Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Johnny was going to have the perfect senior year. He was respected at school and it felt like he was finally getting everything he wanted. Well, everything besides peace from his stepdad and his girlfriend Ali back. Once he won Ali back over, he'd have the perfect date to prom at the end of the year. It wouldn't take him that long to win her back anyways since breaks happened all the time with the best couples. They'd been together for so long so it was normal. Johnny’s confidence didn’t go down and he knew that this year would be one he’d never forget.

Except getting Ali back proved to be harder then Johnny thought it would be. Really, Ali was getting Johnny whipped over her. He was feeling extra bummed out then usual. Bobby seemed to notice and made a whole plan for all of the Cobras to go to the beach as a send off for the summer. Johnny knew that it really was just to try and cheer him up.

Jimmy and Bobby were crouched around some shells around the shore and talking about what types they should find and collect for their shell collection that they started in freshman year, basically just being nerds. Obviously, Johnny didn't want to try swimming since Jimmy and Bobby would stop him on the way to the shore. He definently didn't want to be wrapped up into their discussion.

That was how Johnny found himself watching Tommy and Dutch have a cartwheel contest. About every fifteen seconds, another wave of sand would wash over him.

"You both suck at cartwheels. There, is the contest over?" Johnny grumbled as Tommy crumbled mid-cartwheel, sending another wave of sand at Johnny whenever his body thumped onto the ground.

Tommy lifted his head up from the sand and pouted,"You're such a grump Johnny."

Dutch nodded in agreement after doing another cartwheel and almost kicking Johnny in the head,"Yeah, come on man. You're the ace degenerate, have some fun!"

"We're starting school back up tomorrow, this is like our only day of freedom left." Dutch finished with a grin.

Johnny deadpanned back at him and opened his mouth to grumble something whenever a soccer ball came hurtling towards him. Johnny's eyes automatically scrunched up in the split second that he saw the ball coming his way at about a hundred miles per hour. It hit his face with a loud smack.

He heard loud oohs and he could feel sand being kicked at him from someone running over to crowd around him. When would sand not be kicked all over him? Would there be at least a minute of no sand being piled onto him?

"Fuck!" Johnny groaned, holding his nose that was now streaming with blood. Whenever he opened his eyes, he could see some of it running down his fingers. Nose bleeds were normal to Johnny since he occasionally got them in karate. What wasn't normal was whenever Johnny looked past his fingers and some guy was just a few inches away from his face.

"Oh my God! Are you alright? I'm so sorry! I didn't kick the ball- my friend Freddy did. But that doesn't change anything.. what am I saying? I'm still sorry!" Johnny didn't think the thrumming pain in his head could get worse after being hit by the soccerball. Yet it did whenever this guy, who was crowding his personal bubble, started endlessly rambling.

Johnny groaned, he could hear Tommy and Dutch snickering next to him. The guy who was crouched over next to him started rambling even worse whenever he saw the blood on Johnny's hand.

"It's fine, just stop talking so much-" His eyes had finally gotten accustomed to how close the guy was, and now he could really see who he was talking to. He had big brown eyes and dark brown hair. The guy had two crooked front teeth which actually were kind of.. Johnny quickly looked back into the guy's eyes instead of his damn mouth.

"What are you so close for?"

"Oh- uh sorry man, I'm real sorry for everything. I just moved here from New Jersey, long ride let me tell you, but anyway I don't want to cause any trouble!" He backed away quickly and straightened out of the crouched position he was in.

"Alright, yeah I get it. I said it's fine. What was your friend.. Frank even doing kicking a soccer ball so hard?" Johnny huffed, glaring up at the guy. Really, he looked all kinds of sweaty. He was wearing a grey sleeveless shirt that was soaked in the front with sweat. He even had blue jean shorts on, showing those twig legs of his. The guy's hair was weirdly cut too. What did he even ask the barber for? Anything he could get for five cents? Somehow, despite all of that.. Johnny didn't feel disgusted. He for sure felt some type of strange feeling.

Maybe it somehow was a touchy subject, the guy started flushing an even darker color then he already was. How could it be a sensitive subject for him? Johnny was the one with a bloody nose. After the few seconds of silence Johnny was blessed with, he opened his mouth and shit, Johnny knew he was going to start rambling again.

"Uh, well I just told him that I thought you were cute, you know? And then he got this big idea to kick the ball over to you so I'd have an excuse or something. Really, I told him it was stupid but what do you know? He did it anyway."

Johnny's mouth went slack and his face heated up a little. He hoped the guy couldn't see it but Johnny knew his emotions were always so obvious to read on his face. What the fuck? What the fuck was this guy saying to him? He heard Tommy snort again. What was Tommy a pig? Did people from Jersey always talk so much? He had so much questions.

"Is that a joke?" Johnny blinked up at the.. what do you call people from New Jersey? Jersians? He looked confused.

"What, him being stupid? That's not a joke, he really is stupid. Kind of like my Uncle Louie." That wasn't what Johnny meant. Really he was wondering if this guy just thought Johnny looked gay and wanted to play with him or something. Johnny couldn't possibly be cute to someone, especially a guy. It wasn't like he wanted to be since that was gross, but how could he be cute?

Johnny just shook his head, a huff of laughter that wasn't full of humor escaping his lips,"You should get your ball back."

Johnny watched the guy's eyes light up like a switch was flipped. He smiled at Johnny, those slightly crooked front teeth again.

"Yeah, your right. Sorry again uh, my name's Daniel Larusso. You know, Daniel with an L and my last name starts with it.” He still had that smile on his face. Johnny wondered why he hadn't just thrown the ball right at the guy whenever the ball hit Johnny in the first place.

There was a pause of silence before Johnny huffed,"Why would you even bother telling me all that?”

“I don’t know, just thought you’d like to know since you're blonde.”

"What?"

"You know, that saying about dumb blondes."
Daniel said before he started laughing like he'd just said the funniest joke in the world. Johnny threw the soccer ball right at his stomach, it rolling right back to him,”Ow, hey!”

“Stop laughing at your own joke,” Johnny shoots back before sighing and shaking his head,”You're so weird."

Daniel sticks out his bottom lip and so what if Johnny’s gaze is drawn to it,”Well, what’s your name then.. or should I just call you Einstein, since you think you're so smart?”

“It’s Johnny, with a Y.” He says with a smirk, watching Daniel's mouth fall open a bit.

“You literally just got mad at me for doing that!”

"Take your soccer ball." Johnny says, still smirking as he picks it up and holds it out for Daniel. The guy huffs and picks it up, holding it to his side. He could see a bit of a smile on his face.

"Thanks, Johnny."

"Yeah whatever, Daniel."

He watched Daniel walk away back to his friend, kicking the ball over to Frank or Fernado or whatever. Johnny's eyes trailed a bit down. Of course Johnny wasn’t checking the guy out or anything, he just wanted to see if he was any good at soccer.

All of a sudden, Johnny got kicked in the shoulder. Why did he even let himself think he could have some peace?

"The fuck was that for?"

He looked over to see a smirking Dutch and Tommy.

"When were you gonna tell us you had a secret lover?" Dutch teasingly said, smirking.

"What, that guy? We just met what are you talking- I'm not even gay!"

"Sure, Johnny. I saw how you looked at him." Tommy said, wiggling his brows at Johnny.

"Ew, what? Why are you wiggling your brows at me? Stop that." Johnny said, face scrunching up in disgust.

"No." Tommy smirked back, still wiggling his brows at Johnny.

"Didn't think you'd get over Ali that quickly." Dutch hummed. Johnny was going to ignore that.

He shook his head, looking over to the shore. He saw Jimmy and Bobby walking back up. They were holding a bag that was, Johnny had a feeling, full of shells.

"Who was that guy?" Bobby asked whenever he was closer to Johnny and the two idiots behind him.

"Johnny's secret lover that he never told us about." Dutch and Tommy said in unison. Johnny looked back at them and then at Bobby and Jimmy. His gaze shifting from both of them before settling on Bobby,"They think I'm gay just because I talked to some guy. Mind you, I was just talking to him because his friend hit me with a soccer ball.

"Well, that is pretty rare. When do you ever just peacefully talk to someone whenever you get hit by something?" Bobby hummed, placing the seashell bag on the sand next to the cooler Tommy brought.
That was a miracle in itself, Tommy had a knack for forgetting everything.

Johnny let out a huff,"You guys are just being weird. I can have normal conversations whenever I want to, even if I get hit by something."

Jimmy gave him a look that Johnny held with him in silence before groaning,"Whatever, I'm still not gay."

He looked up and time definently passed by quickly. It was getting darker and colder, how would that Daniel guy survive with those shorts and a sleeveless shirt on? He searched the beach for him and saw that same dark haired boy with a red hoodie on.

He felt a bit relieved that he had a hoodie on, not because he cared but he expected to see him shivering and maybe in a block of ice. What he didn't expect to see, was the guy talking to a certain blonde haired girl with curly hair.

No fucking way, was this asshole just hitting up every one at the damn beach? Johnny felt his blood actually almost start to boil. Obviously because he was jealous that Daniel or actually Larusso now, was talking to Ali.. and Johnny wasn't. He stood up and the abruptness of it made Tommy's whole speech defending himself about the cooler stop. It was like the Cobras could quickly sense that he was upset at the sight.

“Hey Johnny, forget it man. It's ancient history.” Bobby sighed, trying to reason with him like always. At some point, Bobby had gotten beside Johnny because he placed his hand on his shoulder but Johnny shrugged it off.

“Who told you, man?” Johnny quickly shot back.

“I thought they broke up?”

“She did, he didn’t,” Those were the last words he heard before he stormed his way over to Ali's bonfire. His heart felt heavy and his face started to feel like it was on fire.

Johnny didn't know how but somehow he got between the two and Larusso looked at Johnny with a confused expression. In the corner of his eye, he could see Larusso start to smile,"Oh hey Johnny-"

"You know him, Ali?" Johnny huffed, arms crossing over his chest. What was he thinking, of course Ali didn't already know Larusso. He said that he just moved here.

"How's that any of your business, Johnny?" Ali said, crossing her arms back and squinting up at Johnny,"Didn't I tell you we're done? I don't want to talk to you."

"Well, I want to talk to you. Doesn't that matter at all to you?" Johnny said and yeah, maybe he was a shitty boyfriend and he deserved to be broken up with. It was just a break though, so why was Ali acting like it was more then that. Why was Ali here talking to Larusso? Why did Larusso even come up to her?

"Just leave me alone." Ali sighed, looking up at Johnny with that dissapointed look that he despised,"We've been over all this. I don't want to talk."

Johnny watched Ali turn up the volume of her radio. Yeah, like that would drown him out. It felt like he was losing the little amount of control he had,"What is your problem?"

Ali shook her head at him,"Just get out of here."

"That won't solve anything,"He snatched the radio up from the sand and turned it off.

"Johnny!" Ali let out a surprised gasp,"Give me my radio!"

"You promise you'll talk to me?" Johnny held it out of her reach whenever she made a grab for it. Was he being childish?

"Hey, Johnny- what's going on? Just give her the radio back?" Look who decided to say something, Larusso. Johnny scoffed,"Mind your business."

"It's fine, I got this," Ali said, giving Larusso a look that said,'Oh this happens all the time, just dealing with my crazy ex',"I promise Johnny."

When she took it from Johnny, he let her and just for her to turn that damn music back on. He snatched it back from her and slammed it on the ground. He heard Ali let out another surprised gasp,"You just broke my radio!"

"Yeah." He watched Larusso pick it up from the sand. Why did Larusso even go talk to Ali? What was he even playing at? What was the point of calling Johnny cute just to go flirt with some other blonde. Was that the reason he just brought a red hoodie to wear? Just so he could change outfits and flirt with everybody at the damn beach?

"Don't touch it punk!" Of course Larusso grabbed it anyways. Johnny pulled it back from him and sneered,"What are you, deaf?"

“Come on man, just give it.” The guy was seemingly very determined to get with his ex girlfriend. Why else would he stop laughing and smiling with Johnny to just get Ali back her stupid radio?

“Fine, you want it? Here you go!” He shoved the radio into the boys chest and as expected.. since he was skin and bones, he quickly fell to the ground with a groan. Normally whenever Johnny did things like this, he didn’t really feel anything. The only thing he could hear was his friends cheering him on and he would think about how good it felt whenever people looked up to you and actually didn’t think you were worthless. All of that feeling was just because he was bullying someone else.

This time though, the only thing he was thinking of was how he already regretted doing that to the twerp. He could feel a pinching in his chest. Did some crab latch onto him? Maybe later he would think about how close that feeling was to guilt.

Frankie or Fernado from earlier helped Larusso up and soon after that, he started running at Johnny. He could hear Ali yelling at him while he tripped Larusso and kicked him in the stomach. He watched him pathetically hold his body on the sand and wincing, he looked to Ali.

He huffed and pointed at her,”Look, you started this! All I wanted to do was talk to you.”

“Alright, well leave him alone and then we’ll go talk!” Ali shouted back and Johnny scoffed.

“Oh and where did I hear that before?” He spat out before looking down to the groaning guy on the sand.

“How about you hero, had enough?”Johnny went closer to the twerp that was a little too pretty.. or ugly. Maybe he was going to offer him a hand, but whenever he reached down, he was greeted by a punch to the nose. His hand quickly went up to touch his upper lip and right after he got welcomed by the taste of salt, he could feel control slip from him. Were Larusso's friends cheering just from that? He didn't want to get humiliated in front of a group of people. No way, not again.

Larusso was panting and he was getting into some shitty resemblance of a fighting stance,”Now we’re even.”

“No mercy, man.” Johnny knew this guy had alot of nerve from even coming up to Johnny earlier but after saying he was even to Johnny, the only thing he saw was red.

One thought kept crossing his mind during the whole ordeal, why wouldn’t the guy throw a weak punch at him again, was he even trying? He didn’t feel proud that his friends thought he was cool and that they were looking up to him, he hated every single hit that connected to the guy’s body. Why couldn't he have friends without beating someone up for them?

When Larusso fell limp to the ground, Ali launched herself at him. She started to pound her fists against his chest.

“Why don’t you hit me, huh?"

“It’s your fault!” He yelled, pointing to her after looking to Larusso, limp on the cold sand.

“It’s not!” Ali yelled back at him but this time, with a hard shove to his chest, he really knew that it was all his fault. Of course he'd keep lying.

“It's your fault.” Johnny muttered, shaking his head.

“Ever think it's yours?” She questioned and Johnny visibly winced.

She looked at him for a second, like she was closely inspecting him before sighing with dissapointment at what she saw. Maybe she saw his raw emotions. Most people never liked to see those.

"Why do you always have to fight?” This time, it was Ali's turn to shake her head at him.

“Bullshit. Get on your bikes, guys.” He said and after looking from the guy still laying on the sand and an upset Ali, Johnny decided he was done with the whole situation and shoved his helmet back on.

He threw his leg over his bike and before racing off of that stupid beach, he made sure to run over the radio that Larusso was so determined to get back.

Whenever they finally made it to the top of the hill that overlooked the beach, Johnny looked down it. Some people called it the Grand View but really, the view wasn't that grand. The hill wasn't tall enough to see anything that nice besides the sky. Johnny's eyes trailed a bit farther down the hill, to the sand of the beach. If he squinted hard enough, he could see Ali trying to help Larusso up.

Johnny flipped open the cooler that Tommy sat down next to his mortorcyle and searched for a beer without looking. When he pulled one out, he let out a groan. That's why he didn't feel any ice.

"Tommy, you forgot the damn ice? What's the point of not forgetting the cooler if there's no ice in it? Just put the beer in a plastic bag at that point." Johnny huffed, still popping the can open anyways. He chugged the familiar liquid down while he faintly heard Tommy defending himself.

Maybe he had a drinking problem, wasn't that a normal thing for guys that weren't losers? Plus, he was feeling weird. That was a good enough excuse for him to drink just one beer on a Sunday.

Besides Ali, Johnny had something else to think about. He had never seen someone like that punk before and he had met alot of people, considering Johnny used to be a poor bullied loser to a rich kid at country clubs. That guy talked so damn much and in a way, he was a firecracker like Ali. He was still so different and obviously it was making Johnny confused since he was still thinking about him.

The more he thought about Larusso, the more he decided he didn’t want to. He should be thinking about Ali, with her golden locks and pink lips.

That New Jersey twerp was new, maybe he'd go to Johnny's school. Did Johnny want that? The guy really liked to talk. He definitely would fit in with the other motormouths at Johnny's school, but not really since he looked so.. out of this world. In a scary alien way.

Why would he even wonder if he wanted that? That Larusso punk obviously wanted his ex girlfriend. He hated that Ali wouldn’t just listen to him and how she would give a stranger that she just met at the beach the time of day and not him.
He hated how she couldn’t just understand that she should stop being difficult.

When he finished his beer can, he crushed it and frustratedly threw it down the hill. People always told him that he let his emotions get the better of him and he knew they were right. He still hated it though and he would try to control himself to prove them wrong somehow, even if he always failed.

After that night on the beach.. that left the guy that dared try to ruin his plan eating sand and Ali with a broken radio, Johnny had a mind full of more thoughts that he didn't need clogging his brain. He decided to try and focus on one. Johnny was a man with a mission and it wasn’t a mission to destroy random objects and beat up random twerps. It was to focus on having the best senior year and obviously, that started with winning Ali back.

“Im gonna head home,” He dragged his eyes away from Larusso at the bottom of the hill and heard Dutch and Tommy automatically groan.

“What? Why Johnny, its still pretty early?” Tommy whined like Johnny was telling him to go home too.

“That’s the point dumbass, I’m tryna get a early start for tomorrow.”

Dutch rolled his eyes,”Your really tryna change your ways this year Johnny?”

“Didn’t I say I was going to do that when we were driving to the beach? I’m not a liar man.” Johnny rolled his eyes right back at him.

“Well, I think it’s great that Johnny’s actually trying our last year. Here, I’ll go back with you.” Bobby said with a smile, getting up and starting to walk to their motorcyles that were parked in the sand. Johnny smiled back despite his weird feelings. He was glad that Bobby supported him, even if it wasn’t a surprise since Bobby always did.

“Fine! Jimmy, Tommy and I are gonna not be losers and get wasted without you two!” Dutch said, crossing his arms and nodding to the other two Cobras. Tommy nodded back with a determined smile before looking at Jimmy, who was avoiding Tommy and Dutch's gaze.

Jimmy cleared his throat and slowly got up to start walking to his bike aswell,”Actually, I should be getting home by now..”

Dutch and Tommy looked at him with their jaws slack before groaning somehow at the same time. Submitting, they both sadly walked to their bikes.

“You know, some people actually stop trying their senior year instead of being goodie-two-shoes and going home this early,” Dutch said grumpily before they all started their engines.

“Yeah, well most people don’t think that it’s cool to get wasted on warm beer,” Johnny said with a huff of laughter and Bobby bumped elbows with him.

Tommy glared while pointing at Johnny,"Why does it sound like your one of those people? We're not losers and I only forgot the ice this once and you know it, Johnny!”

His fellow Cobra’s voices slowly got drowned out by the sounds of their engines. Once all of their bikes started roaring down the road that followed the 'Grand View', he sighed from beneath his helmet. Johnny really hoped that Ali wouldn't make him break something again and get into a fight with another twerp. Now, since school was starting tomorrow, he would actually be able to see Ali a lot more. She couldn't avoid him all the time, right? However, Johnny knew she probably could.

Chapter Text

When Johnny got to school, he didn't expect Ali to just straight up run to him or anything. Maybe he just expected to see her while walking in the hallways. It turns out that if she really wanted him to not talk to her, she really could just make sure he didn't see her at all. Well, that stung a little.

Now, Johnny was feeling lonely. Tommy and Dutch were no where to be seen. Johnny would bet money on them messing around in the boy's bathroom right then. Bobby might already be in his first period with Jimmy. This is what Johnny got for telling them all to go without him, saying he would just find Ali.

Since there was nothing else to occupy his thoughts, he started wondering if Larusso might go to the same school as him. That twerp sure was a weirdo. He probably was just joking whenever he said he thought Johnny was cute but he still couldn't stop thinking about those stupid words coming out of Daniel's mouth.

With nothing else to do, Johnny made his way to his first period. He probably should have been doing that anyway. Didn't he want to turn a new leaf?

Johnny wasn't really ever good at school. If he didn't pay attention for what seemed like a minute, he'd be days behind in work. The only thing he was really ever good at? Well, just karate. Moral of the story, Johnny barely survived getting through the first period of his first day of school. There was so many papers he got handed and just for one class.

When he finally got out of hell, he met Bobby out in the hallway.

"So, how'd it go talking with Ali?"

"I couldn't even find her." Johnny grumbled, way to go for his ego.

"It's not like it was even that big of a deal! I forget stuff like that all of the time." Johnny huffed, he was leaning up against some lockers while talking to Bobby.

Bobby gave him an exasperated look,"Well maybe that's the problem? You forget special occasions all the time, including her birthdays?"

Johnny paused for a second, before looking at Bobby with narrowed eyes. Wasn't he supposed to be on his side? Johnny knew he kept on making asshole moves, he let out another sigh, slumping against the locker behind him,"I know."

Speak of the devil, he could see Ali walking infront of them. He immediately straightened from his slumped position. He opened his mouth to say something to her, faltering whenever he saw another person walking next to her. It wasn't one of her talkative ass friends like Susan or Barbara. It was a guy and from the looks of it, he was a loser.

Why would Ali be walking with some guy Johnny had never even seen before? Matter a fact, any other guy? He was a total twig. Johnny hadn't quite seen his face, the guy was too busy looking at Ali. A familiar rush of jealousy went through Johnny's body.

The dark haired twerp was talking animatedly, making Ali giggle. She gave him a little slap on the shoulder while the guy met Johnny's gaze.

The guy had brown wide eyes that Johnny could recognize from anywhere.. even if he had only seen them just yesterday. Daniel Larusso went to his school. Johnny wasn't happy about it, rather devasted about it. It seemed like Larusso already made best friends with Ali. While Johnny was gagging at the sight of seeing Larusso, he noticed a big gross type of bruise on his eye. Damn, did Johnny give him that?

Suddenly, Ali must have noticed that the twerp stopped talking and she looked in the direction Larusso was. She huffed and pulled at his weird button up, effectively guiding him further down the hall. What was he, Ali's new dog?

Johnny's eyes never left the pair as Ali walked him down the hallway. He realized his lips were parted and immediately closed them, grumbling,"That asshole goes to our school?"

"Him? I'm pretty sure he's new. I haven't seen him before." Bobby said, nodding to himself before realization dawned on him,"Wait a second, wasn't that the guy you beat the shit out of yesterday?"

"I prefer taught a lesson to but sure, you can say that." Johnny's tongue clicked on the roof of his mouth, feeling that pinching feeling in his chest again. Johnny didn't care about the nasty mark Larusso had on his face. He didn't care and he was proud that he did it. His eyes squinted after that dark haired head, slowly leaving his field of vision, all the way down the hallway,"What do you think he moved here for?"

"If you care so much about it, why don't you just ask him yourself?" Bobby said, skeptically squinting his eyes at him,"Don't do anything crazy dude."

"What?- I don't care about Larusso enough to do anything crazy!" Johnny spluttered, finally turning to look at Bobby as he kicked off of the locker,"And for one, when am I ever to do something crazy?"

By Bobby's silence, Johnny added,"Whatever that look's about, you know most of those plans were Tommy or Dutch's."

Bobby shook his head, suppressing a smile,"Yeah, alright Johnny. I'm gonna go to the library with Jimmy.

He watched Bobby shove off the locker before pausing his abandonment of Johnny to say,"Just remember what I said."

Johnny rolled his eyes, thinking about giving the finger to Bobby while he walked away. Of course Larusso went to his school. Daniel Larusso.. a stupid name that belonged to a stupid face, one that he couldn't get out of his stupid mind.

Ever since Johnny first saw those two walk in the halls together, he saw them walking with eachother after almost every one of his periods, with Ali's friends or not. Johnny guessed that after the night on the beach where Ali met the twerp that apparently ‘helped’ her, the two just became best friends. Of course that guy had to go to the same school as him.

From afar, they seemed almost inseperable. Johnny and Ali were supposed to be the ones that were inseperable. The two of them were supposed to be prom queen and prom king until Ali became confused by some nobody. She hadn’t talked to Johnny ever since the school day started. Johnny was starting to wonder, how was he supposed to win her back at this rate?

Johnny finally found himself making his way to the cafeteria. He watched Ali and her group of friends from his table, for the first time, Larusso wasn't next to her. Johnny had never felt this desperate before, pathetic. Obviously he was desperate for Ali and him to get back together. At this point, people were going to start thinking he couldn't hold a girl.

“Johnny?” He heard Bobby say from beside him.

"What?" Johnny said, practically snapping his head off to look at him. His teeth were gritted together.

"Jesus, what's up with you?" Bobby questioned. Johnny felt a little bad for snapping at him like that.

"That damn twerp from where ever the hell is still tryna put moves on Ali." Johnny sniffed, putting his head in his hands,"First at the beach and now he's wiggling his way into the same school as me."

"Bobby, did you know that if I just step out of any one of my damn classes- I'll just see him walking with Ali, drooling over her?" Johnny exclaimed into his hands, pounding his head into them.

"I don't think he wiggled his way into the same school as us. He probably walked-" Bobby cleared his throat after seeing the nasty glare Johnny gave him.

"Listen man, I know this all might suck now." Bobby said, hand going to rest on Johnny's shoulder. He held the urge to shrug it off,"It's no big deal though, sure the guy might be annoying and all. Sure, he might be plotting to flirt with Ali at this very moment but maybe one day you might come to like his company!"

Johnny just sat there in silence, looking at Bobby with a blank face while holding in a scream of agony. His head went back into his own hands,"Bobby, whatever the hell you think you just did, it for sure wasn't helping."

During the whole unhelpful speech Bobby had or whatever, the other Cobras were just continuing their conversations. Most of the time it was like that, Bobby would recognize the little things that were off about Johnny and confront him about it, while the others talked about the probabilities of dying from a wild hotdog cart. It's not like they didn't care, it's just that Bobby saw things that others didn't. He was some type of magic empath, seeing inside of Johnny's thoughts.

Bobby rolled his eyes before his expression became serious, full of gross empathy. He sighed,"Come on Johnny, just accept the fact that maybe this time.. you and Ali might be done for."

"No way Bobby, you know Ali's just being difficult. She's got the hots for Johnny,"Dutch practically yelled, apparently becoming conscious of the conversation Bobby and Johnny were having.

"Yeah! Johnny's a total hunk!" Tommy said with a big grin. Dutch slowly turned to arch and raise a brow at Tommy,"You sound like a fairy."

Johnny zoned out of that conversation, not really wanting to hear them fighting about how Tommy commenting on what a piece of meat Johnny is, isn't or was gay. His head was still in his hands as he looked up to where Ali's table was and then the entrances to the cafeteria. He saw Larusso's twerpy head peeking around the doorway before making his way to Ali's table. Of course Larusso was going to sit with Ali. He just couldn't get enough of her.

Maybe if Johnny didn't beat him up at the beach, Larusso would have ended up latching to Johnny. He might have ended up with Larusso walking with him to every class and sitting at his table. His face ended up in an unconsciously gloomy expression.

That gloomy expression slowly turned into a mischevious one by the smirk appearing on his face,"Watch this."

Dutch and Tommy's little argument went in as a stalemate. Jimmy, the ref of all of their fights, holding both his hands up.

"Johnny, what?" Bobby interjected while Johnny silently grabbed the blueberry pie on his tray, marching over to Ali's table.

Right before Larusso moved to sit down next to Ali, he placed his pie right down on the seat. He heard Dutch and Tommy from their table, howling and laughing. Johnny had a grin on his face that didn't even disappear whenever he glanced back and saw Bobby's expression of disapproval. This wasn't childish at all, this was a good idea.

He looked to Larusso, a shocked expression on his face while attempting to get some of the jam and pie crust off of his ass. Johnny's grin widened.

"Jerk!" Ali huffed, standing up with Larusso as she looked at Johnny with furrowed brows. She had the same fiery expression she did whenever they met at the beach.

Johnny ignored her response, looking to Larusso smugly,"You gotta watch where you sit next time!"

He put his hands on his hips,"Probably your only pair of pants, huh?"

Larusso didn't say anything, glaring at him with dark brown eyes. It seemed like he was slowly walking towards him but Johnny couldn't really tell. Who gave him such captivating eyes?

"Don't even think of it worm." Johnny said, right before Larusso smashed the tray into his cashmere blue sweater. Johnny's eyes fell to his sweater and he let out a gasp. Looking back to Larusso, he was about to swing at him but the little twerp beat him to it. Magically, Larusso managed to wrap his arms around Johnny's waist. He tackled or rather threw them both into a nearby lunch table.

It all happened so fast that Johnny couldn't even tell what the hell was happening. How did Larusso even get on top of him? They were wrestling eachother while yelps, from the people that were sitting at the table they just knocked over with their bodies, sounded around them. Johnny let out a grunt, the wind knocked out of both of them when all the Cobras launched themselves on top of them.

In the distance, he heard Ali let out some type of squeal. That was probably because of what Johnny caught a glimpse of Dutch doing, practically throwing her out of the way before jumping on to the pile of bodies on the cafeteria floor. There was a bunch of people surrounding them but through the chatter, Johnny could only make sense of Larusso's heavy breathing on top of him.

Johnny still barely even knew what was going on. He had no idea why the hell his Cobras jumped on top of them, seriously what the hell on their part. Maybe this idea wasn't so great.

At this point, they weren't even fighting because they didn't even have any room to move, let alone look at eachother properly. Larusso was just on top of him and Johnny was under him. He didn't like that or atleast he knew he shouldn't.

"Get off of me twerp!" Johnny huffed, face flushing at the groan that was pushed out of Larusso.

"I can't asshole! Your goons are literally on top of me!"

Johnny chose to ignore the fact that Larusso called his friends goons. He pushed at Larusso's chest instead. It barely even budged because of all the weight on top of them,"I don't care! Get off!"

"Trust me, I'd love to but I literally just told you that I can't." Larusso said, looking at him like he was trying to say it in simpler terms.

"Oh, you'd love to get off of me? What, are you just forgetting how cute you thought I was at the beach?" Johnny mumbled and guessing by Larusso's silence, the guy had heard him. Johnny was glad Larusso did, but he still didn't care that much. He didn't care at all.

All of a sudden, the Cobras hopped off of them as quickly as they piled on. Johnny looked up, confused because yeah he was thankful but what was even the point of doing that in the first place?

"What in the world is going on here!"

When Johnny heard those words from a old teacher with a shrilly voice, his right eye twitched. His own 'friends' were just trying to save their own asses. He looked at Dutch and Tommy, whistling away and trying to look innocent. Jimmy, who was just avoiding eye contact. Lastly, he looked at Bobby. He had an apologetic smile on his face, mouthing sorry to Johnny. He rolled his eyes, mouthing back asshole before roughly pushing Larusso off of him. Great, now he had to deal with Larusso after school and he got sent to detention for something that was barely even his fault.

After dealing with Larusso and getting a bunch of blueberry shit on his blue cashmere sweater, that he knew Sid would be on his ass about later, Johnny made his way to his sixth period. He knew that time was gonna pass by dreadfully slow as he waited to go into detention.

Turns out his sixth period was english. Johnny officially thought that english class was the worst thing to exist because of course he had to share one class with Larusso, this one. He even had to be shoulder to shoulder with him since last names existed. Why did they even have an english class? Johnny was born here, he already knew the damn thing because it was literally how he spoke.

In all honesty, english class was terrible to begin with to Johnny. There's so many damn rules and 'proper grammar' barely made sense to Johnny.

When Larusso got done slamming his bag so hard into his seat that it shook both of their desks, he sat down and smiled over to Johnny,"Hey, my names's Daniel-"

"No fucking way." Oh, so Larusso thought that he was the one put into an inconvenience by this? Johnny scoffed, crossing his arms and looking out of the window. At least their desks were close to the window. The one positive he had today.

"What was with what you pulled at lunch?"

Johnny cracked his head over at Larusso,"Oh, well you're one to talk. You literally tackled me!"

"You gave me a stain on my ass!"

"You were the one that started hitting up my girlfriend after calling me cute!"

Larusso's eyes looked like they almost bugged out of his head,"What are you?- Wait, Ali's your girlfriend?"

Johnny paused before grunting out,"Well, we're on a break so technically she isn't my girlfriend anymore.”

"Is that why you went all karate on me at the beach?" Even though Larusso was asking a question, it was more like the guy was talking to himself. He was nodding off into space like the weirdo he was.

"I wouldn't have went all karate on you if you just minded your business." He glanced at the nasty type of bruise he gave Larusso before looking away,"What you saw was something way overdue."

"You breaking Ali's radio?" Larusso grinned.

"Not that, stupid.."He watched Larusso shrug before he continued,"Me trying to talk to her."

"Well with you acting all physical like you did, I would avoid you too."

Larusso grabbed his pencil and started scribbling on the syllabus their english teacher gave them at some point. Without pausing the mess he was making on the corner of the paper, he looked up at Johnny,"Don't get me wrong though, I like talking to you."

"Listen up everyone! I know that we just started the school year but you can catch up with your friends about your summer later."

What the hell was that supposed to mean? 'Oh, I like talking to you,' didn't Johnny beat this twerp up yesterday? How could he like talking to Johnny after he beat his ass and messed up his pants? With every word the teacher said dragging on as class started, Johnny was stuck in a web of thoughts. Very far back in his mind, he could hear a bunch of different words like classroom procedures, syllabus, discipline plan, all that he could really hear were his thoughts about the guy next to him.

When Johnny finally heard the bell ring, signaling that his final period was over, he rushed out of his seat.

"Hey, Johnny- wait up! We're going to the same place!" He heard Larusso say behind him, once Johnny opened the door, he didn't hold it for the guy behind him. When he walked out of class, he ran into his friends, or a better name being traitors, making their way to the school exit.

"Hey Johnny, sorry man but it was worth messing with that guy from the beach!" Dutch said with a snicker and Tommy laughed too. However, Johnny could see the real looks on their faces behind the smiles. They were just joking around to test the waters, seeing if Johnny was genuinely upset.

He just rolled his eyes,"Yeah, whatever assholes. If Sensei gets on my ass for being late to practice, I swear-"

Tommy patted him on the shoulder with a grin,"Trust me, we'll do the pushups with you man."

Jimmy was currently in his own world and Bobby was looking at Johnny with crossed arms, inevitably opening his mouth,"You know, if you just left him alone.. you wouldn't even be in this situation."

"You're acting like you didn't jump on top of the two of us and make a damn pile." Johnny said in protest before Bobby cut him off.

"Well, that was just so I could pry you off of eachother and I didn't expect for Dutch, Tommy, and Jimmy to all just hop on!"

Jimmy shrugged, Dutch looked slightly sheepish, which was rare for him. Tommy was still grinning.

Johnny rolled his eyes,"Whatever, I'll see you at the dojo later whenever I'm on my damn knuckles because of you all."

Once he entered the designated classroom that he'd be staying the next hour in, Johnny was going to go to the back of the classroom and sit. That plan was changed whenever all the Reseda kids decided to be good today. Now Larusso and him were the only people in detention or the only ones that showed up. The old guy sitting at the teacher's desk glared at Johnny,"You're gonna have to sit in the front, boy. M'Gonna keep a good eye on you."

He suppressed the need to roll his eyes as he slumped into the seat. A few minutes passed by and why the hell was Larusso not even in the classroom? Not like Johnny wanted him to be but seriously, you gotta be kidding. Maybe in New Jersey, people weren't taught to take up for their own damn actions like a real man.

All of a sudden, Larusso stormed into the classroom panting and proceeding to get scolded until he sat into a desk next to Johnny. He could feel his face growing a little warmer.

"Sorry Sir, I just got lost." Larusso mumbled, head down as their detention warden huffed and puffed at him.

It felt like hours had passed by but it had probably only been thirty minutes whenever the old ass guy fell asleep. Johnny watched his hand loosely hold onto a newspaper. Finally, Johnny thought and after making sure the guy was knocked out cold.. even though he was supposed to be watching them, he stood up from the desk. Johnny couldn't stay another second in small desks next to Larusso.

Larusso looked up at him, eyebrows slowly furrowing before scream whispering,"Where are you going?"

"None of your business.. twerp," Johnny added awkwardly, as he attempted to leave the classroom. At some point, Larusso had gotten up from his chair because he was now holding onto Johnny's wrist.

"Hold on man! I can't just let you leave. We're supposed to be in detention!"

"Yeah, well I didn't ask for your permission did I?" Johnny snatched his hand back from Larusso, ripping his wrist away from him and then walking out of the classroom.

He heard Larusso mumbling unheard of words before the door closed behind Johnny. Johnny scoffed to himself, shaking his head. That guy was one of the stupidest people he had ever met. Seriously, did he really think he could stop Johnny from leaving detention?

Johnny had to rethink that thought because maybe Larusso was a little smart. He knew he couldn't stop Johnny so he followed him out of detention. Johnny only became aware of that matter whenever he heard a voice behind him say,"No, but then I'm coming with you. I'm not staying in that classroom with that old man."

Johnny turned around to look at Larusso, staring past him and through the window of the door to the classroom that they were supposed to be in. He looked pleadingly into the window, begging for their detention warden to wake up. The reason he left detention was to get away from Larusso, now the guy was free to talk to him. Maybe the bigger idiot here was the guy that was supposed to be watching over them.

He let out a defeated sigh. The universe must really hate him,"Alright fine, whatever."

Johnny walked down the relatively quiet hallways, besides the squelching of a wet mop wiping across the floors from a janitor that ignored their presence as the two walked by. Of course, the guy following him ruined the almost quiet quietness.

"Where are we going?" Larusso sped up to walk beside him. Johnny stayed quiet for a little while, hoping Larusso would think that he didn't even ask Johnny something in the first place. He looked over and saw him looking at Johnny expectantly. He sighed,"There's this outside area with lunch tables in the school and it's next to the cafeteria. Only seniors are allowed to eat out there during lunch. There's vending machines there too. That's where I'm going."

"Seniors don't ever really sit out there. I don't really know why. Maybe because their all too lazy to walk out there."

Larusso hummed, smirking a little,"Even you're too lazy?"

"Shut up."

Once they finally got out to the outside area where most of the grass was dead which Johnny had no idea why, where most of the wood making up the lunch tables were rotting, Larusso and him sat next to eachother against a brick wall on the grass.

"What does that mean?" Johnny blurted out of no where. Fuck, he didn't mean to do that. He had only met Larusso a day ago yet the guy kept on making Johnny do or feel alot of things he shouldn't.

"Excuse me?"

"Why do you like talking to me?" Johnny's head rested back on the brickwall, looking through the glass doors that led to the entrance of the outside area they were in,"We've barely talked and I beat you up after."

After a moment of silence, Larusso followed with a nonchalant tone of voice,"Well, I still liked talking to you before that. I don't have to have talked to you for hours to like doing it."

"You're weird." He mumbled, hearing a responding laugh from Daniel.

Johnny didn't push that subject anymore. He didn't know if he wanted to know more about it. He didn't know why but he also just kept asking more questions. Maybe because this new twerp made him have so many.

"Were you really late to detention because you were lost?" Johnny asked, not because he was curious or anything. Not because he wanted to know if Larusso was busy talking to Ali or maybe those boys he saw Larusso with at the beach.

He looked over expectantly to be met by a deadpanned look from Larusso,"Uh, yeah? No one really gave me a 'grand' tour?"

Johnny was debating on offering to give him a tour before realizing who he was talking to. A scowl formed on his face and he looked down to a weed next to him,"Maybe you should ask Ali, you guys are best buddies now right?

"If you miss her this much then why didn't you care about her whenever you were dating?"

Johnny's mouth fell open. Really, this guy was some piece of work. What was with people from New Jersey,"I did care about her. I miss her because- she was my girlfriend."

"Well, you obviously didn't care about her enough." Larusso judgementally mused. Johnny tossed a weed at him before slumping further against the brick wall behind him.

It was quiet between them. He was too busy with his thoughts and he didn't know what Larusso was doing. Johnny looked up to the sky above them. It was darkening. He should probably start heading to practice. Johnny totally forgot that the reason he even came out to the outside area of their school, besides avoiding being next to Daniel, was just to get a snack from the vending machine before skipping detention to go to practice. He wouldn't have had to do pushups for being late.

Why did he just sit out here with Larusso without thinking?

"Let's get out of here." Johnny stood up, walking out of the outside area at a leisurely pace so Larusso could follow him. He didn't want to be an asshole and leave Larusso lost in the school. It would probably make him feel even more guilty, along with beating him up yesterday.

Whenever they finally reached the school doors and stepped outside together, Larusso turned to him.

"Uh, well bye? I guess."

"Yeah, bye Larusso."

Before Johnny started up his motorcycle, he watched Larusso unlock his bike, shooting Johnny a few glances. He watched Larusso ride his stupid little bicycle out of the school parking lot.

Johnny didn't get that guy. He jokes with Johnny, obviously Larusso was joking whenever he called him cute, then goes up to his ex right after? Johnny would pay money to know what they talked about before he came over. Not that he cared that much. Well, he did but just because of Ali. Johnny probably should have immediately hit Larusso with a spinning kick whenever they were alone and not in the detention classroom. It didn't mean he was being nice whenever he helped him out of the school just because Larusso said he didn't know how to navigate the school corridors yet.

He didn't like Larusso either, not even if he completely forgot what he was doing when he got to the outside area and just sat and talked to him.

What was wrong with him?

Chapter Text

"Please Sid, don't touch him!" Laura's voice pierced through the 'perfect' little bubble around their Encino family. It was Sunday or the Holy Day of obligation. Once twelve year old Johnny survived an hour at Church kneeling, standing back up, then sitting back down again.. he savored the car ride home.

Whenever it was Sunday, Sid would either accompany Laura and Johnny to their Catholic Church or he would go out.

Once Sid got a taste of the wine or Jesus' blood, his urge for alcohol grew stronger. That's how Johnny found himself beat on their living room's marble floor.

The fat, rich, and drunk bastard laughed at how scared Laura looked. How she was infront of the cowering Johnny on their living room floor. Every time something like this happened, Laura would attempt to protect him. It might have been the pitiful look on her face, Sid decided to put the bottle back down on their white coffee table.

"You're always so quick to protect that useless kid. Maybe you should be doing something more 'useful' with me." Sid slurred while Laura grimaced. She looked back at Johnny behind her, tears already finding themselves streaming down his face. She gave him a sad smile, wiping most of the tears that wouldn't stop coming down his face.

"Go upstairs to your room, okay?" She wrapped her arms around him in a quick embrace. She whispered,"I'm sorry."

Johnny quickly scrambled up from the floor, tripping up the huge stairs and going further into their house of lies. He locked his bedroom door, knowing it still wouldn't stop Sid from going into his room. He guessed that Sid wouldn't be doing that today though, too preoccupied with Laura.

He sniffled and cried into his blanket. Johnny felt pathetic. Why was he pathetic everywhere he went? Home, school, even his Mom looked at him pitifully. Sid, his stepdad, always yelled at him for no reason. Maybe it was because of how pathetic he looked or just was. Wasn't he supposed to be strong? He was a boy.

The next day, Johnny rode his bicycle down the sidewalks of his wealthy neighborhood.

Music blared in his ears from his walkman, he always liked music. It almost always played loud enough to make his ears ache. On his daily bike ride, or an excuse to get out of the house, he passed a dojo. The sign said Cobra Kai with a black, yellow, and red cobra behind the words.

He could see motorcycles lined out in front of the place. Those were way cooler then his pathetic bike. Johnny could even hear chants from outside of the building. Strike first, Strike hard, No mercy Sir- He was in awe, they were definently stronger then Johnny was. He could tell from just how firm and loud their voices were. Johnny's voice, in comparison, sounded like a mouse squeaking. He was more timid. That was how he was supposed to be at home.

Later, Johnny would beg Laura to ask Sid if he could take karate. It was the only thing he wanted. It was a different kind of want then all his other faded away hobbies. Not like how he wanted that drum set or that magical magician kit. This was something that seemed more important to him.

He could get strong and athletic. His voice would be more confident like all of the other guys in that incrediblely cool looking dojo. Johnny could be strong, fitting in with the boys at school. It was a chance to have a permanent fix to him being a crybaby.

Whenever Johnny walked through those doors, he came out a different person everyday. He actually belonged there, made friends and everything. Johnny never felt small and pitiful again, well actually.. that was a lie. Everytime he went back home from school, his confident persona tore off like a costume. Everytime it was unbearably quiet and he was alone with his thoughts, he felt vulnerable. Without the loud chaos of his social circle, there was nothing to distract him.

Now the vulnerability was coming to the surface, not whenever he was just alone. It was all because of that Larusso kid. He wasn't blaming his misfortunes on Larusso or anything. It was the truth. The kid messed up Johnny's cycle of life since he took Ali out of it. Yes, Larusso took Ali out of his life.

Johnny walked into the dojo late. Instead of hearing Kreese bark out the words,'Knuckles!' He met Kreese's stern yet concerned eyes. Maybe Kreese thought that his star student had a rough time getting to practice because of his stepdad. Kreese walked over to Johnny,"Mr. Lawrence, reason you've come to my dojo late?"

"Sorry Sensei, some little twerp got me into detention." Johnny bowed his head, he wasn't in his gi yet, just coming back from school. Whenever he looked up at Kreese, he saw a look of understanding.

One of the many things Kreese didn't like, was people starting fights and not finishing them. Kreese probably took Johnny saying he got detention as someone messing with him. Maybe using an excuse like detention to not finish the fight. Atleast one thing went right today, he didn't have a late fee.

"Go get your gi on." Kreese mused and Johnny flashed him a smile, nodding. Kreese turned back to the karate mat and shouted,"Jones! Start fighting like your doing karate instead of dancing around. Are you scared? You think your gonna get any better and stop losing at tournaments like that? Either start trying, or get out of my dojo!"

Normally, practice was always good. This time though, he really needed it. He didn't want to be thinking about that weird guy anymore. He rather laugh at how Tommy basically ate the mat whenever Dutch simply tripped him.

Hell, he was so desperate for a distraction, he would help Jimmy search for the variety of dairy products, shoved into stinky ass socks, inside of his locker. Tommy had admitted to hiding them inside of his locker. He didn't tell Jimmy but he was pretty sure that Bobby was in on Tommy's little prank too. That suspicion was just because of the way Tommy and Bobby were dying of laughter, hiding together behind the locker room door, the day Jimmy almost puked once he opened his locker.

Johnny was actually certain Bobby was in on it. He remembered that it was the same brand of yogurt Bobby had in his mini fridge. He had been telling him about how he wasted a pack of yogurt since he forgot about it.

Practice was over and the Cobras all walked outside after finishing changing out of their sweaty gis . They were all shrugging their Cobra Kai leather jackets on, walking in different directions to their motorcycles. However, Johnny saw Tommy turn around in the corner of his eye. Whenever he immediately saw him turn back around, Johnny knew it was something stupid or trouble. He had a surprised grin on his face.

"Larusso's inside of that restaurant!" Tommy said, a surprised and strangely happy tone of voice lacing his words. He was pointing to the restaurant across the street.

Johnny, with that piece of information, seemed unfazed on the outside. However, he really was frantically thinking,'Why is Larusso literally everywhere?' It was Johnny's first day of school and he still had something to do with Larusso. Dutch slowly started to grin, sliding next to Tommy evily. Again, Johnny knew that one of them was gonna say something stupid or get them into trouble.

"So?" Johnny huffed, about to kick the stand of his motorcycle and start driving away. The only reason he didn't do that was because somehow, Larusso probably would find his way to him. How many setbacks were there gonna be in progressing with his day?

"So? This is an opportunity Johnny! We're not in school and he's right there! You can get back at him for getting you into detention!" Dutch said, seeming excited. The asshole probably just wanted to see another food fight. This time the location was in a crowded restaurant.

Johnny's eyes narrowed down on Dutch,"Me getting detention was half of your guy's fault. If I'm getting back at him, I should beat your asses too."

Tommy's grin turned shy but Dutch just groaned,"Come on Johnny, Larusso was the one that tackled you! We were just trying to back you up."

"You should atleast say hello." Tommy mused, nodding to himself. Tommy was a work of nature. Why would Johnny even say words to Larusso outside of school unless he was forced into his presence.. like right now by peer pressure. His luck was at a all time low.

Bobby let out a sigh after giving Tommy a confused look. He was probably thinking the same thing Johnny was,"Come on, Daniel's eating in a restaurant. Why should Johnny bother him when he's eating? Again."

"I agree with Tommy, Johnny should say Hi." They all turned to Jimmy, finally breaking his quietness of the day. Johnny was starting to think Jimmy wouldn't say anything until the end of the year.

"Why?" Bobby said, incredulously.

Jimmy shrugged,"I'm bored. Plus, look at the guy." He pointed past all of the Cobra's turning heads to the restaurant window,"He's eating all alone."

The result of the bantering that followed with that statement, Tommy wanted them all to give their classmate a 'Hey, Larusso!' even though Johnny had beef with the guy. Well, beef starting from yesterday. Dutch wanted to fuel the fire and get Larusso back. Apparently in his stupid caveman eyes, it was totally just his fault that Johnny got detention. Bobby didn't want to bother a poor classmate, but two against three was a fight already won.

Following the defeated Johnny, they all crossed the road to the restaurant. Some girl asked how many was in their party. Dutch pointed to the two seater Larusso was sitting at,"That."

The girl gave Dutch a small giggle before saying,"Sorry Sir but I don't think there's enough room for you all there? I could get you a bigger-"

"It's okay, Ma'am. We're just saying hello to someone." Bobby said with a smile.

She nodded, letting them all squeeze through the path to Larusso's table. Johnny wondered what he was thinking once they all surrounded his table. Johnny himself was thinking,'Am I going to keep seeing him every second of every single day until the year is over?'

Dutch gave Larusso a cruel looking smile,"Well, look who it is-"

He was probably going to say some snide remark before Tommy interrupted,"Hey Larusso!"

Dutch looked at Tommy confused,"What are you doing- smiling like that?"

Tommy returned the confused look,"What do you mean? I thought we were saying hey?"

"No, we're getting revenge. Confronting the enemy! Right, Johnny?" Dutch looked back at Johnny. Bobby sighed, shaking his head. What movie did Dutch think he was in? Larusso was currently confusedly returning Tommy's wave.

"What do you all want?" Larusso said, looking at Dutch and Tommy, who were confusedly feuding over what they were doing in the restaurant, then his gaze fell over to Johnny.

"I don't know. What are you doing here?" Johnny returned the question, letting out an embarrassed sigh for his idiotic friends. Maybe Larusso was right when he called them all goons. Besides Bobby and Jimmy, those two actually had brains.

"Eating?" Larusso looked at his own plate before back at Johnny with an amused grin,"Waiting for my Ma's break."

Dutch came out of his little fight with Tommy to open his mouth. Smirking after learning about how Larusso's mom works a low income job. Bobby grabbed him, making Dutch yelp out instead,"Hey!"

With Bobby pulling Dutch away and out of the restaurant, the rest of the Cobras followed. Johnny looked back to Larusso, away from the sight of Dutch scrambling in Bobby's grip like a whiny child. He looked like an oversized child anyways with his... botchy bleached blonde hair.

"Have fun doing that, bye twerp." Johnny walked away, knowing that even if he couldn't see Larusso behind him, he was grinning. He heard Daniel confusedly say,"Bye Johnny?"

That's one way to humiliate yourself in front of a classmate on the first day of school. Johnny didn't care, Larusso could think what he wanted of Johnny. Unless he thought that Johnny was the one following him around.

Did fate just decide to make Johnny see Larusso at every turn he made? Why was the guy suddenly everywhere? Maybe he was a alien and had superpowers. What kind of power could make Johnny see him literally everywhere?

Daniel did look out of this world, in a alien bad way. Obviously.

Chapter Text

A few agonizing school days later, ones filled with Johnny's eyes always finding Larusso's. Days of scooting to the very edge of his chair in english class, it was time for soccer tryouts.

Johnny was in high spirits since he knew he wouldn't run into Larusso after school. Soccer tryouts would last a few hours and he wouldn't see the guy riding his flimsy bike home.

Of course that certainty of his was wrong. Larusso had to make his life a bit worse every so often. Making new bad thoughts spring up into Johnny's brain seemed like Larusso's favorite past time. Not only was he going to his school, but now Larusso wanted to get in on the soccer team?

He couldn't help but glare Larusso's way the entire time in the locker rooms. Maybe not the entire time in the locker rooms, that would be weird. He did made sure to keep a non-stalking and non-peeping tom eye on him though.

Who wouldn’t keep an eye on new meat? Johnny was the soccer captain. He was just checking out the newbies, it was his job. Of course he wasn’t checking the guy out or anything.

He couldn't help but wonder if Larusso was any good at soccer. After all, the only thing he saw at the beach relating to Larusso and soccer, was his soccer ball flying into his face.

What was wrong with him? When did he ever have to convince himself that he wasn’t checking a guy out? Johnny attempted to use the same tactic that always helped him block out confusing thoughts, sports and practice. Bobby and him were passing the ball to eachother before the tryouts did a quick match all together. Time was going by peacefully, until Bobby kicked the ball all the way over to Mars.

Johnny gave his terrible partner a deadpanned look after he had the audacity to tell him to get the ball back. Bobby cruelly and unfairly replied with,”Hurry up, man!"

“I’m not the one that kicked it!” Johnny shouted back, waving his hands to somehow symbolize what had happened.

“You're closer to it." Bobby shrugged his shoulders, earning a groan from Johnny.

He jogged after the ball, going to pick it up until another set of hands were on it. Once he looked up, he was greeted by a pair of dark chocolate eyes. The same pair that seemed to be haunting him in his nightmares and reality.

“Hey,” Larusso hummed out, ball tucked under his arm. He looked a little too comfortable, considering how he was holding Johnny's ball captive.

Johnny paused, wondering for a moment while staring into Daniel's eyes. Did this dork not know that it wasn't right to steal someone's things or the soccer captain’s at least? He didn’t feel like teaching him a lesson again.

“Uhm, hello? Can I get my ball back?”

“Sure,” He smiled, before shoving the ball so hard into Johnny's arms that he stumbled back a bit.

“What the hell?" Johnny exclaimed angrily, about to return the favor while clenching the ball in his arms.

“Oh, I don’t know. It’s not like I'm doing exactly what you did to me with that radio?” Larusso pursed his lips at Johnny.

Johnny rolled his eyes, finger coming out to point at Larusso while holding the soccer ball under his free arm,"You already got your 'revenge' by ruining my sweater!"

"Are you even supposed to be at soccer tryouts? You literally have no meat on you, you're basically bones.”

“Wow, that is very offensive and all with the finger in my face," Larusso huffed at him before smirking,"And for your information, I'm pretty good at soccer."

"Oh yeah, like I would believe that. You couldn't even control your ball at the beach."

"I told you that wasn't me! Freddy was the one that kicked it."

Johnny's face took on an unimpressed look. His hand, that wasn't holding the soccer ball, went to wave in the air dismissively,"Whatever, you're still not getting on the team."

"How do you know that, huh?" Larusso stepped a little closer to Johnny. Obviously, Johnny couldn't back up. That would make him a pussy. Daniel gave him no choice but to step closer.

"Oh, I would know. I'm the soccer captain." The smirk on Larusso' face transferring to his own.

"Good to know," Larusso nodded at him before inevitably opening his mouth again,"Now I know that you're just saying all that because you're scared. Scared that I’m gonna replace you as captain!"

“Uhm no, I'm saying all that because I know you suck and I don’t want to see you here.”

”Whatever, we’ll see.”

"And I know that you secretly do want to see me here." Larusso whispered to himself loudly. Johnny responsed with a glare.

His suspicions that Larusso was an alien were getting stronger by each day. Sure, maybe Johnny should have taken Larusso' long legs as a sign for him being actually good at soccer. If he had realized that, he would have totally stopped taking it easy on him.

Now Johnny had another problem, Larusso had gotten yet another way to terrorize Johnny’s life and ruin his perfect plan.

He would be forced to see Larusso’s ugly, smooth, and a little bit nice face during and after school. He was a little peeved. It wasn't guaranteed yet though, that whole little game wasn't a verified right to the soccer team.

“Damn it!” Johnny yelled, throwing the water he surprisingly brought to practice on the ground. In the corner of his eye, he saw Bobby sigh. For some reason, he was worried about Johnny's water intake. Johnny had already told him that if they sold Coors and soda at stores, it must be a good safe substitute for water. Plus, he always only drank water a few days before a karate tournament. That balanced it all out.

Johnny ignored Bobby's obvious disappointment, preoccupied with the crisis going on in his head. How would he ever escape Daniel Larusso? Why was this twerp set on ruining his life? What had Johnny ever done to deserve this? Maybe he shouldn't have lured a colony of ants into Jimmy's locker at the dojo with Tommy and Bobby.

Larusso was smirking at him from a few steps away. Johnny considered the idea of lunging towards him and grabbing him by the neck. He would make sure to roll and break Larusso's ankles very hard so that he’d never be able to kick the ball with those long legs ever again.

Instead of doing that, Johnny gave him a tight smile. That intense eye contact broke whenever some guys, the same ones that Johnny had seen at the beach with Daniel, walked over to shake hands with him. He was so happy, he loved watching people congratulate Larusso on getting another step closer to ruining his life.

All of those guys probably just wanted to be Larusso's friend so they could get into his pants. He did infact have a lot of girly feautures. Those big brown eyes and his.. nothing special about them lips. He was admittedly somewhat not atrocious. Johnny wouldn’t be surprised if those dirtbags only put up with Larusso's behavior because of that.

“Johnny, you alright? Looks like you're about to burst a vein," At some point, Dutch's hand started patting at Johnny's shoulder,"Or maybe punch me."

“What?- Oh I'm peachy, I just hope Ali gets back in her right mind," Johnny nodded in Larusso’s direction,"Don't know what she sees in him."

Had he really looked that frustrated?

Dutch’s rare concerned expression slowly disapeared as he followed the directon that Johnny was nodding to. He started laughing loudly,”Oh God, looks like that dweeb found his place with all the other Reseda losers. Don't worry Johnny, once Ali finds that out..”

“Reseda, he’s with that crowd?” Johnny interrupted Dutch's soon to be spiel to ask. That made sense, Johnny just hadn't made the connection. Larusso was friends with that Francis guy and Reseda kids all stuck together.

Dutch nodded, same amused and smug look on his face. One of Dutch's talents were dragging out jokes about someone once he found something humiliating to them, hilarious to him,”Check it out! He’s talking to Freddy Fernandez over there. Bet they live in the same old and rotting apartment!”

Johnny inwardly winced, letting out a fake huff of laughter for Dutch’s satisfaction. Normally, someone talking about the trash of Reseda made him laugh. It didn't usually make him feel like this,”Whatever, we should get out of here. Practice is over and I don't want to see them anymore.”

”Hey, I won’t argue with that,” Dutch shrugged, starting to walk in the other direction. The crazy part of that whole interaction was how it made Johnny jealous. He didn't even laugh at Dutch's jokes, he was jealous that he wasn't the one seeing Larusso every day in a shitty apartment.

Didn't he want to see Larusso less? Why would he ever want to stoop down to Reseda level again? The only good thing about living in Reseda back then was there being no Sid.

Finally stepping off of the field with Dutch rambling nonsense into his ear, he swore he caught a glimpse of Larusso watching him.

Johnny was probably just imagining those wide brown eyes on him. He imagined alot of things that he wanted.

Chapter Text

It was finally Halloween. Johnny didn't really care about holidays but this one probably had to be the best one. Normally Johnny and his friends would do group costumes. Maybe while walking through the door, his stepdad would call him some cruel word. Johnny didn't care though. It was Halloween and even though Sid could definently ruin his mood, he wouldn't let Sid take this day away from him.

Johnny was considering skipping the Halloween dance going on at their school. However, that wouldn't happen because whenever he told Bobby about it, the guy freaked out and went all,'This is our last year in high school Johnny! We have to go!' Have to was a bit overboard but Johnny didn't voice that thought.

Now all the Cobras were in Johnny's room and getting ready. Bobby was on Johnny's bed with him and doing his skeleton facepaint. Tommy was sititing on his carpet with Jimmy and doing his facepaint too. Dutch was in the bathroom, looking at his already finished facepaint.

"Dude, you should have gotten more white makeup." Tommy complained, even though Johnny had gotten plenty and Tommy actually was the problem. He basically used the whole big tube on himself. Johnny got them brand new too.

"It's facepaint, not makeup." Johnny corrected before Bobby scolded him since he moved his mouth.

"Johnny, how many times do I have to tell you?" Bobby gritted out,"Don't talk! The foundation has to set!"

If Bobby wasn't Bobby, Johnny wouldn't let him talk like that to him.

Jimmy incredulously asked,"How do you and Tommy know so much about this makeup thing?"

Tommy and Bobby looked at eachother before brushing the question off. Tommy coughed out the words hastily,"Just a past girlfriend."

Jimmy was about to say something else before Johnny corrected him,"It's not makeup!"

Bobby rolled his eyes as the room went into a peaceful silence. Johnny tried to not move with a relentless brush tickling his face. On the other hand, Jimmy sat peacefully on the carpet while Tommy painted him some teeth.

Dutch came back from the bathroom with the skeleton costume already on. He peeked around the door before coming in,"When's your stepdad coming home Johnny?"

"Don't know." Johnny mumbled, taking caution while moving his mouth. Bobby kept having to redo the skeleton teeth because of Johnny's moving. At this point, he might get stabbed by the own brush he bought.

Speaking of Sid, the asshole was probably out at some Halloween party for work. Johnny would bet money that he was already showing his mom off like a trophy. Of course he wasn't really aware of their plans for the night.

Dutch nodded in response as he sat on the carpet with Jimmy and Tommy. He was probably starting a conversation with a stupid topic. Johnny didn't get to hear and laugh about what they were talking about because Bobby quietly asked,"Speaking of your stepdad, how's it been lately?"

Johnny didn't respond for a bit before letting out a small huff,"I don't wanna talk about it. It's Halloween."

"You never wanna talk about 'it' until you're at my house when it actually happens. You know.. when things go bad." Bobby caught Johnny on that. Why would Johnny want to talk about Sid though? In what world?

"Yeah, I know Bobby." Johnny went back into silence before Bobby gave him an expectant look to go on. He sighed out his next words,"Lately, he's been more worried about work then starting stupid shit with me. I bet he doesn't even see me come into the house."

"So, it's been fine." He finished off with a grumble.

To Johnny's relief, fate was finally on his side. Of course only just a little bit. Tommy spoke up from the carpet,"Speaking of Daniel, what are you thinking about doing Johnny?"

Apparently the stupid conversation that Dutch started with Jimmy and Tommy was about Larusso. Thankfully, he could move his mouth now since Bobby was done with his face paint.

"What would I be doing about Larusso?"

"Well, you know he's on the soccer team now." Dutch spoke up and started moving his hands in fist motions,"You should beat his ass so he quits or something."

At the though of beating Larusso up again, he winced. Johnny didn't wanna wail on the guy again after that time on the beach. That was just because he felt so weird about it. He didn't know why since beating up Larusso was just like beating up any other guy. At least it should've been like that.

"Nah, I don't care if he's on it or not." Johnny shrugged, looking away from Dutch,"I'm probably gonna leave the team. Soccer's not my thing."

"What? You're the literal soccer captain!" Bobby gasped from across him on the bed.

"Yeah, Johnny! Whether you care about it or not, you've been on the soccer team since freshman year!" Tommy yelled from the carpet, for some reason. Johnny could see even Jimmy opening his mouth to say something. Those words didn't leave his mouth though because Dutch beat him to it, yelling even louder then Tommy.

"Don't let Larusso take that from you!"

Johnny stood up from the bed, grabbing the skeleton costume that he had laid over the nightstand in his room. He was the only one that hadn't changed into it yet. Maybe he should have earlier like the guys did.

"Why does everything have to be about Larusso? I just don't wanna play soccer anymore." Johnny grumbled, making his way to the doorway of his bedroom. Before he left to go change in one of the mansion's many bathrooms, he said,"You all know I like karate more anyways."

Once Johnny had gotten changed, they all made it into his firebird. The firebird was the one prized thing he had. Johnny's prized things would obviously be joined by Ali, if she was still his. Tommy called shotgun so Jimmy, Dutch, and Bobby all settled into the backseat.

"Well, I guess I'm gonna quit on soccer too then." Bobby mused after he slid into the backseat.

Jimmy nodded in agreement,"I only joined because you all said it'd be an excuse to hang out. If we're all gonna leave then I'm gonna quit too."

Dutch looked at Bobby and Jimmy with his mouth slightly slack. He let out a huff, throwing his hands behind the seat,"I'm not gonna be bossed around by some other captain."

Jimmy, Dutch, and Bobby stared expectantly at Tommy in the front seat. Johnny's attention turned off the road and onto the guy next to him. Tommy was fiddling with his fingers.

After a minute of silence, Tommy bursted out with an answer,"I'm probably gonna stay on the team!"

Once that was awkwardly settled, they probably wouldn't ever talk about it again. Johnny wondered if he could pass on his soccer captain leadership to someone. If he could, he would definently choose Tommy.

While pulling into a parking spot near the gymnasium, Johnny heard a bit of Dutch's new topic of conversation. He was telling Jimmy about how he's probably eaten two thousand slices of pizza in his entire life.

Once they all walked into the gymnasium, Bobby and Jimmy split through the crowd and went straight to the fruit punch bowl. What were they so thirsty for? There was no way they thought it was already spiked. Maybe they were going to spike it. That was more of a Dutch and Tommy thing to do but Jimmy and Bobby had their moments of rebellion.

Speaking of Dutch and Tommy, they were already going to find a pack of chicks. Specifically Barbara for Dutch and who knows for Tommy? Now, Johnny was alone. What the hell? Where'd his group go? Now he was a lone skeleton. He huffed and decided to head to the bathroom, maybe he would wrap a joint? That train of thought was interrupted whenever he turned around and was face to face with a red polka-dotted shower curtain. Who brought the bathroom showers to him?

He was about to brush past the weird costume, until he heard a familiar voice.

"He thinks he can do whatever he wants to people." Johnny heard what he knew was Ali's voice say.

"Who?" Larusso asked and Johnny could feel his blood start to boil. Of course this weird costume was Larusso's. Of course he was talking to Ali.

"Johnny." Came Ali's voice again and of course, they were talking about Johnny.

Larusso let out a noise of realization,"Oh."

"Love to-" Ali started talking again. Johnny leaned in a little closer to the shower curtain. However, his listening in on Ali and Daniel's conversation was cut short whenever someone bumped into Johnny. Where was that little bit of luck he had earlier? That random asshole pushed him right into Larusso's shower costume.

Johnny heard a yelp as he grabbed something hard and bony. He let go at the same time he'd grabbed what he recognized to be Larusso's shoulders.

"Hey!-" That voice was Daniel's. The costume turned around in a whirl. Now Johnny was face to face with none other then Daniel Larusso,"-Johnny?"

"Watch where you're going, dweeb." The words rushed out of Johnny automatically. What could he say that wouldn't make it seem like he was listening in on Larusso's conversation? Once again, his eyes automatically raked over Daniel. Surprisingly, the dark lighting in the gymnasium for the party made Daniel even more.. what was a good word for it?

No word besides ugly. That was the only word Larusso could be to Johnny.

Larusso's face was scrunched up in a look of disbelief.

"What? You're the one that knocked into me! I was just standing here!"

"That's my exact point! Maybe you should like, move?" Johnny said as he dragged his attention away from Daniel and to someone else in the costume. Low and behold, he was met with a surprised Ali Mills. She had on some white costume.

"What are you doing here?" Johnny knew that Larusso and Ali were just talking. That didn't keep him from wondering what they were doing before that.

"Talking to Daniel but.. apparently not anymore." Ali huffed, pushing past Johnny and out of Larusso's costume. With Ali out of the costume, there was more room for Johnny. He slid into the shower curtain.

Johnny crossed his arms while glaring down at Larusso. He couldn't help himself from asking, didn't he have a right to know?

"Were you really just talking to her?"

"What?" Larusso asked, a confused expression on his face. Whenever Johnny just kept expectantly looking at him, a smile started forming on Daniel's lips,"Yeah, we were just talking."

"You didn't kiss or something?" Johnny's eyes narrowed down at Larusso.

"I already told you, we didn't." Daniel suddenly coughed,"But we could?"

Johnny's narrowed eyes turned wide. His crossed arms fell to his sides. He must have looked stupid but that didn't stop his mouth from going slack, he was in shock. Was this some other weird thing Larusso would do with Johnny and then do with Ali after?

"What?"

"Nothing, what are you doing in my costume?"

"My friends ditched me and I ran into your weird costume. That's what." Right, that was a whole lot of nothing Larusso said. Johnny pinched the shower curtain in his hand and rubbed it between his fingers.

"What's so weird about a shower?" Daniel laughed out, arching a brow at Johnny,"You don't use showers?"

"For your information, I do use showers." Johnny scoffed, letting go of the curtain between his fingers,"I'm just saying, it's kind of weird for a costume."

"Maybe the reason you think it's weird is because you need a shower, like me." Daniel mused cornily. Johnny couldn't help but notice that the twerp wasn't even looking into Johnny's eyes. He was looking at something else.

Johnny's face flushed a lighter color then the red polka-dotted shower curtain underneath his facepaint,"What are you talking about?"

Daniel apparently decided to not answer Johnny's question, instead changing the subject,"What are you wearing that onesie for?"

"It's not a onesie, it's a skeleton costume. A group costume." Johnny felt a bit embarrassed. His costume wasn't a little kid pajama. Maybe it was. He didn't buy them,"What are you wearing a shower costume for?"

"Last minute costume my friend made for me."

"Did your friend Freddy make it for you?" Johnny's hands clenched a little. He hoped that his words didn't come out too roughly.

"No, my apartment maintenance man." Daniel corrected before he asked,"Do you have an obsession with Freddy or something?"

"What? No!"

"Right, you're more obsessed with me." Johnny came to realize that the smirk on Larusso's face did awful things to him.

"Me? You're the one always starting stuff." Johnny defended himself with an incredulous expression on his face. The closeness they had in Larusso's shower costume was definently not helping Johnny have this conversation.

"Right, saying that like you didn't follow me after school into a restaurant."

For someone so delusional to think that Johnny was obsessed with him, Larusso looked real smug.

"Excuse me? Didn't I tell you that wasn't my idea?" He wondered if the Cobras were wondering where he was after their disappearing act. What would they be thinking if they knew he was in Daniel's costume? Probably thinking he changed his mind about not beating Larusso up because of the whole soccer thing. Why was Larusso smirking?

"Yeah, sure Johnny. I think you're just drawn to me or something. After all, I've been seeing you a lot lately."

"No, I've been seeing you a lot lately. You've got it switched up. You're the one that bothered me at the beach." Johnny put his finger in Daniel's face. That certain face being a whole lot closer then he thought it was. This costume definently wasn't big enough for two,"You're the one that started this."

"Well, you put that pie on my seat because I was going to sit next to Ali." Of course he had to bring up Ali. Larusso had about the biggest crush on her.

"Oh so you're her hero? Everything that includes Ali includes you?" Johnny scowled.

"I didn't even say that?"

"Why did you have to talk to her at the beach?" Johnny knew he was rambling, he knew he was saying too much. He couldn't or he wouldn't stop,"What did you even flirt with me for if you were going to do the same thing to her after?"

"Are you jealous?" Daniel was biting his lip again. God, what would Johnny do to be the one biting Larusso's lip for him?

He couldn't deny it. Johnny knew he was jealous. He knew he wasn't jealous of Larusso too. What was wrong with him? Thankfully, Johnny didn't have to tell Larusso that since... since the guy's lips were suddenly on his.

Daniel had some type of power that made Johnny feel things he shouldn't. What was he even trying to do in the first place? Go to the bathroom? He should take Daniel to the bathroom with him.

Larusso's lips weren't as soft as any girl's lips were. They were a little rough and that was probably because of how much Daniel bit them. For some reason, Johnny knew that even if Larusso's lips were as rough as sand paper, he would still be drawn to them. He would still like it. This insufferable asshole, he would still like kissing him.

One of Johnny's hands went to thread through Daniel's dark hair as he felt Larusso's tongue slip into his mouth. Wasn't it crazy that Johnny was just letting this happen? Wasn't Johnny crazy for kissing Daniel Larusso? Wasn't he disgusting for kissing a boy?

His hand fell from the back of Larusso's head to shove against those familiar bony shoulders. When Bobby had told Johnny what black facepaint to buy, apparently it wasn't as transer proof as Bobby claimed it to be. Daniel's lips were covered with his black facepaint.

"What was that for?" Daniel protested and Johnny didn't know if he was talking about the kiss or being shoved away.

He could hear his breathing pick up as his eyes fell to Daniel's lips again. Johnny shoved the shower curtain away, stepping out of Larusso's stupid costume,"This isn't ever happening again!"

He heard Larusso yell out,"Johnny, wait!"

Once Johnny realized that he really was considering going back to him, he scowled. He let himself be engulfed by the mess of people in the gymnasium.

All he wanted to do was get out of there. Of course that was a little hard to do whenever Johnny had no idea where he was in the gym. Had they really migrated that far in the gymnasium? Whenever he finally found the gym door, some guy in a spiderman costume stopped him.

"Hey, what's up Johnny?" The guy in the spiderman costume had his hand up, probably expecting Johnny to reciprocate and talk. Johnny just walked by him and out of the doors. His friends could find a ride home.

-

Daniel was currently stunned, standing inside of his shower costume. Alone now since the person that was accompanying him just rushed out in a hurry. What the hell just happened? He didn't force Johnny to kiss him or anything right?

Through the still open shower curtain of his costume, a girl peeked in. She had the same flower in her hand from earlier, she looked amused.

"What's up with the black stuff on your mouth?" Ali questioned.

Daniel's face contorted into an even more confused state then he already was in. Black stuff? Oh, Johnny's lipstick. Daniel couldn't tell her that he was kissing her ex boyfriend. He was friends with Ali.

She had invited him to sit with her friends and hang out with her. It would be kind of way wrong if he told her he had a crush on Johnny. Plus, from the looks of it, with the way Johnny ran away from Daniel, he probably didn't want anyone to know that happened either.

"Uh, cupcake icing." Daniel mumbled while frowning. What was so wrong with the kiss that Johnny just ran out like that? Johnny was enjoying it one second and then not the other? It wasn't that bad.. or bad at all to Daniel. He sighed and turned around, walking away from Ali. The red polka-dotted curtain was still open so that he could see where he was walking in the gymnasium. Where was the door? Why was every part of this school so confusing?

Ali, a little shocked that Daniel just left without another word, said to herself,"I didn't even know the school bought cupcakes for us."

Chapter Text

"I'm off to work Daniel!" Lucille shouted loud enough for the whole apartment complex to hear. Daniel was sitting right at their small kitchen table, steps away from where she stood at the door. Really, did she know what voice control was?

"Have a good day at school, dinner's in the fridge Daniel!"

"Yeah, thanks Ma." Daniel mumbled out, staring into his cereal bowl. He'd been stirring his spoon in the bowl for the past five minutes.

Suddenly, he could feel a laser-like glare burning into his skull. If Lucille felt like something was off, she'd for sure voice it. Daniel prepared for some ear full about who knows what.

"Don't tell me the same guy that gave you that black eye is bothering you again." She pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a frustrated noise,"Seriously, what kind of kids are people raising these days? Tormenting my son.."

"I told you that was because of my bike." Daniel huffed the words out, standing up from the table and bringing his bowl to the sink.

"Right, well is that bike bothering you again?"

"Goodbye, Ma."

Lucille let out a heavy sigh, shaking her head again,"Right, goodbye Daniel."

Once the door shut, Daniel slung his backpack over his shoulder. It was Monday and he'd been going insane over the whole weekend. Maybe it showed and that's what his Ma was talking about. Daniel didn't really know why he felt so weird.

'This isn't ever happening again!'

Oh wait, Johnny Lawrence existed and he'd left Daniel hanging at the Halloween Party. How could he run off after that? Why would he leave so abruptly? Daniel knew he wasn't that bad at kissing. He had at least some experience, thanks to Judy.

More importantly, why did Daniel care so much about a guy he met about three months ago?

Unlocking his bike from the apartment complex's bike rack, he was hoping school would miraculously be cancelled. Daniel wasn't really excited to walk through the school doors and find out Johnny told the whole school they kissed. His senior year really would be hell then. Maybe his Ma would randomly move them to Virginia this time.

Surprisingly, Johnny hadn't outed him to the whole school. Daniel didn't even get pelted by stones or called slurs by Johnny's goons whenever he walked through the hallways. More shockingly, Daniel couldn't even spot him walking in the halls. The one time he did, Daniel could've sworn that Johnny's face was a redder shade then usual.

Sure, this strange unexpected outcome was definently better than being made fun of. That didn't mean Daniel wasn't a little upset. Couldn't they talk civily like normal people after kissing eachother? Never mind that, since when did they ever talk civily? What he meant was, couldn't they not ignore the fact that they kissed? Daniel already knew the answer to that question. Still, Johnny didn't even glance in his direction.

"Ali, I'm gonna go to the vending machine." Daniel stood up from his seat. Lunch had finally came around. Ali looked up at him quizzically, slowly starting to nod.

"Okay, want me to come with?"

"No, I won't take that long." He went out to the outside area, the area a certain someone showed him when they had detention together. Johnny was right, no one was out there. Grabbing a quarter from his pocket, he shoved it into the vending machine's coin slot.

"Hey." Daniel tensed up, turning around sharply. He was met with the sight of Johnny's band tee. Maybe the guy had been looking his way then?

"Hello?" A slow smile was pulling at the corners of his mouth. He stopped himself, turning around to grab the hostess pudding pie package he bought. No way would he smile just because this guy acknowledged him.

He might have really gone insane over the weekend. When Daniel turned back around, he thought that Johnny looked a bit sheepish.

"What do you want?" Daniel bluntly asked.

Johnny's eyes fell away from Daniel's face, mumbling inaudibly.

"What?"

"What did you kiss me for?" Johnny blurted out aggressively. Daniel could trace Johnny's vision down to the pudding pie package he was holding.

"I don't know." He shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, you so do know." Johnny snapped at him, now glaring at Daniel.

"I think you're cute."

There was a pause of silence.

"What is wrong with you?" Johnny scoffed, sounding frustrated,"You said that at the beach too."

"There's nothing wrong with me. You are cute."

Johnny brought both of his hands up to his eyes, rubbing them furiously. He dropped his arms back to his sides, staring at Daniel in silence again.

"What's with that look?"

"What look?"

Johnny's eyes narrowed before he sighed out,"Nevermind, I guess you normally look weird like that. You have a stupid face."

"It sure is your favorite one to stare at though?" Daniel smirked, snorting at his own joke.

"Shut up." God, Johnny made him pathetic.

"Make me."

All of a sudden, Daniel was being pushed into the vending machine behind him. For someone that was pretty much avoiding Daniel for the day, Johnny sure was acting bold now.

In a more bruisingly manner than at the Halloween party, Johnny's lips met his. Daniel would choose his lips being sore over getting a black eye from Johnny on any day. His hands came to settle on Johnny's hips.

He couldn't help feeling a little smug. Didn't this asshole say this was never gonna happen again? Before Johnny could even think to shove him away, he bit hard on his bottom lip. He heard him let out a yelp, yet he didn't move away from Daniel.

He watched Johnny's fingers go up to touch his lips, staring wide eyed at Daniel.

"Is this gonna happen again?" He looked between the two of them, to where their hips were touching.

It was then that Johnny decided to leap away from him, looking like he'd been burned.

"You-" The bell rang loudly through the hallways. It was like Daniel's Ma was the bell, that was how loud it was. Johnny practically sprinted away from him. He was finding it easy to scare Johnny away.

Before Daniel left to get to class, he looked back at the vending machine. Luckily so since apparently when Johnny pushed Daniel against the vending machine, another pudding pie came out.

He put it in his pocket before walking into the hallway. Daniel looked up just in time to see Johnny speed walking in front of him.

"What's with the long face Daniel?" Susan said, smirking after bumping into him. Ali, who was walking right beside Susan, stared at Daniel with a concerned and also skeptical expression.

"Nothing, what long face?"

"I thought you said you wouldn't take long?" Right, Daniel did say that.

"Come on, you can tell us the truth. Does it have something to do with how early you left the party on Friday?" Ali said, sympathy lacing her words. Atleast she could actually talk to him about things, unlike someone. How come she was so spot on though?

There was a moment of silence before Ali followed up her words because Daniel hadn't answered,"Well, if you don't want to tell me now then you could maybe tell me later? Susan and I were planning on going to Golf N Stuff."

What was Golf N Stuff? Daniel hadn't ever heard of that before. It was probably some popular hang out spot. Ali was nice, he still didn't think she would invite him out to some place though. He slowly nodded, knowing that he could use the distraction. This was the second time Johnny ran away from him after kissing eachother.

"Yeah, my Ma isn't going to be home until late anyway. What time are you guys going?"

"We're gonna go around seven. Hope you're good at games!" Ali smiled, not noticing that Susan was glaring at her.

"What, I'm not enough company?" Susan grumbled, lightly elbowing Ali in the side. Susan seemed to like nudging people. Daniel couldn't help but also notice how lighter Susan nudged Ali compared to when she shoved into Daniel.

Ali's eyes widened, quickly shaking her head. She started rambling on in a way to reassure Susan that she enjoyed her company.

Daniel heard her whisper something along the lines of,'You know that you're well enough company!' and then continuing with,'Daniel just seems like he needs a hang out.'

He looked away from that situation and back infront of him, somehow catching a glimpse of Johnny rounding around the corner wall of the hallway. Of course the bell had to ring right when he was starting to make progress with Johnny. Assuming that he wouldn't have ran away from Daniel without the bell's interruption. It was like the world would bring them together and always rip them right back apart.

Whenever Daniel looked back to the girls, Susan was dreamily smiling about something Ali had said. Wow, that was a face Daniel never thought he'd see on Susan. Girls always had weird relationships with friends, almost as weird and confusing as Johnny.

All of a sudden, Ali let out an exasperated huff from beside Susan,"I'll kill him."

"Huh?" Daniel looked to Ali confusedly,"Don't tell me you're gonna kill me at Golf n Stuff?"

"Don't tell me you're acting this way because of Johnny." Ali shot back quickly and by the look on Daniel's face, her face dawned over with some clarity,"Did he threaten you or something?"

Did Ali see Daniel watching Johnny go down the hall?

"Nope, not because of him." Daniel stared into Ali's skeptical eyes, ones that were slowly breaking into him,"Okay, there weren't any threats."

"So it is about Johnny?" Why did he tell the truth and why did Ali have to have a brain?

"Alright," Daniel sighed defeatedly. He had just met Ali this year and she was already seeing through him,"What if it is?"

Walking past the bathrooms, the monitor for the boys bathroom screeched out,"Alright, get to class boys!"

A sigh from Ali and a glare from Susan, they made their way to the opposite direction of where Daniel was going to his class,"You're gonna tell me more at Golf n Stuff!"

"Whatever you say, Madam!"

-

"Fucking hell.." Johnny gasped through the water that he was splashing onto his face.

A mistake happens once, a decision happens twice.

Chapter Text

If Johnny went straight to his empty house after school, he was going to have a crisis. Maybe he'd been in one since the Halloween Party. Actually, maybe since the day he'd met Daniel Larusso at the beach.

That's why he made an impromptu hangout with his friends. The Cobras all went into Johnny's firebird after school. With no plan before hand, their first thought was naturally Golf n Stuff.

Golf n Stuff was a staple hangout place for everyone, especially couples. In fact, Ali and Johnny's first date was at Golf n Stuff. That wasn't why Johnny was so familiar with the place though. Whenever Johnny stopped being a major crybaby and got friends, this was where the Cobras went most often.

"Haven't hung out here in a while." Bobby mused in a reminiscent way. He was right, they hadn't gone since the middle of summer.

It wasn't too long until they were nearing the building. It was radiating light and laughter.

"Hopefully the chick that runs the prizes still works here." Snickering sounded in the backseat as Johnny recalled what went down the last time they were at Golf n Stuff. After dominating all of the machines, they went to exchange their tickets for prizes. The girl running said prize booth hit it off with Jimmy. It was probably the first time they saw Jimmy get game.

"I bet Jimmy hopes that she's here too."

Johnny could picture Jimmy blushing in the backseat. Once Johnny parked and they all filed into the building, it was pure chaos.

"Alright, I'm gonna go get a drink!" Jimmy rushed out with one step into the arcade. Johnny didn't know that people could buy drinks at the prize booth, at least that was the direction Jimmy was speedwalking to.

"We're gonna go win some games!" Tommy grinned, yet the goofy grin on his face didn't match what he bregrudgingly mumbled,"You're not coming with us Johnny, you always get the most points."

"Yeah! We three deserve to team up against you!" Johnny guessed that they all silently acknowledged Jimmy wasn't going to be competing with them. He was most definently spending time with that girl, if she still worked at Golf n Stuff.

"What the hell?-" Whenever those words left his mouth, everyone disappeared into thin air. This was starting to seem like a remake of the Halloween Party. Actually, it might be just like it, only if Larusso was at Golf n Stuff too. That wouldn't happen though.

"Oh Susan, you're so silly!" Someone laughed, someone that sounded suspiciously like the girl who was helping ruin his perfect senior year.

Turning towards the Spy Hunter machine, Johnny's eyes were unfortunately greeted with the sight of Susan. She was using the machine and all of her oil slick as she was chased by a switchblade. Not a good strategy, she was gonna get her car wasted.

Somehow, she was grinning stupidly while losing. Ali was bumping playfully against Susan's shoulder. They were real close, like way too close. Did girls normally just look like they were about to kiss if they were friends? Girls had weird friendships.

Yeah, he was done watching them. Johnny had to keep his score of being the best at arcade games. No way would he let those three idiots get more tickets than him. Walking in the direction opposite of his ex girlfriend, he ran right into some guy.

"Woah-" The words were pushed out of the guy he ran into. Seeing how he was smaller than Johnny, obviously he immediately started to say,"Watch where your.."

He was tan, had dark hair, and wearing a plaid button up with camo pants to an arcade. Did he travel back in time to the Halloween party? Daniel Larusso turned around grumbling,"You were the one that- Johnny?"

"What are you doing here?" Johnny's face heated up. Running into Larusso reminded him of earlier today, kissing eachother again. Right, his luck really was nonexistent. He goes somewhere to distract himself and exactly what he was distracting himself from appears.

Daniel ran his tongue over his bottom lip before responding,"Uh, hanging out with them."

He pointed towards Ali and Susan. Johnny felt immediate annoyance run through him. His jaw even ticked,"Oh, you having fun?

Whenever Daniel's eyes left Johnny to look over at Susan and Ali, he frowned. He wished that Daniel wouldn't look at anyone else but him. He was right infront of him after all, why wouldn't he keep his eyes on Johnny?

Why would he wish that?

Daniel shrugged his shoulders, looking back towards Johnny,"Bored, those two are flirting and I've never been here before. I don't really know how to have fun here."

"Well even if it was just you and Ali, you still wouldn't be having fun." Johnny grumped and why did he say that?

"Bummer, I don't know what I can do then." He sighed dramatically, looking at Johnny with a put upon sad expression,"Do you know someone who can show me a good time?"

On the outside, Johnny scowled but on the inside, he was screaming. Why should he show Larusso how to have a good time in his favorite hangout spot? Why would he willingly spend more time with a infuriating twerp? He was always left with more questions than answers with Larusso.

"Come on."

Of course, instead of Johnny being the King Cobra, he was King of making bad decisions. He reached out to hold Daniel's hand, instantly pulling his hand back. He quickly started to walk away. If Larusso wasn't following him, he was going to die from embarrassment.

Standing next to a air hockey table, Johnny looked over at Daniel,"How do you not know how to have fun in an arcade? Don't tell me you didn't have these in New Jersey?"

Expectedly, Larusso had the audacity to look at Johnny like he was stupid. It was a genuine question.

"There's arcades in Jersey, Johnny."

"Just asking," Johnny shrugged his shoulders, taking two tokens out of his pocket. Surprisingly, all of the Cobras had bought their tokens together. That was only surprising because they were apparently in such a hurry to seperate from eachother. He slipped the tokens into the coin slots of the air hockey table.

"Maybe I just said that to give you a chance to actually talk to me instead of run away." Daniel mumbled, making his way to the other side of the table.

Pretending he didn't hear that, Johnny went to his respective side of the air hockey table. Johnny reached across the table, going to grab the red pusher.

"Hey, stop!" Daniel practically climbed onto the table, reaching across and putting his hand over Johnny's.

His eyes widened, snatching his hand away. Johnny furrowed his brows, saying his words more louder than neccessary out of embarrassment,"Shit, what Larusso?"

"Red one's mine." Larusso stood back on his side of the table, holding the red pusher in his hand.

Johnny scoffed, grabbing the blue one,"That big of a deal?"

"The blue one matches your eyes more."

What the fuck?

"You know how to play this or do I need to teach you?"

"I got it." The twerp smirked.

Johnny was going to beat Larusso's ass in air hockey. That would teach him to not smirk so smugly at Johnny.

The puck came out on Johnny's side, grabbing it out with his hand that wasn't holding the pusher, he put it on the table. Hitting the puck a little too hard, it shot against the table's borders, bouncing right back into Johnny's goal.

Daniel started laughing loudly while Johnny's mouth fell slack. He'd never managed to do that before.

"Wow, just wow."

"I'm just a little rusty." Right, like he hadn't came here just a few months ago. It had to be just because he was playing against Larusso. Next tims, he was going to score for sure.

He wasn't going to acknowledge the fact that Larusso was some sort of prodigy in air hockey. He got all seven points and only three minutes of the time limit of five passed. Grinning, Larusso waved his tickets in Johnny's face.

"Maybe I should teach you how to play?" Daniel hummed out the words. They were walking towards the crane machines.

"You only won because you're from New Jersey."

Once they were infront of a claw machine containing all types of stuffed animals, Johnny looked beside him. He was met with Daniel's intense glare.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"It snows there and it's colder. You probably played all types of hockey all day."

"You've gotta be kidding me." Daniel shook his head, snatching the token Johnny had taken out of his pocket.

"Winner gets to go first." He sing-songed, shoving the token into the coin slot. The prick bested Johnny in one arcade game and he was acting like a hotshot.

"I don't remember agreeing to that but go ahead, use me for my tokens." Johnny sniffed, watching Daniel move the crane to some pink ass elephant.

"What the hell?" Daniel grumbled, the crane barely pinched down on the stuffed animal,"This is rigged."

"Nope, you just suck. Move." Johnny smirked, now he could best Daniel. Shoving a token in, he went right for that pink elephant.

"You didn't even land on it." Daniel snorted, shoving his hand into Johnny's pocket and grabbing some tokens.

"What are you doing?" Johnny squeaked, quickly clearing his throat after jumping away from the crane machine.

Larusso rolled his eyes, moving the controller sharply as he positioned the crane over the pink elephant,"You probably wouldn't have given me any so I had to take some."

"Well, yeah cause I'm better at this than you. Plus, their my tokens!"

Every single one of their tokens got wasted on that damn pink elephant. Walking away from the claw machine empty handed and with less pride.

"You should have just let me use all the tokens. I could have gotten that thing with another try."

"Uh, yeah right? That machine was rigged! We should have stopped when I first tried it, but of course you had to give it a shot." Daniel nagged into Johnny's ear.

"Obviously, how could I trust your skills?" Johnny rolled his eyes, looking back down at Daniel before straight away. The reason Johnny felt hot after looking at Larusso's face was because of how mad Daniel made him. He wasted all of Johnny's tokens.

"How could you not? I beat you at air hockey!"

By the hate of Johnny's bad fortune, the arcade lights were similar to the ones that they couldn't escape in Daniel's shower curtain. They were like the ones at the Halloween Party. Dark and changing colorful lights that reflected off of Daniel's face. The same face that was the farthest away from being pretty in any scenario.

They weren't even walking anymore, now standing in the middle of the arcade. The frustrated look on Daniel's face slowly disappeared the longer Johnng stared at him. The longer he stared at him, the closer they got.

"Hey, Johnny!" Bobby called from the Heavens.

Officially, Daniel was some sort of alien with magical powers. Snapping out of the alien trance he was forced into, he looked around for Bobby. Right, another reason Larusso beat him at air hockey was because he was a alien.

"Hello?"

"Ready to prepare our tickets? We all ran out of games to play." By all, Johnny guessed Bobby meant Tommy, himself, and Dutch. Johnny had only played one game that even gave tickets if the player won. He had a quantity of no tickets.

"I'm pretty sure we've got you beat this time Johnny!" Dutch declared, grinning with streams of tickets running down his body.

"Nope, I do!" Came mummified ticket Tommy's voice from the tickets surrounding his body and face.

"Hey, I thought we were beating Johnny with our combined tickets?" Bobby looked to Tommy. Actually, Bobby looked to the ticket casing Tommy was in.

"Changed my mind! I can totally beat him myself with this many tickets!"

"What are you hanging out with Larusso for?" Dutch blinked, staring at Johnny incredulously.

"Daniel's here?!" Tommy's muffled voice came louder from the tickets,"Hey, quick! Make me some eyeholes!"

Unfortunately, Johnny didn't get to hear or see Dutch accidentally closing Tommy's breathing holes in the ticket casing. He didn't get to because Bobby was interrogating Johnny with his eyes.

Johnny cleared his throat,"Just uhm, found him."

"Excuse me? Don't make me sound like a stray." Daniel retorted and by the grace of the one percent of good luck Johnny had, Jimmy came over.

"Hey guys!" Jimmy smiled, cheery after probably sucking face.

"Jimmy- help me get Tommy out of all these tickets!" Surprisingly, this was the only time Johnny had ever seen Dutch frantically worried. More surprisingly, Jimmy was holding a pink elephant in his hand.

Gaping at the plushie in Jimmy's hand before looking to the matching gaping face that Daniel had, Johnny snatched it out of Jimmy's hands.

"What?-" Jimmy looked away from Tommy's ticket covered body to Johnny.

"Jimmy, I'll give you relationship advice if you give me this elephant." Dutch was tearing into the tickets around Tommy. Out of no where, Tommy erupted from the tickets, tearing them off himself. He let out a.. victory scream?

"Ticket's zero, Tommy one hundred!" Some people passing by their group in the middle of the arcade stared openly at him.

Johnny didn't understand the grimace Jimmy gave him at that insanely good offer. It didn't lessen the instant gratification he felt when Jimmy nodded though,"I think you need relationship advice more than me but you can have the elephant."

Grinning, he looked over to Daniel. He held the elephant out to him.

"Keep it." Daniel nudged Johnny's hand back.

"What? But I-"

"Winner's choice."

"Fine."

Once the Cobras all traded in their tickets for prizes, Tommy boasting about how he won the ticket war, they all walked out to the parking lot. Jimmy was again, gone. Johnny guessed that one last look and goodbye to the prize girl wasn't enough for Jimmy. He sped rushed out his reassurances of having another ride home, but Johnny doubted Jimmy was going home anytime soon.

"Johnny- I should have told you sooner but I totally forgot." His attention was called to Bobby. By the look on his friend's face, he wasn't going to like what he was gonna hear.

"I can't go to the country club Friday. My parents and I are going to some surprise weekend trip."

"Dammit, now I'm gonna be alone."

"I'm sorry man."

"I'll go with you."

-

Ali and Susan were currently sitting on a bench inside of the mini golf area. They'd already done their rounds in the arcade and the photo booth.

Susan always liked whenever their hangouts ended up like this. The two of them and the night sky. It didn't matter how loud the music was or anything, all Susan could hear or think of was Ali anyways.

"I wonder where Daniel went," Ali's face changed from a peaceful expression to a concerned one. She looked down from the night sky, now staring back at Susan,"I didn't mean to ditch him."

Right, Daniel Larusso. Susan had forgotten all about him even going with them. She shrugged her shoulders, fingers twitching restlessly against the bench.

"I don't think he minds that we hung out without him. Maybe he found somebody else at the arcade to hang with?" It wasn't a maybe, Susan knew he had. She watched him go off with the one and only Johnny Lawrence earlier at Golf N Stuff. Actually, she'd seen them go off together quite a lot lately.

Susan had always thought that Johnny was some kind of gay. That was why she was somewhat happy whenever Ali was dating Johnny and wasn't single. If Ali had dated a guy that was actually into her, Susan's time with Ali would've been further taken away. It was a selfish thing to want, Susan couldn't help it though. She liked Ali, alot.

"Susan?" Ali's voice snapped Susan out of the zoned out state she'd been in. The expression on Ali's face wasn't a weirded out one though. It was more of a common thing for Susan to be caught staring at Ali after this long of a friendship together. One that Susan wished was more than a friendship.

"Yeah?" She wondered what Ali was talking about while she zoned out.

"Do you like me?"

Susan blinked blankly,"Yes."

"Good, I like you too. I'm glad we're friends." Ali smiled, eyes going back up to watch the night sky. Her head leaned onto Susan's shoulder.