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Eli isn't necessarily nervous about dinner. He's just… anxious.
It won't be the first time he's had dinner at the Diaz household, by far. He's also had dinner with Johnny a few times in a large group over the last couple years or so.
But this is as close to a meet the parents dinner as it gets in this situation.
Then Eli remembers he'll need to officially meet Robby's mom too, and groans. At least she called him "the cute one" one time when she was at the LaRusso's during a big dojo dinner. That's gotta be a good thing, right, maybe. Eli sighs, getting out of his car and straightening his shirt.
"Cool cool, this is cool." Eli mutters to himself as he turns the corner and almost physically runs into Johnny. "Shit, shit, I mean… "
"Hawk, are you talking to yourself?" He narrows his eyes at his student.
"Nope." Eli answers, following when Johnny turns and starts back to the apartment from where he'd been taking out the trash. "Why would I, uh- I wouldn't-"
"Carmen! Look who I dug outta the trash." Johnny says, walking in the open front door and smirking over his shoulder.
"Johnny!" Carmen gasps and glares at her partner as she sees Eli waving happily over Johnny's shoulder.
"I'm just messing with him!" The blonde man shushes her outrage with a kiss and then washes his hands.
Eli is surprised to see something as basic as Johnny washing his hands. He doesn't think he's ever seen his sensei do that.
"Carmen, hey! It smells great in here. How can I help? You need me to set the table?" Eli talks at the speed of light, not allowing an answer to any of the questions as he asks.
"Why are you acting weird?" Johnny's eyes narrow as he nods at Eli.
" Johnny ." Carmen hisses and swats at her partner. "Hawk is being perfectly polite as always. Now, you finish setting the table. Hawk, you just go visit with the boys. They're in Miguel's room."
Eli nods as Johnny just shakes his head in amusement and does as he's asked.
Robby and Miguel are sitting on the floor in Miguel's room, looking through a box of comics. Eli walks in and sits on the bed and looks down at the box.
"Whatcha doin?" He asks, and they finally look up.
"Hey babe." Robby beams and gets up to sit next to Eli and kiss him in greeting. "Your hair looks nice. You're getting better at that whole non-mohawk hairstyling."
Eli beams at his boyfriend who leans in to kiss him again.
"No making out on my bed." Miguel swats Eli's knee. " I haven't even made out with someone on my bed."
"Well now that's just sad." Robby snorts and leans back in and kisses Eli again, probably mostly to annoy Miguel.
Eli pulls away any looks at the open door.
"Come on." Eli huffs out a laugh. "Someone could walk in."
"Oh yeah, so it's okay to subject me to this, but you'll spare my family." Miguel mumbles from the carpet, still flipping through the box.
Robby grabs Eli's jaw firmly and stares at him with curious, searching eyes.
"Oh my god, are you nervous ?" Robby says finally, his eyes going wide with surprise. "About dinner ? At Miguel's ?"
"Ooooh, man." Miguel laughs, not even looking up. "Hawk, nervous about dinner with the family. Never thought I'd see the day. You must have it bad."
"Shut up, man." Eli kicks Miguel's arm gently. "I just wanna make a good impression. What's wrong with that?"
Robby looks at him in disbelief.
"When we met ? You dislocated my shoulder ." Robby blinks slowly at his boyfriend of just a week and a half, as if he's not sure what's wrong with him.
Johnny appears in the doorway, sipping on a beer.
"Man, I forgot about that." Johnny frowns at Eli with narrowed eyes, looking between him and his son. "Hmm… Foods ready. Up and at 'em."
He disappears down the hall again and Eli squeezes Robby's thigh gently.
"Oh my god , why??" He sobs and then falls back onto Miguel's bed, covering his face with his hands.
"Babe, it's fine. It's just my dad. He can't judge you for something he pretty much encouraged." Robby rolls his eyes and turns to lean down and kiss Eli's chin, the only part of his face available for kisses. He slides a hand under the hem of Eli's nice, plain henley, the one from New Year's, and rubs his abdomen soothingly. "Just relax. It's just dinner at Miguel's, dude. No big deal."
"Literally." Miguel groans as he stands up from the floor. "Stop doing that on my bed and let's go eat."
Robby helps Eli up and they walk hand in hand down the hall after Miguel.
The table looks beautiful, and Eli asks why Rosa isn't joining them, and finds she's got bridge night with her friends.
"This is incredible, Carmen." Eli smiles at the always overwhelmingly kind mother of his close friend after taking a couple bites. "Thanks for having me over again. You guys always make the best dinners."
"Starting to think that's why you wanted to date me." Robby jokes, taking a sip of water. "Y'know, since I practically live here now."
"Shush, Robby, don't be silly." Carmen scolds him jokingly. "Hawk, you're always welcome here. You've been such a good friend to my Miggy. We love having you."
"Okay, can we tone it down?" Miguel laughs, spearing a little fried potato patty on his fork and holding it up. "This conversation is cheesier than my llapingachos."
"Is that what these are called?" Johnny speaks through a mouth full of the small potato and cheese cake. He's holding another one in his hand as he chews the one he just ate. "These are incredible. Did you try this?"
Johnny looks at an amused Eli and Robby.
"Uh, I'm lactose intolerant." Eli smiles at Carmen and the woman winks at him knowingly. "That's actually one of the reasons I like Ecuadorian food. There's a lot of it that uses no dairy."
"That's fine." Robby smirks. "More for me."
"So, Hawk." Johnny takes another sip of beer. "Where you going to college?"
Everyone at the table looks at Johnny in surprise, and Eli freezes for the first time since they dug into their food.
"Um, I'm still-"
"What the hell, sensei?" Miguel cuts him off before he can answer that he's still waiting to hear from schools. "You don't even talk to me about college, why do you care where Hawk is going?"
"Uhh, aren't I supposed to be making sure my son isn't dating a slacker?" Johnny makes an exasperated face back at Miguel. "Plus, I know exactly where you applied. Your mom told me everything."
Miguel just arches an eyebrow and angrily eats his stew.
"He wants to go to Berkeley." Robby finally speaks up, not looking up from his plate as he does. "He should find out in a month or less."
"Uh- Well, no, I- I'm open to UCLA, too!" Eli rushes the words out, his fingers itching to reach out for Robby, place a hand on his knee, anything . But he does know how to do that without being too obvious. So he turns to Carmen with a smile. "If Miguel gets into Stanford, it'd be cool to be near him, but… I'd also like to stay home. I think it'd be hard to leave… this behind, y'know."
"Well, I hope you get into whichever you decide you want to go to." Carmen grins at him, looking pleased with his answer.
"Huh." Johnny looks at Eli with another assessing gaze. "Didn't know you were as nerdy as these other kids. You get like… straight A's and stuff too?"
"Sensei, Hawk had a 5.0 GPA this semester." Miguel snorts.
Eli shakes his head at that.
"My overall is in the super low 4s, though. If I hadn't slacked off when I joined Cobra Kai, it would've been better. That's why I'm not sure I'll get into Berkeley. The architecture program is pretty competitive." Eli shrugs, looking down and remembering how disappointed he was when he had to drop a course because Cobra Kai got in the way.
Johnny leans over and whispers loudly to Carmen.
"Did you know that it went higher than 4?"
Everyone laughs at that and Carmen reaches over and rubs Johnny on the back.
Eli smiles sheepishly over at Miguel who grins back at him. Eli feels a hand on his thigh, just above his knee and his smile grows wider. He sets down his fork and slips his hand below the table to put it on top of Robby's squeezing lightly.
They stay that way until it's time to clear the dishes and Johnny insists he'll take care of everything and sends the three boys away across the courtyard to where Robby (and usually Miguel) spends most of his time.
"Well, that wasn't so painful." Miguel slaps Eli on the back forcefully.
"Yeah, I know." Eli shrugs, fingers tangled with Robby's as the resident of the apartment lets them all inside. "I know it was stupid to be nervous, I just… I never met Moon's parents, really. Other than in passing, that is. It just felt important."
"Awwww." Miguel teases them, immediately going to get a Gatorade from the fridge. "You guys wanna watch some Daredevil with me or you gonna be lame and make out the whole time?"
"What if we were lame and made out half of the time." Robby counters with an eyebrow wag.
"Nah, we'll be good, I promise." Eli chuckles and looks for the remote on the couch.
"Yeah, I'm leaving for Sam's in a bit anyway, you'll have plenty of time to make out somewhere that isn't right next to me." Miguel bats his eyelashes at them as he takes the single seat across from the TV.
"Oh yeah?" Eli nodding at him, a bit pf a serious face on. "How's that going? You two okay?"
"Arguing about colleges a lot." Miguel sighs. "Other than that, we're doing really well. Just a rough waiting period to see if we stand a chance at being near each other next year, y'know?"
"Found it," Robby says, a little too loudly, as he comes back from where he'd gone to find the remote in his dad's room. He tosses the remote to Eli who puts on the show where the three of them had left off last time.
Eli appreciates how well Miguel had taken the change from them all being three really close friends to Eli and Robby being together. He's their biggest supporter, probably because he's a hopeless romantic, but Eli is glad that he hadn't gotten in the way of the new brother-like relationship that Miguel and Robby have built up.
They watch in silence most of the episode and then there's a reactionary chorus of gasps at the end and suddenly they're arguing animatedly over what just happened.
"Ugh, sorry, I gotta head out guys." Miguel says finally, getting up and pocketing his phone and keys. He nods at Eli "You staying over? Wanna go get breakfast?"
"Maybe." Eli shrugs, not having discussed that with Robby at all. "I'll text you."
Miguel waves and shuts the door behind him, and Eli bites his lip as he turns to Robby.
They've spent the night together before, on New Year's, but that feels different for some reason. Eli doesn't know if he should ask or if that would be rushing it. They haven't really done anything other than kiss yet, and he doesn't really know what to do, because he's only been with Moon and they didn't do all that much together that would help him know what to do with a guy.
"You can if you want to." Robby interrupts Eli's internal freak out and reaches out to trace the shell of Eli's ear with his thumb. "Stay over, I mean."
"Oh." Eli nods, not sure what to read from that. "Yeah, okay. Your dad won't mind?"
Robby snorts and shakes his head.
"Nah. He likes you. He's trying to pretend he doesn't, but he really does like you. Thinks you're the coolest kid in Miyagi-Fang, for sure." Robby smirks. "Little does he know you're the lamest."
Eli grins back and leans in to kiss Robby, playfully proving him wrong in his joking assessment of how awesome he is.
When they tire of kissing for the moment, they settle in for a movie, Robby with his feet propped up on the coffee table at the end of the sofa and Eli laying across the sofa with his head propped up on Robby's lap. It's some Ryan Reynolds movie with Samuel L Jackson, so it's actually pretty funny and they're both too distracted to hear Robby's phone buzzing on the kitchen table.
They do hear the quick sharp knock on the door and frown at each other before it opens and Johnny is peeking his head inside.
Eli picks his head up and looks at Johnny slowly walking in and shutting the door behind himself.
"Did you just knock on your own apartment door?" Eli laughs and sets his head back down, focusing back on the movie.
"Yeah, well, Robby didn't answer my text and I didn't wanna walk in on any funny business." Johnny makes a face and waves in their direction.
"Oh my god, Sensei, I wouldn't… what? " Eli laughs and sits up, looking between Robby and his father.
"Uh-huh, well… if there's one thing I've known about my kid for a while, it's that he would . And I'd like to never experience that again. It was bad enough when I busted up that house party at your mom's old apartment and caught you having a three-"
"Holy shit, Dad." Robby seethes and then puts a hand over his face, clearly frustrated. "Why would you say that? Just stop talking ."
Johnny holds up his hands in surprise.
"Geez. Fine. I'm just here to grab a couple things and then I'll be next door the rest of the night if you need me."
Robby scrubs his face and then sighs, looking at the hallway with defeat.
Eli stares at him and then reaches for the remote to pause the movie. Once it's paused, Eli leans in and kisses his boyfriend soft and quick, and pulls away to see if it's helped ease the tension that had built in the past couple minutes.
"Gonna grab a water. Want one?" Eli asks, but Robby just gives a half smile and shakes his head.
Johnny passes through again, shouting something about not buying condoms at the liquor store of Lankershim before shutting the door behind him. Leaving for the night.
" Jesus ."
Eli turns at Robby's hiss and sees him hunched over with his forehead in his hands.
"Hey. Robby." Eli sets the water on the coffee table. He pushes Robby's shoulder until he's sitting back on the couch again. Eli smiles at him and climbs into the shorter man's lap, framing his face with large bony hands. "You're upset at what your fuckin' dad says? Since when?"
"Since he thinks it's funny to call me out in front of my new boyfriend." Robby grunts and shuts his eyes, resting his hands on Eli's hips. "I guess I can't say I haven't been like that, in the past."
Eli waits for him to open his eyes again, but he doesn't so Eli leans in and kisses the crinkles at the corners of his eyes that he's keeping shut in almost a wince.
"Robby, that's not going to make me look at you any different." Eli frowns. He slides off Robby's lap and sits back down on the cushion next him, still angled to face him.
"I dunno." Robby opens his eyes and gives Eli a doubtful look. He bites at his thumbnail like he does when he's anxious. "This is gonna sound stupid cause y'know… the tattoos and hair. But you just… you seem very traditional . It was surprising enough to me that you liked guys-"
"I like you , Robby." Eli cuts him off and brings their joined hands up to kiss the back of the brunette's knuckles. "I like everything about you. And I'm not traditional , I'm just sheltered. I mean, my rebel phase was karate and warm beers ."
Robby has enough of his humor back that he manages to laugh at that, which encourages Eli to go am with their first semi-serious relationship talk.
"And sure it's sort of intimidating that you're experienced, but I mean, Moon had dated a couple guys before me. That didn't bother me at all."
"Okay, yeah." Robby scoffs and looks up at Eli through his lashes. "I don't think you need me to give you a number, but it's not a couple people."
"I get it." Eli gives him a soft smile. "Just means you should be a pro right? At all the things where I have no fucking clue what I'm doing. I'll be learning from the best."
Robby rolls his eyes but relaxes a little more at the joking attitude his boyfriend seems to have about their difference in experience.
"Don't get too excited." Robby gives into it easily when Eli leans in for another quick, sweet kiss. "I think my favorite thing about being with you is that I've never felt more… content. I like that nothing feels pressured or rushed with you."
"That's good." Eli smiles, giving him a couple more kisses before snuggling into his side. "I want you to be content. Maybe we aim for happy next. Go big or go home."
Robby laughs loudly and pinches the back of Eli's arm, earning an unhappy noise from the face tucked into his neck.
"I am happy, that's not what I meant." Robby sighs exaggeratedly.
Eli nods against his shoulder.
"I know. I know exactly what you meant."
"Wanna finish the movie?" Robby rubs Eli's back and kisses his ear, the only place he can reach like this.
"Mm, yeah. I wanna see how they rescue Salma Hayek." Eli mumbles pulling away so he can scoot over and settle his head back down in Robby's lap. "How is she so hot for an old lady?"
Robby laughs and unpauses the film, his hand settling back in Eli's barely starched waves atop his head.
"I should wear my hair like this more often. That feels nice." Eli hums and looks up at Robby.
"You wear your hair however you want, babe." Robby smiles down at him. "I always thought you were gorgeous every way you wore your hair, even if I hated you at the time."
Eli snorts and looks back at the TV. His heart beats hard at the teasing words and the earnest truth in them, but he forces himself to focus on the movie and just enjoy this perfect moment together.
"Thanks, baby."