#where demetri pins hawk’s arm and says how do you like it?!

[edelgardism]

one problem i have with cobra kai is that it really didn’t talk enough about demetri’s feelings ab his broken arm. like sam’s trauma from that event was addressed more than his, which i understand because she’s more of a main character, but also his best friend literally broke his arm. and yet nothing really about the healing process, how it felt to get back into karate, if he had any mental blocks, if he was scared of getting into another fight, if he instinctively flinched whenever anyone (eli) reached for that arm…

[gemini-sensei]

Thought on the Miyagi-do!Reader idea but like kinda 180-(Made up plot idea) Spicy Eagle-Fang!Hawk who is only a little more nicer then he was in cobra kai, he still messes with the Miyagi-do students and doesn't like being around them. It's a hassle to even have him near them while they separately train at the dojo.

That is until he sees Reader. She's a super shy Miyagi-do kid who just joined to have a little fun doing karate and make new friends. She ultimately hangs out with Sam and Demetri a lot. When I say shy I mean she is SHY, she runs off the minute she's uncomfortable. Retreating to the safety of her tiny friend group or dojo.

Hawks attitude and feelings about this are a mix of finding her sweet but also wanting to see how sadistically far he can push her buttons. He would never tell the other guys but he gets off on seeing her clam up and run off the minute any of the eagle-fang kids come around. Seeing her get all nervous and flustered just gets him going.

That's why when the dojos start mingling he wants to be the first one to pair up with her😈

(Had this run though my head after you posted the Miyagi-do!Reader post)

Sensei-Venus✨💕

No, but like if she's borderline kind of scared of most of the Eagle Fang students- like, Miguel and Bert are okay. She's kind of friends with them; Miguel because of Sam and Bert because he's pretty much harmless. Reader stays close to Sam and Demetri as much as possible, when training allows it. She wants to practice with either of them over anyone else in all honesty.

So when she hears that they have to work with three Eagle Fang students, she's crossing her fingers that she'll get to train with Miguel or Bert at least. She's completely unaware that Hawk has already steaked his claim on a partner for the day, threatening the others that if they even try to ask Reader to be their partner, they'll regret it. Everyone thinks its just a little crush and hes looking to get close to Reader so he can impress her, not putting much more thought into it than that.

Everyone partners up and Reader is looking around like a lost puppy, tha is until Hawk approaches her with a twisted little smirk.

"Looks like we're the only two left," he says, as if he didn't calculate and scheme for this to happen.

He takes her to a corner of the yard where they're a little further away from everyone else and they start practicing, but Hawk makes it really frustrating. He pulls back a lot when it's supposed to be her turn to go through drills and hit him; he's supposed to block, but he's just dodging all her moves. It makes her so frustrated but she bits her tongue and tries to power through it.

She doesn't say much the whole time they're working together, following his lead because he's the more experienced student. So when her form is off, she doesn't really question how he tells her so. However, she starts to get flustered when he comes up behind her and fixes it. He's a little too close for comfort and she just wants to hide her face and run to the safety of the dojo. But she's frozen in place, letting him move her arms in tight as his breath fans her neck.

"There you go, just like that," he mumbles, then pulls away. He takes his place in front of her and takes up a stance. "Think you can hit me now?"

She hesitates but nods and he chuckles.

"Let's see you try."

She's a little too flustered to focus correctly and when they start sparring, she is completely taken off guard. She's not even on guard to begin with in all honesty. He pins her down easily when he doesn't even have to pin her down. He could have just as easily knocked her down or swept her leg. He just wants to get in her face and tease her about it.

"That all you got, sweetcheeks?"

He pinches her chubby cheeks as he calls her that and she whimpers. He mocks her by whimpering back, but holy fuck he's kind of obsessed with it and wants to make her make those noises more. So while they're training, he does everything he can to make her whimper and whine like that.

At one point, he grabs her jaw and squishes her heels, grinning in her face. She whimpers as she's kind of forced to look at him and he chuckles. "Come on, I knowbyou can break out of this hold. It's so easy."

He's almost sickly in love with it. If someone like Sam says something to him about it, he'll just brush it off as he was messing with her. Nothing more than that and she shouldn't be worried about anything. He scoffs at any implication that it was more than that, bullying Reader and what not.

However, I firmly know that this version of Hawk is still a total hothead on a hairline trigger and he's fiercely loyal. So once they've actually trained hand in hand with the Miyagi-Dos for a while, he'll say something like "I guess they're not as bad as they seem, but they're still annoying as Hell." But the moment a Cobra rears their head and spits so much as a little insult in their direction, he's bowing up and standing on the front lines.

This differs with Reader, though, especially since everyone knows she didn't start doing karate to help in this dojo vs dojo war zone. So if any one, Cobra Kais especially, mess with her or make her upset, it's on sight.

He'll never admit he's fallen for her little shy mannerisms or her round face or her sweet giggle he hears from time to time. No, that has nothing to do with it.

"What the fuck are you on about? You wanted me to be a team player, I'm playing for the fucking team!" this being said after her beat the snot out of a Cobra for pinching Reader's fatty arm and making her yelp.

In his mind, he's the only one that gets to do that, and be never goes as far as to actually hurt her.

"Looking out for each other and all that nice bullshit, right?"

He's borderline cruel but in his own special, from his heart kind of way. (Also it's a little funny if he probably has little experience trying to woo a girl and this might be one of his best efforts)

I want to write more of this. I love this. @sensei-venus thank you for this.

[robbyswayzekeenes]

badass━ demetri (cobra kai) imagine

demetri x badass fem! reader 

requested by @klt123456​

i hope you like it! just a lil demetri with his badass gf and some making out in the dojo :))

It wasn’t uncommon for there to be competition between high school students. Typically, any teenagers would be warring over who was the most popular, or the most attractive, but something you never tended to find high school students fighting over was who was the toughest. Then again, West Valley High wasn’t like any other high school. Since karate had infested the Valley like it was 1980, people had been changing. It was no longer about who dated who, and who fucked who-- no, the priority was now who could whip the other in a full-blown karate fight. And whilst there was a lot of competition for the top spot; whether it was Tory, or Hawk, or Miguel, and sure, they were all in the running. But everyone knew that the toughest kid at West Valley High was Y/N L/N.

The h/c didn’t look like much. (Your height) and seemingly harmless, she was anything but intimidating. If anyone were to suggest to an outsider that she was the toughest kid in the Valley, they would be ridiculed, especially when compared to Eli’s mohawk or Tory’s resting bitchface. But the thing that made Y/N really badass compared to any of the cobra’s or anyone at Miyagi-Do is that, whilst had been training in karate for a year or so, the girl had been fighting competitively since she was eight.

Red Tigers Karate was the only dojo left in the Valley until Johnny Lawrence brought back Cobra Kai. It had started back in the 80s and was the only one left after they all closed down. It wasn’t particularly busy, not like the rush of people Cobra Kai had received after Miguel’s fight in the cafe, but Y/N had been fighting there since she was a kid. Karate was always the best way for the girl to relieve anger, and now everyone was doing it. Despite the different styles, it was no competition that she was by far the best. She wasn’t defensive and passive like the style taught at Miyagi-Do, and she wasn’t all aggressive and merciless like Sensei Lawrence taught at Cobra Kai. The girl’s karate style was the perfect combination of offence and defence, which made her practically unbeatable. Y/N was badass as shit. And everyone knew it.

Demetri was the opposite of badass. Lanky and skinny, with gimpy, out of proportion limps, karate was definitely not his strong suit. He’d taken many beatings, even before karate came back to the Valley, and for a while, these beatings were even coming from his best friend, Eli. Sure, he’d had his victories in karate, for instance, when he had kicked Hawk into the trophy case during the school fight, but all in all, he had not had many successes when it came to karate. However, Demetri’s biggest success was somehow winning the heart of the biggest badass at school; Y/N L/N herself.

The pair had somehow become friends in school, despite the dark haired boy being very much terrified of her. And from there, their friendship had blossomed into a beautiful relationship, and the pair were both incredibly happy, despite the fact that Demetri had no idea how he’d ended up with someone so far out of his league. Since the karate war had started, Y/N had begun training more and more at Miyagi-Do, helping Daniel train the students, and now, after Kreese’s latest attack, helping Johnny Lawrence and the former Cobra Kai’s learn to fight in a style that wasn’t all offence. Today, whilst Daniel and Johnny were outside separately training Miguel and Sam in order to prepare them for the tournament, Y/N was playing a little game.

“Okay,” The h/c grinned, hopping onto the mat and getting in her stance. “Let’s play a sparring game. Winner stays on. I’ll start.” Demetri could see the mischievous twinkle in his girlfriend’s eye, but of course the new members of Miyagi-Do were not aware of the girl’s capabilities. “I’ll take you on,” Mitch had said with a cocky smirk, and the boy was flat on his back in less than ten seconds. Y/N pushed one strand of h/c hair from her face, winking at Demetri who was trying overly hard not to look impressed. “Who’s next?” The girl grinned, exhaling sharply as at least five new sets of eyes marvelled at her. This was the first time the combined dojos had seen each other fight, and they wouldn’t be the first to underestimate the seemingly innocent girl.

“Alright, Y/N, I’ll take you on,” Hawk said, stepping forwards, his scar twitching as his face twisted in determination. The red haired boy climbed onto the mat, and though he would never admit it to his girlfriend, Demetri was worried for her. He knew full well what he was capable of, and he had the scar on his arm to prove it. However, the brown eyed boy was wrong to doubt, as in thirty seconds, Y/N had Eli in a pin. “I win,” The girl breathed, one of her h/c strands falling from her bun. Eli got up with a huff and walked to the edge of the mat again, taking his spot next to Demetri.

As training went on, Y/N took every student on, working her way around everyone except Demetri and every time being victorious. “Holy fuck, she is badass,” Bert breathed after being thrown to the floor less than five seconds. He was the penultimate student, and still no one had managed to beat Y/N. Demetri let out a steady breath as he knew the time had come for him to get his ass handed to him by his girlfriend, and certainly not for the first time. Hawk smirked playfully before whispering to his best friend; “If it took her thirty seconds to get me down, I reckon she’ll have you in three.” “Actually, last time it was two,” Chris chimed in, earning a playful laugh from the others which caused Demetri to blush. However, it was at this moment that Sensei LaRusso chose to step into the dojo alongside Sensei Lawrence.

“Training’s finished for today, guys,” Daniel spoke, and Demetri was hesitant to let out a sigh of relief. As much as he loved Y/N, he would rather not have his ass kicked in front of the other teens, even if she had done the same to the rest of them. “You got lucky, Met,” Chris grinned, clapping the dark haired boy on the back as they began to file out the dojo. “Great training today, guys.” The h/c haired girl smiled, though Demetri’s brown eyes caught the mischievous glint in her e/c ones, and his eyebrows raised. “Sensei, if you don’t mind, I wanna train with Demetri a little longer. We didn’t get to finish today.” As soon as those words escaped her lips, the boy knew he was screwed. “Sure thing, Y/N. Thanks for all your help. It’s good to have someone round here who knows karate but also knows what it’s like to be a teenager.” “No problem,” The girl smiled, her eyes meeting Demetri’s with a smirk. “Yeah, and it’s good to have someone round here who’s an actual badass, too,” Sensei Lawrence chimed in, earning a disapproving look from Daniel. “I”m badass as fuck, I’ll have you know,” The man argued, and Y/N chuckled, closing the dojo doors and forcing the men to take their childish bickering somewhere else.

Demetri exhaled deeply as his girlfriend turned to face him. “Didn’t think you were getting out of a fight, did you?” The girl asked with a smile, causing the boy to roll his eyes. “Gee, anyone would think my girlfriend enjoyed kicking my ass.” “Maybe I do,” Y/N grinned cheekily before pressing a chaste kiss to the tall boy’s lips. “Now come on, in your stance.” Reluctantly, Demetri planted his feet and lifted up his guard, quirking an eyebrow at the girl who adjusted her hair where it sat atop her head before saying; “Ready? Hajime.” The h/c pounced forward, throwing a kick to Demetri’s head which he barely managed to block. She then threw one, two, three consecutive punches, but the boy shielded them all. She’s going easy on me, Demetri decided as not one of her shots landed. Scoffing slightly, the dark haired boy threw a feeble punch, but it was intercepted. “Come on, Demetri. You can fight better than that.” “So can you,” He pointed out, causing Y/N to smirk. The girl threw another kick, but he blocked it with the palm of his hand and retaliated with the same kick. A stupidly predictable move, even when she was taking it easy.

Y/N caught the kick under her arm, leaving the boy fighting for balance as she rotated their stance before forcing Demetri backwards, never letting go of his leg. His back hit the wall of the dojo with a crash, and the boy winced slightly. “Oops,” The h/c said, but she didn’t seem at all apologetic. “That was technically not a karate move,” The pedantic boy pointed out as Y/N finally let his leg drop to the floor and stepped inside his guard. “Neither is this,” She whispered, taking the collar of his shirt and pulling him down into a bruising kiss. Demetri was quick to reciprocate, much happier to be kissing his girlfriend than fighting her. Y/N’s hands snaked up to the boy’s dark hair as they continued to kiss, Demetri’s back pressed against the dojo wall. His hands slotted themselves inside the gaps of the girl’s vest top, setting them on her bare waist and making her shiver. “This,” Demetri mumbled in between kisses, “Is much better than fighting.” “We both know I could still beat you at this,” Y/N responded, pulling herself even closer to the boy so that their chests were flushed together. The two continued to kiss until they heard the opening slide of the dojo door, and hurriedly jumped apart.

“What are you- really, guys?” Sensei Lawrence asked as he stood in the doorway, his eyebrows raised. “Sensei,” Y/N breathed, though it’s not like either of them could deny it with their bruised lips and Demetri’s messy hair. “I don’t wanna know,” He interrupted, before glancing at Demetri; “Good going, kid.” The boy blushed a deep red as Johnny went on. “I won’t tell Daniel if you won’t.” Both teens nodded aggressively, knowing full well how Mr LaRusso felt about kids making out in his dojo. “But if you’re gonna fuck, at least clean the mat afterwards.”

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

Any hc for (non)binary brothers

You mean like...headcanons for their relationship/Demetri and Eli in general? Sure, I’ll take a stab at this! I have a bunch of miscellaneous headcanons for them anyways and have been looking for a place to put them, may as well post them here.

Fair warning that this is a bit of a disorganized mishmash of stuff I’ve thought up for them myself, headcanons I’ve seen others in the fandom make for them, and tropes that I’ve seen in fanfic that I really liked, so I kinda stole them to add to my own personal headcanon XD I may not be able to source all of them if asked...some of them I’m like “I genuinely don’t remember where I saw that, but I HELLA liked it” lol

~Demetri is like...RIDICULOUSLY good at coding. Eli is good at it too, but Demetri basically singlehandedly carried that coding competition they won. It was really more of a 70-30 effort, but Demetri consistently gives Eli 50% of the credit to try and help him feel good about himself and his capabilities. Demetri knows he did a bit more work than Eli, but he’s never once brought it up and he doesn’t plan to.

~Demetri looooooves cats. Like...the pretentiousness? The heightened sense of self-importance? The way they’re kinda misunderstood and often disliked because they can be mean, and don’t always show affection in the way people expect? The general air of annoyance and disdain they give off??? Demetri’s just like “yep, this is my animal right here.” XD Demetri doesn’t DISLIKE dogs, but he finds they can be a bit much sometimes, and likes that cats do their own thing a lot of the time.

~After getting the Hawk moniker, Eli lowkey got SUPER into hawks and birds of prey in general. Like he started watching documentaries on them and everything, and gushing to Demetri about how badass he thought they were. It even kinda verges into special interest territory (since Hawk/Eli is canonically probably autistic), although it’s not as all-consuming as some of his other ones. Back when he and Demetri are still on good terms, in the early days of “Hawk,” Eli rambles to Demetri about hawks and other “badass” birds a LOT when they’re hanging out. Eli only does this when he’s alone with Demetri because he’s a little scared to show THAT level of enthusiasm to anyone else, considering he’s trying to be a “tough guy” now. Demetri he still feels he can essentially be all of himself with, though. Demetri finds this new raptor obsession kind of hilarious but also kind of endearing.

~Demetri has a single mom who is lowkey overprotective and ends up coddling and sheltering him a lot. Demetri’s dad left when he was little, and his mom can be a bit overbearing because Dem is all she has left of his dad, in a sense. Because of this, Demetri definitely did NOT tell his mom Eli was the one who broke his arm. He said it was “some goon” from Cobra Kai, and said Eli wasn’t even there among the group that day. He knew if his mom knew Eli broke his arm, she would NEVER let Eli near him again, and would probably get a restraining order and possibly press charges. And Demetri just...REFUSES to give up on Eli, even after everything. He figures Kreese’s brainwashing and Kyler being in Cobra Kai are already putting Eli through a special kind of hell, and he wants to protect him from having even MORE things to deal with--in this case, the wrath of Demetri’s mom. And she never finds out Eli broke his arm--Demetri takes it to the grave.

~A little while after the Christmas party, Demetri and Eli resume their weekly sleepovers and try to make up for lost time. They decide not to pull out Eli’s Waterbed from storage, considering they both have pretty unpleasant associations with the waterbed after the incident at Moon’s party. They end up just sharing Demetri’s bed, like they used to when they were little and it wasn’t “weird” yet for two boys to sleep in the same bed. Maybe it’s weird now, but they figure as long as Demetri’s mom doesn’t blab to their friends or something that they’re sharing a bed, then it’s cool. Neither has any issue at all with sharing a bed, although they caaaaaan’t quite put their finger on why that is XD

~Eli actually gets nightmares about the laser tag arm incident more often than Demetri does. The fight will play out in a thousand different ways, but it always ends the same--with Eli pinning Demetri down and snapping his arm. Worse, sometimes he’ll have dreams that he’s beating up Brucks again, and then Brucks will slowly morph into Demetri, but Eli won’t be able to stop punching. He frequently wakes up panicking and screaming and crying during his and Demetri’s sleepovers, and Demetri just holds him and sooths him and wipes his tears off and reassures him that he knows Eli’s never going to hurt him again. 

~I actually imagine it’s on a night like one of these that they first get together--Eli wakes up from another nightmare, and Demetri is just hugging him really close and trying to reassure him, and at some point, Demetri just...impulsively leans in and kisses him. They both get super flustered for a second, and then Eli leans in and kisses Demetri super fiercely and before they know it, they’re making out like there’s no tomorrow. When they have to stop for breath, they admit they’ve always liked each other and just weren’t really sure how to say it. They spoon for the rest of the night, and are pretty much officially dating after that, although they’re kinda anxious about what people will think, so they keep it on the DL at first.

~Demetri has bad dreams too, but his are usually current--e.g. Eli reveals it was All An Act and he’s been spying for Cobra Kai, and doesn’t actually give a shit about Demetri. When Demetri wakes up from these at their sleepovers, he often can’t help but shake Eli awake, and rattle off a bunch of paranoid questions--”You actually like me, right? You actually wanted to be friends again, right? You don’t think I’m annoying? You don’t secretly hate me, after everything?” And this always kind of alarms Eli at first, because of how...out-of-character it is for Demetri to be that self-conscious about what people think about him, and for him to actally...well...care if people think he’s annoying XD But after a little bit Eli just puts his hand on Demetri’s shoulders and says “Demetri, I promise I want you back in my life.” And this is usually enough to calm Demetri down, because he knows it’s genuine, just like Eli’s apology at the Christmas party was.

~Eli is really, really terrified of hurting Demetri again. Sometimes Eli gets panic attacks when he and Demetri are sparring and he hits Demetri a little too hard. Demetri’s kind of come up with a “signal” for Daniel to indicate he and Eli need to take a break. Once Daniel figures out the situation, he’s more than happy to oblige. Demetri always helps Eli through his panic attacks and reassures him that he trusts him with his life now, no matter what happened before. 

~When Johnny finds out about this, he’s actually...way more understanding than anyone expects him to be, because Kreese traumatized him when he was young, too. He just kind of sighs like “Yeah, Kreese made me do some fucked up shit too, back in the day. He’s a bastard like that. You take a 10 whenever the hell you need, Hawk.” And honestly? Demetri lowkey loves Johnny for this. This may be the turning point that finally causes Demetri to view Johnny Lawrence with something other than mild to moderate disdain XD

~Demetri often makes a point of kissing Eli’s scar and telling him he thinks it’s beautiful. Hella corny, I know, but god knows Eli needs it. He kisses it in front of their friends, too, as kind of a way to reassure Eli “hey, I’m proud to be with you in your entirety, and I’m not at all ashamed of that aspect of you, even if you still are.” Eli definitely appreciates this, but he pretends he’s embarrassed by it and will often fall into a blushing, flustered mess when Demetri kisses his scar XD

I think that’s all I’ve got for now!!! I’ll post more later if I think of them!!!

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

okay so yk how you did Demetri’a first birthday without Hawk/Eli? So just imagine his next birthday where Eli does his absolute best to try and make it the best for him. He even teams up with Sam to make it perfect. Or maybe even them having a quiet night and watching movies and holding hands the whole time. Eli def feels super bad but Dem says it’s okay.

First of all, can I just say this concept his Big Frozen Fever Energy, like with Elsa trying to give Anna a perfect birthday to make up for all the ones she missed, and I LOVE it for that???

Also YESSIR after those depressing-ass “Demetri’s birthday” asks I did, I NEED this.

I love the idea of Eli getting a reluctant Sam in on it (like, she’s all for doing another party for Demetri, but working with HAWK, the terrifying mohawk ex-Cobra Kai??? She’s...not so sure about that one) and her being both surprised and utterly EXASPERATED by how ANAL Eli turns out to be about the details. He gets Sam to commission some fancy custom baker in Receda to make a Dungeon Lord cake, and Eli provides a whole fucking instruction manual about 5 pages long and is constantly calling this poor baker’s phone to make sure every last detail is right. “Okay, but it HAS to be 4-tier, because that’s how many complete volumes there are!!! And you HAVE to make sure the reference pic you’re looking at for Lainia has her in a PURPLE cape, NOT a blue one--she only wears the blue cape during her time as The Cursed Queen, and Demetri HATES that arc. And please, you have to have Necromancer Thaddenus for the edible cutout at the top, not Wizard Thaddenus--Demetri just likes him so much better as a necromancer.” And this poor man is so stressed he considers pursuing another career besides Specialty Baking for the first time in his life XD

Then cue Eli asking Sam if her family has one of those fancy projector things that can project movies onto walls and whatnot--because hey, Sam’s rich, she probably has like...every niche, fancy piece of technology available, right? Sam’s like “why?” and Eli’s like “WE’RE. WATCHING. EVERY. SINGLE. STAR. WARS. MOVIE. In your backyard. Possibly in your pool. Because that would be awesome.” And Sam just groans because isn’t that like...9+ hours of shooty shooty spaceship laser nonsense??? Do people actually do that voluntarily??? But Eli absolutely is not budging, and far be it from Sam to turn down something that would help give Demetri the best birthday possible. And hey, she grudgingly admits, probably no one knows what Demetri wants out of a birthday party more than his childhood best friend.

And so, on his birthday, Demetri comes to his usual karate practice to find no one in the dojo...only for all the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang kids to jump out of hiding, yelling and whacking him with plastic light sabers (Eli gathered up every last one he collected as a kid and somehow found enough to distribute to the entire dojo). Eli proudly struts out with the Dungeon Lord cake (which the baker managed to get every last detail right on, by some miracle!!! The poor man is exhausted enough that he has to take the rest of the week off, though), and after some plastic light saber fencing and devouring all of that specialty cake in minutes, the kids all settle into Sam’s backyard and proceed to have the kind of Star Wars pool party that Demetri has only ever dared to fantasize about.

There may or may not be some dueling with pool noodles involved. Also, said dueling may or may not lead to Hawk pinning Demetri up against the side of the pool, and them both just smiling and laughing and feeling lighter than they have in ages. And then Demetri just kind of leans in and whispers “Did you really plan all this?” because...who else could possibly know him well enough to? And Hawk smiles--a little uncharacteristically meekly--and says “Uh...consider it an apology for being, ah...MIA last year. That was shitty of me. I’m always going to be here from now on. I hope this is enough to make it up to you.” And Demetri gets this GIANT grin on his face like “Man, are you KIDDING?!? This is the BEST birthday I’ve ever HAD!” And Hawk beams, and he can’t help himself--he wraps his arms around Dem’s neck and pulls him down into the pool, kissing him full on the mouth underwater. It’s...a lot less hot and romantic than it looked in Hawk’s head, and they both come up spluttering and coughing a few seconds later, but they’re also giggling like giddy idiots and splashing each other and feeling like everything is going to turn out fine for the first time in a long while.

But years later, if you ask Demetri what he remembers the most about his 18th birthday, it isn’t Star Wars on the wall of Sam’s garage, or fencing with plastic light sabers and pool noodles, or the elaborate Dungeon Lord cake, or even the failed underwater kiss. It’s the fact that Eli hasn’t missed a single one of his birthdays since.