𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐃, cobra kai

──𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 (S2)

────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ──────
──EPISODE FOUR

           ELI HAD BEEN TRYING to contact Élodie every single moment since he'd left Valley Fest, regret weighing heavy on his chest like a boulder.

Élodie hadn't replied to a single text, nor answered a single call, and much like when he'd given her the ultimatum about Miguel, she'd found herself curled up in her bedroom wishing the ache in her chest would dissipate.

He may not have directly done something to hurt her, but what he'd done displayed blatant disrespect for her when it came to the one thing they clashed on.

Cobra Kai had changed him, and she was sure it was time to remove her rose-tinted glasses and come to terms with the fact that the Eli she'd fallen for seemed to exist only in traces now, Hawk now entirely the puppet master of his actions.

She knew it was only a matter of time before he turned up at her door grovelling for her forgiveness, but she was struggling to process her own emotions and couldn't cope with the notion of dealing with his pathetic apologies.

How could he tell her he loved her and then swipe the elation of his confession away so swiftly with a betrayal?

Taylor Swift had blared from her speakers until the early hours of the morning, the cliched heartbreak remedy enveloping her in security that her feelings were valid and she could wallow in her upset.

But at 8:30AM, just as her stepmother left for work and she was cocooned in her blanket bleary-eyed and sleep-deprived, she heard a voice from behind her bedroom door that she didn't want to hear so soon.

Her stepmom had obviously let him in, oblivious and uncaring about why he was here, and Élodie cursed her for that. Why couldn't he have come at a time less ridiculous? Or, she proposed, not at all.

"Élodie, please let me in," his voice broke mid-sentence, raspy and coarse, "I know you hate me right now but I need you to let me in, princess. Please?"

"What do you want, Hawk?" the venom on her tongue as she spoke startled him, but the click of the lock startled him only more. By the time he'd gotten the courage to open it though, she was curled up in her bed again.

"I'm so sorry," he frowned, and she couldn't help but notice what a mess he looked, "I know I shouldn't have done what I did... I promised I wouldn't let you down and I did it anyway."

Élodie shrugged, as if his apology meant absolutely nothing to her, "Okay, and? I'm supposed to just say alrighty then and we kiss and make up so you can prioritise them over and over again?"

"I've learnt from this, Élodie, I can't lose you, not you, not after everything. I meant it when I said I love you," he stepped closer, revealing Anakin from behind his back held by his ear between the fingers of a clenched fist, "I let the competition thing get the better of me, and that's not fair on you."

Élodie shook her head, "Don't you see that you're talking shit, even if you don't mean to be? You're not my Eli anymore, not outwardly at least. This persona you have going on might work wonders elsewhere but I know you, Eli. The real you. And this isn't him."

"So what, you're saying you don't want to be with me anymore?" his voice broke as he spoke, and for a moment Élodie could see Eli beneath the hawked hair, "Because if you are—,"

"I really don't want this, but I can't be with you," tears spilled from Élodie's glassy eyes as she looked deeply at the heartbroken boy before her, "I'm sorry, but I can't keep doing this."