Chapter 2: Keene

They were almost back at the convenience shop when Hawk came up beside them.

"You didn't kick his ass, Diaz? Weak," he sneered.

"Shut up, Eli," said Miguel. It might have been the anxiousness in his voice and the way he used Hawk's real name, but the guy immediately clamped up. At least he knew when the situation called for him to be a dick and when it called for him to just keep his trap shut.

"What's going on?" he proceeded to ask.

"We settled stuff with Keene," said Aisha, and Miguel could hear Hawk's disgusted scoff, but he wisely kept his opinions to himself. "Don't know what's happening there, but he told us to leave. Must be something serious. That group doesn't look like the kind of people you'd want to mess with."

Miguel was listening to what Aisha was saying, but kept his attention focused fully on Keene and the group that had finally descended upon him. There were about five of them, standing shoulder to shoulder facing Keene who was standing by himself opposite them. Miguel couldn't hear what was being said but it was obvious heated from the way two of the guys were gesturing. Keene on the other hand looked the very picture of cool and collected, but even from the distance Miguel could see the way he kept clenching and unclenching his fists almost nervously.

"Why are we even concerned," said Hawk finally. "You may have settled stuff – whatever that means, but he's still the enemy or have you both already forgotten?"

"Shut up, Pigeon," snapped Aisha.

The event that followed was almost too fast for Miguel's brain to even process. One moment the guys were talking at Keene, he was listening to Hawk talking crap, Aisha putting him in his place and Moon desperately trying to play peacekeeper, and the next there was loud yelling as four of the five guys suddenly pounced on Keene. They stumbled back in a flurry of fists and legs and in that moment Miguel's instincts kicked in.

Before he realized it, he was sprinting towards the melee, the sound of Aisha and Hawk yelling his name slowly disappearing into the static background noise he was hearing inside his brain. His Yaya said that it was the sound of someone's brain shutting down when the person was about to do something incredibly dumb.

Keene was holding his own against a couple of them, but once they got him cornered with his back against one of the parked cars with nowhere to take cover, raining punches and kicks relentlessly, Miguel knew that if he didn't help him, Keene didn't stand a chance in hell.

He brought the first guy down with a kick to the back of the head and into the fray he went.

It was him and Keene against the five guys with the last one finally jumping in.

There was a yell and a bellow in his periphery and before he knew it, he was looking at Aisha and the back of Hawk's blue Mohawk bringing down one of the guys coming up behind him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Keene facing off against two of the guys – his mind did a split second mental calculation and realized that they were missing one guy, but he couldn't concentrate on anything not immediately in his line of sight so the thought was gone as quickly as it appeared. He was facing off with the third guy. In the corner of his eye he could see Aisha and Hawk teaming up against the fourth and a shrieking Moon smacking his back with her handbag.

Miguel didn't really have time to think, he was moving on pure adrenalin at that point, otherwise he'd have realized how terrified he was all of a sudden. This wasn't at all like sparring with sensei or fighting with the bullies at school or even facing off with his opponents at the tournament. This was a real life and death situation. He instinctively knew that if he didn't keep his feet under him, if he couldn't protect himself, those guys were going to hurt him and hurt his friends badly. Maybe even the killing sort of bad which was definitely something he wanted to avoid.

He asked himself in that moment: What would sensei do? But deep down he already knew the answer.

Kick their pussy asses. That's what his sensei would fucking do.

He held his own against his opponent and the moment he landed the kick that brought the dude to his knees, he forgo the little celebratory jig he usually did in his head to rush over to where Keene had just put one of the guys down, the other leaning with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. But before Miguel could reach him or even yell out a warning, the missing fifth guy leapt out from behind the car and tackled him hard to the pavement.

Miguel wasted no time, he rushed over, delivered a quick kick to the side of the guys face and a second one immediately between his ribs that sent him sprawling.

Keene just stayed on the ground, curled into himself, groaning for a moment despite Miguel calling his name urgently.

In the back of his mind, he could hear the wailing sounds of sirens filling the air. He looked around at the guys who seemed to have heard the same thing he did because with one final glowing look at Miguel and Keene, they bolted.

"We gotta go!" he heard Hawk yell from somewhere behind him, his eyes still staring at the receding backs of the guys scrambling every which way and Keene still on the ground, making no attempt to get to his feet. "Miguel! Let's go!"

He felt Hawk's hand on his arm, pulling him back roughly and he found himself moving with his tug. They'd barely taken a couple of steps before Miguel stopped in his tracks. "Dammit," he cursed, pulling his arm out of Hawk's grip, jogging back to where Keene was only just pushing himself to his feet. Without word, he grabbed Keene by the elbow and hauled him to his feet. "Don't know if you noticed, but it's a good time to get the hell out of here, dude," he said, pulling him towards where Hawk, Aisha and Moon were waiting for him across the street.

Keene spared him a confused look but didn't pull free from his grasp.

He caught Hawk's glowering look but brushed it off without a second thought. "Coming?" he asked instead, receiving a few choice words in return.

So they ran. Him with his hand still grabbing Keene's elbow, pulling him along. Hawk and Moon holding hands behind him and Aisha at his side. He didn't know where exactly they were headed or what they were going to do, he just let his feet take him and hoped that he wasn't leading his friends into an even worse situation.

Somehow, his feet seemed to have a mind of its own and knew exactly where to go since his brain had basically gone into lock down.

It wasn't until the familiar building and the familiar stretch of shops and the familiar sign with the familiar red car parked in front came into view did Miguel finally let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.

Beside him he sensed when Keene suddenly stilled, bringing him to a halt along with him.

"What the hell, man?" he almost yelled.

Keene didn't even blink from where he was staring at the Cobra Kai dojo – or at sensei's ride because it was really pretty sweet, but eventually he blinked and turned to look at Miguel. "You guys shouldn't have done that," he said. It was literally the last thing Miguel thought he'd say.

"Well screw you man," said Hawk angrily as he advanced menacingly towards Keene, but stopped by both Aisha and Moon.

Keene seemed to realize what he'd said and quickly amended. "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that they're not guys you want mess with. Now that they think you're with me, they'll probably come looking for you."

"Who were they?" asked Aisha.

Keene let out an odd sort of laugh which Miguel couldn't really decipher. "Friends of mine," he said bitterly.

"Jeez, you might think about getting some new ones," Miguel said and all of a sudden he didn't feel like the most pathetic person in the world for the first time ever. Because despite their eccentricities, his friends were actually friendly to him, and it wasn't such a bad feeling after all.

"But… just… thanks, for having my back," Keene said, and he really did look appreciative.

"Look, why don't we go to our dojo and tell sensei what happened. All of us," said Aisha. "He'll know what to do."

Keene's rebuff was immediate. "No, it's okay. I just… it's fine. I'll handle it–" he'd barely gotten the words out as he took a hesitant step back before he suddenly doubled over, clutching his stomach with a sharp, shuddering inhale.

"Hey, you okay, man?" Miguel asked, taking a step forward.

Keene was almost panting at that point, still doubled over himself. Eventually he managed to drag his face up to look at Miguel and seemed like he was about to answer before his eyes clenched shut and a pained groan escaped his lips. He dropped to one knee, one arm stretched out in front of him to steady himself and the other still circled protectively around his stomach.

Miguel and Aisha immediately dropped to their knees beside him. Even Hawk was hovering close, not making any snide remarks, even looking genuinely shocked and concerned by the sudden turn of events.

"Are you okay?" asked Aisha, reaching over to place a hand on his shoulder.

Keene making out pained moaning sounds and his breathing was fast, his chest heaving. He didn't look up at Miguel or Aisha, he didn't move to reassure their concern or say anything to answer the questions they were asking.

Instead, when Miguel leaned in closer, he noticed Keene's hand that had been wrapped protectively around his middle slowly unfurl from its position and come up to hover in front of his face.

His whole hand was wet and dripping blood.

Tbc.