A/N: I just updated my Marvel-Naruto story, back to you guys. Also join my discord, I like to interact with you guys and I have an entire section for your suggestions
I'm on my 14 carats
I'm 14 carat
Doing it up like Midas
Now you say I got a touch
So good, so good
Make you never wanna leave
So don't, so don't
Gonna wear that dress you like, skin-tight
Do my hair up real, real nice
And syncopate my skin to your heart beating
The Selena Gomez lyrics came through Tory's headphones as she rode her bike to the hospital. The warm sunlight washed over her form, but it was a welcomed thing as the bitter coldness of last night had not made her feel all that grade, although the warm shower had felt quite lovely.
Tory couldn't deny that she liked the warmth on her legs as she pumped the pedals of her bike. This was the best part about California in her opinion, the beautiful weather that graced the state all year round.
Well it actually wasn't her favorite thing, she was riding her bike to go see her favorite thing about the state, but it was a close second, definitely top 3. She was climbing the last small little hill on the way to the hospital, she could already see the building.
And now she felt nervous? Was she scared? Maybe a little, she had visited Miguel every single day since IT had happened. She was starting to thing that maybe he wasn't getting better. She had felt his hand tighten around her own hand, but that could have been nothing more than a muscle spasm.
This is what she had been trying to avoid, this burning ball of guilt that was building in her stomach. Because no matter what she did or thought, deep inside her mind, she knew that she had caused it to happen.
Momma ain't raise no bitch thought Tory before her mind took it to a darker place, Momma ain't even raise me, but I am a big girl, I can do this.
Taking a deep breath, Tory pushed the lead ball of guilt that had anchored itself to her stomach and rolled down the hill. She circled the hospital until she got to the ICU entrance. She was chaining up her bike when she thought I can't do this
But she still forced her legs to move, her nervous burying themselves beneath her sense of duty ... it was her responsibility to visit Miguel. Because after all, she had caused it to happen.
She walked through the sliding doors, her eyes took in the bare waiting room, the lack of people making sense. It was a Wednesday morning, everyone was either working or sleeping off just getting home from work.
She strolled up to the counter, sitting behind it was a middle age blonde woman, she had tired look on her face, but she still looked pretty. She looked like had been up all night and Tory that to be true. Her name was Judie, the nurse who was always here whenever she popped in this early.
"He's in room 117" said Judie after glancing up from her clipboard to see Tory's face. It had been exactly 27 days that Miguel had been in the hospital and Tory had been here 24 times so far. She had turned herself in at the school and for the first 48 hours she had been locked up. The only reason that she hadn't come straight here from the courthouse was that she had been stinky from her sweaty clothes from the brawl.
As Tory closed in on room 117, she hear the tv on inside the room. That was different, maybe his mom was there. Miguel's mom had been really nice the 4 times that their visits had overlapped. But somehow Tory got the sense that this was not the case at the moment, it was early in the day, Miguel's mom was more of an afternoon kind of person from what Tory had gather.
She got closer to the room and found that the door was ajar, meaning that someone had gone into the room not that long ago and was either still in the room or planning on going in and out a lot. The nurses tended to close the door when they weren't planning on reentering the room because nobody wants to look at the broken down body of a high school student that you cause Tory.
Tory got to the door and slowly pushed it open, the sound of the tv being drowned out by the pounding her heart in her ears. Her mouth felt dry and she couldn't seem to be able to pull in any air. But her arm moved anyway, push the door open as she walked into the room, her eyes trained on the figure in the bed.
He was sitting up, the back of the bed raised to make it a long recliner instead of a hospital bed, in his right hand was the TV remote, his eyes were trained on the Tv as a plate of uneaten food sat on the sliding tray that was meant to bring the food over his bed. His skin was a couple of shades paling than she was used to, the small whiskers of facial hair on his face made him seem wilder than she remembered, the unstyled and long hair that was touching his forehead looked out of place as well.
"Miguel" stammered Tory, "You're awake"
Miguel turned to look at her, his eyes were dim but when they landed on her, they let up with such strong emotion, she couldn't tell what he was trying to say. She found herself drifting closer and closer to him, until she was standing at his bedside and she found that she couldn't speak. She was wordless despite everything that she wanted to say.
She gathered herself, thinking about what she wanted to say and even opened her mouth to say something, but the words died on her tongue and she was just left standing there.
Miguel looked up at Tory's form standing over his, his right hand had been holding the remote, but he dropped it and his hand moved without him thinking, grabbed the front of Tory's shirt and he tugged, pulling her down towards him.
She bent with ease despite the tug lacking any real strength, she was leaning over him and he looked her in the eye before his lips found hers, the force of the kiss shocking him as well as her, his eyes closed and for a brief moment, only Tory existed in his mind.
Tory on the other hand was a bit taken back, she had always been the more aggressive of the two of them, but this time Miguel had brought a hunger that she had not been able to anticipate. She felt his body shutter and she pulled back as a nasty wet cough left his mouth.
"Are you ok?" asked Tory, worry leaking into her tone with ease. She was excited but she was still cautious, he had been out of it for a while.
As his body stopped it's trembling, Tory gave Miguel a once over, his upper body had shook, but his lower half, his legs had remained limp.
Miguel must have noticed her staring "It's not that bad"
His words were meant to calm her, but they did nothing to stop Tory from worrying.
She put her hands on his leg, noticing how his body tensed right before she made contact, her hands feeling the thinning limb, her eyes locked on his face.
"What's going on?" she asked, her voice soft and her tone was chosen with precision, she didn't want him to take it the wrong way.
"I have some minor nerve damage in my lower back, I have to retrain my legs to work like they used to. There isn't anything lasting, but they said I will have to be a bit more careful in the future" explain Miguel with a weirdly upbeat look on his face
Tory nodded, her hand still on his decaying thigh. She had a million of questions, she needed a million different answers. But she knew that even if she asked a doctor, she wouldn't understand more then 5 percent of the mumbo jumbo that they would provide her.
Miguel had explained it in a simple manner, nerves in back are a little beaten up, he had to learn to walk again. She could help him with that, she would try to be there as much as she could be.
There was a knock on the door and they both looked towards the entrance to the room and saw their former sensei, Johnny Lawrence. He looked like shit, his hair was messy and unkept, the scrappy beard, the dirty clothes, and the bandage on his forehead was a hint that things might be going poorly for their former instructor. He looked like he had been working on a car if the oil stain on the front of his shirt was a sign of what he had been up to before coming to see Miguel.
"Sensei" said Miguel with a tinge of something extra in his voice, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to see you kiddo" answered Johnny, "I had them take my number down to give me updates on you, they told me that you were awake"
"But I thought you hated carrying around your phone, sensei" said Miguel
"I do, but for you, I was willing to put up with it" said Johnny as he entered the room.
"What happened to your head?" asked Tory, gesturing at the bandage on Johnny's forehead
"Oh this" said Johnny putting his hand on the bandage on his forehead, "They wouldn't let me visit Miguel because I wasn't family, so I had to give myself a little something something to get in here to see Miguel"
Tory snorted with laughter and Miguel shook his head, "Sensei, you didn't have to do that, visitors are allowed 4 days after surgery"
Johnny looked surprised to hear that, "Ah don't worry about it, I would do it again. How ya feeling?"
He was standing right beside Tory now, looking down at Miguel's form in the bed as well.
"I feel pretty good, my body is a little stiff and my back is sore. But they said I should recover in time, I start physical therapy in two weeks" answered Miguel, "What happened since the fight at school, sensei?"
Tory noticed that Johnny flinched when Miguel called him sensei and she remembered the last time that she had seen him, it was the last time that she had been at Cobra Kai's dojo.
"Can you stop with the sensei stuff?" asked Johnny, "I am ... I no longer am a part of any of that stuff anymore"
Miguel was absolutely shocked but picked up onto the fact that Tory didn't look surprised in the least
"What? Why? You can't quit just bec-" started Miguel before Johnny stopped him
"Because you ended up in a coma with a broken back" hissed Johnny, "I have every right to quit, what I taught you nearly got you killed"
Miguel looked at Johnny with disbelief in his eyes before it turned to anger, "Get out!"
Johnny didn't even bother to fight or argue, he simply folded looking every bit as broken emotionally as his physical appearance looked.
"Are you okay?" asked Tory
"No" answered Miguel honestly.
"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Tory softly, her hand sliding up from it's forgotten place on his thigh to his hand, gripping it firmly.
Again, Miguel didn't answer right away, his face unreadable.
"I trusted him, I listened to everything he said, every lesson that he taught was one that I used"
Tory didn't say anything as she let Miguel vent, letting him speak.
"He told me to show mercy and where did that get me? KICKED OVER A FUCKING BANISTER BY HIS SON!"
Miguel's word had started of spoken normally, but by the end of his sentence, he roared with anger that Tory mentally shook her head at how angry he was. He had every right to feel this angry, in her opinion.
Tory slid into the bed with him, the two of them touching shoulder to shoulder, arm to arm, thigh to thigh. This was the closest that the two of them had ever been before, outside of their spars. which based on Miguel's condition and Johnny's lack of a fire for karate, seemed to be a thing of the past.
Tory leaned her head on Miguel's shoulder, the two of them watching some old Looney Tunes reruns in silence, both of them unsure of how to proceed after Miguel's outburst.
He was unsure of what to say, how to communicate that he wasn't really angry at Johnny or Tory or even Robbie, he was angry that he was in this condition. Tory wasn't sure of how to voice her support. What could she really say in the moment that would make Miguel feel better.
"You know, I'm really sorry that I caused you to get hurt", the words left Tory's mouth before she could pull the words back. But she had meant them and she looked sideways at Miguel, trying to gauge his reaction to her words. But with her head leaning on his shoulder, she was unable to get a good look at his face. But if she had, she would have been confused by the confused look on his face.
"Why are you sorry, you're not the one who kicked me over the railing" questioned Miguel
"But i caused the entire fight" reasoned Tory, "If i didn't do what I did, you never would have gotten hurt"
Her words were spoken so softly and her tone was filled with so much fear that if she hadn't been only inches away from his ear.
"I don't blame you, you only tried to fight Sam, you never tried to fight me, you never tried to harm me. Robbie did this" stated Miguel, the venom in his voice when mentioning Sam had taken Tory back, but she welcomed the anger he was holding towards the girl that had drunkenly kissed her boyfriend.
Her Boyfriend
The title sounded weird for her to say, to use and apply to a nice guy like Miguel. But she found that she liked the idea of him belonging to her, the idea that he and her both had a claim to one another.
And in this moment, it felt right. She was here, snuggled up to him, watching old cartoons in a small hospital bed. An episode pasted and then another, half way through the 3rd episode is when Tory spoke again
"You know, i blamed myself for you getting hurt, but I'm glad that you don't. You know, I like you a lot" whispered Tory, but Miguel didn't say anything and when Tory turned her head to glance at him, she found that his head was tilted backwards and a small line of drool was leaking down the right side of his face as he slept.
Tory allowed a small genuine smile to grace her face, Miguel looked much different sleeping naturally opposed to his coma forced sleep. She wiggled closer to him, tilting her upper body as to not kill her neck, placing her head on his collarbone and she too drifted off to sleep.
Tory was the first of the two to stir, the sound of a soft knock on the door being the reason for her awakening. Her eyes jumped to the window, finding the setting sun and the darkening sky outside waiting for eyes to take in.
She turned her head and saw Miguel's mom nervously peeking into the room, the door had been closed. Tory rolled out of the bed as softly as she could, trying not to wake Miguel up. She tiptoed to the door to meet Miguel's mom.
"Hi, Ms. Diaz, I .. uh um, I want you to know that nothing happened in the bed" stammered Tory, a healthy rosy red flooding her cheeks.
"Mija, I know. Trust me, you couldn't dress that quickly, you were snoring" teased Carmen.
The dying down blush came back full force on Tory's face.
Carmen saw the redness and let out a small giggle, "I was 16 once upon a time, I did much worse than sleep in the same bed as my boyfriend"
Tory wanted to die, but she pushed down the embarrassment and just nodded.
"I gotta go, I didn't mean to fall asleep here. I have to run home and make my brother some dinner, I completely lost track of time" said Tory as she checked her phone and saw how late it really was.
Tory slipped by Miguel's mother and out the door, making her way down the hall, through the waiting room and out the sliding doors. The chilled night air washed over her and she let out a sigh as she walked towards her chained up bike, fishing her keys out of her pocket as she made her way to the lone mode of transportation that she could afford.
She was in the middle of unlocking her bike when she felt someone approaching behind her, causing her to whirl around, ready to fight. But she spotted the blond hair and relaxed.
"What are you doing here Johnny?" asked Tory
Johnny swayed on his feet and Tory's nose picked up on the rancid smell coming off the man in waves, causing it to wrinkle in disgust.
"Jesus Christ, what did you do? Go swimming in the sewer?" asked Tory as she covered her nose, trying to block out the smell.
"I fucked up Tooorrry" slurred Johnny, "I failed him"
"Who Miguel?" asked Tory
"Him too" replied Johnny
He probably meant his son Robbie thought Tory
"You didn't fail Miguel, he's alive inside there" said Tory pointing to the hospital
"But he's so angry at me" muttered Johnny
"He's angry that you came here as a meek shell of what you used to be. You went on and on about being a 'badass' and being a 'real man', just to quit when the person who looks up to you the most needs you to be a badass real man the most" spat Tory
Johnny took several steps back as if he had been slapped in the face.
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself, if you think you failed, it's only because you've given up already" said Tory as she finished unlocking her bike and riding off into the sunset
Johnny dropped to his ass and held his head in his hands, his vision blurred as he sat there drunkenly doing nothing but forcing himself to be miserable.
Another figure stood near the ICU doors, his eyes narrowed in interest and John Kreese smirked.
My little queen Cobra still as fire in that belly, I just need to get her back into the Dojo to light the flames for the rest of them.
Then his eyes turned towards Johnny shaken up form on the ground
My oh my, how the mighty have fallen Johnny. I tried to help you back then, I tried to help you now. You refused my help both times and now you're what you've always been. A loser with no purpose in the world. Stay out of my way or I'll have to bury you.
A/N: And another chapter is in the books. hope yall liked it and we will start moving forward, with chapters covering multiple days and weeks rather than this small isolated moments.
There is some slight ooc for Johnny, but it's more parential overcorrection than anything. Also Kreese has entered the story, more to come with him.
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Until next time, HighKey_Mars