note: I was going to have the campers be random kids that no one cares about, but I'm going to change it so some of them are the ck kids. I know that's not biologically possible for characters like Sam and Robby, at least not in these circumstances, but it's a fanfic, so just lemme do what I wanna do. if you guys absolutely hate it I'll change it back, I just figure it'll be more fun this way.


The next day came bright and early, a little disorienting for Daniel in the first few moments of waking up.

Tommy was hitting him with a pillow.

"Wakey wakey eggs and bakey, my friend!" He was saying jovially, in between utterly wailing on Daniel until he threw up a weary side block.

"I will beat the shit out of you, man, and I'll make it look like an accident," he says, and that finally gets Tommy to stop. Daniel blearily rubs his eyes. "Man, I thought yesterday was a nightmare..." he sits up and notices that Johnny's bed, right across from his, is still occupied by a sleeping young man. "Hey, no fair! You could've woken him up first."

Tommy shrugs, tossing his pillow back on his bed before taking out a bottle of sunscreen. "I actually value my life, so I'm good. Bobby, be a dear and sacrifice yourself to the monster, would you?"

Bobby sighs and goes over to Johnny's bed, pulling off his covers. Johnny groans and pulls them back up. The two fight over the covers with vicious tenacity (a few petty slaps thrown in the mix) until Bobby's final success, and Johnny sits up with dragged reluctance. His hair is a mess, and Daniel covers his mouth to conceal a snicker.

"What are you laughing at?" Johnny glowers at Daniel, Daniel pursing his lips with his eyes wide and innocent, all but actually saying 'who, me?'

"You look really pretty this morning, Johnny," Daniel says instead, and Tommy snorts at that.

Johnny looks hopelessly at Bobby. "Am I going to have to deal with him all summer?" he asks, exasperated.

"Until one of you kills the other, or goes to...some other extreme," Bobby shrugs. "My money's on Larusso to take you out first. Sorry, Lawrence."

Before Johnny can speak, Ali's opened the door to the cabin, abrupt and not knocking. "Come on, you guys, most of the campers are here!"

"Could've knocked, princess!" Tommy counters. "I could've been naked."

Ali sneers at him. "Call me princess again, and I'll hang your boxers on the flagpole, then everyone will see you naked." She looked over Johnny, eyebrows raised. "Nice hairdo, Lawrence."

"You've seen me more disheveled, princess." Johnny shrugs, though he's running a comb through his hair too quickly to be considered careless anyway.

Ali scrunches up her nose at Johnny like he's bad meat in her fridge, and Daniel just beams, watching this all play out. 

Bobby's out the door first, already ready. He leans close to Ali on his way out, stage-whispering: "Add Johnny's boxers to the flagpole of shame, would you? He's a pig." He eyes Daniel skeptically. "You can spare Larusso...for now..."

"Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts," Ali grins, her eyes falling on Daniel. For the first time in a while, she doesn't look upset with him. Perhaps this was the summer of better beginnings after all.

------

That morning, after breakfast, the counselors are each given responsibility of about seven campers, matching the gender of the counselor. In Daniel's eyes, all the young girls being divided between Susan, Ali, and Jessica are pretty much the same--all big-haired and skinny-limbed. The boys, however, are different.

"You got the runts," Johnny snickers, close to Daniel's ear as he peers at his group. Half the boys are rocking the glasses-and-braces combination, always great for the ladies. All of them are skinny, even for ten-year olds. "It's fitting for you, Larusso."

"Oh, yeah? And what about your bunch?" Daniel questions, turning to see Johnny's group of boys, which are coincidently huge. Broad-shouldered and menacing, Daniel's surprised they weren't high schoolers that snuck in somehow. "Okay, so they're bigger, so what? I'll bet my guys could beat your guys at anything you throw at them."

And so, he's throwing the campers that are supposed to trust him into the fire. Under the bus. Okay, right into the street to be hit by the personification of flaming buses. So, what? With Johnny looking at him like that, competition sparking in his eyes the same as it did in Cobra Kai all those months ago, Daniel can't help but risk it all. He's not looking down at Johnny's mouth on purpose, but with his unfortunate height disadvantage, it's at his level, and--

"I'm gonna wipe that cocky ass smirk off your face."

Daniel's campers gasp, and Johnny raises his brows, but his grin only grows to show off his stupid pearly white teeth. His head cocks to the side, and Daniel has the sudden thought that this is probably how the bastard looks at his menu at the country club before settling on what expensive meal he's about to eat. Daniel stands his ground, his eyes defiant as always.

"Cursing in front of campers, now?" Johnny challenges, his voice hushed, if only to make Daniel lean closer to hear him; Daniel doesn't give him the satisfaction.

"You're one to talk," Daniel says, even if they were assigned their campers only a few minutes before. "I'll bet your guys won't last a day under your bad influence."

Johnny shakes his head, squinting at the sun for a moment with his tongue poking at the side of his cheek before his eyes settle on Daniel. "Maybe. But we'll settle for spending the day kicking your ass. You, me, and our guys. The gaga ball pit, ten minutes." He turns and starts away before stopping short, turning around with hands on his hips. "Ask one of your little guys if you lose your way."

Daniel wants to retort that he has a map, but the retort is so stupid that he choses instead to bite his lip, fuming.

------

"You shouldn't have done this," Ali keeps saying as she walks Daniel and his campers down the path leading to the ball pit. And Daniel knows he shouldn't have signed off his last will and testament on this, just based on how Ali invited her campers to watch Daniel's team get obliterated. It was the worst case of post-challenge clarity Daniel had ever had...second to signing up for the tournament back in the fall, of course.

One of Ali's campers, a ten-year-old girl with brown hair streaked with blonde, has started up a chant: "Daniel's gonna die, Daniel's gonna die, Daniel's gonna die!"

"Hey, that's counselor Daniel to you, Tory!" one of Daniel's campers, a string bean of a kid named Demetri, protested. "And he's not gonna die! I heard he won the All-Valley karate championship last year! We'll be fine."

Ali leans over, her eyes doubtful. "Johnny won that twice," she supplies.

"Daniel's gonna die, Daniel's gonna die, Daniel's gonna die!"

Daniel's group finally made it to the ball pit, Daniel leading his charges directly into the lions' den. The den is a little underwhelming, simply a circle of wooden fencing with plenty of room for twenty people to...what was it, scuffle?

Daniel turned to Ali, attempting to keep his voice quiet. "I've never actually played gaga ball before..."

Johnny snorted at that, coming over to the edge of the fence where Daniel was, stretching out one leg at a time. "I've been reigning champion for five years."

"That's a lie," Ali cut in. "I beat you that one time when we were fifteen."

Johnny rolls his eyes, giving Ali a pointed look. "Yeah, well, I was distracted," he sent a wink her away.

"I can be distracting," Daniel offers, copying Johnny's leg-stretching movement.

Johnny and Ali both give him a look, and Daniel senses he messed up somewhere along the line, but he shakes it off. "Come on, guys, how do you play?"

Ali purses her lips but swings the gate open, heading into the middle. She picks up the large ball that's in the middle, having to use two hands to hold it up. "Alright, I'll explain the rules. After that," she grimaces, looking as though she regrets everything that brought her to this moment. "It's game time."

Johnny gives Daniel that country-club-menu glance over once more, his crooked grin only serving to ignite Daniel's defiance again.