CHAPTER 8

"What are you doing here?" Miguel murmured.

"What am I doing here?! What are YOU doing here?!" Johnny exclaimed.

"Thought I made that pretty clear in my letter. I don't see what the problem is." Miguel replied. Johnny laughed in disbelief.

"Ah yes, no problems at all. Because sneaking off to Mexico, looking for a gangbanger in one of the most dangerous cities in the world is perfectly normal teen behavior."

Miguel shrugged.

"At least I'm actually making the effort to have a relationship with my family member. Unlike you, who was too much of a pussy to call your son for 17 years."

Johnny's face flashed with anger as Miguel's well-chosen retort briefly got under Johnny's skin. However, Johnny was too relieved to see Miguel again, safe and sound, for it to really affect him.

"Look, Miguel, why are we arguing? Please, let's just go home. Your mom is worried sick about you. Everyone's really worried about you."

Miguel chuckled and shook his head, looking right at his sensei's piercing blue eyes when he answered.

"Yeah, see I would. There's just one problem though… I'm not going back."

Johnny had to do a double take to make sure he heard that correctly.

"I'm sorry… what?" He stammered. "Of course you are!"

Miguel laughed.

"Johnny, you don't get it, do you? I'm not some little kid, or even some emotional teenager who's trying to rebel against his family. That's not why I'm here. I'm here to build a relationship with my father."

"You mean the piece of shit, son of a bitch gangbanger who made your mom feel the need to flee and plead asylum in the U.S?" Johnny stated. It was Miguel's turn to have his face darken.

"Don't talk about my dad like that." He growled, fuming for a moment but quickly feeling that rage drain away. "Look, Johnny, news flash… you are not my father! You have done so much for me, and I honestly don't know how to show my appreciation for everything you've done for me, but you're just not my dad. You're never going to be my dad. I have one dad in this world, and he lives here in Juarez. I would have figured that you of all people would know how important it is to want to build a relationship with a family member."

"Miguel… you have to come back!" Johnny exclaimed. Miguel looked at him, genuine confusion on his face.

"But why?" Miguel asked. "Take a step back, Johnny, and let's look at this together. If I go back to L.A tomorrow, what do I have tomorrow? On one hand, I'll be leaving my dad, one of the only people in this world who truly has my best interests at heart!"

"I have your best interests at heart." Johnny argued, to which Miguel scoffed.

"Do you? Do you really? Because last I checked, you seemed to care more about your rivalry with Mr. Larusso than about me. You were too busy being a prick to him that you were too blind to see that the move that was in our best interest would be to have trained with him all the way up until the tournament. Combine Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang's forces. And look, I don't want to blame you as much for this one as at the end of the day, it was up to me, but I wasn't right when I went into the tournament. My back wasn't right. I wasn't fully back to the level I was before my injury, let alone improved to be able to face a Cobra Kai Robby and Miyagi-Do Hawk. You were too busy pushing me to try and beat your pal Larusso that you couldn't see that I was so physically weak going into the tournament. And then when I injured my back IN the tournament and I could barely walk, you STILL wanted me to keep fighting! I had to sneak out and leave to prevent myself from being put back in a fucking wheelchair! Because the sensei who supposedly would "always have my back" was the one trying to nudge me off the cliff without a parachute!"

A long silence overcame them after Miguel's outburst. Johnny silently took in what Miguel was saying, or rather yelling, at him.

"Look, you said you don't want to blame me for what happened in the tournament… you should blame me. I fucked up. Badly. And I'm really, really sorry. I made my fair share of mistakes in the past, even and especially during the time I was your sensei. And in case I don't apologise for them enough, I'm so sorry, Miguel. But hey, don't let me be a reason you stay in this shithole and suffer for a long time. There are other people in the Valley who care about you just as much. You know, your mom, Sam…"

"You mean the mom who didn't even fucking tell my dad I existed?" Miguel spat. "Who just fled without a reason."

Johnny shook his head.

"Look, Miguel, your old man… he's feeding you a whole of bullshit. Carmen had a damn good reason not to want you around him and you know that."

"Really? Is that right?" Miguel asked. "I think that's a whole load of crap to be honest. I mean look at you for example. You were a real piece of shit when I first met you. I believe the first words you said to me were 'great, more immigrants'. And yet, when you began to be like a father to me, you were able to change your life around. Why wasn't my dad given the same chance? My mom didn't want to give him the change to even see me once before deeming the idea of him and I having a relationship impossible. So forgive me if my mom and I aren't exactly best pals either. I'm not saying that I'm definitely never coming back to L.A by the way. I'm just going to stay here for as long as I need to. Could be a day. Could be a week. Could be a few months. Could be a year. However long I feel I need, so I sure as hell don't need you guys forming a search party to try and drag me home. And about Sam…" As Miguel thought about the love of his life, his hard expression softened slightly. "Just tell her I'm sorry, okay."

As Johnny stared at Miguel and saw the stubborn look in his eyes, Johnny realised that he wasn't going to cave. At least not when Johnny was talking to him like this. He needed to talk like a sensei would.

"And besides, Johnny…"

"QUIET!" Johnny barked, ever effectively shutting Miguel up. "First of all… it's Sensei. I don't know why you're calling me Johnny all of a sudden but snap out of it! Second, I'm not your messenger. You have something to tell your girlfriend, tell her your own damn self! And third, you're coming back to L.A with me and going back to your normal life because what your father is doing to you right now is brainwashing you and you need to get out before it's too late. Is that clear?"

Miguel stared at Johnny for a moment, an unreadable expression on his face, before finally, he broke and started chuckling. Johnny watched him, confused, as Miguel's quiet laughter grew to an uproaring level. Eventually though he quietened down and was about to speak again.

"You know, that drill sergeant bit might have worked on me for the past two years. But there's one problem now."

"What's that?" Johnny asked. Miguel took a deep breath before answering.

"You're not my sensei anymore… Johnny." Miguel replied. At that moment, frustration began to boil over for Johnny at how stubborn he was being. It was like all of his many confrontations with Robby, frustration would cloud over his good intentions and he would lose his temper.

"Now, Miguel, you listen here and you listen good…"

However, before Johnny could finish the sentence, he was cut off when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun around to see a large man and as he looked from Miguel, to him, to back to Miguel, he knew that he needed to introduction to know who this man was. The man spoke in a low drawl, almost a growl, venom dripping from his tone.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave and stop bothering my son at once…"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Hello, Nichols." Kreese said, smiling faintly at Tory. It was a look of kindness that Tory didn't reciprocate in any way, shape or form. She was furious, and rightfully so. Ever since she had met Kreese, he had been the one person to always and consistently have her back, getting her out of countless tough spots.. Everyone around her seemed to betray her, everyone but him. He was like Johnny was to Miguel, like Sam was to Daniel. He was more than a sensei to her, so seeing him behind bars like this was excruciatingly painful for her. It was like she was seeing a friend move away from home.

"So… prison food. Is it as bad as everyone says?" Tory remarked, weakly attempting to make a small talk for a while before diving in, and even that comment Kreese ate up. It had been so long with next to no human interaction, with 24 hours a day just him sitting in his cell, walking into the yard alone, plotting his revenge on Silver for stealing his dojo in the cheap, underhanded way he had done so. Just to have someone talking to him again was a welcome experience.

"Worse." Kreese replied. "I'll live though. No different to when we were in 'Nam. I just need to do my 12 months here, or even 6 if I get parole, and then leave."

"Shame. If it were up to me, they'd be serving you mud that they scooped in from the garden and they'd have you here forever." Tory replied. Kreese sighed, sensing her fury towards him.

"Look, Nichols…"

"No, you listen to me. It's my turn to talk." Tory snapped, shutting him up. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Excuse me?" Kreese said, taken aback.

"We needed you, you know. We all trusted you. You, not Silver. And you let us down. After the tournament. Sure we had won, but it was pretty clear that Cobra Kai was getting out of control. That Sensei Silver was steering us down the wrong set of train tracks. I mean bribing the All-Valley referee, encouraging us to injure our opponent…"

"Wait, he bribed a referee?" Kreese interjected, though not entirely surprised. It must have all been part of his scheme to bring Cobra Kai back to locations all over the Valley. It was all interconnected: he needed to win the tournament to gain the support he needed and then framing him for assault took out the only potential roadblock in his plan.

Tory nodded.

"Yeah. That man is a lunatic. And it was fine when you were there to control him, but you had to go get yourself locked up for the most retarded reason in the world! I mean, come on! Beating up Stingray?! The only fighting that man will ever do is fighting for the front of the line at a candy shop! He's completely harmless, like a fly, so why did you have to beat him up?!"

There was a long silence between them before Kreese uttered words that Tory had never expected to hear from the mouth of her Sensei.

"You're right. I'm sorry." He murmured, in a voice no louder than a whisper. "I should have never brought Silver back. I was so invested in winning at all costs that I didn't see how damaging he was for the dojo. But there is something you need to know about what happened with Stingray…"