CHAPTER 4

"Alright, we're here." Johnny announced, bringing his car to an abrupt halt in the driveway of the Larusso house. Him and Daniel had decided that together, they all needed to decide what would happen next. Would they honor their bet? Would they break it? He was extremely uncertain about what was to come in all of their lives.

As Robby sat in the back seat beside Tory and stared at the house in front of him, he shuddered.

"Ugh… last time I was here, it wasn't pretty." He murmured, recollecting when he had gone to the Larusso house after Daniel had kicked him out to grab all of his stuff. It was a colder than ice atmosphere, with not a word being said by him or his former mentor.

"You?" Tory laughed. "Less than 7 months ago, I threw a midget through a window and tried to kill about 5 people! I'm sure they can hardly wait for my arrival!"

"Don't worry. The Larussos are fine with you being there." Johnny said. "Partly because I didn't tell them you were coming."

"Wait… you didn't text Daniel and tell him?" Carmen asked from the front seat beside Johnny. She had decided to come with them as she knew that they would be talking about Miguel being away, and she preferred to talk about her ex-husband himself than have someone else do it.

"Well I could say it slipped my mind." Johnny said. "But I mean that would be a lie. I kinda want to see the look on the bastard's face when the two people who caused his downfall show up at his doorstep asking for a truce."

Robby sighed, putting his head in his hands in nervous anticipation. They exited the car moments later and walked up the driveway, before knocking on the door.

"Hey, Larusso! Open up! It's me!" Johnny shouted, banging obnoxiously on the door for several moments, before Daniel and Amanda finally opened it together.

"Hey, Johnny. Thank you for co…" Daniel's voice trailed off when he saw who was standing behind Johnny and Carmen. "What are they doing here?!"

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"So… what can I do for you?"

As Miguel sat opposite his dad for the first time in his entire life, he couldn't help but notice the similarities between them. This was definitely his father. Their eye color, hair color, skin color and face shape were all spitting images of one another. Only a few things were physical distinctions between them. As opposed to Miguel's longer, flowy hair, Manuel possessed short, spiky jet black hair. In addition, as the man wore just a white wife beater on his upper body, Miguel spied that every inch of his chest, neck and arms were covered with different colored tattoos. He also possessed a lot more muscle than Miguel did, and it was particularly obvious as his arms tensed and untensed in annoyance as Miguel struggled to think of a way to tell his father what he wanted to say. The man looked extremely intimidating, and Miguel had to stifle a gulp of fear as the man scowled at him. This didn't seem like the kind of person to piss off and keep waiting, so Miguel quickly began to speak.

"Uh… my name is Miguel Diaz. I…"

"Yes, I know that, pendejo. What do you want from me?" The man snapped. Miguel swallowed a gulp and took a deep breath. He knew it was now or never.

"I, um… I don't really know how to say this but I think I'm your son." Miguel said. The man looked at him for a moment and burst out laughing.

"I think you made a mistake, cabron. I don't have any children." He replied. Miguel looked at him, confused.

"You… you don't know who I am? Dad, I, um…"

"Not your dad." The man interrupted. "I would know if I had a child."

The man started to rise from his seat but Miguel shook his head.

"No, no. I swear I am! I think you might have made a mistake!" Miguel exclaimed. Manuel looked at him and scoffed, disbelievingly, before glaring daggers at him and leaning real close so their faces were only inches apart.

"You listen here, puto, and you listen good. I can tell you are not from Juarez so I'm going to refrain from cutting you into a million tiny pieces and instead I'm going to let you know… no one talks to me this way. No one disrespects me like this, especially not Americans. Now you have 5 seconds to get out of my sight before I lose my temper and I become less polite."

Miguel nodded and immediately jumped to his feet, beginning to scurry towards the exit of the bar. He could sense that the man's threat was legitimate, and he wasn't about to stick around to watch him stand true to it. However, just as his hand grasped the doorknob of the bar, he hesitated. He knew that this was his father, and he knew that this was quite possibly the first, last and only chance to get to know him. He needed to swallow whatever nerves and fear he had due to the risks, and take the leap of faith. He stopped where he was standing and he slowly turned around to face the man again.

"Carmen Diaz! Quito, Ecuador! 2002! You knew her, didn't you?"

As the man heard the name, his face blanched and his fists curled into balls so tightly they turned white. He knew Carmen Diaz. Knew her very well in fact. The bitch had married him and then one day, without any warning, left in the middle of the night. He had searched far and wide for her for many years before finally giving up, but the feeling of being humiliated like that stuck with him every passing day.

"Yes. I knew Carmen." Manuel eventually growled. "But she didn't have any children. Not with me anyway."

Miguel shook his head.

"Um… she told me that she told you she was pregnant and you didn't want anything to do with me. This was before she left."

Manuel chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head. He had come from a long line of shitty fathers who hadn't been there for their sons so if he knew that if he had a son, he wanted it to be different. However, as he looked closer at Miguel, he realised that to his alarm, there were some very similar features between them. He was staring at an 18 year old version of himself and it shocked him to his very core. Could this American kid really be his son?

"Can I sit back down? I think we have a lot to catch up on?" Miguel asked. Jaw gaping and eyes still wide as saucers in shock, Manuel nodded.

"Yeah, I think we do…"

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"No, no, no, no, no. I don't want them in my house!" Daniel declared as he stared at his former student and the girl who had terrorised his daughter over the past year.

"Hey, I, um… I'm really sorry but I'm not feeling very well. Is it okay if I run and use your bathroom?" Carmen asked. Amanda nodded and opened the door wider to let her in.

"Yeah, sure. Second door on the right." Amanda told her, and Carmen dashed inside. Amanda then turned back to the standoff that was happening at her front door and looked at her husband. "Daniel, relax. I'm sure none of them are here for a fight. Don't escalate the situation more than it needs to be."

"Yeah, Mr. Larusso, I swear we're not here for a Cobra Kai attack or anything. We're not even in Cobra Kai anymore. We want to join my dad's dojo so he just told us to come here with him." Robby said. Daniel turned to Johnny and glared at him.

"And you just assumed I would want them in my house?" Daniel snapped at him. Johnny shrugged.

"Well you let that ugly-ass, dumbass cousin of yours in your house. These guys can't possibly be worse than that retard." Johnny remarked in reply. "Come on, Larusso! Where would you rather have them, here or with Cobra Kai?"

Daniel scowled at Johnny for a moment, before slowly opening the door fully and looking right at Tory again.

"Fine. But if either of you even put a toe out of line in my house, I'm going to make sure that before you're thrown in juvie before you can blink." Daniel warned her, before turning around and storming into his house. As Tory, Robby and Johnny began to walk inside themselves, Amanda caught Tory's arm and stopped her.

"Hey, ignore what he said. He's still angry about what happened at the tournament." Amanda said. Tory nodded.

"Look, Mrs. Larusso, about that…"

"I know that elbow was an accident, Tory." Amanda interrupted her, taking Tory aback.

"You… you do?" Tory stammered. Amanda nodded.

"It was pretty obviously an accident and I think that everyone not too blinded by the situation would agree with me." Amanda replied. "You won fair and square. Congratulations."

Yeah, not exactly fairly, Tory thought to herself, her mind snapping back to that night, watching Silver hand money to the referee. However, she forced herself out of the flashback and nodded at Amanda.

"Thanks." She murmured. Amanda then led her into the house and over to the living room, where already two people were sitting. One of them was Sam, who upon seeing Tory, immediately shot to her feet.

"What the HELL is she doing here?!" Sam shouted, her blood running cold upon seeing Tory in her house. It was her first time seeing Tory since the tournament and she wasn't nearly over the loss yet. A combination of fury, a sense of being robbed, and even a little bit of fear combined inside her and bubbled up like a volcano about to erupt.

"Hey, Sam. Calm down, honey. She's not here to fight." Amanda said, trying to relax her agitated daughter.

"Hey, who's the chinese dude?" Johnny asked, pointing to the man on the other side of the living room, sitting quietly and watching everything unfold. Daniel sighed and rolled his eyes at Johnny.

"This is Chozen, a Japanese friend of mine and fellow Miyagi-Do student." Daniel explained.

"I… help… Daniel-san." Chozen stated in broken English. Johnny groaned as he looked at Daniel.

"Oh, God! Another asian who can't speak English! Him, Miyagi… what is that, a requirement to be friends with Daniel Larusso? No speak English?"

Daniel glared at him.

"Shut up, Johnny." He snapped. Johnny shrugged.

"What?" He laughed. "All I'm saying is that with all these people, you could have set up a school for them by now!"

"Johnny…" Daniel warned him. "Look, just sit down, okay? I think all of us need to talk."

Eventually, Johnny did, taking his seat on one of the sofas. Robby, Johnny, Tory, Daniel, Chozen, Amanda and Sam all sat around in the circle. Though there was an All-Valley champion amongst them, this was a meeting for the losers. It was to determine the future after failing to beat Cobra Kai. The silence was deafening, none of them willing to be the first one to talk, until Amanda cleared her throat.

"So I'm going to get this insanely awkward conversation underway." She said, turning and looking at Johnny and Daniel. "Man-boys, your students lost the tournament and quite frankly, it was your fault. You couldn't work together with each other for the sake of your students and it cost them not only the tournament but their safety during their final upcoming year of high school before they graduate. Your fault, your problem to sort out. What are you going to do about it?"

Daniel and Johnny were both extremely taken aback by this direct message from Amanda, and they struggled to come up with a response.

"I, uh… I…" Johnny spluttered.

"We, um… there's not much we can do unfortunately." Daniel said. "If it were up to me, I'd repon Miyagi-Do tomorrow and continue to train my students with Chozen to defend themselves. But we made a deal with Kreese that if they won, we'd both close our dojos. We have to honor that."

At that moment, Johnny, Robby and Tory all exchanged unsure glances with each other. Both Johnny and Robby were looking at Tory. Neither were going to rat her out, but both were silently urging her to speak up.

"You could always start a dojo outside the Valley?" Robby suggested, trying to draw attention away from Tory and give her time to think about whether she would confess or not. "I mean the deal was that whoever won, the other had to leave the Valley, right? Just open another Miyagi-Do location on the border of the Valley. Technically not breaking the deal."

Daniel sighed.

"You know, I actually thought about that yesterday. Considered doing it. But I realised that if the roles were reversed, if Silver did that, I would feel like he broke the deal, which would probably mean that it is breaking the deal. They won. We have to honor that."

Eventually, Tory couldn't hold it in any longer. She sighed.

"Look, what if it wasn't a fair deal? If Silver damaged the honor of the bet, would that change whether you guys keep your dojos open or not?" Tory asked them. Daniel looked at her, confused.

"Huh?" He grumbled. Tory took a deep breath.

"Well, if someone saw Silver let's say handing money to the referee and thanking him for rigging the tournament, would that change whether you honor the bet or not?"

Daniel, Amanda and Sam's jaws dropped, and they were stunned silent for several moments, before Daniel spoke up.

"Tory… what do you know?"