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. 𖦹˙- 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆. ˖ ࣪. ࿐♡˚.
𖤐 ﾉ 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝖳𝖶𝖮 ╱ 𝘌𝘗𝘐𝘚𝘖𝘋𝘌 𝘛𝘏𝘙𝘌𝘌
❛ 𝖥𝖨𝖱𝖤 & 𝖨𝖢𝖤 ❜ ⸻ 🐍🥋
˖ ࣪. ࿐♡ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗘𝗡

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐓𝐇 of the sun beams down on Laken's skin as she laid up on her elbows, head thrown back and sunglasses covering her eyes as she laid out on the beach. She had planned to stay in and spend some time with her brother, but when he woke her up that morning to let her know he was hanging out with some old high school friends, Laken called up Eli and Demetri which then turned into the three, Miguel, Moon and the other teens that were in Cobra Kai.

Well, they were actually her third choice ; she was going to see if Robby had wanted to come with her to the beach, but he couldn't due to being with Sam and Daniel.

"Uh, Mulligan, send it back." Demetri's voice brings her out of her trance, causing her to tilts her head up and looking through the sunglasses on her eyes.

"There's no Mulligans in Volleyball." Eli tells him.

Demetri scoffed, "Says you. Water break."

Eli throws his hands out, turning to his cousin, "Laken! Please, play!"

"I didn't come to play. I came to soak up as much sun as I can before Johnny has us stuck in practice this summer."

"Cobra Kai?" Two girls come to a stop after seeing Demetri wipe his face with a Cobra Kai towel that belonged to the blue haired boy, "You guys won that karate tournament, right?"

Demetri stutters as he slowly lowers the towel, "The All Valley? The rumble in Reseda?"

Laken smiles in amusement as she watches Demetri throw the towel over his shoulder and leaning his hand on the pole of the volleyball next.

"Yes, uh....we, uh...certainly did."

"Cool." The dark haired girl smiles, "We're gonna go for a swim, but maybe play with you later?"

"Pfft...most def." He gets even more awkward if that made sense, "Uh, that means "most definitely."

They both laugh, walking away.

Moon giggles, "Look at you, player."

"It'd be niece if you earned the Cobra Kai cred you're so happy to take." Eli tells him, "When are you ever gonna sign up?"

"I don't know. I'm kind of enjoying the gain without the pain."

"Leave him alone." Laken chuckled, "Let him do his thing. The only person it's bothering is you, Eli."

"What did we say about us-,"

"Hawk. Laken." Miguel finally walks up to them, cutting Eli off from ranting to his cousin about not calling him by his real name but instead calling him by the nickname that Johnny had given to him.

"There's the man." Eli smirked, the two boys dabbing each other up, "No. No more of this. Look, it's a beautiful day out. The beach is packed with babes. No more sulking about Sam."

"Yeah, just focus on yourself for a while, Miggy." Laken smiles up at him, "You'll feel better about yourself."

"I'm not sulking about Sam. It's about Sensei."

Laken stands up from the towel, whipping the loose sand from her blue jean shorts and putting her hands on her hips as she stood next to them.

"Is this about his rap sheet?" Eli asked, "My parents read it online. I think it makes him more badass."

"It's about him and Robby Keene." Miguel says, making Laken tense up as her head snaps over in his direction, before he turns to look at the blonde, "How come you didn't tell us that Robby was his son? Or that you knew and kept it a secret?"

"Miguel, look, it wasn't my place to tell anyone about Johnny and Robby's relationship, okay? It's nobody's business but theirs. And if Johnny wanted you to know, he would've said something." Laken tells him, "The two of you think that Johnny is some kind of god just because he taught you how to kick someone's ass, but you don't know the real Johnny Lawrence because if you did, you'd hate his guts just the same as Robby."

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐒𝐎, 𝐈 did a deep dive online, and you were right. ❞ Eli stretches on the mat's with Miguel in front of him, "Sensei's definitely Keene's father. And I don't know how I didn't put the pieces together, but he's the guy that's been Laken's best friends since they were born."

Miguel sighs, shaking his head, "I just don't understand why he wouldn't tell us."

"I don't know. But it explains why he's giving us shit for kicking Keene's ass at the tournament." Eli says, "Show no mercy, unless it's his son. Then we gotta be pussies."

"You guys, have you seen the commercial?" Aisha walks over to them with her phone in hand, Eli and Miguel look at each other in confusion, "Sam's dad started his own dojo and he disses Cobra Kai."

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐒 coming your way. ❞ Laken shakes her head as she steps into Johnny's office where Johnny and Kreese were standing, looking down at his new laptop that he bought, "Oh, I didn't know the death-faker was back again."

"Laken." Johnny shoots the teenager a look, moving her to the side and lowering his voice with the hopes that Kreese couldn't hear him, "What trouble is coming my way?"

"Oh, you know, just the fact that Miguel found out that Robby is your son." She crosses her arms over her chest, locking eyes with his. "And now he's asking me all kinds of questions. 'Why didn't you tell me? Us?', 'How could you be friends with that guy?' They keep on questioning me, and I'll show them how much karate I actually know."

Johnny chuckled, "We'll handle that, but first we need to handle Miyagi-Do."

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄'𝐒 𝐀 lot of talk going around the Valley about free karate. ❞ Johnny walks in front of his students, "But everyone knows that in life you get what you pay for. You wanna really kick the competition?"

Laken raises an eyebrow as she watches Johnny kick a small bonsai tree in half.

"Then you need to get your ass over to Cobra Kai. Screw that lame meditation bullshit. What you need is bone-crunching, face-smashing, good old American karate." He continues, turning and hitting at the fake dummy they had set up, "Enough about self-defense. Learn self-offense. Don't be a pussy. Join Cobra Kai, and let me teach you the way of the fist."

"And cut." Aisha stops recording him with her cellphone.

"Alright, we get it?" Asks Johnny.

"I think so."

"Alright, great. Just make sure the Cobra Kai snake comes in at the end, alright? I want it to really pop. Make it chrome. And throw "Thunderstruck" under it."

"I'm pretty sure the rights for that song will cost too much."

"No, I already own it. Cassette's in the car. Oh, and put one of those hash browns at the end. You know, like, "hash brown, Team Cobra Kai" or something. And then send it to the internet!" Johnny tells her before walking into the storage room.

Everyone slowly turns to Laken with a confused expression on their faces.

The blonde lets out a long sigh as she runs her fingers through her freshly cut hair, "Yeah, he's not the best at technology. I just taught him how to send a text message on an IPhone."

"Hey, tell that fat piece of crap Zarkarian to get the rest of this shot out of here." Johnny tells one of the worlds, who pulled two boxes by them on a dolly. "I got a lot of new students coming in. This isn't a storage locker anymore."

Laken follows Eli and Miguel into the room, arms crossed over her chest as she eyes them.

"Sensei, can we talk to you about something?" Miguel questions, his hands behind his back.

"Look, if it's about the infomercial, I know." Johnny turns to them.

"It's not about the commercial." Eli tells him, "It's about Robby Keene."

"I told you there was trouble coming your way." Laken says to the older blonde with a shrug of his shoulders.

Johnny looks between the two boys before looking up at Laken, who sends him a look as if to say, 'I told you so'. "What about him?"

"Uh, I saw his picture on your refrigerator." Miguel says, "I wasn't snooping, but...we know he's your son...and Laken's best friend."

"That's why you got mad at us after the tournament, right?" Eli asked.

"Is that what you think?" He looks over the boys with a nod. "Yeah, Robby's my son, and Laken's best friend. But that has nothing to do with how I run my dojo. Their friendship has nothing to do with this dojo. It's also none of your damn business. Do you understand?"

Miguel nods, a hurt expression flashing across his face, "Yes, Sensei."

"But, Sensei...,"

"'But, but', nothing. Get out. You two clean mats for the rest of the week."

Eli lets out a sigh before bowing and leaving the room.

"Something else, Mr. Diaz?" Johnny asked after the boy didn't leave.

"No."

Laken watches Miguel walk out of the room before looking at Johnny, who had a sad expression on his face. With a sigh, she uncrosses her arms from her chest and walks over to the man, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

Johnny lets out a sigh, wrapping his own arms around her, one around her shoulders and the other using his hand to hold the back of her head, "At least I still have you, kid."

"You always have me, Johnny."

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃, 𝐇𝐔𝐇? ❞ Johnny sits across from Miguel at a restaurant, both of them eating a burger.

"Yeah."

"The secret's the chopped onions." He waves the burger in his hand around, Miguel lifting the top bun to look under, "Sal keeps it simple. None of that veggie crap that Laken keeps trying to get me to eat. Just a hot grill and some quality chuck."

Miguel stays quiet as he looks down at the table.

"You see that building over there?" Johnny points out the doors, over to the hospital that was across the street.

"The hospital?"

"That's where Laken and Robby were born. February 4th, 2002. It was a Monday. His mom was in labor for seventeen hours. And the hospital was so overcrowded that she and Alex had to share a delivery room. They were born the exact same second."

"It must've been crazy."

"Yeah, I'm sure it was. I wasn't there." Johnny explains, feeling himself tear up yet he doesn't let a tear shed even thought he wanted to. "And....my mom had just died. I was a real mess. I never knew my father, so she was all I had. Next thing I know, I'm gonna be a dad...my best friend was gonna be a dad for a second time. Scared the shit out of me."

"So, instead of being up there to welcome them into the world....I was down here, soaking up the booze from a three-day bender, trying to get the courage to walk across the street. I never got there." Johnny keeps going, "I failed my kid....on his very first day in this world....and I've been failing him every day since."

"Sensei, this is personal stuff, you don't have to tell me." Miguel shakes his head, noticing how choked up he was getting.

"No, I...," Johnny sighed, "I should've told you a long time ago. It....it's one of the most painful things in my life. And I project it onto making sure that nothing happens to Laken because I want to make sure that one of my best friends knows that she's safe while he's away for work at times. But one of the best things....has been teaching you. And I want you to know, no matter what happens, I promise...I will always be on your side...and I'll always have your best interest at heart."

"Thank you." Miguel smiles before getting quiet, "What's the story behind Laken and Robby?"

Johnny pauses, himself not even knowing the true reason between the fight that had happened between the two best friends the summer before, but knew he hadn't gotten the full truth out of the blonde girl when he asked about it, "You'd have to let her tell you that."

──── ୨ৎ ────

❝ 𝐇𝐄𝐘, 𝐆𝐔𝐘𝐒! ❞ Laken flashes both Robby and Sam a dazzling smile as she walks over to where they were practicing for their performance later that night.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Sam gives her an awkward smile, not knowing if Laken still saw her as one of the bad guys or not for hanging out with Yasmine, and never sticking up for her friends when they were getting bullied by her.

"I'm here with Silas and some of his friends from high school. Our parents went on a vacation together for a little one one one since Silas is in Calif for the summer." She slides her hands into the pack pockets of the blue jean shorts she was wearing. "I was actually hoping that I could steal Robby for a little bit."

"Uh, yeah, sure." Robby nods his head, looking at Sam, "If that's okay with you..I know we want this to be-,"

"Go ahead. I'm just gonna go make sure my mom doesn't need any help with anything." Sam sends the two best friends a smile before she turns and walks away from them.

"And why are you stealing me?" Robby raises an eyebrow as he throws his arm around the blonde's shoulders, her's going around his waist as they walk away from the setup stage.

"Because I needed someone to win me a giant stuffed animal." Laken grinned, "Silas' friend Eddie tried but he's not as good at throwing a ball as he thought he was. How can you be in college for your "amazing baseball skills" and not be able to hit at least one milk can at a carnival?"

Robby laughs, "Let's go win your giant stuffed animal."

──── ୨ৎ ────

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐊𝐘 had now darkened and Laken was once again with Silas but this time his friends had left for the night, giving the brother and sister some much needed time together. With Moon and Demetri standing next to them.

Everyone claps after the blonde boy on stage finishes strumming his guitar, a pretty brunette woman wearing a red dress walking towards the microphone standing.

"How come your not up there? You always preform at Valley Fest." Silas looks down at his little sister, who held on tightly to the giant stuffed panda that Robby had won for her.

Laken shrugged, "Just didn't feel like it this year. I've kinda put my singing dreams on the back burner."

"I don't think you should have. You never know when someone important will be around."

"Coming up next, do I have a treat for you." The woman cheerfully says to the crowd in front of her. "Please direct your attention to the LaRusso Auto booth for a presentation from Miyagi-Do Karate."

Everyone, Laken and Silas included, turned to where Robby, Sam and Daniel were standing in their white GI's where they were doing some calm karate moves.

"Is there gonna be any fighting?" Moon asks the two teenagers standing next to her, Silas keeping his eyes on his little sister's best friend and the LaRusso's.

"I think so." Demetri answers, unsure of himself.

Laken finds herself smiling as she watches Daniel swings the Bo in his hands, Sam and Robby using their hands to stop it from hitting them, Sam dropping and rolling as he moved it down to her feet.

The crowd cheers loudly for the three.

"You need a hair cut!" Laken finds herself calling loudly with her hands cupping her mouth, people around her laughing as Robby sends her a playful glare from his place on the stage.

"Now, time for the grand finale." Daniel addresses the team, moving to wheel a cart onto the stage, six slabs of frozen water being held between a metal deck but the sound system powers down, the area growing darker around them.

"What the hell is happening?" Silas questions, only to get a shrug out of the three teenagers standing around him.

"Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai!"

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." Laken's jaw drops as the rest of the Cobra Kai dojo chanted their name, being led by Miguel and Eli and the crowd follows them.

Her jaw clenches out of anger as she watches them rush up onto the stage next to Daniels, a giant Cobra Kai sign falling to cover up the Valley Fest one, the teenagers moving in perfect sync with each other, sparks shooting up from the sides.

"Cobra's, show them what real karate looks like!" Johnny's voice catches her attention.

"Did you know about this?!" Moon asked the blonde over the loud cheers of the crowd.

"I had no idea."

Miguel, Eli and two other students pretend to fight each other before a blindfolded Aisha uses her foot to break a couple of boards.

"Hold this." Laken hands the giant panda over to her brother, turning to make her way over towards where Robby and the two LaRusso's stood watching the performance, "Hey!"

"Is this why you wanted to steal Robby away for a little bit?" Sam angrily spins around to look at the blonde, "So you could be the distraction for them to mess this up for my dad?"

"Sam-," Daniel tries to calm his daughter down but Laken cuts her off.

"I've been with my brother all day, I had no freaking clue that they were doing this." Laken tries but Sam wasn't listening to her.

"She's not lying." Robby cuts in after studying his best friend's eyes, "She's telling the truth."

"And how do you know that?" Sam turns to look at him.

"I know her tells."

Laken turns back just in time to see Eli pull Demetri onto the stage by the collar of his shirt, handing him a board before he breaks it in half. T-shirts and flags are thrown out into the crowd as Johnny moves to center stage, stone boards stacked up on each other.

"Cobras, light it up!"

Two of the students move towards the stone boards, one pouring lighter fluid on them and another setting them on fire before the older male punches through them all, sending the crowd into loud cheers before chanting the dojo's name.

On the stage, Johnny smirks in Daniel's direction, the smirk slowly falling from his lips as he watches Laken shake her head at him and storming off, pulling Robby a long with her as Sam quickly followed behind them.

"Come on, I'll give you guys a ride home." Silas tells Moon and Demetri, the three moving through the crowd to go in the direction of the parking lot.