Chapter Text
Robby wiped his sweaty palms on the front of his pants and let out a heavy breath.
He didn’t expect to be this nervous. It wasn’t like he didn’t already know the answer would almost surely be “yes.” But actually being in this moment, standing outside the apartment complex, it made the whole thing feel that much more real.
Forming his hand into a fist, he reached up and knocked on the front door. There’d be no turning back now.
Within seconds, the door swung open and Miguel’s beaming face was smiling brightly at him.
“Hey bro, I didn’t know you were back in town yet,” Miguel stepped forward to clasp their hands and give his step-brother a side hug. Robby had been traveling on assignment in NYC for the past month covering the New York Film Festival. He’d been back for a few days now, but chose to keep it quiet so he could spend a few quality nights with Sam without having to worry about his family interrupting their alone time.
“Yeah, sorry, I’ve been wanting to come by but I was a little jet lagged for the first few days since I got back…” Robby trailed off, running a hand through his short hair.
Miguel smirked knowingly. “Yeah. ‘Jet lagged,’” he winked, making Robby roll his eyes.
“Is that Robby?” Tory’s voice called from within the apartment.
“Hi Tory,” Robby sang back as he waited for the blonde to appear.
Bouncing into his view, Tory pushed Miguel out of her way, sending him stumbling into their house plant, as she ran to give Robby a hug. He laughed over Tory’s shoulder at the dumbfounded expression on Miguel’s face from being shoved aside as he squeezed her tightly.
“Wow, okay — I guess I’m not important anymore,” Miguel quipped, dusting his pant leg off.
“Oh hush,” Tory dropped the hug to roll her eyes back at Miguel. She held her scowl for a long beat before giving into his pout with a smirk as she sauntered over to kiss his cheek. “Where’s Sam, did she come with you?” She looked around eagerly.
Robby rocked back on his heels, “No, no she had some showcase event for LaRusso Auto that she needed to be at today, so it’s just me.”
“Bummer,” Tory frowned. “We should try to all hang out this weekend since you’re back now. Maybe Sunday — we’ll go to that brunch place with the giant mojitos,” her eyes lit up.
“Alright, yeah sounds good,” Robby chuckled. The beat of silence that fell over the group of friends reminded Robby why he had come, and he felt his heart race again as he tried to come up with an excuse to get Miguel alone.
“So did you want to come in or something, are you planning on staying?” Miguel interrupted his thoughts.
Robby’s throat got dry. “Uh I wasn’t — no I, um…” he stammered. “Actually, I wanted to ask you something…” his eyes shifted over to Tory’s briefly. “My car — it’s making some weird noise and I was wondering if you could take a look at it with me.”
Miguel furrowed his eyebrows, “And you want me to help? Don’t you think Mr. LaRusso might be better for something like this?”
“Well he’s busy, and I really want to get it fixed as soon as possible,” Robby pressed. “Please?”
“I mean, I can try, but I’m not much of a car dude,” Miguel agreed, already walking down the steps of his and Tory’s apartment toward Robby’s car. From behind him Tory folded her arms and shook her head at the boys’ weird exchange.
Robby opened his side of the car and slid into the seat. Placing his hands up on the wheel, he was so deep in his thoughts that he barely heard Miguel slide into the seat next to him. A nervous line creased his forehead as he kept his eyes fixated on the unmoving road in front of him.
Two snaps directly in front of his face shook him out of his trace.
“Hello?” Miguel questioned, watching Robby’s face curiously. “Are you going to turn on the car so we can listen or what?”
“Oh yeah, the car, right,” Robby fumbled with the keys in his hand. He looked down at the shiny objects but made no move to start the engine.
Miguel sighed, “There is no car noise is there.”
Robby bit his lip and shook his head no.
“Then what is it? Somethings wrong — I haven’t seen you act this weird since we were waiting on college acceptance letters,” Miguel remembered.
Inhaling a deep breath, Robby let it out and his shouldered dropped ever so slightly. “I’m going to ask Sam to marry me,” he said with a soft smile finding its way into his face.
Miguel’s jaw dropped, “YOURE GOING TO PROPOSE TO SAM!” He shouted loudly, causing Robby to clamp a hand over Miguel’s mouth and shush him, very aware of the car windows being open in the small neighborhood.
“Don’t yell that so loud, I don’t want Tory to find out,” Robby nervously looked around the street.
“Oh, she definitely already knows. And if she doesn’t then she’s going to find out, she always gets secrets out of me,” Miguel explained matter of factly.
“Well you can’t tell her this one. I don’t want anyone to find out until I at least ask Mr. LaRusso, or you know — Sam,” Robby ran his hands through his hair feeling the stress of the big move again.
“Then why did you tell me?” Miguel couldn’t help the smirk that played on his lips.
Robby eyed him knowing that this was just going to go to his head. “Because…” he started, “I was hoping that you would be my best man.”
The smirk that was present on Miguel’s face transformed into a giant grin as his eyes lit up and he giddily bounced in his seat. Not sure how to channel his happiness, Miguel solidly punched Robby in the arm.
“Ow,” he groaned looking at Miguel with a confused and pained expression.
“I accept,” Miguel smiled sheepishly.
Shaking his head and chuckling, Robby was starting to wonder if he made the right choice. But the thought went as quickly as it came. He knew there was no one else better fit to be his best man than his best friend. Well besides maybe Sam, but she already had a role in the wedding party that he really didn’t want filled by anyone else.
“You know your dad is going to be pretty pissed when he finds out you chose me to be your best man over him,” Miguel pointed out.
“Yeah well, let him be pissed,” Robby mumbled under his breath, earning a knowing look from Miguel. “He has his hands full right now with the baby and everything,” Robby shrugged.
“The baby has a name you know…” Miguel looked at Robby softly.
“I know that,” Robby rolled his eyes. “Matias needs his dad, and I don’t want to take that away from him.”
“You know he wouldn't have a problem making time if you needed him too,” there was a look of pity in Miguel’s eyes that made Robby groan inwardly.
“I know,” he said tiredly. “But Miguel, you’re my best man. Even before I was planning on proposing I knew that. So I want it to be you...unless you have a problem with that…” he trailed off.
“No — “ Miguel jumped in quickly. “I’m really happy you asked me,” he grinned.
“Good,” Robby smiled.
Miguel fell back into his seat with a sigh. “Wow. You’re proposing to Sam,” he marveled. “That shit is crazy, dude.”
“Yup,” Robby agreed with his head back against the headrest and staring at the ceiling. Thinking about it made his heart beat faster and his palms sweaty again. A smile broke out across his face before he could realize it was happening. He shook his head softly, “I can’t wait to be with her for the rest of my life.”
Miguel twisted in his seat to look at Robby with a cheeky grin, “Assuming she says yes.”
Letting his head roll to the side, Robby glared at Miguel unamused with his humor at the situation. “Don’t remind me of that or this proposal might not happen, and then you won’t get to be my best man.”
“Come on, you know she’s going to say yes,” Miguel encouraged. “You guys have been together for, what, almost 8 years now? How could she not say yes?”
Robby let out a tired huff, “I don’t know. There’s always the possibility that she’s not ready.” He ran his hands over his face, “I mean, I think she’s ready. I know I’m ready. But it’s not like it’s something I can run by her before getting down on one knee. I really want this to be a surprise — speaking of which…” he started to look coyly at Miguel.
Miguel raised an eyebrow at him.
“For your first task as my best man, I need your help devising a plan that will keep Sam occupied while I set up Miyagi Do for the proposal,” Robby requested.
Learning that Miyagi Do would be the location for the big moment made Miguel smile knowing the memories that place holds. While prom night for him wasn’t the most wonderful memory, once he learned how special that night had been for Sam and Robby, it gave him some solace knowing that he had some involvement setting that up for them.
It felt only natural that he would be a key agent in this proposal too.
“Man, I am so down. Whatever you need, I’m there,” he assured. “When are you planning to pop the question?”
“The hope is next weekend,” Robby grimaced like he was bracing himself for impact. “But it all depends on how my talk with Mr. and Mrs. LaRusso goes.”
Miguel chuckled, “Do you really think they could say no? You’re practically already their son-in-law.”
The sentiment brought the corner of Robby’s mouth to turn up. He loved being a part of the LaRusso’s family. They were the support he needed when everyone else in his life seemed to reject him. Getting to make their ties official felt better than he could imagine.
But it all depended on their ‘yes.’ As much as he wanted to believe it would be a simple talk, he still couldn’t shake the fear that no one would want him. “I’m just worried that I’ll say something stupid and ruin the whole thing,” he looked back down at his hands.
Miguel placed a hand on Robby’s shoulder offering his comfort. “Don’t be. He’s going to be so happy that you’re asking Sam to marry you. They both will be,” he added.
The comfort from Miguel’s hand helped dull the ruminating fears inside. He looked up and smiled at his brother. “So, how do you plan on hiding this from Tory,” he changed the subject, transferring the stress onto Miguel.
Worry lines showed themselves along Miguel’s forehead as he released a heavy sigh and collapsed into the seat. “I don’t know, man. She always knows when I’m lying. I swear, Tory has some sort of sixth sense for that sort of thing,” he rubbed at his face.
“For what sort of thing?” Tory suddenly appeared leaning against the car door with her arms crossed. Robby and Miguel jumped back in their seats with the same wide-eyed expression on their faces.
“Uh…” Robby dopily stammered. His brain was struggling to catch up as the only thought swirling through his mind was how much of them talking had she heard.
“Uh...for...looking beautiful?” Miguel tried poorly.
Tory glared suspiciously at the two of them, not falling for the pointless answer in any way. Her eyes casted down toward the set of car keys in Robby’s hand.
“I’ve never seen someone listen to a car’s noise with the car off before,” she nodded to the pair of keys shifting in Robby’s hand. “Is that some Miyagi Do method I’m not aware of?” She mused.
Robby rolled his eyes, a glowering smirk on his face. “No,” he deadpanned. “Why? Did Cobra Kai need lessons in how to turn a car on?”
Tory grinned at the playful return. “Okay, but seriously, what are you guys still doing out here? If it’s taking this long to fix you should really just go to a mechanic.”
Quickly turning his head to catch Miguel’s reaction, he knew he was in trouble when he saw the obviously guilty look on his face. He looked as if he would explode with the truth at any moment. Robby sighed inwardly. Maybe telling him this early wasn’t as good of a plan as he’d hoped.
“That’s a good idea! I probably should take it to a mechanic,” Robby jumped in before Miguel said something stupid.
Tory’s eyebrows cinched together, “I was mostly kidding about the mechanic. They’ll probably just over charge you, you really should just have Daniel take a look at it.”
“Why would you suggest that?” Miguel laughed obnoxiously hard to make the sane idea sound ridiculous. “Daniel? What, do you think he’d give him a special favor or something?” His paranoia seeped through every word.
Robby closed his eyes and shook his head slowly.
“Okay, what is going on?” Tory laughed.
“Nothing,” Robby groaned with his eyes still closed. He sat up to make Miguel’s slip up seem not so obvious — if that was possible. “I think the car fumes are just getting to him,” he said with a quick glare sent toward Miguel’s guilt ridden face. “That’s why I had to turn the car off, but I should probably get going now,” Robby checked his watch. “I think Sam should be getting home soon.”
Miguel had taken the moment to collect himself so that he could exit the car and walk around to Tory’s side like a normal person. He stood beside Tory and wrapped his arm around her waist, hoping it would remove some of her suspicion. It seemed to work. She visibly softened her gaze and turned to smile at Miguel.
“Don’t forget — we’re doing brunch on Sunday. You have to let Sam know,” she pointed a finger at Robby.
He nodded his head firmly, “Yes ma’am.” The car started up perfectly when he turned the key in the ignition. The lack of noise didn’t go over Tory’s head. She silently kept her remaining questions to herself until she was back in the house with Miguel.
The friends said their goodbyes and Robby drove off down the street.