A/N: This is probably going to be my main story after Marvel at this Shinobi's tale ends. I feel like I have a lot of places that I can take this story. Also I apologize to anyone who is expecting super fast uploads, I like to take my time as well as work on my own personal books that are available on Amazon. Also these chromebooks suck, looking into a new laptop soon.

Tory wanted to pull her hair out, the customer before her was being annoying and difficult. The worst combination that anyone in customer service could experience from a single person.

Looking over the chubby Hispanic man, she knew that she could easily drop kick him into another dimension, she could see it in her head.

Left hook, right jab, left uppercut

But instead of that, she plastered a fake smile on her face and asked "Do you need more time to make a decision?"

"Obviously" stated the out of shape man with a look of distaste on his face.

"I'll be right back then" said Tory with a fake smile, forcing down the anger that was bubbling in her chest. As soon as she turned around, she dropped the smile and did everything in her power to keep her face neutral.

She was walking back to the kitchen when her boss said "Tory, remember to smile all the time when you're on the floor"

"Thanks David, I really needed that reminder" said Tory sarcastically as she plastered another fake smile on her pretty face.

"Okay, clearly, you're not having a customer friendly day Tory. After you finish up with the blob out there, hop on dishes until the end of your shift" sighed her manager David

Tory's shoulder's slumped and she said "That's David, you know that I need the hours. I'm just having one of those days"

David put his hand on her shoulder, patting it twice before removing it, "I know, that's why I'm not sending you home. I'll punch you into the system as a dish washer, you'll get the 3 hours of half pay as a waitress and the other 5 hours as a dish washer at 15"

Tory nodded and painted a false bright smile on her face and went back out onto the floor, taking her last order of the day before heading to the back to wait on the food, bringing it out to the rude Hispanic man before starting to gather dishes to bring to the back from all of the other tables in her section.

By the time she was finished, she only had to pick up her rude customer's check and run it through the system. When she brought his card back to her, his hand slipped down and his hand landed on her ass.

She stiffened and when she turned to look him in the eye, his other hand was shoving a crisp 100 dollar bill in her face as he stood up and removed his hand from her ass. She took the fresh bill and he winked at her and she felt throw up fill her mouth.

She couldn't afford to make a scene and lose her job, this pig had groped her and he was going to get away with it.

She balled up the 100 dollars and shoved it in her pocket and as she walked back to the back, she told David, "I'm going to take 15"

He looked her over, clearly able to tell something was off but didn't comment on it, "Ok cool, you're on dishes when you come back"

She nodded untied her apron, ripping it off of her body, revealing the plain black long sleeve t-shirt that she wore underneath the red apron. She pulled out her phone and set a 12 minute timer.

She slipped into the bathroom and she locked the door behind her. She looked in the mirror and found that the tears were already bubbling in her eyes. She HATEDher current situation.

But how was she going to change it? Her mother was slowly wasting away at home, her younger brother was too young to work himself. This all fell on her and for what it was worth. She liked working, it helped keep her mind off Miguel.

She hadn't been sleeping well over the past couple of weeks, every time she closed her eyes, she could see him falling. His arms and legs jerking about, his eyes locking with hers as her fell. Her voice screaming his name and the final moment where he stopped falling before flopping to the ground lifeless.

She shivered as she relived the moment once again. She shouldn't have gone to see Miguel before work. Because every time she went to see him, she felt guilt burrow its way into her mind, regret boiling in her stomach, anger worming its way into her heart.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she turned the water on, running it on her hands until it was warm and then splashed her face, erasing the small tears that had managed to escape her eyes.

Slapping her face with both hands lightly, she ran her hands down her face from top to bottom and sighed.

"Game face Nichols" she said to her reflection before she turned off the water and clicked on her phone screen, ending the alarm and making her way back into the kitchen, this time slipping on a white apron and manning the large sink.

She quickly got to work, washing all of the dishes from her section, then the next and the next, making her way through the pile in a timely manner. She did the plates first, then the cups, then the forks, spoons, and knifes.

By the end of her shift, her apron was soaked and sticking to her shirt. She was glad that she had went with the black shirt today instead of a white one. She would have unknowingly entered a wet t-shirt contest if she had.

She walked up to her locker and grabbed the sweater she left at her job for emergencies and slipped it on as she clocked out of work, her shift over with and she exited through the back of the restaurant, stepping out into the chilly California night. It was already 10 pm, the dark night sky had greeted her as it always did when she worked now, now that she was no longer in school, she didn't have an excuse to use as to why she couldn't work full time.

Tory walked out to where her bike was chained up and put in the combo to unlock the lock that held the chain and her bike in place. The lock slipped open and she rolled the chain and dropped it in the small basket that sat on the front of her handlebars.

Pulling her headphones out of her pocket, she connected them to her phone before sliding the earbuds through the bottom of her sweater and out of through the neck hole of the sweater and put the earbuds in her ear before hitting play.

The music came through, finishing some song with a long instrumental outro and went into the next song that brought a small smile to her face.

Yeah, this album is dedicated
To all the teachers that told me I'd never amount to nothin'
To all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustlin' in front of
Called the police on me when I was just tryin' to make some money to feed my daughter (it's all good)
And all the niggas in the struggle
You know what I'm sayin'? It's all good, baby baby

Her mom was a big fan of 80's and 90's rap music, something that Tory carried with her as well, listening to old music always made her remember the times when she had been a little girl, hanging out with her mom.

They had been poor then too, but Tory hadn't known that. That was probably the difference, Tory had been a little girl, unaware of how serious and ruthless the world had been. It was if the entire world was trained in the Cobra Kai motto: No Mercy.

Biggie's lyrics continued to flow into her ears as she rode her bike aimlessly. She didn't want to head home immediately. No, that would not do, so Tory just rode her bike until she felt like stopping. That just so happened to be when she was passing the beach, the soft sand and the crashing waves calling to her in a way that she had never felt before.

Riding her hand onto the beach, she stopped right by the lifeguard tower, parking her bike and dismounting it. She dropped to her butt and looked out at the water, her eyes taking in the various other people at the beach at the time. She saw some kids building sandcastles, she saw parents looking at their kids splash in the water, she saw couples walking hand and hand along the edge of the shoreline.

That should be her and ... Miguel, and just like that, the pang of sadness that had been anchoring her down ever since the brawl at the school appeared in her mind and heart. She had fucked up, she had caused that fight, she had caused ... Miguel's injury. No matter how she wanted to shift the blame to anyone else, to someone else, she couldn't. She was adult enough to admit that she had caused the nicest guy that she had ever talked to, let alone dated, to get hurt ... to be put in a coma.

Suddenly the air felt like poison, how could she sit here breathing and relaxing on the beach when Miguel was in a coma?

The tears that she had thought she sent away were back. And unlike the previous attempt, Tory found herself unable to stop them from falling from her eyes. She felt so selfish, so broken.

There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, but yet? It was raining, at least to and for Tory. She didn't cry out to draw attention to herself, she simply sat there in silence, letting the tears roll down her face.

She was so wrapped up in her own world that she missed the elderly man who approached her from her left side.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked the old man, his white polo and bermuda shorts screaming 'retired and happy about it'.

"I think so?" replied Tory as she wiped her tears, she could not allow anyone to see her cry, not even this random stranger.

"Whatever it is, you will get through it" said the old man as he reached into his pocket and pulled up his wallet. From that wallet, he pulled a business card that had some fancy gold script words written on it.

"My name is Lance Sterling, I own a series of Ice Cream shops up and down the beachfront. Take that card to any of my locations and you can trade it in for anything you want" said the old man as he handed the small piece of paper to Tory.

"I don't think I've ever been there before" said Tory

The old man seemed shocked, "Just get a double scoop of the Lance Special, I think you'll like it"

Tory nodded at his words and he gave her a once over, taking in her clothes, her bike parked right next to her, her crying face.

"You never had my ice cream before, you're not from around here are you?" asked Lance after his look over of Tory.

"No" answered Tory honestly, "I'm from Encino, out near LA"

"That's quite far from here, that's close to 45 miles, at least it's getting late, not a lot of traffic on the drive home" said Lance before glanced at the bike and a frown appeared on his elderly face, "But, you're not going to drive are you? That's a 4 hour, 4 and a half hour bike ride home"

Tory rocked on her rear and leapt to her feet, standing eye to eye with the elderly man.

"You're right, it is a long bike ride back home, I need to get back home" said Tory as she grabbed her bike and started trying to push it through the sand.

Lance grabbed the wallet in his hand and opened it up, pulling out several crispy hundred dollar bills before pushing them towards Tory.

"I can't take that" said Tory

"Why not?" asked Lance

"Because it's not right" answered Tory lamely, as she struggled to figure out what she could honestly say in response to this man offering her money.

"What's not right is that an old washed up coot like myself has millions of dollars in his account and a young woman such as yourself has to bike 4 hours home. If i can pay for you to take a cab, I will" retorted Lance

"But I can't pay you back" whispered Tory

"You don't have to, girlie. I have more money than Jesus Christ himself would know what to do with, I don't need you to pay me back. How about giving this old man some peace of mind that a young girl such as yourself is ok?" asked Lance

Tory nodded and she felt her hand shaking as she was handed the stack of cash by the elderly old man.

Lance smiled brightly, "Don't worry about it, if you want to pay me back, you cash in that business card that I gave you and have some ice cream"

Tory didn't trust her voice as she watched Lance turn and walk off, this random act of kindness being overwhelming for her. She put the money and the crumpled up 100 dollars from earlier in her wallet and wheeled her bike out of the sand, putting in her headphones one more, before clipping on her helmet and started pedaling. She was so scared that this was all a dream, a sick joke being played on her by her own mind that she never stopped pedaling.

She got home faster than she ever had before, in just over 3 hours of bike riding. She fumbled with her keys as she entered the small 3 bedroom apartment that she lived in with her mom. The small shitty apartment was the only place that they could afford to live, it was rent controlled and with Tory's mother's current condition, the city had been kind of to give them this shit hole. The water heater worked part time and randomly, you couldn't watch TV in the living room and the bedrooms or the whole apartment would lose power for 2 hours. The ceiling was feeling, there was no mold, but the water damage in the bathroom and living room said that was on the way sooner than later.

But despite all of that, it housed Tory, her mom, and her younger brother, Brandon. It was a roof over their heads and despite how shitty the place was, it was all that she could call home. The rent was 950, almost 75 percent of what Tory normally brought him, but it included all of the other stuff like water and lights in it as well. Tory tip toed to her room, ignoring the snoring form of her mother on the couch in the living room and the blue glow that was leaking out of the top and bottom cracks in Brandon's room, meaning that her brother was up, either watching TV or playing some video game.

Closing her door as gently as she could, Tory pulled out her wallet and pulled out all of the money that had been given to her, the 100 by the pervert who had groped her and the unknown amount by the old man who had pitied her. She didn't care where it came from at this point, the past was the past and she wasn't returning any of the money, as she didn't know those people.

The crisp bills were quickly counted, 1,2,3,4,5 ... 500 dollars. The old man had handed her 500 dollars without second thought. It made Tory feel a spike of jealousy at the ease at which the man could give away such money. But that was swallowed by the overwhelming feeling of greatfullness that she was feeling. That man had unknowingly managed to save her family.

Well, the pervert had chipped in with his 100. The combined total of 600 was a lot, it covered almost all of their rent, it would allow Tory to save one of her checks. Smiling, Tory went into her closest and reached onto the top shelf for the pink and black shoe box that sat alone. Pulling it down, she opened it as she walked back to her bed and put the 600 dollars inside of the shoe box. The other 250 in there would be used with the 600 plus the check that she would be handed on Friday, would pay her rent and put some food on the table.

As she put the shoe box back into its place and started to gather clothes for her shower, she couldn't help but smile. This day had started out so shitty, but with the weird luck that she had, she managed to turn it around.

Entering the bathroom, she stripped out of her clothes and turned the water one, but she didn't enter the shower right away, she stopped to look in the mirror, her nude form staring back at her.

She gave herself a once over, happy with the tight toned flat stomach that she saw in the mirror, the flat tummy going well with obviously curvy female figure that drew a lot of male attention, even if she wasn't really all that interested in anyone. As long as Miguel was alive, she was gonna wait for him, she had to. She felt that she owed him at the very least.

Turning her back on her image, she put her hand in the water and was happy when it stung her hand, the water was very hot and she stepped into the water spray and relaxed as the hot water washed over her muscles.

Knowing that the hot water wasn't going to last forever, she only rested for a moment before she got to work and used her soap to wash away all of the grime that had built up on her over the course of the day.

She was cleaned a couple of minutes before she ended the shower, she only stopped once the water started to cool and no longer be enjoyable. Drying off, she slipped on her clean sleepwear, A Cobra Kai shirt that Miguel had given her along with a pair of his sweatpants. She hadn't washed or wore them since he had given them to her, so they still smelled like him. A blend of Spanish Rice, Aftershave, and cleaning products; the perfect scent if you asked her.

She scooped up her dirty clothes, carrying them back to her room and dropped the in the hamper, knowing that if her brother ever brought any friends over, the last thing she wanted was for them to see her underwear in the bathroom.

As dropped backwards onto her bed, looking up at the ceiling fan as it spun round and round. Today had been bearable because she had gotten so many much needed breaks financially. She wasn't sure how tomorrow would go, it was going to be Wednesday, her day off. She would go visit Miguel, she remembered the way his grip on her hand had tightened for that brief moment earlier today and hoped to hear that he had made some progress tomorrow.

And with that, she drifted off to sleep.

A/N: I know this might seem very OOC for Tory and Miguel, but you have to remember that we never quite get the full scope of their minds in the tv show. We know Tory is actually just a troubled girl flailing about as she struggles to make ends meet. That scene from the beach is actually inspired by a real moment that I had during a time that I was struggling to make ends meet and was nearing homelessness.

Sometimes all it takes is an act of kindness to make someone feel like life is going to get better.

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Until next time, HighKey_Mars