CHAPTER 12

The next morning, on Christmas Eve morning, for the first time in nearly 5 years, Miguel pulled into his family's old compound. It had been waaaaay too long since the last time he had seen his mom, Carmen, and his stepfather Johnny. It wasn't that he had a bad relationship with his family; he loved his family a lot. It was just with being deployed all over the world for the past little while, Miguel just hadn't gotten the chance to get home and see them. Unfortunately, Miguel's grandmother had passed away the year after he left for basic training so she wouldn't be there.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Miguel knocked on the door of his old house. Moments later, a sleepy looking Johnny opened the door, but the blonde man's eyes widened and he snapped awake when he saw the grinning adult standing opposite him. Miguel hadn't told them he was coming for Christmas, so Johnny was astonished to see his stepson.

"Hey, Johnny. Long time." Miguel remarked. Johnny dropped the mug of coffee he was holding, and it hit the ground with a SMASH! Johnny didn't care though. His face broke out into a huge smile and he embraced his stepson.

"Oh, my God, Miguel! What are you doing here?!" Johnny exclaimed.

"Well, I'm here for Christmas. Senior Citizens like you still celebrate Christmas, right?" Miguel remarked.

"Hey, I'm 62! Not a senior citizen yet!" Johnny snapped, indignantly. Suddenly, the door to the bedroom swung open and Carmen walked out.

"MIGUEL!" She screamed in delight when she saw her son, and she sprinted over to him, throwing her arms around her son and practically choking him in a hug.

"Hey, mom." Miguel smiled, returning the hug.

"Oh, my God! You're so grown up!" Carmen exclaimed, looking at her son for the first time in 5 years. Although they had spoken on the phone on occasion, this was the first time she had actually seen him in person in such a long time. Carmen and Johnny pulled Miguel into the house and the three of them caught up…

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"So whereabouts have you been these days? You haven't been the easiest person to contact recently." Carmen asked. The three sat around in the living room, sipping cups of Eggnog. The Christmas tree stood behind Miguel, containing ornaments that Carmen had collected all throughout Miguel's childhood.

"Well, the past year, I've been in Afghanistan. But before that, there was Djibouti, Iraq, Somalia, Bahrain, Japan, Pakistan and my favourite… Brazil." Miguel replied. Johnny whistled.

"Wow. You really did what you said. You joined the Navy and saw the world, huh?" Johnny remarked. Miguel nodded.

"Yup. And 1 Navy Cross, 3 Silver Stars and 2 Bronze Stars later, I'm finally back home." Miguel replied. Carmen's eyes widened.

"You got all of those awards?!" She exclaimed. Miguel nodded. "Miguel, I'm so proud of you!"

"Thanks, mom." Miguel replied.

"Yeah, that's really incredible, Miguel!" Johnny added. Miguel nodded in thanks. "So why are you home now, Miguel? What's changed? Not that I'm complaining!"

"Well… my girlfriend lives here." Miguel replied. As he said the word 'girlfriend', a smile creeped onto his face. Carmen squealed in delight and clapped her hands together.

"Ooh, you have a girlfriend?! What's her name? How long have you been dating?" Carmen hit Miguel with a barrage of questions. Miguel hadn't had a serious girlfriend in… well, ever. His last girlfriends had been in high school, and they weren't serious girlfriends. But from the look on Miguel's face when he merely mentioned her… this girl was really something.

"Um… her name's Sam. I don't know how long we've been dating to be honest. We met like a year and two months ago, and we kept up a long distance relationship for the past year I've been in Afghanistan."

"She kept up a long distance relationship with you for a year?!" Johnny exclaimed. "No way! If you asked me to be in a long distance relationship with you for a year, I'd either dump you on the spot or I'd say yes, but then I'd be out on the street selling sex for a nickel!"

"Gee, thanks man! That makes me feel great!" Miguel snapped sarcastically. "Well then, it's a good thing you and I aren't dating, huh Johnny?"

"So, can we meet her?" Carmen asked again, eagerly.

"Yeah, definitely. I mean, I'm going over to meet her parents sometime next week, and we planned for her to come over here sometime too, if that's okay with you guys."

"Yeah, we'd love to meet her!" Carmen exclaimed. "So, do you think you two are going to go all the way?"

Miguel choked on his drink as he misinterpreted his mom's question.

"Well, um… mom, I mean I'm a 27 year old man." Miguel stammered. "I'm not a teenager anymore. What my girlfriend and I choose to do in the bedroom is between me and her. I am more than capable of handling any conseque…"

"She means do you think you two are gonna get married?!" Johnny interrupted. Miguel's eyes widened in realisation and he blushed, embarrassed, as Johnny laughed hysterically at him.

"Well, I don't know. I mean I'd love to, but I've learned anything, it's that life doesn't always pan out the way you expect, especially in my job. I'm just enjoying it day by day."

"That's a great way to look at life." Carmen remarked, ignoring Miguel's mess-up. "So what does she do for a living?"

"She's a child psychologist." Miguel replied. "She actually grew up here in California. In Encino."

Johnny whistled. Everyone knew the Encino people were the richer people in L.A.

"Miguel's a bit of a gold digger, huh?" Johnny grinned. Miguel glared at him.

"I'm not even gonna dignify that with an answer." Miguel replied. "Anyways, yeah her parents own some big car dealership down here. Larusso Auto."

Johnny's smile instantly dropped. A massive scowl filled his face.

"Larusso Auto? Are you dating Daniel Larusso's daughter?!" Johnny shouted. Carmen and Miguel raised eyebrows at Johnny's sudden change of tone.

"Um… I mean her parents' names are Daniel and Amanda so I guess so?" Miguel replied. "Why? What's your beef with her dad?"

"You break up with her. You break up with her NOW!" Johnny yelled. Miguel was even more confused now.

"What? No! Johnny! No! I'm not gonna dump her! Why do you hate her dad so much?" Miguel asked, even more curious now. Johnny took a deep breath and sighed, taking a sip of his drink before standing up.

"Miguel, let's go for a drive." Johnny said. "I want to tell you a story…"

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"It was the summer of '82." Johnny began as him and Miguel hit the road. "Rocky III" had just come out. My buddy Dutch was a huge Mr. T fan, so we went to the local theater to check it out. Sitting in front of us was this group of cute chicks, eating popcorn. Dutch started throwing Milk Duds at them."

"What? Why would he do that?" Miguel asked, confused.

"Because it's an alpha move, man. Babes love when you treat them like crap." Johnny stated. Miguel rolled his eyes.

"Well that's just not true." Miguel remarked. Johnny scoffed and shrugged.

"Trust me, it is. Tried and true. Just like the cavemen did it." Johnny replied. "You know back then, hunters would insult and put down all of the gatherers in a way of getting into their jungle skirts."

Miguel chuckled at Johnny's absurd fake-history lesson.

"Well, as much as I highly doubt that's true, is there a point to this story?" He asked. Johnny nodded and continued.

"Anyway, eventually, the girls got so pissed off, one of them stood up and started yelling at us. That's when I saw her for the first time."

"Saw who?" Miguel asked.

"Ali." Johnny replied. "She dumped popcorn all over Dutch, got butter all over him. I could tell right away, man, this chick was a firecracker."

"So did you ask her out?" Miguel asked.

"Yeah, I hit on her a few times till she gave me a chance." Johnny said. "We went to Golf N' Stuff for our first date. Kissed on the Ferris wheel. Dated for two years. We were madly in love."

"Watch it, man. You're married to my mom." Miguel snapped. "So then what happened?"

"Summer before my senior year, we got into a fight. I figured we'd work things out eventually. Then Daniel LaRusso came to town. Next thing I know, he's hitting on her. I see the two of them flirting with each other."

"What'd you do?"

"Well, I walked over to have a civil conversation with Ali but LaRusso kept butting in. I told him to get lost, mind his own business. Then out of nowhere, the guy sucker punches me.

"What an asshole." Miguel remarked, mainly for Johnny's benefit. He wasn't a naive teenager. He knew that there were two sides to every story and Johnny was clearly only telling his side of the story.

"I know, man. So I did what any dude would do, I defended myself. You know, I figured that was that. But LaRusso wouldn't leave it alone.

"A couple of months later, at the Halloween dance, I was sitting there, minding my own business, he douses me with a water hose. I hadn't seen the guy in months. Frickin' turns a water hose on my head! So I chase him down, try to put an end to things that night, right? Turns out the guy's got a karate master of his own. Guy comes out of nowhere, jumps us, assaults me and my 4 friends. I think my buddy Tommy got brain damage 'cause of that fight."

"So let me get this straight… you tried to fight Daniel Larusso 5 on 1, and you're bitter that he got ONE more person to help him? Sounds like a 'you' problem and not a 'him' problem." Miguel stated. Johnny scowled.

"There's more. Eventually, we decided to work things out at the All Valley Karate Tournament." Johnny remarked. Miguel raised a hand.

"Hold up. Hate to interrupt you again but you chose to use karate to solve your issues?! Well that's just a recipe for disaster. Why didn't you just sort out your issues with words?"

"Okay, NERD." Johnny chuckled. Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"I think you're forgetting this 'nerd' kicks ass for a living, and is damn good at it." Miguel warned him. Johnny laughed.

"So anyway, we both made it to the finals. It was 2-2 and…" Johnny's voice trailed off at the end, and Miguel looked at him expectantly.

"What... what happened? Who won?" He asked.

"LaRusso won, I lost. But what's worse is that I lost Ali." Johnny finished. Miguel sighed and looked at him.

"Okay, Johnny, as much as I appreciate you looking out for me, can I tell you what that story sounds like to me?" Miguel asked. "It sounds like a 62 year old man still bitter about a petty rivalry from 45 years ago, a rivalry that could've been sorted out back then if you hadn't resorted to dumb methods like Karate and actually talked through your problems."

Johnny sighed.

"Look, you're a grown-ass man. I can't tell you who you can and can't date. But you're still my son and I don't want you to get hurt. I told you this story 'cause you gotta watch out for the Larussos. They are the slimiest, most manipulative family in America. You might not expect it. You might not know when it's coming, or how it's coming, but you can bet every dollar in your bank account that they do whatever it takes to make them and only them happy, no matter how many people they hurt in the process…"