Chapter Text
The street lights flicker as Miguel and Johnny embrace in the summer night's warmth. The teen has his face buried in his Sensei’s shoulder as he tries and fails to hold back tears. Whole minutes pass before Miguel steps back out of the hug and he finally glances up once again. The person who enters his peripheral vision makes his vision go red as he clears his throat.
Glaring into Robby Keene’s eyes from over the man's shoulder he directs some choice words to Lawrence with a turn of his head “You're a fucking dick, you know that”
…
Silence fills the vehicle as the trio makes their way North to the border. Middle-aged blonde at the helm, otherwise known as the driver's seat, as the two teens in the back, shove themselves closer to their respective doors to avoid any possibility of touching.
“When we drove up here I was upfront” Robby gripes to his father “Not saying I should be now, but why exactly are we both back here”.
Keene juts his thumb to the side to point toward his seatmate and adds “ I would have thought you would let your golden child be next to you at least”.
Miguel laughs humorlessly “ Yeah right like he actually would want me up there”
Robby turns with a glare “You know just as well as I do he only actually wants one of us, and it's definitely not me”
Johnny attempts to interject “ Wait wha-” but his mouth slams shut as Miguel kicks the back of his seat.
Miguel turns his upper body towards Robby and loudly begins “You were right you know”.
The other teens looks at him like he's lost his mind “What are your talking about”
Miguel turns to stare at Johnny wide-eyed in the rearview mirror “Did you know,” he says with faux inquisitiveness, “that every time me and your kid fight we talk shit?”
“Real riveting stuff you know, a ‘she loves me not you’ here, a jab there, but the most interesting one to date would have to be on prom” Miguel continues.
Johnny finally interjects “Prom? But I thought you had a nice time?” he asks.
Speaking even more loudly Miguel begins to talk over his Sensei “On prom night my lovely girlfriend told Keene that he broke her heart, “ Johnny winces and Robby furrows his brow “but that part is pretty whatever.”
“What really gets me is what Rob over here said to me after.”
Don’t call me that” Robby states.
“Robert over here says to me, get this, ‘my dad doesn't actually care about you, he’s only using you because he regrets messing up with me’ or something along those lines,” Miguel directs this to Robby who grunts in affirmative, seemingly wondering where this is going.
Turning back to Lawrence he continues “So I do what any teen with a super cool Sensei would do and I go to you for advice.”
Johnny stares into the distance as he tries to remember what he was doing on the night of his student's prom “I don’t remember you coming over” he mutters to himself.
A car is only so big and Miguel hears this statement “That's because when I let myself in you were blackout drunk on the floor” He says with a makeshift pout.
“So what's a guy to do when his teacher is on the floor?” Miguel asks rhetorically “ Well I helped you to the bed, of course, tucked you in and everything.”
Robby remains silent as his father begins to pale.
“So there I am, putting a grown adult to bed and I say ‘ I’ll see you tomorrow Sensei’ and I try to take my leave”
“Where is this headed Diaz” Johnny asks nervously.
“Shut it” Miguel interjects causing Robby to let out a surprised laugh.
Miguel turns to the other teen once again and smiles in a hollow way as he speaks again, his tone verging on hysterical “Oh if you liked that you're going to love this.”
“Sensei over there goes on this whole tirade, and luckily for us I know it by heart” Miguel shouts with a flail of his arms, “‘I want to be a father to you’ he says, ‘I really do, I try to protect you. I try to be there for you. I just suck at it. I really suck at it.”
Robby interrupts with a yell and turns towards his father “You suck at being there for him ? What in the fuck!? Why does he get the absent parent speech”
Miguel sighs and says “Oh don't worry it gets better.
“He says ‘But I want to so bad.’ and I say, in my infinite naivety ‘You doing just fine”
The Latino teen turns to face his teacher once more “‘ I love you ’ I say”, facing Robby once more he glares directly into the other boy's eyes, “Do you know what he says back to me”
Robby reaches out to shove Miguel farther towards the other side of the car “I don't need to fucking hear it! Shut up!”
Miguel shoves him back, over and over, to the point where he is just pushing on the other teen hysterically, and his voice breaks as he shrieks “He says ‘I love you too, Robby”
Robby's eyes widen as he stares at Diaz frozen. Miguel overcome with emotion continues in his feverishness “Thats why I didn't want to fight hawk! Thats why I didn't come back after the medic gave the okay! Thats why I left to find my own fucking Dad!”, He punctuates each of these statements with a kick to the back of Johnny’s seat. “Your son is fucking monster half the time but you still wanted him! Loved him! After everything we’ve been through I was just a placeholder! So I left! Because blood must be one hell of a thing if that's the shit I had to deal with.”
Miguel stops his frantic movements but his turn spill even more forcefully. Johnny pulls the car over as he feels himself overcome with nauseous “Oh god Miguel, I didn't- ” he attempts to soothe.
Miguel hunches over in his seat, arms trapped between his chest and his thighs as he wails into his knees “ I’m the one who got you to bring back cobra kai. I'm the one who brought you all those students. I’m the one who won the All Valley. I'm the one you told about your son and all your fuck ups and all your regrets. You said ‘you would always be on my side’ But you never saw me , did you! All that stuff you said, all that stuff I loved to hear, you were just picturing him every time weren't you!”
Robby gapes at his father and the other as tears stream silently down his face and the delirium induced by the situation causes him to force out a sentence “I guess he was a shit Dad for both of us then.”
Diaz sobs out a half cough half laugh before he lifts himself up to look at Johnny again “I’m pretty sure I hate you, and I think that I might never forgive you. I love you like a Dad, but you only ever had one kid.”
Johnny’s mouth moves like he wants to speak but he has no idea what to say. He attempts to begin but the boys are helpless to watch as he instead shoves the door open and bolts out of the car. They both listen in awe as the older man vomits into the desert sand.
Miguel turns to Robby, “Don’t tell me he’s been drinking.”
Robby stares back in confusion “Uh, no actually,” he looks toward their shared disappointment “I think he’s, upset?”