Battle Scars

by scottspierce

Harper Cain, on the brink of being adopted by the Hudsons, faces upheaval when her long-lost biological father, Ryan, fights for custody. Her secret relationship with Hawk has been exposed, causing betrayal among her friends at Miyagi-Do. Caught in the escalating dojo war, Harper struggles to balance her heart and loyalties amidst rising tensions and emotional turmoil.

25. twenty four

"What? Oh, come on. That's not fair!" Harper exclaimed, crossing her arms as she glared at the basketball hoops game with pure contempt.

Cole shrugged, a giddy smile on his face as he grabbed the line of tickets that printed. "Not my fault you suck at this," he said, pocketing the tickets, but they stuck haphazardly out of his pocket.

"You cheated," she commented, refusing to accept that she'd lost to him. Again.

They'd been at the arcade for all of thirty minutes, and Cole had already beat her at three games. It was unfair, but she was only pretending to be annoyed just to get a reaction out of him. In fact, she didn't care if she was winning or losing because she was just happy to be spending some much-needed time with him.

After two weeks with Ryan, she'd been excited to return to the Hudsons. Just like she'd predicted, Olivia had completely gotten rid of their typical comfort meals and replaced them with ultra-healthy versions — they were just as good, but Cole and Lucas grumbled about certain substitutions that were made. For the past few days, she'd caught them sneaking snacks as if their lives depended on it, and she'd joined in.

Harper was surprisingly adjusting well to the back and forth between Ryan's and the Hudson's, though the ultimate decision of who she'd live with once the courts made their decision loomed over her. She'd realized that she'd become comfortable and attached to both families. Being torn from either of them was unimaginable to her, but the day would come sooner than any of them expected. Or wanted.

For all she knew, there were only a handful of nights like these left. She didn't want to think about it, but her brain had this funny way of thinking about things that were better left alone — things that would only make her more anxious the longer she thought about it.

She pushed those intrusively morbid thoughts away, locking them away behind a door she'd thrown the key out for. She didn't want to spend the night thinking about what could happen and when — instead, she was determined to focus on the here and now because time was too precious to waste. This was what mattered right now, and Harper wished she could freeze this moment in time.

"Let's try that one!" Cole said before darting off across the floor.

"You know we don't have to rush, right?" Harper asked, trying to match his speed as she moved between groups of people both walking and standing in place.

"Uh, yeah we do if we want to play the games again," Cole said, shooting her a glance as he rolled his eyes. He stopped by the skeeball machine, digging into his pockets for tokens but coming up empty. "Hey, Harper, do you have any —" he trailed off with a sheepish smile when she held out a couple of tokens for him to take.

"Alright, let's see what you've got," Harper said, watching as he stood there with a very determined look on his face.

Cole glanced at her with a grin. "Watch and learn."

The first ball landed just short of the twenty, but he hit the thirty mark the next two times in a rout, looking much too proud of himself. For him, this game was life and death because getting as many tickets as possible stood between him and the coolest prizes only kids his age would care about. And Harper was slightly worried that they'd be here until close because Cole was nothing but determined.

And before they'd left, Lucas had requested — not mentioned — that he wanted one of the top prizes for himself.

In moments like that, Lucas and Ryan gave off the same vibe of being a kid at heart. The only difference was that it was Ryan's default personality, while Lucas could go from childish to intimidatingly serious in seconds.

She laughed when Cole threw his hands up in the air, watching the tickets that printed out, snaking onto the ground. He carefully put them together before throwing them in with the rest of the tickets that threatened to spill out of his pockets.

"Your turn! But there's no way you're beating me," Cole told her as he moved off to the side.

"Yeah, yeah," Harper said before inserting two tokens.

The machine lit up with various lights, signaling that she could play. Harper tilted her head, staring at the various goals she could get the ball into. There was no strategy to her madness, just pure concentration as she threw the first ball and watched as it sailed through the air towards the fifty before bouncing off the edge and falling into the gutter, scoring her zero points.

"What the — That was almost in!" Harper complained, shooting a glare Cole's way when he laughed. "That was just a practice throw."

Cole snorted. "Yeah, okay."

Harper narrowed her eyes. "I will throw this at you," she threatened, raising the ball above her head and zeroing in on him.

Cole put his hands up in mock surrender, stepping back to give her some room. "No need to get violent. This is a family-friendly arcade, you know."

Shaking her head, she readjusted her stance before throwing the ball once more. She held her breath, a curse slipping out when it bounced and the ball landed in the gutter. The machine lit up, its annoying cheerful chirp almost mocking her.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Harper asked, sighing.

"You do know you're supposed to try to hit the bigger numbers, right?" Cole asked and stepped closer to squint at the game. "It's the ones that have the black letters painted on them."

"Oh, shut up," Harper said before giving him a light shove.

"It's all about the wrist flick!" Cole claimed with a laugh as he stumbled slightly from the push. "And the stance. And the angle. And, uh, being me because I'm awesome at this game."

Harper rolled her eyes at his helpful tips before turning back to the machine. This was her last chance to score, and she was determined to at least score one goal, otherwise she'd never live it down. Harper picked up the last ball and tilted her head as she studied the board. She wondered if there was some twisted strategy to the game that she was missing, but it all seemed pretty straightforward. The only conclusion she could come up with was that she was terrible at this and had to accept it.

Just as Harper swung her arm to throw the ball, she saw Cole's eyes widen. "What?"

"What?"

"Exactly. What?" Harper asked with a sigh when he tried to look innocent. "Why are you giving me that look for?"

"It's not a look. It's my face," Cole said with a shrug,

"Well your face looks suspicious," Harper told him.

His eyes darted behind her, the hint of mischief dancing in his eyes before he shook his head. "I'm just, you know, watching your technique?"

"I don't have a technique. I'm literally winging this," Harper deadpanned.

"Exactly! And it's very interesting," Cole said with a single nod. He fidgeted on the spot, looking more conspicuous than ever. "I mean, it's not like anyone's like right behind you. Because that'd be crazy if, you know, someone was trying to sneak up on you. You don't even have to look because there's no one there. Honestly, this place is kinda dead for a Friday night."

"Oh, for sure. This place is full of ghosts," Harper said, shaking her head at his definition of dead.

The arcade was buzzing with kids and their families as well as teens who had no better way to spend their night. The noise level alone — shrieks of laughter, unnecessarily loud conversations, and music that used to be popular decades ago but was now overplayed — was enough to drive any sane person crazy.

So Cole claiming that this place was empty and that no one was behind her immediately made Harper suspicious enough to look over her shoulder.

"Hey, wait! Don't — " Cole started but sighed dramatically when he was too late to stop the inevitable.

Harper turned around and narrowed her eyes into a mocking glare when she noticed Hawk was right behind her. His arms were outstretched as if ready to grab her, and he stopped mid-step when he realized that his sneak attack was completely ruined. She watched him for a moment longer before a slow smile stretched across her face when he looked beyond disappointed.

"Wow, seriously?" Harper asked, dryly. "That was kind of pathetic. No, but I'm serious. For a cobra who's supposed to strike first, that was just bad. Like really bad. So bad that Kreese would be disappointed."

Hawk dropped his arms to his side, a sheepish look crossing his face before looking past her towards Cole. "Dude, what part of 'quiet' don't you understand? You were supposed to act normal, not… whatever the hell that was."

"I was stealthy!" Cole fired back. He crossed his arms over his chest and shifted from one foot to the other as he shrunk under Hawk's glare. "Okay, fine, I kinda panicked! You were just taking too long, and it was a lot of pressure, okay?"

"That wasn't panic. That was… I don't even know what to call that," Hawk said with a shake of his head.

"In my defense –" Cole started but stopped the moment his glare turned sharper. "Okay, no defense. My bad."

Harper stifled a laugh, unable to hide her amusement. "Oh, come on. You didn't really think that would work, did you?"

"I mean… it almost worked?" Cole offered with a strained smile that completely disappeared the moment Hawk looked towards him again.

Hawk rolled his eyes, the disappointment still simmering beneath the surface. "It would've worked if someone had kept quiet," he grumbled.

Harper nodded slowly, way too amused by this to keep quiet. "Oh, sure, of course, it would've. And then I'd have elbowed you in the ribs like I always do, and you would've cried about that so… technically Cole kinda saved your life."

Cole perked up at that, nodding too enthusiastically as if he'd come to this conclusion himself. "Yeah, what she said. I was just, you know, looking out for you."

"Yeah, sure," Hawk said dryly before taking a step closer to her. "You're lucky I put up with you two."

Reaching for her, he easily pulled her into his side. And Harper rolled her eyes, but she leaned into him knowing full well that the old her would have resisted — would've made some sarcastic comment or pulled away altogether.

It was crazy how easily she fit against him, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. And perhaps it was even though admitting it, even thinking it, still managed to scare her. She wasn't used to being this vulnerable or comfortable. She wasn't used to fully letting herself trust someone. It was just a simple side hug but it really wasn't. At least not to her — to someone who used to run in the opposite direction whenever things got too serious and people got too close.

"What? Did you miss me or something, foster?" Hawk asked, his tone teasing when she returned the hug.

"Shut up," Harper mumbled, her cheeks heating up from the embarrassment of letting herself have this. "It's either this or I elbow you. It's your pick."

Laughing, his grip on her tightened slightly in that way he did to let her know he wasn't going anywhere. Because as much as she hated to admit it, he knew her more than she was comfortable with.

Even now, with his arms wrapped around her, Harper was still waiting for everything to go wrong. That mindset was programmed into her design, and she had to fight it to stop herself from sabotaging this.

He'd said he loved her, and she'd said it back.

And yet her mind couldn't comprehend that good things didn't always have to end.

Before she could let herself overthink this, the sound of the skeeball machine played a happy tune behind them. Reluctantly, she turned her head to see that the scoreboard read a perfect score of zero. She looked towards Cole, who shrugged with an impatient look on his face.

"Did you just…?" She started, unable to let herself finish that sentence. Because the little menace had just played a round for her — and badly.

"What? We came here to have fun and you two are being weird," Cole said, wrinkling his nose.

"I'm having fun," Hawk replied with a smug grin as he pulled her closer. But when he caught the absolute look of shock and betrayal on Harper's face, who continued to stare at Cole with that wide-eyed stare of disbelief, he laughed.

"Looks like I won! Next game will be the —" Cole started, half turning towards another game before Harper's voice stopped him.

"Oh, no. No way are you leaving," she said as she took a small step towards him. The slight chill from not being close to Hawk made her pause, but she wouldn't let herself think about it. "I demand a rematch. You totally cheated."

"No, I didn't!" Cole argued, crossing his arms.

"You kinda did," Hawk said. "I mean, that was kinda badass and sneaky but… you cheated."

Cole threw his head back, but a smile tugged at his lips as he took the coins Harper held out for him. "You're going down! Again."

The tension in the air was palpable as round two of the game began. In a few minutes flat, Cole scored three almost-perfect goals. His overly smug smile grated on Harper's nerves as she stepped up to the machine, knowing she had to redeem herself. But her first try missed the goal by a mile, bouncing wildly until it landed in the gutter. She glared over her shoulder at Cole and Hawk, who she knew wanted to comment on her lack of skeeball skills.

Her second attempt hit the ten, and she smiled wide as if she'd just broken the record. But she was still ultimately falling. Her current score of ten versus Cole's score of a hundred forty felt like the entire game was mocking her.

"Come on, Harper. Just lose already so we can move onto the next game!" Cole said.

Narrowing her eyes playfully, she shot him a glare. "Be quiet. I'm concentrating."

"Don't strain yourself," Hawk muttered, shooting her an innocent smile when her glare turned on him.

"I'm hanging out with two idiots," Harper muttered under her breath. She turned back to the machine, bargaining with the arcade gods to let her score high just this once. But before she could even think about accepting her fate, Hawk came up behind her and picked up the last ball. He threw it with ease, shrugging when he scored fifty points.

"That's cheating!" Cole exclaimed, shaking his head as he pointed at the machine. "You totally just — you can't do that. It's against, like, the skeeball rules."

"Yeah? The same rules you broke when you scored for her a few minutes ago?" Hawk aske with a grin, staring him down.

"I — that was… different," Cole grumbled, kicking at the multicolored carpet that hid years of stains.

"Yeah, that was different," Harper agreed with a huff. "I could've scored on my own, you know. I didn't exactly need your help."

"Yeah, but you kinda did. It was painful watching you lose again," Hawk explained as he collected the tickets before handing them to Cole. Giving him a slight shove, he pointed him towards the center of the room. "So, what game are we gonna watch her embarrass herself with now?"

Harper smacked Hawk's arm, rolling her eyes when he just grinned at her in reply.

"Wait… you're hanging out with us?" Cole asked, blinking slowly. He miserably failed to hide a hopeful smile as he waited for an answer, but it was obvious how much he wanted the answer to be yes.

Hawk shrugged. "Yeah, why not?"

Cole nodded too seriously for the smile that tugged at his lips, his eyes already roaming around the arcade for the next game. "Oh, you're so going to lose," he said with a laugh, his face lighting up when he spotted the Air Hockey table across the room. Without waiting for them to catch up, he started towards it.

"Great," she said with a defeated sigh, mentally preparing to lose to him in another game. But the smile on her face showed that she was having fun despite her grumblings.

Harper started after him, but she barely made it more than two steps before she was tugged right back. "What?" She asked, narrowing her eyes as she looked up at Hawk.

"Nothing," Hawk said with a shrug as he easily closed the distance between them. He looked past her to where Cole was trying to get through the busy arcade, past groups of kids and their families before glancing back down at her. Before she could say anything remotely sarcastic, he tilted her chin up and kissed her slowly.

Harper was taken aback at first, but then she smiled against his lips and returned the kiss. It didn't matter that they were in the middle of the arcade where anyone could see them because, for once, she didn't care. She let herself get lost in the kiss, deepening it as she pressed herself closer to him. Her hands slid up to his shoulders while he tightened his grip on her waist, neither willing to break the kiss.

A cough from beside them broke through the moment. They pulled apart, turning to see a woman watching them with a disapproving shake of her head before ushering her kids away.

"Oops," Harper said, her cheeks heating up.

Hawk grinned, looking far too unbothered for someone who just got caught kissing his girlfriend in a public setting. "She'll get over it once one of her kids starts eating something off the floor," he joked, laughing when she wrinkled her nose.

But then he pulled her back in for another kiss and she swore that it just about made her brain short-circuit. She let the seconds stretch on as everything around them disappeared — all but the obnoxious sound of a game buzzer that broke through her thoughts, reminding her where they were. Breaking the kiss, she pushed against his chest as she glared up at him.

"You're gonna get us kicked out," she said, yet she made no move to pull back just yet.

Hawk shrugged. "Worth it," he said before pressing a small kiss to her temple that absolutely threw her off for one terrifying second. He didn't seem to notice — or maybe he didn't care because he was completely at ease in their relationship.

She wished she had that same confidence, and worried that her hesitations would eventually push him away. That he'd get tired of always forcing her to relax and move on to someone better. Someone easier.

But those were just her worries talking. The traumas that kept her from letting the world in because it only ever tore her down.

"So, are we still meeting up later?" He asked, pulling her out of the start of her downward spiral.

"Yeah, definitely," she said with a smile despite knowing she'd have to get past Lucas and his overprotectiveness first.

He smiled in reply and then laced his fingers through hers, pulling her to where Cole impatiently waited for them.

Even though her heart beat a hundred miles a minute, she couldn't keep the smile off of her face. All of this was so easy, so natural. It was so unlike her to dive headfirst into a relationship that had the power to break her at any moment. But, for once, she was letting her heart lead instead of her mind.

It was a risk, she knew that, but she believed in it — in them.

Cole made a face the moment they stepped up to the Air Hockey table. "Took you long enough," he muttered. "You know that everyone saw you, right? Can you just like, I don't know, not do that here? Or anywhere? It's weird."

"Nope, I'm not making that promise," Hawk said before she could even form a reply in her mind.

His confidence infuriated her at how casual he was about all of this. Harper was still grappling with this being an actual relationship at times, especially when they were out in public. But here he was, unbothered by it all.

"So, ready to kick some ass?" Hawk stepped up to one side of the table, leaning against the side.

Cole nodded. "You and me against Harper. She's gonna lose anyway," he said.

"Hey! You don't know that," Harper protested. "I could be awesome at this game."

Hawk and Cole shared a brief look before bursting into laughter. They ignored the glare she sent their way, and it only made her more determined to win. Or, at least, try to win. Because how hard could this game actually be?

Cole mimicked Hawk's stance against the edge of the table, crossing his arms before they flailed at his side when he nearly dropped to the ground. Hawk grabbed his shirt just in time, and Cole composed himself with a sheepish grin, trying to look like that hadn't just happened.

"Smooth," Harper deadpanned.

"Leave him alone," Hawk said. He tugged at Cole's shirt to move him a couple inches over so that he wasn't right at the edge and smirked.

"Yeah, leave me alone," Cole echoed, forcing a smirk onto his fac, but it resembled something between a sneeze and a smile.

Harper bit her lip to keep from laughing but the sound escaped either way. "You two are ridiculous."

"Yeah, but you love us," Hawk said.

The last three words of that sentence made her freeze. Her pulse sped up as a wave of panic threatened to drown her, but she swallowed it down. Her grip on the paddle tightened, keeping her from bolting right then and there.

Letting out a breath, she nodded slowly. "I guess I do," she said softly. Her voice was just above a whisper because admitting that was still a struggle for her, even if it was true.

"Alright, mini-me, let's do this," Hawk said, nudging the paddle towards Cole.

Just as the tokens were inserted into the slot and the game woke up with a series of musical beeps, loud laughter carried across the room. It was obnoxious enough that she immediately knew who it belonged to. Her body tensed immediately, and she quickly glanced towards Hawk who seemed almost annoyed by the interruption. When he caught her eye — the slight worry on her face — he gave her a reassuring smile that she wanted to believe.

But Cobra Kai had a way of bulldozing their way through the simplest of things, not caring about the destruction they'd left in their wake. Harper glanced up and a frown tugged at the corner of her lips when she spotted Mitch and Trey making their way over. She braced herself for whatever they were about to say or do, noticing how their eyes were filled with disdain when they looked her way.

"We were wondering where you disappeared to," Mitch said as they stopped by the table. "So, what, you're just picking up all the strays tonight? I thought we were hanging out."

"You can hang out with us!" Cole suggested. "All of us against Harper — she'll never be able to win."

"Yeah, that's tempting, but no," Trey said with a smile that was the perfect balance between mocking and amused.

"Why not? Are you scared you'll lose?" Cole asked, crossing his arms and standing in the same manner Hawk did when he tried to look intimidating. But, in Cole, it looked too innocent and not just because he was grinning like an idiot.

"They just don't want to," Harper said, her voice a bit too sharp. "They're not here to hang out with us, Cole. They're here with their friends."

Cole seemed to think about this, his face scrunching up in thought before nodding. "Okay, but your friends can join us."

Harper blew out a breath, half wanting to strangle him for not taking the hint. It wasn't his fault that he didn't know about the Cobra Kai drama, but she wouldn't even know where to start to explain it to him.

"Trust me, we have better things to do than hang out with trash," Mitch said with a laugh, shaking his head as if he'd just told the funniest jokes.

Harper's hands tightened into fists, but Cole still looked up at them with wide-eyed curiosity. The last thing she wanted was for him to get dragged into this mess and have a target on his back just because he was associated with her.

"Keep saying shit like that ,and we'll see how long you can talk with a broken jaw," Hawk threatened, facing them head on.

"Woah, calm down," Trey said with a shaky laugh, sharing a confused look with Mitch. "We didn't mean anything by it."

Harper snorted, rolling her eyes because they'd definitely meant to throw insults. But she kept quiet only because Hawk shot her a look, shaking his head as if to tell her to be quiet.

"No, you never do. Guess that's what happens when you two share a brain, huh?" Hawk threw out casually, leaning against the table as he watched his friends. "So, what are you idiots up to? I thought we were meeting up later."

"It is later," Mitch pointed out. "You're just too busy with…. So are you coming or what? Everyone else is waiting."

Hawk glanced from Harper to Cole, who looked worried that their hangout would come to an end. With a shake of his head, he crossed his arms. "No, I'm good here. I'll catch up with you."

"Are you serious? You're ditching us for this?" Trey asked, gesturing towards them before taking a step back at the murderous look that crossed Hawk's face. "I mean, yeah, later works, too."

"I guess we'll see you later," Mitch said with a shake of his head.

They turned to leave, but not before glaring her way and muttering under their breath. When they disappeared into the crowd, their loud voices standing out amongst the noise, she relaxed. But the tension remained in her shoulders, only growing when she noticed them acting like idiots.

"Ignore them," Hawk said, forcing her to look away from Mitch and Trey. "They're not worth it."

"You could've gone with them," Harper said, though her voice was strained as if getting those words out was physically painful.

"I'm good, foster. Trust me," Hawk said as he looked to where they disappeared to. His jaw tightened at the chaos they already seemed to be causing, but the slightest flicker of amusement didn't go unnoticed by her. Catching her unimpressed look, he shot her a smirk. "They're just being idiots. It'll be fine."

Harper nodded, hoping that he was right. But she couldn't shake the feeling that they were about to cause more trouble than anyone was expecting.

The sound of a puck being hit jarred them out of the conversation long enough to glance down at the table. The puck danced across the board, hitting the sides before sailing straight for Harper's goal. She barely had a chance to react, to move her puck to block, before it sailed into her goal.

"Yes!" Cole said, spinning around gleefully. "You snooze, you lose."

"That's not fair," Harper said, blinking as the scoreboard marked her first loss.

"Guess you gotta pay attention," Hawk said, high-fiving Cole.

Harper narrowed her eyes at them, her lips curving up into a mischievous smile as she leaned forward. "You two? You're gonna lose."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Hawk said.

"Or, you know, do. So you can just embarrass yourself," Cole added, quickly glancing at Hawk for his approval. He got a smirk, and that seemed to inflate Cole's ego even more. "What are you waiting for, Harper? It's simple — you gotta hit that pick with the paddle and score a goal. You know, this," he added, pointing to where the goal was on his side.

"Brutal," Hawk commented with a laugh, nudging Cole.

"I know how the game works," Harper said, rolling her eyes. Of course she knew how the game worked. The main issue wasn't that, it was having quick enough reflexes that would prevent them from scoring. "So how about you two shut up and play? You know, unless you're scared?"

"You wish, foster," Hawk said.

Harper took a deep breath, making her next move feel more like a life and death situation than it had any right to be. But she wasn't about to lose. Not to them. Not if she was ready to hear them bragging for the next few hours about how they'd absolutely crushed her. She had to win this — or, at least, score a couple of times to show that she could.

She adjusted her stance, her fingers tightening on the paddle as she tried to predict the trajectory. Because, yeah, she so knew how all that math bullshit worked. There was only one thing she could do, and that was to fake it.

"Any day now. This isn't a twenty-four hour arcade, you know," Hawk taunted.

Harper's hand slipped on the paddle, hitting into the side of the table. Embarrassment flooded her as she glared at how smug he looked. "I hate you," she said.

"No, you don't," he replied smoothly, grinning in that way that always unsettled her in the best way possible.

Harper didn't dignify that with a response. Instead, she looked over his shoulder to somewhere behind him before frowning.

Hawk tilted his head, glancing over his shoulder at what seemed to make her react like that. When he did, Harper slammed her paddle into the puck and sent it soaring across the board. She held her breath, watching as it haphazardly bounced off the walls before moving towards the goal. It was so close, and Harper squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the block to come.

But when the buzzer sounded, her eyes flew open. Her shock morphed into excitement and that morphed into smugness as she glanced at Cole and Hawk. They stared at each other before looking at Harper, their eyes wide as if trying to process what just happened.

"Ha!" Harper said triumphantly, resting her hands on the table as she leaned forward. "What was that about me losing?"

"You got one goal. Beginner's luck," Cole grumbled.

"And you played dirty. That's not fair," Hawk added.

"I mean, strike first and hard, right?" Harper asked with a wide smile.

"That's not even —" Hawk started with a sigh before pulling Cole off to the side.

"Stop conspiring!" Harper yelled, but they ignored her. She watched as they talked in hush tones, occasionally glancing over at her with smirks that made her slightly uneasy. She shifted the paddle from one hand to the other, feeling impatient yet slightly on edge the longer they talked.

But, still. She couldn't help but smile at how Hawk and Cole interacted. It was so obvious that Cole looked up to him — how he copied him, tried so hard to get his parents to let him join karate just so he could be a 'badass' like Hawk. And the fact that Hawk just… let him? She hadn't expected that. She knew how he got around other people, how he pushed people away with cruel jokes and comments. But with Cole? He didn't do that.

At first, she'd been worried that he only put up with her foster brother because of her — because despite their annoying sibling rivalry, they came as a packaged deal. She no longer believed that to be true. It looked like he genuinely liked having Cole around, and she couldn't help but find that endearing.

She'd never admit that in a million years, but it was her secret to keep.

Harper looked up when they arrived back at the table, looking far too innocent and casual for her liking. "What are you two up to?"

"Nothing," Hawk said.

Harper narrowed her eyes, nodding slowly. "Right. Nothing," she echoed, disbelief in her eyes as she glanced between them. "You know I don't exactly trust you two, right?"

"That seems like you problem," Cole said, gripping the paddle as if his life depended on it. "So, are you ready to lose or…?"

"I'm not going to lose," Harper said, preparing for the next round as if her life depended on it.

Cole grinned before sending the puck flying her way, and she barely had a second to process the game starting. She caught the puck just in time, sending it away from her goal, but Cole's reflexes were irritatingly faster than hers.

But then Cole switched places with Hawk, and Harper's determination only increased. It was two against one, and she was, unfortunately, at a disadvantage.

"You do know that this is a two person game, right?" Harper asked, barely catching the puck in time. "You and your mini-double are cheating!"

"You're just mad that you're about to lose," Cole said, earning a grin from Hawk.

For the next several seconds, Harper held her own and even felt a spark of hope at winning — her blocks were sharper, and her hits more precise. Even when they switched places again, she managed to keep up.

Harper was so focused on the game — on keeping an eye on the stupid puck — that she didn't realize when Hawk had stepped up behind her. So when his arms circled around her waist, she let out a frightened yelp and watched in dismay when the puck went into her goal. Muttering under her breath, she tried to elbow him but he anticipated it and easily blocked her.

"I knew she'd freak out!" Cole yelled with a laugh.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Harper asked in disbelief, trying to turn around in his arms but his grip only tightened, holding her in place. "You seriously cheated just now."

"No, we didn't. We just know how to play smarter," Hawk said, and she could hear the smug smile in his voice. "I mean, you were gonna lose either way. We kinda did you a favor."

"Want to know what I think? I think you two were scared that I was gonna kick your ass and actually win," Harper said, leaning back against him without even realizing she was doing it.

Cole rolled his eyes in the most dramatic way an almost twelve-year-old could. "Yeah, okay," he muttered under his breath.

Harper barely had time to prepare before the next round began. She was more on edge than before, especially with Hawk still standing there with his arms comfortably around her. She quickly glanced over her shoulder at him, her eyes narrowing at his seemingly innocent expression.

"I will punch you," she threatened.

Hawk laughed, only fueling her irritation as she tried to block all of Cole's rapid fire attacks. When the puck entered her goal again, she let out a frustrated sigh, but continued on with the game. It wasn't even close to an even score because she was so far behind, but she had scored once and was determined to score again.

There was only one point left for them to score, and Harper felt the pressure. She matched Cole's serious glare, fighting the smile that tugged at her lips even when he almost scored on the first hit. She laughed triumphantly when she blocked his hit, sending the puck towards him only for him to block it easily.

She cursed under her breath, but then Hawk leaned over and placed his hand on top of hers, guiding the paddle to block the next attack. "You're cheating," she mumbled.

"It's called helping, foster," he said.

"No, it's definitely cheating. You can't just switch sides," Cole said with a frown, struggling to keep up with the game.

Seconds passed before the puck sailed into Cole's goal, earning her another point but the win for him. His expression was a mix between happiness and frustration, clearly annoyed that Hawk had abandoned him.

"Oh, come on. She needed all the help she could get," Hawk said.

"I was doing fine on my own," Harper protested.

"You were losing," Hawk said.

"You still lost," Cole pointed out with a small grin when she turned her glare fully on him.

But before she could come at him with a sarcastic comeback, Hawk steered him towards another game. The two of them were deep in conversation as Harper followed after them, and she wondered how she managed to get stuck with both of them in the same night. It was exhausting, yet she still felt herself smiling. She was having fun despite them constantly ganging up on her.

Harper's eyes roamed around the arcade, feeling a tension in the air that didn't sit right with her. It felt like the calm before the storm, and she couldn't shake the feeling of being unsettled. When she spotted Mitch, Trey, and a couple of other Cobras acting like complete idiots, her chest tightened with trepidation. She worried that they would unintentionally — or perhaps intentionally — start something, turning a fun night out into something darker.

The sound of Cole and Hawk laughing over something ridiculous pulled her out of her thoughts, and she tried to focus on that. At least for now. She had no control over what his friends did. Harper only hoped not to get caught in the crossfire when or if something happened.

The minutes stretched out, and she momentarily forgot about how obnoxious his friends were being somewhere across the arcade. Or she did until a shout cut through the air, followed by laughter that could only be described as cruel. She winced, watching as they reached over the prize counter and stole one of the toys — something she was sure that they didn't need but wanted to prove they could do whatever the hell they wanted.

Hawk briefly looked in the general direction with an amused shake of his head. "It's fine," he reassured her when he noticed her frowning.

"Yeah, until one of them does something stupid and someone ends up getting hurt," she said with a sigh.

"They're not going to —" he started, but Trey's obnoxious voice called out to him. They were trying to get him to come over, and he shook his head, which only fueled their taunts.

A few of the arcade goers glanced in their direction, parents pressing their lips into thin, unimpressed lines. They were getting the attention they wanted, and it only encouraged them more.

"You should go," Harper said, surprising him. She shrugged, glancing over at Cole who played some game where the goal was to kill as many alien spaceships as possible.

Hawk hanging out with them hadn't been planned — just a happy accident she'd never admit to. But the bitter truth was that he had originally planned to hang out with his friends, even if their chaotic personalities only encouraged that darker side of his to come out.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" He asked, bemused.

"Obviously," Harper answered, rolling her eyes. "You're kind of annoying."

"Yeah? So why do you keep hanging around me?" He leaned into her space until she had to look up to see him.

"Because I like to torture myself, apparently," she said with the ghost of a smile.

Hawk tilted his head, his glare turning into a smile that always unsettled her. "Or maybe because you love it."

Harper felt her face heat up, the words pinching at her heart because all of this was still too new even if it was true. "Shut up," she said, half-heartedly pushing at his chest.

He caught her wrist, and it suddenly felt like the rest of the arcade, with its too loud music and bouts of laughter and joyful screams, faded into the background. She still wasn't used to this side of them — to how easily they could go from arguing to this. And she didn't hate it. She just didn't know how to navigate it.

Tucking her hair behind her ear, he let his hand linger there for a moment before briefly glancing down at her lips. But just as he leaned in, Cole made a gagging noise.

"Okay, gross! There are kids here," Cole said, side-eying them before turning back to the screen.

Harper laughed, leaning into Cole's space and pressing a random button on the machine. He swatted her hand away with a glare, muttering something unintelligible under his breath as he zeroed in on the game.

Hawk grinned down at her. "You sure you're okay if I go?"

"Yeah," Harper said with a nod. "I mean, we'll hang out later, right?"

He nodded, but not before pulling her into a hug that she resisted only to annoy him.

"Just… don't be an idiot with them, okay?" Harper said quietly, wrapping her arms around him. She sensed him about to make some joke, and she pulled back to look at him. "I'm serious. They're kinda out of control tonight and —"

"It'll be fine," he said with an underlying promise in his words. "We'll just hangout for a bit, grab some food and do something else."

"Okay," she said with a sigh, but she couldn't stop worrying. She stepped out of his arms and forced a smile onto her face.

Hawk nudged Cole, earning him a glare from interrupting. "I'm gonna go hangout with my friends, but I'll see you later, mini-me," he told him.

"Can I come?" Cole asked, all but abandoning his game.

"Maybe some other time," Harper answered. "We should probably eat some real food before Olivia kills me for feeding you nothing but snacks all day."

Cole looked like he wanted to argue, his arms crossing over his chest as he sighed.

"Next time," Hawk said before Cole could get a word out. "And maybe I'll teach you some badass karate moves."

Cole's frown quickly turned into excitement as if he was already thinking ahead. "Okay!" He said, nodding enthusiastically before catching himself from appearing too eager. He copied Hawk's easy stance and just nodded. "I mean, cool. Next time."

The way Cole ordered his food made her want to step in and stop him because there was no way that he'd actually finish all of it without getting sick. But this night was about them, and she'd pretend that she didn't hear Olivia's voice in her head reminding her to balance out meals with something healthy. There weren't any healthy options in the food court unless fries counted, which she wholeheartedly believed they did, so she let him pick whatever he wanted.

He grinned in excitement when she paid, already sipping the blue raspberry slushie like his life depended on it.

They stood off to the side to wait for their food, and Harper couldn't help but scan the arcade for any sign of Hawk. It had been about thirty minutes since he'd left to meet up with his friends, but her pathetic heart already missed him. She also worried more than she wanted to admit about them doing something reckless, especially when their laughter raced across the room.

Cole nudged her out of her thoughts once their two trays were set on the counter. They got a table just as one was vacated by a group of friends. Harper cleared the remainder of their trash before the two of them sat down.

"You're going to be so sick later," Harper said, amusement flickering in her eyes as she watched him eat as if it was the last day on earth.

"No, I won't," he said around a mouthful of food.

"Ew, close your mouth," she said with a laugh, taking a sip of her drink.

She glanced down at her phone, reading a text that Olivia sent her minutes ago when she'd been too busy trying to stop Cole from buying out the entire food court. It was a simple check in, telling her she hoped they were having fun but it meant everything to her. It wasn't just a text but a symbol of caring — not just about Cole but about Harper.

Because she was part of their family. For how much longer that would be, Harper didn't know. She didn't want to think about it. But she appreciated the texts, the subtle ways of them checking in and making sure she was okay.

The minutes went on with Cole cracking jokes and Harper rolling her eyes every five seconds. He held his wins over her head, repeating and reenacting the many times she'd messed up at a game that cost her points. Just to mess with him, she told him how she'd let him win all those times even though they both knew the sad and bitter truth: Harper sucked at arcade games.

When Cole slumped back in his seat, forcing another fry into his mouth, Harper pulled the tray away from him despite his protests. He was already looking a little green, and the blue food coloring around his mouth from the slushie didn't make things any better.

"Seriously, you're gonna puke," Harper said. "And I'm not gonna explain to Olivia and Lucas why you came home sick."

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

Harper pushed a water bottle at him, stacking everything on one tray to prevent him from eating more. "Drink," she said, leaving him for a second to throw the trash out.

She set the trays on top of the trash can, her eyes catching sight of Sam, Demetri and Logan as they spoke to Chris. Their conversation was inaudible but, based on body language alone, it looked tense. Chris subtly pointed towards the prize counter where prizes were haphazardly strewn over before nodding in a different direction.

A knot formed in her stomach, and it had nothing to do with the food. Something was going on for them to be meeting. And the fact that Cobra Kai was nowhere to be seen only unsettled her more.

"What's going on?" Cole asked from behind her, causing her to jump. "Are you gonna ditch me for your friends, too?"

"What? No," Harper said, turning back to him. She tilted her head, noting the way his expression shifted from excitement to worry mixed in with the sickly green hue of overeating. It twisted something inside her, at how glum his voice sounded and how he nervously looked to where Sam and the others stood. "You know he didn't ditch us, right? He just wanted to hang out with his own friends a bit."

Cole kicked at the cracked and sticky tile, shrugging. "It's whatever."

"I don't know why, but Hawk actually likes you even if you are a pain in the butt half the time," Harper said lightly, though she meant every word. She could see it in the way they talked and joked, and she hoped that Cole knew it, too.

"No, I'm not," Cole said, rolling his eyes. He stayed quiet for a moment, his fingers tightening around the water bottle. "He's pretty cool, you know? Like he doesn't have to hang out with me, but he does. And he doesn't treat me like some dumb middle schooler."

"Yeah, I know," Harper said with a smile. She shoved him lightly, laughing when he glared and pushed her back.

But then her eyes drifted back to where Sam stood, and she knew that something was wrong. There was a new tension in the air that had nothing to do with winning at arcade games. They headed off in one direction together, looking too serious and wound up for what was supposed to be a fun place to be.

"I think… I'm just gonna see what's going on," Harper said slowly, shooting him an apologetic smile. She didn't want to leave him, but she also knew that something was going on. Her morbid curiosity was working against her conscious telling her to stay out of whatever this was.

"I'll come!" He said, already moving forward, but she pulled him back by his shirt.

"No! Just stay here, okay?" Harper told him.

"But —"

"I'm serious, Cole. Stay here," Harper said, her voice firm as she handed him a bunch of tokens. "Just go play some games or something. I'll be right back, I promise. "

Giving him a pointed look, Harper left him standing at the edge of the food court with a frown. He wasn't happy to be left behind, she knew that. But whatever was going on with Sam and the others already spelled trouble, and the last thing she wanted was for him to get caught in the middle. Her steps were rushed, worry fueling her as she made her way past people who were oblivious to something more sinister happening deeper in the arcade. It could honestly be nothing, but she recalled the anger that almost radiated from Sam and the others as they spoke before rushing off with determination. Based on that alone, this wasn't just nothing.

Hawk and his friends were nowhere to be seen, which only cemented her belief that this meant trouble.

It felt like she'd swallowed a rock. Her only worry was that she could stop whatever this was before things got out of hand.

Harper pulled out her phone, dialing Hawk's number but the phone rang endlessly. When the automated voice telling her to leave a message sounded, she hung up. He always picked up when she called. Always. She tried again, only to get the same results. Cursing under her breath, she pushed her way through the crowd, pausing when she entered a darker corridor that led to the old laser tag arena. This section was off limits to the public, but she was certain this was where they'd gone.

The fluorescent lights overhead buzzed lightly, the bulbs feeling as if they were on their last legs as they provided the bare minimum of light. The silence between the arcade with its music and laughter was jarring compared to how still everything was here. The walls were painted black and the dark carpet, with what was once a bright eighties design felt suffocating, as if the walls were closing in around her. This was the scene in a horror movie where the person watching would be yelling at the TV for the character to turn around and leave. But Harper was glued to the spot even when she knew that nothing good awaited her.

Just then, the lights went out entirely. Harper gripped her bracelet, tugging until the chain dug into her skin as she let her eyes adjust to the dark. Her heart kicked up speed, racing in a way that she couldn't keep up. The black lights came on and bathed everything in a cool blue color as other areas began to glow from the neon lights, creating an ominous glow the deeper she walked. She trailed her hand against the wall, letting the solid structure steady her. Her legs were stiff, refusing to work as if telling her to stop and turn back. But she couldn't.

Not when the sound of shouting echoed through the hallway.

Because now she knew for certain that something was horribly wrong.

Harper paused, her steps faltering while her heart raced even faster. Closing her eyes, she let out a deep breath as if bracing herself for whatever horror she was about to walk in on. It had been such a peaceful day only for it to take a drastic detour into something unimaginable.

She still stupidly hoped that maybe everyone was just playing an intense game of laser tag, that Chris was able to sneak them in during his shift. But the shouts did not resemble carefree laughter and fun, they were more intense and filled with something deeper than anger.

The moment she rounded the entrance, her heart stopped.

Harper had stepped into an all-out warzone. It was Miyagi-Do versus Cobra Kai all over again, and she had no idea what to do or how to help – how to stop this. She was just one person, one stupidly stubborn person who just had to insert herself into the middle of a fight that wasn't hers because that's just who she was. It didn't matter that she was dating Hawk or that her friends currently hated her, or anything else. What mattered was making sure that no one got hurt.

Her adrenaline kicked in, pushing her fear to the side as she dodged a stray kick that was meant for someone else. Her steps were quick and measured while she tried to assess the situation. Her mind frantically screamed for her to run, but she ignored it – ignored the fear that coursed through her veins because she was in this now. There was no going back, no pretending that this wasn't happening.

Her eyes landed on Hawk, who shoved Chris off with an ease that terrified her. She instinctively stepped in front of him just as he swung a fist at one of her friends. And perhaps this had been a very stupid thing to do because she was about to get hit. But the punch never came, her breath hitching as she noticed that he'd stopped just inches from her face. She looked into his eyes, trying to find the guy who'd just been laughing with them an hour ago amid the rage in his eyes.

"Jesus, foster. Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Hawk asked, pulling her aside to avoid her getting hit as she was now in the middle of whatever this was.

"Are you?" She countered, pulling her arm free in frustration. "What the hell is going on?"

"Your friends attacked us," he explained as if that was reason enough for this chaos. His voice was louder than it needed to be and filled with frustration. Anticipating an attack by Hunter, he kicked his legs out from under him and sent him sprawling to the ground. "They started this, not us!"

Harper watched in horror at the fighting going on around them. It was more brutal than she'd ever seen it, and her heart skipped a beat when she watched the destruction happening.

"I really don't care who started this!" Harper tightened her hands into fists until her nails almost broke the skin. "But you're going to finish this, aren't you?" She asked, knowing full well that the answer was 'yes'. She let out a frustrated sigh because neither side would stop until it was too late. "Don't do this, Hawk. Please. Just, I don't know, call them off or something."

But the look he gave her was enough of an answer. He couldn't — wouldn't — do that. And judging by how aggressive Sam, Demetri and the others were fighting, they weren't going to back down either. Not since they started this.

Before either of them could answer, they were both pulled back into the fight. Hunter retaliated against Hawk, ending whatever conversation they were having. There was no stopping this. Like a virus, this needed to run its course and leave everything in disarray.

Harper noticed Logan coming up behind Sam, who was too distracted fighting off Trey to notice. Instincts kicking in, she used muscle memory of her summer training sessions and quickly blocked whatever attack Logan had been about to use. She shoved him back, surprise crossing his face at seeing her there.

Sam whirled around, staring at Harper for a moment. Her glare softened when she realized that Harper had helped — that they were on the same side of this fight. Sam nodded once before diving back into the fight with a bone crushing kick to Logan's side.

Trey noticed her right away, his lips twisting into a sneer as he advanced on her.

"Back for another bloody nose?" Harper taunted, striking first with a punch that he deftly blocked.

His laugh was chilling as he kicked, his heel connecting with her side. "We're just here to break you," he said.

Harper winced, the sharp pain stealing her breath for one second before she recovered. She went in with a kick of her own, only to change tactics at the last second and land a hard punch on his face. She smirked, catching the blood that split the skin above his eyebrow, but knowing she'd just started something she didn't know if she could finish.

Taking a cautious step backward, she collided with Mitch. She barely got her bearings before he grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back. The pain seared through her, but she refused to let it show — wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing her hurt. Struggling against his hold, she kicked backwards and felt her foot connect with his shin. He cursed, loosening his grip on her enough for her to get free.

Harper's moment of relief was short-lived because Trey shoved her back, making her lose her footing. She braced herself for the fall, biting back a curse when she landed on her arm. It was two against one in an unfair fight, but she wouldn't back down. Just as she started to get up on shaky legs, Trey grabbed her and hauled her up.

"Sam LaRusso!" A voice called out, momentarily breaking up the fight. The voice was cold and familiar, filled with unresolved tension as Tory and two other Cobras entered the arena.

Harper saw Sam freeze, and she felt her panic instantly — watched as her breathing turned heavy before hiding in a corner. She hated seeing her once fearless friend like this, though she didn't blame her for being terrified.

"Show yourself, LaRusso!" Tory called, fighting off Hunter with ease.

It was as if the tables had turned in that split second pause. They'd had the upper hand, holding their own in an unfair fight. But then Tory walked in and everything shifted. Cobra Kai's energy was refueled, and she watched in slow-motion horror as her friends took hits that they easily could have blocked. Chris was the first to go down as he got kneed in the stomach followed by a punch to the face.

Trey's grip on her tightened, holding her in place and allowing Mitch to throw a punch to her stomach. Harper doubled over, and her breath came in short uneven gasps. She countered that with a kick, using Trey's steady grip on her for leverage. Her foot connected with Mitch once more, but when Trey locked an arm around her throat, she froze.

Her mind ran through different tactics she could use to get out of this, but she came up empty. The only thing she could focus on was Logan going down next, followed by another one of their friends, which left Demetri up against Hawk. Alone.

Her breath caught when Hawk flipped Demetri, sending him to the ground on his stomach. She struggled against Trey, wanting to get to Demetri, but his grip was too strong.

But then Hawk grabbed Demetri's arm, pulling it back hard enough for Demetri to cry out. "Stop, stop! Eli, no. Stop! It's me!" His voice was desperate, filled with a raw fear. His arm got pulled back even more, his face twisting with pain. "Don't do it! No! Help me!"

But no one could help him. They were defeated, but that didn't seem to matter to Hawk, who's hold tightened.

"Stop! Don't do this!" Harper yelled, her voice catching as she tried to pull herself out of Trey's grip. She used everything she got — digging her nails into his arm hard enough to draw blood, elbowing him in the stomach — but nothing seemed to work. And because she was desperate, fueled by fear and panic, her hits missed their mark entirely. She was lashing out, her energy fading quickly.

"Do it, finish him," Tory encouraged him, a sinister smile twisting her face. The others joined in, taunting Hawk to do the unthinkable.

But he wouldn't do it.

He couldn't.

This wasn't him. This wasn't the same guy she'd fallen so hard for that it left her breathless.

It couldn't be.

Harper saw the hesitation of his face, a flicker of hope sparking in her chest. "Hawk! You don't have to listen to them. Please. Don't do this. Let him go!"

He looked up and his eyes locked onto hers. He didn't say anything, just stared at her but it was almost as if he didn't see her. And how could he when his friends were yelling at him to end this.

Harper shook her head, silently warning him not to go through with this. That he could still come back from this.

"Hawk! Finish him!" Tory yelled, causing him to look away first.

Harper held her breath, her eyes burning with unshed tears as she still hoped that he'd do the right thing.

Then Hawk made a split second decision and snapped Demetri's arm forward, the bone breaking in a slow motion horror that she was forced to watch. The sound was sickening, making her dizzy and nauseous. But it was nothing was compared to Demetri's cry of pain, echoing around the arena and seeping into everything and everyone.

"No!" Harper cried out, her voice breaking as a sob escaped her lips. She slumped forward, her will to fight entirely gone because what the hell was the point anymore? Her body hit the ground as Trey released her, and she barely managed to catch herself before she could hit the ground face first.

The last ten seconds replayed in her mind on a sick loop. The tears trailed down her face, her heart being both deadly still and lightning fast as her body tried to catch up to the nightmare they'd barely lived through.

Trey and the others cheered as if Hawk had just accomplished the impossible when all he'd done was walk away from the last shred of humanity he'd had left. They patted him on the back, and they exited the room as one.

Hawk lingered behind, his smile fading as he looked down at Demetri. When he caught Harper staring, he avoided her eyes and followed after his friends.

The silence that filled the aftermath of the fight was deafening. The energy was sucked out of the room as everyone scrambled to catch up to what had just happened.

And then when the world unpaused, reality came crashing down around them.

It was thick, suffocating and unbearable.

Harper wiped at her eyes, her hands shaking as she pushed herself up. She ran towards Demetri, dropping down beside him as he cradled his broken arm. It was at an unnatural angle, and she could see the pain and suffering on his face. It was gut-wrenching.

She couldn't have stopped this. She'd tried so damn hard, but there was nothing she could've done. Even if she'd broken free from Trey's iron-clad hold, Hawk had been gone the moment he'd twisted Demetri's arm behind his back.

Deep down, she knew that. Knew that her desperate attempts had been futile — that she couldn't have helped.

But the guilt that seeped into her chest was absolutely crushing.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she whispered, her hand hovering over his back because she had no idea how to fix this.

Chris and Hunter stopped beside them, their faces mirroring the soul crushing horror they'd been forced to participate in.

"Is he…," Hunter trailed off, looking down at them.

"He'll be fine," Harper said, her voice more sure and steady than she felt. She blinked back her tears, standing up and making her way over to Sam who had come out of her hiding place.

"This is my fault," Sam said as she quietly looked over at the destruction Cobra Kai had left in their wake.

"No, it's not," Harper told her. "We couldn't have done anything. This isn't your fault."

Sam nodded, letting out a shaky breath. "We need to get him to the hospital. Help me get him up."

It took a few minutes to get Demetri up without hurting him more. Someone had taken off their jacket and tiedit around Demetri in a mock-sling that took the pressure off his broken arm. The walk back to the arcade felt a million miles long, the devastation wrapping around every one of them. It was like walking through quicksand, each step feeling more heavy than the last.

The bright lights of the arcade broke through the darkness, and it was like waking up from a nightmare that followed them into consciousness. A few people side-eyed them, but mostly they were left to their own devices. As they walked towards the exit, Cole appeared beside them, his face scrunched up with worry and curiosity.

Harper cursed under her breath, forgetting for one second that he'd been here the entire time.

"What happened?" Cole asked, looking between her and the group with wide eyes. "Is he okay? You were gone forever! And you look like hell. What were —"

"Stop!" She yelled, wincing at the look of hurt that crossed his face. "Look, I'll explain later but we really need to go. Demetri broke his arm —"

"How?" Cole asked.

Harper opened her mouth, but the words died on her tongue. What was she supposed to say? That Hawk had turned full Cobra Kai and broke his arm just to please his friends? It would crush Cole to know that the guy he looked up to was capable of such cruelty.

"It was an accident," she said after a moment. It wasn't exactly a lie, but it was far from the truth. She could see that he was struggling to understand, ready to throw more rapid-fire questions at them. "We'll talk about this later, but we need to go."

"I'll drive," Sam decided, her voice shaky and so quiet it was barely audible over the sounds of music and joyful screams.

Cole nodded, his fingers tightening around the wad of tickets that stuck out from his packets. He looked back at the prize stand with longing before following them out into the parking lot.

The walk towards the parking lot was slow and agonizing – not just on Demetri, but on all of them. The weight of what happened in the laser tag arena was heavy. A tense silence followed after them, cloaking them in unease like a weighted blanket. Call it shock or fear or whatever but everyone was too distracted to speak. Save for Demetri's random cries of pain, no one spoke. No one made a sound. Even Cole knew better than to say anything as he trailed after them.

The delicate silence was broken by a round of laughter – sharp, piercing and cruel. No one seemed to pay any attention to it, except for Harper. Her head whipped in the direction of the sound, her hands tightening into fists as she searched the parking lot for where the laughter had originated from. It drifted over the area, bathing them in the bitter reminder of the fight's callousness and of the lines that had been crossed.

Because there was no coming back from this.

There was no possibility of wiping the tears and carrying on like nothing happened.

Letting out a shaky breath, she continued towards Sam's car. Until more laughter, louder than before, reached them. She paused mid-step, her eyes narrowing as she let her eyes wander over the cars towards a more secluded part of the lot. And that was when she noticed them – Cobra Kai casually leaning against the parked cars, looking more at ease than they had any right to be after what they'd just done.

"Harper?" Sam's voice broke through her thoughts.

She briefly glanced over at her friends, their expressions were a mix of worry and confusion at her sudden stop. But she didn't move, didn't take a single step towards them. Instead, her feet dragged her away from them like they had a mind of their own. It was as if her body was reacting before her mind could catch up, and she let it.

"What are you doing?" Chris asked.

"We kinda need to go," Hunter said.

"Give me a second. I'll be right back," Harper said. Her voice was eerily calm, sounding distant to her ears.

Realization dawned on their faces when they noticed where she was heading. They protested, telling her to ignore them, but Harper was already moving. She ignored her friends, ignored the way her heart felt like it might explode from adrenaline alone. The only thing she could focus on was the blind rage that clouded her vision – or maybe that was just the tears that showed up without her permission. She'd rather focus on the rage than the pain in her heart that threatened to overpower her at a moment's notice. She was hanging on by a thread, but she wouldn't let herself break.

Now now. Now in front of everyone.

Her steps that had been slow and sluggish just minutes ago were now fast and determined as she closed the distance between herself and Cobra Kai. Their voices were muffled, but she could hear how they were filled with so much pride and entertainment. It was sick that they found this whole situation amusing like it was just another Friday night for them. And, perhaps, it was. Perhaps this was exactly what Cobra Kai did in their spare time – breaking bones, pushing boundaries until there was no coming back from it.

It was a one-way ticket towards inhumanity, and now all of them were too far gone.

Tory looked up with a smirk, arching a brow when she noticed Harper approaching. She nudged Trey, nodding in her direction as their expressions turned predatory. Pushing off the hood of the car she'd been sitting on, Tory walked towards her followed by the others. "Are you lost?" She asked.

"Get out of my way," Harper said, her steps remaining steady until they blocked her path.

The frustration and rage inside of her drowned out her panic at the thought that she could be suffering from a broken bone next. She didn't care what happened to her. The only thing she cared about was getting answers. About facing Hawk head on, even though doing so would only shatter her heart more.

"That's cute," Trey taunted, stepping closer until he towered over her. "You really think you can take on all of us?"

"I'm not here for you. Get the hell out of my way," Harper said, feeling the bite of her nails against her palms.

"Make us, stray," Mitch said, laughing at the use of her nickname.

Harper let out an exasperated breath, looking up at them as hatred fueled her bravado. They weren't going to move, that much was certain. Still running on the high of their win, they were probably looking forward to breaking someone else. But she wasn't here for them. She could care less what they thought or said.

Looking past them, she noticed Hawk, who watched her with apprehension that was hidden underneath a smirk. She went to take a side-step around them, but four of them were blocking her path. Muttering a curse under her breath, Harper let her anger take control. The last thing she wanted was to fight, but she would. She shoved past them with a strength that surprised her and them and shook off their hands as they tried to grab her.

Now she was standing in front of Hawk, and her entire demeanor shattered. Everything she'd wanted to say disappeared, leaving an empty void inside of her. Her rage slipped as heartbreak tried to claw its way to the forefront. Her breath came fast and panicked, searching his face for a semblance of the person he'd once been – who she thought he was. But she couldn't see past the Cobra Kai before her because that's all he was now. One of Kreese's coldblooded soldiers who tore people apart without a second thought.

Hawk shook his head, his eyes flicking past her and to his friends. It was a silent warning to back off, to let him handle it. When he glanced down at her, the hesitation and remorse were there. But it was a little too late for that.

"Let me explain," he said, his voice low.

His words were like an electrifying shock to her anger, and Harper let out a humorless laugh. "Explain? Explain what?" She asked, her voice venomous as she took a step closer to him. Her hands shook, and she clenched them tighter to keep from exploding. "I asked you not to do anything stupid. I freaking begged you to let Demetri go, and you just –" Her voice broke, leaving her sentence unfinished between them.

Hawk reached out, his hand barely grazing her arm, but she wrenched her arm free. He tried to hide the hurt by masking it with anger that he had no right to. Dropping his hand by his side, he sighed. "Look, your friends started this by attacking us! They had it coming for a long time, foster. We weren't just going to let them get away with it. Not again. It's not who we are."

Harper blinked slowly, repeating his words in her mind as she looked for an apology – something, anything – to show her that he actually felt bad. But there was nothing but pathetic excuses that made themselves out to be the victim.

"So you broke his arm. To, what, prove that you're this badass soldier they want you to be?" She shook her head, her recognition of him dimming before her eyes. This hadn't just been a reckless fight between the two dojos. This had been a war, a battle. "Who the hell even are you anymore?"

"You really don't get it, do you?" He asked, frustration coating his words as if she was in the wrong for being mad.

"No, I don't get it. I don't get how you can go from laughing with Cole one minute, from standing up to those assholes, to… to breaking your best friend's arm like it's nothing!" Harper winced at the crack in her voice, at the hurt that tried to overpower her anger.

He had the decency to avert her gaze, but his own anger lingered. "What was I supposed to do? It's not like I wanted to break his arm! They were telling me to do it and I –"

"No, of course," Harper said, laughing bitterly as her voice rose. "They told you to do something that you can't come back from, so you did it. Because god forbid you have a freaking mind of your own! That you don't let them control you for one day. You know, you act like you're so brave, like you have everything under control all the time. But you're not. You don't. You're just a robot taking orders because you're too damn scared to stand up to them."

He stared at her, his control over the situation slipping faster each second. He didn't say anything, just silently stood there and let her words hit him. And that was so much worse than him fighting back, because Harper knew that he was officially gone.

"Well, congrats. You won them over by acting like one of them. You're officially the badass Cobra that you always wanted to be," Harper said, taking a shaky step back. "But I'm done. I'm so done with all of this. With you. With hoping that you weren't just like them only to prove me wrong."

Something like panic flickered across his face as her words pushed through that tough barrier he was trying to maintain. He searched her face as if he was trying to figure out how serious she was. "Okay, wait. You don't mean that," he said slowly, quietly. "You never mean that, foster. You always stick around when I screw up."

"Not this time. Not after you –" Harper took a deep breath, what was left of her heart clenching in the most painful way possible. "You broke his arm. There's no way I can forgive you for that. You're just like them, and I'm done. I don't want anything to do with you. Not anymore. So just stay the hell away from me."

Harper took one more step back before turning on her heel, ignoring the too-amused looks that passed between his friends. She could already hear their comments and mockery, but the glare she shot them seemed to freeze them in place. Because she would throw punches if one of them so much as looked at her wrong.

Hawk blinked, momentarily frozen before following after her. He reached for her arm, his fingers barely wrapping around her wrist before she pulled her arm free.

"Don't." She didn't break her step or bother to look back at him.

He tugged at her wrist one more time in a desperate plea to stop her, to attempt to talk this over.

"I said don't!" Harper whirled around on him with fire in her eyes. Before she knew what she was doing, her hands collided with his chest, pushing him backwards with a fierceness that surprised everyone. It was the first time she'd ever hit him outside of their playful banter, and the regret she felt was immediate – especially at the look of shock and hurt that crossed his face. But she wouldn't take it back, wouldn't let herself feel any remorse.

"Harper," he said.

"You're a fucking monster," Harper said, her voice firm and filled with hatred at the person he'd become. She watched the way her words affected him as if in slow-motion – the way they settled deep in his bones, carving themselves into his skin that was more permanent than any tattoo could ever be.

Without waiting for him to reply, she turned around and started back towards where her friends were waiting. She didn't let her tears slip free. Didn't let herself feel the absolute despair that she'd been trying to keep buried. Because once she let it, once the tears started, there was no telling when or if she'd ever stop.

Harper didn't bother to look at her friends or explain what she'd done or said. Wordlessly, she got into the backseat with Demetri and Cole, who sat on her left. She buckled her seatbelt with a finality, the click echoing in the confines of the car.

Harper let her arm slip around Cole's shoulder, pulling him to her side as if desperate to hold onto something that wasn't tainted by this war. When the car pulled out of the parking lot in a stifling silence, she only hoped that Demetri would forgive her for not having his back – that his pain would end, and he'd be able to come back from this.

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The waiting room of the hospital was bright and sterile, a complete contrast to what they'd just been through. The voices over the intercom communicated messages that only professionals would understand, leaving the rest of them to wonder what other horrors happened that day. It was morbidly comforting knowing that it wasn't just their night that had turned into a nightmare, but the reality of what happened was still suffocatingly painful.

Harper sat back in the stiff chair, looking up every time a door opened, every time footsteps sounded on the cold tiled floor. But there was no update other than the one they'd received minutes ago — Demetri's arm was broken. He'd live, of course he would, but the fact that he'd gone through something so tragically traumatic seemed to erase the good news. His arm needed to be in a cast for the next several weeks, which would only remind him and everyone else of how his best friend had turned on him.

They were all broken in their own way. They were all dealing with their own regrets and pain — not just the physical kind, but the ones that cut straight through to the soul.

Her phone buzzed in her hand, but she barely glanced at it. She knew who it was from without needing to check. When another text came through, Harper couldn't help but flinch. Her fingers itched to pick up the phone, and she could feel her resolve wavering bit by bit. It took everything in her to ignore the messages.

Hawk had been calling and texting her for the past hour. His words and apologies were a too little, too late for all she was concerned. She didn't care to listen to his excuses, his explanations. They wouldn't erase what he'd done, wouldn't erase the person he'd turned into in the blink of an eye.

"Are you gonna get that?" Cole asked, breaking the fragile silence that descended upon the room.

"Nope," Harper answered, placing her phone face down on the side table.

"Why not? You've been ignoring him since we left the arcade," Cole said. He was still in the dark about what had gone down, and she held out for as long as possible to not shatter his innocent view on the world. "He's probably worried about us. Maybe you should just —"

"I don't want to talk to him!" Harper said, her voice louder than she'd intended. She caught the way his eyebrows raised, his face twisting in confusion and annoyance.

"Why not? Are you mad at him or something?" He asked, not willing to drop the topic. "Did you guys get into a fight?"

Harper sighed, exhaustion rolling off of her in waves. She ran a hand through her hair, a sudden jolt of pain racing through her ribs from where she'd been hit. She shifted in the seat, tried to find a comfortable position but it was possible that she'd never be at ease again. Not with what had gone down tonight.

"Yeah, we got in a fight," Harper answered quietly, noting how Sam looked her way. "We just… I mean, we're not…. We're just done."

"So you broke up?" Cole asked, turning in the seat to look at her. The look on his face showed that he was confused, that he didn't understand what happened. But that confusion quickly turned to an accusing anger as if he couldn't fathom why she'd broken up with Hawk — as if he was mad that she ended things with someone he'd looked up to. "Why? What did you say to him?"

"Cole, just… I don't want to talk about it," Harper said quietly, tugging at her bracelet.

"You never want to talk about anything serious!" He complained, his own frustration growing. "Was it because he actually wanted to hangout with me? You sent him away before to hangout with his friends, and I get that he's your boyfriend — was your boyfriend, I guess — but were you really that annoyed that he liked me, too?"

Cole's words were like a punch to her gut, and she looked him in the eye for the first time since they'd left the arcade. The fact that he actually thought she'd broken up with Hawk because of him was heartbreaking. And if there were any more pieces of her heart that could shatter, she knew that they would.

"No," Harper said, shaking her head. "Cole, listen to me. This is — I didn't break up with him because of you. Nothing about what happened tonight was because of you, okay?" She paused with a heavy weight on her shoulders, knowing that she'd have to tell him the truth. He'd find out eventually, and she preferred it to be from her and not some second source who would butcher the details. "What happened tonight with Demetri… Hawk did that. There was a fight and things got really out of hand, and Hawk broke his arm. On purpose."

The silence after her words was louder than anything he could've said. She could almost see his brain trying to make sense of her words, of trying to accept them for the truth that they were. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter. Broken.

"Why would he do that?" He asked. "Demetri's his best friend, right?"

"He wanted to hurt him, I guess. But I don't really know why he did it," Harper said, because she truly had no idea how to even comprehend the twisted logic to why Hawk did what he did. "Just… just don't be like him, okay?"

Cole nodded slowly, slumping back into his own seat. He twisted a single ticket from the arcade between his fingers as if realizing for the first time that not everything — not everyone — was as it seemed. That the world was more darker and crueler than it had any right to be.

Harper had just shattered his whole view on the world, on Hawk, and she hated that she'd had to be the one to do it.

The sound of paper tearing was like a bomb going off, loud and jarring in a world of stillness. Cole tore his ticket in half, picking off pieces of the paper until it resembled nothing but colorful confetti. A few more tickets followed, falling onto his jeans, the chair and the floor but he didn't stop.

"Cole," Harper said quietly. She reached out for his hand, but he shoved her hand away. She tried to look like that hadn't hurt her soul, but it absolutely had.

"Leave me alone," Cole said, his voice quiet yet sharp.

It was the kind of tone one would use when their entire world crumbled around them, and they blamed everything and everyone except the person who was responsible. She knew that tone all too well. She'd used that tone when she'd first entered the system, when her stable life had suddenly been ripped out from under her.

He stood up abruptly, dusting off the paper fragments before storming off. And Harper did nothing. She didn't call after him, didn't follow him because she knew that he needed time.

Harper rested her head against the backrest of the seat, blinking back the onslaught of emotions that were just dying to come out. She let out a breath, twisting the bracelet in a rhythm until her heart no longer felt like it was going to burst.

She stood up and paced the room. She felt helpless, useless. As she looked around the waiting room, she saw the same defeated expressions on each of their faces.

Harper stopped beside Sam, debating whether to say anything. Other than the brief moment in the parking lot, they hadn't spoken. Hadn't so much as looked at each other.

"Are you okay?" Harper asked, knowing it was a stupid filler question people used when they had no idea what to say.

"Not really. You?" Sam asked.

"No," Harper admitted.

"I hid," Sam said a few seconds later, her laugh bitter. "Tory showed up, and I just.. panicked."

"Because you were scared. None of this was your fault, you know," Harper told her.

Sam just nodded slowly. "Yeah, well, at least now you know what your boyfriend is," she said, the words so soft she barely heard them. But then Sam looked up, her gaze was fierce as she glared at her. "We tried to warn you, you know. I tried to warn you this entire time that he'd do something horrible, but you didn't listen. And now look where we are! Demetri's got a broken arm because you chose Hawk over your friends."

Harper's ears rang with silence. She opened her mouth and closed it, the shock of Sam's words stealing her breath away. Because there was no way that Sam was blaming this on her. Not after everything. Not when she'd fought beside her after Sam decided to start a fight she couldn't win.

"Woah, that's not really fair, Sam," Hunter said, sitting up in his seat as he looked between them.

"We were all there. We kinda jumped them, remember? We started that fight, and it got messed up real fast" Chris pointed out, looking uncomfortable as the tension only engulfed the room.

Sam scoffed. "None of this is fair! But she still doesn't get it. I mean, look at her!" She gestured towards Harper who stood there frozen, stunned beyond belief.

"I get it, Sam," Harper said slowly, her voice barely above a whisper. "We're done. I broke up with him because of this. You seriously think I'm stupid enough to not see how far gone he is?"

"So this was the wake up call you needed?" Sam asked with a laugh. "What about the time he destroyed Demetri's project? Or when he stole the fundraiser money. Or how about when he started shit with us just because he could? You ignored all of it!"

"Leave her alone," Hunter muttered quietly, but Sam ignored him.

"Because I thought he was different," Harper said, her words sounding pathetic to her ears.

"You were just too blind to see the truth," Sam continued, ignoring everything she was saying. "I mean, he's been texting you all night!"

To prove her point, Sam picked up Harper's phone from the table, holding it out of her reach as she scrolled through what Harper knew were endless messages from Hawk. And when Sam started to read them off — one by one — in a tone that was too mocking for the heartbreak she was going through, something inside of her snapped.

Harper snatched the phone from Sam's hand, her glare burning into her as she tucked the phone into her back pocket. She closed her eyes, fighting against every one of her emotions that battled for dominance. Because Harper hadn't just suffered enough. Because she hadn't just had her heart ripped out and shredded for everyone to see.

She was furious now and more broken than she'd ever been. And the last thing she wanted — needed — was to be called out and blamed for something that wasn't her fault. Yes, she'd dated Hawk. Yes, she'd looked past his mistakes. But she'd seen him for who he was tonight, and she'd ended things. She'd broken the one relationship that actually meant something to her because she knew that Hawk was, once and for all, a Cobra Kai through and through.

"But Chris is right, you know. You guys went after Cobra Kai tonight and started that fight. A fight that I helped you fight because I saw that my friends were getting hurt. Are you seriously that blind? I freaking stood by your side, Sam! And now you're trying to pin all this on this?" Harper asked, not bothering to stop the hurt from showing up on her face. "If anyone's to blame for what happened to Demetri, it's you. Because you've been so hell bent on getting revenge just to prove some stupid point that it blew up in your face. And now you don't know how to handle that."

"We started that fight because they had it coming," Sam said, her voice low.

"And how'd that work out for you?" Harper asked with a humorless laugh.

Harper walked away, needing to put some distance between them before words were said that neither could take back. More than one relationship had already been destroyed tonight, and there wasn't any need for more. There'd been enough fighting, and she was ready to be done with it. She wanted to put this entire night behind her, even if she knew that the heartbreak was only just beginning. Because the bitter reminder would still be there the next morning, looming over her like a dark cloud ready to drown her.

This night would haunt her in more ways than one. Harper let out a shaky breath, wondering how or if she'd ever come back from this.

"Harper."

She turned around at the sound of her name, confusion turning to dread when she spotted Olivia walking towards her. Her expression was one filled with worry, anger and fear as if she couldn't decide on which emotion to feel. She braced herself for whatever was going to come next — after all, she'd taken Cole to the arcade only for them to end up in the hospital.

"Are you okay?" Olivia stopped before her, eyes scanning her face for injuries and landing on bruises that looked as bad as they felt. "What happened? I was just coming to pick you up when Cole called me saying you were heading to the hospital."

"I —" Her voice broke, shrugging because she couldn't put the events of that night into words.

"Another karate fight?" Another voice joined in, this one belonging to Sam's mom. "What the hell were you thinking?"

Harper winced at the anger though she understood it. She risked a glance at Sam, whose anger seemed to be replaced by hurt. Tears shined in Sam's eyes, falling down her face, and Harper couldn't help but feel bad for her.

"Talk to me," Olivia said gently, coaxing her out of her thoughts. "I'm just trying to understand what happened."

"It just… everything got so messed up," Harper said, her voice small as she tried to hold everything together. Falling apart was not an option — at least, not yet.

Olivia started to press for more details, but she stopped. Smoothing Harper's hair in a gesture that only made her want to break more, she pulled her into a tight hug. Harper wanted to resist it, but she felt her arms wrapping around Olivia despite wanting to be strong. She felt the bitter sting of tears building up in her eyes and willed them away.

"It'll be okay," Olivia promised, though it was empty because nothing after tonight could ever be okay again. "Where's your brother?"

"I'm right here, mom. I just went to get some water," Cole said from behind them. He shifted in his feet, disappointment and what looked like resentment hovering on his face. Harper couldn't help but notice that his pockets were empty of the tickets he'd collected that night, and her heart broke all over again. "Can we just go?"

Olivia nodded slowly. "Yeah, let's get you two home."

Cole brushed past them when Olivia tried to put an arm around him, and she looked at Harper who looked like she was barely hanging on.

Harper looked over her shoulder at the broken friendships that remained in the waiting room, not understanding when everything had gotten so complicated. Instead of sticking together, they'd fallen apart and it didn't seem like anything would put them back together.

Her phone was like a dead weight in her back pocket, a cruel reminder of the other broken relationship that hurt more than she wanted to admit.

With a bitter sigh, she let herself be led out of the waiting room.

---

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Okay, so... All of this happened.

That's all I'm gonna say. Can't wait to hear your thoughts 3