Forbidden Things || Cobra Kai

59 Amazing

The water wasn't even semi warm when Hawk stepped into the shower. He didn't care. All he needed it to do was get him clean; wash away all the dirt from the woods and make him presentable for Penelope. It smelled as though all he did today was roll around on the forest floor and sweat for hours, which was part of what happened, but not entirely.

The training exercise at Coyote Creek had taken a lot longer than he anticipated, as the victor was decided by whoever was the last person standing. It was almost Miguel, but at the last minute Raymond sprang out of literally nowhere and took his headband. And then Frankie made good on her threat to punch him in the face and took his headband in the meantime.

Everyone congratulated her on the win, but no one asked about her bloody knuckles. She certainly didn't say anything about it. No one wanted to speak up about it. Especially Assface, who had an awfully discolored nose and swore he got it when he ran into a tree.

Hawk was willing to bet Frankie was the tree, which made him snort because she was only 4'10 or something like that.

She didn't say a word on the way back from the creek, but it didn't take a genius to know what had happened back there. Only three of them knew why it happened and were all in silent agreement that they weren't going to talk about it. Hawk was pretty sure Frankie had made Assface piss his pants enough that he was never going to tell anyone what exactly happened, which was fine by him. The gory details weren't important.

All he cared about was that he wasn't implicated in the incident. He was worried that someone would find out he had planned the whole thing only to back out. While that might look good because he didn't participate, he wondered how many people would actually believe that.

To top it all off, he still had the Medal. It was sitting in his desk drawer while he was in the shower, furiously scrubbing himself down. He was simultaneously trying to wash away the shame he felt for having the Medal alongside all the grim from the outdoors.

It was only half working.

He was still trying to figure out a way to return it without getting in trouble. He could go to Miyagi-Do and explain what happened, but he was certain Sam and Robby wouldn't believe a word he said. He doubted Mr. LaRusso, too, given the way he reacted to the Medal being gone. After all, why would he have it in the first place?

He was so distracted, he forgot about his hair. He'd been trying to keep it dry the whole time he was in the shower, but somewhere along the line he forgot about that and it was wet and losing its shape. A strand fell and stuck itself to his face, causing him to curse.

"Fuck!"

~

When Hawk pulled up to Penelope's house, he felt bad. He had texted her to say he was running a little late, to which she told him it was alright. He knew she understood, but it didn't make him feel any better. It wasn't exactly her he was worried about. It was Mr. Harris.

Her uncle was cool, always smiling and making jokes. He spoke confidently with a semi carefree tone that was still warm and fatherly. He appreciated the small things about life and valued gentlemanliness. Penelope spoke highly of him, making him out to be respectable, level headed, and kind. He seemed pretty cut and dry, the type of man who knew what the world was like but didn't let it affect him, at least not on the surface.

With everything Penelope had told him about her parents, he knew Mr. Harris had lost his sister. That couldn't have been easy for him, but to also have to undertake his niece and her well being on top of being a working single father - it was a lot to happen to one man in under a month's time. He imagined that had a lot of the sway in their move to California, but whatever happened between the death of Penelope's parents and their move to the Valley must've had a hand in it as well.