#he's gotta know about getting black eyes and backpacks dunked in the trash from SOMEWHERE

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

#Eli was the weird kid because of his scar and interests and it’s super sad #but I firmly believe that Demetri was the weird kid because he would talk shit to everyone even if it got him beat #then he met Eli and actually got a personality other then kill on sight #I just think it’d be a great parallel for them #Hawk hated Eli for his quiet shy emotional behavior #which are all aspects Demetri loves about him #Demetri hated his past self because he was violent and crude and hurt a lot of people #but to Eli he was the coolest person alive he loved his feral freak #Eli already had his arc of accepting who he is both old and new #give me Demetri accepting his past and the fact that he’s a bit of a monster #Eli realized after kwons death that he doesn’t want to go back to that angry obsessive version of himself and openly and proudly being nerdy #vs Demetri who’s like this wouldn’t have happen if I just killed (Kreese and silver) #Eli Sam and Daniel all trying to convince Demetri that it’s okay everyone’s safe #Demetri: haha no :) #if he can’t change what he is he’s going to make sure no one else has to become like him #I’m in denial #I know he’s going to get screwed over #but so far sensei wolf and Miguel’s dad are both tied to underground fighting pits #it’d be so cool if they used Demetri as a way to connect the story #baby Demetri spending his whole life training for death matches #thinking it’s the only thing he’s good for the only place he’s accepted #but Eli gave him hope that he could be something more that he’s not a monster #then Eli ditched him and broke his arm etc #also I just think the mental image of Eli talking bout their baby years and how cool Demetri was #and everyone including badass Johnny being like no that’s not badass I think he was actually trying to kill someone #Gianni said he used to take Krav Maga and Demetri was going somewhere very dark so fingers crossed

@uncreativity-is-my-skill bestie I've been snooping on your Demetri-related tags on various posts and it sounds like you have the most fantastic fanfiction of all time living in your brain. I am imploring you to share it with the rest of the class 👀👀👀

Okay but hear me out: What if Demetri's Mysteriously Absent Dad was the one pushing him to be a cold, unfeeling, ruthless future MMA fighter type, and Demetri ultimately rejecting that life was the reason his dad left??? Like Mr. Alexopoulos sees all this potential in this violent, feral little kid who seems to hate everyone and whose first reaction to hearing something he thinks is stupid is either telling the person directly (which leaves Little Demetri with no choice but to learn how to handle the scuffle that inevitably follows) or throwing the first punch himself. Bonus points if the Alexopouloses are an immigrant family who aren't particularly financially stable, so anything that has the potential to bring in a little extra cash (like fighting prize money!) is seen as highly valuable.

...and then one day Mr. Alexopoulos's kid comes home with this whiny, bitchy, wimpy scar-faced kid he's befriended at school. And he's obsessed with him. All he wants to do is hang out with this crybaby, and do weak, unmanly shit like constantly hugging and getting touchy-feely and holding this kid's hand and even, god forbid, talk about feelings with him. And Mr. Alexopoulos is horrified. The son well on his way to being a terrifyingly formidable force of nature is now just some gay, pansy-ass, effeminate loser. The only time Demetri ever even gets badass and violent anymore is when he's defending this little bitch kid from all the people who rightfully pick on him. He only wants to fight when he's fighting for the honor of someone who, to Demetri's dad's way of thinking, deserves it less than anyone else in the world. So Mr. Alexopoulos, unspeakably ashamed of his son (and of his wife, too, for allowing this bullshit to happen at all--she should have forbade that overemotional lip freak from entering their house on day one), abandons his family and severs all possible ties and associations with them.

And the reason Demetri ends up like he is in S1, keeping his head down and avoiding violence? It's because NOT doing that in his childhood fucked him over in a bigger way than he lets on. It wasn't just black eyes and his backpack getting thrown in the trash. Oh no--if he told Miguel how far he REALLY went back when he was more "confident", then Miguel would take it as encouragement to try and reawaken that more assertive side of him. And Demetri refuses to entertain that possibility even a little bit.

I'm imagining one time in elementary school, Demetri took his Eli Protection Scuffles a notch (or thirty) too far. Some kid crossed a line when taunting Eli--maybe was shoving him around and physically hurting him, too. And Demetri just fucking loses it. He beats this kid within an inch of his damn life. Full-on Hawk-and-Brucks-style carnage. Every one of their classmates who witnesses it is fucking traumatized.

Demetri gets suspended. His "good student" status keeps the punishment from being worse (as it reads much more like "oh god that kid needs help" than "oh god that kid is EVIL"), but he's warned that if he so much as lays a finger on one of his classmates ever again, it's going to be expulsion. This freaks Demetri the hell out not because he gives a shit about what any of those lame adults think about him ("They were doing a shit job protecting Eli, so I had to pick up the slack! For fuck's sake!"), but because it means getting separated from Eli. Demetri knows how much it will suck maintaining as close a friendship with someone who goes to a different school, where he won't see Eli every day and will have to put in a lot of extra effort to keep in touch. Not to mention Eli's parents would most likely try to prevent their son from keeping in touch with someone they view as an unstable maniac. They're already leery enough of Demetri as it is, with his track record of running his mouth at inopportune times and not being afraid to lay hands on someone who's pissing him off.

And so Demetri holds back, taking the beatings and accepting the bullying so he never has to worry about losing Eli again. If they have to suffer, at least they're always doing it together. Doesn't matter how bad he wants to strangle Kyler and guys like him--he knows what it leads to when he acts on those urges. They'll try to keep him away from Eli, tell him he's dangerous. Prevent him from being with the one person he loves most in the world. The one person who showed him that not all the world was worth hating and resenting.

How ironic, then, that in the end, it was Demetri re-discovering that anger and aggressiveness and burning drive to protect his loved ones that brought him and Eli back together.

Pspspspspsps come join the dark!Demetri writer squad!!! We would be honored to have you!!!