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“Let me know if you see any employees coming,” Hawk said, rolling up his sleeve and looking into the open top of the fish tank at the goldfish swirling around inside. It was mid-afternoon, and the only customer in this part of the restaurant was an elderly man drinking green tea who didn’t even glance up from his newspaper when Hawk grabbed a chair from one of the tables and put it up against the fish tank to stand on.
Mitch hadn’t really been sure if Hawk was serious when he suggested this, but he should have known he was. Nothing was so crazy that Hawk wouldn’t actually do it. That was what made him so exciting to be around.
None of the other guys had been able to come today, but that was okay. Mitch liked it when it was just him and Hawk hanging out. When the others weren’t around, Hawk seemed to smile more genuinely rather than just smirking all the time. Or maybe Mitch was just imagining it.
While Mitch was draping Hawk’s jacket over his arm, because Hawk had unceremoniously tossed it at him as he climbed the chair, Hawk apparently spotted his first victim, the big goldfish idling against the glass Hawk was leaning on. His hand hovered over the water, waiting for the right moment, and then with the same insane speed he put into his karate moves, he struck. The fish darted away at the last moment, so that his hand only grazed it.
“Nice try,” Mitch said.
“I touched it,” Hawk said, his eyes already fixed on another fish. This time, he struck as the fish swam away from him, but in following the fish, he inadvertently lurched forward and over-balanced, and Mitch had to rush to grab him to keep him from falling in and knocking the whole thing over.
“Careful,” Mitch said with a laugh.
“Whoa! That was close!” Hawk laughed too. He didn’t thank Mitch for catching him, but Mitch didn’t need him to.
“Yeah, good thing I was here,” Mitch said. Hawk didn't seem to hear him.
“I got it though! Look!” Hawk held up the fish, grinning. It was small enough to fit in his palm.
“Dude! If you can catch that little guy, those koi are toast tomorrow!” Mitch said, and was thrilled when that made Hawk smile even brighter, bright enough to make this dingy little restaurant feel like the center of the entire world. Hawk glanced down at Mitch’s hands, which were still resting at Hawk’s waist from when he stopped his fall, and his smile started to fade. Mitch let go quickly and stepped back, reaching into his pocket for his phone.
“Before you put it back, let me take a picture for Instagram!” He said. Hawk’s grin came back.
“Yeah!” He posed with the little fish and Mitch snapped a photo. As he tried to think of a caption, a voice shouted from the kitchen door.
“Hey! Get down from there!”
Hawk dropped the fish back in the tank when he saw the restaurant owner striding toward them.
“What the hell, penis breath? I told you to keep watch!” He said, hopping down from the chair and taking off running.
“I was posting the picture!” Mitch whined as he raced Hawk out of the restaurant. They ran until they were out of sight of the restaurant and finally slowed when it was clear no one was chasing them. Mitch was worried Hawk was mad at him for not keeping watch, but when he looked at his face, it was pulled into a smirk. Not quite as good as his smile from before, but Mitch liked the smirk too.
“Guess we can add that to the list of places I’m banned from,” Hawk said with a note of pride.
“Yeah!” Mitch said. He opened the notes app on his phone and found the list. He couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant, so he just typed ‘Chinese restaurant with fish tank’ and closed the app again.
“Did you post the photo?” Hawk asked, peeking at his phone. “Let me see it.”
Mitch showed him the photo he’d taken, with the caption Touching mad scale . Hawk smirked again.
“Hell yeah I did.” He leaned closer and Mitch went still, because Hawk didn’t seem to realize how close they were standing, and for some reason it felt nice and Mitch didn’t want him to notice and pull back.
“Did Miguel like it?” Hawk touched the screen and scrolled. The nice feeling in Mitch’s chest flickered like a candle and went out. He pulled the phone away from Hawk and looked at it.
“Not yet,” he said. Hawk frowned, and Mitch didn’t like that expression at all. “But I’m sure he will later. Remember he told us he was busy.”
“Yeah,” Hawk said, “he’s always busy these days.”
“Well, he does have a girlfriend,” Mitch pointed out, trying not to sound too glad about it. It wasn’t that he didn’t like hanging out with Miguel, he just liked spending time with Hawk more, and when Miguel was around, that didn’t happen as much. Most of the time Hawk didn’t even invite Mitch when he and Miguel hung out.
“Yeah, well, that shouldn’t mean he can’t make time for his bros. It’s no fun without him,” Hawk said sullenly.
“I don’t know, I thought this was pretty fun,” Mitch said.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Hawk sighed. They had reached their motorcycles, and Mitch watched closely like he always did when Hawk put his helmet on, because he still couldn’t figure out how he did it without messing up his mohawk. Mitch always got helmet hair. He wished Hawk would show him the secret.
“Where to next? We can try getting banned from Red Lobster?” Mitch suggested.
“I think I’m just gonna go home,” Hawk said, glumly. Mitch shouldn’t have mentioned Miguel’s girlfriend. It always seemed to put Hawk in a funk. He made a mental note not to do that in the future.
“Oh. Okay. Maybe next time, then,” Mitch said, thinking next time he would get it right, and Hawk would realize he didn’t need Miguel.
But there was no next time. After what Cobra Kai did to Hawk, Mitch tried to go see him, but he wouldn’t answer the door. Next thing he knew, Hawk was standing on the other side of the blue tournament mats, in a Miyagi-Do gi, hanging out with that beta Demetri. No explanation. Not so much as a glance in Mitch’s direction. And even though he still cheered when Hawk won, he’d never had a win feel so much like a loss.