𝗦𝗨𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗡 [eli moskowitz]

chapter 7

badass
🎶 sweater weather - the neighborhood

Fallon and Eli had planned to hang out that night, so that Fallon could question him on his new look. She had taken a little longer on her appearance than usual, opting to take a shower and use a little extra makeup.

When the door bell rang, Fallon walked over to the door with a smile on her face. "Hey Fal." Eli smiled as he walked in.

"Hi." The redhead said with a grin. "Should I be calling you Eli or Hawk?" She questioned.

He pondered it for a moment. He wasn't sure, because he had told himself that he was no longer Eli, now he was Hawk. He hadn't thought about what that meant for Fallon. Fallon was his best friend, she was different. She liked Eli, just Eli. "Sit down." He said as he plopped onto the couch.

Fallon sat beside him, with a concerned look. "So this is serious?" She wasn't ready for things to change for them.

Eli sighed. "I've been thinking, you know, about this whole 'flip the script' thing. I'm tired of being this shy, weak kid. So this Hawk idea, it can be really good for me."

"I love that Eli. I want you to be confident." She said. "But I still want to be best friends."

"How about this." He said, turning to look more directly at her. "Only you can call me Eli. Because I already feel confident with you, and a new name isn't necessary."

Fallon smiled. "Okay." She felt happy knowing that she was a safe place for him, and that he was the same for her.

"Do you wanna watch a movie?" Eli asked.

Fallon nodded, grabbing the remote. "So, what are we watching?"

"You pick." He wasn't surprised as he found himself staring at a list of Marvel movies in Fallon's DVR. "Let me guess. Iron Man, for the 100th time."

Fallon smiled. "Maybe."

"You're such a dork." He laughed as she pressed play. Not-so-sneakily, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

-

"Fighting positions!" Johnny yelled to the kids. He walked through, kicking Eli's foot outward. "Stabilize your base Hawk."

"Yes sensei." He replied.

As Johnny continued his walk through, a boy flinched. "Did you just flinch virgin?"  He through a first towards Luna's face and she immediately whipped her head back. "Holy shit we have a room full of flinchers."

"Yes sensei." The students replied.

"That was not a question!" Johnny yelled. "Raise your hand if you've never been punched in the face."

"Does a volleyball spike to the nose count?" Fallon asked as hands went up around her.

"Did it hurt?" Sensei asked.

"Yeah." The redhead nodded.

"Did your nose bleed?" He asked again.

"Yeah." She said again.

"Good enough." He nodded. "The rest of you, put your hands down. All your lives you've been avoiding fights. So you don't break your nose or loose a tooth, all this concussion nonsense. So there's only one solution and that is before you leave this dojo you will take a punch very hard, to the face. Miss Robinson, line them up. Unflinch this group."

After Aisha had punched a couple kids in the face, Fallon had gotten bored. "Hey, Aisha." The girl turned with her first up, ready to hit Fallon in the face. The redhead grabbed her fist, bringing it down. "Woah, calm down." She said. "I was just gonna ask if I could punch E-, Hawk. I'm bored and I think it would be funny."

Aisha looked over her shoulder at Hawk. "I did see Allison's volleyball spike in gym. It was pretty gnarly. Go ahead."

"Thanks." She nodded, walking over to Hawk. "Guess what!"

"What." He sighed, not excited to take a lunch to the face.

"I get to be the one to punch you in the face." Fallon smiled.

"What? No fair you've never been punched!" Eli complained.

"You heard Sensei, it's close enough. Stop being a pussy and let me punch you." She defended.

"Fine, just not too hard." He pleaded.

Fallon shook her head and pointed at the sign on the wall. "Strike hard, no mercy." She smiled before drawing her first back and punching Eli.

He cringed and fell back. "Damn Fal, how do you hit so hard?"

"Years of spending my afternoons trying to hit a ball as hard as I can."

"Yeah, well it paid off." Eli groaned. "Hey, would you maybe, wanna spend this afternoon doing something a little more exciting?"

"Like what?" The redhead questioned.

-

When Eli asked Fallon to go do something exciting, she thought maybe mini golf or ding dong ditch. Not sitting in a tattoo parlor holding his hand while he got a giant hawk tattooed on his back.

"Starting to regret it?" Fallon asked in a half laugh as she saw the pain in his face.

"Nope." He winced. "No pain no gain, right?"

"This better turn out totally badass or else all this was for nothing." She sighed. "Seriously, the way you're squeezing my hand I might be in just as much pain as you are."

"Sorry." He said. "It's almost done, I think."

Fallon looked over at his back. "He's finishing up." She nodded. "It looks good so far."

"Badass?" He asked.

"Badass." Fallon nodded. "I hate to ruin the vibe, but I do have to ask. Does your mom know you're getting a tattoo?"

"Shit. I forgot about that." He said, before wincing again. "Please don't tell her."

"Don't worry, I won't tell Eli's mom about anything that Hawk does." Fallon assured.

"Alright, it's done. You can pay at the front desk." The tattoo artist smiled.

"Thanks." Eli nodded. He pushed himself up and Fallon looked away before she could catch herself stealing a glance at his arms. "How's it look?" He asked, turning around.

"Sensei would be impressed." She nodded. "Check it out." She added, pointing to a mirror.