CHAPTER 10

As Miguel slowly sat up, groaning in pain as his whole body ached, he felt himself immediately sent crashing back onto the ground as Tory flew at him, her arms wrapping around him excruciatingly tightly. He winced in pain as he felt his already weakened body get subjected to all this, but he still returned the warm embrace. Tory was a wreck, the emotional equivalent of how he felt physically, her tears staining the shoulder of his already sopping shirt. She was sobbing and there was little Miguel could do to stop her other than holding her as she cried. For a while, Tory had genuinely started to believe that Miguel was gone. That he had gone through to the next life without him knowing how she felt about him. Without knowing how sorry she was for everything. Him waking up was like a colossal weight had been lifted off her shoulders, grief vanishing in place of euphoria like she had never felt before. The overload of emotions had overwhelmed her, hence her breakdown.

"Thank God you're okay." She whispered as she clung onto him tighter, more vulnerable at that moment that she had ever been before, partly due to the emotion, but partly because she trusted him. She trusted him more than she did anyone else in the world, and because of that, felt safe enough to actually express her emotions.

When Tory finally released Miguel from her vice-like grip, she sat back slightly and Miguel sat up, wincing in pain as his body still screamed in agony.

"What happened to me?" Miguel murmured, sucking in whatever pain he was feeling as he looked at Tory. When he awoke, he temporarily had no clue what had happened to him. Tory blinked back her tears, relief having short-circuited every emotional barrier in her body.

"You… you don't know? You drowned." She stammered. At that moment, everything came back to him. Seeing the wreck last night. Swimming towards it. Finding the backpack. Getting caught under the rubble of the wreckage. As he did, he looked up at Tory, new confusion etched on his face.

"Wait… how'd you find me?" He asked.

"I heard the boat collapse and figured you were underneath it." Tory replied, shuddering as she thought about what would have happened if she had dipped her head underwater earlier or later and heard absolutely nothing. Miguel wouldn't be sitting before her now. Her heart broke at the very thought. Miguel shook his head.

"No, no. I mean how'd you even know I was there?" He said. Tory blushed. Stalking him felt like a lifetime ago.

"I, um… I saw you and I was curious as to where you were going so I followed you into the water." She admitted. She was hoping that as Miguel thought back to earlier, he wouldn't remember how shitty she had treated him the night before and go back to hating her. Thankfully, he didn't. All he did was chuckle faintly and shake his head.

"Well thank God you did. If you hadn't…" Miguel's voice trailed off, but both knew exactly what he meant. But there was something else Miguel was thinking about. He was thinking about how life could end at any moment. Heck, it literally had for him briefly. Any lingering resentment he had towards Cobra Kai, towards Tory, had disappeared and he now only looked at the amazing girl who had just saved his life, the girl who part of him wished he was still together with.

A long silence overtook them and shockingly, when Tory broke the silence, she had been thinking along the exact same lines as him.

"Miguel, I'm sorry." She whispered. Miguel looked over and to his great surprise, she had tears in the corners of her eyes. His eyes widened in alarm and he scooted closer to Tory, taking one of her hands in his own and squeezing it reassuringly.

"Hey, um… you don't have to apologise for everything." Miguel said. Tory shook her head.

"No, no I do. I was such a jerk to you, ever since we got onto this island to be honest. No, actually, ever since we broke up. I overreacted after everything that happened and I honestly feel so bad about it now. I screwed up so badly and I'm so, so sorry."

Miguel nodded.

"Well, you know you did just save my life, so maybe we call it even?" He suggested, giving Tory the half-smile that she had fallen in love with last year. At that moment, the two of them locked eyes, Tory's hazel ones meeting Miguel's chocolate ones. They both felt sparks run through their bodies like electricity and simultaneously, they both leaned in and kissed…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Shortly after, Miguel lost consciousness, his exhausted body giving in and drifting off into a dreamless sleep. He passed out with a massive smile on him. Him and Tory were back together and he was over the moon about it. They had both been thinking the exact same thing: life was too short to harbor resentment for each other. Deep down, under whatever hatred their dojos' war had created, they both loved each other, and that was enough for them to bury the hatchet.

Miguel's long stupor continued all the way until twilight, when he woke up to see the breathtaking sunset above him. He never really got over how beautiful this island was. The first day or two, he was so distracted because of everything that was going on but now, he could really appreciate its gorgeousness. He felt a million times better, the sleep having reinvigorated his previously dead body. His brain and his limbs had reawoken, and he no longer felt a fraction as drowsy and achy as he did before.

That being said, as he stood up, his body creaking in protest. He felt like he had aged like a hundred years in the past 24 hours, and it took standing up for about a minute for the pain to finally diminish, and he finally managed to gather the strength to walk around, looking for Tory. He walked over to the lighthouse a hundred meters away and walked around it to the other side, finding Tory. But as soon as he came closer, he frantically turned around, covering his eyes and blushing furiously. Tory's t-shirt and leggings were in her hands, leaving her in just her underwear.

"Ahhh! I'm so sorry!" Miguel exclaimed, nearly falling over in his haste to turn around. Tory spun around but merely beamed widely when she saw him.

"You're awake!" She exclaimed, before seeing his expression and looking down, realising what it was all about. She giggled. "Calm down. I'm just washing and drying my clothes because they got uncomfortably sandy over the past few days."

"I'm sorry, I can leave and come back later." Miguel stammered, his face still crimson in embarrassment of having seen Tory, although she was his girlfriend, with no clothes on.

"Leave? What? What are you talking about?" She laughed, finding his embarrassment adorable. "I don't care if you see me. It's like I'm wearing a swimsuit. Just sit down and rest, okay? You just almost died. You're probably not supposed to be moving around yet."

Miguel slowly turned around, removing his hands from his eyes, as Tory went back to doing what she was doing, pinning her clean clothes against the side of the lighthouse to dry. As she went about it, Miguel sat on the sand, his body already exhausted from the mere effort of walking a few hundred meters. He was still nowhere near 100% after the incident so the only part of his body that could move around freely was his eyes, glancing around at his surroundings, seeming to gravitate to Tory's behind as she had her back to him. She was so beautiful, he thought to him as the sunset soon made Tory a mere silhouette against the fiery sky. Beautiful, badass, fearless, fun. How had he gotten so lucky?

He was so deep in his train of thought that he didn't notice Tory finishing up her task and then walking over to him, sitting down beside him in the sand. As she sat down beside him, he jumped in surprise, his head snapping sideways to face her. As he noticed that she was still in just her underwear, he temporarily averted his eyes, before remembering what Tory had said and slowly finding the confidence to look at her again.

The two of them sat beside each other in comfortable silence for a while, both admiring the breathtaking sunset ahead while stealing glances at one another, before Tory eventually broke the silence.

"So what's the bag?" She asked. Miguel looked at her, confused, for a moment before realising. He had completely forgotten about the backpack he had snagged in the wreck! It was still tied onto his back from before, not floating away while he was unconscious under the water. Miguel shrugged the bag off his back and laid it out in front of them.

"Let's find out, shall we?" Miguel replied, opening the bag. The zip was pretty stuck, another sign that the bag had been down there for a while, but Miguel eventually managed to yank it open. The bag was seemingly waterproof, so the contents inside were unharmed. Miguel pulled out three items. The first was a pair of binoculars. The second was a compass.

"Fuck!" Tory shouted, as she threw the contents of the backpack at the ground, annoyed. "Literally useless, all of it!"

Miguel, just as frustrated as her, sighed and put his hand in his hands.

"I mean what the hell even is this?!" Tory exclaimed, picking up the compass again. Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Ummm… compass?" Miguel replied. Tory glared at him.

"Yes, I know it's a compass, genius. I just mean why the hell do we have it?" She snapped, throwing it against the side of the lighthouse, smashing it in two.

"Well I guess problem solved… we don't have it anymore." Miguel remarked drily, getting up and picking up the two pieces. But as he looked at them, his eyes widened. "Hey Tory… come look at this."

Tory throwing the compass had opened a small compartment at the back of it and as Miguel looked closely, he managed to pull out a folded sheet of paper.

"The hell…" He murmured, taking the sheet of paper in his hands and opening it up. Tory walked over to him and looked at what was in his hands.

"What does it say…"