CHAPTER 26

"Wow, Johnny. I can't believe you're doing this."

As Johnny walked into the jewelry store, Daniel followed close behind, unable to keep the incredulousness off his face. When he had gotten the call from Johnny, asking to meet him at the jewelry store, for a while he had thought it was a joke. It was only when he arrived and saw Johnny shifting nervously from foot to foot right outside the door that Daniel realized that this was all real.

"Yeah, I can't either." Johnny murmured back. He genuinely couldn't believe it. If you had told him even just 3 years ago that right now, he'd be buying an engagement ring for the woman that he loved, the mother of his child, he definitely wouldn't have believed it. In fact, he probably would've turned on his heel and ran as far away as he could.

"I'm honored you decided to call me." Daniel told him. From where they were 35 years ago to where they were now… they were unrecognizable. Never before would Daniel have predicted that Johnny Lawrence, the boy that had tormented him relentlessly for a year, would be getting engaged, and he would be there to help him find an engagement ring.

Johnny shrugged.

"Yeah, well, I don't know jack about any of this. I don't have any chick friends, so you're the closest thing I have to a…"

"Woman?" Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Gee, thanks."

"No. Thank you. For being here." Johnny replied. Daniel smiled at him and nodded.

"No problem. I wouldn't have missed it."

The pair walked into the jewelry store, and almost immediately Johnny was overwhelmed. Different types of jewelry adorning almost every inch of the store, price tags attached that almost made him faint on the spot, and a couple of very well-dressed store workers that made him look very stupid, dressed in his flannel shirt and jeans.

"Relax. I remember doing this when I was buying a ring for Amanda. You show any emotion, and they'll use that to find a way to up the price." Daniel murmured quietly to him. Johnny nodded.

"Yeah, I know how sleazy all salesmen can be." He replied with a not so subtle dig towards the man standing beside him, one that caused Daniel to roll his eyes at him.

"Gentlemen, if I could help you?" The person behind the desk called. Daniel and Johnny nodded and walked over to him.

"Hi, um… I'm looking for an engagement ring." Johnny grunted. The man clasped his hands together and smiled widely.

"How wonderful! And I have just the selection for you! My brother just got married to my brother in law, so I'm sure I can find the perfect ring for both of you!"

Daniel stifled a laugh, but it took Johnny a few moments to realize what the man was implying.

"What…" Johnny grunted, before it dawned on him. "We aren't getting married! I'm getting married! To a chick! To a really hot chick! Not to this loser!"

"Oh, my apologies, sir." The man replied, trying hard not to laugh with Daniel. "Here, let me see what I can find for you."

The man then walked away, leaving Johnny and Daniel to talk amongst themselves. Once he was gone, Daniel decided to turn to Johnny.

"So… having a girl, huh? How are you feeling?" Daniel asked. Johnny turned to him and sighed.

"Honestly? Scared as hell." Johnny replied. "Boys are easy. Eat, drink, play a ball game, put on a badass action flick, done. It's simple with them. Girls though… so much harder. They have so many feelings all the time. How the hell am I supposed to be able to deal with all of their emotions and hormones 24/7?"

"Well, I don't know about that, but in my experience, raising Sam was actually a bit easier than raising Anthony."

Johnny's eyes narrowed slightly as he glanced at Daniel.

"Like I said, Larusso. You're basically a woman. A woman who wears a man's suit and doesn't wear makeup." Johnny pointed out. Daniel sighed.

"Look, all I'm saying is that at the end of the day, having a girl and having a boy… not as different as you think." Daniel told him. "All that matters is that you're around for the kid, and I guarantee that things will be fine. Doesn't matter if it's a son or a daughter."

Johnny nodded gratefully at Daniel, a few of his lingering nerves diminishing slightly.

"Thanks." Johnny murmured.

"Not a problem." Daniel responded. "So… speaking of sons, have you told Robby and Miguel yet?"

"About the proposal or the baby's gender?" Johnny asked.

"Both."

"Baby's gender, Carmen and I told them last night, after we got home from the doctor. And as for the proposal…" Johnny sighed. "Haven't told them yet. Was planning on telling them about it sometime in the next week, before I actually ask Carmen."

"What do you think they'll say?" Daniel asked.

"No clue." Johnny replied. "They seem to be doing better with each other. Not exactly best friends, but not trying to kill each other or anything. Hopefully they've moved on enough with their rivalry to be happy for us. If not, I don't know what I'll do."

"I'm sure they will be." Daniel replied. "They're both grown ups. And they both care about you guys. I'm sure any lingering bad feelings between them won't mean much in the grand scheme of things."

Johnny puffed out air from his cheeks and nodded.

"Hope so." He replied.

A few moments later, the store worker returned, an entire collection of engagement rings in his hands. And Johnny went through each one of them ring by ring, trying to find the perfect one for Carmen. Too big. Too small. Too expensive. Too cheap. Too shiny. Too dull. Too blue. Too green. It felt like it would never end. Until finally, he found it. The perfect ring. Johnny couldn't help but smile as he picked it up and held it in his hands.

"This is the one."

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"Come on boy! That all you got?" Kyler, stupid as always, egged Marcos on as the two of them stood on the center mat of the dojo, sparring. Kreese and Kim watched them intently from the sidelines, not that there was much to watch. It really wasn't much of a fight between the pair, and Marcos barely batted an eyelid before he had the asian-american teenager flipped to the ground, and completely pinned down, vulnerable to a finishing blow from the champion, but not one that ended up coming. At that moment, Marcos froze, not wanting to lay down another hammer strike on the already fallen opponent in what was just a friendly spar. While he might've felt that way, his senseis surely didn't, and both of them scowled deeply at him.

"What are you doing?! Finish him!" Kim barked. However, Marcos still didn't, his fist furling then unfurling as he thought better of it.

"Sensei, he's already down. The fight's over." Marcos said. Kim's ears were practically blowing steam with how furious she was to hear this. Another one! Another soft teenager here in the Valley! Skilled as Marcos might have been, he was still an absolute embarrassment mentality-wise compared to the students from her dojo back in Korea. So weak, not willing to strike an opponent, not willing to strike the enemy.

"The fight is only over when your opponent is down and out! Until that's the case, you put yourself and your allies at risk by letting an opponent off without finishing the fight!" Kreese barked. Immediately, Marcos knew who he was referring to. He had heard all about the infamous fight as soon as he had walked into the dojo for the first time.

Marcos completely let go of Kyler as he slowly stood up and faced his senseis.

"I'm not Miguel Diaz, Sensei. I'm not that foolish that I'm going to suddenly give up fighting midway through a fight to the death, let go of the enemy, and automatically expect them to stop fighting too. I'm smarter than that. But this… this is just a spar. It's not a…"

Marcos didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before all of a sudden, Marcos felt his legs being swept out from under him, and he crashed to the ground on his back. For a moment, Marcos saw Kyler standing over him, before a clobbering blow to the face caused Marcos' eyes to close for a moment.

"Good job, Mr. Park. Hopefully Mr. Oliviera learns his lesson from this." Kreese stated. Groaning lightly in pain, Marcos slowly stumbled to his feet, and he and Kyler bowed to each other, Kyler grinning arrogantly at him the entire time. "Mr. Oliveira, please see me in my office."

Marcos nodded and followed Kreese into the dojo's back office. As he stepped inside, his eyes immediately fell on the Cobra Kai credo that Kreese had painted on the office wall. It had been written on almost every wall of the dojo and it was simple, consisting of just three lines, the third of which Marcos had just broken.

"Look, Sensei…" Marcos began. "I'm sorry for questioning you in front of the entire class. I just… I don't see why I had to finish Kyler there. This is just a friendly spar. Kyler's a teammate."

Kreese nodded.

"I don't blame you, son. I had questions too when I first came across this philosophy, back when I was in 'Nam." Kreese said. "It was really easy over there. Americans were on your side. You could trust them. The Vietnamese were the enemy, and with them it was kill or be killed. When we got back, however, things started to get a little bit more blurry."

"How?" Marcos asked, face to face with Kreese as they spoke, feeling a black eye from Kyler's blow already beginning to sprout on his face.

"Well, 'Americans' were no longer the defining feature of who was on our side. Our own people were branding us monsters, villains, for what we had been ordered to do by politicians, without any choice in the matter. When we returned from 'Nam, we were stabbed in the back by our own citizens, so the only people we had were other veterans. Then eventually, we even turned on each other. The Army turned their back on me without even a second glance, despite everything I had given them and done for them, and they kicked me to the curb."

Marcos listened quietly to Kreese's story, not daring to interrupt.

"And throughout all of this, there was only one person, one person I trusted fully, in the entire world. And he even stabbed me in the back. He's the reason I got locked up in jail in the first place!"

"Terry Silver." Marcos murmured. He had seen snippets of what had happened on the news. He tried not to really gauge anything from news articles, as he knew that these companies did anything to get an entertaining story, even if that meant completely warping the truth. However, based on the way that Kreese's face darkened at the mere mention of Silver's name, Marcos knew he was right.

"The world shows no mercy." Kreese told him. "Loyalty is only temporary. Family, friends, fellow soldiers… these relationships only take a little bit of kindling and a lighter, and they can completely blow up in seconds. Before you know it, they'll have turned on you, and you'll be all alone again. The only person you can trust in this world is the person who brought you into it."

Marcos looked down, avoiding Kreese's gaze.

"Yeah, well, that's not an option for me." He murmured. His mother wasn't around, and wouldn't be for the rest of his life. Kreese nodded, intrigued by this tidbit of information about his champion.

"My mother wasn't around either. Or at least, she wasn't, mentally. All that means is that you have to get stronger, as you have nobody to look out for you but yourself. If you show mercy, even to people that today you consider to be allies, you risk putting yourself in harm's way. No mercy might not be the nicest way. But it's the only way, the only way to always keep you safe and alive. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sensei."