#Bobby’s the one that first realizes he’s trying to get Johnny to leave Cobra Kai—to leave /them/ | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

valleykarate · 2 months ago

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if robby wants to avoid this part of reseda for as long as he lives, johnny genuinely wouldn't blame him in the slightest. his son just went through something severely traumatizing as finding his ex-friend... wait, correction: current boyfriend, bleeding to death on this very fucking floor. are they putting labels on that relationship? he’d read on the googles that sometimes people call their boyfriends or girlfriends partners ( maybe he should ask wade or vanessa about that later. ) ethan’d barely tried dragging himself away before giving up, resigning himself to his slow agonizing death. he thinks, a little hysteric.

sudden tears sting in his eyes. he forces them away before robby can see them. he can’t start fucking crying right now. he needs to be there for robby. his son comes first. he hasn't been there for him in the past. he needs to be there for him now, especially because of everything.

but if robby hadn’t been at the dojo… wade & vanessa would be burying their son right now. dami & talia would be burying their brother. miguel, seth, hawk, chase, gray, emma, courtney & sam—everyone—would have lost their friend. & robby… jesus christ. where the fuck would ethan’s death have led him? down some kind of darker path no one would be able to pull him out of, no doubt. johnny hates thinking about it. it makes him both hysterical & nauseous.

speaking of you, he had seen stopped by to see you one final time before the all valley, clad in his eagle fang gi. you were alone in your room, staring out the window. you’d jumped when he’d entered, heart rate monitor beeping loudly. you had been crying, knees drawn up to your chest, alone with nothing but your spiraling thoughts to keep you company. but when johnny had entered, you’d put on a small smile. he knew it was bullshit because you still had tears in your eyes, the barest hint of being strained. he didn’t ask how you were because that would have been stupid—clearly, you’re not fine, as he’d witnessed, & as you tried to hide from him. the doctors said you’d died twice—it was a fucking miracle of god you were resuscitated the first time, or wasn’t completely dead on arrival, unable to be revived.

johnny hadn’t fully realized how beaten down robby looked until he’d seen him at your bedside, the overwhelming weight of cobra kai & all that other shit probably crushing him into the ground—

surely, the guilt had to be eating him alive.

when robby’d confronted johnny at his apartment, he was caught completely off guard. he should have tried harder, done more to convince robby to leave that fucking toxic dojo, surrounded by a hardened philosophy that rips someone apart, ruins them, turns them into something they’re not. he’d gone through it himself when he’d joined cobra kai, became kreese’s top student. he’d seen it with miguel. almost everyone had; ethan’s friend ciro had somehow miraculously stayed the same. he hadn’t been ‘corrupted’. not like miguel had been, not like robby is. …was? johnny & wade had talked about robby a little bit, when wade wasn't consumed with trying to keep his son breathing—wade nor johnny are religious men, god the furthest thing from tangible or reachable in both of their minds, but wade saw how clearly robby’s betrayal had affected ethan. at different points in the last few months, both had silently prayed to some higher power in the universe that robby would leave cobra kai behind.

the universe, of course, didn't grant that wish. if there is a god out there somewhere, he doesn't give a shit about them. bobby would beg to differ, but if god was real, none of this shit would have happened.

neither of them anticipated the karate war would eventually lead to ethan’s blood on the carpet, though.

fucking silver.

he grimaces when robby approaches the doorway, clearly trying to get in, in spite of johnny trying to prevent looking into the room. he shouldn't need to see the blood for the second time. if robby shoved him to get in, or if he'd punched him, johnny wouldn’t be happy, but he also wouldn’t hit him back. he'd learned his lesson from last time... & he remembers the last time they'd been here. I CAN'T BE MY OWN WORST ENEMY ANYMORE. BUT YOU CAN BE. / SENSEI KREESE IS RIGHT: YOU ARE WEAK. those words are seared into johnny's mind. he sometimes finds himself thinking about them in quiet moments, replaying the fight over & over in his head. he shouldn't have...

the last thing robby needs is to get hurt if he pushed him back & have another reason to hate him, even if it’s valid. not to mention: the last thing johnny would ever want to do is be the one to hurt robby... AGAIN. he’s also not looking for another reason to have ethan blow up at him. he's already done that twice. johnny's pretty sure that he'd do it as many times as he wants to, as long as he feels the need to.

it takes everything in johnny to keep his eyes on robby's bloodshot eyes rather than flickering up to the scar on his forehead, barely visible in the shadows of the room.

if he ever hurt robby again, he's sure ethan would kill him. no mincing words, no amount of sugarcoating would make that any better.

that boy has one of the most potent overprotective streaks johnny's ever witnessed in a human being, ever, & he's pretty sure he's only gleamed, like, Level One of it. Level Ten or whatever level is the cap might actually end in his death ( actually, fucking Level Three could probably wind up killing him, yikes ). he's pretty sure ethan wanted to genuinely kill him once johnny, in a drunken stupor that he can barely recall even now, told him about the fight against kreese & robby in the dojo. after that, ethan didn't speak to him for a few days. johnny missed that more than he'd like to admit, because he grew to be like a son to him. for him to ice him out like that hurt even if it was deserved.

he can't help but feel about a hundred times worse than he already does when he hears robby say it's okay. he inhales sharply, shaking his head gently.

❝ it’s not. i know it's not, robby. ❞ his tone is rough, full of remorse, full of guilt that's so viscerally bone-deep it feels like a weight around his ankle. the fact that robby feels the need to reassure johnny almost brings johnny to his knees. jesus christ. he shouldn't have bore witness to any of that. ethan shouldn't have had to go through that. they're just kids. this karate war has gotten so far out of hand. it'd already gotten out of hand with miguel's accident, but this... this feels like hell.

that guilt will stay with johnny for the rest of his life.

he swallows thickly, visibly wincing at robby's next words.

❝ he's alive. ❞ he reminds him gently. he avoids the use of the word okay. they both know he's not—everyone does, & no one can or should ever blame ethan for that. ❝ he's alive because of you. you saved ethan's life, robby. ❞ the words are meant to comfort him, but johnny's not the best at the whole comforting someone thing. let him go for three rounds on a mat & he's good, but he's probably a little out of his element here. larusso, vanessa & lucienne are all better at comforting someone than johnny is. but he's trying, though. he really is, & really, that's all he can do.

the mention of the kid briefly piques his interest, & he puts two & two together. he'd seen him talking to a younger kid before the fight at the all valley. prior to that, seth had mentioned a new kid joining in cobra kai, following tory & robby around like a baby duckling. cal or kenny or something like that. he doesn't really understand, but he also does. that was cobra kai's teachings & kreese & silver twisting him. he doesn't understand the logic behind robby screwing around with that kid that he'd been friendly towards just minutes prior. or maybe he just hadn't expected robby to go that far. he wanted his son to be better than he was. that's all a parent can hope for, for their children to be better than they were growing up. he'd like to try, to learn more about that situation, about robby's mentee before cobra kai. maybe another time, though. this isn't really the time for that chat, & this bloodstained dojo is certainly not the place. he noticed the shakiness of robby's voice. he'd seen ethan have a panic attack before, had watched wade calm him down. maybe he could try something similar to that.

❝ that kid... that's not on you, either. that's exactly what kreee's cobra kai does to people. i thought i could change it, reinvent it for the better. i... i was wrong. ❞ so, so very fucking wrong. johnny's filled to the brim with regret over that. over every-fucking-thing. ❝ i was the one who invited kreese back into cobra kai. i thought kreese could change, too. he undermined me, took the dojo over, turned it into the living goddamned nightmare it is today, along with that piece of shit, silver. ❞ he doesn't know much about the other man, but he does know he killed ethan. that's a solid reason for johnny to loathe him for as long as he lives.

...regret, guilt, sorrow, worry, rage. these are all emotions johnny has been familiar with all his life.

he thinks back to robby's time with daniel in miyagi-do, or what he gathered from it at least. he'd seen & heard about his son & nephew being happy with sam, demetri & ethan. & eventually, wade & vanessa, & all of his other friends he made, too. he sighs softly.

❝ you had a good thing going with larusso. wade, vanessa & olen, too. sam, chase, seth, emma, your other friends. ❞ he inhales deeply, pausing to collect himself for a moment. ❝ ...ethan. ❞ he adds, his tone gentle, like he's worried saying ethan's name will only cut robby to the bone. ❝ i got in the way of that. ❞

here's the thing: he did, & he knows he did. he's trying to own up to his mistakes that have been haunting him, finally give apologies that have been years in the making. there's seventeen years worth of mistakes with his son & his daughter. johnny's known that he's been a source of rage & pain for robby all his life. his shortcomings as a person & failures as a father is part of the reason, if not the main reason in a long list of reasons why robby joined cobra kai in the first place. that burden, the blame? it rests on johnny's shoulders.

❝ don't blame yourself, ❞ he urges, blue eyes not moving away from robby's green ones, so, so much like his mother's hazel. ❝ blame me. ❞ it's taken him a really fucking long time to realize it, but now he can handle that rage, he recognizes it. in all honesty, he's expecting robby to blame him, like he's always done. it's not that he thinks he shouldn't—it's the actually the exact opposite. he deserves it.

#taughtpain #johnny lawrence: in character.#johnny lawrence: in character. ( main. )#// long post

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icecreamkink · 4 years ago

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so i watched cobra kai all in two days and i have so many -

this show has so many cool and smart angles to it, but the same time.... its so stupid oh my god everyone is so dumb literally mr miyagi held all of the braincells in this whole universe

like i am but at the same time i am not surprised it was made like this, bc in hindsight of course there were hordes of ppl simping over johnny lawrence .... but it still amuses me that this is like... an Actual Official Thing

ok this will get long so cut it is

how much fun this cast has is super visible and i love it

i rly enjoy how the world was expanded ! i did grow up watching the karate kid movies, so watching how they progressed the world of the movies so organically was pretty cool. it rly feels like its the same universe

i fucking LOVE stories that are largely about a Thing. dancing ,skating, sports its just so thrilling to experience this all consuming relationship people can have with this type of activity? and martial arts are just that much more intense, so yeah, grown ass men kicking each other around at the lightest provocation and a war veteran caring so much abt teen karate is Ridiculous.... but i love it all because thats the intensity i find so thrilling

was kinda surprised with how much im missing mr. miyagi. first because, like everyone is so unhinged jesus christo, it just really throws into relief how much his character grounded the narrative of the movies. but also hes just a really great character

and on that note it rly Gets Me that the show itself aknowledges that and plays that into daniels angst and all the little ways they sorta weave myiagisms into the whole show........ im not getting emotional over this dumb karate dads show OK

related - i really miss hearing ‘daniel-san’ 🥺🥺

ACE DEGENERATE oh god oh no

they really went down the down and out johnny lawrence route huh. like i was always kinda bummed we see kreese choking him and then we never see him again in the movies, and while i love dumpster fire problematic trash himbo ck johnny, its like......................... actually really sad that his life turned out like this fjngn

everytime i hear ‘babes’ and ‘pussy’ i die a little inside. i know thats the point but i am a v cringe easy person, have mercy (ehe)

loved the way they are constantly drawing parallels between johnny and mr. myiagi of all people. hes the handy man of his building that has a bullied kid asking for help and eventually steps up to teach them karate, beats up a bunch of bullies for him, creates a friendship with said kid, estranged from family, drinks his sorrows away, surprisingly one of the least quick to anger characters (which says more about everyone else really but.... Well.), no schemes or ulterior motives hes just tryna vibe here.... oh and ofc magically heals miguel of is asthma apparently. the true disciple.. meanwhile daniel is his usual messy petty self even tho he wants to be mr myiagi so bad

also interesting about that is how miguels character is a parallel of both johnny and daniel at the same time

overall the parallels in ck are done really well, drawing comparisons and also subverting them constantly. theyre well thought out

THE PARALELOGRAMS

fr tho, the angle being explicitly the cycle of trauma and its effects and how trumatized adults in turn traumatize kids, maliciously or not, is so interesting

but! on the flip side of that, it feels like the writers are getting in their own way @ letting the characters grow. especially this last season. theres only so many times you can do "johnny and daniel are getting along but 5mins later they are (literally) fighting over some dumbass random issue" or "johnny puts in 20% of effort with robby and then gives up" before it gets on your nerves yknow?

i see daniel no longer talks like macchio ingested 15 shots of espresso before every take and idk how to feel about that tbh

interesting tension in daniel, as in, in tkk mr miyagi was there and daniel was frankly, kind of a lil shit, this messy petty spitfire hot tempered sassy kid,(johnny lawrence voice: just... stop being so annoying) but now hes the adult, and he wants to be mr. miyagi... but hes just not, and never will be to his very core and it shakes him and in a way hes trying to find who he is now that he sees himself in a position to be a not! cobra kai figure. i kinda really like that

plus how that relates to his cobra kai trauma. idk if the writers thought abt it Like That, i think so, but in any case, its interesting bc it seems like daniel has told everyone whod listen about johnny lawrence his Pretty Boy Karate Rival and high school and 84 cobra kai... But. no one seems to know what went on in 85 (or 86? idk) which was just so much worse

like ye og cobras were shitheads, but tkk iii is just two hours of daniel being emotionally and physically tortured.

like, the third movie is.............chaotic, to put it nicely, and many people ignore it, but the writers clearly didnt. daniels actions are, in a way, responding so much more to the events of tkk iii than to the first movie ie. johnny himself, AND. daniel doesnt rly seem to have dealt with that trauma? he never told sam? doesnt feel like hes ever told amanda? he doesnt even say terrys name out loud? freaks Out over kreese ? the way he reacts to robbys deceit? his FACE when he walks past the new "fear does not exist in this dojo" paint or kreeses photo? hmMm i sense Pain

his fashion tho........... disappointing. where are the flower shirts daniel huh we had one (1) shirt what a tragedy STOP WEARING SUITS ALL THE TIME . also the band ts/grunge bi are a look for johnny but part of me longs for the preppy lovable 80s bully chic johnny lawrence getups

weird that they never used that last moment of karate kid where johnny kinda... snaps out of his anger and hands daniel the trophy almost in tears. like “youre alright larusso, good match” “thanks a lot” that being their last direct interection seems like itd be perfect fruit for cobra kai but... they just dont. weird.

especially when, the FIRST SCENE they see each other, suposedly in 30+ years, the first thing to come out of daniels mouth is QUOTE "u still got those golden locks huh?" WHO SAYS SHIT LIKE THAT DANIEL FUCKING SAN

also amandas immediate reaction "your pretty boy rival?" like. can we talk about the fact that daniel had to have imparted to his wife the very important information that his high school bully/karate rival was like Really Cute and Fucking Hot Actually

the writers Knew exactly what they were doing and honestly.............. power to them

tkk director voice: and billy was just so cute

also I was thinking that daniel sounded strangely fond in that first scene, and i wonder if he developed a weird affection for johnny on the grounds that of all of his Karate Rivals johnny was actually the only one who didn’t actively tried to literally kill him

i was actually delightedly surprised with how great the chemistry between them is, like from the get go i am Invested. their rl friendship totally bleeds through and its fantastic

. granted, idiots enemies to lovers friends is my Thing so i am biased

johnny lawrence: i am down in the dumps, i fucked up my whole life and my sons probably, largely in light of the trauma that the father figure sensei and the philosophy of my karate inflicted on me and all my friends. u know what i should do, as a traumatized, unreliable mess of an adult? teach that same philosophy to some other kids! what could go wrong!

but really i enjoy the setup of it. i kinda like that i watched it late because, season 1 was johnny setting himself up for failure in a way and it was exciting to watch it all go to shit sjfn

Like. his heart might be in the right place, but theres just.... not a way to teach something like ‘strike hard, no mercy’ and not have it fuck up a kid

case and point: aisha, miguel and hawk become annoying as all hell over that bullshit in the end of s1, even before shit gets truly fucked up

billys subtle panicked eyes when he sees hawk and miguel fighting dirty in the all valley was SO GOOD especially in parallel with the panic that is so visible in his face in the movie when kreese tells bobby to injure daniel and in the sweep the leg scene

seen people question wether kreese should have returned and i absolutely think he needed to. johnny needed to realize that cobra kais fundamentals are flawed, at the root, beyond kreese himself being a toxic piece of shit

also who are we kidding? we are here to see the tkk characters play on new playgrounds!

i get what they're doing abt kreeses backstory, ( also. cobra kai. pq eles caem nas cobras djjs sorry) but did it need to take up that much time? feels like they couldve done it in half the run time and developed some other stories better

martin kove has such an evil eye. i love it

love that we get a good follow up to kreese breaks johnnys trophy and tries to CHOKE HIM in the parking lot, which happened in the movie and then....................... was never mentioned again

“the gang is all back together again” aaaa u piece of SHIT

also. terry silver is definetely appearing ha ha ha PAIN i cant wait

seen ppl say kreese was too much of a cartoon villain like..........................oh......... sweetie........... u dont even Know

interested how johnny will fit into that bc kreese was simping rly hard for johnny here. like i did not expect him to be so adamant to have him with cobra kai ... under his control, sure, but he really wants johnny by his side despite already having control of the dojo and how will terry silver self appointed jon kreeses forever simp going to feel abt that?

like bitchs dropping by every episode like ‘joooooohnny ..... come bacc to me joooonny......... this ur last warning! for real this time johnny! i wont say it again! watch me ! im leaving johnny! im rly leaving ! im dragging a chair” and johnny is just like. dont let the door hit ya bitch it was so funny pls

and on that subject oof, johnny! doesnt! Know! he doesnt get that side of daniels cobra kai trauma. and i kind of.............. cannot wait for ck 2021 johnny lawrence to meet terry silver like. what a shit show i need a front row seat and popcorn (imagine terry tries some greasy charm and johnny just roundhouse kicks him in the teeth bc he just doest Not Have the Patience for This. glorious)

feels like we, as a society, should acknowledge that cobra kai will never die................ bc their sense of design is just chefs kiss. their name is COBRA KAI. they have sexie sleeveless black gis. theyve sneks. colorful leather jackets with embroided naja insignia, the get ppl thru the aesthetics. evil geniuses

the flashback cuts : masterpiece behavior

the other takes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! of the movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the differente angles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! of the FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE CLOSE UP ON JOHNNYS FACE AT THE KICK

that scene of daniel and johnny vibing to 80s music in the car. just. oh my god. the fan wish fullfilment. no thoughts head empty.

the new characters! theyre .... good. but. idk. i really like miguel (save for the annoying phase mid s1 - end s2) and amanda, who is a damn riot and has some functioning braincells, but everyone else is

like dont get me wrong, i dont hate anyone,its not a jane and rafael from jtv situation, and i am interested and invested in their arcs, but i wouldnt say i like Like them, as in, personality wise

like, sams grappling with ptsd was rly gutting and i enjoyed that plus her slight rage issues,

which nicely parallel torys rage issues. torys background is all over the place tho so im pretty on the fence abt her so far

robby deserves better in every way, and i like how smart and cunning and surprisingly sweet he is

hawk............... is there i guess,

demetri is annoying in the best way possible,

carmen is sweet but. i just feel like her character is blunted to make the johnny relationship easier. like when shes furious with him after miguels injury but then forgives him like an episode later? and then convinces him to fight for the tournament bc she had a karate epiphany off screen even tho she was always against it? meh. feels like with the plot thiccening she was swallowed and now shes like a crutch for johnny mora than anything, which is disappointing.

aisha was cool and im kinda mad she wasnt in s3, especially bc a storyline with her tory and sam was like RIGHT THERE , but also... cant say i was super super fond of her... doesnt feel like we ever spent enough time on her

moon the bi icon,

overall its a good cast but the main draw for me remains the og cast

the tory/sam miguel/robby Thing. enjoy how theyre Narrative Foils and i like how their stories were so dramatically entangled but oh god give me a break with the teenage love square for the love of god. if u gonna put us through that at least have the decency to not make it so straight

and honestly some sam/tory miguel/robby romantic tension would even make more sense. just saying!

also im not sure how i feel abt the cobra kai: red miyagi do: blue theyre going with since some of daniels most iconic looks in tkk are also red. like it was a color they (johnny and him) sorta shared. i get it, opposite but complementary but idk... a little too fire nation and water tribe for me .

and like the cobra kai kids are so funny abt it bc their outifts grow progressively more ridiculously coordinated. its like do they group chat every morning before leaving their houses?

robby still sticks out like that tho. he went thru an athleisure/daniel san tsleeves phase and now hes back in the bandts grunge, but his color scheme doesnt fully blend with the other cobra kais. hmmmm.

LOVED LOVED LOVED both the okinawa episode and the cobra kais easy rider episode just such good good heart aching fun

bobby is an icon. he was in tkk and he is now ck hope appears more and more

tommy is like the most iconic background character. all his lines, freaking gold then and now. sigh :(

the framing in the okinawa trip was so good everything was so good

i stand by the fact that kumiko was the love interest daniel had the most chemistry with and shes is overall such a joy to watch, loved to see her again, idola, fashion icon

also tkk ii is good u guys are just mean

also really enjoyed chozens role in the episode, his evolution; i love that they introduced the pressure points (ty lee the blueprint) and! the honk + karate! cousins! absolutely iconic

when kumiko reads mr miyagis letters........ oh my god, my eyes FILLED with tears, it was so heart wrenching :(( tamlyns delivery was so emotional and lovely and its so obvious everyone involved in ck has so much love and respect for pat morita and mr miyagi as character, and i adore that it exists like this electric current through the show

when we were watching i told my sister i thought that ali would be miguels big shot surgeon and ngl i am so disappointed that didnt happen. hire me cobra kai writers

also the johnny ali daniel amanda chemistry? off the charts

AND the sassy retconning of daniel and alis breakup! LMAO ‘I HOPE U DIDNT TELL MR MIYAGI IT WAS MY FAULT’ HFDJJGNKFKSD

i am preeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetty sure back injuries dont work like that but oke

daniel and johnny are so good together whenever, like they never actually help the kids or get shit done and end up fighting anyway but its just so much fun when theyre hanging

JOHNNY LAWRENCE AND DANIEL LARUSSO FIGHTING TOGETHER

daniels “plan” on how to get robby to juvie was so stupid. literally were u TRYING to make him hate you. dumbass

parents at those hearing rly brave for ppl that did not do ANYTHING as their kids got involved in a karate gang war until now

“bullshit i heard u were the real bully!” i mightve screeched

this s3 ending was SO DRAMATIC omg

everyone is such a MESS go to THERAPY u unhinged motherfckers

also im sorry but uh. a richass neighborhood in california doesnt have some type of neighborhood watch? the larussos rly dont have any security at all? neighbors wont hear the sound of a damn karate brawl happening next door??? also wasnt tory all like ooo i cant go to juvie, my mom yada yada yet shes always running around town getting into fights even at the rich girls house she was kicked out of school for fighting?? ? ?? ?? ? ? ? ?? ? ? girl??

stop destroying the larussos house, its so pretty :((((

sam finding her center looking at mr miyagis picture... uwu maybe

robby yelling ‘U ARE WEAAK’@ johnny \as he is easily blocking him is like.... so funny and so sad to me. sweetheart.

also i know it was meant as ‘oh johnny pushes him and HURTS HIM’ but it just looks like robby runs himself into the lockers and IM SO SORRY I FEEL SO BAD BUT IT WAS SO FUNNY

i like that he and tory are the cobra kai kids now. we need ppl we care abt there to not revert to a good vs evil schtick, and this is the most engaging it could be... tho it hurts that these kids cant catch a break

ah yes "lets bet some real shit on the result of this teen karate tournament bc that is always a great idea" is BACK

so daniel saves johnny from kreese..... maybe johnny will save him from terry 🧐

and dojos unite ohohoho. lets SEE how that’ll work out

miguels face of Despair when the ck defectors and the md kids are bickering like 'this is never gonna work' : gold

also. Johnny Lawrence is gonna learn some myiagi-do karate AHAAHSJAKDFH

ive been waiting for this moment all my lifeeee oh lawrd

final thoughts! there are def things i hope the writers will improve on the next season, but i am very excited for it either way AND i feel like it has made me enjoy the movies even more and that is a win for a reboot/sequel to me!!

#m.#did i procrastinate watching this since it came out and only watched it now bc my sister nagged me to when i said we should #watch karate kid over the holidays?#and then binged the whole thing in two days??#mayhaps and what abt it #cobra kai #the karate kid #its funn #y bc like karate kid is a Childhood movie but i wouldnt say #it was like particularly special for me?#like i wasnt in a fandom or anything #but now.#i might be invested #maybe #talvez

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klovenhooves · 4 years ago

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Johnny Lawrence and the Five Love Languages, Chapter Three: Receiving Gifts

It took him two weeks to get back to Daniel. Those fourteen days were a blur of legal conversations, skimming stacks of papers, finding ways to make sure Kreese’s influence over his students hadn’t warped them beyond recognition. By the end of the first week, Kreese had been removed from Cobra Kai, Johnny had secured the ownership of his dojo, and Hawk had been identified as the ringleader of the vandalism excursion. Johnny sent him with Miguel to return Miyagi’s Medal of Honor to Daniel personally.

And then Tommy died.

The second week was like wading through water too deep. He, Bobby, and Jimmy pored over Tommy’s documents, his whole life spread over the small space of a desk. Johnny had no idea how to handle someone’s affairs after they died, and it didn’t seem like Bobby or Jimmy did either. So they spent a few days trying to pack up his stuff, realizing far too late that they had no one to give it to. Most of Tommy’s clothes ended up donated to a local charity, and Bobby took the rest of his stuff to put into storage until they could figure out what to do with it.

There was no family; no one but them.

The funeral had been a nightmare, the wake a nightmare with booze. He left Cobra Kai alone during that week, confident that Miguel was still making sure Kreese couldn’t sink his hooks into anyone.

He came home at the end of the second week, bone tired and prepared to sleep for another two days, if given the opportunity, but instead of rest, he found Daniel LaRusso standing on his doorstep.

“Didn’t you hear?” he called, startling Daniel out of whatever reverie he was in. “I’m not home.”

Daniel gave him a bracing look that told Johnny someone had already informed him about Tommy’s death. “Miguel told Sam you were coming back today,” he explained. “I thought I’d bring you something.”

He noticed the package in Daniel’s hand as the words left his mouth. “You don’t have to –”

“It’s customary to send flowers,” Daniel interrupted as Johnny fumbled with his keys in the lock, “but I figured whiskey was more appropriate.”

Johnny didn’t answer, but pushed his door open and stepped aside to let Daniel through first. The place seemed emptier now that it had been empty for a week, and Johnny wasted no time in grabbing two glasses from his cabinet and holding his hand out for the bottle.

“Thank you,” Daniel said as Johnny twisted the bottle open, the label cracking in the silence. “For sending Hawk –”

“It was the least he could do,” Johnny answered, pouring a generous amount in each glass.

“Still,” Daniel took the offered glass and held it up. “To Tommy.”

Johnny had to swallow past the lump in his throat. He took a sip of the whiskey, the smell alone reminding him of the wake, of acquaintances with casseroles and black suits on squeaky pews. He watched Daniel finish the whole drink in one swallow, his mind trying to find its way back out of the week’s memories.

“What do you do?” Daniel asked when Johnny didn’t say anything.

“What do you mean?”

Daniel carefully put his glass in the sink behind Johnny, his arm just barely making contact with Johnny’s jacket. “I mean when something bad happens. What do you do?”

Johnny held up his glass, whiskey still lingering at the bottom. “You’re looking at it, kid,” he said.

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Anything else?”

Johnny shrugged. Nothing seemed particularly appealing right now, other than standing in his half-dark kitchen, listening to Daniel talk. He took another sip of his whiskey. “Trying to cheer me up, LaRusso?” he asked.

“Well, you’re certainly not making it easy,” Daniel groused, leaning against the counter. Johnny watched him lean, his worn Mets shirt riding up as he leaned back. How obvious would it be if he told Daniel that this was just fine?

Or maybe it was that it didn’t really feel right to be having fun so soon after Tommy’s death. Just yesterday he had been hauling Tommy’s old dirt bike into storage, memories washing over him. Today he was considering putting all of that out of his mind for a chance at mild amusement for a few hours. Wasn’t that disrespectful?

“Come on,” Daniel broke through his thoughts, gently extricating Johnny’s glass from his hand. “We’re going to the beach.”

“We’re what?”

“You said you were going to teach me how to surf,” Daniel pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest. “So, go get your stuff, we’re going to the beach.”

Johnny huffed a laugh, eyes searching Daniel’s countenance for the punchline. “You’re serious,” he said when he found nothing but sincerity.

“Absolutely serious,” Daniel said, crossing out of the kitchen and back into the living room. “Go get dressed. I mean it. Wetsuit and everything.”

“I’m not putting on that wetsuit,” Johnny called back on his way to his bedroom. He felt exhaustion seeping into every movement, languid and delayed. He was too tired for this. Still, he grabbed some black trunks from a long-forgotten corner of his drawers and put them on.

He met Daniel in the living room in a black muscle shirt and black trunks.

“If I fall asleep in the ocean, you better become a lifeguard,” he warned.

Daniel smiled, the quirk of his mouth looking more sad than happy. “Something tells me just sitting on your surfboard in the water is going to make you feel better.”

Johnny shrugged, but unbidden, he remembered spending hours at a time just sitting in the water, his feet submerged, after Ali dumped him, and again after the All Valley in ’84, and then again when his mother died. There was no way LaRusso could know about that, was there?

He turned away from him to get his surfboard out of the closet in the hallway, his eyes landing on the white bag on the floor as he did. He scooped it up. He had planned something different, but this was as good a time as any.

“Here,” he said, passing the bag over to Daniel, who looked taken aback. “I noticed yours were looking a little run down,” he continued as Daniel peered inside the bag, his eyes meeting his before he pulled out the little clippers. “You use those on your bonsais, right?”

“Yeah,” Daniel said softly, looking down at the shears like he didn’t know what to make of them. “I – you – you got these for me?”

Johnny huffed a laugh. “No, LaRusso, I stole them.”

“When did you have the time?” He let the stealing line slide by uncontested.

“The day after I helped you clean up your dojo,” Johnny supplied, grabbing his keys from the counter, leaving Daniel behind, staring down at the gift.

***

He still couldn’t decide what to make of it when they pulled up at the beach, Johnny dozing lightly in the passenger seat. It had been a battle to convince him not to drive, won only because Daniel threw bungee cords at him and told him to shut up and just strap the surfboard to the roof already.

The silence of the drive did nothing but allow Daniel the space and quiet to obsess over the little clippers currently sitting in his cup holder. He found his eyes straying to them more often than he’d ever admit. He still couldn’t figure out what they meant.

When had Johnny even seen his old pair of shears, admittedly rusted and creaky from old age? And why had he taken it upon himself to buy Daniel a new pair? It was a thoughtful gift, sure, but did Johnny do thoughtful gifts?

He had more questions than answers.

Along with those questions, he had questions for himself to mirror them. Why had he decided to go by Johnny’s place on the night he was coming home? His condolences could have waited a night. He hadn’t spared a whole lot of time for thinking – Sam had wandered by, thrown out as an afterthought that Miguel mentioned Sensei Lawrence was coming back into town tonight, and then Daniel was up and grabbing his keys before he could examine why.

Perhaps it was simple curiosity. Johnny had been Kreese’s lackey, his surrogate son, for as long as Daniel had known him. And then, that day at his dojo, he climbed out of the balance pond and faced his mentor, all steely gaze and clenched fists, and told him he wanted nothing to do with him anymore.

Daniel hadn’t even been given the opportunity to say anything. He just stood there, dripping, eyes wide and mouth half open, while Johnny enumerated all of the reasons he realized Kreese had been behind the vandalism of Miyagi-do. He thought about that afternoon every day while Johnny was gone, first to make sure Kreese couldn’t endanger his students, and then gone to see and bury Tommy.

He had questions he wanted to ask, thoughts he wanted to say out loud, but now wasn’t the time. There were more important things than Johnny’s allegiance, especially tonight.

Johnny jerked awake when he put the car in park, his eyes dark in the shadow. Daniel just gave him a momentary smile and pushed the door open, content to let him wake up while he unhooked the surfboard.

“You aren’t wearing swim trunks,” Johnny pointed out when he finally wrestled the surfboard down.

“All clothes can get wet,” Daniel shrugged, toeing off his shoes and leaving them behind on the floor of his car.

Johnny didn’t answer, and Daniel wondered if he was also thinking of their time in the balance pond. How Johnny had definitely leaned in for a kiss before they were interrupted. How Daniel had definitely not stopped him.

“Who told you about Tommy?” Johnny asked on their walk toward the water, the ocean a gentle giant ahead of them, sparkling in the moonlight.

“Bobby,” Daniel said, pulling his shirt off and leaving it behind on the sand. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Johnny doing the same. “Apparently you talked about me to him.”

Johnny almost stumbled, a momentary loss of balance that a normal observer wouldn’t have caught, but Daniel carefully noted it and continued.

“He wanted to warn me that if you came back trying to pick a fight, there was a reason.”

“Bobby fucking Brown,” Johnny muttered under his breath, the comment almost lost by the sound of the waves. And then he stopped walking. “How does Bobby have your number?”

Daniel shrugged, trying to read the expression on Johnny’s face from the side. “Maybe you gave it to him.”

“No, I didn’t,” he said, so sure of himself that Daniel wanted to ask how he knew, why he was so confident that he wasn’t just handing out Daniel’s phone number to other people.

Bobby had always been the most reasonable of Johnny’s friends, in Daniel’s opinion. He had watched him, from the relative protection of Miyagi’s side, try to defend Johnny the night he lost the All Valley; he had seen him go pale when Kreese shoved him away and tightened his hold around Johnny’s neck.

“Do you talk to them?” Daniel asked as the water slipped over their feet, a cold and sharp reminder of their reality. “The Cobras?”

Johnny scoffed at the name, the sound lost by the waves. “I should, shouldn’t I?” he asked, looking over. His eyes were painfully sad.

“Their numbers are in your phone,” Daniel pointed out, the water rising up to his knees.

Johnny put the surfboard down in the water and held it in place with one hand. “It’s not that simple, LaRusso.”

And oh, did Daniel understand him. How many friends did he have that he regularly talked to? None, if he excluded family and his own employees. He had plenty of phone numbers in his contacts, plenty of people who were quick to catch up with him at the club, but were they friends? Would they miss him if he died? He understood that terrible loneliness, and how hard it was to crawl out from under it.

“I suppose not,” he said, and he could see Johnny looking at him from the corner of his eye, searching for an explanation, a story to go along with his offhand comment. Daniel didn’t give him one.

“Come on, LaRusso,” he said finally, patting the surfboard. “Up you go.”

The water was just above waist height, the tide strong enough that it was constantly tilting Daniel off-balance. He heaved himself onto the surfboard as gracefully as possible, feeling at least marginally satisfied with himself when he didn’t immediately fall off.

“Up you go,” he said, patting the surfboard in front of him. Johnny furrowed his brows, mouth twisting into an amused grimace. “Come on, Johnny, get on the surfboard.”

“I thought I was teaching you how to surf.”

“I lied,” Daniel shrugged. “Besides, you’re way too tired for that. Get on the damn surfboard, don’t be a baby.”

Johnny eyed him curiously, long enough that Daniel almost took back his suggestion, almost abandoned the enterprise altogether. Maybe he had miscalculated – perhaps he had misunderstood Johnny in the balance pond two weeks ago. And then Johnny bit his lip and pulled himself onto the surfboard, hardly jostling Daniel at all, settling on the surfboard with his back to Daniel.

“You could call them,” Daniel said to Johnny’s back, the sentence flowing out of his mouth with ease now that Johnny wasn’t looking at him. “Your friends.”

“They all have lives, LaRusso,” Johnny muttered, his feet barely kicking. “Careers, wives, children –”

“You could be a part of it –”

Johnny scoffed, the movement driving his back into Daniel’s chest. “I can barely handle my own career, my own kid.”

“You don’t have to handle your friends, Johnny.”

“They’d have to handle me.”

A wave jostled them and Daniel instinctively wrapped his arms around Johnny’s middle, trying to keep himself on the board. Johnny went still – all the way down to his feet – until the wave passed and the board mellowed out. He took his arms back, making sure to gently remove them, and considered Johnny’s statement.

He didn’t say anything – Johnny didn’t give him the time.

“Sometimes it feels like friendship doesn’t exist,” he said into the darkness, his head tilted just barely upward to look at the moon. “We’re just near each other – if we weren’t, we wouldn’t be friends.”

Daniel couldn’t tell if he was talking about the Cobras or about Daniel himself.

“I know,” he said.

“Tommy was sick,” Johnny said, leaning back until he was pressed completely to Daniel’s chest. “I didn’t even know.”

Daniel let his hands settle around Johnny’s middle, fingers threaded together to keep them together. “Sickness happens.”

He remembered his father, vivacious and friendly one day, withdrawn and weak the next. The smell of the hospital that seemed to permeate all of his clothes, even down to his skin. The sad way his eyes would look when he turned his wistful gaze to the window near the end. Like he was waiting for it.

“I could have –”

Daniel held him tighter. “You were there when it mattered.”

Johnny kicked one foot in the water listlessly. “Every day mattered, LaRusso.”

Daniel didn’t say anything. He could feel the familiar ache that came with nostalgia, bittersweet and tender. It, along with the warmth of Johnny’s body pressed to his chest, the lulling of the waves, made him feel peculiarly dreamy.

“How did Bobby get your number?” Johnny asked after a long bout of silence.

Daniel closed his eyes and rested his forehead on Johnny’s shoulder. “Jealous?” he asked.

Johnny exhaled a laugh, lost to the sound of the waves. “All the time,” he said.

“You gave him my number when you were drunk,” Daniel murmured, pulling his head off of Johnny’s shoulder and pulling him farther back, comfortably lounging. “He told me himself.”

“Why did he really call you?”

Daniel looked down at him, blond head resting over his heart. “So I could be here when you got back.”

Johnny shifted, his eyes just barely managing to catch Daniel’s before he looked out over the water again. “Did he tell you about the ocean?”

Daniel furrowed his brows. “I don’t think so.”

“How did you know I like being out here when I’m sad?” Johnny asked, turning to see Daniel more completely, his head now on Daniel’s bicep, the surfboard tilting with their weight just enough to make Daniel uncomfortable.

He sighed. “Because I’m paying attention.”

They stayed that way for a long time, in comfortable silence, long enough that Daniel felt the moment Johnny drifted off to sleep, head resting on his chest, close to his neck. He let him sleep for an hour or so, holding tightly to him, the wind sending him the smell of the ocean and Johnny’s shampoo, thinking of Bobby Brown and his father and all of the others.

They drove home in peaceful silence.

#lawrusso #Johnny Lawrence and the five love languages

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reivenesque · 6 years ago

Text

Not The Best Around CH5

Chapter 5: You’re The Best (Around)

(x)

The couple of nurses that came and went were about as much excitement as Laura received that night before the sun finally came up. The morning greeted them with Johnny’s very first visitor for the day it was someone Laura was always happy to see.

“Ali,” she said happily when the familiar face popped up from behind the door.

“Hi, Mrs. Lawrence,” said Ali, lingering by the door for a moment before hesitantly stepping in, not getting more than a few feet into the room before she stopped, hands fidgeting nervously behind her back. “How is he?”

“He’ll be okay. He just needs a little rest and some TLC but he’ll be right as rain in no time. What about you? I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages. You don’t come by the house anymore,” Laura said inquisitively.

Ali’s mouth opened and closed in an effort to find an appropriate response to the statement but obviously couldn’t come up with anything rational.

“I just – uh, I wanted to see how he’s doing. I don’t want to be a bother –”

There was an uneven sound of footsteps by the door when a new figure appeared, looking much more nervous and much more hesitant than Ali when she first stepped in.

“Umm, Mrs. Lawrence, this is a friend of mine, Daniel,” she motioned towards the newcomer, who looked hesitantly between the two women before raising an uncertain hand in greeting.

“N-Nice to meet you, Mrs. Lawrence,” said Daniel, careful to stay beyond the threshold of the door.

Laura returned the greeting before reaching over to shake Johnny’s shoulder. “Johnny,” she called softly, “Ali is here to see you.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that, Mrs. Lawrence. I don’t want to disturb him,” said Ali quickly.

“Oh nonsense, Ali. I know he’ll be thrilled to see you.”

Daniel had the literal look of someone caught between a hard place and an even harder place and nowhere to escape.

“Johnny.” She resumed shaking his shoulder gently until his eyes finally cracked open, heavy lidded and bleary, attempting to blink his vision into focus. “Honey,” she said once his eyes finally focused on her, “Your friends are here.” She motioned towards the door and Johnny could only follow the direction she was indicating with his eyes which widened the moment they fell on Ali standing awkwardly near the far end of the room. “If you two could stand a little closer in his line of sight,” Laura said, indicating towards the foot of the bed.

Daniel had the look of someone who’d just stumbled upon a cave full of hibernating bears and was trying to back out slowly before any of them smelled fresh meat and decided that they didn’t need the sleep that badly but had inadvertently woken all of them up. The moment Johnny’s eyes fell on him, it was clear from his expression that he’d picked the bears any day of the week.

However Ali beckoned him in and like with everything to do with Ali Mills, Daniel was too weak to refuse.

“H-Hi, Johnny,” said Ali, forcing a chipper appearance as she approached the foot of the bed. “How are you feeling?”

Johnny remained silent for a moment before he plastered on a smile which looked more pained than happy when he returned Ali’s greeting. Laura didn’t seem to notice the obvious tension in the room, or the one between Johnny and Ali and Daniel who was still skulking by the door.

“I’ve been better,” Johnny said, swallowing the lump in his throat before his eyes glanced over to stare at Daniel who was trying his hardest to blend into his background. “I’m really… glad to see you, Ali,” he added, though from the hesitation in his voice it was obviously only a show put on for his mom’s sake.

“Me too. We were all so worried.”

Johnny tried to keep up the smile but it ended up looking more like a grimace, though lucky for him Laura’s attention was more on the situation between him and Ali as opposed to whatever was going on inside his head, because his mother was one of the few people who could read him like an open book. “Yeah…” he answered simply because the atmosphere of the room descended into silence.

“I’ll just give you kids your privacy,” Laura said, obvious misinterpreting the situation and the silence as being brought on by her presence. “I’m going to get a cup of coffee, sweetheart, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said, reaching over to stroke Johnny’s hair and plant a kiss on his forehead. She gave Ali a brief by warm hug when she passed by her before stepping out of the room, leaving Johnny alone to face off against two of the people in the world he probably wanted to see least. Though, maybe second after Sid.

The silence remained for a while after her exit. Daniel ended up toeing his shoe against the linoleum, eyes glancing over at everything in the room besides Johnny, willing himself to shrink down into nonexistence because of the awkwardness of the situation. Ali was fidgeting with the hem of her skirt, eyes downcast while Johnny finally tore his eyes away from the sight of the two people in front of him and opted to stare at the far end wall because it was pretty much the only thing in his line of sight that didn’t cause little stabs of pain inside his heart.

“What do you want, Ali?” he asked finally, his voice cold. “Come to rub it in my face, LaRusso? Don’t worry, I’m not such an idiot that I didn’t realize I’d lost.”

The hesitation immediately drained from Ali’s shoulders when Johnny finished. Her eyes snapped up instantly, the look in her eyes blazing. “God, Johnny, can’t you ever not be so… so… vindictive? We were genuinely worried about you – I was worried about you, despite what you might think of me.”

Johnny clenched his eyes shut tight as Ali continued her almost tearful monologue until the point he couldn’t take it anymore. “Please,” he said, sounding more broken than Ali had ever heard him which caused her to stop mid-sentence. “Just… please. I’m tired of fighting,” he said with a sigh. “Please just leave.”

Ali immediately looked apologetic, almost deflated by the defeated tone in Johnny’s voice.

“I’m sorry,” she said with a sigh. “I really didn’t come here to upset you. Just… I really did just want to see how you were doing.”

Johnny mimicked the tired sigh. It genuinely hurt how much Ali’s presence had come to be more painful than pleasurable and he knew he had only himself to blame for that. “I know, but… the truth is you being here isn’t helping anything, Ali. I appreciate the concern but just… I’d rather if you didn’t come by again.”

“I understand,” Ali replied sadly.

Hurting Ali was something that hurt Johnny deeply, but so was having her so close but at the same time so far out of reach. He knew he would probably never be over her, or over the relationship they once had, especially with her being around, taunting him with the unattainability of her presence.

Johnny looked away when Ali turned to leave and he expected to hear the sound of footsteps leading away from his room, leaving him to his privacy to let his tears flow, but instead there was a shuffling sound and the voice that had at some point become the bane of his existence all of a sudden called his name.

“Hey, Johnny,” LaRusso called out and it took all of Johnny’s will power not to roll his eyes outright. He kept his eyes averted hoping that LaRusso would for once take the hint and just walk away from the situation in which his presence was neither required nor wanted. “Look, man. I know we’ve had our differences, and we’ve made each other’s entire year hell – though some of us more than others –” he added the last part as a mutter under his breath, “But I never meant for anything like this to happen. Not even to you. So… just – just know that. I’m really sorry that it turned out this way.”

Johnny could appreciate the balls it took for LaRusso to step up and say what he said, to apologize for it nonetheless. The way he never would have done. He’d hurt his fair share of opponents in tournaments but it was never anything personal. It was just for the win. What his sensei asked him to do… what he’d asked Bobby to do… it went against even his own skewered moral compass, but he never in a million years would he have apologized to LaRusso for what happened.

Maybe he really had been the bad guy all along.

LaRusso obviously took his silence and lack of eye contact as his definitive reply and was about half way towards the door where Ali was waiting for him when Johnny found himself calling out to him.

“LaRusso,” he said, finally meeting LaRusso’s eyes when he turned around. He took a deep, measured breath before lifting his left hand up slightly, holding it out to LaRusso who looked between his face at the offered appendage confusedly. “Now we’re finally even, huh?” he asked. He wasn’t sure how he even remembered the words or why they chose to come out at that moment, but he thought it was appropriate.

LaRusso looked confused for a moment and Johnny could see the exact moment the significance of the words finally dawn on him. He smiled, and Johnny found him own lips curling slightly at the edges. “Yeah, man,” he said, walking over without hesitation and grasping Johnny’s hand, holding his firm and giving it a slight shake. “Now we’re even.”

They both let go at once and LaRusso finally turned to join Ali who was staring between them confusedly from the door.

The calm that settled in his heart, probably for the first time in years, as usual, didn’t last very long, because just as Ali and LaRusso both turned to leave, the last person either of them probably wanted to run into appeared at the door.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” asked Dutch in a sing song voice, grin plastered on, stopping dead in his tracks the moment his eyes fell on LaRusso.

Johnny just sighed. He was too tired to have to deal with that particular situation. Though he was half proud and half hurt watching Ali put herself without hesitation between LaRusso and Dutch.

The sound of multiple footsteps signaled the arrival of the rest of the Cobra Kais, stepping in into the room behind Dutch who was prowling threateningly around Ali and LaRusso like a wild animal.

“Dutch,” said Tommy, his tone almost cautionary as he said Dutch’s name.

Johnny thought he should break up the tension before it escalated but he didn’t even get the chance to open his mouth to tell him to stop once Bobby walked in.

The immediate shift in Dutch's body language was apparent, it was almost like he deflated; the prickly hairs standing on end like an aggravated feline settled down though his typical smirk stayed on. He raised both hands as if in surrender, taking a deliberate step back.

“I’m good,” he said immediately, looking between LaRusso and Bobby. “Cool as a cucumber,” he added, bowing slightly and motioning towards the door with both arms. “Careful, Danielle, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

LaRusso looked about as confused as Johnny felt on the inside by the unexpected turn of events. However he was obviously not too confused to recognize the escape route when it was handed to him on a platter made of gold. He immediately grabbed an equally bemused Ali by the wrist, tugging her away from Dutch. Just before they disappeared out the door, Johnny found himself calling out one more time.

“Thanks,” he said, “For… for coming and for playing along; for not telling my mom the truth about us.”

For the first time in a long time, Ali looked back at him with an expression other than disdain on her face. She actually smiled. “You don’t have to thank me for that,” she said. “Your mom’s a lovely person and I genuinely care about her. But you really should tell her the truth eventually,” she said.

Leave it to Ali to always tell him things he didn’t really want to hear. Johnny guessed that was why he loved her so much.

But then she left with LaRusso, walking away with a last lingering smile before she disappeared behind the wall and far out of reach.

Johnny exhaled through the ache in his chest; furrowing his brows because it was pretty much the only part of him he could move without pain.

“How you feelin’, Johnny?” asked Bobby as he approached. He seemed to be the only person in the room unaffected by Dutch’s strange behaviour. Everyone else was still gob smacked silent by Dutch’s uncharacteristic reaction. Though knowing Bobby as well as he did (the real Bobby that not everyone got to see all the time) Johnny was positive that something had happened between the two that he didn't know about.

The question immediately erased the thought of LaRusso clear from everyone’s minds and they turned to approach Johnny’s bed; some with slightly more spring in their step than others as demonstrated by Tommy who nearly skipped up to Johnny’s side.

“Yeah, man. You doing okay?” he asked, reaching down to grab the side rail of the bed with both hand, leaning down into Johnny’s line of sight.

Johnny gave them a tired smile. The exhaustion was just a default mode of his lately though he was glad to see his friends. “Probably going to have to hang up my dancing shoes for a while,” he said.

Tommy laughed, probably a little too fervently, but then again, it was Tommy. Everything he did and said was slightly more exaggerated than that of a normal human being.

“Really glad you’re okay, Johnny,” Jimmy said, stepping up on his other side, across from Tommy.

Dutch stepped up to the foot of the bed as Bobby came up on Jimmy’s left, his warm smile plastered on his face immediately lifting Johnny’s spirits by just the sight.

“We’re Cobras,” he said, “It’ll take more than this to keep us down.” Though the voice saying the words inside his head wasn’t one that belonged to him, they were words he wanted to believe with all his heart.

“Damn straight,” said Dutch determinedly. “But I still can’t believe you let LaRusso drop you like that, man.”

The resounding sharp intake of breath was apparent in the room and Johnny turned in time to see Bobby deliver a sharp slap to Dutch’s shoulder with the back of his hand, his expression both of disbelief and irritation.

“What?” whined Dutch, feigning offense with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Seriously, man?” stated Bobby, half in query and half as an exclamation of disbelief. His expression was one that Johnny could only describe as an ever suffering mother dealing with petulant two year old who’d just thrown a tantrum. But then again, that was Bobby’s default more when it came to dealing with Dutch most of the time.

“What?” Dutch repeated, putting on the face of the wronged party so convincingly that even Bobby could barely suppress the grin tugging at the corner of his lips.

“You’re incorrigible,” said Bobby once he finally gave up trying to hold back the chuckle.

Johnny couldn’t hold back his either and eventually the whole room descended into laughter.

“You’re the real ace-degenerate,” said Tommy with a cackle and Johnny honestly couldn’t agree with the statement more if he tried.

Tbc.

#johnny lawrence #the karate kid #cobra kai #daniel larusso #ali mills #bobby brown #dutch #tommy #jimmy #laura lawrence #reiven fics #reiven karate kid fics #fics: not the best around #also posted on ao3 #whump fic recs #need to actually finish writing this #and then get to the billion other unfinished fics #and that miguel fic i want to write #send help

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curiousdamage · 6 years ago

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Because of You

A/N: I Own Nothing!

A Careless Man’s Careful Daughter Universe

___________________

Becca hated having lunchroom duty. One hundred fourteen to eighteen-year-olds all talking about different things at once sent her senses into overdrive and set her nerves on edge. The only nice thing was that she had a free period after to relax in silence. She entered the cafeteria to a teacher's worst nightmare. Two boys were squared off with each other with three other’s circling them. Kyler and his buddies were up to their usual tricks.

She quickly scanned the room, finding Lea Anne on the far side of the room from the boys. Breathing a sigh of relief, she started towards the boys to try to deescalate the situation when Kyler shoved the smaller boy into a table smirking about ''lame ass" karate.

She stopped. Even teachers weren't supposed to get involved once physical violence started.

She sent a student for security and Sylvia. She expected Kyler to rough the kid up to show off. What she didn't expect was for the boy to get back to his feet saying, "Its not lame-ass karate. It's Cobra Kai."

He blocked Kyler's next punch, pinned his arm and delivered a jab punch to Kyler's nose.

At first, it looked like the boy was going to be hurt before help got there and she was trying to decide how best to intervene as just shouting "stop," wasn't working.

Then the boy found his feet and managed to throw off Kyler's choke hold, using his hold on Kyler's arm to pull him into a kick.

Becca was stunned. He slithered. It was Cobra Kai. But how? She knew her Dad was not in the area and Uncle Terry, well, he wasn't starting any dojo's. She couldn't have stopped the fight anyway as the new kid had knocked down Kyler's whole group in less than three minutes before security could even get there.

She took the boys getting up from the floor to the nurse while Sylvia took the other boy to her office. As she had the next period free she was tasked with sitting with the new boy, who she learned was named Miguel Diaz, while he waited for his grandmother.

“You know, karate was a really big deal in West Valley when I went to school here," she said. "But I didn't think anyone was teaching locally anymore. Where did you learn?"

''Oh, my neighbor, Sensei Lawrence, teaches me," he replied softly.

"Sensei Lawrence? You mean, Johnny Lawrence?"

"Yes, ma’am, do you know him?" Miguel asked.

"I was in school at the same time he was," she answered, neutrally.

"He's great, isn't he?" he asked excitedly.

Becca wasn't sure she would describe him that way but Miguel didn't wait for her to answer.

"Those guys have been hassling me since summer. They tried to beat me up outside our Mini-Mart. Sensei Lawrence stopped them, but then they did beat me up another time. I guess he decided it would be easier to teach me to defend myself than to keep saving my behind all the time," Miguel said.

She didn't ask why he hadn't reported the bullying. Reseda kids never came out on top when dealing with Encino kids. But this left her with a dilemma. When Uncle Terry had died the year before, she'd made sure that everything to do with Cobra Kai was in her inheritance for a reason. The twins didn't remember the poison that damn snake spread like she did. She had never wanted to see it started back up.

But Johnny was just teaching this kid in self-defense. She learned Cobra Kai karate in self-defense and she never became a giant asshole. Not that she knew of anyway. Bobby hadn't become an asshole, the tournament aside. Tommy was a decent guy. Jimmy had seemed to be doing well at their class reunion. If he hadn't changed in thirty years, she doubted that three more made a huge difference. She hadn't seen Dutch in decades and the last time Bobby had seen Johnny, Angela had been a baby. So she couldn’t speak for them.

Johnny was trying to help the kid. That had to mean something, right?

She knew what Bobby would say. Just hearing the name would have him insisting that they go down and shut Johnny down right away. But even if she did own the Cobra Kai brand, she didn't own the knowledge in Johnny's head. Who was she to say he couldn't share it with Miguel? It wasn't like he'd started the dojo back up.

She’d wrestled with her decision for hours, especially that she couldn't tell Bobby just yet, but for now, she wasn't going to say anything to Johnny. Teaching one kid wasn't worth her starting a fight, was it? Especially if said fight would pit Bobby against Johnny.

A month later, she couldn't ignore the talk anymore. Everyone had been talking about Miguel's fight and Cobra Kai Karate. Half the school was claiming to be taking lessons or were going to. There was even a website for it, for goodness' sake.

She had to do something She knew she did. She decided to go talk to Johnny alone at first.Maybe he'd quit and just hate her and leave Bobby out of it. It took her another week to get up the courage to go.

She checked the website to make sure he would not have a class going on when she arrived. Miguel and Eli Moskowitz were there but if she waited, she knew she might not have the nerve to do that again.

The bells jingled as she opened the door and stepped inside. On the wall of the entrance was the large Cobra Kai emblem. As poisonous as it was to her past, she couldn't stop herself from reaching out and running her hand over the snake, her mind rushing back to that night so many, too many, years ago when she had helped her Dad and Uncle Terry paint the same emblem on the walls of the old dojo. She'd felt so grown-up helping them, like she was really apart of things. In all likelihood, it was just because Daddy had nowhere else to leave her while both he and Cara worked, but he never made it seem like that. They'd made her feel needed and important even though she'd gotten more paint on herself than the walls. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. She hadn't expected a painting to have that effect on her.

"Welcome to Cobra Kai. Are you ready to learn to kick some ass?"

She turned towards the voice and smiled. "Oh, really, Johnny? You gonna teach me how to be a Cobra Kai?"

He dropped the paper he was holding, his face a mask of disbelief before a smile lit up his features. In seconds, he crossed the room, lifting her up in a hug and spinning her around.

"Hell, no, Becca," he laughed, "You could probably still teach me a thing or two." He kissed her cheek. "What are you doing here? You're probably the last person I expected to walk through that door. Is…, is Bobby with you? God, I haven't seen you in what? Twenty years?"

"Closer to thirty," she laughed.

"Really?" He looked shocked. "Damn, we're old." He hugged her again.

''Bobby's at work," she said. "He doesn't know I am here. I..., I wanted to talk to you alone, and I just realized how that sounds. If you make a dirty joke, I will beat you in front of your students."

"Eh, I know it takes Luke Skywalker to get you all hot and bothered," he smirked.

''Johnny!" She playfully swatted at him.

“Oh yeah. It was Han Solo," he grinned, leading her to the office.

"Johnny, those are my students," she laughed motioning to the boys. "Well, Eli is anyway."

"Eli?"

"Kid with the mohawk," she replied.

"Hawk."

“So, you gave him that ridiculous name. That tracks," she nodded. That was also why he was so ridiculously proud of it, too.

"Want a beer?"

''Aren't you teaching?"

“And?" he shrugged.

"I still think it taste like vomit," she replied.

"You drink enough, you won't care," he grinned, leaning back in his chair.

She laughed. "God, Johnny, we've missed you. He's missed you. You should come by sometime. Have dinner or something."

"Maybe I will." he nodded. "You still live in that rinky, little apartment in North Hills, right? The one that you both couldn't fit in the kitchen at the same time. The one that you had to stand in the bathtub to take a piss?" He poked fun at their first apartment together.

"It wasn’t that small," She shook her head. ''And I'm pretty sure Angela was conceived in that kitchen so...," she laughed again.

"Well, I guess you found a way to make it work," he smirked.

"We actually live in Encino. Not far from his house growing up. Lea Anne walks to her grandpa's every day.”

“I haven't seen the Browns in years. How are they?" The Browns were like a second family to him. And he treated them horribly.

"Dr. Adam is great, but we lost Mrs. Lea in two thousand four, right after our Lea was born."

"Damn," he said again. He hadn't even known. "I hate to hear that." Bobby had taken a week off from school to stay with him when he lost Laura. "So, what can I do for you? We both know you didn't come all the way down here to ask me around to dinner or shoot the shit about things that happened thirty years ago."

"Well, when I woke up this morning I was coming here to tell you to shut down," she admitted.

"Why would I do that?" he asked, sounding offended.

She looked around, nervously, "I own the Cobra Kai karate brand and all that entails."

"Cobra Kai brand?" He sounded confused. "How do you own the Cobra Kai karate brand?"

"I inherited it," she replied. "Johnny, didn't you look into all this before you opened?"

“Yeah, duh," he scoffed but she could tell he totally had not. "So what? You want me to pay you or something? What are you getting at?" He could never get ahead. Every time he got something good, life kicked him in the teeth again. This time it was a double kick coming from someone he had been thrilled to see That he’d thought was a friend.

"Come on, Johnny,”' she snapped. "I wouldn't do that to you. I didn't inherit the brand so I could make money. I did it so I could make sure it stayed shut down. You boys weren't the only ones whose lives were poisoned by that damn snake. I came to bring you this." She threw an envelope on his desk. "And I don't want a damn dime for it."

“What is it?" He looked as if the envelope would bite him.

"My permission to legally use the brand," she replied. “I think you're doing good here and I don't want you to get hung up again. The man who owns this building is an asshole and if he thinks he can make a buck, he will have you out anyway he can. There's one less way now."

"Thank you," he said humbly as he read the paper. "What changed your mind?"

“Eli Moskowitz." She looked out the window at him and Miguel roughhousing in the main room. "I've been teaching him music all the way back to Mommy and Me. Today, I realized that I could hear his voice for the first time ever. For the first time ever, he laughs out loud. He smiles. He doesn't sit like this anymore." She slumped down and covered her mouth with her hand before sitting back, up. ''Aisha Robinson. She used to try to make herself as small as possible, as invisible as possible. Now, she's proud of herself, of her strength, she doesn't try to disappear any more. I can tell who your students are. They are the kids who always tried to hide and not be noticed. Now, they walk with their heads held high and their shoulders back. They're proud and confident and they don't care who notices. That has to be because of you and your Cobra Kai."

Johnny swallowed and shook his head in disbelief. "You know I'm going to have to hug you again." No one had said anything that nice to him in years.

"I'll take it," she said. "If you'll accept that invite to dinner. You know, for real with a date and a time and everything. And you don't have to stand in the tub to take a piss now."

He was laughing as he walked around the desk and hugged her. It wasn’t until later that night that he realized that if she inherited Cobra Kai Karate then the old man was really gone and it hurt more than he’d ever imagined it would.

#Careless Man's Careful Daughter #Johnny #Becca Kreese #old friends

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