CHAPTER 39

Before everyone knew it, the Christmas holidays had descended upon them, and at a perfect time too. Now with yet another dojo in the Valley, tensions between the karate students had never been higher so the break was welcome. While Miguel knew that Cobra Kai would only use that extra time to train which was not great news for them, he was definitely looking forward to the break as he needed time to disconnect from everything, especially from his yaya's passing. Lately, it had been hitting him harder than ever. Normally, whenever he came home from school or training, his mom would be at work but his yaya would be home so the two would take out two of the good ice creams that they kept hidden at the back of the freezer and would eat them while they chatted about their day. Even small traditions like that felt like crushing blows when they became no longer, when Miguel would instead come home to a deathly silent house. He hadn't at all processed his yaya's death yet. No, not at all. All he had done was throw himself into school and training, forcing him to take his mind away from it. Even his assholish act that he had kept up even after quitting Cobra Kai had just been a method for him to distract himself from being alone with his thoughts and have to reflect on his yaya's death. But when he came home and the curtains were drawn for the night, Miguel cried into his pillow every night, mourning the loss of his best friend in the world. He needed time to truly process the loss to even begin to get over it.

Meanwhile, Eagle-Fang and Miyagi-Do had hit a kind of stalemate with each other, perfect for going into the holidays with. They were NOT friends, NOT teammates, despite their common enemy. They were merely reluctant allies who were forced to be on the same side due to a bigger threat of an enemy. Although Johnny might have buried his hatchet with Miyagi-Do, Miguel far from had himself, rivalries and grudges against Demetri, Sam and many other Miyagi-Dos still fresh in his head. In addition, the fact that Eagle-Fang had recruited Mitch, Bert and some others did not help the relations between the dojos given that Nate and Chris were the Eagles' sworn enemies. Miguel was having an okay time in Eagle-Fang now. To be honest, he wasn't completely invested yet. With Cobra Kai, the fierce rivalry with Miyagi-Do had pushed him into training longer and harder, that imminent threat of a fight scaring him into getting better. Eagle-Fang didn't do that for him nearly as much. Although if anything, Miguel was at a higher risk of an attack now from Cobra Kai than he was from Miyagi-Do before, Eagle-Fang's slightly lax training as the dojo slowly opened made the threat feel so much less dangerous. For God Sake, they literally trained in a public park! A freaking public park! They didn't even have the money for a dojo! Miguel knew that if he got more involved and into Eagle-Fang training, it definitely would be a lot more fun and he would get a lot better but right now, he really wasn't in the right mindset for that. He had pulled away from training quite a bit, and his regression since his yaya died had led to him spending most of his free time alone in his room. He hadn't hit dangerous emotional territory yet but he knew that if he continued like this, he eventually would. And the worst part was that he had no way to stop it, because the main problem was that he was stuck in his apartment, where almost everything reminded him of his late grandmother. He needed a change of scene, even just a short temporary one, but he knew he couldn't get that. He just had to settle for the short holiday instead.

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Meanwhile, Johnny could tell that Miguel was still really hurting. Clearly, he was taking his yaya's death much harder than he was letting on, and his lack of involvement in Eagle-Fang proved as much. Johnny could tell Miguel was regressing with every passing day, and it was physically hurting him to watch this happen day by day with no way to help. He knew by now that there was no way he could force Miguel to do anything he didn't want to do.

However, with Christmas Day soon approaching, Johnny knew that he could do something. For the first time since his mom died, he was actually spending Christmas with people - Miguel and Carmen - so he wanted to get Miguel a gift he wouldn't forget. Something that he could get him that would be both physically and emotionally meaningful to him and therefore would break down the barriers Miguel had built to both protect his feelings and prevent himself from processing them. Eventually, one night, it came to him. The next morning, Johnny practically jumped right out of bed and threw on his clothes, and then he got in his car and sped over to a very familiar dealership in Encino. After a 10 minute drive, he parked and got out of the car, walking inside the dealership and over to the front desk, shuddering involuntarily in disgust as he looked at the bonsai tree on the counter. However, he kept his feelings to himself for the moment as the front desk lady smiled at him.

"Hi, sir, can I help you?" She asked. Johnny nodded.

"Yeah. I want to buy a car…"

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"Well, well, well, look who it is." A voice remarked. Johnny's head snapped and he saw Daniel walking towards him, a small grin on his face. Johnny nodded at him and stood up.

"Larusso." Johnny grunted.

"So… you here to finally return our Dodge Caravan?" He asked. Johnny chuckled.

"Ha. You wish." He remarked, causing Daniel to roll his eyes and slump his shoulders in defeat. "Nah, I'm here to get Miguel a Christmas present."

"Oh right. Well, let's head out to the lot then." Daniel said, as the two of them walked out of the dealership together. Although they were finally cool with each other, they knew that their students weren't, so Johnny hadn't entered Miyagi-Do since Eagle-Fang had began. "Sam told me about what happened to Miguel's grandmother. How's he doing?"

Johnny sighed and shrugged.

"I mean it's only been like 3 weeks so not great really. He's become pretty withdrawn. He's only really spoken to his best friend. No one else about it."

"That's understandable I guess." Daniel nodded. "Many kids choose to deal with loss by keeping it to themselves and trying to push it down."

"Yeah, that's kind of the problem. From what I've gathered, he doesn't want to drag his mom into the same depression he's in so he's keeping everything to himself. That's why I'm hoping that this car can be a way for me to get past that and actually help him."

"That's… actually really thoughtful." Daniel remarked. He was always surprised to hear Johnny say things like this. He knew that Johnny had always had a soft spot for Miguel, but hearing him speak in an almost parental manner, especially given how much Daniel had hated him for 35 years, always came as such a shock to him.

The two made it to one of the car lots moments later, and Daniel turned to Johnny again.

"So what kind of car are you looking for? Does this work?" Daniel asked, pointing to the group of cheap Subarus at the corner of the lot. Johnny raised an eyebrow and scoffed.

"Foresters? That might be something you would drive, but I'm not having Miguel in the Lesbo machine."

Daniel couldn't help but chuckle at Johnny's remark.

"Hey, who knows? Miguel might be keeping some deep feelings in the closet." He joked. Johnny glared at him.

"Hey, laugh all you want but even if he's a unicorn, his horn was still in your daughter last year." Johnny snapped, causing Daniel's face to flush red with anger and annoyance.

"Shut up." Daniel spat. It was Johnny's turn to laugh.

"Hey, just saying!" Johnny chuckled, raising his arms in the air in surrender. "Now, where do you keep your Ferraris?"

"Haha, keep dreaming buddy." Daniel commented.

"Come on! I need something my boy can get laid in!" Johnny exclaimed. Daniel shuddered.

"God, how does Miguel's mom allow you to be around her son! Parents shouldn't be encouraging sex like that!"

Johnny shrugged.

"Miguel is 17, dumbass. There are two types of 17 year olds: the ones getting laid and the ones who are too ugly to be getting laid. No guesses as to which one you were back then." Johnny remarked, causing Daniel to glare at him. "Come on! At least hook me up with a Mercedes!"

"Who do you think I am, Johnny?! I can't just give you a Mercedes!" Daniel laughed. Instead, Daniel pointed at a different car. "Here, I can give you a good deal on this Beetle over here."

"A Beetle? You've gotta be fucking kidding me! Unlike you, Miguel's not a skinny-ass midget so he'd barely fit in this car."

"I don't think you're supposed to call them that anymore." Daniel stated, causing Johnny to look at him in confusion.

"What?" Johnny grunted.

"You're not supposed to call people midgets anymore. It's offensive."

"Whatever. Dwarfs. You know what I mean." Johnny replied, equally politically incorrectly and causing Daniel to roll his eyes. There really would be no wisening that man to the 21st century. Daniel was about to respond but his voice trailed off as he noticed Johnny locking eyes with one of the cars at the end of the lot and walking quickly towards it. Daniel followed him and eventually made it.

"You want this one? 2009 Dodge Ram 1500. Good car. Second hand so I can get you a reasonable price for it."

Johnny smiled as he stared at the jet-black pickup truck, remembering an old conversation he had had with Miguel nearly 2 years ago…

"This is your new car?!" Miguel exclaimed, as he walked out of his house with Johnny and saw Johnny's new Dodge Challenger with the Cobra Kai paint job parked in front of the house.

"Damn right it is. Got it for free from Larusso after your ex-girlfriend and her friends wrecked my old one. By the way, in case I haven't said it yet, I told you so about her."

Miguel's face flushed and he looked down.

"Yeah, you already said that. About 50 times already." Miguel snapped.

"I told you to look out for the Larussos and you didn't believe me. Look at what happened." Johnny remarked. "At least you gave her a good whack for it."

"Shut up. That was an accident. And besides, I shouldn't have done that." Miguel murmured. Johnny shook his head.

"Wrong! You did the right thing!" Johnny stated. "Chicks are always pushing for equal rights, right? And yet if a guy cheats on his girl, 9/10 times I guarantee you the girl slaps him. Why can't we do the same?"

Miguel groaned and put his head in his hands.

"Still. I punched her in the face, Sensei! That's abusive asshole no matter how you try and swing it." Miguel stated.

"Nah, nah, nah, that's just plain, old-fashioned normal human behavior. You think when the cavemen had issues with each other they sat around in a meditation circle politely saying their issues?! NO! They fought for their issues! You're always spouting that gender equality bullcrap. If men and women are so equal, why can't we hit them, huh?"

Johnny's words didn't help Miguel cheer up, however. All they did was make him remember that night even more vividly and cause a massive frown to be etched across his face. Johnny knew he should probably change the subject.

"What's your dream car?" Johnny asked as they got into the car. Miguel looked at him, confused.

"I'm sorry what?" Miguel asked, confused.

"If you could have any car in the world, what would it be?" Johnny asked again. "Mine was my old car. What's yours?"

Miguel shrugged.

"I don't know. Don't really have one I guess."

"Come on, every man has one. What is it? Ferrari? Lamborghini? Corvette?" Johnny questioned. Miguel smiled faintly and closed his eyes.

"Well, to be honest, if I could have any car in the world, it probably wouldn't be any of those expensive sports cars. I'd probably want one of those big pickup trucks. You know, like Rams, F150s, Hummers, those kinds of trucks. Because I'd love to go offroad into the forests or deserts or whatever and just drive like a complete dumbass but know that if I accidentally crash or something, that car is still going to start tomorrow."

"Haha nice, that's a respectable answer." Johnny remarked. "Because if you said something like a Forester, I'd kick you out of Cobra Kai right now."

"A Forester? What am I, a lesbo?" Miguel commented. Johnny laughed.

"I've taught you well kid." He chuckled, before backing out of the driveway and driving with his student to Cobra Kai training…

"Johnny! Hey! Johnny!"

Johnny was pulled out of his flashback when he heard Daniel calling him. He turned and looked at the Miyagi-Do instructor.

"What?" Johnny asked.

"I asked you, do you want this one?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah. This is the one." he replied, smiling to himself. Miguel was going to love this…