#Demetri and eli binary brothers

[larussoslostdaughter]

I loved my Friend.

Word count: 3653

Fandom: Cobra Kai

Relationship: Demetri x Hawk

Pairing: MxM

Warnings: (not so much of a warning but) Fluff.

I loved my friend.

He went away from me

There's nothing more to say

The poem ends

Soft as it began —

I loved my friend.

Demetri watched his best friend from the back of the dojo, trying to understand when everything had changed so much. Eli, the shy boy who used to play video games with him and share nerdy theories, was gone. In his place stood Hawk, a tough, confident teenager, completely different from the friend he used to know.

Hawk strutted around the dojo with his typical arrogance, flaunting his red mohawk like a flag announcing his arrival. He laughed loudly with other students, cracking jokes that felt so foreign to Demetri. All of it seemed like an act, a mask Eli had put on to hide. But the problem was that this mask was starting to feel permanent.

Demetri crossed his arms as he watched Hawk practice a punch on the heavy bag. There was something about the way Hawk moved, the way he spoke, that deeply irritated him. Not because it was annoying, but because it made him feel... strange.

What Demetri didn’t want to admit was that he missed Eli. Not just his best friend—the one he shared everything with—but the boy he had started to feel something more for. There was something about Eli’s vulnerability, his nervous laughter, the way he blushed whenever someone said something kind, that had made Demetri realize he wanted more than just friendship.

But this new Eli—Hawk—didn’t seem to have room for that.

One afternoon, after practice, Demetri finally worked up the courage to talk to him.

“Hey, Hawk,” he called, emphasizing the nickname with a hint of sarcasm. Hawk turned to face him, raising an eyebrow.

��What’s up, Demetri? Looking for tips on how not to be a loser?” he replied with a mocking grin.

Demetri ignored the comment and stepped closer.

“I don’t know who you’re supposed to be now, but I miss Eli. Remember him? The guy who used to correct my grammar and knew all the differences between Star Wars editions. What happened to him?”

Hawk crossed his arms, visibly uncomfortable.

“Eli’s dead, Demetri. I’m Hawk now, and I don’t have time for that nerdy crap anymore.”

Demetri felt a lump in his throat but refused to back down.

“Dead? Don’t give me that, Eli. This... this isn’t you. What you’re doing, who you’re trying to be, isn’t the guy I... the guy I admire.”

Hawk frowned, but Demetri pressed on before he could respond.

“You know what bothers me? Not that you changed your name or your style. What bothers me is that you’ve distanced yourself so much that I don’t even know if I’m still your friend. And I don’t know how to connect with this... Hawk, because I don’t have feelings for him.”

Silence filled the space between them. Hawk stared at him, surprised, as if he was finally seeing Demetri for the first time in weeks.

“Feelings?” Hawk asked, his voice losing some of its edge.

Demetri nodded, embarrassed but resolute.

“Yeah, feelings. For Eli. The guy you used to be before all this. But if that guy doesn’t exist anymore, then I guess what I feel doesn’t matter to you either.”

Hawk looked away, his expression hardening again, but this time Demetri could see something behind the mask: insecurity.

“I don’t know if I can be that guy again, Demetri,” Hawk admitted quietly.

Demetri stepped closer, meeting his friend’s gaze.

“You don’t have to be exactly the same. But you don’t have to hide either. Eli or Hawk, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re honest with yourself.”

For the first time in a long time, Hawk let his guard down, even if just a little.

“Maybe I can try,” he murmured, more to himself than to Demetri.

And in that moment, Demetri felt that, while the road ahead would be long, there was a chance to bring Eli back—or at least to find a way to connect with whoever Hawk was trying to become.

[emloafs]

cause of death: this particular part of the s6 trailer

[moonlit-knightz]

[glitterfairy-21225]

Honestly, I like that we’re only now seeing Demetri feed into anger and make decisions he’ll probably regret later. Now, after Hawk has already had his redemption arc and rejected Cobra Kai’s ideology. I don’t think any sane viewer would have blamed him for going a little dark after Hawk broke his arm, but he didn’t. In fact, Demetri forgave Hawk extremely easily. He’s better than me, I don’t think most people would be willing to look past that so quickly.

So why now? Why does MIT hurt more than all the far worse stuff Eli did when he was in Cobra Kai?

Demetri has been learning Miyagi Do since s2. Before that, he disliked Cobra Kai’s way of doing things and only really clicked with karate when he was taught balance and self defense. Demetri is probably behind Sam and Anthony as the teen character with the least amount of experience in Cobra Kai.

But there’s a reason all the adult characters keep talking about balance. It can’t just be either all rage or all forgiveness. I can imagine Demetri harboring some pent up resentment over Hawk’s actions, buried so deep he doesn’t even realize it’s there until they have another fight.

And this time, it’s not Kreese’s brainwashing. It’s not that his best friend was angry about their lots in life and lashed out to extreme extents. There’s not a greater bad guy to point at behind Hawk, there’s not even really a bad guy. They’ve just been through a lot and they’re different people than they were when they first picked a college. Eli is telling him, “You’re my best friend but we’re never going back to how we used to be. We cannot go back and I’m not sure I want the same future as you.”

And this is after Demetri gets his best friend back. Apart from everything with Silver and Kreese, his life is going relatively uphill; Eli is good again, they have plenty of other friends, he’s dating Yasmine, and he’s learnt karate. Other than his friends’ success, he really isn’t looking for more than to preserve what he’s already gained. Losing MIT with Eli is a curveball he didn’t expect, just another thing he’s supposed to accept and move on from, and it happens when Demetri thinks he’s found security.

And then there Demetri’s motivation for wanting to compete in the Sekai Taikai. It’s not ambition. Demetri already got what he wanted out of Miyagi Do, he knows how to defend himself. In past seasons, he stayed because there was safety in numbers and of course he was against Cobra Kai. But now that Kreese is out of the valley, Demetri is still with the dojo because all his friends are there and he has developed a genuine enjoyment of martial arts. He doesn’t really want more. He says multiple times that he’s okay if where he’s at is the farthest he’ll go in terms of karate.

Demetri is comfortable being a side character. He doesn’t think he’ll ever outdo the core four or Hawk so he doesn’t see a point in trying. He wants to ride out the rest of his senior year with the dojo and then go to MIT, where he’ll do what he’s always been good at, where he might actually excel.

And Yasmine calls him out on this. They bonded when they were both at their lowest and she dated him while Demetri was helping the fight against Cobra Kai. She does not want him to throw in the towel too early and grow stagnant.

So, at first, Demetri really trains and tries his best to get picked for the Sekai Taikai to please her. But then Hawk tells him he’s unsure about MIT, and, “You chose my path?!” There was such genuine hurt in his voice, but Demetri could never hurt Hawk as much as Hawk hurt him. And Barnes said you have to be ruthless to get into the Sekai Taikai, yet Hawk showed him mercy, which Demetri exploits.

Demetri is clearly unsure of his actions when he takes the flag and runs. He seriously considers helping his best friend up. But when Eli decided to be selfish, he did so much damage, so why can’t Demetri be selfish this one time? Why can’t he lash out and take the victory he wants at the other’s expense? It’s not like he does anything worse than what Hawk’s done to him?

Sometimes you just need to hash it out and make up. It’s why Sam and Tory couldn’t spar properly after becoming friends; they realized they liked each other so they didn’t address their baggage. But because they didn’t, they felt at risk of falling into bad habits whenever the past finally did catch up to them. But they talked it out, they apologized for the things they regret, they brought up lingering resentments. Demetri wanted his best friend back so he forgave too easily, and now that they’re fighting again, so much past hurt is being brought to the surface.

Now that Cobra Kai is out of the valley, Demetri has started falling back to old habits. It’s been noted that he does most of the talking on Eli’s behalf in the early episodes of s6, his resignation about the Sekai Taikai reminds me a lot about his apathy towards high school in s1, and he assumes they’ll still go through with the college plans they made before their falling out. I do think Demetri genuinely wanted to be a part of the tournament but resigned himself after the team number was announced. When Hawk came clean about applying to MIT, Demetri finally decided to take more.

The show is about balance, it’s about finding a middle ground between defense and offense, Daniel and Johnny. I don’t think Demetri is gonna have a full blown villain arc or join Kreese or anything overly dramatic (we’re already getting that with Tory). He’s been loyal to Miyagi Do for too long. But that’s kind of the issue, he never fully let himself get angry at Hawk, and this is the result. Like Johnny said about Tory, if it takes a fight to process all your emotions, then fight, because holding it in will only make everything uglier.

[reddie-as-ill-ever-be]

He wants that cookie so effing bad

[thedesertpenguin]

I know that we don’t have the full season yet so we could potentially get more but I doubt it.

I really and I mean REALLY despise how they handled the Eli/Demetri fight and that’s even outside of shipping.

They set up a really interesting fight. They call back to one of the worst moments in their relationship and do nothing meaningful with it. Demetri gets one line about how worried he was about losing Eli and that’s it. And as much as I love this show, there’s something infuriating about how they drag on the most overdone conflicts and breeze past the more interesting ones.

They afforded more time to the new catty female villain because apparently any girl from a rival dojo immediately has to be vindictive while the male character is afforded more depth. But they can’t give that to their characters that they’ve had since the beginning? They can’t just let these two friends have a genuine argument and actually talk through what happened between them?

And I’m not saying they had to be the main conflict. I recognize that Johnny, Daniel and co. are the main points. But I just wished they gave more time to let them argue. Not about who smelt it dealt it, not with a ridiculous cheating storyline. With actual care and consideration about their relationship.

Their relationship has consistently been swept under the rug. They could’ve done it in s4, arguably the perfect time to do so but they didn’t. They could’ve done it here but they didn’t. I’ll wait for part 3 but it seems that they’re once again relegated to a simple reconciliation when it’s anything but.

Again, I know that they’re not the main selling points (well maybe Hawk is but his presence and his fighting has significantly diminished but that’s a different conversation ) but I think they deserved more than what they got.

[certifiedl0serloll]

anthony and his gay dads???

[nopenothanks9]

Did anyone else notice that demetri chose to room with Robby to avoid Eli when he's arguably MUCH closer to Miguel? I mean, it could be argued that he did that for Robby's sake since he and Hawk have had a rockier relationship than Robby and Demetri himself. But, let's be honest. Wbat was the only thing Demetri cared about consistently throughout the show besides karate: Eli. He knew that Eli and Miguel were closer and that Eli would feel more comfortable with him than with Robby. I wholeheartedly believe that even in his overwhelming pain and therefore excessive anger** he would pick Eli's comfort over anything.

**And HUGE HUGE character changes and the wildest out of character actions in the entire world this season.... the writing this season, especially for Demetri was literally insane. I love the show but, cheating on the girl he's been obsessed with???? Even though i believe he loves Eli and doesn't realize it, he would NEVER hurt Yasmine like that because he loves her, even if it's more platonic than he realizes.

[blusandbirds]

eli moskowitz - "am i making you feel sick?"

[emotional-moss]

hello hawkmetri nation

[dreaming-of-addie]

Demetri Hawk and Miguel are looking a lil different here

[sleepyicon]

my thoughts on the binary bros this season (a lot of this is screenshots from a discord convo i had bc i don’t feel like writing this all again lmao)

the kenny thing especially just rlly pissed me off, like how dare they not apologize ppl were already being jerks to him and they just added on to it

justice for hawk and demetri, it’s not their faults the writers did a shit job with them this season, not getting a lot of screentime and when they did just being absolute assholes

[emloafs]

WE'RE SO BACK

OH HOW I'VE MISSED THEM SO MUCH

[moonlit-knightz]

yup that’s me!

[bullshitcharacterssay]

Demetri: Goddamn it, the printer broke while printing out Hawk's birthday invitations. Anthony: Well, what are they supposed to say? Demetri: "Hawk's birthday". Anthony: So, what do they say instead? Demetri: "Hawk’s bi". Anthony: Anthony: Works out either way.