Black Widow | Cobra Kai

6. Hawk

Black Widow Chapter Six: Hawk

"Junbi! Bow. Fighting positions!"

The rest of the class had finally received their gis like Miguel and Aisha. It certainly was a lot more comfortable and free to practice in as opposed to their everyday clothes, so Sloane was happy.

Sensei Lawrence kicked Eli's leg to adjust his position. "Stabilize your base, Hawk. Keep your balance full rotation when you strike," he explained while showing how the movement was supposed to look.

"Yes, Sensei. Hai!" Eli showed the improved punches and Sensei nodded, moving on.

When he turned to another kid, he saw him move back. "Did you just flinch, Virgin?" he questioned. As a test, he mocked going to attack some more students to see how they reacted, which was the exact same way. "Holy shit. We got a room full of flinchers."

"Yes, Sensei!"

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

Sloane turned around to watch as a bunch of hands shot up. Suddenly, she felt lucky to have dealt with a few too many drunk assholes at work. Not to mention accidents happen in martial arts training for kids too.

"Put your hands down. All your lives, you've been avoiding fights so you don't break your nose or lose a tooth. This concussion nonsense. So there's only one solution, and that is before you leave this dojo, each and every one of you is gonna take a punch, very hard, to the face," Sensei Lawrence said. "Miss Robinson, line 'em up. Unflinch this group."

"Yes, Sensei," Aisha answered with a frown. She looked to Miguel, who gave her a nod to just go ahead. She walked to the end of their row and cracked her knuckles to get started.

Sloane leaned closer to Miguel. "I'm good, right?" she checked since she didn't raise her hand.

Miguel nodded. "Yeah, you're fine," he assured her. "Maybe go grab some paper towels, though," he said. As he walked to Sensei's office, he patted her on the shoulder.

Sloane looked at the bleeding noses starting to appear around her and nodded. "Good idea."

⊱ ────── {⋅. ☯ .⋅} ────── ⊰

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," Sloane declared as she lay down on her stomach on the massage table. Somehow, their hangout session after karate had led them to a tattoo and piercing parlor, the very same where Sloane got her septum piercing.

"Come on, you already have a piercing. A tattoo isn't that different. It's just another needle," Eli argued as he sat down on the chair next to her. The chair was turned around so he could rest his arms on the backrest. He had just gotten the last touches on a back tattoo and in the time the tattoo artist spent on him, he had convinced Sloane to get a tattoo as well.

Sloane rolled her eyes and laid her head on her folded arms. She had taken her shirt off, leaving her in just her bra and jeans. "A piercing is like one pinch and it's done," she countered.

Eli chuckled. "I thought you were a badass, huh?"

"I am a badass! But I'm also very anxious," Sloane responded. "And don't act like you didn't nearly break my hand just then."

"Fine, but I did it, didn't I?" Eli pointed out. "I promise you'll get to crush my hand too."

Rico placed the stencil down on Sloane's shoulder blade. He let it dry for a few seconds while he grabbed his stuff and pulled up a stool. "Alright. You ready?"

Sloane looked to Eli. "What do you think?" she asked since she couldn't see the tattoo placement herself. She'd picked it out, but she wasn't sure how it looked when it was actually on her shoulder.

"Badass." Eli grinned. Since he'd gotten a hawk tattooed on his back because of his new nickname from Sensei Lawrence, Sloane figured she should do something similar. She'd looked into some Pinhead designs, but ultimately found a black widow spider a little more elegant.

Sloane smiled. "Let's do it," she told Rico. The man nodded and got started on the tattoo.

"New year, new us," Eli said while he grabbed Sloane's hand. She didn't even ask him, but he did it anyway. "So what are you thinking for your birthday this year?"

Sloane raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? We always have a sleepover. You, me, Demetri, and a horror movie marathon," she replied. "Ooh, we'd have to invite Miguel this time, though."

Her yearly horror-themed sleepovers were always one of the best parts of her year. The first couple of years, Demetri and Eli hid behind the covers during half of it, but over the years, they had developed a tolerance for blood and gore. She tried to do a different franchise each year. Scream, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street. She thought it might be funny to do Hellraiser this year.

"Come on, we can do better than that," Eli insisted. "It's your sweet sixteen. We gotta get booze, snacks, music. We can invite some people from the dojo or your friends from work."

While she was a little disappointed she might not do the sleepover this year, Sloane also realized they could binge horror movies any day of the year. Maybe Eli had a point, your sweet sixteen happens only once. "I don't know," she said and winced slightly when the tattoo hit a painful spot.

"You okay?" Eli asked, moving his chair a little closer, but Sloane just nodded. "You know what? We'll figure it out later. Just consider this an early birthday present before I get you the real thing."

Normally, Eli would've loved just hanging out indoors with his friends, but with this new look came a new personality. He had given Sloane pretty much all his old clothes, claiming she'd have better use of them for either herself or her little brother. Sloane was still adjusting to the outgoing, confident Eli, or 'Hawk' as he preferred to be called now. She still called him Eli, though.