Muscle Memory

Different but Same (18)

Author's Note:

Song featured is Let Me Go by Avril Lavigne (ft. Chad Kroeger)

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"Bartender," Johnny called as the woman went to serve someone their drink, "Coors Banquet for me and a Shirley Temple for the Lady."

Daniel rolled his eyes, "Club soda will be fine. Thank you." He turned to Johnny as the bartender laid coasters in front of them. "Okay, one drink, then we get the hell out of here."

They sit in silence for a moment, both of them with their arms resting on top of the bar. "So..." Daniel starts awkwardly, breaking the silence, "your stepdad was an asshole, huh? Back in the day, I just figured you were living the life. You know, fancy cars, motorbikes..."

"It had its moments," The blond admits. "Then, I'd come home and pretty much get bullied every day."

The bartender handed them their drinks.

"Thanks," Daniel tells her.

"Thank you," Johnny says quietly before he takes a quick sip of his beer. "That's why I joined Cobra Kai. Kreese gave me more attention than I ever got at home." He shrugged, "The guy was more than a sensei to me. He was basically... a father." He took another sip. "Anyway, you wouldn't understand."

Daniel blinked at him, "My dad died when I was eight. Mr. Miyagi was like a father to me." He snorted a bit, "It's crazy, man. Both finding karate role models."

"Yeah, except yours didn't break your trophy and try to kill you," Johnny points out as Daniel takes a sip of his drink before taking a sip of his own.

Daniel nods in agreement, "That is true." He turns towards the bartender, "You know what? Get me a Ketel Martini, straight up, couple of olives. Ice, ice cold."

"And two more of these," Johnny added, holding up his Coors.

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After she'd dropped her mother off at the hotel that her and her father would be staying at until after the tournament, Anastasia made a quick trip to pick up her shipment of the Cobra Kai tournament gis before heading back to her and Johnny's apartment. Anastasia blew out a breath as she shut the door behind her, tossing her keys on the kitchen table and the surprisingly heavy box of gis on the coffee table. She peeled off her shoes with her feet before heading to the refrigerator to grab a Dr. Pepper. Then, she grabbed her laptop out of the bedroom and sat on the couch in front of the box of gis. Anastasia set her laptop on the table next to the box, and reached for the remote to turn on the tv. She turned on Hulu, something she was sure that Johnny didn't even know the tv came with, and put Seinfeld.

It played in the background as she tore the box open to reveal a stack of neatly folded black gis that had yellow trim and a patch of the Cobra Kai logo on the back. Anastasia began to put sticky notes on the gis with the name of the student it belonged to based upon the size that she had put down in the spreadsheet she'd made a few weeks earlier. This process took longer than it probably should have because she'd get distracted every few minutes and toss a tennis ball for Rosamund to fetch.

However, she finished sorting the gis, and was going to stick them in a duffle bag for tomorrow, but paused and frowned at the sight of a plain black gi folded at the bottom of the box that she'd failed to notice. Anastasia slowly pulled it out of the box, confused, but thinking that Johnny had just snuck a gi for himself into her order. Anastasia's eyebrows raised in surprise when she checked the tag on the inside of the jacket to find that it was... her size.