title: sunrise

summary: come with me, and we shall run across the sky - illuminate the night. / Jack joins the Black Dragon dojo after finding out that Kim cheated on him with his best friend. Carson joined the Black Dragon dojo post-Battle of the Dojos and becomes a well-trained black belt and also rehabilitates to a different person than he used to be. When Jack enters the dojo, Carson isn't happy about it, but neither is Jack. However, they quickly realize that they aren't so different.

notes: it's been a while since I've written a multichapter fanfic. and since you clicked on this, you must've been surprised to see me writing for this fandom again. i missed it tbh. not sure if this is the first jack/carson tho

so, unless you don't know me at all, this is not a het story but there will be a het pairing...or two. this also has a lot of lgbt oc's and some lgbt canon characters. if there's a problem, click the back button because i'm not a nice person when it comes to blatant homophobia. this will also be on ao3 where the tags will tell you what the story might have.

and i'm aware that the canon characters are ooc. don't point it out yeah? - ain't nobody perfect on this hellsite.

first part of the summary is from up the ladder by herizen guardiola & justice smith. (please watch the get down.)

Jack leaves the Wasabi dojo quickly and angrily. He can't believe Kim cheated on him; and he can't believe that his best friend would betray him like that. He goes across the mall to Phil's and sits on one of the booths by himself. His anger slowly subsides to a lump he feels in his throat, but he refuses to break down in front of anyone in a restaurant. He can't let anyone see him like this.

He just found out that his now ex-girlfriend Kim was cheating on him with his ex-best friend Jerry. He should've known, especially when Jerry and Kim would stare at each other suggestively inside the dojo. No one inside the dojo was in his side. They just watched as Kim cheated on him for weeks and weeks. When he also found out that Milton and Rudy knew this whole time without telling him, he just gives up and leaves the dojo, quitting the dojo altogether.

He wants to get back at them. There's a tournament coming up in a month or so with different dojos in the state competing against each other and since he quit the Wasabi dojo, he couldn't think of another nearby dojo...except for one. The Black Dragons.

Jack hasn't really forgave sensei Ty for purchasing the dojo last summer, which caused all of the very few students to quit (including his once good friend Eddie, permanently), but he'll be damned to just sit here and wallow in self-pity all day. He gets up, and makes his way to the Black Dragons dojo, which is still located at the same place he remembers. After entering the memorable dojo, he stops in his tracks. The dojo may be the same, but the style is different. "Hm..." He grunts.

Carson shuts the locker behind him, and ties his long hair into a sports bun on top of his head. He's been practicing lately for the tournament in a month, and he wants to make sure that he will beat those Wasabi jerks now that he's stronger and wiser. He leaves the locker room and goes to the main ring, where most of his fellow students and friends are already practicing.

He looks at the entrance where the door opens and closes, and is surprised to see Jack walk in. Hiding his surprise with a cold sneer, he walks over there and faces Jack. "What the hell are you doing here? You came here to steal our strategy or something?"

Jack laughs in Carson's face. "Oh please, I'm not you." He sidesteps Carson entirely and ventures further inside the dojo. "I am joining the dojo. And before you say this is a ploy to get back at you or this place, it's not. I quit my previous dojo, and I want to beat them at their own game."

"Right." Carson rolls his eyes and follows Jack, standing right next to him once again. "And what if I think you're lying?" He asks. "What if you're just saying that and then when the going gets tough, you'll deflect over to their side again?"

"Because, I'm serious," Jack growls.

"Vindictive, are we?" Carson smirks. This seemed a little out of character for Jack, because Carson knows he has a good heart and lifetime kindness. Something must have happened for Jack to come here and ask to join the rival dojo of the place they both attended at one point. "Who hurt you?"

"I don't think you need to know that," Jack says. Just because he was joining the Black Dragons, he doesn't have to form a friendship with Carson. As far as he knows, Carson is still a low-down dirty cheater, and Jack hates cheaters. "So, can I join or not?"

"Yeah, whatever," Carson rolls his eyes. "Sensei's in his office. You can go in and negotiate about joining the dojo."

"What, you're not gonna escort me there or anything?" Jack asks, with a smirk.

Carson raises an eyebrow. "Why would I do that when his door is literally right there?"

"Oh," Jack relents. He walks across the room, and ignores his cousin Kai staring at him in hopes he makes it without being attacked by a Black Dragon. He enters the sensei's office without any warning.

Angrily, Kai storms across the room and stops in front of Carson. "Why the fuck is my cousin here?"

"That's your cousin?" Carson says in surprise. "The cousin?"

"Yes, the cousin you fool!" Kai slaps Carson's arm with a towel. "What is he doing here?" He repeats. He glances at his sensei's door for a couple seconds, and turns around to face Carson again.

"He wants to get back at his old dojo for some reason," Carson replies. "I asked what the reason was, but he brushed me off."

"Why would he want to fight a dojo he cares about too much?" Kai questions to himself. That was peculiar.

Carson wonders that too. Despite only knowing Jack for a short time, it seems peculiar that he wants to do something so out of character. For one thing, using karate, or any martial arts, for vengeance was a bad thing (but most of the Black Dragons are known to do something like that) and Jack was trying to prove to his friends that Carson was a cheat...which worked, but still. "Well, at least we have one more black belt in the dojo," he says, positively. Most of the Black Dragons are either black belts or really strong competitors who actually use their strength and knowledge (since they swore to not cheat again under their new assistant sensei's orders), but Jack was strong enough to be a sensei at sixteen, which made him different than everyone else in this dojo.

We're gonna have to talk, Kai thinks. "Yeah, whatever," he waves off, and walks inside sensei's office. He barges inside, and stares at his cousin. "Long time no see, cuz."

Jack's grin falls. "Same to you. I was having a private conversation. Would you excuse me?"

"You're part of the dojo, yadda yadda yadda," Kai rambles on, and then pulls Jack out of the office. "Explain to me why the fuck are you here!"

"That's none of your business," Jack argues. "I'm here. Get used to it."

Kai fights hard, really hard, not to fight his cousin again. "You were always a piece of work."

"And you were always a cheater," Jack growls, quickly walking away from Kai.

Carson watches the scene in front of him. Once Jack storms away, he approaches Kai once again. "Chill out, dude."

"Whatever," Kai growls. He walks over to the punching bag and punches it a couple times.

Jack puts on the gi from last time, locks up his regular clothes, and steps out once again. All eyes are now on him (except for Kai who is using a punching bag) and he suddenly feels self-conscious. Can they stop staring at him?

Carson rolls his eyes. "Alright, we have a new student. You can stop staring at him now." The students stop looking at Jack and turn around to finish sparring. Carson walks up to Jack with a tight grimace. "Since you're gonna be here, you're gonna be practicing...a lot. None of that five minute break crap from the Wasabi dojo, especially since we're trying to beat them. Unless you want to partner up with your cousin, who completely hates you, I will oblige to be your sparring partner...for now."

Carson is right. Jack isn't friends with any of these people, and Carson is the only person who offered...and is familiar with. "Fine. I just hope you don't have something up your sleeve this time. Literally."

"I'm actually good at karate and that's something that Rudy definitely did not teach me," Carson replies with confidence. "I don't need to cheat. So if you want to spar with me, get into position. If not, find someone else." He stands straight and bows once to show respect, then he gets into fighting position.

Jack sighs, and follows suit. "Alright."

After a long, brutal fight, Jack is the winner. Slowly, Carson gets up from the floor and bows once more. "You're really good, Jack. And I mean it." He isn't mad that Jack beat him anyway. Jack is a second degree black belt, while Carson is still working on his own second belt.

Jack smirks in triumph. "You're just saying that because you lost."

"Or maybe you're actually good?" Carson says back, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Okay," Jack shrugs. He can take a compliment, but he didn't trust Carson yet...if at all. "So, do you have a plan on how to beat the Wasabi Warriors or were you all trying to boost your skills to try to beat me?"

"Both," Carson says back. "Before you came here, Kai was the best fighter amongst us. I was the second, and Brody's third. We also have Jake, and even though he's a good black belt he's lazy as hell. We also got Heather, who is a brown belt but she kind of doubts herself. Ryan's our assistant sensei but he acts like he's one of us...he's not."

"What happened to Frank, your supposed best fighter?" Jack inquires, mockingly.

"He hasn't been here in months, and well, it should stay that way," Carson replies. "Also we were trying to figure out who would be strong enough to beat you. Kai backed down, which now we understand because you two are related, I was unsure because I was still bitter, and Brody backed down because he really didn't want to fight a second degree black belt. Now that you are here, we don't have to worry about fighting you."

"Hold up, my cheating, almost-killed-me-at-China cousin doesn't wanna fight me?" Jack asks. "At least you didn't try to kill me."

Kai overhears that sentence and walks over to his cousin. "I did not try to kill you."

"You got your dojo mates to break my arm and then almost threw me off a cliff," Jack argues.

Kai scoffs. "But did you actually die?"

Carson snorts a little. "Seriously, Kai? Did you hate him so much that you just had to almost kill him?"

"We have a lot of issues," Jack frowns. "He was the one who made me quit karate at one time."

"Whatever," Kai rolls his eyes. This is another reason why he hates Jack. He's so dramatic. "It's not like you are still affected by whatever happened in the past."

"That's where you're wrong," Jack sneers, clenching his fists. "I'm still affected by what you did to me. You made me hate the one thing I enjoyed for so long until Rudy awakened it once again - and as much as I hate my old dojo, they actually did something right: they picked up the pieces of what was left of my shattered self-confidence."

"Alright," Carson pushes both of them away from each other. "You two don't need to fight now that you're on the same team."

Jack huffs, and straightens his gi. "Whatever." Kai growls, and walks back to the punching bag.

Careon wants to say something, but he feels as if Jack would ignore him. He also wants to ask what exactly happened in Jack's perspective, but he remembers what happened earlier when he first came with a determination to defeat the Wasabi dojo.

It's going to be a long, agonizing first day for him.

Jack packs up his stuff after practicing all day and trying to ignore his bitter cousin. It's easy, because everyone agrees that they shouldn't fight each other, with the history they have. Despite that, it isn't too bad. Most of the students are kind of scared to fight him, except for Carson and a girl named Heather, who is slightly taller than Jack. While having a baby face, she has a very strong stamina. She beat Jack, best two out of three, but he never complains. He needs someone like Heather to challenge him. It's just weird that the girl can easily beat Jack, when she's a brown belt. Heather is the first person Jack has grown to like on his first day, and for as long as he stays here, he wants to help Heather get her black belt, or at least convince her to get her black belt.

"Can you believe he's only a second degree black belt?" He shakes his head once he hears her voice again after exiting the locker room.

"Still surprised?" He inquires.

Heather shrugs. "Yeah, man. I'm not a black belt and I still beat you. You sure you didn't let me win?"

"I'm sure," Jack replies. He learned his lesson last year with Kim. "Maybe you're selling yourself short and you should probably register to become a black belt."

"I think I will, once I learn that epic dragon kick move you did on Carson," Heather snorts, adjusting her wrist watch a little. "I swear, Jake. He's a natural on the mats."

The boy named Jake, shrugs. Jack's never seen him at all yet his face makes him look weirdly familiar. However he doesn't comment on it. "I'm gonna be back tomorrow."

"You gotta tell me all about your vacation in Japan," Heather says excitedly, and heads for the door. "See you tomorrow Jack Brewer." She turns around and leaves the dojo, with Jake following right behind her.

Jack waves back, and leaves the dojo a few seconds after. He slowly realizes that the Black Dragons dojo is further away from his house than his old dojo, but a walk never hurt anyone. He's about two stores down when he hears a loud honk and a bright tail light behind him. Jack turns around to see Carson sitting in the driver's seat. With hesitation, Jack sighs and walks over to the passenger's side, and enters the car wordlessly.

"Where am I going?"

Jack replies with his street intersections only. Carson doesn't say another word and drives over there.

After a few minutes of silence, Jack looks at Carson, wondering why the same guy who cheated his way to become the representative student a year ago would be nice to Jack all of a sudden. Ever since he walked inside the dojo this afternoon, Carson hasn't been mean (intentionally at least) and instead breaks up an impending fight between him and his cousin as well as comment in his martial arts skills. He still doesn't believe he could ever be friends with Carson, but time will tell.

Carson turns on the exact street and only passes three houses before Jack says, "Right here." He stops the car and doesn't even acknowledge Jack any further. Jack, expecting nothing but silence, mumbles a quick 'thank you' and exits the car. Carson turns around and watches as Jack enters his home, and then he drives away.

Since his house is at least three blocks away, he continues onto the street, with the sole thought of getting home and going to bed. School is restarting after the weekend and the last thing he needed was a fucked up circadian rhythm.