"We're here."

Miguel looked up to see Hawk parking the car in Moon's driveway. It was time for Moon's traditional end-of-summer party and this year, Moon was going all out. She had even invited all of Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, much to their strong protests, as Moon wanted the two sides to make up before school restarted. Ha, like that would ever happen!

"So... tonight's gonna be… fun." Mitch remarked, trying to pick the right word to describe it. At that moment, as Cobra Kai all sat in the car together, it felt like purple skies, deathly calm before an earth-shattering storm. Tensions had never been higher between the two dojos, not in 1984, not last year, never. The two factions hated each other with unimaginable passion, so an incoming war was almost inevitable.

"Hey guys… let's make an agreement, okay? Let's not be starting fights tonight. Let's just get through the night peacefully." Miguel told his friends.

"Well that's just not gonna happen." Tory replied. "I mean you've met Miyagi-Do. Robby, Sam, Demetri… they've gotta be some of the most punchable people on the planet."

Miguel nodded.

"True. But remember what Sensei taught us. We shouldn't start the fight but if we get into a sticky situation with Miyagi-Do, we finish them hard."

"Yessir! We beat the living shit out of them!" Hawk exclaimed as he hopped out the car and shut his door behind him.

Miguel, Tory, Hawk, Mitch, Aisha and Bert then began to walk up the driveway towards Moon's house but before they could reach the door, Hawk turned to them and stopped them.

"Oh yeah, one more thing. I brought something to protect us, you know, in case things get out of hand." Hawk added. As everyone looked at him, confused, Hawk opened his jacket to reveal a small pistol on the inside. Immediately, all of the Cobras jumped back in shock, their eyes wide in alarm.

"Holy shit, Hawk!" Aisha exclaimed.

"Beretta M9. Bought it off my boy Rico when he gave me my tattoo last week." Hawk stated.

"Hawk, what the fuck?! Why do you have that?! " Tory spat.

"You can never be too careful. Problems arise." Hawk replied, shrugging unfazed.

"Yeah, but you do realise that bringing a gun to your ex-girlfriend's house, where we're about to face-off with the people we hate most in the world is probably going to cause more problems than it solves, right? So what, you're just going to shoot a bunch of Miyagi-Dos?!" Miguel snapped. "Hawk, you shouldn't have that, man. Just go put the gun back in the car, okay?"

"No." Hawk responded bluntly, shaking his head. "Here, how about this? I keep the gun on me, but I promise not to use it unless our lives are genuinely in danger."

The group fell silent, and Miguel stepped forward and faced Hawk, the two staring each other down for several moments. Though the rest of them wouldn't admit it, Miguel was the de facto leader of the Cobras and what he said normally went. The only person who didn't fall in line to Miguel's instructions was ironically Hawk, so the two locked eyes and stared down each other, each willing for the other to crack. Eventually, Miguel sighed and shook his head.

"Okay, fine. Keep it. But if I see you getting really wasted, fight with Miyagi-Do or not, I'm taking the gun from you." Miguel stated firmly. Hawk nodded. He could live with that…

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"Damn that's a lot of people out here." Chris remarked as Miyagi-Do all stepped out of Sam's car. They could hear the booming sounds of loud music and numerous people talking both inside and out in the garden and front driveway. Sam nodded, though she was confused. Based on what Moon had told her, Sam was under the impression that there weren't going to be that many people there but clearly that wasn't the case. The house was practically leaking with teenagers from their school.

"I only brought Trivial Pursuit. If I'd known there would be this many people, I would've brought Balderdash." Demetri whined. Miyagi-Do entered the house moments later and as soon as they did, a shiver went up their spines. For they immediately found themselves face to face with none other than their bitter rivals. They had no idea Cobra Kai would be there, Moon hadn't said anything about it to Sam, but sure enough, Miyagi-Do spotted every single member of Cobra Kai sprawled out around the room. As soon as the two dojos spotted each other, the temperature of the room changed. It grew much colder, an icy chill flashing through all of their veins. Each student's eyes locking onto those of their respective nemesis: Miguel clenched his jaw and glared at Robby; Sam stared daggers at Tory; Hawk practically licked his lips in anticipation as he grinned at a terrified Demetri; Mitch and Chris; Bert and Nate; everyone. The whole room went deathly still, both sides at a stalemate, trying to anticipate what the other dojo would do. They knew all it would only take a single match to blow up the room in a raging inferno, so as the room had dropped to an awkward silence, the only thing they could all hear was the simultaneous pounding of their heartbeats. The silence could have gone on for the rest of the night, but it was broken as Moon entered the room, beaming as she saw Sam.

"Sam! I'm so glad you came!" She exclaimed, hugging her friend. "Kegs are out back, drinks are in the kitchen, and the vegan pigs in a blanket just got out the oven."

"Moon, you never said anything about inviting Cobra Kai." Sam stated, her arms tightly folded and her eyes continuously shifting over Moon's shoulder, towards where Tory and Miguel were sitting. Moon shrugged.

"I figured with summer ending and school starting back up, we can stop all the fighting and be friends again." Moon replied. As Sam looked over again and saw Cobra Kai all smirking at them, loving how on-edge they managed to make Miyagi-Do yet knowing Miyagi-Do would never strike first. The ball was very much in Cobra Kai's hands, and they loved that power.

"That's wishful thinking." Sam muttered in reply. Moon sighed.

"Sam, trust me. Get rid of all this negative energy and have some fun!" Moon said, before walking away…

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"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! YEAHHHHHH!"

It was an hour later and the party was well and truly underway. The dojos had separated to opposite corners of the room, and they decided that there was no reason that they both couldn't have a good night. Neither seemed to be preparing to start a brawl, so eventually the fists unclenched, the tension however still through the roof. Cobra Kai were the first to step back from any possibility of a fight. Remembering Miguel's instructions from earlier, they decided it wasn't worth getting into a spat right now so began drinking instead. They had lugged in a keg from outside, and were taking turns trying to chug copious amounts of beer. As Mitch finished downing a scarily large amount of the golden liquid, the Cobras all cheered.

There was one person in the room, however, who wasn't having a good time was none other than Samantha Larusso. The Miyagi-Do co-leader was sitting in the Miyagi-Do corner of the room. All of her friends around her was having a great time but she wasn't, for her eyes were locked on the other side of the room. She watched Miguel and Tory, who were in the center of the Cobra Kai corner. Miguel didn't seem to be drinking but Tory was, the girl becoming pretty clingy to her boyfriend as she drank more and more. As Sam watched Tory rest against Miguel, too drunk to sit up straight, Sam felt a stabbing pain in her chest. The first few times she had seen Miguel and Tory together, she originally thought that her anger wasn't about Miguel, it was about who Miguel was dating. How could Miguel date such a horrible person, she had thought. But as time went on, she realised something… Miguel could date any girl in the entire world and the pain would be just as stinging. Because this wasn't about Tory. Despite all of the hate that Sam might have towards the girl, there was a stronger feeling inside her towards someone else: the ex she had never truly gotten over. She still had feelings for Miguel, and she knew deep down that he had feelings for her too. He was dating Tory because she was hot (hotter than her, Sam had to admit), and because he knew Tory was the person with whom it would be most painful for Sam to watch. She knew this because however kind and sweet Robby was, a small part of her knew that it was the same reason why she was with him. She knew that being with Robby would have the biggest impact on Miguel, would make him the most jealous. And at the roller rink, she thought, it had worked. The ongoing, agonising heart wrench in her chest lightened that day at the roller rink as she knew that she had gotten into both Miguel and Tory's heads, but seeing the pair so happy together tonight had brought the excruciating pain back a hundredfold. And Sam knew of one sure-fire way to try and numb that pain: she drank…

Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. The shots of cheap vodka and cups of beer ran down Sam's throat, so much so that at one point, she even stopped swallowing the liquid and poured it straight down her throat. It was extremely worrying as Sam got more and more woozy, stumbling around the house as she looked for more alcohol, but as she approached the kitchen and grabbed another bottle of vodka, she was stopped by Robby.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked, extremely concerned by the amount Sam was drinking.

"Don't worry, I'm like totally fine." She replied, shrugging off his concern and pouring herself another cup. But it was pretty damn clear to Robby that no, she was not fine. She was clearly not fine at all, as she nearly lost her balance and fell over right there, despite not being touched by anyone.

"No, no you're not. You're not acting like yourself. No more drinking." Robby replied, taking the cup from Sam and pouring it down the sink. Like Miguel, Robby had decided not to drink and for the exact same reason too: as the leader of his respective dojo, he wanted to make sure all of his friends were okay and be prepared if Cobra Kai tried to lay an attack on them. As Robby took the drink from Sam, the girl scowled daggers at him. Who the hell was he to do that? What was he, her dad?

"What? I'm not allowed to party? Just roller skating for me? What, are you my boyfriend or my babysitter?" Sam snapped cynically. Her mocking tone stabbed right at Robby's heart as a familiar feeling of helplessness washed over to him. At that moment, Sam reminded him exactly of his mom. No matter what he did to try and help her step back from the alcohol, Shannon wouldn't, and this was the exact same thing. Especially given what happened with his mom earlier that day, seeing this was particularly rough on him, but he forced himself to push his anger and frustration down.

"Look, just wait here, okay? I'm gonna go and get you some food." Robby said, channeling every ounce of Miyagi-Do training he had to keep his calm with her and walk away. Sadly, he knew exactly what to do in this situation. He had seen it plenty of times with his mom: hopefully some food could soak up some of the booze inside her and she might be able to think a little clearer. Provided she didn't keep drinking more obviously. But that wasn't the case at all because as soon as Robby turned around and walked off, Sam reopened the bottle of vodka and poured herself another cup. Just as she raised the cup to her lips, she heard another familiar voice beside her.

"Maybe you should slow down." They said. Sam's head shot up, practically having to drag her head up in her drunkenness, to see Aisha standing before her. Immediately, annoyance and anger towards her ex-friend rushed through her. Sam felt betrayed by Aisha. The girl who was supposed to have common sense, who Sam was trying to make up with, had chosen the assholes of Tory and Cobra Kai over her and Miyagi-Do.

"You're just pissed off because I kicked your friend's ass." Sam remarked snarkily, referring to her shoving Tory over from behind in the roller rink. "You can consider that payback for what you guys did to our dojo."

Aisha rolled her eyes at her former friend's bitchy attitude. It was just like Sam to paint every single member of Cobra Kai exactly the same just because of whatever problems she had with one member.

"I had nothing to do with that." Aisha responded cooly. "And neither did Tory or Miguel."

As Sam scoffed disbelievingly, a large part of her assuming that Tory was surely involved in Cobra Kai trashing Miyagi-Do's dojo.

"Hell, why do you think Miguel returned Mr. Miyagi's medal?" Aisha pointing out, noticing Sam's mistrust. Sam glared at her.

"He didn't return it. Demetri found it in the dojo." Sam snapped. Aisha shook her head, remembering how Miguel had won it off Hawk in Coyote Creek and then ignoring whatever lingering pain he was feeling towards his breakup with Sam, he had gone himself to her house to return it.

"Um… no. Miguel took it to your house." Aisha stated. "He said he gave it to Robby."

Upon hearing that, it was like a small part of Sam's drunkenness faded as her brain began to whir. Miguel had taken it to her house? Given it to Robby? And then Robby had what? Hidden it in the dojo to make it seem like Miguel hadn't? A small part of that did make sense. I mean, Sam was certain that she had checked those rocks and nothing had been there.

"I, uh… I need some air." Sam murmured, before walking swiftly out of the house into the backyard. She went mostly unnoticed, except by someone on the other side of the room. One person had seen her exit the house, stumbling and bumping around in her woozy state and decided to go follow her.

So Miguel had returned the medal? And he wasn't a part of trashing their dojo? As Sam sat outside, staring at the pool in front of her and thinking deeply, she realised that a large part of that made sense. Because deep down, Miguel was a good person. She knew that. That was why she had dated him in the first place. That was why she used to have feelings for him. That was why a part of her still did. She thought more and more about the events of the summer. Everything she had done, whether it be joining Miyagi-Do, dating Robby, hating Tory, it all happened directly or indirectly because of Miguel. After the breakup, she had been so hurt by how it ended that she had joined Miyagi-Do. And dating Robby and hating Tory had both partly been due to jealousy. She still had feelings for Miguel. She still loved him, that much was clear to her as she stared out into the night. She wanted to get back together with him, Cobra Kai or not. As she accepted this fact, she felt absolutely horrible for how she had treated Robby. Though she had thoroughly enjoyed their relationship while it had lasted and genuinely cared about Robby, she knew she was going to have to break up with him if she wanted to get back together with Miguel, and that basically proved that she had just used him.

Suddenly, Sam heard footsteps walking towards her and when she looked up to see who it was, her heart skipped a beat. It was Miguel!

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"Hey." Miguel murmured, walking over to Sam. As one of the only relatively sober people at the party, he had noticed how worryingly wasted Sam had become. He had seen it plenty with Johnny and knew that people only got this drunk for a reason. Concerned, he had followed her outside. "Is everything okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." She snapped, tired of people asking her that question. It was the same harsh tone she had used any time she had spoken to any Cobra Kai in the past few months, so it was habit. Miguel sighed, shaking his head. Fine. He was trying to be nice, to check in on her, but if she wanted to be like that, it made whatever lingering guilt he had about how he had treated her at the end of their relationship lessen considerably.

"Never mind." He replied, preparing to walk away. As he turned around, Sam slowly stood up, forcing her unresponsive body to her feet.

"Miguel, wait!" She called after him. Miguel slowly turned around and faced her again.

"What?" He responded. Not harshly. Not eagerly. There was not a shred of emotion in Miguel's voice at that moment, nothing to give Sam an inclination about how he felt about her.

"I'm sorry." She stated. Miguel, who was expecting more confrontation, raised an eyebrow. That was new.

"For what?" Miguel asked, intrigued to hear what Sam would say here.

"I didn't know you returned the medal. It was really important to my family. So… thank you."

Miguel had to stifle a mirthless chuckle. That was what Sam was apologising for? Of course it was. Because Sam wouldn't take responsibility for her actions at the country club when she first met Tory. Nor would she take responsibility for her actions in the roller rink. She would blame, manipulate, use everyone around her to play the victim card and avoid laying blame on her own shoulders. He had heard plenty from others about Tory, about how she was crazy, how she was ruthless. But Miguel didn't care about that. Not only did seeing the rare vulnerable side of Tory cause him to disagree with that statement, even if it did happen to be true, he didn't care. Because something about Tory that he never in a million years would have gotten was Sam was honesty. If Tory had a problem, whether it be with him or someone else, she would let him know. She was always straight-up, never sugarcoated for anyone, and never would she ever manipulate or blame others for her actions. She took responsibility for the things she did. In fact, she took responsibility for even things she didn't do that other Cobras did, as her loyalty to the dojo, loyalty to their friend group, was immensely strong. That was one of the things that enabled him to look past whatever flaws she might have, and it was what drew him to her a lot more than he was to Sam.

Miguel forced himself to stifle whatever internal reaction he was having, and he nodded at Sam.

"Yeah, it shouldn't have gotten stolen in the first place. I'm just glad you guys got it back." Miguel replied. At that moment, as Sam walked closer towards him, she tripped. She would've fallen flat on her face had Miguel not caught her, grabbing her at the very last moment. He pulled her back upright and her arms wrapped around his neck for balance. It was a very compromising position, their faces mere inches apart. As Sam gazed into his hazel eyes, she leaned in and pulled him into a kiss…

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Huge mistake. For as soon as their lips connected, Miguel shoved her back. When they kissed, it was like he had been zapped by electricity. Not like romantic sparks. It was like it was electrocuting him, shock running up and down his body as his heart pounded.

"What the hell, Sam?!" Miguel shouted, stumbling away from her.

"Come on, Miguel. You know we still have chemistry together. Think about how amazing it was last year when we were together. Don't you ever wonder what it would be like if we got back together?" Sam murmured. Miguel's eyes were practically bugging out of his head in shock as he heard this. He couldn't believe it.

"Look, with how fast things ended between us last year, I'd be lying if I said that a small part of me doesn't occasionally wonder what if."

"Yeah, so you don't have to wonder anymore. We can make it a reality again!" Sam exclaimed, walking towards him again. Miguel, however, continued to shuffle away from her.

"But…" He continued. "There's someone else. And you know who that is. I'm asking you to respect that. I'm sorry."

With that, Miguel turned around and walked away, preparing to return to his friends in his house, his mind still spinning. But Sam wasn't done yet. Because however confused he was feeling, she felt a hell of a lot worse. She couldn't believe it! Miguel was rejecting her… for Tory! She couldn't believe that she had misread his feelings so much, misjudged everything. She felt absolutely humiliated, more so than she ever had in her entire life. Her cheeks were flushed red in embarrassment, and her mind was a whirlwind of emotion. She didn't whether to cry, laugh, be sad, angry. It ended up being the latter, with Sam shouting after him as he walked away.

"Seriously?! You're picking her over me?!" Sam yelled furiously at him. They were the only ones outside and the music inside was blaringly loud, so no one could overhear what they were saying. "How could you do that?!"

Miguel, confused and slightly annoyed by that remark, turned around again and walked back to her.

"Excuse me?" He said. Sam took a deep, shaky breath, pushing angry tears back in.

"Look, you win, okay? If you were trying to make me jealous with Tory… you just… you win okay."

Miguel sighed, sympathetically.

"I'm really sorry, Sam. But I'm not dating Tory to make you jealous or anything like that. I really like her. She's different to anyone else I've ever met and it's just a lot of fun."

"Fun? Really? Dating that bitch is fun?!" She exclaimed. Miguel's face instantly darkened, and he instinctively felt his right fist curl into a tight ball.

"Hey, watch it." He growled warningly. Sam wasn't fazed though. She was too wrapped up in her emotions.

"No, I'm serious! What does she have that I don't?!" Sam spat. Miguel scowled at her, seriously pissed off at this point.

"Hmmm, let me think." Miguel snapped back, not holding back now. "She's more fun than you. She's about a million times hotter than you. She's loyal. She's honest. And oh yeah, she hasn't grown up in a rich bubble like you so isn't a self-centered, overdramatic, spoiled diva."

Miguel's voice trailed off after this and there was a long silence between them as Sam stood there, in shock, at what Miguel had just called her. Miguel knew at that moment that he had gone too far. He could've turned around and walked away earlier but he had let his temper get out of control. Taking several deep breaths to calm down, he continued in a much quieter tone.

"Look, I'm going to go. Have a good night."

Miguel began to turn away once again, but he couldn't leave without Sam wanting to get one last dig in. She had gotten over her shock and now unbridled fury coursed through her veins.

"Yeah, walk away, Miguel! But don't come back crying to me, begging to get back together, when Tory gets knocked up by her manager at the strip club and is too big to be able to dance around the pol…"

Sam didn't get a chance to finish her sentence. As quick as a flash, Miguel spun back around, his fist clenched so tight it was white and his face crimson with fury. He drew his fist back and let it fly as hard as he could, right at Sam's unexpecting, unguarded face.

CRACK!