Chapter Text
Much later, Johnny, Daniel and Mr. Miyagi were sitting in the hospital waiting room… well, waiting… for the teens to be called back. Johnny had tried to talk Daniel (and eventually Mr. Miyagi) out of getting his wrist looked at, but once Mr. Miyagi had seen it in all its horrific colors, he'd practically bundled Johnny into the car, ordering Bobby, who was clearly not going anywhere, to not let Johnny out. Mr. Miyagi had then gone back for Daniel, who had been left in the care of the rest of the Cobras—and was surprisingly not as panicked as he thought he'd have been in their company—but Daniel politely refused any help from any of them, determined to walk on his own to the truck with any help. Unlike Johnny, he wasn't about to fight a general exam, having already seen from the second he’d stripped off his gi in the locker room that he was going to be one large bruise by tomorrow morning.
Once in the waiting room, Johnny and Daniel had drifted into adjacent hard plastic seats, the Cobras sitting both to Johnny's right and in the row behind them that was flipped so the backs of the chairs touched. Mr. Miyagi had placed himself one seat over, between the boys and the door, whether to defend them from any threats that might walk in or to keep Johnny from escaping, Daniel wasn't sure. Either way, the relief he felt at having Mr. Miyagi there was indescribable.
After checking in with the nurse, Daniel set out to call his mom, Dutch losing the game of rock, paper, scissors and reluctantly trailing behind him, thankfully stopping at the closest corner to the courtesy phone, far enough away to give Daniel just a tiny bit of privacy for the news he was about to drop. He told his mom a highly sanitized version of the past few days' events, leaving out most of the horrific details, and tried to tell her to stay there—away from whatever Kreese and Silver might want to do as revenge—tried to assure her that he was with Mr. Miyagi, and that he was fine, but through her tears, she kept insisting she'd be on the next bus back down to him. Which had him worried, until while telling Mr. Miyagi, his mentor had patted him on the shoulder and said “Will be safe.” As impossible as that promise sounded, Daniel had no reason to doubt Mr. Miyagi—never had.
The Cobras had waited with them for a while, filling Johnny and Daniel in on how Mr. Miyagi had called Bobby, telling him Johnny was in trouble and dispatching him and the rest of the Cobras to the arena to find him. Once that had happened, the four went into great detail about how they'd taken down Snake and Dennis: in their retelling, without breaking a sweat. Daniel couldn't find himself to be sorry about what had happened to those two. It was nothing compared to the terror they'd inflicted on him for the past few months.
Once it started getting dark, Mr. Miyagi had convinced the Cobras to all go home, to “not worry parents”, and refused to take no for an answer. The Cobras had done so, reluctantly, only after Mr. Miyagi had promised he’d call Bobby with any updates, with the understanding Bobby would yet again disseminate the information.
Now, as they watched people enter and exit the swinging door, still waiting for their turn, Johnny held an ice pack held to his wrist, which was loosely tied in place by the same karate belt that had been supporting his arm back in the arena and looking generally horrible. Daniel had an ice pack of his own pressed against his lower ribs, but it had melted long ago and was now dripping cold water down his side.
He was trying not to be obvious about it, but he couldn't help staring at Johnny's wrist and the bruises, some faded, some new, scattered over his arms. There was only one real explanation that made sense, and though it was too horrible to voice, Daniel was going to drive himself crazy if he didn't at least ask. Johnny could always shut him down, which would be an answer in itself.
“Barnes didn’t break your wrist, did he?” he finally asked softly, wanting more than anything to be wrong.
Johnny’s lips tightened and his head jerked down to stare intently at the cheap flooring. Daniel thought that was all the answer he was going to get, but after a long moment, Johnny shook his head so quickly, it was almost imperceptible.
“Was it… was it Sid?” Daniel asked, though he suspected he already knew: the way Barnes had reacted in the snow—surprised to see the damage, not gloating about having caused it—the crumbs Johnny had dropped about his home life, Silver’s comment about Barnes not being the one Johnny needed protection from, and most obviously, the bruises staring back at Daniel.
Johnny hunched in on himself, the sleeves of his shirt sliding down to his elbows, as he nodded.
“Johnny, that's abuse. You should report him.”
“Yeah?” Johnny looked up from the floor, only to stare at the far wall, still not making eye contact with Daniel. “Me against the renowned and beloved Sid Weinberg and his team of professional spin artists? I’ll give you one guess who the police are going to believe.”
This was so not the time and place for it, but Daniel’s jaw dropped. “Hold up. Your step-dad is the Sid Weinberg? The famous movie producer?”
Daniel had never seen someone’s face shut down so fast. He wished more than anything he could pull the words back.
“What of it?” Johnny asked, a warning tone undercutting his words.
“Nothing. Forget I mentioned it. He’s awful, though,” Daniel was fumbling, trying to salvage what he could of this conversation, “for doing that to you. You don’t deserve that.”
“Daniel-san right,” Mr. Miyagi chimed in.
Johnny looked sharply at the floor again and it took him a long minute to shrug slowly. “Doesn’t matter.”
“It does!” Daniel insisted. “What did your mom say when you told her?”
“...I didn’t.”
“Well, she’d have to have seen the... them right?”
Johnny nodded slowly. “She thinks they’re from karate.”
“You said you stopped doing karate last December.”
“I know.”
Daniel’s brain wasn’t putting the pieces together, but before he could ask another question, Johnny spoke up again.
“Technically, Sid didn’t do this to me—at least that’s what his spinners will say. He caught me drinking his stash after a bad day at work. I woke up to him hitting me in the face; he’ll omit that part. I fell off the chair, tried to catch myself and…” He made a cracking sound with his mouth. “I escaped with the bottle though, so point me. Made it to Cobra Kai. Barnes grabbed my wrist when he snuck up on me and that was that.”
“Johnny,” Daniel said softly, reaching out for his shoulder. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Johnny’s face turned stony and he shrugged out of Daniel’s hold, all the warmth and understanding of the past few days stripped from his expression. The only thing left was the icy hatred of their first encounters. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Johnny…”
“Daniel-san, leave boy alone.”
He glanced back at Mr. Miyagi, a whole conversation passing between them in just that one look. Then Daniel turned back to Johnny and nodded. “Sorry. It’s just… it isn’t right.”
“Yeah, well until I can afford a place of my own, it’s all I got.”
“Could stay with Miyagi.”
This time, both Daniel and Johnny whirled around to face Mr. Miyagi.
“What?” Sure, he and Johnny had covered a lot of ground over the past few days, and while Daniel hoped to anything it was permanent growth, he couldn't ignore the niggling sensation in the back of his brain that was telling him this was, like, trauma bonding or Stockholm syndrome—that their new normal wasn't going to apply back in the real world.
“With Daniel-san in guest house, Miyagi have extra room again.” He shrugged. “If want.”
Before Johnny could respond, Mr. Miyagi pulled a magazine off the side table and snapped it open. “No answer now. Think first. Call when have decision.”
Daniel risked a glance over his shoulder at Johnny, whose skin had lost a shade or two of color and his jaw had fallen slightly open.
“Uh, thanks,” he finally said. “I’ll... uh, keep that in mind.”
“Really?”
Johnny shrugged, finally meeting Daniel's eyes. “I can’t think about it right now, okay? It might actually fry out my brain.”
“Yeah, okay. Fair enough.”
They fell into silence then, the busy, ambient noises of the ER matching the speed at which Daniel's brain whirred with the possibilities of living on the same property now as Johnny—assuming his mom went back to her job in the Bay Area. If she stayed here, he would probably move back in with her... right? Or would he stay with Mr. Miyagi and try to make it on his own?
It was only sometime later, after two more people had been called back and Mr. Miyagi had acquired a round of burnt coffees for the three of them, that Johnny spoke up again. “You did good today. Against Barnes. You’d’ve had him earlier on if he had to fight fair.”
“Thanks… I think.”
“You did it to save me, which you shouldn’t have, but…” Johnny cleared his throat, swallowed hard. “Thanks for that too.”
Daniel nodded. “If it makes you feel better, it was for more than just you. It was for Mr. Miyagi, my mo—” he trailed off as Johnny’s face shut down again. “But in that moment, mostly you,” Daniel quickly backtracked. “I meant what I said in the woods: if I’d done something and you’d gotten hurt, I’m not sure I could have lived with myself.”
Johnny smiled thinly, the gesture not quite reaching his eyes. “Well then thanks.”
He tried then to resituate himself in the chair, wincing so quickly it was almost as if the expression hadn’t been there. Before, Daniel might not have noticed, but today, after Johnny's confession and the horrors they’d experienced over the past couple days, he was more clued in than usual to Johnny’s expressions.
“Mr. Miyagi, Johnny’s wrist is bothering him,” he sang, not for a split second feeling bad about tattling.
In full panic, Johnny shot upright in his seat. “No, it's fine. No worse than usual.”
“So it is bothering you.”
“I can handle it. It’s—wait, Mr. Miyagi! I'm okay!”
But Mr. Miyagi ignored him, already on his way to the front desk, calling back something about “Not have to. Wait too long already.” He smiled widely at the nurse, gesturing back at Daniel and Johnny, and both boys were headed into separate but adjoining examination rooms not long after.
Fortunately, all the damage Barnes had done to Daniel seemed to be minor. He was told to expect blood in his urine for the next few days, but the rest was all superficial—not even his ribs had cracked. They'd wrapped the minor abrasions around his wrists in gauze, plastic-wrapped some instant ice packs to the worst of his bruises, and sent him on his way.
When Daniel met Johnny back in the lobby, his wrist was in a white cast, a cut over his eyebrow held together with a steri-strip, but there were no other bandages that Daniel could see.
“I never did ask how you got that,” he said, gesturing at Johnny’s eyebrow while Mr. Miyagi brought his truck around.
“Headbutted Snake in the locker room. He’s gonna have a helluva black eye.”
Daniel grinned. Snake deserved much more than that. They all did: Kreese, Silver, Barnes. He didn't know what he was going to do about them—what he needed to do about them, so they didn't hurt anyone else as badly as they'd hurt him and Johnny. But the police hadn't believed him, meaning Daniel hadn't exactly gone into details this time around when the nurse had asked how he'd acquired his injuries. Maybe he should have; he didn't know. Hopefully, his mom would know what to do. Their family had connections. He just needed to make sure those connections didn't go full "Jersey Justice". As bad as Kreese and Silver were, it wasn't worth one of his family going to jail for them. In fact, it should be the other way around. Johnny's step-dad too.
His head began to hurt, pressure building behind his eyes. He couldn't think about this now. Maybe later with Mr. Miyagi, see if his mentor had any ideas. Definitely with his mom when she got here. But not right now.
“So, uh, Mr. Miyagi’s offer…” he said, more of a distraction than an actual conversation he was ready to have.
Almost thankfully, Johnny’s face shut down again, cold and impassive. “I’m not ready to talk about it.”
“I know. But unless you want to go back to your place, you could stay with him tonight? And then figure out what you want to do from there?”
Johnny considered this for a long moment. “Okay,” he finally said. “But I should probably call my mom when we get there. Let her know where I am.”
Not that he was okay.... interesting. And not in a good way. “Sure,” Daniel said quickly, aware he'd been quiet for too long. Admittedly, he didn’t understand why Johnny want to do such a thing, especially if his mother hadn't noticed what Sid was doing to him, but Daniel knew pressing that point was going to get him nowhere and make an already awful situation a million times worse, so he let it go. For now.
Johnny just smiled halfheartedly, and turned back to waiting for Mr. Miyagi to pull up.
When he finally did, they piled into the truck, Daniel in the middle straddling the console because there was no way Johnny was getting his long legs around there, before they headed off to the safest place Daniel had ever known.
Hopefully, if Johnny took Mr. Miyagi up on his offer and lived there full-time, it would become the safest place he’d know as well.