CHAPTER 49

"I gotta say, this is pretty different to the last time we were out here, eh?" George remarked as him and Miguel settled onto the boat. Miguel chuckled and nodded, before turning to Daniel.

"Last time we were here was for Cobra Kai training." Miguel explained to him. "Kreese had us tie our hands and legs together, added 20 pound weights to our feet and then threw us overboard to try and improve our lower body strength."

"Oh, my God!" Daniel murmured in shock. "That's absolutely insane. Why in the world did you guys stay with them for so long?!"

"To be honest, please don't take offense to this but I'm not really that invested in this whole war thing you got going on with Cobra Kai. I like fighting, and I like shutting up assholes, but if I had to quit tomorrow, I wouldn't really feel any sadness towards it. I'm a hockey player, not a karate kid. So in answer to your question, the reason I stayed for as long as I did was because I just stayed wherever Miguel was. I wasn't involved in any of the attacks or ambushes or anything so all Cobra Kai really was to me was a gym session where I got to hang out with my friend."

Daniel nodded.

"Right. I've actually been meaning to ask you guys this but I forgot. How did you guys meet? Did you grow up together or something because you seem like you go way back based on your interactions, but George I haven't seen you in Cobra Kai before like November."

"No, we actually just met each other in September." George replied.

"Yeah, we were in the same physical rehab facility and were roommates there so we lived together for like two months and we recovered from our injuries together. Guess it was just luck that we actually lived in the same city and happened to go to the same school too." Miguel said. Daniel nodded.

"Well that's nice. Has anyone ever told the two of you that the way you interact is not dissimilar to an old married couple?"

Miguel and George laughed.

"You know, you might have a point there." George remarked.

"Ha, George, you wish you could hit this." Miguel joked, causing George and Daniel to nearly tip the boat as they laughed. Eventually though, they stopped and Daniel looked at Miguel.

"Miguel, you know you never answered my earlier question." Daniel said.

"Huh?" Miguel asked, confused.

"Why did you stay with Cobra Kai for so long? No judgement or anything. I'm just curious." Daniel said. Miguel sighed and leaned back, looking up at the beautiful sky.

"To be honest, there's probably multiple reasons. The first is like I told Sam when she came to visit me in the hospital. I had a pretty rough childhood. My family and I had to flee Ecuador, our home, when I was really young. I have no siblings. Had no friends. No father figure. Basically had no one in my life that I could always count on outside my mom and grandmother. But then, nearly 15 years later, I met Johnny and he reopened Cobra Kai and everything just changed. I was surrounded by friends. Had a girlfriend for the first time. I was no longer the nerd latino kid with no friends. I had more than just friends - I had the brothers and sisters I always wanted. That kind of thing was hard to give up." Miguel replied honestly.

Daniel nodded. The answer had definitely taken him aback. He had expected a basic reason like because Cobra Kai made him strong or something. But this… this was so much more than that, it gave him a much, much better understanding of Miguel. In a way, Miguel seemed a lot like himself when he was younger. Bullied, outsider kid who moved to a poor area of town and discovered Karate to protect himself from the bullying. But Miguel hadn't had a Mr. Miyagi to keep him in line. He had Kreese instead.

"Also, that's aside from the obvious fact that Kreese's Cobra Kai made me stronger than I'd ever been. I mean before the school fight I never could've taken on all of Miyagi-Do against just me, let alone won. That's another reason why I didn't want to quit. Cobra Kai took me to train in locations outside the dojo so that challenged me to push my limits because I would always be fighting someone better than me. I realised if I joined Miyagi-Do, I wouldn't be training with people that could challenge me that much."

"Well that's not fair!" Daniel exclaimed. Miguel sighed.

"Come on, Mr. Larusso. I mean this with no disrespect, but can you name one Miyagi-Do right now that is my size and build so could challenge me?"

"Demetri." George chimed in jokingly. Miguel turned and glared at him.

"I will throw you off this boat." Miguel threatened in reply, and George laughed.

"Okay, maybe not Demetri, but I could have. If you ever wanted to spar, I'd be happy to spar with you" Daniel said. Miguel shook his head.

"With all due respect, Mr. Larusso, I know you're a great martial artist, but I feel like you're too…"

"Old?" George interrupted. Miguel glared at him and rolled his eyes.

"No, not old. George, shut up." Miguel snapped. "No, what I meant to say is you're too nice to your students."

"What happened to me being the dickhead who forced you to do my chores?" Daniel laughed.

"Okay, yeah fine that sucked, but I'm talking about when sparring with a student. When you spar with Sam, or Demetri, or Chris, or Nate or anyone else, would you be willing to throw them onto their neck when teaching them to grapple? Or break a rib when punching you to encourage you to block?"

"What, of course not! That's psychotic! And most definitely illegal! Kreese did that shit to you?!"

Miguel shook his head.

"Not Kreese. He's too smart to do that himself. No, he'd take me to these shady, underground fight clubs where I would fight these huge adult guys who would beat the shit out of me until I learned to fight back."

"That does not sound safe." Daniel stated uneasily.

"Oh, it definitely wasn't safe." Miguel laughed. "But like I said, it made me stronger than ever. And made me a lot better at fighting. So I wasn't about to argue with that…"

The three men spent the next hour or so getting to know each other and crucially, Daniel managed to get Miguel and George to feel more and more relaxed and convinced in Miyagi-Do. He had pretty much gained their trust, which meant that they probably had the trust of the rest of the group. It was great signs for the new dojo. Though Miguel was still probably going to go regularly to the fight club, he had full faith and excitement in this dojo merge. Fun things ahead…

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"So, are we heading back now?" Miguel asked as he and George helped Daniel pack up the car when they finally finished fishing. Daniel shook his head.

"No, not quite yet." Daniel said, and then he reached into the car for something and came out with it moments later. "Here, catch!" He said, tossing Miguel a bo staff, and then tossing George one too, before taking out one for himself. They caught them and both raised an eyebrow.

"What's this for?" Miguel asked.

"Well you said that Miyagi-Do didn't involve enough actual fighting so here, you're getting your wish. Some good old-fashioned bo fighting." Daniel said. "Now, show me 'Cast the Rod'."

Huh?" Miguel asked, but before he could ask a follow-up question, Daniel lunged at him with a staff. Miguel instinctually reacted, using the same motion he used to cast the fishing rod to block Daniel's swing, before stepping back with his jaw practically on the ground in shock.

"What the…" Miguel stammered in shock. "What was that?"

"That… is Miyagi-Do." Daniel replied. "The art of defense…"

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Everything was lining up in Miguel's life. Training, friendships, things were even going great with his quest to get a date with Emily. It was the next Sunday now, nearly 2 weeks since he and Emily had met. He had gone to the restaurant on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and in that time, they had gotten to know each other a lot better. She had not agreed to a date yet and even if she didn't, though Miguel knew he'd be depressed at first, he knew that he'd still have gained a really close friend. Spending time with Emily, it was just easy. Bar Mary (who was due to arrive in L.A any day now) and George, Emily had strangely become one of his closest friends. Not that he had many at this point after his long backslide into psychoticness, but still… Emily was so easy to talk and spend time with. If he couldn't get a date with her, as long as they stayed friends, Miguel wouldn't be walking away disappointed.

Little did he know that Emily was starting to gain feelings for him too. Getting to know him, she had realised that he was so much more than the bully she originally thought he was. She learned about everything that had happened before, during and after the school fight and she hadn't turned away. She was very much a second chances, taking the leap of faith kind of person and for Miguel, it seemed worth it. He seemed like a really kind, honest, loyal person, in short the perfect boyfriend. The only thing holding her back was her hesitancy in going into a relationship with someone with a bully history, given her own past. Her last relationship had lasted nearly a year, but it was a far from good one. It had been a toxic relationship with a guy who went to a private All-Boys school in L.A. He had been a complete asshole, emotionally abusive and extremely manipulative, doing and saying to her just enough to keep her on the hook but being a bully and a dickhead to everyone else around him. He had manipulated her whenever she had tried to break up with him by using his mental health and threatening to do something to himself. So she had uncomfortably stayed with that relationship until midway through junior year, when she found out that he was cheating on her, and had been for almost 5 months. This was the final straw and she had broken up with him then and there, swearing off guys and not dating anyone in the past year. That's why, as nice as Miguel seemed, she wasn't sure whether or not she was going to date him.

That evening, as Emily walked out of the diner kitchen at 8pm to start her shift, to her surprise, the familiar latino teenager wasn't in his usual seat. Emily's eyes quickly raked around the restaurant and as she realised that he was nowhere around, her heart sank. She was slightly upset. Then. Right then. That was the very moment that Emily realised that this was somebody she wanted to be with. This was someone she wanted to take the leap of faith with. The fact that she was feeling so sad about him not being there wouldn't have been the case if they were just friends. But it was too late now, wasn't it? He was gone, and who knew if she would ever see him again?

She would see him again. Exactly 15 minutes later actually. As Emily forced Miguel out of her mind and instead got to work on making drinks for the first customers, suddenly the diner door swung open and Miguel stepped inside, absolutely drenched from head to toe. He quickly threw his coat onto the rack and ran his hand through his sopping wet hair, before hurrying over to her.

"Sorry I'm late! It was just one thing after another! My car got a flat but I forgot to buy a new spare tyre after last time it happened so I had to call a tow truck. But then before they came, it started pouring rain outside so the tow truck took even longer to get to me. Then after they took my car, I realised I was only like a 20 minute walk from here so decided to walk. But then as I was walking, the sole of my shoe broke so I had to like hobble over here so it took twice as long. And then…"

Miguel's words were cut off as Emily walked over to him and, ignoring the fact that he was still soaked from the rain, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a long kiss. Miguel was flabbergasted, but still returned the kiss. They made out until they needed to break apart for air, and as they did, Miguel was still speechless.

"What… what… what…" Miguel's mouth gaped open and shut like a fish, his mind still spinning and refusing to cooperate for long enough to form a full sentence. That kiss was by far the best kiss he had ever had, the feeling of his lips on hers sweeter than honey.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" She giggled, her arms still wrapped around his neck. "Here, let me help you out a bit. Emily Cahill, will you go out on a date with me? Why, Miguel, Diaz, I'm honored! And I'd love to go out on a date with you! Does this Friday work for you, Emily? This Friday works grea…"

Emily's two-sided conversation with herself was cut short as Miguel leaned in and for the second time in a minute, their lips connected…