FOURTEEN.
( you don't intend to do anything you say at all. )

Clash!

Emmy groaned for the fifth time, standing up straight from her crouched position and stepped forward to stand next to Hawk. "Dem, if you're gonna keep serving to the net then you might as well just play with it."

"Uh...Mulligan, send it back," he responded. 

She furrowed her eyebrows, turning to Hawk. "What's mulligan?"

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "There's no mulligans in volleyball."

"Says you," Demetri scoffed. He had his hands on his hips and started to walk away. "Water break."

"What? Again?" Emmy threw her arms up. "You had one like ten seconds ago."

"Gotta stay hydrated, Emmy," he stated, grabbing her Cobra Kai towel from the ground and started to wipe his face. 

"Cobra Kai? You guys won that karate tournament, right?" Demetri slowly lowered the towel from his face, seeing two pretty girls standing in front of him. 

"Um..." he glanced around awkwardly. "The All Valley? The Rumble in Reseda? Yes, uh...We, uh...We certainly did."

Emmy looked at him oddly. 

"Cool. We're gonna go for a swim, but maybe play with you later?" one of the girls suggested. 

Demetri tried to remain nonchalant, but Emmy could immediately tell that he was seconds away from shitting himself. "Pffft... Most. Uh, that means "most definitely.""

The two girls looked at each other with smiles while giggling before waving goodbye and walking away. 

"Look at you player," Moon giggled, walking over to her own towel. 

"It'd be nice if you earned the Cobra Kai cred you're so happy to take," Hawk said. "When are you ever gonna sign up?"

"I don't know. I'm kind of enjoying the gain without the pain," Demetri replied, gesturing to the girls who had walked away. 

Emmy rolled her eyes, yanking her towel off of his shoulder. "And you will feel pain if you don't stop using my towel to wipe your sweaty face."

"Hawk," she heard Miguel call out.

Emmy neatly laid her towel on the ground, looking up to see Miguel and her face twisted. She walked up to her two friends. "What's with the frown?"

"No more of this," Hawk added on, turning and pointed to the ocean. "Look, it's a beautiful day out. The beach is packed with babes. No more sulking about Sam."

"Seriously," Emmy groaned, running a hand through her hair. "You mopping around about her is just depressing."

But when she noticed he wasn't talking anymore, and that he was just staring at her with an odd expression. "What? Do I looked weird or something?"

"Huh? Oh, no!" Miguel gave a quick shake of his head. "Just... You look good."

"Oh," she wasn't expecting that answer, letting a smile slip. "Thanks."

"But I'm not sulking about Sam. It's about Sensei."

Emmy immediately straighten up, her face falling. Did he find out?

"Is this about his rap sheet?" Hawk asked cluelessly. "My parents read it online. I think it makes him more badass."

"It's about him and Robby Keene."

Oh shit, Emmy thought.

✸

"So, I did a deep dive online, and you were right. Sensei's definitely Keene's father," Hawk said.

Emmy thickly swallowed, tucking her hair behind her ear as she tried stretch without looking suspicious. 

Miguel sighed and shook his head. "I just don't understand why he wouldn't tell us."

"I don't know," Hawk shrugged. "But it explains why he's giving us shit for kicking Keene's ass at the tournament. Show no mercy, unless it's his son. Then we gotta be pussies."

"He's not obligated to tell us about his family life," Emmy blurted out, making the two boys pause and look at her. "And it's his son. It's understandable."

Hawk looked at her confused. "Why are you so chill about this? You were the one who was the most upset about him calling us out."

"Well, maybe I've come to realize that Sensei has his reasons and that he's just a father."

He looked at her more closely. Hawk knew Emmy better than anyone, and the look on her face just screamed out to him. "You've known about this for awhile, haven't you?"

She looked from him to Miguel, before slouching and laying her legs out in front of her with a sigh. "Yeah, I have."

"Wait, what?" Miguel looked at her in disbelief. "Why didn't you tell us? How long have you know?"

"Uh, one, it's not for me to tell, and two, the day I left practice early. I kind of straight up backed Sensei into a corner about it and he told me to leave early. But I was already planning on leaving early anyway. And then I saw Robby at the store around the corner and asked him myself and he said yes," she rambled on. 

Hawk scoffed at her. "I can't believe you kept this from us. Not cool, Em."

She narrowed her eyes at him, digging her knuckle into his side and causing him to yelp. "I know you aren't putting all of this on me. Look, yeah, I was mad at first, but just think about it. I mean, this is Sensei's son we're talking about. His son. We'd be cruel if we didn't at least try to see his point of view. He was basically watching us beat his kid. And I kinda feel bad for Robby."

Miguel looked at her like she was crazy. "Feel bad for Robby? Are you forgetting what he did to me? To you? How can you feel bad for him?"

Emmy rolled her eyes at him. "Trust me. I probably hate him more than you do, but as someone with a practically absent father, I can tell you that Sensei wasn't the most ideal dad to him either. So don't try to shame me for feeling a bit of pity for someone, alright?"

The two remained silent. 

"Alright?" she said louder. 

"...Yeah."

"Alright."

"Good. Now, let's stop talking about this before you blabber mouths tell more people," she rolled back her shoulders, massaging sore spot by her neck. 

"You guys, have you seen the commercial?" she turned and looked up to see Aisha hurrying over to them, her phone in her hand. Aisha caught their confused looks. "Your dad started his own dojo and he disses Cobra Kai."

"What?" Emmy immediately snatched her phone, pressing play on the video. 

"Because at Miyagi-Do, it's not about the money. It's about the karate..."

She huffed out a breath, handing the phone to Miguel before getting to her feet and stormed over to Johnny's office. 

She flung open the door, closing it behind her. "Did you see it?"

"Yeah, we were just watching it," Johnny responded. Emmy looked to his side, seeing Kreese. 

"Oh, sorry. Didn't see you there," she gave a sheepish smile. 

"It's alright. Did you know of your father's plans?" he asked her. 

"No, but..." she thought back to when she visited and saw him cleaning up his old dojo space. "I went back not too long ago, just to get some stuff, and I saw him cleaning his dojo up. He put up pictures of Mr. Miyagi but I just thought he was making that room like a memorial space for him. And Sam was in exercise clothing which I thought was kind of weird. And Robby was with her."

Kreese raised his eyebrows at the string of information she just rolled out. "You are quite the observant girl, Ms. LaRusso."

She winced. "Emmy is just fine. I don't really associate with my dad anymore. And not really. I just remembered what I saw."

"I see," he hummed. "Emmy, have you visited your family often since you've left?"

"Uh, not really. I mean, my mom invited me to have dinner with them tomorrow but I said no."

"Tell her yes," he said.

Her face twisted with confusion. "Uh, what do you mean?"

"You are going to tell your mother yes to the dinner."

"But why?"

"Yeah, why?" Johnny asked, also very confused.

"In order to get ahead of Miyagi-Do, we need to know their every move. A person on the inside. And who better, than Daniel LaRusso's own daughter."

Emmy raised her eyebrows. "You want me to go spy on my dad during the dinner. What makes you think he'll even talk about anything Miyagi-Do related? I mean, he knows that I'm in Cobra Kai, and he's not that stupid. He had to have at least thought about it."

"You never know. And it would be extremely helpful for us, Emmy," he shrugged. 

She groaned and turned to Johnny. "Do I have to?"

He shrugged as well. "I mean, it would help."

"Ugh, fine," Emmy then pulled out her phone. "The both of you owe me big time."

✸

"You okay?"

"No," Emmy let out a breath, staring at the place she called home for her whole life. "Is it weird that this feels slightly wrong to me?"

"Kind of. You've been practically praying on their downfall since you joined Cobra Kai," Johnny told her. "Why you hesitating now?"

"I think saying something is so much easier than actually doing it," she sighed, leaning back against her seat. 

He looked at her for moment, eyes narrowing in on her face. "Are you chickening out?"

"No!" she snapped her head to him. "I'm not. It's just...hard."

"It'll be fine, Pinky," he reassured her. "If you get nothing out of him, then that'll be it. You won't have to do this again."

She looked at him oddly. "Does that mean if I do get something out of him, I have to do this again?"

Johnny was silent for a moment. "Bad wording. Just ⎯ it'll only be this one time. I promise. Alright? Now, get your ass in there. You're late."

Emmy rolled her eyes, but smiled and opened the car door. "Thanks for the ride, Sensei."

"'Course, Pinky," he waved her off, driving away so that they wouldn't be able to see his car. 

She huffed, straightening out her dress before walking up to the front door. She rang the doorbell, fixing her hair as she impatiently waited. Emmy just wanted to get this over with. 

The sound of the door unlocking made her stand straighter, and she plastered a small smile on her face. But it quickly faded as the door opened. "Robby?"

"Emmy," he looked just as surprised to see her. "What are you doing here? I thought you left."

"I did," she vaguely answered. "But my mom invited me over for dinner and I accepted. So, can I come in?"

"Oh! Yeah, come in," he opened the door wider for her, and she gave him a strained smile. 

As soon as she stepped into the house, she could instantly smell the scent of pasta and homemade lemonade. Her favorite. She felt a pit of guilt build up in her stomach.

"Emmy!" Anthony made a beeline for his sister, wrapping his arms around her waist. "You kept your promise!"

She forced out a laugh, rubbing his back. "Hey, Ant."

He pulled away from her with a bright smile, and she looked up, pausing in her place. "Hi, Dad."

Daniel looked speechless. "I thought ⎯ you said no to dinner."

"She changed her mind," Amanda interjected, looking thrilled that her daughter was home. "Emmy, sit. Please."

Emmy nodded, following after her family and sat in the spot she always sat in. It felt bittersweet to be sitting around with her family. She remained silent as she picked at her food, not sure what to say. 

"So, Emmy," Sam started. "How's Cobra Kai?"

She almost laughed at how predictable her sister was. "It's good. We got some new students after my win. People respect me."

"Me too!" Anthony exclaimed, stuffing his face with pasta. "Ever since the All Valley, everyone wants to be my friend. They all think Emmy is so cool."

Emmy smiled to herself, taking a bite from her food. "That's nice, Ant. Tell them all I said hi."

She watched his face light up and he nodded with excitement. 

"Congrats on your win again," Emmy turned to Robby, who sat next to her. Her eyebrows lightly furrowed at him. 

"Thanks," she told him, not expecting those words to come out of his mouth. "Sorry for beating you."

She heard him choke out a laugh, and felt herself being shoved to the side. Emmy turned to Robby in surprise, seeing him try to suppress his smile as he pretended to calmly eat. 

"I see how it is," she joked, grabbing her glass of lemonade. "Someone's still a sore loser."

Robby looked at her with wide eyes and a smile. "I am not a sore loser. You just got lucky."

Emmy snorted. "Says the one who said that he knew he couldn't beat me."

"Hey," he jokingly scolded her. "You're the one who said that you didn't want to talk about that anymore."

She tilted her head as she looked at him, bring her glass to her lips. "Guess I lied."

Robby chuckled as she took a sip and shook his head at her. 

"Emmy!"

The girl turned to Sam, and felt a weird heat creep up her neck as she had almost forgotten that she was at a family dinner. Sam had an odd expression on her face. "Yeah?"

"Are you going to Valley Fest?" Sam asked her, eyes quickly glancing at Robby. 

"Uh, yeah. I go every year," Emmy looked at her with knitted eyebrows. "Plus, it's Miguel's first Valley Fest and we all wanted to show him the good stuff."

"Oh," Sam deflated at the mention of her ex-boyfriend. "How is he?"

"Depressing," Emmy immediately answered, taking a forkful of pasta. She gave a small smirk at the frown on Sam's face. 

"Well, we're doing a karate demo there. Maybe you guys can come watch," Daniel innocently suggested. 

Emmy perked up, suddenly remembering what she was there for. "A karate demo? What do you mean?"

"Well, Valley Fest always brings in customers for the dealership, so your father thinks that it'll do the same with Miyagi-Do," Amanda answered, taking a sip of wine. 

Maybe you are this stupid, Emmy thought.

"So, you're gonna perform at Valley Fest?" she asked, trying to hide her smile behind her lemonade glass. 

"Yeah. We've been practicing all day for it," Robby chuckled. 

On the inside, Emmy felt a sick feeling of satisfaction. "Cool."

✸

"Well? Anything?"

"Hi, Sensei. I'm doing good too," Emmy sarcastically said as she climbed back into the passenger seat. 

"I don't have time for talk, Pinky," he said, beginning to drive away. "Spit it out."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Miyagi-Do is gonna do a demo at Valley Fest. They know that it'll bring them business since it the dealership always does well after Valley Fest."

"Of course," Johnny scoffed. "Daniel LaRusso always has to have the last laugh. Damn bastard."

Her eyebrows flew up. "Um, I'm not done."

"What? You got more stuff?" he briefly glanced at her. 

"Well, no. But, I have a pretty sick idea."

His face scrunched up. "Sick in what way?"

"Depends how you take it," she sighed, twisting her body in her seat to face him. "What if Cobra Kai did their own karate demo?"

"At Valley Fest?" he questioned and she hummed. "Wouldn't that just make it seem like we're copying them?"

She smirked. "Sensei, have you ever crashed anything in your teenage years in the 80's?"

"Pinky, look are who you're talking to," he said in disbelief. "Parties, weddings, funerals, dinners, you name it. I crashed it."

"Wanna add a karate demo to that list?"

Johnny stopped at a red light, turning his head to her. "Pinky. Remind me how you're Daniel LaRusso's daughter and not mine?"

Emmy gave him a cheeky smile, turning back in her seat and turned up the music in the car.

AUTHOR'S NOTE !

when robby and emmy flirt every time they interact