【 reseda, 2017 】

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━━ Johnny Lawrence was incapable of duping somebody if his life depended on it. However, the blatant idiocy that controlled his brain never failed to surprise her. 

Take today, for instance.

Stevie had always seen her neighbor as some lazy fuck, who was content with drinking his life away. 

No goals, no ambitions, nothing.

Today, she had to give it to him. 

Reluctantly.

Disgustingly.

Because as she was stopping by the mini mart to steal a new tube of lipstick for work, she did not expect to walk past a Cobra Kai Karate dojo. She stood in the parking lot with a loose jaw and a look of disbelief. After a few seconds of trying to process that fact that Johnny Lawrence ( because who else would open this? ) got off his ass to start a dojo.

Of everything he could set his newfound aspirations to? 

A karate dojo.

Then, Stevie did something she hadn't done for a long time.

She laughed.

And not the little giggles or snide chuckles.

She laughed.

She laughed so hard, her stomach hurt. Her cheeks were burning, and tears pricked the corners of her eyes. She stumbled on the uneven ground of the parking lot.

"Oh shit!" Stevie stood up with her hysterics tinting her voice, "This, I gotta see!"

Stevie readjusted her bag with her uniform, and walked to the dojo. She wiped the stray tears from her eyes before she opened the door, and the bell jingled over her head. The ghost of her smile remained as she took her shoes off and leaned on her shoulder against the hallway wall.

She watched as Johnny flipped Miguel over his shoulder, and the way the man yelled at his student to stand, and the heads shooting towards the entrance from the sound of the bell. 

Both were staring right at her.

Both looked horrified.

Miguel was averting his eyes. Her words at lunch still stung. However, Johnny was staring her down, and he looked pissed.

"The hell are you doing here?" He pointed his finger at her before turning on his student, knowing how he felt about her, "Did you invite her here? I already told you─"

Miguel tried to defend himself, "Sensei, I swear I didn't─"

Stevie cut them both off with a smirk playing on her face, "Jesus, Jackie. Lay off,  I was just on my way to work, and thought I'd check it out. It's not every day I get to see a real life dojo!"

Her nose scrunched up in mock excitement, and Miguel thought he might die. Because that nose scrunch was the single cutest thing he had ever seen in his fucking life, and he forgot her all about her silver tongue from the day before.

Johnny, however, did not find her charming. And after seeing the heart eyes reappear on Miguel's face, he did not believe, for a second, that he didn't invite her. He glared at his neighbor before flipping Miguel over onto his back once more. He groaned loudly and complained to his Sensei as he stood up.

"What was that for?"

"Quiet!"

Stevie visibly tensed at the volume of his voice. 

Suddenly, it wasn't Johnny yelling. 

It was the iron tipped cane of Madame B. 

The titanium grip of the Winter Soldier. 

It was the honeyed threats of Madame V, and the lingering touch of General Dreykov.

It was everything that had fueled her nightmares since she was four years old, wrapped into one rage-filled word. It made her feel like a scared child rather than the weapon she actually was, but she remembered that Johnny was no Dreykov. And even if he was, there were no chemicals keeping her from hitting him back.

When Miguel managed to dodge a punch Johnny threw at his head, Stevie, without hesitation, shoved the student to the side, and sent a kick towards Johnny's head. After he blocked her leg, he looked at her like he had been waiting for this moment his whole life.

And that's how long it lasted.

A whole moment.

The first punch Johnny threw her way, she grabbed his fist before yanking it down. Taking advantage of his unsteady form, Stevie flipped her body upside down by wrapping her legs around his neck before they rolled onto the ground.

Stevie kept her grip on Johnny's extended arm as she released her top leg from her grip to kick the man in the chest. Once she took her win, she stood up to Miguel, who, despite being taller, held himself like he was small in front of her.

"Stop acting so scared, and start hitting back. You get stuck fighting those idiots again and you hesitate, you might as well book a hospital room."

She turned her back on Miguel, ignoring Johnny in favor of sitting on the ground to study his lesson under the guise of doing her sultry makeup. Johnny just stared at her with narrowed eyes as he stood up, rubbing the pain from his chest.

Stevie took his look as a bad one, and returned her own glare, "You have a problem, dickface?" 

( Despite his ... negative feelings towards her, he had no malice in his eyes. Not intentionally. Now, call him stupid all you want, but he knew an abused kid when he saw one. )

He pushed those questions to the back of his mind and matched her hostility, "Just don't distract the dork, Fleetwood. He already shit at karate."

Stevie flipped him off and pulled her shoplifted eyeshadow palette out. The mundane task was normally good at keeping her mind busy, but Stevie was a fighter. It was in her blood, ingrained into her very being, so she couldn't help it. She kept getting distracted by Johnny trying to teach Miguel how to punch.

The "cobra strike" as he called it.

"The lunge, which requires the use of the whole body," Johnny demonstrated the position of his body before and when he made contact before he extended his arm to finish the punch, "And the bite, which is everything that happens after you make contact."

What the fuck?

That was such a stupid name. And analogy. ( Maybe it was decent for a beginner, but seriously? Cobra strike? Does he need to make being a snake his entire personality? )

At this point, Stevie was essentially done with her face, cleaning up the edges of her red lip, and giving the lesson her full attention, "You don't stop here where the knuckle hits the bone. You punch through the bone, like the guy you really wanna hit is standing behind this asshole."

"Hyah!" Johnny had a quick punch: strong fist, angled up, and he stayed in that defensive position out of habit before he relaxed. Miguel was focused on everything his sensei was explaining──from position to placement.

When it was Miguel's turn to practice his punch, Johnny's phone started ringing and he walked away. This allowed Stevie to really take the time to analyze Miguel's form.

To it plainly, it was awful.

She would go so far to say it was pitiful to watch.

Stevie curled her lip, embarrassed by the fact that he was punching with his thumbs sticking up before leaning on the dummy, and she had enough when he readjusted his fists to tuck his thumb beneath his fingers.

"Stop, stop, stop," Stevie pushed herself up to help fix the mess that was Miguel's ... everything.

"That might've been the worst punch I have ever seen," Stevie showed an incorrect fist and pushed against her open hand, "If you tuck your thumbs inside your fist, you'll break them."

She took the opportunity to teach Miguel how to actually make a fist before he decides to hit with one.

Stevie started by grabbing his right hand, and opening his fingers before pressing his hand against hers, "Open your hand. Keep a steady wrist." 

She walked him through each step with a clipped tone.

Roll your fingers.

Make sure you nails are hidden. 

Tuck your thumb over your first joint of your knuckles.

Step by step, Miguel followed Stevie's hand positions until he formed a solid fist. It left her to walk him through how to throw a punch.

"You have to stay light on your feet. If you swivel, you can get more momentum. More power in your punch."

Miguel nodded absentmindedly, and while he managed to actually move the dummy this time, there had not been much force behind his hit.

Stevie sighed and took it as a sign to show her own punch. Getting into position ( and ignoring the second set of eyes locked on her form from behind ), her left shoulder faced the dummy, and she was on her toes. 

Slowly, Stevie went through the motions she had walked through since she was a child. Her defensive stance wouldn't allow for any real hits to land. The swivel of her feet and the windup of her arm proved to be useful in her throw, for when the fist landed, the dummy stayed bashed in for a solid ten seconds before it reformed to something reminiscent of a face again.

She glanced at Miguel from the corner of his eye, and his jaw was dropped. Despite being present as she knocked Kyler and company around outside the mini mart, he seemed to be in awe at her sheer strength.

Johnny was reluctant to compliment her, but even he couldn't deny her talent, "That ... wasn't ... terrible."

"It was better than yours," Stevie retorted with a raised eyebrow, daring him to counter her statement.

She was almost positive Johnny's eye started twitching, "Shut up, Nicks. I didn't fucking ask." Shortly after, he told Miguel to show him his punch. 

This time, it wasn't awful.

Stevie would go so far as to say his form was excellent. ( You are so welcome, dingus. ) 

Did Miguel's punch have any force behind it? Not by any means, but it was better than the stupid little thumbs up thing he had been doing when Johnny's back was turned.

However, Johnny was exclusively focused on the lack of force, and the insults he had for his student were a first for Stevie, to say the least. ( It wasn't every day you heard a fifty year old opening a karate dojo due to a midlife crisis calling a fifteen year old a ❛ wangless dork ❜. )

It started getting to his head, but Stevie got behind the dummy to offer some extra motivation, "I'm Kyler. The mannequin is that dipshit he's friends with. You wanna get to me? You have to go through him."

That seemed to spur Miguel on, and he was landing much more solid hits on the dummy. But if there was one thing Johnny and Stevie had in common, they knew how to piss somebody off. Johnny kept telling him to repeat his move, louder and louder every time while questioning if he was a loser.

Meanwhile Stevie acted obnoxiously, "Come on, Rhea. That the best you can do?" 

Stevie was taunting Miguel, and it was working better than anything else. The hits were coming in a rapid succession until he moved so fast, his arm flew past the dummy. If anyone else had been behind that dummy, he would've landed on their face. But she was not anyone else, and she had caught his fist in her hand with ease, with pursed lips as she studied him.

"Not bad, Diaz ... not bad at all."

The teen had a fiery look on his face as he stared at her, and the tension was thick. Miguel had finally caught onto the fact that Stevie was practically holding his hand, and a bashful look replaced his previously fervent one.

Johnny felt too uncomfortable to break it. Not because of the little staring contest between his neighbors. He was not scared to interrupt Miguel eye-fucking the bitch. He was more invested in the bitch. Her anger, her competency, her drive. He had to admit that she was a fighter if he had ever known one.  

Beep. 

Beep. 

Beep.

Stevie dropped Miguel's fist to look at her watch, the source of the beeping, and her eyes widened minutely.

Without a word, the illusion of the moment was broken. Stevie had grabbed her bag, only turning the watch off while she was flying out the door. She had moved so quickly, it was like she was nothing more than a ghost of their imagination.

Miguel just furrowed his eyebrows in concern before Johnny distractedly told him to start cleaning the mats. He reluctantly broke his gaze from Stevie's long empty spot in front of him, and left his Sensei alone.

In his solitude, Johnny took the opportunity to do something stupid.

Something he was historically advised against doing.

He began to make a plan.

━━ next chapter will be a little more johnny/stevie-centric, so ... that'll be fun