CHAPTER 63

As Marcos poured himself yet another drink, so wasted that he could hardly count what number drink it was, he could barely see straight, let alone walk in a straight line. To put it simply: Marcos was shitfaced. He had drank before once or twice, but never like this. Never even close to like this. No teenager should have consumed the amount of alcohol Marcos had, and it was showing in the immensely sluggish way he carried himself.

Thankfully though, everyone was so preoccupied with having fun at the party that nobody really noticed him. Against all odds, it seemed like Moon's plan of bringing the Cobra Kais and Miyagi-Dos under the same roof had actually worked. They weren't mixing with each other at all, both sticking to opposite sides of the house, but at least they were able to be under the same roof without a raging brawl breaking out. Progress.

There was one person in the party who had noticed Marcos' excessive drinking though, and was watching on, concerned. She was also on the Cobra Kai side of the room, so as Marcos slowly rose to his feet to pour himself yet another drink, almost losing balance and toppling over immediately, Sarah walked over to him.

"You having fun?" She remarked. Marcos nodded as he tried to walk over to the countertop full of bottles of alcohol, but he couldn't get that far. He couldn't even get one step because as soon as he walked forward, he almost fell flat on his face. It took Sarah catching him as he fell for him to maintain balance.

"Shit." Sarah quietly swore as she was forced to take the full impact of his weight as she caught him, and she gently placed him back down on the chair that he had been sitting on. "Look, stay here. I'm going to get you something to eat to soak up some of that booze. I'll be right back."

Marcos' response was unintelligible in his drunkenness, so Sarah sighed, turned around and quickly walked through the house, looking for some kind of food she could give to her boyfriend to sober him up a little. She didn't know what was going on, but for someone who never, EVER drank, seeing him like this was worrying.

Sarah didn't get too far though. Because before she could find any food for him, she turned around and saw that Marcos was once again back on his feet, crawling back over to the bar, gripping to the countertop to maintain his balance. Sarah scowled deeply, starting to get a little frustrated, and stormed back over to him. He had managed to get his hands on another red solo cup of vodka, and Sarah did nothing less than completely slap the cup out of his hands.

"Marcos, stop! Jesus, don't you think you've had enough for tonight?!" She exclaimed. Marcos took a few deep breaths as he looked at her, trying to force his brain to function enough to come up with a comprehensible response. He failed miserably at that, instead leaning forward and retching and vomiting, the alcohol coming back up the way that it had come. Sarah managed to dart out of the way to avoid it, but unfortunately there was nothing Moon's floor could do to do the same. He threw up all over the floor, effectively getting the attention of almost the entire room.

"Oh, my God! What happened?!" Moon cried as she ran over.

"Shit, I'm so sorry, Moon. We'll help you clean it all u-" Sarah began, but she was interrupted with a loud THUD! Marcos had hit the ground once more, narrowly avoiding landing on his own vomit. He hadn't been pushed or anything like that. He had merely fallen over again in his inebriated state.

Sarah groaned and shook her head. She knew that Marcos owed her a long conversation when he sobered up. Sarah wanted nothing more than to go home, take Marcos with her, and let this entire shitshow of a night come to an end. They didn't even need a rumble to make the night a disaster: Marcos had effectively done it all by himself. However, before she could go home, she knew that she needed to do her part to help clean up Marcos' mess. It took her nearly 15 minutes do so and after she was done scrubbing and wiping the floor for Moon, Moon thanked her for the help and Sarah turned around. Marcos was still lying there on the floor, not having gotten up yet, so Sarah stormed over to him, grabbed him by the sweatshirt, and she yanked him up to his feet.

"Come on. We're going home. Now." Sarah demanded, not at all in the mood to argue, practically pulling Marcos towards the house exit. But Marcos managed to slip out of her grasp, surprisingly agile in his drunken state, pushing away from her.

"No! I don't want to go yet!" Marcos exclaimed, before walking over to the bar and grabbing yet another cup of alcohol. Sarah's eyes widened in shock, before narrowing once more in anger. Her frustration was reaching its limits, and she once again slapped the cup out of his hands. This time it spilled backwards all over him, and Marcos was greeted by the not so fun feeling of freezing cold liquid all over him, effectively sobering him up a little.

"Sorry." Sarah grumbled. "Take off the sweatshirt. You'll get sick."

But that proved a tall order for Marcos in his intoxicated mind, so Sarah tried to help him lift his sweatshirt off his head, but at the last moment, Marcos pulled it back down. He couldn't take it off, his mind screamed at him, desperately managing to break through the wall of liquor. If he took off the sweatshirt, Sarah would be able to see the bruises that had flowered up and down his arms at the hands of his father. He needed to wait until these bruises healed, or he had fought enough to justify it as having gotten them in a fight, and that time surely wasn't today. So Marcos pulled the shirt back down.

"No. I'm keeping it on." He replied. Maybe if Sarah had just continued and pulled it up anyways, she would've seen the bruises, and she would've found out about the abuse earlier. She wouldn't have only found out when it had gotten as bad as it had gotten when she did. Sarah though, was getting increasingly infuriated by her boyfriend, so she gave up.

"You know what? Fine. You don't want my help or advice with anything? Fine. I don't know what stick has been up your ass all night, but I'm not taking this anymore. I'm going home, Marcos. Feel free to come with me if you want to."

As she turned on her heel and stormed out of the house, Marcos didn't follow her. With all of this, and not having drank any alcohol since throwing up, he was beginning to regain a little bit of brain function. Not enough for him to be able to see how stupid he was being. Only enough for one of his emotions to return - namely, anger. He was furious, not at Sarah, but about this entire situation. With Miyagi-Do. With his dad. With everything. It all came bubbly up and Marcos didn't know with whom, but he knew that a fight was going to go down before the end of the night…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"So… you enjoying being back in the furniture business?" Daniel asked Barnes as him, Barnes and Johnny sat in a booth in the far side of the nightclub. Chozen had gone to grab more drinks, and the rest of their party had hit the dance floor, so it was just the three men at the table.

"It's great." Barnes replied. "This time I'm starting everything myself, without anyone to help, so in that way it's a bit tougher. But then again, I already had the contact details of all of the important people so it's not like I was starting from scratch. We're right back in business right now and things have never been better."

"And you used Silver's money to do it all?" Johnny laughed. "That's awesome."

"Yeah. Son of a bitch deserved it though, right?" Barnes remarked. Both Johnny and Daniel took a swig of their beers, nodding to that. "How's training in the dojo going?"

It was Johnny and Daniel's turn to smile.

"It's been great. It's been really good." Daniel replied. "The students are all training better than ever. With the people we have, I really think we stand a good chance at beating Cobra Kai in every division. We've got Robby, Miguel, Sam, Tory…"

"What about Hawk?" Mike suddenly asked. Daniel and Johnny both looked at each other and sighed a little.

"Hawk's been… alright." Daniel remarked. Johnny raised an eyebrow.

"Come on, Larusso. Let's be honest… things with Hawk have been shit." Johnny remarked. "Not the kid's fault. Completely on us."

"Yeah, Johnny and I have been struggling to really get through to him." Daniel said. "The other kids… they all managed to take to both Eagle-Fang and Miyagi-Do so quickly. They managed to build their own unique fighting style - a combination between the two - without us really having to do anything more. But with Hawk… it feels like he's struggling with that. It's not offense and defense in his fighting style. It's offense or defense. There can't seem to be both. And nothing Johnny and I are trying to do is seeming to help him."

Barnes nodded thoughtfully, falling silent for a while, before he eventually spoke up again.

"You know, of all of your students that I saw in Coyote Creek, he was my favourite?" Barnes commented. "Not just because he reminded me so much of myself back in the day. But because of all of the students, in my opinion, the boy has the most potential to be great. He has potential oozing out of his ears, more than any other of your students. At Coyote Creek, I watched Keene fight. I watched the two girls fight. I didn't see Diaz but if he's anything like Keene, I honestly doubt he has the potential that I see in Hawk. That work ethic, that physical and mental strength… all it needs is the right guidance and coaching and nobody's stopping him."

"Yeah. It's a shame Johnny and I are failing on that front though." Daniel murmured quietly. Barnes took a deep breath.

"So let me coach him." Barnes suggested. Daniel and Johnny both raised an eyebrow, confused.

"You… you want to coach Hawk?" Johnny asked. Barnes nodded.

"If he's willing, I'd love to." Barnes replied. "I've hired everyone I need for the store, so things are pretty much working on autopilot over there. I have a lot more free time now that my… wife's no longer around. Let me do this. I want to do this."

Not only was this because of how much Hawk reminded Barnes of a younger version of himself, and how badly Barnes wanted Hawk to win the Taikai - the tournament that Barnes had failed to even make it into as a teenager. But Barnes also knew that this was it… this was his chance to finally redeem himself for all of the trauma and shit he had caused Daniel in 1985. Daniel had forgiven him, he had told him as much, but Barnes hadn't yet forgiven himself. He didn't feel yet that him and Larusso were even. Well, this could be the way he finally managed to put each other back on even terms.

He knew for a fact that if Hawk accepted his help, they could do great things together. Although Barnes hadn't formally named it like Hawk had, Barnes also had an aggressive side of him that constantly threatened to get out of control and possess him. However, as a youngster, Barnes had managed to put reins on it, and he wanted to teach Hawk how to do the same. To teach him how to let it fuel him and allow him to tap into it during a fight, but not completely take over him and cost him a win, just like Barnes had, slipping up against Daniel in '85. He wanted to help Hawk turn his aggressive side into a true strength, something he could call upon at will without fear of it conquering the rest of his brain. However, as Barnes thought about all of this, he glanced at Johnny and Daniel, nervous to hear their answer. He wouldn't be surprised if Daniel said no to be honest. After the shit Barnes had put Daniel through back in the day, he would understand if Daniel didn't want him around any of his students at all.

Thankfully though, his nerves were able to rest when he saw the smile on both Daniel and Johnny's faces.

"We'd love your help, Mike." Daniel eventually replied. Barnes grinned widely, new life invigorating him in his veins.

"Great! Thank you so much! I'll talk to him first thing tomorrow!"