___

"A car?" Cameron's mouth gaped open as she stared at the Lexus '08 in front of her. "Dad left me a car, really? But I only got my learner's. He knows I can't drive."

"It was his 10 years ago. You were too young to remember." Alexis murmured, patting her shoulder as stared directly at the vehicle.

"And too blind." Drew flinched at the smack to the arm he received, "Ow." He shoved his cousin, "Just learn how to drive."

"I will. Dad left this for me so I'll just start doing lessons." Cameron breathed out, then turned to a quiet Alexis. "Mom, could you help me? I know we used to practice in the back of Walmart."

Alexis couldn't hear her daughter, her focus was on the car belonging to her husband. Another piece of Blake. Treasured and cherished Car. It was the car he drove when he first proposed to her. Where Cameron spoke her first word and giggled.

"Mom?"

"I'll take you," Drew interrupted, drawing their attention. "Between my job and training, I'll help you out."

Cameron blinked at him, "You have a job already?"

"Didn't think I was gonna sit at home on my ass all day?"

Alexis deeply inhaled as she stared ahead, "Stop cursing."

"Sorry, Aunty. But I'll help you out Cameon," Drew said, surprisingly without any humour to his tone.

Cameron raised a questioning brow, "You sure, I won't have to owe you or anything?"

Drew huffed, "It's a favour."

"Well, thanks."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

DREW drove his cousin's car to the garage, knowing he would not allow her behind the wheel at such an early hour of the day. Especially not when he had an early shift at Staples.

"Since you inherited a car, does that mean I'm your passenger princess now?" Miguel teased, adjusting her Gi as they stood off to the side of the busy dojo.

"No," Cameron cracked a smile, brightening his. "I still need to pass my test. Which means I need lessons and my cousins are gonna help with that."

Miguel's face nearly fell, "Drew?"

"I haven't got any other cousins in the Valley." She playfully pushed him, before taking his hand, "Come. They're teasing the new recruits." She gestured to where Hawk, Aisha and Bert were, talking to the two new boys. "Christ. I forgot how many boys were in Cobra Kai. The stench of Lynx Africa has never been so prominent."

"Shut up. We're not that bad," Miguel replied, swatting her hand away from her nose. " Guys, look, they're just messing with you." He said patting the taller and bulkier boy, fist bumping him up.

"Thanks, man."

"Besides, everyone knows your names are Ass-face and Douchebag," Miguel teased, making his friends laugh.

Aisha chuckled, "Ooh."

"Dibs on Ass-face," the smaller recruit claimed.

"What are your actual names?" Cameron asked, as she stared between the two, who exchanged a nervous expression.

The taller one meekly introduced, "Chris."

"Mitch," ass-face awkwardly waved at her.

"Cool," Cameron hummed before Miguel pulled her away as the bell chimed alerting them all to a new face.

An older man scanned the room with a bag in hand.

"Jesus Christ!" He muttered under his breath, unimpressed.

"Who's that?" Hawk quietly asked Miguel who was just as confused as him.

"I don't know."

Miguel approached the staggering man as Cameron stretched on the ground, moving into a split.

"Hey, uh, can I help you, sir?" He questioned as the older man looked him up and down.

"No." He paused, with a wicked smirk tugging at his lips. "But maybe I can help you."

"Hey." Sensei Lawrence called out, as he stepped away from his office.

Miguel promptly turned around, "Uh, Sensei."

"What the hell is wrong with you? I said tomorrow," Sensei Lawrence hushed.

The older man huffed out, "Oh. Tomorrow, today, who can keep track, huh?"

Cameron glanced up at the interaction, squinting her eyes, trying to think of where she recognised the man.

When he met her eyes, they twinkled with mirth causing her to turn away and return to her stretches.

Sensei Lawrence was quick to pull Kreese's attention away from her ushering the class to stand up and line up and face the front.

The champions stood in the centre in Junbi stances whilst new recruits stood behind.

"Class, we have a visitor. This is Mr. Kreese." Sensei introduced, "He's just an observer. Pretend like he's not even here."

Cameron awkwardly raised her hand, "But he is."

"Shut up Miss James." He snapped, as she huffed, "Mr. Diaz, warm them up."

Miguel replaced Sensei's position and bowed, the students followed his movements.

"Fighting positions!" He yelled and they complied, "Front kick." Grunts escaped them as they did so. "Forward strike. Side dab."

Sensei looked dumbfounded when his class indulged the laughter. He stepped forward and asked, "What the hell was that?"

"We're just messing around." Miguel answered, wiping the smile from his face as he turned to him, "We have 11 and a half months until the next All Valley."

Hawk spoke up, "Yeah, besides, we already know how to kick ass."

Laughter spread through the dojo again, yet neither Mr Kreese nor Sensei appeared moved.

"Oh, yeah, really, huh? So you know everything. There's nothing left to learn, huh?" Aisha couldn't help her giggles, drawing Sensei near her, "What's so funny, Ms. Robinson?"

She bashfully answered, "I'm sorry, Sensei, you just wouldn't understand."

Cameron's face dropped to her hands, knowing where this was going.

"Try me." Sensei Lawrence pressed.

"It's a snake-doo."

Sensei grew heated by the snickering surrounding him.

"What's a 'snake-doo'?"

They all demonstrated with a hiss, further angering him.

"Quiet!" they all straightened up at his demand. "5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Corner of Fulton and Raymer. You don't show, you're off the team. Class dismissed."

"Sensei," Cameron jogged over to him after getting changed, interrupting his and Kreese's conversation. "I started doing jogging at night. You know for to help with my endurance."

"Good, what about the upper body strength?" Johnny tried to downplay his praise, next to Mr Kreese.

"Already adding 10 more press-ups to my weekly routine. My dad left me a car in the will. I'm going learn how to drive but I also don't wanna rely on it all the time you know?" Something flashed in Kreese's eyes as she talked. "Plus some of the old training I did when I was a gymnast comes in clutch with executing the punches."

"Why did you stop doing gymnastics?" he asked the girl he recognised from the funeral. He only went because he knew that was where Johnny was. When he stood from afar, he noted she didn't cry, just blankly stared at the lowering casket. "Your sensei mentioned how skilled you are why give up?"

"Personal reasons," she rasped, "you know how it goes. Young girl does sports where our developing bodies are on show. Tale as old as time." she ignored the sympathetic glimmer in Sensei's eyes when Miguel called her name. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Kreese turned to Johnny with a mirthful look. "I saw her at All Valley, she's good. Could be great. If she focuses."

"Her dad just died," Johnny replied.

"I heard. Tragic. But it's a good thing she's here. Training. Taking this dojo seriously."

"If she doesn't channel her emotions properly she could become a dangerous fighter."

Kreese slowly nodded, suppressing a grin, "Exactly."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

AISHA really regretted that snake-doo joke yesterday as she mixed the cement as Mitch: code name Ass Face sprayed water into the will barrow.

Cameron, despite the early hours of the morning, solely focused on carrying the packaged sand, clay and limestone given to her.

Grunts and yawns were heard all around as worksite as the Cobra Kai's tried their best to fulfil their tasks.

"Don't add too much water. You wanna make it nice and thick," Sensei instructed, Aisha then moved over to Miguel.

The Champ groaned, "Sensei, why are we mixing cement?"

"No questions."

"All right," Miguel gritted out.

"Keep stirring."

"Shit," Cameron muttered as she collided with Bert who fell back. "Sorry."

When Johnny joined Kreese, the older man stated, "Their muscles are gonna ache, sure, but if you wanna make them tough, you gotta give them something to be afraid of. No one is afraid of a little cement."

"They will be," Johnny's retort was followed by loud honking.

The students turned to see a mini concrete truck. Well, it wasn't so small.

Cameron gawked, dropping the bag she was carrying to the floor, "What the hell is that?"

Hawk sighed, "A truck."

"Thanks, genius," Cameron rolled her eyes.

"Why is he looking at us?" Aisha muttered as she tightened her grip on the spade.

"We're so fucked," Cameron groaned. Thank god my hair is in braids.

It wasn't long before they were called up to stand in front of the truck as Sensei Lawrence stalked back and forth.

"You think winning the All-Valley gives you the right to goof off?" he asked rhetorically. "Well, I got news for you. Winning one championship don't mean squat." he expressed, as he eyed every one of them. "A true champion never stops training. You gotta keep moving forward, or else you could get stuck exactly where you are. It's like the cement in this truck. If that drum doesn't start turning, the cement inside will harden and get stuck." he said gesturing behind him. "Is that what you want to happen to you?"

"No, Sensei!" his students exclaimed.

"Good. Then climb up, get inside, and make it spin."

Whispers sputtered around him as his students exchanged confused looks.

"I knew it," Cameron muttered.

Aisha spoke up, "Sensei, we're sorry for messing around."

"We learned our lesson," Hawk added.

But their sensei didn't care. Instead, he pulled down the ladder to the cement mixer.

"Get in!" he repeated louder.

Miguel exacerbated, "Sensei, this seems kind of dangerous. I mean, the fumes alone... "

"Safeguarding..." Cameron trailed off.

"Quiet!" Their attention snapped to Kreese, who stood up and pointed to Johnny. "This man led you to the mountain top, and you question him?" He stood in front of the students. "Look at you. Look at all of you." he flung his arms out. "I can't believe this pathetic pack of pussies competed in the All Valley and let alone won. It's an absolute miracle. And who's responsible for that miracle? Johnny Lawrence. The best student in the history of Cobra Kai. My student."

"You were Sensei's Sensei?" Hawk looked impressed.

Cameron finally put the pieces together, "So you'll like our grand Sensei?"

Kreese hummed in acknowledgement, "You better believe it, kid. And I tell you I've never trained a tougher student in my whole life. So if you know what's good for you, you better listen to every goddamn word he says."

Miguel shuffled forward, determined as he said, "I'll do it, Sensei."

Hawk followed as he climbed.

"Fuck it," Cameron mumbled, checking her braids were in a tight bun before joining them, with Aisha in tow.

When Miguel got to the entrance, he sputtered, "Holy shit." nevertheless he stumbled in, slipping in the cement and drenching his covered calves. Hawk fell next to him. "Come on man."

"Guess I was never meant to have nice things," Cameron gritted when she trudged through the cement.

Aisha joined her, without her glasses, staggering, "Woah."

"This is so weird," Chris breathed out as he and Mitch found their footing from beside them.

"For sure," Hawk tried stabilising himself.

Johnny peeked in, shaking his head as he saw them all stand still, "Don't just stand there. You wanna get stuck? Move!"

"All right," Miguel rasped.

"Come on," Hawk muttered as they planted their hands on the wall of the mixer.

They groaned when first tried to push, but only fell forward, almost dropping into the cement.

"Come on, let's get pushing," Miguel expressed with a grunt.

Cameron whined, "Hey, Miguel!"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Hawk huffed out a chuckle, but the mixer still didn't move. They could hear their Sensei's shouting. The only thing that moved was them, the cement was sticking to them making it harder.

But that just meant they needed to work smarter.

"Wait — go on three and push," Cameron instructed.

Miguel nodded, understanding what she meant, "In unison guys. Come on. 1...2...3, go."

They let out groans and grunts as they pushed, realising it was beginning to move. Trudging through the cement they kept up their actions. Being encouraged to go faster, they did their best.

They sludged around as the cement was catching up with them, dropping onto them as they quickened their strides and pushes. Fatigue and out of breath, they didn't stop.

"Come on guys," Hawk yelled.

"Keep it up," Cameron gritted, coughing when she fell to the ground, but Miguel picked her up, causing him to fall in her place.

"Keep pushing," Hawk brought Miguel up as Mitch did the same with Chris. "Come on. Let's Go!"

"We're doing it!" Aisha exclaimed.

"Eww," Cameron groaned when she could feel the cement on her face, "Hurry!"

"All right! Faster! Faster! Faster! Faster!" Hawk yelled.

They moved in unison with the mix, uncaring of if they fell but making sure their hands stayed on the walls, ploughing their feet through the sludge and mess. Screaming and yelling when they realised they had done it.

"That's it! That's it! That's it!" they heard Johnny yell.

"Yes!" they screamed excitedly despite their discomfort.

Climbing out was a bigger struggle.

Cameron was not touching her face until she got all the cement off of her.

They all gritted their teeth and clenched their fists as they were sprayed clean.

"You should all be proud of yourselves. I know I'm proud. Your parents would be proud, too, if you told them what we did here today," Cameron's face fell at the thought of it. "which we won't. You pushed forward like champions. Never stopping. Never being satisfied. Never give up. And if you keep pushing and keep moving forward, you're gonna go to places you never even dreamed of."

Miguel sent Sensei Lawrence a small smile, which was instantly returned.

Shortly after Cameron took the hose and lightly splashed her face, scratching cement off of her, before she was ambushed by Hawk who stole the hose to spray the hell out of them all.

When Miguel rushed over to his girlfriend and chuckled at her astonishment.

She glanced around at the mild disarray, to finally let out a small laugh, warming his heart.

"Let me walk you home," he held out his hand, which she took. Both were damp and littered with dirt.

"Never again," she gestured to the cement mixer truck.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"WHAT the hell happened to you?" Lily's voice echoed through Cameron's phone. The Leigh girl saw the picture of all of them on Aisha's Instagram story and was so confused.

"Cement mixer," Cameron said after she finished drying her hair.

Fortunately, most of the cement came out in the shower, the rest she had to pick out of her braids with a comb. It was a long day. Training, running, feasting on snacks.

"Of course. Why didn't I guess."

"Oh and Sensei's Sensei came with us today," she informed, staring down at her newly painted red nails.

Lily questioned, "The old man Hawk was telling me about?"

"Yup."

"Right. Of course." Lily snickered, "Is your mom home?"

Cameron picked up the phone and put it to her ear, "She's out with Drew. Since he's starting his Senior year next year. More and more scouts are gonna be looking his way –"

"-- yum –"

Swallowing her disgust Cameron continued, "-- so, he needs to bulk up more. They're at the market buying more groceries."

"Oh, do you want me to stay the night? I could blow off Hawk if you want." Lily was mindful when it came to her best friend's grief, especially trying not to overstep... well not all the time.

"Don't Lil. I've got the Glee cast to keep me company," Cameron reached across her bed to get her laptop.

"Lucky."

"Aren't I?"

But Cameron wasn't lucky. She stupidly ended up finishing the fifth season of Glee, where Finn's memorial episode showed, evoking her to switch off her laptop and shakily send an SOS text to her boyfriend.

Miguel panicked when he saw it and rushed out of his Sensei's apartment and ran to her bungalow. Wary about her cousin, he didn't knock on the front door, instead he went around the side, throat drying up when he didn't see her bedroom light on.

His knuckles drilled against the window, startling her slightly before she jumped out of bed and approached.

"Are you okay?" he panted when she pushed up the window, taking off the safe latches so he could climb in. When he did he stumbled into her shaking arms. "Hey, what's wrong? You scared the life out of me with that text. And why is your light off?"

"I just... I got spooked Mig. I watched something I shouldn't have," she sniffled as she stared up at him.

His heart raced at the terror in her voice and the fright he could peep on her face. Even in the darkness, he knew she was scared. And even though he knew she was physically okay, her mind didn't match.

"I thought you were watching glee?"

"Yeah, I was. It was a really sad episode. Finn died because Cory Monteith died in real life and it just... I was scared. It fucking scared me. So I turned off my laptop and just sat in silence." Her voice strained with fear, "Oh my god. Oh my god. I don't want that to happen, but what if does? I'm just worried everyone's gonna leave me."

"I'm not leaving you." Miguel firmly grabbed her face, and in her panicked explanation her gaze drifted elsewhere and he needed her attention on him, "Hey. Hey. I won't. Ever." he said promisingly, earning frantic nods from her. Her rising chest was settling, as his hold softened, "Want me to tell you something I found out tonight?" In the absence of her useless facts, he thought telling her some shocking news would distract her from her worry. "Sensei has a son."

"What?" she was certain she misheard.

"Yeah, and it's Robby Keene. The picture was on his fridge."

The sheer thought made Miguel feel slightly betrayed.

"Robby's Sensei's son? Wait, is that why he was pissed for fighting dirty?" Cameron's strained words reassured him that he wasn't crazy for thinking that.

"Had to be. But why wouldn't say?"

"A lot of people's parents..." she blinked away the distress that flooded her body and continued, "just aren't there for their kids."

"But Sensei's there for us."

"True, but we also drowned in cement today."

Miguel couldn't argue with that.

Carefully he switched on her bedside light and brought her to her bed. He slipped off his shoes and shut the window. He then scanned around, recalling how her room looked since the last time he was there, only the picture of her and her dad on the dresser was face down.

He didn't comment on that.

Instead, he turned around, seeing his girlfriend with her hands out, in a grabbing motion, resulting in him joining her in bed, on top of the sheets whilst she shuffled beneath.

She didn't suggest that they watch a film.

She just wanted him next to her.

Their eyes darted across the other's face as they turned to rest on their sides, basking in the light breathing from the other.

Their hands naturally drew together, tightly this time as the fright still resided on her mind, even when his promise appeased it.

A yawn escaped her lips, her eyes fluttered shut and her nose crinkled.

She didn't remember anything else before she was pulled into sleep.

Miguel's light snores didn't wake her either.

Nor did the sound of her bedroom door opening.

Alexis's mouth opened and then shut when she saw her daughter and her boyfriend asleep. She wanted to be mad, and angry because no partners should be allowed in the house without supervision and especially not with the door closed. But she was exhausted and the fact that Miguel was sleeping over the duvet weakened her concern.

The boy was respectful she had to give him that.

And so she gently shut the door before Drew saw a thing.

An hour passed, a sweet, blissful hour.

Cameron felt her head being moved as she opened her eyes. She patted her hair, only to find her bonnet had been placed on.

She sat up to see Miguel fasten up his laces as he sat on the edge of her bed.

His phone chimed again. Cameron could see it was his mom as 80s music blasted from it, he rushed to stop it but he saw his girlfriend was already up.

"Sorry," he apologised. "I gotta go before my mom calls yours." she understood, coming to join him and stand up. "You sure you're okay?"

"I am. Thanks for coming," she said, crookedly smiling as he opened the window.

"I'm your boyfriend. I would be a bad one for not coming," he swiftly jumped out this time, before she settled her hands on the window sill, feeling the gentle breeze kiss her cheeks. "Plus I wanted to see you."

"Badly?" She asked teasingly as he leaned forward and let their lips meet in the middle.

"Very badly. Night girlfriend."

"Night boyfriend."

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

a/n:

although i stopped gymnastics for a different reason, i do remember my body developing very quickly when i was younger, it was partially genetics but also the sports i was doing. It drew unwanted attention. just to be clear it wasn't my fault, nor does cameron believe it was hers, but it was just a damper in her childhood and a little insight into why she stopped. also, kreese didn't know blake. His messy ass was just creeping on johnny and the dojo and found them at the cemetery. he knows about cameron's grief and knows what it could turn into if it's not handled right.

also it's upsetting that alexis doesn't have the energy to actively parent this season, she's doing her best in the absence of her husband.

dames (i settled on this ship name for miguel and cameron) as will as camguel. their scenes are so cute to write, i want their relationship to be so heartwarming and subtle at this point. miguel got cameron to smile and hawk got her to laugh... yay.