「. 𖦹˙— 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆. ˖ ࣪. ࿐♡˚. 」
⤿ 𝘐𝘛𝘚 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘓𝘈𝘞𝘠𝘌𝘙 𝘐𝘕 𝘔𝘌 🥋 ˖ ࣪. ࿐
𝗰𝗼𝗯𝗿𝗮 𝗸𝗮𝗶 ┆𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦
❪ ﹆ ━ 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺 ⋆⭒˚.⋆ ❫

❝he is 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 than who his father is.❞

          𝐀 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐍 leaves Robby's lips as a phone ringing cuts his sleep short. Rolling over, his shoulder nudges Laken, "Laken! Answer your damn phone!"

"I'm trying to sleep." The pink haired girl whined, rolling over to bury her face into his chest. "Make it stop."

"It quit on its own." The boy sighed, closing his eyes once more to fall back into a deep slumber but is brought right back out by her phone ringing again, "Laken!"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

          𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐎 teens move around each other in the kitchen, just how they used to do, as Alex and Vance watched from the doorway with soft smiles on their faces.

Robby quickly grabs two bowls from the counter, sliding them towards Laken who poured the cereal into them, sliding them back down to Robby, who then poured the milk into them.

Laken opens the refrigerator to put the milk jug back inside, grabbing a bottle of apple juice and orange juice, tossing the orange juice towards Robby, who catches it.

"Well, this is starting to look familiar." Alex speaks up, catching the attention of the two teenagers, both of them looking in the direction where Alex stood with her husband.

"Hey, Mrs. Callahan." Robby sends a smile in her direction, taking his usual spot at the bar in the kitchen to eat his cereal.

"Robby, what have we told you? You don't have to call us Mr. and Mrs." The older blonde woman chuckled, moving to kiss the top of her daughter's head. "I know that you have your karate tournament today, but your dad and I got called out our Memphis location for a legal matter, so we have to leave and won't make it."

Laken frowns, "But I thought you guys cleared your schedules to come?"

"We did, sweetheart, but this was a last-minute thing. We're really sorry." Vance sighed, moving to also place a kiss on the crown of Laken's head, "But just because we aren't going to be there, doesn't mean we won't hear all about it."

She looks up at him in confusion, "What?"

Vance smirked, "You'll see later on. Good luck to all of you. Tell Johnny, good luck too."

"I will."

"So, would now be a bad time to tell you that I need a ride to the All-Valley tournament?" Robby asked his best friend as her parents walked out of the house.

"What?" Laken's head snaps over in his direction, "Your competing?"

Robby shrugged with a nod, "I figured that I've been learning so I might as well fight in the tournament."

"But Mr. LaRusso kicked you out, told you not to come back." Laken says, "You want to compete still?"

"Yeah."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

          ❝𝐘𝐎, 𝐌𝐈𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐋, calm down, man.❞ Hawk looks over from his spot with Aisha and Bert to Miguel, who was punching the air with an angry expression on his face, "Save some for the tournament."

"Hey, don't even bother." Aisha tells the blue haired boy, "He's been super aggro ever since the breakup."

"Where's Sensei?" Hawk questioned, "The tournament's gonna start soon."

"He'll be here."

"I don't know about that." Bert spoke up, the two turning towards him.

"What are you talking about?" Aisha asked the short boy.

"I saw him last night at the mini-mall. I was buying a carton of milk . . . when I heard him in the parking lot yelling." Bert says to them.

"Well why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Asked Aisha.

"I don't know. I guess I'm so used to seeing him drunk, it didn't seem like that big a deal."

"Well, we're here, and he's not. So, it's officially a big deal." Hawk tells him, "What if something happened to him?"

"Like what?"

"Like he drove his car off a cliff or bought a gun and blew his brains out." Hawk came up with the over-the-top response leaving his mouth.

"No. Sensei would never kill himself. That's too pussy a move." Aisha says.

"Whatever. I mean, we're here. We're gonna have to do it without him."

"Do what without me?" Johnny walks up to the group, Laken hanging on his back before he sat her down on her feet.

"Sensei."

"We didn't think you were gonna show up." Hawk tells him, glancing over at Laken, "Either of you."

"I had something I had to do." Laken shrugged.

"I may not always win, but I never back out of a fight." Johnny tells his team.

"Alright. Let's sign up." Miguel spoke for the first time that morning, trying to make eye contact with Laken, but she does everything to keep from looking in his direction.

"Not yet." Johnny looks at everyone, "There's one more lesson I have to teach you."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

          ❝𝑨𝑳𝑳 𝑻𝑬𝑨𝑴𝑺 report to the locker room in five minutes.❞

Johnny stands in the middle of all of his students, looking around at them, "You've all learned to strike first, to be aggressive, not be losers. I taught you to strike hard, put every ounce of your power behind everything you do."

"But I haven't taught you the third rule of Cobra Kai. "No Mercy". The older you get the more you're gonna learn that life isn't fair. You wake up one morning feeling great, and then life throw a spinning heel kick to your balls, takes a big steaming shit in your mouth."

Laken rolled her eyes.

"You get an "f" on a test, you get suspended. You and your best friend having a falling out and don't speak to each other." Johnny glances over at Laken as he spoke, "You fall in love with a girl, and some other dude comes and steals her away."

"Car gets set on fire. Just when you think things are going good, everything falls apart. That's how it goes. Life shows no mercy, so neither do we. We do whatever it takes to keep our heads above water."

"We do whatever it takes to keep moving forward. We do whatever it takes to win! Remember who you are. You're badass! You don't give a shit! You kick ass! You're Cobra Kai."

"Cobra Kai!"

"Yeah!"

"Alright, guys. Let's get down there and kick the shit out of everybody!"

"Yeah!"

Miguel begins to take his white gi out of his backpack, but Johnny stops him.

"No. You're not wearing those." Johnny smiles at them before turning to Laken, "And, uh, your parents sent me with something for you."

Laken tilts her head to the side, looking over at him in confusion, "What?"

"I leave for college, and you pick karate back up?" A voice calls out from behind the group, everyone turning to find a tall blonde-haired guy, no older than twenty and with blue eyes walking towards them with a big smile on his face.

"Silas!" Laken squeals loudly, rushing towards her brother and throwing herself into his arms.

Silas laughs, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist, "Hi, little sister."

"What are you doing here?" She asked, getting herself wrapped around her brother as he held her up.

"Did you really think that you were gonna have no one cheering you on today?" Silas asked with a smile as his eyes drifted over the group of karate students, eyes landing on Hawk, "Eli, dude! Loving the hair! Get over here!"

For a moment, Eli came back as he rushed over to wrap his arms around his two cousins, everyone smiling at the affection between the two of them.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

          ❝𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄, 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄, to the fiftieth annual All-Valley under eighteen Karate championship!❞

Demetri clapped his hands from between Silas and Moon, "This has been going on for fifty years?"

"Laken and I's dad did this the same year as Johnny and LaRusso." Silas clapped his hands with a shrug. "It's probably been around longer than that."

"Am I the only one that's been out of the loop?"

Silas laughs at him.

"You'll love the new mats." The announcer laughed. "Alright, let's start by welcoming all the local dojo's competing today. From Granada Hills, All-Star Karate!"

"Did you know Silas was coming home?" Hawk looked over at his cousin.

She shakes her head, "No. I knew he was coming when we were out for summer break, but I didn't think he was coming home early."

"It's gonna be nice for the three of us to catch up." Hawk nodded.

"Fighting out of Topanga, we have Topanga Karate. From Reseda, returning to the tournament, we have-,"

"Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai!" The students now dressed in black Gi's come out, earning loud cheers from Demetri, Moon and Silas.

"Now that's what I call an entrance!" Daryl smiles. "And a badass name for a dojo! Let's hear it for Cobra Kai!"

"Whoo! Go Hawk!" Moon calls out.

"Let's get it Lakie!" Silas stands up, cupping his mouth as he cheered for his sister.

"And finally, fighting unaffiliated from North Hills, we have Mr. Robby Keene!"

Robby comes out by himself, white gi covering his body and his hair pulled back out of his face.

Johnny looks over at Laken who is fighting a smile from her lips, leaning down to her, "Did you know he was fighting on his own?"

Laken sighed but kept her eyes forward, "After whatever happened last night, he showed up at the house. He stayed the night, and I drove him here this morning. I didn't know that he was even thinking about competing until he told me while we were eating breakfast."

He sighed, nudging her with his shoulder, "At least you were there for him last night."

"I'll always be in his corner." Laken tells him, "Even when the two of us are on okay terms. We're working on it."

"Good. Because your mom and I have been planning your wedding since you were eight and declared that you two would get married to each other."

"Shut up." She laughed.

Amanda turns to her husband, "I didn't know he was fighting."

"Neither did I."

"Get ready." Daryl smirked. "It's Karate time."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

          ❝𝐀𝐋𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓, 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍, you know the rules.❞ The referee stood in the middle of Miguel and the boy he was fighting. "Three points win. Step on the mat."

"Wait, wait." Johnny stops Miguel, whispering something into his ear as Aisha and Laken stood behind the group, locked in an intense game of thumb war.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Hawk laughs, watching the two girls.

"Thumb war. Ha, Ha! I won!" Laken cheered.

"And face me. Bow. Face each other. Bow." The referee tells the two, "Ready? Fight!"

Miguel quickly brings his foot up, kicking his opponent in the face, sending him to the floor.

"That's one point, Diaz!"

Sam turns to her dad, "I can't believe he stole your move."

Johnny smirked over at Daniel.

Up next was Robby and Laken quickly turned her focus on the two boys fighting.

"That's two points, Keene."

Robby smirked, turning his head in Laken's direction and shooting a wink at her causing the blonde to playfully roll her eyes with a smile on her face.

"Let's fucking go, Robby!" Silas cheered for his sister's childhood best friend, and a boy that he himself saw as a brother since he had been around since their births.

Daniel turned his head up, eyebrows pinching together in confusion as he takes in the blonde, "Why does he look so familiar? And why is he cheering on Robby?"

Sam looks up to where her dad was looking, "That's Silas Callahan. He's Laken's older brother. Her and Robby were talking at the party at the canyon a couple of days ago."

Next was Aisha, who kept using defense to keep herself going.

"Enough defense! Attack!" Johnny called out to the girl.

Aisha kicks the boy in the back of his leg, sending him down to the mat before she grabbed him by the front of his gi and punching him in the face.

"Good job, Ms. Robinson. Good job!" Johnny called out to her.

Then next was Hawk, "Fight!"

Hawk does his best, getting hit a few times before he fought the boy, hitting him in the face as knocking him to the floor.

"Let's go, Eli!" Laken cheered on her cousin with a smile.

Hawk yells in excitement as he wins, ripping the top part of his GI off and flexing his muscles, moving his shoulders back to make the eagle tattooed on his back

"You got this, Bert!" Laken cheered the shorter boy on, one that could be mistaken for a relative of hers if the two stood next to each other.

"Fighting positions."

"Let's go, Bert! No Mercy!" Johnny calls out to the littler boy.

"Come on, Bert!"

"You got this!"

Laken's jaw drops as the boy going up against Bert does a flip over his head, before going it again and kicking the smaller boy in the face, sending him to the floor.

"Oohh, poor Bert."

"And that brings us to the quarter finals!" Daryl spoke up to everyone.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

          𝐌𝐈𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐅𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 against the guy Bert fought, sliding across the mats as the boy flips over him, kicking him in the leg before swinging his leg up and hitting him across the floor.

"Three points!" The referee holds Miguel's arms up, "Winner!"

"That's one more, Diaz!" Hawk calls out.

Miguel looks over at Sam, who looks away from him, making the boy frown as he walked back over to his group.

"Over on mat two, Miguel Diaz makes the semis!"

Robby fought next, ducking a few punches from his opponent before kicking him in the stomach, earning him three points.

"Over on mat three, Robby Keene advances to the semifinals!"

"Boyfriend?" Xander questioned Laken as the two of them went against each other.

Laken raises an eyebrow, "Xan, you know better than anyone that I don't have a boyfriend."

He smirked, "Doesn't look like it. Keene hasn't taken his eyes off of you the entire time you've been fighting."

"Best friends."

"I'm sure. Best friends don't look at each other the way the two of you look at each other." Xander smirked, kicking out at the blonde, who ducked. "I thought you didn't want to compete in karate. That's why you wouldn't join us."

"Yeah, I don't give a shit about any of this." Laken shrugged, kicking the boy in the stomach.

Xander chuckled, nodding his head and quickly kicks Laken's legs out from under her, kicking her in the hip.

"Yes, Xander!" Xander's mom jumps up, cheering for her son as the boy helps Laken up.

"Good fight."

"Whatever." She laughed, walking away as she held her hip in pain. "Fuck that hurt."

"Are you okay?" Miguel asked the blonde.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Her voice is blunt as she spoke to Miguel, crossing her arms over her chest.

"And over on mat four, Xander Stone is our last semifinalist."

"You let him win." Johnny looks down at the blonde, "You could've taken him."

Laken shrugged, "Eh, he's got more going for him in karate than I do. I don't need a trophy to know that I could probably kick everyone's ass up in here."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

          ❝𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐋 winners.❞ Daryl stands on the mats, Johnny, Miguel and Hawk standing behind him, "Yes! Let's give it up for all of our competitors. You're all winners. We have seen some great fighting today, haven't we? Huh? There can only be one true winner, and he is standing on this stage right now."

"Will it be Miguel Diaz from Cobra kai Karate? Will it be Hawk . . . well, I guess it's just "Hawk" from Cobra Kai Karate?"

"Let's go, Eli!" Laken cheered for her cousin, laughing as he shoots a glare in her direction for using his actual name.

"Moskowitz." Demetri says from the stands only to get a laugh from Silas, "It's Eli Moskowitz."

"Will it be Robby Keene, unaffiliated?" Daryl asked, turning to Robby who bowed like the others had, "And last but certainly not least, last year's champion, fighting out of Topanga Karate, Xander Stone!"

Instead of bowing like the others, Xander does a front flip on the center of the stage, taking the microphone from the announcer, "I just wanted to say, even though I love to fight, we all need to fight together against hatred. . . ,"

Laken slaps a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

". . . and as I look around this arena, I pray for every race, religion, and gender, that we can all live together in peace. Please join me in a moment of silence as we strive to end intolerance in our time."

Johnny leans towards Miguel, "Hey, kick that pansy bitch in the face."

"Yes, Sensei."

Robby has an amused smile on his face as he locks eyes with Laken, mouthing, "I can't believe you dated that guy'.

The blonde is quick to send him the middle finger as she playfully rolled her eyes.

After a moment, Daryl takes the microphone back, "Alright! First up, Stone Versus Diaz! Let's go!"

Miguel and Xander stood on the mat's, both of them putting up a good fight as they punch at each other and dodge hits.

"Come on, Miguel!" Laken called out to the boy.

Miguel kicks his leg at Xander, the boy dodging hits before Miguel gets a good kick to Xander's face, sending the boy dressed in blue to the mats.

"That's two-one, Diaz!"

"Yeah, Miggy!" Carmen yells out to her son, proud of him.

"Offense!" Johnny yells out to Miguel, "Stay on offense!"

"Fighting positions. Ready? And fight!"

Xander and Miguel circle around each other before Miguel goes at him, Xander blocking every hit thrown at him

"Let's go, Diaz. Don't let him trick you."

"You got this!"

Xander jumps in the air, sending Miguel to duck on the floor before the Diaz boy is standing up and kicking Xander in the side.

"There it is!"

"Point!" The referee holds Miguel's hand up, "Winner!

Xander shakes the boys' hand, both of them bowing to each other.

"Miguel Diaz is headed to the finals. Next up, Hawk versus Keene."

Robby jumps up onto the mat, people cheering loudly for him, Silas's voice carrying out as he cheered the loudest for the boy.

"Come on. You're not gonna cheer for your own student?" Amanda asked her husband, "That boy is cheering for him louder than anyone."

"No, he's not my student." Daniel told his wife, gesturing out to Robby. "Alright, I . . . . Amanda, I can't. The kid lied to me."

"So, he lied. So what?" Amanda says, "He's a kid who obviously wasn't in it with Johnny or he wouldn't be fighting his students."

"Hi, Mr. LaRusso." Laken bounces over to the family, dressed back in her regular clothes since she wasn't competing anymore and she wanted to get back into her shorts and t-shirt.

"Laken? What are you doing over here?" He looks at the girl, who his son stared up at with hearts in his eyes.

Laken sighed, "It wasn't Robby's fault, okay? He was just trying to get back at Johnny." She tells him, "Look, the two of them don't have the best relationship, they never have. Robby wouldn't betray your trust if he was on his dad's side."

"How do you know all of this? How do you really know Robby?"

"My dad is best friends with his dad, we share a birthday. We've been best friends since literally day one. And even though we've been fighting since before school started back up, he's still one of the most important people in my life. He's a damaged kid who just wants someone to look up to. Johnny has never given him that but you . . . you did."

Amanda smiles softly at the girl, "You really care for him, don't you?"

"I love him. I've been in love with him since before I could remember." Laken shrugged, admitting to someone other than her parents and her brother her true feelings for Robby. "And I know he probably doesn't feel the same way, so I keep my feelings for him to myself. But he's my everything. Just think about it. Give him a chance because he is so much more than who his father is. We all are, aren't we?"

Daniel sits back as he thinks over the words, smiling at the blonde, "You are a good debater."

Laken laughed, "Yeah, that's lawyer side of me. I get it from my mom."

"Something wrong, Sensei?" Hawk asked the man standing next to him.

Johnny looks over at him, "No. Show him what you got."

Hawk and Miguel do their handshake that they made up, the blue haired boy jumping up onto the map, eyeing Robby with a smirk on his face, "Prepare to face the fury of the Hawk."

"Face me. Bow. Face each other. Bow." The referee tells the two teenagers, "Fighting positions."

"Kick his ass, Hawk!" Silas calls out to his cousin before he pauses, "Kick his ass, Robby!"

Demetri turns to him with an amused look on his face, "Who are you really rooting for?"

Silas sighed, "I have no idea. I've known both of them since they were born."

"Fight!"

Laken keeps her eyes on the two as she takes her place next to moon, watching both her cousin and best friend fight each other.

A groan leaves the blonds lips as she watches Hawk take Robby down, yelling out his ridiculous nickname that Johnny had given him.

"One point, Hawk!"

Robby stands up, fixing his top as he makes his way back over to his spot.

"He's not focused." Daniel sighed as he watches Robby, standing up to cup his mouth, "Remember what you learned, Robby!"

Robby nods at the man, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Okay, fighting positions! Ready? Fight!"

Robby and Hawk fight each other, Robby now being more focused as he holds his hands up in front of him.

Hawk kicks at him but Robby is quick to dodge the kick, sending one of his own at Hawk's shoulder.

"There you go, Robby!"

"That was sick!" Anthony smiles.

"One point, Keene!"

"That was a lucky point." Hawk glared at the boy in front of him, moving back to his spot, "It's gonna be your last."

"Why?" Robby asked with a smirk on his face, "Leaving early to fix that stupid haircut?"

"Hey!" The referee calls out as Hawk races after Robby, bringing his leg up to kick Robby in the back of his shoulder. "Stop! Get back here!"

"Hey, what the hell is that?!" Daniel asked.

"Robby!" Johnny jumps up on the mat to go down to his son. "Are you okay?"

"Get the hell away from me." Robby tells his father.

The referee grabbed Johnny, "Hey, get back on your side!"

"What the hell just happened?" Demetri asked shocked.

"Hawk just got eliminated. That was an illegal move." Laken stands up, "I'm gonna go make sure that Robby is okay."

"What the hell were you thinking, man?" Johnny asked Hawk, hitting him on the shoulder.

"What was I supposed to do, be a pussy?"

"You alright, kid?" The referee helps Robby up from the mat, the boy holding his arm close to him.

"I'm fine."

"With that disqualification, Keene earns a trip to the finals! We'll see him back here after a short break!"