Work Text:
From the moment Kyler walked into the room, Miguel’s mind was already drifting. Brief memories of his past fights with the other boy floated around Miguel’s memory, too far away for him to focus on any of them, but too close for him to ignore them.
“It’s payback time, Rhea.”
Just like that, the snippets of past events were gone, blown away by the emotions welling up inside of Miguel at the sound of the asshole’s voice. Mostly anger, for all the times he couldn’t defend himself against them, but there was also some fear there as well. That was new. Since when was Miguel afraid of Kyler again? He hadn’t seen the bully much since he kicked Kyler’s ass in the cafeteria that day, but the few times he had seen the other boy, he definitely hadn’t been afraid of him anymore. So why was now any different? Why did the fact that Kyler had joined Cobra Kai surprise him, let alone scare him?
Miguel tried to shake the thoughts out of his head. If Cobra Kai wanted to randomly start a fight with them, they could handle themselves. They’d done it before.
...Even if last time Miguel was on Cobra kai’s side, and ended up in the hospital afterwards.
Miguel quickly leaned down and helped Bert up, the poor kid’s face covered in blood. He knew Bert wasn’t that much younger than him, and he could take a beating, but
nobody deserved to be thrown through a window like that.
Well, except for maybe Kyler or Robby.
“Let’s go,” said Kyler, as he, Hawk, and the rest of the Cobra Kai pupils- No wait, that wasn’t right, they didn’t deserve to call themselves Cobra Kai pupils. Not after turning their backs on Sensei Lawrence like that, not after choosing Kreese over them. Whatever Kreese was teaching them, it was not Cobra Kai Karate- stalked forward, and without thinking, the students of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang Karate backed up,
mentally preparing themselves to fight their former friends.
They didn’t get far. The door behind them slammed open, and Miguel (along with everyone else) whirled around to see none other than Tory, with two other Cobra Kai thugs standing there, trapping them in between the groups.
This wasn’t a spur of the moment fight, like Miguel had first thought. This was a thoroughly planned out ambush.
“Heard you were throwing a party,” Tory said as she stalked around the couch, reminding Miguel of a deadly predator. “Hope you don’t mind if we crash.”
Miguel felt Sam tense up beside him. “Tory, you don’t have to do this.” He said quickly, hoping that some part of the girl he had liked before the coma the fight at the school had happened was still left. The girl who kicked his ass at karate playfully, but never wanted to hurt anyone. At least, Miguel hadn’t thought she wanted to hurt anyone.
...Maybe Miguel had just been so hurt and angry, he was blind to what Tory was capable of.
Tory’s eyes narrowed. “It’s too late. This ends tonight. ” She spat, taking a step forward. “ NO MERCY!! ”
And with that, all hell broke loose.
Miguel got into the battle stance Sensei Lawrence had taught him so long ago without even thinking about it, Sam mirroring him. Tory went straight for Sam, but Chris jumped in the way at the last second, and she gave him a punch to the stomach before pushing him to the side. After that, Miguel lost sight of her as one of the goons she had walked in with took a swing at him. Miguel easily dodged, grabbing the guy’s arm and using his weight against him to swing him away.
Someone else aimed for Miguel’s face, and he barely had enough time to register that this was not a teammate and he needed to duck , before sweeping the guy’s legs. Panting a little Miguel stood up, and quickly noted that the first guy was starting to get back up. He pushed him into the couch and retreated to a corner of the living room where he could see better.
There were just too many people. Looking around, it was hard to tell who was who, and for a brief moment Miguel worried about the possibility of accidentally attacking one of his own teammates. Those fears quickly vanished as he locked eyes with his target.
Kyler.
Kyler smirked and quickly walked across the room. (Well, none of the current Cobra Kai students really walked anymore, they all strided as if stalking their prey.) Miguel weakly kicked his face, barely phasing him. Kyler punched him in the gut, and then the face, knocking Miguel over.
“You call that a kick?? C’mon!” Kyler yelled as Miguel picked himself up off of the ground. He spun around, into a roundhouse kick, hitting Kyler with all of his strength.
It wasn’t enough.
Kyler grabbed his leg and swung him off balance, throwing Miguel towards the couch.
“I’m sorry,”
Miguel let Robby’s arm drop to the floor. He didn’t mean for this to happen. He hadn’t wanted it to go this way. He wasn’t expecting Tory to start an all-out war like that, and somewhere along the way trying to break up Tory and Sam’s fight had turned into pinning Robby face down to the floor. Miguel let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding in, and started to stand up.
A sudden elbow to the face, followed by a kick to the back as Robby flipped over and righted himself knocked Miguel down to his knees.
As Miguel struggled to get to his feet, all he could do was watch with wide eyes as a final kick to his chest made him lose balance.
And then he was falling.
In reality, Miguel knew he couldn’t have fallen for any longer than a couple seconds. However, in his panic, as his arms flailed for something to grab onto, the world seemed to slow down.
Time stood still.
The falling seemed to last forever.
All of the other fights stopped.
Everyone else was frozen, faces all a mix of shock and horror, eyes pinned on Miguel.
Nobody moved a muscle.
Miguel continued to fall.
Time resumed.
Just like that, it was over, and the world turned black.
For a brief second, as Miguel’s back collided with the table behind the couch, he was right back on those stairs, the sick crunching sound of his ribs and spine colliding with the railing and then the stairs in his ears, paired with the darkness of his coma swallowing him up.
Miguel couldn’t breathe.
He couldn’t move.
For weeks he had been stuck in a wheelchair, trying to remember his fall. The only memories Miguel had were of trying to separate Sam and Tory, and then fighting Robby, showing Robby mercy , and then nothing. Everything else was either a blur, or darkness. He couldn’t remember being pushed, or falling. He wouldn’t have even known that it was all Robby’s fault if Hawk hadn’t explained what had happened to him.
When Miguel thought he wouldn’t be able to walk again, he wanted to remember the fight. He needed to. He needed to remember every last moment that led up to his coma, every last step he had taken, because if he wasn’t going to be able to walk again, the least life could do would be to let him remember his last steps.
Now that he remembered, however, he wished he could take it all back.
Miguel was stuck, frozen, everything hurt, he couldn’t move, his vision was going dark, he was going to fall for so long , and then hit the ground so hard, and he was going to be stuck in that stupid hospital and that stupid wheelchair all over again , he wouldn’t be able to walk, he wouldn’t be able to live, he wouldn’t be able to breathe-
Hands roughly grabbing his shoulders snapped Miguel out of it.
“Awww, are you gonna cry, Rhea?” Kyler laughed, dragging Miguel to his feet just to throw him on the ground. Before Miguel could get up, Kyler’s hands were on him again, dragging him up and slamming him into the wall. “Guess you could learn to walk again, but that useless Sensei of yours was too busy trying to be your daddy to teach you how to fight again.”
Miguel tried to dodge or fight back. Really, he did. But Kyler was punching him again, barely giving him time in between hits to register the pain, let alone to get his bearings together enough to hit back. Finally, as Kyler moved to get out of Tory’s way (was Sam running from her?) and dragged Miguel with him, Miguel managed to throw him off balance long enough to pull away. Kyler staggered to the side, and Miguel used the moment to land an uppercut punch to his jaw.
It was upsetting that his legs weren’t strong enough to land any hits, since Miguel was used to relying on his legs just as often and as naturally as he was his arms, but he knew that trying to fight Kyler with his legs would only lose him the fight.
So his arms it would be.
Kyler’s hand flew up to his mouth, checking for blood. He started to laugh when his hand came away clean. “Looks like your arms are just as weak as your legs. You’ll have to try a little harder than-”
Miguel cut him off with a punch to his chest. Kyler stumbled backwards, and then swung around with a kick aimed for Miguel’s side. Miguel moved to the side and grabbed Kyler’s leg, swinging him around and slamming him into the wall behind them with the same move Kyler had pulled on him earlier.
Miguel didn’t waste any time rejoicing, instead trying to punch Kyler in the face again. Kyler, however, wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice, and moved to the side at the last second, causing Miguel to punch a hole straight to the wall.
Kyler moved backwards into the kitchen. “C’mon, Rhea!” He baited, motioning with his hands for Miguel to follow. The other boy did, after sending a silent apology to Sam and the rest of the Larusso family in his mind, for destroying their house. “We’re not done yet, c’mon!” Miguel glared at Kyler as he followed. This asshole really didn’t ever shut his mouth, did he?
Miguel cried out, letting out a battle cry of sorts, and swung at Kyler. Blocking is a lot easier when you know your opponent won’t use his legs, however, and Kyler reflected every hit, even landing a few hits back on Miguel. After Kyler managed to block yet again , Miguel let his anger get the best of him, and kicked at Kyler without even thinking. The other boy easily dodged, and his reflection of the kick knocked Miguel back a little. The next time Miguel tried to punch him, Kyler flipped him over and slammed him into the ground.
Miguel barely registered the fact that Kyler and Hawk were high-fiving above him, before Kyler picked him off of the ground by the collar of his shirt and threw him into the wall. If Miguel didn’t have a concussion before, he probably did now. He cried out in pain, and tried to reflect the hits from the other boy, but his body was getting tired, still not used to all of this physical activity after being stuck in a wheelchair for so long, and his movements were becoming sluggish. Kyler slammed him into the wall once more, and started hitting him from behind.
“Oh shit!” Was all Miguel managed to cry out as he was slammed into a locker. He had managed to kick Kyler in the chest, but that was it. What was wrong with him?? He trained a little bit and suddenly thought he could take on four other boys?
They pulled him away from the locker and threw him onto the ground.
“Grab him up!” Kyler yelled from behind Miguel, as the other guys grabbed him by the ankles and started dragging him backwards.
“No! No no no!”
Miguel’s pleads were ignored as they pulled him further into the locker room. “Grab him! Kill him!” Kyler ordered.
Miguel managed to grab a hold of the corner and stop their attack, temporarily. “No! Let me go!” He begged, no longer caring about his pride. They would kill him, he knew they would. “Nooo!!”
They pulled him the rest of the way into the back of the locker room. Kyler grabbed a lacrosse stick and closed the chain-link door to the locker room, effectively trapping Miguel inside with them. The rest of the boys pulled Miguel to his feet and held him up, one holding each of his arms so he couldn’t pull away.
“You’re a dead man.” Kyler called as he walked over, a big smirk on his face, and pulled his arm back. He swung with his whole body, whacking Miguel in the gut with the lacrosse stick as hard as he could, before pulling back to do it again, and again. The boys yelled out cheers with every whack, drowning out the sound of Miguel’s pain.
After a couple hits, Miguel couldn’t hold himself up anymore. His legs gave out from under him, but the boys continued to hold him up long enough for Kyler to get one last hit in. Finally, they gave Miguel the relief of dropping to the ground. He lay there, trying not to cry, or throw up, or pass out.
Kyler walked over. “I’m not finished with you yet, Rhea!” He kicked Miguel in the face, and then nodded to encourage his friends to follow suit. Miguel was surrounded by all four boys, being kicked from every side. He curled in on himself, but it didn’t do much.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they got bored. Kyler lifted Miguel up by his skeleton hoodie, enough to hiss into his ear, “You better not forget who you’re messing with, Rhea. You brought this on yourself.”
With that, he let Miguel drop to the ground and walked away.
Miguel was shaking uncontrollably, but he tried to ignore his pain and focus on breathing. It felt like he couldn’t breathe, but if he didn’t breathe, he might pass out, and that could lead to even worse things.
In.
And out.
Miguel closed his eyes.
In.
And out.
He started to curl up again, but that caused more pain that it was worth, so he stopped.
In.
And out.
There were footsteps approaching.They were coming back. Maybe they decided they weren’t bored of him yet after all. Maybe they decided to kill him.
In.
And out.
“...Kid?”
Miguel opened his eyes to see Johnny standing over him, with his arm reached out, like he wanted to touch Miguel but was afraid he would break him. There was an emotion in the man’s eyes that Miguel knew he should’ve recognized, but he was in too much pain to try and put a name to it.
“...S-sen…sei…”
Johnny dropped to his knees next to his pupil. “Shhh, kid, don’t… Don’t say anything. Shit. Shit! ” Miguel flinched slightly. Johnny noticed, and lowered his voice significantly. “Shit, man, I’m sorry. Y… You’re gonna be okay, alright? You’re okay. Fuck.” He tried to help Miguel up, but after moving too fast, Miguel cried out in pain and dropped back to the ground.
“Shit, uh… Here… Come here…” Johnny gently looped one arm around Miguel’s waist, and used the other to hold under the kid’s knees. “Here, just… Yeah…” Slowly, but surely, he stood up. For a moment Miguel wondered how Johnny was strong enough to carry him, until he remembered that this was his sensei. Duh. “You think you can walk?” Johnny asked. Miguel nodded in response. If he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t sure whether or not he could walk. He thought (hoped) that once he was standing, he would be able to walk just fine. He didn’t want to burden Sensei anymore than he already did by losing a fight, being a pussy, and getting his ass handed to him.
Johnny slowly lowered Miguel’s feet to the ground, until the kid was standing with one arm wrapped around Johnny’s shoulders, so that the man could support his weight. It was painful for Miguel, but he wasn’t gonna tell his Sensei that. They took it one step at a time.
It wasn’t until later that night, when Miguel was trying to fall asleep, that he finally realized what that emotion in his Sensei’s eyes was.
Guilt.
And yet, despite that guilt that Miguel couldn’t make go away (no matter how hard he tried), his Sensei continued to train him. Continued to teach him. Continued to inspire him.
“If I’m extra harder on you, it’s only because you have the potential to be better than I ever was.”
Miguel caught a glimpse of Hawk and Demetri fighting side by side, together.
“I want you to know, no matter what happens…. I promise I’ll always be on your side.”
Memories of his Sensei flooded Miguel’s mind as Kyler continued to slam his fist into Miguel’s back.
“I don’t know if you can hear me kid, but I know you got it in you to pull through.”
Memories of going to see Twisted Sister live, something he wouldn’t have been able to do for a few more years (if at all) without his Sensei’s help. Of the hours they spent training just the two of them, even when they had already had practice with the rest of Cobra Kai that night. Of his Sensei giving him his gi and calling him his student for the first time.
“You just gotta keep fighting.”
Memories of celebrations, like the night Miguel had gone on his first date with Sam, and his Sensei had gotten Cobra Kai accepted back into the All Valley Tournament. Of trying to teach his Sensei how to use technology. Of going to get burgers and talking about the difficult parts of life.
“Never give up.”
Memories of times when his Sensei made decisions that didn’t seem the smartest, but made Miguel stronger in the long run. Like the pool, or the cement truck, or the fire on his foot. Of getting dating advice from his Sensei (and giving some in return). Of his Sensei teaching him how to freaking walk again, even after Miguel yelled at him in the hospital, and blamed him for everything, and told him to leave him alone.
Not once did his Sensei give up on him.
“You can do this. I know you can.”
Miguel pushed himself backwards. It caused him to take a hit to the face, but after everything else that had happened that night, it felt like nothing. Plus, more importantly, it gave him the opportunity to grab Kyler’s arm with his next attack, and pull him away, and then aim for his face. Kyler grabbed Miguel’s arm and dropped to the floor, flipping Miguel, but this time he was prepared, and landed on his feet. As he tried to pin Kyler down, Kyler kicked him in the chest, knocking him down.
Both boys picked themselves up off of the ground. “C’mon! C’mon, Rhea!” Kyler yelled. He started to run straight at Miguel. Without thinking about it, Miguel kicked.
His foot made contact, hard.
Kyler stumbled to the side, giving Miguel enough time to spin around and kick him again. The other boy managed to jump back in time this time, but Miguel wasn’t done yet. He leapt at Kyler, and twisted his body around mid-air so that he was tackling Kyler upside down, pinning him to the ground and stopping him for good (or at least for the rest of that night).
Miguel stayed there for a moment, kneeling over Kyler, trying to catch his breath.
“Thanks for the motivation.”