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. 𖦹˙— 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆. ˖ ࣪. ࿐♡˚.
𖤐 ﾉ 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝖳𝖶𝖮 ╱ 𝘌𝘗𝘐𝘚𝘖𝘋𝘌 𝘛𝘞𝘖
❛ 𝖡𝖠𝖢𝖪 𝖨𝖭 𝖡𝖫𝖠𝖢𝖪 ❜ ⸻ 🐍🥋
˖ ࣪. ࿐♡ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗩𝗘

     ❝𝐒𝐎, 𝐒𝐀𝐌 is doing karate with you and her dad, now? ❞ Laken has her phone pressed against her ear as she walked towards the front of the dojo, bag hanging from her shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess she wanted to get back into it." Robby answered her as he leaned against the side of the painted green building. "So, wanna make plans for tonight? Grab a bite to eat or go watch a movie?"

Laken tilts her head as she pulled the door open to the dojo, walking inside to see Miguel with Aisha's phone pressed against his ear, "Uh, I'll text you after I get home from practice. I wanna see what Silas and my parents have planned for the night first."

"Yeah, sounds good." Robby turned his head, finding Sam looking at him as she talks on her phone, Miguel's name leaving her mouth, "Just let me know. I'll talk to you later?"

"I'll talk to you later."

"Who were you talking to?" Laken and Miguel question each other.

"Sam." Miguel answered the blonde.

Laken shrugged her shoulder as she moved passed him, "My brother."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐀, 𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊 and Bert stand in front of Chris and Mitch, Hawk having his finger pressed to his lips as if he were actually thinking about something.

"What do you think? Shithead one and Shithead two?" Hawk asked the two standing on either side of him.

"I was thinking more Mary-Kate and Asshat." Aisha says, causing Hawk to laugh at her response.

"Well, I'm Chris—,"

"Did I say you could speak?!" Hawk cuts him off.

Miguel smiles as he walks over, "Guys, look, they're just messing with you."

"Thanks, man."

"Besides, everyone knows your names are ass-face and douchebag." Miguel laughs softly.

"Leave them alone." Laken pushes Miguel away from the two boys, glaring slightly at the group of her friends, "They're names are Mitch and Chris, call them something else and I'll beat your asses."

Mitch looks over at Chris as Laken walked away from the group, "Dibs on Assface."

Laken stretches before class, turning her head as the bell above the door dinged, the smile falling from her face as she laughed at a joke Bert was telling her.

"Lake." Hawk nudges her foot with his own, "Who is that?"

"You've got to be kidding me." Anger fills her veins as she looks at the man that her father and Johnny would always talk about.

The guy who had basically ruined their childhood but had mostly torn apart and ruined her father's karate career all together.

"Hey, uh, can I help you, sir?" Miguel asks, walking towards John Kreese just as Laken was getting up from the floor.

John looks the young boy over, a chuckle leaving his lips, "No. But maybe I can help you."

"Hey." Johnny walks out of his office, sending a look towards Laken as he caught the look on her face.

"Uh, Sensei....," Miguel tails off, pointing towards the older man.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Johnny asked as his old Sensei walked towards him, "I said tomorrow."

"Oh. Tomorrow, today. . . ," John chuckled, "Who can keep track, huh?"

Johnny sighed, turning away from his, only to be met with Laken who stood with her arms crossed over her chest, "My office."

The blonde rolls her eyes slightly as she makes her way into the office, Johnny following behind him. "What the hell, Johnny? Kreese, really?"

"He just showed up after the tournament, Laken. I thought he was dead!" Johnny tells the teenager, "We all thought he was dead. He's just observing today, okay? Can you just make it through this one practice with him here? Please, for me? For your godfather?"

Laken stares up at him, arms still crossed over her chest, "Self-proclaimed godfather."

"I knew I could count on you, kid." Johnny smiles as he ruffled her hair, "Go out there with the rest of them. And hey," She turns around to look at him, "Let's not tell your dad about this right this second? I'll tell him on my own."

"I guess." Laken eyes John as she walks by him, going to stand with the others.

"She looks familiar. Like I've seen her somewhere." John informs Johnny as he looks out at the kids, his eyes zeroed in on Laken. "It's like looking into a mirror of Marshall."

"It's Vance. He goes by Vance." Johnny clenches his jaw as he starred John down, "And you stay away from her. Matter of fact, stay away from Vance's family. You wouldn't want to get on his bad side again."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍𝐍𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 in front of his class, clearing his throat, "Class, we have a visitor. This is Mr. Kreese. He's just an observer. Pretend like he's not even here. Mr. Diaz, warm them up."

Miguel walks to the front of the class as Johnny moves to stand next to John, "Fighting positions!" Everyone does as he says, "Front kick. Yuh! Forward strike. Yuh! Side jab. Yuh!"

Laken's jaw drops as she watches the class literally dab in front of both Johnny and Kreese, her head dropping in disbelief.

Johnny looks at the disappointed look on Kreese's face, "What the hell was that?"

"We were just messing around." Miguel tells the Lawrence man. "We have eleven and a half months until the next All Valley."

"Yeah, besides, we already know how to kiss ass." Hawk spoke up, causing the others to laugh.

"Oh, yeah, really, huh?" Johnny asked, "So, you know everything. There's nothing left to learn, huh?"

Aisha laughs.

"Oh, brother." Laken mumbles as she shakes her head, "This is a disaster!"

Johnny walks to stand in front of the girl, "What's so funny, Ms. Robinson?"

"I'm sorry, Sensei." Aisha laughs with a shake of her head, "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

"It's a snake-do." Aisha leaned forwards like it was some big secret as chuckles rung out.

Johnny looks around, "What's a snake-do?"

Laken raised an eyebrow as she watches everyone around her make a snake with her hands, hissing as they moved one arm around like a snake. "I'm in a room full of idiots."

"Quiet!" Johnny yells, causing everyone to stop, "Five AM tomorrow morning. Corner of Fulton and Raymer. You don't show and you're off the team. Class dismissed."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

  ❝ 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐖𝐀𝐒 practice? ❞ Silas questions his little sister as she sits down the island in the kitchen where he was cooking the two of them dinner.

A sigh leaves her lips as she drops her head to the counter, "Kreese made an appearance."

The metal spoon clings to the floor as it slips from Silas's hand to the floor as he looks at her in disbelief, "Did you just say Kreese made an appearance? Are you seeing ghost?"

Laken lifts her head up, "I'm being serious. Apparently, he came to talk to Johnny after the All Valley and now he's observing our classes."

"Does dad know?"

"No. Johnny said that he would tell him eventually."

"Well, what are you going to do?" Silas questioned, "Dad isn't going to like this, like, at all."

"I know that he's not." Laken groaned, "I'm going to go to class every day and pretend that he's not there. But if he starts getting in the way of Johnny teaching us, then I'm out. I'm not about to let him make us out to be like the old Cobra Kai. I don't want any part of it."

"Dad is going to be pissed when he finds out that Kreese's back."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 day, Laken stood in the scorching hot sun as everyone mixed cement in a wheelbarrow's, Johnny standing next to them.

"Don't add too much water." Johnny instructs them, "You wanna make it nice and thick."

"Sensei, why are we mixing cement?" Miguel asked as he mixed while Laken and Hawk poured the dry cement.

"No questions. Keep stirring!"

"Do you think they'd find his body if we buried him in the cement?" Laken huffed, pushing her blonde hair out of her face.

Johnny moves to stand with Kreese, "Laken! Stop planning my murder in that brain of yours!"

"Screw you!"

Kreese looks at him, "Their muscles are going to ache, sure, but if you wanna make 'em tough, you gotta give 'em something to be afraid of. No one's afraid of a little cement."

"They will be."

The sound of beeping is heard causing the karate students to look up, seeing a cement tuck pulling into the junk yard.

"Thanks, Cutter." Johnny dabs the male up, "I'll take it from here."

Cutter looks out at the karate kids, his eyes locking with Laken as she wiped sweat from her forehead, "Hey, you didn't say nothing about no kids, Johnny. And Vance's daughter? He's gonna kill me!"

"Yeah, you and me both." Johnny tells him, "You want your bar tab paid off or not?"

"You get caught; you take the heat." Cutter puts the keys into Johnny's hands.

"What the hell is Cutter doing here?"

"Better question, what the hell is a cement truck going to teach us?" Hawk asked.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

  ❝ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐊 winning the All Valley gives you the right to goof off? ❞ Johnny stands in front of his students, eyeing each and every one of them while Kreese stands off to the side. "Well, I got news for you. Winning one championship don't mean squat. A true champion never stops training. You gotta keep moving forward . . . or else you could get stuck exactly where you are."

Laken stands with her arms crossed over her chest, leaning onto her cousin for support as his hands are tucked in the pockets of the hoodie that he was wearing.

"It's like the cement in this truck. That drum doesn't start turning, the cement inside will harden and get stuck." Johnny points to the truck behind him. "Is that what you want to happen to you?"

"No, Sensei!"

"Good. Then climb up, get inside, and make it spin."

"Johnny, you can't be serious!" Laken looks at the man in disbelief. "This is dangerous for anybody!"

"I'm dead serious, Laken." Johnny turns to her, both of them holding intense eye contact with each other, "Your first since you want to speak out of turn."

Laken stares at him in silence for a moment, a deadly glare on her face before she moves past him, shoving his shoulder with hers as she walks to the truck and begins to climb.

Pausing, the short haired blonde looks down, "If I can't get the cement off of my clothes and shoes after this, you own new shoes."

Johnny gulps as he watches the blonde jump inside the truck, "She scares me. Does she scare anybody else?"

Every one of the students behind him raises his hand.

"Yeah, I thought so."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     𝐋𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐒 under her breath as the last person drops into the back of the cement truck, quickly catching herself as she slips in the grey liquid. "I seriously question the size of his brain at times. And I'm seriously about to revoke his self-proclaimed godfather status!"

"I heard that and it's not happening. You're stuck with me, kid." Johnny sticks his head into the back of the truck, "Don't just stand there. You wanna get stuck? Move!"

"How are we supposed to make this move?" Mitch questions, being in the first group of teens in the truck.

Laken sighs as she puts her hands on the side of the truck, "Come on! All at one time! I'd like to get out of this before I'm forever the next replica of freaking Medusa!"

Outside, Johnny stands next to John, both of them staring at the cement trunk, "Let's go, guys! Move it!"

"You ever done this before?" John asks his old karate student.

"Don't worry, I got this."

"Freaking push!"

"You are so bossy!" Chris calls back.

"I'll show you bossy if you don't make this freaking thing move!" Laken yells, "Now push, dumbasses!"

"Alright! There we go, there we go!" Johnny calls out to them as the truck slowly begins to move, "A little bit faster!"

"We're doing it!" Laken cheered excitedly, "Keep pushing."

"You got this, guys! Let's go!"

"I hate him!" Laken closes her eyes tightly to keep any cement from getting into her eyes.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

  ❝ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 all be proud of yourselves! ❞ Johnny sprays the kids off with a water hose, hoping that he could get the cement off all of the teenagers. "I know I'm proud. Your parents would be proud, too, if you told them what we did here today, which we won't. Especially you." He turns to Laken, "I don't need your mom coming after me. She scares me more than you do."

Laken rolled her eyes, "Just keep spraying."

Johnny does as she says, "You pushed forward like champions. Never stopping. Never being satisfied. Never giving up. And if you keep pushing and keep moving forward, you're gonna go to places you never even dreamed of."

"That was intense."

"Okay, I have to go. I'm late." Laken sighs, moving away from the group of kids.

Miguel looks at her in confusion, "Late for what?"

"I have plans!"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

      𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒 the kitchen as Laken, Robby and Silas sat at the dining table, cards laid out in front of them and snacks tossed around.

"What's going on here?" Vance's voice calls out from behind the kids as he and Alex walked into the kitchen, both of them just coming in from work.

"Oh, just a friendly game of go-fish." Silas holds his cards up, "Though, I'm sure one of them is cheating."

"How do you cheat at go-fish?" Robby asked, picking up another card from the pile in the middle of the table.

"I don't know, but I know that it's happening."

Alex laughed, moving towards the table, "Got room for two more?"

"Always."

"Alright, but I'm not playing go-fish. How about a round of poker?" Vance rubs his hands together, sitting at the table, "We can wage against M&M's."

"Hmm, get ready to lose." Silas jokes, "College has taught me a thing or two."

"Oh, is that right?" Alex raised an eyebrow, "Well, care to put your snacks where your mouth is?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     ❝ 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐈, 𝐘𝐎𝐔 home? ❞ Miguel pokes his head into the apartment door without knocking, container of food in his hand, "I used your spare key to drop off some food. My mom doesn't want you eating Slim Jim's for breakfast anymore."

Silence fills the air, indicating that Johnny wasn't home.

"Okay." Miguel walks towards the refrigerator and puts the bowl inside, the pictures on the freezer door catching his eye.

One picture was of Laken and a boy when they were around ten, both of them sitting on a picnic table with Silas sitting on the top of the table, all three with wide smiles on their faces.

And the other picture was of a little boy kneeling on the grass with a soccer ball next to him, a smile on his face.

Miguel takes the soccer picture from the freezer, a frown on his face, "Robby Keene?"