⊱ ────── {⋆⌘⋆} ────── ⊰

BELLA stared at the box that was on the center table, taking a sip of her wine as she put her feet up on the sofa. she hadn't opened the box or attempted to open the box since she arrived from her mother's house. the brown box held many memories of her and johnny's time together, 10 years worth of memories.

after contemplating on whether or not to open her box of memories, she reached for the center table and grabbed the little box. she took a deep breath and took the top off. upon opening it, she felt her eyes water as she began to look through the box.

the first thing she came across were ticket stubs from movies they went to watch together, such as iron eagle, rocky iv, and say anything. bella remembers all those movie dates as if they were yesterday. the couple took turns picking the movies and although their tastes were different, they enjoyed each other's company.

bella placed the movie ticket stubs aside and continued to look through the box, finding notes and scorecards from their dates at golf n' stuff. the brunette softly chuckled as she looked at the little notes and doodles on the sides. she then found a newspaper cutout about the mötley crüe concert in madison square garden, smiling as she remembered sneaking in for johnny's birthday.

tears streamed down from bella's green eyes as she found a picture of her and johnny on their wedding day. she then came across another photograph, this time of the young couple on the beach in mexico during their honeymoon. she smiled and wiped her tears as she looked at herself, at 23 years old, with her baby bump.

reaching inside the box, she found a red velvet ring box, some cassette tapes, and the first ultrasound of stevie. bella let out a soft sob as she looked at stevie's ultrasound, the writing in the back reading 'baby's first picture'.

bella placed the ultrasound to the side and grabbed the ring box, opening it and revealing the small diamond promise ring that johnny gave to her before graduation. inside the box, there was a small note that said:

it's you and me now. i love you.
– J.L.

"you and me." bella muttered to herself as she cleaned her tears.

she closed the velvet box and placed it aside before she grabbed the cassettes. sharing mixtapes became a thing for the young couple and because their tastes in music were very different, they gave each other mixtapes with songs that reminded them of each other or song recommendations.

bella went over to her bedroom and grabbed her walkman from a box in her closet. the first cassette she inserted was titled 'johnny's favorites', she pressed play as looks that kill began to play, causing bella to chuckle.

the brunette cleaned her tears while looking over the song list. she grabbed her cell phone and opened up her spotify, creating a playlist from this mixtape. once she finished adding every song onto this playlist, she titled it 'J.L💘'

⸻

flashback!
— june 1985; north hollywood, ca

"don't you dare change the channel!" bella shouted from the bathroom, as she got dressed for work. "i love this song!"

"okay, okay. i won't change it." johnny laughed, placing the remote down, as madonna's lucky star played on mtv. "but i'll have you know that i don't do madonna."

"don't care." bella laughed as she walked out of the bathroom to grab her work uniform. as she slipped out of her robe and into her red bathing suit, she softly sang along to the tune.

while bella changed, johnny laid in bed, watching the brunette dance around in front of the mirror while brushing her hair. he smiled as he listened to her sweet singing voice.

"starlight, star bright, first star i see tonight." bella sang as she walked out of the bathroom and to her closet. "star light, star bright, make everything alright."

"you have such a pretty voice." johnny said.

"do you plan on getting up and going to work?" bella laughed as she grabbed some shorts from her closet.

"nah, i think i'll just enjoy the concert." johnny smirked as he laid back, placing his hands behind his head.

"wiseass." bella said as she tossed him his clothing. "c'mon, we were already late on monday, we can't afford to be late."

"but it's thursday." johnny said as he got out of bed. "besides, max said he'd open, so we don't have to go in until later."

"you're just trying to buy time, aren't you lawrence?" bella laughed while she continued braiding her hair.

"c'mon, we have the house to ourselves." johnny said, wrapping his arms around bella's waist. "let's take advantage of it."

"then we'll leave after lunch." bella giggled as she placed a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek.

"sounds good to me." johnny smiled as he placed a kiss on her shoulder before walking back into the bedroom to get dressed.

while bella began to brush her teeth, she looked over to her boyfriend who was getting dressed while humming to madonna. she took one more look at herself in the mirror before walking out.

bella stepped out of the bathroom and sat on the edge of her bed, watching johnny stand in front of her vanity, fixing his hair and humming. "y'know, it's not polite to stare." he smirked.

"you're humming along to madonna." bella laughed. "i thought it wasn't your thing."

"i'm only humming because its playing." johnny said.

"not true." bella said. "i think you're secretly a madonna fan."

"nope." johnny said. "too girly."

"are you sure?" bella laughed.

"fine." johnny said. "it kinda grew on me because reminds me of you. the way you start singing whenever one of her songs plays and the way you dance around, all cute."

"i knew it." bella smiled as she wrapped her arms around the blonde, holding him tight. "we better hurry up if we wanna get that half a day."

"getting there a few minutes late won't hurt." johnny smiled.

⸻

stevie sighed as she sipped on a cherry coke while finishing up some spreads that chrissy had been asking for, this entire week. placing the bottle down, she grabbed the spreads and headed over to chrissy's office.

"hey aunt chris, you busy?" stevie said, placing her glasses atop of her head.

"not anymore, what do you have for me?" chrissy said, as stevie walked into the office and took a seat in front of the desk.

"i have those spreads you needed." stevie said, handing chrissy a folder.

"best news i've gotten all day." chrissy smiled.

"it's been that type of day, huh?" stevie said.

"i started my day with a 2 hour meeting, i think i relearned how to sleep with my eyes open." chrissy chuckled as she sat back into her chair.

"i can imagine." stevie laughed as she heard a knock on her door, which was the twins who had brought lunch for chrissy.

"hey aunt chris, we brought food." aiden said as he and ashley walked into the office. "and we brought your favorite, chicken parm."

"aren't you two the sweetest." chrissy said, clearing her desk as aiden placed a bag of food on her desk.

"um, what about me?" stevie said, throwing her pen cap at aiden. "did you forget i exist?"

"of course not." ashley said, signaling to the door as alex softly knocked.

stevie turned around to find the blonde boy softly opening the door, holding a bag of food. "hey chris, is it cool if i come in?" he smiled.

"long time, no see stranger." chrissy smiled. "come in."

"what are you doing here?" stevie smiled as she greeted alex.

"ash invited me. we bought chris her chicken parm and for you, chicken carbonara." alex said, handing stevie her bag of food.

"i was starving so thank you." stevie smiled as alex took a seat next to her.

"it's like you guys read my mind." chrissy said, grabbing a soda from her fridge.

"so how's it going around here?" alex said.

"great actually." chrissy smiled. "what about you? how's it going with you two?"

alex and stevie chuckled as they turned to look at each other. "we're just friends, chris." alex said.

"it's been great though." stevie said.

"we missed you around here." chrissy said.

"you know i missed you too chris." alex chuckled.

as stevie continued to eat, she received a text message from miguel. she placed the plate down and grabbed her phone from her back pocket and read the message:

miguel 🐍

hey stevie, i could use your help 🙂

let me guess ..
it's my dad 🫠

we could use a woman's opinion 😬

"hey aunt chris, i'm gonna head out." stevie said, grabbing her lunch. "it's kinda urgent.

"what's up?" chrissy said as stevie showed her the text message. "you left him alone with your father, didn't you?"

"it's part of his physical therapy." stevie said.

"then it it urgent." chrissy chuckled. "say hi to him for me."

"i'll walk you out." alex said as he stood up and opened the door for stevie. chrissy and the twins looked at each other and softly laughed.

"just friends?" ashley smirked.

"if i didn't believe your aunt bella and uncle johnny when they told me they were 'just friends', i don't believe them either." chrissy chuckled.

⸻

"those are the only photos i have, i don't have much after high school." johnny said, while miguel looked at the pictures with a confused expression.

stevie opened up the door and walked into her father's apartment, and before she could speak up, her eyes landed on the harness that her father had installed to help miguel stand.

"okay, that harness thing is seriously giving me ptsd from my baby days." stevie said, placing her purse on the side.

"it helped you stand and walk, didn't it?" johnny said.

"okay, that's not important." stevie said. "so, what'd you need my opinion on?"

"sensei's trying to redo his profile, but we ran into some problems when it came to adding photos." miguel said, handing the pictures to stevie. "check it out."

"oh, wow. male model much?" stevie said, softly chuckling. "okay, maybe we can try something different? maybe one where you're wearing a shirt?"

johnny grabbed the vans box, where he kept all these pictures and looked for another picture. "how's this one?" he said as he handed another picture to stevie, this time where he was wearing a ripped tank top.

"um, another? maybe less nip slip?" stevie said, handing them back to her father.

"that's all i have." johnny said.

"hand me the box. i got this." stevie said. "i'll
probably have to bleach my eyes out after this, but it was for a good cause."

"we're probably just better off going with some new photos." miguel said.

"like present day?" johnny said. "not sure i want you to grease me up right now, baby oil gets over everything."

"i'm not even gonna ask." stevie said, as she continued looking for pictures.

"i'm not gonna grease you up." miguel sighed. "i was thinking maybe we can go with something more contemporary."

"yes. we'll look at what ali's into and take pictures of me doing the same thing." johnny said while looking through ali's facebook profile. "not doing yoga, i will pet a dog. do you think the aquarium will let me get in there with the dolphins?"

"i don't know." miguel said.

"y'know what, we can fotomat it." johnny said.

"wait! i found a good one!" stevie said, holding up a picture of her parents and passing it to miguel. "it's probably because it's with mom, but still."

"woah, was this bella in high school?" miguel smiled.

"yeah, a total babe." johnny smiled as he looked at the photo. "she still is."

"okay, i'll handle the photos, but now that i'm here, might as well take care of wardrobe too." stevie said.

"no, i'm not letting you play 'fashion' with me. i don't care what you say." johnny said.

"dad, you gotta look good for these pictures!" stevie said, handing the box to miguel and following her father into the room. "pictures are worth a thousand words, so this is literally the first thing people are gonna see on your profile."

"your mom had to go into fashion." johnny sighed. "you're definitely her kid."

"yeah, yeah." stevie laughed. "you think i'm bad, mom's worse."

"yeah, i should know." johnny chuckled.

"okay, i think i might've found something." stevie said, grabbing a dark denim jacket. "add this to what your wearing now and that should do it."

"alright." johnny said. "hey, i know you got out of work for this, but i appreciate it."

"no problem, pops." stevie smiled as she walked back into the living room.

⸻

bella flipped the page of her sketchbook and began to sketch, while listening to a playlist that she had created after listening to one of the cassette tapes she had found, this time of her and johnny's favorite songs.

she began to draw as scorpions played on the speaker, smiling as she remembered the first time she had heard the song; in her bedroom, sketching on a notepad while laying down as her boyfriend napped beside her after getting back from work.

as bella tapped her pencil on the side of her sketchbook, she heard a faint knock on her door that gradually got louder. she lowered the volume of her music and placed her sketchbook down on the sofa before going to answer the door.

bella opened the door, revealing chrissy, a bag of food and a bottle of wine. "what's going on in there? you got a scorpions concert goin' on or what?" chrissy chuckled.

"just looking for inspiration." bella softly chuckled, letting chrissy in. "what'd you bring today?"

"chinese food and wine." chrissy said. "pretty sure you haven't eaten yet, so i brought you some sweet and sour with noodles."

"you read my mind, thompson." bella smiled, grabbing the carton of chinese food, along with some chopsticks.

chrissy followed bella to the living room, spotting the brown box on the loveseat. "no fucking way." chrissy said. "is that what i think it is?"

bella nodded, followed by a soft smile as she served herself and chrissy a glass of wine. "mom kept them." she said. "there's a lot of stuff in there that i don't even remember."

"like this picture?" chrissy said, holding a polaroid of her two best friends, kissing.

"no, i remember that one vividly." bella laughed.

chrissy continued to look at the photos that bella had left outside the box, as bella continued to eat. "y'know, i'm gotta confess something." chrissy said. "i sometimes envied you."

"chris–"

"honest." chrissy said. "i mean, you two are my best friends and i love you both, but there was just something about the way you two would look at each other, i swear, everyone wanted someone to look at them the way johnny looked at you."

bella chuckled as she messed with her chopsticks. "i hadn't seen any of this in more that 20 years." she said. "looking back now, i realized that those were some pretty good times."

"hell yeah they were, it was the 80s. life was simpler." chrissy laughed. "besides, you two were a hot couple."

"we were pretty hot." bella laughed.

"are you gonna show him?" chrissy said, taking a sip of her wine.

"baby steps, chris." bella laughed. "baby steps."

⸻

while stevie looked through the photos taken of her father, she snapped out of her thoughts as she looked to find miguel on the floor, as he attempted to stand up. she placed her phone down on the table and ran her hands through her hair.

"focus." johnny said. "this is worse than yesterday. you aren't trying."

"you were doing so good, hon." stevie sighed. "what's the problem?"

"so you saw your ex? big deal–"

"big deal?" miguel said. "look at you. we spent all day doing bullshit for your ex, making you look like someone your not. at least i told my ex how things really were."

"you done with your little hissy fit or are you just giving up?" johnny said.

"dad, c'mon." stevie said, standing up from the table.

"no, you are." miguel muttered.

"what'd you say?" johnny said.

"you're the one giving up." miguel said, raising his voice.

"i don't know–"

"quiet!" miguel said. "you let kreese take your dojo. you let hawk, tory, and everyone else think your weak."

"because it was a mistake to bring back cobra kai, look what happened." johnny said, raising his voice as well.

"what happened is you helped people and then walked away like a pussy." miguel said. "you're a sensei. its who you are, if you can't see that, you're blind."

stevie walked over to where the teen and her father were, in awe as she saw miguel stand, with no help. "oh shit." she muttered.

"what?" miguel said, as he then looked down, a smile forming on his face as he noticed. "am i doing it?"

"you're standing on your own, hon." stevie smiled. "you're doing it."

"you're doing it!" johnny smiled as he then embraced the teen, tears forming in their eyes.

"thank you." miguel whispered. "both of you."

"no, thank you."