WITHIN THE SPAN OF THE next few hours, a lot had changed. For one, Miguel and Dylan were together. A milestone, that was for sure. The title, "boyfriend" was still weird for Dylan to call him. It still sounded weird. She'd have to write her mom and see if there were any worthy alternatives that got the point across well enough. But of course, the karate rivalry was still going as strong as always.

Sam and Tory had fought each other at an after-prom party at Stingray's house. Dylan was still confused on what had happened to him. He dropped off the face of the earth and miraculously reappeared with alcohol, snacks, and the promise of a free party. Charlotte wasn't as impressed as the other kids with his shenanigans.

"So . . . you saw him walk into Cobra Kai one day trying to get back in?" Dylan asked the redhead. Charlotte had calmed down and had changed into a pair of comfortable clothes. She'd done what Dylan should have done. "Odd."

"Very," She responded airily. "Kreese wasn't too happy. Neither was Silver." Dylan cringed at the man's name. She was still doing all she could to avoid him. It might have been cowardly, but it felt so much better than actually seeing him face to face.

Iris was still laughing somewhere else about Stingray's neighbor crashing the party and then getting his ass handed to him. It was horrifying, but still entertaining.

Of course, the next thing to happen, was Miguel's failed attempt at breaking up the fight between both of his ex girlfriends. Dylan had personally allowed him to go right ahead and see what could be done, but she'd expected the failure.

Miguel 0, angry karate fight that followed 1.

Robby walked in like an idiot at the wrong time, saw Miguel on the pavement with Tory, and had to get himself involved. An all out battle between the four of them ensued. Dylan found it more entertaining than anything.

"Are you serious?" Tory yelled, having been drenched with whatever the awful mix of alcohol in Dylan's solo cup. She shrugged.

"Boo hoo, your dress isn't ruined." Miguel tried not to laugh, but it was obvious to everyone that he couldn't quite mask the smile.

"You think I broke your heart? You broke mine too!" Sam confronted Robby during an awkward moment between them. Iris sucked in a breath, holding up her phone after hitting record. Charlotte face palmed at the action.

"Sick burn, Sam," Iris joked, rolling her eyes. Tory knocked Sam off of her feet, ending the moment and sending the whole group spiraling once more. The fight escalated, so Dylan grabbed a water hose as the last resort.

"Have another drink!" Dylan yelled, clearly beyond tipsy. Tory's makeup smudged when the jet of water hit her square in the mouth. Sam unfortunately was collateral damage. Miguel ducked out of the way just in time, though Robby was grappling with him.

"You think my dad cares about you? He's just trying to make himself feel better for screwing up with me!" Robby told Miguel. It was cruel, and the boy made sure to glance at Dylan while he was saying it, for added effect.

"I'll fucking kill him." Dylan was angry, no doubt, but it hurt more than anything else. Not only did she already know that she was a charity case that Johnny had picked up, but it hurt her heart that Robby would dare say something so hurtful to Miguel.

"Let me." Iris had taken matters into her own hands, having decided that despite not knowing any karate, she had a pretty mean throwing arm. First, she threw her heels at Robby, who ducked, surprised. "You little shit! You practically just called yourself a screw up in case you didn't notice. And you'd be right about it." She threw a tray of drinks at him. Robby had to blindly swat at each item that came his way.

"What do you think has her so worked up about this? Does Iris have a personal vendetta against Robby none of us know about?" Miguel asked Dylan, having made his way back over. Dylan shrugged.

"She's a very protective friend," She answered simply. She turned and checked to make sure Miguel was still intact. "Doing alright?" She brushed the blood off of his upper lip with care. His shoulders dropped under her touch.

"Alright."

"Good."

"—Do you ever shut up?" Robby yelled at Iris. She hadn't stopped throwing insults at him. She straightened, offended.

"Will you ever grow a pair?" She retorted.

It would be true to say that Iris Daley was not one to play games when it came to people like Robby Keene. Dylan never considered people to be good or bad, or anything like that. There was always a grey area. Iris didn't exactly do that either, though. She categorized people into two different categories: The tolerable and the dickheads. You didn't have to be wise to guess which one Robert Swayze Keene fell into. You just had to be tolerable. Robby Keene was a bully, in Iris Daley's eyes. In a world that she liked to see in black and white, he couldn't have been good news.

She sprayed the hose in his face for good measure.

"You've made your point clear, Daley." Robby's voice was muffled and tired. "You don't have to waterboard me for hours," He grumbled, giving her the stink eye.

"Don't I?"

"Doesn't she?" Dylan repeated quietly. Miguel wrapped an arm around her. "Gross, you're all wet."

"It's from that stupid hose!" He defended. He pulled her closer anyways, and she gave up trying to get out of his hold eventually. Iris turned around and smiled softly at the two of them, before she remembered who she was arguing with and got back to it.

Eventually Robby got tired of arguing with the fiery redhead, deciding to gently shove her out of his way and resume his fight. Miguel left Dylan's side, and because of Robby's error, was shoved into the pool with Sam and Tory. Dylan covered her mouth to stop from laughing, but she didn't need to. Everyone was shocked and excited about it, even going as far as to jump in themselves. Tory yanked Robby in, both of them laughing.

"Loverboy's staring again," Iris pointed at Miguel. Dylan took her word for it and went over to him. He swam up to the edge.

"How's the temperature?" She asked him, smirking. He grinned.

"It's heated, so pretty nice," Miguel commented. "Why? You wanna take a dip?"

"Not particularly. I don't have much on under this." His eyebrows rose at her revelation, and she paused to glare at him. "Watch it. I didn't mean it like that. This dress is expensive and I'm not gonna let Iris and Charlotte's parents' money go to waste."

"Fine, Dylan. I guess you win this time. But I'm gonna get you back for this," Miguel warned his girlfriend. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms like she always did.

"Sure thing, Casanova."

Sam LaRusso was on her own in the pool that night, unable to bring herself to have any fun. She could respect her ex's choice in a new lover, but that didn't mean that she wasn't upset about it. Still, she smiled at Dylan when she looked over, a dazzling smile on her face that Miguel was surely the cause of. Love hurt.

       "I REALLY HAD A GOOD TIME, despite getting punched in the face a couple times," Miguel told Dylan when they walked up to the apartments. "I'm sorry Sam was acting all . . . weird."

"I have to cut her some slack. She and Tory have history—"

"So do you, but you didn't end up ruining prom for a bunch of people," Miguel corrected. It was true, to an extent. Tory and Dylan hadn't spoken properly and respectfully in months. And Dylan hadn't caused such a scene at a party like Sam had multiple times now.

"People process things differently. And besides, she's upset about a lot of things right now. I get it," She reminded him, looking over at him. Sam was still in love with him, and it always hurt to know that those feelings weren't reciprocated. "Should we check in with Johnny? See how he's doing?"

"I was gonna suggest the same thing, doll," He joked with her, knowing that she had never liked the old fashioned name.

"Gross. Never say that again." He let her walk up to the door first, and it was already unlocked. "Johnny, did you get wasted again?" She called, opening the door to a dark room. Miguel raised an arm above her to push the door open for the both of them.

"Sensei, you got a second to talk? We had a really interesting night," Miguel also said to the seemingly vacant apartment. Dylan wondered if he was even home. It wasn't rare for Johnny to have bad nights and stay out at a bar or a restaurant for hours.

"Is he here?" She asked quietly. "Oh—"

"Shit," Miguel finished. The room looked destroyed, and Johnny was laying on the ground with empty bottles of beer surrounding him. He looked wasted and awful. Dylan had never seen him this bad, and she'd seen him go through countless middle life crises.

"Come inside, come inside," He groaned, looking at them. Miguel motioned for Dylan to stay there, as if she wasn't already frozen in place. He ran to pick Johnny up so that he could sit down.

"What happened? Why'd you drink so much?" Miguel asked him, concerned and upset about the state of the older man. Dylan noticed the bruises littering his face. It reminded her of Miguel and the rest of her friend's karate fights. He'd been in a bad fight to get bruises like that. The question was just who the culprit was.

"Old man can kick . . . " Johnny trailed off.

"Kreese?" Dylan was hoping for that when she asked. She couldn't live with herself if it wasn't him. He didn't answer.

"I don't know what that means . . . " Miguel told Johnny, only paying attention to how bad of shape he was in. The Diaz boy was dragging Johnny now. "Let's get you up. Come on. Dylan, it's okay now," He murmured to his girlfriend. She was at Johnny's other side to support his weight almost immediately.

Johnny started mumbling another song while they dragged him to his bedroom and tried to set him down on the bed as gently as possible. He was so drunk he wouldn't remember the encounter at all when he woke up. But Dylan and Miguel would.

"Put his legs up—yeah, just like that," Miguel tried to show Dylan, who was shaking with nerves and heartache. Miguel looked at her worriedly, checking in with her without saying anything. "There you go. Okay," He whispered. They took his shoes off and Miguel grabbed his beer out of his hands.

"Oh sorry . . . " Johnny spilled his beer on Miguel's hand. Dylan cringed.

"It's fine, I was already wet."

"Me too. From pee," Johnny laughed at his own joke ( it wasn't a joke ). Miguel frowned at him. He and Dylan tried to understand what happened.

"Gross. Okay look, we're going home. I'm going to bed. We can talk in the morning." Miguel turned to leave, before Johnny grabbed his wrist.

"Wait, wait, listen, listen. I want . . . I wanna be a father to you. I really do. I try to protect you. I try to be there for you. I just suck at it. I really suck at it," Johnny started. Miguel looked so emotional as Johnny continued, that Dylan felt happy for him. "But I want to so bad."

Miguel's eyes welled up with tears, and Dylan's did as well.

"You're doing just fine. I love you," Miguel admitted. Johnny began to sob, turning away from them as he sniffled.

"I love you too, Robby." That was when everything fell apart. Dylan could see Miguel's heart break in two. The boy couldn't keep it together anymore. Instead, his tears fell and his lips quivered. Dylan stared at Johnny, a thousand thoughts going through her head. Miguel slowly walked out of Johnny's room. Dylan watched him, defeated, before she followed him out the door. Miguel was staring at her when she made her way towards him, carefully.

"You're not going to leave me too, are you?" He asked her, so broken and innocent that it moved her to tears.

"Never. I'm still your girl," She told him truthfully. He slumped against her into a hug, shutting the door with one hand behind her. They stood there, crying. Miguel's body vibrated as his shoulders shook with each sob.

"It hurts knowing that he's never going to see me the way I see him."

Wordlessly, Dylan walked him to her apartment, making a mental note to let his mother know where he'd be by phone call once he'd settled down. Miguel was grateful not to be home. His mother, Carmen, would only ask more questions. And with the tournament right around the corner, that was the last thing he needed. Right now, he needed Dylan.

author's note —

kind of a filler chapter, but the second half had a lot of really important stuff. the 'i love you too, robby' scene is so heartbreaking. miggy and dyl finally get together and then this happened :(

anyways, there should only be two or three chapters left. the last two episodes are pretty much the tournament. I might have a shorter chapter a bit like this one next, and then the final two will be the tournament and miguel's issues throughout the final episode. dylan will also be dealing with a lot that final episode.

and just an update, i started school like a week and a half ago, and transferring schools as a senior sucks. i know a lot of the people there but it's still so weird. everyone is weird now lmao. but yeah, i've just been stressed and busy with the commute to and from school and some other stuff. I've had bad luck recently with some car problems, awkward school related anxiety stuff, and then ortho problems. then i got sick yesterday. feeling so much better now but still not great. so much has been happening honestly.

i thought i'd get this chapter out and hopefully one more tomorrow. my goal is to finish this season right when season five comes out in a few days. so by the end of next week.

stay cool