Despite it being early morning, the park was busier than Harper expected it to be. Still half asleep, she sipped her iced coffee in the hopes of it jumpstarting her system. Of waking her up. But as she finished off the drink that promised to caffeinate her, she only felt a slight buzz. It wasn't nearly enough for the kind of morning the day had planned for her.

She questioned her last-minute decision to come here when she'd been so against it. Because she knew, deep down, that it was a bad decision. That nothing good could come of it.

I shouldn't be here. This is such a bad idea, Harper told herself as she came upon a small parking lot that cut into a section of the park.

"You're late, foster!" Hawk said as a way of greeting.

Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, Harper looked in his direction. "What are you talking about? How can I be late when you didn't tell me what time to be here?"

"You just are. I've been waiting for almost thirty minutes," he said, stepping away from his car and walking toward her.

Her eyebrows rose up in amusement and a smile tugged at her lips. "You were waiting for me?"

Hawk glowered at her question. "Yeah, because you're late."

"Will you stop saying that? I'm not late," she said.

"Well, you're not on time either."

"Maybe if you told me what time to be here then you wouldn't have waited so long," she said with a head tilt.

"Fine. Next time I'll tell you," he said.

Harper bit her lip to keep from laughing. "You think there's going to be a next time?"

"Don't make this into a thing, foster," Hawk said, not finding her humor funny.

"I'm not but you're just…" she trailed off at the irritated look he threw at her. Taking a breath, she let it out but not before mimicking his posture and scowl. "Okay, I'll stop. Sorry."

"Great," he mumbled. "So, can we just do this already?"

Harper nodded before confusion clouded her features. She looked around them with apprehension as if the answer would be carved into a tree. "Do what exactly? This isn't some sort of trap is it?"

Hawk threw a look over at her. "No, it's not a trap."

"So your Cobra Kai friends aren't lying in wait for the perfect moment to jump out and beat me up?"

"No," he said and paused as he attempted to hide the hurt look behind his signature scowl. "You really think I'd do that?" He asked after a few seconds passed by in silence.

"I don't know," she answered truthfully, shrugging. "I don't really know you, you know."

"Well, I wouldn't do that to you," he said seriously.

Taken aback by his words, she nodded. "Okay, good to know. So are you going to tell me why I'm here? Because I still don't know."

"To train," he said as the smirk she hated so much appeared on his face.

"To train?" She repeated, dumbfounded. "You mean like karate?"

"No, I mean soccer," Hawk answered with a roll of his eyes. "Yeah, foster, I mean karate."

Harper let out a laugh but stopped when she realized he was serious. Shaking her head, she backed up a couple of steps. "Yeah, that's not - I'm not doing that."

"Why not?" Hawk asked.

"Because," she stated, crossing her arms.

"Great answer."

"Look," Harper sighed, "if I wanted to learn karate, I would've joined Miyagi-Do like months ago. But I didn't because-"

"Miyagi-Do's a joke."

"Seriously? I've been here for all of ten minutes and you're already talking shit about my friends?" Harper shook her head in disapproval while disappointment settled on her face.

"Calm down. I was making a joke."

"No, you're just being an ass." Why she thought today would be any different, she didn't know.

"Alright, sorry," he said, though she didn't believe it for a second.

"I'm serious, Hawk. If you care about me at all then you'll stop being such a jerk to my friends."

Hawk lifted his eyebrows, an amused smile dancing in his eyes. "What makes you think I care about you?"

"I, well…," she stumbled over her words, trying to find a way back to before she said that. "I just meant that if you want us to be friends then-"

"So we're friends now?" Hawk interrupted, his smile growing for every second that she stammered.

"Don't be a jackass, okay?"

"Okay," he said though Harper knew better than to take that as a promise to be nice. "So are you ready to train? Because you really should learn how to defend yourself."

"I can take care of myself just fine," Harper answered. Because ever since she'd been thrown into foster care, her life had become a wicked game of survival. And the people who were put into her life to care for her left her to her own devices as soon as the checks cleared.

"I don't think taking a golf club to a car counts," he commented, ignoring the glare she shot him.

"I can't believe you're bringing that up," she said. "Look, I know how to stand up for myself. I've been doing it for a really long time."

For a moment, he studied her and took in the pale bruises across her face. "Yeah, well, you're doing a great job," he said, the sarcasm not being lost on her.

Through narrowed eyes, she shook her head. "Sorry but no. There's no way I'm doing this." Because it would mean betraying her friends and that's the last thing Harper wanted.

"Just humor me, okay? One lesson. That's all," Hawk said, not letting up.

"Why do you want me to learn how to fight so much?"

Hawk shrugged in reply and stayed silent for so long that she didn't think he would answer her question. "Maybe I just don't want to see you get hurt," he answered a moment later, throwing a quick glance her way before looking past her.

Harper froze at the straightforward answer. A small smile tugged at her lips as she looked up at him. "Are you trying to say that you actually care?" She asked, refusing to let her thoughts spin out of control.

Hawk frowned at her question. "What? No. I just mean that you're always in the way so, you know, you might as well know how to fight."

Something told her there was more to the story. Rather than prod, Harper chose to just accept that answer as what it was. The truth. Because that's all it could be.

"So are we doing this or not?"

There were so many reasons that she should say no. They weren't friends. They were on opposite sides of this karate war. She would be betraying her friends. Lying to them continuously. Despite all of that, Harper heard herself agree.

"So… Now what? What do we start with?" She thought back to the lessons she'd seen at Miyagi-Do and her eyes lit up with interest. "Oh! Am I gonna learn how to karate kick someone or flip someone over or maybe -"

"Uh, no. I think we should start with something simple," he said, an amused smile pulling at his lips at her sudden eagerness.

"Oh," Harper said, wrinkling her nose in disappointment. "Baby steps. Got it."

"We'll work on blocking. This way you can stop getting punched in the face," Hawk explained with a smirk before adding, "hopefully."

"Funny," she mumbled before following him towards a more secluded part of the park. It was away from the main path but gave them more room to practice without being in anyone's way. And hopefully hidden away enough to not be seen.

"Just do what I do," Hawk said and put his hands up in a defensive position before his face.

Harper followed his direction but as she tried to mimic his stance, she had a feeling that she was getting it all wrong. Everything felt off. Her movements were stiff and her coordination was laughable.

No wonder Demetri struggles so much.

Standing with her arms in front of her, Harper felt more than a little ridiculous. "Like this?"

"Not really. Your arms are blocking your face," Hawk commented.

"Isn't that the whole point? You know, so I keep myself from getting punched?"

"Well, yeah, but it also helps if you can see. Look, I'll show you." He stepped closer and reached for her arms but she flinched back. "Relax, foster, I'm not gonna hurt you," he said with a laugh.

Taking a breath, she quietly let it out. "Yeah, I know. Sorry."

Hawk watched her for a moment, half expecting her to step back again. When she didn't, he took hold of her wrists.

Harper didn't know what caused the wave of nervousness she suddenly felt around him. Or why her heart started racing more than usual. She told herself that it had nothing to do with the almost nonexistent space that separated them or the feel of his hands around her wrists. That it was just her mind telling her this was a bad idea. Perhaps that was part of it but it wasn't the sole reason.

It was unbearably quiet as he repositioned her arms into the correct defensive stance. He glanced down at her only to find Harper watching him and smirked. And just like that, time seemed to stop as they lost themselves in each other's gaze, the seconds ticking by silently.

Clearing his throat, Hawk stepped back. "T-there. I think that's good," he said, breaking whatever weird moment had transpired between them.

Harper blinked as her brain fought off whatever daze it had been put under. Once her thoughts cleared, she squinted at him in confusion. "You know this is what I did before, right?"

"Seriously? You weren't even close."

"No, I'm pretty sure that I was."

"No, you weren't. Your arms were too high and too close together. Not to mention that you couldn't see anything so there's no way you'd be able to defend yourself like that."

Harper dropped her arms by her sides. "It was fine."

"Fine isn't good enough. Fine would get you hit because you wouldn't see an attack coming until it was too late."

"It doesn't have to be perfect," she muttered before putting her arms back to the "correct" position. "Is this better?" She asked as she put the sweetest yet fakest smile on.

"Look, if you don't want to do this…."

"I'm not quitting."

"Okay. Then start listening."

The minutes went by in a confusing blur with Harper learning how to block attacks. While in theory, it seemed relatively easy, getting the moves down was harder than she imagined it would be. It seemed easy when she sat in on practice but it was so much more complicated than it looked. She struggled with the mere basics of it and the side comments from Hawk did little to make her feel better, only adding to her irritation.

"This isn't that hard, foster. Focus," he said for what felt like the hundredth time.

Easy for you to say, she thought as she tried to anticipate his next move. But when she went to block the oncoming attack, she moved in the opposite direction and let herself get hit. Or she would've if he'd been actually trying to hit her.

"How is it possible that you're getting worse? We've been at this for like twenty minutes already."

Harper glared his way as she readjusted her ponytail, pushing the loose strands of hair out of her face. "I don't know. Maybe it's because you're criticizing me every step of the way. It's not exactly helping, you know."

"Well maybe if you actually listened and didn't lash out, you'd get better," Hawk said, his eyes narrowed at her words.

Harper knew that there was some truth to his words but she was too riled up to admit it.

"Do you even want to learn how to defend yourself or not? Because I'm just trying to help you."

"I never asked for your help," she snapped.

"Maybe this was a mistake," he mumbled with a shake of his head.

Harper looked at him, eyes flashing in anger. "Yeah, maybe it was." She grabbed her bag from the ground and started for the main path. This had been a mistake. What had she been thinking, agreeing to learn self-defense? And from him of all people? They couldn't go a few minutes without bickering, and she clearly wasn't cut out for karate or whatever the hell it was that they were doing.

"Dammit. Wait! Look, I didn't mean it that way." Hawk grabbed her wrist and spun her back around, not backing down from the glare on her face.

Harper glanced down at his hand around her wrist and then back to him, ignoring the shock that went up her arm.

Letting go, Hawk crossed his arms with a bemused look on his face. "You're really freaking frustrating, you know that?"

"Was that supposed to be some sort of apology? Because it kinda needs some work."

"Look," he started with a sigh, "can we just start over? This didn't go like I thought it would."

"Oh, so this wasn't supposed to be a complete disaster? You could've fooled me."

A hint of amusement crossed his face that he tried to hide with a smirk that looked more like a smile than anything else. "What do you say, foster? Ready to try again?"

Harper bit her lip, struggling to find an answer to the question that wasn't yes. But something kept her rooted in place and a part of her wanted to continue despite it all.

"What if we made a deal?" He asked when she didn't reply.

Harper narrowed her eyes in distrust. "What kind of a deal?"

"What if I promise to not be an ass if you promise not to get offended when I criticize your karate skills."

Harper snorted. "What karate skills?"

"Exactly!" Hawk said, an easy smile spreading across his face. "Face it, foster, you need me."

"Let's just get this over with," Harper said with a sigh as she dropped her bag on the ground.

The next hour passed in the blink of an eye, and Harper was semi-confident that she could defend herself from all attacks. Well, most of them anyway.

The training session hadn't been nearly as disastrous as they expected it to be considering how it had begun. That's not to say that she didn't struggle. Because she did. A lot. The simple moves were incredibly difficult for her to learn, which made her want to quit multiple times. But with Hawks' guidance and a lot of cursing on her part, she stuck through it. Somewhere in all that mess, her moves became more fluid and less stiff. Somehow, she made it to the end with a new knowledge of self defense.

They moved toward the main path, leaving the solitude of their training grounds behind. The cruel sun beat down at them from the cloudless sky, warming up for another hot day.

"You did good," Hawk said.

Harper smiled ruefully, knowing that it was anything but true. Yes, she learned the moves but it had taken her too long. And she worried that she wouldn't be able to repeat them. "What are you talking about? I was terrible."

"You weren't that bad," Hawk said, to which she tilted her head. "Okay, so you were pretty bad. But you'll get better."

"No, I won't. I think I hit myself in the face like three times."

"It was more like five but who's counting?" He asked, laughing as she smacked his arm.

Readjusting the strap of her bag, she rolled her eyes as he dramatically rubbed his arm. "I swear, if you tell anyone -"

"I won't," he assured her. "No one needs to know how bad you are at karate. Secondhand embarrassment is a thing, you know." Smiling, he bumped her with his arm.

Harper narrowed her eyes at him though a smile showed through the glare.

"But you won't always be this bad. We'll keep practicing and pretty soon you might be at Demetri's level."

"Don't be a jerk," she said, more annoyed with his comment about Demetri than her lack of karate skills.

Hawk gave her an apologetic smile. "So, same time tomorrow?"

Harper frowned. "This was only supposed to be a one-time thing, remember?"

"Come on, you can't quit now. You're so close to almost being able to defend yourself against a first grader."

Blowing out a breath, she battled with a desire to agree to more training sessions when, in reality, she should say no. "Fine. Same time tomorrow."

A smile stretched across his face. "Really?"

"Yup." Harper resumed walking, throwing a look his way every now and again. "As long as you promise not to catch any feelings," she teased.

Smirking, he glanced down at her. "For you? Don't worry, foster, that'll never happen."


Almost every morning for the next two weeks, Harper spent it in the park training. Her morning training sessions had become a routine, something she actually looked forward to. Though she was no closer to being a karate pro, she had improved considerably and was proud of the work she'd done. The only thing that weighed heavily on her mind were the white lies that she repeatedly told her friends. The truths that she omitted.

It was a cruel and dangerous game that Harper was playing. But it wasn't one that she was willing to stop.

"Do it again," Hawk said as she attempted the complicated kick for what must've been the eighth time.

"What? Why?" Her smile fell from her face as she tried to catch her breath. She moved her hair from her face before retrying it into an even messier ponytail. "We've been at this since yesterday. You said I did okay."

"Okay's not good enough, you know that. Do it again."

A frown pulled down the corners of her lips as she shook her head. " I need a break. I just need five minutes," she said, her lungs feeling as if they were half their normal size. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest, and it was a wonder that he didn't hear it.

"You'll get one after you get this kick right," he said.

Harper stared at him with a glare, both angry at herself for not being good enough and angry at him for making her do this again. But she knew that the longer she stood there arguing, the longer that practice would run. Something she'd come to learn over the last several days. "I hate you," she muttered finally.

"No, you don't," he said with a confident smirk.

Harper mentally ran through the moves in her head. There weren't a lot of them but they were more complicated than anything she'd done before. Taking a stance, she moved through the few steps methodically but as she pivoted, she lost her balance and stumbled. Gritting her teeth, she repeated the moves only to mess up halfway through.

"Forget it. I don't think I can do this," she said after a fourth failed attempt.

"Yeah, you can," Hawk said, ignoring the frustrated look she threw at him. "You're thinking about it too much. Just don't…think."

"Wow, that's great advice. Really awesome. Why didn't I think of that?" She asked irritably.

"I'm serious. You can't think about the moves or you'll never get it."

"Yeah, well, looks like I'll never get it," she said with resignation.

A few seconds went by in silence before he closed the distance between them. Getting into a fighting stance, he motioned for her to do the same.

"What are you doing?" Harper asked, watching him warily.

"Let's fight it out. Maybe it'll get you to stop overthinking so much," he suggested. When it looked like she wanted to disagree, he sighed and said, "Just try it."

Sighing, Harper nodded and then got into a fighting stance.

They'd never sparred before and the idea of it only seemed to make her more nervous. She wasn't sure how it would go or where she would use that complicated kick she couldn't for the life of her perfect. But once Hawk threw the first punch, Harper left her mind. Everything that followed was pure muscle memory. Survival.

She blocked the attacks he threw her way and despite missing a few, she kept going. The mock fight continued and she felt more at ease than before. And once she saw her opening for the kick, she went for it without thinking. But just when she thought she messed up, her foot made contact with his chest. The sheer force of her kick knocked him backward and onto the grass.

Harper's triumphant smile quickly vanished as she stared down at Hawk. "Ohmygodimsosorryareyouokay?" She asked in one breath, rushing over to him.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," he said with a groan.

"Are you sure?" Harper extended a hand to help him up and pulled him to his feet. She studied him carefully, frowning at the wince he tried to hide behind a smile.

He nodded, brushing bits of grass and dirt off himself. "I'll live but I think you broke a couple ribs with that kick."

Wide-eyed, she stared at him with worry. "What?" She asked in a whisper.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side," Hawk said with a grimace. But as her frown deepened, he shook his head and grinned. "I'm kidding, foster. Relax. You didn't break me."

Harper let out a sigh of relief but narrowed her eyes at his answer. "You're an ass. I really thought I hurt you!"

"Don't tell me you were actually worried," he said.

Harper shrugged. "Well, yeah. I mean, I thought I'd have to find someone else to train me."

"Maybe you should find someone else. You're kinda dangerous, you know. I don't know if I want to keep training you after this."

"Shut up." Rolling her eyes, she went to shove him but he caught her wrist. Her heart gave that annoying flutter every time she was close to him, her anxiety spiking as she avoided his eyes.

He let go of her wrist and passed her a water bottle. Their fingers brushed as she accepted the bottle from him, and she took a small step backward.

"So, now what?" Harper asked once she took a sip of her water, mindlessly playing with the plastic around it.

"Do you want to grab something to eat?"

"Eat?"

"Yeah, there's this new invention called food. Maybe you heard of it?"

Harper ignored the sarcasm, her mind still wrapped around him asking if she wanted to get something to eat. "W-what about practice?"

"We skip it," he said. "I think I got beat up enough for one day."

Harper's smile faded slowly as she debated on what to do. She knew that agreeing would push them towards something that resembled friendship. Passed some invisible line that shouldn't ever be crossed.

He sensed her hesitancy and shifted from one foot to the other. "I mean, it's okay if you can't. Or just don't want to."

"No. I mean, yeah. Let's go," she said, willingly crossing the line that she'd promised not to cross. But it didn't have to mean anything. It could just be two people getting something to eat without stepping towards friendship. Or at least that's what she told herself when she agreed.

They made it back to the parking lot a few minutes later, the morning sun switching to a hotter, brighter version of itself as the afternoon set in. High in the cloudless sky, it bore down on them relentlessly, and Harper was glad practice hadn't gone on for much longer.

Even if her nerves were frayed from the idea of hanging out with him. Of doing something other than practicing in the park.

"So, where are we going?" Harper asked as she closed the passenger side door.

"I was thinking we go to this diner just outside of town. I used to go there a lot with Demetri after school and most weekends. It's next to a comic store that our parents would drop us off at and we'd get just food there after." He took his eyes off the road for a moment and looked at her. "Unless you want to go somewhere else."

Harper shook her head, a smile playing on her lips. "No, that sounds good."

Pretty soon, they joined the traffic on the main road. Harper kept her gaze out the window, playing with her bracelet as the streets passed by in a colorful blur. Unfamiliar with the area, it was difficult to tell how far from their town they were. The scenery quickly changed from luscious greens to a quaint little town where the rows of shops were all connected but each store's face was different in both color and style.

It seemed cozy. Unassuming. A perfect little town with its own little secrets.

Save for the music that played through the speakers, they drove in a comfortable silence. A few words were exchanged now and then but otherwise they kept quiet. Both of them were lost in their own thoughts until they parked alongside rows of more shops.

Harper stepped out, moving her hair out of her eyes from the small breeze that blew. She located the diner immediately, nestled in between two stores. One of which was the comic store Hawk had mentioned earlier.

They walked into the diner that wasn't really a diner. It resembled more of a fast-food restaurant that took the diner aesthetic to heart. Vinyl booths lined the walls on both sides with more tables littered in the middle. It was eccentric in the best way possible, and Harper immediately liked it.

A chalk menu board took up much of the wall behind the counter, listing every special they offered and then some.

"What's good here?" Harper asked, slightly overwhelmed by the vast selection.

"Pretty much everything," Hawk answered, though he continued to stare at the menu. "You can't really make a bad choice

"Very helpful," she muttered as she turned back to the many choices staring her in the face. "Oh! They have sweet potato fries!"

"Yeah, no. Steak fries are so much better," Hawk commented.

"No, they're not," Harper told him. "Everyone knows the hierarchy of fries goes: sweet potato fries, regular fries, curly fries, steak fries, and then waffle fries."

"What kind of world are you living in, foster? It's obviously steak fries, regular fries, curly fries, waffle fries, and then sweet potato fries." Hawk watched her for a few seconds before shaking his head in bemusement. "I wonder about you sometimes."

Harper rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to the overwhelming menu. She admired the cutesy drawings someone took the time to draw more than trying to figure out what she wanted to order. Not only were there too many options, but she also wanted to be wary of how much she spent.

A few minutes of indecisiveness later, they both placed their order and walked off to the side to wait for their number to be called. Harper walked off to the soda fountain, contemplating which drink to choose. Having settled on a soda, she walked back to where he leaned against the wall, arms folded across his chest.

"What'd you choose?" He asked.

"Pepsi. They were out of Coke," she said, wrinkling her nose as she took a sip of the overly sweet drink.

He watched her in amusement. "Not a fan?"

"It's too sweet," she said. "What did you get?"

"Pepsi. Because it's better than Coke."

"What is wrong with you?" Harper asked with a shake of her head but didn't comment further. "Hey, do you still have the receipt? I wanted to check something."

"What are you looking for?" Hawk asked as he passed the recipe to her.

Harper tilted her head as she skimmed the paper, the abbreviated names making it hard to decipher anything. "I kinda have to figure out how much I owe you," she stated slowly as if the answer should've been obvious.

Hawk made a face before snatching the paper from her. "Nothing. You don't owe me anything."

Frowning, she tried to reach for the receipt but he kept it out of her reach. "Seriously? I can't let you buy me food."

"Why not?"

"Because," she stated, to which he rolled his eyes.

"Think of it as a reward for kicking my ass earlier."

"No, that's not how this works. I have to pay you back." She squinted as she turned to the menu board, frowning when she failed to locate any of the prices.

"No, you don't," Hawk said just as their number was called, ending the discussion.

Suppressing an annoyed sigh, she followed him to the counter where she took one of the two trays. It took them a moment to decide where to sit but they opted for one of the booths that was lined against the wall of windows. As they slid into their seats, she frowned at the trays of food.

"Do you think we maybe ordered a little too much?" Tilting her head, she eyed the food that looked like it could feed a group of four or five.

"What do you mean? This is the perfect amount," he said with a grin. He then proceeded to cut each of their burgers in half and divided the different side dishes among the two of them. "This way we get to eat everything," he explained when he found her watching.

Harper couldn't argue with that though she still believed they ordered too much. Especially since she didn't pay for any of it. "Wait… what about the fries?"

"What about them?"

"Well, it's just that you divided everything in half. Except for the fries."

"I'm not eating sweet potato fries," Hawk said.

Bemused, she smiled. "What's the deal with that anyway?"

Hawk sighed, shaking his head at some unknown memory. "My aunt has this sweet potato obsession so she uses it in every meal she makes."

"That's a little weird but I'm not really seeing the problem here."

"You will. Trust me," Hawk said, shaking his head at some faraway memory. "She adds sugar to it. A lot of sugar. Because she doesn't think sweet potatoes are sweet enough."

Harper wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Ew."

"Exactly. So every time we see her, we have to eat overly sweet meals."

"That's really gross," she started, "but these fries weren't made by your aunt," Harper said, carefully dividing up both of their fry orders. "I promise they won't let you down."

"You're not letting me off the hook, are you?" Hawk asked with a frown to which she shook her head. Begrudgingly, he sighed and picked up one of the sweet potato fries before taking a bite of it. His expression went from wary to surprised to mildly happy in the span of a few seconds.

"So?" Harper asked with a smile, her arms resting on the tabletop as she awaited the verdict.

"It's not that bad. But they're still low on the hierarchy list," he said before adding, "okay, maybe they're better than waffle fries."

"Small progress is still progress," she said before taking in the food that covered most of the table. "So, is there a specific place we start or do we just eat?"

They worked their way around the tray of food while falling into a conversation that mixed in with the other half-dozen conversations going on around them. Harper was surprised at how easy it was to talk with him. How their conversation flowed from one topic to the next without any awkward pauses. What unsettled her the most was how normal it was to sit across from him. She thought that outside of the park, outside of their training sessions, they'd go back to hating each other. Yet here they were.

"So no one even noticed we weren't in school. One of the few perks of being invisible I guess," Hawk continued, smiling at the memory that played in his mind.

"You actually got away with it?"

Hawk shook his head, pausing to take a sip of his drink. "Not exactly. The school realized we weren't there after a few missed classes and called our parents. And it didn't help that Demetri and I got back to the school at the exact moment as our parents. They saw us crossing the street, acting like we'd been at school the whole day."

Harper stifled a laugh. "How much trouble were you two in?"

"A lot. The school gave us detention for a week. But we both got grounded and were banned from comics and video games for a month. It was brutal. Especially since we were, what, twelve?"

"I can't imagine Demetri ever willingly cutting school," Harper said.

"It was for comic con, foster. Anything for comic con."

Harper shook her head at his statement.

"So, what about you? What kind of trouble did you get up to?"

Raising her eyebrows, she tilted her head at his question. "You mean besides attacking a car with a golf club and getting sent to juvie?"

"N-no, that's not - shit, sorry," he stammered apologetically. "I just meant growing up. You know, skipping class or cheating on a test. Stuff like that."

"Oh, uhm, I didn't do any of that," Harper admitted as she thought back to the last several years of her life. She felt sad at having missed out on being young and stupid. Carefree. Where the only sort of punishment was no TV or detention. "I couldn't really afford to get in trouble. Or, you know, get any of my foster parents mad because that would mean getting the social worker I had at the time involved. And she wasn't… she didn't really like kids. Which is kinda ironic given her job but I guess that could be said for most of the foster parents I've had."

"So you just never got in trouble?" Hawk asked.

"I mean, I did. But…." Harper shook her head at the memories that surfaced in her mind. Putting on a smile, she focused on the food that was still uneaten. "What else did you and Demetri do?" She asked because diving into that topic was too complicated.

Much to her surprise and relief, Hawk dove into another funny memory about him and Demetri. She for sure thought that he would force her to finish her sentence or ask her invasive questions about her past but he didn't. Something that not many people did.

She laughed at the ridiculous stories Hawk told her. "Do you miss it? Being friends with Demetri," she asked once he finished another story.

"No," Hawk answered quickly, looking away when she narrowed her eyes. Several quiet seconds ticked by before he sighed and said, "Sometimes, yeah. He was my best friend, you know? More like my brother than anything else but," he paused, shrugging, "we just grew apart."

"Because of karate," Harper stated, unsure of where she wanted to go with that sentence. "It's just…."

"What?"

"Never mind."

"Don't do that," Hawk said with a sigh, leveling her with a look.

"What do you mean? I'm not-"

"Come on, foster, you never stopped yourself from telling me what you think. Or reminding me of when I'm being an ass. So what's up?"

It was true that she never stopped herself from saying what was on her mind. But the fact that they were getting along for once made her not want to ruin that moment. Playing with her bracelet, she gathered her thoughts before speaking.

"It just seems like a really dumb reason to end a friendship. Especially like the one you and Demetri had. I mean, you two have been friends since like elementary school. And I don't know a lot about friendship since, you know, I didn't have much of that growing up because of foster care but…. You hold on to that."

"It's more complicated than that," he said. "Demetri just wasn't cut out for Cobra Kai, and he made his choice."

Harper tilted her head. "That's crap and you know it. Okay, so maybe Cobra Kai wasn't the best place for him but that doesn't make it okay for you to bully your best friend to look cool in front of your new friends. Especially if those new friends used to be your old bullies."

Hawk remained silent, his expression unreadable as he watched her. As he took her words in. "You really don't hold back, do you?"

Harper shrugged but felt nervous that she'd said too much. That she'd been too honest when, in reality, she should've kept her mouth shut. "I'm sorry. I just - you asked me what I thought and-"

"I'm not mad," he interrupted, a crooked grin on his face.

"You're not?" She asked tentatively.

"No. I mean, it's not fun but since I joined Cobra Kai, no one really stands up to me. Except you."

Harper smiled before a soft ringing filled the air. Realizing it was her phone, she turned it over and frowned at the name that was displayed across the screen. Ryan.

"You can answer it," Hawk said, nodding toward the phone.

She let it ring a couple more times before hitting decline. "I don't."

He watched her curiously before a text on her phone pulled his attention back towards the screen. With a smirk, he leaned back in the seat. "This Ryan guy really wants to talk, huh? Who is he? Some boyfriend you didn't tell me about?"

Turning the phone over, she glanced at him. "Jealous?" She asked with a smile of her own before it faded to another frown. A sigh escaped her lips as she looked out the window, at the people walking around aimlessly lost in their own lives. Their own problems. "He's the guy from the arcade."

"The one whose car you trashed?" Hawk asked with surprise.

"Yeah," Harper said softly.

"Your date from that night still wants to talk to you?"

"It wasn't a date," Harper said with an impatient sigh and wondered if she should say more. "He's my dad."

"He's your…. Wait, what? I thought he was-"

"So did I," Harper said. "I tracked him down a few weeks ago. And he agreed to meet up. To talk. He wanted to tell me what why I ended up in the system when he was here this whole time."

"Did he tell you?" Hawk asked before shaking his head. "Nevermind. Forget it. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

A smile crossed her face at being given the option to talk. To not be pestered with questions about every miserable aspect of her life. Of being given a choice on whether she wanted to share something or not. Something that not many people did when it came to her past.

"It's not exactly a secret," she told him and a sigh escaped her lips as she thought back to that day at the arcade. To when Ryan crushed the small bit of hope that she'd held onto after having found him. "He, uhm, terminated his parental rights when I was like four. He said he'd wanted to make something of himself, and I guess having me in the picture ruined it for him. So he got rid of me."

"He said that?" Hawk asked, his expression darkening when she nodded. "All of it?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Harper said.

"Your dads a dick."

"Maybe," she agreed and then shrugged. "Look, I don't care. I really don't but… I just feel so stupid for hoping that he'd want me back. That he'd tell me all of this had been some huge mistake and he'd been looking everywhere for me. But he didn't. Because he was living his best life while I went from one shitty foster home to the next." Harper paused and took a shaky breath, blinking away the tears that had gathered and hoping that he didn't notice. She stared down at the table and absentmindedly moved the food around on her plate. "Did you know that Ryan had no idea my mom died? He didn't care at all, and I'm the idiot still wishing that he had."

"You're not stupid, foster. And you're not an idiot for wanting your dad to want to be in your life."

His words warmed her heart but Harper found it difficult to believe him. Because the last eleven years made her see nothing but a broken girl who didn't matter to anyone. "I still feel like one."

"But you're not. Look, he's the idiot for walking away, not you," he insisted, nudging her to look at him. "I'm serious, foster. I get it sucks that he left but I think that you're probably better off with your foster family. They seem pretty cool."

"Yeah," she said with a smile that faded quickly. "But it's still only temporary. I'll be here for the first semester, maybe the second but I don't know what happens after that. Eventually, I'll get moved somewhere else. It always happens."

A frown worked its way into his face as he considered her words. "You think so? I thought things were going good with them. They took you back after the whole juvie thing."

"It's just how the system works. Nothing is ever permanent."

"You really don't think they'll want you to stay?" He asked but she was already shaking her head.

"I messed up too much."

"But you're still here."

"I'm not someone who gets a happy ending, Hawk. It's just… it's not for me," she said, keeping her attention anywhere but at him.

He started to talk but stopped as if unsure of just what he could say. It wasn't an easy topic that people knew how to navigate. It was a bitter inside look at the broken system that turned bright-eyed children into broken shells as they grew up.

"Anyway," Harper said, forcing a smile onto her face as she tried to pivot the conversation toward something normal. Happier. Less messed up.

They spent the remainder of their lunch talking about nothing in particular as the topics changed every few seconds. Nothing serious, just an easy-going conversation between two people. Two friends. Because that's what they were. As much as Harper had tried to fight it, she'd lost.

And the line had been crossed long before that day.