hng i keep starting so many drafts but i had to give y'all a good valentine's day one shot

this isn't a songfic, i don't like reading or writing those, but it does feature the titles of a few songs, some of which may be familiar. I would recommend listening to "the color violet" by Tory Lanez after this...it was my friend/ex boyfriend that put me on it, i just think it's a neat song...he's a cobra kai fan but i haven't told him about my fics. the fact that he would Absolutely Hate that I'm using this song for a Kiaz fic (not bc he's homophobic or anything, obviously, but because he doesn't like ships where they hate each other in canon) brings me great joy lol

Last thing, this takes place in what I consider the "Happy AU". It just means essentially that there's no generational karate trauma. Johnny says he's starting Cobra Kai the right way and instead of Daniel going "fine >:( ! I'll start my own dojo! :(" he goes "fine <3 I'll start my own dojo ;)" like in a slutty way if you catch my drift. So the rivalry between Miyagi-do and Cobra Kai is friendly and they all have crushes on each other

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The night of Yasmine's party, the night of Robby and Miguel's meet-(lack thereof)cute, was a giant misunderstanding.

Miguel was still the asshole then, drinking and fighting with Robby when he thought he was making a move on Sam, but the motive was all wrong. Robby had went to Miguel's locker at school the next day, not to apologize, but to hopefully explain himself to Miguel a little better.

Robby told Miguel that he was gay, essentially.

And that was fine, Robby wasn't "out and proud" or anything, but he'd tell anyone who happened to ask (an unfortunate circumstance when he had to turn down many, many girls). He told Miguel bluntly that he still thought the other was in the wrong and should apologize to Sam, but that Robby was no threat to their relationship.

Robby was never good at trusting people. He gave people chances again and again, but they always fell through. But he also knew times when he needed a second chance, like when Mr. Larusso saw good in him. When Miguel apologized, Robby gratefully accepted.

Surprisingly, amongst the Valley falling apart over karate and all of Robby's issues with his own dad, Miguel and Robby actually became good friends. They would hang out at school when they couldn't find any other friends, which soon progressed to getting dinner when they had no plans. Some of Robby's favorite nights after karate training with the Larussos was going for a drive with Miguel, the car humming with the bass of music.

Robby did listen to a lot of music; it was better than talking with people, after all. He'd listen in the morning, getting ready for school, at night when getting ready for bed, and pretty much most moments in between. He was getting pretty tired of his own music, though, which was just one of the reasons he was perplexed by the note in his locker.

It was a red heart, folded in half, and it looked as though it had been slid in the slits. When he opened it up, he could see a piece of white paper was glued on the inside, and there was just a link typed out on it. Robby knew his internet safety and wouldn't trust a random link, but this looked like a Spotify link.

Indeed, when Robby typed it out, it lead him to a Spotify playlist, which he then liked so he could save it on his phone. The playlist was called "your mixtape <3", the cover of which a picture of a disco ball bathed in red lighting. The caption read "if you'll be my date to the v-day dance tonight, i'll be standing in the middle of the dance floor at 8 on the dot".

Robby looked it over, then the note, biting his lip. His mind raced, trying to figure out if this was some kind of joke. He went through his list of friends, of people he knew, mentally putting people into boxes of "would" or "wouldn't" do this.

"Hey!" Sam greeted cheerfully, seeming to pop up like a daisy as she always did.

"Hey..." Robby started uncertainly. He held up his heart-shaped note, which Sam was already eyeing with interest. "Someone gave me a weird Valentine's gram, but I think it's a joke."

"Really?" Sam plucked the note out of his hand, her brows furrowing before looking at the playlist on Robby's phone. "I don't think it's a joke, this seems too considerate for that. I think it's cute! I'm just jealous that I didn't get a playlist--" she started to scroll down the songs. "These are really good songs, by the way...do you think you're going to the dance?"

Robby moved in close to look over the songs with Sam. "Well, I wasn't really interested, but now..."

"Now you've gotta meet your mystery man?" Sam grinned coyly, leaning against his locker.

Robby cringed at that. "No one is my 'mystery man'. Besides, what if this is from a girl that doesn't know I'm gay?"

"I doubt it," Sam raised an eyebrow, pointing out one of the songs on the playlist. "See that? It's Keiynan Lonsdale's 'Kiss the Boy'. Not exactly a straight love song."

"Proving even further that this could be some homophobic prank," Robby countered, ever the pessimist. "A considerate, detailed prank to get me in the middle of the dance floor to make fun of me."

"I am a hundred percent sure that this is not a prank." Sam insisted. And then she winked.

Robby's face fell, his mouth forming a perfect round O. "You know who made me this playlist, don't you?"

Sam shrugged, grinning brightly. "Perhaps," she drawled.

Just then, the one-minute warning bell rang for them to get to class. Dread filled Robby's stomach at the idea of not squeezing the answer out of Sam before 8 hours of classes, where this Valentine's playlist and its mysterious creator would be the only thing on his mind. "Samantha--" Robby started, his tone a warning.

"Gotta go," Sam started to speed-walk away.

"Samantha Charlene Larusso, you tell me who made me this playlist, or I'm telling that new Cobra Kai girl you've got the hots for her!" Robby shut his locker and started after her, even though his class was the other way.

A giggle from Sam and "That's not my middle name!" was her only reply.

------

Robby didn't get an answer. Sam insisted that the guy who made this playlist wanted it to be something special, and as Robby listened to the songs throughout the day, he could understand.

At lunch, his friends were not at all helpful.

"It couldn't have been either of you," Robby nodded towards Hawk and Demetri. "Because you're already going to the dance together, right?"

Eli nodded with a grin. "Couldn't blame a guy for asking you, though. You've got more cake than an eight year old's birthday party." He winked, and Demetri smacked him lightly on the arm.

"Thank you, that's very romantic." Robby rolled his eyes. He looked over at Sam. "Couldn't have been you, I know...Chris is straight..." he was mentally going down the list again. He looked over at Miguel. "You couldn't have made the playlist, right? Because you like girls."

In truth, a night that Robby remembers very vividly was one of he and Miguel's late-night drives. Miguel had confessed that he was thinking over his sexuality, but that he preferred girls. The tension was thick in the air that night, and Robby thought that he really wanted to kiss Miguel, though he refrained. He didn't want to be some guy's experiment; nothing would be more mortifying than kissing Miguel, followed by him saying 'yeah, I'm definitely not into guys'.

Robby really wanted it to be Miguel, but he wasn't getting his hopes up.

Indeed, Miguel looked up from his lunch, his eyes showing a lack of focus. He wasn't even paying attention. "What's a playlist?" he asked dumbly.

Robby sighed in defeat, head in his hands and elbows on the table. "I guess I won't go to the dance, then. Can't say yes to a date when I don't know who's asking."

Based on all of his friends mix of "no, you should go, give it a chance!", he couldn't see if a particular boy's face showed the most care.

------

At 7:43, Robby's pulling in late to the dance. It started at 7, but he didn't see the point in showing up just to mill about. He wore a simple red button-up shirt and some nice black jeans with matching dress shoes. Part of his mind nagged at him, telling him this was all some dumb joke, probably by Kyler or some other asshole. Even so, he bought his ticket and went into the gym, making a beeline for the concessions table when he saw Sam.

"You wouldn't join Kyler in pranking me, would you?" Robby asked before even saying hello.

Sam sighed, adding a cupcake onto her plate of food. "I told you, it's not a prank. And I wouldn't let Kyler lick my shoe if it meant saving his life."

Robby couldn't think of a situation in which licking Sam Larusso's shoe would be life-saving, but he sighed and nodded in resignation. "I'm nervous," he confessed simply, the words being the only thing he could manage.

Sam gave him that coy grin that he both loved and hated. "That's adorable."

"Shut up," Robby fired back dismissively before instead focusing on Sam's look for the dance. "You look beautiful..." Indeed, she was wearing a knee-length dress of deep red, her shoulders bare, with lace sleeves forming flowers all the way down her arm and to the beginning of her fingers. "Is Tory here?"

Sam smiled involuntarily at that. "She's in a dance-off with Aisha right now. I've been tasked with getting her punch for when she lets Aisha take the win."

"She's fighting a losing battle," Robby agreed, but his head wasn't really in the conversation as all he could think about was his date in the middle of the floor.

How could he say yes when who it was was a mystery? If he was hoping it was Miguel, and it turned out to be someone else, what was he supposed to do with that?

Robby pulled out his phone and took out his dollar store air-pods, connecting them and starting up the playlist. The dance was already playing music, but he knew this music was much better. The first song to pop up was one that hadn't played before; ("I took my drugs and took my lovin' when I left out the spot"). It was 'The Color Violet' by Tory Lanez; Miguel's current favorite song. Robby knew, because that was the song that was playing when Miguel said he might be bi. Robby had played the song himself by himself before, lovesick about his crush.

It wasn't a love song; it was quite the opposite, actually. But Miguel had put it on the playlist (with a mountain of other songs, too, no wonder Robby hadn't noticed this one), and it was a song just for them.

"Sam..." Robby started, and when Sam looked up to see that Robby was listening to the music again, she smiled sweetly.

Sam pulled out her phone from her little handbag and checked the time. 7:58. "You better get out there. Your date is waiting on you."

Robby just nodded, exhaling shakily as he made his way out to the dance floor. Carefully nudging past people felt like fighting his way through honey for hours, but it was all worth it when he made it to the middle of the floor.

Miguel was standing there, in a salmon-colored button up and black blazer that looked too big on him, holding a single red rose. When Robby met his eyes and saw his sheepish smile, he couldn't help but beam back.

"'What's a playlist?'" Robby mocked, to which Miguel laughed lightly. "You're a dumbass, you know that, right?"

"I know," Miguel replied, and right at 8 on the dot, the song changed. It was the 1984 song 'I Wanna Know What Love Is' by Foreigner.

Robby had actually heard this one earlier on the playlist, but the corniness of it still made him laugh. He put his arms up on Miguel's shoulders, arms crossing behind his neck as Miguel put his hands on Robby's waist.

"We never listened to this song together," Robby commented, something of a question as to why it was on the playlist, and why it seemed that Miguel bribed the DJ. "And it doesn't seem like a song you would like."

"My, uh..." Miguel seemed hesitant to answer. "My mom said it was a romantic song."

Robby didn't know if he wanted to laugh again or swoon; in all his life, it seemed that no one was ever there for him, or was only there to fill out a bare minimum obligation. And here Miguel was, doing all this just for him. He didn't think he'd ever meet someone that could make him feel so much of everything, someone that thought of him outside of what Robby could do for him.

"I can't believe you'd do all this for me," Robby murmured close to Miguel's ear, as if that could begin to cover everything he was feeling.

"It was nothing," Miguel insisted. "I just asked Sensei--er, your dad, how to ask someone out. He said something about how "babes love mixtapes"..."

"Yeah?" Robby replied softly. His dad was still not the best dad in the world (because last week for his birthday, his dad got him lunch and gave him a Lowe's gift card...Robby had never once expressed interest in a single item at Lowe's.) but he was still trying, and Robby could see that.

"I asked him what guys like," Miguel continued with a sheepish smile, and Robby had never wanted to kiss him more, to know how his smile felt against his lips. "And he said he didn't know, and that he'd ask. Then he called Mr. Larusso, and they started fighting like an old married couple."

"That sounds like them," Robby grinned, flushing red as Miguel rested his forehead against Robby's.

The pair was silent for a while, Robby taking in the moment and still trying to take "I Wanna Know What Love Is" seriously without thinking of his favorite childhood movie: Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel.

"Hey, Miguel?" Robby asked, so quiet and so close it was as if he'd said nothing at all. And, like a given, but more careful than an afterthought, he was kissing Miguel, and Miguel was kissing him back.

He thought of all those moments when he leaned over the console of the car to give Miguel a hug, and how he would have taken that discomfort for an hour if it meant getting a kiss from him. He thought of all those friendly sparring matches between Miyagi-do and Cobra Kai's star students, and that one time he'd had Miguel pinned to the wall of the dojo during a private evening practice. What Robby could've--should've--done, in all that time.

But it didn't matter, because here they were now.

Miguel had made him a playlist, bribed the DJ, left a note in his locker and made all his friends keep this secret; Robby couldn't think of a single thing he wouldn't do for this boy.

"Wanna get out of here?" Miguel asked against his lips. "We could go for a drive--I could maybe loosen up a button so this shirt doesn't strangle me..."

Robby chuckles softly, thinking that he'd like more than one button undone, though he refrains. Nothing like a little perversion to ruin a romantic evening. "Yeah, let's get out of here..."

Miguel leads him out, Robby taking a moment to smile and wave to his friends before going off into the night with his mystery valentine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

What is it with kids and ditching dances in my fics?? oh whale

I told my ex that all the Cobra Kai characters were bi and he was like "oh come on, really? I get it for some of them, but you think Johnny Lawrence is bi??" and I said "especially Johnny" and he looked at me like I had just slapped him lmao

I know I have a lot of works in progress but I really like the idea of writing a summer camp au where daniel and johnny are camp counselors post kk1...ft daniel and jessica's adorable friendship and just the nostalgic vibes of summer camp...plus johnny pitting his group of kids against daniel's group of kids in a water balloon fight, etc

I'll leave you guys alone now, happy valentine's day!

~mw