In Hawk's dreams, Sky always forgave him.

I forgive you, she sighed when he laid her down on the bed and kissed her craning neck, I forgive you when his lips devoured the valley between her small, supple breasts. I forgive you when he lapped his tongue over her nipples and they turned rock-hard, delicious, and intriguing like cranberries or hard candies and he sucked them with his hungry mouth, first one, then the other. I forgive you. Oh, Eli, I love you.

He said he loved her too, said it a thousand times, breathed it with a broken voice close to her ear when she wrapped her legs around his waist and he pushed into her slick heat, his dick thrusting so deep into her, that she moaned and cried out, her legs trembling on both sides of his hips.

In his dreams, they did it in her bed. Always in her bed, where the heavy, burgundy curtains were closed and created a haven of soft shadows. They did it on her pink, flower-patterned sheets that smelled like her vanilla perfume, her strawberry shower gel, and girl. And it was just like before - she wanted him, she loved him, she couldn't get enough of him. Her fingernails scraped down his back when he fucked her and she climaxed, moaning out his name Eli, Eli, Oh my God, Eli that feels so good—

The memory of the latest dream was fierce, it was a tidal wave that overrode his mind and his body, taking his breath away. He couldn't help the effect it had on him, even if he tried. His cheeks heated as he realized he was getting hard - which was not a good thing. He was in the school, for fucks sake, in English class—

Uncomfortable, he shifted on his seat and glanced around the classroom, trying to hide his raging boner under the table. Ms. Hardinge was talking in front of the class, most kids were making notes in their notebooks, some were discreetly watching their phones or talking with their friends - the usual. To Hawk's great relief, no one seemed to be paying any attention to his situation.

He couldn't help but turn his eyes to Sky, who was sitting in front of him, and yet another flash of heat coursed through his veins. She was so fucking pretty in her short, pink skirt, the cute sweater, and knee-high socks, that Hawk would have gladly stared at her all day. Which, of course, made him a pathetic creep.

Angrily he drew his eyes off her and started tapping the floor restlessly with his sneakered foot, trying to force down his persistent hard-on with the sheer force of his frustration.

It had been like this all this week.

Spending time with Sky every day at the dojo was fucking shattering him, it was turning him into a complete mess, an idiot who barely remembered his own name. He had thought his longing for her had been bad before, but watching her train in her super cute, tight sports leggings and tops, was pushing his yearning to whole new levels. She was the only thing he could think about, and no matter how pathetic it was, he didn't even want it to change.

These heated dreams were making him nuts, but still, they were the best thing that had happened to him since Sky had dumped him. So what if the sex wasn't real? So what if her love wasn't real? It fucking felt real, when he held her in his arms, kissed her neck, sucked her boobs, and fucked her hard on her bed, so fucking hard that her whole body was bouncing, so fucking deep that she chanted his name breathlessly when he made her come, that he fucking cried when he orgasmed with her and filled her tight pussy with his cum—

He'd been doing a lot of laundry this past week. Fresh sheets every night. Mom probably thought he was suffering from the sleep enuresis again, but if so, at least she didn't say anything about it, for which Hawk was immensely grateful. Sneaking into the laundry room with his cum-stained sheets in the middle of the night was mortifying enough even without Mom's well-meaning questions.

Hawk muttered a silent curse and leaned over the table, burying his face in his arms, trying very hard to think about something else, anything else, than Sky's naked body on the bed in his arms, but instead of going away, his boner was getting even more persistent.

Maybe I should just skip the afternoon classes and go home. I can't take care of this in school—

But to skip half a day of school just so that he could go home to masturbate to the image of his ex-girlfriend? He groaned inwardly. Pathetic. Jesus Christ, I'm such a loser—

"Hawk—" came a silent voice. "Hey, are you even awake?"

Hawk's head snapped up, and he glanced around. People were dragging their chairs and turning their tables, Ms. Hardinge was spreading out worksheets and giving instructions. Pair work - again? Any other day that would have made Hawk happy, but now the realization that he had to talk to Sky, made his mouth go dry. Sky, oblivious to his perverted dreams, had already turned her chair around and was looking at him with a hint of annoyance.

"Sorry," Hawk mumbled and sat up, his cheeks heating. "I just— didn't get a lot of sleep last night—"

"Yeah, me neither." Sky muttered and ruffled her curls.

The scent of her hair filled Hawk's nostrils - vanilla, strawberries - making his heart almost burst through his chest. His dick was still hard, almost painful in the agony of his jeans, and Sky's closeness made it a thousand times worse. Memories of the dreams flashed through his mind: Sky on the bed, he on top of her, her eyes half-closing in pleasure as he pushed in deep, hard—

He swallowed and looked down. Stopthisstopthisstopthis! He forced the images out of his mind, forced himself to cool down, clenched his fists on the table so that his nails were digging into the skin of his palms.

Luckily Sky didn't even look at him, as she scribbled their names on the paper with her pink Hello Kitty pencil, and started doing the assignment, giving Hawk a much-needed moment to get his urges under control.

"What's kept you awake?" He asked after a short silence.

She looked annoyed, her cheeks blushed. "Nothing. Just— bad dreams."

"Oh," Hawk muttered, feeling stupid. He knew Sky had nightmares. She'd suffered from them ever since Matt had shot her, they were part of the whole PTSD thing, as he should have very well known.

Jesus Christ, I'm a fucking idiot—

Sky looked pale and there were dark shadows under her eyes, revealing the lack of sleep - but that wasn't all. Her eyes looked puffed and red-rimmed as if she had been crying. Her mascara was a bit smudged.

Hawk's heart twisted with worry. He opened and closed his mouth, licked his lips. Should he say something? Probably not. Definitely not. Sky had made it clear that they weren't friends, she still wasn't talking to him except when she had no choice. It was none of his business why Sky looked like she had been crying her eyes out right before this class had started, but—

"Hey— is everything okay?" The words escaped his lips before he could stop them.

Sky looked down. She shrugged, the hand holding the pencil had gone still.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

She said that in the way people always say fine when they are anything but fine.

"You can talk to me, you know. If there's anything I can do—"

"Well, there isn't. It's nothing serious. It's just—" A tense breath escaped her trembling lips. "I— I think Cody's Mom hates me."

Hawk's heart thumped painfully in his chest. He couldn't believe this, couldn't believe that Sky was actually talking to him, telling him this stuff. Almost as if they were friends?

"That's impossible. Why would she hate you?"

She shook her head, still not looking up from the damn worksheet and her pale cheeks blushed faintly, their color matched the pink of her sweater.

"It's Cody's birthday. I… I sneaked into his room to give him a cupcake—"

A cupcake? Judging by the blushing of her cheeks and the couple of fresh hickies on her neck right above the collar of her shirt, Hawk was pretty sure she had given Cody more than just a cupcake. Jealousy twisted his gut like a blade, bringing a sour taste to his lips.

"—and Cody's Mom didn't like it. She was really mean, calling me names and stuff. And she threw me out of the house."

"What–? She threw you out?" Hawk frowned. "That's— not cool."

He wanted to ask if Cody's Mom had interrupted whatever it was Sky had been doing with Cody and if her anger had something to do with that - but there was no way to say that without sounding like a jealous creep, so Hawk held his tongue.

Sky didn't look up. Her hand holding the pencil was very still, trembling slightly.

"It's nothing new. Everyone already thinks I'm a slut."

Something twisted painfully in Hawk's chest.

"That's not true," he rasped, his voice thick in his throat. "No one who matters thinks that. I don't."

"Jesus—! You literally told half the school that I'm a whore."

"Look—" Hawk leaned a bit closer. He kept his voice low so that they wouldn't be overheard, but his heart was in his throat and it was hard to even get the words out. "I didn't, okay? Yeah, I told Rickenberger and Mitch about— about what we did in the janitor's closet. And it was fucking stupid, and I wish to God I had never done that— But I never meant for them to find out it was you. And I never used that word about you. I would never say that, because I never thought that about you. Ever."

There were big, clear teardrops in Sky's eyelashes. She was gripping the pencil in her fingers so hard that Hawk was scared it would snap. When she replied, her voice was barely audible.

"No. You just told me the only reason anyone would be with me is to get some pussy."

Her words pierced his chest like an arrow. They pushed him away from her, forced him to lean back in his chair and draw in a trembling breath.

"I know. But I've told you I didn't mean that. And I've apologized like a dozen times."

A moment of silence followed his words. The teardrops fell free from Sky's eyes and splashed on the worksheet, and it was as if she only then realized she was crying. She tried to wipe away the stains with the sleeve of her sweater.

"Sorry—" she sighed. "It's shitty of me to keep bringing that up. I guess I'm just having one of those days, you know. What happened with Cody's foster mom—"

"Foster mom?" Hawk frowned, and Sky stopped talking mid-sentence. She brought a hand to her mouth, and a look of sheer horror overtook her features when she realized what she had let slip.

"Shit— Oh, fuck—!"

"Cody is a foster kid?"

"Oh my God, I really didn't mean to tell you that. Hawk— Please, you have to promise you won't say anything! Nobody knows—"

"Yeah, okay, I promise. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

Sky's eyes were wide with fear, she looked like she would start crying again - which was the last thing Hawk wanted.

"I promise," he repeated. "Your secret's safe with me."

"It's not my secret though, is it? It's Cody's and you fucking hate him—"

"Well yeah, but I don't hate you. I won't tell anyone if that's what you want."

Sky looked down and continued filling the worksheet, with a trembling hand. Hawk glanced at the paper - he had no fucking idea what they were supposed to be doing. He had missed the instructions completely, and he didn't want to admit that by asking Sky, besides right now he couldn't have cared less.

Cody is a foster kid?

That didn't seem believable. Cody was a rich, privileged asshole, the golden boy of this fucking school, winning all the awards, slaying in the debate team, getting all the girls—

Weren't foster kids supposed to be like… Hawk frowned, searching for the right words. Poor? Loney? Bullied? Silent weirdos with no friends, who wore embarrassing goodwill clothes?

He rolled his eyes at his thoughts. Stupid. He should have known better. There was no way to tell what was going on in someone's home by looking at their clothes.

"I just feel so bad—" Sky spoke, her eyes on the worksheet, but her mind clearly elsewhere as the pencil was drawing aimless circles on the paper. "I mean, it's one thing that Cody's Mom hates me— But they treat him like crap, all the time. He has to deal with that shit 24/7. I just— I wish there was something I could do."

Hawk's heart felt so heavy and light at the same time, that he feared it would shatter. Heavy, because suddenly it became obvious to him that Sky loved Cody. The way Cody's home life was bringing her down made Hawk miserable and incredibly jealous. But at the same time, he felt lighter than in months, because they were talking - She's fucking talking to me! - for the first time in forever, they were actually talking, without her crying or screaming or running away or pretending that Hawk didn't exist.

He didn't even care that they were talking about Cody. He was so happy he could have cried.

"There's nothing you can do, though," he said softly. "You can't change the way things are at his home."

Sky shrugged and continued sketching circles on the paper. It seemed like she had lost interest in doing the actual work too.

"I know. It just… sucks."

"Isn't he now eighteen anyways? He can probably move out if he wants to, right?

"Well he could. But where is he gonna go? At least now he has a roof over his head. I mean— He still needs to graduate and all. You can't go to school if you're homeless— Oh God—" Sky looked up, her eyes wide with sudden fear. "What if— what if I made his parents hate him even more? What if they kick him out—?"

"Come on, you can't think like that. It's not your fault they are dicks. And— Cody is lucky to have you, especially if things back home are shitty. I mean it."

Those words tasted bitter and a short silence followed them. Hawk licked his lips and looked down, hoping that Sky wouldn't notice his sudden emotion - but of course, she did.

"How are—" She cleared her throat. "How are things with your dad?"

Hawk shrugged.

"You know. The same."

He desperately hoped Sky wouldn't ask more. While she knew Hawk didn't get along with his Dad, he had never told her why. He had never told her about the way Dad had just given up on him because he was on the spectrum, because of his stupid lip, because he was a failure, a disappointment, a freak. Sky only knew that Dad was away a lot, that he had a temper, that he worked and drank too much. She knew nothing about the fear, about the abuse, about the shame, about the bruises, the cuts, the tears. She knew nothing about the night when Hawk had finally hit back, and it had been Dad spitting blood into the kitchen sink.

He could never tell her. It hurt too much, it was too awful, too shameful. Sky had the best Dad in the whole fucking world, she wouldn't understand, besides—

—I'm not her boyfriend anymore. You don't go telling these things to someone who is barely your friend.

"He still works a lot?" Sky asked as if she truly cared.

Hawk's foot was tapping the floor restlessly under the table. "Yeah. He's away all this week. But you know, it's kinda better when he's not home."

"I'm sorry. At least you have your Mom, though. She's awesome."

"She is," Hawk replied. "You're right about that."

That was true, even more than Sky knew. It had been so fucking hard to quit Cobra Kai, to apologize to Demetri, to Sky, to Miguel to Sam, to Sensei LaRusso— but the hardest apology of all had been the one to Mom.

Hawk had cried, and so had she. But then she had taken his hand over the table, squeezed it hard, and said It's okay now, Honey. Everything is going to be okay.

And Hawk was never going to let her down again.

"Tell your Mom I said hi, okay? I miss her. It was great when we were in Italy last summer. I liked hanging out with her." The ghost of a smile in the corner of Sky's mouth disappeared. "It doesn't look like I'll be doing any traveling or anything with Cody's mom, like, ever."

"I'm sorry his mom's such a bitch. You didn't deserve that. I hope your boyfriend told her to shut the fuck up, for talking to you like that—"

"Goodness! That's a bit too many swear words to my liking, Eli," Ms. Hardinge's voice made Hawk quickly shut up and he swallowed the rest of that sentence, which would have included even more profanities. The teacher had stopped next to their table and was now glancing at the worksheet that was still almost empty, except for the scribbles and sketches Sky had drawn on the edges. The hearts, stars, and circles didn't seem to satisfy Ms. Hardinge, though, and a frown fell to her face as she looked from Hawk to Sky.

"And I see you've barely started the work. Sky, is there a problem? Did you not understand the assignment?"

"No problem," Sky replied, faking a smile. "I understood, we'll finish this in no time. Sorry, Ms. Hardinge."

"Please do, and ask for help if you need it, okay? If you finish it in class, there's no homework."

Hawk let out a tense breath, watching Ms. Hardinge move to the next table. Any other teacher would have given him recess for the language he'd used, but not her, for which Hawk was incredibly grateful. Ms. Hardinge was one of the nice teachers, the ones who actually seemed to care.

"Your Mom must be happy—" Sky said silently when Ms. Hardinge was out of earshot. "You know, to have you back."

The lump in Hawk's throat took his words away, so he just gave a nod. To have you back. It was the first time Sky had acknowledged the fact that he had changed. Her words stayed as warmth in his chest for the rest of that day.