A/N: Well I decided to make this a multichapter story as I had several ideas for oneshots that ended up all connecting and turning itself into a huge semblance of a plot, and with that comes a rating change. This story will be going up from K+ to T for language and theme and Robby's and Johnny's character tags are now added but the core basis will not change. The focus will remain on the two core father/child relationships that we see throughout the series with a side of teenage and grown men trying not to behave like teenagers angst. After all, it wouldn't be right to title it balance without seeing the flip side of the coin would it? ;) I still do not own Cobra Kai or the Karate Kid films.

Johnny is looking at the bottom of a beer can when he hears the ringing. He almost goes into his pocket, but then he remembers that damnable smart device that is pretty dumb in his opinion, well he threw it into the sand. And his car is on the beach as well. So this must be some last ditch effort by some poor sonofabitch to reach him.

He grabbed the phone from its place. "Yeeh…" He knew what he was supposed to say, but it takes several minutes to go from his brain out of his mouth, and not just because of the drinks.

"Dad…"

And color him sober because where is his son calling from, and sounding less sure than he'd ever heard? Far as he remembered it he'd dropped him at school that morning with the red backpack and hadn't heard head or tail since the brawl heard round town, since Diaz had his back cracked flat. "Robby? Are you okay? Shit kid…where are you at, where the fuck have you been?"

"You're seriously asking?" Robby sounds a lot younger than the sixteen he actually is even as he tries to play it off. "Um...I well…" And there is a long pause. The longest pause Johnny Lawrence remembers in a phone call since he was a cocky teenager calling his girl.

"Robby, spit it out."

"The hospital… outside the hospital." Johnny hears the strangle. "I've been calling. Where's your phone?"

"Never mind, I'm on my way, stay there, got it?" Johnny slammed it down before he remembers the current predicament. He would have to wait for a bus. No way would he go back and take that car.

Quickly enough, Johnny wished he would have walked to the beach and taken that car. Sitting on buses with old ladies when he was in a rush sucked worse than pushups on his knuckles, and by the time he reached the hospital, a bunch of possible scenarios were running through his head and none of them good. And when he didn't see Robby, well, that didn't bode well for him either.

But who did he see but Larusso? His wife was pushing their daughter in a wheelchair out the hospital doors, and their other kid, still eyeing his smart dumb phone playing pissed off parrots or smash sugar or whatever those games were called, but the kid looked up long enough to send a glare in his direction.

He could tell Larusso noticed him too, the smallest flitting of a gaze, though there was no acknowledgement as Amanda hurried them forward, deliberately ignoring him likely enough.

"Dad…"

None of his karate training prepared Johnny for Robby stepping out from the alley at the back of the hospital silent as a spectre. "Christ Kid, you said in front."

"No I said outside, you connected the dots wrong," But the usual snark, well try as he might, Johnny couldn't find a trace. Robby sighed. "Sorry, avoiding...well...you know…"

"Come on, let's go get something to eat," Johnny said. He knew they had to talk, but not here, and Johnny could not really cook anything that would satisfy.

Robby followed him without a word.

Once they were back on the bus, Robby had asked the obvious question of where his car had ended up and Johnny explained. But as he did, he took an inventory. He had noticed the way Robby was walking, trying to hide the pain, and the many bruises that no doubt had come as a result of the massive all out brawl. Some, he could hide better than others. How many had come from Diaz? How many had Robby given right back before the big blow?

When they got to the restaurant of choice, Johnny and Robby walked in, subdued. Robby had put up his hood and kept his head down, an attempt to hide the bruise under his eye.

They sat at a table and Johnny ordered for them both. When the waitress left, Johnny turned his attention to his son. "What the hell happened there, the truth?" He asked plainly.

And Robby explained everything that he could slowly and carefully reconstructing the scene, laying his cards on the table. Tory's calling out of Sam; Miguel, him all of it. Johnny knew Robby wouldn't get much out of lying at this point so he listened without calling him out. "It's my fault…Miguel's hurt because of me." He glanced up finally.

"It was an accident, a mistake," Johnny said. "And it's not your fault." If anything it was his. The fight between him and Larusso, the same fight they'd been fighting since they were sixteen themselves...well wasn't it the catalyst really?

Robby's expression was one of disbelief. "I kicked him over a railing. That's not an accident."

"The kick wasn't, but you feel bad about it," That was more than Johnny could have said about his own actions toward Daniel Larusso in high school at the moment, even after. "You didn't want it to happen."

"No, it, nothing like this, none of it. I was trying to stop it. But it was a mess."

Johnny nodded. "Well, that's exactly where you start."

Robby looked at his father blinking. "What?"

"You heard me."

Robby looked horrified and rightly so. " No, n...no! Mrs. Diaz isn't going to hear me out." It was too soon. And as far as he knew Miguel wasn't even conscious.

"I know that, I'm not an idiot. That comes later." Johnny scoffed. Carmen didn't even want to see him. He wouldn't put his son through that until things cooled off. "Stop being a pussy and go talk to the Larussos." The phrase was more than advice for his son. It was a kick for him as well.

"You too," Robby leveled his gaze at his father. A challenge of his own.

Johnny gave a slow nod. An agreement, though it was a chalky pill to choke down.

A/N: So a few little factoids about the creation of this chapter. It came out all at once, and I honestly went back and forth on Johnny's response for a while though his voice came easy. And is honestly 80-90 percent of the reason the rating went up. wonder what that says about me, haha. The original title for this is Forgive Us Our Trespasses and I decided to turn that into the chapter title. And even deciding if the Larusso's were going to talk to Johnny was a decision I struggled with. Ultimately, I decided to not have them speak to him yet, but Anthony's little glare, well I had to add that in. I decided having Robby throw it back in his face that he has to talk to them too would be a good way to have Johnny choke down the take your own advice moment he's facing. And well, I'm going to be showing Sam and Robby's side of the story as well, so their thought processes will be addressed. Big time as their dads try not to engage in another sparring match. And they all face the repercussions.