─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───

"now we wait thirty minutes." gioia told him as she placed the box of hair dye onto the sink. she was perched on the closed toilet seat, hawk sitting down beside the bathtub.

"hey, we still have plenty of hair dye left." hawk pointed out. his hair wasn't in the mohawk at the moment. it was long, damp and obscuring most of his face, gioia thought it was extremely cute. "why don't you dye your hair to match with me?"

"no way." gioia laughed at the stupidness of his suggestion.

"no? why not?" hawk questioned. "don't say because you don't like the color, you chose it."

"yeah, because you let me! said you wanted a n-new change to symbolise our new relationship." gioia told him. "i won't dye my whole head, my mamma would kill me."

hawk held his hands up in defence. "okay, okay."

"but... i can dye a streak of my hair?" she offered.

"you will?!" he grinned. "oh, you're awesome."

"stop." gioia blushed. she stood up to the mirror above the sink and began to section out her hair. "you think people will notice?"

"you can have it hidden or you can have it visible. it's up to you if people notice." hawk advised her. "but even if they don't, i'll know it's there."

"i'm not talking about the purple streak, eli." the blonde girl told him, actually referring to the publicity of their new relationship.

"i know." he nodded, "i know."

they sat in a comfortable silence as she prepped her hair to be coloured. despite being it peaceful and quiet, hawk hadn't forgotten the tension he had seen between gioia and robby. he was itching to ask.

"i'm sorry about what happened with kenny." hawk began. "that's not who i want to be anymore but i guess there's still some old me left."

"i get that." gioia spoke. "i can't expect you to change overnight and i don't. i just d-don't like seeing that side of you."

"i don't mean to scare you-"

"you didn't." she quickly cut him off. "you scared him. and you've apologised, so now all you need to do is leave him alone and steer clear of the cobra kais."

"the cobra kais..." hawk mumbled, that was his opening. "speaking of them, what was that with you and robby?"

"huh?" gioia asked, massaging the colouring into her hair.

"you said something about him being an asshole." hawk reminded her. "we all knew that but when you said it, it seemed to have hurt him."

gioia sighed. she knew the truth would have to come out sooner or later. "robby a-and i are-" she paused. "were friends."

hawk said nothing, so she continued.

"dr hanson recommended i visit him, back when he was in juvie, to help me move from the trauma. so i saw him and we talked and he apologised to me. he was even planning to a-apologise to miguel. so i forgave him. we would text and call from time to time and he came to my house once, chatted to my dad about staying out of trouble. but then i saw him yesterday afternoon, told me he had joined cobra kai and i said i didn't mind but then at the drive in, he just proved himself to be an asshole."

"right." hawk nodded. he couldn't believe he hadn't noticed the two of them being on good terms.

"but now i feel stupid." gioia sighed. "i mean i let him into my life, thinking he was different but turns out he's the same as the rest of the cobra kais. i'm sorry i didn't tell you, or anyone. i just didn't want people to be mad at me."

"i hear you... but gb, he's the one who hurt miguel." hawk reminded her, choosing his words carefully.

she sighed. "i know, i know. robby's had a hard life and you don't know his side of the story, there-there's always two."

"yeah, and in case you forgot his side consisted of him kicking miguel off the balcony." hawk rolled his eyes. he couldn't understand why the girl was defending this boy.

"you think i don't know that?!" gioia challenged, tears welling up in her eyes. "i would've never gone to see him if i wasn't advised to. you think i just randomly thought one day: oh, let me just go visit the guy who put my best friend in a wheelchair!"

hawk could see that the girl was getting stressed out, and that's exactly what he didn't want. gioia being stressed and overwhelmed was no good for anyone. he stood up from the floor, embracing her in a hug.

"hey, hey. i'm sorry." hawk whispered as she broke down into his shirt. "i didn't mean to upset you, alright? you've got a heart of gold and sometimes i struggle to see how you can be so good to others."

"i know i made a mistake." she cried. "i give people too many chances, even if they don't deserve it. and they end up walking over me."

hawk pulled out of the hug, placing his hands on her cheeks. he gently wiped away her tears. "look, robby is an idiot if he didn't appreciate your friendship. you're better off without him, yeah?"

"yeah." she nodded. "do you think miguel will be mad?"

"miguel could never be mad at you." hawk reassured her. and how wrong would he be?

"okay." gioia exhaled. she paused for a second before meekly whispering, "i got purple on your shirt."

hawk laughed, not bothering to wipe it. "it's okay."

─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───

"vietnam vet turned businessman. had a few ups and downs, but still turned out pretty rich." demetri showed the two an article of terrance silver, daniel's old sensei. "not much dirt, other than some toxic waste scandal in borneo back in the 80s."

they were now at school. hawk had picked gioia up from her house and she had been running a little late so instead of picking up demetri after, he was stuck riding the bus, and he was not happy about that.

"jeez, sounds like a renaissance man. how'd you even find out his name?" hawk asked his best friend.

"i took a picture at the dojo, found an old facial recognition beta test and tweaked the code to make it compatible with heic." demetri told them.

"i love it when you talk nerdy." yasmin andrews, moon lewis and mickey omar had caught up with the three in the hallway. gioia still was unsure how but yasmin and demetri had become a couple, and they weren't afraid to hide it.

"you are both the first and my favorite person to say that." demetri flirted back. yasmin giggled before pulling him into a passionate kiss, ignoring the four standing behind them.

"i like the new hue." moon told the other couple, trying to block out demetri and yasmin. "purple's the color of the crown chakra, you know? it symbolises enlightenment." moon complimented before she winked at gioia.

"uh, yeah, that's what we were going for. so..." hawk trailed off, not completely sure what exactly she was talking about.

"yeah."

gioia had a fresh purple streak on the left side of her blonde hair. she decided she was going to make it visible, not caring if anyone knew about their relationship. she had taken a lot of shit from west valley high school but she wasn't going to take any more.

"i'm guessing from the purple-stained hands, you did the hair?" mikayla asked the blonde girl.

gioia couldn't hide her smile, "yeah."

"she always helps with my hair." hawk explained, placing his hands on her shoulders from behind. "i find these cool italian hairdyes and she's just naturally good at it. naturally good at losing the gloves too."

"shut up! and i mean, it's not rocket science to r-read instructions and put some colour on your hair." gioia reminded him.

"stop trying to be humble all the time, you're basically a certified hairstylist." hawk teased.

"that's so cute." moon gushed. "i'm thinking of getting maybe light highlights in soon. would you be able to help out with that?"

"moon, you're so pretty and your hair is beautiful." gioia started. "so for your sake, you s-should go to a professional because i do not want to be responsible for ruining your look."

"come on guys, let's go." yasmin gestured to the two girls, once she had finished her conversation with demetri.

"hold on." moon said, turning back to gioia. "you're the sweetest. thanks for the advice."

"no problem." gioia beamed.

"later, guys."

"see ya."

"i'm really happy for you. talk later." mickey whispered to gioia, before sauntering off with her two friends.

"all right, no offense, but i have no idea how you pulled that off." hawk told demetri, once the three girls were completely out of view.

demetri took a deep breath. "neither do i. i guess i was just myself, and somehow that worked." demetri shrugged. "and i could say the same to you." gesturing to the blonde girl by his side.

"is that a compliment?" gioia questioned.

"for you? yeah." he smiled. "i guess we're both punching."

"hey!"

"i mean, we're all punching... we take karate." gioia joked.

"have you always been so empty-headed?" demetri quizzed.

"it was a pun, you moron." gioia scoffed.

"i'm not a moron." demetri huffed. "you're a moron."

"how original."

"guys."

the three turned into a different part of the school, on their way to gioia's locker. miguel and sam were leaning against it, quietly talking to each other and waiting for their arrival. they usually met beside the girl's locker in the mornings. she disliked this because it meant that they blocked the door, but it was now a permanent thing.

"yo, you guys won't believe this. sensei got drunk and went on a twitter rant." miguel told them.

"i believe everything except for the part where he knows how to tweet." demetri said.

"looks like he and sensei larusso are gonna have a rematch." he showed them the phone where johnny had been spam-tweeting about his agreement with daniel to fight.

"it's on: lawrence-larusso rematch! hashbrown dead meat." gioia laughed as she read it aloud. "hashbrown. what an idiot."

"wait so, they're really gonna fight?" the excitement was evident in hawk's voice.

"apparently." sam sighed. "should've seen this coming."

"who does he even think he's tweeting to?" demetri asked. "you and gb are his only followers."

"i don't know." miguel shrugged. "he seems serious about it."

"so this is real? sensei and sensei are gonna throw down?" hawk grinned.

"mhm."

"that's awesome!" he exclaimed.

"yeah." gioia hummed in agreement before turning her attention to her latino friend. "miguel, could i talk to you?"

"yeah sure-"

the bell rang, symbolising it was time for their first lesson of the day. gioia frowned, what perfect timing.

"could it wait for later?" miguel suggested.

gioia glanced over to hawk, who simply shrugged at her. she sighed. "yeah, sure. later."

⎯ ❃ jania speaks!
bless gioia's heart she's too sweet for the world, i mean her name literally means joy.
except this season will strip away all her joy <3

hawk when robby: 🤬🙄
hawk when gioia is stressed: 🥺🫂