Tory thanks Mrs Barton for taking care of Brandon again while she was working. She and Brandon wave off his friend's mom and they go inside.

"Brandon, can we sit down for a minute?" she asks after she shuts the door.

Her brother looks at her warily. Last time she asked him to sit down, she broke the news to him about her mother. She can't blame him for not wanting to do it again, in his position she'd probably be thinking if she didn't sit down maybe she wouldn't get any more bad news.

"Please?" she says.

Brandon reluctantly hops up on the couch, and Tory sits next to him.

Tory twists her hands together. "We're gonna have to move house soon. But don't worry. My old Sensei... is gonna help us find somewhere nice. He's, uh, really good at stuff like that." She was planning on telling him about them all living together, but it's kinda weird. Brandon's gonna think it's weird. And besides, she keeps telling herself it won't come to that even though she already agreed to it.

"I don't wanna move house," Brandon says quietly.

"I know," she says. "I'm sorry. I don't either. But it'll be okay, I promise."

Brandon nods. "Can I go play now?"

Tory nods, and as soon as he's gone, she drops her head to rest on her hands. She could really use someone to talk to about this. Someone rational and dependable. Her mind immediately goes to Robby, but since that horrible day when she was supposed to fight for the right to be Miyagi-Do's female captain, things just haven't been the same between them. The whole Sekai Taikai thing didn't help either, but what did she expect, being on rival teams? They've texted a little bit since they came home, but it feels like there's a huge distance between them now.

No, she needs someone else. If it was anyone other than Kreese who she'd agreed to live with, she could just talk to them about it. But he's never exactly been good at compromise, you're either with him or against him, and she doesn't want to blow what could be her only chance by sounding dubious about the whole thing. He might decide she's turned against him and call the whole thing off. God, she's really gonna be walking on eggshells the whole time they're living together, isn't she? He'd better at least give Brandon some grace, otherwise they really will have a problem.

She was going to text Mrs LaRusso and never did, so she takes out her phone and types a message to her. And as soon as she hits send, she remembers, oh how could she be so stupid? Mrs LaRusso hates Kreese more than anyone. Well, she thinks, putting her phone down, maybe Mrs LaRusso won't even see her message.

Her phone buzzes once, twice. She picks it up.

Tory, what happened?

Are you okay?

As Tory is trying to think of how to reply, her phone starts ringing. Amanda LaRusso.

Tory smiles. She might not want to talk to her right now, but it is kinda nice, that she cares enough to call. If this was a real emergency, Mrs LaRusso would have her back.

She waits until her phone stops ringing, then texts back: Yeah, sorry, it's nothing. Something happened but it's fine now.

Thank goodness! I'm here for you if you ever need me. Don't be a stranger! Mrs LaRusso texts back immediately.

Tory smiles at her phone, then locks it. She guesses she'll just have to figure out some way to tell Brandon on her own.

A few days later, Sensei Kreese is waiting for her as she walks into the diner, and he gestures her over. She's not working with Wanda tonight, so it's probably safe to slack off for a few minutes.

"I was waiting for you here yesterday," he says as she sits down opposite him.

"Yeah, well, I don't work here every night, thank god."

"I have news for you. I wanted to tell you last night."

"I should give you my number."

John takes a pen out of his pocket, grabs a napkin and slides both of them over to her.

"Gimme your phone, it's easier."

"Don't have one. Never needed one."

Tory frowns, starts to think how could he not? But then decides it's none of her business and takes the napkin and writes her number on it. "What is it you wanted to tell me?"

John folds the napkin into his pocket. "I've found us a place."

Relief and trepidation fight for supremacy inside her. He can't mean that, can he? He's gotta mean for the dojo, right? "A place to live? Already?"

He nods.

"Okay, I'll come see it. Where is it?"

"Three blocks away, but there is no need. I have already paid the deposit."

"What?"

"You must move fast with these things. Residential property is hard to come by at reasonable prices in this area. I should know, I haven't been able to afford the rent here in ten years. Don't worry, I'll let you know how much you owe me, after we have decided how we will divide the expenses."

"But, but, what if I don't like it? You can't just go making a decision like that without asking me!"

John spreads his hands. "You're busy. I was doing you a favour. I thought you'd be grateful."

"I, I am, but… this is an apartment, not a new sweater! I can't just take it back if I don't like it."

He fixes her with a stare. "Three bedrooms, ground floor, reasonable size, close enough that you won't need to change jobs or Brandon's school. And the landlord is not the same scumbag who owns your current place, I've checked. What more could you want?"

Okay, so he's thought about it. He might not have involved her, but he's at least thought about the kinds of things that she and Brandon might want or need. It's… nice, but like Mrs LaRusso's phone call, is it really what she wants right now? God, how old does she have to be before adults will stop thinking they know best for her?

"So, uh, w-when is it ready?" Tory asks, hating that her voice keeps shaking. Her heart is racing like crazy, she's scared, but she doesn't want him to know that.

"They told me two weeks, which was another thing I took into consideration. You have just over three weeks left at your old place, yes?"

She nods. This is it, if she just lets this happen, she and Brandon aren't going to be homeless. That's a relief. She's relieved. Yes. Keep thinking that way. "Thanks," she says, her voice coming out barely audible.

John smiles. "Don't mention it."

They really need to get to work on packing, so Tory is running out of time. In the end, telling Brandon about their new living situation turns out to be surprisingly underwhelming. She takes the opportunity a few days later when they're watching TV.

"Do you remember my old Sensei? We're moving in with him, okay? Is that okay?"

Brandon just nods and goes on watching TV.

Tory wasn't sure if she'd maybe wanted him to throw a tantrum, even though Brandon's never been that sort of kid. She supposes she was just looking for an excuse to get out of this, although what exactly she'd do instead, who knows?

She folds her arms and looks at the TV. It's a Bob's Burgers episode she's seen before. Someone's living in the Belcher's basement again. It's absolute chaos, but nobody dies. Brandon's okay with Sensei Kreese living with them. Maybe it's time to admit that it's her who has the problem. It just seems… weird. It's just been the three of them for so long now, their dad left before Brandon was even born.

Maybe that's her issue. Having a man in the house again. But Kreese isn't her dad, and she doesn't think he's trying to be. Sure, she pretended to be his granddaughter when she went to visit him in prison, but it wasn't like, serious. Besides he's nothing like her… no that's not true. There are certain things about him that remind her of her dad, always have been, his quick temper, how condescending he can be at times, the way he looms up on people when they do something he doesn't like. And well, he didn't belong in prison, not for that, but he's done some bad things to other people. But never to her, he's never touched her other than to gently correct her form, or to congratulate her on a good match. She doesn't think he'd ever lay a hand on her. Not Brandon either. She'd kick his ass. Would it be impolite to tell him that directly? Just so he knows?

Well, whatever. It's happening now, and they'll just have to make the best of it.

The next few weeks are spent acquiring free boxes from all her workplaces and packing all of their things into them. It's exhausting. It's relentless. It's unbelievable just how much stuff they have.

Tory has to wait to intercept John when he comes into the diner during one of her shifts. She still doesn't have his number. He called her once, to confirm something, but it was from a blocked number. God knows where he's living. He still kinda looks like shit.

It's busy tonight, so she has to make it quick. "I want you to come meet Brandon before we all move in together," she says, replacing the menus on his table with the ones with the new prices.

"Okay. I'll come back with you at the end of your shift. I see you're working with the lovely Everly tonight, so I'll be staying here for the duration."

"Do you call her that to her face?" Tory asks.

John raises his eyebrows. "Yes," he says with a smile. "I think she likes it."

Tory shakes her head. She can't say she's into old men being kinda creepy towards her, but whatever. "You can't come back with me at 4am. That's just… no. Tomorrow. I dunno, sometime after six? I'll be back from work and he'll be back from school."

"Then I'll see you at six."

As promised, Sensei Kreese turns up at exactly six p.m. He looks like he's actually put a comb through his hair, but otherwise his appearance is the same. He has his bag with him, which is kinda strange, does he have nowhere to leave it? Well, it's not like it's any of her business.

"Hey," Tory says as she opens the door. "Come in."

"Thank you," he says, stepping into the apartment.

"Um, he's…" Tory trails off, gesturing at her brother, who's sitting in front of the TV playing a video game. She's not sure why she feels so awkward about making the introduction.

John waves, but Brandon doesn't appear to notice.

"Brandon?" Tory calls, but her brother seems engrossed in his game.

Kreese drops his bag, then creeps over to the couch, looms up beside Brandon and growls like a monster.

Brandon doesn't even look up immediately. He pauses the game first. He looks unimpressed, refusing to wail in terror or even laugh.

"Tough crowd," John says. After a beat, he holds out a hand to Brandon. "I'm Sensei John Kreese."

Tory breathes a sigh of relief as her brother shakes his hand and tells him his name. She suddenly wonders if her Sensei even has his mail addressed to him like that. Well, she guesses she's going to find out.

John looks around. "It's a nice place you've got here, but I think you're gonna like the new place a whole lot more," he says.

Assuming he has now done all that's required of him, Brandon has gone back to playing his game.

"Yeah," Tory says without much enthusiasm.

"What's the matter, not having second thoughts are you?"

"No." She shakes her head. "No," she says more forcefully, in case he didn't believe her the first time. "It's just… packing everything up, it's a lot, you know. Your whole life going into boxes."

John nods. "Looks like you're doing a pretty good job so far."

"I'm trying. We've moved before, but I've never had to do it on my own. I mean, Brandon's been helping, but…"

"I get it."

He meets her eyes and she realises she doesn't need to explain. He lost his mom young too.

"It looks like you've got a lot of furniture, we'll probably need to hire a box van to take care of all of this," he says, turning around and tilting his head to look into different rooms. Tory nods, but she's distracted by him looking into her mom's old room. "Looks like you haven't gotten started on that one yet."

Tory feels that all too familiar pressure building up behind her eyes. "Don't-"

Kreese raises his eyebrows. "Your mom's room, right?" he says quietly, glancing at Brandon and dropping his voice to an almost inaudible level when he says mom's. Fortunately, Brandon is focused on his game.

Tory nods, feeling tears fill her eyes. "I can't!" she hisses, wanting to scream it but keeping her voice down for her brother's sake. "I've been trying but I just can't face going in there." She really hopes Kreese doesn't come over and try to hug her because then she really will lose it.

But his expression doesn't even change, he just nods several times. "I think what you need is some help."

She really doesn't have time to go see a shrink right now. "No, I-"

"I meant, from me. I can put things into boxes for you."

"Oh." Tears spill from Tory's eyes. "Yeah. That'd really h-help."

"Bring me some empty ones."

Tory wipes her eyes and glances at Brandon. She checks and he's actually playing his video game, not just pretending. Either he's not even listening to their conversation, or acting like he doesn't hear. Well, that's probably for the best.

She goes to find some empty boxes, and John looks at her for permission to step into her mother's old room. That small gesture alone makes more tears prick at her eyes. "Go on," she urges.

"Now do you want me to do this without you, or do you want me to show you things and you tell me where to put them?"

"Show me. There's some things we need to g-get rid of," she says, leaning on the doorframe. She raises her hand and rubs her forehead with her knuckles.

It takes hours. They fill six boxes, and there's also a pile of stuff to throw away, and another to donate, or take back to the hospital, or something. John doesn't say anything unless it's absolutely necessary, and that makes the ordeal slightly less difficult.

"I think that's everything," he says, getting up off his knees from emptying drawers.

She feels her shoulders start to shake. She's grateful for his help, but seeing her mom's room like this, empty, her things no longer where she liked them, it's hard to cope with.

He puts a hand on her shoulder. "I'm not gonna say it gets better, kid," he says, "'cause I ain't sure it does."

She fights to keep her lip from shaking. "Thanks," she says, "for this."

"No problem," he says quietly.

They retreat back into the living room. She takes out her phone to check the time, and it's late. It looks like Brandon has taken this opportunity to make a good amount of progress in his game.

"Brandon, you should be in bed by now."

"I know. I can't beat this boss anyway. Will you help me tomorrow?"

"Yeah," she says, ruffling his hair. "Go brush your teeth."

He nods and turns off the console.

"They should have noticed! Why didn't they catch the blood clot?" she says as soon as her brother has left the room.

John doesn't say anything at first. She's expecting him to come out with some excuse like everyone else does, but what he says is, "I wish I'd noticed."

She glances at him, but he's staring straight ahead. She looks away.

"It's... not that I didn't notice anything at all. I knew something was wrong. Everyone did. Didn't talk about things like that, not back in the sixties. Not out loud, anyway. There were whispers though. Always whispers." He lets out a sigh. "Wish I'd noticed things had gotten real bad before, y'know…"

John just trails off, and when it seems clear that he isn't going to say any more, Tory struggles for something to say. "Yeah," she says, her voice thick with emotion. It isn't enough, but what else can she say? She turns to him. "Do you think it was my fault? I kept asking for the doctors to reduce her meds. Maybe I shouldn't have."

He shakes his head. "Life is unfair. And too short for some."

"Yeah," Tory says. "It really is."

They stand there not looking at one another for a while longer, then Kreese says, "I should get out of your way."

"Wait-" she says as he goes and picks up his bag. She feels like she should ask where he's staying tonight. Offer him the couch. But how does she even do that without sounding like she's pitying him? He looks at her. "It's late. Wanna sleep on the couch? You can say no."

"I won't," he says, and gives her a little smile. "It's sweet of you to offer."

"Alright, I'll just go tell Brandon so you don't scare him for real, and I'll get you a blanket."

"Appreciate it."

She nods. The way he accepted immediately makes her think he didn't know where he was going to go tonight. Back to the diner again? Probably best not to think about it. At least he's not coughing as much now.

It feels strange to Tory, knowing that they're coming up to their last days in their old apartment. It isn't as if they've been there that long, but this place is different from the others, it's the last one where they'll have memories of their mom. Brandon seems completely focused on finishing his video game before the move as he's concerned they'll be busy and might not get the console set up right away, which, honestly, Tory can't blame him for. Those are fine priorities for a kid his age. She's glad he's not all sad and worried about the move.

And as for Kreese, she has no idea how he feels about all of this because she doesn't hear from him until he calls her to say he picked up the keys. As soon as she has a few hours free, she goes to take a look at the place with him. And all she can say is it's okay. She doesn't love it, but she doesn't hate it either. Everything seems to be in working order when she goes to check, and John tells her he's already checked too. It's about the same size as their old place, but it's hard to picture how it'll be exactly as it's so empty at the moment. It's not forever, she reminds herself. But for now it'll do as somewhere to live.