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 Eight: It's Not Too Late

Danielle seemed to be doing much better. She was having less depressed moments, and snapped less at Terry and himself these days. She also seemed livelier and more herself (at least what John assumed was like herself, since he hadn't really known her before all this and Terry wouldn't talk about his past with her).

She had also, amusingly, asked to see all four current Rocky movies. Taking that as a cue that maybe she was back on track and hopefully getting better, Terry had cheerfully agreed and procured the movies. They were also kind of thankful it wasn't going to be a marathon of chick flicks.

"Any reason for the Rocky movies?"

"My therapist brought it up. I thought it'd be nice to check them out."

While not sure why they'd be brought up in a therapy session, it seemed to be a good way for Danielle to just try for normality and hopefully help herself get her life to normal. So they had a marathon planned out for that Friday night, and John was in charge of buying snacks from the store. To be honest, he was being a little biased and just getting snacks that he liked, but he did sneak in a few of Danielle's favorites.

"Sensei?"

That made him freeze and he turned slowly to the familiar voice. Seeing his old student Bobby (thank God it wasn't Johnny), John forced himself to nod.

"Bobby," he muttered. "And you don't have to call me 'Sensei.' I'm not your teacher anymore. Just John is fine." Lord knows if he heard 'Mr. Kreese', he'll be his fucking dad.

Bobby bit his lip. "Um, how have you been?"

"Alright," John answered gruffly, trying to keep his answers short.

The younger male glanced at John's cart.

"That's a lot of snacks," he noted. He saw a particular one. "Are those marshmallows? I thought you hated marshmallows?"

"Danielle likes s'mores," he answered before shutting his mouth. He hadn't meant to blurt that out.

Bobby looked surprised. "Danielle? Danielle LaRusso?"

John pursed his lips, but kept his tone neutral. "Yeah…She's been staying with me and a friend of mine recently. It's a long story."

Bobby nodded awkwardly. For a moment, they just stood there. John was just about to excuse himself when Bobby spoke up.

"So how's she been doing?"

John swallowed heavily. He thought back to all that had happened and how Danielle had been coping. But he thought back to recent days and how Danielle was actually seeming to be much better than before.

"Good," he decided on recently. "Her mentor died kind of recently and…there were other things going on. But she's better now."

He looked oddly relieved, but John didn't ask.

"That's…that's good. Um…could you…could you tell her I'm sorry? About before?" he asked, remorse seeping into his voice.

That caught him off guard, but it wasn't too surprising. Bobby had always been the more understanding and sympathetic of the group, and regarding the situation with Danielle before, Bobby had been the least aggressive. That gave him an idea though. A hesitant one, but still an idea.

"You could do that yourself," John said. "We're having a movie marathon tonight. You could join us?"

Bobby looked surprised but then hesitant. Then he was grinning widely.

"Sure, sounds good to me!"

John hoped it would help Danielle open up to more people and get her feeling more secure.

Danielle helped Terry out, doing her best to make things look nice. It helped her focus on it and not on how hard she had been taking things. A hand on her shoulder stopped her and she looked up into Terry's uncertain but still smiling face.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I still have hard days sometimes. I stand and stare off into space, or I cry myself to sleep. Sometimes I just want it all to stop, and I don't know how to make it."

She kept quiet then, looking morosely at the floor.

"You know," she was surprised to hear Terry speak up. "Sometimes I regret letting you find out I was working with John to bring you and Old Man Miyagi down. Sometimes I just wished I kept my mouth shut and the two of us kept on as we did. I really did enjoy being around you and our time together, and losing that…It wasn't until you were gone and we weren't hanging out with each other anymore that I realized just how much I liked having you around and that you had really become a good friend."

Danielle looked at him in shock and he was tiredly looking down at their preparations.

"If…" She swallowed slowly. "If you could, would you do things differently from then?"

He looked at her and his mouth lifted up a little. "To be honest, I think John and I would have been happy taking that time to meet you differently and be people you'd like to be around."

She shifted in place for a moment, before she hesitantly leaned forward and hugged him. She could feel his surprise and a moment passed before his arms moved around her and held her tight. It was like that for a while, until they heard the entrance open and shut and John yelled out to them.

"Hey, I'm back! I got a guest too," which caught them off guard.

They let go of each other and looked towards the kitchen's entrance, where John appeared with a few bags of groceries and someone who Danielle hadn't expected to see ever since that first karate tournament she'd participated in.

"Uh, hey, Danielle," Bobby Brown waved uncertainly. "How have you been?"

Speechless, she just stared a moment while Terry and John moved restlessly nearby and traded looks with each other, Terry in particular was questioning.

"H-hi," she finally said. She made herself relax and smile. "I'm okay…You?"

She glanced at the other two, who nodded at her, and she moved towards Bobby. He began talking earnestly to her, and she found herself relaxing as time went by and she chatted with Bobby, becoming more and more enthusiastic as she did.

Maybe life really was becoming better for her and she was becoming better.

"Well, I'm glad that worked out," John muttered and Terry glanced at him.

"Fair warning next time," he grumbled. "Didn't expect the kid to party crash. Who is he anyway?"

"Bobby," John answered with a small shrug. "He was a student of mine before shit hit the fan."

"Ah."

Terry glanced at the talking young adults. "You think this was a good idea?"

John glanced at them too. "I think so. She needs to talk to more people, stop keeping to herself. And us."

"I kinda liked having her all to ourselves," Terry grinned a bit and John rolled his eyes.

"It was nice not having to share her," John admitted.

"Too bad it couldn't last," Terry mused, but even he knew that it was better this way. Danielle had to find her way back to normalcy and finding herself back in society, talking to other people, and not hiding from the world.

He shook his head and then looked at what John had gotten, sneering in disgust.

"You selfish bastard –this is all your crap! I wanted some Cheetos!"

"Ruffles are better!"

"Goddamn you!"

Terry huffed while John smirked, but both of them shrugged when Danielle looked over to them questioningly. She shook her head in amusement before turning back to Bobby.

"This'll be a good memory for her," John murmured.

Terry couldn't argue with that.

They all, minus Bobby, managed to stay up and watch all four Rocky movies, though they were struggling to sleep. They sprawled out on Terry's large living room floor, most of the junk food set aside on the coffee table that had been pushed back and away from them. There was probably a few empty beer cans around, though Terry or John would just lazily kick or shove those away.

The three of them were all kind of tired and ready to pass out, but they didn't quite yet. John yawned widely as he stretched out on the comforter, while Terry blindly reached for the remote to turn the television off. When they did, the room was bathed in darkness.

A thought entered through Terry's mind and he tried to look for Danielle through the darkness.

"Hey, Danielle?" he whispered.

He heard some rustling and then Danielle answered him. "Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

"Aside from the obvious stuff of what I'm dealing with," she said sarcastically, though it was with a light tone. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

Terry stayed quiet, though even he could feel John nudging him and hear the silent 'what's up?'

"I mean, what with exactly with the obvious stuff you're going through," Terry said quietly. "Doesn't this…doesn't this bother you? Being here with us, sleeping in the same room? Being the only girl and the rest of us are guys? If it…if it does, you know you can always slip upstairs and stay in your room…"

He worried when he didn't hear anything back from her and hoped that it meant she had fallen asleep, and not that she was disturbed by the situation and was upset with his question.

"I'm good," she said suddenly, which he hadn't expected. "I'm…I'm not so upset to find myself freaking out with you two so much anymore, and I feel safer with you two around anyway. I grew used to being around you guys. And Bobby…he's always been the nice guy, and tried not to get into it with me back then. And with you two around, I don't feel so scared of other people. So I'm good, okay? I mean it."

Terry made an agreeing noise, inwardly feeling relieved.

"There's plenty of space for all of us on this floor," John started, catching Terry's attention. "But if you want, you can move to come here between me and Terry."

That made Terry tense up, both anxious and excited, but not really thinking Danielle would go for it. But then he heard more rustling and then he saw a dark shadow stand up and coming carefully towards him. Closer, he saw the outline of Danielle's body as she stood near his head and then crouched down. She felt around as she tried to not stumble across John or him, and he couldn't help sitting up and grabbing onto her. She tensed and he worried that he'd scared her off, but then he felt her relax and John then echoed his action, grabbing onto her from the other side and helping her find her way between them and then letting her move down and then shift onto her back.

While she got comfortable, Terry wondered what he was going to do now. He was happy she was there and trusting him, but he was also aware of how he felt and didn't want to do something that would scare her or make her uncomfortable. He took his cue from John, who had settled back to lying down and somewhat keeping his distance from her.

"C-can I hold onto your hands?" she asked, voice small.

Terry swallowed harshly, and slowly moved his hand closer to her and let her complete the journey to his, her small hand tentatively touching his before grasping it fully. He could guess the same thing happened on her other side with John.

"Goodnight," she murmured sleepily, her breathing starting to even out.

Terry couldn't say anything back, all the words he wanted to say stuck in his throat.

Started (?) – Completed 10/3/16

A/n: Sorry, it's been awhile! I've been really busy, so I haven't been able to go back to this. I hope there are still people reading and that they liked this chapter! Please remember to review!

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