━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
. 𖦹˙- 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆. ˖ ࣪. ࿐♡˚.
𖤐 ﾉ 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝖮𝖭𝖤 ╱ 𝘌𝘗𝘐𝘚𝘖𝘋𝘌 𝘌𝘐𝘎𝘏𝘛
❛ 𝖬𝖮𝖫𝖳𝖨𝖭𝖦 ❜ ⸻ 🐍🥋
˖ ࣪. ࿐♡ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡

𝐃𝐎𝐆𝐒 𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐊 in the distance of the old car lot as the Cobra Kai class stood on their feet, Laken laying her head against Hawk's shoulder as her eyes are closed. Johnny, who cracks open a beer, takes a quick sip from his place on top of an old van.

"You've gotten stronger, tougher, faster. You've done your best. You're ready for this tournament, and I right?" Johnny looks down at his karate class.

"Yes, Sensei!"

"I just wanna go back to sleep!" Laken calls over the loud volume of the other kids.

"Wrong!" Johnny yells, throwing the beer towards his students, calling out a quick apology once Laken snapped her eyes open to glare at him since the liquid had gotten on her skin and her converse. "Your best ain't shit! If you wanna win the All Valley under eighteen karate tournament, you gotta give me better than your best. Which is why from now on, you're gonna get my worst. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sensei!"

"Are you losers?!"

"No, Sensei!"

"Are you nerds?!"

"No, Sensei!"

"Are you sure?!"

"No, Sensei!"

"I just wanna go back to bed!"

Johnny slaps his hands over his eyes, shaking his head in disappointment at the words leaving his students, an amused smile on his face at the words that had left Laken's mouth.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

❝𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐄 feet! Go!❞

Laken shakes her head, running through the tires Johnny had set up for the kids, and being the only one out of everyone that wasn't out of breath.

"How . . . are . . . you . . . not . . . dying?" Miguel pants, hands on his knees as Laken stretches next to him.

"Dude, she . . . does this on . . . the daily." Hawk pants from next to him, "Her whole family is....fit as hell."

"And yet, you aren't. Must of skipped a generation." Laken teases her cousin.

"Shut up."

"Oh, Aisha, are you okay?" Laken calls out to the girl as she trips in the tires, taking a few of the guys down with her.

"I'm okay!"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

❝𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐀 win, you gotta be hungry. ❞ Johnny passes out beef jerky to everyone, pausing in front of Laken, "You, stay with me." He pulls her back with him, taking a bit out of the left over jerky in his hand, "You guys hungry?"

"Yes, Sensei."

"Good . . . cause so are they." Johnny brings out a dog whistle, blowing into it with a smirk on his face.

Dogs bark in the distance again, a few viciously growling as they run towards the karate students.

"Oh, shit!" Aisha curses being the first one to break apart and run.

"And why am I not being chased by rabid animals?" Laken raised an eyebrow, using her hand to block the sun from getting in her eyes as she looked up at her "godfather".

"Uh, because your mother would kick my ass." The blue-eyed man scoffed, "And I'd rather not have her and her thick texas accent coming for my head."

"Fair point." Laken nods her head, wincing at the scream that left her cousins lips as a dog bit down on his ankle, "Oohh, that had to hurt."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

❝𝐈 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐊 you should invite Robby over for dinner. ❞ Vance tells his daughter as she sits at the kitchen table, notebooks scattered around as she studied for a few of her classes, "We haven't seen him around much."

"That's because he doesn't want to be around the people who constantly have his absent father around." Laken doesn't look up as she uses a light blue highlighter to remember an answer.

Vance sighed, "Honey, I've been best friends with Johnny for as long as I can remember, I can't just not invite him over for Sunday dinners like we usually do."

"Yeah, that's the problem." Laken sighed, closing her books and standing up, "Robby thinks that I chose Johnny over him, that's what the fight was about and why we haven't hung out in a while." A frown on is on her face as her dad sends her a sad smile, "I wanna work things out, but he doesn't want to be around because of Johnny."

"Honey, us being around Johnny shouldn't have anything to do with your friendship with Robby. You guys have been best friends since birth."

"I know, dad. Maybe when things cool off, we can get back to how we use to be."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐒 through the woods, duffle bag over his shoulder as he looks for Daniel. Coming to a stop, a look of amazement takes over his face as he watches the man stand on his hands before moving to bring one from off of the tree, "Mr. LaRusso?"

"Huh?" Robby's voice breaks Daniel out of his concentration, making the older man tumble from his positions on his hands. "I almost did it."

Robby runs over to him, "What were you doing?"

"One of the last things Mr. Miyagi ever taught me. The most powerful kick in Miyagi-Do karate." Daniel sits on the tree.

"How do you do it?" Asked Robby.

"I wish I could show you. Only Mr. Miyagi could do it." Daniel shrugged, "You have to balance your whole body on one hand, which frees up two legs for the kick. I almost did it once when I was in my twenties, so the fact that I got this close today . . . , "He trailed off, "I'm sure with someone with a lot of practice . . . and gymnastics could possibly do it as well."

The Keene boy chuckled, hands going into the pockets of his sweatpants, "I have a, uh, best friends, she grew up doing gymnastics. Use to try and teach me sometimes, but I never really wanted to learn. I mean, she taught me how to cartwheel and do handstands, but I always liked watching her show me. She loved it."

"Loved? Past tense?"

"Yeah, uh, her Uncle Mark got her into it. He would make it to just about every competition that he could when he wasn't saving lives, cheered her one when her parents were busy with work." Robby smiles, thinking back to how happy Laken used to be when she was doing gymnastics or how happy she really was whenever she took on new things to try.

"But he died in a plane crash back in 2012, so she stopped going it." He sighed.

Daniel frowned, "I'm sorry for her loss."

"Yeah, he was a great guy."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

❝𝐎𝐊𝐀𝐘, 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 movie are we watching? ❞ Vance claps his hands together, jumping over the back of the couch to land next to his wife, smiling at her, "Hey, pretty lady."

"Ugh, you guys make me sick." Laken groaned, throwing a piece of popcorn at her dad as she comes out of the kitchen with two bowls in her hand, Demetri following her with a few cans of drinks.

Alex laughs at her daughter, "One day this will be you, honey, just you wait."

"Over my dead body!" Vance playfully glared at his wife before pointing a finger in his daughter's direction, "No dating until you're eighteen."

"Dad, that's two years away." Laken laughed, sitting down on the opposite couch with Demetri.

"Okay, no dating until you are old and have wrinkles."

"You'll have wrinkles before me."

"Watch it!" Vance throws a handful of his own popcorn at his teenage daughter, wrapping his arm around his wife's shoulders.

"Okay, seriously, what movie are we watching?" Demetri asked, wrapping himself up in the designated blanket that he had when he slept over at the Callahan home.

"The Notebook." Alex answered, a smirk on her face.

Laken laughs loudly as both her dad and Demetri let out groans.

𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗥'𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘
Sorry about this chapter . . . I really didn't know where to put Laken at all during this which is why it's a short chapter, but the next to episodes will be so much better . . . I hope.