Disclaimer: I blame marathons of Karate Kid movies on TV for making me writing fanfic of it, haha.
Story: When Mike Barnes seeks revenge some other way, Danielle finds healing in two unlikely and unexpected saviors.
Set as a genderbent continuation of the third Karate Kid movie.
Spoilers: Yeeeessss. Yes, yes, yes. Beware?
Warnings: Age difference, initial racism towards Asians, excessive drinking, some violence and language, PTSD, gender roles and gender expectations, societal expectations…
Pairings: Eventual John Kreese/fem!Daniel/Terry Silver.
The Things I Could Do Without
Chapter Four: I Started the Joke On Me
It had currently been almost two weeks since the beginning of her stay in the mansion with the two men she had thought she would never get along with. They weren't exactly at ease with each other, but it was an existence that was more peaceful than she'd ever thought could happen between the three of them. This was withstanding the fact she hadn't ever thought they'd share an existence together in the first place.
In fact, most times they stayed out of each other's ways. They spent a rare time eating a meal or two, usually when they could catch her cooking and would eat with her. Kreese, as Ter –Silver told her, was capable of cooking some things, but it was limited and so he didn't cook often unless he and…Silver were desperate to get something in their stomachs.
She knew that it wouldn't last though. There was no way the three of them could just live with each other and not collide someway or other.
"Fancy seeing you here," a slightly cheerful voice spoke from behind her and she turned from the large gym mat centered in the middle of the room. She saw Terry standing by the entrance to the room, dressed in his karate gi.
When she didn't speak to him, his grin faltered and for a moment he awkwardly stood there.
"So, um," he gestured to the mat. "How about a spar for old time's sake?" Terry tried grinning again.
"No thanks," she said coldly and moved to brush passed him, only at the last moment he seemed to have made up his mind and stubbornly stood in her way.
"Come on, don't be like that," he obstinately kept his grin in place. "I'll even let you hit me a few times."
She paused. That was almost tempting. She glanced at him again and saw he was still grinning at her. Her mouth tightened into a scowl and she felt inexplicably angry, especially seeing his familiar, almost smug at times grin.
"Fine," she said tersely and moved back to the mat at one end.
Terry moved to the other end and then stepped onto it. She hesitated a moment, before taking off her shoes and socks and then moved onto the mat herself. For a few moments, they circled around each other and watched the other warily. And then she struck first, lashing out with a punch that he swiped away from him, and went to return against her with a knife-hand.
Some minutes passed as they traded blows that didn't land on each other, but Danielle grew increasingly frustrated, more so as she knew that he was taking it easy on her. It was less like "before" and not like "old times" at all because she remembered that he hadn't been so soft on her, even though she knew now it was more to make her incapable and less abled in the tournament than to really prepare her for anything. And he still had that familiar grin on his face that she used to really l –hate. She wanted to wipe it off his face right then.
And looking into his face, seeing him and then the image of Mike Barnes superimposed on the other, Danielle snapped and just lunged at the tall man, catching Terry off guard from the unexpected move. She tackled him to the ground, and it was less a karate match and more of a brawl as she lashed out at him and he just tried to grab hold of her without hurting her.
Between seeing Barnes and Terry –Silver! Silver, damn it! –Danielle was less focused on where and how to attack, and more on being on the attack and just being able to land a hit whenever, wherever.
Strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her off of Silver, and as she was pinned down, she started to flashback to that time with Barnes and she began to flail her limbs, screaming her head off. Immediately, whoever it was let go of her as if their hands had been burned, and she scrambled back on the floor and ended up with her back against the wall. She closed her eyes and curled into a ball, clutching at her head and rocking slightly. After focusing on her breathing a bit, and hearing nothing but silence in the room, she lifted her head up and opened her eyes to see Silver still sitting on the ground and staring at her in alarm, and Kreese (having been the one who pulled her off of Silver) standing around and looking at her in shock and panic.
Staring back at them with wide eyes and heaving breaths, she swallowed harshly and then clambered onto her knees. She stumbled onto her feet and then rushed out of the room.
God, why was she such a mess?
Terry didn't move from his spot. He didn't know what to say or do, though he knew his body ached (mostly his torso where her hits frequently landed). This hadn't been the reaction he'd been expecting…or wanted.
To be honest, he missed spending time with her like he used to. He missed their banter, the way she'd hit his arm after he said something egotistical, or the way she'd beam up at him after she did a move he taught her right (and he did actually teach her a few things).
He thought maybe this could have been the start of rebuilding their relationship after everything.
In the end though, it seemed Terry had just made things worse.
"You alright, Terry?" John asked him softly.
He looked up at his old friend grimly. "You know…I don't regret doing what I thought I had to before as your friend. I owe you. But…"
At the loss of Danielle LaRusso in his life, something had inexplicably become missing inside of him. The night she'd looked at him like a monster, the night she'd turned her back on him (but he'd turned his back on her first, hadn't he?)…an ache was created and built up in him.
And her leaving him behind had made that ache worse.
So here he was now, thinking and hoping maybe they could slip into things like it had been before. But it couldn't be like it was before. Not after everything that had happened. Not after what he did, what Barnes did.
"I need a drink," Terry declared. "I just…I need to get drunk."
"You want to be alone?" John asked.
Terry blinked and looked at John, and thought about it. He didn't want to talk about this with John. He didn't want to talk about this with anyone. He just wanted to get drunk and not think about it at all.
"I'll see you later, yeah?" Terry asked by way of his answer.
John nodded and Terry finally moved to get up. He left his friend behind and walked all the way to where he had his own bar. Huh. His nice, huge home. It was so large it could have housed over a hundred people in it. He had marble bathrooms, granite counters…
He was rich and he had everything he or anyone could ever want.
Somehow, meeting Danielle had screwed him up and made him realize he didn't really have anything at all.
John didn't know what the hell had happened. He'd walked into Terry's sparring room and watched in part amusement and part envy at the two of them beginning to spar. Honestly, a part of him had been a bit envious of Terry, who got to fight her, who even had been able to even teach her for a time…
But then shit seemed to have hit the fan for some reason, as he watched in fascination as to how her face morphed into an expression full of rage and she practically leaped at Terry and seemed to lash out however she could at his friend.
He didn't know where that had come from or why she had just let loose like she had, but he also didn't think she was okay at the moment and that she shouldn't be left alone. So after Terry left him, he went and searched her out, finding that she was quietly sitting on the front steps of the mansion. Without a word, he took off his own jacket and slipped it onto her shivering form, because he could handle the cold of the night better than she would. She didn't acknowledge him yet though.
"Cold night," he neutrally said. When she didn't answer him, he continued on. "I'm…sorry about earlier. I hadn't meant to upset you when I grabbed you. I was just trying to…"
"I know," she cut in softly, not looking at him. "It's my fault. I freaked out."
John hesitated, but made the decision to push through and ask. "He…He push you down like that and hold you down?"
He watched her shiver more obviously, but this time he knew it wasn't the cold.
"He held me down," she admitted, confirming his inquiry. "He held me down and had a strong grip on me like you did."
"I'm sorry," he apologized again, trying not to imagine it.
"Like I said, it was more my fault," she muttered. "I shouldn't have agreed to spar with Silver anyway."
He noted the use of Terry's last name, and wondered at that. He remembered, from what his friend had told him, that she had always been casual with him and called him Terry from the beginning.
"Why's that?" though he regretted it when he heard her answer.
"I despise him," she said in a flat tone, and which also answered the change from 'Terry' to 'Silver.' "And when I saw Barnes's image over Silver's face at the end, I couldn't help myself. I just attacked him."
John wavered on what to say next. On one hand, she had finally said something about Barnes and about what happened to her. On the other, he suspected that things might not end up well if he kept pushing more on that front, and that he also wanted to know what was her problem with his old friend.
"Why do you despise him?" he asked, making up his mind. "Terry, that is. At least enough that it was partly why you got angry and attacked him, apart from seeing Barnes."
Danielle seemed to want to curl in on herself and John resisted the urge to reach over.
"Because I really cared about him," she whispered the admission and John stiffened in shock. "I really liked him and I liked spending time with him, and he took all the trust and care I had for him and practically tore it up into pieces in my face."
John…John hadn't actually thought too much into how the whole thing with Terry and her happened and would work out. When Terry told him he was going to "mentor" Danielle and pretend to get her ready for the tournament, he had been supportive and thought it was a great idea. She would be unprepared and even weakened, and when the time came for the tournament she would be totally humiliated and would lose her title and fame.
He hadn't thought of it like this, hadn't thought of how she would feel and what would happen to her.
"I even thought I was in love with him," she let out a tiny sob and he exhaled in disbelief and stared at her, while she turned to look up at him with teary eyes. "I thought I was in love with him and was going to tell him that night, but instead he showed his true colors and you, he, and Barnes laughed in my face and it felt like he tore my heart out of my chest and stomped on it."
She finally burst into tears, because she hadn't really cried at all and he hadn't expected she would in front of him.
"But joke's on me, huh?" she sounded slightly hysterical. She gave him a self-deprecating smile. "Just blame it all on me, right? It's all my fault. It's always my fault."
He continued to stare at her numbly, inwardly feeling horrified.
"I," he started, his voice breaking. He licked his lips. "I'm an asshole. And so is Terry. We are complete and utter bastards. But I swear we'll do everything to make it up to you."
God, how old was he? That he wouldn't care, that he would purposely target and want to hurt a teenaged girl like her? What was wrong with Terry and him?
"I'm sorry," and he injected as much remorse as he could into it, like he had never bothered to do before in his life.
"I'm sorry," Terry's voice croaked out the apology too, and they turned to see him leaning heavily against his front door, loosely holding onto a bottle of whiskey.
The three of them were a mess, and John thought the joke was now more on him and Terry.
Started 2/13/16 – Completed 2/20/16
A/n: I listened to George Ezra's "Blame It On Me" way too much. It's why this chapter is so depressing. But then this whole story is depressing (shrugs). Whoops. Please review this terrible, depressing fic?