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When Hawk came home with a buzzcut thanks to the Cobra Kai kids, Demetri rushed to comfort him. He told Hawk to follow him into the bathroom, lean over the bathtub, and turn away, because he had an idea on how to fix it. Demetri actually kind of liked the buzz cut, but Hawk thought it was ugly, so it needed to be fixed up.
“Can I at least see a picture of what you’re doing to my hair?” Hawk asked.
“Fine, ruin the surprise.”
“I just had a bunch of guys pin me down and forcibly shave my head, Dem. I’m not exactly in the mood for surprises.”
Demetri sighed and handed him his phone so he could see the reference picture he was using. It was someone with a buzzcut who had dyed various shapes into it such as hearts, stars, and flowers. Sure, it didn’t look as badass as the mohawk, but it made him happy, and it looked cute. And it’s well established at this point that if anyone gave him shit, he’d beat them up if he needs to. Either that, or maybe Demetri would give them some snide remarks. Or hey, maybe they’d get a sprinkler on them again. Or worse. Who knows? Point is, he knew who he was now. He could defend that person. Even if some people might say that person is “soft”, “weird”, “ugly”, “A traitor”, or whatever. It didn’t matter.
It was like Demetri said, “Your hair doesn’t define you. I don’t care what you look like or what your name is. You're still my Eli. Who’s loyal, and cool, and cares about people, even if sometimes he’s bad at showing it. Who’s determined to do what it takes for me, for this dojo, even if it means losing his hair. I know you don’t feel badass right now, but you are. Always have been. I’ve always liked that about you. You’re bold and unafraid. You don’t take any shit from anyone.” He had said as he used what were essentially cookie cutters as stencils in his hair with painted on dye of various colors. It was a nice, peaceful activity. One he couldn’t do with many other people.
He almost zoned out and forgot to pay attention to what his boyfriend said. Almost. “Hey, you’re pretty badass too, in your own way. You’ve never cared about what people thought. You’ve never been afraid to speak your mind and be yourself. And you looked pretty cool doing that knife dance thing at practice yesterday. “
“It’s called Kama, Eli.”
“Okay, well, Sensei Lawrence called it the knife dance, so I’m calling it the knife dance, because that’s what it is.”
“Hey, don’t give me a hard time about my Kama. You just said it was badass. Admit it, you liked it.” Demetri teased.
Hawk smiled. “Of course I do, I like everything you do.”
“Okay, we’re almost done. We have one more little stencil. Found this one on Etsy especially for you. This is by the same person who made the game controller one I showed you earlier. They made one shaped like a little hawk.” Demetri told him.
Hawk smiled wider. “You’re sweet.”
Demetri stamped it into his head, then grabbed a towel to clean him off. He let the last stencil dry, then turned Eli around to face the bathroom mirror. “What do you think?”
Hawk’s buzzcut now had a game controller dyed onto one side of his head, a hawk on the back, and a bunch of little hearts, stars, and flowers on the other side. “You know what, this actually looks pretty cool.”
“Thanks. But you know, I wouldn’t have minded the plain buzzcut. You could be bald, and I’d still love you.” Demetri said matter-of-factly.
Hawk rolled his eyes. “I know, I love you too, dork.”
The next day, Eli showed up at Miyagi Fang Karate practice, and immediately a few of the same people who shaved his head in the first place saw the side of his head and said, “Hey, hippie,” “Hey, flower power,” and “Hey, loverboy!”
He turned to them and geared up his fist. “Say that again, I dare you.”
Demetri came up behind him with a warm embrace and a smirk. “Yeah, I’m the only one who gets to call him loverboy.”