Forbidden Things || Cobra Kai

124 Gift Giving

When Donnie walked into the house, he was greeted by the sound of Nirvana playing from the living room. He set his laptop case aside and hung his jacket on the rack, then peeked into the room to see who was in there.

To his surprise, both of his girls and Robby were sitting on the floor. The surprise was not that Penelope and Frankie were together, as that had been the norm all their lives. It was that his daughter was sitting in the same room as Robby without trying to glare holes into his head.

The room was loud, Kurt Cobain's voice filling in the would be silent space as the teens didn't talk to each other. They were hunched over their shoes or shoelaces, stringing beads onto the laces and fastening whatever other trinkets they'd gathered for the occasion. Candy beads of varying colors and shapes sat in a bowl between them as the teens sat in a circle while shoelaces were strewn about the floor, alongside some paints and a small pack of metal rings.

Frankie was picking out black and red beads and threading them onto her laces while also pushing the metal rings into the thread, making it look as though she had pierced the fabric as one might someone's face. Robby was sticking his hand into the bowl and using whatever he grabbed to put on his laces, more interested in threading his shoes with a pattern over using the decorative beads. Finally, Penelope had painted small gray skulls onto the sides of her black boots, but while that dried, she was stringing the cord laces with star and moon shaped beads.

"Arts and crafts, my favorite," Donnie said as he entered the room. Robby and Penelope glanced up at him while Frankie was busy closing a ring with a pair of pliers. "How come I wasn't invited?"

Frankie laughed half heartedly. "Because you spend extra time after school like a nerd."

"I'll have you know I'm one of the coolest nerds I know," he countered, sitting on the couch and grabbing the remote to turn the music volume down.

As he sat, he got a sense of deja vu. It felt like the girls were five again, playing on the floor, making a mess, having fun. Essentially being kids like they should get to be. Robby's presence didn't disrupt the memories that flooded his mind, but elevated the moment that much more. What shattered the illusion were the missing pieces: his sister and brother in law.

"I don't know what you're talking about, dad, because you were a big nerd in the nineties. You spent all your time at school and that's lame. Fast forward over twenty years later and you're still doing that," Frankie teased. She smirked as she grabbed her high top and started threading her shoestring through the holes. However, she stopped short and asked Penelope, "How do I do the star again?"

Donnie chuckled with a fond smile. He wasn't upset by his daughter's mockery of him, knowing it came from a good place. If anything, it reminded him of Egan in their youth. How she'd tease him for his booksmarts and study habits despite reading as many books as he did - if not more. She laughed at his "dorky" clothes but cheered him on at all of his mathlete competitions. They went to the same college and shared an apartment with two other students who were stereotypical nerds. She had liked all the same stuff he did, but was cooler than him among their peers because she played sports and was assertive and didn't take bullshit from anyone.

He saw so much of Egan in Frankie and he was thankful for that. He had always felt lucky to have Egan around, but never as much as when it was just him and Frankie. She never batted an eye when it came to helping him raise his daughter, and for that he'd always be grateful.

It was what made memories like the one being made in front of him all the better. The girls were watching the tutorial video while Robby threaded a particular pattern through the holes of his shoe. This was his family and he was proud and grateful to have it.