CHAPTER 25

"Rocky?"

"No."

"Iceman?"

"No."

"Chong?"

"What?"

"Chong. Like Chong Li from Bloodsport. Badass name for a baby." Johnny remarked. Today was the day. The day they came in for their 20 week ultrasound, and the day they hopefully found out the gender of the baby. He and Carmen sat in the Doctor's office, waiting for the doctor to arrive, debating names for their baby. Or rather, Johnny was coming up with names and Carmen was almost immediately shooting them down. As she glanced at her boyfriend, she raised an eyebrow and sighed.

"Johnny, I want you to stop and think about this. Think about what race you are. Think about what race I am. And now ask yourself whether or not you think Chong would be an appropriate name for our child." Carmen remarked. Johnny shrugged.

"Hey. At least I'm coming up with ideas. You've come up with nothing!" Johnny replied. Carmen nodded.

"Like I said, I'm not going to start thinking about baby names until we know the sex of the baby." Carmen told him.

"We don't need to know the gender of the baby for some names. Chappy works for a boy or a girl." Johnny stated. Carmen sighed.

"I think I also said I don't want our child being named after a lead in one of your 80s action movies." Carmen added. Johnny grumbled and nodded, and a few moments later, the doctor walked into the room.

The appointment was a relatively short one. The doctor was incredibly quick and efficient with her work. Her competence in her profession clearly showed, as it didn't take long before she had completed all of her checks and tests, and was on to the very final part of the appointment, the part both Johnny and Carmen were most eagerly awaiting.

"So… one final thing. Would the two of you be interested in finding out the sex of the baby?" The doctor asked. Their hands and fingers intertwined, both Carmen and Johnny nodded together, taking a deep breath.

"Yes, please, doctor." Carmen replied.

"Please let it be a boy. Please let it be a boy." Johnny silently prayed to himself. Not that he had anything against having a girl. But it was just that having this baby was already so terrifying for him, that with a boy at least he knew that he'd be able to find some kind of common interests with him, whether it be Martial Arts, sports or anything else. Boys were easy. They were simple-minded, uncomplicated. Girls though… girls were so much tougher.

"Well, can you see what I'm pointing at here?" The doctor asked, her finger pointing at the center of the ultrasound screen, where they could see the faint image of their developing baby. It was a fuzzy image, so they couldn't quite tell what the doctor was pointing at.

"No. There's nothing there." Johnny commented. The doctor smiled at them and nodded.

"Exactly. That means you're having a girl." She told them. Johnny and Carmen's reactions were immediate. Both of them were overwhelmed with joy. Johnny's fears about having a girl temporarily vanished as he was overcome with emotion. It was an indescribable feeling, one that he had missed out on with Robby, and one he knew that he was never going to forget for as long as he lived. Standing there in the doctor's office, wrapping his arms tightly around Carmen in a tight embrace, he realized something. This. This was why he was still on this Earth. He had screwed up so badly with Robby and Shannon, with pretty much everything he touched before the age of 50, but this was his opportunity to make up for that. This was his chance to do what he couldn't before, and become a proper dad to his kid, a proper co-parent to his partner.

All of these feelings only made Johnny feel even more certain about the decision he had made last night. He was going to do it. He was going to ask Carmen to marry him…

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"You good?" Marcos muttered to Sarah as the pair limped off of the mat at the end of training.

"I can't walk." Sarah murmured back, practically collapsing as she reached her bag in the corner of the dojo. It had been a grueling practice. Led by Sensei Kim, she had pushed the students far past their physical limits, until they could barely walk let alone continue fighting. Marcos and Sarah had it the worst. As the established male and female champions of the dojo, Kim pushed them harder than anyone else. A combination of fighting her and fighting each other, by the end of the training session, every inch of their bodies were covered in welts and bruises. But despite that, the pair were satisfied. They had gotten exactly what they had needed today: for Sarah, she had rejoined the Martial Arts scene and rediscovered something she truly loved as a kid; and for Marcos, he had managed to beat all of the rage from that afternoon at school out of his system. Or at least, most of it…

Now that the better part of his anger had passed, he felt a different feeling: he felt very alone. He felt painstakingly far away from everything he knew and loved back home in Brazil. At the High School, Hawk had only reminded him of how different he was to everyone else, how he didn't even have something as foundational as a common language with the others around. The only thing that Marcos had to remind him of his old life in Brazil was his father, and while he loved the man very much, his dad didn't exactly help when it came to feelings. In fact, it was the exact opposite. The man distanced himself completely from any of his son's feelings, allowing the teenager to find the strength to process them himself. While Marcos was mostly grateful for that, as his father was allowing him to become his own man, it did nothing to help his loneliness and homesickness.

"Yo, King and Queen Cobra. A few of us are going to catch a movie at the mall now. You guys wanna come?"

Marcos was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't even hear Kyler speak initially. He turned towards Sarah, shrugging in a silent message that basically said 'I'll go if you go.' So Sarah ended up replying to Kyler.

"Yeah, sure, we'll come. We'll meet you guys there." She replied.

After training, Marcos didn't linger around the dojo. Kreese wasn't there, and he didn't really want to stick around with Sensei Kim, as he knew that any more of her ridiculously exhausting training and he definitely would pass out. Instead, Sarah and Marcos left together, and as they stepped outside the Encino flagship dojo, Marcos turned to walk towards the bus stop, but he was quickly halted when he was called to by his girlfriend.

"Hey, where you going?" She asked.

"Mall." He grunted in reply. "I don't drive, remember?"

"Just come with me in my car!" Sarah invited him.

"Are you sure? I don't want to be an imposition." Marcos said, unsure.

"Don't be silly! Driving with my boyfriend to literally the same location as I'm going to is not an imposition!" Sarah laughed. Marcos blushed and nodded, following her back to her car, getting into the passenger's seat of the luxurious Mercedes. The two then pulled out of the dojo parking lot, and got onto the road. Marcos was still very new to the city, so he was still very unfamiliar with the roads. He didn't realize where exactly Sarah was going until 15 minutes later, she brought the car to a halt and turned off the engine. Marcos looked out the window and raised an eyebrow, glancing sideways to look at her.

"Um… Sarah. This isn't the mall. This is…"

"Your house." Sarah nodded. She still remembered it from when she had dropped him home the other day.

"What are we doing here?" Marcos asked, puzzled. Sarah didn't respond immediately, but instead waited until she had unlocked and opened her car door to finally respond.

"I'll tell you when we get inside." She said cryptically. There was a reason why they were here. She had heard about the confrontation between Marcos and Hawk from another kid at school, and she immediately knew what she had to do. Or at least try and do.

Cautiously, Marcos got out of the car and he reached into his bag to pull out his house key. He was lucky: his father was still at work. He knew his father didn't like him having guests over, even back in Brazil Marcos would have to meet up with friends elsewhere or in the backyards as he didn't want the guests breaking or stealing anything. And having a girl over home alone was definitely forbidden on the list of rules his father had. Marcos knew he had at least a couple of hours before the man got home that evening, more than enough time for whatever Sarah had planned, and then to cook dinner for his dad before the man got home.

They walked into the house, and immediately, Sarah was taken aback. If Sarah hadn't seen him unlock the door with her own eyes, she might have thought they had come to the wrong thing. She was aware that Marcos didn't come from much money, but this was a whole other level of what she was expecting. The entire one-storey apartment was barely larger than one room in her house. The kitchen, living room and table were all within a few feet of one another, with practically no empty space anywhere, their entire life's worth of items cramped into such a tight space. Sarah spied two bedrooms at the far side of the apartment, both of them smaller than her walk-in closet. Sarah knew that the two of them led almost opposite lives, but this was the most vivid image of the stark contrast between them.

However, despite how small and bare the apartment might have been, it was still fastidiously kept. It was incredibly neat and tidy, not a speck of dust in sight, nothing even an inch out of place. This was the standard that Marcos had been raised with: you are blessed to have a roof to live under, so you keep it tidy. The apartment might not look like much, but Marcos was thoroughly proud of it, and he knew just how blessed he was to have an apartment, to even have his own room, as so many people he knew back home didn't even have a roof to sleep under.

"Would you like some water? Soda? Or something?" Marcos asked as he walked into the small kitchen.

"Water would be great, thank you." Sarah replied, as she put down the small backpack that she had brought inside with her.

"So what are we doing here anyways?" Marcos called as he filled up two glasses.

"You'll see in a second." Sarah replied, as her eyes continued to flicker around the apartment, eventually landing on the small bookshelf in the corner of the living room. She wasn't looking at the books themselves, but instead was intrigued at what was resting on the top shelf. A couple framed photos, fragments of Marcos' old life, stared back at her, and she couldn't help but walk over to get a closer look at them, hoping to understand a bit more about the person she cared so much about and yet knew so little about.

The first photo was of Marcos on the beach, clearly no older than 8 or 9, doing a karate kick. Sarah smiled faintly. He looked adorable, the elation evident on his face as he made the kick, his roots clearly already forming in Martial Arts even at such a young age. There were a few photos of Marcos with his friends, and a couple of the photos were of Marcos and an older man, presumably his father. But the ones that caught her eye were the last two frames on the shelf, the photos most prominently displayed. The penultimate photo was of Marcos' father and a woman standing beside him, the younger-looking couple clearly celebrating their wedding when the photograph was taken. And the final photo was a shot of Marcos, his father and the woman from the photo before. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together and realize who it was: this was Marcos' mom!

It occurred to Sarah that although the pair hadn't known each other long, they had had a lot of conversations with each other, but none of them had Marcos ever mentioned his mom. He had mentioned his dad often, and Sarah knew that the two of them lived alone, so she assumed that whatever had happened with Marcos' mom - whether it be divorce or otherwise - it wasn't something that Marcos wanted to talk about. And Sarah wasn't going to push him to do so. Not until he was ready to confide in her about it.

A few seconds later, Sarah felt the presence of Marcos walk up behind her, handing her the glass. Sarah took a sip, before placing it down on the table and looking back at the photos. Marcos noticed her looking, and he smiled faintly.

"Good times." Marcos quietly reminisced as he looked at the photos. He made a point to look at them every day. They made him feel a little, just a little closer to Rio. Not thousands of miles away like he actually was.

"What was it like? Living over there." She asked.

"Awesome." Marcos replied quietly, his mind floating back to his hometown. "It was just… surreal. Out of this world. Everything about it: the people, the culture, the attractions, the sports, the neighborhood… it was so amazing. My friends were the best. We all lived in the same neighborhood, so we were all within a minute's walk from each other. With everyone so close together, your neighborhood becomes your family. You celebrate together. You mourn together. You party together. You play together. You teach each other. There's really nothing like it."

As Marcos finished speaking, before he could react, he felt Sarah's arms slowly wrap around his neck and pull him into a crushing embrace. She hugged him tightly, and kissed him gently. She held him for several moments before she eventually broke away. When she did, Marcos looked at her, confused.

"What was that for?" Marcos asked her. Sarah's emerald eyes met his chocolate ones, and she held his gaze for a few moments. Listening to him talk about Brazil… Sarah knew exactly how he was feeling right now.

"I can't imagine how tough this must've been." Sarah said gently.

"Excuse me?" Marcos murmured.

"I lived here my whole life. I'm scared enough to leave the State for College. Let alone leaving the whole country, leaving everything I know behind, leaving all of my friends behind, to move to a whole new country. It's only natural to be homesick."

Marcos sighed. He knew that Sarah had read him like a book. He missed home terribly. This place wasn't his home. He stuck out here like a sore thumb. He was a foreigner, not a local. He didn't belong here.

"It just… sucks sometimes." Marcos admitted, his voice not much louder than a whisper. "Rio was my home. All of my friends are there. Here, I'm alone."

"You still have people who care about you, here. Me… your dad… all of Cobra Kai. You're not alone, Marcos."

"Really? Because with the shit that happened today, it's kind of hard to believe that." Marcos replied, referring to the incident with Hawk earlier that day. It had taken a toll on his head, more than he could've let on. It had solidified his beliefs that he didn't belong here.

Sarah nodded.

"That's actually why I wanted to come here." Sarah remarked. Marcos cocked his eyebrow, confused. He was puzzled as to why she had decided to come here, and he was about to find the answer. Because at that moment, Sarah reached into her backpack and pulled out a pile of books and paper.

"What's this for?" Marcos questioned.

"This… is for me helping teach you how to read." Sarah told him. "Shouldn't be too hard either. You're already fluent in speaking, and the lettering isn't that different from Portuguese. I reckon with a few months of work, you'll be a better reader than me."

Marcos smiled faintly, affection for the girl radiating from him, but he shook his head.

"Thank you. I really appreciate the offer. But I'm not interested." Marcos replied. He couldn't do it. It was just too embarrassing. It was an insecurity that Marcos hid deep down inside him, and he refused to fully expose it to anyone, not even to her. It made him feel like a baby, like a little kid.

Sarah nodded.

"Thought you might say that. Which is why I'm adding some incentive to it." She responded, looking him right in the eye as she spoke. "If you do what I want and let me teach you for one hour, then we can go into your bedroom and you can spend an hour doing whatever you want to me."

Marcos' eyes were so wide they practically popped out of their sockets. He was not a stranger to sex, but to hear such a proposal from someone like Sarah was a shock to him.

"Um… what?" He stammered.

"You heard me." She replied, smirking seductively at him. Marcos' surprise only increased further at this.

"You… you don't have to do that." Marcos said. Sarah nodded.

"I know. But I want to. In case you haven't looked in a mirror lately, you're pretty easy on the eyes." She responded. "Come on! We're both turning 18 in a few months! We're going to get around to it at some point anyway. What's the problem?"

Upon seeing the absolute certainty in his girlfriend, Marcos eventually smiled and nodded.

"Alright then. You have yourself a deal. Let's get reading!"