CHAPTER 50

That evening, Miguel left Silver's place and rode home on the bike, going home for the first time since yesterday morning, as he had spent the previous night at Silver's place. He knew that by this point, Johnny and his mom most definitely knew about his dojo transfer, so he was expecting confrontation from the moment he walked into the house. However, unfortunately for him, he didn't even need to walk into the house for things to heat up. As soon as Miguel pulled into the compound, he spotted a familiar figure leaning on his door, scowling deeply at him. Miguel took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment to calm himself. He then got off the motorcycle and walked through the compound to approach the blonde man.

"Hey." Miguel murmured as he nodded at the man. Johnny stared at him, his eyes wide.

"Hey? Seriously? That's all you have to say?!" Johnny exclaimed, already worked up. Miguel sighed. This was not going to go well.

"Here we go." Miguel mumbled under his breath. Johnny heard him and nodded.

"Yeah, here we go! Miguel, you joined Cobra Kai?! What the hell, man?!" Johnny snapped.

"Yes, Johnny, I joined Cobra Kai." Miguel stated, his tone devoid of emotion.

"What… what… how could you…" Johnny spluttered, trying to find the words to say. Earlier that day, he had tried rehearse in his head what he would say when his former student arrived, but now looking Miguel in the eye and seeing him wearing a Cobra Kai shirt again… it had all gone out the window. "Is this about Robby?"

Miguel shook his head.

"No. No, it's not." Miguel replied. That was the truth. Kind of. Sure, part of the reason he had accepted Silver's offer was after he had seen Johnny take Robby's side over his, but that wasn't the main reason.

"Because Miguel if it is, I swear to you I don't care about you any less just because things are going well with Robby. I'm not taking either side."

Miguel nodded.

"I appreciate that, Johnny, but that's not why I joined Cobra Kai. Silver's… helping me. In a way you definitely can't."

"Really? Try me. Tell me what Silver's helping you with and I'll do it." Johnny stated. Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"You got 260 thousand dollars lying around to give me?" Miguel asked. Johnny's jaw dropped as he heard what Miguel had said.

"He's… he's offering you 260k?" Johnny stammered. Miguel nodded.

"Yep. And with your and my mom's baby on the way, it's the only semblance of a college fund I'm ever going to have." Miguel replied. That's when Johnny realised. That's when everything clicked into place. Why Miguel was in Cobra Kai. It wasn't that he was being brainwashed due to anger.

"Miguel… Miguel you see what's going on, right? He's buying you! He's buying your loyalty! He doesn't give a shit about you! He's just using you!"

Miguel shrugged.

"Yeah, Johnny, I know." He murmured, not fazed at all by what Johnny was saying.

"You… you know?" Johnny asked. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, and honestly… I don't care." Miguel remarked, before putting a hand on Johnny's shoulder. "Johnny, I'm not the same kid I was when I first met you. I've grown up. I'm not about to get manipulated by anyone. Hell, I don't even care about this stupid karate war."

"Excuse me?" Johnny snapped. Miguel sighed.

"Look, in a year's time, I'm going to graduate. With the money I'm getting from Cobra Kai, I'm hopefully going to go off to a good college. I don't even have to think about Karate ever again."

Johnny nodded.

"Yeah, sure, you don't. But what about the kids younger than you. You remember what it's like to be targeted by Cobra Kai? How are you going to feel when that happens to even more people, because you've helped build Cobra Kai into such a monster. Think about them."

Miguel shook his head vehemently.

"No, see, that's just it. For so long, I've been putting others first. You remember why I started Cobra Kai in the first place? To get strong enough to stand up to bullies." Miguel stated. "I managed to achieve that within 3 months of training. But did I quit? No. I stuck by you the whole summer, even after you gave me advice that nearly got me killed in the school fight, I still was loyal. I helped you open your new dojo. I helped you recruit students. In the meantime, doing absolutely nothing to start thinking about my future. Well now it's time for me to put myself first, because no offence but living paycheck to paycheck in Reseda for the rest of my life isn't exactly what I want. And if you actually care about me like you claim, you'd get that."

Johnny listened to Miguel for a while, before shaking his head.

"Look, Miguel, I do care about you. I just don't want you to let Cobra Kai get so much into your head that it eventually sends your life into the shitter and makes you a ruthless asshole…"

"Like you?" Miguel remarked drily, thoroughly tired of this conversation at this point. He had had it so many times with so many people and now it just felt like he was talking to a wall. Johnny scowled at the insult but eventually nodded.

"Yes. Like I was. And by the sounds of things, like you were last night." He replied. Miguel chuckled at this comment. He knew that Robby would have snitched to daddy about the incident, and he had a feeling that it would be a pretty warped version of what actually happened.

"Really? That right? Please tell me what happened last night, Johnny. What insane version of events did Robby feed you?"

"He told me that you were whaling on Hawk, and then when he tried to defend Hawk, you beat the shit out of him and nearly killed him." Johnny snapped. Miguel looked at him, surprised, and nodded.

"Well… I guess that's pretty much what happened." He remarked. He had been expected a much more one-sided tale of events, but this one still neglected some vital details. "I'm guessing though that Robby forgot to mention that Hawk was the one who started everything. I tried to explain to him why I rejoined Cobra Kai and he wouldn't listen. Instead, he just insulted the living crap out of me."

"And? Are you that much of a snowflake that you can't take an insult or two without starting a fight?" Johnny remarked. Miguel couldn't help but laugh at this.

"Okay, first off, with your rivalry with Mr. Larusso and the fights you've gotten into with him, you're the last person with the right to say that." Miguel remarked. "And second, funnily enough, I did ignore the comments. I tried to get past Hawk and go home. Until he shoved me into the Ferrari Silver let me borrow and broke the side door. Did tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage too. THAT'S when I got involved."

"Look, Miguel, who started it is irrelevant." Johnny stated. "I'm talking about the part where you nearly choked my son to death."

Miguel shook his head.

"God, Johnny. For someone who says he's on neither side, you sure do blindly back him up." Miguel snapped. "Look, I didn't ask Robby to get involved. Nor did I challenge him in any way. He chose to get involved."

"And that gives you the right to nearly kill him?!" Johnny exclaimed.

"Could you STOP saying that?!" Miguel suddenly shouted, an outburst breaking through his previously calm tone. "I did NOT nearly kill him! Just because your son's a little bitch…"

"Hey, watch it." Johnny growled, but Miguel wasn't in the mood to stop.

"A little bitch who can't accept defeat, doesn't give him the right to make up what happened last night. I did not nearly kill him. Contrary to your and Robby's belief obviously, I would never do something like that. I was just following the advice that YOU gave me after the school fight."

"What?" Johnny grunted. Miguel chuckled.

"You don't remember? After your spectacularly unsuccessful advice you gave me that landed me in a hospital room, you changed your advice. You realised that the show mercy advice was stupid, so you switched it up a little. Told me to control the fight. Strike first, strike hard but when I show mercy, not to leave myself unguarded. Well I did that. I did EVERYTHING you told me too. Didn't realise the rules changed when it was your son who was trying to attack me. Should've known though."

"Miguel…" Johnny murmured. Miguel shook his head.

"No. It's alright. Honestly, it's fine. You can take his side. You should take his side. He is your son after all." Miguel murmured. "But if you're going to do so, you have no right to tell me what I should or should not be doing. I'm not your student anymore. I'm not related to you. All I am is the boy your son is in the midst of a battle with. And the sooner you get that through your head, the better…"

The conversation ended shortly after that. Miguel had dropped a knife through whatever remnant of their relationship was left. He had made his loyalty pretty clear. It was with Cobra Kai, not Johnny. Not anymore. Whatever relationship they used to have was in the past, and Miguel had made it pretty clear that he wasn't coming back for a number of reasons. Between the money part of it, the Robby part of it, and the Johnny part of it… Eagle-Fang was definitely no longer a place Miguel could call home.

The rest of the night went by in a blur. He had gone inside, only to have yet another argument with someone about it: his mom and yaya. He felt like a bloody broken record. It was the same shit he was having to repeat to each and every person. They all assumed that he had been brainwashed or manipulated into the decision somehow. That was the most frustrating part. None of them gave him any credit that he had grown in 2 years. He was turning 18 for God Sake! Was it so hard to believe that he had higher priorities than the karate war?! That he had hopes for a future more than being just a plumber and electrician?! That he recognised the fact that it was hard enough for their family of 3 to live on his mom's salary, let alone adding on another baby's cost to it?! Why was he the only one with the balls to point out the fact that Johnny wasn't earning any money, so with a baby on the way, his family were going to be in deep shit?! Why was he the villain for wanting to go to college?! Weren't these people, his mom and his yaya, supposed to be the ones to have his best interests at heart?! Why couldn't they understand?!

Well, his yaya understood. If anything, she was happy for her grandson, and the new-found spark in his eye. She had lived her whole life in poverty in Ecuador, so she more than anyone wanted that brighter future for her grandson. Carmen, however, was much more reluctant to look at things from Miguel's lens. The protective mother that he was, she remembered only too well how things had ended with Cobra Kai last time. She had seen how ruthless they had been at the tournament, and given everything Johnny had told her about them, she was definitely not a fan of Miguel being back with them. It took everything Miguel had to get through to her with the financial reasons for his move, and even then she was definitely not happy. However, it put a stop to her yelling long enough for Miguel to be able to excuse himself from the conversation. He prayed that if she would sleep on it, she'd be able to see things from his side a bit more. So Miguel managed to sneak away, shower and get into bed, praying that tomorrow would be a better day.

It wasn't…