BACK TO THE FUTURE ; cobra kai/the karate kid

━ 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣; 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙧 𝙮𝙚𝙩 𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩

DANIEL WOULDN'T STOP apologizing to Miguel after the tournament. It didn't seem to matter how many times Miguel tried to assure him that it would be okay. Daniel felt like he had failed him. He knew that the sake of the future was riding on him winning the tournament against Johnny and he had failed. Miguel had been relying on him to win so that when and if he went back to the future, everything would be as close to how it was supposed to be. But now, there was no telling what was going to happen whenever Miguel went back. Miguel didn't want to think about it, but it seemed like there was nothing else he could do.

There was no doubt in Miguel's mind that when he went back that nothing was going to be the same. Johnny winning the tournament was going to completely alter the timeline. Miguel had heard the story from Sensei more than a dozen times. After the tournament—when Daniel had won—Johnny had been a complete wreck. He had completely gone off the deep-end and developed a lifelong hatred for Daniel. But now that he won the tournament instead of Daniel, it was going to be completely different. It was going to change history and Miguel had no idea what he was going to return to. Johnny's victory was going to have detrimental effects on the future. Miguel was sure of it, but he tried his best to reassure Daniel despite his own doubts.

"I'm sure everything will be okay," Miguel told him.

"Are you sure?" Daniel asked. "Because I let you down. I ruined everything."

Miguel placed his hand on Daniel's shoulder. "I'm sure everything will be okay. Maybe the after effects won't be as detrimental as I thought."

Daniel sighed as he and Miguel walked to Mr. Miyagi's truck. "I hope so."

"I hope so too," Miguel responded.

When Miguel and Ali returned home that night, Miguel was quiet. Ali understood why, but she didn't ask. She just looked at him with a worried expression on her face. When dinner was over, Miguel immediately went up to the guest room and shut the door. He laid down on the bed and sighed as he stared up at the ceiling. All he wanted to do was go to sleep and hope that when he woke up, he would be back in his own room. He had somehow managed to ruin everything and he desperately wished that he had never touched Sensei's old Walkman.

Miguel's eyes widened. That's it! Miguel thought that the Walkman was what had brought him back to 1984 in the first place. It had to be the way back. It just had to. Miguel got off the bed and began searching the room for the Walkman. He found it on top of the dresser and quickly grabbed it before laying back down on the bed. Miguel took a deep breath and then exhaled before pressing putting the headphones over his ears and pressing the play button. He leaned back on the bed as "Cruel Summer" began to play in his ears. He closed his eyes and started hoping that he was right. He hoped that when he woke up, that he would be back in his bedroom and in his own timeline. He also hoped that if he was lucky, that this whole experience had just been dream and that everything was how it was supposed to be.

Miguel wasn't sure when he had fallen asleep or how much time had passed, but he felt his eyes slowly starting to flutter open. He tried to look around to see where he was, but his vision was still slightly blurred from sleeping. Miguel rubbed his eyes for a few seconds. When he finally opened them, he looked around the room. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that he was in his own room. He took the headphones off his head and tossed them to the side before grabbing his phone from his bedside table. He looked at the date, causing his eyebrows to furrow in confusion. It was the same exact date and time that it had been before he had fallen asleep and gone back to 1984. It was like no time had passed at all.

Miguel set his phone back down and walked out of his room. He could smell his mom's cooking wafting down the hallway. When he entered the kitchen, she stood with Yaya at the stove—the two of them too busy cooking to notice that he was there. So far, everything seemed to be normal enough. Miguel didn't say anything to them as he walked out of the apartment and made his way towards Johnny's.