The gang were all standing round the Cobra's dirt bikes in the arcade parking lot. The Cobras had about three hours until they had to gather their stuff and head back to college. I was going to miss these guys during the week but at least I'd have my job to keep me busy (and looking after Tommy when I could but, next week, he'd be leaving to go back to college too).
It took some convincing. Tommy wasn't too in favour of the idea of living in the same house as "the Larusso kid" but I had an ace up her sleeve. I reminded him of the time that Miyagi had once saved Johnny from being strangled by his own sensei to try and gain Miyagi some favour in Tommy's eyes. I reminded him that this was the same sensei who had also elbowed Bobby in the stomach and back fisted Tommy across the face.
"What's more," I concluded, "Daniel had bruising like that once from one of Kreese's old friends; Terry Silver. Two days in Miyagi's care and it was gone so, who knows, you may be there less time than you think." Tommy considered this, screwing his face up. "It's that or I meet your mother." I said, eventually, smirking. Tommy's face seemed to drain all colour. None of us had never been allowed round Tommy's and our theory was that he had the mummsiest mum on the planet and didn't want her embarrassing him in front of his friends.
"Jac's got a point, man." Johnny said reasonably. "He did save me. You were there. You saw him. And he's probably got some Ancient Japanese remedies or some shit that have, like, super healing powers or something." Giggling inwardly at Johnny's stereotyping, I nodded.
"Come on, Tommy. What could be the harm in just spending a few days there?" I wheedled, trying to sound as convincing as possible. My efforts, however, were scuppered somewhat by Dutch who chose this moment to say,
"Yeah. You could treat yourself to a rematch with Larusso while you're at it. You could jump him while he's playing nurse and bringing you breakfast in bed." Dutch grinned, thuggishly.
"You're not helping, Dutch." I said calmly but Bobby and Jimmy had started to laugh too.
"Look at it this way, man," Johnny said "it's this or you have all the guys in our class see you with a bust up face and you don't want that noise."
"Well..." Tommy said, still not looking convinced as he crossed his arms and shifted moodily from foot to foot for a moment.
"Please." I said, grabbing his arm and fluttering my eyelashes up at him "For me?" Tommy snorted.
"OK, fine." He said, finally cracking. He laughed. I grinned and hugged him, forgetting myself for a moment. I immediately wished I hadn't. "Ow!" Tommy cried, doubling up.
"Christ! I'm sorry!" I yelped, almost leaping backwards away from him. Tommy smiled and shook his head.
"Don't sweat it." He said, straightening up slowly.
After spending the rest of the day just hanging around and chilling out, me and Tommy were waving the rest of the Cobras off on the bus. I'd had to hug all of them in turn before they had boarded (and, once again, almost been crushed alive by Dutch). When I'd hugged Bobby he had whispered
"We're cool, right?"
"Of course. When weren't we?" I murmured in a hushed tone. Bobby smiled at me and, with an awkward, stiff wave, he'd got on the bus. Johnny was the last to get hugged. He smiled his usual, surfer boy smile.
"We'll see you next weekend, OK?" He said. "We'll get on the first bus on Saturday."
"You'd better call me." I said, smiling. Johnny sucked in through his teeth.
"I dunno. I've got so many classes and, of course, I'll be studying all night..." I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow, not falling for his shit today. Johnny laughed. "Sure I will." he said, grinning, and hugged me. "We all will."
"Go on." I said. "Away with you." Johnny hopped on the bus and dragged his case on board, still grinning. I saw him sit down in a window seat behind Bobby and I waved. All four of them waved back. The evening was clear and bright and the sunlight shone gold on all their faces. God, I was going to miss these guys all week! The engine started up and the bus began to pull away down the road. I watched the bus go, somewhat sadly, until it turned a corner and was gone. Tommy broke the silence after a moment.
"So, where's the Larusso kid's house?" He asked. I jumped, violently, having almost forgotten that Tommy was there.
"I told Daniel to meet us at the diner." I said, trying to let my heartbeat recover slightly. I looked at the time on my wristwatch. "We've got about fifteen minutes." I informed Tommy who nodded.
We walked through the city together to the diner. It only took us a few minutes and when we got there we ordered a drink each and sat down to wait. We had both gone for cola this time. I looked out of the diner window. The sun was setting fast. I could almost see the shadows of the surrounding buildings shifting as it sank. I looked over at Tommy who had sat opposite me. He was oddly quiet and had his brown eyes fixed on the street outside, clearly on high alert just in case Barnes showed up. It wasn't like Tommy to be so withdrawn. I leant forward and squeezed Tommy's wrist.
"You OK?" I asked. Tommy seemed to snap back to reality.
"Yeah, I'm cool." He said shortly, smiling quickly. He took a swig of his cola and resumed his street-ward gaze. I realised that Tommy probably wouldn't appreciate me mothering him in public so took my hand back and just looked at him. The cut under his eye had scabbed over which, if anything, made him look even worse than before. I tried not to look too pitying. Neither of us seemed to be able to think of anything to say (which was also bizarre for Tommy) so, instead, I just settled for joining Tommy in staring out of the window.
It wasn't long before Daniel put in an appearance. His huge, yellow car pulled up to the curb and he craned his neck to look into the diner. I was sitting in the window so he found us pretty quickly and waved. I waved back then turned to Tommy (who, I swear, hadn't blinked the entire time).
"He's here. You ready?" I asked. Tommy finally broke his unwavering stare, took one more gigantic slurp and finished his cola in one. He gasped slightly.
"Yup." He said. I laughed in bemusement.
"I'm sure you could have finished that in Daniel's car." I said. Tommy shrugged and pulled his burgundy jacket off the back of his chair and swung it carefully over his shoulders, wincing as he twisted.
I stepped out of the diner into the quickly diminishing evening sunlight.
"Hey Jac!" Was the call that greeted me from the dark haired youth in the driver's seat. Daniel is my age but always seems to look too young to drive so the sight struck me as funny and I laughed airily as I approached the car at a trot. Tommy followed behind me not quite so cheerfully. He had his head down to try and hide his injuries from Daniel as much as he could. This was in vain though. The second Daniel saw Tommy...
"Whoa! Man! Barnes did that!?" He exclaimed. Tommy scowled.
"Yeah." I said. "Him and his henchman Dennis." There was silence for a moment as Daniel digested what he was seeing. Clearly he didn't intend to bring up how easily he'd managed to beat Dennis into submission when he'd attacked him and Jessica in Miyagi's shop. Thrown slightly, Daniel said
"Well... we'd better get going. Mr. Miyagi's got fish cooking. Want to join us, Jac? He caught enough for four." I smiled.
"Sure." I replied, happily. I turned to Tommy.
"That OK?" I asked. Tommy gave me a look that so clearly said "You really think I want you to leave me alone with those two!?" that I nodded and didn't ask anything more. I hopped into the passenger seat while Tommy let himself into the back, Daniel turned the key in the ignition and the boat-sized car swung away from the curb and down the road.
The car halted in Miyagi's backyard. The sun had set by this point but there was still plenty of daylight, just no sunshine. Daniel shut the engine off.
"C'mon. I smell dinner." He said, happily. He got out and left me with Tommy. I turned in my seat to look back at the battle-scarred Cobra.
"You OK, Tommy?" I asked. Tommy was looking thoroughly unimpressed with the place, a grumpy expression painted across his face that was obvious past all the scabs and bruising.
"Do I really have to stay here?" He asked, looking more like a pouting child than a young adult.
"No." I said simply. "You can go home if you want. You can try and explain what happened, why you're not going to college and why you haven't called the police. You're perfectly free to do that if you want. Or, you can stay here for a week, get possibly the best and quickest healing method in the Northern Hemisphere and get your buns back to college next week without anyone suspecting a thing. Your choice." I said. With that, I got out of the car and began walking towards Mr. Miyagi's front door, leaving Tommy to make his decision. I had grown up with two younger brothers so I knew how to deal with this kind of attitude (as patronising as that sounds. I know).
In the warmly-lit house Daniel was kneeling at the table and I could hear Mr. Miyagi singing some Okinawan folk song to himself as he prepared dinner. I smiled and knelt next to Daniel. After a moment Miyagi came through holding two plates of fish.
"Oh." Miyagi said, surprised. "You get boy here, Daniel-san?" He asked Daniel.
"Erm... yeah, he's here but just not... here." Daniel tried to explain.
"He's in the car." I summed up for him. "Just getting his bearings I think."
"Ah! Miyagi understand." Miyagi said, smiling. He turned and left for a moment then came back with two more plates. He set Tommy's down next to me (nearest the paper screen door) then placed himself the other side of Daniel.
It wasn't long before we heard hesitant footsteps outside and the door slid slowly open. Tommy stood there, clearly unsure of what to do or say. Miyagi was the one who broke the awkward silence.
"Come eat, Tommy-san. Fish get cold." He said simply before returning to his own meal and allowing Tommy to sit down in silence.