with a humiliation that broke down her self-esteem more, ruined her self worth and killed her.

Though Betty knows she's "ugly" to people and that because of that no man will ever notice her, she believed that her love, the love she could give, would make someone love her. She believes that real love isn't based on physical attraction but rather a deep rooted spiritual connection with someone. Betty has a very beautiful understanding of love.

So it isn't just because her parents raised her to be a decent human with morals that she is keeping things professional but as a defense mechanism.

She is keeping herself away so she won't suffer again but her emotions start to win over after Armando asks her to dance.

She leans her head closer to him, not resting it on his shoulder, and we hear her inner monologue of "I can't believe it." in a hopeful and shocked tone while Armando's inner monologue is the same words his tone is disgusted.

He is disgusted to be so close to Betty, that he is dancing with an "ugly"(I always put quotation marks when I refer to Betty as ugly because she is very gorgeous to me!) woman.

When they return to the table Betty, as a concerned employee but also someone who is secretly in love with her boss respectfully tells Armando to forgive her for not minding her business but that he's drinking too much and he has to drive.

Notice the shift in tone from Armando's voice. Before he asked Betty to dance and they were talking Armando's tone was superficial. It was manipulative but this time it's careless and he's annoyed.

Again here you can notice in the same scene that shift as he lies to Betty and tells her "I'm enjoying my drinking" he shifts to look at her so they can talk better and his emotions give way here as he says "or what is it? What's your problem, Betty?" his facial expression switches to anger as he asks her in an accusing tone "or what am I so boring?"

Betty quickly tells him no "It's not that."

"Then explain it to me. Since Calderon left all you've wanted is for us to not drink, to not dance, to not do this or that. Beatriz, tell me, am I boring guy?"

I recalled Armando talking to Marcela once(when they were going to decide whether they got married though the church or court) and he told her "It's not about me. Are you sure you want to be married to me for life? I'm a really boring guy and you know that."

Here we can tell the difference in how Armando views these two women. While with Marcela he doesn't care that he's a boring guy, he does care that Betty doesn't think of him that way.

You can argue that Armando is drunk therefore he doesn't know what he's saying but he's manipulative by nature. He can do that sober or drunk and we saw that already in the scene before he asked Betty to dance. Besides have you ever heard the saying that toddlers and drunks have one thing in common and it's that they both can piss their pants but speak the truth.

Armando is a lot more drunk than he was at the start of the night with just him and Betty.

Once again Betty reassures Armando and in a loving voice tells him No , but that she understand he is worried for the company, marcela and that he is in a place unusual for him and with company he's not used to.

Really pay attention to Armando's tone. It constantly shifts from being natural to being forced. You can pick up when he is lying and being manipulative to it being honest.

Before I continue this I want to bring a detail I've noticed that came full circle the night of the museum.

Betty often tells Armando not to explain things, that she understands him. Armando however, unlike with Marcela who he just gaslights and manipulates, with Betty he constantly wants to explain things and talk them through, but Betty telling him that he understand him holds a lot of weight in their conversations because she truly does.

Armando takes in a deep breath, squints his eyes at her, before he speaks. He's thinking of what to say to her and trying to figure her out because unlike all the other women who Armando has been with(it's not because of what he said that he didn't know how to seduce an ugly woman) Betty isn't responding to any of his advances. She continues to keep things professional and behaves like a concerned employee so naturally Armando is confused and trying to figure a way to make things work.

He agrees with her about the first thing she said but disagrees about him not being in a place he'd enjoy that he's having a good time and all of that was said in a natural tone but when he leans closer and whispers drunklike "and as for the company." He widens his eyes and tells her "I love it."

Betty's eyes grow wide and she looks at him and then around. She looks surprised but also scared.

She tells him that she thinks he should drink slower or mix his drink with water and he chuckles at that.

"You're not coordinating with what you're saying."

"What? How am I not coordinating with what I'm saying?" He has a smirk on his face and turns to look at her, making eye contact he tells her "'cause I tell you Beatriz" he switches from openly speaking to now whispering as he finishes off by saying "I enjoying being with you." he says looking around the room. This represents the actual dilema he is facing. We know he does like spending time with Betty, especially in the previous days so we know that's true but notice how he was able to talk so openly before until he had to admit that he likes spending time with her. He whispered it to her and looked around the room. He knows he's somewhere that none of his friends or people in his social circle would be in so he isn't paranoid that they'll catch him. It symbolizes his inner battle. He's embarrassed to be seen with a woman like Betty, so he denies to care for her, however he admits he enjoys her company.

Now Armando lets his guard down, you can tell that he isn't as tense however still feeling nervous, he touches his upper lip and leans forward on the table "I'mma tell you something you know." he chuckles and points to Betty's drink "there with you blackberry juice" he chuckles, he finds it endearing, he touches his lips for a micro second often seen as a sign of nervousness. He's nervous to confess this to Betty or even to say it outloud.

Betty is starting at him freaked out and girl I WOULD TOO.

"See when you started working for me, if they would've fired you then I wouldn't have cared or been affected by it but now if you left I wouldn't be able to bare being without you."the haws theme song starts to play and he crazily looks around him. He really doesn't want anyone to hear him say these things because he is embarrassed to feel this way!

Betty's expression doesn't change. She's like a deer hit with headlights.

"But it's just a matter of custom. I'm sure if I left Eco Moda and I left everything organized for the new assistant they'll accomplish-" she's interrupted by an angry Armando.

As Betty was telling him this he took a drink and then started to rub his eyebrow; self soothing.

"Nonononono! I'm not talking about another assistant. " he hisses at her. "I'm saying that you," He chuckles nervously and swiftly covers his face, smiles and says "this is incredible." he fidgets with rubbing his forehead and his tone of voice is what lets us know he is being truthful to Betty. Here Armando is nervous to confess this, not only because he is confessing it to Betty but because now he has to accept it and no longer deny that he does care about Betty. He is being vulnerable.

Do you remember when you'd talk to your crush in middle school how you'd get, especially when the conversation shifted to talking about who you liked?

Armando's behavior reminds me of that.

The literal translation of what he tells her butchers the meaning as Armando tells her "Yo estoy diciendo, es increible esto, pero usted me haria falta, me haria falta como mujer."

"What I'm saying is that you, i can't believe this, is incredible, but I would feel the absence of you, the absence of you as a woman." his tone is very truthful. It isn't like before where it shifted from lying, manipulation and being somewhat truthful. Now it's coming form the heart and we later get more examples of this.

"Um sir please don't continue drinking anymore."

"Why? Why not? I need to drink, see." He drinks from his whisky. "You know why?" he shivers, slightly coughs because of it and shakes his head. "You know why I need to drink? Because I need to, I need to get out what, get out what I have inside of me about what I feel for you." Betty again is looking at him like a deer with headlights. "This is serious don't look at me like me shocked eyes. I'm going to tell you." He slurs. "Since I found out that you have a boyfriend right-"

"But I don't have a boyfriend."

"well, well, whatever, whatever he is, I don't care." He starts to angirly point his finger on the table and with a tone that matches continues "since I found out that guy Nicolas Mora exists I began to feel like bad." He's hunched forward, leaning towards the table and then turning to Betty, his face is very expressive as he shows that what is saying is hard for him to say because it pains him "like this wimper inside of me, I felt like a discomfort that I didn't like and I reflected, I started to think." He begins to act out him reflecting. "Reflecting. Armando, what's going on with you? and I discovered that I'm jealous, I'm jealous of Nicolas Mora." his eyes are wide and lips pursed, showing that he is stressed or holding back emotion.

"Sir don't joke."Betty's voice is shaky, she looks like she's got her heart in her throat as she is leaning far from him. She is afraid of what he is telling her and on guard.

"Do I look like a clown to you?" Betty shakes her head "No right? I don't play with that, Betty. I don't play with that."

Notice the shift in his tone again. It went from being his natural voice, albit drunk and slurred but still his natural tone, to now again being raspy, it's the best way I can discribe his tone which he has whenever he is being manipulative towards anyone. Armando grabs his glass to drink from it which shows us that now he no longer is being honest.

The next sequence is Armando trying to seduce Betty. She explained that she's got nothing going on with Nicolas and tries to excuse herself but Armando tells her to stay and that she isn't going anywhere.

This is him using his power of position to keep Betty in a situation she wants to run from. It is wrong. We know this and so does the writer as we get the Jaws theme song and a creepy smile from Armando. This is intended to be this way and not to be mistaken as something romantic.

He leans in closer and tells her "You fascinate me." Betty reacts to him being so close and leans forward and puckers her lips and they kiss. Armando's reaction is him being grossed out by it.

For the comedic effect Betty opens her eyes and then faints.

What do we get from this?

Armando is a piece of ish!

Now that that's out of the way.

We see Betty struggle with what's going on. She really is scared of what Armando is doing and saying because she doesn't want to have her hopes up and she's afraid of what it entitles. She doesn't want to get hurt.

Armando as always is all over the place. One moment he is angry, the next annoyed, then grossed out, and then he is being vulnerable, honest and baring his bones and then he is being manipulative. I am personally exhausted, imagine him?

Betty wakes up and apologizes, tells him she doesn't know what what's going on and that she crossed the line. She gets up and leaves and Armando goes after her.

See unlike the women of the past, the models or whatever, Betty isn't reacting like he expects her to. She isn't flirting, fawning, getting closer to him. She is in her seat silent while he speaks, telling him to stop drinking, that he doesn't know what he's saying.

Betty runs out of that place and once outside she touches her lips and thinks to herself "He kissed me, he kissed me."

I already mentioned how someone else wrote a post about Armando and the reason he doesn't date women outside of his social circle and here, now, in this scene he is going against that. He is doing the very thing that he lectured Mario about.

He used his position of power to keep Betty there. We get a scene of Armando sitting at the table with his head down and his fist clasped together, unlike with Mario who did that to show power, Armando's body language allows us to see that he is doing it to self-sooth.

I imagine that he is processing everything but mostly feeling guilty for what he is doing. Guilty for taking advantage of Betty and following through with the plan to seduce her and then it hits him that he kissed her. He touches his lips over and over again, it doesn't seem like he's wiping his lips as he gently rubs them and repeats that he kissed her. His brows furrow and instead of having a face of disgust he shows to have a face of confusion because now he is left with the feelings that that kiss produced and left in him. As well as him realizing what he is capable of doing.

Again, Armando is aware that Betty isn't society's standard of Beauty and aware that she isn't want he imagined in his perfect woman body wise, so he is grossed out by the idea of having something physical with her because of his obsession with perfection. This doesn't mean he is grossed out by her, just the idea of her, if that makes sense.

Which I know it's hard to understand, muchless explain right now but I am tired and hungry so I will leave y'all off here.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

'Til next time :)

Ps again ignore my typos.

[sweetxcharming]

Mommy!Calypso small fic (it is influenced by "Experiment on me", "Hurricane" and "Control" - Halsey)

⚠️Warning: sensitive themes, like baby loss, are explicitly showed. If it makes you feel bad, I recommend you not to read. Thank you.

Basic informations first:

Calypso is, in The Odissey, a mother. She have, with Odisseus, 3 boys. This is important;

None of her kids is mentioned by Rick. So, basically, they could easily be taken by Odisseus when he got away;

Following this idea, Calypso already lost 3 kids by the next events

"Calypso had a kid. A baby boy. Hers and Leo's. Sitting on that sofa, late at night, she just couldn't believe that she was a mother once again.

'He's pretty cute, hum?' Leo looked at his baby, named Miguel. 'He have your eyes'

'But he's a mini-you, after all' She stared at that child wrapped around a cover she herself had made. The bit of curled hair on Miguel's head, a bit lighter than his father's. But the same small nose, the same lips, not as full as hers, the same pointy ears. 'He's perfect'

'He sure is.' The demigod looked at his girlfriend and Calypso returned the stare.

She knew she wasn't 100%; she felt her hair in a loose lace, the front on her eyes. The white dress had some stains; near her breasts, down her womb. Some of milk, some of blood, some of liquids she was still putting out. She wanted to go and take another shower, but right now that wasn't important.

Her boy was.

'Hey guys, how you doi--' The couple raised their looks at the TV room's door. Apollo, with Lityerses and Jo by each of his side, stopped instantly when he saw the kid sleeping in Calypso's arms. 'What is this?'

'He's here.' Leo smiled, getting up and closer to the god. 'He finally is bor--'

'You knew it?' Apollo interrupted Leo, looking at Calypso. 'You... You knew it?'

Calypso didn't responded. She just wrapped her baby closer to her chest. Leo looked at her, then at Apollo. Jo seamed to notice something wrong, but Lit was still a bit confused.

'Of course she did?' Leo answered, letting out a dry chuckle and raising his hands, pointing at the two people behind him. 'She... Pushed him out. For, like, hours. How can she not know he was born--'

'Leo, stop' Calypso murmured.

'I'm not talking about the birth' Apollo was different. He was rude, in defensive; scared. 'I'm talking bout what was birthed--'

'My son' Calypso answered, not looking up. 'I gave birth to my son--'

'THIS IS A TITAN!' The sun god screamed, pointing with his arms in Calypso and Miguel's directions. 'THIS IS THE PROBLEM! A TITAN!'

'A... Titan?' Leo looked confused. He stared at the nymph with the baby. She looked smaller. 'H-how?'

'How you think?' Apollo sounded a bit ironic. 'Have never passed your mind that, maybe, a goddess and a demigod could have a... Devine baby? I thought you were good at maths'

'But... She's a mortal' Leo chuckle again, searching for something realistic. 'She's not a goddess anymore'

'A nymph is still a type of goddess.' Jo said. She was now in the middle of the room, maybe to stop anything that could start. 'A mortal kind. And... Calypso is a titan. A titan nymph, a titan mortal goddess'

'And you knew that?' He stared at his foster mom, turning to Calypso. 'Do you... Knew it could happen?'

'I knew' Calypso spoke, her voice cracked, her head down. Her face wasn't visible. 'I knew it was happening inside me. I knew it.'

'Why... Didn't you tell me?' Leo didn't sounded mad. He stepped down on his knees, holding her face with his both hands. 'Why you didn't told me bout our baby? I wouldn't be mad or anything. I just... It doesn't make sense to me.'

'I didn't wanted to loose another baby' She murmured, almost impossible to understand. 'I didn't wanted him to be taken too...'

Leo didn't responded. He hugged her, taking care with his son's small body. He knew bout Calypso's past. She told him, it were on books. It was just different to see all that baggage reflecting on her for the first big time.

'That's okay, that's okay, I'm here, no one is taking our baby away...'

'I wouldn't be that sure...' Apollo said, walking into the nearest chair and sitting.

Calypso raised her eyes, fear on them. She just couldn't believe she heared it.

'What?' She moved on her place, making Leo get a sit by her side, ready to take the baby from her hands. 'What do you mean by that?'

'My father can be scared of him.' He pointed to Miguel. 'He could send some gods to take this new titan. Just to don't risk anythi--'

'He's a baby.' Calypso gave her son to Leo, who wrapped him and held close to his chest, like Calypso had done. Jo walked in his direction while the nymph stood up. 'What ~risk~ he could mean to Zeus?'

'I--I mean' Apollo stuttered. 'Not that I follow his mind or his ideas--'

'You sound very hypocritical while saying that right after screaming at my baby, his father and me'

'Well, I was scared!' The god sunk on to the chair, raising his hands. The air around Calypso looked heavier, more visible. 'It is a titan, after all! Titans normally wants to kill me!'

'A baby! Do you know what it means?' She got closer. Calypso just wasn't open to acceptance. She didn't wanted to know. One hand raised in Apollo's direction, to other strongly closed. 'You were scared by a... Sleeping baby?! How can that scary Zeus?!'

Apollo got up, taking a few steps back.

'Calypso, calm down--'

'NO!' She screamed. Wind spirits rushing all around. Calypso could her Jo asking her to stop and Lityerses calling Apollo. 'YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY BABY FROM ME AGAIN! I WON'T LET YOU OR YOUR FATHER DO IT!'

'OKAY!' Apollo told her back, raising his hands. The wind slowed down and Calypso started to feel tired. 'Okay, Calypso, okay, o one will take your baby--'

'Promise. Promises me' She asked, looking straight into his eyes. 'Swear for my sister's name; swear for the River Stynx'

'I-I swear for the River Stynx' He answered. 'Gods, Calypso, I-I'm sorry, but don't do it again. Please'

She stopped, her mind coming back to normal. She looked around: everything was a mess. People were scared of the fight, scared of her. Calypso felt her legs trembling, her body getting tired, her mind running out, her vison getting dark.

Her body falling down.

She woke up clean, in her bedroom's bed. Leo was by her side, holding Miguel and singing some lullaby she didn't recognized.

'What?...'

'Good morning, Sunshine' Leo smiled at her.

'W-what happened?' She tried to get up, being stopped by a strong headache. 'Ouch! My head hurts. Leo, what happened to me? I... Had some type of... Fight with Apollo, I remember that. But... How did I got here?'

'Me, Jo and Emmie took you here.' He changed his arms that where holding the baby, shaking from one side to the other. 'They cleaned you, changed you. I took care of this little buddy and you all the time after the shower. Are you okay now?'

Calypso lookd at the sheets. She felt bad for her reaction. She knew Apollo didn't mean to be rude or bad or offensive. But she just couldn't hold herself.

She also reacted out of fear.

'I'm sorry' Calypso murmured, not looking up. 'I'm sorry for what happened, you must be scared of me--'

'Why would I?' Leo smiled, taking her chin with one hand, holding the baby with the other. 'You protected me, and my baby. Our baby. I would have done the same, in your position.'

'No, Leo, you don't understand--'

'I do.' He looked at her deeply. 'They took my mother from me. They took my friends. They took my childhood, my teenager years. They took me, even tho I escaped them.' Leo's eyes were strong, hurted. Not even close to that glowing look he always have up, no, a more adult feeling on them this time. 'If you didn't had reacted, I would do. I'm not gonna let them hurt me anymore, and this includes not hurting you and not hurting this small one. No need to say sorry for that, I'm fine.'

Calypso couldn't belive. She let herself fall back on the bed, looking at the ceiling.

'But what about ny powers? They have not been like... That, after we got out of Ogigya. That didn't scared you?'

'Well, kind of, but not in a traumatizing style.' He put Miguel down on the bed, between them. 'And also, I almost put the bedroom in flames when we first had sex, and you still by my side, even after years of the same accident happening times to times. That's no big deal to us, being in between scaring situations, hum?'

'You really compared me bringing spirits to the TV room in the intention to kill a god to us having sex?' Calypso smiled sideways, looking at Leo.

'Not to us having sex, but me almost killing you during sex. See? Alike situations.'

'No, they're not'

'Yeah, they are, but you are tired, your mind isn't 100% yet to see it' He laughed. Calypso pushed him from his knees, not hiding her big smile.

'Okay, gimme the baby, I have to feed him.' Leo helped her to get up, passing Miguel to his mother as soon as possible. It wasn't hard for her to breastfeed after so many time, but surely a but strange. Calypso was happy to be at that position once again. 'Thank you for understanding me. I don't know, I just felt like you would be mad and... I don't know.'

'That's fine, Calie. That's okay.' Leo got closer to her, looking at the baby. 'Everything is going to be fine, all the three of us will be fine. No one is going to hurt us anymore. Right, mijo?' He played with the baby's chin.

Calypso let out a small laugh.

'I hope so' She stared at the world outside the window, the sun coming in, ignoring the clouds that tried to hide it. 'I do hope so'"

[torishasupremacy]

Ok so sorta a kiaz hc but I’m interested to hear the reactions of Johnny and Carmen and their friends to their relationship.

oooh I love writing people’s reactions in-universe to my favorite ships so here’s what I got for each character

Johnny - once he understands that robby and miguel are, like, dating, he’s very surprised. he’s happy that his boys are getting along but it kinda forces him to be a better father because now he can’t have miguel in his life without having robby (who in the past he’s had no problem prioritizing below miguel) in it as well. it’s also weirder when miguel asks for dating advice because he’s asking about johnny’s son and johnny really doesn’t want to say the wrong thing and mess it up for them

Carmen - she’s surprised that miguel is dating a boy. then she’s happy that miguel is happy. then she’s very confused, alarmed, and generally startled that miguel is dating his rival/his sensei’s son/the guy who broke his back. she’s very wary of robby but after several weeks of him dating miguel she sees that he’s a good kid who’s sorry about what he did and is head over heels for her son. he’s very apologetic and almost shy towards her but once she starts to get used to the idea of forgiving him and miguel dating him they get along pretty well

Rosa - she immediately accepts robby as part of the family after saying something in spanish about the sexual tension during their tournament match  together. miguel protests this and carmen is like “well I wasn't going to say anything but she does have a point” and robby who is nowhere near fluent in spanish has no idea what’s going on

Daniel - really, he’s just confused about how this happened. so confused. it really hits him out of nowhere. to be fair, this is the same guy that constantly had sam and robby making eyes at each other while training (while robby was shirtless half of the time) and assumed they were just pals. he’s happy for robby and worried that johnny won’t be cool about it (but he is). but he’s mostly  confused

Sam - it’s actually pretty weird for her, her exes dating one another, but she’s so glad they’re getting along. sometimes she wonders if she drove them together, or if her relationships with them drove them apart when they could’ve been friends or dating sooner. but she’s happy to hang out with them and it makes all of their interactions a lot less tense

Hawk - he’s honestly a little angry about it. he Does Not like robby. and he doesn’t like the fact that robby is dating his bro after he injured miguel. the two are rather passive aggressive toward one another, mostly with hawk starting it and robby retaliating, but when hawk notices that miguel isn’t happy with how his best friend and boyfriend don’t get along, he tones it down

Tory - when she first hears about them, she thinks it’s a joke and starts laughing. then she realizes it’s not a joke and is super confused. then she starts laughing again. she’s pretty chill about it and will tease miguel, who she’s friends with. she also gets to know robby better through miguel, and they bond over similar backgrounds, though they’re not super great friends or anything

Moon - she doesn’t even know either of them well but she’s just so happy that there’s one less karate rivalry in the valley that she’s incessantly positive about the peace it’s made

Demetri and Aisha - when they first heard about it, they said, in unison, “it’s about time” and went back to whatever they were doing, probably eating lunch. everyone else, who absolutely was not expecting it, demands to know how those two figured it out ages ago. neither of them will explain. aisha does say that they were betting on it and now demetri owes her twenty dollars. demetri says that he’d hoped she had forgotten about that

[strawberrywritings]

Second problem.

A/N: I am an hour late to posting this and i haven’t proofread, but to make up for it: Señor Galindo makes another appearance! I honestly hope i managed to tag everyone because sometimes i lose a username (sorry in advance)🙈 

Hope you like this chapter, ad if you want, let me know what you think in my askbox xx 🍓

ps: look how cute Angel is when he sleeps!!!!!

/ Previous parts

The next hour and a half went by in a blur. You and Angel sat on the sofa as he proceeded to explain to you everything about what he did with the club: the drugs, the tunnels, his past, his mom. Multiple glasses of water later, there was a thick silence in the room, your arms were crossed over your chest as you stared everywhere but him, and he sat there defeated, because he knew what was coming: heartbreak.

He was the first to break the silence, “I opened up myself to you, please say something”. His voice was desperate and your heart ached. “I don’t know what to say. This is… a lot”, you had tears in your eyes, and he might not be a genius like EZ, but he could see how uncomfortable he had made you. And he hated himself for it. He nodded in understanding, and you spoke again, your voice wavering. “I just… I hope you can understand this isn’t easy for me”, rejection was coming Angels’ way, he was sure of it, so he did what he did best: building his walls back and acting as if he wasn’t breaking inside.

“It wasn’t easy for me to tell you all of that shit, either”, his voice got rougher and you looked at him, a frown on your face as your tone got firmer, too. “Well, I’m sorry I’m not used to all of this drug bullshit. – you looked at him, and while the strong façade you had put on started to crumble, Angel’s eyes stayed hard, staring into yours – I’m sorry I’m not from your world, I’m sorry I can’t understand what you’re going through. I can try, for you, but now I just need to come to terms with everything you told me. This may be just another day to you, but not for me. All I’m asking is some time”, you finished your rant with a sob, and his gaze softened at seeing you like that, he wanted to hug you so bad, but he was playing the role of the big bad biker and couldn’t get out of character now. El Pardino’s words echoed in his mind, “If she doesn’t accept it, you just let her go”. He was too afraid of losing you, and he thought that acting like this would make it hurt less. “Call me when you wanna talk”, he got up, making his way to the door and getting out of your house, not looking back.

You remained on the couch, the same couch you and Angel had spent so much time making out and cuddling on, it had become a place for sadness. You cried, and doubted your feelings towards him: was this a sign that it was best to break up with him? Could you take what came with this life? Would this happen again? That night, you couldn’t sleep. Every time you closed your eyes, your saw the pictures again, and every time it was hard to breath. Angel rode home, entering his apartment as if he was in a daze, he walked straight to the cupboard ad grabbed a bottle of tequila, drowning his feelings in alcohol and weed. He drank to escape his reality, to pretend that everything was fine, just for one night.

/

Angel arrived at the yard late, but when he did show up, everyone could see he looked like shit. He didn’t say a word to anyone and walked straight to the bar, asking Chucky for a bottle of water and some painkillers for his terrible headache. He kept quiet for most of the morning, and then lunchbreak came, so he sat at a random table and began eating. “Ain’t your girl coming around, today? – Coco spoke, plopping down next to his best friend – you could use some tlc to get that fucking shitty mood off yourself”. Angel winced at the mention of you, and Coco looked at him, his brows furrowed. “Nah, I’m good”, Angel replied and continued to eat; his friend kept quiet but looked at EZ, who just shook his head, signaling he also didn’t know what was going on.

In the afternoon, after work, EZ (poor guy, always babysitting and taking care of the others) had to snatch away his brother’s third beer, telling him to go home and get his shit together. That had made Angel scowl at him. “Mind your fucking business, prospect”, he spat the last word like it was an insult. Everyone was silent, not daring to challenge him if he was in a bad mood. Angel didn’t say anything else as he grabbed his stuff and stormed out the clubhouse, Coco going after him. “Hey, hermano, where ya going?”. “Home”. “Talk to me, c’mon”, Coco grabbed his arm and Angel yanked it away harshly, turning towards the other man and looking at him with angry eyes. “I told her everything and she said some shit about needing her space”, Angel huffed out and put his helmet on. “Everything?”. “Everything, Coco. And now I am alone again. I’d appreciate all of you not pouring salt into the wound and just letting me be”. He started his bike and sped off the parking lot, leaving a stunned Coco standing there. When he went back inside and relayed the information to his brothers, they all felt sorry for him and agreed that it would be best to leave him some time to cool off. Nonetheless, the old Angel was, seemingly, back.

/

You, on your end, weren’t doing much better. You had cried yourself to sleep on the couch, woke up late and had to rush to work. All day, you couldn’t think about anything other than the man that had been in your life for the past months. Luck didn’t seem to be on your side: as soon as the bell rang, marking the start of lunch time, you smelled a familiar cologne, and you turned just in time to see Miguel Galindo approaching you; he was wearing an almond-coloured suit with the usual white shirt underneath, perfectly complementing his skin. He invited you to have lunch with him at the same café you had been to a couple of weeks prior, and you figured you could use some distraction.

Miguel had done his homework: he had Nestor find out what he could about you, where you were from, what schools you attended, how you got to Santo Padre. Knowing all these things (but bringing them up in a way you wouldn’t be able to know he knew), it was easy for him to hold a conversation with you, even though he noticed how you seemed to space out from time to time.

“Is everything alright?”, he politely asked. You were brought out of your thoughts, and you softly smiled at him. “Yes, I’m sorry, I zoned out”, you apologetically smiled and shook your head. “Something’s bothering you?”, he asked, straightening up and leaning forward towards you. “Just… a rough night. Nothing that a good night of relax can’t fix”, you lied, still smiling at him and looking at the time on your phone. “I should probably get back, I have a class in 15 minutes”, you got up and gathered your things in your purse, grabbing the check, which was immediately snatched from your hand. “I’m not letting you pay, señorita. It was my pleasure to have lunch with you”, his hand brushed the small of your back, almost imperceptibly, and he said something to the waiter, who nodded and Miguel led you out of the place.

/

You were talking by the entrance of the school, just after the bell rang, when you heard the roar of a bike approaching. Instinctively, you averted your gaze from the man in front of you just in time for EZ to climb off his bike and spot you, and spot Miguel: Taza had sent him to see what was wrong with Angel.

“Hey”, he shortly greeted you with a smile, his eyes meeting Miguel’s, who was standing way too close to you for EZ’s liking. “Prospect – Miguel said, an amused smile on his face – what brings you here?”. “Family business, actually. – the prospect turned to you and smiled, completely ignoring the look on the other man’s face – got a minute?”. You nodded and turned to Miguel, “I’m sorry, I have to go”. “Don’t worry, we’ll catch up some other time”, he leaned in and kissed your cheek, a common greeting. EZ looked at the two of you with wide eyes, but as soon as he could, he dragged you over to where his bike was parked but didn’t let go of your arm. He asked you what happened with Angel and you gave him a brief explanation, you really didn’t want to think about last night, or Angel, at all at the moment, and he felt it, too, so he let you be.

“And what the hell was that? Galindo? Really?”, he crossed his arms on his chest and you did the same, not liking the implications of his tone. “It was just lunch. God forbid I relax for an hour, eh? You and club have all these girls around, ready to throw themselves at you – and don’t say it’s not true or it doesn’t matter, Ezekiel. I’ve seen the way they look at y’all, at Angel… I had a shitty night and for once someone manages to get my mind off that, and it’s a problem?”, tears were threatening to spill from your eyes, all the emotions you held inside, spilling out. He never meant to insinuate something, and the fact that you were feeling like shit, just like his brother, meant that the discussion had taken a toll on you, too. Still, it didn’t change the fact that it was Miguel Galindo who helped you take your mind off of Angel.

You sniffled and lowered your head to regain some composure, first of all, because you were in public and secondly because you knew that your outburst to EZ was uncalled for, and he didn’t deserve it. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to. – you said and he nodded, his gaze was full of understanding, but you still felt bad – I have to go, now. I’ll see you”, and with that, you made your way to your car and left. EZ followed your car with his eyes, and when he was sure you couldn’t see him, he got out his phone and called his brother. “Angel, you gotta get your girl back, rápido”.

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[indecisive-behaviors]

Okay so I just reblogged a thing talking about season 2 and 3 of Cobra Kai and I have some Thoughts about what they did to everyone’s character arcs in this so if you’d like a rant it’s under the cut with spoilers from all 3 seasons plus spoilers for all 3 Karate Kid movies

Okay so my issues start with one very key scene that I personally think fucked up the whole rest of the narrative, and by extension everyone else’s character arcs: which is from Different but Same. And no not that scene- not yet at least.

The first scene that I think fucked over the narrative and killed several character arcs was the beach scene. Miguel, reasonably distraught over the idea that Sam is hiding him from her dad(which she is actually doing to be fair), gets completely drunk and when Sam and Robby arrive together he loses it, pushes Sam and subsequently gets dumped. Now why do I think this ruined everything? It completely goes against Miguel’s character up to this point. Miguel is absolutely trying to mimic Johnny in a lot of key ways but also up to this point Miguel has also been Johnny’s conscience; he’s smart and kind and had not at all shown to be anything even close to what Johnny was in KK1. He’s stood up for his friends, defended the girl he likes from bullies, he’s a huge mama’s boy and a bit of a hopeless romantic. In no episode up until that point does he ever display any tendency towards unnecessary violence, despite Johnny’s “strike first” motto. Miguel getting wasted and violent does not add up in my mind. Miguel is supposed to be a narrative parallel to Daniel for fuck sake. Also, and this is my main complaint, there is no fucking reason for Miguel to immediately jump to the conclusion that Sam is seeing Robby- literally none. They look very much alike, hell Robby looks a little like Amanda honestly, he could very well be her cousin for all Miguel knows. Robby and Sam don’t even act like a couple in the shot- they’re literally just sitting next to each other at family dinner. None of this subplot makes any fucking sense.

And then, obviously, there’s the very next scene- Johnny goes with Daniel back to his place, tipsy and happy and seemingly in a very good place with each other. Then Robby shows up, Johnny loses his shit and Daniel proceeds to get pissed and kick Robby out. Now there is one thing I point out about this scene whenever I talk about it that doesn’t add up: no where in this scene is it ever even implied that either Johnny or Daniel know about Robby’s original intentions. (Also nothing up till that point ever even establishes why Robby knows about Daniel and Johnny’s rivalry in the first fucking place for the record). There is no reason for Johnny to suspect that Daniel knew and was hiding it, or even that Robby was doing it on purpose, and there is no reason for Daniel to get mad or even suspect that Robby knew what he was doing or was lying about it; and the fact of the matter is that Robby never actually lied(also Daniel never fucking asked) about his home situation. His mom was neglectful and an addict, and his father wasn’t in the picture. That’s it, and none of that was a lie. Now I’m not sitting here and denying that what Robby did was wrong because it absolutely was-- it was manipulative and unfair to Daniel and he had a right to be angry when he found out it was the case but there is nothing to suggest that he didn’t just jump to conclusions. And also, personally, I don’t think any of that justifies kicking a teenager to the curb, and one that Daniel explicitly knows has no one and nothing to fall back on. Be angry, be furious with Robby, but leaving a teenager to fend for themselves is cruel and completely unjustifiable behavior from a grown ass adult(also there’s a whole can of worms involved in Daniel never trying to figure out where the fuck Robby’s parents are and letting him live there without an explanation but that’s for a different rant).

Now assume none of that weird subplot happens, there is another way to have the Robby and Miguel rivalry that would have made so much more fucking sense and it only hinges on one fucking thing- Robby enters the tournament. It could be with or without Daniel’s approval(maybe even with a KK3 parallel, but Daniel honestly seems pretty into the tournament these days so he’d probably be down for Robby joining and reping Miyagi-do), but all we need is for him to do it.  Robby gets there, and Johnny sees him, potentially rocking a Miyagi-do gi and can have his surprised/hurt moment with him and Daniel, even potentially a confrontation between them. We can also still have Miguel beating Robby in the tournament and having Johnny be conflicted about his son losing. Hawk can even still hurt him and give Johnny his “holy shit this is wrong” epiphany and Miguel not understanding why Johnny wants him to go easy on Robby. Robby can still be hurt and upset by thinking Johnny cares more about Miguel after he loses.

Okay now as for season 2? Assuming everything stays the same in season 1, I have one MAJOR complaint. Robby becoming Sam’s love interest; and no it’s not because I think Miguel and Sam should be an endgame couple when the show is over(I do but that’s beside the point) but because it turns Sam into a plot device. This carries over into season 3 where she starts dating Miguel again and apparently just never breaks it off with Robby which is such a dick move I can not for the life of me imagine Sam of all fucking people doing it. She isn’t perfect by any means but she’s also outspoken and and much more confident by that point and should not have had a problem breaking up with someone in an email. But I digress, back to season 2- the moment I saw that Sam and Robby were going to be a couple I immediately knew the writers fucked up. There was no build up for it, nothing in season 1 to foreshadow this as a possibility(Different but Same doesn’t count because that was a whiplash of an episode) and they just decided offhandedly to put her in the middle of Robby’s and Miguel’s rivalry. There was no reason to make them a couple other than to fuck with Miguel and set up the Tory & Sam rivalry which could have happened fucking anyway with the shit at the country club, the rift between Sam and Aisha, and Miguel’s ongoing feelings for Sam even after he’s dating Tory(also a dick move what the fuck Miguel??). Adding Robby as fuel to the fire was super unnecessary and all it did was set up the clusterfuck that was the season 2 finale.

And OH BOY was that finale a clusterfuck. First of all, as a prelude- Fuck. Daniel. He pulled the exact same shit as in season 1 with dumping Robby the second he does anything even a little bit wrong. But also, as a gut punch, Robby didn’t actually do anything wrong. What was he supposed to do at the party? He couldn’t stop Sam from drinking even though he wanted to, it was her (very poor) choice. But he did what he could, he kept an eye on her, and when the cops showed up, he didn’t just leave her, he put her in the car and drove her somewhere he thought she’d be safe without having to immediately face her father(who super fucking overreacted btw) while she was recovering. This scene, which could have been an excellent bonding moment for Johnny and Robby, and an introduction to Sam getting to know Johnny outside of her father’s influence, was turned into a brawl for no fucking reason. 

Which leads me to the school fight. And right off the bat I’ve got to say this; even as, and maybe especially as, a person who has written post season 3 fix it fics, there is no way for Robby and Miguel to convincingly fix what happened in the season 2 finale. Yes, what Robby did was absolutely an accident and he has already done his time for it. But the elephant in the room is this: Miguel could have died. Or at the very least, been totally paralyzed. There is not a good way to come back from that. They will always have that hanging over their heads, even if they somehow reach an understanding. And I know someone is going to try and make the argument about that being a parallel to Johnny and Daniel in KK1, but if it is that it’s a terrible parallel. What Johnny did was supremely fucked up and I won’t deny that, especially with the Halloween scene and Daniel’s knee in the tournament(which actually was technically more Bobby’s doing, but I digress), but it was never “almost permanently disable/kill someone” bad. (Again there’s a whole can of worms to open about the shit with Chozen and Daniel’s seemingly pretty easy forgiveness of a man who tried to kill him because what the fuck?? But again that’s another rant.) But the writers wanted to push the envelope so now Johnny will always have the tug of war of choosing Robby, who he loves but who also really fucked up, and Miguel, who was the original reason for the rivalry in the first place but who was also the one who, again, almost died because of his son, even if he somehow fixes his relationship with both. It will always be “why did you pick him over me?” and Johnny will never have a good enough answer for either of them. And finally the big complaint- Johnny completely regressing in season 3. Season 3 honestly felt like a rehashing of season 1 because we literally had to see him progress in his arc all over again from square fucking one. He still isn’t there for Robby, he’s still fucking up things with Miguel and his family, he’s still fucking up his relationship with Daniel, he still chooses to miss his appointment with Robby to see Miguel(who would have been there after the appointment and he could have seen him then), he abandons half of his fucking students to fend for themselves and leaves the other half with a man he knows is a dangerous psychopath. And yes we get the cool scene at the end of December 19, but is it worth it?? I’m genuinely asking because, as much as I love that scene, I really don’t believe it is.(edit: Also fuck that whole subplot with Eli and Demetri- you don’t get to just break the arm of the boy who was your best friend and just have that go away with no repercussions. Fuck. That. I hope Demetri gets at minimum an actual on screen apology, and hopefully Eli actually trying to make amends.)

We could have still had the big team up- have Johnny admit to Daniel that he’s fucked up and tell him everything that’s happening with Kreese. Have them join forces to defeat Kreese in the tournament. Have the dumb fucking bet. Introduce Terry Silver in season 4. Have Johnny’s and Daniel’s tenuous truce strained at every turn because they’re idiots. Do all of it. But y’know what? We could have had all of that- all of it- without it being at the expense of at least 2 character arcs; Johnny’s and also Robby’s.

Also before I end this I just have to add- nothing and I mean nothing will ever redeem Kreese or Silver for me. I do not give a singular shit about either of their tragic backstories, I just don’t. I get why and how Chozen got his redemption- he was a teenager when that shit happened, and while the shit he pulled is personally unforgivable in my opinion, he has actively been trying to redeem himself by spending the last however many decades making it up to his community. I’d even understand a Barnes redemption to an extent, even though I wouldn’t accept it, because he was also very young and being manipulated by, again, a dangerous psychopath. But Kreese and Silver? Abso-fucking-lutely not. They were two grown ass adults who purposefully targeted an 18 year old and put him through emotional and physical for weeks, paid someone to intimidate him through both threats of physical violence but also through vandalism, and gaslighted him and isolated him from the only family he had at the time because he beat them in a children’s karate competition. Look, I’m not sorry, I don’t give a fuck about Kreese’s tragic backstory, nothing about what Kreese has done can be rationalized by just saying “oh his mom and girlfriend died and he was in ‘Nam”. And any good thing he does for Tory, or even Robby, does not balance out all the harm he has caused. Silver is even less redeemable- I don’t care that he almost died in war, I’m an army brat I know plenty of people who almost died and don’t act like this. In canon we have evidence of him being completely, unrepentantly evil- the first scene with him in it has him basically confirmed as the BP of nuclear waste, he pays people so he can beat them up, he’s been personally funding Kreese’s child indoctrination classes. They could pull out the saddest backstory for him possible and I would not give a shit. And that’s fine. We don’t need every bad guy to have a tragic backstory- sometimes an evil villain can just be an evil villain for no reason, not all of them need a traumatic turning point that the authors shove in to make the audience sympathize with them. So please, writers, stop trying to make me feel sorry for them because I really don’t and I don’t understand anyone who does.

Okay rant over.

[cloveroctobers]

BLAKE JOLLEY —

IG info/bio: @/jollyblke | 8.4k followers | Activist | I’m here to save the world, it’s my right. & You should care about your environment too, get active. If not? Leave. Visit: theindigenousmovement.com

22 (23) years old

From Kensington, England

Choctaw nation & proud

Visits Oklahoma every other summer...sometimes it’s every few years

Majority of her family lives there on a reservation

She’s made a name for herself in the town for speaking up for the missing and m*rdered women of her community & how they continue to sweep that shit under the rug

Call it what it is, genocide

Has been arrested & charged a few times

Has a sense of dread when she goes back but also a form of happiness since her mom, some of her sibs, and other family members are there

Has 7 siblings

4 boys, 3 girls

Chelsea found that so facisinating!

I feel like there’s two sides to Blake? Either she’s rooting for you or she’s shitting you, there’s no in between

Willing to communicate & have intellectual conversations

Has to be in the mood to socialize, sometimes she just prefers NOT to talk since that requires energy

Always tired, doesn’t sleep much, probably has insomnia a little bit

Was on the debate team in secondary

Either you like her or you hate her, either way that’s a you problem

Kinda a loner, keeps to herself—always feeling like people should be doing more with their time on this earth

But she also understands that there are moments where you need to chill/relax/ have fun or take some time out for yourself

Donates to woman’s shelters often

Attends & organizes protests

Minimal makeup: mascara, nude blush, moisturizer mixed with sunscreen, a lip tint & she’s on her way

Knows how to ride a bull but will only do so if she’s back in Oklahoma

Knows how to work a g*n & is licensed to carry but prefers not to

Enjoys cliff diving & swimming as a form of exercise (not counting the hr long protests she travels to & attends)

Will do leg exercises more than anything at home, does not have a gym membership & will never get one

Favorite color is in the tropical blue shades: turquoise & aqua

Her home is her personal sanctuary, where she feels the most safe & allowed to be herself. Doesn’t invite anyone over to mess with the energy she has there, afraid that they’ll ruin that. She’ll meet you somewhere but one thing you’re not going to do is come into her space

Always has kale & quinoa in her flat

Has a chronic stomach condition

She’s a very blunt person & many don’t take that lightly, she doesn’t sugarcoat anything

Doesn’t have much experience in the love department

A few have tried but she either ignores them or tells them straight up that she’s not interested, always was focused on her school work & other things

That’s why she’s single

Now that she’s in her early twenties she feels like that she needs to experience love

She feels like she wants it? However a part of her isn’t sure if it’s something that she truly needs?

Possibly aromantic?

so when she met henrik, she immediately felt platonic energy with him & didn’t mind exploring it but also found noah quite aesthetically attractive?

Henrik fit into her lifestyle nicely outside of the villa, it was nice having someone else to talk to & spend time with. She wasn’t sure how she was meant to feel when he asked her to be his gf inside & outside the villa but she agreed so why not?

Her mother felt like she shouldn’t analyze the boy as if he was some sort of experiment, Blake did like watching experimental movies/documentaries based on true events or reading about them but she truly did not feel like that’s what she was doing with henrik

They had their differences ofc, henrik was more easy going/chill when it came to things whereas Blake observed before she attacked. If It don’t sit right with her, she’s gonna say some shit

She was the one to call it quits with henrik after almost two years passed

She was not heartbroken over it but she did realize how things changed now that he was no longer in her life

Loves clothing that have slits in them or v-necks

Loves going to flower shops since they remind her of her mom

I feel like she smells like cherries & cashmere musk

Adores sunsets, that’s the time of day where she feels most at ease

Interested in photography & is currently exploring what is her best subject to shoot...her activism helps

she hopes to have her own biography made about her one day

learning to gradually let her walls down but it’s extremely hard to do with the negative energy the world brings

Is cordial with mc...after some years have passed and they and their significant other always feel the need to have meet ups once a year where they invite EVERYONE somewhere else

Blake feels like they still have ties with the production company of love island but that’s not her business

Unless her services are truly required and the $ is right or if Elisa decides to drag her then she’s not going

Being on reality tv was not her main purpose

She hated the superficial and trying hard, things should just be natural

She’s above love island now & she doesn’t need to see henrik or Lucas OR single Noah every year

Her profile is filled with activism and how people can get involved

Along with a good dump of her face, she knew she was pretty but she didn’t need to use that to her advantage there was, “more to life than shallowness”

She barely remembers the other girls she entered the villa with. she thinks one or two tried to reach out to her in her dms but she ignored them

Is indifferent towards Shannon & jo

she gets jo confused with lily from season 3 when they both pop up on her explore feed. Again she doesn’t know why insta feels the need to show her other people’s lives if she’s not following them in the first place?

Doesn’t follow people back unless she’s got a strong platonic connection with you

Has lunch & dinner dates with her dad since he resides in England as well

She believes her parents marriage is a reflection on her non-existent/small percentage of relationships

They live in two different countries and they’ve been married for 15 years & still seem to be in love...hey whatever works! It works for Dolly Parton & her husband although they live in the same house? I think

On the outside it seems like she has a cold heart and many around her have told her mainly her sibs but she doesn’t believe that’s completely true

She has feelings!

If she was truly cold hearted, she wouldn’t have any remorse for the bad she’s done or wouldn’t be fighting for those who deserve it right?

Cap sun + Scorpio moon + sag rising

Thinks Mena Massoud, Rami Malek, Ben Hardy, Rahul Kohli, Kurt Cobain, Manish Dayal, Janel Parrish, Charles Melton, Manny Jacinto, Miguel Gomez, & Clayton Cardenas are all nice to look at

Listens to: Yuna, Aly & AJ, Pip Millett, Jaz Kris, Sinhead Harnett, Iyamah, James Vickery, Maluma, Kanye West, emotional oranges, & Jimmie allen

Anthem? Hope Tala — All My girls like to fight

[peeterparkr]

limits of desire⤳t.h.||17

chapter 17: tying the knot. 

story summary: you met Tom a night he was trying to sleep with you, it didn’t work and you became best of friends. Wedding bells might be ringing for when you both realize what you really feel.

summary: the one with the headlines

pairing: fuckboy!tom holland x best friend!reader

warnings: swearing, angsty ish, lizzie, angsty,  didn’t proof read

word count: 4.5k

songs i recommend listening while reading:

Falling-Harry Styles

Before You Go-Lewis Capaldi

Stone Cold-Demi Lovato

Wrong Direction-Hailee Steinfeld

Unsteady--X Ambassadors

Instead-Blake McGrath

apple music playlist

:)

  previous chapter next chapter series masterlist wanna be tagged?

“SpiderMan actor Tom Holland swings to try and stop a wedding.” 

“Tom Holland pulls a rom-com stunt this time.” 

“Seems like not even  Spiderman can swing himself out of a rejection.” 

“Tom Holland is horribly rejected as he tried to stop his best friend’s wedding.”

“This girl lived the dream and DARED to reject Tom Holland as he stopped her wedding to tell her he loved her.” 

“Who is y/n y/l/n? Everything you need to know about the girl who rejected Tom Holland.” 

Buzzfeed quiz: Who are you from the video of the girl who rejected Tom Holland? 

Haz was such a real mood but the girl with the red dress was all of us. 

Youtube: Trending: Tom Holland stops a wedding and gets rejected. 

Twitter:  Trending #Y/NWTF Tom Holland

Chaos. Tom’s name was known around the world, that’s for sure. But right now, his name was besides headlines that were not so pleasing. He didn’t know. But the whole world had seen Tom Holland pull a stunt which he was probably not proud of. 

It was everywhere. 

Everyone was talking about it. And y/n had been attacked several times. Everyone in the fandom had turned around to hate y/n. And she had disappeared, on every single social media. Could anyone blame her?  Nobody knew anything about her. Had she married Miguel? Did she look up for Tom? 

Why had she dared to reject Tom Holland? That was the big question. Because, of course, who in their right mind dares to reject him? 

And seemed like everybody had an opinion about it. And it had been only hours from it and the headlines had started. But now it’d been days. And Tom didn’t know about the chaos. 

Tom had been quiet. None of his friends had asked him about it, because they knew that this was the hardest thing he’d ever gone through. He hadn’t checked his phone once. 

He hadn’t done anything. His brothers had to pack up for him and they had helped him at the airport. They were back in London. They had been for a few days now. 

All of them were watching him stare blankly at the window. He didn’t say any single word. They didn’t push him. How could they, though?

It was a miracle that Tom was still able to walk and breathe. 

What they didn’t know was that Tom was going over the conversations he had had with y/n on the night before, wondering if there was any kind of hint that revealed her sudden harsh and stupid decision. 

He thought he should’ve stayed at the restaurant. He shouldn’t have gone to the wedding. Because y/n never liked any stunt. She never liked the spotlight, she liked to disappear, she liked to be invisible. And he had put her right on the spotlight.  Maybe that was the mistake. Or did she really not want him? 

Was she now happily married to Miguel? Was she on her way to her honeymoon? 

They didn’t know what had happened after they had left, at least Tom didn’t. He knew, however, that they had probably updated Haz or Tuwaine of the situation. And if they hadn’t told him anything, y/n was probably married by now. And he didn’t know anything about the headlines, yet. 

Tom wondered what he had done wrong. 

“Would it be too bad?” Y/N had asked. “If I asked to spend little time with you, or a lot of time with you.” 

“I’m sure Miguel wouldn’t like that.” 

She frowned. “I never said anything about him.” 

“It’s implied,” Tom sighed. 

“But would you?” 

“What?”

“Would you like it if I asked you to spend time with me?” 

Tom looked at her. “Maybe.” 

“You know Tom, I’m very inexperienced at all this love thing, that’s why I tend to do mistakes, but I know deep inside—“

“That Miguel isn’t one?” 

She stayed quiet. “I just can’t afford being broken. I don’t think my heart could handle that much, but then again—” 

“With me?” 

“With you, I’m at risk, Tom. I know it, that’s how it’d go, me fearing for yet another rejection,” she sighed. “And besides, your crazy life is…”

“You’ve handled it before,” Tom said. 

“Everyone in the world knows who you are,” she said. “And I’m someone who barely has any spotlight. Maybe that could make us work, I wouldn’t steal your thunder.” 

But Tom wondered why she thought she was nothing, after all, he was perfectly aware that everyone in the room would stop to stare whenever she walked in. He knew that she needed just one smile to make anybody fall in love with her. He knew everybody leaned over to listen to her whispers because everybody wanted to listen. 

Y/N had something very powerful, something that made her special. The only problem was she didn’t see it, she never saw it. She was always putting everyone else before her. 

“You always have the spotlight,” he said. “At least to me.” 

“Ah, cut off the cheesy statements,” she chuckled. “But would you stay?” 

“I don’t—I don’t think I could,” he admitted. 

“My heart couldn’t handle it,” she said. “I know it, seeing you everywhere. Pictures here, and there. Movies. Songs.” 

“Songs?” 

“Would it be too cheesy to say every song might remind me of you?” She wondered. “Would it be too cheesy if I said that the moon wouldn’t be as bright?” 

“It would be too cheesy….” He laughed. 

“But?”

“But then again, I know you’re telling the truth.” 

She looked at him. “Then I think about it, if I were to choose you.”

“You won’t.” 

“You’re very clear on that,” she frowned. 

“I don’t want you to, I know I’m a big handful of trouble,” Tom said. 

She laughed. “We’ve been friends for a while now, I know that, and I didn’t mind.” 

He watched her. 

“What if we disappeared?” She asked. “I love doing that. Being invisible.”

“I know.” 

“You know?” 

“And with me, you can’t be invisible, that’s another reason why you won’t choose me,” he pushed. 

“We are invisible tonight,” she stared at him. 

“Are we, really? We’re at risk right now.” 

“The thing is, I love risk,” she said. 

“I want you to be happy, y/n.” 

She looked at him. “It’s funny you say that, everybody keeps on saying that. Even Miguel. But nobody knows what would make me happy.” 

“What would?” 

“Not having this mess, for starters,” she shrugged. “But right now it doesn’t matter.” 

“Y/N.” 

“We said we only had tonight, right?” 

“Right.” 

She stared at him. “Really, Tom, would it be a sin if I asked you to be my tomorrow, too?” 

Tom bit his lip. “You wouldn’t.” 

She didn’t say anything. 

“I miss thinking my feelings were one sided,” she admitted. 

“What?” He chuckled, confused. 

“Everything was less complicated back then,” she added. 

Tom smiled. “I thought my feelings were one sided too,” he admitted. 

“What?” She sat up. “Oh my god, really? You never saw it?” 

Tom shook his head. “That’s why I backed away! I mean—“

“You’re always oblivious,” she nodded, “but I didn’t think you were that naive…” 

Tom blushed. “I’m stupid.” 

“Okay, when—at Andrew’s wedding,” she started, as she was mapping her thoughts. “Alright, there,” she looked at him whimsically. “What—what did you think happened before you knew—all this?” 

Tom had to sit up to rub his face. “I thought you were—I thought you were—I don’t know,” he bit his lip, “I was confused, because the girl I loved was—first saying everything she was saying,” he smiled, “You know, the vows… and when we danced I got lost—gosh this is going to sound cheesy—“

She chuckled, “go on, I don’t care how cheesy, I bet I’ve said cheesier stuff.” 

“I got lost in your eyes,” Tom admitted embarrassed. “And—I didn’t understand why you left,” he sighed. “I guess that was the first time I understood that you were… afraid of me? I realized you had this idea of me that couldn’t be changed.” 

Y/N shook her head. “That’s not true.”

“Do you believe I’ve changed?” Tom asked.

“Well, have you?” She frowned. 

Tom blinked. 

“Think about it, Tom, I asked you to be my tomorrow but you’re only asking for one night,” she whispered. 

“But it’s different?” 

“Then why do I feel the same way I felt when I was on the bridge?” 

Tom sighed. “This is different, y/n.” 

“I don’t know, Tom, it’s just me again, a girl asking a boy to love her,” she shrugged. “I’m not asking more.” 

“But I love you, already,” Tom snapped. “You’re asking me to be there.” 

She nodded and then placed a kiss on his cheek. “Just think about it.” 

Tom knew y/n. And she had been so reluctant on it. Maybe he should’ve escaped when she offered it. But what he couldn’t map was the way she had decided to marry Miguel anyway. Maybe Lizzie had been right. He should’ve gotten earlier, maybe he had shown his true nature. 

Tom walked around his place the first days, sweatshirt and sweatpants. His diet had consisted of beers,crisps, chocolate milkshakes,  and chocolate cake. He had once ordered a strawberry shortcake once, too. 

He had turned off his phone and had binge-watched all three Iron Man films, all Shrek films and he had watched even that Julia Roberts film, My Best Friend’s Wedding because he hated himself. 

But eventually ended up shielding on video games, and a pair of headphones to push himself out of reality.

“Tom,” Haz brought him back to reality. As Haz was taking off the headphones. 

He looked up, and stared at his best friend, the twins and Tuwaine were there, too. But the other figure was the one who shocked him. Lizzie. Fucking Lizzie. And Tom lost it. 

“I think… we should talk,” Haz said. 

Tom shrugged and turned back to the game. “Why do you guys call her every time something fucking happens?” 

“Tom,” Tuwaine pushed. Tom ignored him. “Tom!” 

“Man cmon!” Harry yelled. “You’ve got to cut the bullshit!” 

Tom scowled as he stood up and stormed off the room. “Oh fuck, sorry! Did you guys expect me to be fine?” He snapped. “Sorry if I’m not cheerful! I bloody can’t be! Are you happy, Liz?” 

“We know!” Haz yelled.

 “Tom this isn’t about your feelings right now,” Lizzie snapped. 

“Oh sorry if I have the spotlight right now, I really don’t want to—“

Harrison rolled his eyes. “But you have to get your shit together man.” 

“Can’t I bloody have some time? It’s very recent you know? And I can’t simply just forget about it! I…” He took a deep breath. “I’m no one right now, alright? I just bloody want to have some time to think about it, but my thoughts, fuck, my thoughts are drowing me, alright? I don’t feel alright, because I feel like…. It’s all on me and maybe, I realized it,” he continued as he ran a hand through his hair. “I realized it, alright? I… I’m simply someone who she doesn’t want to be around anymore, I caused her too much pain and that’s why she left, and that’s why she got engaged because it was a perfect way to get rid off of me. Maybe I shouldn’t have done anything. You knew that, didn’t you, Lizzie?” 

“I didn’t know she would-” 

“It’s bloody killing me, I’m not… I could’ve let her be, but I was selfish enough to consider my own bloody feelings first, just like I am right now, I guess, becuase that’s all you fucking think I am, right? A fucking arrogant son of a bitch! And she’ll have that memory of me, ruining it for her. And I don’t blame her, I can’t even control my thoughts anymore, I can’t stand myself. I can’t blame her, I showed her who I was for four bloody years and then I try to change for her. And now, I lost her. Now I lost her because I was stupid and because she’s too bloody stubborn and because she ended up doing what she was supposed to do, because that’s who she is. She does the right thing.” 

“Tom…” Sam started. 

“And I was too fucking selfish, I saw that she was going to be at her best, I saw it in those bloody pictures, and I can’t believe I… I don’t know, and I blame her, too. But I’ll miss her, god, I’m going to fucking miss her. Even if I’m angry right now, because I have the right to be angry, but…. But, but she did ask me to run away, and I should’ve run away with her. But why say all that if she was going to… I mean, why did she have to lead me on and then go and marry him? I just don’t fucking get it, you know? She’s full of shit, sometimes, can’t bloody make up her fucking mind. And you know what? She’s such a pain in the ass, you can tell her that, Lizzie, tell her that I, too, won’t stand her anymore, is that what you came here for? Or are you going to fucking tell me to keep fighting for her? Are you? Because look where all that led us, Liz! Maybe…” He scoffed. “Maybe this was all your bloody revenge for everything I did to you, and I’m fucking sorry, alright? Right now I can’t… I can’t hate, and I cant’ blame anyone but me, because this was all my fault. And I don’t want to… I can’t even listen to my thoughts anymore…Because all they’re saying is she deserved better, but did she? She’s just as fucking lost as I am,” Tom was defeated. “But that won’t make me love her any less. And deep down I know I don’t mean any bloody word I’m saying, because… I… We fucked it up.” 

Harry sighed, as he approached his brother, he hugged him. 

Tom sighed. “But I don’t want any of your pity, alright? And you, Lizzie,” he looked at her. “I don’t, I’m sorry for everything I did to you, to anyone, alright? I got my karma.” 

Sam stared at Haz and Tuwaine. “Maybe we should…. Wait,” he told him. 

“Yeah,” Tom walked off. “Wait until I feel bloody better, a few months, at least.” 

Tuwaine clicked his tongue. “We know you’re not okay but you need to know this. 

“What? That she got married?” Tom asked. “Is that what you’re bloody trying to tell me? Man, this is all rubbish.” 

Lizzie looked away. 

“Is she on her honeymoon?” Tom asked angrily. 

“I won’t tell you anything,” Lizzie shrugged. 

“Oh, now you guys won’t tell me,” Tom laughed. 

“Tom, they leaked the video,” Sam finally told him. 

Tom frowned. “What video?” 

“Oh, you know, someone at the wedding filmed when you fucking interrupted it and now it’s everywhere!” Harry explained. “Everywhere.” 

Tom felt like all the blood on his body had disappeared. He had to sit back down. This was a problem. A big one. He slowly walked back to the sofa, as he sat back down. 

He closed his eyes, as he made a long pause. Taking a big breath. “How bad is it?” He asked. 

“Very,” Harry answered. 

Tom bit his lip. “Can I… see it?” Though he didn’t know if he wanted to remember it. He didn’t have the strength to see the stupid thing he’d done before. 

Harry nodded as he showed the video to Tom. Tom felt a dagger through his chest as he watched the pathetic proposal he’d made and he saw her, too. There was pain in her eyes, and she looked tired, too. She didn’t look happy as she should’ve been. 

“This is the end of my career,” Tom whispered. 

Lizzie crossed her arms. “You’re not the bad guy here.” 

Tom looked up, with realization as to why Lizzie was there. 

“Oh,” he took a deep breath. “How… how is she?

“She’s the bitch who turned down Spiderman,” Lizzie said. “How do you think she’s doing?” 

“Shit,” Tom bit his lip and closed his eyes again. “I…” He was worried about her, because he knew she’d be attacked. 

“Yeah, she’s been called all things, and she had to delete all her social media,” Lizzie explained. “Maybe she was a bitch, very big bitch for doing that, for sure but this is the worst punishment.” 

Tom stood up. “Where’s… where’s my phone?” Tom asked as Harry handed it over. “Oh my god, this is…” Tom started to scroll through the chaos, and he saw it, people commenting on his picutres, and people calling him out. He went to twitter and everything was hating on y/n, and other people making fun of him. 

But he knew this was worse for her, this was people telling her horrible things. 

Tom had to get his mind out of this.

“Where is she?” Tom asked Lizzie. 

Lizzie looked away. 

Tom took a deep breath. “Did she…” 

“Look, Tom,” Lizzie sighed. “She’s not doing as good either, she’s just as broken as you are right now, but add to all of this that she’s dealing with hate.” 

Harry sighed. “And well…”

“Your agent called,” Haz explained. “She suggested you should first speak up on instagram, for yourself.” 

“No, no, no,” Tom frowned. “First… I have to say something about her.” 

“She suggested a press conference,” Harry said. 

“And mum and dad agreed,” Sam continued. “It would clear up everything.” 

Tom took a deep breath. 

“First, you’re going to post a statement, which we’ve… Been writing together, and you just have to give it a check,” Harry continued. 

Tuwaine nodded. “Yeah, it’s…. An initial statement.” 

Tom stood up, stressed. If this were bad, now they were even worse. 

“Should I call y/n and apologize?” Asked Tom to Lizzie. 

She shook her head. “Tom… I…No, you’re not okay, you need to heal, and… honestly, with everything, I think it would be like pouring salt on her own wounds.” 

Tom clenched his jaw and looked away. “Fuck, right.” 

“The headlines have been awful,” Haz said. “It’s…. Been.” 

“Why the fuck haven’t you guys told me?” Asked Tom, angrily.

Tuwaine frowned. “You’re seriously asking that? Have you seen yourself?” 

“You’ve been ignoring us all, we’ve tried to, fuck, we all been trying to talk to you, but you’ve pushed us all way,” Harrison raised his voice. 

“And we get it, alright?” Harry said. “But really, it’s time you…” 

Tom shook his head, standing up, pacing around the room.”Right, sorry, sorry,” he sat down again. “I need…” He stood up again, and headed to the fridge, he pulled out a beer. “Alright, okay.” 

“Here’s the statement,” Sam said, handing him the phone over. 

Tom read it, and started to change and correct a few details, to be more him, to really apologise to y/n. 

“In the past few days, a video of me has surfaced on the web. While I assume full responsibility for my actions, I would like to clarify that my decision was made abruptly and without any previous thoughts, and it was a big mistake to pull a stunt like that. I do not encourage my behaviour, and I would like to first, apologize to y/n, who has been a great friend to me for the past years and who does not deserve any of the hatred coming her way. I’m deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I may have caused her and anyone who's close to me and who’s been affected by the situation. This was a stupid and momentary decision, and she had all the right to say no, and I’m extremely sorry that it has jeopardized the relationship I had with the person I loved and respected the most, Y/N. It’s no secret I love her and I care deeply for her as my best friend, and I truly can’t begin to word my apology to her. I ask from the bottom of my heart that you guys stop harassing her and give her all the necessary respect and privacy. While I know the situation can’t be undone, and I know it shall not be forgotten, I do ask discretion. 

I’m sorry, Tom.”

It felt sincere, in a way. It was simple, it was fine. 

And he meant it, but what he truly wanted to say was: “I don’t regret doing it because she was worth doing it, and I wish she’d said yes. And I hope I could turn back time so I could take us out of this mess.” 

 He sat down again. 

“This… this is too much,” Tom said before posting the screenshot of the statements to his social media. “Okay, now when’s the…”Tom rubbed his face. “The press conference?” 

Harry watched him. “Two days.” 

Tom took a deep breath. “Alright… I’ll call my agent to see what I’m supposed to say and…” Tom looked up. “This is too big of a mess.” 

Lizzie sighed. “I’m… very sorry, Tom,” she admitted. 

Tom looked up. “What for?” 

“I feel like this is partly my fault, I thought she—“Lizzie started and watched as they boys left the room. 

“We all did,” Tom interrupted her. “I hope she’s happy.” 

Lizzie nodded. “I’m sorry for coming over here and… reminding you about it,” she said. “I really didn’t want any of this to happen.” 

“Nobody did.” 

“But if there’s anything I can help with—“

“You didn’t just come here to solve this mess, I know,” Tom said. “How… how is she?”

Lizzie shrugged. “Not good.” 

Tom looked around. “Should I—“

Lizzie watched him. 

“I feel like calling her wouldn’t be right,” he admitted. “But there’s a part of me that wants to tell her that I’m deeply sorry for all the pain that I’ve caused her,” Tom continued. “I—You know, maybe I should write her something, but she’s always been the writer,” Tom sighed. “I—I” Tom looked around. “There was a part of me that…” he took a deep breath. “Come here,” he said and lead the way to his room. This was such a different experience from the last time he’d asked Lizzie to come to his room. This was so cold. She followed after him. When they arrived, Tom searched through his drawers and pulled out a blue box. 

Lizzie looked at him as she looked around the room, it was a big mess. Toblerone wraps everywhere, books hanging around. Messy and dirty clothes hanging all over the place, his AirPods on his bed. The curtains were pulled down. 

“Maybe I should give this to her, but—“Tom took a big pause as he stared at the Tiffany box. “This was always meant for her,” Tom shook his head. “It’s—complicated. I guess… I should send her all her stuff back, but maybe she doesn’t want it back… I still have her copy of the first Harry Potter book hanging around, maybe I could gather up all her stuff and give it to you so you can give it to her…. or… I don’t even know if she’d want it back… and I don’t know if I want to give it back,” Tom sighed. “I just—feel like this was all too sudden, you know? We had a lot of dreams, she had a lot of plans and now it’s all… gone, you know?” Tom not his lip. “I—I’m not okay,” he admitted. 

Lizzie carefully sat down beside him, listening. 

“I know where it all went wrong,” Tom continued. “We should’ve run away together,” he pinched the bridge of his nose, “I guess we were meant to fall apart, but I—even if it hurts and even though I’m still angry and I still need time to heal, I truly want her to be happy.”

Lizzie took his hand and squeezed it. 

“What will be of her dreams? Will she continue to be a journalist?” He scoffed. “As if  I hadn’t ruined her reputation…” he bit his lip. “I know she wanted to be a reporter, and—what about her book? Or her poetry?” Tom asked. “Will Miguel take care of that?” He shook his head. “I just want to make sure that if she chose him, that if she chose him… she is happy.” 

Lizzie nodded. “He wouldn’t be able to make her happy.” 

Tom shrugged. “He shall, she chose him for a reason.” 

Lizzie shook her head, and she chuckled. “It’s funny, isn’t it?” 

Tom frowned. 

“I was so blind,” she started. “I was one to hurt my best friend,” she said. “You and me are not so different, Tom, though you are more annoying, I—I think we both were too blind we were hurting y/n.” 

Tom nodded..

“We both shielded on protecting her while we were hurting her,” she continued. 

Tom watched her. 

“But gosh, I really thought I would mend it by…” she shook her head. “Dunno, I thought I would mend it all by telling you to go and search for her.” 

“Maybe I was too late,” Tom said. Tom looked away as he plopped to lay down on the bed, rubbing his eyes. “And me stopping the wedding like in a fucking chick flick would mean she’d have to choose me and that’s not—I get it,” he sighed. 

“You don’t,” Lizzie chuckled dryly. 

“You know what? Maybe it was too much, I know her, she doesn’t like any rom com stunts, I—I should’ve known better.” 

“You’re right about that,” Lizzie declared. “Her meaning of love isn’t yelling it to the world, she’d never do that kind of stuff.” 

Tom clicked his tongue. “Yeah I know,” Tom sighed, “for her love relies on the details.” 

Lizzie nodded. “But that’s not the big lesson to learn here.” 

Tom laughed cynically. “What is, then? Don’t try to stop a wedding until the last minute? Tell the people you love them when you have the chance?” 

“Yeah, that too,” Lizzie agreed. “But I think most importantly, choose ourselves before anybody.” 

Tom frowned.

Lizzie shrugged. “Dunno, but I know, that even if it hurt her seeing you, this was all for the best.” 

Tom sighed. “Miguel was the right choice wasn’t it?”

Lizzie shook her head. “No.” 

Tom scowled. “Then?” 

“Y/N was the right choice,” she finally said. 

“What do you mean?” Tom asked, confused.

“Y/N had to see this for herself,” she said. “We both know her, how she’s always choosing what everyone thinks she should choose.” 

“Is that why she chose Miguel?” 

Lizzie looked him in the eye. “Tom… she didn’t get married.”

 previous chapter next chapter series masterlist wanna be tagged?

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Mayans MC S03E10 - thoughts and predictions

This is an old post that’s been posted from my old blog.     Written after S03E10.

So. The season finale. It wasn’t good. Sorry. It wasn’t. It was so messy I had trouble following along. It had the messiness of season one, if you know what I mean. To many things happened and nothing really got resolved. Accept for maybe the Palo-problem. And Isaac dying. Maybe. God, I’m so confused. I wrote down my thoughts below.

Gaby & EZ (& a bit of Filipe) Eh. Where to start? I’m glad Gaby left ‘cause she’s clearly not accepting of EZ being in that lifestyle and her going against her values would’ve been, I don’t know, contradicting? Shows and movies like these also have a bit of a tendency to go the route of killing the woman associated with the male lead to drive his plot forward, and honestly I’m kinda sick of female characters having to endure violence to move a male characters plot forward. So I’m glad Elgin went another route with Gaby’s and EZ’s storyline. 

Filipe really told her some home truths, which she needed. I liked that. I think she needed to understand the severity of EZ’s inner self. What I am still curious about and have alot of thoughts about is the fact that EZ gave up pretty easily. He could’ve gone to Lodi if he wanted to. He’s an adult, he doesn’t need daddy’s permission. In the end he chose the club over her. Strange. 

I wonder what this will do to EZ’s and Filipe’s relationship? Maybe create some tension, but I have this idea that EZ will accept that he is who he is and forgive his dad. He never stays mad at him for long.

Taza, Laura & Palo Thank God Laura killed Palo (even though he was a great villain). She might actually be the only female character that I really enjoyed this season. And Erin maybe. Laura had great scenes, great character development. She was awesome. I hope she comes back.

Adelita, Linares & Potter I don’t even know what to say. I think Adelita going after Potter is good ‘cause he’s the antichrist and he needs to die. There’s also that twist of, is the baby dead or is it alive that’s really interesting but also really, I don’t know, redundant? Like, just finish this already, you know? 

Adelita was really given some purpose in this episode though, which I’ve felt has been lacking throughout the season. Wondering, why would Linares lie to her about the baby being dead? Unless it’s her having the baby in her custody?

Angel & Nails Honestly, is she so blind that she can’t tell how bored he seems during sex? I’m judging her, I really am, which I shouldn’t because it’s awful. God, this is going to end so bad for her. And Angel, he’s a disgusting man-child. It’s not cute or quirky using women like that, he’s irresponsible and pathetic. Grow up, Angel! Just grow the fuck up!

Emily Oh wow, that was a wild ride (ep. 9 and 10). Now, there are things that Emily’s done that I haven’t been a fan of. The writers really did that character dirty when they did that total personality change in season 2, but this. 

This. 

It was a really good episode for Emily’s character in my opinion. I thought they got some things out in the open, I got to see parts of nice Emily which was really needed, and it also gave an idea of Emily and EZ as high schoolers which really gave them both a bit more background story. I’ll write a post about my interpretation of their scene in a separate post. I can’t fit everything I want to say in here.

Miguel Delusional. Hopelessly in love with his wife. Crazy. Absolutely crazy. Did he really think she was going to go with him after what he did? He’s also really bad at being a criminal, honestly. Probably because he’s never grown up in the cartel but was raised in America and went to Cornell. 

Also, when is the paternity gonna be revealed? When Dita revealed it to Filipe it was like a soap opera episode and I want them to do something with it.

Bishop I can understand his anger, honestly. I don’t think he’s a homophobe. I think Taza’s confession of killing Riz spurred Bishop to the use of homophobic slurs. He killed a brother after all. That gotta stir some anger. But apart from that there’s something about Bishop’s brooding and thirst for power that’s making me not like him as a character anymore. Get over yourself. He was so much better as a character in season 1 and 2.

Gilly, Coco, Hope & Letty I skipped most of this ‘cause it’s so boring. Snooze fest 2.0. The only thing I liked was Gilly’s comment about Isaac. If Hope and Coco get clean it could be good, or toxic and co-dependent. We’ll see how it goes. Letty’s scene was so short, I don’t really have much to say.

Wishes for season 4 Miguel & the Reyes family - paternity reveal - it’s been foreshadowed this entire season, yet nothing’s happened. Do it or don’t, but if you’re not going to reveal who his dad is, stop with the foreshadowing. A new love interest for EZ ‘cause Gaby nor Emily is working for me. I want someone who’s a mix of the two women. More like Laura, I like Laura. 

Gaby I don’t know. Bringing her back and dating EZ again would be like if the writers put all of her values and ideologies and just created a huge dumpster fire. Not totally unlike Emily’s very much disliked personality change of season 2. It would totally defeat the purpose of her persona. And isn’t it why she’s so well liked by many? That she has values, stands up for them and refuses to back down?

She’s not cut out for the criminal lifestyle, because she doesn’t want to be in it. That toxic environment would probably not change her for the better. Unless the writers do a total 360 and make her okay with it? I don’t think the writers should have her go against her own ideals and sacrifice her own well-being for a man, no matter how much she loves him.

I think she should stay in Lodi and get her nursing degree, find a nice wholesome man who hasn’t shanked, strangled, shot or blown anyone up and get married. Maybe have some babies. Maybe they could find another cool chick that’s more accepting of his current lifestyle. Because, let’s face it, the club means alot to him. Emily I don’t know. I want Erin and Emily to stay but Emily’s gotta change though. Go back to OG Emily who was a really great female character. I want to explore more of her childhood and the relationship with her parents more. How she fits in with the show, well, Miguel’s not gonna just divorce her. I bet you she’s sitting with a ton of information about his illegal dealings after she immersed herself into his work after Cristobal got kidnapped. It could be really interesting. 

Potter Maybe he catches on fire, maybe he gets called back to the mothership, maybe his hard drive shuts down. Or his battery could run out. I don’t care, just get rid of him.

Indifferent Coco and Hope. Honestly, they could just disappear into the sunset and I wouldn’t notice. If you’re gonna shed characters so to make the storytelling more compact, Coco and Hope could go. I wouldn’t mind. Also, Bishop. As he is now, I think he could go to.

Angel, Adelita, Nails, Hank + Taza, Laura & Creeper Angel gets an STD because he needs to learn about sexual health and it’s consequences, and when Nails finds out she was his back-up plan she kicks him in the balls. And Hank marries Nails and they raise the baby together. Angel honestly, I don’t really know what your purpose is on the show anymore. Adelita gets her baby back and moves somewhere peaceful and quiet.

I also want more backstory on Hank and Creeper. Also, storylines involving them front and center. Now they’re mostly in the background. Taza doesn’t die and Laura stays, that’s all I want. He’s growing on me and I want to know more about him.