Mackenzie had never been more grateful to have the single room out of the three girls—even if it was given to her out of pity.

She did not want to have to explain to Devon or Sam why she was bringing the Iron Dragons male captain up to her room.

So when they got to her hotel room after their walk on the beach, Mackenzie pressed her key card to the door and happily swung the door open, throwing her arms out to show the room off. "Welcome to my humble abode!" Mackenzie cheered, walking toward her bathroom for makeup wipes as Axel slowly followed her in.

There was nothing special about her room, all of the rooms in the hotel were the exact same, but Axel's eyes still scanned the room.

She didn't unpack. Instead, Mackenzie kept everything in her open suitcase in the corner of the room. She had her makeup bag and hair tools in the bathroom and on one of the beds—the one on the far side of the room—was the hammerhead shark Axel had offered to her when they first met at the aquarium.

Axel headed toward Mackenzie's bed, noticing the other one was more ruffled and unmade than hers. As he sat down at the foot of her bed, he noticed the time on the corner of the hotel tv.

He would still probably be training right now if Mackenzie hadn't found him at the beach. Which meant it was still earlier enough for Mackenzie to be out at the tapas bar with the rest of her team.

Axel looked to his left, watching Mackenzie as she wiped off her makeup. He didn't think she needed it. Watching her take off her makeup, Axel thought she was absolutely beautiful. Axel smiled at the sight of her—he couldn't really control it. He fell back into the bed, his head softly hitting the comforter beneath him.

When Mackenzie finished wiping off her makeup, she walked back into the room. She chuckled at how quickly Axel got comfortable in her room and tried her hardest to look away from him and ignore the smile on his face as he watched her.

"It's still pretty early. Why did you leave the bar so soon?" Axel asked, staying put on the bed. His eyes stayed on Mackenzie as she sat down next to him, staying sitting up instead of laying back.

Her head lolled back tiredly as she sighed. Axel could see the way her entire body slumped at the action, like all the tension was finally leaving her body now that she was in her room.

"I just..." She tried to find the right words and ended up shaking her head and restarting her sentence. "It's hard to have fun with everything happening." Mackenzie admitted and Axel finally noticed that after she had sighed, a frown took over her face.

Axel's eyebrows punched together and he sat up to be on his elbows, staring at the side of Mackenzie's face. "You mean the competition?" He asked before he scoffed and shrugged his shoulders. "You were telling me earlier to focus on stuff outside of karate." Although his words were accusing, Axel's tone was soft and confused by what Mackenzie had meant.

A downturned smile tugged at the corners of Mackenzie's lips and Axel's teasing grin shifted. His face fell as he watched Mackenzie looked down at her hands and scratch her palm so hard, it started to become red. Like some sort of tick.

"It's not the competition." She whispered just barely loud enough for Axel to hear.

Axel's eyebrows furrowed together and he adjusted in his spot on the bed to see Mackenzie better. His head tilted watching the blonde. "What is it?"

Mackenzie felt a pit in her stomach as she realized what she had just walked herself into. One side told her to open up—it's not like she's gotten the chance to talk about it with the rest of the team or her mom—and the other side told her to just keep holding it in.

But she wants to talk about it. Mackenzie's been needing to talk about what happened. It was practically eating her alive. So with a defeated sigh, Mackenzie pushed away that gut sinking feeling and kept talking about her feelings for once in her life.

"Just... had a tough week before coming out here." Mackenzie answered and took a deep breath to ease the burn starting to crawl its way up her throat. She knew Axel would ask her to elaborate on why she had a tough week and with a shaky breath, Mackenzie continued, her head dropped low as if she was embarrassed. "My... my mom died a week ago today."

Axel felt like he had been punched in the gut. He suddenly felt like an asshole for asking Mackenzie to keep talking if she didn't want to. He blinked, almost as if it would bring him back to some reality he didn't think he was in anymore and opened and closed his mouth.

It took around five seconds for him to words. He pushed himself to sit up completely and gently reached out to touch her shoulder. "Macken—"

"She was getting better." Mackenzie interrupted and Axel's hand shot away from her as if she were on fire, but his eyes stayed glued into her. Listening.

"My sister and I..." Mackenzie paused and looked back at Axel from over her shoulder. "Tory." She clarified and Axel nodded along, allowing Mackenzie to continue. "We were told she was getting better, but..."

Mackenzie's words died out as they came up her throat. It didn't take a genius to know what happened next. Axel's face somehow fell lower and he gnawed on the inside of his cheek as he watched Mackenzie take a deep breath to control herself—to control her emotions.

It took her a couple of seconds to regain some of her composure. She couldn't look Axel in the eyes anymore—scared she'd lose control of her emotions and start crying in front of a boy she hardly knew about issues that weren't his.

"I'm here for her." Mackenzie's voice shook a little at the start of her sentence, but she physically forced herself not to let her voice crack by the end of it. "I did this for her. She would've loved to see me and Tory on tv. Even if I don't win." She finished with a simple shrug.

Her fingers nervously traced the edge of her bedsheets, not wanting to look up and see the pity eyes Axel was most likely giving her. She didn't want pity, she didn't need it. And surprisingly, she didn't feel it.

Axel watched her. But not out of pity. In his eyes, he thought she was one of the bravest people he's met for going so far from home after a tragic event like that. He admired her. He looked at her as if she hung the stars and moon as he nodded his head just once.

"Tell me about her."

Mackenzie almost didn't hear him. She finally turned her head to look at him, her eyebrows furrowed and her face scrunched in confusion.

"What?" Mackenzie asked, but Axel only reached out to grab Mackenzie's arm. His thumb gently traced her wrist and Mackenzie unknowingly leaned into his touch, making her fall back into the bed with him and finally lay down.

When she was eye to eye with Axel, the boy gave her a soft smile.

"Tell me about your mother."

So Mackenzie did just that. She spent the next hour talking about her mom. First, they were funny stories that made the two of them laugh. But as the stories continued, Mackenzie's mood got dimmer and dimmer until she was tearing up talking about her mom showing up to her middle school play she had already told Mackenzie she wasn't gonna make it to.

By the end of the stories, Mackenzie was crying in Axel's arms. It wasn't her best moment considering she had just met the boy, but she couldn't help it. Talking to Axel felt comfortable and safe. It felt as if she had known him for years.

Mackenzie didn't even realize she had fallen asleep in Axel's arms until she woke up the next morning. Her words died out until her shoulder flopped onto Axel's shoulder and then, she was out cold. Luckily, throughout their conversation, Mackenzie and Axel had moved to lay back in Mackenzie's bed, their backs leaned up against the headboard so all Axel had to dow was lay Mackenzie down into the pillow before laying down beside her and falling asleep.

When Mackenzie woke in the morning, her eyes opened and closed trying to adjust to the sun beaming back at her. Glowing from the bright sunlight was the outline of Axel laying beside her in the bed.

He was already awake, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes when his head turned to face Mackenzie. Immediately, Axel smiled to the girl, still rubbing his eyes. "Good morning."

Mackenzie smiled up at the boy and the rasp in his morning voice as she turned onto her side to face him. "Morning." She hummed quieter, her voice physically not being able to get any louder.

She stared at Axel. He was lying on her bed, long limbs stretched out, one hand tucked behind his head as the other moved to lazily drape over his stomach. His eyes were on her. He looked amused and maybe a little dazed. His mouth curled into a tiny, lopsided smile.

Mackenzie stopped mid-wiping her eyes from sleep and turned her whole body to look at him, groaning. "What? Is there something on my face?"

Axel blinked slowly, still smiling and not even trying to hide that he was staring at her. "Did you know you have a Valley Girl accent?"

Mackenzie ripped her hand away from her face as her eyebrows scrunched together, looking at him as if he had three heads. "What"

He sat up and propped himself up on one elbow so he could face her completely as he gave her a teasing grin. "You sound like you just walked out of that movie with the girl in yellow..." Axel paused, looking down at the mattress as he squinted and snapped, trying to think of the movie title.

"What's it called..." He muttered to himself before his entire face lit up like a lightbulb going off in his head. Axel looked back up to Mackeznie with a snap of his fingers and pointed to the blonde. "Clueless!" He cheered with a small laugh. When it started to die off, Axel still kept his eyes on Mackenzie with a single eyebrows raised. "I think I heard you say 'like, totally' ten times since last night."

Mackenzie pressed her lips together tightly to hold back a smile. She had a valley girl accent. She knew that, she just didn't want other people to call her out on it.

But when she felt her laughter beating her in this fight, Mackenzie rolled her eyes and raised her hand to wave Axel off.

Before her hand could even get halfway through the motion, Axel's hand shot out and caught her wrist.

Everything after that happened too fast to process after that. Suddenly she was falling back onto the bed with a surprised yelp. Axel followed, rolling to the side and landing above her with his hands braced on either side of her head, Mackenzie's hand he had grabbed laying underneath his right one, their finger laced together.

They both froze. It was like they were both kicked in the gut. All of the air left their lungs and Mackenzie's free hand curled slightly into the comforter, her chest rising and falling faster than it had a second ago. Axel stayed hovering over her like he wasn't quite sure how it happened either.

His eyes scanned over Mackenzie's face, tracing every single inch of it in case he is never this close to her again. Her cheeks, her eyelashes, the small scar she has underneath her left that she got from the school fight.

"You look so beautiful." Axel whispered. Mackenzie was only able to hear him so clearly because they were just inches away from each other.

Mackenzie tried to act like the compliment didn't affect her. She scoffed and rolled her eyes, forcing herself to look away from the boy above her.

"Do you flirt with everyone you spar with?" She teased, her eyebrows raised and a nervous giggle rising up her throat that she fought hard to keep down.

Axel blinked, his eyebrows lifting as his eyes doubled in size comically. "You call this sparring? We're on your bed!" Axel shrieked with a loud laugh, making her snort, laughter finally breaking through her throat.

Axel laughed along with Mackenzie, softer than her. His head dipped down, his forehead meeting the soft spot just below her collarbone. As their laughter died down slowly, and once it did their smiles faltered and the air grew thick all over again again just how close they actually were. Axel's arms still boxed Mackenzie in—not that she was complaining.

Axel couldn't fight himself for long before he looked down at her lips. Mackenzie could've sworn her heart stopped and suddenly, her own gaze dropped too. Just for a second, but Axel saw it just out of the corner of his eyes. He looked back into Mackenzie's eyes, feeling a tug in his stomach like a magnet drawing him to her watching the way she looked down at his lips.

When Mackeznie looked back up into Axel's eyes, her own eyes fluttered shut when she saw he was moving in closer.

Their eyes closed and their noses grazed. Mackenize could feel Axel's arms on either side of her, keeping her caged in and Axel could feel the small, hitched breath of air that left Mackenzie's lips.

Mackenzie could've sworn she felt Axel's lips finally start to press against hers, but just before she could really really tell, a loud knock pounded against her hotel room door.

Axel and Mackenzie flew apart like the other was on fire. Axel scrambled backward, running a hand through his hair and avoiding her eyes, while Mackenzie sat up quickly, brushing her fingers through her hair to try and detangle her hair.

"Emergency! Emergency! Kenz! Open up!"

Mackenzie rolled her eyes at Demetri's voice. She threw her head back and groaned. "I'm gonna kill him one day." She grumbled to herself, pushing off the bed and heading toward the door.

As she grabbed onto the door handle, Mackenzie looked back to the beds and noticed Axel laying on hers still. His eyes stared Mackenzie down nervously, his cheeks pink as his mind replayed the fact that the two of them almost kissed just seconds ago.

And as much as Mackenzie wanted to think about that too, she knew that the biggest blabber-mouth in the Valley was standing just on the other side of the door and if he saw Axel, the captain of one of the opposing teams, in Mackenzie's room, he'd tell the rest of the team faster than Mackenzie could threaten him.

"Go hide!" She whisper yelled, waving her hand around to gesture to Axel to hide.

Axel's eyes somehow grew wider and without saying anything, he shot out of Mackeznie's head and moved to the other side of it, crouching down and hiding behind it.

Mackenzie waited a good five seconds just incase Axel readjusted and made his presence known before she opened the door.

When she did, Mackenzie barely opened the door, only being able to fit her frame through the space. Her head rest against the door as she looked up at a flushed and sweaty Demetri.

"What do you want, Demetri?" Mackenzie asked with an annoyed sigh that Demetri took as her just being tired.

Demetri looked her up and down and his eyebrows furrowed when he realized she was still wearing her same clothes from the night before. "You're still in your clothes from last night?" He asked softly. He looked back up into her eyes, his head tilting like a confused dog. "Are you that hungover?"

Mackenzie didn't answer Demetri. She only opened the door a little wider so he could see her hand fall onto her hip, testing him.

Demetri got the hint and rolled his eyes. "Do you not look at your texts anymore? We've gotta go! Come on!" Demetri groaned. He didn't let Mackenzie respond, he didn't let her check her phone to see what he was talking about, he didn't even let her change. Demetri grabbed Mackenzie's hand and yanked her out of her room.

Leaving Axel in there all alone.

...

Mackenzie didn't really know what to expect when she walked into the hotel room for the team meeting. Maybe it was an intervention to get the team to stop arguing all the time, maybe it was to welcome Kenny to the team since he would be replacing Miguel, or maybe it was to tell them all Tory had finally left Cobra Kai and was joining Miyagi-Do.

What Mackenzie didn't expect to hear was that Silver was back and in charge of the Iron Dragons.

She felt sick to her stomach. The second Daniel said the man's name, Mackenzie was just about ready to run to the bathroom and hurl, but Demetri's arm that moved around her the second they heard "Silver" kept her grounded.

Mackenzie honestly stopped listening after that. It was as if her hearing dulled. She didn't start paying attention to the conversation again until the hotel room door bursted open and Johnny, Miguel, and Kenny walked in.

"We're back, bitches, eager to kick ass. Who's ready to win this thing?" Johnny yelled, making Mackenzie's head snap to the doorway. When no one matched his enthusiasm, his face fell. "What crawled up everyone's butts?"

Daniel sighed. He turned to Chozen beside him and the man nodded his head. Daniel turned back to Johnny, he and Chozen walking toward him. "Let's talk outside." Daniel muttered, nodding his head toward the hallway.

Confused, Johnny nodded and followed the two men out. Once the door closed behind their sensei's, Miguel and Kenny walked further into the room.

Mackenzie fell back into the mattress with a tired huff. The mattress flopped beneath her weight, making Demetri look back at her and frowned.

"You okay?" Demetri asked as he moved to lay back with Mackenzie in the bed. His arms folded over his chest as his eyebrows raised watching the girl.

Mackenzie nervously gnawed at her lip, keeping her eyes ahead of her. "Yeah, it's just... I feel a little sick now." She murmured, her hands sliding over her stomach as she cringed. "Knowing Silver's back, you know? He never got over me switching sides after he took me under his wing." Her voice was quiet as she spoke and even though the conversation also caught Sam and Eli's attention, she didn't look anyone in the eyes.

Demetri sighed, scooting closer to Mackenzie and wrapping an arm around her shoulder. He pulled her into his side—a little more aggressively than Mackenzie would've liked—but she was used to it with Demetri. He never really knew his strength since joining karate from what Mackenzie's realized.

"He's not gonna hurt you, Kenz." Demetri reassured into her ear and Makenzie smiled at his words, getting comfortable into his side. "Yeah." She whispered back to him. Demetri smiled triumphantly. He looked away from Mackenzie and ahead of him.

Across the room, Kenny was talking and laughing with Devon. The smile on Demetri's face slowly started to fall as his lips parted in confusion. He looked around the room, hoping to see anyone else confused like him over Kenny being there considering Miguel was back, but everyone seemed so... calm.

He looked to Sam standing at the edge of the bed on his right, her eyes on Mackenzie beside him. "Hey, Sam?" Demetri asked, making the brunette look away from Mackenzie in his arms and look into Demetri's eyes. Her eyebrows raised as if to ask, "yeah?" and Demetri's eyebrows only furrowed more. "If Miguel's back, why is Kenny here?"

Sam opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, Eli, who sat in front of Mackenzie at the foot of the bed, perked up and jumped in. "Oh, Devon gave him her spot."

That made Makenzie and Demerti shot up out of their comfortable positions on the bed, sitting up to stare at Sam and Eli with furrowed eyebrows. "What? Why?" Mackenzie asked and she immediately noticed the way Eli had to hold back snickering.

He looked back to Devon and Kenny, making sure they weren't listening before he turned back to Demetri and Mackenzie. Eli leaned forward, his smirk getting bigger the more he got closer to them and further from the younger two.

"Devon's the one that put the laxatives in his water." Eli giggled out, scooting to sit closer to Mackenzie.

The blonde's eyes widened, her jaw dropping as her eyes moved behind Eli to see Devon and Kenny laughing as if nothing had happened. From beside her, Demetri blinked, looking back and forth between Eli and Sam as if to silently ask if it was true. When the both of them only nodded, Demetri started to sputter.

"So he just forgave her all of a sudden? After what she did? I don't buy it!" He whispered in a shocked grumble.

Mackenzie's eyebrows raised sarcastically, finally looking away from Kenny and Devon to look at Demetri. "You forgave Hawk right away after he broke your arm..." She muttered, earning a smack on each arm—one from Eli and one from Demetri.

"That's different." The two of them grumbled at the same time. Mackenzie practically jumped at how in sync the boys were. They both looked to her, pointed to her like a reprimanding parent as they spoke, then turned back to each other. Honestly, Mackenzie was a little frightened.

Demetri turned back to Sam as if Mackenzie hadn't spoken at all. His face fell and he let out a small sigh in disappointment as one of his hands reached out to rest on Sam's shoulder almost sympathetically.

"Sam, as our only captain without a soft spot for Kenny, I feel obligated to inform you that we may have a potential traitor in our midst." Demetri whispered quietly enough for her, Mackenzie, and Eli to hear, but not loud enough for Kenny and Devon to hear from six feet away.

Mackenzie frowned hearing that. While she was in Cobra Kai, she had gotten pretty close to the younger boy. She really didn't see him ever becoming a traitor against them, even after what happened with the laxatives.

Her eyes softened as she looked up to Demetri, shaking her head. "We can't go jumping to conclusions. He just got here." Mackenzie whispered, making Demetri finally turn back to her.

Demetri's accusing look faltered seeing Mackenzies saddened one. He knew Mackenzie was close with Kenny, but Demetri also knew not to believe Silver didn't have any tricks up his sleeve. He had to be prepared for anything.

But he also didn't want his friend to freak out. So he shook his head and shrugged his shoulder almost as if to defend himself and backtrack. "I'm not saying it's happened yet. All I'm saying we know that Silver's gonna cheat and you would be too anxious to take the bait—"

Mackenzie didn't take any offense to Demetri's words. If Silver did come to her asking to switch sides, she would think it was a trap. Some way to keep her locked away and punished for ever switching sides on him. Her lips parted in a slow realization that if she won't take the bait, someone else might as Demetri turned to look at Sam and Eli across from them.

"So if Kenz won't... who else would?"

emily speaks...
BIG DAY FOR MAXEL FANSSSS(which i hope... all of you are???)

this chapter was very cutesy minus the sadness in it i loved getting to incorporate the fact that miyagi-do canonically have valley accents because i am cursed with the same accent and i want them all to have little valley girl accents with me

next chapter is ALL fighting😒but it's almost done (don't quote me on that i haven't touch that chapter in a bit and might be remembering wrong) and hopefully it'll be out soon!!

for this fic to technically only be ten episodes long i really am taking my sweet ass time with it my bad guys😓but tysm for you patience and love!! i'll see you guys soon💗