CHAPTER 62

That evening, as the sun fully set in the sky and the stars and moon came out to play, Miguel decided to go to the park. It had been a long day and he relished the peace, quit and the fresh air that the park provided him. Sure it was dark and it was the time when the less moral members of society came out to play, but Miguel didn't care. If he had learned anything in Juarez, it was that if you didn't bother them, they wouldn't bother you. So Miguel lay on a park bench, staring up at the gorgeous night sky, seeing the stars twinkling up above him. As he did, he felt himself begin to think of a time a few months ago when he had stared at the exact same view. Nearly 4 months ago to the date, he and Sam had been laying together on a deckchair in her back garden, bundled in blankets, gazing at the tranquillity above them. It was a much happier time for Miguel and it, just as a lot of other things had later, made him question… am I really doing the right thing right now? Do I really still want to be in Cobra Kai? Am I really willing to sacrifice everything and everyone I care so much about to stay in a dojo which is becoming more and more unappealing each day? Sure Shawn might have been subdued for now, and Miguel might have been able to control the students right now to an extent, but he knew that if things continued to go as poorly as they had today, there would come a day when he wouldn't be able to control them any longer. And what would happen then? They would go after Miyagi-Do and Eagle-Fang. And he couldn't let that happen when he cared about some of those people so much.

At one point, Miguel decided to take out his phone and open his photo app. He then scrolled to a hidden folder that he kept in a dark corner of his phone as he didn't want to be accessing them at all anymore, but he didn't have the heart to delete them. They were pictures of his old life: pictures of him and Sam together, pictures of him and Johnny together, pictures of him and Hawk, group shots with Miyagi-Do and Eagle-Fang mid training. All of the highlights over the first 6 months of this year. He had hidden them all when he left to Mexico as he didn't want any remnants of that part of him anymore, and that had only amplified since he got back and joined Cobra Kai, however Miguel found himself unable to stop staring at all of these photos, reminiscing the amazing memories he had had with all of the amazing people, and before he knew it, a faint smile had graced his lips. As he closed his eyes and dreamed about these fun times, all of a sudden, his eyes snapped open. A piercing yell had stabbed through the silence in the park.

"Stop! Let go of me! Let me go!" The voice shouted, a fair distance away but loud enough for Miguel to hear it. It was a pretty high voice, but didn't sound very feminine. It was a child. It had to be. Before Miguel knew it, he had shot to his feet and was jogging in the direction he had heard the sound come from. More shouts and screams alerted him of the child's location and told him that he was getting closer, until he eventually came to a clearing on the other side of the park, and he saw it. A drunk man was grabbing the arm of a young boy, no older than 8 or 9, and was pulling him in the direction of his car. The boy was trying furiously to get out of the man's grip but to no avail. Miguel knew the smart thing to do in this situation: call the cops first. But in the heat of the moment, he said to hell with that, and ran up behind the man.

"Hey! Get off him!" Miguel shouted, causing the man to suddenly spin around to face him, momentarily letting go of the young boy in his grasp. The boy took that advantage immediately, sprinting away from the drunk man and over to Miguel. As he came closer, Miguel's jaw dropped as he realised who it was. He had met this kid before. He had seen this kid the whole of last summer.

"B-b-brandon?" Miguel stammered, shocked. If Brandon was here, where the hell was Tory?

"Miguel?!" Brandon exclaimed, excitement filling his young voice as he stared at the older teenager. However, the drunk man was less impressed, scowling daggers at Miguel.

"Listen, kid, mind your own fucking business. That's my fucking son." He growled, trying to stumble towards them and grab Brandon. However, Brandon quickly dodged out of reach and hid behind Miguel's legs. Miguel's face darkened considerably as he glared at the man.

"Look, man, I'm going to give you 5 seconds to turn around and walk away." Miguel quietly snarled at him.

"Funny. We were about to tell you the same thing." A voice came from behind Miguel and he turned around to see 3 more men, presumably the drunk guy's friends, walking over to him. They all seemed homeless, and all seemed raring to beat the shit out of him. Miguel wasn't fazed though. He sighed, readying himself for the fight.

"Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you though." Miguel murmured, before lunging to attack…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The fight was harder than Miguel thought it would be. Not because the men were particularly good fighters. But because Miguel couldn't move around that much as he couldn't leave Brandon's side without fearing that one of the men would grab him and run away with him. Miguel made sure to stay within feet of Tory's younger brother the entire time, but he was still able to take on all 4 men at once. To be fair, the men weren't massive. They were around the same size as Miguel, but clearly were too intoxicated to be fighting. Whenever they swung their fists, the punches were sloppy as hell, the balance shift from back foot to front foot nearly knocking them over without Miguel even touching them. It didn't take long for Miguel to kick, punch or sweep every single guy to the ground. As Miguel was fighting, he realised that there was a bit of symmetry in this. Nearly 2 years ago, Johnny had used Cobra Kai to save him from 4 bullies and now, Miguel had gone full circle and was himself using Cobra Kai to save Brandon from 4 thugs. The moves Miguel used, the sweeps, the throws, the kicks, were all very reminiscent to the fighting style Johnny used that night, and it enabled Miguel to win the fight with minimal damage to himself. Only 2 or 3 of the men's punches actually landed before the end of the fight, and after they were all down, Miguel stood over them threateningly.

"Turn around. And walk away. Now." was all Miguel had to quietly growl at them.

The men, who were positively terrified of Miguel now, all scrambled to their feet and slinked away with their tails between their legs like a bunch of dogs. After they were all gone, Miguel turned towards Brandon, concerned. He assumed that Brandon was feeling pretty terrified, shocked or anything along those lines. After all, he had nearly been kidnapped by 4 drunk thugs who wanted to do God only knows what to him.

"Hey, Brandon. You okay, buddy?" Miguel asked, quietly.

"That… that…" Brandon stammered, his eyes wide as he was trying to get out what he was going to say. "That was awesome!"

"Huh?" Miguel grunted, taken aback by the reaction.

"You just fought all of them off by yourself! You were like a super hero! Like…"

"Thor? Captain America? Iron Man?" Miguel suggested, grinning faintly at him. Brandon shook his head.

"Like… Kung Fu Panda!" He exclaimed. Miguel groaned and rolled his eyes, unable to hold back some laughter at this comment.

"Well, good to see you're okay, man." Miguel remarked. "Do you know where your sister is?"

Brandon's smile faded a little as he shook his head.

"No, I, um… I was with her, but then I heard this really cool dude singing in the park so I ran over to hear him. But when I was trying to find Tory again, she was gone."

Miguel nodded. That made sense. Tory had probably gone looking for Brandon and they had missed each other in the process. Miguel squinted his eyes for a moment, trying to remember Tory's phone number. He obviously had it over the summer, but after the school fight and everything that had come after, he had deleted her contact info from his phone. And now he was struggling to remember it so he couldn't call Tory to tell her that her brother was safe. Also, there was no way he could drop Brandon at Tory's place as he didn't have a car on him, there weren't any cabs on the road this time at night, and it was nearly an hour walk away. Definitely not doable for an 8 year old boy.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do." Miguel decided, looking at Brandon and talking him in a cheerful voice. He was anything but cheerful and bubbly right now, but he knew for the sake of the kid, he was going to have to at least try and act like it. "We're going to go to the cops station. Ask them if they can call Tory and let her know where to go to pick you up. If not, we can then try going back to your house to see if Tory's there. Sound good?"

Brandon nodded, smiling widely at Miguel.

"Sounds great!" He exclaimed, and Miguel took his hand before the pair began to walk out of the park. "Hey, Miguel?"

"Yeah, bud, what's up?" Miguel asked. Brandon looked up at him with his large, hazel adoring eyes. Brandon had loved spending time with Miguel the last summer and was more devastated than anyone when Tory "stopped being friends with him." Miguel was one of Brandon's best friends. The boy had helped Tory ease her workload by taking Brandon to and from friends' places, looking after him while Tory was forced to work. He had even taught the boy how to play soccer, a sport that Brandon had fallen in love with. Needless to say, the boys had struck up a pretty close bond and it was sad for both of them that they hadn't seen each other in nearly 10 months.

"Can we get ice cream on the way?" Brandon asked, hopefully. Miguel chuckled, remembering the 8 year old boy's obsession with ice cream, and he nodded.

"Sure. Sure. Let's get some ice cream."