Work Text:
When you own a successful business that you built from the ground up, no task is beneath you. That’s why Daniel is currently cleaning out a black 2008 Grand Cherokee that just came into the trade-in lot. The SUV is in pretty good shape and SUVs are big sellers these days. Daniel’s pretty sure he can move this one with a little sweet talking.
And maybe he’ll have to do a little more than sweet talking because the inside smells like wet dog and stale beer and that’s going to take a little bit of work to fix. He’s vacuuming the backseats when he finds the empty bottle of Coors Banquet that had been knocked under the seat.
Daniel grimaces. He hasn’t seen Johnny since after the tournament. With Cobra Kai’s win, Johnny can no longer teach Eagle Fang according to the terms of the deal. Miyagi-Do only stayed open because Daniel found a loophole. He isn’t allowed to teach, but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t take over. And who better than someone who also trained in Miyagi-Do techniques all their life? If anything, Chozen has far more claim to the heritage than Daniel.
Johnny took Robby with him when he went to find Miguel after the tournament. All three returned a few days ago, looking exhausted by whatever truths they had discovered on their journey. In the meanwhile, most of Johnny’s students returned to Miyagi-Do, not wanting to give up karate completely. Daniel wonders if Miguel and Robby will return to Miyagi-Do too. Maybe under Chozen’s guidance they can continue to flourish without getting caught in past feuds and rivalries.
As he’s considering this he rubs his thumb over the smooth surface of the glass bottle he’s holding, then picks a little at the label.
“Hey, hey, hey!” shouts a tinny, angry sounding little voice. Daniel startles out of his reverie and looks around. He’s alone in the side lot. There’s no one around to be shouting at him.
“Down here, bub!”
When Daniel looks down he has to blink a few times to make sure he’s not seeing things. There seems to be a tiny man floating just above the open top of the Coors bottle. He has no legs, just a wispy trail of smoke leading from his torso down into the bottle. His arms are crossed as he regards Daniel with a scowl.
“Stop tearing at my label,” the little man admonishes. “I oughta report you for vandalism.”
“What the...?” Daniel’s jaw flaps up and down for a few moments until he comes up with a question. “Who...? What are you?”
The little man uncrosses his arms and raises them with a flourish. “I’m the genie in the bottle, of course! At your service.”
“In a Coors bottle?”
The genie’s theatrical demeanor disappears as he puts his hands on his hips and scowls again. “Have you seen the housing market lately? I was lucky not to end up in an aluminum can. It’s not like I get paid for this job.”
Daniel finds it necessary to stare for a few moments longer. The little man is somewhat nondescript with dark skin and dark hair. His features are unremarkable, easily forgotten except for his strange golden eyes. He’s wearing a tiny hoodie with the sleeves pushed up to reveal the collection of gold bracelets stacked on his wrists.
“Okay, so wait,” Daniel says slowly, “You’re a genie.”
The genie rolls his eyes and nods.
“And you live in a Coors bottle?”
“Yep.”
“And you have to give me wishes now, right?”
“Yeah, bub, that’s kind of the job.”
“Do I have to wish for your freedom when I’m done?”
“My freedom? Nah. You’ve been watching too many Disney movies. You’ve got kids, right? I can always tell,” the genie waves his hand dismissively. “I’m not enslaved. I’m under contract. I’m even up for promotion soon. Might get a wine bottle next time. Maybe a nice chardonnay.”
“This isn’t actually happening, is it? You’re just some delusion,” Daniel runs his hand over his face. He’s been under so much stress lately. He’s finally cracked.
“Hey! I find that very offensive. Here I am all ready to make your dreams come true and you’re calling me names.”
“And it’s just my luck that I get the belligerent delusion,” Daniel tilts his head back to stare forlornly at the universe.
“Look, bub, you don’t want to believe me? That’s fine. That’s your problem. But you still get a wish. You wanna take it now or what?”
“Okay, okay. Yeah. I’ll take it now,” Daniel sighs. “How’s this work? Can I wish for anything? Are there rules?”
“Meh. Rules,” the genie shrugs dismissively. “Let me worry about that. What’s the thing you want most, right now this very minute?”
“I want Cobra Kai to be gone. Or better yet, to have never existed.”
“Hmmm, okay.” The genie taps his finger to his lips. “So I can’t actually change the structure of the universe. Genies are awesome and all, but we can’t alter history. That gets you into divergent universes and the fourth dimension and a whole mess of theoretical physics that will take too long to explain. Why don’t you wish for a Ferrari or something like most people do.”
Daniel rolls his eyes and gestures around at the trade-in lot. Does it look like he needs or wants another car? He’s a successful businessman who doesn’t need more material wealth. What he’s lacking is emotional balance. What he really wishes is that he could fix the fallout after the All Valley Tournament. He wishes he knew how to work things out with Johnny and bring the dojos back together. He sighs and shakes his head. Not even a genie can help him with this.
“I just I wish I could make things right after the tournament. I wish I knew how.”
“Yeah, that sounds more like a job for a therapist. I’m a genie, I don’t hand out life advice. So if you want–“ the genie stops mid-sentence. His eyes light up and a slow grin stretches across his face. “Oh! Oh, wait. This might work. Yeah!”
His voice rises as he gets excited and he raises a tiny fist in the air in triumph. “This’ll be great!” the genie crows. “Maybe even enough for that promotion. Okay, bub, looks like you’re getting your wish after all.”
And with that the little genie disappears back into his bottle. Daniel stares for a moment, not sure what’s happening now. Is he getting his wish or not?
In the time it would take him to blink, Daniel finds himself in a new parking lot. It’s nighttime now. He’s facing a road and on the other side he can see what looks like a cheap motel. There’s a red light blinking behind him, lighting up the pavement in an eery glow. Daniel turns. He’s standing in front of a diner with a large sign on top that reads “Phil’s Phantastic 24-Hour Diner.” The red light comes from the perpetually blinking neon letters below which spell out “Open.”
“What?” Daniel mutters to himself as he squints at his surroundings. What is he doing here? Where is he? This has nothing to do with the tournament. What kind of shitty wish fulfilling is this?
He hears a car coming down the road and glances over. The headlights blind him for a moment and he can’t see the make or model behind them. The car comes fast and swerves into the wrong lane. There’s another car coming from the opposite direction. Daniel’s heart leaps to his throat as the two vehicles narrowly miss a collision. The second driver blares his horn and his curses fade away as he drives off. The first driver takes a sharp turn into Phil’s Phantastic lot and slams on the brakes into the nearest parking space.
The car is red. The top is down and inside there is a young man in the driver’s seat. He’s not even a man, really. More of a boy. His bright blonde hair flops into his face as he ducks his head and punches the steering wheel.
Daniel’s life can’t get any weirder now. This is what you get for trusting a little shitty genie who pops out of a Coors Banquet. Daniel’s definitely been transported to the aftermath of a tournament. But this is not the tournament he was talking about.
The boy in the car punches the steering wheel again and then again. He thrashes in his seat as if he’s unable to contain all the emotions within him. He’s hitting the steering wheel, he’s hitting the seats. He doesn’t cry out, but he’s biting back sobs that come out only as low whimpers. Anyone else might think the kid’s having a massive tantrum, but Daniel knows what caused this. It’s as hard to watch as it was to watch a peer almost get choked to death in a parking lot. Eventually the boy stills and buries his face in his hands.
Daniel approaches carefully. He can’t leave this kid like this.
“Hey,” he says gently when he’s only a few feet away. The kid looks up at him, a startled motion. In the cheap beam of the streetlights his eyes glitter with unshed tears. Daniel takes a step closer and puts his hand out. “Hey, are you okay?”
The kid’s face scrunches up and he shakes his head. His voice is hoarse when he replies with an angry, “Leave me alone!”
The car is still running, and he grabs the gear shift as if to reverse and peel out of the parking lot.
“No! Wait! Hey!” Daniel says. He’s messed this up with Robby and he’s messed this up with Hawk. For this kid he has to get it right. “Johnny, wait!”
Johnny stops at the sound of his name. His hand leaves the gear shift. He looks back over at Daniel, eyes wide and questioning. He looks more closely at Daniel now, obviously trying to place him.
“It is Johnny, right?” Daniel keeps his voice low and soft. “Johnny Lawrence?”
“Yeah,” Johnny replies warily. “How...?”
“I saw you in the tournament earlier,” It pains Daniel to say this, but he does anyway. “You fought really well. Up until the last match.”
The mention of the final fight makes Johnny’s face scrunch back up. He tries to stay stoic, but another breakdown seems imminent.
“Hey, hey, now,” Daniel wishes they weren’t separated by the cold metal of a car door. This kid definitely needs a shoulder to cry on. He leans against the side of the car and reaches in. When he sets his hand on Johnny’s shoulder, the boy twists towards him as if involuntarily seeking the comfort. “You did great. Second place is quite an accomplishment.”
“Second place is...” Johnny chokes off the rest of the sentence.
“Really impressive,” Daniel finishes for him.
Johnny shakes his head and takes a few shuddering breaths. His voice comes out small and strained. “Second place is for losers. I’m not good enough.”
“Who told you that?” Daniel asks. Oh, right. He knows who said that, but he’s pretty sure Johnny’s not going to tell him. It doesn’t matter because Daniel has something different to say. “Don’t listen to them. You’re a two-time champ, even if people forget that sometimes.”
Johnny shakes his head again as if denying all of Daniel’s encouragement. He wraps his arms around himself and turns his head down as he tries to get himself under control. He needs to calm down before he tries to drive off again or he’s going to end up getting himself or someone else killed.
“Look, you’re going to be okay,” Daniel tells him. He sighs. “I know it’s been a rough night, and in thirty-five years it’s....well, it’s still going to be rough. But there are people who can help you through it. Like me. Right now.”
Johnny looks up at him with shiny blue eyes and a red, splotchy face. He looks too young and sad to be Daniel’s high school bully.
“Come on,” Daniel nods toward the diner. “Let’s see what Phil’s has to offer. My treat.”
It takes Johnny a few breaths to decide, but then he nods and gets out of the car. He wipes his eyes as Daniel leads him to the entrance. It’s past dinnertime and the diner isn’t crowded. The waitress leads them to a booth toward the back where they can sit quietly.
“You hungry?” Daniel asks. “Do you want dinner?”
Johnny shakes his head. He glances at the menu that the waitress set in front of him and gives Daniel a little shrug. “Can I have a milkshake?”
“Sure. What flavor?”
“Vanilla.”
Daniel smiles, unsurprised at the request. It seems that Johnny has always liked the plainest foods possible. When the waitress comes back around he gets a chocolate milkshake for himself and an order of french fries to share.
The silence is awkward as they wait for their food to arrive. Daniel would love to try throwing some Miyagi wisdom at Johnny and see if it will stick during this young and impressionable stage in his life. But Johnny doesn’t need wisdom right now and wouldn’t want it if it was given. Instead Daniel tries out a number of topics until he hits the jackpot with movies and music. All he has to do is ask if Johnny is a Rocky fan and Johnny immediately launches into a critical commentary on the merits of the first three movies.
By the time they’ve eaten all the fries and have reached the bottom of their milkshakes, the redness around Johnny’s eyes has receded. With a toss of his head he flicks the hair out of his eyes in a gesture that Daniel almost finds nostalgic. He still carries a sense of defeat in the hunch of his shoulders, but the sadness in his expression now looks more tired than devastated. Daniel walks with him back to the Avanti.
“Uh, thanks,” Johnny says and ducks his head in a shy gesture. “For the food and... um... stuff.”
“No problem,” Daniel tells him sincerely. He catches Johnny’s arm before the teen can turn away. “Listen, you did good out there. And it’s not your fault for trusting your Sensei. It’s on him for not taking better care of you.”
Johnny’s expression falls, but before he can get lost in thoughts of what happened that night Daniel pulls him into a firm hug. Johnny stays still for a moment and then wraps his long arms around Daniel’s shoulders. Daniel feels Johnny’s chin digging into his shoulder as the boy melts into the embrace.
“You’re going to be fine,” Daniel tells him. “Even when things are hard. You’ll get there in the end.”
He holds on until he feels Johnny getting restless. When he lets go Johnny has to wipe his eyes again, but he gives Daniel a watery smile.
“Thank you,” he says. He gets into the car and drives off into the darkness.
Daniel opens his eyes and finds himself in the backseat of a car. His neck is stiff from where he’s been leaning it back against the uncomfortable headrest. It takes him a moment to figure out where he is. The sky is dark and he’s in a parking lot, but it’s not Phil’s Phantastic 24-Hour Diner. He’s in the trade-in lot of LaRusso Auto and he’s sitting in a 2008 Grand Cherokee that smells like wet dog and stale beer.
He has to blink a few times as he sits up and sees a tiny figure standing on the driver’s seat and gripping the bottom of the steering wheel as best it can. Fully out of his bottle, the genie now has legs and feet. He’s wearing a pair of miniature Chuck Taylors. The mundanity of the footwear gives Daniel a bizarre sense of comfort.
“Vrrrrmmmmm,” the genie makes driving noises and tries to turn the wheel, but mostly just tilts his little body side to side as he pretends to go around sharp turns. “Vvrmmm, vrrmmmm, rhhhrrrrrrrrrkk.”
He makes a braking sound, stamps his tiny foot down on the seat and then turns to Daniel.
“So how was that?” the genie asks.
For a moment Daniel doesn’t know whether he’s talking about his fake driving performance or the granted wish. Right now Daniel’s not sure what to make of either of them.
“That was the wrong tournament,” Daniel says.
“You never said which one,” the genie shrugs.
“Yeah, but you didn’t actually grant my wish. I get two more, right?”
“Uh, sorry. I’m a one wish genie. Maybe I should have led with that.”
“Wait, so I’m done? That was my wish and that’s what I got? It wasn’t even the right tournament!”
“But you worked it out, didn’t you? You knew what to do to make some kid stop crying and feel better.”
Daniel purses his lips. It does feel like he’d just fixed something. And maybe it also feels like he hadn’t just fixed something for someone else, but for himself too. Damn. Little shitty genie is right. Daniel just doesn’t want to admit it, especially to a delusion.
“Did that really happen or was I just dreaming it?” he flops back against the seat and rubs at his eyes. “You said you couldn’t change the past.”
“Yeah, it happened,” the genie tosses his head with a huff. “I said I couldn’t create alternate universes. This was just stretching the fabric of time a little. You can ask your friend about it. Maybe he remembers the weirdo who bought him a milkshake and gave him a hug.”
“Maybe I will ask him.” It doesn’t come out sounding like as much of a challenge as Daniel meant it to. He’s tired. It’s been a weird day.
Apparently the genie’s tired too. He stretches his arms above his head, golden bangles jingling at his wrists, and yawns theatrically. He climbs across the center console and hops onto the back seats where his bottle rests beside Daniel’s hand.
“Man, these wishes really take it out of me. It’s been fun, but I’ve gotta get my beauty sleep now. Just leave my bottle somewhere for someone else to find, would you? Okay, great. Thanks.”
The genie enters the bottle headfirst, seeming to shrink into the narrow opening. He disappears inside until all that is left is a puff of smoke. Daniel picks up the bottle and regards it thoughtfully.
He kind of wants to go check on Johnny. They need to talk about the tournament and Cobra Kai and Terry Silver. Even if they can’t teach anymore, that doesn’t mean they can’t still work together or put aside their differences. As their families get closer they’ll have to learn to get along. Maybe they can learn to have each other’s backs. Daniel promised that things will turn out alright in the end and he intends to keep that promise.
He drives over to Reseda Flats and parks. There is one small light on in Johnny’s kitchen, so he knocks on the door. The hideous van is in the parking space so he knows that Johnny’s home. Still, there’s no answer. Daniel turns and looks across the courtyard. The light in the Diaz’s apartment is on. There are figures moving behind the curtains.
Daniel nods to himself. Johnny’s got his people with him so he’ll be alright tonight. Daniel can come back tomorrow and maybe then they can talk about what to do moving forward. For now he bends down and put the Coors bottle on the doorstep where Johnny can find it.