🦅🥋🏆Mostly inspired by Tumblr prompts featuring Eli 'Hawk' Moskowitz, Demetri Alexopoulos, Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, to name a few.
Or, the AU KK/CK (and Jacob Bertrand) ficlet and non-fanfic collection I decided to write even though...
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Switch sides during the fight at Casa de LaRusso by saving his best friend Demetri Alexopoulos and apologize to him for all the bullying he put him through? Check.
Fight alongside Demetri in taking down the other Cobras? Check again.
Join the Eagle Fang Karate dojo? Check a third time.
Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz felt a wave of relief wash over him whenever he recalled how he'd made the right decision in defecting from Cobra Kai after he'd opened his eyes and saw he was fighting on the wrong side. However, he knew he wasn't finished in achieving redemption for his transgressions — he was far from it, in fact. One thing he felt he needed to do on his "List of Ways to Achieve Redemption" (if there was such a thing) was show he was serious in finding balance between his Eli self and his Hawk persona through actions instead of just words.
And besides that, he once looked in the mirror, and was displeased with the red color of his Mohawk, as it reminded him way too much of the bully he'd become during his time as a student in Cobra Kai; so, the minute his azure eyes fell on a bottle of violet hair dye, he decided it was time to change his Mohawk from red to purple.
After all, purple symbolizes the balance between red and blue. And as I now know, balance is something I need in my life. Now that I think about it, I almost went too far the other way in Cobra Kai; I had to find a balance between cool, calm blue and angry red.
Also, I've decided to be the person who's both tech enthusiast and confident fighter, because instead of either one or the other, I realized I'm both Eli and Hawk.
And speaking of which, I learned a person can be nerdy and tough as nails (or, the "crouching nerd, hidden fighter" as I secretly like to call it). If I'd been more open-minded and clear-headed, I would've decided to find balance sooner rather than later; also, I would've made it a point to turn on the other Cobras and tell them off when they attempted to pressure me into breaking Demetri's arm the first time. However, I do have to admit one benefit of leaving Cobra Kai earlier would've been telling Tory, "You're right, Tory; I am a traitor. Looks like I'd better watch my back, Princess" — thus causing her to do a double take in shock at my taking the words right out of her mouth, as well as my referring to her as "princess" for once (since I never called her that).
Besides realizing Sensei Lawrence and Miguel had been right about Kreese, I also saw the ruthless individual Cobra Kai caused me to become over time when Kyler — the guy who'd been the absolute worst bully to Demetri, Miguel and I — showed his so-called "approval" of my actions. His attempting to be all buddy-buddy with me during the fight at Casa de LaRusso definitely caused me to feel all Your Approval Fills Me with Shame (a la TV Tropes and Idioms).
And, besides seeing Demetri in a position where he was about to get his arm re-broken, Kyler's attempt at dapping me up was all it took for me to realize it was time for me to defect from Cobra Kai by switching sides. And I did precisely that by reconciling with Demetri after saving him from getting his arm re-broken, as well as turning on the other Cobras and taking them down.
